BiG TeA PaRtY Sustainable Living

Henry David Thoreau, Your Own Back Yard, and Global Warming

[Photo By: Elizabeth Fiend. Baby cardinal taking first flight, in my own backyard!]

Article Written By ELIZABETH FIEND

I’ve been reading Wild Fruits, an unfinished, recently published manuscript by American naturalist Henry David Thoreau. The book is a combination of diary and essay, chronicling the ways Thoreau spent his days and what he learned during the final years of his brief life. With each page I get more jealous, wishing I too could spend my day stalking a bee to find its hive and to learn what type of flower the bee drinks nectar from and how that affects the flavor of the honey.

Of all the things I love to do (and I love to do a LOT of things) observing nature is on the top of my list. Fantasizing how I could manage to spend my days doing what Thoreau did, I realized my main stumbling block is that I’m just not as big of a mooch as Thoreau. Sure, he worked some in his family’s pencil factory (in fact, he “invented” the modern clay-and-graphite pencil). But he also spent quite a lot of time not working, crashing at his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house and living on, and off of, Emerson’s land.

I work full time at a library, not some of the time at a pencil factory. But still, I manage to spend quite a lot of time observing nature, especially the ecology of my South Philly back yard. There’s a lot going on outside, even in the midst of a large city. I actually start my observing while I’m still lying in bed each morning — If you listen to the sounds of the outdoors you can learn quite a lot, especially about the birds. In fact, I think I know more about what the birds in my ‘hood are up to than my human neighbors, whom I never see and don’t particularly want to hear.

Phenology — derived from the Greek word phainomai, to appear or come into view — is the study of the seasonal timing of life-cycle events. As the seasons change, so do the actions and characteristics of living things. Phenology is mostly concerned with firsts: the first day the maple trees bud-out in spring, or the first day they begin to show fall color. It is a very, very old science, older than the word science.

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Nature in the City

When the Sharp Shinned hawks are hanging in my, South Philly / Italian Market, backyard I can’t tear my eyes off them!

But I guess a pigeon wing in the peach tree is the down side.

Photo by Elizabeth Fiend

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I try to grow enough food in my garden to share with the birds, insects and animals. It’s really worth it! I stumbled across this berry eating party over the weekend when I was clearing out some weeds way, way in the back of the garden. I’m not too worried about this one eating too much, because I think he’s already stuffed (har, har).

 Photo by: Elizabeth Fiend

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A BERRY GOOD LIFE

Posting and photos by: Elizabeth Fiend

Now that we’re both over 50, everyone asks ‘How do the Fiends stay so youthful looking?” It’s living the good life, which in our book includes eating plenty of colorful, fresh fruit and vegetables.

In the summer we get the freshest fruit by growing our own. Amazing, but we grow the above raspberries, blue berries and black raspberries in our city backyard smack dab in the center of South Philly — yeah the same hood Rocky once beat-up meat in.

Berries are loaded with antioxidants and they taste good, two reasons why we eat them every chance we can. According to Lisa Turner in Better Nutrition “Few fruits have quite the provocative allure, the fragile charm or the nutrients of berries. They’re full of fiber, minerals and vitamins, and loaded with healing antioxidants. Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are rich in proanthocyanidins, antioxidants that can help prevent cancer and heart disease. Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries contain ellagic acid, a plant compound that combats carcinogens. Blueberries also appear to delay the onset of age-related loss of cognitive function.” [Following is an article describing exactly what antioxidants are and why you need them.]

It’s actually quite easy to grow berries and I recommend it if you have the space and desire. We’ve had the red raspberries for a few years, but this year is our first crop of black raspberries. There were many cultivars to choose from when I purchased my plants — the biggest berry, the earliest to bear fruit, the juiciest. Hard to decide, so I let fate have a hand and got the plant named Allen, even spelled the same way Mr. Fiend spells his name. It was a good choice –it’s big, early and juicy.

FRUIT FACT:  How can you tell the difference between black raspberries and blackberries? A black raspberry when picked will have a hollow center, just like a red raspberry (see photo above). Blackberries hold on to their cores when picked. And, yes, I’m growing blackberries too. They’re just beginning to flower and will bear fruit in about a month, coinciding with the figs.

By Jeanie Lerche Davis.   Source: WebMD Feature.   Reviewed by Charlotte Grayson Mathis, MD.

An apple slice turns brown. Fish becomes rancid. A cut on your skin is raw and inflamed. All of these result from a natural process called oxidation. It happens to all cells in nature, including the ones in your body.

To help your body protect itself from the rigors of oxidation, Mother Nature provides thousands of different antioxidants in various amounts in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes. When your body needs to put up its best defense, especially true in today’s environment, antioxidants are crucial to your health.

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First Lady’s Organic Garden Concerns Chemical Firms

Source: TheHill.com      Written By Jim Snyder      Posted by Elizabeth Fiend

Michelle Obama planted an organic garden to promote fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet, but some chemical companies are worried it may plant a seed of doubt in consumers’ minds about conventionally grown crops.

“Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical,” the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) wrote the first lady last month a few days after she and fifth-graders from a local elementary school planted the White House Kitchen Garden.

The garden is designed to produce fresh fruits and vegetables for the first family and White House staff and guests. The garden itself doesn’t give the group heartburn. The letter also congratulates the first lady “on recognizing the importance of agriculture to America!”

But MACA, which represents agribusinesses like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont Crop Protection, is rather less thrilled about the fact that no chemicals will be used to grow the crops. The group is worried that the decision may give consumers the wrong impression about conventionally grown food.

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Obamas ready to start a White House garden

First Lady Plants Vegetable Garden on White House Lawn

Source: Chicago Tribune       

Posted by: Elizabeth Fiend

By Rebecca Cole

This year, the vegetables served at the White House will be as locally grown as possible — right on the South Lawn.

After a campaign by gardeners and sustainable food activists, the First Family has decided to dig up part of the White House grounds for a vegetable garden. In a ceremony Friday, First Lady Michelle Obama and local elementary school students will break ground for the project.

It’s part of the first lady’s promotion of healthy food for her daughters, Malia and Sasha, as well as for the nation. But like many parents, the Obamas have had mixed results: Michelle Obama recently said a version of “creamless” creamed spinach by White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford still was a bit too “green” for the kids.

More than 100,000 people asked the president to plant a garden on the White House lawn, according to Kitchen Gardeners International, a coalition of gardeners whose mission is to inspire and teach people to grow their own food. The group’s Eat the View campaign to plant “high-impact gardens in high-profile places” specifically urged the First Family to plant an edible garden within the first 100 days of the Obama administration.

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You’ve got your spinach, your bok choy (and a zillion other ‘choys’), your soft, dainty salad greens, yer sturdy kales and collards. Dandelion and mustard greens, Chinese broccoli, broccoli rabe, beet and turnip tops — they’re all part of the green family. I also include green, leafy herbs like basil, mint, parsley and cilantro in the green clan.

Lots of cultures celebrate greens in their cuisine, but with the exception of a few Southern favorites, your Standard American Diet (SAD) generally ignores these powerhouses of nutrition, taste and versatility. Still I was pretty surprised when a well-dressed, intelligent businesswoman said to me, “What you GROW kale in your yard?” And then proceeded to ask how I cooked it. I blurted out, “Like every other green” With a “duh” implied. Geez.

The next second I realized what my new column would be.

Greens! Are! Grand! You gotta get with them this fall and winter (and forever).

If you don’t like greens, you haven’t had them prepared properly. Or, prepared in a way you like. Greens go with or in almost everything. What do you like?

Quiche, omelets (and other egg dishes), burgers, chili (or any dish with beans), tomato sauce (or any dish with tomatoes), potatoes, Indian, African, Asian, Italian food? Greens, they go with all of these foods.

Polenta too. A few slices of baked polenta and a mess of greens, a glass of red wine — you got dinner.

Greens are super foods for sure. They have hardly any calories, a negligible amount of fat (if any) and they’re loaded, I mean really loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Greens are even a great source of dietary fiber.

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BY ELIZABETH FIEND

We need to reduce the amount of garbage we create. Most household garbage is burned, which creates air pollution, or dumped into landfills which produce toxic gases. Obviously neither way is good for the environment. By composting leaves and kitchen scraps you can greatly reduce the amount of trash your household makes.

Composting is a natural form of recycling where plant matter is turned into a soil-like material that’s full of nutrients and very beneficial to your backyard soil and garden plants. Insects, earthworms, bacteria and fungi help out in the process.
But it’s up to you to get it started!

Starting a Compost Pile:

INSIDE:
1.) Begin in the kitchen by saving uncooked food scraps like carrot tops, lettuce cores and banana peels. Coffee grinds, tea bags and egg shells can also be saved. NO cooked food, meat or dairy products should be added to the compost pile.
2.) Store the scraps in a lidded container or small bucket you can keep in easy reach of the cutting board.

OUTSIDE:
3.) Start a pile outside, either right on the ground, in a bin like a plastic laundry hamper, or buy a compost container.
4.) Simply add the food scraps to the pile.
5.) Mix in grass clippings and leaves if you have them.
6.) Over time as the pile rots it is transformed into black gold — an organic matter that will make a great fertilizer for your garden or yard. Place the fully rotted compost around plant bases and over the ground and nature will work it into the soil over time.

That’s it! You’ve done your thing for the environment
AND increased the quality of your soil.

Category: Organic

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THE WINTER GARDEN

BY ELIZABETH FIEND

The earth is three million miles closer to the sun in January than it is in June. However, the northern hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the sun making our days short on sunlight and heat. This is the poetry of our planet, and you should learn to love the drama and changes brought by each season. If that’s a bitter pill for you the good news is although you may not notice it, once Winter Solstice has passed the days are already getting LONGER.

Take advantage of mild days to work in the yard. It will be invigorating! Repair any structural items like fences or benches. If you don’t already have one, start a compost and leaf mulch pile. It’s vital to prune your grape vines and fruit trees when it’s cold. And remember the birds. I collect spent flowers heads, like echinacea and sunflowers, all summer for winter bird feed.

On days when it’s too cold and damp to work outdoors begin ordering new plants and seeds. In my South Philly micro-climate, hellebores bloom in February. Plant some, you won’t be sorry. Order some tea plants too. Tasty choices are the pretty anise hyssop and the non-invasive mountain mint. This time next winter you’ll be warming yourself with your own herbal brews which also make great gifts.

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FLOWERS AND BOMBS

Edible Flowers

Article and photo by ELIZABETH FIEND 3/23/7

The first time I ever ate flowers, they were served to me by a man who just moments before had uttered the command: “Don’t smoke in this room, this is where we make our bombs.” He then pointed out the window, where on an overhanging roof rung with barbed wire I spied rows and rows of Molotov cocktails, finely crafted in Heineken bottles. The bombs were needed in case the police came a-knockin’. Or as I found out first hand, several hours later, when they don’t knock. The cops actually come a-bangin,’ with a battering-ram. And they dress in full riot gear — shields, helmets, batons.

Welcome to the world of European squats.

Later that night, while I was performing there with my band More Fiends, I told the crowd that this would be our last song. I looked down and a second later when I looked up, the room was totally deserted.

Huh, I thought some weird Danish custom? Nope, the place was under attack by the politi and everyone had fled upstairs to their defensive positions.

No Molotov cocktails were thrown that night. Instead, they activated Plan B, the lobbing of fist-sized chunks of asphalt via sling-shots – the super industrial kind that are sold for ‘hunting.’ The asphalt chunks were kept in cascading mounds in each corner of a room that was down the hall from the bomb making room. Helmets with face masks were hung on hooks down one wall, the sling-shots on the other.

You could smoke in that room, no problem.

While my bandmates and I stood alone in the back hallway watching the double doors bend inwards with each assault of the police battering ram, some moments of uncertainty passed. What should we do? But I did know one thing for sure, edible flowers would have a place in my future.

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