140 Degrees

This is a mark of achievement for a home composter, what is called "hot" compost. There really was steam rising from the pile this morning, and if you peel back the top layer, a blast of heat hits you in the face.

At this temperature, the pile should decompose fairly quickly. Mostly it is grass clippings recently collected from the lawn and an equal measure of shredded leaves saved from last fall. Thus, equal parts "green" and "brown." The heat comes from all those thermophilic bacteria in the pile, chomping away on the organic matter and multiplying like mad. They will continue to generate heat like this for a few days as long as there is an abundance of nitrogen (the "green") in the pile. Then activity will slow down and it will soon be time to turn the pile to stoke it with more oxygen.

Of course you don't have to compost this way. Things will break down if you just throw them in a heap and leave them alone. But that takes months longer and I like to know that I will have plenty of compost to work into my vegetable beds later in the season, when it comes time to planting our fall crops.

Ain't nature grand?

I'm Not Sure I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. DeMille

Would somebody please shoot me next time I agree to do a film about growing a vegetable garden?

Yesterday I spent seven hours in the sun without a break with a cameraman from MonkeySee.com trying to tell everything there is to know about growing vegetables in 12 three-minute clips.

The clips are entirely unscripted. I work extemporaneously from a bare outline and there is the constant threat that I will leave something vitally important out of the footage.

The format seemed to work alright last year when we filmed a series about composting. (It is available for viewing in the column on the right under "videos." MonkeySee is all about posting how-to videos on the internet.) I felt pretty comfortable talking about one of my favorite subjects. I felt I could have used another month of preparation and rehearsals before taking on the whole world of vegetables. But the folks at MonkeySee were anxious to get this thing in the can NOW and there wasn't a lot of advance notice.

Funny, I don't remember being interrupted every five seconds by passing cement trucks and helicopters overhead last year. I can't count the number times we stood idle yesterday, waiting for the traffic light to change because a car was stopped at our intersection with a Bob Marley tune playing at ear-splitting decibel levels. Or the worker across the street welding a fence and grinding away with his metal grinder. Or the neighbor out trimming his lawn with his electric lawn trimmer. Or the passersby passing by on the sidewalk, shouting into their cell phones.

At one point, a curious postman walked into the middle of us filming a clip. "Are you on TV?" he asked.

Come to think of it, there's a lot of noise we just grow used to living in the city that makes a cameraman on a film shoot want to tear his hair own.

There was a scene transplanting a tomato plant that I completely muffed. I bought this tall, lanky thing at Whole Foods and after explaining that it was a perfect candidate for laying on its side in a trench, I went ahead and tried to dig a deep hole for it anyway, explaining that the hole would be a great way to get compost down deep into the soil. Well, when I put the tomato plant in the hole, it was still too tall and lanky and just flopped over. Dang.

And how are you supposed to film the seasonal movement of the sun across the garden plot? The point is, you really do have to think about where the sun is going to be at any point in the growing season. It can easily be shaded out by a big tree that was bare in December, but now is casting a long shadow over your squashes.

There I was, waving my arms at our tall house, trying to explain how it figures into our planting scheme. The cameraman trained his lens on a row of peas that runs east to west. The easternmost plants are in bloom, the westernmost plants several days behind, all because of the hour's difference in sun they receive when the sun disappears behind our roof.

And what kind of vegetables do you film the first week of May? Well, my mustard greens have come up in a riot of greens and reds. I've got patches of lettuces, incredibly tall garlic, some very happy potato plants and blooming favas and chives. But you won't see any big, juicy tomatoes or record-size zucchini. That's all months away. Instead, we filmed me planting a tomato seed in a peat pot for a section on starting seeds indoors.

Being a garden guru is physically gruelling. There's me on my hands and knees harvesting rhubarb. There's me on my hands and knees spreading mulch. There's me on my hands and knees transplanting a jalapeno pepper. Filling buckets of compost. Digging holes. Running after tools and the water hose. Up, down, up, down, up down.

And that wide-brimmed hat that was supposed to keep the sun out of my eyes? The camerman never ceased to remind me to push it back on my head. It was creating too much shadow on my face, he explained. So now I'm squinting into the sun, feeling like some sort of gardening Pancho Villa.

By the end, the cameraman and I were both a little loopy. Three Ibuprofin later, I'm still aching all over. And this is all done on a volunteer basis, mind you.

I'm counting on digital editing to perform a miracle.

Spinach Failure

Spinach hates heat.

For the most part, we've had an unusually cool and moist spring here in the District of Columbia. Intermittently, temperatures have climbed into the upper 70s and even surpassed 80 degrees. Well that apparently was enough for our spinach to throw in the towel. We planted it March 4, and lately it has been focusing most of its energy on sending up seed stalks.

Yesterday I called our spinach done. I dug it up, collected the leaves for our salad mix and composted the rest. Where the spinach had been, I worked a little more compost into the soil and planted cranberry beans. In other words, we are already into the summer rotatation.

As best I can tell, the cure for spinach in this part of the country is to plant it in the fall and let it overwinter in the garden. We'll try again later in the year. Any other suggestions from you gardeners out there?

Whole Wheat Pasta with Lentils, Leeks & Spinach

Do you remember when whole wheat pasta tasted like cardboard? It's much improved these days. In fact, where dried pasta is concerned, I prefer whole wheat for texture and flavor. Plus I know I am getting the extra fiber and nutrients that are lost in refined pasta.

Add the meaty flavor and fullness of lentils and you have a complete meal, as far as I'm concerned. Leeks and spinach add a nice touch of spring.

I admit my method for making this dish is a bit unconventional, especially where the lentils are concerned. I am not exact about quantities. I cook the lentils and pasta separately, of course, then add them together in a bowl at the end using just enough of each until it looks right. Sometimes I end up with leftover lentils, which is not such a bad thing. I might just eat them for breakfast the next day.

Start by cooking 1 cup of French Puy lentils with a clove of garlic and a bay leaf in a saucepan, covered with water to a depth of 1 inch. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim and clean a large leek. I like to whittle away the tough green leaves until the top of the leak looks like a pencil, then split the leek in half lengthwise from a point about 1/2 inch from the root end. This allows you to get underneath the leaves and remove any dirt or grit with running water. Slice the leek thinly and place it in a heavy skillet over moderate heat with about 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. Stir in 1 garlic clove, finely chopped, about 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves and season with 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt to draw out the liquids.

At this point I cover the skillet to speed the cooking and retain the liquid. When the leek is soft add a big fistful or two of baby spinach leaves, about 4 ounces.. Continue cooking, uncovered, until the spinach is completely wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the pasta I use large elbows, or chiocciole. Cook 8 ounces in salted water. When done, drain and toss in a bowl with the cooked vegetables and the lentils. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Give it a final splash of extra-virgin olive oil and serve.

I find this dish just as good at room temperature, meaning there's no need to panic if all of the ingredients don't come off the stove top piping hot at the same time.

Weekend Update

The mainstream media finally woke up to the fact that something has gone seriously wrong with the world's food supply. Even the evening news programs have been forced to take notice of food riots in Haiti and the role that turning corn into ethanol is playing in spiking food prices.

The Washington Post devoted a five-part series to exploring how a run on commodities prompted panic buying by countries around the globe, draining grain silos at a time when a prolonged drought in Australia had already hurt wheat production and when U.S. farmers were switching from growing wheat to planting corn to cash in on the ethanol boom.

The ultimate effect has been to force the world's poorest families to eat even less and to make stark choices: keep the family goat for the milk she provides, or slaughter her for tonight's dinner? Many are opting for a quick meal.

"I don't know how I will feed my family," says one Mauritanian man. "We just can't afford it."

Americans, too, are feeling the pinch. Just in the last year, the price of eggs is up 35 percent, milk 23 percent and bread 16 percent. Again, the hardest hit are the poor. A survey of the nation's food banks shows that demand is up across the country, perhaps as much as 20 percent. Most food banks--84 percent--report that they have had to cut back on the assistance they give because of a shortage of supplies.

Food service organizations "have been absolutely overwhelmed by demand," said Vicki Escarra, president of America's Second Harvest. "Supply is not keeping up with demand and we must do something quickly to meet the needs of the more than 35 million struggling Americans trying to make ends meet and feed themselves and their families."

President Bush continues to pursue his ethanol policy pedal-to-the-metal. But now other Republicans are having second thoughts.

On Friday, two dozen GOP leaders--including presumptive presidential nominee John McCain (AZ)--called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ease the congressionally mandated requirements that more ethanol and other renewable fuels be added to the nation's gasoline supply.

"With the price of everyday meat, chicken, bread and eggs rapidly increasing, we are asking the EPA to use the flexibility that Congress gave them, because so many families cannot afford the increasing prices at the grocery store," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R., Texas).

*****

If you think farmers are quick to cash in on the soaring price of grains, you would be right. But not so fast. The cost of farming has gone up too, especially anything that relies on fossil fuels. That would include the price of artificial nitrogen, which is made from natural gas.

In the last year, the cost of nitrogen fertilizer has nearly doubled, while diammonium phosphate has jumped from $393 a ton to $1,102. In some parts of the country, nitrogen sales have been restricted, so much so that Iowa farmers are now talking about going back to spreading hog manure on their fields. (They sure have enough of it.)

Problem is, the abundance of cheap nitrogen helped fuel a worldwide population explosion. Now with nearly 7 billion people on the planet--and more and more of them wanting to eat a rich, Western-style diet--the resources for fertilizing crops artificially just aren't there any more. There's talk of building more nitrogen factories in the Middle East, where natural gas is more abundant. But importing fertilizer is certain to jack up the price of food even more.

And don't forget, most Americans need natural gas to heat their homes. Does that mean choosing between heat and food?

Fertilizer inflation has created a crisis in countries that subsidize fertilizer use for farmers. In India, the government’s subsidy bill could be as high as $22 billion in the coming year, up from $4 billion in 2004-5.

Unless the world learns how to produce the food it needs organically--and does so in a hurry--there could be some major hurt in our future.

"This is a basic problem, to feed 6.6 billion people,” said Norman Borlaug, an American scientist who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his role in spreading intensive agricultural practices to poor countries. “Without chemical fertilizer, forget it. The game is over.”

*****

The reason Iowans have so much hog manure is because they have more hogs in confinement than anywhere else on the planet--about 15 million of them. Confinement lots, known as CAFOs, have long been an issue because of the stench and pollution they produce, as well the appalling living conditions that the animals are forced to endure.

Now a new report, based on 2 1/2 years of analysis, finds that the CAFO system takes a hidden toll on human health and the environment , is undermining rural America's economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock increasingly demanded by American consumers.

Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of public health, the report is remarkable because it was conducted by experts with various backgrounds and allegiances and survived intense political pressures before making its bold findings.

Chief among the stark conclusions is that the "economies of scale" used to justify factory farming practices are largely an illusion, perpetuated by a failure to account for associated costs. Among those costs: human illnesses caused by drug-resistant bacteria associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes.

Even industry representatives on the panel agreed to such controversial recommendations as a ban on the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals -- a huge hit against veterinary pharmaceutical companies -- a phaseout of all intensive confinement systems that prevent the free movement of farm animals, and more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws in the increasingly consolidated agricultural arena.

"At the end of his second term, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about the dangers of the military-industrial complex -- an unhealthy alliance between the defense industry, the Pentagon, and their friends on Capitol Hill," wrote Robert P. Martin, executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which wrote the report. "Now the agro-industrial complex -- an alliance of agricultural commodity groups, scientists at academic institutions who are paid by the industry, and their friends on Capitol Hill -- is a concern in animal food production in the 21st century."

To which we say, Right on...

*****

From our grossly-out-of-whack-government-priorities department comes news of more inane budget cuts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the USDA continues to give away billions to rich farmers, it wants to gut the public information programs at the agriculture library here outside the nation's capitol.

You might recall that the USDA already has plans to bring the axe down on the National Arboretum, an inner-city jewel of trees and trails and natural beauty to go with its research functions. The latest cuts are aimed at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, signed into being by Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

This library is nothing less than the greatest agricultural library in the world. Through its document delivery system, its vast collections have long been available to other libraries all over the country and around the globe. The proposed budget cuts could end the acquisition of new printed works, endanger the preservation of its special collections, halt document delivery and turn a national library into a local one.

And no, the library's collections have not been digitalized and made available by internet. They are churned out in document form and sent by snail mail to farmers everywhere hungry for reliable information on how to grow food.

The budget amounts in question are minuscule--just a million dollars here, a million dollars there. Nothing like the billions the USDA normally deals in. So who, you might wonder, would be focusing so hard on eliminating the federal government's role in these important public education functions?

Call me paranoid, but I sense some corporate hand at work, trying to take what's public and free and turn it into something to make a buck off of.

*****

On a brighter note, you might recall the hue and cry when a huge community garden in Los Angeles was closed to make way for development. Celebrities staked out positions in trees to try and stop the demolition. But in the end, the gardeners lost and had to pack up their shovels and trowels.

Well, turns out some of the farmers from L.A.'s South Central Community Garden did not give up, they just moved. With the help from a nonprofit foundation, they've bought 85 acres about 130 miles away, in the tiny town of Bakersfield.

Their new spread won't be a working farm for two years . So for now, a couple of dozen stalwarts from the embattled old garden raise vegetables on a leased field a few miles away in Shafter. Every Friday night, some make the long commute from Los Angeles in an old school bus they bought on Craigslist. After tending the crops and bunking in a rented house, they head back over the Grapevine with boxes of organic spinach, kale, carrots, beets -- a cornucopia bound for farmers markets throughout the city.

"Sure it seems unlikely," said one of the group's leaders, an aerospace engineer who goes by the name Tezozomoc. "But if we could farm in South-Central, is it so strange to do it here?"

You just can't keep a food gardener down, and that's a good thing.

Bon appetit....

On Power Cords and Lawn Mowers

I know. If I want to be really kind to the environment I should be using a manual push mower. But I've never progressed that far in my carbon footprint scheme. I'm still using an electric mower. I consider it vastly gentler on the planet than the two-stroke gasoline monsters that power most mowers and leaf blowers. Shouldn't they just be outlawed? Besides being some of the most polluting machines ever invented, they create such a din we can barely hear the sound of the polar ice caps melting.

I nearly trashed my electric mower recently and for all the wrong reasons. We've had bad luck with electric mowers. Maybe we are too tough on them, although we really don't have much lawn to mow. What I want the mower for mostly is to collect grass clippings for compost. One mower just quit. Another--a Craftsman, I think--overheated and started to melt. Our latest is something we picked up for a bargain price at Costco. It's actually made in Hungary, and when you start it it makes a noise like a giant fan that's winding itself up to blast into outer space.

Towards the end of last season, this mower started acting up, too. It would just stop in the middle of the yard. I'd let it rest awhile, then start it up again. It would run for a few minutes, then stop again. The intervals that it worked got shorter and shorter. I figured it was my bad electric mower karma coming back to haunt me, so I stashed the mower in the garage and started using my electric line trimmer ("weed whacker") to cut the grass.

Mowing with the line trimmer left the yard looking like it had a bad hair day. But we have plans to landscape and eliminate the lawn entirely, so I wasn't about to buy a new mower (although I was looking at the latest battery models--pretty cool). Then the line trimmer started acting up, doing the same thing the mower had been doing. By now I figured they just weren't building electric lawn equipment to last. I ran to the Home Depot to buy a new one, and was soon in for a surprise.

Something told me to test the new machine when I removed it from the box. I plugged it in. No response. I jiggled all the connections on the power cord. Still no response. Suddenly it dawned on me that I'd been misdirecting blame for the problem all along. It wasn't the mower or the trimmer. It was the cord.

Our 100-foot outdoor cord had been stolen. Since then, I'd tied two 50-foot cords together as my main power source to the mower. But one of the cords was heavier than the other. When I removed the lighter cord and tried the mower with the heavy cord, it worked just fine. So did the line trimmer.

My wife thought I was the perfect fool for not testing the cord earlier. I was just happy to have my mower back. The 50-foot cord just barely reaches the farthest corner of our yard, and since we have a corner lot, I must look pretty comical running here and there, plugging the cord into different outlets and out of one window first, then another, then the front door as I mow my way around the house. (It's an old house--there are no electrical outlets outside, but thanks for wondering.)

The lesson: extension cords come in different gauges. On the packaging it should indicate how much amperage your cord is designed to handle. Compare this with the amperage of the machine you are operating. For instance, my electric mower draws 12 amps. The smaller cord I was using was designed for 10. Apparently, I had overheated and damaged the cord. That's why it stopped working with the line trimmer as well. The trimmer draws 7.5 amps.

You may have gathered by now that I am not a lawn person. (You may also be thinking I'm pretty dumb when it comes to electricity.) I have great memories of lazing around our freshly mowed lawn when I was a kid, watching clouds and smelling the good smells of the earth. The grass was warm and buzzing with small insects. But I never caught the perfect lawn bug that seems to afflict so many Americans. I would rather grow vegetables. If, however, you are intent on having a lawn, I certainly hope you follow these earth-friendly steps:

* Ditch the two-stroke, gasoline-powered machines and convert to an electric or manual mower. Some jurisdictions even offer rebates for purchasing electric mowers, and the battery-operated ones look pretty neat. Also, hang up your gas-powered leaf blower and try using a rake and a broom. Old fashioned, I know. But I have a feeling that old fashioned may be coming increasingly back into style.

* Set your mower to cut as high as possible. The green blades conduct photosynthesis, feeding the plant. When you cut the grass short, you stress the plant. Longer grass is healthier, less vulnerable to diseases and more drought tolerant.

* Let the grass clippings fall in place. They will eventually decompose, becoming food for the soil, feeding the lawn.

* Kick the artificial fertilizer and pesticide habit. More fertilizer is used on American lawns than in all of agriculture. Some of those feed mixes are 40 percent nitrogen. It runs off into the watershed and becomes pollution. Fertilizers are killing the Chesapeake Bay and create a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico outside the mouth of the Mississippi River. In addition, artificial fertilizers are made from natural gas, a rapidly depleting resource we need to heat our homes (at least until we convert to solar.)

* Pesticides are toxic to the environment, your pets and your children. There is no need for them. If you have problems with weeds, spread an organic product such as corn gluten before weeds emerge in the spring. Corn gluten creates a film on the soil that prevents weeds from sprouting. You might also learn to love your dandelions a little. Try eating them, or turning them into dandelion wine.

* Feed your lawn with compost. Spread a half-inch layer over the lawn in spring and toss some more grass seeds. Your soil will love it, and it will share its love with your grass. Don't listen to people who say you can't maintain a lawn organically. You can. It may be more expensive. It may require a little more work. But you will feel so much better having a healthy, great looking lawn that isn't working at cross purposes with nature.

* For more information about maintaining lawns organically, check out SafeLawns.org. They've even published a book on the subject. If you're the least bit curious about the dangers of those pesticides and herbicides you've been using, Beyond Pesticides has detailed information on all of it. (Click on "Info Services" in the banner, then click on "Pesticides Gateway.")

* Finally, cut back on watering your lawn. Water is a precious resource. If your lawn is made of cool weather grasses, it is genetically designed to go dormant in the summer heat. You are just fighting nature if you douse it with water and fertilizer to keep it green. Likewise, if you have a hot weather lawn, its natural tendency is to turn brown in the winter. Learn to live with what your lawn is hardwired to do.

Now, back to growing those vegetables...

Kids Make Cream of Asparagus Soup

The idea of seasonality is not an easy one for young children to grasp. I'm hoping repetition will leave an impression. So this week we returned to the subject of asparagus in my "food appreciation classes." And who could possibly object to eating fresh asparagus again and again and again?

Children are fascinated by asparagus spears. In this week's lesson we read a picture book--"How Groundhog's Garden Grew"--that contained a surprising amount of good information about cultivating vegetables, including my favorite aparagus attribute: it is a perennial plant whose gnarly roots continue to produce spears for 15 years or more with very little maintenance.

Previously the kids learned how to poach asparagus and incorporate it into a frittata. This week we aimed to turn our asparagus into a creamy yet healthy soup. The recipe is extremely simple.

First the kids snapped off the tough ends off 1 1/2 pounds of asparagus. Then, using their platsic knives, they cut the spears into 1/2-inch pieces that we cooked until very tender in 4 cups (1 quart) of chicken broth. (You could also use vegetable broth for this to make a vegetarian soup.)

Meanwhile, we trimmed and cleaned a large leek. The kids were not familiar with leeks, so I cut off a piece and passed it around for them to smell. They noticed immediately a resemblance to onion. Leeks, onions, garlic, chives--they are all in the allium family. This time of year, we would be on the lookout for wild leeks--or ramps--to be foraged in area forests. They are delicious sauteed, and unlike cultivated leeks, you can eat the green parts.

To prepare the leek, I show the kids how to trim away the dark green parts. They are tough and inedible. Then I split the leek down the middle lengthwise from a point about 1/2 inch from the root end. The leek flops open, allowing us to rinse it thoroughly under cold running water and wash away any of the dirt that might be hiding between the layers.

We slice the leek fairly finely, season it with 1/2 teaspoon salt and saute it in a skillet over low heat with two or three tablespoons of extra-virgin olive until very soft. This takes about 12 minutes.

After we read our story, we return to the kitchen and scrape the leeks into the sauce pan with the asparagus and broth. In three separate batches, we process the broth and vegetables in a blender with 1/2 cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt (or substitute conventional yogurt). Since the liquid is still hot, I show the kids how to avoid a burn by placing a kitchen towel over the lid of the blender. I hold the lid firmly in place with the towel. We don't want our soup to end up on the ceiling!

We pour the finished soup into a bowl after each batch, stir in a squeeze of lemond juice and finally ladle it into hot drink cups. The soup has cooled somewhat by now and could even be served room temperature.

Our asparagus soup is full of flavor but low in fat and calories. Funny how some of the kids who swore they would not like this soup are practically inhaling it. Some are even begging for seconds. Good thing we made enough.