Modish

The bigger picture

My oldest brother has a big ol' honkin' telescope that takes amateur star watching to the next level.  It's a hobby I find endlessly fascinating, but only remember to take the time to appreciate it when I'm on a road trip in the dead of night or when I'm on vacation far enough from city lights to realize how vast and beautiful the sky can be.  Usually, when the sky is truly on display, I'm asleep though.  The little white lights in trees around this time of year inspire and excite me. Seeing the sparkling lights in a darkened yard evokes the nighttime winter sky's cold, crisp, still evening air that opens up visibility into the cosmos.  Millions of opportunities to wish upon the first star off the night, astronomical history dating tens of thousands of years, the ability to see objects light years away with the naked eye. 

The other night I caught It's a Wonderful Life on tv, and as many times as I've seen bits and pieces of it, this was the first time I heard what could possibly be one of the most romantic movie quotes of all time as Jimmy Stewart tells Donna Reeds character Mary, "What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary." Stewart's impassioned dialog captures the magical essence of the season. 

I say magic simply because otherwise my brain would pop out and fall on the floor. or explode. or maybe even both. But I digress.

The clarity, the depth and the profundity of the stars, reflected in the patterns of the falling snow, the lights on the trees and the sparkle of glittery holiday parties; that's the enchantment of winter.

So perhaps one might deduce that the best way to celebrate this season is to turn on the Ziggy Stardust, just don't let the vertigo hit you on your way out of the galaxy.

Goodies for your own Space Odyssey:
{1} Jez Burrows' Celestial Feats and {2 and 3} An illustrated guide to the Amazing Feats of the Night Sky available from Tiny Showcase;  {4} Celestial Extinction - Lipotes vexillifer by Sub-Studio; {5} Icarus at the Edge of Time by Brian Greene; {6} Binary Star Letterpress cards from Brooklyn Book Binder; {7} You Hold Me Together by Heather Smith Jones; {8} Fridge Henge Galactic fridge magnet by Brighton Sky

And if that's just not quite enough of the holiday spirit, Star Wars brings it full circle. 

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise. When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Quiet respite the digital way

Even though I'm striving to find a restful, contemplative way to make it through the holiday season, the struggles seem to be compounding. I've incorporated daily yoga into my life, cook at home more often than ever, and seek to find the messages in the depths of difficult situations.  The answers still aren't all there, but isn't that what life is about? Learning to accept the tough times, or as my yoga-instructor-on-tape says, "Feel your ease of breath in the difficulty of the pose."

I think, on the most basic level, that's why I relish daydreaming; and also why it is so important.   It's a great way to side track from the main path, without the side effects of other {perhaps more popular} methods of escapism. Also, quite thankfully, without the morning after hangover.
 

In an effort to pass along a little bit of fresh air and fantastic fodder for fantasy during the joyous albeit trying holiday season, here are a few of my favorite places to while my days away:

1. No Accounting for Taste

2. An Apple A Day

3. Hei Astrid

4. Simply Photo

How about you? How are you finding breathing room these days? Is it in an airy, brightly lit photograph, or the falling snowflakes outside? What quiet details make your days just a little nicer?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise. When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

'Cause the time is right {now}

Magical things happen this time of year: Families don matching argyle sweaters and pose for Olan Mills. Puppies are wrapped with bows and given to eager little children to mold into man's best friend. And we dig deep into our wallets to find money we didn't even know existed, to spend on tokens of appreciation for those around us. 

Pardon my sarcasm, my dampening gray cloud of doom for an otherwise green and cheery time of year, but one too many news stories of pain and hurt seems to have changed the view from where I usually sit on hippie hill preaching peace love and {brother}{sister}hood. I think most of us agree that part of the reason we buy crafty goods is because there is a face, a sense of humanity, behind the product.

If not for that particular reason, Poppytalk has given us 101 reasons to buy handmade. Boil them all down and essentially it's about respect, isn't it? Buying a special object, with greater sentimental value than the purchase price. While buying handmade feels better than, ahem, shopping at a big box store where underpaid employees grumpily ring you up, this year {for me} it's particularly hard to buy anything.  Not because the handmade market isn't supporting me economically, but because we, as people, generally aren't supporting each other.

This year I've heard more stories of lay offs than any other year I can remember, and while {generally speaking} depression isn't any worse than the rest of the year, I have a feeling it will be different this year for many, many people. 

During the holiday season, the incidence of domestic violence rises. There is stress, there is pressure to provide, there is traffic at the mall, billboards styled to unattainable perfection, and hurdles left and right.

In the garden the winter months are often a time of rest for the soil and for the sow-weary gardener.  Allowing time to rest and revitalize is important to the earth.  The changes are invisible on the surface--micro-organisms going to work, worms burrowing and aerating the soil, nutrients being restored by cover crops.  Symbiotic relationships balancing and supporting each other so that the next year will be a fruitful one.

I'd like to furnish myself with time to rest and lie fallow.  While I'm making most of the gifts I'm giving, I do have a bigger goal in mind: provide the groundwork so that next year may be a fruitful one.  Gifts, whether symbolic or literal, can be one way to develop and strengthen what is already in place.  An encouraging word, a small token of appreciation, an olive branch of peace. This year I will give love to people who have hurt me in the past.  I will smile at strangers and I will laugh from the depths of my belly.   

What I'm saying is this: This holiday, measure the weight of your gifts and think of them in terms of productivity. How will they nourish you and the recipient simultaneously? Will they represent the ways you want to grow?  Hugs and kisses are free and just might mean the world to someone.  Perhaps joining the HopeRevo group, and giving notes of affirmation to friends and strangers is exactly the cure for the holiday blues.

So give generously, after all.  In the words of Winston Churchill, "We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give."

The Reed Seifer Store Wishes; Orange Beautiful Motivational Print; Mistletoe from Improbable Projects; Letterpress tags by Simple Song Design to remind us all of what the season is about; Jessica Gonacha Affirmations; Chocolate and Steel Inspire Pendant; Acts of Kindness' Let Laughter Save the Day ring; One Life jewelry Hendrix pendant; Improbable Projects Relish Serum

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise. When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Black Hole Friday: Sucked into the world of spending

I'm sitting here stuffing my face with yummy vegetarian Thanksgiving leftovers, on this bright and warm(-ish) Black Friday afternoon.  My man is downstairs sewing away on the sewing machine and I've already ironed over 21 yards of fabric.  We've pulled out bolts of fabric to start making gifts for our closest family members, will finish those up and decide if we'll keep making things for everyone else, or purchase goodies.  Either way, I've vowed to stick with Adbuster's Buy Nothing Day. 

Seems like, at least in this part of the world, we're in a sagging economy.  I dunno, I haven't really felt it (yet?) but I also don't have my retirement invested in the stock market.  

In a recent conversation with a favorite gal pal of mine, Jess, we were talking about focusing on abundance rather than voids. The glass is half full of deliciousness. How do we do this?  How do we turn loss into gain when economics seems so abstract--a trillion dollars means absolutely nothing to me when $20 seems like everything.  Money isn't really the reason for the season, anyway, is it?

Are you with me? Are you feeling a little bit of a need for some positivity?  Off we go, to create our own little stimulus package--are you ready for the ride?

{Click on the image to see it full-sized}  I asked some of my favorite internet buddies to do a little word association game based on a lot of the themes of current events.  The spectrum of responses was really broad, and that, my friends, is awesome.  They proved that we are already concentrating on what is in the glass and not what isn't.  Find your definition, then see if these days leading into Winter Holiday Season are representative of who you really are.  Do your definitions meet your philosophical intentions?  I think it's a good opportunity to remember to buy things that are important or significant--instead of buying a whole bunch of novelty crap, why not give things that will be of lasting value?  Do we emphasize having that paper receipt of purchase just a little too much?  Remember the significance of the dollar in comparison to the purpose of giving.

The words were: economy, budget, gift, gift giving holiday, value, currency, give and receive.  What do you relate to these words?  What's your first response to each word?

Once you've responded to each, go back through and think about celebrating the season as a "buy nothing month".  How would the holidays fare without spending?  Would you still exchange physical gifts, and if so, what would the source of your goodies be?  Homemade?  Regifting?  

How will you celebrate this season of abundance? Where do you find wealth?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Seasonings Greetings

In the past several months I've had more people ask me for suggestions for vegetarian cookbooks and recipes than in my prior 14 years of vegetarianism.  Is it because I've been cooking and telling, or is it because we're more aware, as a whole, of the benefits of less meat and more vegetables? Whatever the reason, people all around me are hosting vegetarians at their Thanksgiving table, and are looking for something easy and filling for the herbivores in their lives.

I thought I'd post a couple inspiring ideas for fall feasts that would be incredibly exciting for me to sit down to.  First off, the idea of a stuffed pumpkin cauldron is not one that would cater to my taste buds (pardon the pun). Don't get me wrong, I love roasted squash, and would be exuberant scooping out the seeds, saving a few for next gardening season and roasting the rest to top a loaf of home baked whole grain bread.  I think it's the appearance--a little too 70s health food nut, although it seems most people who make suggestions for veggie friendly Thanksgivings think it's cute or creative.  It might just be that many pumpkins are too tough and the flavor has been hybridized out of them. 

Let's set some ground rules: Since the idea of Thanksgiving originated from a celebration of harvest and survival why not make the meal a local, in-season one? No better, easier, and probably more affordable way to do that than to hit up the farmer's markets.

I also don't see any reason to buy a whole bunch of ingredients you won't use again until next year (and let's face it, by then it won't be good anymore anyway, right?).  Think of things that can play double duty: take, for instance, the parsley called for in most recipes. Carrots and parsley are cousins, and though the flavor is not spot on, carrot greens make for a suitable parsley substitute.

There are plenty of pre-packaged vegetarian and vegan options in the freezer of your local health food store (and now in many regular grocery stores) so feeding a vegetarian doesn't mean cooking a whole separate meal. If cooking for a vegetarian is too daunting, pick of a ToFurkey or marinated tofu for an easy solution.  And remember, just because turkey broth is "just the juice" doesn't make it vegetarian-friendly, so if you want to make one stuffing for everyone, use vegetarian broth.  Rapunzel No Salt Bouillon is very good. 

In preparation for this post, I tried 3 new-to-me recipes last night: Thanksgiving Seitan Turkey (I'd bought the ingredients for homemade seitan recently, anyway, so I figured I'd go ahead and dive right in), Pear Chestnut Stuffing, and Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes.  The Pear Chestnut Stuffing came in a brief moment of inspiration from the few pears sitting around. I was afraid they'd go bad before I would eat them as a snack.  We have a chestnut tree in the yard, so there was a plentiful stock of roasted chestnuts in the freezer, just waiting for their turn to be the super-star of a meal. Despite their prickly exterior, raw chestnuts are like a bland carrot that magically turns into a sweet, creamy flavored nut when roasted. As for sweet potatoes, I really like sweet potatoes and had some local ones that were ready for appreciation.  My Mr. does not like them, though, so anything to add a little extra variety in his omnivore diet is good. 

While the recipes are not necessarily vegan (with the stuffing and sweet potatoes I did use butter, but that was simply because it was what we had on hand) the butter could just as easily be dairy-free with an appropriate plant based substitute like Earth Balance.

For the main dish, I suggest: Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette (or this Spinach Mushroom Galette) or the Thanksgiving Seitan Turkey.

I have to admit I'm terrible at cooking by the rules and following recipes is not my strong point.  For the galette I used a different crust recipe, and different cheeses in the filling. For the seitan, I failed to thoroughly read the recipe before buying ingredients, so I did end up using silken tofu (which worked out fine).  I also decided to change the temperature and cooking time, because by the time it was ready to go in the oven, I'd been in the kitchen for 3 hours and an additional 3 hour cooking time seemed like madness (not the band, that would've been fun).  I would recommend, instead, following Mac & Cheese's cooking suggestions, which are very similar to what I did. 

Then came Pear Chestnut Stuffing. Stuffing is a food that only makes it's way through my mouth twice a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I have to be honest when I say I don't really get it.  Especially at meals where the starches are more bountiful than any other food-type on the table, right? Mashed potatoes, rolls, cornbread, and stuffing, not to mention the bready cakes for dessert.  But this past year every time we've had bread on the cusp of making its way to the compost, I've diced it up and stuck it in a bag in the freezer, so there were plentiful bread crumbs, and it seemed like as good a time as any to use them up. Basically the stuffing was mostly improv, slightly based around Martha Stewart's recipe.  In a nutshell, here's how it went down: 1 large onion thinly sliced, 2 carrots thinly sliced (leaves from top chopped and included), and 1/2 cup chopped roasted chestnuts sauteed until onion slices were transparent.  Seasoned with basil, a little salt and pepper, added the bread crumbs (2 cups, I'd say) and 3/4 cup veggie broth.  The stuffing was then sandwiched between the seitan turkey and baked for 20 minutes. 

For the sides: Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes: I baked the sweet potato cubes, then added the maple syrup, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and chopped pecans when the potatoes were done.  This was plenty sweet and didn't require any additional sugar. Top it with whip cream (or even vegan whip cream) and it would be a phenomenal dessert!

Cranberry Sauce from fresh cranberries, tinged with orange juice is so easy to make.  It's a far cry from the canned stuff that comes out in a congealed cylinder.  Cranberries are so tart they do require some sugar, but I usually cook them down in a sweet but neutral flavored fruit juice first (white grape or apple) that cuts the tart and then requires a lot less cane sugar. 

A seven bean salad is a staple at holiday meals for my family.  I use edamame instead of one of the more typical beans, it adds a variety to the color, as well as a nice flavor and buttery texture.  Introduced this way to meat eaters, soy beans quickly lose their stigma.

Mashed Potatoes or Potato Gratin: If you have mashed potatoes and want a good substitution for gravy, try a mushroom gravy like the recipe on Post Punk Kitchen.

Rosemary Beer Bread: Charlie, the master of all things beer around our house, makes a superb beer bread with 3 cups sifted (sifted is muy importante) self-rising flour (due to the rising agents, the brand we use is salty enough to not need in-the-past-several-months-ive-had-more-people-ask-me-for-suggestions-for-vegetarian-cookbooks-and-recipes-than-in-my-prior-1an additional pinch of salt) and 12 ounces of beer (homebrew, of course!).  Season it with crushed garlic and a tablespoon of chopped, fresh rosemary, mix it up, pour it in a loaf pan greased with olive oil and cook it in a preheated oven on 375 for about 45 minutes.   His method is derived from a long-evolving experiment beginning with the Farmgirl Fare recipe.  It cooks up light and fluffy, with a soft yeasty flavor.

Sometimes all it takes is a little liquid smoke flavoring to make a side dish extra special.  I add it to collards and they turn out just as good as grandma used to make, without keeping a can of fat back by the stove at all times.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, recipes, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to comment below! And since it is close to Thanksgiving, here, I'd like to thank you, friendly readers, for joining me here on Modish on Fridays, as I preach the eco-gospel. I cherish all of the comments I receive, and have loved meeting a few of you in person! But enough with the thanks, now for the giving.  As a token of my appreciation, here's a free little PDF download of some recipe cards I drew. I hope you like them! 

But how about you? What are you thankful for?

Still hungry for more veggie options? Here are a few of my favorite vegetarian books:

Becoming Vegetarian (there is also a becoming vegan, which I haven't read) is a great book on the basics of a healthy vegetarian diet--quick and easy to read, great resource. Not a cook book though.

I use 1000 Vegetarian Recipes more than any other cookbook. There's a 7 bean salad recipe in it that has become tradition at our family feasts.  It's. so. good.

SuperNatural Cooking is a really pretty book, it explains the flavors of her choices for ingredients, the recipes are simple and tasty, and it comes from Heidi Swanson, so you know it's good. 

The Voluptuous Vegan is also good, though again, a lot of ingredients, so not great for everyday, but full of inspired and wonderful recipes. Just know it's not a whip up in a hurry kind of cookbook

The Moosewood Cookbooks get great reviews from some people, but generally are complex recipes with odd ingredients and a little too "healthy" tasting for the masses.  That's just my 2 cents, so take it for what it's worth!

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Room to Wiggle (even in the smallest apartment!)

Election night 2008 doesn't seem like good timing for a political junkie like myself to sign up for a class and pry myself away from the TV for several hours. . . or does it?  This year I decided I needed a distraction from the results rolling in, and signed up for a Worm Workshop.

For a mere $15, supplies included,  I forgot about red and blue states for 2 solid hours while I concentrated on creating a new home for a pound of red wigglers. I'm not really one to be bothered by a few (thousand) worms, and was really excited about having yet another way to transform food scraps into rich nutrients for my houseplants and garden.

Since I'm a vegetarian and really enjoy cooking, we have a lot of vegetable scraps.  They get divided up for different uses: vegetable stock, hen treats, the occasional kitty and puppster salad, and now worm food.  Anything that doesn't make it to another mouth one way or another gets thrown in the big compost heap outside.

Back to the worm bin (vermicomposter, if you want to be all fancy) You'll want to use an opaque plastic storage container. You know, the kind you buy imagining that with it your life will become instantly transformed into an organized system of neat stacking bins color coded for storing your craft materials.  The one that just seems to collect junk and actually hinders the organizational idealism. (Remember that tendency of mine?)  Make sure it has a nice snug lid, you want to keep most of the light out...as well as any curious kitties that may be lurking about.  Drill holes in the sides to create good circulation. We have 7 holes on each long side.  Lots of people suggest holes in the top and bottom as well, which sounds like a good idea.

First off, you'll want to soak a whole lot of newspaper--tear it into 1" wide strips and soak it for 20-30 minutes. The water will end up black and inky, so make sure you're wearing clothes you don't mind getting messy. When you're ready to transfer the paper to the bin, you'll want it loose and airy, so don't wring it out or stir it up, just let it soak. 

layer #1--Cover the bottom with a material that won't break down in a moist environment.  We used styrofoam packing peanuts, which is a great way to keep them out of the landfill.

layer #2--Cover the packing peanuts with plastic landscaping fabric (it has little itty bitty holes to allow for drainage) sandwiched between plastic fencing or screen--this will keep the fabric flat and in place.  This layer will allow for drainage if your paper gets too wet.  It also keeps a fair amount of air in the bin for good ventilation. 

layer #3-- Fill your bin about halfway up with moist, loose newspaper strips. When you're removing the paper from the water, you'll want to drain it til it doesn't drip anymore, but don't wring it out!

layer #4--Add a pound of worms that's about 500-1000 worms.  Sprinkle a little soil on top. This will introduce some beneficial organisms to speed up the composting process. Think of it as a housewarming gift for your little guys.

layer #5--Fill the rest of the bin with moist newspaper strips. 

layer #6--Add another sheet of landscape fabric. It'll keep the top dark (remember the worms will burrow away from light) and maintain moisture levels.

To keep up with your worms:

One pound of worms will eat about 3 1/2 pounds of food a week.  They'll really like you if you cut up your veggie scraps into bite sized pieces.

Keep your food scraps buried in the bin to keep gnats and pests away!

Keep the worms in a high moisture environment: about 80%.  If you think it's getting a little too dry, mist the paper down with a spray bottle, but don't drown the little guys.

Things to remember:

Your worms want a damp, not soggy and not dry, home.

Feed them about 3 1/2 pounds of food a week. If it starts smelling, you may have too much food in there. Feed them with the same rules you use for your compost bin (no meat, no dairy, no greasy greasy gunk).

They will go through an acclimation period and won't eat too much at first.  That's okay--they'll grow to love their new home and will start processing your garbage with glee.

However, if your worms try to escape, you might need to troubleshoot; examine how much food you're giving them, the moisture of the environment, the air circulation and anything else that may go awry.  They're trying to tell you something!

Don't let them freeze--no one likes a wormsicle, especially the worms. Also, don't keep them in direct sun. A nice temperate climate is what they, and you, want if you want to avoid a worm massacre.

Other helpful resources:

Martha Stewart Living's online instructions.

Another WormWoman.

Online brochure from Piedmont Landscaping and Naturescaping Training.

You Grow Girl's online guide to setting up a vermicomposting bin.

Photos copyright 2008, Charles Lybrand expressly for Modish blog.

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

What's blue and red and green all over?

The day is quickly approaching, the ads are getting more intense, and the US will soon have a new President in office.  The political season is upon us in full force.

It's all a bit stressful, don't you think? 

Aside from the faces running for the oval office, some campaigns are non-partisan, progressive in concept albeit retroactive, with promises of great hope!  All it takes is a little bit of gardening know how, community spirit, and a brief understanding of economics, foreign policy, and US history.  No biggie, right?  To the mud slinging politicians polluting our air waves, I say take the mud, add a little compost, and plant a productive seed, please.

Imagine a White House lawn kept trim without the use of fossil fuel powered machines, perhaps even free roaming sheep.  Seems unfathomable, right? But in 1918 sheep were brought to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to keep the lawn trimmed.  Not only that, but the sheep were sheared, the wool was sold and the proceeds donated to The Red Cross.

Even earlier, 1800 to be exact, John Adams planted a kitchen garden on the White House property.  Andrew Jackson tended fruit trees in the conservatory in the 1830s. More recently, Alice Waters encouraged Bill Clinton to plant a kitchen garden, but unfortunately he didn't heed her request.

Currently, Eat the View, spearheaded by Kitchen Gardeners International, is a campaign to get the next guy in office to put an edible garden on the front lawn. They have a petition on the site where you can urge the next president to,

"plant an organic  food garden or "Victory Garden" on the White House lawn, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to local food pantries. The White House is "America's House" and should set a positive example for the country and the world."

It's a natural connection, gardening and politics: some people gain interest by realizing how budget-efficient growing your own food can be; others are passionate about how inherently low-impact a local garden can be on the environment.  Either way, food and the nation's leaders have a lengthy history.

In 1917 The War Garden Commission was created as a way to encourage domestic agriculture quite literally.  Men were off at war, women on the home front were asked to grow edibles to eradicate hunger.

The sole aim of the National War Garden Commission was to arouse the patriots of America to the importance of putting all idle land to work, to teach them how to do it, and to educate     them to conserve by canning and drying all food they could not use while  fresh. The idea of the “city farmer” came into being.

In the war-torn 40s, Americans planted nearly 20 million Victory Gardens; there were over 800 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park alone. It was a radical idea flourishing under the complexities of war: American families provided over half of the fresh produce consumed at that time. Men were, again, off at war, and the women were left to battle the food shortage at home.  The Women's Land Army was born, which I have to say actually sounds like a Kathleen Hanna tribute band, right?  To this day, San Francisco is a stellar example of community gardening in the broadest sense.

To many of us, the first clues of a sagging economy were the rising food and fuel costs.  Those prices resonate the past, stirring a familiar response: people are back to growing their own veggies. 

Learn more:

If the history of politics and food are interesting to you, the Harvest of Freedom website is particularly informative.

Have you read Michael Pollan's letter to the Presidential Candidates?

Current programs, based on a similar idea of low-cost, high-quality food include the San Fransisco project Victory Garden 2008+ and Freedom Gardens, an offshoot of the Path to Freedom family's ongoing homesteading efforts.

Similar to Eat the View, TheWhoFarm has a petition urging the next President to plant an organic veggie garden on the White House grounds.

Get political on the local level: Petition your town hall to create an edible landscape. If that's too radical, maybe they'll plant edibles interspersed with the ornamentals most often used in municipal landscaping.

The Farm Bill is a major piece of legislation and incredibly complex. Really, I can barely begin to understand it. If you're like me, a primer might be helpful.

Candidates trough it out on Rural Agriculture:

John McCain's Prosperity for Rural America.

Barack Obama's Rural Plan Fact Sheet.

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Why you buggin?

The complexity of the tiniest details in the world continually fascinate me, and that doesn't exclude insects, despite their creepiness (pardon the pun).  Take their vision, for instance; the Howard Hughes Medical Institute website has a brief but fascinating explanation of what determines the complexity of an insect's sight. It's just one tiny little protein that determines the common fly's sophisticated vision. That's enough to make me reconsider using a fly swatter, for sure. 

Bugs, despite the heebie jeebie reaction they may stir, have greater purposes than Disney movies may lead you to believe:  there are other types of docile native bees that pollinate our flowers. That's not to say the disappearing honeybee isn't a tragedy, and should also be cared for.  We have bees living in the side of our house and they don't bother us, so we don't bother them. They do split off every year, so buying a hive might be on the horizon in the next year or so.

Dead Bug Funeral Kit; Little Birdhouse Store Bat House; Shawn Creeden's California Leaf-Nosed Bat watercolor; Anax Imperator Machina by Jesse Danger; Ark Workshop Ladybug House.

Aside from insects to pollinate, lots of gardeners keep lacewings, lady bugs, and praying mantises around to prey on plant eating pests such as aphids. Spiders are another great example of a natural fly swatter and around our house we usually uphold the "let 'em work, let 'em live" motto.  Though I'm more partial to the ladybug which is less creepy, more cute, and supposedly bringers of good luck! For my birthday I bought myself 2 ladybug houses on eBay.   These will be added among to house the pretty little critters through the cold months.  Those, in addition to the butterfly house already in place, will (hopefully!) make the yard more attractive to a greater variation of critters. 

Of course, I'm also eying a bat house. Yes, I know bats are mammals, but maybe you have too many bugs in your yard.  Did you know more than 60% of bats are insectivores? Just think, a little brown bat can eat over a thousand mosquitoes in under an hour. So much better than DEET for your skin and the earth.

But if, say, there is a battle between you and some particularly pesky bugs in the near future, the least we can do is give the little bugger a proper sending into the great bug beyond. I was reading Junior Society (I don't really know why, I'm not a kid person, except I guess I'm more often drawn to more playful designs than the more grown up variety) and found the Dead Bug Kit. David Barringer's site is intriguing, full of fun graphic design and little odds and ends up for purchase, but the box full of all the bug funeral essentials is poetic enough to make me want to buy one for everyone I know. 

Here's part of the Dead Bug Kit description:

We hope the Dead Bug Funeral Kit will provide some consolation. You may preorder this Kit for yourself or a loved one. We are working as briskly as we can to make these Kits, but there is a lot of grief in this world. And a lot of bugs. We appreciate your patience.

Blue Orchard Bee House from Andrew's Reclaimed;Brushy Mountain's English Garden Hive; Bee Raw Sourwood Honey; Little Bee Dish by Rae Dunn.

I, too, appreciate your patience, if you're here solely for the giveaway and read all the way through to find the winner.  But it all amounts to the same thing: looking around and discovering (or rediscovering) right? Seeing the little details and deciding the appropriate means for respectful interaction. 

With out further ado, [Drum roll, please] and in large part thanks to Charlie's ever-steady and capable hands, we have a winner!  Lucky commenter number 4!  Tina of My Hands, My knees, c'mon up!  You're the winner of the new Keri Smith book: How to be an explorer of the world.  Looks like there has been a streak of good luck for Tina this week! And a HUGE thank you all for participating in this "litter"al literate contest, despite some of the odd and gross things you found. There's nothing quite like keeping someone else's cigarette butts out of the storm drain!

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Not Quite Natural Nature (and a Sweet Surprise!)

Remember this post urging you to be an explorer of the world? Well, Keri Smith's book has been released and I have an extra copy for one lucky Petals and Pedals reader! **

Aside from the excitement of the new book things are good'n calm around our little Sweet Haven Farm. The chickens are settling in, curious neighbors have come by to say hi and meet the girls, and there's a whole lot of chicken hypnosis around our house.  The cats and dogs are curious, and Charlie and I seem to endlessly stare at them as they peck around the yard, picking up bugs and scratching the dirt.  To say we watch them too much might un-zen the whole activity, they're fascinating beyond expectation. And they scare the bejeebus out of the Sneak; he watches them too, but from a good 20 feet away or so. So that's sort of fun to watch, too.

While I'm still learning a lot about how to care for them from books and websites, a lot of the learning curve is through watching and processing.  A lot of life is like that, isn't it?   

MiniMajellen found things zine by Shelbyville. Porcelain Branch from Brooklyn ReHab. Feather Ornaments by Roost available through Velocity Art and Design.   Large Nest Bowl by Shannon Garson via Lille.

I've decide to take note of this little lesson, and try to approach the world more open-mindedly and with greater patience in understanding.  You know the ol' "the more you know the less you know approach." So while my 7 girls determine pecking order with nearly choreographed grace, I watch with awe, understanding that as the world changes so quickly, nature keeps things moving as they should. 

I believe we do hinder and hurt nature, but I'm also learning that sitting still and watching will reconnect me to the world.  That's the chicken hypnosis: the calm peephole in the middle of a rapidly changing world.

When I talk ecology and environment to others, I get filled with passion and despair, a desperate need to explain how our actions affect our surroundings. Don't get me wrong, the hens haven't convinced me that there is no such thing as global warming, but they have convinced me of the strength in adaptation.  That as I work to right my environmental wrongs (replacing invasive exotics with native plants for starters) they'll help break the plant matter down into nutrient rich poop, lightly tilling the dirt by scratching and enriching it by just being themselves.

What a big lesson to learn.

And that's where How to be an explorer of the world comes into all of this philosophizing.  You may have chickens, you may not, but we all need to give ourselves permission to open our eyes to the world outside of what we see in everyday living.  Keri Smith does that brilliantly with all of her work, and this book is no different.  It's not a book for rote learning, it's 204 pages giving you full permission to look all around and find nature in everything, and that's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

Collection Calendar illustrating things found on walks by Seventy and Sunny. Karin Eriksson's Caress Pebbles, via Manos. Design Night's Nature Boy bag--the perfect little bag for gathering collections (also available in Nature Girl). Pod Serve ware by Aram, available through Aram.

** How do you get the book? One person who comments will be picked at random from an actual hat.  All you have to do (it's real simple!) is pick up 3 "unnatural" items you find on a walk through your hood--this way you're picking up litter but also discovering the details around you. List them in your comment, and if you want an extra chance, add them to the Punk Rawk Gardening group on flickr! Bonus points?? I know, I'm too good to you, but really, you want this book even more than you think you do! Comments must be made before Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 11:59 PM (east coast time).

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Petals & Pedals: Operation Coop Coup- I'm a pushover for chickens

During the Fall, with the brisk cool air, thoughts are turning to snuggling under warm blankets with my honey.  The leaves are turning their beautiful assortment of colors, and as they drop, the world turns winter gray and despite how much touting of the "green" we see, the physical world is going to sleep in it's drab neutrals. 
There is something relaxing and wonderfully primitive in recognizing how my desire to snuggle is akin to hibernating, but I'm not gonna do it. Nope, I've got some serious winter work ahead. 

Why? Because my family is about to increase by seven.  Yes, seven. 

Seven chickens are about to take over my back yard, just as soon as the coop is finished.  They're a combination of hens and pullets, and we're adopting them from another family that is also about to increase...except they're expanding by one person, so it's a pretty fair trade off. Well, to be honest, it's not an entirely rushed decision; it was just the right time, so we're jumping into the experience full force.

Some coops that inspire my chicken desire--Top: The Lake.House, hen power, ronbo Middle: aehack, lord marmalade, papaverjewelry Bottom: Free Chicken Coop Plans, via SoPo Chickens, via SoPo Chickens SoPo Chickens

Because of the situation, we're getting the gals into an easy coop first and then we'll move them up to that dee-luxe apartment in the sky (aka coop on stilts).  I think it will work out okay, we'll have a pretty nice area to use as a holding pen if one of them should get sick.  Of course, I'm a total novice, and despite how many websites I read, I'm still feeling unsure of my ability to tend a flock. 

What I am ready for are eggs that don't travel hundreds of miles to my door, laid in some scary factory. New friends, creatures that will contribute to the health of my yard (eating insects, speeding up the compost, fertilizing my plants); and sweet companions to watch while they do all of the funny, charming things chickens tend to do.

Without further ado, here are my soon-to-be hot chicks:

Thinking of getting some gals of your own?

Backyard Chickens: settle in for some serious reading time.  They have forums full of information for all levels of coop keepers.  Beware that navigating through it may take some time!

The City Chicken is a pretty good introduction to the whole experience.

ChickenKeeping.com has an easy to read layout, as well as a good page of links and resources as well as a tasty companion book chock full of egg recipes.

My Pet Chicken sells poultry supplies, but their FAQs page can't be beat.

So there you have it, my weekend in a nutshell (er, um, eggshell?).  Any advice?  Do you have experience with chickens? Favorite resources?  Egg recipes?  Share your know-how!  I'm ready to learn!

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Petals & Pedals: Sit back and enjoy the magic show

I thought today we could take a nice little break from all the troubles of the economy, the campaigning, the debating, and, here in the southeastern, US the gas shortage.  So take a moment and breath.  Look around, open your eyes and see what's happening out in the natural world.

Now that it's fall, are you ready to get back outside?  I've found a renewed motivation, it was lost under the weight of the summer heat, and Mr. Sneak and I have been exploring the wonders of the working soil. It seems pretty happy to be freelance right now.  We've got several pecan trees, a walnut, and a chestnut tree in our yard, so afternoons have been foraging the grounds for what the squirrels haven't hoarded for the winter.

Above the soil level, the colors are phenomenal. The ground stays moist much longer since there is less heat to cause evaporation.  At least, that's my guess as to why I've seen so many phenomenal fungi the past couple days. The datura cutting from my sister in law is cheerfully blooming its big white squash-blossom like flowers, as is the okra that I didn't tear our of the vegetable beds. 

Speaking of which, I loved the messy chaos our veggie garden became after I'd had enough of the rigid square foot method (90 degree weather and 90 degree angles was just too much for me), so after the harvest this year I intentionally left vegetables to break down in the soil and sprout up as volunteers next year. (Are they still called volunteers if you leave them on purpose?) We got more tomatillos this past summer off the volunteers than when I'd purposefully planted the seeds, so I figured what the hey, right? Just let it do its thing, it's obviously got something good going on without me.

Once the plants were all pulled up, we broke up the hard top crust a bit, and put down some Lacey 6-row Barley, a disease and pest resistant variety I first read about on the Sunset Magazine website.  Mr Sneak is especially invested in this, our first "official" attempt at using a cover crop.  Why?  Because he's hooked on homebrewing, and we plan on harvesting the grains and malting them ourselves.  If for no other reason, just imagine the satisfaction of sipping a beer and knowing you grew it yourself! Naysayers (ahem, fellas from the  homebrew store we frequent ) we know it'll be a tough road, but as investigators of the earth, sometimes you just have to try, right?

Barley isn't the only grass new to our yard.  I also bought some Cherokee Sedge, a rare native grass considered endangered in some regions, and Appalachian Sedge to plant around our newly dug fish pond. They'll stay long leaved, tufts of green, doing double duty as they spread to become the foundation of a small meadow garden as another element to attract little critters to the yard. 

This summer some mistflowers popped up beside the fig bushes, nestled in with an Oregon Grape Mahonia, and my best guess is that it's a corner of the yard the birds have planted by pooping or carrying seeds on their bodies inadvertently! Neither member of Team Sneak planted either of these, and the birds do like to gather around the figs.  They seem to have this whole cottage garden vibe going on, so we're quietly hoping they'll decide to do the whole yard.

How about you?  What's going on outside your back door?  Any magic happening with the change of seasons and cooler weather? As for this weekend, I'm off to breathe in the cool mountain air, watch the leaves change colors and take some quiet moments to appreciate the magic.

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Petals & Pedals: The low down on dirty

Hippie School for Habitat Stewards is over for the session, and I'm back with a renewed interest and vigor in all things eco.  It was refreshing to sit in a room and talk about the environment in real, hands on ways, without having brands and goods thrown in my face.  Changing the world, one reused object at a time? For real??

Around our house we don't take the garbage to the street for pick up every week. Between the two of us, we don't really have that much actual trash, the rest goes into recycling (which also doesn't go to the street for pick up until it's absolutely full.) I don't know if this will truly make a difference, but I have a sneaking suspicion that cutting the idling time on those big garbage trucks could add up quickly, saving a good bit of gas.

What does this have to do with habitat and working on keeping our world green?  Well, the same philosophy goes for yard waste, right? Some cities do implement a municipal composting program, but why ship your leaves off to break down when you're just going to purchase more dirt come planting time? Simply delineating an area of your space for building dirt and throwing vegetative waste on it can change your landscape; think of how thankful your houseplants will be when you can offer them a tall drink of compost tea.

Live in an apartment? There are many kitchen composters on the market, but why not take a small lidded trash can or 5 gallon bucket, drill some holes in it and keep it on the patio?  Put a lipped dish under it, and it will collect the extra liquids and you have yourself a super-charged apartment sized drink of nutrients for your favorite growing greenery.

Composting is essentially the transformation of vegetation back into dirt. I'm sure a lot of you already compost, but a little positive reinforcement never hurts.  For the noncomposters out there (if you've read this far), with all the talk of scientific balance and the problematic smells that are too often associated with composting, I thought I'd present an easy way to get back to the basics of it, so you can start cooking up some nutrients.  Obviously there are tons of ways to make dirt happen.  Some people compost directly on the area they'll cultivate later (plastic sheet mulching and lasagna method), some compost in a pile, others in a cage or stand still bin, and still others in a tumbler bin. 

The lasagna method is simple: a layer of thick cardboard or wet newspaper (5 sheets thick), a layer of compost or manure, and a layer of loose organic material on top. At that point some people will solarize the concoction to help it cook down into rich compost a little faster, but it will work either way. Nature takes her course. 

I use a plastic heavy-duty trash can with holes drilled in the top, bottom, and sides and stir it up and sometimes just tumble it around the yard.  My cost was less than $15, but to keep the smell away (plastic holds moisture) I have to maintain the green to brown ratio in check.  Most experienced composters suggest a 2:1 ratio of carbon based to nitrogen based goods.

While in Hippie School, though, we talked compost, and I was surprisingly reinvigorated by the simple technique that was presented.  A homemade wire cage, some alfalfa meal pellets from a feed supply store, and a heavy supply of leaves and you're all set for a hot batch of compost.  Things you'll need: 12.5' heavy duty wire caging material (you'll find it in the fencing section of the hardware store), Lots of leaves (perhaps from your neighbors' yards, if you can't get enough from your own; we like to bike around with a trailer on one bike and pick up bags at the street), Alfalfa meal pellets (rabbit food, find it at a farm supply/hardware store.  It's much cheaper there than pet stores, actually almost half the price) which is a super quick and effective method of infusing your leaves (browns/carbons) with nitrogen (greens), and a quick and easy water source. 

Form a cylinder out if the wire, using the raw end to "tie" the ends together.  This will form a bin just over 1 cubic meter, which will make 1" of compost for approximately 100 square feet.

Next add a foot of leaves to the bottom. Sprinkle the leaves with alfalfa pellets.  Add water to make the pile moist, but not soggy, and mix it all together. 

Repeat the process until your bin is full.

Mix every couple weeks (don't get too anxious, you know, watched pot blah blah blah) and wait for the magic of nutrient rich compost to happen!

*Keep it moist but not soggy.  The wire cage will help in this, but at the same time, make sure it doesn't dry out, either.  A dry heap will attract ants; it will also keep microbial activity down, which is what's making your waste into compost. 

*Turn, turn, turn. Get a pitchfork and take some aggression out on your heap, stir it like stew, shake it like...well, you know.  But get some air in there every once in a while and it will keep some of the yucky smells at bay.

*Make sure you bury your food scraps--this will keep flies from laying their eggs in your bin and should aid in keeping rodents away.   

*Don't put your bin near a water source and keep it away from storm drains.  All that nitrogen in stream water can turn into an ugly algae bloom and kill the little fishies. 

The examples below of composters and supplies are all from Green Culture. They certainly aren't necessary to get the job done, just a great example of some of the products available in the world of composting.

1. Natural Cedar Bin -- $172; 2. Heavy Duty Pitch Fork $35.77; 3. Compost Starter, 4 lb box -- $14.65; 4. Stainless Steel Counter Top Compost Keeper -- $63.65; 5. Compact Compost Tumbler -- $332.22; 6. Soil Circle Compost cage, similar to what my municipality sells (just ignore that bad Photoshopping job they did, okay?) -- $39.15

Alameda County has a great how-to for building a wire bin composter, as well as all sorts of directions and helpful hints.

Really diggin this dirt stuff? Become a Master Composter! 

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Petals & Pedals: Learning to Co-Habitat

As I told my Mr. yesterday, "I've got hippie class this weekend." Remember when I wrote about getting my own yard habitat certified?  By the time you read this I will be well into an 8 hour day of Habitat Steward Training (probably, that is, if Jena gets a decent night's rest).  It will be the first of 3 days straight of training, under the watchful and knowledgeable guidance of my friend Carol Buie-Jackson.  In another couple months I'll be taking a series of classes on making dirt: the Master Composter program. Each of these training sessions will prepare me to educate and assist others in the process of understanding the ecosystem known as their yard.
Yep, I'm obsessed and I'm okay with it, in fact it really satisfies the artist in me.  This hippie sees beyond patchouli and granola to well designed sculptural possibilities. Of many contemporary artists, earthworks artists seemed to be a highly criticized, misunderstood group, but I think if we all spread the word about the importance of habitat components, maybe a bigger portion of the world will finally get it.

Brush piles keep me from fighting with sticks trying to get them into yard waste bags, and, if approached carefully can also be artistic, all the while attracting birds and protecting them from the winter weather.  They will slowly break down, enriching the soil with their wealth of nutrients. Something of building my own personal Patrick Dougherty sculpture.
 
Water is often explored in art, but these artists deny scale and put it all into perspective.  The detached nature of Robert Smithson's Floating Island, complete with native shrubs and plenty of resources that would make for happy little critters and Andrea Zittlel's Pocket Property (the island version), both depend on water features, though isolate personal interaction.  Both are reminders of how small a role the usually over-inflated human ego should play into the environment.   On a more accessible scale is Maya Lin's Ecliptic park, that shows water in all three states.

Even if the work is too sterile for the masses, can't we learn a great deal from tying the philosophies into our own landscapes?  What do you think? Is it time to add a Spiral Jetty to my own yard?

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Petals & Pedals: Do you know where your Summer went?

(for full post, click "continue reading" below :)

When I was small, my dad would take me and my siblings out for a romp through the forest (ok, so it was the wooded part of a park, but that sounds less charming, doesn’t it?) and teach us tree identification, just as his father did with him.  We would learn the bark and the leave formations, noticing shapes and patterns, understanding the difference in deciduous and evergreen.

Well, in less than 3 weeks and fall is here.  Do you know where your summer went? 

It was a shock to me to see how quickly it passed while I sat waiting for the bumper crop of tomatoes, not realizing it was too hot for the lycopene profusion to come. Now, as the temperatures slowly drop, it’s time again to romp through the trees, searching again for pattern and form.

With Fall, the leaves will change colors, inspiring warmer tones and apple pies. Yes, friends, this apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and with my ingrained tree appreciation, I know apples also ripen in fall around here. It’s an inspirational season for me: the change of weather revitalizes the melted spirit of too many days with temps in the 90s, it’s time to literally lift my head and study the colored canopy above, and, coincidentally, my birthday is in the fall so no wonder I enjoy the Autumn so much, right?

I consider the moderate weather a great excuse to gather leaves and learn which trees grow in your neck of the woods. If you want to go so far as to make an identification book, you can press the leaves to keep a little longer. Or paste them on a large piece of paper and have your own vintage-inspired identification poster.

In the past I’ve simply pressed and preserved my leaves between 2 pieces of wax paper and a heavy stack of encyclopedias, but I’ve also seen suggestions all over the interweb to press them between pages of the phone book (I’d still stack something else on top to make sure they stay nice and flat), or you can purchase a fancy press.  I love the folksy style of this one by Selecta.  It would definitely make me feel like a little girl just learning her leaves.

Perhaps you’ll even want to take a crayon and paper leafing adventure and some paper on an outing to rub bark patterns to correspond with your leaves? (Directions here and here).  I think Little Odd Forest's Seedlings tote would be quite appropriate for carrying your good to your wooded destination.

Even just going for a walk with an identification book will bring new light to old wood.  My favorite, perhaps because it's also the one my dad has, is the Audobon Society's.  They make one for the eastern part of North America (that's my old faithful version), and one for the western part.

Whatever your method of memorizing, your ability to differentiate a sweet gum and a red maple is sure to leave a positive impression on your friends.

Feeling Leafless? Try these sites out for inspiration:

Martha Stewart's pressed leaf alphabet project combines traditional craft with vintage flair.

Organic Gardening has a great tutorial on how to make a leaf/flower press.

The University of Illinois Extension has a broad list of web cams, if you'd rather sit in front of your computer than go outside and enjoy the crisp fall air, and the extraordinary colors in real time.

Images from top to bottom:

Curiosity Shoppe: Great Outdoors Notecard Set ($16); American Science and Surplus: Tree ID Kit ($23.95); Present and Correct: Classroom Chart (£22.50)

Selecta Leaf Press ($16.99); Little Odd Forest: Seedlings Tote38.00 EUR); GoTo: DIY Leaf Press Coaster kit ($23)

($16)Three Potato Four: Sukie's Turn Over a New Leaf Notebook ($18); Bailey Doesn't Bark: Four Seasons Wall Plates ($200); Blissen's Redwood Agenda

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Petals & Pedals: Loving that Dairy Air

Images Below: Homemade yogurt with fresh peaches and local honey; Yogurt cheese cheesecake.

Out in the garden it's time to plant fall crops. Here in NC it's a week past fall planting prime, but in my gardening with great abandon (or gardening with great unthinking), I missed the window-proper and will be planting my seeds a week or so late. I'm okay with that, though.  The hot temperatures kept the tomatoes green and un-moving all summer, so now temperatures are cooling down just enough for them to rejoin the living, keeping me from ripping them up and composting them.  Perhaps next week I'll have some sprouts to share, in the meantime, I've adopted the "If you can't stand the Summer heat, get back into the kitchen" approach.

If your tomatoes, like mine, took a while to ripen, it may have been the heat outside.  Tomatoes ripen when temperatures reach the upper sixties, but halt growth and lycopene and carotene production when temperatures rise above 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

I thought I'd be knee deep in tomatoes by now, and they're coming in, but not so fast that I'm canning them to prevent waste.  Instead, I'm cooking as a distraction from work I need to be doing and from counting the days I'm late for my second bout of planting. A lot of this cooking involves milk products.  Despite my seeming infatuation with dairy, we don't eat it that often.  Though a glance into my refrigerator just might convince you otherwise. 

I recognize the impact of cattle on the environment, but am prone to give in to the delicious dairy crave.  At the same time, though, sometimes a recipe calls for milk, which is my least favorite dairy product.  Give me cheese, please, or butter, or yogurt, but keep that Got Milk campaign to yourself.  I don't want no part of it. When it's time to buy some actual milk, I get mine from a local(-ish) dairy owned by friends of my family.  They love their cows, keep them free from artificial growth hormones, and then slowly pasteurize it, keeping the texture creamy and flavorful.  I use it in the recipe, then it sits in the fridge taunting me every time I open the door, letting me know it's a valuable resource not to be wasted. 

Popular Science Magazine recently discussed food waste:

Fully 18 percent of all food purchased for household use in England and Wales is thrown away. The number is even higher for families with children at 27 percent. A now four year-old study of similar measure in the U.S. puts the American number around 14 percent, with nearly half of all food readied for harvest never making it to a dinner table.

So what's a girl to do?  Make yogurt. Then if you have too much yogurt, turn it into a curry sauce. Or strain it into a cheese very similar in flavor to cream cheese.  If you have no need for cream cheese, make that into cheese cake.  But make sure you keep some of your yogurt, it will become the starter culture for your next batch of heavenly homemade goodness.  Just think of all the resources you'll save by not purchasing plastic tubs with your yogurt every time you get a hankering for a probiotic packed snack.

As for making yogurt, make sure you're working with super sanitized equipment (including your hands!). I should add, I like to make mine in a glass jar, suitable for high temperatures, like Ball jars.  They often have measurements marked on