Fresh Greens

Gardening Feats and Dirty Lies

by David Brooks

One thing we know for sure about Americans: we are a competitive bunch. The last big political race took aggressive competition to a new level. Anyone OU plays in any sport brings out the competitive juices of fans and non-fans alike. Banks are competing for big bailout money. Car manufacturers are doing the same. Advertisers are trying to win the title of Best Superbowl ad. All of this so people, or groups, can declare themselves “winner.” It is also clear that sometimes those in the competition may tell a little white lie, or possibly huge, over-the-top, outright lies. Democrats and AIG executives seem to be the worst. (Just kidding, put down the hothouse tomatoes.)

Thank goodness for gardening. Happy people enjoying the fruits of the ground would never see their work as a time for competition. How could a lie ever invade the solitude and beauty of a back yard garden? Tilling the earth is a way of showing peace and love to each other, the soil we work, and possibly the new administration. So, it is safe to say that gardeners rise above the cheap, tawdry competition the rest of the world is locked into. Gardeners show the world how honesty and compassion really works. Gardeners are truly the Salt of the Earth. Sure!

I was raised by a gardener. My dad actually bought a house because it had a 20’ X 40’ greenhouse behind it. The previous owner raised geraniums for a retail group called TG&Y. Some of you may actually remember their stores. My dad went through the OSU Master Gardener program and graduated summa cum laude and was valedictorian of his class. There were only five in the class, but we let him gloat.

I had an uncle in Houston named Murray who was going through the same type of training in a Texas program that was very similar to the one my Dad excelled in. Both set out the same summer to plant their first “Big” gardens.  Daddy in the greenhouse, and Uncle Murray in the backyard. It did not take long for something to peek through the dirt of both gardens. Naturally my dad’s somethings were greener, stronger, taller and better in every conceivable way. That is until Uncle Murray called to let Dad know that his plants were the greener, stronger, taller and yes, better of the bunch. It was on! A fist fight held over the phone with Turnips and Tomatoes used for gloves. The first year was civil, but by year three it was all out war. 

And then the lies started! Over the phone a description is as good as you can make it. However, one day Uncle Murray sent a picture. It was a Polaroid of a head of cabbage the size of a Basketball. This was easily proved because a basketball was in the picture. It took years for Uncle Murray to admit it was a youth basketball about 2/3 regulation size. The competition then moved to the height achieved by the okra plants. While I was doing homework one day, (maybe not) my dad came in and yelled, “Bring the Polaroid camera and follow me.” We went straight to the Okra rows planted outside the greenhouse. There at the end of the row was an impeccably dug one foot hole. My dad proudly stepped into the hole and faced the camera.  His instructions were to take the picture from just under the knee so it would not look like he was kneeling. After 3 or 4 attempts we got the shot he wanted and shipped it off to Uncle Murray.

A few days later came a Polaroid of one of the biggest Tomatoes I had ever seen. Uncle Murray put a dollar bill in the photo to show the size. That tomato was a beauty. Daddy was fit to be tied. My aunt admitted years later that he was able to achieve such a huge tomato by buying it from a gardening pro at the farmers market outside Friendswood, Texas. 

The competition between these two lasted more than a decade. Both men are gone now, but the legend of their lies lives on. Both men bought new houses late in life based solely on the size of the yard and the gardens they would hold. Daddy and Uncle Murray lived into their 70’s with gardening, competition, and a few good whoppers leading the way to happy retirements. Both had roadside stands where they sold the abundance of their gardens, and, of course, they lied about how much they made. One year daddy sold a bushel of Okra for $600.00. Naturally Uncle Murray beat it with a 3 foot ear of corn that brought over $1000.00 and is now in the Smithsonian. I fully intend to grow a garden this year that will beat them both. Since they are not here to defend their honor, I know my garden will beat them both.

A Moment of Reflection

by Jennifer Gooden

Occasionally, everything comes together in a way that triggers my reflection and gratitude. I had one of those days today and thought I would share this moment with our Fresh Greens readers.

It began this morning at work at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, where we had the first meeting of our green team. The food bank has already made admirable strides toward energy efficiency and environmental stewardship, including efforts as sophisticated as lighting and energy management systems to practices as hands-on as organic gardening and vermiculture. Still, there is more we can do, and our nascent team met this morning to plan for future improvements. I am so happy to be a part of an organization that has broad vision and an ethic of constant improvement.

Today, Monday, January 19, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, was also the day that Michelle Obama called upon our country to engage in volunteerism, suggesting we give up our lunch money and lunch hours to donate to and volunteer at food banks. Our building was filled with people today, all helping sort food and assemble backpacks for our Food 4 Kids program. We regularly have volunteers at the food bank—15,000 a year, in fact—but it was a busy day for us and a great opportunity to come together as a community to feed those in need.

Connected to this day of service is a day of anticipation. Tomorrow is the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States. I have never seen so many people in our country so full of hope, so aware of the significance of this moment in history, and so proud to be part of this collective celebration of our nation. 

So this day closes with gratitude and optimism. In the spirit of progress and the many ways in which we can come together to craft a brighter tomorrow, I savor this moment and look forward to the years to come.

Compostable Corn-Plastic? Yes and No

by Tricia Dameron

Human ingenuity has discovered yet another use for corn: bioplastic, specifically in the form of  disposable flatware. Have you seen these products? You might not even know the difference, except that they melt a lot easier. They look just like their petroleum-based counterparts. What's the attraction? Well, for one, they are not made from petroleum. That's a plus. But, they are made from a foodstuff, which is a growing concern in this age of corn ethanol. Another advantage of polylactic acid (PLA), the technical name for the resin, is that it's compostable. Well, at least that's what one would assume from reading the product label. However, that's not the complete story. It's compostable, yes, but only in a commercial facility.  According to this Scientific American article, there are only 113  industrial-grade composting facilities in the U.S. I wonder how many of these facilities accept public drop-offs? Some of these products are labeled with the term "biodegradable." To be clear, these items are not biodegradable in a landfill; they might degrade in 100 or 1,000 years. Landfills are designed to entomb our waste to prevent contamination of the environment; in turn, the "bio"—the sun, air, fungus—of "biodegrade" is removed from the process.

So, if backyard composting doesn't work, can you put them in your recycle bin? Apparently, it's not that straightforward. NatureWorks, a PLA manufacturer owned in-part by Cargill, says PLA has no negative impact on the quality of flake produced from recycling PET and HDPE plastics. Yet, this Smithsonian article states that PLA is considered a contaminant when found in the recycle stream of PET. Some bioplastics may be imprinted with resin code 7. If so, these are accepted by Waste Management in Oklahoma City, but are they actually recycled? No industry representative would go on the record to confirm or deny it.

In situations where reusable plates and flatware are not feasible, it would be nice to have an option like these corn-based plastics—an option made from renewable resources that biodegrade. However, at this point it seems our infrastructure does not support the intended benefits of these products. It would also seem that there needs to be truth in marketing to reflect these limitations.

New Law, Good News for Area Pets

by Chelsea Simpson

Sustainability in Oklahoma City took a small, unexpected step forward last week. As of January 15, the city will pay for the spaying or neutering of any dogs and cats that wind up at the city shelter, even if their owners come to claim them. Previously, owners hoping to take their lost pets home were required to pay a fee to cover the costs associated with caring for the animal at the shelter. But now owners can have that fee waived if they provide proof that their pet has been altered or agree to have it altered at the city’s expense.

Hopefully the fee waiver will result in more owners claiming their pets, which will save the city in boarding and euthanasia costs, and more pets being altered, which will eventually lead to a decrease in the overall population of unwanted pets.

That last point is where sustainability comes in: unwanted pets. According to an article in the Journal Record last month, Oklahoma City euthanized 17,654 dogs and cats last year. That is waste, my friends, at its most grotesque. I fret about throwing away all kinds of things—leftover potatoes, socks with holes, wrinkled printer paper. I also realize that we are a wasteful society, consuming too much on many fronts, but the lives’ of living things? That stretches wastefulness beyond acceptable limits.

Let’s remind ourselves what we are talking about here because I grew up on a farm, and I eat meat. I know the argument, and it goes like this, “Dogs and cats are animals, and just like livestock they are here to be used by humans. If that’s how you feel, then use them—let them warm your lap and welcome your visitors and perform more noble tasks, like search and rescue or bomb sniffing because that’s what they were bred for. There is no need to breed new animals so long as thousands of them are being euthanized. To my knowledge, no one kills cattle just to make room for more cattle; we kill them for a purpose. Their slaughter isn’t simply a matter of convenience.

Yet more dogs and cats continue to be produced because we keep buying them. Then we throw the old ones away. So as we move toward sustainability with our recycled pop cans, hybrid cars and local food, let’s not forget our loyal companions. “Recycle” a pet from the shelter. Avoid creating “new waste” by spaying and neutering. And support new legislation and rules like the one that took effect last week.

Death of a Community

by Ron Ferrell

The topic we all are really uncomfortable talking about is our pending, inevitable demise. As a society, we don’t do a very good job of incorporating the dying process into the living process. Most everything we see and hear feeds our obsessions with staying youthful, (anti-aging, a face as free of wrinkles as a baby’s behind) all of which really translates to, "I DON’T WANT TO DIE!"

Well, die we will. It may be premature and sudden or ugly and prolonged, and there is no graceful way to face the ultimate challenge. Death. The challenge falls to the caregivers and the loved ones left behind to deal with the aftermath of a life gone before us. 

As I stood in a rolling prairie cemetery last Saturday at my mother’s funeral, it dawned on me how utterly amazing it was that the early settlers to this county ever survived their first winter in this bleak, desperate place.  It was grassland that needed to be destroyed in order for these wayward people to grow food for their survival and eventually thrive as a community called Rhea, Oklahoma.

I wanted to say to all of my nieces and nephews and everyone who came to pay tribute and lay to rest a woman they loved, that at the top of this hill stands a marble tombstone honoring another woman who came to this hillside in the late 1800’s desperate to claim something of her own in order for her family to survive. My Great Grandmother Martha Ferrell, along with her 3 sons, and not much else, parked a covered wagon in the middle of the section so that each wheel touched the corner of a 160 acre plot in order for the 4 of them to collectively stake their claim to a section of land…the very land where I was raised. 

These new settlers to Indian Territory lived in, or perhaps more accurately camped at, this spot for over 2 years before having the resources and the will to build a one room, half dugout with logs cut on the banks of the Canadian River a couple miles away, and then dragged to their property with teams of horses. Their water came from the spring fed creek, carried in buckets to their camp site. 

Looking north from the cemetery up a wide spring fed creek stands a small white farm house that my parents built for their new family. Standing beside that house is the house that my Grandfather and Grandmother built for their family before it. 

Silent beacons to every family connected to this same prairie landscape are the hundreds of tombstones telling small bits of family histories, all connected to one another in many ways. Family and community were synonymous terms for those early settlers. Every family’s survival depended on the commuity’s collective success, and second only to shelter, food was the key to staying alive. The ability to grow food and preserve food was probably the biggest challenge facing these early settlers. 

One of my parent’s biggest challenges in raising 8 kids on a red dirt hill was growing enough food to keep us alive for a year at a time. We used the same row-crop equipment to grow food that we used to grow cotton and feed grains. Other than salt, sugar and some other staples, we grew and preserved most everything we ate. 

A successful garden demanded full participation from every family member, and your neighbors. I remember my mother canning vegetable soup with one of our neighbor ladies. We had home grown vegetables for every meal in those days, eggs and meat that we raised on my great grandmother's homestead farm. 

Our Mother, like most Mothers in our community, cooked 3 full meals, everyday. It was just what they had to do to survive, and they did it with skill.

So in this uncertain time, wondering what we'll do if times get tough, we need to pause for a moment and reflect on what those who have gone before did to survive. They sustained each other as a community, and now we are burying that community, one wonderful soul at a time.  

Sustainability is a word invented to describe our worst fear: that we cannot sustain our current trajectory without some major hardships, if at all.  Those early settlers faced the same fear daily. But they did survive, with grit, determination, and lots of hard work. Are we up for the task?

Getting To Know My Inner Little Red Hen

by Shauna Lawyer Struby

I have a confession – I’ve never been very good at making yeasty-type bread. Try as I might, bread-making efforts in my 30-plus years of cooking have resulted in heavy loaves that more closely resemble bricks. I’ve suffered great guilt about my lack of yeasty prowess, and over the last few years, as sustainability has turned our minds to learning how to do things for ourselves again, or ‘reskilling’ as it is sometimes called, I’ve dreaded the day when the next thing to do on my self-sufficiency to-do list would be learning to make bread.

Praise to the Goddess of Yeasty Muses, fortunately for me a couple of bright folk, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, of Minneapolis, found a way to make bread that makes my bread-making deficiency moot. For about the past three weeks I’ve been using their Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method (also featured in the December 2008/January 2009 issue of Mother Earth News magazine). As Hertzberg & Francois note, the secret to their method is amazingly simple. Here’s what Hertzberg says about it in the Mother Earth News article:

“It all came down to one fortuitous discovery: Pre-mixed, pre-risen, high-moisture dough keeps well in the refrigerator.”

As a result of their discovery, I am happy to report I can now make beautiful, crusty loaves of bread that look like they belong on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine. Beyond the looks, the bread is moist on the inside and has that delicious multi-dimensional flavor so prized in bread-making. As an added bonus, the dough which is mixed and stored ahead of the baking process, can be used to quickly make pizza crust and a whole host of other delectable meals, breads and pastry delights, making it a great kitchen aid for busy folk with little time for meal prep.

So far I’ve only experimented with the bread and pizza, and at every holiday outing where I lugged either item, both brought rave reviews. But here’s the real icing on the cake (uh, bread) – the method’s authors estimate the cost is about $0.50 per loaf.

The method is easy, simple and really does take very little time. There’s no kneading or punching. The five minutes a day refers to the actual time you’re actively involved with the dough shaping and getting it ready to bake. The bread is easily made with equipment any kitchen has on hand, although I did purchase a food-grade container to keep my pre-mixed dough in the refrigerator, and my guess is the recommended baking stone and pizza peel would take the final product to the next level. The article in Mother Earth News gives you the basic recipe and process but there’s also a book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking, which goes into much greater detail with tips and techniques, and a bundle of recipes for peasant loaves, flatbreads and pizzas, and enriched breads and pastries.

 To add some sustainability to this process, last week I took organic hard red winter wheat berries I purchased from GOOrganic Whole Wheat through the Oklahoma Food Cooperative and ground the berries in our coffee grinder using the espresso setting which rendered a fine wheat flour. I doubt this will work for grinding large quantities of flour long-term, but until I settle on a wheat mill, it will do.

And about the Little Red Hen – I think she was on to something. Eating this bread is not only a pleasure-filled tasting sensation, but it brings a dimension of wholeness, comfort and security to our lives. Comfort in the aroma and taste of baking bread, wholeness and security in knowing our bread is made from healthy ingredients. Here’s to finding your own inner Little Red Hen.

2009: The Year of Sustainability

by Lindsay Vidrine

Every year, with the tick of a clock, we ring in a new calendar year signifying a fresh start and clean slate for our lives. For many, this New Year comes with strings attached in the form of resolutions – some realistic, some lofty.

This year, I’m choosing to step up the focus on sustainability in my life in several tangible ways. My mother always told me to write down my goals to help hold myself accountable and stay the course, so here it goes:

Resolution #1: A renewed focus on what my family eats.
This includes using my new Made In Oklahoma cookbook Tastefully Oklahoma to come up with delectable recipes stuffed with locally-grown ingredients.

I will also buy food from the Oklahoma Food Coop to make recipes from Clean Eating magazine which focuses on “consuming food in its most natural state.” Each recipe includes nutrition information to help create well-balanced meals while also helping to cut out preservatives and additives that seem to have become a staple on grocery store shelves.

My last tactic for this resolution is to make my own baby food for our four-month-old son. It’s amazing how setting aside just a few hours one Sunday afternoon can provide safe, chemical-free food for weeks at a time. I plan to become a fruit and veggie steaming, puree master to help stave-off food allergies and create a nutritious palate for our little man.

Resolution #2: Ditch plastic bags once and for all.
I never seem to have my canvas bags with me when I hit the check out line and by the time I get back home, I’m too focused on other things to remember to stick them in the car. This will soon change thanks to a set of Envirosax renewable shopping bags. These adorable bags roll up to the size of a cell phone and are an easy and inexpensive way to make sure a reusable bag is always on hand.

Resolution #3: Use less stuff.
Have you watched the video The Story of Stuff? It’s well worth the 20 minutes of viewing time and will put into perspective how most of the stuff we “need” typically ends up in the landfill in 6 months or less. So before I make a purchase, I’m resolving to stop and take a hard look at what I’m buying.

Resolution #4: Don’t let baby gear take over my house.
This is closely related to resolution #3, but the world of baby toys and products is never-ending. Parents and children are constantly bombarded with new gadgets to make life easier. The catch is, many of these products are only used for a brief period of time (especially for infants) and before you know it your child has outgrown it and baby gear is taking over your house. So, I’m pledging to take preventative measures before we get to that stage (and I have a total panic attack). This is going to be tricky – especially when it comes to filtering through all the things people give as gifts that have a short life-span – but I’m up to the challenge.

What are your goals for 2009? If you think about it, I’m sure there are ways to incorporate sustainable practices in some form or fashion. Don’t forget, small changes add up to make a big difference, so keep that in mind when things seem to get overwhelming.

Fresh, Green Goals For 2009

by John Cheek

My good friend Leslie told me this year while describing her goals for the new year that calling them "New Year's Resolutions" is essentially equivalent to saying they're things you don't plan on actually doing. That resonated with me as most New Year's Resolutions seem to be vague nods at the things we should be doing but aren't likely to take up with consistency. In that spirit, I'd like to lay down a few tangible goals for Fresh Greens in 2009 that come year's end, hopefully will have fared better than the multitude of exercise-mores and read-more-classics.

1. Launch the Fresh Greens Podcast. Starting in February, Fresh Greens will diversify it's media content with monthly audio and video podcasts. These productions will cover local sustainable happenings from a journalistic perspective, featuring interviews of local government officials and community leaders.
2. Highlight weekly events in the local sustainable community. Coming soon on Tuesdays, look for a column discussing events and volunteer opportunities in Central OK.
3. Revamp our front page design. This is a more long term goal that will hopefully take shape in the summer.

These are the projects I will be working on in the coming months along with my own personal and professional goals. I'd love to hear what you would like to see accomplished in your own life, the life of this blog, or the life of our community in the coming year. Happy New Year, and good luck to us all.