smokin', slicin', and pricin' bacon

So, now you have a salty slab o' meat, right?


Smoke it!
There are plenty of smoker boxes on the market for all sorts of grills, as well as a variety of types of wood chips. There are also stand-alone smokers specifically for smoking, but I don't think we're quite that serious about our smoking just yet.

So, here are the basics of smoking your belly:

• Get the chips wet
• Heat them on high heat until they begin smoking
• Turn down your heat until you can maintain a 200deg covered grill temperature
• Put your pork belly in (not directly over any heat source)
• When the belly reaches 150deg internal temp, it's done! (approx 3 hours)

We have a gas grill, with three long rows of racks and burners across the grill. We put the smoker box on top of the back burner (rack removed), and only used that burner during the process. On high, the grill got up enough heat to get the chips burning, and on low the grill was able to maintain 200deg. Perfecto! We placed the meat on a cool secondary rack (one that hadn't been in the grill during the warm-up process) to avoid any grill marks or too much heat directly on the meat. That secondary rack (which was really a fish grill rack, scrubbed really well first) went onto the front of the grill, where the burners had been off all along. We checked on the temperature after a while, and right around the 3 hour mark, it had reached 150! (Ok, and by "we" in this entire paragraph, I really mean Able Bodied Boy :))

We let it cool down a bit, then rinsed the salts off, then stuck it in the fridge to harden up a bit for slicing. We might have licked our fingers.


Slice it!
Of all the aspects of making bacon, this was probably my biggest worry. I know someone with a slicer... someone that lives 500 miles away :-P So we were going to need to find a slicer, find another slicing method, or hand-slice the meat.

Luckily, I happened to be at a friend's house, touring through their recent renovations, when we stopped to chat. Lo and behold, there was a slicer at our feet! I immediately claimed it (thank goodness they are nice people and understand my quirks), with promises to return it.

If you don't know how to use a slicer, for the love of all things fingered, look it up! Be safe; these are dangerous machines. The only good thing about how wonderfully sharp they are (besides cutting, you know, meats and cheeses and such) is that any body parts you lose to it will probably have a clean cut and can be taken to the ER with you... Sorry if that grosses you out, but seriously these machines are dangerous.

Anyway, we picked a thickness we liked and it only took a few minutes to create 6 lovely piles of a half pound of bacon.

If you don't have access to a slicer, just remember that the world won't end if the slices aren't perfect. And use a sharp knife. And you could probably briefly freeze the meat to make it a little more solid.

We found that one end of our belly was rather fattier than we would generally like our bacon, but I don't fault the pork shop for that. First, I imagine they take the better cuts of belly for their bacon. Secondly, there are two directions we could have sliced the bacon in... long side or short side. I told Able Bodied Boy to use the short end, so we'd have sandwich-length pieces of bacon, and more slices for dividing amongst our 6 piles. If we had cut on the long side, each piece would have had one end fattier than the other. *shrug* I divided the fattier pieces amongst the piles. We can always save the bacon drippings for future cooking. If you were looking for healthy bacon... move along :)

Price it!
This may vary for your area/sources, but here's what we were working with...

• $7.50:  3.5 lbs Pork Belly  
• $0.83:  .5 lbs Kosher Salt ($5 for 3lbs)
• $2.40:  4oz pure maple syrup ($.60/oz)
• $1.00:  a handful of wood chips
• $3.91:  ($11.73 total for 3 lbs of bacon)

Granted, this math doesn't factor in the actual smoker box we invested in (and have used several times), or the time and energy. But the local pork shop sells their bacon for around $4.50/lb and, provided they don't use curing salts, we feel like it isn't any more/less economical to buy their pork belly versus buying their bacon.

But for those who haven't paid attention lately, bacon is up between $5 and $6 per pound at the grocery, and don't forget that they've pumped it with extra goodies...


Up next on my list of home-makins... dairy products. Are there any products that you're curious about how it's made, and if it can be done fresh at home?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #5: curin' bacon

Ok, so now that you have your pork belly...

What do I need for curing?

• Salt (Kosher salt is best)
• Flavorings (optional)
• Maple syrup (the real stuff, for the love of nature!)
• Brown Sugar
• Black Pepper
• Other, as desired
• A non-metalic covered curing vessel
• A rig for keeping the belly out of it's own liquid. We used a large tupperware, with two small lids underneath the belly to keep it out of the pool.
• Or, you can just use gallon-sized baggies (cut the belly in half if necessary... two bags, two different cures?). They will retain the liquid around the belly and possibly not get you as dry of a cure, but you're used to water-logged store bacon anyway (and you could drain the bag daily!). Be sure to double-bag to prevent contamination.
• A spot in the fridge to keep it cold (and safe!)

Ok, let's get curing!

• You do NOT need to remove the skin of the belly.
• On a VERY CLEAN surface, rub both sides of the belly in a coat of salt. This is about a quarter-cup total for both sides. It doesn't need to cake, just coat. See photo above.
• Rub both sides with your flavoring, a quarter-cup total. Brown sugar? Maple Syrup? Cracked Black Pepper? Your call!
• Place in your curing vessel.
• Daily, for one week:
• Drain the liquid, if necessary
• Add more salt to coat each side (1-2 Tablespoons total)
• Flip over

Next up, smoking and slicing!

The weather has been great lately for doing a little winter pruning (I tackled our blackberries last weekend!). Have you been doing any outdoor projects?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #5: makin' bacon

Yup, you got that right.

We are making bacon. And it's super easy to do, from what we are finding.

Now, this was inspired by three things. First and foremost, the blogging goddess Crunchy Chicken and her post last month about her first bacon phase. Second and crucially, the fact that we have a full-service pork store just around the corner from our house, where all manner of fresh pork product is sold seasonally from September to April. Lastly and gratefully, Able-Bodied Boy's willingness to buy a smoker box for our gas grill (I swear I didn't bully him into it!).


How do you make bacon? The basics are as follows:

• Obtain pork belly
• Cure pork belly (let it sit with salt and flavorings like sweetness or spices on it) for one week
• Smoke until the internal temperature reaches 150F

Seriously. That's it.

Why is this better than buying it from the store?

• Store-bought bacon has evil additions.
• Extra water, so that you are paying for more liquid than actual meat
• Preservatives, namely sodium nitrite (see safety discussion below)
• The source of the pork is unknown. We've all heard the horror stories about commercial farms: the feed, the anti-biotics, the conditions, etc.
• Ultimate customized bacon flavors!

Is it safe to make your own bacon?

Yes, just as safe as you bringing home and cooking any other meat product: if you are mindful of cleanliness,  food-handling precautions, and safe cooking temperatures, than you are perfectly safe.

The FDA allows sodium nitrite to be used in the curing of meats. Sodium Nitrite helps in the prevention of botulism and keeps the meat a nice pink color. But it also, when heated, can form nitrosamines when heated. Nitrosamines are a carcinogen in lab testing. Now, there are some other products that can help prevent the nitrosamines from being created, so they pump ascorbic acid or erythorbic acid to help prevent that.  source

Yum.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to use those products. I'm not selling my bacon and I trust my methods. So, sodium nitrite (aka pink salts, aka curing salt, aka Prague Powder) is not being invited to this party.

Where am I going to find a pork belly from a good source?

This may take a bit of leg-work, but here are some tips:

• Google maps: sometimes just entering "pork store" will yield you some options
• Website listings: try localharvest.org or see if your local area has a website with area farm/market information. For the Philadelphia and South Jersey areas, I found farmtocity.org and slowfood.cape-may.net
• Farmer's Markets: just because your farmer's market doesn't have a pork vendor doesn't mean they don't exist. Ask around. Farmers know farmers. Farmers often don't bring with them what is too difficult to transport (say, heavy coolers full of meats and ice) if they don't reliably sell.
• CSA's: same as the farmer's markets. Many CSA's have relationships with local dairy/meat farms and they may have a good contact for you to call
• Know a local friend who lives around the corner from a pork store, or works in a butcher shop *winkwink*

I haz pork belly! What now??

Patiently wait for the next installment, when we start the curing process!

What's going on in your kitchen? Or, with this beautiful weather, have you made your way outdoors to the garden?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

caving in

I'll admit it. I used shampoo this week. First time since March.... :(

I've been having a problem with flakes. And with a busy life. And I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Washing too much? Not enough? Vinegar balance? Baking Soda balance? Too much grooming? Hair not drying fast enough? Seasonal issue?

In any case, enough was enough and they weren't going away and I thought maybe, just maybe the soap would magically whisk it out of my hair and magically fix my scalp in that way better-living-through-chemistry and don't-mind-the-side-effects sort of way. And anyway, I had to get to work.

Part of me thought, I'm going to regret this. And part of me said, This better not work toooo well.


In the end, it was a balance. It did help get the flake build-up out. But it didn't solve the scalp problem. So my approach going forward is this:

• wash as little as possible (I was definitely washing more often than my original twice-per-week I had enjoyed)
• wash it according to the optimal instructions and proportions I found earlier in the year (I had been fudging it)
• stop looking at/touching/worrying about my scalp (I swear it knows)
• wear my hair back less (I had started pulling it back more often, to hide the flakes, but that gives me a headache by the end of the day and I wonder if the pulling doesn't add to the scalp stress)

Otherwise, to be honest, I'm pretty damn proud that I've gone this long with only that one little lapse (and only shampoo, not conditioner). And I probably don't have any more/less flakes than before, which is a little disappointing, but I'm taking the long view on this and hope that everything works out in the end. I'm not opposed to "natural" shampoos, but I'll come to that if this ends in the experiment category, rather than the lifestyle change category.


Look at me, blogging! Sadly, my blog-reading time has gone down. What have you been blogging lately? Will you comment with a link to a favorite post of yours lately, for me to read?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #3: no-poo, four months later

So, I started this No-Poo experiement in March, and I've got this penultimate report...



Everyone's skin/hair chemistry is a little bit different... oily, dry, etc. So I figured out that my flakiness could be combated with the ACV on the scalp rather than the BS. So I switched it up... ACV on the scalp for a minute, with scrubbing part of the time. Then rinse. Then do the longer portion of my hair with some of the BS massaged in (it's slimy, so it helps condition too!). Rinse and complete!

I have far less flakes, although I'm normally a little flakey. I'm trying to vary the length of time, amount of scrubbing, and the proportion of ACV to water to see if I can reduce them even more. But otherwise, I'm happy with the results and sticking with it! No chemicals for me, yay!

What's become a habit in your life that seemed so far-fetched at first?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/m02h #3: my shampoo-less month

Ok, it's nearly been a month since I stopped using shampoo. And, no, I'm not gross :)

There were plenty of occasions for adjustment. A 6-day vacation in Florida was a chaotic, greasy, flaky time. But I managed to pull through, figure out what my hair didn't like, and moved on with my life.

I'm still only washing my hair on Mondays and Thursdays. But I'm no longer trying to add oil to my hair; I'll just brush it more to distribute the scalp oils.

I started noticing that flakes were coming back and, after reading a bit of advice in this LJ community (which is very helpful if you're starting out and are looking for solutions for your particular hair type or issue), I decided to try a few things:

• I'm using a more-diluted baking soda mixture, but I can't really say how diluted... I add water to the bottle during my next washing if the previous washing seemed to have left me with baking soda residue/flakes.
• I scrub my scalp with my nails pretty furiously when the residue/flakes first appeared, to see if it was just all sorts of chemical grossness coming loose from years on shampoo, or even just dead skin cells. This has really worked the best of all; granted, I had a nightmare day in Florida after the first scrubbing when I looked like I had decended upon them with snow. But that's what a ponytail is for. After that, though, there has been less and less, and I have to spend less and less effort with the scrubbing to maintain a minimal level of flake.
• I also spend 5-minutes to blow dry (on warm, then cool) my roots; I was thinking that some of the residue/flakes were due to a wet scalp all morning, in combination with too much baking soda. Plus, the blowing might blow some of the flakes out? As I dilute the baking soda more, I'll try drying less. I just hate wasting the energy blow-drying when I have at least another hour before I am in public, and no-fuss no-primping straight hair.

Ok, so for those of you reading all this and considering (or not really considering) going without your coveted shampoo and conditioner, and thinking OMG this sounds like a pain in the ass to do; I could just suds up with some Tresemme... (shit, nobody thinks "OMG" do they?)........

You're right. It's been a bit of a pain in the ass. Everyone's hair is different and your scalp and hair will have to go through their own personal adventure. But, I love a good challenge and this has been a money-, time-, health-, and environment- saving journey so far. And that, in my book, is a WIN. Also, had I not found the little well-sealed bottles that I had found to transport the BS/V in, I could have just rummaged all the ingredients from the houses of those we visited :)


What fun challenges have you encountered lately? Any April Fools' jokes today?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl

  

w/mo2h #3: no poo, week one

Well, I talked about going no-poo, and I did eventually start out pretty well! So, what's the state of the hair now? What about those little hiccups I was having?


Baking Soda crystallization: my Girl-Science (a mix of real science and phenomenology-style observation) has decided that the water could not dissolve all that baking soda in the 6:1 ratio. So, I changed my method.

Boil your six parts water (microwave would probably work, but I did it on the stove). Take it off the heat, pour into a heat-safe bowl, and add the 1 part baking soda. Mix around until most/all has dissolved. Then let it sit and cool completely. Some crystallization will occur on the bottom; do not mess with it! Pour off the liquid into your bottle, and then top off with a little extra water. Viola! You've only got as much baking soda as the water will handle.

How often? I washed it Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday last week... overkill! So, here's what happened. Monday, I accidentally-on-purpose (one of those momentary instances of stupidity) put oil in my hair, oily hands to dry hair. Ewwww greasy grossness! So I had to start over on Tuesday. Then I held off until Thursday morning (through 2 morning workouts and a yoga class). I did it again this morning. I haven't found that my hair gets gross in the least from the waiting. So I think I'll stick with my Monday-Thursday schedule, unless circumstance dictates otherwise.

The difference in hair? I found on Tuesday and Thursday mornings that my hair was pretty dry after I let it air-dry (despite that residual oil from my hands during my shower). Like, static the instant I brushed it. Soooo, this morning in the shower I applied a bit of oil (1/2 tsp?) directly to my wet hands and then onto my very wet hair, rubbed it throughout (but not too close to the scalp), and followed that up with a post-shower hair rub with a towel. And that seems to have helped quite a bit today.

Other experiments in technique: To combat the dryness and harshness of the baking soda, I may experiment with vinegar-only for my Monday wash, or adding more water to the bs mixture to dilute it further.

A hurdle to the routine: We head out on a mini-cation on Thursday morning, and I'm not sure how/if to transport my new hair products. I have always found travel bottles to be unreliably leaky.  So I guess I have two days to figure that out. With the possibility of swimming and the salty air (which I hate the feeling of in my hair), I will probably at least want my Monday wash.

Overall, I am very very happy with this switch. Not only for the lack-o-chem in my hair, but the fact that it's really not taking much effort at all. In fact, it takes less time and less money to do this than the traditional way. Go figure!


So, is anyone else contemplating this change?

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #3: no-poo, day one

I mentioned that I was going no-poo, and the time has come...

Last week I picked up two little BPA-free plastic water jugs from the dollar store. Saturday, I didn't wash my hair after our first bike ride of the year, just to get those natural oils going strong. Sunday morning, I simmered up the baking soda mixture, and put both mixtures in their respective jugs. I also added some scent to the vinegar mixture.

FYI, I am not doing before/after pictures cuz, really, how can you capture what we're doing here in photographs? I mean, unless my hair is suddenly curly, the changes are going to be subtle but easily describable. I hope :) I hope a photo of my bottles will suffice!

Anyway, I jumped in the shower after dinner on Sunday (and again after my Monday morning work-out!), so here's the scoop...

The baking soda boil? I think I did it wrong. My baking soda got a little crystalized, so I put it back in the pot to reboil. That seemed to do the trick... just heat it up until all the baking soda bits all fizzle out.

The application? Well, it's not thick, so I found that flipping your hair over and splashing the bottle over works pretty well. Since the water is cool compared to the shower, you can really tell if the baking soda is reaching all scalp areas. For the vinegar, I again flip, and splash the hair I cradle in my free hand.

The baking soda wait? I'm so used to letting the conditioner sit that it's hard for me to let step one sit in my hair. So, that didn't really happen. But I'll try to adjust to the change in routine to see if it makes a difference.

That petroleum-slick feeling? You know the one. the conditioner makes your hair feel wet and silky and glossy while you're in the shower. Your hands run through your hair easily. It feels wonderful. Sorry, that's GONE. What you have is wet hair, not the flowing-behind-you-while-you-swim-underwater kind. More like the just-went-swimming-in-the-creek-with-the-fish feeling. I was very worried about my 12 inches of hair being a tangled mess.

A moisture-boost? I use almond oil - post-shower pre-dry-off - so I just ran the residuals from my hands through my hair. I figured it couldn't hurt, and if my hair was too greasy I'd stop doing it.

The air-drying? I don't blow dry. I wrap my head in the towel after I blot any remaining water off my body. I left it wrapped up for a couple minutes, then let it down, rubbed it with the towel a bit, and let it go. (Ok, not really "let it go"; more like "constantly and obsessively touched it"). Turns out, not any more/less tangly than with conditioner!

Overall, I'm pretty pleased so far! More updates as time goes on...

So, who's gonna try this after it's a big success for me??

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #4: composting with worms, part three

part three: better living with worms

So, we've gotten a worm composter. We've already dealt with some issues. What now?

Bedding. Worms are not princesses; this doesn't have to be a too hard, too soft, gotta get it just right sort of thing. When you start a new tray, they just need something that has good circulation of air and won't break down too quickly. The list of options can get pretty extensive, but shredded paper product, dry shredded leaves, peat moss, and yard clippings all work. Most people recommend a "mixed bed" using a couple of different materials, and adding water to get it to the right moisture level. Some recommend making sure they have something gritty in there (sand, soil) to help the worms digest everything, but I've also read that food scraps have enough gritty bits for the worms.

Pasty Peat! (sounds like a bad pirate name...)

I use a half bucket of peat moss mixed with a couple handfuls of lime (Journey to Forever-recommended, but other sites have said that lime is not necessary. Maybe I'll try it without one time to see how it goes.). Then I start adding water and stir it up with a 3-prong cultivator or fork until it gets more on the pasty side and less on the crumbly side. It's not an exact science unless you really want it to be! After that I mix a couple large handfuls of shredded paper and spread that out in the new top tray. Remember that these trays have holes in the bottom; a pizza box lid works perfectly to help transport trays with the least amount dropping.

One new tray, ready to go!

Food (Concerns). They can eat pretty much any organic material (we're talking the general natural-not-man-made sort of "organic", not the over-priced inconsistently-regulated sort.) like paper products, fruits, grains, vegetables, garden trimmings (disease-free, please!). 

I have read various advice about what not to feed your worms. Citrus, onion, garlic, meat, dairy, fats/oils, fish, bones, etc. Again, Journey to Forever's advice was the best: go for it, but try them each in small quantities first. If you aren't sure, look up the type of food to find out if there are any concerns. Citrus may be too strong for worms, so you'll find that it's use is recommended sparingly; too many grains may cause overheating of the compost; meat/dairy/oils may cause bad smells. Paper and veg products are generally safe, so start there and add other stuff in small amounts. You might get smell, the worms might not be able to decompose it, but in smaller quantities you'll have a much better change of thwarting another Thanksgiving Day massacre-type event.

Our happy worm home :)

Feeding and Layers. So, we keep a "Happy Worm Food" jar in the kitchen. We put in diced food scraps and take it down to them every few days. Right now I would like to get at least one tray through the process, without incident and without putting in any "iffy" food stuffs. I put each bunch of scraps in a new pile under the bedding (using a fork, trowel, or cultivator!) in a grid system - think Tic-Tac-Toe board. Your "working" tray - the topmost tray that is receiving food scraps - should have the bedding on top and the food underneath.

Harvesting and Rotating Beds. Once all your food pile spots are full, it's ready to sit to allow the worms to process the scraps, and you're ready to start a new bed for new scraps. The worms can travel among the beds by using the holes in the bottom of each tray. So make a fresh "working" tray and put it on top of the older tray. The worms will migrate up as they are ready, and you can start putting food scraps in to attract them. The trick is that the bottom-most tray should always have sheets of paper in the bottom to prevent them from going through the holes into the drip tray; so the very first tray you make will have paper in the bottom.

It's compost!

Once the bottom tray looks dark and rich and you can't really see much left of your scraps, then it's compost! We keep a large bucket to put the finished compost in; haven't yet decided when we'll use it but it's certainly going to go in the garden. I use a gloved hand to pull out some of the worms that are still in there, but you don't have to as long as most of your worms have already migrated up to the other newer trays.

Once you take out that bottom tray, you should make sure that the new bottom tray has the paper in the bottom of the tray so the worms don't drop. This has been a bit tricky for me to figure out. If upper trays have had no bottom lining so the worms can migrate up, but the food scraps have to stay underneath of the bedding, how can I put paper under all of this or transfer it all into a papered tray? My solution: dump the material for the bottom-most processing tray into a new paper-lined tray, and then cover with a light layer of the new bedding for the new working tray. 

Worm life and reproduction. Without getting into too much detail, they will reproduce themselves to sustain life in your composter. If you give them plenty of food and bedding, they'll keep reproducing; if you stop feeding them as much, they won't reproduce as much. Or something like that. Suffice to say it's population control and it's based on what you give them. I told you I didn't want to go into detail! I'm sure my worms have been cranking out the babies because I still have good population in there these 4-5 months after purchase; I just haven't sought out their little hatchling capsules.

Worm Tea: not for drinking!

Worm Tea. Excess water drips through the trays into the trip tray, and can be disposed of using the spigot. But don't toss this down the drain!  Save it as an excellent plant fertilizer! Liquid gold, I tell ya!

Other Considerations. There are other things you need to watch out for; generally, checking in once a week is a good idea. Environmental temperature of 60-80F - colder or hotter and you'll have to do some extra work. Compost temperature - if it's getting quite hot, it's the result of environmental temp or types of food and there are solutions. Moisture - too damp, add dry shredded paper; too dry, add water or wet food. Bugs and Smells - types of food and moisture levels.

Perks. Year-round compost production. Indoor or outdoor operation. Only requires work every 4-6 weeks. No pet sitter - can be left as is for several weeks at a time. 

So, would you consider composting with worms?

Much Love,

Able-Bodied Girl

  

w/mo2h #4: composting with worms, part two

part two: the great worm suicide, the thanksgiving day massacre, and other issues

When we last left off, our fearless worm-lover had started her composting adventure, not yet realizing the worm trajedies about to befall her...

I don't remember where I read it, but I had heard that the worms get really confused when they are first put into the composter. They decide to find the darkest spot and - even though the bed you just put them in is nice and dark and food-rich - they opt to crawl out.

Thus, the great worm suicide. I put them under a window. I put a small light directly shining on the lid. And yet a dozen or so (which is actually very little of the pound) crawled out to their death on the floor of the basement. Do not fear though! Had I taken the time to get a high-powered workshop light over there, I probably would not have any problem with suicidal worms. But it is apparently a common issue. If you are not fond of seeing worms, but are willing to try vermicomposting, I suggest laying some newspaper extending a few feet from all sides; if you do have any suicides, it'll be easy to roll them up.

The first couple of months went very well. We cut up our food scraps into bite-sized pieces (human bites, not worm bites :-P) and buried them under the bedding as directed. We created a good bit of food for them, but they seemed to be eating it. By the time I had buried little piles all through the first tray, the first pile in that tray was decidedly less distinguishable than the newer scraps.

As Thanksgiving approached, I figured we would need another tray to accommodate all the scraps as we hosted 6 adults for the holiday weekend. So I made it a couple of weeks in advance so the worms could start migrating up to the new tray and get acclimated. (More on how to make your bedding in part three!) That weekend, we added scraps and more scraps and even more scraps. The top tray filled pretty quickly, and we stopped giving them any more. Out came the old kitchen bucket and we started hauling out to the brush again.

I didn't think much of it until a couple of weeks later. I checked on the progress, and lo-n-behold, the progress was slow. I had overwhelmed them. With too much to eat in too little time, combined with some of the types of scraps we put in (like fruit skins), fruit flies multiplied, en masse. December was a crazy month of holidays and travel, so I didn't look into it further. I just put out some fruit fly death soup (apple cider vinegar, sugar, water, and a little dish soap - it all tastes yummy until they lose their footing!), swatted them away when we used the finished part of the basement, and hoped that I hadn't ruined my wormies. We opted to stop feeding them for a while, until things got back to normal.

Had I read the website and booklet, I would have learned a simple trick for containing the fruit flies. I could have just filled our spare tray with shredded paper and used that as the top tray. The flies wouldn't be able to navigate through it to get out, and would prevent them from coming or going. Chrysanthemum spray would work too. Lessons learned! Don't overwhelm the tray, and fruit flies can be handled easily!

I checked on them again last month: the fruit flies were gone, the bottom tray had made a lot of progress, and the top tray was not looking like a dirty salad anymore. I noticed that some of our scraps, especially the eggshells, weren't really breaking down at all. Mostly it was the bigger pieces, as I was pretty inconsistent with that, so I think we'll definitely start chopping the bits into smaller pieces; apparently eggshells should also be dry and crumbled too, so something else we'll need to work on.

Overall, though, the worms pulled through just fine and are quite hardy. You don't have to slave over them, really. Leaving them alone for a few weeks, without even checking in, is not the end of the world.

So, now that we've gotten it established, worm care is pretty easy. Follow a few simple guidelines and a rotation schedule every 4-6 weeks, and the fresh compost will start rolling in...


So, what sorts of bedding do they need? Don't they die at some point? What happens once the compost is ready?

coming soon - 

part three: better living with worms

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #4: composting with worms, part one

part one: welcoming your wormies

Before you ask: it's not smelly, you don't have to touch worms if you choose not to, and it does not require a lot of work. Just so's ya know...

Oh, the lady from the Costco ad
makes it look sooooo easy! Bah!

I hate throwing perfectly good food scraps away, and with a garden, it makes sense to to reuse this material for composting. But neither of us were willing to go through all the effort of building and maintaining an outdoor composting spot. So a couple of years ago we started with a small compost bucket in the kitchen, which every week was dumped into the brush at the edge of the yard. At least the weeds were getting fed, right?

Last year, Able-Bodied Boy and I struggled to make a large rotating composter work. We brought it home from Costco, put in some material and waited. We got ants. We waited. Everything else stayed the same. We made adjustments, added wet material or dead material. We finally determined that it was too dry because the bin was actually not really sealed properly. It still sits outside, looking like a small space capsule.

So I finally looked into vermi-composting: the worm method. There is a lot of information out there on the web, with a lot of different variations. I found the Journey to Forever website to be the most useful, from worm information to methods and techniques. I did look around, but this seemed to have concise information, consistent with most everything else I was reading.

One of our first considerations was location: we did not want stinky, buggy compost inside! Worms like consistent temperatures, and being out of the sun and rain, but they also don't produce odors or bugs readily. There were certain types of foodstuff that might induce a bad smell, or attract bugs, so I read that you just had to introduce those items slowly, if at all, to test how your batch reacted. So it seemed as if a basement location would actually work for us. Worst-case scenario: the stink could remain isolated to one corner of the basement, and if bugs became a huge problem we could take it outside while we regrouped and figured out what we did wrong.

Now, we were not keen to build our own box, so we opted for the Worm Factory. It's a tray system that allows you to have several different "stages" going at once, and a drain for excess water. Our main shopping venue is Amazon, and it's super-saver shipping, so we worked with those parameters in our search. There are plenty of other models out there similar to each other, and I have no doubt that each of them has pros, cons, and things you just plain adjust to. With some good reviews and features, we opted for the Worm Factory, bought a pound of worms, and waited for delivery.

The Worm Factory. We likie!

Providing us with complete instructions on how to care for the worms, and the bedding for the first batch, made setup very easy. The bedding they provided was a coir brick and some shredded paper; just soak the coir, then mix in paper. Our worms came in a small canvas bag, so they were easily dumped in. They recommend putting sheets of paper in the bottom of the lower tray (to keep the worms from dropping through to the base) and on top of the lid (to keep them in and keep the lid from getting too gross), and the box it came in was fulled with long sheets of paper padding, so we didn't even have to get any newspaper. Super simple! It even has a summary of instructions on the lid for convenience.

So everything went perfectly well for the first two months, despite one episode of worm suicide. Then Thanksgiving came and the worms revolted...  

What will happen next to our fair wormie friends? Why did some commit suicide? What was sacrificed in the Thanksgiving Day Massacre?

coming soon - 
part two: the great worm suicide, the thanksgiving day massacre, and other issues
part three: better living with worms


Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


  

w/mo2h #3: when the bottle runs low...

 
No, we're not talking a wine-bottle crisis.


We're talking shampoo bottle.


Have you ever read the ingredients on your shampoo or conditioner? It's sort of scary, but you've been using shampoo since your parents started throwing you in the bathtub and it just seems, well, normal. You've never heard the news say "Shampoo has been directly linked to cancer!" or alzheimers, or autism, or birth defects. So, even if those ingredients look a bit daunting, why would you ever stop using it?

For me, the main point is fear of the unknown, unregulated corporate world. Personal care products aren't highly regulated, so they can make up whatever they want about a hydrolyzing moisturizer protien called Hair-rifficizer, and consumers will nod and feel satisfied when their hair is clean and shiny. Great. I don't really know what all these things are, but I know some are petrochemical-based and that doesn't satisfy me, no matter how shiny my hair gets (mmmm shiny like Gulf birds!). And I don't really trust some corporate marketer to tell me what's good for my hair.

And other considerations include the product packaging (plastics, aka unsustainable oil consumption), the cost of traditional shampoos and conditioners (the alternative below is cheaper!), natural living (my hair actually likes to go a couple days between washes, and your scalp can adjust it's oil production according to your washing habits... less oil if you wash it out less, more if you wash more frequently), and ultimately, the X factor (unknown chemicals and toxins on my body, which Melinda of of One Green Generation writes about here and you can learn more about with any of these links).


So, if I could find an alternative that's not any more expensive, and does what it's supposed to do (take away dirt) without ruining my hair (too oily, too dry), I'd be ok with that. Would you?


As my shampoo bottle runs low and I contemplate what to use next, I've found an alternative I'm willing to try: the No-Poo method. It uses just baking soda (for the scalp) and vinegar (for the hair) as cleansers. You can also add essential oils to mask the vinegar smell and create your own fresh scent!

From all I've read, it seems that it works for many, but not all hair types. But until you detox your hair of all the crazy stuff it's been fed for so long, you won't know what your natural hair type is. I've seen users whose hair has changed in it's dry/oily factor, straight/curly, and in shine. I know my hair is shinier and healthier after a day without shampoo.


Based on techniques from Melinda of One Green Generation and from Erin aka the Conscious Shopper, I'm going to try this:

1. Boil 1 part baking soda to 6 parts water. Cool and put in a squeeze bottle.

2. Mix 1 part vinegar (apple cider or white) with 6 parts water, adding an essential oil or whole spices if desired. Put in a second squeeze bottle.

3. Massage a bit of the baking soda solution into the scalp, leave for a couple minutes, then rinse.

4. Work a bit of the vinegar solution through the hair, then rinse a few moments later.

5. Crystal, the Thrifty Momma, also uses a coconut oil as a moisturizer. Just a tiny bit, she says! I'll only use it if my hair seems to get very dry.

I'm really excited to try this soon, as soon as my shampoo runs out, which should be soon. The conditioner is a bit more full, but Able-Bodied Boyfriend steals bits of that now & then and probably wouldn't mind if it stayed in the shower :)


Does anyone wish to join me in this trial run?? I have a collection of scented oils, if you want to bring some bottles over and make our first batch together!

Much Love,
Able-Bodied Girl


 

w/mo2h #2: go bacteria go!

Over the holiday vacation at my parents home, I decided to try my hand at yogurt.  Specifically, Greek yogurt.

Yogurt has traditionally been a diet food of choice.  Full of protein, low on calories, high in the good aspects of dairy, and full of bacteria that aid in digestion.  Plus, it's yummy tangy flavor is a nice replacement for mayo in a number of applications; a friend recently recommended using it in place of mayo in tuna salad, and I have used it in Waldorf salad too.

So, I had purchased "Make it Fast, Cook it Slow" by Stephanie O'Dea last year, after enjoying her blog.  She included a slow-cooker yogurt recipe which seemed easy enough... heat the milk, cool the milk, add a little yogurt, and let it go for a half-day.  She offered some options for flavor and thickness, and I roamed about the web looking for other suggestions and additional information on making greek yogurt.

Greek yogurt is a thicker, more protein-laden version of regular yogurt containing less carbs, sugars and sodium.  I also learned that greek yogurt is just regular yogurt that is drained of more of it's whey.  So technically, you could save money and time by just buying plain yogurt and straining at home.  Which, I may very well do on busy weeks.  However, I really wanted to do it myself, start to finish (ok, not really start to finish.  The milk is store-bought, as I don't have access to a cow, nor do I have a source of unpasteurized farm-fresh milk).

Ultimately, I followed a simple plan:

---

SLOW-COOKER YOGURT (REGULAR OR GREEK)

You need:

• milk (fat free or whole or anything between)
• plain live active culture yogurt
• slow-cooker
• colander
• fine strainer (read notes below)
• about a day of time

Proportions and Yields:

One gallon of milk plus one cup yogurt =
                      ~3 quarts regular yogurt or ~2 quarts greek-style yogurt plus one cup reserve

2 quarts of milk plus 1/2 cup yogurt =
                      ~1.5 quarts regular yogurt or ~1 quart greek-style yogurt plus one-half cup reserve

Instructions:

1.  Put the milk into a slow-cooker and turn on high.  Monitor until it reaches 180F (a digital thermometer helps!).  From what I've read, this is just to kill any bacteria in the milk.  This takes 2-3 hours, depending on how much milk you use

2.  After reaching 180F, turn off the slow-cooker, remove the crock, and let the milk cool to 110-115F.  Any hotter, and the heat will kill your yogurt bacteria.  Again, this took an hour or so; less time if you stick it out on a cold porch with a splash screen on top to keep out errant bugs.  If you get a film at the top, do please take it off.  Not good eats.

3.  After reaching 110-115F, scoop out some milk and whisk it with the live, active culture plain yogurt.  Dump it all back in and stir it up.

4.  For the next 6 hours, keep the crock warm.  I kept the crock warm in front of the fireplace at my parent's house, Stephanie O'Dea recommended wrapping your crock in a bath towel, and I used a soft-side cooler at home.  The amount of time will vary, but keeping it above 70deg will help the bacteria grow.

5.  You end up with what looks amazingly like... yogurt.  Soft but gel-like.  Some whey may have started to separate.  This is normal!

6.  The next step  involves straining to the desired thickness by draining out the whey.  There are a number of different ways to do this, all of which will involve a colander and something with a finer strain laying in it; this could be an old (clean) t-shirt, a layer of coffee filters, cheesecloth, or - my personal choice - a paint-strainer bag.  I like paint-strainer bags for a number of reasons (thanks, Able-Bodied Boyfriend, for the suggestion!).  First, it's cheap.  You can find them for just a couple of dollars in a paint store, and we have one just down the street from us, conveniently enough.  Second, they are vastly reusable.  Throw them in the wash if they get crusted with food chunks, or simply rinse with a bit of soapy water after straining yogurt.

7.  So, armed with your colander lined with some sort of fine strainer, scoop/pour the yogurt in and let it sit.  I noticed that I first got some of the yogurt itself draining out the bottom, but that soon led to a pure, yellow-ish whey.  For the first few hours, I let it sit out at room temperature.  Partly to cool down, partly to allow the bacteria to continue growing, partly as a visual reminder to perform step 8...

8.  After a few hours, scrape the inside of the paint strainer to release some of the thicker yogurt and allow the looser stuff to drain.  I also poured out the whey on occasion, from the catcher vessel.  At this point, it would have been fabulous normal yogurt.  But I covered it and put it in the fridge overnight, ~8 hours.  That was the perfect amount of time.  On one occasion, I left it to strain for more than about 15 hours... whoa boy, it was like spackle.  But you may like it that thick...

9.  You have greek-style yogurt!  Scrape out as much as you can.  This may get messy, but you can just lick your arms.  Or the counter.  Maybe not the floor.

10.  Remember to reserve 1/2 to 1 full cup as the starter for your next batch.  I put it in a jar that holds about twice as much as I needed.  Next batch, I put my warm milk in the jar with it and shook it like a polaroid for a couple minutes.  Worked like a charm, and less mess/dishes!







Yield: 2 quarts greek-style yogurt + 1 cup reserve yogurt + a minor mess



---

Which dish(es) do you like to make from scratch?  Did you learn how for yourself, or is this something passed down from older generations?

Much love,

Able-Bodied Girl


 

w/mo2h #1: down and dirty on the driveway

So, a few weeks ago I decided to attempt something that I had never done completely 100% solo.  Able-Bodied Boyfriend was away and virtually incommunicado, but it had come time to do the deed and we had a break from the freezing temperatures.

I changed my car's oil, with no help (save the inter-webs).

Now, this is not entirely new to me.  Around the time I was acquiring a drivers license, Able-Bodied Father insisted on teaching me many things; among them, how to drive a stick shift, how to change a tire, and how to change my oil.  But oil changes are not always easy on every car, so I dutifully went to the local lube shop every... ummm... whenever I remembered...

My newest car, as we have discovered, is super easy to deal with.  The oil pan plug and the oil filter are very accessible, so it's just a matter of getting them off and back on again.  So for the last two years, all but one oil change have been done in the driveway of our house.

And for all but the latest oil change, I needed help; the oil plug was just too tight for me.  Normally, I would give up and ask Able-Bodied Boyfriend (who is most likely hovering nearby anyway) after just a few tugs.

But this time I figured that if I couldn't get past that first step, I wouldn't really be in a pinch.  I would just be sad that I couldn't do it myself.

So I dove under my car on a warm, rainy morning.  Discovered a new direction from which I could easily leverage the wrench to get the plug off, and I was just fine!  I used the inter-webs a couple of times when I hit minor insecure moments of "oh shit, do I really know what I'm doing?!?" but came through unscathed and with a happy car.

Why would I do this when I could have someone else do it?

First, it's cheaper!  I spent $4 for a filter and by shopping the sales, I can generally get 5qts of synthetic oil for $25 or less.  After having my used synthetic oil tested by Blackstone Labs, I was told I can use it for 13,000 miles between changes.  I can spend less than an hour getting happy-dirty-sweaty twice a year, rather than get overcharged for synthetic oil, or sit in the smelly waiting rooms four or more times a year.

Second reason I do it?  I CAN.  Do you know how many times I've purchased my oil and filter from the auto parts store down the street and have gotten odd looks and offhand comments?  Yeah, this Bud's for you.  I can also change a flat, replace my air filter, clean my battery, check and replace all my other fluids, and drive and/or roll-start a manual transmission.  Go me.

Ok, that sounds like I'm doing it for some feminist reason.  It's not that.  It's knowing that I have some basic understanding of this thing I bought, I'm still paying for, I'm using, that's pretty much worth more than everything else I own.  Both in terms of monetary value and intrinsic value (getting to/from work, my first new car, etc).  It's mine, so I really feel much better having some understanding of it's functions and maintenance.

A colleague mentioned a recent survey just prior to this oil change, and I managed to find some trace of it at this link.  No supporting/source information included, but just thinking of it made me smile as I lay on a piece of cardboard with grease on my hands...  "Women say having THIS makes them feel independent..."   Tools.  Rock on.


Have you ever changed your oil?  Changed a tire?  Any other car repairs?  If you haven't, what is keeping you from doing so?


Here's my challenge to you.  When I do this again in late spring or early summer, you should join me.  Bring your car over and we can take a look at it to see how feasible it would be for you to change your own oil.  Some cars are indeed a pain in the ass, some are better.  You can watch/help as I do mine.  And hell, maybe we'll run to the shop, grab some oil and a filter, and do yours too... who's in?!?!

Much love,
Able-Bodied Girl