NEWSLETTERS

Modern Homesteading Movement

Newsletter 8-06-05

Members of the Modern Homesteading Movement strive to base their life choices on these five principles: 1. Frugality; 2. Health; 3. Sustainability; 4. Self-reliance; and 5. Neighboring.

"It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We'll use the next trillion in 30 years."
The Economist

1) Healthy Water to Drink
2) News and Links
a) Nuclear Waste Mishandled in Florida
b) Will Urban / Suburban Coastal Real Estate Values Drop?
c) Can't Read Fine Print in This Newsletter?
d) Chemical Cleaning, Beauty, Body, and Food Products Risky
e) Can't Make a Link in My Newsletter Work?
f) Health Problems Linked to Use of Roundup
g) Exciting New Microbial Mechanism to Make Cheap Hydrogen

3) A Feast of Recipes
a) Don's French Custard
b) Sauerkraut Casserole
c) Fruit and Greens Smoothie
d) Dill Pickle Recipes from Older Editions

4) Letters from Readers
a) Plastic Sleeves for Book Pages
b) Reader at North Pole, Alaska

1) Healthy Water to Drink

In these polluted times, there are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors and neurotoxins and so on all over the place. To stay healthy you need to breath clean air, drink clean water, eat clean food, and avoid smearing unhealthy chemicals on your body or on surfaces that your body will contact.

What's in your drinking water? You have to drink, but what? Nowadays, it isn't possible to find out everything that's in your drinking water. There are over 100,000 chemicals now in our environment that could be a problem. Water testing companies test for from 10 to 100 of those chemicals. Local utilities must issue an annual water quality report. Read it! If you get your water privately tested, use a certified lab. It's interesting to get your water tested for as many substances as possible, just to find out what the report will say.

Here is a list of the world’Äôs most hazardous pesticides. I included them here because each is banned in at least two countries, often in many more than that. They are 2,4,5-T, aldrin, captafol, chlordane, chlordimeform, chlorobenzilate, DDT, 1,2-dibromoethane (EDB), dieldrin, dinoseb and dinoseb salts, fluoroacetamide, HCH (mixed isomers), heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, lindane, mercury compounds, and pentachlorophenol, certain formulations of methamidophos, methyl-parathion, monocrotophos, parathion, and phosphamidon. Five industrial chemicals on the list are: asbestos, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), polychlorinated terphenyls (PCT), and tris (2,3 dibromopropyl) phosphate. The latest nasty chemicals to make this list are all pesticides: binapacryl, toxaphene, ethylene dichloride, ethylene oxide, DNOC and its salts, and monocrotophos and parathon, and dustable powder formulations that contain a combination of benomyl (7+ percent), carbofuran (10+ percent), and thiram (15+ percent). Also qualifying for the list are tetraethyl and tetramethyl lead (http://www.pic.int).

Farmers and their families are tragically vulnerable to pesticide-related illness, especially if they don't use protective clothing and proper equipment when handling pesticides. But dangerous ag chemicals have now also become a problem for regular folks who merely live in an ag area, or downstream from one. Diaznon, alachlor, and atrazine are among the most common ag chemicals and all three are now very commonly found in drinking water. Atrazine and alachlor are both herbicides. Diaznon is a pesticide. All three harm human male fertility (both quantity and quality of sperm).

Whether your water is tested or not, you can be sure that it will be purer if you filter it before drinking or cooking with it. City water typically has had chlorine and fluoride added to it. You're better off getting that stuff out. (For example, recent research shows that the risk of osteosarcoma is five times as great for boys drinking lightly fluoridated water. For standard amount of fluorine in their water the risk was seven times as much, worst for boys ages six to eight.) Bottled water is unreliable as to purity; you're more certain of the quality of your water if you have purified it yourself.

There are two basic types of water filters: 1) reverse osmosis or distiller; 2) activated carbon filter. The reverse osmosis filter purifies water by making it flow through a membrane that lets water through, but not pollutants. The distiller evaporates the water, then recondense it. Both reverse osmosis and distiller filtrations remove particulates or dissolved solids such as asbestos, fluoride, nitrates, salts, and heavy metals such as lead. They are not so reliable at removing organic chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides. That's the job of step 2, the activated carbon filter. It removes chlorine and organic chemicals. The activated carbon block is more reliable than activated carbon in granular form. Warning -- After the carbon spaces are 75% filled, the effectiveness of an activated carbon filter rapidly declines. When the carbon spaces get even fuller, the filter starts releasing bad stuff back into your water. To avoid that problem you should change the carbon filter when recommended. You're better off if you change it more often than recommended. The more volume of carbon you are filtering with, the longer the carbon lasts. You can get more information at http://www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/countertop-water-filters-double.php.

So the best filtration system starts with filtering by a #1 filter system (reverse osmosis or distillation) followed by a second with a #2 filter (activated carbon). There are commercial combo products that use both steps. One is Water Safe WS/R05. Or make your own 1, 2 series. To remove bacteria and viruses, distillation is the best choice. A glass distiller is the healthiest of all: http://www.rain-crystal.com/ . If you are extremely chemical sensitive, you may also want to filter your shower water. A KDF shower filter can accomplish this. The best filters usually are ones that sit on or under the sink: Multipure ($200 & up), Culligan, Everpure, or Sears. Pur pour-through pitchers remove atrazine, but not alachlor. Brita faucet-mount models remove both alachlor and atrazine. At www.panna.org, [Pesticide Action Network North America] you'll find a more detailed list of which filters will remove which chemicals. (Get on PANNA's mailing list, and you'll receive regular updates on the never-ending new revelations of health problems due to chemicals in our environment.)

What about healthy containers for your wonderful filtered water? Neither aluminum nor plastic are healthy containers for it. It's best to transport and store it in a glass container. I use recycled gallon wine jugs for bulk water storage, pint Sobe bottles for drinking from. Sobe is a Pepsico beverage, but you can tell it's halfway healthy (other than the corn syrup sweetner) because the company bothers to put it in glass. I would avoid aluminum containers because hardly anything in an aluminum can is healthy for you, and because aluminum recycling creates tons of salt laced with heavy metals (from the paint on the cans). This unhealthy stuff is sold or given to road departments as "road salt." The company had an uphill battle persuading landfills to take their waste; then they hit on the idea of selling it as a "product." There's a big loophole for toxics that get relabeled as "product." http://www.carlaemery.com/news.htm. (A Canadian university researcher has published a couple of reports on his findings that certain cancers are higher in persons who live alongside roads in the U.S. This might be caused by chemicals in road salt, or from other chemicals leaching from road materials, or herbicides used on roadsides, or car exhaust pollutants washing into adjacent soil.)

I don't like flexible plastic bottles as a container for liquids either. Especially if they will get hot, or be frozen. We already have too much plastic-derived chemical in our bodies. Glass is the healthiest choice. There is no way that you can completely eliminate beverages in aluminum and plastic because they're ubiquitous in our environment and we must drink. But, when you have a choice, use a glass or ceramic container for your beverage.

2) News and Links

a) Nuclear Waste Mishandled in Florida
This news item reminds me of something... In the late 1990's, I was sitting in a Minneapolis area radio station waiting my turn to be interviewed, visiting with a local media person. I asked him about the terrible Mississippi flooding that had recently made headlines all over the country. He told me that there was even more disaster from that flooding than the media had reported. He said there was an island in the River that was being used as a holding place for barrels of nuclear waste. "When the water went down, not all the barrels were there."

"Wow," I said. "So, somewhere in the Mississippi, there are barrels of nuclear waste that will one day rust through and leak their contents into the rest of the pollution in the river water, a source that, polluted or not, provides drinking water to virtually every big city downstream. And nobody knows."

"That's right," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/national/07nuke.html?th&emc=th

b) Will Urban / Surburban Coastal Real Estate Values Drop?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/opinion/08krugman.html?th&emc=th

c) Can't Read Fine Print in This Newsletter?
Hi, Carla, I was unable to read your latest newsletter as the font was
almost microscopic. Did anyone else have that problem? Thanks. Nancy
Answer: Hi, Nancy. Thanks for mentioning this problem. If it has troubled you, I'm
sure that a few dozen other people have the same question. If you use
Outlook Express for your e-mail program (I do), the solution is simple. Highlight the "microscopic" text. Go to "View." Then go to "Text Size." Choose "Largest." Other e-mail programs probably have a similar function.

d) Chemical Cleaning, Beauty, Body, and Food Products Risky
...Trace Chemicals Can Harm Fetuses and Children
"A laboratory accident in 1998 helped scientists realize that some chemicals commonly used to make life more convenient can be health hazards. Now more scientists have come to suspect that, even in tiny amounts, some of the chemicals that keep our food fresh and our hair stylish might be derailing fetal development."
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY - August 3, 2005

www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-08-02-chemicals-hormones-cov...

e) Can't Make a Link in This Newsletter Work?
Try a cut-and-paste new link. Or type the link into your brouser. That should work.

f) Health Problems Linked to Use of Roundup
PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) reported on "...laboratory studies connecting glyphosate with reproductive harm, including damaged DNA in mice and abnormal chromosomes in human blood. Evidence from epidemiological studies has also linked exposure to the herbicide with increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and laboratory studies have now begun to hone in on the mechanism by which the chemical acts on cell division to cause cancer. A Canadian study has linked glyphosate exposure in the three months before conception with increased risk for miscarriage and a 2002 study in Minnesota connected glyphosate exposure in farm families with increased incidence of attention deficit disorder." Me, I just dig out weeds with a trowel or spade or coexist with them.

g) Exciting New Microbial Method to Free Hydrogen
Hi Carla and Don,
Here is the text of the article I originally read in the 'InTech' magazine. I've since lost the magazine but found this one with a Google search for "Hydrogen from Waste Water." A lot more articles are popping up since the research from Penn State has been made public. This could really work well. Maybe there is a chance of using such a fuel cell on a single family basis. Nothing would be wasted, and I like that very much. Not only does it produce hydrogen, it seems to generate some electricity also. The exciting part to me is that microbes can be boosted in their ability to use material by adding a small bias voltage to the system. This is potentially a brand new branch of science, "Electro-MicroBiology." The possible combinations and end results are enormous. This is the first time I have heard of experiments in this area being conducted anywhere.
God bless you always,
Dave Harris

Microbial Fuel Cell Generates Hydrogen, Cleans Wastewater
Apr 27, 2005 4:04 PM
Using a new electrically assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone.

Dr. Bruce Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering and an inventor of the MFC, says, "This MFC process is not limited to using only carbohydrate-based biomass for hydrogen production like conventional fermentation processes. We can theoretically use our MFC to obtain high yields of hydrogen from any biodegradable, dissolved, organic matter-human, agricultural or industrial wastewater, for example-and simultaneously clean the wastewater.

"While there is likely insufficient waste biomass to sustain a global hydrogen economy, this form of renewable energy production may help offset the substantial costs of wastewater treatment as well as provide a contribution to nations able to harness hydrogen as an energy source," Logan notes.

The new approach is described in a paper, "Electrochemically Assisted Microbial Production of Hydrogen from Acetate," released online currently and scheduled for a future issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The authors are Dr. Hong Liu, postdoctoral researcher in environmental engineering; Dr. Stephen Grot, president and founder of Ion Power Inc.; and Logan. Grot, a former Penn State student, suggested the idea of modifying an MFC to generate hydrogen.

In their paper, the researchers explain that hydrogen production by bacterial fermentation is currently limited by the "fermentation barrier"-the fact that bacteria, without a power boost, can only convert carbohydrates to a limited amount of hydrogen and a mixture of "dead end" fermentation end products such as acetic and butyric acids.

However, giving the bacteria a small assist with a tiny amount of electricity-about 0.25 V-they can leap over the fermentation barrier and convert a "dead end" fermentation product, acetic acid, into carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The voltage applied to microbial fuel cell is about one-tenth of the voltage needed for electrolysis, the process that uses electricity to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen.

Logan notes, "Basically, we use the same microbial fuel cell we developed to clean wastewater and produce electricity. However, to produce hydrogen, we keep oxygen out of the MFC and add a small amount of power into the system."

In the new MFC, when the bacteria eat biomass, they transfer electrons to an anode. The bacteria also release protons, hydrogen atoms stripped of their electrons, which go into solution. The electrons on the anode migrate via a wire to the cathode, the other electrode in the fuel cell, where they are electrochemically assisted to combine with the protons and produce hydrogen gas.

The researchers call their hydrogen-producing MFC a BioElectrochemically-Assisted Microbial Reactor or BEAMR. The BEAMR not only produces hydrogen, but also simultaneously cleans the wastewater used as its feedstock. Logan adds, "This new process demonstrates, for the first time, that there is real potential to capture hydrogen for fuel from renewable sources for clean transportation."

The Penn State researchers were supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Penn State Huck Life Sciences Institute and the Stan and Flora Kappe Endowment.

For more information, visit www.psu.edu/ur/2005/hydrogensource.html or
www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104098&org=NSF&from=news .

3) A Feast of Recipes

a) Don's French Custard Recipe

one third cup white sugar
two egg yokes
one tablespoon flour
one tablespoon corn starch
one teaspoon of butter-- not margarine
one teaspoon vanilla
one and a half cups milk
whipping cream, the kind you prepare by beating


This will make about four servings. Put the sugar, flour, cornstarch, and milk into a sauce pan. Stir over hot heat until it starts to thicken. Add some custard to the eggyokes. Stir well. Then, add it all to the custard in the saucepan. Cook until the custard gets thick. Now add the butter and vanilla. Let cool in the refrigerator. Finally, whip your cream. Then fold the whipped cream into the custard mixture. Amount of whipped cream to add is...to taste. To make more than four servings, double or triple the above recipe.
Don

b) Sauerkraut Casserole

Dear Carla,
I am wanting a reciepe for kraut and mashed patatoes and sausage that was in an older edition of your book. Mary

Answer: Thanks for asking, Mary. Now that I know this is somebody's favorite recipe, I've added it back into the in-progress 10th edition (an unpublished masterpiece in which I'm trying to bring together the best of every previous edition!).

Sauerkraut Casserole: Rinse a quart of sauerkraut once or twice.. Place in a greased casserole. Cover with a layer of sauteed, crumbled bacon or cooked sausage "pennies." Now add a layer of fluffy mashed potatoes tht have been seasoned with salt and pepper. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and dot with butter. Bake in a 350 F oven until it has a brown crust. Good served with a salad. From Kay Arnold.

c) Banana / Greens Smoothie

I've discovered that bananas and other fruits that are blended in WATER with a tsp. of honey + fresh greens are "gold," especially on these hot days: right away my body cools down. If I need a spurt of energy, a squirt of Flax oil (40 calories per tsp) kicks right in.

GREENS ARE GOLD SMOOTHIE

One (peeled) banana or other fruit (UN-peeled IF fruit is organic)
1 Cup (more or less) of the purest water available to you
1-2 tsps of local, un-processed honey
5 or 6 very large, green, edible leaves
2-4 grains of coarse celtic salt or scant pinch of a high grade sea salt
Optional: 1-3 tsps of fresh Flax oil or extra virgin olive oil
Optional: ice chips

Blend until greens are finely chopped.

Can anyone suggest a spice or herb that would be tasty in this recipe?
--I'm too old and too much of a novice to experiment. Cindy chayyesarah@intergate.com

d) Old-time Pickle Recipes
I have a request for the dill pickle recipes from older editions that aren't in the 9th edition. Here they are:

Canned Dill Pickles Made Without Vinegar-- Have ready 2 gallons of cucumbers and a batch of canning jars (like maybe 8). Put a grape leaf and a stalk of dill, or 1/2 teaspoon of dill seed in the bottom of the jar. Now, pack in cucumbers to fill it up. Put more dill weed or another 1/2 teaspoon of seed on top. When your jars are all packed, make a brine by combining 8 cups water and 1/3 cup salt. (If you can afford it, the pickles will taste even better if you use 6 cups water and 2 cups lemon juice.) Heat to boiling. Have the water in your water bath canner boiling. Pour the hot salty water over the pickles up to the neck of the jar. Put another grape leaf on top. Put the lids on, and boil in the canner at least 10 minutes.

Garlic Dills -- These are another kind of canned dill pickle with a long tradition behind them. Pack your cucumbers in the jar with dill and garlic -- use plenty for really flavorful pickles. Make a brine by combining 3 quarts water, 1 quart vinegar (at least 5% acid), 1 cup canning salt and 1/2 teaspoon powdered alum (now I would leave that out). You can double or triple that brine as needed. Heat the brine to boiling. Pour the boiling brine over the cucumbers in the jars and seal.

Cold Packed Vinegary-Spicy Canned Dills-- Make a brine by combining 2 quarts water, 1 quart vinegar, about 3/5 (not quite 2/3 cup) uniodized salt and a pinch of alum powder. Boil it for 5 minutes. Cool. Have ready clean jars. In each quart jar, pack 6 slices of peeled white onion (use more or less of any of these seasonings if you prefer), 4 or 5 2-inch stems of dill (leaves, seeds and all), 1 dried chili pod, 1 clove garlic and your cucumbers. Now, pour the brine over. Heat your jar lids. Then put them on tightly to seal the jars. The great thing about using white onion, dill, chili, and garlic cloves for pickle seasonings (any pickle you want) besides the good flavor is that all four can easily be raised right in your own garden. Refrigerate this until used.

4) Letters from Readers

a) Plastic Sleeves for Book Pages
Carla, I just got the new book and I tore it all apart. Actually, I put each page in protective, plastic sleeve and put the whole book in a notebook. It is non-glare, easy to read through, the pages don't get torn or dirty and hopefully will last a lifetime. I have done it with alot of my favorite cookbooks that get handled all the time. We even made a cookbook for a church fund raiser and that's how we sold them. They take up more room then before but are so much easier to use. I just take out the page I'm using, tape it to the cupboard door. When I'm done I put it back. If I have to take it somewhere I don't have to take the whole cookbook and saves on space. Some of my cookbooks I have had to replace 3 times because they have fallen apart from all the use.
Have a great day
Mary Dohlman

b) Reader at North Pole, Alaska
Carla-
I bought my first copy of your book back in 1978. At the time, my husband and I were caretakers of a remote Bible camp in Southeast Alaska. We used your book heavily that winter!! In fact, the best deer jerky we ever made was that winter, using your recipe and drying the meat on the rafters in our log cabin above our wood stove. Since then, your book has been a staple in our home. It has been a WONDERFUL guide for country living down through the years (and I use your flour tortilla recipe all the time)!! My daughter now has a copy of your book and the order I placed is for a friend who lives in Coldfoot.
Take care, Lorice laponsford@yahoo.com