Morel Mushrooms And A Bike

I found tonight's dinner at lunch today! These yellow morels like to pop up where dead Elm Trees can be found usually near Tulip Poplars. Remember, when you see a mushroom in the woods you are only seeing the fruit of a massive mycelial(?) network. 

Oh yeah! I saw this bad ass Jones with a truss fork too.

All in all it was a good lunch break.

Eating Locally On Vacation

A while back I posted about a mushroom event I attended after I lucked upon a patch of Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. It seems my luck is still running strong, I happened upon these beauties while on vacation in Rhode Island last month. 

It had been raining for a few days and the mushrooms were popping. This dead tree was standing in a neighbor's yard where my wife and I were renting a house. I saw them from the road and started thinking about a recipe. We had visited a friend's farm nearby the day before and left with some fresh picked okra, string beans, and tomatoes. 

I threw everything in a pot and made another pot chicken of the woods curry that thanks to the fresh veggies rivaled the initial last batch. 

The farm where we got the veggies was 20 minutes away and the main ingredient was picked a few hundred yards away. With the exception of the spices and a little butter, this may have been the most "local" meal I've eaten, and damn was it good.

This weekend is a perfect time to hit up a farmer's market or two. ;)

Happy Friday.

New Blog Series: Will It Compost?

Most of you have probably seen the "Will It Blend?" website that made the rounds a while back. The idea was to see if the latest must have personal electronics equipment could be taken out by a blender. The answer was always yes, yes a blender can destroy an: ipod, cellphone, game system... whatever. I thought it was pretty stupid at the time but a variation of the idea might be pretty cool. Recently I purchased a set of Ergon GP1 grips (which I love),  and noticed the substantial "green" engineering effort that went into the packaging and I had my variation.

Will It Compost? 

The idea is to put packaging that is supposedly "green" to the test by subjecting said packaging to a month in my worm composting bin. Then I'll be able to judge weather the companies claims of eco-friendliness are legit or full of compost. If my worms don't eat it, it ain't green. At the same time I will be getting an education on green packaging, as I don't know much about it. 

And just to clarify, I'm not going to put recyclable plastics or any other petroleum based product in the bin, unless the product claims to be biodegradable.

So Ergon, think your packaging is sustainable? Let's find out.
As you can see in the photo below, Ergon uses soy ink and 100% recycled paper. There is also some glue holding the cardboard tube to the rest of the package. 

Step 1. Cut a hole in a box...  Soak the packaging.

Step 2. Shred the packaging to make it easier for the worms to work with.

Step 3. Throw it in the bin!

Tik-Tok Tik-Tok... (fast forward a month or so...)

DING! We have our results.

The worms ate almost all of the packaging. They went through all of the pressed cardboard material leaving only a ring of glue mentioned above and the thin "waxy" outer layer that made up what the main graphic was printed on. One cool thing about worms is that they leave behind only what they don't like. A good example is this Starbucks cup I threw in there a while back.

The worms are about halfway done with it. They eat the paper leaving behind thin layer of wax that made the cup waterproof.

I'm pretty happy with these results. Most companies would put a product like this in clear plastic, which even if it does make it to the recycling bin uses more oil and more energy to make it into yet another piece of plastic.

In this case (for most of this package), I represent the end of the line, converting a useful product, paper, into an even more useful byproduct, fertilizer for my winter greens and eventually food on my plate.

In conclusion I think Ergon did a great job with their grip packaging. The only improvement would be if they  could find a way to print the graphic directly onto the cardboard and use less glue.

Please comment with any "Will It Compost?" requests.

Happy Mondaying

Summertime Harvest

I know there has been a lot of non-bike related content as of late and I mean to correct that. Until I do, here's some photos of a dinner I prepared this week with some home grown tomatoes and basil. 

Step One: Cut a hole in a box... Grow some of these.

Step Two: Combine with this stuff.

Step Three: Eat.

Repeat as necessary.

God Bless Copenhagen

A hotel in Copenhagen is offering guests the chance to earn a free meal if they are willing to put some effort into powering the building. via BBC

The deal is if a guest generates 10 watts of power for the hotel they get a free meal at the hotel restaurant. If the food is decent and full of carbs that's a pretty good deal. 

This Morning's Commute And My Dinner With The Mushroom People

It was so damn nice out this morning I had to get some photos to prove it. I didn't see a lot of wildlife but then again I didn't really have the time to look. 

Sligo Creek

Along the Capital Crescent Trail

Here is a shot of the beginning of the end. Workers have been drilling holes up and down the trail for about a month now; preliminary work for the Purple Nurple.

Black Locust flowers blanket several sections of the trail, and after attending last night's annual MAW tasting I've learned that these flowers are edible and quite tasty! So I gathered some to eat with my lunch. The flowers are sweet and have a nice texture. Caution: Only eat the flowers, NOT THE LEAVES.

Speaking of the MAW Spring Wild Food Tasting Event, it was a blast! So much so that I hardly had time to take photos. It was my first time but it seemed like a pretty good showing.

A crowd favorite was Mitch's rather large morels of which I sadly missed out on.

I made a Chicken of the Woods Curry with a large pile of chicken of the woods I found earlier in the week.

I was so busy cooking and serving that this was the only shot I got of my curry, of which I only got one bite of. 

The other big plus for the evening was meeting lot's of cool like minded folks like Matt and Elizabeth, check them out at The Natural Capital.


Cheers!

Building A Better Father: Aggressively Granola

I've always been into nature. I've always been outdoorsy. Until now I've been passive in my granolaness. Sure I've done my share of cool outdoor adventure stuff but It's always been just for fun. Now that I am a father it takes on a more serious meaning. I want and need to instill a love for nature in my daughter and am taking calculated measures to do so.

I am becoming obsessed with increasing my knowledge of the outdoors, from gardening to backpacking. I know a lot of the birds that are indigenous to our area; I know most of their calls. Now I want to know theit migration patterns so I can tell my girl where they're going and when. I've created an indoor worm composting bin for our kitchen scraps. Lately I've been studying what plants and mushrooms are safe for eating, where they grow and when so she'll know that not all food has to come from the store. I recently joined MAW (The Mycological Association of Washington) to hasten my mushroom education. Last week I went on my first guided mushroom foray and loved it. I found a handful of morels which I threw in an egg scramble, very tasty.

Doing this research and gaining these new experiences have become my main goal. Hopefully some of what I am learning will turn into future lessons for my daughter with the off chance that one of them might take root and turn into genuine interest, passion, and ultimately gratitude toward nature.

My dad was and is the same way, we would hike a lot, go on the occasional camping trip and generally have fun in outdoors. While hiking, he would make my brother, sister and me stop yaking and stand still in silence for 5 minutes just to see what else was in the woods with us.  This would bring us back into the moment. Sometimes it was a deer sometimes a pileated woodpecker, sometimes just air flowing through leaves; stopping and appreciating almost always resulted in something cool that we would have never seen or heard if we had kept on our way.

Maybe he felt the same call to duty as I do.

The more passions I have and the more experienced I become, the better off my little girl will be.

Lethargy And Vermiculture

So I'm still under the weather. Still not biking. It's been 7 weeks since I felt well.

SEVEN WEEKS...

Grasping for perspective and anything positive I've turned what little energy I have toward hobbying. I started to think about all the cool things that I wish I had the time to get into but never did. The list was long but somewhere near the top was vermiculture. No, it's not something to do with breeding rats, it's composting with worms. I have been considering this for some time and it seems like just the low energy distraction I need.

A bin of worms will eat most non-meat non-dairy kitchen scraps as well as newspaper, cardboard, egg cartons etc, turning it all into highly effective fertilizer for my veggie garden.

There are several different ways to make your own worm composting bin. Most of which can be done with things you already have lying around your house (google it). After some research on worm compost bin design I settled on a simple one bin system from seattletilth.org. There are benefits to doing a stackable system where the worms will separate themselves from the compost on their own but I thought for my first venture I'd keep it simple.

My worm bin is coming along. I have a few vents installed but I think I need a few more. Rather than spend more money on fancy louvered vents I think I'll just drill some 1" holes and glue screen to the inside of the box.

PamJ is kindly helping me out with the worms, which I will get as soon as I'm finished with the box and bedding. Hopefully they will like their new digs.

UPDATE:
The 1" holes with screen worked out great with a healthy serving of super glue. I believe the bin is adequately ventilated.

Then You Get De Power: 14 Months Of Batteries

There are many ways to keep a house somewhat green when a new baby arrives. Cloth diapers and glass bottles come to mind. I am surrounded by daily reminders of how "ungreen" having a baby in modern society is. Just about everything that comes near a baby is either rubber or plastic of some kind. We try to get as many used toys as we can. I just don't like the idea of giant toy sets and exersaucers made of thick non recyclable plastic being used by one child then thrown away where they will eventually end up in the ground or the ocean where they will stay for EVER. If I can get a toy that has been used by at least one other baby and pass it on when I am done with it, I won't feel like the factory made a piece of indestructible garbage just for me.

The other area of guilt is battery consumption. All these little toys, bouncy chairs, fake cell phones, and swings need batteries. Lots and lots of batteries. The first idea is naturally to use rechargeable batteries to lessen the environmental blow. The problem with rechargeable batteries is they cost money. I know regular batteries cost more in the long run but more money up front is a huge factor when the check out folks at Buy Buy Baby know me by name.

Knowing I had all new reasons for battery use I decided I would collect all the used batteries and at some point find a place that recycles them. This would allow me an accurate idea of how many batteries a newborn would use in a little over a years time. Also, I wouldn't be slowly adding them to my local land fill.

Our daughter was borne 14 months ago and since then I have not thrown away a single battery.
Some of these batteries were used for flashlights and cycling computers but the majority were used for baby stuff.

So in that time we have used:

7 - D batteries
34 - C batteries
26 - AA batteries
30 - AAA batteries

9 - 2032 batteries (mostly for bike lights and computer)
2 - N batteries (for bike lights)

1 - 9V battery

I didn't record the cost of these batteries but I would imagine it's much more than a set of rechargeables that would do the job of most of these.

With children, most of the things you can do to curb their environmental impact seem small on their own, but a bunch of small things will hopefully add up. Looking at the big picture, the most beneficial thing to come out of these small steps will be to create positive examples for my daughter.

Bike To Work Day: Blowing My Cover

Not only was the Curse of BTWD broken (technically), but it went off swimmingly as usual. The turn out seemed to be only slightly better than last year's, possibly because the forecasters were calling for a week of non-stop hurricanes. 

I have to give a shout out to Brian from Craigslist for his generosity. After putting out a plea to borrow a child trailer (in the non-erotic bike section), he replied and offered his with no strings, not ID request, and no collateral required. He even dropped the trailer off at my house! So hat's off to you sir, karma has a piece of cake with your name on it.

With trailer and sweet little girl in tow, I went about my usual route to Bethesda. It was my daughter's first bike ride and she loved it. When arriving at the Bethesda pit stop I stowed the bike and grabbed the girl and headed for the registration tent to see if there was still time to win some shwag. I had another reason to check in. Earlier in the week I got an e-mail from Rachel from Bethesda Transportation Solutions who told me I had been chosen for the 2009 Bike Spirit Award. WOOT!

Luckily, my daughter and I always carry
our black rectangles with us... 

And now I would like to give props in the form of the Annual BTWD CJ Awards. It was tough this year but I do believe the cream has risen to the top. 

Most Peugeotiest Bicycle

Comfiest Accessory

Coolest Throwback Bike
Makes me want to get all tweeded out.

Coolest Bell

Best Hair to Bike Color Coordination
as well as
Bike with the Most Tourqe Couplings
Congrats Tamzin!

Building That Looks Most Like Miami
Threw Up In Downtown Bethesda

Best Actually Old Bike

Furriest Accessory

And finally the Best My Bike Award
Thanks again for the trailer Brian!

So there you have it, no rain and an award enabling me to be even more obnoxious towards my friends and coworkers. I would say that qualifies as another good BTWD.

Monday Out!

Friday Feelin' Green

One this long holiday weekend of gas consumption let's pause to consider a few things to curb the guilt... besides riding a bike.

First up from the good folks over at Metaeffcient.
The Envision Solar Grove™ is a system of solar cell canopies designed for parking lots. While providing shade for your car they eliminate light pollution, curb hazardous run off and the urban heat-island effect, all while powering the mall you parked at. I would have one over my driveway if I didn't have one of these parked there.



Start composting for free!
For all you locals out there Montgomery County MD is giving away compost bins to all residents. Compost bins can cost a ton for some reason but these durable plastic bins work great and the price is right. I picked one up from the Bethesda office last month and I am digging it. Aside from a lack of sunlight in the backyard it is doing pretty well. Check your local government waste collection agency to see if they have a similar program.

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Use a reel mower.
Late last fall a neighbor put an old push reel mower on the curb which promptly snatched up like a crazy pack rat. When I bought my first house I went out and bought a pretty nice $350 dollar mower. This mower now acts as a really expensive back up to my free push reel mower which cost nothing to run, produces no harmful exhaust and best of all gives me a good upper body work out if I want. Beyond the obvious benefits, a push reel mower is much better for your lawn than an electric or gas powered mower. The clean cut of the reel mower cuts the grass rather than smashing the ends off. Also when you don't bag, the grass clippings provide a natural fertilizer for the yard.

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Cook Local
Challenge yourself to get all the ingredients for your holiday BBQ from local sources. I am going to a friend's house for a nice little grillout chillout on Sunday. I am going to get all the ingredients for the dish I am bringing from the Saturday farmer's market in Silver Spring, and the Sunday farmer's market in Takoma Park. From these I should be able to get most meat, vegetable, or dairy products I need. Shopping locally means the food hasn't had to travel around the world to get to you. This gives you fresher food and less environmental impact. Why should I by apple that had to travel here from New Zealand when I can get them fresh from a farm in Purcelville?

Let's here some other green ideas that are worth passing around.

Enjoy the weekend!