Asides

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How to Compost Pumpkins After Halloween

Whether you make pumpkin pies or jack-o-lanterns with your Halloween/ Fall harvest pumpkins, afterwards they have that thick rind which will take time and some labour to compost.

If you have a compost bin or have the space to dig a hole in the garden itself, or you might have a compost pit… the pumpkin is better in your own compost than going to landfill.

Have a little respect for the Jack-O-Lantern and give him a green burial.

If you can not compost check around for someone else who does commercial composting. A local business or someone who does have a garden space or a local grower of just about anything. Bag up the pumpkin or pumpkins and donate them to a good home.

Clean it out

Don’t leave decorations, tin foil, candle wax, inside the pumpkin. Keeping your compost to organic matter only makes it simpler later when you use the composted material in your garden. Anything like tin foil or a forgotten candle stub is just one more thing you will be picking out of the compost and soil mix later.

All the pumpkin guts, the stuff you scoop out when you carve a pumpkin, can be added to the compost too. Many people will do double duty and use the insides for pies or other holiday recipes. If you don’t, the insides are already mushy and will compost easily along with your regular yard waste, kitchen scraps or anything else you routinely add to the compost heap.

Chop it up

If you start with a whole pumpkin you have a bigger job just because it’s that much thicker and bulky. So begin by chopping it up. Even those miniature pumpkins used for decorations can be cut up.

Anything bulky and thick skinned like a pumpkin is going to be extra work for the fungus and little creatures who do the real work of reformatting in the garden. Give them a head start by breaking it up as much as you can.

If you’re a bit lazy pull the pumpkins out into the yard, in an area which can get messy, and chop them with the shovel. Let them get a bit on the mushy side before you start so you don’t have to break through the fresher, harder rind.

Remove the seeds

Take the seeds out, any seeds left in the compost will begin to sprout and grow a pumpkin patch. This could be a good thing if you have the space and don’t mind pumpkins growing on top of your compost heap. But, you won’t want all those seeds to germinate – that would take up too much space. If you have ever seen pumpkins growing you know how well they like to wind around and spread out.

Pumpkin seeds can be roasted in the oven as a snack. Just remove the pumpkin from them. Don’t actually wash them but pull off the stringy stuff. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or tin foil, spread the seeds out over the tray. You can sprinkle salt on them, or something else that perks your imagination. When your oven is hot put the seeds in to roast. Check a recipe for roasting times and temperatures. I just peek through the glass and decide when they look done enough. They should be dry but not dried out like a mummy.

If you don’t want to roast and eat the seeds you can still compost them. Roast them and then toss them into the compost. Or, grind them, anything which will prevent them from germinating in the Spring.

Begin the compost pile up

Gather leaves as you rake them, grass clippings, vegetable peels and such from the kitchen and line a hole with this lighter compost. Bury the pumpkin under more leaves and garden soil. You can add bone meal to help it all compost faster.

If you use a compost bin make sure the lid fits on to prevent rodents from getting in and leaving you a mess to clean up.

Look into composting with worms if you have the space in your backyard/ garden for a compost pit (a hole in the ground which you pile levels of compost material into).

You can also wrap the pumpkin compost in a black plastic bag which will help speed up the time it takes to rot. But, it won’t smell pretty when you unwrap it to distribute your compost into the garden.

Did You Know We Grow Enough Food To Feed EVERYONE?

Did You Know We Grow Enough Food To Feed EVERYONE?.

Over population is still a bigger issue than feeding the people here so far and the distribution of that food. The best farm land is underneath cities because those were the choice places to grow food before they became built up. Now we are crowding out all the natural habitats for animals, losing our ecosystems and importing food from other countries which have all the same problems.

Green Travel Ideas

Don’t litter.

You can at least control the trash and waste you create yourself. In Ontario we used to have "Keep Ontario Beautiful" on vehicle license plates. I miss seeing it there. But, the slogan was all about appreciating what we have and keeping it clean and looked after.

Reuse plastic bags, they are great for repacking when you have dirty clothes and your walking shoes.

Walk.

You see more when you walk anyway. But, you also make a much smaller carbon footprint. For an adventure explore other ways of getting around that don’t rely on fossil fuels. Other places have different situations and weather conditions, you could have a great day exploring on horseback, renting a bike, or even taking the local bus (at least you’re not consuming extra fuel resources that way).

Eat In.

Shop at the local stores and pick up whatever fresh food you can find. Fresh food will have less packaging and create less garbage.

If that isn’t practical you can still buy food from the grocery store and have a picnic outside or bring it back to your hotel and eat indoors. Give support to the local economy, save yourself some money and don’t eat food that has been imported from "back home" when you aren’t at home.

Power Off and Save Water.

Energy and water are world wide problems. Be energy and water conscious even when you aren’t at home and won’t see the bill at the end of the month.

Take Tour.

Being in a new place can be intimidating. Make sure you get out, take a tour recommended by your hotel, site outside somewhere and people watch, go for a walk. Make sure you see more than your hotel before you head home.

Pick up a map and find local attractions, historical places, art galleries. Some museums and galleries will have free admission days during the week.

Be Careful What You Buy.

Chances are any natural exotic product is going to be a problem when you cross the border going home. Exotic animals and plants are a big NO, even if they are no longer alive. Understand the rules before you start spending your money.

 

Body Modification: Will Foot Binding Make a Come Back?

I’m not a piercing fan. Some of it looks nice but some looks too far gone. I’ve seen stretched ears where the flap of skin is dry and pulled tight. It turns my stomach. The little bit of ear skin left at the edge looks like thin leather about to snap. I can’t deal with people who have this – my focus is on their ear rather than what they are trying to tell me. I’m not against body modification, I just don’t want to see it when it looks painful or like it’s about to require stitches/ surgery to fix it.

Futurology

Are you Afraid of the Future?

I don’t see it that way myself. I think things will go on, changing as we evolve. Overall, I have hight expectations for people to change for the better and make things work. I don’t think the worst of the destruction and mayhem will really happen. Why would we let it? Why would our future people (the children now and their children after them) let things end? We all want to live, to survive. People seem to lose track of that basic fact when they get into creating end of the world scenarios.

So, I look at the apocalypse art, the end of the world stories as fiction, creative and imaginative and a warning to those who can make decisions to keep the really bad things from happening. Actually, that’s all of us, in case you were in doubt. We all make big and little decisions which can cause change or leave things the way they are.

What are you Doing About It?

Are you littering or recycling? Isn’t that such a small thing and yet it’s a choice each person can make everyday, several times a day. On this planet we live on, are you a recycler or a litterer? Do you keep things going, care about what you’re doing or do you casually throw it all away expecting someone else to come along and clean up your mess? You might be waiting a long time for someone else to clean up your mess… maybe right to the end of the world.

Think about that next time you flick a cigarette butt out the window or onto the grass. Think about that next time you throw out paper instead of recycling it. Think about that next time you’re shopping and buy items you don’t really need and then think about it again as you throw out all that packaging from the thing you didn’t really need. War isn’t the only thing that can end our world, one way or another, it’s all about the people in the world and what they do with it.

growingCities: Finding Food + A New Balance in the City

A growing number of foodies are seeking out new hidden spots in the city that have nothing to do with the café or restaurant scene. From gathering edible greens in a park to digging for clams along the coast, urban foragers harvest a surprisingly diverse range of fresh (and extremely local) foods in cities across North America.

In New York City, naturalist and “Wildman” Steve Brill leads foraging groups through several public sites in the area: including Central Park, and Prospect Park. His tours span from March to December (at a suggested donation of $15 for adults). Finds of course vary by season, and include a huge range of plants – many of which you may not have heard of. More familiar species include: apples, apricots, peaches, strawberries, cherries, plantains, wild carrots, garlic, walnuts, and a variety of mushrooms.

via growingCities: Finding Food + A New Balance in the City.

What Urban Exploration is Not

Urban Exploration is about Exploring

Urban exploration is what it sounds like – exploring urban areas. We take photos so we can:

  • get a better look at what we have seen
  • remember what we have seen
  • share what we have seen with others

Urban exploration is about history and photography.

Graffiti, destruction of property, salvaging from old places and setting fire and otherwise causing harm is not part of urban exploration. Also, explorers do not skywalk. Rooftopping is one thing, but the intent is to get a photograph safely, not to risk you life hanging over the edge of a building and getting a photo to prove you did it and dare others to do the same.

Urban exploration has some grey areas. Some explorers are very rigid in what they consider the rules. However, everyone who truly goes into this wanting to see old places does not want to see harm come to them. We don’t want to cause the property owner or management trouble or expense. The idea is to see the places and then leave as if we were never there.

This means we don’t move things around. We don’t leave garbage. We don’t break things. We don’t paint on things. We don’t try to jump off things.

Take only photographs and leave only footprints. It’s a great rule. People who don’t stick to it cross the line and become vandals.