What’s going on in sustainability:

Today marks the one year anniversary of the end of my life on the road and the beginning of building my homestead. Although I’ll share with everyone what I’ve learned over this past year in next week’s end of the year article, I would like to share my thoughts of this holiday season.

I can safely say that this has been the best holiday season of my life. As I wrote last week, I positioned my life to comfortably have more than enough time to get my gifts by either making them, buying them from a local artist, or from a local shoppe. But I must say, at the risk of cliche, that this past snow weekend was the climax of what it means to sustainably celebrate life and the earth.

After I implored everyone to slow down and take time off, nature did it for me, dumping two feet of snow on the city of Philadelphia, shutting down the hustle, reminding everyone who grew up in the country of what a snow day could have in store. I must say that my friends and I (many in their thirties, most with nine to five jobs) went all out. During the snow fall we built an entire snow village of people in Rittenhouse Square, we went sledding in the hills outside Philly, I created a snowboard jump in Clark Park in West Philly, and my partner and I went cross country skiing on a river trail that is bordered on the other side by a hill road.

Now, many readers who live in the rural areas may have done the same thing, and they may smile at the thought of doing such activities in the city. But to me, it was more than novelty. These experiences were put into perspective after attending a one man show of “A Christmas Carol,” at a church a block away from my house. I was rocked by the part when Scrooge says to Marley (I’m paraphrasing), “But what of your business on earth, doesn’t that rest your soul.” To which Marley replies, “Benevolence was my business, generosity was my business, the general welfare was my business.” Through out the play I thought about the people who are dismantling our health care bill and hindering our climate change accord. I became despondent, thinking it would take more than three spirits in the night to change their minds.

But then, I thought back to my weekend. I thought of the dozens of people who stopped as we built snowpeople in the park. Some we got to just take time to sober up and enjoy some unaltered beauty, others we actually employed to help us build. But all walked back to their random center city apartments with the satisfaction that some people preferred to bringing some beauty to the world rather than sitting in a bar. Or there were the people on the number 9 bus just trying to get out to Manayunk from University City Philadelphia, who at first gave suspicious stares as we stumbled onto the bus with two sets of skis, poles and boots. But after talking to them, they realized that we were not some rich couple heading off to 30th Street Station and a weekend of skiing in upstate New York. We were just two normal people, skipping out of work to take advantage of a natural sport that is very important to us.

As I reflect, all I can think about are the smiles, the conversations, the thank you’s and ultimately, this final realization. In a way, my friends and I were the Christmas Spirits who visited Scrooge that eventful night. Yes, we need people like Obama and company who will put those systematic changes in place to secure that our sustainable work is not in vain. But the entire movement of sustainability hinges on our ability as sustainably minded people to show the world that this life is not only possible, but also extremely fulfilling, peaceful and beautiful. And that example will be what helps us as a people rise above the greed driven detractors who actively deny the possibilities of a better world. If I remember nothing else from this holiday season, that will be it.

So, please have a happy holiday no matter how you celebrate it, keep the beauty of the solstice and the changing earth in mind and above all, enjoy.

Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Ah, the holidays are upon us. As I’ve said, this is my first fall in many years where I am living in one place in the north, and I’ve been soaking up every little bit the holidays have to offer. But even though I feel that I’ve really settled down, I still feel a bit like a traveler as I watch the people around me respond to the holidays. In my experience this season, I can come up with three generalizations. There are the people who do a preemptive check out of the whole stress, there are the people who partake and the season becomes more of a burden than a celebration, and then there is the example I’d like to offer, the person who participates fully and loves every minute of it.

It’s no surprise that many who handle the holidays so well partake in a sustainably minded lifestyle. However, I am surprised by the people who do live sustainably eleven months out of the year, and then freak out for one month, even if they still are not going to the mall. If you read this blog and you find yourself in the latter category, here are a few things to remember.

1. It is completely okay to slack off at work and focus more on family and friends right now. Unless you have a job where people’s lives depend on you, like an ER surgeon, most of us are still evolutionarily wired to wind down at this time. Some look at the solstices as a mystical time sanctioned by the Gods, others, don’t think of it at all. But in the simplest terms, the solstice represents the peak of the Earth’s death and rebirth. The days become the shortest of the year, the winter chill has just fully set in, and this month of celebration was invented to take a break from the constant motion of the harvest, and prepare mentally for the strains of winter. The people who have cut themselves off from the cycles of the earth in their temperature controlled environments and non local, convenience based food chains have a tough time accepting their natural inclinations to not want to do anything right now except celebrate with loved ones, eat food and have a few drinks. This natural want coupled with our society’s constant emphasis on production creates an anxious malaise for people who just want to relax.

2.  The convenience of buying gifts actually creates more strain. If you read this blog, I imagine you are in the flow of trying to buy all of your gifts locally and sustainably. But as you scower your city and town trying to find ethically made shoes or recycled journals for stocking stuffers, I imagine that you feel more stressed than if you just did a one day sweep through the mall. But since our consciences won’t allow for such a short cut, but you are still finding it too forced to enjoy the thrift store adventures or connections you make at local shoppes, take a break. Spend a night blowing off the holiday party you really don’t feel like going to or the yoga class that will be there in the New Year, get out the craft supplies and your creativity, and make a few gifts. This year I’ve canned pears, brewed beer, made wine and will be making bath salts. Granted, my work and living situation is in general much less stressful than people with 9-5’s, but I still have to make time in my schedule. I usually spend these nights inside, with a few friends and a few drinks, and just have fun. Just pick a few small, homemade gifts you can make in bulk and give them out to your friends and co-workers. It will save you money, stress, and let you stretch your creative muscles that may have been cramping as you’ve just put in a good year of work.

3. Make the season a full experience, not just the last week. Round here at the homestead, I started my ideas and gift making right after Thanksgiving. As I said, I keep this whole month mellow to reenergize for the New Year and enjoy friends and family. Even if you follow steps one and two, waiting until the week before Christmas will do you no favors. Remember, sustainability is a lifestyle, one that should be savored slowly and mindfully. Hopefully these tips will encourage you to take a break and enjoy every moment as the nights of Hannukah pass, Christmas comes and goes, Kwannza begins, or you celebrate the solstice any way you please.

Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.

One of Philly’s cornerstone venues, The Fire, has recently fallen on some hard times, and as one of the countless bands that have darkened the stage there, we felt like we should show some support.  If you love Philly music, then you should too!  There’s gonna be a big ol’ benefit this Sunday at The World Cafe Live featuring tons of awesome local acts (including a short solo set from Sean) as well as a silent auction (we’ll be offering a house concert up for bid!).  $20 gets you in the door, and it all goes to restoring The Fire to its former glory.  And beyond!  Check it!

What’s in the ground:

As I said, this section will probably disappear soon, as the season moves on and the soil renews itself. But I had to pat myself on the back. After a nasty little snow storm on Saturday in Philadelphia, and watching my partner’s nasturtium totally wilt, I thought my lettuce was good enough dead. But when I went to salvage yesterday, I ended up picking half a bag of lettuce greens and spinach, the cold weather making it even more delicious. Knowing that today was going to be rainy and in the fifties, I did a quick cultivation of the soil and am hoping for lettuce at least for another few weeks. I’ll keep y’all informed.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Sustainability is a funny thing. Sometimes it invokes the “urban” part of this blog as the modern green image of the progressive family using compact bulbs, driving a Prius, and shopping at the local co-op. Other times the “homestead” image invokes the simple farming family, gathering around the wood burning stove and playing old time music on hand carved instruments. The reality is that real sustainability exists at the mid point between these two images.

I use this example to explain a big issue many sustainably minded people face during the holiday season. For those of us more entrenched in the city and its traditions that are so hard to escape, we go and look for a tree to decorate our living rooms that was sustainably grown, in organic soil, and ethically sold, which there is basically no market for. So in the end, these constraints send us just down the street to the lot selling a whole forest’s worth of prematurely chopped trees.

Then there are others of us, pining for tradition who wish we could just trek out into the woods with a sleigh and an axe, chop down the tree and triumphantly return home. I actually have heard people contemplate doing this in Farimount Park, Philadelphia’s huge city park.

In reality, these two extremes are not the most sustainable solutions, and a midpoint does exist. With some forward thinking, energy and help from the internet, you can find nurseries that are selling potted evergreens, douglas firs, or any other kind of decorative. Aside from not having to deal with those flimsy stands that will always let you down (my most vivid childhood memories of christmas trees are when they fall over out of the stand and crash on the living room floor), the tree is much more happy and secure in its own soil. And you can be much more happy and secure that you are supporting sustainable farming. Instead of letting the tree adorn your living room for three weeks and then kicking it to the curb (or burning it in the city wide bonfire like in New Orleans) you can replant the tree in your yard if you have land or in a wooded spot where you’ve researched that your tree will thrive in that ecosystem. My housemate even came up with the great idea of buying a fruiting perennial tree, decorating that, and then replanting it in the yard.

Now, this may be a little more difficult in climates where the ground is already freezing. But as I read the report that this has been the warmest decade on record, the ground should be easy to dig in, and goodness knows we can use a few more trees in the ground to trap that pesky CO2. So, rather than taking another tree out of the ground, put something back in. And if you’re really festive like me, and still enjoy decorating the outside of your house, cheesy string lights are just last century. Go back two centuries and take those discarded tree branches after you prune your potted tree and string them up on your porch with a few ribbons. It’s cheap, fun and it reuses, which is the best kind of sustainable action.

So, enjoy this holiday season and I’ll be back next week with a sustainably festive tip.

Until then, this is the note from the urban homestead.

What’s in the ground:

This will be the last garden related note I post, as the season is slowly winding to an end and I would like to spend the weeks before the holidays helping turn all of your hard work into great presents. Your garlic should be planted, your greens sheetmulched and everything else pulled out of the ground. In those vacant spots, it is good to give the soil a rest, leaving it fallow. But just like humans catching up on reading in the winter, even when soil is resting it still needs to be stimulated. This means planting cover crop. There are a multidude of crops you can sow. The ones I usually use are clover and rye grass. The seed is cheap and easy to maintain and fixes some great nitrogen in the soil. Just turn up your soil one last time, sow the seeds by broadcasting (by hand) and let nature do the rest.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Sometimes I fret to focus too much on Philly issues, as I know there are readers from around the country who read this blog. But Philadelphians are learning a lesson that needs to be passed on to the rest of the country. Just as most Philadelphia political issues tend, the city council will ignore an issue until it explodes, and then pass sweeping uni-lateral legislation that negatively affects all parties.

This is going on right now with the issue of city biking. After two people were killed this year in bike related deaths (one due to jay walking), the city chose to ignore the oblivious pedestrians, the aggressive cars and the lack of biking infrastructure and instead attempt to pass a mandate that all bikes will need to be registered and follow traffic laws closely related to that of cars.

The first issue is that although a bike is much faster than a pedestrian, the sheer power and force of an automobile greatly outweighs any attempt to classify bikes in the same category. These two bike related deaths have gained huge traction in our city media. Yet nothing is said of the countless bikers who have been injured by cars or pedestrians. I have a deep scar running up my hip after being doored in the city. Luckily for me the people involved were extremely good Samaritans and took care of everything outside of courts. But an uninsured friend of mine who was hit by an uninsured driver and broke his hip was not so lucky.

The second issue is that making people register their bikes that may cost less than registration fees is an undue burden that will be impossible for the city to enforce. I know people with six bikes. What needs to be done is logical, fair and pragmatic accountability of systems already in place.

Now if you live in Davis, CA or Seattle or if Hoots and Hellmouth is really getting huge and you live in Germany, you are probably taking pity of our city’s inefficiencies. But if you live in a town where biking is becoming popular but has not been recognized by the local government aside from a bike lane or two, I warn you to not rely on flying under the radar. Take our lesson and take these actions.

1. Create a community bike education group to inform riders of proper riding techniques. We have that in Philly, but that does not stop people from riding against traffic, on sidewalks and taking unnecessary risks. These kinds of riders are what ruin our good cause of treading lightly on the earth. Put a a stop to them with education.

2. Be a presence in city hall. Don’t wait for the legislators to address bike issues. Demand status and recognition for bike riders by lobbying your representatives with well thought out campaigns.

3. And finally, work with pedestrians and cars, not against them. Our main goal as riders should be to get more people out of the cars and onto bikes. And that will not happen if we are racing against cars rather than riding with them.

As I said, the worst thing to do is wait until the issue comes to you. Take action now and control where the conversation goes. We have a lot of backtracking to do in Philly, but don’t worry, we’ll get it done.

Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.

For this edition, I’d like to take a break from the format and leave you all with a little holiday poem I scribbled this morning. I was going to write down some great recipes for vegan and vegetarian treats, but I found this more appropriate. If you have any good recipes that went over well from the holiday, please feel free to send them to me and I’ll post them next week with your name and any comments you would like to make. May your dinner be plentiful, your celebration be joyful, and please take time to give thanks to the many blessings we have all around us. I thank you all for reading these articles and for all of the great feedback. May this poem be appropriate gratitude.

Thanksgiving Prayer

As we reflect on this day, what do we reveal

A reunion of family, a giving of thanks and a meal

Or is it oppression, and the many resources we steal

The land that was taken, the remorse we may feel

A turkey is carved and you think of its pain

Eat fruit out of season and you think of the strain

The workers who provide the plenty seems to be the same

As Abel out in the field and you feel like Cain

But remorse need not have to be regret

For if you live with the earth, shall we not forget

Let us give thanks for nobler pursuits

To look ahead to the future and plant some new roots

Next week we will be back with our normal format. Until then, enjoy your holiday. This is the note from the Urban Homestead.

A blog by the name of RaisedCountry.com just asked us to share a rural anecdote with their readers, so we figured our time out in the country during our recent Harvest Tour would fit the bill nicely.  And since we never gave the whole experience a proper review here on our own site, we figured we’d paste the piece here for your reading pleasure.

To all who participated in the festivities this year, we thank you from the bottom of our collective heart.  For those of you who missed out, we have every intention of doing it again next year, so keep your eyes and ears open!  Also, if you have connections with a farm or farm folk whom you think would be interested in hosting part of our 2nd annual Harvest Tour in Fall 2010, please have them contact us.  We’re always looking to expand our efforts.

In the meantime, here’s a recap of the 2009 Harvest Tour.  (I only had space to include passing mentions of particular events.  If you’d like to share personal stories from this experience, please include them in the comments section below.  We’d love to hear from you!)

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For a bunch of city boys, we sure do love our time in the country. The fresh air, the foliage, the freedom – it’s nature at its most honest. And what about the food?! We often go out of our way to hit local restaurants and farms to fill our bellies when we’re on the road. It just seems natural to eat local.

Rural folks have a connection with their food unlike those of us locked into the grid of urban life. There’s something about growing up alongside your food that forges a respect for the whole process, from plow to produce. When a community supports its farms, those farms in turn support the community. It’s an elegant model of self-sufficiency.

This Fall we decided to act on our love for good, honest food and the farmers who work so hard to grow it by booking a two-week farm tour in celebration of the harvest season. We are blessed to know some farmers in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and through their contacts we were able to arrange shows on farms in VA, WV and PA. The idea was met with great enthusiasm (as it turns out, farmers love to throw a good barn party), and things came together quite easily.

Many of the farms we worked with were already accustomed to hosting community gatherings, so adding our music to the mix was a no-brainer. At every stop along the way, folks came from all over, old and young alike, bringing homemade dishes ranging from spicy wild game sausage to beet brownies. The barns ranged in size from the expansive to the cozy, yet one of the coziest performances of the run occurred late night in the chilly Virginia mountain air by a dwindling bonfire.

From barns to bonfires, our tour seemed like one highlight after another with surprises around every corner. At the Dickinson Farm in Boiling Springs, PA we were awed by the ingenuity of the solar-powered cart and veggie wash set-up. The Glasscocks of Berkley Springs, WV wowed our tastebuds with a wide array of the most amazing tomatoes we’ve ever encountered. In Phoenixville, PA, we were surrounded by family and friends (and more than a couple barefoot kids hanging from the rafters!), all singing along with us, filling that Charlestown barn with spine-tingling harmony.

Every farm, like every community, displayed a unique profile. That’s the country way, we found. You live with the land, not just on it. Each farm we visited on our tour exhibited this, yet no matter how differently the individual farmers might approach their fields, there was one constant: connecting real people with real food. Again, nature at its most honest. Shaking the hand of the man who grew the food you’re buying is an incredibly affirming experience.

All in all, it boils down to this: the honest work of honest folks produces honest results and strengthens the integrity of the community, but it’s no easy path. But then, what of worth is? And at the end of a long season (whether that be growing or touring), it sure feels good to celebrate all that you’ve accomplished with the ones you love, the ones that depend on you and the ones on whom you depend. We were honored to share our music with each of these communities in their time of celebration, and we look forward to the next time we can get out that way. 

What’s in the ground:

This past weekend I planted all of my garlic, which was really exciting. It’s a plant that really teaches patience, one of the many lessons to be learned in the garden. And the bike tour around the neighborhood to plant it was fun too. I can’t wait until summer when it’s ready. But in the meantime, while planting, a friend brought something to my attention. While we were clearing another plot for garlic, I was about to rip up the remains of a sunflower stalk when she said, “Just leave it in.” When I asked why, she explained that leaving the roots in the ground will help keep the soil loose over the frosty winter and help aerate the soil. Also, as I gave it thought, the roots will allow the ground to lay fallow while beneficial nutrients will break down into the soil. Since the sunflower is not very weed-like, the soil will not become compacted, will get enough oxygen and nutrients, and will be some beautiful humus come spring.

What’s going on in sustainability:

So, as I get more involved with this campaign to reduce the possibilities of privatized water, I began to think about reducing the strain on public water systems. After such a miserably rainy season, it will be frustrating to be told by our utilities that we need to conserve water when a drought hits because water wasn’t properly stored. Although there are major infrastructure changes needed, such as Philadelphia’s new system to catch storm water and run aqueducts underground to irrigate city parks, there is something you can do.

I imagine we’ve all seen those blue or black barrels attached to some of our progressive friends’ rain spouts. The design is pretty simple; you take the top of the barrel and position it under a sturdy gutter with a screen attached at the end to filter out any debris. So you may ask, “If it’s so easy, why don’t I see it more?” I think it has to do with people not giving it much thought, and not having enough confidence that they can do it.

First, please give it thought. We developed society because of advancements in agriculture, and these advancements came because people learned how to catch rain water rather than praying to totemic gods for rain. Second, there are just a few things you need to know. First is getting a barrel. If you want to cut a corner with money, just go on the internet to an organic garden supply store, I’m sure they have some. But if you are more on the freecycle tip, Craigslist or Freecycle is a good start. But many restaurants have used barrels that were once used to store cooking supplies. Just give them a good cleaning and there you have it.

The second road block is safety. I say this especially to those who live in older houses. Chances are you have an asbestos shingled roof, which will disqualify you from catching water. But if you have asbestos shingles, I think it is a good idea to replace them anyway, just for general safety. If you don’t have the money, shingling yourself is not that hard. For tips on roofing, please contact me.

The third is overflow. It’s not just an expression, “When it rains it pours.” There’s nothing worse than a flood around a barrel or a cesspool in a filled barrel. The first tip is to keep up on your use of the water. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people with full rain barrels using city water just because they never check it. But if you’re much more responsible, but still have an overflow, the first idea is to add more rain barrels on other spouts. If that doesn’t work, use a Babylonian cistern system (I love how many garden techniques go back to antiquity). Attach a hose to your primary barrel, elevate it on a platform, and stick the hose onto the lower barrel. This way the water will drain into the second barrel and even your supply out.

I hope these tips are not a day late and a dollar short. I realize we just had one of the rainiest seasons on record. But, it’s always good to prepare for next season. Just remember to manage your water if you live in a very cold climate. You don’t want a barrel sized ice cube.

Until next week, this is the note from the Urban Homestead.

What’s in the ground:

Hopefully everyone’s sheet mulching adventures went well. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on the comment page of this site. It’s a pretty straight forward process, but it can be a little tricky.

What’s going on in sustainability:

Today while reading the paper, I came across a very interesting little bit of information. I learned that BPA, the chief agent in many household plastics, was originally developed as a supplement to increase estrogen in woman. Aside from the recent scare that BPA could cause cancer, which forced Nalgene to pull their products off the shelf, a new study of 8 chinese men whom work in a plastic manufacturing factory found that high level of exposure to BPA can cause severe erectial dysfunction, which I guess is a side effect from the estrogen build up. 

I spent a long time pondering why each inning during the world series was punctuated with commercials for cialis and viagra. I now imiagine it’s because of America’s obsession with plastics. The study pointed out that BPA can be found in the urine samples of 93% of Americans. When thinking of plastic I always remember that part in the movie “The Graduate” when the old man tells Dustin Hoffman’s character, “When it comes to investment, I have one word for you, plastics.” If the old man could have only been forsightful to add to the investment erectial dysfunction meds, they could have been billionaires.

But I have a better investment for everyone. Get a stainless steel water bottle. Now, I hope I’ve convinced my male readers that a long sustainable life just loses its flavor when your penis stops functioning. But for my female and puritanical male readers, there are many other issues at stake here. The first most obvious is health of the planet. Our earth cannot take the strain in its landfills with the waste of plastic bottles. And if you think you’re doing some great service by drinking your morning fair trade coffee in those trendy brown paper cups, that recycled paper still had to originate from a  razed forest probably in South America.

But the biggest problem you create when you drink out of a plastic bottle pertains to water. Buying bottles of water in a store is a relatively new concept. Historically, access to fresh water has always been a natural human right. If one needed water, a stream was usually accessible. And if it wasn’t, societies were set up to provide water for its citizens. But as industrial development has polluted and overtaken rivers and lakes, the access to fresh potable water has been limited severely, especially in South America and Africa. In Bolivia they fought a whole war over water.

But, we as Americans have sat securely with this modern development, happy that we have access to fresh water at the corner store near our house. Well,  if the erectial dysfunction piece has not scared you, then the fact that our world is slowly running out of water should. This issue will just be perpetuated if we don’t make a conscious effort to stop supporting the commodizationof water. Free, fresh water is a right to all people. And if we accept that it’s proper to buy this resource, then we accept that it’s okay for some to go without. By bottling your own water from your tap or well, you continue a culture where water is a community resource.

If these points strike you, and you want to make an effort to always carry a bottle for water and a mug for coffee or tea, there are many options. The one I will tell you to stay away from is SIGG. Although they recalled all of those bottles from Whole Foods for their possible cancer causing agents in the lining, I still was not happy with my new one, as the new lining began to peel off. Kleen Kanteen is the way to go, but if you can’t find that product, a simple stainless steel bottle with no inner lining will do the trick.

So, the next time you see those plastic water bottles or paper coffee cups piling up in the trash, I hope you remember this article and you do something about it.

Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.

greetings everyone. it seemed like scant moments after we sent out our monthly update that we learned news that william eliot whitmore had cancelled all the rest of his shows and headed home due to illness.

we love will and wish him a speedy recovery.

since the midwest is will’s stronghold, there’s going to be a lot of changes coming our way… many of which, at this point are still to be determined.

obviously, the first and most aggravating was that omaha was cancelled from underneath us when we were still hours away, prompting us to turn around and not make it into town. it broke our heart to do so, as omaha is a place we’ve come to love and not been able to return to for some time (RIP, mick’s).

we don’t know how, at this point, but we promise you all, omaha, that we will make it up to you.

next change up, CHANGE OF VENUE tonight in MILWAUKEE:

Bay View Brewhaus
2535 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue
Milwaukee WI 53207

we’ll be starting around 10:30 or 11. so please, come out and have a beer with us.

TOMORROW NIGHT in CHICAGO… we’re all going to have to sit tight on this one.

we will keep everyone in the know about the changes coming up and update our various sites and date listings accordingly.

please stay tuned and stay with us as we roll with all this…

more to come.

HnHM