Coffee Addiction

I will let you in on a little secret that I have been harbouring for the last week or so.  I am addicted and obsessed with coffee grounds, or at least my worm farm and garden are!

I discovered this wonderful organic matter about 12 months ago when a friend of mine gave me two large garbage bags of coffee grounds that he picked up from a local cafe.  Without thinking too much about it, I added a bag each to two of my three compost bins.  About a week later I checked back and to my amazement there were worms in abundance literally swimming though the grounds.  They loved the stuff and multiplied quickly, which made me happy.

Anyway, after a while I promptly forgot this valuable lesson until about three weeks ago when I read an article about the benefits of coffee grounds when used in your garden, compost or worm farm and how it has a high carbon to nitrogen ratio (about 20:1) which is comparable to grass clippings.  Coffee grounds also help the soil to retain moisture if added directly.  For those who compost, it is used as a 'green' and not a 'brown' even though that is its colour.  For those who thought it would be high in acid (just like a cup of coffee), think again, because it has relatively balanced pH of between 6.2 to 6.9 (with 7 being neutral).  Most of the acid is flushed away during the coffee making process.  If you have acid loving plants such as blueberries, you can add it directly around the base and they thrive.

Now I am a one cup a day man, which produces 20 grams (3/4 oz) of grounds.  This doesn't sound like much but over the course of a year that amounts to 7.3 kg (16 lbs) of waste.  It only takes 50,000 cups of java to make one metric tonne of the stuff, which you can easily imagine many, many times over in a large city of 4 million like Melbourne or Sydney.  1 tonne of coffee waste emits 1.6 tonnes of Greenhouse gasses, primarily being methane (CH4), so that is one hell of a lot of GHG emissions just from coffee waste.  Taking it out of the waste stream is doing the climate a favour!

Where do you get a steady supply of this 'brown gold'?  Well if you happen to live in Melbourne, which is home of Australia's coffee culture, you certainly do not have to look very far.  There are cafes and coffee shops everywhere, just throwing away mountains of coffee grounds every single day.  All you have to do is have the courage to ask for them.

So I did ask.  I currently have an arrangement with my favourite coffee lady Kate, whereby I take in a little bucket with a lid, and she diverts the coffee grounds from landfill and into my bucket.  It fills in a couple of days and I collect it in the mornings and pop it into the boot of my car before I catch the train.  A nice arrangement and Kate was more than happy to accommodate me, probably because I started the keep cup craze here at the train station.  Anyone who is anyone now has a keep cup (well at least 15 people that catch my train now!).  There are many other cafes in town, so it would be easy enough to approach them as well, but we will see how much I get from Kate each week first before I get too greedy.  The worms and compost bins can only take so much.

The coffee bucket for the railway station cafe.

Where else can you get some without doing the hard yards?  Well I did some research and there is a web site that can help you.  groundtoground.org has a great map with details of where you can pick up some coffee grounds from willing cafe proprietors.  Have a look as it has some great tips on how to use the coffee grounds and other good ideas.

Additionally, lets not forget our work places.  Many now have automatic coffee machines that grind roasted beans and serve up a half decent cup of coffee.  I know that at my work, just about every floor in our high-rise has one of these machines that needs to be cleaned out daily.  The grounds are usually tipped into the landfill bin by some unconcerning soul.  However, the machine on my floor gets cleared by yours truly, whereby I cart the grounds home in my lunch box.  The only limitation I have to taking home more is the room and weight of my backpack.  I could probably carry about 3kg comfortably and there is certainly much more than that going into the bin each day.

My lunch box (after lunch of course)

So in summary, don't be scared to ask your local cafe for their coffee waste.  It may not have any value to them, but it is worth it's weight in gold if you ask me.  It is fantastic for your worm farm, compost bin, and veggie patch, not to mention a big reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.  Lock all that carbon away in the soil is such a simple action that you can take.

Best of all, coffee grounds are free!

Backyard Chickens at the Co-op

One of today's posts is over at the Simple Green Frugal Co-op.  It is a rehash of a post I wrote a while ago titled "Backyard Chickens - Return on Investment".  I have updated it with further information from the response I got from comments on the original post.

Please join me over at the co-op.

Gav

Home-made Passata di pomodoro

As I only grow enough tomatoes each year to eat fresh, I headed down to Bacchus Marsh to my favourite fruit and veg shop (Jeff Jones) and pick up a 10kg box of saucing tomatoes for a very cheap price.  Then I make about 3-6 months supply of Passata, which is a basic tomato puree.  Here is how I do it.

Firstly I core each tomato, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon.

A 10kg box will fill about two 8 litre pots.

Then I simmered until pulpy for about 45 minutes.  Give it a stir a few times during the simmer to stop it from burning to the bottom.

Once pulpy, I passed it all through the food mill to extract the pulp and leave the skins behind.  Don't forget to pass all the skins through for a second round to get the last drop of juice.

Here is the finished result.  A nice and thick puree ready to bottle.  I sterilised the bottles in my normal oven manner at 120C for 15 minutes, and boiled the lids separately.

To each bottle I added 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to bring up the acid levels, then I filled the bottles using a funnel, and sealed tightly.  Brought the water bath up to 92C and then kept it at that temperature for 45 minutes.

Once they were removed and cooled, I heard the audible pop of the lids.  Every one sealed okay.  Out of that 10 kg of tomatoes, I ended up with nine 720ml bottles (23 fl oz) of Passata.

We will probably go through this in no time, however with shop bought Passata at about $3 each, I have myself a saving of $15 (the box cost $12).  It only took a couple of hours work all up and I had a relaxing time making it.

I have in the past added salt, but I now prefer to season the meal and not the ingredients that I make to put in it.  Who else has made Passata, and are there any variations on the mixture?  Leave a link if you have blogged about it!

Aluminium Can Recycling

I thought I would give a Planet Ark campaign a bit of a plug.  Being a recycling advocate, I fully support this cause, and you can also win an iPad as well (Australian residents only)!  Read for the details below.

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Recycle aluminium cans for the chance to win an iPad and surf classic tickets 


After cooling off with a soft drink at the beach this summer, consumers have the chance to win an iPad and tickets to Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic by recycling their aluminium cans and taking a photo of the recycling bin.

To enter the competition, people can simply recycle their cans in the public bins provided and send a photo of the recycling bin to Planet Ark.

Australians are good at recycling aluminium cans at home, but Planet Ark and campaign ambassador, eight‐time world surfing champion Layne Beachley, want to see more aluminium cans recycled at beaches, parks, workplaces, schools and other public spaces.

“Over the last few years many councils and local authorities have installed public place recycling bins on the streets and in parks,” says Planet Ark’s Head of Campaigns, Brad Gray. “Also, lots of shopping centres and food courts have set up bins.  All of this makes recycling aluminium cans easier.”

Over this party season, anyone who goes to outdoor events like concerts in the park, music festivals, open‐air cinemas and markets are likely to notice a range of different recycling bins.

“It’s great that organisers are embracing public place recycling,”  says Gray. “It’s important for everyone to  follow the instructions on the bins.  The more people that recycle properly the greater the environmental benefits, such as cutting both carbon emissions and waste.”

Making an aluminium can from recycled material uses just  5% of the energy needed to make one  from virgin  material.  Aluminium doesn't degrade during the recycling process so cans are endlessly recyclable ‐ saving precious resources for years to come.

According to RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) by recycling six aluminium cans you can offset a 25‐kilometre train journey, a 17‐kilometre bus ride or a ten‐kilometre trip in an average size car.

“Every year, over $22 million dollars’ worth of aluminium is lost because cans are thrown into landfill,  so  any chance to reclaim them is important,”  says Gray.  “If your school or work doesn't already have a system set up, why not make a resolution to organise one in 2012?”

Since Australians first started drinking out of aluminium in the 1970s more than 75 billion cans have  been  recycled.  Recycling these cans has not only contributed to environmental savings but also returned over $1.05 billion to the Australian economy.

“To show Australians there are recycling bins all over the country, Planet Ark is urging people to
take a photo of a recycling bin and send it to us for the chance to win an iPad 2 to the value of
$600 and four VIP tickets to the Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic surfing event,” says Gray.

For more information and to enter the competition, visit Cans.PlanetArk.org.  

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I am always amazed at the lack of recycling bins around the city of Melbourne, especially in food courts and public places.  So many wasted resources that could be reused like the cans mentioned above.

I will be printing this off and posting it at work, so that folk who are too lazy to take those extra 5 steps to the recycling bin to dispose of their aluminium cans have a reason to change their behaviours.  I am forever fishing out cans from the landfill bin!  Here is a FAQ if you want to learn more about Aluminium recycling.

So please get onboard, where ever you may be.  This stuff is just common sense.

Home-made Liquid Fertiliser

This is a little gardening tip that I learnt from watching Vasili's Garden a few months back.  Vasili was filming in the garden of an old guy of Italian decent and he asked him how his vegetables grew so vigorously.  The old bloke took him behind his shed and showed him this brew in an old 44 gallon drum that stunk to high heaven.  So I decided to make some myself!

Back in November 2011, I found a bucket of sheep poo that I had forgotten about.  I divided it into two equal amounts into two 20 litre buckets, added about 2kg of chicken manure then topped it with water and stirred it for about 10 minutes so that it was all nice and mushy.  Then I popped on the lids and left them in the sun.

Fast forward to January 2012.  This is what it looks like now.

It stinks really bad, but I know it is full of goodness for the garden.  I usually give it a stir to mix it all up.

I use it like this.  I pour about 1 litre (1 qt) into a 9 litre watering can.

Then I top it up with water from one of my rainwater barrels.

I mainly use this for my fruit trees, and over the last month they have a renewed vigour.  After I have watered them or it has rained, I make up a few of these and pour on half a watering can for each tree.

Maintenance is easy.  You just top up the stinky bucket with more water,

Then give is a good stir and pop the lid back on until you next need it.  What could be any simpler?  I have been using it since the beginning of the month, and my plants have gone ballistic!  Their growth has amazed me.

The other form of home made liquid fertiliser is from my worm farm.  Here is a picture of it below.

To gross you out even more, here is a close up of the little bugger having a feed on some avocado.  They just love them.

So as a husbandry measure, each month I pour about half a watering can of water through the worm farm to keep it moist.  Then I collect the valuable liquid in a 2 litre ice cream container.

I then add 1 litre to the watering can, and then.....

you guessed it, top it up with water.

I use this on vegetables after I have already watered them.  As with all liquid fertilisers you have to be careful because if you only give the dry soil fertiliser, then the plant has no choice than to suck up all the nutrients.  Plants prefer to take it up at their own rate, not in one big hit.  So hence the watering before adding this brew.

Both fertilisers are so easy to make and not only help the plants, but add life back into the soil in the form of microbes.  So if you have a particularly poor soil, don't just use this type of liquid gold.  Make sure you add lots of organic matter (some dig it in, some don't), and mulch, mulch, mulch.  It won't be long before you have healthy soil, and the plants will thank you for it in the form of an abundant crop.

Liquid gold was never so easy to make.  I makes me wonder why I ever bought that organic liquid stuff when it is so easy to make your own!

Does anyone have a different method?

Wise Words Wednesday?

I have been harping on about all things sustainable living for a long time.  Over that time I have come to realise that there are many good number of readers out there who have just so much to share in abundance.  So I would like to tap into that vast knowledge base.

As one of my goals this year is "More Maintenance, Less Projects", I need to focus on servicing the many needs that my urban farm demands.  To do this I also need to blog less, and stop replying to the constant stream of requests for help via email.  I don't really want to do this so I have come up with a plan.

My plan is to turn over the blog to all my readers each week for the 'Wise Words Wednesday' post.  Sounds exciting doesn't it?  Well I think it is.  Here is how I see it playing out.  I post one of requests for help that I receive during the week (with the senders permission of course), and I will request that you, the reader, have a crack at answering it via a comment.  You can leave links to posts of your own if you like as well as long as it is pertinent to the question.  I don't mind.  Take the time to promote yourselves while you are at it.  We could all do with a little self promotion in this lifestyle, that's for sure.

So now you know the plan, here is the first question from L.

Hi Gav, 

I'm hoping you will be able to help me - I'm really new to this.

I bought an old Fowlers Vacola electric unit second-hand, similar to the one that you use.

I've been reading very carefully about the latest guidelines for water bath canning tomatoes, and they state that they should be processed for 85 minutes with 1/4 tsp of citric acid added (per pint jar).

Anyway, I had all my jars in the Fowlers unit and started adding the water, only to find that the water spews out the thermometer hole when the water level reaches that point. It seems it is impossible to submerge my #20 size jars completely, and it would be even worse for really large sizes.

Now I know that these Fowlers units were manufactured a long time ago and food safety knowledge wasn't what it is today, but am I missing something? Surely the water should completely submerge the jars?

Is it impossible to water bath preserve tomatoes safely using the unit I have?

I've also posted my question on Rhonda's Down to Earth forum, but I think you are my best bet because you have the same type of unit.

I'd really appreciate your thoughts if you have the time. Thanks so much!

L.

I will pass it over to you.  How do you get the most out of your Fowlers Vacola preserving system, and does anyone have the answer to L's specific questions?


Thanks everyone!

Building the Ultimate Clay Cob Oven Video

It has been 3 days in production, and with the aid of my new super computer, finally the most magical video that I have ever created is now live for the viewing.

Now if you are not a fan of my videos, please take the time to watch this one.  It is something very special.  I took over 9 hours of video footage and compressed it into 7 minutes 45 seconds.  I look like I am Superman, and Kim said that I have never worked so fast in my life!




As this is the Ultimate Cob Clay Oven video post, I thought it would be a great idea to list all of the posts in chronological order just in case new readers are after the details of how I built it.

1. Cob Oven Base Part 1
2. Cob Oven Base Part 2
3. Clay Cob Oven Top
4. Clay Cob Oven Flue
5. Clay Oven First Layer
6. Clay Cob Oven Progress
7. The First Pizza!
8. Clay Cob Oven Progress - Part 2
9. Clay Cob Oven Mosaics
10. Clay Cob Oven Mosaics Complete
11. Learning To Cook In The Cob Oven

I must admit that it has been idle for a couple of months until the heat and the corresponding total fire bans die down here in Victoria.  Then in Autumn it will be full steam ahead (pardon the pun).  I am looking forward to putting on some front doors for the wood storage area and to firing it up again for some yummy pizza, bread and roasted vegetables!

I have also written an eBook titled "Build Your Own Backyard Clay Oven" which documents the method and measurements and the materials that I utilised during the build. If anyone is interested here are the details;

Build Your Own Backyard Clay Oven

It seems like just about everyone wants to cook outdoors these days, and what better way to do it than in your very own backyard clay oven.

This book shows how easy it is to make a clay oven from scratch, and includes detailed instructions, with over 60 photographs and illustrations.

It is time for the humble Barbecue or Grill to move over, and for the backyard oven to step into the role of the ‘must build’ outdoor cooking accessory for the 21st century. 

Available at Smashwords in multiple eBook formats, Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Kobo, WH Smith (UK), and Sony ebookstores

US, UK, CA, NZ, AU

or 

Available Direct as a PDF 

Bon Appetite!

Chili and Chicken. A Match Made in Heaven

You may think that this post is going to be a recipe.  On the contrary, it is a recipe for disaster!

Now if you or I ate about 25 green jalapeno chillies, we would be sore for a month.  Not only would it burn your lips, throat, stomach, and the nether regions, it would burn if you rubbed your eyes, nose, and any other sensitive area of skin.  You would think that this would be the same for most animals.  But I did not take into account the remarkable consitiution of the humble backyard chicken!

You see, up until about 3 hours ago, I was the proud owner of two heavily laden jalapeno bushes, with chilies just about to go from green to black, then to firey red.  This is what they look like now.

As you can see, picked clean.  No chilies or leaves for that matter, only a few flowers up high!  If it was not Teddy (in the background), then who was it?

Here is one of the culprits.

Esther the chili chomper!  Her and her flock were helping me keep the cooch grass at bay, but decided on a more tasty morsel, being my chili bushes.

So how do they get away with eating a plant that would have us swollen and sore?  I searched the interwebs and stumbled on this fact from New Scientist.

"Research reported in July 2001 suggests that the chilli's fiery taste deters creatures who are poor at dispersing the plant's seeds. Fortunately for the poultry industry, this does not include birds. Birds appear not to have the receptors to the hot pungent part of the peppers. It appears not to affect them in any way."

Not only does it not hurt them as I had first feared, it also kills some of the notorious food-poisoning bacterium Salmonella in their intestines.

Then I found this from The Straight Dope;

"The reason chilies incorporate capsaicin in their fruits (and red/green peppers of course are fruits in a botanical sense, not vegetables) seems to be to ensure that their seeds are dispersed properly. When small birds consume the fruits of wild peppers the seeds pass through the gut undigested and, due to the birds' flight range, are deposited in distant places where they can grow with less competition. If the fruits were consumed by larger mammals the seeds would either be digested, or deposited much closer to the parent plant. Studies have shown that the seeds of wild peppers are in fact dispersed almost exclusively by birds."

Natures way of ensuring the survival of the chili gene!

So the moral of the story is that if you have any prize winning chilies, then keep your beady eyed little hens away from them at all costs, or end up with a couple of twigs like I did.  Talk about being peeved or what.  I was going to make another batch of my hot chili chutney with those chilies.  Now I can forget it completely. 

Naughty chickens.  At least they laid me four eggs before they destroyed the bush.

One of sustainable living's humorous moments.  I am glad there are so many of them.

The Paradox of Our Age

We live in the age of abundant energy, and we have a lot to be thankful for, but for how much longer, and what are we doing about it?

Humanity has reached a stage in its development where everything we now have is reliant on a source of cheap energy, in the form of oil.  We have transportation that would shock an early 20th century person, as we can get from point A to point B with a minimum of fuss and travel distances in time-frames that would be unheard of only 50 years ago.  Way back then, only the rich could afford to fly, and the rest of us were stuck on the ground or traveled vast distances slowly via the oceans.  However, whilst on the ground we spent this precious resource building roads and freeways that have cut the travelling time between cities in half (except for the odd traffic jam).  We have built magnificent cities from steel, concrete and glass (with the aid of oil) that glow in the night that can be seen from space.   These cities house many millions of people throughout the world and consume resources from neighboring countryside.  We have a medical procedures that can replace most parts of the body when they get diseased or worn out, except for the human brain, but I am sure we are working on that as well.  We live longer than any other time in human history and have the biggest population that increases by 1,000,000,000 people every 25 years.  All because of cheap energy in the form of oil and other fossil fuels.

So, on the down side, at this very moment we are on a plateau of energy production.  Our demand for energy is now outstripping supply, and this demand grows with every single human born into existence.  Prices rise because of supply shortages, and this in turn continues to feed the whoa's of the continuing economic crisis which is build on continuous upward growth.  However, with all fossil fuels and natural resources being of finite supply, our economic system is bashing up against natural hard limits.  You cannot have a system that is reliant on growth when there is only so much of everything.  You cannot change the laws of physics.  Not only fossil fuels are depleting, but things like fresh water with depletion in the form of ancient aquifers, phosphates for fertilization, arable land to grow food on, and global fish stocks.  We do not seem to be awake to the fact that many of the things we take for granted are depleting rapidly, we have no plan to implement a scalable replacement for our energy needs, which drives all other human activities.

Even with all our cleverness, much of humanity lacks the foresight to plan for a future with less of everything.  Our population has grown alongside of energy growth, because we have been able to produce abundant surpluses of food.  But only in some parts of the world.  Over 5/7th of our species do not have a regular meal on the table, or access to clean drinking water.

Recent events do not fill me with joy or hope.  Diplomats from all over the world returned home after a hard-won agreement in Durban, South Africa during the latest round of climate talks. They agreed to do nothing to save our climate from disaster.   Our governments will continue to talk until 2015, and then maybe do something serious about greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. By then, we will be committed to at least 3 and a half degrees Centigrade hotter world in 2100, than our ancestors knew in 1750 and a climactic system that is totally unpredictable. It will only get hotter after that and maybe, as some scientist predict, this will occur earlier, our own lifetimes, and that of our children.  Surely we can do better than this?

Now that we have hit the 7,000,000,000 mark in population in October 2011, and that we are constrained by natures hard limits, and the threat of environmental disaster in the form of a changing climate, what are we to do?  I ask myself this question every day, and wonder often 'what happens next?'  How are we to cut emissions by 50-80% by 2050, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels if it is predicted that the human population will be at 9 billion?  More people means more emissions and more resources.  I believe that we will be too worried about feeding ourselves, rather than trying to stabilize the climate!

So many unanswered questions, and with little visible action from world leaders and governments, I am afraid I cannot think of any other outcome except a train-wreck.  I may be wrong, but I think our civilization is moving too fast on the rails to slow down in time.  But think of this train-wreck happening in slow motion.  We are at overshoot, and the only other result is a long slow decline.  All because we have delayed action on alternative energy, changing our economic system, mitigating climate change, and population overshoot to feed economic growth and to fatten someones wallet.  Whatever happens from now on in, it will not be pretty.

Look, I didn't mean to bring everyone down, but we do live in troubled times.  It is just that many of us cannot connect the dots, or even want to talk about these big issues.  We only have one habitable planet in this neck of the Universe, so we have to clean up the mess we made.  What is needed is a call to arms, and where we start talking about these issues on a daily basis.  The more we talk about it, the more thinking we will do, and we may even come up with some real solutions for the climate or an effective way to power-down during energy descent.

However, until such time that we really start talking seriously, we will just keep things as business as usual.  The only problem is that business is starting to get bad!

I will leave you with this thought though.  It is something I posted a long time ago, but is still relevant today.

The Paradox of Our Age

by The 14th Dalai Lama 

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.
We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever but have less communication.
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall men but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

So lets get busy, and start talking about these things to people who are yet aware of the issues we face.  It will be only way we will solve them in the time we have available.  I will keep talking about this, will you?

New Layout

Yesterday, my old PC died.  The main hard drive and one of the memory modules gave up the ghost, and unfortunately I could not find spares for my old clunker.  It was 5.5 years old, so I thought it had a good run.

There are a few parts that I can harvest for spares, and I will be sending the old one to e-waste, once I find somewhere that accepts it.  So thankfully it will not be going into landfill and getting recycled.

My new PC has just about green everything, including a Solid State Drive with no moving parts as the boot drive, and a green 1TB drive that uses only a few watts of electricity.  The rest of the PC draws very little energy, and the monitor is LED backlit which only uses about 20 watts as well.  It doesn't contain Brominated flame retardant which can be absorbed into the body.

The crux of it is that if I want to continue to write this blog, I need a PC that I could process the video and podcasts on, so an old clunker would not have cut the mustard.  At least I made the choice of a custom built machine with as many green parts as I could instead of a thumping games machine.  BTW, I am not a fan of laptops so I didn't take that option either.

Anyway, to celebrate my new device, I thought a revamped look for the blog would also go down a treat.  I have changed the template for about 3 years, so the look was getting a little stale.

What do you think of the blogs new hair do?

The 1000th Post!

I am so excited!

Firstly a video message from yours truly.  You need to watch this so that the rest of the post makes sense!





So here are the questions:

1. What documentary am I referring to in the video?
2. What are the names of my current 8 chickens?
3. When did I first write about Peak Oil?
4. Name the very first cheese I ever made?
5. What is the name of the disease that you have if caught in the consumer culture?
6. And finally, Who did I interview in Podcast #20?

I realise that it is a big list of questions, but I wanted to make this a bit like a treasure hunt, and a bit of fun.  Once again the prize is a book titled "The Armchair Environmentalist - 3 minute-a-day action plan to save the world", by Karen Christensen, which I will post anywhere in the world.  Just be the first person to answer all of the questions correctly and post them in a comment!  I will give you 2 days in which to guess.

Good luck in the treasure hunt, and as I mentioned, here is to the next 1000 posts!

Warmly and yours in greening,

Gavin

Homemade Peach Strudel

We had a big bowl of peaches sitting in the fridge that we harvested about a week ago, so we had to find something to do with them before they went off.  The fruit had become too soft to preserve it, so we had to bake something with peaches.  Kim hit upon the idea of making a strudel, which was a great idea.  She had thought that making a strudel was going to be a daunting task, but the other day she found that surprisingly easy. She did cheat a little and used ready made puff pastry, but I don't blame her as the real stuff takes so long to make.

It was so good that I had to write about this delicious desert.  I believe that you can use any type of stone fruit and it will taste much better with fresh fruit.

Kim's Peach Strudel


Ingredients

    1  cup sliced fresh peaches
    1/2 cup sliced fresh plums
    1/2 tsp cinnamon
    2 tbsp white sugar
    1 tbsp flour
    1/4 cup of dried sultanas or raisins
    1/4 cup chopped walnuts
    2 tbsp brown sugar
    1 tbsp bread crumbs
    1 tbsp white sugar
    2 sheets of puff pastry
    1 egg for egg wash

Instructions
Fruit filling

Mix up the fruit, sultanas, cinnamon, half of the white sugar and flour in a mixing bowl.

Sugar filling

The filling of a strudel has two parts; this is the fruit part, and the other part is this sugar mixture. So combine the walnuts, brown sugar, bread crumbs and the other half of the white sugar. Give that a mix.

Prepare the Pre-made Strudel Pastry
Put it on a well floured board, with a little more flour over the top. With your rolling pin, make a rectangle shape by joining the two sheets together.  Make sure that the long sides are straight.

Assemble the Strudel
With the less attractive side facing up, and the smoother side facing down (if there is one) - egg wash that really well. Put the sugar mixture down on just 2/3rd of the dough. Put the fruit on the bottom 1/3, and leave about a 5cm (2 inch) space at the bottom and sides.

Fold the Strudel
Start by bringing up the first 5 cm (2") to help roll it over once, that's the second third - pinch in the sides a bit to keep it all together. And then the last fold makes the top.  Place the fold on the bottom of your tray to hide the seam..

Bake the Strudel
Kim put the strudel on some greaseproof paper then on a baking tray.  Then cut a slice in the top about every 2.5 cm (1 inch) to give it that signature strudel look, and to vent the air and steam. Paint it very well with egg wash. Cook at 180 degrees C (375 degrees F) for about 40-45 minutes, until it's browned, beautiful and looks like this.

We cut one of them in half and served the Strudel with fresh cream!  It fed the three of use, and had the other half the next night.  We still have the whole one in the freezer for a time when fresh home-grown peaches are a distant memory!

Easy peasy, and kudos to Kim for giving it a go and making the best strudel I have ever tasted.  Apparently the key the man's heart is through his stomach, and she knows me too well.  I will keep growing the fruit if you keep making delights like this one!

I Need Your Help

I'm working on submitting a couple of applications for some big blogger awards today and it's just occurred to me that you may be able to help me. I believe that the judges will be checking out this blog and look at my stats to confirm my application. It would help me a lot if you could please take the time to add me to your feeder or Bloglines, or link to my blog (because that shows up in my Technorati rating), become a follower or subscribe in the reader you use. Even do all of them if you have the time. ;-).  I know I am being cheeky to ask such a favour, however I believe that if nominated, they will help spread the sustainable living message far and wide.  I always say, if you don't ask, you don't get.

Thank you so much in advance as I appreciate whatever you can do.

By the way, I have a ripper of a recipe to share today that Kim made from scratch the other day from mostly home grown stone fruit, so check out the real post for today in a few hours time.

Gav x

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Green Mojo

You know what?  After having read an article in the latest G Magazine, I believe that I have been suffering from 'Green Fatigue'.  Here is an extract so you see what I am on about;

"The Murray-Darling water plan.  Coal seam gas mining. Old growth logging. That 'great big' carbon tax. Yep, 2011 was a hectic 12 months for environmentalists - and those are just the major campaigns.  When you factor in the mental stress of making ethical decisions every time you shop, eat or travel, it's easy to see how you can end the year suffering from a severe case of green fatigue."

Last year, I got so caught up in so many causes, workshops, and articles, that I had green fatigue!  As you have probably been aware, I have only been blogging this year in short bursts.  This was the time-out that I needed to recover and renew afresh.  I don't want to burn out.

I remember back in early December, when the Durban climate conference ended that I wanted to just yell at the top of my voice at the delegates to get a move on regarding climate action.  But I didn't.  In fact I didn't even write about it because at the time, I thought the outcome was a lost cause and more procrastination from global leaders.  Yes folks, I knew something was up when I didn't take the time to share my thoughts with you regarding the COP17 conference, but will do so in the very near future.

Over the past few days, besides having some nasty tummy bug, I have taken the time to self-reflect.  I believe that by taking this 'me' time, I look inwards and reflect on all of the achievements I have made since my green epiphany.  My brain is filled with things like, 'am I doing enough, am I doing too much, is my ying and yang in balance, can we eat and shop more ethically, am I spending quality time with loved ones, am I truly rid of the consumer culture, and am I communicating effectively to those who read the things I like to write about'.  These are just some of the thoughts that swim around my head.  To aid my self-reflection, I answered about 20 emails from readers tonight that I have been putting off for the last week or two (Kim calls it my fan mail, but I am far too modest ;-) ).  When I reply to reader emails it makes me realise a few things.  Firstly that anyone who takes the time to send humble ol' me an email must be keen to learn more, and secondly that they will probably take any of my advice/experience on-board and reflect upon it themselves, and possibly act upon it.  This gives me the feeling that I am making a difference, and that if we wait for governments to act, we would still be waiting for something to happen about the big issues I continue to write about.  A bit of self worth never hurt anyone.

However, the biggest thing that helps me get my green mojo back time after time is you, the reader of this blog, and my wife.  Let me tell you why.  You see, I am a bit of a statistics fan, and I track pages-view, demographics, and referrals to this site.  In the last few months, readership has grown considerably, as had the daily amount of page-views.  Over 2000 a day now and from all corners of the globe.  I am really proud that most of the things that I write about are sought out by people who are searching for answers, and want to learn about living a sustainable lifestyle.  What better way to help realise ones own sense of self worth.  However, it is a trap that can easily be fallen into.  Back when I first started writing about my sustainable journey, I would check the stats every day, and even though I only got about 10 hits a day in the first few months, I was encouraged to keep going by my wonderful wife Kim.  She egged me on, and here we are nearly 4 years down the track and 997 posts under my belt!  Who would have thought that I would have written for so long and about so many varied subjects?

So, with my green mojo intact and throbbing for action, 2012 is going to be a year to remember.  Please stay a while longer and enjoy the adventure!  Who wants to join me?

Steam...

Which is something I ran out of last Monday night!

 My week became chaotic due to an assignment at work, and I was very tired by the time I arrived home.
Every time I sat down to write, I had writers block and couldn't think straight.  The only saving grace was my very first downshift day on Wednesday and I managed to relax a little bit.

We have been eating so many veggie meals, and have only had meat once during the week which was sustainably harvested fish with the Marine Stewardship Council logo on it.   We certainly have not found this lifestyle change boring and find that meals are so quick to prepare.  My favourite veggie meals so far has been Lentil and Mushroom Bourguignon.   It was easy to make, and was delicious.  I served it with mashed potato.

Over the weekend, I managed to help Kim decorate a room, hung lots of shelves for the new classroom/art studio, cleaned out the both chookhouses and gave them a coat of lime wash on the inside, harvested some tomatoes (now in abundance) and a cucumber, and planted some spring onions.

Other than that, Ben and I went to the movies to see the new Tin-Tin movie.  I haven't been to the movies for over a year so thought it would be a nice treat.  We both enjoyed it and had a good time.

However, a big surprise for us when we got back to the car was that some one had side-swiped us and smashed my rear bumper in.  They were nice enough to leave a note with a phone number, however it rings out every time I give it a call.  Looks like I am up for $550 for the excess on the insurance.  One expensive movie!

I am hoping that my blogging mojo will return during the week, so stay tuned!  I am hoping to get a fortnightly podcast up and running again about all things sustainable living wise.  I just need a few ideas.  Any suggestions for a podcast theme would be welcome to get the creative juices flowing!

Gav

Dumpster Diving - Saving Food Waste

No readers, I have not started dumpster diving just yet, but I have thought about it when I see the local supermarket throwing away so much good food.  Dumpster diving is a perfectly good solution to prevent food waste, and you could probably feed a small village with the food that just one supermarket throws away in a single day.

I have, however found a cool video that shows what is actually being thrown away and collected by some people.  It goes to show how much stuff is actually wasted from supermarkets, and how inefficient and wasteful the whole food distribution system really is.




The Perennial Plate Episode 84: Dumpster Diver from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

See what I mean.  I came across a similar incident today, not necessary in the dumpster through.  At work this morning, I have noticed that when the staff deliver the milk on Monday morning, they check the existing milk in the fridge and pour down the sink any milk that is past its used by date.  5 two litre bottles were tipped down the sink today.  The shame!

So my thinking is that on Friday afternoon, when I leave, I should check how many bottles are in the fridge that will be thrown away on Monday, then bung them in the freezer and take them home on Monday.  That way they would not go off and I could make some cheese for the office staff as a treat.  Cool idea I think.

So here is the question of the decade.  Who of you would dumpster dive if you saw supermarkets throw away perfectly good food?  I know I would.

Spuds Ahoy - The Verdict

Today, I dug up the potatoes that you saw me plant back in this post titled "Spuds Ahoy!".  The leaves had mostly died off, and I thought I was in for rich diggings.

This is the patch after I cleared away some of the dead stalks.  Now not wanting to damage the spuds, I used a small plastic garden fork and dug them all up by hand.  It took a bit of time, but it took me back to the days of playing in a sandpit as a child.

After about 30 minutes of digging, here is my bounty.

Not the biggest potatoes in the world, but certainly big enough to eat.  I don't think the spud patch is in the best position, as it only gets full sun for about 4 hours a day.  It gets plenty of water from the run-off from the rainwater tank, and the soil was quite moist, so it had to be the sunlight.

We had some of the purple Toolangi Delights as roasted potatoes for dinner, and they were delicious.  So much flavour.  At least they are enough for about a weeks worth of meals.

Oh well, better luck next year and I think I will choose a different spot.

How did your spud crop go this year?

Chickens - Return On Investment

As I mentioned in the previous post about chickens, not only are they great pets, or if you like, willing workers in the garden, they also lay the best eggs ever.

Not only do they taste much better, they are nutritionally better as well! Mother Earth News mentions that eggs from chickens that are allowed to roam on grass (instead of being confined to cages as is the case for the majority of commercially produced eggs) have;

•  1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

(reference; http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx)

I know that in economic terms this is an intangible benefit, so how does one calculate the Return On Investment for your backyard chickens?

Well do I have the tool for you!  I found a fantastic calculator on-line that you can figure out the financial benefits of your chickens.  Here is the link to it.   http://www.ruleworks.co.uk/cgi-bin/PoultryROI.exe?Guide=Poultry&t=Poultry%20ROI%20Calculator

Here is how mine worked out.

"Poultry ROI Calculator

Your Poultry cost per year is $ 27.20
Housing cost per year is $ 52.00
Feed quantity required per year is 321 Kg for 8 Large Fowl
Cost of all feed products per year is $ 354.05
Consumables / other cost per year is $ 202.00
Total Cost per year is $ 635.25
Your eggs sold value per year is $ 87.75
Hatching eggs sold value per year is $ 0.00
The remaining eggs valued at shop prices $ 351.00 for your own use.
Total Return value per year is $ 822.75

Your Total Profit is $ 187.50 per year.

Well done. Of course this profit calculation does not include your labour costs"

Now even though it says I make a profit because they are great value for money, I personally wouldn't care if I made a loss.  They are just like any other household pet as far as I am concerned (unless of course you breed your chooks for meat).  No-one questions the ROI of a dog or a cat, and they certainly don't lay eggs for your breakfast!

So for those interested, I would love to see how your ROI comes out.  Don't forget to select the right currency for the calculator.  It doesn't affect the calculations as it just changes the currency symbol on the calculator.  It look better, that's all.

Anyway, happy ROI calculating.  It is simple and easy to do if you know most of your costs on a monthly basis.

Let me know how you went.

Romano over at LGC

Hi readers.  For those of you who are keen on cheesemaking, I have just posted my latest video tutorial over on my cheese blog, Little Green Cheese.

Pop on over and have a lot at how I make Romano at home.  It is a nice strong cheese that is easy to make, and well worth the 10 months it takes to mature.

Gav

Egg Production and other Chicken News

I have just recorded the final egg count for the year of 2011.  Our nine chickens laid a grand total of 939 eggs!  That is just over 78 dozen eggs.  It is not until you count them up that you actually realise how productive our little girls really are.

Here are the stats, month by month in reverse chronological order.

December - 86
November - 91
October - 102
September - 102
August - 86
July - 58
June - 74
May - 41
April - 40
March - 79
February - 72
January - 108

Most of the girls moulted in April and May which is reflected in the stats.  When they grow feathers, they stop laying to divert energy to that task.  As it warms up again the chickens begin to lay again.

That is the happy news.  Now for some sad news.  The chicken in the photo, Jennifer, is no longer with us.  She passed away two days before Christmas, of an infection that started in her eyes.  We had her isolated from the rest of the flock for a month and a half before hand, and she actually got better for a period of two weeks, then all of a sudden went down hill really fast.  I was sad as she was my favourite chicken who used to follow me everywhere.  Any pet passing on is hard to deal with at the best of times.  Yes folks, a few tears were shed, I am man enough to admit it.  Some may say she was only a chicken, and she may have never laid a single egg in her lifetime, but we had a close bond.

On the bright side, the other chickens did not catch the infection due to the quick quarantine that I put in place.  They are all healthy, with only a few scaly leg mites to deal with, but I treat that fortnightly by dunking their legs in olive oil which does the trick.  Other than that small issue, they are keeping cool in the nice undercover area I built them, and love to scratch for worms in the morning, and dust bath in the afternoon.  The bantams love a dig under the plum tree each afternoon clearing up any dropped fruit and bugs, then they pop back into their run before sundown.

Due to the hot weather, I have been making sure their water is topped up.  The chicken nipples that I installed worked fine, but unfortunately the water barrel got contaminated from bird droppings and stunk really bad (the irony), so I now have to install a first flush diverter to fix this problem.  Until then I have to hand water each day, sometimes twice.  I am hoping for cooler weather to fix it up this weekend.

So all in all, the benefits of having backyard chickens outweigh the occasional heartache.  They provide us and our garden with so many things.  Eggs of course, compost machines, fertilised mulch, pest control, weed control and continuous entertainment.  They are far better at catching pests than I could ever be, and actually like doing the weeding.  So they can do what they are good at, and I will do what I am good at like feeding them a bit of mixed grain, garlic and apple cider vinegar as well as giving them first dibs at any kitchen scraps.  They are the ultimate garbage disposal unit.

I love my chickens.  Thanks for the eggs girls.

Goals for 2012

Last year was hectic to say the least.  There were several times that both Kim and I mentioned that it would be nice to have a weekend free to just have 'us' time.  We just took on far too much with the time we had available.

To be a bit different this year, I have decided that there will be no big projects in the pipeline.  After 5 years of greening, we have just about everything we need to sustain our lifestyle.  We don't need much more as I believe we have prepared well for whatever comes our way.

So on to goals.  I would not be me if I didn't have a few to strive for during the year.  It took me about a week to think of these, but I managed to come up with a direction for this year.  Without further adieu, here are the three that we chose to pursue.

1.  Reduce our meat intake by 80%.

We are going to pursue this goal after much discussion among ourselves.  We thought about going full vegetarian, but decided that we both do like meat occasionally, so we thought that we would aim for the 80% mark.  That means that 1.4 days a week we will have a meal that contains organic or biodynamic raised meat.  By eating far less than our normal Meatless Monday and Thursday we will be able to afford the more expensive yet ethically raised produce.  We already started three days ago, and are really enjoying the change.  The dogs love it too, as they get the leftover Christmas ham for dinner!

2.  Increase vertical growing space.

Linda Woodrow left a comment yesterday about vertical growing space which made me think.  Today I did a survey and opened my eyes to the potential for vertical growing spaces.  I realised that I have so much vertical growing space that I could actually nearly double my food production.  With the extra time I have each fortnight from downshifting, it will give me a chance to get it established during the year.

3.  Less projects, more maintenance.

As I mentioned, we took on far too much last year.  Big projects that took a lot of time, but worthwhile of course, that sucked up just about every winter and spring weekend we had.  I am calling this the year of maintenance, and by that I don't mean fixing stuff, I mean maintaining the stuff that I already have.  For instance, the main reason I planted my spring crops so late was not because of the weather, it was because I was time poor.  I could have grown so much more food.  This year will be different because I am going to give myself the time to smell the roses (then cut off dead heads), to cut up wood that I have been saving, to tend to the vegetables like I should be.  In combination with goal #2, I will be able to keep what I have going without too much trouble and start growing more.  I will also have time to preserve harvests, and to actually enjoy the entire process of sustainable living instead of feeling rushed.  The only real project I have are a few cheesemaking workshops as they come up during the year.

Also while on maintenance, we believe that with the very low meat diet, our health will improve, and I am aiming to loose about 20 kg.  With all of that gardening and good food, it should be very doable.

Other than those three goals, I hope for a year of good health for my family and to all readers.  May 2012 be the year that more people wake from the shopocalypse, and start living life within their means and within the means of our wonderful planet Earth.  We better start soon, because as hard as we might look in the Universe, there are none quite like the one we live on! 

So what do you think? Are these goals worthy of pursuit?  I believe that they are the place we need to be on our quest towards a sustainable lifestyle.  This year I am going to take the time to really enjoy the journey, and look around while I travel this exciting road. 

Speaking of journeys, I will leave you with this quote that is very apt for this stage of my journey.

"Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."  Lao Tzu