Composting, Or Why We No Longer Have an Open Pit in Our Back Yard

Today Chris and I spent about 3 hours in the backyard doing Spring cleanup.  We have had a compost pile since we arrived in Bellefonte, but have not managed to organize it very well.  Basically, there was an abandoned kids' sandbox, so we filled it with compostables.  And it worked fairly well.  But there are a lot of reasons specific to our situation that the open-pit compost  pile just wasn't working for us any more.

1. Bellefonte (the whole region, actually) has skunks.  And we have an enclosed yard, but it's still not really ideal to taunt smelly animals with delicious, smelly food.

2. Speaking of which, our dogs had begun to treat the compost pile like their personal buffet.  

So today we bought this contraption and spent 3 hours building and siting it while also conducting a bonfire in the old compost pile consisting of scrap and fallen wood, woodbine from the hops vine that was all over our fence last summer, and miscellaneous woodlike junk that will compost a lot faster in ash form than regular form.  During that process we cleaned up absolutely every type of junk lurking in our yard (which was quite a bit after a long winter with three dogs doing as they please out there), inventoried the plants and pruned a few back, and discussed our gardening plans for this year.  

So, here's to a great season of gardening -- it feels good to get started.

Buggy Blogger

You may have noticed that there are no photos in my posts lately. I've noticed that, too, particularly when I go through all the steps to upload and a photo and it simply doesn't appear. I have no idea what's going on with Blogger, but as soon as I figure it out I will certainly share it.

More About Franklin Johnson...

Franklin Johnson, as I mentioned in the Wolf Family post, was an african-american servant who lived in the household, age 16 in 1860. Until recently that's all I knew of him. However, a ceremony held late this Fall to honor the local troops of the US Colored Troops mentioned Franklin, and I recently was able to find a bit more out about him through Bellefonte Secrets, a local newsletter:

It had been a devastating four years. Over 620,000 soldiers had been killed – 10% of all Northern males aged 20-45 years and 30% of all Southern males aged 18-40 years. President Abraham Lincoln almost saw the un-uniting of the United States of America. Helping his Union cause was Bellefonte’s own Andrew Gregg Curtin, now Governor of Pennsylvania, who not only advised Lincoln, but also provided a large portion of trained Union soldiers....

Being thankful for the war’s end, the Federal army held a “Grand Review” of its troops in Washington, DC. In celebrating its victory over the Confederacy, the U.S. War Department did not invite the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) to participate. Two hundred thousand African-American soldiers were ignored. These black soldiers were established by General Order 143 on May 22, 1863 and over 10,000 (11 regiments) of them were trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in Chelten Hills. About 18,000 African-Americans served in the U.S. Navy as well. This meant that 10% of Union forces were colored soldiers and 15% of the Navy were as well. What an insult not to have invited these patriots to the “Grand Review.” These USCT soldiers were also gypped out of their pay as they received only $10.00 a month, plus a clothing allowance of $3.50. It wasn’t until June 15, 1864 that Congress would grant pay for all black soldiers equal to their white counterparts. In fact, many did not receive service and disability pensions until the early 1900s.

Sixteen African-American soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor and General James Blunt, leading the battle against the Confederate forces under General Douglas Cooper, said after the July 17, 1863 battle: “I never saw such fighting as was done by the Negro regiment...The question that Negroes will fight is settled; besides they make better solders in every respect than any troops I have ever had under my command.” On September 29, 1864, the 6th USCT were fighting in
the Battle of Chapin’s Farm near Petersburg, VA where 367 entered the battle and 210 were killed or missing. One third of the USCT lost their lives in fighting for the Union. Now the remaining USCT’s were not invited to the Nation’s Capital for the “Grand Review.”

This was just too much for the citizens and leading blacks of Harrisburg. They would stage their own “Grand Review” and it would consist only of USCT veterans. Thus, on Tuesday, November 14, 1865 nearly 7,000 blacks from 25 states marched before the State Capital in Harrisburg and in front of former Secretary of War Senator Simon Cameron’s house. Senator Cameron spoke: “I cannot let this opportunity pass without thanking the African soldiers for the compliment they have paid me, but more than all to thank them for the great service which they have been to their country in the terrible rebellion. Like all other men, you have your destinies in your own hands, and if you continue to conduct yourselves hereafter as your have in the struggle, you will have all the rights you ask for, all the rights that belong to human beings.” After hearing orator William Howard Day and prayers by Rev. John Walker Jackson, Harrisburg’s “Grand Review” ended with a grand ball honoring these USCT veterans.

Conservation to find, repair and restore the grave sites of USCT soldiers is underway and was commemorated at a "Grand Review" on November 14, 2010. In Bellefonte’s Union Cemetery are buried approximately nine USCT members: William Green, Moses Jackson, Franklin Johnson, Moses Johnston/Johnson, Edward Mills, Lewis Mills, Thomas Taylor, Jacob Williams, and Wilson Williams.

However, only five of these graves are marked. Franklin Johnson's is not among them -- Penn State's research was necessary to identifying his final location.

More Foodie Stuff

When I came to central PA, I have to admit that food was a major, major challenge. Sorry, Central PA, but your cuisine leaves much to be desired. I particularly missed hispanic cuisines and had issues with thai, chinese, and other ethnic cuisines. It just was not happening.

The bright side of this, though, is that we now get to cook at home a lot more, and one thing Central PA really does excel at is local food. We have a vibrant and active farming economy, a restaurant and market scene that supports it, and a wide, wide world of CSAs. We also have an informal system of your-friend-knows-my-friend-and-he-has-some-eggs. In this way we have now bought a quarter of a cow and agreed to split some produce with neighbors. But we also found a fantastic CSA.

For those who haven't tried it before, "CSA" stands for community-supported agriculture. Generally speaking, the consumers (us) eliminate the risk for the farmers by paying up front for produce and other farm products, and the farmers plant to the prepaid demand, providing to the consumers the fruits of that process. Generally speaking, it's a compact between the farmer and the consumer, to reduce risk and split the bounty of the harvest. If the harvest is poor, the share we receive is poor, and if the harvest is great we get inundated with vegetables. But, honestly, having participated in a few CSAs now, I've never really felt that I didn't get wildly more vegetables/products than I paid for.

Now, CSAs do vary quite a bit, depending on the strengths and inclinations of the farmers and market. I used to belong to the Roots Farm CSA in Athens, GA, and Roots had a work requirement and specialized in really gorgeous produce in immediately-usable quantities. That went so well that the head Rootster bought my house. Well, not really -- he did buy my house when I left A-Town, but the excellent quality of the vegetables and/or the fantasticness of myself as a member had very little to do with it. Anyway, I digress. I belonged to another CSA in Athens before that which specialized in giant quantities of a few crops, and quite honestly that was somewhat disastrous because those few crops included a bunch of crops that I would prefer not to eat -- but one of the charming things is how CSAs bring the community together, in that case by my donating huge quantities of turnips to my neighbors. Oh, something I liked a lot about Roots, and about my new CSA, is that both come with interpretive materials -- when you get artisanal/heirloom/unusual veggies, it helps to have an inventory and some recipes, and both supply them. Good stuff.

Anyway...I was beyond excited when I got an email a few weeks ago from Diane Cramer, who is one of the leaders of the Bellefonte Farmers Market and also the owner of a local farm with a CSA. She proposed that, for about $20 a week, she'd supply me with 20 weeks of produce, eggs, and mushrooms. And, key for lazy and busy people who also have meat on hand already, this should reduce or eliminate entirely my need to go buy things from the local supermarket for a while. So, that's a win-win. I wrote the check immediately.

So, this summer, there will be lots of delicious food at my house. Stop by!

Baking Via Machine

...is on the list of Things I Don't Do. It's too precise, and it also requires a lot of time, and I'm married to a guy who hates sweets.

However, I also know someone who got sick of her bread machine, and now it's mine. And the resulting experiments?

Well...thank God for the bread machine.

First I attempted "basic bread" -- but it was simply not working out. And as it turns out, while my husband hates sweets, I hate yeasty-tasting stuff. Luckily, we have these wonderful creatures to help me dispose of the projects that don't go so well.

Next I tried french bread -- this actually turned out to be doable, though the recipes seem to consistently ask for less water than is actually necessary.

Now I've gotten to the point with the bread machine where I am with everything else that I cook -- the free-for-all stage. Since the french bread, I have been innovating with all kinds of additives to varying degrees.

Projects that went great: mustard/cheddar bread, blue cheese and walnut bread, whole wheat sunflower bread with cream cheese.

Projects that went not so great: a cornmeal bread that was, um, well, awfully bricklike once it cooled.

This is what I'll make over the weekend. Wish me luck!