Kid Friendly Organic Life

The Secret to My Organic Garden

2013-05-15T08:11:00.001-07:00

“Organic gardening is too labor intensive.” So sayeth the generally ignorant population. This is the standard defense line of traditional chemical gardening (crops grown with the use of treated seeds, artificial fertilizers and toxic pesticides and herbicides). But I would beg to differ.

I’m a fundamentally lazy gardener. I try to grow mostly useful plants, and the few flowers I cultivate are nearly all perennials that can take care of themselves. As much as possible, I try to garden organically. I choose heirloom and/or organic seeds and seedlings and save seeds each year. I use no pesticides and depend on the ladybugs, chickens, bats, and cats to keep the pests under control. Our horses, chickens, and compost provide plenty of fertilizer. But what about the weeds?

I have only one word…Mulch.

I love mulch. I even love to say the word. Mulch. Unless you enjoy spending hours bent over in the sun wrestling weeds from the ground only to wrest the grandbabies of those same weeds out of the ground the next week (and sometimes the next day), mulch is your best defense.

If you’re rich and can afford expensive store-bought mulch delivered in individual bags – more power to you (although I might toss a little guilt your way when I see you stuffing all those plastic bags in the trash). I confess to purchasing a few scoops of mulch myself and ferrying it home in our redneck truck to use on the perennial flowers and cover the newspaper mulch around the fruit trees. It looks nice (for about a day and then my husband blows grass clippings all over it as he mows). I have no idea where that mulch originated (and neither does the hardware store it seems) so I wouldn’t use it on my vegetables, but it does serve a purpose.

If you want to cut down on the number of weeds and help the world out by sequestering more CO2 in the ground, I recommend that you NOT till your garden. Sure, a freshly tilled garden looks great, but when you turn over all that dirt, not only do you any sequestered CO2, but you bring deeply buried seeds closer to the surface so they can germinate and grow in to chickweed or another of its annoying cousins. Leave the earth as unadulterated as possible. It’s best to just dig up only what you need to plant your seeds and replace it.

Once your veggie plants have raised their little green faces to the sun, it’s time to mulch. In the past I’ve used newspapers (secured by the plentiful crop of rocks that rise to the surface unbidden every season), but this year I’m opting for straw. A thick bed of straw will keep the weeds under control and help control erosion. Those of us who garden on a hill appreciate anything that assists us in keeping our soil where it is.

Last year we used rye grass (planted the previous fall) as mulch for my tomatoes and it worked magnificently In the spring before the grass had gone to seed, we weed whacked it down to the ground and then planted the tomato plants directly in to the bed. The grass died and worked perfectly as a mulch for the tomatoes all summer while its dead roots added natural nitrogen fertilizer to the soil. This year's rye crop was devastated by a chicken escape problem, so it's pretty spotty but we'll use what we can and add straw where we can't.

Around my blueberries, I’m using empty paper feed bags I collected all winter. Cut apart at the seams, they instantly and completely mulch about a 3x3 space. I secure them with rocks, but once we have a few rains they can handle the job on their own.

The evidence that I am growing wiser (or perhaps lazier) as I grow older can be seen by the increasing amount of mulch I use on all my gardens. Who wants to spend a July afternoon breaking your fingernails and sweating in the sun just to keep the burdock and crabgrass and blessed clover from taking over the gardens?

No, much better to spend the afternoon in the hammock, with a cold beverage watching the mulch do my work for me. Organic gardening is labor intensive? Well, sometimes it does require that I venture back down the hill to refill my glass.

Book Club Update:

I’m nearly finished reading Maria Rodale’s Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe. It’s packed full of information about organic agriculture and sold evidence of the benefits of organic life. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to distill it down to one reasonably sized post. But I had to comment on the information found on pages 70-71. This passage made me laugh out loud, and then think deeply about our country’s history of selfishness.

It seems when it was discovered that bird guano taken from an area of South America was powerful fertilizer, the US Government passed the Guano Island Act in 1856. “As a result of that act, the US government seized 94 islands off the coast of Peru just to harvest bird shit.” I guess we didn’t think we had enough bird shit here. Upon further reflection I realized that history does repeat itself.

Don It or Donate It and find out if you really wear everything in your closet!

2013-05-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Americans have too many clothes.

Okay, maybe that’s not fair. I have too many clothes, and my children have too many clothes. That’s fact.

As I hang clothing on the line to dry each morning, I have time to consider the clothing we own as I shake it out and determine how many clothespins it will take to keep it from flying off into the wind that whips up the hill from the hollow. Jeans require four, shirts two and underwear requires anywhere from one to four depending on who it belongs to. My daughter would be none to happy if her panties went sailing into the grass to be discovered by her little brother’s friends. (Three clothes pins minimum even though the panties are barely bigger than a tissue.)

Back to the subject at hand, we all have too many clothes. Our drawers are stuffed to overflowing (note picture) and our closets crammed. No one could possibly wear all of it. Or could they? I’ve devised a clothing challenge for myself and everyone who thinks they have too many clothes but are unable to reduce their surplus. It’s also for you smug people who are reading this and thinking, “I wear everything I own otherwise I wouldn’t own it!”

This challenge is called Wear It or Toss It. Or Use Ir or Lose It. Or Don It or Donate It. The name isn’t important, but the purpose is.

It’s a very simple challenge.

1. Commit. Pick a month long period. I’m choosing May 15-June 15.

Prepare. Before you start, clean out your closets and drawers and under the bed boxes and boxes in the crawl space and the stuff on hangers stored in your children’s closets. Find the fat clothes (or skinny clothes) too and decide what you believe you will actually wear. Get rid of the things that don’t fit your body or your personality. Secure some empty boxes and bins to help you keep straight what has been worn and what hasn’t (and to fill up with the clothes you will toss at the end of the challenge).

3. Don It. Over the course of your designated month, you must wear everything in your closets/drawers. You may designate a “safe area” for your slinky black dress or your just-in-case-we-get-invited-to-a-wedding or a funeral wear. Everything else is fair game.

4. Donate It. After the month is over, pull all the unworn clothing out and box it up for Goodwill. Or if you’re too chicken to do that, put all of it in a “holding” box it in your basement with the date written on the box. If you don’t go desperately looking for anything in that box by next spring, give it away without opening it.

FAQ

How do I keep track of what I’ve worn and what I haven’t worn?

You’ll need to devise your own system for this. My closet has a neat divider (see pic), so I plan to move everything to one side at the start and as I’ve worn something I’ll move it to the other side. For the clothing in my drawers, I’ll empty one or two drawers and after I’ve worn and washed an article I’ll put it in the safe drawer. This has the added bonus of forcing me to clean out all the flotsam that has accumulated in the bottom of my sock and undie drawers (what to do with all those baby teeth??).

What about out of season stuff?

That’s simple. When you are in the preparation phase, box up the out of season stuff. That’ll give you more room and safeguard things that you still love but it’s getting too hot to wear. You’ll need to do this experiment one more time in the winter to truly clear things out. This is a great New Year’s project!

What if I really, really, really love something but I never wear it?

This is your call, but if you really, really, really love something you should be wearing it every week. Your other option is to put it in your “holding box.”

I have enough shorts
for a small army,
but which ones to get rid of?

I’m going to pose this challenge to my kids too. I’m not holding my breath that they’ll jump on board. If any of them are game, I’ll help them devise their own system for sorting. And I’ll promise a reward at the end. The logical reward is new clothes, but then that just perpetuates the problem. So I’ll have to think of something else.

Cobbling together a number on what the average American spends on clothing was not a simple task. But the best I can figure is we spend an average of $1200-1500 per person on clothes. That seems astronomical to me. I can’t help but think of how many impoverished countries we could clothe with only the stuff in our closets we don’t wear. I’d like to spend less than I do on clothing, but the first step for me is to wear what I have.

I don’t know about you, but in the mornings when I’m faced with a bulging closet of clothes I’m overwhelmed by the options and almost always go for the same few outfits. I’ve tried culling the herd on other occasions but I always say to myself, “but I might where that….” Well here’s my chance to prove it.

How about you? Are you brave enough to face down your closet?

It’s time to Don It or Donate It!

Join my Book Club!!

2013-05-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been part of a book club? For the past thirteen years I’ve been the member of at least one club and sometimes two. When I’m reading, I underline phrases I find well worded or facts I think are fascinating. I scribble my own examples and questions in the margins. When I’m excited about a book or learning new things, I always want to share that news. Many times my patient husband is the recipient of my newfound insights or knowledge. I know that sometimes his patience wears thin and he must grit his teeth as I read him “just one more” passage from my current book crush.

Books are a passion for me and luckily, most of my family, as evidenced by the many, many, many crammed book shelves in our house (including two in bathrooms!). In a rush to get out the door this morning, I scrambled to find a paper I needed and knocked over the current stack of I’ve-got-to-read-these books that teetered nearly two feet high on the corner of my desk. They tumbled over the side, a few landing in the trash can. I re-stacked them and sighed. Some from the bottom of the stack have been there since last fall. When was I going to read these books?? I’m busy right now hurtling through the book for my women’s Book club that meets next Friday. And then I’ve got to finish the book for the book discussion I’m helping to lead at my church.

Book Club books always take precedence over the hundreds of other books haunting me from my shelves in nearly every room of my house. The ones on my desk are piled there so I’ll get to them sooner rather than later, although that phrase has become very relative in my life. I need another book club to force me to get to them. And then I thought – Ah! I have a perfect audience for a book club – my blog. You people are trapped there and have no choice but to listen to my ramblings (yes, I know you could simply click away from this post, but I trust that you won’t and choose to live in the blissful belief that you hang on my every word).

So KFOL Book Club begins this month! I’m going to do one book a month from the stack. Although Marion Nestle’s book What to Eat is so dense it’ll need two months. I’ll devote at least one post, possibly more if I get excited. You have several options for participating.

- Read the book along with me and comment on the post (bonus points if you write a guest post and send it to me. I’ll post it right alongside my own.)

- Wait until you read my review and then decide whether the book is worth your time.

- Consider my review the cliff notes and skip the book altogether.

- Ignore my book club posts and continue your life of ignorance.

How fun! The server for this blog (Blogger or Blogspot I’m never sure which they prefer) is not very user-friendly when it comes to comments. I’ve heard this frustration time and again, so feel free to e-mail me directly at cara.achterberg@rocketmail.com. I can post your comment for everyone to see and I’m also completely serious about guest posts. The book club post will be the last one each month (at least that’s the plan).

Here’s the tentative schedule starting from the bottom of the stack:

May: Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale

This one’s short so it’s good for the crazybusytoomanyevents of May. When I picked up this book (it was one that landed in the trash), I realized that I did start it. There were tons of scribbles and underlinings in the first few chapters. I don't know what made me put it back down. Probably life. It often gets in my way.

June: Cleaning House: A Mom’s 12-month Experiment to Rid her Home of Youth Entitlement by Kay Wills Wyma

This book is appropriate for summer when you’re stuck home with kids, although I'm certain that your kids will prefer that you not read it because if the author's premise works out then they'll be doing a lot less sitting around on their butts waiting to be served. I confess that I've had this book almost a year ever since a Mama Load blog reader suggested it after one of my rants about my free-loading children. I've been afraid to tackle it because I know that motivating my brood to do more around the house will be exhausting. Open mind. We shall see.

July: YOU Staying Young by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz

My mom gave me this for Christmas two years ago and while it looks fascinating and crammed with helpful healthy ideas, I still haven’t gotten to it. I've occasionally looked up information on whatever health subject I'm presently obsessing about, but I've yet to actually sit down and read it. No time like the present. Thanks for making me do this.

August: Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin wrote The Happiness Project which has been on the best seller list for several years. I'm currently co-teaching a class on The Happiness Project and hope to teach another class on it this fall. The book has changed my perspective and I'd even wager it's made my life happier. It's time to read her sequel and see if offers more insights, ideas, and inspiration to get Fall off to an inspired start.

I’m open to suggestions and have lots of other books, but for now I’ll set the goal of reading these four in the next four months. I hope you’ll join me!

The Slacker Blogger Pawns You Off on Someone Else (But wait...good stuff is coming!)

2013-04-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

This week I am overwhelmed by my gardens, my children’s activities, and my life, so instead of an actual post, I’m offering links to some other blogs I find interesting.

The Guide to Imperfect Homemaking –

Lots of great projects/ideas/recipes/inspiration mostly for women at home with kids, but also plenty of good ideas for people with no kids (like this week’s post on how to make your own re-usable produce bags). The pictures are beautiful. I aspire to blog as well as Kelly.

Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen – this blog from Rodale’s queen of organic gardening is inspiring and practical. I get lots of my ideas from this blog. (copying is the sincerest form of flattery!) Organic Gardening offers over a dozen other blogs on various gardening topics.

Kelly Rae is my favorite artist/designer who offers beautiful art, powerful messages, and inspiration like nobody’s business. I just adore this woman and her creations. I'm slowly filling my house with her work. Check her out.

Enjoy! And have a wonderful weekend. Next month – Book Club and the Wear-Everything-You-Own challenge!

Have You Been Greenwashed?

2013-04-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have the experience of buying something and wondering if you’ve been “greenwashed?” The term refers to companies that market a product as “green” when in reality it’s actually not so green. Companies can be nimble creatures when it comes to finding ways to make more money from the same product. As the public becomes increasingly aware of the need for environmentally friendly products, it’s fairly easy for an adept marketing department to slap an “all natural” or “earth friendly” claim on the same product they’ve been selling for years.

As in the claim “compostable.” Without a working definition, you could almost say everything is compostable. It might take a million years if it’s Styrofoam or a little less if it’s plastic. My discover card is compostable. When I needed a new card a few years back, I went online to choose my own personalized card. Of the many, many options, one featured polar bears and claimed to be “compostable”. In my fervor to be “green” I thought – great! I want a compostable card! Whenever a store clerk commented on my cute polar bears, I’d tell her, “I could really care less about polar bears but the card is compostable!”

In reality, my compostable card will never be composted (although the numbers are wearing off rather quickly). How likely is it that I will toss a credit card with a rather high lending limit into my compost pile when it expires? Seems like a dangerous practice. I may test out the theory when the current card expires in a controlled composting environment. Another fun project for my skeptical hubby! I don’t recall any claims as to the length of time it would take to compost my credit card when I selected it. And what’s even more curious is that when I went on the discover site today to hunt down that information, the polar bears were still available, but no longer labeled “compostable.” Hmmm.

Maybe the Greenwashing Index got to them. This index was developed by the University of Oregon and

evaluates claims based on five criteria – misleading words, misleading graphics, vague claims that aren’t provable, overstated greenness, or important information left out. You, as a consumer, can rate products that you encounter on the site and see the rating of the products others have evaluated.

So how do you know if you’ve been greenwashed? For me, it mostly comes down to my gut. I find it hard to believe that any product made by Proctor and Gamble will ever be “green”. The company markets too many toxic products to counter any “green” effort that could be made. If I’m buying a detergent or similar product, I’m going to go with a company founded on green principles like Ecover or Seventh Generation. Once again, buying locally made and sourced products gives you the opportunity to know the integrity of the companies with which you do business.

There are a few agencies out there that certify “greenness” in one way or another, but you should also be aware that there are plenty of “industry sponsored” agencies that certify environmentally friendly claims. So sometimes what looks like the real deal is actually a bunch of woo-ha-ha. Here are a few legit certifications:

Chlorine free Products Association

EcoLogo

Energy Star

EPEAT

Forest Stewardship Council

Green-e

Green Seal

The most important thing you can do is hold the companies you buy products from to their claims. Investigate the product and the company. If it says “made from recycled materials”, check the label for a number – what percentage is from recycled materials? If the company is serious about their greenness they will have details. Claims like “eco safe” are tossed around without any particulars as to what makes the product eco safe. If there are no facts backing up the claims, be very skeptical.

If you’re serious about being an eco-friendly consumer, it may require a little effort on your part to be certain you haven’t been greenwashed. I’m fairly certain that I was greenwashed when it comes to my credit card. But every time I pull out my polar bears, I’m reminded to know what I’m buying and who I’m buying from lest I become a victim once again of greenwashing.

Homemade English Muffins! You can do it too!

2013-04-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

Today I’m attempting something I’ve never tried before. I’m making English Muffins. I know you were hoping I was going to say something a little more exciting like hang gliding or breaking some sort of Guiness World Record like the most chickens to jump through a hoop in a row, but no, I’m simply going for a soft, yet crunchy combination of nooks and crannies just like Thomas’.

This monumental moment came about in large part because of the retraining my shopping habits have undergone these past few months. It is several days after Easter and time to make Cream Ham and Eggs, which is a meal most loved by the three male members of the family (the smaller female member shudders at the idea). It’s a decidedly unhealthy creation that I make for them every time we have ham, which would be once a year on Easter. English Muffins are the required vehicle for eating Cream Ham and Eggs.

There were no English Muffins in my pantry. I had two options – one, head over to the locally owned grocery store (for the second time this week) or make them myself. The sun is shining, but the ground has not realized it’s spring yet here in Central PA, so my planned garden chores are on indefinite hold leaving me with a little time on my hands. And time, it seems, is what is most required when it comes to making homemade English Muffins. Everything else, I had in my pantry.

Mixing the muffins was simple to do utilizing the bread hook on my mixture (I’m fundamentally opposed to kneading by hand. I know it’s supposed to be meditative and all that, but I hate picking the dough out from under my nails.). Next I left the dough to rise on my counter for a few hours.

The recipe called for a large cast iron skillet, but I used my Jen-aire grill top on the stove instead. It worked perfectly. The muffins came out just like store-bought! Opening them up with a fork, revealed plenty of nooks and crannies.

And wow – talk about delicious! I can’t wait to try a

whole wheat version, or maybe an orange-cranberry version. So many possibilities!

My children were appropriately impressed with their mother’s cooking prowess and ate all the muffins in just a few days. As soon as the asparagus is up, I’m going to make more muffins for Eggs Benedict with asparagus. I’m dreaming of spring, how about you?

English Muffins

(from Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese)

¼ cup warm water

1 T instant yeast

2 T sugar

4 C flour

2 t kosher salt

1 large egg

1 ¼ C warm milk

2 T unsalted butter, melted

Cornmeal

1.      In the bowl of a mixer, combine the water, yeast, sugar, 2 cups of flour, and the salt. Beat to combine.
2.      Add the egg, milk, and butter and continue beating until creamy.
3.      Add the remaining flour ad knead until smooth and bouncy, adding additional flour by the tablespoon only as necessary. Dough should be manageable, soft and moist.
4.      Please dough in a bowl coated with oil. Cover with a clean, damp dish towel and let rise 2 hours (until doubled).
5.      Sprinkle work surface with cornmeal. Place the dough on the cornmeal, and sprinkle the top with additional cornmeal. Roll the dough into 9 x 15 inch rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Don’t stretch the dough. Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter, cut out muffins. Reroll the scraps and cut out the rest of the muffins.
6.      Heat a cast-iron skillet until very hot (I used jenn-air griddle for this)
7.      Place as many muffins in the hot pan as will fit without crowding. Immediately turn down the heat to medium so the muffins cook through without burning – 10-15 minutes per side. They should be a light hazelnut brown.
8.      Remove muffins to a cooling rack. Split with a fork before toasting.

Cream Ham and Eggs

Hardboil one dozen eggs, peel, chop.

Cut up 2-3 cups of ham in to bite-size pieces

Cream Sauce

Melt 6 T butter in saucepan over low heat.

Blend in 6 T flour, 3/4 t salt, 1/2 t white pepper with whisk.

Add 3 C milk all at once. cook quickly, stirring constantly, til mixture thickens and bubbles.

(You can add cheese or other flavorings at this point - I like to add lightly blanched asparagus)

Mix eggs, ham, and sauce together and warm. Serve over toasted English Muffins.

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Distracted by a Rat and Disputed GMO Corn Study

2013-04-02T07:52:00.001-07:00

All week I’ve been distracted by this picture of a rat with an obscene tumor. It’s been sitting on my desk freaking me out on an hourly basis. The rat in question was part of a French study of GMO round-up ready corn. I’ve written about my own concerns about GMO corn before. In case you aren’t aware (and you wouldn’t be because the USDA refuses to require labeling) about 90% of the corn in the US is GMO corn, and most of it is grown from Monsanto’s Round Up Ready GMO seed. And that corn is all over your grocery store, vending machines, restaurants, and school cafeterias.

The study has gotten an awful lot of official people, agencies, and lobbyists in a tizzy. They are busy pointing out all the errors in the methodology of the study. If you read a few of their postings on line, you will soon be thoroughly confused and certain that the study has nothing to do with GMO corn, rats, or cancer. They’ll have your head spinning so fast you’ll begin to doubt global warming, gravity, and whether you put your socks on this morning.

In honor of this poor mouse who is still gazing my way as I write, let me break it down for you.

This study followed 200 rats over a period of 2 years (the average life span of this species). Among the rats receiving GM corn and/or Roundup in their feed, up to 50% of males and 70% of females suffered “severe adverse health effects, including mammary tumors and kidney and liver damage, leading to premature death.” compared with only 30% and 20% in the control group.

The critics would contest that this particular breed of rat was already predisposed to tumors. Fair enough. But why then didn’t all the rats develop the same issues at the same rate? There was more fussing about the number of rats in each group and the amount of GMO feed and/or traces of Round Up fed to the rats. This seems like a bit of smoke and mirrors.

Not being a scientist, I can’t speak to these errors. But as a relatively intelligent, college-educated person I can say that from the evidence presented something is horribly wrong here. The mice in the control group did not develop tumors or die prematurely of liver and kidney diseases at the same rate as the mice who ate Roundup Ready GMO corn. That’s the bottom line.

If you’re a complete skeptic, the least you can say is further study is called for as to the chronic effects of eating GM corn and/or Roundup. Industry funded studies have not gone past 90 days so they can only attest to the acute effect of GMO corn and Round Up. The authors sited that none of the health issues began until after 90 days.

This is the first study to last longer than 90 days, unless you count the current long-term study being done on the American people who are fed a steady diet of GMO corn with or without traces of Round Up. Oh wait, the American Cancer Society has been doing that. In 2012 there were 1.7 million new cancer diagnoses, compared to 2005 when there were 1.4 million cases. But hey, we’re only talking about a third of a million people here.

The evidence about the dangers of GMO food is piling up. And yet the government does nothing except tamp down any studies that might raise the public awareness of this danger. And how could you blame them. Consider what would happen if the entire population suddenly refused to eat GM food and demanded non-GMO products. We’d have a serious food crisis on our hands as Monsanto’s monopoly on the food industry is stronger every day.

So what is to be done? We need to make it a legal requirement to label all food containing GMO ingredients as such. If the public was given a choice, the market would begin to force producers to grow more non-GMO corn and other crops. In Europe where foods containing artificial food-dyes are required to be labeled with the warning, “contains artificial food dyes which may have an adverse effect on the attention and activity in children”, producers have begun using natural food dyes instead. It irks me to no-end that our country can’t do the same. But I suppose as long as our Congress is held hostage to lobbyists, that won’t happen.

Demanding labeling will cost our government a fraction of the cost of health issues brought about by a population consuming GMO corn at greater and greater rates. In fact, it could bring down the cost of health care if it reduced the number of new cancer cases. For all our pharmaceutical research in to fighting a disease, we are losing that battle. Perhaps we should begin fighting the cause instead of focusing only a cure.

Take action – sign the petition to demand that GMO food be labeled:

GONE LOCAL Week Twelve: We Did It! (and YOU should too!)

2013-03-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

For the past three months I have been buying from strictly locally owned businesses. In the beginning we all thought this was going to be a hardship, each for our own reasons. My kids worried a cheezit would never pass their lips again and I’d feed them a steady diet of kale and whole wheat noodles. My husband worried I’d spend all the money hiding under our mattresses. I mostly worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it.

Putting aside the handful of slip-ups in regards to hairproducts and auto-repair, for the most part we have survived on the goods sold by locally owned businesses exclusively since January 1. And once more, we’ve more than survived, we’ve thrived.

We’ve saved money, time, and gas, made new friends, eaten better in terms of both taste and health, and quite honestly, had a lot of fun. Along the way, I’ve been confronted by people who thought I was just a wee-bit overboard and plenty of skeptical people, but I’ve also been helped by people who shared ideas and local sources.

The coolest part has been meeting store owners who appreciate my efforts and talking with friends who vowed to try to buy more locally themselves. My brother out in New Mexico e-mailed me over the weekend that he and his beautiful wife had gone out for dinner in a locally owned downtown establishment after reading last week’s post.

Reflecting on the impact of buying locally these past few months has made me even more convinced that we have the power to heal our own communities. There’s no need to wait for the government to take action or the economy to bounce back, we have the power to help our friends, neighbors, and ourselves by simply thinking before we shop. If everyone made a conscientious effort to buy from locally owned businesses, even if it isn’t convenient or familiar, it would only be a matter of time before things began to turn around. Cash is, after all, the grease that spins the wheel of our local economy.

On April 1, my experiment is officially over, but the new shopping habits I’ve developed will not end. I will continue to buy exclusively from locally owned businesses. I can’t go back to wasting money at Wal-Mart and running to Giant every time I run out of something. I will continue to plan my shopping excursions, explore new local venues, and be deliberate about every purchase.

The argument most vehemently made to me about my quest has been cost in terms of cash and time. By consolidating my trips and doing without a few things, I have easily saved time. The slight dent in the cleanliness of my house is a testament to that fact. And as I wrote about a few weeks ago, we’ve saved literally hundreds of dollars.

But these are selfish reasons to continue to shop locally, the bigger reason, the reason that should weigh on

all our hearts, is the fact that shopping locally is what’s best for our community. And we all recognize that obligation, even if it’s buried beneath years of apathy. To paraphrase JFK, “Ask not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community.” So, don’t do it for yourself, even though you will benefit tremendously, shop locally to help the people you call neighbors and friends.

Note: I’ve discovered so many great local businesses that I’ve added a tab on my blog listing my favorites including location, website, and my recommendations. Please let me know if you think I missed a great York County business.

GONE LOCAL Week Eleven: Lamenting Our Town's Center and a Shout-out to Locals I Love

2013-03-20T10:20:00.001-07:00

Buying locally has become second nature for me at this point and I don’t think I can ever set foot in Wal-Mart again. At a meeting last week regarding our “town” someone said they thought that Wal-Mart was our town center. Frightening, but probably accurate. Back when I made several trips to Wal-Mart a month, I always encountered people I knew. On the weekends, there was usually a boy or girl scout troop installed at the entrance selling cookies or popcorn or some other unhealthy product I don’t need, but usually buy, because I know the kids who are doing the selling.

Our town also has a small main street with art galleries, antique stores, and even a farm-to-table restaurant. To my mind, that should be our town center, and probably was once upon a time. Now it is mostly frequented by “tourists” from the Baltimore area. I suppose the reason it’s not our town center is that, other than the restaurant, the other stores are the kind you only frequent when guests are visiting. Plus the parking isn’t very simple, although it’s free. There is a park nearby, but it is hard to find. I lived here nearly a year before I discovered it, and only because the end-of-year kindergarten party was held there.

So, I suppose that the Wal-Mart shopping center is our town center. I wish it weren’t. This is a farming town at its heart. Antiques, farm restaurants, single-shingle shops and offices make a more appropriate town center.

Without easy parking and more restaurants, not to mention the fact that no-liquor licenses are available for the area, Main Street will stay relegated to the tourists and those few of us who make a point of patronizing the downtown locally owned businesses. Maybe I was born in the wrong century. Seems like the big guy always wins. Or at least the one with the most money. Wal-Mart made about 15.7 billion dollars in 2011.

I don’t know a single soul who works at Wal-Mart, and in the last ten years of patronizing the store, I haven’t come to know any of the employees.

Contrast that with the fact that I know many of the merchants on Main Street. Neal, who runs M&S Photo, is a talented, hard-working photographer who gives the local sports leagues a great deal on team pictures. He’s diabetic, has a dry sense of humor, and a vast knowledge of the local history. He charges less per picture than Wal-Mart. I stopped in recently and had a few last minute pictures printed. He waved away my money and thanked me for being a good customer.

My neighbor owns a wood Rehmeyer Wood Floors down on the southern end of Main Street. He’s also quite the cowboy and helped me break my big Quarter Horse as well as gave my husband and me a great deal on beautiful locally harvested hickory floorboards.

I’ve been served wine in the tiny wine shop in the Shops at 16 Main by one of the multiple owners of Logan’s View winery. After purchasing a bottle, we took it next door for a Juliana's, a world-class restaurant owned by the father of a classmate of my youngest son.

I’ve gotten my hair cut for ten years at Main Street BeautyWorks and when that same son developed alopecia areata, one of the stylists came to my house to trim up what was left of his hair as it fell out over the course of two months.

These people matter to me. Wal-Mart does not.

GONE LOCAL Week Ten: Now's the Time

2013-03-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve always thought that as our society has progressed (relative term), locally owned businesses have been slowly picked off one by one, leaving us with a homogenized majority of stores. The stores of my youth – the Creamy Freeze, Save-a-Cent, and Lakes Market are long gone. But as I’ve gone in search of the locally owned stores I’ve discovered there is truly an abundance of them. Something is happening now. There is an energy, a movement if you will, that is re-focusing consumers on buying local again. Much of the growth that is slowly lifting us out of this recession is coming from small businesses – locally owned.

My best guess for the reason behind the momentum is two trends I’ve observed. The first trend was made necessary by the recession. This is the trend towards simpler lives. When things get hairy in terms of financial and physical security, we hunker down and focus on what’s most important to us – our health and our happiness.

For some, the recession meant an unexpected change of careers. While many lamented the dire situation, a brave number of people embraced the opportunity to pursue their dreams. New locally owned businesses have cropped up in record numbers. Craft shows are flourishing. Local artists are finding inventive ways to partner with communities to share, and profit from, their talents.

The second “trend,” and I am loathe to call it a trend, is organics. Due to increased awareness, health crisis, and sheer taste, the organic market has been growing by leaps and bounds, despite a lengthy recession. Organically made products are by necessity, local businesses. Without the benefit of preservatives, additives, and stabilizers, organic products have a shorter shelf life and can’t be wasting those precious days traveling across the world.

So, my unverified, lightly researched, but highly experienced theory is that now is the time to jump on the Buy Local bandwagon. If you are a potential business owner, the wave is headed upward and it would be wise to jump on before it crests. New locally owned businesses are popping up almost daily.

Last week, I tried out a new bakery and café in York, TheLadybug Café, where you can find “deconstructed cupcakes” which are essentially a crumbled cupcake, a glop of filling, and a scoop of icing you eat with a fork. Sounds awful, but is fabulous and a lot easier to eat than a fancy cupcake. Nothing drips down your front and you don’t have to decide between icing or cake. Their eating area boasts free wifi, children’s play area, TV, and even a gas fireplace. My gourmet grilled cheese with roasted peppers was divine, and the service was enthusiastic and friendly.

A new clothing boutique is next on my list of places to visit. Arthur and Daughters opened March 1 in York. The North Beaver street store (just a few doors up from the Ladybug) offers women’s designer consignment and vintage clothing and accessories, plus new clothing from emerging designers whose products are made in the USA. My daughter, the clothes horse, and I will check it out this weekend.

I’m anxiously awaiting word of the Vintage Wine bar to open in Downtown York in the old Maple Donuts site on the square. And one of my favorite new stands at the Central Market is Springleaf which offers organically grown and absolutely delicious vegetables. Try one of their cucumbers grown in the greenhouse and you’ll think it’s already summer.

Patronizing the locally owned businesses around you not only guarantees a rewarding experience in terms of products and services, but it rewards you in terms of community also. These entrepreneurs who have stepped out to realize their dream and offer us quality products and services need our business and our support.

The government seems to stack the deck against small businesses time and again. I witnessed it on the local level this past week when our Township shut down the Farmer’s Market by withdrawing its support. The chairperson of the Supervisor’s Board actually said, “I don’t believe the township should be supporting businesses.” I can still hear his ridiculous words echoing in my head.

If our local governments aren’t going to support the local businesses and farms then it is up to us. If not, the countryside will soon be littered with Big Box stores and parking lots.

There is something else you can do. You can vote. When primaries come around this spring and elections in the fall, take the time to investigate which politicians support local businesses and farms, and not just with their mouths. It’s easier than ever to contact candidates through the internet and e-mail. Ask potential leaders how they plan to support the local economy and local businesses. And then hold them accountable.

It’s important to vote with our pocketbooks, but it’s equally important, especially at the local level, to vote with our votes.

Mother With a Mission (or More Adventures in Poultry Paradise)

2013-03-08T09:45:00.002-08:00

There is a hen sitting on eggs high aloft a stack of hay bales in my barn. I do not want, nor do I need, any more chickens. This very same hen and I had a go-round last summer over this very same issue. Each night I would find her tucked inside one of our laying boxes or nestled amongst the hay, quietly sitting on the latest egg. And each night she would shriek with fury when I lifted her off her egg and put her in the hen house with the other less maternal hens.

She is a Buff Orpington. “Buffies,” as we call them, are a gentle, quiet breed with beautiful rich golden feathers and soft downy “pantaloons” that give them a plump, mother hen kind of look. This particular hen is determined. I saw it in her eyes the first night I lifted her off her eggs a few weeks ago. Chickens are not the smartest of God’s creatures, nor do they necessarily have the capacity for scheming, but I am beginning to believe they do dream. This hen dreams of being a mother. And mothers are a determined sort.

This year, after a week of attempting to discourage her, I finally gave in. If this is her destiny, then who am I to stand in the way? I confessed to my husband what I’d done and told him we might have St Patrick’s Day chicks. To his credit he offered no opinion, just raised his eye brows as if to say, “What kind of weed have you been smoking and haven’t you noticed the stacks of eggs in the basement fridge or the hens who have taken to roosting on the porch?” I checked underneath the hen and counted six eggs. The colors of the eggs testified to the fact that they are not all her lineage.

Determined Mama Hen ten days in to her brooding.

When I open the barn door each morning and night she is sitting, trance-like upon her eggs. She doesn’t acknowledge my presence. I’ve noted that she has moved the eggs several times, but not more than a few inches. She spreads her generous breast out so flat that none of the eggs are visible beneath her, but I believe they are still there. One dropped between two bales and I quickly added it to our compost pile. I haven’t found any of the others.

Even if she succeeds in hatching these chicks, I am not certain of their long-term survival. There is the barn cat to consider, not to mention the abundance of chicken hawks, raccoons, and my own chicken-killing fox hound. Then there is the fact that these chicks will hatch upon bales that are stacked at least five feet high. That’s quite a lethal fall for a newborn chick.

Because I am more invested in this hen succeeding in hatching her chicks (and getting back to her job of laying eggs) than in the chicks survival, I’m prepared to let nature take its course. If these chicks survive we’ll most certainly give them names like Mighty Mouse, Avenger, Evil Knievel, or Geronimo.

But I’m not banking on the chicks, I’m just backing up this determined mama. I know better than to get in the way of a mother with a mission.

GONE LOCAL Week Nine: Buying Local Bottom Line

2013-03-05T08:48:00.002-08:00

When I announced that we were GOING LOCAL on January 1, my husband’s first comment was, “Can we afford to do that?” I assured him we could, although I was not certain of that fact. Now, with two full months of buying local behind us, we are both pleased.

While we may have spent more on items like saline solution, birthday gifts, and beer/wine, we have saved in other areas. But the biggest reason our budget looks so bright and shiny, is that there has been less impulse buying and much less oh-that’s-such-a-good-deal-why-don’t-I-just-pick-up-six-while-I’m-here purchases most commonly made at stores like Walmart and Giant that I no longer frequent Another area of huge savings has been the near complete halt to internet shopping. It’s much too easy to add things to a virtual cart and press “next,” without considering the consequences.

Shopping locally has made every purchase intentional. It sometimes means making a special trip. And that many times means I decide to forgo the desired item altogether. Surely, there’s something else I can use that’s already in my cupboard? Milk with a dash of lemon juice is a fine substitute for buttermilk. That means we saved not only on food expenditures, but gas.

There’s something else happening too that’s hard for me to elucidate. I’ve been staring at the cursor for a full five minutes looking for the words to explain the good feeling I get when I lug my bag of purchases to my car after a shopping excursion. It feels right. That’s a very weak way of saying I feel good about the money I’ve spent as opposed to the heavy somewhat guilty feeling I used to have when I wheeled my cart away from the Wal-Mart doors knowing I didn’t need half of what I was about to deposit in my car.

When I buy from the locally owned stores and the stands at the market, each purchase is deliberate. That’s not to say that I don’t pick up things like the sea-salt & cocoa dusted almonds from Penderbrooks at Central Market (Oh my!) that I don’t technically need. But I’m pleased with what I’ve spent my money on and happy to hand it over to the friendly faces I’ve grown to know.

I’m one of those odd people who tracks all our family’s spending, so I could tell you how much we spent on pet care in April 1998 if you asked, but since you haven’t, let me instead tell you how this January and February stacked up against January and February 2012 in the categories of food, household expenses, and clothing. I picked these categories because they were all substantially affected by our local only spending habits.

January

“Food” (including groceries & dining out): we spent exactly $7 more in 2013 than in 2012.

“Household” (includes paper products, personal care, hardware purchases, and other non-food family expenses): we spent $46 less in 2013 than 2012.

“Clothing”: we spent $168 less in 2013 than 2012.

February

“Food”: we spent $69 more in 2013 than 2012.

“Household”: we spent $300 less 2013 than 2012.

“Clothing”: we spent $8 less in 2013 than in 2012.

If you’re doing the math, we saved $446 by shopping locally for these past two months. That’s a lot of sea salt & cocoa dusted almonds, my friends.

GONE LOCAL Week Eight: Only in Generica

2013-02-26T08:17:00.000-08:00

It’s restaurant week in York so there is a virtual smorgasbord of options in affordable, delicious local dining this week. I’m not certain why anyone would choose a chain restaurant over a locally owned restaurant. In addition to supporting your community, the food is better, and far more interesting.

Saturday night my love took me out for dinner at the WhiteRose Bar & Grill where we supped on meals served on “hot rocks” - pieces of stone heated to 650 degrees. These steaming hot stones are delivered to your table along with the fresh ingredients for your meal. You get to cook dinner yourself on your personal rock (carefully). After sprinkling the rock with sea salt, the food is placed directly on the stone. There’s no oils involved which keeps the meal fairly healthy, especially as restaurant food goes. It was an absolute treat. If you’re headed out for restaurant week (it continues until March 2), I highly recommend it.

The biggest dilemma this week has been the search for a backpack.
My oldest son has used the same backpack for the last four years. It has done its time and is literally falling apart at the seams. I’ve searched high and low, but gone are the days of the army surplus stores of my youth. Goodwill has failed me, which it rarely does. They offered no backpacks large enough to tote the books required for a sophomore’s heavy academic load.

I will not stoop to Wal-Mart. I draw the line there. It comes down to making the best choice out of some bad options, similar to my daughter’s hair product dilemma. I’m going to check out the AAA store. AAA is a national company, but my card says “South Central Pennsylvania AAA” so at least it’s a local franchise.

A friend of mine recently posted her “hierarchy for local shopping” on her delightful blog, Creative Thoughtful Women. It listed the order in which she prioritizes the stores she patronizes based on how local and/or organic they are. Franchises are pretty low on her list, as they are on mine. But in my quest for a sizable backpack, I am dipping down my own list. Only a few months ago, I would have quickly snapped up the backpack at Target or clicked on the perfect bag on Amazon. But where’s the fun in that?

This project is slated to end on April 1, but I have a very certain feeling I will never go back to my old ways. I’ve learned too much. Supporting locally owned businesses doesn’t just put my money back in to my local economy, it does much more. It helps ensure that our community stays unique.

The locally owned stores are the color in our town. Otherwise we would be what my husband labels “Generica.” When we travel anywhere in the US and come upon a shopping center that looks like every other shopping center in the US, we find ourselves once again in Generica. You know the one – the one with Wal-Mart or Target, a hair cuttery, Subway, CVS, and all the other chain stores you find in nearly every corner of America. If you were captured, blindfolded, and transported to any one of these shopping centers, you wouldn’t know which of the 50 states you’d landed in.

Maybe for some, and I suppose it’s true for most people, there is comfort in the dependable sameness that Generica offers. You know what each of these stores will sell and at what price. You know what the menu will offer and even what the sandwich will taste like, whether you’re in Spokane or Raleigh. There is security in knowing what to expect. I can appreciate that.

But I would make the case for variety and personalization. The service is almost always better at a locally owned establishment, too. If you care about your health, you’ll undoubtedly do better eating at a local restaurant where many times the food is freshly made and has been locally sourced.

A few years ago my husband traveled to Paris, France for a business meeting. The meeting was held at Euro-Disney and each night there was a planned dinner. When my husband called, I was excited to hear about the amazing food he’d been treated to and was sadly disappointed to hear they’d eaten at Planet Hollywood. In Paris? This is the best we can do? Apparently, the leadership leaned towards the comfort of Generica because the next night they went to the Rainforest Café. I like the Chocolate Volcano dessert as much as the next person, but it sure seemed a shame to miss out on a real French meal. The meals continued in this manner, but my husband was able to sneak out and enjoy one authentic French meal during his stay.

What is unique about your hometown? In York this past weekend in addition to experiencing Hot Rocks, I tried the freshly tapped Coffee Porter at Mudhook Brewery. I’ve already been scheming about lunch at LeftBank and dinner at Blue Moon this week. I can’t wait to eat more authentic York cuisine. Even if your town doesn’t have a restaurant week, maybe it’s time to break out of Generica and discover what the real locals eat.

GONE LOCAL Week Seven: Drink Local

2013-02-18T08:25:00.001-08:00

In Pennsylvania all wine and liquor sales are controlled by state run stores. Now, one could argue that this makes them clearly “locally owned” but only if one trusted the Commonwealth to be responsibly reinvesting that money in our local economy. Big if.

Although most wine is only available at the state stores, you can buy wine directly from the vintner in Pennsylvania and this seemed like a logical solution to my local wine purchasing dilemma. Can’t get more local than buying wine from the guy who grew the grapes and stomped them himself (more or less). The only problem is that most of the PA wines that we’ve experienced are clingingly sweet. If you like dessert wine, they’ve got you covered. Even most “semi-dry” wines lean heavily towards syrup.

To be fair, my survey of PA wine only encompasses the three vineyards truly local – within five miles. So on Valentine’s Day, my love and I ventured further afield, literally, to Brogue. After 25 minutes of driving through classic Pennsyltucky countryside – hills and fields, broken up by the occasional drive directly through some poor farmer’s barnyard (the state was serious about claiming right-of-way back when these roads were paved), we found Allegro Winery.

Having spent countless hours in wineries in Virginia, it must be said that the vineyard was not the picturesque spot we’ve come to expect. They did have a very nice small outdoor pavilion/deck and I’m certain the place would be much prettier some time other than the dregs of winter. We were undeterred and headed in to the tasting room.

Inside we discovered a classic tasting room with lots of wood, barrels and a slate-topped tasting bar. Wine lined the walls and we were immediately greeted by the sommelier (love that word – plus it’s my dream job ….some day). He offered us an extensive list of wines, probably near thirty. On one paper the typical sweet wines were listed, but on the other was a list of dry wine – mostly reds. For a $3 tasting fee, we were told to choose seven wines to taste. In the end the sommelier actually let us taste more than our original seven, even joining us for one, which was novel. He was great company, informative, friendly, and happy to talk about wine and the local market.

The vineyard sells plenty of sweet wine and the one I sipped, tasted exactly as if I had picked a grape off the vine and bit in to it. But their dry reds were fabulous. We even went home with a $36 bottle of reserve, which is more than we’ve ever paid for a bottle of wine (yes, I know we’re cheap). It pleases me to no end that the most expensive bottle of wine I’ve ever purchased came from a local vineyard!

We will keep searching for excellent local wines. It’s a tough assignment, but one I’m willing to endure in the name of journalism.

We haven’t had to travel far for local beer. It turned up at just about the same time I started this little project in the form of GunpowderFalls Brewing, opening less than a half mile from our home. They serve delicious German style beers. Small craft breweries and boutique wineries seem to be enjoying a renaissance of sorts lately proving yet again, that the best things in life are local!

GONE LOCAL Week Six: A Girl and Her Hair Products

2013-02-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Buying locally is not always convenient. This may be the biggest deterrent to those of us who would rather buy from local businesses than mega-stores and chains. At first, I thought it would be the price that got to me, but the difference in price is not so substantial, especially when you factor in the quality. Plus, as I’ve pointed out before, when I am shopping the smaller local markets and stores I’m looking for specific things on my list and not randomly grabbing the great deal displayed on the end cap.

For me, the rub truly comes at convenience. Ever since this endeavor began I have enjoyed the challenges inherent in finding local sources for our favorite things. I’ve met some very nice people and discovered some surprising stores. Only one item has alluded me this past month or so. And it’s not a strange product. It is not expensive or difficult to find. It is my daughter’s favorite hair product.

In the beginning, I figured she could try something else and I purchased what I thought were suitable substitutes from a local source. I quietly mentioned the possibility of making our own homemade version of the goop. She insisted the only product that would tame her tangly locks was the one that came in the white and pink bottle, manufactured somewhere in China. I considered holding my line. I’m sure it’s not necessary to remind you that we are talking about a 13-year-old girl and her hair. There are no substitutes, at least to her mind. And we have much bigger battles to fight.

I renewed my efforts, stepping very near the edge of the definition of locally owned stores, but still the prize alluded me. I considered driving over 30 miles away to an area where I am certain there would be a locally owned store that sold the coveted hair product, but never found the time to make the trip. My patient, if unreasonable, child suffered in relative silence. And then this week, she took action. She crept in to my bathroom and stole my hair product! It wasn’t the one she wanted, but it was a powerful way to make her point and motivate her mother.

On Saturday, I drove her to the CVS and slunk down the aisles where we easily located the product we sought and bought two bottles. I figure I’ve spent at least $30 in gas money searching for those pretty pink and white bottles. I am not deterred, but I’m beginning to come to terms with the limits of my resolution.

In the Dark, Dark, Days of Winter....Lettuce!

2013-02-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

I know it is gray and cold and very February, but I’ve been growing some beautiful lettuce and I can’t thank the man who made it happen because I don’t know his name. So this is a shout out to the anonymous cute young guy at Brogue Hydroponics who had the brilliant idea. Plus, a thank you to the guy I usually take for granted who made it possible.

Earlier this year I announced my plans to figure out hydroponic gardening. It seemed like the last frontier and a way to grow gorgeous lettuce in the winter. Alas, there is nothing growing hydroponically in my home. It just kept getting shoved to the bottom of the to-do list for too long and now it will be next winter’s best intention.

But hydroponics do figure in to my winter lettuce growing operation. Last summer and fall as I was gathering information about hydroponic gardening, I began to badger the people who work at the Brogue Hydroponics stand at the market. One young guy was particularly helpful and I explained to him my desire to get in on the hydroponic gig and asked if it would be possible to tour their farm. He looked around and quietly said, “No, they don’t really like anybody visiting the farm.” Hmmm. I don't know many secretive farmers. This peaked my interest.

I continued to interrogate the nice young man every week. He told me that sometimes they join the summer farm tour. That was way too long to wait. Finally, exasperated by my questions, he said, “You can just re-grow the stuff you buy, you know that right?” He explained that if I tore off the lettuce head from my newly purchased lettuce. I could replant the bottom of the head, the part that is still in soil when purchased. I asked if I needed to plant it in water or if I could just put it in dirt and he shrugged his shoulders. “Would probably work in either.” I went home happy with my new information.

The previous weekend, my husband had finally built me a cold frame (don’t be that impressed, I’ve been asking him to do this for nearly ten years.). He strategically placed it on our southeast facing slope just below the blueberries. I think this is strategic, not just from a sunshine angle, but also to discourage me from adding another row of blueberries (as I did last year).

Baby lettuce about three weeks old. Yes, I realize
someone needs to weed this.

The days were growing colder my this time, so I opened up my cold frame where baby lettuce leaves were just beginning to sprout and planted the bottom of a head of hydroponic lettuce. Then I promptly forgot about it. It’s easy to forget about cold frames when they are closed because they rarely need watering encased as they are in their own ecosystem.

Don't be distracted by the handsome cat, just look
at that lettuce!

On a sunny day near Christmas, I popped open the cold frame to check how the baby lettuce was growing and I was greeted by a huge head of butter lettuce that looked exactly like the one I’d purchased back in early November. It was, quite possibly, the most delicious lettuce I’ve ever tasted. The baby lettuce surrounding it was only about a half-inch bigger than the last time I’d looked. I’m not expecting it to grow bigger than my thumb until March or April at this rate.

Wowee - wow, wow, wow!

Of course, since then I’ve planted more hydroponic lettuce. It’s all I can do to keep from opening the lid on a daily basis to see how it’s doing. The temperatures are hovering around freezing or below this week, so I’ve resolved not to open the box for fear the cold air will be too much for the baby lettuce.

Cold frames are very simple to build. I asked my husband what was necessary and here’s the response I got. I need to warn you that he’s an engineer, so there may be more information here than you necessarily need and it may sound more complicated than it actually is. Fear not - you can do this. It's basically a classic sandbox with a lid.

Supplies

2 ea 8ft 2x12 (pressure treated) for the base

3 ea 8ft 2x4 (pressure treated) for the top

1 ea 26inx8ft clear polycarbonate corrugated roof segment. Also the 24in plastic “closure strips” to nail down corrugated (sold in same aisle of store)

Hinges

Scraps for internal corner bracing, etc.

2 ea 8ft 5/4x6in Cedar deck boards (to line the box at/below soil line)

3 inch deck screws, 2-1/2in stainless screws, special fasteners for the corrugated roof material (also sold in that aisle)

Location: On a hillside facing Southeast. The hill is important because this box has no slope to the roof. In order to put on flat ground it would need a roof that has a pitch to allow rain to slide off.

Base: The finished dimensions are 4 ft x 4 ft. The base is made from the two 2x12’s, each cut to 4ft and then screwed together with deck screws at the ends. I squared it up then secured with scraps (diagonals) to keep it square as it was moved around into place. An approximately 4 inch deep trench was dug to get below the grass root level; lay in the base and double check square (diagonal measurements equal). Use the cedar (cut to length) to line the box down to the bottom of the hole, and fasten in place with stainless screws (not required but I had some left over from a previous job). This keeps most of the pressure treated wood out of contact with the soil while taking advantage of the long life of PT and Cedar in contact with the ground. Using regular pine or fir would only last about 2 years in contact with the ground. I was tempted to put in the dirt and fill the sides, but one never knows what will need to be changed, so fill in after all other steps are complete.

Roof (lid):

Made a 4ftx4ft square with the 2x4’s and then put in some corner bracing as well as additional studs to allow nailing of the corrugated (trying to use as little as possible to keep it light). Put on hinges and installed on the base to make sure everything is ok, square and matching up nice. Then nailed on the closure strips and 4ft long pieces of the polycarbonate. Note that the poly roof is a little larger than the box, but only 1/2in or so on a side. It creates a little bit of an overhang as a drip-lip. You don’t want too much or it will get caught on your pants or the lawn mower over time. Now that the box is all finished, fill it in.

I screened the soil before putting it back in the box so it is nice top soil with no rocks, weeds, grubs, etc. I used all the rocks to fill in the outside edge as this may also be considered good drainage and we have so many rocks we need places to put them. The sod goes in the woods since I don’t want to encourage any grass growing around the outside edges. Over time, the grass will grow to the outside edge then need to be weed-wacked. Now would be a great time to mulch around the outside of the box.

I also put a long 2x2 board on a screw to allow the top to stay propped open (like on a grand piano). As you lift the top, the long board extends and sits on the ground so the top stays open on warm days or to weed/plant/harvest. Also I put a few scraps of wood nearby to prop open the top just enough to let air in, but keep the chickens out. (Otherwise the inside of the box would get too hot)

Every time I go to the market, I look for the young guy who told me about re-planting my hydroponic lettuce, but I haven’t seen him at the stand since the day he passed along that information. I don’t want to promote conspiracy theories or anything, but it’s suspicious that he’s been missing ever since revealing one of their secrets. Who knew hydroponics was such a furtive agricultural practice?

If you decide to build a cold frame it can increase your growing season on both ends. Herbs like parsley and rosemary will most likely keep growing year round in a cold frame. Build it soon and you’ll be able to plant lettuce this month and harvest in late March! Oh, the possibilities! I’m hoping to convince my engineer to design me some taller boxes for next fall to ensure peppers and peas through thanksgiving. If he’s lucky, I’ll forget all about my hydroponic dreams!

Week Five GONE LOCAL: Buy Local, Buy Direct

2013-02-04T08:10:00.001-08:00

This buying local is getting to be a habit now, but as I wrote a check for my Pampered Chef order as part of a fundraiser for the SPCA, I paused. Are Direct Sales local? If you live in a rural or semi-rural community such as ours, you are more than familiar with the party invitations that say “no obligation to buy”. When shopping and employment options are limited, it’s easy to see the draw of becoming a “consultant” or “rep” or “ adviser” for any number of Direct Sales companies. Tupperware is still out there, but boy has the landscape changed when it comes to home parties.

I’ve been to parties where we tasted so many different dips that I wound up throwing up half the night. I’ve been to so many jewelry parties, I had to create a new system for storing my treasures. (see pic). And I’ve been to parties where it was necessary to draw the shades to protect the privacy of the guests as we perused the samples of toys, lotions, costumes, and tools that promised to add a little spark to our love lives. Sometimes it’s a great chance to get out of the house and enjoy some girl time, but more times than not I spend much more than I should and come to regret it.

Confession: I have been a rep for one Direct Sales company for ten years. In the beginning I went at it great guns. I didn’t know anyone in this town, and I used it as a tool for meeting new friends. It worked. Some of my best friends were a result of my business. These days the business is very low key. It pays for my own products, my cell phone, and provides an excellent tax write off, but I’m certainly not making any money.

There are plenty of people who do make good money from Direct Sales. Some of these people live in my community. So, even though their business is national and the national office certainly stands to profit much more than they ever will, do I consider their business “local?” I do, and here’s why.

As I said at the start of this post, employment opportunities are very limited in this small community. This is why most people commute a healthy distance to work every day. But for those of us who are bound to this community because of family responsibilities, profitable work is hard to find. By the time you factor in child care and transportation, a part-time job hardly pays.

Enter Direct Sales. It’s a great solution for self-motivated people and they can work their own hours. But Direct Sales is no easy money. I know of which I speak. You can make money, but you’ll bust your butt to do it, not to mention strain the bonds of friendship and get tired of hearing yourself talk. So my sympathy goes out to anyone trying to earn even a partial living in Direct Sales, and I am ready to support them as a local business (this doesn't mean I’m hoping for any more party invitations though). I know these women are working very hard for every penny. They are my neighbors and friends and if I can help them to pay a few bills or take an extra vacation, I’ll do it. I’d rather give my money to them, than some large national retailer. And besides, who can ever have enough stoneware?

Invasion of the Stink Bugs (or Spring Preview)

2013-01-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

Will someone please tell me when the Invasion of the Stink Bugs will be over? How is it we’ve made it through countless centuries without these nasty little pests reaching our shores, but now they are crawling out of every crevice? The temps around here recently scooted above 50 and it brought out the stink bugs in force.

Last night at 2am I was awoken by a stink bug crawling across my face. Yes. I know. Unbelievably disgusting. It’s amazing I didn’t put an eye out (or wake anyone) with my frantic batting, flinging, shrieking, and shaking. Then I spent the next two hours lying there wide awake leaping out of bed and searching the covers every time I imagined I felt a tiny leg or got one whiff of that lovely stink bug odor. I finally feel asleep for a few hours and when I awoke the first thing I saw was a stink bug crawling across the shade above my pillow. (I suppose my hubby is happy he’s currently on the other side of the planet for work. Otherwise he would have spent the night chasing down the real and imagined stink bugs with me.)

It gets worse. When I brushed my hair I realized the smell of stink bug was coming from me. That bug must have been nesting in my hair half the night before it felt compelled to check out my cheek bones. I’ve washed my hair and the sheets and I still have the willies.

I thought it was over, but when I picked up my water glass a few minutes ago a small gray shield shaped bug was floating in it. Will it never end? I suppose I should be happy that today’s 60 degree temps are about to give way to the high twenties again tomorrow.

Feeling powerless to overcome the tiny beasts, I did what I always do; I searched for answers on the internet. I found these ten ideas for ridding your home of stink bugs on a site called the Columbia Patch.

Here are ten ways to get rid of stink bugs:

1. Use a vacuum cleaner to suck up the bugs - UMD Bulletin. (We actually have a small shop vac designated for stink bugs and after vacuuming them up, empty it in the chicken pens. Chicken’s love stink bugs. Too bad mine aren’t housebroken.)

2. Cut the top of a half gallon or gallon jug, fill it with soapy water and use a piece of cardboard or a napkin to whisk the bugs into the water, which will drown them - UMD Bulletin. (I generally catch the nasty little critters with toilet tissue and flush them down the nearest toilet, but now I’m wondering if since we have a septic tank, I’m just relocating them temporarily.)

3. Seal up cracks around windows and doors with caulk or weather stripping. - UMD Home and Garden Information Center. (Last summer, my husband actually used bright blue painters tape to seal the edges of our screens. This looked horrible, but did seem to help.)

4. Take out window-unit air conditioners; stink bugs can easily get through these. - UMD HGIC. (But what about the summer when you need the a/c? Which is worse – sweating through the night or living with stink bugs in your home?)

5. Plant or move fruit trees and vegetable gardens, especially tomato plants, away from your home to prevent stink bugs from landing on the exterior of your home. - UMD HGIC. (Sorry, this ain’t happening. The gardens and fruit trees were here before the stink bugs.)

6. Squish stink bugs outdoors--the odor warns other stink bugs to flee. - Bayer Advanced insect control. (I had no idea that stink bugs were that organized.)

7. Hang a stink bug trap outside your house to catch them. - UMD Bug Guy, Mike Raupp, YouTube. (I truly believe the stink bug traps are a complete come-on for those of us feeling desperate. Save your money, if something actually worked, we’d all know about it, plus just like Japanese beetle traps it probably attracts as many new stink bugs as it kills the locals.)

8. Hang a damp towel outside your home overnight. In the morning, stink bugs will blanket the towel, and you can use a vacuum or knock them into a jug of soapy water to kill them. - Bayer Advanced (Interesting idea, but the damp towels hanging all over my bathroom and children’s floors have yet to attract a ‘blanket of stink bugs’)

9. Although most insecticides are ineffective against stink bugs, some do work, but the bug must be clearly on the label. Insecticides are never to be used indoors - UMD HGIC (Bad idea all around. Insecticides have always done more harm than good.)

10. Check your attic for holes or gaps and close them up. Stinkbugs often enter through attics - Mike Raupp, UMD Bug Guy, YouTube. (This is the best advice on this list. We did check around and discover some gaps in our crawlspace and filling them did significantly reduce the number of stink bugs getting in.)

Obviously the invasion is centered somewhere
over New Freedom Pa. What did we do to deserve this and
when will the great migration take place?

So what’s a stink-bug-freaked-out-woman to do? Tonight I’ll scour the room with the bug vacuum and wait until I’m ready to sleep before putting on the clean sheets. Tomorrow, who knows, maybe I’ll start working on house-breaking my chickens. Seriously, I think stink bugs are here to stay and we need to find a good use for them. This little break in the weather has provided a sneak preview of what's coming this spring and if we think the worst is over, as my kids might say, "We're seriously whacked."

GONE LOCAL Week Four: It's Not Just Personal, It's Sacred

2013-01-28T07:35:00.002-08:00

The best thing about shopping locally is the people. Now that I’ve become a bit of a regular at the Central Market, I’ve gotten to know some of the vendors there. I truly enjoy talking with the sellers about the products and the market.

The people who own, manage, or work at the stands and small businesses I’ve visited are passionate about what they sell or the service they provide. They have to be because none of them are in it for the money, that much is obvious. I appreciate people who feel strongly about what they do. Confucius said, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” I find that to be just about the best advice I’ve ever encountered. It’s rarely been about the money for me in any job I’ve held, and I grow weary when I encounter the opposite.

I’ve learned a lot from the store/stand owners I’ve gotten to know. I‘ve learned how to cook purple rice – freaked the kids out. I learned that if you quickly pour off the water you run through your tea the first time, and then add new water to steep, you’ll remove much of the caffeine. I’ve learned to appreciate all the ways vinegar can enhance the food you cook, without adding calories. And this week I learned the difference between golden and brown raisins. The golden ones are sulfured the same way as apricots. That’s what makes them soft and plump – more marketable and more expensive. The sulfur is only for aesthetic reasons and many people have reactions to sulfur.

I had an interesting discussion about the differences between four different types of fingerling potatoes at another stand. And laughed at how gnarled and bent their carrots were – just like the ones I grow in my rocky soil. When I purchased my pork loin, the butcher asked how I planned to cook it and we discussed the benefits of using a crock pot. After I paid, he said to be sure to stop back and let him know how it turned out. I can’t imagine anyone at the Giant supermarket asking (or even caring) about how I planned to prepare my dinner that night, except maybe my friend Liz who works there, but only because I know her in other realms besides Giant.

I stopped to buy coffee beans and thought of the comment my husband had made the day before when we talked about his coffee needs. He said he was using his expensive fair-trade coffee beans from the market more sparingly because he knew what they cost. He also said that every time he made coffee he thought of the friendly guy in the Rastafarian hat who sold him the beans and wondered how much money he made at his little stand. Buying local makes every purchase personal.

It also makes it somewhat sacred. While my husband feels a kinship with his coffee guy and I adore my tea lady, the kids view every Cheezit bag as hallowed and they dole out the servings mindfully. No longer do they abandon entire bowls full on the counter to go stale and be fed to the chickens. They know every Cheezit box may be their last since I’ve only found one locally owned store that offers them and it’s not one I’m inclined to patronize that often.

Farmers Markets don’t just offer fruits and vegetables anymore. Many offer meats, cheeses, breads, and grains, plus dried fruits and nuts, honey, coffee, even wine. We often think of farmers markets as a treasure of the past, but in fact Farmers Markets are increasing in numbers every year. According to the USDA, there are 10% more markets in 2012 than the previous years. The number of markets has nearly doubled since 2004. And the more we patronize them, the more they will continue to multiply and offer more days and hours to shop.

Shopping at Local Markets where you can meet the seller, and many times the grower or baker or butcher, is rewarding not just for the body, but for the mind, and most especially for the soul.

Getting a Little Nutty with the Laundry Soap

2013-01-25T10:53:00.001-08:00

I finally tried soap nuts. Ever heard of them? They’re gnarled nuts just a size larger than an acorn. They usually turn up at natural food stores and occasionally farmers market stands or craft booths run by hippies. Sometimes the nuts are sold loose and sometimes in little packages with directions.

Their natural oils purportedly work magic in the washing machine rendering clothing sparkling clean without any detergents. The package I bought from a woman at the Sweet Potato Festival who also sold beautiful alpaca wool caps and homemade hand and body soaps said to toss 2 or 3 in an average load. They can be used 5-7 times. There were no specifics as to how you know they are “used up”.

I’ve had my packet of soap nuts for a few months. They seemed like a great idea until I got them home and prepared to toss them in my washing machine. I paused to consider the power of vinegar. I use vinegar as a fabric softener. Not only does ¼ cup per load work beautifully to eliminate static cling and soften fabrics, but it also removes “teenager smell”. If you have teenagers then you’re familiar with this smell. It’s not quite as bad as BO, but it is also not necessarily a pleasant scent. I think it is a combination of hormones, the repeated wearing of favorite clothes, and the stench of junk food coming out of their pores. Deodorant cannot combat this and it permeates their clothing. At any rate, as I said vinegar removes this smell beautifully.

Sidebar: Vinegar, besides being a most powerful and effective cleaning agent, is a natural deodorizer, which I know seems odd given its own strong smell. Spray it in trash cans, diaper pails, and refrigerators to remove the smell. I just spray the bottom of trash cans and let the vinegar evaporate taking the stink with it. Or you can just leave it for 30 seconds before wiping it out.

Because vinegar is such a powerful acid I worried that it would strip the soap nuts of their natural oils and render them ineffective. So I’ve left the soap nuts sitting on the dryer for months now. When I encountered a soap nut vendor again, I asked about vinegar and soap nuts. She looked at me curiously and said she didn’t think vinegar would hurt the nuts. But she didn’t say it confidently enough to give me confidence. So the nuts have been sitting.

This past week I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. (It’s a wild life I live.) I added 3 soap nuts to a load of darks, including a dirty glove (note picture) that has been sitting on my porch for several months because no one knows who it belongs to and without its match I can’t even give it to Goodwill. I also added vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser and ran the load like I normally would.

When I removed the clothes from the washer they appeared clean. The glove was especially clean. There were two problems though. First, after putting the clothes in the dryer, I couldn’t find one of the nuts. I pulled out all the wet clothes and shook them to no avail. I reached in to the washing machine and felt under the spinner. No nut. I didn’t want to run the dryer if one of the precious nuts was hiding in the clothes afraid the ‘natural cleaning oils’ might cook on to the clothes or lose it’s magic altogether, plus I only had six nuts to begin with. I stepped back to consider my options and heard a “crunch”. Found the nut. Sigh.

The second problem was actually more serious than the cracked nut. The clothes appeared clean, but they still smelled like teenagers. Not good. Apparently the power of soap nuts trumps the power of vinegar. Or perhaps the vinegar works best with my homemade detergent. I dried the load of clothes and the smell was diminished, but I could still tell it was there. I am confident my kids won’t notice it, living in the smell as they do. But still.

So my soap nut experience wasn’t the best. I’m not a believer, but I’ve met plenty of people who are and I can say that soap nuts do seem to clean the clothes, if not deodorize them. If you don’t have teenagers, they might be a nice natural way to wash your clothes. For now, though, I’m taking a pass on the nuts. If you’ve had a better experience, I’d love to hear about it!

GONE LOCAL: Week Three in Which Our Heroine Ventures to the Mall, Secures the Sacred Toy, and Finds a Local Download

2013-01-22T07:21:00.000-08:00

Malls were created to make it easier to shop by putting everything in one place. They also turned shopping in to a social event not just for the true shopper, but for teens in suburbia everywhere. I remember hanging out at Christiana Mall with my friends soon after it was built. We loved the freedom from our parent’s control, opportunity to display our latest fashion statement (leg warmers and purple eye shadow), and the possibility of encountering boys. When I torture my children with “I remember when…” stories the absence of malls is right up there with computers, microwaves, and remote controls.

And malls have changed. Once the free range of every delinquent or wanna-be delinquent teen in the tri-state area, most malls now require all minors to be accompanied by an adult. The open space in the aisles of the malls have been filled with kiosks manned by overbearing and aggressive sales people obviously working on commission. And food options have expanded to include Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabons unleashed from the food court and scattered freely to wage war on our senses and self-control.

I hate malls. My daughter loves them. Last summer she and a good friend created a “shopping camp” for the two of them. It involved me driving them to several malls. As I wandered a huge mall about thirty minutes from our home in an affluent suburb of Baltimore, I was amazed at all the things I could buy. I was also amazed that there was absolutely nothing in that mall that I needed. It was good people watching and character collecting, but I was ready to go in about thirty minutes. Not so the girls. My daughter has told so many jealous friends about “shopping camp” that I’m considering charging for my counselor duties this summer.

Week three of Going Local required that I go to the mall. There is nothing locally owned about a mall. Well, not much anyway. The rents at most malls are much too prohibitive for the average small business owner. Most locals can only afford a kiosk. This past week I found myself at the local mall. I was meeting my mom to exchange a Christmas gift. Technically speaking, I was within my legal rights of Going Local since I, personally, wasn’t purchasing anything from the chain store franchise where we went.

After securing the exchange we left the mall and went to a nearby locally owned restaurant (Bel Paese -fabulous Italian) for lunch. Over lunch I told my mother of my ill-fated attempt at buying the Nerf toy my youngest child had his heart set on giving a friend for the upcoming birthday party. The only locally owned toy store listed in the yellow pages didn’t answer the phone when I called and seemingly didn’t exist as I circled the supposed address for ten minutes that morning to no avail. She suggested the Bon Ton, a department store at the mall we had just left. When I reminded her it wasn’t locally owned, she told me it was York based. This was news to me. My knee-jerk reaction has been to dismiss all large department stores as non-locally owned, but a quick search of their web site told me she was right.

After lunch we headed to The Bon Ton back at the mall only to discover their meager toy department caters to the under six crowd. My mom has a soft spot for her youngest grandchild and asked if my Gone Local laws allowed other people to go in to stores and purchase things for me. Tempting, but it seemed to undercut the whole idea. Before giving up completely I searched the ownership of the other stores at the mall and learned that Boscovs is based in Reading. Not so close, but still Pennsylvania. And they sold Nerf. I confess it’s a bit of a stretch for locally owned, but it was a small sacrifice I was willing to make to keep my ten-year-old from condemning the Gone Local plan only three weeks in.

While packing for a two week trip to Taiwan, where he assured me everything he purchased would be local, my husband asked about downloading books from Amazon to his kindle for his 14 hour flight. I told him that wouldn't be shopping local and reminded him that the library loaned e-books. He made a face and said he didn’t have time to figure that out. But my husband is nothing if not supportive and resourceful, so he gave it a shot and discovered that it’s very simple to download an e-book from the library. In fact, he downloaded three. I breathed a sigh of relief because the last time I tried to download a book it was not only difficult, but disheartening since there was such a meager selection to choose from. Happy to say that is no longer the case.

Going local is requiring all of us to think before we shop. I’m still sorting through a few challenges like .9 pencil lead and nylons in a size that will fit my long-legged size 0 daughter. Craigs List is a veritable gold mine. This week we found a long-promised archery bow for my son – even left-sighted like he needed. But I’ve scoured the Goodwill and farm markets in search of a coffee mug (extra tall and narrow) like the one I broke recently. My tea is just not the same in any other mug. And my daughter is begging for her favorite hair product that until recently I always secured on Drugstore.com. It would be so simple to find all these things online. But where’s the challenge in that? And more importantly that would not be supporting my community in any way. Alas, every week is a new quest in living locally.

How Just About EVERYONE I Know is Putting Themselves at Risk

2013-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

This isn’t really a new subject for me. I’ve said it before, it’s just that in the last few months Harvard and other estimable intuitions have backed me up with their studies. Permit me a brief “I told you so.”

The results from a study conducted by the National Instituteof Environmental Health Sciences (smart people) revealed that out of 263,925 people, those who drank four or more servings of soda per day were more prone to develop depression than those who didn’t. I’m thinking the giant cups handed out at fast food restaurants and gas stations are at least four servings.

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition this past November showed that women who drank more soft drinks had an 83% higher risk of stroke than those who didn’t.

But don’t think if you stick with diet soda you’re safe, putting aside the cancer risks, for a moment, there are other risks. In 2012, a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine showed a link between drinking a diet soda every day and heart attack risk.

And another study conducted by Harvard in late in 2012 of 1,878 students at Boston public high schools found that heavy soda drinkers were much more prone to violent behaviors than other teens.

Most people do agree that soda consumption can be a factor in obesity, but more recent studies draw that conclusion clearly. A monstrous study that spanned decades and involved 33,000 Americans yielded proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, making people more at risk for obesity.

And that’s not all folks – another study concluded that drinking a soda a day increased a man’s chances of developing an aggressive form of prostate cancer. That ought to motivate more than a few men to give up the soda habit.

I’m waiting for the study that links the increase in soda consumption and the increase in autoimmune and learning disabilities in kids over the past thirty years. Makes me want to be a scientist.

Sure, it’s hard to attribute these negative reactions solely to soda, but even the most dedicated doubter has to admit, the studies are piling up. If you haven’t picked a New Year’s resolution yet, maybe giving up soda might be a good one.

As a reformed soda drinker, I know it sounds impossible to give up your favorite beverage. I was thoroughly addicted to Fresca and Diet Coke for many years. But when I gave up soda and started drinking tea (black, green, and herbal) I noticed three things within weeks that aren’t mentioned in those illustrious studies above: 1) I didn’t feel as tired all the time 2) I lost five pounds and 3) food tasted better.

Bottom line: If you want to dramatically improve the health of your family ban the soda. Do my kids ever drink soda? Two of them always order soda when out at restaurants or over at friend’s houses. I don’t sweat it because it’s a special treat, not an everyday staple. My daughter has never developed a taste for soda and thinks it’s disgusting. I’ve told you she’s a smart girl.

If you google soda and recent studies, you’ll find even more studies detailing the dangers of soda, I just picked the ones that came out in the past six months. The evidence is insurmountable unless you’re a politician living firmly in the deep pockets of the soft drink lobby. But I know you’re smarter than that.

GONE LOCAL Week Two: Less Stress, Long Distance Drugs, and Where O Where Can I Find Nerf?

2013-01-14T08:38:00.001-08:00

I’ve discovered that while going local requires a little extra detective work at this stage, it’s much less stressful. Hear me out.

When we are in need of something, say dog food, I have limited options. Limited options means less stress. I don’t have to consider which store has a better price or a sale. I don't have to locate the store coupon which is always expired or not valid because of the small print I can't read without my glasses. I don't have to worry whether I’ll get a better deal on dog food at one store versus the other. I don’t have to figure out which store might be most convenient for my day’s kid-chauffeuring schedule. There is no stress created by the possibility of making the wrong choice. In fact I don’t have to make a decision at all about where to go. Plus, there’s no danger that I’ll go to Wal-Mart and wind up buying a cart full of things I don’t really need now, but might need sometime in the next month.

Since I’ve committed to buying locally, I know the best place to buy dog food is at the locally owned pet store where I know the owner and can stop and have a chat with the groomer who is one of my favorite people in town. I might even throw the dogs in the back seat and bring them along for their pedicure. Instead of it being a chore, which going to Wal-Mart or Giant or Tractor Supply or wherever I decided to get the dog food would be, it’s now a visit. Much less stressful.

The dilemmas this week revolve around the children. Don’t they always? First up, prescription medicine from last week’s doctor’s visit.

My cursory search for a locally owned pharmacy turned up blank. If you Google “independently owned pharmacy in York PA” it contains only five entries. This is a rare instance for Google. The first listing is a pharmacy in Gettysburg. The others listed are not independently owned, except the one listing for Maryland. Seems the pharmacy of my youth where the pharmacist knew your name and even which color lollipop you liked, is gone.

At first I thought I would have to travel to Gettysburg (45 minutes away) to fill the prescription. My husband justly complained. However, it so happens that I was headed to Gettysburg this weekend anyway for a conference, so it would be convenient. I promised him I wouldn’t go to Gettysburg for all our prescriptions, just this once.

But alas my husband's worries were put to rest because while taxiing my boys to an activity this week, I passed Minnich’s pharmacy. I’d never noticed it before. It’s locally owned, bright and clean and open until 9pm! The pharmacist even came out and talked to me personally. He apologized for not having the particular medicine I was looking for and assured me he could have it by noon the next day.

Well, first I have to say how refreshing to have someone check BEFORE you’ve waited thirty minutes to see if they have something in stock. And second, how nice they care that I have to wait a day. I’ve had pharmacy experiences where after I've cooled my heels waiting 45 minutes for them to not call my name, the beseiged checkout clerk informed me that they don’t carry the meds in question. "No worries," I told the nice pharmacist. I’d be back this way next week and could pick it up then.

I’m guessing that service is the reason Minnich’s is the last one standing amongst York’s independent pharmacies. Driving a few extra miles is much better than waiting in line at the Wal-Mart pharmacy before spending thirty minutes buying things I don't need and being annoyed by the sheer fact of Wal-Mart. Sure, I appreciate that Wal-Mart is convenient, but it feels good to know it’s not my only option.

On Tuesday a birthday party invitation arrived for my ten-year-old. He danced around happily when he saw it was laser tag, and then announced “I want to go to Wal-Mart to get Michael a glow-in-the-dark Nerf basketball set!” Problem. Very gently I reminded him that we don't go to Wal-Mart anymore. “I’ll just find a toy store in York and we’ll go next week,” I promised him.

Well, here’s hoping someone builds one by next week. No toy stores. Like so many other small businesses, the mega-stores have put every small toy store out of business. There were a few niche shops for comics, hobbies, and gaming, but no store that would carry Nerf. After lengthy searches (Google failed me again), I finally found an obscure sounding toy store near the mall that has no web presence. I have to meet my mom at the mall this week to climb through another loophole on my buy local manifesto (more on that next week) so I shall journey forth and let you know what I find. Here’s hoping they have Nerf. I figure my out is to give the kid cash so he can go buy it himself, but that feels like a cop out.

And if that weren’t enough my daughter announced that she was auditioning for the Talent Show and if she made it, could she please, please, please have a new dress to wear? And could it not be from Goodwill? Well, my sweet little cherub, local clothing I can do. I proceeded to tell her about the independently owned stores in York City that carried dresses. I even mentioned the cool vintage clothing store that her cousin from New York thought was so awesome. She doubts me, but I got this one.

I can see that having fewer options when it comes to shopping for clothing for my daughter could be another instance where Buying Local reduces my stress. The clothes might cost me a little more, but the reduction in hours spent in changing rooms at Gabriel Brothers, Kohls, Target, Bon-Ton, Charlotte Russe, etc., will more than make up for it.

State of the Art Chicken Defense System

2013-01-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

What do you think of the chicken’s new decorating scheme? Makes the place feel like a constant party. Unsurprisingly, the girls were not impressed. But no matter, the effort was to protect them, not impress them.

Last year when I allowed myself to be talked in to purchasing 28 chicks over the phone by a friendly, enthusiastic man at a hatchery in Iowa, I thought I was hedging my bets. After all, we lost eight chickens in one fox attack the year before and the dog had already nailed three by spring. So 28, while a ridiculous number of chicks for a family based operation, seemed reasonable when you consider the inherent dangers of living on this hillside.

All of the chicks, save one, made it through the summer. I was feeling flush; I even gave six away to friends whose own flocks had been decimated by age or sharp-toothed felons. I was in the midst of negotiating a deal to relocate another hen contingent on a rooster accompanying her (anyone else need a rooster?), when the siege began.

My husband and I were all cleaned up and headed out for a night on the town (or at least a game at the local brewery), when we heard panicked shrieking from the chicken pen. We dashed in our finery to the muddy pen and discovered a hawk having dispatched with one hen, surveying the others and choosing dessert. We shooed him out and hoped we’d scared him as much as he scared us.

Apparently not, because over the next few days chickens began to disappear on a daily basis. What to do? It’s illegal to shoot a hawk. They’re a protected species. I have a hard time understanding why we’re protecting them; they seem to do just fine on their own. No matter, we don’t own a gun. I did half-jokingly ask one of my son’s friends, an accomplished hunter, whether he’d be interested in the job. He wondered about the legalities of taking out the bird. Smart kid.

And it wasn’t just the hawk eyeing up our birds. We have a dog, which claims at least a small amount of hound pedigree, who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. That’s the nice way of saying it. She barks at the horses, as if she’s never seen them before, yet bounds out to greet any stranger who walks up our driveway. She threatens to kill the cat on a daily basis, only to back down the minute the cat turns around. She does not come when she is called and bursts through our invisible fence regularly, still not certain where that electric zap to the neck came from. Once free to roam, she rolls in horse poop and then sits opposite the front door barking. Obviously, the hawk is not afraid of her.

Back to my story. A few days after we realized we were losing birds, this dog began barking in an unfamiliar voice. My husband was working from home that day, and we looked at each other surprised. Was there a strange dog in our yard? No, it was our dear dumb hound, but she sounded different. She sounded like a real dog, as if she were saying, “I’m not kidding this time. There really is something dangerous in the yard!” Running outside we found a red fox stalking a cluster of chickens near the driveway. My husband pulled the invisible fence collar off our eager dog and set her off in chase. We knew she’d never harm a fox, but we were counting on the fox not knowing that. We set her up patrolling the yard. End of fox visits.

If only the hawk was as easily intimidated. Our free ranging girls are confined to their pen for the time being. They are none too happy about it and three of them are managing to scale the fence daily in deference to the fact that they have clipped wings and a local animal kingdom eyeing them up for lunch.

While the hens stewed, we considered our options.

At a holiday party, friends who live a few miles away told me that they were losing animals to coyote until they purchased donkeys. Apparently donkeys keep coyotes at bay. That seems like a cumbersome and expensive, not to mention noisy, fix, but they have cows to protect so there’s more at stake.

My husband and I recently spent a weekend on a sheep farm in Virginia where they had “guard llamas.” Guard llamas seems like an oxymoron until you learn how ferocious llamas can be. Who knew?

We aren’t in the market for any more creatures, so we dreamed up our own defense. Hence the redecorating.

We’ve strung up electric fence across the top of the pen. It’s not electrified at this point. We’re starting out simple. I dug out old plastic containers and pie pans and strung them up with baling twine over the wires. I’m considering blasting some country music too, but don’t know how that will fly with the neighbors.

Have we outsmarted the hawk? It’s too soon to tell. We’re five days in to the new defense system and so far so good. I count beaks every morning.

This is our 'guard cat', not nearly as
effective as a llama would be I'm sure,
but he does protect the chickens from
the mice that would steal their food.

I tell this story, not for your entertainment, well maybe for your entertainment, but also as a reminder that sometimes we have to be creative when solving our own dilemmas. Whether it’s kids or chickens, it’s easy to throw money at a problem, in the form of llamas or donkeys or professionals. But it’s much more satisfying to fix the situation yourself. I’ll let you know how this one pans out.

GONE LOCAL: Hoarding, Sleeping with Sheep, & Finding a Fencing Jacket, plus Getting Screwed by the Dealer (how's that for a catchy title?)

2013-01-07T12:25:00.001-08:00

The original stunt journalist

The project has barely begun and already I feel as if I’m failing. Alas. I've always wanted to be a “stunt journalist,” but I can't even survive one week. I am fascinated by stunt journalism. I gobble it up. First I read The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, and then Not Buying It by Judith Levine. And Barbara Kingsolver blew me away with her local eating book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I loved the film, No Impact Man, in which a family living in New York City attempted to spend a year having no negative impact on their environment.

The idea that an author can subject themselves (and their family) to some kind of lifestyle change, discomfort, etc. and then write about it as it happens, captivates me. It fascinates me in the same way the idea of people living on the space station does. It all sounds so wonderful, but how does it really play out? What do they do with the poop? What if you don’t like the guy in the pod next to you? What if you like them too much and you have an affair – will mission control watch this happen? OK, so deciding to buy all our stuff locally doesn’t really compare, but if you ask my children they’d say they’d rather live on the space station, as long as they can have their Cheezits and Trader Joes cereal.

The hard truth of my little project is that my family is being forced along for the ride. My daughter is always up for a challenge and she sees the possibilities and the adventure. She also tells her friends that her mother is going to starve her in the next three months. My boys see only the way this lifestyle may impinge on their cereal options. My oldest has become downright obstinate about the whole thing. He says he’s going to wait until January 1 and then blow his whole Amazon gift card cache on things shipped from New Zealand. He chose New Zealand figuring it was as far away from here as anywhere. But then he couldn’t think of anything made in New Zealand. I offered, “Beef?”

Had to add this one, since my kids hoard
"magic' game cards. (And who knows
where they will buy them now!)

First Confession: Ever since I made the decision to Go Local in 2013, I’ve been hoarding. It’s been almost unconscious, but still. I’ve stocked up on the things I can’t imagine going without – my favorite brands of conditioner and toilet paper, books from Amazon, good pens, plus Cheezits for the kids and cat food at a reasonable price. My husband has been filling the basement with cases of booze. We all have our weaknesses. I just needed to confess this up front. I feel better now.

On Day two of Going Local I already felt like I was failing. This little challenge is much more complicated than I imagined. Determining the owner of a business is slippery. If a franchise is locally owned, does that make it local? Even though the bulk of the profits are being piped out of state to the mega-conglomerate that pulls the real strings? Hard to say. I’m still chewing on this one. I’ve met the owners of the local Chik-fila, but are they technically the “owners”? Isn’t Chik-fila owned by an enormously wealthy man whose wife gives money to anti-gay causes? I thought it wouldn’t be until a family road trip that I’d be smacked with splitting these hairs.

A few weeks ago a letter came from Honda. Seems there’s a small issue with a part that could potentially cause a fire in our car. The chances seem remote at best since this car has already raised our children and driven over 150,000 miles (in our 2-mile radius town). Still, it was past-due for its inspection so my hubby decided to take the dealer up on his offer to replace the potentially hazardous part for free and, oh-by-the-way can you inspect the car while you’re at it. He felt confident of the inspection since our local garage had put over $1600 of work in the car over the past year.

It wasn’t until my hubby called me with the news that the dealer had found some obscure problem that was going to cause them to fail our inspection unless we shelled out $500 for the fix that I realized our misstep. What? I’m about to spend a large sum of unbudgeted cash at a non-locally owned business for a problem I never knew existed. Is it me or does everyone feel like they’re being hosed by the dealer whenever they take their car in for work? So it’s a double whammy – I’m already broke this month and I already blew my commitment to locally owned businesses. Ugh. Can I have a do-over?

Let me balance out this tragedy with a triumph. As I’ve most recently confessed, prior to starting this Gone Local project, I indulged in a little selective hoarding of staples I worried I would not find locally. In fact, I was feeling guilty that this would all be too easy since I was stocked up on all my normal purchases from Wal-Mart. But then I sat down to print something out and the yellow flashing light lit up on the printer. No paper. And no hoarded paper either. Serves me right.

Where do you buy printer paper locally? Every stationery store I know is part of a large national chain. For a brief moment I considered calling my hubby and asking him if it was possible for him to “borrow” a ream from work. But he doesn’t even work local so that’s bad on too many levels. I began my search online and much to my delight I discovered an office supply company located right here in York and even better – it’s a “green” office supply company! Locally and family owned Greenline Paper specializes in recycled and green products.

I e-mailed the store to be sure they sold to homeowners and got a lovely e-mail back with location and hours and an invitation to come right in! So I did! Not only do they have printer paper, but toilet paper, aluminum foil, and other paper products. They even have cat litter. And bonus – when you order more than $50, they’ll deliver it for free. And I worried that I’d never see my UPS man again!

Driving home from the Swordguild, my oldest son announced, “My fencing jacket is too small. I need a new one.” I raised my eyebrows and thought, “Why didn’t he tell me this a week ago when I could still shop on the internet?” He read my mind and said, “See, three days in and already this isn’t going to work.”

Fencing is a relatively obscure sport. My children tend towards obscure things. The youngest has just taken up archery and the middle one plays the oboe. Finding a fencing jacket from a locally owned store most likely requires that you live somewhere like Scotland. Normally I order fencing equipment from an online supplier located in New Jersey. That won’t work anymore. I spent one day debating giving in and softening my Gone Local stance, but then I remembered Craigs List. If I buy something from an individual, I’m definitely putting my money back in the local economy. Sure enough, several fencing options on Craigs List. I made arrangements for my husband and son to meet up with the lister and check out the jacket. Fingers crossed.

The same day as the fencing predicament, my son had an appointment with a doctor in Maryland. We live only four miles from the Maryland line, so technically this doc is still sort of local. It’s just that I was interpreting “local” to mean Pennsylvania, York County preferably. This is a follow up appointment, so it seems pretty irresponsible parenting to switch him to a doctor up here at this point. So I won’t. Again, first week and already I’m blowing it.

On day four of the New Year, my hubby and I traveled south to Virginia for a romantic weekend getaway. This was planned before Gone Local became a reality and was a birthday present. The grandparents came to watch the kids and we escaped for two days at a cottage on a working farm that grows grapes and sheep. In keeping with my new plan we rented directly from the owners, so while we were out of state, we still bought “local”. Local being a relative term. We did pack our own food as is our habit since cooking together is a treat. We patronized locally owned venues – a farm market and local wineries. Since I haven’t written up strict rules for this endeavor, I think I’m within my bounds here.

This first week proved that buying locally can be complicated. I have discovered that life, especially life with kids, is a series of wins and losses. The trick is to keep perspective. Don’t let the losses dictate your future, or at the very least, learn from them.