Food

I guess it’s working

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I hate to say it, but the scale doesn’t lie.

Both scales.

I’ve been weighing my food before I eat it, to ensure I’m getting the right amount of macronutrients. That I get as much protein as I need in a day, but no more. That I don’t take in much carbohydrates, but some. I strive for about 50 grams of protein per “meal” (eating 5x day). The carbs are harder since by weight there’s a much larger variety of “carbs per ounce” depending what food you’re eating. But I’ll still try to keep things reasonable, maybe just 4 ounces or so? I don’t really weigh it THAT strictly due to the wide variance, just try to keep it small and reasonable. Then all the green leafies I can stomach. Heck, at dinner last night the kids were floored that about 3/4 of my plate was covered in a large mound of raw spinach leaves.

But it does seem to be working. I’m at about 228# now, down from my high of 240-ish. I struggled for a LONG time around 235, so the 7-ish pound drop is just from the past few weeks. You can see from this recent picture (scroll down towards the end, I’m the tall guy with the blue hat) that I’m far from fat/obese, just very tall and gaining muscle. I just have a muffin top, and I hate it. Interferes with my desire to try AIWB carry. 🙂

Kiddos and Wife have noticed that I don’t have as much muffin hanging over my belt as I used to. And the bathroom scale (scale #2) doesn’t lie. But, it’s only telling part of the story: pure weight. With the lifting I’m doing, there’s gain of muscle. So weight doesn’t really tell the whole story. I need to do some body fat measurement, and while I have a pair of calipers it’s tough to get consistent measurement.

But it doesn’t matter much, so long as I can tell fat is shedding and eventually I’ll have a slim enough stomach for AIWB.

One thing that I’ve heard a lot about is carb back-loading. Supposedly it really works. I’m not ready to buy into it just yet, but I have noticed that I have already been following a rough notion of it, in that almost all the carb intake I have been getting, since I’ve been measuring, has been in the morning after workouts, tapering off as the day goes on. I want to keep reading on this topic. It’s interesting.

And ZMA I’m sure contributes here some, because after supper there’s ZERO eating. So last meal is maybe 6 PM? nothing again until I wake up around 4-5 AM. And yes, ZMA gives me some wicked strange dreams. Kinda cool.

I have wondered if this is affecting my strength work, and it probably is. While my current lifting routine doesn’t have me work for new rep-maxes, I don’t even know if I could. I’ve noticed this past week when I hit the 5th rep I feel that’s it, or maybe I could perhaps get 1 more if I really pushed it. Not ideal, but it’s OK. I know I’m walking a fine line here in what I’m doing and mixing things that probably shouldn’t. But if it means I can’t get full reps, then that’s alright. If it gets bad enough, I’ll reset and continue forward on this same basic path. No big deal.

 

Sunday coda

/ hsoi

The brisket spent 11 hours in the smoker. A few more hours would have been good, but this was fine. We were hungry.

It turned out alright. Good flavor. Good texture. The Dillo Dust? Too much sugar for our tastes. Made things very sweet. Wife reminded me how good it tasted on roasted winter squash (acorn, butternut). But here? A little too sweet and not enough savory nor salty. Still, overall not bad. Oh, after about 3.5 hours I basted it with some Moose Drool beer and chopped onions (the onion juice is key), then loosely wrapped in foil.

Wife made some pinto beans, and a new cream spinach recipe. She also reports the brisket tasted great with her Becker Vineyard cabernet.

Good food. The laughter of my family. A fine end to the weekend.

Sunday

/ hsoi

Brisket. Check.

Dillo Dust. Check.

Oak wood. Check.

Smoker. Check.

Time to wait? Check.

We’ve had a brisket in the deep freeze for some months now, bought with the side of beef we previously ordered. Alas, with the severe drought and fire risk, I’ve not smoked nor grilled anything in a long time. *sigh* But with all the recent rains and greening up, I’m happy to get outside and do some cooking… at least, while there’s the ability to. I reckon this coming summer will be more of the same as last summer, so might as well smoke and grill while I can.

I got some Dillo Dust in a package of stuff I ordered from Larue Tactical. No, you can’t buy it. I’ve tried it on a few things, like a seasoning salt, and I don’t like it — too much sugar. However, as a rub? Potential. It might work, it might not, I don’t know, but I figure why not give it a try. If it sucks that bad, the dog will be very happy for a few days. 🙂

The brisket had been defrosting in the fridge for a couple days, but by Friday evening wasn’t fully defrosted (due to having been foled in half by the butcher). But it was close enough and I couldn’t wait any longer, so I rubbed it down with what was left of the dust (about 3/4 bottle) and put it back in the fridge. So it’s been sitting with the rub on for about 36 hours.

Woke up early this morning, got the smoker fired up. Extra nice too because well… remember all that xeriscaping we had done? There was a bunch of flagstone left over. Couple years ago, we had our friends at Fertile Ground Organic Gardens come and do a bunch of stuff in the backyard, and they used some leftover stone there to make what Wife calls the “Man Meat Pit” — just an area for me to put my grill. Well, it was fine with the little grill, but once I got the offset box smoker, it was too small. We had more stone left over from the front-yard xeriscape, so a few days ago Fertile Ground came back out and used the remaining stone and enlarged the pit area. Very roomy now! Once the cold weather breaks and the rest of the planting gets done, yes I’ll finally post some pictures of the xeriscaping.

As of this writing, the brisket’s been in the smoker about 3 hours. Keeping it around 250-ish degrees, burning nothing but oak logs. It’s sitting naked right now in the smoker, but next time I go check it I’ll be wrapping it up in some foil. If Wife has any apple cider vinegar in the pantry, I’ll probably baste it with that too. Else I’ll use some beer.

Alas, I haven’t drank any beer. Yes, cooking over fire requires a beer, but I’m trying to be a good boy about sucking down useless calories.

All the kiddos have expressed happiness and are looking forward to the brisket. It’s been too long since Dad smoked one.

We’ll see how this turns out. Supper should be good.

Carbs are killing you

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

We were told fat was evil. Carbs good.

Then everyone got fat.

More and more evidence is coming to light, that while you shouldn’t go around drinking vats of lard, it’s really the carbs that are killing us.

Here’s a good infographic to explain it all. (h/t dustbag)

Basically, it’s all about insulin. Carbs make insulin go up, thus fat gets stored and not used as fuel.

This is what I struggle with, finding the balance of taking in enough carbs to keep me fueled, but not too many as to spike my insulin and store fat. I’ve improved in my habits, but still have room to go further.

I take my box home — but always bring it back.

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I understand why they say “don’t take the box home”, but it bugs me.

Let’s back up.

We’ve been doing the CSA veggie box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden for some time now. We love it. In fact, we love it so much we bought a 1-year long subscription; not just because it meant a discount for us, but because it helped them get up-front money to develop their new 146-acre property. We like JBG, we like supporting them. We want to see them grow and succeed.

A few months ago I commented on an inefficiency in the process. The box is delivered to a drop-off point. We pick it up there. We see everyone bringing cloth bags to take their veggies home. I find this inefficient. From box, to bag, to home storage. If I take the box home, it’s just from box to home storage.

It’s not just number of containers. It takes time to move everything around. So now I’m moving more, and spending more time doing it.

Then there’s the bag. Proper thing is of course to use a cloth reusable bag. But then those get dirty, news stories about them being bacteria breeding grounds. So you now have to wash the bag. That’s going to require more time. Also water, detergent, and that’s just going to create more environmental impact, now isn’t it?

So from my perspective, it makes far more sense to just take the box home.

But by the same token, for this to work, I have to bring the box back. And that I do. I missed one week, but I just brought back 2 boxes the next week. We always bring our boxes back.

Why? They’re expensive! They are thick, sturdy, wax-coated boxes. It’s obvious they are not cheap, it’s obvious they reuse them. I read they use them 10 times or so, and I think I read they cost $2/box. That is expensive and that cost will add up over lots of boxes.

Last week or two, a sticker showed up on the boxes demanding we do not take the boxes home but instead use a bag and follow the above inefficient process. My guess? Lots of people take the boxes, then throw the boxes away. This of course will affect JBG’s bottom line.

They could raise prices, of course. If it’s $2/box, just jack up the cost of every box by $2. But that has a greater impact as well, because the manufacture of all those boxes will have a large environmental impact. Really, reusing the boxes until they can’t be reused is the best option.

So from JBG’s perspective, the best thing THEY can do is tell everyone to not take the boxes home. I understand where they’re coming from. They will have to accept some level of loss, but I reckon the level they’re experiencing is greater than they desire.

That said, I still will take my box home. I will always return it. If I fail for some reason, I’ll reimburse them. Scout’s honor — I’m saying so right here in public and you can hold me to it. The worst I’ll have to endure is the condescending looks I get from other people when I come to pick up my box… but that’s another topic for another time (or you can just go watch the South Park “Smug” episode).

To JBG I say: I hope it’s evident I support you guys. I have voted with my wallet and continue to do so. Know that I am doing what I can to not adversely affect your bottom line, because I know in the end it only comes back to hurt me. I don’t care if the other people picking up their boxes give me condescending looks, because they don’t understand nor obviously care to. I’m trying to do what’s most efficient and right for me, for you, for the environment, however you want to look at it. If there’s something I’m overlooking — and I’m sure I am somewhere — please let me know.

So apparently I like Ethiopian food

/ hsoi

I don’t know how I initially got the yen to try Ethiopian food, but I did… some long time ago.

I heard about this one restaurant, Taste of Ethiopia. It’s not in Austin, it’s in Pflugerville, which is just outside of Austin, and a schelp relative to where I live. I’ve been told it’s the best Ethiopian restaurant in the area, so I’ve been trying to go there for a while. But, it’s difficult to justify the long drive merely for a meal. However, today we had to do something up that way, so I figured we could finally try it. Yes, took the whole family. I figured they would be game to try something new and different, and given they liked Indian food, I figured I had a shot here.

Finding the place was no problem. It was a small but reasonable place. I saw they had a lunch buffet. We did tell the waitress we’d never had Ethiopian food before, so she explained a few things to us. She suggested we could try ordering off the menu and eating in the traditional family style. That style of eating is quite natural to me, either from Wife’s home-cookin’ roots or my Korean heritage. After thinking about it, we opted to do the buffet as the best way to survey a wide range of food. However, Oldest didn’t want the buffet; he saw this thing on the menu – Kitfo, and ordered it.

Let’s see if I can remember what was in the buffet. There was a lentil soup. Of course, the injera (which I’ll talk more about shortly). Doro Wot. A zucchini wot. I think ater kik. Some rice. Collards. Something with green beans and carrots. Another that was potato and cabbage (and turmeric). A few other things that I can’t remember.

But I tasted it all.

Oh my.

It was wonderful!

I love the seasoning. That berbere was just fantastic. I did love the way to eat it all too, with the injera – just tear some off and use it to pick up the food. The injera texture and flavor was really neat, very different. I’m not really a bread guy and by itself I doubt I’d eat it, but given its role in the meal it was really nice. I will say that I had to stop eating it and just use a fork, because I’m trying to keep the excessive bread/carb intake minimize, but boy it was hard today. 🙂

I am surprised to say I liked the zucchini wot the best! The doro wot was good, but it was chunks of white meat chicken; I think legs or thighs would have tasted better. They had a goat-meat dish on the menu, and if it’s a “goat wot” I bet that’d be good. This is just personal preference. I think something a little “greasier” would work well.

But what really got me? The Kitfo. Oh my. That was amazing. The seasoning was just so wonderful. The texture too was so velvety. There was just the right texture, the right seasonings, the right fat (I read now that there’s butter put on it). Oh, it was so damn good. My mouth just loved it in every way.

I see on the menu this chefuye, which could tempt me next time.

Gee. I really really liked this, far more than I expected I would. The kids liked it too. Oldest isn’t a big fan of hot-spicy food, but he couldn’t stop eating the Kitfo… it just draws you back, you just want to keep eating it.

I wish it wasn’t so far away.

I can’t wait to go back. I think next time we’ll order a few dishes, continue to try dishes we haven’t yet tried, and eat them family style. Wife also wants to try the honey wine… not sure she’ll like it (she wasn’t a fan of mead), but it could be prepared differently and/or complement the food just right.

Just before we left, the owner, Woinee Mariam, came out and we spoke with her. She was impressed with Oldest bucking the trend and ordering a traditional dish. 🙂  She was so kind, so sweet; she made us feel right at home. I love businesses like this, as you just want to keep supporting good people doing good things like this.

Can’t wait to go back.

Venison consumed

/ hsoi

Venison acquired.

And venison was consumed.

We pulled out a sika deer tenderloin and a fallow deer tenderloin. I sliced them up, no more than 1/2″ thick. Threw them in the pan with just a bit of canola oil to mitigate sticking. Otherwise, no seasonings, nothing. Let’s see what the actual meat tastes like.

In a wonderful bit of serendipity (because we didn’t expect to get the deer back today), Wife had started a whitetail deer roast (from the whitetail does I shot last year; all hail the FoodSaver!). So, now we had 3 types of venison to try side-by-side, tho of course the whitetail would be a little seasoned.

Verdict?

We all like. A lot. 🙂

Using whitetail as our baseline, we all agreed that both the fallow and the sika are similar in taste to the whitetail — it’s all deer meat, they’re all in the same ballpark, no radical difference (e.g. the vast difference between beef and chicken). The sika seemed a bit milder than the whitetail, maybe a bit smoother texture — Daughter said “buttery” in regards to the texture. I’m not sure I’d go there, but I know what she meant: it was certainly “softer”. Very nice. The fallow had a slightly stronger flavor. None of us could come up with a way to describe it, but it was something with the overtones, a hint of something more, a little bolder flavor but subtle. Texture was also quite nice.

And in some weird way… the whitetail seemed to pale in comparison. Still good, just somehow the sika and fallow tasted a little better. Between the 3 types of venison, there was no grand consensus. Some liked sika more, some liked fallow more. Me, I think I liked the fallow more, but more research is needed. 😀

In the past we were always sparing with our use of venison because you shot what you shot during whitetail season and it had to last until next year. But now? Gee. Just use the venison at will. It’s no trouble getting an exotic, cost isn’t horrendous, and if that means better, leaner, tastier meat all year ’round? Heck, how can I say no? Well… I still love me some beef, but gee… I’m itching to get through all this meat because next I want to try red deer and axis.

New venison

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Just picked up the fallow deer and sika deer meat from Daughter’s first.

A little annoyed that I specified to keep the meats separate and label them “fallow” and “sika”, but they didn’t… well, they did on the backstraps but that’s all. *sigh* Never had either, wanted to keep them separate so we could know which was which as our taste buds experienced them. I’m annoyed, but I’ll cut them some slack as it’s the busy season and they may have just slammed through things due to volume.

We are guessing the little tenderloin is the sika and the bigger tenderlion is the fallow. Not 100% sure, but it’s a 99.9% good guess. They’re thawing and the family will try them tonight. Nothing to them: just defrost, throw it in the pan (maybe a little canola oil to avoid sticking), not even salt and pepper. Try the pure unadulterated meat and see how they taste, and how we compare them to each other and whitetail. Rumor is they’re good, and many prefer over whitetail.

We shall see.

I can’t wait. 🙂

Her first

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

Daughter got her first deer. 🙂

Setup

I’m overbusy these days and I knew spending many mornings and evenings in a deer stand for whitetails was just not going to happen due to lack of time. Still, I wanted to get something. A little time in the field. A little meat in the freezer.

So I thought, how about some exotics (since they can be hunted all year round)? I’ve never had but have wanted to try the meat of axis, red, sika, and/or fallow deer. Everyone tells me they’re better than whitetail, with axis being the best. So for the past some months I’ve tried to make time to go out to DB Hunting Ranch to harvest an exotic but just wasn’t able to make it out… until now. DB works well because the prices are reasonable, it doesn’t have to be a huge time investment, and I have yet to leave the ranch empty handed. No, it’s not hunting in the truest sense, but it’s not like going to the grocery store either. You still have to work for the opportunity. Daughter knows too… she’s been out with me a few times before, so she has some perspective.

The original plan was to do a stalk hunt for a red deer hind (doe, female). Then since Daughter wanted to go with me, originally she was going to just be along for the ride, but since she’s been out with me before but had yet to bag anything well.. I asked if we could get her something. No problem. The plan was to sit in a stand for her, because for a first time that would work out a lot better (could sit, rest the rifle, easier to manage  the excitement and nerves, etc.). I was going to have her get some doe like a sika or a fallow or whatever trotted across. Then after a few hours in the stand, we’d stalk for a red deer hind.

But it didn’t work out that way. 🙂

What Happened

As soon as we got into the stand, critters came out. It was dark, 5:30 AM or so (sunrise at 7:00), but thanx to having my Sniper Hog Light on the gun we were able to watch things. Lots of deer, some rams too. But being so dark and with only red light, we couldn’t tell for sure what everything was. But we watched them and really enjoyed how much the new Leupold VX-R 3-9×50 scope worked (yes, my prior 6.8 rifle problems, I’m 99.99% convinced now it was due to a busted scope). That thing really is crisp and gathers light wonderfully.

6:30 and the sun was rising enough we could start to make things out without the light. Most of the deer had left, just a few rams and one sika doe. The rams were beautiful, but we had no interest because I’m to understand they don’t taste very good and we’re out for food. Daughter kept wanting a buck because there’s nothing to put on the wall with a doe. I was generally against it due to cost and that we’re here for meat… but, I also knew that for a first time, there’s nothing like a memento. So I did some math in my head and kinda figured that if an opportunity presented itself, I’d probably let her take it.

Well, that sika doe just kept hanging around… so I told Daughter to put the glass on it and get ready. We watched for maybe 10-15 minutes and couldn’t get a shot for some reason or other: ram walks in front, whitetail (too young to shoot) walks behind, doe walks behind a tree, you name it…. and just when the doe was close to a perfect shot, something would always happen to blow it. Oh, it was frustrating! I was afraid that she was going to run off or get run off by the rams, but while she’d trot away, she never left our field of view… just never gave us a shot.

But then….

Out walks a fallow buck.

Me: “If you can get a shot, you can take it.”

Daughter: *quiet squeal of joy*

But of course, the buck was completely obscured by other things, just like the sika doe had been.

After a couple of minutes of waiting… 2 more fallow bucks walk in from stage right, and the first buck walks over to meet them. They formed basically a “choo-choo train” line. I mean, 3 bucks in a row, all perfectly broadside. About 45 yards away.

Me: “Pick one. Go for it.”

Unfortunately, they kept walking towards stage right, and Daughter could only pivot so much more to her left. I made some kissing noises to try to get the bucks to stop. They did. GO GO GO!

The 6.8 roared.

I watched the middle buck rear up… I watched the whole thing, knew he was hit. He took off. I kept my eyes on him to see where he went, but he didn’t get far… ran into a large bush, kept running against it, relaxed, reared up, flipped onto his back (NO! I hoped no antler damage), then that was that. We waited for a bit tho… because oddly, after the gunfire many critters ran off but the other fallow bucks didn’t run very far at all; in fact, one of them was right next to his fallen friend and hung around him for maybe 10 minutes or so trying to figure out what was up with his buddy.

While he waited, that sika doe came back to the area.

“Daughter, hand me the rifle.”

I glassed her. She was perfectly broadside. I let it fly. Hey… opportunity was knocking, I answered the door. No, it wasn’t the red deer I wanted, but that’s fine… just leaves me something to try for on another day.

I wanted to wait a little bit longer, who knows what else might present itself… but Daughter was done. So we left the stand and went to see everything. Oh, little girl was happy. 🙂

We called the folks to come get us. Jake cleaned things up. And I’ll drop them off at the processor’s after a couple of days of soaking.

We’re going to get the antlers mounted, and since the coat was so pretty we’re going to get the hide soft-tanned so it could go on a bed or a couch or something. Might take up to 3 months before we see the hide (maybe a couple of weeks for the antlers), but didn’t cost much and should make a nice memento. And so, little girl… next time we’re getting does. 😉

The fun part? Youngest is now starting to show interest in shooting and hunting. He asked when he gets to go. Going to have to enlist the help of their grandfather and uncle to take these kids into the field more… I can’t do it all.

Gun Geek Corner

Now for my fun. 🙂

The rifle is an AR-patterned rifle chambered in 6.8 SPC. The upper is from Wilson Combat (16″) and the lower is a Rock River Arms lower with their sweet 2-stage match trigger. The scope is a Leupold VX-R 3-9×50 on a Larue LT104 mount. The ammunition is Wilson Combat’s 6.8 SPC 95 grain Barnes TTSX.

This is not the first animal I’ve taken with this rifle, but it is with this particular setup.

I had my faith in the 6.8 shaken because numerous hunts and range times were showing odd behavior. Heck, the whole reason I took that water buffalo was because the 6.8 failed. But it turns out, it was the scope… or at least, I’m now 99.99% sure of it based on all that I’ve seen and experienced since then with that rifle and scope, including today’s performance. But after seeing today’s performance? Man… my opinion of a few things has really improved.

First, the scope is awesome. The picture is so crisp, so clear. The light gathering ability is wicked awesome. That night “ccoker”, of TacticalGunReview, and I did a bunch of scope comparisons? It was amazing how well the Leupold stood up against scopes that cost 3-4x as much. I will say, I’m still not sure I like the “Ballistic Fire-Dot” reticle in this context… but I think I need to have it out a few more times before I really pass judgment. I did find my eyes liked the dot being 1 setting above the lowest setting, else the dot was too bright and got in the way (in the early morning light). But all in all, I’m very happy with this scope.

Second, the 6.8 performance was awesome. The rifle worked well, did it’s job. Worked well for daughter, in terms of feel, trigger, etc.. A little heavy, but that’s part of why I wanted to use a stand, so she could have a rest.

But where things really impressed me? The ammo.

I’m a huge fan of Barnes bullets. The TSX’s are awesome and perform so well. But ever since they introduced the 95 grain TTSX’s specifically for the 6.8 well… I read a lot about the performance, and have been itching to try it for myself. The trouble has been that this bullet was only available as a component, so you had to handload. Well, I’ve not had time to get back to the reloading bench to work up a load. I was hoping a factory would produce something. Finally, Wilson Combat came out with a load that measured up to the performance handloaders were seeing. I bought a few boxes. Zeroed things in. And finally got to try.

They knocked the stuffing — literally — out of these 2 deer.

This is the left side, entrance. Daughter shot him in the shoulder. Massive trauma.

And here’s the right side, the exit wound.

Of course, skin peeled back. The actual external holes were small, which is typical of the Barnes (T)TSX bullets. But internally, massive damage. The vital organs? there wasn’t much left on the fallow. On the sika? as soon as the chest was cut open so much poured out… things were truly liquified. Yes I know, a little gross to some, but such is reality.

Comparing this to what the 85 grain TSX does? There’s no comparison… the level of damage done by the TTSX is astounding. Compared to what I’ve seen a .308 Barnes 168 grain TSX do? It’s well… different, but seems almost the same. That’s one thing about these bullets: smaller ones do a lot more damage than lead (core) bullets of the same weight/size/shape. I am just floored at how well this bullet from Barnes and ammo from Wilson performed.

Unless context dictates I need another gun (e.g. nilgai hunting? moose hunting? elk at 500+ yards?), this is my rifle, this is my ammo.

Fin

So, a great morning.

Time with my Daughter.

Got to get away from the computer for a while.

Got some meat in the freezer, and it’s things we’ve never tried before but are looking forward to.

Got to finally get this configuration of rifle/scope/ammo out into the field, and the results were great.

I wondered about the perception of a young girl shooting animals and what some people might think, especially after she puts antlers and hides on her bedroom wall. What are her friends going to think? Well… I’ll tell you what I see.

I see a girl who knows how to take care of herself.

I see a girl who knows how to provide for herself, and her family.

I see a girl who’s not afraid to get a little dirty, and even do things that some may find distasteful… because sometimes life is like that.

I see a girl that knows where her food comes from, and understands other realities about life.

But most of all? I see that boys better watch out… because it’s not just her Dad they have to worry about. 😉

The shit hits the farm

/ hsoi

This just came in the Nov. 10, 2011 issue of the JBG Organic Farm newsletter.

I’ll just reprint the relevant section.

BTW, “biosolids” is just a bullshit “pretty it up” term for treated sewage sludge.

From the Farmer’s Perspective:

I wish I could say that the title of this newsletter didn’t have a literal meaning, but, unfortunately, this time, it really does.  A few weeks ago when I was driving out to River Road, I saw trucks from the City of Austin’s Hornsby Bend waste treatment plant dumping truckloads of biosolids onto the farm next to JBG.   After talking with the landowner, I found out that Hornsby Bend gave him the biosolids for free and also delivered and spread that material.  From my observation, it appears that the City of Austin applied around 100 truckloads of biosolids to this farmland.  Seeing this really upset me because applying biosolids can make land unusable for food production for years.  Given the shrinking availability of farmland in the area and the region’s increasing population, the City and the County should not be endorsing a policy that harms what little farmland remains.

After witnessing this being dumped and spread, I called the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to find out about restrictions for organic farming on land to which biosolids have been applied.  Mary Ellen Holliman, Coordinator of Organics, and Richard De Los Santos, Coordinator for Horticulture, Produce and Forestry Marketing, told me that land to which biosolids have been applied cannot be certified organic for 3 years based on Federal law under the National Organic Program.  More importantly, they said that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the State of Texas have very stringent rules for producing crops for human consumption.  Biosolids are grouped into two classes based on hazard level, and depending on the classification, they thought it could be an up to 10 year wait before land applied with biosolids could be brought back into production for food crops.

I am also concerned that the City and County do not adequately enforce the required waiting period for growing food crops once biosolids have been applied.  It isn’t clear how food produced on land to which biosolids have been applied is kept out of the area food system.  In fact, there appears to be very little oversight, and as a farmer, I was even encouraged to use biosolids when I toured the facilities at Hornsby Bend.   At that time, I was offered biosolids for purchase for a fertilizer for my commercial vegetable farm.  I then did some research and found that I could not use this for food production under State and Federal law, and, therefore, did not purchase anything from the plant.  The staff at Hornsby Bend, however, did not tell me any of this despite knowing that I was a vegetable grower.  Instead, I had to do the research myself.

By allowing biosolids to be spread on area farms, the City and Travis County put valuable farmland out of commission for years and endanger the health of their citizens through lax oversight.  Instead, the City and County should adopt a policy that prohibits biosolids from being applied to farmland for food or hay crops.  Since witnessing the dumping of biosolids at the farm next to JBG, I have been trying to get the word out to other growers and the public about the current City and County policy.  I thank you for taking the time to read this, and I will keep you posted on any actions you can take in the future to help change this harmful practice.

It’s bothersome this stuff is being utilized as it is.

10 years is a mighty long time… that’s a lot of damage being done to the soil.

It’s more bothersome that, despite the use of sewage sludge being illegal for food production, the city agents offered it to him to use.

And the city is still doling it out.

Gee… and Austin touts itself as such a “green” city. Seems a little brown to me….