Move Your Money

Shocking and very well put together. Discusses moving your money to smaller local branches to take $$ out of the big guys hands. Thanks to Ravenrocks for showing me this!

More info at Move Your Money.

Soap Making and Emergency Kit

In keeping with one of my goals for this coming year I checked out soap making books from the library. I know it's pretty easy but one must be careful and move slowly. I have a list of some supplies to scope out from our local thrift store. Things like a few mixing bowls and a stainless steel pot or two. I'd like to use all glass since some bad plastics bind to fat cells and that is essentially what soap is. Fat and Lye. I don't want my soap to be fat, lye and plastic.... mmmm moisturizing. I think I am going to follow down-to-earth's soap making tutorial.  It seems easy enough with out a lot of fussy extras, a good beginner soap.

I've also checked out some books about emergency preparedness and what it's going to take. I have a rather extensive first aid kit list. Which although daunting shouldn't take me too long to put together.  After our first aid kit is done I'd like to work on water storage. I am not sure what to use to store water, so I have to do some more research.

Emergency supplies

So the Haiti earthquake has got me thinking about emergencies. How would my house hold up in a 7+ earthquake? What would I need if we did have a disaster? I don't want to go all survivalist, but I'm thinking I need to get some precautionary stuff down.

At the very least a first aid kit for humans and animals. Maybe drinking water for a few days. I have all the food because of my canning. I can eat cold beans and dried fruit thank you if it comes down to it. Just some stuff to think about. I am going work on putting together an emergency corner of the basement full of gear. Better to have and not need....

Bread and Transformation

A video from TED about bread and transformation. This is Peter Reinhart a bread master!

Back to Blogger

Having been at wordpress for about 3 months we've jumped back to blogger. The address is the same www.oxrayfarm.com just the platform is different. Wordpress wants to charge you for every little thing. I like how much nicer the blogger community feels. The forums @WP are full of not nice people. Oh well live and learn. Blogger added new features in 2010 and some of those features were the reason I left in the first place. Although with this "template" we loose our About Us/Chickens tabs at the top of the page. We may go out and find some one to design a website then upload the HTML to get those things back. Blogger will even allow you to do that... for free. :o)

Honey Jar and Crochet hook case

We decided we didn't need to squeeze honey from a plastic jar. This is so much sexier! The artist from etsy is Mississippi Mud Potter.

My first crochet project, a crochet hook case. I haven't done all of it yet but I am almost there. From the book Chicks with Sticks guide to crochet.

Path to freedom has many steps

Butter making

I didn't get a picture of the process because I didn't know if it would work. But I was amazed how really easy butter making is. I got a pint sized container of organic cream at the grocery store. I plan to separate the cream from local raw milk next time, but for now this is how it went. I poured the cream in the kitchen mixer with the whisk attachment and turned on to high. After about 10 minutes the butter fat separated from the "buttermilk" it's not true buttermilk because it isn't cultured, but that's beside the point. The butter turns yellow like magic and you pour off the butter milk, then add ice water to wash the butter. This removes any leftover buttermilk in the butter and keeps it from going rancid. Keep adding water, mixing and pouring it off until the water runs clean and no longer milky. Salt if you choose and store in the fridge for a week, if longer freeze. I found this website complete with pictures detailing the process. Making Butter at Cooking for Engineers.

The microwave and living without it.

It all started with pizza. Pizza just never tastes the same microwaved, the crust isn't as crisp the cheese as perfectly melty. Yesterday afternoon over our leftover pizza, Jake and I got to talking about the microwave. I had seen somewhere that they aren't very safe, but I put that thought out of my mind because I love my microwave! I told Jake about the unsafe issues and he said: "well it makes sense, the microwave mess's up the phone and it's in the other room." Intrigued we wanted more information. This is what we were able to come up with:  


1. They don't know the long term effects. Which we took as, slow poisoning might not kill you.... but it sure isn't good! (According to Norbert Hankin of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Center for Science and Risk Assessment, "We don't have a solid position on the possible health risks from exposure to microwaves due to inconclusive research." He concludes, "The real question remains whether there could be cumulative effects.")  


2. Microwaves alter the chemistry of the food. Some reports say it alter's the food so drastically that our bodies absorb very little of the nutrients in the food. "In the late 1980s scientists Hans Hertel and Bernard Blanc of the Swiss Institute of Technology tested blood from subjects both before and after eating microwave-cooked food. They reported that the subjects had a decrease in all hemoglobin values as well as increases in white blood cells and cholesterol."  


We stopped there, and didn't need to go any further. Our microwave is cleaned, pictures taken and being placed "for sale" on craigslist today. All excerpts and a worthy article to read Here.

image from mercola.com

Shelving

I spent the morning searching shelving. With our increasing farm library we need a spot to put all this lovely bound paper. But I don't want to just go and buy some random shelf. My top two ideas are pallet shelves or shelf from an old ladder. My mom has an old crappy wooden ladder but I'm not sure if she'll let me have it to hang on my wall. Maybe if I replace it with a new shinny ladder? Or I could build a shelf using some old pallets we have. However I think those pallets are going to be used in the seed starting effort this coming spring. We intend to make tables out of them, but that's a whole other story. Here are my two favorite pictures I could find of the ladder bookshelf. #1 "A" frame ladder hung horizontally on the wall. I think I like #1 best, it's rustic or if you prefer... ugly, but still I dig it! #2 is an old straight ladder cut in half and added wooden planks for the actual shelves.

Double yolkers

Straight razor shaving

We've been trying to using less and less things that come in packaging. Anything that must be used then discarded or even recycled. For example disposable razors. Now, we have been using just disposable razor heads for a while, rather than the entire razor being tossed. We even switched to shave soap that must be lathered with a shave brush (think old school here), thus reducing any shaving cream cans or tube waste. In our constant strive to do more, straight razor shaving was the only way to go. Unless we wanted to be really hairy, which suits me just fine. I shave once every month or two.... go hairy girls it's good for you! But, I still shave, I can't seem to go all furry. My legs I don't mind so much since really it's just your legs but I have a harder time with my under arms going caveman.

This is Jacobs first shave with the "Sweeney Todd". He did really well! It does take more time because it's a huge learning curve. I didn't get a picture of me shaving my legs for the first time, mostly because I didn't want of picture of me in my nickers online. But it went well, I didn't cut myself accept for a tiny nic on my knee that didn't even need a bandaid.


The razor we opted to buy is the only one made in the U.S.A. all other straight razors are manufactured elsewhere mostly, germany or china. We wanted to support our economy not someone else's. The blade is forged by Hart Steel, each blade is marked with the artisan's initials. The blade we received has TV stamped on it. Pretty cool!

Skills to Learn

I got this idea from Crunchy Chickens blog, she asks about what skills you would like to learn this year. Some of the many she listed I do want to learn but they require more space. I mean things like large animal husbandry. But it got me thinking about different skills we are already on track to learn. For example, we are already signed up for beekeeping lessons. Some of the skills I took from Crunchy's list but some I've added.

• beekeeping
• animal processing
• knitting/crocheting
• beer/wine/cider making
• soap making
• expanding canning knowledge to include more veggies
• gardening
• indoor seedstarts

I'd really enjoy knitting my own socks, hats, and gloves and even dish rags. That is the skill I am most eager to learn as it might keep me busy inside this coming Jan/Feb. I borrowed a book from a friend yesterday but it assumes you know the language. So I might have to get a knitting for dummies book from the library so I know what in heck is going on. What skills do you want to learn this year?

Planning....always with the planning

Oh man have I been planning this garden, I got the bulk of my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. But I still need to order a few from a local company called Irish Eyes. I intend to put up another tab next to "about us" and list all the seeds, where they came from, the fruit tree varieties, and herbs. I have my list of what seeds need to be started indoors and which can be direct sown outside. The list is quite impressive and daunting!

We're going to use the downstairs bed frame as a seed starting table, but getting that set up is going to take some work. Jake and I went to Home Depot last week and bought 4 of the 4 foot fluorescent "shop" lights and 2 different spectrum of bulbs. It was pointed out to me that "grow" lights don't list the spectrum of light, this way they can charge you more for it! Or if you just get 2 different spectrums, say a light that is more yellow and a light that is more blue... voila, grow lights. So that is exactly what Jake and I did, thus saving ourselves about 10 dollars per bulb! I plan on using egg cartons as my seed starting container ( thanks to homegrown evolution for that idea ). But I will still need to order the 4" plastic pots to move them into when the seeds need transplanting. Not sure what I am doing about that yet, or where I plan to buy all those pots from. Once we get our grow shelves set up I will take some pictures of them. Poor Jake had a hard time earlier this week, I made both manicotti and lasagna earlier this week and he only got 1 meal! I decided to freeze the rest of it for future meals. My Italian, pasta loving guy I think shed some tears when I put them in the freezer. :P Hopefully everyone has a happy and safe new year a head of them, ours is going to be EPIC!

Solstice Gifts

Yesterday was a hard day for some reason. Major ups and downs in the day, but break down to break through right? The highlight of the day was the gifts I received. These five presents came on the longest dark of the year, an egg from each girl. I don't suppose the timing of that happens to often, but lucky me!

Kombucha Brewing Update

Well after brewing sweet tea and putting the sludge of a purchased Kombucha bottle into our jars. We now have two growing, slimy, and weird looking Mother cultures. On this coming monday we'll have been growing these Mothers for 2 weeks. I am not sure when we can begin brewing Kombucha for our actual consumption now that we have our Mothers. I still have more research to do on that. But in the mean time. Pictures of weirdness.

Food and Consequences

Updates

It's been nice and busy for a while. I love that. Of course, I've had the

crafty pants on so that's probably why.

Busy making checkbook covers, envelope pillow case's, oven mitts and an apron. I sewed drapes for our downstairs windows and made a fabric door for our laundry room which doesn't have a regular door. With all the scraps I've been steadily expanding my furoshiki collection.  


We opted this year, not to get a tree. Instead we've decorated our norfolk pine, placed some holiday lights around and called ourselves decorated. Going low key this year seems to be on our agenda. All of our wrapping paper this year is cloth, I've tried to get funky pretty patterns that can be reused again and again.

These are the 12 days of Christmas. We've had these "bulbs" since I was a little kid. Mom gave them to me last year and I put them on our tree. But since we don't have a tree this year, I found another way to hang them! These are our LED lights so I don't feel bad about plugging them in. Plus it's a really tiny string of lights.

At least one more of the red stars is laying. Plus Curious has started laying again. Her molt took 2 months almost to the day from her last egg in October to the one she laid late last week. We are getting just about 2-3 eggs per day. It's nice since I have had to buy eggs since I sold WB and Bee back in August. 


Kai seems to have some really tough calluses on only a few of her pads. I took her to the vet last week and she said to just monitor it and try to soften the skin. So we've been soaking Kai's feet in the tub.... she gives us dirty looks the whole time. Today I covered them with 'vet wrap' and a vitamin E soaked cotton ball. So she prances when she walks. If they start to crack and bleed it can get serious, so I'm trying to be preventative. At this point it's not bad, but if the growth continues and gets faster she'll have to go in for a biopsy on those pads to see what's up. The puzzling thing is, she has no other symptoms that would indicate any disease. She's just being special. :D

Recycling for Cash

How cool would this be? My city doesn't participate but I am going to search more about it and see if they can sign up for it. That would allow EVERYONE to recycle and make a greater impact. CNN's website won't allow me to embed it into this post so here's a link to the video. Recycle Bank

It Begins Again

Drying for Freedom

I can thankfully say I can't remember the last time I used my dryer. My mom scored this drying rack at a garage sale for me so I now have 2. I use them indoors all winter, it takes longer for the clothes to dry but I am glad to do it! Yes it doesn't look beautiful to the average person, but free drying looks really beautiful to me. A movie is coming out about hang drying clothes, it's called Drying For Freedom. Here's a trailer... check it out.

Kombucha Brewing

Ever heard of Kombucha? I hadn't until a blog I follow, Small-Measure, posted about her own Kombucha brewing. Kombucha, pronounced Com-Boo-cha has so many health benefits it's hard to list them all. Here are some links to some websites I found helpful. Check it out and see what you think. Kombucha Fuel Food Renegade (how to grow a S.C.O.B.Y) Food Renegade (Kombucha health benefits)


We've decided to grow our own Kombucha mother rather than purchase one. I started the process last night, it should take about 8 days to brew a batch, from there we'll be drinking this lovely stuff everyday. It's supposed to be 75 degrees for adequate fermenting, since I keep my house at 64 degrees that's not really helpful. I've got them in the oven with the oven light turned on. That keeps the oven at around 78 degrees. We'll see how the fermentation goes!

Thanksgiving Lessons

I learned a lot this year about what it takes before you sit down to the meal. Jake and I did Thankful day by ourselves this year. Before yesterday I didn't have any grasp on what truly goes into that dinner. The stuffing being made the day before so it has time to soak up the juices, how much brine you really need for a 12 pound bird, the art of gravy making. This year I had my Mom's help the day before, showing me the stuffing recipe that is my grandfathers, passing it down. It felt oddly formal, I have it now, I am also the keeper of this recipe. The big day arrived, I had myself and Jacob, only two to dance around the kitchen and make the meal. Jacob was telling me he enjoyed watching Mom and I on Thanksgiving's past, how we seem to intuitively know where the other person is, a well choreographed dance. I had to learn to tell Jacob where I needed him, he is not as comfortable in the kitchen as I am, however, he is my dishwasher extraordinaire. We pulled it off beautifully. The bird cooked in 2.5 hours about 2.5 hours faster than I thought it would. Nothing was ready because.... um I am pretty sure I have 2 more hours. Apparently brining a bird makes it cook faster? The 20 minutes before we pulled the bird out of the oven was a scramble. I didn't stuff the bird so I had to cook the stuffing on the side which has to cook for 40 minutes, just enough time to let the bird sit and cool. Never cut into the bird right out of the oven, it will dry out. I needed to cook sweet potatoes, and I was planning on roasting some root veggies and squash to go with the meal, that didn't happen. I did roast the veggies but they were eaten as leftovers since they didn't make it to the table. I forgot about the cranberry sauce that I had made the day before. So this is what we ate: Turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes (one was able to cook in time), dinner rolls, water and wine. Since the bird cooked much quicker than anticipated we ate "dinner" at Noon. So later in the day when it was dinner time we had Thanksgiving Supper. Which managed to have everything on the plate the first meal intended to have. All in all a fairly successful day. We were lucky enough to give thanks to the farmer who raised this bird. Gary and So at Rocky Ridge Ranch taught this bird to drink (which turkeys aren't born knowing how to do) they raised, fed, watered and sheltered this animal. When it's time was up the death was done humanely. I said thank you to Gary personally for raising this bird, and sent a silent thank you on Thankful day. Knowing where your food comes from gives it more meaning, a relationship. Everything accept for the sweet potatoes and cranberries was grown by someone local or made by me. Putting the time into this meal makes me appreciate past Thanksgivings even more. I would come over and help on "the day" assisting in gravy making, mashing potatoes, or setting the table. But none of that adds up to choreographing the meal yourself. I realize now what my Mom does days in advance, even what she must do to get the bird in the oven before we arrive. I look at this traditional meal with new eyes and I am Thankful for that.

Peace of Winter

I love looking outside and seeing it snowing. It just makes me feel restful. A reminder that I don't really need to be anywhere. Slow down, wake up and look alive, the Mother is hard at work. I've been doing some crafty stuff lately that I am actually kinda proud of. My version of sewing is usually hemming (horribly at that) or some other form of straight sewing. No fancy stuff. Well I have been attempting to branch out. I am glad I have Jacob's help because he helps me "see" the steps involved. If I can't find a great tutorial or even if it is good but I still don't get it, he does. Jake will use objects or sometimes the actual project and show me what to do. Crafty honey! I am thinking about taking a beginners sewing class in January, but I have to see about my shoulder first. I don't want to schedule or reschedule anything just yet. Peace. Enjoy the snow.

Garlic/Onion Powder

I decided to make my own garlic and onion powder, my store bought stuff had run out and I needed more. Turns out it's really easy.

Step one. Dry your garlic or onion. This is my garlic after it's been dried. Slice thin and place in a food dehydrator or if you have an air dryer and time use it. An air dryer is basically shelves covered in a fine mesh that keeps bugs out. Pretty cool, but I don't have one. I used my electric dehydrator instead. I chopped up several garlic bulbs. Enough to fill 3.5 trays of my dehydrator. Plug in and wait. The garlic or onion should snap it's so dry. Crunchy, crispy, brittle or any other such words for completely dry. The onion took less time to dry than the garlic but it was at least 6+ hours. I put it in the spare bedroom with the window cracked and the door shut. But it smelled of garlic and onion that's for sure!

Step two: Once it's dry you need to pulverize it. Blend, smash, food process, mill grinder whatever it takes. Until it becomes a fine powder. I used my food processor and after a few minutes stopped and ran it through a sieve. Keep doing that until all you have is powder. Or If you ran out of room like me (because I made too much) I kept some of the garlic as small ground up pieces. Dried garlic bits to add to soups or whatever. The garlic was staticy and clung to the side of the rotor blade in my food processor. Kinda pretty huh?

A word on homemade garlic/onion powder, it's MUCH stronger than store bought so make sure to account for that when you're cooking.

Eco-wrapping/Furoshiki

I have been working on my version of Furoshiki or cloth wrapping for gifts. Using some left over squares of fabric from other crafts, I fold the corners down and sew the edges, voila homemade furoshiki! It's not beautiful because I can't get the soft edges I could if I had a serger sewing machine. But it still works and all the folding techniques are the same. Here's a beautiful wrap at etsy. And videos of how to wrap gifts on youtube. Most gifts this year will be given in cloth wrapping. Otherwise it will be reused bags, wrapping and ribbon. I save everything I can from gifts I get from others, this way any "disposable" items get used more than once.

Pinwheel Cookie Recipe

So I made a mistake yesterday, the cookie recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens 1953 cookbook, not Betty Crocker. Sorry about that. Here is an image of the actual recipe in the book, you can click it to make it BIG and easily readable. But first I must explain about the chocolate the recipe states 1 square of chocolate. If you don't have chocolate squares you may substitute 3 Tbl. cocoa powder and 1 Tbl. oil for every 1 1oz. square of chocolate. Here we go.

Mix butter and sugar until well mixed. Add vanilla, eggs, and 1 TBL. Milk. Then add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until the dough pulls clean from the sides of the mixing bowl. (sometimes you need a tsp-Tbl. more milk depends on the humidity I think?)

Separate the dough into 2 balls, one only slightly bigger. The smaller will be the chocolate since the extra oil allow it to roll out easier, without tearing.

Place smaller dough back into mixer. Add cocoa, oil ( or melted square chocolate if you're doing that). Mix well. It too should pull away from the side of the bowl when it's mixed correctly.

Chocolate and Vanilla.

Between 2 sheets of wax paper roll out the dough ( we doubled the recipe so the dough rolls out much bigger ) for a regular recipe 10x12.

Like so...

Now add 1 Tbl. hot (not boiling) milk to the top of the chocolate dough. Place the vanilla dough to make a milk sandwich, which helps the two dough's stick to each other.

This is my mom rolling the dough, she's a professional.

Refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours cut into 1/2 thick or even thinner. Bake 375* for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy.

Pinwheel Cookies

Mom made some beautiful pinwheel cookies today. I would link you to a recipe but since it isn't online I can't. It is a Betty Crocker recipe but it's from a 1960's cookbook. The recipe is long and I will have to copy it from the book in order to show you. Maybe later, for now some mouthwatering pinwheels....

Thrift Store Score

This year will be the first year I've cooked a turkey. In order to do that I needed a roasting pan and platter. Check this out! I found it at our local thrifty store. I love second hand stuff! I snagged it by 3 seconds, another woman was eyeing it too! Super score!

Leaves

We have no trees in our neighborhood, at least none that bare tons of leaves for garden mulch. They must be hunted and gathered and stuffed into a Prius.

On Meat Birds

We've been a lot in discussion about raising our own meat birds. The ideal situation would be to have a breeding flock but since we are in the city now and don't have a rooster that won't happen. But we can order or pick up chicks from our feed store and raise them. What we're trying to accomplish is food with little gas thrown in. Birds raised with room to run, eat bugs dust bath and feel the sun shine. When there time is up it be respectful, quick, clean and thankful. Jake and I watched some videos online about harvesting birds and it really isn't that bad. The hardest part is the death, taking the life you helped raise from baby to table. This idea right now is in it's infancy. We won't be able to order chicks to start until next spring. Harvesting is done in the fall when all the wasps have gone and gives the birds time to get to size. So we are looking at a year away. Which is good because it gives us the opportunity to decided whether we are going to raise chickens and a turkey or two? Just chickens? Housing? Space considerations? All of these things are up in the air right now, and we have all winter to decide and plan. I really love that about winter. ************ In other news, the garden has been put to bed. I have done the last of the weeding, clipping dead flower stalks, and mixing the mulched leaves with chicken muck from the coop. I should have great compost by mid spring! I do need to find some more leaves and mulch them to mix with the chicken muck I pull out all winter. Maybe I'll do that today!

Beekeeping Class

We signed up for our beekeeping classes tonight! The first 3 Saturday's in March we will be occupied learning about the bees we'll soon be getting! March is a long way off, but it'll be here before I know it! I am really excited to see those glorious boxes of bees. How awesome will our honey 'bee' I tell you! Now that it's looking like an actual reality I need to purchase those beekeeping books. I have only a small list of them but I'd like to have them read before we undertake the class. That way I can get the most out of the classes. There is so much in the way of language to beekeeping. Things like supers, frames, brood, excluders and more. Should be fun!

Farm City

I started reading Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer today. So far a very good look at what we are trying to do. She starts with garden, bee's and egg chickens. Moving onto raising her own meat birds. I am not through with it yet, it is a fairly quick read I should be done with it in a few days. I really like the respect she shows to her animals with consideration to harvesting them. Harvesting an animal requires more work than harvesting plants but is essentially the same. Planning, growing, caring for and eventual harvest. We are considering raising our own meat birds. Novella Carpenters blog can be found at Ghost Town Farm. Jake and I have spent some years as vegetarians and knowing most tofu or soy products are grown in Brazil where rainforest's are cut down to make way for soy bean fields doesn't seem environmentally friendly. I've done some research on soybean's phytoestrogen's and frankly basing my diet around that is some what frightening. Our big push to eat locally grown, organic, humanely raised, meat seems our obvious choice. We ate our first local chicken a few days ago. The whole bird, because local doesn't mean just breast meat, it means you want chicken well here's the whole bird. Our's came from Rocky Ridge Ranch a farm about 25 miles from our house. They also sell grass finished beef and pork. Amazing people! We are treading lightly with meat eating preferring to eat mostly veggie and legume diet. But veggies are in short supply in the winter months. I don't wish to eat any fruit ripened with ethylene gas (yummy! it's also used for welding). Our food supply is truly frightening the more I look into it. Which is another big push to get as much as we can, including our meat from this back yard farm. Some links about Soy and ripening agents for produce.

Pine needle carpet

Yesterday Mom and I went in search of pine needles. About half of the garden has been covered in mulched pine needles as a walkway/weed barrier. But as we're moving into winter and our heavy rain season all that bare dirt is going to get really, really muddy. So the pine needles also serve as mud protection for the boots! I think it looks pretty good. It sure makes the cover crop green stand out! Another benefit of using needle's is there own wind gust protection. Pine needles interlock with each other when they get onto the ground, thus making them really hard to blow around in the wind. We had thought about using straw in the walk way, but I did an experiment last spring using straw as a mulch. Our heavy winds just blew it way. I'd like to find a mulch for the front yard butterfly/bee garden but I think I'll stick with the pine needs. The problem is finding them in mass quantity. See I don't want to go to a park and rake for hours just to get a small pile of them. Mom and I just drove around the back country roads until we found a strip of pine needles that looked really thick from the tree's hanging over the road. Then we collected the needles. We got 6 full tarps, and stuffed 2 at a time into the back of the Prius. I really need to remember to take pictures of that kinda thing. Then laid it out onto the bare garden dirt. The chickens had fun, scratching though it. Or playing keep away with this new cool pine needle. They really are silly! We're supposed to get winds 25 mph sustained to 45 mph gusts today. Ugh!

Food Inc.

Jacob and I watched Food Inc. last night. A truly amazing movie, there are some very hard parts to watch, not because they are gory or anything. Truthful is more like it. I have a hard time watching the chickens in a cage that grow so big so fast they can't walk. Comparing them to my girls outside made me cry. I urge everyone to watch this movie, if only for the knowledge. To understand where your food comes from is an empowering act. To make informed decisions you really should see this film. I really want to say TONS about this movie, but it will impact you more if you just see it. Have a party, invite someone who may not be aware of the food issues. In other words, don't just preach to the choir. Share your knowledge. If not for your own self, for the future or your children's, children. Please.