Sustainable Tucson

Potato time!

2011-09-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

These little beauties were harvested from the Liboffville garden last week. We steamed them up and served them as potato salad at the New Fish Potluck. Some of them are University novelty variety potatoes and some are Yukon gold and other varieties. They were all delicious.

Our lovely salad garden gone to seed

2009-04-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well, we need to start planting our lettuces in a series if we want to prolong our salad garden next year. Our crop has all gone to seed. But, no worries! I have started saving our arugula seeds for our summer garden in Alaska, and will start saving other seeds after they start dropping them.

Also, my brother and I have been selling salmon for our little company, Naknek Family Fisheries at the farmers' markets. Although it is not "local" per se, people seem to genuinely appreciate the fact that it is natural, wild caught salmon and from a small, family-owned business. It's been a wonderful experience connecting with the farmers at the markets as well, and purchasing our food from them. We have been especially enjoying the local bee pollen, the apples from last fall, and sugar snap peas.

It's starting to get hot now, but since we insulated our attic a couple of years ago, we have not yet turned on our cooler. It's been now a few months since we used heating or cooling in our home, and have been passively heating and cooling with the windows.

We are looking forward to the summer in Alaska, when the temperature starts to rise beyond comfortable. I am planning a big garden on a 1 acre parcel in Alaska this summer. I plan on growing seed potatoes, rhubarb, and a variety of lettuces. My new company is called Alaska Bounty. One of the primary products that I intend to make is organic fertilizers utilizing fish waste. I will likely be documenting this endeavor in a new blog, so stay tuned.

Spring is right around the corner

2009-01-17T16:36:00.000-08:00

Our garden never ceases to amaze me. We took on a new crop this last season - baby carrots. They are an heirloom variety, and are small and round - and completely delicious! We have been thinning them and incorporating them into our salads the past couple of days.

Speaking of salads - our greens are still thriving. We are hoping to install a shade cover over our winter garden in order to prolong our growing season, and cool our house a little when the sun really starts to beat down on us, say April or so. Last year it was so sad to see our garden wilt and die in the Tucson heat.

Hands down the best greens to grow in Tucson in the winter are arugula, spinah, kale, collards, and cilantro. We have been loving our homegrown salads. I think there may even be enough to consign some greens at a farmers market or two. We'll see soon enough. We've been pretty generous with sharing them, and it seems like we can get a little more for our efforts than the satisfaction that comes from sharing. In this economy, every little bit helps!

Happy harvesting!

Winter is here

2008-12-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Our Tucson winter has started and it's been a little more chilly lately. Last year we were able to cut our heating bill substantially by insulating our attic with recycled cotton insulation. It cost around $500, but I think we may have saved that in only one winter. The winter prior to the insulation upgrade we spent nearly $300 on our gas bill in one month alone.

My husband has also taken steps to decrease the heat loss in our house by filling in the cracks around our windows and doors with the sticker-backed foam. This is easy to remove when the weather heats up and is fairly inexpensive. Our house is and older 1920's-era bungalow and has all of the original windows and doors, so it is pretty inefficient. But, these little modifications, plus making an effort to keep the doors shut to minimize heat loss, help a lot.

We are also fortunate to benefit from the orientation of our house, which allows for passive solar heat during the day. We have to remember to open our blinds to allow for the sunlight to come streaming in, but if we can remember to do this in the morning, we can have free heat during the daylight hours and save a lot of money on gas heat.

As for the bike-riding, it's been a little disappointing. I was sick last week, and didn't ride at all. Also, since my niece's school is only about 7 blocks away and she is typically too slow to make the bus, we end up driving her to school, and me to work at the same time. I feel like we have been lulled into a false sense of complacency as gas prices have plunged in the past month or so. I definitely notice that we have been driving more and biking less with the cheap gasoline. I'm embarrassed to admit this, as I feel that this type of mentality is what is keeping Americans from demanding real change in the energy economy.

Our garden has been flourishing, even with the colder temperatures. Our kitchen salad garden is so prolific that I have to pick it practically every day in order to keep it from bolting. If we have extra greens, we share with with our neighbors, who are very appreciative. I recently read in the CSA newsletter that an easy way to incorporate greens into your meals is by chopping them in the food processor and adding them to your recipes. I'm going to start doing this, as we have a lot of green that need cooking and it will be an easy way to get those vitamins.

Sharing resources

2008-11-05T13:43:00.001-08:00

My brother, Everett, and his 8-year old daughter, Lakota, recently moved in with my family here in Tucson, Arizona. We are faring well so far. They join us from Alaska, where my brother and I were born and raised.

So far, it has opened my eyes to the benefits of cooperative living. Of course there is the obvious advantage of having another adult in the house with a small baby crawling (and now walking, at only 10 months!) around, but also the advantages of sharing space and resources. For instance, it may seem preposterous to most people living in intentional communities that each household has their own washing machine, but now that we have two households living in one, we can share these things.

Also, our grocery bill, instead of skyrocketing, actually seems to be decreasing, as we now have another person contributing. My brother doesn't do much of the cooking, so he benefits from having homecooked meals without having to do the cooking. He's also lost about 9 pounds since he's been here, largely because of the better diet and more exercise. The weather in Tucson is a lot more mild than in Alaska and we spend a lot of time outdoors - walking and biking.

Last night we had our first garden salad of the season. I'm looking forward to losing some of my baby weight by eating more salads at night, instead of a meal full of protein and starches.

The community garden plot is almost ready to pick. It's nice to have a diverse mix of winter greens. The home garden plots have raw edible greens, and the community plot has a mix of greens requiring cooking or steaming. We are contemplating renting another couple of plots at the community garden because we are out of space at our property for more gardens. Also, the community garden offers the added convenience of automatic drip irrigation and the free organic seeds.

Happy harvesting!!

New Goals

2008-10-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

We have been putting about $30 of gas per week into our car. My new goal is to reduce this amount to $20 per week. I plan to do this through biking my son to school every day and then going right from there to work. My work is about 2 miles away from my son's school, and the ride is actually quite pleasant. Since it's cooled off, I biked there for the first time on Friday. I was surprised at how quick and how nice the ride was.

The only thing that has been holding me back is the child care gap in between my son's school and my work schedule. However, my brother is coming in three weeks to stay the winter with us, and that is part of our arrangement - that he will watch baby in the mornings before one of the babysitters arrive.

Once we have the school and work rides lined up, one of the few other reasons that we would require the car is for grocery shopping, which we can do by shopping more locally at the Food Co-op downtown, and the Santa Cruz River Farmer's Market on Thursday. Also, we often need to make trips to pick up feed for the chickens, but if we can find a suitable burley bike trailer or some other bike trailer, we may be able to augment the chicken's food with food scraps from the Co-op. That will take some forethought, but it is not impossible.

2008-10-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

The "Mini-Van"

My 4-year old son calls our bike setup the "mini-van". I love that! Our bike is definitely a site to behold; it consists of my Townie bicycle with an Adams Trail-A-Bike attached for my son, and a Wee-Ride centric bike seat for my 9-month old. The stares and comments we get when we are riding around are something else. Sometimes it feels like we are in a parade. Everybody stops and stares, usually with smiles on their faces.

My goal is to get down to only using about $20 per week in gas for our car. Ultimately, I'd like to abandon the car altogether, but that will come in time. Peak Oil is upon us, and the relatively low cost of fuel that we see today is going to be a thing of the past within a few short years. I think that the bicycle is a logical alternative, as it inexpensive, can go long distances, and can carry a good load.

My husband works for Technicians for Sustainability, a company here in Tucson that installs solar panels and solar hot water systems. Part of their deal is that their crews bike to the job site. They have these nifty bike trailers that can carry hundreds of pounds of materials and supplies behind them. He has been exhausted after work these days, as their most recent job is some 10 miles away and he bikes there with the bike trailer behind him. I am somewhat jealous in a way - he's getting in such good shape!

Biking is definitely the way to go if you want to lessen your carbon footprint, reduce traffic congestion, save money, and start your day off right. My son loves biking to school, and when my brother comes in a couple of weeks, he'll be able to watch my little one in the morning. This will allow me to bike my son to school, and then bike right to work from there. It'll be a challenge to see how long we can go between gas tank fill-ups.

Winter Garden

2008-10-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

When the rest of the country is enjoying the falling leaves of October, my family and I were busy planting our winter garden here in Tucson. This year we chose the following to plant from seed: sweet peas, beet berry, kale, mesclun salad mix, garlic, cilantro, and carrots. We also readied the soil for our small kitchen herb garben, where we will plant herbs from 4" starter plants, including: oregano, parsley, chives, mint, basil, and thyme.

Aside from the new plants to be grown and harvested this winter, we will make good use of existing plants in our garden, such as chiletepins, nopales from our prickly pears, and perhaps some wolfberries.

I look forward to our scruptious salads in a couple of months.

Harvest time

2008-09-29T23:36:00.001-07:00

This weekend was an adventure in food gathering. My family and I met up with my son's school mate, Jacob, and his mother, Tina at our house Saturday morning and we drove about 14 miles north to Catalina. The orchard we visited is not online, but there are two orchards right next to each other, Howard's Orchard and Cliff's Apples. After we had our fill of apples (the owner actually encourages customers to "try before you buy") and made our purchases, we drove back onto Hawser followed the road a little further north, until we reached a road called Stallion (?). From there, we followed the signs to Our Garden.

Our Garden is a quaint country farm where one can purchase organic fruit and produce, as well as pick some seasonal crops. Last Saturday grapes were in season and we bought about 9 pounds! They were only $1 per pound if you pick them yourself, so we just kept picking and picking. We shared our harvest with my husband's parents and grapes make a delicious frozen snack as well. We are definitely doing this again next year. It was good, clean family fun and got enough apples for months.

How to get there:
Take Oracle north to Catalina. Once in Catalina, keep your eyes open on the right hand side for a convenience store. You will turn right onto a smallish street called Hawser. From Hawser, you will follow the road, as it curves from east to north. Keep on that road and follow the signs. The orchards usually close by noon, so plan on going early.

Ideas welcome

2008-09-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings fellow bloggers and concerned Tucsconans:
We are at a precipice in our cultural evolution. At this moment in history, our society faces the very real challenges of climate change, degradation of our natural capital systems, the impending financial crisis, looming unemployment, rising energy costs, and Peak Oil. Far from being a gripe-fest, this blog is about ideas and how to combat these issues in a way that allows us to continue living in this amazing desert environment that we call home.

Please feel free to post as often as you would like. I only request that we at all times maintain an attitude and tone of civility and respect. If you have differences of opinion with other bloggers, try to debate the issues in a non-inflammatory way.

Some may fear the upcoming changes. Instead of fear, let's project an attitude of grace, love, adventure and innovation. Nothing is too big to take on if you approach a problem with a positive outlook.

Happy blogging!