Your Community Circle

Anyone who knows me knows that you're probably not going to find me on most social networking sites. Well, I'm converting. Maybe it's just because I work for the originator, but Google has announced a new social media tool that I think actually captures (and harnesses) the democratic spirit of the internet.

Read more about Google+.

Virtual community building that actually translates into meaningful and productive real-world relationship? I think it might just be so...

It's Catching On...

For all those who like to be early adopters, it looks like time is running out to jump on the "grow your own produce" hay wagon. The other day, Josh and I saw this sign outside an apartment building on Jackson Road.

So, if you simply must be the first of your friends to do something, better start with a garden this summer! Not sure where to begin? I'd love to offer whatever help I can. Leave a comment with your inquiry and I'll certainly respond.

Real Time Farms

I've always found that it's much easier to stick to my values at home than it is out "in the world." For instance, Josh and I only buy meat that was grass-fed, had no hormones or growth steroids, and was raised using humane and sustainable practices (Niman Ranch is a shining example). However, while we feel perfectly comfortable interrogating the butcher at our local specialty grocery store before buying $25 worth of steak, we tend not to be as aggressively questioning with the very friendly college student waitress when picking up a quick sandwich at a local coney island for under $8.

I'm sure some would argue that I have the absolute right (and perhaps even responsibility) to ask about the restaurant's practices and there's definitely validity in this viewpoint. However, at this point in time with high unemployment rates and the rising cost of living, the ability to be choosy about food sources is a privilege and I would hate to be perceived as uppity in asking about local sourcing and organic certification in the middle of the restaurant.I suppose one way around this would be to make a phone call or send an email to the restaurant to avoid the in-person confrontation, but that's one of those things that's so far down on my to do list that it probably won't ever happen. 

 

Luckily, there is this great online resource: realtimefarms.com. At the site, you can enter your zip code and find out which local restaurants are purchasing produce and other food products from local farms and food artisans. Each entry has a small profile, a sample menu, and some photographs. What's even better, however, is that you can also search the other way, identifying a single farm and finding out what restaurants use their produce. Again, every farm has a small profile and some photographs, giving users a better sense of the people, produce, and the production process.

I think sites like this are great localization tools because they provide easier access to information that consumers need to make informed decisions. By joining the site, both food producers (e.g. farmers) and food purveyors (e.g. restaurants) can show their commitment to a certain type of sustainable, local food system and in doing so, can send signals to would-be customers who hold similar commitments. While I might not question the origins of my convenient (and inexpensive) lunch, I certainly won't refuse the insight provided by this compilation into how I might better stick to my values outside the walls of my own home.

"The Femivore's Dilemma"

I was going through my much too large hierarchy of email folders yesterday and stumbled across a gem: "The Femivore's Dilemma," an article by Peggy Orenstein from the March 10, 2010 edition of the New York Times. It's entirely possible that I'm breaking some kind of unspoken blog ethics by simply reproducing an article as a post, but Peggy Orenstein said it better that I ever could. Enjoy!

The Femivore's Dilemma

By Peggy Orenstein

Reproduced from the March 10, 2010 edition of the New York Times.

Four women I know — none of whom know one another — are building chicken coops in their backyards. It goes without saying that they already raise organic produce: my town, Berkeley, Calif., is the Vatican of locavorism, the high church of Alice Waters. Kitchen gardens are as much a given here as indoor plumbing. But chickens? That ups the ante. Apparently it is no longer enough to know the name of the farm your eggs came from; now you need to know the name of the actual bird.

Human Empire graphic

All of these gals — these chicks with chicks — are stay-at-home moms, highly educated women who left the work force to care for kith and kin. I don’t think that’s a coincidence: the omnivore’s dilemma has provided an unexpected out from the feminist predicament, a way for women to embrace homemaking without becoming Betty Draper. “Prior to this, I felt like my choices were either to break the glass ceiling or to accept the gilded cage,” says Shannon Hayes, a grass-fed-livestock farmer in upstate New York and author of “Radical Homemakers,” a manifesto for “tomato-canning feminists,” which was published last month.

Hayes pointed out that the original “problem that had no name” was as much spiritual as economic: a malaise that overtook middle-class housewives trapped in a life of schlepping and shopping. A generation and many lawsuits later, some women found meaning and power through paid employment. Others merely found a new source of alienation. What to do? The wages of housewifery had not changed — an increased risk of depression, a niggling purposelessness, economic dependence on your husband — only now, bearing them was considered a “choice”: if you felt stuck, it was your own fault. What’s more, though today’s soccer moms may argue, quite rightly, that caretaking is undervalued in a society that measures success by a paycheck, their role is made possible by the size of their husband’s. In that way, they’ve been more of a pendulum swing than true game changers.

Enter the chicken coop.

Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?

Source: The National Gardening Association

There is even an economic argument for choosing a literal nest egg over a figurative one. Conventional feminist wisdom held that two incomes were necessary to provide a family’s basic needs — not to mention to guard against job loss, catastrophic illness, divorce or the death of a spouse. Femivores suggest that knowing how to feed and clothe yourself regardless of circumstance, to turn paucity into plenty, is an equal — possibly greater — safety net. After all, who is better equipped to weather this economy, the high-earning woman who loses her job or the frugal homemaker who can count her chickens?

Hayes would consider my friends’ efforts admirable if transitional. Her goal is larger: a renunciation of consumer culture, a return (or maybe an advance) to a kind of modern preindustrialism in which the home is self-sustaining, the center of labor and livelihood for both sexes. She interviewed more than a dozen families who were pursuing this way of life. They earned an average of $40,000 for a family of four. They canned peaches, stuffed sausages, grew kale, made soap. Some eschewed health insurance, and most home-schooled their kids. That, I suspect, is a little further than most of us are willing to go: it sounds a bit like being Amish, except with a car (no more than one, naturally) and a green political agenda.

After talking to Hayes, I rushed to pick up my daughter from school. As I rustled up a quick dinner of whole-wheat quesadillas and frozen organic peas, I found my thoughts drifting back to our conversation, to the questions she raised about the nature of success, satisfaction, sustenance, fulfillment, community. What constitutes “enough”? What is my obligation to others? What do I want for my child? Is my home the engine of materialism or a refuge from it?

I understand the passion for a life that is made, not bought. And who doesn’t get the appeal of working the land? It’s as integral to this country’s character as, in its own way, Wal-Mart. My femivore friends may never do more than dabble in backyard farming — keeping a couple of chickens, some rabbits, maybe a beehive or two — but they’re still transforming the definition of homemaker to one that’s more about soil than dirt, fresh air than air freshener. Their vehicle for children’s enrichment goes well beyond a ride to the next math tutoring session.

I am tempted to call that “precious,” but that word has variegations of meaning. Then again, that may be appropriate. Hayes found that without a larger purpose — activism, teaching, creating a business or otherwise moving outside the home — women’s enthusiasm for the domestic arts eventually flagged, especially if their husbands weren’t equally involved. “If you don’t go into this as a genuinely egalitarian relationship,” she warned, “you’re creating a dangerous situation. There can be loss of self-esteem, loss of soul and an inability to return to the world and get your bearings. You can start to wonder, What’s this all for?” It was an unnervingly familiar litany: if a woman is not careful, it seems, chicken wire can coop her up as surely as any gilded cage. 

Peggy Orenstein, a contributing writer, is the author of “Waiting for Daisy,” a memoir.

Instructions for Building a Raised Bed

Josh and I have found that, no matter how much you plan, you always have to improvise at least a little bit during any household project especially those that involve multiple tools. So, with that caveat, the following are some basic instructions for building a raised bed garden, Josh and Nicole style.

1. Assemble supplies & tools - For a rectangular or square raised bed, it's easiest to make all wood cuts at once so start with this while you have lots of energy (and patience). Once cut, bring your wood as well as your other necessary supplies over to your project area.

2. Scope it out - Define the area where the raised bed will go and mark accordingly (e.g. with scrap wood, string, line in the dirt). 

3. Prep the area - Remove any grass within the marked space. To do this without losing too much dirt, use a flat edge shovel to cut a straight line in the edge of the grass to be removed. Then, use a pitch fork to gently pull the grass up from the cut edge. Note: To save even more dirt, place lifted sod pieces into a wheel barrow or other container. Let sit for several days, allowing the dirt to dry. Then, when dry, remove as much dirt as possible, placing now dead grass into compost and dirt back into wheelbarrow or container for later use.  

4. Set your square - It is important to start by laying your first board level (i.e. both sides at the same height, not crooked) and square (i.e. parallel to something). To do this, begin constructing the bed by laying a wall that is parallel to something else (for us, the back board of the bed is parallel to the house, see diagram below). Measure the distance from your parallel object to the right side of the board and mark this distance in the dirt. Repeat on the left side of the board. With these distances equal, you can be sure that your first board will be square (and therefore the rest of the bed will be too!). 

5. Trench & post - Dig a small trench (2-3 inches) along the straight line where the board will go. Set the board so it is roughly level, adjusting trench depths as needed. For the most solid construction, plan board edges so that they alternate (see diagram). Dig a 6-8 inch hole where each post will go, taking into account how the next board's edges will meet with the current board.

6. Align next side & attach - Dig a small trench perpendicular to the current board where the next board will go. Hold the edges of the boards together and use the square and level tools to align and level. Have one person hold the board while another attaches the edges with 2 screws through one board and into the other. Once boards are assembled, attach both sides to the dug-in post (2 screws for each side).

7. Repeat! - Repeat steps 5 and 6 on all sides of the bed until complete.

8. Set weed cloth (optional) - Cut weed cloth to fit the bed and attach to ground using landscaping pins.

9. Lay pea gravel (optional) - Scrape just a few inches of top soil off the areas to be covered with pea gravel and place removed soil in the new raised bed. Lay a generous cover of pea gravel on top of prepped areas.

10. Fill & plant - Fill the bed with soil and plant seeds or seedlings as desired!

Of course, no project is this simple. And, I fully acknowledge the inadequacy of these "instructions," but projects are dynamic and often characterized by the be bumps and problem-solving required along the way. Some advice for success:

• Enlist a friend - two sets of hands (or three) makes the nearly impossible much more simple (especially if your friend has good spatial reasoning or experience with power tools)
• Take your time - plan at least a weekend and a half since these things always take longer than it seems they should
• Use props to visualize - when trying to figure out why a corner won't go together quite right or where to dig the next post hole, use extra materials to envision what you're trying to accomplish (e.g. have those friends hold the board edges together while you try the post placement and mark what works)

So, to conclude, a before and after sequence for our new, imperfect but lovely raised beds (and check back in June for photos of these beds filled with plants!).

Before

After

Building a Raised Bed

Raised beds are wonderful tools for any gardener, but perhaps especially for a vegetable gardener. Some highlights:

• Weed control is a piece of cake
• Soil temperature is all around warmer, meaning earlier planting, later harvests, and perennials that fair better during the winter months than their ground planted counterparts
• Good drainage so roots don't get water logged
• High quality soil (especially compared to the clay we usually have)
• Limited space so any soil amendments (e.g. compost, fertilizer) are more contained and less expensive

For these reasons and many others, this past weekend Josh and I added about 75 square feet of raised bed space to our side yard on the south side of our house. We chose this location because a) there was really nothing noteworthy there to begin with and b) because it's on the south side of the house, the beds will get great light all day long (the sun travels basically over the top of the beds from east to west). Because the space is almost 25 feet long, we chose to do three separate but connected beds with the middle bed taller for a tiered effect. For the small beds, we used eight inch boards and for the tall twelve inch. All of our materials cost slightly less than $200.

Raised Bed Plan

Materials

Lumber

For our beds, we used pressure treated wood. Pressure treating is a chemical process which slows down the rate at which lumber will rot when exposed to the elements. Some people don't like to use pressure treated wood for beds where food will be grown because the chemicals can be hazardous. After our own research, we decided that we were comfortable using pressure treated wood in our vegetable beds, but I note this as a suggestion for those building raised beds to do their own research.

In the end, we used:

• (5) two inch by eight inch by eight foot boards ("two-by-eights") cut into...
• (4) 6 foot boards
• (2) 4 foot boards
• (3) two inch by twelve inch by eight foot boards ("two-by-twelves") cut into...
• (2) 7 foot boards
• (2) 4 foot boards
• (3) four inch by four inch by four foot posts ("four-by-fours") cut into...
• (8) 10 inch pieces
• (4) 12 inch pieces

Note: You can by these materials in almost any length (4 feet, 6 feet, 12 feet, etc.). For our measurements, eight feet made the most sense (also our Ford Focus couldn't really haul much more).

Other  Supplies

• 3 inch exterior grade screws
• Pea gravel (13-15 half cubic foot bags)



Ready to Raise a Bed

• Top soil (25-30 forty pound bags)
• Weed cloth (*optional)
• Landscaping pins (*if using weed cloth)

Tools

• Circular saw (or have the store cut the wood)
• Power drill (plus extension cord if not cordless)
• Phillips head drill bit
• Counter sink drill bit (*optional, but definitely handy)
• Stiff garden rake
• Trowel
• Post digger (but a bulb planter also works!)
• Pitch fork
• Level (at least 2-feet long) 
• Large square

And so began our two-day project. Check back tomorrow for construction details...

It's the Economy, [Friends]!

When Former President Bill Clinton was running his campaign, his strategist famously explained that the best tactic for winning the presidency was through a platform that focused on how he would bolster the economy. He said, and I quote, "It's the economy, stupid."

As most of my generation and those prior know, Clinton ended up winning that election and went on to win another four years later, so clearly there was something to this idea. In fact, the phrase became so prolific it spawned spoofs, books of the same title, and remains today a pop culture reference to the primacy of economics in the every day lives of the middle class. Though from my privileged position I'd like to think that money probably shouldn't be the central motivating factor in anything, it's hard to deny that economic arguments can be pretty darned convincing.

And so, today I share with you information from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that demonstrates yet another reason why growing your own food just makes sense: not only is it an act of environmental stewardship, of localization, and of true gourmandise, it is also an act of frugality and economic sensibility.

Below is a graph which shows the food price index for the world's food from the FAO. I'm no statistician, but essentially what this graph shows is that the price of food is rising and looks like it will continue to rise in the coming months, years, etc. Even with inflation, it's pretty evident that food is becoming proportionally more expensive, meaning individuals and families have to commit a higher percentage of their income to eating now than they did 15 years ago.

From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

In more concrete terms, the last time I was at a grocery store in Ann Arbor during the summer when eggplant was in season, the vegetable cost $1.99 a pound. Granted this may be a high price in some areas, in Ann Arbor it's fairly standard and, even if the price is reduced to $0.99, a pound, you can buy 4 eggplant seedlings at the Farmers' Market for around $3. With a little bit of effort and a patch of dirt to put them in, one plant can produce 5-8 pounds of eggplant meaning with 4 plants, you're getting at least 20 pounds of the fruits. Imagining you find eggplant for $1 a pound at the grocery store, conservatively your return on investment is approximately $15, and this return becomes even larger when you start you own seeds (buying a packet of 50 or so for $3).

That, my friends, is the economic sensibility of growing your own food that's hard to argue with. Of course, small-scale home gardening can't replace all food needs, but with vegetable produce from your own backyard, the less you need to rely on the grocery store. So even if you supplement your shopping list with a just couple of container tomato plants and a pepper plant or two, you're on your way to controlling your food cost in a time when food prices are on the rise.

And, in case you're still not convinced, check out how the numeric index has changed over the past 10 years in the table below. Until next time, shop smart!

From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Homemade Seed Starting System

Homemade Seed Starting System

In order to start seeds, you need a couple of essential tools, namely trays where the seeds will grow, soil, and lights. There are too many seed starting systems to count available for purchase online. However, because these can get pricey, last year Josh and I invented our own contraption. It consists of:

• 1 freestanding shelving system
• 5-shelves
• 42 inches long x 16 wide x 70 tall
• If possible, shelves should have holes on both sides for ease of hanging lights
  
• 3 hanging florescent shop light fixtures 
• 2 florescent lights bulbs per fixture
• 48 inches long - these come in all sizes, but the standard 48 inch long bulbs are by far the least expensive making these fixtures the most economical
  
• 6 florescent light bulbs
• 3 warm spectrum (2,500-3,000 kelvin)
• 3 cool spectrum (5,000-6,500 kelvin)
  
• 1 warm and 1 cool go in each shop light fixture to provide a full spectrum of light for the plants - note: you can also buy "gro-lights" which have the full spectrum in a single bulb, but they're expensive so if you're looking for an economical way to go, try a two bulbed approach
  
• Plastic drop cloth



Seed Starting Trays (pieces - top; assembled - bottom)

• Big enough to wrap around the system, trapping the heat from the lights inside
• Thermometer (to keep on a shelf, making sure it doesn't get too cold)
• Power strip (each fixture has its own cord)
• Electrical timer (so you don't have to manually turn lights on and off)
  
• Basic 4-part tray system (pictured to right)
  
• Tray of divided potting containers
• Solid black insert/water reservoir
• Stiff green bottom tray
• Plastic dome cover

And that's it! ... in theory. Tomorrow I'll share my first attempt this season to simulate nature and grow eggplant and a few miscellaneous herbs in my basement.

Despite Our Best Intentions...

Earliest Spring Flowers

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, things just don't work out the way we intended. For instance, this past Saturday was an idyllic day before the official start of spring, and so Josh and I went for an epic walk around town. I'm not a camera carrier nor a photo documenter, but a good part of me wants to be for the sake of this blog so I even brought my camera and took a few photos of the flowers popping up in yards all over. The plan was to use these as the basis for a "Welcome to Spring!" post on Sunday (the first day of spring). Of course, as you've probably induced by now, that didn't happen, and here we are two days past the official start of the season, with me anticlimactically offering - oh, by the way - happy spring. Here's a photo. 

Obviously, this example is fairly harmless. Unfortunately, however, our failed attempts at good-doing are not always so benign. Take for example the United States' relatively new and increasing love for quinoa. Though people will debate how it's pronounced, it's hard to find anyone health savvy who won't support an overwhelmingly positive nutritional analysis of this near wonder food. In fact, NASA even posits that with its "exceptional balance of amino acids, quinoa... is virtually unrivaled in the plant or animal kingdom for its life-sustaining nutrients."

Quinoa

In addition to great nutrients, quinoa is also fairly versatile. Related to beets and spinach, quinoa isn't a grain, but it can be used like one, replacing other carbohydrate fillers like rice and potatoes. And what's not to like about this, right? We live in a country with a growing obesity problem that also loves meat and potatoes. This food can actually help us get more out of our food without sacrificing a texture that we love. Great!

Well, my friends, turns out that it's great for us and our European friends who have also embraced the food. It's not so great though for the Bolivians who can no longer afford this staple crop grown in their country and are now, ironically, turning to the processed foods that increase the risk of obesity and malnutrition at the same time.

So, a quinoa lover myself, I am now working my way through our remaining supply of quinoa (and savoring every bite of it) because I will buy the delectable specimen no more. 

Ultimately, this is just another argument for localization. The facts are:

• We don't need quinoa in our diet. Though it has great nutritional value, in Michigan we are at no loss for healthy and plentiful crops to eat.  

• We can't grow quinoa.  If we want it on our plate, we have to import it from Bolivia, increasing our carbon footprint through transportation. 

• By purchasing quinoa, we increase the demand for it and, consequently, its cost. As a result, Bolivians who do depend on quinoa for basic nutrition can't afford to purchase this product grown in their own country as a staple of their diet. Seems like a huge and preventable social injustice to me...

Living in such a relatively prosperous nation, many of us have choices when it comes to what we eat and it falls upon us to make choices that are good for us and good for our local, national, and even global community. So, in sum, whenever possible eat local so our global friends can simply eat.

(Information in this post taken from "Quinoa's Global Success Creates Quandary at Home,"  an article in the March 20, 2011 edition of The New York Times. Thanks Josh for being such a diligent newspaper reader.)

Tool for Savvy Seed Starting & Sowing

Today I come bearing good news about a great tool. My friends, it's simple, it's ingenious, and it makes easy planning your seed starting and sowing with confidence. Brought to you by the people at Johnny Selected Seeds, it's the totally free and super informative Seed Calculator.

Basically, you just enter your "spring frost-free date," or the average last day that you can estimate frost to occur. Then, according to your frost date, this handy table generates the date ranges when you should start specific vegetables plants indoors from seed and when these seedlings should be planted outside.

For my part, I based my planning on the conservative estimate that southeastern Michigan's frost free date is May 21 (though other sources day it can be as early as April 26). Find your own date using the Farmers' Almanac Average Frost Date table. Obviously, no matter what date you use, once you've planted anything outdoors, it's always wise to keep on eye on weather reports in the early season months. This way, if you know frost is likely during the evening, you can take precautions on behalf of your young plants (there are many methods for doing this, ranging from homemade plastic covers to these professional grade fabrics and contraptions). 

I was once skeptical of the need to seriously consider this frost date. I mean, once it's warm, it's warm right? Consider the following from the Farmers' Almanac:

• 29-32 degrees Fahrenheit kills tender plants
• 25-28 degrees kills most vegetation
• Below 25 degrees kills everything other than evergreens

I've smartened up and learned that with the substantial investment of time, energy, and money that goes into plants before you ever put them in the ground, it's important to a) consider frost date estimates and b) watch the weather once you commit your plants to living outside. Fortunately, to alleviate some of the potential anxiety that comes with having to consider yet another factor in gardening, I return to the seed starting and seedling planting date calculator which makes managing these factors all the more manageable.

Map for Rough Frost Free Date Estimates

Preserved Menu Planning: The Seasonality of Flavor & Texture

Rough Outline of Major Produce Seasonality in Southeast Michigan

I know this table is not especially beautiful, but I promise fellow food preservers that what it lacks in form, it makes up for in function.

You see, I've learned that the most important thing in preserving an abundance of food is making sure that it has an abundance of variety, especially in the flavor and texture departments. One of the easiest ways to get variety of preserved foods is, of course, to use a variety of main ingredients. Not only do different ingredients lead to dishes with distinct flavors (sweet/sour/savory/briny) and textures (pureed/chuky/liquidy), but they also contribute to better overall nutrition (vitamins a-e in carrots/fiber in peas/lycopene in cooked tomatoes). 

That's all well and good and I doubt anyone will dispute the premise. However, the tricky thing about local produce, especially in Michigan, is that is has a limited season. Take, for instance, those fibrous peas: If you want to freeze a bulk order of whole peas and need to get them from the farmers' market to do so, better get there in June otherwise you'll find yourself pea-less. Same thing with blueberries. And sweet corn. And parsnips. You get the idea...

That's where the table comes in handy, to give you a general sense of when you can easily find a specific product (and one of the best things about getting it during its peak season is it tends to be cheaper and better quality). Obviously, if you have a garden, you'll know when this stuff is available, but in case you're looking for some produce that you're not growing yourself or you want to supplement your own stock with a bulk order from elsewhere, to the table!

I find that the table alone isn't enough. For me, the best way to keep track of these things is to make rough notes on my personal calendar of which weekends (or weekdays) I plan to commit to securing the ingredient I need to make a specific dish.

Speaking of which, I need to add "pickled asparagus" to my calendar for Saturday, June 11. We've missed the season every year except our first, so I am hell bent on eating asparagus in January 2012...

Set It and Forget It!

When I was about 12 or so, my dad and I got caught in the hypnotic messaging of an infomercial and bought a rotisserie cooker from Ron Popeil, "the King of 'Set It and Forget It.'" I've included an example of the advertisement below, but I will not be held responsible for any poor purchasing judgment that results...

Anyway, when we received the contraption in the mail 3-5 weeks later, we eagerly stuffed it with a five pound chicken and, as the instructions prompted, we set it and forgot it.

Well, it turns out you can't effectively cook chicken with a light bulb which is essentially what this thing tried to do. Disappointed and with wounds that would keep me forever skeptical of television advertisements, we asked for our money back guarantee (minus shipping and handling) and sent the rotisserie back.

I should have known then that (for the most part) anything my father and I agreed upon so excitedly was probably a bad idea. I should have also realized that it was really my mother who had the "set it and forget it" technology we were seeking. About once a week, she in her infinite wisdom would pull out the crock pot she'd received years prior as a wedding present and make something delicious with very little effort. 

As an adult, I won't say that I've become wiser, but I have at least learned a few things about mimicking good ideas. So, like my mother, I am the proud owner of two slow cookers, one 4-quart (for everyday cooking) and one 12-quart (for large-batch freezing/canning).

I cannot recommend this cooking tool highly enough, especially for those looking to preserve their own food. You'll find a use for it throughout the process: In August, when it comes time to can tomato sauce, no method is easier for reducing the volume of the tomatoes than letting them simmer for 18-28 hours in a slow cooker (and it doesn't heat up the house as much as a stove). In February, when it comes to throwing frozen ingredients together to make an easy and  tasty chili (see recipe below), the choice is obvious.

As proof of my undying affection for the convenience of my slow cookers, I'll leave you with an impromptu recipe for vegetarian chili that provided a healthy and satisfying dinner last night (prepped it Sunday night around 8pm, turned off and stored the entire slow cooker in the cold garage before work around 7am on Monday, reheated and ate that evening).

Nicole's Chilly February Chili

Ingredients 

• 4 quart slow cooker 
• 10-15 frozen whole paste tomatoes (e.g. Roma, San Marzano, Amish Paste) thawed for 1-2 hours
• 3 small onions
• 2 or so cloves of garlic
• ~3/4 cup frozen, slices hot banana peppers
• ~1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup dried black beans 
• 2-3 generous pinches of dried basil
• 2-3 teaspoons of chili powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ~3 cups vegetable stock (Frugality tip: buy a jar of bouillon and make the stock yourself with hot water! Also saves on packaging and transportation cost due to bulkiness of prepared stock.)

- When outsides are relatively soft, puree tomatoes in food processor or blender. Add to slow cooker.

- Chop onions in food processor (or by hand). Do the same with the garlic. Add both to slow cooker.

- Add peppers, corn, black beans, basil, chili powder, salt, pepper, and stock to slow cooker.

- Set on low. Allow to cook for about 10 hours. Before turning off, check doneness of black beans. 

- Serve hot and topped with shredded cheddar, chopped onions, parsley, and sour cream. Also delicious with a slice of cornbread or thickly-sliced, toasted multigrain.

A Garden Tool for Picky Planners

I've always been a visual person as well as a particular person. For the most part, this has worked out okay for me... except when it comes to computer-based garden planning tools. Though I've not done extensive searching, the tools I have played with I didn't like because either a) they didn't allow me to customize in the ways I wanted or b) they allowed customization, but had such a steep learning curve that I defaulted to drawing the darn image by hand.

Well, call it progress, but I've found an application that satisfies even me, the pickiest of the picky when it comes to important things like the planning stage of a vegetable garden. And, the best part is, it's totally free and super informative, offering a lot of useful information about the plants selected for the plan. Another potentially valuable feature is the array of "pre-fab" gardens  which are both convenient for those not looking to design their own and can be sources of inspiration to the rest.

Provided by Gardener's Supply Company, you can find the tool here. 

One caveat: the application is really intended for square foot gardening, an effective (and efficient) method used by many with limited space available for planting vegetables. For those with more room (like me), it's still a great tool; you'll just need to adjust the recommended spacing according to your own parameters.

For today, I'll conclude with an image of what I've come up with thus far for my own garden (e.g. lots of "preservables" - tomatoes, cabbage, beans, peas, peppers, corn, and squash). It's a work in progress, but gardens always are.

2011 Project Grow Garden Plan (draft)