Trimming Root Vegetables Do We Really Have To

We made a big pan of roasted root veggies last night.  Potatoes, carrots, and onions.  Yum.  In the middle of judiciously cutting off all the green parts of the skins and all the eyes out of the potatoes, we started to wonder how much of this tedious prep work was really necessary.  Everyone knows that green potatoes will murder you in your sleep if you eat them, right?  And green-shouldered carrots are probably just as bad?  Green-shouldered onions will probably make you cry while they do it.

But what if these silent killers were just getting a bad rap?  As it turns out, some are, some, maybe not.  Read on--the Homestead Laboratory investigates!

For potatoes, the green color comes from chlorophyll, but these guys (the glycoalkaloids solanine and chalconine) are the toxic part.  Plants in the nightshade family use them as a defense mechanism, and they ramp up production in response to stress or light.  Also in response to light, they ramp up chlorophyll production, which is why the green color is associated with the toxicity.  Strictly speaking, however, the green color is not required for high glycoalkaloid content. The glycoalkaloids are also bitter, though, so we can still tell when there is a lot of them without having to have any analytical equipment fancier than a tongue.

Next, is there enough of the glycoalkaloids to actually do any damage?  The dose commonly cited to cause toxic effects for solanine is 2 mg/kg body weight, or 140 mg for a 70 kg person.  The half life in the body for humans is 1-2 months, which works out to a total steady-state body burden of 50 mg if the intake of solanine is 1 mg/day.  How many potatoes would you have to eat to take in 1 mg/day of solanine?  Normal solanine contents of potato tubers are about 7.5 mg/100 g fresh weight (varying widely across samples).  The green parts can have more than 200 mg solanine/100 g fresh weight.  For reference, the four potatoes in the picture cumulatively weigh 211 g, and the stripes on the cutting board are 1" wide.  So, it wouldnt take much if you ate taters every day.    Looks like well definitely continue to trim the green parts, and probably space out our potato eating a little more, too. 

On the other hand, most researchers seem to consider the eyes as part of the tuber, so if they arent sprouting, it seems theres no need for us to worry about additional solanine coming from the untrimmed eyes.  Looks like we can save ourselves a lot of time on eye-trimming.  However, if the eyes are sprouting at all, the solanine content in the tuber can go up, down, or stay the same, depending on the variety.  One thing is clear, though--the sprouts have the most solanine of all, so well be staying away from them!  In that case, well definitely trim more liberally, and probably make a bit of effort to ease off on our potato intake for a while once that dish is gone.

Also, some solace for french fry and potato chip lovers--the frying process doubles as a high-temperature extraction (reducing the content of the solanine in the fries) because the glycoalkaloids are somewhat oil-soluble.  Probably still would be good to not eat the green ones.

Carrots get some green on their shoulders from the sunlight, too, but arent in the nightshade family.  So, while the green color still comes from chlorophyll, the glycoalkaloids dont come along with it.  The green color does still bring some bitterness, but the molecules that cause it have not been identified (or at least, they hadnt as of 2007, and we couldnt find any more recent papers).  Its known that some types of molecules, including terpenoids, can result in a bitter flavor, even in non-greened carrots , but apparently in the green parts, these are not the terpenoids were looking for.  One would think theyd also have looked for glycoalkaloids.  But the whole carrot plant, including the top, is edible, so the green parts of the carrot roots might be unpalatable, but not likely dangerous.  Similarly for onions, the greening that happens on the shoulders of the bulb when exposed to sunlight is due to chlorophyll, but not likely dangerous.  It might even be beneficial due to concomitant flavonoid formation!  Maybe the carrots are also making flavonoids.

Of course, if the green parts of the carrots and onions end up being too bitter for us, chicken taste buds might handle them better.  Guten apetit!

What do you do with the green parts of your root veggies?

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Have Chicken Will Travel

We got back the other day from a wonderful trip home to Wisconsin to visit family and friends.  We usually make the sixteen-hour drive to and from Denver in one shot, alternating shifts and driving through the night.  Preparations for being away typically entail making snacks to keep us awake, packing clothes, gifts, and other food, and finding someone to check in on our chickens.

Fortunately for our chicken-checking volunteers, the chickens are generally well behaved.  But what happens when, a week before the trip, one of the chickens gets injured and needs extra care?  Talk about a wrench in the plans!

We were going to cull her, but the injuries didnt seem to involve any vital systems, the only serious symptom being that she couldnt walk very well.  We kept her in a 10-gallon tote in the laundry room for the week leading up to the trip, and she seemed like she was intent on eventually making a full recovery.  Plus, we had just spent six-plus months rearing her into egg-laying shape and culling would have meant a lost investment on that end.

So, we decided to take her with us.

Thoughts of driving through a feather-filled ruckus from a panic-stricken bird, of inconveniencing anyone we visited, and the possibility of an overly-interesting traffic stop aside, we decided it would be a shame to cull her, and hard to ask our chicken-care volunteers in Denver to take on this extra burden.  Plus, what if she took a turn for the worse or had other unexpected problems?  At least if she was with us, wed be the only dumbfounded ones.

Chicken setup in tote in laundry room.  Feed and water containers supported on wire hooks over edge of tote.  Water (yogurt) container has poultry nipple on bottom.  She hasnt even tried to escape, except on the second day in the tote when she somehow got out to lay an egg on the kitchen floor, but couldnt get back in.

We made room for the tote in the already-jam-packed car, packed a little extra food, and hit the dusty trail.  1000 miles and four states later, she was still happily doing chicken stuff and seeming ever-so-slightly more healed.  Since we drove most of the way through the night, she just slept, only making some annoyed chicken sounds because of the bright lights when we stopped for gas. She generally just hung out in the back seat, better-behaved than any human under the age of ten (and most humans older than that).

The tote fit nicely behind the drivers seat, and the cooler fit sideways such that the passenger seat still reclined.  That was critical for through-the-night driving!

In the time we were home, she stayed in a dog kennel in a heated garage (sans dog, of course), got to free range--or rather, free-hop on her one good leg--on some choice Wisconsin pasture (a rarity for this time of year!), eat some aquaponic lettuce, see four different relatives houses, and entertain a cadre of young cousins.  And through it all, she was the definition of stoic.

The lesson?  If your chicken is more chill than Cub Foods-brand soda, dont be afraid to travel with it!  It was easier than traveling with a dog, and chickens dont shed.

Heres hoping she continues to recover and starts laying eggs again sometime in 2015!

Have you ever had to travel with chickens?  Do you have any funny stories or helpful tips?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Fourth Sunday of Advent Angels We Have Heard on High

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing oer the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.

Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

In a #sharethegift video, The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir get together to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High"

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We Have a God who Promised to be With Us

Bishop Lawrence Reddick, senior bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and presiding prelate of the 8th Episcopal District, offers this New Years blessing and greeting for 2016. Bishop Reddick is a member of the Bread for the World board of directors.

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Aquaponics Doesnt Have to Be Ugly

My hubby has been itching to build a new aquaponic garden.  He has had an IBC tote cluttering up the garage for several weeks.

The problem is that we are running out of space.  We do not have much growable space to begin with.  Some of what we do have is shaded.  The areas that get enough sun for growing edibles are already occupied by aquaponic gardens or conventional soil beds.

Little Okra

He has been eying our swimming pool deck and commenting about the abundance of sun it receives.  Of course it does, who puts a swimming pool in the shade?  I could see where the hints were going.  By the time he said he wanted to put an aquaponic garden by the pool, I had accepted that this was going to happen.  I just wanted to minimize the damage. 

By damage, I mean that our house is built around the pool area.  It is visible from most rooms in the back of the house.  I did not want to look at something ugly.  Let’s face it, most aquaponic gardens are collections of tubs, barrels, buckets and lots of pipes and tubing.  These components are not terribly attractive.  While our existing aquaponic gardens are not eyesores, they are not exactly things of beauty.  Even though they are full of beautiful growing things, I dont want something like that the focal point of the back of my house.

I was willing to compromise (one of the reasons we have been married for over 30 years) and he was willing to compromise (another reason our marriage has lasted so long).  I agreed to the IBC, if he agreed to do some extra work so that it was not an ugly eyesore.

IBC Aquaponic Garden

Voila!  He clad the system in pressure treated lumber so that it will withstand the elements and from the house, it almost looks like a hot tub! The bottom holds 125 gallons and the top gives us a grow area of roughly 4 feet by 4 feet. Plenty of room for the tilapia and veggies!  He fitted it with a bell siphon, but I would like to change it over to a timed flood and drain. I like the way that method performs on the larger systems.

This past week end we began cycling.  Because I can’t stand for the fish to die, we are cycling with ammonia.  You can read my January post about my experiences cycling with and without fish and come to your own conclusions about cycling with fish.

Just to start, I put in some purple hull peas and Cajun Jewel okra.  I already have plenty of okra in our other grow beds and even some in rafts and NFT tubes, so I think we can expect a large crop of okra.  Unfortunately, because it is the rainy season, there is very little we can grow.  Summer in South Florida is like winter in the Midwest or North, there are very few edible plants that can survive.

Which brings me to an RIP moment.  One of the first thunderstorms that came barreling off the Everglades produced a lightening strike that has taken out one of my coconut palm trees.  As you can see in this photo, the tree is dying and you can even see the stripe on the tree trunk where the lightening exited. 

Coconut Tree with Lightening Scar

 It appears that the areca palm next to the coconut is a goner as well.  The areca only went in after hurricane Wilma.  The coconut is over 20 years old.  I  will miss them.  Its like saying good-bye to an old friend.

Areca with burned fronds

Do you get attached to your trees?

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