A Story of Thanksgiving to Share This Holiday Season

8:21 AM in a, Aqua, holiday, of, season, share, story, thanksgiving, this, to

By Karen Navarro

In November an appeal went out far and wide for help putting together 75-100 Thanksgiving Week food boxes for families who might not have enough food for not only Thanksgiving Day, but the entire week. While the children were out of school, they would not be getting school breakfasts and lunches. This is the story about how a whole lot of individuals, companies and organizations came together to make this happen.

The non-profit organization, Help Equals Hope, was in need of all food stuffs for these boxes, including the most expensive item, turkeys. Co-founders, Laura Burnett, Nancy Hays, Lisa Wilson and Bev Moore, reached out for some major volunteer help.

Two core volunteers, Debbie Trujillo and Debbie Vigil, immediately responded, as did others in the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Community Alliance. Fofo Voltaire offered her large event space, The Event Palace, free for the project, and many sponsors offered their assistance, including the Sandia chapter of Thrivent Financial, Guardian Storage (on Eagle Ranch Rd.), Chick fil-A (at Montgomery/San Mateo), and Smith’s Grocery Store (on Golf Course Rd.).

Other key contributors were the Route 66 Civitans, ABQ Health Partners, Pacific Dental Group, Juliette Applegate, Pegasus Legal Services for Children, Nathan Waites and W.I.N. (What’s Important Now), General Mills, Outcomes, Inc., Sweetheart Day Care (owner, Joan Davis), Donna Montano, Sol Acting Academy, GN Services, Inc., !explora!, Décor & More! Sports, and staff members from New Futures School.

Jeff Turocotte

35 Turkeys from St. Pius X
As Thanksgiving week approached, the organizers realized they needed 30+ turkeys. Jeff Turcotte at St. Pius X High School heard about this and the next day the boys’ and girls’ cross-country track teams he coaches rallied the money in three hours to purchase 35 turkeys, with help from members of the girls’ soccer team! When thanked, Jeff responded, "Glad our team could help your great team! Happy Thanksgiving!"

So in the end, what were the results of this community wide effort?

95 Thanksgiving food boxes with turkeys, stuffing, sweet potatoes, potatoes, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, bread/rolls, chile, olives, rice, cereal, beans, gravy mix, desserts and drink mix.

At the direction of Help Equals Hope, a vast network of individuals, organizations and sponsors had all pitched in to feed 95 grateful families in need identified by social workers and other staff at schools, medical facilities and social service agencies, including:

• grandparents raising grandchildren (some with GAPP—Grandparents as Parents Program), 
• the families of clients at UNMH health clinics, 
• UNMH Psychiatric Center, 
• YDI (including Casa Hermosa and Centro de Amor), 
• UNM Forensics Case Management, 
• MCH Family Outreach, 
• Petroglyph Elementary, 
• Headstart,
• ten families in To’hajiilee.

Testimonials of gratitude poured in:

“The clients we delivered food boxes to were crying and so appreciative!”

Debbie Trujillo, Debbie Vigil, Laura Burnett, Nancy Hays

Food boxes “went to individuals and families who have next to nothing. Some of those people have had their food stamp money cut in recent months from $150 to $20.”

“One grandparent family has four grandchildren and was thrilled. She said she didn’t know how she was going to do Thanksgiving and then I called. Perfect timing!”

Another Help Equals Hope project
Help Equals Hope collects school supplies and backpacks year-round for children in New Mexico whose parents can’t afford to purchase them. Their major school supply drive is in August, but they gather monetary and in-kind donations year-round. Children are referred by school principals, teachers, counselors, social workers, police and sheriff department officers, court personnel, including probation and parole officers, and other professionals working with children throughout New Mexico. If you can help, please email Laura Burnett (laura@helpequalshope.org) or call her at (505) 715-0091. (Check out the Help Equals Hope Facebook Page)

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Outdoor Season Update

10:41 PM in Aqua, outdoor, season, update

This summers growing has been progressing steadily. Ive harvested the basil a few times, and the cucumbers and squash now have fruit beginning. The cukes and squash have had flowers for at least three weeks, but until recently all the flowers were male - that means no fruit. I thought the lettuce might grow well under the shade of other plants, but so far theyve just stayed small and dormant. Bell peppers have produced a few fruits but few new flowers. Nitrate levels in the water have remained very high (~80ppm) and Ive put some Maxicrop plus Iron in as well. I started up the tank with pure ammonia, so I think there was a lack of some trace nutrients, including iron..

Grow beds on 7-26-2011

Squash (foreground), Lettuce, & Jalapeños (background)

Cucumbers (foreground), Peppers (mid), & Lettuce (background)

Basil (R) with Small Hot Peppers (L)

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Winter Growing Season

1:59 PM in Aqua, growing, season, winter

The winter growing season was a smash! The lettuce did quite well, and I harvested about eight salads that fed four to six people each from February through April, about two-and-a-half salads per month! The first six of those salads came from the clay pebble bed that had densely planted seeds. The dense planting stimulated quick, vertical growth. It also ensured that plants did not grow woody stems, keeping the growing tip low, just above the surface. I harvested this like mowing a lawn,, cutting at about 2” high straight across. The plants responded well! For the first two months I harvested at a staggered pace, which kept the demand for nutrients relatively constant because some plants were in the high demand regrowth stage as others grew slowly near full size.

Mixed lettuce in clay pebble bed on 2/18/2011 (top) and 3/26/2011 (bottom). 
Gray coloration on bottom is due to grow light being off. Note that the gravel 
grow bed seen in upper right of both pictures has significantly smaller plants.

Meanwhile, the gravel grow bed which had plants spaced about 6” apart, as recommended on the seed packet, grew very slowly, so I did not harvest until late March. The plants did bush out nicely, each producing far more lettuce per plant than the dense plantings of the clay bed. The bushy lettuce led to woody stems and larger leaves, which I found could only get a few harvests per plant before the leaves got too tough or bitter (lots of white sap in them). 

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Gravel grow bed on 4/28/2011 before the last harvest.

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Conclusion: unless I need pretty heads of lettuce, I should plant the seeds dense and harvest often.

And what about the other plants in the system? Well, the chard...

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Planning for 2012 Outdoor Season

7:08 PM in 2012, Aqua, for, outdoor, planning, season

The 2011 outdoor season is complete! I’m happy to say that it went much smoother than 2010, when I had a few mechanical and design errors that significantly handicapped the growing. As a result, I learned a lot more this year about the plants. Of course, I also discovered that my new design still needs some improvements.

 

My half-barrel system provided adequate depth for the plants to establish deep roots, insulated from the summer heat, and my very conservative growbed to tank volume ratio of 1:2 provided ample nutrients to the roots.

 

With only one pump and three barrel-halves, I connected all the barrels via PVC pipe with one siphon at the opposite end from which the water entered the barrels. Unfortunately, the piping connecting the barrels was 1 to 1.5 inches above the bottom of the barrel half. This meant that only the barrel with the siphon could drain completely – the others would have standing water below the connecting pipes.

 

Once the cucumber and squash roots reached the standing water, they plants began to weaken. This culminated in root rot that brought the once thriving plants to an early demise.

 

Additionally, I found that my mechanical timers did not keep reliable time. I had set the pump flow for 15 minutes, which would provide enough water to just start the siphon. Unfortunately, I frequently found that the timer cut short, so the siphon didn’t start, leaving the roots soaking for far too long. To circumvent this, I kept the pump running continuously. With no time for the roots and shale to dry out between cycles, it probably exacerbated the root rot problem.

 

To avoid these problems next year, I plan to do the following:

• Put a drain in the bottom of each barrel
• Connect the drains to a single siphon outside the barrels
• Pump water in through the bottom of the siphon system. If the timer cuts short, water can drain back to the tank through the pump

 

Planned System Design Outdoor Season 2012

 

Planned Siphon System Design for Outdoor Season 2012

I will also swap out the fish pond for an IBC tote to take up less space. Additionally, I may move the location of the aquaponics, as it only gets full sun between 9am and 3pm.

 

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End of Tomato Season Deliciousness

3:55 PM in Aqua, deliciousness, end, of, season, tomato

At the end of the gardening season (in places with seasons, anyway), a gardener always has to make a decision on when to call it quits.  At some point, the summer veggies slow way down and have to be babied to keep them from getting frostbite, providing an annual test of a gardeners patience.  What is the cutoff?  Wed like to say we have some fancy algorithm figured out, where we take the derivative of the day length multiplied by the angle of the suns trajectory which is divided by the number consecutive nights with frost forecast for the coming week or something, but we dont.  It usually works out that if weve had to cover things at night for more than about a week, the next available weekend day is slated for putting most of the garden to sleep for the winter.

On said weekend day, we usually find ourselves with a large pile of tomatoes in varying stages of ripeness.  From the nearly ripe and softball-sized beefsteaks all the way down to completely green cherry tomatoes that are probably only a few atoms in diameter, we do our best to rescue them all from direct sacrifice to the compost pile. (We also save some whole plants to let ripen on the vine in the garage, but mostly we pick the tomatoes straight away.)  Whats our protocol for dealing with the sudden influx of tomato refugees? Read on and well reveal the methods to our madness. (Or at least, convince you of our madness.)

First, we sort everything into three categories: "Use now, has spots/cracks/etc," (Slytherin, top), "Use now, perfectly ripe," (Gryffindor, lower right), and "Let ripen on counter," (Hufflepuff, lower left). Peppers also have their names thrown into the sorting hat.

Among the Slytherins, we trim any bad spots off the greenest ones, and start converting them into one of a few end products.  Our current favorite is a green salsa-type sauce.  Other options weve considered are green pasta sauce, and any of these.

For our salsa-sauce, we boil the green tomatoes in a little bit of water until they start to soften, blend em up with the stick blender, and season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, dried oregano, dried chives, and garlic.  A guess at how much we added to around 3 lbs tomatoes (also a guess) is 1 tablespoon each of salt, pepper, oregano, and chives, 3 tablespoons garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper.  Katie says thats too much cayenne.  Jake says its about right for a salsa in the hot category.

The key is to keep adding spices until it tastes right.  Lots of testing and empirical recipe development make for a fun and filling night!

When the sauce finally tastes right, it goes in jars in the fridge, to be used on chips, nachos, eggs, potatoes, pork, and other things.  It might also go into containers in the freezer, if we have any handy at the time.  The red and partly-red tomatoes in the Slytherin basket get a similar treatment, but the sauce might be more of a pasta sauce, depending on our mood when were dumping in the spices.  Any spotty peppers also end up in one of the two sauces.

For the Gryffindor basket, were likely to turn the tomatoes into a pasta sauce straight away.  The good peppers go in here, too, along with an onion, and they get boiled up as for the Slytherins.

Blended up, too.

But for a thicker sauce, we like to save some time and energy with the old t-shirt-inside-a-colander-inside-a-bowl trick.  This way we dont have to boil off all that water.

We keep scraping the t-shirt with a wooden spoon to keep the water going through, and before long the sauce is nice and thick.

The filtrate is a nice tomato-ey juice (or a V-3 juice in our case, since we added peppers and onions), and can be drank directly, or mixed with Mary seasonings to provide refreshment during the next death match breakfast.  For what its worth, if we have an electric stove (at 65% thermal efficiency) and pay $0.10/kWh for electricity, were saving more than $0.09 per quart of tomato juice recovered.*  Booyah!

The filter cake goes back in the pot with some seasonings (salt, pepper, oregano, and lots of garlic, to taste).

Mix in some browned up hamburger meat, slap it on some spaghetti noodles, top it with a little parmesan, and weve got something tasty to go along with some roasted potatoes!  (Dont forget to top the taters with sour cream and some of that green sauce from up above.  Ketchup is for heathens.)  The Hufflepuffs we can wait patiently for as they ripen on the counter.

*Calculation assumes vaporizing water at its boiling point (2260 kJ/kg), 8.34 lb/gal of water, and standard conversions of 2.204 lb/kg, 3600 kJ/kWh, and 4 quarts/gal.


What do you do with your end-of-season tomato influx?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Tis the Season for Corned Beast!

4:15 AM in Aqua, beast, corned, for, season, the, tis

Just a friendly reminder to our readers--if youre going to corn some beast for St. Pattys Day, nows the time to get er started!

Were doing it a little differently this year than in the past.  In part, we dont have leftover whey from making cheese.  And in part, we read this article explaining how a dry rub can give better flavor penetration than a brine.  We generally followed the recipe given here, scaled to our 800 gram venison roast from his 2250 gram, and replacing the pink salt with additional regular salt and citric acid.  Of course, the meat released a bit of venison juice just on thawing, so it isnt a true dry rub, but itll be a less watery brine than in years past.

We also put it in a bag this year, instead of a bowl. (Well ok, its in a bowl, too, but the bowl is only secondary containment.)

Dont forget to get it started!  If you dont make corned beast for St. Pattys Day, a leprechaun will come and hide marshmallows all over your house.

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The Walipini growing season

4:50 AM in Aqua, growing, season, the, walipini

This year has been amazing! I can for sure say that I LOVE MY WALIPINI and my Aquaponic system. This has been the first year out here in the sticks that I have been able to provide homegrown veggies. I was able to start the plants much earlier in the Walipini and so far have had multiple growing seasons.
 

Strawberries took off!

Cucumbers and Watermelons are on the right

Baby Watermelon

My first crop from the Walipini veggies

Watermelon started from seed in system

Since I planed so early at night I covered the little ones with cups. Like a mini greenhouse. Worked great!

Above is my full system at the start of the year. Seems a little empty in this photo when I look at it now....because its a jungle in there now! LOL

Thanks for looking!
Kaydi

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