Saturday Short Subjects: 2012 Tips for Protected Fun in the Sun

For a couple of years now I have compiled and posted some best tips for sun protection. At this time of year, in the northern hemisphere, the sun’s rays are the longest and most powerful. Check out this animated graphic if you need convincing. It is also the season when many people like to spend time outdoors. Unprotected exposure to intense sunlight increases the risk of skin cancer; if you are going to be out in the summer sun, particularly between the hours of 10 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, you really should take some precautionary measures.

Last year I first reported on the sunscreen research compiled by both GoodGuide and the Environmental Working Group.  Both have updated reports. Here is a link to EWG’s 2012 information and here is one to GoodGuide’s. GoodGuide is also available as a free app for Android and iPhone. Just scan a product barcode, and, if it is in the GoodGuide database, you will get a rating instantly (well, pretty darn quick anyway).

The year before I shared some information on good sun hats. I have since discovered another great company for protective headgear of the UPF (Ultraviolet Protector Factor) kind — Outdoor Research, a Seattle-based company founded by a survivor of a nearly-tragic incident on Alaska’s Denali. Outdoor Research manufactures 35 sun hats, most in the $30 range, topping out at $65. Most, if not all, are made in the USA and a few are somewhat stylish, even sporty. All come with an “Infinite Guarantee.” They can be found in EMS stores and other outdoor outfitters including TrailBlazer, as well as online. 

Here’s wishing you a safe and happy holiday…

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Quick Fix for A Hot Night

We’ve survived our first heat wave of the summer. While striving to eat well while also keeping cool, I discovered a quick fix for a hot night – a quick and easy bean salad, no cooking required, and enough to supply several meals for two. The inspiration was a recipe from the Cabot Creamery website for Black Bean and Veggie Salad with Lime Cinnamon Vinaigrette. 

My version of the salad, in close-up

I had to tweak the recipe a little. I only had one can of black beans, so my dish was half black and half kidney beans. Also, since I had not seen Jalapeño Cheddar in any of my usual stores, I substituted Pepper Jack. Finally, I added a little Penzey’s Adobo Seasoning for a bit more kick. Served on a bed of baby arugula greens, this salad was (and continues to be several days later) delicious and refreshing.

This is a fitting week to honor the folks at Cabot with a shout-out. Cabot Creamery is a 1,200 farm family dairy cooperative with members in New England and upstate New York.  In this “International Year of Cooperatives,” Cabot is one of the sponsors of the 2012 Community Tour, a two-month program “celebrating those who give their hearts, time and skills to strengthen communities.” Community Tour riders mounted their bikes on May 12th in Miami, Florida and have been making their way up the East Coast, with the goal of completing their 2300 mile trip along the East Coast Greenway in Portland, Maine on July 7th, the International Day of Cooperatives. If all goes well, tomorrow they will be riding the New Haven section of the Farmington Canal Trail, on their way to a rest stop in Southington. You can read the rider bios here. 

Happy Monday, and have a great week. Thanks for reading.

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: “A Day of Goodness and Kindness”

I don’t know why I was so surprised yesterday to realize that one of my core beliefs, and, indeed, the main reason I write this blog, was shared by the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influential and charismatic Jewish leaders of modern times. June 22, 2012 marked the 18th anniversary of Rabbi Schneerson's passing. Connecticut joined Jewish communities around the world in proclaiming Friday a “Day of Goodness and Kindness” in the Rebbe’s honor.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy issued a proclamation which reads in part, “A central tenet of the Rebbe’s message is that every single positive act, as minor as it may seem, contributes to a better, more perfect world.” 

You can read more about Rabbi Schneerson’s most interesting life here. 

Have a great weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Market Find of the Week

Summer is almost here. We have been blessed with an abundance of rain followed by some glorious sunny days. Local produce is filling the tables at New Haven’s CitySeed, and this popular market is brimming with new foods waiting to be discovered. It’s the perfect time to bring back Market Find of the Week.

This season’s first item? The Chioggia Beet, an early beet with a surprise inside. Just slice a Chioggia open, and you will reveal a beautiful candy-striped pattern. This beet, also known as Early Flat Balsamo, has been sold at Connecticut’s Comstock, Ferre & Co. since the 1850s. 

The Chioggias are striped. Aren't they pretty?

The UC Davis Good Life Garden blog provides a wealth of information on this heirloom vegetable. The roots of these beets lie in the Italian seacoast town of Chioggia; they most likely brought to the US by immigrants in the mid 19th-century. They are very sweet. But if you do not like earthy beets, Chioggias are not the beets for you. They contain a higher concentration of geosmin, the organic compound which gives beets their earthy taste and smell. You would be better off trying the milder Golden Beets. 

As with any kind of beets, there is a plethora of ways to enjoy them, and several ways to cook them. Beets are so small and tender right now that you can even grate them and eat them raw.

The vendor suggested sautéing them in butter. I Googled and found several variations on that simple theme. What did I do? I peeled them, sliced them thin, melted some butter, added some dried thyme, and sautéed the slices until they were tender. The beets were organic and their leaves in great shape, so I washed the greens well, chopped them roughly, and added them to the tender beet slices. I covered the pan, turned the heat down, and cooked the beets and greens gently until the greens were nicely wilted. I then mixed in some crumbled goat cheese. With a side of hearty rye bread from New Haven’s Whole G Bakery, this was a perfect light supper.

Beets. It's what's for dinner.
The stripes are more subtle once cooked.

The only thing I might do differently next time is to boil the beets gently until tender, pop off their skins instead of peeling them when raw, and then slice and sauté them. Peeling a bunch of such tiny beets was a bit of a chore and a little wasteful.

However you prepare them, enjoy your beets. And get to the market early. Chioggias have become very popular. There were just a few mixed into the bunch I bought on Saturday. And just one hour into the market, this was the very last bunch for sale!

Please come back soon for more food facts or my latest produce discovery. Thanks for reading.

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Old News Is Still Good News: Planting Trees in Wooster Square Park

I’m a bit behind in my posts. As my favorite Beatle (John) once penned, “Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.” So what if this news is a few weeks old? It’s a good story even if it is a bit late.

On May 12, as part of the Yale Day of Service, Urban Resources Initiative (URI) staff and interns, along with a crew of eager volunteers (of which I was one) planted four trees in New Haven’s Wooster Square Park. Two were Yoshino cherries, replacements for older ones which had been removed as part of the maintenance plan for the park’s scenic border. The original cherry trees were planted in the ‘60s and have a relatively short life — normally 40 years tops. We also planted two oaks – one a Bur and the other a Swamp White. 

The cherry on its way to its new home.
Photo by Michael Marsland/Yale University.

Normally I am on a bike when traveling to Wooster Square for the City Seed Market. That day I was a team leader, standing in the center of the park waiting for the volunteers to arrive. I have to confess that I had never before noticed the variety of trees in Wooster Square Park, which is watched over by a number of neighborhood groups serving as volunteer stewards. From one group's board member we learned that the park was meant to recreate a forest. Originally it contained only woodland species, none flowering, and only one an evergreen. Some of its less common species include a Kentucky Coffeetree and a Buckthorn.

I will not ever take this park for granted again, nor will I pass through it quite so quickly. And I will definitely keep an eye on the new cherry tree I helped plant, especially since it’s in front of the house of a friend from many years ago.

The cherry in place in the line of trees at the park border.
June 16, 2012, one of the most beautiful days ever.

I have often written about my experiences with URI including here and here. This visionary group is a not-for-profit partnership with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies which fosters community-base land stewardship, promotes environmental education, and advances the practice of urban forestry. Its initiatives include TreeHaven | 10 K (a partnership with the City of New Haven to plant 10,000 trees over five years), GreenSkills (a local green jobs program that employes high school students and ex-offenders through the planting of trees), and Community Green Space (a program which provides materials, technical advice, and training to support the reclamation and maintenance of abandoned land in New Haven neighborhoods.) Beaver Ponds Park where I am doing some of my Master Gardener outreach service this summer is a Community Green Space project.

From now through July 8 there is an easy way to help the work of these planters and stewards of trees. URI is taking part in Stratton Faxon’s $200,000 Community Builder Contest. The law firm has pre-selected four local charities to share $200,000. The charity with the most votes will win the grand prize— $100,000; the three runners-up will each receive $25,000. In addition to voting for one of the four, each site visitor has the opportunity to write in one additional favorite charity to be awarded the remaining $25,000 in the prize. While each of these groups is worthy, I urge you to cast your vote for Common Ground, a local high school which organizes the annual Rock to Rock fundraising ride and partners with URI in tree planting projects, and then to enter URI in the write-in section. Please encourage tree planters, park lovers, and everyone you know who cares about New Haven to vote. If URI wins they will hire more teens to plant trees and support more volunteer groups to take on environmental projects to improve their neighborhoods. They will surely put the money to good use. [Apologies to my friends in all the other groups which are in the running. I wish I could write in each of you.] 

The URI Wooster Square planting site was one of 17 projects in the greater New Haven area and one of 250 projects that took place worldwide on May 12, the 4th annual Yale Day of Service. An estimated 3500 people volunteered. This is my 3rd tree planting project with URI (fourth if you count finding a home for little spruce).

Meatless Monday: Vanilla at its Best

“Ain’t nothing like the real thing,” sang Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in 1968. That’s true for most things, especially vanilla, as every baker knows. Since 1888 the Baldwins of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts have been producing the real thing – some of the finest vanilla extract you can ever hope to taste.

  

According to the history found on the Charles H. Baldwin & Sons site, founder Charles Baldwin “peddled extracts all over the Northeast while his wife stayed home and raised the family, tended the farm and packed up the orders to ship to her husband for distribution.” Charles H. Baldwin & Sons moved to its present location, a former carriage house on the banks of the Williams River, in 1912.  Earl Baldwin Moffatt (fifth generation Baldwin) and his wife Jackie continue to make vanilla extract in a solid copper percolator nicknamed “the still,” using Bourbon vanilla beans from Madagascar and following Charles Baldwin’s advice, “Never tamper with the recipe or use inferior beans.”  The vanilla extract is aged in oak barrels over 100 years old, creating a dark, rich and flavorful product. Indeed, these oak barrels are the first thing you see when setting foot into the Baldwin establishment. The Baldwins have fans the world over, including Martha Stewart, who paid a visit to the store in 1999. 

The Baldwins also produce a variety of other extracts, Baldwin’s Table Syrup (developed by Charles’s son Earl in 1922), and Stavon Stove Polish. The main floor of Charles H. Baldwin & Sons is a retail store where Baldwin artifacts are on display, and the current Baldwin products are available for purchase, along with a full line of baking supplies, old fashioned candies, toys, greeting cards, books, games, gifts, goods made in the Berkshires, and items of local interest. There is even a very reasonably priced photo booth (with props) to create a memento of your visit.

I have been fortunate enough to visit Charles H. Baldwin & Sons on a number of occasions. [My sister and her family live just up the hill in Richmond.] Just this past weekend  I redeemed a Christmas gift certificate. Can you guess what I got? [Hint: It starts with a “v.”] I use this sublime liquid in everything from brownies to Claire’s Moroccan Sweet Potatoes. Nothing would taste the same without Baldwin’s vanilla.

The next time you are in the Berkshires, check out West Stockbridge. This picturesque town will provide a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the more well-known attractions in the area. Charles H. Baldwin & Sons is open daily year-round, there are a variety of shops and eateries, and parking is easy; you only have to park once to experience the entire downtown. 

You can also buy vanilla extract and a number of other items from the online store. It’s not quite the same as paying the Baldwins a visit, but at least you’ll end up with the “real thing.” There really is nothing like it.

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: Little Spruce Finds a Home

A home for a spruce tree, a home of his own. Where would a spruce tree find a home?*

Little spruce began his life in a small tube, one of many Colorado Blue spruces (Picea pungens) destined to be distributed by the National Arbor Day Foundation. He came to us some years back as an Earth Day present for recycling an ancient air conditioner.

We planted little spruce in a pot, placed him outdoors in our sunniest spot, watered him well, fed him, and watched him grow. We transplanted him a couple of times, always knowing that someday his roots would need to be in the ground. Our .07 acre lot was simply not big enough to support another tree. 

But where would this spruce tree find a home?

This year it was obvious that the time had come to plant little spruce permanently. Luckily I now knew just where to turn for help. My friends at URI (Urban Resources Initiative) suggested Beaver Ponds Park, on the west side of town and promised to move little spruce there if the Beaver Ponds Park volunteers were interested.

Indeed they were and they had a perfect spot in mind – in a little grove of new conifers, one red cedar and two white spruces that were planted by URI during Rock to Rock. 

On Wednesday, URI intern Jancy came by in her truck and drove little spruce to the grove across town.

On Thursday, Nan and Bill, stalwart Friends of Beaver Ponds Park, transplanted him.

Doesn’t he look happy? We certainly are.

Thanks to everyone who made this move possible.

Have a great Saturday and a perfect weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

*Apologies to the late Margaret Wise Brown, author of the beloved children’s classic Home for a Bunny. 

Meatless Monday: The Heirlooms of Old Wethersfield

Just off I-91, between the city of Hartford and the suburban sprawl of Rocky Hill, lies quiet Old Wethersfield, a popular destination for tourists and schoolchildren wishing to get a glimpse of colonial American life through such attractions as the 1715 Buttolph-Wiliams House, the setting for The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

The home of Comstock & Ferre Co., the oldest seed company in New England, the town is also a mecca for organic gardeners. The heirloom seed company was having a party for its 201st birthday when we happened to pull into town yesterday. There were musicians, period re-enactors, vendors, and speakers passionate about issues related to GMO crops, including Bill Duesing, Director of CT-NOFA. 

Comstock & Ferre started in 1811 as Wethersfield Gardens, which was sold to Judge Franklin Comstock and his son William in 1838.  Inspired by the Shakers of Enfield, Connecticut, who were the first to package and sell garden seeds in colorful packets, William adopted the practice and plied his seeds in lidded display boxes of his own design to shopkeepers throughout New England and as far west as the Mississippi. In 1845, William took on a partner — Henry Ferre. William Comstock retired in 1871, and the growing company was operated late into the 20th century by four generations of the Willard family. 

Its newest owners are the Gettle family – Jere, Emilee, and daughter Sasha, who also own and operate Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Missouri (their home and first business) and the Seed Bank in Petaluma, California. Baker Creek Founder Jere Gettle planted his first garden at 3, and in 1998, at the age of 17, printed the first small Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog, which now offers 1300 varieties of seed in its beautiful 196 pages. The Gettles collect seeds from around the world and only sell non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented seed. They work extensively to supply free seeds to “many of the world’s poorest countries” as well as to school gardens and educational projects in the US. Their mission is to “educate everyone about a better, safer food supply and fight gene-altered, Frankenfood and the companies that support it.” You can read more about the fascinating family here, here, and here.

The Gettles’s dream for the grounds and eleven buildings of the Comstock & Ferre property is to “erase modern influences around the company and return it to something that William Comstock or Stephen F. Willard could recognize, if they were to walk through the doors. Comstock will be a type of living history museum dedicated to agriculture and our diverse inheritance of heirloom seed varieties that are in danger of extinction…”

Old Wethersfield is a short drive from New Haven and is worth the trip just to visit Comstock & Ferre. In nice weather you could easily spend a day with so much to see and do and a wide range of eating options near the attractions (as well as places suitable for a picnic). Just remember not to visit on Saturday if you want to step inside Comstock & Ferre. 

You can also peruse the Comstock & Ferre and Baker Creek Heirloom catalogs and shop from them online.  

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”