Around the Home

A pound of red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) arrived at our front door today, courtesy of USPS, and they are now settling into their new home – a plastic compost bin Fran assembled at a vermicomposting workshop she recently attended at Scott Arboretum.

On September 11 we attended the 2010 Philadelphia Honey Fest held at the historic Wyck House in Germantown, PA. Fran and I have been interested for some time in having our own hives and producing our own natural sweetener. Bees are environmentally friendly and help to pollinate our native plants.

Several years ago I wanted to rent a powerwasher to clean the deck at the Media house before refinishing, but since the rental fee for two days was considerably more than half the cost of a new unit, I ended up buying one instead. It turned out to be a great investment. It cleaned that deck twice. Then I used it once on the front patio after moving to Friendship Road.

One day last fall, Paul returned from work and told me his fellow faculty were asking about the various items in the bento box he had taken for lunch. One of them said, "My wife is really into making kefir." The word was slightly familiar, and I thought it was a dairy product, but that was more of a guess than knowledge. "That's interesting. I'd never thought about making kefir," I said before quickly excusing myself to google it. Here's what Wikipedia reported:

It's 26F at the moment, but it's sunny and there's a light breeze -- a perfect day to use my new solar dryer. Everything should be dry when we get back from our hike.

Yogurt is supposed to be one of the easier processed foods to make at home, and since I've had good success with sourdough cultures, I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately I worked against myself, so my first attempt was not successful. Fortunately I'm determined not to equate lack of success with failure, so I'm working on another use for the not-yogurt.

Martha Stewart sold me on the idea of using attractive refillable containers for items you tend to keep handy on the sink or counter to avoid being constantly assaulted by advertising and unattractive products. I invested something under a dollar in a pour spout that I added to a Prussian blue liter bottle that once held mineral water or something, and I've been using that ever since for my olive oil.

When we were children, clothes were hung on the line to dry, and sometimes instead on a wooden rack. Automatic dryers were introduced as conveniences, but over time they have become viewed as necessities of modern life. What a shame. Dryers are expensive to operate, increase the temperature in the house, and stress fabrics, decreasing the useful life of clothes. What's more, clothes from the line smell like sunshine, something you can't fake with a detergent or fabric softener.

Why clutter up the pantry with pale imitations of real foods that are easy to prepare, vastly superior in taste and quality, and often less expensive? Mark Bittman's article from The New York Times takes a decidely upscale approach