Democrats' Sept. 8 fund-raiser features cake walk, garden tour

We'll save you a seat in Joe's Garden. 

Help us celebrate the final days of summer at the Laramie County Democrats Grassroots Coalition’s garden party and cake walk on Sunday, Sept. 8, 1-3 p.m. at Joe’s Garden, 3626 Dover Road, Cheyenne.

Light hors d’ouevres and desserts, as well as iced tea and lemonade, will be served. Attendees are invited to bring a cake to donate to the cake walk. Joe Corrigan will conduct tours of his award-winning garden and give tips for next year’s growing season.

Admission is $15. All proceeds go to local Democratic Party candidates running for office in the 2020 election. Come out Sept. 8 to meet and mingle with your fellow Democrats.

FMI: Mike Shay, 307-241-2903.

Low-sodium chili could be the key to turning Wyoming blue

On or about Jan. 2, 2013, I began considering sodium.

Didn't pay particular attention to it until my heart stopped functioning properly.

"Cut down on the salt," the cardiologists said.

"I don't put salt on my food," I replied.

They told me that salt is everywhere. In processed food -- all that stuff in the center aisles of your local grocery store. Frozen foods too.

"Frozen foods?" I asked. "Pizza and TV dinners and lasagna don't need salt."

"Check the labels," the docs advised.

Due to my wife's diabetes, I check labels for sugar and carbs. Sodium hadn't been a big concern. Until the widowmaker brought me to the ER and the attention of the cardio unit.

They halted my congestive heart failure and installed a stent. Put me on a cardiac diet. For a week, the nutritionist in the hospital kitchen told me what I couldn't have more often that she agreed with my dietary choices. Once I was out and about again, wandering the aisles of King Soopers, I read some amazing horror stories on food labels. Hormel Chili with beans, one of my faves, contained 990 mg. of sodium for one-cup serving. That meant that a can of chili, warmed up in the microwave and served during the Broncos game, gave me almost 500 mg of sodium more than the 1,500 mg. daily intake recommended by cardiologists. Throw in some "saltines" and cheese and beer and soon I was at the average of 3,400 mg. of sodium ingested daily by Americans.

That was a shocker. But prowling the frozen foods aisles was really enlightening. Those big pot pies are one of my guilty pleasures. I loved them as a kid. But they are loaded with sodium. Why? Freezing preserves the food, so salt and MSG are not necessary. One can only assume it's for the taste. We Americans love our salt! And what about the salt lobby? Is there some branch of The Illuminati that loads us with salt, making us compliant, water-logged, obese drones ready to do the bidding of this secret cabal? Get on this, Dan Brown!

Face it, our industrial food system is still stuck in mom's 1955 kitchen. Our families were so happy to be rid of the Depression and the world war, that we would do anything to have three squares a day. Salt was a celebrated part of the Great American Diet. Hell, the East Germans and the Chinese were starving. We got all Henry Ford on our food system. Mom and Dad showered us with mac and cheese and rump roasts and hot dogs and Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies.

Do I blame them? Hell no. All my mom got for Christmas during the 1930s was an orange and a handful of walnuts. Was she concerned with a little bit of salt? Hell no. She was happy to be feeding her kids -- all nine of them. They all grew up to be strapping lads and lassies, me included. I kept eating as if it was 1955 right up until my LAD artery got clogged and I went in for a Roto Rooter job.

So what is a 64-year-old American man supposed to do about food? Eat less. Eat right. Exercise more. Nothing I didn't already know. Then I didn't really, did I? I opted for the easy solution. Pizza and Big Macs and those big plates of food they serve you at every restaurant, especially here in Wyoming and my other home places in the South. I love all that barbecue and chicken-fried steak and burgers and ice cream. But I want to stick around for awhile. That doesn't mean that I, as a creative cook, can't come up with solutions.

Taste my chili -- please! I make a low-sodium chili that is not bad. I am not going to win any prizes at the chili cook-off. But I don't care about that. I just want it to taste good and get some appreciation from my friends and colleagues. You will not unduly tax your heart when eating my chili! I can make that boast.

I'm making a batch today in my slow cooker. I made some last week for the Broncos game and the chili was better than the game, especially when you consider the lackluster performance by Peyton Manning. I kept some as a starter dose for this weekend's chili/salsa/dessert fund-raiser put on by the Laramie County Democrats, which is Sunday, Oct. 25, from 6-8 p.m. Wyoming Democrats must pay attention to our longevity. There are so few of us that we can't stand to lose anyone to heart failure. I'm doing my part by cutting back on the sodium. A lowered heart rate might allow us to once again clinch a majority in both houses of the state legislature by 2050, the year I turn 100. Combine longevity with an influx of young immigrants eager to make their way in Wyoming's very creative atmosphere, and you have Democrats galore. You say that you can't move to Wyoming due to too many right-wing dingbats in the legislature? They can't live forever, especially when you consider the average Wyomingite's salt-laden diet. Be patient.

Today, low-sodium chili. Tomorrow, the world or, at least, WYO.

BTW, do I have a recipe? Not really. My only goal is to keep the sodium content below 350 mg. per one-cup serving, which is what nutritional guidelines recommend for all foods. That is approximately one-third of the Hormel Chili variety I referenced above. It's about one-half of the levels in Hormel low-sodium chili with beans.

That's progress!

Sunday morning round-up: The harvest is in!

Sunday morning round-up....

A biplane circles the airport, which also brings it over my head as I sit here on the back porch. Don't see many biplanes in these parts, not even cropdusters. Maybe they've found a new commuter airline to service Cheyenne? Here's your goggles -- and watch out for birds!

The crops are coming in. Cherry tomatoes, crookneck squash, peppers and lots of herbs. I threw in some of the squash with rice for dinner last night and tomatoes in the salad. We ate grilled chicken from Colorado marinated with a selection of my herbs. And, no, I didn't get the chicken's name and family of origin when I bought it. Peaches-and-cream corn from Eaton, Colorado. Good eatin' corn. Palisade peaches for dessert. I love this time of year. I'm just a modest backyard gardener who depends on the bounty of farmer's markets.

Speaking of harvests.... Jackson's Vertical Harvest is getting lots of attention these days. Three three-story hydroponic greenhouse is being built on the south end of the city's parking garage on one-tenth of an acre. Once completed, it will supply fresh produce to Jackson Hole, even during the frigid months of winter when anything fresh arrives via Ice Road Truckers. When fully functional, the facility will produce the equivalent of a five-acre farm. The Daily Secret just listed Vettical Harvest as one of "The Eight Wonders of the Design World," along with the new Mexico City International Airport and the Uber HQ planned for San Francisco. So many innovative things going on in Jackson. Yes, there is money in Jackson and that helps. But it's also home to some innovative thinkers which is undoubtedly why there is a TedX JH.

Vertical Dance troupe at the Cheyenne Arts Festival.

Speaking of vertical.... Chris, Annie and I enjoyed the Vertical Dance performance Friday night at the Asher Building downtown. Vertical Dance is a troupe of dancers at the University of Wyoming who perform on vertical spaces, such as the cliffs of Vedauwoo, the side of buildings or in high-ceilinged interior spaces. Their dances are accompanied by live music, this time by a quarter from Laramie, Lights Along the Shore. If this seems like a particularly Wyoming kind of art form, it is. We're all about vertical spaces and the arts!

The dancers were then opening act of Arts Cheyenne's Cheyenne Arts Festival. Friday's turnout was healthy, even though the clouds spit some rain for awhile. You can easily shrug off summer rain showers because you can almost dodge the sparse rain drops. If you do get wet, the sun will soon reappear to dry you, which happened Friday. We visited the artist spaces indoors. Great to see Ron McIntosh and his distinctive artwork. Ron was over from Laramie where last year he became the first individual artist picked up and promoted by the Wyoming Technology Business Center. Ron has a studio at the WTBC and will be featured in a show in Laramie in the fall. The WTBC is now working with musicians and possibly a writer or two to help them bring innovative business practices to their careers. Lord knows, most of us writers could use a plan. And speaking of harvests (again), the WTBC is home to Bright Agrotech, which has brought innovative indoor vertical gardening tools and techniques to the world. Check them out at https://www.brightagrotech.com/

Summer arts events flourish in Wyoming communities

Looking for something to do this summer?

You don't have to look very far.

The Wyoming Arts Council and the Wyoming Humanities Council have teamed up to chronicle "125 Days of Arts and Humanities." Why 125? Because this summer marks the 125th anniversary celebration of Wyoming statehood. The official big day is July 10. On that day, the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site holds a Statehood Celebration Day. That same weekend, you  can view Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei's sculptures in Jackson or groove to sounds of Marty Stuart and His Superlatives at the Big Horn Mountain Festival in Buffalo or ogle the art at Jackson Hole's art fair or talk mountains at the international climbers' festival in Lander or travel to the powwow in Ethete. Everyone should attend at least one powwow, Interesting and instructional, especially for us white folks who think we have all of the answers.

And that's just one WYO weekend.

On any weekend, you are almost certain to find a beerfest. A beer festival addresses the basic necessities of a summer weekend: craft beer, BBQ and music. Craft beer continues to make waves in WYO. We have some award-winners at Melvin Brewing/Thai Me Up in Jackson and Alpine. Snake River Brewery in Jackson has been brewing up Pako's IPA and a whole host of specialty brews for decades. They were among the first in the region to can their output. A new brewpub, Cheyenne Brewing Company, opens in early June in Cheyenne. You can get a more comprehensive list of craft brewers in Wyoming at

The Wyoming Brewers Festival is set for Cheyenne June 19-20. One of the interesting things about this festival is that its proceeds go toward rehabbing our city's historic train depot. The brewfesr culminates with a Saturday night concert by the Taylor Scott Band. Scott grew up in Cheyenne. There was a time when you could see the teen-age Scott and his band perform for free downtown. He's gone on to bigger and better things, his voice and musical skills honed from constant touring with his new band. Don't miss it.

Some final words. I've been working in the arts in Wyoming for 24 years. I continue to be amazed by the scope and variety of summer events. Many of the festivals on the list have arisen in the past 10 years. This is especially true of the brewfests, most of which feature music and some have art exhibits. Local food is a major element. At the Wyoming Arts Council, we joke about the fact that our small staff couldn't possibly attend all of the summer arts offerings. We could try, but who would be left to shuffle the state paperwork? But all of you can get out and support these events. That's what keeps these events going -- the sweat equity of local organizers. And your attendance.  

My future as a Wyoming dandelion wrangler

The last Saturday in April. Windows thrown open. Breeze riffling curtains.

I hear a lawnmower.

This is transition season between the sounds of snowblowers and those of lawnmowers. There's no clear-cut demarcation line in Wyoming. On April 17, the snowblowers were out, shooting a foot of heavy wet snow into The Big Sky. On April 25, it's lawnmower time, at least for one neighbor. I took a gander at my backyard and it could use a trim. It's unruly. Nice crop of dandelions add a yellow splash to the yard. The common dandelion, taraxacum officinale. As is true with most owners of lawns, I shout out, "Death to all dandelions."

Foolish homo sapiens. Dandelions preceded us and will no doubt outlive us. While clever humans have one way to propagate, dandelions have many. On the About Home web site, writer David Beaulieu opens his article on "how to control dandelions" with this caveat:

What makes dandelion removal from lawns so difficult? Well, dandelions enjoy the best of both worlds. Above-ground, their seeds ride the wind currents, poised to drop into the slightest opening in your lawn to propagate the species. Meanwhile, below-ground, they strike down a taproot up to 10 inches long. Pulling the taproot as a means of removal is problematic. Thick but brittle, the taproot easily fractures -- and any fraction of the taproot that remains in the ground will regenerate.

Before you get out the weed killer, you might want to contemplate some of the culinary and medicinal benefits of dandelions. From Wikipedia:

Dandelions are harvested from the wild or grown on a small scale as a leaf vegetable. The leaves (called dandelion greens) can be eaten cooked or raw. They are probably closest in character to mustard greens. Usually the young leaves and unopened buds are eaten raw in salads, while older leaves are cooked. The leaves are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and iron, carrying more iron and calcium than spinach. 

Dandelion flowers can be used to make dandelion wine, for which there are many recipes. Most of these are more accurately described as "dandelion-flavored wine," as some other sort of fermented juice or extract serves as the main ingredient. It has also been used in a saison ale called Pissenlit (the French word for dandelion, literally meaning "wet the bed") made by Brasserie Fantôme in Belgium. Dandelion and burdock is a soft drink that has long been popular in the United Kingdom. 

In Poland, dandelion flowers are used to make a honey substitute syrup with added lemon (so-called May-honey). This "honey" is believed to have a medicinal value, in particular against liver problems. Ground roasted dandelion root can be used as a non-caffeinated coffee substitute. 

Historically, dandelion was prized for a variety of medicinal properties, and it contains a wide number of pharmacologically active compounds. Dandelion is used as a herbal remedy in Europe, North America and China. "Empiric traditional application in humans of dandelion, in particular to treat digestive disorders, is supported by pharmacological investigations. It has been used in herbal medicine to treat infections, bile and liver problems, and as a diuretic. Dandelion root is a registered drug in Canada, sold principally as a diuretic. Dandelion is used in herbal medicine as a mild laxative, for increasing appetite, and for improving digestion. 

The milky latex has been used as a mosquito repellent and as a folk remedy to treat warts. A recent experiment shows that đandelion leaf extract can reduce the spread of tumor cells. Although these researches are still on beginning stages, but many scientists believe that it can be used as an effective treatment in many types of cancer. With very low or even no toxicity at all, taraxacum can be used as a drink like tea on a daily basis. 

Contrast this with the many uses of the ornamental lawn. This is my own list, compiled with the assistance of a growler of home-brewed Pissenlit:

1. Pretty to look at it.
2. Playing field for softball, croquet, volleyball, etc.
3. Good place to lie down on a summer day and stare up at the clouds.
4. Cool grass feels good between the toes.
5. Bathroom for dog.

The most dangerous trait of dandelions may be the fights they cause with neighbors. If I decide to do nothing about my crop of taraxacum officinale, you may view this as a threat to your bluegrass lawn. You would be correct, of course, and you might ask your neighbor: "What are you doing with a bluegrass lawn in the middle of the high desert of Wyoming?"

But you, of course, also have one of these lawns. I've been tempted to kill off my lawn since I inherited it when I bought my house in 2005. But if you kill off a lawn, what do you replace it with? Xeriscaping? Rock gardens? Pavement? Weeds? Vast vegetable gardens? Overflow parking lot for Cheyenne Frontier Days?

Current trends favor veggie or rock gardens over lawns. Entire urban neighborhoods from Boston to L.A. have been converted to tomatoes and cucumbers. In Denver, where I once protected my garden from invading slugs with a minefield of Miller Lite, front yards have been given over to berry thickets and twisted clumps of zucchini plants. My old Platt Park neighbors have opened farm-to-table stands on their front porches. Chickens lay eggs in the garage and Bessie the cow yields gallons of raw milk which is shipped to Wyoming along with fresh buds of Boulder's Best. All that's needed is a couple dozen cookies. Homemade, of course.

Dandelion cookies anyone?

As I begin my tenth year of blogging liberally and locally and snarkily...

Not sure why, but old friends are finding me via my blog. Maybe my analytics are peaking after nine years on Blogger. My first couple years in the blogosphere were spent trying to figure out what to write about 3-4 times per week. I called it "hummingbirdminds" after a quote in Wired magazine from hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson. Nelson was asked about his severe case of Attention Deficit  Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He said that people with ADHD have "hummingbird minds." That seemed to fit. My wife and I raised a son with ADHD and we got to see a hummingbird mind up close and personal. His attention could flit to more places in five minutes than mine did in a day.

At first, I thought I would blog about ADHD. I was working on a book based on our experiences with our son. I figured that I would put excerpts up on the blog, editors and publishers would discover me, and soon I would be dreaming of ways to spend my five-figure book advance. That didn't happen, mainly because  my own short attention span wandered off-topic and I began writing about writing, politics, life in Wyoming and other fascinating topics. Much to my chagrin, I was not a one-topic blogger like some of my more successful friends on the blogosphere. A romance novelist. A knitter. A diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan. A high-altitude gardener. All were making hay online, especially the gardener. Their blogs engendered readers and comments and numbers. My posts earned a smattering of visits and an occasional comment. 

Leading up to the 2008 elections, I began focusing on politics. As my blog's subhead says: "Blogging Liberally and Locally in Wyoming." The "blogging liberally" term I borrowed from Drinking Liberally, a great idea and a great site. "Locally," of course, I got from the local movement that has been sweeping the country and making a big difference in our politics and in business. I try to act locally and shop locally. 

My political blogging earned me a trip to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, a scholarship to Netroots Nation 2011 in Minneapolis and a mention as Wyoming's top state liberal blog by Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog. Good experiences. Good times. 

What's next? More politics. More wise-ass comments. I plan to self-publish another book of short stories by the end of the year -- beware of marketing posts about my book as self-publishing means self-promotion and lots of it. When I first began to blog, I heard that shameless self-promotion on your blog was gauche. It just wasn't done. Then along came social media and self-promotion became the rule rather than the exception. It's as American as apple pie. So I will post snippets of my work and even stage a book giveaway or two. 

But I won't totally leave off of politics. I'd be afraid that my old conservative friends wouldn't find me online. There is nothing like old friends....

Onward, aggies and artists!

This time last week, the snow fell and the wind blew. By the end of Sunday, my yard looked more like January than April.

The day before, I was thinking of outdoors and gardening and growing things, so after a workout at the YMCA, I drove by Grant Farms on Lincolnway to see if it was open. Baskets of peonies hung from the front porch and I saw people working inside so I dropped in.

"Just so you know, I'll be bringing all those plants inside tonight," said the woman at the counter. "Didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

Right. It's not time for peonies or other colorful outside growing things. Soon, though. I asked her if I could plant the onion sets she had on display. She said I was probably OK, as they were hardy and most of the plant is in the ground which is gradually warming up.

I bought some onion sets (I liked the name -- Red Zeppelin) and herbs and potting soil and seeds, just so I could feel as if gardening time was upon us.

The Grant Farms store in Cheyenne is alive and kicking after 30-some years. It once was a fruit and veggie stand run by a couple who lived in the house just behind the retail store. A fruit and veggie stand -- an old-fashioned idea that now is new-fashioned in this age of local produce and eggs and meat and chicken coops in the backyard. Grant Farms has a CSA with produce grown in Wellington and its own eggs and other fruits and veggies grown by other small organic growers to our south. The larger Grant Farms company declared bankruptcy last year after a search for a long-term investor went awry. Founder Andy Grant is a CSU grad who blazed the trail for other CSAs and organic farms and locavores in the region. CSU students used to be known as Aggies, this the big whitewashed "A" on the hill west of town. It's still an ag school but now also produces an array of annoying artists and musicians and writers such as yours truly. They feed the burgeoning FoCo music and arts scene, and some even wander up the road to Cheyenne.

I often wonder about the connections among the local food, craft beer and arts scenes. What came first -- the hand-crafted beer or the locally-sourced egg? In 1988-89, I was a member of the Fort Collins Food Co-op. At the time, it seemed like a holdover from the town's hippie days. Most of the shoppers were my age (late 30s) -- younger people in those days didn't seem concerned about the origins and quality of their food. Now they talk about free-range chickens and locally-sourced veggies and free trade coffee. Wonder how that's playing out in the Ag school? Do corporate farms and seed companies and fertilizer conglomerates still rule the roost? Or has "small and local" entered the classroom and lab? What about it, Aggies? There were 1,200 Future Farmers of America kids in town last week for the annual convention. Certainly all of those kids aren't thinking corporate, are they?

My grandparents' roots are rural. I came up in the city and suburbs. My parents were raised in the city. They never talked about "going back to land" -- their future was in accounting and nursing. Some of the earthier Boomer children did talk about "getting back to the land" although very few actually did it. Never in a million years would I have considered farming as an occupation. I know a gardener is miles removed from being a farmer. Still, backyard gardens are feeding a lot of people these days. City gardens are cropping up on patios and rooftops and vacant lots. The greening of the city, some people call it. Prowling the web I see all kinds of innovative ideas for high-rises that include vertical gardens.

The future belongs to the innovators. Aggies and artists.

Sunday morning wrap-up: Spring is lion time

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. That expression shows more wishful thinking than reality. In Wyoming, March comes in like a lion and goes out like another lion, or maybe the very same lion -- it's hard to say. March announced itself with snow and announces its end with more snow. This morning it's snowing like crazy in the western part of Wyoming -- and it's headed this way. The NWS has issued a winter storm warning for the Snowy Range which means that driving across Elk Mountain will be hazardous for my wife and her fellow travelers returning from a conference in Green River. I've written about I-80 before. Anyone who's traveled its tortuous miles between October and May can attest to its wintry bite. Even in the fall. Even in the spring. Lion time!

Still, the clock doesn't lie. Spring brings the launch of gardening season. April is the month for preparing the ground and sprouting seeds. May is planting time, although don't rush into it because we're still not free of frost and snow and biting winds. I ventured out to the annual Laramie County Home & Garden Show yesterday at the events center. The building was filled with more home than garden. The Laramie County Conservation District staffed a booth. I stopped and picked up a packet of wildflower seeds, a guide to pollinators and a recreation guide to the Upper Crow Creek Watershed. I didn't know about squash bees that specifically pollinate squash, pumpkins and melons. I will be on the lookout for them this summer. I also stopped by Gitty-Up & Grow, a business that sells raised bed and patio veggie planting gardens. Julie explained that she grew enough tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs in her in her 3-by-2-by-1-foot screened-in patio grower to keep her in homemade spaghetti sauce all summer and fall. Not bad. Look her up here. Most of the other booths offered services for landscaping, barn-building, home-building, sprinkler systems, etc. A grass-fed beef purveyor was doing a brisk business, as was the Tupperware booth nearby. I wasn't interested in most of it. Not that my home and yard don't need help. But I have gardening on my brain.

Wonder what old-time ranchers and farmers think about the grow-your-own-food craze? Millennials are jumping on the bandwagon. Some spend their summers volunteering at farms. Others start gardens on rooftops or vacant lots or even frontyards, which is going to cause apoplexy among some of their lawn-obsessed Boomer neighbors. Denver allows frontyard veggie gardens and proposes to amend its zoning code to allow yard sales of "uncut fruits and vegetables, whole eggs, and home-prepared food products such as jellies, jams, honey, teas, herbs, spices and some baked goods." Obviously some homeowners' associations will not go along with the trend. Property values! But what if you live in a hip neighborhood where keeping up with the Joneses involves lush tomato plants supplanting bluegrass.

Neighbor No. 1 (snidely): I see that you're mowing your grass again.
Neighbor No. 2 (defensively): What's it to you?
Neighbor No. 1 (grabs a purple heirloom tomato from his vine and bites into it): Want a bite?
Neighbor No. 2 (revving up his lawn tractor, pointing at his crotch): Bite this.

Another chapter in the culture wars. Some of us (even Boomers) will see foodscaping as an inalienable right, much like craft brews and artisanal doughnuts. Others will see it as another Agenda 21 plot. Neighborhoods will be grouped accordingly, thus giving us even fewer opportunities to interact with those we disagree with.

In Jackson, where a new company, Maiden Skis, is making artisanal skis and snowboards, there are plans for a greenhouse attached to the city parking garage. It's called Vertical Harvest:

The greenhouse will grow and sell locally grown vegetables to Jackson Hole restaurants, local grocery stores and directly to customers year-round, providing a stable, consistent source of produce at competitive prices. The site for the greenhouse is a currently unused 30’ x 150’ lot owned by the Town of Jackson on the southern edge of a public parking garage in the center of town.

Organizers plan to recruit people with special needs to work at Vertical Harvest. This combines the usual contemporary blend of an innovative project with "doing good." Plus Kickstarter. Sure, Jackson is the hip part of the state where stuff like this seems to spring out of the rocks. But this could be done anywhere. There's a proliferation of mini-greenhouses and high tunnels throughout the state. Bright Agrotech in Laramie makes nifty indoor growing towers that you can put in any sunny room. Creativity and a bit of chutzpah is all it takes. Not surprisingly, you usually find artists in the mix.

Advice to gardeners: avoid mixing lettuce planting and geopolitics

Wyomingites know that spring is several different seasons in one. One day (Friday) can be 60 degrees with the scent of real or imagined wildflowers in the air. The next day (Saturday) can be 20-something with grey skies and sideways-blowing snow. The next morning (Sunday) can bring a car encased in ice and snow that takes ten minutes to scrape off and even longer to warm up for a very short trip to the Loaf 'n' Jug to get a newspaper.

Just a typical spring weekend in the Cowboy State. It will be warmer this afternoon but windy, of course.

Moisture is a good thing in this land of little rain. But it can be a dangerous time for calving and planting and driving. Snow-wise, we're not out of the woods until Memorial Day, which also is the magic date for planting your summer garden. I always cheat the calendar by a couple weeks. Most of us high-altitude gardeners have discovered methods to lengthen the growing season. Our friends just bought a house in east Cheyenne that came with a small greenhouse equipped with seeding beds, tools and a heater. It's what we all need. Greenhouses should be as ubiquitous as two-car garages.

While it's stressful to be a Wyoming gardener, we have many resources at our disposal. We have lots of trained master gardeners. Cheyenne has its wonderful Botanic Gardens, which will be under construction during the next year. A big new building is being added along with resources for us challenged gardeners.

And we all have stories to tell. "Summer of 2012 -- that one was a bummer, with back to back hailstorms following a spring drought. But last summer -- I had a bumper crop of tomatoes. You never know."

Now I know what farmers talk about at donut shops in Worland and Torrington. That and Obama the socialist.

I do not sprout my own seeds. I tried but have always had better luck when I buy seedlings from local purveyors and at the annual Master Gardeners Plant Sale and Kaffeeklatsch, usually held on a snowy/rainy/foggy Saturday in mid-May.  I also buy seedlings from local growers such as the woman on Snyder with the Xeriscaped front yard and backyard filled with greenhouses (can't remember her name off the top of my head). You can find others at the Master Gardeners sale and farmers' markets. I think that the Grant Farms store will still be in business on Lincolnway. The Wellington, Colo.-based Grant Farms declared bankruptcy last year but was purchased by another Colorado farmer -- so who knows? And, if you're not a localist and dig bargains, Lowes and Menards and King Soopers are stick seedlings at bargain prices. I buy my seeds in different places. It's best to buy seeds that can withstand the dry, cool climate. But green beans seem to be green beans and grow well here. Same with snow peas and lettuce and spinach. I use seeds for all of my leafy veggies. I haven't found any that won't grow here. I haven't had any luck with head lettuce, so I've quit trying. Besides, head lettuce is passe. The more exotic the leafy varieties you can grow the better it is for your hipster image (if you have one).

Hipster gardener: "I'm growing Crimson Crimean variety this year in solidarity with the Crimean farmers who don't want to be Russian."

Me: "I heard that they all want to be Russian. I'm growing the Ukrainian Yellow variety in solidarity with all the Ukrainians who survived Stalin and didn't ally with Hitler and are angry with Putin."

HG: "Good luck with that."

It's not easy mixing gardening and geopolitical tensions.

Best advice: Eat your leafy greens. It's all good when it comes from your own garden.

Little Ag vs. Big Ag -- which one grows the most food?

From Wyoming Public Media:

In collaboration with the University of Wyoming, a local food advocacy group conducted a study to find out just how many vegetables a backyard garden in Wyoming can produce.  The project is called Team G.R.O.W., or Gardening Research of Wyoming.

Gayle Woodsum is the founder of Feeding Laramie Valley, the group sponsoring the research. She says the idea behind the study was simple. “So these were gardeners who said, yeah, we’d like to know, really, how much are we producing.  And what value does that have in terms of numbers.  But what they did is they weighed every pea, every bean, every leaf of lettuce that came out of that garden for the entire season.”

The 22 gardeners in the study raised 4,500 pounds of vegetables on a little over a quarter of land.  Woodsum says the results show the harvest was as good as those reported by large-scale factory farms.  The study was funded by a $5-million USDA grant.

Woodsum hopes the results will help the group with future efforts to show policy makers why community garden projects should be supported and encouraged the same way large-scale farms are.

BTW, I think that third paragraph was supposed to read "a quarter acre of land." A "quarter of land" doesn't make sense.

How much square footage is a quarter acre of land? 10,890. Divide that by 4,500 and you get 2.42 pounds of food per square foot. I guess that's possible. I've been able to grow a couple pounds worth of tomatoes from one plant. Then there's zucchini. Your average gardener (and I'm pretty average) can grow about 5,000 pounds of zucchini on one plant, give or take.

I guess the big question is this: How much funding in the recently passed Farm Bill goes to big ag and how much goes to gardeners?

Anyone?

Living foods do not bite back

The Cheyenne Tuesday Farmers Market has a nifty web site that gives details about the farmers, handmade food purveyors and artisans that sell their wares at the Sears parking lot off of Dell Range.

It seems fitting that local food and art are being sold in the shadow of the mall, home to enough Made in China stuff to stock every garage in Cheyenne. I don't have a garage, so someone will have to take my share.

At the Saturday market at Depot Plaza, I've been buying some of Yoga Oasis's delicious cashew cheese pate and healthy flatbreads made from "sprouted nuts, seeds and grains," some with fruit and veggies. Yoga practitioner, artist and chef Debbie Matthew is the proprietor and sometimes is accompanied to the market by her son, who also makes a mean banana bread. I haven't purchased any of her art, nor do I plan to travel to Laramie for yoga classes, but I am eating her homemade "living foods." Too early to tell if they're good for me, but they do not bite back like some other things I've eaten.

Since my heart attack in January, I've been searching out foods that won't contribute to another one. I eat heartily on vegetables from my garden and the farmers' market. I'd eat my lawn if I thought it had any nutritional value. I've cut way back on the salt and the red meat. I eat fewer snacks. My ice cream cravings have been tempered by the memory of constantly beeping hospital room monitors. Too bad -- I love ice cream.

I am trying to be good. I spend countless hours clogging up the grocery store food aisles while I try to grok the sodium and saturated fat contents on food labels. I am beginning to understand that the grocery store may not be the best place to find edibles. Eighty percent of the store's foodstuffs are bad for you.

It's clear that I can only buy some foods from farmers markets. The season is short in the Rockies and budgets are lean.

If you haven't already, go to the market today from 3-6:30 p.m.

Cheyenne salutes Laramie's food-loving, coffee-loving, book-loving locals

Night Heron Books in downtown Laramie is now publicly growing some of its own food in a mini-greenhouse on the sidewalk in front of the store. Funding came from a grant through Feeding Laramie Valley, a nonprofit "dedicated to achieving local food equality and justice." Night Heron staff grows greens for salads, basil for homemade pesto, and herbs and spinach for soups and sandwiches. So, you can eat some yummy local greens with some locally made bread while you read one of Wyoming's excellent authors. Tastes great in August but will really taste great in January as wicked wind-driven snow attempts to rip your face off on your way into the store's warm confines. You have to admire the resourcefulness and creativity of our pals who live at 7,200 feet. By comparison, those of us on the other side of the hill in Cheyenne attempt to grow things at a mere 6,200 feet. 

 

  

 

Sunday wrap-up: How does your blog, story or garden grow?

Sunday weekend wrap-up...

My fellow WYO prog-blogger and author Rodger McDaniel will be a guest on MSNBC's morning show tomorrow. He'll be talking about his new book, Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt. As he said on Facebook earlier today:

Hope you get up early in the morning to watch me on Chuck Todd's show between 7 and 8 a.m. Wyoming time.

We'll be up and watching, Rodger. And congrats.

I spent my weekend at the Wyoming Writers, Inc., conference in Laramie. It was great seeing old friends and hearing good writing and publishing advice from novelist Margaret Coel and agents Katherine Sands and Sandra Bond. My state government colleague Chris Madson gave an inspiring opening speech. Pat Frolander of Sundance delivered a Sunday morning farewell speech from our poet laureate. This eminence gris conducted a workshop about online publishing and was pleased to see a packed house. I served as emcee for the Saturday night open mic reading and had the pleasure of serving as the spirit of Ernest Hemingway in a poem by Sheridan's Rose Hill. I'm beginning to look a bit like Papa in his Old Man and the Sea era. 

This is a supportive group of writers and poets. The org has attracted 73 new members in the last year and still growing. Go to the web site and join, and attend the 40th anniversary conference in Sheridan the first weekend in June 2014. 

My veggie garden leapt forward in my absence. The greens are greening, the beans and cukes are poking out of the sod and I have some blossoms on the squash and at least one of my tomato plants. I'm happy to be back in the Mr. Greenjeans biz. Wish me luck for a warm and hail-free summer. Photos coming soon...

Speaking of gardening, the Tuesday Farmers' Market returns to Cheyenne on Tuesday (of course), June 11, but at a new location located in the parking lot just west of Sears at Frontier Mall. This is the third location of the TFM since its founding in 2004. But don't let that throw you. It's a great mix of vendors offering grass-fed beef, handmade breads, BBQ, and arts and crafts. Later on, it will have lots of local veggies and fruits. Eat Locally!

Return to the Victory Garden

I expect to harvest at least a double handful of tomatoes from my Victory Garden this summer.

Feels good to be back in the garden letting the dirt flow through my fingers and get caught under my fingernails. I let the patch go fallow last year as I was healing from a bout with depression. You'd think that gardening would be good for melancholia and maybe it is for some people. I just looked at my modest plot and saw a weed-choked north 40 spread out in front of me. Seemed like too much work instead of fun, which is how I usually look at it.

I dug out the weeds this week. This is the least fun part of the exercise but it didn't seem that way. I hauled the weeds to my garden recycling bin. I do all of this while hooked up to my LifeVest, which is an external defibrillator. I get my implanted one in June. Can't say I'll miss the vest, although I've worn it since January. I gardened all week without it beeping. Sometimes I can't walk out to my car without alarms sounding. "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Your ticker's about to blow!" I loved that robot...

About half of my strawberries made it through the winter, and my perennial flowers are coming up. This morning, I drove down to the annual Master Gardeners Plant Sale at Depot Plaza downtown. I was there a bit early. They thought that I was a volunteer but I bugged out before they put me to work. I meandered over to a nearby vendor's tent that belonged to Dawn Thiesen and her Thrive Nursery. She gardens up neat Horse Creek with the help of a greenhouse. I lingered mainly because she had some healthy looking plants and they had cool names. This is a failing of mine, as I tend to buy things more by name and description than by looks or price. These plants were all made in Wyoming, USA, which is always another selling point for me. Local! Local! Local!

As for tomatoes, I bought a Tolstoi, a German Extreme, Ailsa Craig, Silver Tree and Early Cherry. Dawn has a mini-catalog that has a paragraph written about each variety. I didn't read about the Tolstoi but figured it is a very literary plant that will grow to War and Peace size by the end of the summer. I expect fruits the size of the master's head, which reportedly was quite large.

I planted the German Extreme in a large pot. Dawn said it only grows about a foot high but spreads out with maturity. I suppose it's best it's in a pot as anything German does tend to encroach on neighboring territory. The Ailsa Craig is a Scottish blend named after an island in the Clyde of Firth, no doubt a single malt tomato. I bought some broccoli plants. One if called Packman which I imagined a Pac Man -- hope it doesn't gobble up the rest of the garden. If it does, I should get a free game out of it.

As the day progresses, I feel my muscles revolting from the bending and stooping and raking and digging and watering. I hear a beer calling my name.

Last Winter Farmers' Market of the season set for Saturday

The Cheyenne Winter Farmers’ Market is held inside the sunny and cozy lobby of the Historic Train Depot Museum in downtown Cheyenne. It features farm and hand-crafted products from Wyoming and the local region. The last one of the season is this Saturday, May 4, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Acoustic Celtic and folk music will be provided by Dave Kramer and Steve Scott. 

What's on tap for Saturday?

• Gourmet local mushrooms
• Farm-fresh eggs, goat and sheep cheese
• Locally roasted fair-trade coffee and herbal teas
• Fresh breads and home-baked treats
• Fresh, local salsa
• Locally made chocolates and candies
• Grass-fed beef, lamb, and bison, free-range chickens, pork, goat's meat
• Locally produced jams, honey, and Amish-style peanut butter
• Take-home BBQ, bratwurst, cabbage burgers, chowders and bisque, smoked wild-caught salmon
• Soup mixes, rubs, and dip mixes
• Natural, locally-produced body care products
• Hand-crafted jewelry, cutting boards, cards, and other hand-made crafts

I've bought a little bit of everything at the market. Last time I went heavy on the pasta from Fort Collins. This time, it's hard to say. I'm so ready for fresh fruits and veggies, but we're still a few months away from that. I grow some of my own but not nearly enough.                  

For more information about the market, please contact Kim Porter, kim.porter@wyo.gov, or Cindy Ridenour, cindyr@meadowmaidfoods.com.     

Rep. Sue Wallis's Food Freedom Act makes sense

Hummingbirdminds supports Rep. Sue Wallis's Food Freedom Act (from Wyoming Business Report):

This week, the Wyoming House of Representatives passed the Food Freedom Act.

The sponsor of that House Bill 108, Rep. Sue Wallis, a Republican from Recluse, said the legislation will open up local commerce and help small business. 

HB 108 would deregulate the sale of homemade foods at such things as farmers markets and in individual transactions between producers and consumers.

Wallis said if all 200,000 or so households in Wyoming spent just $20 a week on locally grown food, more than $200 million would be pumped into the Cowboy State economy. That money will turn over at least three or four times in the economies of cities, towns and counties, she said economic studies show.

Groundhog may make appearance at Cheyenne Winter Farmers Market

The Cheyenne Winter Farmers Market is located inside the historic train depot the first Saturday of each month from November through April starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m. Next winter farmers market is Saturday, Feb. 2 -- Groundhog Day.

All vendors sell items that are produced in Wyoming or northern Colorado, but within a 150 miles of Cheyenne. All items are produced by the vendors behind the tables, NO FOOD BROKERS OR FOOD RESELLERS are allowed.

Get more info here.

If this is December in Wyoming, it must be time for Kickstarter gardening projects

I grew a few herbs last summer. Rosemary, basil, oregano. They grew in a pot next to my gas grill, handy for throwing into marinade or tossing on the fire for some extra flavor. Most summers, I have tomatoes and squash and zucchini and broccoli and pole beans and Chinese pea pods and spinach and a variety of lettuces. My garden (and my roof and my car) got slammed by hail twice during the wet summer of 2011. Golf ball size. I was out there trying to shelter my plants, getting pounded by ice balls the entire time. Good thing I was wearing my lucky Broncos caps or my noggin would have been perforated.

So I went on a gardening hiatus during the summer of 2012. I plan to be back in the fray come spring of 2013. We high altitude gardeners are gluttons for punishment.

But there is hope for us. I came across the web sites of two new gardening projects located at opposite corners of Wyoming. Coincidentally (or inevitably) they both have active Kickstarter projects. The first touts the "Spring System" by Laramie's Bright Agrotech. It's a self-contained growing tower that addresses the need for portable gardening systems. This aids the growth rate of plants. It also allows you to fetch your veggies in out of ice storms with relative ease. Here's a description:

We designed a special production system based on our patented vertical towers that allows us to grow more produce using less space, and then transport the unharvested towers to market.  It allows us to sell "You-Pick" vegetables at the supermarket, letting the customers pick exactly how much they want.

Whenever we would talk about growing towers of greens or herbs or flowers, or when folks saw our towers at the supermarket, people would always ask when we would make a model for home use. This got us thinking:  What if we could take live towers directly to people’s homes - kind of like a "You-Pick" Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in your own kitchen? Or what if people could just grow their own produce, easier, and with less space than a garden?  What if people could do both?  The more I thought about it, the more I knew this product would help enable the kind of future I want to live in.  So, we decided to make a kit that allows folks to grow their own vegetables, or participate in live tower CSAs.

To start, we found some brilliant engineers, stayed up late, and designed a reservoir that would let us do all of the above, and most importantly, makes it simple and easy for people to do vertical farming in their own home, or on their patio, or wherever there’s room. 

Sounds good to me. To contribute, go here. It's a $20,000 project; Bright Agrotech is about 25 percent along the way. Why not kick in a few bucks. 

The second project comes to us from Jackson. The ski town has a parking garage that nobody parks in. Wyomingites would rather park in the street or on someone's front lawn. Its south side is just sitting around doing nothing, just gathering the warming rays on the sun of the mountain sun. 

Here's where Vertical Harvest comes in. The idea is to build a three-story greenhouse on the garage's south side. The greenhouse would grow veggies year-round, nurturing the caldera's many vegans and those of us who like to have some greens with our bloody meat. Tending the gardens would be special needs teens and adults. Organizers have held fund-raisers and have already got some money in the bank. Here's a bit more about the project:

Vertical Harvest will be the first of its kind: A three story vertical farm built on an infill piece of land that will grow fresh, local produce in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, extending its four month growing season to all year round. What makes this project truly unique is that we will develop an innovative hydroponic growing system that can be used in vertical greenhouses of all configurations. This innovative mechanism will maximize efficiency by dramatically increasing the amount of produce that can be grown in the greenhouse and will also use less energy to grow produce. In addition, this growing carousel is also specifically designed to provide a safe and meaningful work environment for adults with developmental disabilities, the employee base of Vertical Harvest. With this technology, Vertical Harvest will wrap agricultural, architectural and social innovation into one project that will be a critical milestone in urban agriculture. Go to www.verticalharvest.org

VH's Kickstarter goal is $30,000. The organizers just started today. Contribute here. Pledge $50 and get a "swanky Vertical Harvest T-shirt."

We have some creative people in this state. What's your big idea to help us all eat locally year-round?

Visions of handmade local sugarplums dancing in my head

Next Saturday is Small Business Saturday. It's an opportunity for all of us to avoid the Big Box Stores in favor of the Small Box Stores, preferably locally-owned and locally-managed places. Buy your CDs, vinyl and funky clothing at Cheyenne's Ernie November's. Give your favorite beer drinker (hint, hint) a selection of beers from Freedom's Edge Brewery just down 16th Street from Ernie's. If you can wait until the following Saturday -- Dec. 1 -- local culinary artists (chocolate-covered bacon!) ply their wares at the Winter Farmers Market at the Historic Depot. Or browse local art galleries and studios during the next Art Design and Dine on Dec. 13. You'll find a broad selection of handmade/homemade items for the arts lover on your list. Buy books by Wyoming authors at City News or directly from the writers. For ideas, see Wyoming Writers, Inc., or consult the list of writers on the Wyoming Arts Council blog sidebar.

Speaking of the arts.... Tickets to concerts and plays make for splendid holiday presents. If I was Martha Stewart, I would buy tickets to a Cheyenne Little Theatre Players show, put it in an envelope, place that in a box, put that box inside a bigger box, wrap the big box in festive wrapping and then place it under the boughs of a Christmas tree harvested in the Snowy Range and decorated with dazzling homemade ornaments, many of which are edible. Since I'm not Martha Stewart, I shall still buy the theatre tickets at the last minute and stash them in my loved one's Christmas stocking while I sip home-brewed grog late on Christmas Eve as the Led Zeppelin Christmas album plays in the background.

Check out more shopping ideas on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. You can get free downloadable signage at www.shopsmall.com.

"Gardening: Cool Season Crops" continues Oct. 4 at Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

Saw this on Nancy Sindelar's excellent e-mail newsletter: 

"Gardening: Cool Season Crops."  Grow crops for harvest in the hoop house.  Learn to take advantage of the end of the season, to continue the harvest.  Fifth of a seven-week series. At 4 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, 710 South Lions Park Dr.  Info & RSVP:  637-6458, www.botanic.org, info@botanic.org.  Cost: $5 for the entire series.