Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition – Page 36

Expanding our produce storage?

Since last summer’s garden bounty (and maybe longer), we’ve been thinking about getting a second refrigerator to help handle produce overflow. While the garden produce technically already has two fridges (ours and my MIL’s), sometimes that is not enough, especially when we’re harvesting large amounts of bulky produce, like leafy greens.

While we may well put a second fridge to good use, it just seems excessive, and, while theoretically we could unplug it when not in use (winter and early spring months?), I imagine once we have it, we’ll find a way to use the space (e.g., storing apples), and it will be a year-round thing.

Plus, while having more fridge space may somewhat alleviate the stress of Matthew returning from the garden with BUCKETS of produce, there’s still the fact that we’ll have buckets of produce to deal with — it won’t just cook or preserve itself! So, while Matthew’s been pushing for the second fridge, I’ve been dragging my heels, but knowing that it will probably happen sooner or later.

This second fridge doesn’t have to be anything fancy, since it will be living in our basement. You’d think it would be easy to find something in decent used condition, at a very affordable price on CL, but that has not really been the case in our [sporadic] searching. Plus, there is the complication of getting a vehicle to haul what we find.

So, on Monday night, when Matthew happened to check CL and saw a posting for a working fridge for $80 located relatively nearby, he jumped at the chance, especially when the seller offered delivery that night for an extra $20. Matthew drove over to check it out, decided it was a go, and returned home to wait for the delivery.

Wrangling a full-size refrigerator into our basement was hardly what I was in the mood for after nine o’clock at night, so, as a compromise measure, we decided to just stick it in the garage.

Half past nine found us in our dark, rainy alley, alone with the couple selling the fridge and the truck with the fridge, along with a full-size van and two unknown males (who arrived with the sellers). Them: 4. Us: 2.

For all intents and purposes, it looked like the lead-in to a Craigslist urban legend, where we end up bound and gagged in the garage while they rob us blind.*

Fortunately, that did not happen. You can accuse me of having a wild imagination, but Matthew was having the same thoughts. Later, we decided it would have been smarter for one of us to stay inside, where we could keep an eye on things and call the police, if necessary.

Still under the impression that we wanted the fridge in the basement, the sellers had invited two friends along to help get it down there. (As Matthew and I stood there contemplating how the two of us would get the thing to the basement, we rather wished we had stuck with the original plan.)

Anyhow, we got the fridge in the garage and they got their cash and headed out. I’m still not thrilled that four random people now know the location of a garage full of bikes — guess I didn’t really think that through ahead of time. In retrospect, we probably could have left the garage door down, and gotten it the rest of the way in by ourselves.

So, we’re now the proud (?) new owners of . . .

. . . this guy. Despite the freezer on bottom, which I thought was a relatively recent innovation, this fridge must be at least fifteen years old. Age and appearance don’t really matter, but SMELL does.

Unfortunately, despite a nose that is super-sensitive to cigarette smoke, Matthew missed the fact that this fridge did NOT come from a smoke-free home (the owners were smoking outside when he arrived to look at it, so he assumed they always smoked outside, and walking through the smoke outside desensitized his nose to the third-hand smoke indoors). While you might think that something that is mostly made of metal would not really pick up odors, that is sadly not the case. Smoke is pernicious!

At this point, we’re not sure we’ll keep it, but we’re very glad it’s only stinking up the garage and not the basement and apartment, as well! Some sources claim a thorough vinegar wipe-down will eliminate the smell. We’ll give that a try, but I’m not so sure, and if it still smells smoky, it’s outta here (assuming we can find a buyer)!

Sir goes to school

Sir’s normal caregiver is on vacation for two weeks, so he is a guest student at “Baba’s school,” i.e., the Montessori preschool where my MIL teaches, this week and next. He will be an official student there starting this fall, so this serves as a trial run for all of us.

I, of course, had a basketful of worries heading into these two not-our-usual-routine weeks: would he nap at school; should I pack his lunch or let him eat the school lunch; would getting him to/from school impact my work time; et cetera; et cetera.

As of Day 1, my worries were mostly unfounded. I decided it would be easier to pack his lunch the first day, and make a different decision about later days, if desired, than letting him eat the school lunch and then expecting him to go back to eating what I packed. He ate fairly well (for whatever reason, lunch is often his lightest meal of the day).

Sir is used to napping on a cot, and having nap time with other kids, but not as many kids as are at the preschool. Despite my worries, this part of the day went fine, too.

As for transportation, we’re trying a variety of modes and transporters this week.

Monday: Baba picks up in the morning on her way to school.
Tuesday: Matthew takes Sir to school by bike, using the trailer.
Wednesday: I take Sir to school on “our” bike (i.e., BUB + IBert).

On all days, at least this first week, my MIL is hanging out with Sir for a couple of hours after nap time, outside of school (her workday usually ends around 1pm, when the kids go down for their naps), and dropping him off at home in time for dinner.

The Tuesday morning trailer trip was a bit interesting, due to a known problem with the rear drop-out on Matthew’s newer bike, where it just doesn’t hold the axle well. The result is that sometimes, especially under load, the rear wheel shifts out of place. If not immediately caught and corrected, this is a very dangerous situation (i.e., his rear wheel could come off, causing a crash).

[Bike tech note: The bike has semi-horizontal dropouts, which are useful for fixed gear conversions and allowing adjustable wheel bases, but don’t work well with the newer external cam quick releases. The older standard internal cam quick releases work better, particularly ones that are either steel, or have steel “teeth”. ]

The issue was made better by swapping to a different axle a couple of months ago, but he’d never ridden this bike with the trailer-specific axle before, and pulling trailer plus Sir definitely equals a heavy load. It did not go well — over the course of the 4-mile trip, he had to stop five times to adjust the rear axle/wheel. But they made it there safely.

Sir enjoyed pointing out construction equipment and trucks along the way, and Matthew enjoyed dropping The Dude off at Baba’s school. The other kids definitely seemed to think Sir arrived in style (he was in a Chariot, after all).

We’ve planned these two weeks for over a month now, and I was really hoping that we would get to trial our new bike for the school run. We don’t have it yet, but there’s a chance that we WILL have it for next Tuesday or Wednesday! (The frame and parts shipped late last week, and our LBS told us 4/28 or 4/29 as an estimated completion date.) I don’t know how the Edgerunner will compare to riding with the IBert, but it should be much easier than pulling a trailer! We are ready!

Shopping at Aldi

I’ve been meaning to write this post since the mid-January thaw, when I ventured to my local Aldi grocery store for the first time ever.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no stranger to Aldi. Growing up, my family did a decent bit of our grocery shopping there, and, as a college student and a grad student, I appreciated the affordable prices.

I probably shopped Aldi most frequently my first year out of grad school, when I lived within half a mile of a store. When I was in grad school, I lived closer to Soulard Farmers’ Market, so that was my go-to source for produce (though often not locally grown). When you’re going by bike or on foot, it’s all about proximity!

Anyhow, my biggest issue with Aldi was and is the packaging on the produce, which this site mentions as one of their cost saving strategies. In addition to saving cashiers’ time weighing bulk produce, I imagine prepackaging produce also cuts down on product loss — instead of being able to pick through for the best pepper, or the best apples, you take what you get, the good with the not-so-good. But it’s a lot of packaging, especially the items (like peppers) that are placed on polystyrene trays and then wrapped in plastic. Ugh!

On the other hand, Aldi was one of the first stores to encourage bringing your own bags (again, as a cost-saving measure), long before it was en vogue or “green,” and some of their other cost-saving measures are also good for the planet, so it’s a bit of a conundrum.

Anyway, my January trip was spurred by citrus season, and my memory of Aldi carrying fairly nice oranges and grapefruit for a very good price. Also, we have not bothered to unsubscribe from the weekly mailer that includes the Aldi flyer, and I had seen that they were starting to carry some organic items, including apples and bananas, and I wanted to check it out.

They did indeed have good prices on citrus, particularly the three for a dollar grapefruit. On that trip, I came home with three grapefruit (not prepackaged!), a bag of oranges, a bottle of wine, two 1/2 pound blocks of cheese, and a bag of walnuts (a pound for less than $8, vs. the $10+/lb I usually pay at the bulk bins).

My haul did not include any of their “new” organic offerings, though I did scope them out, along with a few other items:

Organic soymilk — good price, but sweetened, which is unnecessary sugar, in my book
Almond milk (non-organic) also sweetened
Organic bananas 59 cents/lb, but were all green, so I skipped them
Organic toasted O’s, but only a 9oz. box
Walnuts — a good price, as I mentioned above; not organic, but, for better or worse, I don’t usually buy organic walnuts anyway

Finally, the cheese. I prefer to keep dairy consumption pretty minimal, and, as much as possible, organic [practices]. Avoiding dairy completing is tricky (and for us, unnecessary) and it does taste good. But organic and/or small-farm dairy, and especially cheese, is pretty pricey. Enter the “frugal foodie” debate. On this trip, I went ahead and bought a half-pound each of two cheeses (less than $2 each), knowing they were not up to my preferred standards for dairy.

I find it ironic that many of the Aldi dairy (and perhaps meat?) products are packaged in their “Happy Farms” label, since I imagine the animals have far less than happy living conditions. But, to be fair, the dairy and meat products at Aldi are, in general, no worse ethically/environmentally/health-wise than similar, name-brand products at other stores.

Enough on the food, though. What finally spurred me to write this post was the current week’s flyer, which features none-other than BIKE accessories in the “Special Buys” section.

While many of these items are not likely high-quality, if you’re trying to get set up for biking, and you’re on a tight budget, it would be better to have these lights, than, say no lights (but please don’t skimp on a good quality bicycle!).

I’m particularly interested in the helmets, as my current noggin-protector celebrated it’s 5th birthday a couple of months ago (general recommendations are to replace helmets every five years (or after an impact)). With bicycle helmets, more money does not equal more protection. As long as a helmet has the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) stamp of approval and fits correctly, it is good to go!

I do have a few other features I want in a helmet, so I’ll head over tomorrow (Special Buys don’t start until Wednesday) to see if my store actually stocks something that will fit the bill.

Do you shop at Aldi? Why or why not?

Cuivre River camping trip

After our “adults only” camping trip last fall, we decided to venture into “camping with a toddler” this spring. The idea of joining the Missouri Mycological Society’s (MOMs) “Morel Madness” weekend spurred the trip, but their gathering was closer to Kansas City than to St. Louis this year, and I wanted something a bit closer to home, as well as something we could do on our own schedule.

Enter Cuivre River State Park, the site of last year’s “Morel Madness,” conveniently located about ninety minutes from home. (For those not from the StL area, the common/local pronunciation of this state park name is “Quiver” River, no doubt a horrible bastardization of the French word for copper, for which the park/river is named.) The park was lovely — nice campground, well-maintained hiking trails (well, the little we saw of them), and many areas nicely cleared from recent-ish controlled burns.

When we camped last fall, I remarked on the lack of space in the car for Gabriel. It wasn’t any different this time, especially with the addition of a third sleeping bag — we just smushed everything in more.

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I’m afraid in the not-too-distant future, we’ll need to borrow or rent a larger vehicle for camping trips.

After getting stuck in Friday afternoon traffic on the way out of St. Louis, we were extra glad we’d reserved a campsite ahead of time (there were actually plenty of vacant sites when we arrived, but it was one less worry), and we arrived in time to pitch a tent, start a fire, eat dinner, and roast marshmallows for s’mores.

The afternoons and evenings were warm, but the mornings start out a bit chilly, and, after enjoying Friday night, Sir spent a good deal of Saturday morning requesting Baba’s (grandma’s) house. He started Saturday with a 2+ hour sleep debt, having both taken over an hour to fall asleep (due to light and noise at the campground) and woken early. Le sigh.

We explained that we’d be staying at the campground another day, and made plans to take a hike. You know, just a couple of miles. With a toddler.

We chose a 4.75-mile loop trail, planning to alternate between Gabriel walking and riding in the backpack child carrier. Hiking was not particularly to Sir’s liking. Over the course of two hours, we heard, “Why going on hike? Me not want hike,” on almost constant repeat.

He didn’t really want to walk, but carrying 36+ pounds of squirmy toddler in the back pack was no picnic.

Especially when he realized he could stand on the frame. This made it more comfortable for Sir, but far less comfortable for the bearer. (This hiking pack is one of those items that seemed like a good idea, but that, in retrospect, we’ve rarely used. It takes up a lot of space, and, except for the sweaty factor, a basic baby carrier, like the Ergo, works just as well, and is much more comfortable.)

Fortunately, the loop we chose had a cut-off option, making it about half the total distance (a bit over two miles). If we had had to cover the entire 4.75 miles, we’d probably still be out on that trail!

It was a near thing, but all three of us made it back to the car, and, subsequently, to the campsite, for some much-needed lunch and rest time.

After our morning hiking experience, we kept the afternoon low-key, honoring Sir’s request to visit the play ground. That evening, we built a nice fire and enjoyed grilled bread and cheese sandwiches, plus more s’mores.

Saturday night’s bedtime was much like Friday’s. It took a long time and required one of us staying in the tent with Sir until he fell asleep.

Our overall campsite conditions were made a bit better by the departure of our Friday night “neighbors,” who were exceeding their campsite occupancy limit and showed little concern for campground quiet hours. We also scoped out some campsites that might be better situated for quiet (the site I picked, which looked good online, actually had quite a bit of passing foot and vehicle traffic).

Noise level aside, two months away from the lightest day of the year, it’s pretty darn bright at 7:30pm in a tent. For future kid-camping, we decided late September would be ideal — similar temps to late April camping, but earlier nightfall.

Matthew couldn’t resist building one more fire on Sunday morning, and after breakfast, we had an Easter egg hunt.

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We decamped rather efficiently, and, after one last playground visit, returned home to recover. All-in-all, it was a successful first camping venture, but I’m glad to be [almost] unpacked, cleaned up, and back to normal sleep conditions.

On the bike: Over the weekend

I started my Saturday with a short trip to a meeting about school options in St. Louis City. It’s a pretty hot topic if you have kids and want to stay in the city, and I appreciated our neighborhood group going to the effort of getting representatives from a number of school options (public, charter, and parochial) all in one place.

A local Catholic high school hosted the event. I was disappointed when this sign greeted me upon arrival.

Ugh! So much for my hopes of finding a nice bike rack at the main entrance to the building. While I know this is not an uncommon occurrence, I feel like the tide against this type of signage (and the policies they represent, which discourage active transportation) is turning. This school needs to get with the program!

[A physical activity related side-note: One of the school reps at the event was excited because her school had PE and yoga once a week (as well as 50 minutes/day of recess). Perhaps I remember wrong, but I feel like I had PE every day in elementary school. I know this is one of the first things many schools cut, which is sad, for both the physical and school performance/behavior ramifications.]

I resisted locking Baby Jake to the column with the sign on it only because this column actually had a narrower metal pole behind it (hidden in the photo), which worked better with my U-lock. Fortunately, despite the sign, Baby Jake was still there, unmolested, when I returned.

Hot bike hair
Saturday’s biking in mid-80-degree temperatures was also my first experience of warm (hot, really, in my book) weather biking with shorter hair. As I suspected, this in-between length (long enough to be on my neck, but too short to pull back completely) is not going to fly during hot weather.

If I let it keep growing, I could probably pull it back by June, but I think I may take the plunge and really truly chop it for the summer, then, unless I want to keep it very short, I’d hope it would grow enough over the winter that I can pull it back this time next year.

Sunday, rain day, bike day
Since Matthew spends most Saturdays at the garden, Sunday is the only day all three of us have together, and we like to make the most of the time. We decided to laugh at the rain and bike to the Botanical Garden for a morning outing. We departed under looming rain clouds, and it was starting to spit just a bit when we made a doughnut detour a few blocks from the garden.

After locking our bikes up, we had time for a little outside stroll in light drizzle, before ducking into the Climatron. While we were in the Climatron, the skies opened up, and there was a decent little shower, but we were nice and dry inside.

I was wishing we had smartphones so we could check the radar and look for a break for biking home, but a quick peek outside showed clearing skies to the west. Not sure how long it would last, we headed back outside for a bit more walking before rendezvousing with our soggy bikes (well, mostly the helmets were soggy).

We also had to dump the water out of the IBert (it pooled in both the back of the seat and in the foot rests — guess they need drainage holes!), but it wasn’t a big deal. We had great weather for the ride home, and I was glad we didn’t let the clouds scare us into the car.

Where did you ride over the weekend?

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