Celebrating International Day of the Girl by Promoting Gender Equity in Childhood Education

 “Empowerment of and investment in girls are key in breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights” -United Nations Resolution 66/170

Just two years ago, the UN declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child to raise awareness about all issues concerning gender inequality around the world. "This is a day when activist groups come together under the same goal to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance rights and opportunities for girls everywhere," said the official U.S. Web site created to promote this day.

What the Millennium Development Goals Achieved

One of the most important ways to uphold the rights of girls is to promote universal childhood education, an area where we saw some improvement between 1990 and 2015. According to Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals, the literacy rate has improved globally from 83 percent to 91 percent between 1990 and 2015, and the gap between women and men has narrowed.

That is only modest progress, and significantly more remains to be done in the area of ensuring that all girls around the world are able to have access to primary and secondary education. Two big obstacles remain in the way: poverty and war/conflict. According to the MDGs, In the developing regions, children in the poorest households are four times as likely to be out of school as those in the richest households. In countries affected by conflict, the proportion of out-of-school children increased from 30 percent in 1999 to 36 percent in 2012.

A third obstacle is cultural attitudes.  One of the biggest promoters of universal childhood education is Malala Yousafza, who was shot and almost killed by Taliban militants in Pakistan on her way home from school. Yet,  her survival only made her a greater global advocate for universal education.



Following Through with the Global Goals for Sustainable Development

The Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which replaced the MDGs in 2015, continue to place a high priority on childhood education for all girls and boys around the world. Goal 4 (Quality Education) states some important targets to be achieved by 2030.

• Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes
• Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education
• Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

CAREs Atlanta Celebration (Photo: Kristi York Wooten)

Beyond Education
While promoting education remains the most important way to uphold the rights of girls around the world, Goal 5 (Gender Equality) of the Global Goals also lists some important steps that individual countries and the global community must promote between now and 2015.

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

CARE, Catholic Relief Services and other non-governmental organizations put together special activities to celebrate International Day of the Girl. CARE organized its big celebration in Atlanta, The CARE Walk for Lasting Change, on Saturday, October 10. The event began with musical entertainment and activities at the Outdoor Theater in Atlanta’s Historic Old 4th Ward Park, followed by a rally and a one-mile walk on the Atlanta Beltline Eastside Trail. 

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Survive and Thrive The 2016 Offering of Letters

Ending hunger means more than just providing enough food and calories for everyone. Side by side with the need for sufficient food to live an active life is the need for the right foods — for good nutrition. A diet drawing from all food groups that is rich with vitamins and minerals is crucial for the health, growth, and strength of both bodies and minds. Focusing on women and young children is important because these groups are the most vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. Nearly half of the world’s smallholder farmers are women, with higher rates in developing countries.   -Bread for the World

Our 2016 Offering of Letters Campaign, "Survive and Thrive," urges Congress to prioritize support for maternal and child health programs, emphasizing nutrition. Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals  is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. It includes targets to reduce global maternal mortality and to end preventable child deaths.

Malnutrition is the cause of 45 percent of all preventable child deaths and contributes to many maternal deaths.

Through the 2016 Offering of Letters, churches would urge Congress to increase funding for the nutrition and health of mothers, newborns, and young children. In 2015, funding for nutrition in the global health account was $115 million—a slight increase from previous years. Bread and its partners believe a funding level of $230 million for nutrition programs is needed for 2016. Increasing U.S. investment in global maternal and child nutrition is central to successful development and helps improve the potential of millions of people.

As part of our campaign, we will urge Congress to pass the Global Food Security Act, which continues U.S. investments in improving nutrition and increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers. For example, food-aid reform will also provide an opportunity to improve nutrition among mothers and children. There will also be an international Nutrition for Growth summit this summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, governments could decide to make significant new political and financial commitments. Bread is urging Congress to push for those commitments. 

Albuquerque Offering of Letters Workshop
Stay tuned for details about the Offering of Letters workshop in Albuquerque, scheduled for Saturday, March 12, 2016.  Last year, 20 churches generated more than 2000 letters to Congress in support of efforts to increase domestic nutrition programs.  

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Family Promise Founder to Speak at Grand Opening of New Day Center in Albuquerque

Karen Olson, the founder of Family Promise, is the featured speaker at the grand opening of the new home for the organizations Albuquerque affiliate on Sunday, November 1, 2015, at  3:00 p.m. You are invited to come hear her amazing story and to celebrate Family Promise of Albuquerques new space and expansion at 808 Edith Blvd NE (map).  For more information, call 505-268-0331.

Below is a speech that Ms. Olson gave at the  University of Arkansas Clinton School of Service in May of 2011. 

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THL Giveaway Win a copy of Weekend Homesteader by Anna Hess!

Since were right in the midst of the holiday season, wed like to give one of our readers the perfect gift for an aspiring homesteader: a real live paperback copy of The Weekend Homesteader by Anna Hess. We love the book to pieces, and we recently acquired a second copy. (Thanks, Anna!)  Were grateful for the duplicate, because it allows us to host the first ever Homestead Laboratory giveaway! How exciting! (You can read more of our thoughts on the book here.)

Now hopefully, yall are in a giving mood, too, because you (our readers) can help us out immensely with a very simple gesture. You see, the biggest item on the Homestead Laboratory wishlist this year is to grow the community here, and we cant do it without getting additional eyeballs on the blog.

So, heres the deal: take a few seconds to share your favorite Homestead Laboratory post on your favorite social media platform, then copy the link to your shared post and enter it into the widget below to earn an entry into the giveaway.  Next Monday, well randomly select a winner and drop the book in the mail, hopefully getting it to you by the end of next week (for United States addresses, anyway).

Thanks in advance for helping spread the word about THL.  Ok, ready, go!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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What are the benefits of aquaponics

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF AQUAPONICS?

 
Reduced water use
Reduced chemical use
Reduces pesticide use when set up in a greenhouse
Reduces erosion by eliminating the need to plough the soil
Reduced running costs compared to a conventional horticultural farm

Aquaponics, ækw??p?n?ks, pisciponics

Stops backbreaking work of digging the soil and weeding for the home gardener
Can produce fish and plants for the family / grower all year round, using a greenhouse
Compared to conventional Hydroponic growers, Aquaponics does not need to use chemical nutrients for the plants, as the fish waste provides these nutrients to the plants. This eliminates the pollution of waterways, which is usually used to dispose of the eliminated chemical water.
Compared to conventional Aquaculture growers, an Aquaponics system does not have a build-up of wastes in the system that causes the water to become toxic due to the nitrites. Aquaponics utilises this waste, with the bacteria in the grow beds converting the nitrites into nitrates, which the plants then consume as their main nutrient source.

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Electrify Africa Act Wins Approval in Congress and a Group of Students at UNM Helped

Photo montage from ONE

The Electrify Africa Act  is now law. The initiative directs the President to establish a multiyear strategy to assist countries in sub-Saharan Africa implement national power strategies and develop an appropriate mix of power solutions, including renewable energy, to provide access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power in order to reduce poverty and drive economic growth.

There are many people to thank for helping to make this happen. Over four years, ONE members worked tirelessly to turn an idea into a law.

Sherif Aboubakr and Jielin Pan staff ONE table at UNM?

With petitions, letters, tweets, and in-person meetings, ONE members continued to raise their voice in support of this bill. This included a group of students at the University of New Mexico, who set up a table at an international fair on campus in 2014 to gather signatures to be sent to Congress.

Members of Congress played a key role as well. Many worked across party lines, and across Chambers, to build a strong bipartisan bill built on private sector partnerships. Electrify Africa would not be the law it is today without their hard work and support.

Take a minute to send a note of thanks to Congress. 

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Artists of Artstreet to Showcase Works During February

Images (left to right, top to bottom) Joe Goss, Tony & Julianna Pelletier, Sarah Sadler, R.L. Vallier, Brennan Diem

On Friday, February 5, the Harwood Art Center will open a gallery featuring works from the artists of ArtStreet through an exhibit entitled Recycled Heart. The annual showing brings the injustice of poverty and homelessness together while capturing the diverse, distinct, and highly individual response of the ArtStreet Artists to community chosen themes. The public is invited to the gallery opening, which will take place at 6:00-8:00 pm. 

The works will be on display on February 5-25 at the Harwood Center, 7th St. and Mountain Rd. NW (map), Monday-Thursday, 9:00 am- 5:00 pm, and 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Fridays.  

ArtStreet, celebrating its 20 years of service, is a project of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless. The space gives artists – homeless and housed –– a common forum to share their experiences, coming together to make art and organize public exhibits like this. One component of the ArtStreet program is a community based open art studio.

"ArtStreet artists channel the potential within themselves and within discarded objects to create something new. They quickly learn to see media in a fresh way, enabling them to transform raw materials into works of art."   -from Recycled Heart post card

The exhibit is made possible in part with funding from the City of Albuquerque, City of Albuquerque Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, New Mexico Arts (a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Harwood Art Center of Escuela del Sol Montessori. 

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Thinking of Starting your Own Business

Aquaculture does offer good potential for financial returns, it can be a rewarding business and one you can be be proud of. Like any other idea, your business size and scope has to suit you and your resources, to have the best chance for success. Always do your homework first and plan your business, then work your plan.

Aqua Farming can be undertaken on a full time or part time basis. Many successful individual farmers started farming fish on a part time basis and gradually developed full time commercial scale farms after gaining experience and developing resources. Starting a hobby aqua farm is a great way to gain experience and to determine if aquaculture is indeed a business/career choice you wish to make.

Small scale aquaculture requires considerable less investment than a full commercial operation diminishing your financial risks during the development and learning stages. Unless you have good training, farm management experience and strong cash reserves, look closely at starting small and testing the waters first.

The above is an exert from series of articles offering guidelines for evaluating Aquaculture as a buiness. The full articles can be found here.

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Rev Scott Anderson to Keynote New Mexico Conference of Churches event on Oct 24

My ecumenical vocation began when I helped organize a CROP walk as a high school junior. That experience gave me a larger vision of the church beyond our denominational tribalism. Jesus’ prayer for his disciples ‘that all may be one’ (John 17:11) defines ecumenism as both gift and task.   -Rev. Scott D. Anderson

Rev. Scott  Anderson, executive director of the Wisconsin Conference of Churches since 2003, will be the keynote speaker at day-long event sponsored the New Mexico Conference of Churches. The event will be held at St. Johns United Methodist Church,  2626 Arizona NE (map), Albuquerque, on Saturday, Oct. 24, 9:00-3:00 p.m.

Rev. Andersons work in Wisconsin is focused on strengthening the public policy witness of the Council and initiating a new area of ministry focused on equipping congregations to engage the mission field that is now at their doorstep. See his full biography

His talk in Albuquerque is part of the NMMCs Congregational Vitality Series. In addition to a keynote address by Rev. Anderson, the program will feature large group presentations and small group discussions about the practical "nuts and bolts" in our community.  The cost is $35 (includes lunch)

And Rev. Anderson will be on hand Friday for an NMCC fundraiser and open house. He will  discuss the Wisconsin Council of Churches project with Parker Palmer, “Season of Civility.”  This event will take place at the New Mexico Conference of Churches office, 1019 2nd St. NW (map). The cost  is $50.00

Click on this link to purchase your tickets online for either the Friday fundraiser or Saturdays event or both.

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Dear Member of Congress Please Prioritize Support for Maternal Child Health Programs

Photo: Twin Cities Bread team

Year after year, the leadership team in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area has put together great Offering of Letters workshops, maintained a website focused on the years letter-writing campaign and provided resources for churches in the area to organize their letter-writing Sundays (or weekends).

Here is the example that the Bread leaders in the Twin cities put together for the 2016 Offering of Letters, entitled "Survive and Thrive," which urges Congress to prioritize support for maternal and child health programs, emphasizing nutrition.

STEP 3 
Sincerely
Your Name
Address

STEP 4
Address your letter to Congress
U.S. House of Representatives, Washingon, D.C. 20515
 U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510

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Following the Laws of Nature

Some of the posts I have read on the aquaponics boards I follow have led me to believe that people think that aquaponics is some sort of plant growing magic.  That if you grow a plant with aquaponics you can somehow ignore all the parameters that nature has placed on a plant. 

It is not true.

If you want to survive, you have to know what will grow successfully when.  If you are in Montana and there is three feet of snow on the ground, you cant grow a tomato with aquaponics unless you control the environment.  The self sustaining nature of aquaponics will not allow that tomato to survive the cold unless you do something to control the temperature.  You need to know the agricultural zone in which you live.  To find your zone number, go to USDA Plant Hardiness Map and enter your ZIP code.  Memorize this number.  When you are researching plants and seeds, the provider will always tell you in what zones the plants will grow.  Staying within your zone will contribute to your success.  Staying within your season is also important. Just like the guys in Montana cant grow tomatoes in winter because of the cold, I cant grow cucurbits (like cucumbers, melons, squash) in summer because the air temperature is just too hot.

That means you need to learn about both growing the fish and growing the plants.  For example, we recently had heavy rains (quite normal for our south Florida summer) and as a result some of my plants (both soil and aquaponic) were infested with powdery mildew.  Just because the plants were in aquaponic systems did not make them immune from the mildew.  In this case, all I did was remove the infected parts (they did NOT go in the compost) and the plants recovered quickly because I acted quickly.  If necessary, I could have sprayed with a solution of baking soda and water (keeping an eye on the pH fo my water).  The point is no matter if the plant is in soil or not, you need to know how to take care of the plants, because if you have a garden you will have pests and diseases.  Your goal is to minimize these while maximizing yield.  That is where aquaponics comes into play. You are going for high yield because you are using your animal protein growing system to provide the food for the plants, thus providing constant nutrition to the plants. 

Another question I read was from someone who wanted to know why the seeds his neighbor have him werent performing like the neighbors plants.  Well, if your friends give you the seeds of their hybrid plants, you cant expect them to perform the same.  No matter if the plant is growing in aquaponics or soil, you cant save the seeds of hybrids and expect them to reproduce true.  Always use heirloom or non-hybrid seeds.  Learn to dry and save your own seeds. When someone offers you seed, ask them about their source.

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First Sunday of Advent Hope Overcomes Fear

We begin the Advent season with an excerpt of a reflection from Rev. John Rausch, a Glenmary priest who was recognized by Pax Christi with a Teacher of Peace award this year. An instrumental version of  Bernardette Farrells song Bread of Life follows (via jazzairwaves).

Advent allows a step back from our preoccupation with economic worries and the cares of the world. It raises our eyes to see the new liturgical year as the hopeful dawn of salvation that will ultimately reach completion with our participation. Fear about the “end of the world” gets replaced by excitement about the fullness of God’s Reign. Your “ransom,” “liberation,” and “redemption” are at hand!  -Rev. John Rausch 

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Reflections for the Jubilee Year of Mercy

On Dec. 8, 2015, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year of Mercy, an effort to focus the mission of the church and of the faithful on mercy and forgiveness rather than on judgment. This is a call for both individuals and for the institution. Here are a couple of quotes on mercy, including one from Pope Francis.

Photo via Norbertine Community of Santa Maria de la Vid

Mercy is not a virtue that you choose to put on one day. Mercy has to be your deepest way of seeing, a generosity of spirit that draws from your identity, your deepest dignity, which is love. It is basically a worldview of abundance, wherein I do not have to withhold, protect, or hoard myself.   -Rev. Richard Rohr OFM

The mystery of divine mercy is revealed in the history of the covenant between God and his people Israel. God shows himself ever rich in mercy, ever ready to treat his people with deep tenderness and compassion, especially at those tragic moments when infidelity ruptures the bond of the covenant, which then needs to be ratified more firmly in justice and truth. Here is a true love story, in which God plays the role of the betrayed father and husband, while Israel plays the unfaithful child and bride. These domestic images – as in the case of Hosea (cf. Hos 1-2) – show to what extent God wishes to bind himself to his people.  -Pope Francis (from message for Lent, 2016)

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Economics of Growing Greens by Artificial Light

We had a thought the other day about growing greens like lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, and kale inside during the winter months.  What would it cost us to do that, in the limiting case that the greens would get no natural light through our windows?  (Thats actually not too far from the truth--most of our windows face north or are shaded for all but a few hours a day.)

We went back to take a look at our aquaponics setup, which makes use of four 4-foot-long T8 fluorescent light bulbs, and which we used to grow some swiss chard, thyme, basil and dandelion greens at our old place (there were other plants, too, but those were the four that grew fast enough to give appreciable yields).  We were pretty satisfied with the amount of greens we were able to produce from that little 48" x 24" area, but we never actually crunched the numbers on the economics.  So, today we decided to do a quick calculation to see how much it was costing us to grow all those greens, at least as a ballpark figure.

A picture of the working aquaponics grow bed at a young age.  Later it would look much bushier.

The lighting system uses four 32-Watt bulbs, and our electricity rate is about $0.13/kWh. That is, it costs us thirteen cents to consume 1,000 Watts for one hour.  Watts are actually a rate of energy consumption--Joules per second--but total energy consumed is what gets billed.  So instead of doing the logical thing and using Joules as a standard unit, utility companies use the convoluted unit of kilowatt-hours.  Add that to the list of science-business conventions that dont make sense.  But at least its based on the metric system!

So, when the four bulbs are all lit up, were consuming 128 Watts (or 0.128 kilowatts).  If we run the lights for 10 hours a day, we consume 1.28 kWh of energy, which costs us $0.17. (Differences in rates for peak hours, sales tax, and all the other junk the utility company charges for are included in that number.)  Seventeen cents per day doesnt sound too bad.

In the aquaponic system pictured above, we had four swiss chard plants among the other stuff, and were harvesting about 0.1 lbs of chard /week total based on our records, which works out to about 1 lb from those four plants over a 60 day period, or $9.97/lb. (!!)  Not nearly up to expectations, but keep in mind that chard wasnt the only thing in the bed (so the whole cost of the light cant be attributed just to chard), and since our fish were stubbornly refusing to grow, these plants were extremely nutrient limited.  Fortunately, the thyme and basil that we grew at the same time cost a lot more at the store than chard, so it might all even out.  

 But, just for kicks, what would the cost be if we filled the grow-bed with dirt, planted all chard, and it grew a little closer to expectations?


We can assume that ten swiss chard plants will fit in the grow-bed since we had four plants in less than half the space.  A generally-accepted representative time-to-harvest for swiss chard is 60 days, although its usually possible to start selectively eating the leaves well before that (which we did).  But if we take a 60-day baseline, and equate one plant to one bunch that youd find at the grocery store, wed have 10 bunches in 60 days.  So, the calculation then becomes $0.17 per day, times 60 days, divided by 10 plants to give $1.00 per plant (or bunch).  Considering that we currently find it for around $1.99/bunch at the grocery store, that seems like a much more reasonable deal.

Generalized equation to figure out the cost of growing a plant under artificial lights, assuming the artificial light is the only cost.  For "C," use the inverse of the number of plants in the bed (e.g., if you had 10 plants in one bed, use 1/10).  Similarly for "G," if you got, e.g., 8 pounds from 10 plants, use 10/8.

Looks like it might be worth giving it another shot at growing some winter greens indoors!  Next time well use real dirt, and wont count on a few anorexic minnows to provide all the fertilizer.  And now that spring is on its way, we probably wont get to this experiment again until the fall, but hang tight!  We wont forget!


Do you grow your own greens indoors during the winter?  How cost effective is it for you?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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The Science and Engineering of Smores

We realize this post is a few days too late for the first major camping weekend of the summer, but the truth is, we needed a tune-up on our smores theory and practice ourselves.  So now, while the extensive refresher training we completed over the last few days is still at the front of our minds, we wanted to put out a short treatise on the intricacies and nuances of marshmallow roasting and smore eating.

The first step in creating a smore is to initiate the thermal oxidation of some woody biomass.  To avoid marshmallow ignition, we want radiant heat from the coals rather than heat from the gas-phase oxidation occurring in flames. That requires full primary combustion of the wood, which takes a considerable amount of time.

The second step is to select a marshmallow roasting device from a nearby tree or shrub, taking care to avoid the species Toxicodendron vernix.  The geometric outlay of the device is to some degree a matter of personal preference, but weve found that a half inch diameter at the base tapering to approximately a quarter inch at the business end, and 2.5-3 feet long, to be optimal for most common campfire heat intensities and standard-size marshmallows.

Similarly, the optimal linearity of the device is a subjective matter.  Some prefer a higher degree of linearity to facilitate a uniform axial rotation during roasting. Others prefer some curviness to allow the roaster to reach preferred roasting locales within the campfire from any position around the fire ring, including those toward which the smoke is not traveling, and independent of other smore engineers who may be occupying prime roasting real estate.

Nearly all experts agree, however, on the advantage of a barbed tip to prevent marshmallow disengagement from the device during the later stages of roasting, when the rigidity of the melty marshmallow core has deceased significantly.  Similarly, there is nearly universal agreement that removal of the bark from the tip of the device prevents inadvertent transfer of bark particles to the marshmallow.

In theory, pure radiative heat from glowing embers produces the most satisfactory roasting experience.  However, in practice, maintaining sufficient heat flow from a bed of embers over the course of tens of minutes that comprise a typical roasting session is challenging (as is having the patience to wait for the wood to finish burning down to coals).  Thus, the optimal sustained roasting environment often requires a combination of actively burning wood and pockets of glowing embers.

With the marshmallow applied to the roasting device, and roasting commenced over an appropriate heat source, the sugars in the outer shell of the marshmallow will begin to caramelize.  The primary chemical challenge during roasting is to uniformly caramelize the entire shell without charring or igniting any part of it.  The preferred technique among experts is a slow, rotisserie-style rotation at 4-6" from the embers, though few possess the patience to functionally sustain such an activity for the duration of the roasting operation. Another challenge is roasting the surface closest to the base end of the roasting device.  There may be some advantage to loading the marshmallow onto the device axially to minimize the surface area facing the base end (since the flat side of the marshmallow is smaller than the curved section), and then lightly smooshing the marshmallow to convert some of the base-facing surface into side-facing surface.

When the marshmallow is satisfactorily caramelized, it can be assembled into a smore, with graham crackers and chocolate as co-ingredients.  In some circles, a preferred embodiment of the smore is one which can be eaten cleanly (i.e., without loss of melted marshmallow to the eaters face or hand, or to the ground).  In such an embodiment, the chocolate and graham must be of the correct pliability, such that biting into the smore results in neither excessive compression of the marshmallow nor shattering of the graham cracker components.  The desired pliability can be achieved by mild heating of the graham and chocolate for 4-5 minutes while roasting the marshmallow (resulting in a final temperature of 100 - 105 °F).  More intensive heating melts the chocolate and toasts the graham, effectively exacerbating the problem.

A proper grip on the smore can also help keep the smore intact while biting.  As this hand model is demonstrating, a firm grip in one quadrant of the graham, using the end section of the first two fingers and the thumb, is optimal for minimizing transfer of marshmallow to the hand while maximizing the exposed area on which to apply the bite.  Large bites, up to the size of the entire smore, also minimize brittle fracture of the graham into the hand.

After roasting one- or two dozen marshmallows, the roasting device can be saved for future use, but a bit of maintenance and cleaning will help preserve its integrity and avoid attracting ants.  A first step in cleaning is commonly to remove as much marshmallow residue as possible by mouth.

Particularly recalcitrant residue can be removed by charring the tip, followed by wiping with an appropriate material, such as a t-shirt or nearby grass.  The health benefits of any residual char that may be transferred to future marshmallows are unclear, but related products are highly valued in some types of cuisine (an explanation of the scientific function of biochar in the digestive tract can be found near minute 19 in the video accompanying the previous link, although the entire episode provides a much more compelling narrative if one is amused by the non-sequitor nature of Japanese cartoons).  The roasting device can be stored somewhere relatively clean and out of the fire pit until needed again.

In conclusion, many factors must be considered to produce an optimally roasted marshmallow and a satisfactorily engineered smore.  We hope this primer has helped elucidate some of those factors, but we welcome additions and suggestions to incorporate into the second edition of this text.

What is your preferred marshmallow-roasting protocol?

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Food Month and the Goal of ZeroHunger

 (Reprinted  from Bread Blog)

We are committed to ending hunger by 2030, but can we really achieve #ZeroHunger in 15 years?

October is traditionally “food month.” It’s the month for World Food Day (Oct. 16 this year), and it’s the time of the annual Iowa Hunger Summit and the award ceremony for the World Food Prize. (And don’t forget Bread for the World Sunday on Oct. 18.)
Bread is involved in many of these events, and you are invited to observe or participate in them as well. Bread will be reporting on these events on our blog and social media channels.

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Members of Albuquerque Synagogues Serve Meals at Homeless Shelters on Christmas Day

By Michelle Radden-Vogler

For the past four years, members of several Jewish synagogues in Albuquerque; Congregation Nahalat Shalom, Temple Albert and B’nai Israel, have been preparing and serving breakfast meals to homeless people in our community on Christmas day and Easter Sunday. Volunteers from many different faith communities in Albuquerque also participate.

This year, Nahalat Shalom hosted the meal at the Good Shepherd Center and Congregation Albert prepared and served breakfast at St. Martins Hospitality (in much of the same manner as on Christmas Day, 2014)

As members of the Jewish community we are providing this service so that those Christians who regularly work at the Good Shepherd Center have the opportunity to celebrate these important holidays with their families or in ways that are meaningful to them.

We are also participating in the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew term defined as ‘acts of kindness through human actions that help to repair the world’. Through these actions we seek to transform our broken world so that it reflect the divine values of justice and compassion.

The challenges of hunger, homelessness and poverty are huge issues that must involve all of us- from different faith communities and belief systems—in fact from every aspect of society.

We are grateful to be part of these efforts within our community as well as the many social justice projects affecting our world today.

The photos in this blog post were taken on Christmas day 2015 at Good Shepherd Homeless Center. The center, located in downtown Albuquerque, serves over 300 meals every day of the year to people in need. Brother Gerard Sullivan and all the fine members of the Center provide a variety of programs that assist people in lifting themselves out of homelessness and poverty.

The author is a member of Nahalat Shalom and a participant in the Interfaith Hunger Coalition.

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Keeping Track of Egg Production

If you keep your chickens to lay eggs rather than as pets, you probably want to keep track of how many eggs theyre laying.  You probably also want to keep track of how much food, grit, etc. theyre eating and how quickly they need their bedding replaced so you can calculate how much each dozen eggs is costing you.  And if youre shameless nerds like we are, you might want to put everything into a spreadsheet that automatically tracks production and costs.

Today we wanted to share our system for tracking chicken data in case any of you might find it useful or have suggestions for how to improve it.  So, without further adieu, here is EggSpreadsheet.xlsx, version 1.0, (kindly hosted by OpenDrive).

This is the general layout.  To use it, just make an x in each cell corresponding to which dates each chicken lays an egg.  Up on top, input your costs for feed, grit, etc. The part in the upper left counts how many eggs each bird laid and the total (for the most recent seven-day period and since the beginning), and calculates the cost per dozen based on your inputs.  It doesnt include the bedding costs for now because the bedding works double duty as garden fertilizer once we compost it.  The part to the lower right tallies up each birds egg count for each week and puts it into a graph so you can track the cycle.

The trends are kind of interesting.  The open symbols correspond to times when we werent around to collect eggs forthe whole week, and we didnt want to rope our chicken-care volunteers into our goofy data collection experiment. From the left, the eggs/week started increasing as more chickens reached laying age until mid-November, when production started to fall off, probably with the decrease in day length.  Then the chickens went on a tear in mid-December before shutting it down for most of January.  But this last week shows a real up-tick again, so we better get ready!  Were not sure why the big boost in mid-December, but they seem to lay more when theyre outside more and the weather is warmer. 

Also, our Ameraucana was a real good layer up until two days before the day length dropped below 10 hours (November 18), then she didnt lay a single egg until last week, two days after the day length crossed the 10-hour threshold again (January 24).  Now shes laid five in the last week.  Thats consistency!

Since we dont always fire up the spreadsheet computer every day, we made a non-electronic version on the chalkboard in our kitchen that we have to walk past to put the eggs in the fridge.  That makes it way easier to remember things day-to-day.  Now, as long as we update the computer spreadsheet once a week, well have data as accurate as our immediate guesses as to which egg belongs to which chicken.

In other chicken-related news, our well-traveled, but previously injured, Rhode Island Red has rejoined the flock.  She let us know she was fully recovered by escaping from her tote, making messes around the house, and eating our newly-sprouted avocado tree.  Also, weve been trying to figure out what type of chicken Big Chip is.  She was a mystery bird (a.k.a. free rare breed) from McMurray Hatchery that looks like a Partridge Rock in terms of coloring and size (she kept pace with the Pioneer meat birds last spring), but her comb isnt quite the same, and she was a chipmunk-striped chick, which Rocks typically arent (nor are they a rare breed).  Any ideas?  Maybe a mutt from their top secret new meat breed program?

How do you keep track of your egg production and costs?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Economics of Hunting

Growing up in Wisconsin, the deer hunting season was as close to a holiday as one could get without official state sanctioning.  We were enthusiastic participants in the jubilee--countless hours in the woods and swamps waiting for a deer to walk by (watching the antics of squirrels and woodpeckers in the meantime), and countless more hours trying to chase those same deer past uncles and cousins, inventing hare-brained fail-proof strategery on a truck tailgate while eating sandwiches and apples, playing cribbage while cooking celebratory tenderloins, and playing poker late into the night.

It was a family gathering as much as anything, but the question sometimes arose--how did the price of the venison we were currently in the process of procuring compare to something comparable we could buy?  The question has become more poignant now that we now need to buy non-resident licenses at a premium price of 567% of the resident license cost.  This week, we realized we had never actually sat down and calculated it.  Fortunately, that type of calculation is just the kind of thing we do here on this blog.

Time to put on our number-crunching hats and look at some scenarios.  And time to make a spreadsheet!

First, here are the numbers we used, broken up into five scenarios.  Scenarios 1a and 1b incorporate the cost of a low-end, but serviceable rifle ($300 on sale from the local farm store), and a $25 box of shells for an initial sight-in.  Those costs are assumed to be divided up evenly over the first five years, and work out to $65 for years 1-5.  Another four shells are included for a tune-up and the kill shot, at a cost of $5.  (For bow-hunting, a likely-non-reusable arrow and a possibly-reusable broadhead could also be approximated at $5, maybe a little more.)  A resident deer license in Wisconsin is $24, and the cost for a typical excursion included travel to the hunting grounds at about 200 miles round trip (calculated at a travel cost of $102, using an approximate GSA mileage rate of $0.51/mile), about $25 in extra food (per person) for donuts, granola bars, celebratory beers, etc., and a processing fee of $85, if we were to take the deer in (Scenario 1a).  The "hanging weight" of the deer is assumed to be 80 lbs, which roughly equates to 110 lb dressed and 140 lb live weights, which are typical for upper midwestern whitetails.


Scenarios 2a and 2b assume that the gun is paid for, and is sighted in and close to accurate.  This is closest to the situation we had growing up. Scenario 3 is closest to our current situation, with $160 for a non-resident license, no travel costs (because Jakes parents now live in a cabin on the hunting grounds), and no processing costs, since well be gosh-darned if we let some careless butcher guy waste a single ounce of that deer.


Scenarios 4a and 4b are for comparison to elk hunting in Colorado, including a drive from the Denver area up to the legendary Flat Tops Range by Yampa (310 miles round trip). The lowest elk processing fee we could find was $275 (others were close to $1.00/lb), and the average field-dressed weight for an elk is in the range of 350 lb.


Scenario 5 is if dear old Dad wanted to drive out from Wisconsin to Colorado for an elk hunt, and also wanted to outsource his elk processing.

The total cost works out to $2-4/lb for Wisconsin whitetail venison, $0.70-$1.50/lb for resident Colorado elk venison, and about $5.69 for non-resident Colorado elk venison, if that non-resident drives from Wisconsin, with the breakdown shown above.  Processing adds about $1/lb to the total cost for the deer, and a little less for the elk.  The lower travel cost from Jakes parents new digs pretty much offsets the increased cost of the non-resident license. (Thanks, mom and dad!)  Unfortunately, it doesnt work out quite as nicely coming to Colorado to hunt elk.

For comparison, the lowest beef prices we could find were about $3.51/lb (composite value from averaging ribeye, filet mignon, back ribs, sirloin, and strip steaks from here; its bolstered by the ribs, but that brings it into the wholesale range recorded by the USDA).  The grocery store conventional beef (averaging prices for hamburger, sirloin, and strip steaks in the weekly ad of our local King Soopers store), came in at $4.92/lb.  Buying grass-fed beef directly from the farmer was marginally higher at $5.23/lb (from averaging prices here, here, here, here, and here).  To give an idea of the range of farm-direct conventional beef, the last link also offers that next to its grass-fed beef, at $4.50/lb. 

So, long story short, hunting venison is generally less expensive than buying beef, especially if you do your own processing and dont have to travel far to hunt.  A corollary is that if you do have to travel, you can probably decrease your price per pound by getting multiple tags to fill on the trip (e.g., elk plus mule deer plus antelope).

Of course, all of the above is predicated on the assumption that the hunt is successful.  Thats not necessarily a given, as the Wisconsin deer hunting and Colorado elk hunting success rates show.  But if you do your homework ahead of time, your odds of success are probably higher than the average.

Practicing by hunting the rare and elusive feed bag target is an important part of the pre-hunt homework, but be careful not to shoot any chickens!

Have you calculated your hunted meat costs?  How do they compare?

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Impressive Group of Speakers to Address End Hunger Summit

Krista Kelley, is seen as a visionary in the design and implementation of numerous projects that have changed the course of New Mexico communities through hunger, healthcare, employment and access to vital services... Albuquerque kindergarten teacher Sonya Romero has gained international recognition for her generosity toward students at Lew Wallace Elementary School....Since 1984, Pastor John Hill has served his fellow man in the non-profit sector, focusing on individuals coming directly out of the prison system, with drug and alcohol addictions, or with employment challenges...Rev. Jack Bunting is currently serving as the President/CEO of the St. Felix Pantry, Inc. in Rio Rancho, and continues to be passionate about serving the needs of the poor, hungry and hurting within Sandoval County and the State of New Mexico...Sherry Hooper took over as executive director for The Food Depot, Northern New Mexico’s food bank in September, 2001. Ms. Hooper co-founded the Santa Fe Food Policy Council and served on the Council as a City of Santa Fe appointee for four years...Crystal Fitzsimmons leads FRAC’s work to increase participation the federal school, summer, and afterschool nutrition programs. She analyzes policy to advocate for legislative and regulatory... improvements to increase low - income children’s access to the nutrition programs...Veronica Garcia became New Mexico Voices for Children’s executive director in 2012... As New Mexico’s first Cabinet Secretary of Education, she pushed for funding for programs such as school - based health clinics, breakfast in the schools, and elementary physical education.

The Second Annual End Hunger in New Mexico Summit, scheduled for Sept. 23-24, will feature an impressive group of keynote speakers. [Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe was originally scheduled to address the event, but something came up (Pope Francis visit to the U.S.!)]. The Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Blvd. (map), will be the site of the summit. Two of the keynote speakers lead organizations that have endorsed the Interfaith Hunger Coalition (IHC): Adelante/The Storehouse and New Mexico Voices for Children. The IHC will have a display at the summit and will also be presenting a workshop on Wednesday, September  23, !;45-2:45 p.m. in the Acoma Room. Here is a description of our workshop

Faith In Action: An Introduction to the Interfaith Hunger Coalition

* Ellen Buelow, Interfaith Hunger Coalition
Our interactive workshop introduces participants to the vision and activities of the Interfaith Hunger Coalition focused in three areas; education, advocacy and direct action. Here’s an opportunity for faith communities to collaborate in a common place. Explore how you and your organization can join forces without duplication of services.

Check out the full schedule of events, including descriptions of all the workshops and more information about the keynote speakers. You can register on site at the summit on September 22-24. The registration fee is $20. Participants are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items, which Desert Harvest will distribute to feeding sites in Albuquerque.

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