Kickin' Grass | Recycling Plastic is a Myth | Recipe: Fruit Shrub
Issue No. 55
RIP RBG. We will keep fighting for a better country and a better planet.
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Last week, I complained about grass. This week, I’m doing something about it. (Really and truly! I had all the grass along the side of my house ripped out this week. Edible food forest, here we come!).
I don’t have the wherewithal to get rid of all of the grass around my house for a while yet. And even a hater like me can admit that a lawn has its benefits, particularly (I imagine) for folks with small children.
For those of you looking to join me on this backyard adventure, here are some hot tips for grass maintenance, and ideas on what to plant once you ditch grass for good.
Tips for Earth-Friendlier Grass Maintenance
Stop mowing weekly. Mowing every two or three weeks allows many more flowers the chance to bloom, which means a happier habitat for bees and other pollinators. Mowing less frequently also saves on fuel. And according to Paul Tukey, the author of “The Organic Lawn Care Manual”, keeping grass longer improves moisture retention, which means you won’t have to water so much.
Water less. A deep watering once or twice a week, before the sun rises, should be all a lawn needs. Skip the watering when it rains. If you’re like me and can’t remember to turn off the irrigation when a storm’s a brewin’, install a rain sensor, which will automatically shut off the irrigation system when there’s been significant rainfall.
Leave the clippings. They act as a natural mulch. That means less need for chemical fertilizer. Also, all those trash bags of clippings end up in the landfill, where they produce methane. Blowing them into the street is even worse. They end up down the storm drain and into waterways, polluting them with the fertilizers and pesticides.
Ditch the chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The harm they do to the environment is not worth the aesthetic benefit to your lawn, unless you have really crazy priorities.
I’m Ready to Go Grass-Free. Now what?
Learn the basics. If you live in Florida, UF IFAS has a great resource for Florida-friendly landscaping. It covers it all, like how and why to mulch, designing an efficient irrigation system, natural pest management, and more.
Choose native/appropriate plants. Native plants have evolved to thrive in a particular area over a very long time. They can thrive in a backyard with less water, less fertilizer, and less fuss. Plants that are native to places with similar climates will often do well where you live, because they are used to living in similar conditions.. Choosing native/appropriate plants for a yard is less resource-intensive, which means a happier planet and more savings for you! Here are some Florida natives to consider.
Choose pollinator-friendly plants. Pollinators are in trouble (and they make much of our food possible, so that’s a big problem for us too!). Plant a variety of flowering plants, which will provide nectar and pollen for the bees, bats, butterflies, birds, and insects! Here is a great list of Florida-friendly pollinator plants.
Choose practical plants. Nutritious, delicious, medicinal, and beautiful. Plants give so much, and I’m excited to plant some that provide tangible perks to my life. I'll be heading down to Tree Amigos Growers in Davie, Fla. to pick up plants from their incredible selection of native/appropriate edibles. I’ll also be planting a couple fruit trees from Urban Abundance in Jupiter, Fla. Why pour time and money into maintaining grass when I could have a mango tree?
love,Jackie
Help your friends beautify their lawn:
Foodie Celebrations
Happy Michaelmas! Don’t let the devil spit in your blackberries 😈
Cram all the blackberries into your face this weekend. It’s the last time this year you’re supposed to eat them, according to one forgotten folkloric holiday known as Michaelmas.
It’s a Christian feast day that helped medieval English farmers differentiate the change in seasons. Michaelmas means it’s time to wind down the reaping and get ready for the winter. Is the change in seasons why you’re not supposed to eat blackberries? No! it’s because of THE DEVIL!
From National Geographic:
But the rule against eating blackberries after September 29 comes not from seasonality but from the story of the Archangel Michael, for whom the day is named. Michael, the greatest of all angels, defeated the angel Lucifer in a huge battle and banished him from heaven, the lore goes. At that point Lucifer became the devil. When Lucifer bounced onto the floor of hell, he landed in a thorny blackberry bush. (Naturally when you land in hell, you land end-first in a bunch of thorns.) This made him so mad that he spit on the bush and cursed its fruit.
There’s no explanation for why you can eat blackberries before September 29. Still, now you have an excuse to make fancy blackberry recipes.
-matt
Fresh Links
🤼In rings they are gods, Now the coronavirus is forcing lucha libre stars to sell street food | LA Times
In Mexico, lucha libre wrestlers are treated like gods. Unfortunately, they aren’t paid like ones. With wrestling paused during the pandemic, the athletes have pivoted into the world of food trucks. Like Ultimo Guerrero (the “Last Warrior”), a 48-year-old dude with a black mullet, and his wrestler wife Lluvia (“Rain”), who now serve burgers. The hamburger stand is their current livelihood, with the Ultimo Guerrero wearing a “chef’s apron pulled tight over his bulging pectoral muscles”
Running an eatery has proven to be a good way to parlay one’s wrestling fame into a successful cooking career. For example, wrestler Shocker has a lucha-libre themed food truck that started out as a way to help him afford jaw surgery. Now he does it as a living. Ultimo Guerrero frequently takes photos with fans as he grills burgers.
Lucha libre is a century-old sport that “mixes athleticism, strength and cartoonish masculinity with tight Lycra pants and sparkly masks.” But some wrestlers are enjoying the time away. Ultimo Guerrero said he’s no longer popping pills as his chronic pain has subsided, and when he’s not cooking with his wife, he has free time to hang with his 3-year-old son — and to teach him lucha moves.
♳🙅♀️Why Have We All Been Recycling Plastic for 30 Years When it Doesn’t Work? | Planet Money
Planet Money follows up on an episode from last year about how recycling plastic just doesn’t add up, economically nor for the environment. This can be a shocking, upsetting realization for people who’ve been recycling all their lives — to find out most plastic doesn’t even really get recycled, even if it’s put in the proper bin.
But it’s the truth. Here, NPR investigates the origins behind the campaign that convinced us that recycling plastic was possible. You won’t be surprised to find out Big Oil and the plastics industry schemed this scam. This is a fascinating look at how massive corporations used their PR machine to create a false Earth-friendly image of plastic decades ago. In 2020, the tide is starting to turn against plastic again. We need to reduce our use of it, and beware of the next corporate campaign to try to rescue plastics’ image.
🔥🌲Native Americans feel double pain of COVID-19 and fires ‘gobbling up the ground’| Seattle Times
The megafires are eating through forests in and around reservations in the Pacific Northwest. Native American tribes that live there often have demonstrated their ability to handle outbreaks — frequently using controlled burns to eliminate flammable undergrowth and to “bring nutrients and biodiversity back to lands is an ingrained part of their heritage.” But epidemics, a historic scourge in Native populations, have forced tribal firefighters to reconsider their priorities. They’re choosing to abandon traditional fire suppression techniques and let things burn to safeguard their people.
The story again is that marginalized populations suffer the most under these climate and medical disasters. Native Americans have been more vulnerable to coronavirus, as reservations suffer from health and poverty disparities. That leaves fire crews to have to choose between protecting their families and their tribal land.
“I’ve seen how [the virus] has affected families close to me. I know the grief,” said Don Jones, fire chief of the Yakama Nation reservation in central Washington, where there have been at least 28 COVID-19 deaths. “I’m not going to send sick people out to fight the fire. I’m not going to say, ‘Come on, guys, toughen up, go out there.’ Life takes precedence over that.”
Fruit Shrub
Shrubs are a great old-timey way to beat the heat. This vinegar-based drink is puckery and refreshing, and a cool way to use up fruit scraps or preserve an abundance of ripe fruit. Concoct a summery cocktail that highlights the sour, fruity flavor of the shrub, or just pour some in your fizzy water of choice! We made ours this week with leftover pineapple skin and blackberries. Gotta eat up all those berries before Michaelmas!!
Ingredients
1 cup chopped fruit of choice (scraps are fine, but the more actual fruit, the stronger the fruity flavor)
1 cup sweetener of choice (sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc)
1 cup fruit vinegar (apple cider vinegar, or something homemade!)
optional: herbs, spices, citrus zest (or alcohol 🍹)
step-by-step
Add ingredients to a jar and stir it all together. Particularly if using berries or soft fruit, mash the fruit up a bit.
Seal jar and place in refrigerator for 2-4 weeks (or a couple days if you’re in a rush. The flavor just won’t be as fruity). Mix occasionally, especially if using sugar as the sweetener, which may need help dissolving.
Taste every so often. Once pleased with the flavor, strain the fruit out. The remaining syrupy liquid is the shrub. It will keep in the refrigerator indefinitely. Add it as a flavor booster to cocktails, fizzy water, kombucha, lemonade, iced tea, or whatever beverage your heart desires.
A beautiful two-part story.
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Sunshine + Microbes team
Jackie Vitale is the current Chef-in-Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. and co-founder of the Florida Ferment Fest. Her newsletter explores the intersection of food, culture, environment and community.
Matt Levin is a communications specialist at the ACLU of Texas. He edits Sunshine + Microbes and contributes other scraps to each issue.