A multi-purpose cleaning recipe

Devin and I spent the entire day cleaning the kitchen.  I don't think it has actually been cleaned from top to bottom ever in the two years we've lived here.  I wanted to share because 1) I'm proud of our immensely clean room and B) I found a multi-purpose cleaner that I really enjoy and I wanted to share:

Multi-purpose cleaner

• 1/2 cup water (distilled, boiled, or oh heck get wild and crazy straight from the tap)
• 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide
• 1/2 teaspoon castile soap (I loved the smell of Dr. Bronner's citrus soap)

Combine in a spray bottle and use on counters, windows, cupboards, etc.  Test on fabrics before using as peroxide can sometimes discolor fabrics.  I found a lot of success using my cleaner with a microfiber cloth.

I forgot that there was peroxide in my cleaner until I sprayed a section along the counter behind our sink faucet and - foooooom - a huge puff of white foam!  Good thing I had that disinfecting power.  And kinda gross.

While I finished the kitchen, Devin cleaned out our spare bathroom.  Didn't know we had a spare bathroom?  Well if you've been over in the last 12 months you wouldn't have because it was filled with gardening supplies and recycling.  

With two rooms down, I'll leave you now....the dining room is calling.

Pics or it didn't happen

A month gone by...

What have I been doing!? Not writing, that's for sure.

I've been working on our home and it has been both lovely and exhausting.  We have some new furniture, warmer walls, and curtains!  I've collected a respectable 15 pounds of produce from the garden and am working on a late summer planting for cool fall crops (broccoli, peas, lettuce, carrots, pak choy, and garlic)!  Deciding not to purchase a home this summer was probably the best decision we've made in a while.  I've really needed to settle in somewhere.

I've also been organizing a lot of my digital crap - hundreds of starred blog posts on my google reader and an overflowing "to be sorted" file on my desktop.  I'm putting together a household binder with contact information, recipes, giftcards/tickets, and all sorts of other useful information - most of which has been snagged from the internet.

Finally, I've been dealing with some family events.  I have an uncle, a man who in my life has always represented the epitome of a good man, who is nearing the end of his life.  He has had MS for several years now and has had very little desire to live for the last several months.  He is in and out of the hospital and my aunt has recently made the decision to bring in hospice.  We've all known this would come someday but it has been hitting me harder than I had anticipated.

One of the starred posts I came across recently has helped me reframe a little.  It's a post called "5 ways to breathe in a breathless world."  It's worth reading but here's the gist of it:

1. remember that productivity is not your god

2. don’t confuse the urgent with the important 

3. move toward community, not away

4. learn how to close the day

5. lift up your eyes

Garden Update - July 2012

Stage 1: March

Stage 2: April

Stage 3: May

Stage 4: May

Stage 5: June

Stage 6: July

Ready for a few close-ups?

Beefsteaks growing nice and large

Cherry Tomatoes in the evening sun

Sunflower head forming

Cucumber-lettes and some red cabbage 

Herb section with soaker hose

Our first zucchini of the year and
some more summer squash

I also have more basil than I know what to do with right now.  I have several bunches in small jelly jars of water around the house - they smell great! and are starting to root.  I might have to share my favorite pesto recipe with the next basil trimmings.

Vermont 2012 - Hardwick & Winooski

Hardwick is the subject of a book titled, "The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food." I haven't read the book but it has been on my amazon wish list for a little over a year.  While I'll still probably get around to reading it, I was thrilled to visit the town on my 3rd day in Vermont.

The short version of Hardwick's ever evolving story is that the small town (approximately 3000 people) dealt with a crushed economy built on granite mining and agriculture.  Many residents, both old and new, came together and with a great amount of tension began to carve out a place of locally grown and developed food.

Found taped to a light pole in Hardwick

We had lunch at Claire's.  If you tell anyone in the know that you're going to Hardwick for lunch - they assume you're going to Claire's.  The restaurant is built entirely on local foods with a few exceptions (liquor, for example) that isn't local but is produced by small businesses and families in other people's local business circuits.  Our meals were delicious but many of us left still confused as to whether this was a sustainable business plan; they were still subsidized by their initial investment grants which were running out this year.

Listening to the owner of Claire's telling his story

O_O Awesome

Speaking of compost (picture above)! We visited the Highfields Center for Composting where an incredibly hunky man in overalls and rubber boots dazzled me with his compost knowledge.  Most of Hardwick's compostables go to Highfields and then back into the local soil.

Windrows - I could see the steam rolling off them

Ventilated compost bins

Vermicomposting unit! (my favorite ^_^)

Our next stop was High Mowing Organic Seeds run by Tom Stearns.  To say that Tom is passionate about seeds is an understatement.  He was an absolute pleasure follow around town and his tour of his company was just as fantastic!  High Mowing grows, saves, and sells 100% organic and non-GMO seeds.  Did you know that certified organic produce doesn't usually come from organic seed?  And that the majority of seeds (despite being ordered and shipped from hundreds of middle-man companies) are controlled by 6 large pharmaceutical and chemical companies?  High Mowing started the Safe Seed pledge in 1999 to protect against GMO seeds and since then over 70 companies have signed on.  I was so impressed with Tom's knowledge and High Mowing's operation that I won't be getting my seeds anywhere else from now on (unless Michigan suddenly develops an organic, sustainable, GMO-free, locally owned and run seed business).

The measuring department, complete with prayer flags.

You can't really see with this picture -
but the wall contains scoops of all kinds!

Tom giddily showing us the seed cleaner and sorter.

The BEAUTIFUL mural on the bathroom walls.

High Mowing's rigorous germination test

We finished our field trip with a tour of the Vermont Food Ventures Center where budding food entrepreneurs can become food safe certified and rent time/equipment in a commercial kitchen to produce and package their own value-added products.  They get help from food scientists, business planners, and marketers to get their business up and running.

We had to gear up to get into the center -
hair/beard nets and foot washes

Inside the bakery room, listening to the operator talk
about their expansion plans

Devin and I ended the night with dinner in Winooski, a town neighboring Burlington.  We ate a delicious and cheap meal at Papa Frank's.

For $1 we got garlic bread and a huge cup of roasted garlic
in olive oil - heaven!

Lasagna

Vermont 2012 - Burger Night

Dinner my second night in Vermont was very special.  We went to Bread & Butter Farm for their Burger Night.  The line was huge!  Burger Night is incredibly popular even when the weather was rainy, cold, and grey.

I don't have words for this experience.  It is extremely difficult for me to articulate how important it was for me to be at this farm at this point in my life.  Even thinking about it is making me cry on my keyboard.  I cried on the farm, too.  At the end of our night I spent some time alone in Corie's hoop-house and the beauty of their land, their family, their community just came spilling out of me.

The front half of the line to order

Right: Hoop-house, Left: Pavilion for dining and music

Farmer Corie bringing new lettuce to the burger bar

Their beautiful landscape!

Cucumbers in the hoop-house

The length of the hoop-house

Bread & Butter Farm is located on Cheese Factory Rd.

Corie took a minute out of the chaos of running a farm and pop-up restaurant to talk to us and tell us that the kind of jobs we (those of us in the program) are looking for don't exist.  That we need to create them.  We aren't going to find them in a graduate program or on a job listing site - we need to carve our own paths.

She spoke to us again at the TED-esque conference when she told her story and brought the hundred person audience to tears.  She ended with a slideshow of her family and her farm while her husband performed an acoustic rendition his song "Family Farm" (a 2009 live version below).

Finally, I was lucky enough to speak with Corie one on one later in the week over dinner.  I had been wanting to talk to her personally, many of us did, but I was anxious; she's kind of a rock star.  We talked about farm stuff - Corie studied farming at the Santa Cruz program, then she worked to create the MSU program and once that was up and running she had huge input on the creation of the Vermont Farmer's Training program.  I was able to pick her brain and she gave me a lot of really great advice.  And no kidding about the rock star thing...I was the envy of many other women in the group who wished they'd been able to have her ear that night.