TWO COOKBOOKS ARE ENOUGH FOR ME.

Well, for those of you who haven’t heard from me in months, I’ve been busy changing my home space and continuing – with only occasional stumbles - on my minimalist journey. The change was radical. We bought an old RV. And for the past four months we – my husband and I – have lived in a 30-foot RV along with our one gray, outdoor cat. Our RV is parked in a rather large, tree-lined mobile park. Here, we have all the services and Internet for our general creature comfort. 
 
On the basis of our recent experiences, I can say that  life can improve by living with less - all that depending, of course, on what sort of person you are. For us, the minimalist life is challenging, empowering and fun. Saying no to consumer overkill is a tough skill to acquire, but once we had it, we easily gave up a bunch of things that other people still cling to and started to live life on your own terms. 

As we were to become RV full-timers, we prepared to rid ourselves of virtually everything that we deemed unnecessary. And, for us, holding on to just the essentials is a great satisfaction.
 
What fits, in the way of furniture, are only the original RV built-ins. So, all our old furniture had to go. Other personal possessions needed to be weeded out. For example, my wardrobe is now a third of what it was 12 months ago. My husband's held on to about half of the clothes he had. As for household items, we started downsizing a while back when we still lived in regular housing. We took an audit of our bedding, towels, toiletries, kitchen items, electronics. We kept only the best and what we truly used. We got rid of one of our cars 12 months ago. Now we have only one small car and a motorcycle that gets my husband to work. That seems just right for our life in a small town where almost everything is less than a half-hour drive. 

Despite our efforts to prepare for life in the RV, we had to face the fact that the living space is extremely limited – beyond what we could have imagined. So, for the first two months in the RV, we rented a storage unit for the overflow. We also gave a lot away to friends and to the thrift store. We were still cramped for space. There was a real lack of space for my kitchen stuff. And I thought I didn’t have so much. Well, as I’ve found out, I had way much more than I needed. At first, I had kitchen stuff hidden in every sort of place well beyond the tiny kitchen - into the living area and under the bed. I realized that I would have to sort through and keep just what was the most necessary. And that I’ve done and probably will continue to do over the next few months. 

Also, when we moved in, I knew that we wouldn’t have space for a formal book shelf. Our books had to be tucked away in a couple of overhead compartments. That meant that the total - for me - couldn’t be more than a couple of dozen books. And, as in other areas of my material life, I thought about why I was holding onto treasured things and what would happen if I let them go. I spent a whole morning sorting through and donated about thirty books to a community library. And, now, I am the proud owner of 20 books – 6 non-fiction, 12 yoga and self-help books, and just two cookbooks. (Because of their usefulness, cutting back on cookbooks was something that I found especially difficult.)

Finally, settling down to just two cookbooks.

Anyway, that’s the introduction to what I’m talking about today – the downsizing of my cookbook collection. Just a year ago, I had - maybe - twelve cookbooks of all sizes, shapes, age and content. I had believed - erroneously, I imagine - that twelve was a small number. Twelve seemed to be only a few when compared to some friends who report having as many as fifty cookbooks. (What they do with all of them I really don’t know.) It seems if you love to cook, you probably have been collecting a lot of cookbooks. So, this must be a particularly challenging area for library downsizing. 

Of the dozen that I had in the apartment, I'd kept three cookbooks for the RV kitchen. They were: Better Home and Gardens - classic loose-leaf, 5-ringed edition, Frugal Gourmet, and a really old, paperback Joy of Cooking that I'd been carrying around for decades. I felt rather proud of myself for having eliminated well over half of my collection. Still, after a while, I realized that I didn’t need all three and decided to do something about it. Going only e-recipe cooking wasn't a good option for me. While I do sometimes look up recipes on the Internet, most of the time I prefer the tried and true meals from traditional cookbooks. The recipes that I use tend to be easily made as given or simply modified accorded to my whim or, more often, after the lack of one or another ingredients that are included in the write-up. I also had a collection made up of recipe clips from magazines, Internet print-outs and fully hand-written pages. 

For most of the dishes that I like to make, I choose recipes from cookbooks with traditional American recipes. But then, again, I occasionally want to do some ethnic dishes – mostly Indian, Italian and Mexican. I really don't care much about the photos. Also, fortunately, I had no sentimental cookbook inherits from my mom or grandmas.

What I finally did was keep the Better Homes and Gardens. That was the most useful as it was – minus the meat, fish, and poultry sections that I removed. As a vegetarian, I was 99+% sure that I wouldn't be using anything in those sections. I held onto about forty separate pages of ethnic cooking recipes from the Frugal Gourmet book. It was an old paperback and falling apart, anyway. So, I didn't have to feel so bad about that. I put the Frugal Gourmet pages in the Better Homes and Gardens book, punching holes and separating them into the same food divisions already there.   My diverse recipe clips were transferred to hand-written pages in a special binder that I found on sale at the bookstore. The twenty or so Joy of Cooking pages that I saved were small and fit into plastic page covers in the binder. To tell the truth, a good part of the things in the binder are still in the form of printed pages, computer printouts or magazine clips, awaiting the day, if it ever comes, when I get around to transferring them into nicely hand-written pages.

For those of you who like the idea of cutting back to only a few cookbooks, I urge you to do so. Just start slow and enjoy the activity. Look at one book at a time. Take time to pull the book off the shelf and consider if it's really worth it according to your time and skills. Honor your emotions. Send all those that don't make the cut to someone else, so they'll have a new home. Other books that aren't so valuable  can be donated to the thrift store. You should be happy with the remaining cookbooks. Any other recipe that you might need for some special occasion can easily be found on Internet cooking blogs.

I GAVE AWAY MY MICROWAVE OVEN - WHYS AND WHEREFORES.

You may think that the microwave oven is your best friend in the kitchen. But, there's a dark side to your supposed friend. It's something like the Trojan horse of Greek history that looked like a gift, but brought tragic, unforeseen consequences. Here's the story.

Domestic microwave oven models were first offered in 1967. It didn't take too long before it became another item that brought "prestige" to consumer households who could pay what was initially a high price tag. Over the past decades, the much publicized microwave oven became much more affordable, and this led almost all U.S. householders to buy and use large and small units. And the younger generation probably believes that it's impossible to run any kitchen adequately without one. Hundreds of specialized cookbooks have added to the popularity of these ovens. It all seems to make sense – preparing and reheating food - in just a few seconds. It appears to be something that no "right-minded" man or woman would want to do without. But think again.

Big problems with microwave ovens.
First of all, it's been shown that microwave cooking breaks up proteins, vitamins, and minerals into much smaller molecules that the human body can't use as well for nutritional purposes. And its radiation effects create decomposed compounds that pose risks for cancer, reduced immune function, and impaired memory.

One study found disturbing changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved milk and vegetables for a few weeks. Study subjects ate combinations of the same foods cooked different ways. Those who ate foods processed through microwave ovens, compared with the controls, showed hemoglobin levels decreases and over all white cell levels and cholesterol levels increases. They also had important increases in leukocytes – signs of poisoning and cell damage - with the microwaved foods.

Second, these microwave ovens make up a substantial part of the cumulative problem of so much electromagnetic radiation in our homes, offices, and schools. It's the electromagnetic radiation that agitates the molecules generating an internal heat that "cooks" the food. At the same time, an unknown amount of the same radiation is escaping from the oven and going into the surroundings. That's why people with a pace-maker and pregnant women are supposed to stay aways from these ovens. The radiation leaks out of all of them – to some extent.

Another concern had to do with the fact that you shouldn't be using any type of plastic in these ovens. Plastic contains BPA and other substances that are released into the food with all that super heat. When the manufacturer says that it's microwave safe, that only means that it won't dissolve in the oven, not that it won't bleed toxic substances into your food.

 

The real deal - you really don't need it
Here, I'd like to tell you my experience and how I stopped being a convinced fan of  microwave cooking. Some months ago, my husband and I visited a friend for a few days. We cooked our food in her apartment. And with the first breakfast that we made, I noticed that the coffee was getting cold. I asked where the microwave was. She said she didn't have one. Well, I knew that my friend kept a rather Spartan apartment and had virtually eliminated all unnecessary items in it. But, I was amazed that she had no microwave. She told me about the negative health effects of having a radiation box in the home and that, microwaved food had a bad taste when compared with food cooked in a conventional way. More importantly, that it wasn't good for you, nutritionally. And that microwaving causes changes in the molecular structure of food, so that you don't get the same kind of nourishment from it as you would eating food cooked on a regular stove. While I was impressed by what she said, I didn't think enough about it, at the time, to stop using my microwave oven at home.

Some time later, I began to read about the negative effects of microwaves and that microwave cooked food was a health hazard. And after a time, I made a decision. I  gave away my microwave oven and bought a small, cabinet-top toaster oven to replace it. Now, several months have passed – sans microwave –and I'm satisfied that I did the right thing. Also the general quality and taste of our meals have improved – at least my husband tells me that. And, while, it may be due to any number of healthier changes in our lives, we both feel better, too.

Your chance to protect your family and the environment
You, too, can get along without that big monster hovering over your stove or hogging limited kitchen counter space. After all, those meals that you’re preparing for loved ones should be done in the best way you can. And, yes, things can get busy in the kitchen with everybody already hungry. But there are any number of ways that you can simplify your menus. Food can be served as salads or vegetables quickly steamed, in the conventional manner, during those hectic times. Tell your family that, yes, you're having to spend ten to fifteen minutes more in food prep time but that they're avoiding health risks and getting more nutrition in the process. Surely, they'll thank you for the extra effort made on their behalf.

And, why contribute to so many environmental problems created by the need for more and more electronic products? Just remember most families trade out out those big items - like microwave ovens - every few years or so. Our consumer-buying frenzy creates too much use of natural resources and leads to deadly levels of industrial smog. And it doesn't matter that the large part of that smog falls over Asian cities. It all comes back in the form of global ecological destruction - through acid rain and worldwide climate change.

Here's something that you can do right away. Take out your microwave and put it in the garage or in a closet for one month. Switch over to a toaster oven for warming your cooked food and heat up liquids in pots on the stove. Try this simple exercise. If it works for you, at the end of the month, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to give or throw away your microwave oven. At any rate, you will know that it's not such a good idea to use it and, if it reappears in the kitchen, your use will surely be less frequent.  

BREAD PUDDING, AN APPALACHIAN AND SOUTHERN DESSERT THAT YOU'RE SURE TO ENJOY.

Like nearly everyone else, my husband and I sometimes crave a dessert. Of course, we feel that we should refuse to go along with that urge – at least most of the time. As we all know, excess sugar in the diet brings on problems like: weight gain, skin and hair problems, and even more serious conditions such as diabetes and lowered resistance to infections. But, from time-to-time, something a little sweet is next to irresistible. And since almost no one wants to totally abstain from desserts, what I recommend is a healthy change toward the not-so-sweet side of things. That's where bread pudding comes in.

Bread pudding is a tasty use for stale bread that has been in style for centuries. Along with bread pudding, cooks also used dry bread to make stuffing, thickeners and edible serving containers. Today, bread pudding may not be as common as it once was, but it’s never gone out of style in Appalachian and Southern states and also continues to be popular in Mexico, Great Britain, Belgium and France. For a lot of us, it's still one of our favorite comfort foods, helping us remember a time in the past when dessert was usually made from common kitchen ingredients and wastefulness was considered a terrible wrong.

In our home, we eat a lot of fruit, flavored yogurt, nuts, and granola, and that usually satisfies our dessert cravings. But when a dessert is definitely called for, usually for a holiday celebration or a special dinner with family or friends, I like to make something that's a fitting following to a good meal. Often that "something" is bread pudding. So, if you're also looking for  a dessert that's not too sweet, bread pudding is great dish that sure to please. Besides that, it gives you a use for stale bread, a situation that often occurs near the end of the week. (I usually just chop it up into coarse crumbs and freeze it. Later I make bread pudding or add it to my "almost- meatless meat-loaf". See related post below.)

The sweet alternative for leftover bread is to make old-fashioned bread pudding - not too sugary and plump with raisins with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, served up cold or warm out of the oven. And it can be made from any type of bread (whole wheat, white, multigrain, etc.) Homemade bread usually goes fast, but if you have any leftover, it makes really great tasting bread pudding. And, your dessert will look particularly festive if you serve it up in glass custard cups with a bit of syrup or whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon on top.

Whatever reason you have for making and serving bread pudding, you can be sure it's a truly satisfying and eco-friendly treat.

Old-fashion bread pudding recipe

Here's a version of old fashioned bread pudding that’s as close as I can get to what my mother used to make.

Ingredients

2 cups of heated milk
4 cups of dry bread, torn in pieces

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2-cup brown sugar or honey
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup seeded raisins or chopped dates
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg

Instructions

- Put bread and raisins in large bowl. Heat milk and 1/4 cup melted butter in a saucepan. Pour warm mixture over bread; let stand 10 minutes.

- Stir in all remaining pudding ingredients. Pour into a greased casserole pan.

- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Notes

Added to the basic recipe, you can include any of the following: fresh fruit cut up, minced nuts, a sweet liquor added in place of all or part of the milk, or a topping of honey, maple syrup, or confectioners sugar. If you’re going to put something sugary on top of your bread pudding, cut back some on the brown sugar in pudding.

If your bread pudding tends to dry out in the oven,  place a bowl of water on another shelf while the pudding bakes. This keeps delicate foods, like this bread pudding, from burning, drying out, or curdling. Check the water level during the baking time and add more hot water as necessary.

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ROASTED VEGETABLE SOUP IS A MEDLEY OF SUMMER ABUNDANCE

As humble as it may be, I’m singing the praises of roasted vegetable soup. So, taking from the summer abundance theme, it’s time to make a really delicious vegetable soup. This soup has something for everybody – healthy nutrition, weight control properties and great flavor for the “I’m-all-for-taste” food lovers. And, don’t let anyone fool you; consuming cold foods in the hottest months is not necessarily the best way to reduce body heat. On the contrary, eating hot foods whenit's hot outside is actually an age-old remedy. People in tropical countries know this best - the sweat created from eating hot foods, like soups, causes the body to cool off - not heat up. Of course, the cooks in the kitchen who are making the soup may be hot and sweaty for a part of an hour. But, then again, they, too, in a short time can enjoy a delectable soup.

To give you further evidence supporting my enthusiasm for vegetable soup, I’ll tell you about two excellent  articles that, in my opinion, are well worth reading.

The first article, “Still Counting Calories? Your Weight-Loss Plan May Be Outdated”, summarizes a 20-year nutrition and weight study that involved 120,000 men and women from the health professions. All participants were healthy and not overweight when the study began. The lifestyle factors looked at were: diet, exercise, sleep, TV watching, smoking and alcohol consumption. Results showed that the average weight gain was about 20 pounds in 20 years. But not everybody gained so much weight. The study shows that what was eaten made more difference than the number of calories consumed. While physical activity was another factor for increased weight, it still had less effect than eating the right kinds of foods.

As might be imagined, the foods that led the list of “bad” foods – more pounds gained - were, in order: French fries, potato chips, and sugar-sweetened drinks, followed by red meats and processed meats, other forms of potatoes, sweets and desserts, refined grains, other fried foods, 100-% fruit juice, and butter. The “good” foods – those that added fewer pounds –  also not surprisingly, were: fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Study participants who lost the most weight consumed 3.1 more servings of vegetables each day. Greatest weight loss was among people who ate more yogurt and nuts, including peanut butter. Consumption of dairy products, other than butter and yogurt, didn’t affect weight gain, one way or another. Apparently, the “good” foods were not only filling but seemed to help in maintaining proper body metabolism. Also, one glass of wine a day had no important effect while other types of alcohol in even modest quantities added pounds. Smoking lowered weight gain slightly. Of course, smoking is still a bad idea because of its role as a cause of disease.

The second article, titled: " How Soup Can Help You Lose Weight" tells how a diet emphasizing soup helps tame the appetite and control weight. As an example, this article reports that eating a moderate-size plate of chicken and vegetables with a glass of water keeps the stomach full for a couple of hours. But then hunger kicks in. On the other hand, if you blend the food with the water in a hot soup, you’ll stay hunger-free for three or more hours and, therefore, less likely to be snacking in a short time. Is it magic? Well, sort of. (It's body magic. Or soup magic, I'm not sure which.) Scientists have documented these differences with ultrasounds and MRI scans of people's stomachs.  Apparently, water passes straight to the intestines because the brain considers the solids as the only "real" food. In some surprising way, the brain takes all the soup as one quantity to be digested and holds it there longer. (By the way, the brain treats sugary drinks like plain water not like soups.) So, while commercial foods and pharmaceutical companies are striving to find ways to control appetite at a good profit, of course, the simplest way to avoid hunger pangs is to blend solid food with water in a healthy, hearty soup. And, here’s the best part, vegetable soup is as good at curbing appetite as either chicken or fish soup and usually lower in calories.

So, in keeping with our summer abundance theme, let's use all that fresh food from our gardens and at farmers markets to make nutritious soups. And, if just about any vegetable-based soup is good, oven roasted veggies keep more flavor than boiled ones, and that makes a good soup doubly delicious. Everyone will ask for more and why not? At a total of about 150 calories per bowl, no one will have to feel bad about asking for seconds. Of course, it will be even more filling and just a few more calories topped with a couple of tablespoons of plain yogurt or accompanied by a small amount of whole grain bread or crackers with cheese or hummus.

And if all this isn’t enough to make you start your Meatless Mondays, ASAP, please don’t read any further. But, if you’re more than convinced than ever that a vegetarian or mostly vegetarian diet is the way to go, keep on reading and take note of this sure-to-please recipe.

Recipe for Roasted Vegetable Soup

4 medium tomatoes, halved

1-cup green beans, stringed but uncut

3 medium carrots, halved
2-3 medium zucchini, squash or eggplant, halved or quartered
Small amount of olive oil - to taste
3 garlic cloves, finely minced

4 cups vegetable stock or 4 cups water with 2 consume cubes (can be vegetable or chicken)

1-cup fresh spinach

2 tbsp. parsley or cilantro, finely chopped 

½ tsp. paprika or chili pepper

Salt (sea salt is best) and black pepper to taste

Optional: ½ tsp. basil or thyme

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the veggies in an ovenproof pan or dish. Toss lightly with oil to coat the vegetables. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, add garlic and toss. Return veggies to oven and bake for another 15 minutes or so until the vegetables are lightly browned.

If oven baking is more than you can stand in the hottest time of the year, roast veggies the Mexican way on a comal (or any heavy grill pan you have on hand). Place veggies on the hot grill pan with a light brushing of oil (or none at all) and turn occasionally until browned - but not burned.

When the veggies are nicely roasted, take them out and put them in a large pot. Add vegetable stock, paprika, spinach, a bit more oil if you like, parsley or cilantro and other seasonings. Simmer at medium heat for about a half hour, stirring from time to time. Don’t overcook it. Optional thickening can be done with a small amount of cornmeal or a couple of tablespoons of blended beans or peas. Or, if you like, you can mush the veggies up some or put the soup through a blender and then return it to the pot. Any way you want to serve it, this soup will be good and filling.

 

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GREEN GARDENS: GOOD FOR FAMILIES AND FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Small-scale farms, over the centuries - if not millennia, have been the basis of family subsistence and sometimes provided farmers with additional seasonal earnings. But, over the past 100 years, more and more small farms have given way to large-scale agro-business. The principle that guides agro-business is the maximization of all (or nearly all) available agricultural resources for the purpose of generating profits. Agro-business depends primarily on monoculture, and the outcome of large-scale monoculture has been massive soil erosion, overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, and toxic waste in our waterways. While agro-business has been efficient in filling up our supermarkets, much of the food that's produced is of poor quality, having lost part of its nutrients and flavor in its long journey to the family table.

Over and over again, agro-business, by its practices, has ignored the health and well being of local communities and harshly damaged eco-systems. Worse yet, it has all but strangled traditional farming efforts. Now, very few farm families are able to make enough money to sustain their costs and turn over even the smallest income, and only a small fraction of the U.S. population lives in rural areas. This is a sad story and our government (and those of a lot of other countries, too) has done little or nothing to stop this process.

Today, most family farms have been turned into sub-developments and commercial centers, and almost everyone, excepting the rich, has been forced off rural lands. With no small-scale farming, a large majority of the population has to work for wages in businesses or receives government money - either in some direct capacity or as a dependent on government aid. Food has become "something" that you buy in the supermarket.

But, with the recent emphasis on “doing more with less” (money, that is), families have found that, even in the cities, they can turn some of their efforts  into farming resources that produce family.  All this can be (and mostly has been) done without the need for large investments. And, just about anyone, who hopes for a greener world, should consider family gardening as a clear reflection of their personal values in areas such as better nutrition, family solidarity, greening of living space, saving money, and sustaining eco-systems. What’s more, family gardens can be decorative additions to the home when they include a mix of beautiful flowers along with the veggies.

Whether you have a lot, a little, or no yard at all, you can come up with a way to grow some food. The satisfaction of seeing green plants grow and the good taste of homegrown food will be well worth the cost and work involved. So, if you have space, time and money for a good-sized family garden, by all means go for it. And, for the majority of us who are (almost)  gardening novices and facing what we once thought were insuperable limitations, the good news is that we can also succeed using non-traditional ways of gardening. What’s important is that more families follow green garden principles. And, if enough people do green gardening, not only will their individual families benefit, but their combined efforts can contribute to healthier ecosystems.

WAYS TO DO SMALL-SCALE GREEN GARDENING
Containers
Don’t let limited garden space keep you from growing vegetables in containers. Small patches of yard, patios, and even rooftops can be sites for container gardening. It’s fairly easy to do this kind of gardening with a minimum of equipment, and many different kinds of vegetables can be grown in pots. You can be pretty much imaginative with the types of containers. Recycled containers of all shapes and sizes can be used, and they are a greener alternative than buying a lot of new pots. Just be sure that all containers are washed clean and deep enough to grow the crops you plan to sow. Even old tires can be used if you line the tires with heavy weight plastic to prevent possible toxicity. Here a list of some popular veggies that are easy to grow in containers.

Green onions - Choose mild-flavored varieties and sow small bulbs anytime from March to July. Thin out the seedlings to 1-inch spacing. Harvest them when the bulbs are about 3/4 inch in diameter.

Lettuce - The loose leaf varieties are the best in containers. Plant the seeds 3 inches apart and don’t overwater them while they’re germinating. Use good potting soil and water them with a low-volume sprayer (rather than hosing them down). When the leaves are the size that you want, pluck off the outer ones in just the quantity that you need for the day. This stimulates more leaf growth. You can continue to plant seeds in emptied spaces every 2 weeks or so. That way you’ll be harvesting for several months.

Green beans – Opt for beans that grow into bushy plants with red, white or pink flowers. French green beans are a favorite. Their pods are 4-6 inches long. Sow the seeds in early June. They need to be planted about 2 inches deep and use stakes to provide the stems with support. Some of the climbing varieties can be 5 feet tall, so they'll need a solid support. Pick the pods when they are about 4 inches long.

Tomatoes - With the price of fresh veggies as high as it is, you'll be glad to have a good supply of salad-size tomatoes almost the entire summer. The best small container tomatoes are compact plants that don’t require pruning and the bushy varieties are good  because they don't require staking.There are also great cherry varieties that have bright colors and a delicious flavor.  Standard tomatoes will need larger pots with at least 3 cubic feet of soil. Tomatoes are best when grown in a sheltered and sunny spot. Insert a stake or a wire tomato cage in the pot at the time of planting. Stems can be tied to the support as needed.

Cucumbers - These veggies can be climbers or ramblers. They need a lot of water and like a sunny location. Choose the smooth skins ones unless you plan to make pickles. Sow them in tubs, placing 3 seeds 1-inch deep and a few inches apart. You can do this any time in late spring or early summer. Thin them out to leave only the strongest seedlings and cut them off with a sharp knife when they're about 8 inches long. 

Herbs - It's really easy to grow herbs in pots, and they make attractive additions for porches, front lawns, and sunny kitchen windows. Their root system is very shallow  so they can grow in almost any container.  Most herbs do best with at least 6 hours of daily sun, but if you live someplace with near triple-digit temperatures, you’ll need to shade your herb container gardens from the afternoon rays. Also, herbs grow better in potting soil and most don’t need any extra fertilizer. Drainage holes are a must to prevent root rot. Just be sure to sow your herbs in separate pots or combine them with others that require similar levels of watering. Popular herbs for container gardening include rosemary, thyme, cilantro, parsley, sage, and mint.

Raised beds
Raised beds are freestanding structures typically made from wood, stone or concrete filled with soil and compost.  Like containers, beds can be placed on concrete slabs or rooftops and are excellent in small yards or anywhere there is poor soil.  They keep soil warmer, provide better drainage and require less maintenance than traditional gardens.

Most often, these "constructions" are rectangular, longer rather than wider, and about 3 feet in height. For comfort, your bed should be about 4 ft wide so you can reach from both sides. They can be any length you like, but most people choose to have them from 10 to 16 ft feet long. (In the small space I have in my yard, my raised beds are only 2.5 ft wide and about 8 feet long because they end up against walls on three sides. It's a sort of a hybrid raised bed/container garden .)

Raised beds can grow standard-sized plants and involve less back-breaking work than earth-level gardens and their soil warms up faster in spring allowing for earlier planting. The disadvantage of raised beds is that they dry out fast and require daily watering. With a north-south bed, you can use the sunny end as a hot slope for early crops and herbs while salad and other leafy crops can grow on the shadier end. Beds will have better drainage if you use a  mix of soil, compost and other growing materials.

Community and pirate gardens
If you really want to grow some veggies, but don't have even a square yard of patio space, you might look for some other people who want to work on a neighborhood or community garden. By sharing the costs and work with a bunch of people, you can have more varied and abundant crops. Of course, administrative questions, such as how the work will be done and how to divide the harvest, need to be established before starting up a cooperative venture. Beyond that, there are even those brave souls who garden on land that's not theirs, choosing empty lots, pieces of urban green, and even public park areas. This could be tricky in several ways besides being technically an illegal act. You'd have to find land that's not likely to be identified as pirated space or seen by other people who might take away your harvest. So, GrandmaS doesn't recommend pirated gardens. A better thing to do is to get permission or rent a space - doing this might be easier than you imagine.

GREEN GARDEN CHALLENGE
So, I hope you're now convinced that you can grow veggies (and/or flowers), someplace in your home or yard or elsewhere. And it's best if you can follow the green gardening principles listed below. But, if you think that all that’s a lot to do at once (or too costly), then just focus on a couple of projects right now. Later on, you might be able to do more. (Get started by doing an Internet research on some of these topics and select the ones that suit your gardening style and pocketbook.)

- Use recycled containers whenever possible instead of buying new ones.
- Compost your food and yard waste.
- Water wisely and use water conservation methods.
- Use a rain barrel in the months with adequate rainfall or create a rain garden for runoff from roofs and other overhangs.
- Use natural organic fertilizer and pesticides.
- Re-purpose and recycle your garden tools and equipment.
- Have a plan for freezing, canning or sharing your veggies with others should they appear in quantities greater than your immediate family needs.

Notes
For inspiration on green home gardening, see PathtoFreedom.com. This blog is the story of super-successful urban homesteaders who grow almost all of their own food and do lots of other major green activities at the same time. And they do all this on 1/10th of an acre!

GrandmaS' Almanac Calendar includes a list of gardening activities (taken from Farmers' Almanac) to do according to the phases of the moon. 

Related posts
COLLECT RAIN WATER FOR GARDEN USE AND WATER EMERGENCIES
CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITIES FOR A DOWN-HOME ECO-VACATION
WHAT WILL YOU DO IF THE JAVA STOPS FLOWING?
TAKE POSITIVE AND PEACEFUL ACTIONS TO CONFRONT FOOD SHORTAGES
Shrink your carbon footprint
A KITCHEN SALAD BAR CAN WORK FOR YOU
Planning a kitchen garden


 

ANOTHER DISHRAG-MAKING PROJECT

As GrandmaS likes to remind you: "Every penny saved is a penny that's (at least, theoretically) not spent feeding the consumerist monster!" And having seen that the knitted dishrag post was one of my readers' favorites, I decided to find another dishcloth project that's easy to do and equally planet-friendly. So, here's a second dishrag-making project that can save you a pound of pennies and give you a ton of satisfaction.

Now, for those of you who read the first dishrag project, I want you to know that I personally did make and absolutely love my knitted dishrags. But, somewhat shamed-faced, I have to confess that I never produced the number that I recommended - that was 2 per day, dishrags and counter-cleaning rags, for a total of 14 for an entire week. I guess I got a little lazy after I 'd made a few.

But, later, I remembered that, for many years, I’d made my own facecloths from squares of recycled terrycloth with the addition of a crocheted edge. So, I thought: "Why not whip up some of those as dishrags?" And, since dishcloths are often - intentionally or otherwise - on display in the kitchen, I wanted to make them not only economical and useful but also attractive. These terry cloths are cheap and easy to make (see instructions below), and you'll be pleased that your kitchen has a safe, natural way of dish washing and surface cleaning.


There's more! These terry dishrags can be dyed beautiful pastel colors. Now, of course, GrandmaS would want you to go the natural route and not get involved with chemical dyes and their toxicity issues. That's right, natural dyes are easy to make and work with. (If you're still doubting, a quick Internet search can confirm this claim.) 

I think you'll like this simple project. And, if you get really inspired, you can do even more by making yourself some matching kitchen towels. A dyed terry dishrag and a matching  kitchen towel is a gift item that will be greatly appreciated by family and friends.

Instructions for making natural-dyed terry dishrags

Step 1 – Cut terry squares
Cut up white or almost white used (recycled) terry hand or bath towels or undyed shop rags into 8-inch squares. That size is small enough to fit inside a glass but big enough to clean counters.

Step 2 – Choose colors and dyes
For my dishrags, I used the following pastel colors and vegetable dye materials.

Sky Blue - fresh blueberries
Ice Cream Pink - fresh beets
Tree Bark Tan - strong brewed coffee
Light Saffron Yellow - ground turmeric
Light Sage Green - spinach leaves

Step 3: Make color fixatives
These natural fixatives will make the dye soak into the fabric more easily.

•Salt fixative for berry and spice dyes -- 1/2 cup salt to 8 cups cold water. Stir to dissolve.
•Vinegar fixatives for plant dyes -- 4 parts cold water to 1 part vinegar. Mix.

Add your squares to the fixative, heat and simmer for an hour. (You'll probably be able to fix and dye two or three cloths at a time.) Cool and squeeze out the fabric. Rinse in cool water until water is clear.

Step 4 - Dye bath
To make the veggie dye bath, cut the plants into small pieces and place in a stainless steel pot. Use two parts of water to one part plant material. For spices and coffee, about a half cup should be enough to make a dye. For stronger colors, increase the proportion of dye material. Don't worry about any possible stains in your pans - everything is natural, so nothing will harm your pans or be toxic for your family.  Bring the solution to a boil and simmer for about an hour; strain the liquid, leaving only the colored liquid.

Step 5 - Dyeing
Using the same pan (or pouring the dye-water into a larger stainless steel pan, if necessary), simmer the solution and fabric together for one hour. Leave the squares in the dye water for 4 to 8 hours. Be sure to swish the fabric around every hour or so to make sure all parts are unfolded and absorbing the same degree of color. You can check for color intensity after a few hours. Just keep the squares longer for a darker tone - even over night, if you like. By the way, the color of the fabric is always somewhat lighter when it dries.

Step 6 - Rinse
Remove the squares from dye bath and squeeze out the coloring. Rinse in cool water until water runs clear. Dry.

Step 7 - Hemming and making a crocheted border
Turn the edges in about a third of an inch - just one time, not doubled - and sew a running stitch around the cloth using a matching thread color. Then give them a sturdier hem with a crocheted shell border using a cotton yarn. Be sure your crocheted hem covers up what the usually unattractive stitched heming. Choose a yarn color that coordinates or contrasts with your fabric color.

Notes: Always wash your dyed kitchen rags and towels in cool water either alone or with other light-colored linens (and not with regular clothing). Air-dry your washed dishrags on a clothesline, when possible, to sanitize them. No chlorine bleach, please. Try to keep them out of direct sunlight. If using a clothes dryer, set it to air-dry setting or the lowest heat. The natural dyed terry will fade in time, but the crocheted edge will continue to make your cloths attractive.

Related posts:
IN PRAISE OF THE SIMPLE DISHRAG
BE SURE TO USE ALTERNATIVES TO CHLORINE BLEACH
LIVING IT UP WITH LESS: DECORATION IN A SIMPLE HOME
RECYCLE PLASTIC BAGS INTO USEFUL ITEMS
MAKE BEAUTIFUL BEADS FROM RECYCLED PAPER
GIVE AN OLD T-SHIRT A NEW LIFE AS A SHOPPING BAG