Shortages Threaten Farmers' Key Tool: Fertilizer

From the New York Times article:

As the use of such fertilizer spread, it was accompanied by improved plant varieties and greater mechanization. From 1900 to 2000, worldwide food production jumped by 600 percent. Scientists said that increase was the fundamental reason world population was able to rise to about 6.7 billion today from 1.7 billion in 1900.

Vaclav Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba, calculates that without nitrogen fertilizer, there would be insufficient food for 40 percent of the world's population, at least based on today's diets.

Thinnin' mah mustardz

Our little patch of mustard greens has grown very well. So well in fact that it's time to do some thinning. I pulled a bunch of clumps out yesterday for our potluck and after sauteeing, they calmed down a lot. The darn things are very spicy when fresh from the garden. Oddly enough, they tolerated the incredible day of heat we had a couple weeks ago just fine while it appears that the peas perished. Snuggled in next to the greens are green onions, parsley and some leeks. Spinach coming up too. I think I'll re-sow peas this weekend.

Wednesday Potluck: Veggie Turkey Meatloaf

• 2 onions
• garlic
  
• four to five pounds ground turkey
• handful of fresh parsley
• dried tarragon
• salt & pepper
• 2 egg whites (whole eggs would probably be okay too)
• four zucchini
• two tomatoes

Sautee onions and garlic in some olive oil until well done. Add to ground turkey in a large bowl. Add spices and mix with your hands, adding egg whites.

Set up three baking/loaf pans with wax paper or parchment paper lining. I used clothes pins or clips to keep the paper in the pan. Fill each pan half-full with the turkey mixture, then add a layer of sliced zukes and tomatoes. Fill up to the top with turkey, cover with foil and bake for 1 1/4 hrs at 375+ degrees. I put the loaf pans in another baking dish filled with hot water for funzies, but I don't think it helped.

About 20 minutes until completion, remove foil to brown it a bit. When done, slip out of the pans, flip upside-down, remove the paper and apply a covering of sauteed mustard greens and kale blossoms. Slice like pound cake and serve covered with a simple tomato/marinara sauce.

The mustard greens were freshly slaughtered from the garden. Jeff brought mashed potatoes and Norris brought Jerusalem artichokes (which are a lot like fingerling potatoes), both of which were a good accompaniment. John brought a rice-y stir-fry thing was was not a good accompaniment, but yummy nonetheless. Desert was date bars and fresh-made applesauce.

I have a water wand that works

Over at Garden Rant, there was a discussion (well, a rant) about water sprayers and wands. I offered that my no-name water wand from Fred Meyer was good and has lasted a number of years. Here it is in all its neglected glory, in case you find yourself at Freddies and need a wand.

Geeking out with BCS tractors

Look at these tractors! I sooo want one of these. Of course, I need a few more half-acres to make such a purchase justifiable. Too bad there isn't a front-end loader or backhoe bucket attachment for them.

Training the chickens

I recently subscribed to the PDXBackyardChix email group, and asked for tips to calm down our freaky flock. A couple people recommended hand-feeding them treats. Well our chickens are too stupid to realize that their regular feed in the hand of a person is still their regular feed. But it works for us! I think we have a long summer ahead of us filled with a regular hand-feeding program. That's a good job for Lily to do, especially since she likes doing it, even when they nip and peck her hands.

The curse of the cloche

Two weekends ago when it got up to about 75 degrees on Saturday, I neglected to remove the cloches from the beds, thus killing the bush peas and snow peas. Well at least I think I killed them, some of them, not all. They're hanging in there now, not totally brown, but mostly brown. Only time will tell. Now it's like 35 and sleeting. Ugh, what a rough Spring.

It would be so much easier to skip the garden and just buy locally, but as Wendell Berry said, “Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live.”

Wednesday Potluck: Crêpes

Last week, I made crêpes using Bob's Redmill buckwheat pancake mix, with extra water and salt. They were delicioso! Fillings included bacon, asparagus, brie and some other stinky French cheese, a little smear of cream of mushroom soup in each one, swiss chard, mushrooms, and I think that's it. Melanie and Patrick helped fill and roll while I griddled, which took longer than I had anticipated. It was well worth the wait though - very yummy and a repeat for sure.

Sadly, I did open the oven two days later to discover a plate piled high with crêpes that we forgot about. So sad.

Wednesday Potluck: Bean, Potato and Chard Chili

A simple dish:

• 2 onions
• Couple cloves garlic
• Olive oil

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & diced

• 4 14 oz cans of black beans
• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
  
• Couple T cumin
• Couple T chili powder
• Salt & pepper

• Head of swiss chard, chopped

Parboil the potatoes until a little soft. Saute onion and garlic in a soup pot until soft & golden. Add potatoes to onions, and everything else (minus the chard). Add enough broth/water to just barely cover the mixture. Cook on low heat until well blended, as much as an hour. Be careful not to stir too much since it will destroy the potatoes. About 20 minutes before serving time, add chard.


It was quite good, especially when mixed with some mashed potatoes that Jeff brought. The original recipe called for acorn squash, but I'm not a big fan of winter squash. We also had lot of bread and butter and a vegan banana bread. I asked Patrick (a cook) if imported, fancy butter was worth it and he suggested giving Irish butter a try, but to expect to be disappointed. Lily and I are big butter fans, so maybe we'll get some soon.


Sarah and I are thinking about breaking up the potlucks into "Adult-only" and "Family-friendly" varieties. Sometimes too many kids just makes for parents minding children the entire time instead of socializing. Admittedly, our house isn't very good for letting little kids run loose (pokey nails sticking out, splintery wood, holes in floors, exposed electrical wires, sketchy stairs, not at all baby-proofed), so some parents really do need to keep an eye on little ones, but it might be nice for all attendees to have the occasional kid-less potlucks.


Of course, we have a child too, but Lily would be happy to veg out on the computer and would be able to continue working on her adult-group-interaction skills. She doesn't go to preschool, so we've noticed that she really enjoys having other kids over, but that's not enough excuse for us having to deal with a Cheaper by the Dozen house once a week.

It was a cold, dark night...

Somehow, I'm not really sure how, I managed to forget to put the chickens away last night. Gasp! But my previous efforts at creating a veritable Fort Knox apparently worked. This morning when I woke up and went outside to let them out of the hen house, they were already staring at me, wondering if I'd brought any treats. From top to bottom is a Barred Plymouth Rock (1 of 2 identical), the two skittish Araucanas, both sans-combs, and a Rhode Island Red (1 of 2 almost identical).
Nonetheless, it will remain standard policy to put the chickens away before bed and let them out upon waking up, but it's nice to know that certain death isn't waiting for them if I forget. A couple nights ago, we had another raccoon visitor on our back porch, cleaning up some spilled cat food. That's yet another reason to get rid of the cat.

"Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive." -Andrew Grove

The future of learning, by Bob Cringley

I try to avoid "me too" posts, but this one is crucial reading for people interested in education, learning and "school" for two reasons:

1. Bob is consistently right. Sometimes his timeframes are off, but eventually, he's right.


2. Bob is an old fart and has come to the same conclusion that we in the unschooling community have come to not by analyzing educational policy or the psychology/philosophy of learning but purely through the lens of technology. Chances are that he hasn't read any John Holt.

I disagree with his thoughts for one reason:

1. Bob and I both agree that "successful" people in the coming years will be those who are good at finding out information they don't know, not at memorizing information. A likely positive outgrowth of this is a greater focus on analysis and critical thinking but he neglects to discuss how the presentation of information is rewiring our brains to prefer 3-second chunks and the rise of ADHD - which are current concerns of the medical "establishment".

I don't agree with his implication that technology is the only way that "generation z" is going to learn, and I'm generally more of a Luddite than Bob is, but his article is a good read nonetheless: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080404_004650.html

Wednesday Potluck: Lentil Goulash

I mixed a few recipes together to come up with this dish. Some folks said it was very good, but I'm attributing all of the success to the inclusion of smoked paprika. I'm not sure where we got it, but it was a very powerful addition to this dish. I'm not sure how it would work with regular paprika. Don't be scared of the paprika! It smells very strong and mellows out after being cooked for a while.

• 4 cups mixed lentils (French green, Indian orange and plain brown)
• Quart of chicken broth + enough water to cook the lentils
• Couple tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• A couple cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 green peppers, chopped
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted ground caraway seeds
• 3 heaping tablespoons smoked paprika
• Salt to taste
• Sour cream and apple cider vinegar for topping

Saute onions, garlic in olive oil on medium high heat until very done. Add green peppers and paprika and continue sauteeing for just a few minutes.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer until lentils are done. Reduce heat again to as low as possible for as long as possible, maybe an hour, to mix up the flavors.

Serve with sour cream dollop and cider vinegar.

We had a chard and cabbage melange which was a great accompaniment along with plenty of beer, wine and bread to go around. Delicious meal!