by Coltrane

Given-

1.  The price of basil in the supermarket.

2.  Having no space for a garden, and a lack of desire to do things like “weed.”

I thought I’d give a “self-watering” planter a try.

This picture was taken after I’d pruned about 12″ of leggy stems off of the tops — the plants have grown well enough that the neighbors are taking note of it and dropping hints about how they’d love some basil.

The planter itself has a reservoir in the bottom, and a water feed tube down one side.  There are basically “pillars” of soil that go down two of the corners.  The soil in the main part of the container then draws up the water osmotically.  The result is that the soil is never too wet and never too dry.  Basil seems to like it.

What I’ve learned about basil and the self watering planter:

1.  Basil hates it (read: dies) when the temperature drops below 50 degrees F.  In Seattle this means waiting to plant until at least late May, or rolling the planter inside at night.  (My version has wheels, which is a nice feature.)

2.  Flower buds on basil need to be pinched off as they develop, at least every few days.

3.  Last year I purchased young basil plants in May, and they were small.  This year I bought much bigger plants at Fred Meyer in the middle of June.  The small plants cost about $1.49.   The larger plants cost $2.99.  Both of the batches were the same ending size, and I avoided six weeks of “babysitting” by going with the larger, later season plants.

4.  Even though the planter is “self-watering” it still needs to be watered at least every couple of days.  When the afternoon temperatures get above about 75 or 80 degrees it needs to be watered every day.

5.  Basil requires a few hours of direct sun daily.  Dawn until about 10:30am seems to work well.

The planter should be available at any reasonably good-sized garden supply store/nursery for about $40-50.  Mine allows for a 3×2 grid of plants.  Here’s a slightly smaller version.  Here’s another that’s similar to mine (note that the caster option is $10 extra.)

Hey Jealousy

By Iron Chef Leftovers

With Mrs. Iron Chef, she did something that actually made me pause a bit. We needed to get Lysol and she was concerned about what is in the product and that there was no ingredient list. Fair enough, I really don’t like that chemical companies can get away with not listing the ingredients to their products. Who knows what toxins are lurking in those.

A couple of minutes later, she decided that she wanted to buy some yogurt. She picked up some Yoplait Light Orange Crème Yogurt and just put it in the cart. I have looked at the ingredient list for this yogurt previously and I can tell you it is something that I would never buy. I laughed as she put it in the cart and I pointed out to her that she was looking at the label for the Lysol, but didn’t even check to see what was in her yogurt. She looked, and this is what she found:

Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Non-Fat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Non-Fat Milk, Orange Juice Concentrate, Kosher Gelatin, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Lime Juice Concentrate, Tricalcium Phosphate, Aspartame, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Natural Flavor, Annatto Extract, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3.

That is a total of 14 ingredients – I added the bold to draw attention to a couple of things. I always get a kick out of “Natural Flavor”. What exactly is that? I am disturbed by the fact that they list both Grade A Milk and then just Milk in the ingredients. Makes me wonder what grade of milk is ending up in this in addition to the Grade A and why.

I was also very bothered that the second ingredient on the list is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). In case you are not aware, food items have to list their ingredients in the order of the percentage of the finished product that they make up. This means that the HFCS is the 2ND MOST ABUNDANT INGREDIENT IN THIS PRODUCT! I won’t even get going on the dangers of HFCS and how it short circuits our body’s sugar processing. The real humor in all of this is on the front of the package – the product is described as “Nonfat Yogurt with Aspartame & other sweetener.” They advertise the sweetener that is the smaller percentage of the total and just call the HFCS the “other sweetener”? I really think that they should have to replace “other sweetener” with HFCS. I would be willing to bet that no one would buy the product.

Something that is probably also lost on most people – there are no active cultures in this yogurt. It is thickened exclusively by the cornstarch and gelatin (Nonfat milk won’t curdle and thicken – all the milk solids have been removed, along with all of the nutritional value, which is why vitamins A and D are added in). It probably should not even be allowed to be called yogurt. By comparison – the yogurt I buy, Grace Harbor Farms Golden Guernsey Yogurt, has 2 ingredients – Grade A pasteurized cow milk and Live Active cultures. Yes, it is plain yogurt, but still, my great grandmother would recognize it as yogurt, I am not sure she would know what the hell Yoplait is. Another plus – I am buying a locally produced product from local cows. Does anyone have any idea where Yoplait gets its milk from? Not only is it local, but also Grace Harbor Yogurt actually costs about the same as Yoplait ($4.29 for 32 oz of Grace vs. $4.21 for 32 oz of Yoplait at Ballard Market). You don’t like plain yogurt, throw some cut up fruit in it or try it on cereal instead of milk – yes it is good. (Grace also makes a vanilla yogurt which is pretty good too)

I don’t want you to think I am singling out Mrs. Iron Chef – this experience is illustrative of what millions of Americans do every day, they don’t look at food labels. I personally think that everyone should have to see the movie Food, Inc. as well as read Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan (I highly recommend “Food Rules” – is will take 30 minutes to read) or any of the other dozens of food writers who have voiced their opinions on the subject. Heck, go visit a feed lot – you might actually give up meat. I have been to one, I still can’t get some of the images out of my head. I have not given up meat, but I am much more aware of how what I buy is raised and where it comes from and I now make every effort I can to buy humanely raised, local and grass-fed where I can.

I really wish people cared as much about what they put in their bodies through the food they eat as they do about the chemicals they are exposed to.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

…has finally opened a location in Ballard. El Camion has opened its third location in Ballard as of today in the parking lot of Mud Bay on the corner of 15th Ave and 54th St!!! I know what is on deck for lunch on Monday – Tacos with Tripes, Lengua, and Cabeza (that is Tripe, Tongue and Beef Cheeks if you were wondering). I also highly recommend anything Pork from them.