Sustainable SW Blogs

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A friend just sent along this strip of pics from the San Mateo, CA Maker Faire Swap-O-Rama-Rama this past summer. There I unpacked the first box of printed copies of my book, The Good Life Lab. It was a pretty exciting day! And look, you can see the streak of grey hair that I got while writing the book. ; )

Mikey and I are yet again shifting diet gears. We've been juicing since July and we love it. But I feel that our chi is suffering. I feel cold in the middle and find myself craving more warm foods. Wishing to keep animal products to a minimum I've been exploring bean based recipes. Today I made a black bean chocolate spread that contains red onion, paprika, peanuts, sherry, garlic, dark chocolate, green onions, and soy sauce. Though we don't often indulge in white flour breads I made a gorgeous naan that came out exactly like the picture in my cookbook! I used my homemade garlic powder, which is really chunky, for the naan, along with parsley. It was an excellent match.

Candle making continued well into today. But with two small molds I found production slow, 6 candles took all day, and so I grabbed two vintage candy tins that I had collected from yard sales and made two larger candles using them for a body.

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Today I transformed my beeswax into these crazy cute beehive candles.

It feels like forever that I've been saying that I'm trying to find my way back to the life I was living before I wrote about my lifestyle in a book. Once again I am free to garden, build, and make stuff. Still I feel a bit like an onlooker who is trying to get into my life. I remember that the lifestyle I wrote about is composed of rhythms. Each one sounds a note: gardening, cooking, foraging, building. Together a symphony is played. Peace and joy follow. Still each rhythm must be found, activated, joined. Today I yanked all the oils I'd collected for making salve, lotions, and candles and I got going on a summer's worth of useful goods. I made all purpose balm, lip balm and a couple of candles. Next up, a half year supply of olive oil soap. Each thing that I make reminds me of the choice we have to make our goods or buy them. This raises the question, where do you want your labor to go? Domesticity? A world of your imagining? Or is it on the open market? 

Today I noticed this little charmer of a home for sale. The price, a modest $66K and that's in the hot springs district so it just might have a hot spring in the yard. Taxes? More than likely they're under $500 a year. Combine this low housing cost with year round gardening, a moderate climate (low heat/cool), undisturbed nature and you've got a formula for happiness. This is what makes Truth or Consequences a genuine charm. If you ask me cost of living is everything. When yours is low you are free to play, explore new interests, try out income generating ideas, travel, and whatever else you might imagine. You can live. This winter I've noticed a new round of speculators in town. Run down buildings are getting scooped up for cheap. Recently the decrepit Dude Apartments (best name in town!) was picked up. They'll be renovated, that's the good news. The bad news is that growth does not have a volume knob, at least not unless the town's elected officials have a vision, and ours don't. Time will tell... this story is still being written.

I start my powered paragliding training one month from today.  I haven't even been up in an airplane for 10 years.  Thanks to my buddy Chris Johnson, not only did I get a chance to get up in the air again - he also let me take the controls for awhile in his Cessna 172 on Sunday afternoon.  Appropriately, his plane was built the same year I was born...1959.  It was probably a good idea to get a feel for altitude before my first solo PPG flight.  Nice to be able to see what my airfield looks like from above.  42,57,30,0,W

People ask us how we deal with what we miss from city life, things like live music and exotic cultural events. Entertainment can be sparse in small, rural towns. I feel that it is best to fix problems like these rather than complain about them and so I've become in the habit of producing a couple of music shows a year in town. An upside of small town simplicity is the plethora of great venues that no one else is in line to use, gracious hotels willing to offer huge discounts for bands, and an audience that is starved for entertainment who assure that shows are well attended.

Blog readers, tell your favorite bands and performers to drop us a line of they are coming through the southwest. We will make them welcome. And if your in town next week, please come out for this great double bill. . .

MONDAY MARCH 10th ( Mikey's Birthday!!) 
With support from The Sierra County Arts Council & Sid Bryant Wonderland: An Evening of Unusual Auditory Experiences
@ 7PM -  Portland, OR based East Forest A unique electro-acoustic musical project that combines melodic-ambient soundscapes, ethereal vocals, and 100% original field recordings to create a genre bending visionary listening experience. This music has a foundation in ancient and modern "sound healing techniques," that humbly hope to put a few cracks in the hypnotic spell of our modern life and help each of us discover a sense of self through introspection. East Forest has shared stages and worked with individuals and artists ranging from Deepak Chopra, Elena Brower, Shiva Rea to Moby.
@ 8PM San Francisco, CA band Foxtails Brigade performs in T or C for the 2nd time.  The San Francisco Chronicle describes them as, “Arresting music marked by unaffected whimsy, dreamy imagery and insinuating melodies.” 
Where: Grapes Gallery 407 Main St., Truth or Consequences, NM  Cost: $12.00, $8.00 to Sierra County Arts Council Members
Brought to you by Wendy Tremayne 

the Santa Fe Seed Exchange on Wednesday, March 12, 2014

If you are looking for seeds and ideas for your vegetable garden, come to the Santa Fe Seed Exchange on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 from 4pm-7pm in Frenchy’s Barn on Agua Fria and Osage Ave. The City Parks Division and Home Grown New Mexico are hosting this event for all community gardens, school gardens and home gardeners. There are plenty of seeds available so come even if you do not have any to share. Bring flower, herb, vegetable and other seeds if you have some.

The Santa Fe Master Gardeners will be at the seed exchange with an “Ask a Master Gardener” table for gardening and planting questions.

The SeedBroadcast organization will have their seedbroadcasting station to answer questions about saving seeds and seed story recording equipment.  Tell your story about the seed, where you got it, how you planted it and more.  See their website for stories across America.

If you have questions, please contact: homegrownnewmexico1@gmail.com or call 660-4986

Freedom of religion is an inalienable right that our founders thought important to include in the bill of rights.   A right given to us by our Creator.  They saw fit to include it because God does not force it on us as well.  The progressive agenda seeks to do away with numerous individual rights for the benefit of the collective.  They feel the founding principles are a hindrance to our government as society and culture progress.  In my opinion, society and culture are not progressing at all - rather they are sinking lower and lower (walking after the flesh).  Our nation is happy to accept government intervention in all aspects of life and more than happy that religion is not forced upon the masses (remember - that was God's idea - not government's).  It's time to think carefully about what government wants you to accept, and what they would rather you not.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.    

2 Corinthians 5:For we walk by faith, not by sight 

First Rain this Year, a photo by mikey and wendy on Flickr.

We have gone a few months without any rain. Last night we might have picked up as much as a 1/2". This resulted in a gorgeous Sunday with clear skies and lovely cool breezes. Wendy and I went out for our separate runs which slightly overlap each other.

The trusty old PC is starting to have some issues.  Before I sort out why the brain behind this operation is bogging down so much, I took the opportunity to backup files to 2 redundant external hard drives.  68,80,47,0,B 

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Mikey and I have agreed to be a tour stop on a artisanal tour of Sierra County. Check out the stops. If you'd like to participate contact Dimid Hayes for more information.

INVITATION - APRIL 12-13, 2014 Sat. & Sun. 9 am-12 noon $50-100/person

A brief but rich two day weekend tour is designed to give you an intimate visit into the studios and farms of Sierra County's most interesting folks. You'll also receive a 10% discount at participating food venues and hotel/spas, all of which offer the famous healing waters of Truth or Consequences.

Dimid Hayes and Michael Donlan
CONTACT dmdhayes (at sign) gmail.com

Venues -

The Studio of Delams Howe - American Painter and muralist whose figurative work depicts mythological and archetypal - sometimes homo-heroic - themes in a neoclassical, realist style

Jardin del Alma - organic farm, home to Churro Sheep and Angora Bunnies- carding, spinning, weaving, and felting and the making of medicines and salves, fermented beverages, preserves, meades, copper jewelry, blacksmithing, hand-made drums, felted slippers, rugs and wall hangings.

OM of New Mexico - The Darland's certified organic farm in Monticello, where they grow their balsamic grapes, also is their growing center of unique fruit, vegetable and herb/flowers for T or C's Farmer's Market. Site for the production of America's only traditional style, organic, barrel-aged balsamic vinegar--now in its 17th year of aging.

Holy Scrap - the off grid, scrap made, homestead and life lab of Wendy Tremayne and Mikey Sklar.

My new friends David and Heidi Holloway came out for a visit today.  David and I have been in touch for a couple of years over the internet and we finally got to meet in person.  They brought me some pickled okra with peppers and garlic and some carrot cake jam...all from their garden in South Carolina.  Very nice folks...very good produce.  Technically, it was only 1/8th of a peck of pickled okra.  61,81,34,0,B

The NEW Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is coming out on March 11, and since people are asking how it’s different from the older book, I thought I’d tell you.

For the most part it is the same book you already know. The point wasn’t to write an entirely new book, but to bring its contents up to date. There are 150 new recipes, but there is also a greater emphasis on tempeh (and other fermented soy foods) than tofu, which we now see as being more beneficial than we once thought. There is a designation of those recipes that are vegan and more vegan options as well. Recipes that were especially rich or challenging for other reasons were either eliminated or adapted to reflect today’s tastes. A section on vegetable sautés replaces some of the more complicated stir-fries, and among the breads is now a no-knead recipe with some great variations.

That foods have changed along with our tastes is reflected in this new volume. Ingredients like smoked paprika and smoked salt, shichimi togorashi, rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) and curry leaves are more familiar and available than they once were. We now have coconut oil and a coconut beverage along with almond, rice, hemp and other dairy substitutes.  Shishito, fushimi and padron peppers are as familiar to some as jalapeno and serrano peppers once were. Kale was not eaten as salad when VCFE first appeared. Now it is. We may have cooked wheat berries before, but we didn’t cook “farro” until recently, and so it goes. Forbidden rice, frikeh, cracked, pearled and whole farro, unhomogenized dairy have all arrived and today we know about “tartines” as well as sandwiches. Another thing that has changed are the countless authors who are truly expert in a single area, be it bread, curries, Asian vegetables, which means that this volume doesn’t really have to contain everything—for there are many other books to choose from when our expertise in a particular culinary culture grows.

So while there are many changes (plus a new design within and without), it’s also true that many things have remained the same.  You’ll find your old friends here and hopefully discover some new ones. (I’ll get that cover up as soon as I figure out how to.)As in the older version, if you’re vegetarian, you can eat everything in this book. If you’re vegan, you can eat from a great many recipes or make the changes you’re accustomed to.  And if you are an omnivore, there’s nothing that says these recipes can’t be served with meat or made with meat-based stocks. The choice is entirely yours. As for gluten free, paleo, and the many dietary options that people turn to day, it was not the scope of this work to cover them. My belief is you know who you are, what you like to eat and, quite often, the changes you need to make to make a dish work for you.

Whatever your personal approach, I hope you enjoy The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

 

 

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