It's Easy Being Green

Over the last few years we’ve become increasingly better at storing and saving produce we grew at home and even stuff we bought while it was in season.  Surprisingly we ended up with about a dozen lemon cucumber plants this year that in a flurry of growth, took over much of the backyard.  We’ve had lemon cucumber vines trailing across the back fence, climbing a prickly pyracantha bush as it reached toward the sky and meandering throughout three different flowerbeds.

We never anticipated we’d have this many lemon cucumber plants.  Last year’s lone vine didn’t fair too well, setting a couple small cucumbers before withering to unrecognizable remnants.  With only a scant amount of seeds left in our seed box, I ended up planting them in seed trays but forgot what they were.  We’ve had a lot of unknown plants this year and another round of John Does didn’t concern us at all.  My wife set them about knowing we’d soon figure out what they were.

Two months later we’ve picked several baskets of delightful lemon cucumber.  My Homestead Hottie wife has loved the lemon cucumber ever since we were first introduced to them at the Farmer’s Market in our old hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona.  We slice them and eat them raw or mix them in with salad when we need a nourishing cool-down from Summer’s oppressive heat.  But with the amount we’ve harvested, there was simply no way we’d be able to eat them all before they went bad.

I wasn’t convinced they were able to be pickled but Homestead Hottie quickly found a canning recipe online that proved they were in fact a candidate for pickling.  Jill over at Jillicious Discoveries has a great recipe that we put to use this last week.  Our four quart jars of lemon cucumber pickles are now resting quietly beside their cousins, four jars of freshly preserved tomatoes, on the shelves in the garage.  I can’t wait to try them out.  Winnie Abramson over at the Healthy Green Kitchen also has a recipe for lacto-fermented lemon cucumber pickles that I’d be interested in trying as well.

Do you have a favorite recipe for lemon cucumbers or a favorite pickling recipe to use them in?  Let me know, I’d love to try more!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Termination seems like such a dirty word.  The societal stigma attached to it is enough to make you feel vile; rolled in the dregs of society and tossed out into the street for all to see and smell.  You, left to feel like nothing more than an offense to the olfactory and beyond.  Why is it I feel like I should embody that feeling, sulking further into my own self wallow?

There is this great aversion to getting fired.  Nobody wants to hear it and most don’t want anybody to know it ever happened to them.  That’s why our corporate forefathers came up with terms like “let go”, RIF (reduction in force), laid off, “opting out” and canceled contract.  Like wrapping a blanket around a Billy club, is it merely to ease the blow to one’s ego?  Or is it like a golden ray shining down from above, making employers feel at ease, almost angelic in letting you down softly and tiptoeing around the word fire or terminate.

This week, I’m learning to embrace being fired.  I was ambushed.  Walking back to my desk at the end of my shift late Friday night, there sat my boss.  He magically reappeared, wearing the same damn clothes he left the office in four hours before.  It wouldn’t have won him any awards for his performance but he tried to act sorrowful.  He wasn’t soft about it at all.  He didn’t even try to let me down easily.  It’s the only time he’s ever really truly had the balls to act like a real manager and he managed me right out the front door.

The kick in the ass brought an end to two years of this Midwestern misery.  They moved me 1800 miles away from home promising a long-term commitment.  From day one though, it’s been anything but.  I was sold a bill of goods and unfortunately drank the Kool-Aid.  Each quaff left a taste in my mouth that grew more and more wretched.  Luckily I choked and regurgitated the rotgut and am now cleaning house.  One chapter is ending.  Another one is beginning.

It’s ironic this has hall happened because just about two weeks ago T and sat down and made lists.  Not for grocery shopping or things to do around this half-acre homestead.  These lists were our priorities in life; a test to see where we each stood at this very portion of our lives.  Little did we know that these lists would come into play just a few days later.  Here is how my priorities panned out:

1)                  Make sure my T, my wife, and my darling daughter are taking care of emotionally, physically and financially

2)                  Find a job that makes me happy

3)                  Live life as sustainable as possible

4)                  Buy a farm, ranch or other plot of land to build a life on

5)                  Financial freedom: ditch the debt, save more

T’s priorities were surprisingly similar.  Our thoughts and notions on what we wanted to achieve together weren’t as far off as we might have expected them to be.  We never expected to be in the position of changing career paths this quickly.  I had a contract that would leave us a year to think about our next moves but now that has shriveled and died right on the vine.

So another chapter begins.  We have two months, possibly three, of funds to get us through until the next opportunity beckons.  We’re looking at ways to stretch every possible dollar and every possible resource we use on a daily basis.  It can only help us make it through and last even longer than some would anticipate.  It will be the true test of our skills and desires to live life in a more sustainable, environmentally friendly and happiness inducing way.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I just took action by submitting a letter of concern to the USDA regarding their current consideration of implementing some long-overdue rules that would make markets fairer for poultry and livestock farmers.  Big agribusiness is trying to fight back of course, preventing the new rules from ever passing.  If you’d like to help out the cause, head to the Food & Water Watch website.

Here is a copy of the letter I wrote.  I used the form letter but personalized the first part:

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

Let me begin by expressing my deep disgust and distrust with the mass-market meat system currently in place.  I have taken my consumer dollars out of the meat department at my local grocery stores and instead invested in a share of a local, Community Supported Agriculture operation.  For my investment in the farmer just down the road, which averages $5 per pound, I am guaranteed about 20lbs. of farm fresh, organically raised meat products each month.  It’s the best investment I ever could have made and don’t intend to buy meat from the local grocers case again any time soon.

I am writing to express my support for the proposed rule on “Implementation of Regulations Required Under Title XI of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008; Conduct in Violation of the Act” (“Farm Bill Comments, FR page 35338, June 22, 2010). This new proposed rule is an important first step in leveling the playing field for livestock producers, improving market transparency and protecting poultry growers from unfair contract terms.

The proposed rule would eliminate the most abusive contract terms and practices used by poultry companies, ban retaliation against growers who speak out about unfair conditions or contract abuses; protect growers who make expensive upgrades to their chicken houses; require notification before companies suspend contracts with growers; and allow growers to opt out of arbitration clauses.

Unfortunately, the proposed rule fails to rein in similarly unfair practices in livestock markets. The proposed rule addresses a few specific unfair practices widely used by meatpackers, but it fails to establish guidelines that would prevent meatpackers from unfairly favoring one hog or cattle farmer over another through marketing agreements and contracts. It does prevent one limited kind of price discrimination (the full trailer volume discount), bans packer-to-packer sales, prohibits one auction buyer from representing multiple meatpackers and offers only limited improvements on marketing transparency. These are important and necessary improvements, but do not address most of the widespread unfair treatment in the cattle and hog industry. In addition to implementing this proposed rule as soon as possible, I urge you to take the next steps necessary to address the market power of large meatpackers and require packers to pay a firm bid price for all livestock they procure and require them to sell in an open public market where all buyers and sellers have access.

Sincerely,

Popularity: 2% [?]

Do you have a ton of extra veggies in your garden right now?  Why not trade them?  We stumbled across a great  website the other idea called Veggie Trader.  You can sign up, post what you have a lot of and what you’d like to trade for and then wait for the matchmaking to happen.

Unfortunately there isn’t anybody currently signed up for our area so if you do live in the Tri-State, join now so we can start swapping our extra produce for other things we might be able to use.

Popularity: 2% [?]

We are now getting ready to wrap up our second month as members of a local meat CSA through Stonewall Farms and it has been an adventure.  We purchased a family share of meat for an entire year.  Under the plan, we end up receiving 20 pounds of meat (beef, chicken, pork or lamb) in a variety of cuts.  The cuts change each month and are all dependent on what animals are ready to send to the butcher during that particular month.

Since we never know what we’re going to get from month to month, we’ve had fun receiving cuts of meat we necessarily wouldn’t buy at the grocery store.  While the meat is not only good for us because it’s grass-fed and all natural, it’s also pushing us outside of our culinary comfort zone.  T & I tend to cook the same 10-15 staples and don’t change up the menu much but that has quickly changed.

Last month’s share included a package of beef kebab, something I normally wouldn’t grill.  I used the below recipe and it turned out amazing.  The beef was so tender, moist and flavorful.  I also cut up chunks of fresh bell pepper from our garden and quartered an onion too and added those to the skewers in between the pineapple and meat.

Teriyaki Beef Kebabs

Ingredients:

-  1 small top round beef steak, about 2lbs., 1-inch thick

-  1/4 packed light brown sugar

-  1/4 cup soy sauce

-  2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

-  1 tablespoon canola oil

-  1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

-  1 tablespoon minced garlic

-  vegetable oil, for the rack and skewers

-  2 & 1/2 cups canned or fresh pineapple chunks

1)  Using a sharp knife, trim all the fat from the meat and cut meat into 1-inch cubes

2)  In a bowl, stir together the sugar, soy sauce, lime juice, canola oil, ginger powder and minced garlic until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the meat, cover tightly and refrigerate for about 8 hours, flipping occasionally.

3)  When ready, arrange the briquettes in the barbecue, clean and lightly oil the grill rack and preheat to high

4)  Thread the meat and pineapple, alternately, onto lightly oiled metal skewers.  Immediately place on the barbecue and cook, turning and basting with marinade for about 5 to 7 minutes, until the meat is cooked as desired.  Remove from heat and serve.

That was fun, now we’ve got to figure out what to do with beef neck bones.  It was a little bonus item thrown in with our normal take of meats this last month.  I’ll let you know what comes out of it!  Are you a member of a CSA program?  If not, why haven’t you joined one yet?

Popularity: 2% [?]