compost surprise

for the last 6 months been picking up the spent brew waste from atwater brewery.  they are located only about a mile from us, and every day we are able to pick up 1400 pounds of spent grain for compost making.  on friday with the delicata sunshine away i had no excuse of why i couldn’t pick up the brew waste.  and i was excited, as i wanted to get out of the office and do something physical.

only problem with this plan was the broken grain mill that greeted me when i arrived at the brewery causing them to abort brewing for the day.  not wanting to go home empty handed i picked up these satchels that had been saved for us.

bags of hops

this is a resent addition – before they were just giving us brew waste – but recognizing how much they are saving on trash cost by having us haul it away, now they are saving hops and coffee grounds for us.

the sunshine had told me that they were saving hops for us, and that they were inside bags of cloth.  as a home brewer i have used cloth bags for hops before myself which are made from the very lowest quality cheese cloth you can get.  this is what i expected, but when i picked up these satchels i was surpised to find them wrapped in very high quality cheese cloth.

we use cheese cloth for all kinds of things around the house – covering sauerkraut and other pickles, making cheese, filtering herb infusions, the list is pretty long and i knew i needed to bring some cheese cloth home as a stinky dirty gift for ma.

hop bag

you can see that the bag is filled with hop pellets that have broken down, but also some of the bags contained coriander and bitter orange – which can see deposited all around the hop bag.  i failed to remember to bring the cheese cloth home over the weekend so they have just been sitting under my desk getting smelly but i still think they will be fine.

green mango pickle

i’ve been looking forward to adding this post for a few weeks, as i’ve been working on the subject of this post since the trip to patel brothers three weeks ago or so.  it was at patel brothers that i bought the ingredients for the green mango pickles.  for those that don’t eat indian food often, spicy pickles are often part of the meals, served as condiment.

for this batch this is the recipe i used – looking up a couple of recipes, and coming up with this one

2 green mangos, 1/3 cup of salt, 1.5 tablespoons fennel seed, 1 tablespoon whole brown mustard seeds, 1/2 tablespoon fenugreek seeds, 3 tablespoons of hot red pepper, a teaspoon of ground turmeric, a pinch of asafoetida, and cup and a half of mustard seed oil.

step 1. wash the mangos, and remove the pit/seed.  unlike ripe mango the pit is still soft, and it actually quite easy to remove. inside i found this huge seed.

the giant seed from the inside of the mango

step 2. cut up the mango into chunks, and toss it with the salt to cover, it will start to release plenty of liquid

mango mixed with salt

step 3:  sanitize jar with boiling water.  this better be a canning jar, or it’s gonna shatter.  wouldn’t be a bad idea to pre-heat the jar too.

sanitizing the jar

step 4 – pack the mangos into the jar and screw on the lid.  place it in a sunny window for one week.

the mangos packed in a jar

step 5 – toast the mustard, fennel and fenugreek seeds in a dry skillet, over high heat.  it will not take long, a minute or two, it is ready when it becomes aromatic, but before it burns.

the spices toasting in the skillet

step 6 – add the whole spices, plus the turmeric, hot pepper, and asafoetida and mix well with the mango that has been sitting in the window.

the mango with the spices added

step 7 – heat the mustard oil until it starts to smoke.  allow it to cool to room temperature.

step 8 – pack the mango spice mixture into a jar, and pour the mustard oil on it.

the mixture packed into the jar with oil on top

step 9 – use a chopstick to work the air bubbles out, and then set the jar in a sunny window for 2 weeks.

step 10 – eat the finished pickles

the finished pickles in the window

these pickles have such a strange flavor, unlike anything i’ve ever had before.  they are very salty, a little goes a long way.  i really like them and often make the curries much less salty and hot, so i can use some of the pickle to add it’s addictive flavor.  i was surpised with how much this came out tasting like the pickles i have had before at restaurants, but even better, with a fresher flavor.  after making this batch i think i could get away with using less oil, but otherwise wouldn’t really change anything.

dearborn workshop

i had the good fortune to get eric toensmeier to come and hang out in detroit for a couple of days this week.  on monday i went and picked him up in pinconning mi, as the good folks at island were kind enough to drive him down from bellaire.  i promptly managed to lock my keys in the car, and while i was a little embarrassed by this mishap, it just meant that eric and i could get to know each other in a gas station over coffee and french fries while we waited for someone to open up the car.

i’m pretty certain eric was sick of being in the car – but i did want to show him a couple of highlights of the city, and knowing that he was a plant geek first, and an urban ag. geek second i tailored the tour a little different from one just for urban ag folks.  first a walk of a couple of sites in the neighborhood – a visit to the orchard we planted last spring at hope takes root community garden, and then quick peak at brother nature’s place.  by then i was getting hungry and i wanted eric to have an idea of the place he would be doing the workshop at, so we stopped at cedarland before going to u of m dearborn.  we walked around the grounds of the environmental interpretive center and then headed to the belle isle conservatory and finally earthworks before heading home and going over  presentation for the next day.

the next day the workshop at u of m went really well i think – and i hope everyone had a good time.  first part of the day was a presentation about the work done at nuestras raices from the perspective of using permaculture to link all of those projects together for social and economic development.  then we took those lessons learned from holyoke and applied them to detroit.  first we mapped out some of our needs.

community needs

community needs pt2

then we listed what resources we had – especially trying to look at what resources are usually seen as waste in our system that we could rethink as something useful.

resources pt1

resources pt2

are you getting sick of pictures of white boards?  yeah me too.  then it was time for lunch – and what an amazing lunch provided by angela and gregg from detroit evolution lab.

the lunch spread

a veggie shepherd’s pie type thing with local winter vegetables, and salad with sunflower sprouts from raw detroit community farms.

afterwords we got into the breakout sessions – knowing that we couldn’t tackle all the needs we had listed, we quickly picked 6 things we wanted to address – not necessarily the most important – just the ones we wanted to work on.

6 topics

then we broke into 6 groups and started to come up with solutions

thinking hard

and more thinking

the idea was that each group had to come up with solutions to the needs of detroit – utilizing the resources we already have, rather than looking for outside resources, while at the same time trying to come up with ideas that would be financially self supporting and help to build community wealth and happiness.  then the task was to try to connect those ideas to other needs to try to solve for the most needs with one solution.  folks came up with some really great ideas a quick over view of what was presented.

1. working with school groups and elders in the community to make plantings in vacant lots which would help to remediate the soil, beautify the neighborhood, and make a deal with the city that if the community cleaned it up – they got control, and creating jobs in bioremediation.

2. agritourism of gardens sites in the city which give opportunity for sales of products but also the sharing and celebration of the gardeners and their story.

3. the creation of curbside compost pickup – local youth employed to pick up compost with bike carts – are able to provide a service as well as a product in the form of finished compost

4. the creation of a detroit based “energy drink” a substitute for high fructose laden soda – made with juices from local fruits and sweetened with local honey.  creates jobs for fruit growers, beekeepers, and processors.

there were lots of other great ideas – but those are just the first that came to mind.  it was a really good day, and i feel as though i got a lot out of the day, and i hope others did too.

bounty of the vacant lot – alfalfa

it’s been awhile since i’ve done one of these posts, and i still have some photos i took of some of my favorite plants from the vacant lots this summer including this one – alfalfa.  one thing i’ve improved in the last few months is taking photos – this one like many of the others from this summer leave a bit to be desired.

alfalfa

alfalfa – medicago sativa is not the most common legume growing in vacant lots, but certainly isn’t rare.  alfalfa in addition to fame from the little rascals is also very commonly grown for the high quality hay that it produces.  alfalfa is a good nectar source for bees and many beneficial insects – as well as some common pests.  it’s purple flowers are small but beautiful.

for regenerating our urban soils alfalfa is a star – it has huge long tap roots that penetrate deep into the soil, breaking up compaction and gathering nutrients from the deep and bringing it to the surface.  as mentioned before alfalfa is a legume, and nitrogen fixing bacteria on it’s root nodules are able to take nitrogen in the air and put in a form useable by plants.

alfalfa sprouts are a common food – especially among the health food  contingent.  i myself am a fan, they are fresh and crunchy, and especially during the winter a welcome bit of greenery i can grow in the house.  alfalfa is popular as a medicinal, used in tea and pill form for a variety ailments namely lowering cholesterol and for arthritis.

best of

today marks the 1 year anniversary of this blog, when i posted the first post.  and while i wouldn’t recommend going back and reading that first post, i did spend a little time and reviewed some of my favorite posts or events of the last year.

for those coming in late, or wondering what i took the most joy in…

among the better articles i’ve been interview for and the one that paints me as a jackass and yet somehow wise all at once was linked to in this post.  be warned the article is long – if you only want to see my quotes scroll to the end.

my post about my work on the edible detroit map which i’m mainly bring to your attention to get more folks to help out with it

my attempts to get folks to think that riding the bus was cool and fun, i’m finding myself questioning my own wisdom as lately i deal with late buses, those that simply pass me by, and ones that fail to pull over due to faulty signal cords and drop me off several blocks past my stop.

this well produced al jazeera film – the financial times and al jazeera in one year – mama must be so proud

the first morels i’ve ever found before.  and oh boy were they good.  looking forward to more this year.

my documenting the lives of backyard poultry

the u.p. trip part 1 and part 2

the guest blogs i was asked to do for metromode

the short film made over the summer by sara cross detroit: green

the series of posts from the eastern shore but especially ones about assateague, the westside, and walking in the snow.

the new program we are unrolling at work this year

and finally the high lite of the year is the picture ma made for me linked to in this post

thanks for all the kind words and encouragement.

the other blog

i’ve been super busy with work and getting ready for this lecture/workshop with eric that it’s kept me from posting anything here, but i have posted.  that’s right, i’m cheating on you all.  but it’s not really another blog for me, it’s for a new program – and setting up a website seemed like too much and we wanted participants to take part in documenting the process and so a blog seemed like the right thing to do.  i’m really excited about it (the program, not the blog, though that should be good too), and it’s been tons of hard work, and lots of other folks have helped, but i especially want to thank deni aka husky guy who drives the van for all his hard work.  you should check out the new program and the new blog here, once folks are signed up for the program i hope they will take part in blogging too.

the indoor garden

over the last few years we have been slowly adding to our house plants going from ones that are just pretty to look at, to ones that also produce edibles.  the one we have had the longest is a bit of a gimmick – a 3 in 1 citrus tree – grafted with a lemon, tangerine, and orange all on one root stock.  we acquired this about 3 years ago as a house warming gift for the place we are in now.

the first year was a growth year, but the second year we got fruit.  i’m still not really sure what it was, as it was round like a orange but sour as a lemon – a sour orange perhaps?  no matter what it was i was bound to make the most of it.  one was used in a salad dressing, and one used in marinating some fish.  it’s a good thing no one else was there to eat the meal with us, and argue that it wasn’t the best citrus they had ever had.

i’m still trying to get the life cycle of the citrus down.

citrus flowers about to open

flowers seem to start coming on about the first of the year.  the ones on this variety start out looking a lovely shade of pink.

open citrus flower

they then open for about a week or so giving off the most wonderful smell.  since we have few insects to speak (other than the scale and spider mites i keep battling) of inside at this time of year, i try to take a cotton swab or paint brush and hand pollinate them.  i’ve never bothered to look up it they are self pollinating or not.

ripe fruit

the fruit takes a long time to develop, i think i’ve been watching this guy for at least 9 months.  i usually wait until they feel nice and ripe on the tree before i pick them, and i think this one is just about ready.  this is the second time that this tree has fruited in 3 years, and looks like we will have more based on the number of flowers.  it’s a pretty small plant to, about 18 inches tall and in a 12 inch pot.  it’s growing pretty rapidly though, this summer i will again need to repot it. i’m just not sure how big it will get, it’s reported to be dwarf rootstock.

the farmer and philosopher

i wrote the other week of attending an art opening that featured a film about my friend mark and toby barlow in this post.  at the time i wasn’t able to post a link to the film cause there wasn’t one yet, but it’s up now, so you can check it out here.

patel brothers & krishna food

any attempt to get me to go shopping is going to be more successful if paired with something i like.  i have embraced adulthood (sort of) and have conceded that after 7 years of sleeping on a mattress on the floor maybe we should have a bed frame – and maybe after living in a house for 3 years we should replace the sheets we have over the windows with curtains-at least some of them, i really like some of those sheets.

it was deicided that the best place to acquire these items was a large scandinavian discount furniture retailer.  knowing that this would be hard for both of us, as these sort of shopping excursions and money expenditures tend to give both of us anxiety, pairing it with culinary adventure was sure to please.  located right on ford road, in exotic garden city next to each other are patel brothers and krishna catering restaurant.

let’s start with lunch – after all my mother always said you shouldn’t shop hungry.  krishna catering could certainly use to come up with a better name, for one it’s not especially catchy and secondly it’s confusing, is it catering or a restaurant, i guess it’s both.  the place is essentially indian fast food, catering mostly to indians and therefore not having particular lengthy descriptions of what each dish is.  there are many less commonly seen dishes on the menu, and since this causes so much confusion, we just get the buffet.  i’ve been warned not to get the buffet, but this is coming from someone born in india who can read the menu.

the buffet is a great place to use plenty of disposable plates and bowls – full of every imaginable type of styrofoam container, and i’m not sure if it’s my moral objection to disposable containers, or the thought of these guys off gassing into my food, but the styrofoam is the one thing that really gets in the way of my dinning experience.  still i load up on a little of each item and sit down and ma and i discuss the various items trying to figure out just what they are.  once we have figured out what the highlights are we go back for a little more of our favorites.  krishna catering is also a great place to pick up a copy of the bhagavad gita or other krishna texts if you should be so inclined.  they are for sale but not pushed on you like when i used to go to the free hare krishna feasts.  i should really start going back to those feasts – maybe that will be an upcoming post.

and then shopping – next door is patel brothers – it used to be that i went to patel brothers simple because it was convent, i much prefered the place just down the road to the east called india grocers.  the guy who ran it would always discuss the various products with me and make sure i knew how to cook them.  they also had a really good section of indian sweets including the ones that look like bright orange pretzels and taste like funnel cake soaked in sugar.  i loved those.  but it is no more and so patel brothers it is, and with it’s expasion i can almost get over the lack of sweets.

browsing the rows ma picks up some bizarre packaged foods, one of which is in the fridge now, it’s slightly sweet and has the constancy of a jello jiggler and the taste of pudding.  it’s all hers, but i did at least try it.  we also pickup some indian sweets in the refrigerator section.  almost all of them have the texture of play dough, but i still really enjoy them for some reason. i spend a bit of time trying to find the ingredients to make green mango pickle, the biggest problem being trying to find mustard seed oil that is for human consumption.  almost all of them say for external use only, and since they are located right next to cooking oils – i’m worried about the folks that don’t bother to read.

produce at patel brothers

in the produce section i am able to pick up the green mangos i need, and browse the other unusual vegetables, the luffa, the bitter melon, fresh turmeric and ones i can only guess at.

indian groceries are a great place to pick up spices for cheap, most folks buy them in bulk and use them to make their own spice blends.  the only problem can be if you can use them quick enough before they go bad.

dry goods section

in the dry goods section i find myself being especially puzzled, full of items i can’t quite understand such as ayurvedic medicines, strange flavored snuffs, paan, various breath fresheners, and incense.  I actually broke down and once bought some paan being intrigued by the idea of eating betel.  i can’t say i particularly enjoyed it.

swastik brand snuff

looking over the shelves it’s hard not to linger over a product named swastik especially with the rather negative connotations the swastika has in this country.  but it’s really only in the west that the swastika gets such a bad rap, it’s been a positive symbol for thousands of years, and popular among many cultures.  even today it’s considered a symbol of luck and good fortune.  still more disturbing is that this product is described as being” the snuff with the strongest taste”, and on another panel as “a creamy paste” .  i’ll pass, and i can’t imagine this product catching on with too many american consumers.

old skool garden

so i’ve had a new computer for i think 3 years now, which means it’s not new anymore, but considering that the last one i got was in 1998, it’s gonna be a long time before i think of it as old.  you can do a file transfer of all your stuff from one computer to the other when you first set it up, but i knew i had a bunch of junk that i wanted to get rid of before i transferred anything over so i didn’t bother.  i had one of those thumb drives that i was using to transfer over – but it only held 128 mb on it.  at the time of acquiring this thumb drive 128 mb seemed like a tremendous amount of memory to have on such a little thing.  trying to transfer all the files in 128 mb chunks proved to be a chore and i soon gave up in frustration.

over the holidays ma’s mom was kind enough to give me a new thumb drive that holds a gig worth of stuff.  a gig –  just sit back and ponder how much memory that is.  i remember having a computer with a 512 mb hard drive and thinking that there is no way they could every make a bigger hard drive.  there is no way i will ever be able to fill that thing up.

moving the files over from the old computer has revealed some gems – including these from about 12 years ago.

the east side of the garden

the west side of the garden

the garden that started me down this journey, the garden that made me want to quit my job the go work on a farm.  and man is it unimpressive.  well actually the little borders made of boards from pallets and the pins holding them in place made of bamboo are pretty impressive.  but nothing else looking to impressive.  many things were learned in this garden playing on my own.  my first battles with squash vine borer, my first battles with woodchucks, my first expose to quackgrass, my first exposure to fusarium wilt.  it’s a wonder i kept going.  i think i was a little over excited to use photoshop to label everything in these photos – a bit busy.

in the background you can see the vacant lot next to the garden where the billboard company used to store supplies.  i would collect black walnuts from the yard, take out the five iron i found in a closet when we moved in and hit them as hard as i could into the vacant lot.  the goal was to try to hit the metal billboards which would make such  a delightful thud noise when the walnuts struck them.

one day i came home from work to discover that the billboard company had gotten its revenge, they had expanded their parking area into my garden, grading the little hill i used to hit walnuts off and covering in black top.  wasn’t the first garden i’d lost to building, and it wasn’t the last.