Doing a green renovation or building a green building? Watch as I talk with Gennaro Brooks Church of EcoBrooklyn and tour a Brooklyn brownstone he is renovating using practical and pragmatic green building techniques.
Do you use these techniques? Tell us below in the comments
I needed a pizza and bread peel for our video shows on How to make pizza dough and bake a pizza, and our show on the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day method. Instead of buying a pizza peel, I decided to make my own. I went into my basement shop, look around for some scrap plywood, and make a pretty good pizza – bread peel.
You can make this peel from a piece of 2’x2′ 1/4″ plywood from a home improvement store, and a 1″x2″ stick. You’ll need two 3/4″ wood screws, some 60 grit sandpaper, and white or wood glue.
What do you think? Watch the show and let me know, have any suggestions? write them below. thx, eric.
I’ve been talking about this book Tony loaned me, The Encyclopedic Cookbook, a lot lately. We even filled up most of a GardenFork Radio show about it. Link Here.
This book is truly encyclopedic and while we may snicker at a lot of the recipes, like Stuffed Crown of Frankfurters ( this is a Must Make on GardenFork ) the book does have some really interesting stuff in it.
I stumbled across a few pages of food dehydration techniques that I had not seen before, and I thought a few were pretty smart in their efficient use of heat and simple design.
The chapter is titled Drying Foods; today we would title it Food Dehydration.
Here are plans for an outdoor solar dehydrator, they call it a Sun Dryer, and its brilliantly simple, I like the simple tilt mechanism. Just use wing nut to tilt the solar food drier toward the sun.
On the next page was something I had never seen before, and I know my wife would not let me build in the kitchen: A Range Top Dryer . The text was a little vague on this one, but it did say ” Strong flavored foods should not be cooked while food is being dried since odors may be absorbed” OK.
I’m guessing you have the burners on to dry out your food? Or does the heat from the pilot lights give off enough heat to be an effective food deyhrator? Not sure. Anyone know? A quick web search turned up nothing. Still, its quite fascinating to me.
This design uses heat from the Laundry Stove. I’ve never heard of a laundry stove before, but it looks like you would use it to dry clothes.
This chapter in the book list all the usual vegetables and fruits one can dry, but it also lists some I never considered.
Spinach:
“Steam 3 minutes, Remove excess moisture. Arrange in a thin layer. Start drying at 120F increase gradually to 140F. Stir the spinach carefully from time to time so that it will dry quickly thoughout. … Greens are likely to be of inferior quality if not carefully dried and stored. They dereriorate after long storage.”
With at title like that how can you not listen? Tracy joins us today to talk about our recent dinner at Roberta’s in Bushwick, The Encyclopedic Cookbook, and DIY Wood Fired Pizza and Bread ovens.
Our New Sponsor: Allison House, http://www.allisonhouse.com/ a data aggregation and integration company that specializes in weather and weather related data. Look for our high tech weather station – that Allison House has provided for Gardenfork – to be on our website soon.
Here are the links
Cathy Erway and the Heritage Radio Network
Article on Roberta’s in Edible Brooklyn
Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook
A young person at Roberta’s
OK. This is one of those wow things. I was doing more research today on how to make a portable wood fired brick oven for pizzas and bread for an upcoming Gardenfork.tv show.
Via the Make Blog, I learned about PizzaHacker, who has an interesting Weber Grill cum Pizza Oven, and Machine Project, who made this temporary pizza oven – which looks pretty permanent to me. ( PizzaHacker on Twitter here )
Thru the Make Zine post I click on a link to pizza fanatic Mike Sense, who hosts two DIY tv shows, Science channel’s Punkin’ Chunkin’ and Catch It Keep It. (Mike on Twitter here.)
I start reading thru Mike’s blog, and he has posted about these two MIT students who built a near space camera rig out of a styrofoam cooler.
wow.
I keep saying I was born a few decades too early. In college we did not have GPS cell phones and cheap digital cameras. Now they do, so you can build your own near space camera.
So you can make your own rig that will go up 17.5 miles into space, take great pictures, and then find the thing when it lands ( with a GPS cell phone ).
Oliver Yeh , Justin Lee, Eric Newton did just that. Their website has great pictures and a PDF of how they did it.
Here is a complete how-to PDF on how they did it. And here is the home page of their space photography site for more info and consider donating a few bucks to further their projects.
Doug Clarkin built a space camera based on their PDF and here are some photos of his launch. I really like that Doug did this with his 6 yr old son.
Just super cool, i think. I doubt I’ll ever build a near space camera cooler, but its great to know you can for $150. I will build a pizza – bread oven. Thanks to Mike for the pizza info and the post about this.
Here is a video they made:
1337arts Icarus Project TimeLapse Video (Max Altitude: 93,000 ft) from Justin Lee on Vimeo.
I’ve met Cathy Erway a few times, the first was at Emily Farris’ Casserole Crazy competition ( we made a GF show about it here ) She’s well known in the Brooklyn Food world, and I really like her blog about cooking in. Its not fancy food, its home food, but thought of in a few new ways.
Like right now Cathy ( according to her blog posts ) is really into using apple cider as a braising liquid. Something I would not have thought of – but then I don’t get many original ideas in the kitchen.
Now Cathy has published a book, The Art of Eating In:
Rediscover the joy of home cooking through the eyes of one Brooklynite who swore off restaurants for two years. The story behind the scenes of Not Eating Out in New York, The Art of Eating In chronicles Cathy Erway’s journey through the underground of NYC eating, and her favorite recipes along the way. Two years, three apartments, countless food events and some strange restaurant-free “dates” later, she was able to turn eating in into something of an art, rather than mere survival.
You can learn more about Cathy’s book here, and read her blog, Not Eating Out in NY here.
A special mystery guest on this episode of GardenFork Radio. You have to listen to learn who. You will know who it is when you hear their voice.
Here are all the links to all the stuff we talked about. there’s a lot:
The Humane Society of Missouri Long Meadow Rescue Ranch Barn Buddy Program
I Know How To Cook by Ginette Mathiot
Eric’s work blog: HandymanEric.com
Eric appears on Ken Druse’s Real Dirt radio show
To order The Gardenfork Labradors, click here
You can publish your own books with Blurb.com
We are going to try making cheese after Eric met Lisa Fain, author of the blog Homesick Texan ata dinner hosted by Jaden Hair of the blog Steamy Kitchen.
Song of the week is from Josh Joplin, I am not the only cowboy iTunes link here
Our favorite seed company is Fedco Seeds
Tony -our Kim Chi expert- his blog is Yarnmonkey.com
Quiche is a healthy and fast dinner for the middle of the week or a simple weekend lunch, or breakfast. Check out Eric’s Quiche Recipe
You can learn more about the magazines we mentioned in this Gardenfork.tv episode here: Edible Nutmeg and Edible Brooklyn.
Rachel Wharton appeared in the How to make Southern Biscuits, and is planning on appearing again in another show on southern food.
Super Easy Cheese and Leftovers Quiche
1 pre made pie crust ( the kind that comes with a foil pie pan )
6 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk, skim or low fat works for me
Meat Leftovers: turkey, chicken, beef, pork
1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese , other cheeses are fine, but I like cheddar. you can also mix cheese.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
In a bowl mix together the eggs, add the milk, salt & pepper.
Stir in milk
Cut into meat into small pieces and place in pie crust
Pour egg mixture into pie crust and bake for 30 minutes.
Check at 30 minutes, the quiche should be puffed up a bit and browned slightly. The quiche should not wiggle much when shaken. If it wiggles, bake for another 7 minutes and check again.
Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving, it stays hot for a while.
©copyright 2010 Eric Rochow all rights reserved
I was painting an apartment in the Kensington area of Brooklyn. Kensington borders several different ethnic neighborhoods, one of them being an area of people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.
I walked out of the building and toward MacDonald Ave, and saw an awning that said “Basmati” . Some of the east asian – indian food places in NYC can be pretty bland buffet food, but this was different, the food looked fresh and the counterperson was real helpful.
I had the special, with fresh baked nan bread. I love lentils and these lentils were still whole, and had a bit of crunch to them. I want to experiment to figure out how to make them. Many people say their lentils come out gritty. not sure why.
I’m not a big fan of cauliflower, but the curried cauliflower was good, it was not cooked to mush, nice texture was still there.
For a simple lunch, this indian food is perfect.
Basmati is at 221 Church Ave near MacDonald.
Continuing on my new plan to cook from what is in the fridge, Tony ( mr kim chi maker ) came over for lunch and we had this leftover turkey from one of our turkey injection tests. We also had some bread from the weekend and cheddar cheese.
We tore the meat into pieces, and grilled them in a little oil and sprinkled some dried thyme on them.
When making grilled sandwiches, i don’t oil the bread, i pour some oil into the pan and swirl the bread into the oil, kinda spreading the oil around the whole piece of bread. I also don’t use a lot, maybe a teaspoon per side.I use a thick bottom pan or a cast iron pan/griddle
We also made a simple salad of greens and apples. yum.
A real decadent treat is to grill your sandwiches in olive oil. I also like to spread brown or deli mustard any grilled sandwich. Batampte is a big favorite of mine.
From a few things in the fridge we have a great lunch. What do you put together from your fridge? let us know below.
I am in the midwest visiting my family, and its my nephew’s birthday this weekend. Instead of the whole family going out for dinner, we decided to save everyone money and have dinner at my sister’s house.
On short notice, my sister whipped up a simple lasagna using no boil noodles and a jar of good pasta sauce from the store. Good jar of pasta sauce might sound like an oxymoron, but there are some that work fine for what they are, OK?
My sister used Barilla no boil lasagna noodles, and there is a recipe on the back of the box. nice. Some ricotta cheese, an egg, and we have a tray of lasagna in the oven.
For a quick simple dish that feeds everyone, this works great. Some foodie types might roll their eyes at this dish, but I like it and my family does too.
Do you have a simple quick meal you put together on short notice? Tell us below.
To safely use a generator to power your home, you can install a generator transfer switch. This can be done by a licensed professional or someone who has experience with breaker panels. We also have a generator transfer panel video and a post on how to pick a generator for home use.
NOTE: Be sure so follow local codes. We strongly suggest to hire an electrician. Use this information at your own risk.
A manual generator transfer switch allows you to safely connect a generator to your circuit breaker panel. A transfer switch allow you to flip a few switches and manually disconnect your home breaker panel from the utility line power (the power coming into your house) and connect it to your generator. Hence the name, manual transfer switch.
If you don’t use a transfer switch, the power from the generator can feed back into the power line that serves your house. This is called Back-feed, and is incredibly dangerous for many reasons. The biggest being you can electrocute a line worker who may be working to restore your electric power.
Here is how the Columbia River Utility explains it:
Standby generators make life easier during power outages, but if used improperly, they can be deadly. During an outage, electricity from your generator can backfeed the power lines, killing or seriously injuring our line crews who are working to repair the lines.
A transfer switch stops backfeeding, and also makes using your generator much more convenient, allowing appliances to be operated much like when the power is turned on.
A transfer switch also protects your generator when your local utility restores power, it keeps that local power from feeding back into your generator and damaging it.
Do not fashion an extension cord to plug the generator into one of your electrical outlets. A neighbor had a friend do this for him, only problem was the guy hooked up the generator side of the cord to the 220 volt output of the generator. They plugged in this very un-smart idea into one of their 120 volt outlets and burned out all the TVs, microwave, etc in the house.
We installed a manual switch similar to these. Here is one of the better transfer switches you may want to purchase.
The first thing one must do is figure out how many watts and/or amps your home will require when running on generator power. Read our post on how to pick a generator here. When calculating this, figure out what essentials you need: furnace, well pump, lights, fridge, freezer. Your power needs determine how large a generator you need, and what size transfer panel you’ll need. Also pay attention to how many 220 volt and 110 volt items you have, because some transfer panels only have one 220 volt circuit breaker.
A transfer switch swaps out line power for generator power on the circuit breaker level. When selecting what circuits to be connected to the transfer panel, you need to balance the generator load. There are two meters on the transfer panel, and you want the load on each side of the transfer panel to be relatively equal. An example is you should put the furnace on one side of the panel, and the fridge on the other side. The instructions that come with the panel will go into detail about this.
Why do you need to balance the power load? The fields in the generator – those coils of wire that generate the electricity – work best when the north and south coils have equal loads.
Think about where you plan to locate the generator outdoors. Your weather proof generator plug has to be nearby. This may mean running electric cable through the basement or garage. NEVER run a generator inside a garage or basement, you will die.
To install a generator transfer switch involves working inside your circuit breaker panel. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, don’t.
Be sure to turn off the main circuit breaker before opening up the panel. Pay close attention to the directions that come with the transfer panel, many come with a video. Watch it, you’ll learn. Again, if you don’t know your way around a circuit breaker box, don’t do this. Hire an electrician.
I think the hardest part of all this is getting the bx cable from the transfer panel to connect with the breaker box. This silver armored flex cable that contains all the transfer panel wires has to go through a hole in the breaker box. Most boxes have a number of holes pre-punched, but they can still be hard to punch out. I use a cold chisel, but there are real electrician tools to open up these holes.
This whole process requires some thought and planning. Before you go out and buy a generator, calculate how much power – amps – you need. Here is a post about how to calculate the power load and buy a generator for home use.
Again, I’m not the expert here, but wanted to share some of my experiences with generators and transfer panels. Please be careful, and hire a professional if the job requires it.
Here is a video we did talking about our generator transfer panel installation
I was recently contacted by Seventh Generation about a new product they are coming out with, and they are going to send us some. we’ll see what it is. This reminded me of our Green Your Bathroom : Toilet Paper episode of Real World Green.
Once our site redesign is complete, we’ll fully integrate the Real World Green video series into the Gardenfork site, for now you can watch them all on the RWG page here.
I was working on a one-bowl banana bread recipe today, trying to simplify an already simple recipe. ( here is the final recipe )
Surfing the web, I found there are a lot of complicated recipes for banana bread: using cake mixes, Bisquic, all sorts of odd stuff. Why does is have to be?
I did succeed in making a one bowl banana bread that tastes real good. At least I think so.
But, I learned a great lesson in the process.
I had tossed in the walnuts into the ‘wet’ mix, not thinking about what would happen afterward, and then when I added the flour, I found out what would happen.
The flour coats the walnuts. not good.
After you bake the bread, you get little pockets of white flour around the nooks of the walnuts.
Another lesson learned here on Gardenfork for me.
what have you learned in baking or life lately? tell us in the comments below:
This week on Gardenfork Radio we talk with our good friends Julie and Tim from the UK. Julie tells us about her trip to Africa to work with Cheetah.org, and Tim tells us about his weather station. And we talk about the differences between beekeeping in the U.K. and the U.S.A. They are responsible for getting us involved in beekeeping.
You can read Julie’s blog, Fiddlesticks, here.
You can learn more about Cheetah.org here.
and check out Tim’s weather station here.
Find them on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/MrsFiddlesticks
http://twitter.com/tim_kirby
On Christmas Day we went out to the garden to take care of what we should have done in the fall. And we made a video about it. How unusual.
I’m a big fan of Eliot Coleman, and his book, The Four Season Harvest. Its full of a ton of information, one of the things that stuck with me is that South of France is on the same parallel, the 44th, as Eliot’s house in Maine. France grows vegetables in the winter, and we don’t. Or most of us don’t. Eliot does grow vegetables in winter. Check out his site here Eliot has a new book out on winter gardening, The Winter Harvest Handbook, which you can buy from your local bookstore or here.
I usually put a cold frame on one of our raised beds to grow cold hard greens in the late fall and early spring. I have yet to master Eliot’s methods of getting greens thru the winter. You can see our video on how to build a cold frame on this page of our site.
Watch this Gardenfork episode for more on plastic mulch, cold frames, and of course the Labradors.
On my to do list is to learn more about propogating mushrooms. I want to learn how to grow mushrooms, and here is a great video by Ashley Terry of the blog Cooking Up A Story. Ashley went to Oregon to learn about inoculating birch logs with oyster mushroom spore. Check out Cooking Up A Story for more cool info.
WWOOF USA: Elm Oyster Inoculation from Ashley Terry on Vimeo.
We just shot a Gardenfork episode about gardening in winter. We shot it on Christmas Day, and I had neglected to pull out my portable cold frame – watch our how to make a cold frame video here – and I did not cover my raised beds with black plastic before the beds froze solid and snow piled on top of them. So I pulled off the snow and put on the plastic.
In the show we talk about Eliot Coleman’s book The Four Season Gardener, and one of the greens you can grow in winter is Tatsoi . I saw some great Tatsoi in the Park Slope Food Coop last week, so I had to take a picture and share it with you all.
The Tatsoi in the Food Coop was huge compared to how it grows in my garden, mine does not get nearly as big. I’m wondering if I’m not growing it right, or buying the seed of a minature version.
Tatsoi is an Asian Mustard, and it is cold hardy down to 15F. You can buy Tatsoi seed from Fedco Seeds .
Jessica from the Food Mayhem blog suggests that you can use it as a substitute in any recipe that calls for Bok Choy. I use it in salads, and you can treat it like most hardy greens such as kale and other mustards and saute it with olive oil and garlic. I don’t know the nutrional content of Tatsoi, but its green so its good, i think.
Have you all grown Tatsoi or used it in cooking? Let us know below: