Just met with the owner. Looks good. Looks real good. Stay tuned!

SnowflaKs

After watching The Unknown Known I started questioning a lab behavior of compulsive record keeping. There's a fine line between data management/archiving and recording information to a fault. Record keeping was not a friend to Rumsfeld; look what compulsive archiving did for Nixon.

While working at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld
became infamous for his excessive memos called
Snowflakes (in reference to a "blizzard" effect).
Many of which were presented in
The Unknown Known as self contradicting
or to be eponymously nonsensical.

Not just the tape recordings but also
the archived notes with which Nixon's
deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield
absconded, that now reveal the level
of maliciousness and contradiction in
Nixon governance behaviors. 

The archiving can be so tedious and I start to question how much of the information ever gets used again. But when I get going, I can't stop thinking of all the pieces of today's story that may come in handy to know sometime in the future. Idea hoarding. Detail pack rat.

Maybe Errol Morris is right, maybe anything more than brief self expression inevitably reveals something regrettable. And maybe all these notebooks, notes, records of meeting, data, ideas, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly to-do lists...maybe it's self indulgent and nothing but a record of how crazy I am.

So I've been going through the collection of notebooks:


Pro: Once I started using them, people noticed and often gifted them to me. Some of them that I've purchased remind me of the people I was with at the time. Some of them are peppered with directions from visiting friends. It's nice to have these utilitarian mementos of friends and family.

I don't know if this is a Pro or a Con: clearly these records are less useful after getting wet, but some entries remind me of when I do good doodling. Now that doodling has been shown to help focus one's attention and improve memory, I want to recognize the positive impact some of the really good looking notes may play in organizing thoughts and helping me move forward on work loads.

Clearly they help me dump some weird thoughts before I need to say them out loud.

Pro: They've been amazing help when structuring data management schemes. I mean, generally speaking, these tedious notes help organize a lot of abstract information.


Con: Risk of incrimination
There's always the thoughts you would like to have left to impermanence...

Dear 1997 Kim, you end up living in
Chicago for 13 years so far...

Con: Even after organizing thoughts in a journal, you still have to do something. Something digital probably like a shared google doc or an email...why not just skip the notebook step and go right to the task...

Any thoughts out there? 

I'm torn

Food Waste Reductions: Eggshells

In this Food Waste Reduction series I'm trying to compile all the easy ways to reduce the waste that comes out of the kitchen.

Composed of nearly all calcium, eggshells leftover from the kitchen can be a free way to help maintain nutrient levels. Adding eggshells to soil or compost boosts calcium levels, which is important because of the critical role calcium plays in hold together cell walls (calcium is used to build the middle lamella). Calcium deficiency is a direct cause of blossom end rot in tomatoes and squash.

A13ean via Wikimedia Commons (Own work).

I had to use this photo because I don't have 

blossom end rot,...b/c I put eggshells in my soils.

*********************************************************************************

Eggshells can also be used in the garden to help fight off crawling pests, e.g. slugs and snails. Crushed eggshells works much like diatomaceous earth on these pests, causing fissures in their soft tissue that lead to fatal dehydration.

In order to cycle the shells for the garden I save them as I use the eggs, keeping them in the freezer until I have a full batch worth prepping. Saving them in the freezer is another good repurposing use for those tupperware-ish food containers that can accumulate.

1. Wash them off to remove all of the membrane. It's easiest to wash them as you save them. After breaking open eggs just hold the shells under water and use your fingers to rub and rinse off the insides of the shells.  Removing the membrane helps adhere to composting basics by reducing the amount of food waste that can attract mammals. That membrane being made of lipids also is not something that would generally go into compost because it slows down decomposition rates (because it is hydrophobic). Rinsing also helps reduce the risk of transmitting salmonella. 
2. Toast the shells by evenly on a cookie sheet or oven pan and toast them in a toaster oven (you can even stick them in an oven that has already been heated to roast or bake and has been turned off). You can also bake at 200°F for approximately 30 minutes to completely eradicate any salmonella concerns.
3. Crush them with hands or a rolling pin. You can also put them in a food processor for really fine grinding although that may be rough on your processor blades. Some people prefer to crush the shells before toasting to decrease toasting time. I crush them either as I put them in the freezer of after they're toasted because they crush mush more easily once the membrane residue is baked and the shells become more fragile.

When they come out of the oven they'll crackle very nicely:

https://soundcloud.com/k-frye/eggshells-crackling

.


The crushed shells can go into the compost or soil. If using directly in a garden bed for a calcium amendment, be sure to know that it takes a while for the shells to decompose despite the crushing and toasting. The full effects of your added calcium may be realized next year, so in the Midwest as we close up our outdoor gardens remember this is a great time of year to add those eggshells for next spring's growing season. 

Canning and Pickling

 

Canning & Pickling

An impromptu workshop in an ongoing effort to teach food preservation through 

DePaul's Urban Farming Organization

For several years students have been interested in learning ways of preserving garden harvests, particularly canning. It's a difficult activity on campus because we need a stovetop. In the meantime, it worked to have a few UFO'ers for a little workshop. 

• hot packing tomatoes for pressure canning
• spiced peaches recipe for the boiling canning
• pickling green beans

HOT PACKING TOMATOES FOR PRESSURE CANNING

Blanching Tomatoes to remove the skin:

1 boiling pot of water, to boil tomatoes in for 30-60 seconds or until the sin cracks

1 bowl of ice water, tomatoes are placed in the ice water after skin cracks in the boiling water. This helps remove the skin and cool the tomatoes for handling, but the tomatoes are still plenty hot! We could have removed the stems before boiling, but they popped off regardless.

Add 2 tablespoons and 1 tsp of salt of lemon juice to each jar. And the lemon juice is the bottled store bought stuff because we add this to lower the pH enough to reduce risk of pathogens, particularly botulism (< 4.6). The temptation is there to use whole ingredients rather than processed one, but whole lemons are not tested for pH but bottles lemon juice is regulated to be under the required canning pH.

Cut each tomato in half and watch out! The tomatoes are still really hot, especially on the inside.

Pack in tight using spacer. Fill jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace

Once jars were packed, we put on new lids sterilized and warmed along with bands and jars in the dishwasher. We used a Presto Pressure Canner and Cooker and followed the directions for pressure canning raw tomatoes (25 minutes at 11pound pressure. Each canner should come with its own processing manual and recipes from the manufacturer. Be careful to ensure you have your model's specific processing instructions before purchasing, particularly when tempted to purchase canners at resale stores.

The art of this pressure canner is to keep an eye on the gauge and continue to adjust your burner accordingly.  Remember: processing time begins once the gauge reaches the pounds of pressure indicated by the instructions. We did not begin our timer for 25 minutes until the gauge read 11 pound pressure. We began the peaches as these tomato jars processed and found our pressure to build past 11. A couple of times we had to turn the heat very low to keep the gauge needle from climbing. 

Presto Pressure Canner and Cooker pictured without the regulator on vent and with safety lock down (unengaged).

BOIL CANNING HONEY SPICED PEACHES

Removing skins of peaches (much more difficult than tomatoes). Before placing peaches in boiling water we cut an "x" into the skin. Boiling still seemed to take much longer than the 30-60 seconds suggested in the recipe, and even placing peaches in ice water, the skin was very stubborn. At one point we resorted to a hand peeler and it was still not an easy removal.


We followed this Ball recipe to create packing syrup, pack, and process: http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/honey-spiced-peaches



Both the tomato and peach jars were left to sit undisturbed for 24 hours to seal.

PICKLING DILLY GREEN BEANS
How easy pickling is after canning! And less hot. I should mention all of this was done on a beautifully cool and breezy September day near the coast of Lake Michigan! Otherwise I would have run the air conditioning because canning is a hot endeavor!

Making the brine. Vinegar, water, dill and pickling spices to follow any recipe such as http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/dilly-beans-366717. Just boil ingredients, clean and prepare vegetables (we washed and snapped off ends of green beans). Then pack veggies in jars and once boiled, turn off heat and add the brine. Lid and band, let sit for 2 weeks then refrigerate and enjoy. They can keep without canning for 2 weeks or you can process according to a boiling or pressure canner instructions.

Sometimes hunting around for spices can lead to cheaper, local, or less processed choices. Here the more local company was also more cheaply priced. Be sure to check around the produce section for some alternative choices. You can always consider making your own pickling spice as well: homemade pickling recipes

Admiral at the Lake 6th Floor Harbors

 Day 1 of replacing the Mow-Blow-And-Go landscaping company. Another rooftop garden. Weeding seems critically needed. Usual weed offenders even up on the 6th floor. (I've heard there is a blissful lack of squirrel trouble though, which is good because there is a bird feeder and bath up here).

ragweed

lambsquarters

pennycress

chickweed maybe?

chickweed maybe?

 

pineapple weed?

There's an interesting abundance of spiders up here. More than any other type of soil organism. Every time I stick the trowel in all these spiders emerge.

 

And I'm glad to see the usual friends show up here:

Weeding still not complete but the sun is setting! I'm learning how to get caught up without losing track of time. One challenge of a high rise is the time is takes to get from one location to another.