Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin

I have finished reading the new Joel Salatin book over Thanksgiving vacation and recommend it to those who are interested in knowing where there food comes from and want to make better decision about where they are getting their food.


Joel Salatin sheds some light on how over-regulation by the government has actually made our food choices worse over time rather than better.  They subsidize crops which have encouraged over-production of a small selection of foods which have created surpluses.  These surpluses have to find their place which lead to the creation of things such as high fructose corn syrup and grain fed rather than grass fed cattle. If you want to know what this has led to...read the book.


Joel can sometimes go off on a point that can seem like a rant and it probably is.  Get through the passion and learn about what your choices are to become a healthier person by making healthy food choices.


You will be encouraged to shop your local growers, cook your own food, and spend a little less time doing mindless activities and more time being productive with your time.  


Don't just take my word for it, read it.  If my close friends and neighbors want to borrow my copy, you are more than welcome.  I also encourage you to watch some Youtube clips of Joel Salatin to get a feel for the kind of man he is and the type of farm he runs.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIbXU5iR2P4&noredirect=1

Reading this or watching a few clips may also give you a little insight into the kind of person I am as well.  Have fun!

Being Rooted

While waiting for the computer to boot up this morning, I picked up this little devotional booklet off the shelf next to the computer.  God's Little Lessons on Life by Honor Books was given to me as a Christmas gift.  I will pick this up and am always pretty happy with the words I find there.  This morning was a loneliness focus and featured one of my favorite passages from Romans 8:35-39.  I love the way the cadence of that passage reads and just drives the point home about separation.


My hunters hit the woods at this time of year and I don't see them for a week until we are reunited for a Thanksgiving feast.  My youngest came home this year to go to school this week so it has not been as quiet as it usually would be.  With the dog gone I am glad to have the empty corners filled with her movement in the house.


I would like to share the words from the devotion with you this morning as loneliness can take many forms.  We have to be careful that we do not set ourselves up for those empty spaces in our lives if we have a choice.  I am going to give it to you straight from the book.


Being Rooted


The next time you visit a very dense forest, try to imagine what is taking place under your feet. Scientists now know when the roots of trees come into contact with one another, a substance is released which encourages the growth of a particular kind of fungus.  This fungus helps link roots of different trees-even those of dissimilar species.  If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the fungus enables the transfer of these items to trees that may be in need.  Thus, the trees have the means of sharing with one another to preserve them all.


Our culture today applauds individualism.  However, it tends to isolate people from one another and cut them off from the mainstream of life.  With more and more people working at home or in walled offices and with schedules crammed tighter than ever with work and activities, feelings of loneliness are more likely to increase than decrease.  Don't allow isolation to overcome you!


Reach out to other.  Begin to give where you can.  Learn to receive when others give to you.  Build a network of friends, not just colleagues.  And above all, root yourself into a group that nourishes and builds you up spiritually-your church.


I love the lessons that nature gives us and this was one that really hit the spot.  I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving and find true togetherness in your relationships with those around you.

Saving Seed and other gathering notes

I wanted to share a website for those of you who have asked me about saving seed.  I see no reason to repeat information on the web when someone else has done so much better than I could ever hope.  There is still time to squirrel away some seeds from your garden for planting next year.


Check out http://howtosaveseeds.com/index.php

You will not be disappointed by the information you find there and there is also a contact section if you have any other questions.


Happy hunting to all my orange clad friends in Wisconsin this weekend.

On a slightly divergent topic but right in line with hunting and gathering is that the fall mushroom season is not over.  I am a very novice shroomer but do know a few of the basics that I can't mess up like puff balls, shaggy manes, and morels (spring).  I found some shaggy manes during work while checking over the city vacant lots for trash and tree work.  They were prime for the picking and I did.  At another vacant lot, I had several shrubs growing over the alley line and had to cut them back for clearance.  When I cut off some of the juniper branches, they were loaded with juniper berries.  I have started collecting some each year as they are used when making homemade corned beef.  (Check out Alton Brown's recipe on the Food Network website.)  They are also great when used in a rub with fresh rosemary, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper.  Jamie Oliver from the Cooking Channel crushed everything together and rolled a venison tenderloin in the rub before cooking it.  I did the same for my family and it was really good.  

As you can tell, you don't have to go to the woods to find good things to eat.  I have found puff balls right in our park during early morning dog walks.  Ferns immerging in the spring produce delicate fiddle heads for sauteing.  I have also pulled the young perslane which grows like a weed in my beds and steamed it (taste like spinach).  Dandelion greens provided the first fresh greens of spring for the early pioneers.  My mother had us collect the yellow part of the flowers for homemade dandelion wine (we had to pull them off the green parts as we picked as the green makes a bitter wine).  Kids are notorious for eating their way through the berry patch and we were no different.  Raise your kids like this is normal and they will be more open to new tastes.

Enjoy the final days of autumn and forage for those late season finds.  Who doesn't like free food?

More end of the season!

Just when I think I have everything under control, the leaves begin to fall and the plants start to die back.  It is then that I realize I have to make a decision...do I clean out the garden this fall or wait until spring.  Since the city will pick up leaves and other garden debris in fall free of charge the decision has become easier now that they charge for the special pick ups at any other time of the year.  I do compost quite a bit of the garden debris, but the tomato plants which can perpetuate diseases in the compost and other items that are closer to the curb than the compost are soon headed in that direction.


We had incredibly warm temperatures this weekend and no rain in the forecast, so this was the ideal moment.  Two days of pulling, cutting, moving, and toting became a united effort with my husband providing occasional support.  He had his list to get through with leaves in the gutters and a trailer to tuck away for winter.  I was grateful for every minute he was able to give.  I floated over into his duties as well, and we even got some help from our adult daughter and her boyfriend with the trailer.  Before long everything was done.  Hot baths and carry out pizza filled out the day.  It is good to have family involved with the tasks that we tackled alone when the kids were small.  Oh, they came out and raked leaves, but only to jump in the pile and scatter it again.  I enjoyed those days just as much as having their help this weekend.


The weather man is calling for low 30's and showers this evening and there were a few tasks still on my list.  I made the final run with the trowel and shovel and planted my garlic in the vegetable garden, muscari in the annual garden, and snow drops are under the sod where the dog used to lay and rest.  I moved the last of the herbs and perennials to other spaces that I had decided on earlier in the season to reduce crowding.  It feels good to have erased so many things off my list in that short period of daylight that was left after work. 


My first seed catalog arrived this weekend so it is time to start thinking ahead to next year while all my thoughts are still close to the surface.  It is a months long process in the planning, so it is never too early.  Grab a cup of hot tea and dream of what your summer garden is going to be with me.

When I'm not gardening...

When I'm not gardening, I am probably still spending some time outdoors.  My job has taken me outdoors most of my life, my childhood was spent running through the woods behind our town or swimming in the lakes and streams, and my hobbies are mostly outdoor related (I even love to cook outdoors).  If I can find a nice spot to take lunch outside, I do.

Milwaukee is not lacking for places to be outdoors.  Situated on Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes, it has wonderful panoramic views of water.  Even on the days when the lake is wild with wind and rain, it is an awesome sight to see.  The boats are all coming out of their docks for the winter, but you still see a few brave souls out for a day trip fishing or just taking in the last days before ice stops it all.  If I can spend just 15 minutes looking out at the water, my mind and body get a recharge to get through the rest of the afternoon.

I live in a neighborhood with other people who also enjoy the outdoors.  I am fortunate to live in an urban area with many parks and recreation areas.  A park is right outside my kitchen window.  It attracts all kinds of people that enjoy its woods and stream packed into its 13 acres as an urban oasis.  There are the playground amenities which attract the younger crowd.  The trails that loop through the rest of the park bring in the dog walkers and exercise seekers. I can put on a pair of cross country skis at the end of my driveway and head out on to our own trails that we break.  In the warmer months we like to head down to the lake and put on in-line skates and enjoy the view.

It seemed only natural that gardening would become a big part of my life.  The natural world is forever changing around us and has so much to teach us.  If you lay down in the grass and just look closely at what is under your nose, you will be amazed!  Life is busy happening at the lowest levels, especially if you choose a spot that has been treated with chemicals to eliminate it.  

My favorite spot to be is anywhere outdoors with my family.  I love to travel and camp.  We have stayed in several states and met lots of different people along the way.  Our favorite vacations by far are those that we have very little planned and can spend time relaxing wherever our wheels take us.  It seems the simpler the surroundings, the better we connect.  The week we spent without any power other than the bathroom building was certainly one of our more memorable vacations with two teenage girls and their low battery cell phones.

Get out and get some fresh air today!  Spend some time away from the tube and connect with the people in your life.  Make some memories for your kids to share with their kids after you're gone.  Just like the gardens we leave behind, they can continue to grow over time.

Cuttings and transplanting

Many people will tell you that the key to propagating your own plants is sanitation.  This starts with the place where you keep your plants as well as the plants themselves.  If you have plants that are diseased, bug-infested, or in generally bad condition, these are not the plants you want to propagate.  I would rather go without than deal with nursing along a lost cause.  A 10% bleach solution is good for your plant tables, pots and trays.  With my plant table right next to my laundry tubs, I have a large basin to soak the pots for 10 minutes before rinsing and drying.

 I choose to purchase a premixed, sterilized potting mix.  If you have ever put soil into the oven to sterilize it, you know that it better be warm and breezy so the windows can be wide open.  There is a lot of organic matter in garden soil that you are cooking to sterilize.  It also tend to be a bit heavy.  A lighter medium is desired during winter months so you do not have waterlogged plants.  This can lead to rot and low viability.

If you have made and rooted you cuttings the next is transplanting.  Choose the best of you cutting for the best stock plants.  The cutting on the right may live, but do you really want to put soil, time, and effort into something barely making it now?  The compost pile is the best place for these.

Choose the right size container.  It is always best to start small and work you way up.  Plants develop a stronger root system much faster when they are in a container that allows for some root expansion, but not too much.  Transplanting up into larger pots later is a better route.  This will also help you cull out the less desirable cuttings as you go along so your stock is the best that it possibly can be.

Two methods to root cuttings that I have used this fall are pots with half soiless mix topped with the other half as sand and the old water in a jar.  You can also go directly into flats with mix only, but then be prepared to water more frequently as it will dry out faster.  You can use rooting hormone to speed the process up.  This is available in most garden supply centers, usually as a powder which you dip the plant stems in before placing in your pots.  A liquid which would be mixed with water and used to water the cuttings also works.  I use the hormone on my tougher cuttings, but use nothing on the tender stemmed plants.  Once your cuttings have formed roots like the prior photo they are ready for transplant.
Stay tuned for a future posting on saving your seed from plants for next year's crop.