Green Bean Chronicles

Will You Bee My Beekeeper?

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last November, I received a flurry of emails and Facebook messages from friends. A Groupon was being offered for a beekeeping class in my area. A squeal and a deal later, I was signed up and ready to go.

A couple weeks before the class, I started reading beekeeping books and checking out websites. I wandered around my back yard debating where I would situate a hive or two. And wondering if I was quite ready to take the honey-coated plunge.

The big day came. A good friend and I trundled one city over for our class. It was full. Overly full! People had driven hours to come so I guess we were pretty lucky to have driven 7 minutes.

I learned a lot.

Did you know that honeybees are not native to the United States? They literally came over with the pilgrims and subsequent immigrants.

That said, "of the 100 crop species that supply 90 percent of the world's food, bees pollinate more than 70 percent."

Our teacher, a man in his fifties, got his first beehive at age 9. Back then, he said, it was much easier to keep bees. You basically did nothing but harvest the honey. Now, he said that he and other beekeepers in our county (he is the President of the local beekeepers guild) regularly lost 50% of their hives every year - due to disease and pests.

Much of that problem is that hives are brought over from many other countries to pollinate American crops during peak season. For instance, I live in California and apparently March or thereabouts is the time to pollinate the almond trees in our Central Valley. Many of the diseases and pests have come with those bees brought in from other countries. As careful as the government often is to prevent invasive species, it boggles the mind that it will ship in beehives and, with them, new diseases and predators, from willy nilly.

During our examination of the hive for instance, he showed us a hive beetle and indicated that he would put out a trap for them. "These just came over in the last two or three years with the bees brought in from Australia". Great!

I learned some happier things. Like beehives can be cute!

Though it doesn't have to be this cute! (It's a vintage beehive on Etsy.)

After the class, my friend and I returned home - heady with honey tasting dreams of bees in our suburban backyards. I will likely wait until next spring (because you can really only start keeping bees in the spring), to jump, fully suited, into beekeeping. That gives me a year to read, take my local guild's beginners beekeeping class and learn everything I can about bees. Besides, this spring's dance card is already full with endeavors like planting in a greenhouse, expanding my garden, creating a water garden, and condoing my potatoes.

So I guess you'll have to wait until next spring to see a picture this cute again. ;-)

* I'm linking to Homestead Barn Hop and FarmGirl Friday for this post.

* Keep up with the other bees in the hive and join the Facebook page. It's full of combs and honey.
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The Inconvenience of Eating Healthy

2012-01-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

The more I read about food, the less I want to eat it. And the less I want my children to eat it. I'm thinking, not about the food I grow or purchase at the farmers' market, but the stuff on our supermarket's shelves. Cow and pig parts in cereal? BPA in canned soup, canned beans, canned everything? Genetically modified ingredients in everything from corn chips to baking powder? Seriously, is anything you can buy at a major grocery store safe to eat these days? As a result, I've taken a long hard look at what we stock in our fridge and in our pantry.

Convenience rules! If they have to cut it, wash it, or do anything besides stick it in their mouths, they'll grab something else. I've taken to prepping my vegetables ahead of time and to resolving to pop up the minute I hear them rummaging in the kitchen. I cut up carrots and store them in a water-filled air-tight container. (The water keeps them from drying out). I peel the oranges, cut the pears and apples and bought an apple slicer for those times when I can't cut up the fruit for them *right now!* Then, they can do it.

Speaking of popping up, an air-popper and some organic popcorn is a mom's best friend! My kids know how to use ours and regularly snack on this after they've had one good sized snack.

I also try to keep the oven warm - baking muffins, scones, granola bars, and whatnot. It's not as healthy as fruit but sometimes we need more than just fruit. Moreover, at least I know what ingredients are in my home-baked goodies.

Finally, I let my dinners do double duty. Tonight's meal - whether soup, stew, pasta or pizza - serves as tomorrow's lunch or after school snack.

How do you eat healthy in a hurry and keep kids (and yourself) snacking in the right way?

* Join the Facebook Page for updates, articles and photos of what's cooking on the Green Bean homestead.

The Great Potato Debate

2012-01-15T20:00:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky enough to live in a temperate climate. That means, along with other things, I can grow potatoes three times a year. Including in January and February!

I'm just about to roll up my sleeves and get chitting but I figured I'd better review the results of my last potato planting. In August, between pounds of tomatoes and peppers, I debated getting my winter garden on. I had ordered potatoes but not figured out where I'd put them. All my allotted garden space was occupied - with tomatoes, summer squash, winter squash. What was a potato to do?

My dreams of chic burlap sacked potato towers were dashed by this post. So, instead, I gathered containers from through out the yard - large terra cotta pots left by the previous owner, 15 gallon black nursery pots from a few of the fruit trees I had planted in the spring, and a bushel basket that had been destined to corral books instead of apples or potatoes. I also requisitioned some chicken wire and stakes. I promptly prepped my potatoes - fingerlings because they are so good, expensive to buy and hard to find. Planted, covered with compost, and more compost, and more compost. (Seems like an awful lot of compost! What do you use to cover your taters?)

Several months later, I harvested.

The chicken wired potatoes fared the best. Followed by the black plastic pots, with terra cotta and bushel baskets (which truthfully weren't watered as much) bringing up the rear. Oddly enough, only my La Ratte fingerlings grew. The Ruby Crescent not so well!

This time, I've opted for La Ratte and a French fingerling. Fortunately, Mr. Green Bean gave me the second best Christmas gift ever - a potato condo. I'm hoping to hit the potato gold mine between the condo and using the chicken wired tower method again. Wish me luck!

potato condo

* I'm linking to Homestead Barn Hop for this post.
* Join the Facebook page to debate edible gardening, urban homesteading and whatnot all season long.

Thrifty Is as Thrifty Does

2012-01-11T00:31:00.000-08:00

We moved into our new home a year and a half ago. Since then, we've been in the process of finding furniture that actually fits in this home - without spending a ton of money or sucking up a lot of resources. That process lead me to wax poetic about Craigslist and other second hand avenues.

But then I fell in love with these chairs.

Gorgeous, aren't they? Made in America and I'm all about keeping my countrymen employed these days. Offered by a company that promotes sustainability. And $300 a piece, plus tax and delivery. Doh!

Every dollar our family spends is spent with purpose. Toward local and green. But I just couldn't spend that many dollars.

Instead, I hooked up with this little duo at a garage sale for $25.

After hitting them with a couple cans of (non-eco) black spray paint that we had lying around,

I ended up with this. A second hand work station that has first class style.

** I'm linking to the following Blogger Parties: Frugal Fridays at The Shabby Nest; Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom; Tuesday Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia and Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm.

** Join the Facebook page for regular updates, links and photos.

Whose Greenhouse? Mine?

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it on the Facebook page, I got a greenhouse for Christmas. (And a potato condo though that is the topic for another post). Is my husband the King of Romance or what?!?

He built the greenhouse in a place that gets a good amount of sun - but didn't steal my favorite sun spots which are reserved for pumpkins and the like. It is beautiful. With vents and a dutch door and it is made from recycled plastic. Love it!

Except . . .

What do I do with it now?

WHAT TO PLANT IN

I'd read a while back about people just directly planting, in the ground, melons or other warm weather crops in their greenhouse. That seems relatively low maintenance and doable - until I read that I'm supposed to use indoor potting mix as soil and not the real dirt that is in there. And it should be in some sort of raised bed. Or pot. And I should replace the soil yearly. What?

So, for anyone who knows anything about greenhouses, what would you recommend? A traditional wooden raised bed built in there? A galvanized trough (which I've been saving for a water garden for six months)? A handful of wine barrels or large pots?

WHAT TO GROW

Okay, so I've got a vision of melons growing in some sort of soil but what else? I do not have any electricity or heat out there at this point. How helpful would it be for starting seeds? As far as growing from seed, my only experience and success has been with direct seeding. I could see having seedlings in there as a transition point before they go into the real dirt but beyond that?

HOW TO WATER

There is already white mold stuff growing on the bare dirt in there. In researching what that might be I read that you need to be careful about watering in a greenhouse. So misters? No? I'm thinking drip in the bed or pot for the melons and a hose connection but . . .

Any other tips for a total greenhouse newbie who is so paralyzed by doing the wrong thing with her pretty new greenhouse that she won't even step inside?

** I'm sharing this post with the Homestead Barn Hop.

New Year's Harvest

2011-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last summer, I hemmed and hawed over whether to invest in a winter CSA share. I was determined to light my coop and plant for fall and be (almost) self-sufficient. Drowning in tomatoes in September, I decided there would be no lighting of the coop. I didn't have time to figure it out.

I didn't have much time for planting either. I half-heartedly threw potatoes in every available empty container - a bushel basket, some terra cotta pots, large plastic nursery pots, and a mound fashioned out of stakes and leftover chicken coop.

My potatoes this fall.

I threw out some lettuce and carrot seeds and invested in a couple six packs of veggies - broccoli, swiss chard, lettuce and bok choy. I ignored the lettuce and it bolted. The broccoli still has not "headed". Will it? I have no idea. I clearly put the chard in to late as it has never really grown and 2 of the 6 seedlings have disappeared thanks to some pest or another. But the carrots, the bok choy and the potatoes?

Oh yeah baby! My not so hard work paid off as I hauled in this New Year's harvest (plus some additional mandarins).

And check out this last carrot that I pulled up? Remember when I confessed that I could not grow carrots? All that is in the past. This supersized sucker makes me legit! I'm a real gardener now!

Happiest New Year from me and my first time ever late December harvest!

** Join the Facebook Page for regular updates, links and photos.

Winter Garden Walk

2011-12-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while due, in large part, to holiday craziness. Today, though, I was forced to clean out the chicken coop. I mean the girls really put down their clawed feet! My time in the winter garden outside calmed, restored and rejuvenated. Take a walk with me and, for a moment, forget wrapping, baking, shopping and holiday'ing in general.

Satsuma Mandarin Tree

Navel Orange Tree

Native Grape on the Chicken Coop

Gravenstein Apple Tree

Bok Choy

Happy winter!

* I'm linking to the Homestead Barn Hop with this post.

* Join the Facebook page for more frequent updates, photos and links.

Playing Santa in the Garden

2011-11-17T00:31:00.000-08:00

I'm at the Green Phone Booth today, putting the garden to bed - "Night Before Christmas" Style.

T'was the season before winter, and on the homestead

Jack-o-lanterns were rotting, the zucchini was dead.

The sheet mulch was tucked round the pear tree with care,

In hopes that next year's pumpkin patch would be there.

The hens all nestled all snug in their coop,

Dreaming of laying eggs and not becoming chicken soup.

And I in my boots and dirt covered pants

Pulled out the last of the tomato plants.

When back in the yard, there arose such a clatter,

That I sprang from the raised beds to see what was the matter.

Click here to read the rest.

The Day After

2011-11-01T00:31:00.000-07:00

Halloween night was a wild brawl. An orgy of not fair trade candy, wrappers tossed idly on front lawns of the most trick-or-treated streets. Jack-o-lanterns rotted, kicked down the curb. Cheap costumes shredded, tossed into the trash or "donation" bag. Every year, despite my eco-intentions, I end up sinning one way or another. Ate too much candy. Outfitted a kid in a cheap a costume. Or threw out something that could have been reused or bought new when we could have gone second hand.

What's done is done. Here's how to green clean up our messes.

Candy

A couple years ago, a friend compiled this amazingly thorough list of what to do with leftover Halloween candy and candy wrappers. I particularly love the idea of an advent calendar to Thanksgiving comprised of Halloween candy.

This year, I plan to try the Halloween Candy Bark. Maybe freeze it and give it out as a Christmas gift?

Halloween Candy Bark Recipe & Photo Credit

I might also stash some for decorating a gingerbread house or make it into a Thanksgiving dessert.

Pumpkins

So much for jack be nimble, jack be quick. Jack is a moldy mess by now! If you have preschool or elementary aged kids at home, read Pumpkin Jack with them. It is about the life cycle of a pumpkin - beginning with a jack-o-lantern decomposing out in the garden. Every year, we put the kids old jack-o-lanterns out in the garden and watch nature work her magic. By spring time, all that is left is the stem.

One website talks about pumpkin roads where people all take their jack-o-lanterns to dot long rural roads.

If you are not so inclined to watch your creation rot, the compost pile or green waste bin is a good place for it. Or give it your chickens or livestock - provided it isn't actually moldy or covered in candle wax. Of course, if the pumpkin wasn't carved (maybe just colored with a marker), then for goodness sake's. Eat it! Pumpkin mac n cheese. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin milk shakes.

Costumes

If your costume is more than something pulled out of your closet, there is the question of what to do with it. Most store-bought costumes cannot stand up to much wear. Their seams split. They get a hole here or there. Still, most often they can be reused for children's dress up. If your kids won't wear them again, check with local schools. Many classrooms for younger kids have a dress up corner that could use some fresh costumes.

Alternatively, a neighbor or friend might have a child with a dress up trunk. (One of my kids has one and wears costumes all year long!). Finally, pack the costume away with your Halloween goodies. Next year, you or your child might wear it again (my youngest wore the same costume 3 years running), you can swap it at a costume swap, or turn it into a thrift store when it will be snapped up while folks are in the mood.

How do you green up the day after?

10 Signs You are a Garden Warrior

2011-10-24T00:31:00.000-07:00

1) You are not afraid to get your hands dirty. In fact, clean nails, uncracked skin and a long-lasting manicure are sure signs that you are not a garden warrior.

2) You know how to wield a pickax and aren't (too) afraid to do it.

3) You have quads of steel and you got them the old fashioned way. No weights. No machines. No gym memberships. Just squats with a purpose - weeding, planting, harvesting.

4) You have killed to protect your garden. Snails, rats, gophers, hornworms. You may feel bad that you did it but you'd do it again.

5) You are not above hiring out the dirty work. The cat who kills rats. The bat who eats mosquitos. The ladybug who devours aphids. You invite these killers for hire into your yard with food, a bat house tucked behind the play house, cover crop in the winter.

6) You are willing to "thin" your seedlings - even though you coddled and loved each seed once upon a time.

7) You pull out still producing plants when the season dictates - even if you wish you didn't have to.

8) You can tell the difference between collards, mustard greens and swiss chard at 50 paces.

9) To you, going native does not mean what most people think. It has nothing to do with getting naked - though, truth be told, you've gardened in varies states of dress and undress.

10) Like all warriors, you have a code of conduct. A place you'll never go is the use of pesticides. Okay, maybe a little bit of organic sluggo but by using pesticides, among other things, there just is no challenge.

Are you a garden warrior?

* Join the Facebook Page to keep the battles going.

Hot Tips for Cold Nights

2011-10-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a temperature wuss. No really. I'm a California native. A SOUTHERN California native. Yes, I ultimately braved the freezing cold temperatures to move to the San Francisco Bay Area. That first winter was tough! Eventually, I adapted - sort of.

But when you cross the green in me with the wimp, you do get something slightly more respectable. I've been doing Crunchy Chicken's Freeze Your Buns Challenge every winter since its inception in 2007. I don't usually go below 64 degrees during the day and the heat off at night but still, here are my favorite survival tips for keeping warm anywhere.

1) Take Up a Warm Hobby - Knitting is good, crocheting is good, sewing works. Something where you are working on something that keeps you warm. In the winter, I often knit and whatever project I'm working on sits on my lap, warming me. A laptop achieves the same thing. ;-)

2) Become One with Your Pets - We have a cat who we call the "Heater". He likes to sleep below the covers and heats that bed up faster than hot water bottles or an electric blanket.

3) Double Or Nothing - Okay, remember that I am a wimp! I double my socks at night before going to bed on a really cold night. I've also been known to sleep in slippers and, when really desperate, a hoodie. Remember what they say, feet cold, body cold. Or something like that.

4) Open Up - Your oven door that is as well as your the lids on your stove-top pots and pans. Nothing warms the kitchen faster than a cooling oven.

5) Go Electric - We used to go with hot water bottles but they just don't do it like an electric blanket. Of course, the whole sleeping surrounding by electrical waves or whatever does creep me out but most times, you can heat the bed up before you get in and your are golden.

How low will you go this year? Will you freeze your buns off? Any tips to keep help this warm weather girl go to 63 degrees?

* I'm linking to Thrifty Thursdays at Thrifty & Fabuless and Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom.

A Different Kind of Holiday

2011-10-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm over at The Green Phone Booth today considering whether what changes I could make to make this holiday season more meaningful.

Cruising the Internet the other day, I came across a woman endeavoring to spend zero dollars on Christmas this year. Zero dollars!

On one hand, I love this idea. Focus on experiences rather than materials. Save money and put an end to the consumerism of the holidays. However, these all or nothing challenges always intimidate me.

Plus, I don't think we could do a Zero Dollar Christmas at this place in my life. But that doesn't mean that this doesn't give me some ideas.

Click here to keep reading.

The Truth About Chickens

2011-10-17T00:31:00.001-07:00

Minerva Louise checking to see what leftovers I brought.

1) Chickens and mulched pathways do not mix. Chickens and mulched trees and plants do not mix. Chickens and sheet mulch do not mix. Sensing a pattern here? Let me make it easy. Chickens + Mulch = NO!!!

2) Even though chickens and mulch (and frankly vegetable gardens) don't mix, that doesn't mean chickens aren't awesome for the garden. They obviously add protein to the homegrown diet and produce prodigious amounts of poop. They, also, break down straw like nobody's business, adding fertilizer as they go. I clean out the straw bedding from the coop periodically and spread it as mulch around the fruit trees. Their crushed egg shells go into the soil for added calcium. It's an edible gardener's dream.

3) Devote a pair of shoes to your chickens. Yes, one whole pair or maybe even two. These are your chicken poop, I mean coop shoes. They can walk around the garden but preferably not on alot of paved surfaces and never, ever, even in an emergency into the house.

4) Wear gloves when cleaning out the bedding or the expletive you utter will be what is on your hands.

5) Chickens are the carb queens of the livestock world. Oh sure, you hear folks go on and on about how their chooks just go crazy for watermelon. Or grapes. Or blueberries. Okay, mine like blueberries too but blueberries are too expensive to waste on those birds! Whenever I bring out the kitchen scraps, is it the pumpkin or cantaloupe they go? The tomatoes? It is not. Those little piglets can beak out a spaghetti noodle or hunk of bread quicker than you can say "egg"! They are also mighty partial to proteins: scrambled eggs, bits of cheese. The healthy stuff? Last resort, baby!

Serena found the leftover pasta.

6) On the topic of leftovers, chickens are the great garbage disposal of the homestead. Almost all of our leftovers (they cannot eat uncooked onions and potatoes, moldy stuff), go through the coop. They'll eat it all - and then you'll save on chicken feed.

7) People or animals who are scared are called "chicken" for a reason. Because chickens think everything is scary. The rake. The hose. The kids (okay, they are a bit scary). The shade on the side of their coop that blocks the beating summer sun. I've only ever had one chicken who was afraid of nothing - even our dog who tried to eat her. Of course, chickens are prey so maybe it is a good thing to be wary of life after all.

8) Speaking of sayings, once you own chickens, you will understand half of the proverbs on this planet. Ruling the roost. Bottom of the pecking order. The nest egg. The hen house. Cackling like a bunch of hens. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Flew the coop. Chicken scratch. Don't get your feathers ruffled. If its a saying and you've heard it, odds are about 50% it involved chickens.

9) No matter what you name your chicken, it was sound adorable. Omelet. Cute. Henny Penny. Fun. Puff and Fluff. Sweet. Dinner. Hilarious. See what I mean?

Read what my hens have to say, in their own words, in my Tales from the Roost series. To keep up with my squawk-talk, join the Facebook page.

* I'm linking this post to Homestead Barn Hop.

5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

(Or on the porch bench, but you get the picture).

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my but summer was late."
The second one said, "The homestead sure did care."
The third one said, "A full grown pumpkin was rare!"
The fourth one said, "I hardly grew at all."
The fifth one said, "But already it is fall, fall, fall."
So, ooohhhh went the gardener and out came the pumpkins
And five little squash went into the oven.

So much for the pumpkin patch. Next year is another year - with hopefully more summer-like weather and more intelligent pumpkin patch placement by this here gardener.

I'm linking this post to Harvest Mondays.

Join the Facebook page to keep track of these five little pumpkins - and the rest of my urban homestead.

Seasonal Gardening Sadness

2011-10-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

It happens every year. The sunlight grows a little less warm. It slants more instead of beating overhead. The tomatoes slow down and the summer squash falls victim to powdery mildew. Leaves turn brown and drop. There is something beautiful about fall. Welcoming. A promise of quiet and a house smelling like pumpkin pie.

But it also signals a time to clean out the garden. To put down sheet mulch and cover crop. Tuck in peas and garlic and greens. But there's only one problem . . .

To put all those things in you have to take something out. Something that, while not completely done, is nearly there.

I'm ready to put my peas and Chinese cabbage in but which tomato plant should go? The sungolds will produce through Thanksgiving. The yellow pear can go the distance as well. Betty with its big ole green lobes waiting for a heat wave to turn could go but her stocky limbs are intertwined with a long-lasting heirloom.

And I'm ready to put in the sheet mulch. Exactly where next year's pumpkin patch will go. Full sun. As attested by the still blooming zinnias - a blur of fuchsia and orange.

The cardboard is the beginning of my sheet mulch. Farewell zinnias.

The cover crop? A tangled mixture of fava beans, peas and vetch that harbored beneficial insects and a toad last time I planted it in a large area. That is scheduled to go over above sheet mulch and in between my citrus - you see. Right where alllll those flowers are currently blooming . . .

But fall gardening is a Catch 22. Let summer have her last laugh and you won't have time to plant your fall edibles. Or tear out the vestiges of summer's bounty and bid a premature farewell to her slowly turning tomatoes and poste haste peppers.

Almost every year, I choose the latter. But that doesn't mean I don't feel the sadness of seasonal gardening as I do it.

* I'm linking to Tuesday Garden Party with this post.

* More on gardening, chickens and homestead holidays at my Facebook page.

A Homestead Cannot Run Itself

2011-10-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

We moved to our half acre a little over a year ago with grand plans. Okay, the "we" with the grand plans was me. An orchard. Raised beds. A pollinator garden. The chickens (moved from our old place). Bees (hopefully next spring).

Many of my plans came to fruition (no pun intended) but I forgot how much work it can be keeping up with everything. The pounds and pounds of unrelenting process-us-now or else tomatoes. The unyielding siege of summer squash. The diligent delivery of eggs. The baking from scratch, the home-cooked meals, the hand-knit Christmas presents. Not to mention keeping the house in decent shape, the front (non-edible at this point) yard weeded, the patio swept, the cats cared for and so on.

My dad visited in the midst of tomato-fest. He looked at my two kids - ages 6 and 8 - and said: "It's too much work for one person to keep all this up."

Yeah! What had I been thinking. Keeping up a homestead is quite a bit of work! These weren't just beings who needed help with homework, required lunches packed for them, prodding to clean up their rooms, help folding their laundry. These were little homesteaders perfectly capable of pitching in big time - beyond the set the table/clear the table sort of thing. Heck, in the Little House on the Prairie days (my kids hate it when I bring this up), kids their age would be out plowing, chopping wood, baking, you name it.

I set about asking for help. Big zero. Demanding help. Not much more.

And then, Pinterest came to the rescue. I came across the idea of the Job Jar.

I promptly brainstormed all the little things I do during that day that a 6 and 8 year old could help with. Man there was a lot - a lot that would help me keep my head above water and keep me a step ahead of the chaos. A lot of places where some well placed child labor could keep the homestead afloat.

The Implement:

My Job Jar is a thrifted canister filled with folded paper notes. It works well and didn't cost a dime but the kids keep picking the same jobs over and over again. I might switch to popsicle sticks or wine corks (here's the general idea with ping pong balls).

A Facebook page commenter suggested a job wheel. Here's a handy one for multiple kids.

A blogger friend uses a coat hook type of solution.

And, if you are willing to pay for the chore beyond regular allowance, chore magnets are a fun idea.

The Follow Through:

Now, when my kids get a consequence (in lieu of the time out system), they have to do a job from the job jar. If they leave toys and such out after they go to bed or don't clean up their rooms, whatever's left lying about goes into the ransom box (another Pinterest find). It can be ransomed by one job per item.

We have regular, daily jobs that the kids need to do to earn their weekly allowance but I suppose job jar pickings could be tied to the allowance as well.

Have you tried a system like a job jar? How did it work for you? How do you get your kids to pitch in?

* I'm linking to Homestead Barn Hop for this post.

Rethinking Individual Environmentalism

2011-10-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

A month ago, I questioned whether personal actions really make a difference when it comes to environmentalism. Last week, a children's novel convinced me that they do - but not for the reasons I was thinking of. Read the gory details over at The Green Phone Booth today.

Free Range Furniture

2011-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago I read about the next step in local food. It's local clothes. I'm not sure I'm there yet but if local clothes are the next step, then I think local or more environmentally friendly furniture cannot be far behind.

Furniture is, to me, like meat. Not great for the planet no matter how you look at it. Resource heavy but still something people really want. So, in furniture shopping, I've started to look for happy furniture. Its way better than factory farmed. I like my furniture to have roamed free - preferably through other people's houses and into antique fairs, thrift stores, consignment stores, and on Craigslist.

My most recent acquisition - bin table from a rural antique store (total bargain!), shoe basket from an antique fair and under bin basket free ranged for many years through my mom's house.

Not all furniture is that happy, though. If its not available second hand, furniture made from old furniture - or other things - is the still pretty happy. You know - upcycled, reclaimed? You can find such furniture at antique fairs and swap meets or, for those like me who like to let their fingers do the walking, on Etsy! That's right! I'm in the market for a coffee table. After finding nothing suitable second hand, I turned to Etsy. I had no idea the amount of furniture you could buy there made from reclaimed wood, reused metal, and upcycled bits of this and that. Bonus - I'm supporting a small farmer, er, artisan. Simple Internet searches can turn up small local showrooms of folks in your region doing the same thing.

Love this Etsy table made of reclaimed wood that sold before I got to it.

Even though it seems impossible, not everything in the world is available on Etsy! Turns out some other medium sized and industrial farmers have turned to reclaimed and recycled as well. LL Bean carries a great line of partially reclaimed wood furniture that was made in the USA, so it was shipped halfway around the world. Crate & Barrel offers many pieces made from reclaimed wood or with other "eco-friendly" attributes.

LL Bean rustic nesting tables

Finally, even if you cannot have organic food, I mean, recycled furniture, at least it can be locally grown - or made. Maybe not in your city or even your state but I do feel a bit better buying Made in the USA furniture shipped across the country instead of across the sea. Plow & Hearth has a diverse line of well made Made in the USA products. I can attest to the quality as I own one of the dining room pieces. Sturdy as can be and a final solution when free range furniture failed me.

Minivan Mama

2011-09-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

Check out my post at The Green Phone Booth in which I dish about the good, bad and ugly in trading a minivan for a mini hybrid.

Monsanto + National Parks = BFF

2011-09-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

We visited Yosemite National Park last weekend and I was surprised to see this:

The blackberries were sprayed with RoundUp Pro Max right on the valley floor. This helpful signed warned, in all caps, DO NOT EAT BERRIES. I'm sure the park's animals can read that sign and heed the warning as well.

Is nothing sacred? I understand that maybe, for some reason, the park does not want the berries there. Perhaps they are worried about them attracting bears to heavily trafficked areas. We were told that volunteers pick apples off the apple trees planted there for that reason. But volunteers cannot dig out the blackberries? Perhaps the blackberries edge out other important plant species. But seriously, can't we do something more than squirt them with pesticide and hope for the best?

Free Money!

2011-09-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

No joke and no gimmick! I guarantee you that if you do the following, you too will end up with free money. Here's how I did it:

Two summers ago, in a jumble of national park vacations and preparation for a new school year, we moved into a new home. Untouched boxes went from the old garage into the new garage. The kitchen was unpacked willy nilly. Glasses seemed like they should go here, my waffle maker here and, um, the food, I guess over there. The bathroom had no medicine cabinet so everything was just stuffed under the sink. Good enough.

Until now. The garden is winding down. The holidays have not ramped up. And the kids are back at school. That means it is time to declutter and organize.

I've been slowly working my way through the house starting with the garage. At this point, I've only completed the garage, the family room, tackled a third of the kitchen and jumped ahead to a bathroom. In doing so, I've uncovered three very cool vintage rings I bought as a student abroad 20 years ago, 3 bottles of shampoo, two bags of cat treats, more dried beans than we could eat all year (though we'll now give it a go!), mixes for my SodaStream and a ton of other awesomeness.

So now you get it about the free money. It's not that I found money. Well, actually I found an old emergency bag with a little cash in it, but I'm also saving bundles. After uncovering those three bottles of shampoo, I won't be buying any for half a year. Those rings will keep me off of Etsy but provide the same thrill. Canisters and a trendy monogrammed tote (yes, with my initials) will keep me organized. And we'll be swimming in bean soup and stew all winter.

I've saved money, natural resources, donated 8 bags to the thrift store and Freecycled other things. I feel lighter, happier, less stressed and have a sense of accomplishment. All without spending a dime.

Here are my favorite "free money" tips:

1) Just because it is cute or "green" doesn't mean you should keep it. If you've not used it in the last year to two, ask yourself if you really need it cluttering up your home - even if you technically have room. Some things that hold special memories may get a pass here.

2) As you organize and declutter, take stock of what you have and use it up. I uncovered a box of Borax and a box of washing soda when I used to mix my own dishwasher detergent. My husband hated the smell so I switched to 7th Generation. I just ran out of laundry detergent, though, so a mixture of the two will see me through the next month or so and, eventually, clear some room on a shelf. And let's just say that if you have any good recipes for dried beans, send 'em over.

3) Keep donation, recycle and trash bags or boxes with you as you work. Otherwise, it is tempting to toss everything into the trash.

4) Never get rid of a basket, bin or canister!! I keep a laundry basket in the garage where I put empty containers until needed. When I go on an organizing binge, they are waiting to cradle toy cars, oatmeal toppings or reusable sandwich bags.

5) Speaking of containers, not only should you not get rid of them but you should keep an eye out for attractive ones at thrift stores, garage sales and so on.

6) Work with what you've got. Accept that some shelves cannot be moved, some containers aren't as pretty as others or just won't fit. Put on your thinking cap and you'll still come out way ahead.

7) Donate and reuse as much as possible. So little is landfill worthy these days. "Goody bag" toys and such can be rounded up and given to doctors, therapists and dentists for their "treasure boxes." Even if a thrift store won't take it, odds are that someone will if you post on Freecycle or the free section of Craigslist or put it on the street with a FREE sign.

8) Stay organized about organizing. On Pinterest, I came across a monthly schedule for deep cleaning. It suggested cleaning baseboards one month, windows another, and so on. It is not such a bad idea, instead, to tackle one room a month for organizing, decluttering and cleaning. Pinterest also has lots of great ideas on repurposing for the purpose of organizing. Things like using a magazine holder to stack cans or aluminum foil boxes.

9) Take lots of breaks but don't let it fall of our your radar. Some weeks, I conquer only one shelf or cabinet but I am plodding along and leaving a wake of organization in my path.

10) Think of how you will use up all the treasures you've uncovered and enjoy.

** Linking to Thrifty Thursday at Thrifty and Fabuless and

Joining the Dark Side

2011-09-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

Alas, 'tis true. I've turned - from focusing on the sun-baked bowl of my back yard to the dappled, partial shade zone that is the side yard. Previously drenched in ivy, we've removed that - leaving behind some camellias and wild blackberries. One area - big enough for two trees - is fairly sunny. Not hot mind you, but a steady-ish stream of sun. The hydrangeas that used to occupy this zone were often sunburnt and wilting. The rest is partial shade.

What is an edible gardening, wildlife attracting jedi to do?

I plan to put in a couple of fruit trees in the sunnier spot. One persimmon, which I've read are shade tolerant and one what? According to this month's Urban Farm, pears and apples can produce in a half day of sun but I've already got two of each up on the sunny back 40. What about a plum? Urban Farm says maybe.

For shrubs, I intend to put in some currants and maybe an elderberry. I'll also cultivate the berries that remain and might put in a few oakleaf hydrangeas - just because I love them! But it would be nice to have something busy, something that the birds can hang out in and something pretty as our family room and living room windows look out on this planting strip.

Ground level might have some strawberries, yarrow, and what?!?

I'm looking for perennials mostly, stuff with not a lot of upkeep but that is useful for either wildlife habitat, attractive or productive in an edible sense. I'm live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any ideas for this newly-minted shade trooper?

* I am linking to Garden Tuesdays and Homestead Barn Hop for this post.

* For more galactic adventures, like me on Facebook.

Fall Is Not a Four Letter Word

2011-09-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe it is technically a four letter word, but you know what I mean. Fall comes just in time every year.

Just when you start to get a bit tired of preserving this and that, when tomatoes and summer squash start to be a little too much, when stone fruit no longer holds its allure, when the garden begins to look cluttered and the bobbing flowers a bit garish - then it is gone.

Clearing away the dead squash plants, tugging out cosmos and poppies feels liberating. The dying tomato and calendula plants are just as pretty as they were when they burst from the moist dirt in spring.

The fall garden is beginning to stretch its legs. Just a little something to nibble on but not enough to prevent holiday planning and knitting sessions.

Welcome fall!! My favorite season of all!

* I am linking to the Homestead Barn Hop and Garden Tuesday for this post.

** Please join my Facebook Page for non-four letter words in between posts!

Pinning Away

2011-09-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

I'm over at The Green Phone Booth today confessing about my alternate life as a Pin Up Girl.

Who You Calling Garbage?

2011-09-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

I remember a day when old tires and bottle caps were trash. Those days are long gone as repurposing has hit the mainstream. Check out these fun repurpose ideas:

Tire Flower Pots:

Bottle Cap Table (laid in concrete):

Clothespin Memo Board on Old Metal Washboard:

Teapot and Teaspoon Robot Clock:

What a fun way to reduce one's footprint in style!

Second to None

2011-09-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

The garden is winding down. Notice I said winding down - not done. I'm still eeking a few squash from the mildewed plants and still harvest dozens - though not buckets - of tomatoes every day. The apples are done and the Asian pear throws off a fruit or two a week. We've moved from frantically preserving to thoroughly enjoying.

Still, as I spend less time in the garden, I cannot help but turn inward. Not in a philosophical sense but in a decorative sense! I hit the Alameda Antique Faire two weekends ago with one thing in mind - cozying up the family room. I didn't find what I was looking for but I came home with a mostly full wallet, a crowded camera memory card and a few fun things for the munchkins - including a light up human body model. Try finding that at your big box toy store!

I also saw lots of things I wanted or would never want but was happy that someone would want so that they didn't end up as landfill paddings.

So sweet!

These made me smile.

How cute would this be to store shoes in the entry way or blankets in the family room?

This is the most fun seat I've ever seen but I think it might clash with my decor!

Do you antique? Visit local swap meets or antique fairs? Do you love owning something with a past?

Sayonara Summer

2011-09-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

A favorite spot in Big Sur, California

The Light At the End of the Tunnel

2011-09-06T00:31:00.000-07:00

All spring and summer, I've reveled in the garden. I've poked seeds into the grown. Flitted between the flowers, dead-heading here and there. Harvested a random tomato, crookneck squash or Asian pear. Propped up a heavy branch. 15 minutes here and there of work. Hours of relaxation.

Then August hit - like a sledgehammer. Everything was ready at once. Tomatoes. Apples. Summer squash. Pears. Peppers.

As we ease into summer, the garden is beginning to wind down. The smiling yellow faces of sunflowers have faded, seeds popping through and beckoning squirrels from all over the neighborhood. I've chopped them down bit by bit, to dry out unmolested in the garage, and become chicken feed this winter.

One of my tomato plants bit the dust and the other five have begun to slow down, leaves drying out. In California, some of my tomatoes will continue to produce bit by bit through November. But they begin spitting out the tomatoes a couple at a time rather than unleashing them in a red avalanche.

Powdery mildew spots the leaves of my dutiful crookneck squash. The hardy yellow offerings shrink in size and taper off.

My pollinator garden was once a wave of color, teeming with bees and finches. Now, dried plants loll about amongst the late summer favorites - black eyed susans and orange cosmos. Nasturtium seeds are ripe for the plucking and calendula has given up the ghost to powdery mildew.

Even as I am sad to see the summer - with its endless bounty - wane, I am grateful for quieter days. For cover crop and for sheet mulch. For fewer flies around the chicken coop and for time to sketch out the plan for next summer's garden. For knitting and decorating for holidays. And I am grateful for the light at the end of the preservation tunnel.

I'm linking this post to Tuesday Garden Party and Harvest Mondays.

Making Memories

2011-08-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

You might wonder where I've been of late. True, August had its share of last minute vacations and the chill'uns are back in school but that doesn't completely account for my absence. Oh no. This does.

Tomatoes. And apples. And summer squash. Everything ready at once. Oh, don't get me wrong. It is not that I'm not grateful the garden has been so busy. It is just that I find myself in a constant race against the over-ripe clock to freeze the tomatoes, can pasta sauce, turn apples into cinnamon apple chips and dehydrated squash. All the while, I'm also trying to savor the tomatoes in salsa and fresh over pasta. Enjoy the apples in apple bars and apple cake. And squeeze the squash into breads and stir fry.

Remember June and July people? When I proudly showed off a couple of squash and some herbs? Remember when I picked my first tomato and relished in every last little nibble?

Me either. It's all a distant, hazy memory. But I'm off to ensure that I remember this August alllll winter long. Happy preserving.

I am linking this post to Homestead Barn Hop, Harvest Monday and Tuesday Garden Party.

A Good Enough Environmentalist

2011-08-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly enjoyed Abbie's How Green Are You Quiz last week - gleefully checking off the answers and pleased to find myself a nice shade of Emerald Green. I gave myself a pat on the back. Not bad for someone who's been on the eco journey for some time. Long enough to have sampled almost everything "eco" and thrown a good share back as not me, too difficult or too kooky.

I still got it! I may drive too much in my minivan, I may not line dry my clothes any more, and I may have resorted to occasional yogurt tubes in lunch boxes despite the plastic but hey, I'm still green, ya'll!

Landing on "Emerald Green" was a hollow victory, though. And not just because Abbie meant her quiz to be tongue in cheek. No, it was hollow because I realized that I have finally reached the place in my environmental journey where I ask the much pondered question:

Do individual actions really matter?

For the past four and half years, I've walked and biked all over the place. I've frozen my buns off. I've grown my own vegetables and eaten 90% local for a couple of years. I gave up almost any sort of disposables, eschewed new for second hand, and have been eaten alive by guilt over things like: forgetting my canvas bags, buying garden starts in non-recyclable plastic pots and springing for new sweat pants for the boys for school.

And you know what?

I'm more afraid to write about climate change today than I was in 2007. Then, most Americans accepted climate change for what it was - scientific fact. Today, it is a political hot potato, most Americans do not believe it is true.

Despite the disbelief, more people are "living green." Heck, most Americans prefer organic to conventional food but I'm not convinced that individual action will get us where we need to go. Resorting to cloth wipes and canvas totes hasn't put a dent in global warming yet. So how do we get there?

This week is a two week of protest against the Keystone XL Tar Sands pipeline. Something that climate scientists call a "game over" for climate change if Obama allows it to go through. Environmentalists are calling on people to come to Washington DC, protest the pipeline project and risk jail for civil disobedience. Another member of the Green Moms Carnival is going. I'm awed. I'm wowed. I'm jealous. And I am afraid.

That the media will not cover it.

That it won't make a difference.

And mostly, afraid to make any sort of commitment like that. Instead, I'll stay home and make some yogurt from organic milk bottled by a local company in a returnable glass bottle. I'll can my homegrown tomatoes and then hit the thrift store for back to school clothes.

Will it be good enough?

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

2011-08-10T00:31:00.000-07:00

From Northern California's backroads, this is what farming should look like.

Are You a Winner?

2011-08-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

According to the Random Number Generator, if you are It's Not Easy to Be Green and left this comment:

noteasytobegreen said...

I have never canned anything but want to try canning my own vine ripened tomato sauces for the winter months. I have friends who keep me well stocked with strawberry jam, apple chutney, and other preserves.

Or if you are Robin from Simple.Green.Organic.Happy and left this comment:

robin said...

I'm a fan on FB :)

You are winners of a Discovery Home Canning Set! Yippee!

Please email me at greenbeandreamsATgmailDOTcom with your address so that we can arrange shipment to you and you can start canning!!!

Even if you did not win, do not forget to get your can in gear on National Can It Forward day, this Saturday August 13th. Learn to preserve the harvest in unsteady economic times at the Can It Forward page on the Ball Brand "Fresh Preserving" site. Thank you for participating and to Ball Brand for sponsoring the giveaway!

Country Road

2011-08-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

Last month I traveled a country road and saw a few things I really really wanted. A photograph was the next best thing.

As a California native and lover of old and embroidered, I really coveted this vintage California tapestry. Alas, it was $400 so I took a photo instead. I love the grizzly bear up at the top and the sombrero at the bottom!

What a fun old pick up truck. As energy inefficient as they come but ride in this and you really feel like a country girl.

Okay, maybe I'd like this to say something other than Grandma's but you just know her chicken's are well loved.

Happiest Wednesday.

Home Discovery Canning Set Giveaway

2011-07-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

I first became interested in canning when my "green" journey began - back in 2007 or so. I remember wandering the aisles of Target, Safeway, and even Whole Foods asking anyone who looked like they worked there where the canning supplies were. Nowhere was the answer. I eventually ordered some of my supplies online and acquired the rest from a small, independently owned hardware store 20 minutes away.

I taught myself to can jam, pickles, relish with a Ball Canning Cookbook, the instructions on the pectin box and PickYourOwn.org. I then hosted a canning party at my house, another that I offered up for silent auction at my son's school, and finally one at a friend's house. It turns out that everyone wanted to learn to preserve jams, fruits and more.

Today, you can find canners, jars and pectin in nearly every retail outlet that sells food. More and more of my friends and family have dipped their toes into water bath canning and even pressure canning. Last summer, my canner made the rounds to no less than 5 friends. Now they can have their own. And so can you.

The maker of Ball brand canning supplies contacted me last month to ask if I'd like to do a giveaway of their Home Discovery Canning Kit and I was all for it. I almost never do giveaways because I think we all have enough stuff. Canning equipment though? That we can use and share with our friends? To preserve our own harvest and that of our farmers' markets and CSAs? That is something I can get behind.

I have TWO kits to giveaway. The introductory home canning kit is designed for even the most novice canner and makes use of existing kitchenware. It includes an illustrated simplified instruction book with recipes, a polypropylene rack with separate, fitted lifter that works in standard stockpots and three pint canning jars. You'll also get coupons for additional jars.

There are three ways to win and you can use them all!

1) Leave a comment regarding your home canning experience or what you'd like to can if you won the kit.

2) "Like" the Green Bean Chronicles Facebook page and leave a comment letting me know. If you already "like" me, fabulous! Just leave a comment saying so.

3) Visit the Can It Forward page on the Ball Brand "Fresh Preserving" site to learn more about the first annual National Can It Forward Day. Then come back and leave a comment.

Giveaway closes on Thursday, August 4th at midnight. The two winners will be announced on Monday, August 8th.

Now let the canning begin!!

Disclaimer: The folks from Ball brand jars offered me my own Home Discovery Canning Kit when they suggested the giveaway. I declined because I already own almost all of their products for home canning! They then offered and sent me some pectin, pickling and salsa mixes as well as a cookbook and jar grabber (or whatever those thingies are called). Their gift did not affect my thoughts on their products or my interest in doing a giveaway. I agreed to it because I love canning and I know you do too.

--------------------------------------------
The Ball brand is teaming up with Canning Across America, a nationwide collective of cooks, gardeners and food lovers to spread the word on canning this summer with National Can-It-Forward day on August 13th. A free, live webcast hosted a Freshpreserving.com will feature a day of instructional canning videos as well as cooking demos.

Say It, Don't Spray It

2011-07-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

From an organic winery in Napa County. I need one of these signs for my mini farm!

Yes, I Can!

2011-07-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

The first home that I can remember was an acre carved out of the Southern California hillside. My parents scrimped and saved and worked every weekend on the sprawling homestead. There was a mini orchard, brambles full of blackberries, rows of strawberries, and the old peach tree out by the driveway.

Every summer, my grandmother would come over and she and my mother would can. The canning itself is a hazy memory. A big pot. Sweet sweet jam smeared over toast. My grandmother has since passed on but a few weeks ago, my mother and I did what so many generations of women have done before us. We pulled out the big black canning pot. Sterilized jars. Smushed strawberries. Added pectin. And water bathed our way into family history.

We only do this once a summer, usually. The rest of the summer is a blur of visits, summer camps, and canning in the quiet of my own kitchen. But canning with my mother, just as she canned with her mother, is something that should be savored at least once a year.

This morning, popping open a jar of Bean woman strawberry jam, I smiled. Thanks mom for passing on the tradition. Yes, we can!

------------------------------

August 13th is the first annual National Can It Forward Day! It is co-hosted the makers of Ball canning jars and Canning Across America. In celebration of the resurgence of canning (I literally could not find pectin or canning equipment in any brick and mortar 4 years ago!) and the deliciousness that is home-canned goodness, here are a few of my favorite past posts on the subject:

- Quick Berry, Quack Berry: I host a canning party and we make more than just jam.

- Jammin: I indulge in the peace that is canning.

- There's More Than One Way to Skin . . .: My favorite ways to savor the harvest, topped by canning.

Please come back on Thursday for a special canning giveaway! Now, go get your can on.

Sharing the Harvest

2011-07-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

What are the veggies in my garden worth? How much could my chickens contribute to my children's education? More than you might guess.

Two years ago I had the epiphany that my squash and eggs could help fund the boys' school when the government would not. I, along with several gardener friends, banked on our garden dreams and auctioned off a CSA-form offerings at a school district silent auction. We offered up six weeks worth of local - REALLY local - fruits, vegetables and eggs - grown in the back and front yards of our city.

Our produce yielded about $400 a person and we sold it to two families. Plus, it gave me an idea of what our farmers think of every time they put together a box of deliciousness.

Above is last week's box of goodies: dahlias, eggs, apricots, lemons, summer squash, apples, blood oranges, carrots, beans, garlic, onions and a beautiful herb bouquet. Not a bad haul for a cool spring and late summer.

I'm linking to the following parties for today's post:

- Homestead Barn Hop
- Harvest Monday

Mushroom Kit Giveaway!

2011-07-21T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm over at The Green Phone Booth today with a giveaway of a Back to the Roots Oyster Mushroom Kit. Scoot on over and enter to win.

Tilting at Windmills

2011-07-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

My dream farm, on the road to my parents' house.

My own mini windmill

* I'm linking to A Southern Daydreamer's OUTDOOR WEDNESDAYS for this post.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

2011-07-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

How does my garden grow? Despite the summer being fairly cool and after being here for less than one year, I'd say pretty darn good.

Welcome to my "micro farm." Blackberries, flame seedless grapes, and nasturtiums soften the wall and attract pollinators and provide fruit! Only a few blackberries this year, devoured right off the cane and no grapes yet as this is their first year but I couldn't be happier with the nasturtiums.

On the right is my "bird garden". It is not much different from my pollinator garden except that it gets less sun so I had less hope. The only edibles in this area are some dill and cilantro interplanted with the sunflowers, cosmos, foxglove and borage. Oops! I guess the last counts as an edible too!

There is a plum, or more likely prune, tree that was here when we moved in in front of the cottage. It was in pretty bad shape but we've pruned, fertilized and watered it and it is no producing lots of teeny tiny fruit. Any suggestions on making the fruit bigger? Thin the fruit right after the tree flowers?

This is the path to the little red coop - where all the drama happens - and, on the left, my pollinator garden. Hidden in there are baby lemon, lime, mandarin orange and pomegranate trees, some summer squash which is doing well and some winter squash which is doing nothing. Oh the right are my raised beds. More on those to come.

A view from the cottage window - a mature black mission fig that came with the house is in the foreground. You can just barely make out the Asian pear slightly to the left of the fig. It is its first year and already has a ton of fruit!! On the left, behind the sunflowers, is that mature apple tree that we found here. I'm not sure of the variety but it is a summer apple that seems to be best for baking. Apples should be ready in the next month so apple crumble here I come!

Directly in front of the cottage are my three raised beds. The one furthest from the steps and closest to the cottage has mammoth sunflowers behind it. I've got tomatoes, carrots and peppers in the back two beds with nasturtium and calendula interplanted for pollinators, to repel pests and to look pretty.

The front bed had peas and is currently in transition. There are some carrots and basil and I'm planning to put in some broccoli, collards and lettuce.

A giant pumpkin is finally blossoming in front of the chicken coop. We'll see if it produces anything because everything is so late this year. I have a native grape climbing this side of the coop and it is flanked by a native flowering shrub and a tree mallow on either side. To the right is a four in one apple that went in in January and is already producing some fruit.

This is looking from the coop to the cottage. You can see my baby 4-in-1 apple, a baby 3-in-1 pear and the mature apple. I also have a fenced off area where I planted zinnias, Mexican sunflowers and sunflowers. I didn't want the kids to trounce them and erected this temporary fix that is looking like it will last all season long.

Finally, here's a peek at what is growing in the garden: crookneck squash, basil, carrots, and my first tomato - not pictured, just eaten! Oh, and a random egg.

And now, feeling less contrary, I'm linking to the following parties for today's post:

- Homestead Barn Hop
- Harvest Monday
- Tuesday Garden Party
- Garden Tuesday
- Nosy Neighbor Virtual Homestead & Garden Tour

Join the Facebook page to keep the party going!

Dirty Hands, Blissful Bank Account

2011-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

My hands have been pretty dirty lately with garden projects galore. Most of them are not that exciting. Dead heading. Pulling out spent peas. Putting in more basil.

But some of them made my bank account smile.

FLYING THE COOP

I spent all spring thoughtfully shading my girls from the hot summer sun. After planting a native grape, a California native called Malacothamnus, and a tree mallow. Everything is growing beautifully and would be providing plenty of shade - if that side of the coop actually got much sun! Turns out the afternoon sun - and a lot of it - soaks in on the other side. Oops!!

After brainstorming with the wonderful folks over at Take-Back Urban Homesteading(s) Facebook page about what plants would provide nice shade on the other side, I opted for sunflowers along the run. I just so happened to have found a giant mason jar filled with seeds from last year's sunflowers! Then, because sunflowers grow fast but not fast enough, my dad rigged up an old wooden shade that we found in the attic. (Don't you just love dads!!).

I ended up with perfectly shaded pullets for not a penny spent! I'll plant a mulberry or pomegranate this fall or winter (yay for bare root prices!) to provide more permanent shade next year.

WATCHING BENCH

A few months ago, as I started putting the garden together, I bemoaned having a perch somewhere to sit quietly and watch the finches dive into the sunflower leaves looking for dinner, the bees greedily massage the cosmos and calendula, and the hawk skim the clouds above.

My parents bought me this bench years and years ago. Lately, it has slunk on the other side of the retaining wall - ignored and out of the way. Once the plants started to grow, there was time to think about other things. Like sitting. We dragged the bench up and my dad made this cute little footpad out of used bricks that were lying about in random piles when we moved in. (See, dads are really great!). And now, I have the most perfect watching spot. I just need to find the time to watch.

(Speaking of piles of bricks, those suckers have come in handy: as stairs for the cottage/playhouse, as a base for the toolshed, and as a border around my raised beds. Everything was free but the labor.)

PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DOES

Dropping off some eggs at a neighbor's house, I ogled her beautiful garden filled with stepping stones, baby tears, and an iron urn crammed with succulents. What a minute!! I had an iron urn. Purchased at half off at a new defunct garden store years ago.

This urn has been lurking next to our trash cans since we moved here. Mr. Green Bean hauled it up, I rounded up some potting soil and stuffed in a few succulents from the local nursery. It makes me feel happy every time I walk up the steps.

And that is the beauty of dirty hands!

For more low cost ideas, check out Frugal Fridays at The Shabby Nest. For in between post thoughts, photos, videos and links, join my Facebook page.

Can You Do the Can Can?

2011-07-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

I can! And I'm spilling my berries all over at The Green Phone Booth today!

Barn Raising

2011-07-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

Visiting family over 4th of July weekend in California's wine country, I snapped these photos that remind me of just how much I love life away from the city.

* I'm linking to A Southern Daydreamer's OUTDOOR WEDNESDAYS for this post.

Join the Facebook page for more barn raisings.

Weathering the Garden

2011-07-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, I wrote about the impact of unpredictable weather and changing climates on growing food. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the biggest impact the last few years has been increasingly cool weather. Turns out, we are in the minority though because at least our weather is fairly static. In fact, this year, the "norm" seems to have been cold spells, then weather in the 90s and 100s. People reported premature going to seed. Cool weather crops never grew then suddenly bolted and a harvest was out of the question.

Big swings in weather surely will hit us all. Likely some of us will also have times where the summers are very hot or have no heat at all. That got me thinking and my fingers typing, researching and compiling lists of how to deal with changing weather in the edible garden.

1) Mulch helps stabilize temperature. For cooler weather plants, it prevents soil from warmer too quickly and drying out. For warm weather plants, mulch protects the plant from heat, drying winds and reduces weeds which compete with plants for water. It also reduces need for water and minimize the effects of heavy rain. I've only ever used organic mulches, though. With bigger shifts in temperature, though, and as I become more serious about growing more of our own food, I'm thinking I might need to explore the world of black plastic mulch which is said to promote early growth.

2) Shade susceptible plants. Plant lettuce, spinach and other veggies particularly susceptible to premature bolting in containers that can be moved into the shade or look for a pop up canopy at a garage sale that could shade those beds

3) Choose carefully what you plant. For instance, look for plants specifically designed to withstand temperature extremes - like Slow Bolt Cilantro. I hate to say this but heirlooms are not always the way to go. A while back, a local farmer told me to skip heirloom tomatoes and go with cherry and hybrids like Early Girl because that is what does best in our area. We have a lot of disease in our soil she said which the heirlooms are susceptible to. She was right. I've done much better with hybrids and cherries than any beautiful heirloom.

4) Fertilize with thought. Apparently, you are not supposed to apply high nitrogen fertilizer in late summer or when hot weather is on the horizon. You should, however, fertilize when there is a lot of rain as heavy rainfall washes away soil nutrients.

5) Invest in some material fixes. Greenhouses and cold frames can get things moving during a prolonged winter or a cold spring. A hoop house or row cover is another idea - more scalable than a greenhouse. All of these things protect against excessive rain and wind and are more appropriately used in cooler weather. Once it gets too hot, you can remove the plastic from a hoop house or lift the cold frame or cloche. The greenhouse, by contrast, is pretty static. To keep things cooler in a greenhouse, ensure that it has vents to expel hot air on hot days.

6) Adding a water feature in the garden regulates temperatures in the vicinity of that feature. It can be as expansive as a pond or fountain or as simple as a pot filled with water and some water plants. Of course, water plants do not tolerate frost so this is more of something that can help with extreme heat.

7) Planting sun traps and windbreaks to regulate the temperature is another handy idea. Gaia's Garden, my absolute gardening bible, suggests planting in a U-shape to soak that opens in the south but protects from wind with plants in a semi-circle. It further recommends planting evergreens along the north for a year-round windbreak. Check Gaia's Garden out from your library for more information about using plants to stabilize temperature in the garden.

I'm anxious to incorporate these ideas in my own micro farm. What have you tried? What works for you?

This post is my submission to the Homestead Barn Hop, the Tuesday Garden Party and Garden Tuesday.

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If You've Got It, Flaunt It!

2011-07-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

Gardeners are not a shy lot. For all that garden parties and garden tours bring up image of demur ladies, begloved and wearing oversized hats, the fact is that we are an earthy people. We like to get our hands dirty. We like to dig and fertilize and then dig some more.

Even off-season, while our gardens sleep, we sit, huddled under a blanket, vigorously thumbing through colorful photos of what can only be described as garden porn. (Or seed catalogues.)

It should come as no surprise that gardeners will do what they've got to do to raise some tomatoes from seed, to fill their yard with bodacious butternuts, and to transform a small, squiggly plant into a groping cucumber vine. We are sun-worshipers, the lot of us, and where the sun goes, we plant!

EVEN IF IT IS IN THE FRONT YARD!

Yes, we are that bold. We will plant where we need to. Where there is sun and space. We will grow healthy food for our families. We will harvest to our heart's content. We will do it out in public if we have to. And we will go to jail for it.

Wait? What? Go to jail for planting vegetables in the front yard? Or you out of your raised bed?

The criminal vegetable gardens! Photo from Oak Park Hates Veggies.

That's crazy talk but apparently that is what is happening in Oak Park, Michigan. Julie Bass had the gall to grow vegetables in her front yard and now is facing potential jail time for trying to grow her own.
She has been documenting the whole incredible journey on her blog, Oak Park Hates Veggies, or on the Oak Park Hates Veggies Facebook page. She is facing 93 days in the SLAMMER for having a few raised beds in her front yard.

And the urban homestead and gardening communities are fighting back! If you care about personal freedom, if you care about growing your own food, if you care about keeping food costs down or knowing what you eat, please stand up for a gardener's right to do it in the front yard.

Join the Oak Park Letter Writing Campaign. Sign the Petition. Send physical letters (emails are apparently bouncing since the campaign started) to the following folks trying to lock up a gardener for gardening in public. Fight for your right to garden!

City Planner:
Kevin Rulkowski
248.691.7450
krulkowski@ci.oak-park.mi.us

City Manager (Mr. Rulkowski's boss):
Rick Fox
248.691.7406
rfox@ci.oak-park.mi.us

Mayor:
Gerald E. Naftaly
248.691.7410
gnaftaly@att.net

Mayor Pro Tem:
Michael M. Seligson
248.691.7410
mmseligson@comcast.net

City Council:
all phone calls go to 248.691.7410

Angela Diggs Jackson
adjack@comcast.net

Paul Levine
paul4oakpark@yahoo.com

Emily Duplessis
duplessis2@aol.com

All snail mail goes to the person you are mailing it to
c/o City of Oak Park
13600 Oak Park Blvd
Oak Park, MI 48237

List and contact information courtesy of Adventures of a Thrifty Mama on a Trailer Park Homestead. Check out her fantastic post with the full details of the debauchery in Oak Park.

Full disclosure - I am a former front yard vegetable gardener. I now do it in the back. Not because I am ashamed. I moved and am just following the sun! Check out the following links for my former posts on front yard edibles.

- Edible Exhibitionism

- Bashful to Bodacious

- I Grow, Therefore I Am

- Down On the Farm

Just Another Day at the Farm

2011-07-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a TV news report about more and more children spending summers on the farm - at farm camps. The idea is to reconnect children with nature, the source of our food, and hopefully build the farmers - or at least informed eaters - of the future.

As luck would have it, my boys just finished up a week at "farm camp". They came home dirtier than I have ever seen them and with quite a few scrapes and bruises. I worried about lack of structure and/or supervision through out the week and bemoaned the 30 minute commute to and from the camp. At the end of the week, though, I realized "farm camp" was one of the best things I've ever done for my children.

Sure, I have my own micro farm at home but it is not quite the same. It is run by Mom, instead of Farmer Tom. It has chickens but no ducks, no duck pond, no pig named Olivia or goat named Lady and, well, the list continues. It is not adjacent to open space. There are not mature trees here from which ropes hang or a grove where forts are built from found sticks - though we're working on the last one.

For my child who struggles in school and with the constraints of suburban life, it was a week of freedom. A week where deficits became strengths. For my child who thrives in the life of densely populated, he grew, learned to explore and get dirty. And for me, I felt the joy in watching my kids have just another day at the farm.

Treasures brought home from farm camp.

We'll see you again next summer. (Unless we're doing a Farm Stay or a dude ranch, which technically qualifies as Agritourism!).

** Click here for the CBS News Report on summers at the farm.

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Can I Get a Do-Over

2011-07-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

There isn't a gardener out there who doesn't, at some point during the season, think "can I get a do-over" here! And the beauty is that you can get a do-over. Next year. And the year after that. And the year after that.

I've been gardening for little over a decade and every year I learn something new and I come across something (often some things) that I would do differently.

This year, I am gardening in a new place. While I watched the sun over the 9 months we were here before I started planting, and while I thought through the irrigation layout, there is still a lot I'd like to do over.

1) The Peas. It is time for me to finally work out my peas situation. The cool, wrought iron "vanity cages" just are not cutting it. Exhibit A - the teetering trellis full of peas at the end of pea season. Next year, I will invest in a trellis more worthy of my exploding and delicious peas.

You can just barely see the top of the tipping trellis (in front of red coop).

2) The Tomatoes. Speaking of cages, these pretty vanity cages cannot begin to contain my bursting tomato plants. And neither can the sassy colored tomato cages the sell at the garden stores these days. You cannot even see the nice orange colored ones in there. Frankly, even the old school tomato cages are outdone. I'm thinking one of those heavy duty cages for next year but I've also seen people trellis and the like. How do you contain your tomato plants? Do you ever trim them?

Yes, those are tomatoes leaning out of the beds and touching the ground.

3) Lettuce. Let us think of a better way to grow my lettuce. This year, I tucked it in between the three cages of peas. It looked great and the peas gave the lettuce plenty of shade to prevent it from bolting. Too much shade as it turned out because the peas soon overwhelmed the lettuce such that I couldn't reach the leaves to harvest and the sun couldn't reach the leaves to keep them a healthy green. The lettuce died an untimely death after that.

4) The Pumpkins. What pumpkins? That is my point. I'd once read of a citrus guild that contained pumpkins. It seemed a brilliant idea. Plus, I'd envisioned a swelling pumpkin patch at the front of my garden ever since we bought the house. Never mind that the area didn't get quite enough shade. Never mind that I decided to plant a whole meadow of ginormous wildflowers and sunflowers at the front of the bed, thereby exterminating whatever sunlight there might otherwise have sifted through. Next year, my pumpkins will be strewn in truly sunny patches throughout the yard - or, at the very least in the front of the bed.

The tiny, non-blooming pumpkin plants are in the back. You know, behind all the cosmos and sunflowers!

5) The Irrigation. It is always a good idea to water what you are trying to grow. Gardening 101. This year, after going around and around with the guy who put in my irrigation, I let myself be talked out of micro-sprinklers that are close to the ground and can be moved, turned on and off as needed. Oh no, I let myself be convinced that sprinklers on the outer edges of the beds were the way to go. That way, when plants grew in front of them, the plants could block all the water and prevent it from getting to the pesky competitors behind them.

Ah well, fool me once shame on me. But, mother nature, there is no fooling me twice! (Well, there might be but we won't talk about that). Anyway, I'll be getting a do-over on this garden . . . next year.

*I'm linking to the Tuesday Garden Party, Garden Tuesday and Harvest Monday.

Please join the Facebook page to see what is growing in between posts!
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Happy 4th

2011-07-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

Have a glorious weekend!

What's Up, Pussy Cat?

2011-06-30T00:31:00.000-07:00

Shelter cat lands on all four paws (and OMG, check out the flowers blooming my garden!)

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've read about my passion for rescuing shelter animals. Most of what I do, I do without ever leaving my living room. I'm over at The Green Phone Booth today telling the story of how I started saving lives with a few key strokes.

Seed Full of Promise

2011-06-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

It was a cold day in March when the boys and I poked knobby seeds into the ground. Mine spaced exactly according to the seed packet directions. The seeds the boys planted grouped in a mad pile that would grow into a profusion of young leaves.

No matter how we planted them though, they grew. The peas are ready for harvest and are slowly succumbing to powdery mildew. Just in time! It happens the same every year. The cilantro has bolted and the lettuce behind it. In another week or two, I'll empty out the bed and put in basil and some fall greens.

The tomatoes have overgrown their cages, groping over their edges and across the raised beds. Inside, they hide small green jewels. Round and hard. But honestly, ripen darn it! I'm ready for bruscetta and salsa and streetwalker stew. I'm ready for sun-warmed cherry tomatoes and hulking slices of heirlooms between CSA goat cheese and bread.

Meanwhile the pollinator garden - read, pretty flower garden - is doing its job. Bringing lots of bees into the yard so that they'll be there waiting and ready whenever the darn squash (winter and summer) gets around to blooming!!

The zinnias and sunflowers are getting ready to bloom. I couldn't resist this photo of a zinnia by the apple tree - just waiting to pop.

The best part of my garden - everything pictured but the tomatoes were once just tiny seeds full of promise. Now, I'm just waiting for the promise to come true . . .

Please join the Facebook page to watch the seeds grow in between posts.

This is my submission for Tuesday Garden Party, hosted at An Oregon Cottage.

The $100 Egg

2011-06-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

"You are so lucky to get all those eggs for free!"

I get that comment just about every time someone learns that we keep backyard hens. Yes, we are lucky. To have chickens. Eggs for free? Not so much.

You see, keeping backyard chickens isn't cheap.

There's the coop. The chickens (or chicks) themselves. Plus, the ones that were roosters or died or . . . The chicken feed. The feeder and waterer. And probably the feeder and waterer you tried that didn't work. The brooder, heat lamp, feeder and waterer you used when they were chicks. Whatever you're using on the floor of the henhouse and the run, if you are using something in the run. The scratch or sunflower seeds which you probably give because you are a softie. There's also the critter-proof containers to keep said seeds and scratch in. Any medical supplies and the costs of vet visits, should you choose to take your hens to the chicken doctor.

But keeping chickens doesn't have to put you in the poor house - or the hen house. Here are a few ways I've saved or could have would have should have saved:

COOP: You can save money and resources by repurposing an old play house, dog house or similar. Many people, including my sister, also reuse wood, windows, doors, curtain rods and what not when building their coop. I envisioned something along the latter lines but Mr. Green Bean envisioned Home Depot lumber and, as he was building it, I deferred. I may still get my salvaged building in the form of a greenhouse like this someday.

CHICKS VS. PULLETS: I've done both. Chicks cost about $3-4 and pullets $15-20 in my neck of the woods. We started with 5 chicks and have 1 remaining. Two were roosters, one was MEAN and had to go, and another ate a screw. After the expense of the heat lamp bill and the chick waterer and feeder, I'd definitely opt for the pullets if you can get the breed you want from a healthy source. If you opt for chicks, though, you cut costs by borrowing a brooder and heat lamp from a friend, like I did. I passed both along to another new chicken mama and I assume she's done the same since then.

ACCOUTREMENTS: I felt the feeder and waterer were a worthwhile investment but I'd recommend researching the kind you want before buying. I first bought a galvanized waterer because I hate plastic but turns out you cannot use certain additives in the water in a galvanized (see below). If you want to skip this expense, though, a friend fashioned a feeder out of a cat litter box. Ingenious!

FEED: Without a doubt, hens do not go through as much feed when they are free ranging. They do go through the garden though and are also more susceptible to death or injury from screws, poisonous plants and predators. After witnessing my pumpkin sprouts destruction at the feet of chickens, we decided on a plan of winter out of the run, summer in the run. We also give all non-moldy kitchen scraps and handfuls of weeds for the girls. A final thought is to grow your own chicken feed. I've seen lots of forage gardens and this year planted borage and sunflowers for the pollinators and the hens.

BEDDING: You definitely want bedding of some sort inside the henhouse and some folks also put it in the attached run. I use cedar shavings in the henhouse but I've seen someone use shredded non-glossy paper with nice results and saw the suggestion of peanut hulls or coffee chaff. The run is another story and, for over a year, I left it bare dirt, which is free! I figured it was nice for the girls to dust bathe but this article convinced me to start spreading the straw. Other run bedding ideas include pine needles, fall leaves, and growing your own. I will say that we used fall leaves once and the girls were not fans but perhaps mixing leaves with one of the other media would work.

MEDICAL CARE: Organic apple cider vinegar in the water seems to cure many ails (but only in a plastic waterer). So does a clean coop. I've gleaned many more low cost ideas - as well as hours of worry over nothing - from BackyardChickens.com. Once a year wormer is a good idea to keep egg production up and I give it when they stop laying in the winter. Yes, they do stop laying - unless you give supplemental lighting which I haven't . . . yet. Then, there is the chicken vet. If you really want to keep costs down, view your chickens as livestock and not pets and "cull" them when they are sick. If you get very attached, like me, you just might find yourself spending too much money at the chicken doctor.

By following my tips - and avoiding my pitfalls - you can bring the $100 egg down to a $10 egg. Add your own and maybe we can get that egg down to $5 each! ;-)

This post is my submission to the Monday Homestead Barn Hop.

Cluck on over to the Facebook page for in between post henhouse gossip.

Green Beans in the Garden

2011-06-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

I've been buried in the garden this, the first reallllly hot week of summer, but no worries. I've waxed poetic and pragmatic in the past. Check out my favorite and most popular gardening posts (both from this blog and The Green Phone Booth):

Attack on the Home Front: Battling pests without pesticides in the home vegetable garden.

Finding Our Work: In which I get all emotional about the joys of gardening.

Liberate Your Lawn: Replacing grass with greener choices.

Down on the Farm: The true bounty of harvest time in my front yard homestead.

I Grow, Therefore I Am: Step by step to planting an edible front yard.

Edible Exhibitionism: Do suburban farmers have no shame? Flaunting it in the front yard?

From Bashful to Bodacious: Overcoming modesty to plant edibles in the front yard.

Bee The Change: How gardening can save our pollinators.

Bringing the Mountain to Mohammad: Getting kids invested in the garden.

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Mall . . .: In which I get a little over-excited at the local nursery.

* Join the Facebook page for links, posts, photos, videos and more.
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In Bloom

2011-06-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

On a visit to the San Francisco Botanical Garden, I discovered

beauty;

serenity; and

one of a kind

show stoppers.

Riddle: Which is my garden and which is the Arboretum California native garden?

Tough one because they both have the same flowers planted in them!! Who knew but I'm thanking the "Bring on the Birds" seed packet or whichever one I tossed out there. Now, hopefully, the flowers will reseed themselves. (Oh, and mine is the one on top).

Keep blooming on the Facebook page for in between post garden updates, relevant links and more.

Pathways

2011-06-21T00:31:00.000-07:00

I've been busy in the garden lately. Not with planting because, well, mostly everything is planted. Not with harvesting because, well, mostly nothing is ready to be harvested yet. Just non-blog worthy projects for the most part. Moving the tool shed, weeding, tying up vines, putting in pathways between the raised beds.

Actually, the last one I did think was worth at least some photos. I laid down cardboard from boxes and my kids science projects. Ever notice how none of us have newspaper any more. We've all cut that out to be eco-friendly but boxes do still crop up as do school projects so yay for reuse. I covered the cardboard with mulch, lined them with some of the used brick we have lying about and, ta da!

The raised beds from the pathways UP

Non-weedy walkways that don't do much other than provide a finished look in between my bursting beds.

Going Old School

2011-06-16T00:31:00.000-07:00

On this, the last week of school for my kids, I decide to go old school over at the Green Phone Booth. Check out my post here.

Sunshine Brings

2011-06-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

Berries beginning to bloom;

Happy hens shielded by a native grapevine;

And companionship.

What has sunshine brought to your garden?

Tales from the Roost: Garbage In, Garbage Out

2011-06-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

As told by Ginger, who is jockeying for not lowest in the pecking order.

I didn't come by this figure on its own. It is hard work maintaining these gams, this beautiful blond booty.

First, there is exercise. Back in the days when we were let out of the coop - before Serena took down the pumpkin seedlings - exercise was easy to come by. I used to run the yard - particularly when the human was trying to get us back in the coop. I'd run and run and run and my long legs were so toned.

It is tougher these days, confined to the coop while the garden spouts outside, but I still manage. Puff gets all broody-like and lounges in the nesting box all day and the other girls shuffle about in the straw. Not I. I dig, paw at the earth underneath the straw, hop up and down on the roost in the run - shouting at the top of lungs, breathing in and out. Hen aerobics, if you will.

It takes more than exercise, though, to have a healthy chicken. Garbage in, garbage out, I always say. If you don't want to look like one of the chubby Cochins, go light on the scratch. Fill up on the organic laying pellets, water mixed with organic apple cider vinegar or wait until the human comes up with her bucket.

She does that about once a day. Sometimes, she'll pop up a second time with some greens especially when she's cleaning out her kitchen before the big farm share day. She also tosses in weeds when she's out working in the garden. The big question we hens always have, though, is what's in the bucket.

The other girls always hope for carbs - pasta, rice, leftover dessert. Ha! The human almost never lets the last one slip in. Garbage in, garbage out. She keeps us for the eggs. As much as Puff might like to think that she's put on this earth just to look pretty. If you want to stay in the human's good graces, you just keep laying. So no garbage in this blond bombshell.

Carrot nubs, bok choy ends, strawberry tops? Not garbage.

Leftover stir fry, mushy apricots, wilted lettuce? Not garbage.

It's all about health . . . Whoa, here she comes. What's in the bucket? What's in the bucket? What's in the bucket?

Let those other fatties go for the - leftover homemade waffles! I'll work it off later. Gotta run.

The chicken bucket

Don't be chicken. Join the Facebook page for in between post clucks.

Puff Mommy

2011-06-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

I've got eggs and I like sweet,

So when its time to cook some eats,

I use up the eggs and the fruit,

And feed the family to boot, yo.

Okay, Puff Daddy, or P Diddy as he goes by these days, may have a thing or two on me when it comes to lyrics but not when it comes to baking the fastest consumed Puff Pancake on the Planet! This delectable recipe was published in Sunset magazine a couple months back and uses raspberries and strawberries, plus a pinch of sugar and eggs. Guaranteed to disappear before the pan cools down.

Ingredients
4 eggs
5 Tbsp. honey or sugar, divided
1 teaspoon lemon zest
pinch salt
1 cup flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cups raspberries
1/4 cup butter
1 pound strawberries or other berries, hulled and sliced
Preparation
1. Put ovenproof 12-in. pan or 9- by 13-in. pan in oven and preheat oven to 425°. Whisk eggs, 1/4 cup honey or sugar, and the zest in a medium bowl. Add salt, flour, and 1/4 cup milk and stir until smooth, then add in remaining milk.
2. Mash raspberries.
3. Remove pan from oven; add butter and swirl until melted. Pour in batter. Pour mashed raspberries over batter in wide ribbons. Reduce heat to 400° and bake pancake until golden, 30 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes to cool and firm up (pancake will fall).
4. Combine strawberries and remaining honey or sugar; let stand at least 10 minutes. Add honey to taste. Spoon fruit mixture over pancake. Cut pancake into wedges and serve.

Check out more Meatless Monday ideas and recipes over at the Midnight Manic Meatless Monday Carnival.

Life Began in a Seed Packet

2011-06-09T00:31:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I lived in a tiny cottage with a tiny yard stuffed with big flowers and vegetables. Giant pumpkins lounged on the walkways. Grape vines clambered and climbed. Enormous tomato plants jostled for space. Even there, though, there was room for flowers. For sunflowers, cosmos, lupine, and calendula.

No matter how little space I have, no matter much is eaten up by edibles, I always plant flowers. They attract the bees, butterflies and birds, which increases both pollination of my fruits and veggies. They provide habitat for wildlife when more and more habitat is being destroyed. They repel pests. And I just think that flowers look pretty - stuffed as they are amongst the vegetables and fruit tress.

I always call these flowers my pollinator garden - whether they are gathered together or strewn like beads from a broken necklace between tomatoes and peppers. It sounds fancy, and a lot of work, and expensive.

It is none of those things.

Every spring, my pollinator garden begins from a seed packet or packets. I chose flowers I like and I grab those butterfly or fairy garden packets at the nursery check out. Then I rake up the soil, scratch little holes here and there and wait.

Eventually, even in cold springs like these, the flowers bloom. The pollinators and beneficial insects come. And life begins.

Keep growing over at the Facebook page.
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Tales from the Roost: Head Shot

2011-06-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

This is Puff, the Blue Cochin who lives in the red coop up on the hill. If you can keep a secret, I'll confess that she is one of my two favorite hens - even though she is an unreliable layer and spends half of her life broody. Her story can be found here. Happy hump day from the girls in the little red coop.

Growing Instability

2011-06-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

My puny peas! Just starting to bloom in June.

I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years. For at least the last 12, I've gardened consistently. Every year, the tomatoes go in the first of April. I direct sow wildflower seeds mid-March. For the rest, I follow my handy planting guide. It's worked well for me. Summer welcomes the bees and butterflies through our seed-started pollinator garden. Fall produces a bumper crop of tomatoes and pumpkins that hulk about the yard. Sunflowers gawk over everything.

Only, it hasn't actually been working these last few years. Last year, April 1st hit and I headed to a local plant sale to load up on tomato starts (No, I'm lame and don't start my own.). I finally located parking, bundled the kids up in their parkas and headed for the sale when we began being hit by hailstones. At the sale the vendor suggested bringing tomatoes in on cold days and at night due to the unpredictable weather that spring. I overheard another patron say "I'll just wait." Me too, I thought! And I did. I put the tomatoes in in early in May, once it warmed up, but they never did produce that much.

This year, I dutifully raked in seeds in mid-March. The first weekend of April was in the mid 60s. Warm enough for tomatoes, I determined and plunged ahead. In May, I piled mounds of earth around the garden and poked squash seeds in them. In late May, I tucked sunflower seeds in vacant spots.

Here we are, the first week of June and are bracing for another winter storm. You read that right. A winter storm in California in June. It is so bad, the weather service has inserted little exclamation points on three days worth of weather. The tomatoes look to be holding their own. The sunflowers and squash sprouted but nothing more. For weeks, they've squatted on their mounds, two leaf wonders, turning more and more yellow as day after day of 50 degree temperatures crawls by. My friend's dad is a local farmer. He reported that it doesn't look like there will be any pumpkins this year and that rain deterred most of the pollination during blossom time so few fruits as well.

As cold as it was last year, I remember cosmos blooming and squash blossoms echoing with bees by this time last year. What is happening?

Climate change is a touchy subject these days but more and more, our climates do seem to be changing. Weather has become more extreme, less predictable. Yes, yes, I know. There are colder Mays on record here. Apparently 26 of them. And it is El Nino or La Nina or blah blah blah.

Regardless, the weather continues to be as moody as, well, me. It seriously interferes with growing food - not just for the urban homesteader but for large scale operations as well. How big of a problem do you think this is? How have you dealt with it or what do you plan to do to avoid weather related catastrophes next year? Have you invested a greenhouse or set up a hoop house? Or do you just roll with the punches?
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Bake Like a Buccaneer

2011-06-06T00:31:00.001-07:00

Seasonal cooking is not for wusses. It is for folks who don't bat an eye - even if they only have one eye - when faced with a pile of unfamiliar fruits and vegetables. They wield a knife with confidence, fear not the flame (from the fire or oven), and substitute with abandon.

If you want to cook with the seasons, you need to think like a pirate. What does that mean, you ask? Well, as Captain Barbossa explained in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, the "pirate code" is more guidelines than actual rules.

Same I say for any recipe you encounter. It offers rough suggestions. Cook until soft. Incorporate these types of fruits or vegetables. Add these types of spices. You savvy?

Here is my Frigate Frittata - freely adapted from this Food Network recipe to incorporate what I like to eat, what I have in the fridge, and less of what I don't think I should be eating.

Ingredients

9 eggs
Spray olive oil
1 green garlic (substitute 3 minced garlic cloves)
1/2 small red onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup pickled jalapeno peppers
2 cups chopped cooked broccoli
pinch salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

Separate 3 of the eggs, putting the whites into a medium sized bowl and setting aside the yolks for some other project or cooking them to feed the chickens. Add the whole eggs and 2 tablespoons of water to the whites and whisk.

In a medium ovenproof skillet heat the oil over medium. Add the onion, garlic and jalapenos and cook until it begins to soften, at least 5 minutes. Add the broccoli and cook for another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over the vegetables in the skillet covering them evenly. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let cook until the egg mixture has set around the edges but is gooey in the middle. Sprinkle with the cheese.

Meanwhile, preheat the broiler. Place the skillet under the broiler until the surface is golden brown. Cut the frittata into 8 wedges and serve with salsa or additional peppers - if you like it really spicy, like this wench does.

Check out more Meatless Monday ideas and recipes over at the Midnight Manic Meatless Monday Carnival.

Join the Facebook page for more debauchery.
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Tales from the Roost: Sounding the Alarm

2011-06-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

As told by Warrior Chicken, Minerva Louise.

Life as a warrior chicken is not easy. One needs to be constantly vigilant, forever on the look out for escape routes, continually scanning the skies for back up, and forever ready to sound the alarm. Alarm for what, you ask?

One of the other hens is laying an egg? Alarm worthy.

I just laid an egg? Alarm worthy.

There is a predator outside of the coop? Alarm worthy.

A storm is coming? Alarm worthy.

The water bowl is empty? Alarm worthy.

It's early in the morning, and you are worried about us waking up the neighbors? Clearly alarm worthy.

Whatever strikes our fancy? Alarm stinkin' worthy.

One of us will take up the call and the others join in until it the dingy red coop rocks with our raucous rebellion. To our feathered ears, it sounds like "Revolt! Revolt! Revolt!" though you may simply hear the squawking of livestock. Know, though, that when we sound the alarm at, oh 6:30 on a Saturday morning, we really are doing it just for you, dear captor. To get you up out of your warm bed. Running up on the hill in your stockinged feet to quiet us. Shush us by throwing in scratch or spraying us with water. It matters not.

We'll sound the alarm again and again and again - until freedom reigns.

Check out my Facebook page for video of the stars of Tales from the Roost, other posts, links, photos and updates.

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Empty Nester

2011-06-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

Check out my post about attracting wildlife to suburban neighborhoods over at The Green Phone Booth today.

Memorializing Memory Lane

2011-06-01T00:31:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like small town America! Here are a few photos from my walk on Memorial Day weekend through a favorite small country town.

Join the Facebook page for more posts, links, updates and photos. Never miss a bean!

When Good People Do Nothing

2011-05-31T00:31:00.000-07:00

Zeke, The Shelter Dog Who Changed My Life

A few months ago, we decided to adopt a shelter dog. After weeks of searching PetFinder and Craigslist, my youngest found him. "That's the one." No matter that this dog was in a rural shelter two hours from home. He was destined to be ours and we made the trip.

Walking across the wet floors of the shelter, we searched the cages for our dog. Most dogs pawed frantically at the gates of their kennel. Every dog barked and the dogs echoed through the concrete tunnel of the shelter. We finally found our dog - of course, in the last kennel.

Out in the yard, we fell in love and took him home. Only, after several weeks, we realized that this dog was not actually "our" dog. He wanted to eat our cat too much to be part of our family. We worked with behaviorists but no luck. Ultimately, we found him a wonderful new cat-free home.

With all the time that had passed, it was too late to get a dog. We'd be leaving on a trip in a few months. But I couldn't forget those barking dogs, that wet floor, the echoes in the concrete. I began advertising on Craigslist for the shelter - anonymously, because I was embarrassed. After a month, the shelter director tracked me down through an ad to let me know that my ads had dramatically increased adoptions and to beg me not to stop. My heart swelled with pride, happiness and something more.

I kept up my ads and one day, one of the adopted dogs popped back up on the shelter website with a note - "please help her, she has had puppies." Fortuitously, a Facebook friend fostered puppies for a local rescue. We put our heads together and Freckles and her puppies were out of the shelter and in a foster home in no time. My friend sent me a photo of Freckles with a megawatt grin, nursing her puppies in her new foster home. My eyes welled up and I felt a lump in my throat and something more.

I continue to place my ads. Since then, a rural rescue that works with "my shelter" has asked for ideas promoting their dogs. Since then, I gave all the food and medicine from the dog we could not keep to a local family who lost their home and is struggling to keep their pets. Since then, I've helped a rescue organization recruit fosters and volunteers. Since then, many more animals have found homes because of me. Since then, I've felt warm inside. I've felt my heart squeeze. I've felt hope and something more.

I could easily stop placing my ads. Stop networking with friends. Worry only about my own family. But you know what happens when good people do nothing? They stop feeling so good.

Cubby spent six long months in the shelter and was adopted last Saturday. I received an email from the adoption coordinator thanking me as the adopters came in response to one of my ads.

Want more chronicles? Join the Facebook page for between posts, photos, updates and much more.
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Blank Slate to Full Plate, Part 2

2011-05-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

We moved to this half acre parcel last summer with big dreams, big plans and big paralysis. In March, we finally got moving and put in three raised beds, a few pathways and moved the kids playhouse. Now, all we needed was some plants. Well, some plants, some water, some amended soil and you know how the drill goes.

Part 1 can be found here.

Part 2 of our efforts to turn our blank slate of a yard into a micro-farm is below:

This bed contains three citrus, a lime, mandarin orange and lemon. I plan for it to also double as my pumpkin patch and have winter squash on one side and summer squash on the other with pollinator favorites in between.

This is the only place where I've put sheet mulch down so far. More of that to come this fall. I've got some herbs and wildflowers here with what appear to be morel mushrooms popping up in their midst. Off to the left is an old plum tree.

In the foreground is the mature fig and just beyond it on the right is a fairly mature Asian pear - with forming fruit already!! In the back of the photo is a mature apple and it is flanked by raised beds on one side and in impromptu flower garden - just sprouts now - of zinnias and sunflowers. There is also a pear and 4-in-1 apple not visible from here.

Thank goodness for instant gratification because that is what raised beds are to a gardener!! No waiting on sheet mulch to break down. The back two beds have tomatoes, peppers and calendula and the front one has peas, lettuce and cilantro sewn from seed. On either side of the windmill are baby sunflowers popping out of the earth.

So that's our plan for getting to a full plate. What's yours?

Like to watch the green beans grow? Come watch with me at the Facebook page where I share photos, links and updates in addition to blog posts.
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What to Make of the Maker Faire

2011-05-26T00:31:00.000-07:00

The Maker Faire is the coolest event on the planet! It is part science faire, part DIY workshop, part craft faire and part green. Or so they say. And most of the people who attend the Faire are equally cool. Decked out in steampunk corsets and top hats, hair dyed every color of the rainbow, with fishnet stockings ripped from here to there. An echoing drum beat thrums throughout the fairgrounds. This hipster event is where all the cool kids go.

Only it turns out, that I'm not a cool kid!

When my family and I hit the Maker Faire last weekend, I had big hopes and unfortunately not big plans. I just figured we'd show up mid-day and hit some stalls, learn some stuff, the kids would "make", we'd all see what older, bigger "kids" had made and we'd be good.

But the Maker Faire is not for the weak or the disorganized. It was insanely crowded. You could hardly see the exhibits over the shoulders and under the arms of other visitors. Parking was so full that we were advised to drive 10 minutes away and catch a shuttle down the hill to the event. There was a map but no signs advising what was what. After wandering aimlessly for three hours and then choking down some nachos, which my son later choked up (yes, it was lovely!), we skedaddled.

A couple days later, I felt recovered enough to read my friend, Alison's post: 12 Tips To Being a Pro At the Maker Faire. Looks like I did every one wrong. Ah well, maybe next year . . .

Or not.

Want more green beans? Follow me on Twitter for eco and gardening tweets.

Make Me a Memory

2011-05-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my family and I attended the world famous Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here are a few photos of some of the many interesting things we encountered there.

Come back tomorrow to read what I make of the Maker Faire.

Confessions From a Brown Thumb Gardener

2011-05-24T00:31:00.000-07:00

To walk along the path in my garden, you'd never know it. You'd stroll past tomatoes shimmying up through their cages. You'd pass by peas, clambering upward and stretching out to shade the come again lettuce and cilantro. All grown from tiny seeds poked into the soil back in March.

You'd step around the soft earthen mounds, where big leafed squash seedlings poke out and you'd peer through the clawing leaves of a native grape. You might stop to cradle a forming blackberry or an early pear or apple on the trees I planted just a few months ago. You'd be impressed by my garden, I think. It is sweet and beautiful and productive and oh so fruitful.

And you would probably never notice what is not there. No beets. No radishes. Just a handful of carrot seeds tossed under a few of the tomatoes because I found an old packet of seeds "carrots love tomatoes" or something like that. Yes, yes, I know that radishes are "the easiest vegetable to grow." I'm sure they are if you just want them to sprout. But to grow something edible, well then, that might be asking a bit much from me, don't you think?

You see as much as I consider myself a gardener, I do have a bit of a brown thumb. Just in certain areas - mostly non-potato root vegetables. Corn seems to be beyond me as well and, frankly, my broccoli hasn't turned out all that well either. Raspberries and blueberries are also not for me.

I work around my brown thumb. I plant what is easy to grow. What likes my climate. What I eat. And everything else weeds itself out.

Come watch more green beans grow over at the Facebook page. There, I share interesting links (mine and others), photos and urban homestead updates.

Spring Fever

2011-05-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

The weather does not always cooperate but on a rainy, cold May night, I indulged in sunshine sent in the CSA box and gleaned from farmers' market stalls. It was featured prominently (at the bottom) on my 6 year old's "Cafe" menu so it much be good!

Here is the recipe, adapted from Sweet Life Laur, who adapted it from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Gourmet magazine (adaptable recipe, much!):

Spring Fever Risotto

4 cups vegetable broth (one carton)
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut 1 1/2 inch slices
1/3 stick unsalted butter, separated
3/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick (I used oyster mushrooms)
1 cup fava beans, double peeled
1 onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Boil water and cook asparagus in large pot for 3-4 minutes. Remove asparagus and drain water. Let air dry.

Heat 1-2 tablespoon(s) butter in heavy saucepan over moderately high heat, then saute mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 6 minutes. Add fava beans after two minutes (so they cook for a total of 4 or so minutes).

Cook onion in 1-2 tablespoon(s) butter in saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring to coat, 1 minute. Add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed, about 1 minute.

Add in 1 cup broth and cook at a strong simmer, stirring, until absorbed, about 2 minutes. Continue simmering and adding broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until rice is just tender and looks creamy, 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Gently fold in asparagus, favas, and mushrooms, then cover pan and let stand 1 minute. Serve immediately with parmesan grated on top if desired.

*Check out some other vegetarian dolls this Monday at Midnight Manic's Meatless Monday carnival.

Join the Facebook Page for more Green Beans, in between post photos, links and more.

Romancing the Berry

2011-05-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

It was my favorite time of the week. I felt out of breath. Sweat broke out along my hairline in anticipation. I placed my hands on the cold, hard countertop and wondered what it would be this week.

My hands fumbled at the knots and my heart hammered in my ears. I paused, took a deep breath and tried to remember what the email had said. I drew a blank. Finally, the knot gave way and I slipped my hand eagerly inside. A tight, bumpy orb. I pulled it out and held it to my nose. Lemon.

I pawed through the greens and carrots and then came to three small brown bags, their ends rolled tight. I quickly unrolled the bags, one at a time, eager to leer inside and see this week's offerings. Favas. Snap peas. Ahhh, my stomach flipped over a bit. Mushrooms.

Finally, my hands moved - almost on their own - over to the baskets lined rigidly along the end of the counter. I tugged and finally yanked a luscious strawberry from the constricting green plastic baskets and took a bite. Yes. YES! YES!!!!

It was CSA pick up day and I admit to being a wee bit excited.

* Photo credit to Topfer.

Sustainable Snacking for Kids?

2011-05-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

How do you feed two hungry boys with one tired mom and the will to avoid packaging and processing? Check out my post at The Green Phone Booth today to share your ideas.

Nothing Wasted.

2011-05-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

It was leftover night in our house. Tomorrow, our CSA box would arrive and my town's farmers' market would be held - so I could supplement with fruit and asparagus. I'm sorry! I just cannot resist.

But tonight, it is all about eating up what is left over. The bow tie pasta without any sauce left. A half can of soup. Yes, yes, I know. Canned soup is bad but there are times . . . Oatmeal from this morning. Snap peas. Artichokes. Mushrooms. Greenhouse tomatoes (Jealous! We're in California!). Well, we can't polish off the carrots, I surmise after studying their growing pile in the produce bin, and I'll save the turnip for next week to try an interesting Indian recipe when I feel like actually cooking.

I begin microwaving bowls of oatmeal and soup and handing them off to the appropriate person while an omelet filled with various veggies simmers on the stove top.

The oatmeal is devoured and the bowl goes into the sink. The soup bowl ends up there as well. Water from washing the veggies rinses the dishes and I plop them into the dish washer, making room in the sink for more dirty dishes.

Round two goes to the pasta. A tab of butter melted on top of the pasta replaces the missing sauce and the butter wrapper goes into the freezer for the next time I needed to grease a pan.

Apparently, I served too much pasta because both bowls are returned not quite empty. Scrapping their contents into the chicken bowl, I smile down at my youngest. "Lucky we have the chickens," he pipes! "They'll eat anything."

I agree, turn off the oven and crack the door to warm up the kitchen.

Nothing wasted. Everything gained.

Hey, Daal Face!

2011-05-16T00:31:00.000-07:00

A trip to the farmers' market coupled with a CSA pick up (without reading the newsletter of the CSA box contents) put me on cauliflower. In the mood for some real food - not kid food - I hit the Internet and the stove top. The end result, daal (lentils) topped with Vegetarian Cauliflower and Potato Curry.

CURRY:
** Adapted from This Recipe at About.Com

3 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
Pinch salt
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion diced
2-3 potatoes, diced
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp or so fresh cilantro, chopped

1) Mash tomatoes, spices and salt together. Set aside.

2) In large skillet on high, saute potatoes and onions in olive oil for about three minutes. Add cauliflower and a bit of water. Reduce heat to medium. Add tomato mixture and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 6 minutes.

3) Reduce heat to low, stir in lemon juice and cilantro. Serve over daal.

DAAL:

1 cup of lentils (preferably red)
3-4 cups water
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp salt
1 bunch fresh spinach

Rinse daal until water runs clear and is not cloudy. In a medium sized pot, add lentils, water, tumeric and salt. Bring to a boil on high heat. Then reduce to medium and cook for 20 minutes. Add spinach. Cook for another 5 minutes, covered. Daal should be tender and soupy. Remove from heat. Top with curry and devour.

*Check out some other vegetarian dolls this Monday at Midnight Manic's Meatless Monday carnival.

Tales from the Roost: Screwed?

2011-05-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

I was not the first. Apparently, there was another "Fluff" before me. One who met an untimely end at only 16 weeks old after she swallowed a screw. I'm told she looked like me. Blond. Not as big boned. Lighter on her feet. Able to get up on the roost all the way. Head chicken in her day. Though apparently not all that bright or she wouldn't have gobbled up coop hardware.

In any event, the littlest human named me after her. Fluff #2. A replacement pet.

I suppose I could cry fowl over the whole thing but I'm a better bird than that. I've accepted the name, the connotations that come with it, and gone on with my life. I've kept my beak down and out of trouble. Let the others talk of escape. Of having babies. Of life outside the coop.

I've heard enough to know that the worm isn't juicer on the other side of the fence. Here, I've got a roof over my head, companions, privileges in the yard as long as I stay out of the beds and all the sunflower seeds I can eat.

The human is more careful now than when Fluff #1 ruled the roost. She keeps us inside when building projects are underway. She swings that rolling magnet thing around the yard from time to time or has the little humans do it. She does try.

So are we chickens screwed? Not quite. We're just livestock.

Nature Calls

2011-05-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

Searching for tadpoles. Just another way to reconnect kids to nature. To read more, check out the Green Moms Carnival tomorrow over at The Green Phone Booth.

Loaded

2011-05-09T00:31:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I devoured the delightful book, The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball, a memoir of a city girl who falls for a farmer and farming. I enjoyed so many things about the book but one particular passage I have not been able to get out of my head. The author explained that being a farmer makes one feel wealthy - when we all know farmers are anything but! She lauded the open space, the magic of the land and the creatures on it, and a scene where her husband would walk through the fields, pluck a head of lettuce and bury his face in it, nibbling away the baby leaves. A farmer's privilege.

It is true that our Meatless Monday is a simple meal - scrambled eggs and toast. More fitting for breakfast but a dinner that we moms pull out of our hat from time to time when life is too busy, we are too tired or well, just because.

These scrambled eggs, this toast, this is not a simple meal though. This is a meal that only the wealthy, the truly fortunate could eat. Eggs from my own band of backyard chickens. Cherry jam that I made last year from farmer's market cherries. The sweetest CSA strawberries and a handful of blueberries from our town's farmer's market that opened last week.

How do I feel on Meatless Monday when I eat breakfast for dinner?

Loaded.

*Check out other ways to feel rich this Monday at Midnight Manic's Meatless Monday carnival.
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Tales from the Roost: Natural Born Killers

2011-05-06T00:31:00.000-07:00

Weapons of Mass Destruction

As told by Warrior Chicken: Minerva Louise

I'll tell you how it went down. Ever since the warmer weather hit, the captor has been digging in the dirt and has had us on lockdown. In the winter, we were allowed free access to the yard for hours on end. Now, the run door is locked except when she opens it to toss in scraps, weeds or to refill the water. The tightened restrictions have severely hampered my abilities to escape.

Then it happened. It was a warm spring day. The sun out. The breeze blowing. I could smell freedom wafting just over the fence! Metal Wing, my destined mate, was out there, somewhere, waiting to lead a chicken rebellion with me. To free chickens from the confines of cages and coops across the land.

The captor and her two little helpers were upon the hill. She unlocked the bars of the dank red cage and let us out, ordering the sidekicks to keep an eye on us. "Keep them out of the pumpkins," she directed.

Puff, bird brain that she is, didn't even bother to come out of the henhouse but stayed in the nesting box, waiting for babies that would never come. Fluff, as bright as her cochin cohort, was off chasing a dragonfly or something.

Ginger, Serena and I made for the sunny patch by the apple tree. I'd been sewing seeds of revolution with those two for six months now. Ginger, the flighty blond thing, is fairly malleable. Serena, fancies herself top hen but spends an inordinate amount of time begging for treats from the captor. She's always talking about catching more worms with honey than vinegar or such. With lockdown in effect for a month, though, Serena's talk has changed. She sees that we need to get the worms ourselves. We cannot wait for the jailor to bring them to us.

The captor was by the wood boxes filled with plants. Her lackeys were chasing each other with hefty wood sticks. "Now or never," I clucked. "To higher ground!!"

Ginger, Serena and I launched ourselves at the soft, warm hills of dirt, kicking soil and the squash seedlings across the yard. We dug up sunflower sprouts, knocked over cosmos and calendula starts, and dragged the captor's precious pumpkin babies across the beds.

I heard a shout, clapping hands and then felt a cold shot of water hammer my fine-boned Welsummer body. Dearest reader, I admit it. I ran. So did Ginger. But our hearts swelled at the sight of Serena, never yielding. She knocked over the last of the winter squash hills even as our jailor blasted her with water. Serena kept kicking and clawing until the human clamped her hands across Serena's wings and tossed her into the henhouse with the rest of us chickens. Top hen after all!

The captor replanted the pumpkins, forming larger, softer hills for her seedlings. We may have lost the battle but at least she now knows what she was dealing with. We are not mere chickens. Not egg laying machines or garbage disposals. Not mealy beaked hens for cuddling and coaxing with worms.

Oh no. Now she knows the truth. We are natural born killers. Look out seedlings. We're coming for you.

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Never Satisfied

2011-05-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

Read about my gardening urges over at The Green Phone Booth today. I confess all!

All's Faire

2011-05-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm always surprised that greenies don't go more gaga over antiques. They are the ultimate in re-use. Here are a few snaps from my recent trip to the Alameda Antique Faire where second hand was the only hand.

Nature's Songs

2011-05-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

Near my parents' home is a bench inscribed with a dedication to a former member of their town. Former because she passed away several years ago. I did not know of the woman, who she was or where she lived but the inscription speaks to me. It invites passersby to stop, sit and "listen to nature's songs."

I've not thought of the instruction often. Or at least not followed it. Usually, I'll walk by, arms pumping, heart pounding, getting in a decent workout before returning to the kids. Rarely, we'll stroll past the bench with the boys. Then, we will sit and, sometimes, do as bid. Only, though, because one or the other is too tired to go on. Those times, we hear the contented cluck of a vineyard hen, feathering in the dirt. The coaxing coo of a mourning dove. The shiver of branches rustled by morning's breeze.

Other times, when I think back to the bench. Walking one evening, past the old cemetery, we left the small wine country town behind us and ventured into the hills. Up toward the old stone bridge, mossy and riddled with town rumors, beyond the meadow, passing a downed oak tree, and marching under stretching fir trees.

As it was evening, it was quiet already. We shushed the boys. Reminded them of the bench and its direction. In the silence of the spring night, owls' songs reverberated among us. Wild turkeys gossiped in the hills, moving to and fro. A buck and three does froze and then dashed into the woods, rustling the berry bushes as they fled. And, overhead, without the slightest sound, a great horned owl soared.

Nature's songs and nature's silence.

Thank you for the reminder, bench. I needed that.

This is my submission for the Green Moms Carnival, to be hosted at The Green Phone Booth on May 12th. The topic is reconnecting with nature. Check it out on the 12th to see how green women think we can be one with the wild world.
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Kitchen Sink Stir Fry

2011-05-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

My favorite days to make stir fry are Thursdays, the day my CSA box arrives, or Wednesday, the day before the next one arrives! Either explore a fresh new bounty of veggies or clear out the produce drawers. It works just fine on Meatless Monday too! Either way, kitchen sink stir fry is the answer.

Start with a little oil, a chopped onion, and thinly sliced carrots. My CSA is always overly generous on the carrots! I then go from there, slicing and dicing anything in my path. Stuff that takes longer to cook like broccoli and cauliflower goes in sooner while quick cooking delights, like the darling baby bok choi peppering last week's box, goes in last.

For protein, I'll add (1) tofu, pressed to get the water out and lightly browned ahead of time, (2) an egg or two cracked right in the pan a la Pad Thai or (3) some raw cashews or peanuts.

My favorite sauce is soy, a little water and a tablespoon or so of brown sugar. I hate to admit this but I usually make stir fry in two pans - one for the kids and one for the adults because mama likes it SPICY! I am liberal with the crushed red pepper flakes and "Thai chili sauce."

Kitchen sink stir fry is a purely seasonal dish that varies with the seasons. It is never the same meal twice but mine is always meatless, always tasty and very very healthy. Serve over rice or eat plain if you are counting carbs.

Happy Meatless Monday! Check out Midnight Manic's Meatless Monday for more vegetarian ideas.

Bad Juju

2011-04-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

I began blogging under the name Green Bean Dreams in 2007. I've been happy here. Named after a vegetable, like those I plant, in my yard. Sharing my dreams.

Until a friend raised the specter of dream interpretation. It turns out that to dream of green beans conjures up some really bad juju. Who knew? And, while I'm not one to bend to every superstition, I'm also not one to flaunt fate. It was enough to make a girl think of changing her blog name.

It was more than bad mojo though. I'm at a different point in my life than I was when I began dreaming as a green being. Back in October 2007, I was beginning my green journey. Sampling from the eco-pie. Was I a farmers' market type of girl? Yes. Someone to bike on errands? Not really. Was I the type of greenie to raise chickens and jimmy up water saving mechanisms? You betcha! One to lug around a glass straw and reusable take out containers? I failed there.

So after being on this road for several years, I feel that I'm in need of a change. Not a big one because I am, after all, Green Bean, but one that opens up a bit the road I have yet to travel at it. While I'm at it, I think I'll ditch the black magic. Today and over the weekend, you'll see a new header, a new domain name (That's up already!), and a new Facebook page (It's here! Look to your right and sign up!). Green Bean Dreams will become Green Bean Chronicles.

Supposedly, the links all work. That is technical wizardry, though. I'll just resort to crossing my fingers. I hope you'll stick with me through all the voodoo!

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In Defense of Yards

2011-04-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Quite the debate has been brewing on the interwebs over cites versus suburbs versus country versus whatever. Jenn from The Green Phone Booth came out in favor of suburbs and Ruchi at Arduous lobbed back with In Defense of Cities. I could see all sides. I've lived in cities and in the burbs and am a country girl at heart.

And then it happened. Ruchi asked "What does Green Mean?" Sure, the post covered all kinds of things like growing pot and ritual suicide but the one thing that struck me was the implication that having a yard is not necessarily green. Urban sprawl has been fueled in part by people looking for more space, more "country-style" living. And while all those carefully (and not so carefully) yards can be beautiful, they come with the heavy price of freeways, strip malls and pesticide runoff.

I've witnessed sprawl first hand. My elementary school with its meadowed playground bordered with oak trees is now a Target "Greatland". My father went to a boarding school down the street when he was young. Then, it was a dairy farm so I guess I have less to complain about but our societal desire for more land, more space ate up so much of the Southern California that I knew, I headed north when I finished school. The Bay Area hills stacked with homes, nary a vacant lot between them, called to me. Living here, I would never feel my heart squeeze as a bulldozer knocked over dozens of trees and pawed up wild land to make room for a chain store or housing development. There simply wasn't space. All the development had already happened.

So I get it. Yards are not green. Necessarily. Even though they provide my family with food and my children with a place to dig pools for boats and build miniature tree houses. But for some of us, yards are necessary. Hands full of soil, the zoom of a humming bird overheard, the discovery of a ladybug in the cover crop, those things feed our souls. More than any drug, yards - the right kind of yards - can put a smile on our face and hope in our hearts.

Yes, my yard sucks up water. I water judiciously and am building swales to catch winter's runoff. Yes, my yard once belonged to someone else - someone with wings, someone who walked on four legs and stunk to high heaven. I share my yard with those who came before me. A hole dug under the fence, not filled. A bird house hung on the fence, already occupied. Seeds and plants selected for native birds and bugs are encouraged to burrow in the sheet mulch. I never use pesticides or petroleum based fertilizers.

Yes, my yard is not green. Necessarily. But it is mine and I love it.

Farms on the Fringe

2011-04-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

Visiting California's wine country last week, we drank in the bits and pieces of farm and forest on the edge of the vineyards.

A cute micro-ranch on the edge of town.

It looked to have 2 donkeys, 3 goats, and 1 sheep.

Winery bordering my parents' home.

Vineyard chickens.

Lovely old water tower.

Birdhouses located around many of the organic vineyards have attracted bluebirds and all but eliminated a vineyard pest.

Tales from the Roost: The Pecking Order

2011-04-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

It is just the way nature works. Or at least the way chickens work. There is a pecking order, which means someone is at the top and someone is at the bottom. Unfortunately, that last someone is me. Gingerbread Baby. Or Ginger, as the human calls me.

Lowest of the low. Last to eat. Last to drink. Last to be let into the nesting box - even when Puff is having one of her episodes and hogging up the one on the right. Last for everything.

True, I was late coming to this flock. I arrived with Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve. Tucked into a dark box, they brought us here. Weeks later, we moved to the large red coop on the big back hill. The other hens had it out for us from the beginning. Minerva lost it one day, flying at the human and getting herself all bloody and such. After that, the others gave her a wide berth which left only me to peck.

Puff, whom I gather was lowest before we came, wanted to make darn sure she got out of that position. She has pecked and prodded me since day one. Here I am, minding my own business in the far corner of the run when, bam, Puff pokes me in the rear. There, the human tosses in some scraps. I know well enough not to go for the cheese or pasta but God forbid I sneak a bit of Swiss chard. Puff is all over me, pecking and clucking, until I hop onto the roost and wait the whole thing out.

I'd been resigned to being low cluck on the totem pole. It is just the way of things. Until that terrible terrible day. I felt the urge and crept into the nesting box. Puff was in the right one with that glazed look on her face so I took the left - which we all like better anyway. Better real estate, really. Better view through the coop door. Further from the path and the hooting children. Quieter. Safer.

There I crouched, scratching at the shavings and waiting to lay my egg when she came. Miss Queen Bee. She chattered about being in "her nesting box". 'Scuse me. Don't see the name "Serena". Still, I should have moved. I usually duck out of the way but my egg was so darn close. Why didn't she just holler at Puff instead. I hunkered down, trying to speed things up when Ms. Thang grabbed my comb and ripped and tore. Dear reader, I don't remember what happened next. I've blocked it from my brain. The blood spatter on the nesting boxes, under the roost, along the walls and across the window could tell the story, I'm sure.

I got out of the hen house as fast as I could. The human found me in the run an hour later with the other ladies, my blond feathers stained brown with blood. She cornered me. With nowhere to run and too tired to try, I let the human take me. She cleaned me with a warm towel, dabbed ointment on my comb, and fed me scrambled eggs, rice and yogurt. It was almost worth it. Almost.

The next day, back on the ground, I was a different hen. I wouldn't mess with Serena again. I'd give up the nesting box but ain't no way, no how I was going to be at the bottom all of my life. Minerva popped by to see how I was healing and I took her down. I don't need to be top hen. Somewhere in the middle is just fine.

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Dirty Is as Dirty Does

2011-04-21T00:31:00.000-07:00

I'm over at the Green Phone Booth today, getting my hands dirty with a review of Kristin Kimball's city mouse to farm mouse memoir, The Dirty Life. Short version: I read it in 36 hours. Long version: See here.

Blossom

2011-04-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year when spring's happiness spills out in riotous color against the grey-green background of winter. And, yes, that dogwood tree really is that pink!

Tales from the Roost: Warrior Chicken

2011-04-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

My destiny was writ before I was hatched. Long before I was captured, my captor's eldest son foretold of a warrior chicken to be named Minerva Louise. He wrote a story about me, linking me to a future chicken king named Metal Wing. Together, he foresaw us leading a revolution.

I am still in the early part of my life. I've not yet met this Metal Wing but the seeds of rebellion are there.

It was a cold Christmas Eve day when the captor came to get us from the home where we were hatched. I squawked and fought but to no avail. She took me and a blond piece of fluff. Nice enough but no backbone.

In the beginning, we were sequestered in a small metal cage in the garage. "Quarantine," the captor called it. "Solitary confinement," is what I called it. The captor subsequently released us to a larger pen with a passel of weak beaks. There was a metal barrier between us and the larger bird brains, who clucked tauntingly but soon forgot us when the captor appeared, offering sunflower seeds or mealworms. I was not so easily won over.

After a long day in the pen, she came for us again. Back to the garage cell, I supposed. Well, I was not going down without a fight. I flew at her. You see, I am a Welsummer. Light boned and a good flyer - not like those porky cochins she's got locked up here. I'll admit that I may have gone a bit overboard. I flew at the captor and then against the edges of the cage, desperate to escape.

Escape I did not. Rather, I cracked my beak. I fought through the blood but she grabbed me, tamped my wings down, shoved me in a box and drove me to a torturer. There, I was poked, prodded and a plastic case put over my the top of beak. They shoved chemicals down my throat to subdue me. "Pain medicine," they called it. Like I'd believe that.

I was eventually permitted to wander the larger cage without the metal barrier. The other clucks saw my epoxy beak and had witnessed my escape attempt and left me alone.

Many months of imprisonment have passed. My bionic beak has since fallen off but its spirit remains. The captor lets me out with the other inmates, to peck about in the yard for bugs or worms. As if I am satisfied by that.

The fences, though, are too high even for my strong wings. I wait. Bide my time and look to the sky for Metal Wing. He is coming. Until then, I swear I will not lay an egg, be pet or give the captor any satisfaction. I don't care how long it takes!

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