Category: low-footprint living

Today I started my first attempt to make vinegar at home, using some nice beautiful ripe prickly-pear cactus fruit that I espied on a plant at the parking lot down by the beach.

The ingredients are simple: prickly pear cactus fruit; sugar; nonchlorinated water. I googled and found this video. Very helpful!

How to make pear cactus vinegar (Creative Adventures channel on YouTube).

For this little first batch I am doing an experiment, which departs from her method in that I did not peel the fruits. And also did not do anything else to remove the glochids. I just cut off the wide and of the fruits.

This is based on my experience making smoothies and wine from prickly pear fruit back when I lived in Texas. The glochids, the tiny fine little spiny things you don’t want to touch, seemed to get dissolved by the process so it removed the need for that considerable labor of removing them.

We will see how it actually goes, with vinegar, when I taste the vinegar with caution in a month or so.

In the meantime, if you try this, I recommend you exercise caution and follow one of the methods for removing the locus. Other creators use a torch to sear them off. Or boil the fruit.

She has also posted an update video, which I haven’t seen yet but will share in the comments below. I have now subscribed to her channel Creative Adventures.

Update on the pear cactus vinegar: 2-week point (Creative Adventures on YouTube).

You can see my photos of the beautiful magenta liquid mixture sitting on my kitchen counter here on my art & design by jenny nazak page.

What an ungracious thought I had today. About, of all things, coming upon a giant pumpkin on the sidewalk!

The thought came to me when I arrived at my neighbors’ house to drop off some plant cuttings. Sugarcane recently harvested. Plumeria which was “harvested” by the hurricane. And chaya — Mexican miracle spinach tree — hurricane-harvested also. I had so many cuttings that I was really glad that several neighbors were eager to get some.

The young couple’s house had been the scene, this past week, of major neighborhood Halloween fun. They are generous hosts and really got into the spirit with the decorations and costumes. And they got a bunch of us motivated as well.

Their yard had been festooned with giant skeletons, inflatable haunted houses and gnarled trees and such, and way too much more to list. When I arrived with the plant cuttings, I noticed that the decorations had been partially disassembled. And on the sidewalk outside their fence was a whole giant pumpkin. Not a jack-o’-lantern carved, but a whole intact pumpkin.

And what do you suppose my first thought was? Gratitude to see a whole huge perfect pumpkin that I could cut up and toast the seeds, and use the flesh if I chose?

No, it was more like a feeling of obligation or responsibility. Like, well I can’t let this pumpkin go to waste so I’m going to have to take the time to cut it up. And spread the seeds out on trays and put them in the solar oven or toaster oven. And so on. Basically focused on the amount of physical labor for cutting and cleanup etc.

Granted, I have always had a lazy streak in general. But sometimes there’s something about gifts from nature that really bring it out. I think maybe it’s the fact that a very big gift from nature is not something you can keep and postpone. You have to deal with it right then, or as soon as possible, because it’s perishable. Even if you feel busy or preoccupied with something else, as I did in that moment, you simply have to make time for the gift.

Another challenge is that such gifts tend to be large (bulky or numerous or both), so not amenable to just being tucked into a corner of a fridge or cabinet. They have to be processed and compacted; sorted; containerized if appropriate.

And, maybe your situation is different but in my situation, the task of utilizing a gift from nature is something I tend to have to do by myself. As opposed to having multiple people near me who want to enjoy the fruits and divide the labor. (I do seem to be meeting more people near me who are similarly minded though, so that may be changing.)

What a negative attitude though! Not the attitude that I want to have.

Fortunately, the more I focus on the thought of delicious pumpkin seeds seasoned with chili powder and so on, toasted in the oven — and yummy soups and maybe breads made with the pumpkin meat — the more the spoiled-brat attitude starts to fade.

But there is definitely something about a hectic, time-is-money, money-driven society where gifts from nature are just seen as taking up time and labor. Money is like this artificially concentrated form of nature’s bounty. Something that doesn’t need processing and chopping; something you can just spend on anything.

People who are a lot better than I am at growing food, sometimes grow tons of food but then they don’t want to deal with cleaning and preparing it so they end up giving most or all of it away. Maybe next time I’ll suggest working together and dividing the harvest.

All in all, today was a success. Several neighbors wanted my various plant cuttings. And I definitely do want the beautiful sidewalk-foundling pumpkin, even though I’m going to have to use some elbow grease to chop it and scoop the seeds out and toast them batch by batch.

Some years back, at the Kerrville Folk Music festival, one of the regulars was lamenting the fact that people kept passing up pounds and pounds of beautiful pecans that had fallen from the many nearby trees. They were bags of pecans on the picnic tables but people kept passing them by.

When I look back, I think maybe some people just didn’t know how to crack a pecan shell, and maybe it would’ve been good if some of us had tried to show some people. And then again, a lot of us are just spoiled by the ready availability of nuts that have already been removed from the shell for us. So maybe the thing to do would have been to give out little cups of nuts that we had shelled.

I do sometimes find it easier to tackle a gift from nature if I have in mind not only my enjoyment of it, but also the idea that it’ll be enjoyed by one or more other people.

Anyway. Food for thought, literally. This blog post itself, too, was sort of a bounty of nature that I had the option to ignore, or embrace.

My general take on the interplay between money-driven society and gifts from nature:

— A person who earns a lot of money is less likely to have much time or motivation to make use of gifts from nature.

— And, a person who earns less money (either voluntarily or otherwise) is more likely to have time and motivation to make use of gifts from nature. And the gifts will be worth relatively more to that person.

— For some, a viable path to transitioning out of the purely-money-driven economy is to reduce one’s need to earn, and reduce one’s money job hours accordingly. Thus allowing time to harvest nature’s gifts. (Including time to learn how to do that.)

Pictures of the giant magnificent pumpkin being prepared for culinary enjoyment.

PS. My favorite tip for harvesting very large gifts from nature is, do it outdoors if possible! It drastically simplifies the cleanup.

(Example of a post encouraging people to adopt more gentle landscaping practices. Feel free to use any of this that is helpful for talking to your clients, your yardwork service person, city officials, neighbors, etc.)

[Text on cute flower background with cartoon Facebook avatar: “Feeling blue about ‘hurricane debris’ in your yard or curbside? Try some fun & practical alternative tips!”]

Are you sick and tired of seeing piles of “yard trash” left over after hurricanes? Maybe it’s time to try a new approach!

In my field, permaculture design, we learn about how to turn problems into assets by making use of on-site resources.

Here are some ways you can turn your “yard waste” into treasure:

• Use big long logs as rustic border materials for pathways, garden beds, etc. Even if the logs aren’t straight. That actually even adds more charm and uniqueness.
• With short stubby segments of logs, stand them on their ends and use them as a border material as well.
• LEAVE THE LEAVES under the trees: Instead of scraping fallen leaves off of your property and sending this valuable material to the landfill, ask your yard-person to rake the leaves into a wide circle under each tree. Include the small twigs as well. Not only is it pretty; it will also make mowing easier & faster (if you mow), since the people mowing your yard can make a wide berth around the tree roots. Much healthier for the tree as well. And you will be helping birds, butterflies and other wonderful residents of your yard.
• Make a hugel mound (berm). Cover it with soil or sand, or leave it as is. It will break down and feed your trees and other plants. And it will add interesting contours to your yard. It also helps with stormwater absorption. Every bit helps!
• Slender branches, palm fronds, bamboo, etc. can be used as outdoor art supplies. Use your imagination and have fun making trellises, little tent structures, etc. Definitely get the kids and grandkids involved! I have so much fun making various kinds of ornamental and decorative structures in my yard, using free natural materials.
• Another thing I often suggest to clients is to get together with neighbors and rent a chipper shredder for the day or week. The free, high-quality mulch you produce is like money in the bank! And those “hurricane debris” piles will shrink to nothing in no time.

Questions? You are welcome to message me anytime.

jenny nazak, eco landscaping services
“Puff it up, Daytona!”

***As a public service, we offer a mini workshop in how to apply permaculture design principles to your yard. You, your neighbors, and your yardwork service people are all invited. Message me for info on upcoming dates.***

“You don’t have a snail problem; you have a duck deficiency.” — Bill Mollison, founder of the permaculture design movement.

In my book and on this blog, I set out to help those of you who want to reduce your eco footprint and are looking for practical, do-able tips.

Even a beneficial change can be difficult to make. (A change that we want to make can still be difficult, I mean.) Because we’re changing a habitual routine practice. And furthermore, we are often swimming upstream against various things that are baked into our society.

So, one of the things I found helpful in changing my habits, and helping other people change theirs, was the incentive to save money. Who doesn’t want to save money, right?

Unfortunately, it turned out that most people were not sufficiently motivated by the prospect of saving $10 a month, or even $100 a month or more. There are various reasons for this, but for now I’m just saying this is what I noticed.

In recent times, I have noticed a further obstacle, even when people are sufficiently motivated by money savings. And that is that our capitalist economy oftentimes is structured such that people are not able to opt-out of certain purchases. That obstacle is exemplified by this recent news item from my local area. (Go here to see my Facebook post with the screenshots; and also see the quote & link to the article below.)

Florida Power and Light (FPL) is seeking a rate hike to recover costs of restoring power after the recent hurricane. Our bills will go up supposedly by an average of $12.

Big corporations that are deemed necessary public utilities can always rig it we don’t get to opt out of buying their stuff. Even when they increase the price.

In such times, it becomes all the more important to focus on yet another intrinsic motivation. I would sum up that intrinsic motivation as reducing our vulnerability. I can’t put a price tag on the fact that I am not fazed by a power outage, and can do without electricity indefinitely.

It’s not that I don’t find electricity convenient; it’s just that I can easily do without it (other than what’s needed to charge my phone, which is easy to get in a variety of ways including solar and hand-cranked), so the company isn’t dealing with someone who is desperate and fearful.

Of course, that still doesn’t mean I get to opt out of electricity. I still have to pay the base rate and all that stuff. But, reducing my vulnerability is an extremely strong motivation, I find.

And, I still do save money by not needing as much electricity. It’s just that my bill which used to be $12 is now $18 or $20 and probably going up to $35 or more. Still the savings compared with a typical bill is nothing to sneeze at!

A quote from the article:

“According to the company, ‘Electric bills in Florida do not include the cost of responding to hurricanes and tropical storms. Instead, a temporary surcharge is applied after storms.'”

Things may be structured to prohibit us from opting-out of purchasing certain goods & services from corporations. But the value of reducing our vulnerability is priceless.

(A play on that old folk admonition, be careful what you wish for.)

In my every day life, I can be a bit of a spoiled brat. Getting really annoyed when things don’t go my way.

One habit of mine is to refuse to face the fact that a certain task takes three hands. Lots of tasks around the house, you simply can’t deal with two hands. You have to break it down. And interestingly, it ends up taking less time if I do face up to that reality. Instead of struggling with two hands to do a three-handed task.

No examples are coming to me right now but it’s a very pervasive thing, so I will write some examples when they come to me.

Later: OK, here’s a simple one. Like when I’m walking with a whole arm full of packages or other things that need to go into the house, or out of the house. And instead of setting them down so that I can properly open the door, I try to do all of that and end up dropping the packages, or taking forever to open the door, or not being able to open the door. And then I cuss for a bit. Basically wasting time and energy, and getting agitated in the process.

OK, so it would be careful what you complain about department…

A few months back, I lost much of the use of my right arm. It was some kind of shoulder injury. At first I was afraid it was a rotator cuff tear. But after experiencing it for a while and looking into it more, it seemed more likely to be something calcific tendinitis which is calcium deposits.

It was not only loss of mobility, but also extreme pain when I would try to move in certain ways. Unfortunately, the certain ways were very routine daily necessary things. Repetitive motions needed throughout the day.

For a while, I could barely pour my coffee. One day I wasn’t even sure I could sew! Pulling shirts on and off became extremely difficult and painful, as did (ugh) wiping my butt. Good grief!

Tasks such as hauling water with that arm became out of the question. Lifting anything overhead, forget about it. Unfortunately, the affected arm is/was my right arm!

Fortunately, over time, the “core class” that I do to build muscles in my back and shoulders and glutes, and restore more flexibility to the the connected muscles such as quads and hamstrings, seems to be helping. (The core class is online. At dailyom.com; class title “Pelvis Reset for Lower Back Pain.” You pay one time, and the recorded sessions are yours to keep using.)

I hope I never forget and get ungrateful again. Every time I pull on or take off a shirt, and I don’t experience a sudden eight or nine level of pain, I try to remember to say thank you!

Some tasks take three hands. It’s best to slow down and break them down. And now, I know what it’s like to have only one hand or arm to work with! “Be careful what you bish for,” I tell myself.

This also works on a societal level. like, there’s a lot we can point out that’s wrong. But there’s a lot that’s right and available to us. Like right now, I can go to the public library and check out a book and use a printer and all sorts of other things.

And, with my phone, I can send an email in seconds, anywhere in the world.

And, with my paper and pens, I can write a postal letter and drop it in the mail and it will very likely get to the recipient without a hitch.

We can’t take these things for granted. Gratitude is a great attitude, it’ll get us through the roughest times.

Self-knowledge is always good. And one component of that is knowing the characteristics of your mind or brain.

For better or for worse.

Me, I have a mind that tends to be really bad at remembering and retaining facts. On the other hand, my mind is really good at making up stuff. Planning, problem-solving, art, that sort of thing.

I guess I would call my mind “flexible” or “pliant.” It’s good at learning languages, and finding different ways to look at things.

The downside? Sometimes my mind is so pliant that I end up feeling like I’ve disassembled my whole core, and don’t have an identity. This happens especially when I go on a trip or something. Something where my everyday responsibilities and things are not right there around me. After my recent trip to a college reunion I walked around feeling like just a floating pair of eyeballs for a few days.

Maybe you have a super strong sense of identity. That can help a lot when it comes to mustering willpower to accomplish difficult tasks. Also, that type of mind tends to not misplace its rudder easily.

If you know your mind, you know the upsides and the downsides, and you can learn to work with both.

Also: One thing great about being human is that we can borrow from each other’s mind strengths. Or even directly experience a bit of them just by hanging out with each other.

Thanks to my friend/fellow civic activist Anne for sharing the article that sparked these musings. (The original post is from a page called Architecture Lab which I follow on Facebook.)

The post talks about how the renowned urban-planning activist Jane Jacobs (author of the famous book The Death and Life of Great American Cities — which to this day is still required reading for many planners) was herself a cyclist, and believed that car-dependency actually fosters sociopathic tendencies.

And the post makes reference to a 1960s essay by Jacobs, titled “Cyclist.” I need to look it up.

My thoughts on just the post:

Sociopathic might sound like a really extreme label.

But then again, the degree to which we have normalized individualism in our society, and the degree of the individualism, those things are very deeply dysfunctional.

I’m not sure if I’d label it sociopathic or psychopathic, but it does feel pretty far along the scale.

For example, we just very casually choose to live far away from the people we love the most. If that’s not nuts, I don’t know what it is?

And from there it just escalates into just knowing that we can hop on a plane any time to visit friends & family, and we do, with a murderous vengeance.

Note, as with most all of my other content, when I say “we,” I am referring to my general age cohort and demographic, which is white Boomers.

And then sometimes that whole mentality leads us to thinking it’s a good idea to have multiple houses in multiple cities, those who can afford such a thing. Which even more deeply contributes to the erosion of community. Again, feels kind of sociopathic to me.

I used to think of it as options, when I was younger. Now I realize it’s a deadly feature of capitalism.

And on a personal note, as I get older and face a lonely old age (compounded by my “bad choice” of choosing not to have children) I’m not so sure. A lot of times we can’t go back to the places and people we have left. And yet we don’t fit in where we are. And the rush rush rush of car culture, and the distances between us, are a big part of the emptiness & sparseness of interactions.

And then there’s the whole “dependence on fossil fuels” component. (And now also lithium etc for electric cars.) Definitely sociopathic for us to trash the biosphere — our own life support system that is our only home — and just keep going.

Also: I once read there was a study that showed that when people who get around by bicycle, but also drive, get behind the wheel of a car, they instantly become just like any other impatient motorist. Whereas when they were on their bicycles they were more patient, calm, generally in a better mood. I have absolutely found that to be the case. I have watched myself do it.

On a personal note: I just spent a weekend in my old college town. A person can actually get around by foot or bicycle and just blend in, not be considered some sort of weirdo, or delicate flower who needs to be fretted over and offered rides. There’s plenty of public transport too. And the distance just aren’t as spread out.

As it’s possible that chronic pain is becoming my new normal, I may need to move to a place that doesn’t worship private automobile ownership, just to maintain my own sanity and dignity.

Now, one might think that a person with chronic pain would be precisely that sort of delicate flower who would need rides everywhere. But an interesting thing happens when one lives in a dense walkable area, allowing daily basic needs to be met within a small radius. With tree-shaded streets, that have speed limits of 20 to 30 miles an hour as opposed to 40 or 45 or more. And ample public transport. In that kind of environment, a person doesn’t have to walk as far. So even if they have, say, chronic back pain, chronic knee ailment etc., they can get around and go about their day with a measure of independence.

Also, in that kind of environment, a person getting around on foot or bicycle doesn’t stand out. That’s a very important point of quality of life. It’s more than a little bit disconcerting to be standing out as “the person who walks or rides a bicycle.”

BTW everything that comes to me in life, becomes fuel for the collective. So, when I get injured, I incorporate that into my transportation activism. And as I get older and start the serious planning for aging-out of being able to take care of a whole house and yard, I have become more and more into housing activism. Especially watching the young people struggle with insane rents, when we had it so much easier because the housing ecosystem was healthier back then.

Not only do I not want to ever own a car again; I probably shouldn’t be driving at all. (I strive to be a good defensive driver, but I know my tendencies to get lost in thought.)

Neither should a lot of other people, but I don’t get to make that choice. At least I can choose it for myself, if I find a place where I can fit in without submitting to the burdens of private car ownership.

And a comment I added on a local note:

And speaking of which, East ISB, the so-called great FDOT improvement project, is an absolute nightmare for anyone on foot or bicycle. Anyone not in a car.

Yesterday as I was riding back across the bridge from home, I just broke down in tears of frustration. I know the project’s not finished yet but I don’t foresee it getting any more bikeable, walkable, etc. They have basically boxed us into the neighborhood, Suburban gated-community, one-way-in style. It’s bad for motorists too.

Added later: actually, a friend who walked over the bridge yesterday said he had felt good and safe. So maybe it’s mainly just bad for bicyclists or anyone trying to turn across the street into the neighborhoods. Of course, pedestrians might end up having to jaywalk.

Further exploration:

• “Jane Jacobs: A Pioneer Urbanist and Cyclist.” (Anton Giuroiu; Architecture Lab; https://www.architecturelab.net/jane-jacobs-a-pioneer-urbanist-and-cyclist/ ) “… She added, ‘The car is not only a monstrous land-eater itself: it abets that other insatiable land-eater—endless, strung-out suburbanization.’ Foreseeing decades of suburban sprawl, Jacobs criticized car dependency and its impacts on land use. Her analogy of drivers as centaurs — half-men, half-vehicles — suggested cars made people less human in their interactions. …”