Between 2004 and 2005, the NYC Dept of Sanitation conducted a census of what was hiding in our trashcans and recycling bins: The New York City 2004-05 Residential and Street Basket Waste Characterization Study, or WCS. It was the first comprehensive look at our waste stream since a similar DSNY study conducted in 1989/1990.

If you've read my earlier posts, you're probably aware that I kind of have a thing for trash.

While I love me some good scavenging action, there's a lot more to our waste stream than finding drawers in it. Bear with me today; this trash talk has a good point.

A few years ago, I read an article somewhere about how our thrown-away Chinese takeout leftovers produce large amounts methane, a pretty feisty greenhouse gas, as they decompose in landfills. Well, more than just the leftovers... it turned out that just about any organic material (kitchen scraps, paper, yard waste, natural-fiber fabrics, etc.) in the ol' landfill, when entombed under other crap, decomposes anaerobically (i.e. no oxygen present) and emits methane as part of that process.

Vroom vroom!

Back to the 2004/2005 WCS. I was happy to see, among lots of interesting data points, a focus on organic waste. Apparently, the amount of organics in our fair city's residential waste stream, if apprehended, could exceed one million tons of material per year. And that's only counting kitchen scraps, yard trimmings, and compostable paper... and only, again, residential. If we also count paper material otherwise designated for recycling, a whopping 64% of our waste is organic.

More than half. Of the 64,000 tons* of stuff we place curbside. Per week. *According to 2004/2005 figures.

And a buttload of it is heading for the dump. Hello, methane!

The good news is that we regular folk can get crafty to address this problem, benefiting us individually and our ecosystem (and the DSNY, if you care). Fellow homesteaders, take heed.

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(Guest-blogger Ross Brown lives in Boerum Hill Brooklyn with his wife Lisa and teenage kids Tobin and Avery. A still-new urban gardener, he is adding his second beehive on his roof this year and proud to be one of the founders of the Backwards Beekeepers of NYC. An avid runner, you can find him crossing the boroughs with NYC Bridgerunners.)

When I began keeping bees on my Boerum Hill rooftop, one of my main concerns was how my neighbor, whose balcony abuts my roof, would react. Gabe is a lovely young fellow who was thrilled to see the hive being set up. He told me he thought beekeeping was super-neat (maybe those are my words, but you get the point) and that he, too, was a bit of a DIYer. He makes his own jerky. He gave me a bag of some beef jerky with a spicy dry rub he made and I was blown away. As a baseball coach and father to a teen athlete, I spend a lot of time at the ball field and often depend on jerky for quick easy protein snacking. Unfortunately it's typically packaged, commercial jerky, so receiving something so freshly made was a real treat. It was delicious, flavorful, and the freshness was unmistakable. I asked if he could teach me and he was kind enough to spend an afternoon in my kitchen sharing his expertise. And when my mom and step-dad visited recently, my step-dad Bob was kind enough to help me make a fresh batch, and he took these great photos so I could share the process with you.

The first step is deciding if you're going to make a dry-rub or marinade, or both. Think of flavors you like and don't be afraid to experiment. I use a broad range of flavors: cumin, turmeric, ginger, cayenne, chili powder, salt, pepper, brown sugar, molasses (lots of molasses), soy sauce, onion, garlic, orange/ lemon zest and juice, anything you can consider. I mix the rub together and set it aside for application, and I also cook up a batch of fresh marinade.

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This fall I've decided to open up my home to New Yorkers interested in the possibilities of backyard food production and self reliance. I'm offering an intensive, all day course on "backyard homesteading" on Sunday, September 25th from 9 a.m.-5.p.m.

Some of the topics that will be covered are:

-Raised Bed Gardening (building beds, planning and maintenance)
-Foraging and Wild Edibles
-Composting
-Raising Chickens
-Beekeeping
-Pickling, Canning and other forms of food preservation
-DIY Cleaning and Body Products with Liz Neves of Raganella
-Homebrewing with Jerry Madden of Tipsy Parson

and we will touch on other topics such as rainwater collection, rooftop gardening, root cellaring, vermicomposting and making your own household cleaning and body products.

I'll be serving coffee and homemade donuts in the am and I'll provide lunch and beers/Cheerwine cocktails in the afternoon. Students will get to leave with some great books from my publisher, packets of seeds, a couple bottles of homebrew and preserved items to enjoy. The cost of materials is included in the Eventbrite ticket price.

Please spread the word! It's going to be so much fun!

xo,
Meg

My sincerest apologies, dear readers. I've been a very bad blogger. I can explain though, really. It's been a fairly crappy couple of weeks and my head was just elsewhere. And it just kept getting worse as the days passed. I won't complain, I won't fish for sympathy, but as a fan of lists I am going to make one to exorcise the demons of the past 20 some days since I've posted an entry and then I'll spend some time "keeping on the sunny side" so to speak, to keep things balanced. This is a venting post. If you don't like it, please click away from the page.

Here goes....Things that went down that nearly made my rip my own face off:

-Car broke down, again. (Mother Trucker!)
-Nasty, blinding stye in my eye for a week. ;(
-Cat got tremendously sick, cost thousands of dollars and will have to be fed every two hours from a tube for the next month.
-Car got towed for no apparent reason. (ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!)
-Currently scrambling to figure out how to transport nucs to the farm and to a client in Port Chester to little avail.
-Had to cry to my mommy for moral support. (How old am I? Couldn't possibly be 30.)

(Poor baby cat. Myra in the hospital kennel where she spent 4 days above a barking Rottweiler)

Things that make me feel a little less homicidal:

-I've got great friends and am connected to people who are always willing to help me in unexpected ways when I need it.
-I got a new computer so I can get pumped on writing this book.
-My cat WILL get better with time and care.
-Farming, removing my head from the equation in yet another way
-My bees will all be here and in their hives after this weekend so I can stop stressing.
-I've got a boyfriend who is the kind of guy that all men should endeavor to be like. He's kept me in one piece all of this time. I couldn't do all of this without him.
-The garden is coming up really nicely. I'll be harvesting pea shoots and radishes next week. Waiting on two new beds to put the potatoes in but that too will happen sooner or later. I'll try not to fret over it. It'll get taken care of. It always does, eventually.

(Get in my belly already!)

Lemon season is drawing to a close [here in Nova Scotia], but If you are lucky enough to have some straggly lemons in your neck of the woods that you're looking to use up, I have just the recipe for you. Since this recipe only uses the juice, these lemons don't need to be picture perfect. I used Meyer lemons, but any variety will do nicely.

This jelly is ideal if you (like my husband and I) aren't really a fan of the bitterness of marmalades or other preserves which include citrus peels. It uses only the lemon juice, leaving the jelly with a bright lemon flavour and none of the bitterness. It is perfect on toast or crackers, and it's also amazing stirred into plain yogourt or spread on a crepe. The vanilla part was kind of a happy accident; the only sugar I had on hand (as I realized once I had already started and was too far in to quit) was some vanilla sugar (sugar which had vanilla beans sitting in it for a few months) In it went. The jelly would also be delicious without the vanilla.

Even if they're not used in the jelly, there are a few things you can do with those rinds! After juicing the halves, cut the little nubs off of each half so they will lay flat like a little bowl, and start some seedlings in them. Use them to scrub your cutting boards or pots on their own or with a bit of salt; they work especially well on stainless steel. Or pop them in a small pot with a bit of water and a cinnamon stick and simmer for a little while to make your kitchen smell amazing.

Meyer Lemon Vanilla Jelly

15 oz lemon juice (12 lemons for me; this may vary, depending on the size of your lemons)
3 ½ c vanilla sugar (or 3 ½ cups sugar with scraped seeds from one vanilla bean added)
1 pouch liquid pectin

Yield: 5 8oz jars

Juice the lemons and strain the juice to remove any pulp or seeds. Place juice in a pan with the sugar and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Using a small metal sieve or spoon, remove the foam on the top of the mixture and add the pectin. Stir. Pour it into sterilized jars and lids. Process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes.

I'm Sherrie Graham, an urban homesteader of sorts in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. I'm a mother, teacher, and soapmaker, and I blog about it all at www.twentytwopleasant.blogspot.com.

It's been a wild year since Kate and I started BK Swappers, a pot-luck style social gathering and food swap. Kate's gone off to start her own swap in Austin and Jane from Butter and Salt has taken over her duties. The swap has grown in leaps and bounds and most recently Debbie Koenig from the New York Times chronicled the event that took place at the end of February.I have to say, it's been a nice little "birthday gift" for BK Swappers. We've gotten a great response from folks from the area and we expect that our next swap on 4/10 at The Brooklyn Kitchen is going to be amazing and full of awesome food and people.

Tickets go "on sale" (It's free) this Thursday at noon, so shoot us an email if you want to be included in the mass email, or just follow our progress on Twitter....the hashtag is #BKSwappers.

In the meantime, check out our write up in the Times! It's a fun piece and boy are Jane and I PROUD!

(photo:Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

I'm finally taking the plunge. After years of eating Kimchi, buying Kimchi, loving Kimchi, I am just getting around to making this stuff myself. I spent the past 2 months babysitting two big jars of Kimchi for my friend when she moved and never came back for them. They went into a pot of Boar Belly Kimchi Jigue last night...Sorry, Yvo. You snooze you lose!) and I figured, if my lazy (but still totally lovely and awesome) friend can make this stuff, then so can I.

So here we go! I've got my rinsed, salted napa cabbage and daikon sitting and I'm about to make my chili porridge based off of this great recipe from Maangchi who I think has the best Korean food blog out there. Instead of carrots and squid, I'll just be adding crisp slivers of apple for sweetness.

***UPDATE****

After leaving the chili porridge coated vegetables out on the counter overnight, I moved them to the refrigerator. The next day, being unable to resist a taste, I went it and sampled both. They were crispy, a tad sour and spicy. (but fairly mild compared to other kimchis I've had. I've got a delicate constitution, you know!) Truth be told, I'd be perfectly happy eating this kimchi fairly fresh with a bowl of rice and sesame seeds. Really happy with the way this turned out and can't wait to try this method of lactofermenting on other foods!

(Aaaagggghhh!)

I need some contributors! I'm crazy busy for the next couple of months with class prep and paying writing gigs and I would love it if anyone out there would like to contribute any beekeeping, canning, animal husbandry, home brewing, pickling, whatevah-whatevah content. I'll kiss yr butt. Or give you some eggs and honey or something. Please, just do me a solid. I don't want this blog to be just about me. I'm boring.

So, if you are reading this and have got some fun urban-homesteader-y stuff going on and have a basic understanding of the English language and how computers "go" GET AT ME!

<3M

We try to grow as much of the food that our small Brooklyn backyard allows us, but there are limits to what we can produce back there. Livestock beyond chickens and perhaps rabbits for meat production are definitely out of the question for obvious reasons. Fortunately for us, it pays to be friendly with neighboring farmers.

This week, each household in our four unit building got together to order a whole 50 lb. pasture-raised lamb to share from Spring Lake Farm in Delhi, NY. Ulla Kjarval, who blogs at Goldilocks Finds Manhattan, helped to organize the delivery, as she is the daughter of Icelandic-American farmer Ingimundur Kjarval who has owned Spring Lake with his wife Temma and their daughters since the 80's. Ingimundur and family produce some really wonderful grass-fed beef, lamb, pork and boar. I've had the pleasure of sampling some of their lamb before and was really excited to have the opportunity to buy some, straight from the source.

(Photo by Ulla Kjarval)

Today, Ulla and her father came by with boxes filled with the locally butchered and cryopacked cuts of lamb as well as some pork and beef that we had ordered. My neighbors and I enthusiastically divvied up the meat and now I'm pleased to say that four households in Brooklyn have enough grass-fed protein to keep us fed for the next few months.

If you are interested in buying large quantities of pastured and humanely-raised meat locally, check out the NYC Meatshare. You can co-ordinate with other grass-fed, local meat lovers to purchase directly from sustainable farms in the region. It's a great way to help support local farms and get a great product while you're at it.

<3 M

from OrganicConsumers.org SIGN THE PETITION BELOW! I, for one, will no longer shop at Whole Foods, Buy products from Organic Valley, Stonyfield Farm or any other company that supports the use of GMO seed stock and I encourage you to do the same.

**The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now? **

"By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, Jan 27, 2011
Straight to the Source

"The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must." - Whole Foods Market, Jan. 21, 2011

In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America's organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it's time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for "coexistence" with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.

In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and "seed purity," gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the "conditional deregulation" of Monsanto's genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa. Beyond the regulatory euphemism of "conditional deregulation," this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S.

In exchange for allowing Monsanto's premeditated pollution of the alfalfa gene pool, WFM wants "compensation." In exchange for a new assault on farmworkers and rural communities (a recent large-scale Swedish study found that spraying Roundup doubles farm workers' and rural residents' risk of getting cancer), WFM expects the pro-biotech USDA to begin to regulate rather than cheerlead for Monsanto. In payment for a new broad spectrum attack on the soil's crucial ability to provide nutrition for food crops and to sequester dangerous greenhouse gases (recent studies show that Roundup devastates essential soil microorganisms that provide plant nutrition and sequester climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases), WFM wants the Biotech Bully of St. Louis to agree to pay "compensation" (i.e. hush money) to farmers "for any losses related to the contamination of his crop."

In its email of Jan. 21, 2011 WFM calls for "public oversight by the USDA rather than reliance on the biotechnology industry," even though WFM knows full well that federal regulations on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) do not require pre-market safety testing, nor labeling; and that even federal judges have repeatedly ruled that so-called government "oversight" of Frankencrops such as Monsanto's sugar beets and alfalfa is basically a farce. At the end of its email, WFM admits that its surrender to Monsanto is permanent: "The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well True coexistence is a must."

Why Is Organic Inc. Surrendering?

According to informed sources, the CEOs of WFM and Stonyfield are personal friends of former Iowa governor, now USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and in fact made financial contributions to Vilsack's previous electoral campaigns. Vilsack was hailed as "Governor of the Year" in 2001 by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and traveled in a Monsanto corporate jet on the campaign trail. Perhaps even more fundamental to Organic Inc.'s abject surrender is the fact that the organic elite has become more and more isolated from the concerns and passions of organic consumers and locavores. The Organic Inc. CEOs are tired of activist pressure, boycotts, and petitions. Several of them have told me this to my face. They apparently believe that the battle against GMOs has been lost, and that it's time to reach for the consolation prize. The consolation prize they seek is a so-called "coexistence" between the biotech Behemoth and the organic community that will lull the public to sleep and greenwash the unpleasant fact that Monsanto's unlabeled and unregulated genetically engineered crops are now spreading their toxic genes on 1/3 of U.S. (and 1/10 of global) crop land.

WFM and most of the largest organic companies have deliberately separated themselves from anti-GMO efforts and cut off all funding to campaigns working to label or ban GMOs. The so-called Non-GMO Project, funded by Whole Foods and giant wholesaler United Natural Foods (UNFI) is basically a greenwashing effort (although the 100% organic companies involved in this project seem to be operating in good faith) to show that certified organic foods are basically free from GMOs (we already know this since GMOs are banned in organic production), while failing to focus on so-called "natural" foods, which constitute most of WFM and UNFI's sales and are routinely contaminated with GMOs.

From their "business as usual" perspective, successful lawsuits against GMOs filed by public interest groups such as the Center for Food Safety; or noisy attacks on Monsanto by groups like the Organic Consumers Association, create bad publicity, rattle their big customers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, Costco, Supervalu, Publix and Safeway; and remind consumers that organic crops and foods such as corn, soybeans, and canola are slowly but surely becoming contaminated by Monsanto's GMOs.

Whole Food's Dirty Little Secret: Most of the So-Called "Natural" Processed Foods and Animal Products They Sell Are Contaminated with GMOs

The main reason, however, why Whole Foods is pleading for coexistence with Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF and the rest of the biotech bullies, is that they desperately want the controversy surrounding genetically engineered foods and crops to go away. Why? Because they know, just as we do, that 2/3 of WFM's $9 billion annual sales is derived from so-called "natural" processed foods and animal products that are contaminated with GMOs. We and our allies have tested their so-called "natural" products (no doubt WFM's lab has too) containing non-organic corn and soy, and guess what: they're all contaminated with GMOs, in contrast to their certified organic products, which are basically free of GMOs, or else contain barely detectable trace amounts.

Approximately 2/3 of the products sold by Whole Foods Market and their main distributor, United Natural Foods (UNFI) are not certified organic, but rather are conventional (chemical-intensive and GMO-tainted) foods and products disguised as "natural."

Unprecedented wholesale and retail control of the organic marketplace by UNFI and Whole Foods, employing a business model of selling twice as much so-called "natural" food as certified organic food, coupled with the takeover of many organic companies by multinational food corporations such as Dean Foods, threatens the growth of the organic movement.

Covering Up GMO Contamination: Perpetrating "Natural" Fraud

Many well-meaning consumers are confused about the difference between conventional products marketed as "natural," and those nutritionally/environmentally superior and climate-friendly products that are "certified organic."

Retail stores like WFM and wholesale distributors like UNFI have failed to educate their customers about the qualitative difference between natural and certified organic, conveniently glossing over the fact that nearly all of the processed "natural" foods and products they sell contain GMOs, or else come from a "natural" supply chain where animals are force-fed GMO grains in factory farms or Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

A troubling trend in organics today is the calculated shift on the part of certain large formerly organic brands from certified organic ingredients and products to so-called "natural" ingredients. With the exception of the "grass-fed and grass-finished" meat sector, most "natural" meat, dairy, and eggs are coming from animals reared on GMO grains and drugs, and confined, entirely, or for a good portion of their lives, in CAFOs.

Whole Foods and UNFI are maximizing their profits by selling quasi-natural products at premium organic prices. Organic consumers are increasingly left without certified organic choices while genuine organic farmers and ranchers continue to lose market share to "natural" imposters. It's no wonder that less than 1% of American farmland is certified organic, while well-intentioned but misled consumers have boosted organic and "natural" purchases to $80 billion annually-approximately 12% of all grocery store sales.

The Solution: Truth-in-Labeling Will Enable Consumers to Drive So-Called "Natural" GMO and CAFO-Tainted Foods Off the Market

There can be no such thing as "coexistence" with a reckless industry that undermines public health, destroys biodiversity, damages the environment, tortures and poisons animals, destabilizes the climate, and economically devastates the world's 1.5 billion seed-saving small farmers. There is no such thing as coexistence between GMOs and organics in the European Union. Why? Because in the EU there are almost no GMO crops under cultivation, nor GM consumer food products on supermarket shelves. And why is this? Because under EU law, all foods containing GMOs or GMO ingredients must be labeled. Consumers have the freedom to choose or not to choose GMOs; while farmers, food processors, and retailers have (at least legally) the right to lace foods with GMOs, as long as they are safety-tested and labeled. Of course the EU food industry understands that consumers, for the most part, do not want to purchase or consume GE foods. European farmers and food companies, even junk food purveyors like McDonald's and Wal-Mart, understand quite well the concept expressed by a Monsanto executive when GMOs first came on the market: "If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it."

The biotech industry and Organic Inc. are supremely conscious of the fact that North American consumers, like their European counterparts, are wary and suspicious of GMO foods. Even without a PhD, consumers understand you don't want your food safety or environmental sustainability decisions to be made by out-of-control chemical companies like Monsanto, Dow, or Dupont - the same people who brought you toxic pesticides, Agent Orange, PCBs, and now global warming. Industry leaders are acutely aware of the fact that every single industry or government poll over the last 16 years has shown that 85-95% of American consumers want mandatory labels on GMO foods. Why? So that we can avoid buying them. GMO foods have absolutely no benefits for consumers or the environment, only hazards. This is why Monsanto and their friends in the Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations have prevented consumer GMO truth-in-labeling laws from getting a public discussion in Congress.

Although Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) recently introduced a bill in Congress calling for mandatory labeling and safety testing for GMOs, don't hold your breath for Congress to take a stand for truth-in-labeling and consumers' right to know what's in their food. Especially since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the so-called "Citizens United" case gave big corporations and billionaires the right to spend unlimited amounts of money (and remain anonymous, as they do so) to buy media coverage and elections, our chances of passing federal GMO labeling laws against the wishes of Monsanto and Food Inc. are all but non-existent. Perfectly dramatizing the "Revolving Door" between Monsanto and the Federal Government, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, formerly chief counsel for Monsanto, delivered one of the decisive votes in the Citizens United case, in effect giving Monsanto and other biotech bullies the right to buy the votes it needs in the U.S. Congress.

With big money controlling Congress and the media, we have little choice but to shift our focus and go local. We've got to concentrate our forces where our leverage and power lie, in the marketplace, at the retail level; pressuring retail food stores to voluntarily label their products; while on the legislative front we must organize a broad coalition to pass mandatory GMO (and CAFO) labeling laws, at the city, county, and state levels.

The Organic Consumers Association, joined by our consumer, farmer, environmental, and labor allies, has just launched a nationwide Truth-in-Labeling campaign to stop Monsanto and the Biotech Bullies from force-feeding unlabeled GMOs to animals and humans.

Utilizing scientific data, legal precedent, and consumer power the OCA and our local coalitions will educate and mobilize at the grassroots level to pressure giant supermarket chains (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, Safeway, Supervalu, and Publix) and natural food retailers such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's to voluntarily implement "truth-in-labeling" practices for GMOs and CAFO products; while simultaneously organizing a critical mass to pass mandatory local and state truth-in-labeling ordinances - similar to labeling laws already in effect for country of origin, irradiated food, allergens, and carcinogens. If local and state government bodies refuse to take action, wherever possible we must attempt to gather sufficient petition signatures and place these truth-in-labeling initiatives directly on the ballot in 2011 or 2012. If you're interesting in helping organize or coordinate a Millions Against Monsanto and Factory Farms Truth-in-Labeling campaign in your local community, sign up here: http://organicconsumers.org/oca-volunteer/

To pressure Whole Foods Market and the nation's largest supermarket chains to voluntarily adopt truth-in-labeling practices sign here, and circulate this petition widely:

And please stay tuned to Organic Bytes for the latest developments in our campaigns.

Power to the People! Not the Corporations!

Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association"