Saturday Shorts: 06.28.14 Two New Rain Gardens Ready for the Rain

Two Saturdays ago I shared photos from the Rain Garden Training and Installation day at Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven.

Late this past spring Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven received a grant from the Greater New Haven Green Fund to educate neighborhood activists about ways to reduce stormwater runoff. The original plan was that Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven staff and volunteers would dig and install two rain gardens in their Hudson Street demo lot on Friday, June 13th, with instruction and guidance from Michael Dietz, Director of U Conn College of Agriculture and Natural Resource’s NEMO Program.

It rained heavily that day. While the torrential rain did bring home the point that “global weirding” is indeed here to stay, it also posed an extreme challenge to our garden planting schedule.

We dug one of the gardens and planted most of the plants the best we could. The enthusiasm was there, but we had to stop before we added the mulch.

Garden 1 before we called it quits.

The staff of Neighborhood Housing agreed they would get the second garden dug and take care of the plants until we could get them in the ground.

We set Thursday, June 26, as the date for completing the project. 

It was hot. Very hot. 

And humid. Very humid. 

But it could have been worse. Thunderstorms were predicted, but they passed us by.

It was hard work, but we got the new garden prepped, planted, and mulched.

A NHSoNH staffer puts finishing touches on the channel
to the new rain garden.

And now the water from the roof next door has a way to get to each garden. [Note the rock-lined channels.]

Some of the plants may look a little droopy in the photos. But if I had included photos of the hard-working gardeners, believe me, the humans would have looked droopy, too.

The plants in the original garden have hung in there, despite their very soggy start. They may not look like much at first glance, but one of the swamp milkweed plants is starting to bloom, and the coneflowers should open soon.

Rain garden #1 after two weeks in the sun.

Watch for more updates as the gardens fill out.

Now all these gardens need is some rain…

Happy Saturday. The sun’s out here.

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: One Billion Bottles Sold!

Honest Tea reached a milestone late last week. Parent company Coca Cola announced on June 17 that Honest Tea had sold its one billionth beverage! 

This might seem like an unusual topic for a Meatless Monday post; Honest Tea is indeed meatless, but it is a beverage, not a food. But please bear with me as I spin the tale; it raises some interesting questions.

My favorite!

Honest Tea was conceived in New Haven, just a few blocks from where I live. In 1994, Barry Nalebuff, a professor at the Yale School of Management, and his student, Seth Goldman, discovered they shared the passion for the idea of a less sweet, but flavorful beverage. “We were thirsty,” they say. In 1997, the two reconnected. Seth, now graduated and working, had decided he would have to create a drink himself; Barry had just returned from India where he had been analyzing tea for a case study. Barry had even thought up a name for bottled tea made with real tea leaves — Honest Tea. Seth quit his job and started brewing tea in his kitchen. Just five weeks later, an interested buyer ordered 15,000 bottles!

Honest Tea was the first tea company to introduce a USDA-certified organic bottled tea, as well as the first to make a Fair Trade Certified bottled tea.

Coca-Cola invested in the company in 2008 and helped expand the distribution of Honest beverages. Coca-Cola purchased Honest Tea in March, 2011. Seth continues to run the company as President and “TeaEO.” Honest Tea is now sold in over 100,000 outlets. 

Coca-Cola is a multi-national corporation, makes a major portion of its profits selling drinks made with high fructose corn syrup, and is one of the largest opponents of GMO labeling. Many question how Honest Tea could choose to align itself with such a company. Indeed, the Organic Consumers Association has called for a boycott of a number of well-known organic product lines owned by companies who oppose GMO labeling. One of those targeted is Honest Tea. 

Many situations are not simply either black or white, however. In my mind, this is one of them. I do not know Seth, but I am acquainted with Barry. I asked him last summer, in the midst of the Organic Consumers Association boycott campaign, why Honest Tea had partnered up with Coke, and he suggested I read this piece Seth published in his blog last August — “All in the Family.” It came down to distribution. Honest Tea had a great product and mission, but it lacked a large distribution system. Coca-Cola could get their product out there.

Like the beloved liberal uncle at the conservative family’s holiday gathering, Honest Tea brings a different voice to the Coke family table. Seth wrote, “There are bound to be moments when our enterprise does not share all of the same ideas as our parent company. But there’s never been any pressure to compromise Honest Tea’s products, our ingredients, or our commitment to our mission…The company’s Honest Kids products do not contain any high fructose corn syrup. In fact, Honest Tea refused to yield to pressure from parent company Coca-Cola to remove the “no high fructose corn syrup!” language from the Honest Kids packaging.” Seth writes in his Letter from the Tea-Eo in Honest Tea’s 2013 Mission Report, “So we operate in that grey zone between what’s ideal and what’s possible and each decision brings trade offs.” [Sounds like my life..] You can read the full report here and make your own decision. 

I have chosen to support Honest Tea—a great product—despite the parent company’s intense involvement to block required GMO labeling — for the same reasons I still buy Ben & Jerry's fro-yo even though it is owned by Unilever. 

One billion bottles is a lot of tea. In honor of National Iced Tea Month (the month of June), Honest Tea enlisted the help of Sysomos, Inc. to look at every tweet about iced tea over the last year and to make some sense of the data. Based on the 117,441 tweets they gathered, they came up with an interesting infographic about who these tea drinkers are. I tweet so I know I’m in there somewhere.

Honest Tea is the drink I grab when I’m on the go — Mango Peach Açai in the glass bottle when I can find it. I wonder how many of those one billion beverage units were mine?

Happy Monday. Happy Summer. Stay hydrated. Have a great week!

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening 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.”

Meatless Monday: Ricotta Has Many Uses

I made this cake for Father’s Day. I’ve made it many times and have shared the recipe in this blog before. 

The original recipe for Blueberry Ricotta Squares comes from a cookbook compiled under the direction of my cousin Kris Bregani for the Greenfield, New Hampshire PTO.

Over the years I have tweaked it, substituting almond meal for half the flour and butter for the shortening. [Butter is trending right now. “Ending the War on Fat” is the cover story of the most recent Time, and a delectable curl of butter is the cover’s star.

You can copy the cake recipe from last summer’s post. After the cake is cool I cover it loosely and store it in the fridge, but it is easy to warm a square up by zapping it for a few seconds in the microwave [on a microwave safe plate].

This is still a cake, with lots of carbs from sugar. But is high in protein, and thus makes a delicious special occasion breakfast treat. It’s way better for you than a Danish.

No matter what container size of ricotta you purchase for this cake, you will have leftovers.

You could use it to top a dish of pasta, but I have another idea…

Combine your extra ricotta with an equal amount of nut butter. Blend well with a fork and add local honey to taste. This make a delicious spread for toast, and a great alternative to the classic P,B & J Sandwich. The idea comes form Recipes for a Small Planet, by Ellen Buchman Ewald, published in 1972. One testimonial on the cover claimed that this volume “makes all other cookbooks obsolete.” I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s a good one.  

Happy Monday. Have a great week!

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening 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 Shorts: 06.14.14 Rain Garden in the Rain

Last week I reported that:

• Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven received a grant from the Greater New Haven Green Fund to educate neighborhood activists about ways to reduce stormwater runoff. Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven staff and volunteers will be digging and installing two rain gardens in their Hudson Street demo lot on Friday under the direction of Michael Dietz, Director of U Conn College of Agriculture and Natural Resource’s NEMO Program

Yesterday, Friday the 13th, was training and installation day. Michael Dietz came. So did a couple dozen volunteers. We listened. We learned. We ate lunch.

It was time to dig the garden.

It started to pour.

It was not about to let up. But we went ahead anyway.

It rained a lot!

Here I am attempting to follow my planting guide before it disintegrates. [We didn't think to laminate it until too late.]

We dug one of the gardens and planted most of the plants the best we could.

The enthusiasm was there, but we had to stop before we added the mulch.

Check out this photo and you will see why.

I was going to do a post on the installation with lots of photos of our beautiful gardens.

That will have to wait for some day soon.

I learned yesterday that New England gets more rain annually than it did in 1895 — 48 inches now vs. 40 inches then. I believe it.

Happy Saturday. The sun’s out today.

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: Psyched for the Return of the Blueberry

Blueberries are starting to reappear in Connecticut supermarkets. Currently coming from the Deep South, soon they will be arriving from New Jersey, and sometime after the Fourth of July they will be a local delicacy. They should be plentiful as a CT Pick-Your-Own crop from late July through early August. 

#495806707 / gettyimages.com

The blueberry is one of the few fruits native to North America. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in what is now Massachusetts, Native Americans were drying blueberries in the sun to preserve them for year-round use. They ate them fresh in season and added dried berries to soups and stews. Legend has it that dried blueberries, given as a gift by the Native Americans, helped the Pilgrims survive their first winter and that Sautauthig, a pudding made with cracked corn and blueberries, was served at the first Thanksgiving dinner.  

The Native Americans also used the berries for medicinal purposes and for preserving meat. 

Cranberries, another native fruit, were successfully cultivated in the mid-1860s, but the cultivation of blueberries proved more difficult. In 1911, Elizabeth White, the daughter of a New Jersey cranberry farmer, teamed up with Dr. Frederick Colville, who was working with the USDA to cultivate the blueberry. The two achieved the first successful commercial blueberry harvest in Whitesbog, NJ in 1916. You can read more of the story here. 

Blueberries are a nutritional powerhouse. Low in calories and high in Vitamin C, Potassium, and Manganese, they are packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, and are considered by many to be a “superfood.” 

As with most produce, they are best eaten just picked. But I have found they keep well in the fridge, unlike strawberries, and will taste pretty good for several days.

Should you be lucky enough to get a chance to pick your own, they are a snap to freeze. Make sure the berries are perfect and free of stems and leaves, but do not wash them. Spread the berries on a baking pan or cookie sheet (preferably with sides) into a layer one berry thick and pop them in the freezer until they are hard. Dump them into a ziplock freezer bag, push out the air, zip the bag shut, and return them to the freezer; try to use them up within a few months. Rinse the berries before eating them or using them in a recipe.  Frozen blueberries make a great “add” to a smoothie.

Last year I made some delicious and easy Blueberry Chia Jam. It was so good that I made a second batch and froze some in lidded freezer containers. With blueberry season so close, I decided to use up the last bit of the 2013 jam. It’s great, perhaps even better than when I first froze it. My favorite use for this jam is as topping on vanilla Greek yogurt. Yum, and extra good for you, too!

Get ready. Get out your recipes. Blueberry season is almost here!

Happy Monday. Have a great week!

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening 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 Shorts: 06.07.14 Special New Haven Edition

American Hornbeam, a native tree

New Haven, CT is very much a Green city, populated with people donating their time and talents to making New Haven a more sustainable place in which to live.

It’s a gorgeous, pre-summer day, and I am drafting this post outside, the old-fashioned way with paper and pen, and I may not post until the sun is down. 

Here is an update on some of the good things that have been happening in my fair city:

Good Groups Get Grants for Good Things

• The New Haven Land Trust received a NewHavenAlliance Foundation 10 for 10 Grant  of $10,000 to create an Urban Agriculture Resource Center in New Haven.
• Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven received a grant from the Greater New Haven Green Fund to educate neighborhood activists about ways to reduce stormwater runoff. Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven staff and volunteers will be digging and installing two rain gardens in their Hudson Street demo lot on Friday under the direction of Michael Dietz, Director of U Conn College of Agriculture and Natural Resource’s NEMO Program.

Local Produce is Back

• Joel Tolman of Common Ground High School reported on Facebook that their first strawberry is ripe.
• City Seed is now open for the season at Wooster Square (on Saturdays) and Edgewood Park (on Sundays). The Wednesday Downtown Market will open on the Green on June 18. The markets in Fair Haven and the Hill will open in July. The full schedule is posted here.

Historic Preservation is Alive and Well

• The Little Theater on Lincoln Street, formerly known as the Lincoln Theater, was dedicated yesterday after a $5.8 million restoration. The funds came from a state grant, supplemented by foundation support and private donations. It will be used students at ACES/ECA and the community.
• Two brothers from Trumbull, along with a preservationist from Terryville, are seeking help to purchase an historic oyster barge now docked in a marina in New Haven’s Fair Haven section for use as a floating restaurant and museum. 

New Haven Green Drinks is Going Strong

The June New Haven Green Drinks will be held at Miya’s Sushi in celebration of World Ocean Day. Chef Bun Lai will discuss his efforts to promote sustainable seafood, including his Invasive Species Menu. Attendees will also learn about tools for making better seafood choices, including the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Guide.

Native Plants are Thriving

• The American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) we planted in the backyard last spring (photo above) seems happy in its new home. Something [squirrels?] found and devoured all the catkins shortly after they appeared. So far no birds have nested in it. It is now fully leafed out and very green.
• Rain followed by sunny days has made it a great spring for plants in pots. See what you can do with native Heuchera in a partly shaded spot?

Happy Saturday. Hope you are enjoying (or have enjoyed) the day.

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: Why Mess with a Good Thing?

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. 

That sums up my efforts to tweak a perfectly good pancake recipe I shared with you some months back—my friend Cher’s favorite vegan recipe for Banana Flapjacks from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch.

I had been having great success substituting almond meal for half the flour in my baked goods — imparting more protein, significant calcium and iron, and a nice flavor, all with fewer carbs. Why not try this in my pancake batter?

So, I did—using 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 almond meal. I wish I had not. The batter stuck to the griddle, and the cakes didn’t hold together. The pancakes smelled wonderful; I could almost taste them! I was so disappointed [to put it mildly]. I was out of overly ripe bananas. How could I salvage the Saturday breakfast I had promised to make?

Quick thinking and the decisions to add 1/4 cup of flour to the mix and to fry the pancakes in my well-seasoned crepe pan, with a generous bit of butter, saved the day. These flapjacks may not look like much, but they tasted great. Next time I will try adding 1/4 cup of almond flour to the original recipe, thinning the batter if necessary.

After this near miss, I decided to Google “almond flour pancakes.” I found a few highly-rated recipes, none of which were vegan. They all had eggs. Here is a link to a 5-star recipe. 

The lesson in this? When you are trying out a new ingredient, and you are counting on success, start with a 5-star recipe before tweaking a familiar recipe you love. After all, you want to cut down on, not add to, food waste.

Happy Monday. Have a great week!

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening 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.”