January 4, 2012
Acorn Woodpecker
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birds (21), creatures (30), potter-valley (63), wood-peckers (1)
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January 3, 2012
Liquid Hand Soap
When I read somewhere online that I could make liquid handsoap out of bar soap, I knew that's what I would do with the old hardening remains of bars that I had been desperately trying to get the most out of instead of throwing them away. I didn't get immediately on the task, but this impowering knowledge gave me justification for retiring the sad little bars into a drawer and replacing them with fresh ones that are easier to get sudsy. The drawer pile built for some months before I decided it was time.
The process of making liquid hand soap is extremely easy and costs almost nothing. I used a recipe that called for a small amount of vegitable glycerine, which I already had on hand for making extracts and toothpaste. Using my patend-pending Wondershreder (antique cheese grater I inherited from my maternal Grandmother), I turned the hard little pieces of soap into "soap flakes", or in my case a blend of soap flakes and soap dust depending on which bar I was working on and how hard I pressed. Obviously, an old hard bar of soap is going to take more muscle to run across a grater, but it doesn't take much to make a batch of liquid soap:
- 1/2 cup grated soap
- 4 cups water
- 1 1/2 tsp vegetable glycerine
Put all the ingredients in a pot over medium-low heat and cook, stiring occationally with a whisk, until the soap flakes are disolved. Let cool overnight. The following day, I poured the goopy liquid into a food processor and blended until smooth before funneling it into a refillable bottle. Since I made enough to fill the bottle at least three times, I stored the remaining soap away and I still have a pile of leftover soap bars.
Different soaps will have different results with thickness. After it's cooled, you can add more water in the processing if necessary to get a thinner consistancy. You can also use an electric hand-mixer or blender instead of a food processor.
I've read recipes online that turn a whole new bar of soap into a gallon of liquid soap. Even with such a splurge, you would yield a savings of over 90% (a $4 bar of soap makes over $40 in liquid soap ). To make a quantity like this, use 1 bar of soap and 2 Tbsp glycerine for a gallon of water. I think in the future I'll try adding essential oils to give mine a fragance.
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diy (2), frugal-living (2), homemade (2), homesteading (2), soap (1)
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October 6, 2011
Sigils
A “sigil” is a magick symbol made up of letters systematically selected from a word or statement of intention, that are graphically designed into a talisman. The sigil is “charged” with energy, taken into the creator's subconscious while in a state of “gnosis”, and then as the meaning of the sigil has become subliminal, it is consciously forgotten or even destroyed. The step of charging the sigil is actually the process of infusing it into the creators deep, unguarded mind by focusing on it while in meditation, trance, ecstasy, or peak exaltation. With the intent planted in the subconscious mind, the conscious mind or ego, which is unable to perform magick, can not interfere and the sigil is left to do it's work.
Sigils have been used for spellcasting for thousands of years, since at least Neolitic times. In modern times, it's a method also used to create logos or personal insignias based on one's name.
A sigil based on a desire must be carefully formulated. It should not be phrased as “I want” because your subconscious hears that as an intention to have desire, not to have that which is desired. It must be written as if it will be at some time, or even better, as if it already is. Since the subconscious hears everything as positive, the intention must be worded with precise, positive, strong, and unambiguous terms. A negatively phrased desire, such as “I don't want...” is heard without the “don't”.
The form below will perform the basic functions of preparing words or statements for sigilization by removing vowels, duplicate letters, and any unnecessary characters. The letters that remain should be drawn or pictorially or abstractly arranged together, overlapping or merged whenever possible to futher simplify the symbol. Letters that are contained in another letter can be removed or worked within each other in the drawing. For example, an N is contained within M so the N can be removed... C within G, L within H, P within B, a W is the same as an M, etc.... More information about sigils.
enter your intention
sigil helper with character & word counter
| Sigil Letters | # of Original Words | # of Original Characters | # of Sigil Letters |
|---|---|---|---|
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drawing (5), form (1), javascript (1), magick (1), sigil (1), spells (1)
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September 29, 2011
Tobacco Story
Over about a year and a half this tobacco plant grew to be a monster of a thing. Giant leaves, bunches of pretty pink flowers, all of it intensely sticky. I couldn't maneuver in my garden around it without pieces of it sticking in my hair or on my arms. Though I read about what it would take to harvest and cure the leaves, having quit smoking over a decade ago, I didn't have much motivation for such a lengthy and complex process. A bit of dried leaf did get burned in a ceremonial way, an acknowledgment of abundance this harvest season between my Love and I, and honoring it as the sacred plant it is.
The flowers dried into little seed vessels that, when turned upside-down, poured hundreds of tiny seeds out. After realizing that the piles of brown granuals on my worm box were not from terminates, but were in fact from the tobacco plant towering over it, I began collecting them. With minimal time spent and collecting at most maybe 5% of the one plant's seeds, I filled a pint container.
If the seeds cause volunteer tobacco plants to grow next year, I may harvest some of the leaves and try some curing. It could be fun to make a homemade cigar or some vanilla flavored pipe-tobacco....
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flowers (30), garden (11), plants (13), seeds (1), tobacco (1)
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September 1, 2011
Silently Flow Between
In August I submitted a poem to Harbin Hot Springs' poetry contest and was announced as one of the winners of a $140 certificate toward camping and hot springs use for two nights.
Silently Flow Between
falling trickling through fig roots
into pool rock and stream
below bridge and buildings
honoring a sacred place
a meditation
a prayer of gratitude to the waters
warm hot cold
from sky
from deep earth
it finds itself and unites
we seek it
hot cold
collect it into pools
held by one and then another, we silently flow between
worshiping of self-all
a swim
a misty fall rain touching our faces
hot cold
from minerals
from hot steam
soften, cleanse, expand, contract
we find ourselves
balanced
cozy pillowed tiers
darkened evening entertainment
relaxed deep and sleepily connecting hands
falling melting through dream
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butterfly (3), contest (1), harbin (1), hot-springs (1), poetry (3), water (9)
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July 11, 2011
Cucumber Vine
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cucumber (1), garden (11), plants (13), spiral (7), vines (5)
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June 26, 2011
Mom's Oven
Last year my mother asked her children to construct an outdoor oven using the clay soil on the property. My younger brother Simon spearheaded the project, doing research into construction of cob ovens, and spending extra time at the property preparing the area and materials.
August 2010 Work-Day:
Simon with nieces Emily and Clarista.
An important part of any work party is the soundtrack...
Especially if you are mixing mud with feet!
Myself with younger sisters Alicia and Erica with Simon in the background on drums.
The circular stone base contains gravel fill, layers of mud, a layer of glass bottles, more mud, and a layer of fire brick.
November 2010 Work-Day and Scorpio (Dad and I) birthday celebration:
Missy (Rochana's BFF), my niece Bella, and sister Rochana mix sawdust and sand into clay and water with their feet while sister Erica and her man David stand by.
Simon applies a layer of mud on the oven. The inside of the dome was formed with sand, then newspaper, covered with multiple layers of mud.
Rochana and Bella washing the mud from their feet.
June 2011 Work-Day and belated Father's day celebration:
Before getting started on the oven work, dad and mom at their appropriate tasks: coffee making and flower arranging.
The oven as we left it to dry after the last work-day. The dimples were made by fingers to help the next layer stick. To prepare for this work-day, the sand was scrapped out from the inside leaving a hollow, open oven chamber. A lizard basks on the top.
Three reverend sisters mixing mud (Photo by Hamilton). The incantation: "On this day and in this hour we call upon the ancient powers to bless this earth beneath our feet that will bake healthy food to eat"...
Hamilton, Simon, and Mom mixing sand, straw, and mud.
Two photos of me (taken by Rochana) using a board to shape and smooth the final cob layer.
The trick to drawing spirals is to attach the drawing implement (a nail in this case) to the end of a line wound around a cylindrical stick. Hold the stick still and unwind as you draw.
Simon and the rest of the team put on decorative cob spirals Mom and I rolled out. Alicia brought us a feast, including tuna, chicken, and steak Dad BBQed, fruit salad and potatoes, to eat as we worked.
Dad checks the sound inside the oven.
Finished except for a protective coat of glaze or paint to be applied after it's dried and a door to be made, on another day.... A fire was lit inside to burn off the newspaper.
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alicia (6), arianna (15), cob (1), dad (7), david (1), erica (5), family (33), fire (3), hamilton (4), missy (1), mom (8), mud (1), oven (1), potter-valley (63), rochana (4), simon (3)
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May 30, 2011
Summer Flowers
I took these photos last year in my backyard but am only now getting around to posting them. The first two are the iconic California Poppy, the third are tiny flowers I don't remember (but know I took the photo with my reverse lens), the last photo is of star jasmine's interesting pinwheel shape.
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flowers (30), garden (11), jasmine (2), poppy (1)
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May 14, 2011
The Lizard and Hamilton
Hamilton holding a blue-bellied lizard for me to photograph. Taken with a Nikon D300 with a 50mm lens on backward to get close.
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creatures (30), hamilton (4), hands (2), lizards (4), macro (8), potter-valley (63), reverse-lens (5)
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May 13, 2011
Boating with Bella
When my siblings get together, our conversation often goes into the realms of quantum physics, science vs religion, spirituality, "magical thinking", consciousness, medicine, healing, singularity, etc.... There are usually a few who dominate the debates while others sit by and occasionally chime in, or busy themselves preparing food, and the children play together in a world apart from the adult colloquy.
There are four children in the newest generation: my three nieces and one nephew, though my older brother's two daughters have been living mostly in Japan the past year. From that generation, this Mother's Day weekend visit to my parent's house included only Bella as her older brother stayed home sick with their father.
Immediately after arrival, the adult siblings went at it with each other, and even I got myself involved in the dialog after turning my father's espresso strength coffee into a couple iced coffees (partly diluted by Alicia's ingenious coconut milk based "non-dairy creamer" invention) and drinking enough to see an increase of color saturation in the world and make my brain feel like it was full of helium with electrically charged colloidal lead.
I became aware of Bella's behavior on the sidelines, her complaints of tiredness, and Alicia considering if Bella was coming down with an illness. I offered to take Bella out on the pond in the raft and she began to cheer up. Bella and I played pirates in the boat, keeping a watch on the shore where the pirate zombies were gathering to eat us, and staying clear of the water where the pirate zombie fish were waiting to bite at our limbs. After our playtime Bella's energy and mood had substantially improved and I realized how draining or boring it must have been to be the only child among adults having such a tired discussion.
Children need to play and children need other children, even if it's an adult pretending along with them.
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bella (4), boating (2), family (33), pond (3), potter-valley (63)
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May 9, 2011
Drawing and Composition Studies
Even though I've had a varied background in arts, crafts, and drafting through childhood and high school, as well some college education in digital arts (Photoshop, Illustrator) and a couple art classes on composition and color theory, I've never felt well trained or skilled in the art of drawing: creating a 2-dimensional rendering of the 3-dimensional world by hand. I knew it would be good for me but the thought of taking a drawing class made me feel fear, so I avoided it. After leaving school, I continued to feel like developing such a skill would be beneficial to my job as a graphic designer and to growing in my arts and crafts hobbies. In the fall of 2009 I finally found the courage to take a Drawing and Composition class at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Following, are the assignments, in class and as homework, as well as a few items from the sketchbook we were required to keep.
A couple of the first classes focused on beginning to really see objects and develop eye/hand coordination. One of these exercises (with no examples so show here because I think mine always look so terrible) was to create "continuous line drawings" of objects, by drawing the contours of an object without lifting the tip of the pencil from the paper. We also made large drawings of charcoal marks using big arm movements, called "gesture drawing" and began to render the mass of objects. We were taught that using these exercises — making gesture or continuous-line drawings — was a good warm-up before moving on to more detailed drawings of a subject.
The next lessons focused on organizing line and proportion by penciling in planning marks and creating searching lines, isolating and enclosing space to take measurement of parts.
In order to learn about the containing shapes and how they fit together, we used pencil to draw just the contours of items, showing volume and shape without rendering light, shadow, or texture. These are some of my sketchbook drawings using the contour line:
The next lesson was devoted to organic objects, the textures and contours. We were told to use a mixture of pencil and charcoal to see how the two mediums interacted.
Several classes followed which discussed value, the differences between white, black, and the grays in-between. We created value scales using pencil to learn the layering and pressure techniques to create equal value steps in a 10 value scale, rendered stacks of cubes using the values on the different sides, and a sphere using all the categories of light. The first drawing assignment was of a 3-dimensional folded paper with half and full circles cut out or popped out, standing up, with light shining through.
Then we drew objects with charcoal on newsprint, rubbing them out, and drawing over them, to create an interesting layered effect as a warm-up exercise before doing a 2-value drawing of the same objects: solid black and white shapes. Another value assignment was to do a 4-value drawing of objects by first hand-toning white paper using charcoal and then wiping it off to get an even midpoint value, then, one at a time, using black, dark gray, light gray, and white in drawing the objects. White was created by erasing, or "working reductively".
Moving on in value studies, we did a single-directional hatch drawing (straight diagonal lines) with pencil to emphasis light over volume.
After doing several fast warm up gesture drawings of stacked cups, we drew a stack of white cups, fully rendering categories of light: cast shadow, reflected light, core of the shadow, shadow, light and high light. Also following, are also some of sketchbook drawings that proceeded this assignment.
We did several perspective studies, using one and two point perspective, drawing cubes and then learning the technique of drawing a stairway in two point perspective. We were given a complex assignment to draw a cut away view of imaginary space starting with a horizon line and a checkered ground plane then adding walls, stairway, cubes, cones, pyramids, columns, doors, and windows.
In class one night the instructor draped fabric and we were to render the values and contours using charcoal.
Our midterm "exam" was to draw pottery the instructor placed out for us, including broken pieces. I really enjoyed the class critique on my drawing and found it especially cool that the instructor thought it was narrative and told a mystery story. A crime was committed.
We moved on to study texture the next week or two. The following images are a simulated texture drawing assignment, a large drawing of a small toy dinosaur assignment, and a sketchbook drawing of bamboo.
The next two classes focused on teaching ink drawing techniques, using India ink with a pen and nib. In these evenings we drew a bottle and then a deer skull, using cross hatching, parallel hatching, short hatching, and/or stippling (dots) to make tonal gradations.
We worked on portraits one night. This is the charcoal portrait I did of classmate Lorelle. The assigned homework of a self-portait is not going to appear here.
After learning to use India ink, we got to pick up the colored pencils and draw a cow skull. We had the use of four colors: canary yellow, ultramarine blue, crimson red, and black. I separated the warm and cool colors "which gives the drawing a sense of time and place. As in the last glowing rays of the sun as it sets", as my instructor put it in his blog post featuring my drawing.
One evening we did an exercise called "Exquisite Corpse", based on the French Surrealists' game of folding a page into thirds and drawing on one third, then passing it around to have the other thirds completed by two other artists. We were not allowed to look at the other parts of the drawing, but to only make two marks on the next section so that the next student knew where to begin. My first drawing of a bird head (colored pencil with India ink) had such terrible drawings added to it, I did not bother to photograph the whole thing. The second drawing (the colored pencil worm body part is what I worked on), I was able to photograph in entirety, but the third drawing I worked on was taken, by the student who began it, before I got a photo at the end of the class.
We were given two required writing assignments and two required drawing assignments based on time spent in the campus gallery. I've posted the writing assignments: DHR1 and DHR2. But here are the drawing assignments. One is a drawing of sculptural tube drums, the other of a portion of a painting. I did not get a photo of the painting.
We spent a couple classes working on division of field. We learned about the nine general divisions of field that have figure/ground, positive/negative, up/down, and left/right relationships. We practiced implementing these by finding areas of the building and drawing them from perspectives not looked at before. Following are two such drawings, then a few from my sketchbook, and the last one from a class which we were given more time to turn the exercise into a finished drawing.
In the beginning of the semester, the instructor spoke about how, even though it may not always seem so, abstract and surrealist artists have usually studied drawing and practiced until mastery the techniques and honed their skills of rendering objects and space. They then apply those skills and their ability to subjectively create their art. As I had began the class knowing I wanted to do the same, to really learn to draw, after a semester of focusing mostly on objectively rendering objects and working on developing my skills and techniques, I had difficulty suddenly being required to work subjectively on this surreal cubist final project. I was given a lantern (the most difficult of the objects my instructor used for the assignment, according to him) and was told to draw it from different perspectives in one drawing as well as use other surreal styles. I turned in the drawing thinking there were areas of it I'd rework, though I still have not done so.
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art (18), drawing (5), sketch (3), srjc (3)
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May 8, 2011
Rosemary Powder
Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs to use in cooking, particularly in chicken, salmon, and potato dishes and in breads. Rosmarinus, "Dew of the sea", is not just delicious and wonderful smelling, but it also has many traditional, medicinal, and superstitious uses, as well as a mythological history connecting it to Aphrodite and the Virgin Mary. It's a natural food preservative and moth repellent and has been scientifically shown to protect the brain from free radicals, lowering risk of stroke and diseases such as Alzheimer's, as well as having anticarcinogenic effects*. In the same botanical family as mint and sage, this aromatic herb is a drought tolerant and somewhat hardy perennial that grows well in the Mediterranean-like climate where I live.
When the plant is not flowering, and the spiky leaves are younger and less tough or woody, I'll use them fresh from the plant: whole sprigs, finely chopping the needles, or crushing them with a mortar and pestle. I also like to have dried rosemary on hand for use all year around. To dry rosemary, you can tie the sprigs up with a string and hang somewhere that gets good airflow, though keep it dry and out of the sunlight. I often dry sprigs for use later by rolling them up in a paper towel and leaving on the back of my counter for several weeks. The paper towel protects them from collecting dust—which seems to happen in the air since rosemary has a little bit of a sticky sap coating. Folding it into a paper towel doesn't cause mold or prevent the drying of the herb in my climate.
After the rosemary becomes throughly dry, strip the needles from the woody stems and put them in sealed jar to retain pungency. If the herb is fully dried, the needles should easily break away from the sticks.
I keep a jar of these whole needles for cooking, but often I like to use rosemary powder for recipes such as soups and especially for adding to homemade salad dressing. Dried rosemary needles can be easily turned to a powdered herb using a coffee grinder. Clean the grinder first to remove all traces of coffee grounds and oils and then again after to remove the rosemary powder and resin. Grind for a couple minutes, until a fine powder.
Your kitchen will now smell amazing.
A small funnel is a great tool to have in the kitchen for bottling seasonings, whether you buy them in bulk or make them yourself!
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cooking (3), diy (2), frugal-living (2), garden (11), herbs (1), homemade (2), homesteading (2), nutrition (4), recipe (2)
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May 3, 2011
Crocheted Creation Blanket
I spent the past year crocheting this blanket. It began with the intention of creating a blanket out of 12" squares of crocheted stitches, making the squares and then joining them together. I crocheted two to three dozen squares with a few different yarns and stitches, probably about half the blanket, before I got too bored of making squares to continue with the project that way. I put them aside and began to crochet a spiral, the spiral that turned into the center of the blanket. At first I planned to do the center this way, and then join the squares around the outside as the edge but ended up un-crocheting all the squares, as they no longer seemed to fit, and as yarn was needed to continue crocheting around and around the spiral, as I developed it into a sunburst shape and then began to work it to have square edges. I intentionally made it so that the bottom two corners were fitted to the bed.
It's certainly the largest crochet project I ever undertook. I watched 10 seasons of the show "Friends" while working on it, as well as many hours of other television and movies. The name "Creation Blanket" comes from someone who was admiring it while on 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine as they found it appeared to them as the sun, the energy and creation of life, and the earth... which is pretty much what I was imagining as I created it.
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April 26, 2011
Spring Garden Activity
These were taken with my Nikon D300 and a 50mm lens on backward (using a reverse ring) to get close. No electronics pass through to the old lens and focus is determined by distance.
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creatures (30), flowers (30), garden (11), insect (19), reverse-lens (5)
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January 22, 2011
2011 Laguna de Santa Rosa Tree-a-Thon
On a foggy Saturday morning I met up with a group of people to plant trees and shrubs for the restoration of Irwin Creek in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed. Having signed up for the event a couple months prior through the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, I did a little fundraising for this annual "Tree-a-Thon" event to earn money to support their watershed rehabilitation efforts throughout the year. Thank you to those who contributed!
After observing the two little sleeping barn owls in palm trees in front of the Foundation's offices, we were taken to the creek-side planting site by horse-drawn carriage, with a little pony excitedly galloping along with us in it's pasture on the other side of the driveway fence.
Prepared with my hat, boots, and gloves, everything else was conveniently supplied and ready for us when we arrived, including a breakfast of spinach croissants and water in a booth set up by Whole Foods.
The site was a strip of area that had previously been part of a cow pasture where the cows were allowed to graze right up to the creek, allowing manure to pollute the watershed as well as cause destructive erosion. The understanding I gleaned by asking questions of as many people as I could, was that the county bought an easement from the property owner in order to protect the watershed by planting a riparian buffer between the relocated pasture fence and the creek.
We were organized into groups, assigned rows to work down, and given a demo of how to dig, plant, and use the cardboard weed barrier and juice-box to protect the young seedlings. Three of us from our group ― me, and a man and woman a bit younger than me ― volunteered to began the digging of holes so that the children and older members of our group could begin putting plants in the ground. After more than half the row was dug, I went back and joined in the planting. I planted 8 oaks, 3 ash, 1 box elder, 2 California blackberries, and 2 California rose.
After our row was finished, I went on to help dig holes and plant in some of the more difficult areas, the wet, lower areas closer to the creek. When every plant was in the ground, we got a carriage ride back up to the offices and were served pizza in the backyard while the fundraising leaders were honored by Executive Director, David Bannister.
$22k was raised by the event, and a total of 500 native plants were put in the ground that day. It was a fun and fulfilling experience that I plan to take part in again soon.
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creek (4), laguna (1), santa-rosa (17), trees (22), volunteerism (1), watershed (1)
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January 3, 2011
There is Only Presence
What else are we truly
but our feelings and our sensations?
Everything else is just a story we tell ourselves,
a story we tell others,
a game,
a mask we wear to hide our inner self,
an armor protecting us from the world.
Only stories need a formula.
Only games need rules.
Masks are only fun for parties or plays.
Armor is only needed in war.
Open yourself,
be what you feel.
Begin.
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November 13, 2010
My Current Interpretations of Two Kay Nielsen Illustrations
I wrap my arms around it
Though it's sharp and cutting
Stuck in it's barren place of birth, unmoving
It's old growth is covered in thorns where wounds had once been
I hold it anyway
Accepting
As I feel flowering in my intimate attention
It grows more delicately and beautifully through my love
Reaching around to hold me tentatively
We embrace
Unseen forces
Have stripped the blossoms from the tree
They have pummeled down upon me
Forced to my knees
Unwilling to fight the falling fists of flowers I love dearly
Weeping
Confusion
I feel my sadness
The destruction
Of something so beautiful.
When I am ready
I will look up again
I will see I am surrounded
Straight and strong
Silent and patient
They wait for me
And from the darkness
I'll climb.
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art (18), kay-nielsen (1), poetry (3)
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October 11, 2010
Jaes-Allergy-Free Cake
Last week, with my boyfriend's birthday weekend approaching, I began to have feelings of excitement mixed with a nervousness that approached anxiety.
Five months ago, Jason had allergy testing which resulted in long lists of food allergies and sensitivities that he's been advised to abstain from while his digestive system heals. These allergens are in many of the common items most of us eat on a regular basis and some are a challenge to avoid. Even alternative foods and recipes created without gluten or other common allergens still contain at least one of his allergens. The list is long: wheat, gluten, rice, corn, sugar, honey, yeast, soy, almonds, chicken, beef, eggs, dairy, oranges, apples, and more.
I knew that if Jason was going to get a cake on his special day, I was going to have to figure out how to make one that was safe for him. Making a treat like this for his birthday was important to me—I know how much he's sacrificed on his diet, and he really deserved a delicious cake—I just wasn't sure it could be done.
Since he got the shocking test results back in May, I've been experimenting with trying to make baked goods within his dietary limitations. Millet flour scones have worked out, though since I'm not good at taking notes while I experiment, it needs some more refining of the recipe. But scone experiments are what got me trying chia seeds as an egg replacer, an idea I had after reading about their health benefits, and how they turn into a gel when blended with water, the way the starches do that I usually use as egg replacer. It turns out that chia seeds are a known binder for baking with, and I found this chia seed egg substitute recipe while making plans for the cake.
When I first came across this chocolate cake recipe using coconut flour I was turned away by the photo. I know very well how difficult it is to take appetizing photos of food, but I needed the best thing I could find... I searched on, and eventually came back to the recipe because it's the closest thing I could find to what I wanted, and I'm sure glad I did. There were only two ingredients I needed to substitute: eggs and agave nectar. While using maple syrup instead of agave probably resulted in a less sweet cake, I avoid using agave nectar as it's a highly processed and unhealthy sweetener possibly more harmful than high-fructose corn syrup.
It ended up tasting, and looking, great!
I didn't write down my improvisational frosting recipe, though it went something like this: start soaking 1 ½ cups of raw cashews the day before, drain, then process in a food processor until creamy and thick; add a few tablespoons maple butter (a very thick, condensed version of pure maple syrup), about 1/4 cup maple syrup, a few tablespoons of coconut oil, and a couple teaspoons of vanilla extract; after it's all blended, add about 1 ½ cups of shredded coconut and mix by hand.
Allergy-Free Chocolate Cake
As modified from the original.
3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp celtic sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
8 tsp of chia seeds blended with 1 ½ cups water in a blender until thick
1 cup grapeseed oil
1 ½ cups maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
In a small bowl combine coconut flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda
In a large bowl using an electric mixer, mix together chia gel, oil, maple syrup, and vanilla
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and continue to blend
Oil the sides of two 9-inch round cake pans and dust with coconut flour, place a round of parchment paper on the bottom of the pans
Spread the batter into pans and bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes
Remove from oven, allow to cool completely then remove from pans
Frost and serve
The important part is: Jason loved the cake!
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allergies (1), birthday (3), cake (1), cooking (3), food (7), jason (8), nutrition (4), recipe (2)
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October 10, 2010
Calendula Blooming
I experimented with my Nikon D300's interval setting by placing it pointed at this calendula flower and leaving it for a couple hours while the blossom opened it's petals in the sun. I certainly plan to continue trying out this exciting feature using different settings.
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flowers (30), nikonD300 (4), time-lapse (2), video (1), youtube (1)
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September 25, 2010
Sharing Apples with Codling Moths
I moved into this house almost a year ago and now live with a productive apple tree for the first time in my life. When we signed the rental agreement, I knew the apple and pear trees were in the yard but not specifically what kind of fruits they would bare, and I excitedly anticipated finding out.
The first year in a new place is the year of discovery. A whole range of good and bad things a house has to offer are presented as the seasons change: how cool the house stays during the summer and how well it holds heat in the winter; if there is mold or mysterious noises; neighborhood cats that poop, dogs that bark, or roosters who crow through the night; what varieties of plants and fungi are hiding their life in the soil and what kind of insects thrive.
This spring, the fruit trees bloomed and tiny fruits began to form. In August, I received the gift of a dozen or two delicious pears from one tree and wormy apples began to fall to the ground from the other.
Worms in all the apples?! Whether they had fallen to the ground or were still attached to a branch, they had evidence of the codling moth larvae that had burrowed inside. First, I vowed to learn how to keep next years apples from getting infested (and found information about the no-spray paper bag method); and second, I vowed to use as many of the apples as I could anyway. With the wormy parts cut out, the apples were still delicious and usable for making apple sauce or butter. I saved up fallen apples for a couple weeks, collecting them right away before other critters could get to them, and then spent a Sunday cutting them up while watching streaming television shows on Netflix.
I'm not going to post a recipe here because I roughly, without measuring anything, used these apple butter instructions, which explain the entire process very well. I started with a large pot of apples, so they took much longer to cook down than the hour or so in the recipe. Making a smaller batch or using a wider pan, as Elise suggests, would probably make the evaporation go faster. Stirring did help, but it still took many hours before it got to a thickness I thought was right.
The process is: cook the apples with water and vinegar until soft, strain the skin and bits out, then cook the mush with other ingredients until thick. I almost bought a chinois sieve for this project but changed my mind because of messy memories of using one when I was a kid—and of how much work it was going to be to strain all those apples. Instead, I borrowed a fruit strainer Kitchenaid attachment from my sister, which, after the little learning curve of figuring out how to put it together, was fun to use and a huge time and effort saver.
After the straining part, I cooked the apple mash down a little more, removed a couple jars full for apple sauce, then added the rest of the ingredients and continued the apple butter cooking process. If I had reserved more as apple sauce, the "butter" making part would, I'm sure, have gone faster since there would have been less to cook down and evaporate.
Though it took some time, it was a fun and worthwhile project that left me with many jars of delicious apple preserves, grown and made at home.
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apples (1), cooking (3), farm (11), food (7), fruit (2), garden (11), harvest (3), insect (19), organic (2), preserves (1), sustainable (4), trees (22)
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September 19, 2010
Dinner at Tara Firma
In the late afternoon of Saturday, September 11th, I went to Tara Firma Farms in the beautiful Petaluma countryside to attend the first of their Speaker Dinner series: a talk by Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability. It was my second visit to the farm owned by Tara Smith and family, who use sustainable and organic practices to produce vegetables and pasture-raised meats, as well as provide education in environmentally friendly farming practices.
When we arrived at the farm, there were three picketers in front with "blood" (red paint?) splattered, white coveralls, looking like butchers or meat factory workers. They held signs that read, "Meat a dying business".
The evening began with wine, hors d'œuvres, and live music in the barn which was set up with linen covered tables and decorated with tea lights in canning jars and wicker balls hanging by twine from the rafters. Montemaggiore, a biodynamic winery in Healdsburg, had a tasting table where I tried their wonderfully impressive rosé.
I joined a group tour to a pasture of pigs and a hillside of egg-laying chickens, all with lots of space to range naturally. Tara spoke of the way they move the pigs' fencing and the chickens' portable house so that the animals have continuously replenished forage. Several ground-level "chicken tractors" were visible on another hillside, containing their flocks of roaster chickens which she said are moved every day. They have cows in pastures that are rotated so that the grass is only grazed down so far, a few inches from the ground, and then allowed a few months to recover to knee height, building healthy soil. We only saw a tiny part of their 300 acres. Tara also explained how the farm takes on interns who are encouraged and supported in starting up a farming business themselves after their training completes. It sounded like the way businesses should be run: sharing knowledge, giving back to the community, and not having fear of competition!
During the tour, Tara mentioned the protesters in front of the farm and said that PETA "hates" Lierre Keith.
More Montemaggiore wine, a syrah and their "3 Divas" white, were served while a packed room listened to Lierre Keith speak. Though the room was getting tipsy and talkative, I was excited to listen to what Keith had to say on the topic of the "vegetarian myth", as I was completely unfamiliar with her but have my own reasons for going back to eating meat.
She started by saying that the issues of food and the environment are not from a problem of values, that it is a problem of information. She said that agriculture is a war against nature, it displaces species, it destroys top soil. Humans are dependent on the destruction of the planet. But she said that "people are trying to engage on a much deeper level" and those words mean a lot to me. I feel the shift in people's interest, the gradual awakening, and see the move toward being more directly connected to what truly keeps us alive. Keith mentioned a book, "Overshoot", and talked about "take over" and "draw down", concepts I wasn't completely clear on from what she said. However, I felt I was in understanding with what she had to say about sunlight and soil: sunlight as the base form of energy, all species are trying to get more of it, that oil is ancient sunlight, and soil is the basis of life. Keith quoted Richard Heinberg as saying, "sustainable agriculture is an oxymoron" and she said, "agriculture is the single most destructive human activity." Polyculture: plants and animals working together to create soil. She said something about how our life-styles use the amount of energy and resources equal to having 300 slaves, previously only emperors had that many slaves. "We can dominate or we can participate." Questions to ask: What methods of food production rebuild top soil? Does my food repair top soil, protect top soil, or destroy top soil? Does this food come from where I live?
The talk was followed by a fantastic many course feast catered by Green Earth: salad, potato leek soup, beet carpaccio, garden tomatoes, braised short ribs, and chicken marbella. Apparently much of the food was grown on the farm. Dessert was grilled peaches and goat-milk ice-cream provided by Laloo's. The food was all amazing.
Having been a vegetarian for ten years, vegan part of that time, and then returning to eating meat several years ago, I have a personal interest in this sustainable omnivore movement. I have my reasons for making the change back to meat and I know those reasons came from a more intelligent, better informed place, as well as a more deeply spiritual place, than my decision to stop eating meat did. Honestly, I became a vegetarian more out of peer pressure from men I was dating, and possibly to rebel against the fast-food culture of the '80s, than any other reasons. Sure the propaganda literature and photos of animals on factory farms had a huge impact on me emotionally, but I was ignorant about nutrition, agriculture, and the environment. Having grown up on a small family farm with sheep who had huge pastures, who were much more wild than creations of industrialized agriculture, over time, it was easy to remember that meat did not have to come from an over-crowded, hormone-injecting, disease-riddled, factory farm. It was not a stretch for me to understand that there was another way to raise animals. I had first-hand experience in how a farm could be balanced, natural, and humane.
After posting on Facebook about having seen Leirre Keith speak, one friend commented that he thought she wrote the book to justify her turning back to eating meat. He claimed he's healthy and feels good as a vegetarian. I responded by saying that she very well may have written the book for that reason, people do tend to have personal motives for what they are moved to accomplish, but I was impressed by her, her passion and care. I also said that she's only one voice in a movement based on recent research and understanding of open space, environmental impact, human nutrition, animal health, carbon sequestering, etc.
Certainly everyone should be able to decide if eating meat is right, or not, for the health of their own body. I think that it's one thing to say, "I'm a vegetarian because I feel good and healthy as a vegetarian," but to say, "I'm a vegetarian because I don't believe in factory farms," or "because I'm an environmentalist," or "because I want to save the world from starvation", is coming from a lack of information and isn't looking at the whole picture.
Tags
environment (3), event (4), farm (11), food (7), organic (2), petaluma (19), speaker (1), sustainable (4), vegetarianism (1)
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December 16, 2009
Writing Assignment DHR#1 Art 7a Beginning Drawing and Composition
Masako Miki, Sometimes It’s Better Not Knowing Too Much I, 2009
While browsing the SRJC gallery, this 22” x 30” narrative collage stood out to me. The bundle of boxes and the deer are arranged centrally on the page. They form two dominate areas that my eyes are conflictingly drawn to, wondering if the deer is aware of the danger. The gifts suspended insecurely in a loose bundle above the deer suggest mixed feelings of excitement, curiosity, suspense, and danger. The angular squares of the wrapped boxes are balanced by the smooth curving shapes of the containing ropes – just as the angles of the antlers are balanced by the smooth curve of the deer’s back. A similarity in the two dominant areas is established: the shape of the deer and the shape of the loops of rope; the rope branching out like an antler.
I’m reminded of the human relationship to the planet’s fragile ecosystem, the threat that blind consumerism holds over nature. This deer -- a symbol of gentleness in Native American culture -- has adult antlers, though he also has the spots of a fawn – another subtle conflict? or a hint that the fawn will survive and live to adulthood? I ask myself, “What do the colorful boxes contain? What surrounds the deer in the space around it? Is it trapped?”. I realize that the deer is also us.
I’m left with questions, and the title of the piece then addresses that by saying, “Sometimes it’s better not knowing....”
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art (18), essay (2), painting (8), srjc (3)
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Writing Assignment DHR#2 Art 7a Beginning Drawing & Composition
Kathleen Youngquist, Upstage
This narrative painting has a lot of eye-catching movement. Though the overall tones of the composition are on the darker side, the triadic color scheme and liberal use of rich primaries add to the energetic feeling. It has movement implied by both the subject and the action-simulating long brush strokes. The figures’ clothes are flowing, arms and legs moving. The woman’s foot lifted in the background subtly takes on the shape of a bird flying. The feet they stand on seem barely grounded.
Since the female figure is facing away from the viewer and the male figure’s head is completely out of the composition, I’m made to look at their bodies for expression, the body language of their dance. They each have a hand that is blurred or partially out of the frame, as well as a hand reaching for each other, or barely touching, in what seems like the focal point, where there is open space and the brush strokes around the hands are more circular.
The dancers, with their individually different colored clothing, have a feeling of independence, though also dressed in stereotypical male/female outfits. Faceless, it’s as if they are loosing themselves. Their hands reaching and bodies turning toward each other suggest togetherness, but they don’t seem to make any real connection.
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art (18), essay (2), painting (8), srjc (3)
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Arianna Helen