100 Days Without Oil

MN MONTHLY

2011-04-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

13 April, 2011

The May issue of Minnesota Monthly just came out and has a 2-page article featuring my project! Thanks to Ellen Burkhardt for a well-done summary of my experience and the metrics that go along with it:

(click to enlarge)

Now for an update on my current efforts. As I mentioned before, I've spent that last few months compiling my '100 days' experience into a 170 page document which is a much more complete description and analysis of the facts behind the issues I explored here as well as a series of design considerations presented as hypothetical solutions to many of the things I struggled with during the project. Because the project was essentially exploring what systems exist in our current society to support a world post-cheap-oil, many of these design solutions focus on the urban form, while the others focus on the scale of our homes.

I'm working on exploring publishing options at this point. My desire is to make this information as available as possible to anyone who might be interested in exploring changed actions in their lives similar to those I explored. The publication will be titled '100 Days Without Oil: Lessons learned from attempting to live in a resource balance.' Please check back for more information about this soon!

On another front, I have been collaborating with a public policy student at the University of Minnesota to brainstorm how we can continue the work I began with this project at a larger, community scale. While we are still generating ideas for how to carry this forward, our goals are to attack this problem from its two ends- both from the bottom up (as my project was) and from the top down (in environmental policy changes). I'll continue to update on our efforts here!

DAY 100_THE END?

2011-03-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

November 22, 2010

Day 100

Day 100

Day 100. I know it's been a long time coming to post this and I apologize to many of you who have supported this project by reading my daily posts for leaving you all hanging for so long!

I DID, in fact, finish this project. And I would like to share my experience of the end of the project, the day after and my reflections and the conclusions I have come to in the months since I finished in November in this and the following posts.

Writing this post retrospectively, of course I am having to rely on the notes taken from that day:

Waking up to the last day of this project, it does not feel quite as spectacular as I had envisioned it. However, thinking back to the 99 previous days of changing my lifestyle in an effort to come as close to living in a resource balance I realize just how drastically my views of lifestyle choices have changed. These changes have become habit and only in the context of looking back to the way I used to view things can I truly appreciate the extent of change in my life.

The best example of my changed awareness is in my food shopping habits. Before the project was even an idea in my mind, my regular grocery habits included shopping at a chain grocer which was is 7 blocks away from me. While I would sometimes walk there, more often I drove. I shopped at the co-op only 2 blocks away from my house only rarely. It wasn't important to me to buy organic foods, and though I was aware of the issues of food transportation I never made a point to buy locally. When buying produce, I used the plastic bags provided for me. I would bag up a couple of tomatoes or a head of lettuce. Looking back I think I simply had never been exposed to another way of shopping for food. Years of watching my mom bag up produce made me think this was just how it was done. I never thought twice about it.

Thinking about the many decisions I made about buying food now after doing this project I am amazed by how many of the decisions I made were made simply out of habit. It took my conscious effort thinking about the impacts of each decision to realize that there was, in fact, another way of doing things. This isn't brain science it is simply awareness. I now shop almost exclusively at the co-op. Not only is it closer, but I have a deep appreciations for their efforts in providing local and organic food. Anything that I can buy in bulk I choose to do over packaged goods. I've realized that it is not only fresher food, but is saving me money to shop this way. I never bag any produce in plastic, there is no need for most vegetables and I use reusable cloth bags for anything such as bread that needs to be protected.

I look back on all the categories of the project in the same way in which I do with food. I realized that I could bike and walk to many places I shop, run errands and do work every day. It wasn't that I was opposed to walking before, it just simply didn't cross my mind. I became aware of how much waste can be diverted from landfills by buying food in bulk and ate fresher and saved money in the process. I became aware of different ways of using water and energy as well.

The realizations of how drastically different I now view most of the actions of my lifestyle is not surprising to me knowing that I spent 100 days making a conscious effort to take a close look at my life. In most cases, these changed habits were not a sacrifice but simply a changed awareness and acknowledgment of learning to do things in a different way.

In this way, I spent today like any other day in the project, but thought quite a bit about what had changed in my life, why it had changed and whether many of my new habits were here to stay...

DAY 99_SUMMARY: HEATING + COOLING

2011-01-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

21 November, 2010
Heating costs proved to be by-far the largest energy user in my house. Although my house has natural gas-heated radiators, by converting Therms to kWh, I could compare the energy used for space heating to the energy used for all other electric uses. Space heating requires an average of 704 kWh/week, whereas my fridge uses 3.8 (previously 11.6) kWh/week and I use about 1.6 kWh/week (previously 12.6) for all lights. Water heating came in as the second highest energy user at 11.2 kWh to heat only 15 gallons per day (41.5 kWh/week before the project).

This presents a big challenge because unlike many of the other electrical uses which can be minimized or even eliminated, space heating in a climate like Minneapolis is a necessity. When I discovered what a huge energy user space heating is, (and that it couldn't possibly fit in my 3 kWh/day budget) I couldn't help feeling like all of the rest of the electricity savings I had been changing had been somewhat in vain. While there are sustainable solutions to this problem, they, unfortunately, aren't ones which can be easily retrofitted to homes. Passive solar houses are a great solution and proven to work in northern climates, capturing the heat from the sun in thermally massive elements in the house and slowly venting the heat into the living space. However, in dense metropolitan areas this is a challenge as not all homes have access to solar exposure.

So many of the changes I made during this project got more difficult as the weather turned colder, local foods disappearing, harder to get around by bike..., but space heating may be one of the biggest challenges for designers in cold climates as fossil fuel energy becomes increasing scarce and expensive.

DAY 98_ SUMMARY: WASTE

2011-01-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

November 20, 2010

I feel that trash may be one of the easier ways to make big impacts with small (but consistent) changes to our lifestyles. In my experiment, I managed to; eliminate organic waste with worm composting, dramatically reduce food packaging waste by buying in bulk, and focused on reducing ALL waste, not just waste which cannot be recycled.

Starting a compost bin was quite an adventure having never grown up composting and being totally unfamiliar with it. I started composting without worms. I built a bin made of two rubber tubs which stack inside of each other. One is slightly shorter than the other and has holes drilled into it so any liquids drain into the lower bin to reduce sludge buildup. However, after a few weeks of 'composting' I had attracted a lot of bugs in my bin and the food was molding and rotting. Consulting with a friend who is a composting veteran, I realized that it is easier to start with some organic matter (dirt) already in the bin and that ventilation is crucial without worms. By this point, my bin was full of maggots (yeah gross) and we decided it was best to start over and do it the right way. My friend brought me some worms from his bin and I started with a little dirt, food scraps, my new worms, and some damp newspaper for bedding. Once I had enough accumulated compost I could stop adding newspaper and the worms have done the rest of the work for me for 4 months now. Some of the common misperceptions about composting are:

Common Misperception #1- It doesn't matter if you compost because organics will just decompose in the landfill.

I thought this for a long time until I learned that decomposition can only happen in environments with oxygen. Since landfills are so tightly packed with matter, they become anaerobic environments, turning any organic matter into sludge at best (or simply not decomposing at all). Because of this, that banana peel you are throwing away might as well be a milk jug because it isn't going anywhere.

Common Misperception #2- Compost will accumulate and I have no where to put it!

Worm composting is somewhat magical, in that the worms seem to moderate their population to eat as much waste as you throw in the bin. More food=more worms, less food=less worms, and after 4 months, my compost is at the same level it was at month 1. The compost becomes a dense, nutrient-rich mixture which is perfect organic fertilizer for indoor plants or to use in a backyard garden in the spring. However, accumulation has proven not to be a problem.

The second big change to reduce waste is getting in the habit of buying in bulk. Luckily, I live 2 blocks away from one of the most awesome coops in Minneapolis-The Wedge, where there is a huge focus on stocking local bulk foods. For over 3 months I was able to buy only local food and make no packaging waste by; buying milk in reusable containers, bringing my own egg trays, and using mason jars to fill up with bulk foods, spices and oils. The only exception was cheese (which in the future could be packaged with compostable wrap). I found local breweries within biking distance which sold refillable growlers for beer or only bought drinks on tap, no bottles. I changed eating habits and learned to cook with what I could find in bulk when options get more limited. In the process, I learned to cook from scratch many recipes which I would normally just have bought pre-made: tortillas, fresh rolled pasta, crackers, bread, pasta sauces, pesto, scones...the list goes on. I eliminated countless preservatives and food additives from my diet which normally come in package foods. According to one of the managers of the Wedge, most of the food in bulk is much fresher than packaged foods as it is allowed to bypass a few steps of the shipping and storage process. Lastly, I saved money. Anytime you are buying any pre-packaged food you are also buying the container. A link to a blog post on this is found here: http://100dayswithoutoil.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-71your-also-buying-container.html

Lastly, I focused on reducing ALL waste, not just waste which cannot be composted or recycled. Although recycling is certainly better than simply throwing items into a landfill, there is still a significant amount of energy involved with transporting this waste. Recycling trucks (as well as garbage trucks) get around 3.2 miles per gallon, so a trip to even a nearby recycling center contributes significant carbon emissions and fossil fuel depletion. The better option is to find ways to eliminate this waste in the first place, only using what you absolutely cannot avoid. While there are not yet many alternative options for household items, food packaging has come a long way and ends up being the majority of our packaging waste anyway.

I collected all waste for the project and ended up with a box of glass bottles and another box of paper products, milk pull tabs, caps for jars and bottles, twist-ties and some plastic packaging. I ended up with half a paper bag full of material which could not be recycled, and about 3 paper bags full of recycled material.

100 days of trash

twist-ties from greens, milk sealers, assorted caps and a few plastic tubs

recyclable paper products and carboard packaging

bag of actual trash, which cannot be recycled, mostly plastic packaging

glass bottles, sunflower oil

In the end, while I have not figured out how to eliminate ALL waste, a major dent has been put in this impact by adopting different food-buying habits and feeding my worms!

NO IMPACT WEEK DAY 1

2011-01-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I promise I'll finish writing the last 3 posts of my blog ASAP, however, in the mean time check out what I'm blogging for 'No Impact Week'. Yes! Magazine has asked me to participate in Colin Beaven's (of No Impact Man movie) week-long experiment in living with less impact. I think it will be an interesting way to revisit my project after a month of living back in the real world, and hopefully permanently get back into some habits that I've lost touch with.

Here is a link to the first blog post, Day 1-Consumption:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/molly-blogs-on-no-impact-week

Molly

DAY 97_SUMMARY: ELECTRICITY

2010-12-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

19 November 2010

In a post cheap oil world we will be at a loss for many forms of energy we currently depend on, primarily transportation fuels. However, electricity in the form of renewable energy will still be plentiful, it is just a matter of capturing it. Being in a city, wind energy isn't a first choice option In one of my first posts I calculated how much solar energy could be captured utilizing my entire roof. I disregarded cost of the panels in this scenario assuming that without oil or coal electricity, people would be more willing to maximize their systems regardless of cost. However, I choose a middle-of-the-road panel efficiency of 8 watts/sq ft (I've seen up to 16w/sq ft). Dividing the total solar roof array by 6 people I came up with a personal electricity budget of 6.82 kWh per person per day. This number seemed pretty high, however, and would actually cover our current electricity use according to our bills. Because of this and to take into account less efficient panels which are more reasonably priced currently I cut this number in half to come up with an electric budget of 3.4 kWh per day.

Similarly to my water calculations, I then measured all of my daily electricity use with a Kill-A-Watt Meter to come up with metrics.

I found that I use about 6.7 kWh per day. Unlike water use, however, the small-wattage devices such as light bulbs really add up because they tend to be the ones which are on for the most hours of the day. Regardless, it is still interesting to experiment with alternative ways of accomplishing tasks without electricity. Before the project I calculated that I typically have about 6-7 light bulbs on at any given time the hours that it is dark outside. I reduced this use to making sure I only had two light bulbs on at a time. One of the things I tried to supplement this light was making my own candles-out of soy wax because regular wax is a petroleum product. I used only candles for light for a few weeks but found that I needed at least one light bulb on for reading.

I researched how much energy was involved with various methods of cooking: toaster oven , electric oven, stove burner and microwave. I found that microwaving is about equal to the energy use of an electric stove top burner. An electric oven is about twice this energy. On Day 24 I blogged about the rise of electric use in homes throughout the last 50 years. With more and more appliances using electricity instead of manually operating, the small uses end up added up to a lot.

I eliminated some uses of electricity entirely including; hair dryers, use of the oven, cut light bulb use 75%. I began using a mini fridge instead of the large one and saved 2/3rds of the energy for refrigeration. There were added uses of electricity during the project as well. I started using a high-intensity fluorescent grow light to grow food indoors and had to make up for this use with my other electricity savings.

Below is a chart of before and after electricity use:

Lastly, I explored the use of solar power by visiting the PassiveHaus in the Woods as well as volunteering with the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society at their state fair exhibits. I tried out my own application of solar power on a small scale by building a solar-powered stereo which mounts on my bike. These experiences gave me an understanding of the potential of solar power, but also how far we have to go to meet our current energy needs.

DAY 96_SUMMARY: WATER

2010-11-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

18 November 2010

Water proved to be one of the easier tasks to accomplish during the project. With my water budget at 15 gallons a day (calculated from average rainfall amounts and divided into # of residents in my house), I was able to stay within this water range fairly easily for the ffirst two months of the 100 days (August 15-Oct 15).

By tracking all water use and measuring the flow rates of all water fixtures I was able to identify what daily uses were big water users and target those for saving water. I calculated that before the project I used 54.4 gallons of water a day, and there were three primary suspects for this water over-use: showering (20 gallons), laundry (6 gallons) and toilet flushing (10 gallons). All of the other uses (except dish washing) of water were under 1 gallon per day which didn't leave much room for changing habits. Therefore, by focusing on how to decrease my water use for showering, laundry and toilet flushing alone I could significantly decrease my water use.

For showering, I took 1 gallon bucket showers. I used a bucket and sponge standing in the bath tub and found that this was more than enough water to wash up every morning without washing my hair. With pretty dry hair I could pretty easily get away with only washing it once a week, so Sunday's became the big 'wash day'. Once a week I would heat 5 gallons of water using a solar camp bag and take a longer bucket shower to wash my hair. I realized when changing my showering habits that taking a long morning shower was more of a ritual than serving a real important purpose. Rinsing off with significantly less water did the trick just as well and saved 95% of the water.

I changed my laundry habits from using 42 gallons/load in the washing machine to only about 12 in a 5 gallon bucket hand washing. Hand washing allowed me to use about 1/2 the detergent I normally use as well. My method was to fill the 5 gallon bucket with clothes and detergent, let it soak and then use my feet to stomp it. I was surprised to see how dirty the water got even when my clothes didn't seem that dirty. After the water was pretty dirty I would dump and refill the bucket with 2-3 gallons of water and squeeze and shake the clothes by hand to get the rest of the detergent out. Lastly, I rinsed with another 3 gallons of water and hung clothes to dry in the bathtub. Less convenient than throwing clothes in the washing machine? yes. But it was sort of a stress reliever and satisfying to actually see my clothes getting clean and knowing it was only using my energy.

Lastly, toilet flushing uses 2.6 gallons of water per flush. I cut this use by a gallon by putting a milk carton filed with water in my tank to lower the water level for each flush. I estimated that before the project I flush about 5 times a day. To cut down I fell back on an old saying, "If its yellow, let it mellow..." which went over fairly well with my roommates (they are doing it now too). These changes reduced my toilet flushing water from 10 gallons down to only 3.2 (two flushes per day).

However, as the weather changed, so did my priorities concerning water use. While it was easy to shower with 1 gallon of water in warmer weather, I found myself spending the whole day cold after a cold morning rinsing. I changed my showering habits to taking 3 minute showers twice a week. I installed a cheap flow shut-off valve on the shower head which allowed me to turn off the water when I wasn't rinsing (and not have to run water again to get the right temperature back). I also found that in cooler weather as I began preserving foods with less fresh produce available, I needed less water to rinse vegetables.

DAY 95_SUMMARY: TRANSPORTATION

2010-11-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

17 November 2010

45% (19.15 gallons) of every barrel of oil (42 gallons) is gasoline. This means that the petroleum created to run our cars is by far the largest single use in each barrel extracted from the earth. While transportation isn't the biggest total energy user in our daily lives, it IS the biggest petroleum user.

While I biked quite a bit before this project started, it makes a big difference to be riding every time you want to get around. Without using cars and buses as back up transportation for cold or wet days, bicycle commuting takes on an entirely different face. I think a lot harder about whether I really NEED to go somewhere, ended up staying home many days that I didn't have classes instead of going somewhere to work. I started to modify my schedule so that I could ride around with other bikers and didn't have to bike alone (especially at night). Unlike driving, the routes taken depend on the weather and the time of day. While bike paths in Minneapolis are best during the day and during rush hours, well-lit main streets were a better option for late night rides home (even with traffic). As soon as it gets snowy and icy, I had to factor in another 10 minutes of riding time. Bicycle commuting changed the way I dressed. While it is easy to bring a change of clothes, I was often only going somewhere for a few hours and it didn't seem worth it to carry. Consequently, I pretty much wore the same few things for at least 2 months once the temperature started cooling off.

Workout? Kind of. There is so much starting and stopping that it isn't really much of a workout compared to the 30 minutes I would have spent on a treadmill. Yes, obviously its better than sitting in a car and still is nice to get out and be outside for an hour or two a day. I felt much more connected to the changing of seasons and it was really nice to watch the sun rise every morning while biking down the greenway.

My conclusion: Biking is absolutely the best way to get around while the weather is good (or even decent). For those brave and bad ass enough to keep going as the temp drops under 20 and the ground is covered in ice (as 1/3 of Minneapolis bikers do), I admire you, but would rather get on a bus December through mid March.

Below is a graphic of the miles I biked each day for 100 days: There starts to become a pretty clear pattern at the end of project when it starts getting colder I only bike to campus and back on days that I need to, whereas in the beginning of the project I was much more willing to run errands and take longer trips around the city.

I biked a total of 1,150 miles in 100 days. An average of 82 miles per week and 11.7 miles per day.

My car gets 34 miles per gallons. This means that if I would have driven this 1,150 miles I would have used 33.82 gallons of gasoline (about 3 trips to the gas station for me). I didn't travel as much as I would have had I been driving. Just to estimate what I may have used. I used to fill up my tank about every 3 weeks, so 4.6 fill ups of 12 gallons of gas would have been 56 gallons of gasoline.

DAY 94_SUMMARY: FOOD

2010-11-28T15:44:00.000-08:00

16 November 2010

For the last few posts I would like to think back and summarize how my life has changed during this project and what I have learned...

I'll begin with what was both the most difficult part of this project, and the most enjoyable- food.

Looking back, having started the project in the middle of August it should have been REALLY easy to find local foods. The middle of August in Minnesota is just about the peak of local food production, almost all vegetables can be found locally grown. However, despite this plentiful bounty of local produce it was really difficult to get a handle on what things I could prepare with it using other ingredients (cheese, flour, oils, dairy....). It took a while to seek out and find local milk, local flours in bulk, local butter in a compostable wrapping. I compromised on the cheese, because although there are many local cheeses available they are all wrapped in plastic. This became the only item I bought in packaging.

After the first few weeks of the project I had figured out where to get most of the ingredients I needed for cooking locally and without packaging. Many of the things I had a habit of cooking with however; olive oil, rice, avocados, soy sauce and many spices were no longer available. I had to learn to cook many dishes that normally I wouldn't have prepared for myself. Potatoes with mixed vegetables became a staple. I learned to cook all bread products from scratch- loaves of bread each week, muffins, tortillas, crackers. Made a lot of homemade pasta sauces and tried pizzas of all different kinds. Below is a summary of many of the foods I made out of local ingredients during 100 days:

I had the idea to begin growing my own food indoors to have a food source after the growing season started to die down. On day 1 of the project I planted a variety of of vegetables: tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, beans, onions, greens, and herbs to see what would grow with the available artificial light I had. Having never grown a vegetable in my life I learned about gardening by watching my little sprouts slowly start to become recognizable vegetables. I made plenty of mistakes growing the first few batches of seedlings and the grow table has gone through a few evolutions of goals. My first idea was to have a variety of vegetables and keep whatever grew the best (not knowing if anything would have enough light to fruit). After accidentally scalding the majority of my first seedlings (I left the plastic seed flat cover on too long), I began to reevaluated what kinds of plants would be most practical to my situation. Because most vegetables are able to be stored (whether dried, frozen or canned), I decided to focus on growing what couldn't be stored very well-greens. I started to grow a lot of microgreens which grow quickly and can be harvested after only about a month. This was going fairly well until I was infested with aphids. My continuing battle with aphids was one I didn't know I was going to have to have with indoor plants. While it was easy to pick the aphids off of most of the single plants, they were almost impossible to get rid of on the densely planted microgreens. I ended up having to get rid of a lot of the greens and went back to focusing on growing some vegetables.

Around day 85 I got my first flowers on vegetables and realized that without insects and wind to pollinate plants I would have to play the role that nature usually does. After 90 days I finally have my first fruiting plants with a little bell pepper growing! This is really exciting because I was starting to doubt that any vegetables would have enough light to produce fruit.

My new plan for the grow table is to make a habit of planting a few new vegetables every month, so I can have a continuous supply of at least some fresh produce. Below is a timeline of the grow table over 100 days:

click to enlarge

Lastly, it was interesting to explore restaurants that advertised themselves as local food focused. I found that there were many exceptions to their 'localness'. While 'local' dishes are offered year-round, they are only truly local when the food is in season. Many restaurants I ate at didn't offer many ( or any) local wine/beer, and all used olive oil instead of sunflower oil.

I learned to can, dehydrate and blanch vegetables for preservation, and tested how long I could store potatoes, onions and garlic. I ate only preserved foods for the last month and found that it would be really difficult to eat nothing 'fresh' for the 8 months of the year that fresh local produce is not available.

DAY 93_DO SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF (ELECTRIC COUNTS)

2010-11-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

15 November 2010

One of the interesting realizations I've had during this project is that we need to have different our attitudes about the various resources we use depending on our habits of use.

I blogged earlier about identifying the big water users in your lifestyle and working to reduce them as the most effective way to reduce water use (and live within our water budgets "Don't sweat the small stuff-Water use" (http://100dayswithoutoil.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-60dont-sweat-small-stuff-water-use.html). Electricity, however, seems to have the opposite story to tell. While there are some very high-wattage appliances I use regularly, they are often the ones that only get used for a brief amount of time, so they don't end up being the main energy users. On the other side, many of the seemingly small energy users (a single light bulb of only 60 watts, or even the fridge at 68 watts /hour) end up being big energy users because they are used almost all day. The small stuff adds up, wattages need to be taken into account but the time-of-use is critical in electricity counts.

The following pie charts show a comparison of watts per hour of energy users vs watts per day:

As you can see, the appliances with the highest watts per hour (hair dryer, toaster oven, microwave) are very different from the appliances that actually contribute to most energy use as seen in the watts/day pie chart. The biggest energy users when taking time of use into account end up being light bulbs (we have about 6 60 watt bulbs on most of the time), the refrigerator and the grow light. Each of these energy users are have fairly small wattages compared to some appliances, but add up to a lot throughout a day of use.

This chart shows the two values next to each other- Watts per hour vs Watts per day. The three biggest energy users are in the dashed boxes, notice how small the wattages/hr are compared to some other appliances that don't end up adding up to much!

DAY 92_HAND POLLINATION

2010-11-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

14 November 2010

I'm finally getting flowers on my bell peppers and jalapeno plants! Being that my plants are growing inside, however, means that there are no insects to pollinate the flowers into fruit-bearing plants. This is a problem that greenhouses run into because of the lack of insects, as well as some small city gardens where the insect population isn't in full swing.

There are two kinds of pollinating plants; " those that produce male and female blossoms, and those that only produce one type of flower. The former include plants such as zucchini and squash, cucumber, and watermelon. In the latter category are eggplant and bean. These are called "perfect", "bisexual" or "complete" flowers because everything is contained within each bloom. Hand-pollinating is not difficult for either type of plant, but the approach is different" http://vegetablematter.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-hand-pollinate-your-vegetables.html

The good news is pollination is fairly simple to simulate. One of the easiest ways is to introduce ventilation fans which allow the pollen to circulate from flower to flower. In the same way, shaking the plants which flower buds gently will allow pollen to fall. If this doesn't work, however, you can pollinate by hand using a small paintbrush or q-tip.

With plants that produce male and female blossoms, the females can be identified by a tiny vegetable bud growing at the base of the flower. To pollinate this type of plant, snip a few of the male blossoms off of the stem, remove the petals, and shake pollen into the female flowers. For plants whose buds have both male and female parts, I used a Q tip to transfer pollen from the male 'stigmas' onto the single female 'anther' in the center.

My understanding is that the blossoms will close up when pollinated and begin to grow the fruit. If the flowers are not closed up after a day or so, try pollinating them again.

Good luck little peppers!

bell pepper flower

green bean flower

DAY 91_FOR THE LOVE OF OIL

2010-11-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life,
life without work,
life for free.

The concept of oil expresses perfectly the eternal human dream of wealth achieved through lucky accident.

In this sense, oil is a fairy tale and like every fairy tale,

a bit of a lie.

Ryszard Kapuscinski (quoted in Crude by Sonia Shah)

deepwater horizon 4.20.2010

DAY 90_NO IMPACT MAN EXPERIMENT

2010-11-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

12 November 2010

One of the people to blame for me doing this project is Colin Beavan, writer of the book No Impact Man, and movie of the same name http://noimpactproject.org/movie/. A writer in New York City, Colin drags his wife Michelle and baby girl along as he attempts to change their lifestyles to be as 'no impact' as possible for one year.

In phases (an idea in retrospect that I would have copied), the Beavan family focus on changing the following aspects of their lives one at a time: Consumption, Trash, Transportation, Food, Energy, Water and Giving Back.

For one year, they don't buy anything new except food, eliminate trash as much as possible by composting and shopping at farmer's markets, get around only by bicycle and scooter, eat locally, turn off their electricity (including heat and refrigeration) and try to find ways to improve their environment both environmentally and socially.

Sound familiar? Yeah, I saw the movie last summer when brainstorming ideas for my thesis project and was immediately brainwashed. There are some really beautiful moments of their family becoming closer and learning about what they really need while doing the experiment that are captured in the movie. What could be looked at as drudgery and sacrifice they find ways to use their situation to their advantage, kicking a TV habit, losing weight, spending more time together, and reducing their desire for material things.

Although I got a lot of my ideas of how to frame my project from watching the Beavan's experience, I thought it would be more relevant to give the project a scenario that would give me clear 'criteria' or 'rules'. Although I focused initially on '100 days without oil', it has morphed into more of '100 days living within an energy, food and water balance'.

YES! Magazine has asked me to participate in (and blog about) doing Colin's one-week No Impact Man Experiment http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/. This is basically a one-week trial of what his family did for a year. Each day is a focus on a new aspect of the project. Hundreds of people across the country and world sign up to try the experiment which is held a couple times a year, and write about their experiences.

While I have some criticisms No Impact Man after doing my own version, it will be interesting to compare our methods. No Impact Man is an expereiment admittedly driven by guilt. The subtitle of his book is: Adventures of a Guilty Liberal who attempts to Save the Plant and the Discoveries he makes about our Way of Life in the process. While guilt is certainly a motivator for people, it isn't really a sustainable motivator. I outlined the motivation for my experiment to be one of understanding how to survive in a post-cheap oil world. By eliminating the 'guilt' or 'choice' factor, I am allowed to focus more on how we will make these changes, but have realized at the end of this project that it does all come down to our choices, and addressing that is extermely important.

Colin's experiment seems to more vaguely define what 'no impact' is, allowing himself to pick and choose what aspects of his life me would like to change. At the same time, they radically change some aspects of their life by not using any electricity. Because we will never have NO energy, I feel that it is more relevant to play out a scenario of what may be happening in our futures. Our projects are similar in that, neither one of us is trying to say that we WILL live this way at some point or even SHOULD live this way. It is more of a test of our dependencies on systems that we were born into and didn't necessarily choose. By taking many of the luxuries we have (because of energy resources of oil and coal) away for a while, we are allowed to see our attachment to them.

While his family goes back to their 'old' habits of living in some ways at the end of the project, they keep many of the changes and promote their experiment through their testimonials that their experience made them happier and healthier, gave them more time and saved them money.

Needless to say, I haven't necessarily come to all the same conclusions.

Starting Jan 3rd, however, I'll give No Impact Man a chance, for anyone who wants to join along, here is a link to the experiment: http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/

DAY 89_FOOD LOCATIONS

2010-11-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

11 November 2010

The graphic below is part 1 of a comparison of where the food I have been eating before and during this project is coming from. While all the food I am eating is labeled as 'local' below shows the locations of creameries, flour mills, farms, and orchards which have provided me with 'local' food throughout the 100 days. (click to enlarge)

The co-op defines 'local' as any product which

can be delivered to the store within a day of travel or
is produced in Minnesota or the bordering states.

While the majority of my food is coming from within about a 75 mile radius, there are a few notable exceptions. I was actually fairly surprised after mapping this out visually with mileage radius lines by how spread out many of the foods I am eating are. A 75 mile radius of food is still a very different scenario than local foods being sourced from within the boundaries of a community or metropolitan area.

Here is a brief breakdown of where each 'staple' food I have been eating is coming from:

FLOUR:
Whole Grain Milling
Located in Welcome, MN
120 miles away
http://www.wholegrainmilling.net/contact.html
PASTA:
Dakota Growers
Located in New Hope, MN and Carrington, ND
10 miles away
http://www.dakotagrowers.com/

MILK + HEAVY CREAM:
Cedar Summit Farm
Located in New Prague, MN
30 miles away
http://www.cedarsummit.com
GREENS, TOMATOES, PEPPERS, ZUCCHINI, ONIONS
Garden's of Eagan (Our co-op owns this organic farm)
Located in Farmington, MN
30 miles away
http://www.gardensofeagan.com/index.php
EGGS:
Harmony Organics
Located in Morristown, MN
50 miles away
http://www.harmonyorganics.org/5.html
BUTTER:
Hope Creamery
Hope, MN
70 miles away
http://www.wedge.coop/grocery/hope-creamery
APPLES, PLUMS:
Hoch Orchards
LaCrescent, MN
125 miles away
http://www.hochorchard.com/

SUNFLOWER OIL, POTATOES:
Driftless Organics
Soldier's Grove, WI
150 miles away
http://www.driftlessorganics.com/

CHEESE:
Hard cheese from Sartori Cheese
Located in Plymouth, WI
275 miles away

Slicing and Cheddar cheese from Widmer Cheese
Located in Theresa, WI
250 miles away

All of my food is coming from within a 300 miles radius. While it's still better than the 1,500 mile radius that defines the average American dinner, it still isn't anything to be yelling about. While my cheese and veggies aren't coming from California or Florida, they are still a stretch of the term 'local'. However, any of these farms and businesses COULD be located around Minneapolis. They aren't, simply because there still is not enough of a demand for it. For most people, the motivation for buying local is to support local economies and eat fresher food. The scale of local foods operations cannot possibly compete with large-scale food production companies which distribute their products to stores all across the nation. As out transportation fuel sources become increasingly expensive, however, the motivation could become more economically based.

On the upside, I get to eat a buch of super-tasty, local foods. These businesses are often very small-scale, family run operations. They take pride in the foods they are growing and making and you can tell by the taste. It is interesting to go on the websites and read the stories of these businesses, they are often very transparent about their processes and growing methods.

Some great websites on local foods in MN are here:

http://www.localfoods.umn.edu/
http://www.mnproject.org/
http://www.slowfoodmn.org/local.html
http://www3.mda.state.mn.us/mngrown/
http://www.mfma.org/

DAY 88_HOW LIVING WITHOUT OIL IS LIKE CAMPING

2010-11-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

10 November 2010

6 reasons camping is like living no oil (and the lessons I learned from sleeping in the dirt)

1_You shower less

Camping may be many people's only experience going a week or more without showering-it was mine before this project. With no easy access to water/showers and the fact that you are going to get all sweaty and grimy every day just after you get up, whats the point? I haven't necessarily felt smelly or dirty taking quick showers twice a week during this project. The harder part was just ditching the habit. I had a firmly established morning ritual and routine which was ingrained into my head since sometime around 7th grade probably which included getting all wet every morning and then drying off again. Don't get me wrong, when it's shower day I'm ready and its time, but getting another 20 min of sleep every morning and saving energy not having to dry my hair has been a change that I could get used to.

2_Cooking dinner is an event

Camp dinners are a big deal. Everyone is hungry, there is only one stove and usually only one person has the food. This means everyone has to work together, spend some time making a good meal. The way food brings people together camping is a lot like how it has during this project. I've adopted the habit of cooking for at least a couple people probably 50% of the nights of a typical week. After all, if you're going to go to all that work, might as well be worth it to more people than yourself.

3_When the sun goes down, it gets dark

I mean, there aren't any other options. Headlamps are the original task lighting. The fire or lamp on a picnic table becomes the gathering place because it is the only place people can see (and its warm). Its harder to move around when the whole area (or house) isn't lit up. You walk to the bathroom, you gotta take a candle (or a flashlight). Areas with the most lighting (like our table with a bunch of candles on it) automatically become the places people go to.

4_Water is precious

Whether it is because you're waiting for it to rain or just haven't filtered enough water, water scarcity is a real issue in both camping and trying to live within your water 'budget'. Camping in the frozen meadows below Grand Teton where the water is either frozen or ICE cold is a real test of how badly you need/want it and an excellent exercise in conservation. Camping taught me how to do dishes in a no-oil world. Use leftover boiling water from cooking for hot wash water. Pour your rinse water and wash water into two basins (or use the biggest two pots that are dirty). Do cleanest dishes first. No running water needed. Why do we abandon these habits when we go back to our homes with running water?

5_Connection with the elements

You havn't truly expereinced snow until you have slept in it. And on it. And under it. I'm not trying to promote this in any way, it was actually kind of miserable, but gave me a totally different perspective of the kind of weather we have here. We've done a great job at protecting and isolating ourselves from the elements. After all, that's how we survived. However, the more isolated we become, the greater the sense of unfamiliarity and even fear comes from being out in the elements. Winter biking is a good example of this. There aren't many mornings that I look out the window and get excited to jump on my bike and avoid snow chunks. Once I am out there riding however, I realize how worked up I got about something that really isn't that bad.

7_You dress for the weather

Dressing comfortably and warmly for biking in freezing temperatures takes priority over looking nice. These are my sisters on a winter camping trip in northern MN, clearly, the same deal ;)

6_Cannot create any waste

When we go camping we make NO waste, we EAT our toilet paper. Well, maybe not. Regardless, it is easy to be aware of how much waste you are creating when you are on a backpacking trip and have to carry it with you the rest of the trip. Having to collect all the waste I create (even after eliminating as much waste as possible) has been a reality check for me (especially now that I have almost 90 days worth). We've gotten really good at packing food and avoiding packaging in these situation. There is also more motivation to avoid dumping stuff when in a pristine wilderness. However, it doesn't matter whether you throw that candy bar wrapper down a glacier or in an urban street, its eventually going to end up in the same place. Paying attention to some of the ways I found to reduce waste on backpacking trips was a good start for me when I started this project: Refill your water bottle, avoid individually wrapped items, and buy in bulk using reusable jars. Pack it in pack it out. Or in the no oil case-don't make it at all.

An interesting exercise would be to carry around all the waste you create in a day. At the end of the day, take an inventory of what was; organics, recyclables and trash. If you eliminate some of the waste you create, try to find an alternative. For example, ask if a restaurant can put your take-out in a container that you bring.

DAY 87_SNOW BIKES

2010-11-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

9 November 2010

The time has come, snow is here. What was predicted to be a few inches that melts on the ground turned into about 3 of snow that definitely isn't going anywhere, complete with a Snow Emergency Day. While it is nice not to be driving around in the craziness of the first snow (there was something like 1000 accidents), I'm not sure biking is a whole lot safer (although definitely faster) in these conditions.

snow bike!

more bikes in the snow

The City of Minneapolis has a page on their website specifically dedicated to winter biking
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/WinterBikingTips.asp What may surprise summer bikers is that 50 of the 60 miles of bike trails throughout the city get plowed just like city streets. According to some friends that are hardcore winter bikers, the bike trails are usually the first to get plowed. As it should be :)

The last two winter's I've lived in this ice-box of a city before this project I would bike until the end of October, and have never felt the need to tempt fate on a bicycle when it's icy and freezing outside. However, the more I meet people who bike almost all year round, the more it seems like a possibility even in Minnesota (if you have the right equipment and clothes). Census data shows 4,800 residents of Minneapolis regularly commute to work on a bicycle. The number for the entire metro is 9,700 bikers. A local group called Transit for Livable Communities estimates one-third of those biking enthusiasts continue commuting to work during the winter.

A couple of bullet points from Shaun Murphy of the Minneapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs: -- Minneapolis has 4,800 residents (2.5% of all workers) who regularly commute to work by bicycle, while the entire metro has 9,700 bike commuters (0.8% of all workers). So 50% of the regular bike commuters live in Minneapolis. [Source: Census data] -- Don Pflaum (City Bicycle Coordinator) estimates that about 15,000 bicyclers are seen each day during the warmer months in Minneapolis. [Source: Minneapolis Public Works estimate]

Here is a funny video of winter bikers:
http://www.startribune.com/video/12962607.html

http://www.icebike.org/ represents bikers all over the country who bike through the winter. Who are these people? In their own words:

"Most of us are just ordinary folks, who get this addiction to bicycles that simply will not live within the bounds of a summer. Others just don't want to spend the cash for a car and all the costs that come with motor vehicles. Some of us have serious personal commitments to being car-free, others have temporary problems of liquidity, and others of us just like cycling way more than any rational person should."

Cheers winter bikers, I'll join you for at least the next week.

I"ll leave you with this warm SF critical mass vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSmmz4vL74o

*Minneapolis bikers:

Use 311. If you see a bicycle-related problem which involves plowing, shoveling, signing, or another traffic concern, call 311. The City relies on the public to flag problems. If you live outside of Minneapolis, call 612-673-3000 A Minneapolis bikeway maintenance responsibility list is available for more direct call routing.

DAY 86_WHO NEEDS A TRUCK?

2010-11-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

8 November 2010

I biked 10 miles to get more potting soil the other day (local potting soil mixes sold at Interior Gardens in NE), and it got me thinking about running errands by bicycle (and how strange it was to bike 10 miles to get dirt).

There are a lot of ways to carry stuff on a bike. I see many people using burley trailers (with or without children inside), but without forking out the couple hundred bucks for one of those here is a great list of DIY bike trailers from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~armb/cycling/trailer.html)

Bike Trailer Blog DIY list (quite a lot of duplication with this list, wasn't around when I started)
Community Bike Cart Design
http://www.re-cycle.org/trailer/
http://www.carryfreedom.com/bamboo.html
http://www.eland.org.uk/pages/trailer3.html
http://trailers.xntrick.co.uk
http://practicalaction.org/docs/technical_information_service/bicycle_trailers.pdf (linked page isn't a PDF, it's now a text page with PDF link on it).
http://www.compbio.dundee.ac.uk/~dmamartin/trailer/trailer.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/ENK7HBIQG6EP286RJK/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Single_Wheeled_Bike_Trailer/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84649987@N00/tags/trailer/
http://moz.geek.nz/mozbike/build/shoptrailer/index.html (now in a small production run)
http://howtofixbikes.blogspot.com articles: one, two, three.
Bikes At Work have trailers which can be customised with your own platform or support on their "spine".

Some load carrying alternatives to trailers:

Xtracycle An extension that bolts on the back of a standard bike, allowing cargo bags much larger than typical panniers and a "deck" that doubles as a passenger seat.

ISON stock the Surly Big Dummy

as a standard

Loads Better have a variety of load carrying or heavy duty bikes, including the Xtracycle and (coming soon) the Yuba Mondo.
The Kona Ute looks like a similar sort of thing to the Yuba.
Surly Big Dummy, a frame dedicated to taking the Xtracycle accessories without needing the extension piece.
Stokemonkey is an electric hub motor adapted as a bottom bracket drive for a Xtracycle or similar (it won't fit on a standard bike frame).
Cargocycle, another extension, which takes a large box.
8-Freight, a purpose built bike with load area behind the cyclist.
http://moz.geek.nz/mozbike/build/binbike/index.html a bike with large load platforms above 20" wheels (built after his long bike cracked).
WorldBike aims at providing cheap xtrabike-like load carriers and other load-carrying bike technology to developing countries
A Cargo Bike for Uganda at the Bicycle Design blog
Project Rwanda and Kona Bike Town also have African bicycle related material (including wooden bikes taking huge loads in Rwanda).
Practical Action (formerly ITDG) have a bicycles factsheet as well as the trailers one above, which also has designs for load carrying extensions.
Xtracycle fitted to LWB recumbent, and a Greenspeed load carrying trike
Homemade (I assume) longtail on Instructables, but no details
BikeRescue prototype longtail on Velovision

Here are some examples of people carrying ridiculous amounts of stuff on bicycles:

plumber with an xtracycle http://www.xtracycle.com/

people moving using bikes http://tricolour.net/photos/2003/05/10/hpv.html

And finally, lets not forget that bicycles and walking are major forms of transportation all around the world. Next time you think you need to drive your car to run those errands, consider this, (from http://www.aliraqi.org/forums/showthread.php?p=147793536):

this guy is carrying a washing machine

DAY 85_DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

2010-11-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

7 November 2010

Daylight Saving Time means a lot more to me this year than it has before. Before DST, the sun was barely up when I was hoping on my bike in the morning, and I would spend at least the first 15-20 min riding in the dark. Although the sun set 'later' before, I am usually coming home late at night anyway. Starting today, I get daylight in the morning and can ride at least half of my commute in the light!

The reason behind Daylight Saving Time is all about energy;

"In general, energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. In the average home, 25 percent of all electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.

Studies done in the 1970's by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Savings Time " (http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html)

The time for DST has gone through many changes over the years. When President Reagan changed DST from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April in 1986 it is estimated to save nationwide about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.

The time was changed again to start on the second Sunday in March and was extended to end on the first Sunday in November starting in 2007, which it is still at today.

Although the days will continue to have less daylight until the darkest day (Dec 21), my mornings are a little easier, and I use less light in the am. Biking around in the daylight feels a lot safer, whether or not it actually is. In general, I feel much more connected to the seasonal changes and when it gets dark now. Although lights are a small part of my energy budget (especially now that the heat is on), it makes a big difference for biking around, and brings the morning temperature up above freezing :)

DAY 84_FIRST HARVEST!

2010-11-15T10:38:00.000-08:00

6 November 2010

After eighty-four days, I have my first grow-table harvest! Yeah, its only cilantro, but you can't get that at any grocery store these days so it feels like a big deal :)

Some 'minnesota-in-the-winter-fajitas' were made with it:

_homemade tortillas
_stock of frozen bell peppers
_stored onions (they are starting to rot)
_cilantro
_hot peppers (dried)
_tomatoes (found local ones again at the grocery)
_sour cream

By direct-sowing seed, the plants I have started over the last few weeks have been growing WAY faster than the ones I started as small transplants at the beginning of the project. After only 1 month I have an 6" high tomato:

and a crazy green bean:

Some of the veggies planted at the beginning of the project (jalapeno and bell peppers) got transplanted into 10" diameter pots which should be big enough to hold them for the rest of their life. I'm testing two bell peppers to see how they do in different sized pots. They were both planted at the same time. Greens and herbs can be grown in the 6" diameter pots, but vegetables should ideally be put in 10-12" ones. It is still yet to be seen if the plants have enough light to eventually fruit, finger's crossed for that.This jalapeno has buds starting on it:

jalapeno (planted 8/15)

The romaine I started on August 15th is probably ready to harvest as well:

Here is a shot of the whole garden as it is now. I especially like these shots because you can see the snow in the background. Having never grown a plant in my LIFE before this project, I'm feeling pretty good about being able to grow them in the snow :).

DAY 83_THE PETROLEUM IN OUR ROADS

2010-11-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

5 November 2010

"The highway network is one of the most significant achievements in the history of the civil engineering field. Perceived as an imperative measure for the development of a robust economy, the highway network has become a primary mode of transportation and driver of the economy in the United States" (Energy Consumption of Asphalt and Reinforced Concrete pavement materials and Construction, Zapata and Gambatese, 2005). nearly 83% of all roads and streets in the United States are of flexible type (asphalt wearing surface), 7% are of rigid type (Portland cement concrete with or without a bituminous wearing surface) and approximately 10% are of composite type (bituminous surface on PCC base) (Zapata and Gambatese 1).

Humans have been using bitumen (the glue component of asphalt) since at least 3000 BC for small waterproofing tasks. It was harvested from places where petroleum had seeped to the surface. By 2500 BC it was being used to provide an impervious surface from which water could be collected. (Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them, M.G. Lay, pg 50). It is mentioned in the Bible as being used for waterproofing Noah's Ark, "Make yourself an ark...and cover it inside and out with pitch" and for building the Tower of Babylon. (Gen 6:14 as mentioned in Ways of the World pg 50). Asphalt has been around for a long time, but only since the early 1900's has the production of asphalt exploded to the level we use it today.

Asphalt is the 'bottom of the barrel' product from the distillation and fractioning of crude oil, and accounts for 0.95% of each barrel of oil (42 gallons in a barrel). 80% of this asphalt is being consumed in the United States for asphalt-concrete road pavings. Roofing Shingles account for most of the remaining 15% of asphalt, with a little being used for waterproofing of other objects. Asphalt used for roads is composed of 5 percent asphalt cement and 95 percent aggregates (stone, sand and gravel). The process of manufacturing this product requires a huge amount of heating energy in order to mix the aggregates and keep it in a liquefied state while storing, resulting in 4,000 mixing plants in the U.S.

While the Energy Information Administration reports that cement production ranks seventh among the most energy-intensive manufacturing industries (EIA 2002) in term of energy use per dollar of output, it is also the most widely recycled material. According to the Federal Highway Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 80% of asphalt removed each year is reused as part of new roads.

What will happen when oil is no longer cheap enough to use so extensively for road paving? It may be recycled for a while until it is unusable, but ultimately, we will have to find alternatives. Concrete roads are one that has also been in service for a long time, but today is not predominately used. The following graphic depicts an energy analysis of the asphalt throughout it's lifecycle and compares this with concrete roads. Information for graphic interpretation found in (Energy Consumption of Asphalt and Reinforced Concrete pavement materials and Construction, Zapata and Gambatese, 2005).

click to enlarge

There do exist some alternatives asphalt which can be made from non-petroleum based resources such as sugar, molasses and rice, corn and potato starches. It can also be made from distillation of waste motor oils which would otherwise be burned or dumped into land fills. These products are typically lighter colored, which result in roads with less heat from solar radiation reducing potential heat island effect.

DAY 82_PLANTS GO TO SLEEP

2010-11-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

4 November 2010

One of the things I really love about having the grow table in my living room is watching the plants go to sleep when the grow light turns off for the night. The sun is going down here at 5:00 now and the grow light is on until 7, so it is the last light the plants see every night. Almost immediately after it turns off, the green bush been plant I started 2 weeks ago (which is HUGE by the way) starts going to sleep. No longer needing to hold its leaves up to capture light, it bends them down like it is folding its arms and curling up for sleep. When I get up in the morning it it has spread it's leaves up ready to catch the light of the next day :)

DAY 81_COMPARISON OF MODES OF TRANSPORTATION

2010-11-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

3 November 2010

While earlier I looked at how the energy efficiency of driving a car compares to bike commuting, it is interesting to look at all forms of transportation and their efficiency.

We all hear about how much fuel it takes to fly, but is it really that bad compared to driving a truck/SUV or a regular car? A Boeing 747 travels at 560 miles per hour and uses 3,200 US gallons of fuel per hour. This is 5.7 gallons per mile, or 0.18 miles per gallon.
(Tennekes, Henk. The Simple Science of Flight: From Insects to Jumbo Jets, MIT Press, 2009 http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262513137chap1.pdf)
Converting into gallons per mile allows us to then compare the 'passanger gallons per mile', which is a more fair comparison for transport modes that carry more than one person. A 747 can seat up to 400 people, I used 350 in my comparison.

A fully loaded subcompact car with 40 miles per gallon (good gas mileage) gets 0.025 gallons per mile (inverse of mpg). With four people in the car it gets 0.006 gallons per passenger mile, however, it is more rare that people are driving with 4 people, with only two the gallons per passenger mile comes in at 0.012. The plane with 350 people gets 0.016 gallons per passenger mile. Pretty close. So it depends on how many people your family is trucking out to Florida, but if you are comparing just driving vs flying, flying is actually a more efficient use of energy.

As for buses, according to this article http://www.coloradodot.info/programs/commuterchoices/documents/trandir_transit.pdf a typical Transit Bus is 40' and can hold 42 passengers. Miles per gallon for a conventional diesel bus is 5.1 mpg and 9.3 for a hybrid electric bus ("Performance and Fuel Economy Comparitive Analysis of Conventional, Hybrid, and Fuel Cell Heavy-Duty Transit Buses" By V. Dawood and A. Emadi, Grainger Power Electron. & Motor Drives Lab., Illinois Inst. of Technol., Chicago, IL, USA ). With around 40 passengers the conventional bus gets a gallons per passenger mile of 0.0049, and 0.0026 for a hybrid bus. So the conventional bus is
5.1 times more energy efficient than driving your car alone, and the hybrid bus is 9.6 times more efficient.

As for those people driving personal light pickup trucks and SUVs, these vehicles are over twice as inefficient than ANOTHER OTHER MODE OF TRANSPORTATION OUT THERE gallons/passenger mile count is 0.055, 2.2 times worse than a subcompact car and 11.2 times less energy efficient than riding on a conventional bus.

As for biking and walking, they have no competition. As mentioned in my previous post, biking (calculating human calorie energy expended) is equivalent to 759,493.7 miles per gallon and walking (burning 100 calories an hour) is equivalent to 314,782.17 miles per gallon. Biking is 19,230.8 times more efficient than driving your subcompact car and walking is 7,886.4 times more efficient. Walking burns about 60 more calories per hour than biking making it less 'energy efficinet', but as my roommate pointed out looking at these numbers, when it comes to your own energy, suddenly energy expenditure looks like a good thing. After all, its renewable :) Eat a sandwich.

The following graphs show the sequence of information translated from the 'Transportation Energy Data Book' put out by the US Department of Energy, Issue 29).

DAY 80_THE PETROLEUM THAT WE EAT

2010-11-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

2 November 2010

Yeah, eat.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found 212 environmental chemicals in people's blood or urine. While many of these are the result of breathing chemicals and rubbing them into our skin, some are actually intentionally eaten.

Aspirin
One of the most widely used medications in the world, the main ingredient in aspirin is a petroleum-based synthetic ingredient called acetylsalicyclic acid.
Lipstick
Some experts say that a woman can ingest up to four pounds of lipstick over the course of a lifetime. Petrochemicals are very prevalent in cosmetics. Examples include lip gloss, which is commonly made from petroleum oil, and nail polish, which contains petroleum-derived solvents such as toluene. Many cosmetics on the market contain harmful phthalates. The Environmental Working Group’s interactive website lists cosmetics by brand name and the hazardous ingredients contained in them. Visit it at www.ewg.org/cosmetics.
"One of the greatest risks from using cosmetic and personal care products comes from the daily exposure to carcinogenic chemicals and cancer precursors. Among the most widely used carcinogens are the coal-tar colors, listed on labels as FD&C and D&C colors. Although the FDA maintains that the risk to humans is minimal, the World Health Organization considers every coal-tar color a probable carcinogen" ("Toxic Cosmetics: If Looks could Kill" by Bonnie Jenkins - Advanced Natural Medicine Bulletin)

Chewing gum
While people have been chewing on resin from Mastic trees and a sap from a sapodilla tree to freshen their breathe since the ancient Greeks, for reasons of economy and quality many modern chewing gums use petroleum-based polymers instead of chicle. In other words, chewing gum users today are chewing a flavoured, synthetic rubber that is non biodegradable. (http://www.chewinggumbin.com/)
from the Vegetarian Resource Group
Most chewing gums innocuously list "gum base" as one of their ingredients, masking the fact that petroleum, lanolin, glycerin, polyethylene, polyvinyl acetate, petroleum wax, stearic acid, and latex (a possible allergen) may be among the components.

Vitamins/pills
Triacetin is a petroleum based chemical used as a plasticizer for thin-film coating on the surface of many pills.

Artificial Flavors/Colors

To give just one example:

Yellow 5 (tartrazine)(E number E102 or C.I. 19140)

Description:

-a synthetic lemon yellow azo dye used as a food coloring

Uses:

Food:-commonly found in: confectionery, cotton candy, soft drinks (Mountain Dew), energy drinks instant puddings, flavored corn chips (Doritos, Nachos, etc), cereals (corn flakes, muesli, etc.), cake mixes, pastries, custard powder, soups (particularly instant or “cube” soups), sauces, some rices (like paella, risotto, etc.), powdered drink mixes, sports drinks, ice cream, ice pops, candy, Peeps marshmallow treats, chewing gum, marzipan, jam, jelly, gelatins, marmalade, mustard, horseradish, yogurt, noodles such as Kraft Dinner, pickles and other pickled products, certain brands of fruit squash, fruit cordial, potato chips, Biscuits, and many convenience foods together with glycerin, lemon and honey products

Non-food products: soaps, cosmetics, shampoos, moisturizers, crayons, hand sanitizer and stamp dyes

Medications: vitamins, antacids, medicinal capsules

Alternatives: annatto, malt color or betacarotene

Mineral Oil-
A by-product of the distillation of petroleum. Taken orally as a lubricative laxative to ease constipation. Banned in Europe for the risk of absorption into internal tissues. Mineral Oil is used in the food industry, particularly for candy to produce a glossy effect and to keep candy pieces from sticking to each other (swedish fish). It is commonly as a preservative on cutting boards, salad bowls and utensils because it prevents water absorption. It is also added to canned foods to preserve them in place of vegetable oil. "Mineral oils" have been demonstrated in human tissues. While no demonstrable pathological consequences have occurred from the presence of such oils in human tissues resulting from ingestion, its storage is considered to be undesirable and exposure to mineral oils should be kept to a minimum." (http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v10je08.htm)

Toothpaste/Toothbrushes
Many toothpastes include ingredients made from petroleum, such as artificial colors and mineral oil. Baking soda or natural toothpaste is a better choice.
Pthalates are a particular group of petrochemicals that are known to have endocrine disrupting properties. Pthalates are used to make rigid plastics soft and pliable and are also commonly added to cosmetics. Pthalates are linked to elevated rates of endocrine disruption and are possibly carcinogenic. A Centers for Disease Control report found alarming rates of pthalates in urine and blood samples. Some common pthalates and the items in which they are used include: Di-ethyl phthalate (DEP): Toothbrushes, auto parts, tools, toys, food packaging, insecticides, mosquito repellents, aspirin, and volatile components of cosmetics – perfumes, nail polishes, and hair sprays

Plastic Wrapped food — An advertisement for the American Plastic Council calls plastic “an important part of your healthy diet,” noting, “ you could think of them as the sixth basic food group.” Yum! How true this is when you take into account the fact that plastics tend to migrate into food, especially meats, cheeses, and other fatty foods. More migration occurs if food is heated or microwaved in plastic containers. The safest bet is to avoid food sold or stored in plastic, especially plastic wraps, PVC, and polystyrene foam. Source: http://www.mindfully.org/.

Breast Milk
If breast milk from American women were bottled and sold commercially, it would be banned by the US Food and Drug Administration because it is contaminated with more than 100 industrial chemicals, including dioxins and pesticides. Despite the presence of toxic chemicals in human milk, breast feeding is a highly desirable practice. Breast feeding gives an infant immunity against gastrointestinal diseases and respiratory infections; it may also offer protection against food allergies. Furthermore, the alternatives (prepared formulas) are even less healthy. Source: Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News #193.

Meat and Dairy Products
Chemicals from the petroleum manufacturing process enter our bodies through the foods we eat, especially meat and dairy products. Chemicals such as pesticides and antibiotics tend to accumulate in milk and in animal flesh. Another way in which we ingest petrochemicals and dioxins is less obvious: The manufacture and incineration of PVC (polyvinylchloride, #3) creates and disperses dioxins into the air and water. From there, they enter the food chain and accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals.

some information found at: http://www.ecologycenter.org/erc/petroleum/body.html

DAY 79_SPACE HEATING ENERGY

2010-11-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

1 November, 2010

Well the heat has been officially kicked on by landlord gods. And, while I have been excited to once again live in a habitable environment, I have also been dreading this moment. Space heating uses a LOT of energy, and while I wasn't sure until now how much exactly that was, I had a feeling that I might be in for some trouble. We don't pay for our heating bill (luckily) but I was able to request the natural gas bills for the last year from my landlord.

The facts are these:

This statement reflects all natural gas use for our entire house; water heating and hydronic radiant heating (we have an electric stove so no gas included). My house is a duplex with equal floor areas of 1,490 sf each, so dividing by 2 gives a rough total for our level. As you can see, the gas is measured in 'therms' and there is a big difference in the winter months from the use in the summer. In the warmer months, the only gas use is water heating, so this gives an accurate picture of how much energy is used to heat water- an average of 34 therms per month for the whole house, so 17 therms for our floor . While I need to include all of the floor area 1,490 sf in my 'energy budget' because I occupy most of this space, I can divide by three for the water heating portion and assume that I use an average of 5.6 therms per month.

By converting therms into kWh, I can compare space heating energy to the other quantities of energy that I am using.....moment of truth:

So our house heats for 6 months out of the year and uses an average of 2,818.37 kWh during these months. January is the coldest month and uses 4,806.36 kWh. This means that on an average heating day we use 93.95 kWh EACH DAY. Water heating is year-round, and using average data from the 6 months of only water heating, the house uses 498.21 kWh each month. This means my personal use is one-third of that at 124.55 kWh each month, or 16.6 kWh each day.

Remembering back to my earlier graphs of energy use for various things, I've added space heating, water heating and the amount of energy it takes to clean water (1.8 watts/gallon according to a report- "Energy Use At Wisconsin's Drinking Water Faciltiies" Energy Center of Wisconsin (July 2003).

click to enlarge

As you can see, space heating trumps all other energy use (of the energy users I have identified so far). Water cleaning is shortly after. Space heating every week is 7.5 times the energy required for transportation. 704 kWh are required for average heating throughout the winter, which is 93.95 kWh each day. My energy budget is 12 kWh per day (the amount of energy we can capture on our roof divided by 2 apartments). Clearly, the energy required for heating requires a much different strategy. Like....not living in Minnesota?

Ok, without jumping to conclusions, there more efficient ways of heating spaces. Passive solar homes come to mind, where heat from the sun is absorbed and trapped inside building materials with sufficient thermal mass. Super-insulated homes such as the Passive House (http://www.passivehouseinthewoods.com/) also have the opporunitity to greater reduce heating energy by reducing the amount of heat lost through wall systems.

My first reaction to these numbers was to feel like nothing I have been doing up to this point has really made any difference. In comparison to how much energy is required simply to heat my space, all of the other energy users COMBINED don't even add up to half. However, there are other major energy users which are not yet represented on my graph. The amount of energy required to eat food from all over the country and world versus eating locally is a big one that I havn't pinned down yet.

My advisor mentioned a while back that many people on raw or vegan diets who want to eat local foods year round have relocated to places where this kind of lifestyle can be accomodated (like california where things GROW). I would speculate that in a post-cheap oil world, we may find ourselves in a position where we are re-evaluating where we have chosen to live- and the price we will pay both economically and energy-wise to accomodate living here.

DAY 78_WATER IN A POST OIL WORLD

2010-11-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

31 October 2010

I got a start on figuring out exactly how much petroleum depletion will affect water use and availability today reading Yes! Magazine's issue 54 "Water Solutions Issue". Sandra Postel makes a good point in the article "Will There be Enough?" that will there is quite a bit of attention on fossil fuel depletion, water waste and contamination is a far more pressing problem:

"In answer to the climate crisis, the economy will need to move away from fossil fuels toward solar, wind and other non-carbon energy sources. But there is no transitioning away from water. Water has no substitutes. And unlike oil and coal, water is much more than a commodity: It is the basis of life."

Also in the issue, they state that the average American household of four uses 400 gallons of water per day. This isn't hard to believe once you start running the numbers on individual water uses each day. For example, a household in Phoenix with a backyard pool loses 50 gallons a day to evaporation alone (if the pool is left uncovered as most are). A single load of laundry is 40 gallons, and each family member's shower is around 20 gallons each morning. A simple exercise of tracking water use throughout a day has gone a long way for my understanding of water use, and could make a big difference in watershed-wide water use and waste if more people understand how much water they are using for what.

Domestic water use however, is only one slice of the pie of water use in the nation. Minnesota uses 1,404 Billion Gallons of water each year. Of this only 15% (217 billion gallons) is domestic water use. The biggest user is power generation, at 60% of water use. "About 90 percent of US electricity comes from thermoelectric power: turning water into steam by burning coal, natural gas, or oil, or using the heat from nuclear reations." A lot of water is required for the production of electricity, both in steam generation and for use in cooling machinery to prevent overheating.

from http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/waters/watermgmt_section/appropriations/wateruse.html

Ironically, not only is water needed to produce electricity, energy is also needed to transport the water from place to place. 1.6 kWh is needed to transport one cubic meter of water from the Colorado River to Southern California. That equals 6 watts per gallon. "the energy required to provide drinking water to a typical southern California home can rank third behind that required to run the air conditioner and refrigerator. An even more energy intensive method of 'producing water' is desalination. To convert salt water to drinkable water takes 2 kWh per cubic meter or 7.6 watts/gallon. While this might not seem like much, with 400 gallons used a day, at 6 watts per gallon that is a total of 2,400 watts or 2.4 kWh per day just for water transport.

This all makes collecting water right where it is delivered to you via rainfall much more appealing. Why not take advantage of the 'free' distribution processes of nature? Collecting water on your roof is not only very clean (if filtered for sediments) but also uses NO energy to transport.

While the 6 watt number is for southern California for the sake of comparison while I dig for Minnesota-specific numbers I would be using a total of 324 watts of energy every day to provide the 54 gallons/day I was using before this project. During the project (if I were actually collecting the 15 gallons average rainfall from my roof) I am using no energy, and only 27% of the water.

Even more shocking is the statistics outlined in Hoakstra and Chapagin’s article "Water footprints of nations, 2006". "One cup of coffee requires for instance 1401 gallons of water in average, one hamburger 24,001 and one cotton T-shirt 20,001". The 400 gallons of water used in an average household each day could be saved by skipping out on ONE quarter-pound hamburger. The following table of water use for various products is from Hoekstra and Chapagain’s article, found online here: http://www.waterfootprint. org/Reports/Hoakstra_ and_Chapagain _2006.pdf

Table 2 Global average virtualwater content of some selected products, per unit of product
Product Virtual water content (litres)

1 glass of beer (250 ml)                        75
1 glass of milk (200 ml)                          200
1 cup of coffee (125 ml)                          140
1 cup of tea (250 ml)                              35
1 slice of bread (30 g)                             40
1 slice of bread (30 g) with cheese(10 g) 90
1 potato (100 g)                                      25
1 apple (100 g)                                        70
1 cotton T-shirt (250 g)                         2000
1 sheet of A4-paper (80 g/m2)                10
1 glass of wine (125 ml)                           120
1 glass of apple juice (200 ml)                  190
1 glass of orange juice (200 ml)               170
1 egg (40 g)                                            135
1 hamburger (150 g)                               2400
1 tomato (70 g)                                         13
1 orange (100 g)                                     50
1 pair of shoes (bovine leather) 8000
1 microchip (2 g)                                    32

DAY 77_COMMUTING MAP

2010-11-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

30 October 2010

Bike commuting is an event. Unlike getting on only a few roads (or a freeway), biking to campus every day is about a 18 step process, full of exciting and varied experiences, not all of them good, not all of them bad, I'd like to describe some of the first 45 minutes of my day with these annotated maps....

AM MAP (click to enlarge):

am route

My morning bike ride starts in the dark these days. Leaving at 7:30 am I have to turn bike lights on and (later in the ride) am battling the early-morning sun in my eyes. I am able to take bike paths most of the way with only a few obstacles. The hardest part is the climb up to the St. Paul campus. Two big hills stand in my way (Cleveland Ave and a short hill on the St. Paul campus) see map. After the Greenway I can take surface streets to connect to a transit way between the campuses. This road only allows bike and buses. Although lots of people agree this is a good combination, I consistently totally freak out anytime a giant accordion bus passes me on this road. Yeah, they see me, but lets face it, if they didn't -just once- there are no second chances. After 8 miles, my ride in the morning ends at a water tower. Top of the world, no easy task getting there.

PM MAP:

pm route

On the way home I get to reap the benefits of climbing hills and can coast a good 1/4 mile at the beginning of the ride. Riding home is always easier because I have biking buddies. My friend Amber has a tradition of singing me a new song every ride and I always have people to ride back to Uptown with at the end of the day. The colder it gets, the more people band together to find a common time to bike home together, for some reason this makes a cold, dark ride home SOOO much easier. With darkness comes choices as well. The greenway bike path isn't a very safe option for riding after dark, known for hassling and crime and not very well lit. We usually choose to ride down Franklin avenue, a busy, but well lit street. Definitely not a great option during rush hours because the roads are full of potholes and you need room to maneuver.

Its getting cold enough that I don't even break a sweat after biking for 8 miles to school anymore. Rumor has it it might snow next weekend, time will tell but finger's crossed for another 2 weeks without ice. Pray for me.

DAY 76_BLANCHING THE VEGGIES

2010-11-02T12:08:00.000-07:00

29 October 2010

The next step in my food preservation efforts was to blanch and freeze the bell and hot peppers. I have frozen peppers before, but never blanched them first. Again-the National Center on Home Food Preservation at www.uga.edu/nchfp is a great resource. According to the Center, "Blanching (scalding vegetables in boiling water or steam for a short time) is a must for almost all vegetables to be frozen. It stops enzyme actions which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture." Blanching can also clean vegetables so they preserve longer, helps to slow the loss of vitamins, and makes them easier to pack (slightly softer).

The website has a list of recommended blanching times, for bell peppers it was 2 minutes (when sliced into 1/2" wide slices). Blanching is easier than canning:

step 1_clean all veggies and cut to the size you want

step 2_boil water according to the amount of veggies going in. Use one gallon of water per pound of vegetables (this is easy to determine if you look at your grocery store receipt to see how many pounds you bought. I had about four pounds so I did four batches in a 1 gallon pot.

step 3_put all veggies in the boiling water. A good way to do this is to use a wire mesh basket and lower it into the water, this way you can quickly get all the veggies out when the time is up and put them in the ice bath. When you put veggies into the water the water should return to a boil within 1 minute (or you don't have enough water)

step 4_start counting the blanching time as soon as the water returns to a boil. "Blanching time is crucial and varies with the vegetable and size. Under blanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and is worse than no blanching. Over blanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins and minerals." (NCHFP website) list of blanching times here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/blanching.html

step 5_when blanching is done, quickly transfer veggies into an ice bath to stop the cooking.

step 6_lay veggies out on a towel to get the water out, this help them not stick together when frozen

step 7_put in jars, let sit for a few minutes and drain water. Leave at least 1/2" of head space (room between veggies and top of jar)

step 8_fruits and vegetables which are frozen can last 8-12 months at 0 degrees F

As for my other foods:

Potatoes:
I am storing my potatoes in a cool, dark corner of my closet. They should be put in a place that gets very little light and is well ventilated. Potatoes can be stored for 4 weeks in these conditions, if I were to store them longer they would need to be in kept at lower than 50 degrees F.

Onions and Apples:
Supposed to last for at least 2 weeks if kept dry and away from the sun. I am storing the apples in my fridge and the onions in a box in the cupboard. The trick with these guys is they aren't supposed to be stored together or they will expedite rotting. I'm hoping they last me four weeks...we'll see

A great resource for vegetable storing is here:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/store/wisc_vegetables.pdf

however, it is somewhat contradictory to other sources, such as this one (which include many packaged food storage times:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/store/ksu_cupboard.pdf

DAY 75_CANNING DAY

2010-11-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

28 October 2010

I received a gift from the gods in the form of local, organic tomatoes yesterday at the co op. It is super late in the season for tomatoes, and being that we just got our first frost, I'm guessing the last of the bunches got picked in this batch. I stocked up on 24 tomatoes (enough to last me 1 month) and did my first canning today!

I used the great resources from the National Center for Home Food Preservation found online at www.uga.edu/nchfp.

Here is how we did it:

step 1_get really scared about Botulism:
There is some serious risk of botulism when canning. Botulism is a bacteria that can only grow in anaerobic (no air) environments and is a very serious form of food poisoning. There are botulism bacteria on almost all fruits and vegetables even if you wash them, but they only become an issue if they are not exposed to air. Because of this, sanitizing jars and peeling the skin off of produce is important when canning.

step 2_sanitize canning jars (pint size masons) by boiling them in water for 10 minutes.

step 3_put tomatoes in boiling water for 30-45 seconds (until skins crack) and then dip in a waiting ice bath.

step 4_slide skins off of tomatoes and compost them!

step 5_halve (or you can leave whole) tomatoes

step 6_choose whether you want to 'hot pack' or 'cold pack' tomatoes:
At his stage you have a choice. You can either put the tomatoes directly into the sanitized jars -cold packing. Or you can boil them for 5 minutes-hot packing. The advantage of hot packing is you get all the air out of vegetables (there is always at least 10% air in produce). This air can potentially cause problems with spoiling. I can't say I really understand this, but I opted to hot pack because I was scared.

step 7_strain boiled tomatoes and pack into jars. Here was the interesting part: I was able to pack 12 tomatoes into each pint jar! (they lost quite a bit of water in the boiling process)

step 8_ladle boiling tomato water to fill the space in the jars up to 1/2" from the top.

step 9_free any trapped air bubbles by squishing a small spatula around in the jars

step 10_screw lids on snugly (not too tight because you want air to be able to escape while boiling (this is how the cans pressurize), and place jars into a large pot of boiling water. I used a stock pot which would just barely fit 4 pint jars.

step 11_make sure the water level is at least 1" above the jars, cover and boil for 45 minutes (time starts when the water starts boiling). While boiling, be sure to watch that the water level doesn't get too low. I had to continuously replace water because my pot was too short and water was splashing out the whole time. You want to make sure the water NEVER stops boiling, so add little amounts of water at a time.

step 12_remove jars with a jar lifter and cool on a rack.

step 13_listen for the pop! This is the most exciting part about canning (at least we thought). When the cans cool to the point where the pressure outside is different from the pressure in the cans, they seal themselves by pulling the can lids down and making a 'popping' sound.

step 14_after 12-24 hours of cooling (yeah, a long time) test for the seal (unless you already heard them pop) by pressing on the center of lid. If it pops back up, the can isn't sealed and you will have to do it over again or eat the contents before they spoil.

food for one month!

jar lifter

canning setup

peeled + halved tomatoes

jars boiling

12 tomatoes in each jar!

jars after cooling (tomatoes have sunk to bottom like they are supposed to)

The whole process seems like such a fine-tuned method, doing it for the first time was kind of stressful. Plus we were really scared of botulism. Doing this every year at a certain time could become a really interesting ritual (as it used to be) and would have a huge impact on how much energy we use throughout the year. I noticed while at the co op buying tomatoes that the bell peppers were already being sourced from Holland. Holland!? That's far. Even after this project I would like to make a goal of canning enough foods to last for a few months each year.

It doesn't really make sense to me to can produce that isn't local however. Peaches and nectarines, for example, while good canning items are never grown locally so using more energy to can them doesn't make sense to me (except that at certain times of the year they become unavailable EVERYWHERE).

By canning enough foods to last a few months we can essentially 'extend our growing season' a few months. I have thought it would be hard to eat ONLY canned foods for an entire winter. However, mixing in a few fresh foods (fruits and such) with the canned goods could help make foods more appetizing and each "almost" local all year round.

DAY 74_IT FEELS LIKE LIFE TO ME

2010-11-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

27 October 2010

Definitely in a funk today. Lonely, tired, frustrated, everything seems hard. There have certainly been highs and lows throughout the last 74 days…

The first few weeks were difficult because I was immediately dealing with issues of survival: How do I feed myself with only local foods? How much water can I use, will it be enough?….I was excited to be learning many things really quickly, however, and the high of living a totally different life gave me the energy to keep going and learning…

After a few weeks I had an understanding of food issues enough to let those issues take a back seat and started to get really excited about the possibilities that many of the changes to my life were real benefits. I was eating better and felt like I had tons of energy all the time. Biking around in late summer/early fall it was warm; friends would bike around with me wherever I was going. We all had time on our hands (before the semester started) so I had a lot of people helping me out with little things, spending long, leisurely evenings cooking delicious local meals. I was really optimistic about the way this kind of life was really making me feel. I felt really connected to everything, connected to the people around me, to the food I was eating, the water I was using, the amount of energy I had to transport myself around everywhere…it was refreshing in a way I hadn’t felt before.

The last few days, I have really felt like things are starting to get hard. The last of the local produce is leaving the grocery store and I’ve had to spend the past few days scrambling to can and blanch vegetables (hoping they are enough to last the last 3 weeks). It’s hard to get out of bed in the morning knowing that the first two hours of my day and are going to be a lot of work (making food for the day, picking aphids off of plants) all the while being freezing cold from dousing myself with 1 gallon of water in an attempt to clean up. Then I get on my bike and go the 8 miles to class in another city in 25 degree weather, alone, in the dark. I would say my mood in the morning is almost directly proportional to how cold it is in my house (and outside).

I’ve had to abandon many of the things I guess I would call ‘rituals’ which meant something to me, however seemingly insignificant (like having a cup of espresso in the morning or grabbing a bite to eat between classes with friends). It isn’t that these things can’t be replaced with other things (except dietary restrictions), but the transition to a new way of life has definitely shaken things up for me.

Throughout the project there have been feelings of guilt if I’m not able to keep up with doing something. Feelings of helplessness or laziness when I simply can’t make myself get on my bike to run simple errands. Feelings of loneliness and isolation having to do many things myself because I am the only one living this way right now.

All of this has really made me think about what ‘quality of life’ really is, what do we do that really makes us happy? How much of our time doing daily activities are things that really contribute to our happiness. People do all kinds of crazy things seeking ‘excitement’ or ‘happiness’; going to expensive, crowded theme parks, dropping themselves out of helicopters, spending a lot of money shopping, substance abuse/addictions… the list goes on. What is interesting, though, is stopping to think once and a while when doing any of these things “is this really making me happy?” and “why is it making me happy?”, or, “why is this NOT making me happy”. I am realizing that not everything about living within our means is all butterflies and flowers-there is certainly a struggle. The real question is, ‘does this struggle do anything for us?’

My advisor Virajita would say-It makes us more creative.

Maybe in a post-cheap oil world, we will be living more creative lives by the challenges presented to us. The excitement we currently seek out doing bizarre and additive things we would be getting just living our normal day-to-day lives. “Creativity is the component that allows us to do anything we want”.

I have a new and deep appreciation for my Scandinavian and German ancestors who lived in Minnesota (and in similar climates in Europe before the) who struggled with many of the challenges I am faced with now, storing food, harsh weather…The difference there, as my advisor pointed out, is that they ALL lived that way. They weren’t doing this alone. Whole communities got together during harvest time to lend each other a hand with tasks they could not possibly accomplish themselves. Surviving was a way of life, built into their religion and rituals. And it wasn’t always easy, it probably wasn’t even always enjoyable, but it must have brought people a connection and happiness that they shared enough to want to keep living that way.

Talking about the project with a friend one day, she said, “When I think about your project, it feels like life to me”. I couldn’t describe it better.

DAY 73_REWORKING WATER USE

2010-10-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

26 October 2010

With the temperature dropping, taking 1 gallon bucket showers just results in me freezing to death. Somethings gotta give. Its a constant trade-off between being clean+freezing, or warm+kinda smelly :). If I wasn't biking around 12-18 miles a day this wouldn't be so much of an issue....

I've been trying a few different showering approaches, yesterday morning I soaped up with 1/2 gallon water then turned the shower on for another minute (2 gallons) using a total of 2.5 gallons instead of 1. This way I could at least warm up.

However, I'm realizing that my daily and weekly water-use is going to have to be modified with the seasons. Maybe May-Oct I use water in one way and from Nov-April I switch this around to allow for more showering water. Now that I have canned and stored most produce I won't need as much water for washing vegetables. Saving this half gallon a day results in 3.5 gallons a week more than I had before, giving me 14 gallons/ week for showering. The chart below shows the different water plans (click to enlarge):

With 1 gallon bucket showers 6 days a week and a 5 gallon bucket shower at the end of the week I was using a total of 11 gallons/week. My new plan is to shower twice a week using the shower head (2 gallons/minute. This is two 7 gallon showers. With my current shower head I can take 3.5 minutes showers. I got a shower flow control valve that will allow me to turn the water off momentarily to soap up without having to readjust water temperature (and waste water in the process). Putting a timer in the bathroom lets me keep track of how much water I'm using.

I am also looking at low flow shower heads, however, 2 gallons per minute is already considered 'low flow' because the typical shower head uses about 3-4 gallons per minute. There are some that allow for 1.5 gallons per minute allowing my showers to go to 4:40 minutes! So exciting.

DAY 72_GETTING COLDER

2010-10-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

25 October 2010

We've been getting some crazy weather here lately....

This morning we had a light sprinkle of rain and the temp was around 55. By the afternoon, however, winds were consistently 30 mph with gusts of 50 mph and the temperature had dropped 20 degrees (during the day!) to 35. Planning my bike home to when there was a break in the rain, I rode home realizing that transporting myself around during the rest of this project isn't going to get any easier...

While I didn't get rained on riding home, we found ourselves riding against 30 mph winds. Turning what is typically a 25 min commute (6-miles) into a 50 min one. Turning around a corner anytime I was going west STOPPED my bike. And swirling gusts of 50 mph wind literally blew me sideways off the trail (yeah I was in the grass). We were afraid to bike next to each other and rode behind to avoid blowing into each other. Pretty scary conditions to be biking in. I quarantined myself into my house the entire next day (which was also really gusty, powerful winds), refusing to go out and risk my life on the road :/ I found out later that day that the crazy weather was caused by the lowest barometric pressure on record being set at 28 some in Hg. Always one for a bit of history, my mom sent me this email,

"I heard on the news this am that we here in Minnesota have just experienced the lowest barometric pressure drop in recorded history! This has created ridiculous winds – comparable to a category 3 hurricane. The previous lowest drop in barometric pressure ever recorded happened during the storm system that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1974. Yesterday, there were already 15-20 swells on Lake Michigan, so we will see what today brings…"

On top of that, the first 32 degree temperature was reached this Friday morning, October 29, tied for the 9th latest below freezing temperature in the Twin Cities (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/updraft/). It really surprised me to hear that we have seen a warmer October than usual (the average first 32 degree temperature is Oct 6th). I think this just illustrates how much more connected I am to the weather day-to-day than I have been every before in my life, it never seemed this colder before! Each morning I check, not only only the temperature, but also be sure to take note of the wind speed and direction. I know I'm going to have a tough ride in the morning if there are strong eastern winds. While people are generally concerned with what the highest daily temperature is, I more often care what the LOW is. I end up biking in almost the lowest temperature every morning leaving around 7:30am.

This article on MPR's website (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/updraft/) mentions that snow might be a possibility during the project (ending nov 22nd). As they say:

"It's wayyyy out in the medium range forecast models and could be pure fiction at this point...but the models are hinting at the potential for our first big snow in southern Minnesota the weekend of November 13-14."

Crossing my fingers that that won't happen. While its already cold, dealing with ice and snow on the ground would be an even more precarious biking situation.

We are also slowly and steadily getting less daylight. When I am leaving in the morning now it is just dark enough to want to have bike lights on, and I try to make sure the leave campus before it gets dark. It's getting more stressful to ride when I feel like I am less visible to drivers.

EVERYTHING gets harder when it gets dark, and cold.

DAY 71_YOU'RE ALSO BUYING THE CONTAINER

2010-10-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

24 October 2010

My collection of containers has been slowly but steady growing throughout this project. Every couple weeks I seem to find a few items that come in bulk or reusable containers that I wasn't aware of before. Many items we typically buy in a grocery store come in glass containers, but before this project I never though twice about recycling containers when their contents were empty, they simply didn't mean anything to me anymore. The fact is, whatever we are buying we are PAYING for that container as well as the contents inside it. I have begun to feel much more connected to the containers I am buying because I have actually purchased them in the form of; mason jars, growlers or milk containers.

I have some old jars that belonged to my great grandmother which she reused over and over to store foods that she made or bought. They are decorations, as they may be in other people's homes as well.  They are just jars like the ones I buy, but because they are old they have a value that I don't associate with my new jars. By actually placing value on the containers, whether nostalgic or monetary- I am much more aware of the waste I am avoiding creating.

In the case of the mason jars which are less than $1 each, I may not be paying much more for the container buying it separately and getting bulk foods than I would be buying an item in a glass jar similar to it. In fact, because I only have to buy the container ONCE, the cost really pays for itself quite quickly. The milk jugs and growlers are a bit different. Each time I return a milk jug or growler I am refunded a deposit for the empty container and make a new deposit on the new container. The deposit for my milk jug is $1.50 and the growler is $4.   In this way, I am really not paying for the container, but simply renting it. By placing only a small monetary value on containers they suddenly become much more precious.

In our house, if a few of us end up buying the same milk we make sure to keep the number of milk jars that belong to each person straight . In the same way, the growlers of beer are taken home by the people who brought them after a party. A friend bought a jug of milk for me the other day in one such container.   After he dropped it off and left I realized that he had not only bought my milk but also paid the deposit on a container that I now had. I felt kind of guilty. When was the last time you left a jar of pickles at someone's house and they made sure you got the glass container when they were done with them? It wierd, buts it kind of nice. Placing value on more of the things we own I believe makes us increasingly aware of the value of every item. There is quite a bit of energy that went in to making all that packaging, the price reflects it, but we typically throw away this packaging without a thought. In a way, this also makes people more aware and responsible for the waste they create. Even $1.50 on a milk jug is enough to want to bring it back to the grocery store each time and trade it in instead of simply recycling it.

Below are some images of the reusable containers I have collected and the waste that is avoided by using them:

4 bottled beers saved by a reusable growler from a local brewery

milk cartons (not recyclable) saved by a glass milk jar

egg cartons to buy 'by-the-egg' at the co op

various sized reuable jars replace baking packaging waste

elimination of uncessary and excessive packing of individual tea packets (bulk with tea infuser)

DAY 70_THE TIME HAS COME FOR KILLING

2010-10-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

23 October 2010

Watering my plants today I noticed some strange green blobs. Very small, and on the underside of leaves. APHIDS! Upon closer inspection, they were almost covering the stem of one of my cilantro plants (that has already made a miraculous recovery from being improperly transplanted). I have no idea how aphids got into an indoor garden when the windows are never open? Not a problem I thought I would run into with the grow table. So I got out the garden book....

aphids on the cilantro

I've heard you can get rid of aphids and other pests by spraying a light mixture of soapy water on the plants. This kills the bugs, but it also can take it's toll on the plants if you aren't careful. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith, addresses ways to manage insect pests in a natural way by "creating a garden environment where creatures that protect plants and help them to grow outnumber and help to control the creatures that eat plants or disturb their growng; its all about creating an ecologically balanced garden" (157).

Insect pests prefer sickly plants to healthy ones, attacking the easiest prey (which may explain why they went after the cilantro). Stressed plants can be caused by fluctuations in soil or air temperature, to little or too much water, not enough nutrients, compacted soil or wrong PH. In this way, pests are 'symptoms' of a larger problem - the health of the plants.

Other tips from the book include:
_rotating plants from one part of the garden to another after each crop cycle
_deterring pest with herbs and flowers that have powerful scents (onions, garlic and chives)
_avoid planting all of the same type of plant in the same area (this makes it easy for pests to find what they want)
_avoid pairings such as (corn + tomatoes, potatoes + tomatoes +peppers + eggplant, and cucumbers + squash+ melons +pumpkins) which the same pests are attracted to.
_introduce beneficial predators such as; ladybugs, assassin bugs, parasitic wasps

However, if all else fails, as Edward Smith says in his Bible, "There's no nice way to say it: The time has come for killing." This, of course, should be done in a way that doesn't kill the beneficial bugs if possible. There are several methods for this:

_Hand picking. Place them in a tin full of water and a little soap so they are sure to die. The best hunting time is early morning, the bugs are "logy and tend to fall right off the plants and into the water. I turned my plants over and rinsed the leaves completely, then hand picked any others I could see. I mean, they are green so I can't be sure :)

_Natural or other pesticides, "we can't get away from the fact that pesticides we apply to our crops are poisons, whether they come from a chemistry lab or, like phyrethrum, from a daisy. Some botanical pesticides appear to do their work with few drawbacks: Garlic spray and hot pepper wax repel pests; insecticidal soap and neem usually kill pests without injuring other life-forms.

So that's all well and good. However, my garden is inside, meaning many of the 'solutions' proposed here are not applicable. I don't have the option of introducing beneficial insects without running the risk of them taking over the house. I can't really rotate my crops as they are all in pots. And, really? How did I get aphids in the first place? One culprit may be the greens I bring home from the grocery store. I've taken to the habit of placing them in a vase of water on the grow table instead of refrigerating them to save space in the fridge.

After inspecting all my plants closely, it seems that none of the vegetables were affected except a hot pepper plants I got from the farmer's market this summer. The greens got hit hardest. This is strange because the greens and the cilantro are on opposite sides of the table, meaning the aphids somehow went over the vegetables and only chose to attack the greens. The greens are a problem because it isn't easy to just pick or wash the aphids off. It is a jungle in there. Because I planted them as 'microgreens' they are extremely close together and hard to pick through. I'm not sure what I think about the micro greens anyway because they aren't really growing the way I assumed they would. Maybe I am planting the wrong crops to use as micros, but the collards, arugula and romaine are still not really tasting that great and are still quite small. My single romaine plant that is almost 8" tall after 70 days of growing, and the small micro-romaines are only about 4", still not ready to eat.

I am going to quarantine the micro greens at this point and treat them with a soap mixture spray. If they don't get better, its not a huge loss, and think that growing the single plants might be a better option anyway....

It hasn't been all bad in the garden lately, however. I have a green bean which I planted in a 3 gallon pot (to see if planting in large pots helps growth immediately). It literally grow before my eyes after popping out of the soil just 2 days ago and is now close to 3 inches tall! I also have a tomato and onion sprout that are looking good so far...

quarantined micro greens

single potted romaine after 70 days

weeds! another indoor garden problem I didn't think I would have

green bush been growth after only 2 days!

survivors

spinach micro greens after 30 days of growth

DAY 69_LOCAL BIRTHDAY DINNER PARTY!

2010-10-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

22 October 2010

My friend Kevin (who I have thoroughly brainwashed throughout the course of this project) had an all local-food/drink dinner party tonight for his birthday. Throwing a few 3'x6' plywood boards on some cinder blocks he made a make-shift table to seat 18 people in his 1 bdrm apt. Who says you need a big place or exotic foods to throw a great dinner party?

I helped him cook up some local foods for the party as follows:

Pizzas:

All Crusts:

1 1/2 cups water

2 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tsp maple sugar

4 cups flour (3 cups white, 1 cup whole wheat)

4 tsp active bread yeast

1_let rise in a warm place for 30 min

2_push into bread pan (or roll out to 1/4") and rise for another 30 min

3_spread sauce on pizza

4_place ingredients on pizza

5_bake for 20 min on 425

Spicy Tomato Sauce + Goat Cheese Pizza:
sauce:
4 Roma tomatoes

2 tbps cream cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 garlic clove

1/2 jalapeno pepper

toppings:
tomatoes (guts taken out)
goat cheese
sliced garlic
hot peppers

Pear +Gorganzola Pizza
_carmelize onions in a liberal amount of oil
_toss with diced pears in frying pan for last 5 minutes
_spread mixture over pizzas
_top with chopped walnuts and garlic slices

Pesto Pizza
Pesto:

2 cups packed basil

1/2 cup pine nuts (to be substituted with local ingredient)

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 cloves crushed garlic

1/4-1/2 cups sunflower oil (depending how creamy you want it)

toppings:

red peppers

sliced garlic

tomatoes

Maple Cake:

Cake:

3 3/4 cups self rising flour (for every 1 cup of all-purpose flour mix in 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 1/2 tsps of baking powder)

3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)

1/2 cup maple sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups maple syrup

3/4 cups hot water

Butter cream frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 pure maple syrup
2 tbsp maple sugar
2-3 cups powdered sugar

1_Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2_Grease and lightly flour (I use Recipe #78579) two 9-inch cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

3_ In a large bowl, mix together the flour and the ginger and set aside.

4_In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy.

5_ Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined.

6_Beat in the maple syrup gradually.

7_Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the water, beating after each addition until smooth.

8_Pour the batter into the prepared pans; prepare a hot water bath to be placed on the rack underneath the cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests done (the toothpick test).

9_Let cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

10_To make the buttercream frosting: mix butter, extract and syrup till smooth. Add powdered sugar (a few tablespoons at a time), beating on high speed (my handmixer has three speeds) till frosting reaches desired consistency.

11_When cake has cooled, ice between the layers. Ice top and sides of cake, sprinkling the top with chopped walnuts.

He asked everyone to bring a local wine or beer. Many people brought growlers of beer from local breweries which was great, no glass waste! A few people tried their hand at cooking some local dishes as well which were all excellent:

_fresh mozzerela, tomato and basil

_apple salad

_sage, basil, butter and roasted garlic crostinis

_homemade blueberry ice cream

With 36 homemade soy-wax candles, the whole dinner was by candlight, plenty of light for the whole place!

DAY 68_HOW MUCH FOOD TO STORE?

2010-10-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

21 October 2010

Expanding on my last post, I calculated an estimate of how much food I eat each week to find out how much I would need to be storing during months outside of the growing season. Although in this project I will not need to store food for longer than the last 3 weeks of the project (beginning of November to the end on Nov. 22nd), I would like to speculate on how much food I would need if I were continuing to eat only local foods through the entire year. Looking back on the records I've been keeping on what I am eating every day, each week I eat:

Fruit:
_7 apples
_(other fruit when available)

Greens:
_2 bunch of some kind of greens

Vegetables:
_6 tomatoes
_6 potatoes
_1 carrot
_7 hot peppers
_2 bell peppers
_3 heads of garlic
_2 shallots
_2 onions
_(other vegetables as they are available)

I am growing greens so those would not need to be kept in some way (and it would be hard to keep greens). However, for the rest, each month I would need:
_24 tomatoes
_24 potatoes
_4 carrots
_28 hot peppers
_8 bell peppers
_12 heads of garlic
_8 shallots
_8 onions
_28 apples

From looking back at my in-season food chart http://100dayswithoutoil.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-66how-food-comes-and-goes.html, I can calculate how much food I would need to cover all months that each food isn't in season. The results are as follows:

Starting on November 1st I am going to be using only stored foods for the remainder of the project. Here is the plan:

POTATOES:
According to the University of Minnesota Extension http://www.extension.org/faq/1206 you can store potatoes 4-6 months if kept in a cool (40 degrees) environment. Sprouting at high temperatures is a problem, and potatoes should be kept in the dark to avoid greening.

TOMATOES:
Canning seems to be the best way to preserve tomatoes. While a lot of energy goes into the initial canning process, afterwards, no additional energy is needed to store them (such as freezing).

BELL/HOT PEPPERS:
Freezing is the most practical way to store these. Hot peppers seems to dry well, but can only be used in certain dishes after losing all their water content.

APPLES:
Drying and freezing are both options. Dried apples can be used for variety of things and take up much less space than freezing.

ONIONS/GARLIC/SHALLOTS:
I have heard around that all of these have the possibility to be stored for up to 6 months when kept in cool (less than 40 degrees), and well ventilated locations. This doesn't seem to mean the fridge because there isn't much air circulation inside a refrigerator. A garage might work (don't have one of those). Root cellars were an essential part of homes before fresh produce was made infinitely available year-round. Built underground, or in a basement, they take advantage of the cool temperatures of the earth below grade. Because many crops like to be in damp environments, having them buried in damp sand is one method I have heard of.

Because I am only storing for less than a month, I won't have to worry about coming up with something close to root cellar-like conditions for most of the food, but this is an interesting consideration for designing homes in a post-cheap-oil world...

DAY 67_HOW FOOD COMES AND GOES...

2010-10-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

20 October 2010

How to eat locally all year long (storing enough food and growing enough food to last through the winter) is an form of great art. I have a few friends who have successfully done this but it takes a TON of planning and a good sense of how long it takes to grow everything (planting timing) and what time of year everything is available. The following graphic is a combination of one I found on the Minnesota Farmer's Market's website as well as my own experience looking for produce at the markets and coops.

The solid black line represents when foods are available in season. Gray line shows foods that can be stored for a significant amount of time. Hollow line shows what foods I am currently storing (canned, frozen or dried). Dashed line shows the plan I have for growing food on my grow table. While, the grow table seems to work best for greens and herbs, and I am still testing out what vegetables have enough light to produce fruit.

(click to enlarge)

DAY 66_LIVING WITHOUT OIL IS CRAMPING MY STYLE

2010-10-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

19 October 2010

Recognize this?

Yeah, its me.

Everyday.

Living oil-free is taking its toll on my stylistic expression of freshness. Temperatures have dipped into the low forties in the morning when I am waking up and biking to school (7:30 am) and our heat hasn't come on yet (as fellow Minneapolis renters can sympathize with, I can't wait for the morning to come when the radiators kick on for the first time, heating up all the old wood in this house to smell fabulously winterish).

I have been using hot water for my 1 gallon bucket shower in the morning (or heating it on the stove). Regardless, standing in a 60 degree bathroom soaking wet while sudzing up, it doesn't matter what temperature your water is, you're still going to be cold by the time you're done.

Freezing cold and deciding what to wear after this morning ritual of consistent suffering inevitably ends up being THE WARMEST THING POSSIBLE. Everyday. Which for me, as a cold body to begin with, is the same thing (with slight variations). I also have to consider the one time of day that I may warm up a little bit - when I'm biking). Biking 8 miles to St. Paul every morning without dressing in appropriate biking layers inevitably ends up in a sweaty mess.

So...thermal layers, warm socks and a fleece it is, it just isn't worth the misery of being cold all day wearing hardly anything else.

And its getting colder...

Wearing the same thing everyday does have its advantages, however. I only really have to wash base layers and socks and underwear. This makes it easy to fit within my weekly water budget for laundry (or even go two weeks without having to wash anything).

DAY 65_WHAT TIME OF DAY DO I USE WATER?

2010-10-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

18 October 2010

The graph below shows what time of day I am using my water throughout a typical day (click to enlarge):

There are three times a day when I am using the most water: right when I get up (6:15-7:45), dinner time (6:30-8:15) and before bed (10:00-11:45). During the day I am really only drinking water as I am doing most of my lunch cooking the night before.

I'm not sure yet how this affects the design of systems, but its an interesting analysis...

DAY 64_GROW TABLE MODS

2010-10-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

17 October 2010

About a month ago I put some mesh around the grow table to keep the cat off of the greens. Quille was happy because she was no longer banished to the kitchen during the day, greens were safe, but grow table was hard to access. So with the help of some furring strips, we made a frame for the mesh and doors! Now the grow table looks super great and is easy to get in and out of! Check it out:

before

finished table with doors!

open doors

I'm going to start some new vegetable seeds today as well, planting some of the varieties that died when they got too hot in week 3. Although my vegetables are growing REALLY slowly, I want to see which ones eventually fruit with the available light. It is likely that none of the vegetables I am growing now (except greens and herbs) will be harvestable during the project, but, lets face it: with a grow table like that, I'm committed.

DAY 63_THERE IS NO 'WASTE'

2010-10-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

16 October 2010

"In the process of nature there is no throwing away."

It was recommended to me by a composting veteran to read two books: Let it Rot by Stu Campbell and Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Applehof. I'm most of the way through Let it Rot so far. This is what I've found:

Each household in the US produces 230 pounds of yard waste and 100 pounds of food waste each year. Obviously, there are many residents like myself that don't have a yard, so our primary waste is food waste. This seems to be the ideal situation for indoor composting. Not too much waste being produced, and worms to speed up the decomposition of food.

Though the focus of Campbell's book is on creating compost for a garden, it is good information for indoor composters who simply wish to create less waste as well. Campbell goes through a list of 'beneficial compostable materials' which I will summarize here:

_ASHES: which coal ashes are toxic, wood ashes provide potassium and can be a pest deterrent. Burning skins of some foods is also a good way to release this potassium.
_FEATHERS
_GARBAGE :this is my main compost item in the form of food scraps
_GRASS CLIPPINGS
_GROUND STONE AND SHELLS
_HAY/STRAW
_HOPS
_LEAVES
_NEWSPAPERS: black ink in newspapers is contains Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are toxic. There is some debate about how these molecules break down and are neutralized by compost. Colored ink, however is fine.
_PEAT MOSS
_PINE NEEDLES
_SAWDUST
_SEAWEED
_SOD
_VEGETABLE PLANTS (once harvested)
_WEEDS: compost can 'thermal kill' weed seeds so that they are safe to spread on next years garden

In general, it is good to avoid:

_COAL
_CHARCOAL
_COLORED PAPER
_DISEASED PLANTS
_CLOTHES (all synthetic now)
_CAT LITTER
_SLUDGE (human waste)
_MEAT PRODUCTS
_GREASE
_OIL
_ANIMAL FAT

Another main point Campbell makes is that the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (two key ingredients for decomposition) should be around 30:1. Nitrogen is plentiful in greens and leaves, whereas carbon is found in vegetable scraps.

I have been composting for 62 days now and have not had to empty my bin. In fact, it is only about half full ( I am beginning to believe my friend John who claims that worms allow the compost to not really accumulate. We probably over feed our worms between the 3 of us in my house, as we all cook quite a bit. Campbell says that after 2-3 months, compost is nearly 'finished'. A way to harvest this compost to make compost tea (a natural fertilizer) or to spread on a garden or mix with soil is to move the compost to one side of the bin. On the other side, place a new wet bedding of newspaper and some new food scraps. The worms will eventually begin to migrate to the new food scraps on the other side.

I opened the bin today to find sprouts in my compost! Maybe it is starting to become finished compost. There are dangers to using not-finished compost to grow plants because bacteria in the compost may get into the roots of plants, which is fine for the plant, but won't be good for you to eat it. Campbell introduces a way of burying compost in rotating trenches in your garden each year to let it mature in the soil for a year before planting directly in it.

sprouts in the compost!

DAY 62_SWEETENERS IN THE HINTERLANDS

2010-10-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

15 October 2010

It has been a bit of a struggle to adapt sweeteners in this project. Not because we lack sweeteners native to Minnesota, but because I never really USED the ones that originate here...

Quick overview of the various sweeteners generally used:

Table Sugar- This is the processed, refined sugar from beets or sugarcane that has all molasses taken out. Brown sugar falls in this category as well. It has had the molasses removed but then added back in. These are the most processed sugars and have no nutritional value.

"Raw Sugar"- These sugars are from the same sources as table sugar but do not remove the molasses. Turbinado Sugar is in this category (Sugar in the Raw). These have some nutritional value (though no sugars have enough nutritional value for that to be a justifiable reason to eat them except in very small quantities.

Agave Nectar- From Blue agave cactus plants. Native to Mexico and about 90 percent fructose, agave is sweeter than sugar and has more concentrated fructose than HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup).

Barley Malt and Brown Rice Syrup- Made from maltose which is less sweet than fructose. Used like molasses in sauces, muffins and other moist baked goods.

Coconut Sugar- Made from a coconut palm tree, this sugar is similar to brown sugar and higher in nutrients than other sugars.

Honey- The sweetest of all natural sweeteners, meaning you don't need as much of it. Good to use for adding moisture in baked goods. Honey is the only sweetener available in a raw form. Ames Farm produces raw honey, which is not filtered or blended with other varieties as typical honey is.

Maple Syrup- Not as sweet as table sugar but also adds moisture.

Molasses- A byproduct of processing sugar.

Stevia-Not technically a sugar, this sweetener is extracted from Stevia plants and is about 300 times as sweet as sugar, but has no calories. Because it isn't a sugar, it does not react the same way in cooking and baking making it difficult to substitute. It is good, however, for sweetening drinks and is becoming more popular.

Of all these sweeteners, I am limited to Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar and Honey. Sugar beets grow all around here, but I have yet to find beet sugar that is refined and processed locally. This isn't all bad, the ones I have are great natural sweeteners, but it takes some getting used to having everything taste like maple and honey :)

I found this Maple Sugar Cookie recipe on Food.com. It is from the New England chapter of the United States Regional Cookbook, Culinary Arts Institute of Chicago, 1947. This is the real deal, a recipe without having to make substitutions! (Except I took out the lemon). http://www.food.com/recipe/maple-sugar-cookies-295906

1_sift first three ingredients together

2_cream butter and sugar together, add eggs, lemon extract and milk

3_add flour mixture and blend well

4_refrigerate about 1/2 hour

5_preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease cookie sheets

6_roll dough 1/4" thick and dust with maple sugar, cut into attractive shapes with cookie cutters, place on prepared cookie sheets and bake about 15 minutes

The dough is excellent! Cookies are alright too, I only cooked them for 10 minutes so they are more squishy. Yeah for sweets, its been a while :)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter

1 cup maple sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp lemon extract

1 tbsp milk

DAY 61_HOW PETROLEUM PRODUCTS ARE MADE

2010-10-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

14 October 2010

I watched a great documentary on how different oil products are made and the extent of these products throughout our lives: History Secrets: Secrets of Oil last night and this is what I found!:

To make all petroleum products it must be refined in different ways from crude oil (the state it is in when it comes out of the ground). Oil refining has four stages:
1_distillation
2_hydro cleaning
3_cracking
4_blending

Crude oil can be separated into mixtures with various hydrocarbon makeups to make all kinds of different products. This is done by boiling crude oil in a huge, tall tower at temperatures of up to 700F. As the crude boils, different hydrocarbon molecules within the crude begin to vaporise at different temperatures, thus separating it into various vapors. Each vapor rises to a certain point in the tower and as it cools it condenses and is drawn off at specific levels depending on the weight of the molecules. For example, the lightest gasses which are used to make aspirin (yes, aspirin is a petro-product) rise to the highest level of the tower. The heaviest molecules, those used to make gasoline and jet fuels, sink to the bottom and are drawn off by pipes at that level. Asphalt is the 'bottom of the barrel' product, as it is the heaviest and collects at the bottom of the tower. Here is a diagram of what the breakdown of products in a barrel of oil is (to be expanded later):

The second step in refining is 'hydrocleaning'. This is the first stage of 'filtering' the different products. Each product that comes out of the tower has different requirements for refining and goes through a slightly different process of cleaning and filtering. In the hydro cleaning phase, a large amount of sulfur is removed from the products. This sulfur is then sold as agricultural fertilizers, to make tires and to make explosives.

Third, during the 'cracking' stage, products are altered molecularly to created new products.

Lastly, different products are blended together with others to create the finished product.

As you can see, petro-products must go through quite a bit of refining to be manufactured into the products we buy every day. When plastics were first being made they were actually quite expensive. However, as is the trend in economics, as they grew to a massive manufacturing scale, the price decreased to the extremely inexpensive point it is at today. Oil has some things going for it. Because it is a liquid (in most forms) it is easily transportable. It is easily manipulated in processes such as 'thermoforming' (heating and pulling over a mold).

Some examples of products we use every day which are made from oil:

Lubricants-One of the most important oil products. Used in almost anything with moving parts (watches and motors). Petroleum based lubricants do an excellent job of reducing the heat created when two objects moving together creating a thin cooling film.

Water pipes-Once made of copper, today 66% of water pipes are made from PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride)

Asphalt- Four out of every five homes have asphalt shingles today. While asphalt can be found naturally in tar pits, today almost all of it comes from oil refining. Of the asphalt which is refined from oil: 15% is used for roofing, less than 15% is used for water resistant structures (sea walls, boats) and the remaining is used to cover roads. On that note, of the 4 million miles of roads in the United States, 94% are covered in asphalt. Asphalt fills in cracks and binds the aggregates of roads together. "American roads contain more than 19,000 square miles of asphalt."

Mineral Oil- Also known as baby oil, this is a petroleum product we are probably all familiar with. Here are some applications of mineral oil:
_Rubbed on the skin of infants for diaper rash and used as a lubricant during child birth
_Taken orally as a lubricating laxative
_Livestock vaccines
_Common ingredient in baby lotions, ointments and cosmetics. Used in mascara to prevent brittleness and in lipstick.
_As a transformer oil in industrial/mechanical capacities
_As a preservative in shoe polishes, wood
_Used on cooking utensils, cutting boards, cookware and bake ware to prevent food from sticking
_Lava lamps
_Principle fuel in gel-candles
_Fog and Haze machines
_As a pesticide
_The basis for most automotive engine oils

The most significant petroleum product, however, is plastic. Plastics are made from monomers and converted into a 'feedstock' of tiny pellets which are melted and mixed with other products to create different plastics. There are seven basic feedstocks:
_Ethylene
_Propylene
_Benzene
_C4
_Dygas
_Toluene
_Xylene

We ingest it, rub it on our bodies, transport our water through it, spread it on our food crops, lubricate our engines with it and drive on it. Petroleum really is everywhere.

DAY 60_DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF (WATER USE)

2010-10-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

13 October 2010

I have a confession. The past 2-3 weeks or so I have slowly started to phase out of using the water barrel, falling back into more 'comfortable' habits of water use. I have been running tap water to; do the dishes, fill up my shower bucket, wash my face and hands and brush teeth. I've been feeling kind of guilty about this because although I have a vague idea of how much water I'm using running the tap, I don't really know for sure. To ease my conscience, and to make sure I am keeping on track with this project I wasted a bunch of water today running all the fixtures I use in my house to see what the exact flow rates were (timing myself to see how long it takes to do each task).

It was really interesting to actually take a timer and see how long I run a tap doing dishes or washing my hands. I found that I only run a tap for; 20 seconds each time I wash my hands or brush my teeth, 1 minute to wash my face, and 7 minutes for rinsing dishes while washing. I measured the flow rate of my shower head which came out to be 2 gallons/minute. I timed how long it took for me to do everything first. Then ran the faucet at the same rate for each specific amount of time, capturing it in a 1 gallon bucket to measure.

What I found was really interesting. Most of my habits have really not changed from what I was using before the project started. Everyday water uses such as drinking, cleaning food, house cleaning, hand washing and doing dishes are all consistent with my uses before the project.

This scared me a little bit until I looked at the 'big users':
_Showering
_Toilet flushing
_Bath
_Clothes washing

Showering, toilet flushing, clothes washing and taking a bath use TONS of water. My shower (which is a regular shower head, not low flow) fills up a gallon bucket in 30 seconds. This means it has a flow rate of 2 gallons/minute, and a typically 10 min shower uses 20 gallons! I used to take a bath about every week which is 70 gallons of water (10 gallons a day if measuring daily). An average toilet flush is 2 gallons (5 times a day = 10 gallons). By flushing only twice a day and putting a milk carton in my tank to make it 'low flow' I only use 1.6 gallons per flush (3.2 gallons per day). Lastly, as I've mentioned before, a typical clothes washer uses 42 gallons per load (6 gallons a day if doing only 1 load a week). My method of washing uses 14 gallons (2 gallons a day) and I haven't even been doing laundry every week.

The chart below shows all my daily water uses, the big users stand out clearly (click to enlarge):

In total, the amount of water I was using before this project was 48 gallons/day. I am now using an average of 15 gallons per day. And the only things I have changed are showering, bathing and clothes washing. The point is, when it comes to water, there really seem to be a few 'big water users' that are responsible for our huge over consumption of water. (Another big one that doesn't apply to my living situation is watering the lawn).

In the beginning of the project I was trying REALLY hard to minimize water in all aspects of my life: Using only 1 gallon of water total to do dishes (which my roommates loved because there was always dish soap left on them). I was deciding what I cooked based on much water it would take to boil, and in general minimizing every use as much as possible. This wasn't easy, and I was constantly worrying about how much I was using and struggling to use the least possible. Once I had established some changed habits which addressed big water users (shower, toilet and clothes washing primarily) I fell back into 'comfortable habits' of water use and found that I am still using EXACTLY my water budget. What a relief. It was really enlightening to measure all my uses and total them for each day, I think for many people, doing an exercise like this would help them identify what the big water users in their life were and help to target those and ease some of the worry every time we turn on the tap.

We are fortunate in Minnesota to have a decent amount of average rain and precipitation (29.3 inches/year). In a place like Phoenix, AZ (which only gets 8.6 inches/year) meeting my water budget would be significantly more difficult. However, there are also plenty of regions in this country and throughout the world that get quite a bit more rain than we do as this graphic from http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap17/us_precip.gif illustrates:

DAY 59_ENERGY WHILE WE EXERCISE

2010-10-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

12 October 2010

There are some pretty backwards energy using devices we use on a daily basis, the most bizarre one of these in my opinion is energy usage while we work out. When you really think about it we are using electrical energy to burn calories (burn our own energy), which means we are not only using our OWN energy, but also the energy to run machines. Using energy to use our own energy, pretty strange. I looked into how much energy is used running on a treadmill for half an hour:

This website http://www.treadmillsusa.com/HPnotes.htm tells me that the average treadmill uses about 2HP (anywhere from 1.75 HP to 3.00 HP). There are 750 Watts in 1 HP, so a 2 HP motor uses about 1500 Watts. For half an hour this is 0.75 kWh (1.5 x 0.5kWh ).

How does this compare with how much energy our bodies use running for half an hour? I burn about 590 calories per hour running (295 calories per half hour) according to this site: http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm.

With 295 Calories per half hour, this comes out to 0.000319825 kWh per workout. Comparing this to the 0.75 kWh per workout on a treadmill, running outside or around a track uses 0.0004% of the energy you would in a gym. This means you would have work out for half an hour 2,345 times to use as much energy as the treadmill is using in the half hour you run on it (or for 1,172.5 hours (48.85 days).

It is ironic that we use so much energy getting around in cars every day and then need to spend MORE time burning more of our own energy because we didn't use any of it during the day. I can recall many days before this project when I woke up, got on a bus to school, sat at a desk all day and then got on a bus, sat in my house for a few hours before bed and then slept. Literally the farthest I would walk is up or down a flight of stairs (and I wouldn't even have to do that if I didn't want to, I could have taken the elevator). Point being, our society is built around using energy to minimized the energy we need to use ourselves. This isn't helping us, however, because we end up having to use that energy somehow (working out) or our 'unused energy' in the form of food eaten just turns to fat, making us unhealthy.

It is interesting to consider a workout on a treadmill as an 'energy loss'. There are no positive benefits from the energy the treadmill uses, but there are positive benefits for the energy our BODIES lose. How can we use our own energy without wasting other energy?

_bicycle commuting
_walking to run errands
_take the stairs
_running outside, or around a track
_using workout machines which only rely on your own energy

It really does make a difference, to your health and to the health of our environment.

DAY 58_BIKING BARRIERS - PART 2: PERSPECTIVES + ATTITUDES

2010-10-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

11 October 2010

The typical street is full of people trying to get places; pedestrians, bikes, cars, buses, trucks...Our society has a mentality of needing to get places fast, no matter where they are going, or if they are even in a hurry. In a totally unscientific argument, I have observed that the need to go fast ironically goes up the faster mode of transportation you are in. When walking we are typically not in too much of hurry. In a car, however, our #1 objective is to get where we are trying to go in the fastest way possible. Biking is somewhat of a middle ground. Bicycle commuting is obviously a way to GET places (as is walking), but people often bike in a more relaxed manner than they drive (again,, unscientific observation). The different attitudes of people contributes to quite a bit of conflict on the road.

I'd like to spend a moment stereotyping first:

(click to enlarge)

Jokes aside, the reality is that each of these different people are in different states of mind, with one common goal to GET places.
I think it is difficult for drivers who have never commuted by bike to understand what it is like to get around this way. How fast I am biking and my mood are just about directly related to how cold it is outside. Sometimes biking around isn't a real pleasant thing, but if its the only way to get somewhere, so be it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, when I'm CRAWLING up the Cleveland Ave hill in 40 degree weather, getting rained on, after having biked for 8 miles to get there, that is the FASTEST I CAN GO. Promise. If I had a bike lane to get into to get out of your way, I would use it so don't yell at me. :)

In the film "No Impact Man", a film about a couple in New York and their baby girl living as "no impact" as possible, the wife describes the feelings she had about bikers in a very interesting way. She describes feeling like the BIKERS were the ones making roads unsafe for CARS because they are hard to see and cars are constantly having to get out of the way. While this might seem ridiculous, it is really interesting to hear very honestly what it is that goes through people's minds to react the way they do as drivers of cars (and on bikes). Everyone has a reason to think the way they do, and the only way to resolve these issues is to take a meaningful look into another person's life and try to understand where their opinions are coming from

I actually wrote this entire post, and then deleted it because it had such an "angry biker" tone that wasn't addressing the real obstacles of getting around by bicycle. Whether this one has any better tone, I'm not sure. What I do understand, is that although our safety on the road as bicyclists is very personal, ranting about the "asshole bus driver that cut me off" and the "cars" who "don't care about us" (whether they do or not) is just an expression of bitterness and fear and would not be getting to the core of the issues-which are SO important.

The stories of bicycle dealths on the road are very sobering, as seen on websites such as http://www.ghostbikes.org/. A handful of bikers are killed each year in Minneapolis and 1000+ more are injured in some way.

The language we use to describe accidents is very telling of the way we view these incidents: We say, "that CAR hit me" or "that BIKE cut me off". We aren't recognizing the PEOPLE in those cars and on those bikes. We aren't recognizing each other as humans.

DAY 57_BIKING BARRIERS- PART 1: KNOWING THE LAWS

2010-10-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

10 October 2010

As my only way to get around these days is biking, I spend some quality time each day on the road trying not to die. The other day biking between campuses with a friend I realized that we have the SAME conversation about near-misses on bikes almost every time we ride together. We both always seem to have new stories about a car, truck or bus that cut us off, pedestrian we had to slam our brakes on for, or taxi cab that pushed the limits on how close they could get without hitting us. Almost everyone who bikes knows somebody who has been seriously injured by a collision on the road. There are many factors contributing to the ridiculous lack of safety commuting by bike, some of which is the bikers doing. Most of the accidents, however likely stem from the same few problems.The fact that getting around by bike is not safe is one of the biggest barriers to change for people who want to bike by are still commuting by car.

This post is dedicated to first of these barriers to change for bicycle commuting as I see it-understanding the laws for both bikes and cars:

PART 1: We all went to driving school, but none of us went to bicycling school.

A link to the Minnesota Bicycling Laws can be found on the City of Minneapolis website: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/UnderstandingtheLaw.asp
or directly here:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/data/revisor/statutes/2005/169/222.html

Allow me to summarize in my own words:

Subdivision 1:
Every person operating a bicycle shall have all of the rights and duties applicable to the driver of any vehicle except where bicycles are prohibited

Subdivision 2:
No more people riding on bikes than the bike is designed to carry (except babies)

Subdivision 3:
No hanging on to vehicles (which makes life difficult for tall bikes)

Subdivision 4:
_Bicycles shall ride "as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of roadway except" ...when passing a vehicle, when preparing for a left turn, when necessary to avoid fixed or moving objects, vehicles, animals, pedestrians
_Must ride in the direction of traffic
_"Cannot ride more than two abreast and shall not impeded the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, remaining inside a single lane"
_When biking on the sidewalk bikes must yield to pedestrians (bicycles are prohibited on sidewalks in business districts, map of zones is found here: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/CommercialZoningDistricts.pdf)
_When biking on the sidewalk in legal zones, bikes have all of the same right-of-way rights as pedestrians

Subdivision 5:
When carrying articles you must keep at least one hand on the handle bars and be able to use your brakes.

Subdivision 6:
Cannot ride bikes at night without :
_a lamp emitting a white light visible from a distance of 500 ft on the front
_a red reflector visible from 100-600 feet on the rear (red flashing signal light recommended)
_no operating without a brake
_"No person shall operate upon a highway any bicycle equipped with handlebars so raised that the operator must elevate the hands above the level of the shoulders in order to grasp the normal steering grip area.
_"No person shall operate upon a highway any bicycle which is of such a size as to prevent the operator from stopping the bicycle, supporting it with at least one foot on the highway surface and restarting in a safe manner." (again tall bikes)

Subdivision 7:
Cannot sell new bicycles without being equipped with reflectors and equipment required by Subd. 6

Subdivision 8:
Must signal with arms continuously for 100 feet before turning (unless you lose control)

Subdivision 9:
(according to parking laws http://library1.municode.com/default-test/home.htm?infobase=11490&doc_action=whatsnew) Bikes can park temporarily only in bike racks, but not street signs, parking meters or lamp posts :/

Subdivision 10:
No bike racing, events or parades without city approval

Subdivision 11:
Peace officers are exempts from all these rules

Laws in the Minnesota Driving Law that apply to bikes:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/data/revisor/statutes/2005/169/18.html
Subdivision 3: Passing:
"(3) the operator of a motor vehicle overtaking a bicycle or individual proceeding in the same direction on the roadway shall leave a safe distance, but in no case less than three feet clearance, when passing the bicycle or individual and shall maintain clearance until safely past the overtaken bicycle or individual. "

and
Subdivision 7: Laned Highway:
"(d) Whenever a bicycle lane has been established on a roadway, any person operating a motor vehicle on such roadway shall not drive in the bicycle lane except to park where parking is permitted, to enter or leave the highway, or to prepare for a turn as provided in section 169.19, subdivision 1."

I believe the biggest misunderstanding that cars drivers have of bicyclists is that bikes don't have the same rights to the road as cars do. This is the first law of the Bicycle Laws, but isn't included anywhere in the Driving Laws. So, as a bike, we are aware we have a right to be on the road, but nobody ever told the cars.......?

As you can see, many of these laws are a bit muddy. What happens when you are biking down Hennepin Ave (really busy street in Uptown), traffic in both lanes, parked cars on each side, and are forced to bike in the lane and, consequently, slow traffic? Well, the reality is you nearly get hit by a bus or two.

As bikers and drivers we need to understand the laws of each and obey them! I feel a bit hypocritical saying this because I'm not exactly an angel on a bike and have tendency to bend and break the rules quite a bit (not stopping at all way stops, forgetting to signal...). Communicating with drivers, and being predictable are good ways to start, however we need to make cars aware of our rights on the road, and this begins with educating people about the laws....

DAY 56_SAVING CILANTRO

2010-10-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

9 October 2010

56 days into the project and my plants are not looking very harvestable. The time to harvest on most of the vegetables is around 80 days, but looking at them now, I really doubt I will have plump, ripe jalapenos and bell peppers from my 4 inch tall plants in 25 days :/

I guessed that they would take longer than usual, but I'm wondering now if they have enough light to produce fruit. Regardless, the greens and herbs won't have a problem except slow growing.

I'm also having a problem with many of the plants getting slightly yellow leaves on the bottom and the cilantro is totally dying. I did some reading on it in Edward Smith's book The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (really great resource) and it sounds like cilantro has trouble transplanting and needs very well drained soil. Being that it is in a plastic tub with no bottom holes, that could be part of the problem :) also, they got transplanted as seedlings and were one of the only plants I tried and saving each seedling instead of cutting the ones growing out of one one down. I'm going to start another batch of them directly sowing them into the planters and see if they do better. I also drilled holes in all of my tubs and elevated them on bricks above a few seed flats to give them better drainage. I placed the potted plants on stones so they weren't sitting in any excess water that drains into the catchment trays. Hopefully this will save them! Trial and error woooo!

vegetables

greens

herbs and arugula

pots on stones for drainage

tubs on bricks/flats for drainage

dying cilantro

DAY 55_HOW OUR HOMES REFLECT OUR USE OF SPACE

2010-10-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

8 October 2010

After analyzing how much time is dedicated to various activities in my life in the last post, I wanted to see how my use of time translates to the built environment of my house:

The diagram below shows how the use of space in my house relates to how much time I am spending in these spaces. My use of space has changed during the course of this project just as the time dedicated to certain activities has. I spend more time doing dishes, tending to plants , dealing with waste and cooking, and less time washing, and relaxing in my living room :). um, wow. Homes in a post-oil age would help to accommodate these changes in lifestyle by dedicating more, and better quality space to activities which we spend a lot of time doing.

Figure 1 shows the spaces in my house which are dedicated to various activities

Figure 2 uses my pie graphs of time spent doing various activities (from last post) and translates them onto the plan of the house

Figure 3 reorganizes and re sizes the spaces in my house to be more reflective of how I use my time (and what emphasis should be placed on certain rooms).

The size and quality of spaces in my house does not necessarily reflect the amount of time I spend there. For example, my kitchen is a fairly large space, but not a great quality space. Many kitchens are designed for function and are quite small compared to the living room. If you had a tiny kitchen and spent 7% of your life cooking (as I do now) you would be happier with a larger, light-filled kitchen (as many living rooms are). By making the kitchen a better quality environment you are able to enjoy the spaces of your house which you spend a majority of your time in.

The majority of the time I spend in my house is sleep, working and cooking. My sleeping space does not need to be as large as it is now even though I spend a lot of time in it because, well, I'm unconscious :) This 'frees up' space for a bigger kitchen and work space. The living room space is typically the space people hang out in, however, when I have people over to cook (which is a lot) EVERYONE hangs out in the kitchen. That's where the action is and everyone is pitching in to help. By integrating the living space with the kitchen it allows the kitchen to become a large, quality space and still provides room for those people who are just hanging out.

Adjacency's are also important. Although this is a quick sketch, the logic behind where to put spaces in relation to each other is an important part of helping to facilitate the activities of the house. For example, all the 'water use' spaces are located next to each other (washing dishes, bathroom, shower). My experience using water from a rain barrel has made me realize that all of the uses of this water should be close together (less hauling). This means the kitchen needs to be next to the water spaces as well as the bedroom.

Both the kitchen and growing spaces should be near the compost. Food goes in on one side and can be accessed for use in soil on the other.

As mentioned the kitchen is adjacent to the living space, and the grow table runs along the kitchen, living and working spaces. The grow table could be a very pleasant environment, filled with living things, but also has a functional use. Food can be harvested literally IN the kitchen, but the growing plants can be enjoyed throughout the living spaces.

DAY 54_DAILY TIME USE

2010-10-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

7 October 2010

My schedule has been modified doing this project because there are quite a few things that just take A REALLY LONG TIME. Food is the big one, as I have mentioned before, but there are also smaller differences that add up which has recently been making me feel like there just aren't enough hours in a day. My time is getting sucked away and I wanted to figure out how:

The graphic below shows how I am using my time currently (no oil) compared to how I was before:

(click to enlarge)

The major differences are in food prep (an additional 7% of my time) and commuting (additional 3% of time). I spend slightly more time doing dishes but less time getting ready for the day (don't waste time in the shower when its in a bucket) and less time at the gym because I am getting good exercise biking around everywhere. Time left to study and do research, however suffers by about 2 hours.

DAY 53_NUTRITION IN A POST OIL WORLD

2010-10-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

6 October 2010

I met Sarah Kunkel who is a graduate student in University of Minnesota's Nutrition program for dinner tonight at an all-raw restaurant a few blocks from my house (Ecopolitan), and picked her brain about the nutrition of my "no oil diet". I was curious to hear her thoughts on how my diet has either improved or degraded my health, as well as what 'holes' I had nutritionally. Here is what she had to say:

_While you should eat at least 4 1/2 cups of fruits and vegetables each day (according to the government-created food health pyramid), it doesn't necessarily matter if the ratio of fruits to vegetables is exactly 50/50. This is good news for me because I am only eating apples and pear for fruit at this point which doesn't provide me with a wide array of vitamins. If I eat more vegetables to make up for my lack of fruit variety, then this works out.

_I haven't been eating meat during this project because of packaging restrictions. Sarah is a vegetarian and says she eats a lot of cottage cheese to get enough protein. A 1/2 cup of cottage cheese has 12 grams of protein, compared to a steak with has 18 grams. She also mentioned that in general, Americans eat WAY more meat than is necessary for their daily protein intake, and it isn't necessary to eat meat every day if protein requirements are being met in other ways. Some grains such as Quinoa are also a good sources of protein.

_We talked about fortified foods (foods which have had vitamins added to them). These are called "functional foods" in nutrition lingo, and are the subject of some controversy (Probiotic yogurt, goo-gels, pepsi fortified with vitamins, vitamin water). While it is better to get vitamins in foods rather than in supplement form because they are easier for your body to digest, it is better to get them in the form they originally come from. For example, milk is often fortified with Vitamins A and D. Neither of these vitamins are naturally occurring in milk, but they are both vitamins which the government has identified as deficiencies for the American public. One of the best sources for vitamin D is the sun. Because we are not out in the sun as much anymore, and when we are you cover ourselves in sunscreen, we don't get enough of this vitamin. In order for the body to absorb vitamin D, the sun has to be at a certain angle. In Minnesota, the sun is not at this angle from Nov-March. The controversy with functional foods also arises because there are dangers with having TOO MANY vitamins are well. Sarah explained that most single vitamins (ex. vitamin C) capsules contain way more of the vitamin than is needed every day. There are toxicity problems with eating too many vitamins just as there are with eating too few. Water soluble vitamins are not a problem because you simply pee out the excess.

_Being that we were at Ecopolitan, surrounding by die-hard raw foodists, we talked about some diets such as RAW and vegan. Her stance was that most of these diets are lacking nutritionally in some fashion. Both RAW and Vegan diets are lacking in calcium and cause bone structure problems with people who are on them long term.

_She explained that while it is clear that the leading health programs in our country related to food have conflicting intentions and are not necessarily looking out for our health, there may be a bit of 'over attacking' going on as well. There is a lot of attacking of processed foods, much of which is justifiable: Processed foods contain much more salt and less potassium than we need. Because our cells are a delicate balance between sodium and potassium if this is unbalanced we can end up with hypertension which is a blood pressure issue. High fructose corn syrup is another example. She explained that "sucrose is sucrose" and HFCS has only 5% more fructose than table sugar. Fructose and Glucose are what makes up table sugar. Fructose being the one that people have attacked because studies have found that it bypasses a feedback system in your body allowing you to eat more of it than you need. Glucose is regulated more easily in body feedback loops. Fructose, however is naturally found in fruits as well.

All of this talk left me fairly conflicted. Nutrition is a delicate balance and there is a lot of scientific data and studies getting thrown around every year which tell us what is "good" and what is "bad". In a post cheap oil world some of these problems of processed and functional foods will likely be eliminated as transportation of food is limited and foods no longer need to be preserved in the same way they would being trucked and stored for months. Eating foods from raw ingredients has made me more aware of what exactly I am putting in my body, and it is easier to analyze my diet to make sure I am getting the nutrients I need. This awareness, I believe, is possibly the best and easiest way to understand your diet, what your body needs and how to cook with foods available in your area to eat in a nutritionally balanced way.

After looking at my charts of data of what I have eaten for this entire project she pointed out that at the beginning of the project (when I was only eating vegetables and potatoes basically that I had a lot of nutritional gaps. However, as I learned to make breads and found out how to cook different meals with the ingredients available to me that my diet now is much healthier than the way I was eating before because I have been forced to eat much more fresh produce and no processed foods.

RAWvioli at Ecopolitan

She recommended the following resources to me as well:

_mypyramid.gov (allows to to put in the foods you eat each day and analyzes the nutrition balance accroding to the food pyramid)
_Michael Pollan's books especially (In Defense of Food)
_Eating Well magazine
_Farmer's Market Cookbook Featherstone Farms (a local CSA)
_Apples to Zucchinis book
_Fresh Earth Farms website (local CSA)

DAY 52_FOOD PRESERVATION ENERGY COMPARISON

2010-10-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

5 October 2010

The growing season in Minnesota is coming to a close. Local available produce is already down to;

_only apples for fruit
_a few types of hardy greens grown in season extensions; kale, chard, mustard greens, mizuna, collards
_a few types of peppers
_garlic, shallots and onions

_potatoes

_lots of squash

-tomato and fresh herb supply comes and goes

While this still isn't bad, I'm guessing by the end of the project I may only have potatoes and maybe squash left to buy locally (both of which can last for months), so I am experimenting with different methods of preserving foods: dehydrating, freezing, and canning.

This website (National Center for Home Food Preservation) http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html is an excellent resource for 'how-to's on all types of food preservation.

DEHYDRATING:

The water content in most fresh foods is what makes them very perishable. My roommate's dehydrator is an old (1970's) convective heat only dehydrator. This is nice because it uses less energy and is quieter than types with fans, but it also takes quite a while to dry (half a day for herbs and about a day for bell peppers/fruit). Most fruits are best when dipped in a honey or lemon dip before drying (to avoid browning). My experience with dehydrating foods showed that foods that are already fairly dry (herbs, hot peppers and apples) dried better (and faster) than foods which contain quite a bit of water (bell peppers, cranberries). Anything you dehydrate needs to be soaked in water for 10 minutes before cooking with it. If doing rice with vegetables, you can simply put the dried vegetables in with the rice water.

CANNING:

Canning removes oxygen, destroys enzymes and prevents the growth of undesirable bacteria, yeasts and molds to preserve food. I haven't done this yet, but have a stock-pile of Roma tomatoes to can with soon.
The method for tomatoes is:

1_sanitize canning jars and lids by boiling in water for a few minutes
2_put tomatoes is boiling water for 30-45 seconds and then dip in a waiting ice bath to get skins to slide off easily (skins get tough when canned)
3_cut off tough parts of tomato (halve and squeeze out seeds and juice if making paste)
4_pack tomatoes into jars
5_add 2 tbsp of lemon juice (tomatoes are low in acid and the lemon juice helps to preserve them)
6_fill remaining space with boiling water (up to 1/4 inch from the top of jar)
7_free any trapped air bubbles out by moving a spoon around in the jar
8_screw lids on snugly (but not too tight) and place cans in a large pot of boiling water for about 45 minutes
9_remove from water carefully and let cool
10_test for seal by removing ring and pressing on center of lid (if it doesn't pop back up, it is sealed)

FREEZING:
Almost anything except herbs and milk products can be frozen fairly effectively. The best way to preserve nutrition in frozen foods is to blanch them first. Blanching is scalding vegetables in boiling water or steam for a short time, this stops enzyme actions which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture. It also helps to clean the vegetables and retains color and vitamin loss. Over blanching, however, has the opposite effect and can cause flavor and nutrient loss. To blanch, use 1 gallon of water per pound of vegetables and begin the count when water is boiling. A list of blanching times is found here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/blanching.html. Blanching can also be done by steaming. This takes 1 1/2 times longer than water blanching, but is recommended for some vegetables. After blanching, the vegetables should be immediately cooled in water 60 degrees or less.

Other preservation methods I haven't explored are; curing/smoking, fermenting and pickling.

While many foods can be preserved using any of the above methods, some are definitely better suited for certain purposes:

BEST DEHYDRATED:
herbs:
The herbs are easy to do, you simply cut the long end stems off and spread them on the tray. When they are dry, put them in a bowl and crush with your fingers and then put in a jar. Don't crush them too much, because before you use them you can crush them a little bit more so the taste is fresher. If there is any condensation on the jar after about a day, you haven't dried them enough. I dried a bunch of cilantro which filled an entire spice jar. Freezing can alter the taste of herbs or make them strong

hot peppers:
Cut into thicker slices than you would if cooking fresh (they will shrink down when drying) and place on tray. These took about a day to dry in the dehydrator and about 10 (mix of hot wax peppers and sweet hot red peppers) filled a 24 ounce mason jar.

apples

BEST FROZEN:
bell peppers
meat products
fruits if moisture needs to be retained

BEST CANNED:
high acid fruits/vegetables (don't need any additives)

With all of this in mind, there are definitely differences in how much energy is needed for each type of food preservation:

Dehydrating:
The dehydrator I am using uses 0.1 kWh/hour. For a day of dehydrating this translates to 24 kWh of total energy needed.

Canning:
About one hour of boiling time is needed (15 min to sanitize and boil skins off and 45 min for whole cans to seal). This uses about 1.2 kWh total.

Freezing: (biggest energy user)

My fridge uses 0.068 kWh/hour. Granted, this is both the fridge and the freezer, but in most cases, people don't have a separate freezer so I am using these numbers to calculate a typical scenario. In one month, the freezer/fridge will use 48..96 kWh. If I canned in late October and preserved food in the freezer for 6 months (till the end of April) I would use 293.76 kWh total. Freezing for only 18 hours is equal to the amount of energy used for canning, freezing for 36 hours is equivalent to dehydrating. However, these numbers are for only one use of the dehydrator, and only about 6-8 cans of canned food. If canning or dehydrating exclusively, these numbers would need to be increased. I haven't calculated how much food you would need to store to eat throughout the winter (more on this later). To compare visually I've made the graphic below:

As you can see, although canning and dehydrating use a lot of energy up front, they are 'one time' energy users. Freezing demands a continuous supply of energy which adds up to be significantly more than either of the other methods when storing until the growing season starts again.

DAY 51_WASTE ENERGY REVISIONS

2010-10-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

4 October 2010

After doing some more research, talking to friends who do better math than I, and speaking with Jeff Jenks of the City of Minneapolis Waste Division I have some more accurate and updated numbers about how much energy it would take to get my trash picked up each week (and how much energy I'm 'saving' by composting and minimizing waste).

ROUTE:
Like I mentioned before, the City of Minneapolis trucks all residential waste to the Hennepin Energy Resource Center downtown to be burned and converted into steam energy. Trucks start their day in North Minneapolis (2710 Pacific St. N), do one route, drop off at the HERC, and do a second route, drop off and return to the truck yard. The average route picks up trash from 770 dwelling units. This is only an average of 650 stops, however, because many stops are at apartments with multiple dwelling units.

GAS MILEAGE:
The average truck uses approx 10-15 gallons of diesel fuel per day. They have a trip mileage of 2.67 to 3.74 MPG (This is with 40-60 percent of the time in pack mode). Their average speed is only 2.7 MPH. I used an average number of 3.2 MPG for my calculations.

ENGINE SIZE:
The packer trucks have a 280 to 300 hp @ 800 to 860 ft pounds of torque.... "We order the most efficient motor for our type of operation."

WEIGHT and MAXIMUM LOAD:
Some packer trucks have an empty weight of 33,600 and the newer trucks have an empty of 35,260 with a GVW of 52,000 for both.

CALCULATIONS:

The revised equation for finding gallons of gas per trip is:

(MPG) (gallons of gas) = trip miles
or
trip miles/MPG = gallons of gas

I have:
3.2 MPG for the trunks
average of 12.5 gallons of gas used per day
=40 miles is the average trip route

12.5 gallons of gas/650 stops = 0.0192 gallons of gas/stop
0.0192 gallons x 36.6 kWh in each gallon of gas) = 0.704 kWh per house

703.8 watts or
0.0192 gallons of gas
is used to pick up my waste each week.

With an energy budget of 5 kWh/day (35 kWh/week) waste energy is not a HUGE contributor, but certainly makes an impact. To compare all of the energy users I have identified in this project so far I've converted each user into kWh in the below chart: (click to enlarge)

This chart does not yet take into account energy I am saving eating locally, water heating, nor does it account for the energy it will take for space heating in my house (when it gets cold enough to do that). Regardless, my current lifestyle (21.3 kWh/week) uses only 16% of the energy I was using before the project (129.204 kWh/week). There are items which I use more energy for: grow light and more energy for cooking, but the trend is generally less energy use; refrigeration, lights, transportation, garbage collection, clothes washing.

The black outlined box on the far right 'total' column shows that 35 kWh/week is my energy budget maximum. I am not yet using the maximum energy I could be (solar energy captured on my roof), but as the weather gets colder, I think I will find that I will use and possibly exceed that amount....

DAY 50_SAILING

2010-10-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

3 October 2010

Guess what else doesn't use oil?

SAILING!!!

Powered by the unforgiving winds of Lake Calhoun, my uncle Jim-the captain of a 21 foot Reynolds catamaran took us out for a 2 hour tour. Compared to a 2 hour outing on a motor boat, we saved about 30 gallons of gas. This is 71% of a barrel of oil and equivalent to 1,098 kWh (about 5 months of our electricity bill). According to this article... http://www.boatingmag.com/skills/calculating-fuel-consumption:

"On average, an in-tune four-stroke gasoline engine will burn about 0.4 to 0.45 pounds of fuel per hour for each unit of horsepower. Likewise, a well-maintained two-stroke outboard burns nearly 0.6 to 0.8 pounds of fuel per hour for each unit of horsepower it produces. These figures apply to carbureted and fuel-injected engines, but not to direct-injected engines such as Mercury's OptiMax and OMC's FICHT models."

This means that a 150 horsepower engine would use about 15 gallons of gas per hour.

In addition, 1 gallon of gas is equal to 19.564 pounds of CO2. This website has some examples of how you can reduce your gas usage on a boat http://www.boatcarbonfootprint.com/.

Or....you could just go sailing instead :)

captain jim

first sail ever!

pirate!

DAY 49_DEHYDRATING

2010-10-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

2 October 2010

My brother Brian and sister-in-law Sarah are professional food dehydrators. They lead trekking and camping trips and dehydrate food to cut down on costs and provide healthy, pre-prepped food to their campers. Thankfully, they were up vacationing from oil for the weekend and could offer their skills.

There are different kinds of dehydrators; convection-only ones, convection with fan ones and solar powered machines. My roommate's dehydrator is convection-only, so it has heat coils and the air is pulled through the trays as it cools to dry the food. This cuts down on energy and is totally silent, but takes a LONG time.

Brian and Sarah scared me into realizing that many of the foods I eat consistently now are going to be gone in a matter of weeks. I have already frozen some pears and hot peppers, but space in our freezer is limited, and as soon as the heat kicks on, I am going to need to minimize my energy budget as much as possible. Its hard to tell exactly when things will start to disappear, but to be on the safe side, I am starting to dehydrate now and will continue eating fresh until its gone. Today we did:

_Apples
_variety of Bell Peppers
_variety of Hot Peppers
_Herbs: parsley and cilantro
_Cranberries

The funnest part was checking out with an ENTIRE basket of peppers (and then trying to fit it all in my bag).

Dehydrating takes a LOT of energy. 0.1 kWh per hour, if it is on for a day (about how long it takes for one load) that is 2.4 kWh, so definetly going to eat into my energy budget. For comparison, the fridge uses .068 kWh/hour, but needs to be on all the time. In this way, dehydrating may be one of the most energy effeicient ways of preserving food because once it is dehydrated, it doesn't need any energy until it is cooked.

foods in my bag

ready to chop

thanks guys :)

DAY 48_TRACE PRODUCT.INFO

2010-10-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

The Wedge Co-op near my house does a great job of transparently showing information about many of the products they sell (especially produce and bulk foods). The data on food sourcing they have is compiled at check out to give you a percentage of local foods and organic foods bought on a bar graphic on receipts (see below):

all local, all organic!

In addition, they provide the location of where each produce item (and some spices, bulk foods and dairy) is from, including the farm name. This information is on cards (green colored ones for organic and orange for conventional) near each item and have icons identifying local foods. This level of transparency is what has allowed me to compile the information I need for this project about where foods are from, as well as easily shop for only local, organic items.

My friend, Arlene Birt has been working on a prototype for an in-store, retail-wide system for displaying information on grocery product backgrounds at point of sale. The product was exhibited at the Spark Arts Festival on the University of Minnesota campus today and we went to check it out...

Arlene's project proposes a combination/merging of the information which is currently put on cards and the database of information in each check-out computer. This would allow each item to be looked up afterwards so people can begin to get an idea of where their food is coming from. Really great. Many co-ops already have most of the information needed for this kind of a system, it is just a matter of increased database information, and rigorous updating to allow consumers easy access to where their foods came from.

"TRACEPRODUCT.INFO aims to visualize the narratives behind the seemingly ubiquitous everyday objects that we interact with as consumers; focusing on the ways in which these products connect us to the larger world.

By bringing the attention of the shopper to the detailed and factual backgrounds of their everyday choices, TRACEPRODUCT.INFO seeks to inspire people to understand more about how their individual purchases impact global environment and society."

At this point, the database of knowledge about each product's sourcing isn't compiled in a single location so it has not yet been installed.

"But it is our belief that systems will soon be developed on a national-level to support such interaction. To convey the concept of what such interaction could be like once such information is more readily available, this system is populated with a set of example coordinates."

A you-tube video of the product is found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GadWxWH8YYg
And link to the trace website: http://traceproduct.appspot.com/

Keep it going Arlene!

DAY 47_HEALTHY FOODS HEALTHY LIVES

2010-10-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

30 September 2010

The University of Minnesota has an institute called Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives which works to improve the Universities and surrounding communities access and understanding of healthy foods by funding research and increasing connections and communication. They put on a conference annually which I attended with a few friends today. The conference was a day of listening to speakers about various food topics, the general consensus being that Americans need to eat MORE PLANT FOODS.

The first speaker-Paul Coates-talked about dietary supplements. 50% of Americans use dietary supplements resulting in a $26 billion/year industry with over 50,000 products on the market. Why are people so into dietary supplements? Because we don't get enough nutrients from the diets we currently eat. Ironically, the majority of people using dietary supplements are the ones who don't really need them. They are the people who already eat generally healthy diets, are concerned about their health and exercise regularly, so these supplements really aren't successfully filling a need. While supplements can be an important part of someones diet, they should not be used to 'replace' real nutrients found in foods. The most healthy way to get the nutrients you need is to EAT them.

David J.A. Jenkins then spoke about foods for disease prevention and his 'Portfolio Diet' experiments. His argument was similar to the one the author of "Green For Life" (green smoothies) book that I mentioned earlier, that our genes have not changed significantly over evolutionary time and we should be eating diets more more similar to our close primate relatives than the Standard American Diet (SAD). Jenkins had done 3 test diets which had various levels of vegetables and greens integrated. The most extreme version was the Simian Diet in which participants needed to eat 63 servings of fruits and vegetables a day in order to maintain their body weight. This would be about 9-10 hours of eating, a total of 5.5 kg of food in and 1 kg of feces out a day (constipation is not a problem in this diet).

A lunch of acorn squash stuffed with a wild rice mixture and steamed brussel sprouts and carrots was served to us. All local! And we ended up sitting at a table of nutrition graduate students and the woman behind Spoonriver (a local foods restaurant in Minneapolis) - Brenda Langton. I asked Brenda about the local foods served at Spoonriver and she gave me the same answer that many local foods restaurants have that they serve local food when it is in season exclusively, but as the weather gets cold, they switch to a conventional diet. I can see why restaurants want to avoid freezing, drying or canning foods if not necessary (because they can get it fresh from another source) but I would be really interested and excited to see a local foods restaurant that was year-round local.

After lunch, Melissa Laska spoke about food public policy issues. She had some interesting statistics:
_$517.7 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on food at home, whereas $445.1 billion is spent on food service. This means we eat 42.4% of our food from restaurants and fast food.
_Food accounts for 11.8% of our total incomes (much less than in almost every other country of the world) Families below the poverty line, however, spend about 20% of their income on food.
_Each household spends an average of $6,000 on food/year.

There were some shocking statistics on how much of our food is imported:
On average:
79% of fish
16% of wine/beer
32% of fruit/nuts
13% of vegetables
12% of grains
11% of sweets
11% of red meat

98% of our limes come from Mexico, 51% of our garlic comes from China, 8 countries account for 80% of spices.

DAY 46_759,493 MILES PER GALLON

2010-10-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Below is a chart showing a typical week of bicycle commuting (click to enlarge):

In this week (sept 12-18th) I biked 77.2 miles. It took me a total of 5:34.8 hrs

I wanted to compare how much energy would have been used if I had been driving my car everywhere instead of biking.

I used the following calculation to find how many gallons are used in each commute:

(33 mpg) (gallons used) = distance

For example on the chart, I would have used 0.53 gallons of gas on a day I commute 17.6 miles. There are 36.6 kWh in each gallon of gas, so this translates to 19.398 kWh saved on that particular day.

In total, I have 'saved' 2.325 gallons of gas and 85.095 kWh this week bicycling instead of driving.

HOWEVER, I AM using some energy to get around with my bike. It is about 500 calories worth of energy to bike 12 miles (typical distance biking). I converted my kWh per day amounts to calories to see how many calories you would need to run a car going the same distance:

1 kWh = 3,600,000 J
There are 4.18 J per calorie so,
1 kWh= 861,000 calories

In a day I commute 12 miles I use 13.176 kWh:

13.176 kWh x 861,000 calories/kWh = 11,344,536 calories that my car uses in a typical day of commuting, versus 500 on my bike. So I am using 0.000044% of the energy my car uses by biking my commute (and I have pretty good gas mileage -33 mpg). Whoa.

To make an even more ridiculous comparison, I calculated how many 'mpg' my bike gets from the energy I have to consume in calories to move myself:

1 gallon of gas = 132 MJ
4.18 J in one calorie (4.18 J x 500 calories = 2090 J)
2090 J/132,000,000 J = 0.00001583 gallons in 12 miles of biking

(mpg) (0.0000158 gallons used) = 12 miles

My bike gets 759,493.67 MPG. Yeah, thats right, try to manufacture THAT Toyota.

midtown greenway

DAY 45_LEARNING TO LISTEN

2010-10-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

28 September 2010

Germany's "grandfather of green building", Joachim Eble of Joachim Eble Architektur came to speak at the University of Minnesota today, I attended a brown-bag session with him which was a smaller group of people and allowed us to have more of a discussion than lecture. My fellow architecture folks and I sat among a wide variety of people with different interests ranging from public policy and urban design, to people simply interested in starting to learn about sustainable urbanism.

Many of the questions people were asking circled around the observation that many countries in Europe, including Germany have been able to integrate sustainable living into their urban communities in a way that is almost non-existent in the United States. Residents come together in groups of families in Germany and create a kind of co-op housing situation in which they design their entire community from the ground up in order to live in a sustainable way. Many people were asking, "how do we do that here?" and more pointedly, "how do we get people to be INTERESTED in doing that here." Which eventually led to, "how can we get our government to pass laws to MAKE people do that here." It really made me think about who it is that catalyzes change in society, a 'which comes first' scenario - is it the PEOPLE, or the GOVERNMENT who is responsible for making change. WHO HAS POWER.

Eble (who talks really slowly and quietly) responded that "Every government is a mirror of the consciousness of society." To me that means, that, like most things, it isn't black and white. Governments are made up of individuals as well, and individual change is the catalyst for any kind of change. Governments need the push from people to make changes because ultimately, government can be seen as a our collective mind. We are really responsible, in a way, for what everyone else thinks, and what we ourselves think. And in that way, we are responsible for changes which need to be made and to reach some kind of collective decisions as a society.

Personally, I don't think I have ever been that good at 'convincing' people of the importance of environmental issues. It is easy for me to get frustrated with people who I don't think 'understand' the issues. Too quickly, I jump to the conclusion that people are just ignorant, clinging to a way of life that is actually quite detrimental to themselves, as well as our environment. However, a deeper look into the issue has revealed to me that we are really all fighting for the SAME thing. We are all driven to act a certain way because a certain amount of FEAR we have of losing our WAY OF LIFE.

One one side, there are the people unwilling to accept that humans are responsible for climate change, and, in the same category are those who understand this but are still unwilling to change their lifestyles in any way regardless. Why are they unwilling to accept this? Even when climate change has been scientifically linked human behavior? They are AFRAID, and rightly so, its kinda scary. Can you really blame people though? As already outlined in this project, we are really DEPENDANT on resources (especially petroleum) to maintain our lives. We actually DON'T KNOW how to live without this resource, we would have to re-learn-as I have begun to do- how to feed ourselves, collect water, get around, etc....There are many benefits in the end, but at least the transition can be very hard. Sometimes-lets face it- I am a hungry, tired, frustrated, surly, crabby bitch (which my friends can attest to). Our natural tendency when we fear our lives (or quality of life) are in danger, is to defend it, AT ALL COSTS. As humans, we have an amazing ability to justify our actions in the face of losing something we deeply value. We will think of anything; "my husband needs to eat red meat every night to feel full, my wife won't sell her SUV because she feels unsafe on the road, I don't have time to use public transportation, I don't have time to cook myself a healthy meal" (Mark Bittmann at Healthy Food Healthy Lives 2010). Unreasonable? Maybe. But people are afraid.

On the other side, until very recently, I didn't realize that my own motivations for trying to 'convince' people, and living life the way I do is also driven by FEAR. What am I afraid of? When I really think about it, I am also afraid, to lose my quality of life. I am afraid that it will take our society and the world too long to make changes in our lives to make a difference, and we will reach a point of 'no return'. I am afraid that people will cling so tightly to their over consumptive lifestyles that everyone-no matter how we have chosen individually to live-will ultimately be affected. 'Affected' is putting it too lightly, the downward spiral we are on has the potential to cause horrific distasters of mass starvation, water shortages, political unrest, unprecedented natural disasters, the list goes on. Dramatic? Maybe. But I'm afraid.

What I have realized is that if both sides are driven by fear (which is an irrational, unreasonable and dramatic emotion), we have almost NO chance at communicating effectively or resolving anything because we have made the issues personal. When speaking to somebody from a place of fear, we are defending our survival. We have to find a way to COLLECTIVELY open our minds, understand the fears within ourselves, and actually HEAR what people are trying to say to us. Not their words, necessarily, but what they are afraid of, and how we can work together to eliminate those fears.

As Joachim Eble puts it "We have to learn to listen".

DAY 44_SMALL UPDATES (gnats, wrong greens, homemade mascara)

2010-10-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

27 September 2010

Small updates lately:

GNATS:
_Gnats are getting better, hanging sticky tape up near the plants they were living in the bathroom has worked the best. I also made some gnat traps out of empty beer bottles. By making a funnel of aluminum foil with a VERY small hole, the gnats fly in and can't get out. I put some apple cider vinegar in the bottle because the gnats are attracted to the fermenting smell. These traps haven't trapped as many as the sticky tape, but have gotten at least a few of them.

COMPOST:
_Replacing the compost with my white sheet has eliminated the worm's escaping problem. I'm thinking up ways to keep a translucent lid on the worm bin which will be easier than replacing the sheet/bungee cord every time...ideas?

GREENS:
_I learned the hard way to pay attention to what vegetables I am buying at the co-op yesterday... Its important to rotate the greens/vegetables you are consuming because it is easier to get a wide variety of nutrients, so I have been trying to buy new greens almost every time I go. I picked up a bunch of big, dark leafy greens which were local and organic without even looking at what kind they were. Took them to the checkout and the lady was like, "uh, what ARE these?" , and I was like "oh, I have no idea, I just picked them up, ha. So we spent about 5 minutes looking over her thumbnail sized, laminated sheets of vegetable identification pictures trying to find them. The verdict-Rapini.

I threw half of the Rapini, one apple, a few frozen pear bits, 1 1/2 cups of water and some honey in a blender this morning (typical green smoothie I drink every morning with various greens), and when I went to taste it, OH WOW, SUPER bitter. It was undrinkable. So rapini really needs to be balanced with pretty sweet fruits (which aren't really available to me anymore). HOWEVER, I found a recipe for a better way to eat the rest of the greens here (http://liveitupvegan.blogspot.com/2006/08/pennine-rapini-and-garlicky-bchamel.html). It is a Penne, Rapini and Garlicky Bechamel.

Cook the Penne, adding the chopped Rapini in during the last 3 minutes (don't overcook or it gets mushy) and make sauce while cooking:

"Make your Garlicky Béchamel by putting 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add 1/4 cup of flour (I use unbleached white flour or whole wheat flour or rice flour, etc) and mix well for one or two minutes. Don’t let it burn. Then, slowly add 2 cups of soymilk, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent lumps, until the desired consistency. You can add more soymilk if you find the sauce too thick. Then add the garlic, the seasonings and let simmer on low heat."

Gonna try making this tonight with the local, bulk penne I found!

OIL-FREE MASCARA
_An article in my friend's ReadyMade the other day introduced me to two ladies; Siobhan O' Connor and Alexandra Sprut who have a blog called 'No More Dirty Looks', and book (by the same name). (http://nomoredirtylooks.com/). While they are not addressing products made from petroleum directly, they outline what ingredients in cosmetics and other health/hygiene products contain chemicals and toxins which are harmful (many of which are petroleum based). I'm in the process of trying to identify what ingredients come directly from petroleum, but, to be on the safe side am converting all my products to oil-free versions (recipes from their book, blog) as I run out of them. Today I made mascara from charcoal tablets and aloe vera. Charcoal tablets were $9 and aloe can come from a bottle or squeezed from an aloe plant (if you have one).

1_Twist charcoal capsule apart and dump contents into a small vile/tube. Many health-food stores and co-ops have a health/hygiene department which sell small jars for making your own products. I found a small skinny jar made for fragrances. Dumb the charcoal directly in the jar.
2_Scoop aloe vera gel into the jar until full (about .5 ounces) The charcoal tablets could go a lot further because there is a lot of powder in each one, but I wanted to make small quantities so I could make it more often and it will be fresher.
3_Stir up jar with a thin object (I used a little stick)
4_Clean an old mascara brush, dip in, scrap extra off on edges of tube and apply!

My friend Amber used a much cooler version of mine using wood charcoal off her grill to make an eyeliner! In her own words, "I squished some gel out of an aloe leaf, swabbed by brush it it and then picked up some charcoal dust (just picking up a piece from the bag created enough fine dust on my fingers to work with) and lined my lovely lids. it worked like a charm. i think the aloe/charcoal is technically the mascara rather than the eyeliner, but it worked! hooray". I've been using this for a few days, it stays on really well, doesn't run much (I should know-biking in the rain and all), but removals easily when you don't want it to come off.

No worries about getting this stuff in your eyes, while you certainly don't want to rub it in your eyes it is much safer than ingredients that in most mascaras. All ingredients can literally be eaten and be ok, in fact, the charcoal tablets are meant to be eaten to help with gas and digestion issues. (pics when I get a chance, check back)

DAY 43_MPG vs GPM (GARBAGE TRUCK ENERGY)

2010-09-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

26 September 2010

How much energy is used to take out the trash?

I decided not to create any waste for this project mostly to see if it was possible, but have recently been looking into just how much energy it takes for a garbage truck to haul your trash away once a week. A little background on Minneapolis (Hennepin County's) waste system from the city website(http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/solid-waste/garbage.asp):

"None of your garbage goes into a landfill. City of Minneapolis garbage goes to the Hennepin Energy Resource Co. (HERC).
Located in downtown Minneapolis, the HERC facility uses mass burn technology to convert 365,000 tons of garbage a year into electricity that is sold to Xcel Energy, Inc."

This waste-to-energy facility is located in downtown Minneapolis, just 2.1 miles from my house. While it may seem strange that Minneapolis burns all its waste near the most densely populated area of the city, this is a convenient location for the facility because it can more efficiently distribute the steam (heat energy) which is being created by HERC. While the facility is extremely close to where I live, the main problem lies in how garbage gets there -garbage trucks. As this article outlines (http://www.informinc.org/pr_ggt.php), garbage trucks have some serious fuel efficiency issues:

"The study found that garbage trucks are among the oldest, least fuel-efficient, and most polluting fleet vehicles in the United States:

There are more than twice as many garbage trucks in the US (179,000) as there are urban transit buses (82,600). The garbage truck fleet includes refuse and recycling collection vehicles as well as transfer trucks.
Forty-one percent of garbage trucks in use are more than 10 years old, nearing the end of their lifetime (12 to14 years), and performing at reduced efficiencies.
Garbage trucks use more fuel than any other type of vehicle – averaging 8,600 gallons per year – except for tractor-trailers and transit buses (which use 11,500 gallons and 10,800 gallons on average per year, respectively).
Garbage trucks in the US consume approximately 1 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually and get the lowest fuel efficiency (2.8 miles per gallon) of any vehicle type. Transit buses, single-unit heavy-duty trucks, and tractor-trailers get 2.9, 7.0, and 6.1 miles per gallon, respectively.
Diesel garbage trucks are a major source of air pollution, including smog-forming compounds, particulate matter, and toxic chemical constituents. While heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles, including garbage trucks, make up only 7 percent of vehicles on the road, they contribute 69 percent of on-road fine particulate pollution and 40 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions.
Diesel garbage trucks are notoriously loud, generating noise levels of up to 100 decibels, which can cause serious hearing damage. Garbage truck operators, as well as those living along garbage truck routes, are affected by this noise.

Trying to crunch some numbers to get the # of gallons used to get from my house to the facility I realized that 2.8 miles per gallon = 2.8 gallons per mile. Wait, why don't we use GPM instead of MPG? Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to calculate exactly how many gallons of gas you use for each trip you take (or on a long vacation?). It turns out, that the term MPG is an easy way to confuse consumers. according to this article (http://www.mpgillusion.com/2009/02/overveiw-of-gpm.html):

"MPG tricks people's perceptions. Replacing a car that gets 14 MPG with a car that gets 17 MPG saves as much gas for a given distance as replacing a car that gets 33 MPG with a car that gets 50 MPG (about 1 gallon per hundred miles--see this table). MPG obscures the value of removing the most inefficient cars. As the GPM table shows, a 14 to 20 MPG improvement saves twice as much gas as a 33 to 50 MPG improvement:"

MPG = miles per gallon
GPHM = gallons per hundred miles

MPG	GPHM
10	10
11	9
12.5	8
14	7
16.5	6
20	5
25	4
33	3
50	2
100	1

More information on this at http://www.mpgillusion.com/"

A few conversions from wikipedia:

1 barrel of crude oil (42 gallons) makes 19.5 gallons of gasoline (other products are made from the barrel as well)

1 gallon of gasoline = 132 MJ = 36.6 kWh

Garbage trucks = 2.8 MPG = GPM
2.8 GPM x 2.1 (miles from my house to the HERC) = 5.88 gallons of gas

Multiplying 5.88 gallons of gas x 36.6 (kWh in a gallon of gasoline) I found that 215.2 kWh of energy are used in the garbage truck's 2.1 mile trip from my house to the waste facility. Whoala. A few comparisons, our house uses about 140 kWh of energy a month (that's 3 people). Check your energy bill, this is probably pretty close to the amount of energy most small homes use in a whole month! Granted, the truck makes many stops, so it isn't just MY garbage that is being picked up on the truck. For example, if the truck was on a 10 mile round-trip route which served 50 houses, the energy use per house would be 20.49 kWh (((2.8 MPG x10 miles)/50 houses) x 36.6 kWh)). I have had trouble finding data about garbage routes and number of homes served by each truck. Updates on these numbers as I find more data...

But just for a moment I would like to consider how much energy would have to be dedicated for garbage hauling each day if I were to be using this service. 215.2 kWh divided by 7 days (garbage picked up once a week) = 30.7 kWh per day. My energy budget is 5kWh/day. (Again this number comes from my 'share' of the average solar energy that lands on my roof each day). This means that if I were to consider having garbage trucks haul my garbage away, and dedicated my ENTIRE energy budget towards it, I would only have enough energy to have garbage hauled every 43 days (215.2 kWh per load/5 kWh energy budget per day). While there is no way I could dedicate my entire energy budget to garbage hauling, picking up garbage once a month doesn't actually seem that unreasonable. As mentioned in earlier posts, while it is almost impossible to not accumulate ANY waste, it is certainly possible to minimize waste dramatically. There are only a few items that I continually collect (milk lids, glass wine bottles, twisty ties). Most of these things are actually recyclable (but I'm not recycling in this project due to energy requirements as well). I won't have any problem collecting waste in the 14 gallon (2.5'x2'x2') plastic tub I am using now over the 100 days. This means that I would really only need garbage to be picked up every 3 months or so.

Below is a graphic describing the garbage energy use and flows (click to enlarge in a new window):

waste energy flows (click to enlarge)

DAY 42_CONTAINER GARDENING

2010-09-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

25 September 2010

I finally feel like some of the stuff I planted might actually grow into food I can eat :) I now have had greens growing for 3 weeks, planting a new bed each week. Here are three bins of greens I have growing:

Collards (3 weeks old today):

Collards (2 weeks old today):

Arugula (1 week old today):

I also have some nice cilantro growing. I have rosemary, basil and lemon balm also growing, but they are much smaller still.

I've been reading some books on container gardening. This has become a popular method of gardening lately as more people are trying to find ways to grow foods in small and indoor spaces. A 2007 United Nations report concluded that over half of the world's population now lives in cities instead of rural areas. This trend is likely to continue, and as it does, there will be more and more need to find ways to grow some of our own food in urban environments (our homes). As petroleum decreases, and non-local foods become increasingly expensive, there will be more economic incentive to growing certain plants indoors to mimic their natural environments. There are also health benefits to having growing plants around you. E. O. Wilson most famously describes this phenomenon as the Biophilia Effect, "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.” Basically, because we are natural beings ourselves, we have a deep-rooted affiliation with all that is natural. Studies done in hospitals where a group of patients faced a brick wall while others had a view of nature, found that the patients who had a view of natural had faster recoveries. By surrounding ourselves with plants, we can benefit from this phenomenon as well.

One advantage of growing plants indoors is that the space is already conditioned for our inhabitance. Unlike a greenhouse, the space for growing doesn't require any extra energy for heating and cooling. Unlike a garden, the indoor container garden can grow food all year round, regardless of season. By having enough light, feeding and watering plants appropriately, the indoor environment can fool mother nature into thinking it is in its ideal climate all the time. D.J.Herda's book, From Container to Kitchen outlines how to begin container gardening. A few tips from Herda's book:

_Most plants need at least 6" of depth. A good rule of thumb from Herda is that the foliage of the plant should not exceed this ratio (2/3 plant to 1/3 pot depth). Pots can be found anywhere, old ice cream containers, coffee tins, mason jars, cut-in-half milk cartons.

_Overwatering is the leading killer of indoor plants. Because water in containers has no where to go it settles at the bottom of the container unless properly drained. The bottom roots of the plant are where all nutrients are soaked up into the rest of the plant, and if this part of the plant is constantly too wet, it will being to rot and cause the plant to weaken, get disease, and possibly die. A good rule of thumb: if the plants leaves are turning brown and crispy it is underwatered, if the leaves are turning yellow it is overwatered. Many plants like to have the soil dry out completely between waterings. This means when plants are watered, they should be watered until water starts coming out of the bottom holes to ensure that water got to the very bottom.

_Having enough lighting is also extremely important, and the most difficult thing to achieve indoors. Indoor light levels are really crappy. Even a space we think is quite brightly lit, is actually fairly dim compared to the outdoors. From the book:

INDOOR SPACES;
reading/writing - 20 footcandles
ironing/sewing - 40 footcandles
circulation areas - 10 footcandles
display areas - 100-200 footcandles
conference room - 30 footcandles

OUTDOOR SPACES:
cloudy winter day - 2,000 footcandles
sunny summer day - 10,000 footcandles

So you can see that typical indoor lighting isn't nearly sufficient for plant growth. Light has to be introduced in some way. I have a high-efficiency fluorescent grow light with 4 tubes and that has worked so far for what I am growing. Fluorescent lights are an inexpensive way to add a lot more light to the space. Reflectors are another way to utilize the existing light more efficiently. By using mirrors, reflective metal surfaces (panel covered in aluminum foil) or white surfaces, more light can be reflected back onto the plants. According to tests conducted at the Rodale Experimental Farm in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, white is a better reflector than metal surfaces.

_Proper drainage is another important aspect. As I mentioned above, it is bad for plants to be sitting in water (even a little bit at the bottom). To avoid this, fill drainage trays with rocks and set plants on top so the water can drain, but the plant doesn't have to sit in the overflowing (standing) water.

All in all, in a post-cheap oil house, it would be ideal to have a dedicated space for growing food. This space would ideally be a greenhouse space attached to the house so no additional light would have to be introduced. It could be enclosed by reflective walls (mirrors or white) and have zones for various temperatures/humidity. This way, plants which are typically grown in tropical regions could grow in one part of the space, while other plants needing less sun/heat could be grown in another part of the space. Ample room for storage would be required. The table could be a large tray covered in stones which would serve as a giant drainage space (or possibly just drain onto the floor). This space could be heated passively by having glass angled perpendicularly to the noon-sun angle (at the coldest time of year). The space would be a pleasant place in be on a cold, winter day in MN :) and excess heat could be introduced into the living space as needed.

DAY 41_GNATS

2010-09-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

24 September 2010

Gnats have infested our house. They don't seem to be coming out of the worm bin when I open it, but they were definitely attracted to the kitchen compost tin we had sitting on our counter. While the kitchen composter had carbon filters to prevent odors, it isn't air-tight, so the fruit flies (which apparently have a great sense of smell) could smell it and get in.  While we stopped using the kitchen composter and are throwing food scraps directly into the bin now, the fruit flies have made homes in the houseplants and want to stay. This article explains that there are two kinds of gnats that are typically problems with houseplants and worm-bins.(http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/flies.htm) This article: (http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-composting/fungus-gnats-in-worm-compost-bins/) is also a good resource.

Fruit Flies are a little larger, have reddish brown bodies and can often be seen hovering around bowls of fruit or juice. The gross part is that fruit flies often become a problem because they the larvae are actually inside some of the fruit that you bring home (cannot be seen by the human eye). They are especially attracted to bananas because of their strong smell.  If fruit that contains larvae gets thrown in the worm bin, it now has the perfect little habitat to thrive.

The other kind of gnats (I think we have both at our house) are Fungus gnats. These insects are attracted to houseplant soil and burrow in. You can often see them around plants or on the underside of leaves. These can be a particularly dangerous problem to seedlings as they eat the delicate roots of young plants and case disease or die. The houseplant in our bathroom has a lot of gnats at this point.

War on gnats. Here is the plan:

Step 1: place sticky traps around areas where gnats are found I have hung one in the bathroom next to the plant, but it doesn't seem to be doing much.)

Step 2: make gnat traps. By placing apple-cider vinegar in a small bowl (they are attracted to the fermenting smell) and making a funnel with a small hole at the end, the gnats crawl inside the trap and it is virtually impossible for them to get out. They drown in the cider.

Step 3: allow plants to draw out between watering, the fungus gnats

Step 4: while fungus gnats burrow into compost and can be eliminated by opening the bin to the light for a day, the fruit gnats are attracted to the smell of the compost, so opening it would likely solve one problem and create another. By keeping a layer of soil on top of the compost, the smell won't be attractive to the gnats. I dig a hole in the bin to put food into and bury it. Also, by over-feeding the worms gnats are attracted to the smell of food that is rotting (because the worms can't keep up).

gnats on bathroom mirror

sticky tape

DAY 40_BULK SHOPPING + FROZEN FOODS

2010-09-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

23 September 2010

I want to dedicate a post to bulk food buying and storing. This is a really simple thing, but something that has completely changed the way I shop, cook for myself and my diet. While I bought in bulk before this project (haha seems SOO long ago), I hadn't ever adopted bringing in my own jars to fill. Part of the downside of this is you have to (1) remember your jars, (2) you have to go home and get your jars, so it makes it more difficult to run to the grocery on the way home from work/school. Regardless, if I were buying in ALL bulk, I probably would have realized that having tons of plastic bags with twist-ties around the in the cupboard wasn't exactly the most efficient way of storing food. I am now the proud owner of 48 mason jars (plus a few)! You need a variety of sizes to use cupboard space efficiently and not have to carry more jar around than you need on trips to the grocery store.

Here is the breakdown:

_12 half pint jars (yeast, dips, spreads, butters, portable containers for sauces/food)
_12 pint jars (baking soda, beeswax, make good drinking glasses, good size for leftover sauces)
_24 24 ounce jars (wild rice, flax seed, maple sugar, salt, nuts)
_3 64 ounce jars (I keep 'other' flours in these and crackers)
_2 huge jars (pasta, all purpose flour -I go through a lot of this)

When you bring in a jar to the co-op, weigh it first and write down the weight (ex. TARE 0.64 lbs). Fill with whatever bulk ingredients and write the number (usually 6 digits on container) on another sticker for the jar. You don't have to weigh it after you fill it. At checkout they simple subtract the weight from the TARE and charge you that.

By buying all the same kind of jars, they are easily stack able in the cupboard and you have use space more efficiently. For anything that doesn't come in bulk bins (produce), you don't need a bag for these either! I think some people must think it is gross to just throw the produce into the basket and then put it directly on the belt when checking out. OR, people think that the checkout would PREFER that you bag things. This probably isn't the case because they have to find the sticker and count the number of items in each bag, which is more difficult when in bags. Produce certainly doesn't go directly from a plant to the grocery bin. Lets consider for a moment how many different surfaces your produce has touched before it go to you:

(1) hands picking produce at harvest
(2) hands and boxes sorting produce
(3) hands and boxes for shipping
(4) hands and boxes for storing
(5) hands and grocery surfaces (maybe even the floor if dropped) when placing in display bins for purchasing
(6) LOTs of hands picking through produce at the store

So, maybe it isn't such a big deal if that tomato isn't wrapped in plastic to go from the bin to the checkout-and, it will save you a bag.

I have bowls inside my cupboard for produce that isn't refrigerated (potatoes, garlic, shallots, apples). And bowls inside my refrigerator to organize food in there (peppers, tomatoes...) I keep my greens in a vase of water on the counter (they last longer this way, don't take up space in the refrigerator and make a pretty little rotating green bouquet on the counter :)

plastic bags provided at co-op in bulk section (not being used in this project)

non-refrigerated produce in bowls

flours

spice/herb jars

extra jars

huge jar!

bulk mason jars

FROZEN FOODS:
The weather is getting colder, I've been surprised to see how many greens and vegetables are still available at the farmer's markets and the co-ops. I can still find local: garlic, tomatoes chard, kale, basil, and lots of different kinds of peppers. The 'fall' crops are probably going to be around for a while (potatoes, squash, apples). However, because I don't know when things will start to disappear, I've started to freeze things that I'm scared about :/

So far I've frozen:
_made a large batch of pesto and frozen it it into muffin cups for single servings
_frozen pears (which are now gone)
_frozen hot peppers

Things that are gone for good:
_fresh herbs (except basil which reappeared a few days ago after being gone for a week)
_spinach
_berries
_melons
_corn
_beets
_cucumber

Things that are here to stay :) (not dependant on season)
_milk
_sunflower oil
_cheese
_flour? grains?
_dried herbs
_nuts?
_sugar
_maple syrup

I will hopefully be able to harvest my first greens in the next few weeks. I have a small herb garden that probably won't be ready for a while (cilantro, rosemary, basil and lemon balm).

frozen in masons

pesto frozen in muffin tin, then placed in hot water (only for a second) to get loose

DAY 39_LOCAL FOOD DINNER

2010-09-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

22 September 2010

As a kick off meeting for our student-run architectural sustainability group at the University of Minnesota (Greenlight), my friend Amber and I cooked a massive amount of amazing local foods. The ingredients for the entire dinner were bought in bulk, locally produced and organic. (yes, I biked over in the pouring rain with all my mason jars of ingredients. win.). In keeping with my project requirements, we composted all organic waste and bought beer in growlers to eliminate any glass recycling 'waste'. I mentioned before, a new cultural Minnesota cuisine that will inevitably emerge without cheap, abundant energy to transport foods, maybe some of these foods would be a part of that? It was really interesting to see how to make many things-such as the crackers-which have only a few ingredients. Many of the foods I eat everyday from packages are SO easy to make, and much better (and more healthy) when fresh.

As promised, here are all the recipes for the dishes we made:

CRACKERS:
1 1/4 cups flour; white, whole wheat, rye*
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, or sunflower oil
4 tablespoons water; add more as needed
1 teaspoon seasoning such as chili powder, dried herbs etc (optional)

Container: baking sheet
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Preheat oven to 400° F.
Mix together well, preferably in a food processor, 1 cup of the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and oil or butter ( use smaller amount for crisper crackers, or a larger amount for a richer flavor). Add 3 tablespoons water and mix well. Gradually add more water, mixing after each addition, until mixture forms a compact ball. If it seems too sticky to handle, add more flour.
Sprinkle a work surface (or a baking sheet-sized piece of parchment paper) with some of the remaining flour then press and roll the dough to about 1/8th inch thick. Try to get it fairly uniform. If the dough is too dry to roll out, return it to the food processor and add a little more water. If necessary to prevent sticking, dust your hands and the rolling pin with a little more flour.
Put the rolled-out dough on a baking sheet dusted with a little flour (if you've used parchment paper, transfer dough and paper to baking sheet) and bake 10 - 15 minutes, until somewhat brown.
Cool and break into pieces. If making several batches, mix another while the first one bakes. You can re-use the parchment paper several times.
*Any finely ground grain such as cornmeal or buckwheat can be used for the flour in this recipe.

EGGPLANT WITH GARLIC, BASIL and TOMATO
1 large eggplant
1/2 cup sunflower oil
6 tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
basil

1_prepare eggplant: soak eggplant in water, drain water and salt, rinse salt off, place in a baking pan and drizzle liberally with olive oil
2_bake eggplant at 350 for 20 min, flip, 20 min more on other side
3_saute chopped garlic, basil and tomatoes in a sauce pan for 20 min
4_pour over eggplant mixture and serve

ALFREDO SAUCE
1 1/3 cups milk (Cedar Summit)
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp all purpose/white flour (Whole Flour Milling)
2 tbsp cream cheese (Swiss Valley Farms)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (Sarvecchio)

chop and mix all ingredients in either; a blender (then heat until warm over stove), directly on the stove

SPICY TOMATO SAUCE
4 tomatoes
2 tbsp cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 garlic clove
1/2 jalapeno pepper

chop all ingredients well and mix over stove, let simmer for 30 min.

CRANBERRY NUT BREAD
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour (Whole Flour Milling)
1 cup white flour (Whole Flour Milling)
1 orange (not local :/)
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 cup maple sugar
1 large egg
1 cup cranberries (Wisconsin)
1/2 chopped walnuts

1_preheat oven to 350, oil a 8.5"x4.5" bread loaf pan
2_combine baking power, baking soda, salt and flour in a large-sized mixing bowl. set aside
3_place orange, oil, sugar and egg into a blender or food processor, blend for 35 seconds
4_pour wet mixture into dry ingredients, mix until ingredients are just moistened
5_gently stir in cranberries and chopped walnuts
6_spread the batter in the prepared loaf pan, bake for 60 min, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean

GARLIC BUTTER:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/8 tsp salt
1 garlic clove
3 tbsp fresh snipped chives
(makes 1 1/2 cups)

1_place cream in a blender
2_blend on high speed until mixture is thick and you hear a change in the sound of the machine and it no longer mixes
3_stop machine and scrape down the sides of the container with a spatula to bring ingredients to the center of the container
4_blend on medium speed for 5 seconds and repeat steps 3 and 4 until solid butter starts to set up in the center of the container and mixture starts to flow easier
5_add garlic clove and chives and blend for 15-30 sec
6_place butter in a fine strainer to drain
7_remove butter to a bowl and add salt to taste, work butter with a spatula to remove as much liquid as possible

HAZELNUT BUTTER
2 cups (9 oz) roasted hazelnuts
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp maple sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
(MAKES 1 CUP)

1_roast hazelnuts (at 275 for 20-30 min) until skins crack and meat turns light golden
2_combine roasted nuts and oil into a high powered blender or food processor and grind to meal consistency
3_continue to blend on low for several minutes (add another tsp of oil if necessary)
4_gradually add other ingredients and blend on low until thoroughly mixed to desired consistency

LOCAL PESTO, VEGGIE +MOZZARELLA PIZZAS
DOUGH:
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tsp maple sugar
4 cups bread flour
4 tsp active dry yeast

mix in a bread machine or knead by hand

1_let rise in a warm place for 30 min
2_push bread into bread pan and let rise for another 30 min
3_add pesto and cherry tomatoes, peppers, homemade mozzarella cheese and garlic
3_bake for 20-25 min on 350

BUTTERNUT SQUASH DIP
2 cups cooked butternut squash
3 tbsp sunflower oil
1 head garlic, roasted, cloves separated
8 ounces goat cheese
1 lemon, peeled, halved, seeded

1_halve squash, remove pit/seeds and place in a baking dish with 1 inch of water to cook at 350 for 1 hour
2_separate garlic cloves and roast on a baking sheet (with peels still on) for 30 min
3_Either place all ingredients in a blender/food processor or chop and heat over med heat for 20 min

CHEESES SERVED: Prairie Breeze (white), Widmer (yellow)
BEER: Town Hall Microbrewery (seven corners), both Oat Amber and Abbey growlers

HOMEMADE FETTUCCINE
1/4 cup semolina
1 1/2 cups flour (white)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sunflower oil

1_knead by hand until forms smooth ball
2_cover w/ damp towel and let sit for 30 min
3_roll thinly and either use pasta machine or cut by hand

*cook fresh pasta for only 1 minute
*fresh pasta can be dried or refrigerated for up to 3 days

APPLE CRUMB
MIXTURE:
4 apples
1 tbsp maple sugar
1/2 cup water

TOPPING:
1/2 cup maple sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter

1_cube apples and mix with water and maple sugar, pour into baking pan
2_mix topping ingredients until crumbly
3_sprinkle topping on apples in pan
4_bake for 30 min on 350