Innholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2017 i MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Have you ever admired a strong, community-supported business? If so, it may be a co-op. By common definition, co-ops are comprised of workers, consumers, farmers, and others who work together to meet a common goal for the group. Because they’re owned collectively, coops also strive to keep financial benefits within their communities instead of allowing those benefits to line the pockets of outside investors. Historically, many co-ops have focused on farming and organic food. Their growing popularity in the United States means that more than 30,000 co-ops now exist for a wide variety of enterprises, ranging from hotels to hardware stores. And recently, the co-op movement has expanded to include renewable energy. In many ways, alternative energy is a natural fit for co-ops. Community-driven renewable energy efforts allow experts and…

A small town in Southern California is setting a new standard for renewable energy. The city of Lancaster recently passed the Zero Net Energy Home Ordinance (ZNE), requiring builders to install solar panels on every new home. By harnessing energy from the abundant sunlight throughout the region, Lancaster hopes to become one of the world’s first net-zero cities. These regulations will require new Lancaster homes to produce 2 watts of solar energy per square foot. While actual home energy consumption can vary, this benchmark is expected to cover the bulk of energy usage for the region. Homeowners who opt out of the program will be required to pay a mitigation fee equal to $1.40 per square foot of their home. The ZNE ordinance aims to create environmentally friendly dwellings that…

The first time I made jam, our neighborhood grandmother, Agnes, told me I needed to buy a box of commercial pectin so my jam would set. I was pretty appalled by the amount of sugar required and thought the resulting jam was too sweet. It tasted more like sugar and less like the strawberries I had laboriously picked under the hot sun. So I set about learning how to make preserves with less sugar, figuring people must’ve made jam before commercial pectins were sold. Pectin is a naturally occurring substance in the cell walls of ripe fruits and vegetables. When fruit is cooked and broken down, the pectin gives the preserve some structure and thickness so it doesn’t soak unpleasantly into toast or PB&Js. Back before the advent of the…

If you have an abundance of sour cherries, you know you won’t be enjoying them out of hand as you would with sweet cherries, so putting them up as jam or pie filling makes sense. If you’re fortunate enough to have more sweet cherries than you can eat fresh, follow this same recipe, but cut back on the sweetener and add 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice. Yield: about 6 half-pints. Directions: Stem and pit the cherries. You should have 12 cups. Purée the fruit in a food processor until it’s finely chopped. Or, if you prefer, process it until it’s puréed. Transfer the cherries to a large, heavy saucepan and add the sweetener. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for about 30 minutes, until thick, stirring frequently, 10…

Heat index: Medium. Bring the freshness of summer bounty into your kitchen throughout winter. This simple starter can be used as a base for any kind of salsa fresca, from tomato to watermelon. It also works well stirred into avocados for guacamole. After fermentation, to make salsa, add 1⁄2 cup of the starter to 3 cups diced fresh tomatoes (or whatever fresh ingredients you dream up). Yield: about 1 quart. Ingredients • 2 onions • 1 poblano chile • 10 jalapeños, or a combination of chiles • 1 bunch cilantro • 6 to 8 cloves garlic • Zest and juice of 2 limes • 11⁄2 tsp salt • 1⁄2 tsp freshly ground black pepper Directions: Dice and mince the onions, poblano, jalapeños, cilantro, garlic, and lime zest by hand, or…

Electric fencing can be installed with basic hand tools and no prior fencing experience. And by adding a solar-powered fence energizer, you’ll make installation even simpler by eliminating the need for any grid connection. Not only that, but using a fence energizer powered by a solar-charged battery will also offer greater flexibility in placement on your property, allowing you to put the unit where needed without any consideration for a grid connection. You won’t have to worry about wayward animals if the utility grid goes down. You can even easily add it to, and use it in conjunction with, existing wood or metal fencing. All in all, solar-powered fencing may provide an attractive solution when compared with trying to install a fence energizer that runs on 120-volt alternating current (AC),…

“I can’t put the magazines down! I’ve learned so much during my new adventure.” Debt-Free Adventure We built a cabin in the woods in West Virginia (pictured above) and started our homestead. The cabin took a year from start to finish, with half of that time spent working only on weekends and traveling back and forth from New Jersey to West Virginia. In August 2016, we decided to move in and finish the house and homestead. We are debt-free and have a garden, fruits, goats, and chickens, and plan to add more animals soon. A neighbor gave us issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS from 1999 to more recent years. I must say I can’t put the magazines down! They’ve been so helpful to me. I’ve learned so much during my…

Cars aren’t the only vehicles that run on electricity these days — buses and trucks are also embracing the power of plugging in. A primary motivation for this trend is reducing the pollution caused by diesel. While heavy-duty diesel vehicles make up less than 5 percent of vehicles on the road, they account for more than 20 percent of transportation emissions. School buses might have the most to gain from going electric. Currently, almost all buses are equipped with diesel engines, and the children who ride on them can be exposed to levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and volatile organic compounds that may damage their developing respiratory systems. Switching to electric power significantly reduces this exposure. While a diesel engine emits 22.2 pounds of carbon per kWh, an electric…

When my family moved into our suburban home in central New Jersey, our large backyard was dotted with an assortment of trees, and unruly hedges hugged much of our perimeter fence. While it did make for a pretty good soccer field, it wasn’t suitable for much else. Our children would play in the backyard, but it didn’t excite their senses, offer impromptu lessons in nature or botany, or serve as a home for insects or birds. It was a desert of grass that required constant care and gave nothing in return. Something needed to change. I started the transformation with a vegetable garden and a couple of fig trees in a small corner of my yard. Now, after almost 15 years, I’ve transformed my entire 1⁄3-acre backyard into a productive…

Blueberries are less juicy than strawberries, making them an easy fruit to work with. The final amount of sweetener is up to you. I usually add the full 2 cups because my family prefers it sweet. Yield: about 8 half-pints. Directions: Place a small plate in the freezer for testing the set. Combine the blueberries and lemon juice in a large, heavy saucepan over low heat. Let the berries cook for a few minutes, until they begin to break down, and then crush them with a potato masher. After the mixture is juicy with crushed fruit, increase the heat and add 11⁄2 cups of the sweetener and the cinnamon, if using, and bring to a boil. Boil vigorously until the mixture is fairly thick, about 30 minutes. You’ll have reached…

It always starts innocently enough: You thought you’d grow red peppers, a half a dozen green chiles, maybe a Fresno chile or two, and of course you wanted to try to grow chocolate habaneros — oh, and you love poblanos, so put a few of those in, too. They’ve grown and grown — and you’re staring at more than a peck or two of peppers. Now what? The standard preservation choices are freezing, dehydrating, or canning, but you could also freeze-dry them with the right equipment. Let’s talk about canning. Some vegetables confound even the most seasoned canner, and peppers are one of them. Before discovering fermentation, I was that girl who canned everything. I really did try to roast and can green chiles to make our own homegrown Hatch-style…

These two habanero-based ferments are examples of the many flavors that pair well with habaneros. If the flavors sound enticing but you want a little less heat, try substituting Fresno chiles for the habaneros. Caribbean Salsa Heat index: Hot. The thing with habaneros is that the heat comes on late. You always have enough time to taste the rest of the ingredients and think you’ve made it through without pain and sweat. The other thing about habaneros is that they have an incredibly strong, fruity quality. After sampling this salsa, every one of our tasters argued that there must be tomato in the ferment. Nope! Yield: about 11⁄2 pints. Directions: Chop the habaneros and mix them in a bowl with the onion, thyme, and allspice. Sprinkle in the salt and…

Creating Natural Dyes Using Backyard Plants You might think that dyeing is a challenge better left to experienced folks, but it can be as simple or as intricate as you make it. If you want to duplicate a specific shade, my way isn’t right for you. But if you’re happy just to get color, you can harvest multiple hues from an ordinary backyard. I prefer natural fibers, so I use cotton, linen, and wool. Keep in mind that plant-based fibers and animal-based fibers don’t take color the same way. Cotton, linen, and other plant-based fibers are made up of cellulose, which is fairly resistant to dye. Animal-based fibers, such as wool, are made up of protein and are relatively easy to dye. Both plantand animal-based fibers need a little help…

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Since the 1970s, community-supported agriculture programs (CSAs) have helped farmers reduce their financial risk while making it easier for them to get crops directly to consumers. A farm’s CSA members buy a share of its potential produce at the beginning of the year, and then receive portions of the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season. In this way, CSA programs create a network among farmers and their surrounding communities. Thousands of CSAs keep thousands of households around the United States supplied with locally grown food. Historically, there’s been little effort to unite disparate CSAs, or to universally define what being a CSA truly means. Following the example of programs around the world, farmers in the United States are now proposing a CSA charter that establishes a national definition of what…

Kershaw Link Knife $69.99 at Kershaw.KaiUSALtd.com/Knives Hank Will, editorial director for MOTHER EARTH NEWS, has always had a place for Kershaw’s folding knives in his kit. Among the several models Hank uses, he finds the Link, with its SpeedSafe assisted opening, perfect for cutting the twine off large round hay bales while he’s feeding his sheep. “The knife holds an edge, opens and closes with ease, and clips securely in my pocket,” Hank says. “The BlackWash blade finish looks great and the works feel wonderful in my hand.” Because this knife has an aluminum handle, it’s the only folder Hank uses to process chickens. Hank also says a Kershaw is comfortable and reliable as an everyday carry and as a general ranch knife. The knives are made in Tualatin, Oregon,…

I love the combination of maple and peaches, but honey also works well with peaches. A hint of nutmeg enriches the flavor. Yield: about 8 half-pints. Directions: Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water. Lower the peaches into the boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. Drain, cool, and peel. Working over a bowl to catch all the juices, use a sharp knife to cut each peeled peach in half around the pit. Gently twist each half to expose the pit. Using the knife or your fingers, pry the pit out of the peach. When all the peaches are peeled and pitted, chop into small pieces, again trying to save all the juices. Combine the peaches with their juices along with…

Heat index: Mild. This recipe uses the three most common peppers in Southwestern cooking, and it’s wonderfully convenient to have on hand whenever you make chili; the flavorful chile peppers, vegetables, and spices are already prepared and ready to add to the pot. The batch size seems large, but you’ll use at least 1 to 2 cups per meal. For about 45 minutes of work, you’ll have 6 to 8 future pots of chili. We wanted this recipe to be perfect for a family meal — a hint of heat to add some excitement to the dish, but not so much that children or non-heatlovers would feel smoked out. For more heat, feel free to increase the jalapeños and reduce the green chiles and poblano peppers. Yield: 2 to 21⁄2…

I’m a pawpaw man. I’ve been hooked since my first taste of this fruit. The pawpaw is the largest edible fruit native to the United States, and it has a texture and flavor similar to a mango-banana custard — unparalleled in the eastern woods. Ranging from eastern Oklahoma to the Atlantic, and from southern Michigan to Louisiana, the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is like a tropical fruit adrift in our temperate climate, with a history as beguiling as its flavor. For the past seven years, I’ve researched the pawpaw tree and its fruit — from Native American wildcrafting to frontier foodways — and chronicled its revival among wild-fruit enthusiasts, permaculturists, amateur plant breeders, and professional scientists. Along the way, I’ve definitely eaten my share of pawpaws. I’ve consumed them fresh (my…

In 2013, a few folks who knew each other from the gardening community in Austin, Texas, came together with a dilemma — how to sell their extra produce at farmers markets. As individuals who didn’t want to deliver on a marketfarm scale, the barriers to entry seemed too great. They had the idea to create a shared farmstand, a CSA program, or something — they weren’t sure what. The group, including co-founders Annelies Lottmann and Lesley Williamson, spent most of 2013 meeting and figuring out which structure would work best. Finally, they decided to organize as a co-op because of their interest in group ownership. In early 2014, members began selling produce at the HOPE Farmers Market, which already allowed gardeners to drop off and sell small amounts of produce.…

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