The day started out promisingly, as I managed to get there both without getting lost or being late, two areas in which I epically failed last year. Then, when I tracked down one of the event organizers to find out the location of the general information table so that we could put out our Ecolocity DC handouts, she informed me that they had an extra space! So full of win; I almost squealed. In fact, the organizer seemed a bit taken aback by my enthusiastic gratefulness.

Once I had displayed our Ecolocity DC materials, it was time for the main event. First up was Brendan Shane, the sustainability coordinator for the DC city government’s Department for the Environment. He was nice enough and the work they’re doing with the community to envision a more sustainable future is great, but it seemed like a long commercial for DC government policy. He certainly lacked Gordon Clark’s revolutionary spirit from last year, which made me want to go seed bomb fancy manicured lawns with carrots.

Moving right along, I squashed myself into a barely standing-room-only room to hear the presentation “An Edible Forest in Your Backyard,” a subject of great interest to me. I’m a big fan and somewhat practitioner of permaculture, a form of agriculture that follows ecological principles to maximize food production as well as ecosystem services. While there are some permaculture techniques – like lasagna gardening – that apply to traditional vegetable patches, forest gardens take these principles to the max. Rather than needing to plant a new garden each year, which can involve significant economic and time resources, forest gardens are planted once and then produce food every year with little input. They layer a number of types of food-producing plants, such as fruit trees, nut trees, fruit bushes, medicinal herbs, and mushrooms, in ways that play off of their natural niches. Although some of the plants require 5 to 10 years to reach full food production, others (like mushrooms) can be available in the first year or two. Because of the long-term sustainability potential, Ecolocity DC is actually carrying out a few food forest projects across DC, with a focus on underserved areas. (If you’re in the DC metro area, you can help support these projects by signing up for wind power with Clean Currents and mentioning us!) Although our tardiness on contacting the Rooting DC organizers meant that our group failed to snag a workshop spot, both Steve and I were eager to hear what the actual presenters had to say.

As it turns out, they did a great job explaining the concepts. From talking about the surprisingly high potential for acorn flour to beautifully illustrating the principles of diversity and resilience through examples, both presenters got the crowd excited about carrying the principles out in their own areas. Much to Chris’s confused frustration, I know I came home yammering on about how we should plant blueberry bushes, paw-paw trees, and mulberry bushes in our yard this spring. In terms of the presentation itself, Lincoln Smith from Forested Creative Ecology has a lot of the photos and diagrams on his company’s website. From the community development point of view, I especially liked how Spencer Ellsworth from Beet Street Gardens, which builds food forests in some of the toughest neighborhoods in DC, talked about how his group is working to collect neighborhood input before moving forward on any project.

The other very exciting workshop was the session on “Who said it’s too cold to grow food? A session on four season farming” by Christian Melendez from ECO City Farms. I tried to attend his session last year, but ended up in a weird back corner where I couldn’t see or hear anything. This year, I was right up front and center! It was a great complement to the previous presentation because while food forests can provide an immense amount of food in the summer, local food needs to be available all year round. Tools such as hoophouses, which are unheated greenhouses made from thick plastic rather than glass, allow sustainable farms to grow food all year round with very little extra energy. Even though most gardeners can’t build their own hoophouses, they can construct low tunnels and cold frames to achieve some of the results. (One of my co-workers with a very engineering-heavy approach to gardening actually harvested spinach in the middle of Snowmagedden!) Using his farm’s success, Christian walked through the four elements that all gardeners interested in winter gardening need to deal with: appropriate crops/varieties, succession, protection, and light. For me, the most useful tip was using old bicycle tubes to weatherize a hand-build cold frame. As I’m planning to build a cold frame to harden off my seedlings and I have a couple of busted bike tubes in the garage, it’s a great reuse. In terms of the most impressive example, Christian described how the farm built a seed germination station “outside” in the middle of the winter. In their hoophouse, in which temperatures drop below freezing, they organized a bunch of hay bales into a square. They then shoveled wheelbarrows-full of compostable matter from Compost Cab between the hay bales. After covering the compost with burlap sacks and coconut fiber, they set up window panes on top of it to create a giant cold frame. Between the heat created by the compost and the sun shining through the window, the temperatures can get above 90 degrees in the soil while there’s snow outside! As a result, they’re able to germinate seedlings, even peppers, which I’m afraid won’t germinate in my heated house because the temperature isn’t high enough.

Master gardeners helpfully offering advice.

Other successes from the day included signing up lot of people to plant food forests, listening to my college classmate Bradley present on canning food, and scrambling to find the best seeds at the seed giveaway. I scored a pack of heritage sunflower seeds!

Gardeners who are extremely excited by the prospect of free seeds. Just look at us rioting!

Overall, a great day that provided me with a lot of quality information. And perhaps most importantly, yet another way to build community with my fellow gardeners.

First, I’m actually starting them at the right time (mostly). Although I owned the Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardeners’ Handbook last year, I completely ignored it. Seriously. It was amazing how much I managed to totally forget it existed despite the fact that it seemed quite useful. Figuring that following its advice might be a good idea, I actually consulted it two weeks ago and found out that I was already a little behind the calendar so I got started right away. However, it’s still three weeks earlier than last year!

Chris planting pepper seeds in our basement.

Second, I’m keeping it simple. Last year, when I used the “Simple, Drop-Dead Easy” seed starting kit, it stayed far too moist and developed mold. Serves me right for buying something from the store that I could do myself. This year, I stuck to my cheap plastic troughs in the shed that worked fine last year. To prepare them, I repeated my process from last year as well – soap and water followed by a 10-1 bleach ratio. I then filled them with specialty seed starting mix, which is both far more sterile and able to hold water than traditional potting soil. We planted the seeds, watered them until they were suitably moist, and then covered them with old-fashioned plastic wrap, securing them with packing tape. Excepting a new bag of seed starting mix, it was all completely free.

Third, I’m being more strategic about what I’m starting. I tried to start sunflowers and butternut squash from seed last year, both of which do very poorly in containers. Instead, I’m focusing on the plants that must be started from seed, like peppers and tomatoes. In addition, I worked to separate out plants that germinate at different times and places. This week, I planted shallots, eggplant, and two types of peppers, which all require fairly high temperatures and low light to germinate. They also grow fairly slowly. (In doing so, we learned that shallot seeds look like little gems! How appropriate for such delicious vegetables.)

Don't they look like they should be on a necklace?

In contrast, we decided not to start the seeds for broccoli because they require cool temperatures and intense light to germinate. They pretty much require setting up grow lights in the basement, which I haven’t been willing to invest in. Similarly, we’re waiting to plant the tomatoes, as they grow quickly and get planted much later than eggplant and peppers.

So now our seed containers are sitting on top of our heating vent in our spare room, sucking up our heat and not doing anything particularly visible. I hope that with a little more strategy, even though we lack any specialty equipment, our little seedlings will be stronger and more successful than last year.

Although it seems absurd that just one law can have such a big influence over sustainable transportation in the country, it truly has such sway. Part of the reason is because many local programs are partly or mostly funded through federal dollars. Programs like Safe Routes to School leverage the power of the federal government at the local level by giving funding, technical assistance, and other information resources to local governments. The local governments can then use these unique resources to create programs to meet their specific communities’ needs. It’s truly a win-win situation. Similarly, many of the federal laws strongly influence local and state construction projects. For example, the current transportation bill requires states ensure methods of safe passage for pedestrians and cyclists when they work on a bridge that already has accommodations for pedestrians and cyclists. After all, if a bridge already has those accommodations, people are likely reliant on them and can’t just radically change their route because of construction. Federal laws like these are especially important because many roads suffer from a typical mish-mash of state, county, and local authorities with jurisdictions over them that can change from block to block. In my town alone, the major bicycle beltway “belongs” to both the city and county, which have very different priorities from one another. Having overarching federal laws ensures some amount of consistency.

Unfortunately, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act strips out all of those provisions. Safe Routes to School, gone. Many of the safety regulations protecting cyclists, gone. The League of American Bicyclists has a great summary of it, but I’ll mention the issues I find the most egregious.

First, the idea that transit funds cannot be used for anything bicycle-related is terrible. (This is on top of the bill not allowing highway trust fund money to be used on transit, but I digress.) Building bicycle lanes, installing bicycle racks at stations, and placing bicycle racks on buses are all ways to build a vibrant, sustainable transportation infrastructure. Transit agencies don’t want people to drive to rail and major bus stations because then they have to build expensive parking facilities. Metro in DC has explicitly said that they want to increase bike and foot traffic to stations for precisely those reasons. And this bill will keep them from doing that, making it so they have to spend more money on parking and less on keeping our rails safe.

Second, the bill will make a mockery of the “air quality” part of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program run out of the Department of Transportation, even if the name doesn’t change. Under this bill, any project that someone could judge as potentially reducing traffic congestion, regardless of its effects on air pollution, would qualify. As a result, these essential funds that are often used for bicycling and public transit would probably go to building more highways instead. Which as anyone in the professional transportation world knows, but politicians don’t seem to care, actually increases rather than decreases traffic. In fact, destroying highways can actually lead to less congestion. (Perhaps we should suggest using the funds to get out the wrecking balls?) To change this program in this manner and even think of keeping “air quality” in the name is reaching new heights of hypocrisy.

Lastly, the Transportation Enhancements section is completely gone. This small section of the transportation bill – generally less than 1 percent of all transportation spending – is what politicians always point at when they complain that transportation spending is being used inappropriately on bike paths. Of course, the Republicans are quite proud of the fact that they are stripping out this section – on their press release about the bill, they trumpet that it “Eliminate mandates that states spend highway funding on non-highway activities.” However, despite their pride at this fact, the Transportation Enhancements section is critical to building a resilient transportation infrastructure that keeps people healthy and our economy strong against oil price shocks. The funding it provides to sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways benefits everyone by reducing the number of cars on the road, reducing pollution, and providing affordable means of transport to people of all income levels. It’s just good public policy. And this bill is very much not good policy.

So what can you do? It seems like right now, if you’re an American, the best option is to encourage your Senate representative to add an amendment to strengthen the bicycle and pedestrian sections in the Senate bill and encourage your House representative to oppose the House Bill completely. If you’re in certain districts of the House, you can also encourage them to pass the Petri amendment for the Transportation Improvement Program, which would restore many of the projects described above.

And if you’re not American? Please just keep working towards bicycle and pedestrian-friendly cities wherever you are – we’re all in this together.

One of my town's awesome bike bridges. This could potentially be closed in the case of construction on the accompanying road under the House bill.

I was reminded of this tendency when a fellow bike advisory committee member said that biking helps build community in ways that driving can’t. After all, who says hello to their neighbor when they’re driving down the street? It’s so unnatural to lean out the window and requires yelling that it comes off as harassment. On the other hand, I always say hello to people I pass when walking to the Metro. Even though I’ve never formerly introduced myself, I have these minor relationships with people in my neighborhood that binds me to my neighbors in a way that driving places wouldn’t.

This community-building occurs with bicycling and walking because they’re not just human-powered, but human-scaled. They expose you to the world, forcing you to notice and interact with it. In contrast, cars not only separate you from the elements but other people. People think they can get away with rude behavior in a car, whether it’s cutting people off or fussing grossly with bodily functions. In contrast, people on the street can choose to be rude, but know people will be staring at them if they are!

Along with building personal relationships, getting around town these ways also helps you notice more details about your neighborhood. On my bike, I’ve noticed businesses and community institutions that I never would have otherwise. Similarly, when I walk through commercial areas, I stop at far more stores than I ever would if I drove there. This isn’t always great for my budget, but it’s good for the local economy, as opposed to big box or mall stores you must drive to. I also take greater notice of the natural environment when cycling, at least in part because I’m just going so much slower. Even when I’m in a rush, I’m much more likely to notice the trees arching over the path, the flowers in front of houses, the stream running under the bridges on a bike than in a car. I deeply believe that noticing the beauty of nature can build environmental values, so I support anything that helps people slow down and notice it.

Flowers on McArthur Boulvard

Lastly, bicycling can help bring people together to strengthen existing communities and form new ones. Bike paths provide safe spaces for families to spend time outdoors together. I know I formed many fond childhood memories while riding with my parents along a local rail-trail. Community rides offer the chance for new riders to spend time with and learn from experienced ones. Neighborhood or city-sponsored rides can help people learn history about their town that they may have never known otherwise. My hometown, which was generally a very boring, white-bred suburb, did a great historical bike ride every year that helped tie me my life a little more to the past.

Psychogeography is a rather intense area of social science that explores how the landscape affects people and how we can manipulate it to change those effects. Even though this is an obscure area that few people have heard of and even fewer fully grasp (including myself!), I think that regular cyclists and pedestrians have a better inherent understanding of this interaction than drivers do. They notice all parts of their surroundings more readily, including the people, architecture, and natural environment. They can also more readily choose to interact with these elements, building relationships with neighbors, appreciating unique historical buildings, and cherishing natural beauty. It’s when we truly listen to these aspects of our surroundings and interact back that we begin to build community.

The image of what it means to be a commuter bicyclist varies widely by geography and culture. In the D.C. metro area, you have three types of commuter cyclists – racers, “bike culture” folks, and folks who aren’t necessarily “into” cycling but think it’s convenient/cheap.

The racers often wear spandex, use high-end gear, bike down major roadways, and use their commute to rack up mileage. Most people who see them think of them first and foremost as athletes, even if they’re headed to work. Anyone who grimaces whenever someone has shouted, “Hey, Lance Armstrong!” hates the cultural image of this group, even when they’re a part of it. Similarly, the character of Jeff the Cyclist in Pearls before Swine is the ultimate summary of this unfortunate stereotype.

Then there’s the “bike culture” folks, who span a wide array. These are people who are either active bicycle advocates or think cycling to get everywhere in and of itself is fantastic (not just for cost/convenience). In the suburbs, they may wear spandex, especially because long commutes are much more comfortable with bike shorts. In the city, they generally wear street clothes or bike clothes that just look normal. They may also wear fancy street clothes, like the fellow at the Victorian-ish Seersucker Ride who told me he always dressed that way. These are the folks you see most often with cargo bikes, as they value comfort and practicality in their gear far more than speed. When riding recreationally, they may be more interested in where they are stopping for lunch than how fast they are going. They enjoy going on slow, meandering recreational rides for the sense of community. (Can you tell this category includes me?) An increasing number of stores like Bicycle Space are catering to this group specifically, rather than to racers. If a person in this group is outspoken about his or her love of bicycles, he or she may be labeled a hippie, treehugger, gentrifier, or maybe even a “myopic little twit.”

Then there’s the commuters that ride bikes the same way they ride the bus or walk somewhere. They aren’t particularly fond of it as a mode of transit, but it’s easy and cheap. Some of the people in this category are young professionals who live near their work, while others are low-income folks who find the bus system too restrictive and Metro too expensive. Capital Bikeshare appeals the most to this group, as it maximizes convenience and ease. Although people in the second group might use CaBi occasionally, they’re likely to own their own bikes, and racers would almost never ride on something that heavy. In fact, the bikeshare deployment in my area is specifically targeted at low-income folks in the hopes that subsidizing it will increase their transportation options. Because D.C. has only recently starting shifting towards cycling as a major option, some drivers will lump this entire category into either the first or second group because they can’t imagine a “normal person” cycling somewhere. As a result, even casual commuter bicyclists run the risk of being harassed just because of their mode of transportation. On the other hand, just a change of clothes can move someone’s appearance to others from the first or second group into this one. One of my fellow advocates in my community bicycle advisory group said that he tends to be treated very differently by drivers whether he is wearing spandex or semi-street clothes with a reflective vest.

Of course, elsewhere in the country and the world is a far different story. I suspect that in more bicycle-friendly cities like Minneapolis, and even moreso in bicycle-friendly countries like the Netherlands, bicycling is far less of an identity marker in general. People would find no reason to yell at cyclists or harass them if everyone does it. (Not that rude/threatening behavior is ever acceptable in any circumstance.) In contrast, cycling out in rural areas or less cosmopolitan suburbs in the U.S. is far stranger than in the city. If you use a bicycle for your main form of transportation in places that are generally unsafe for cycling, especially at night, you may be looked at askance. I believe the thinking goes, “Why would you be putting your life in danger unless you’re some sort of deviant?” The most common label I’ve heard is that the person must have lost their drivers’ license for drunk driving. Many of the people who have this attitude have no qualms about bringing their kids out for a bike ride on the weekends and may even support bike trails. In these areas, the idea of cycling for recreation is completely separate than for transportation.

Even within the cycling community, there’s identity conflicts at play. The racers and enthusiasts don’t always get along terribly well, in part because the enthusiasts feel the competitive image discourages people from trying it out at all. Admittedly, part of my refusal to purchase a road bike to replace my sturdy hybrid, despite the fact that it would have made the Climate Ride easier, is a backlash against the idea that you need fancy equipment to ride.

I hope that someday, people can use sustainable forms of transportation anywhere, be they walking, biking, or taking public transit, and not have that taken as a mark of identity. When we need to start creating bumper stickers for bikes to show off our opinions, we’ll know that we’ve reached a real milestone.

Beyond the matter of simple pleasure of DIY, saving seeds is also good for society as a whole. Most of the produce available in the grocery store comes from only a very limited number of breeds within any given plant species. These monocrops present both ecological and social problems. Ecologically, having a lack of genetic diversity makes our food supply quite vulnerable to various pests and diseases. If there’s only one or two breeds of a major crop, there’s less of a chance for mutations to exist in the plant population that could potentially counteract a devastating fungus or other infestation.

Socially, saving seeds preserves both cultural heritage and economic freedom. Most breeds of fruits and vegetables these days are created to maximize appearance and the ability to hold up under long-distance transport, not taste. That’s why beautiful, round red tomatoes can be mealy, while funky, lumpy heirloom tomatoes are startlingly tasty. Having good produce is key to making great vegetable-based dishes and many traditional dishes just won’t taste the same with produce from the grocery store. In addition, many varieties are part of a location’s cultural fabric. Even though only two or three types of apples are available in most grocery stores, as a proud New Yorker, I can name more than 10 types because I’d pick them myself at the local orchard as a kid.

Lastly, saving seeds supports small farmers, both domestically and internationally. Most of the seed sold for commercial growing today comes from only a few major agri-business companies, including Monsanto. Because these companies have an inherent interest in continuing to sell seed to farmers, they have bred and genetically modified “terminator” seeds. These seeds are basically the mules of the plant world – they will grow into adults, but never be fertile. For many farmers in the U.S., this isn’t a huge problem, as many of them wouldn’t have anticipated saving their seeds anyway. However, for farmers in developing worlds, who have saved seeds for generations and have no other alternatives to purchasing non-corporate seeds because of these companies’ market dominance, this is a huge social justice issue. Many of them go into massive debt as a result of having to purchase these seeds annually, ever being sold on the idea that they if they purchase more expensive seeds this year, they’ll have a big enough crop to get them out from under their debt. So there’s the people in both the U.S. and abroad that purchase these corporate seeds and pay entirely too much for them.

But what if a farmer decides they will get their seed elsewhere or save it themselves? One would think that Monsanto would leave them alone, being as they have chosen not to be a customer. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Instead of allowing people to save their own seeds, Monsanto is suing these farmers and professional seed savers for violating Monsanto’s patents. They argue that because they have a patent on their seeds, and their seeds may have cross-pollinated with the crops of the farmer – even if that farmer has never bought a Montsanto seed in his or her life – that the farmer is “stealing” their intellectual property. Even worse, in many cases, the farmer is an organic farmer who actually has his or her organic status and accompanying premium at risk because of other people’s genetically modified crops crossing with theirs. Taking these legal measures against people who Monsanto has little proof of saving seed or didn’t even want the seed in the first place is straight-up unethical. By saving seeds ourselves and supporting companies that do so, like Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, we can stand up to those seed companies and tell them that these practices are unacceptable.

Knowing all of this social, political, and economic background is great, but it’s even better when we can put it into practice. Although the devoted gardener can save seeds from just about any plant, I’ll describe how to save seeds from one of the most common plants to do so – tomatoes. Because heirloom tomatoes are actually pretty easy to grow and can be expensive to buy (either as fruit, seedlings, or seeds), they’re one of the best to save from.

Saving Tomato Seeds

Dump the seeds out on a glass or ceramic dish. Do not use soft paper or cloth. However, coffee filters can be useful for drying.

Folks in the process of saving tomato seeds at our Ecolocity DC workshop on seed saving.

Here’s some more resources with comprehensive directions on saving seeds and breeding plants “true,” so that different breeds don’t cross with each other by mistake.
Seed to Seed. Suzanne Ashworth. 2002. Seed Savers.
Starting from Seed: The Natural Gardener’s Guide to Propagating Plants. 21st Century Gardening Series. 1998. Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Seed Sowing and Saving: Step by Step Techniques for Collecting and growing More than 100 Vegetables, Flowers and Herbs. Carole B. Turner. 1998. Storey’s Gardening Skills Illustrated.
“The Future of Food.” (film) Director Deborah Koons. 2004.
International Seed Saving Institute.

]]> http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/a-seed-saved-is-a-seed-earned/feed/ 0 willbikeforchange Seedsavingtomatoes http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/give-a-seed-take-a-seed/ http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/give-a-seed-take-a-seed/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:04:20 +0000 Shannon Brescher Shea http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/?p=948 ]]> I’ve heard of many types of swaps – clothing swaps, book swaps – but never a seed swap until I started getting involved in gardening. Why would anyone want to swap seeds if you could just buy them at the grocery store? But this weekend, I got to find out by participating in my first ever seed swap at Brookside Gardens via organizer Washington Gardener Magazine.

The seed swap started out with a couple of guest speakers that communicated both their knowledge and passion for gardening. Unfortunately, due to my poor planning and inability to read a GPS, I missed the beginning of the first talk by Jon Traunfeld from the University of Maryland Extension Service. Nonetheless, his talk on seed starting tips (available here on video) gave me a couple of really good reminders. I started plants from seed last year, but based on some of my results, I could definitely use some improvement. For example, I have a ton of seed packets from last year that are now a couple of years old. Traunfeld pointed out that a great way to test these seeds is to take a few (10-20), place them in a wet paper towel, put it in a plastic bag with holes, and place it on top of the fridge for a week. If 70 percent or more of the seeds sprout, you’ve got a good package. Instead of just randomly planting seeds and crossing my fingers in hope that they’ll sprout, this technique could save me some serious frustration and time.

I enjoyed the second speaker, Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, even more. She had an incredible joy in regards to plants, constantly referring to the photos of delicious produce as “eye candy.” Some truly lovely photos – never have I lusted after winter squash quite that way. She also had some great advice on how to save seeds from winter squash and peppers. Apparently, the flesh of a pumpkin is still good for three weeks after harvest, which also happens to be the perfect time to harvest its seeds for saving. (On the other hand, you should also keep summer squash for at least three weeks after harvest to save the seeds, by which point you shouldn’t be able to nick the outside with your fingernail. Needless to say, it is highly recommended not to eat the flesh on these.)

Following the speakers, we had a networking and snack break. I noticed a couple of things about the crowd at our networking break. First, most of the people were female – there were a few males, but not a lot. Second, most of the attendees were middle-aged or older – I think I found the two other people under 35, one of which was wearing an awesomely nerdy shirt. Third, based on the number of people who said they were from outside Montgomery County, there were very few folks from D.C. Although this could be in part because of many of my D.C. friends’ attitude that “and why would we want to go to Maryland?” I do think that we as a community need to find more ways to mix up the two groups. I think there’s a lot that young urban gardeners could learn from the older, suburban folks and vice versa.

Finally, came the swap itself! We went up a few groups at a time to the seed tables, which were split up by produce, herbs, flowers, exotics, and many others. So I finally found out the answer to my question at the beginning of the event – why swap seeds at all? There are both ecological reasons and fun reasons. The ecological reason is to maximize genetic diversity. If you continuously save your own seeds and grow plants from them year after year, you’ll end up with a minimum of genetic diversity, making your seeds more susceptible to diseases and pests. However, because few, if any, recreational gardeners save their seeds to this extent, this reason isn’t all that compelling. More interesting is the fun aspect. Of course, there’s the seed swap itself, which was basically a gardening party. Then, there’s the ability to collect seeds you would have never known about otherwise. When Kathy Jentz, the Washington Gardener editor, asked participants to describe some of the more unique seeds they brought, one woman stood up and talked about “mouse melons.” According to her, the plants produce adorable little melons that taste a little like melons and a little like cucumbers. I was so intrigued that I picked up a packet of them, which I never would have otherwise.

At the end of the day, I walked off with a bag full of seed packages, some great information on gardening, and a reminder that spring is just around the corner.

Flowers blooming at Brookside Gardens, where the seed swap was held. Is it spring yet?

]]> http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/give-a-seed-take-a-seed/feed/ 0 willbikeforchange Brookside Gardens 001 http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/building-a-better-fruit-fly-trap/ http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/building-a-better-fruit-fly-trap/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:42:17 +0000 Shannon Brescher Shea http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/?p=939 ]]> It’s a fact of life – if you raise composting worms or keep compost in a container on your counter, you will get fruit flies at some point. Even if you just have a fly or two at first, you will end up with many, many flies because they can lay up to 500 eggs at a time. And as any good geneticist knows, fruit flies conveniently have a week-long life span. So you can end up with a very big fruit fly issue in a very short period of time.

Last summer, we ended up with a very big fruit fly problem, mainly because I put more food in the worm bin than they were capable of eating in a short time period. I tried to cover up the food in the bin with newspaper, as the flies won’t burrow down into paper to get to the food, but the flies weren’t dispersing. Instead, they only seemed to be multiplying, with this constant nagging of a fly near you at all times!

After checking out a couple different fruit fly traps, I have come up with what I believe to be the ultimate one. Between the two traps in the kitchen and basement, we haven’t had any outbreaks and have only seen a singular fly or two since then. On the other hand, there are quite a few dead in the bottom of the traps. Plus, the trap doesn’t look on the counter and blends in, as long as no one tries to take a swig from it.

1) Get a wine bottle with about an inch of wine left in it. If you don’t drink wine, see if you can get a wine bottle from a friend, because it’s the perfect shape. Having some of the wine itself is important because the sweet smell attracts the flies.
2) Add a couple squirts of soap. When the flies fly down to the wine, they get stuck in the soap.
3) Roll a small piece of paper into a funnel.
4) Stick the funnel in the wine bottle. The funnel makes the entrance into the wine bottle wider. Then, when the fly flies down into the funnel and into the wine bottle, it can’t find the way back out and gets stuck.

Here’s the final result:

I hope you don’t ever have to deal with fruit flies, but if you do, this is a surefire solution.

]]> http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/building-a-better-fruit-fly-trap/feed/ 0 willbikeforchange Fruit fly trap http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/vermiculture-made-cheap-and-easy/ http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/vermiculture-made-cheap-and-easy/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:48:21 +0000 Shannon Brescher Shea http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/?p=930 ]]> It’s been almost a year since I last talked about our “pet” composting worms, so I thought I’d revisit the subject and share some information on how we actually built our worm composting bin. January is a great time of year to start worm composting because it’s cold enough in much of the Northern hemisphere that an outdoor compost pile is frozen over, killing the microbes and halting the decomposition process. In addition, it’s usually so cold that you want to avoid going outside unless absolutely necessary. Worm composting solves both of these problems because when kept inside, worms can break down vegetable or fruit food scraps all year round.

For a while, the future of our worms was deeply in question. A few months ago, Chris was ready to throw the worms out into the garden, even though he had initially advocated adopting them. (This is an ill-advised thing to do. Depending on the type, they’ll die because they’re not suited for gardens or they’ll process too much organic matter and be a bit of an ecological menace.) This frustration came from a two-fold issue. The first problem manifested in the spring, when I tried to get the compost (worm poop) out of the bin for gardening. As we have a two box system, I transferred all of the worms out of one box and into another. Apparently, they were very disturbed by this move, as many attempted to escape and ended up dead and stuck to the basement floor. Very sad. The second issue was an increasing fruit fly problem. Every time we gave the worms a bit too much food, fruit flies laid their eggs and we ended up loads of nasty flies that are incredibly difficult to get rid of. Thankfully, once the worms calmed down and we solved the fly problem (more on that in the next entry), the worm population rebounded. This fall, when I used worm castings in my lasagna gardening preparation, I removed the compost by hand/shovel instead of trying to move the worms themselves, which seemed much less traumatic. Currently, the worms are doing very well and plowing through their food.

If raising worms sounds like a fun home sustainability project, it’s actually quite easy to set up a system. Although you can buy a worm composting bin for $50-100 online, you can make one yourself in an hour with no more than $20-30 worth of materials. (And if you’re clever about recycling, possibly for free.)

Building a Worm Composting Bin

Needed items:
- 2 stackable, large, shallow plastic bins with lids, recycled/reused if possible; dark-colored is best
- Electric drill
- Wooden or other rods (only if necessary; described below)
- Dark paper or duct tape to darken the bin if it is transparent
- Newspaper
- A small amount of dirt
- Organic materials
- Red wiggler worms – You can get some from a friend who also worm composts or buy approximately one pound. I bought them from Compost Critter. Other species also work, but these are the most common. However, normal garden earthworms will not work. I recommend purchasing the worms after constructing the bin, as they cannot stay in their packaging long after they reach you.

1) Drill 5-10 large (¼ inch) holes in the bottom and sides of one of the plastic bins. The number of holes will depend on the floor area of the bin. They should be large enough to allow water drainage.

This bin currently has dirt in it, which is what all of the dark stuff is. Nevertheless, it gives you a good idea of how many holes to drill and how far apart they should be.

2) If the bins are translucent, cover the lid of one of the bins with dark paper or fabric. You can use duct tape, as we did, but it holds in a lot of moisture, especially if you are putting in mostly wet foods. I would recommend using paper or fabric instead.

3) Drill holes in the lid you covered with dark material. These don’t need to be very large, as they are for air.

4) Stack the bin with holes in it on top of the bin without holes in it. The bin on the top will be where the worms will live and the bin on the bottom will catch any water that drains. Honestly, ours doesn’t have much drainage, but it’s good to have the ability to drain if necessary.

5) If the bins are stacked tightly, you may need to separate them a bit to maximize air flow. We stuck thin wooden rods in-between the bins to do this originally. Our rods rotted a bit, so we took them out. It seems like the rods pressed against the plastic enough that they don’t stack nearly as tightly as they used to.

Here's what our bins look like stacked. Not very glamorous, but they get the job done.

6) Add a very small amount of dirt and a layer of crumpled newspaper to the bottom of the top bin.

7) Add the worms. Wait a few days for them to get accustomed to their new home before adding food. It’s likely they will try to escape, and you may end up with a few dead worms around the box. You can discourage this by leaving the light on wherever the worm box is.

8) Once a few days have passed, add organic food scraps. The worms seem to like soft food the best, and avoid harder objects like broccoli stems or papery ones like onion skins. Don’t add too much food at one time or it will attract flies. Add a layer of newspaper over the food to prevent fruit flies and provide them with more bedding.

9) When the worms have produced enough compost to be useful, harvest the compost. You can also make a multi-bin system, where in theory, the worms should come up to the second level if you place food up there, allowing you to harvest compost from the first bin. However, very few of the worms did that in ours and I’ve found it less traumatic for everyone just to harvest the compost by hand.

Here's what the completed box looks like inside. (Why, yes, I did add more newspaper for it to look nicer!)

A close-up of the final product - compost!

If that wasn’t enough, here are a couple more tutorials on building worm bins – from Wacomb County Agriculture and WikiHow.

]]> http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/vermiculture-made-cheap-and-easy/feed/ 1 willbikeforchange Museum and stuff 010 Worm photos 001 Worm photos 002 http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/no-such-thing-as-public-liberty-without-freedom-of-speech-ben-franklin/ http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/no-such-thing-as-public-liberty-without-freedom-of-speech-ben-franklin/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:35:46 +0000 Shannon Brescher Shea http://willbikeforchange.wordpress.com/?p=925 ]]> “Talk is cheap – free speech isn’t.” That’s on a bumper sticker stuck to my long-disused guitar case. Despite the fact that the case is getting dusty in our basement, that phrase rang loudly in my head this Wednesday. I originally got the sticker at my first trip to the Newseum, after being in the middle of a heated schoolwide discussion as co-editor-in-chief about what is appropriate to print in a high school newspaper. I won’t bore anyone with the details, but it involved a column by my friend who signed himself “Angry Mofo,” an angry adviser, a rather disingenuous co-editor-in-chief, and a surprising amount of support from my English teacher. When I bought the sticker, I felt like I had put my own credibility on the line for defending free speech in my limited, suburban high school way. This Wednesday, I took that small, yet important opportunity again to take action by participating in the WordPress portion of the Internet blackout against the SOPA/PIPA laws. Although I haven’t put a lot of effort specifically into fighting for free speech since I was in high school, Wednesday reminded me of how it underlies everything I do. Although the blackout was against a specific set of laws – check out this video for a great explanation – it is the responsibility of all of us to protect free speech in whatever way we can.

The first, and most important, aspect of preserving free speech is the ability to speak out against those abusing power, whether it’s the government, corporations, or other institutions. Whether through online petitions, calling or meeting with one’s elected representatives, attending protests, or writing political commentaries, this function serves an essential check on power. (It also supports other related rights, like the Right to Assembly and the Right to Petition.) It’s a way for the less powerful, the minorities, and their allies to tell those in power, “You cannot do this to us. This must stop.” Often, the sacrifices made to maintain this form are etched on the very bodies of the protestors, from the Indian independence movement to the American civil rights movement. Although using the Internet to collect signatures for petitions is sometimes mocked as “slacktivism” (slacker activism), the Internet also serves as an essential organizing tool. It’s arguable that the Occupy movement could have never grown the way it did without the Internet. Similarly, the Internet can be used to amplify the messages from the protests and bring them to people who might never hear them otherwise, as we saw with the use of Twitter in the Arab Spring.

Yet, despite their importance, these outright protests are far from the only use of free speech worth protecting. A free flow of information is essential to maintaining a realistic view of the world. In my opinion, this is the biggest problem with Fox News – they pretend they are offering a free flow of information, but that no other source is to be trusted. (This tactic is incredibly effective, as this poll shows.) Similarly, China’s government has an acute understanding of this concept. The Great Firewall of China blocks not only speech against the government, but speech about concepts as basic as democracy and the history of revolutions for independence. The Chinese populace is so ignorant of the real events of Tiananmen Square that a provincial newspaper innocently ran a one-line ad about “Paying tribute to the strong mothers of the June 4 victims” because the newspaper editor literally had no idea what happened on June 4. This warped view of reality, the Newspeak of 1984, completely prevents the ability to protest. The free flow of information is the foundation of all free thought.

While these uses underlie the very pillars of freedom, there’s also another very important use when it comes to increasing global sustainability – the ability to share information and lessons learned. One major part of the Transition movement away from reliance on fossil fuels and towards environmental, economic, and social justice is reskilling. It’s basically the idea that we need to re-learn many of the skills our parents and grandparents had like growing our own food, saving seeds, collecting rainwater, and repairing household items. It also includes some relatively new skills, like restoring bicycles, planning food forests, creating graywater recycling systems, and installing renewable energy. Fortunately, unlike in the past, we’re no longer limited to tapping into the creativity and knowledge of our immediate community. The Internet allows us to learn these skills from others and in turn, share tips we’ve learned. One of my favorite things about this blog is that I can have others benefit from my triumphs and mistakes instead of just telling some nice stories. Likewise, when I and some other volunteers organized workshops for Ecolocity, we posted our materials online afterwards so that anyone else could use them who wanted to put on a similar workshop.

I’m clearly singing to the choir here. Nonetheless, it’s so easy to stop caring, to let these threats to our rights pass us by. Although SOPA/PIPA would have directly affected only the U.S., it would have helped set a dangerous precedent for similar efforts around the world. Despite these laws’ current state of failure, there are still so many places where a free flow of information is stifled. The Slacktiverse has a good thread on the various threats to these rights worldwide and the Newseum has a Press Freedom Map, although it seems a bit out of date. Considering how free speech touches our lives on a daily basis in ways that we in (mostly) free countries don’t even recognize, we need to be vigilant to protect it. Because without it, we have nothing.

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