Really? Another gadget? Yep.

Today found me once again distracted from my day job... Good thing I work at a computer with the entirety of the interwebs at my fingertips. Well, all the non-blocked production-sapping interwebs - supposedly...

I just ordered another necessary accoutrement to our new lifestyle: cheese making equipment. I went to cheesemaking.com and bought the beginner set with the dvd and recipe book as well as the hard cheese kit and the gourmet kit. Now, if I can just find the cobbler kit... My rationale - my excuse for this purpose is that it's a birthday present to myself. Fshew, Trisa is off the hook. I am literally quivering with anticipation at the thought that my food mill kit and cheese kits are on their way to my house as we speak! Besides Trisa, Pi (yep, Pi), Roy, cobbler and wine, cheese is my very favorite. I'm passionate about cheese. I love everything cheese. Cheese.

We're finally getting the home-based infrastructure in place to make food that'll last us through the winter. It's odd that to our grandparents this would seem perfectly natural. So many of that generation were so self-sufficient. They tread lightly, so to speak, when it came to consumerism, self producing food, not wasting things, etc.

I've begun to analyze (please note: I use this term liberally here) the unintended consequences of our experiment. Here are some:

• Last month we threw out about 10% of the food we bought - In the past our average monthly food waste was near 45%. This is a 78% reduction in our food waste.
• We threw away about 4 bags of non-food waste. In the past we usually averaged 2-3 bags per week. There was one week that we had less than a bag to go out to the curb and so we didn't put any garbage out. This is a 60% reduction.
• Our recycle bin has been filled up once since starting (three months ago). I should say that we've filled it once over a two-week period and every other two week period it's been less than 2/3 full. Except this week - I've stuffed it full of some cardboard boxes ready for recycling. Before, we filled it nearly every two-week period. This is about a 30% reduction in our recyclable waste.

I am amazed at just how much we threw away that things came packaged in, or that went bad before we could eat it. The reduction of food waste has reduced due to us buying less food, buying non-packaged food, producing our own food and harvesting it the day we eat it, etc. So even though the food we buy costs more, we buy less, and spend less to produce our own small quantity. Check out how much we spend on a weekly basis to the right. It's the same (maybe a little more some weeks), but just about the same on average as we spent before. The resources we spend, like time and gas has gone up slightly to get the same end net results, but the waste reduction and the lower cost of the lower amount goods we purchase brings down the total net resources consumed -significantly. We never intended to save money, or reduce our waste. We never intended to spend more either, but thought that it was likely that we would. That hasn't been the case. In the end, more of our spent dollars are going to LOCAL producers who produce food and stuffs with a higher rate of resource use, but lower overall environmental and cost impact due to less transportation, less chemicals (virtually none), less packaging and so on.
I love that the dollars stay here, that I'm getting to know the producers and farmers in my community, and that they pay for people to practice a more healthy production cycle than big business uni-crop farms. I LOVE IT. Plus we're getting to know some great people in the process. Sam, the pasta guru is AWESOME. Deborah, she may or may not be real, but was really cool that one time. The blog followers - and the casual readers - have made contact and sent us links, told us of their experiences, and made suggestions or recommendations. The cheese kit is the very version used by a coworker and his girlfriend. This weekend we're planning on going berry picking with another blog follower.
So far it's been a great adventure. We're three months in as of Sunday this week so we've got three more quarters to go. I can't wait to try making cheese and pasta sauce and jam and jelly and more bread. I can't wait to review those products on the blog either. I hope they live up to my expectations.
That's all for now. Next blog I might have more to say about upping our production by renting out some farm land...
Mike

Well, I've gone and done it

I've officially become obsessed with urban farming and (self) sustainability.

I've been on the cusp for quite some time, but I find my mind wanders more and more to the ideas and ideals of that sort of simple life. So while I'm working - writing procedures for power plants, pouring over financial information to glean if they're covering up any maintenance issues, drawing plant instrument and flow diagrams, I find that in VERY short order I'm distracted and reading Grist, or looking at Amazon for a new kitchen gadget to help make better use of our harvest, or thinking of where else to put in a new garden bed, or how I could use the small green patch between a sidewalk and a street...

Today, I bought some educational materials to once again step up our farm's production. I'll read it and review it on the blog as soon as I'm done, but it's giving me all sorts of ideas. Since start of work this morning, during my lunch and breaks, I've read 3 of 7 "chapters" and also bought those new kitchen gadgets from Amazon.

Which brings me to another conclusion - we're going to have to go to a cash/envelope method of handling our personal finances. We definitely spend way more than we need to. I just looked at our monthly bank statement and in about 4 weeks we spend like crazy on lunches, beer/drinks/movies - etc, small store purchases, gas, consumables, and all sorts of various and sundry items. Seriously there's probably about 75 transactions that average $7.50 that we can and SHOULD do without. By we, I mean me. I'm horrible when it comes to using my debit card and I'm finally convinced that the cash/envelope method could be the answer.

Today, at Amazon I bought some things that we really could use, things we've been thinking of purchasing for a while and just haven't yet. I ordered a sauce maker - basically it's a food mill to process our fruits and tomatoes. In the long run it'll save us tons of time when we're making red sauce, jams, jellies, fruit mush, etc. No coring of apples is necessary with this bad boy. Simply quarter and drop them into the hopper and twist the crank and whammo: apple sauce. So, we do "need" it and it was time to order it as harvest is quickly approaching.

I can't wait until it comes in the mail and I get to go to a market for 100 lbs of tomatoes to make 100 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

I also can't wait to start utilizing the tips and techniques I'm finding in this urban farmers guide.

If anyone knows of someone who wants to install a small scale intensive farm, or wants to learn how to do it at their own property, or wants someone like me to farm their property (or a piece of it), please please please let me know. I'd love to get started soon teaching/coaching and working on more space(s) soon so we're ready for next year.

That's all for now.

Mike

I LOVE this article!!

Wow, the NY times has stirred up the locavores and their ilk recently with an op ed piece calling for the locavore movement to use numbers, math, to back up their claims that eating local saves money, saves pollution, has less environmental impact, and what have you. Can you imagine? MATH?

The folks at Grist.org have done an amazing job at rounding up the locavores - the prominent ones - to rebut the NY Times op ed piece. Their work is is nothing short of profound. Thank you grist.

I, however, like to think of myself as a non-conformist in as many ways possible. But not a hipster. For that nonconformity, I leave it to a friend/coworker. My nonconforming leads me to discount much of what Budiansky says as well as much of what those prominent locavores have stated in their reactions to his article.

You can find the NYTimes piece at

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/opinion/20budiansky.html?_r=1

and the Grist.org piece at

http://www.grist.org/article/food-fight-do-locavores-really-need-math-lessons/.

For me, and I presume Trisa, our choice to eat locally and to produce our own is a personal decision. We didn't choose to go through this experiment to save the world, save the climate, change people, or for any activist reasons. We did it to educate ourselves and to hopefully give back a portion of what God has blessed us with.

We have a tiny piece of dirt, a small house, small bank accounts, great jobs and great families and friends. We are blessed with good neighbors and trials and times that make us carve out a life for ourselves that we enjoy, that we can learn from and grow. Nearly a decade ago, I took a two day course on living a focused life. I learned that most people don't "peak" in life until shortly before they retire. Their highest earnings, their most enjoyment from family, work, education, etc all comes just before they stop "working." If there's one reason Trisa and I do what we do it's because "we want to." No one has to hold our hands to go and learn how to garden, to go to jobs we LOVE, to spend our money on the things we both need to spend it on and WANT to spend it on. Where our desires and passions meet up with our actions (we call those VALUES) is where we focus our time, energy and resources. There and only there. Our values change and will always continue changing. They are different than they were nine years ago when I first studied a focused life. They will be different in ten years from now. But, no matter what our values are, we'll be "peaking" for decades. We'll be "achieving" (or at least attempting to) our goals and living our life in-line with our vision and focus WAY before retirement and WAY after.

Trisa and I have done the exercises I learned nine years ago together for the last six years at least once per year. We've found that a profound change has taken place: we live a life we like and love and can see God's generosity to us in that life. You might ask if we think everything is easy or if we do things we don't want to do. the answers are NO and YES. Of course we have to do things we'd rather not, it's our duty. But the bigger picture remains - our vision of our future and our life many years ahead instead of tomorrow. When we go to work at our day jobs, when we garden, when we go to farmers markets, when we sell wine, take classes, read books, spend time with family and friends, do things we'd rather not, etc., all of it is focused and intentional (usually). We've found ourselves in vocations and work that is "in tune" with our wiring, our desires and passions. It doesn't feel like work. It all feels like life, abundant life.

We hope to give back at least a little of what we've been given. THAT'S why we're locavores - and why we're growing as much food as we can on our small piece of dirt at our small home.

M

It's been a while

To the eleven (faithful) followers, we're sorry it has been so long since our last post. We've been on vacation and busy busy busy.

I'd like to update you on the happenings on the farm and in our lives. Trisa is back to work after a week off last week. I took three days off and am back too. We went to Mt. Saint Helens for a house-sitting vacation. We toured WONDERFUL Willamette Valley near Portland twice while on vacation for some of the best wine tasting we've ever had. We also went to Windy Ridge, the Ape Caves (just a quick stop, not into them), Johnston Ridge, and the surrounding countryside. If you've never been, you seriously need to get off your rear and go. It's absolutely some of the most beautiful, peaceful countryside the earth has to offer. Plus, it's only a quick hour and a half to Oregon's most storied wine region - W Valley.

Two weeks ago we were interviewed and photographed for a possible news(y) article/photo essay for grist.org. I'd like you all to go to grist.org and bookmark the site. They have some very different world views than Trisa and I have, but their agricultural and urban ag (placemaking) articles are first-rate. My coworkers call it a lib rag, but I think very highly of grist.org's work.

We're still on the happy bandwagon of no grocery store food. We bought 2 gallons of Ocean Spray Cranberry juice last week, but it's a beverage, and a tasty one at that. I can't tell you how close I was to stopping at Trader Joe's for their feta with Greek spices. Man, I could eat a tub of that in a flash and only crave more. But, as much as I miss it, I'm sticking to the ban on all food from a grocery store.

We've visited a couple more farmers markets too. I went alone to the Snohomish market and it isn't half as good as I remembered. I think there's less vendors this year and the fruit and veggies are a little less impressive than last year. I left without purchasing anything. I went again to the Everett market and different vendors were there. I bought some dip mix so now I need to source some sour cream to mix them in. I also bought some alder smoked salt that is FRIGGIN AMAZING!

We've learned that the Edmonds farmers market changes every week. Basically there's two markets that switch back and forth. Who knew? I guess people who go every week, but we'd gone every other week for two weeks and so we didn't know there were other vendors until I lamented to the milk dude at the Everett market about having to drive to Everett for milk. He said that if it was more convenient he could bring our milk to Edmonds and told me that he's there every other week and we'd just missed him. So satisfying to know this now and we'll be hitting the Edmonds market two weekend straight to test out the "other" vendors.

We went back to the Ballard market in search for Deborah's Meat Pies. I seriously cannot imagine anything worse than last month's surreal situation where I found out that Deborah's meat pies is JUST Deborah's fruit pies in Edmonds. So, the drive, $2 for parking, the walk and the search being worth every amount of work and the cost weighed, we set out for the meat pies. Lo and behold: NO EFFING DEBORAH! I'm beginning to wonder if in some freak of nature we found Deborah's meat pies in an alternate reality and will never again find her because here, in this reality she seems to not exist. I have only the wisp of a memory, and even that is fading fast, of the most moist, delicious, heavenly meat pie I ever ate. I'll grant you skeptics - it's the only meat pie I ever ate, but I'm telling you it was awesome. Meaty and awesome.

If you haven't seen the picture, go to my facebook page and check out the freak of nature that came form our back yard. It's in the form of a 4.25 lb zucchini. We also harvested another one that weighed 3.75 pounds, but I gave that one to a friend. Trisa nabbed 3 pounds of bush beans, we planted a second planting of them so we'll be eating a lot of "green beans" for the next month or so. The carrots are getting huge. We pulled our peas because they were done. We planted rainbow chard. That stuff is PRETTY. The tomatoes are are on the verge of harvest and there will probably be about 75-100 lbs of them. We pulled our first planting of potatoes. We had about 25 lbs. I expected to get 30-40 pounds, but I think we pulled the first few before they were completely growing. The second planting will be ready in about a week.

We might have a watermelon. There's an awfully watermelon looking thing growing in our back yard. The first planting of beets came up - 10 lbs. We're onto our 3rd planting of lettuce and about out of it. Our 4th is ready to pick this week and we'll be planting a 5th in a week. So far we've reaped about 25 pounds of peas and 40ish lbs of lettuce - I'm going by bags and an average weight per bag that we weighed. We didn't have a chance to weigh every leaf we cut and every pea we picked.

At the end of August, the farmer is coming back to help me build 3 or 4 hoop houses over the garden boxes in the front yard. We're going to plant winter carrots, spinach, and miner's lettuce to have green (and orange) veggies throughout the winter. A few people have mentioned that they would like to join us when we rent the commercial kitchen, but so far it's just talk. So Trisa and I will plan on being the only ones to go and we'll be making cheese, butter, jams, soups, maybe some breads, and blanching and freezing some fruits and veggies. Maybe next year we'll get some bees and make our own honey.

We found a grain vendor who is local to Washington that we'll be buying fresh grains from. I'm planning on buying a home mill and milling my own flour for bread making.

Ok. I think that's all for now. I gotta get back to work. Peace out homies.

Mike

A New Order

Last Saturday, after visiting the AMAZING Edmonds Farmer's Market, I was determined to complete the day by adding some new chickens to our flock. I got busy cleaning the coop while Michael perused the ads on Craigslist. Much to my disappointment, he discovered that many of the ads we had seen previously were no longer active. With the coop clean and ready, I couldn't give up the plan. This had to be the day. So, I joined the search and found, much to my delight, a dairy farm in Enumclaw with chickens for sale. After a quick call to the farm, we jetted out the door and began our 90 minute journey to beautiful Enumclaw.

The farm was nestled against a hill off of a long gravel road. I opened the car door and immediately felt at ease. I love the feel of country life. There's no need to rush into anything. Everyone seems to move slowly making the time to take in the sights, sounds and smells.

The dairy farmer's son raises Bantams on the side for city folk who want one or two pretty chickens as pets. He happened to have some mixed breeds available. When we entered the coop, I was a little worried. Many of the chickens looked hen pecked. We learned that the farmer had just pulled out a couple of roosters the day before. Apparently there were too many hens and not enough roosters to go around.... After looking more closely, we spotted a healthy one. Before too long we found the four we wanted: Barney, Bam Bam, Fred, and Wilma.

With these four added to the flock, we now have two flocks resisting the need to become one. If we don't put the new four onto the roost at night, they sleep down below in a vulnerable position apart from the others. I know over time, they will work it out. But, I hate the tension that comes with a disrupted pecking order.

The sociology of chickens is fascinating. Every time we lose a chicken or introduce new ones, the pecking order changes. I can't seem to find any real pattern to what makes a chicken reach the top of the order. Gentle, quiet natured Greta with her slow reflexes and tiny brain continues to rule the roost. Barney is fighting for second place. I hope she wins.

-Trisa

A farmers market vendor named Desire

"STELLA" I cried out in my heart. The sky went dark and my soul hurt. The kind of hurt that shatters the air like lightning and sends grandmothers and puppies for the shelter of home and a warm fire. Poor puppies. I'm sorry. But there was nothing to lighten my burden and make happy my path upon finding out that the "Deborah's Pies" at the Edmonds Farmers Market doesn't carry her meat pies. OH THE HUMANITY.

I'm positive I made a spectacle of myself and completely horrified the poor girl selling JUST Deborah's fruit pies. I didn't yell Stella out loud, but I did cry out in shock. Can you believe it? Deborah's Pies in Edmonds FM doesn't sell the meat pies because of "permit" rules. For Pete's sake, why?

All that aside, Edmonds' has been the best farmers market we've been to so far. They have all sorts of produce, meats, cheeses, and many prepared foods. Shortly after my life was ruined by the pie maker, Trisa found a bacon vendor. I was restored by the wonderful, awesome power of bacon. There's a cafe in Edmonds who's chef cures, seasons, and cuts his own bacon. They have a booth at the market and even cook up some bacon for samples. HOLY COW! Those teeny tiny bits of bacon packed an inch of heaven into every bite. I took a pound home. This weekend, we'll cook it up alongside some farm fresh eggs from the backyard for breakfast. I think I've got to get some bubbly and OJ for Mimosas... Next to the bacon was a coffee vendor. Finally, we found somewhere to get some good coffee outside a coffee shop or grocery store. I can't remember the name of the company. I did a quick search on the internet and couldn't find it.

As an aside - based on what I just researched on the internet, the marketing for the Edmonds Farmers Market is ATROCIOUS. There is no list of vendors online - at least that is easily accessible. I couldn't even find a mention by the businesses that are there on their own websites saying "find us at the Edmonds Farmers Market" or anything like that. Why don't these places advertise and market themselves better? Don't they realize that there are TONS, literally TONS of people that they could reach through a few simple steps?

Anyway, the coffee we bought last weekend at the market is phenomenal. It is robust, and full bodied without the normal acidity that goes with such powerful beans. It's not a blend either, which surprised me. Usually to get such a well rounded cup of joe, the beans would be blended to mask weaknesses in certain beans and highlight the strengths in others. But this coffee had little if any weakness. I can't wait to get back to the market this weekend and buy some more coffee and find out their name. I'll be sure to let them know that they could sell a lot more coffee with just a tiny bit of advertising on the internet.

If anyone knows which coffee company it is, please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments. they are a small, independent coffee roaster in Woodinville, right off Woodinville-Duvall Road.

In the weeks ahead, I'll be learning to make cheese. One of the renters of our pea patch is bringing over her cheese making kit and she's going to teach Trisa and I how to make fabulous cheese. One more step toward self-sufficiency. I LOVE CHEESE. But not as much as pie and cobbler.

At the EFM there was also a vendor who makes his own raspberry vinegar. We had it sprinkled over a green salad with raspberries and boysenberries last night. Along with the salad, I grilled some tri-tip steaks and made mashed potatoes. The potatoes were harvested by Trisa this week. They were AWESOME. Anyway, the vinegar guy owns a small commercial kitchen in North Seattle that he rents out. I inquired about it some more and he'll rent it to just about anyone whenever there's no one already booked. Right now he's got gobs of time slots open. What Trisa and I would like to do is to get a group of peeps together and rent it out for a day or two. We'll take anyone who wants to bring in bulk items they want to process for storage and would like to trade at the end of the day. We envision there being a person or couple or family who would bring veggies, someone would bring milk for butter and cheese, someone who wants to make jams/jellies, someone who wants to do salsa, sauces, gravies, pies, breads, etc. I figure most people will produce way more than they need or want and we'll all be trading and going home with stockpiles of home grown preserved foods packed with wicked awesomeness.

If you are interested, please let me know in the comments what time frame works for you (i.e. end of august, weekday, etc.) and what you would like to bring. If we have doubles and triples of things, we can always have a second kitchen day or just have doubles and triples. Either way, it'll be fun and valuable. I'd prefer it be adults only, but if childcare is an issue, let me know. I'll bring the wine for an exclusive wine tasting with the wines being paired with the items people bring. We'll taste them all day long.

That's all for now.

Mike

To Market to Market

The Harris Farm and Garden Driveway Market was open for business for the first time this weekend. Who knew that we could make over $150.00 in one weekend selling eggs and vegetables! We had a steady stream of customers- who were taking advantage of the opportunity to pick their own salad greens, peas, carrots, onions, beets, and herbs right out of our garden. These veggies are even fresher than farmer's market veggies!

Much to the disappointment of the Lynnwood locals, we were out of eggs before 2:00 pm. We took orders for at least 5 dozen more. One gal even pre-paid. Our chickees better get busy! I finally agree with Michael- we do need a bigger flock. Our community demands a bigger supply.

We had promised a dozen eggs to a friend yesterday. Today when she came by to pick them up, we were short three eggs. I managed to add one freshly laid egg to the eight that were left. Michael was doing all that he could to save this dozen, but a persistent Italian couple refused to leave without eggs in hand. Michael gave them four eggs out of our friend's dozen. I thought they might start a riot if he didn't come back with more. While I was pulling carrots for another customer, the Italian lady tried to pull one out of my hand because it was bigger than the one Michael had pulled for her earlier. The determined pair left happy with a bag full of onions, carrots, lettuce, herbs, and garlic (we weren't actually selling the garlic, but the Italian gentleman pulled it out of the ground without asking).

At closing, we decided to head over to the Everett Farmer's Market. With the money earned this weekend and a little to spare.... we were able purchase some cherrries, apricots, fresh milk, cheese, butter, beef pot roast, steak, potatoes, green beans, and hard cider. Yum!

-Trisa