Author: louisaenright

I am passionate about whole, nutrient-dense foods, developing local markets, and strengthening communities.

Turkey Tracks: The Fall Garden

Turkey Tracks:  November 8, 2010

The Fall Garden

Our beautiful, beautiful fall has moved into early winter here in coastal Maine.  We are still wearing our shoulder season clothes, which involves cotton fibers, but the day will come soon when we’ll be hunched over in the dry storage areas locating the bins with wool and cordoroy.   We’ve had a really warm, balmy fall–which has been full of ticks–once unknown in Maine.  No No Penny, who is a wood rat kind of dog, has really suffered with ticks this fall.  Here is a picture John took of the wetland down the hill from our house, but somehow, other than this one picture, we didn’t get any really good pictures of this year’s spectaclarly brilliant foliage.  And, this picture was taken early in the fall before the yellows really burst through.  I have this picture as my screensaver for the momet.

 Our garlic came from FEDCO, so I cleaned up the garden and planted it.  Planting garlic is really easy.  You just separate the bulb into cloves, dig a shallow trench (about 3 inches deep), put a clove about e very 4 or 5 inches, cover the cloves, and later, after a freeze, cover them with some organic matter–straw or hay.  I also sprinkle azomite over my garlic bed.  And, I work all year to add organic matter to the garden beds, including, now, composted chicken manure.  I don’t add too much manure as too much nitrogen isn’t good for the plants.  And, chicken manure is really strong.  I’ve also been reading that commercial farming has really depleated our soil of magnesium, which we humans need and are not getting in our food.  Since kelp and sea salt are good sources, I will pay more attention to amending with seaweed now.  One clove of garlic yields a whole bulb next fall and a tasty garlic scape about May when last year’s garlic is going or gone from our stockpiles.     

Cleaning up the garden involved harvesting the remaining beets and most of the carrots.  I left one row to winter over, which makes the carrots really sweet.   We will think about that row off and on during the winter.  Here’s what came inside:

 I had a great deal of help planting the garlic.  I only have to appear outside and all the chickens come running.  If I have a trowel (overturned dirt! worms! worms!) they stick close to me like glue.  In the end, I had to put some chicken wire over the new patch to keep them from scratching at it.  Here is a picture of May May sticking close.  The white spots  around her head are, I think, new feather quills coming in after her yearly molt.   You can see the color of her comb and waddle are not as intense a red as they were in the spring.  She’s two years old now, and the faded color is a sign that all the eggs she’s laid have taken a lot out of her.  She will, likely, rest a bit over the winter and regain her strength.  We do not plan to augment with light this winter to keep our chickens laying artificially.  Nature knows best, and we people need to learn to eat what nature offers us in season.  Easter is celebrated because the days grow longer, and the chickens start laying strongly again.  The eggs provide much-needed nourishment after a long winter, and are nature’s plan for replenishing the flock.  Look though at how healtlhy her feathers look–that’s the meat and milk–good protein sources–I give the chickens each morning.  The chickens love to camouflage themselves under the big kale leaves, and they love to nibble on it too.   More than once I’ve been surprised by a chicken hiding under garden plants. 

 

 

KJ and Jake, from last year’s graduating class at The Community School have stayed in the area.  They came and helped us winterize one Saturday.  We emptied out all the flower pots and stored them away, put away all the lawn furniture (3 porches worth!), put away all the garden decorations (St. Francis, bird baths, etc.), moved the chicken coop, and got out the winter boardwalk John made just before our second winter.  The boardwalk makes it easy to sweep snow from our paths–unlike the gravel path beneath, which is hard to shovel.  And, the boardwalk makes it easier to walk from the house to the car.  Here’s what it looks like:

                                                                        

Kale stays in the garden.  It only gets sweeter in cold weather,and I’ve dug it out of snow banks many a time.  Chard, too, will take the cold, though it is not as hardy as kale.  Here’s some Lacinto kale that friend Margaret gave me last spring.  Behind it is our asparagras patch, which will be three years old next spring, which means we can harvest some of it.  The chard is “rainbow” chard, which I love.  (Even the stems are good to eat.)  I plant marigolds all over the garden as they deter many garden pests and provide polka dots of bright color in the fall.

Another task is to cut and freeze the Italian parsley.  Friend Rose told me that she trims back the big stems, shoves it into a freezer baggie, and throws it into the freezer.  She says it defrosts as if it’s just been picked, and she chops it up and uses it for whatever she needs at the moment.

I always think I’m done for the year and then remember something left to do.  I need to layer the garden beds with straw.  Margaret buys it in bulk, so I can get 5 or 6 bales from her.  Right now it’s raining, so I’ll wait until it dries out a little.  And, we’ll have to move the chicken coop one final time.  Right now it’s right where we get a snow mountain from shoveling the back paths and porch!

Tipping Points 20: Chemical Brews: Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

Chemical Brews:  Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

The American Dietetic Association groups sweeteners into two major categories:  nutritive and non-nutritive.   Nutritive sweeteners provide energy to the body; non-nutritive sweeteners do not, which means they sweeten without calories.  Thus, non-nutritive sweeteners have been the backbone of the diet industry. 

The FDA currently approves five non-nutritive sweeteners:  aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame K, sucralose, and neotame.  The FDA banned cyclamate in 1969 and has never approved alitame, which is similar to aspartame.

Aspartame, or 1-aspartyl 1-phenylalanine methyl ester, was discovered by accident when James Schlatter, while working on creating new drugs to treat ulcers, accidentally licked his fingers in order to pick up a piece of paper.  Aspartame is 80 times sweeter than sucrose, or table sugar.  And, according to Jim Earle in “Sugar-Free Blues:  Everything You Wanted to Know About Artificial Sweeteners,” February 2004 (http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-foods/570-sugar-free-blues.html ), aspartame            is the most widely used non-nutritive sweetener.  By 1992, Earle writes, Americans were using 8.4 million pounds of aspartame yearly, which represents 80 percent of world demand.  About 70 percent of aspartame is used in soft drinks, but it is added also to “more than 6,000 foods, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals.”  Aspartame is sold under several brand names, including NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonfuls, Canderel, Bienvia, NatraSweet, and Miwan.

Earle explains that during digestion, aspartame degrades into methanol, or wood alcohol, and two amino acids:  phenylalanine, the largest component by weight, and aspartic acid.  Methanol is a known, lethal poison that can cause, Devra Davis notes in THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WAR ON CANCER (2007), blindness and brain damage.  And, she notes that methanol content of aspartame is “a thousand times greater than most foods under FDA control” (421). 

Phenylalanine, Earle notes, is dangerous to people with phenylketonuria (PKU), an inherited condition.  And, he notes that the FDA recommends that pregnant and lactating women, people with advanced liver disease, and phenylketonurics avoid aspartame.   

The FDA admits also, writes Earle, that “aspartic acid has the potential to cause brain damage,” but the FDA limits the danger to very high doses.  Earle notes that Dr. Christine Lydon, an aspartame researcher, explains that phenylalanine and aspartic acid are amino acids found naturally in foods, but in foods they are eaten alongside other amino acids.  Separated, each enters “the nervous system in abnormally high concentrations, causing aberrant neuronal firing and potential cell death”—which, in turn, is linked to “headaches, mental confusion, balance problems and possibly seizures.” 

Earle notes that Dr. Lydon warns that phenylalanine decomposes into diketopiperazine (DKP) a known carcinogen, when exposed to warm temperatures or prolonged storage.  At cold temperatures, methanol “spontaneously gives rise to a colorless toxin known as formaldehyde.”  Jim Turner’s timeline detailing the history of aspartame’s approval by the FDA notes that aspartame’s unstable nature prompted The National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) to petition the FDA in July 1983 to delay approval “pending further testing because aspartame is very unstable in liquid form” (http://www.swankin-turner.com/hist.html).     

Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon Morell, in NOURISHING TRADITIONS (2000), write that “aspartame…is a neurotoxic substance that has been associated with numerous health problems including dizziness, visual impairment, severe muscle aches, numbing of extremities, pancreatitis, high blood pressure, retinal hemorrhaging, seizures and depression.  It is suspected of causing birth defects and chemical disruptions of the brain.”  And, Enig and Morell report that in 1992 Utah State University researchers reported “that even at low levels aspartame induces adverse changes in the pituitary glands of mice.  The pituitary gland is the master gland upon which the proper function of all biochemical processes depend” (51).     

Davis notes that the U.S. military, in two publications, “warned that aspartame can cause serious brain problems in pilots” (422).  And, Davis points to the flaw in tests that kill and exam rats before they have lived out their natural lifespans—an important factor since cancer can often take decades to develop and killing rats early derails detection of cancer formation.  She cites test results in 2001 showing the development of cancer in multiple organs of rats allowed to live out their natural life spans–even though dosages were well under those allowed in America (50 mg daily).  Davis notes that one can of diet soda contains 200 mg of aspartame (424-425).  She further notes that there is “no evidence at all” that those who use aspartame actually lose weight.  Actually, there is “some indication” that aspartame “creates a sugar deficit” which leads “people to seek more sugar from other sources” (423). 

Earle reports that as of 1995 over 75 percent of the adverse reactions reported to the Adverse Reaction Monitoring System (ARMS) of the FDA were due to aspartame.  Davis notes that the FDA stopped gathering adverse reaction reports in 1995 (422). 

Saccharin, from the Latin for “sugar,” is 300 times sweeter than sugar.  Saccharin, Earle notes, was also discovered by accident in 1879 when a Johns Hopkins scientist spilled some and noticed the sweet taste.  Saccharin, until 1915, was first used as an antiseptic agent and food preservative.  In 1901, John F. Queeny, started the Monsanto corporation, manufactured saccharin, and shipped it to a Georgia company,  Coca-Cola. 

Saccharin is “the holy grail of the artificial sweetener industry,” writes Earle, because it “is not metabolized by the human body and is excreted rapidly through the urine.”  This kind of compound, Earle explains, tastes sweet, is stable in prepackaged foods and beverages, is thought to be “so foreign to the human diet that our digestive systems cannot metabolize them to create any dietary calories,” and is “dirt cheap to produce in bulk.

World War II brought sugar shortages, but cyclamate, discovered in 1937 when a graduate student at the University of Illinois working on anti-fever drugs accidentally tasted it, came to the rescue and was the chemical of choice.  Saccharin’s original chemical classification lists it as an O-toluene sulfonamide derivative.  Toluene is a colorless liquid hydrocarbon distilled from coal tar, which may, Earle suggests, account for saccharin’s “bitter, metallic aftertaste.”  In 1958, Maryin Eisenstadt mixed saccharin with cyclamate and introduced Sweet’n Low, which we have today, without the cyclamate.    

Dr. Nathanael J.  McKeown, a medical toxologist, writes that “toluene (methylbenzene, toluol, phenylmethane) is an aromatic hydrocarbon (C7 H8) commonly used as an industrial solvent for the manufacturing of paints, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and rubber. …Toluene is found in gasoline, acrylic paints, varnishes, lacquers, paint thinners, adhesives, glues, rubber cement, airplane glue, and shoe polish.  At room temperature, toluene is a colorless, sweet smelling, and volatile liquid” whose fumes are highly toxic (“Toluene, Toxicity,” http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/818939-overview).  (These fumes, sniffed by some to get high, as with glue, affect the Central Nervous System.) 

Saccharin is now, Earle explains, manufactured by a more cost-effective method developed in 1950 that begins with synthetically produced methyl anthranilate.  Wikipedia explains that anthranilic acid successively reacts with nitrous acid, sulfur dioxide, chlorine, and then ammonia to yield saccharin.  Another route, Wikipedia continues, begins with o-chlorotoluene. 

And, Wikipedia notes that saccharin is also known as ortho sulfobenzoic acid.  Earle notes that as saccharin is a sulfonamide, some people have allergic reactions to it.  Further, saccharin-sweetened infant formula has produced severe, largely muscle, reactions in some babies. 

In 1969, the FDA proposed banning saccharin with cyclamate until its safety was proved, but, Earle notes, significant opposition from a public now concerned with calories saved saccharin.  Canada, however, did ban saccharin in 1977 as a carcinogen.  The US Congress put a two-year moratorium on any ban, but mandated a cautionary label warning of possible health hazards, including cancer.  For the next 26 years, numerous studies (2374) have been performed to prove or disprove saccharin safety until, in 1991, the FDA gave saccharin, as Earle notes, “something of a probationary status,” though the FDA still classifies saccharin as an“anticipated human carcinogen.” 

Acesulfame-K, or acesulfame potassium, or 5,6-dimethyl-1,2,3-oxathiazine-4(3H)-one-2,2-dioxide, or ACK, was also discovered by a German chemist in 1967 when he licked his fingers to pick up a piece of paper.  ACK is, Earle writes, 200 times sweeter than sugar and is thought not metabolized by the body so is excreted unchanged in the urine.  The FDA approved ACK  in 1988 for use in” baked goods, frozen desserts, alcoholic beverages and candies” and, in 1998, for “all other general sweetening purposes.”  ACK has been marketed under the brand names Sunett, Sweet One, Swiss Sweet, and Sweet & Safe.  Pepsi used it in Pepsi One upon its FDA approval.  And, ACK is often blended with aspartame, as it is in Twinsweet. 

Earle notes that there is very little information about ACK.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CPSI), he writes, concluded that the safety tests were of mediocre quality.  And, that “large doses of acetoacetamide, a breakdown product, have been shown to affect the thyroid in rats, rabbits and dogs.  ACK, he notes, stimulates insulin secretion which can possibly aggravate hypoglycemia, or low-blood sugar.    

Sucralose, or 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-BETA-D-fructofukranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranoside, was discovered, Earle writes, as a sweetener in 1976 when a grad student misunderstood “testing” for “tasting” and discovered that “many chlorinated sugars are hundreds or thousands of times sweeter than sucrose.”  Splenda is the brand we know. 

Johnson & Johnson claims sucralose is exceptionally stable and that sucralose passes through the body without being broken down.  But, Earle notes, sucralose “has the fewest independent scientific tests to its credit of all non-nutritive sweeteners.”  And, “independent reviewers of Johnson & Johnson’s tests have found them to be inadequate and methodologically flawed.”

Earle notes that “several pre-approval tests still indicated potential toxicity.”  And, research is now showing some alarming physical reactions, including  shrinking of the thymus gland, enlargement of the liver and kidneys, decreased red blood cell count, and decreased fetal body weights.   Earle notes that the FDA’s “own research has shown that 11 to 27 percent of sucralose is absorbed in humans.”  Japanese tests show that as much as 40 percent of sucralose is absorbed.  And, the FDA considers sucralose to be “weakly mutagenic” in some mouse studies.

These effects, Earle notes, are “not fully understood.”  But, detractors are pointing to the chlorinated molecules, which are also “used as the basis for pesticides such as DDT” and which “tend to accumulate in body tissues.” 

Nor is sucralose stable.  Prolonged storage, especially at high temperatures, causes breakdown into chemicals which have not been “specifically tested in terms of safety for human ingestion.” 

Neotame is produced by The NutraSweet Company and is known as “superaspartame.”  It is synthesized from a base of aspartame and 3,3-dimethylbutyraldehyde.    It’s chemical name is N-[N-(3,3-dimethylbutyl)-L-a-aspartyl]-L-phenylalanine 1-methyl ester.  It is 8000 times sweeter than sugar.  Earle poses that The NutraSweet Company is positioning neotame to replace aspartame whose patent rights expired in the 1990s. 

None of these accidentally discovered chemical brews have been shown to be safe for humans.  Many may be, in fact, quite dangerous.  The pattern of FDA approval fits the pattern Davis establishes in THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WAR ON CANCER:   a profitable but potentially dangerous product appears; industry denies and demonizes science pointing to problems; industry produces flawed studies that obfuscate the safety issues; industry manipulates the legal and political mechanisms meant to protect citizens; industry buys massive advertising to sell the product; and industry achieves a profitable status quo.

Here’s three things you can do.    Stop eating these products.  Buy local, organic, whole foods and cook them yourself.  And recognize that we have to change the values that put profit before people.

Mainely Tipping Points 19: The History of Aspartame: An American Story

The History of Aspartame:  An American Story 

 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aspartame in 1981.  The decision was made solely by a political appointee, Dr. Arthur Hayes, Jr., despite the fact that since 1973 FDA scientists had consistently and repeatedly refused to recommend aspartame because industry safety studies were inadequate.  Indeed, since the early 1970s the research of scientists not connected to industry has demonsed that aspartame is seriously dangerous for humans in multiple ways.    

Devra Davis, a preeminent cancer epidemiologist and environmentalist, tells the aspartame story in her book The Secret History of the War on Cancer (2007).  For Davis, the aspartame story is yet another illustration of how successful American corporations have been in their quests to sell products they know to be poisonous for humans, but which can and do make huge profits.  The story of how industry got aspartame approved without demonstrating conclusively its safety is worth reviewing because it is, unfortunately, a common story in America, though not one many Americans know since they assume wrongly that their government organizations are acting to protect them.    

Mr. James Schlatter created Aspartame in 1965 while working on new drugs to treat ulcers.  Schlatter licked his fingers to pick up some papers and tasted the intense sweetness of the chemical compound he had just created.  G. D. Searle of the pharmaceutical company G. D. Searle & Company owned the patent, and Searle’s company did the original research on aspartame—research which claimed to show aspartame to be safe for humans (Jim Earle, “Sugar-Free Blues:  Everything You Wanted to Know About Artificial GSweeteners,” February 2004, http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-foods/570-sugar-free-blues.html).      

The context surrounding the battle to win approval for aspartame includes the fact that in November 1970, cyclamate, the most commonly used low-calorie sweetener, was removed from the market because some scientists had associated it with cancer.  At the same time, the safety of saccharin was being questioned.  Aspartame, thus, could become a replacement artificial sweetener for a market searching for lucrative diet products (Jim Turner’s timeline, http://www.swankin-turner.com/hist.html). 

In February 1973, Searle applied for FDA approval of aspartame.  But, Davis reports, Martha Freeman, an FDA scientist, determined that “the information submitted on the safety of aspartame was not adequate.”  Freeman recommended that aspartame not be allowed on the market.  Nevertheless, in July 1974, the FDA gave its first limited approval to aspartame for use in dry foods (420).  Searle called the product NutraSweet. 

Immediately, in August 1974, two men filed an objection against aspartame’s approval:  Jim Turner, a consumer advocate who had helped remove cyclamate from the market, and Dr. John Olney, a research neurologist and psychiatrist whose pioneering research with monosodium glutamate (MSG) enabled removing it from baby foods.  Turner and Olney’s protest spurred an FDA investigation of the Searle studies (Turner). 

Turner’s timeline notes that Searle knew that Olney’s research had shown that aspartic acid, an ingredient in aspartame, caused holes to develop in the brains of infant mice because Olney personally told him so.  And, that one of Searle’s researchers had “confirmed Dr. Olney’s findings in a similar study.” 

Davis writes that Dr. Olney told her that in 1969 Searle asked Harry Waisman to study aspartame in seven infant monkeys.  In one year, one monkey died and five had “suffered severe epileptic seizures.” Waisman died in the spring of 1971, so his research was not completed.  Olney’s research, however, showed that aspartame paired with monosodium glutamate (MSG) produced brain tumors in rats (420).

In January 1977, the FDA Chief Counsel, Richard Merrill, formally asked the U.S. Attorney’s office to convene a Grand Jury to investigate G. D. Searle for knowingly misrepresenting the material facts about the safety of aspartame. This request marks the first time in FDA history that the FDA requested a criminal investigation of a manufacturer (Davis).  

In March 1977, Searle hired politically powerful Donald Rumsfeld as CEO of G. D. Searle & Company.  Rumsfeld had been Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense for Gerald Ford and would become Secretary of Defense for George W. Bush.  In July, Samuel Skinner, the U.S. Attorney in charge of the Grand Jury investigation, took a job with Searle’s law firm.  His replacement, William Conlon, joined Skinner fifteen months later.        

 In August 1977, the FDA released the Bressler report on Searle’s studies claiming the safety of aspartame.  This report, notes Davis, “depicted a stunning number of irregularities”—an assessment senior FDA investigator Jacqueline Verrett, a toxicologist, later seconded in 1987 testimony to the U.S. Senate (420-421).  Verrett’s summation was that it “ `is unthinkable that any reputable toxicologist…could conclude anything other than that the study was uninterpretable and worthless, and should be repeated’ ” (Verrett in Davis, 421).  Turner writes that the “report finds that 98 of the 196 animals died during one of Searle’s studies and weren’t autopsied until as much as one year later.”  And, that growths found in the animals were neither reported nor diagnosed. 

Mark D. Gold of the Aspartame Toxicity Information Center, in a January 2003 request to withdraw approval of aspartame, covers the full range of the Searle safety studies’ irregularities:  http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys/03/Jan03/012203/02P-0317_emc-000202.txt.  Gold’s history of the aspartame history is worth a look.

In December 1977 the Grand Jury investigation was dropped.  Skinner’s withdrawal and Conlon’s inactivity stalled the investigation sufficiently that the statute of limitations ran out.  Davis writes that “expert legal advice” from former FDA officials who now worked for Searle helped “Searle run out the clock.”  She notes that on October 12, 1987, United Press International reported that “more than ten American government officials who had been involved in the decision to approve aspartame were now working in the private sector with or for the aspartame industry” (422).  Davis further notes that “scientific evidence became irrelevant” in the FDA’s approval process (422).     

In June 1979, the FDA established a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) to rule on safety issues surrounding NutraSweet.  In September 1980, the PBOI concluded that NutraSweet should not be approved pending further investigations of brain tumors in animals (Turner, Davis 421-422). 

The turning point came in November 1980 when Ronald Reagan won the Presidential election.  Rumsfeld told a Searle sales meeting that he would get aspartame approved within the year (Davis 422, Turner Timeline).  Turner writes that Rumsfeld said he would use his political pull in Washington to get the job done rather than using scientific means.

In January 1981, Rumsfeld was part of Reagan’s transition team.  Turner writes that Rumsfeld “hand-picked” Hayes to be the new FDA Commissioner.  The day after Reagan’s inauguration, Searle reapplied to the FDA for approval for aspartame.  Hayes was appointed to the FDA in April 1981.    

In March 1981, Gold writes, a five-person FDA commissioners’ panel was created to review issues raised by the PBOI.  Three members were going to vote for disapproval, so Hayes brought in a toxicologist to the panel, and the members split 3 to 3.  Gold takes this part of the story from an investigation done by Gregory Gorden of United Press International that included the irregularities involved in this panel’s determinations. 

In July 1981, “as one of his first official acts,” Hayes overruled the PBOI and ignored the intent of the original five-member FDA commissioner’s panel.  Gold notes that Hayes ignored  ”the law, Section 409(c)(3) of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 348), which says that a food additive should not be approved if tests are inconclusive (Federal Register 1981, Farber 1989, page 38).”  Davis writes that the initial approval is for use in dry products, but that approval was extended for liquids and vitamins within a year (422). 

Turner writes that in September 1983 Hayes resigned from the FDA “under a cloud of controversy” regarding taking ”unauthorized rides aboard a General foods jet.”   Hayes winds up at Burston-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Searle and Monsanto, which, in 1985, buys Searle’s aspartame business, The NutraSweet Company.   

Turner writes that when Hayes approved aspartame for dry use, he said that aspartame “has been shown to be safe for its proposed uses” and that “few compounds have withstood such detailed testing and repeated close scrutiny.”  Davis, however, repeatedly demonstrates in her book that tests performed by industry are not reliable—which is a key factor in what is wrong with our regulatory process.  Davis describes, also, how  in 1996 Ralph G. Walton, a professor of clinical psychology at Northeastern Ohio University, for the news show 60 Minutes, surveyed 165 separate aspartame studies published in medical journals over a twenty-year period.  Walton, writes Davis, found the following:  “All of the studies that found aspartame safe happened to be sponsored by industry” and “every single one that questioned its safety was produced by scientists without industry ties” (423).

You must decide if aspartame is safe or not, if the approval process was corrupt or not, or if all of the information above is just a huge conspiracy theory, as the government and industry claim.  I’m going to believe Davis, especially after reading her book about this old, repeated American story of the collusion of our government and industry.   

(Note:  There are at least three aspartame timelines online.  The most complete—and the one the other two likely use–is Mark D. Gold’s, which was submitted to the FDA in 2003:   http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys/03/Jan03/012203/02P-0317_emc-000202.txt).  Jim Turner and Rich Murray have the other two timelines.

Turkey Tracks: Hand Projects: Socks and a Rug

Turkey Tracks:  October 12, 2010

Hand Projects:  Socks and a Rug

I quilt mostly during the day.  I knit at night while watching movies.  It’s enormously relaxing.

Socks:

I completed a pair of socks recently.  I used a light yarn with a bamboo component.  They came out really lovely, though the color is much more silvery than this picture shows.

The pattern comes from Charlene Schurch’s book SENSATIONAL KNITTED SOCKS:  http://knitting.about.com/od/reviews/fr/sesational-sock.htm.  This pattern is in her 4-stitch pattern section; it’s a “baby cable.”  I have had such success with her 4-knit patterns that I have not ventured into 5-stitch or upwards.  And, these socks fit beautifully as well.

The only trouble I did have was with the bamboo blend yarn.  It turns out that bamboo is heavier than wool, and there were enough grams in the ball to produce a pair of women’s socks.  These are a women’s size 8 or so.  But, there was not enough length of the yarn.  I was missing enough yarn for the two toes.   So, I had to buy another ball, and I was lucky to get the same dye lot.  I’ve written the sellers of the yarn, and, hopefully, they will do something about this problem since right now these socks are double the cost they should be.

One of my grandchildren will be happy, however, as I will have about enough left-over yarn to make one of them a pair of socks.

Rug:

I’m also working on a knitted rug from the MASON-DIXON KNITTING book by Kay Gardiner and Ann Meador Shayne.   These gals also have a terrific blog:   http://www.masondixonknitting.com/.

Here is a picture of one of these rugs I did a few years back.  It’s been washed numerous times, and it still looks great and still feels yummy great to the feet!  It was meant for the kitchen in front of the sink, but looked like it had been made for the lower bathroom, so there it went.

Here is a bigger, close-up picture–one that is (yikes!) showing it needs a trip to the washing machine:

The yarn is a double strand of a double worsted Peaches and Cream cotton.  (Yes, two cones are used at once.)  The fabric knitted/crocheted into the pattern is from my quilt stash, cut into strips.  I love this rug.  It has just the sort of rough, handmade look that I love in a project like this one.

Over a year ago, a friend asked me to help her cut down a king-size duvet cover, and I cut the leftovers into fabric strips.  I wound up with a fairly good-sized ball.  The colors of this fabric are brighter and clearer than this first rug.  I’ve been plotting another rug ever since.   I will confess I did have to add a few more fabrics than I had in my stash.  But, I have two panels done now, so the rug will be on the kitchen floor soon now.  I’ll take a picture when it’s done.

I

Turkey Tracks: Karen Johnson’s Written Driving Test

Turkey Tracks:  October 12, 2010

Karen Johnson’s Written Driving Test

Today was a red-letter day for Karen Johnson.  And, as an interested observer, for me.

Karen is one of the students at The Community School I worked with last year.  We worked on her writing skills and on English requirements in general.  For her Passages Project–a major school project needed for graduation–we made a quilt.  You can see Karen’s quilt in the May 2010 section of this blog.  It hung at the Center for Maine Contemporary Arts in a special student exhibit. 

Karen has remained in the Camden area, which makes me happy because I like her a lot.  It’s fun to watch her grow into–and recognize–her awesome abilities.  She’s a special person.

Young people trying to get a toe hold in life in rural areas are constrained by transportation needs.  Karen is no exception.  So, we are working on getting her driver’s license.  In Maine, if you are not 21, you need to get a learner’s permit first, which means taking a difficult written test.  After six months of driving, the student can apply to take the driving test itself. 

Karen sent for the informational booklet and scheduled her written test.  And, we began working on the material she had to learn.  Karen discovered that she has really good listening skills.  So, if I read information aloud to her, she could remember it.  And, she learned that she has really good visual skills.  If she could see a sign she had to learn or a diagram of a driving problem, she remembered it.  Learning how you learn is half the battle.

Karen has a vexed history with taking tests, and this morning she was a nervous wreck.  But, I kept reminding her that those memories were in her past life and that she is now in her future life, that she had worked hard, that she knew the material, that the only way she could experience defeat would be if she worked too quickly or let herself get too panicked.

Here is Karen watching her test being graded:

 

 

And here is Karen when she was all done:

 

 

Karen PASSED the test with flying colors!!!!

Karen can drive!!!  And in six months, she can take the driving test, which she will pass.

We had Homestyle Cafe’s famous “Cinnies” as a treat (grilled Cinnamon buns that are to die for), and, eventually, Karen drove me home and herself to work with me as supervisor. 

She will be a good driver, I can already tell.

 

Turkey Tracks: Annie Chickie at 3 Months

Turkey Tracks:  October 12, 2010

Annie Chickie at 3 Months

Annie Chickie is 3 months old now.

Here’s what she looks like now.  Notice her feathered feet.  She’s almost as tall as our full-grown hens, but not quite.  And, her comb has not fully developed yet.  But, her coppery neck feathers are quite lovely, aren’t they?  She does have a white feather on her feet, which is a big no no for Copper Black Marans.  Her father has developed rather a lot of white, which is not breed ok.  The eggs from the hens are quite dark though, which is good.

She still sleeps inside in her box.  She comes to the back door and hangs around until I open it.  She strolls in, has a snack, and settles in for the night.

I think she is lonely during the day.  She isn’t quite big enough yet to follow the big hens and the rooster around the yard, so she hangs out in the bushes in the back yard.  Or, lately, she gets into the chicken coop until she is chased out by the big hens.  The Wheaten Americaunas are delighted to have a chicken lower on the pecking order than they are.

Here is a small picture of Annie, who told me just yesterday that she wants to be called Annabelle from now own.  Teenagers have minds of their own.

I love her shaggy feathered look.

Turkey Tracks: The Camden International Film Festival

Turkey Tracks:  October 11, 2010

The Camden International Film Festival

Small Towns, Big Films

 

One reason I’ve gotten a bit behind on this blog is that we spent last weekend at the 6th annual Camden International Film Festival, or CIFF.  This year it was clear that this festival has made a name for itself.  We’ve enjoyed this CIFF weekend since we moved to Maine, and it’s really exciting to see how CIFF  has grown, how it has acquired now major sponsors, and how well attended it is by people in the industry.

The films are all documentaries.  And, from Thursday to Sunday night, about 45-50 films are screened in venues in Camden, Rockland, and this year, at the CellarDoor Winery in Lincolnville.  The Winery held VINFEST this same weekend, and the final film, by Ian Cheney (KING CORN and THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE)–a work in progress–was viewed under the stars or from the inside of the hugest tent I’ve ever seen.  (The film is about the loss of darkness with the growth of urban development and light pollution.)

What makes viewing each film special is that often the film is followed by a question and answer period led by representatives from the film–the director, sometimes producers, sometimes a panel of people who are experts in the film’s area of coverage.  Viewers often can find out what has happened since the film was finished.  And, if the film is about particular people, sometimes they are in the audience and come forward after the film is finished so we can meet them.  It can be an exciting experience. 

We always have a terrible time choosing which films to see because films that look really promising often overlap.  And, we can only see so many movies in any one day before becoming brain-dead and having major fanny fatigue.  But, many of the films shown will go on to a general release in about a year and can be found on Netflix.  You can preview the films shown this year at www.camdenfilmfest.org.   And, each has a web site where you can read more about the film.

Movies that stood out for us were as follows:  you may want to try to see them next year some time:

BUDRUS–the opening film on Thursday night was about a nonviolent Palestinian protest to having their land taken by Israel during its building of its perimeter wall. 

MY PERESTROIKA–a film about 40-something Russian adults who attended the same local elementary school and who lived through the tumultuous time of enormous social change in Russia.

DREAMLAND–a film about Iceland, where the development of cheap energy (electricity from abundant rivers) led to Alcoa aluminum locating plants there that would begin to spoil untouched, gorgeous land.  Visually stunning.

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9–an innovative, lyrical, artistic film by a middle-Georgia (Ft. Valley and Forsyth) man.  This film is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  The title is taken from Robert E. Lee’s last orders to his troops at Appomatox, and the film, like Lee’s orders, is a confession of failure.  In the case of the film, it is a failure to understand the urban world, and it is the mourning of the loss of a deep attachment to the land. 

ON COAL RIVER–Massey energy has removed over 500 mountains in West Virginia (and in other states) in order to take out coal.  The mountain tops are dumped into the valleys, which pollutes the water and the air and which sickens nearby people.  The land is utterly despoiled.  This is a shocking and scary movie that lets one know what AVATAR was really about.  The equipment is huge, just as it is in AVATAR.  As with DREAMLAND, local politicians have sold out the little people. 

SUMMER PASTURE–nomad herders in Tibet take their yaks to summer pasture in China.  Their way of life is changing rapidly, as life has changed for other migratory herders across the world.  The novel, WOLF TOTEM, by Jiang Rong, details a similar story in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. 

I am already looking forward to attending CIFF next year!

Turkey Tracks: The Common Ground Fair 2010

Turkey Tracks:  October 10, 2010

The Common Ground Fair 2010

I’m a bit behind on blog entries.  It’s been busy at Hillside House this fall.  But, we attended the Maine Organic Growers’ and Farmers’ Association (MOFGA) Fair, called The Common Ground Fair, on Saturday, September 25th.  As always, this fair is a highlight of our year.  The Common Ground Fair celebrates rural living, and we so enjoy spending at least one day a year formally doing just that kind of celebrating.

This year, my first cousin, Martha Louise Bryan Epton, aka Teeny, and her partner Lori Soles, embarked on a road trip from Georgia.  I was delighted that they came to see us and that they took our word about the fair and came with us–since they had so many wonderful things to see in Maine in a short period of time.  (They have assured me that they will be back, and we hope so!)  I was 11 years old when Teeny was born, so I have known her, literally, her whole life.

Here they are:  Teeny is on the left; Lori on the right.

The fair abounds with educational speakers, farm animals of all kinds, informational tents and demonstrations of all kinds, products for sale [solar panels, heating products, food, farm implements, fiber of all kinds (wool, angora from rabbits, sweetgrass, yarn), crafts, etc]), and delicious organic food to eat and drink.  It’s impossible to cover everything in one day, but we do our best.  Here are Indian baskets for sale:

 

We always try to see the sheep dog demonstration.  It’s John’s favorite I think.  Each year the sheep herder pits children against the sheep dogs to see which group can move and hold sheep, goats, and ducks the fastest.  This year it was really hot, the sheep and goats  were tired and hot, and the children won!  They couldn’t get the ducks into the circle of cones, however.  In any case, the audience was suitably impressed!  And I somehow do not seem to have a good picture of the dogs working.

   

I always go to the chicken house first.  Here is a shot of a little boy taking a good look at a bantam rooster and his mate who were somehow on the floor.  Most of the demonstration chickens are in eye-level cages.  The rooster was crowing like crazy, and the little boy was fascinated.  He was sitting in a sea of adult legs as the chicken house is a big draw for everyone.  It’s fun to see how many different kinds of chickens there are.

 

We saw jumping mules.  (I love mules.)   There’s a man who brings 10 mules to the fair ever year, and he harnesses them all up in beautiful harness, and has them pull something–a wagon, I think.  It’s quite something.  He says getting a mule is like eating potato chips:  you cannot have just one.  They live to be very old you know–30 to 50 years.   They don’t get a running start to jump.  They stand in front of the stake and just…jump!  This big boy with the glossy black coat–a beautiful creature–didn’t like this event.  He took one look at didn’t see the point, which is a very mule-like thing to do.  They are very, very smart.  The smaller mules went jumping over, and one of those won. 

 

And paired oxen teams.  Here are some good boys:

Here are other pairs of beautiful animals.  These horses are giving anyone who wants one a ride around the fair.  The blondes are, I think, work horse from Scandinavia.  I need to refresh on the name.  Maybe they are Haflingers?  A few years back we saw one of this type being really agitated in his stall because his partner was working and he was not.  When you watch these working animals, especially the horses, you begin to see that they love to do reasonable work.

  

 

And, here is a gorgeous merino ram from Rivercroft Farm in Starks, Maine.  They cover the sheep with burlap coats to keep the wool from being disturbed.  This boy won all sorts of prizes and is now the farm’s primary breeder.  Joe Miller showed us how he trims the wool from around the ram’s eyes so he can see well–which he must do as another of the rams might butt him and hurt him if he cannot see.  The horns are quite spectacular, aren’t they?

We saw people gathered together and singing for fun.  We recognized many of the songs used in the movie Cold Mountain, which, of course, are songs people used to sing together for fun in places like church.  It was really fun to hear the harmonizing and the quick beats and chants.

The stone masons are always at the fair.  Here they are demonstrating how to cut granite into blocks.  Once small holes are drilled and metal pegs are inserted, the mason has only to gently tap on the tops of the pegs in rotation for the stone to–amazingly–break apart in a clean line.  Drilling the holes takes time and really good drill bits.  The masons were also demonstrating how to build stone walls with an arched opening, outdoor ovens, and sculpture tools and work in progress. 

The wood workers also had all kinds of demonstrations, to include how to debark felled timber and how to cut it into planks by hand.  Boat builders were also demonstrating how to build sailing boats and canoes.

I love, too, the whimsey at the fair.  Here’s what I mean:

Grinning shovels (a welder demonstration) and awesome birdhouses!  

I’m always powerfully interested in what is growing at MOFGA and how they are growing it.  Each year the hoop houses get more interesting.  Here is a traditional hoop house–which, with inside row covers, allows for 4-season growing in the cold Maine climate.  The pioneer of this method is Eliot Coleman, who lives further north than we do–on the Blue Hill peninsula. 

 

Here is a “giraffe” hoop house that fascinated me.  It does not take up much space–a prime consideration for me with my tiny growing space, it’s easy to assemble, and it allows 4 paste tomato plants to fully ripen fruit.  We had a great tomato season this year, but even so, I brought in about 50 pounds of green paste tomatoes that just did not have enough time and warmth.  Here’s a solution. 

And, finally, the best for last:

Many, many varieties of fall pumpkins and squash–aren’t the white pumpkins interesting?

And, GREENS!  Collards and different types of kale:

LONG LIVE THE MOFGA, COMMON GROUND FAIR!!!

Turkey Tracks: Cider Pressing Potluck

Turkey Tracks:  September 30, 2010

Cider Pressing Potluck

Boy am I bummed!

We were invited to our neighbors’ annual Cider Pressing Potluck, and I did not take my camera.

What a mistake!

Chris Richmond and Susan McBride live just up Howe Hill from us, and it has been really fun to watch how they have added to their family (three children now) and slowly and patiently improved their house, barn, and land.  The farmhouse and barn are especially lovely in the way that old New England properties are.  The house has pumpkin pine flooring that is at least a foot wide and is the color of…pumpkin.  I envy them the barn, and they are just now finishing repairing the lower section–which has been a major project for them.  They have laying chickens, geese who are keen watchdogs, and, sometimes meat chickens and turkeys.  Susan is expanding the gardens every year and now has two hoop houses.  The second one came this summer and is large.  Already there are strips of green plants beneath the plastic roof.  I will be able to get winter greens from her, and I’m excited about that possibility since she embodies what I hope will happen more and more:  small growers will grow beautiful food for their neighbors and friends and enough of them will do it so that we don’t have to eat food shipped here from Florida and California.

There is an apple orchard on the uphill side of the farmhouse, and that’s where the cider pressing and potluck took place.  What a fun day they made for us!  The people who pressed the cider had made all their own equipment.  Truly, this kind of knowledge needs to be preserved, and it was so generous of them to share it with everyone who came to the potluck.  Here’s where my camera was sorely missed!  There were three  buckets where the apples got washed three times, a piece of simple equipment that gobbled up the apples and cut them into small pieces, a straining system with some kid of heavy cloth in a box that let some of the immediate juice come out, and a press where the boxed apples in fabric got…pressed.  The cider was delicious!

Yes, the cider was unpasteurized.  If you think drinking unpasteurized cider dangerous, here are some of my thoughts.  Real cider is a whole food that is filled with enzymes, nutrients, and, best of all, great flavor, especially if several varieties of apples are used.  It bears no relationship to the sugary hit you get with commercially made apple juice.  Of course, as with all foods, you have to trust that your cider presser is not using bad/rotten apples, has cleaned them properly, is not using anything but organic apples, and so forth.  We always try to save freezer space for at least a few quarts, and when I defrost them in the spring, the juice is like a spring tonic for us.

Consider, too, how so-called “safe” juice is made–a process approved by our FDA.  Let’s take orange juice as an example.  Industry puts the whole oranges into a machine so as to get as much oil as possible out of the skin.  But, commercial oranges are a heavily sprayed crop–most often sprayed with cholinesterase inhibitors and organophosphates, which are neurotoxins that cause degeneration of the brain and nervous system.  It amazes me that intelligent people can think they can eat/drink food sprayed with neurotoxins and not experience any damage.  Or, that the poisons magically go away in time.  They do not.  Also, there is a fungus in fruit that is resistant to both pressure and heat, so pasteurization does not kill it.  Raw fruit juices, as is also true of milk, contain enzymes that can sometimes destroy this kind of contaminant.  Some strains of E. coli are also resistant to pasteurization processes.  Additionally, treating juice with industrial process involving heat and great pressure can produce intermediate products that are mutagenic and cytotoxic.  In other words, treated juice can have cancer-causing compounds.  The sugar load of treated juice, without the natural enzymes and nutrients, is hard on teeth.  And, industry adds soy protein and pectin to keep juice looking cloudy and to prevent solids from settling.

Commercial orange juice is a highly-processed, adulterated product that you are drinking at your own risk.  Better to eat a whole orange.  Or, to drink fresh cider from a presser you trust.   Here’s a web site with more of this kind of information:  “Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry”:  http://www.westonaprice.org/modern-foods/567-dirty-secrets-of-the-food-processing-industry.html

Susan and Chris had set up tables outside for the potluck, and soon the yard was filled with running, laughing children, adults drinking cider and eating delicious food–for everyone had brought special dishes.  I brought my favorite meatloaf.  Here’s a picture (taken by Tami) and my recipe, developed over 45 years of cooking:

Louisa’s Meatloaf

2 pounds of ground meat–if it’s very lean, add several tablespoons of fat (butter, coconut oil).  You can use combinations of meat if you like, like a bit of pork with beef or buffalo.  I don’t eat veal since I disapprove of how baby calves destined for veal are treated.  I also would use meat from organic, pastured animals.   Lamb meatloaf is also delicious!

a handful of rolled oats or cubed leftover bread to absorb juices

2 GOOD eggs

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

about 1 1/2 cups of a grated veggie to keep the mixture moist (carrots, zucchini, mushrooms)–or a combo–use what you have around or what is in season

1 cup of grated cheese–whatever you have on hand that needs using or what you especially like

A dash of cream or milk to help bind the ingredients

Seasons:  salt, pepper, herbs (chopped fresh herbs are lovely, especially thyme and/or Italian parsley.  A dried fresh mixture of Italian herbs or Provencal herbs (with lavender) are also nice.

A topping to be put on after shaping (below):       sliced tomatoes with some basil leaves in summer, or slices of zucchini with a good tomato sauce that does not have a lot of ingredients.  Meatloaf seems to ask for a tomato sauce of some kind.  I really try to stay away from cans because of the lining chemicals (phthalates and BPA), but here is where I might buy a small can of good-quality tomato sauce.  You could also use one of the good ketchups–not Heinz, etc.  Get one without a lot of “spices” (MSG) and with ingredients you know and understand.  Look in the health-store section of the store.

Don’t overmix.  With your hands just combine the ingredients.  I use something like an open 8X8 pan, or a more rectangular, bigger shape, and form the meatloaf into a football shape.  It cooks faster than trying to put it into a loaf pan.  Cook at 350 degrees for about an hour.  I also don’t worry if it’s a little pink in the middle as overcooking beef takes away many of its enzymes, nutrients, etc.

Let the meat cool for about 5-10 minutes before cutting–letting meat sit and cool a bit allows juices to stay in the meat and not flow out into the pan when you cut into it.  Also, the meat continue to cook, so pull it out at the pink stage so it does not overcook.

 ENJOY

(Cold meatloaf sandwiches are fabulous!)

Turkey Tracks: Surprise Big and Little Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  September 30, 2010

Surprise Big and Little Quilts

When fall arrives, I often mark the season, it seems, with some reorganization project.  This year, it has been reorganizing my quilting room.  I’m trying to see if I can get a Handi Quilter Long Arm Machine in there without losing too much functionality.  It will mean replacing some long work tables with the machine, but I won’t need those long tables if I don’t have to hand layer and pin large quilts. 

Getting a long-arm is a long-held dream.  And, it’s a bit scary.  There’s a whole new learning curve for one thing.  Will I be able to master it to my levels of perfection, which are huge?  Will I be able to assemble the thing?  Will I be able to do the classes, which are 3 hours away?  Will I be able to use my existing threads?  It’s a process I’ve been inching toward for about 5 years now.  Getting a long-arm will significantly increase my productivity.  And I have about a dozen quilt projects lined up to do, and I love to piece.  And, I don’t ever want to give up learning something demanding and new.  Especially not something that brings so much pleasure to so many people. 

My younger son Bryan and his wife Corinne are expecting their first child, a girl, in early December, and we are so excited.  When they were here this summer, Corinne and I picked out fabrics for a diaper bag, two sets of fabrics for receiving blankets, and fabrics for a lively, colorful quilt.  I also have fabric for a baby quilt for my niece, who is expecting her first child, a boy, about this time.  And, my older son’s wife, Tami, went home this summer with my placemat loom, her own loom which my husband John made for her, and all her fabric already cut into strips.  She left me with the napkins, which I can hem in short order.  (We’re going to work on the placemats together at Thanksgiving.  I think she has a picture of a finished one on her blog:  http://6enrights.blogspot.com ).  And, I have a new purse cut out for me.  My current purse is in shreds.   

So why aren’t I working on any of these planned projects?  I’ve gotten badly side0tracked, it seems.  What’s going on?

Ok, whenever I finish a quilt, I take all the smallish bits of leftover fabric and cut it into useable sizes:  1 1/2-in strips for log cabins, squares from 2 to 6 inches,and rectangles in two sizes that I use.  I have bags of them now, and I keep telling myself that I need to start using them–though, as I said, I have at least a dozen other quilts to be made.  I’m always cutting out articles about interesting blocks to use “someday” for these scrappy leftovers.  This spring I saw an article in QUILTMAKER (March/April 2010) by Bonnie Hunter about a “Spinner” block that’s nice for scrappy quilts made with leftovers.  Hunter just keeps 4 squares in the block in one color as a unifying strategy.  Hunter says as she works she cuts leftover fabrics into sizes for the Spinner block and sews a block up when she has enough pieces.  Eventually she has a quilt.

I took out my sack of 2 1/2-inch squares and pulled out all the brights.  The unifying block would be red, though I added a few pinks and oranges to shake things up a bit.  Here’s what happened almost immediately:

 

Yes, there are two quilts.  I made the little one from the tiny triangles leftover from trimming out part of the Spinner block.  I think “possessed” would be the right descriptive word.   It took about a week!  Here’s a better look at the little guy,with which I’ve absolutely fallen in love.  I have no idea how I’m going to quilt it, but it seems to want some beading fringe at the bottom.   And, it will stay in my quilt room.

 

The big quilt–which is perfectly square despite the camera’s distortion of it–will go to someone.  There are bits of a black fabric with pink pigs in it.  I found more of it to use as the backing.  And, I think what’s going on with this whole surprise quilt thing is that the big quilt is meant to be my first quilt on the long-arm.  It’s made from scraps.  Well, ok, I did have to cut more fabrics in my stash to get all the colors, especially the red unifyling squares.  And I don’t have any emotional investment in it in terms of planning something special for a particular person.  I will be able to work on it without added stress.   

I promise, Bryan and Corinne and Tami, I’m going to get right onto our joint projects now that I’ve worked out this whole “use up the cut scraps” thing and have made the decision to call the long-arm people for prices.