Families gather in the Oneida Square Community Garden –
complete with a popcorn machine! Story here.
CC image via Flickr user The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Cos.
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The seeds of this week’s frugal vegan tip were planted several years ago, when I read a piece written by Lauren of the (seemingly) now-defunct blog Faux Real Tho. If memory serves correctly, Lauren described a sort of “work party,” wherein a group of friends and family members descended upon her backyard in order to help her and her husband create a garden space in their new home. In return for food and alcohol – naturally. The ultimate garden party, if you will.

Work + wine = a work party
Work + wine + dirt + produce = a garden party

Of course, bribing and plying your friends with alcohol and shiny happy vegan cupcakes is a great way to procure a little extra help when needed. But let’s take this concept a step further, shall we? Why split only the work when you can share it all: monetary expenses, land, labor, knowledge, materials and yield?

Let’s say, for example, that you want to start growing some of your own (VEGAN!) food in order to save money and become more self-sufficient (the apocalypse, it’s coming!). You have the space to establish a good-sized garden and the funds to cover any start-up costs – but are lacking the know-how and expertise to make it a rousing success. Or perhaps you’re an experienced gardener but are currently living in an apartment space which only affords room for a small window garden. Maybe you have the time to devote to weeding, watering, harvesting and preserving, but no money with which to buy the supplies. By pooling your resources with friends, family members and/or acquaintances, all of these potential pitfalls can be overcome.

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Being a good lil’ greenie, I try to throw as little waste in the garbage as possible. When it comes to plant-based waste, I usually compost it. Well, not “compost” so much as recycle: instead of a compost bin, I scatter my plant waste in a field at the back of my property, and let the critters have their way with it.

Scraps are dealt with pretty swiftly this way, actually; for example, I had to discard many wheelbarrows full of rotten and half-nibbled apples and pears last summer. I dumped it all in the pasture nearest my house, because that wheelbarrow was just too heavy to cart any further. The bees, butterflies and (I assume) deer got to work on the heaps fairly quickly, and six months later, there’s barely a trace of the fruit piles.

(Click through to embiggen and see all the little buggers.*)

During the spring, summer and fall, I’ll usually gather banana peels, potato skins, watermelon rinds and the like in a garbage bin in the garage, and empty it out as needed. It starts to smell if I leave it out too long, but it rarely sits for more than a day or two; leaves and sticks fill it quickly. Or if I’ve got a few minutes to spare, I’ll walk to the perimeter of the property and toss my waste as soon as I’ve made it, while the evening’s dinner is cooking or whatever.

Naturally, in the coldest months of the year, I’ve no inclination to go for a stroll – not even out to the barn. And storing food waste in the attached garage isn’t really an appealing prospect. So sometimes I find myself getting lazy and (*gasp*) tossing orange peels in the garbage. Bad Kelly, bad! Since I’ve been doing more and more cooking lately, I wanted to make it as pain-free as possible to recycle my plant waste, so I won’t find myself tempted to send it to the landfill.

Here’s what I came up with: when I generate plant waste, I toss it in a designated Tupperware container, which I then store in the fridge or freezer (whichever has some extra space). When the weather’s sufficiently agreeable, I’ll go recycle whatever I’ve gathered, and start the process anew. Of course, the freezer is the safer choice, but I haven’t yet had anything go moldy or goo up in the fridge (*fingers crossed*). I suppose our wacky Midwestern 75 degrees one day, wind chill of zero degrees the next day, winters help; so far I’ve been able to discard of my waste once every 7 to 10 days.

If you find yourself getting lazy about your composting in the winter months, give it a try. What works for you?

* Can you tell that I’m totally jazzed for spring?!

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I was channel surfing last night, and accidentally stumbled upon an infomercial for the Topsy Turvy Tomato Tree. I’m not usually one for infomercials, but I caught the program title (Tomato Tree), mistook the channel code for SciFi instead of SRI, or whatever it was, and thought the show was a cheesy SciFi original about a killer mutant psychic tomato tree…and naturally, I just had to stop. Still, I ended up watching this for a full 15 minutes before changing the channel. I blame it on all the gratuitous food porn closeups.
 

 
Anyway, TOTALLY WANT. I bet this would be great for growing tomatoes indoors, during the winter. Just as long as the mutts don’t knock the stand over. Normally, Shane’s the one cajoling me to buy crap marketed on late-night teevee, but I might have to add this one to my birthday list.

Sigh. Next thing you know, I’ll be wearing a Snuggie. Or a Slanket. Probably a Slanket. For some inexplicable reason, they’re currently donating a portion of their proceeds to NRDC.

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As I mentioned last night, yesterday Shane and I spent the day outside, disassembling a fairly large planter. No complaints here, though; it was a gorgeous day, and I’d much rather spend a sunny day doing manual labor outside than be cooped up in the house, plugging away on office work or somesuch.

And can I just say that Midwestern autumns are effin’ gorgeous?

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