Categories
Urban Farming

Winter Squash

Risotto ingredients

Photo by Judith Hausman

Got some butternut squash in the pantry? Whip up a barley risotto using chicken stock, barley, sage and, of course, butternut squash.

Here’s my theory: The writers of Invasion of the Body Snatchers used a Hubbard squash as the model for the pod from which the characters’ “doubles” emerged. Have you ever had a good look at them? Tapered at the ends and ridiculously huge, warty-skinned and an unearthly gray-blue, these tasty winter squash could easily contain a body. What a clever defense to scare you away from cooking them!

We know their tricks though. Hubbard and the other cousins of your jack-o’-lantern, whether squat, splotched, smooth or striped like a caliph’s turban, are delicious and versatile. They make eye-catching centerpieces, too.

Simply cut the hard squash in halves or pieces and remove fibers and seeds; then bake, microwave, steam or boil the squash. Smoother varieties, such as butternut, can be peeled before cooking; the flesh of bumpier ones can be scraped out of the skin afterwards. Don’t eat the rind. Keep water to a minimum to avoid losing flavor and nutrients. Use some now and freeze some for later.

All over the world, versatile squash is used for pies, savory casseroles, pasta filling, pancakes and soups. The sweet, dense flesh responds to many seasoning palettes: Southwestern chilies, Indian curry, New England-style cinnamon, apples and maple syrup. The dark-orange color indicates Vitamin A, in the form of beta-carotene (an antioxidant), and they’re a good source of Vitamin C and potassium, as well. Stored in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place, these hard-shelled squash are “good keepers.”

Acorn Squash

As its name suggests, this winter squash is shaped like a blackish-green acorn. It has sweet, slightly fibrous flesh and a deeply ribbed, hard skin. There are now golden and multi-colored varieties as well. I like to halve and stuff acorn squash with a grain pilaf, mixed with dried cranberries and sautéed onions. Bright orange, yellow-fleshed Turban squash is similar to acorn.

Butternut Squash

Pale, creamy-tan and shaped like a vase, butternut squash has a sweet, nutty flavor. The deeper the orange color inside, the riper, drier and sweeter the squash. Use the cooked pulp to make gnocchi or a ravioli filling, lightened with a little ricotta. I stir either pulp or small cubes into a barley risotto with sage, or puree it with stock, orange or apple juice and light cream for a soul-warming soup. Kabocha, a pretty Japanese squash, has a similar, rich sweet flavor but is often drier and flaky when cooked.

Delicata Squash

This is one of the tastier winter squashes, with creamy pulp that tastes a bit like sweet potatoes. Its skin is also edible. The delicata squash is actually an heirloom variety, originally introduced by the Peter Henderson Company of New York City in 1894, and was popular through the 1920s. Then it fell into obscurity for about 75 years, possibly because of its thinner, more tender skin, which isn’t suited to transportation over thousands of miles and storage over several months.

Hubbard Squash

The extra-hard skin makes these one of the best-keeping winter squashes, up to six months in the right cool, humid conditions. Hubbard squash is often sold in pieces because it grows so large. The dense, yellow flesh may require longer cooking time and is a favorite for sweet breads and pies. I also roast rings of it and toss them with balsamic vinegar, smoky bacon and onions.

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Urban Farming

Food Safety Legislation Hits the Senate

Food Safety Legislation Hits the Senate

Courtesy Stock.XCHNG

The Food Safety Modernization Act was prompted by the nation’s food recalls to basic staples, like spinach.

Just when you think politics and life on Capitol Hill might take a lame-duck session lull, the Food Safety Modernization Act (S.B. 510) adds some heated spice as the Senate begins debates on this bill today. The controversial legislation potentially affects all players in the agricultural system, so S.B. 510 warrants scrutiny and involvement, especially from small-scale growers from both rural and urban areas.
 
Let’s start with the core ingredients behind the Food Safety Modernization Act that everyone, in theory, agrees on: the fundamental right of all Americans to eat safe food and the need for improving checkpoints to achieve this. 

While the concept seems simple and fundamental, when you start formulating the “how” behind ensuring such rights, things overflow in complexity and controversy. Over the past century, we evolved from a nation of farmers to an industrialized food system intricate in layers and players. As Americans, we leaped from a country where the majority of us regularly ate what’s now known as the “100-mile diet” to one where we can’t pronounce names on a soup can’s ingredient list, much less know where they came from. 

The Act’s History

The current corporate agricultural system inherently increases risk in the food supply, and in many ways, the Food Safety Modernization Act is playing catch-up. It aims to regulate and control the nation’s food supply and the industrial-rooted problems created over the past 100 years.

Prompted by public outcry on recalls of basic kitchen staples like eggs, spinach and peanut butter, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) first introduced the bill in March 2009. The core legislation goal is to increase the power of the Food and Drug Administration to better monitor and prevent food-borne disease outbreaks, increasing the ability of the FDA to trace problems back to the source and holding those parties responsible.

While such general intents may sound reasonable, S.B. 510 has the potential to aversely affect small farms, including urban operations, because of a “one size fits all” legislative approach. By forcing growers of all sizes and locations to adhere to the same regulations, small operations won’t be able to afford the associated costs, paperwork and time commitment.

Act Amendments Support Small Operations

“While the Food Safety Modernization Act takes important steps to improve corporate food safety rules, it is not appropriate for small farms and processors that sell to places like restaurants, food co-ops, farm stands and farmers’ markets,” explains Annette Higby, grassroots coordinator for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an advocacy group representing more than 80 sustainable-agriculture groups across the country. “As we ramp up food-safety protections, it’s critical that we don’t inadvertently do harm by imposing expensive, ‘one size fits all’ rules.”

To address these concerns, small farm and sustainable-agriculture advocacy organizations like NSAC are championing two amendments that will be offered when S.B. 510 hits the Senate floor:

  • The Tester-Hagan Amendment creates size-appropriate requirements and less costly compliance alternatives.  For example, farms that direct-market more than 50 percent of their product to customers through on-farm or retail outlets, such as farmers’ markets, would not need to register with the FDA.
  • The Manager’s Amendment adds in multiple recommended changes that have arisen since the bill was first introduced to reduce paperwork and regulations for small farms and operations.

Urban farmers should look for updates and implications of the Food Safety Modernization Act as it comes to a vote in the next few weeks.

Categories
Urban Farming

College Dining Takes a Fresh Turn

Farm-to-Cart program

Courtesy University of Kansas/ Shant Thomas

The Farm-to-Cart program gives students at the University of Kansas the opportunity to buy fresh produce from local farms.

When students at the University of Kansas go home for Thanksgiving dinner this year, many might actually eat worse food than they do at school. In the college town of Lawrence, Kan., long gone are the days of freshmen and sophomores subsisting solely on over-processed junk food. Sure, students still can choose from typical college-food options—what’s a student union without a little pizza?—healthier ones are also available, thanks to KU’s Farm-to-Cart program.

Launched in June 2010, the Farm-to-Cart program does exactly what it says: It makes farm-fresh, local foods available on a cart in a food court-like area of KU’s student union called The Market.

“We’ve had local purchasing as one of our goals in our strategic plan for the last few years,” says Nona Golledge, director of KU dining services. “And one of our goals for this year was to implement a farm-to-cart program, start slow, and see how well it was received on campus.”

Due to a rough growing season and the fact that many students and faculty were gone for the summer, the program did indeed get off to a slow start. Still, Golledge says that implementing it was surprisingly easy. The university’s primary food vendor, Sysco, was already partnering with the supplier Good Natured Family Farms, an alliance of more than 100 family farms in the Midwest that certifies and distributes locally grown, pesticide-free foods throughout Kansas and Missouri under its label.

“We were very excited when we found out they had that partnership,” Golledge says. “They were GAP [Good Agricultural Practices] certified. We wanted to make sure food coming to us from local sources was going to be safe.”

Initially, items on the cart were available only on Mondays and Wednesdays and limited to cucumbers from a farm in Rich Hill, Mo., and heirloom tomatoes from a farm in Stanberry, Mo. Now, the cart is open daily and has sold squash, apples, red-leaf lettuce and more. As the harvest season comes to an end and the ground freezes, the cart will carry other locally prepared items, like honey, so it can remain open year-round.

“We’re hoping it really takes off in the next growing season, and we’re looking into placement on center campus or putting up more displays.” Golledge says. As with any product, she emphasizes that to be successful, marketing is key.

“When we really wanted to promote apples and squashes, we pulled the cart out into the center of the food court area and sales went up tremendously,” she says. “Placement of the cart is crucial.”

Even though the cart isn’t selling out of produce just yet, Golledge says it’s been a great avenue for educating the campus about buying local produce. While none of the KU students we were able to reach for this article had visited the cart themselves, they’d all heard of it, and for Golledge, that’s half the battle.

“It’s an avenue for our consumers to be able to purchase fresher produce. But it also helps to educate and create awareness about buying locally,” she says.

Keeping with the idea of sustainability, items that don’t sell during their prime get used in soups and at the salad bar. And a union rooftop garden provides herbs for the university’s catering program.

Golledge also hopes to add more local products into prepared meals for residential dining, as well as the university’s catering services and restaurants. Currently, about 15 percent of the 22 dining locations on campus use or provide local products, including coffee. Her goal is to grow that number by 25 percent. Considering KU’s dining services provide nearly 10,000 meals per day (residential and retail), that’s a number that makes a lot of sense for the university right now.

“It’s difficult for local farmers to provide all of the produce we need,” Golledge says. “So we’re looking at it as progress and every year adding what we can to our operations when it makes financial sense to add them.”

Categories
Equipment

Saw Chain Sharpening Made Easy

I’ve blogged in the past about sharpening chainsaws. At its most basic, that means using a round file on the saw chain’s cutters and a flat file on the guides. Various power sharpeners are also available. All take time, and most require removing the saw chain from the bar. Now, there’s a better way.

The Oregon PowerSharp lets you work until the chain dulls and then sharpens the saw chain in seconds—on the bar. You’re back cutting in less time than it takes to add fuel. The PowerSharp system consists of a specially designed saw chain with top sharpening links, a guide bar and a bar mount sharpener with a replaceable sharpening stone. The chain also includes special diamond-coated dresser links that resurface the stone.

This past week, I tried out the system. After clearing several hundred feet of brush choked fence line (at dirt level), the saw chain was still sharp. Finally, I resorted to the unthinkable. I revved up the motor and ran the saw chain across a rock. Sparks flew. When I did my next cut on a log, I had to practically push it through.

I stopped the chainsaw and latched the sharpener to the end of the bar. I then restarted the motor and pushed the foot of the sharpener into the log for about five seconds. Again sparks flew, this time as the saw chain sharpened. 

When I attacked the log again, the saw pulled itself through in a third the time, a sure sign of a sharp saw chain. If you have a chainsaw, I recommend checking out PowerSharp. Systems are available in 14, 16 and 18-inich bars, depending on brand. At $75 to $80 for a system, it’s a steal.

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Categories
News

Study Begins on LED Lights for Crop Growth

Greenhouse
Courtesy Stock.XCHNG
Reachers at Purdue University are study how LED lights can make crop production in greenhouses more efficient.

In the greenhouses of Purdue University, researchers are undergoing a study to improve and evaluate the effects of LED lighting on greenhouse crop production. The study is made possible by a $4.88 million grant from the USDA. 

Purdue researchers will collaborate with Rutgers University, the University of Arizona, Michigan State University and Orbital Technologies Corp. on the four-year project. The goal is to increase greenhouse yields and decrease producers’ energy costs.

“The high-intensity discharge lamps used today are inefficient. When you have acres and acres of greenhouses with these lamps in them, it really adds up,” says Cary Mitchell, a professor of horticulture and project director for the grant. “With LED lighting, we should be able to do as well or better with much less energy.”

Mitchell’s work will include testing LED lighting on high-wire tomatoes. High-wire tomatoes can grow taller than 20 feet, and traditional overhead lighting doesn’t reach the lower parts of many plants. Mitchell believes that using LED lights on the sides of plants will increase photosynthesis and flowering, improving yield.

Roberto Lopez, an assistant professor of horticulture, will work with about 20 species of bedding plants to test LED lighting’s ability to lower the cost of establishing new plants from cuttings and seeds. Low winter light means growers currently have to use more expensive overhead lighting to establish new plants.

Chieri Kubota at the University of Arizona will test the best wavelengths and colors for LED lighting to establish vegetable transplants, and Erik Runkle at Michigan State will test flower initiation of ornamental crops with different colors of LEDs.

The researchers are partnering with Robert Morrow and C. Michael Bourget of Orbital Technologies Corp. of Madison, Wis., which will build the LED lights.

Costs and benefits associated with LED lighting will be evaluated throughout the project, and best practices and standards for testing commercial LED lighting will be developed. Later phases of the research will include evaluating LED lighting in commercial settings and developing improved LED lights that match the needs determined from those tests.

USDA officials, including Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, toured greenhouses with prototype LED lights like the ones that will be used in the research.

“The specialty-crop industry plays an enormously important part in American agriculture and is valued at approximately $50 billion every year,” Merrigan says. “These projects will be key to providing specialty crop producers with the information and tools they need to successfully grow, process, and market safe and high-quality products.”

The grant funds are made possible through a USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative award of $2.44 million from the USDA combined with an equal amount of in-kind contributions of equipment and services from industry partners.

Categories
Urban Farming

New Green Guide to Flush False Eco Claims

Planet friendly label

Photo by Stephanie Staton

The Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guide revisions are to ensure that your planet-friendly cleaner really is what it says.

Let’s face it, green sells. Consumers want products that are biodegradable, organic and made with renewable materials—and that means companies are eager to make those claims about their goods and services.

To protect consumers from false claims about eco-friendliness of products, the Federal Trade Commission began publishing Green Guides in 1992, to provide guidance to those who market products and services about making legitimate environmental claims. In short, the Green Guides help define the meanings of various green labels, offer examples for their fair use and attempt to deter marketers from making misleading environmental claims.

“The Green Guides were designed to help avoid consumer deception,” explains Laura Koss, senior attorney for the FTC. “While the FTC doesn’t establish environmental performance standards, it does make sure there is truth in advertising.”

The guides were revised in 1996 and 1998, and now the FTC is working on another round of revisions that includes, among other updates, new guidance for the use of product certifications and seals of approval. The revised Green Guides will also include guidelines for using claims that were not included in past guides, including “carbon offset” and “renewable materials” claims. The Green Guides do not address use of the terms organic, natural and sustainable. Organic labels, in particular, are regulated by the USDA.

“The revisions address new claims that didn’t exist the last time the [Green Guides] were updated,” explains Koss.

Among the proposed revisions, the FTC wants to introduce cautions about making general claims that a product is “green” or “eco-friendly” because those labels suggest far-reaching environmental benefits that are impossible to substantiate.

Another proposed revision advises marketers about the proper use of green seals and certifications for their goods and services. The seals and certifications used should be clear, prominent and specific, and those that are unqualified—where there’s no specific basis for certification—should be avoided.

While the guides are aimed at marketers and not the general public, there are far-reaching benefits for consumers.

In a press release issued by the FTC, chairman Jon Leibowitz explains, “What companies think green claims mean and what consumers really understand are sometimes two different things. The proposed updates to the Green Guides will help businesses better align their product claims with consumer expectations.”

The FTC has jurisdiction over false advertising claims, which means legal action can be taken against marketers who falsely promote a product with a green label, such as biodegradable, phosphate-free or made with renewable power. In other words, the guidance set forth in the Green Guides help protect consumers from becoming victims of green-washing.

Urban farmers who sell to the public (or are thinking about taking that step in the future) will benefit from proposed changes to the Green Guides that make them easier to understand. According to Koss, referencing the guides can help sellers remain “on the right side of the law” and protect against possible legal action for making false claims.

The public is invited to comment on the proposed changes to the FTC Green Guides. Comments are open until Dec. 10, 2010. Once all of the comments are collected, the FTC will launch a comprehensive review and vote on the proposed changes.

Categories
Animals

Salem Got Sick!

Boer goat
Photo by Sue Weaver
Salem said his belly felt “oogy,” but the bock beer made it feel better.  

Last Wednesday morning, when Mom put the Boer goats out for the day, big, fat Salem stayed behind. Salem loves food—Mom knew something was wrong. She put him in a stall and bedded it deeply with straw. Salem plopped down, stuck out his legs and groaned.
 
Mom decided he had intestinal cramps. She thinks he ate too many yummy acorns. She was worried so she gave him a Banamine shot for pain, Probios probiotics for his tummy, pink milk of magnesia for his gut (yuck!) and a thiamine shot, then she asked people in her sheep and goat Yahoo groups what else they would do. One said to feed him flavored yogurt (because he hates Probios so much that he spits and gags) and an English reader said to give him dark beer.
 
Salem didn’t want the yogurt, so Mom and Dad used a dose syringe to put it in his mouth. Salem yanked back just as Mom depressed the plunger and she couldn’t see because it was dark, so she squirted it up the side of his face and into his eye. Poor Salem!
 
Mom and Dad don’t drink beer, so they had to buy some. They chose bock beer because “bock” in German means buck, like a goat, and that seemed like an omen. They tried to suck it into the 30cc dose syringe but kept loading 10cc of beer and 20cc of foam. Finally, Dad held Salem’s mouth open and Mom poured in the beer. When they were finished, Salem smiled and licked his lips.
 
Salem’s says he feels much better now. And he keeps telling us how much he liked that beer! 

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Urban Farming

APOXalypse Now

Hen with fowl pox

Photo by Audrey Pavia

Bobbi Jo came down with the fowl pox virus and has to have antibiotic cream applied to the lesoins once a day.

Last week, my youngest hen, Baby Jo, came down with the fowl pox virus. Since then, another one of my hens, Bobbi Jo, was also stricken by this nasty disease.

When Baby Jo first developed lesions on her face, comb and wattle, I took her to my sister Heidi, a veterinarian. Around that time, I noticed Bobbi Jo had a few boils on her face, too. Unlike Baby Jo, Betty Jo just had a few lumps here and there, and she was acting normal.

But a few days ago, everything changed. I opened the coop door one morning and found Bobbi Jo huddled in a corner. I picked her up and was horrified to see her face covered with boils. Her eyes were swollen shut, and she was limp when I lifted her.

I rushed her to Heidi, who had had success treating Baby Jo and got my youngest hen running with the flock. Because fowl pox virus can’t be cured, supportive treatment was all Heidi could provide to Baby Jo. The tube feedings, antibiotics and time in the incubator helped, and Baby Jo’s immune system was able to fight off the virus. I was hoping we could do the same for Bobbi Jo.

Money was an issue, however. Baby Jo’s stint in the hospital cost me $125, and that’s with my sister’s family discount. I couldn’t spend another $125 on Bobbi Jo. Heidi’s solution was to treat Bobbi Jo at her house, tube feeding her and keeping her warm through the night. The hen received an antibiotic injectio, and came home to me the next day with the same instructions I’d gotten for Baby Jo: Baytril once a day plus the application of an antibiotic cream applied to the lesions.

Bobbi Jo is on the mend, though she’s still not well enough to go back with the flock. I’m keeping her in a carrier in my bedroom, where I can monitor her food and water intake and easily medicate her once a day. She’s taking longer to recover than Baby Jo did, but I was happy to see her at least eating mealworms this morning and pecking at her pellets. Her eyes are only barely open, but it’s enough for her to be able to find her food.

Heidi is working on purchasing a vaccine for me so we can inoculate the rest of my small flock before they all develop the virus. They are molting, which puts them at greater risk for the disease. Seems anything that weakens the birds’ immune system can make them prone to developing it.

In the meantime, I’m keeping careful watch on my other birds and hoping Baby Jo and Bobbi Jo are the only victims of this nasty bug.

Read more of City Stock »

Categories
Homesteading

Needlepoint Embroidery

Needlepoint
Photo by Stephanie Staton
Needlepoint can be used to make a number of different items, including purses, boxes, glasses cases and wall hangings.

If you’re a hobbyist looking to expand your craft skill set, you might consider a classic, timeless craft that has endured through the ages: needlepoint embroidery.

Needlepoint History
No one really knows when or where needlework had its beginnings, but it’s known to be an ancient craft.

Many historians believe needlework had its origins in China, where a tradition of using hair as embroidery thread is reported to date back to the Tang Dynasty, which reigned from 618 to 907 A.D. Archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen in 1922, found fragments of needlework among the artifacts entombed with the Egyptian pharaoh, who ruled from about 1333 to 1324 B.C.

Hobby Farm HomeOn this continent, the Anasazi people of the Southwest are said to have created cotton tapestries as early as 700 A.D. References to needlework can be found in the writings of Pliny the Elder and even in The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Many forms of needlework have been handed down through the centuries, adapting and changing according to culture, custom, and innovations in techniques and fibers. Their popularity often waxes and wanes with the times. This is true of embroidery, the art of decorating fabrics and canvases with designs brought to life using a needle and thread. And one form of embroidery in particular—needlepoint—has a following of steadfast devotees and appeals to a new generation of crafters, as well.

According to the 2009 Attitude & Usage Study of the Craft and Hobby Association, interest in needlepoint embroidery is on the upswing. The organization estimates that in 2008, there were needlepointers in 5.6 percent of U.S. households; in 2009, needlepoint participation jumped to 8.4 percent.

It’s easy to see why: Many needlepoint projects are portable, lending themselves to pick-up-and-go projects that can fill in the wait time at the doctor’s office, sporting events or an afternoon lull before dinnertime. It’s a medium that allows sky’s-the-limit creativity, with projects as simple or as complex as the needlepointer wants them to be. And whether the project is a small Christmas ornament or an elaborate quilt inlaid with needlepoint work, the results can be striking.

What is Needlepoint?
Some people confuse needlepoint with crewel or counted cross-stitch, but these crafts are not the same. Crewel is a craft done on tightly woven fabric, usually prestamped with a design, and uses a number of different stitches to fill in the design, but not the whole piece of fabric. Counted cross-stitch is done on even-weave fabrics, such as linen, using only X-shaped stitches, whose placement on the fabric is usually counted out according to a chart, though some projects have the Xs prestamped on the fabric. With counted cross-stitch, stitching is done only on the design, not over the whole fabric. In contrast, needlepoint is worked on an open-mesh fabric called canvas, following a painted or stamped design, and the stitches typically (though not always) fill in the whole canvas.

Needlepoint can recreate the look of ancient woven tapestries, while modern techniques and materials provide ways to create stunning results. When I look at completed needlepoint pieces, I am awed by the painstaking care with which the designs came to life, stitch by stitch. There is a devoted discipline involved in slowing down the pace of one’s life to create such a work of art, something that had its roots in a time when needlework was one of the activities of daily living.

During Colonial times, needlepoint was used to create pictures, fashion accessories and to decorate upholstery fabric. Today, needlepoint can be found adorning purses, pillows, boxes, Christmas stockings, table runners, bookmarks, glasses cases and more.

Beginning Needlepoint
No specialized equipment is needed to get started with needlepoint. All you need is a canvas, a needle and yarn—and the patience that a project such as this requires. It sounds simple enough, but all canvases are not alike. The myriad choices of yarns and threads could make your head spin; however, a beginner’s needlepoint kit can ease you out of the starting gate, with your only decision being which kit to buy. Needlepoint kits can be found in needlework shops, arts and crafts stores, department stores, and online.

Some beginners needlepointers prefer not to go it alone, armed only with the directions in a kit. Julie Moberly, a craft enthusiast in Harvard, Mass., has been doing needlepoint for several years. In her opinion, it’s most helpful to meet in a class or group when you’re first learning to needlepoint. For one thing, she says, you need good lighting, and a shop that teaches classes is guaranteed to have it.

She started out learning the tent stitch, which is a basic, standard stitch, but through class she discovered, “There are hundreds of stitches, including some that give texture or convey motion.”

Moberly says she found countless creative possibilities for people who like to needlepoint: “There are lots of nice, small projects for people who like to sprint, and larger ones for people who like a marathon.”

While taking needlepoint classes, Moberly learned about kits that are available, but she says, “the majority of projects are canvases, and you pick out your own threads.”

Beyond the Needlepoint Kit
For those who would rather forgo a needlepoint kit and build their own projects, there are many canvases and threads available as well as options for which stitches to use.

Canvassing for Canvas
Needlepoint canvases come in different densities or mesh sizes. The mesh is usually woven from threads of varying thicknesses, but some canvases are made of plastic mesh. (Plastic-mesh canvases are typically better-suited to projects that require some rigidity, such as tissue-box covers or bookmarks.)

The density of a canvas is indicated by a number that corresponds to the number of stitches per inch; the higher the gauge, the smaller the weave. For example, a No. 10 canvas is one that has 10 holes per inch; a No. 7 canvas has a mesh that is coarse and open, with only seven holes per inch.

According to Randi Nelson, president of The World in Stitches in Littleton, Mass., most of the canvases in today’s market are hand-painted rather than stamped, though some are blank—preferred by people who’d rather follow a charted design or by those who would rather create their own design from scratch. She says the most popular sizes she sells are No. 13 and No. 18, because there are more varieties of threads available to suit those mesh sizes.

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Categories
Recipes

Basic Cream Soup

Homemade Cream Soup from Hobby Farms

It’s easy to make a cream soup base, to which you can add whatever vegetables or meat you have on hand. A cream soup is a great way to use up leftovers. To substitute a homemade cream soup in recipes that call for a can of cream soup (such as chicken or celery), use 1⅓ cups of the homemade blend.

Ingredients

  • 1 T. minced onion
  • 2 T. butter or bacon drippings
  • 1½ T. flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/8 tsp. paprika
  • 1 cup milk or light cream
  • 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 cup cooked vegetables or 1/2 cup cooked vegetables and 1/2 cup chopped, cooked meat

Preparation
Sauté onion in butter until soft. Blend in flour, salt and paprika. Add 1/4 cup milk and whisk until blended. Slowly add remaining milk, whisking constantly. Then add stock, vegetables and meat. Simmer over medium heat until mixture is suitably thick.

Serves 4 to 6.