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CALIBAN'S KITCHEN
RANTS, REVIEWS, AND RESOURCES TO HELP SUSTAIN SUSTAINABLE EATING.
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FRESH STRAWBERRIES FOR WINTER
November 30, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
The tomatoes in my living room are doing beautifully. Right now, I have 4-6
little ones ripening beautifully and several more yellow flowers on the vines.
My garlic is growing in a hanging basket of herbs. My basil, both green and red,
is healthy and strong and in fact, I’ve lately noticed that it’s surrounded by a
whole host of little baby basil plants. In the patches of empty spaces of my
windowsill gardens, I’ve planted chili peppers from seeds I pulled from a red
and green jalapeno I got from a CSA share. All and all I’m pretty pleased with
my indoor garden.
When I first decided to eat local in a more regimented way, I was worried about
tomatoes. I’ve been toying with the idea of hydroponicsfor a few years.And when
I’d heard about Windowfarms a few months ago, I thought it sounded pretty
interesting and a good way to try my hand at hydroponic gardening. But I never
managed to get it together to find the instructions, get a bunch of bottles, or
figure out what else I needed to make the Windowfarms from scratch. Apparently
I’m not alone.
Windowfarms is a hydroponic system, inspired by a NASA design for hydroponic
gardens in space. It’s the brainchild of Britta Riley, who founded Windowfarms
in 2009 as an open source community art project inspired by Michael Pollan and
Clay Shirky. In just a few short years, the project has grown to include a broad
range of designers, engineers, socially-minded business people, and of course
the worldwide community of 22,000+ Windowfarmers.
Windowfarms let you grow fresh vegetables at home by taking advantage of
natural light and climate control indoors. The roots are bathed in nutrients
from the sea, preventing food plants from getting root bound (as they do in
traditional soil filled containers). According to their Kickstarter info, you
get healthier roots, and fresher, more nutritious vegetables without dirt. It
all sounds can grow all the things I grow in my window boxes, but apparently,
there are some people who are growing strawberries – year round.
I don’t buy strawberries much. Conventional strawberries are often reported to
have a ton of toxins on them. Check out What’s On My Food if you want to know
the dirty details. Local organic strawberries are often prohibitively
expensive. I buy them once in a while and occasionally they come in the CSA, but
it’s a rarity. So, we eat a paltry amount of the berries.
Strawberries, like many berries are incredibly nutritious and very low in
calories. It’s a good combo to begin with. And of course, fresh strawberries are
really delicious. The idea of growing strawberries, all winter long, well, that
basically sold me. Sure I’ll grow lettuce and arugula, but I definitely plan
to have a whole farm dedicated to strawberries.
I ordered my Windowfarm through Kickstarter. And if you order before the 30th
you can get a discount on a farm. But, even more importantly you could help to
make sure the farms are produced locally.
The project has met its goal of 500 backers, which means they will have enough
money to create the molds. But if they can get 2000 backers, they will be able
to get the Windowfarms produced here in the US.
Last but not least, did I mention, the design is beautiful. I might actually
hang them in the boy’s rooms. The initial design was based on hydroponic garden
designs developed by NASA and the final product looks pretty space age and
cool. I may even end up hanging them in each of the B and Z bedrooms. Then,
not only canmy strawberry producing beauties cut down our carbon footprint and
bring us fresh fruit all winter, but they can also help filter toxins from the
air my children sleep in. All and all, the whole thing is pretty sweet.
Windowfarms Links
• Britta’s awesome talk talk on R&DIYon TED:
• The Windowfarm community (I joined!)
• How to get your Windowfarm through Kickstarter. (Hurry, deadline is tomorrow.
Yikes!)
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Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
IT’S ALIVE!
October 31, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
Last week John sent me a photo (see below) from home. A virile green shoot had
burst through the tiny portal in my once-Ikea, toy bin now homemade kitchen
composter. When I got home and lifted the lid, I saw that it wasn’t alone. In
addition to my family of fruit flies (which are thankfully dying down as the
weather gets colder) I also had a seedling farm. I wondered what I could be
growing? Cantaloupe? Acorn Squash? Baby apple tree? Green pepper? I have wanted
to add peppers to my indoor windowsill garden. Currently the garden is bursting
with tomatoes and basil and I think a spicy jalapeno plant might be a nice and
doable addition.
The compost is pretty mature. As I dug around I thought about how some life is
desperate to continue, while other seeds and peels happily rot and return to the
earth. The compost felt clumpy like clay, with a few sharp eggshells cutting
through. It’s true; I inadvertently killed a few little green sprouts, but
managed to extract one or two in tact. I replanted them with the herbs in the
living room. It wonder if they will take. And if they do, what will the become?
I guess time will tell.
In the process of my seedling excavation, I discovered the above treasure –– an
errant whole clove of garlic that had been tossed and was clearly thriving. If
I never mentioned it, I don’t just love garlic, I’m a little in love with it. If
I don’t have it, I crave it. But I had never thought about growing it. Until my
compost bin served me this little offering.
I carefully extracted the garlic from the rest of the stuff. I re-potted the
small, gnarly and tentacled thing in my hanging basket that had once held baby
lettuce. According to a botanist friend, garlic does not need that much room.
But in case, the Internet is right and it needs more room, the pot is pretty
deep. Of course, it will take 6 months or so for me to find out if it will work,
since garlic has a long maturation period. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Because if I could grow garlic and tomatoes in my living room, I would really be
a happy renter.
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Posted in Composting, Recipe, Window sill gardener | Tagged gardening, garlic |
1 Comment »
BAGELS FOR BREAK FAST
October 8, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
I wish you could smell my house right now. The air is pungent with that
unmistakable smell of – bread. My mouth is watering even as I write this.
Today is Yom Kippor, a day of fasting. In truth it is not the only Jewish fast
day but it is the most known one among American Jews. The fast ends at sundown
with a traditional dairy meal. Kosher Jews don’t eat milk and meat at the same
time. So by dairy, I mean food that is not meat. And for many of us that means a
spread built around bagels.
It’s always boggled my mind how bread was invented. Who thought of taking yeast,
grinding it up letting it rise and punching it down? But with bagels it’s even
more baffling. Who thought of boiling the bread before you bake it? Probably
someone who was in a hurry to eat. Bagels, only have one real rising and then
after a minute of boiling, they only need to bake for about 25 minutes.
Bagels, like hot sauce, are one of those food items that seems to have sprung up
magically from the store or in this case, bakery shelves. I’ve never heard of
anyone baking them from scratch. And I had it in my mind that it would be
complicated and time-consuming. Actually it wasn’t. It took about as much time
as it might take me to make dinner, excluding the hour when I left the dough to
rise. It’s not something you would want to tackle on a work day, but even on a
Sunday morning, you could conceivably make home-made bagels in time for an 11
am brunch without getting up at the crack of dawn.
Ironically, even though I have not been working, I have not been baking very
much. My anxiety has been filling up all the extra spaces and I’ve felt like I
have had less time to write this blog and document how I’ve been managing to
keep up sustainable practices like baking. Lately the choices that seemed
difficult before, to buy the more expensive local or non-industrial foods, now
seem irresponsible. So the new question becomes, can I sustain sustainability on
a much more limited income. In the next few weeks I want to start really
looking at what I buy and how much it costs. Home-made bagels, actually are an
affordable alternative to the store-bought variety. Compare 7$ a dozen which is
the amazing Fairways price, to probably under a dollar. The recipe I used called
for 3 cups of flour — a pound of King Arthur Flour is only around $4.
I used the recipe for Les Bagels d Jo Goldenberg which has been reprinted here.
The technique they use is to make a ball, punch a hole in the middle and then
roll the ring of dough into a bagel shape. I think it worked pretty well.
This video says to roll a coil and tie it. We tried one and it didn’t quite
work. But perhaps with practice it might not be a bad way to do it. This guy
certainly is fast.
The ones that I rolled to be a bit on the thin taste more like sweet Montreal
bagels (traditionally cooked in a brick oven) — more delicate and not as doughy
as traditional New York bagels. Of course, the bagels I made are not whole
wheat. I need to find a whole wheat recipe. But now that I see how doable it is,
I will.
P.S. – Next up on baking challenges. How to make English muffins. Right now Z
is eating them instead of hamburger buns. They are expensive, make garbage (bag
and box) and are probably easy to make. At least compared to a bagel right?
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Posted in Bread, Recipe | 2 Comments »
BEATING BLOGGER’S BLOCK
August 15, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
Is there something called Bloggers block. If there is I’ve had it. I’ve been
whirling in circles, writing and deleting blog posts in my head and never quite
making it to the computer to get anything down. It’s partly because I’m not sure
what I have to say. Because I’ve been having a hard time to stay true to local,
local, local, even in the middle of the summer. For example, last week I bought
eggplant from a street vendor on St. Nicholas Avenue. I have no idea where it
came from. I have no idea if it was local or organic. But it looked really nice.
It was there and it was $1/lb. I felt like a bit like a renegade. I also bought
avocados, which are never local. I know, I’m a real rebel.
In case you didn’t notice. I’ve taken a tiny break from blogging. In fact, I
noticed it’s been more than a month since my last post. I’ve been doing more or
less what I have come to do – my sustainable practice – but I’ve been less than
perfect. I’ve eaten a lot more take out than I should have which has made
garbage. I haven’t been reading as much and I’ve been more interested in
writing about other things.
It’s hard to decide what to share in the blog and what to keep private. Even
though I know most of my readers are actually people I know, the open
conversation when it comes to more personal matters makes me a bit squeamish. I
guess I’m showing my age. In a post-everything world, nobody really cares. But I
do. So, the reason I stopped posting is pretty much economic. I left my job. It
was time and I am glad to be moving on to new opportunities, but still, it was a
shake up. And without the security of a paycheck, it has really made me think
twice about the expense of organic and local food. Which brings me back to my
eggplant and avocados on St. Nicholas Avenue.
Up and down the streets of 181st and St. Nicholas Avenue, there are street
vendors with fresh fruits and vegetables being sold for super cheap prices — a
buck for a cantaloupe, 2 avocados for a buck fifty – what impact does it make on
the food infrastructure does it have to buy from them. Is it better to buy
organic from a big corporation like Whole Foods? There’s got to be some value in
supporting people who may have limited ways to make a living and who are bring
fresh produce to an inner city neighborhood
Think twice does not mean abandon. Because the truth of the matter is that I
love going to the farmers market, meeting farmers and getting tips. We have
lost a lot of our know-how when it comes to cooking and sustaining ourselves.
But, as I’ve been spending more time looking for a job, I’ve had even less time
to beef up on the latest. It’s another reason behind my blogger’s block. Still,
the fact is, I’m still composting, cooking from scratch and more or less buying
local. Writing about it, helps me remember, that it’s worth the trouble.
A CORNY QUESTION:
Most people think corn in the husk keeps the corn fresher. But according to a
farmer at the Tuesday market, it’s better to husk the corn, put it in a Ziploc
bag and store it in the fridge. She said husking delays the sugar breaking down
and keeps the corn fresher and sweeter. I can’t seem to verify this on the
Internet – I’m getting conflicting opinions. All I know is that I followed her
advice, husked the corn on Tuesday, ate in on Thursday and it was pretty
freakin’ good.
To husk or not to husk? Any other opinions out there?
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Posted in Easting local, Local produce | 6 Comments »
WINDOWSILL GARDENER: JULY UPDATE
July 11, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
I have a funny relationship to my window-sill gardens. They are more like pets
and less like food. Hence, my maternal pride for this lovely little beauty
growing on southern-exposure living-room ledge. Last year, I grew a tomato and
it was so gorgeous I didn’t pick it. It shriveled on the vine. This year, I
still have my pot of chard, tons of herbs and some mint — the mint and chard
are doing very well in the shade of my sofa. I know it’s just a matter of habit.
I have gotten into the habit of using my herbs — I used them all the time. But
the tomato, since it’s rare, seems special. I promise I’ll pick it this year.
Especially since, my other tomato plants have many other yellow flowers.
On Friday, we discovered this grapevine dangling next to Robert Jackson’s new
office — the sign said it was also the Washington Heights Chamber of Commerce.
First mulberries. Now grapes. I guess the point is that many of us want to make
things grow, despite the fact that we live in this highly urban concrete jungle.
On the Fourth of July my friend Jamie and I bemoaned the fact that we couldn’t
turn our roof into proper gardens — we all agreed that it would be mutually
beneficial to both our landlord and ourselves. But we also agreed, it wasn’t
going to happen so quickly. I guess we need to continue to push to make it
happen. And in the meantime, we will continue to fill the nooks and crannies of
the city with soil to make things grow.
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MULBERRY BOYS
July 6, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
Saturday morning, bright and sunny, we went to Inwood and the boys wanted a few
bucks for treats. “I’ll give you a few bucks if you pick some mulberries.”They
groaned a little. But only a little. Then they started to pick.
“We can go to our good tree,” Z said to B. Then to me, “I’ll show you.” He led
me down the path that runs parallel to the Isham into a grove of fruiting
mulberries.
I am still amazed that these prolific trees grow all over NYC and for the most
part, the only beings who indulge in their sweet-sweet fruit are the
pigeons. Now that I know they exist, the birds have competition. From me and my
bucket. But from Z and his insatiable appetite. We picked together for a while,
Z eating more than he dropped in our recycled yogurt container bucket. Then I
left them to continue while I shopped on the street.
You have to remember, we live in the middle of NYC. When I was their age I had a
secret imaginary world of fairies who lived in a patch of violets in the back of
my parents. backyard. Sometimes I worry that they are not having that experience
of the world being filled with hidden secret places. But clearly they are.
That’s another thing I love about going to the farmers market in Inwood on a
Saturday morning. They can actually go off by their own — run and play on the
hill and the thicket behind Isham Street.
The way they reacted to my request to berry-pick said a lot about where we have
come as a family. Mulberry picking, even though we only started last year, is
now a tradition. And like any 11 and 9-year-old boy, they are experts.
“This is the best tree,” one chided.
“No, look you have to pick it this way,” the other reprimanded with great
authority. I sent them off with two yogurt containers and they came back with
one ¾ of the way filled. Then I sent them back to fill it – John and I helped
“What will we do with the berries this year?” Z asked.
“We could make a pie like last time,” B said.
“Maybe we’ll try jam,” I suggest.
My mother used to make microwave jam. I am sure a microwave strips food of
nutrients, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty tired these days. I
perused some other recipes that called for boiling and pectin and I just wasn’t
up for it. This recipe is basically how I remember my mother doing it.
And the mulberry jam – it’s to die for. Although I tried to send them out again
today with the babysitter to pick more berries and I couldn’t get them out to
the woods without me. I guess it’s a lucky day for the pigeons.
MICROWAVE MULBERRY JAM
2 cups of crushed mulberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. butter.
Remove the stems from the mulberries. Crush in an 8 cup glass measure with a
spout.
Let stand until juices forms – about thirty minutes.
Cover with a piece of wax paper. Then
microwave on high for 10-14 minutes,
stirring every 2-3 minutes.
Spoon out 1 tbsp. of jam, refrigerate for 15
minutes and test consistency.
If the jam is too runny, re-heat it in microwave
for intervals of 2 more minutes until it has the consistency you’re looking for.
Makes a jam jar full.
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Posted in Farmers Markets, Uncategorized | Tagged berry picking, jam, kids,
mulberries, mulberry, mulberry jam | 5 Comments »
PUTTING OHM ON THE MENU
June 25, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
Last weekend, I didn’t make it to the green market. I went to yoga instead. Last
week I blogged about how the overabundance of veggies is overwhelming. This
week, I admit it, all my life is overwhelming. It’s true a lot in my life has
changed and is changing and I’m having a harder time that usual getting more
than the basics done. I’ve written this blog three times this week (on paper)and
never managed to type it up.I haven’t baked bread in over two weeks. And I even
got take out twice and threw out the plastic containers. I admit it, I’ve
slipped a little bit.
The point of this post was that the point of eating local, healthy food is to be
healthy and keep the planet healthy. But keeping up with everything I need to do
had really kicked my butt, not to mention added a few pounds to my thighs. (Have
I mentioned in this post how delicious local, home-made chocolate chip cookies
are!) So getting exercise back into my life is a new priority. So if finding
balance — and yoga is not just about exercise, it’s about both.
Luckily, biking is also green. So on saturday, after yoga the kids and I biked
down the west side bike path to the 72nd street pier. We played a pop up piano
on the pier and had a drink with a friend. Then we biked over to Central Park.
The whole time B kept saying, “This is great! Can we do it again next week?”
In the words of our illustrious prez, I told him, “Yes, we can.” But the cost of
not doing my sustainable chores on the weekend was that during the week, our
meals have been thrown together with whatever we could find in the fridge. Even
with the CSA, the larder was a bit bare and we ran out of a lot of the basics
because I didn’t go shopping on Saturday. But truthfully, we ended up with a few
pretty delicious dishes. Sure, the mushroom and barley stew was ok but my
favorite creation was spelt with oven roasted cauliflower, goat cheese, basil
and mint. I’ll probably even make it again and even post it when I’m more up on
my game.
Figuring out the right choices is a task in itself. Keeping up with it all is
even more exhausting. So this week’s post barely happened. There are no
pictures. Not even a real recipe. But in this case being ok with what I had and
could manage was actually delicious and when I think about B and Z biking down
to Central Park, totally worth it.
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OVERWHELMED WITH ABUNDANCE
June 16, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
My eyes are bigger than my refrigerator. Right now it’s packed with greens and
other fresh from the farm goodies. It was pretty stuffed for starters and then
the first delivery of the CSA came. There seems to be a green market on every
corner. It’s strawberry and rhubarb time. And the spinach is sweet and in
season. If I truly want to eat local next winter shouldn’t I be starting to
package and freeze some of that abundance. But I don’t feel like I have the
time.
Everything in my life is shifting right now. My job. My kid’s school. My health
insurance. My childcare solutions. I feel like I’m walking on a rubber raft in
the middle of the ocean, I have to work so hard to hold myself steady, otherwise
I’m going to fall down flat and drown. No wonder I’m exhausted. I’m too tired to
even write a proper blog. So instead here are a few random pieces of good new.
Enjoy!
Random good news:
* They’re taking out the Styrofoam take out containers in CA! California
Senate has voted to ban Styrofoam containers “Restaurants and other vendors
will no longer be able to package food or drink in the material starting
January 1, 2014.” Hopefully this will be a trend the rest of the country
will follow. via ecogeek http://www.ecogeek.org/preventing-pollution/3523
* Paper straws! Today at Whole Foods I got an Agua Fresca and they gave me a
paper straw. It was definitely a one slurp item. It got soggy by the time I
was finished. But it wasn’t plastic, so who cares!
* I’m getting my meat delivered! I finally started to use the CSA extra
section. I’ve been running around like a pastured chicken with it’s head cut
off. And for some reason I didn’t realize I could get grass-fed beef right
from my CSA via Lewis Wait Farm.
http://www.csalewiswaitefarm.com/default.aspx. Next Tuesday, they will
literally deliver my roast, steak and a dozen eggs practically to my
doorstep. Ok, it’s across the street from my house. (Sorry Fleishers) I think
I eliminated this option because the first time I investigated it felt
expensive. But in reality, it’s very affordable. In fact, using London Broil
as an example, it’s cheaper than the Inwood Greenmarket by a few dollars a
lb.
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HOW WE DO IT: DON’T THROW OUT THE CEREAL BAG!
June 10, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
I need to make another confession. I love potato chips. No, I mean I really love
potato chips. No offense to ramps and spinach and delicious spring
strawberries, but super processed potato chips kick ass. Unfortunately, I’m not
going to make a case for how potato chips are healthy or particularly
sustainable. (They are not!) I’m just going to point out that sometimes (albeit
very occasionally) I buy them — and other foods that come in industrial grade
plastic bags.
When I first started to look at the garbage my food was making I cut out a lot
of processed convenience products. I cut out cereal barsin their shiny mylar
wrappers. I cut out boxed macaroni and cheese. I cut out all frozen fruits and
veggies. I cut out packaged cereals. I cut out packaged snack foods like
pretzels and tortilla chips. Then life kicked in and I had to bring some of it
back. So now, we have packaged snack foods about once a month – mostly pretzels
or corn chips, and occasionally we even have potato chips. And, after a few
disasters with granola, we brought back cereal.
I flip between organic packaged cereals that have boxes and non-organic bagged
cereal that claim to be greener and the super sugary EnviroKids brand, which if
you buy in a bag is both.
Ironically, we have been taught to toss the plastic bags that come from
industrially packed food. But in reality, those bags are tough. They are way
more reliable that Ziploc bags. And with the help of a simple office clip, they
are just as reusable.
I reuse the milky plastic bags from cereal, frozen vegetable bags, Ziploc bags
other people give my kids snacks in. Basically, if it’s not greasy or been used
for raw chicken, I use it again.
The beauty of those industrial bags is that they are strong. The cereal bags in
particular are great. They are durable, clean to start and very versatile. I use
them to the freezer and they are particularly great to use to pack for picnics.
One day I will wean the kiddies off the boxed cereal (today B ate my homemade
Muesli!) but until that happens, the least I can do is keep the garbage out of
the landfill for as long as possible.
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CHICKEN CROSSING
June 7, 2011 by Lisa Burdige
It started with a quest for an egg. Not just any egg, a Knoll Crest Farms egg.
Knoll Crest Farms has been my go-to egg farmer since I went local. In a world
where everything is confusing and difficult –it’s local, it’s organic, will it
make garbage, when can I get it — the Knoll Crest Farm eggs are my simple
solution. They are pastured and local and I can get them every week in Inwood.
Probably my first case of sustainable sticker shock was around the cost of
pastured eggs. When you think about how often places like Target give eggs away
for free, $4.50 a dozen seems pretty exorbitant. My friend Cathy, also a Knoll
Crest Farms enthusiast always said that she got her eggs upstate for less – I
thought she had meant at the farm. So when she invited us upstate for a Memorial
Day barbecue I knew I had to make a visit to the actual Knoll Crest Farm .
On Saturday, when we went to the farmers market I stopped by the Knoll Crest
stand.
“We’re going upstate tomorrow,” I told the man who gives me eggs every week.
“Oh good,” he said
They were out of eggs but I didn’t care, I knew I would get them tomorrow. He
told me that the farm upstate had a store. And we smiled a lot, feeling all warm
and fuzzy about my visit to his farm.
Sunday morning, we were packing to go upstate. I forgot to check the egg carton
for the address. No worries, I thought, we’ll google the address from the car.
It sounded like a pretty good plan but it turns out when we googled them two
locations showed up.
One of the farms was very close to Cathy’s house. We called, but no one
answered. Since it was on the way, we figured we’d stop by. We turned off a
country road and drove up a sloping road winding around the bend til we saw a
sign that said “Chicken Crossing.” It was kitsch and cute but clearly faded
hanging on by a proud thread on to a weathered and locked down farm red
building. Across the overgrown road, a line of broken down chicken coups but no
chickens. We drove to the end of the road, and turned the car around in a
dead-end between a graceful sweeping country house and a swamp.
“Maybe that’s where the egg farmer’s live?” one of the kids said.
Maybe. But I figured we must have gone to the wrong address. But as we drove
back toward the main road, we stopped to ask a man washing his car about Knoll
Crest Farm.
“Oh yes,” he said, “that’s a working farm up there. Just up the road.”
“It looked closed,” I said.
“No,” he said, “it’s a real working farm.”
We turned the car around and drove back to the chicken crossing sign. This time
we got out of the car.
The kids were anxious as John and I started down the overgrown road.
“I don’t think we should do this,” B said, “his is like that movie Spirited
Away.”
“Don’t eat anything,” Z cried, “I don’t want you to turn into pigs.”
As we rounded the bend we approached a large structure with a big garden in the
back. Chicken were moving freely between the building and the fenced in yard
with a garden. It was not super pretty but it was clearly working.
The not-prettiness of it sort of got to me.
“What did you think mom, the chickens were going to live in some fairytale.”
“Like Mother Goose?” John added.
I didn’t say anything, but I thought, shit yes. But happy chickens don’t
necessarily have to look like storybook chickens.
We walked back up the hill and the dirt road led us back to the main road. We
got in the car next to the “Chicken Crossing” sign and drove off the Memorial
Day Barbecue.
Monday morning, we ate breakfast at the Schultzville General Store. Turns out
that’s where Cathy gets her eggs. At $2.85 a dozen, they were a bargain. As I
put my score of three dozen eggs into my cooler to drive them back to the city,
I thought about those scruffy chickens. They were clearly happy. And that
morning, so was I.
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