DAY 56_SAVING CILANTRO

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

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

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!