First Carrot Harvest

Anyway, as we have some store-bought carrots in the refrigerator now, I'm not going to take a big harvest just yet; the carrots could stand to get a little bigger anyway. But, I think from now on, we no longer have to buy carrots from the market...

Dig it.
After long last, my carrots are finally of a worthwhile size to harvest. I planted them on April 4th, and they were supposed to mature in about 75 days, but it's been more like 95. I guess that's attributable to the cool weather? Not sure.

Sometimes, you get lucky

On Wednesday of last week our family went to the first weekly Andersonville Farmers' Market, which operates on Wednesday afternoons on Berwyn Avenue between Ashland and Clark--that is to say: right beside our church. A small affair at the moment, but it seems to be expanding if this week's number of vendors and patrons was any indication. Anyway, there was a drawing for a free rain barrel, selected by pulling out a random business card from a fish bowl.

As you might guess from the picture above, I won it! I've never won anything significant in a drawing or raffle in my life, so I was mightily pleased. We've now installed it under the drainpipe on the east sidse of our house, and it's already seen action in a light rain. It collected probably 20 gallons (it holds 55 gal at full capacity), and I've used some of it for watering the gardening.

Pretty cool...

Fortress Bareford

What you see above is the latest in garden defense. At least in my garden. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the frame is covered on all sides with deer netting, a plastic mesh that is supposed to keep things like deer (and squirrels, the Lowe's salesrep assures me) from getting at your plants.

We'll see. The squirrels have been digging in the lettuce (not eating it per se, but damaging it nonetheless), and nipping off several of the corn seedlings that are now about four inches high. Still collecting data on whether the net frame will do the trick.

ATTACKED!!

Just noticed that something--probably a squirrel--attacked one of my strawberry beds sometime since this morning. It/they chewed off 9 out of 12 plants right at the roots! Most of them had flowered and were actively growing berries...

Disappointed!

Perspectives, Organic and Industrial

Plant a seed in the ground expecting to grow food, and you become connected with the world. The cycle of the seasons suddenly looms large, and new dates like Last Frost and First Harvest appear on your calendar. The weather becomes a relationship, friendly and supportive when sunny or appropriately damp; fraught with danger if the wrong conditions prevail. This natural connection exists whether you plant that seed in Iowa, Chicago, or the Australian Outback. You are part of an ancient dance, partnered with the Earth and God.

That was the perspective I'd read about before planting our garden, and the insight I expected to gain from the experience. I didn't expect to gain fresh respect for the selfsame industrial food machine that I was, in part, rebelling against.

The American food system is nothing short of miraculous. I'm not talking about the chemists who contrive Go-Gurt and Pop Tarts, I mean simply the produce that fills our stores. When I walk into any grocery store, be it Whole Foods or Jewel, I expect to find tomatoes, onions, peppers, potatoes, celery, carrots, and mushrooms. I'd better see apples and oranges, bananas and kiwi, grapes and mangoes. And not just one variety, either: imagine if Dominick's had only a single type of apple! The outrage! Furthermore, I expect to be able to buy as much as my budget can afford and my shopping cart can carry, and I expect to be able to do this any hour of the day or night on any day of the year I choose!

I planted carrots on April 4th--absolutely as soon as authority recommended. The greens are now almost 2-1/2 inches tall and the roots are about as thick as a 12-gauge wire. Is it dinner yet? Hardly. The onions are barely wisps of chives, the strawberries are green nascent buds, and the squash and cantaloupe have only a few leaves per stem. Only the lettuce could be potentially harvested at the moment. Yet the produce section at the supermarket brimming with goods.

Obviously, such produce is shipped from around the country and around the world at great cost and a huge carbon footprint. I know that it is produced on huge industrial farms who use every chemical they can think of to increase yield and decrease growing time, and that much of the flavor and nutrition are lost in transit. I even understand that constant access to vegetables and fruits without regard to the cycle of nature disconnects us from the true concept of seasons.

Still, wow. We are so blessed to have such a daily cornucopia at our whim. Remember that, too, as you try to break from the industrial food machine. We are so fortunate to have a choice.

Eureka

I think I've found the recipe for 100% whole wheat sandwich bread:

1 c. warm water
1/3 c. sugar
2 1/2 t. instant yeast

2 T canola oil
1 1/2 t. lemon juice
3 c (12 3/4 oz) whole wheat flour
3/4 t. salt

Combine the water, sugar and yeast; stir and let it sit a bit until it becomes foamy. Mix the dry ingredients and add the yeast mixture. Stir until dough is formed then knead a fair amount: about 15 minutes or more. The dough should be slightly tacky, but not overly sticky, and shouldn't tear easily when you stretch it. Form it into a boule and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a wet cloth or oiled plastic wrap and let rise 90 min to 2 hrs. To develop the flavor a bit more, you can place the dough in the refrigerator. This will make the rise time longer, perhaps 3 hrs, but will deepen the flavor.

Gently transfer from bowl to shaping surface, and shape a batard loaf, then gently place in an oiled baking pan. Let rise again for an hour or so, until the top of the dough peaks somewhat over the rim of the pan. Just before baking, brush the top with butter and slash in your preferred design.

Bake in a preheated 350-deg over for 40-50 min, or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 190-200 degrees.

Here's what my loaf looked like:


I have to say, this is one of the best sandwich loafs I've ever made. It is incredibly soft--even more soft than my regular white sandwich bread--and so tasty you can eat a slice without any adornment. The flavor of the whole wheat is wonderful: warm and nutty and delicious.

I'm a happy boy, especially if I can reproduce this loaf week after week.

Training Wheels No More

Okay, I thought I was a pretty decent bread baker, but now I know I've been coddled. Turns out white flour will forgive a lot of inconsistencies, sloppy technique, and errors in timing. With whole wheat flour: not so much.

The first recipe turned out really dense, trencher-like bread. Flavor was good, but not really the kind of stuff you'd use for a sandwich. The second recipe made dough that was really strange. Also resulted in a good taste (Ellie really likes it), but I think i let it overrise and the top collapsed in the oven. Also, the crumb is really moist (good), but more the consistency of banana bread (bad, at least for sandwich bread).

So, I'm sorta back to square one, and casting about for the recipe that fits me and my process the best. Working with whole wheat, you really have to know the feel of dough, and be able to tell with your hands when it's ready, when it needs more flour or water, etc. Don't ever START learning with whole wheat flour--it'd be too discouraging.

I'll keep slogging away. The downside is that while doctors can bury their mistakes, bakers have to EAT theirs...

Learning All Over Again

So, my 50# bag of wheat arrived this morning--timely because we are nearly out of sandwich bread.

So after work I set up the grinder and got started. The grinder itself works great: took a little less than 15 minutes to grind the 6-1/2 cups of flour I needed. Probably would have gone faster normally, but the girls wanted to help. I decided that since I had no idea if the flour was fine enough, or what would happen with 100% whole wheat flour, now was not the time to try a new recipe.

I chose my standard 4-ingredient sandwich bread recipe, because I have that one completely down. Any aberration in the result would show the difference between white bread flour and whole wheat. A-a-a-nd, like I guessed, I got whole wheat doorstops. Well, not really (I've certainly baked worse) but they didn't rise much and so were overly dense. My standard recipe wasn't intended for this kind of flour.

Next, I'm trying a 100% whole wheat recipe from KAF (King Arthur Flour). These guys are the ones who mill most of the flour that artisan breadmakers use, so I trust them. The dough includes honey, oil, and dry milk, and it had a really odd consistency. It rose, though, though not quite as much as my white bread flour, and I'm interested to try it.

It's in the oven now...

Much of America Scares Me

A quick note:

I just searched around for a good price on wheat for my grinder. Found a place, ordered 50 lbs, etc. However, almost all the places to get this stuff are also the same places that offer Army MREs, kerosene lanterns, and tactical gear. They're all focused on long-term food storage because they're convinced that the implosion of civilization as we know it is imminent. Now that I've ordered from one of these places, I fear I've been watch-listed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Or at least the Mormons.

My Gardening "Secrets" Revealed

I'm a know-it-all.

This comes as no surprise to even the circle of my most casual acquaintances--much less my close friends--and my long-suffering wife has had to endure my vainglorious, self-identified genius for over two decades. Not that my know-it-all-ness is entirely fallacious: I've been to a couple of colleges, I'm fairly well-read, my job history has exposed me to a wide variety of skills and information, and I surround myself with intelligent and educated friends.

However, while I do believe I am, in fact, smarter than a 5th grader, people have long thought I'm a lot smarter than I really am. That's because I've developed the skill of being a know-it-all and NOT being a social pariah at the same time: mostly by volunteering the information I know, extrapolating some I can logically guess at, and closing my mouth about the rest.

So, what's my point (especially in a blog about gardening)?

Partly because of this blog, and partly because of my aforementioned nature, people seem to have the idea that I'm a gardening guru. The bald fact is that I have about a thimbleful of actual gardening experience, tinged with a smattering of theoretical knowledge and a handful of soundbytes culled from knowledgeable sources. And THAT is the point of this blog entry--to reveal some of my favorite web resources for urban gardening.

Sunset Magazine -- This covers a wide variety of topics, but often has cool ideas about how to relate the landscape and garden to living spaces.
Growing Edge -- A little more aimed at the green-minded, this one often has articles about urban gardening, vermicomposting, and aquaculture.
Sustainable Gardening -- Another site with tips for urban gardeners, and how to garden without fertilizers and chemicals.
The Fresh Loaf -- my secret weapon site for bread geekiness.

One of my professors gave me a pearl of wisdom years ago. He said: "Knowing all the information is not important; knowing where to find the information is the key."

Thank you, Dr. Allen.

Tomatoes Are In!

The tomatoes arrived today: six Early Girl plants from Henry Fields. I planted them around my Japanese tomato ring today, and am looking forward to see if it works. I suppose it can't hurt, anyway.

Here's the close view:


And a view that makes it easier to understand the whole setup:



If they survived the transit, things should be good. I may put out some cloches for them if the wind continues to be as strong as it has for the last few days. I don't want them blown to bits while they are trying to establish themselves.

In other news: tiny little carrots sprouts have begun to emerge from my rows (not all parts of all rows, but since they've just become visible, I still have hope for the others). Finally.

I wish a had even a single leaf on my blueberry "sticks," though.

Further Down the Rabbit Hole

First of all: wow.

It's been three weeks since my last post. Let me bring you up to speed.

THE GARDEN
Strawberries: The strawberries are beginning to grow, though in some beds more quickly than others (the ones in the doghouse container are doing the best so far).
Raspberries: The raspberry bush is busting out in leaves, and about ten new canes started shooting up through the mulch beside the main bush. Apparently the bush sent out some underground runners that are doing well. I may need to add more support structures for the new growth, because it's not in a convenient place to use the trellis I already installed.
Blueberries: Still just green and brown sticks jutting from the ground. Not a single leaf yet. I'm hoping they start settling in soon.
Lettuce: The lettuce appears to be holding, but I am not wowed by its growth. I frankly doesn't seem to have grown much since I transplanted it, but neither has it wilted or anything. I planted about three rows of seeds yesterday, in hopes that I will have a staggered/progressive harvest. There are about three varieties in the lettuce seed mix I bought; next year I'll probably buy single, specific varieties so I have a little more control.
Onions: My transplants have officially become a write-off. They didn't like the transplant process, partly (I think) because their root system was never very developed. I planted about a row-and-a-half yesterday, but then ran out of seeds and can't seem to find my other packet. Have to get some more.
Carrots: Not a single seedling has emerged yet. I know carrots have a notoriously long germination period, but I'm getting worried.
Cantaloupe: My indoor seedlings are growing nicely, and I hope to transplant them in a couple of weeks.
Corn: Still a bit early for corn, though it's time to start preparing the bed in earnest. Will plant in a couple of weeks.
Tomato: The tomato plants have shipped. I hope they're more developed plants than the blueberries. We'll see...
Basil/Cilantro/Oregano: We moved the herbs outside. Wow, they seem to be growing slowly...

DEEPER AND DEEPER
Now we come to the reason for this post's title. With my birthday money (thanks to parents and parents-in-law) I bought a grain mill for grinding my own wheat! I didn't go for the $400 electric model, but rather a simple $70 version. I'm not a professional bakery, after all. The main reason I want to do this additional work for our bread is nutrition. Wheat in it's normal state includes the bran, germ, and endosperm. However, because of the oils in the bran and germ, flour that includes them will go rancid in about 3 days. So, commercial mills remove those two parts and deliver flour made exclusively of the endosperm, often bleached and further processed. The problem is that about 30 nutrients are contained in the bran and germ, and all these are lost in the milling process. Mills try to rectify this by artificially adding about six nutrients back. this is called "enriched" flour. To paraphrase Michael Pollan: if some stole $30 from your wallet and gave you $6 to make up for it, would you feel "enriched?"

So, I'll going to be scouting for some sources of unmilled grain. Ironically, one of the easiest place to find it is at survivalist stores. [Hoard your food to protect against the coming apocalypse!] I'd like to find a local farmer to buy it directly, but according to the Illinois Wheat Association, the wheat varieties that grow in Illinois don't have a high enough gluten content to make good bread, though they are fine for pancakes, cookies, etc.

At any rate, I've taken one more step down the path to craziness.

Snow, huh?

Tonight has seen about 1/2" on snow accumulate on the new garden. More is expected tomorrow and Tuesday, with wind gusts up to 35mph tomorrow.

I'm not worried about the strawberries. They're sheltered under mulch, and probably were still cold-dormant anyway. The lettuce and onion seedlings? Not so sure.

Before the snow started in earnest, I ransacked the house for big Tupperware bins (Melissa even offered up two under-the-bed trays that hold her off-season clothing), and I inverted them over the seedlingsand weighted them down with loose stones. I'm hoping these makeshift cloches will provide a little warmth against the chill and shelter from the predicted winds.

We'll see. This is the time everything said to put these crops out; I'm guessing cold is expected four weeks before the last frost, right?

I believe. Help my unbelief.

The Garden is In

Well, it's been a busy couple of days! Our main garden plot is off and (hopefully) growing. First, we set in the lettuce seedlings (about 35 plants) and then put in the onions. The onions seedlings are so small and frail-looking that I'm not sure they're going to make it. So, I also planted a few rows of onion seeds as a backup. I also laid in four rows of carrot seeds, too. I also left a couple of fallow 4-ft square patches in order to plant some later harvests of either onions or lettuce.

The big surprise came with the strawberries. I had thought that we ordered 6 plants (2 pks of 3). So, I planned to grow them in a container, and I pressed Athos's old dog house into service. By removing the top, drilling some drainage holes in the bottom, adding a couple of boards across the entrance and filling it with soil, I reused the large unused domicile into a fine planter. When I opened the first strawberry pack, however, I quickly found out that the pack contained not 6 plants, but TWENTY-FIVE! In total, I now had FIFTY strawberry plants.

Needless to say, this change our garden design radically, especially given the space requirements of strawberries: about 1 plant per square foot. I went ahead and put 6 in the planter, then made a 3-tier strawberry bed. That accounted for about 27 more plants. Then I made a secondary bed that holds another 12. I still have a full dozen plants that I will either give away or keep on reserve to replace plants that don't make it. The two beds are shown on the flanking pictures. Right now the plants are mulched because the weather forecast is predicting snow and rain for tomorrow and maybe Monday and Tuesday.

I also built my Japanese tomato ring (a technique which has no actual connection to Japan). It's basically a tall, cylindrical compost pile, around which the tomatoes are planted. You wire the vines up the tower, and help the plants root into the compost. Supposedly this amps up the production of fruit by several hundred percent. I'll also plant two plants in containers and compare the difference. The tomato plants won't be here until mid-May, but I'm starting the compost tower early so that it has time to, well, compost. Here's a picture.


So, to make a short story long, the garden is all in for now. I may add some seeds next week for a successive harvest, add some herbs here and there, and soon will get my blueberry bushes and later tomatoes, but I feel good about where I am at this stage. Here's an overview of the whole main plot:

To orient you, the lettuce seedlings are in the left foreground, with the secondary strawberry plot on the right, the onions (barely visible) are behind the lettuce, and the carrots (nothing to see yet) are in the farthest end of the lefthand side. The tomato tower is on the right, and behind that is my main strawberry bed.

Whew. Now it's up to God, at least until it's time to water and weed.

So Much To Do

The last frost date for Chicago (according to the Botanic Gardens) is April 25th. I've been feeling good, because I'm getting ready early, right? Well, to quote Chandler from Friends:

"Not so much."

Because I'm planting cool-season and frost tolerant varieties of lettuce, onion, carrots, etc., they want to be planted three to four weeks before the last frost date. Add to that time span is the week of acclimating seedlings to the outdoors, and suddenly, things need to be happening now.

But I'm not ready now.

I still have 2/3 of the garden to cultivate, the berry beds to start, the tomato ring to build, etc., etc., etc. It's a bit overwhelming, and it somehow snuck up on me. Luckily, my parents-in-law will be here next weekend to help celebrate Eleanor's 5th(!) birthday, and they always like to do projects. I figure I'll dragoon them into helping me plant, because they have long years of experience working with bigger gardens than I'll ever have.

But I can't exactly leave the heavy digging to Melissa's dad, so I'd better get busy.

Sigh. If only the task list was "not so much."

The Maginot Line

Well, the fence has been improved. A line has been drawn in the sand (or compost-laden fluffy soil, as you prefer). I switched out the flexible plastic fencing (seen in a roll in the center of the picture) for a coated steel fence, and doubled the number of stakes to support it.

So far, it has worked to keep unwanted paws off my beds. Note the unhappy dog in the foreground. Too bad, so sad.

The Dog is Officially On Notice

Let me start this entry by saying that I love my dog. I love taking her hiking, going dogsledding, and doing lots of other things. I love watch 2,000 years of Malamute instincts coming out when she's on the trail. Recently, though, I've discovered a gaping deficiency in her instinctual knowledge:

Gardens.

One of the main purposes of raised bed gardening is to create light, aerated soil that is uncompacted by human feet...or the paws of an 85-pound dog. I put up a fence around the finished beds, albeit a temporary one. My daughters play in the backyard, and Milady roams freely as well, so I wanted a visual reminder to say Don't Step Here.

The First Time It Happened: Didn't see it happen, but I noticed pawprints in the beds. Told the dog "No," put her into her dog run for a bit.

The Second Time: Saw her push through the barely-secured gate. Pulled her out, alpha-rolled her to emphasized my point, then confined her to her run. I thought I'd been abundantly clear.

The Third Time: I watched through the kitchen window this morning as she nosed at the (much more secured) gate, then padded around the perimeter probing for weak spots. I thumped on the window to warn her. She looked up, saw me, then squeezed her way in anyway through where the garden fence meets the yard fence. She trampled on both beds before I could get her out. Again the alpha roll (and some choice words) before I kenneled her.

She shall remain banished until further notice--at least until such time as I can erect a secure fence.Now I have to re-turn the soil she compacted. Sigh.

I guess trampling gardens wasn't such a big problem for the Inuit dog breeders above the Arctic Circle.

1/3 Done

No, they're not graves...I got a start on my raised beds today. Each is about four feet wide and about eight feet long right now--which means I've only done a third of the full plot! The soil has been dug down and turned with a garden fork a full two feet below the natural ground surface, down through all the topsoil to the level of the clay substrate. Then, I've piled more soil about to mounds about 10" - 12" above ground level. The soil is so soft you can bury the garden fork and then twist it all with one hand!


I added a few bags of compost, but I think that's merely a formality: the only visual difference between the compost and the soil was that the compost was a little more wet! There is so much life in the soil here: I saw several 6" earthworms, centipedes, etc. I often wonder why settlers in the early days of America would stop in Illinois, which is so flat and boring and unpicturesque. That is, I wonder until I turn over a spadeful of black earth that is the envy of many Texans and Floridians.

I'm not sure if the tree cover around our yard and the neighbors' will block too much sunlight, but I am sure that if things don't grow in these beds, it won't be the soil's fault.

P.S. The French intensive method is a lot of work. I'm wiped.

Garden Update

Wow, it's been two full weeks since I've added an entry. Let's update the status of the garden.

The seedlings are growing well. I've selected the strongest onion and lettuce plants and cut the others back. I think they're going to be really ready for transplanting with just a little more warmth in the weather.

Melissa and I have figured out where everything is going to be placed. Our main plot is about 10' x 25', and it's been cleared but not yet tilled. I've trimmed up the pine tree that at one end so that more sunlight reaches the ground, and bought the materials to erect a fence around the site to keep the dog and pests (and children) from trampling it.

I've decided to use the French Intensive gardening method. This involves "double-digging," meaning the soil is hand-turned about two feet down (two spade depths), and extra soil heaped up to make a raised bed about 10" above the surrounding soil level. Unlike traditional raised beds, these aren't walled in (thereby saving money on timbers, etc), but have sides sloping at about a 45 degree angle. This allows planting on the slope, water runoff, etc. In this system, plants are sown in rows across the short axis of the bed, and they are placed a little closer together so that their leaves touch where they are mature. No thinning is used: the plants/seeds are positioned at their final depths. Lastly, several plantings of the same crop will be staggered every couple of weeks until midsummer.

The benefits of this system are manifold. First, it provides a wonderfully soft bed for the plants to send down tiny roots, which apparently really benefits productivity. Planting them closer together also increases the yield-per-square-foot ratio, and it creates a "living mulch" as the shade from the overlapping leaves blocks out sunlight below and retards weed growth. The successive planting assures a continual harvest throughout the growing season, and maximizes the use of ground, since there is a continual rotation of harvesting and reseeding.

Now, it also means I have a LOT of earth to turn and dirt to move...

Community Supported Agriculture

Well, we've officially embarked on our first CSA (community supported agriculture). For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a CSA is a system where you pay a monthly fee to a local farmer and then get a "share" of the products of the farm. This is most often a weekly box of vegetables, but in our case, it's a monthly distribution of various meats.

Why do this? Here are our reasons:

• We are getting grass-fed and -finished meat (meaning no feedlots or antibiotics or grain-fed animals), which is nourished by natural means and has better nutrition in the meat itself.
• We are trying to limit the meat in our diet to a reasonable amount, and "rationing" our partions over the month will help that.
• We are directly supporting local farmers rather than national meat processing companies. We like the idea of being able to shake the hand that feeds us.
• We are supporting ethical treatment of animals, rather than using meat that comes from feedlots and animal "factories" that abuse their animals to increase profit margins.
• Later in the year, we may likely volunteer an afternoon to help on our CSA farm, in order to help our daughters understand where food comes from.

So what did we get? A chicken (whole), some pork chops, a pork shoulder roast, a big rack of lamb, some Italian sausage, beef stew meat, and a nice beef roast. Several of these cuts will span multiple meals. It's probably less meat than we have eaten in a month up until now, but see Bullet Point #2, above.

We're going to try it for a few months and see how it goes.

David's Dead-Easy Granola Bars

Because my 4-year-old had a craving, I made granola bars again today. Since every single commenter on this blog so far (OK, only 1 to date) has asked me to share recipes that I like, I will do so. These granola bars can be made quickly, taste great, are more filling than most store-bought varieties, and can probably be made with stuff you have around the kitchen.

(One is missing because Eleanor couldn't wait until they were fully hardened)

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup peanuts, crushed
3/4 cup wheat germ

4 Tbsp. Butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 tsp. Salt

1-1/4 cups dried fruit of your choice.

Directions:
1. Mix together oats, peanuts, and wheat germ and spread in a baking dish or a jelly roll pan.

2. Turn oven to 350 and place dry mixture inside to toast for 10-12 minutes, stirring twice during the toasting process.

3. While the mix is toasting, dump the butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla, and salt into a medium saucepan. Heat thoroughly (but do not boil), until the butter melts and the brown sugar carmelizes.

4. Pull the dry mix from the oven, and dump into a bowl. Add raisins, dried cranberries, or your preferred dried fruit (chocolate chips work, too). Stir to mix. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry and stir completely. The liquid is the "glue" of the bars, so make sure all of the dry mix gets coated or it won't stick together later.

5. Dump the sticky mass into a 9x13 glass dish lined with wax paper. Spread the granola out to fill the dish evenly. Top with another layer of waxed paper.

6. Press down HARD with a flat tool (I use the edge of a wooden butcher's block). It is important to compress the granola firmly and evenly so it won't crumble when you cut it.

7. Let the granola harden for a couple of hours, then remove the top wax papers and cut into bars. It is easiest to use a knife like a French chef's knife (or an Ulu) that allows you to cut by pressing down, rather than cut by sawing.

8. Wrap the bars individually in plastic wrap, and enjoy!

Yield: about 12 6.5-inch bars or 18 4-inch ones.

If you try out this recipe, let me know how it went!

Seedlings Away

Last Thursday, we planted some of the early seeds for our garden, namely lettuce and onions. We set up the incubator in our basement boiler room.

When I arrived home Sunday night, I was shocked to find that our lettuce had already begun to germinate! 35 of 36 cells are showing tiny sprouts. Very cool...

Today's Bounty

I'm generally home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since I watch the girls while Melissa works (although I've picked up an ongoing Tuesday morning job, so it's more like a half day). Anyway, today was a fairly productive whole foods day.

In preparation for my backpacking trip this weekend, I dehydrated some apples and bananas, and I made cranberry-raisin granola bars that are really good--it's a simple recipe that I'll definitely use again. Since I'm supplying the bread for the camping trip (surprise, surprise), I baked up four sourdough boules (pictured below). Oh yeah, I also tried my hand at English muffins, which came out fairly nicely and taste great, although I'd like to see more holes (or "nooks and crannies") in the crumb:

The sourdough didn't exhibit much oven spring, and I was sorely tempted to cut one open to check its texture, but I resisted. The loaves will be what they will be, and I doubt that hungry hikers in the snow 10 miles from anywhere will much care if the bread isn't as airy as I would like it.

Time will tell.

Respect!

I'm trying to eat nonprocessed foods, and I'm going backpacking this weekend. Given my past experiences, these two facts seem to be in conflict. My standard camping fare includes a lot of instant potatoes, freeze-dried entrees, Ramen noodles, and store-bought granola bars.

This time, I'm trying to emulate the food choices of John Muir, Kit Carson, or maybe Commodore Perry. It's a bit challenging, because fresh, whole food is heavy, more bulky, and takes longer to prepare. Some things can be dried, of course (and I will). Lewis and Clark did a lot of hunting on the way, which I can't but shouldn't need to for 2-1/2 days.

However, it does make me respect those who have gone before, those without nylon, Gore-Tex, aluminum cookware, and (gasp!) Even without Ziplocs. THOSE were explorers. They were tough. I am a poor copy, but I do given my forbears full props for their efforts.

My menu for the trip? Well, for Friday night I'm packing fresh Cornish hens for the group, to be roasted on a spit complete with stuffing from the homemade bread loaves I'm also taking. Of course, I'm taking some cheese, dried fruit, and making some granola bars for lunches. The other guys are taking stuff for group dinner Saturday night and for breakfasts.

Hey, maybe THAT'S how Daniel Boone did it: convince the *other* guys to carry the grub!

The Power of Community

Since posting the Facebook note about this blog, I've received lots of support from friends who are also taking steps to eat locally. Some also make bread, some craft yogurt and cheese, some make beer, many have gardens. Living in the city can ironically lead to isolation, especially when one follows pursuits that seem more...agrarian. It's good to be tangibly reminded how we live in community.

Which brings me to a crazy thought: Urban Supported Agriculture (USA?). Here in Chicago, none of us have the land area, barns, root cellars, etc. to be self supporting food producers. But if I make bread and you make yogurt, and he brews beer or has a ton of extra zucchini, what about some informal bartering? I'll concentrate on bread, and trade you 2 or 3 loaves for a couple blocks of cheese or a dozen tomatoes. No money changes hands, we still know where our food comes from, and we all don't have to do everything.

A community supporting itself; a farm collective in a major city.

A New Wrinkle

I just discovered (while making lunch) that our chest freezer has stopped working. Evidently, this happened a bit ago since things were starting to significantly thaw. The lights indicate that the unit is getting power, but the motor doesn't seem to be running.

Disappointed!

++++++++++++++
News Flash: Feb 22nd

I think I found a way to reset the freezer. I cleaned it out, and it seems to be running. I'm giving it a couple of days to see if it keeps running.

We're praying that it does, because our month's supply of meat (chicken, lamb, beef, pork) is due to arrive from our CSA next Thursday...

So It Begins!

I've just received notice that part of my order from Henry Field's Seeds has shipped. My garden will soon start indoors, then migrate outside once the conditions are right. On the way are:

• Tendersweet carrots
• Honey 'N Pearl hybrid corn
• First Edition hybrid onion
• Bon Vivant mixed lettuce (romaine, buttercrisp, iceberg)
  

There's more to go, of course. One of the reasons I like Field's is that they are responsible with shipping dates. In the next two months, as appropriate, they will also send us:

• 6 Early Girl tomato plants
• 12 everbearing strawberry
• 2 blueberry bushes

Those additions will finish off our garden for this year. Last year, we tried raspberries, carrots, zucchini, and pumpkin. The raspberries were great. The carrots tasted good, but we didn't thin them enough and so our crop was about the size of baby carrots! The zucchini plant didn't pollinate well, and we only got one fruit. The pumpkin plant damped off at the roots and never produced. We're hoping for better luck this year.

Soon, I'll set up seed tray and florescent lights in my basement and start growing seedlings! Pictures of my babies will follow, of course....

Breadmaking 101

So, I've started baking all of our family's bread.

I used to bake a great deal when Melissa and I were first married, but I stopped somewhere along the way. A few years ago, I tried bread a couple of times with dismal results--I had lost "the touch."

Then I read a cookbook written by the people that operate Panera Bread Company. It went into depth about the science of bread, and explained in great detail what each of the four ingredients (flour, water, yeast, and salt) do and how they interact. I tried their Country White recipe, and meticulously followed their instructions. The ingredients turned into dough, rose nicely, and baked into really tasty loaves. I was hooked again.

So far, I've also tried their Honey Wheat and classic Sourdough (using a made-from scratch starter--which reminds me: I need to feed it). My latest loaf was a Honey Buttermilk recipe, taken from an artisan breadmaking website:


Not bad, and it tasted great, but I need to improve my dough handling skills. I'm still not stretching the gluten enough to get a really light, airy crumb. Same problem trumped my first sourdough attempt. After 25 hours of fermentation (really!) I had a beautiful gluten matrix in the bowl, and the subsequent loaves proofed up nicely, but I proofed them on the counter rather than the baking sheet, and transferring them deflated them somewhat. An amateur mistake.

My girls love the homemade bread, but I know I have a lot left to learn. Maybe that's why bakers used to be guilded craftsmen...

A New Gastronomic Leaf

After reading the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, our family has decided to eat whole foods. No, we're not deciding to exclusively shop at high-end yuppie supermarkets--we are following Pollan's simple dietary rules: 1) Eat food, 2) Not too much, 3) Mostly plants. What do I mean by "food?" Anything your great-grandmother would recognize, not what the American food system tries to force-feed us (Go-Gurt? Velveeta? Vitamin C-enriched Froot Loops?). A few corollaries guide us as well: a) if it lists health claims, it's probably not healthy, b) if it has ingredients you can't pronounce or can't find in your cupboards, it's probably not healthy, c) always eat at a table, preferably with others, d) no, your desk is not a table.

For the complete (and very convincing) details and research supporting this philosophy, you should you read the book yourself. Here's a few of the ways our lifestyle has changed in the last month:

• We're really cutting down on processed foods and cooking from scratch with real ingredients, including making things like tomato sauces, soup, and the occasional batch of French fries.
• I now bake all of our family's bread. Have you seen what they put in an average supermarket loaf, including the "whole wheat" varieties? Many more posts will be devoted to this, as it is quickly becoming something of a hobby for me.
  
• We have joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). many of these supply fresh vegetables, but we will go to any number of farmer's markets for that. This CSA supplies us with a monthly share of chicken, lamb, beef, and pork. All the animals are grass-fed and finished (meaning no feed lots) and are humanely cared for without growth hormones or antibiotics.
• We are greatly expanding our garden from last year. Many more blog entries will be devoted to our efforts in this area, too.

Our switch (which happened in late January) has had at least one additional effect: I've lost 4 1/2 pounds! Cutting out most soda and mindless snacks has probably been the reason, but that also ties in with Pollan's sociocultural principles of responsible eating as well. And have I been hungry? No way! I'm eating homemade sourdough bread, lots more fresh vegetables, drinking whole milk, etc., etc.

I'm loving this.