Avivah Werner

Author: Avivah

  • Lemon Blueberry Muffins

    We made these for the second time for breakfast yesterday morning – they’re a definite hit around here!  We’re able to buy frozen blueberries for a pretty reasonable price ($1.49 for 12 oz, enough to double the recipe below), so it’s an affordable breakfast for us.  But if you can’t and you’re looking for a frugal breakfast, either substitute something else for the blueberries or wait until you can pick them up cheaply.  Don’t assume that just because I’m making it, it must be an inexpensive recipe for anyone!

    Lemon Blueberry Muffins

    • 2 c. flour (we used spelt)
    • 3/4 c. sucanat
    • 2 t. baking powder
    • 1/2 t. salt
    • 1/4 t. cinnamon
    • 1 c. milk
    • 1/4 c. oil (coconut oil or butter)
    • 2 T. lemon juice
    • 1 egg
    • 1 t. grated lemon rind (substituted homemade orange zest instead)
    • 1 t. vanilla
    • 1 1/3 c. frozen blueberries, unthawed

    Mix all the dry ingredients, then separately mix all wet ingredients (except blueberries).  Combine the wet and dry mixes, being careful not to overmix.  Add in blueberries last.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.  We doubled the recipe, and baked half as muffins and half as a breakfast loaf (and my kids said we should make more next time since everyone likes it so much – to which I replied that I thought that considering they had apples and milk with their muffins, they had enough even if they wanted more!).  I’d estimate that this recipe makes about two dozen muffins.

    By the way, muffins make a wonderful breakfast for Shabbos – much nicer (and cheaper) than bowls of cold cereal, and obviously lots healthier than cake.   They’re quick to whip up, and freeze well if you double the recipe and want to put some away for another meal.

    Avivah

  • Protein intake during pregnancy

    How much protein should you eat during pregnancy? The number that I’ve seen recommended as far as ideal protein intake during pregnancy is 100 grams, and I’ve always thought this is a good guideline.  A lot has been written about how high protein intake is linked to significantly better maternal/infant outcomes.  It also lessens the risk of toxemia and intra uterine growth retardation, among other things.

    But if you’re anything like me, ounces are a lot more familiar to me than grams, and I can’t easily picture what 100 grams of protein  looks like. I’ve been assuming for years that I’ve been eating about that amount during pregnancy.  I was happy to see this chart, because it’s so helpful in clarifying how much protein that actually is!

    http://www.babylady.com/pdfs/11Daily%20Sources%20of%20Protein.pdf

    After looking at this chart, I realized that I’m usually below a hundred grams, despite eating what I thought was a nice amount of protein daily.  I asked my midwife her opinion, and she said many women have a hard time eating that much, and that eighty grams was a good amount.  I’m definitely getting eighty grams in, so that’s very doable for me.

    But honestly, I’m not one for counting grams or making charts of what I eat – I’d probably make myself crazy if I had to figure out how much protein was in everything I ate daily .  I find the recommendations here easier to use: http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/diet-for-pregnant-and-nursing-mothers.  And Dr. Tom Brewer is the source to go to for information about how diet affects toxemia, among other things.  His recommendations are similar to the Weston Price Foundation: http://www.blueribbonbaby.org/ifyouarepregnant/what-is-a-good-nutritious-balanced-diet/

    How do I measure up as far as the recommendations of those two sources?  I usually have three cups of milk for breakfast (not the recommended four), and six ounces of protein at both lunch and dinner.  That is almost always eggs, meat/chicken, fish, or cheese, so it is pretty close to their suggestions.  I don’t usually use beans as a protein, because I like the other proteins more. 🙂   I try to use broths to cook my grains with, use butter or coconut oil as the fat for my meals most of the time (though I don’t use as much as is recommended), and until I reread the list, had forgotten all about liver.  🙁  I’ll have to look for that during my next shopping trip.

    As far as Brewer’s recommendations, I don’t eat that many starches – he doesn’t say what a serving size is, but I eat three servings of starch daily (about a half cup each).  I think from a health perspective that grains are best eaten in limited quatities.  As you can see, they both have very similar guidelines, and to me, the Brewer and Price recommendations are doable and easy to integrate into a regular diet.

    Avivah

  • Weight gain during pregnancy

    I’ve been meaning to write this post for over three weeks now, ever since I spoke to a pregnant mom about it.  ‘It’ being appropriate weight gain during pregnancy, a topic that seems to be a hot one for a lot of women.  I started writing about this last night but couldn’t finish because my baby woke up and needed to be held for hours due to a horribly croupy cough.  Not fun at all, but he’s getting better now, and that’s what mothers are for, right?

    The woman I spoke to wanted to know what I thought a healthy diet for a pregnant woman looked like, but before giving her my answer, I asked her what she was eating.  She told me she had a good diet, and then mentioned that she hadn’t gained any weight at all in her seventh month.  I asked her where she got her food guidelines from, and she told me from someone she knew and trusted.  Someone who, she mentioned in an offhand way, wasn’t able to get pregnant when eating in that identical way (because it was a weight loss plan and didn’t provide enough fat for her to be able to conceive).  But the person who she turned to as an advisor felt that same plan that kept her body undernourished to the point she couldn’t conceive, was suitable for a woman growing a baby inside her!!  So, she wanted to know, what did I think?

    After hearing the specifics of her diet, I told her my thoughts – that she was eating too little protein and too little fat, both of which are crucial at all times but especially during pregnancy, and the fact that she hadn’t gained anything at a point in pregnancy where it was appropriate was a sign that validated that she wasn’t eating enough. 

    So how much should a pregnant woman gain?  I don’t think there’s a one size fits all answer.  Obviously the overweight mother won’t need to put on as much weight as the underweight mother.   I think what’s a lot more important than how much you gain is what your diet looks like, as well as quantities that you eat.  So instead of asking, ‘how much did you gain?’, I think better questions are, ‘Are you eating good quality food’, ‘Are you eating enough protein and good fats?’  Weight is sometimes a helpful monitoring device, but not used on its own. 

    My current midwife has never asked me about my weight. She knows I have a good diet, and isn’t overly concerned about the numbers on the scale as long as everything else is looking good.  So far I’ve gained about ten or eleven pounds, and am six months along, which I think is reasonable for me (especially since I hadn’t lost all of my extra weight from my last pregnancy).  But every person is different, and I have a friend who’s my height but very, very slim, who gains 40 – 50 pounds each pregnancy, and that’s right for her.   I have another friend who gains a huge amount of weight but also loses 20 or more pounds within three days after the birth (not including the birth).  I don’t – whatever I lose is pure baby/placenta/fluids (with baby no. 6 and 7 I gained thirteen pounds, and that was exactly what I ‘lost’ giving birth), and the rest stays with me. 🙂

     In any case, pregnancy isn’t the time to diet.  It’s not the time to eat whatever you want and hide behind maternity clothes either – the day of reckoning will eventually come if you do!  But there’s a lot of room to wiggle around in between pigging out and dieting.

    Since my strong belief is that fats and protein is crucial, I’ll post some links soon regarding those things that I hope will be helpful to pregnant readers.

    Avivah

  • Is saving bad for the economy?

    I’ve had a busy day of doing stuff around the house – I spent hours organizing a huge number of Mishpacha and Binah magazines.  Some things will be worthwhile reading years from now for my kids as they get older, other magazines I selected specific articles from to save.  The pile of recyclables is now much bigger and the pile of magazines remaining to be sifted through is much smaller, but there’s still one more pile to deal with at another time. (I didn’t get anywhere near starting the blanket covers today.)  It’s nice to put things into order and make them more useable.

    Then I canned a few pounds of beans – pinto, kidney, black, and navy.  For the amount of gas I use to cook one pound, I can pressure can eight quarts.  That’s useful on days when I want to pull something off the shelf.  And then I canned green beans, but most of the seals failed because there was more fat in the broth I used than I realized, I guess.  That’s okay – we eat so many vegetables around here that there will be no difficulty in using them in the next few days.

    Anyway, on to my deep thoughts from my exhausted brain today. 🙂  My dh told me about an article he saw today, which I happened to stumble upon later myself online (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28965133).  It’s front page news that Americans are saving more and spending less, which is supposedly bad for the economy – at least that was the point of the article.  For their purposes, they defined saving and paying off debt as the same thing – ie, not pouring money into consumer goods they don’t need and can live without.  It got me thinking once again about how there are assumptions made that what’s good for the individual and what’s good for the nation are two different things. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. 

    It violates natural principles that millions of people overextending themselves financially can actually be healthy for a country on an extended basis.  Short term, lots of things can look good (and that’s what we’ve had until now), but long term, true principles will always show themselves.  Financially strong and stable families are good for the economy, although it will cause short term contractions (I’m not saying we’ll see only short term contractions, I’m saying that specifically people putting money into savings would only cause short term contractions).  In fact, if people had been responsible in their spending until now, we probably wouldn’t be in a recession, because all of our national spending would be reasonable and sustainable.

    Those who are saving money and being responsible still need to spend on some items.  My own experience and conversations with others show that plenty of spending is still going on, but not on the same kind of items as before.  Perhaps those items are more utilitarian than frivolous, but irregardless, they’re buying something.  Markets would spring up to accomodate those needs, and it would be a healthy and stable market that would boost the economy, not a deck of cards ready to collapse at any time. 

    I remember after 9-11, I kept hearing how it was our patriotic duty to spend, spend, spend.  And I didn’t go for it then, either.  But enough people were happy to oblige and it kept the economy afloat for another few years.  I’ve already strongly suggested that everyone work in a focused and committed way to pay off any debt they owe, particularly on credit cards (http://vibrantmoms.com/homemaking/get-rid-of-your-credit-card-debt-now/).  If there are purchases that you can make now which will help you save money in the long term (figure this out, don’t rush out and start buying based on false assumptions), then now is a good time for that kind of thing.  Otherwise, put every bit you can into savings, get your family’s personal economic situation as stable as you can. And know that by taking care of your family responsibly, you’re doing the best thing you possibly can, on both a personal and national level.

    Avivah

  • Flannel sheets

    Thirteen years ago, I only had a toddler and infant and was living overseas, but when we were visiting our parents here in the US, I naturally did some shopping .  At that time I found flannel sheets on sale for $10 per twin set, and bought four matching sets sporting the 101 Dalmations on them (those were the only patterns suitable for kids).  That has worked out great over the years, since we have two bunkbeds in a room (that means four beds), and I like for all of the sheets to match.  Those sheets have seen plenty of use over the years, especially the fitted sheets, getting increasingly well worn, and surprise (!) – my ds15, who shares a room with three younger brothers, doesn’t especially want to use them. 

    After thirteen years, today I bought  my kids new flannel sheets!  I love flannel sheets – it’s so nice to crawl in the winter into a bed that doesn’t take warming up.  I was at Walmart, not finding anything I was looking for, nor did I find an associate to point me in the right direction, when I stumbled upon these sheets, reduced 50%, to $11 a set.  That kind of tag gets my attention, especially for an item I’ve been thinking about getting for a while.  There were several patterns, but only the plain blue had four matching sets, so that’s what I got for the boys. 

    A little further down the aisle, I found fleece sheets on sale ($12 a set).  Have you ever used fleece sheets?  I haven’t, but I figure they must be nice if it’s anything like using a fleece blanket!  I managed to find four matching sets of those, too – it took some looking though.  I got them in plain ivory, for the girls, which I thought would be a good match for their lavender walls. 

    I have to laugh at how unspoiled my kids are.  When they saw me walk in with all of these bags full and I pulled out the sheets, they were so excited.  They all rushed upstairs to make their beds, and then do a big clean up to make the rest of their rooms match their beds.  My ds15 politely let me know that he didn’t like blue when he first saw the sheets, but then later retracted after his bed was made, and told me how nice the room looked.  Our bedrooms aren’t large, and I think that it makes a big difference for the bedding to be uniform in keeping things looking neat and pleasant. 

    Unfortunately, when the girls opened the fourth set to make up the empty bunk in their room, they discovered that someone must have returned a defective set to the store, and it was placed back on the shelf – it was missing the pillowcase, and the top sheet had a stain and a hole!  I’m disappointed because I really want to have four matching sets, and I know there was nothing else left in the store I was at.  Maybe tomorrow evening I can head to a different Walmart and will have more luck finding something suitable to exchange it for.

    When I bought the original flannel sheets years ago, I made blanket covers of the top sheets for two of the sets.  I like blanket covers.  In the winter, it adds another layer to the blanket for warmth, in the summer it can be used alone in place of a top sheet, and all year round it makes neatening the bed much simpler.  Right now everyone’s beds look neat since they’re freshly made, but I don’t expect that to last very long once they have to make them every day – it takes more time and effort to make a bed with a top sheet and blanket, especially on bunk beds, when it’s harder to get around to maneuver.  Since blanket covers have worked so well for everyone (and hide the different blanket patterns they have), I’d like to make some more with these new sheet sets. 

    To make the blanket covers then, what I did then was use the flannel flat sheet for the top of the blanket cover, and a flat white sheet I had around for the bottom of the blanket cover, and attaching a zipper at the bottom center.  It’s a very easy project since the flat sheets are a standard size and all you have to do is sew long straight seams down the sides.  I’m thinking it would be a good use of materials to take apart the two old blanket covers, and reuse the flat white sheets and zippers from them to make new covers for the boys.   Since I don’t think the dalmation sheets will see much use anymore unless it’s as a backup measure, it will be a better use of them than taking up room in the linen closet.   Then I’ll see if I can find a couple more inexpensive white flat sheets to make two more matching blanket covers for the other boys.  I’ll have to look for a different sheet color that will be complimentary to the girls’ sheets (white and ivory aren’t quite a good fit). 

    So today I have some work cut out for me – to take apart the covers, start resewing the new ones, and buy more flat sheets for the others.  There’s always something fun to be busy with!

    Avivah

  • How to prepare for an ice storm

    As some of you may know, significant numbers of people across the US were affected by this past week’s ice storm, thousands of whom won’t have any power for three weeks.  By the time this hit us, it wasn’t much of a storm (even though that’s what they were calling it on the news), though there were a lot of people who lost power for a short period of time.  But it got me thinking about sharing my thoughts on being prepared for a storm like this – because you don’t know how bad it will end up being until it hits.  And it’s lots better to be prepared and not need your preparations than not to prepare at all and end up having to go to a shelter somewhere.

    What would be some good things to do if you know that an ice storm (or any other kind of storm that would affect your power supply/access to stores) is set to come your way very soon?  This is far from an exhaustive list; there’s a lot more to be written on this, but what I’ll post now is intended as a starting point, not an end all and be all. 

    Firstly, I’d suggest some super important things, followed by some minor things.  #1 – Make sure you have enough food and water in the house for at least a week (remember that a lot of people now are doing without power for three weeks – better to overprepare than to be overly optimistic).  You don’t want to be one of those people braving their ways to the store after the storm hits, to find out (if you manage to get there safely and the store is actually open) that everything was cleaned out and the food you were counting on buying has been sold to people who didn’t wait as long as you.  This happens every single time there’s a big storm; it’s predictable and I don’t know why it comes as a suprise to anyone when it happens.  I don’t like going shopping at the last minute, but still, better to go shopping a short time before a storm than to wait until afterwards (of course, having a stocked pantry at all times makes this much less urgent).  Use your head – don’t buy lots of prepared frozen foods that you’d have no way to heat up or to keep frozen if you lost power (an advantage of losing power in the winter is you can pretty easily keep things cold outside).  Canned foods are especially useful (make sure you have a couple of manual can openers), bottled water and juice is good. 

    Fill up empty pots, pitchers, and any other available containers with water for cooking and drinking with, and put some large buckets filled with water in your bathtub – those are for washing with.  Why do you need to store water?  Do you know that most of us are dependent on electricity for our water?  Yep, it’s true; the power is necessary to pump the water out, for most private wells as well as for city water supplies.  You’re going to want to wash your hands, flush the toilets, etc. (Baby wipes come in handy in this situation for preserving your stored water supply – you can use them to keep your hands clean.)

    How will you heat up your food?  I have a gas stove, which is good since often the gas lines are still functional when the electricity goes down (this is why I wanted one).  There are lots of alternative heating sources; you’d need to look into them before you need them.  We have a small grill that we could use outside if necessary, but I wouldn’t really want to in freezing temperatures.  Our solar oven wouldn’t help much on cold and cloudy days, but could come in handy if the sun made an appearance. (This is where you’ll appreciate having food that doesn’t need much cooking, if any.)

    What about household heat?  Think how much fun being inside all day is without any heat in the coldest part of the winter.  Knowing how to dress for the cold makes a big difference in being able to stay warm even without much (any?) heat.  Since we keep our heat pretty low all the time, going without heat would be unpleasant but manageable for us.  We’d seriously layer up, and make sure everyone had several blankets on their beds, fill hot water bottles for each person, etc.  Alternative heat sources like wood stoves would be invaluable in staying warm (and can be cooked on, too). 

    Those are the biggies – water, food, and heat.  Now for some smaller things that would make life lots more comfortable.

    When you hear the news, do some house cleaning.  Wash and dry all the laundry – if you couldn’t do it for another week, you’d be a lot more comfortable having it done.  Do all the dishes.  Cleaning the house when you have no heat or lights isn’t fun.  Have all family members take showers.  Physically and emotionally you’ll feel a lot better if you’re clean and if you can’t take a shower for a few days, it won’t be so bad.  I don’t usually use disposable dishes, but this would be the time to use them – so buy some when you’re shopping for the storm.  Also diapers – you definitely don’t want to run out of diapers.  Even if you use cloth diapers, limited water and power would make washing them lots less convenient.  Make sure you have plenty of toilet paper – though you could use pages of a phone book in a pinch, it’s nice not to have to.  🙂

    Lighting – you don’t technically need lights when it gets dark, but it’s a lot more pleasant.  Get some flashlights and batteries, candles and candle holder, fuel lamps and wicks and fuel for them – any and all of these can keep the dark from becoming frightening for little ones, and help you accomplish what you’ll want to do.  Make sure you have games that don’t require electricity – I think of this as obvious, because all of our home entertainment falls into this category, but I realize that many people are dependent on computers to keep their kids occupied and they’d be up the creek without it.  Kids who are bored and have nothing to do are kids who will be very unpleasant to have home all day long.  Books are important, too.

    I’m not going to address more specific needs like showering and laundry because I’m just touching on what I consider the bare basics.  You can manage without these (might not be fun) and survive.  You can’t manage without water and food, though.  You might have noticed that I didn’t put a generator anywhere on my list, which is the first item on most people’s lists.  That’s because generators are a) hugely expensive to buy; b) dependent on gasoline; and c) hugely expensive to run.  What happens if you run out of gas and you can’t get to the gas station?  Or you get to the gas station and they’re either sold out or unable to access it because they also don’t have power (not uncommon in these kinds of situations)?  Plus, it’s one of the first things that thieves look to steal in emergency situations.  Too many people put all of their (preparation) eggs into one (generator) basket.  I think it’s better to find smaller ways to be prepared that don’t involve so much cash outlay, things that you can use even if the storm doesn’t hit you hard. 

    Anyone who’s ever been unprepared in a situation like this will tell you it’s not fun – not at all.  And anyone who’s been prepared in a situation like this will tell you how worthwhile it was to have been able to take care of their needs even when there was no outside help to be had.

    Avivah

  • Making orange zest

    When I got my dehydrator, I didn’t expect it to be so fun or so frugal!  For years I thought of it as a luxury item and couldn’t see a practical value in it, but I’m now enjoying proving myself wrong and finding new uses for it.

    I bought these gorgeous navel oranges, with thick clean peels, and it occurred to me that maybe I could dry them to make orange zest that would be used for baking.  At first I sliced them into small pieces, since I didn’t want to make them so small that they’d fall through the spaces in the drying tray.  But even though things shrink substantially when dehydrated, they’re still a little too big to use as zest (funnily enough, my baby thinks these are a super treat!).  Then my dd14 put the next peels into the food processor with the ‘S’ blade, and put them on top of the paraflex sheet (that’s intended for making fruit leathers) that covers the regular dehydrator tray.  That worked perfectly, and the final result is a perfect orange zest, just like you’d buy in the store.  It’s a nice feeling, turning something you would have thrown away into something of value.

    I don’t like to run the dehydrator just for a small quantity of something, because it seems to me an inefficient use of energy – I made these because there was one unused tray that afternoon that wasn’t needed when drying all the shredded broccoli stems that I experimented on the same day. 🙂  Those turned out great, too.

    Avivah

  • Herbs for asthma

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    To all of those who checked in since midnight, if you were wondering why my most recent post under this title seemed incomplete, it’s because it was!  Somehow half of it was deleted, and for technical reasons I had to delete the entire post and resubmit it from scratch, which meant that comments attached to the original were also deleted.  Sorry about that!

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    Three years ago, I got really sick with a bad case of bronchitis that lasted over two months.  For the rest of that winter, I couldn’t breathe freely in the cold air, but then the spring came and all my symptoms disappeared.

    Until the following winter, when I started having problems breathing again.  I  had to wrap up very well when I went outside, with my mouth covered, and then it would take me about 20 minutes of not saying anything, while holding a cup of hot tea in front of my mouth, to be able to breathe freely again.  I would have uncontrollable coughing until my lungs warmed up.  I didn’t pay much attention to it, just figured it was some kind of residual thing from the bronchitis the year before. 

    Then this winter came along.  And this year even I couldn’t wave it off –  it seemed to have gotten progressively worse from last year.  After five minutes outside in the cold (and by that I mean in my car, not literally outside), and it would take forty minutes of coughing and wheezing until I could breathe normally. I couldn’t even stand in front of my open door in the winter while inside my house without having coughing spasms.  In the nighttime, I dreaded laying down, because as soon as I did, the coughing started.  And I would cough so hard that I couldn’t stop, and had to sit up.  It would often take an hour of coughing until I was so exhausted I could fall asleep. 

    I was feeling very incapacitated by this, and I became almost afraid of cold air.  I’ve always been a pretty hardy person, and it bothered me to feel so delicate.  When I went somewhere, it was pretty noticeable, and I was always being asked if I was sick. Two separate friends asked me if I had asthma, to which I of course answered no, even though my symptoms were so similar. But that got me thinking, and I started researching.

    I felt like I hit pay dirt when I learned that asthma can develop as a result of severe respiratory infections.  Once I knew what I was dealing with, I decided to buy some herbs to treat my symptoms (remember that big order of herbs a while back?).  Among the other herbs I got were lobelia and mullein.  I made a blend of equal parts of each, (maybe 1 T. each), put them in a piece of muslin, and tied it off at the top.  Then I let it steep in about two cups of boiling water for about fifteen minutes, and drank it. 

    It wasn’t delicious – it has an unpleasant ticklish feeling going down – but it wasn’t  horrible, either.  And I didn’t have any more coughing for several days.  But I wasn’t quick to ascribe any special significance to this, even though it was unusual, because I didn’t want to fall prey to wishful thinking.  But then a few nights later, I went out in the evening, and there was no problem at all.  That I did take note of, because the week before going to the same place, I had thought to myself that I should probably stop going out in the evenings at all because it was causing me so much discomfort.  I had another cup of the same mixture when I felt a slight tightness in my chest around then.

    A week later, I was out at my regular Sunday night meeting, and I spent a half hour chatting outside afterwards with a friend in the cold air.  No coughing, nothing.  I was just cold.  🙂  That was almost two months ago, and that has been the coldest part of the year; since then, I’ve had no night time coughing, no coughing in cold air – nothing.  It honestly feels like a miracle – I’m not saying that lightly.  After three years and feeling like this was a problem I was going to have the rest of my life, it just ended after three cups of this herbal tea, with the only cost being a few teaspoonfuls of dried herbs (less than two dollars’ worth).

    My ds15 was diagnosed with sports asthma last year, which basically means that when it’s cold or he is very active, his breathing gets labored and his chest feels tight.  When he complained about it to me about eight weeks ago, I gave him the same thing I had taken.  He hasn’t complained since then.  I asked him last night how he’s been feeling before writing this, wanting to be accurate, and he said that though he occasionally feels out of breath when he runs around a lot, otherwise he’s been fine.  He used to have a hard time catching his breath even after walking to shul in the morning, and he said since he had the tea it hasn’t been a problem (and he walks every morning, no matter how cold it is).  I think it’s likely that if he drank some a bit more often, he wouldn’t even experience this, but he knows what to do if he feels he needs it.  I guess it’s a statement of success that he doesn’t feel the need to take anymore of it!

    I wouldn’t say this is going to work for everyone, but I would definitely encourage anyone suffering from asthma-like symptoms to try it.  It can’t hurt, and it might even hugely help. 🙂

    Avivah

  • The CPSIA and how it affects you

    Having a small business, I became aware of concerns with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) a couple of months ago, but was sure that the legal legislation would be amended since it was so absurd.  I just couldn’t believe that something that would clearly harm so many people financially at a time when the economy is falling apart would be pursued.  http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/14/smallbusiness/toy_law_threatens_small_companies.smb/index.htm?postversion=2009011511 

    But now I’m not so sure.  My belief that this would be changed was assumption based on a false notion that those who pass laws in this country actually think about the wider ramifications of what they’re doing.  Now I think that those involved are very out of touch with the average American and his needs, and the past two months has shown amazingly little receptivity to those concerns.  As time has passed, I’ve learned much more about it, and this has much, much wider ramifications than I initially believed, ramifications that will affect all of us. 

    The Consumer Product Safety Commision and Congress passed a law that requires all makers of children’s products in the US to have their products tested for lead (that’s the CPSIA). Anyone who continues to sell their products without this testing will be in violation of law and subject to fines and possible jail time.  This is a seemingly positive bit of legislation that was initially greeted with enthusiasm and support by those who want to see more quality products in the marketplace.   After all, we don’t want toys from China making kids sick.  We want good, natural products that will help us keep our kids safe, don’t we? 

    But this won’t have much of an effect on products coming from China, even though they were the source of the problem that initiated this bill (since due to technicalities they can do third party on-site testing).  Huge companies have big enough quantities of each product that they manufacture that the testing costs when spread out become insignificant per product line.  Who it will effect will be small businesses and the average consumer.  Here’s an overview of what’s happening.

    The CPSIA will make it an offense from Feb. 11 and on to sell anything that hasn’t been tested for lead and received certification.  This will include toys, clothing, books, baby carriers, bicycles, bedding, cloth diapers (and yes, nursing pillows :)), etc.  But this doesn’t mean only things that are manufactured after that date.  It means anything being sold after that date, so any company with any kind of inventory for this age range is right now either in the process of liquidating their inventory (and for many small businesses, choosing to go out of business since testing costs are so high as to be unrealistic for most), or trying to quickly get testing and GCC certification (general compliance certification – that’s what I’m in the middle of right now).  So at a time when the economy is falling apart and there are huge job losses across the country, thousands of small businesses (mostly home business, mom and pop operations) are being forced to close down – not because there’s any problem or risk with what they sell, but because they can’t afford to deal with the beauracratic testing requirements.  That means more people suffering economically, and it means cost increases for all of the other products (which of course will get passed on to the consumer). 

    But that’s just the very beginning – because this legislation will affect the second hand market as well.  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrift2-2009jan02,0,2083247.story  I’ve been waiting for a few weeks to see how this panned out, and it seems now that thrift stores are going to be exempt.  But the wording isn’t clear and there’s still a possibility of fines to those second hand stores that do sell these things. (“However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.” ) Not surprisingly, many of these stores are also liquidating their children’s supplies rather than risk penalties ($100,000 per violation).  And not only is it illegal to sell anything not tested, it will be illegal to give it away – that technically means if you pass your baby clothes to a friend when you’re finished or have a yard sale, you’re committing an offense.  But I wouldn’t worry about that.  I’d be much more concerned about how people who are suffering economically or have a limited budget to work with are going to clothe their children when the options for buying second hand are drastically limited.  And now these stores won’t even be allowed to donate the clothes they already have stocked that are untested to the needy.

    And that’s not all – it just  keeps getting more and more ludicrous.  Libraries will be subject to this, too.  So all of their books will have to be tested.  Or maybe kids won’t be allowed in the libraries?  Certainly library used book sales will have to come to an end. http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/74940-Congress-bans-kids-from-libraries/

    What about educational supplies?  Yes, this is affected, too.  Science kits, sewing materials – anything geared towards kids will need to do this certification process.  How much do you think this will affect the availability of what’s accessible to you in the stores?  Or even on the internet – since Ebay and Etsy sellers are now going to be subject to the same restrictions as retail establishments?  And it goes on and on…..

    But there are some who will be benefitting.  The big box stores stand to gain, since their small competition is going to be demolished.  Retail stores will benefit if parents can’t buy used clothes or toys for their children and have no choice but to buy brand new.  And the many who will be hired to legislate and supervise all of this testing at the various levels will benefit.  Maybe this is the government’s way to create new jobs?

    Watching the government at work isn’t pretty, is it? 

    Avivah

  • How to can ground meat

    >>How do you can ground meat? Do you cook it in a sauce or soup before caning? <<

    I used to hear how complicated and dangerous canning meat was, and I’m really glad that one of the very first things I canned was turkey.  That way I did the ‘hardest’ thing first and I wasn’t intimidated by it because I had nothing to compare it to.    Some people will tell you to start out with fruits and jams and then work your way up, but it worked out well for me the other way!

    Despite what people  may say, it’s really not hard or complicated to can meat.  It does require precisely following instructions, like any other low acid food (ie, not fruits and jams).  You MUST have a pressure canner and follow all proper safety guidelines.  Fill with water up to the water line (marked inside the canner), and fill up the jars you’re going to use half way with water.  While you prepare the meat, your jars will be sterilizing, and then the  jars will be ready to be used at the same time the meat is ready to be packed. 

    Before preparing the  meat, you have to decide what you’re going to later use it for.  I decided I wanted to cook it up as crumbles that could be added to stews, pot pies, etc because that has the most possibilities.  (I considered making patties and then decided against it, but it is possible to make little meat balls or burgers and can them.)  I sauteed the meat in its own juice and broke the chunks up into crumbles.  It’s suggested to drain off the fat since it could interfere with the seal. 

    I removed each jar, poured out the boiling water, and filled it with hot meat.  Then cover it with boiling broth or water, leaving 1″ headspace.  Make sure there’s no air space in the jars.  Wipe down the top of the jar, so that there’s no residual grease that might keep it from sealing later on.  Put the heated jar lids on, screw on bands, and put back in pressure canner.  It needs to process at 11 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts.  Exhaust the canner for ten minutes with the steam steadily rising from the vent hole, then put the weight on top and wait for it to get up to the proper pressure.  Start timing the process from the point that it’s at the proper pressure. 

    You have to keep it at the right pressure the entire time.  If it gets a little high, that’s okay, but if it drops below 11 pounds pressure, you have to restart timing the canning all over again (to prevent possibility of botulism).  So don’t let it drop!

    So far in the meat department, I’ve canned beef cubes, beef stew, turkey pieces, ground chicken, ground beef, broth, and meat spaghetti sauce.  The only problem I had was with jars that failed to seal because I didn’t drain the fat enough, so when it reached the high temperature inside the canner, it boiled over the jar lid, and then the lid couldn’t adhere.  I put those in the fridge and used them right away, but they could have been reheated it, and then reprocessed. 

    If you start canning and do some meat, please share your experience!

    Avivah