DAY 69_LOCAL BIRTHDAY DINNER PARTY!

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?

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...

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

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?

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

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'

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!