by Winding Pathways | Mar 19, 2015 | Preparedness
We discovered another reason why every household should have basic camping equipment, even if the owners never go camping.
We hired a local company to repair, sand, and finish an old wooden kitchen floor. During the project we couldn’t access our refrigerator or stove. Camping gear came to the rescue. For a couple of days we cooked on our portable camping stove, while an ice chest kept yogurt, milk and other perishables cool.
Massive storms are increasingly knocking out utilities, and millions of Americans have had to endure upwards of a week without electricity. A camp stove, lantern and ice chest make riding out a storm more comfortable, and they can come in handy during a renovation.
This two burner Sterno keeps food warm but is less useful for cooking. Great for old style fondue parties!
There are three basic types of camping stoves. Most common are two burner gas models fueled by green propane bottles commonly sold in grocery, camping, and hardware stores. They are convenient and easy to use. A second type is fueled by gasoline, sometimes called Coleman fuel. These stoves are efficient but take skill and patience to operate properly. A third type is a simple folding stove that runs on gelled fuel, often called Sterno.
Propane and white gas stoves enable extensive cooking and many an outstanding meal has come off them. Gas and propane stoves must be used where there is good outdoor ventilation. Using them on an outside picnic table is ideal. Sterno type stoves don’t produce enough heat long enough for significant cooking but are handy for warming up food and making an occasional cup of tea.
A diversity of camping lanterns is on the market and they’re ideal for when the power goes off. Some are fueled by propane or liquid gas. But the safest and easiest models are battery powered. They are safe indoors and models with LED bulbs provide hours of light on one set of batteries.
This fast heating camp stove is great for backpacking and to heat water and cook food in an emergency.
Camping stoves, lanterns and ice chests can be purchased at big box and camping stores, but used ones are often found at garage sales at bargain prices. Be sure to have enough fuel or batteries on hand to last a week.
by Winding Pathways | Mar 11, 2015 | Chickens
An unusual sound can be heard in the Crowne Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Listen carefully as trains clatter across elevated tracks and cars and delivery trucks scurry here and there and you might hear a rooster crow.
Few would believe that chickens are common in America’s largest city, but they are thriving in all parts of New York. “I’d say the chicken population has grown 100% since 2009,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager of Just Food, a private nonprofit organization that encourages chickens and other forms of food production.
The crowing rooster lives contentedly with several hens in the Imani Community Garden near the corner of Syracuse and Dean. Although in an amazingly urban area, the chickens share a community garden with beds of vegetables and a few leafy trees that form a green oasis in the urban landscape.
Unlike in many American towns chickens have never been banned by ordinance in New York and many other large cities. They were part of the immigrant experience, and interest in raising chickens is growing as fast in the city as it is in smaller towns across the country.
Many New Yorkers live in quiet Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island neighborhoods and keep small coops in their backyards. Others live in massive apartment buildings in densely populated neighborhoods and lack a yard. That’s were community gardens enter.
Many years ago New York was pockmarked by abandoned lots where people tossed trash and consummated drug deals. Entertainer Bette Midler and others saw potential and several nonprofit organizations were formed to convert them to green places where neighbors could gather to grow food and keep chickens. Imani Garden, like dozens of others, is owned by the New York Restoration Project, a nonprofit that places conservation easements on land so they legally remain open space. Just Food, another nonprofit, organizes community gardens and CSAs and teaches people how to raise chickens in the city.
“Not all community gardens have chickens but many do and every garden handles its flock a little differently,” said Greg Anderson, Urban Agriculture Manager for Just Food. Often flock responsibility is divided among many families that each care for the birds on a specific day. That’s the day a specific family keeps the eggs. Other gardens sell eggs at farmers markets and use proceeds to operate the organization.
Some urbanites keep chickens as pets. Anderson tells of a woman in Queens who has leashes for her two pet chickens and regularly takes them for walks.
Live in a big city and want to keep chickens? It’s not impossible and it’s likely there are already chickens near your home. A good way to locate local resources is to simply GOOGLE “Chickens in (name of your city)”. To learn more about the New York chicken and gardening experience check out Just Food or New York Restoration Project
by Winding Pathways | Mar 5, 2015 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Foraging, Nature, Trees/Shrubs
Waiting for a drop of sap.
Maple syruping is captivating. Perhaps because the process is fascinating, it’s one of the first signs of spring or it conjures up childhood memories reading books about syruping or seeing old Currier and Ives prints of Native Americans or hearty pioneers sugaring off.
Alhough it’s a historic process, tapping trees and making syrup is a fun family activity and a great way to pique childhood curiosity about history and science. Syruping is a blend of botany, weather, science, history and all topped off with delicious eating.
Native Americans invented maple syruping long ago. Before honeybees were imported from Europe and sugar became a trade item maple syrup was THE ONLY sweetener they had. Typically Native Americans made maple sugar by slicing the bark of trees in late winter, catching what sap they could in bark or wooden containers and boiling the sap in large, hollowed out wooden containers by dropping fire-heated rocks into the liquid. They used this cumbersome method because until Europeans arrived they didn’t have metal. Syruping was plenty of work.
When Europeans settled along the Atlantic coast they quickly developed a taste for maple and supplied Natives with metal buckets, pans, axes and spiles that enabled them and European settlers to make syrup efficiently. It was the main American sweetener until a cane sugar tariff was lifted in the late 1800’s. Today maple syrup is a delicious, but expensive, luxury.
Modern producers use plastic tubes to channel sap from their sugarbush (maple grove) to their sugarhouse, where it’s processed into syrup by eliminating water in ultra-modern reverse osmosis machines followed by some boiling. It’s an efficient, but not nostalgic, process.
Making syrup from a backyard tree using old methods is fascinating fun. It’s now late winter. Soon days will be above freezing and sap will flow. Syruping season is upon us. Assuming there’s a maple tree in the yard most families have many of the items they need to make a small batch of syrup. Here’s how:
What you need: It’s simple. You need a maple tree or two of any species. Sugar, black, silver, red and European maples produce sweet sap. Even common box elders, which are true maples in disguise, yield sap that makes delicious syrup. The tree needs to be at least 10” in diameter but bigger ones are better. Other needs are:
• A drill and bit to create a 7/16th or ½ inch diameter hole three inches deep into the tree.
• A homemade or purchased spout, or “spile” as it’s called in syruping country.
• A container to catch sap. Plastic milk jugs work!
• A container to collect and store sap.
• A way to boil off about 40 gallons of water to make one gallon of syrup.
Where can syrup be made: Although New England, Canada and the Lake States are traditional syruping regions it can be made anywhere maples grow and the right weather conditions occur. Syruping is possible from Alabama to North Dakota, east to the Atlantic, and even from street trees in western towns.
When are trees tapped: Maples drip sap only when nights are below freezing followed by daytime temperatures above 32 degrees. Ideal conditions are several days in a row with clear, cold frosty nights followed by sunny warm days. Traditionally syruping starts around March first in the north but can be earlier down south. The season ends when sap stops dripping as night temperatures remain above freezing. The sap flow can be as short as four or five days or as long as six weeks. It all depends on the weather.
How to tap a tree: In late winter, just before warm days are expected, gather a drill, bucket and child and tap your backyard tree. If done properly it does no harm to the tree. A young 10” diameter maple is good for just one tap, but a 30” diameter veteran can support up to three taps. Use either an electric drill or be traditional and use a carpenter’s brace and bit. Drill at a slight upward angle two to three inches into the tree. A short piece of wire can be bent into a hook to drag wood chips out of the hole. Tap in the spout, or spile, and attach the bucket or milk jug to catch sap. If the weather is perfect sap will flow as soon as the drill passes through the bark.
Spiles and collection supplies can be purchased but here’s how to make your own:
Step One: Find a patch of sumac. These common shrubs often grow along roads. Cut off a three foot section about a half inch in diameter with pruning shears. Then cut it into pieces about four inches long. Sumac has thick soft pith. Either poke it out with a piece of stiff wire or drill it out to create a tube. Taper the end that will go into the hole in the tree by whittling with a pocket knife. Gently tap your spile into the hole.
Step Two: Use the pocket knife to cut a small hole in the neck of a clean gallon milk jug just above the handle. Slip the hole over the end of the spile. If you’ve done it right the jug will stay in place and is strong enough to hold a gallon of sap without pulling out of the tree.
If the weather’s right the jug will fill in just a couple of hours. Empty the sap into a storage container. It’s best to begin boiling right away but cold sap will keep a few days. But, there are other uses for maple sap than boiling into syrup. Fill a teacup with boiling sap instead of water and add a tea bag. The delicious beverage will have a hint of maple flavor. Some people drink sap as a spring tonic.
Step Three: Now comes processing. Nothing is added to sap to create syrup but about 40 parts of water must be evaporated to make one part syrup. It can be boiled in a saucepan over the kitchen stove, but that puts lots of sticky steam into the house. Boiling is best done outdoors over a wood fire or propane burner. Large shallow pans help speed boiling. Boil for several hours. The syrup is ready to eat when:
• It is golden colored with delicious sweetness.
• It slowly dribbles off a spoon dunked in hot syrup and suspended over the pan.
• It boils at seven degrees Fahrenheit hotter than boiling water.
Serious sugarmakers use more precise ways to tell when their syrup is done but these simple tests work for a small quantity. Finished syrup has sediment at the bottom of the container that looks like fine sand. It’s mostly calcium that’s perfectly fine to eat, but it can be filtered through cheese cloth to remove it. Refrigerate your precious syrup to prevent spoilage.
Commonly asked syruping questions:
Q. Will it hurt the tree? A. Only if the tree is overtapped. Only drill one hole in a 10” diameter tree. Up to three or four taps are fine in a massive maple.
Q. Do I plug the hole in the tree at the end of the season? A. Nope. Just pull out the spile. The tree will heal itself.
Q. How much syrup will one small tree with one tap produce? A. It all depends on the weather. During a long season a small tree could yield up to a half gallon of syrup, but during a short season it might yield only a cup or two. The long term average is about one quart of syrup per tap.
Sources of Syruping Equipment and Information
Simply Google Maple Syruping and the computer’s screen will be filled with places to buy equipment and information on how to tap trees and make syrup. One of our favorite sites is Tap My Trees.
Winding Pathways urges people to go outside and have fun. Few backyard activities are as fun as making a batch of maple syrup from your own tree.
by Winding Pathways | Mar 4, 2015 | Labyrinths, Wonderment
Teri P. is an articulate, sensitive pilgrim of Labyrinths. Below Teri shares insights from a year of walking labyrinths in the Eastern Iowa area.
“First time in the labyrinth: Maundy Thursday April 17, 2014
“(Christ) Episcopal Church – Replica of the Chartres Labyrinth. Eight people there. I felt like people were walking fast. Faster than I wanted to. I tried to do the walking meditation as I was taught, but I felt pressured to keep moving. I walked with one foot ahead of the other. Reminded me of walking on the balance beam as a kid. Made me think of Dad. Marion said gymnastics must be where I got my good posture. No other impressions except calm.
“Regis Labyrinth: Saturday April 19, 2014- after a run.
“This labyrinth was a tribute to a beloved teacher. Stones along the path are engraved with inspirational words, “Patience” “Courage” “Pray”. At the center is John 14:6. Situated on the hill behind the school gives the labyrinth a restful feeling of solitude. I think I shall call it my” local”, like you do with a pub. Just a few blocks from my house.
“Solon Labyrinth: May Day 2014
“There was a cold rainy drizzle. When you drive onto the property you see a large round barn. Very cool.
“But around the back of the barn it gets even better. This massive stone arch is perched on the bank of a pond. It was laid up dry, by someone who understood the principle. I made Marion take a picture of me standing under it. As I walked the circuits I began thinking, “if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams….” At the center I moved from one rose petal to the next and wondered where this energy came from and where it would take me. I don’t completely understand, but I seem to feel lighter each time.
“Prairiewoods, World Labyrinth Day : May 3, 2014
“Marion tried to organize a walk, but she and I were the only ones to show up. Marion knows all the bird calls and frog sounds and any other sounds along the path to the labyrinth. When we arrived there were four young women there. Two inside the labyrinth, two outside. We watched the two young woman as they walked. One carried a stick and wrote in the sandy surface of the circuits. Marion measured the energy in the labyrinth – the dowsing rod circled 18 times – clockwise. I walked with two turkey feathers. Tail for guidance, wing for strength, according to Marion. The girls left and a deer showed up to watch. Deer totem means you are highly sensitive and have strong intuition in Native American culture – according to Linda. (When mom died and deer would show up at unexpected spots she started saying Mom sent them to tell us everything was good.)
“Indian Creek Nature Center: August 1, 2014
“Hot, buggy, beautiful sunset. I think we started at 7:00p.m. The prairie grass completely hides the labyrinth from the road. The path is mowed among the wild flowers. Not sure how many people there were. Eight? The path was wide enough to pass people so I did not feel I had to hurry. I set my intention. Not to worry. Things at work were getting to me. I carried a feather and tried to feel my way. I tried to smell and touch and listen – more than I saw. Some of the flowers you could smell easily – I only knew the obvious ones. When I got to the center I started thinking about being in a vortex, wondering why the path was the same in and out, and how winding a wire is part of a battery, isn’t it? I walked out feeling happy – while in the labyrinth I did not think about work at all.
“Laughing Labyrinth: Nov 1, 2014
“The labyrinth is open for walking. I arrive around 8:00 a.m. No one is there. I park my car, take a feather, ring the bell and announce my intention. “Help me with my grief.” Is that an acceptable intention? I still don’t know a lot about this. It has been two years since Dad died and I still miss him a lot. I try to be present. I look at what remains of the flowers. I smile at the metal dragon fly that looks very much like the one in my yard. I wonder what the magnolia tree looked like in the spring. I take my time. I stay in the center for a while, knowing that Marion told me that resolution does not always come while you are here, sometimes it happens on the way out, sometimes days later. So I make my way out, redeposit my feather and am ready to meet the day.”
by Winding Pathways | Mar 4, 2015 | Labyrinths, Wonderment
This blog is compliments of Teri P, who chose to walk the Laughing Labyrinth during a reflection time in the Usui Holy Fire Reiki I Workshop.
“The sun had been out earlier in the morning. Now at 1 p.m. the day was turning into yet one more of those gray Iowa winter days we know all too well. But the temperature was 15 degrees above zero, which seemed balmy after the below zero days we had just endured. The Laughing Labyrinth was partially hidden below six inches of snow; thankfully there were some clues to the path – dried perennials, sculptures and some visible staking. Someone had been there before me. Deer had followed some of the circuits and then cut across the rest, leaving their tracks as a sort of “Naa- naa we don’t have to stay inside the lines” remark.
“This was my second time in the Laughing Labyrinth. I picked up my turkey feather, rang the bell and declared my intention out loud. “Bring me good energy to use in the afternoon Reiki training.” I began the circuit and wondered if I could figure out where the seven circuits began and ended. I decided that wasn’t the most important thing for today. Being there was. “Close” would have to count. I needed to walk fairly quickly, the others would be waiting for me to resume the training. “Good energy” was my mantra. One foot: “good”, the other: “energy”. I wondered if I looked like someone slogging through the mud? The snow was deeper than I thought and I was glad for my tall boots; but I was breathing hard after the first circuit. I did five circuits before I reached the center, losing two along the way. The Center holds a good sized magnolia tree – and I was surprised to see some fuzzy little buds at the end of the branches. Are they waiting for spring or left over from last year? I do not know.
“I rested briefly there, allowing my mind to wander to the spiritual journey that has brought me here. I thought about my friend Diane, a college friend and fellow architect who died 10 years ago from some disease I can never pronounce. She was the person I chose in the morning mediation as someone who inspired me. She was always positive no matter what. We had shared so much. I wondered if she would be laughing now, she loved to laugh, at me taking Reiki training. I decide she would approve and that she might be just the one to send me some extra energy. On the way out of the labyrinth, I felt good. Excited. Strong.
“I rang the bell again, and thanked Diane for her laughter.”
