Late Night Sampler Platter

Is this like an open thread? (4.00 / 4)

Because I like open threads on a food blog.

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by: Eddie C @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 05:17:24 AM UTC

yep, open thread (4.00 / 3)

how are you Eddie?

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 06:33:27 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

You'll note... (4.00 / 3)

the onions are cooked!

:)

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 06:45:47 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

since we're in open thread mode (4.00 / 4)

I just heard about this site:

http://www.backyardchickens.com

Supposedly it's the best source of info for people who want to keep a few chickens in an urban or suburban area.

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by: desmoinesdem @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 11:13:58 AM UTC

Another good one... (4.00 / 3)

is UrbanChickens.org.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 14:03:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Add this bit of bad news to the pot: (4.00 / 3)

A severe drought in northern China - considered the country's breadbasket - has hit almost 43% of the country's wheat crop this winter, senior officials have warned.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl...

Low rainfall since October has affected more than 9.3m hectares (229.71 acres) of land in northern China across six major grain-producing provinces, according to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Last week it warned that 3.7 million people and 1.85 million livestock had lost access to drinking water.

I'm waiting for the official news of the wheat crop, still nothing out but this does not bode well:

By Monday, The Ministry of Finance has allocated 100 million yuan (14.6 million U.S. dollars) in emergency funding to help farmers weather the difficulties.

   In related development, drought has affected about 1.74 million hectares of crop and caused an economic loss of 1.6 billion yuan (234 million U.S. dollars) in east China's Anhui province, the provincial authority on drought relief said on Tuesday.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/engl...

   The life of some 12.87 million people is threatened by the drought, the provincial civil affairs bureau said.

   The provincial government has allocated 10 million yuan from the governor's reserve fund for drought relief. It has also earmarked 15 million yuan to subsidize farmers buying irrigation equipment. The annual 300 million yuan in agricultural material subsidies will be paid to farmers earlier than normal years.

   The government also plans to carry out artificial precipitation when weather permits.

Sic Transit Gloria Locavore!

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by: Asinus Asinum Fricat @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 17:39:15 PM UTC

As for Newspaper planting pots... (4.00 / 3)

What we do is to take newspaper (black and white version), place it in a five gallon bucket, add hot water from the tap, and hit it with a paint mixer.  It turns into pulp in about two to three minutes.

Then you take the pulp, lay it out on a stiff screen, press the excess water out, and mold it over one of those plastic planting trays with a dozen or more compartments.  Let it dry, and it pops right off and you have nifty pop apart degradable planting trays.

We went so far as to take some 1/8 inch screen wire and built some forms for multiple pots out of that.  We have a plywood frame that holds the screen wire form and duct taped the plywood frame to the shop-vac.  We dip the screenwire frame into the pulp (this time in a big wash tub)and it sucks the pulp up against the screen wire nice and tight.  Simply take the form off of the plywood frame and let dry.  The paper then just pops right off, and voila.  It looks like it came from a factory. And we can do several dozen two inch pots in about ten minutes.

I wanna try to do some custom egg cartons next for my buddies that do the free range chicken thing.  

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by: Farmboy @ Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 20:43:39 PM UTC

pleeeeze (4.00 / 3)

will you do a photo essay on this?
i understand moulding onto the plastic planting trays(i think!) & i SOoo want to understand the screenwire form/shop-vac thingy.
(^.^)

come firefly-dreaming with me....

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by: RiaD @ Fri Feb 27, 2009 at 01:14:13 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ok, ok, I'll try... (4.00 / 3)

to see if we can borrow one of them newfangled digital camera thingies. We're a tad neo-luddite around here, so please bear with...

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by: Farmboy @ Fri Feb 27, 2009 at 14:52:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]