Saturday: Planted 4 Hop Rhizomes along the north fence of my back yard
Sundy: Found signs of rabbit digging in disturbed soil where I had planted two of the rhizomes. It had dug straight down to one of the rhizomes, but not actually bothered it. Perhaps it was going for the bits of clover and dandelion that I dug up? Re-buried the rhizome.
Tags: garden · hops · symbiosisNo Comments.
With a shout out to Dancinglights, and Inside Urban Green for the idea, I have been hard at work making planters out of repurposed soda and gatorade bottles, and takeout containers.
I’ve been asked for pictures, so here they are, using a gatorade bottle as an example:
Tags: garden · locavoracious · process oriented · things that are shinyNo Comments.
This is your annual reminder to read the label and do the research on your sunscreen.
If you think that anything off the shelf with the letters SPF on the front will protect you from sunburn and skin cancer, you may be dangerously wrong.
If you think that the FDA or any other government agency is doing rigorous scientific testing of sunscreens on the market to make sure that they are safe and effective, again, the data may not support that hypothesis.
The Environmental Working Group’s study of 1,097 sunscreens found only 15% to be both safe and effective. Their gripes: many active ingredients in sunscreen either degrade in sunlight, or are themselves known or suspected carcinogens. They also found that of “high-SPF” sunscreens, advertising an SPF of 30 or higher, only 7% protect against UVA rays. EWG didn’t do experimental testing of the susncreen ingredients, but what they did do was read published, peer-reviewed research on various ingredients in sunscreens, and cross-reference ingredient lists against their research.
You can go to their web site, and look up your favorite sunscreen or their list of recommended safe-and-effective sunscreens. For each sunscreen that they list, they go through the ingredients and provide citations to various studies on each ingredient.
Because this research activity appears not to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, I looked to see if I could find some intelligent criticism of their work, or something to suggest that they are wrong. The best I found was from the industry, saying that they “obviously have a very low-level understanding of how sunscreen works.” The industry comment did not elaborate any further or make any attempt to rebut EWG’s claims. Then again, no scientific argument can hold a candle to calling your adversary stupid. One thing the industry seems to be right about: this doesn’t mean you should stop using sunscreen. It just means you should be a smarter consumer and not rely on the government to protect you.
I’m not a dermatologist or a chemist. I can read the language in these studies, but I’m not really qualified to evaluate the quality of the science. My only concluding thought is this: most of the sunscreens in issue are synthetic chemical compounds, made in a lab, that I am asked to put in direct contact with my flesh in fairly high concentrations. When a serious question is raised about their safety and effectiveness, I put the burden of persuasion on those who tell me that it’s safe. Until such time as they meet that burden, I’m going to use one of the products that *everybody* agrees are safe and effective.
Tags: fact check · sunscreen · Things that are not okay1 Comment
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Lime Pickle in process
After Comrade Don introduced me to Hot Lime Pickle (and other Indian relishes) last summer, I decided to see what I could learn about making my own.
Turns out, it’s easy. [Read more →]
Tags: process oriented · recipe · things that are shiny · vegan · vegetarianNo Comments.
Please pardon our appearance while we make some changes to the look of the site.
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Tofutti’s “better than cream cheese” flunks the “made from food” test. Here’s the story: [Read more →]
Tags: lactard · made from food · omni means everything · Things that are not okay · veganNo Comments.
The cranberry kombucha is all gone. It was lovely, but it tasted so unlike tea that I tended to foget there was caffeine in it. I think next time I will not use black tea for this.
Meanwhile, I have a new 3-quart batch of rose hips kombucha that’s looking close to ready!
Below the cut, Weinkraut and Sourdough
Tags: bread · kombucha · kraut · locavoracious · process oriented · recipe · Refusa the goddess of food recycling · sourdough · symbiosis · vegan · vegetarian · weinkrautNo Comments.
This is my own kitchen invention, inspired by something that an ex once dreamed up.
Time: one hour. Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1 Winter Squash–butternut, acorn, or hubbard
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice
16 oz corn kernels (canned, frozen, or fresh–your call)
16 oz roasted tomatoes
1 tbsp garam masala, or to taste
Garlic (in whatever form), to taste
OPTIONAL pinch cayenne pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit
Slice squash in half (if using Butternut, slice it the long way), excavate seeds, and place squash halves face-up on a cookie sheet. Consider saving the seeds and roasting them. Smear butter or brush a neutral vegetable oil on the open faces of the squash (to preven them from drying out in the oven), and bake the squash for about an hour. Do not wait for the oven to finish preheating before putting the squash in; this is a waste of energy.
After you get the squash in the oven, IMMEDIATELY put the rices in a pot with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to lowest setting and simmer for 50 minutes.
After 50 minutes, add corn, tomatoes, garam masala, and garlic to the rice pot. Mix well and continue to simmer ten minutes.
Now your hour is up, and your squash is done. Remove the squash from the oven and scrape the meat from the shell. Mash well, stir into rice mixture. Serve in shells for extra decorative effect.
VARIANT: Stuff green peppers instead of squashes.
Tags: autumnal · recipe · squash · vegan · vegetarianNo Comments.