When life hands you lemons

You can make a lot more than just lemonade

There are so many wonderful and economical uses for lemons besides summertime’s favorite beverage—from household cleaners and garden weed killers to beauty products and healthy remedies. Since antiquity, scholars have known the wonders of the citric acid contained in the sunny bright lemon.

For a Fragrant Home:

• Consider throwing a few lemon peels in to the flames of a fireplace fire on a cold night for a cozy and aromatic winter night.

• Freshen and moisturize the air on dry winter days by making your own room scent, which doubles as a humidifier. For a wood-burning stove, place a enameled cast iron pot filled with water and lemon peels, cloves, and cinnamon sticks on the stove top. Voila…a simmering humidifier that smells delightful. No wood-burning stove? Do the same on your stovetop and simmer the water.

• Neutralize cat-box odor or freshen bathroom odors by cutting a couple of lemons in half and placing them, cut-side up, in a pretty little dish in the room. Makes the air have a lemony-fresh smell.

• Grind up lemon peels and put in a dish or plastic bag with holes to keep your own cats off countertops and furniture.

• Deodorize your humidifier when it starts to smell funky by pouring three or four teaspoons lemon juice into the water. Repeat every couple of weeks to keep the odor from returning.

• Before vacuuming, put a few drops of lemon juice in the dust bag. It will make the house smell fresh.

• For rust removal, mix one tablespoon of lemon juice with two tablespoons of salt and scrub on affected area.

• Clean discolored utensils with a cloth dipped in lemon juice. Rinse with warm water.

• Dull chinaware can return to its original luster with a gentle scouring of one part lemon juice and two parts salt. Rinse and enjoy the glistening.

• Scrub-a-dub a porcelain tub or sink to get rid of rust, soap, mineral and water stains by using the fleshy side of a cut lemon dipped in coarse salt for a natural scouring pad that contains no harsh chemicals to harm the environment. Repeat for stubborn rust stains. This also works great against mold build-up.

• Whiten and brighten white linens and clothing by soaking them for 30 minutes in a vat of water with a 50-50 ratio of lemon juice and baking soda before regular laundering. For bad stains, give each your attention by scrubbing them with a lemon wedge before washing. This is especially useful on delicate fabrics where ordinary chlorine bleach can cause iron to precipitate out of water and cause additional stains.

• Another way to lighten or get rid of stains on whites is to rub lemon juice on the affected area and lie on a clean patch of grass overnight. The combination of the dew and sunlight is not just an old-wives-tale. It works…provided no animals decide to trample over the cloth.

• Get darkened white cotton socks bright again by boiling them in water with a slice of lemon.

For the Chef:

Keeping traditional vegetables alive and well.

by Rebecca Horwitz

The gardening season is over, but hardy root vegetable crops grown in the fall can help keep us full throughout the winter, as you’ll see when visiting one of our local winter farmers’ markets. Root vegetables include carrots, potatoes, radishes, beets, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, and sweet potatoes (also called yams, but aren’t really). Our pioneer ancestors knew how to grow, store, and use these hardy vegetables and were far more familiar with them than most of us are today. I mean, everyone knows what to do with a potato, but when’s the last time you cooked a rutabaga or turnip—and your kids gladly ate it?

To make things more interesting, you can buy seeds for heirloom root vegetables that come in surprising colors. How about “albino beets,” “black Spanish radishes,” or “cosmic purple carrots”? These are just a few of the varieties available in the All-Heirloom Root Vegetable Collection, from the Local Harvest website, www.localharvest.org. Closer to home, the Hudson Valley Seed Library offers many interesting and unusual seed varieties that are all heirloom, such as the new Brilliant Beet Blend, which comes in one of their famous Art Packs. Local artists design the seed packets, resulting in something you want to frame, not throw out. www.seedlibrary.org

But what is an heirloom seed and why do they matter? An heirloom seed produces a plant that was once commonly grown during earlier eras of human history, but which is not used in modern industrial-style agriculture. For this reason, many traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables have all but disappeared from the modern dinner table. We now are familiar with only a few kinds of potatoes, yet there are actually many more heirloom varieties.

Many heirloom vegetables have kept their traits through open pollination. Today, because of groups like Seed Savers and the Hudson Valley Seed Library, it is possible to join the trend of bringing back some of these heritage seeds into our own gardens. We are actually preserving our agricultural heritage, instead of letting agribusiness decide which kind of hybrids we can have. And, rest assured, these seeds are certainly not GMOs! The Hudson Valley Seed Library proudly states on their website: “At the same time as more and more seed sources are gobbled up by these multi-national corporations, we’re busy collecting, preserving, growing, offering, and celebrating seeds in all their diversity.”

Looking to try something a bit more unusual in the root vegetable world? Jicama is a starchy tuber that originates in North America, and is better known in Mexico than the US. It is said that jicama is most popular in China. Crunchy and mild, it can be used as a substitute for water chestnuts or bamboo shoots in a salad or stir-fry. According to another source, it makes “a crisp and delicious low calorie peel-and-eat snack.” Jicama thrives in hot climates, so it’s not always easy to find in our area, but I have seen it in bodegas and some grocery stores.

I will now share with you two of my favorite ways to prepare root vegetables. The first is, very simply, Roasted Root Veggies. Take three or four vegetables—some small potatoes, a turnip, a couple of carrots, and maybe a beet—and wash and peel them. Cut them up into fairly evenly sized pieces and put into a mixing bowl. Clip a few sprigs of rosemary—fresh is much more flavorful—and chop it up a bit, removing the woody stems. Cover the vegetables with the rosemary, salt, pepper, and a few tablespoons of oil, and spread them out on a baking tray. Roast for half an hour or so until a fork easily pierces them. After they are done roasting, and have cooled a bit, you may wish to add feta cheese and some chopped walnuts. They will make a lovely accompaniment to your dinner, or maybe even the main course.

Modern homesteading movement grows from desire, not need.

by Tod Westlake

There's a great scene in the Ron Howard film Far and Away, in which the protagonist and his wife become part of the great Oklahoma land rush. Sitting in their covered wagons and buckboards, a large group of settlers is literally poised as if they are about to start a race, only in this case the prize will be the best chuck of arable land—assuming they can get there "sooner" then anyone else. When the time comes, these settlers take off as if their lives depend upon it. And, as history will attest, in many cases it did. Well over a century later, the name "sooner" still resonates with Oklahomans (especially as applied to college football), as it's a bittersweet reminder of the state's pioneering spirit.

The scene is a familiar trope when it comes to how we envision the homesteader, those gritty and determined individuals who carved a new life out of the raw materials of the West. And while the government is no longer giving away free land, homesteading remains a strong force, especially among those of us who are working toward creating a sustainable way of life. Modern homesteading incorporates the values of self-sufficiency and getting back to the land, while at the same time working to build community and share ideas and resources. Perhaps more importantly, it's a way in which our communities can take control of their own destiny.

So, what does modern homesteading consist of? Let's take a look at some of the simple things we already do that would fall under this rubric. For example, the composting of our organic waste has a number of different benefits. We reduce the amount of refuse we put into the waste stream, while at the same time our gardens benefit from all of that lovely humus the process creates. Composting turns detritus into a desirable commodity.

Municipalities are even getting into the act. The EPA estimates that as much as 65 percent of yard trimmings and leaves are being composted annually. But approximately 60 million tons of organic waste still ends up in landfills every year. This is an area in which many of us as individuals can make a difference. Even if you're not into gardening yourself, you likely have a neighbor nearby who would benefit from the composting you do. If this person raises vegetables, then a nice quid pro quo might be possible. Your neighbor gets your compost, and you get some fresh veggies during the season. And the community-building aspect is the healthy byproduct of the endeavor.

Another way to become more self-sufficient, and a practice many people are returning to, is the raising of poultry, chickens in particular. If this is something you've been thinking about doing, the first thing you should do is check with your municipality regarding zoning restrictions. You can't raise chickens, even if it's just a few birds, anywhere you like. Some municipalities, and even a few cities, however, are starting to wake up to the fact that many people are interested in having the fresh eggs every day, thus some of these restrictions are being loosened. If you live in the right zone, however, this is something you might want to consider. Fresh eggs, and later fresh poultry, are the payoff. And all that chicken waste—the droppings, bedding, etc.—can be added to your other compost, thereby helping to boost its nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content.

From an historical perspective, it's interesting to note that the back-to-the-land movement of the mid-20th century was inspired not by desire, but by necessity. One of the proponents and active members of this movement was agrarian theorist and native New Yorker Ralph Borsodi. Having been born and raised in Manhattan, Borsodi became fascinated by the idea of agrarian, self-sufficient communities. He even went so far as to establish a School of Living in Rockland County that was instrumental in helping thousands of people to learn how to survive during the Great Depression. Borsodi was also one of the earlier proponents of local currency. In the mid-‘70s, he established a currency in the town of Exeter, New Hampshire, even going so far as to mint half-ounce and one-once silver coins called "Globes".

With such a proud local history when it comes to homesteading, it only makes sense that the Hudson Valley and its local environs should once again be in the vanguard of this timeless movement. With the weak economy likely to continue for some time, applying the principles of homesteading to your own life is one small way in which you can retake control. So, raise your chickens. Can your veggies. And compost, compost, compost. In the long run, you, and the planet, will be much happier for it.