Leafsoup Life

Poached Eggs Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:09:00 +0000

I had not been this hungry since... I couln't remember the last time I was this hungry. Julia said to use fresh eggs. I bought these eggs two weeks ago, and I know they can sit in the store for a month before anyone buys them.

That berry cream-cheese pie in the refrigerator called directly to my empty stomach, trying to bypass my brain. Caught ya! A little voice inside said “No, keep at it until you poach an edible egg.” Hunger is quite a motivator. I showered and went shopping for fresh eggs. Until recently, I bought fresh eggs from a farm. The last time I talked to the owner, he said the hens weren't paying their rent, and he has since gone out of business. Too bad. I miss my farm eggs.

I checked the cold dates on eggs at three stores, and bought a carton of the freshest ones I could find. The “sell by” date was 29 days out. I planned to eat the next egg no matter what. Burned, barely warm, I didn't care.

A routine was beginning to emerge.: Heat the water, pierce the large end of the egg, crack it into a small bowl, wait for the water to almost boil, turn down the heat, slip the egg into the water, set the timer for 4 minutes, take some pictures while it's cooking.

Conspicuously missing from this routine was “Eat the egg”.

I waited for larger bubbles to form in the water this time, meaning the water was hotter than before, but still not boiling.

The fresher egg stayed almost in one mass. At least it didn't spread all over the pan.

I wanted to make sure it was done and would not slip right through the slotted spoon again, so I let it cook an extra minute.

Oh, so pretty!

A little too done, but rich, and satisfying anyway.

I tried with the hotter water again, and removed it in the recommended 4 minutes.

Payoff!

Mmmmm... the warm, liquid yolk, so rich and buttery-tasting slid down my throat to my stomach which finally quieted, busily digesting the fruits of my diligence.

Amazon sent me a notice that “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” has shipped. I am anxious to read Julia's advice and to become an egg-poaching expert. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing.

“Let food by thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food,”
-- Hippocrates
(Quotes from Useful Information) http://www.useful-information.info/index.html

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Poached Eggs Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:02:00 +0000

After I scrubbed the smoke stains off the pot with one of those mini, soapy SOS pads, I scoured the drip pan too, then put two inches of water in the saucepan and turned the burner on high. Deja Vu. I pierced the large end of an egg with a needle because I think I remember Julia doing that in the movie (Julie and Julia). I don't know why, I hope she tells me when I read the instructions in her cookbook (Mastering the Art of French Cooking.)

Tiny bubbles began forming on the bottom of the pan.

We aren't supposed to let the water boil, so I turned the temperature to Low, cracked the egg into a small Pyrex bowl, and eased the egg gently into the water. I knew I would get it right this time, Soon I would be swallowing a beautifully poached, perfectly cooked egg, the white firm, not runny, the warm yolk thick, but still liquid, sliding down my throat into my growling stomach.

I was so confident, I took pictures after every minute of the recommended 4-minute cooking time.

Hmmm. The egg is supposed to stay in one mass. That's why Julia said to simmer, not boil. Movement of boiling water will destroy the structure of the egg. I could see the egg turning white in the water. This would not be my perfect egg. It was coming apart. But I was hungry, so planned to eat it anyway, and then try again.

Two minutes to go.

One more minute.

Four minutes were up, but didn't look done.

“Have faith,” I told myself; “Julia knows better than you. Take it out now.”

I slipped the slotted spoon into the water and carefully removed the part of the egg that contained the yolk. The entire thing ran through the holes in the slotted spoon, leaving a tiny bit of liquid yolk on the spoon. I thought my heart fell into my stomach, which was the only good thing happening because I was hungry and this egg wasn't going to curb that hunger. It was so soft it slipped through the holes in the slotted spoon.!

To be continued.
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Poached Eggs Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:41:00 +0000

I have made a New Year's resolution to lose weight more times that I am willing to tell. I usually start the year with a plan, but I quickly get busy with real life and the payoff begins to seem not worth the effort of tracking everything I eat. So this year, I need to try something different. Besides exercising every day (I'll cover that later) I will be conscious of what I choose to eat. I will make choices, instead of eating the first thing that seems appealing.

This morning I resisted the leftover holiday desserts (there is a berry-cream cheese pie in the fridge and the best brownies in the world that my daughter made yesterday) and asked myself: “what is my favorite healthy breakfast?” as I remembered the homemade biscuits and sausage gravy I made for the family yesterday morning. Mmmmm.

Fruit, yogurt, and granola is high on my list, but if I eat a high carbohydrate breakfast, I'll be hungry way before lunch time. Yeah, I know I could use plain yogurt, but have you tasted unsweetened yogurt? Besides, the fruit and granola are stuffed with carbs, too. I decided on an egg, or maybe two; that would be about 160calories, no carbs, lots of protein... but not fried in that bacon grease I saved (what was I thinking?)

Poached, maybe.

Last week I watched Julie and Julia with both my daughters (loved it) and remembered Merrill Streep, as Julia Child, learning to poach an egg. I don't have Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, so I ordered it just now, but I'll be mighty hungry if I wait until it gets here before poaching my eggs. I found some instructions online, and gave it a try. Actually, three tries, so far.

Poaching an Egg, first try:

I put about 2 inches of filtered water in a saucepan on the stove and turned the burner on High, planning to turn it down to Low just before it boiled, because Julia said to “simmer” it. A little flame flickered out from under the pan. Something in the drip pan had caught fire. I thought it was just a small bit of food, or a crumb, and the fire would quickly burn itself out, as always. No worries.

The flame grew larger. Must have been a bigger chunk of food than I thought. When the flames began flicking up past the top of the pot, I remembered that yesterday I spilled some grease on the burner after I made the sausage gravy. I meant to pull out that drip pan and wash it after breakfast, but I obviously forgot to do that. My brain went into emergency mode, thoughts flashed through my mind at the speed of electricity.

Sprinkle with baking soda! First, turn off the burner! Don't catch your sleeve on fire reaching for the knob on the back of the stove! It's smoking! The smoke detector will wake everyone up! Fire trucks! Sirens! (I remembered my Mom telling me as a teenager to use baking soda to put out cooking fires, so I have always kept my baking soda in a cupboard near the stove, but not above it, in case the fire is to high to be able to get it without getting burned.) Grabbed the soda. Smothered the fire, Moved the pot. Noticed the handle wasn't hot. That was lucky! Sprinkled more soda. The fire went out.

I opened the windows, turned on the exhaust fan over the stove as well as the one in the bathroom. Dumb smoke detectors never made a tweet. No one woke up. What a mess!

To be continued.
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The First Day of a New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:18:00 +0000

A day for new beginnings,
to “resolve” to:
Create something
each day.
Exercise, at least a little,
each day.
Write something
each day.
Keep a notepad and camera with me
at all times.

The little things add up.
I snapped this photo with my phone's camera through the window of the builiding where I work.

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In Like a Lion

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:58:00 +0000

I need to dig in the dirt in the springtime. It’s March already and I’m yearning to begin work in the garden. Last month, I finally took out last summer’s tomato cages and disposed of what was left of the dead stems and stalks, covered half the garden with black plastic to keep the spring weeds down until May when I can plant warm-weather vegetables, and weeded the other half in preparation for planting early crops.

Yesterday, we had teaser sun-breaks between rain showers, downpours, hail, and gusty wind spells. So instead of planting peas and chard, as I had planned, I started seeds indoors: tomatoes, cucumbers, Walla-Walla Sweet onions, marigolds, and a few other things. Then I put together my new 4-foot by 6-foot plastic greenhouse (in the garage). I hope to put it in the corner of the garden next week-end.

Last night it snowed! Just a little, but enough to keep me from planting peas and chard today as I had planned. So I pulled out the new camera I got for Christmas and took some shots out the back door; it was too cold and wet to go slopping around out there in my slippers. I didn’t get any spectacular shots, but experience has taught me that when there’s nothing obvious to photograph, look for the “micro” stuff. Here are the results:

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Free Snowflake Image

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:44:00 +0000

This digital snowflake image makes a great Christmas card or winter holiday card. This image is free for download, just right click it and choose Save Image.

Keep a stock of Greeting Card Paper on hand for printing your own cards.

Or go to my gallery at Imagekind to order professionally printed cards.

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Easy Quilt - Perfect Gift

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:23:00 +0000

Hand made quilts are perfect gifts for wedding and baby showers. When I hear that a family member is planning a wedding, I usually get started planning a quilt right away, coordinating the colors in the quilt to the couple's favorite colors or their wedding colors. Recently, I attended my neice's wedding shower. In this case, both her favorite colors and her wedding colors are browns and beiges.

I thumbed through my most recent issue of The Quilter Magazine, November 2008, and found an appealing pattern for a lap robe size quilt (I call them snuggle-on-the-couch quilts) on page 14, that turned out to be one of the quickest quilts I ever made. As I picked leafy prints for this quilt, I couldn't resist including at least one “real” color, so I chose a green batik as the feature fabric, and a light green Fairy Frost print along with browns and beiges for the background colors.

When my niece opened this gift at the shower, she hugged it and said “These are my favorite colors!” I apologized for not having made a larger quilt, and she replied “I love it; It's a snuggle-on-the-couch-quilt!”

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New Art Gallery on ImageKind

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:36:00 +0000

In March, few years ago, we vacationed in Sedona, Arizona. Our first hike in the area was on Bell Rock. The view toward the north, from the short hike halfway up Bell Rock, was crisp, colorful, and panoramic.This photo is included in my new art gallery on Imagekind. Matting and framing of prints is optional. Visitors can view or purchase high quality prints and greeting cards here: Gallery.
I am interested in what you like about the gallery, but mostly what you think I should change. What should I do more of? Less? I am grateful for all feedback, and am thrilled for your visit!
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Vacation in Alberta - Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:29:00 +0000

This morning, we walked to Quarry Lake Park on the edge of the town of Canmore. The colors reflected off the perfectly flat lake surface deepened the rich colors of the surrounding scene. Across the road from the Quarry Lake Park, a short trail leads to this waterfall. We spent the afternoon shopping for souvenirs in Canmore, as we must leave this beautiful town tomorrow.
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Vacation in Alberta - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:33:00 +0000

We stopped first at Bow Summit, on the 386-mile round trip, from Canmore to Jasper.Mountains reflected by turquoise lakes dotted the roadsides on this windless blue-sky morning.Besides elk, that were too quick for my camera skills, mountain goats were the only other large wildlife we spotted.We stopped at Sunwapta Falls for a snack break.We explored the short trails at Athabasca Falls.Clouds began to form in the afternoon.We saw the famous Columbia Ice fields, the source of our mighty Columbia River.This is how I always expected the Rocky Mountains to look, magnificent and forbidding, and going on for hundreds of miles.A couple of showers sprinkled us in the afternoon,then rewarded us with a bright rainbow.I took pictures all day, until the light faded, and we made our way back to Banff, and then Canmore for the night.
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Vacation in Alberta - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:09:00 +0000

We drove to Banff and rode the gondola to the top of Sulfur Mountian. Like Canmore, the town of Banff lies in a river valley surrounded by mountians.The observation deck atop the visitor's center and restaraunt offers 360 degrees of panoramic mountain views.Late in the afternoon, we drove to Moraine Lake near Lake Louise.
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Vacation In Alberta Day - 2

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:02:00 +0000

Perfect weather afforded me some really colorful pictures.
We hiked up to Grassi Lakes today from Canmore, Alberta.I wish everyone could share this. I enjoyed every minute of this day.Trudging back to the parking lot, my legs felt like jello, when I looked up and was rewarded with the sight of golden Aspen leaves against a cobalt sky. Yes, this is why I love hiking.

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Vacation in Alberta - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:39:00 +0000

This is the best picture taken on Day 1 of our road trip to Canmore, Alberta. Funny, that both the picture above and the two below, were taken at roadside rest areas. The weather was great, and the scenery was fantastic.

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Picture of a Duck

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:44:00 +0000

I have been busy with my garden and have not posted for quite a while. Just ran across this picture taken on Paulina Lake at Newberry National Monument in Oregon. I hope you enjoy it.

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What a glorious mess!

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:49:00 +0000

Early in the spring, my vegetable garden sprouts hundreds of obedient little seedlings marching in groups of closely spaced rows separated by three-feet-wide walkways. I yank out every tiny weed before it has a chance to grow, spreading disorder and setting a bad example for the other plants.

By late July, I lose all sense of control over this patch of ground as the plants sprawl over other rows, harboring weeds below and between them, grow tall and go to seed, and overgrow all the walkways.

Even more than I enjoyed my breif illusion of control in the spring, I adore the beauty of this chaos in midsummer.

There are at least thirteen different plants, besides the weeds and grass, in the little section shown above. Can you find them? Do you see any that I missed?

Blue Lobelia
Chard
Coriander
Dill
Miniature Dahlias
Mustard
Onions
Orange Marigolds
Pansies
Peach Tree
Peppers
Purple Allysum
Yellow Marigolds

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Gold Beach to Cape Blanco to Lincoln City to Seaside and Another Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:40:00 +0000

We slept with the sliding door open onto the balcony, and awakened to foggy morning light and the sound of ocean waves. The Gold Beach Resort’s complementary continental breakfast saved us some time, and soon we were headed north, up the coast, on highway 101.

I navigated as my husband drove us around Nesika Beach, where I lived for three years (more than forty years ago), and tiny Ophir where I attended Ophir Elementary School. Everything was much, much smaller than I remembered it. The school that had seemed so big in my mind was tiny. And, sadly for me, it was closed! Not because it’s summer; it’s just no longer in use. These southern Oregon coastal communities seem almost deserted compared to the bustling towns on the northern coast.

The fog began to lift a bit as we approached the silent, ghostly form of the Cape Blanco lighthouse. Cape Blanco is the westernmost point of the continental United States.

Wildflowers brightened as the sun struggled to overcome the fog.

The very well-kept Cape Blanco campground played host to only a few campers, mostly motor homes and trailers. I didn’t see any tents. Very dense foliage between campsites made these sites feel much more private than most public campgrounds.

We made our way down the curvy one-lane road to the beach. Does a ladybug qualify as a wildlife sighting?

In a rocky bank against the beach, two swallows worked, busily building a nest – in the rocks! I thought swallows liked trees and high places. This nest was only about ten feet off the sand.

In Lincoln City we looked for a room for our second night, but we found "no room at the inn” -- none of them. The town was rumbling with motorcycles and filled with folks wearing Harley T-shirts, as well as most of the residents of Salem and Portland who came here for the week-end to escape the heat.

Surely, we thought, we could find a room a little further north. Not so. Not for less than $225 per night anyway, so we kept traveling north. The hazy afternoon melted into a bright sunset which we thoroughly enjoyed as we relaxed over fish and chips at a window table in the restaurant of the Shilo hotel in Seaside.

Arriving at home around midnight, the two days and one night we had spent on the road, filled with so many different sights, sounds, tastes, environments, elevations, climates, and, temperatures, seemed more like a week-long vacation. But the best part was waking up in our own bed back at home in the morning.

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Grants Pass to Agness to Gold Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:16:00 +0000

In an earlier post, I wrote that most of the passes from I-5 to the Oregon coast are similar. This one is different. We planned to drive from Grants Pass, Oregon, over the Coast Range to Gold Beach by way of Agness, a tiny but famous community.

A little after noon, we took Exit 66 off I-5 toward Merlin, then west on the Merlin-Galice Road. At one our first stops, near Galice, a plaque marks the entrance to Rogue River’s Hellgate Canyon. Both the river and the canyon turn north here; we drove west on Galice Road, then followed narrow, winding, but paved, Forest Service road 23 to Agness, Oregon.

It takes one to two hours to drive the other passes to the coast. I admit that we did stop a lot to enjoy the scenery (and because I get motion-sickness), but this route consumed about 5 hours of our precious week-end. If we hadn’t stopped at all, it would have still taken three to four hours. Don’t go this way if you want to get there quickly, because you can’t. Take plenty of time and enjoy the beauty.

We chugged almost to the top, ready to begin the descent into Agness many times, but every time we reached what we thought was the summit, the road descended just a little, then took us even higher.

The cobalt-blue sky stretched from the northern horizon to the southern, uninterrupted by clouds. Flower blossoms dotted the hillsides, and wild currants bloomed against the bright blue sky. A sign promised: 5 more miles to Peavine Lake. We never did see the lake, or another sign pointing the way.

The scorching heat had not yet melted all the snow in these mountains even now in late June. If we had come this way a month earlier, I think the road would have been impassable.

When we finally reached Agness, a sign read “Population: Small”, and our thermometer registered 101 degrees! A few locals visited in the shade outside the store. But the shade provided little relief from the miserable heat.

We didn’t even go inside, just snapped a couple of pictures and hopped back into our air-conditioned vehicle, anxious to head down the river again in anticipation of a cool ocean breeze.

As we followed the river downstream, we watched the temperature drop slowly, 98, 97, 96... Finally 75! We must be almost there! Gold Beach is a small, quiet town that has changed very little since I lived near there over 40 years ago. Looks like the jet boats are still the town’s major attraction, the streets and sidewalks nearly empty.

The sky here was not clear, not quite a fog, but hazy. 67 degrees is what the thermometer read when we checked into our motel around 5:00 p.m. What a relief! We got a great deal on a third-floor ocean front room, and then ate clam chowder and salad at a restaurant on the river. Back at our hotel, yellow lupines lined the path to the beach.

After a long, hot day of mostly sitting,

we walked on the beach until

the sun turned the grey haze to a pretty pink

before it dropped into the water.

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Foxglove

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:12:00 +0000

Foxglove is the Washington State flower. This photo was taken (also on a hike) at Tillamook Head between Seaside and Cannon Beach, Oregon.

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Technorati Profile

Wild Tiger Lily

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:09:00 +0000

I took this photo while on a hike up Silver Star Mountain in southwestern Washington. The wildflowers were glorious.
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Water Lily

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:47:00 +0000

Pink and yellow Water Lilies bloom in the pond in our back yard.

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Bohemian or Cedar Waxwing Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:20:00 +0000

I haven't seen these birds in our back yard before this year, so I tried identifiying them by comparing with other pictures on the Internet. Are they Bohemian Waxwings or Cedar Waxwings?

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Real Raw Milk is Healthy

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:17:00 +0000

Watching Grandma milk the cow was fascinating to me as a child. Sometimes she let me churn raw milk into butter. In the summer we picked strawberries and ate them with raw cream. I still remember that sweet fresh taste of summer at my Grandparent’s house.

My cousins owned a milk cow too. I grew up drinking raw milk off and on, depending on our access to it. We didn’t have our own cow but raw milk purchased from a friend or neighbor used to cost less than the pasteurized and homogenized milk from the grocery store.

More recently, I discovered raw milk’s health benefits, and learned that homogenization and pasteurization damages the milk so much that it is no longer healthy. When raw milk sits undisturbed in the refrigerator for a day or two, the cream floats to the top. Pour it off and use it in your coffee, on cereal, make whipped cream, ice cream, or butter. Or just shake the jug to mix it up again and enjoy the richness of the milk.

Homogenization alters milk’s fat molecules so the cream won’t separate from the milk. Our bodies don’t recognize these altered molecules and don’t know how to process them. Homogenization causes milk allergies and causes plaque build-up in our arteries. On the other hand, raw unprocessed fat is actually very good for us.

Pasteurization heats the milk to destroy any dangerous bacteria, but it also destroys the beneficial bacteria that our guts need to properly digest and assimlate the milk. When milk from pastured cows is handled correctly, in a clean dairy, there are no dangerous bacteria.

More people are sickened by pasteurized milk than raw milk. E-coli have been found in raw milk that was not handled properly and in dirty dairies, but it has also been found on spinach, lettuce, and in hamburger. Ask the naysayers who don’t want us to have the choice of drinking raw milk whether they have stopped eating hamburger and lettuce and spinach.

The state of Washington now certifies raw dairies and allows them to sell milk to individuals and at farmer’s markets etc. I have never heard of an e-coli outbreak in a certified raw dairy.

I live in town and don’t have the space or time to care for my own cow. So I pay more than twice as much for raw milk as I would for processed milk, but I believe the health benefits are worth the cost, and the taste is wonderful. I’d rather pay more for good food now, to enjoy better health, than pay for drugs and medical bills later and be sick in my “golden” years.

Big commercial dairies get subsidies from the federal government which helps keep milk prices low in the supermarkets. That’s our money they give away. I’d like them to stop the subsidies, or at least be fair by giving the same benefit to small organic raw dairies.

References:
Find a raw dairy near you.
Know your milk.
Real Milk.
Is it legal?
Mary Enig and Sally Fallon
Weston A. Price Foundation
Raw Milk Controversy

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Peonies

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:32:00 +0000

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers, not just for their beauty, but because they are so relaxed. They give much and ask for little in return. I planted them several years ago on the east side of the house. I don’t fertilize them, rarely water them, but they never complain. They just keep slinging out lots of big, bright, loose-looking blooms throughout late spring and early summer.

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What is a Farmlet?

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:34:00 +0000

I thought I created the word “farmlet” but a Google search shows that Australians and New Zealanders use it to describe small farms.

I originally used farmlet in my post Driving to the Oregon Coast to describe rural residences that obviously aren’t making a living at farming, but sometimes raise a few animals and usually plant a vegetable garden. Outbuildings and fences are common. Some support small orchards. They may be what’s left of an original homestead after it’s been subdivided a bazillion times and most of it sold off in small parcels.

Wikipedia doesn’t have a definition listed for it, so I’d like to take this opportunity to create my own definition. Farmlet describes the lifestyle of the residents as much as it describes the property. Homes with edible landscapes could be considered farmlets. Any small piece of property where the owners grow several different kinds of foods for their own use (without large machinery) I consider a farmlet.

My husband and I both work full time. We spend many of our weekends maintaining our half-acre farmlet in the middle of town. I raise food for our own use in a 24 by 52 foot vegetable garden which includes a small strawberry patch in addition to many vegetables. We have 15 fruit trees in our small orchard: two semi-dwarf peach trees, five cherries, two plums, one prune, two pears, and three apples. Along the borders and in the landscape of the back yard we planted two kiwi vines, two rhubarb plants, four blueberry bushes, an elderberry tree, a currant bush, and a two pawpaw trees. Well we didn’t plant the elderberry tree. I think a bird did it for us.

I’d like to raise a few chickens for eggs and meat, and maybe milk a small cow, but I don’t think my close neighbors would appreciate that much “farming”. We care for only one animal, a 16-year-old cat named Pepper. Pepper is useless except for shedding his hair and spreading his scent all over the place, which seems to be effective at keeping rabbits out of my garden. Yes, even though we live in town, I have encountered rabbits in our yard.

Pepper has only a few teeth left, is hard of hearing, hard of seeing, and hard of smelling. The poor guy has trouble finding the treats that I drop in his bowl, but he still thinks he is a ferocious hunter. Last summer I saw him chase a rabbit at full speed for about 30 feet and then just plop down to rest. Maybe the rabbit ran beyond his fuzzy field of vision and he thought it evaporated or he scared it away. The rabbit took its time hopping over to the neighbor’s yard. I went back to pulling weeds.

Dictionary.com does have a definition for farmlet:

...a small residential farm run by an owner who earns income elsewhere.

Looks like I was on the right track after all, even though I apparently was not the first to invent the word.

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"farmlet." Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. 04 Jun. 2008. .
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Will Higher Gas Prices Help Small Farms?

noreply@blogger.com (Leafsoup) — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:00:00 +0000

The advent of large efficient farm machinery, new preservation techniques, refrigeration, and cheap worldwide transportation, over the last hundred years forced most small farmers to move to big farms or go out of business. The bulk of large farms grow corn and soy for food products, animal feed, and fuel production. As a result, most Americans now have little or no access to local produce, or natural grass-fed meat unless they grow it themselves. Meanwhile, fuel prices are soaring.

Currently, much of our food is grown in sterile soil with artificial fertilizers and travels thousands of miles before it reaches our tables, so it is of much poorer quality than fresh local food. In Animal, Vegetable, MiracleBarbara Kingsolver points out that, on average, one calorie of food available in our supermarkets has cost 6 calories worth of energy (mostly fossil fuels) to produce and transport.

On the other hand, local organic farms do not need artificial fertilizers (which surprised me to learn, are largely made from oil and natural gas). Plants fertilized with green manure or animal manure produce food of much higher quality than expensive artificial fertilizers and are nearly, or totally, free on the small farm.

Higher gas prices are now driving up supermarket food prices. Will that be to the advantage of the small organic farm? The strugging small farm may now be able to better compete with industrial food suppliers simply because their costs for shipping and fertilizer are much lower.

Buying locally grown, fresh food whenever possible just makes more and more sense.

Organic Gardening Article
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