the ancient art of shalom

Ethanol – A Mythical Green Energy Source?

Jason — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:57:13 +0000

This excerpt from an article posted on Wharton’s Law and Public Policy section, “An Earful on Ethanol: Rising Food Prices, Inefficient Production and Other Problems”, captures a lot of my thoughts on the problems with ethanol (boldface added):

Food crops such as grains “are terrible sources of raw material for biofuels,” says Karl Ulrich, a Wharton professor of operations and information management. “Every analysis I have seen shows that grain-based biofuels such as ethanol require more energy to produce than they provide.” Ulrich, who in 2005 devised a system called Terra Pass to allow individuals to buy carbon offsets, notes that “about four calories of energy, usually from fossil fuels, are required to create one calorie of food energy. That is, 100 calories of carbohydrates in corn requires about 400 calories of coal, natural gas, or oil for fertilizer, planting, harvesting, processing, and transportation. As a result, the more likely cause of rising food prices is the rising cost of energy.”

Ulrich says he sees far more promise in the second generation ethanol sources.

But they, too, could have their own unintended consequences, according to Ulku G. Oktem, a senior research fellow at Wharton who has taught a course called Environmental Sustainability and Value Creation. “If you use the whole [corn] plant … you do not return any part of the plant back into the soil, which means you have to feed more nutrition to the crops — and that means more fertilizer. More fertilizer means you have to use more energy to create it. One has to look at the full life-cycle of ethanol production.“

Dirt and Spirituality

Jason — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:44:43 +0000

Transplanting wheat seedlings at dawn

Our family has really dived in to our backyard urban mini-farm – we’ve been spending many hours prepping the land, hunched over Excel spreadsheets, and getting up many days in a row at dawn to plant seedlings before the kids get up. One of the key parts of sustainable agriculture is taking a long view on things – we’re not just trying to build the absolutely best garden for this season, but investing in the land so that it will be fruitful for years and decades to come. This means growing the right mix of crops so that you are growing enough compost matter to put back into the soil. Only the nutrients present in the food itself gets taken away, and literally everything else gets put back in to build up good dirt. That’s what we’re trying to do now, which is why we’re growing a whole lot more grains and beans this year than ever before – we just put in about 300 wheat plants (for compost material and grain) and have about 150 green bean plants and soybean plants (that build nitrogen into the soil) either in the ground or about ready to go in the ground.

Nor is our garden just about being good stewards, growing healthy food, or just a hobby that we’re taking up – although we do enjoy the fruits of our labor (quite literally) and the beautiful vista out our back window. It’s actually become an integrated part of our journey as followers of Jesus. All over the Scriptures you see organic analogies and stories – talk about land, seed sowing, harvests, weeds, good and bad soil, the garden of Eden.

Speaking of dirt, another key lesson I think God has been drilling into me over the last few years especially is that spiritual life is messy. Things rarely go according to plan, God and a Godward life doesn’t fit into convenient compartments, and it takes hard, hard work to be a consistent and faithful disciple of Jesus. It’s just like work in the garden – there are pests to contend with, poor weather that throws off schedules, diseases that come and mess with the plants, among a whole host of other things that could go wrong. Working in the garden (on the land and in your soul) is hard work! I’m often on my hands and knees, dirt everywhere, clothes soiled, picking up gross things — all the help foster a good environment for healthy plants. Is that not what the spiritual journey with God looks like? The deeper I walk into life with Jesus, the more I realize I need to be on my hands and knees (both literally and figuratively), plowing through hard stuff, working through gross things, and embracing the messiness of it all.

The closer I get to the dirt, the more my eyes are opened to God and His creation, his desire for people to operate in a natural and connected way to Him and His world, and the myriad of ways that deep discipleship is patterned after God’s design in non-human creation. Even understanding passages in the Scriptures like God causing the growth of plants, and us participating in it in some way (see 1 Cor 3:6-7). And add to that the great feeling of being outside, hands and knees in the dirt, watching plants grow from tiny seedlings into full-fledged plants, it’s a wonder to behold. I’d highly recommend it. The further we walk into it, the more tired we get, but the more integrated, healthy, and vibrant our life starts to feel.

I Spent Three Days in Mendocino Learning About Dirt

Jason — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:41:16 +0000

Walking down to the Ecology Action research garden

Back in the beginning of March, I spent three days in the tiny town of Willits, CA, in Mendocino County learning about dirt. More specifically, I was attending a 3-day Grow Biointensive Workshop hosted by Ecology Action to delve deeper into our journey into sustainable mini-farming. We talked a lot about dirt – soil, organic matter, microbes, bacteria, worms, soil content, nutrients, and all the important dirt conditions that fosters good, healthy plant growth. And these weren’t light sessions – we were going at it for about 8-10 hours a day for three days straight, sometimes in the classroom with calculators out, and sometimes out in the fields digging in the dirt, but by and large we spent a lot of our time talking about soil. And why not? It, along with water and sunlight, is one of the absolutely critical parts of growing food. The workshop was possibly the best workshop of any type that I’ve ever attended – an excellent blend of theory and practice together.

Not only was it great to learn a whole bunch of new stuff about dirt, but it was great to interact with people from all over the country. The three dozen or so participants came from as far as Hawaii and Ohio, along with a fair number from California. The trainers were also fantastic, as were the various staff members of Ecology Action. It was so cool to be sitting around talking about sustainable farming and living with these folks who combined had countless stories to share.

Here are a few shots from my time in Willits to give you a glimpse into my weekend back in March – I had a blast and learned so much. If you ask me about it, you could get me going for a long conversation!

The Ecology Action farm is perched up in the mountains, on what started as some pretty bad soil a few decades ago. They’ve done some hard work and built it into something beautiful:

The Ecology Action Research Garden

Here I am bright and early at the Golden Rule Garden (where Seabiscuit was trained) where most of the trainings were held. As you can tell, I’m not quite awake yet, and it was actually quite chilly in the mornings, even in March (I’m wearing two fleeces and a jacket).

Early morning with my coffee

It was great to be outside and breathing fresh air for a solid three days.

Spring Blossoms

The food served was 100% vegetarian, and it was awesome! Among some of the best soups, salads, and breads that I’ve ever had. Here’s a great lunch they served – quinoa, carrots, and a fresh green salad. This is as fresh as it gets. Yum.

Veggie Goodness

One of my favorite parts was learning about grains, like the quinoa pictured below. This part was pretty cool because we also got to learn how to process grain manually – stomp it with your feet over some hardware cloth, and separate the chaff by using a fan and some gravity.

Quinoa

Separating the wheat from the chaff

And it was great learning from John Jeavons (author of How to Grow More Vegetables) and his decades of experience. He’s like a walking encyclopedia for all things on sustainable farming and living. It was a tremendous privilege to benefit from his wisdom and ask him lots of questions. Here he is coaching a fellow workshop participant in the double dig:

John Jeavons and the Double Dig

Wheat Seedlings Getting Ready to Join the Fun

Jason — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:43:41 +0000

Our makeshift seedling start area flush with over 200 Dylan wheat seedlings, peering out into their new home.

Wheat Seedings Ready to Go. (Olympus E-P1, Lumix 14mm f/2.5)

My 2012 Pretend Baseball Team

Jason — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:31:21 +0000

For those of you who like playing pretend baseball GM (aka “Fantasy Baseball”), here’s my 2012 NL Rotisserie Team:

Pos	Sal	Player
P	24	Greinke, Z*
P	13	Lilly, T*
P	9	Leake, M
P	6	Capuano, C
P	5	Santana, J*
P	1	de la Rosa, J
P	1	Clippard, T*
P	11	Francisco, F
P	21	Wilson, B
C	3	Ellis, AJ
C	1	Ross, D*
1B	10	Sanchez, G*
2B	15	Hill, A
3B	10	Wigginton, T*
SS	15	Castro, S*
CF	10	Gamel, M*
MF	8	Furcal, R
OF	31	Upton, J*
OF	22	Beltran, C*
OF	14	Berkman, L*
OF	10	Jay, J*
OF	10	Torres, A
UT	10	Drew, S

Players with a * were kept from last season.

Coming out of the auction, here were my general thoughts:

Positives

Risk was generally spread out over a number of players, with a bunch of guys under 15 bucks. Decent average, runs, and speed coming out of the auction, perhaps a little light in the power and RBI potential. Unless Gamel goes crazy. Upton, my most expensive player, was a top five hitter last year, Beltran is solid when he’s playing, and guys like Torres, Jay, Sanchez, and Hill will hopefully contribute little bits across categories. Another plus is that most of the hitters are starters — Wigginton will play until Ryan Howard comes back, and David Ross is one of the best backup catchers in the NL.

I had some good keepers going into the auction, especially Starlin Castro, Berkman, Greinke, and Santana. I like my pitching staff and it seemed good to have two closers coming out of the auction. Francisco at $11 seemed pretty fair. Starter inflation was pretty high during the auction, so I ended up waiting and wound up with Leake and Capuano. Hoping for some pretty steady contributions from them, with Greinke anchoring the staff.

Negatives

I ended up buying a lot of injured or prone to be injured players: Drew, de la Rosa, and Lilly started the year on the DL. Torres went on the DL after game one. Brian Wilson is probably out for the season. Furcal, Berkman, Beltran, Francisco, and Santana are all injury risks. I need at least the majority of them (well, except Wilson now) to produce well in order to compete.

I’m also missing some good solid strikeout guys. Greinke is great, but Lilly, Leake, and Santana are in the 6-7 K/9 range. Capuano could be a solid contributor, as could de la Rosa assuming all goes well in his rehab.

Outlook

It’s a long season. We’ll see how it goes!

Build Your Own Seedling Flats on the Cheap

Jason — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:35:50 +0000

A big part of our backyard mini-farm is growing our plants from seed – not only does this save a ton of money (think 100-1,000 seeds for two bucks as opposed to six plants for two bucks), but it really helps you connect with the whole process of raising your own food from start to finish. You can also get healthier plants by starting them in seedling flats and transplanting them into the ground as opposed to directly sowing the seeds in the ground, where the soil will get compacted in the critical early stages and leave the seedlings susceptible to birds, slugs, and the elements. Finally, starting everything in seedling flats is more efficient–you use less water because you’ve reduced the dead space between seeds (since you’ll transplant them), and you can continue to grow something in the ground while your seedlings get ready!

Seedling flats are a great way to economize on space, watering, and not using little throwaway plastic six packs. They’re also better for your plants because they have ample room to grow roots (ever pop out a nursery seedling and see the roots crammed all around the side of those tiny containers?). But they can be a little pricey (over 30 bucks if you buy them already built).

On the other hand, you can build one yourself for, say, seven bucks! Here’s how:

Step One: Go to the lumber yard and/or hardware store. Get wood and supplies. You’ll need:

An 8-footer of redwood 1×4 (which will measure actually about 5/8″ x 3.5″). 11 bucks. This is for the sides. Cedar is ok too. Both redwood and cedar will last a long time outdoors.
One piece of bender board, usually about 8 feet as well. Two bucks. This is for the bottom.
16 wood screws, 1 1/4″ #8 screws work well.
A bunch of wire nails, at least 1/2″ long.

Step Two: Chop it up. With an 8-footer, you can build two seedling flats, 13.5″ x 10″. Using your saw, cut four pieces 13.5″ long, and four pieces 10″ long from the redwood 1×4. For the bender board, cut eight pieces a hair less than 10″ wide for the bottom.

Step Three: Drill holes. In the 10″ pieces, drill two holes each on the edges that are about 5/16″ of the way from the edge. These will screw into the longer 13.5″ pieces. I counter-sink mine so the screws will go in flush. You’ll now have a pile of supplies that looks something like this:

Step Four: Put the sides together. Drive wood screws to connect the 10″ pieces into the 13.5″ pieces. Like this:

Step 5: Nail the bender board bottom on, leaving a tiny gap in between each piece. You may have to chisel down one of the pieces to make it fit.

Step 6: Condition the flat with some linseed oil. This will help it last a long time.

Step 7: Fill with soil and plant some seeds! Water, and watch them sprout. Transplant when ready.

Step 7: Re-use year after year, decade after decade.

(Basic plans from How to Grow More Vegetables)

Macro Shot: Food Color

Jason — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:01:18 +0000

A shot of some food coloring used for M and m’s egg dyeing project:

Food Color (Olympus E-P1, Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI)

Spring is Here! Kuo Family Garden Update

Jason — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:48:13 +0000

This weekend is our main spring planting date, which means there’s been a ton of prep work over the last month or so. A lot of that has been getting seedlings ready, but there’s also prepping the land, and finishing out our winter crops. Here’s the view of our garden as of a few days ago:

Kuo Family Garden, April 2, 2012

We double-dug the newly liberated sections near the front, which used to be occupied by some long-standing boxwoods. The bed on the right will contain our wheat, and the next one over will probably have our asparagus and turnips.

In the meantime, we’re also attempting to do a catch crop of radishes with their supposedly fast maturing time of around 30 days. We’ve never had any success with radishes – they’ve always bolted on us and refused to bulb. Probably user error. Nevertheless, we’re trying again:

Radishes

In the seedling arena, here are 544 seeds getting started, hopefully ready to transplant in the next two weeks. From left to right, we’ve got 70 soybean seeds, 350 wheat seeds, and 56 bush beans. Later, we filled the far right spot with 68 peas. Those may or may not be my feet.

544 Seeds

Meanwhile, we’ve got 130 or so parsnips getting started indoors in this flat, plus a second flat of a 123 more.

Parsnips

April’s gonna be crazy, but crazy fun.

Bible Word of the Day: Symphoneo

Jason — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:19:51 +0000

From Matthew 18:19 -

συμφωνέω (symphōneō): fit (in) with, match (with), agree with; fit together; match in sound; be in agreement, in harmony,; be of one mind, agree.

Sounds beautiful.

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Mendocino County Shot: Trees at Sunrise

Jason — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:47:22 +0000

Trees at Sunrise (Mendocino County, CA). Olympus E-P1, Lumix 14mm f/2.5.