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By Angela Petty, FAN board member  First came the cherries—red delights, dripping from my neighbor’s tree. I stopped buying fruit and became ever more vigilant on neighborhood walks. In my own yard, I spied lemon frosting persimmon flowers and planted a garden, mostly the makings of future salsa. By July, I was lingering in alleys picking blackberries and later figs, plums, grapes and apples. As summer fades to fall, I am now enjoying too much tomatillo salsa and watching persimmons color orange. It is the season of plenty. And whether the garden survived the heat and camping trips, we are sure to find food hanging over fences or from generous neighbors. But bellies full, what do we do with it all? And how can we enjoy this nourishment year-round? The answer: food preservation. Wanting to learn more and share some local, home-grown knowledge, I asked neighbors about food preservation methods: freezing, dehydrating, fermenting, and canning. Here’s what I learned: Freezing is a simple way to start. However, there are tricks to get the most out of your frozen cache. I met with Julie Felix who preserves garden produce. Some vegetables, like the peas her granddaughter shelled, need blanching to keep from degrading in the freezer. Other produce, like peaches, benefit from a lemon juice soak to preserve color. Sliced peaches and berries can be first frozen on a cookie sheet to keep conveniently separate. Julie also dehydrates, then freezes peaches in a vacuum bag to conserve space. Freezing in jars? Leave space for the liquid to expand, she explains. Julie brings out her tomato sauce at friend gatherings and makes birthday enchiladas with her tomatillo sauce. Another neighbor, Pam Fitzpatrick, also preserves her harvest “to have [local] food to eat later on.” Pam favors dehydrating for its mobility. She uses a quality, temperature-accurate dehydrator she bought used. When overwhelmed with backyard plums and pears, Pam and her partner cook them up, then dry soupy fruit into fruit leather. Her specialty, however, is dehydrated “Mama Pam’s Spaghetti sauce” which she takes on trips to Texas to visit her daughter. Jessica Jackowski practices a method that relies on microscopic creatures: fermentation. Lacto-fermentation utilizes bacteria on fresh vegetables to transform them into umami deliciousness with increased nutrient availability. Essentially, “fermentation is a controlled rot,” says Jessica. It requires “setting the table for lactic acid bacteria,” the bacteria that dominates this anaerobic process. There are two important ways to ensure this: making sure you have enough salt and submerging the vegetables. Jessica advises beginners to start small and have fun. You can find her fermenting various greens (dandelion, nettles, cabbage, mustard), scallions, peppers, cucumbers and lemons from her prolific Meyer lemon tree.  Lastly, I joined Stephanie Cannon who packs “goodness in a little jar” canning. Some of these jars end up as gifts in her friends’ pantries. Stephanie first learned to can from her working mom at a time when people “sealed” jars by melting wax over the food, a practice that is no longer considered safe. Whether you water bath, steam, or pressure can, there are many safety protocols. Use research-based recipes to ensure the correct acidity, and consult resources like the OSU extension, Stephanie advises. After an enriching OSU extension tuna canning class, Stephanie and two friends started doing this “stinky but rewarding process” together. She also gathers with friends to exchange home-preserved foods.
In preserving food, we find nourishment in local food and community. by Angela Petty
Ode to alley fruit park plums forgotten mulberry FIGS! I hear your call, echoing from season’s past a promise of sunlight in my mouth sunset stained hands held, in sustenance Tart Spring cherries summer berries frozen in time dried apples on the shelf grape snacks persimmons fall The box of kiwis, still seated at my winter table You care for me so tenderly how can I care for you?  A Gift of Hope
By Angela Petty, FAN Sustainability Committee Looking for some hope, a small delight to hold? Try Robin Wall Kimmerer’s latest essay: “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.” Turn the book over and pause with the poignant verse: “All Flourishing Is Mutual.” Then open. A bird nibbles berries. A deer forages. Rain falls on serviceberry leaves. Kimmerer introduces us to her human neighbors as well. Sandy puts out a front yard table with flowers and produce to share. Farmers Paulie and Ed invite neighbors to pick their serviceberries for free and in doing so invite relationships with community and land. These are stories of economy, the gift economy, explains Kimmerer, and we find examples in the natural world: “the Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity rather than accumulation, where wealth and security come from the quality of our relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.” While our current economic system is heavy and harmful, Kimmerer offers an adjacent healing path forward. She invites us to participate in the gift economy, to be agents of creative cultural change and citizens of an ecosystem. Close the book, but keep the gift. And then give something in return. ___________________________________ Announcing the Hopeful Futures book club! Hosted with help from the Friendly Sustainability Committee, this group will focus on books featuring a positive, hopeful future including climate fiction and non-fiction with themes of restoration and resilience, climate justice, community building, and sustainable living. We hope you’ll join us as we find joy in creating positive change at the small or large scale! Join us Thursday May 1, 6:30 pm to discuss Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. RSVP to [email protected].  by Angela Petty My gift to the world is bread. It’s not my only gift, and I don’t claim to be a better baker than anyone else. It’s simply a practice I choose, to fold meaning into my life. To eat well, live well, and share. For years I’ve been leaning into the same solid loaf. I’ve anguished over sluggish winter rises (with dinnertime deadlines!), mistakenly over fermented hot dough, and learned to tinker with time, temperature, and ingredients to achieve that toasty crust and soft, chewy interior. I’ve come to trust the process of baking bread. Why bake bread? Baking warms a winter home. Its sensory steps —stretching wet dough between fingers, watching dough rise, breathing in the smell of crystallizing sugars in a hot oven —calm the nervous system. Its few ingredients are affordable, and the home baker can choose quality, locally grown flour. Lastly, humans have been nourished by naturally leavened bread for 5,000 years! Traditionally, fermentation was practiced intuitively. Rather than following a strict structure, the rhythm of the dough was deeply intertwined with the rhythms of the baker, the seasons, the home. This remains true today. Sourdough bakers guide a living process. And the microbes at work are unique to their particular environment (even if your starter originally came from elsewhere), producing a bread that is unique to your home, schedule, and taste. All that said, following a recipe (and taking notes) is essential when first learning the craft of bread. We’ll start with two recipes in one. The basic outline (unbolded) is for a yeast dough. Consider this recipe training wheels for learning to “read” dough. For sourdough, you’ll follow the same process but with added steps (bolded). And, you’ll need a starter culture. To keep a jar of starter fit and happy, you have to regularly discard some and add more flour and water. I take my starter out of fridge hibernation a couple days before I want to bake to discard/“feed” morning and night until it’s nice and bubbly. But wait, did I say discard? Don’t throw away that precious starter or your levain! I “feed” all of my discard into a separate container then fry it up as a pancakes (with a pinch of salt) to eat for breakfast before I mix my dough. You will need a tub or bowl (clear allows you to see rise and bubbles), basket (or bowl), tea towel, wooden spoon, bench scrapper (or knife), plastic spatula, and dutch oven (or baking sheet). After you’ve practiced the basics, read on for a more technical recipe in grams, notes, and variations. Basic No-Knead Yeast Bread and Sourdough Ingredients 3 1/2-4 c flour + more for dusting/shaping + more for sourdough levain 2 t salt 1 1/2 - 1-3/4 c water 1/4 t dry active yeast OR 1/2 of levain mixture Process 0) Overnight levain: Mix 1 T active sourdough starter with 1/2 c water and 3/4 c flour. Let sit overnight or about 12 hours before mixing dough. 1) In a large bowl, mix ingredients with a wooden spoon, then your hand to form a sticky dough. 2) Cover and let dough rise until it has doubled in size (12 + hrs). a) During rise, stretch and fold the dough over itself in bowl 2 times (1-2 hours after mixing and 3-4 hours after first fold). 3) Shape into a round and let rest on a floured surface about an hour. a) Shape again and place the dough upside down in a floured basket (or bowl lined with floured cloth) for a second rise 2-5 hours (or overnight in the fridge) 4) Bake at 450 degrees in a preheated, floured dutch oven (or baking sheet) about 20-30 minutes with the lid on and then 20 minutes with lid off until the crust has browned.  Beyond basics: Sourdough in Grams Ingredients Levain 1 T sourdough starter 100 grams flour 100 grams water Dough 100 g levain 350-390 g water + 25-35 g water 500 g flour 10-14 g salt Process and technique:
Notes
Variations You can use these same recipes to make olive bread, rosemary bread, seedy bread, a porridge bread, and more. Mix add-ons into the dough in the initial stage, or when you add the salt (in sourdough). Consider the hydration of your added ingredient and how that will effect how much water your dough needs. I like to add cooked grains such as oatmeal, quinoa, or rice to make a porridge bread. You can also experiment with replacing part of the flour in your dough with a non-wheat flour such as rye or corn flour. However, you will need to use majority wheat flour as other flours do not contain gluten protein. The no-knead yeast dough can be used as a pizza dough as well (and theoretically the sourdough dough too). I like to keep a tub of yeast dough in my fridge (for up to a week) and take out a small hunk to make a mini pizza or fresh toaster oven roll. Bread is as free and flexible as you make it. You can take a bread project out and about (to perform folds throughout the day), travel with your starter and bread gear, and easily make dough with kids or friends. Share, enjoy, and eat well! Bibliography Forkish, Ken. Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza. New York, Ten Speed Press, 2012. Hamel, PJ. “No-Knead Crusty White Bread.” King Arthur Baking Company, January 1st, 2016, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe. December 24th, 2024. Robertson, Chad. Tartine Bread. San Francisco, Chronicle Books LLC, 2010.  New Date: Saturday, August 8, 2020, 9:00am – 2:00pm
Cancelled: Saturday, April 11, 2020, 9:00am – 2:00pm Cancelled: Saturday, May 30, 2020, 9:00am – 2:00pm Wayne Morse Dog Park, 595 Crest Drive, Eugene Join the Friends of Wayne Morse Dog Park and help take care of our beloved dog park. Projects include renovating and painting the historic perimeter fence, filling holes around the park, and much more. Please bring a pot-luck dish to celebrate the formation of this new stewardship group. Tools and gloves provided. To RSVP or learn more about the Friends of Wayne Morse Dog Park, contact Steve Piercy, Adoption Group Co-Leader, [email protected]. Plastics collection events have been cancelled until further notice due to the COVID-19/Coronavirus. To receive updates about future events, subscribe to the Friendly Flyer.  Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) are invited to recycle their qualifying plastics at the next FAN Plastics Collection event. This event is run by volunteers of the FAN Sustainability Team.
Friendly Area Neighborhood Plastics Collection Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 4:00 to 6:00 PM (before FAN Emergency Preparedness Team Skill Building Session) Washington Park Community Center, 2025 Washington Street, Eugene Qualifying plastics
Welcome to the "new normal" for plastics recycling. You are doing something good for our stressed oceans and the environment. Tips to prepare plastics and manage yogurt containers The photo below shows some of our rejects. Note the labels, foil rims, and odd items with no resin code (the number surrounded by three arrows arranged in a triangle). Some single use yogurt containers are oddly shaped, making them hard to clean and dry, especially when the yogurt residue hardens or becomes moldy. Fill them with soapy water and soak to loosen the gunk. Better yet, switch to bulk yogurt and fill a small container with a dollop of yogurt and top with your favorite fruit or granola. Best of all, make your own yogurt and never buy the single use plastics again. It's easy and safe.  
 by Jim Watson
A century ago Eugene's Mercy Hospital was located on College Hill (see blog post "Eugene General/Mercy Hospital"). To connect the closest College Crest trolley stop on Willamette Street to the hospital, stairs were constructed in 1910. Though both the hospital and the trolley disappeared in the mid-1920s, the stairs remain across Willamette Street from Civic Park. The stairs, perhaps the last of their kind, connected to one of Eugene’s trolley routes that was part of a streetcar system that was once described as the greatest for a small city in the United States. The pioneer railway is remembered for having employed Wiley Griffon, Oregon’s first black trolley operator. Gwynne McLaughlin spearheaded a project to paint a mural on the stairs to honor their history while preventing the graffiti that has plagued them. Muralist Ila Rose painted the mural in May of 2019. Questions? Interest in helping keep the mural in good shape? Please contact Jim at [email protected]. Black and White Images Property of Lane County History Museum. Used by Permission. Historical information compliments of Andrew Fisher.  Monday, January 20, 2020, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Westmoreland Park sports fields and in the surrounding Friendly neighborhood Add event to my Calendar Make a lifelong investment in water quality, carbon reduction, and provide shade: plant a tree! This MLK Day on Monday, January 20, 2020, volunteers will improve the environment, community, and economy by planting trees in Westmoreland Park around the sports fields and in the surrounding Friendly neighborhood. This is a family-friendly event. Rain or shine. No experience necessary. All volunteers will be entered to win a limited edition sequoia sweatshirt and other Eugene Outdoors swag. Tools and snacks will be provided. Property owners may request to plant a tree on their property, or in the right-of-way adjacent to their property, through Friends of Trees online. For more information about Friends of Trees, including how to join a tree planting crew to plant trees around Eugene or Springfield, to support the planting crew with hot soup, food, or beverages, or to donate, visit the Friends of Trees website. |
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