Berry-Picking: Backyard Fun, Life Lessons, or Both?

Picking Berries is Best in the Morning Shade

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.  --Epicurus

Today I went berry-picking, right in my own back yard! In the summer I like to make smoothies from Stonyfield Farm non-fat organic yogurt, frozen berries, a little juice or almond milk, and various flavorings, especially mint from my garden.

Due to the antioxidant or flavonoid properties of the berries, and perhaps due to rising fuel prices, the price of the frozen berries I like has gotten high. I have therefore started planting blackberries, fig trees, huckleberries, paw paws, and other "easy" fruits and berries for my region. I am a teacher, so I will use some of my time in the summer to pick and preserve these backyard treasures. In the meantime I may find time to go to pick-your-own places at local farms, which is a terrific way to save money and support local farmers at the same time. I also get some local berries and fruits as part of my family's weekly farm share from Farm Chicks Produce.

But my most rewarding source of fresh berries comes from trees that have been growing on our property for years. We ignored them, almost as though they were a nuisance, until I finally realized the berries they produced were not only edible but truly delicious. The trees are, in fact, black mulberries, Morus nigra, as far as I can tell. Now that I realize how easy it is to pick and freeze these, I pick all I can during the few weeks of the year when the berries are available. Best of all, the purple-black berries are nutritious and a source of those sought-after antioxidants that make the price of blueberries, for example, so ridiculous these days. Besides smoothies, I also like them in muffins, plain, or mixed in yogurt. Their flavor is a little tart, but pleasantly so.

Berry picking is not just a way of saving money. It's a time for reflection and for communing with nature. I love the sound of the birds singing and of my backyard hens softly clucking to each other, or the sight of a native bee among the leaves, seeking pollen from the mulberry flowers. Today I was reflecting about the myriad life lessons I have gathered along with the mulberry fruit:

• Be gentle. Bruise the fruit or break a tree limb, and you wll regret your haste.
• Be persistent. Berries that aren't ripe yet need a revisit in a couple of days, or sometimes even a few hours. Frequent sessions will fill your freezers, but neglect the job, and you will find your potential harvest lying all over the ground.
• Plan ahead.  It is easy to make cuttings or grow more trees from cuttings, and then you can share them with your neighbors.
• The grass isn't always greener elsewhere. Why pay the supermarket for something like berries, when fresher ones are growing on your own property?
• Be thankful for what you have.
• Use the right tools for the job. The right ladder can make a trip to the backyard even more productive, and the right pail (see picture below) can keep you from spilling your berries all over the ground. I learned this the hard way.
• Things go better when your foundation is firm. Plant your ladder securely before you start climbing.
• Don't overextend yourself. One needs to keep a certain balance in life.
• Look at things from different angles and perspectives. It's amazing how shifting your position a few inches in any direction--up, down, or sideways--can cause you to see opportunities you couldn't see before.
• Waste not, want not. Backyard chickens are great for this. If too many berries have fallen to the ground, we can fence our laying hens with them for an afternoon. They will gobble them up, fertilize the trees a little with their manure, and gobble up any ticks or other bugs they can find in the understory. Then they turn all they found into nutritious eggs, all while having a grand time! It's a win-win.
• There are pluses and minuses to everything. Besides getting a little dirty and sweaty, there are greenbriers, poison ivy, and occasional ticks to watch out for. Overall, though, the experience is more than worth it. 
• Setting a little time aside to pick berries is really setting aside time for yourself.
• The best things in life really ARE free!

I wish more people would unplug from their computers, video-games, and television for a while and go berry-picking, even in their own back yards. They would discover the beauty of the natural world around them and be healthier physically, mentally, and spiritually for it. I know I am.

A good ladders is helpful, but it's a long way down!

Mattawoman Creek Farms CSA

Don and I already belong to the Coastal Farms online food co-op and have been very happy with it. It's a type of community-supported agriculture, or CSA, program. We pick up or orders every Thursday from our favorite local restaurant, the Cutting Edge Cafe. The food there is fresh and wholesome, and the owners, Matt and Melanie, are active in the local foods movement.

So when Melanie informed me that their restaurant was going to be a new drop-off station for Mattawoman Creek Farms, a USDA-certified organic farm on Virginia's Eastern Shore, I had to bite--pun intended! Unlike the online co-op, Mattawoman's program is a true farm share. We pay for our share of a season's produce in advance, and each week we pick up a huge bag full of vegetables, whatever is fresh and seasonal that week. We do get a day or so's notice about what is coming, along with pictures, storage, and recipe tips.

This type of CSA is for adventurous eaters like Don and me. It's not for the reticent or picky. The food is fresh and delicious, but we need to be willing to cook and eat whatever comes along. Luckily for us, I have a lot of cookbooks, including Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. 

I'll  leave you with some pictures of today's order as well as what I've cooked with it so far. I still have kale, lettuce, arugula, a few carrots, and bunching onions to cook up later in the week.

This week's share next to a gallon bottle of vinegar to judge the size

We've been getting lots of kale and other cabbage-family plants. This kale is fresh and SWEET!

We were pleased to get some carrots this week

A few bunching onions will add flavor to salads and other dishes

A baby cabbage is the perfect size for a batch of coleslaw

We received two beautiful heads of lettuce and will be eating healthy salads for lunch!

Purple Osaka (mustard) was new to us

Purple Osaka mustard leaf. It's so spicy when raw, it made my eyes water!

Some of the kale and Osaka mustard made a nice salad along with some quinoa

The cabbage and some of the carrots and onions combined with a black radish I had on hand to make a spicy slaw

A salad spinner is great for washing, drying, and even storing greens like this salad, which features lettuce and arugula

There's almost no waste in our home. Our chickens will eat these trimmings. We also vermicompost

The smallest share at Mattawoman is meant for a family of four. Don and I are two people, so eating this many vegetables is a commitment on our part. It's a commitment that pleases the palate, though. We'd had a neighbor who was thinking of buying half our share, but it didn't work out. I wish it had!

Maybe we should invite her over to dinner.

FRESH Food at a Local Restaurant: the Cutting Edge Cafe

Medi-Veggie Sandwich and Side: MMMMM!!!

One of my favorite restaurants in Chesapeake, VA, is the Cutting Edge Cafe. It is located near Walmart off of Route 64 and Battlefield Blvd, in a plaza right behind a car wash. Melanie and her husband, Matt, own the restaurant and run it. They are active in Hampton Roads' "Buy Fresh, Buy Local" movement. Their food reflects their passion for fresh, local food. I'm a vegetarian, so I haven't tried everything on their menu, but their "Medi-Veggie" sandwich, made with fresh cheeses, fresh bread, and grilled vegetables, is to die for! I like their sweet potato fries, their hummus side-order, their sesame noodles, their salads and salad dressings, their rich and flavorful soups...

Basically, everything I've tried there has been superior to anything else I've had in town. Did I mention that Melanie bakes the bread they use? It's so good, I'm planning to buy my bread from her instead of the store. Their restaurant is not a bakery, but their bread is just as good.

Matt and Melanie's passion for local food is how I found this gem of an eatery. It's close to where I live. So when it became a pick-up point for the Coastal Farms Online Food Co-op, I arranged to pick up my weekly orders there. Until that point, I'd never really noticed the place, even though I'd driven by there dozens of times. Originally, I stopped just for the convenient location to pick up my local food orders, but once I tried one of their entrees, I was hooked! I order there at least once a week now.

I also recently found out that the Cutting Edge will soon become a pick-up point for CSA orders from Mattawoman Creek Farms, an organic farm in this area. CSA stands for  "Community Supported Agriculture." A good explanation of how this works can be found at LocalHarvest.org. The basic idea is that residents can pay a local farmer in advance for a share of the season's crops, delivered each week. The food is fresher than what residents can find in grocery stores, and the farmer makes a fair living for his (or her) hard work. This system helps to keep smaller farmers in business! Don and I are adventurous cooks and eaters, so we're looking forward to whatever comes our way in our farm share order each week.

Our first farm share order should arrive in a week or two, depending on the weather. We can't wait! Thanks, Matt and Melanie, for making these opportunities available to us, and for running a fantastic restaurant!

Oh: one caveat: their hours are a little different. They started as a lunch place (open until 4:00) but have extended into some evening hours on Wednesday through Fridays. They're closed Saturday. Keep in mind their schedule before heading over.

Asparagus in December?

 We just started new asparagus beds this year. We haven't harvested any, because everything we've read has said to let the plants develop and the crowns grow before harvesting. In the second year, we can harvest for two weeks, and then for four to six weeks in subsequent years. The bed should last for fifteen years or more.

Now I have a dilemma. Our Purple Passion asparagus is coming up in December! So is that the end of last season, even though I've taken all the dying, yellow vegetation and thrown it in my compost piles this fall, or is it the beginning of the spring harvest, and therefore a good thing to harvest? Or will the frost kill it off so quickly, it won't matter?

I'll post some pictures of winter beds, mulched with leaves from our yard, in case you don't believe me. You'll see the garlic, kale, and mustard that you'd *expect* to see growing this time of year, but you'll see the asparagus as well. I'm also growing Russian Comfrey as a high-protein supplement for our future laying hens. Don is working on our coop every chance he gets.

Purple Passion Asparagus with Russian Comfrey in the Background

Birdbath with ice in it; taken the same day

Garlic and kale

Winter garden bed with kale, mustard, garlic, and sage

Fall Squashes as a Centerpiece

I belong to an online local food co-op called Coastal Farms. While I mostly buy produce for our meals, I recently bought some fall squashes and miniature pumpkins that were too pretty to eat, so I arranged them into a centerpiece for our kitchen table. They were inexpensive and will last quite a while. Three of them:  the "Turks Turban," and the two acorn squashes, are edible. The two miniature pumpkins were advertised as decorative squashes. (The "Turks Turban" squash is also called a "Mexican Hat").

It feels good to support our local farmers when purchasing fall decorations. I could have spent three times the money on some cheap plastic frippery imported from China and not been half as happy with the results. Here are some pictures:

Fall Centerpiece of Local Squashes

Acorn Squash and Miniature Pumpkins as a Centerpiece

Another View of a "Turk's Turban" Squash (on left)

Update on 1/28/13. I cannot believe how long these squash have lasted! One got moldy back in November and went straight to the compost pile. But the rest have been fine. I have recently started cutting them up, scooping out the strings and seeds, and feeding them to my laying hens. Chickens love squash and pumpkins seeds, which are very nutritious.

Then I baked the squash and fed it to them. The girls liked that, too. I'll gradually cut up, scoop out, and feed the rest to the hens over the next few weeks, especially as a warm treat when the days get cold!

Responses to "City Chicks Revisited"

I am getting responses on "City Chicks Revisited" by email and from other groups. With permission, I will post a selection of these reactions and responses here. Some are too good not to share. And, if you haven't already, please sign our online petition.

My favorite, so far, is from Kelly McGuire:

In response, I can only say that council can be loud, produce large amounts of waste resulting in obnoxious odors too. Their containment is sometimes difficult as well. I really have a hard time believing the sublime attitudes.

Here is one from  ~: Beth California Sierra foothills:~ via a Yahoo Group called "Breaking New Ground:"

A backyard flock of chickens need NOT be noisy, messy or anything negative. A clean coop/area will not attract flies, rodents. And chickens are actually great at eating ticks and other bugs which means less pesticides being used. Noisy? Bantam breeds are less noisy and many cities simply allow hens but no roosters. Roosters are the one who make the noise. Feed kept in a metal container wont attract rodents etc. Heck dog/cat/bird feeder food outside can attract rodents etc. Is the city/town going to ban those? Heck raccoons are more attracted to garbage cans than anything else. Are they banning garbage cans/pick up? The late actor Jimmy Stewart and his wife Gloria are the ones who got us back having chickens in the early 80's, when he shared how they had chickens in their Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills home back yard. And if I do say so I think chickens make us better people. And yes you can quote me on that!

From Karen Anne Kirkpatrick  of the Facebook Group, "Backyard Chickens for Chesapeake:"

Can be loud, especially when playing.
Can produce large amounts of waste, resulting in obnoxious odors.
Waste in diapers fill our landfills.
Containment can sometimes be difficult.
Can be targeted as nuisances by other people, such as old people on the front lawn and college students texting on iphones....

  

Time to ban kids.

Another great response from Jack Newfield through the "Breaking New Ground" Yahoo Group:

>Can be loud
Hens are not loud and egg laying hens make no more noise than many automobiles. If egg-laying ducks are allowed, both sexes are very quiet.

>large amount of waste
No, there is far less odor from my 10 chickens than from my 3 dogs.

>Waste can attract rodents
So can an oak tree but that is allowed.

>Containment can be difficult
Containment is extremely simple. I don't contain mine at all and they do not range out of sight of their coop.

>Can be target of dogs
So can children and cats but they are allowed. It's the dog owner's fault if they are out of control. Cats do not attack hens.

So it's obvious they simply do not want to keep *low-status* animals in their neighborhoods. You'll find this with vegetable gardens too. Where flower gardens are permitted, vegetables are often prohibited because food is *low status* compared to flowers. Simple really.

The best way is the camel's-nose- in-the-tent approach, I believe. Get them to permit some eco thing that let's chickens in through the back door or get them to approve expensive show chickens and then buy ordinary hens and claim they are the same animal. It's all about status.

Urban Chicken Activists, Unite!

There have been some exciting developments in Chesapeake regarding urban chickens. As I explained in an earlier post, a group of residents has been organizing to get the zoning laws changed in Chesapeake, Virginia, for reasons I outlined in other posts. Our online petition now has more than 330 signatures. We also have petitions in local feed stores and other places. Our petition at Southern States on Military Highway has 24 signatures on it as of the morning of June 9.

Member Andrea Ball Margrave has been organizing our political strategy for City Council. Last night she and many members of the Facebook fan page, 4 Chesapeake Hens, and the group, Backyard Chickens for Chesapeake, met at an informal local political event called a "Town Meeting." Unfortunately, I had another commitment and could not attend. Here is what Andrea had to report, in her own words:

"Very excited tonight! Got a wonderful reception at the Town Meeting, which was packed because of some other issues going on, so I had a larger than usual audience, plus the entire council was present, including the mayor and the interim city manager, plus at least one of the new upcoming council members that I could see, Robert Ike. 

"I was able to put copies of the flyer in the hands of all but two of them as they entered, and handed out over 30 more to attendees. I met at least 4 or 5 members of this group there, but now I see there were more that I didn't meet that were in attendance! WOW! Sorry to miss some of y'all. I of course didn't get to say all that I wanted to say, forgot some of it, but one other gentleman came with his daughter, a Mr. Tims? and spoke up in support of chickens, very funny guy! Thankfully I was able to speak first, because of all the controversy over the other issues there, but I kept it positive and respectful, and I feel they were pretty receptive. 

"As the meeting adjourned my daughter and I stood outside the doors asking for people to sign the petitions, and we got 10 signatures and had some great conversations. A bunch of folks promised to sign online after they got home, using the link on the flyer. Some of the members were in a hurry to leave after the rough questioning of the evening, so I didn't get to speak individually to them all, but those I did speak with had nice things to say about our efforts. One even asked to learn more about it, and I told him I would come to his office to answer whatever questions they had. Overall a successful evening, and a great opening salvo in our quest to secure the changes we seek."

Thanks, Andrea! Great things are happening. All because a group of people got together and decided to give a cluck. ;0)

Lemony Asparagus Confetti Salad

Ingredients:

Please note that brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice. Plan your time accordingly, or cook the rice in advance. Using a rice cooker makes the job easier because you can turn your attention to the other ingredients while the cooker takes care of the rice. I find the rice cooker makes better rice than I can make by any other method and is well worth the money.

• 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice (1 rice cup)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 lbs. fresh asparagus, rinsed, trimmed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
•  1 cup turnip or other fresh greens, rinsed and shredded
• 1.5 cups precooked or (low-sodium) canned Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

 Rinse and cook the rice according to package directions, or preferably cook in a rice cooker using the rice cooker's directions. While the rice cooks, prepare the other ingredients as follows:

 Heat up the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute about 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the ginger and cook for three or four minutes more. Add the asparagus, cook for two minutes more, then add the greens and continue to cook for another minute or two until the greens just begin to wilt. Set aside until the rice has finished cooking.

When the rice is done, drain if necessary--this should be unnecessary if you used a cooker according to its directions. Stir the rice, the beans, and the asparagus mixture together in a large bowl. Drizzle the lemon juice over the mixture and stir well. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to three days. Serve warm or cold.

More Reasons to Grow Your Own

Some states have greatly tightened the noose on illegal immigration. The result is that crops are left to rot in the fields for a lack of skilled workers:

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/05/15/farm-labor-shortages

Growers are moving toward more mass-commodity crops that can be harvested mechanically and away from organic, sustainable methods.

Even with the high unemployment rates, Americans are not stepping up to take these jobs:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44981872/ns/us_news-life/#.T7OOEFKqa25

They cannot make decent money at it, they do not have the skills, and they are not physically fit enough to work like a skilled farmhand.

These farmhands have skills because many have been toughened by farm work since they were seven or eight years old.

That's right!

Children have been working in the fields with their parents to provide income for their families. While most of us in the U.S. have children who go to school most of the year, the migrants' children are in the fields, harvesting our produce, making less than minimum wage, and facing pesticide exposure and other dangers we wouldn't THINK of exposing children to. Farm work is one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. An estimated 400,000 children in the United States face these abuses, and it's perfectly legal due to an outdated law from 1939.

A new documentary, "The Harvest/La Cosecha," is bringing these abuses before the public's eye.

These are yet more reasons to eat locally, seasonally, and to grow as much of our own food as we can. One of the foods left to rot for lack of workers was asparagus. Well, let's grow asparagus in our own back yards and take control over our food supply and the conditions under which we grow it!

How to Grow Gardening: Paying It Forward and Local Foods

"A food desert is any area in the industrialized world where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain" (Wikipedia). I checked the U.S. government's Food Desert Locator, and to my surprise there are food deserts located not far from where Don and I live in Chesapeake, Virginia.


I am a local-foods enthusiast, so I have been wanting to play a role in helping other people grow fresh, local, sustainable food for themselves. If the people I help are in need, so much the better. I very much admire the work that Will Allen and his Growing Power has been doing in major cities, and I wanted to do something similar in some small way here. I also remember when I first moved into my previous house in North Carolina, a divorcee with lots of needs and barely two dollars to rub together in my pocket. I wanted a vegetable garden because gas was $4.00 a gallon and I wanted to avoid driving to Walmart for veggies I could grow at home. At that time members of the Freecycle community there took me under their wing and shared cuttings, seeds, and advice with me.

But how to start here? I am new to Chesapeake, and I know almost nobody in town.

My answer came in the form of a plea on the local Freecycle list. This particular request was for vegetable seeds, flower seeds, cuttings, and anything that could help someone who knew very little about gardening to get started. The request came from South Norfolk, an area of Chesapeake that is needier than other parts of the city.

I exchanged a few emails with the sender of the message. I learned that "Grace," as I'll call her, is disabled and hasn't been able to work in a few years. She wants to garden but has very little money to spend. She has a few pots but nothing over 8".

Today I got to "pay it forward" when I arrived with potting soil, seeds, cuttings of mint and oregano, some tools, a helping hand, pots of various sizes and shapes, gardening magazines, and advice. Grace and her housemate are lovely people, and it felt good to help them in some small way. I finally got the chance to play a role, however tiny, in spreading the local foods movement and to do it in in honor of all the gardeners and Freecylers who have helped me over the years. I also had a chance to clear some unused flower pots and containers out of my yard.

I will be on alert for other opportunities to grow gardening and local foods in my area. The world will be a better place if others will do the same. I'd love to see more towns with the giving, grow-your-own, self-sufficient spirit of the quaint little Todmorden in England.

How Much Space Do Laying Hens Need?

I live in Chesapeake, Virginia. I want to keep three or four laying hens in my residential back yard for reasons I outlined in Longing for Urban Chickens.  Chesapeake used to allow chickens only on property zoned for agriculture with an exception for a flock of up to four hens that could be kept as "household pets" in certain residential zones, but only on properties of three acres or more.

This law was unnecessary and elitist. What this meant was that in residential areas only the wealthy could own a local source of fresh, healthy eggs. Those wealthy enough to own large lots could enjoy the benefits of chickens in their gardens. But the average hard-working Joe, who probably needs the nutritional and other advantages of keeping chickens much more than his richer neighbors, was shut out by the "Powers That Be."On November 20, 2012, the Chesapeake City Council voted to allow up to six hens on single-family residential lots with certain restrictions. There had been a one-year sunset clause on the legislation, but our Facebook group, "4 Chesapeake Hens," successfully worked to keep chickens legal.

The March/April, 2012, issue of Urban Farm magazine outlines the minimum space requirements for keeping chickens. And--surprise!--three acres is major overkill for a microflock of three or four hens. Author Kelly Wood has been keeping chickens, bees, and other critters on her 1/2 acres farm in Oregon for more than eight years. According to her article, laying hens require, per bird, a minimum of:

• 1.5 square feet inside of a coop
• .75 (that is, 3/4') of perch space inside same coop
• 1.5 square feet of space in a nest box in the coop
• 8 square feet in an outdoor run

And that's it! Even multiplying this requirement of less than 12 square feet per bird by three or four hens, there was obviously no reason to require three acres to keep hens other than to deny the benefits of chicken-keeping to most working-class families in Chesapeake. And, in case you are curious, other types of chickens, such as bantams and broilers, require even less space than laying hens, so the requirements were not in place with the protection of any other type of chicken in mind.

Chicken Health for Dummies recommends a 1/2 square foot of space (inside) for chicks up to four weeks old, 1 square foot for chicks from 4-8 weeks old, and 2 square feet for chicks 8-12 weeks old. Meat chickens kept in mobile pens that are moved daily should have 1.5 square feet of space. Full-grown bantams need 2 square feet in the hen house and 6 in the run. Layers need 3 square feet in the hen house and 8 square feet in the run. Large-breed chickens need 4 square feet inside plus 10 square feet in the run. Making sure the birds have enough room helps to prevent health and behavioral problems.

A reader questioned whether laying hens need perches. Everything I've read says they are much happier when they have perches. They stay cleaner, too. Perches should be 2-3 feet up off the ground so the chickens can fly up to them. Heavier breeds may need lower perches to keep from injuring their legs or feet getting on and off them. If the birds don't have room to fly, or if the perches are higher, provide a ladder so the hens can get up there. And perches should be all of an even height so the hens don't fight over who gets the highest one. The higher perches are more desirable, and the hens can squabble over them intensely as part of their efforts to sort out their pecking order (pun intended).

Hens share nest boxes, by the way. One box for every three to four hens should suffice.


**Update on 5/10/12: A recent article on chicken gardens suggests 250 square feet per hen for free-range birds. If you plan to free range them, plan on more space that in the urban farming article. But please note we STILL do not need anywhere near three acres to keep a few hens!

**Update for November 26, 2013: Chesapeake's City Council voted to make the "hen ordinance" permanent. HOA rules still apply if you have a homeowners' association, and ducks, keets, and other domestic fowl are only legal in areas zoned for agriculture.

Yellow Split Pea Stew

Here is another great recipe made with the local and regional foods we've been purchasing through our online food co-op. This recipe has been adapted from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna J. Sass. If you are new to using a pressure cooker, do a little reading first. This book is excellent to learn how to use one safely. Be sure to include the oil because split peas are foamy when they boil. The recipe serves 6.

• 1 tablespoon sunflower, safflower, or canola oil
• 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
• 2 cups coarsely chopped onions
• 1 teaspoon each  dried basil, oregano, and rosemary leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium sweet potato, chopped
• 2 small turnip roots, chopped
• 4 cups vegetable broth plus 2 cups water
• 2 cups dried yellow split peas, picked over and rinsed

................................................................................................................................

•  1/4 cup fresh  minced cilantro
• 1 cup fresh watercress leaves

 Heat the oil in the pressure cooker. Cook the onion and garlic for 1 minute or two, stirring constantly. Stir in the basil, oregano, rosemary, fennel, and bay leaf. Add the sweet potato, turnips, broth, water, and split peas, making sure the mixture does not fill more than half the space in the pressure cooker. Bring to a boil.

Lock the lid in place, bring to pressure, reduce the heat just enough to maintain high pressure, and cook for 10-11 minutes. Remove from heat and allow pressure to come down naturally. Remove bay leaf, stir in the cilantro and watercress, and serve.

Update: I made a variation of this that skips the sweet potatoes and other spices (except the bay leaves) and uses turnip greens, fresh mint, and fresh oregano instead of the cilantro and watercress. I put the mint and oregano in a bouquet garni, which I removed before serving. Delicious!

Wheat Berry Salad Recipe

This recipe is adapted from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook and is quite good. Be sure to plan the time to pre-soak the wheat berries before you cook, and use a sweet-tart apple. I used Pink Lady apples, but Granny Smith or Gala will do nicely. Once soaked, this takes less time than you think to make, because all the chopping can be done while the water is heating up and the berries are cooking. This recipe  serves six.

2 cups wheat berries
7 cups water
1 cup chopped unsalted almonds
2 medium apples, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice

Cover the wheat berries in water that covers by two inches and soak for 6 to 8 hours or more in the refrigerator. Drain the water and set aside the wheat berries. In a large stockpot or Dutch oven bring the water to boil. Add the wheat berries and let them simmer, uncovered, for 50 minutes. They will have a firm, chewy texture. Drain the water and set aside the wheat berries to cool.

Transfer the wheat berries to an extra-large salad bowl and add the other ingredients. Mix everything thoroughly and serve. The lemon will prevent the apples from discoloring, so this can be covered, refrigerated, and served the next day.

If you've forgotten to pre-soak the wheat berries, they can be cooked in about the same amount of time in a pressure cooker if they haven't been soaked.

Online Food Co-Op and Wool Dryer Balls

I belong to a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture program. The idea is to buy fresh, local ingredients from small, local farmers, instead of at big box stores or supermarkets. Consumers make sure farmers are paid fairly for their labor by bypassing the middle man. And by choosing to support farmers who raise animals humanely and who use sustainable growing methods, consumers can "vote with their dollars" for healthier food, a healthier environment, and for practices that align with their own values. Food dollars remain with the local economy, too, which adds value to the purchase. And the food tastes better, in my experience, than what you get in stores.

I belong to an online food co-op that supports several farmers in Virginia, the state where I live. The advantages of the coop are that I have a greater diversity of choices in my purchases, the farmers are already pre-screened for their use of sustainable methods, and I can order what I want each week, rather than have a box of what's available from foods pre-chosen for me.

The downside is, I tend to order a little impulsively because I get excited about all the exquisite offerings.

Sometimes this turns out well. This week I spent $20.00 for three "Eco-Friendly Wool Dryer Balls," for example, from Breeze Hill Farm in Powhatan, Virginia. Made from felted wool, they are fragrance-free and an all-natural way to reduce drying time in my clothes-dryer while softening clothes and reducing static cling. Commercial fabric softeners will reduce the absorbency of towels and diapers, but these felted balls will not.

I do not like fabric softeners or their strong fragrances, so I am happy with the purchase so far. The balls do seem to reduce drying time, but it's still too soon for me to decide about their softening and anti-static properties. I also bought some local honey from a farm in Chesapeake that is wonderful.

On the other hand, I bought a pound of shiitake mushrooms this week as well as three turnips. I have never cooked a turnip, and I'm not even sure I like them. And I have no idea what to do with a pound of fresh mushrooms. I thought they came dried, you see. I do know I will have to come up with some mushroom recipes and cook them up fast, because mushrooms only keep for a short time, and these were expensive for my budget at $9.00/lb. I also bought five pounds of wheat berries just because they seemed like a bargain. And, no, I don't mill my own flour, at least not yet.

But that's part of the fun and adventure of a CSA. I have already come up with a recipe for the wheat berries, one that I'll share in a separate post. And my new Twitter-pal Andy Bellatti shared a mushroom soup recipe with me that I can't wait to scale up and try.

Looking for a CSA or farmers' market near you? Local Harvest can probably hook you up.

**Update for May, 2012: The wool dryer balls are starting to come apart in the dryer. Strings from the insides of them are tying up pieces of laundry, making them harder to dry. And little bits of felt are getting on our darker clothes. They still do a great job softening clothes, even as ratty as they are getting. When my supplier has more, I will buy two packs of 3 balls in hopes they will last me all year.

**Update for February, 2013: I bought some more dryer balls from Gum Tree Farm.  These are smaller than the original ones, but seem to be working fine. The clothes sure seem to dry faster when the balls are in there! I don't think they eliminate static as well as the chemicals do, but otherwise I'm happy with them.