My food philosophy - how it evolved to eating locally and seasonally

There are many schools of food philosophy out there, and I realized just how my personal food philosophy has evolved and is a conglomeration of many.  Currently, I place a high priority on local food. Years ago, like many new moms, I placed a high priority on eating organic food when my kids were babies.  After a few shopping expeditions at Whole Wallet Foods, my thrifty nature kicked in.   When I have to pay premium for something, I always ask myself  "Is it x dollars better than the alternative?".  Why shouldn't I apply the same test with food?  Is organic food really worth the premium you pay for it?  I began to sense that organic food was becoming a big marketing campaign.

I found the Environmental Working Group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides, and realized that there were many foods I didn't need to spend the premium on.   For foods deemed "The Clean 15", I decided it's not worth my money to pay a premium on organic.  Organic certification is just something anyone with enough resources can buy from the government, and I wasn't sure it was something I wanted to spend my money on.    But what about the rest of the food we eat?  I read some Marion Nestle, some Michael Pollan and realized that organic is becomeing big business.  Then, I read some Barbara Kingsolver and Mireille Guiliano and realized if I placed a priority on eating locally and seasonally, it was worth spending my resources on. 

"Food with a story tastes better" -- Wendell Berry

I started to notice I appreciated food more when I ate seasonally.  I became more tuned in to the changing of the seasons when I ate what's in season.   Fall tastes like apple and squash, spring like rhubarb and asparagus.  It can be tough eating local food here in Michigan in February, but I put lots of food by last summer so I could do just that.   This weekend, I am going to open some of the stewed rhubarb I canned last spring just so I can remember what spring tastes like.   Do I buy organic food?  Not so much.  The farmers I buy food from can't afford to pay for the organic certification, but by talking to them, I can find out how they are growing their food that they are going to sell me.  I like the idea that my money is kept here in the local economy, and we need it here in Michigan.   I don't think it's worth the pollution to ship some asparagus from Chile here so I can eat it today unless it is something I preserved from last spring   In Michigan, asparagus season is in May.  So, if I am eating asparagus right now, it's the asparagus I roasted and froze last spring, or the asparagus I pickled. (tastes great in a martini, by the way!). 

True, there are some things I will never find grown locally, such as citrus fruits or avocados.  If I can't find something locally produced, or I'm out of something I desperately need for a recipe, I then prioritize purchasing seasonal produce grown in the United States, and if it's on the "Dirty Dozen" list above.  Then, and only then, I will buy it organic.  The only time I will buy something not grown in the US is if it can't be bought.   One product that comes to mind is mangoes.   It's really hard to find a US grown mango, so I will buy them grown elsewhere.

So, how to eat local and seasonal food in Michigan?

• For meat, buy a side of beef from a local farmer. I like grass fed beef, so that's what I look for.  Freezer beef can be found on Local Harvest and I've had great luck finding beef on Craigslist.  Note that hanging weight is usually how it's priced, and you should double that price to figure out how much you are paying per pound.   $2 hanging weight is roughly $4 per lb.  You won't find much certified organic meat, though. 
• Chicken - buy it from a local farmer.   But you'll need to learn how to cut it up yourself.  It's not hard....here's how I learned.
• Eggs are plentiful here in Ann Arbor, because the city passed a chicken ordinance that allows city dwellers to raise their own, plus many farmers have them.  We have a year round farmer's market, so I pick up a couple dozen each weekend.  They come in all colors..Last week I even got some blue ones!  Fresh eggs taste out of this world compared to factory farm eggs - they definitely taste $1 per dozen better.  Go for it!
• Find out what is grown in Michigan, and when it's in season, and buy lots of it when it is. The MSU Extension puts together a great chart to help you.
• Find a farmer's market near you to shop.  Depending on where you live, you can get some fantastic deals.   If I am looking for something unusual, I will shop at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market because the selection is wonderful and you can actually find farms that have paid for the organic certification if that's something that is important to you.   I like to visit the outlying farmers markets in the area for better prices. 
• Make a vow to yourself to learn how to preserve your own food this coming summer.  Freezing is the easiest way to get started.  If you don't have a stand alone freezer, you can still use the freezer you have but you'll have to be organized.  The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a treasure trove of information about freezing, as well as canning and drying.  In the summer, make it a practice to preserve something once a week for winter.
• Many grocery stores carry local products and are great at advertising that they are from Michigan - Meijer, Hiller's and Busch's for starters. Even Whole Foods has gotten in the act. On Busch's My Way online shopping tool, Michigan produced products are labeled with a "Buy Michigan" tag. So even if you don't shop there, you can learn which brands are made in Michigan.
• Local milk is easy to find....Guernsey Dairy and Calder Dairy are two well known brands.  I like to buy Prairie Farms milk, which is a Midwest farm cooperative - it's well priced.   I like to buy Guernsey cream and half and half.    I adore Calder Dairy's ice cream, but its $8 a half gallon so I try to remember to make it from scratch instead...much cheaper!  I sometimes buy Amish butter, when I can find it, that is produced by a farm in Indiana.
• Dried beans grown in Michigan are easy to find in any grocery store, because Michigan is a huge producer of dried beans.   If you are shopping at a Michigan based store (I sure hope you aren't shopping at Wal Mart, for goodness sake), the store brand (Spartan, Meijer, etc.) are very likely grown in Michigan
• Michigan apples are easy to find year round in the produce section.   I bought some apples locally last fall and have them "root cellared" in my garage.  (they are sitting on a shelf next to the wall connected to the house).  They will keep all winter out there.
• Michigan potatoes are easy to find as well.   Meijer carries a store brand of them, or look for DuRussel brand, grown in Manchester, MI.
• Fruit - Michigan is a prime producer of cherries.  Look for frozen sour cherries in the freezer section.  Also dried cherries are great for snacking and baking.
• Flour/Grains - check out your food co-op or natural food store in your area for Westwind Milling products.  They are made in Argentine, MI, near Fenton.  Good stuff! And it's organic, if you are into that.
• Breads - shop at a local bakery.   Around here, I love Zingerman's Bread and usually wait to buy it day old for a better value.  It's carried at Busch's.   Also, Avalon Bakery in Detroit makes wonderful breads, too.  
• Red Gold is a brand of tomatoes that tastes great and these tomatoes are grown in the Midwest.
• Buy apple cider in the fall, drink some of it and freeze the rest.

Remember, when you eat locally and seasonally, you made our earth a little greener.   What helps the environment more - asparagus grown in some far away land south of the equator where it is summertime right now that has an organic tag slapped on it and then was shipped thousands of miles to get to you, or some asparagus you grew in your own back yard and froze in the summer? Or maybe you bough it from a local farmer that didn't have children working slave labor to pick it?  Who knows if that so called organic asparagus produced in a far away land is really organic anyway?   Who is checking?

Buying local food might not be officially organic, but the farmer might have a little hand lettered sign that says "No Spray" in front of her farm stand and that means the world to me.   When you eat local food, you also support our local economy.  Maybe someone was able to put dinner on the table at there house because of what you put on your dinner table at your house.  Food with a story does taste better!

Local Food Challenge: Crockpot collards and cornbread

Food blogger Chef Brian has recently posted about eating locally on a budget, and his $3-$5 local meal challenge is an interesting quest.  On his wonderful blog (be sure to check it out), he once posted that he could make a local hamburger that's cheaper than a McD burger.  More power to him - I know I can't, the dollar menu McD double cheeseburger has me beat easily. My cheapest local burger I could make is $2.45 - see my math in the comment to his post here.   Eating locally is a priority for me, because I want to support Michigan farmers and I think that local food in season tastes better, but it can be a challenge to do so on a budget. Here's this weekend's attempt....

It's the season for greens - I thought about making some kale because my friend Diana is such a kale inspiration, but it was some collards that caught my eye yesterday at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market.  (I am sure Diana would rule collards "close enough" in nutritional benefits).   Here's the recipe I made - crockpot collards and cornbread.

Crock Pot Collards

2 lbs. washed collard greens, stems removed, and cut in 2 inch pieces
1/2 c. cider vinegar
3 c. water
2 smoked ham hocks

Put greens in crock pot, add water and vinegar, and put hocks on top. Cook for 10 hours on low. Remove hocks and cut up meat and sprinkle on top, if the idea of eating ham hocks doesn't turn you off. Serve with Franks Hot Sauce and a side of cornbread.   Serves 4.

Cornbread

3 pieces bacon
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
reserved baon grease and enough cooking oil to make 1/4 cup

Preheat oven to 400F.  Fry bacon in a 10 inch cast iron frying pan, reserve grease.  Save bacon for another use - a great use is a treat for the cook!  In a medium bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  Pour whatever grease you have from the bacon in  measuring cup, add enough cooking oil to make 1/4 cup.  Place frying pan the preheated oven while you mix together eggs, milk, and fat in a small bowl. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Pour batter into hot skillet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cut into wedges.  Makes 8 pieces - 4 servings

So how did I do?   First the good news....I could make a meal of local ingredients in the $3-$5 per serving range.   This one, made with local ingredients, would have cost me $3.52 per serving.  The bad news is that's almost double what it would have cost me if I just used grocery store ingredients.  I'm pretty thrifty - it's a rare meal that I make that costs $3.52 per serving, especially for this one, which is almost vegetarian.   For my grocery store, I used Busch's because they have a neat online pricing feature called "Busch's My Way" that made it easy for me to look up prices.  That being said, Busch's isn't the cheapest grocery store around - I could have probably done better, price wise, at other stored if I really tried.  I could have shopped sales all over town or used items I bought on sale for future use in the past.  Many of the items for this recipe aren't on sale at Busch's this week.   Also, some of the super discount grocery stores like Aldi or the dollar store would provide even cheaper deals.  I'm blessed in that I have enough money to buy food for my family, but I recognize many in our state are really struggling now and buying locally is probably out of reach for most, unless they are able to grow their own.  Here's my math, for readers, such as myself, that are the "show me the numbers", anal retentive engineering types, such as myself.  I am blessed to be able to afford to buy local - and I wish more people could.
Which reminds me....my church, St. Joseph in Dexter, is starting a congregational garden to raise food for the hungry.   I really think this is a terrific idea - last growing season, we sponsored a "Plant A Row for the Hungry" effort that resulted in over 400 lb of food for the hungry in Washtenaw County.  I encourage all locavores to remember the hungry in our midst because eating locally is out of reach for most, if not all, of them.   To find out more about starting a conmmunity garden or planting a row in your own garden for the hungry, check out the Growing Hope website.   Meanwhile, do tell....what are you making that's local and budget friendly?

Green kitchen - another way to spend your green

Now that they quit the punk station on Sirius, the only station I listen to is Martha Stewart Radio and NPR, which probably means I am lame in more ways than I can count. Or maybe it's not me that's lame - I am really getting tired of them playing Tom Petty on every channel they can. But my hatred of Tom Petty will have to wait for another post, because I have to write about green kitchen. The other day on MS Radio, they had a guest named Kate Keyhoe on that was pimping her new book, which was something about cooking green, so I had to give it a listen.

I recently turned the volume down to zero because "Last Dance With Mary Jane" was just on. If my car radio had a knob that went less than zero, like Spinal Tap's amp gain that went to eleven, that would really make me a happy woman. That way I could make sure no Tom Petty ever hit the old ear tympani. But this kind of kitchen talk piqued my interest, so, like Lynyrd Skynyrd reminds us often on many Sirius channels, I "turned it up". I figured for sure the gal was going to tell me to start cooking in a solar oven, which is about the most preposterous thing I could ever think of to do, unless I was backpacking in Nepal or something and trying to rehydrate some dehydrated lentils. Evidently it's only $289 to energy independence! (+ shipping!)

Thankfully, she didn't suggest the solar oven, but some of the stuff she was saying just didn't add up. She called the oven the "Humvee of the kitchen". I knew she and I were going to have math issues. I'm an engineer, math is my life. Is the oven really the Humvee of the kitchen? Time to sharpen the pencils, ladies and gentlemen....my gut is telling me that the "Humvee of the kitchen" has got to be the fridge, but that's probably not fair to the old icebox. The biggest energy use in your house is for heating and cooling, which accounts for 44% of all energy consumption. So instead of worrying about energy use in your kitchen, your time would be better spent thinking about insulation and better windows.

The big energy user in your kitchen is indeed the fridge. Per the California Energy Commission, refrigerators and freezers consume about a sixth of all electricity in a typical American home - using more electricity than any other single household appliance.

According to the US Department of Energy, here is how a typical household’s energy consumption breaks down:

Heating and cooling 44%
Water heating 13%
Lighting 12%
Refrigeration 8%
Home electronics 6%
Laundry appliances 5%
Kitchen appliances 4%
Other uses 8%

Okay, so why pick on your poor oven? The author suggests using a toaster oven instead, which would require me buying something, in addition to me buying her book. The fact of the matter is that a toaster oven costs more to use, too. Check out this chart. It would cost me more money in energy costs to use a toaster oven instead of firing up my entire gas oven. If you are really worried about that, how about starting an "oven pool"? Like a carpool, you could pop another dish in the oven "for the ride" while you are baking something. Or when you are baking something, always make two. I try to do this anyway, so I can freeze one for later.

The bottom line? I'm not going to feel guilty for baking, I have a gas oven. Even if you have an electric oven, don't fret. Remember, the reason why we have "the grid" is because being on one is always going to be more efficient than than being "off the grid". (thank you Thomas Edison, inventor of the grid). If it makes you feel better about it, start calling the grid "socialized energy". Because that's exactly what it is. It's energy for everyone - both the rich and the poor. Everyone gets it relatively cheap. Learn to love the grid! And get some better insulation and windows, please! I know it isn't as fun as cooking, but it would go a long way toward a more earth friendly existence.

FYI, it would take me over 5 years of baking something every day in a $289 solar oven, just to break even. And I live in Michigan, with it's share of cloudy days and 6 months of nonsummer, so make that 10 years. I won't be buying a solar oven anytime soon, or a toaster oven, either. But I might try to fashion a solar oven out of a box or something one day, just for fun. I'm wondering if a cake baked in a solar oven will end up tasting like a cake out of an Easy Bake oven? An experiment is on order....

Your garbage needed to feed the poor

Yes, you read that right! We're collecting wrappers and packages from products that will be "upcycled" – made into other products like this nifty tote bag sold at Target. Can you help? All you have to do is save wrappers for me. For each wrapper collected, we will get $.02 to support projects at St. Joe's in Dexter to feed the hungry, and we are trying to collect as many as we can by Oct. 1, 2009.

· Drink pouches – such as Capri Sun, Kool Aid, etc. Can be any name brand
· Snack bar wrappers – such energy, granola, nutrition, cereal and protein bars – that are plastic with a silver lining. Can be any name brand.
· Cookie package wrappers – any name brand, such as Chips Ahoy, Oreo, etc. Any name brand accepted.
· Candy wrappers – any brand, any size
· Any Kashi product package - wrappers, boxes, etc,. Anything made by Kashi!
· Bear Naked brand granola bags - only the Bear Naked brand, please
· Nabisco brand Toasted Chips bags – such as Ritz, Wheat Thins Toasted chips. Nabisco brand only, please

Email me at momskitchen at comcast dot net and I can add you to my list of wrapper collectors. When it gets close to Oct. 1, we'll arrange for a pickp of your wrappers. Don't live in Ann Arbor? Or even Michigan for that matter? Don't worry - we'll find a way to get them from you. I've been fascinated about the idea of six degrees of separation ever since I read this essay by Malcom Gladwell and the experiment by Harvard social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s that came up with the idea of 6 degrees of separation, long before the Kevin Bacon game.

Thank you for helping feed the hungry and saving our earth.

Canning demo at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market

If you are new to my blog because I just met you yesterday at the AAFM, welcome! The recipe is linked below, and also check out my other canning posts by clicking here. I teach home canning classes for Ann Arbor Rec and Ed. - we'll be making salsa in August. Want to learn how to can before August? I am available to teach you and a group of your friends how to preserve food at your own house with your own stuff. It's like a Tupperware party, but instead of buying products, you'll learn how to can for yourself and get to keep the food you made. It's lots of fun! Send me an email at momskitchen at comcast dot net if you are interested in getting on my mailing list. Also, If you are interested in the "Yes. We Can" apron I was wearing, you can find it at the Pittsfield Grange's Preserving Traditions group. They also teach canning classes.

On Friday night, we had a terrific storm. We went over to our neighbor's house and drank beer and watched it from their screen porch by candlelight. I was hoping the rain would stop because yesterday, I did a canning demo at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. On my way to the market, Newport Road was closed because of fallen trees. (I was wrong...it was a giant hole in the road!)On my way home from church yesterday, parts of Joy Road were washed out from erosion and there was a huge pond in one spot that almost drowned my engine. Wonder what happens when you drive a hybrid electric vehicle through deep water?

It stopped raining right as my market demo was starting, and it was really fun to see so many people interested in canning! I prepared (or should I say tried to prepare - we had electric problems so I was unable to actually finish my canning project there) Natural Strawberry Jam. An interesting note is that the berries I was using yesterday took a long time to firm up - at least a 1/2 hour per batch. I think the wet and cool season we've had thus far in Michigan has resulted in no pectin in the berries. So if you are one of the people I met yesterday at the market, keep that in mind when you try the recipe. These berries took longer than expected to pass "the wrinkle test".


WHY ARE PEOPLE INTO HOME CANNING THESE DAYS?

I'm noticing a few trends lately. First, there's the "green living" folks - the people that want to reduce their food miles by getting their food locally. It's the people that read the Michael Pollan books, or "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Most of the people I talked to yesterday were in this segment. I noticed that when I asked the people "of a certain age" if they had canned jam before, most replied "a long time ago". But it's great that they are thinking of firing up the canner again! There's a real interest in eating local food.

There's also another segment of folks interested in canning - for lack of a better word, I am going to call the group the "preparedness" folks. These are the people that are preparing for an apocalypse of some kind. One guy told me yesterday he was worried that our power grid was going to collapse and wanted to have a plan for some food when it did. Given that our power goes out in the summer time about once a month, maybe I should start thinking a little more this way. There's always people that think the world is going to end soon, and that we should have a plan. Their reasons are many - impending war, world economic collapse, the book of Revelations, etc. People like this are the reason that read the "Left Behind" books are so popular. They watch "Mad Max" over and over again for reasons other than how hot Mel Gibson was in the 1970s (only reason why I watched that movie more than once) Perhaps they actually enjoyed the movie "Waterworld"? It reminds me of Y2K fears, which is another time when people got really interested in home canning.

I kept seeing references online about Mormons and home canning, and it got me curious about that. Evidently, self reliance is a core teaching of the LDS, and canning is a big part of that. It's a great idea. There's a Reskilling Fair coming up in Ann Arbor, whose supporters are hoping to teach people how to grow a squarefoot garden, build a hoop house or a cob oven, make herbal tinctures, sing rounds, can, dry and preserve those local fruits and veggies or cook up a local feast for your friends. The concept of reskilling is about re-connecting with basic lifeskills related to what we eat, wear, use and live in. Reskilling means learning to provide for ourselves and our communities by growing, preserving, creating, building, and teaching. Sounds like Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts for adults!

For me, home canning is an extension of my love of cooking local foods and I like saving money. I only can things that I can make at home cheaper. I am a thrifty environmentalist. I also like preserving food because when we eat it later, I can always remember what it was like on the day I put it up. Come February, on the morning I open a jar of the jam I made yesterday, I'll remember the big storm and the Farmer's Market and how hot and muggy the kitchen was and have wishful thoughts for strawberry season again.

Shrimp and Tomatoes

I am guilty of buying shrimp from Thailand. I never can remember whether I should be buying farmed or wild shrimp. I wanted to buy U.S. shrimp, but there wasn't any at the store...here's why. None percent of shrimp sold in the U.S. that comes largely from Southeast Asia and Latin America, where environmental regulations are sometimes lax and often not enforced, and 33%
of U.S. shrimp imports that come from Thailand, our largest single supplier.

Mr. MomsKitchen got me an Earth Box for Mother's Day, and so we planted tomatoes. I have not tried to grow tomatoes since one of the cherubs was in preschool and her tomato she grew got eaten by some kind of critter and she cried, so I figured it wasn't worth it, but why not give it a shot? I planted Mr. Stripey and Sugar Lump. I bought them solely for their names. As it turns out, Mr. Stripey is a big tomato with orange and red stripes and Sugar Lump is a cherry tomato. My friend Johnna is from Kentucky, and she always called cherry tomatoes "Tommy Toes". I like that name. We'll see how this goes - we parked the Earth Box on the front porch to keep it away from the rabbits, chipmunk, deer, whatever that likes tomatoes. If it works, I'll try more Earth Boxes.

Why I hang my laundry out to dry...

...it's not to save the earth. I previously did the math to show that if you have a gas dryer, you really can't reduce your carbon footprint much by hanging out the wash, despite what some might tell you. But every week, I look forward to doing it. And I absolutely hate doing the laundry, in general.

Why do I like it? It gets me outside. I have to check the weather report to figure out what day will be best to hang out the laundry to dry. My husband hung up a retractable clothes line for me and on laundry day, I'll start with sheets and towels. I wash them in cold water, and make sure I add white vinegar as fabric softener. By the time I drink my coffee and take a shower, the load is done and I can hang it out and start off running errands or whatever else I need to do.

I prefer the pinch style wooden clothes pins, and I store them in a hanging clothes pin bag. It usually takes an hour or so to dry a load if the sun is out - but it goes by even quicker if it is sunny and windy. I fold the clothes as I take them off the line. They smell great - like the sun! Smells like how everything smells after a day at the beach.

I can actually get the laundry done quicker by hanging it outside, because the clothes dry faster than in my dryer. If I have a load that takes longer to dry outside, like jeans, I might wash undergarments after it because I never line dry that stuff. I can put those in the dryer and they dry relatively quickly. Then, the jeans have some more time outside to dry. I have a foldable drying rack that I use to dry sweaters and socks.

So, I like to hang the laundry outside! Who knew?

Happy Earth Day to me

Memo to self on this Earth Day....I want to:

• Make my own yogurt and creme fraiche now that I learned how. It's not rocket science.
• Write about how I am doing with hanging out the laundry to dry - sneak preview: it's not worth doing from an environmental impact standpoint but it has other fringe benefits I hadn't expected.
• Write about how my winter sowing is going - sneak preview: it's going great and I think it will be successful
• Check out these 50 ways to eat green and see which ones make sense for me.
• Read Russ Parson's "How to Pick a Peach" and then write about all the local food books I've read. Sneak preview: "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" isn't a favorite.

Hanging out the Wash Part 2

My mother-in-law always referred to the laundry as the "warsh". She did the " warsh" every day of her married life, even long after her 5 kids were grown and gone and her husband had died - it was the only way she could keep up with all the laundry with a family of 7. Whenever she visited us, she always did our "warsh" for us, which was wonderful. She pronounced the word wash the regular way while referring to what you do to the car when it is dirty, or the county in which I live (Washtenaw) etc. She died a few springs ago on a lovely May day and there isn't a day that I don't think about her still, and today I thought of her as I was hanging out the "warsh" to dry. She would laugh at my efforts to try to save the earth by air drying laundry as only a woman who for years hung out the warsh because she couldn't afford a dryer.

I have decided jeans are a load that need to be dried in the dryer, and for the kids, jeans can't be easily reworn. Trying to convince a middle school aged daughter to rewear a pair of jeans when she is sometimes interested in several wardrobe changes during the course of day is an exercise in futility. Middle school aged son would gladly wear the same outfit day in and day out if I let him, but he gets really dirty in a way that only a 6th grade boy can get dirty. Climbing trees, hiking around in the mud looking for a rumored hidden dagger in the park, etc. really isn't conducive to rewearing jeans, I needed a new load to focus on. What load is light and small enough to hang in quantity on the drying rack outside?

Underwear! Unfortunately, I am permanently scarred from viewing our next door neighbor Mrs. Ann's bloomers hanging from the line when I was a kid. I just didn't want to do that to the high school boy that lives next door. Instead, I tried towels and pillowcases outside, and hung my dress pants up to dry in the laundry room. I picked out enough items from two loads to then only have one load to dry. It's been about 45 F today in Ann Arbor, skies overcast, and little wind, and the towels are still not dry. I put them out at 1 pm, and it is now 6 pm. Luckily, the days are getting longer and I have decided to go to church tomorrow instead of tonight, so I can hang around here drinking mojitos watching the laundry dry.

Maybe this whole laundry experiment will go better with alcohol....

Air Drying the Jeans Load....

Some observations:

• Hanging out the wash isn't cheap. It cost $20 to buy the cheapest laundry drying rack I could find. I went with metal because the wooden one I had in college broke if you put anything heavy on it.
• A load of wet jeans weighs a lot - it strained my back to carry it up stairs and out to the back yard.
• I hung half outside and half inside at about 10 am this morning. It is now 6 pm and neither the inside jeans nor the outside jeans are dry yet. I am leaving for a meeting and can't leave them out any longer. I am going to have to bring them in and dry them in the dryer!
• My family needs their jeans load done in one day...we don't have any jeans to spare. So hanging out the jeans load is not a good option for us.
• I'm thinking the environmentalists that recommend this option as a good way to go green aren't doing a family's worth of laundry at a time.
• I'll try it again with a different load, but for now, I am convinced air drying the laundry isn't worth my time and effort....

Hanging out the wash - well meaning or misguided?

An interesting blog on my reader list is Eat Close to Home, and recently, there was a post about a One Stone Carbon Challenge which is very intriguing to me. Basically the concept is to find easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint. One suggestion for ideas of things to do is to hang dry clothes - to save 1 stone of carbon, it is suggested to try air drying 4 loads of laundry. This is something that is often suggested to reduce my carbon footprint, but I have always been skeptical of this idea. A good friend was trying to hang out her laundry last year and I thought her efforts were well meaning, but misguided. After all, she has a family of 5 to do laundry for, including a baby, and works full time. Does she really have time to hang out her laundry?


I can't put a finger on why I felt this way. Maybe it is because when I was a teen, I became fascinated by the idea of hanging out the wash. I wanted the laundry to smell "line dried fresh". My mother, having grown up poor in rural West Virginia without electricity or running water, thought my hanging out the laundry idea was well meaning, but misguided. After all, she did hang out her laundry for half of her life, as well as washed her clothes using a wash board and a wringer. One of her charming West Virginian colloquialisms is the phrase "Don't get your tit in the wringer", which means the same thing as the phrase "Don't get your undies in a bunch", but definitely conjures up a more vivid image. (or maybe I just think so because I had a mammogram yesterday). No one knows what a laundry wringer is anymore, anyway. Once my mother took that Greyhound bus to Detroit in 1953, she used a washer and dryer and never looked back.


My teenage laundry experiment ended after one try. We had an old fashioned T bar clothesline in our backyard that was never used since we moved into the house, so I strung it with some clothesline, and hung out the wash. Being a teenager, I had the attention span of a gnat. (Still do!) Soon after the laundry was hung, I retreated to the house to watch "General Hospital", my favorite TV show of the era. I didn't hear the thunderheads rumbling on the horizon as Luke and Laura embraced, or Richard Simmons did his exercise routine at the disco, or whatever was going on during that episode of GH. Nor did I remember my wash as the rain, and then hail, pummeled my clothes. Soon, night fell. The next morning, my mother reminded me about the wash still on the line. I went to take it down and it was covered with dew. By late afternoon, it was finally dry and the towels were planks and my Gloria Vanderbilt jeans were so stiff they could stand on their own without me wearing them. So much for line dried freshness! I saw the wisdom in using the dryer at that point. Maybe the coal miner's daughter that is my mother was on to something...

I went away to college and I did dabble in rack drying my clothes to save money and keep from shrinking my sweaters. After all, every quarter not spent in the laundry room at the dorm could be spent playing "Space Invaders" in the dorm lounge. Fast forward to now....is it worth my time and effort to air dry my clothes? I am a nerdy engineer and have to do my own math when in comes to environmentalism. I can readily see that going green is the current huge marketing opportunity, so I am always skeptical about any green claims.

I have found the laundry facts and figures hard to come by, though. Some environmentalists talk about how dryers use 13% of your household energy costs, but that's for people that use electric dryers. Who uses an electric dryer? No one I know! There are no Energy Star ratings for dryers, because all brands use about the same amount of energy. According to Greenpeace says that traditional clothes dryers are very energy intensive. So-called 'condensation' models – without an exhaust tube – use even more energy and I can save 3-4 kWh per load by line drying. That's fine, but I don't have that kind of dryer. They also suggest making sure that my washing machine can spin at 1600 or even 1800 rpm. Mine does. They also say that gas-fired clothes dryer used far less energy - it uses 60 percent less energy (including the gas) and dries 40 percent faster. So, I am still confused....

Finally an answer! This blog gives me the data for gas vs. electric dryers:

• Electric dryers - 3.3 kWh electricity /load
• Gas dryers - .2 kWh electricity + .22 therms gas /load

So....what does that mean for carbon emissions? From this website

• Kilowatt hours X 1.5 pounds of CO2/kilowatt-hour = pounds of CO2
• Therms of natural gas X 11 lbs CO2/therm = pounds CO2

So that means electric dryers are responsible for 4.95 lbs of CO2 per load and gas dryers 2.72 lbs of CO2 per load. Gas dryers are much better....almost 2x better for the environment. That means to save a stone of carbon for me, it would take hanging up 6 loads of laundry. So is it worth my time and effort to hang the laundry outside? How much time am I willing to spend to save is 2.72 lbs of CO2? I figure it would take me 10 additional minutes to hang up a load of wash to dry and take it down off the line. That amounts to an additional hour of laundry time per week. I'm not sure I want to do that.

But I could focus just on the jeans load to start. I could convince the family to wear their jeans twice, and save a load that way, and then use a laundry rack outside in the summer to dry one load per week. I found out the trick to keeping the jeans from turning into planks - as it turns out. a 1/2 cup of vinegar added instead of laundry softener will do the trick. Check out many good tips on the handy website called Project Laundry List.

The bottom line? It's not worth it to me to hang out the laundry, it's far better for me to carpool AND it doesn't take any more time out of my day....here's the equation I used:

lbs of CO2 generated by my commute = (miles of my commuteXnumber of lbs CO2 emitted from burning a gallon of gas)/(number of people I carpool withXMPG of my car)

My commute is 80 miles, my car gets 28 mpg and each gallon of gas emits 22 lbs of CO2, and I carpool with one other person....I save a whopping 31 lbs of carbon per day by carpooling...that adds up to 11 stones per week. For my time and effort....I'd rather carpool! But I will try the jeans thing for a while...I still want to experience "line dried fresh" clothes on a regular basis.

Winter fun

Yesterday, we had a snowstorm, and my snow shoveling husband, who I can count on for a snow depth assessment, has determined we had a foot of snow fall. My old man and I met while going to college in the U.P. (pronounced "You-Pee", a.k.a the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for my non Michigander readers) and he is not prone to weather exaggeration. We don't often see snowfall like this in Ann Arbor, but it was a weekly event in the Keweenaw Peninsula where we went to school. (average snowfall, Houghton, MI in the 300 inch range, Ann Arbor, 50 inch range), so when my man says it was a foot, it was a foot.


My son invited his class to go sledding at our neighborhood sledding hill, which has been dubbed "Cardiac Hill" by generations of neighborhood kids. Most of his class made it, and it was a wonderful time with the snow falling heavily throughout the day. I pronounced to the other moms that were hanging with me that I planned on going cross country skiing on Sunday. The last time I went cross country skiing, 25 years ago, was on a date that didn't go so well. Nordic skiing in the U.P. can be quite a challenge - I had envisioned a romantic time, complete with a bouda bag full of wine and a fabulous winter picnic. Instead, it involved me falling down so many times my date had to push my rear end up several times with his shoulder to make me mobile again. I also managed to fall into a creek and got totally soaked. We went back to my place and I made tacos from an Old El Paso taco kit. Evidently my date didn't find it very romantic either, because while I can't remember his name, I do remember that a) he didn't kiss me good night or b) he never asked me out again and the ratio of men to women was 7:1 when I went to Michigan Tech. I have never XC skied again, and I sold my skis at a neighborhood garage sale.

Since I told the other middle school moms I was going to XC, I figured I needed to make good on my commitment. After all, I have had some substantial ankle surgery since I was 20, so maybe it would work out better. I took my son with me - he's got my bad ankles, too, but he and I are the more athletic members of the family - dad and daughter to sleep in. We went to Hudson Mills Metropark and rented ski, boots and poles for $10 each and had a terrific time! The weather was beautiful - I crammed myself into my downhill ski pants (good thing I am back on Weight Watchers) and wore a turtle neck, wool sweater, fleece jacket and windbreaker and found myself taking some layers off midway. We brought some hot cocoa in a thermos. It was really beautiful with the snow on the trees and the sun out. I can't wait to do it again.

What a great workout! Start by having a good breakfast. Yesterday, I tried another steamed bread in my crockpot, based on a recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks of late "Not Your Mothers Slow Cooker Cookbook". I love cooking in a crock pot because it saves the energy of heating up the whole oven. (note that stoves and ovens don't use too much energy anyway, but every little bit helps!) To make this recipe, you need a fairly large crockpot (round or oval) and something to cook it in. A heat proof bowl will work, but I have been using a proper British pudding mold. It's metal and has a lid that clamps on, and it looks like the picture I've included above. Here's my interpretation of Bran Muffin Bread....

Michigan Bran Muffin Bread
5 T. buttermilk powder
1 1/4 c. water
1 egg
1/2 c. dark molasses
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 c. All Bran cereal
1 c. whole wheat flout
1 c. all purpose flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. chopped dried apricots
3/4 c. dried cherries

Grease and flour 2 qt. pudding mold, or a heat proof bowl that fits in your crock pot with at least an inch or so clearance all around. In a large bowl, stir together buttermilk, water, egg, molasses and oil. Add cereal and let stand for 15 minutes to soften. Add the remaining ingredients, and pour into mold or bowl. Cover mold - if you are using a bowl, cover tightly with 2 layers of aluminium foil and tie a string around it to hold the foil in place.

Put the mold or bowl in the slow cooker and add enough hot water to insure the vessel is 2 inches deep. Cover and cook on high for 3 - 3 1/2 hours. I shut off the cooker after 3 hours and went sledding at this point, and took it out later, but you could open the vessel on the inside and see if it is done by pushing your finger in it and look for it to spring back. If it doesn't, cover and cook it in additional 30 minute increments until it is finished.

When the bread is done, transfer the mold or bowl to a rack and let it cool for 10 minutes. Invert it on a rack to remove the mold, and then turn it right side up to cool. Cut into wedges and serve with applesauce you canned last fall.

Going Green = Spending Green Round 2

Interesting! My last blog entry tagged "Thifty Environmentalism" was about buying less stuff to go green and mostly about carpooling. I was surprised that it inspired many passionate comments justifying the purchase of a Prius. That's the stuff marketing people dream about. They've got you convinced that you needed to buy their product to save the earth and/or reduce our dependence on foreign oil. That's pure marketing genius! Too bad carpooling doesn't have a marketing staff.


I am really getting weary of green marketing. No, I don't want to buy a bamboo fiber T shirt because it's "sustainable" (Note to self: whenever the word "sustainable" is used, watch your wallet) What's wrong with just wearing the T shirt I already have, or buying a gently used one at a garage sale? Here's a list of other things I won't rush out to buy in order to save the earth:

Compact fluorescent bulbs - They do pay for themselves in energy savings and allegedly last for 10 years and I hate changing light bulbs. However, only replace incandescent bulbs when they burn out. By the way, I have had compact fluorescents burn out way before the promised 10 years. What's up with that?

Organic food - Eat seasonally instead. Buy organic when the food you're interested in buying isn't available locally. Local food tastes better, and it's better for the local economy.

Organic clothes - Buy used clothes instead. It's much easier on the wallet and less wasteful, too.

Hybrid vehicles - Carpool instead, or if you need to get a car with better fuel economy, buy a small gas engine car. They're much less expensive.

Recycled paper - Instead of buying more paper, use your paper twice. Set your printer to print out double sided and reduce margins on all printed documents to .75 inch all around. Make stacks of one sided scrap instead of post it notes and clip it to a clip board for notes. But please buy toilet paper that's made from recycled paper! I can't figure out how t

Going Green = Spending Green?

Lately, I've been on a quest to convince people if they really care about the environment, it might be better to quit buying so much stuff. If you really do have to buy something, watch out for the environmentalist hype surrounding what you are buying. And please think about what you are going to do with it when you are done.

I can't get over how many people are buying the Toyota Prius. Once a niche vehicle for environmentalists, now it seems everybody feels a need to get one. There's nothing like skyrocketing gas prices to make a person want to "save the environment". Or, if saving the environment doesn't suit your political agenda, you can always call it "reducing our dependence on foreign oil". Besides, there are lots of celebrities driving the Prius. Who wouldn't want to be as funny as Will Farrell or Bill Maher? I know that I have personally wanted to be more like Cameron Diaz many times in my life - here's my chance! According to Ariana Huffington, even Jesus would drive one.

One fact that's not too well known about the Prius is that you don't get that promised 48 mpg on the highway - that's just for city driving. Real life Prius drivers get less than 48 mpg, on average. However, I regularly beat every Prius owner on the planet with my fuel economy. I'll let you in on a little secret....I get 70 mpg, on average, every day. My carbon footprint is nearly half of any Prius driver's, including Brad Pitt. How do I do it?

It's not very glamorous. Here's how I make it happen. I carpool to work in a 2008 Ford Focus. It gets 35 mpg, per the EPA, but my carpool partner and I get 38 mpg on average. By the way, we know this as a fact because we take data. We're engineers, we can't help ourselves - we live to take data. "Trust, then verify" is our mantra. I can't tell you how many Prius drivers tell me they think that they "regularly get over 50 mpg" because they look at their vehicle's in dash monitor on occasion and see a number that they like to see and they pat themselves on the back. I challenge you to write down that number every day for 2 weeks and see what you "regularly get". I won't even make you calculate the standard deviation....but I promise you that if you look at your MPG every day, you might be surprised at what your personal average is. Try it and tell me about it, even if you don't drive a Prius.

Even if you are driving alone, a Focus makes more financial sense than a Prius. Per the EPA, the typical annual fuel cost for a 2008 Ford Focus is $2196 and a 2008 Prius is $1335. The cost of a base 2008 Ford Focus is about $15K and the 2008 Prius about $23K, so it take 10 years to break even in fuel savings. So, if you still want to buy the Prius, have you considered what you're going to do with it's batteries when you are done? Don't tell Ariana, but I don't think Jesus would drive a Prius unless he had a plan for the batteries. I'm thinking that instead, he's driving a secondhand van and using that extra cash to feed the hungry and he is carpooling with Will Farrell, Bill Maher and some of the apostles and I sure hope there's still a seat for me. I definitely think Jesus would carpool. Is the seat next to Brad Pitt still available?

Thrifty Locavore

I guess I’m a “thrifty locavore”, which means I don’t like to spend a fortune to eat locally, but try to do it whenever possible. In the summer, I shop at a farmer’s market nearly every weekend, and for produce, I can do it exclusively during the summer. I have also had a CSA share before, but since no CSA grows every single thing I want, I would also go to the farmer’s market, too

Best prices for local food:

• I have found local eggs are about $2.50 a dozen, which are comparable to store bought cage free prices. I buy all local eggs – they taste so much better.
• Dexter, Chelsea or Ypsi farmer’s markets have better prices, especially if you are buying in bulk for home canning, which I do a great deal of. Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market is year round and has the best selection, but the prices are higher than other farmer’s markets around. The Westside Farmer's Market is small, but nice to go to on Thursday night after work and closer to home for me.
• Needle Lane has the best CSA prices that I have found.
• U pick farms are good deals, too, especially for canning
• I like to buy Zingerman’s bread day old – you can get it at the deli next to the front door on Detroit Street in a bin for a discount
• I buy bulk locally grown beef from TMZ Farms in Pinckney. Still more expensive than grocery store beef, but a much better deal buying in bulk. I go to Pinckney to pick it up at the hardware store after I call in my order.
• Hannewald Farms has good lamb at a decent price for sale at the AA Farmer’s Market, but my kids don’t like the taste of lamb. Occasionally I will buy some for the grown ups to eat.
  I grow my own herbs…I’d grow more stuff, but the animals that live around my house will eat it.
  
  Stuff I still buy at the grocery store:
• I don’t buy Guernsey or Calder milk, because it cost double what Prairie Farms cost, which is a local dairy co-op that doesn’t use hormones. To me, Guernsey/Calder isn’t worth the money.
• Butter – haven’t found a local source for butter. Has anyone? I occasionally buy Amish butter that comes in a big blob from Indiana somewhere at Alexander Farm Market.
• Coffee beans – I like to buy fair trade beans. Target’s Archer Farms has great fair trade coffee that is half the price of others I like (Roos Roast, Zingermans)
• Poultry – I haven’t found a local source that I can afford, although John Harnois raises some delicious poultry.
• Bacon – I love Nueske’s bacon, and haven’t found any locally that tastes that good. Besides, Wisconsin is somewhat local, isn't it?
• Flour – although I might start buying more Westwind Milling stuff, which can be found at the People’s Food Co-op.