Silhouette Egg Dying, With Natural Dyes - Part II

So yeah. This natural, silhouette egg-dying project is just as tedious as it sounds.

Rest assured I won't be trying this again until the kids are old enough to lend more of a helping hand or I'm with my sisters or another group of adults and we can do this together, preferably with drinks involved.

We had a lot of fun this morning hunting through the front and backyards for interesting shaped leaves.


The most challenging part was actually getting the stockings to cover the various clippings of leaves, grass and flowers while keeping those delicate greens in place. I took the most time with the hand-blown eggs since if those turn out, we'll be keeping them.

But that's where the kids lost interest. They ditched me in the kitchen while I wrapped up that part of the project. [Note: Stockings were much easier to use than my daughter's old tights.]


They were back when it was time to dunk them in the dye baths.


I'm going to leave them overnight to see if I can get more color saturation. When I checked this afternoon, the colors were still pretty muted.

My Plan B is to dip them in a food coloring bath if we're not satisfied with the colors.

Next Generation Garfield Fan

What is it about Garfield that is so timeless?

Last night I turned the house upside down looking for one of the iFarmer's old Garfield books because our 7-year-old son has suddenly developed an interest in the lazy, mischievous cat.

And today, Future Farmboy, like his father before him, tried his hand at a sketch. [See pic.]

I'm definitely impressed with his first attempt, freehand at that.

Of course, his interest has me thinking that it's high time for a visit to the Fairmount Historical Museum, where there's a tribute to Garfield creator Jim Davis.

Maybe next year, we'll even have to dig out my old Garfield and Odie Christmas stockings. Future Farmgirl has latched onto the craze, at least for now, by locating my stuffed version of Garfield's favorite toy, Pooky.

It's so fun that these kids are enjoying the so many of the same things that captivated our attention when we were growing up in Indiana.

Chemistry in the Kitchen

I took it as some sort of sign that two people, from completely unrelated parts of my life, sent me information about naturally dying Easter eggs.

The photos from the blog posts I've seen show a beautiful result, silhouetted sprigs of grass and flowers against the white of the eggshells and bathed in natural dyes made with beets, tumeric and blueberries.

I'm dubious that I'll end up so successful on this first attempt.

I've already had trouble achieving one key color: green.

Pink and darker pink were pretty easy. I just boiled beets and then boiled them some more to get different shades.

Brown was a cinch with boiled leftover coffee grounds. And, even with just a few scraps of peels from yellow onions in my kitchen basket, I was able to produce a lovely orange-yellow.

But green. Ugh. I boiled and boiled spinach until there was a slight hint of green in the water. Finally, I added some lime peel, which actually left me with more of a muted yellow dye.

The big question is whether the dye will stick to the boiled eggs. If I'm feeling ambitious, I may try to blow some eggs to add to our fragile decorative egg collection.

We'll find out tomorrow.

Did You Say Olive Bar?

Until today, I'd never been to a grocery store so popular that I had to wait in line to get into the parking lot.

Mental note: Next time we venture up to Caputo's Fresh Market, pick an off time, if there is such a time for the Elmwood Park grocery.

We'd been wanting to check out the store ever since we started reading last month that owner Angelo Caputo had opened up a more spacious grocery at Grand and Harlem, about two blocks away from where he opened his first store more than 50 years ago.

More spacious for sure -- from 12,00 square feet to 50,000 square feet -- but that didn't stop the bottleneck at the expansive deli counter. We didn't even try to wade into that crowd.

But we did enjoy taking a quick spin through the aisles, taking mental notes about the wide variety of produce (beets w/beet greens or without) and more varieties of squash than I see at my local farmers market. The butcher there is pretty fantastic too. Lots of well-labeled, well-sourced meats.

We're stocked up on chicken for now, but it's good to know that Caputo's sells Miller Poultry, Amish and Mennonite raised poultry from Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan.

We used to go to Caputo's when we would meet friends in the area for dinner. It's always been the place to go for hard-to-find Italian fixins.

But this new grocery is even better and not just for Italian fare. It's a full grocery and I could easily knock off my entire shopping list there, down to the burlap sacks of basmati rice.

Today, we picked up a brand of coconut milk we have trouble getting elsewhere and our new favorite El Pato enchilada sauce for the cream cheese enchiladas I made tonight.

Of course I couldn't resist the olive bar. To. Die. For.

We will be back, just maybe not on a Sunday after church.

Movie Digs Up the Dirt About Dirt

The kids had a performance today, so we missed an opportunity to see a screening of "Dirt: The Movie" at the Chicago Cultural Center.

I hope I get another chance to see the documentary, which debuted at Sundance last year. Future Farmboy watched the trailer with me and seemed like he was really into it. So I'll be on the lookout for another way to see the film at a venue, or shell out the $24.95 for the DVD.

Easter 1916

In honor of St. Patrick's Day today, I dug deep into our record collection to dust off an LP set that belonged to my grandfather.

It's a fantastic slice of history, "The Irish Uprising: 1916-1922."

Narrated by Charles Kuralt and recorded live in Dublin, tracks include songs by the Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, a Sinn Fein manifesto, speeches and poems, including this beauty from William Butler Yeats:

Easter 1916

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road.
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse -
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

-- William Butler Yeats

Everyone's Irish Today

This is actually an IPA, but we Irished it up a bit:

Shortage of Conventional Seed Forces Judge's Hand in Sugar Beets Case

All ag eyes are on an important seed engineering case involving sugar beets.

Today a federal judge in San Francisco ruled against organic farmers who wanted an immediate ban on the planting of genetically modified sugar beets, which were engineered by Monsanto to resist the herbicide Roundup.

The good news for organic farmers, who say the genetically modified crops are contaminating their fields, is that the judge signaled he could change his mind depending on the results of an environmental review.

But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled he couldn't implement an outright ban because that would force the shuttering of 14 U.S. sugar beet plants because "there's a shortage of conventional seed," Bloomberg reports.

Last year, Judge White sided with environmental groups, ruling that during the Bush administration, federal regulators improperly approved the genetically engineered crop for market, according to the Associated Press.

Sugar beets account for half of the nation's sugar supply.

Bloomberg reports that more than 90 percent of the American sugar beet crop comes from genetically modified seeds.

Sugar beet harvest photo from Blue Square Thing's Flickr photostream.

U.S. in Midst of Goat Shortage? Sounds Like an Opportunity

Just loved this piece in the Kansas City Star about how the country is in the grip of a goat shortage.

I knew that demand for goat meat was on the rise.

Increasing immigrant populations have been a boon to local farmers who have the space to grow meat goats and raise/slaughter them according to ethnic traditions.

But the Star says now that demand is so high that there's an actual shortage.

Missouri's meat goat population is actually shrinking. Indeed, the Star reports that the U.S. imports 750,000 goats a year, largely from down under.

Wow. Talk about an opportunity for farmers with space.

That definitely makes me want to re-think the small field at the bottom of the hill.

One thing about goats is that we may not need to do much clearing before putting the goats in.

As David Burton, communications specialist at University of Missouri Extension in Springfield, told the Star, "Goats will eat your weeds and brush, thistle — typically stuff cattle won't touch."

Photo from chelseagirl's Flickr photostream.

Best. Carrot Cake. Ever

Before I completely crash out tonight, I had to document this VFG Test Kitchen experience.

Fairly often, I throw out a wish or request on some form of social media, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Every once in a while I get a useful response. This time, I struck gold. Or, more accurately, orange.

I'd asked if anyone could recommend a good carrot cake recipe. It's a favorite cake for the iFarmer and I like that it's chock full of a veggie. So I was delighted to get a sought-after family recipe from my aunt.

I'm certain this final result isn't as pretty as the cakes her mother produces. First of all, the recipe she gave me called for three cake pans (I only have two the same size) and I'm not sure I ended up with enough batter for three pans.

It's also a minor miracle that I ended up with two round layers. I didn't take seriously the warning to ready the cake pans with generous layers of oil and flour.

No matter. The cake tasted great and was a big hit at home with the kids, the iFarmer, neighbors and some folks at work. It's a rich dessert, so there was plenty to go around.

7 Farm Families Win $11 Verdict Against Missouri Factory Farm

No doubt there'll be an appeal of last week's breathtaking $11 million verdict against a confined feeding operation in Berlin, Missouri.

The case, which for years has pitted family farmer against large scale farmer, involved the stench emanating from a farm owned by Smithfield Foods subsidiary Premium Standard Farms.

One expert is reported to have testified that he'd been to the slums of Calcutta and never seen anything like the "cesspits and maggots on the farm," which sits 80 miles north of Kansas City.

And amazingly, this isn't the first multimillion dollar case against PSF alleging the same thing.

The seven farming families suing this time were apparently a part of a group of 52 plaintiffs who sued and won a $5.2 million verdict against PSF 11 years ago.

Mainly local media, including the Kansas City Star, have reported on the verdict. Also see this news release from the plaintiffs.

The CAFO finishes an unbelievable 200,000 hogs per year. Waste has to be managed in smelly lagoons and 50 cesspits to hold manure, urine and afterbirth.

PSF continues to maintain that it's following the letter and the spirit of the law in Missouri. On its website, the company asserts that it has operates a "sustainable environmental management system" by minimizing waste through diet and to transform liquid waste into high quality organic fertilizer.

How to Make a Raised Bed for Gardening

I am just now seeing this video, which I found on Oak Park's garden resources site.

It's a step-by-step tutorial on how to build a raised veggie garden, featuring Cheney Mansion's Head Gardener Charlie Ruedebusch:



I don't know why I've never thought about using string to create a grid. That'll be especially good for the herbs I plant this year.

Now I'm starting to get spring fever. Can't wait to plant.

Hoosier Funding for New Organic Initiative Announced

Indiana Conservationist Jane Hardisty announced today that there's precisely $766,948 available in the Hoosier state for a new initiative to encourage conservation on organic farms.

The funding from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is part of the national Environmental Quality Incentives Program aimed at offering financial assistance to organic farmers and those making the transition to organic, according to a news release.

Monies from the program can be used for:

- Conservation Crop Rotation

- Cover Crops

- Nutrient Management

- Prescribed Grazing

- Buffers such as filter strips and windbreaks

Those looking to apply for financial assistance need to act fast. Applications are being accepted only through April 1.

Straw Hat Tip: Agville