Cooler Door and Siding @hawksbillbrew

For the next six weeks or so, we'll have a lot of progress to show at the brewery.  Today I want to put a short post up about one of several interesting aspects of the brewery we will have to show off when all is said and done - our reuse of materials.

We are not going for any kind of LEED certification, but if we were, this is something we would get points for.  As it is, we didn't plan the project based on sustainable principles, but we are trying to incorporate some ideas catch as catch can.

The first photo in today's post is of David and me standing in front of the cooler door.  This is a used door recovered from a Virginia Safeway grocery store -  we got it from Storemen's, a vendor down in Harrisonburg that recovers items like this; they're actually a specialist in coolers.

We may pick up another useful item or two like this from them - the price is right, and we definitely need the stuff.

The second repurposed item to highlight is some barn siding we were able to recover and put to use as part of the interior in the brewery.  Here you see it as the front of our bar, and it continues as a detail around towards the new restrooms (that's the new cooler door again in the background).

Kevin is travelling for the holidays just now, so I don't have the full story on how we came across the siding - he found it for us and it is either from a barn on his property or a neighbor's.  In any case, it really adds something to the place.

Stay tuned and buckle up - lots of updates to come!

The Solar Marines



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:3rd_Battalion_3rd_Marines_dawn_patrol.jpg

 The Natural Intelligence column in Outside magazine's December 2011 edition, entitled "Charge!" and written by David Roberts, outlines some successes the Marine Corps has had in adapting solar technology to battle.  I did some further research and this has been a hot topic this year, with many articles available on-line, I've also included a link to an NPR article at the end of this post for easy reference.

Roberts' article begins with the lead paragraph:

"The Solyndra solar debacle has some in Congress arguing that government needs to get out of the renewable-power business.  Don't tell that to the Marine Corps, the bravest new recruit in the clean-energy revolution."

After watching the movie Restrepo this year - and visiting a couple of USMC bases - I've grown attuned to how this tactical force operates:  fast moving and overwhelming force, usually at the expense of having to carry a lot of petroleum-based fuels with them, especially as generator power hungry communications and information gear become more and more essential to the success of their missions. 

The Marines have established the Expeditionary Energy Office to come up with ways to address power needs.  In the Outside article, the example given was India Company 3rd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment's deployment to the Sangin District in Afghanistan's Helmand province.  India 3/5 had four portable modules that fold out in two large solar panels each, all connected to power cells to store the energy overnight.  They also have pack stowable gear that the Marines can carry - only 2.5 pounds each - instead of the 25-35 pounds of batteries they usually have to haul on their backs. 



Another highlight, from the NPR article I linked, also featuring India 3/5, is this: 

"By using solar power and placing an emphasis on energy conservation, Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment say they cut diesel consumption in their generators from 20 gallons a day to 2.5 gallons a day."

Three more bullets that argue for more solar power rather than less, at least in the case of the Marines:

• Fewer Supply Convoys — With less need for fuel and batteries, fewer trucks are exposed to possible attacks on the road.
• Quieter Is Safer — Units that rely on diesel generators to keep equipment running at night could go quiet while running on batteries, making them harder for the enemy to find.
• Efficiency — The foldable solar blankets are light and don't take up much space. That should help patrols' mobility, and save space for other supplies — like ammunition, as one sergeant says.

This is the kind of development that is going to help build a mass civilian market for these technologies.

Here's a link to the NPR article:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2011/01/17/133006575/solar-powered-marines-see-gains-in-afghanistan

Don't Miss: Luray's Earthday on the Greenway

Today a quick note to mention the Earth Day observance in Luray along the Greenway this Saturday.  Mary and I have attended this even the last few years and it's always worthwhile - there will be live music, exhibits and activities.  There's a full day planned again this time, beginning with a 9AM Earth Day 5Krun!

Here are the scheduled events:
10:-10-45 Felicia Housden will be strumming her sweet guitar for your listening enjoyment...Felicia is awesome...hear her roar!

11:00- 12 The Wildlife Center of Virginia will be in attendance to speak about Virginia habitats and how you can help the animals within them.

12:15- 1 Rob Christensen returns to soothe our souls a bit with sweet song. take a little time to slow down and have a listen!

1-1:30 Yoga instruction with Jason Nichols, last year I believe this was one of the most fantastic scenes at EDotG...alot of kiddos focused and enjoying yoga by the creekside...beautiful...anyone can participate!

1:30-2:30 Fear & Whisky come to us from Harrisonburg, VA. This band is righteous! Jim Shelley on guitar, Amy Bugg on bass, and Jeff Lown on drums! LOTS OF FUN!

3-4 SLeePFeeDeR returns with some new rocking material! Ike Sours on bass, Greg Flynn on drums and Casey Firkin on guitar! You'd better tie your socks on, because they might just get rocked off on this day!

Here's a link to the event's home page for more information!  http://www.earthdayonthegreenway.com/

Here's a shout out to Deana and the team for organizing another great event!

Page County Grown Update

I’ve been posting on the Page County Grown initiative, which is an effort that is getting organized to bring a focus to local producers – and consumers – in the Page County area. I’ll continue to get updates, but last week was especially exciting as David Sours sent me a note about the new logo that the group has adopted, shown here. Meanwhile, work is continuing on developing the process for farmers and producers to become certified as a Page County Grown farm.


David reports:

“A lot of work has been done over the last several weeks by many people to help get this organization off the ground. Page County Grown is moving forward and I believe we have a very bright future ahead of us. I want everyone to keep an eye out for this logo in the upcoming season. When you see this logo you will know that the product was PRODUCED in PAGE COUNTY!!!!! We also hope to launch our website in the near future as well.”

Other parts of the strategy will be publications and communications efforts that will inform consumers where the products are available. David told me that a wide range of people has been part of getting Page County Grown this far along: farmers, chefs, school system representatives the Luray-Page Chamber, citizens, industry, and finance organizations. They worked hard and some long hours, but they’ve already got a lot to show for the effort. Here’s looking forward to more news during this growing season!

The Love Apple - part 2

Well, apparently, my post yesterday about the origin of the tomato is the subject of scholarly dispute over on Facebook, where a colleague is referencing Wikipedia to state that tomatoes (and potatoes) are of new world origin.  Before that topic takes over the entire social media universe, let's move on...

David and Heather had some tomato fun facts at their market booth the other day.  I'll let you read 'em for yourselves in the photo to the left.

Now we also picked up a great variety of local food last weekend - shown here "in the round:"  in the bowl, there are peppers, a sprite melon, eggplants, tomatoes and a peach.  The peach was one of several that came from the Alexandria market, along with the eggplants.

Outside the bowl, from left to right, there is a rosemary bread, cucumbers, a pepper jack cheese that came from the east side of the blue ridge (don't remember the town), and some local pork chops (bone in).

In light of the egg recall, we've been trying to go local on those for the near term, but everybody sells out early.  So we've resorted to cage free varieties at Whole Foods.  'Spensive, but safe.

Vegetables in the Round

Knowing that it is high season at the farmers' markets, and with company coming, last weekend Mary and I set out to put on an al fresco dinner that was local to the max.  When I look at the phone cam photos, I realized there was a motif to all the vegetable shots, thus the name of this post. 

Starting with Thursday, when we had word that Kathy and Brendan would be joining us, along with neighbors Sally and Dan, we started menu planning.  We knew we could count on our friends at the Luray farmers' market for fresh vegetables and steaks - but I also wanted dessert, so I called Main Street Bakery for pies, and then, we picked up wine from Wisteria, as I mentioned in the post yesterday.  So with few exceptions, and I would be pretty hard pressed to identify what they were, everything we had for dinner was grown or produced within ten miles of Hawksbill Cabin!

We started with the fairy tale eggplant, from Public House Produce, which I grilled.  I shared this recipe a few weeks ago - the little fruits are cut in half lengthwise, brushed with olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and cracked black pepper.  Then they are grilled both sides.  This was our appetizer.

I also grilled sweet corn directly on the grate.  The corn was also from David and Heather's.  It was gently brushed with butter and had a light sprinkle of seasoning salt - sometimes I leave this off, but because we were grilling for new company we decided to go whole hog. 

The heirloom tomatoes in the opening shot for the post were cut up and mixed with some mozzarella that had marinated in oil and garlic.  We served that as a side to the main course.  Also, Sally and Dan had dug some new tomatoes out of their patch just that afternoon, so we had a savory side of roasted taters from them.

The last dinner item was a batch of New York strips from Skyline Premium Meats.  After I thawed them I gently brushed them with oil, and seasoned them with sea salt, cracked black pepper and garlic.  Once the vegetables were grilled I had to recharge the coals - I wanted to cook the meat over hickory, so I used some seasoned Kingsford charcoal for that.  Half of the steaks were "rarer" and half were "done-er."

The dinner wine was the Wisteria Norton I'd picked up earlier.  After dinner and before dessert, we moved on to the Wisteria steel barrel Chardonnay, and I supplemented that one with a second Chardonnay bottle from North Mountain, over in Mauertown.  The rain came during the conversation time, so we hustled to move everything in off of the brick terrace, and resettled in the dining room.

Then out came a pair of fabulous pies.  I am sorry I don't have photos of these masterpieces, but we had one peach and one cherry.  They were so good, and we were lucky enough to have leftovers to enjoy a few days later.

Now that I am at the end of the post, I remember the two exceptions in this local feast:  the mozzarella we served with the tomatoes was a Whole Foods purchase, and Brendan and Kathy brought a couple of specialty Belgian brews that we enjoyed while the coals were firing up.

There was so much to choose from at the market this weekend.  After we had gathered everything we needed for the dinner, we made a second pass to pick up a few items from other booths - we got some two-color zucchini, and a regular eggplant.  Also some peppers, and I thought about getting a bunch of chard from Sustainable Shenandoah this time, but didn't because I'd have to keep it a few days before we could use it.

All in all, we had a fresh local dinner Saturday night.  What's not to love? 

When I first became aware of Fibrowatt, one of the questions a friend raised was this one: “You would be removing thousands of tons of poultry litter from the ground that might otherwise have found its way into the Chesapeake Bay. What is the effect of poultry litter on the Chesapeake Bay? More importantly, what is the effect of poultry litter in the more immediate area of disposal?” So I thought I might take a few minutes and look into this further.


Another friend wrote me about the impact of chicken litter as fertilizer, and why its use is regulated:

“The whole reason that litter is being regulated is the P (Phosphorus). P binds to negatively-charged soil particles and thus becomes unavailable for plant uptake. This is why our soil levels are high in P – it is not mobile, and litter in general is high in P. Farmers are using the litter as a cheap source for N, but the problem is the buildup of P. When we get heavy rains and soil erosion, the soil, laden with P, flows into the river and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.”

High level scans of a few Wikipedia articles on pollution in the Chesapeake Bay reference Phosporus as a major component. This issue is also referenced in a Washington Post article I found about a potential Fibrowatt plant on the Eastern Shore (link at the end of the blog post):

“If successful, the project also will help reduce a source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Although the raw waste has long been recognized as a top-notch fertilizer, if applied too heavily, it can flush into waterways and eventually the bay. That has led to severe restrictions on its use.”

My friend closed his message with a thought about using the litter ash as fertilizer: “…the idea that the farmer is going to buy the P back is doubtful, since that is the exact nutrient that is causing all of the problems.”

Another source of information on these impacts can be found on the Yadkin River Keeper website (link below), where the organization has taken an aggressive approach to inform the public about Fibrowatt’s combustion processes and other impacts. Noteworthy is a white paper document that can be found on their site (by scrolling to the bottom and clicking on “APPENDIX” – I could not get this link to work from my blog), which lists a wide range of chemical emissions, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid. The Yadkin River Keeper document cites a number of sources for this work, specifically permitting documents that outline how and when these emissions can occur.

Another point of interest from the Yadkin group is the requirement for water to operate the plant. The town of Elkin, where one of the NC locations is proposed to be located, had agreed to provide approximately 300,000 gallons of water per day for plant operations. This is a requirement and an impact that Page County will need to examine in further detail, both from a supply standpoint and a waste discharge standpoint.

This data suggests that significant work needs to be done on negotiating the prospect for a Fibrowatt plant here, and raise the same issues that a number of blog readers have commented on:

• Can these emissions be managed so that they don’t impact Page County’s primary industry – tourism (both for the Caverns and other private stakeholders as well as for the Shenandoah National Park)?

• Can the county and neighboring towns afford to make the infrastructure investments that are needed to support a plant like this?

• How will the proposed plant impact the agricultural sector, including growers, poultry farms, and supporting industry?

These are just a few of the questions the information in today’s post brings to mind. My next step is to review the citizens’ council records in Minnesota and North Carolina to see how the company and communities engaged these issues – that will help shed some light on what might happen in Page County.

On a closing note, I mentioned yesterday that my purpose is not to advocate one way or another on the prospect of a Fibrowatt plant in Page County. I’m going to stand by that statement and want the blog to be a source of information for due diligence on the question. But there is one opinion that I still hold, and want to repeat, regarding Project Clover as a destination for industrial use.

From the information above, it is clear once again that the real estate at Project Clover is not suited for industrial use – Fibrowatt or otherwise. For one thing, the potential for visible emissions in the center of the Valley is an unacceptable impact to the area’s natural beauty. The land there is in the “viewshed” of the National Park, visible from Big Meadow Lodge and Skyland Lodge, as well as several important summits (Hawksbill, Stonyman, and Miller’s Head) and historically significant overlooks on Skyline Drive.

The infrastructure is not present at Clover to support these uses. The roadways cannot sustain increased vehicular traffic and loads. The geology may enhance the risk of negative environmental impacts. It’s much better to see this kind of development elsewhere in the county, closer to highways that can handle truck traffic and where power and water infrastructure likely already exist.

I’d note again that this is a general statement of my opinion, not specific to the Fibrowatt plant, although if the issues cannot be resolved, it makes additional industrial development in the county unfeasible.

References today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003284.html
http://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/fibrowatt

Biomass Energy Stakeholders - for and against

The biomass energy question is one that hits a lot of stakeholder sensitivities – those concerned with the environment (whether that is at a basic level of awareness, or involves a broader, systematic concern); those concerned with continued development and the accompanying growth in energy use (sustainable or not); and of course, the industries that would be affected by legislation and would see operating costs increase.


So for this post, I want to spend some time looking at environmental issues around the biomass combustion process, focused on poultry litter. I won’t be comprehensive here – the blog format doesn’t really provide for that, but I will touch on the things I have become aware of so far during the research.

There are quite a few “alternative energy stakeholders” that have weighed in on these questions. Some have active campaigns going – organizations like www.energyjustice.net and Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (www.bredl.org ). They seek to raise awareness of issues and actively campaign against the initiatives that affect their constituency. As I’ve perused their materials and websites, I categorize them as “against” generally – and also “without answers” to some of the pressing issues in society today.

Some of their arguments are unsourced, and there are differing opinions on the accuracy of their analytical models. Frankly, it’s naïve to deny that there is a growing demand for energy in the world, and to think that we can pop up a wind turbine anywhere we want to answer that demand – and if that’s the only answer that can be given to why wind energy is better than biomass combustion energy, we’re not going to get very far.

Let’s take a look at two outputs of the combustion process: dioxin and nitrogen oxide. I read a paper (link below) analyzing dioxin sources in Denmark today – it looked at large-scale waste incineration and “residential wood combustion plants” as the two main sources of dioxin emissions. Emissions regulation increasingly requires filtration and treatment at plants, decreasing emissions by 17 percent by 2003. On the other hand, increasing residential use of pellet stoves and other wood fired heating appliances caused the impact from households to increase by 16 percent during that timeframe. My takeaway is that this is an example of an output that can be managed through regulation…first target is commercial and industrial users…but who is going to take on the residential part of this issue? It has to be a systematic approach, doesn’t it?

On the nitrogen oxide side of this analysis, from a Biomass Magazine article (linked below), I learned that managing this greenhouse gas was one of the reasons the Fibrominn plant took so long to become operational. Operating at this scale was part of the problem, but work on managing the gas was aggressive. In the end the plant was approved by the citizens’ council there in Benson.

There’s a lot more ground to cover on this topic. There is the issue of arsenic residue in chicken litter – where does that go in the process? I think it’s safe to say that if the litter is simply spread on the ground, it goes in the ground, then via runoff into local aquifers, into the Shenandoah River, Potomac River, and then to the Chesapeake Bay. So there’s an element of responsibility for problems inherent in the status quo, too. The problem is relevant to both sides of the question – using litter as a simple fertilizer or using it as fuel for electricity production, which suggests that both stakeholder groups should manage it.

For my next post on this topic, I want to try and find some information about how poultry litter impacts the Chesapeake – and what sorts of regulation are in place to manage those impacts. I’ll be looking at a paper from a “river keeper” organization in North Carolina in that post as well.

Remember, this blog is not in the business of advocating, so don’t get the wrong impression – I’m simply trying to consider these questions with an open mind.

Today's sources:
http://espreme.ier.uni-stuttgart.de/homepage_old/workshop/papers/Illerup%20et%20al%20-%20Dioxin%20from%20stationary%20combustion.pdf
http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2658
http://www.bredl.org/
http://www.energyjustice.net/

Is biomass energy really green energy?

A few days ago, in one of the early posts about the potential of Fibrowatt coming to the Shenandoah Valley, I wrote that it would be exciting to have those “green energy” jobs here. It got me thinking about whether biomass energy is really a sustainable form. This question may be the basis of some of the community resistance to Fibrowatt in North Carolina (I am gathering info for a future post on this), so I thought I would it would be a good idea to look into it further.


First quote here is from the Energy Information Agency (EIA), which is part of the Department of Energy. There is a reference URL at the end of this post.

“Biomass is organic material made from plants and animals. Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. Plants absorb the sun's energy in a process called photosynthesis. The chemical energy in plants gets passed on to animals and people that eat them.

“Biomass is a renewable energy source because we can always grow more trees and crops, and waste will always exist. Some examples of biomass fuels are wood, crops, manure, and some garbage.

“When burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat. If you have a fireplace, the wood you burn in it is a biomass fuel. Wood waste or garbage can be burned to produce steam for making electricity, or to provide heat to industries and homes.”

So the federal government considers biomass to be green energy because it is a renewable source. The process involved at Fibrowatt (graphic to the left), burning the biomass, is one of several methods that can be used to produce energy from biomass – in their case, poultry litter sometimes supplemented with other materials. For example (sourced from the second reference URL at the end of the post):

Alcohol Fermentation – conversion of organic starches into sugar by heating, the fermenting with yeast, for the production of ethyl or grain alcohol – “ethanol.” After distillation, ethanol is usually blended with another fuel, as with “gasohol.” This process uses fossil fuels in production of the alternative fuels, so it’s inefficient and is not exactly sustainable.

Anaerobic Digestion – converting biomass, especially human, animal, and agricultural waste, into methane and carbon dioxide. The biomass is mixed with water and stored in an airtight tank, where a natural process does its work – this is considered a costly but efficient process for biomass energy production.

Pyrolysis – this process heats biomass in sealed containers without oxygen, producing gas and charcoal from the decomposition of the materials. While the process reduces carbon dioxide output, which is one of the side effects of the other processes, it requires the biomass to be heated to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit – a process that requires significant amounts of energy in its own right.

So, while there are pros and cons related to the material – chicken litter, and the process – combustion, this review doesn’t indicate why the environmental reaction in NC is so strong. So, I went in a bit further, this time to Wikipedia, about the combustion process to see if I could find the reasons for the resistance. As with the others, there is a reference link at the end of the post.


It turns out that all of the resources I reviewed for today’s post mention the potential for gas and particulate emissions from the biomass combustion process – greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, and particulates and hydrocarbons that contribute to effects such as acid rain. Modern combustion technologies are designed to improve management of these byproducts, so that the effects are reduced or even eliminated. In any case, the biomass process is much cleaner than fossil fuel combustion, including coal-fired electrical generation. As noted in the Wikipedia article:

“A problem with the combustion of raw biomass is that it emits considerable amounts of pollutants…even modern pellet boilers generate much more pollutants than oil or natural gas boilers. Pellets made from agricultural residues are usually worse than wood pellets…” However, “…numerous studies have shown that biomass fuels have significantly less impact on the environment than fossil based fuels.”

The article goes on to summarize the findings of a Department of Energy study on the matter, which discusses the effects of sequestering the green house gases output during the process. While this creates inefficiencies and costs in the firing process, over the life-cycle of the plant there is a significant positive impact on what’s called GWP or Global Warming Potential.

Let’s summarize the pros and cons based on this review of the biomass combustion process.

Pros – offers an alternative method for disposing of poultry waste, instead of spreading it or landfilling it. It has a reduced environmental impact when compared to the combustion of other fuels. Poultry litter, as an industrial-agricultural by-product, is readily available.

Cons – there is the potential for particulate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion process. Due to transport and other requirements, it is not the most efficient energy production methodology, and therefore, it is likely to be more expensive energy than other processes.

Going back to the “Thinkquest” article cited below, biomass provides about four percent of the energy used in the US. Fibrowatt’s technology is one of quite a few that explore, and implement, the use of this fuel, with the expected impact that there may be an overall reduction in particulate pollution and greenhouse gas emission.

I still have a few posts to get through on the potential of a Fibrowatt plant in Page County. But I want to take a moment here to say thanks to loyal readers who have made it through this long and technical post on the biomass combustion process. I’ll look forward to gathering data for the next one – and your comments and questions are welcome!

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=biomass_home-basics
http://library.thinkquest.org/20331/types/biomass/advant.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_energy

Fibrowatt - an Overview

This is the first of several posts that will go up this week about Fibrowatt, the company that proposes to build a plant that will turn chicken litter into electricity, at Page County’s Project Clover site. You’d expect that there would be challenges from both sides (the community and the company) in negotiating a site, constructing, and operating a plant like this – and that’s exactly the reason why the Hawksbill Cabin blog is looking into this topic.

On the face of it, the estimated impacts – 300 construction jobs and 100 plant jobs after the plant is up and running – all sound like great investments for Page County. But this is an industrial process and it won’t be without its impacts, so on the blog we’ll also take a closer look at the technology that is used, the history of community relations, and some of the controversies that are related to this technology.

The Basics

The company, Fibrowatt LLC, is owned by a New Hampshire-based holding company called Homeland Renewable Energy. Homeland Renewable Energy (HRE) was founded in 2000 by a management team that built and later sold three litter conversion electricity plants in the UK in the 1990’s. Their selling point on the idea: responding to the poultry industry’s need for a litter disposal alternative, by using it to generate renewable energy. HRE claims to be the only firm in the world with experience developing these types of plants.

The entrepreneurs behind the UK plants were Simon and Rupert Fraser, a father and son team. After developing the plants, they sold them in 2003 and started HRE, and subsequently Fibrowatt to market the technology in the US.

The Board

HRE has a five-member board. I’ll profile Rupert Fraser, one of the developers of the UK plants, and John Clarke, Chairman. The other board members are Robert Keller, Richard Constant, and Derek Hasbrouck.

Clarke, as noted, is the Chairman of the Board and the cofounder of HRE with Fraser. He is an investment banker, founding Baldwin & Clarke, which completed $2-billion in M&A and capital raises since 1984. He has other interests, including a small cap community banking enterprise with Keller.

Fraser is listed as President and CEO, cofounding HRE in 2003 when Fibrowatt was acquired from its UK parent. His background includes work as a chartered accountant with KPMG, investment banking, and past leadership in renewable energy trade groups.

Fibrowatt’s US Projects

Just as with the summaries above, we’ve drawn from the HRE and Fibrowatt web pages (linked below) for background on other Fibrowatt projects. In addition to the Page County project that NVDaily posted last week that started us on this research, there are plans for projects in Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, and Mississippi. There is an established 55-Megawatt (MW) plant in Benson, Minnesota (easily found with a Google search for “Fibrominn,” the operating company name). And there are plans for three plants in North Carolina, in Montgomery, Surry, and Sampson counties.

During the next posts on this topic, the blog will focus on the Minnesota project, which is active, and the North Carolina projects, which are in development. We close with URLs for HRE and Fibrowatt:

http://www.homelandrenewableenergy.com/
http://www.fibrowattusa.com/

Local Focus - a Mid-winter Diversion

I spent a little bit of the morning yesterday thinking about the summer, a nostalgic moment brought on by a combination of things, including:

December 2009 Mother Earth News article “Grow $700 of Food in 100 Square Feet
Recent completion of Michael Pollin’s “The Omnivoure’s Dilemma” (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143038583?ie=UTF8&tag=hawkscabin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0143038583)
Twice-a-week lunches at Whole Foods in Arlington

I guess the most pressing thought on my mind is our apple tree at Hawksbill Cabin. We think it is 50 years old, dating to when the Thompson’s first built the place. It has gone wild from neglect over the last 10 years (at least) and although it gave a great crop in 2008, 2009 was dismal, even a failure. I think it needs an aggressive pruning – maybe even a couple of years of work on this account – to make it a reliable producer. I’ve started looking for advice on how to take this on, a project we’ll likely begin in mid-February.

There was another realization that David and Heather, at Public House Produce, will probably already have made their seed orders for this year’s CSA and Farmers’ Market program (http://www.publichouseproduce.com/2009CSA.html) . I recently saw where the Sustainable Shenandoah group reported out on their efforts last year (http://sustainableshenandoah.blogspot.com/2009/11/sustainable-shenandoah-garden-2009.html) . Some Facebook friends were discussing a new local, grass fed, beef farm in Sperryville, one that complements the Burner’s farm outside of Luray (http://www.triofarmsinc.com/) – they are a corn fed operation, available at the Luray and Manassas markets. This is pretty fascinating stuff, all contributing to the development of a new, non-industrialized, agriculture, and it has really added some interest to our simple weekend home concept.

I talked to Mary about last year’s container garden, where she had some great success with the tomatoes and peppers – expanding the tomato crop to three varieties and introducing peppers for the first time. I asked what she thought about adding a zucchini plant and maybe some eggplants, upon which she went into some additional detail about moving a rose bush to expand that operation out to maybe 30 square feet this year.

I think there is a still emerging philosophy around our house about eating better. The habits are already changing – I saw a recipe for stuffed zucchini that I think I can do on the grill. It sent me looking for summer vegetable pictures – some of these come from the Public House Produce site, and a few are from planetnatural.com (including a summer squash and eggplant variety that I’m encouraging Mary to include in the container garden plan).

Floors and Doors

We still have a long list of home improvement projects at the Hawksbill Cabin, and we get to them as we can. It's basically a function of money - the two labels about big projects and small projects will show that we've taken on quite a lot of them, including some that were very expensive, over the two years so far - but also, Jesse, our general contractor, stays very busy in the Valley so we have to wait until we come up in his queue.

There was old linoleum tile in the main hallway of the addition. It was probably the original floor. The immediately previous owners had haphazardly installed a second layer in one area and painted over the tiles for the entire length of the hallway. Replacing the tile with Pergo or a similar floor was the plan.

I should note that we considered using alternative, sustainable materials for this purpose - including bamboo and other products. Their costs were approximately double that of the beech block we chose, which ended up being on sale at Home Depot, and comes with a 15-year warranty. I still chalk the availability and distribution issues up to an emerging market for "green" products, there is a lot of talk and great products and technologies, but the supply chain issues still preclude their widespread adoption.

Also, somewhere along the way the doorway to the master bedroom had been removed, and there were never any doors on the hall closet. We'd gotten by on the bedroom door, and hung curtains over the closet.

We combined the doorway installations with the floor to have a two-day project for Jesse, and last week we finally got them done. In the progress, he hid the phone cord that used to run down this hallway behind the molding and thresholds. Really a job well done, as always.

Loca-voracious

When we decided to get together for dinner with our neighbors Sally and Dan last weekend, I’d say the general sense of things is that we would have a nice time relaxing on the brick terrace, grilling some steaks and enjoying some of Dan’s home brew. Essentially, that’s what we did – rib-eyes from Mr. Burner and some produce from Public House (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-ate-mr-burners-cow.html) and Dan’s latest IPA (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/07/home-grown-hops.html ) - his best yet, by his own assessment, and I would have to agree with him.

Reflecting on our meal the next day, I realized that although some ingredients that went into the meal came from further away, all of the produce and even the steaks were produced within about ten miles of the Hawksbill Cabin. Don’t think of us simply as some silly yuppies succumbing to the latest trend in local organic cooking. In the valley, this was just something that happened; elsewhere, you might really have to make a fuss to accomplish it – and I am going to tell you all about it.

A fine meal it was:

· Cucumber-yogurt soup
· Organic tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and fresh basil
· Ratatouille of garden-grown squash, peppers, tomatoes and garlic
· Grilled sweet corn on the cob
· Beer-marinated rib-eye steaks
· Concord grape pie

We went to the farmers’ market in Luray for some of the produce we used, but a lot of it actually came from Sally and Dan’s garden. They have about a half acre that is organically cultivated for vegetables, and there is an old arbor of concord grapes that volunteers a good harvest most years. And then of course, as described in several past blog posts, Dan has nine vines producing Willamette, Centennial, and Cascade hops.

For beverages, we started with Dark and Stormys on the terrace while I grilled, moved on to sampling the new “Beaver Run Flat Tale IPA,” and finally had a couple of nice reds with dinner. Sally and Dan had found one of the reds the previous night, when they were out for a reggae concert at Clementine’s, and I had a spare bottle of “Big House Red” to supplement that one.

As part of the logistics, I had to break down for a larger kettle grill; I found this Kingsford grill at Food Lion on an end-of-season sale for $35. Not too shabby.

Of course, I have to end this post with a reference to our seasonal and organic cookbooks - Simply in Season and The New Moosewood Cookbook (Mollie Katzen's Classic Cooking)

Sustainable Agriculture in Page County - Part 2

Today’s post takes a look at the issues and opportunities section of the Page County Economic Development Plan’s two-page write-up on sustainable agriculture. As I mentioned yesterday, during the first part of this review, if anything in this plan creates a sense of urgency for me, it is right here, in this discussion of Page County industry, and the relative lack of importance it is given in this overall plan. The plan sets up the concept of a three-legged stool for the Page County economy – tourism, agriculture, and industry, I looked at the tourism section last week, and agriculture yesterday and today.

The plan outlines three strategies for developing sustainable agriculture in Page County, but provides little detail on how to implement them – doesn’t even call for the first step in implementation, an assessment.

Here are the three strategies:

• Plant substitute crops – soybeans and hay: soybeans to tap into the bio-diesel market with the side benefit of creating animal feed as a by-product; hay to cater to the growing number of horse farms in Page County.
  
• Emphasize sustainable approaches – take advantage of the growing demand for local produce and the areas proximity to larger markets in Harrisonburg and Northern Virginia.
  
• Repurpose resources – create an agri-tourism destination; transition poultry farms to horse farms; and create non-traditional agro-enterprises such as wineries in Page County.
  

These strategies and sub-strategies offer an excellent summary of current American culture’s relationship with agriculture. Of seven insights, only one of them even acknowledges a connection with food production, and one other considers agricultural production as an input to industry; all seven require major capital investment; and two of them are linked to the other economic stool-leg of tourism.

Past blog posts here have considered the economics of hay farming, as well as the sustainable agriculture approaches listed here. I haven’t been able to get further into an assessment of these subjects to determine whether they could be relied upon for a family’s livelihood, as much as I would like to believe they offer that potential.

I mentioned the absence of real planning here. What are the recommendations for developing sustainable agriculture in the 2008 Page County Economic Plan? Fine-sounding concepts, “innovation, communication, and cooperation” are emphasized and a program of forums, engagement, and even an agriculture summit are proposed. These are given lower priority than educating Page County’s political leadership.

Compared to the 2004 plan, this 2008 plan is short on details and imagination. Having completed a review now of tourism and agriculture, the next step is to review the strategy and goals for industry; given the appearance of much current emphasis on that sector – Project Clover, the purchase of developable industrial land – I’m anticipating there will be more detail there. That’s a pity, because as the plan itself says, Page County agriculture is a “$108 million industry” comprised of “400 small businesses.”

An industry and small businesses that were not given a priority in the 2008 plan, that is.

Sustainable Agriculture in Page County - Part 1

The updated 2008 plan summarizes the state of Page County agriculture by highlighting the declining number of farms: from 1,327 farms in 1940 to less than 400 in 2008; 5,800 acres of farmland repurposed between 1997 and 2002; and a decline in the market value of production from $115 million in 1997 to $108.7 million in 2002. As outlined here, the challenges contributing to this decline include: competition from producers elsewhere, the pressure to sell land for development, and rising costs of feed, fuel, and fertilizer.

A section I found interesting was the discussion of the relationship between poultry farmers and the industry itself. The farmers own the land and buildings, but the poultry is owned by the large companies – Tyson, Cargill, Pilgrim’s Pride – who are beginning to make better economic decisions about where to locate their operations, with the result that Page County is often not optimal.

When I use the term “better economic decisions” above, I am referring to the simple fact that these large companies are acting in their own self interest to minimize their costs. The implementation often involves consolidation of farms, suppliers, and processing in close proximity to each other to minimize transportation time and costs – a decision process that does not favor Page County.

To be the selected location, economic theory suggests there needs to be a natural advantage, such as a major center of production for feed corn or some other input resource, or a point of intermodal transfer for transportation. Page County has none of these – and the decline of farms and farm production income is the result.

On the other hand, these consolidated centers of production are not operated in the most sustainable ways – I’d bet that there are a lot of challenges containing and managing waste materials, and energy use is not a top priority for management. With the Shenandoah River facing stress from other past and present sources in the watershed, there is yet another reason that Page County may not be the best location for these operations.

Even so, Page County remains the second largest poultry producer in Virginia. Yet, with 400 small businesses and $108 million in revenues at stake, this plan outlines as its primary objective:

“Department of Economic Development will ensure that political leadership of the County is educated, as soon as possible, about the issues facing the agricultural community.”

I’ve reached the end of my post today. Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the issues and opportunities section of the two-page write-up on sustainable agriculture, and I have a few more thoughts on this topic to add.

To sum up, I’ve got to underscore that if anything in this plan creates a sense of urgency for me, it is right here, this industry, and the relative lack of importance it is given in this overall plan. The plan sets up the concept of a three-legged stool for the Page County economy – tourism, agriculture, and industry. So far, two of those three have been given short shrift – no real hard thinking on the facts – and that’s a real disappointment.

Eat your vegetables

Another trip to the Luray Farmers' Market this weekend, checking out the crops that are really starting to peak - almost every booth had something home grown this weekend. So I thought to start the week with a post about the market, then we'll get back to the Page County economic plan tomorrow.

Of course, we had to stop by Public House Produce (see previous post at http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-ate-mr-burners-cow.html) to see what the shares included this week. Here are some photos of squash, eggplants and green beans that made up part of the CSA distribution for the week. There will be corn next week...here is a link to their site: http://www.publichouseproduce.com/ .

Mary and I were late to the game, and didn't participate in the CSA program, but we may in the future - we freelanced a purchase this week, as shown here. Mary's going to put together a ratatoille - and I don't mean a Pixar animated film.

As we were getting the low down, Heather and David told us that they try to include a recipe or two with the share distribution. In the past weeks, there was an especially bountiful batch of zucchini squash, for example, so members sometimes need suggestions on what to cook. For these occasions, they'll refer to a cookbook like this one for a recipe to share: Simply In Season (World Community Cookbook) .

I Ate Mr. Burner's Cow

After posting those two notes on sustainability and diet, and also after thinking a bit more on the role of agriculture in the Page County economy, I wanted to do a post on a couple of local farmers that I’ve met in the Farmers’ Market out in Luray.

In the spirit of the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign, a Virginia agricultural outreach program that aims to strengthen the local food and farm economy, connect buyers to local growers and processors, foster a growing relationship among all the stakeholders in the food chain, and find ways to communicate the positive impacts of local agriculture (you can find details here http://www.buylocalvirginia.org/ and here http://www.buylocalshenvalley.org/ ) – I wanted to highlight two of the Luray area farms.

The first is a group of three farmers that have an enterprise called Skyline Premium Meats. Whenever Mary and I are out, we drive past one of the farms on Business 340. We’ve bought steaks and cuts from them a few times now, and enjoy visiting with them on those sunny Saturdays at the market. Here’s an excerpt from their website about the enterprise.

Skyline Premium Meats, LLC was formed by three Virginia farmers, to bring to you, the consumer, the very best in quality consistent, all-natural and safe beef. Our selection process is detailed and strict. The cattle that we harvest are conceived, managed, and fed by us with your complete satisfaction as our ultimate goal. Only our highest quality beef earns the name "Skyline Premium."

Your purchase of Skyline Premium Meats ensures you of several things:

• A Virginia's Finest Product
• No Antibiotics
• No Added Hormones or Steroids
• No Chemical Alteration of Any Kind
• Genetically Selected for Quality
• Corn Fed to Perfection
• Harvested to an age that optimizes taste and tenderness
• Processed by one of Virginia’s most trusted custom facilities under complete USDA inspection
  

While we enjoy a lot of the products we see out at the market, a second one I wanted to highlight today is Public House Produce, which is a family-owned and operated produce farm located one mile from downtown Luray, VA in the scenic Shenandoah Valley.

From their website: Since 2006, we have been growing vegetable plants and planting an ever larger vegetable garden. In 2009, we began a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program to help share the bounty of fresh healthy vegetables with our neighbors.

I took some photos of these folks before in a post last summer (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2008/09/scarecrow-and-yellow-moon.html - title is a reference to "King Harvest" by the Band) Here are some facts about the farm they had on a sign at the market recently.

The CSA program at Public House was a new concept for me. Families can work with the farm to buy produce – if I have it correct, you buy a share of the crops coming in over the course of a season. Then there is a weekly harvest and you get fresh vegetables. Here are a couple of photos from their site of the shares for recent weeks.


The websites for these two farms are: http://www.skylinepremiummeats.com/
http://www.publichouseproduce.com/

Nine Secrets to a Longer Life

I am not a frequent reader of “National Geographic Adventure” magazine. It tends to be a little over the top for my taste – adventure is healthy, but too often this magazine is talking about a safari to Africa, a guided hike to Machu Picchu, or a cruise in Alaska – all trips that cost in the range of $3,000 per person and up.

I fall squarely in the demographic of their readers, but I am not after one of these “once in a lifetime” excursions that are probably just that because of the cost. I’ll take my adventure a little bit at the time, like biting an apple, thank you very much. Besides, I’ve never been fond of that kind of touring, preferring to come and go as I please, based on research I’ve done ahead of time on my own.

…oh yeah, and just now, this bear strolled through my yard…here is a phone cam image, so look for the little black object (in some browsers, you can enlarge by clicking on the photo) – I was lucky to have the camera handy at all.

Back to my post, there was an interesting article in the magazine’s June/July edition, describing the travels of cyclist Dan Buettner to the places on earth where people tend to live longer than average, and there are high concentrations of long-lived people. He documents these areas in a book – they include Sardinia, Okinawa, Costa Rica, and Loma Linda, but his travels are taking him to the Greek Island of Ikaria this year.

Buettner summarizes nine tips – “secrets of long life from the world’s healthiest humans,” repeated below.

· Move: find ways to stay active
· Plan de vida: discover your purpose in life
· Downshift: take a break
· 80% rule: don’t overeat
· Plant power: choose greens (a dietary choice)
· Red wine: a glass a day
· Belong: stay social
· Beliefs: get ritualistic
· Your tribe: family matters

The article’s author, Josh Dean, summarized the book into these bullet points. Both the article, which presents the information Q&A/interview-style, and the book, goes into more detail about each of these items.

After the post last week about sustainable business rules (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/07/sustainable-business-strategy.html), this article seemed to make a nice bookend by talking about the individual, as opposed to the social or cultural group that one is part of – in that case, the workplace.

Here
is the link to the Buettner book.

Sustainable business strategy - interesting new book

I haven’t posted on a business topic in a while. I am a management consultant in my day job, so I try to keep up with basic business reading as I go. I’ve been fortunate, in a way, to have worked in small and large companies – my current employer has 45K+ employees – and I maintain a small, highly networked company for occasional freelance projects.

In the large company environment, one observes interesting social behaviors and politics everywhere. Everyone’s looking for some advantage to put them over on their peers and antagonists. That’s nothing new. But what we see right now is an economy and markets in turmoil, so I am beginning to see the internal competition that fosters these behaviors as wasteful – it doesn’t do anything to protect 45,000 jobs, and it doesn’t do anything o grow the next 4,500 jobs.

So when this month’s Fast Company magazine included an excerpt from “Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto” by Adam Werbach, I found some interesting insights about the economy of large businesses. Werbach examines Xerox, among others, for business practices that he then compares with facts drawn from ecological sciences biomechanics and biomimicry. Here is an extended quote from the article, while there is an Amazon link to the book at the end of this post.

“Nature’s 10 Simple Rules for Survival

“…scientists are decoding rules that can help form businesses as hardy and long lasting as a forest. After all, nature is far harsher than the market: If you are not sustainable, you die. No second chances and no bailouts. Businesses that are capable of dealing with the challenges of a changing world will be better able to respond and to lead.

"1. Diversify across generations.
2. Adapt to the changing environment.
3. Celebrate transparency. Every species knows which species will eat it and which will not.
4. Plan and execute systematically, not compartmentally. Every part of a plant contributes to its growth.
5. Form groups and protect the young. Most animals travel in flocks, gaggles, and prides. Packs offer strength and efficacy.
6. Integrate metrics. Nature brings the right information to the right place at the right time. When a tree needs water, the leaves curl; when there is rain, the curled leaves move more water to the root system.
7. Improve with each cycle. Evolution is a strategy for long-term survival.
8. Right-size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally. If an organism grows too big to support itself, it collapses; if it withers, it is eaten.
9. Foster longevity, not immediate gratification. Nature does not buy on credit and uses resources only to the level that they can be renewed.
10. Waste nothing, recycle everything. Some of the greatest opportunities of the 21st century will be turning waste – including inefficiency and under-utilization – into profit.”

It seems that to adapt this within a large company, you’ve got to be able to look deep into the organization at the small groups that make it up – it used to be said that the ultra-large Swedish-Swiss conglomerate ABB could measure the financial performance on business units as small as two people – but that makes these rules a useful strategy for small business as well.
I think I’ll buy the book: Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto

We got algae!

As we prepared to head out to the Hawksbill Cabin last weekend, we were more than a little apprehensive about what we might find. During the previous two weeks since we had been out, there had been tons of rain, and even an F1 tornado nearby in Stanley – during a storm that also brought golf ball sized hail to the town. So we thought there was a chance that we might find a downed tree or trees, along with other potential forms of damage.

Also, I’d worked a couple of weekends straight on getting the pool cleaned and opened after Daris and the Uncle D’s team took care of preliminaries. That pool sparkled as we left for home, so I was hoping that there wouldn’t be a lot of work to be done to get it ready for the three-day weekend we had planned last weekend, not to mention the upcoming weekend of the Fourth of July.

There was nothing of note as far as property damage goes; the Hawksbill Cabin is nestled into a hollow and the strong winds miss us. However, all the rain had raised the water level in the pool, and whenever that happens, I know to look for issues with how the filters and pumps are working. First photo above is a look at the thermal cover as I saw it when I took my first inspection walk around the pool – the green streaks are algae that accumulated in the standing water on top of it.

I also noticed this lovely bright green color over on the stairs, figuring that the extent of the algae was where the sun hit it – until I took the thermal cover off and found that pretty much the entire pool was algae-fied. Into town I went to consult with Uncle D.

Before we get up on our collective soapboxes about sustainability and green living, I should preemptively say that having a pool in the first place means you are practicing better life through chemicals. We didn’t build this and almost didn’t buy the place because it had a pool; once we did, we figure that having the pool fixed was the best way to protect the investment on the house, as opposed to filling it in or letting it atrophy into worse condition.

There is a full history of this decision-making process available by clicking the “Uncle D” label over in the list at the bottom right of the blog.

At Uncle D’s I announced that I had algae and was looking for help. We chose an algaecide, and Daris walked me through how to get the filters to boost the chlorine to a higher level (which I did, for starters). He told me that with all the rain, there aren’t many pools that don’t have algae this summer, and the problem here was that we were away a couple of weeks and it got ahead of us. Just give him word and they will come out and attend to things – through a phone call, or “shoot me a Facebook” – (Uncle D’s page is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luray-VA/Uncle-Ds-Pools-Spas-LLC/82303143717?ref=ts).

So with the chemicals all getting to work, I also set the machines loose on the algae, with Dude going at it and using my new cheapo pole mounted mini vac; plus manual scrubbing from the long brush. I worked over Friday and Saturday a couple of hours at a time, and by Sunday, the pool was sparkling. Mary and I made plans for an afternoon swim, after I ran some errands in town.

After my errands, we put on our suits and went down into the pool. As soon as we both were in – it started to rain. Oh well, it was refreshing, in any case!