Because it's not easy being Green

Joshua's Strawberry Shrub

2 pints of washed, hulled, and sliced strawberries
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2-1/2 cups sugar
water to mix in
mint leaves for garnish

Mix strawberries and cider vinegar. Marinate in fridge overnight. Rub berry mixture through a strainer or pulse in a food processor. Berry mixture combined with sugar in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often. Cool syrup in fridge.

To serve; put 3 tablespoons of syrup into glass and add 6 ounces of water and some ice. Garnish with mint sprig.

Adapted from The American Frugal Housewife, 1833 AD. (Original recipe was for a blackberry shrub)

This was brought to school, as a period beverage, for the class "Campfire" that closed out their history section on the Oregon Trail and the '49ers. J did all of the work, including picking the berries in the first place. It was a hit. "People were asking for TENTH'S" (as opposed to seconds).

CSA Week #4

Artesian mozzarella cheese
Mustard green mix
2 heads of lettuce
Escarole
Arugula
garlic scapes
beets with greens
turnips with greens
broccoli
cilantro
Roman Kale (also called dinosaur kale, because it looks like lizard skin)
Cabbage
Shell peas
2 qts of strawberries


I've already washed the lettuce and arugula. Washed and blanched the escarole for the freezer. Started a new garlic scape vinegar (YAY!). Peas are eaten out of hand. Strawberries have been washed and hulled. Overripe ones have been cooked into strawberry syrup.

Week 2 Farm Pick-up

I'm splitting a share, so I get the even numbered weeks.

Bought separate - artisanal mozzarella
radishes
turnips with greens
2 lbs spinach
broccolli cuttings, green variety
broccoli, 2 heads of some blue variety
purple scallions
fresh oregano
kale
mixed mustard greens
arugula
red lettuce
buttercrunch lettuce
4 quarts of strawberries (thanks to the kid for doing the picking)
1 bunch of flowers

The inside of my fridge is now very green. I have much washing to do.

recipe plans
mustard greens, some arugula, and radish greens go into my mustard pesto recipe
turnips with greens go into a light, summer version of chicken soup
spinach and some of the broccoli is going into spanakoppita, fillo dough currently thawing

leftover spinach can be cooked and frozen
kale can be sauteed some night on the grill with butter, olive oil and garlic
kid has plans to hijack dad into making strawberry ice cream, we are also prepared for the possibility of strawberry shortcake and strawberry/cranberry jelly
all of this still means that I need to start packing my own salads for lunch, and may need to start eating broccoli for breakfast

and I need to buy more onions, garlic and cheese, and possibly sourdough bread to go with the mozzarella

Vitruvius, De architectura (On Architecture, also known as as "Ten Books on Architecture"), written about 25 BC.

Considered a period reference because it was rediscovered in 1414 by a Florentine, Poggio Bracciolini. The first printed edition published by the Veronese scholar Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in 1486.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html

Alberti, Ten Books on Architecture, written 1443, printed 1485 AD.

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=89563736

The event, to take place this fall. The theme is that the event is taking place in Venice during September of 1509 AD, and is focused on the publication of a period work of mathematics

http://www.eastkingdom.org/event-detail.html?eid=1763

I am thinking about putting together a class/presentation on architecture.

This website just rocks my socks. Columbia University's interactive website based around the awesome Jacopo de Barbari woodcut depicting an aerial view of Venice in 1500 AD. Obviously, Jacopo did not actually have access to any aerial views. The work took him three years to complete.

http://www.learn.columbia.edu/venice/map_main.html
You get the best use of the Columbia website if you can run Google Earth.
Be sure to play with all the buttons and whistles on this website. The information density here is pretty rich.

The original woodcut is in the British Museum and measures about 4 foot by 9 foot.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/j/jacopo_de_barbari_venice.aspx

CSA farm work today. Weeded the spinach bed and transplanted six different varieties of tomato seedlings. I predict that the Pink Ladies and New Girls will do well this year. Other folks were putting raime cloth over the kale beds. First pick-up should be the first or second week of June.

http://clu-in.org/download/studentpapers/henry.pdf
An interesting paper on phytoremediation (using plants to remove lead and mercury from the soil).

This is wonderful. Thank you to sunspiral for the pointer.

http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/

The Autodesk Assistance Program will offer free* student software term licenses, free online training and a path to certification to unemployed architects, designers and engineers in all industries. A 13 month term license is being offered for AutoCAD®, Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Inventor® Professional, and/or AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software.


http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/
http://students8.autodesk.com/?nd=assistance_home&lbon=1

its Ada Lovelace Day... post about a prominent female scientist, or woman excelling in technology.......

I choose Industrial Engineer Lillian Moller Gilbreth. She and her husband Frank created the concept of the Motion Study as a way to study efficiency and productivity in factory assembly lines, construction, and other industrial processes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Moller_Gilbreth

The 1948 (Nonfiction) book by her daughter and son and the GOOD movie produced in 1950.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheaper_by_the_Dozen

The second book written by her daughter and son, which (to me) tells the more engaging story of how this woman managed to work and raise her 12 kids after her husband died at the fairly young age of 56.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belles_on_Their_Toes


The SUCKY movies, (Fiction) for which Steve Martin should be shot. Referenced here only so that you don't accidentally put these on your Netflicks list by mistake.

"Further movies called Cheaper by the Dozen and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 were produced in 2003 and 2005 respectively, starring comedians Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, but bearing no resemblance to the original book except that both feature a family with twelve children."
Wikipedia

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/doocefeed/904456.html

Linked, because I can't write like this.

http://www.naturemill.com/

Composting machines that can be installed in kitchen cabinets (or pretty much anywhere else). Electronic agitation and purchased bacterial cultures prevent smell or bugs.

I haven't seen this in action, but the price for the basic model is pretty reasonable. This is something that I can see using. I don't compost right now because I don't like to be going outside in bad weather and because I don't want food waste to attract animals to my backyard. This device solves both of those problems.

As I sit here, in yet another ice storm, my question to you all is this "Do you have a generator? If so, what kind and what fuel ? And what was it that finally pushed you to get one?

I am assuming that anyone in the Northeast has at least considered getting a generator at one time or another. I'm looking for those who have actually done so.

I don't have a generator. The discussion of why is here:
http://be-well-lowell.livejournal.com/19551.html#cutid1

EDIT:

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Toyota-Prius-As-a-Backup-Generator

http://www.priups.com/exec-summary.htm

How to use your Prius as a Back-up Generator links.

Very long but worthwhile discussion of globalization, localvore city states, and crisis du jour.

http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/343/Bruce-Sterling-State-of-the-Worl-page01.html

I wandered over to this site. It presents a compelling arguement that large portions of the southwest are inherently unsustainable, primarily due to lack of water resources.

http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/11/did-you-hear-the-one-about-sustainable-phoenix.html

I wanted to see if this argument was supported by real data, so I found this website. Lots of interesting information about the national water resources. Good graphic content. Lots of things that go clicky.

http://water.usgs.gov/

Based on the data I am seeing, the southwest is not too far out of its historic norms. The problems are in the population and development growth rate. Conclusion; if any areas are going to go into crisis mode soon, it will first be the southeast, especially Atlanta, GA. That area is in severe historic drought conditions and has similar growth problems.

Water sustainability tends to be ignored by many (see "It's the energy, Stupid" post ). It may be that water issues will be more prominent in the very near future.

Butternut squash gnocchi

High heat stovetop

1 small to medium sized butternut squash (Or any mashed white potatoes, sweet potatoes, or squash leftovers. Combinations of squash and potatoes also work fine))
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
½ tsp. Salt
About 3 cups of white flour
Olive oil
Black pepper to taste

Mash cooked squash or potatoes until consistency of mashed potatoes. Add cheese and eggs, mix well. Gradually add flour, ½ cup at a time. Add enough flour to make a firm batter, not quite as firm as pizza dough. Dough should be stringy enough to stretch around a wooden spoon.

If you are freezing gnocchi to cook at a later date; roll dough into dumplings, about 1 teaspoon per dumpling. Score one side with fork tines for a traditional look. Place dumplings on cookie sheet and freeze. When dumplings are frozen, transfer to freezer bags. Cooking from frozen dumplings will take a bit longer, but time from dumplings rising to the surface of the water to fully cooked will still be about 5 minutes.

Bring a large stockpot ¾ full of water to boil. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil to water. Drop batter by the teaspoon full into water until surface of water is covered. Wait for dumplings to rise to the surface, cook for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove dumplings with a slotted spoon. Drain and serve with a spicy tomato sauce. Dumplings can be put into a covered baking dish with a little sauce to hold while you finish cooking all of the batter. A Fra diavlo (hot red pepper tomato sauce) sauce is especially good with these.

This recipe is from Serve it Forth, cooking with Anne McCaffrey. This book was written as a fundraiser for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund.

First course (Mom)
Mom's cranberry walnut bread, cheese and crackers, pickles and olives, nuts in the shell

Second course (Me)
Fresh turkey (local butcher), using the cheesecloth basting method (baste made of chicken fat, chicken stock, and wine), stuffed with herbs.
Sausage and onion stuffing made with homemade Pumpkin Challah bread (pumpkin and onions from CSA)
gravy (made with trepidation, I have serious gravy angst)
peas
mashed potatoes
baked sweet potatoes
cubed butternut squash (CSA) roasted in olive oil and rosemary
homemade orange-cranberry sauce
Tohu New Zealand wine (our current favorite brand)

Third course (Husband)
homemade pumpkin pie (CSA)
homemade apple pie (CSA)
Brigham's French Vanilla ice cream

Tomorrow: Leftovers!

Today is National "TAKE YOUR TURKEY OUT OF THE FREEZER DAY!"

If you take bird out of the freezer and put it in the fridge today, it should be fully defrosted by Thursday. (depending on size, if you have a 20 lbs. + frozen bird you are already in trouble). This way you will avoid the misery of trying to thaw your bird in a giant pot of cool water.

Bonus items:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml04/04041.html
Consumer Safety advice on how to use a turkey fryer without burning down your garage, setting yourself on fire, etc.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Lets_Talk_Turkey/index.asp
Food safety basics for turkeys. Thawing, stuffing, cooking, and leftovers. Remember to refrigerate the leftovers within 2 hours.

Have a happy holiday! I'll be in the kitchen.

http://www.grassfedcooking.com/

For the localvores: This woman has two cookbooks for cooking grass fed meat.

She is looking for people to interview/email for her next book project.

"For my next book project, I am looking to meet and profile folks who have learned to live on less in order to take the time to nourish their family and the planet through home cooking, engaged citizenship, responsible consumption and creative living."

She lives in upstate New York.

This is a blog by the authors of "the urban homestead". Current project is a compost bin made from scrap tires. The blog includes many links to other resources for DIY Green projects, including solar projects, biking, urban gardening, and homebrewing.

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

A wonderfully cranky rant by a prominent Building Sciences engineer.

http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-007-prioritizing-green2014it-s-the-energy-stupid/?full_view=1