BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living

Article and Photos by ELIZABETH FIEND

Although there’s still a chill in the air and a bit of winter to come, if you want to do a garden this year, start now. That’s right. The key to gardening is to be on top of everything. Gardening is based around the weather and the weather waits for no man — or woman.

You probably have a growing mound of garden catalogs by now. A few arrive in my mailbox every day.

Overwhelming! If you don’t have catalogs, try buying a mail-order plant ONE time, and you’ll be flooded with garden catalogs for the rest of your life.

What I do is just thin out from the very beginning. If you try to look through every single catalog, you’ll be paralyzed by too many options. So you must weed out from the start.

Divide the catalogs into categories like flowers, seeds, landscaping, accessories. I grow a lot of soft fruit, so I set aside catalogs that sell fruit as well.

After you’ve divided the catalogs into categories, start with the Buy Local philosophy. Sure, buying local helps dollars grow in your own neighborhood economy, but there’s another overriding reason why this is a good idea. Buying a plant from a nursery located in an area that has the same ecology as where you plan to plant the plant is some extra insurance that it will grow happily in your yard. Yes, that plant from the nursery in New Mexico is gorgeous but face it, it’s just not going to take root around here even if the phrase “hardy enough for colder climates” is tossed about in the catalog’s description.

I live in Philadelphia and there are some big nurseries right here in my state of Pennsylvania: Burpee’s, The Cook’s Garden among them. You can’t get much more local than that. Plus by buying local, you’ll be kinder to the environment by saving fossil fuel with a shorter transport to your garden. There is one major downside to the buy local thing when it comes to mail order. The Feds. When you make a snail mail or Internet purchase from a company located in your home state, yikes, you’re going to be charged sales tax. Still, I do it.

Of course, not all the plants I desire can be obtained from Pennsylvania nurseries. So I move out geographically, just not too far. Ohio is looking pretty good to me this year and I’ve ordered my plants from Bluestone Perennials out of Madison; my seeds from Cook’s Garden, Warminster, PA.

You know about the hardiness zones right?

The hardiness zone, or just zone, was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture. Zones are based on the average annual minimum temperature over a five-year span. Numbers are assigned and graphed, they make undulating bands across the map, much like you see on a weather forecast map. Zone 1 is the coldest, here in Pennsylvania, we’re Zone 6. (Yeah, the zone thing is starting to get a little thorny right now due to global warming, but we won’t get into that today.)

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WARM PEAR SALAD with GORGONZOLA and WALNUTS

BY ELIZABETH FIEND
Serves 4 as lunch or main course, 6 as a side salad
Time: 20 minutes

Category: Vegetarian Recipe

This salad is all about contrasts.
The pears are served warm, making this a great dish to serve on a chilly, rainy day. The sharp cheese, crunchy nuts and creamy honey-lime dressing each stimulate different taste buds providing satisfaction and a feeling of fullness. I’ve divided up one serving between the cheese and nuts so even thought you’ll be eating cheese AND nuts (both contain fat) you will be getting just the right amount of fat and protein.

There’s an optional fun part in this recipe for the kids too. Instill in them a love for vegetables by having them cut the cucumber slices into stars with cookie cutter.

Salad Ingredients:
½ pound spring salad mix
¼ head endive – tear off and discard ends; break into bite size pieces
1 cucumber (see below for treatment)
1/8 lb gorgonzola cheese – break into pieces
3 pears (any kind) - cut into slices
½ cup walnuts – break into pieces

Dressing Ingredients:
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons lime juice
Blend above with a spoon or small whisk until honey is dissolved, than add:
½ cup buttermilk (or 3/8 cup soy milk plus 1/8 cup lemon juice)
2 stalks scallions diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

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CHRISTMAS TREES, NAUGHTY OR NICE?

Written By Elizabeth Fiend

Christmas causes cancer. You knew it would come to this sooner or later.

Okay, OK, Christmas doesn’t cause cancer, but Christmas trees might, and I’ll get to how both real and fake ones might lead to cancer. But the real point of this column is: If you have a real tree, don’t throw it in the trash! Recycle your tree. Recycle your tree. Recycle your tree.

First, which is kinder to the planet — a real Christmas tree or a fake one?

FAKE TREES: No Vinyl, That’s Final pretty much says it all.

Fake trees are made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride). It’s bad stuff. These faux trees are made from nonrenewable sources and are petroleum based — and, uh, we’re running out of oil, have you heard? PVC is also considered one of the most environmentally damaging plastics on the market.

PVC is a plastic that keeps on giving. The trail of destruction begins in production, where dioxin, dichloride, ethylene and vinyl chloride are all generated by the making of PVC. These chemicals pollute neighborhoods around PVC factories — many of which are located in China, where there is the added factor of no environmental controls, and poor and unregulated (read: unsafe) conditions for factory workers handling hazardous chemicals.

Lead: not just for toys!

Lead is used to stabilize PVC products, to make them more rigid — like your child’s brain will be if she inhales any dust from your lovely faux tree that might happen to settle on her lead-painted toys as they lay wrapped under the Christmas tree. You’ll actually see a warning label on fake Christmas trees that warns you not to inhale or eat any of the tree (kinda funny if it wasn’t so sad). And hey, don’t forget the lead on the strings of PVC-coated holiday lights! They have warnings too.

The chemicals used to make PVC, and the added lead, have been linked to neurological, reproductive, liver and kidney damage, and yes, cancer. And they’re not just bad for you, they’re toxic to the environment, too!

Although these faux trees can last for centuries, they rarely become family heirlooms passed down thorough the generations. Statistics show most people discard their tree after only about nine years. That means the last 291 years of your fake tree’s life is spent slowly leaching out nasty stuff in a landfill.

Option Two: A live tree.

There is the trendy, greenish option of buying a live tree, complete with root ball and all. The plan is after enjoying the tree indoors as your Christmas tree you plant the tree outside. And presto you have a new tree, producing life-giving oxygen — a beautiful and elegant solution to the real-or-fake dilemma.

Problem is, January’s not the time of year to plant trees. This activity is most successfully done in the fall or spring. Plus the tree you get for Christmas might not be suited to your locale. So in reality, this scheme which sounds so good is mostly doomed to failure and is just a ‘feel good’ kind of solution. That is, until you’re constantly aware of your ex-Xmas tree that now sits dead and brown along your driveway, and then you feel pretty crappy.

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Remembrances  of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

20th Anniversary Special

by Elizabeth Fiend

Editors note: The Philly punk band More Fiends, founded by Allen and Elizabeth Fiend (host of BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living) is the band that creates the soundtrack for BiG TeA PaRtY videos. Please enjoy this departure from the regular BiG TeA PaRtY sustainable living content and share my recollections of  the fall of the Berlin Wall on this, the 20th anniversary. Peace out. Love, Elizabeth

I was lying on a twin mattress on the floor of a narrow bedroom watching Happy Days which had turned incredibly funny because in the German dubbed version The Fonz had a whiney, high pitched voice. Plus, come on, Fonzie was speaking German. The program was interrupted by what seemed like some sort of special news report. Instantly — voices, screaming, intensity, astonishment, from the kitchen down the slender hallway of my band’s home base in Hamburg. And more cries from outside, down the block, next door.

It was November 9th 1989 and More Fiends had been on tour already for a grueling seven weeks.

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Thanksgiving -Recipe for Disaster

Your Hostile Projectiles are No Match for

My Invisible Force Field

by Elizabeth Fiend

This is my Thanksgiving column. As a vegetarian you probably expect me to write an article on the horrors of eating turkey — antibiotics, hormones, inhumane factory farming. As an anarchist you may think I’m going to rail against the hypocrisy behind the meaning of the day — the slaughter of Native Americans by the white man, the taking over of someone else’s land. Or perhaps you’re hoping for some vegetarian recipes. In that case you shoulda tuned into my NPR Vegetarian Thanksgiving interview last year. Instead I’m going to talk about how to use the science of proxemics to get you through the massacre at your own families dinner table.

Face it, most of us don’t have a picture perfect, greeting card kind of family. Chances are, this Thanksgiving weekend someone’s going to irritate you. In my opinion, a lot of fighting, arguing, grumpiness around the holidays originates from the fact that we wonder how we could possibly be related to these people. Er, I mean we’re all too close.

Close in propinquity and proximity. We don’t have our normal personal space. This is made even worse because it’s always freaking raining on Thanksgiving and you can’t escape outside for that much needed break.

Proxemics is the study of personal space and people’s perception of it. The term proxemics was first used by Edward T. Hall in 1963 in his book The Hidden Dimension. He stated that we all have an invisible force field around our bodies and it’s important for our mental health to preserve our own comfort zone. Proxemics involves all our senses. It’s not just someone standing too close to you, it could also be Aunt Rhubarb’s obtrusive perfume or Uncle Pill’s loud cell phone talking.

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A SUPER QUICK and easy sandwich with a surprisingly sophisticated taste. Good quality bread and the right hot sauce make all the difference.

Preparation Time: 2 seconds

Category: Vegan / Vegetarian Recipe

Some guy made this sandwich for me while I was on tour with my band More Fiends in the Netherlands. I thought the idea was ridiculous until I tasted it — a peanut butter sandwich with hot sauce!?!? I say “some guy” because, frankly it’s all a blur. I think I was crashing in his apartment (hey don’t get funny, the whole band was there). But as for the “guy” himself, sorry dude, I can’t remember anything but the sandwich.

Later on I realized the idea for the sandwich is borrowed from the flavors of spicy peanut sauce and a Dutch guy would make this sandwich because of the Netherlands connection to Indonesia. [The later having been a colony of the former.]

For the bread, I like to use a hearty whole wheat with oats and seeds. My favorite brand of hot sauce, available from an Asian supermarket, is made by Huy Fong and called Sriracha. Its got a rooster on the bottle and a green lid. Sriracha is made from sun-ripened chilies which are ground into a smooth paste along with garlic. It is the absolutely best, most versatile hot sauce I’ve ever tasted.

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HOW TO SNEEZE

A Public Service Announcement By Elizabeth Fiend

If you have advance notice: Sneeze in to a tissue and discard it in the trash immediately.

If there’s no time to grab a tissue – Sneeze into your elbow. You heard it right, the correct place to sneeze is in the nook of your elbow.

The worst possible place to sneeze is into your hand. When you sneeze into your hand your hand gets covered with germs, then everything you touch becomes germy and the germs spread to other people.

Sneezing straight out into the air — just plain rude.

DON’T BE A JERK, SNEEZE INTO YOUR ELBOW.

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BUY LOCAL, or BUY ORGANIC?
Article written by: ELIZABETH FIEND

Get out to your local farmers market RIGHT NOW while you still have time.  

Photos by Rob Kates of : Greensgrow farmer Mary Seton Corboy and the author Elizabeth Fiend.

Our food system has gotten out of whack due to the industrialization of farming (AKA agribusiness) and the globalization of food. Currently there are basically three types of places that grow our produce: big agribusiness factory-type farms, organic farms and recently, a growing movement of small local farms. It used to be a no brainer that if you wanted the best, most healthful food, and could afford it, buy organic. But since the initial burst of organic farms in the 60s and 70s, things have changed and what was a given is suddenly up in the air.

Certainly, buying organic food seems like the way to go since using pesticides is strictly a no-no in organic farming. Organic practices are kinder to the land, they promote good soil development, as opposed to agribusiness techniques which deplete the soil — and hence your food — of vital nutrients. Organic practices don’t pollute the water, the air or the workers on the farm through exposure to toxic chemicals the way agribusiness practices do, either. And a fundamental part of the organic philosophy is to treat workers fairly and pay a living wage.

But there’s a crisis in the organics world, and it’s called big business. Too much of a good thing has gone haywire. Organic food is so much in demand that there just isn’t enough to go around. The only solution has been to change farming methods, to outsource, and to go global to get the desired goods. What was once an industry of small family farms has mushroomed into a new kind of agribusiness, one doing business with Wal-Mart, Kraft, Kellogg and General Mills; one that outsources the growing of organic food to places with little regulation, like China.

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Orange Creamsicle Cake

RECIPE BY ELIZABETH FIEND

A favorite childhood memory of mine was running outside when the ice cream truck came around my block. I would always get the Orange Creamsicle ice cream bar. Orange sherbet coating over a rich creamy vanilla ice cream bar, this treat always spelled carefree days to me! I’ve duplicates these flavors as a refreshing, fruit filled cake. Yes, there really are two pounds of fruit in this cake!!!

Quick and easy. Dress up a store bought cake or if you have a favorite recipe, make your own angel food cake. You’ll get raves, trust me!! Only takes 1/2 hour (with store bought cake).

THIS CAKE JUST SCREAMS FUN!! MAKE THIS CAKE FOR YOUR NEXT PARTY.

Category: Vegetarian, Dessert Recipe

OK, a cake’s a cake. It’s dessert and there’s no denying it. But I’ve tried made this cake more healthful by incorporating two pounds of fruit into the recipe. (I must be a genius!) Plus I’ve lightened up the custard filling by using yogurt and mascarpone cheese, a soft, sweet Italian cheese with half the calories of butter. And — angel food cake contains less fat than most other cakes.

Special tools: Angel-food-cake cutter. This looks kinda like an Afro comb. You first slide it down thru the cake poking little holes in to the cake which will enable you to then slice the cake with a regular knife. (If you don’t have one, it will be a little harder to slice, but not the end of the world.)

Ingredients:
Use your favorite recipe for angel food cake. Or to save time use a store-bought cake.
8 oz mascarpone cheese
12 oz orange-cream yogurt
Two 15 oz cans mandarin oranges (drained)
8oz prepared whipped topping (if frozen, defrost) or fresh whipped cream
½ cup sliced almonds

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What to do with A Sh*t-Load of Vegetables

or

How I Ended My Summer Vacation

Article by Elizabeth Fiend

Upon returning from my vacation I was greeted by my two charming 20-something house sitters. They did a great job holding down the fort and loving my big orange cat Hurricane. They bashfully asked me if it would be okay if they left the remainder of their CSA Farm Share in my fridge. Like many people, seems they’re trying hard to eat right but are at a loss as to how to actually pull it off.

Can you image asking ME if it would be okay to unload a bunch of organic fruit and vegetables?

I made them squirm bit and then hastily accepted. In my book, there’s only one thing better than a fridge full of organic produce, a fridge fill of free organic produce.

I quickly went through the bonanza. In the crisper tomatoes tightly wrapped in a plastic bag were immediately removed to a plate and set on the counter.

Fresh corn was out on the counter seemingly left there for days. What were they thinking, pop corn? That had to go to the composting heap. But everything else was salvageable.

The two pints of blackberries were on the verge of extinction. To save them I popped them in the microwave for three minutes. I added a touch of maple syrup to remove the tartness, which I’m assuming is why the house sitters didn’t eat them. I drained some of the dark purple, almost black actually, juice off and drank it right then. The blackberry compote would be perfect for weekend pancakes.

Giant bags of beets and carrots did seem a bit daunting as they were still covered in farm dirt. But not to worry, I have a vegetable scrubber.

There was also a bag of Swiss chard as big as a house, eggplants, tomatoes, tomatillos and the obligatory oodles of end-of-summer-zucchini.

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