ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION SERVICES MONTHLY NEWSLETTER January 2002 *********************************************** In this issue: Congratulations to Deb Robinson Ants Recipes from our kitchens *********************************************** Hi, All You Good People, "Sustainable Agriculture" was the topic presented by Deb Robinson at the monthly meeting of the Lompoc Valley Botanic and Horticulture Society. She told of her own experiments with beneficial habitat, compost and compost tea, as well as those pratices she has observed while touring local farms and vineyards. By all reports, Deb gave an interesting informative presentation. Congratulations! Your friends here in Lompoc really appreciate you! *************************************************** GOT ANTS ? The Argentine ant is the one that most frequently invades our homes. Although they can be pests, ants provide an ecological cleansing and fertilization of considearable importance. They kill and eat many pest insects, aereate the soil, and recycle dead animal and vegetable material. Because of these beneficial aspects, it is undesirable (and probably downright impossible) to eliminate ants from their outside habitat. The best approach to ant management is to keep them outdoors. QUICK FIX FOR ANT EMERGENCY 1. Find out what ants are after, and where they are entering the room. 2. Don't remove the attraction until Step 3 because ants will scatter. They are easier to kill in a line. 3. Spray ants with soapy water and wipe up with a cloth or a sponge. Soap washes away the chemical trail ants follow. 4. Next, block entry point temporarily with a smear of petroleum jelly or a piece of tape. Use silicone caulk to permanently close cracks in walls, along moldings and baseboards, and in gaps around pipes. 5. If you cannot find an entry point, clean up the ants to a convenient spot. Place a bait station on the line the ants had been following. TIPS FOR USING ANT BAITS NOTE: Sprays can cause ants to scatter to form several new colonies! Sprays creaate toxic fumes that are hazardous to human health - a very important factor when attempting to eliminate ANY household pest. Ant baits contain a pesticide mixed with an attractive food substance. Ants take a small quantities back to their nest to share with their nest mates. In this way sometimes the entire nest may be eradicated. I solved my ant problem by placing 20 Mule Team Borax at the ants' entry point. I found one or two scouts throughout the following week. AFTER THAT TIME, NO MORE ANTS! I told a friend about my experience and she tried it in her kitchen and had NO MORE ANTS! If you purchase baits in the stores, look for the least toxic ones. Avoid sprays, which can aggravate the problem! ******************************************************** Lauren writes: MAKING PEACE with the KITCHEN Before I joined our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) last summer, I had long since declared my independence from kitchen duty. I had done my time. Some thirty years of involuntary servitude in the kitchen--planning, shopping, preparing, cooking, and cleaning up after three family meals a day--was more than enough. Fast food, here I come! was my cry of rebellion. Bit by bit, as the pounds crept onto my frame and because of the inexorable logic of it, I became a supporter of sustainably-produced food. Somehow, I found myself enthusiastically promoting the idea of the CSA, in which customers deal directly with a local farmer, subscribing to his services for a whole season at a time. Because this eliminates countless middlemen, the customer benefits by having reasonably priced, locally grown, chemical-free, REALLY FRESH vegetables and fruits--in our case, delivered weekly to our doors. The farmer benefits by receiving the money in advance, which gives him working capital and assures an income, even if an individual crop fails to produce; he has a wide variety of products growing, so the loss of one or another item does not spell ruin. So I eagerly awaited the first delivery, and when it arrived, it was about twice as much as I had envisioned (in their enthusiasm for the project, our farmer and his wife overplanted and passed the excess along to the customers as a "bonus"). We had Swiss chard and mixed lettuces, tomatoes and cucumbers, zucchini and parsley, onions and celery, cabbage and broccoli and beets and cauliflower. There were often new items and surprises, like when the tomatilloes arrived (I had never eaten one before, let alone cooked with them). In no time at all, the refrigerator was beyond full. It began to dawn on me, as the Tuesdays rolled relentlessly around and the veggies continued to pile up at an alarming rate, that I was going to have to do something radical, like maybe even Re-enter the Dreaded Kitchen! Don't know why it hadn't occurred to me sooner. Of course, I had known that I needed to eat more fresh veggies; that is the one item upon which all of the diets of whatever persuasion can agree. And as all cooks know, the common denominator with vegetables is LABOR, as in scrubbing, peeling, trimming, and chopping. And, as I tried them out one by one, I had to acknowledge that they tasted better than anything I had bought in a supermarket or eaten since I had grown my own. Having learned long since that it is easier to bow to the inevitable rather than continue to fight it--and after all, we were PAYING for all these veggies--I rolled up my sleeves, sharpened my knives, and went to work. At first, I tried to ignore the sounds of music or TV floating in from the living room and the sense that I had once more chained myself to stove and sink. And then I got the bright idea of putting a little radio in the kitchen, tuned to my favorite NPR station. The first one didn't work; it couldn't bring in the distant station in a reliable fashion. So I bought a different one, one with a CD player for those times when the signal was blocked by whatever blocks radio signals. It fit on a window sill, so it didn't take up valuable space. And now as I chop vegetables for soup or a salad or stir fry, etc., I do it to music or while catching up on the latest news, and it doesn't seem nearly such a drag. In fact, it is a welcome relief from sitting in front of the computer for hours on end. I seem to have come full circle, and can finally enjoy these humble tasks. I offer you the following recipes with a virtual guarantee that you will want to make them again and again. MAMA'S CHICKEN VEGETABLE SOUP Makes 8 servings. 1 pound or more chicken, cut up. ½ head shredded green or red cabbage; or chopped chard, bok choy, etc. 1 minced garlic clove 2 chopped celery stalks, leaves and all. 2 pounds diced fresh tomatoes or two large (28 ounce) cans 3 chopped carrots 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or equivalent of dried parsley ½ teaspoon dried thyme (optional) ½ teaspoon dried basil (optional) freshly ground black pepper, to taste; any other favorite seasoning. Salt is not needed. 4 cups chicken stock, canned or homemade 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice Feel free to improvise with vegetables on hand. If you already have cooked chicken on hand, add it near the end of the cooking cycle. And you can easily double the recipe and refrigerate or freeze the excess. In a large soup pot, bring all ingredients except lemon juice to a boil. Lower heat and simmer one hour. Remove chicken parts and cool. Remove any skin and bones. Cut up chicken and return to pot. Add lemon juice. Taste, and adjust the seasonings. This is an excellent recipe to make use of inexpensive chicken legs/thighs/drumsticks. Several commercial organic chicken stocks are now available. It is an amazingly good soup; people come back for more. GUISADO DE PUERCO CON TOMATILLOS PORK STEW WITH TOMATILLOS 2 ½ pounds boneless pork shoulder (being sold as “pork tri-tip”) 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed 1 ½ cups chopped fresh (or canned and drained) tomatillos 1 large can (7 oz.) diced green chiles 1 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro ½ cup water Salt Sour cream Cilantro sprigs Trim and discard fat from pork; cut pork into 1-inch cubes. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or similar pot over medium-high heat. Add meat, a few pieces at a time, and cook until lightly browned on all sides. Lift out meat, transfer to a bowl, and keep warm; reserve drippings in pan. Add onion to pan and cook, stirring, until soft (about 5-7 minutes). Return meat to pan and stir in garlic, tomatillos, chiles, marjoram, chopped cilantro, and water. Season to taste with salt. Cover and simmer until meat is tender when pierced (about one hour). Skim off fat. Spoon into serving bowls and garnish with sour cream and cilantro sprigs. Makes 4 to 6 servings. This is good served over brrown rice and accompanied by a salad. ********************************************************************** Like Lauren, I, too, have returned to the kitchen. As a widow, and eating alone, I had lived mostly on Lean Cusine. Since joining CSA I have gone to live with my son, Bill, and his wife, Claudia. We have had fun experimenting with stir fry, adding fresh mustard greens for that refreshing "bite" to our salads, making green sauce with the tomatillos for our Mexican dishes and adding greens we had never tried before to our soups. I offer a recipe for a dressing I use for shredded cabbage (either red or green): 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard Blend ingedients thoroughly with a whisk or in a blender. Mix into shredded cabbage. (For a lighter dressing, substitute 1/4 cup water for the mayonaisse and celery seed for the mustard.) ********************************************************************************** Margaret Swingle Environmental Information Services rswingle@impulse.net