Impressive Group of Speakers to Address End Hunger Summit

Krista Kelley, is seen as a visionary in the design and implementation of numerous projects that have changed the course of New Mexico communities through hunger, healthcare, employment and access to vital services... Albuquerque kindergarten teacher Sonya Romero has gained international recognition for her generosity toward students at Lew Wallace Elementary School....Since 1984, Pastor John Hill has served his fellow man in the non-profit sector, focusing on individuals coming directly out of the prison system, with drug and alcohol addictions, or with employment challenges...Rev. Jack Bunting is currently serving as the President/CEO of the St. Felix Pantry, Inc. in Rio Rancho, and continues to be passionate about serving the needs of the poor, hungry and hurting within Sandoval County and the State of New Mexico...Sherry Hooper took over as executive director for The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s food bank in September, 2001. Ms. Hooper co-founded the Santa Fe Food Policy Council and served on the Council as a City of Santa Fe appointee for four years...Crystal Fitzsimmons leads FRAC’s work to increase participation the federal school, summer, and afterschool nutrition programs. She analyzes policy to advocate for legislative and regulatory... improvements to increase low - income children’s access to the nutrition programs...Veronica Garcia became New Mexico Voices for Children’s executive director in 2012... As New Mexico’s first Cabinet Secretary of Education, she pushed for funding for programs such as school - based health clinics, breakfast in the schools, and elementary physical education.

The Second Annual End Hunger in New Mexico Summit, scheduled for Sept. 23-24, will feature an impressive group of keynote speakers. [Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe was originally scheduled to address the event, but something came up (Pope Francis visit to the U.S.!)]. The Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Blvd. (map), will be the site of the summit. Two of the keynote speakers lead organizations that have endorsed the Interfaith Hunger Coalition (IHC): Adelante/The Storehouse and New Mexico Voices for Children. The IHC will have a display at the summit and will also be presenting a workshop on Wednesday, September  23, !;45-2:45 p.m. in the Acoma Room. Here is a description of our workshop

Faith In Action: An Introduction to the Interfaith Hunger Coalition

* Ellen Buelow, Interfaith Hunger Coalition
Our interactive workshop introduces participants to the vision and activities of the Interfaith Hunger Coalition focused in three areas; education, advocacy and direct action. Here’s an opportunity for faith communities to collaborate in a common place. Explore how you and your organization can join forces without duplication of services.

Check out the full schedule of events, including descriptions of all the workshops and more information about the keynote speakers. You can register on site at the summit on September 22-24. The registration fee is $20. Participants are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items, which Desert Harvest will distribute to feeding sites in Albuquerque.

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An Ode to Sorrel

If you ask a homestead-minded person what their favorite spring greens to forage are, youll probably get responses like dandelions, lambs quarters, mallow, maybe even stinging nettles.  But one thats rarely mentioned is sorrel (or the related dock).  Its the Rodney Dangerfield of spring greens. (It dont get no respect!)  Thats a real shame, because Rumex species are delicious, nutritious, and high-yielding.  We recently had the chance to gather up a mess of sorrel growing in our back yard and cook it up into a couple of dishes that are likely to become mainstays in our culinary rotation. That is, they were tasty, pretty easy to cook, and the main ingredient (sorrel) is easy to gather a lot of over a long season.  Read on, and hopefully be inspired to forage some sorrel yourself!

Here is the sorrel in its natural environment.  Whats that you say? Its hard to discern it from all the burdock, buckthorn, and other weeds?  Thats just our first line of defense against sorrel poachers.  Were pretty sure this cultivar is common sheep sorrel, Rumex acetosella.

Here is a comparison for how much sorrel we were able to harvest (right) in roughly the same amount of time as it took to pick the swiss chard (left).  That is, although we didnt calculate it, the Berry Modulus is probably higher for our sorrel than our chard.  We rinsed the sorrel, sent the leaves into a couple varieties of sorrel pesto, and the sent the stems into a soup. (The chard went into a quiche.)

For pesto, we used this recipe as a starting point, then improvised from there. We only had ground almonds for the nutty part, but they worked.  We used garlic powder instead of raw garlic cloves for one batch; that also worked.  We also added black pepper.  Lastly, we committed pesto heresy and replaced the parmesan cheese with a regular old monterrey jack in one batch, and that worked, too.  If that means we cant call it pesto any more, so be it. Its a seasoned, cheesy, sorrel-based green-colored spread dip thing.  Call it what you like.

Meanwhile, we also had the crock pot full of chopped carrots, potatoes, green onions, celery, sorrel stems, and a lamb leg roast.  Other meats that would be good in this application include, but are not limited to, chicken, venison/beef, and pork.

When the meat was done, we trimmed and sliced it up, and set it on top of some pesto-smeared toast.  By toast, we mean bread rendered brown and crispy by hot butter in a frying pan.

Taking the roast out of the crock pot left a bunch of veggies, which we made into a creamy soup by adding some heavy whipping cream and plain yogurt.  Good stuff, Maynard!

As a side note, sorrel changes color from a bright, cheerful green to a drab army/olive color and falls apart when cooked.  So if youre going to cook it, make sure to hide it in a casserole or something.  It seems to hold its color ok when frozen (provided you dont blanch it first), but we havent tried making anything out of the frozen stuff yet.  Well report back later on how that goes.

How do you eat sorrel?  What other greens are you foraging this time of year?  Let us know in the comments section below!

The Recipe
2 lb roast (lamb, pork, venison, or chicken)
1 lb carrots, sliced
1 lb potatoes, cubed
1 lb celery, sliced
0.25 lbs green onions, sliced
Stems from 1.5 lb sorrel
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon each garlic powder, oregano, black pepper
1.5 teaspoons each salt and red pepper
0.5 cup heavy whipping cream
0.5 cup plain yogurt
2 Tablespoons flour

Leaves from 1.5 lb sorrel
3 garlic cloves or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
0.5-0.75 cup pine nuts or sunflower seeds, or 0.25-0.5 cup ground almonds
0.5 teaspoon salt
0.25-0.5 cup olive oil
0.5 cup grated cheese

3 Tablespoon butter
6 slices bread

Cook roast, carrots, potatoes, celery, green onions, and sorrel stems in the water in a crock pot until meat is cooked through and tender, seasoning with garlic powder, oregano, black and red pepper, and salt to taste.  Remove meat, trim and slice.  Add whipping cream, yogurt, and flour to remaining soup, cook until slightly thickened.  While roast is cooking, make pesto from sorrel leaves, garlic, nuts, salt, olive oil and cheese. (Put everything in a food processor and process until creamy and spreadable.  Coarsely chop sorrel leaves before adding to processor to avoid bridging.)  Melt butter in frying pan, brown one side of bread, flip, and brown other side.  While the second side is browning, top bread with pesto and sliced roast.  Serve with soup and smiles.

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Growth Spurt!

The tomatoes, chard, and peppers in the basement system are now growing vigorously! The tomatoes especially have surged in height. As you can see below, in just four days each tomato plant gained about five to seven inches!

Left: Grow bed on 5/27/2011 Right: Grow bed four days later on 5/31/2011

I needed to transplant these tomatoes, because I was heading out on vacation, and I worried that they would grow into the light, causing a fire hazard. Originally, I planned to transplant these into my outdoor aquaponic system; however, they had grown so fast that the outdoor system didnt yet have the necessary nitrate levels. Instead, I transplanted them into pots with soil. To make up for these, just before I left, I planted more tomato seeds, in addition to cucumbers and summer squash. By the time I return, I expect they will have sprouted and the outdoor system will have enough nitrate to receive them.  Im interested to compare the growth and output of the tomatoes that spend their whole life in the aquaponic system, the ones I transplanted to soil, and others that Ive had in soil since seedling stage.

I was happy to discover through this indoor tomato experiment that tomatoes could thrive in shallow grow beds. The expanded clay grow bed is only about three or four inches deep, yet the plants grew tremendously. You can see from the photos below that once I washed the clay pebbles out of the roots, they were only a few inches long. Of course this is a direct result of the aquaponic growing method: with nutrient rich water delivered regularly right to the plant, roots do not need to travel far to find sustenance.

Roots of heirloom tomato before transplant 6/1/2011

I reason that the shallow bed worked well because of the cool temperatures in the basement. Outside, such shallow beds would fail because the tomatos shallow roots would get baked in the sun. If I used this for future indoor projects, it means I could reduce the amount of media I need to purchase and the amount of weight the table must support.

Meanwhile, the chard has grown rapidly and the hot peppers have sprouted flowers (much to my surprise because of the dominance of blue light from the metal halide bulb).

Two types of rainbow chard in clay grow bed on 5/31/2011

Buds on hot pepper plants 5/31/2011

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Homestead Happiness April Week 3

More fresh veggies, an archeological discovery, and grass-craving chickens made us happy this week.

Our onion sets from last year that didnt produce bulbs, are just the right size for eating as green onions right now.  And since we want to use that garden space for other veggies this year, its a perfect storm for green onion-themed cuisine. Yum!

While digging up a garden bed, we hit a buried brick.  Further digging revealed that it was actually a line of bricks, two wide, and about six inches underground.  We havent had a chance to chat with the neighbors yet to see if they know what its from, but clearly some sort of man-made thing used to exist here.  Could it be a clue about our absurdly high selenium levels?

Weve also been finding pockets of dirt where the soil particles are held together by some sort of white material.  It looks slightly filamentous, but is very crumbly at the same time.  Some kind of good fungus, we hope?

We had a few inches of snow last Thursday, but the chickens could see green grass under the picnic table and freshly turned dirt out in the yard.  When we got home from work, we could tell they had a case of coop fever.  It makes us happy that the chickens arent content to just hang out in the coop all day.

What made you happy this week?

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Christmas Blessings from Bread New Mexico

When the white stars talk together like sisters

And when the winter hills

Raise their grand semblance in the freezing night,

Somewhere one window

Bleeds like the brown eye of an open force.

Hills, stars,

White stars that stand above the eastern stable.

Look down and offer Him.

The dim adoring light of your belief.

Whose small Heart bleeds with infinite fire.

Shall not this Child

(When we shall hear the bells of His amazing voice)

Conquer the winter of our hateful century?

-Thomas Merton, excerpts from A Christmas Card (1947)
(see full poem in Thomas Mertons Marian Poetry, University of Dayton)

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Early experiments 70 liter Aquaponics using aquarium

When the NFT system started to grow, i began looking up online about aquaponics and came across a lot of content and realised this is a wonderful food production system.

So i decided to try a small growbed system. I had few small tubs and an old decommissioned aquarium lying around and so i decided to make use of it. So first i built a wooden table, just to hold the growbeds/tubs above the aquarium.

After a visit to the hardware store, I created the siphon mechanism using pvc pipes and connected the water flow mechanism whole system. I did not use any taps to regulate the water flow as this was an early experiment. Just wanted to see how basic can this setup be.

My NFT system was giving a bit of a problem and so i decided to transplant all the plants form there to this grow bed system. Since i wanted to remove the NFT system and plan a bigger Aquaponics unit in its place. The transplanted tomatoes started to grow really well. This system has a 70 liters aquarium below the tubs and it has 10 goldfish and a few guppies.

Days, weeks and months later ... lust look at the way the plants have grown and in 4 months time of just feeding the fish twice daily and topping up water as and when the level dropped a little due to evaporation. After this system completed six months i learned a lot about the simple science behind aquaponics, and once you follow those life becomes easy.

I learnt a lot like the right size of growbed, the right growing media and size the water flow rate how it drains out etc. Then i decided to go bigger .. My next project a 500 liter aquaponics setup.

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The Dunebarrow

Growing up, we were (Jake was) very spoiled, as least in terms of wheelbarrows.  We had one with fully steel construction, 25 gallon body at least 12 gauge thick, and one continuous piece of 1.5" diameter pipe that formed both handles and a rounded bumper in front of the wheel.  The tire is pneumatic, but weve never seen it flat, and the shock absorbance it provides allows one to roll over gopher holes and stray pieces of firewood without spilling so much as a single wood chip.  [Please picture Tim Allen grunting on Home Improvement here.]  The rounded bumper is key because it allows the operator to completely empty the wheelbarrow by tipping it vertical and rotating the whole thing left and right on the bumper, which provides an effective pivot point.  It was only after moving away and searching for a wheelbarrow of our own that we realized just how rare a specimen that old wheelbarrow was.  Fortunately, we were able to find something somewhat similar on Craigslist, but it needed a little work.  Heres how we modified it.

This is the pinnacle wheelbarrow technology, the model to which we strive in this exercise.  Photo credit: Mom.

Heres our starting point.  The bearings in the tire are completely shot and theres no real pivot point other than the tire itself.  Its very difficult to completely empty it, other than picking the whole thing up and shaking it like an angry caveman.

Our initial inclination was to replace the tire with one of those no-flat all rubber wheelbarrow tires and a piece of all-thread rod from Home Depot since the parts were readily available, but then the handles were only knee-high, and we secretly knew that an all-thread axle wasnt really the right way to do it.  Besides, this isnt an episode of Pimp My Wheelbarrow.

We got an actual 8" axle bolt and a golf cart tire.  Having a one-sided tire required that we get a spacer for the other side, which we got from the same place as the axle.  We should have gotten the nuts there, too, because it turns out 5/8" ID fine-thread nuts are somewhat hard to come by.  Home Depot and Lowes dont carry them, and theyre four times as expensive at Ace Hardware (as in like $1.40!) as they were online from OMB.  Also, the original axle was a 1/2" bolt, while we could only find tires to fit 5/8" axles, so we had to drill out the supports.  Apologies to any antique collectors who would have preferred us to keep it original.  Oh yeah, it also snowed while we were waiting for the parts to come.

We made the bumper from a piece of electrical conduit leftover from our row cover project.  The biggest challenge of the project was figuring out how to bend it since the standard 3/4" conduit bender tool has too large a radius of curvature.  We tried to approximate the tool by taking a log with a little larger radius than we needed and cutting a groove into it to bend the conduit around.  It kind of worked, but theres obviously still some kinking.  But, good enough!

The 5/8" axle would be hard to fit through a 3/4" section of tubing, so we attached it to the body of the wheelbarrow and the front support brackets.

The finished product, a.k.a., the Dunebarrow.

Now it dumps wood chips like a boss.  Just in time to clean out the chicken bedding!

How have you modified your wheelbarrow?  Do you know where to find wheelbarrows like the kind we had growing up?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Homestead Happiness April Week 4

Plenty of bee-related news has us kind of giddy this week.

Our new bee package arrived on Saturday.  The local distributor sold more than 1,500 packages, which meant it was a total zoo for picking them up, and that our bees will have some competition for the neighborhood flowers.  Still, its nice to see such an interest in beekeeping, and theyll definitely have first dibs on the dandelions in our yard!

The new bees are already taking full advantage of the pollen in our dandy-filled yard.  Keep up the good work, ladies!

As a side note, in preparing the hive for the new package, we ended up finding the old queen.  Turns out she didnt die in the great yellow jacket war of 2014, and we can rule out that they absconded last fall.  That leaves either CCD, or too heavy of losses from the yellow jackets to make it through the winter.  Should we start a portrait collection of our queens for future colonies to look back on and remember their storied history?  This was Elizabeth I.  Right now we have Elizabeth II.

The bees came just in time, too, because our strawberries are starting to bloom!  Weve got the squirrel cage set...now if we can just get all the mice trapped out of the adjacent shed before the berries ripen, we might actually get some to eat this year!  Also, to the fruit trees waiting to flower: ready, go!

We also realized that swarm season and hunting season are complementary.  So, if we put a ladder stand in one of our trees now as a support for a swarm trap, we can turn it back into a hunting stand later when we either catch a swarm, or when swarm season is over in July.  Either way, it will be ready in time for deer season! (Although we probably wont be able to hunt deer from the stand in its current location.)

What made your homestead happy this week?

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A Different Kind of Weed Brownie

Last April, we said that it wasnt really spring until we had had our dandelion fix, which is an assertion we still stand by.  But what happens when we havent fully scratched our itch, but Katie is tired of eating dandelion pancakes (or possibly just pancakes in general), and the dandelions are still blooming?  Weve got to figure out other foods to put dandelions in.

Weve been intrigued (and impressed) by desserts that feature vegetables: carrot cake (obviously), red velvet cake with beets, frosting colored with spinach or beets, and Katie even makes a pretty mean zucchini brownie.

So we thought, "Hey!  It seems like we can take a recipe for some kind of cake-type thing, add a bunch of shredded veggies (which would also be a good name for a band), and have a dessert for which its easier to justify eating four or five pieces at once!"  Also, it was April 20 last week here in Colorado, which seemed to carry some sort of significance that we cant quite put our finger on...and so the concept of the dandelion brownie was born.

We started with about 3.5 cups of dandelion flowers, which gave us about 3 cups of petals

Then we started making a regular brownie recipe.

We added the dandelion petals at the same time as the flour and chocolate chips, but the batter was really dry so we also added a half cup of milk.

The milk brought the batter back to the right consistency, despite all the extra nutrition (also here) we packed in.

We spread the batter out into a greased pan...

And baked it!

Since the petals are so mildly-flavored, they hardly affect the rich chocolatey taste at all. The brownies taste just like brownies, but the petals are visible as little yellow streaks.  Theyre like little pieces of confetti for celebrating healthy desserts!

The recipe (based off brownies from Glorious Treats):
4 eggs
1.25 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup butter
2.25 cups sugar
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups (one 12-oz bag) semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups dandelion petals
0.5 cup milk

Beat together eggs and cocoa.  Melt butter, mix in salt, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder, then mix together with eggs and cocoa mix.  Add flour, chocolate chips, dandelion petals, and milk, mix well.  Smooth batter out into a 10" x 16" cookie sheet, and bake at 350 °F for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.



What types of vegetables do you put into your desserts?  What other dishes do you put dandelions in?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Al Jazeera Report Highlights Nutrition Crisis in Navajo Nation

One way the U.N. hopes to end hunger: encourage sustainable food production among indigenous peoples by 2030. On the Navajo Nation, some tribal citizens are already on that track. “When we raise our own sheep, we’re able to sustain ourselves,” said Aretta Begay. “We’re able to feed our own family, whether it’s big or small.” But progress in Navajo Nation, with its high poverty rates and long-standing lack of access to nutritious food, will be an uphill battle.  article in Al Jazeera America

Source: Diné Policy Institute. Map by Alex Newman/Al Jazeera America.

The problem of hunger and food insecurity in the Navajo nation has been well documented. With fewer than a dozen grocery stores to serve nearly 300,000 residents in an area about the size of South Carolina, access to nutritious food is almost non-existent.

"Gas stations and trading posts fill the vast spaces in between those stores, selling foods loaded with salt, sugar, fat and preservatives. According to the Diné Community Advocacy Alliance, a Navajo think tank, 80 percent of food sold in the Navajo Nation could be considered junk," said a report in Al Jazeera America. "One in three residents is diabetic or prediabetic, and recent studies show that heart disease is the second-leading cause of death among tribal citizens living on the reservation."

In a  recent report to Congress, eentitled “Addressing Child Hunger and Obesity in Indian Country,” researchers found that Native American children had “approximately twice the levels of food insecurity, obesity and Type 2 diabetes relative to the averages for all U.S. children of similar ages,” said Al Jazeera America.

The Navajo nation has attempted to address the problem by proposing a tax on junk food in 2014 and eliminating an existing tax on fruits and vegetables. However, making junk food more expensive only solves the problem partially. The supply side of the equation is also important. Even if fruits and vegetables are less expensive, how do you ensure that you increase availability? Some residents like Aretta Begay grow a small vegetable garden and raise churro sheep to feed their families.“We have a huge problem with having access to good, quality food,” she tells Al Jazeera America. “We don’t have access to grocery stores.”

Providing the resources for personal and community gardens would go a long way toward addressing the problem. The dilemma is common not only to the Navajo nation but to many Indian reservations are rural areas around the country.

Fortunately, the recently announced Global Goals for Sustainable Development, and in particular Goal 2 of Zero Hunger, open the door for our public officials at all levels to find creative solutions to address the problem of a lack of food access.

"The question of food access could soon be getting renewed focus," said the Al Jazeera America report. "Starting in January, the United States will be aiming to reach the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals. One of the priorities is ensuring access to nutritious food. In Indian Country, achieving that goal is a long way off."

The Al Jazeera report--written by Tristan Ahtone in Red Mesa, Ariz.,and Jolene Yazzie in Lupton, Ariz., with photos by Jolene Yazzie--is very comprehensive, offering statistics, anecdotes, graphics and other valuable information. (One resident who was interviewed for the article allowed the reporters to look into their refrigerator. Check out the full article to see what was found in the fridge).

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Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces Summarizes Pope Francis Visit to the U S

In a piece published in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Blog "To Go Forth," Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces summarized Pope Francis visit to the United States on Sept. 24-27. Bishop Cantú wrote the piece in his capacity as chair of the USCCBs Committee on International Justice and Peace. 

Here are  the themes that Bishop Cantú summarized in his post:

Poverty 
(To the U.S. Congress) “How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty!”...“Now is the time for…combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

(To the U.N. General Assembly)“To enable … real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny.”....Developing nations should not be “subjected to oppressive lending systems which … generate greater poverty, exclusion, and dependence.”

Immigration
(To the U.S. Congress): We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.”...“Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War.”...Immigrants “travel north in search of a better life…for their loved ones. Is this not what we want for our own children?”

The Environment
(To the U.S. Congress):“I call for a courageous and responsible effort to ‘redirect our steps’, and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity."...“I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play.”

(To the U.N. General Assembly): "A right of the environment’ does exist … because we human beings are part of the environment.”...“Any harm done to the environment … is harm done to humanity.”...“The poorest are those who suffer most … and suffer unjustly from the abuse of the environment.”...“The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species.”...“I am … confident that the Paris Conference on climatic change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.”

Peace
(To the U.S. Congress):“Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering…? [S]imply for money: money that is drenched in blood….”“[I]t is our duty … to stop the arms trade.”

 (To the U.N. General Assembly):“There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons….”He affirmed the P5+1 Agreement with Iran as “proof of the potential of political good will and of law, exercised with sincerity….”[S]top and … prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities’ and … protect innocent peoples.”...End “social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation…, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism, and international organized crime.”...

In Summary
"In his speech to Congress, Pope Francis lifted up the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12)," said Bishop Cantú. "He noted that “[t]his Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. … In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. … The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.: In many ways, the Golden Rule sums up his approach to foreign policy and global concerns. “Do unto others.…”

Here are the texts of  Pope Francis full speeches to Congress and the U.N. General Assembly

The USCCB site has links to several other speeches or homilies by Pope Francis in the U.S., including the one at Curran-Fromhold Penitentiary in Philadelphia. "I am here as a pastor, but above all as a brother, to share your situation and to make it my own. I have come so that we can pray together and offer our God everything that causes us pain, but also everything that gives us hope, so that we can receive from him the power of the resurrection," the pontiff told the audience at the Philadelphia penitentiary.

Here is a video of his interaction with prisoners at the facility. 

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Fourth Sunday of Advent Angels We Have Heard on High

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing oer the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.

Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

In a #sharethegift video, The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir get together to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High"

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Water Wheel Prototype

19th century water power is alive and kicking!....er, spinning! My water powered biowheel* prototype is complete. Pumped water powers this overshot-style wheel (I'm not quite ready for the Pelton wheel yet), which turns two attached drums. The drums are wrapped with multiple layers of fiberglass screen to provide surface area for nitrifying bacteria to colonize. As the wheel rotates, the bacteria will get a consistent does of moisture and oxygen, which will hopefully lead to vigourous growth and biological filtration (converting fish waste to plant food). You can see a video of the wheel in action below.

Now my wheel will go into test mode: I will fill the tank with fresh water and see if the wheel can provide enough biological filtration to effectively start up or cycle the tank.**

Friction was literally the biggest obstacle to getting the wheel moving. Specifically the wheel had to be able to overcome the resistance the tank water would put against the paddles. To combat this, I angled the paddles so they retain more water as they spin down and then release water as they start to spin upwards. Additionally, I just barely
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HOW MANY FISH IN A TANK

 HOW MANY FISH AM I ALLOWED TO HAVE IN A TANK?

Aquaponics, ækw??p?n?ks, pisciponics

Again this will depend on whether the system is a commercial or backyard system, with the commercial systems requiring the correct amount of fish and plants for optimum production. The more fish there are in a system, the more nutrients there are for the plants to consume, but if there are not enough plants to consume these nutrients, the excess build up in the water can cause the fish to suffer. As a general rule, backyard systems can stock between 10 - 30 kg of fish per 1000 litres of water.

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After Igor a video from Newfoundland

Hi Folks,

Could you pass the following link on to friends. There will be several more in the series. However this one is important as it shows the storm damage that placed 230 people out of work and did so in less than 24 hours. The building you see was a shrimp processing plant where 230 people worked each year in order to make some sort of a living... which was seasonal at best. This plant unfortunately has a longer and larger history than this loss today.

This place was also once one of the largest fish processing plants in North America. Prior to the reductions in fishing quotas and the virtual elimination of a way of life that took place during the 1990s in Newfoundland, this same fish processing plant once employed over 900 people on a 24/7 basis processing Cod and other ground fish species and supported another several hundred fishermen. It was reduced (or rationalized) to a work force about 1/20 of its former size and recreated as a single species processing facility with only 230 people employed.

Now after the damage that resulted for Hurricane Igor, not even one of the remaining 230 have a job. In less than one day, in just one town, 230 people lost work. This is but one of the long lasting effects that Igor has imprinted in the the hearts, souls and livelihoods of the people that live on the Rock.

All I ask is that you consider forwarding this link, so that others can see how every deeply this act of god has effected hard working people, today and in the long term future. There are many more hardships in many more places of Newfoundland as a result of this storm. All of these are very important and so very sad and some are probably more devastating to the people that experienced first hand the wrath of Igor . This is only one very short video documenting the aftermath and how this storm effected over 230 plus people within hours. There are many,many places in Newfoundland that were adversely effected by Igor. My heart goes out to those people. I and my family got off easy as we weathered through this without any major damage and certainly no loss of life.

To the Family and friends of Mr Allen Duffet who lost his life during Igor, i send my heartfelt and deepest sympathy, and that is not enough measure to the sadness and loss by those close to him.

As hardy stock spawned from some of the first people that faced, endured and overcame the hardships and obstacles presented in helping to grow a brave new world, These people will as Newfoundlanders rise above it and once again play a significant part in creating new life, in a proud nation called Canada.

Have a look and pas it on so that others can give it a view. Thanks

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Stratatouille

One of our favorite things about this time of year is the abundance of fresh vegetables coming in from the garden (or farmers market, depending on the circumstances).  And one of our favorite things to do with those vegetables (because its easy and delicious) is roast them into a ratatouille.  Chop em up, slather em with olive oil and some seasonings, throw em on a cookie sheet, and bake until theyre done.  (We took a break from our theme of outdoor cooking for this recipe).  Makes the house smell tasty. Probably makes the inside of our stomachs smell tasty, too, which were sure our gut microbes appreciate. 

Then we had a thought: all those vegetables would probably also be awesome in a strata.  Hence was born the concept of the ratatouille strata, or the stratatouille, as this months strata incarnation.

Well pick this story up at the point where the ratatouille is already made, since Katie made it before the camera was ready.  (A visual approximation of Katie making ratatouille is the cartoon tasmanian devil in tornado phase, moving around the kitchen chopping veggies.  Watch out!  She has a sharp knife!)  To make the ratatouille, we used 2.5 zucchinis, 2 summer squashes, 2 eggplants, 2 green peppers, 1 large onion, and 5 roma tomatoes.  The zucchinis, squashes and tomatoes made about 3 cups each when chopped, the eggplants were around 4 cups, the green peppers and onion around one cup each.  Mixed with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and rosemary.  We also added some fresh chives, oregano, and basil.  The meat in this incarnation is about 2 cups of shredded chicken, seasoned to taste with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoninng. (1 teaspoon each for the garlic powder and Italian seasoning, and half a teaspoon each for the salt and pepper).  The cheese is a 50/50 mix of colby jack and monterrey jack.   The bread is whatever was available.  Layer them as shown in the picture: bread-vegetables-meat-cheese.  Make sure to only use half of each in the first set of layers...

...then lather, rinse, repeat.

Time for the egg mixture!  3 cups milk, 6 eggs, 2 teaspoons each garlic powder, rosemary, and thyme; half teaspoon each salt and pepper; 5 or 6 squirts of hot sauce. Pour it over the egg mixture, making absolutely sure not to spill any into a dryer with a clean load of clothes or into the nether regions of the dryer.

Into the fridge it goes to let all those wild flavors settle for a few hours.  Works best if set between apples and yogurt.

Then bake at 360 °F for 50-60 minutes until golden brown and whole house smells delicious.

Cut into big pieces to save the inconvenience of having to go for seconds.  Thats a lot of veggies!  This is one of our favorite strata recipes so far.

 What do you do with all your incoming vegetables this time of year?  Have you ever put them into a casserole like this?  Let us know in the comments section below!


 The recipe:

3 cups each chopped zucchini, chopped summer squash, and chopped tomatoes
4 cups chopped eggplant
1 cup each chopped green pepper and onion
0.25 cups olive oil
1 teaspoon each garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and dried rosemary
2 tablespoons each fresh oregano, basil, and chives

10 slices of bread (at least)
1 lb shredded cheese (we used colby-jack and monterrey jack)

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken, seasoned to taste with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning

6 eggs
3 cups milk
2 teaspoons each of garlic powder, thyme, and rosemary
0.5 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
5-6 squirts of your favorite hot sauce

Mix the chopped vegetables with the olive oil and first set of seasonings to coat, roast at 350 °F until the vegetables are soft, but not mushy.  Layer the bread, roasted veggies, chicken, and cheese in a 9" x 13" pan, starting with bread and ending with cheese, aiming for two layers each. Beat together eggs, milk, and remaining seasonings. Pour over layers and set in fridge for several hours or overnight. Bake at 350 °F for 45-55 min, until senses of sight and smell register awesome. Allow to cool and cut into serving sizes proportionate to firsts and seconds combined.

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