New Town Farms

Went to New Town Farms (between my house and Waxhaw) today to pick up my CSA box for the week. Took some pix while there -- it's such a wonderful place I thought readers would enjoy the tour:

The CSA box is getting more full each week as the season progresses:



In this week's box, from left to right: in the big clear bag, three HUGE heads of lettuce (green leaf, red leaf, and Romaine); bag of spinach; the red root veggies -- until Sammy sends his list later today I don't know if these are a red radish or a turnip; lacinato kale; white turnips/turnip greens; bundle of turnip greens. Just picked this morning!

Update from Sammy's email that just arrived: in the bag with the three heads of lettuce there is a head of Escarole -- a heavier leaf with a little more flavor than lettuce -- great as a salad green (along with Romain and leaf lettuce). The "bundle of turnip greens" are, in fact, Broccoli raab, a "hearty Italian cooking green usually cooked wtih garlic and red pepper and tossed with pasta and cheese." The long red radishes are shunkyo radishes.



Farmer Sammy on the phone:



Gespar, Sammy's Mexican helper for many years, lives on the farm with the family. I get to use my very broken Spanish with Gespar:



Beautiful rows of nutrition:



Kale:



Garlic:



Cabbage and more greens:



Many varieties of potatoes:



Eggplant:



Even the best organic farmers battle the eggplant leaf hoppers: (this was the only bad eggplant leaf I saw)



Blueberries (there are twice this many bushes):



Grapevines:



Movable chicken "tractor:"



Porkers -- a small herd of pigs supposedly descended from the ones kept by George Washington at Mount Vernon. While these will end up on the table, they have a full two acres of woods in which to manifest their pigness and porcine sensibilities. One had just given birth that morning back in the woods to a litter of babies:



The lake separating Sammy's farm from his late father's 25 acre homesite:



Sammy's greenhouse for starting plants in the spring:



Sammy's late father's home which he and Melinda are turning into an event site, rentable for dinners, family reunions, and other events. Their oldest daughter Zoe is headed to college this fall to study hotel/hospitality management and she will come back to run this facility in the future. A gorgeous setting. In a couple of weeks, Slow Food Charlotte is having a big wine-tasting event at "the Inn" featuring an organic California vintner and food from local farms and chefs -- a typical use of the property that they plan to expand in the future.





Ah, the traditional Southern tree-lined lane to the "big house:"



Another (larger) mobile chicken "tractor" on his father's property:





Great farm, great family -- since they homeschool their eight kids the older ones are all active in the farm, helping to load the CSA boxes, etc. Had a nice visit with Melinda but didn't have my camera with me when I chatted with her. She's a gracious, hard-working and hands-on woman/wife/mom -- with the farm and with her children. A great place to hang out.

P.S. There is another entry further below with additional pix from New Town Farms.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Decided to try taking advantage of the fertile "upstairs" portion of the hanging bucket (container) planters: Planted bean and pea seeds in the top of each one. This is probably fraught with problems—mingling the roots of legumes with the roots of tomatoes, peppers, etc., growing in the "downstairs" parts of the buckets. On the other hand, perhaps the bean/pea roots will fix some nitrogen that the downstairs plants can take advantage of. The main problem is sunlight—the pea and bean seeds sprouted beautifully in all six buckets but they are in the shade nearly all day. The plan was for them to grow up the strings on which the buckets are suspended but that would keep them in the shade permanently under the porch overhang. I'll work on this. :-)









The lizards were eating Mexican the other night and this guy stopped by for some cilantro:

Bob Dylan Has a Message for You

Good Samaritan

When I crashed on my bike last Sunday, a good Samaritan named David Huneycutt, also a bike rider, was one of the first to come to my aid: (David rides a carbon Orbea Orca -- a primo ride.)



David is a former EMT and an orthopedic surgery consultant to surgeons—so he was the right man at the right place at the right time. He checked me out before the other EMTs arrived and made sure I was okay. He also took my bike home with him for safekeeping and brought it by today. I'm very grateful for David's concern (and for his family sitting in the hot sun in their car while he waited until the ambulance arrived). There were lots of other Union County neighbors who stopped on the busy road as well -- many thanks to them all. One, the owner of a popular local restaurant, gave me his card and told me to come by for a free meal. How nice!

I checked the bike computer -- it had stopped at 55.7 miles. Less than six miles to go on my 61-mile birthday ride. So close! I'll have to do it all over now for the record.

Thanks again to David and my Union County neighbors!

Hipocritical Hippocratics

It was Hippocrates (460-377 B.C), Greek physician and so-called "father of modern medicine," who said, "Let food be thy medicine." Obviously, modern doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath upon graduation from medical school have revised the good doctor's dictum to read, "Let drugs be thy medicine."

In his current newsletter, Dr John McDougall tells the story of his own attempts to integrate nutritional therapies into the hospitals where he worked as a young physician, and the opposition he faced from administrators and insurers in spite of the success he was having. Simply put, there is no money to be made from nutritional therapy compared to drugs and surgery. He ultimately left "organized medicine" and became one of the leading (and most creative and successful) voices for plant-based diets for preventing and reversing disease. I encourage you to take 10 minutes and read his story.

When Bike and Body Are One

Ringers at the Gila

If I was racing in the five-day Tour of the Gila road race in New Mexico this week, and looked over and saw these three entrants on the Mellow Johnny's team, I might suddenly develop a "sprinter's limp" and withdraw. They are (L to R) Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and Lance Armstrong, the three Americans on pro cycling's most powerful team, Astana.


Mellow Johnny's (the closest-sounding English words for the French "yellow jersey" worn by the leader of the Tour de France) is the name of Armstrong's bike shop in Austin, Texas -- and the MJ team was thrown together at the last minute to participate in the Gila as a warm up race for these three heading into the upcoming three-week Tour (Giro) of Italy.

This is of interest to me, having just broken my collarbone and a rib in a crash last Sunday, since Horner just broke the same two bones three weeks ago and Armstrong shattered his collarbone a month ago. (And Leipheimer cracked his sacrum in February in the Tour of California.) So they apparently heal quickly -- good news.

Michael Pollan Speech

Author and food analyst and activist Michael Pollan spoke at the Georgia organics conference in Atlanta March 20-21. Everyone who eats and cares about food and health -- and how agriculture is the key to human and environmental health -- should be familiar with Pollan. The video is an hour long, but there is no "action" to keep up with so you can listen to it while doing other things. The last 10 minutes are the most important -- anecdotes from several presidents illustrating how important it is to bring pressure on Washington to produce change:

Christians, Animals, and Vegetarianism

Finally! -- the Christian Vegetarian Association has just produced and released a 26-minute video on a Christian/biblical perspective on animals and the mandate to exclude them from the human diet. It is a calm reflection by a number of pastors, scholars, and doctors (like Caldwell Esselstyn) -- as well as "the Mad Cowboy," Howard Lyman. It was such a pleasure to hear Lyman speak -- a man who spent 40 years in the factory beef industry before realizing that God never intended meat to be eaten. Getting up in years, he is such a wise and gentle man with an obvious love for animals.

The video can't be embedded so you'll need to go here to watch it. If you are a Christian of any flavor, and have thought vegetarianism is a lunatic fringe element of the faith, I encourage you to watch this video. The Christians who speak come from a broad perspective of the faith and they won't all sound like what you're familiar with. But that's a good thing -- helps us grow and learn.

CSA Firstfruits

I have joined the New Town Farms C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) program for the summer. New Town Farms is owned by farmer Sammy Koenigsberg, Charlotte's longest-standing organic grower. A CSA program is a subscription plan: subscribers pay a set amount to the farmer at the beginning of the season and get a box of fresh produce in return each week. The up-front payments help the farmer with planting costs and gives him a good idea of how much he needs to plant. Sammy keeps his CSA fairly small and there's always a waiting list of folks eager to join. I picked up my first box today: German red head radishes, baby arugala, salad mix, braising greens mix (10 different mustards, kales, and Asian greens), Bordeaux spinach, and kale. Belonging to a CSA is a study in eating with the seasons as people have done for thousands of years -- before refrigeration and international shipping altered our view of the cycles of nature:



Sammy's main growing field. Come mid-summer it will be lush with growth:



Tool house and washing station:



Beautiful lake on the other side of which Sammy and Melinda are developing a Bed and Breakfast:



Sammy was an architectural design major in college and designed a beautiful home for his large (eight children) family. It's a well-used house, hosting church, farming, and "slow food" groups all year long:



The chicken house -- Sammy sells fresh eggs and chickens to his customers, and he and his son are getting into raising heirloom pork as well. (Bummer.)



Sammy's a good man and a good organic farmer. He and Melinda are well-respected by all who know them:

Yard Farm 2

An update on how the garden grows:

Tomatoes and eggplant on the side yard. There are TV and cable wires running underground in the middle of this area so I have to avoid it until I get the cables marked:



"Containers" has become the theme. A couple of neighbors have supplied me with additional buckets, in which are tomatoes, peppers, oregano, dill, parsley, etc. Looking forward to seeing how they do:





Jade plant (from Daniel) and aloe starts:



Seed starts -- everything is coming up nicely except the tree seeds from my parents' yard in Alabama. Especially pleased that all the Brandywine heirloom tomato seeds from 2-3 summers ago that I saved have sprouted nicely. Note to Daniel: the Winstrip trays fit PERFECTLY in a wheatgrass-growing tray for soaking and bottoms-up watering. Nice! (I'll bring you one.)

Yard Farm

In an effort to come up with more planting space in the front yard I created a bed around the dogwood and iris in the front yard. Took all afternoon, digging out the clay and sod, digging down 6-8" to loosen the soil, using a mini-tiller to break up the clods, mixing and spreading some "good" soil/amendments and mixing them in -- all for 20 square feet of garden space (4' x 5'). (Mel Bartholomew would be proud.) I had some extra plants left from the ones I bought the other day, so put two basils on the back corners and two peppers (a banana and a bell) on the front corners. In the four remaining sides I seeded beets, Siberian kale, lacinato kale, and American spinach. If time and need allow, I can keep expanding this "natural area" in the front yard (with a more flowing design instead of "square") to create a combination of flowers and edibles. The dogwood is really growing -- sending out lots of new branches. I have fed it diligently since planting late last summer.

19 Good Reasons to Have a Garden

This information is from Dr. Joel Fuhrman on the cruciferous family of vegetables that are the most potent cancer fighters. How many are in your produce bin today (or mine) or planted in your garden?

If we really want to win the war against cancer, we must improve the nutritional quality of our diet. We have all heard about the antioxidant effects our bodies derive from the phytochemicals in plant foods. However, the unique phytochemicals found in cruciferous vegetables offer superior benefits. Cruciferous vegetables contain phytochemicals that have unique abilities to modify human hormones, detoxify compounds, and prevent toxic compounds from binding to human DNA, preventing toxins from causing DNA damage that could lead to cancer. Studies have even shown that genetic defects that may lead to cancer are suppressed by the consumption of green cruciferous vegetables.

Certainly, many studies have shown that eating fresh fruits, beans, vegetables, seeds, and nuts reduces the occurrence of cancer. I plotted cancer incidence in 25 countries against unrefined plant food intake and found that as vegetables, beans, and fruit consumption goes up 20% in a population, cancer rates typically drop 20%. But cruciferous vegetables are different; they have been shown to be twice as effective. As cruciferous vegetable intake goes up 20%, in a population, cancer rates drop 40%.

• arugula
• bok choy
• broccoli
• broccoli rabe
• brocollina
• brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• collards
• horseradish
• kale
• kohlrabi
• mustard greens
• radish
• red cabbage
• rutabaga
• turnips
• turnip greens
• watercress

Include them in both raw and cooked forms and eat a variety of them. These benefits cannot be duplicated by taking any one pre-formed compound or supplement.

The evidence is now overwhelming that cruciferous vegetables play a major and unique role in the widely recognized protective effects of natural plant foods against cancer--and are the most important players in this arena. The biologically active compounds from raw and conservatively cooked green vegetables enhance the natural defenses of the human body against DNA damage and they even fuel the body's ability to block growth and replication of cells that are already damaged. For those in the know, these foods are the most important nutritional factors to prevent common human cancers.

Millennial Signs

Hanging Gardens of Stallings

King Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Hanging Gardens of Stallings aren't quite up to his standards, but they're a start. Because I have such limited ground space in the front yard I decided to try a growing method I've read about: growing plants in hanging buckets, upside down. Yes, it works -- not sure if mine will work, but I rigged up five buckets this afternoon (need to get one additional bucket for the sixth hook). In the five are a cherry tomato, a banana pepper, a bell pepper, a tomato, and a parsley. I originally planned to hang the buckets higher, hanging directly on the hooks, but discovered they had to hang lower in order to avoid the shade of the porch overhang. If they grow and the leaves proliferate downward I'll gradually raise the height of the buckets. Problems? High winds and grass fiber string rotting. (Need to replace string with some small chains if I can.) I used some food-grade plastic liners to line the non-food-grade buckets to protect against chemical leaching. (Not pictured are a half dozen other tomatoes and three eggplant plants that I put in the side yard where the avo trees were planted.)

I have to admit I'm not wild about the way these look -- "buckets" hanging off the front porch of my house. I think it's the string and the fact that the plants are so small at present -- so they just look like buckets. Hopefully, when the plants get bigger the look will change. Ideas welcome!

Millennium Restaurant

Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco is among the oldest, most popular, and award-winning vegetarian restaurants in the U.S. It was started by Ann Wheat and her husband after Ann gained her health back through Dr. John McDougall's counsel to switch to a plant-based diet. Here's her story:


Ann Wheat from John McDougall on Vimeo.

Thank God, Sunday Came

Dr. Shadrach Meshach (S.M.) Lockridge (March 7, 1913 – April 4, 2000) was the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation located in San Diego, California, from 1953 to 1993. He was known for his preaching across the United States and around the world.

He was well known for the following two sermon excerpts, both appropriate for this Resurrection Sunday:

Seed Starts

Better late than never, I guess. Decided to use one of my Winstrip trays to see what I could start in the way of a variety of seeds. Used a good organic potting soil (with vermiculite added -- the white specks) and added some finely ground alfalfa meal for nitrogen and kelp for minerals:




Under the grow light with my heating pad underneath to gradually warm up the soil and seeds:




Here's what I planted (after I had taken the picture I wrote down LK = lacinato kale and SK = Siberian kale):



The ginkgo, pomegranate, cherry, and persimmon were seeds I saved from fruit from trees in my parents' yard in Decatur, Alabama, when we sold their house. I don't have great expectations for these, but we'll see. The Brandywine (heirloom) tomato seeds were from a huge tomato from a plant I had a couple of summers ago. The chard, beets, and kale are new seeds.

Moon over Matthews

Children and (Big Pharma) Drugs

From DiseaseProof.com, this report on the increase in drugs being prescribed to children:

After examining prescription records of nearly 6 million children and adolescents experts found prescriptions for blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol medication increased by more than 15% among children from 2004 to 2007. The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, showed separately diabetes medications rose 23% and blood pressure medications 15%, but cholesterol-lowering drugs dropped 23%. Scientists attribute the drop to bad press associated with medications like Crestor and Lipitor. However, the rise in childhood obesity and doctors’ willingness to prescribe medications to young children is being blamed for the increase; HealthDay News investigates.

Actually, a recent study showed overweight children as young as age 3 may start showing signs of cardiovascular disease, so it’s easy to see why doctors would dole out pills, but a family-based approach to good nutrition is best for keeping kids healthy and off drugs.

And here’s some of bad press on cholesterol-lowering drugs. In January, Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor were found to cause eyelid droop and double vision as potential side effects. Eek!

Going Vegetarian for One Day

Kathy Freston blogs at the Huffington Post, frequently on the vegan lifestyle. This post summarizes the impact that meat-eating has on the environment. I can't validate the statistics, but I know they are in line with statistics I've read in numerous other places. (Thanks to Scott Morrison at his Progville blog for the link to this article.)

The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day

By Kathy Freston, Huffington Post. Posted April 2, 2009.

I've written extensively on the consequences of eating meat -- on our health, our sense of "right living", and on the environment. It is one of those daily practices that has such a broad and deep effect that I think it merits looking at over and over again, from all the different perspectives. Sometimes, solutions to the world's biggest problems are right in front of us. The following statistics are eye-opening, to say the least.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:

● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;

● 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;

● 70 million gallons of gas -- enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;

● 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;

● 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:

● Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;

● 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;

● 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;

● Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

My favorite statistic is this: According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. See how easy it is to make an impact?

Other points:

Globally, we feed 756 million tons of grain to farmed animals. As Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer notes in his new book, if we fed that grain to the 1.4 billion people who are living in abject poverty, each of them would be provided more than half a ton of grain, or about 3 pounds of grain/day -- that's twice the grain they would need to survive. And that doesn't even include the 225 million tons of soy that are produced every year, almost all of which is fed to farmed animals. He writes, "The world is not running out of food. The problem is that we -- the relatively affluent -- have found a way to consume four or five times as much food as would be possible, if we were to eat the crops we grow directly."

A recent United Nations report titled Livestock's Long Shadow concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40% more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's transportation systems -- that's all the cars, trucks, SUVs, planes and ships in the world combined. The report also concluded that factory farming is one of the biggest contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every level -- local and global.

Researchers at the University of Chicago concluded that switching from standard American diet to a vegan diet is more effective in the fight against global warming than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid.

In its report, the U.N. found that the meat industry causes local and global environmental problems even beyond global warming. It said that the meat industry should be a main focus in every discussion of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortages and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Unattributed statistics were calculated from scientific reports by Noam Mohr, a physicist with the New York University Polytechnic Institute.

Jewish Vegetarianism

In my own pursuit of the healthiest, most ethical, and most biblically-grounded lifestyle as a Christian, I have learned that there is a rich vegetarian tradition in Judaism. In fact, it was in a Jewish commentary on Genesis (not in any Christian commentaries), that I found the most helpful explanation of the change in God's directions from a vegan lifestyle (Genesis 1:29) to an allowance for meat-eating (Genesis 9:1 ff.).

Not all observant Jews are vegetarian, of course, but the slaughter of animals for consumption is supposed to be guided by the Jewish kosher laws to ensure humane treatment of animals. In 2004, PETA exposed undercover video from the largest Jewish kosher slaughterhouse in the world (AgriProcessors, Inc.) showing clear, widespread, and repeated violations of kosher standards. These violations were reported in the New York Times and other major papers and media outlets.

Jewish novelist Jonathan Safran Foer narrates a video about these violations that clearly spells out, via statements from leading Jewish authorities, how they violate Jewish law and tradition. But even more important, the ethical-biblical tradition within Judaism for treating all animal life with reverence is spelled out. While the video is difficult to watch in some places, it should be watched. The information is presented plainly but in a context of sensitivity and compassion.

As a Christian, the video made me wonder, Where are the Christian leaders (of equal stature to the Jewish leaders in the video) who share a similarly compassionate view of animals; who would go on record speaking out against abuses in the factory-farm systems; who would advocate a vegetarian lifestyle as one way to honor life and reduce violence in the world? There are a (relatively) few Christian authors who have addressed these issues, but few Christian "leaders" (heads of denominations and other groups) that I'm aware of.

I hope you'll watch the video, found here. There is a long (about 10 mins.) version and a short version. (Look to the right of the video screen to choose the version.) The long version has the interviews with Jewish rabbis/leaders that I found very helpful.)

Lizard Sighting

Catching some rays:



Showing off:



Going to get a drink:



Thankful for sticky toes. (I filled the watering can to the brim later so he could get a sip.)

David Sighting

Brother Dave was in town from Philly for a wedding this past weekend and we enjoyed a bit of hang time. He's on the downhill side of his Master's in Library Science and Information Systems at Drexel University.

Had to get a picture before the wedding; haven't seen Dave this dressed up since his bro's wedding:



The man can systematize some information:

Fiber Farm

Thanks to Priscilla for the link to this great video about a small sheep and goat farm on Martha's Vineyard. The owner left her job in New York City and started her small operation from scratch, applying the CSA model (Community Supported Agriculture) to selling yarn. Customers buy a share of her fiber harvest at the beginning of the season and collect their yarn at the end of the season.

Here is a link to her web site. In the video below, pay close attention to the beautiful Maremma guard dogs she uses. An Italian breed that looks a lot like the other standard guard dogs, the Great Pyrenees, Maremma's are tenacious, loving, and loyal guards of the flocks they protect—and of their family-owners, especially children.

Note for reflection: A lot of vegans eschew using any animal products or by-products for human use. But in my evolving understanding of the symbiosis between human and non-human animals, I'm comfortable with the use of animal fibers (wool, alpaca, etc.) for human use as long, of course, as the animals are treated humanely like the animals in this video. A year of reading the Small Farmer's Journal, which deals mainly with the traditional use of horses, mules, oxen, etc., in small farm settings, has helped me understand that some of these domesticated animals seem to "enjoy," or derive a sense of pleasure from, "being worked" in a manner that honors their strength and intelligence (as in plowing, etc.). So much so that I donated funds last December for the purchase of two yokes of oxen (and two plows) to be furnished to two small-farm families in southeast Asia for the plowing of their fields, greatly enhancing their ability to raise plants for their families' sustenance. I can only hope the animals are used respectfully, though that's out of my hands. But I enjoy the Edenic vision of human and non-human animals working together, with human beings bearing the responsibility for godly dominion (servant leadership) over their fellow creatures.

Okay -- enjoy the video:

Wordle

I recently wrote about 3,500 words describing books I thought were needed in the Christian publishing world dealing with a biblical perspective on diet, health, animals, etc. Feeding those words into the interface at wordle.com produced the following graphic representation of what I wrote using the 350 most-used words. The more frequently a word occurs, the larger it appears in the graphic. It's easy to see what I felt needed to be emphasized in the books I was proposing. (The publisher wasn't impressed, turning down my ideas. If they had seen this cool graphic I bet they would have said, "YES!" jk)



Here's another representation of the 500 most-used words -- different font and colors:



Wordle will also pull words off a blog or website, but the results from my blog were less impressive since there's such a random collection of words.

England's Ron Paul

England's Daniel Hannan is an MEP (member of the English Parliament) who is being called "England's Ron Paul." He speaks with the eloquence of Alan Keyes and the fiscal sanity of Ron Paul. (Of course, these Brits could read the phone book with their refined speech and accent and we would love it, but in this case there is substance to accompany the style.) Here he takes on England's Prime Minister in a March 26, 2009 (yesterday) speech in the European Parliament: (Background: the current prime minister of England is Gordon Brown who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, equivalent to the U.S. Sec'y of Treasury, under the previous P.M. Tony Blair. Therefore, Brown comes under attack here for years of bad policy, first in the Treasury and now as Prime Minister.)

Added later: I've just watched this video again and am just amazed at Hannan's eloquence as an orator -- a typically British trait. Watch how he draws on England's proud maritime tradition of having once ruled the oceans in her sailing ships, as a metaphor for England's leaky and sinking economy. Compare this oratical ability to speak from notes (Hannan appears to have notes in front of him) to the fact that president Obama used a wide-screen television as a teleprompter this past Tuesday night at his prime-time press conference! Granted, oratory is not the same as governing, but it sure builds confidence and gets the attention of listeners.



To get a similar perspective on the idea that debt can be fixed by more debt (the Obama plan), listen to legendary investor Jim Rogers as he takes on one of the talking heads at FoxNews this week. He can't find one thing that Geithner and Bernanke have done right so far in the current crisis. Use this link to see the video.

Water Barrels Connector Video

Pogue-o-Matic Product Finder

Last holiday season, David Pogue, technology editor for the New York Times, created an online shopping guide for technology gifts in four categories: cameras, camcorders, smart phones, and TVs. The Pogue-o-Matic is creative enough on its own (it actually works -- it's not a joke). What I found especially creative is what happens if you don't click a tab to begin shopping after Pogue finishes introducing the process. He stands there patiently waiting for you to choose . . . . Well, just click here to see if for yourself. Very funny.

Second Rain Barrel

Daniel's pics of his connected rain barrels reminded me I had bought the hardware to connect a second one a few months ago and hadn't ever done it. So I finally got it connected today. Can't wait to see how the connector to the second barrel works when we have a good rain.

The two barrels:



The connector -- bulkhead fittings on each barrel connected by a clear plastic tube:



The idea for the connector being at the bottom of the barrels allows both barrels to fill together and empty together with only one outlet hose needed for both barrels. My neighbor, John, suggested this configuration last year when we were discussing rain barrels and it made sense. We'll soon find out!

And btw -- that avocado I discovered that made it through the winter? Not an avocado. After I dug it up and potted it and looked more closely, it's not an avocado even though the leaves are very similar. So that means 100 percent of the avos died during the winter -- glad to have that settled.

International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition

Discovered today that there was a huge International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition held at Loma Linda University in California, March 4-6 of this year. Loma Linda Univ. is affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church which adheres to vegetarianism as one of its tenets. The university's nutrition department, part of the School of Public Health, is apparently vegetarian-focused.

The Congress was attended by 400+ scientists (doctors, Ph.D's, nutritionists, etc) from around the world. It is held every five years and this was the fifth Congress -- a pretty amazing track record.

Here is a video of Dr. Juan Sabaté (MD, DrPh), chairman of the LLU department of nutrition, talking about the Congress. While the Seventh-Day Adventists have been advocating vegetarianism for a long time (the "Kellogg" who found the Kellogg cereal brand/company was an SDA vegetarian), it's great to see scientists gather from all over the world to share updates on the health benefits of a plant-based diet. (As always with YouTube videos, click in the video itself to be taken to YouTube for a larger format version.)

Survivor

A few weeks ago I discovered one avocado tree that made it through the winter outdoors with no damage. Indeed, it looks very healthy. It was growing in a sheltered place -- a space between the base of the bird bath and the house. I don't know how that provided protection from the freezing cold but apparently it did. I can't leave it growing there since it's too close to the house so will transplant it soon to a pot.

From inside, looking out the dining room windows:



Outside:

Nice Looking Garden

The apparent plan for the vegetable garden to be planted on the south lawn of the White House. (Click on the image to see a larger, readable version.) Mostly lettuce, spinach, and herbs -- but it's a start.

Want to See the Future?

I read a big article about this concept in Wired magazine a year or so ago -- looks like it has found traction. This segment was on the CBS Sunday Morning show this past Sunday. (Hint: It's about what your children will mean someday when they say "car" and "fuel.") You can read a longer article with much more detail about the concept here.)

Fighting Mad

Dr. Ralph Winter, founder of the U. S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, (and who has successfully battled cancer in recent years) is one of the smartest people I've ever seen and one of the few evangelical Christian leaders I have ever heard use militant terms to describe the evil of disease in the human body. Instead of believing that God gives diseases (as I heard an elder in my church say not long before he died of cancer), Dr. Winter is biblical in labeling diseases as a tool of Satan who uses them to afflict and mar the glorious creation of God. The church should learn a healthy lesson in militancy from Dr. Winter.

Here's a short video of some cancer patients who are fighting mad about having cancer, from Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation:

Watch 60 Minutes this Sunday

Alice Waters, 64, is a legend in the organic, sustainable, slow food movement in America and internationally. She is the owner of the famous Chez Panisse restaurant (where the menu changes daily) in Berkeley, CA, the author of eight cookbooks, and one of the founders of the Slow Food movement. She is also the motivator behind the Edible Schoolyard movement, teaching children how to grow, prepare, and savor fresh food in sustainable ways right on the school grounds.

She and her work are going to be profiled this coming Sunday night on 60 Minutes (CBS, 7:00 EST). Here's a preview:


Watch CBS Videos Online

Eden

Lunch with the Girls

Enjoyed a nice lunch today at Santé Restaurant in Matthews with Lizzie and Anna. Liz heads back to Chicago tomorrow so this was our last get together. It was great having her here for almost a week!

Charlotte in a Tizzy

For the second time this spring, Charlotte has gotten to play hooky for a day due to a couple of inches of snow that fell last night. Unfortunately, it will be mostly gone by the end of the day.

Early this morning:



Sun on the branches: