setting goals.

i don’t really make resolutions or anything like that, but felt that this year i would like to set some goals that i could work toward and keep track of.  if anyone wants to provide me with assistance or know resources toward reaching them, please share.

1. get better at mushroom id skills and go mushroom hunting more often.
2. get back to making more mead
3. diversify my fermenting ways. try new kim-chi’s and pickles
4. catch a fish and eat it.
5. get more skilled at utilizing a scythe
6. grow corn, grind it and make corn bread
7. make high quality well-edited videos
8. get additional paid writing work
9. plant a bunch of tree out for the stock i have been growing.
10. set up a new website for this blog

what are yr goals for the year?

photos from the first week in january

i’m bit late with the posting, but not with the photos – they were still taken all in the first week of january.  its been a strange january, sunny days, several days above 40, and no snow on the ground.  it’s made my mental attitude excellent, and bike riding much easier, but i’m still plagued by the idea that we are gonna get slammed with super cold and snowy weather soon.

on with the photos

bees out on a sunny daydrinking from the bottom of a bucketinside the hoop housespinach inside the hoop houseswiss chard inside the hoop housethe largest garden, no snow, hoops in the background, some kale still holding on. garlic sproutonions under the quick hoops

east coast winter 2011

winter break we headed back to the east coast, some photos from the trip

the beach at rehobothoyster mushrooms at prime hook in delawareoysters and beer at henelopen city oyster house  solstice mealmarsh view at pemberton historical park   where we went for a walk on christmas daythe beach at assateaguemarsh views at assateagueskunk cabbage at tuckahoe - skunk cabbage is an amazing plant – read more here.evolution brewing in delmar delaware – perhaps the most uninspired location for a brewery, but the beer is pretty good.jay’s farm in bivalve aka provident organic farm.  i volunteered for the morning.

a couple of videos from the salisbury zoo.  i usually hate zoos cause it makes me feel real sad to see the animals in cages, but some how this one doesn’t bother me.  maybe its cause i been going their since i was four years old.

book review: food movements unite!

i was very excited to pick up food movements unite! the newest book put out by food first.  i have a tremendous amount of respect for food first and it’s executive director/editor of this edition eric holt-gimenez.  i was also happy to see someone address what feels like an often disconnected series of separate movements – and asking what would unite them.

like cultivating food justice  food movements unite is an anthology of some of the best critical thinkers in the food movement – each posed with the task of trying to formulate and answer to the question of how do we go forth?  what are the next steps to build this into a united movement.

in the mission to create pathway to a unified movement, i think it misses its mark, but only because i think that’s such a difficult mission.  but i think it goes a long way toward identifying steps we need to take in order to move toward a united movement, namely delving deeper into our history, a need to connect the movement to more well established movements, and a need to lift up leadership that has been traditionally ignored.

because food movements unite is a series of essays, it can often feel a little disjointed, moving from one essay to the next, each author with their own angle, and priority.

it is a good and important read, a few highlights for me.  samir amin’s preface starts the book off on the right foot, i’m embarrassed to say i’d only head his name in passing, never having read anything he has written, but he is a thoughtful, direct and passionate writer, helping me to see that the most recent wave of neo-colonialism and land grabs is just the final stage of a long process utilized by capitalist to wrestle control of resources from local communities.  george naylor’s essay examining the nature of u.s. farmers and the reason they make the decisions they do, helped me to understand what has always been an especially difficult topic: u.s. commodity farmers and their relationship to the u.s. government, and how farmers make decisions regarding how much land to plant.

chapter 7′s analysis of the black panther party by raj patel helped me  with questions i had been wrestling with since oakland. i’m still left struggling a bit, at some point as i get to reading more about the bpp perhaps i’ll have a better understand.  josh viertel from slow food, had me hopeful for the future of slow food usa, as he works to dig deeper into slow foods slogan of “vote with your fork” asking why some folks don’t have the means for voting with their fork, why some don’t even have a damn fork.  viertel has been getting some flack for the direction he is taking slow food in, but i’m all in favor of it. brian tokar draws the connection between climate change and food justice, both in what climate change means for growing food and the roll that agriculture systems having in creating climate change – yet another layer to be added to a complex problem.  several chapters address the need for women’s role in this work to be addressed – that for the most part they are not involved in making decisions, not allowed to organize, and that they are the ones most victimized by policy and oppression.  as la via campesina has put it “food sovereignty is about an end to all forms of violence against women”. i think these sort of complex analysis are what make this movement so hard to unify, because it is hard to grasp, hard to put into a couple of talking points.

in the end i’m left feeling better informed, but full of even more questions.  maybe food movements unite! isn’t so much a road map as i had hoped it would be, but a call to action, a command to unite.  perhaps we should look at it as an analysis from which to learn, and make our own decision about how to build movement.  if that’s the intent, then i think its working.  i’ve found myself looking more deeply and critically at issues, and asking more questions and listening more.  and i’ve found that most folks are struggling with these questions too.  in the struggle though there is growth, and at least for me, i’m starting to feel momentum building.

worms

i’ve been spending a lot of time with worms these last couple of months.  hunting for worms in the compost pile, checking on the progress of worm bins, feeding worms.  it has been a lot of fun.  strange to think that i still enjoy doing the same things i did when i was five.  it takes a long time to get bored  hunting for worms.  if anything i have to force myself to stop hunting worms, often losing track of time in the compost pile.  while hunting for worms i mention pop references about worms, and intern robbie seems at a loss of what i’m talking about.

mr. howard is the recipient of all my worm hunting.  he is starting a vermicomposting business and in need of worms.  i slowed him down for a bit to have him tell me about his worms, and i filmed it.  its my first attempt at editing and all, so please be easy on me – but if you have recommendation on editing please feel free to share them.

in news that will hopefully ensure that any future media quality is better, i’m happy to report that i have been accepted into a video workshop with detroit future media.  it starts in a couple of weeks, and i have several ideas in the hopper.

book review: cultivating food justice: race, class, and sustainablity

while in oakland i picked up a number of books on food justice.  at a grass-roots level, the push for food justice has been feeling pretty strong for several years, but it seems that the academics are catching on, and hopefully the larger community food security movement will too.  i could just do one big review, but wanted to tackle each on their own, both to give them their due, and also to get my thoughts out before i forgot.

first on the docket, cultivating food justice: race, class and sustainability edited by alison hope alkon & julian agyeman.

the book is deep, full and academic, but not so far removed from most of us that it’s not useful.  the editors have managed to get some of the foremost thinkers in the field in one volume and one of the strengths is the diversity of voices and thought.  it’s clear that food justice by comparison to its sister food sovereignty doesn’t have a codified set of beliefs, or the strength of an organization like la via campesina, perhaps that is to come.

of particular interest to me was chapter 8 – as it profiles two organization that have worked for food sovereignty in u.s. that have largely been under represented in conversation around food justice: the nation of islam and the pan african orthodox christian church.  part of my fascination is that both of these organization had their start in detroit.  even living in detroit i admit to being largely ignorant of both organization.  i’ve helped some folks with gardens at the shrine of the black madonna, know some folks that have been members of the paocc  and have a friend that is a member of the nation of islam, but that’s pretty much it.  as part of a learning circle at work we researched a little about the noi’s farms, but this chapter provided further insight.

it’s not surprising that these organization are largely unnoticed in the history of food security, their black separatist rhetoric is generally unpalatable to the white lead food security movement.  perhaps the most significant aspect of the work of these two organizations is how deeply their critical analysis is around food, that in order to have power in a white dominated culture you must have power over you  own food source.  the chapter also helps to highlight that black lead organizations have been working on food issues but have gone unnoticed for years, contradicting the often claimed idea that there is not a historical leadership in the black community around food organizing.   The reality couldn’t be further from the truth – but the truth is that it’s not the right kind of leadership to be palatable by the mostly white lead food security movement, nor is it the sort of leadership that would want to join the white lead movement.

chapter 13′s topic on the meaning of the term justice and how it applies  to the food justice movement was equally personally engaging.  the organization i work with claims to be working on food justice, but we have often struggled by just what that means.  we have spent hours debating what that is – and i wish that we had this chapter as a primer.  turns out that are not the only organizations struggling, and there are actually several ways to thinking about justice.  even with a deeper examination, i still feel a little lost just wonder standing what justice means at a really deep level.

other topics covered include: indigenous people of the northwest and loss of lands and fishing rights, black farmers in the south and loss of land, the effects of farming labor laws on traditional farming methods by hmong immigrants, how redlining and racist housing practices created “food desserts”, the irony of farm workers suffering from hunger, white privilege and those working in food justice work, and much, much more.

taken as a whole – the book can feel a little scattered, not surprising given it’s a collection of essays from a collection of authors, but it certainly gives one a yearning for a more unified direction and a desire for movement building.  i can’t help but ask myself where is this movement going?  when are we gonna get it together instead of acting like it’s a bunch of scattered issues.

but cultivating food justice is really just a start,something to help one set sails in the direction of learning more, all the essays sight numerous important other works, and i’ve already started reading essays sighted in the bibliographies, and am looking forward to more.  i’m left asking more question than i am satisfied with answers.

it’s certainly not the book for those that are just dipping their toe into food justice work – for them it might totally overwhelm, but for those with a dedication to take a deeper more critical eye at the food system it can be a helpful tool in furthering their study.

resource page addition

hello folks -

been meaning to do this for a long time.  yesterday’s morning project was the start of a resources page, to help you find more info and materials i think is useful.  this is very much a work in progress, and would love your input on what other content and info source would be helpful.  now when you come to the main page you will see a resources tab to click.  or you can just click here if that is too complex.

tweeting, comments and social networking

hello folks – entering the 21st century, we now have a twitter account.  you can follow us @dirtysabot – don’t know how to twitter?  no problem it hasn’t stopped us yet.  why should you follow the twitter?  i’m not sure, but there are links to articles and other items that i don’t bother posting here.

also feeling like for as many as are reading this we not getting that many comments.

the whole point of this is for it to be interactive, if you have something to share – a thought, a link, an opinion, please, please do so.  comments and others thoughts are often more interesting than original posts!

also if you haven’t noticed some months ago we made it easy to share info on this blog with others – at the bottom of each post is a spot where you can email – post to facebook – tweet or use google+, so that the others can take part in conversation.

that’s all the shameless self promotion i can do on a friday.

i’m out.

easy crock pot tomato paste

i hate canning.  i know i know, i’m supposed to be into it cause i’m all like into growing my own food and cooking and stuff like that, but i hate canning.

i feel a lot better now having gotten that out.

one of ma and i’s really serious fights was in late august while we were trying to can a ton of tomatoes and we had 4 pots of water boiling on the stove, it was hot as hell out, we were both tired and felt rushed.  i keep that memory in my mind when someone talks about canning.

part of the reason i’ve come to hate canning is because i’ve always been under the impression that if you are canning you have to can a lot of stuff, like 3o quarts of tomatoes at a time.  and then you have gone though all this work to can all this food you feel like maybe you should save them for a special occasion.  i stare at all the canned goods in the larder rationing them out, thinking i don’t want to peak to early, what if nuclear winter comes this year.   then  i feel like because so much work went into them they should taste really good, but well, they are just canned tomatoes, how good can they be?

two things in the last couple of years have made me rethink my canning hatred: small batches and hot packing.

the hot packing was introduced to us when we had an audit of our jam making methods by a professional jam maker from northern michigan. they pointed out that hot packing rather than hot water bath processing would make much more sense for us.  and i can’t begin to tell you what a relief it was and how much easier i find it.

small batches was ma’s innovation, cause she is not nearly so stubborn as i.  the concept is simple – you don’t want to eat a lot of the same thing, and canning big batches is big work, so stress less, eat more variety and go small batch.  no need to fill up a whole canner worth of stuff if you don’t want that.

tomato paste works perfect for hot packing and small batches, as it is plenty high in acid and you want a small batch.  ma had been saving up tomatoes from the garden and throwing them in the freezer.  this was especially good foresight as her bout with pneumonia made it very hard to do any canning and with the tomatoes safely in the freezer there was no real rush.

after pulling the tomatoes out of the freezer we put them on a cookie sheet with whole cloves of garlic, drizzled with olive oil and kosher salt, put them in an oven at 400° for about an hour and a half.  the roasting adds more complexity to the flavor cameralized some of the sugars and adding some roasty favor.  with that done they go though the food mill to remove seeds and skins and then dumped in the crock pot.

in the crook pot on high with the lid off they can take a day or so to cook down and remove moisture.  stir every so often, like in the middle of the night when you get up to use the bathroom (make sure to wash yr hands), and once it gets to the right consistency put it on low and put the cover on.

with the sauce hot and ready, put your clean jars (we use 1/4 pints) in the oven at  250° for 15 minutes to sanitize.  while they are heating up, put a pan of water on to boil, clean off yr work area, put down a clean towel, sanitize a ladle by putting it in boiling water and move yr crock pot over to yr work area.

it’s party time – gonna have to work fast.

take the jars out of the oven.  take the ladle out of the water.  use the ladle to fill the jars up to about a 1/4 inch to the rim.  dip the new lids in the boiling water, put them on the top of the jar, screw on the ring down pretty tight and move on until you have them all filled.

when they are all filled, start flipping them over, so the top is down and leave them for four minutes.  them flip them upright.  if they leak as you can see the one in the lower right hand corner of this photo did, no big deal.  take the lid off, dip a clean rag in boiling water, clean everything off, dip the lid in hot water, screw the lid on, flip for four minutes, and flip back upright.

once they are flipped upright wait until they are cool to move them to the larder. they should all be well sealed, if not use immediately.  and don’t forgot to label and date them!

photos from the first week in december

i’m falling more and more behind with updates! not that i haven’t been writing, but mostly that i’ve been working on other writing projects, more on that later. glad ma is helping take up the slack with soap posts.

we have really turned the corner into winter in the last few weeks, light snows falling most evenings this week.  We have a nice inch blanketing the ground right now, wet and stuck to trees and making everything look so lovely.  since it has become so cold, it means most of our work is moving indoors into the hoop house, where many of these photos were taken.

asparagus mulched for the winter and turning a lovely shade of yellow.the greenhouse, new floor installed and cleaned up.  i feel bad that i have to mess it up by growing in it. a pile of bee equipment ready to get cleaned up and stowed for the winter.compost pile in the hoop house, full of lots of fresh spent grain and worms.  we have been collecting lots of worms out of this pile for worm bins.  this is turning into very, very nice compost once it breaks down.  it gonna be so much fun to spread it out in a couple of months when we begin planting again. row cover over the crops in the hoop house.  we need to get cloths pins to hold this taunt, it should not sag like this.  spinachscallionshakurei turnips! so sweet!swiss chardsnow gathers on the side of the hoop house.mustard greens these are the same ones i took photos of last winter.  they just keep holding on.  row cover over onions and spinach.  still in need of plastic over them.compost piles!  we are just about out of room in our current area.  time to move to the spot by the hoop house!