DAY 54_DAILY TIME USE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!