Honey – divine nectar , edible bee love and sacred food

I fell in love with the taste of honey as a young girl, and especially loved creamed honey on toast – or comb honey eaten right off of the spoon. Chewing the beeswax for an hour longer was a bonus from this special treat. Taking a moment to savor the vision of golden syrup as it dripped from the hexagonal cells was another aspect of my wonderful memories of comb honey.

And…

I still go off of my “let’s eat carefully of this precious nectar diet” when there is a chance to eat biscuits dripping with golden nectar!

The wonderful & best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd, “The Secret Life of Bees” unfolds in a sentimental, honey-glazed land that vaguely resembles South Carolina in 1964. The movie is almost as good as the book – for describing the inner life of its complex characters…I cried all the way through!

There is a scene in the movie - “The Secret Life of Bees” - when Lily smashes several jars of honey in her anger at her lack of mother-love. This abundance of wasted honey really brings home how powerful that loss must have been - for her to destroy the life work of her beloved bees. (One worker bee actually makes

only 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.)

But – that is not the point of this brief post…I merely wanted to remind my readers that honey is precious – so precious that it takes a honey bee (Apis mellifera) 154 trips, carrying tiny amounts of nectar from the flower to the hive, just to make one teaspoon of honey. The days of cooking with an entire cup of honey are long gone in my life…as a natural food devotee in the 1970’s I ate more than my share of this divine nectar. So I hope that we all begin to offer greater respect for the trials of the honey bee in these times of CCD – let’s eat honey wisely, offer our blessings to the bee, and begin to keep hives locally! That will develop better genetic strains of bee that may weather this time of collapse, which I believe mirrors the overall environmental stress of our current Planet -wide crisis.

Honey has been used as a medicine and a sacred food since before the ancient Egyptians began to keep hives.

So - hey - Let’s get back to a sense of the sacred with all  of our foods, and especially those  which are truly precious and rare, hard to get and  involve the sacrifices of our fellow species.

Blessed Bee.

GOT SMALL POTATOES?

I moved into the great “new” house ( what do you call a new home that is very old –70 years old – but is “new to you”?) last August.

We had found a bag of uneaten potatoes from last fall before the move…they were a wonderful mix of colorful heirloom varieties – mislaid from Brookside Farm 2008 Organic CSA basket in a dark corner of the garage… Now - almost a year later - .they had huge 8” long sprouts on almost all of them.

The idea came to put them in our garden beds…a bit of a challenge as these beds had not been worked for a few years and had compacted soil (and not much of it) …but, what to lose? We stuck them in the soil, covered them with straw and watered a few times a week. Ten weeks later, the tops had been blasted by frost and so we dug them up…what a nice surprise! A bucket of smallest potatoes I had ever seen were our first harvest in this potentially wonderful garden. Some of them were the size of my small fingernail…no matter, I tenderly washed them all and made this simple dish ( see photo) from them…

Recipe: Wash potaoes & steam to almost done, cool. Toss with olive oil, herbs, garlic and salt. Bake or broil until slightly crispy on top. Eat. Yum!

Anyone can grow these hardy crop, a famine food for many peoples, and certainly a calorie booster to any one’s veggie garden mix. I suggest we all learn to grow potatoes – very soon!!!

Localize your food supply, you can’t start soon enough.

Permaculture - hooray!!!

Permaculture – hooray!

Max & Maria the Permaculturists - visited the garden yesterday…and what a great inspiring download! He loves my metal roof, thinks I can get all the water I need for a whole dry season from it with t he right storage…and the west side of the house is perfect for one of those “water walls” made of 1500 gallon vertical rectangle storage tanks…this instead of creating a grey water system…so much cleaner and useable…although will require many expensive storage tanks…maybe we can do a combination of rainwater collection and greywater syatem…

Lots more opportunities for making this place into paradise…use pond liner instead of cardboard to lay down on top of the weeds in my walkways and open space areas…it will heat up to as much as 140 degrees and kill even the deeply rooted weeds in a few months, then we can go in and make a new garden area, waterways, whatever we want…

What else? Well – money was not object – we could create paradise right away…more realistically, we are going to take out some more trees that are keeping the sun out, make better shade areas in the right places…put the main garden areas into maximum cultivation by tending and soil cultivation, and more…

I have great confidence in Max and am excited that he wants to design this permaculture plan for me! I advise anyone who wants to get the maximum from their space to hire a specialist for advice and a consultation, even if you are intending to do the work yourselves.

Let’s Plant a Garden and Lose Weight

So - the last few years it has been hard to maintain my weight…anyone else got this problem? I drive to work, sit at a computer most of the day, then drive home - stopping at the store for a bag of lettuce and squash that came from…where?

Turns out - that instead of having others grow my food, doing the labor of love and magic with seeds and water…if I do it myself, it counts as a workout! How about receiving the multiple rewards of tighter abs, flexibility in thighs and shoulders, better nutrition with local, seasonal & organic food - and - a feeling of satisfaction at being involved with the miracle of life!

Regular garden chores can burn anywhere from 250 to 400 calories per hour. Stress relief is another bonus as we are also outside, touching earth, getting sunshine and fresh air - that age old health giving solar friend. This is Healthy Body Permaculture - getting benefits on many levels at once. To repeat - the food is also healthier for many reasons, including calorie count!

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson - “When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.”

Bye for now - I am off to put on my hat and gloves…

Permaculture - I hope!

My lovely house needs a lot of garden work – the raised beds have little soil in them, the yard is filled with weedy grass and “stick tights” catch your shoes…

I am putting down cardboard on every place I can to kill the weeds – and since I just moved in – there are a lot of empty boxes to use…that is a good thing.

My little apple tree which has been in a pot for over a year is freaking out – and tho it is a lousy time of year to plant it - I dug a hole today – and filled it with water . Two hours later it was still half full…looks like my soil doesn’t drain….ok, lots of issues. The good news is that Max Meyers – of MELC & a famed local Permaculturist – is coming over tomorrow to take a look and give me some consultation service….can’t wait! What can be done over time to make this a food producing paradise? I will be finding out….

THE RAG BAG

Today I started a rag bag in my “old house)….yep – it was time…things were out of hand – pretty good dish towels were being used for painting rags, washing the floor – everyone – the cleaning lady, my fab guy, myself – were ignoring the rules for frugality and waste. This lack of rags was soon going to send me to the store to buy some decent looking dish towels!!!

It was a happy accident – I found an old vintage table cloth that had been chewed by a mouse. It looked good enough to make a dozen napkins from the good areas- so I started ripping….not into hemming, I frayed the edges - the first laundry will add to the effect…I recommend it to everyone – cloth napkins save paper, they save your pants from that uneasy swipe, they may even save your carpet if a glass goes over…So - lets do it! Make your own napkins! They can be made from new fabric that you just ca’t resist, or from old clothing that you love, or like me - a “saved” bit of vintage cloth.

Sure a bit of water and soap are used to clean them – but you can use them over a few times before they need a wash…esp if you use napkin rings for each person in the family…

Ok, anyway – I make napkins, rags, and a rag bag – all in less than an hour – and my wonderful vintage cloth has a second life!

As I cut and ripped, I pondered this old fabric – what stories could it tell? What has it seen? Did some woman proudly place a pitcher of freshly made lemonade in the center? Did children spill cherry pie – making those old stains?

CAR SHARE – YEAH BABY!!!

CAR SHARE – YEAH BABY!!!

Wow – a just in time response from my great friends – Lanny and Karina – got me into a working vehicle - an old Dodge Caravan - which just now carried me 80 miles so that I could play “Nana” tomorrow …

Ok, the full story – I spend every Monday with my grandson – Adrien – so his mom and dad can go to work, and we get to play together. It is important to the continuity of their lives that I make it when I promise - every time!

To my rescue was the loving generosity of my true friends – pure and simple. Now, this is not exactly car share officially – but isn’t it great that we can occasionally help each other out with an extra vehicle?

More on the embarrassing details…of…..BIODIESEL MAINTAINANCE

Despite the benefits of biodiesel- Yesterday I put some bad fuel into the tank of my Jetta, and now the filter is clogged, perhaps even the line – so, my car is out of order…no fuel is getting to the engine…it will cost me to make up for this simple mistake..

I knew better…that is the worst part…having not checked the bottom of my little storage tank in 2 years - not changing the pump filter also - always being in a rush!!!

Anyway, you know that sucking feeling when you suddenly realize that your fuel storage tank is emptying the dregs in the bottom into your car’s fuel tank? No? Well – learn from my story – if you are going to store and pump your own biodiesel, you gotta take charge of details like fuel quality and filtration! I won’t go into it here - click on that link for more…about algae, water, other  potential contaminants and how  to avoid them…

CAR SHARE

For several years in Willits we studied how to create an official “car share” in our small, rural town, and although we have not yet found how to do it economically (without simply creating a commercial rental business)…the unofficial sharing of vehicles is a family tradition that helps everyone get around.  Let’s face it- We have gotten used to the convenience of owning a separate vehicle, hopping in and going…………… wherever!

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

I could also go on a rant about the lack of convenient public transportation such that we could all find ways to get around without needing a personal vehicle. Multimodal transport – rail, bus, transportation hubs and small electric town cars in combination could free us from the burden of true personal vehicle cost. By the way, we are about ready to vote on 2 important propositions here in Calif & Northern Calif..I urge everyoe in Sonoma and Marin counties to vote YES on the SMART proposal this November! And - YES to High Speed Rail as well!

OWNERSHIP COST

Did you ever do the math on your car ownership costs? Try it! If you add up the various costs for registration, insurance, depreciation, maintenance and fuel, you find out that it costs about $7000-9000 per year to maintain a quality vehicle. How many days a year do you work to make up this expense? OR - how many bus tickets, rail trips and short rentals would it take to equal that amount? Think about it!!! I am sure that the recent increases in gas prices have put car trip costs on everyone’s radar, but most of us still have yet to appreciate the full story on the cost of car ownership. Only a few folks get it, although we are all riding more bikes, sharing rides, walking, making fewer unnecessary trips. By the way, my figure on the true cost of driving does not begin to include the subsidized cost of roads, the cost to the environment for cradle to cradle building and junking cars, sequestering carbon and cleanup of oil spills, and more…

So – although I am in total gratitude for the salvation of my schedule trip by my buddies with an extra car, I am still in a quandary about how to release myself from the ownership of this car!! Nearing retirement forces the question for many of us boomers who will not have the ongoing income to afford this luxury of a personal vehicle. What if I could work less, need less, rather than needing to earn more money to cover expanding expenses? Whew – the innovative possibilities in this answer…who will figure this out for the 78 million of us? Break the chain… Challenge. Change.

PACK A PLATE - reuse a party cup…reduce landfills…

Recently my great friend - Diane Darling - had a barbeque and invited everyone to bring their own food serving plates and utensils. Imagine – resting under a shady tree in a fragrant garden, you are eating yummy home cooked food – served on a real plate, eaten with a real fork – now doesn’t that sound better than using plastic forks and a plastic knife cutting through a soggy paper plate? Yep – me too, I loved it! There were all kinds of wonderful, creative and unique styles that people brought for plating their food. Everything from green speckled enameled steel plates and spoons to bamboo forks, to even vintage linen napkins and china! They all made an appearance, were carried around, emptied, and then were rinsed and packed out. I liked it. In fact – I loved it! So, inspired by this and a few other occasions – I have begun making a habit of taking my table service to potlucks, banquets, Festivals, even a Sustainability Conference. Now I am putting together an affordable kit of Green Ware, so you can pack in your own utensils too! Let’s take this Eco Conscious trend, and become a movement! Enough with the plastic forks, they are no fun to use, take tons of energy and create toxins in the making too. Take your stoneware mug to the coffee shop and a conversation will ensue about reuse and carbon footprints. Here are some facts to sprinkle about…

Most disposable cups are made from material that can’t be recycled and are non-biodegradable. An average coffee cup is probably used for no more than about 15-20 minutes before being thrown away – but can then sit for hundreds of years in a landfill site.

Biodegradable tableware is made from sugar cane fiber remaining after the extraction of juice from the sugar cane. This stuff is better than standard plastics and especially good for replacing Styrofoam, as it is a renewable resource and avoids pollution from the standard practice of burning the sugar can pulp after the juice has been extracted. But – even better is the reusable table ware that you can wash and pack into a bag along the way.

The PLA resin that is used to make these kind of cups is only made in the USA by Blair NE for a company called Natureworks LLC. All of the corn cups that Eco Products buys are imports from Taiwan. If you do the math the carbon foot print for taking the resin 22,000 miles to and from Taiwan is worse than simply buying a plastic cup here in the US. Buyer beware of where your environmental cups come from. Look for companies that are manufacturing these in the US. There is only a few but look hard enough and you will find them.
P.S. The resin in compostable cups and utensils may only be compostable in an industrial composting facility. There is a BIG difference…this all needs more study. Lots of disputed facts as we unfold these new technologies.

I remind us all - reduce, reuse, recycle - in that order.

Community appreciates
festival’s reusable plates
Emerald editorial board May 22, 2002 Daily Emerald

Hats off to the unsung heroes of the Campus Recycling crew who broke new ground this weekend at the Willamette Valley Folk Festival by being the first campus outdoor event (and possibly the first anywhere) to use real plates and forks instead of the mountains of disposable dishware usually found at events.

An enormous amount of planning by students and coordinators with the EMU and other University entities made it possible, and it was awesome! As a food vendor, I participated for the first time at this year’s event just to be involved with this worthy project, and I must say it went without a hitch. I was honored to be associated with the event and response from the public was ecstatic.

Thanks go to the ASUO, which allocated funds to buy reusable plates and forks, and to the many student volunteers who made it possible. The University deserves much praise for hosting the event and creating an environment that fosters such cutting-edge projects

- http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/events_topics_ReusablePlates_text.htm

People who use real dishes unite!!

talking toilets

Did I dare title this article - “let’s talk shit?”…no! Because we cannot talk about his sensitive topic in polite company…in fact, we cannot pretend that we even have such stuff in our lives, so we flush it away using gallons of ever-more-precious clean water…drinking quality water we have spent much time, energy and money getting to our front door, and yet more energy cleaning up over and over.

This has never made sense to me, esp. since the revelation I had one evening in 1969 - under the influence of an incredible brownie, I bored my friends for hours with my treatise on toilets and the curse of the flush toilet and how it has ruined civilization, blah, blah, blah…

Well, I was actually on to something - but it was 40 years too soon, as usual. Now, things have caught up with us and here in California as we watch the reservoirs dry up and counties begin to squabble over who owns the right to suck out which river…we are beginning to talk water conservation…not toilets – yet - but i predict it is only a matter of time…

I especially am bothered by the sound in women’s public bathrooms – of a toilet being flushed before and after use! Why not let it “mellow”? Of course, we are afraid of contamination and probably rightly so. I had a crazy idea last year of offering a “Flexi-flush” stall in some multi-stall public facility to see if women could be encouraged to flush only occasionally ( every third use?) rather than every time.

They could choose to use that stall, and would get a “GOLD STAR” for not flushing…also a pen/poster on the door could be used to note every time a flush was saved…we could monitor our progress in saving water. Crazy? Maybe not! Maybe we could slowly change some habits.

There are great options to flushing. The best one so far is the composting toilet. I have used a number of these inventions, and can tell you that almost every experience was a majorly smell-free and enjoyable moment, as these things go…of course. So, check out composting toilets as you build new houses or change out old bathrooms, I think we could change the shitty direction things are going! There - I said it.

GREENER THAN THOU? Let’s talk Stuff, Let’s talk Trash.

Yep - you read it right….I am asking - what is really and truly Green? Well, the answer as I see it - is - everything is relative…yep, ok , seems like an easy out to say this. But, after years of living Green, doing my own “Green thing” - and discovering my strong and weak points in the deal, it looks like we are each doing some things “Greener Than Thou” and other things are “Not so Green”…it is an individual style. We need each other to show the way.  Hey, this is not a contest, by the way - and “Greener Than Thou” is a sticky issue…who wants to be guilt tripped into doing stuff?  Into getting rid of stuff?  Into not buying stuff??  etc…anyway, I think it is fun to challenge myself about my sustainability options.  That works for me.

Anyway - back to the relative points of green, and how we are all made differently.   My recently ended relationship points this out immaculately. B____ has a terrible time recycling, he just can’t seem to get it - what is recyclable and what is not! I always became the “Recycling Police” and pulled weird stuff out of the Recycle bin, and also went through the trash finding lots of goodies that could be sent to the recycle center instead of landfill. I prided myself on a small bin of trash only every 3-6 months. Without me he is doomed… recently I looked into his garage to see a horrifying pile of “trash” that could mostly be separated and recycled or composted. I retreated before the urge to organize came over me.

But, at the same time - I was a shopper, I loved to get more STUFF!…could not dare go into Ross or Dollar Store or any other sale…would come out with some wonderful bargains of new cotton sheets or a beach towel, or even a pair of shoes that I ended up not wearing. (made in China?) Pathetic.

I stay out of stores, but that is not the point. We all are so used to having whatever we want, to buying things because we can afford them - we think that affordability and priviledge means it is “OURS” - like we own it, it is MINE - whatever we want as long as we pay for it. What I am trying to say is that the waters, the air quality, the resources that are being mined and extracted to give us these many “things” belong to everyone, belong - in fact - to the Earth herself, and just because I am wealthy and an American does not mean that i get to have it all…read George Carlin’s wonderful rant on STUFF.

The recent change in our mutual economic fortunes may give us all pause long enough to change some bad habits. Maybe we’ll slow down on our Stuff buying…Maybe becoming Green will be an economic necessity. In fact, really- people have not lined up for sustainable lifestyle in great hoards before now… we may be pushed to the new Green World kicking and screaming… our cold dead hands pried off the steering wheels of our SUV’s ( sales are way down for SUV’s - finally!!!)

Ok, this is a rant - I can tell by the punctuation.

If I were to write it in a succinct and intelligible manner, I would repeat the above, but - like this…

We cannot easily quantify the ecological impact of production, distribution, consumption & dump-tion of our consumer choices. How to make informed decisions? Green by Choice - not chance? This takes a team of researchers for every subject, every item. I believe that without merely “Green washing”, our Ecomania can be appeased by stopping and breathing deeply for a moment.

The dirty secret - is that NO purchase is better for the environment that anything you can buy - whether it is organic, or “reused” - esp if you tire of it and need to now pass it on or dispose of it. The dump-tion footprint is there eventually. But, you say - are we doomed to live in a cave eating with our fingers?

I for one, will probably not be willing to go there, being over a certain age and no longer finding enjoyment in sleeping on rocks. I doubt most of my friends would either. So, we make our compromises, find our strengths, encourage each other in ways that matter to us, and take encouragement from others when the strong point is in their favor. Slowly we wean ourselves from excess - from big cars, from lights left on in empty rooms, from shopping without a list, from impulse purchasing, from junk foods and imported beer. These are the small changes that will give us opportunity to take on bigger challenges, and not a moment too soon!

Atmospheric carbon is at an all time high. Turn off that air conditioner, and lie on the ground under the shade of an oak tree. Give thanks that that tree is standing. Simple acts will save us from the crazy thoughts of what is “Greener than Thou”?

If you need a booster to start undoing your STUFF additction - see the movie - “Trashed”

“Trashed” is a provocative investigation of one of the fastest growing industries in North America. The garbage business. The film examines a fundamental element of modern American culture…the disposal of what our society defines as “waste.” It is an issue influenced by every American, most of whom never consider the consequences. Nor, it seems, the implications to our biosphere. At times humorous, but deeply poignant, “Trashed” examines the American waste stream fast approaching a half billion tons annually.    

What are the effects all this waste will have on already strained natural resources? Why is so much of it produced? While every American creates almost 5 pounds of it every day, who is affected most? And who wants America to make more?

The film analyzes the causes and effects of the seemingly innocuous act of “taking out the garbage” while showcasing the individuals, activists,corporate and advocacy groups working to affect change and reform the current model. “Trashed” is an informative and thought-provoking film everyone interested in the future of sustainability should see.

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