You can do your part in saving our oceans!

Small Bayou

When I was a kid growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, we lived just a few hundred yards from “Small Bayou.” It’s a tributary of Contraband Bayou where it’s rumored that master pirate Jean Lafitte buried a huge treasure trove.  Every day after school I would drop my books and grab my fishing pole, dig up a few worms from the backyard worm bed, and snatch a couple of slices of Wonder Bread for the resident alligator. The bayou was an enchanted world of dissonant characters that wielded a grip on me every bit as strong as Milne’s ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ or Riordan’s ‘Camp Half-Blood.’ Among the cast of bayou characters were a three-legged alligator named Long John Silver, legions of croaker fish, spine-chilling water moccasins hanging from moss-covered tree limbs, gigantic jumping frogs, darting dragonflies, and blood-thirsty mosquitoes. I was after croakers—the indigenous fish that swam to the surface of the water and croaked obstreperously in obvious competition with the frogs. I could catch two croakers in about 10 minutes. Sometimes I would hook a stray catfish, but the croakers were the staples of the bayou.

Every afternoon, after gutting and scaling my two fish, I would toss about a half stick of butter in a frying pan and plop the two fish into the sizzling butter. When they were a nice golden brown I ate one as my after-school snack and I wrapped the other one in aluminum foil for breakfast. To my parent’s horror, the next morning I ate the left-over croaker cold, right from the fridge. I still love leftover fish--cold from the fridge-- for breakfast.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the bayou was horribly polluted. I found out much later, years after I moved to Texas, that a part of Calcasieu Parish is a superfund site. Pollution has made the recreational waters in southwest Louisiana lethal. Much of the aquatic life has disappeared and humans are warned to avoid eating the few species that remain. Clean-up operations are helping, but with all of the refineries producing contaminants faster than they can be remediated, efforts to restore these vital waterways have not been able to achieve adequate cleanup.

But the problems experienced in Calcasieu Parish are indicative of larger issues. All of our water resources are in jeopardy. Climate change and pollution are impacting our oceans by increasing the acidity of these vital waters; coral reefs are dying, Florida and the Gulf Coast have lethal red tide problems, and we are seeing massive fish and turtle dye-offs. Some of the fish and shellfish farming operations are not sustainable and it is imperative that we understand that there are healthy, sustainable seafood choices available to us. We can all do our part to make these waters healthy and supportive of sea life again.

The Monterey BayAquarium in Monterrey, California, is on the forefront of oceanic sciences in research, conservation, and public education. Recently, it has embraced the plastics problem that is so prominent in the destruction of our sea life. Its Seafood Watch program provides a platform for business and the public to make sustainable choices in the seafood we consume at home as well as in restaurants. It has made available a downloadable app that assists individuals as well as businesses in making the most appropriate choices for seafood consumption. My old friends, the Croakers, are a sustainable “Best Choice” when caught with Beach Seines in the Northwest Atlantic. They are still plentiful around Louisiana oil rigs but those are not considered to be a sustainable choice. Like most other species, there are no longer plentiful reserves of these wonderful fish.

Another one of my all-time favorite fish is tuna. If you love canned tuna as much as I do, look no further than Fishin’ Families. Their tuna is pole and line caught and is certified by MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) as sustainable. Not only is it a Seafood Watch “Best” choice, it actually (in my opinion) tastes better than the leading grocery store brands. You can mail-order it from their website or from Amazon. One of my favorite ways to eat it is in a big salad. It's a delicious, healthy choice for not a lot of money.

One of our family traditions is to have a really large salad on Wednesdays. We use our garden veggies and sometimes have a 25 or more ingredient salad. We amp up the nutritional level with beans—sometimes dried beans that we cook the day before, sometimes steamed Asian long beans from the garden, and we add a can of tuna. In cool months we use various lettuces and herbs, asparagus, beets, and blood orange slices. In the summer months when lettuce dies off, we use a couple of types of sorrel, beet greens, kale, and chard.

Another delicious option is a nicoise-type salad with grilled tuna, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, nicoise olives, boiled eggs, greens, asparagus, and herbs. Be sure and check the Seafood Watch app for sustainable varieties of fresh tuna.

Our all-time favorite is a Mexican salad with black beans, jicama, cilantro, cojita cheese, bell peppers, tomatoes, pickled sweet peppers, and mild green chilies. Add a can of sustainably-caught tuna and toss everything with plenty of greens and serve with oven-heated tortilla chips. You can feed a family of four a healthy meal for less than ten bucks—way less if you grow your own veggies.

Sustainably-caught or farmed seafood might cost you a little more, but it won’t break the bank and you can feel great about serving it. You are, after all, making positive contributions toward a better, more sustainable world with healthy oceans and abundant seafood!

         

Texas loses an organic gardening giant

Gardeners and nature lovers are mourning the death today of Malcolm Beck, a beloved central and south Texas organic gardening guru. Malcolm began his career in sustainable agriculture as a family farmer in the 1950s, raising and selling organic produce near San Antonio, Texas. Later, he turned to helping others find alternatives to conventional agricultural methods and materials through his business, Garden-Ville. Malcolm was a prolific author and promoted sustainable horticulture and agriculture in his books: Garden-Ville Method, Lessons in Nature, TheSecret Life of Compost, Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening, Texas Bug Book: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and numerous other titles.

I had the honor to write a feature story about Malcolm in 2006 for the San Antonio Express News. I’ve posted the article below. Malcolm was a treasure and he will be missed.

Malcolm Beck Says Soil Holds Cure for Climate
October 14, 2006
San Antonio Express-News

San Antonio took a double shot this year when tenacious drought collided with one of the hottest summers on record. Living with severe water restrictions is no fun, but what we experienced this summer may just be a small taste of the future. While the scientists and pundits huddle in think tanks trying to decide how to save the planet, one San Antonio man seems to have the answers to how we can patch up Mother Earth and make global warming a fading memory.

Malcolm Beck, founder of Garden-Ville, understands nature. A tall, lanky man with white hair and beard, he could double as a lean Santa Claus. He walks briskly as he talks, nonstop, pointing out massive piles of compost and mulches at various stages of "readiness." He worries about the difficulties that lie ahead if the powers that be can't find a way to get us out of our global crisis.

"We've got the knowledge now to understand nature," he affirms, "but we're not using it to understand nature. We're using it to try to improve nature. We can't improve what the master designer put together. It will come back to haunt us."

Beck faults the misuse of our soils as the primary cause of our environment-gone-awry: "Our biggest problem worldwide is that most of our farmland no longer has the organic matter for life and energy it once had." According to Beck, the farmlands across the United States originally had an organic content of 30 percent to 80 percent. Today, most farmland is down to 20 percent or less of what it should be.

"This is a drop in organic content of between 70 to 90 percent in 60 years," says Beck.

What does losing organic matter have to do with global warming? Beck believes that this erosion of the topsoil causes the runoff of water into our lakes and streams, where it is lost forever. "This thinner layer of topsoil can't hold and trap water, leaving barren subsoil. Since this subsoil cannot support plant life and because plants hold water in the soil and capture carbon dioxide from the air, the earth is left with an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and soils that cannot sustain life," explains Beck.

Retired Marine Lt. Col. William Holmberg, steering-committee member of the Sustainable Energy Coalition and former scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency, confirms that "all we need to do to offset the carbon dioxide we are putting into the atmosphere each year from burning transportation fuels is to increase the organic content of our farmland just one-tenth of 1 percent each year."

Beck and Holmberg have worked together and agree that "conservation tillage, "especially "no-till" farming and the use of mulch and compost, will provide the necessary organic content to sufficiently decrease the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to safer levels. The liberal use of compost accomplishes more than reconstituting the earth's soil. Composting also conserves water. Healthy soil and water conservation are two ends of the same stick, and Beck believes that this summer's water crisis could have been averted if our soils were healthy.

"A mulch layer of leaves, twigs, grass, compost or any organic material from man's waste stream will protect the soil from the baking sun and drying winds. The mulch holds heavy rains in place until they soak in. This prevents floods and soil erosion," Beck says, adding, "Even though organic-rich soil can absorb and hold more water, plants grown in organic-rich soil actually require less water to grow.”

It's little wonder that Beck has become known as the compost "king" of South Texas. Bob Webster, local radio talk show host and owner of Shades of Green Nursery, has observed Beck for many years.

"Malcolm started out as the area's first organic farmer," says Webster. "He worked on building his soils and fields until his organic crops were better than any conventional crops around. He eventually got into making compost and his compost got such a reputation that people started wanting to buy it from him."

Beck is retired now and is spreading the gospel about soil conservation, organic farming and nature's lessons throughout the world. He recently returned from a whirlwind tour of South Africa, where he delivered speeches and presentations on composting, soil and water conservation, insects and natural living. By year's end, he will have given 70 or more talks to farm groups, garden clubs, churches, universities, Master Gardeners, county agents and community groups. He has written and co-authored numerous books and articles, many of which can be found on his Web site, malcolmbeck.com.

Beck advises that not only farmers but average homeowners use compost on their lawns and gardens. He discourages the use of chemical fertilizers.

"One-half inch of compost applied in the fall and watered in well will do more to keep a lawn healthy than the best chemical program. Compost acts as a chelating agent, preventing micronutrients, especially zinc and iron, from locking up in our alkaline soils," Beck writes in his book Lessons in Nature. Unlike chemical fertilizers, Beck says, compost can be used on lawns year-round.

Beck also advocates the practice of leaving grass clippings in place after mowing, and shredding up fallen leaves and spreading them on the lawn.

"Mulching the lawn with compost in the fall is the closest thing to a cure-all there is," says Beck. Beck doesn't believe that one must purchase an expensive machine to make perfectly good compost. A free-standing pile or a homemade wire cage both work fine. It's the ingredients that go into the compost pile or bin that make the difference.

"To build the compost pile, start adding organic materials as they become available," instructs Beck. "Use all kitchen and yard organic waste except meat unless you have a pile large enough for burying the meat very deep. Grinding the larger twigs and leaves will make them compost faster, or you can just throw them in and later pick or screen them out. Adding horse or cow manure up to 25 percent or chicken manure up to 10 percent makes a good rich compost. To inoculate - or get those microorganisms working - in the beginning, a commercial inoculator can be purchased, or a few shovels of garden soil will do the job.

Jerry Parsons, professor and extension horticulturist for Texas Cooperative Extension, has known Beck for more than 30 years. "To know Beck," says Parsons, "is to be a friend ... and to respect him as the most honest person you have ever met. I coined a phrase about Malcolm many years ago when someone was saying he was just being 'organic' to make more money. I told this person that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, someone would have to explain dishonesty to Malcolm - it is such a foreign concept for him." 

Nature is just as honest as Beck. "Nature is easily understood, but for a lot of people Nature is too obvious," he says. "They look right past the clues. To understand nature, walk into the woods and meadows and allow your five senses to feed your brain. Then you must use your brain to think."

Oh, what mankind could accomplish with an honest attitude and a thinking brain, and, of course, Santa Claus.

Agricrafty.com--Grow Stuff! Build Stuff! Learn Stuff!

ERay Gard, creator of Agricrafty

There’s great gardening going on in Austin, Texas. If you need to improve your gardening skill set, agricrafty.com is a valuable resource.

First created as a WordPress blog, developer ERay Gard is an expert in establishing permaculture gardens. 

ERay grew up on a New Mexico ranch and received his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Development from Texas A&M. He joined the Peace Corps and served in Ecuador where he trained community leaders and volunteers on the set-up and management of school gardens. 

After the Peace Corps, ERay volunteered with the Sustainable Food Center in Austin before earning his master’s degree in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis University’s Heller School in Boston. As part of his MA requirements he worked in several development and advisory positions in Damascus, Syria, and in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. 

ERay is back in Austin now where he has worked with Skillshare in the development of online gardening classes and has served as educator for Farmshare Austin where he taught their “Farmer Starter” program for beginning organic farmers. 

How to test your soil.

One topic of ERay’s scrutiny is the importance of soil. In central Texas we must deal with heavy clay, alkaline soil, and limestone. Agricrafty stresses the importance of good, fertile soil and offers a tutorial on how to test it. 

Sheet mulch tutorial

ERay follows his soil tutorial with helpful information about cultivation, soil preparation, and mulch. He recommends using sheet mulch, a combination of cardboard and hay. His primer includes photos which are a big help in understanding how to engineer the mulch. 

ERay has posted helpful You Tube videos on Hardening off and Transplanting Tips and Demo, What it means to "Water In" a plant or seeds, Tomato Seed Planting in Starter Tray, Hybrid v Heirloom Seeds, and several others.

In addition to the website and blog, you can find Agricrafty on Facebook and Instagram. 

Trees Answer Life's Most Provocative Questions

San Antonio Express News
May 13, 2018

From Tolkien’s Ents in “Lord of the Rings” and Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” to the Whomping Willow of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, trees have forever captivated the human imagination. In David George Haskell’s new nature book, The Songs of Trees, he merges a contemplative style with scientific method and concludes that man’s anthropomorphic ruminations about trees aren’t completely misguided. Haskell examines the lives of a dozen trees located in diverse environments from the Amazon jungle to the boreal Canadian forests and beyond. Through lyrical prose he interprets the trees’ physiognomy in a framework that we humans can understand. 

The first composition is performed by a colossal ceibo tree near the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve in western Ecuador. The ceibo illustrates the immense diversity present in the Amazon jungle. When it rains, as it does every few hours, the drops encounter various objects—leaves, wings of bats, soft moss bellies, epiphyte cups—that contribute their distinct melodies. From microbes to mammals, the ceibo supports thousands of species of life. The Amazon is a tightly woven canticle of extraordinary strength. Its long-term survival is threatened by mankind’s voracious appetite for resource consumption. 

Over 3,000 miles from the ceibo in the Canadian boreal forest, tinkling from the crown of a monstrous balsam fir signals the presence of chickadees rummaging its cones for sustenance. Avian memories are preserved both in the chickadees’ minds and in their social network. The balsam fir manifests memory, as well, in its ability to generate genetic diversity.

Next on the tour is the sabal palm of St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia, a tree that survives hardships that would defeat almost any other species. With rising sea levels, the sabal palm demonstrates the kind of adaptation that humans would be wise to emulate.

 An elegy for Tennessee’s green ash tree follows, then the artistry of Japan’s mitsumata, and the impact of Scotland’s hazel tree on modern society. 

The American giants, ponderosa pines and redwoods, illustrate the effects of fire and the progression of climate change, while the life cycle of maple trees serves a more practical purpose. 

More lessons in nature follow—Denver’s cottonwoods, Jerusalem’s olive trees, and Manhattan’s pear trees. All possess a distinctive, unique sound, an ensemble of melodious voices contributing to the overall harmony of the collective.

 “In all these places,” writes Haskell, “tree songs emerge from relationship. Although tree trunks seemingly stand as detached individuals, their lives subvert this atomistic view. Life is embodied network.” 

Haskell believes that all life on this planet is interconnected and that humans do not exist separately and apart from nature—we are part of nature. Our self-serving actions to reap nature’s bounties are imperiling our planet and interfering with the harmonious balance of biological networks. 

“To listen to trees, nature’s great connectors,” concludes Haskell, “is therefore to learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life its source, substance, and beauty.”

Celebrate spring with fennel and sage!

Fennel is one of those beautiful spring plants that provides huge dividends! The bulbs are an aromatic vegetable, the fronds are an herb, and the seeds are a spice—the bulbs are a wonderful addition to a mirepoix, or tossed in a salad, and are delicious braised. Fennel fronds make a tasty pesto. The seeds are used in sausage-making as well as an ingredient in soups, stews, and sauté dishes. And you can harvest the pollen before the fennel goes to seed and use it as a coating for lamb or pork chops, a real delicacy. 

Spring Fennel

When harvested in early spring fennel is sweet and mild. While it is a perennial here in south central Texas, if you let it go until fall to harvest it, it becomes woody and acquires a harsh or bitter taste. Fennel is a host to the black swallowtail butterfly and draws other pollinators, as well. Many gardeners will tell you that fennel makes for a bad neighbor and that it discourages lush growth of vegetables or other herbs planted adjacent to it. I have never found this to be true. Fennel is related to dill and carrots so avoid planting too close to them.

Bees love sage

There are hundreds of sage, or salvia, varieties, so make sure you grow the culinary one, (Salvia officinalis). Like fennel, if sage is harvested in early spring it is mild and is a great addition to soups, stews, and sautés. Its beautiful purple blossoms attract bees. Sage is a tough, drought-tolerant perennial that is a beautiful addition to any landscape. It is easy to dry (you can dry it in your microwave). Lightly salted fried sage is a true delicacy.

Both fennel and sage are deer-resistant.

Viva Tuscany’s Fagioli all’Uccelletto!

I’ve rarely met a bean that I don’t like and I consider myself a bean connoisseur. I’ve grown all kinds of heirloom beans over many years and, on the rare occasion that I don’t like a bean dish, it’s invariably because of the cooking method, not the bean.

When I came across a recipe for “White Beans with Sage, Garlic and Fennel” in March/April 2018 issue of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine I knew immediately that I wanted to make it. With an abundance of sage and fennel in the garden and both at their sweetest right now, this seemed the perfect recipe.

You can use dried beans or canned ones. I do not eat canned beans because of the BPA content in most canned goods and because, in my opinion, they have an “off-taste.” I do use Costco’s canned diced organic tomatoes for the reason that they do not contain BPA. 

For this recipe I used a one-pound package of dry Great Northern beans and one can of Kirkland’s canned diced organic tomatoes. From the garden I used three small fennel bulbs and a couple of long sage branches. I made several small deviations from the published recipe. I had some Red Table black pepper, garlic, and white wine salami in my refrigerator and I diced 2 oz. and cooked off the fat. I drained the salami and wiped out the pan. Saturated animal fat is not something that I consume on a regular basis. 

Next, I fried the sage leaves (in grapeseed oil) in the Dutch oven that I planned to cook the beans in, and used the fragrant oil to sauté the aromatics (onion, fennel, garlic). When the aromatics were soft and translucent, I added the red pepper flakes (from our homegrown Texas Bird Peppers), sage, and salami. I deglazed the mixture with a half-cup of pinot grigio, then added water, soaked dry beans, tomatoes, herbs (2 fresh bay leaves and a sprig of thyme), and salt/pepper to taste. I covered the pot and simmered the beans for a couple of hours until they were done.

The recipe calls for quite a bit of sage and fennel. It seemed like a lot to me, but I used the exact amounts specified in the recipe.

I made some gluten-free Parmesan corn muffins to accompany the beans and I have to say that the meal was a big hit. The beans are meaty and succulent with a background sweetness of fennel. The sage isn’t overpowering at all and it definitely adds a lot of flavor. Red Table Salami is wonderful and contributes a delicious layer of flavor. It’s made from heritage breed hogs sourced from local farms.

We had three meals (six servings) of the beans and froze the remainder. They held up very well and did not get mushy as beans tend to do after a few days. This recipe is a keeper!

Recipe courtesy of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine, March/April 2018

Ingredients

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and finely chopped

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage, plus 20 whole leaves (for frying)

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes

2 15 1/2-ounce cans white beans (see note), 1 can rinsed and drained or 1 pkg. dry white beans, rinsed and soaked overnight

Shaved or grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Note: If you use canned beans discard the liquid from one can and reserve the liquid from the other one.

Directions

In a large Dutch oven over medium, heat 3 TBS. of oil until shimmering. Add the fennel, onion, garlic, chopped sage, pepper flakes and 1 tsp. salt. Cover and cook, stirring until softened, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, beans and, 2/3 cup of liquid from the cooked or canned beans.  Cook, uncovered, stirring and maintaining a gentle simmer, for 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, heat the remaining 3 TBSP oil until shimmering. Add the sage leaves and cook, flipping once, until the edges begin to curl, about 1 minute. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; reserve the oil.

Transfer the beans to a bowl, then top with the sage oil, fried sage leaves, and Parmesan.

Recipe courtesy of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine

Too Hot to Trot!

Last week, on March 15, I checked the temperature of our garden soil. I was shocked--it was 82 degrees in the shade. The air temperature was around 50 degrees and I was wearing a jacket. I thought that my thermometer was broken so I found another one and re-checked--82 degrees. We had an unusually cold winter with an ice storm, 2 snow storms, and prolonged cold in the teens and twenties. The next morning I checked again--78 degrees. How could that be?

I usually follow Texas A&M guidelines for planting. They have calculated realistic soil temperatures, optimal temperatures, and a maximized temperature at which few seeds will germinate. For most summer vegetables such as cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, etc. the optimal temperature for germination is 85 degrees but realistic temperatures are much lower. Our final freeze date is typically early April, but sometimes we see frost in May. I usually plant my seeds the second or third week in April. I have to admit that I have serious misgivings about planting my tomato plants in the ground right now. I have a few seeds that I'm hoarding and I'm not willing to risk, but, for the most part, I could lose some of them and not really notice. 

A few days later, I planted a dozen squash seeds and put a floating row cover over them. This weekend I will probably plant a few cucumber seeds and if I'm feeling brave, I might put a couple of tomato plants in the ground. And maybe a few bush bean seeds and just two or three pole bean varieties and keep my fingers crossed. And okra, basil . . .

What would you do?

Here's the link to the A&M post on soil temperatures.  https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2001/apr01/h2apr01.html

Reflections on the summer garden. . .

Fancy Rat

This is the time of year for looking forward to the spring/summer vegetable garden. But it does little good to look ahead without reflecting upon last year's garden. Three years ago our garden was wiped out in an early spring flood; the next year a hail storm. Last spring all was going well until I realized that my bean and squash seeds weren't germinating. Upon close scrutiny I noticed that empty seed hulls were sitting on top of the soil. After I saw a snake slithering into my greenhouse I suspected that a mouse or rat was the villain. John set up his critter cam in the back corner of the garden and, sure enough, a black and white rat showed up in the feed the next morning. It didn't look like an everyday, common, outdoor rodent. 

     I googled on "rats." It was, to my horror, a "fancy" rat, something I had never heard of. Apparently people pay money for these critters—some of them garner quite a pretty penny. Either someone let it go into the wild or it escaped from its owner. I was determined to find the human responsible for releasing this garden trespasser and I posted a "Found" notice on Nextdoor.com. I got one response—"it's not mine, but if you can't find its owner let me know. My son would love to have it." I stifled an impulse to invite this person over to rat-hunt at 3:00 a.m. 

     John set a trap. The rat went on to its greater rewards that night and I planted more seeds the next day. We picked peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes and with a relatively cool, wet spring we were able to harvest lots of salad greens. The squash and beans never did produce an abundant crop.

     Sweltering heat and severe drought ushered in our mid-summer slowdown, accompanied by lethargic, miserable plants. We go through this every summer so I knew that if I could keep everyone alive, they would revitalize in the fall and, in a final burst, provide us with an abundant harvest.

     On a breath-sucking, sweltering August morning I was greeted with bed after bed of upturned plants, their roots pointing to the sky, their foliage wilted and torn. I was shocked and angry. I shed a few tears and shouted some expletives. There was no doubt in my mind—it was a terrorist attack—and I knew who committed this heinous act. But that's another story.