Treslervania

Brooklyn Homesteader guru Meg Paska is doing an intro to urban Beekeeping! If you're curious think about signing up!

Are you a city dweller longing to connect with nature? Do you love eating local food and supporting the local food movement? We'll, consider beekeeping as a way to do both!
This 3 session, 9 hour presentation will cover the basics of urban beekeeping, honeybee anatomy and heirarchy, types of hives, how to acquire bees, how to start and maintain your colony, honey harvesting and winter management.

We will focus on natural and passive treatment options, though there will be some discussion about other management practices and the pros and cons associated with them.
Class attendees will be able to watch videos of bees in action, watch inspections being performed and techniques demonstrated visually to help boost their confidence when handling bees for the first time.

Please note that if you cannot make the live dates, the classes will be recorded so that you can view them at your leisure.
The class will begin on Sunday the 22nd, with part two taking place on the following Sun (1/29), and part three on 2/5. Please select 1/22 from the dropdown menu when ordering your ticket.

12 Hard Boiled Eggs (I use the cold start method from Joy of Cooking) 3TB homemade mayo (juice of one lemon, blendof olive and canola oil, one egg yolk) 2TB homemade spicy relish 1TB horseradish 2TB Colemans Prepared Mustard (I use cider vinegar to prepare) 1/2 tsp Turmeric (for color) 1/2 tsp cayenne (Bam!) 50 orso grinds black pepper Garnish - see instructions 1tsp Kosher Salt

Boil the eggs.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the rest of the ingredients.

Shell and slice eggs lengthwise adding yolks to bowl. mash the yolks and ingredients then fill a pastry bag or ziplock with a corner cut off and fill eggs. Chill 30 minutes.

I like to garnish with various items - Olives, Scallion, Jalepeno pieces, etc. use your imagination.

The only thing different here than many Deviled Egg recipes is the use of horseradish, and the homemade ingredients. It's a good example of how I use the other homemade goods I make in one dish.

I'm starting a new category of post here in the sustainability section. A lot of the work I do is theory and a some of the work I do imvolves things no one really wants to try out at home (see In apartment home composting). However, I find occasionally trying things out that really anyone can do. I want to start sharing these tips with people that are like-minded on the sustainability front. Here are a few to start:

• Make your own reusable "paper" towels. I discovered this handy trick when I was starting to investigate cheese making. Cheese cloth you buy in stores is way too flimsy to be used in cheese making. A great biology professor out there recommends plain white handkerchiefs or non-terry cloth towels. I made a nice stack of them in the kitchen and suddenly found myself using them for all sorts of things. Wiping up the counter, squeezing the excess water out of a shredded potato for hash browns, oiling the nice butchers block cutting board I have, dusting, and most recently, dampening and wrapping fresh chives in for refrigerator storage. Anything cotton, and preferably non-died works. Personally, I end up cutting up white t-shirts that I get as schwag at conferences, but I could see an old white sheet set working just fine, pillowcases, etc. Use once, rinse if needed, toss in laundry. I've almost stopped using paper towels altogether. (p.s. If you do use paper towels try composting them, most recycling programs can't recycle them further.)
• Never buy plastic bags. Ok, we all already always use reusable bags, and have a few stashed on us all the time for impulse buys, right? RIGHT?!? But you sort of can't avoid landing with plastic grocery sacks in one way or another. if you order delivery for lunch, or a particularly dense clerk insists on giving you one (I've had a bagger bag groceries in plastic, before putting them in my reusable bags before, for real). I use them for garbage bags. On particularly good weeks I can take a few in from the office because I run short. I've always thought it was the biggest absurdity that we need to buy something for the specific purpose of throwing it out. Check with your municipality if they have regulations on this, but I find that most garbage guys are just as fine dumping a can with 2-3 small bags tied up in them as they are dumping a can with one large one. I find that if I am staying on top of the recycling, composting, and reusing, then nothing in my garbage is particularly perishable. In fact, it's mostly packaging. I go through about 1 grocery sack every 2 weeks (single dude, not a family). Of course, if you wind up with excess bags, you should find another use or recycle them.
• Dispose of compact florescent bulbs properly! Compact flourescents, in general, are a Good Thing ™ However, what a lot of people don't know is that they contain mercury. Not a lot, but "not a lot" x "everyone" is a lot. Now, for all the people about to cry "mercury is evil", I, in general, agree. However, much of the U.S. is still on coal power, and in that case, more nasties are released into the atmosphere for the electricity to power the old incandescents than is in a CFL bulb. Don't trust me, trust Popular Mechanics
  

  Approximately 0.0234 mg of mercury—plus carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—releases into the air per 1 kwh of electricity that a coal-fired power plant generates. Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime.

  Most places that sell them take them back, or should know where you can take them back, if not a quick google search or call to your department of sanitation should do the trick.

I'll leave it at that for now. As I think of more things I'll add them to posts like this.

I've been closely following Occupy Wall Street since it started. I've participated in some rallies, and cooked food multiple times for the protesters and generally done my best to express support.

Last night, I was literally standing up from the computer to go to sleep for the night when a tweet went out over the @OccupyWallStNYC twitter feed indicating that Zuccotti Park was being cleared. At 2 am, with no warning to the protesters. A short while later a tweet went out to mobilize everyone and regroup at Foley Square. I put my pants back on and called a car. My car guy recognized me and asked if I was going to Zuccotti. I told him they were being disbanded and regrouping at Foley Square.

When I arrived I was one of the first 20ish people there. I thought I was in the wrong place, it was about 3:30am. Over the next three hours a large crowd assembled and a general assembly was held, and that is where this really starts. There were a lot of people that had headed in different directions. Reports came in of some people at Washington Square, a few hundred that had been stopped at Broadway and Pine, some people wanted us to march back to Zuccotti, and others wanted us to stay. Every time a new group joined we got a large influx of information, some new, some repeats from less than 5 minutes ago, and some already debunked.

And that was really the point of doing this unexpectedly at 2am, isn't it? This wasn't about cleaning the park, it was about disbanding a threat and ensuring that they couldn't regroup in an organized fashion. The polite language the Mayor used was, 'reduce possibility of confrontation'. And that is true. had they tried this during the day, when people were prepared to deal with them in any organized fashion, then peaceful non-violence cannot lose. This is very important. Our public authorities have been reduced to operating in darkness, because they are afraid of what the #OWS protesters can accomplish in the light of day.

The tactics used were unbearable. In the past 12 hours these are some incontrovertible facts:

• The police are holding a public park, legally required to be open to the public closed to all public traffic.

Mayor Bloomberg has repeatedly, purposefully misled the populace, and abused the system, via lies and omissions, such as:

• Announcing that the park would have been reopened, except for a restraining order. This purposefully implies that it is an order against the protesters, when it was a restraining order demanding the opening of the park to the protesters.
• Denying that they had been served with the order, when video exists of a deputy refusing acceptance of it.
• After having been served with the order, the police continue to refuse entrance to the park in direct opposition to a Supreme Court issued order.
• During last nights raids there were 5 reporters with city-issued press passes arrested alongside the protesters.This is a direct violation of the Freedom of the Press.
• There was a confirmed airspace restriction to prevent news helicopters from getting video of the clearing.
• Oakland Mayor admits to an 18 city wide conference call on how to deal with this problem. http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?id=731137&t=oakland_mayor_jean_quan_admits_18_cities_were_consulting_on_%23occupy_crackdowns

These are all tactics that are at best, morally questionable, at worst, illegal and oppressive.

I'm starting a new category of post here in the sustainability section. A lot of the work I do is theory and a some of the work I do imvolves things no one really wants to try out at home (see In apartment home composting). However, I find occasionally trying things out that really anyone can do. I want to start sharing these tips with people that are like-minded on the sustainability front. Here are a few to start:

• Make your own reusable "paper" towels. I discovered this handy trick when I was starting to investigate cheese making. Cheese cloth you buy in stores is way too flimsy to be used in cheese making. A great biology professor out there recommends plain white handkerchiefs or non-terry cloth towels. I made a nice stack of them in the kitchen and suddenly found myself using them for all sorts of things. Wiping up the counter, squeezing the excess water out of a shredded potato for hash browns, oiling the nice butchers block cutting board I have, dusting, and most recently, dampening and wrapping fresh chives in for refrigerator storage. Anything cotton, and preferably non-died works. Personally, I end up cutting up white t-shirts that I get as schwag at conferences, but I could see an old white sheet set working just fine, pillowcases, etc. Use once, rinse if needed, toss in laundry. I've almost stopped using paper towels altogether. (p.s. If you do use paper towels try composting them, most recycling programs can't recycle them further.)
• Never buy plastic bags. Ok, we all already always use reusable bags, and have a few stashed on us all the time for impulse buys, right? RIGHT?!? But you sort of can't avoid landing with plastic grocery sacks in one way or another. if you order delivery for lunch, or a particularly dense clerk insists on giving you one (I've had a bagger bag groceries in plastic, before putting them in my reusable bags before, for real). I use them for garbage bags. On particularly good weeks I can take a few in from the office because I run short. I've always thought it was the biggest absurdity that we need to buy something for the specific purpose of throwing it out. Check with your municipality if they have regulations on this, but I find that most garbage guys are just as fine dumping a can with 2-3 small bags tied up in them as they are dumping a can with one large one. I find that if I am staying on top of the recycling, composting, and reusing, then nothing in my garbage is particularly perishable. In fact, it's mostly packaging. I go through about 1 grocery sack every 2 weeks (single dude, not a family). Of course, if you wind up with excess bags, you should find another use or recycle them.
• Dispose of compact florescent bulbs properly! Compact flourescents, in general, are a Good Thing ™ However, what a lot of people don't know is that they contain mercury. Not a lot, but "not a lot" x "everyone" is a lot. Now, for all the people about to cry "mercury is evil", I, in general, agree. However, much of the U.S. is still on coal power, and in that case, more nasties are released into the atmosphere for the electricity to power the old incandescents than is in a CFL bulb. Don't trust me, trust Popular Mechanics
  

  Approximately 0.0234 mg of mercury—plus carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—releases into the air per 1 kwh of electricity that a coal-fired power plant generates. Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime.

  Most places that sell them take them back, or should know where you can take them back, if not a quick google search or call to your department of sanitation should do the trick.

I'll leave it at that for now. As I think of more things I'll add them to posts like this.

That only took a year and a half or so. Hell's Bells, I'mnot even sure what was wrong that I went offline, but with recent events I've felt a need for an outlet more and more, and so I un-mothballed this platform again.

Things are... well, different.

My company is alive and kicking. We're working on several great projects, and it is likely that the sustainability section of this blog will become a feed of the company blog (a work in progress), plus some personal sustainability tidbits here an there. I live in daily wonder at what a little perseverance can do on the career front.

After a lot of agonizing I finally decided to become public about polyamory, or non-monogamy, or what ever you want to call it. There will likely be a new section added to this blog shortly that is a feed of the relationship blog that a college friend M and I started over here. If you're family and you found this, do us both a favor and forgetyou read this paragraph unless you want to be supportive, or are just curious.

I'm doing some work at Occupy Wall Street! I can't really put into words how excited I am that this is movement is actually happening! I never thought I would see it in my lifetime, but life is funny that way sometimes. I've promarily been cooking for them and taking food down and tweeting and facebooking my a$$ off for them.

More and more to come, no doubt. Hang tight.