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Circle #46; see card pg 89
Circle #36; see card pg 89
Table of Contents
February/March 2020
MARKET FARMING 58 Build Your
Own Brooder
Nurture your nascent covey in this cozy hand-built box.
74 The Pitchfork Pulpit:
43
What to Expect When Your Goat Is Expecting
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
GETTY IMAGES/SWEETYMOMMY; ADOBE STOCK/TNTK; GETTY IMAGES/BRUCEBLOCK; GETTY IMAGES/NIKOLAY_DONETSK; GETTY IMAGES/LINDAPARTON; COVER: ADOBE STOCK/MAKSYM
Know the signs and stages of pregnancy, and learn how to see your does through a successful kidding.
5 News from Mother Hank’s thoughts on corn cultivars.
6 Dear Mother Reader letters about small homesteads, perspective, and more.
8 Green Gazette:
‘Fire Cider’ Ruled Generic
Updates on the fire cider trial, bison reestablishment, and more.
12 Firsthand Reports:
Energy-Efficient Heating
This couple’s geothermal system saves them money and energy.
14 A DIY Sauna Project Don’t sweat buying an expensive sauna when you can build a custom, cost-effective one from recycled materials.
30
16 Them That’s Doin’ Catch up with the editorial staff.
18 Bring Everyone to the Table Our mutual desire for healthy land and food can bring us together.
26 Foraging for Wild Foods Use this guide to identify, harvest, prepare, and preserve edible plants.
30 Homemade Corned Beef Update this St. Patrick’s Day staple with a few modern twists.
37 Respiratory Relief Cultivate herbal cures for the coughs that plague you in winter.
48 Heatless Habaneros These peppers pack habanero flavor without the painful punch.
37
What We Can Learn from Livestock
We can learn a lot about ourselves by observing and caring for animals.
52 Electric Fencing The pluses clearly outweigh the minuses of this fencing.
70 Homestead Hacks:
Apple Cider Syrup
Preserve your cider bounty with this old-fashioned recipe.
82 Country Lore Readers’ tips on discouraging unwanted pigeons and more.
87 Ask Our Experts Expert advice on sturdier seedlings, bicycle maintenance, and healthy dog interactions.
104 Photos from the Field Reader-submitted images. 50th Anniversary Article
48
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Clinton, Michigan
News from MOTHER ®
THE ORIGINAL GUIDE TO LIVING WISELY
Roots Reconnected
I
come from generations of corn growLate last September, Joanna was gleaners. Not corn in the modern coming the last of the potatoes when she dismercial sense, but corn in the smaller, covered four beautiful flint ears on four regionally adapted and cultural sense. For mature stalks in the overgrown patch. decades, I grew open-pollinated corns that As an act of catharsis, I had randomly my great-grandfather, grandfather, and scattered my weevil-infested seed corn father grew for study into the potato patch and for the developthe previous spring. ment of cultivars they The flint ears were all sold. My corn patches ‘Carl’s Glass Gems,’ also grew the ancestors from seed that was sent of those corns, gifted to me by a friend, who to my family through had procured it from the generosity of the Carl Barnes. I was indigenous people stupefied. Emotions I who developed them. had buried welled up I grew corn because it within. I knew then fed me, grounded me, that I would plant the and connected me to ‘Carl’s Glass Gems’ my ancestors. and the special New In 2015, I stopped Mexico ears this year. growing corn because I don’t expect to a person I loved died. grow corn the way I She died at home, once grew it. I also with me and her famno longer need “family at her side. Feeling ily” corn to feel condespair, I walked away nected to the people from my corn patches I love, past or present. that year and didn’t But I’m curious to see plant the following where these two corns four years. My corn will lead me. I’m eager seed stocks fell to ruin. to begin the journey. On my desk sits If gardening or a partial ear of corn growing family varietthat a friend sent in ies have kept you conAbove: Eagle-shaped details in 2015. It’s a special ear, nected to your roots, an ear of ‘Navajo Sacred’ corn one that I’m not sure I’d love to hear the that Hank grew from seed his I should even have in story of them. If other grandfather was gifted. my possession. This growing adventures ear’s history is steeped have had a profound in the indigenous cultures of northern effect on your life, I’d love to hear those New Mexico. It’s a white flour ear with stories too. Please send me an email at many kernels missing. It also has five lavHWill@MotherEarthNews.com if you ender kernels and a single mauve grain. have any wisdom you’d like to share. I feel compelled to handle the ear most See you in April, days, and when it’s in my hand, I feel a desire to plant its kernels. So I place it back into its Mother Earth News branded glass, where it lives.
ISSUE EDITORS Lead Editor Caitlin Wilson Assistant Lead Editor Jessica Mitchell EDITORIAL GROUP Editorial Director Oscar H. Will III Group Editor, Rural Lifestyles Rebecca Martin Group Editor, Wellness & Gardening Jean Denney Group Editor, Collectibles Landon Hall Senior Editor Traci Smith Managing Editor Carla Tilghman Senior Copy Editor Amanda Sorell Associate Editors Haley Casey • Allison Sarkesian • Arthur Hur Assistant Editors Jordan Moslowski • Ryan Crowell • Blair Gordon Editorial Assistant Ilene Reid CONVERGENT MEDIA Brenda Escalante; BEscalante@OgdenPubs.com ART DIRECTION AND PRE-PRESS Assistant Group Art Director Matthew T. Stallbaumer Pre-Press Kirsten Martinez WEB AND DIGITAL CONTENT Web Content Manager Tonya Olson DISPLAY ADVERTISING 800-678-5779; AdInfo@OgdenPubs.com CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING 866-848-5416; Classifieds@MotherEarthNews.com NEWSSTAND Melissa Geiken; 785-274-4344 CUSTOMER CARE 800-234-3368; CustomerService@OgdenPubs.com
Publisher Bill Uhler Editorial Director Oscar H. Will III Director of Circulation & Marketing Cherilyn Olmsted Director of Newsstand & Production Bob Cucciniello Director of Sales Bob Legault Group Art Director Carolyn Lang Director of Events & Business Development Andrew Perkins Director of Information Technology Tim Swietek Director of Finance & Accounting Ross Hammond Founders John and Jane Shuttleworth Mother Earth News (ISSN 0027-1535) February/March 2020, Issue No. 298 is published bimonthly by Ogden Publications, Inc., 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265. Periodicals Postage Paid at Topeka, KS and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ogden Publications, Inc., 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609-1265. For subscription inquiries call 800-234-3368. Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 785-274-4365; fax 785-274-4305. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within two years. © 2020 Ogden Publications Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.
Dear MOTHER
“I dream of a farm with livestock, but for now, I’m making the most of my land and abilities.” Readers’ 50th anniversary letters are marked with a gold star.
Homestead Hopes For years, I’ve read and admired the folks
50
miles from Washington, D.C., land was at a premium, so I couldn’t afford more land for
who’ve appeared in MOTHER EARTH NEWS, Grit, and Backwoods Home Magazine.
a true farm. The land did have a year-round stream that fed into a small pond.
I’ve longed to live on a farm and be selfsufficient. I’ve dreamed of having the
The first year on the property, I built raised beds with cinder blocks the previous
freedom to rise with the sun and go to
owner had left behind. Trying to grow
bed when it sets. In the late 1970s, my boyfriend and I bought a 700-square-foot
anything was frustrating! Lettuce and potatoes did well, but tomatoes were leggy,
cabin that sat on 7 acres. The property had a small spring-fed pond with a cistern. We
and melons were out of the question. Since I was still working a full-time job, it
Breaking Ground
both worked for the Navy back then, so we’d commute the 50-plus miles to work.
was difficult to get projects done around the house. One day, I knocked out a
Our family of five — which consists of my husband and me and our three daugh-
Life was good, and, eventually, I got to stay home with our children and work around
wall in my basement to make a separate bedroom for one of my daughters, and I
ters — was itching to live somewhere with
the property. We grew our own food, raised
found a chimney flue. To take advantage
more room to roam and space to breathe. Last September, all the details aligned perfectly, and we purchased a picturesque stone house on 8.6 acres of ideal homesteading land, situated directly beside the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. We have many future plans for our space, but our first priority was to break ground for a large garden. Our neighbors helped till the land, and my husband installed a fence. Inspired, we sowed seeds, planted seedlings, and prayed they’d grow. My girls helped with every step of the gardening process as best they could. We’re finally tasting the fruits of our labor and couldn’t be happier. We’re learning to compost as an ongoing science project, so we can enrich and nourish the soil. Our girls were also great helpers when we planted six blueberry bushes, four apple trees, and two peach trees. We can’t wait to eat this delicious fruit in a few years. It’s very important that our home-schooled daughters grow up knowing where food comes from and how much work goes into producing a harvest. Julie Swinger Stoystown, Pennsylvania
chickens and goats, and even had a horse. But times changed, and so did we. By 2005, I was a single parent renting houses from other people, but my dream of a life on the farm never left me. I longed for selfsufficiency once again. In 2015, I bought a single-family home on 2 acres of mountain land overgrown with trees and rocks. Since I was still about 60
of this discovery, I purchased a monstrous woodstove from a neighbor that reduced my gas bill tremendously. MOTHER EARTH NEWS and Grit still had a place on my nightstand, and reading them helped keep my farm dream alive. By the second year, I’d had several trees taken down to give me a few more hours of daylight to work around the prop-
RS’ EDITO K PIC
Gretchen has made the most of her property by keeping bees and chickens, and chopping wood. 6 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
erty. I planted several fruit trees, some roses, flowers, and berries. I bought a chicken coop half-price from the local Tractor Supply store and stocked it full of chickens. My son planted ginseng on the mountainside, started mushrooms on logs, and planted sunchokes with my roses. I still kept up with MOTHER and would envy people who had an actual farm. I could only dream of getting up at the crack of dawn to milk goats, make bread, can, and
A Self-Taught Striver 50
manage other tasks of self-sufficiency. When the third year came around, I quit
I was a single mother renting a small farmstead with no experience gardening or raising animals. While I didn’t have experience, I did have a desire to feed myself and my
wishing and realized I’d obtained a lot of what I’d been striving for. I’d already made
two sons. With MOTHER EARTH NEWS and a Ball canning book, I learned how to be selfsufficient. Through trial and error, I learned how to garden and raise chickens, pigs, and
jam from berries on the property, I’d eaten
bees. I learned how to bake bread and then sell it at the farmers market, along with jelly
meals from my garden, and I’d installed a rainwater-harvesting system to water the
from wild plums I’d foraged. The boys learned a lot growing up this way, and they really appreciate all the canned goods. A little hard work produces an abundance of food.
garden and animals. My fruit trees were still growing, and my chickens were laying
Susan C. McDermott Waterloo, Wisconsin
eggs. My neighbor introduced me to bees, so I dove in and hoped for some honey. I began freezing and drying squash, kale, and herbs for use later on in the year.
dreamed of, but I’m more self-sufficient
you, MOTHER EARTH NEWS, for all the great
When it was hot, I took my kayak and
than I was when I first moved onto the
advice and inspiration.
headed for the pond. I’ve just retired from my job, so now I can rise with the sun — or whenever I want! I may not have the farm I’ve
property. I still read all the good homesteading magazines and dream of a farm with livestock, but for now, I’m making the most of my land and abilities. Thank
Gretchen Whittman Front Royal, Virginia (CONTINUED ON PAGE 92)
Change in Perspective Readers, we received a number of responses to Editorial Director Hank Will’s “Finding a Fresh Perspective” editorial (October/November 2019). Here are our favorite letters from you.— MOTHER
Patient Persuasion I enjoyed Hank’s editorial on discovering a different perspective. Five years ago, I bought some land, and someone bought the land beside me soon after. We started working it the same summer. He wanted to reduce the weeds to make a hunting area for quail and deer, while I wanted to use my land for
general wildlife habitat and firewood production. The weeds were head-high and thick on both pastures. After talking to a forester, my neighbor started using Roundup to remove the unwanted weeds from his side. (Luckily, I’m upstream from his land.) The forester wanted me to kill everything with Roundup and start over. I chose to mow it instead. The only weeds I have now are some hemlock and pokeberry growing where I can’t maneuver the brush hog. The rest is all grass so thick it’ll bog down the mower if it starts to get ahead of me. My neighbor still has headhigh weeds with dead spots
where he sprayed. Both our properties were identical when we started. I’ve noticed he’s starting to do some more mowing on his side. Another benefit is that the deer are staying on his side to graze instead of venturing over to my orchard. Rob Beiber Bentonville, Arkansas
The Problem Is the Solution One of my memorable “positive change in perspective” moments concerns a wonderful apricot tree that maddeningly sent up suckers all over my yard. For years, I hacked them down, only to find that each
one I removed caused several more to sprout with even greater vigor. After years of this, I became interested in fruit tree grafting, and sometime after that, the light went on. These suckers were perfect rootstocks for new apricots, plums, pluots, apriums, and almonds, so why not make use of them instead of fighting them? After experimenting for several years, I found my change in perspective had worked out extraordinarily well, and I now have 15 new types of fruit trees on first-rate rootstock, free of charge. Richard Schmidt San Luis Obispo, California
WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
7
Green Gazette by Amanda Sorell
Fire cider is a tonic that’s been used by herbalists for decades, whether to give a kick to prepared dishes or to impart an immunity boost when taken plain. And it’s anything but plain, with a base of apple cider vinegar that’s usually infused with garlic, onion, ginger, horseradish, and hot pepper — and herbs added to the herbalist’s taste. As the recipe, first dubbed “fire cider” by Rosemary Gladstar in the early 1970s, spread, herbalists prepared their own proprietary versions and took them to market. For example, herbalist Nicole Telkes, director of the Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine, blended “Texas Fire Cider,” which she regularly sold at her local co-op in Austin, Texas. Then, in 2012, a company named Shire City Herbals trademarked “fire cider,” and herbal businesses started to receive notices asking them to stop selling products by that name. Telkes reached out to resolve the issue, but Shire City maintained the trademark. Ultimately, Telkes, as well as Mary Blue of Farmacy Herbs and Katheryn Langelier of Herbal Revolution, who came to be known as the “Fire Cider Three,” began a campaign to render the fire cider name generic. They believed trademarking a traditional herbal product could set a dangerous precedent. “We saw this as a canary in the coal mine for what’s to come of herbal remedies and our culture as herbalists,” Telkes says. Shire City then sued the Fire Cider Three in April 2014.
The presiding judge ordered pro bono representation for the Fire Cider Three, who prepared for trial over the course of four years. They received organizing support from Gladstar, and the herbalism community rallied around them. Thousands of people signed the “Free Fire Cider” petition, and small donations fueled the movement. “We raised all the money on donations of $5, $10, $20, up to $1,000, and a few herb companies helped out,” Telkes says. “But it was generally the average people who were dedicated to seeing this through who helped support it, whether they were calling companies or educating students or giving money. It was really a grassroots effort.” The case went to court in early 2019, and the trial lasted nine days over five months. The Fire Cider Three testified about their experiences with fire cider, and why they took issue with companies controlling common phrases. After three months of post-trial deliberation, the judge declared “fire cider” a generic term on Sept. 30, 2019. With the court case off their shoulders, according to Telkes, the Fire Cider Three were left with solid friendships and a reinforced respect for shared traditions. “I don’t believe that we have to be competing all the time to be successful, and that’s what I want to keep promoting; I truly believe there are business models where we can all be successful and support each other and not have to worry about who’s trademarking what,” Telkes says. “It’s about building trust and believing in our community.” Learn more about the court case and fire cider’s history at www.FreeFireCider.com.
Rosemary’s Fire Cider Directions: Place herbs in half-gallon jar and add enough vinegar to cover by 3 to 4 inches. Seal jar with tight-fitting lid. Place jar in a warm spot and let sit for 3 to 4 weeks. Shake daily to help the maceration process. After 3 to 4 weeks, strain out herbs, reserving liquid. Heat honey and add to vinegar, to taste. Fire Cider should be hot, spicy, and sweet. Bottle and label. Fire Cider will keep for several months unrefrigerated if stored in a cool pantry, but it’s best to store in the refrigerator. A small shot glass daily serves as an excellent tonic, or you can take Fire Cider by teaspoons throughout the day if you feel a cold coming on. Recipe is from Fire Cider! (Storey Publishing) by Rosemary Gladstar. For a chance to win Gladstar’s book and other fermentation items, see our giveaway on Page 86.
8 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Ingredients • 1⁄2 cup grated fresh horseradish root • 1⁄2 cup or more chopped onions 1 • ⁄4 cup or more chopped garlic 1 • ⁄4 cup or more grated ginger • Cayenne pepper, fresh (chopped) or dried (flaked or ground), to taste • Apple cider vinegar, preferably raw and organic • Honey, to taste
FLICKR/THEDABBLIST
‘Fire Cider’ Ruled Generic
Green Gazette
FROM
TOP:
UNIVERSITY
OF
NORTH CAROLINA, ASHEVILLE DINING SERVICES; PUBLIC DOMAIN; PAGE 10,
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT:
LUKE FREEMAN; ADOBE STOCK/SUSANNE FRITZSCHE; GETTY IMAGES/PHOTOVS; ADOBE STOCK/KERIM
University’s Fair Trade Status Raises Sustainability Standards The University of North Carolina, Asheville (UNCA), was named a Fair Trade University in 2017. The Fair Trade certification wasn’t the school’s first or last step toward sustainability. Rather, according to Meghan Ibach, Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services’ Sustainability and Marketing Manager, the designation reinforced the university’s existing efforts, and opened up conversation about further opportunities. “It’s nice, because it’s a nonbinding commitment,” Ibach says. “It’s more of an incentive to continually grow and do better than you were before.” To achieve Fair Trade Certification, a group of UNCA students, faculty, and staff formed a committee to host educational events and increase the number of Fair Trade products in each of the university’s food venues. The committee’s success was a stepping stone for the development of UNCA’s own sustainability brand, FEEDS (Farm-
Forward Eating and Environmentally-Driven Sustainability), a platform that encompasses all of its sustainability efforts, such as educational programs; local, sustainable, and humane food sourcing; waste reduction; and food donations. UNCA networks with other universities that are making similar strides in sustainability, and some colleges have adopted UNCA’s FEEDS brand for their own campuses. Ibach says schools should continue to collaborate, not compete, on sustainability missions. “We must make a difference, and we have an opportunity to make a difference because of the scale in which we’re serving people and working with food,” Ibach says. “It’s never going to be perfect; you’re never going to be able to purchase 100 percent high-value things and experiences. Recognize where there’s more opportunity, and just keep trying.” To learn more, go to www.DineOnCampus.com/UNCA.
Bison Return to the Badlands For the first time since 1877, bison are free to roam a formerly private parcel of Badlands National Park. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) acquired 22,553 acres in a land swap, and, in partnership with other nonprofit organizations, it raised almost $750,000 to expand the Park’s bison habitat.
Bison were once a mainstay of the Great Plains. Up to 60 million of them grazed the Plains landscape and had an essential role in Plains ecosystems. According to the WWF, their grazing patterns and the soil depressions they created, known as “wallows,” enabled water conservation, formed breeding and nesting grounds for other animals, and established a specialized habitat for a number of native medicinal plants. But as European colonists spread westward, bison populations were devastated, their numbers dwindling down to 512 individuals in just a few decades. Now, though they’re still considered “near threatened,” 20,504 bison live on the Northern Great Plains, about 1,200 of which reside in Badlands National Park. WWF is aiming to increase that number, with a goal of expanding to five herds of 1,000 bison each, and is forming partnerships with national parks, Native American reservations, and ranchers to locate and restore prairie landscapes that can host these herds, and to return bison to their ancestral homelands. Learn more, and see a video of the bison being released, at www.WorldWildlife.org/ The presence of bison affects grasslands’ ecology, from microbes to predators. species/plains-bison. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
9
Green Gazette
Incubator Farm, Community Hub The Woolsey Farm property is a historic 5-acre site owned by the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, which, in 2018, approached the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) Southeast Regional Office and other local nonprofits to develop the Woolsey Incubator Farm Project. The project got off the ground with funds from an EPA Environmental Education Award. The project provides growing space and training for farmers who can’t yet purchase or lease land, and plans to host each “incubator farmer” for 3 to 5 years. The incubator farmers also establish the backdrop for onfarm education as they develop their businesses. Since spring 2019, a nearby location, Cobblestone Farms, has hosted three incubator farmers, Jenni, Hamayoon, and Watata, on quarter-acre plots, and has provided space for workshops while the Woolsey Farm is developed. Those initial incubator farmers have received technical assistance, support, and recommendations, and can sell their wares at a local church market. During their first year of production, Jenni set up a successful community-supported agriculture (CSA) program; Hamayoon grew vegetables to sell as well as donate to refugee families in need; and Watata used his entire plot to grow tomatoes, some of which he sold to a local ketchup company. Hamayoon and Watata came to Fayetteville through a refugee resettlement organization, and all three farmers had farming experience, but no land of their own. NCAT Horticulture Specialist Luke Freeman says that’s why the incubator idea is so valuable. “For both Hamayoon and Watata and for their families, access to land has been incredibly important for their acclimation and psychological well-being,” Freeman says. “And for Jenni, this ... is letting her develop her business skills and production skills. It’s amazing to see how the only thing holding her back was that access to land.” Follow the project @NCATSoutheast on Facebook.
The biggest obstacle for young farmers is land access. 10 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Fossil Record Reveals Plastic Pollution The modern geological era has colloquially been dubbed “The Anthropocene,” with the prefix anthroreferring to humans and their powerful impact on climate and ecosystems. And, according to a study published by Science Advances in September 2019, the Anthropocene’s geological proxy is the appearance of plastic particles in the fossil record. The researchers behind the paper studied a sample of coastal sediments in California spanning from 1834 to 2009, and found an exponential increase in plastic accumulation from 1945 to 2009, with the amount doubling every 15 years. This escalation correlates with a rise in both global plastic production and California’s coastal population. According to the researchers, the consequences of plastic-laden sediments on ocean-floor organisms and food chains are unknown. They call for further assessment of long-term plastic accumulation in overall ecosystems. To read the study, go to www.Advances.ScienceMag.org and search for “Multidecadal increase in plastic particles in coastal ocean sediments.”
Cutting Upfront Emissions Buildings are responsible for 39 percent of energyrelated carbon emissions, according to the World Green Building Council (WGBC), and a structure’s emissions begin with materials. In its new report “Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront,” the WGBC has called for curtailing “upfront carbon,” or the carbon that’s released during the extraction and transportation of building materials. The Council urges a focus on upfront carbon, because these emissions will be responsible for half the carbon footprint of new construction between now and 2050. Addressing a structure’s often-overlooked “embodied carbon,” or the carbon used over its entire life cycle, will be essential to decarbonizing buildings entirely. The Council’s report contains coordinated actions that can be taken by stakeholders, civil society, cities, and businesses to address embodied carbon. Its vision includes a 40 percent reduction of embodied carbon in new structures by 2030; and entirely net-zero buildings, in both upfront carbon and operational carbon, by 2050. To learn more, go to www.WorldGBC.org/Embodied-Carbon.
Document Details Organic Transition Shifting to organic production can boost a farm’s financial gains and sustainability, but the upfront investments can be tough to estimate. So, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has released a publication that outlines transitioning to organic production and the financial requirements of doing so. Paul Dietmann, who prepared the publication, has led workshops and webinars on farm financial management and organic agriculture for years. Dietmann says this financial handbook is an extension of his teachings on grain production. The guide emphasizes that making such a switch calls for considerable planning, so it includes information on how to calculate long-term costs, develop a feasibility plan, generate a projected budget, and more. Plus, its introduction indicates that a farmer’s production philosophy must adjust along with their practices if they’re to successfully alter their farm — and that farmers who are committed and well-prepared will better withstand the trials that arise during the transition period. To find the guide, search “Turning Grain into Dough” on www.CIAS.Wisc.edu.
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Firsthand Reports
Energy-Efficient Heating To keep their dream home cozy, this couple chose a geothermal system that saves them money and energy. Story and photos by Allison Ehrman
D
uring summer 2018, my husband and I began searching for a country home, and we found our dream house. It sat on a 2-acre lot with lots of open space, and was surrounded by trees on all sides. It was love at first sight. Then came the home inspection. Everything went smoothly until the end, when the inspector discovered a fuel oil tank buried in the front yard. A pre-sale inspection revealed that the tank was leaking, so the sellers had it removed and properly disposed of the contaminated soil. So, at the time of closing in June, we didn’t have heat. At this point, we decided our best option was a conventional electric heat pump. Our dream was a geothermal system, but we thought it would be too cost-prohibitive. I’m happy to say we were wrong.
How Geothermal Works
A geothermal heat pump regulates a home’s climate by using the ground’s natural temperature. 12 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
A geothermal heat pump uses the same general process of heat transfer that a traditional air-source heat pump does, only it’s more energy-efficient, because the temperature of the earth is consistently warmer than the air during winter, and cooler than the air during summer. When it’s cold outside, a geothermal pump draws heat from the ground, concentrates it, and delivers it into the home. In summer, the opposite happens, as warmth is pulled from the house and sunk into the cooler ground. This is accomplished by running water through a series of “ground loops,” which are basically
heavy-duty coiled tubing. About 70 percent of the energy required by a geothermal system comes from the earth, which in turn draws its warmth from the sun. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, geothermal heat pumps can reduce energy consumption up to 44 percent compared with air-source heat pumps. Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, our local electricity and gas utility, estimates that many homeowners will see a return on energy cost savings in as little as two years of investing in a geothermal system.
Closed-Loop vs. Open-Loop Ground loops can be “closed” or “open.” In a closed-loop system, they’re filled with a mixture of water and antifreeze, which never leaves the piping as it circulates through the ground and home. If a property has a well or body of water, an openloop system can be installed, depending on local regulations. This type of setup uses plain water, exchanging the warmed or cooled water directly back into the well or pond as it runs. These loops can be installed vertically or horizontally. Vertical loops require less disruption to a yard, but are more expensive because of the cost of digging to a greater depth. Horizontal loops can be placed just 5 feet below the surface, but require tearing up a good deal of the lawn, depending on the square footage of the house and the heating capacity of the water furnace. We opted for closed horizontal loops. Different companies offer different options with installation, including hot water heating, smart thermostats, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers. We opted for hot water heating, because it’ll provide an additional cost and energy savings over time.
Top: The Ehrmans’ smart thermostat allows them to monitor and control the system. Bottom: Surplus heat from the geothermal system is rerouted to the hot water heater.
state of Maryland, our county, and our local energy utility company, our final total will be closer to $11,200. We also won’t have to pay anything upfront because we’ve taken out a one-year, interest-free geothermal installation loan from a reputable company. In the end, the geothermal installation and equipment will only cost us about $1,200 more than installing a top-of-the-line air-source heat pump and furnace. If we’d foregone the water heating option, it would’ve been about the same cost. And because we’ll be using less energy, we’ll end up saving more over the years.
Geothermal Incentives
Installation
Installation and equipment costs vary by location. The total setup for our 1,900-square-foot home, including the hot water option, will cost $24,000. But we’re not paying anywhere near that amount. With incentives and rebates we’ll receive from the federal government, the
Day 1. The crew arrived with an excavator and a compact track loader. The day’s work consisted of digging horizontal trenches for the ground loops, laying the loops, replacing the removed soil, and running the loops into the back of the house. In total, our water furnace required
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four 150-foot horizontal trenches, each 5 feet deep. By the end of the day, all the loops were in place, along with the header, and they’d been filled with pressurized air and left for the weekend to make sure there were no leaks. Day 2. The crew began by confirming that the ground loops had maintained pressure. Then, they removed our existing systems and made alterations to the ductwork to accommodate the new unit. Day 3. The third day was spent installing the new water furnace, connecting it to the header for the ground loops, and beginning electrical updates. Our setup is all controlled through a thermostat that provides us with information on temperature, humidity, furnace and fan settings, and real-time cost and energy savings calculated by entering local electricity costs. Day 4. The big day! The crew filled the loops with water and ethanol and finished the electrical and duct connection. Day 5. The crew’s final task consisted of running heated water from the water furnace to our existing hot water heater. This was optional with our installation, and it serves to supplement the hot water heater when the geothermal system produces surplus heat. A week after the work was complete, the county sent an inspector to take a look at the installation. The company also sent an expert to train us on using the new system, which is a critical step for getting the most in energy and cost savings from the setup. All in all, I highly recommend geothermal heat pumps, especially if you find yourself in the market for a new system. Current incentives make the price comparable to traditional systems, and the cost and energy savings can’t be beat. Allison Ehrman lives in a Northern Maryland country home, where she and her husband grow and preserve herbs and vegetables, prepare dishes from locally sourced foods, and craft natural body care products.
If you or people you know are living an impressive homesteading life, send the story and a few related photos to Letters@MotherEarthNews.com with the subject line “Firsthand Reports.” WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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A DIY Sauna Project on the Cheap Don’t sweat over buying an expensive sauna when you can build a custom, cost-effective one from recycled materials. By Steve Armstrong Lyons
and I was between jobs myself. We didn’t have that kind of money, although we dearly wanted our own sauna. Readers, to mark our 50th anniversary as a magazine, we’re reThanks to a little resourcefulness, a bit of luck, and some printing some of the more colorful stories from our archive. This was help from our friends, Tom and I built an efficient, cozy, woodoriginally published in the March/April 1978 issue. — MOTHER burning Finnish sauna to hold four people. And it didn’t cost us $450. In fact, it didn’t even cost us $50. he advertisement showed a towel-clad model reclining on Fate was with us when we began our search for free building a redwood bench in a handsome paneled room. Healthy materials, because right off the bat, we stumbled onto a couple beads of perspiration trickled down her brow as she of outhouses in an abandoned migrant workers camp. Each was ladled water from a wooden bucket onto the stones in the heater. rough-sawn pine, 4 feet square by 7 feet tall, and in excellent The caption read, “Build this beautiful, healthful Finnish sauna. shape. We tactfully approached the farmer who owned the privies, Kits as low as $449.” [That’s nearly $1,800 in 2020 dollars.] and he let us have them for a chuckle. I said to myself, “Sure would be nice to have a sauna like that, Back at our cottage, we came up with a brilliant idea: Rather but $450? No way!” My pal Tom was unemployed at the time, than dismantle the privies for their wood, why not hook the two units together to form one larger structure for our sauna? We laid out a foundation of six cinder blocks. Then, after removing the seats, face, and roof of each outhouse, we positioned the two buildings on the blocks so they faced each other. At this point, our friend and ace carpenter Chris Knowles arrived on the scene to help Tom and I mate the outhouses to each other with 31⁄2-inch through-bolts. Tom made a new door for the sauna from one of the old outhouse doors and hung it using the original hardware. Re-roofing the structure was then simply a matter of nailing the old roof boards back on and trimming off any overhang. Next, we worked on the sauna’s interior. First, we added 2x4 bench braces to the walls. Then, after rounding the boards’ edges and sanding their surfaces smooth, I nailed the bench boards in place, spacing them 3⁄4 inch apart for good ventilation. I countersunk all the metal hardware inside our hot house to prevent anyone from sitting on 170-degree-Fahrenheit nailheads later. We placed a three-sided metal tray, which This DIY sauna accommodated four people, providing plenty of heat in the cool Michigan weather. we’d found inside an old sugar shack, on the 14 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
STEVE ARMSTRONG LYONS
T
MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
floor in one corner of the sauna, and then lined the inside rim of the tray with two layers of brick. Then, we placed our stove, which had a grill in its bottom, on top of the bricks, so the ashes would fall directly into the tray below as the fire burned. A stove is usually the most expensive part of any sauna, but Tom and I put our heating unit together for the price of two metal hinges. Tom cut the rest of the stove’s pieces out of some 1⁄16-inch scrap steel, and had an apprentice welder weld the pieces together. Trips to local junkyards turned up no usable stovepipe, so we ended up spending $2.35 at the hardware store. We ran the 4-inch-diameter pipe from the stove to a 5-inch-wide hole in the sauna’s roof. I strongly recommend that you use a stovepipe thimble, although we improvised a collar from some galvanized sheet metal. After installing the stovepipe, we nailed 2x4 guardrails in front of the woodburner. Next, we set about looking for some stones to put atop the heater. The best sauna stones are those that’ve been worn smooth by Mother Nature, since smooth rocks are less prone to cracking. Rounded stones from the bottom of a stream or lake are ideal. Chris was able to gather a rucksack full of suitable stones from the beach in a half-hour. Be sure to let such stones dry completely before you heat them. Even the smallest amount of moisture trapped inside the rocks can make them shatter — perhaps violently — when they’re first used in a sauna.
The first time we fired up the stove, we were pleasantly surprised at its efficiency. The draw was terrific, and the fire was roaring in no time at all. As the rocks on top of the stove heated up, Chris fashioned a ladle from an old mushroom can and a birch branch. We took it into the sauna along with a bucket of water, and then — after we’d stripped down and gotten used to the heat — Tom splashed a little water on the sizzling rocks, whereupon we instantly experienced a super blast of hot air. Twenty minutes later, after several more heat blasts, three steaming bodies ran outside to leap into cool Lake Michigan. Quite a rush. I’ve bathed in commercial saunas, and I can tell you honestly, for sheer atmosphere and charm, they just can’t compare to our little homebuilt sauna. All told, Tom and I figure we spent $19.54 [$76.95 in today’s dollars] on the project: $2.35 for the stovepipe, $4.26 for miscellaneous hardware, and an outrageous $12.93 to rent the trailer we used to haul the privies from the camp to our cottage. Everything else was scrounged. My brothers and father made some later additions to the sauna: They put a vacuum cap on the stovepipe, shingled the roof, caulked the building’s seams, and gave the exterior a coat of wood preservative, all for an additional $30 [$120 today]. So, if you crave a sauna, don’t let a high price tag put a damper on a hot idea! You can have that authentic, wood-fired Finnish sauna by scrounging a little. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Them That’s Doin’ Welcome to Them That’s Doin’, a department featuring homesteaders discussing what they’ve been up to. We want to know what’s caught your eye, and how you’ve been spending your time. Have you been gifted a good book or discovered an inventive gardening technique? Played an entertaining game or fermented a new brew? Tell us at Letters@MotherEarthNews.com. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been doin’.
Bobcat’s Product Launch I attended Doosan Bobcat’s unveiling of its new training center and extended product line in Aurora, Colorado, a few weeks ago. During the day, Bobcat displayed its new R-Series compact loaders, which have been redesigned to be more durable and easier to maintain. As part of its new direction, Bobcat announced that it’s developing its first line of compact tractors. Bobcat also showed off its new small articulated loader, or SAL, which is designed for landscaping, tree care, and snow removal. On top of these new and redesigned products, Bobcat also gave a presentation on its new MaxControl remote operation. This technology allows users to remotely operate a compact loader (skid-steer) through an app on a smartphone or tablet. After all these presentations, Bobcat allowed the attendees to operate the new machinery and technology. I was able to operate the new E145 excavator; the SAL; and the E42 R-Series compact excavator. After trying the machines, the innovation team demonstrated the MaxControl technology and gave us the opportunity to try it out. I was amazed by how quickly I felt comfortable operating the compact excavator by pushing buttons on a smartphone. After getting the controls down, I was able to remove a metal pail from one metal pole and place it on another without a hitch. (I guess all those video games weren’t totally useless.) — Ryan Crowell, editor
Giving Lambs a Helping Hand
Tell us what you’ve been up to at Letters@ MotherEarthNews.com, and include “Them That’s Doin’ ” in the subject line. You may end up in the magazine!
16 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
TOP:
What Have You Been Doin’?
To take my nature journaling to the next level, I hiked Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve with the beautiful Nature Anatomy Notebook. In it, I can jot down notes, sketch out my observations, and organize my journaling by season, and it’s designed with a thoughtful, artistic touch. I’m excited to observe more and look back on these observations throughout the year! — Jessica Mitchell, editor
FROM
Observational Journal
RYAN CROWELL; HANK WILL; WORKMAN PUBLISHING
We’re in the middle of lambing season at home. The process is fairly simple — check, feed, and water the ewes regularly, and look for new babies. Most problems occur with first-time mothers and when the weather is really cold or really wet, and then some lambs inevitably come inside for warmth, a shot of colostrum, and milk replacer. Not all lambs that need help on their first days wind up being bottle lambs, however. Often, their moms will recognize them and raise them as normal. — Hank Will, Editorial Director
2020
Key Code:
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Bringing Everyone to the Table When ideologies don’t align, our mutual desire for healthy land and good food can bring us together.
Grassroots efforts are restoring waterways in the desert southwest. Here, a check dam on A.T. and Lucinda Cole’s New Mexico ranch has captured sediment and encouraged vegetation along a river channel.
W
By Gary Paul Nabhan
e’re experiencing unbridled divisiveness in North America today. Yes, we’ve always had cultural differences, and those differences have inevitably led to social and political countercurrents as well as periodic conflicts. But that doesn’t mean we’re fated to live on a battleground where stalemates keep our best intentions from being realized. Of particular concern to me is the palpable anger on either side of what James Gimpel has called “a gaping canyon-sized urbanrural chasm.” This urban-rural divide has reshaped both state and national elections into “us vs. them” battles to determine who controls access to natural resources and social services. Americans appear to be at war with one another rather than at work with one another. Individuals of all classes, races, and ethnicities have felt increasingly disempowered by the prevalence of top-down decision-making about lands, wildlife, and plants they’ve known and loved. In many cases, they’ve become disenfranchised from policymaking processes that ignore their local knowledge, dismiss
their cultural or faith-based values, and disregard impacts on their livelihoods. Whenever I’ve visited rural communities over the past decade, I’ve overheard seething frustration that environmental decision-making was increasingly being done by some confederation of self-appointed experts who hardly seemed to care whether their communities were engaged. I could feel a perplexing disconnect between people’s love for their home ground and their disillusionment at having no ability to shape what would happen to it. And yet, failure, despair, and a sense of being disenfranchised don’t provide the entire picture. Americans’ level of concern about the environment and its relation to our food security are approaching an all-time high. Most Americans still want to see conservation and restoration advance, but through a completely different paradigm, one rooted in true community engagement. Americans aren’t divided about whether the environment deserves restoration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture operates a waterway restoration project in Arizona. This is its Site 10 check dam in 2009, looking upstream.
What divides us is who gets to decide how this work is done, who does it, and how much it should cost. There’s a hurdle that keeps many of us from fully participating in this paradigm shift: We’re hanging onto extreme judgmental views of others whose ideas — and voting records — don’t exactly match up with our own. We must be willing to take a step toward the fertile middle ground, what Arizona rancher Bill McDonald began to refer to in the mid-1990s as the “radical center.” A stance in the radical center isn’t some wishy-washy compromise by those who are unable to choose a side on which to stand. It’s not ambivalent; its strength is that it’s multivalent. This is a disciplined position of listening intently and taking into account voices other than your own. One of the best ways to heal the divisions that’ve been plaguing us is to work hand in hand to heal the land. As with most things, action to restore our continent’s food-producing capacity speaks louder than words. So let’s see what collaborative conservation looks like on the ground.
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Valer Clark co-founded the Cuenca de los Ojos Foundation, building collaborations that’ve restored more than 100,000 acres of land along the United States-Mexico border. She knew of conservationist and philosopher Aldo Leopold’s descriptions of ancient trincheras, or check dams, structures built along mountain ridges in Mexico to slow floodwaters, capturing moisture and soil in land that would otherwise erode. Trincheras return water to the landscape rather than diverting it. In the 1940s, Leopold and his family watched deer browsing on the grassy benches held in place by check dams built centuries before on the Rio Gavilan, not far from Valer’s own ranches near the Sonora-Chihuahua border. Above, a view of the same Site 10 check dam in 2012. Valer was also aware of the exceptional stonemasonry tradition in Guanajuato, Mexico, where cantero artisans (stonecutters) have built roadways, walls, and homes out of hand-cut caliche stone for decades. And so, in the 1990s, Valer began to recruit worldclass stonemasons from Guanajuato to build check dams in the West Turkey Creek watershed near the Arizona-New Mexico border. I’d stayed at El Coronado Ranch for two days in the 1980s before Valer purchased it, when the land was virtually grassless because of years of neglect and overuse. Not long afterward, Valer and her partner at the time took over its management. Their vision for the ranch had an ecological precision, right down to the kinds of grasses, trees, and wildlife they wished to restore, including the then-endangered Gould’s wild turkey. On a hot summer evening in 2017, By 2017, the Site 10 streambed has filled with soil and been covered by healthy vegetation. Juan Olmedo, a Mexican agave farmer,
19: A.T. COLE
Returning Water to the Landscape
and I visited Valer on El Coronado Ranch. She led us down a trail to where some of the oldest dams still stood. We veered off the beaten path toward a canyon mouth. A side drainage ran down through oaks and pines from a ridge high above us. Valer headed down into the bottom of the watercourse and stood before a 30-yard-long rock structure called a “gabion,” a special form of dry-stonemasonry check dam. She disappeared around a curve, and then reappeared beneath another giant stone check dam. Little more than 5 feet tall, Valer and her floppy hat barely rose above the top of the stone structure, built from hay-bale-sized boulders, some of them easily 10 times her weight. Valer pointed to soil that rose 5 feet high at the base of the wall. It stretched out for another 50 feet before her. She explained that The USDA’s check dam at Site 10 in 2009, looking downstream. when her team began to restore the gully, the land was little more than rocks and barren ground. But 20 years later, the soil had built up, along with moisture and grass. “You know, when you want to make a difference, sometimes you have to begin with something big, something bold,” Valer said. She told us that the Guanajuato stonemasons built dozens of check dams all the way up each of the side drainages, running to the top of the ridge. “Dozens?” I asked, in awe of the work it took to make just the one gabion immediately before me. “The canteros constructed two or three dozen of these dams per drainage?” “More,” she said emphatically. “Maybe 8 to 10 dozen in each of the drainages.” The structures didn’t initially work as planned. A fire had left much of the ridge barren. Every time a big rain came in summer or fall, water and soil were flushed down the drainage, blowing out check dam after check dam. I asked Valer how she’d kept her faith up. Her answer was simple: “Well, we just kept on repairing them, fortifying them.” By 2012, silt and sand have dramatically filled the deep streambed. A few kept blowing out, but more and more of them held. Then, in one big rain, char, blackened bark, and mud slowly filled in behind the check dams and stayed in place. It was like a big slicker slowly sinking in and locking things in place. The dirt started to build up and stay behind each dam, raising the level of soil by several feet each year. Pretty soon, the waters spread out across the entire canyon bottom. Gradually, a quarter-mile-long marsh developed where there used to be barren rock. Juan and I walked around as we listened to Valer, nudging our boot heels into the dirt, looking at its color and texture. Charcoal and microbe-rich soil weren’t the only things the floods brought in. She pointed to water-loving sedges and a half-dozen kinds of grasses. A few hundred sycamore tree seedlings stood before us. Valer and her team didn’t plant them; the slowed-down floodwaters brought sycamore seeds, A downstream view in 2017; the project is led by Dr. Mary Nichols at the Santa Rita Experimental Range. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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24: EROSION CONTROL RESEARCH PROGRAM USDA-ARS SOUTHWEST WATERSHED RESEARCH CENTER (4)
Looking upstream at Site 16 in 2009 shows a landscape scoured by rushing water; in 2017, thick vegetation slows flow and retains soil moisture.
which stayed and germinated. “Oh, and now frogs and toads arrive after big rains. I just saw a heron catch one,” she said. Juan asked how many of these structures the Guanajuato stonemasons had built on the entire ranch. Valer said, “We stopped counting at 20,000.” Valer may have stopped counting, but she hasn’t stopped investing in restoring rich soil and fresh water. As she spoke, I realized that she regarded these resources as every person’s birthright, and the care of the land our collective responsibility. Juan and I later learned that Valer was being rather modest in her estimate of how many check dams she’s supported. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey inventoried more than 40,000 check dams put in place by the Guanajuato canteros. The scientists also found that the dams captured 630 tons of moistureholding soil in just three years. One creek with a check dam had its flows during the rainy season reduced by half, so they were steadier, less flashy, and less capable of doing erosive damage. The restored creek was able to sustain at least 28 percent greater flow volume than a comparable unrestored creek bed. These stabilized flows ended up replenishing groundwater below the check dams. Downstream, mile-long stretches are running year-round where they were once seasonally dry. The check dams sooner or later brought back water striders, turtles, toads, frogs, fish, dippers, quail, coatimundis, and even large predatory cats. In fact, the quail on El Coronado help pay for the Cuenca de los Ojos restoration work. Seasoned game bird hunters pay thousands of dollars for a week in the restored watershed, hunting three different species: Mearns, Gambel’s, and scaled quail. Today, the descendants of the first stonemasons continue to build and repair check dams on lands managed by Valer. It’s become one of the most remarkable multigenerational, transborder collaborations ever accomplished in the Mexico-U.S. borderlands.
I’ve seldom heard a discouraging word from Valer’s neighbors about the work accomplished by the Guanajuato canteros over the past few decades. If nearby ranchers have any reservation, it’s that they don’t always have the money to similarly restore their own land’s natural capital. Now that she’s put livestock back on some of her restored lands, local ranchers have even more empathy for her efforts. Her healed land is yielding food again.
Built with Boulders and Cobbles While Valer has invested serious capital in restoration, enormous sums of money aren’t necessarily required to thoroughly change a landscape. Ranchers and range managers of lesser means are doing similar work, albeit on a different scale. My favorite low-capital, high-impact builder of water wealth and soil fertility is Joe Quiroga. He’s been foreman on the Diamond C Ranch for most of the time I’ve known him. Around the time Joe turned 60, he began an endeavor that’s done more for land conservation than most of us will ever achieve. Having been temporarily relieved of managing the ranch’s cattle, he began to devote 100 percent of his time to managing the land itself. One day, Joe looked out over the stormscoured but dry watercourses of the Canelo Hills in Arizona’s Santa Cruz County and decided he’d try to heal their wounds. He began to build a kind of stone check dam that looks slightly different from the Guanajuato trincheras. Wherever Joe saw shallow waterways eroding into deep gullies, he constructed check dams. Every week, year after year, Joe rearranged the erratic boulders exposed in gullies or on the sides of ridges, moving dozens of them to span drainages. Years later, Joe can now look out over the land and see the healing power of more than 1,200 rock-solid check dams he designed and built with boulders and cobbles. The dams have brought back steady stream flows and they hold tons of soil and roots in place on the Diamond C, creating a little miracle of
“All that’s keeping any of us from doing our part in taking care of the land is some kind of tunnel vision.”
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The Site 16 check dam in 2009 (left) and again in 2017 (right), filled with sediment and thriving grasses, forbs, woody shrubs, and cactuses.
greenery in the otherwise cinnamon-colored Canelo Hills. Joe single-handedly returned running water and fertility to the flood plain where it was formerly scoured clean. Streams gently flow for the first time in decades, and a dozen native grass species provide perennial cover. When I asked Joe why he’d mounted such a herculean effort, his simple, no-nonsense answer was, “Because the land needed it.” When men a half-century younger than Joe ask this muscular 75-year-old if he had any help moving boulders as big as whiskey barrels, he says, “Sure, I had a little help.” To their surprise, Joe mentions that he used a digging bar, a pulley and ratchet hooked to the back of his pickup, and a bumper. Otherwise, this massive effort has been accomplished entirely by Joe’s two hands and observant eyes, bright mind, and big heart. “All that’s keeping any of us from doing our part in taking care of the land is some kind of tunnel vision,” Joe said. “It blocks us from seeing that what we ourselves want for the land is more or less the same as what our neighbors want. That tunnel vision can paralyze us from taking action to do what virtually all of us would agree needs to be done.” Joe simply wants the land to be productive enough for his descendants to make a living. The Quiroga family has lived in Santa Cruz County for at least six generations, but some of the best and brightest kin have recently left in search of decent jobs. This lack of opportunity concerns Joe, who’s been known to
plaster bumper stickers on his pickup expressing support for beef production and mining. This may irk environmentalists who pass Joe on the road, but he has a certain pragmatism that rings true to me. If land restoration and soil conservation can create enough jobs to keep his kids in the county, I’m sure he’d welcome those activities with open arms. But if it takes extractive industries to keep the 21st-century equivalent of brain drain from socially impoverishing his community, Joe won’t disparage those pursuits either. On Earth Day 2012, more than 70 of Joe’s neighbors and a half-dozen organizations — including farmers, ranchers, scientists, permaculturists, and community activists — came together to honor him at the Santa Cruz County Earth Fest. Republicans, Democrats, Sagebrush Rebellion libertarians, and former Earth Firsters all paid homage to a homegrown hero who didn’t fit any single label because he transcended them all. It was clear to everyone present that Joe’s patient day-by-day work has left a legacy that’ll live on for decades, if not centuries. Despite their cultural, political, and even economic differences, Joe Quiroga and Valer Clark share something special. They each take the long view of land health and have striven to make the world a greener, wetter place for all. Gary Paul Nabhan is a father of the local food movement. He’s written and edited more than 30 books, including Food from the Radical Center (Island Press), from which this article is excerpted.
Healing Our Land & Communities In this book, author Gary Paul Nabhan tells the stories of diverse communities who are getting their hands dirty and bringing back North America’s unique fare: bison, sturgeon, camas lilies, ancient grains, turkeys, and more. These efforts have united people from all walks of life, who are working to restore America’s natural wealth — its ability to produce healthy foods. This title is available at www. MotherEarthNews.com/Store or by calling 800-234-3368. Mention promo code MMEPAKZ5. Item #9942.
24 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
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Foraging for
Wild Foods
Save money, eat healthfully, and enjoy nature by foraging for wild edibles. 26 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
I
By Leda Meredith
started foraging in the 1960s. When I was about 3 years old, my great-grandmother took me to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where she taught me how to identify a dandelion plant. We brought home a bagful of leaf rosettes (the leaves all connected by a thin sliver of root), and she showed me how to cook them up Greekstyle. My great-grandmother had grown up on a small island in Greece where foraging — a word I’m sure she never knew existed — was normal. Because her otherwise-stern eyes twinkled with delight when we foraged for horta (the Greek word for wild edible greens of any kind), I was naturally curious. I wanted in on the joy that these plants brought to my yia-yia. Long after my great-grandmother had passed away, I kept learning about and eating wild edibles. I still consider botanical field guides great reading. Later, in my late 30s and early 40s, when my career as a professional dancer came to an end and I needed to choose a new career, the first thing that came to mind was wild plants. I’d been passionate about plants as a hobby since those days in the park with Great-Grandma, so I decided to pursue that interest more intensely. But I didn’t want to study just any wild plants; I was mostly interested in the ones I could eat or use as medicine. And that interest in wild edible plants led to an interest in wild edible mushrooms, and so on. By the time I was in my early 50s, I’d already written a wild edible plants field guide and a wild foods cookbook. Whether you’re just beginning your adventures with foraged food or you’re already an experienced gatherer, I’m excited to share some foraging tips with you on the following three plants.
GETTY IMAGES/DANIEL RUDOLF
Use this guide to identify, harvest, prepare, and preserve edible plants.
LEDA MEREDITH
Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)
these are also tasty. These showy flowers are sterile, so you’re not endangering the plant by harvesting them. In any case, violets are tough and prolific to the point of being invasive, so sustainability isn’t an issue when you harvest any part of them. The leaves are good from spring through summer. As the plants mature, harvest only the smaller, partially furled leaves, because the bigger leaves can get tough and stringy. Violets are perennial plants that’ll regenerate from the inedible root you leave in the ground. Prepare. Violet leaves, flowers, and flower stalks are all mild and delicious when served raw in salads. The flower stalks have a subtly different, sweeter flavor than the leaves and flowers, so
The showy flowers of shade-loving violets are lovely to look at in early spring. But while the edible purple flowers may catch your eye, the mild, lettuce-flavored leaves are also good to eat and have a longer harvest season than the flowers. Use them in spring and summer salads, and in fall and winter as a soup thickener and a cough remedy. Find and identify. Violets can tolerate full sun, but they’re usually found growing in partial shade. They prefer moist soil and thrive under deciduous trees, where they make the most of the early spring sunlight coming through the still-bare branches. Later in the year, the plants get relief from hot summer sunshine when the trees they’re growing under leaf out. Learn to identify violet leaves so you can recognize the plants even when they’re not in flower. The heartshaped leaves grow in a rosette. They have pointed tips and fine teeth along the margins. When the flowers aren’t present, novice foragers sometimes confuse violets with garlic mustard, which similarly likes shady, disturbed soil situations, and also has a basal rosette of heart-shaped leaves. But a violet leaf ’s tip is sharply pointed, as are the teeth on the margins, whereas garlic mustard’s basal leaves have scalloped, rounder edges. The shades of green are different, too, as are the veining patterns. (Turn a violet leaf over and you’ll see the prominent veins, especially in bigger leaves.) But really, all you have to do is use your nose. Garlic mustard leaves smell like garlic and mustard, whereas violet leaves don’t really have a smell. Young violet leaves are curled in on themselves like scrolls rolled in from both sides. This is the ideal stage to The roots of wild violets are inedible, but the leaves, flowers, and flower stalks are delicious. harvest them. The first flowers that wild violets produce in early spring they should be treated as three different ingredients. The leaves are the showy ones that are so pretty on salads. They’re usunever get bitter, but the veins of older violet leaves can be tough ally purple with some white near the center, but sometimes and stringy. Use young leaves raw, but dry or bake the older they’re mostly white. These sterile flowers are about ¾ inch in diameter and grow on narrow, leafless stalks that can be several leaves into chips. inches long. These flowers have five petals, and the side petals Cooked fresh, violet leaves are a bit slimy. That may sound have white hairs at their bases. unpleasant, but they act as a binder when added to veggie burgIn summer, violets produce self-pollinating, petal-less flowers ers, and they’re good for thickening soups and stews. you probably won’t notice. These become three-parted capsules Preserve. Candy the flowers to preserve them, and then use that eject small, round seeds. Violet roots, which aren’t edible, them as dessert decorations. You can also make a beautifully are knobby, branching, somewhat horizontal rhizomes. colored syrup with the flowers, and you can dry the leaves to Harvest. Collect wild violet’s purple or purple-and-white save for winter use. Crumbled into soups, dried violet leaves flowers at any time during the early spring flowering season. are a good thickening agent. They also have a good reputation Pinch them off with their long, thin flower stalks attached, as when used in a soothing tea to treat coughs and chest colds. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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I’ve heard two explanations for the common name “lambsquarters.” One is that the shape of the leaves looks vaguely like a lamb’s muzzle seen from above, with the point of the triangle being the nose, and the back two points the ears. The other explanation, which I find more debatable, likens the shape of the leaf to the upper haunches of a lamb’s leg. Find and identify. Also called “wild spinach” and, in some regions, “goosefoot,” lambsquarters is a common weed that loves full sun and the frequently turned-over soil of gardens, farms, parks, and roadsides. The first two “true” leaves on lambsquarters join the stem in an opposite arrangement, but after that, the leaves grow in an alternate arThe seeds of lambsquarters can be cooked and used in place of quinoa in recipes. rangement, each leaf joining the stem farther along than the previous leaf. Most of the leaves are trianguHarvest. C. album is a widespread and invasive plant, and lar with softly toothed margins, but the upper leaves of older there are no sustainability issues around harvesting it. However, plants that are flowering and going to seed will be smaller and be careful that the site you gather from isn’t highly polluted; this elliptical. The branching stems are often grooved and frequentis one of several plants that tends to accumulate the chemicals ly have some magenta coloration. and heavy metals of industrially farmed and urban locations. Lambsquarters flowers are small and green, and grow in The general leaf-harvesting method works great for lambsbranching clusters. The plant doesn’t have a noticeable scent. quarters. The important thing to remember is that although all The small, black seeds, which you can harvest from the plant, the aboveground parts of the plant are edible, some are better are also edible. The leaves, especially the younger leaves near than others. You can harvest the leaves by pinching them off the tips of the branching stems, are covered with a distinctive anytime, but you’ll get the most food for your effort if you harwhitish coating you can rub off. vest the tips, leaves, and tender stems together. In mid-spring and early summer, you may be able to use as much as the top 8 inches of the plant. Once the plants start to flower, the stems become fibrous, and the flowers aren’t particularly palatable. At this stage, I usually move on to other wild edibles and come back to lambsquarters when the seeds are ripe. Prepare. Although it’s a forager’s cliché to say that a wild edible leaf “tastes like spinach,” lambsquarters’ mild flavor and silky texture (once cooked) really does. You can eat the leaves and tender stalks of lambsquarters raw, but I think they’re much better cooked (steamed, boiled, or stir-fried). Once cooked, lambsquarters is excellent in omelets, ravioli and other pasta dishes, dips, and more. As with spinach and other tender, leafy vegetables, lambsquarters loses a lot of bulk when cooked. Measure about 10 cups of chopped, raw lambsquarters leaves and stems if you want to end up with 1 cup cooked. The seeds can be cooked in place of quinoa in recipes, and can also be ground into flour or used whole in baked goods. Preserve. As with other mild, leafy greens, you can blanch and freeze lambsquarters. The seeds will The leaves of lambsquarters are mild in flavor and fine in texture. keep in a dark, dry place for several months. 28 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
LEDA MEREDITH (3)
Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album)
Burdock (Arctium spp.) The stalks of second-year burdock plants, before they flower, are my favorite part of the plant. The roots are good; the leafstalks passable; and, when cooked, the immature flower stalks have a wonderful texture, like artichoke hearts or cardoons, and a delightful, mild flavor. Often, the best stalks are as thick as an inch across, and are too sturdy to gather with the benduntil-it-snaps method. Also, unlike many other edible stalks, burdock stalks are good to eat almost all the way down to the base once peeled. Find and identify. Burdock grows in sun or partial sunlight. It’s a biennial that grows a rosette of leaves in its first year of growth, and then flowers and goes to seed the following calendar year. It loves disturbed soils and is a common weed of farms, gardens, and parks. The leaves can grow up to 2 feet long and 1 foot wide. They remind some people of rhubarb plants, but unlike rhubarb’s leaves, burdock leaves have a felt-like, fuzzy texture with a whitish underside, and, most importantly, they aren’t poisonous. Although untoothed, the margins of the leaves are wavy, almost ruffled. A burdock root is shaped like a slender carrot, but it’s brown on the outside with a lighter color within. In the spring of its second calendar year, after overwintering, burdock sends up a stalk that’ll eventually bear brush-like, purplish flowers. These are followed by the burrs from which the plant gets its common name. Burdock burrs are what inspired George de Mestral to invent and patent Velcro. Harvest. Look for the flower stalks shooting up from the center of the leaf rosettes. Choose ones that are nice and fat, but still unbranched, and that haven’t yet begun to produce flower
buds. Usually, these will be between 8 and 18 inches tall. Use a knife to slice across burdock’s sturdy flower stalks, close to where they emerge from the basal leaves. The roots of first-year burdock plants are a vegetable that’s known as gobo in Japan. You’ll know you’ve got a first-year plant if there’s only a leaf rosette but no flower stalks. The roots are also used in herbal medicine to treat chronic skin conditions, as well as digestive and liver ailments. Prepare. With a sharp paring knife, peel the fibrous outer layer off the stalks. As with artichoke hearts, the delicious cores will start to discolor soon after being exposed to air. If this bothers you, set out a bowl of acidulated water (about a gallon of water with 1 to 2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice added, or ½ teaspoon of citric acid) to put the peeled stalks into until you’re ready to cook them. Burdock stalks are wonderful steamed, boiled, or baked into casseroles. Preserve. Peeled burdock stalks can be blanched and then frozen. To use, simply put the frozen burdock stalks (no need to thaw first) in water, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer until almost tender. Finish cooking them in soups, stir-fries, or casseroles. Leda Meredith is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This is printed with permission from her book The Skillful Forager: Essential Techniques for Responsible Foraging and Making the Most of Your Wild Edibles (Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boulder, Colorado).
In author Leda Meredith’s opinion, the immature flower stalks of burdock are tastier — and easier to harvest — than the better-known taproot. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Feast on Homemade
Corned Beef
I
By Steven Raichlen
n my grandfather’s day, you could get world-class corned beef from a half-dozen delis and meat markets up and down Delancey Street in New York City. But how did Irish corned beef get from the Emerald Isle to New York-style delicatessens? 30 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Cooking authority Darina Allen says the Irish have been corning beef since the 11th century. The term “corned” comes from the medieval word for a large kernel of salt. The coarse rock salt used by butchers had grains roughly the size and shape of barleycorns, and these “corns of salt” gave rise to the name “corned beef.” The Irish mainly ate pork and mutton, reserving beef in all
forms for special occasions. Though the English established huge cattle farms in Ireland when they conquered the nation in the 12th century, legislation in the 1660s forbade the export of live Irish cattle to England. Irish beef prices plummeted, forcing the nation’s meat merchants to salt-cure their surplus inventory to keep it from spoiling.
GETTY IMAGES/LINDAPARTON
Update this St. Patrick’s Day staple with a few modern twists.
Classic Corned Beef can be served hot with traditional cabbage and potato side dishes, or cold on rye bread with mustard.
Irish corned beef became big business. It fed sailors in the Royal Navy, foot soldiers in Wellington’s army, and armies of slaves on Caribbean plantations. It was exported to Colonial America and to British outposts in India, Africa, and Asia. Dublin, Cork, and Belfast grew rich on a corned beef industry that literally fed the world. But sadly, corned beef was too expensive for the average Irish farmer or factory worker. Common folks wouldn’t start eating corned beef in substantial quantities until the mid-1800s, when refugees from the Irish Potato Famine settled in New York City. Wages were higher in the U.S., and beef was plentiful, which meant these Irish immigrants could now afford a meat that had been financially off-limits for centuries. The Irish had long been corning beef, but not necessarily brisket. They adopted the latter from their Jewish neighbors on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Today’s corned beef differs dramatically from its Irish namesake, but its popularity hasn’t waned over the centuries.
FROM
LEFT:
GETTY IMAGES/BASYA555; FLICKR/BRED GREENLEE
Classic Corned Beef What follows is a traditional corned beef that’s surprisingly easy to prepare. Think of corning as brining, with the addition of pickling spices. If you can stir and boil water, you can make corned beef, but you do need to plan ahead. Namely, figure on 8 days for curing the meat, and about 3½ hours for cooking. Yield: 6 to 8 servings. Corning Ingredients • 1 cup coarse sea salt or kosher salt • 1⁄2 cup light or dark-brown sugar • 1⁄4 cup pickling spice (see recipe at right, or use your favorite commercial brand)
• 2 teaspoons pink curing salt • 1⁄4 cup Irish whiskey • 1 beef brisket flat (3 to 4 pounds) Cooking Ingredients • 1 whole clove • 1 bay leaf • 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered • 3 carrots, peeled and trimmed • 3 ribs celery Directions: In a large, nonreactive stockpot, make the curing brine by combining 2 cups of hot water with the coarse salt, brown sugar, pickling spice, and pink
Pickling Spice I prefer homemade pickling spice over commercial blends, because you can customize the flavorings and make sure the spices are fresh. Yield: ¼ cup. • • • • • • • • •
10 juniper berries 6 allspice berries 6 whole cloves 2 dried bay leaves, crumbled One 3-inch cinnamon stick, broken into 3 or 4 pieces 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns 1 tablespoon coriander seeds 2 teaspoons mustard seeds 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
Combine the ingredients in a bowl, and stir to mix. This pickling spice will keep for at least 2 months in a sealed jar at room temperature, away from heat and light.
curing salt. Bring to a boil on the stovetop over high heat. Let cool to room temperature, and then stir in 2 cups of ice water and the whiskey. Meanwhile, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick. Combine the brisket and brine in a 2½-gallon heavy-duty zip-close bag. Seal the bag, and place it in a baking dish or plastic bucket. Alternatively, you can place the brine and brisket in a shallow glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Brine the corned beef in the refrigerator for 8 days, turning the brisket or bag daily. Drain the brisket in a colander, discarding the brine. Fill a stockpot with fresh cold water, add the brisket, let soak for 1 hour, and then drain again. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the corned beef in a Dutch oven, and add water to cover by a depth of 1 inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer, and skim off any foam that rises to the surface. Use the clove to pin the bay leaf to one of the onion quarters. Add the onion to the brisket pot, along with the carrots and celery. (If you like your carrots and celery with a little chew to them, add them after 2 hours of braising.) Cover the Dutch oven with the lid or foil, and place it in the oven. Braise the corned beef until very tender, about 3 to 3½ hours. (Test the tenderness by inserting a fork; it should pierce the meat easily.) Transfer the corned beef to a welled cutting board. At this point, you can serve it hot or cold. For hot corned beef, slice the meat across the grain into ¼-inchthick slices. (Reserve some of the broth for spooning on top.) Serve on rye bread with WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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mustard, or with boiled potatoes and cabbage. For cold corned beef, let it cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate it until cold and firm. Cut it into thin slices, and serve it on rye bread with mustard.
Corned Beef and Cabbage Corned beef and cabbage is quintessential St. Patrick’s Day fare par excellence here in the U.S. In the best of all worlds, you’d start with home-cured corned beef. Barring that, use an uncooked corned beef, which is often available in supermarket meat departments, especially around St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. Or, order it by mail. You can boil the corned beef and cabbage in a large pot on the stove, or braise it in a Dutch oven; the latter requires less supervision. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.
Like most brisket dishes, traditional corned beef requires a slow, low-temperature cook in a moist environment to render it tender. So, some years ago, I had the idea to
Ingredients • Hickory or other hardwood, chunks or chips • Classic Corned Beef (Page 31), cured, but not cooked • Rye bread, mustard, pickles, sauerkraut, and coleslaw, for serving
smoke corned beef instead of braising it. Think of it as pastrami, but without the peppery crust. (It’s the perfect cured meat for people who find pastrami too garlicky.) The smoke lends a complexity and depth of flavor you just don’t find in traditional corned beef. Made from the brisket flat, corned beef is leaner than pastrami. So I like to wrap it in foil two-thirds of the way through smoking; the built-up steam breaks down tough muscle fibers, tenderizing the meat. Yield: 6 to 8 servings. Directions: Fire up your smoker, cooker, or grill, following the manufacturer’s instructions, and heat to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re using hardwood chips, soak in water to cover for 30 minutes, and then drain and add the wood as specified by the manufacturer. Place a metal bowl or foil pan filled with 1 quart of warm water into the smoker; this will create a humid environment that’ll help the smoke adhere to the meat and keep your brisket moist. Place the cured brisket, fat side up, in the smoker. If using an offset smoker, position the thicker end of the brisket closer to the firebox. Cook the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 6 to 8 hours. Refuel your cooker as needed. Wearing heatproof gloves, tightly wrap the corned beef in heavy-duty foil, pleating the edges to make a hermetic seal. Cook the corned beef another 2 hours or as needed to bring the internal temperature to 205 degrees. Place the wrapped corned beef in an insulated cooler, and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This will allow the meat to relax and the juices to redistribute.) Transfer the corned beef to a welled cutting board and unwrap it. At this point, you can serve it hot or cold. For hot corned beef, use a long, sharp knife to slice the meat across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. For cold corned beef, let it cool to room temperature, and then wrap it in foil and refrigerate it until cold and firm. Cut it into paper-thin slices. Serve it on rye bread with mustard, pickles, sauerkraut, and coleslaw.
32 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
• 1 uncooked corned beef (3 to 4 pounds), or Classic Corned Beef (Page 31), cured, but uncooked • 2 bay leaves, crumbled • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds • 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns • 1 teaspoon allspice berries • 1 savoy cabbage (about 2 pounds) • 3 large carrots, trimmed, peeled, and cut crosswise into 2-inch sections • 2 medium onions, peeled and quartered • 1 pound ‘Yukon Gold’ or boiling potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 2-inch pieces • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or chives (optional) • Spicy mustard, for serving Directions: Place the corned beef in a Dutch oven. (If braising, preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.) Tie the bay leaves, mustard seeds, peppercorns, and allspice berries in cheesecloth. (Alternatively, wrap them in foil, and perforate the foil with a fork.) Add the bundle to the pot, and add water to cover by a depth of 2 inches. Bring the corned beef to a boil over high heat, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer the corned beef, uncovered, until nearly tender, about 2 hours.
MATTHEW BENSON
Smoked Corned Beef
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(Alternatively, cover the Dutch oven, place it in the oven, and braise the corned beef until nearly tender, about 2 hours.) Remove any blemished outer leaves from the cabbage. Cut the cabbage in half through the core. Make V-shaped cuts to remove the core, and then cut each cabbage half into quarters to obtain 8 wedges. Add the vegetables to the pot, and continue boiling (or braising, covered) until tender, about 1 to 1½ hours more. There should be enough liquid to cover the corned beef and vegetables by a depth of 1 inch; add water as needed. (If braising the corned beef, there may be too much liquid; if so, keep the Dutch oven uncovered after adding the vegetables.) To serve, remove and discard the spice bundle. Transfer the corned beef to a welled cutting board and slice it across the grain as thickly or thinly as you desire. Transfer the slices to a platter or plates, and use a slotted spoon to arrange the boiled vegetables beside the meat, leaving the cooking liquid in the pot. Strain 1½ cups of the cooking liquid into a large heatproof bowl. Whisk in the butter until melted. Spoon this buttery sauce over the corned beef and vegetables. Dust with parsley, if using, and serve plenty of spicy mustard alongside.
MATTHEW BENSON
Steven Raichlen was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame in 2015. His books have won five James Beard Awards and been translated into 17 languages. This excerpt is from The Brisket Chronicles (Workman Publishing), available below.
Corned Beef and Cabbage makes for classic St. Patrick’s Day fare.
How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure Brisket Take brisket to the next level: ’Cue it, grill it, smoke it, braise it, cure it, boil it, and even bake it into chocolate chip cookies! In dozens of unbeatable tips, author Steven Raichlen shows you just how to handle, prep, and store your meat for maximum tenderness and flavor. Plus, he provides plenty more recipes that are pure comfort food, perfect for using up leftovers. This title is available at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Store or by calling 800-234-3368. Mention promo code MMEPAKZ5. Item #9838.
34 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
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Respiratory Relief Cultivate your own herbal cures for
GETTY IMAGES/NIKOLAY_DONETSK
the coughs that plague you in winter.
I
By Maria Noël Groves
f you suffer from chronic respiratory issues, such as asthma, chest congestion, chronic bronchitis, or allergies, take comfort in some of the wonderful lung tonic herbs you can grow in your backyard: mullein (Verbascum thapsus), horehound (Marrubium vulgare), wild cherry (Prunus serotina), marshmallow (Althaea officinalis), and plantain (Plantago major). Each has a different role to play in respiratory health,
from clearing coughs to soothing and opening the lungs. So, consider each plant’s actions to choose the best ones for you. Other lung herbs include elecampane (Inula helenium), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), peppermint (Mentha x piperita), Korean mint (Agastache rugosa), bee balm (Monarda spp.), and New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae). Remember that some respiratory conditions warrant immediate medical attention, including serious infections, difficulty breathing, and pressure that feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest. You can certainly use herbs concomitantly, but medications remain best for acute asthma attacks and pneumonia. Mullein. Mullein’s soft, flannel-like leaves help signify its soothing nature. Mullein opens constricted airways, moistens the lungs, and eases and cools inflammation and irritation. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Mullein (left) opens constricted airways; horehound (middle) makes wet coughs more productive; and wild cherry (right) soothes irritated lungs.
38 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
mallow, it soothes and heals inflamed tissue and gently tones mucous membranes. Like marshmallow, plantain isn’t a key lung herb, but it plays a supportive role in blends. Best in: broth, syrup, tea.
Soothing Lung Tea This blend helps open and soothe irritated lungs and respiratory tissue, whether the culprit is a chronic respiratory condition, an angry sore throat, or temporary irritation in the lungs. (Some conditions may warrant medical attention and diagnosis. This blend isn’t particularly antimicrobial.) Fennel seed (Foeniculum vulgare) and peppermint both help break up mucus and ease spasms; choose whichever flavor you like best, but keep in mind that fennel seed has a gentler approach. Optional additions to the following recipe include nettle leaf (Urtica dioica), wild cherry bark, yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum), thyme, goldenrod (Solidago spp.), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), and passionflower (Passiflora incarnata). Yield: 1 serving. • • • •
1 teaspoon mullein leaf 1 teaspoon marshmallow leaf or root 1 teaspoon fennel seed or peppermint 1 teaspoon plantain leaf (optional)
Directions: Steep your herbs in 16 to 32 ounces of hot water for 15 minutes. If you use loose herbs, strain the tea through a piece of finely woven cloth or a coffee filter before drinking to remove all of mullein’s hairs. Drink 1 to 3 cups daily as needed.
Raw Wild Cherry Honey Use dried wild cherry or chokecherry bark, twigs, or strips to make this yummy, super-soothing, fast-acting cough remedy. Store-bought cherry bark tends to be poor quality, but bark that you process yourself (even if it’s been hanging out in the
STACEY CRAMP (6)
It can be used solo, but it makes a lovely supportive herb in almost any lung blend. Let this attractive biennial weed seed itself throughout the garden. Harvest the leaves anytime they look healthy, preferably before the plant blooms. Strain out the leaf hairs with a cloth or coffee filter when you prepare it. Best in: syrup, tea, tincture. Horehound. This wrinkly, silvery herb tastes intensely bitter, with an oily texture. Even though it doesn’t taste or smell aromatic, it’s rich in essential oils. Horehound thins and moves mucus, and it’s a classic for wet coughs, making them more productive. Consider it for any respiratory issue with thick mucus congestion, including allergies and postnasal drip. It’s too bitter for tea, but excels as a fresh plant tincture. Horehound thrives in dry, sunny spots near Mediterranean herbs, such as lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and thyme. Best in: capsule, cough drop, honey, syrup, tincture. Wild cherry. The bark of this common wild tree (and its scrappy cousin chokecherry, or Prunus virginiana) has an excellent, long-standing reputation for easing dry, irritated, spastic coughs. That’s why many commercial cough drops and syrups are cherry-flavored (albeit now artificially). Turn to cherry bark whenever your lungs are dry, irritated, and tight — for example, from wood smoke or chronic asthma. Cherry bark is safe and most effectively used dried, with little exposure to heat during its preparation. Best in: honey, syrup, tea, tincture. Marshmallow. Best known for its slimy, soothing properties for the gut, marshmallow similarly soothes the respiratory system. It supports stronger herbs in formulas to treat dryness, inflammation, and irritation. Consider marshmallow syrup as a base for a cough elixir, mixing it with horehound, mullein, and wild cherry bark tinctures. As a bonus, this tall flowering herb will bring subtle beauty to your garden. Best in: broth, lozenge, syrup, tea. Plantain. This soothing gut herb also crosses over nicely to the respiratory tract. Although not as overtly slimy as marsh-
or so (it’s too thick to shake). Strain after 2 to 4 weeks.
Allergy Tincture Blend This blend can be helpful with chronic allergies, hay fever, and chronic asthma. While some people may only need to take it as needed when allergies kick in (preferably starting 2 to 6 months before allergy season begins), those with chronic allergic or asthmatic conditions can take it daily. You can draw from a number of excellent herbal options to create this tincture blend. Simple nettle is basic but often effective. Nettle and goldenrod are good in combination Mucilaginous marshmallow (left) treats dryness, while plantain (right) soothes inflamed tissue. for seasonal and animal allergies, and those experiencing histamine overpantry for a few years) works fantastically and has a lovely load. A nettle-goldenrod-horehound mixture will help drain amaretto-like flavor. thick mucus conditions. Goldenrod and bee balm can aid in I particularly like this infused honey once it’s crystallized. drying up a sinus infection, and you can add berberine too. Slowly licking it off a teaspoon gives it more contact with the Horehound, New England aster, and goldenrod tinctured throat and a better opportunity to act. together will help clear up congestion, mucus, and asthma. • ⅛ cup dried cherry bark, twigs, or strips • 1 cup honey Directions: Loosely fill a jar with cherry bark and twigs, and cover the plant material with the honey. Turn the jar every day
Horehound Cough Syrup Although many people make syrups by simmering herbs in water, straining the herbs out, and then adding an equal amount of sugar to the water to preserve the syrup, the following “syrup” is more like a cross between a raw honey and a fresh plant tincture. You get honey’s additional cough-relieving properties, and the alcohol betIngredients ter extracts the horehound while • 22⁄3 ounces chopped fresh also preserving your syrup. This horehound makes a potent, long-lasting, • 3 ounces 100-proof vodka shelf-stable remedy. • 2 ounces local raw honey Directions: Cram the chopped horehound into an 8-ounce jar. (It’s OK to leave the stems on.) Add the vodka. Top off with honey, and cap the jar. Shake vigorously to combine, and then shake every day or two. Strain after 1 month, squeezing as much liquid out of the herbs as you can. Take ½ teaspoon as needed for coughs (especially wet coughs) and thick mucus congestion.
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Consider adding peach twig to your tincture blends for people with hypersensitivities that cause hives. 3 parts nettle tincture 3 parts goldenrod tincture 2 parts horehound tincture 1 part mullein tincture 1 part fennel seed or thyme tincture
Directions: If you already have individual tinctures prepared for each herb, simply measure them by volume and pour them into the same bottle. (For example, 5 milliliters per “part,” which won’t quite fill a 2-ounce bottle.) If you need to make a combo tincture from scratch, measure the fresh herbs by weight; each “part” can weigh ½ ounce, so you’ll have 5 ounces total. It’s OK if the fennel is dried. Chop them and shove them into a 16-ounce jar. Cover with 190-proof alcohol* to the top of the jar, even if this measures out to slightly more or less than the 1-2 Choose herbs based on their individual actions, such as thinning mucus or soothing dry coughs. ratio — it’s more important to keep it covered. You may need to hold the plant material down as you *190-proof vodka is sold in some states as ethanol or grain fill the jar, and use a knife or chopsticks to remove air bubbles. alcohol, though you can purchase food-grade organic grape and Put on the lid. No need to shake. sugarcane ethanol online. Some states have banned 190-proof, Open the jar a few days later to top off the contents with a but offer 151-proof grain alcohol or vodka in stores, which little more alcohol. will suffice. If this isn’t available, substitute 100-proof vodka, After at least 1 month, strain the mixture through a cloth. 80-proof vodka, or 80-proof brandy. The higher the proof, the Squeeze as much extract out of the herbs as you can with your stronger the extract. hands. A potato ricer, wheatgrass juicer, or hydraulic tincture press will also work well here. Maria Noël Groves is a clinical herbalist, herbal medicine teacher, Pour into a dark glass bottle and store in a cool, dark, dry and registered professional member of the American Herbalists spot. Take 1 to 2 milliliters (¼ to ½ teaspoon) of the blend, Guild. See more of her work at www.WintergreenBotanicals.com. diluted in water, as needed or 2 to 3 times per day. The tincture This excerpt is from her book Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies will keep for years. (Storey Publishing), available below.
How to Create a Customized Herb Garden In Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies, author Maria Noël Groves provides 23 specifically tailored garden plans for addressing the most common health needs, along with simple recipes for using each group of herbs. Whether you need headache relief, immune support, stress relief, or a daily tonic, you’ll discover the 3 to 6 herbs that are most effective, and how to plant, harvest, and care for each one. This title is available at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Store or by calling 800-2343368. Mention promo code MMEPAKZ5. Item #9449.
40 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
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What to Expect When
Your Goat Is Expecting
Know the signs and stages of pregnancy, and learn how to see your does through a successful kidding.
E
By Carrie Miller
ach year, excited but nervous goat owners wait impatiently for their first kids. I’ve been raising goats for about four years, and I’ve been breeding for under two. Being new to goat breeding, I have a lot of insight into the fears and worries that come with kidding.
We’ve had great experiences with all of our Oberhasli does, and most of our goat births go very smoothly, requiring little, if any, human intervention. But preparation is still important, and knowing what to expect is the first step toward a happy kidding season. While each doe and birth is different, I’ve found the following guidelines to be accurate overall.
Document Your Dates First things first: Know your breeding dates. Put your does with a buck for short periods of time, rather than keeping them together for weeks or months. This will make it easier to calculate a due date. You can drive yourself crazy waiting on a baby with an open-ended arrival time. We once acquired a doe that, unbeknownst to us or her previous owners, had accidentally been bred before we got her. We waited as weeks turned into months for her to come into heat, and finally decided to have our veterinarian check her out. Sure enough, she was
pregnant — and not in the early stages either. Our vet guessed she was within 30 days of delivery. We watched her like a hawk, jumping into action at the slightest indication she could be in labor. She gave birth on the 29th day, and we worried all 29 of those days. Point being, a little planning can save you a lot of stress. Goats have an average gestation period of 150 days. So, figure out their breeding date, and count forward to get the estimated due date. To help yourself stay organized, keep a notebook for each doe, and write down their breeding date and expected day of delivery. This is also a great place to keep a full record, including vaccination dates, doctor visits, hoof trim dates, and supplement schedules.
Early pregnancy. Some does hide their pregnancy well, but a few signs can tip you off. The first thing to look for is a lack of returning heat cycles every 21 days or so. An increase in aggression can also be a sign your doe is pregnant. Expectant does often become extremely protective of their “baby side” (right side), and can lash out during a bout of roughhouse with another goat, or even while being petted. Growing a baby takes a lot of energy, so a pregnant doe will likely sleep more than usual and develop an increased appetite. Despite her begging, never feed excess grain to a pregnant doe. An overfed mama can grow a baby that’s too large, causing problems, or even death, for both the doe and the kid. Midpregnancy. The doe’s appetite will continue to increase, as will her water intake. You’ll need to provide her with an unlimited supply of quality hay. As a baby grows, it places pressure on a doe’s stomach, allowing less room for food. Rather than gorging a few times a day, it’s better that a pregnant doe graze little by little all day long. If any of your does are harassed during feeding time, separate them to ensure they’re getting the proper nutrition. At this point, a bump may begin to show, more so in those carrying multiples. Some does become more affectionate during this stage, while others become standoffish. Those carrying multiples of44 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Watch your doe for signs of labor, including mucous discharge and a very full udder.
ten begin breathing heavier and appear uncomfortable when lying down. If a doe is still in milk, her production may begin to diminish. One month before delivery. During this stage, you’ll start to see a lot of noticeable changes in a pregnant doe. The doe’s vulva will begin to swell and become more open, red, and irritated-looking, and a mucous discharge (known as a “mucous plug”) may appear off and on. Her udder will likely begin to develop, slowly growing larger as delivery gets closer. The bump may become more noticeable, and you may even feel or see the baby moving. The doe will likely show discomfort and restlessness while lying down, and will breathe heavily, often sounding congested. Four weeks before her due date, update the doe on her CDT vaccine, which will help develop the kid’s immunity while still in the womb.
Labor and Delivery Labor. Labor typically starts 12 to 24 hours before delivery. During this time, changes will come quickly. When you realize your doe is in labor, try to contain her in a prepared birthing pen where she’ll be secluded but can still see and hear the rest of the herd. Her breathing will become rapid, and she’ll be extremely uncomfortable. Some does will show this by pacing, while oth-
ers will stand completely still and stare into space. Make sure she has constant access to clean water and hay, but don’t be surprised if she stops eating altogether, or only nibbles. For a boost of energy, provide her with a second bucket of warm molasses water. You’ll start to see a lot of white or bloodtinged mucous discharge from her vulva. She may become more vocal, and contractions will become noticeable, though sporadic in nature. Her udder will probably fill with milk, giving it a very full, shiny look, but don’t panic if this doesn’t happen right away; some does don’t “bag up” until after delivery. Her tail ligaments will loosen, causing her tail to hang offside in an awkward way, and her hips will appear extremely sunken. Delivery. Shortly before delivery, the doe’s vulva will change from being swollen to looking more open and loose. Her breathing will quicken, and contractions will be noticeably painful, causing her back to hunch and her tail to straighten. Her vaginal discharge will increase and develop a thicker appearance. You may see her squat frequently, as if to urinate. The doe may begin biting at or “talking to” her baby side, and she’ll likely lie down and stand up again repeatedly. It’s not uncommon for a doe to frequently paw at the ground during this stage, and they often become quite vocal.
CARRIE MILLER (2); PAGE 43: ADOBE STOCK/BOY
Pregnancy
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
CARRIE MILLER (2); GETTY IMAGES/ANDYWORKS
During delivery, you should see two fluid-filled sacks, one after the other. The second sack should contain the kid, presenting hooves first.
When the doe begins to push, things should progress rather quickly. She may choose to stand up to deliver as opposed to lying down, or do a bit of both, any of which is fine. When she starts pushing, the first thing you should see is a small, fluid-filled sack. This sack will rupture, and a second sack containing the baby should quickly follow, within about half an hour. From the time the second sack appears, it should take roughly another 30 to 45 minutes for the baby to be delivered. You should first see two yellowish hooves, followed by a nose and head, and then the body. That’s the most common birth position, but it’s not unusual for a kid to present back legs first, especially in multiples, which generally occurs without complications. Once the baby is born, one of two things should happen: Another baby will quickly follow, or the placenta (also called “afterbirth”) will be delivered. The placenta should deliver within 24 hours, but typically comes within a few hours. (Most does will eat the placenta. This can be a bit hard to stomach, so I usually take this time to head into the house and get cleaned up.) It’s OK to help a doe dry off her baby and clear its nose, but don’t remove the kid from the doe unless you plan on raising it yourself. Let her bond with the baby by cleaning and licking it. The baby should
Natural instinct may lead a doe to eat the placenta after delivery, which is perfectly normal.
be trying to stand and nurse within about half an hour of delivery. Give the doe a fresh, warm batch of molasses water and a dose of vitamin B complex for a boost of energy. Make sure to dip the baby’s umbilical cord in an iodine solution to help prevent infection. If the cord is long enough to drag on the ground, you may need to clamp and trim it. However, most does will shorten it themselves; just keep an eye out in case you have a doe that doesn’t do this. Clean the stall after delivery to ensure an unsoiled, dry atmosphere for mama and baby. Depending on the time of year, a heating source may be necessary.
Post-Birth The doe will bleed lightly from her vulva off and on for days, sometimes weeks. She’ll need extra nutrition to help her recover and develop healthy milk production, so you’ll want to increase her grain feed for a few days. She’ll likely be on high alert for a couple of days, preventing her from properly resting; just do the best you can to provide her with a comfortable, safe place, and she’ll eventually return to a normal schedule. She’ll clean the baby a lot, drink its urine, chew on its umbilical cord, and clean any baby droppings. Watch for a lopsided udder; babies tend to favor one WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
45
few days, administer a dose of selenium and vitamin E. Keep a close eye on them, because you’ll need to call your vet if they don’t improve. If you plan to disbud a kid (burn the horn bud), do so within 5 to 10 days of birth. Bucklings tend to get their buds quicker than doelings.
light brown to yellowish in color, and a bit thicker than pudding. Dip their umbilical cord once or twice a day in iodine solution for the first three days. It’ll take a few weeks for it to dry up and fall off. The baby should be active and playful within a few days of delivery, even beginning to nibble on grain and hay. Newborn kids may try to drink water, so make sure any water is hung high enough that they can’t fall in and drown. If you notice a kid is having trouble standing strong after a
Carrie Miller runs Miller Micro Farm in Ohio, where she’s raising and breeding Oberhasli goats with the goal of building a small-scale goat dairy. Visit www.MillerMicroFarm.com to see what else she’s got going on around the farm.
When to Call a Veterinarian With each kidding, you’ll gain more instinctual knowledge about when to call your vet. If you’re ever unsure, call anyway, and your vet will let you know whether they think a visit is warranted. In general, I call under any of the following circumstances: • When there’s no progression of the baby within 30 minutes of the first fluid-filled sack. If you feel confident, you can first check to see if the baby is just slightly out of position, which is usually a simple fix. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of the hooves being crossed, or the head leaning slightly upward or downward. To check, don an OB sleeve, and gently insert a hand into the goat. Carefully feel around, and gently reposition the head or feet if necessary. If you aren’t comfortable doing this, if you try this and can’t reposition the baby, or if there’s still no progression of the baby after you reposition it, call your vet immediately. • When a baby is breech and presents tail first. • When a baby looks large and the mom is noticeably struggling. • When more than 45 minutes passes between kids. This could be a sign of trouble, or mean that the second kid is slightly out of position. Assess the situation, and call your vet if in doubt. • When a doe bleeds an unusual amount after delivery, a sign she might be hemorrhaging.
46 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Most births go smoothly, but keep your vet’s number handy just in case.
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side when they start nursing, and you may need to milk the other side daily to keep mama from getting painfully full or developing mastitis. My does become very affectionate post-delivery, requiring extra attention and care. They also become more vocal, talking to their babies continuously. Kids will sleep a lot the first day or two. Give them a dose of vitamin B complex for a healthy boost. Their first feces or two will be black and tar-like, eventually becoming
FROM
A kid should be trying to stand and nurse within about 30 minutes of delivery.
Kidding can be nerve-wracking, especially for new goat owners, but with a little preparation and the proper expectations, you can look forward to a successful birth, time and time again. Trust me, all the stress, worry, and time are worth it. After all, few things bring more joy to a homestead than a bouncing baby goat.
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Happy Kidding!
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Heatless Habaneros These peppers pack all the flavor of a habanero — without the painful punch.
tanding in a friend’s garden, I was assured that the small, red pepper in my hand would be safe to eat. “Take a bite!” she said. “I swear it’s not hot.” The pepper in question looked and smelled exactly like a habanero, one of the hottest peppers in the world. If I took a bite, it would surely singe my lips, tongue, and throat — just like a habanero. Or so I thought. With my front teeth, I took a small, tentative bite. The signature flavor and aroma of a habanero filled my mouth and nostrils, but the scalding pain never came. Nor did it arrive after 48 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
a second bite. It didn’t even come as I chewed and swallowed the seeds, which are traditionally the hottest part of the fruit. My friend hadn’t led me astray after all. Indeed, this pepper had no heat. How was this possible? Was the plant a botanical misfit, or had someone removed its heat on purpose? Many pepper enthusiasts would balk at the idea; what’s the point of a chile pepper if it doesn’t pack a punch? And yet, here I was, enjoying a whole, raw, habanero-like pepper without any discomfort. As I swallowed the last of that “heatless habanero,” I realized this strange pod had a unique flavor, fruity and citrus-like,
and because it wasn’t scorching hot, I could better appreciate and discern those pleasant qualities.
Historically Hot Habaneros are among the hottest chile peppers in the world. They’re thought to have originated in South America, but they’ve achieved a pinnacle of cultural and economic significance in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where the majority of the world’s habaneros are grown today. The Scoville scale is a method for determining the pungency of peppers by measuring each pod’s capsaicin level, which is the component of the pepper that produc-
GETTY IMAGES/BRUCEBLOCK
S
By Andrew Moore
Growing the ‘Habanada’ To grow the ‘Habanada’ pepper, start the seeds indoors 10 to 12 weeks before the last frost. Plan to transplant the seedlings outdoors 2 to 4 weeks after the last frost. Plant the seedlings 4 inches apart in an indoor bed with well-draining soil and a pH of 6.5. You can also start them in individual seedling containers. The young plants will emerge about two weeks after initial planting. When moving the plants to your garden, space them at least 1 foot apart; ‘Habanada’ plants are thick and bushy, so they’ll need plenty of room to spread out. The mature bushes will reach 4 to 5 feet in height. ‘Habanada’ peppers also do well on trellises, and the extra support will result in higher pepper yields. Immediately after they’ve been transplanted, water the plants generously; this will help overcome any transplant shock. Afterward, fertilize them every two weeks. ‘Habanada’ peppers take about 100 days to mature, and only reach a length of 2 to 3 inches. Patience is key for growing these peppers, and the wait and the effort are worth it in the end.
es heat. Bell peppers fall at the lower end of this scale, as they contain no capsaicin, and register 0 Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). Jalapeños are significantly hotter, and can register up to 8,000 SHUs. Habaneros, on the high end of the spectrum, register a sizzling 350,000 SHUs at their most potent. Habaneros are extremely hot. In Peppers: A Story of Hot Pursuits, author Amal Naj describes the experience of biting into one of these peppers: “Habaneros offer a sharp and violent bite, but then as quickly as it comes, it disappears, leaving behind a soothing and aromatic sensation. The pepper eater, basking in that mild euphoria, hardly remembers that he’d been savagely mauled just seconds earlier.” Over the years, these orange, lantern-shaped pods have become synonymous with heat. So when Bill Adams, a chile grower in Texas, discovered a low-heat habanero look-alike, it was a breakthrough. Adams shared those seeds with New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Chile Pepper Institute, which then conducted field trials to find selections for public release. Those selections became ‘NuMex Suave Red’ and ‘NuMex Suave Orange.’ (“Suave” means “soft,” “mellow,” or “smooth” in Spanish.) These peppers aren’t completely heat-free, but they’re mild compared with the average habanero. “If you’re someone who eats a lot of hot peppers, you won’t
even be able to feel the heat because it’s so mild,” says Danise Coon, the senior research specialist for the NMSU Chile Pepper Breeding and Genetics Program. “But they have the full aroma and flavor of regular habaneros.”
The ‘Habanada’ After this discovery, NMSU found other low-heat habaneros in one of its own seed banks. University staff sent some of those seeds to Cornell University, where they fell into the hands of Michael Mazourek,
he says. “You might add some seasoning, stir and taste, and decide you need more of something.” In 2008, Mazourek had a new pepper to release to the public. The ‘Habanada’ pepper — “nada” in this case meaning no heat — is tangerine-orange in color, but tapers to a point at the pepper’s bottom end, or apex. Mazourek says the pod’s shape — a jagged zigzag — was intentionally selected for its dissimilarity to traditional habaneros. “People want to be able to tell the difference between habaneros and ‘Habanada’ peppers,” Mazourek says. Imagine biting into a habanero when you thought it was a ‘Habanada,’ and you’ll understand why. The pepper’s jagged appearance has a second advantage. Most home cooks have a habit of removing the white ribs inside a pepper. “And in a ‘Habanada,’ all the flavor and aroma is in those white ribs,” Mazourek says. “So the ‘Habanada’ is intentionally a zigzag to make it challenging for people to defeat their flavor experience by peeling those white ribs out.”
FLICKR/EDSEL LITTLE
In some communities, these flavorful peppers are heirloom treasures. a graduate student. Mazourek, now an associate professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell, was drawn to these peppers not only for the challenge, but for the flavor. “Habaneros are delicious,” Mazourek says, “and I wanted to be able to eat more.” According to Mazourek, the project’s source pepper was low in heat, as well as in flavor. His task was to create a pepper with the full aroma of a habanero, but without any detectable heat. Mazourek likens plant breeding to working in the kitchen. “It’s like cooking,”
Heatless Heirlooms These heatless habaneros are exciting breakthroughs for plant breeders, chefs, and chile lovers. But they’re not the first. In fact, in some communities, these flavorful peppers are heirloom treasures. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
49
Most Like It Hot
Fool Me Once While the ‘Habanada’ was selected for its slight differences from the habanero, New Mexico State University has continued with its breeding experiments, taking the heatless pepper in a different direction. Released in 2015, the ‘NuMex Trick-or-Treat’ is a hybrid of ‘Orange Habanero’ and a low-heat pepper from Colombia. “We love that it looks exactly like an orange habanero but doesn’t have any of the heat,” say researcher Danise Coon. “You can easily trick your friends with it.”
Heirloom seasoning peppers — variously known as ají dulce, ají cachucha, and ají gustoso, depending on the location — are found throughout the Caribbean and Central America. “That’s how it is with peppers. Each agricultural community has a certain type of pepper that they grow generation after generation,” Coon says.
Thanks to Densmore’s seed-saving journey to eastern Cuba, I’m able to grow arroz con pollo in my Pennsylvania garden. Habaneros are adapted to their native tropical environments, but they’ll thrive anywhere with hot summers. “They’re almost like a weed,” Gettle says. “They’re really easy to cultivate. All the heatless habaneros tend to produce like crazy as long as you have warm weather.” Arroz con pollo can be slow to produce, but once it does, it fruits in abundance. I planted some with a variety of other sweet and hot peppers. While I didn’t notice a dramatically slower start, it has indeed produced a bounty. The ‘Habanada’ is likewise adapted for warm weather, but Mazourek says that, so far, the plants have thrived everywhere from New York to Florida. “They grow differently than a bell pepper or a jalapeño — it’s a longer season, a smaller seed, and a smaller seedling, so you have to plan around that,” Mazourek says. “‘Habanada’ peppers take a while to gain some momentum, but when they do, I recommend staking them.” Although these peppers should be healthy and happy to start, Mazourek says growers should withhold nitrogen applications until after the plants have flowered. Soil that’s too rich in compost will produce magnificent hedgerows without the fruit. “If you want to boost their hot pepper production,” he says, “get
Get Year-Round Organic Gardening Know-How The MOTHER EARTH NEWS universe is expanding with a new publication devoted entirely to organic gardening. Mother Earth Gardener will bring together an array of expert voices and myth-busting science to help you maintain the highest-quality food, flowers, and vegetation. Discover innovative strategies to plan your garden and enhance pollinator activity. Roll up your sleeves and learn soil-boosting techniques, permaculture practices, seed-saving, and more! Plus, your subscription entitles you to exclusive added benefits, such as member discounts on tools and resources, bonus online content, and an archive of articles on heirloom cultivars. Take the guesswork out of maintaining healthy crops without toxic chemicals each and every season. You’ll be getting more than just a magazine. Subscribe today at www.MotherEarthGardener.com/Save or call us at 800-456-5835.
50 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
BAKER CREEK HEIRLOOM SEEDS/RARESEEDS.COM
J. Densmore was born in eastern Cuba’s Holguín province. For the cooks of this region, a small red pepper known as arroz con pollo was the seasoning pepper of choice. Arroz con pollo — so named because it flavors the popular Cuban dish of the same name (chicken and rice) — bears a striking resemblance to habaneros, but has a bright-red hue when fully ripe. The peppers aren’t entirely without heat, but are extremely mild when compared with the traditional habanero. When Densmore was 10 years old, her family immigrated to the United States. Forty years later, she returned to Cuba for the first time, and reunited with family she hadn’t seen since she was a little girl. Toward the end of her trip, Densmore asked a friend to help her find the arroz con pollo pepper from her youth. The pair bought several at a local market, and Densmore dried the seeds to bring back to her home in the U.S. “I put them everywhere: in my suitcase, in my carry-on, in my pocket, and in my daughter’s luggage,” Densmore says. “That way, if some were taken, I had hope that others would make it home.” The seeds arrived home safely, and Densmore planted them immediately. She began to grow the pepper not only for her family, but also for Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Baker Creek founder Jere Gettle says arroz con pollo is one of his favorite seasoning peppers. “I use them any time I need a flavorful pepper,” Gettle says.
them out of a leaf-growing habit, and into a fruit-setting habit.” Under the right conditions, arroz con pollo and ‘Habanada’ can both be grown as perennials. Densmore has often dug her arroz con pollo plants out of the field to store in her basement during winter. “And then next spring, I have a 3-foot-tall pepper plant ready to go back outside,” she says.
ANDREW MOORE
Spicing Up the Kitchen I’ve used arroz con pollo numerous ways, but I’ve especially enjoyed it as the primary seasoning in various rice dishes. “There’s a lot of flavor packed into just one pepper,” Densmore says. “I can use three or four peppers to season a whole quart of beans. I still add my other herbs and spices, but these peppers just give it a little sass and tropical flair.” Coon says the ‘NuMex Suave Orange’ and ‘NuMex Suave Red’ pair well with fruit salsas and chutneys because their flavors are fruitier and more floral than other peppers.
The ‘Habanada’ can be used in place of habanero peppers for those who prefer less heat.
When my harvest is complete, I plan to make an arroz con pollo hot sauce. As much as I enjoy spice and heat in my foods, I’m looking forward to a “hot” sauce that doesn’t make my eyes water and my mouth burn.
Andrew Moore is a freelance writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He’s the author of Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit.
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51
Electric Fencing The pluses clearly outweigh the minuses with this simple and shockingly affordable fencing.
A
By Dale Strickler wasn’t well-built. I struggled with escaped livestock, the constant need for repairs, and ceaseless calls from angry neighbors. (I’m lucky to have good neighbors, since cattle walking through their cornfield will test the patience of even the best of friends.) I’ve made just about every possible construction mistake when building electric fences. Had I spent a little more time on construction, a little more money on the right materials, and a lot more time listening to advice from people with more experience, I would’ve saved a
Conductors The wire or cable conducts the electricity and is thus called a “conductor,” which is a good place to start. For my first fence, I used 14-gauge wire and barbed wire. Both are bad choices for an electric fence. That size of wire is simply too weak for permanent use, and it kinks and breaks easily. Once it begins to break, it’ll break over
STEVE SANFORD
s a containment system for livestock, a well-made electric fence can be both highly effective and relatively low maintenance. I’m not opposed to other methods of fencing, such as barbed wire; I’m just opposed to paying for them. If you already have a barbed wire fence, good. If you don’t have fence and need to build one, the most economical way — by a wide margin — is to build an electric fence the right way. Unfortunately, the first permanent electric fence I built was neither effective nor low maintenance, because it
ton of time, money, and grief. Foremost among those mistakes: I used metal line posts and 14-gauge wire; I attached wires directly to live trees; I alternated hot wires and ground wires; and I alternated barbed wire with smooth. Learn from my mistakes as I explain why all those were poor choices, and then adopt the more effective methods I’ve learned along the way.
52 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
DALE STRICKLER; STEVE SANFORD TOP:
FROM
and over again. I suspect my fence broke every time a deer hit it, a cow brushed against it, or the wind blew. Barbed wire, on the other hand, is quite strong, but the barbs in combination with electricity make it hazardous, since it can trap and kill livestock and pets. Because skin is an effective insulator, a barb can penetrate an animal’s skin and then send an extremely high voltage, which can be dangerous for the animal. In my fence, the smooth wire was constantly getting wrapped around the barbed wire, and since the smooth wire was hot and the barbed wire was grounded, the fence was constantly shorting out. Instead of this failed setup, here are some conductor materials I recommend: 12.5-gauge high-tensile wire. Far stronger than 14-gauge soft wire, this material isn’t prone to kinking. It’s stiff and hard to work with and must be rolled out with a device called a “spinning jenny.” It’s hard to take up and reuse. 16-gauge aircraft cable. This material is flexible and easy to work with, though not as strong as 12.5-gauge hightensile wire. It’s not commonly available, but, if you have a source, it makes for a great fencing material. Because it’s flexible and easy to put up and take down, it’s a favorite material of mine for temporary fencing and interior subdivisions. Barbless twisted twostrand wire. This is essentially barbed wire without the barbs. It’s for situations where something stronger than 12.5-gauge is called for, such as when you know animals will push on the wire.
Corner Posts One reason electric fences are cheaper is because they don’t require elaborate bracing the way barbed wire fences do. A single well-anchored corner post is all you’ll need. There are many op-
tions for corner posts, but my favorites are natural wood, in particular Osage orange, which is resistant to decay and can last for up to 50 years in the ground. No other post comes close. But Osage orange wood hardens over time and becomes difficult to drive staples into, and it’s heavy and otherwise hard to work with. In areas where Osage orange doesn’t grow, options include catalpa, bald cypress, redwood, red cedar, mulberry, and black locust; these can last 20 years or more. In areas without native decay-resistant trees, creosote-treated pine posts are the best option. To anchor corner posts, tamp loose gravel (rather than soil) around the base of the post to provide free drainage and greatly reduce the rate of post decay in the ground. Putting concrete around a fence post can strengthen its anchoring ability, but it should only be poured in the bottom of the hole, with gravel around it. If the hole is filled with concrete, water will move around and under the concrete, and, if it freezes, will force the concrete plug out of the ground. Also, over time, as the post dries and shrinks, a gap will form between it and the concrete that’s level with the soil surface. This will trap water and cause the post to rot faster. Line posts are used to hold up the conductors and maintain spacing between them. I used steel T-posts in my initial fence. As it turns out, any metal post is a bad choice. The main cause of electric fence problems is grounding out, and the easiest way to cause a fence to WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
53
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Electric Fencing: A Guide to Basics • Maintain a voltage of at least 3,000 volts on your fence line, and make sure to test your voltage with a fence tester. • Use a fence energizer with enough joules of output to properly electrify the fence. For example, a 0.5-joule output energizer should power four rolls of 164-foot goat netting or 2,500 feet of a 5- to 6-strand fence. • Because lighter animals make less foot-to-ground contact than heavier animals, you’ll need a higher-output energizer for them. • Properly ground your system. When
54 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Fiberglass posts, a sledgehammer, and a reel of polywire is all you need to erect a fence.
ground out is for a piece of metal anchored in the ground to accidentally touch the wire. Every single metal post is a potential fence fault. Never use metal posts in an electric fence system, as it’s asking for trouble. Avoid the rebar step-in posts as well, and the plastic claw insulators so commonly used in temporary electric fencing. Once a deer hits the wire and pops the fingers off the insulator, the wire will snap back against the post and ground out. Instead, posts should be self-insulated. Wood-plastic composite posts are probably the best line posts. Not only are they flexible, lightweight, and resistant to rot, but they don’t splinter, are easy to drive into the ground, and don’t conduct electricity. PVC T-posts are another good choice. They’re also free of splinters, nonconductive, and easy to drive. Plus, they have the added advantage of being fire-resistant. A tier below both of those options is a fiberglass rod. You can buy used fiberglass sucker rods cheaply as oil field surplus. Fiberglass rods also come in
plastic-coated, relatively splinter-free versions, in diameters ranging from ⅜ inch up to 1 inch. These are more user-friendly than the used sucker rod, but they’re also more expensive. Plasticcoated fiberglass rods are quite sturdy in larger diameters, and they’re nonconductive, but they’re heavy, hard to drive into the ground, quick to splinter, and hazardous to handle without gloves. An additional drawback of these rods is that they’re pale green and hard to spot in green grass. I use plastic-coated fiberglass rods because they’re cheap, but as soon as I get them, I spray-paint them blaze orange. This glues any splinters to the rod, making it safer to handle. The orange paint, coupled with a single wrap of aluminum foil tape, vastly improves visibility. Otherwise, my pickup tends to find them before I do. The best way to attach wire to these posts is to wrap a wire loop around the fence wire and run it through the post. Commercial fiberglass fence posts are also available. These are coated with a plastic that’s resistant to ultraviolet (UV) light and that reduces splintering. These
DALE STRICKLER (3)
the energizer’s pulse travels through the animal into the soil, the ground system returns the energy to the fence energizer, completing the circuit. For foolproof results, use 3 feet of ground rod per joule of output. Ground rods should be hot-dipped galvanized, not copper. (If soils are dry or rocky, use a high-output energizer or a positive/ negative fence system.) • Train your animals to the fence. This can be done by temporarily installing an electric fence in a corral. Place livestock in the corral and watch them experience the fence. They know they can’t go through the corral, so they’ll learn to reverse when they touch an electric fence. • Don’t expect an electric fence to contain hungry, amorous, scared, or lonely animals, which will challenge fences. It’s best to provide plenty of feed and forage, shelter, and a pasture between cycling females and males, or mothers and newly weaned offspring.
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A reel makes it easy to stretch wire between posts if you don’t have an extra set of hands to help.
posts come in diameters ranging from ⅜ inch up to 1 inch. I use the ½ -inchdiameter fiberglass rods for temporary fencing, such as in cornfields, and for interior subdivision fences. There are three options for holding wire to small-diameter fiberglass posts. My favorite is a wire loop that acts like a spring to hold the wire to the post. A simple twist of the post can be used to attach or detach the wire. The second is a flat metal plate with two roughedged holes in it, bent in a V-shape, with the post inserted through it. This is the strongest option, but it’s difficult to remove the wire once attached. It’s the best choice for permanent fences. Finally, you could use a claw-type insulator. These are commonly used on rebar posts, but they make a relatively weak attachment and are prone to breakage.
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threads offer additional surface area. You can attach the ground wires by wrapping them around the rod between two nuts and two flat washers, and then threading the nuts toward each other to ensure excellent contact. Another good grounding option is to use discarded road grader blades, polished with a wire brush and shoved into the soil with a front-end loader. You should space ground rods 10 feet apart to attain maximum soil volume for extracting electrons around each ground rod. The lead-out wire to the ground rods should be at least the same diameter as the lead-out wire to the fence, or it’ll restrict electron flow. Use a cable rather than a solid wire as a ground lead-out, since cables are more conductive than solid wire for a given diameter. Dale Strickler finds electric fencing indispensable on his Kansas cattle operation. He’s an agronomist specializing in cover cropping and grazing strategies to build soil health. This is excerpted from his book Managing Pasture (Storey Publishing, 2019), available below.
Build a Healthy Pasture for Grass-Based Meat and Dairy Animals In Managing Pasture, author Dale Strickler guides farmers and ranchers through the practical and ideological considerations behind the profitability of replacing expensive grain feed with nutrient-rich native grasses. In-depth examinations of the biology and benefits of grazing plants and different grazing strategies accompany detailed plans for fencing setups and livestock watering, and effective methods for dealing with common pasture problems throughout the seasons, from mud to drought. This title is available at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Store or by calling 800-234-3368. Mention promo code MMEPAKZ5. Item #9361.
56 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
MARS VILAUBI; ALAMY/FLPA; STEVE SANFORD; DAN VIDETICH
Fault finders. A must-have piece of equipment for me, a fault finder not only tests voltage but also reveals any faults in the fence. Look for a combination fault finder and fence charger in which the fault finder can remotely turn the fence charger on and off. This means that once a fault is located, you won’t have to go back to the fence charger, turn it off, go back to the fault, repair it, and go back to the charger to turn it on. The charger can be turned on and off remotely at the site of the fault, saving a lot of time. Grounding. An electric fence delivers a shock by sending electrons through the animal to the ground. These electrons must be replenished in the charger from the grounding system. The rate of electron replenishment depends on how much surface area is contacted by the ground rod system, as well as the electrical conductivity of the soil. The higher the joule rating of the charger, the better the grounding system must be. At a minimum, use a 6-foot ground rod for every 4 joules of fence charger. More ground rods may be needed if the soil is dry. I prefer to use threaded, galvanized redi-rods for grounding over commercial ground rods. They’re cheaper, and the
FROM TOP LEFT:
Porcelain is less desirable, as it tends to develop small cracks over time that can hold water and conduct electricity. Gray porcelain is stronger than white. Gripples. A fantastic little invention, the Gripple is a device with two small holes in it, into which two wires are inserted from opposite directions. The wires can go into the holes, but once they’re in, camlocks prevent them from being pulled out. Gripples can be used as both splicers and tensioners. Gates. These come in all forms. Besides the usual tubular metal swinging gates, there are also electric bungee cords, electrified springs, and all sorts of other devices. For most of my internal gates, I use a stretch of electric rope attached to an Old Ironsides gate handle. It’s durable, flexible, and highly visible. Chargers. I can offer one solid piece of advice about chargers: Go big! Size does matter. I want a charger that will make an animal believe Thor smote it with a lightning bolt. This will make it clear to that animal that it should never get close to the fence again. The size of a charger is measured in joules. I use a relatively large (24-joule) charger whenever I can.
A Gripple can be used as a splicer or tensioner.
CLOCKWISE
From left: A plastic pinlock insulator. A double-U insulator.
Circle #26; see card pg 89
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Build Your Own
Brooder Nurture your nascent covey in this cozy hand-built box. Story and photos by Kelly Bohling
I
’ve used several homemade brooders for brooding and raising quail over the years. Storage tote models work well, especially if you’re just starting out. After brooding several generations of chicks, though, I decided to design a sturdy, durable brooder guided by the experience I’d had with other setups. In designing this homemade brooder, I considered ease of access for cleaning, options for heat lamp placement, security from potential predators, and, of course, price. After buying new lumber, hardware cloth, and paint, the project cost about $100. However, repurposing or sourcing used lumber, hardware cloth, and paint would greatly reduce this cost. Before constructing the brooder, there are some details regarding materials you should consider. While cedar boards might seem tempting, this aromatic wood isn’t suitable for quail or other fowl. It can cause respiratory problems and is best avoided. I would also strongly discourage using treated
A Tip from the Incubator Specialists Cleaning incubators after a good hatch is a critical step in continuing success. The temperature required for successful incubation is also perfect for bacteria to thrive. Remove any debris with a soft brush, such as a paintbrush. Soak the bottom and water tray in warm soapy water, rinse thoroughly, and, if the weather allows, set them in direct sunlight for a few hours. Clean the electronic parts and temperature wafers with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, and, as a final step, spray the base with a dilute bleach solution. Let that dry, and you’re ready for the next batch of eggs!
58 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
lumber. I chose to use both PVC-coated hardware cloth and galvanized hardware cloth. I envisioned the heat lamp resting directly on the hardware cloth on the lid in the early days of brooding to keep the chicks warm, and I wanted to avoid direct contact between the lamp and the PVC-coated hardware cloth. So, I used the galvanized hardware cloth exclusively on the lid. On the other hand, PVC-coated hardware cloth is perfect for the floor of the brooder, to help make cleaning easier. Mold- and mildew-resistant primer is best. Any low- or zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint is ideal, and I highly recommend semi-gloss or high-gloss to make cleaning easier. Begin by using the Cut List (below, right) to prepare the lumber you’ll need for the build.
Quail, Assemble! With the sanding block, smooth any rough edges or splintered places along the length of the cut pieces. Wipe the sanded pieces with a dry rag to remove residual dust. Next, paint every piece (including the hardwood underlay and the 73½-inch-long 1x2 remainder) with primer, making sure to avoid drips or excess that will affect how the pieces eventually fit together. When the primer is dry to the touch, apply a coat of paint, still being
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Tools & Materials • Table or circular saw • Sanding block with medium-grit sandpaper • Paintbrush • Rag • Hand stapler • Tinsnips • Power drill with 7⁄64-inch and 1⁄8inch drill bits • Level • ¼-inch staples • 1¼-inch #6 all-purpose screws • 2-inch #6 all-purpose screws • 3-inch #9 deck screws • Hinges and accompanying screws (2) • 1x2s, 8 feet long (2) • 1x3s, 8 feet long (3) • 1x8s, 6 feet long (2) • 1x8, 8 feet long • 2x4s, 8 feet long (4) • 5-millimeter, 2-by-4-foot hardwood plywood underlayment panel • 1 quart primer • 1 quart high-quality semi-gloss or high-gloss paint • ½-inch-by-2-foot-by-5-foot galvanized 19-gauge hardware cloth • ½-inch-by-2-foot-by-5-foot PVCcoated 19-gauge hardware cloth
Cut pieces.
Cut List Lid Frames 1x3s, 27 inches long (2) 1x3s, 34 inches long (2) 1x3s, 22 inches long (2) 1x3s, 39 inches long (2)
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careful to avoid drips. Let the paint cure according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
one frame, using the same ¼-inch staples. Line up the 2-foot side of the galvanized hardware cloth with the short end of the frame, and then center the edge of the hardware cloth on the board, so the cut ends will be completely hidden once it’s sandwiched between the frames. Staple the hardware cloth down every few inches across this board. I try to staple diagonally across the intersection of wires to avoid possible movement later (see photo at left, second from top). Unroll the hardware cloth down the length of the frame, keeping moderate tension on the roll and stapling it every few inches on each side, making sure to keep it taut across the opening. When you’re near the end of the frame, measure 1½ inches in from the edge of the lid, cut the hardware cloth with the tinsnips to this length, and finish stapling the cloth (see photo, bottom left). Next, line up the second frame on top of the first. The hardware cloth should be sandwiched between the frames (see photo, bottom right). With the
Put a Lid on It The first step is to construct the lid of the brooder box, which is made up of 1x3 boards. The lid is made of two frames, with the galvanized hardware cloth sandwiched between them. On a covered, level surface, lay out the two 27-inch boards and two 34inch boards that will make up the first lid frame. The 34-inch boards will sit inside the 27-inch boards (see top photo at right). Then, lay out the two 22inch boards and two 39-inch boards that will make up the second lid frame. For this frame, the 22-inch boards Lid frames with dimensions. will sit inside the 39-inch boards. While both frames yield the same dimensions of 39 by 27 inches, the arrangement is offset to give added strength. (see photo, top right). Staple the joints with the hand stapler, using ¼ -inch staples. This is only to hold the joints in place temporarily. Next, staple the galvanized hardware cloth to Stapling hardware cloth to the lid.
Lid with hardware cloth stapled to it.
Sandwiching lid frames. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
61
Completed lid.
Brooder box dimensions.
frames aligned, use the 7/64-inch bit to pre-drill four equidistant pilot holes into the long sides of the top (unattached) frame, and two or three into the short sides of the frame. Using the 1¼-inch #6 screws, screw the frames
together. Flip over (now with the bottom frame on top) and pre-drill pilot holes in the corners to reinforce the lid, using the 7/64-inch bit and 1¼inch #6 screws, to complete the lid (see photo, above left).
A Box for Your Brood The brooder box itself is made by stacking two shallow boxes, which I’ll refer to as the top and bottom boxes. The quail will have approximately 14 inches of headroom, which is roomier
Circle #35; see card pg 89
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PVC-coated hardware cloth stapled to the bottom box.
Aligning floor trim.
than many commercial brooders. Lay out the 1x8 boards in two sets of two 36-inch boards and two 22 ½ -inch boards. The longer boards will go on the outside, the shorter ones inside. Taking care to keep each corner at a 90-degree angle, stand the boards on edge and pre-drill three equidistant pilot holes on the outside corners with the 7/64-inch bit. Assemble with 1¼-inch #6 screws (see left photo, previous page).
ate tension and stapling every few inches on each longer side. When you get to the other short end, staple across and cut off the remainder with tinsnips, making sure the edge is flush with the box edge (see photo, above left). Locate the four 1x2s; these will act as trim reinforcements to help support the floor. Stack the 1x2s on top of the 1x8s (see photo, above right). Use the 7/64-inch bit to pre-drill four
When both boxes are assembled, designate one of them as the bottom box. You’ll attach the PVC-coated hardware cloth to this box. Staple the 2-foot side of the PVC-coated hardware cloth to the short side of the box. The hardware cloth and box edge need to be flush to achieve maximum strength. Staple every few inches across the short side. Unroll a few inches at a time down the length of the box, maintaining moder-
Circle #18; see card pg 89
Assembling leg units. Trim attached to the floor of the brooder box.
equidistant pilot holes through the sides of long 1x2s, and three into the short ones. Align the edge of one long piece flush with the edge of the box and attach it with 2-inch #6 screws. Attach the short pieces next, and end with a long piece to ensure a snug fit (see photo, above left).
Give Your Box a Leg Up Next, assemble the legs. There will be four leg units, each made from two 48-inch 2x4s attached to each other at a 90-degree angle (see middle photo, Page 65). Support the free edge of the top board with a scrap 2x4 to stabilize the work during this
Circle #40; see card pg 89
64 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
step (see left photo, Page 65). Pre-drill four equidistant pilot holes down the length of the top board with a â&#x2026;&#x203A;-inch bit. Screw the boards together with 3-inch #9 screws, making sure to keep the edges and ends flush (see photo, above right). Assemble the remaining three leg units in the same manner. Attach the legs to the four outside corners of the top box (the box
Leg assembly supported by an extra 2x4.
A finished leg unit.
without the floor). Align the tops of the legs with the top of the box to avoid a gap when the lid is closed. This is easiest to do with two people. While one person holds the top box level, the other can align a corner of the box with the L shape of the leg. Using the 7/64-inch bit, pre-drill two pilot holes from inside the box into the leg, and attach with 2-inch #6
screws. Attach the second leg on the opposite corner, making sure the box is level. Repeat process for remaining two legs. Maneuver the bottom box, with the mesh floor facing down, directly beneath the top box, making sure the edges are flush, to form a single box. Connect the bottom box in the same manner as the top box (see previous column). At this point, the
A brooder box without a lid.
box, floor, and legs are complete (see photo, above right).
Hanging Hinges Place the lid flat on top of the box unit, lining up the outside edges of the lid with the outside edges of the legs. Decide which side of the brooder will
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Circle #2; see card pg 89 WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
65
Marking the placement of a hinge.
be the back, and then install one hinge centered on either leg on that side (see photo, above left). Pre-drill pilot holes for the accompanying screws, and attach hinges to the lid. Installing 1x2 drop board supports.
Design a Dependable Drop Board The unit is usable at this stage, depending on where you plan on using it. Droppings will fall to the floor or into a chosen receptacle. Because I intended to use mine inside,
I designed a “drop board” that I cover with newspaper to catch droppings, and change as needed. If you choose to do the same, you’ll need to install supports for the drop board. Starting 12 inches off the floor, measure the
distance between the inside corner of one front leg to the inside corner of the opposite front leg, and repeat between the back legs. (These measurements may not be exactly 36 inches, which is why I recommend waiting until this
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the quail get a little older, you can allow them to stand directly on the wire floor. Provide them with a board or box to occasionally get off the wire. If desired, the brooder legs can be removed for storage. The high-gloss paint and coated hardware cloth floor will allow for easy cleaning once the chicks outgrow the brooder, and the primer will further limit potential mold or mildew problems from spilled water.
Kelly Bohling lives in Lawrence, Kansas. She has raised Japanese quail for several years, and continues to seek improvements in hatching, brooding,
A drop box installed.
and keeping quail. She writes on quail for the Community Chickens website,
point to cut these pieces.) Cut the 73 ½ -inch 1x2 remainder to length, and install by pre-drilling a pilot hole at each end with the 7/64-inch bit and attaching with 2-inch #6 screws (see right photo, Page 66). Place the 2-by-
3-foot plywood drop board on top (see photo, above). In the early stages of brooding, you may still need to line the floor with paper towels to keep the chicks’ feet from going through the mesh, but as
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Compact Tractors What things factor in to choosing appropriate compact tractors?
Y
By Oscar H. Will III
ou’ve decided to take the financial plunge because your back just won’t take all the lifting. You’ve put off those earth-moving projects long enough, but you need a machine that can do much more than dig. In two years, you want to make a little hay, but the driveway needs grading too. You’ve decided that a compact tractor will fit the bill, but there are so many choices. And what does shuttle-shift transmission really mean? When it comes to choosing a first tractor, the process can be daunting, but armed with a little implement understanding and machinery know-how, you can learn to speak the dealer’s language and get what you need. 68 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
What to Consider When Buying Compact tractor models have proliferated in North America ever since Japanese manufacturers defined the market back in the 1960s. Today, the compact tractor arena is crowded with models that run the gamut from economy to entry level to fully tricked out. Add variations in chassis size and weight, widely ranging engine power, and transmission choices that are almost continuously variable, and you have a decision-maker’s mess on your hands. Figuring out what you need is a little more difficult than figuring out what you want, but the process need not be as daunting as it initially appears.
Begin with the Basics Every tractor worth considering will have a clean, fuel-efficient diesel engine,
transmission(s), rear 3-point hitch, rear drawbar, one or two power take-off (PTO) points, and a hydraulic system. Most of the tractors also will be equipped with four-wheel drive (if it’s optional, I’d nearly always recommend investing in the option), a loader (invariably worth the money), and occasionally a backhoe or other mounted rear attachment. You should think of the tractor as a pulling/ pushing machine as well as a platform for attaching and powering implements and other tools as diverse as emergency home generators, snow plows, and bellymounted finish mowers. Basic tractors without any attachments will cost anywhere from about $10,000 to well over $30,000, depending on their power rating, size, and the level to which they’re
appointed with high-end engines, transmissions, and hydraulic systems.
Power to the People One of the first questions you’ll need to answer in your quest for the perfect tractor relates to power — PTO power and pulling power. Unfortunately, most makers lead with net engine power, because it’s a larger number than PTO power, but PTO power is important to know when you plan to run PTOpowered implements, such as rear shredder mowers and rotary tillers. The PTO power rating will determine the size of mower or tiller you can efficiently run with the tractor, not whether you can run one at all. If you need to mow with a 6-foot wide mower, you’ll need more PTO horsepower than if you mow with a 4-foot-wide model. For most rural enthusiasts, PTO power in the 25 to 50 hp range should suffice. Since many makers offer several tractor chassis sizes in overlapping hp ranges, you’ll also want to consider the weight of implements and other devices you plan to push or pull with the tractor. In general, the more the machine weighs, the more traction you’ll have for moving and stopping. So, if you’re like me and love the sound of a direct-injected, turbocharged diesel engine’s turbo spooling up, consider carefully whether you really need that extra power compared with the non-turbocharged engine. If you really don’t need it, save yourself some money and buy what you need, rather than what you want. Likewise, if you need more PTO power, but not a heavier platform, consider making the power upgrade in a smaller chassis machine.
Directional Forces Compact tractor makers have gone to great lengths to market new machines that “drive just like your car.” What that really means is that designers have taken the traditional operating steps out of the operator’s realm. There was a time when small tractors of all kinds had at least two, and sometimes three, gear selector levers: One controlled the speed range (high/ low), one the speed (first through fourth gears), and many had a separate control
Moving round bales of hay is only one of myriad tasks you can accomplish with a compact tractor.
lever for direction called a shuttle (forward/reverse). For folks with plenty of tractor experience, this vintage-style setup makes complete sense, and the need to stop and clutch the tractor to change gears isn’t an issue. Many of the more recent compact tractors have traded their traditional transmissions for a hydrostatic version that employs one or two pedals to control both speed and direction. An even newer variation on the pedal-controlled transmission theme is the continuously variable transmission (CVT), which uses mechanical speed modulation instead of hydraulic flow. In both cases, the “easy” transmission options add quite a bit to the tractor’s price tag. Generally, if you plan to do a lot of direction and speed changes, such as with intensive front-end loader work, the hydro or CVT will make that work easier and arguably more efficient. The next best option would be a tractor with a synchronized or automatic clutching shuttle shift transmission. That way, you’d only need to slow and clutch for the directional changes. If money is worth more than convenience or your time, then you can go for the traditional straight gear transmission. You’ll need to stop, clutch, and make a transmission shift to change directions, but in other operations, such as field mowing, the hydro, CVT, or shuttle options don’t offer much advantage under most conditions.
Dealing with Your Dealer Face it, compact tractors simply aren’t available from your local box store. It’ll be difficult to make an anonymous purchase, as you’ll have to interface with your local
dealer. If your only dealership experience lies in negotiating for an automobile, try to put as much of that out of your mind as possible. A tractor purchase is the beginning of a long-term relationship (tractor service life is measured in hours and translated into decades in most cases, not years), and your dealer stands to make more profit from you over the years through the sale of parts, accessories, implements, utility vehicles, and other extras. You can help ensure a good dealership experience by doing a little homework on the brand or brands you’re interested in, and knowing exactly how you foresee using the tractor. Be upfront about what your spending range is, but know that there’s some room for negotiation. If the initial discussion makes you uncomfortable, feel free to admit that you don’t know or understand something. Ask more questions, but resist the urge to finalize the decision during that discussion. Instead, take notes, go home, and do more research before coming back to the table. Finally, insist on sufficient training and a significant test drive — most dealers will deliver a loaner machine to your place for a few days — before pulling the trigger. If you don’t like the way a machine works, test drive another make or model. If you ultimately don’t like the dealer, find another in your area. Once you make your purchase, read the owner’s manual, keep safety your No. 1 priority, and turn all that farm work into fun! Sponsored by: www.YanmarTractor.com WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Homestead Hacks Projects from Our Readers
Apple Cider Syrup Preserve your cider bounty with this old-fashioned New England recipe. By Andrea Chesman
a lot of space. In our quest to free up some
a comeback in modern cooking. These
n average, 1 bushel of apples will
freezer room and find new ways to use apple cider, we decided to give apple cider
recipes are from my book The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How.
yield 3 to 31⁄2 gallons of cider. If you have an apple tree or two, or
syrup a try. Apple cider syrup and its sugarless ver-
I enjoy apple cider syrup on pancakes and waffles, and use it to flavor granola and
otherwise harvest apples in bulk, that can
sion, boiled cider (also called “apple molas-
home-cured bacon. It makes a lovely drizzle
result in a lot of cider — likely more than you care to consume fresh.
ses”), are old New England staples, dating back to early European settlement. These
for roasted vegetables and pound cake. It’s also excellent as a sweetener for oatmeal,
In the past, apple cider was often fermented into hard cider, which was enjoyed
shelf-stable sweetening agents were used as a way to preserve excess apple harvests,
tea, and baked goods. Boiled cider is still sweet, but somewhat
morning, noon, and night by the young and old alike. Nowadays, most people freeze
and to add a bit of tart apple flavor to a wide variety of foods and beverages. Once
sharper-tasting than its sugary counterpart. It’s a fine addition to baked beans, and can
excess cider to keep it fresh. While this is a fine preservation method, it can take up
quite popular, the syrups fell into obscurity for a time, but are beginning to make
be used in baked goods, such as gingerbread, in place of sugar cane molasses.
O
Apple cider syrup is a simple way to add a touch of autumn flavor to your favorite dishes, such as warm waffles. 70 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Before You Start Making apple cider syrup is simple and requires little hands-on time, but there are a few things to consider before you begin. Syrup has a boiling point of 219 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level, which is 7 degrees higher than the boiling point of water. If syrup boils at higher temperatures than this, it’ll begin to solidify, so watch closely toward the end of the process, or you won’t get a nice, fluid product. Unless you’re using pasteurized cider, your syrup will likely appear hazy, caused by the pectin and particulate matter in the cider. Over time, the particulate mat-
Making cider syrup can take awhile, so plan for a day when you'll be around the house.
ter may settle to the bottom. This is just a cosmetic issue and nothing to worry about, but you can strain the cider before boiling if you'd like.
Apple Cider Syrup Recipe You can quadruple this recipe, yielding 8 pints, but the time to reduce the syrup will also increase significantly. I make syrup 1 gallon at a time, and typically store it in the fridge so I don’t have to mess with a boiling water bath. Yield: 2 pints.
ALLISON SARKESIAN (3)
• 1 gallon fresh or thawed apple cider • 2⁄3 to 1 cup sugar Directions: Wash and dry 2 pint canning jars, and prepare the lids and bands. Chill a plate in the freezer if you don’t have a reliable thermometer or hydrometer. Pour cider into a tall, heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. For a clearer syrup, avoid any sediment that's settled to the bottom of the jug. When the cider has reduced by about half, after about 1 to 2 hours of boiling, stir in 2⁄3 to 1 cup sugar, depending on how sweet the cider is and how concentrated you want the syrup. Continue boiling the cider until it reaches the boiling point for syrup on a thermometer (7 degrees Fahrenheit above the boiling point of water at your elevation), or tests “done” on a hydrometer. You can also pour a spoonful of syrup onto a chilled plate and run a finger through the puddle; if it doesn’t immediately flow back together, the syrup is ready. For 1 gallon of cider placed over a high-powered burner, the total boiling
A jar of apple cider syrup makes a great homemade gift for friends and family. time will be about 2 to 3 hours. The syrup should have reduced to approximately onequarter of the original cider volume. Heat the pint jars, and then use a canning funnel to add hot syrup to the jars, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Seal with canning lids and bands. Let the jars sit at room temperature for 12 hours, or until completely cool. Store in a refrigerator for 3 to 4 weeks, or in a freezer indefinitely. Alternatively, after the jars have been filled with syrup, process them for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on your elevation, in a water bath canner. (I use the same processing times as the National Center for Home Food Preservation's recommended time for berry syrup.) Once cooled, store
the syrup in a cool, dark place, where it’ll last indefinitely.
Boiled Cider The process to make boiled cider is the same as that to make cider syrup, without the sugar. Following the steps for Apple Cider Syrup, boil the cider until it’s concentrated down to about one-eighth of its original volume and reaches the syrup boiling point. Because there’s no added sugar, this will take longer than with cider syrup; expect to let it boil for 4 to 5 hours. It'll be thick, dark, sweet, and somewhat sharptasting, like sugar cane molasses. One gallon of cider yields 2 half-pint jars of boiled cider. Can and store the jars same as above, processing for 10 minutes. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
71
BELTON,
Texas Feb. 15-16
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The Mother Earth News Fair and Fermentation Frenzy are produced in conjunction with each other. For more information about either event, as well as discount passes, please visit
www.MotherEarthNewsFair.com or call 800-234-3368
The Pitchfork Pulpit
By Joel Salatin
What We Can
his own behaviors and interactions.
I
’m confident that working with animals has made me more mindful of how I relate to other people. Gardeners, this column isn’t a slight against what we can learn from plants. We can learn plenty from them too. But for now, I want to concentrate on what I’ve
Every animal has a unique knack; caretakers can honor those gifts by matching them to a suitable habitat.
say around here, “When you’re training to electric fence, you want their first experience to be memorable.” Don’t dillydally around with halfway voltage. Make it hot. To keep it consistent during the training period, we put a spring in the middle of that wire to keep it from breaking when the pigs run through it. Without the spring, the pigs would keep breaking the wire every time they went over or under it, and it would be more of a sideshow than a consistent training thread. Early and aggressive exposure to limits and expectations enables a lifetime of enjoyment. If you can’t go to bed at night knowing your animals will be where
TOP:
taught Joel a lot about
learned from a lifetime of raising livestock. 1 Train early and seriously. The longer bad habits persist, and the later in life training starts, the harder it is to get control of your animals. The smartest farm animal is the pig. In my experience, no animal trains better to electric fence, but no animal tests the fence as much. When we buy weaner pigs at about 40 pounds, we put them in a solid physical pen and train them to electric fence within a few days of them becoming acclimated to their new digs (literally). A portable energizer connected to a short wire 3 feet away from the end of their pen offers a 10,000-volt lesson. As we
FROM
Raising livestock has
TERESA SALATIN; ADOBE STOCK/TNTK
Learn from Livestock
ADOBE STOCK/EVAHEAVEN2018; ADOBE STOCK/NICOLAS CALZAS; DREAMSTIME/OLGA VORONISHCHEVA TOP:
FROM
they’re supposed to be tomorrow morning, you can never really sleep. To be effective, electric fence must be sufficiently energized, tight, visible, and the right height. If any of these is wrong, you’ll have issues. Setting expectations early certainly works well with people. Children respond to clear, consistent discipline. Teachers must establish clear expectations on the first day of class, or they’ll be dealing with uncontrollable students the rest of the year. New employees respond to clear and direct rules early. Failure to communicate protocols leaves too much to interpretation, lets bad habits develop, facilitates inappropriate activities, and generally moves an organization into dysfunction. Too many times, I’ve seen people get animals for the first time and put them in a haphazard pen of baling twine, duct tape, and half-rotten pallets, and then complain about their “stupid animals” that won’t stay home. Folks, these animals have 24/7 to survey their situation, find weaknesses, and generally wreak havoc on your plans and sanity. They don’t need to visit the doctor, go to school, get licenses, or fill out mortgage paperwork. They’re simply doing and being exactly what they were created and designed to do and be. Don’t blame the pig. I’m not saying children are pigs. But children, like animals, have lots of time to figure out the holes in our plans. Direct them early and consistently, and they’ll usually give you less grief later on. 2 Each animal has a unique gift. They’re quite different. For example, we use pigs to turn our compost. A big pig will dig 3 feet deep. That’s some serious pig power to oxygenate a compost pile. A chicken likes to turn things too, but a hen doesn’t have the strength of a pig. Her scratching is much daintier. I wouldn’t run pigs in an orchard, even though they’d love to pick up dropped apples. They’d dig deep divots and expose fragile hair roots. Chickens are better for orchards because they’re lighter and will still eat dropped fruit and bugs. But ducks — now there’s the orchardist’s best friend. Even among ducks, Indian Runners distinguish themselves for their voracious bug appetites and inability to scratch divots. You’d never ask a duck to turn com-
Ducks are adept at clearing orchards of dropped fruit and bugs.
Animals respond well to gentle, intentional interaction with humans.
When approaching livestock, use slow and subtle movements over sudden motions. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
75
The Pitchfork Pulpit
Chickens are skilled scroungers in compost piles, gardens, and orchards.
ure out what those gifts are and feed their natural bent, because people are all different. I can’t read a blueprint to save my soul. I’m completely verbal. But other people love blueprints. They don’t want to hear me describe an Eggmobile; they want to see the drawings. In the same way, no animal is worthless. Each has something to contribute, and if an animal isn’t contributing, usually it’s because we, as caretakers, have failed to honor its distinctiveness. Ditto for people. Our culture is desperate for peopleaffirming vocations, noble visions, and sacred missions. We need writers and speakers, builders and dismantlers. We need engineers and prophets, scientists and poets. Imagine if, as a society, in
our marriages and families and communities, we’d honor the specialness of people as we farmers honor the specialness of our animals. We’d never put a pig in a tomato patch. We’d never put a chicken in a dog pen. And yet we routinely squeeze people into boxes of performance and institutional trajectories because that’s what society needs or expects, not because it’s a context that facilitates flourishing. I could want to milk a pig forever, but I’ll get a lot further milking a cow. 3 Be gentle. Perhaps the most common admonition I need to give urban visitors to our farm, especially to children, is to move slowly and speak softly. Suddenness scares animals.
Join Us at Polyface Farm If you’ve ever wondered how to manage pigs outdoors in a practical and efficient way, find out during the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR at Polyface Farm. Enjoy an up-close view of the animals, their feeders, electric fencing, and a waterer setup as you hear an explanation of each piece in the management puzzle. Several techniques, such as including a wooden gate in each paddock and unspillable water, create better hygiene for pastured or forest-raised pigs. That’s the advantage of having an on-farm FAIR: You can see the livestock in their natural habitat, along with all the infrastructure that supports them. This will be a unique learning experience. Come for either or both days, July 17-18, 2020, in Swoope, Virginia, just outside of Staunton. For more information and discounted advance passes, visit www.MotherEarthNewsFair.com or call 800-234-3368.
ADOBE STOCK/NICK BEER
post, but ducks are perfect for gardens and orchards. But unless you have a lot of ducks, they’ll never keep up with the grass. Cows eat the most grass, but they’re heavy on the ground, often hurting tender tree root hairs in the top couple of inches of soil. They also scratch heavily against trees, causing too much damage. Sheep, historically used as orchard and vineyard grazers, are much lighter on the ground and can’t reach as high to nibble leaves or fruit. I’ll never forget being mesmerized for an hour in an olive grove north of San Francisco by a flock of goats pruning suckers. They climbed 12 feet high into the trees, pruning all that inner sucker growth. They also mowed the grass under the trees. Certainly no other herbivore would climb 12 feet up into an olive tree and prune it for you. But a goat would never scrounge through a cow pie and eat out the fly maggots, either. We have chickens to thank for that wonderful talent. I could go on in this vein, but by now I think my point is clear: Every animal has a distinctive gift, and it’s up to us as caretakers to place each animal in a habitat that will honor, respect, and affirm its gift. Wow. If that doesn’t sound like something people could use, I don’t know what does. Every person has a unique ability. Starting with children, we need to fig-
The Pitchfork Pulpit Animals respond to deliberate, systematic interaction. Perhaps the most advanced thing we do on our farm is sorting cows. Each cow has a flight zone, and a cow’s field of vision is about 330 degrees. You never want to come at a cow in her blind spot, right at her rear. As a prey animal, she’ll think she’s being attacked and will either take flight or whirl around to get a good look at you — and scare you to death in the process. Cows move forward if you walk toward their shoulders. If you walk toward their necks, they’ll back up. These responses are subtle enough that when you become a master of stockmanship, you can tilt your head and affect movement. Bud Williams, the late great guru of animal handling, always said that if something isn’t working, you should slow down. Frustrated? Slow down. Cattle won’t go where you want them? Slow down. Sudden changes frighten people too. As do yelling and screaming. You’ll never get a cow settled if you’re yelling and beating her. But if you scratch her tail head, rub behind her ears, and coo gently, she’ll quit quivering and gradually settle. People respond the same way. Be fun. Be gentle. Don’t threaten and stomp. Coo. We caretakers are certainly smarter than our animals. We can yell and strike and frighten. But we’ll get along much better if we subjugate those base tendencies and move slowly, methodically, respectfully, quietly, and gently. As our uninitiated visitors learn, it takes more strength to be gentle than to be bombastic and agitated. We can learn a lot from our animals, God bless ‘em. With all they have to teach me, I learn more every day. Joel Salatin’s family owns and operates Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, producing salad bar beef, pastured poultry, pigaerator pork, and forage-based rabbits. The farm services 6,000 families and 50 restaurants, and offers many educational opportunities for people wanting to learn these pasture-based systems. Learn more at www.PolyfaceFarms.com.
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Country Lore
Readers’ Tips to Live By
A Popular Tree on the Homestead
I
n the eastern United States, a common hardwood tree, the yellow poplar, serves to benefit not only wildlife, but people as well. Yellow poplar, also
You can make a sturdy fleshing beam for larger hides from smaller logs. Our first fleshing beam was made of debarked poplar. I didn’t have space at the time to
known as “tulip tree,” isn’t actually in the same family as other poplar
put it in the shop, however, so it sat outside after that hunting and trap-
trees. Learning to identify this tree properly can be beneficial, as it
ping season. The elements took their toll on the untreated logs, and though
makes for colorful lumber, a readily
the wood held up for another season,
available woodworking source, and food for different animals.
the damage had been done, and it began to rot. Because we had room
I’ve found great use for yellow popular for walking sticks, and for
indoors the next time, my husband built a much sturdier beam that can
fleshing beams and stretchers for my hide-tanning projects. Though we
withstand the pressure and weight of fleshing even a full cowhide. Because
don’t burn it in the woodstove or mill the boards for major projects, we still
of this experience, I recommend keeping any form of untreated poplar
find ways to use what’s cut down dur-
for crafts indoors.
ing any land clearing. Crafting. This particular wood isn’t generally recommended for major building projects. This is mainly because trees harvested for old-growth heartwood have been found to have a resistance to decay, but most younger trees you encounter are mainly sapwood and don’t have the same durability. The lumber is great for small woodworking projects, however, and branches and smaller logs can also be used. We frequently make simple walking sticks from small tulip poplar branches, or from smaller cleared saplings, because they’re easy to peel and are quite lightweight when dried properly. We’ve also used saplings to put together simple hide-stretching frames by connecting four long poles together with small notches, and lashing or nailing them together. Wood slices cut from small branches also make for beautiful coasters and Christmas ornaments that are suitable for woodburning and painting after they’ve been sanded. Even the peeled bark makes for useful cordage, which I use to display our bone needles.
Larger poplar logs that are suitable to be milled can be used in a variety of woodworking projects. Uses of the lumber include indoor trimming and making toys, cabinets, furniture, jewelry boxes, and much more. Yellow poplar is also commonly hauled off for pulpwood during the clear-cutting of land. Firewood. Various types of wood are evaluated with British thermal units (Btu), which tells you the heat production of that specific type of wood, in turn helping to determine which wood will keep you warmer for longer. In our area, different species of oak and hickory are commonly sold for firewood, holding a Btu value of anywhere between 24.6 to 27.7, depending on the type of tree. By comparison, yellow poplar is valued at only 16.0 and is preferred for getting a fire going or to mix in with other firewood that has a higher Btu. For this reason, it’s not recommended for use as the main fuel to heat a home, but would be suitable for a small outdoor fire pit. Fala Burnette Ashland, Alabama
82 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
Fala uses yellow poplar in many ways around her property, including for cordage and fleshing beams.
Prevailing Over Pigeons My husband and I bear no particular
The RichMar Solarium With the help of my friend Richard, I successfully built the solarium I’d been dream-
malice toward pigeons, but last summer, we went from having a single pair on our
ing of for years. Since I live on a slope of solid rock, selecting a site was the first major hurdle. The only suitable site had several trees that needed to be cut down. A different
property in May to a dozen active birds by the end of the summer. One giant family
friend offered to do the job, but two years passed before he could get around to it. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because the site turned into a huge puddle
claimed the inside of our barn and silo as
after a downpour. With this knowledge, I brought in six loads of chert to build up a pad
a home base. Their droppings landed everywhere, and the old hay barn and everything stored in it became unsanitary and unsightly. Our solution was cheap, easy, and nonlethal. First, we downloaded raptor calls to a cellphone. We used an out-of-date phone that was collecting dust in a drawer. Our raptor calls came from a public library CD, but you can also find them online. Then, we installed a USB port in a handy spot. This setup keeps the phone charged. We also plugged in some little speakers. Finally, we play the raptor calls on medium volume constantly. When we’re working in the barn, we switch to music. Our calls include a variety of eight different hawks and owls. The variety is important for this to be effective, and you should begin these calls in early spring to scare off the very first pigeons before they settle in to nest. This system has worked all summer for us, even when we were away from home for several weeks. Since we’ve had the system in place, there haven’t been any pigeons in the barn or silo. Our songbirds don’t seem to be affected at all, and we’ve had a record number of nesting bluebirds. Sylvia Duncan Bear Lake, Michigan
on the site. That was an expense I hadn’t counted on, and it used up all the money I’d saved up to buy wood. So I was forced to wait some more. Meanwhile, I ran across some nice windows at a neighbor’s yard sale. He makes his living replacing old windows, and he gave me a whole truckload instead of taking them to the landfill as he normally does. Richard suggested that the easiest way to build the solarium would be to make two lean-tos butted against each other, one higher than the other, so I could have clerestory windows to open for ventilation. The finished building is 16 feet wide and 32 feet long. I put a 4x4 post every 8 feet down the middle and along each side. Then, I filled in with a patchwork of windows. I used corrugated polycarbonate panels for the roof. Odd spaces are filled with scraps of greenhouse plastic. I discovered that digging post holes in dry, packed chert is impossible. Instead, I wet the area where I wanted to dig each hole, and dug down a few inches. Then, I put more water in the hole, waited for it to drain out, and then dug some more. Little by little, I got down to the rock. I wanted to be able to say I built the solarium myself, so I handled all the construction except for the roofing panels. Richard and our friend James insisted on helping me with that so it would finally be done and I could start my spring plants. In retrospect, I probably should’ve let them help me sooner, but I grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, and my Yankee blood and pioneer spirit wouldn’t let me. Martha Ann Burgard Gadsden, Alabama
When Life Gives You Lemons … I’ve been reading MOTHER EARTH NEWS for about eight years now. I’ve saved almost every issue, because there’s always a reason to go back and reread an article.
I’ve also, as far as I can recall, been a frugal person, sometimes out of necessity, but also because I just plain hate to waste. I want to share with other readers what I do with my lemons when I have an overabundance of them. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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LEARN HOW TO
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Every winter, Amy zests and juices lemons to use throughout the year. Lemons come in season in winter, and they’re usually cheapest then. That’s when I’ll buy what I can, take them home, wash
handy in summer when I make iced tea and don’t want it to be watered down with ice
them, and zest them. I keep the zest in a Mason jar in the freezer, and measure out
cubes. It’s been great to be able to go to my freezer and get my ready-made lemon juice
whatever I need as I need it. I was worried at first that the zest would turn into one
or zest when I’m in the middle of a recipe. Amy Perez
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lemons, I juice them and put the juice in
Pitchcork
silicone ice molds in my freezer. This way, I can easily pop a cube out whenever I need one. Each mold is approximately 2 table-
The goldfish pond in my yard has a rubber liner to retain water year-round. Every spring, I wade into the pond to remove
Sump Pump Savior A few years ago, we suffered near drought conditions in western New York. Because of this, we weren’t able to douse the garden with the water from our rain barrels. I decided not to use well water for the garden. That’s when I discovered that my sump pump was pumping an outrageous amount of water. Each day, I was able to fill a kiddie pool with water from the sump pump hose. Then, I put a submersible pump in the pool and, with an attached garden hose, was able to water the garden. We grow about 75 percent of our vegetables, so I wasn’t about to give up on the garden. In this manner, we made it until harvest time. The next spring, my handy husband took it one step further by setting up a sump pump watering system. Water comes out of the pump and, with the turn of two ball valves, fills the barrels. I then use the submersible pump attached to a garden hose to water the garden. It even has enough pressure to run a sprinkler for our daughter. Mother Nature provides us with about 100 gallons of water, even on the driest of days. Deborah Calderwood Prattsburgh, New York
Country Lore
I n c r e a s e Yo u r Self-Sufficiency!
leaves and branches that have fallen during the fall and winter months. In the past, I would use a medium-sized fishing net on a pole to retrieve the debris. However, sometimes goldfish would get caught with the debris and die. To accomplish the same job without the casualties every season, I decided that a three-pronged pitchfork might work if I could avoid puncturing the pond liner. So, I came up with the idea of putting a wine cork on each prong to solve my problem, and it worked great. I call it my “pitchcork!” While the job takes longer, there aren’t any casualties. Ed Lauer Matawan, New Jersey
Outfoxing Foxes I free-range my chickens during the day. A while back, a family of foxes moved into our area and paid a visit on two separate occasions. Both times, I scared them off by yelling at them. I realized they don’t come around if we’re outside. So, I moved a radio into my greenhouse to protect it from rain. When I let the girls out, I turn the radio up real loud. I haven’t seen a fox in over a month. Laura Johnson Fayetteville, Georgia
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Ask Our Experts
Ask Our Experts
PAM DAWLING
Use Trays to Grow Sturdy Seedlings I’m ready to start seeds for spring! Can I get them going in one big container instead of individual compartments?
through the thinner sides and into the thicker ends. Use exterior-grade screws, because
You can. I do use some plastic plug flats,
they’ll be wet a lot of the time they’re in use. After you have the four sides together, turn the
pots, and trays of cell packs, but I also like to use homemade wooden trays, because I can
frame over and fasten the bottom boards, leaving small gaps (up to ½ inch) between them.
grow big, sturdy plants in them, and then reuse
This will enable you to combine various widths
the flats year after year. Choose a standard size for your flats, to
of board. The gaps will help with drainage. I keep a supply of ready-cut and drilled boards
make life simpler when fitting them into your warm, sunny growing space, as well
to make running repairs during the season.
First, assemble the side walls, drilling
Next, make tiny furrows for the seeds. I use a plastic ruler pressed into the surface of the damp compost, and push it back and forth. Sow the seeds, aiming for 3 to 5 per inch for most crops. Cover the seeds shallowly (except for celery and some flowers, which need light). Water and grow the seeds indoors.
Spotting Seedlings into Transplant Flats After the seedlings have emerged and the seed leaves have opened fully, spot
as when calculating how much to plant. I have a large garden, and I
the seedlings into the deeper flats, where they can grow until you trans-
use flats that are 12 by 24 inches. I make two depths: 3-inch flats
plant them outdoors. Fill the bigger flats with compost in the same way.
for sowing seeds, and 4-inch flats
I have a dibble board with 40 wood
for growing the seedlings. I don’t pegs glued into holes in a 12-byrecommend flats bigger than that, 24-inch piece of plywood in eight because filled flats are heavy. rows down the 24-inch direction, I gather small scrap boards and and five offset rows in the 12-inch make up a batch of flats at a time. direction. The pegs are about 2½ I usually end up making a couple inches apart from all their nearest of half-sized 12-by-12-inch flats neighbors. This gives the 40 plants to use up the wood scraps. I like about 7 square inches each, which Eastern red cedar or pine. Avoid is a nice amount of space. I press oak. Not only is it heavy, but it also the dibble board down into the sursplinters painfully, and it’s not as face of the compost, making 40 easy to work with as soft woods. holes at once. Avoid plywood and other manufacI use a butter knife to loosen the tured boards, as the glues and fillseedlings in the seed flat. Then, ers can be toxic to plants. Likewise, handling them only by the seed These seed flats are reusable and give plants room to grow strong. avoid pressure-treated wood. leaves, I shake the seedlings apart. I cut 12-inch-wide end boards I use the knife to deepen the hole in Sowing Seeds in Open Flats of the thickest pieces, about ½ to ¾ inch the transplant flat if needed, and then I jiggle thick and 3 to 4 inches wide. Because I’m Take a 3-inch-deep seed-starting tray and the seedling to get the roots pointing downworking with scraps, I generally cut the colline it with a double layer of newspaper (to ward in the hole and press the compost firmly lected boards into the biggest possible parts. If keep the compost from falling through the around the plants. For small plants, such as you’re buying or milling your own lumber, you gaps). Place the paper partway up the sides, lettuce, I spot into 3-inch-deep flats, but bigcan plan out your cutting list exactly. The side but never poking above the compost, as this ger brassicas and tomatoes need 4-inch-deep and bottom boards are thinner, maybe ¼ to will wick the water out of the compost. flats. Finally, I water and wait. Fill the flat with compost — I use a plastic ½ inch thick. The side boards need to be 24 This is a good way to avoid contributing to dustpan that happens to be just the right inches long by 3 to 4 inches wide. The bottom the problem of agricultural plastic trash. You width, and works much better than a trowel boards are 24 inches long, of random widths. can also grow stronger plants by giving them a or shovel. Scrape the dustpan across the In fact, you can use obliquely cut or waneylarger compost volume than plastic plug flats frame of the flat to ensure it’s evenly and edged pieces for the bottoms of the flats, if you or cell packs provide. completely filled. want to be creative. — Pam Dawling WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Dogs display a number of visual signals to communicate; watch how they interact with each other to better understand their interactions with you.
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Decipher Dog Interactions
their owners were more likely to show high-
I want to get to know my pupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s communicative quirks. Which of her movements should I pay attention to?
amplitude wagging with a bias to the right side (showing left-brain activation), while dogs seeing dominant, unfamiliar dogs tended to wag to
Notice how carefully dogs watch one anoth-
the left (showing right-brain activation). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that
er. Dogs will look over their shoulders as they run, or theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll stop and turn around so they can
dogs have a left-hemisphere specialization for approach behavior and a right-hemisphere spe-
see what the other dogs are doing. When they do this, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re reading body postures, gaits,
cialization for withdrawal behavior. What if a dog loses its tail? A friend told us
tail and ear positions, facial expressions, and
the story of her dog, Echo, who lost her tail in
even watching for subtle changes in the position of another dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fur. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hacklesâ&#x20AC;? refer to the hairs along a dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neck and backbone, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;raised hacklesâ&#x20AC;? are called â&#x20AC;&#x153;piloerection,â&#x20AC;? an involuntary neural response to arousal mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. In addition to visual signals, dogs are also absorbing olfactory and auditory information, all while on the run. Dogs need to be able to interact with other dogs. Many of their cognitive skills and the components of their behavioral repertoire have evolved to help them communicate more effectively with their own kind. A dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tail is an important visual tool for communication. To fully understand what a tail is communicating, it needs to be seen in the context of a broader range of composite signals, including ear positions, facial expressions, body postures, vocalizations, odors, and gait. Tails may also be used to disperse odors. A wagging tail can mean different things, depending on the kind of wag and the context. A loose wag is probably friendly, whereas a stiff wag likely signals assertiveness or aggression. However, there are no hard-and-fast rules. Research has also shown that tail wagging with a bias to the right indicates that a dog is happy and relaxed, whereas left-bias wagging may indicate anxiety. In one study, dogs seeing
an accident. After the loss, Echo changed the way she communicated with dogs and people by using her body and ears to compensate for the loss of her tail. Tailless Echo now relies more heavily on her ears to express her feelings. When sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excited to see someone, she puts her ears very far back and will almost wiggle them. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also developed a kind of â&#x20AC;&#x153;hop-wiggle,â&#x20AC;? taking a little hop and wiggling her butt very quickly if sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excited to see someone. Echo never did the â&#x20AC;&#x153;hop-wiggleâ&#x20AC;? before losing her tail. Take the time to watch your dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ears closely, since they can be a good indicator of how your dog is feeling. If a dog twitches its ears, moving them back and then forward a bit, it may indicate indecision or ambivalence. Pricked ears signal that a dog is paying attention. By watching the direction another dog is turning an ear, dogs can find out information about where to look. Ear position is important during dog social encounters, including play. For example, flattened ears can signal submission if combined with submissive body posture, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;upâ&#x20AC;? ears can signal excitement and intention to continue play. Flattened ears might also be a way for a dog to avoid getting them nipped. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce, Unleashing Your Dog (New World Library)
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Bicycle Cleaning Routine
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worn or broken parts. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use power hoses, which can force water in through the bearing seals, flushing out the grease. This will radically shorten the life span of bottom brackets, headsets, and other components. Begin with the dirtiest bits and work up to the cleaner ones to minimize re-cleaning. Start with the drivetrain: the chain, sprockets, chainset, and derailleur gears. You can give the chain a thorough cleaning without removing it from the bike. Pour a little degreaser into a small pot. Dip a toothbrush or washing brush into the degreaser, and scrub the chain clean. A chain-cleaning box is a good investment, as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make this job quicker. Sprockets and chainsets need regular cleaning too. If theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re oily and dirty, degrease them. As above, use a little degreaser and work it into
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the sprockets and chainset with a brush. Rinse them carefully afterward to remove all traces of degreaser. Also, dry components with care. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get degreaser into the bearings. After everything is clean and dry, relubricate the chain. I prefer drip oils to sprays because you can direct the oil more precisely. Drip a little onto the top links of the bottom stretch of chain. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use excessive amounts of oil. Let the oil soak in for five minutes, and then remove any excess with a clean rag. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worry about relubricating other drivetrain parts, because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll need no more than whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deposited onto the sprockets by the chain. Next, clean the wheels. Gather a sponge and a bucket of warm, soapy water, hold the wheels upright to keep water out of the hubs, and sponge the hubs and spokes clean. Rim brakes work much better on clean rims. Nylon scouring pads are ideal for this job, because they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t damage the braking surface. Check for bulges or cracks in the braking surface. These traits will indicate that the rim is worn out and needs replacing urgently. If your rim has rim-wear indicators, check them now. Disc rotors, the alternative braking surface, also work much better when clean. Use Finish Line disc cleaner for disc rotors. If theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re oily, clean the rotors with isopropyl alcohol, which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave a residue. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be tempted by car disc cleaner â&#x20AC;&#x201D; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll leave a residue. Brakes next. For rim brakes, release the V-brakes by pulling back the black rubber boot
Ask Our Experts
ALASKAN MILLS
and pulling the curved metal noodle out of the hanger on the brake unit. Clean the block surfaces. Use a small screwdriver or knife to carefully pick out shards of metal. If the block
SINCE 1957, GRANBERG INTERNATIONAL HAS BEEN PRODUCING THE HIGHEST
surface has become shiny, use a strip of clean sandpaper to roughen it. Make sure the brake blocks aren’t excessively or unevenly worn. For disc brakes, wipe the caliper clean. Check hydraulic hoses for oil leaks. There should be no trace of oil at any of the connections. Also check for kinks in the hoses. Look into the rotor slot on the calliper, and check that the brake pad is at least 0.5 millimeters (1⁄50 inch) thick. Clean and oil the parts of your cables normally trapped inside casings. For rear cable brakes, follow the black casing back from the brake lever to the frame. At the cable stop, pull the casing forward to release it from the cable stop, and wiggle the brake cable out of the slot. Use the same method to release the other sections of casing.
Circle #16; see card pg 89
PUT YOUR ATV/UTV TO WORK
Run a clean rag over the part that’s normally covered by outer casing. Relubricate each section with a drop of oil. Refit the outer casing. Repeat with the gear casing. You’ll need to click your rear shifter as if changing into the highest gear, and then push the derailleur away again. This will create enough slack in the cable to pull a section of casing out of its cable stop. Repeat with all the other sections of casing, cleaning and oiling, especially the last loop of rear derailleur cable. This loop is nearest to the ground and tends to collect dirt. Refit the outer casing. Pull the front derailleur out over the largest chainring, click the shifter as if to change into the smallest sprocket, and then release the casing in the same way. Clean, oil, and replace. Don’t forget the pedals. Use a small screwdriver to clear all the mud from around the release mechanism. Do both sides of both pedals. Lubricate the moving parts sparingly with a light oil, such as GT85 or WD-40. Clean the frame and forks, and rinse them with a sponge and a bucket of warm water. All components will work better and last longer if they’re not covered in grime. Finally, a quick polish. Wax-based polish will stop dirt from sticking to the frame. Saddles also benefit from a polish. Refit the wheels and reconnect the brakes. And this is a good time to pump up the tires. — Mel Allwood, Pocket Bike Maintenance (Carlton Books)
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Useful Hints I want to thank you so much for printing useful hints from your readers. Last month, here in fire-prone California, our power was turned off many times on red flag days. The solar lights I received as a gift earlier in the year were so useful. I followed the advice of one of your readers to use them as backup lights for such a situation. I now use them off and on to save
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I’ve been a steady subscriber throughout the 50-year history of the magazine. I now live on a 10-acre homestead in East Texas, and look forward to the arrival of each issue. I also save many of the past issues. Thanks for such a great resource. My wife and I also enjoy attending the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIRS. We drove to Topeka two years in a row, and really appreciate having one much closer to us in Belton. Mike Hancock Goodrich, Texas
Dear MOTHER energy. I think the only way this is possible is if the house is tied to an electrical grid thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also supported by solar power. Otherwise, that electric stove wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work with whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on the roof of the house, or if it did work, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d work poorly. In addition, the article doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include the R-values of the structural insulated panels (SIPs), or information on the specific make of the foam. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m hoping Eric can respond with the R-values of the floor, walls, and ceiling. What was the total cost of building the house? For some background, my wife and I live in an off-grid house I built myself out of SIP panel walls rated at R-40, a foundation insulated at R-20, and a truss-built roof with blown insulation with a R-60 rating. The building configuration is that of a two-car garage with a 530-square-foot apartment on the side. The total footprint is 36 by 60 feet. The benefit of building with SIP panels is reduced construction time. The total time of wall construction was 32 hours over four days and 3.5 hours for installing the roof trusses. The off-grid power is solar and is acquired from twenty 235watt solar panels, twelve 225-amperehour batteries, a 10,000-watt 48-volt DC inverter, and a backup 12,000-watt generator. The house is supplied by propane, which is used for the radiant floor heating system, the stove, the propane-heated dryer, and for running the backup generator. The total cost of putting up the building, finishing the building off, and installing the solar with a backup generator was approximately $225,000. This cost doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include the price of the land. This is our second full year in the house, and so far itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been going well. We live in an area of Idaho that gets power outages, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re spared this trouble with our off-grid setup. David Nicholas Naples, Idaho David, that sounds like an impressive off-grid house. Kudos to you and your wife for building such an energy-efficient and cost-effective dwelling. I definitely share your enthusiasm for SIP panel construction. In answer to your technical questions, the SIP panels we used are
Circle #39; see card pg 89
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Dear MOTHER made with graphite polystyrene, which offers 20 percent higher insulation values than standard expanded polystyrene (EPS). Our roof is R-55, and our walls are R-35. Under the slab, we used 3 feet of Type IX EPS, since it has the necessary higher compressive strength, and an overall R-12.6. We did most of the final air sealing ourselves, and our blower door test confirmed just .50 air changes per hour (ACH) at 50 Pascals, which is better even than the extremely rigorous Passive House standard of .60 ACH. (In nontechnical terms, the home is unbelievably airtight!) As I mentioned in my article, this is a net-zero-energy house and is tied to the grid. Unlike most off-grid houses, no propane, wood, gas, or other fuels are burned to cook or heat the home and domestic hot water. It’s 100 percent electric. When we’re producing more solar energy than the home is using, which is most of the time during the day, the excess gets used by our neighbors
Circle #15; see card pg 89
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on the grid. At night, or on very cloudy days, we pull electricity from the grid, but the net effect is that our solar panels produce more clean, renewable energy than the home uses over the course of a year. This is the most efficient way to offset the greatest amount of dirty grid energy because it eliminates the need for expensive battery systems and the power losses associated with storing electricity. It’s all a matter of preferences and goals. It sounds like you made a great choice to design a solar-propane off-grid system for your home because of the frequent power outages in your part of Idaho. The total cost of construction for our 1,815-square-foot home, not including the land, was about $300,000, of which about $26,000 went into the solar panel system, extra insulation, and other upgrades to reach the zero-energy goal. (For a more detailed discussion of our building costs, visit https:// ZeroEnergyProject.org and search for “Vacation Rental.”) We’re extremely happy we made that extra investment, not only because the immediate savings on our utility bills more than offset the costs of borrowing that money to upgrade, but also because we’re able to generate
Dear MOTHER more renewable energy than our home utilizes.— Eric Thomas
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Pollinators Update Thank you for publishing my letter about aerial pesticides killing my bees (“The Plight of Pollinators,” December 2019/January 2020). I can’t tell you how good it made me feel to see it in print. I also appreciated how honest “The State of Bees in the United States” (December 2019/January 2020) was about the effect industrial agricultural practices have on bees. It’s refreshing to see a cold hard look at the shortcomings of standard practices when it’s more commonplace to brush things like that under the table. We had three more aerial sprays since I last wrote you. Each time, I secured the bees and kept them locked up till an hour after the spray. I still lost bees, but nothing like the pictures I sent you this summer. I shouted into the wind about it for awhile, but it’s difficult to change some things. Fortunately, other things are easier to change, and I’m happy to report that my husband and I purchased 10 acres near Lake Okeechobee. There’s a rustic barn, septic tank, and a well, but no structure or electricity. We’re currently looking for a small travel trailer to live in while we clear the property and build our house.
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Circle #20; see card pg 89
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Dear MOTHER
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I’m particularly excited about the number of bees I’ve observed near the pond. I’ve built a set of top bar swarm boxes to hang in the spring. I’m pleased with how they turned out, and I’m hoping for a 50 percent success rate. I’m looking forward to planting a grove of fruit trees and lining the sides with a top bar apiary. I’m glad I tried both styles of beekeeping, but I like the horizontal hive much better. Anyway, I appreciate what you’ve done for me and bees. Many blessings. Jessica Stone Tavernier, Florida
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Living MOTHER 50 We live on 1⁄2 acre of land in a small Colorado town. We garden, keep bees and chickens, and heat our house with wood. I’ve been reading MOTHER EARTH NEWS since the early 1980s, and I love it. Thanks for all the information over the years. Tobi Sparks Beulah, Colorado
Circle #27; see card pg 89
Send Us Your Photos! We’re celebrating the magazine’s 50th anniversary in 2020. To mark this long journey, we’re asking for stories and photos of your efforts to live simply. Started in 1970 to raise awareness of mounting environmental concerns and to provide information and support for a simpler lifestyle, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has made it this far because of continuous interest from you, the readers. Your dedication to living more sustainable lives has kept this magazine afloat through five decades and an increasingly digital world. Send photos of your homestead, your garden, and any projects you’ve undertaken over the past five decades to Letters@MotherEarthNews.com. Circle #10; see card pg 89
96 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
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Georgetown Cabins Resort near Silver City, NM is for sale by owner. Six, custom-built cabins, surrounded by forest with forever views, off-the-grid solar, closest neighbor is 2 miles away, enroute to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. See www.georgetowncabinsresort. com Call Susie at (575) 534-4529. Be Your OWN BOSS! Produce organic fertilizer and grow nightcrawlers. All while earning a profit. Part or Fulltime 800-728-2415 www.vermiculture.com
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100 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
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102 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2020
REAL ESTATE FAMILY HOMESTEAD FOR SALE 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING 60 Acres west of Kalispell, MT. OffGrid, Log House, Guest House and Shop. Excellent water sources. Forested with meadows, private, quiet, 45 minutes to Costco. $585k Contact: briandforbes@yahoo.com
Arizona Dome Home, in the beautiful White Mountains. 48ft diameterdome 3200 sq. feet. Solar power, greenhouse, 3 car garage, 38 acres, deep well. $525,000 928-386-1138 Myarizonarealtor@live.com Florida Off-Grid Island Paradise! Excellent rental history! $465K!!! Miles of secluded beach, Solar powered, 2/2 1/2, stilt, 1559 sqft, stunning views, on Cayo Costa Island, appliances, granite, W/D, diesel generator, pool table, solar hot tub, wrap decks, golf cart & furnishings included. 517-927-8427/ randycrosby@msn.com Only $500 down will buy 20 acres in WESTERN MONTANA... famous trout fishing streams, backpacking, camping, renown hunting privileges (Elk, deer, moose, bear.) Adjacent National Forests near established towns. Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks! GUARANTEED ACCESS, INSURED TITLE, WARRANTY DEED. FREE color brochure, photos, maps. Monthly payments made to fit your budget! 1 YEAR FULL MONEY BACK GUARANTEE-CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-592-5990. TREASURE STATE RANCHES www.treasurestateranchesmt. com 210 Milwaukee Street, Deer Lodge, Montana 59722 406-8461000. Dept MEN Unique-shaped, tranquil, wooded, 6.76 acres. Septic, probable spring, private road. Borders public land. Near Hillsborough, NC. Susan: waldrops@hpw.com 919-302-0338. Oklahoma. 330 acres. Runs 50 mama cows. Spectacular 4000 sq. ft. straw-bale house with15kw solar system. Permaculture. Two rental houses, two airbnb rental cabins, Live creek, 4 fish producing ponds. Looking for a place to survive the coming crash? $1.7m. Text or call Rob at 405-519-6982, or email: brianrm2358@earthlink.net I will send you some links. Build your West Virginia homestead on 124 acre woodland refuge with brook trout stream running through. Protected by conservation easement. Proximity to Washington, D.C. $350,000. 304-636-5444 kline@folktalk.org
House 60 acres for sale in McCurtain Oklahoma. Off grid, solar power, water collection system. House unfinished basement livable. Land fenced. $140K Text 479-295-9010 or ekirby27@yahoo.com NC off-grid log cabin. Passive solar heat & hot water. Solar elec., comp. toilet. 3 wooded mtn. acres. Needs well & finishing. $60K. 828-361-9115. ldfranklinxx@yahoo.com Secluded log home with 20 acres adjacent to Arkansas’Buffalo National River. Pastures, woods, and 25+ miles of trails. $375,000 870-754-0029 smiller49@hughes.net
SAWMILLS DON’T WASTE THOSE LOGS! Cut lumber, slabs beams. The Alaskan® Chainsaw Mill. Made in the USA. Portable, affordable, accurate. 800-233-6499; www.granberg.com Sawmill Exchange: North America’s largest source of used portable sawmills and commercial equipment for woodlot owners and sawmill operations. Over 800 listings. THE place to buy and sell equipment. 800-459-2148. www.sawmillexchange.com NORWOOD SAWMILLS from only $4,397. - MAKE MONEY & SAVE MONEY with your own bandmill Cut lumber any dimension. In stock ready to ship. FREE Info & DVD: w w w. N o r w o o d S a w m i l l s . c o m 1-800-567-0404 BANDSAW SAWMILL KITS Available Complete or Buy Part/ Build Part. Free brochure. Call 1-541-367-6900 Web: www.linnlumber.com
STOVES
POLAR G-Class
CLASSIFIEDS
Classified ad information, contact Connie: 866-848-5416; email classifieds@MotherEarthNews.com; fax 785-274-4316
OUTDOOR WOOD FURNACE The industry leader in proven clean burn technology • Meets established EPA stadards thru 2020 • Burns up to 60% less wood • 7 industry firsts • Certified for indoor/outdoor installation • Compatible with off-grid use • Free Installation support with purchase Also available PORTAGE and MAIN
CONTACT Ultimate Outdoor Furnace LLC Les Radcliffe 507-254-0622 Polar Furnace Factory Rep Dealer/Agent opportunities www.ultimateoutdoorfurnace.com
TIPIS
$24. 95
Does not include shipping and handling.
Bakasa Tipi Custom lodges dreamt, designed, stitched, and pitched by Red Hawk Offering: 10’ft Youth, 15’ft Couples, and 20’ft Family Tipis Contact Red Hawk: website - bakasatipi.org phone - 805-719-8542 mail - bakasatipi@gmail.com Instagram - bakasa_tipi
With the ever-increasing popularity of backyard chickens and the demand for more chicken material, Mother Earth News and Grit magazines have teamed up to bring you our special, self-published book, Raise Backyard Chickens. Filled with years of our know-how on the subject, this book’s bursting with our advice on everything chicken, from egg to plate!
YURTS Yurts with Real Glass Windows. Original developer of this engineered design. Affordable, starting at $5,930.00. Free Brochure. www.fortressyurts.com 505-757-2547.
Item #8871 Promo code: MMEPAKZ3
Order today by calling 800-234-3368 or visiting www.MotherEarthNews.com/Store WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
103
Photos from the Field
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
RYAN ITO; ALISHA SUNDERMAN; JACKIE TOUW; ANN ZIMMERMAN
Clockwise from above: A short-tailed weasel steps out of a shrub to hunt voles in southern Alberta, Canada; moments after this shot was taken, its persistence paid off, and it was seen carrying a meal almost half its size under a shed. Two sheep, named Sam and Chocolate, take a stroll on a Minnesota farm. A juvenile eagle fishes along the Lackawaxen River in Pennsylvania. Mountain goats walk along the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado.
SHOW US!
Share your unique perspective with our community by submitting photos of inviting gardens, nutritious foods, wild animals, and more to the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Photo Group on Flickr (www.Flickr.com/Groups/MotherEarthNewsPhotos/Pool ). Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll feature our favorites here and online!
Work, pants.
The toughest pants for the toughest jobs, fully backed by our Ironclad Guarantee. Proven stronger than the rest, Patagonia Workwear pants are cut for a full range of motion and equipped with tactical pockets to hold tools and tech. Our Iron Forge Hempâ&#x201E;˘ canvas and lighter-weight All Seasons Hemp canvas pants are durable, breathable and easy wearing. We added DyneemaÂŽ ďŹ ber to our industrial-grade Steel Forge Denim Pants to double their tear strength.
Photo: ANDREW BURR Š 2019 Patagonia, Inc.
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