Gee, Whiz!

As you know, Dear Readers, ol’ Bilbo does not flinch from bringing you the most interesting and useful of information, without regard to the boundaries of … well … good taste. In the past we have reported on the properties and use of toilet paper around the world, the Poo2Loo movement in India, which is trying to teach Indians not to defecate in public, and – earlier this week – a summary of everything you ever wanted to know about bathroom behavior. What’s left?, you wonder.

Funny you should ask.

Upon reading the bathroom behavior post, my daughter forwarded to me this very interesting* article from Modernfarmer.com: Can Human Urine Replace Chemical Fertilizers?

The article discusses the activities of the Rich Earth Institute of Brattleboro, Vermont, which encourages the use of urine as a natural replacement for chemical fertilizers. The Institute’s website notes that Americans produce some 30 billion gallons of urine each year, with each person’s individual contribution containing some 5 kilograms of usable fertilizer. The Institute further observes that instead of harnessing the potential of this resource, we use 1.2 trillion gallons of drinkable water to flush it away. They have a goal of collecting 6,000 gallons of donated urine for testing purposes in the coming year.

Other cultures are evidently more in tune with this effort than are we. Many cultures have collected and spread “night soil”** as fertilizer for thousands of years, and Sweden has introduced high-tech toilets which divert urine to holding tanks for later collection and use as fertilizer. In America, though, the ick factor may be difficult for many to overcome***.

Not all, though. I remember that one of my father’s attempts to scare deer away from his tomato garden involved requiring us during each visit to urinate into jars, which he then arranged scientifically among the potted tomato plants. The theory was that the deer would smell the odor of humans and seek sustenance elsewhere … the reality was that it didn’t do much to discourage the deer after the first 24 hours, although it did seem to divert the attention of door-to-door salesmen and itinerant religious proselytizers.

The theory of using human urine as fertilizer appears to be sound, but there are some drawbacks besides that “ick factor” … not the least of which is the presence of pharmaceutical residue⁺ that might contaminate the soil. According to the article, the EPA has selected Rich Earth for funding to conduct a study of residual drugs in urine, with the help of the University of Michigan and SUNY Buffalo.

So …

Stop just being the middleman between beer and the potty … collect that valuable liquid for future use. There’s a reason it’s golden in color, after all.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Well, "interesting" is a subjective term, I suppose.

** Don’t ask.

*** Even considering that we watch Faux News and listen to people like Ted Cruz.

⁺ That would be drugs, prescription and otherwise.

Growing Pains

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but this year, I decided to try a new approach to my garden. Being tired of setting up an all-you-can-eat salad bar for the local animals, I planted herbs in pots on the deck, along with two pots of tomatoes and two pots of bell peppers (one red, one green). I also cleared a patch at the side of the house and planted the seeds I saved from the single acorn squash I managed to grow last year. Here's how it all turned out:

Basil - growing like crazy, and we've been harvesting regularly for salads, sauces, etc. It smells wonderful.

Dill - plants grew very tall and gave us enough dill for what we use (mostly sauces). Kind of ugly, though.

Mint - Grew well, but we don't use that much of it, so I probably won't grow it again next year. I may just transplant the plants out at the edge of the woods behind the house and let them go wild.

Thyme - growing very well, and smells wonderful.

Parsley - growing very well. Because it's a biennial herb, it'll come back next year, too.

Chives - growing very well.

Rosemary - I put in two plants at the side of the house, next to our acorn squash. The plants are growing, but I just can't get them to turn into one of those big, beautiful rosemary bushes I really want.

Tomatoes - a total loss. The plants grew big and strong and produced lots of tomatoes, but they all rotted on the vine. I wonder if I overwatered, or overdid it with the solution of Epsom salts and water that I sprayed them with. I think I'll just skip the tomatoes next year.

Green and Red Bell Peppers - the plants grew pretty well, and we may get one of each color pepper. Several others rotted and fell off the vines before they had a chance to ripen.

Acorn Squash - this was our success story - the plants grew up very big and strong from the seeds, and right now I have at least four squash about the size of billiard balls, with a lot more developing. With any luck, we'll have quite a crop. The deer munched away at some of the plants on the edges of the plot, but left enough that we should get some good squash dinners this winter*.

Bottom Line: Next year, I'm going to do the herbs again in pots on the deck. No tomatoes. No bell peppers, but I think I'll try to plant jalapenos. If the squash turns out, I'll save the seeds and plant it again. I'm thinking I may try to build a garden enclosure like this one I spotted on Facebook ...

Farmer Bilbo will get a decent crop yet. If the deer and the rabbits don't get it first.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Want my recipe for Sausage-Stuffed Molasses-Glazed Acorn Squash? E-mail me and I'll send it to you.

Re-Greening My Thumbs

Agnes and I both enjoy cooking, and we especially enjoy cooking with fresh herbs ... there's a flavor that fresh herbs lend to your food that nothing else can match. And there's the wonderful smell that permeates the house when you're chopping the herbs. And there's the wonderful experience of using a big, heavy chef's knife to chop the #%$& out of those herbs, imagining that it's the last person that pissed you off lying there on the chopping board. It doesn't get much better than that.

But there's a problem with using fresh herbs ... they cost a fortune. Our local supermarket sells little plastic boxes of fresh herbs for $2.99 or $3.99 or more each, which is nuts. When we can, we drive a bit farther and go to the international market where the herbs are much cheaper, but still pretty expensive.

The obvious solution to the problem is to grow our own. We've done that in years past, and I figured it was time to get off my pasty white backside and do it again.

Over the weekend, I went to the local garden center and bought my first set of bedding plants ... we now have parsley, basil, thyme, sage, dill, chives, and mint (for mojitos, of course) growing in pots on the deck. I also put in two rosemary plants in a sunny spot in the yard ... since they can grow large and bushy, I thought it would be best. In the past, I'd cultivated two plots on the sunny side of the house, but the layout was a bit awkward for getting access to all the plants ... plus, I was tired of the deer and the rabbits thinking of my garden as their own personal all-you-can-eat salad bar. The pots on the deck seemed like a good idea, as the deer are unlikely to climb the stairs and the squirrels don't usually bother herbs. We'll see.

I've tried to grow vegetables in the past, with mixed results. The deer ruined many of the plants and the vegetables, and insects and birds did their thing as well. We'll probably have some tomato plants come in along with the herbs, growing from the seeds in my compost pile ... if that happens, I'll just re-pot the healthiest ones that come up and see what happens. I also have some acorn squash seeds I may try to plant, just to see what will happen. The last time I planted acorn squash, I reaped a harvest of exactly one beautiful squash, which we stuffed with sausage, brushed with molasses, and baked for a wonderful dinner. Maybe we can do it again. More than once.

So now we just sit back, pull weeds, water as needed, and wait for all those fragrant herbs to come in. Perhaps the next time I need to make this recipe, we'll be able to use our own home-grown herbs ...

Fragrant Tuscan Herb Salt

Ingredients:
- 4 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled
- Scant 1/2 cup kosher salt
- About 2 cups loosely-packed fresh rosemary and sage leaves, about a 50/50 mix or whatever proportions you prefer

Preparation:
     Cut each garlic clove lengthwise through the center, remove the green sprout (if any) in the center and discard.
     Mound the salt and garlic on a cutting board. Use a chef’s knife to mince the garlic, blending it with the salt as you work.
     Place the herbs in a mound and coarsely chop them. Add the herbs to the garlic salt and chop them together, stirring the mixture frequently as you chop, until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand.
     Spread the salt on a baking sheet or in wide flat bowls and leave near an open window for a couple of days to dry while the smell drives you nuts. Store in clean, dry jars and use in everything.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Happy Easter!

It's a glorious spring day here in Disneyland on the Potomac, and today is Easter Sunday, the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

Actually, Easter does not commemorate an exact date, like the Fourth of July or the 25th of December as Christmas...it's what's known as a "movable feast," meaning that it does not fall on the same date each year. The date of Easter (and, hence, all the other dates that depend upon it, from Ash Wednesday through Lent and Good Friday) is calculated by determining the Sunday which follows the full moon that falls on or after the vernal (spring) equinox.

Heck, I have enough trouble simply remembering everyone's birthdays (just ask my daughter-in-law).

Anyhow, today is Easter. Devout Christians celebrate it in church, children awake to find colorful baskets filled with candy and dyed eggs, and the President and First Lady sponsor the annual White House Easter Egg Roll (which will actually be held tomorrow on the White House lawn). Republicans, of course, will reflexively boycott the Easter Egg Roll this year if only because President Obama is hosting it; while Democrats will boycott it because they can't all agree on why they should support it in the first place.

That's life here in DotP.

But it's Spring, and the cherry blossoms are out in profusion around the city...

Yesterday I planted my new basil and rosemary seedlings, and got a start on clearing away the wreckage left by our miserable winter...the heaps of dead leaves, the broken branches, and the general mess...not to mention the 756,000,000 dandelions that are already shooting up all over the place. Today, before we head down to visit our local grandchildren, I hope to get still more of the mess cleared away, and perhaps get a few more flowers planted.

Spring has sprung, as they say, and at times like this I have to ask myself:

"Why on earth are you sitting at the computer when it's so nice outside?"

Good question. It's time to go.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo