24th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
Chipotle is a restaurant that I used to frequent regularly in my pre-Celiac days. The quality of the food was always top notch and, though more expensive than fast food, offered a good value for the money for a lower price than a sit down chain restaurant. As Spring dawns and we are spending more time out with the children, has sent me looking for more food options other than packing my own.
I was delighted to find out how many options they have for someone who has any allergies. Information found elsewhere says they are very understanding about people with dietary issues and will gladly change gloves to minimize the risk of cross contamination. For Celiacs and folks on gluten-free diets, everything but the flour burritos are safe. We have a pretty fair run of the menu.
Here is a direct link to the allergen card, which will open in a new window. You will need a PDF reader to view it.
www.chipotle.com/Chipotle_Allergen_Card.pdf
22nd March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
Yes, that is yours truly standing among the heavily mulched strawberries with a shop vac. What isn’t obvious is why: the several pounds of gravel that was tossed into the bed by the snow plows. In past years we might find a few stones or a chunk of asphalt tossed into the front yard, but this year was much different.
Shortly before winter came, PennDot tarred and chipped our road in an effort to resurface without laying a completely new road surface. It was effective until the unprecedented storms that came through this year. Every plow pass tore up a little bit more which wound up in the yard.
As the snow began to melt I had a nagging feeling that I should get out and shovel off as much of the gravel tainted snow from the beds, but as with most of my efforts, those thoughts turned into action a few days too late and I was greeted by a mess of stone and straw. Pulling off the straw in sheafs was an impossibility; the stones poured through it like water through a sieve. Taking my wife’s audible musing, “I wonder if the shop vac will work?” to mind, I was pleasantly surprised that it did.
However, it is no quick feat. The dust from the stones and the dirt clogs the filter after a few minutes and the straw will occasionally get stuck in the nozzle, but it picks up mostly the gravel and left a fairly clean surface. The lesson learned? Don’t be afraid to take power tools to your garden to get the job done.
20th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
Though the picture isn’t much to look at, that is one of the 7 blackberry canes I transplanted earlier this week. They are part of my Phase I permaculture implementation. Besides providing habitat and food, it will eventually form a hedge along the eastern edge of the property to help keep the fisherman out of our yard as they walk to the stream. Should another serious flood occur, they will bear the brunt of the damage and debris coming into the yard.
It has been a nearly a year to get them to this point. Using directions I looked up on the web last year, I dug out all the first year sucker canes in early April, just as they were coming into leaf. This was a few weeks late, as Mid-March is about right.
When getting them out of the ground care was taken to preserve as much of the root stem as possible. I potted each one in it’s own 1 gallon pot with my preferred potting medium: straight Organic Endeavors compost. Placed in the side yard they received limited full sun and set leaves well through the summer. No special care was given to get them through the winter and they remained there. The heavy snowfall Pennsylvania received this year served as good insulation.
As I pulled the pots up for transfer, the roots had snaked out and into the ground around them. A bit of work was required to loosen them and minimize damage but was promising for my transplant success. Tossing them in the wheelbarrow and grabbing a digging spade, my little lovelies and I headed to the field.
The warmed, moist soil made digging easy on the warm spring afternoon. Each hole was prepared and planted individually, with the compost and plant going in together and topped off with the extracted dirt. These were allowed to settle into the picture you see above. A few days later they will get a top dressing of a few more inches of compost and a layer of mulch. What will be used for mulch is up in the air at the moment, but I am thinking leaf mold from beneath the maple or some shredded newsprint.
Potting brambles for transplant provided older canes with well established root systems. The process was simple and didn’t take too much time. Though still too early to tell if they will flourish, I have good expectations that they will.
The next stage in this experiment is to transplant freshly dug canes into the field. I have a few dozen that need to come out of my wife’s flower bed.
18th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
In a couple of weeks I will begin my Permaculture Design Certification class. To get ready I am re-reading Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual and have started reading David Holmgren’s Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. It’s a great reason to start designing.
We do not intend to live here for more than a few more years. However, in the interest of continuing my education, I want to begin applying the principles and techniques. This will also provide more food from our garden should our move be delayed.
Below are some sketches I put together while planning the initial round of improvements. If you have an interest in Permaculture, please leave comments. I will also answer any questions as best I can.
The first image is a profile of the valley I live in.
To the north is a mountain that rises several hundred feet above my home’s elevation. Storms usually break over it when coming down from the north, shielding us from the heaviest rain. However, most of the rain that does make it over the mountain passes through our yard on the way to the stream.
To the south is a wooded ridge that blocks much of the southern sun exposure. Between the home and ridge is a dam fed, trout stocked, stream. The main road is in front of the house.
Legend:
I,II,III,IV are my Zones. G/H Garage and House. PB is a Pole Building. The Dots/Circles Dots/Double Circles are trees.
Dotted lines divide zones II,III,IV. The dots to the NE represent a hill of wild strawberries already on the property. All the black marks are what are currently on the property. Gray Xs are what I intend to put in. Gray SW to NE lines (barely visible) are for the area that floods. Circles C are compost bins.
Wind(1) and Wind(2). These are the directions the winds come onto our property. Because of the ridge, mountain, and tree coverage, very rarely do winds whip in from the north or south. Instead, it comes in along the road. 1 comes in heading east and causes some disturbance to the front yard, but not much. 2 is the real killer. There is a curve in the road just past the Eastern edge of the property, causing the Westerly wind to cut directly through the protection of the trees and pound into the Eastern side of the house.
This is my yard as it stands. This is a rough picture, not to scale, with some trees placed in ad hoc at the moment until I can trek through the snow and get the measurements needed for something more accurate.
Zone I to the west of the house is also the leach field for the septic tank. This limits any plantings in the soil, but it gets a nice mid-day sun and serves as my nursery/hardening off area. Zone I in front of the house is the kitchen garden with onions, tomatoes, peas, greens, cucumbers. The westerly half size bed is a strawberry patch filled with everbearing and day-neutral strawberries. This mix gives great strawberries from the last to the first frost fairly consistently.
The field to the North of Zone II has been a bit of a problem over the past few years. The bushes that edge it along the road are forsythia and lilac. They hold in the summer humidity and have caused quite a few problems with pests, fungus, and disease. This will no longer be used for planting, but perhaps to hold the chicken tractor or an outdoor grill.
The large tree is a well established maple with mostly bare ground and leaf litter underneath.
The zones for III and IV may seem rather rigidly defined but this does correspond to the way the yard floods. If there is runoff from down the mountain, it will pool in IV roughly along those lines. If the stream floods and cuts through the yard, III is very rarely hit, the rest washes through PB, around the trees, and exits off the SE corner of the house.
Plantings for Phase I (2010):
Under the large tree (maple) to the SW of PB, where the 4 Xs are, I want to plant blueberries along the drip line, possibly comfrey underneath as a ground cover, and a border of basil.
Along the eastern edge of the yard, in that long straight line, is for blackberries. This is to limit debris passing through the yard if the stream leaves its banks, to guide fishermen down to the stream without wandering through the yard (they like to enter on the NE corner of the property but will roam if given a chance), create additional habitat, and begin inviting more pollinators into the yard.
Finally, along the SE edge of II and out along the bottom of IV, will go some Pawpaw trees. Mostly, I’ve wanted to grow them for ages but also to reinforce the river bank. This edge is currently protected by a retaining wall, but I don’t know how long it will last. In a good heavy rain there are indications of some undercutting and several of the retaining wall logs have been shifted.
That covers everything for now.
16th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - 1 Comment
After trying quite a few different cornbread recipes, I’m coming up empty. I’ve tried varieties that include toasting the cornmeal, using buttermilk, and blends of flours including substituting masa harina for the cornmeal. It has been baked in a stainless steel skillet, cast iron, and in an Emile Henry 30cm pie dish. None of them have been worthwhile. The flavors and texture have all left something to be desired.
So, dear readers, what is your suggestion for a good cornbread recipe? And, it should be gluten free.
14th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - 3 Comments
Samuel Adams was my go to beer for years before my Celiac diagnosis. Wanting to enjoy those unique flavors, I wrote to the folks at the Boston Beer Company to see if they had anything in the pipeline. Here is the response:
Thank you for getting in touch with us about making a Samuel Adams gluten-free beer. We are sorry to hear about your condition and that it prevents you from enjoying so many foods, especially Samuel Adams.
Right now, we make only traditional brewed beers, which naturally contain gluten. We have asked our brewers to look into gluten-free beer and see whether this is something that would make sense for us to pursue.
Thank you again for letting us know about the need for gluten-free beers.
Cheers,
Todd Bellomy
Consumer Relations Representative
The Boston Beer Company
www.samueladams.com
If you have an interest in seeing a Gluten-Free Sam Adams on the market, contact them and let them know there is an interest.
12th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
I recently found out that Lower Susquehanna Valley Permaculture is going to be holding a Permaculture Design Certification Course. It runs for 7 Saturdays and 3 Sundays from April 10th through October . At the end each of the students who complete the course will be certified in permaculture.
This is a great opportunity for folks located in south central Pennsylvania to learn permaculture for a very reasonable price. There were only 25 places to begin with in the class and I’ve grabbed one of the spots so register soon if you are interested.
10th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
My Mother’s family loves fruit salad. I remember the giant stoneware bowl with the blue stripe on the table at every Thanksgiving and my aunts cutting up fruit while the turkey baked.
I never could make it the way they did until I asked my Mom what goes into it. I had missed one crucial ingredient: Oregon brand Royal Anne Cherries. My Grandma used to put up her own cherries, but once she stopped doing them this was the replacement. The only store that sells these in our area any more is Karns Foods. Wegmans used to but dropped them.
So now I can share with you the famous (or not) Herring Family Fruit Salad Recipe:
- 1 can Oregon Brand Royal Anne Cherries (Wegmans and Karns carry them)
- 1 can pineapple tidbits in juice
- 1 can peaches in juice
- 1 can pears in juice
- 1/2 jar maraschino cherries – halved
- 1 can mandarin oranges in juice
- 6 fresh oranges, peeled and sectioned
- 1 lb red grapes, halved
- Sliced banana dipped in lemon to prevent browning
Mix the cherries, pineapple, peaches and pears and their juice in a large bowl. Add the maraschino cherries and about ¼ cup of their juice. Add the mandarin oranges but only add the juice if needed to cover fruit. Add the oranges and grapes. If storing, do not add the bananas until right before serving. Chill well.
The size of the cans is not really important since it is up to you how much of each fruit you want. If pieces in the can are large, cut them down to bite size. Try to get fruit in juice (with the exception of the Royal Anne and maraschino cherries) whenever possible to cut down on the sweetness. Even using small cans this recipe makes a lot.
In our house we do not put the banana in since they turn mushy and shorten the life of the fruit salad. If you won’t be eating it all within a couple days, add the banana just before serving.
8th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - No Comments
is the title of the article in the April 1, 2010 edition of Family Circle magazine containing an assortment of gluten free recipes. There are cook-from-scratch and product options.
Each of the recipes below are available on the Family Circle website, but you will need to register to see them. Registration is free.
The recipes in the article include:
6th March, 2010 - Posted by Scott - 1 Comment
My wife recently won some passes to check out the various offerings by The Hershey Company in Hershey, PA. One of these included free admission to The Hershey Story and a chocolate tasting at Cafe Zooka. The chocolate tasting in this case consisted of a series of single origin drinking chocolates from around the world. They were made by melting chocolate and blending it with milk in a 1:3 ratio. Each serving is 1-1.5oz depending on who at the counter is pouring.
You get 6 different varieties, and a small glass of water, in the tasting. The chocolates, with percentage cocao, are from: Mexico (70.1%), Ecuador (66%), Sao Thome (70%), Madagascar (66%), Tanzania (75%), and Java (32.9%).
(My daughter couldn’t wait)
We began the tour in Java since it has the lowest cocao rating and worked our way up. With Madagascar and Ecuador tied we took the one nearest us, respectively, which left me with Madagascar. In between each sip we cleansed our palates with the provided water.
Initial impressions left us rating them, in descending order of preference, as follows:
Me: Java, Sao Thome, Tanzania, Mexico, Ecuador, Madagascar.
My Wife: Ecuador, Java, Sao Thome, Mexico, Tanzania, Madagascar.
After talking about it with one another we discovered why we rated them this way. Those at the top were the most familiar and reminded us the most of a regular dime store chocolate bar. The further you got away from that the more unique the characteristics were, which made them foreign to our tastes. As we sipped further and took our time, each individual variety opened up some of its secrets and by the end of the event we found that they had each grown on us and they were all of equal caliber. Our only complaint is that by the end they had begun to cool and the flavors started to close up as they did so. Ideally, these should be drank warm and fresh, each glass finished in 3 or 4 sips at most. Do not go slow to keep savoring each flavor but let it fill your mouth and overwhelm your senses. Revel in the experience, but share it with someone whose company you enjoy.
Would I go and enjoy these drinking chocolates again? Most certainly. At $9.95 it is an affordable and enjoyable little decadence, something that is getting harder and harder to find.
And it makes for a great date.
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Yes, that is yours truly standing among the heavily mulched strawberries with a shop vac. What isn’t obvious is why: the several pounds of gravel that was tossed into the bed by the snow plows. In past years we might find a few stones or a chunk of asphalt tossed into the front yard, but this year was much different.
