It's Easy Being Green

Welcome to our SFG

My square foot garden (I’m going to resort to calling it an SFG from here on out to save space) has reached an important milestone in it’s development this week. It’s 6 weeks old *tear, sniffle, sniffle* and my how it’s grown!

At this point every square is filled in with the exception of several dud strawberry plants that did not grow. I ended up purchasing these boxes of plant crowns grown by Van Zyverden at Sam’s Club this spring. I ended up with 80 strawberry crowns and not a one of them sprouted. While being disappointed, I’m not surprised. This green thumb hasn’t had a very good track record with Van Zyverden products and have had to write to them on several occasions to get replacement plants. A simple internet search shows the web awash with similar experiences. I have a letter off to them even as we speak and have resorted to giving up after 6 weeks of no life and have started planting over the top of the dud strawberries.

Peering over the gate at the SFG. Notice the rain water barrel against the house. It usually is full with only one storm.

Looking to the west in our SFG. The tepee in the center used for the snap peas and snow peas is made from the giant sunflower stalks I saved from last years garden. They're strong and light!

In the meantime, everything else is off to the races. We’ve been unseasonably cooler than normal around here in southwestern Indiana the past few weeks with a plethora of rain. Snow peas and snap peas are still doing wonderfully, climbing their sunflower stalk tepee and producing a handful of new pods every few days. It’s enough to whip together shrimp and snow pea stir-fry which is currently on the menu.

Snow peas and snap peas climb the sunflower stalk tepee, reaching toward the sky. The tepee would work great for any type of light, climbing plant like a flower, peas or beans. I saved and dried the stalks from my giant sunflowers last year and tied them together to form a tepee.

A half dozen mustard greens have produced non-stop this Spring and are still going as we race toward Memorial Day

Mustard greens will also find their way into this stir-fry having put on a new flush of growth every couple of days. It’s enough to fill up a colander and they’re delicious any way we’ve prepared them.

The broccoli plants are beginning to form their heads this week and the brussel sprouts look like they’re about ready to grow their hardy stalks too. Our summer veggies are beginning to take hold as our temps edged into the 80’s the past couple of days. The tomatoes are getting a good flush of first flowers while also putting on good top growth. The peppers, while still small, are flowering too. Sweet corn is about 3-4 inches already. Squash plants and melons are beginning to stretch out and ramble around. Potatoes look like bushes already. We got to pick our first two strawberries of the summer on our homegrown plants and they were delicious.

Little E and I picked up these great strawberry plants from the Southwest Indiana Master Gardeners plant sale. There are three different varieties growing. We're going to see who does the best!

Weeding the SFG is an amazing experience. The soil mix makes it so easy to pull out the weeds and grass. In fact, T and I can blitz the weeding chore every few days and it only takes about 15 minutes to get the whole garden done. I’ve never met an easier garden to weed other than the one that doesn’t exist! I can’t wait for the bounty to come and am so pleased with how well the SFG is growing. So how does your garden grow?

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Awhile back I was sent a copy of the Green Princess Cookbook to review.  Several other books on green living and sustainability have been in que first so I haven’t paid much attention to the Green Princess Cookbook by Barbara Beery, that is until my wife T and I started searching for a green cake recipe for our daughter’s (we’ll call her Tater Tot)  first birthday.

Tater Tot was exclusively breast fed because booby is best!  Once Tater started on solid foods though, we’ve been feeding her Earth’s Best organic baby foods.  We feed her little in the way of processed or unnatural foods and avoid most things that retain pesticides and other harsh chemicals used in factory farming growing practices.  Tater doesn’t get much in the way of refined sugar either because both T and I have seen the outcomes of children who get way too much at an early age.

With that said, T and I have been trying to find recipes for a more natural first birthday cake.  We don’t necessarily want to go entirely vegan on this because little Tater Tot hasn’t made the decision to go that direction yet.  Tater’s Mommy and Daddy love their meat very much but we’ll support her if she eventually decides meat products aren’t for her.  Since we’ve been on the hunt, T pulled the Green Princess Cookbook from my book review stack and we began pawing through it.

Based on the title, you’d think there would be a lot of natural or in some way environmentally friendly recipes in this cookbook.  I wish I could say that was the case but instead, we found ourselves looking at a cookbook that had merely a sprinkling of the “green” idea laid out in its recipes.

The forward does recommend you try to use organic or locally grown ingredients whenever possible but this is a suggestion that virtually any cookbook author could slap in front of their recipe collection too.  The book is geared toward children and Beery did a good job including easy to make items like Organic Orchard Salsa and Solar-Power Strawberry Lemonade (which actually does have to warm up in the sun as part of the recipe).  They’re novel ideas and take a good step in teaching younger kids about organic foods and greener living practices.

You might be disappointed though when you come across recipes like No-Bake Brownie Cupcakes.  The idea is to use less resources by not using your oven to bake them but unfortunately the recipe calls for a package of brownie mix as its base.  We all know that’s not only resource intensive but surely there is a way to make your own no-bake brownie mix instead of trying to rely on another box of processed food.  The recipe for Off-the-Vine Zany Zucchini Muffins goes the same route, using a box of spice cake mix for its base.

I have to give Beery some credit for trying to spread the teachings of greener living to her childhood cooks.  There’s a greener living tip on each page and some recipes leaning toward learning about how to be sustainable like making your own butter.  Parents could expand discussions on each topic while helping their budding chef whip up their recipe and maybe teach them even more about living life a little greener.

I’m giving away a copy of the Green Princess Cookbook so if you’re interested in entering, here’s how you do it:

1)  First leave a comment on this post

2)  Secondly, send me an email to easygreen@greenpreferred.com with a favorite organic or green recipe you like to make with your kids or for them and a short story explaining why it’s your favorite.

3)  Finally, follow me on Twitter and re-tweet the following message:

“I just entered the Green Princess Cookbook for kids giveaway put on by @GreenPreferred.  Learn how to enter and win http://bit.ly/c1Phcu”

The contest will close on Friday, May 7th, 2010 and the person with the most creative recipe and story will win the cookbook for their budding chef.  Keep checking back for a free recipe or two while the contest is running. Good luck!

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Thanksgiving might be a week behind us but I’m still pretty pleased with our decision to go local this year.  Instead of elbowing the crowd at the freezer case at the local grocery store, we located a nearby farmer who raises natural and fresh turkeys for the Thanksgiving holiday.

This is something we’ve done before when we lived in northern Arizona.  Our tradition was short-lived however because the farm bowed out to developers and sold their acreage.  It was disappointing but just another real world example of how small local farmers are edged out of the market every day.  Last year we were new transplants to the Tri-State area and didn’t have much time to begin looking for a locally and naturally raised bird to feast on.

After a call to the River City Food Co-Op, they directed me to Uebelhack Farms located in Mt. Vernon, Indiana.  The family has been raising turkeys for the past 40 years and is not one of those factory farms that inhumanely and unnaturally treats the meat that will end up on our tables.  They took my order, asked if I wanted fresh or frozen and gave me a date to swing by the farmhouse and pick up my turkey.  It was a bit off the beaten path and more expensive than a frozen, store-bought turkey but it was well worth it.

We felt even better about our decision to buy locally sourced meat after watching an eye-opening documentary called Food, Inc. The documentary, co-produced by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma), takes a look at how Americans consume meat that is fast, cheap and tasty (or at least that’s what we’re led to believe).  It follows meat from the breeding process in a lab, to the farm, to the slaughterhouse, to the store and eventually onto your table, showing you exactly what you’re eating.

I’ve always been a big proponent to eating locally sourced food but have found it both difficult and cost-prohibitive to find locally sourced meat.  I’ve been talking with another local farmer over at Stonewall Farms in Evansville, Indiana who sells shares of organic, pasture-fed beef, pork, lamb and goat.  After watching that documentary, I think we’re ready to make the leap in 2010 and support a local, organic meat producer.

For more information about Food, Inc. you can visit their website by clicking this link.

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As the nights get cooler and the days get shorter, apples that ripen in the Fall are finally ready to come off the tree.  We have several U-Pick apple orchards in the area and enjoy going to fill up a bag or two as we wander down the rows of apple trees.  Inevitably we come home with more than we can simply eat so naturally, we look for ways to preserve a piece of Fall.

Last year I dug out the apple slicer and corer.  It took about an hour or two to make my way through the entire harvest and get them ready for preserving.  We left several of the jars of apples plain and packed them in sugar water.  I used another batch of apples to make jars of apples packed in cinnamon red hot syrup.

Both have proven to be a winner and have their own special uses.  The regular apples I use for baked goods, pancakes or waffles and main dish recipes like Pork Chops with Apples.  The cinnamon red hot apples are good for desert toppings and breakfast treats like waffles.

Yearning to celebrate the changing of the seasons this weekend, I cooked up Baked Pork Chops with Apples and a side of Baked Sweet Dumpling Squash.  Both were delicious and I will put them in our seasonal recipe collection.  I’ll share those recipes later this week.  In the meantime, if you’re looking to can some apples, here are the two recipes I use.

Apples In Syrup

courtesy: Ball Complete Book of Preserving

Ingredients:

-  10 to 12 lbs. apples, stemmed, peeled, cored and quartered (to prevent browning submerge apple slices in 1/4 cup lemon juice and 4 cups water)

-  1 batch of hot syrup (I used a light syrup recipe because I wanted to preserve as much of the nautral apple flavor & sweetness as possible.  Make by combining 2 & 1/4 cups of granulated sugar in a large pot with 5 & 1/4 cups water.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Reduce heat to low and keep warm until needed, making sure you don’t boil the mixture down)

Directions:

1)  Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2)  In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine apples and syrup.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium-low and boil gently for 5 minutes, until heated through.

3)  Using a slotted spoon, pack hot apples into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Ladle hot syrup into jar to cover apples, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbled and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot syrup.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

4)  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process both pint and quart jars for 20 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Apples in Cinnamon Red Hot Syrup

courtesy:  Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Ingredients to make 8 pint jars:

1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup cinnamon red hot candies

2 cinnamon sticks

2 tsp. whole cloves

1 tsp. ground ginger

2 cups water

1 & 1/2 cups vinegar

2/3 cup light-corn syrup

2 tbsp. red food coloring (optional)

24 medium apples, peeled, cored, sliced and treated according to directions above

Directions:

1)  Prepare canner, jars and lids.

2)  In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine sugar, cinnamon candies, cinnamon sticks, cloves, giner, water, vinegar, corn syrup and red food coloring, if using.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.  Add apples and stir gently over medium-high heat until apples are heated through, about 6 minutes.  Discard cinnamon sticks.  Turn heat off, but leave saucepan on heating element while filling jars.

3)  Using a slotted spoon, pack hot apples into hot jars to within a generous 1/2 inch of top of jar.  Ladle hot syrup into jar to cover apples, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot syrup.  Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

4)  Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 10 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

Now let the fruits of your labor cool for a couple of days and coming up later in the week, I’ll share the delicious recipe I used for Baked Pork Chops and Apples and Sweet Dumpling Squash.

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My two zuchinni plants have grown to encompass probably about four square feet of garden space a piece now and are popping out some whoppers!  The zuchinni plants really seem to suck up all the rain water they get which in turn produces some that look like they’re vying for world domination.

This week's harvest from the backyard zuchinni plants

This picture shows this week’s total take.  We’ve been eating a lot zuchinni and are skulking around for some more recipes.  Usually we just saute it up with some butter, herbs and wine and eat as a side dish.  I know I’ve seen recipes for stuffed zuchinni that looked pretty good so I guess I need to go track that down again.

Do you have any great zuchinni recipes?  What do you currently have a bumper crop of in your garden?

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This Memorial Day of course marks the beginning of Summer and what better way to celebrate the season than to fire up your grill, right?  Well for me anyway, it’s my preferred method of cooking when it heats up.

Grilling has it’s benefits, especially when it comes to trying to keep your home cool during the Summer months.  By cooking outside, you’ll reduce the heat output of your kitchen which of course will make your air conditioner run harder trying to keep you comfortable.  It will keep your cooling bill lower and easier on your pocketbook.

While grilling over propane is the cleanest burning way to cook up some food on the “barbie”, I’m a charcoal purist.  I like the tast charcoal provides that I just can’t get on a gas grill.  I used to exclusively use charcoal briquettes until I ran across a produce that I think is a little more natural: lump charcoal.

You may have noticed lump charcoal is popping up in more and more stores.  My local Schnuck’s recently introduced their house brand of lump charcoal called “Full Circle” and bill it as a natural product.  Most lump charcoal is pure, unadulterated wood scraps that are fired at high temperatures to develop the char.  That’s it!  Nothing else is added.  Lump charcoal burns cleaner than briquettes and hotter.  Sometimes it can be more expensive than briquettes and not burn as uniformly or long.

Charcoal briquettes however are a different story.  They’re made from charred wood as well but are pulverized and compressed with saw dust, borax, starch, sodium nitrate and limestone.  For more on what each of those fillers do, click here.  If you begin grilling before the briquettes are ashy, it’s possible they can release a chemical type flavor into your food.  The added chemicals, while claimed to be unharmful, are enough to drive me to use just natural lump charcoal.

So what if you currently have a charcoal grill and you’d like to reduce your emissions by grilling with a cleaner fuel?  You might just run out and buy a brand new gas grill but that of course is wasteful thinking.  I just ran across an interesting new product on the net that could be the way to convert your old charcoal grill, to a lean, green grilling machine.

The Flame Disk is billed as a "clean burning" fuel to use in your charcoal grill.

The manufacturer says the product is made from 100% ethanol, a renewable biofuel made from corn.  They also claim that the emissions include a small percentage of carbon dioxide (less than charcoal) but is mostly made up of water.  Plus they say it’s as easy as peel, light and grill.  This seems like a great idea to me and would be willing to try it out sometime, especially on a camping trip when fumbling with a bag of charcoal and lighter fluid might be a total pain.

What’s your view on grilling?  How do you make your experience more eco-friendly?  Share your comments with our other readers!

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If you’re not an avid 60 Minutes watcher or missed Sunday night’s episode, you missed a great interview and profile of Alice Waters, the so-called mother of the slow food movement.  Shamefully, I have a couple of books with forwards by Alice Waters but didn’t know who she was until last night.

Alice is a staunch advocate of local farmer’s markets and stands strong in support of sustainable agriculture.  Her L.A. based restaurants, including the world reknowned Chez Panisse, utilize price fixed menus that change daily as farm fresh produce becomes available and goes out of season.  She’s also spearheaded the planting of a vegetable garden outside San Francisco’s city hall, a new classroom program that gets kids outside into a garden teaching them how to grow their own fresh and sustainable food and how to cook it and recently a call to plant a victory garden outside the White House.  You too can sign the petition to the Obamas by clicking that link.

If you didn’t get to see the story, I recommend you click this link and watch it now:

Alice Waters’ Crusade for Better Food

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