Everyone needs a goat



I have to say I was a little suspicious at first.

Goats? Aren't they loud and smelly?  Well, the guys are, but the girl-goats are awesome. Antigua Farms has three pygmy goats 'on loan.' They don't smell and you can hardly hear them. Still not convinced?

Here are the top 7 reasons everyone should own a goat:
1. They are cute as hell
2. They entertain your children for extended periods of time
3. They eat unwanted grass, weeds, and greens that you would otherwise compost
4. They'll help trim your trees for a fire-wise yard
5. Their poop makes great fertilizer for your garden
6. Their poop also keeps javelinas away
7. They give you milk!
 

Fertilizer

Lovely javelina repelent



Milk!

It's quite amazing, one little pygmy goat can produce over a pint of milk per day. The milk is incredibly rich and there is so much of it, we need to find ways to store it and preserve it.

I made yogurt, which was actually quite simple but to be honest, was pretty strong. So still in the works, I am trying to make goat cheese... You can buy supplies very easily online, from yogurt makers, to strainers, cheesecloth, thermometers, and even various bacteria and molds.

Somewhat uncharted territory for me, but if I somehow create some homemade 'crottins de chevre,' or some 'Reblochon,' I'll be a happy expat.

Thomas milking Twilla

Milk, milk, and milk?

Call me old-fashioned but I have never tried anything but milk with my cereal. So I thought I should at least give the other 'subsititutes' a try: I bought soy milk, almond milk, and rice milk and used my 5 year old son as a guinea pig.





He thought the setup was quite exciting. It's the (Pepsi) white liquid challenge!

 

Amond milk: "Myeah, it tastes like milk."
Milk: "this one also tastes like milk."
Soy milk: "it's like a yummy vanilla cookie."
Rice milk: "I don't like that one as much. It's kinda, I don't know like water."

 

This is about my take on all of these too:
The almond milk was good but it has a strong nutty flavor, which makes it less versatile. I think my favorite, and the sweetest, was by far the soy milk. The rice milk doesn't look quite as nice and has little floaties in it, which if you are a little kid you notice right away.

Hmm, now I need to look into recipes. I've used coconut cream/milk/water quite a lot. It seems easier to use all of these for desserts, smoothies, or with your cereal, but trickier in terms of savory dishes.

Anyone have any suggestions?


In terms of price, all were $2.49 for 1/2 gallon at Safeway, compared to $6.00 for a gallon of organic milk. Ingredients are a little tricky, it seems like cheating since all of them have added vitamins and sweetener. Whole milk has the most cars and calories, soy milk seems the healthiest...

In terms of nutrition:

 * Carragean is a seaweed extract used to help ingredients bind together.

** Inulin is a natural sweetener found in many plants.

 Soy milk is going in his cereal tomorrow

I'm gonna try the milkS in my coffee tomorrow morning, therein lies the true test...

Aha! and Huh? (No.4)

It seems like, unfortunately, it is always easier to find some Huh?-facts rather than some happy Aha!-facts.

Aha!
This is from a few months ago, when I visited my sister in Manhattan. An "mini-urban-organic market" just sitting there all cute and healthy at the stop for the ferry for Ellis Island. Even in the winter in New York you can get fresh produce. In this case apples, jam, and honey. And cheap too, way cool!

Huh?
This is an adertisement and marketing strategy at Kentucky Fried Chicken. First off, I have to say that I hate these types of ads, trying to guilt you into buying their crap, under the guise of helping the poor/needy/sick, etc. Like KFC can't just support the cause or make a donation.
But this one is particularly dumb.

Buy a gigantic sugary soda and help support diabetes research. And yes, in this case, they are researching the cause and trying to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, not Type 2. Type 1 is technically not directly linked to eating habits, but come on, really?

Nasty Food Contest-Results!

 

Alright, it took quite a while to get all our results in! After many weeks of speculating, the results are finally here...

If you have missed our earlier blog, the contest was to try and find the worst food possible and share the joy and amazement of your find. This was an international effort, with nasty concoctions, dubious ingredients, and awful marketing strategies.

There were many submissions, so thank you everyone for your valiant effort.

Let's start with our first finalist from down under:


What is it you say? Why these are popsicles, mixed and ready to go, you just freeze them yourself. And yes, they are in cute seahorse or koala shapes, what is not to like about that? And don't worry, you can always keep this one until you truly think the time is right. It is apparently quite good to eat until 2016...

Runner up, we have here a truly unique choice of ingredients and packaging choices. Hot dog balls, yes that's right, enhanced with a subtle yet delightful chicekn flavor, and then, wait for it... infused with cheese shots that will melt in your mouth. All of this artfully wrapped in a cute to-go box.

I do have a small bias against our next contestant who comes to us from the farmer's fair in the depths of La Belle France.

As far as healthy, fresh, and organic food, he is a winner. This is pure, fresh, food. Locally raised, with only ONE ingredient. So let me be clear, this is not the worst food possible. However, we must all agree that although this big box of tongues looks delish, it is not for everyone pallet (pun intended).

This next item was suggested as unhealthy food by a fellow Swiss friend. Just our basic ham sandwich.

Why did I include this one? To show the different point of views in different countries. Considered fast food and junk food in Swizterland, it would have been chosen as a healthy lunch choice here in our old US of A.

An intriguing competing duo for this category that I liked to call fluffy fructose fun, we have a tie ladies and gentlemen. These two contestants, although separated by several thousand miles of ocean, agreed that marshmallow art is truly a category worthy of mention.



"Birthday Surprise" from Belfort, France



"Easter Cuties" from Nashville, Tennessee 

Now a special category for most-un-ecofriendly packaging, this one comes to us from Prescott, Arizona.

I think we should all learn a valuable lesson here and try and ruin our attempt at healthy food by buying products in hard plastic shells that will biodegrate in 4,000 years or so.

Drinks were not as popular a choice, so this is one I picked myself, based on color and ingredients.

There are not enough blue foods in this world I tell you, so let's invent some shall we? Blue raspberry juice! And what is the key to blue raspberry goodness? Apparently vegetable oil, yes it is listed as one of the ingredients; who woulda thunk?

Moving on with most creative product name for a food item, I give you, from Mexico:
THE Skwinklote!

I dared not taste it, but secret ingredients include tamarind juice and cayenne pepper.
Probably something to grab if you are in need of a last minute bowel cleanse at the checkout aisle.

And there you have them ladies and gentlemen, please let's give a big round of applause to all our contestants, you are all winners my friends!!

Running for Beer Drinkers

I swear to you I am not a runner. I am built more like a Jeep than a sports car. I always considered runners as sort of sub-species of humans who are genetically predisposed to move across the landscape quicker than most. Running was written in their DNA. It was not written in mine.

I attempted running several times over the years with the same results. After a couple of weeks I would get tired of fighting the internal voice screaming at me to stop…and I would stop. I convinced myself that I was not built for running and that I simply lacked the mental fortitude to “tough it out”.

Turns out we humans are exactly suited for running. Our ancestors acquired the ability to walk (and no doubt run) upright, up on two feet, millions of years ago. In fact, we humans are unique among primates in that we always prefer to move forward on two feet.

On October 18^th, 2010 I ran for the first time in almost a year. It sucked. My head filled with the same negative thoughts; exactly why are you running again Jim? I made it about a mile before stopping to walk. I finished the 2.7-mile loop in an unimpressive 35 minutes.  That’s 13 minutes per mile for those of you keeping score at home.

But, I finished.

A couple days later I did the same loop. This time I made it a mile and a half before stopping to walk. I walked for five minutes, and then finished the loop in a slow jog.

Two days later I ran it again. Only this time a strange thing happened; I didn’t stop! I ran the entire 2.7-mile loop in a bit under 30 minutes. I felt proud, invincible, and the next day a little sore.

It has been four months and I am still running. I run every other day and am up to about 25 miles a week (28 miles a couple weeks ago). I rarely run less than six miles at a time and my longest run so far has been twelve miles. I am down over twenty pounds and feel strong.

Just for fun the other day I ran my old 2.7-mile loop. Official time: 21.5 minutes. Not bad for a 41-year-old beer drinker. 

On March 17^th 2011 I will run my first official half marathon (13.1 miles) in Tucson, Arizona. I am signed up for another half marathon in Nashville on April 30^th.

The moral to the story? Slow down, way down. Take all pressure off yourself and remind yourself to take it easy. Don’t run too hard or too fast, if it hurts stop, and if it feels good keep going.

Oh...and running is very Eco-Logical. Once you have a decent pair of running shoes  it costs nothing but time. I bought my Nike shoes off the discount rack at Ross for $25. eBay has good deals as well.

Good Luck!

Citrus Collection in Southern Arizona

As we were driving down a busy street in Phoenix, I thought “Wow there are a lot of citrus trees here”. The entire street was lined with trees just full of grapefruit, oranges, and lemons. And it seemed like no one was bothering to pick them up.

People will go to the grocery store and buy a bag of oranges but won’t collect the fruit from their own garden or neighborhood? What are the excuses for that?

“It is too time-consuming?” It might take a few minutes, half an hour max, and you get bags of FREE fresh, organic, produce.

“I am embarrassed to collect fruit if it is not on my property.” If it looks like no one is collecting the fruit, you could check with the owner and see if they would agree.

“It’s too complicated to make juice; it’s easier to go buy a bottle at the store.” If you get yourself a $5.00 juicer, it takes a grand total of two minutes to make a large glass of fresh juice.

A few days after thinking about those un-harvested citrus trees in Phoenix, I heard on the local news that a food bank had organized a fruit donation, where people could drop off their excess citrus to various locations.

Get this, TWO MILLION pounds of fruit were collected in 2009!
Talk about eco-logic.

Here is the link to the fruit donation efforts in Phoenix:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/12/21/20101221valley-food-banks-set-citrus-collection-dates.html

My smart husband just did the math. If you need 20 pounds of fruit for every gallon of juice, Phoenix collected 100,000 gallons of juice. That’s 12,800,000 ounces of juice or enough so that the 2 million people in Phoenix all get a 6oz glass of juice! And that is just the amount that was brought in, I am sure there was still a lot more to collect.

So then last week we visited our family in Tucson. My sister in law gave us a huge bag of small oranges from a friend of hers. Then, when we went over to my brother-in-law’s house, I noticed that they had a large grapefruit and two small lemon trees in their backyard. “Can I pick some grapefruit?” I asked, “Sure, we don’t really eat them.”

Eight giant bags later, I was happy with my bountiful harvest. Even after giving a bunch of grapefruit away, I had enough to make over a gallon of juice! I haven’t squeezed the oranges or lemons yet but it should make quite a lot as well.

Talk about good eco-logics. All that good organic, local food for free!