Harvest in July!

Yeah!!! In addition to some herbs and lettuce, I actually picked a full-size cucumber from my garden before the end of July!

I know Caprese Salad doesn't normally have cucumbers, but with such a great looking cucumber, I couldn't resist. Fresh cucumber and basil from the garden. Fresh tomato and mozzarella from the store. Yum! Can't wait for my own tomatoes - which are currently a tad small and very green!

All the rest is coming along as well - corn, carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, eggplant, parsnips...

What is Your Auto Weight per Person?

I heard something on the radio last week that made me think about my next vehicle purchase. The person was talking about how much car it takes to haul a relatively small human being around. Specifically, they were commenting on the fact that our cars weigh thousands of pounds each, even though they are frequently used for single passenger use.

Image via Wikipedia

I wish there was some fancy name for this statistic, but I couldn't find one so I'm calling it Auto Weight per Person. If I figure my Honda Pilot weighs 4400 pounds and usually carries 3 people, that means that it's almost 1500 pounds of car to drive each of us around. When you look at it that way, it is shockingly high.

My SUV does frequently have two kids, a dog, swim gear, baseball gear, snacks, etc. but I can't escape the fact that it is BIG. Since it has now passed into six-figure mileage numbers, I know I need to start thinking about future options.

So... what to do? I really don't want to give up the 4WD capabilities of my SUV, but truthfully don't need them on 95% of my driving, so I'm looking more and more closely at the Nissan Leaf for my next (i.e. additional) car. Yes, I'm writing a green blog and contemplating a 3rd car (well, only two for me, but my husband has his own too). I guess I'm trying to convince myself that it's not a bad thing to keep the SUV for when I have either lots of kids or lots of stuff, or drive to the mountains, if I use the Leaf for all the other trips.

My new Auto Weight per Person would be closer to 1000 pounds - still very high, but apparently the Leaf has a 600+ pound battery to carry around. More details to come on the blog on why I'm looking at the Leaf vs. the Volt - the other car frequently mentioned these days.

What's your Auto Weight per Person? Feel free to put it in the comments (after using Bing or Google to look up "curb weight" for your car). Also, what are you contemplating for your next vehicle? Have the electrics or hybrids intrigued you yet?

Crabbing? Grab some Rotten Cotton

I think this is the longest vacation I've ever taken from blogging! I don't even have the excuse of having been on vacation. Just a busy summer with kids...

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A few weeks ago, we stumbled upon a Beach Expo with lots of cool info for keeping our beaches and waters clean. One of the most interesting displays had to do with crabbing.

I've actually not yet taken my own kids crabbing, but I do have great memories of doing it with my husband's brothers when they were young. If you live near water (and crabs!) it's a fun thing to do with kids. Although you can crab from a dock, it's more exciting to actually get out on the water in a little boat and drop the crabpots filled with bait.

This is where we get to the rotten cotton part... It's estimated that over 12,000 crabpots are lost every year (lines cut by boats, dropped too deep, etc.) in Puget Sound alone. These pots will continue to catch crabs for years to come. It's one thing to catch and eat a crab, but an estimated 180,000 crabs are being caught each year and then just starving to death in the pots.

Newer crab pots have an opening in the top for the crabs to climb out. The idea is that you tie cotton string around the metal opening to close it when you're crabbing. This keeps the crabs in for your expedition, but, if by chance you lose your pot, the string will deteriorate and you won't have added to the crab graveyard. Unfortunately, not all pots have these openings and the ones that do are frequently closed with plastic zipties which will last forever underwater.

Check out the Escape Cord website for more info on how to prevent lost pots in the first place and pass the word on to any crabbers you know!

A Full Freezer and A Roomy Fridge

I read this tip the other day and thought it was interesting. The most energy-efficient way to

Image by kayray via Flickr

run your freezer is to keep it packed tightly with food, while a refrigerator runs more efficiently when there is space between the items.

That's good news for families that buy food in large quantities and freeze for later use. Even if your refrigerator is normally quite full, the idea is to try to leave room between items to allow for better circulation of the cooling air.

Now, if only there was someone to come take that food out of the fridge and whip it into dinner!

Check out the Seattle Times article for more energy tips and info on qualifying for a reduced-fee energy audit if you are a Seattle resident.

On a Whale Goose Chase

On Saturday, my boys and I went on an adventure to find a beached grey whale. As large as those grey whales are, it turns out they can be hard to track!

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The grey whale has been languishing in the shallows of Puget Sound around my neighborhood for the past few weeks. Both Thursday and Friday morning, it was found beached with a significant portion of it above the waterline during low tide. People were keeping it wet with buckets of water until the tide could take it back out so we thought we might try to help.

Of course, whales are unpredictable and he ended up in Tulalip Bay which was farther north than we had expected and not an area I know well. We drove around (and around), eventually found Mission Beach, but left when we couldn't find the whale. The good news is that while he was stuck in the bay, he was apparently mostly submerged, which was why we couldn't find him.

Today's update is that the whale is still in the area, but has been seen with orcas recently. Some say the orcas were attacking it, others say they were helping it stay underwater. It's hard to say, but I do know that the Southern Resident orcas that would typically be found in Puget Sound only eat fish, so I would be surprised if they were attacking it.

A whale that has beached itself repeatedly is generally not expected to live, so I don't expect a good outcome, but it's been an interesting story to follow. Several grey whales have died in Puget Sound this year, and it's believed that they generally come so far in to Puget Sound because they are starving after a poor feeding season last year. Grey whales migrate from the Arctic to the southern waters of California and Mexico each fall, but they typically do most of their feeding in the Arctic. We're on the end of their long trip and if they didn't get enough to eat before the migration, they can run into trouble in our area.

We're hoping for the best, but we'll wait and see how nature takes its course...

On My Doorstep This Morning

Not only was it sunny today when I opened the front door (that rare bright spot at the top of my photo), but I also had fresh garlic on my doorstep!

At first, I was a bit puzzled, but then realized this must have been that plant we'd seen growing in our neighbor's front yard the past few months. I had originally guessed they were irises, but later realized they had to be some sort of vegetable. Thanks neighbor Dave - now I get to taste the garlic!

It is a great reminder of how gardens can enhance a community and bring neighbors closer together - whether it is a community P-patch or just sharing some of your own bounty. I can't wait until I have something to share!

What about you? Have you ever grown enough in your garden to feed the neighbors? I remember some bountiful blueberry bushes in my old yard in Oregon and we also have a pear tree that produces a ton of fruit that no one in my family will eat. I've warmed up to pears enough to put them in my smoothies, but my kids unfortunately seem to have inherited my own childhood aversion to mushy fruit. Maybe my pears will show up on your doorstep one day...

Would You Like Your Salmon in XL?

Interesting news this week in the world of genetically modified food. And, if you're thinking, you don't eat genetically modified food, think again. According to the Center for Food Safety, 70-75% of all processed foods (basically anything non-organic you buy in the interior of a grocery store, from soda to soup, crackers to cereal) are genetically modified. 85% of soy is genetically modified, as is 45% of corn. As a mother of a child who was once allergic to soy and corn, I can assure you, there are very few products in a traditional grocery store that don't contain at least one of those ingredients. I once told him he could never eat anything advertised on TV because they all contained corn. At least with the kids shows he watched, that theory was never proven wrong

One day soon, we may have the option to purchase a genetically modified salmon.

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Specifically, it would be farm-raised Atlantic salmon that has been injected with a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon. The practice is currently under consideration by the Food and Drug Administration. According to the company developing the technology, the salmon wouldn't actually be larger, but would grow faster - twice as fast - meaning that a salmon could get to market in 18 months, rather than three years. It sounds similar with what we do with cows today. I don't recall the statistics, but I know The Omnivore's Dilemma talks about the significantly shorter amount of time it takes for a cow to reach the slaughterhouse now versus twenty years ago.

Of course, whether or not you choose to buy this salmon would be your choice, right? Not necessarily, since the FDA does not require the labeling of genetically modified food. I'm not a scientist, so I'm not going to go into details on the pros and cons of genetically modified foods, but I do think, as parents, we owe it to ourselves to be aware of what we are feeding our children. Where is the food coming from? How was it grown? How was it processed? All good things to know - and certainly a good argument for buying from local farmers, frequenting farmers markets and asking questions, buying organic, or starting your own garden.