Monthly Archives: May 2012

Casey’s response.

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As promised over at the Digging Deep Campaign, here’s the entire text of the response I received from Senator Bob Casey‘s office when I wrote regarding maintaining food stamp assistance in the Farm Bill. If/when I get something from Senator Pat Toomey‘s office, I’ll be sure to post it here.

I welcome your thoughts – and will start digging into Casey’s positions on the mammoth bill. Since he’s representing me in the Senate, I probably should pay attention to what he’s doing on my behalf.

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Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding nutrition programs in the 2012 Farm Bill. I appreciate hearing from you.

Roughly every five years, Congress reauthorizes the Farm Bill which governs federal farm and food policy. On April 26, 2012, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee met, modified and approved the 2012 Farm Bill. The bill is now pending on the Senate legislative calendar. I am hopeful that the full Senate will vote on the 2012 Farm Bill soon. If passed into law, the 2012 Farm Bill would reduce the deficit by approximately $23 billion dollars through the elimination of unnecessary subsidies and the consolidation of programs. I worked to improve the Farm Bill so it was more fair and equitable for Pennsylvania agriculture. The current version of the 2012 Farm Bill includes benefits for Pennsylvania’s specialty crop farmers, dairy farmers, and conservation programs; and it improves the Secretary’s ability to purchase foods for use in federal nutrition programs. Still, more work must be done on this legislation.

The Committee-passed version of the 2012 Farm Bill supports food assistance programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). I introduced an amendment to the Farm Bill to allow USDA to consider the needs of states and the demands placed on emergency feeding organizations, such as food banks, when purchasing commodities through the TEFAP program. This amendment is included in the current bill. The 2012 Farm Bill also includes provisions to improve access to healthy foods in food deserts and to fund SNAP education and training programs. I have heard from many people about the “heat and eat” provision of SNAP. The Farm Bill permits participating states to coordinate SNAP and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) allowing the LIHEAP agency to provide cash benefits directly to SNAP households. The current version of the 2012 Farm Bill would require at least $10 per year in LIHEAP assistance in order to qualify for the Standard Utility Allowance in the SNAP eligibility determination process.

It is very important to me that the Senate develops nutrition assistance policy that will help Pennsylvanians. I will continue to work with my colleagues on nutrition policy in preparation for when the full Senate considers the 2012 Farm Bill.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.

For more information on this or other issues, I encourage you to visit my website, http://casey.senate.gov. I hope you will find this online office a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office, or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator
P.S. If you would like to respond to this message, please use the contact form on my website: http://casey.senate.gov/contact/

grow it yourself.

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I’m working on it, I swear. What Uncle Sam never tells you is how all-encompassing growing things can be. When I’m not out in the garden, I’m thinking about it, cursing it, or dreaming about it. This is not necessarily a good thing.

But – things are starting to progress. Things are sprouting to the point where I feel like I’m not completely useless. The cold frame is done enough that it’s usable (though the windows are not actually attached to the frame at all, making hoisting the darn things a little difficult) and all the seedlings are outside. That is, all the surviving seedlings are outside. I’m not even going to dicsuss how many seedlings looked fantastic one day and dead the next. (Cilantro and romaine, I’m looking at you).

The peas are going INSANE. They’re already waist high and have completely overwhelmed the sad bamboo trellis that worked ok last year. And something has started munching them – though that only started about a week ago, so I consider myself lucky. I drafted my minions to help me wrestle some deer netting (aka nasty spiderweb craziness) and the peas are securely wrapped. Not sure how I’m gonna get to the peas, but that’s a thought for next week.

Now for the real goods: money. I caved and bought some seedlings at the Grow Pittsburgh seedling sale at the Frick greenhouse, mainly because I was unhappy with how my basil was growing and never got around to starting the dill. But! I was only sent two apple trees, not three, so not being charged for the third tree helped balance that out a little. I SWEAR I will buy no other plants or seeds. I promise.

Even better – harvesting has begun:

Yes, I know, it’s pathetic, but it’s only the beginning. In case you’re wondering, I’m weighing everything on our home food scale (that’s the best I can do), and then heading to the grocery store to see what the corresponding price is on the shelves that week. I’d compare it to our local farmer’s market but since that’s only for four hours one day a week and I’m usually doing a screaming trip to the store a half-hour before it closes, I figured this was more realistic.

hello, perennials

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I know I’m slacking in the garden update department – yell at my life for getting in the way. Seriously, do it, I need things to calm down a little. Thanks.

I took a series of photos last month of all the things that were cropping up in my garden, and I just realized that most of them (except for the peas, overachievers that they are) are plants that are perennials or that were planted last fall. For me, they are the gifts that keep on giving – when you’re slogging through seed starting, or prepping beds, or attacking weeds that seem to grow faster than anything you’ve planted, it’s so encouraging to look over and see something growing that doesn’t need your help (or at least, doesn’t need your help anymore). I hold onto a lot of baggage in my life, but for some reason, I forget how hard it was to plant those 80 onions in December when I couldn’t feel my fingers. I just see those happy green shoots waving at me and can’t wait to yank one up and see how big the onion is. Though I am being good and waiting for a while longer.

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Strawberries hanging out with the daffodil leaves and ivy in the front yard.

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Carrots I didn’t realize were there last year – tops are still good for stock or smoothies.

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Elephant garlic with yellow onions behind.

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Thyme with some male pattern baldness – it’s filled out since then.

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Oregano came back with a vengeance.

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Sage reaching for the sky (ignore the weeds in the foreground).

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Asparagus! I cannot tell you how stupidly excited I was to see this come back.

hanging with the kiddos

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Mother’s Day is the one day a year where I can reasonably expect to get help in the yard from my family without (too much) complaint. This year I plotted to get the most effective use of my eight year old’s time before he declared himself ‘boo-oooored,’ though the rain thwarted some of my plans. This got me thinking about what’s worked in the past for keeping my stubborn mules interested in food:

  • Get your kids involved in planting. The best way I’ve found (so far) to get my kids to try to eat something is to enlist their help in planting seeds and managing the plants. Even if they out and out refuse to eat a pea or tomato from the store, they’ll snitch straight off a plant.
  • Look for recipes that will keep their interest. One year, the Easter bunny brought my picky eater a kid’s cookbook, and we picked a recipe from the book for our low-key meal (I’ll bet you’ve never had chili cheese dogs for a religious holiday). He helped make the meal, we talked about from-scratch cooking vs. processed, and he’s been more involved in meal planning ever since. We’re also in love with ‘Chicks and Salsa‘ by Aaron Reynolds, a book that’s part picture book and part recipe. Both of my kids enjoy reading the silly story about the escapades of farm animals inspired by cooking shows, and the Hog Wild Nachos recipe (what the farm animals create over the course of the story) is GOOD. Like, it’s what we serve on Super Bowl Sunday good.
  • Throw in some creativity. I recently schlepped the kids to the Union Project, a local community space with a ceramics studio in the basement, for a Garden Marker Party. It took the kids a while to warm up to the process, but in addition to my traditional peas and carrots signs, we also have princesses guarding the weeds and a warning against alien ‘abducshun.’
The overarching way I’ve found to get and keep my kids involved in the garden is to give them ownership. That’s *their* plant, *their* recipe, *their* artwork. Hey, whatever gets them sticking around long enough to help with the weeding is fine by me.

have I already told you this?

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I apparently am remiss in telling you what else I’ve been writing (of course, I’m still recovering from Sousa-gate). I’m also way behind on gardening – what else is new? – so I’ll tide you over with tidbits from my weekly posts at The Digging Deep Campaign until I can get some more progress made outside.

And since a few people complained about my lack of good food porn in my last post, here’s a pork sandwich from Union Pig & Chicken‘s lunch menu. This post may be short and disjointed, but it will still make your mouth water!