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{Guest Author} Pea Green with Envy

2010-07-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: Roberta Owen

Let’s face it: today being green is hot. We can thank global warming for that.

Thanks global warming, for making it fashionable to wear hemp socks and recycled shoes from consignment stores (just spritz ‘em in baking soda for a natural deodorizer, right?). Oh, and thanks for making it cool to make us “bag people” at grocery stores, as we juggle a bag full of bags. Paper or plastic? Nah, I’ve got my own bags!

You know you’re hip when you have more recyclables than garbage. Or for women: minerals in place of makeup, crystals for pits or sea sponges for tampons? Or for men: shaving cream or electric razor? Grow a beard! Guys checking out another man’s new car, lifting up the hood to check out the new engine are a thing of the past; it’s all about the gears, the pedals, the lightweight carbon frames, which is why a Bianchi Infinito Ultegra is the new Ferrari.

We not only buy local when it comes to food, but we grow it in our backyard. And speaking of the backyard, the backyard doghouse has been replaced by the chicken coop. We drink our organic tea in locally made pottery mugs and admire our “Go Natural!” lives. And then we see our neighbor pull up in her Prius, the newest “green” craze. She invites a local Environmental Councilman for dinner. The jealousy strikes. The desire for a greener life, greener friends and people in “green power” hits like a wall of biodegradable plastics.

You get pea green with envy.

One would think as grown, mature and responsible adults, we would know how to conquer the envy demons. After all, with all the self-help books, tapes, seminars and classes offered one would think we would be mentally sound, clear and balanced individuals in a constant state of utopian satisfaction. This isn’t the case, however, for many of us. We get jealous, we get angry, we get moody and we become emotionally challenged. You can see it in yourself when you envy your neighbor’s vegetable garden. You think to yourself, “How did they get so many peas this year?” You look at yours and see your pathetic “bunch” (the one, just moments ago, you were so proud of). Or you see your friends’ children participating in every local event and think, “I want my child to have that!” At an evening concert in the park, you see a couple, hand in hand laughing and telling witty environmental political jokes over wine and cheese with their other go-go-organic friends and want that (whether you already have it or not). It’s so easy to fall into the proverbial sickening landfill of “organic desire.”

In contrast to other jealousies, wanting and striving to be greener than your friends and your friends’ friends isn’t such a bad thing. Every decade has their envies and hypes. The 1980s had the frizzed hair, padded shoulders and pursuit to climb the corporate ladder, even if it killed you. The 1990s with overly-introspective people pondering the existence of life and reality over a cup of coffee. The 2000s had the computer madness ‘simplifying’ life through a virtual reality and simplifying everything with a thousand different chords and outlets to make it easier (finding a new outlet seemed to be difficult for many, pun intended). And now we have it all combined: the career, the life-pondering, the computers and the “green life” all rolled into one. If you think about it (over a cup of organic joe of course) maybe being green with jealousy isn’t such a bad thing.

After all, the grass is always greener — on the other side.

About the Author
Roberta Owen lives in Bellingham, WA with her husband and her two sons. As a freelance writer she is interested in sustainability, travel and all things domestic. You can see more of what Roberta's up to on her blog Talkspot.

{Guest Author} Harvest Time

2009-11-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Talented local gardner, Roberta Owen, is back with her wonderful advice on sustainable living. If you missed her last post titled: The Great Hype: What is Sustainable Living? be sure to check it out. Please welcome Roberta!

Harvest Time
By: Roberta Owen

Picture this. Spring comes along and the vegetable seedlings you nursed to maturity are ready to be planted in rich, dark soil. Spring rolls through and you see the little inch-high seedlings begin to take shape and form into something a little bigger, a little sturdier and a little more like a vegetable than a weed. It’s amazing, almost miraculous, to see the little lettuces, leeks, carrots, onions or beets battling against spring’s unexpected frosts, winds or heavy rains.

As gardeners, we tend to these little lives with a special love and care. They grow bigger and heartier through summer’s heat and sun. And our green thumbs weed around all our hard work. We nurture them endlessly:

Watering when rain is scarce
Supplementing with minerals and vitamins
Plucking out pests in and around our inviting habitat
Leafing through the entire garden making sure every little life is flourishing

Now picture this. All the life that was once small and seemingly helpless is now full grown vegetables. Tomatoes are in full bloom, bursting in radiant color. Zucchini sits lazily on the ground, long and plump. Potatoes are snug deep below the rich soil. Beets are boasting in purple glory. Onions, leeks, garlic and chives are shades of green so vibrant you feel healthier just looking at it. Cabbages are spherically shaped in ruffled perfection. Carrots and parsnips are laced in intermingled unison, nearly begging to be plucked and devoured. Your entire garden is ready to be harvested. It’s a bittersweet moment: the moment, you’ve been waiting for. There’s something inside of us that silently says “I’m sorry.” Not that we’re entirely remorseful (we wouldn’t have grown them in the first place if this were the case), but there is an undeniable hint of mixed feelings as we see our garden slowly getting smaller due to cropping. But, it sure tastes good!

My husband and I have a vegetable, fruit and flower garden at home. In addition to this, we have a garden plot (20x20) through the city’s community gardens program. The vegetable garden includes potatoes, leeks, onions, chives, various herbs, eggplant, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, parsnips, squash, cabbages, cauliflower, lettuces, pole beans, sugar snap peas, garlic, zucchini, cucumbers, brussel sprouts and beets. Needless to say, its upkeep took extreme dedication (thanks primarily to my husband) and time. This is a 100 percent organic garden, no chemicals to rid pests. This means every plant required manual riddance of slugs, aphids, caterpillars and cutworms (top four pests we encountered this year). Most plants survived, but some did not.

The top three “successful” vegetables in our garden were tomatoes, cabbages and potatoes. If you are a newcomer to growing a vegetable garden, I would highly recommend these three vegetables (in addition to lettuces, sugar snap peas and carrots).

We chose the Hillbilly and Riesentraube Heirloom tomatoes, bought from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog. The Hillbillies are meaty and pink, rich in flavor and relatively easy to grow. Because of their individual weight (two pounds) supporting the plant with poles is mandatory (we chose thick bamboo rods). The Riesentraube tomatoes are smaller, excellent for salads and bear so much fruit you feel like you’ve become a master gardener. Cutworms and tomato fruit worms are common pest dwellers for tomatoes; if you’re not the squeamish type, just pluck them off when you see them. Early blight is another difficult and sometimes harder disease to control with tomatoes. This occurs during hotter, wetter months of the season and targets older leaves. Simply pruning off the diseased leaves before it infects the entire plant (early blight is highly contagious) can help the plant. Proper irrigation and air circulation also helps to reduce the risk of early blight.

Early and Late Cabbage proved to be a success for us. Early cabbage is very small (the size of a softball) so if you do grow this, keep this in mind. We were expecting it to be much like late cabbage (the size of a basketball) as we left it nearly too late. In its earlier stage, cutworms and root maggots almost annihilated our crop. You’ll know a cutworm or root maggot has gotten its feisty little grip on it when you see the leaves chewed off or if the plant seems stunted in growth. Removing cutworms is easy: just pick them off. Root maggots, on the contrary, pose a different problem because they burrow inside the soil, attached to the root. When this happens, the only natural way to remove them (from what I know and have researched) is to carefully uproot the cabbage, find the pest, remove it and carefully search for any more that may be in or around the soil. Sometimes this helps, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s good to remember that the vegetable will not always survive the uprooting and replanting. In cabbages later stages (both in Early Cabbage and Late Cabbage), aphids pose a serious and annoying threat to both the plant itself and the gardener. Spraying them off with water or wiping them away is a natural and organic way to eliminate this problem. Aphids are tricky, though: they burrow deep in the leaves and require time and dedication to eliminate them. This is gardening, though: this is why it’s hard work and why we’re so grateful when it turns out beautiful.

We planted Red, Purple and Yellow Seed Potatoes we purchased from Hohl's Feed and Seed. Potatoes flourish when planted in cool spring soil, but bear in mind you don’t want to plant them in water logged soil (this could rot the potato). This is a fun plant to grow if you have children: set the potatoes out in an area of your home where there is plenty of sunlight and “warm” temperatures (about 65F) and in a few weeks you’ll notice little buds. The buds will determine where you can slice the potatoes (if larger) in halves or thirds. Smaller potatoes can be left whole. Plant them in rich soil and you’re pretty much done. They are low maintenance and offer a hearty bulb, therefore, children can easily plant the potato in soil themselves and feel a sense of accomplishment. After time, when the potatoes are growing in leafy bushes and hotter weather rolls in, covering the plants in straw is a good idea (potatoes aren’t too keen on hot weather). Each potato bushel yielded an average of seven delicious, colorful potatoes.

Some of the “not-so-lucky” vegetables we encountered were cauliflower, radishes and brussel sprouts. Gardening can sometimes make you feel like a champ when all goes well, but when it doesn’t, it’s difficult not to get discouraged or frustrated.

Along with victories, every gardener has their failures. In our case, it was the radish. One word: maggots. It’s so easy to say, “just pluck them away.” However, the Radish sometimes enjoys playing peek-a-boo with the soil and its red top flirts with the rest of the radishes nearby. Radish maggots spy these tasty treats and devour them. Sadly, once a radish maggot gets to a radish, the only thing to do is toss the little red root away. It’s commonly thought that slugs get to radishes, but when you actually take a closer look, peering inside, you’ll see the little white maggot worming its way, happily munching away. I swear every year I won’t plant these difficult vegetables again, although I always do. After all, what’s a garden salad without a radish?

Eggplant is finicky. It takes its time to grow and seems like a lazy plant. I call it the “Teenager Who Won’t Get Out of Bed for School on Time” plant. Because, seriously: sometimes it misses its chance to get there on time! We had two good eggplants, but should have had more. We planted the Ping Tung; 70 days, 18” long, 2” in diameter, which claimed to be “sweet and tender, superbly delicious!” And it was. The two we grew. I just wanted more and I would have loved to see it produce more fruit than it did. There weren’t any pests and it was planted in the greenhouse (eggplants love warmth). We’ll try again next year.

Brussel Sprouts are interesting vegetables. You see so much foliage and no produce for a while. And then suddenly, as if overnight, you begin to see small little buttons emerging from the stalks. Even before they sprout their little green buds, however, aphids are attracted to the plant. They burrow on the tops of the overlapping foliage, nestling themselves so deep, the gardener has to literally unfold each leaf and wipe them off, spraying off the aphids. When the brussel sprouts do grow bigger and look more like the way we see them in markets, keep a close eye on each sprout: slugs, aphids and cutworms find these veggies a tasty meal. The ideal brussel sprout is a firm, tight brussel. To achieve this, plant in firm packed soil. Firm soil equates to firm brussels and loose soil leads to loose flaky brussels. Harvesting the sprouts if they are loose and later boiling them for your meal will result in tasteless, flaky veggies. We found that the hardest thing about growing brussel sprouts were the aphids. Getting rid of them is tedious work, especially when they return a week later!

The fun things about gardening are its unexpected surprises. These surprises can be both good and not so good, but who doesn’t like a garden surprise? Our “surprising” adventures in the garden beds were the pole beans, cauliflower and garlic.

We planted the Royalty Purple Pod pole beans. At first we didn’t think they would make it: they seemed small and wilted in the sun and lacked the desire to climb. We babied them endlessly. Manually weaving the little vines around poles, creating elaborate and intricate routes to a better direction. And then, as if they finally figured out what they were supposed to do, they flourished. They grew. They bushed out. They wrapped around in curly definition around the poles, around the fence and up the twine. They looked like they came out of the Secret Garden with their little curly-cues; their spiral little vines whimsically boasted to its neighboring apple tree; they were going to make it. And then the pole beans began to sprout. The first few we saw we ecstatically plucked them off for that night’s dinner and had a sense of pride. And then ten more came. After that, the entire bush was full of foot long beautiful, thick purple pods. We plucked them off the vine, ate them raw and discovered a new favorite. They all came to maturity nearly at the same time, so I would suggest canning, freezing and sharing with others. They are a truly scrumptious eat.

My husband and I have planted Cauliflower before and have had good luck in the past, but this year we weren’t as lucky. Cutworms devoured the roots to the point of complete annihilation. Like cabbage, you can tell a cutworm found its way in the roots just by looking at it. It stops growing (stunts) and looks horrible. Our soil was rich and full of nutrients, but in addition to the cutworm, the cabbage looper (common pest for cabbage) attacked it, infecting the white button, leaving it inedible. We planted both purple and white cauliflower. Out of about six plants, only one made it and it was very small (but delicious). With gardening, these things happen and they may be surprising, but it’s not worth getting discouraged over.

Lastly, we planted my favorite, Hardneck Garlic. I love garlic. I love cooking with it, I love roasting it and I even enjoy eating it raw (this is a very powerful immune booster). When we received the pearly white bulbs in its brown paper sack, we immediately put them in the refrigerator, until ready to plant. It’s such an easy plant to grow: get all the cloves from the bulb, directly plant in rich soil two inches deep, cover with soil and wait. They’ll sprout and grow into tall, lanky, onion-like stalks. When it’s time to harvest, be careful when you uproot it. You need to wait until the stalks “die back,” turning brown and yellow. Because of this, don’t pull; you need to dig them out. We found the easiest way to harvest Hardneck Garlic was to uproot them with good, thick gloves (my favorites are the Atlas Gloves) and dig them out with your fingers (this way you can work around the bulb). After harvesting, wipe off the dirt (don’t wash) and cure the garlic. Curing is easy: place the garlic in an area with good air-circulation, out of the sun (underneath rafters, a shed or even in an area in your house) and leave for a few weeks. After they’re good and dry, wash and bundle about ten bulbs (with stalks), braid them and hang. Voila, you have a vampire’s worst enemy.

Gardening is a lot of work, a time-consuming activity and an excellent means for sustainable living. The beautiful thing about gardening is anyone can do it. Picture this: you’re a first-time gardener and after a successful season you find that you have found a new passion, a new hobby and have a new, raw taste for sustainability. It’s delightful!

About the Author
Roberta Owen lives in Bellingham, WA with her husband and her two sons. As a freelance writer she is interested in sustainability, travel and all things domestic. You can see more of what Roberta's up to on her blog Talkspot.

Photo: Roberta Owen

{Guest Author} The Great Hype: What is Sustainable Living?

2009-09-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've invited talented local gardner, Roberta Owen, to guest write about sustainable living. This is a hot topic in the Seattle area and she offers a fresh perspective. Please help me welcome Roberta!

The Great Hype: What is Sustainable Living?
By: Roberta Owen

Everybody has a definition for sustainable living and the more it’s out there, the fuzzier the idea gets. While one thinks this style of life is creating a pretty garden with the odd vegetable here and there, recycling and going in an organic direction, another can think it requires more than that: a hard core vegetable garden, a goat in the backyard with a few free-range chickens running amuck, a workshop to build furnishings, recycling old linens for clothing and doing everything as simple and as green as possible.

Dictionary.com defines sustainable living as “any lifestyle based on energy-saving and environmental responsibility.” Does this mean that the pretty garden peppered with the odd red vegetable with scary looking warts is a means of sustainability? Well, yes. According to the dictionary, it is. Every garden requires environmental responsibility and if that garden produces meals, it is energy saving. Sure, it’s not enough to keep a human (being) alive, but the definition of sustainable living doesn’t say it needs to.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as a plate of homegrown vegetables and a fresh line caught salmon for dinner. It almost feels like cheating to use a lemon from the local market, so we tend to forgo the tangy yellow fruit, boasting to ourselves that, yes, this is a 100 percent sustainable meal. Our taste buds burst with pleasure and we smile to ourselves, remembering the rod that tugged with force while the silvery pink fish splashed out toward the surface. Reeling in tonight’s dinner, we have the inevitable sense of accomplishment and certainty; we can survive, alone. We are hunters; we are gatherers.

The idea of “going green” has sparked conversations many times around the dinner table, in the garden, even in a child’s room. It can be an achievement and a set of beliefs. It is a great accomplishment to grow a head of red leaf lettuce, a few sprigs of green onions and an heirloom tomato; eat a garden salad and call it sustainable living. However, others ask if that is enough. Ours is a world where 7 Up is called “natural.” Or where packaging that screams “compostable” ends up in the landfill where it won’t break down because that bio-material is not accepted at the city composting facility (unless you live in one of the lucky cities with compost collection).

Green-washing (meaning when companies spin their products and policies as environmentally friendly) is so pervasive, it might drown out the efforts of countless salads. The phrase “sustainable living” is perfect for marketing that 100 percent organic cotton apron with three little birds embroidered by a blind nun (who was paid fair wages and given access to appropriate healthcare); but is preparing an organic meal in that apron really a sustainable life?

Going Back to Basics: Isn’t it Ironic?

Going back to basics has an irrevocable sentiment of domesticity. Communal gardens and rooftop beds of growth, small porches filled with little plant boxes and rows of seeds sprouting up. Knowing even the dead can fertilize the living. All of this requires attentive detail and constant dedication; it is a time-consuming activity. It involves tending, a trait that once belonged solely to women.

Gardening is as basic as basic gets. A good source of basic living is cooking homemade meals. Baking from scratch is on the rise, because it can cut your grocery bill in half, a big incentive these days and partly due to a growing awareness of our need to keep our regional food sheds healthy and available. For others baking is fun. Whatever the reason for the rise of baking from scratch, one thing is worth noting: many women are back in the kitchen.

Women for centuries have fought long and hard for their independent rights and freedoms. If we go back to the Stone Age era, for instance, the role of a woman was to help gather nuts and seeds and grind them to make meals, sew clothes and tend to the most basic needs of their family. This “role” for a woman has been passed on from generation to generation, defining a woman by her duties at home.

The fight for independence and liberation had finally reached a satisfying point.

Women vote
Women work in construction
Women are in the army
Women can have a baby and three weeks later return to the workforce
Women can do nearly anything a man can do
Women have gained their freedom from tending

The irony in this, however, is women are now fighting their way back into the kitchen and into the garden and those who are lucky enough to work from home are envied. The sense of pride a woman gets these days from baking her first whole wheat loaf of bread! She boasts on Twitter: “Just made a fresh loaf of whole wheat flax bread from scratch and the smell is delightful.” She then proceeds to shove the dry morsels of food in her spouse’s mouth, eager to prove to herself and others that she is a culinary expert. Once again, a woman who can sew her own clothes, master her own garden and cook an entire meal from scratch using the produce from her garden is the new post-feminist.

Getting Started in Sustainable Living

Creating a balance between living within the Earth’s limitations and simplifying our own needs, wants or desires can lead to a daunting and intimidating responsibility. While we know of the environmental plight, we also know human nature has a tendency toward naïve ignorance or the popular and somewhat comforting myth that somebody else will take care of it. Relegating such tasks, however, is not a sustainable option. Interestingly enough, the differences are ones from a more traditional past:

Use a clothes rack to dry clothes
Use public transportation, walk or ride a bike
Turn off the lights when you leave the room
Use energy efficient household items
Cut down on electronics
Plant a small garden for vegetables. If you don’t have access to a yard, use your porch or look around your community to find a communal garden
Become aware of your local classes and events to see what they have to offer

If you are new to the idea of going green in your lifestyle or just want to continue learning and getting involved in the community, there are local organizations to help you, and websites to learn from:

Seattle Tilth is a local nonprofit organization whose main goal is to educate and encourage gardeners to grow organic and become more environmentally conscious. This past July, Seattle Tilth, offered a City Chicken Coop Tour, educating the minds of those interested in how to raise chickens or build a coop. Additionally, Seattle Tilth hosts an annual edible plant sale presenting Seattle’s largest selection of organic and sustainable vegetable starts. If this doesn’t get a gardener excited, nothing will. In September the Seattle Tilth offers a Harvest Festival where you can enjoy an organic farmer’s market, classes, food and live music.

About.com’s Small Farms site includes important how-to’s in the farming culture. Interested in how to design a small farm, prepare the land for farming or raise chickens? The articulate and informative articles will give you an inclusive perspective on these topics and more.

Seattle Urban Farm Company teaches chicken, vegetable and herb farming or you can talk with the friendly and knowledgeable staff about organic farming/gardening.

Sustainable Seattle is a non-profit volunteer-based organization who believes in getting businesses, governments and people more proactive with healthy and sustainable actions in the economy, communities and environment.

Food co-ops and natural grocers are always eager to help educate the ways of green-style living. PCC Natural Markets, Rainbow Natural Grocery and Madison Market, to name a few, always have interesting and fresh ideas of sustainability (not to mention scrumptious foods).

Local Harvest is an excellent website. Plug in your zip code and they’ll find the closest farmers' markets, family farms and other locally grown/raised products for you. They also have their own catalog of organic goodies ranging anywhere from produce, seeds, meats, honey, dairy, wellness, wools, fibers and more.

Eat Wild is another good website to browse for factual and easy-to-learn information about grass-fed meats and dairy. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the science and nature of grass-fed meats (especially when you start talking to one of the meat cutters at a natural grocery store); this website is both user-friendly and highly informative.

Going back to basics is a positive direction toward a better and more fruitful life, where one can feel their hard work surge and feel as though they are taking a step toward a greener and brighter future.

In a world where consumerism and thoughtless purchases lead to waste, going toward a sustainable lifestyle makes you re-think everything you’re putting on your plate and how much. It makes you think of what you could create with those old linens you were about to toss in the garbage or gives you a sense of pride when you see your energy bill cut in half. Whether sustainability is hyped up or a post-feministic way of the future, a chance for beginners to strive for a green style of living, one thing is for certain: It’s a beautiful thing.

About the Author
Roberta Owen lives in Bellingham, WA with her husband and her two sons. As a freelance writer she is interested in sustainability, travel and all things domestic. You can see more of what Roberta's up to on her blog Talkspot.