Bread Rising Celebration Through the Eyes of Bread Tweeters

On Monday, March 7, Bread for the World celebrated a successful  #BreadRising capital campaign with a dinner featuring powerful reflections by Rev. Carlos Malavé (Christian Churches Together), Gayle Smith (U.S. Agency for International Development), Kelvin Beachum (professional football player and anti-hunger activist) and Rev. David Beckmann (Bread for the World). Talented musician Joy Ike also performed and offered a short reflection. Three remarkable individuals who have helped Bread in many ways with their time, talent and treasure were honored: Bob Cahill, Bob Ayres and Pat Ayres. Here are some impressions of the evening through the tweets of a couple of people who attended the celebration.

We are excited to have @KelvinBeachumJr speak at the #BreadRising dinner tonight in D.C. #EndHunger2030 #Inspired pic.twitter.com/cpp6hjLv3D

— Bread for the World (@bread4theworld) March 8, 2016

Angela Ruprock-Schafer

What an incredible honor tonight. Major donors, Senators and NFL players... Oh my!! @bread4theworld #endhungernow pic.twitter.com/MMK8RGCU2I

— Angela R-Schafer (@AngRSchafer) March 8, 2016

That time I spazzed & closed my eyes for a pic next to the @USAID Administrator & an insanely talented musician... pic.twitter.com/RejwTyiES1

— Angela R-Schafer (@AngRSchafer) March 8, 2016

Talk about awesome: @KelvinBeachumJr @dddailey @E_Mitch06 @marsmeg and fellow @bread4theworld family members!! pic.twitter.com/6nLvBs898A

— Angela R-Schafer (@AngRSchafer) March 8, 2016

The incomparable @davidbeckmann of @bread4theworld speaking on the IMPACT of our work! Amen!! pic.twitter.com/XwLSCS6TQH

— Angela R-Schafer (@AngRSchafer) March 8, 2016

Adlai Amor

I had to have a picture with #Steelers offensive tackle & @bread4theworld ambassador @KelvinBeachumJr pic.twitter.com/QVGvPOYNsB

— Adlai Amor (@adlaiamor) March 8, 2016

.@bread4theworld founder Rev. Art Simon thanks Robert Cahill for his faithful service to #endhunger. pic.twitter.com/Tb1QAjIgy9

— Adlai Amor (@adlaiamor) March 8, 2016

.@bread4theworld founder Art Simon thanks Bob and Pat Ayres for their faithful service to #endhunger pic.twitter.com/3YR7BwVeW4

— Adlai Amor (@adlaiamor) March 8, 2016

(the afternoon before the celebration)

Honored to serve on the @bread4theworld Board with this group!! #SquadGoals #EndHunger #ZeroHunger @dddailey pic.twitter.com/kkZM5TDxJ2

— Angela R-Schafer (@AngRSchafer) November 2, 2015

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Franciscan Sister Wins Food Netwoks Chopped Contest Seeks to Bring Attention to Issue of Hunger

"Perhaps being on national TV and winning this competition will bring some attention to the issue of hunger and to the reality that Gods love is so strong and so big, he can take this little nun from Chicago who never went to culinary school to compete. ... Literally nothing is impossible with God." -Franciscan Sister Alicia Torres

Sister Alicia Torres, 30, is one of the new generation of Catholic nuns. She has her own Twitter account and she appeared on the Food Networks reality cooking show Chopped--and won!

Sister Alicia, who lives and works at the Mission of Our Lady of  the Angels on the west side of Chicago, was one of four chefs cooking with the typical makings of a conventional Thanksgiving dinner—turkey, green beans, potatoes and cranberries—on the special volunteer edition of the show.

In the appetizer segment of the contest, Torres transformed leftovers into Mexican-style quesadillas.For the entree, Sister Alicia made a Mediterranean-style dish with curry turkey, a sweet potato cranberry hash and a dipping sauce with goat cheese and green beans.

Here is what she wrote on Twitter on the day of the contest.

Chopped = major blessing + joy! Im still cooking .. for Gods glory and my friends on the West Side! Thanks @FoodNetwork! #Chopped

— Sr. Alicia Torres (@NunRun) November 12, 2015

Sister Alicia is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, which serve the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, located in Humboldt Park, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. "With the economic crisis, families and seniors in the area do not have the necessary resources for sufficient heat and nutritious meals," the mission said on its website. 

The mission  distributes food and clothing to residents of Humboldt Park on Tuesday mornings. The first Saturday of the month, the mission also serves as a model of how to efficiently run a mobile food pantry. The mobile pantry provides food and clothing for approximately 300 families.

Sister Alicias victory brought a prize of $10,000 for Our Lady of the Angels. More importantly, it provided her the opportunity to shine the spotlight on hunger and poverty on the west side of Chicago and in many places in the U.S. "Perhaps being on national TV and winning this competition will bring some attention to the issue of hunger and to the reality that Gods love is so strong and so big, he can take this little nun from Chicago who never went to culinary school to compete. ... Literally nothing is impossible with God," Sister Alica said in an interview with The Chicago Tribune.

And here is a video from an interview with Sister Alicia on WGN television in Chicago.



Siser Alicia was featured in the film Light of Love in 2013, a movie by the Imagine Sisters Movement, in which she discusses her religious calling.

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Homesteading Author Map

There are a lot of homesteading and gardening books out there in the sustainable living sphere of influence, many of which are very useful, very entertaining, or both.  However, it goes nearly without saying that a lot of the advice from an author in sunny, warm, dry southern California wont be the same as the advice from an author in rainy, cold coastal Maine.  So, we thought it would be interesting to put together a map of some of our favorite sustainable living authors/bloggers and where they hail from.  We also thought it might be helpful to overlay those locations with the USDA growing zones map to make it easier if anyone wanted to seek out authors in their own region or with similar environments.

The map below is just a starting point.  The author list is certainly not complete, and it would be awesome to be able to index authors by other maps as well, such as annual rainfall or soil type. (The map is also decidedly U.S.-centric.)  If you have suggestions for other authors to include, or other useful formats, let us know in the comments section!

Click to zoom in to read the labels, unless you have a magnifying glass handy or superhuman vision.

EDIT: Updated 2/22/15 to include Annas suggestions.  Thanks Anna!  (And it only took us 13 months to get around to it!)

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Marking WorldAidsDay

Photo by Elaine VanCleave

God of overflowing love, we come with joys and sorrows. We come in turmoil an d chaos, struggling to create one world in hope. Let your loving justice inspire our hearts as we pray...God of our hope, make us one as we walk with all who live with HIV or AIDS. Encourage our hearts and open our hands.  from Worship Resources for World Aids Day

Since 2006,  the Empire State Building in New York City has been marking World Aids Day on Dec. 1 with red lighting on its top floors. The red color matches the red ribbons that many people around the world will be wearing this day. The red ribbon is the international symbol of AIDS awareness. It is a sign of solidarity with all those who are affected by HIV/AIDS.

A sponsor of the annual campaign is the AIDS awareness charity (RED), which was founded in 2006 by Irish musician  Bono and Bobby Shriver. (RED) supports The Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants in eight countries with a goal of virtually eliminating transmission of the virus from moms to their babies.  Read more

Other landmark buildings around the world—like the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye and Cape Town’s Table Mountain—were also lit red for World AIDS Day.

Cover of ONEs AIDS Report 2015

This year, the global anti-poverty organization ONE is holding a special celebration at Carnegie Hall on World AIDS Day to celebrate ten years of ONE and (RED). Congressional district leaders, volunteer team members, and regional faith leaders joined with staff to mark this milestone.  A group of ONE activists participated in the ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 1.

ONE also marked the occasion with the release of The AIDS Report 2015

ONE activists at the NYSE Photo: Don VanCleave

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Home operated fish farm can make money!

I have always been a supporter of small scale aquaculture farms used by family farmers to grow their own fresh fish for personal consumption or for sale. Fish farming can provide additional income to suplement that of an existing agriculture farm or it can be established as a Hobby Type part time business.

Fish farms have been established using ponds or with tank systems constructed in existing builings, greenhouse, garage etc. Some have even been set up in basements. Heres a story about fish operations being successfully set up and ran in the Fort Wayne area to create income.

News Story Snips

""
JENNI GLENN
The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE -- Plenty of country homeowners are looking for ways to make extra cash from their extra acres.

One answer could be to turn a pond or a spare barn into an aquaculture operation. It can take less than $10,000 to start raising fish on a small scale, and the payoff from a side business can add up to $10,000 to $20,000 a year, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service educators say."""


""Aquaculture businesses can be a variety of sizes, which makes the field a good fit for part-time farmers, said Gonzalee Martin, agriculture and natural resources educator at the Purdue University Extension services Allen County office. Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in central Indiana spent less than $10,000 to set up an aquaculture operation that raises 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of fish a year, he said.""

Link To Full Story

If you are interested in learning more about Aquaculture I encourage you to check out the free information resources available in the right side bar

Aquaponics Farming is an excellent way to begin growing your own supply of fresh herbs, vegetables and fish year round. A basic simple system can be made at home and consists of a tank of fish connected to one or more growing beds. It can be constructed small enough to fit into a garage, spare room, or kitchen, one or more systems could fit into a shed or home greenhouse. Read more here.

Buy The Ultimate Guide To Home Aquaponics Online 

Related Posts and Pages

Aquaponics - Sustainable Farming
Hobby Farming - A Growing Trend
Profile Of Family Fish Farm
Water Recycling Aquaculture

This post was updated June 27 2012

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Trellis Review

Earlier in the summer, we wrote about a multitude of trellises we were trying; some were based on well-thought-out designs, others were the fastest thing we could put together with what we had on hand.  Now that its the end of the season, which designs performed well, and which crashed and burned?  Lets take a look.

The only ones that really worked well this year were the woven wire fence ones, which provided good support of the cucumbers and some of the beans, and were really quick and easy to set up.  The only drawback is that theyre a pain to clean off at the end of the year, since things wrap around the wires so well.  Cleaning these off should be the perfect justification for building a flame thrower, but Katie doesnt seem to be completely on board.

Our wooden bean trellis fell over in the wind, and although we could have maybe kept it upright by adding screws (rather than rely on friction) and pounding the legs down into the ground, the beans didnt climb the legs very well anyway (maybe because they had to keep being reset when it tipped over).  In any case, we probably wont do that one again.

Our other bean trellis, the UFO on a stick, did ok.  The beans didnt have trouble climbing the wires, but we just werent overly thrilled with it.  Katie didnt like it right from the start, so she wont miss this clever and functional (Jakes adjectives), but tacky and less-functional-than-Jake-implies (Katies words), work of art.

The two-tiered tomato lines didnt do well, mainly because our tomatoes were so stout and bushy this year that they never got tall enough to add cross-pieces like we planned.  But even if they had, well probably try to fashion some other design next year.

Similarly, the big tomato trellis was too tall for the stubby little romas.  But it would have done better with our Mr. Stripey tomato, which tendrilled out of control and encroached on the peppers and eggplants.  Well probably use this trellis again, but be more careful to only plant indeterminate varieties on it.  Well also position the plants on the outside next time.

Whats your favorite trellis design?

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Alternative Aquaculture Systems

Industry Overview

The Aquaculture industry blossomed rapidly, and became a significant supplier of food over the last couple of decades. Aqua Farming is now practiced worldwide, each year it increases in scope and significance. The aquaculture industry grew out of necessity, the chief reason being that the traditional practice of hunting and gathering of food by fishing became unsustainable in many areas of the world. Read More Here



Growth Trough Innovation

The need for change in seafood supply lead us to Aquaculture and now the need for changes in the way we farm fish has lead us to developing alternative methods to conduct aquaculture in a more sustainable manner. One of new technologies that are having a tremendous impact upon the way we farm fish is land based farming in enclosed tanks using water recycling systems. Read More Here

An innovative combination of fish and vegetable farming methods that is experiencing renewed interest and rapid growth around the world is Aquaponics. This farming method is essentially the rebirth of age old practices and is now used to farm vegetables, herbs and fish synergistically. It is an eco-friendly way to naturally produce quality food for home use or for sale. This scalable farming method is being embraced by many small home growers and even large operations that are using the process and methods as a means of producing sustainable fish and plant crops. Read More Here

Aquaculture Industry Size

Aquaculture, probably the fastest growing food-producing sector, now accounts for nearly 50 percent of the worlds food fish. The reason for this is very simple, aqua farming is the best and most sustainable method to meet the demand for fresh seafood products that our population creates. It is now a widely held view that the worldwide biomass of wild fish and shellfish (stocks) are continuing to be depleted at a rate that surprises even those scientists that made dire predictions a few short years ago. Read More Here.

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Commercial aquaponics

we specialize in the commercial integrated production of fish and plants, known as aquaponics.

We are dedicated to providing the best services and information about aquaponics around the world. Our Director, , is an Dutch scientist with a PhD in Applied Biology, with a thesis topic specialising in the optimisation of commercial aquaponics systems. he also has over 13 years of experience in the aquaponics industry; a length of association with aquaponics that only a very few can claim. Therefore, you can be sure that you are getting the very best advice on aquaponics.

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How to start an aquaponic system

Starting an aquaponic system

Introduction

This experiment is an introduction into the functions and management of a small aquaponic system. Like a home aquarium, an aquaponic system requires special attention in the first weeks, since the microbial community in the water and in the plant boxes need some time to get established.

Learning goals

• Know why an aquarium requires a filter.
• Know how to monitor the water quality by using simple aquarium test kits.
• Be able to explain what the measured factors indicate in terms of water quality, fish health and plant growth.
• Understand how to react in case of bad water quality in the aquarium.

Starting an aquaponic system

Background information

There are at least three species of living organisms in an aquaponic system. There are fish, plants and bacteria. In our small classroom system we will have about four goldfish in the aquarium, 60 plants in the plant beds and about 100000 billion of bacteria and other very small species in the gravel or LECA. Bacteria have been on this planet for 3 billion years while man exists for at most 3 million years, and our civilisation for just 10000 years. A human being couldnt survive a day without the help of bacteria and neither would the fish and plants in our classroom system.
The fish need oxygen to survive - in the same way as human beings, i.e. by breathing - but the fish take oxygen from the water and excrete ammonium and carbon dioxide over the gills. There is also ammonium in the excrements (faeces) from the fish. The ammonium in the water can become dangerous to the fish. The bacteria can transform ammonium into a substance (nitrate) which is harmless to the fish and at the same time an important plant nutrient. This process is called nitrification and it is necessary to supply the plants with nitrogen fertilizer.
So the first thing we need to do before we put any fish in the aquarium, is to start growing a lot of bacteria in the plant boxes, so that they can take care of the fish excrements i.e. the ammonium in the water.




Another important factor influencing the water quality is pH. It indicates whether the water is acidic, neutral or basic. The pH is measured on a scale of 1-14 with 7 being neutral. Is the pH lower than 7, the water is acidic, if it is higher, the water is basic. Depending on the fish species, the optimum pH varies. Goldfish tolerate variations in pH much more than other fish species, but to avoid stress, the pH should stay within the range of 6.5 - 8.

Time requirement

The starting phase should last at least for three weeks.

Material requirement

• 1 classroom aquaponic system
• 1 aquarium test kit for ammonium (NH₄⁺)
• 1 aquarium test kit for nitrite (NO₂^-)
• 1 aquarium test kit for nitrate (NO₃^-)
• 1 aquarium test kit for pH
• 1 bacteria starter package for aquarium filters
• 1 aquarium thermometer

Lets start

Start the biofilter - multiply the bacteria! Fill the system with water and start the air pump. It is important to keep the oxygen level high for the bacteria to thrive. The water pump is now circulating the water through the system. There are different ways to multiply the bacteria. For example you can add a starter package of bacteria, or you add a very small amount of ammonium to the system in order to feed the already present bacteria in the substrate. We suggest to add a fertilizer containing ammonium, to achieve an ammonia concentration of 10 mg/l. If using ammonium sulfate, you would add 4.7 g of the powder to 100 l of aquarium water.

Is the filter working? If there are enough bacteria in your filter to transform ammonium into nitrate, your filter is working. To find out, you need to measure ammonium, nitrite and nitrate. You can begin with measuring the ammonia concentration and monitor, how every day it is decreasing. After a week you can start measuring nitrite and nitrate, using the sticks from the pharmacist or the aquarium dealer. During the first days you can have some indication of nitrite but when the system is ready you should have no response of nitrite. It normally takes between three to six weeks to multiply the bacteria enough so they can digest the ammonium amount that will be caused by the application of fish food.

Control and regulate pH! To measure the pH in the water use the pH-sticks. If the value is between 6.5 and 8, there is no need to do anything. If it is above or below that value,change part of the water! If you feel experienced enough, instead of changing the water, you could add formic acid in case the pH is higher than 8. Add one part of the acid to 50 parts of water and use a drop of this solution every day until pH is right. If pH is too low, you can add a tea spoon of calcium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in a cup of water and use a drop of this until pH has the right level.

Temperature: Temperature is very critical because it influences other water quality variables. For example cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water. Fish are very sensitive to changes of temperature, smaller fish being more sensitive than larger ones. Goldfish belong to the group of coldwater fish and prefer temperatures between 18 -25 °C. They will tolerate any temperature from 4-30 ºC however, as long as the water still contains enough oxygen and low amounts of ammonia. Remember that the body temperature of fish is always the same as the water temperature. Therefore, in colder water fish will eat less or stop eating at all when the temperature drops below 9 °C (Mette, 2006). On the contrary, in warmer water fish will digest faster and get a lot more hungry. Be careful, though, not to give too much feed! More feed means that the fish need more oxygen, but in warmer water there is less oxygen. So these two factors are working against each other, and you have the balance in your hand.

See and feel

• Ammonia (tolerance value: < 0.8 mg/l) and Nitrite (should be 0 mg/l at all times, max. 0.2 mg/l) (measure each second day).
• Nitrate - its raising indicates that the filter process has been started (once per week). The nitrate value should be between 10-100 mg/l.
• pH should be between 6.5 and 8 (once per week).
• Water temperature should be between 18 - 25°C, depending on the fish species
• If the values of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH are out of range, stop feeding. In severe cases, change part of the aquarium water.

Didactical comments

In order to understand the process of nitrification, or what happens in the filter, some basic knowledge in chemistry is required. However it is possible to explain it in using metaphors: two little animals (bacteria) are responsible to transform the poison (ammonium) into a non toxic substance (nitrate), which at the same time will feed the plants. With the ammonia and nitrite test kit we indirectly measure the existence and quantity of these bacteria.

Aquaponics, ækw??p?n?ks, pisciponics http://aquaponics-commercial-backyard.blogspot.com.es/

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Garden Protection Plan

When we moved to our new place last August, we had just enough time to put in a small fall garden and get a few meals of kale from the 9 x 3 bed.  We also had enough time to raise a few meat chickens, and were planning on scaling up both endeavors considerably this spring.  Although it was a little painful through the fall to not have a full-size garden with tomatoes, chard, etc., it was nice that we had a chance to realize just how brazen and shameless the squirrels and raccoons in our neighborhood are.

So, now that were planning our garden for this coming summer, we know that were going to need a multi-pronged squirrel-deterrent system in order to bring our crops to harvest.  We also know, having studied squirrel behavior for many years, that simply testing their tiny rodent brains with increasingly complex challenges is unlikely to keep them out completely, but would definitely make gardening harder for us.  Instead, we need solutions that are more...permanent.  Heres what we came up with.

Our place is surrounded by dogs, so our primary line of defense (after the fences around the yard) will be a series of squirrel launchers that send the furry vegetable pirates into the neighbors yards.  Not that we want to make the squirrels our neighbors problem, but theyve all got dogs who will quite enjoy helping us out.  (And both permaculturalists and ninjas recognize the principle of working within ones surroundings.)  The second line of defense will be a squirrel pit trap.  What awaits the squirrels at the bottom of the pit trap is still a matter of debate.  A snapping turtle?  Punji sticks made from sharpened toothbrushes?  A tunnel that leads to Texas?  (Let us know your vote in the comments section.)  The last line of defense will be a marauding honey badger, discussed at length below.

Weve done a lot of thinking about it, and the more YouTube videos we watch, the more it seems like a (trained) honey badger would be an awesome livestock/produce protection plan.  They hunt both day and night, and have no fear of large predators.  They eat anything from grubs to snakes to raccoon-sized rodents.  They can even climb trees to get to the raccoons, which gives them a leg up on canine-type marauders.  They can be socialized and trained, which might even mean that after a few generations in domestication, they could be deterred from chickens and bees.  Theyre also excellent diggers, so they can help with soil preparation and root crop harvesting.

The only legitimate downside is that tame or trained honey badgers arent currently available to the general public.  Unfortunately, were also explicitly forbidden from owning a badger in our neighborhood.  But while the honey badger vernacular seems to consist mostly of hissing and snarling, if we could teach it to bark, we might be able to convince an animal control officer its a weird-looking dog.

In any case, we think there is a legitimate business opportunity here for anyone with experience in importing (or smuggling), breeding, and training exotic and dangerous wild animals, influencing policy decisions regarding what counts as a pet, and marketing progressive ideas to typically conservative crowds.  Let us know if you want to partner up on this venture! (We dont bring any of those skills to the table, though.)

Now that weve got our anti-squirrel system figured out, we just have to decide what to plant in the garden!  Thats a nice position to be in.


How do you protect your garden from mammalian intruders?  Do you have any ideas for improving our system?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Pollination in an Aquaponics system

One of the challenges of growing in an indoor aquaponics environment is that we don’t have nature’s pollinators available to us. But is this a big problem for most aquaponic gardeners? It depends entirely on what you are growing. The only time that you need to worry about pollination is when you are growing a plant to harvest its fruit (e.g. tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc.) or if you are saving seeds and you need the non-fruiting plants to produce seeds.

Aquaponics, ækw??p?n?ks, pisciponics

Let’s start with a brief lesson on plant physiology and how pollination happens. Plant flowers actually contain reproductive parts known as ‘essential organs’. The male organ is called the ‘stamen’ and it is comprised of the long, stem-like ‘filament’ that is capped off with the ‘anther’ that contains the pollen. The female organ is called the ‘pistil’. At the top is the pollen receptacle called the ‘stigma’, followed by a tube called the ‘style’ which terminates in the ‘ovary’ which contains the eggs. Pollination is the act of getting the pollen from the male stamen into the female stigma so it can travel down the style and fertilize the eggs in the ovary. Flower petals attract insects to the flower which in turn unwittingly transfer the pollen (I’ll bet you are now realizing that this amazing plant sexuality is where the phrase ‘the birds and the bees’ comes from!).
But not all plant flowers are ‘complete’, i.e. not all plant flowers contain both male and female organs. In fact, horticulturalists divide plants into four pollination categories based on the location of their essential organs.

1. Self-pollinating - Complete flowers that don’t need insects or wind to pollinate them. This group includes beans, peas and tomatoes. Vibrating or tapping the flowers of these plants will help with release the pollen and promote maximum fruit production.
2. Requires pollen from an unrelated plant. The only vegetables in this category are cabbages and radishes, and pollination is only required if you are growing the plant for seed.
3. Cross-pollination group. These make up the largest group and each plant has both male and female flowers. This group can be broken into two subgroups.
   1. Windblown pollen – Vegetables in this subgroup are sweet corn, beets, carrots and onions. Of these, only corn needs to be pollinated for food crop production as the corn kernels are actually seeds.
   2. Pollinated by insects – Some of these vegetables are self-pollinating, but the fruit set will be greater if insects visit the flower. Fruits and vegetables in this group include broccoli, collards, cauliflower, cucurbits (cucumber, cantaloupe, pumpkins and watermelon), okra, peppers and squash.
4. Male and Female plants. The best examples are asparagus, spinach and some hybrid cucumbers. Again, pollination is only required if you are growing the plant for seed.

The bottom line is that unless you are growing plants to save their seeds, the only time that you will need to become actively involved in the transfer of pollen from the male organ to the female organ is with the Cross-Pollination group that is pollinated by insects (Group 3.2). And in this group the only fruits and vegetables that you can practically hand pollinate are the cucurbits (cucumber, cantaloupe, pumpkins and watermelon) because they have large flowers. How do you do this? Early in the day, while there is a lot of pollen on the flowers, follow these steps:

Aquaponics, ækw??p?n?ks, pisciponics

1. Identify the male and female flowers. The female flowers have the stigma, which receives pollen, and the male ends have a stamen containing pollen. The pollen can be any color, including a light yellow, dark yellow or white.
2. Touch the stamen of the male flower to make sure it is ready for pollination. If your finger has pollen on it, the stamen is ready.
3. Touch the tip of the stamen, or the anthers, with a cotton swab, artist’s brush or your finger. Pollen should adhere to the swab. You can also remove the flower from the plant and fold the petals back, exposing the stamen.
4. Transfer the pollen to the female flower’s sticky stigma.
5. Repeat the process until you have pollinated as many of the flowers and plants as you desire.

Aquaponics, ækw??p?n?ks, pisciponics http://aquaponics-commercial-backyard.blogspot.com.es/

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Strata de Mayo

Well, it happened again.  We accidentally blinked, and another three weeks flew by.  Fortunately, we remembered just in time to post a strata recipe for May (or maybe we didnt depending on where Blogger thinks we are).  And no, we totally didnt plan to post this closer to Cinco de Mayo, when it would have made way more sense.  But here it is, fashionably late: a strata to celebrate the Mexican armys victory over invading French forces on May 5, 1862 in the Battle of Puebla.

We started by browning up a pound of ground venison in our best cast iron skillet.

We seasoned it with our favorite Mexican seasonings: about a teaspoon each of pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and rosemary, two teaspoons of onion powder and cumin, and half a teaspoon of salt and cayenne pepper. (Ok, maybe paprika isnt Mexican, but it adds some nice red color).  Not pictured: a teaspoon of hot sauce and half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

Then we made the layers in a 13" x 9" pan as usual, with bread at the bottom, then cheese, meat, and chopped onions.  The cheese we had was Monterrey jack, but any cheese will do, as long as its not French.  (Or at least, if it is French, you have to think of it as defeating the French by eating their cheese.)

Lather, rinse, repeat, ending with cheese on top.

This is the egg soak: six eggs, three cups milk, a tablespoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin, and half a tablespoon each of black and red pepper.

We poured it over the layers, covered the pan, and set it in the fridge to marinate for several hours.  It works best when soaking next to a couple jars of dandelion jelly.

Later that day, or the next morning, it goes in the oven at 375 °F for 45-55 min, or until it looks like this.  We were going to add some butter-soaked tortilla chips on top, but we kind of forgot.  (For traditional strata, there would be butter-soaked corn flakes, but corn flakes are not usually considered a traditional Mexican dish.)

It goes well with Katies salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.  Mmmmmm.  Its like a piñata for your tongue! Olé!

How did you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?  Have you made a Mexican-themed strata before?  Tell us about it in the comments section below!

The recipe:
10 slices of bread (at least)
1 lb shredded cheese

1 lb ground venison, browned and seasoned to taste with black pepper, red pepper, red pepper flakes, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, hot sauce, and rosemary

1 onion, chopped
6 eggs
3 cups milk
1 Tablespoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin,
0.5 Tablespoon each of black and red pepper

Layer the bread, ground meat, onions, and cheese in a 9" x 13" pan, starting with bread and ending with cheese. Beat together eggs, milk, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, and red pepper. Pour over layers and set in fridge for several hours or overnight. Bake at 375 °F for 45-55 min, until golden brown and delicious-smelling. Serve with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. Green chili sauce and enchilada sauce are also acceptable.

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Waste to green or ruin

Over 3000 years ago peoples in Asia began to practice poly culture, a process development in which they successfully learned how to recycle agriculture wastes to improve the yield obtained by farming a secondary source of protein( yet eventually equally or more important than the initial crop), that protein source was fish.

Now let us go further back in an effort to explore the role of fish as a part of the diet:

Fish and shellfish have been part of the European’s diet for as long as man has been present on the continent. Indeed, 500 thousand years ago, Homo erectus would have caught salmon (probably by hand) and eaten it raw, perhaps accompanied by a few berries and nuts. Today, salmon carpaccio bears a distinct resemblance to such paleolithic gastronomy (first age of prehistory, till 10 000 BC) .

Mesolithic man (between 10 000 and 5 000 BC) appreciated oysters and mussels while fish would have long been established as a highly desirable food. As farming activities developed, man also became able to master the rearing of animals and the same concepts were applied to fish. Reference link: http://www.feap.info/home/FAQ/Answers/ans1_en.asp

The first Publication of "Fish Husbandry", written by Fan Li, was made around 500 BC and it documented a farming process that was in practice (and still in practice) many years before our well accepted and present day world beliefs and preceptions.

Poly culture back then, simply involved using organic waste to naturally produce feed to fertilize plants that the fish ate and converted into a high protein source (Fish) for humans to consume. The Fish waste also became another source of organic food to nourish other plants and vegetables, thus increasing the yield and variety of edible food obtained.

These farming practices were very `green` back when they were invented and practiced. Considering that the inputs and outputs balanced each other without diminishing other resources or relying on such things as inorganic ingredients, the process is very simple and sustainable.

Today, such a process of farming is pretty much considered in the same light as one eyed aliens visiting the earth. There is no big company that is mass producing by using the farming principal, thus it is insignificant and perhaps a topic of dis-flavour in the circles of corporate agriculture .

Perhaps if more people grew fish and fresh vegetables on their own with little or no cost, it could be a real part of being green.

For the most part such practices are in Ruin today.

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500 liters Aquaponis setup Early days

After removing the NFT system i deceided to set up my next big, or rather my first big Aquaponics setup. A 500 liters fish tank with a 300 liters grow bed. The grow bed was filled with 20 mm gravel.

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Have Chicken Will Travel

We got back the other day from a wonderful trip home to Wisconsin to visit family and friends.  We usually make the sixteen-hour drive to and from Denver in one shot, alternating shifts and driving through the night.  Preparations for being away typically entail making snacks to keep us awake, packing clothes, gifts, and other food, and finding someone to check in on our chickens.

Fortunately for our chicken-checking volunteers, the chickens are generally well behaved.  But what happens when, a week before the trip, one of the chickens gets injured and needs extra care?  Talk about a wrench in the plans!

We were going to cull her, but the injuries didnt seem to involve any vital systems, the only serious symptom being that she couldnt walk very well.  We kept her in a 10-gallon tote in the laundry room for the week leading up to the trip, and she seemed like she was intent on eventually making a full recovery.  Plus, we had just spent six-plus months rearing her into egg-laying shape and culling would have meant a lost investment on that end.

So, we decided to take her with us.

Thoughts of driving through a feather-filled ruckus from a panic-stricken bird, of inconveniencing anyone we visited, and the possibility of an overly-interesting traffic stop aside, we decided it would be a shame to cull her, and hard to ask our chicken-care volunteers in Denver to take on this extra burden.  Plus, what if she took a turn for the worse or had other unexpected problems?  At least if she was with us, wed be the only dumbfounded ones.

Chicken setup in tote in laundry room.  Feed and water containers supported on wire hooks over edge of tote.  Water (yogurt) container has poultry nipple on bottom.  She hasnt even tried to escape, except on the second day in the tote when she somehow got out to lay an egg on the kitchen floor, but couldnt get back in.

We made room for the tote in the already-jam-packed car, packed a little extra food, and hit the dusty trail.  1000 miles and four states later, she was still happily doing chicken stuff and seeming ever-so-slightly more healed.  Since we drove most of the way through the night, she just slept, only making some annoyed chicken sounds because of the bright lights when we stopped for gas. She generally just hung out in the back seat, better-behaved than any human under the age of ten (and most humans older than that).

The tote fit nicely behind the drivers seat, and the cooler fit sideways such that the passenger seat still reclined.  That was critical for through-the-night driving!

In the time we were home, she stayed in a dog kennel in a heated garage (sans dog, of course), got to free range--or rather, free-hop on her one good leg--on some choice Wisconsin pasture (a rarity for this time of year!), eat some aquaponic lettuce, see four different relatives houses, and entertain a cadre of young cousins.  And through it all, she was the definition of stoic.

The lesson?  If your chicken is more chill than Cub Foods-brand soda, dont be afraid to travel with it!  It was easier than traveling with a dog, and chickens dont shed.

Heres hoping she continues to recover and starts laying eggs again sometime in 2015!

Have you ever had to travel with chickens?  Do you have any funny stories or helpful tips?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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What Equipment You Need for an Aquaponics System

 What Equipment You Need for an Aquaponics System

An aquaponics system is a symbiotic marriage of plants and aquatic animals cultivated in a recirculating environment. There are various types of aquaponic systems used for growing vegetables or plants. Knowing how big you want your aquaponic system to be before you purchase it will allow you to set a budget. Read on to learn a little about the basic equipment needed for aquaponics systems.

Fish Tanks and Stand Pipes and Tanks Stands

Aquaponics is a blend of aquatic animals living in an environment where they provide the nutrients for the plants or vegetables growing in the same water in which they live. To begin creating your aquaponics system, you will need to decide which fish and other fauna you would like to house and how many you need. They will need a tank to live in and the tank requires stand pipes. You will also need to position your tank on a steady area or stand.

Clarifiers

You will need clarifiers for your aquaponics system. These are highly recommended as the best way to remove solids from the culture water. They also assist with the de-nitrification process and remove ammonia and nitrates. They are responsible for removing almost all of the water in the recirculation system and they can be used many times over with just marginal replacement needed from flushing the system to remove any solids that get trapped.

Bio-filters

Keeping the water clean and balanced in your aquaponics system is essential to keep it running efficiently. Bio-filters are a great way of controlling water pollution by biologically degrading and processing pollutants. There are horizontal bio-filters and upright bio-filter tanks available as well as a range of other types.

Oxygen Systems

Because you are keeping fish in your aquaponics systems, you will need an excellent oxygen distribution system. This is one of the must-have features as this is highly intrinsic to the health and growth of the fish. It will distribute oxygen to an optimum level suitable for the fish you have in your system.

Pumps

You will need a pump (or multiple pumps, depending on your system set-up) and the pumps serve a very important purpose. They will pump the water around the system, allowing it to be cleaned as it goes through the bio-filter and will return the fresher, cleaner water to the tank for best results.

Sundries

There are other smaller items needed to get your new aquaponics system up, running and performing as you need it to. Pipes and tubes and other accessories will be required and the best place to find them is in a kit found at a specialist store on website. Learn as much as you can about how aquaponics work before you commit to buying a complete system.

Plants and Fish

You will want your aquaponics system to function well for both your plants and the aquatic creatures you want to live and grow in your system. Choose the right fish that support the plant environment for the best results.

Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/what-equipment-you-need-for-an-aquaponics-system#.UgubGqxNX0c#ixzz2bxKAE4jn

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Circus Performance to Benefit Five Albuquerque Organizations

Photo from Albuquerque Aerialist Collective website

What do the circus and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity have in common?  The answer is this is the week when a fundraiser called Circo for the Community will take place at St. Johns United Methodist Church, 2626 Arizona St. NE (map), on Saturday, January 23, 6:00-8:30 p.m. 

The next questions that comes to mind is, "circus, really?" and "how do you fit a circus into a church space?

There is a simple answer. The event is not a full circus, but a series of trapeze and other aerial acts performed by the local non-profit group, Albuquerque Aerialist Collective. The performance will benefit the New Mexico Conference of Churches,  La Mesa Arts Academy, New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, and the New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice, and of course, also the Albuquerque Aerialist Collective.

Purchase Tickets
Tickets are $40 and can be purchased on the NMCC site or at the door (you can write a check for any of these organizations). The cost of the ticket includes dinner and a reception. Each of the organizations will make a presentation. This is a great way to observe not only the Week of Christian Unity in Albuquerque, but also interfaith unity and collaboration between religious and secular organizations. 

Flier courtesy of All Type Printing

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Homestead Happiness April Week 4

Plenty of bee-related news has us kind of giddy this week.

Our new bee package arrived on Saturday.  The local distributor sold more than 1,500 packages, which meant it was a total zoo for picking them up, and that our bees will have some competition for the neighborhood flowers.  Still, its nice to see such an interest in beekeeping, and theyll definitely have first dibs on the dandelions in our yard!

The new bees are already taking full advantage of the pollen in our dandy-filled yard.  Keep up the good work, ladies!

As a side note, in preparing the hive for the new package, we ended up finding the old queen.  Turns out she didnt die in the great yellow jacket war of 2014, and we can rule out that they absconded last fall.  That leaves either CCD, or too heavy of losses from the yellow jackets to make it through the winter.  Should we start a portrait collection of our queens for future colonies to look back on and remember their storied history?  This was Elizabeth I.  Right now we have Elizabeth II.

The bees came just in time, too, because our strawberries are starting to bloom!  Weve got the squirrel cage set...now if we can just get all the mice trapped out of the adjacent shed before the berries ripen, we might actually get some to eat this year!  Also, to the fruit trees waiting to flower: ready, go!

We also realized that swarm season and hunting season are complementary.  So, if we put a ladder stand in one of our trees now as a support for a swarm trap, we can turn it back into a hunting stand later when we either catch a swarm, or when swarm season is over in July.  Either way, it will be ready in time for deer season! (Although we probably wont be able to hunt deer from the stand in its current location.)

What made your homestead happy this week?

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Videos from Interfaith Vigil in Old Town Albuquerque

A couple of days ago we posted a few images and quotes from the program at the Interfaith Vigil in Old Town in Albuquerque on the eve of Pope Francis Address to Congress on Sept. 24. Here are a couple of videos from the same event



Sister Joan Brown welcomes participants and urges us to reach out to one another in the spirit of Pope Francis


Donna Detweiler and Rev. Anita Amstutz led participants in the Interfaith Vigil in Old Town Albuquerque on Sept. 23, 2015, in "This is My Song of Peace" by Jan Sibelius

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Pictures of my first Aquaponics growbed

Here are a few pics of how the 70 liter Aquaponic system looked a few months after it was setup.
I had to also build a cage around it to keep it from being destroyed by monkeys. Yes we have some monkey trouble here once in a while.

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April May Linkage

We didnt get the April linkage post out in a timely fashion, so here is a special two-month edition of the links we love. (Arent you lucky?)

Hope you love them, too!


Steam distiller for essential oils
Dans Workshop blog
Wheat Hay for Goats
What to do with not-so-good tomatoes
Root Simple Hot Sauce
Grafting plums and pears
Propagating a shiitake mushroom log for free
How to grow morel mushrooms (forgot to include this one originally!)
Annas most reliable fruit plants
Hive splitting, Taranov style
Solitary bees in a 400-year-old cob wall
Cleaning wax- and propolis-covered wire ware, such as queen excluders
Effects of neonicotinoids on bees
Autumn Joy Sedum: good bee food
Mason bee nesting experiment

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Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces Summarizes Pope Francis Visit to the U S

In a piece published in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Blog "To Go Forth," Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces summarized Pope Francis visit to the United States on Sept. 24-27. Bishop Cantú wrote the piece in his capacity as chair of the USCCBs Committee on International Justice and Peace. 

Here are  the themes that Bishop Cantú summarized in his post:

Poverty 
(To the U.S. Congress) “How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty!”...“Now is the time for…combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

(To the U.N. General Assembly)“To enable … real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny.”....Developing nations should not be “subjected to oppressive lending systems which … generate greater poverty, exclusion, and dependence.”

Immigration
(To the U.S. Congress): We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners.”...“Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War.”...Immigrants “travel north in search of a better life…for their loved ones. Is this not what we want for our own children?”

The Environment
(To the U.S. Congress):“I call for a courageous and responsible effort to ‘redirect our steps’, and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity."...“I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play.”

(To the U.N. General Assembly): "A right of the environment’ does exist … because we human beings are part of the environment.”...“Any harm done to the environment … is harm done to humanity.”...“The poorest are those who suffer most … and suffer unjustly from the abuse of the environment.”...“The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species.”...“I am … confident that the Paris Conference on climatic change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.”

Peace
(To the U.S. Congress):“Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering…? [S]imply for money: money that is drenched in blood….”“[I]t is our duty … to stop the arms trade.”

 (To the U.N. General Assembly):“There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons….”He affirmed the P5+1 Agreement with Iran as “proof of the potential of political good will and of law, exercised with sincerity….”[S]top and … prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities’ and … protect innocent peoples.”...End “social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation…, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism, and international organized crime.”...

In Summary
"In his speech to Congress, Pope Francis lifted up the Golden Rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12)," said Bishop Cantú. "He noted that “[t]his Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. … In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. … The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.: In many ways, the Golden Rule sums up his approach to foreign policy and global concerns. “Do unto others.…”

Here are the texts of  Pope Francis full speeches to Congress and the U.N. General Assembly

The USCCB site has links to several other speeches or homilies by Pope Francis in the U.S., including the one at Curran-Fromhold Penitentiary in Philadelphia. "I am here as a pastor, but above all as a brother, to share your situation and to make it my own. I have come so that we can pray together and offer our God everything that causes us pain, but also everything that gives us hope, so that we can receive from him the power of the resurrection," the pontiff told the audience at the Philadelphia penitentiary.

Here is a video of his interaction with prisoners at the facility. 

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Water Wheel Prototype

19th century water power is alive and kicking!....er, spinning! My water powered biowheel* prototype is complete. Pumped water powers this overshot-style wheel (I'm not quite ready for the Pelton wheel yet), which turns two attached drums. The drums are wrapped with multiple layers of fiberglass screen to provide surface area for nitrifying bacteria to colonize. As the wheel rotates, the bacteria will get a consistent does of moisture and oxygen, which will hopefully lead to vigourous growth and biological filtration (converting fish waste to plant food). You can see a video of the wheel in action below.

Now my wheel will go into test mode: I will fill the tank with fresh water and see if the wheel can provide enough biological filtration to effectively start up or cycle the tank.**

Friction was literally the biggest obstacle to getting the wheel moving. Specifically the wheel had to be able to overcome the resistance the tank water would put against the paddles. To combat this, I angled the paddles so they retain more water as they spin down and then release water as they start to spin upwards. Additionally, I just barely
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Homestead Happiness April Week 1

Overwintered crops, physical acquisition of seeds, workable soil, and gypsy ducks made us happy this week.

The chard and garlic under the row cover are really taking off.

Compared to the stuff planted the same week last fall outside the row cover, this garlic is at least an order of magnitude larger.  Plus, the chickens may have eaten the unprotected garlic.

Ducks in the front yard?  We only saw them one day though, so they must be transients.  Maybe we should build a second nest box in case any others stop by.

The fruit trees and dandelions are starting to bloom.  That led us to stand in the yard yelling at the trees to slow down, because our bees arent coming for another two weeks.  That, in turn, led the neighbors to wonder if we had finally gone over the edge.  But our fruit trees seem to be lagging the neighbors, so maybe it worked!

Fresh chives for breakfast!

We were able to start turning over some new garden beds, which was good since were already behind schedule on starting seeds and direct sowing things like onions.  Our hope was that taking off the sod with a mattock and piling it on the bed would inspire the chickens to scratch through the clumps, in the process knocking off the topsoil.  Unfortunately, they seemed mostly uninterested in it...until we took off the sod ourselves and covered it in compost.

Seeds arrived! Time to get our plant on.

 What made you happy this week?

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