Cold

Tonight in Chicago --

Very windy. Cloudy with chance of light snow in the evening...then partly cloudy after midnight. Areas of blowing snow through the night. Bitterly cold. Lows 4 to 8 (°F) above...except 11 to 15 downtown. Wind chills as low as 10 below to 20 below zero. Northwest winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 45 mph at times until early morning decreasing to 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 35 mph at times during the predawn hours. Chance of precipitation 40 percent. 

A good time to read Jack London's "To Build a Fire". 

So Danco Samba

This Friday's musical interlude brought to you by rooftop vegetables.

Seed Sources for 2011: Hudson Valley Seeds

Last year we did go on about Hudson Valley Seeds. Not only did their seeds grow strong and true for us here in Chicago, but the artist-produced packaging seems a perfect merging of beautiful regional vegetables and regional artists too.

Civil Eats just put up a nice interview with the proprietors, who say that choosing "artwork over photographs for our seeds packs...communicates what's important about seeds--that they come with stories."

Do they ever. Bruce started our greens seeds from Hudson Valley indoors early in 2010 and we planted out on St Patrick's Day. We particularly enjoyed the braising greens. Picked in their infancy, they provided endless salads (never did get around to braising them).

...and also the deep green tatsoi, shown here thriving on Bruce's roof.

Somehow I missed this October NYT story on Hudson Valley Seeds. On this wintry day you might enjoy thinking about the seed collection and packaging taking place there. We'll be renewing our membership this year. It's almost too good to be true: for $20,  choose ten seed packs from about 130 heirloom varieties.

We let our tatsoi go to seed this summer, harvested it, and replanted this fall. It's thriving right now upstairs in our unheated (but not freezing) second floor. Art has since hung lights over this SIP line-up, and we'll return the lights to Bruce in a scant couple months so he can start the cycle of seed-starting all over again, getting our spring crop up to size for planting out in March.

For indoor growing this winter, we're using these commercially available SIPs, because the slow-growing indoor crop requires less potting medium and water than our two-bucket SIPs.

HVS is here. Click in the left-hand column to review seed types.

Chicago: 22 Degrees, Low of 14 Tonight

A frigid close to 2010. Starting to think about seeds for 2011...

What would I give to head to the roof and pick one of these?

Vanishing of the Bees

One thing our Italian honeybees (Apis mellifera legustica) and I have in common: a passion for summer basil. Our bright yellow friends flock to our south-facing front window boxes all summer, but especially when the basil blooms. 

This summer I harvested a boatload of basil and tried making these chopped-basil-with-a-touch-of-olive-oil cubes for freezing and using later.

Meh. Something about frozen basil misses the very pungent point. Fresh basil is a luxury I allow myself year round.













 Bruce tipped us to this. Haven't seen it yet but looks provocative...

"Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery."

Vanishing of the Bees - Trailer from Bee The Change on Vimeo.

Making Kimchi

Took us a while to coordinate the ingredient buy, but Bruce went to Joong Boo Market (aka Chicago Food Corp) and got a monster Korean radish and shelf items (pepper flakes, sweet rice flour, fish sauce) and I found organic napa cabbage at Stanley's, where we do most of our hunting and gathering.

And we set to making kimchi.

We broadly followed this energetic woman's instructions (minus the squid) with fine results...

Making the Most of the Internet

"The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

...

http://213.251.145.96/
http://46.59.1.2/
http://wikileaks.ch/
http://www.wikileaks.nl/

As the above URLs will undoubtedly change as they are shut down, you can find the latest updates on Wikileaks Twitter feed..

Here's why Wikileaks, who haven't done anything illegal (much less been charged with anything), matters.

........

I'm still growing food on my roof, though my blog posts have dropped off in the past few months.  We're already getting ready to expand our seed starting group next February, so stay tuned.

::::::

My friend Blake and I have been working on setting up a hobby machine shop in my garage. I hope to turn out stuff like this:

Blake + His Greektown Sculpture

Blake made this amazing sculpture out of steel rods.   I'm still learning how to manipulate metal, having him around to provide instruction and support has been invaluable. 

I'm really looking forward to the new year.