Earth Eats

http://indianapublicmedia.org/eartheats/

Earth Eats is a weekly podcast and public radio program that highlights local food and sustainable agriculture.  The podcast is a weekly program that provides current agricultural and food news, interviews with farmers and authors, and my favorite, recipes and cooking tips from Chef Daniel Orr.  He calls his cuisine "real food for real people", and his recipes highlight local foods - produce and meats you can buy from your local farmer's markets, raise yourself, or forage from wild spaces near where you live.

Each of the 10 -15 minute programs are funded by Indiana Public Radio, so the production is of the highest quality.  If you are interested in the topics listed above, I highly recommend checking out their website and downloading their podcasts.

LINKS:
Podcasts can be found and downloaded here (or you can find them on iTunes).
Click on this link and then choose the RECIPES tab to find all the recipes highlighted on the podcasts.

Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

As much as I would love to take credit for this entire recipe, I cannot.  This recipe is based (okay, it is almost identical) on one Bobby Flay developed for his Mesa Grill restaurant.  I have made this a number of times, and I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love it.  I've actually caught a few people eating it by itself with a spoon... yeah, it's that good!  It can be used with almost all grilled meats, but it is particularly good with a build-your-own-fajita (veggie, chicken, beef, or pork) style meal.

Recipe for Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
4 Red Peppers (see note below)
1/2 Small Red Onion, chopped
4 Cloves Garlic, peeled
1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1-2 Tablespoons Honey (I use 2 T since I like it sweet)
1 Tablespoon Mustard (Dijon is preferable, but I have used regular yellow mustard)
1 Tablespoon Chipotle Chile Puree (see note below)
1/2 Cup Oil (I have used Canola and Olive oils)
Salt (I prefer Kosher, but regular table salt will do)
Pepper (Fresh ground is best, then coarse ground, then regular black pepper)

Note:
Red Peppers:  Bell peppers work great, but any large, sweet pepper will work well.  Where I am living overseas, I often do not have the classic Red Bell Peppers to work with, so I use the local longer and thinner skinned red peppers.  They still taste great, but are a bit harder to work with.

Red Pepper Preparation:  Wash the peppers and place on a very hot grill or over a gas burner on high.  The skin will blister and blacken (char).  Watch closely and keep turning with a pair of long handled tongs until the entire pepper is black, not just blistered.  This takes longer on a gas stovetop.  If doing this indoors, just make sure your stove vent fan is on! Remove from the heat and let the peppers cool.  Peel the charred skin off.  I find that doing this under slowly running water and over a colander is easiest and cleanest.  Then seed and chop the pepper.

Chipotle Chile Puree:  Chipotle Peppers are just smoked and dried jalapeno peppers.  They are available dried, but more commonly sold in a can with adobo sauce (a classic tomato based marinade).  To make the Chipotle Chile Puree, take one can of Chipotle Peppers and place in a blender.  Puree until smooth.  Put in a small container in the refrigerator where it can store well for at least a month.

Combine red peppers, onion, garlic, vinegar, mustard, and chipotle pepper puree in a blender or food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper (a pinch or three of each).  While the motor is running, add the oil slowly until incorporated (emulsified) into the sauce.  You can strain the sauce through a thin mesh vegetable strainer for a smoother sauce, or don't strain for a thicker sauce.

Enjoy!

Gabions for Creek Restoration

Gabions acting as a retaining wall.

http://www.maccaferri-northamerica.com/images/sce/gabion_rw2_l.jpg

Gabion is a word that comes from Italian meaning big cage.  In typical civil engineering use, a gabion is a cage or box filled with sand, soil, or rubble used to stabilize a slope, build a retaining wall, build a foundation, or direct flow of water especially to prevent erosion.  The military will uses gabions to protect artillery crews from enemy fire.

Gabions used to prevent water erosion.

http://www.ohiodnr.com/Portals/7/pubs/fs_gifs/stfs15fig5.gif

I recently came across the following video showing how gabions are being used to restore a creek and surrounding riparian zone and vegetation.  (Riparian = the interface between land and river or stream)  In this case, the term gabion is loosely applied to piles of rocks and trees.  These piles form a leaky dam.  The water upstream builds up, the water level rises, and the water irrigates the surrounding land.  The water downstream initially slows down, but soon after construction the water leaks through the gabions and flow returns to previous levels.  This allows a landowner to utilize water more efficiently.  Also, by keeping the downstream flow unchanged, no downstream neighbors can complain.  

This is a beautiful system that builds ecosystems.  It is a great example of Permaculture in action.  Here is the video from the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56WUS2mnKCg

How to Sharpen a Knife

http://www.culinate.com/hunk/49663

I do a lot of cooking.  Because of that, I am constantly using my knives, and because of that, my knives are constantly losing their edge.  Whether it is in the kitchen or out on the farm, one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment is a dull knife.  A dull edge will cause you to push harder and become, even slightly, off balance.  If that happens during a moment of distraction or a sudden give of what you are cutting or slicing, very serious consequences may result.

I watched a number of videos that claimed to show the proper way to sharpen a knife.  Many of them just showed the basics of honing a knife (and some of them improperly at that).  The following video is well done and not too long.  On top of that it was taped at my alma mater, the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale! That's where I got my first degree to become a graphic designer... well before the thought of an M.D. ever crossed my mind.

Here it is.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZHglPdXld0

Also, here is a link to a pretty darn good informational page on how to sharpen a knife.  A bit different than that video above, but there are many ways to correctly accomplish this task.

Permaculture Principles: Principle Six - Produce No Waste

http://www.thelivingcentre.com/cms/images/stories/principles_menu.gif

Holmgren's Twelve Principles of Permaculture

1.  Observe and Interact

2.  Catch and Store Energy

3.  Obtain a Yield

4.  Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback

5.  Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services

6.  Produce No Waste

7.  Design from Patterns to Details

8.  Integrate Rather than Segregate

9.  Use Small and Slow Solutions

10. Use and Value Diversity

11. Use the Edges and Value the Margin

12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

http://permacultureprinciples.com/principle_6.php

Principle Six: Produce No Waste
Holmgren's Proverb for this Principle:  A stitch in time saves nine, and Waste not, want not.

This may be one of my favorite Principles of Permaculture.  Why?  Because it is kind of like figuring out a big puzzle.  Basically, all this principle is saying is that everything can be a positive resource if we know how to utilize it.  Almost every by-product can have a use if we think hard enough about it.  That is the fun part!

Another aspect of this principle, and one that we need to think about just as hard, is unless we know how to utilize a by-product maybe we shouldn't be producing the primary product in the first place.  The classic example of this is a nuclear energy power plant with the by-product of spent nuclear fuel.  I am not saying that we should not use nuclear energy, but we do have a very dangerous "waste" product that is not being used as a resource for anything yet.

When discussing this principle, someone always says, "Yeah, but what about..."  It doesn't matter.  There should always be a use for every by-product.  Bill Mollison often said, "The problem is the solution."  The first few times I read this quote, it was always as a stand alone statement.  Once put in context of multiple interconnected systems, I realized how simple and brilliant this statement really is.  Another way of saying this is, "The problem, or by-product, of one system, is often the solution, or answer, for another system."

The classic "waste" product most people think of is manure.  Whether this is animal or human manure, many people see this as disgusting filth that needs to be buried in a deep hole (where it pollutes ground water), diluted with so much water that it is almost non-existant (depleting too much water and still maintaining risk of pathogen spread), or treated with chemicals that kill everything in it (polluting our environment with caustic substances).  If we viewed manure as a great resource for organic matter and fertility for the land, we realize that this "waste" is actually a resource.  Granted, most farmers already understand this to an extent with some animal manures, but are still terrified of human manure.  I'll get into humanure more in a future post, but suffice it to say there are very safe and easy ways to deal with humanure that results in us having a great resource instead of "waste".

The key with this principle is to always keep your eyes and mind open.  You never know when a great solution will come, but if you are not looking for it, you will never see it.

"A stitch in time saves nine" reminds us that we need care for the things we have.  This quote comes from the idea that a timely effort to repair an item will often prevent more work later.  So a stitch in time saves nine stitches (why nine? because it rhymes with time).  It also reminds us to steer clear of the consumer mentality of buy it, use it, dump it.  As I have said in previous posts, spend a bit more money and buy a higher quality item.  It will last longer, and if it starts to break, it is often much more easily repaired.

"Waste not want not" reminds us that when we design a Permaculture System, we need to account for every by-product of each system we are creating.  This can get extremely complex, but the time in planning will pay off in less work for us if we design interconnected systems that recycle each system's "wastes" and use them as resources for the other system's sustainment.

By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.

- David Holmgren

Genetically Modified Organisms... The good, the bad, and the scary.

http://www.euinside.eu/files/image/bulgaria-rejected-the-import-of-a-gmo-product/GMO-CORN.jpg

First, some definitions:
Genetically Modified Organism (GMO):  An organism (life form) whose DNA has been altered using genetic engineering.
Genetically Engineered Organism (GEO):  Another name for GMOs.
Transgenic Organisms:  A type of GMO that has DNA inserted from another species.


Jurassic Park?  Yes.  Fiction?  No.

GMOs have been around for well over 30 years.  What I want to do today is briefly give some basic information using actual GMO life forms as examples.

Click on this link for more information on the production of insulin from E. coli

http://www.littletree.com.au/images/dna3.jpg

The Good
Genentech, in 1978, created a bacteria that could produce human insulin.  Before that time, people with insulin-dependant diabetes mellitus (a.k.a. Diabetes) had to use insulin from the pancreas of animals.  Herbert Boyer took the genes from a human that produced human insulin, and he was able to insert them into a bacteria, E. coli.  The bacteria produced mass quantities of human insulin that was easy to refine.  Currently, almost all insulin used for diabetes is produced from GMO E. coli.  To me, this is one example of the good that genetic engineering can do for humanity.  While nothing is truly "safe", this is about as safe an application as you can get, and the benefits, in my opinion, do outweigh the risks.

http://inspirationgreen.com/assets/images/Food%20blog%202010/Monsanto/gmo_canola.jpg

The Bad
Monsanto, a multinational agricultural biotech corporation, has created many types of GMO food plants.  One of the most well known is the genetically modified Roundup-Ready Canola.  Roundup is a very strong herbicide - a chemical used to kill plants.  Canola is a cultivar (developed variety) of Rapeseed, and canola plants gives us canola oil.  Monsanto makes Roundup, and a number of years ago they genetically engineered a type of canola to be resistant to Roundup.  Farmers can plant Roundup-Ready Canola, and when the weeds start to interfere with the canola's growth, the farmer can spray the fields with Roundup.  Every plant in the field exposed to Roundup dies leaving the canola to keep growing unhindered.  For years, the Roundup label stated that Roundup degrades over time, but, interestingly, this was recently taken off the label.

Since 1990, Monsanto has sued 145 farmers for "patent infringement".  Monsanto claims that farmers are using their GMO plants without paying for them.  Many of these lawsuits have involved farmers who saved a small portion of their seeds from one harvest and planted them the next growing season.  Monsanto claimed that they owned any life form that contains their Roundup Ready genes.  All these farmers lost the lawsuits.  They lost a lot of money.  Sometimes they lost their farms.  One of these farmers who refused to destroy the seeds he saved spent eight months in prison.

Probably the most well known lawsuit involved Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian canola farmer.  The details are rather fuzzy, as usually happens in a long and drawn out court case, but the farmer claims not to have planted Monsanto canola in his field.  His neighbors did.  Monsanto obtained samples of Schmeiser's canola, and they contained the genes that Monsanto had created in their labs.  The farmer claims that his neighbor's Roundup Ready Canola genes spread... as plant genes often do - it's part of botanical sexual reproduction called pollination!  The judge ruled in favor of Monsanto.  This spurred a March 2011 lawsuit involving over 60 farmers in the U.S. and Canada.  The farmers were pre-emptively suing Monsanto to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement just in case their land ever became contaminated with Monsanto's genetically modified seeds, plants, or genes.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P86w3jiXpHU/TPcRupYHe-I/AAAAAAAAM0g/uDF6Amvk13Y/s1600/Naturally+Yours+gmo+food+2.jpg

The Scary
Monsanto's GMO Corn has been linked to liver and kidney failure.  Monsanto's GMO corn has already been approved by the U.S. and Europe.  The International Journal of Biological Sciences article author, Gilles-Eric Seralini, wrote in a response  "Our study contradicts Monsanto's conclusions because Monsanto systematically neglects significant health effects in mammals that are different in males and females eating GMOs, or not proportional to the dose. This is a very serious mistake, dramatic for public health. This is the major conclusion revealed by our work, the only careful reanalysis of Monsanto crude statistical data."  This is current and disturbing.  Keep watching this to see where it goes.

How about "Malaria-Resistant Mosquitoes"?  Sounds wonderful when you realize that almost a million people are killed each year by mosquitos.  But what happens when these mosquitos develop a new strain of malaria?  What if that strain in a "resistant" mosquito is now resistant to all the antibiotics that we use to treat malaria?  Malaria consistently becomes resistant to our current antibiotics.  I can't imagine an antibiotic-resistant malaria... terrifying.

Universities and corporations have already created genetically engineered pigs (that produce less phosphorus), salmon (with a growth hormone to grow twice as fast), strawberries (that have fish genes to make them frost resistant; a.k.a. "fishberries"), cows (that produce human milk instead of cows milk).  These animals, plants, or combinations of the two, actually exist right now.  What happens if these genes "contaminate" wild populations of animals or plants?  What are the consequences?  The bottom line is that we just don't know.

http://breakthematrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/patent_pending.jpg

Arguments for GMOs
GMOs are just an extension of traditional breeding.
Not even close.  As you can see from above, you could never traditionally develop a strawberry with fish genes!

GMO plants will feed the world.
Proudly touted by GMO corporations, but also false.  A common fact understood by those in international humanitarian work is that there is plenty of food in the world to feed every human being.  It is the governments and the wars and the tribes and the people who prevent the food from getting to the hungry.  Hunger will not be solved by genes, but by people working together.

GMOs are safe.  The FDA and USDA and EPA allow them.
I won't go into a lengthy list of all the things that were previously allowed and then caused hundreds and thousands of deaths (asbestos and agent orange, anyone?)  A government agency allowing something does not mean it is safe.


Unless you are growing all your own food or you are going out of your way to research and buy only non-GMO food, then you are likely eating some GM food.  It is almost inevitable.  Almost.  I'm not going to say too much on this right now, but there are some interesting things on the horizon that may make avoiding GMOs easier.  Stay tuned.

My Criteria for Land

http://www.indiatalkies.com/images/farmland29826g.jpg

As I am actively looking to buy land, the following are the ideal requirements that I have given to real estate agents.  If a parcel of land meets all these requirements, I would be amazed.  This is more a set of semi-flexible guidelines.  If the land fails to meet too many of these guidelines, then it is removed from consideration.  Google Maps is a fantastic resource to rule out / rule in the majority of these requirements.

1.   20-40 acres is the goal (less if the land is ideal, more if the land is cheap).
2.   Land should be dividable.
3.   Relatively flat, but the major slope should be toward the south or west.
4.   No hills or mountains to the south or west that would cause significant shade.
5.   No easements.
6.   Absolutely no Associations.  Will consider a Covenant if it is very limited in scope.
7.   Flowing water (river, stream, creek) on the land would be great. Ponds would be nice.
8.   Well on the land would be great, but the ability to have a well is mandatory.
9.   No more than 25% of the land in marsh or wetlands.
10. No more than 25% of the land in "untouchable" wildlife or resource habitat
11. No large power lines bisecting the land.
12. Not bordering a major road or highway.
13. Ability to have multiple living units on the land. Plan to have parents live full/part time with us.
14. Within 30 minutes of a decent sized shopping area.
15. Within 60 minutes of a moderate sized city.
16. Ability to discharge firearms on the land without legal or neighbor complaint.
17. Ability to raise crops and livestock on the land without restriction.
18. Bordering a state or national park or other land that will not be developed would be great.

Please let me know if you know any criteria that should be added to this list.