This Blog focuses on new and exciting food ideas most of which are not new but just forgotten. Whole food and organics have a special focus here as does food additives and sustainable food systems. We have recipes, food related politics, nutritional information, and some social commentary, if it has to do with food you will probably find a bit of it here. Please leave your comments and suggestions. You, the reader, are why we are here and we love hearing from you.
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Monday, July 31, 2017
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Friday, August 19, 2016
GRP Shorts: Karma at work in Leila de Lima's "character assass...
GRP Shorts: Karma at work in Leila de Lima's "character assass...: This is karmic justice at work. Duterte just happens to be the channel that the universe used to send back to De Lima what she dished out to...
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Frogs, Toads, Lizards and Birds the Alpha Predators in Your Garden
As humans, we like to think of ourselves as the alpha everything.
If we are honest, though, when it comes
to fighting insects of almost any type, if you take away our chemicals and we
are a sorry lot. That is why one of the main focuses of this blog is chemical-free pest control for our healthy
organic gardens.
In past articles, we have
discussed using predatory
insects, smoke
and Diatomaceous
Earth as a means of controlling those creepy
crawlies that love to munch on our plants. Today, I would like to
introduce you to the true alpha hunters of the garden world frogs, toads, lizards
and birds.
Frogs and Toads as Pest Control Agents
Toads are fairly easy to attract to your garden while frogs can
be problematic to an extent. Being semi-aquatic
frogs rarely will stray too far from water. However, if you are lucky enough to
have a small pond in your garden or have one nearby, you are in luck. They are magnificent
insect hunters and depending on the types your garden attracts, their chirping,
croaking and clicking create very soothing nighttime music.
Toads, on the other hand, are very easy to attract. As long
as you have some moist, loose soil and provide them with a little shelter they
will come and stay. The soil they prefer is what most of us want in our gardens
anyway.
Loose soil, high in organic content, like compost, is their
favorite. Toads like to dig down in the moist soil to avoid overheating and
absorb moisture through their skin. They actually drink and breathe this way.
To provide shelter I use either football sized rocks propped
up on smaller stones, or broken flower pots to create little caves they can
shelter in and stay out of the sun. As most regular readers will have realized
by now, I try to never waste anything and this is an excellent way to put those
broken pots to good use.
Lizards in the Garden
Much like frogs and toads, lizards are uncanny hunters able
to stalk insects and devour them in amazing numbers. They will eat virtually
anything that will fit into their mouths, which makes them effective not just common
insect pest but caterpillars as well. They come in a huge array of types and
again as with the frogs, many are very vocal.
One key point with lizards is that they like cracks and
crevices to use as cover. Adding a few small rock piles to your garden and
leaving a few cracks in garden walls will help you attract and hold them.
Birds
I know birds can be problematic in a garden. Yes, they eat
insect but they also eat seeds and fruits. Still, they can be a great help in
the garden provided you properly provide for them and attract the right types.
Members of the wren and sparrow families are the best insect
hunters, in my experience and I openly admit I have a soft spot for bluebirds
in particular. Bird houses and baths are a great way to start attracting them
to your garden and to help prevent them from causing damage of their own; a
bird feeder should be kept well stocked to feed their need for seeds.
For me, one of the joys of organic gardening to observe and learn
from nature. I guess I may have crossed the line between being a gardener and
becoming a naturalist of sorts. I find nothing shameful or cruel about watching
one animal survive by feeding on another. It is the way nature intended things
to be.
As a bonus to all of this, I have found that by working with
nature I have to exert a lot less effort and actually achieve greater results.
By attracting predators to my garden I not only minimize the damage that insect
pest cause to my veggies, I have the slightly sadistic joy of knowing that they
eventually end up as fertilizer to help my plants grow. And the circle of life
continues.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Composting for Beginners
Many people shy away from composting because they think it
is some mysterious black art or takes specialized knowledge to do properly. In
truth, composting is such a natural process that converting your waste into fertile soil is almost impossible to get wrong
and takes absolutely no special skills or equipment. A compost tumbler can make
the process more efficient, but it is by no means a necessity. I have one
friend whose composting method is nothing more than using the old hay from his
barn as mulch, on his garden paths and then sweeping it into his beds as it
breaks down. He then puts down a fresh layer of hay and starts over.
At a most basic level composting is no more than doing what
nature does with waste, but doing it in a more efficient manner. In nature, microorganisms break down waste and
return the nutrients to the soil where they started out. It is kind of an
“ashes to ashes, dust to dust” kind of process. Every leaf on every plant,
every blade of grass and every piece of fruit started out as soil and was
transformed by nature into something wonderful. When composting you are simply
finishing the life cycle as nature intended and like most things that are
natural it is dirt simple. Pun intended.
Direct Composting
What I term as direct composting is the method I use and
recommend when trying recovering very poor soil and as a way to make use of
things like meat trimmings and food scraps that I don’t want in my compost pile
to draw vermin.
I keep a small can with a cover under the sink and collect
the food scraps in it. When it is full or I just decide to I take it out to the
garden, dig a small hole and bury the goods under six inches or more of soil.
From there nature will take care of the rest. The scraps will break down faster than most people realize and
leave behind a rich soil deposit and hopefully a small worm bed.
Compost Piles
Again, there is no great mystery here, people have different
opinions but I have found that the best size for a compost pile is 3’x3’x3’. At
this size, they are easy to manage and
still large enough to produce good results.
You can use wire mesh around a frame leave it as a loose
pile or my favorite method is to build a three sided box from scrap pallets. I
do recommend leaving one side open or removable so that it is easy to turn and
mix your pile.
As you gather yard and garden waste simply add it your
compost pile. Keep it dampened but not soaking wet, so that the microbes will
stay healthy and happy and let them door their job. If you want faster results, add food waste and worms to the mix.
Composting really is just that easy. It takes very little
work and while you can get as technical and fancy about it as you would like as
a natural process, you have to mess up pretty bad for it not to work. Nature is
nothing if not resilient.
Compost Tumblers
Compost tumblers are the Cadillac’s of the composting world they
allow you to easily mix, moisten and sift your compost with less effort than
you would believe and as an added bonus, by being a closed environment they
work even faster than a compost pile with worms.
Composting is a natural a process as there ever existed. If
you have taken a walk through the fall leaves or spring forest you have witnessed
how it works. It takes minimum effort, rewards you with better soil than you
could ever buy, saves you fertilizer cost, and allows you to grow more beautiful
flowers and nutritious vegetables than you can buy in any store.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Basic Hawaiian Poke Recipe
For those who may not be familiar Poke it is a dish that is
mainly known to come to us from Hawaii, but there are actually many versions of
it found throughout Polynesia and Asia. It is basically a type of pickled fish
salad that is simply out of this world and for those that prefer their fish
cooked, the
By CityMama from "Silicon Valley", USA (Ahi poke hawaiian-style) |
The more traditional Poke is made from raw fish, sea-salt,
inamona, and seaweed. This is a more modern take on this delicacy, normally made
with Ahi Tuna but I have used this same recipe successfully with Dory and other
milder fish for those who prefer a more subtle flavor.
What you will need:
- Large glass, Pyrex, porcelain or wooden bowl
- 4 Salad Bowls
- 2 lbs Fresh Tuna Steaks, cubed
- 1 cup Soy Sauce
- ¾ cup Spring Onions, finely chopped
- 2 Tbs Sesame Oil
- 1 Tbs Sesame Seeds, toasted
- 1 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper
Lettuce, Kale or Salad Greens of your choice (optional)
Tofu Cubed and fried
(optional)
Preparation:
Prep Time: 15 minutes Serving
Time: 2 hrs. 15 min. Serves:
4
In a large, no reactive bowl, mix all your ingredients
except for the greens and Tofu. Place in refrigerator and chill for 2 or more
hours. Serve.
Serving Suggestions:
You can simply place Poke in salad bowls and serve, but my favorite
way to serve it is to line bowls or halved coconut shells with salad greens,
spoon in the Poke and then top with fried Tofu cups.
The greens and tofu provide a color and textural contrast that
I like without altering the flavor profile. Some people like to add crushed
nuts for the same effect, but, in my opinion this alters the flavor, of the
dish, to the point of it becoming a new dish and not a true Poke, even by
modern standards.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Chemical Free Organic Pest Control: Smoke Your Garden
This is going to be the shortest post in this organic pest
control series and very likely one of the most
controversial. When I have mentioned it to friends, they either fall in love
with the idea or tell me it is pure BS. To me,
it is just another way of re-purposing garden waste
Since I haven’t been able to find much either way in my research but have used this method of pest
control successfully, in my own gardens, for several years now, all I can say
is “I” recommend it and encourage you to give it a try. What I’m talking about
is smoking your garden.
Blowing Smoke
First, let’s be clear, When I say smoke your garden, I’m not
talking about growing tobacco or ganja. I’m talking about applying smoke to
your garden as a way to control the pest.
The process is very simple and best used on days with very
little to no breeze blowing and the weather is not too dry. It takes moister for the scent of the smoke to cling to
plants and if they or the air is too dry it won’t hold.
1.
Take an old pan, shovel, banana leaf, or
anything that won’t burn easily and pile moist but not wet grass, leaves and
other combustible waste in it and start a small smoldering fire. If you have been
cooking out with charcoal, the left over coals from your pit work great as a
base fire.
2.
Place the smoking fire in your garden, allowing the
smoke to flow over your plants and trees for 10-15 minutes and then move it to
treat another area.
3.
Repeat a couple times a week.
4.
That is pretty much it.
What Pest Smoke Helps With
Based on my personal experience, smoking your plants helps
on all fronts, with the exception of ants. All animals from insects to the
larger foragers instinctively avoid fire and the smell of smoke is abhorrent to
them.
The smoke itself drives the vermin out and the lingering
smell acts as a preventive measure.
I would like to add
as a note of caution here that if you have a beneficial insectary in your
garden to try and avoid these areas as best you can. Predator insects and pollinators
will return faster than foraging insects,
but they will still be affected.
Mosquito Control
An added bonus to this method of pest control is that beyond
common garden pest it seems to be especially effective and controlling mosquitoes.
With all of the news we have been seeing about mosquito borne illnesses, this is a benefit that I feel is worth mentioning.
Zero Waste
This method is very simple, though it can be time-consuming. It is zero waste process, as it
takes lawn and garden waste and converts it to ash that is a very healthy aid
in maintaining your soil quality. Just throw it on your garden when finished
burning.
Give this method of natural pest control a try and let me
know what you think. As always I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Why Should You Compost?
Composting is one the best ways that I know of to improve your
garden, your pocketbook and the environment all at the same time. Contrary to
what many people believe it is also very easy to do and, for me at least, a
great way to introduce youngsters to the beauty of how Mother Nature works to
keep everything in balance and eliminate all waste.
My original outline for this article had me breaking down
the reasons you should compost into the three categories mentioned above, but then
I realized that most of the benefits derived from composting could not be
limited to a single area of benefit. That, just like in nature all things are interrelated
and that what benefits one area literally benefits them all.
Composted Soil is Great Natural Fertilizer
As a prime example of this, look at the final product, we
derive from the composting process, compost itself.
Compost is one of the greatest organic fertilizing agents
that you can put on your plants. Properly used, it will give you stronger,
healthier, more disease resistant plants. This, of course, means less need for
you to use fertilizers and other chemicals. The less you use, the less you buy
so you save money and the less you use, the less there is to leach into the environment.
Even processed organic based fertilizers and other plant treatments can have adverse effects when
over or incorrectly used. With compost,
this isn’t an issue, the more the better on every front. See what I mean by
everything is codependent and intertwined.
Compost Retains Moisture and Promotes a Healthy garden
By virtue of its high bio-content, compost acts like a natural
sponge and helps the soil retain water better that even the much-vaunted peat moss. This has several
effects along with the obvious benefit of lowering the need for you to water your
garden.
By retaining more moisture, in the soil, compost promotes
microbial growth, which intern helps to release more nutrients further
enriching the soil, making your plants healthier and the crops they produce
more nutritious.
It also makes the soil a more suitable home for beneficial insects,
earthworms, which have their own benefits along with supplying attracting
higher predators which will further reduce your need for pest control.
As you can see, when you really start to delve into the benefits
of composting and how it is one of the cornerstones of how our entire biosphere
tries to maintain itself, things can get very complicated very quickly.
The truth is, when you start looking at how any natural
process works and all of the benefits and savings that come from doing things
in a natural way, it really makes you wonder what makes us believe we can find
a better way.
In this article, I
didn’t even touch on how composting saves on garbage bills and could help keep
at least some of the 36,000,000
tons of food waste, which the U.S. alone generates each year, out of
landfills, where it produces an estimated 12 million tons of the potent greenhouse
gas methane.
Nature is elegant in its designs and processes. The closer we
can stay to it, the better off we will be
financially, physically, environmentally.
Composting is a wonderful place to start exploring how it all works and to gain
an understanding of just how wonderful it is.
As always your questions and comments are welcome. You can
leave them below or contact me directly via the contact form in the upper right
corner or the contact page. I answer all my messages personally and love
hearing from you.
Give composting a try and let us know what you think or if
you are an experienced composter share your tips and tricks.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Asian Wok Baked Garlic Butter Chicken
It may or may not come as a big surprise to some that both
my wife ad I are big fans of Chef Gordon Ramsey. No, it isn’t his winning
personality that has made us fans. It is they idea that we have heard him
stress over and over that the keys to good food are fresh ingredients, treated
with respect. Good food doesn’t have to be complicated; it just has to be good.
This recipe is a prime example of this idea. It is simple to
make, takes very little time, creates minimal mess and will simply blow
people’s minds with its delectable flavor. So, if you like the idea of making
people think you spent hours creating a restaurant quality meal when it took
mere minutes, keep reading.
Easy Garlic Butter Chicken Recipe
What you will need:
·
Whole chicken breast on the bone, with skin
·
2 Tbs. Oil,
Coconut preferred but your choice
·
1/8 lb. Butter
·
4 Cloves
of garlic, crushed and peeled
·
¼ tsp. Paprika
o
Salt
o
Pepper, cracked
o
Fresh Parsley, finely chopped
Cooking Procedure
1)
Take your whole breast and sprinkle with paprika,
salt and pepper. Be sure to coat both the skin and the meat under the skin.
2)
Allow chicken to rest 15-20 minutes
3)
Place your wok over a high flame and add oil,
allowing it to come up to high temp.
4)
Drop your chicken into oil, skin side down, allowing
the skin to start browning but not becoming crisp.
5)
Turn chicken, bone side down, cover with a lid
and reduce heat to a low flame.
6)
Allow to cook covered for 10-15 minutes.
7)
Add butter and garlic and cook, covered basting
every few minutes until skin turns golden brown and becomes crisp.
8)
Sprinkle with fresh Parsley and serve.
Total cooking time, including prep: less than 1 hour.
Serves: 2
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)