Apocalyptic Food, pt 3 o' 3

Behold the face in front of the well-oiled, so-far cogs of my no-grain food storage!

♣ canned salmon • canned sardines • canned coconut milk • coconut oil • ghee • tallow • seaweed • raisins • animal gelatin • honey

TA-DA!

Almost all of my process, hard work, and rumination is unenumerated; these three parts are bones; not included are soft, connective, fleshy bits.
   I did tons of work to figure out how to have command of a simple process, and this is what I have to show for it, and it's not showy. I feel like this must be what happens to my grandpa. He and my grandma send out a newsletter every month. His part of it usually has such simplified structure that one might think it insulting, yet sometimes (as he states) it took him years to achieve it.
   Well, Grandpa, if this is what happens to you, I feel ya.

So. There's no way that I have three months worth of only these foods. And even if I did, it would be a dreary three months. But I have made a very fine start for myself.

al-Lazeez!

I often make something very yummy and then forget about it (thus not making it again). Well, this one I want to remember, so I am telling you what we had for breakfast today —

   Chili powder and garam masala CARROTS coined and sauteed in ghee, with ginger. Then one egg over easy each.

1 Balanced and Broad, 1 Cute

"Some of My Best Friends are Germs" — Micheal Pollan's essay is the best gut-bug piece yet!
   To accompany it, my favorite from Bird and Moon comics.

Food Storage part 2 of 3

Part 1

My future food storage system has two primary traits. It is low maintenance in each of three cost categories — energy, time, money. It nourishes my family for ≥ 3 months in The Event (e.g., of a Zombie Apocalypse).
   The supporting traits I've identified are familiarity and stability. These each bear up both primaries — minimizing maintenance costs and maximizing nourishment. All food storage candidates satisfy these criteria.

Up to this point, the decisions on including a food are basic — binary. Now they become complex.
   When I identify a food that is familiar and stable, next I'll consider its basic nutritional profile. What are the macros and micros? How does it compare with other foods I have identified? Next, is it a hassle to prepare OR consume? Zombies are chasing me, I've lost an arm, and I've run out of spoons. Do I need a can opener for this?

If I end up with dozens of winning foods — more than I have room to store — I can cull by considering other traits. (Comparative cost?) But for now I'll save that energy.

Emergency Preparedness: Food Storage

It is a good time of year to consider catastrophe.

The other week my dad recommended a certain product to me for food storage. I began doing more thinking about what good food storage items are — for someone with my diet.

   Consideration A: Grains are the staple for food storage as I know it. (Now "knew it".)
   Consideration B: Rotation is a primary principle of preparedness; to rotate, store what you eat and eat what you store.
   Consideration C: Mine is a diet of animals and vegetables, of no grains, of few pulses or legumes (lentils and limas allowed), of no sugars except fruit and honey.
   ==
   Problem: I cannot realistically rotate something I don't eat, and I don't eat the common storage items, so I can't use the old methods, and I don't know any other way.

But who am I to not do something because I don't know what to do? Not I! Time to make up another way.

I am making two lists, one of traits (what do I want of my food storage items?), another of items so far (what do I already eat with those traits?). I shall post them.
   Did you notice that I said "items so far"? SO FAR! I request ideas. Pretty please, with a dried cherry on top.

Lover and Thinker

   . . . 
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
  They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
  More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world. 
   . . . 
And I am not resigned.

Adventures in Investing

I first heard about Mr. Money Mustache from my friend Cherry. She was pointing out that my thoughts on the deplorable damages of car culture overlapped his.
   The second time I heard about him was from Wayde, Roscivs' younger brother.
   I infrequent his blog, and the other day I read about a p2p lending business venture that he is experimenting with.

I decided to do something similar with a little bit (less than 1%) of my money. What curiosity I have! What risk I take!

first year pickler

I make my own pickles. Amazing!

Since early spring I have successfully made lacto-fermented pickles* out of radishes and garlic scapes. My other attempts were lemons and carrots, but I lost 'em to mold.
   The radishes were DIVINE. My visiting family ate the last of the scapes.
   It had been weeks since I set anything up to pickle, but on Thursday, when I was at the Farmers' Market, I found the season's first pickling cukes. I bought some, added pickling dill (read: dill in bloom) and garlic. I hope I'm not sorry I didn't have any grape leaves!

--
* For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about:

   • Yogurt is certainly the most commonly known (and the only commonly eaten) lacto-ferment in America. It's basically pickled dairy! However, "lacto" goes with "lactic acid", NOT "lactose". Lacto-fermentation has nothing necessarily to do with dairy.

   • "fermented" evokes beer, wine and other things alcoholic but lacto-ferments are not alcoholic. 

   • "pickles" evokes foods soaked in vinegar, but lacto-ferments are not made with any vinegar. 

For Supper

I made an omelette for the first time! 4 duck eggs. It was the purtiest omelette I ever did see!

A Favorite Website and a Favorite YouTube Video and a Bonus Link

I have been interested in floor play and squatting for the last few months. I've built up to being able to squat for many (20) minutes at a time.
   If you're interested, check out Todd Hargrove's Squat Fundamentals no. 1. There's a link at bottom to a 25 minute audio floor play guide. I liked the pretending to be a crab!

This post is brought to you by JoBob out sailing with his dad. I don't sit on my computer post a lot when he's home, which is most of the time!

More Gut Reading

"Happy Microbes, Skinny Jeans" is the print article in the July/August print volume of Mother Jones. Here is the online version.
   I recommend it.
   Currently that ^ page is hosting links to MoJo other articles with the same probiotic / microbe / gut theme. This is Your Body on Microbes, Should You Take A Probiotic? (I'm going to go with yes), Can Antibiotics Make You Fat? (all signs point to yes), Poop Therapy (I would do it if I could find a suitable donor), and Here's Why You Shouldn't Take Antibiotics for a Sinus Infection.

ketchUpdates

Blood: drawn (after MUCH TRIAL AND TRIBULATION and one vein "giving out" and one poke yielding nothing and resorting to a vein in the hand).
   House: alas — the beautiful house of dreams is not within our grasp. One of the owners seems not to be ready to negotiate with us.

ATTN: Mona

At the beginning of the month, Jronatron and I took Animal Planet's "Dog Breed Selector" questionnaire. The results solidly indicate that we would be best matched with a Brittany or a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
   It is highly unlikely we'd get a purebred, but if we did these would suit us best. (I want a dog that is highly affectionate and highly trainable.)

There Is No Tomorrow, But Only Today

It has been a great couple of weeks.
   Two things about today:
   (1) It was bring your pet to church day. It was the joyfulnoisiest service I have ever been at. ... I really want a dog!
   (2) During sibling book group my brother, Leon, made a case for P. Diddy as today's Shakespeare.

Gulpee

I went, fasting, into the lab this morning to have my blood drawn for routine bloodwork. They sent me away. They found no veins at all, because, apparently, I am dehydrated.
   Remember my drinking quandary? (No?) Looks like I haven't solved my problem. In the short term, I've been sippin' all day, trying to get any vein to plump up. No luck so far.

Gutty and A Beautiful Day

I often spout factoids about the prime importance of the microflora in and on our bodies. I believe what I claim. I've substantiated it behind the scenes, but by the time I mention it in conversation, I don't always have a citation on hand.
   I think that this contributes to the perception some hold of me as a gut-bacteria kook. In any case, I'm comfortable with my company. From a book I just finished:

Jeffery Gordon, Director of Washington University's Center for Genome Sciences, and his team have shown that people of normal weight favor a family of bacteria called bacteroidetes while obese poeple have more firmicutes. His team was able to prove that gut microbes actually contribute to obesity.  

Speak of chaos theory, I am posting this outside, sitting on a swing in a garden between my apartment and the library. There is a fountain three feet in front of me, and while I've been here, several birds have taken drinks and baths.
   I am like a bird.
   But I am not like a bird in that I do not drink my bathwater.

Picking

The Dashes (J's sister's family) were out of town today but invited us go over to pick raspberries. Yum yum.

Post-Hurricane Rainbow

God don't make no plastic bags.
   Happy New Year!
   The holiday haps: my parents and one sister are here. The house haps: we sat with the homeowners yesterday and made a counter-counter offer.

Awaiting

My parents are flying in today for a visit.
   I am going to post every day in July. It's looking like it might be a very very busy month, so most posts will probably be tweety-length.

Offering

We put in an offer on our a house today. Cross your T's for us!

100 books ago

I am trying to heal from the neuro-gulleys and trenches that my brain made when Roscivs was sick and dying, and after he died: I would — without prompting — think "a year ago today he wasn't even sick ... and look at me now" or "two years ago we were eating out at foobar ... and look at me now".
   You might think that this would be comforting. No. It is depressing. When this happens, I suffer, even more than I already was suffering.
   It is comforting to me to remind myself that Roscivs was a person who lived wholly in the present and a person who believed comparison is the cause of almost all suffering.

But sometimes looking back is nice. When I am just remembering — not comparing, not despairing.
   Today I looked back using Goodreads.
   100 books ago I was in Texas, visiting my dear sister Mona and her nuclear family — a husband and two children, my niece and nephew. My nephew turned 5 while I was there. We read the "llama llama" books. It was a sweet time.

Returning and Reporting: Dentition Edition

So, if you remember (and at least one of you does, which I know because she prompted a follow-up) I have my unusual, new toothcare protocol and wanted to see what the dentist thought about my oral health. Here is the follow-up: At my recent appointment I asked the dentist how my teeth and gums are looking. He said "very good".

   In my experience, that is almost as effusive as a dentist can get. I am satisfied.

   Nevertheless, I have altered my regimen somewhat: I bought some xylitol (plain) and I use it ~every other night. Sheesh that stuff is sweet! :P Like, Lisa Frank sweet. x_x

artifulchoke

I found out what to do with my "baby" artichokes! (The artichokes we received in our CSA were very small. I thought they were just harvested small, but no. It's like how really short adults aren't children.)
   I cut them up with this as my guide, and I then sauteed them in white wine vinegar, salt, and ghee. They were quite tasty! I want more of them!

In other news, I actually went to church with Jobabhatron today because the issue from the pulpit was based around Emily Dickinson. I really, really, really love Emily Dickinson.

Pix for Pax

The other day, while Brn and I were walking to get water from the artesian well, we were (rudely, to my mind) visually accosted by the anti-abortionist activists squatting outside of Planned Parenthood.
   We often take a route to the well that does not go by PP, but when we go to the library on the way to the well (which we regularly, though not usually, do) our route takes us in front of the PP building downtown. On most days there are no protestors out front, but on weekends without rain, there may well be protestors.
   The protestors have the usual things: signs, scriptural admonishments, and — more than I have ever seen before — grisly pictures.
   I complained (not for the first time) about their methods: it's in-your-face, fearmongering antagonism. What good could it do? I pointed out that even people who also are against abortion would think it was awful. There was a picture of a fetus and the tag line about throwing it in a garbage. I gave an example of someone I know who miscarried and was deeply distraught over disposing of the fetus.

On our way home, Brn said that there is much in this world that is despicable and hidden. War, for example. Americans and war. We're a nation of destruction and violence, and this is hidden, and it would be better were it not. He would not want someone to object to someone posting pictures of war because they are offensive — war is offensive, and by hiding it America decays in denial.
   If someone is dissuaded from war (or, in analog, abortion) because they are shown what it is like, is that bad?
   So he came out in favor of the protestors' use of the horrible pictures. Maybe it offends everyone because it is offensive.
   I must say, I feel different about the whole thing now.

(Adjunct: cf the photojournalism series "We're Still At War" at Mother Jones)

This Week's Box

Mmmmm. 13.5 pounds of vegetables.

The season is starting to turn. I can tell from the produce. It now qualifies as "late spring / early summer". No more shungiku ... and the first of the season's garlic scapes, broccoli, and garlic.
   I have no idea what to do with the artichokes. They are tiny! Maybe I'll pickle their hearts.
   It takes me a long time to take care of the box (metonymously speaking). Bjorn and I walk to get the box (30 minutes = there and back). Then I care for the veggies as necessary (wipe, dry, partition, etc.) before I store them ... that takes at least an hour.
   Our fridge is 3/4 full of vegetables; meat, fruit, nuts, and leftovers are relegated to the corners.

Listed pseudo-randomly:

♣ broccoli (ours looks purple compared to the stuff in the store) • snow peas • beet greens (with tiny tiny root beets — these are beets that are being thinned out) • mizuna • garlic scapes • spinach • red mustard greens • arugula • garlic (fresh) • artichokes • salad turnips • bok choy • turnip greens • lettuce • carrots • scallions • chard • beets (with greens) • kale