Mutually Beneficial

We are in the unique position in that we are both permaculturists and educators. Our home is our classroom and a working model for sustainability. Our school - The ECO School - is perhaps the smallest, lowest budget non-profit on Earth. We are trying to grow it so that it can be financially sustainable, but our business model is outside of the mainstream and many people do not understand it.

The approach we take at The ECO School is an ecological one. We seek to enter into mutually beneficial relationships with individuals or organizations to provide the highest quality of education for sustainability for entire communities: from children through seniors. In nature this is called symbiosis, and more specifically mutualism. Synergy is another way to describe it: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In permaculture this is sometimes called "regenerative design."

We don't walk in to an organization, school or business and say "this is what you should do." We say, "What are your needs and how can we help you? Here are some ideas for you to ponder, but you decide what direction we take together." In other words, we can help others do what they do better... as long as "better" means more sustainably. Here are three recent examples:

Solscape Eco-Retreat in Raglan is in the process of developing into an education and conference centre. They launched an exciting new educational initiative a week ago today, so we went up to help our dear friends celebrate this important milestone. At the same time, we were able to run workshops at Solscape over the weekend as part of Raglan's Sustainable September calendar of events. We were able to bring the highest quality of education for sustainability to Solscape to help raise their profile as a leading facility in this area, and we were able to reach out beyond our normal audience in the greater Wanganui area and earn some money. (Well, it covered our travel expenses so we had a free weekend away with friends.)

The Green Space in Hamilton is a meeting venue run by other friends. I knew they had done an eco-renovation of which they were proud. Since Hamilton is near Raglan (and where I am an enrolled PhD student) I asked our friends if they would like to tag team a workshop for Hamiltonians. Again, the goal was for a mutually beneficial relationship where the Green Space gets local exposure, attendees get an excellent, low cost educational experience and I get to do what I love to do.

This afternoon I will be heading to Kakatahi School to help a cluster of rural schools plan a term 4 curriculum based on the sustainable use of energy. In this case, the principal contacted me to arrange for this professional development programme made possible by grant writing by the Sustainable Whanganui Trust and funding from the Wanganui District Council. This is a four-way partnership that permaculturists may call a "guild." All four entities benefit from this initiative and at least three schools will be in attendance.

Just in case you are interested in innovative, cross-curricular sustainability education, here are a few ideas I sent to the cluster to think about before our meeting this afternoon. I treat my curriculum design work like I do my permaculture landscape design work, starting with a client brief. This client brief came directly from the principal.

Brief: The topic that we would like to use for our planning would be: How can we be more sustainable in relation to Energy? (in our homes, schools, on our roads and on our farms). Each school has slightly different needs, but I think for our first meeting it would be useful to plan a unit of work for a term, based around the Energy theme. Each school could then adapt the unit to suit. It would be an Integrated Unit incorporating Science, Maths, English, Social Science and the Arts. It would be in the context of Education for Sustainability.

Preliminary ideas: Energy is everywhere around us all the time. Integrating energy across the curriculum should not be difficult, but the challenges will be meeting the needs of different schools, different age levels and different learners. I can provide ideas and support for teachers to adapt specific lessons for their students. Below is a short list of possible approaches. These can be clarified and expanded upon at the cluster meeting on the 30^th.

• I have a professional development workshop called Eco-Maths that uses a PowerPoint slide show to provide ideas on how the teaching and learning of maths can be based on eco-design and home energy use. This workshop is designed to spark ideas that can be further developed by teachers with support from me or a local engineer, or green architect, etc.

• Our eco-thrifty renovation project has an active blog: www.ecothriftydoup.blogspot.com. I could set up a “kid-friendly” version of the blog, that classes to go to and post questions to which I could respond.

• I am an advocate of concept mapping as a teaching tool. I believe it is especially well suited for complex issues like energy. I would be happy to share some ideas on concept mapping.

• Some lessons on solar energy for Level 1 students can be found on the attached example of cross-curricular lesson planning at a Wangnaui primary school.

• I can share some ideas on science activities on various aspects of energy.

• I have an excellent, colorful graphic that compares the efficiency of different forms of transportation. If you have a colour copier it would be worth reproducing.

Peace, Estwing

The Failure of Environmental Education

I ran across this book today. The title is what has haunted me for the last five years.

This is the publishers description available at: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520265394

At a time when wild places everywhere are vanishing before our eyes, Charles Saylan and Daniel T. Blumstein offer this passionate indictment of environmental education—along with a new vision for the future. Writing for general readers and educators alike, Saylan and Blumstein boldly argue that education today has failed to reach its potential in fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. In this forward-looking book, they assess the current political climate, including the No Child Left Behind Act, a disaster for environmental education, and discuss how education can stimulate action—including decreasing consumption and demand, developing sustainable food and energy sources, and addressing poverty. Their multidisciplinary perspective encompasses such approaches as school gardens, using school buildings as teaching tools, and the greening of schoolyards. Arguing for a paradigm shift in the way we view education as a whole, The Failure of Environmental Education demonstrates how our education system can create new levels of awareness and work toward a sustainable future.

Interestingly, one of the main reasons the failure of EE has haunted me is that my teaching practice in a school included organic gardens, using school buildings as teaching tools, and efforts at greening the campus grounds. And it still failed. Now this may be down to my rubbish teaching skills. But I did get plenty of positive feedback from a diversity of sources and a number of teaching awards. And I do not mean to say that this is not where schools should be headed. I was lucky enough to work at one with excellent token environmental programmes that benefited a small minority of students tremendously. But there was no systemic change. So instead of settling for tokenism any longer I left teaching to become a student. My research is still along the lines of Saylan and Blumstein, but more looking at the barriers and opportunities to actually do what they are proposing. It is neither straightforward nor easy.

One of the recent barriers I've come up against - not in my PhD research per se, but in other EE efforts I'm involved with - is what I am calling the Ego-movement. I've been saddened and discouraged by the amount of damage that those within the eco-movement inflict on others in the movement. Don't we get enough thrashing from the outside? Why do those within the eco-movement hold the movement back because of ego? It's a cryin' shame. No really, it does make me want to cry, and it is a shame on our movement.

I am an eco-designer. I design systems with the intention that they be adaptive, exploratory and symbiotic. The business model of the ECO School is synergy. In other words, we seek to enter into symbiotic relationships where both parties benefit and the resultant whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

• What I have learned while trying to implement this ecological vision for environmental education is that most people and organizations have little or no interest in working cooperatively.

• What I have learned by taking an exploratory (evolutionary) approach to building symbiotic relationships is that most people and organizations do not answer emails which express an interest in working cooperatively. From a large number of emails sent to Transition Town groups, permaculture groups, conservation groups, environment centres, etc., my response rate is well below 20%. I understand that people are busy, but if you put your email address on your website, I would suspect that you may expect to be contacted. I find it very sad that so many of those who place themselves in leadership positions in the eco-movement cannot bring themselves - at a minimum - to say, "Thanks for the inquiry. Sounds cool, but it does not suit our present needs." In some cases where websites explicitly call for input, those in control fail to thank contributors or even acknowledge their input.

• What I have learned about email lists, Meet-up groups, and newsletters, is that many of them are not democratic. Many of the leaders of the eco-movement who control these networks for the dissemination of sustainability information do not share the power democratically. In my opinion, sustainability networks belong to the people, and they should decide what they want to learn about or not.

• What I have learned about answering all email enquiries I receive is that many people do not make an effort to thank me for my time and effort. From what I understand, everyone has their opinion on whether saying thank you on email is appropriate or not. Call me old fashioned, but when I know that someone has gone out of their way to provide information for me or to compliment me on something I've done, I write a thank you note. At very least, it builds good will in the eco-movement.

One final note which may come as a surprise to those outside of academia. Since I have become a PhD student I have sent about half a dozen emails to researchers in the fields of science, psychology, and education. And I have gotten a response from every single one. Some say that academics have big egos, but they do not appear to get in the way. And so the sadness is greater that in the eco-movement, ego does appear to get in the way.

While this does not relate specifically to my research, I am still very interested in learning why this unfortunate situation (the ego-movement) appears to be retarding advances in the eco-movement. If you have any ideas or insights, please post them in the comments section or email me at the ecoschool. I promise I'll thank you.

Peace maker, Estwing

Addicted to P

We have an addiction to P in our home. (Note: In no way do I mean to diminish the real problem of P addiction in NZ - indeed, in our neighborhood - or in the USA known as "meth.") The P addiction in our home is all about permaculture. Please be aware that permaculture is not the only ecological design system that exists on this glorious planet, but some say that it is the most comprehensive. To that, I add the most documented. Permaculture has over 30 years of books, magazines, and even a few peer-reviewed papers, as its chronicle. This is particularly useful for those (ie, me) writing doctoral theses on ecological design in science education.

The P addiction in our home results from an approach to permaculture not as a set of principles to memorize and apply in a formulaic manner, but rather as a way of seeing the world. In other words, permaculture as systemic, not systematic. This perspective, for me, results from decades-long involvement in ecological design and a learning disability that was misdiagnosed (ignored) in my youth. In other words it is a combination of nature and nurture. I was born with a brain that is better at seeing at the space in between things than the things themselves. While this may have contributed to my success as an All-American lacrosse attackman (ie finding my way between large defensemen), it also inspired my second grade teacher to alert my parents that I would never read. Luckily, they were both teachers themselves, and sent me to a tutor instead of to the meat works (to work, that is, not to contribute my flesh).

Ethical note: NOT my second grade class. This looks like 4th grade. Wait, maybe 6th grade.

Regarding nuture, I'm not referring to the 17 years of private school or to the amazing support given to me and my brother by our parents. If anything, the rigid, traditional schooling I experienced for much of my life suppressed my potential for systems thinking. The main lesson I learned from school is that it was all a game, and the playing field was tilted in favor of certain brains and away from others. My brain was an other, and I struggled mightily not to drown (below C-level) through primary school, middle school and into high school. Around the time I hit my stride in lacrosse, I also figured out how to play school. Interestingly, some psychologists suggest that certain people outgrow their ADD after going through puberty. I don't know if that was the case for me because I'm definitely still ADD. Instead, I think that I figured out how to succeed in a reductionist paradigm by taking a systems approach. Although I considered earning good grades a game, I never took it as seriously as lacrosse because I did not respect it. It was more of a joke, where sport is serious business.

It was not until I had graduated from university (Magna Cum Laude, now that is a joke) until I came to the unfortunate realization that I hadn't learned how to do anything in all those years at school. I could not grow a garden. I could not prune a tree. I could not build a house. Seventeen years of private education and all I got is this lousy scroll! No, the nurturing of a more holistic perspective did not occur until I began learning how to grow food, prune trees and build - ok, renovate - houses. A garden, a tree and a house are not things. They are systems, and we can never hope to understand them from a reductionist perspective. And for me, luckily, the seed I was born with was not terminated by a "Round-Up Ready" education. I've heard that certain seeds can remain viable for decades and even centuries. By those standards, 17 years appears fair to middling.

But I reckon that was good enough because it germinated in the humus of a pumpkin patch and the dust beneath a crosscut saw. And during the ensuing 17 years (and then some) I've nurtured a holistic perspective by actively practicing systems thinking. It was not easy at first, but with practice strides came. As I took up running marathons I made the easy connection between exercising my body and exercising my mind. At the same time, as a professional science teacher (go figure) I began to develop systemic pedagogies. In other words, teaching ecology in ecological ways. The release of creativity inspired me as a teacher and inspired many of my students. (Some still preferred reductionist approaches to teaching and learning. Most likely because they were familiar to them, and that they had found numerical and alphabetic success under them.)

And around that time I found a Masters program developed and delivered by the amazing Coleen O'Connell and Cloe Chun. Mind you, I had no intention of ever going back to school as a student. But they were willing to embrace a different paradigm for education that resonated with me. I can vividly recall Coleen selling the Masters in Ecological Teaching and Learning to me at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests building in Concord. I listened politely and told her, "I do all those things already." She replied, "And you should get credit for them." I was sold, especially because my employer paid for the degree.

I really must thank Coleen and Cloe for helping advance my education practice, which has lead me here to this computer in this foreign land and an email address that ends in ac.nz. And I must thank the New Zealand government for offering affordable tuition to international doctoral students and very reasonable health coverage. And most of all I must thank my supervisors Chris, Kathrin and Richard. But especially Chris for being an awesome colleague and friend.

Centre for Science and Technology Education Research community garden great potato harvest of 2011.

To his credit (and maybe his regret) he encouraged me to do my research "in a permaculture way." This half-sentence of advice has made the process of PhD research more dynamic, more enjoyable, and hopefully more robust. For example, the methodology chapter in most theses is direct, dry and formulaic. In other words, dull to read and boring to write. Thanks in part to Chris' advice, a holistic permaculture perspective, and drugs (not P), I have had a lot of fun writing this chapter.

Three a day keeps distraction away.

I have engaged with the material and, in my opinion, created something entirely original. Many synergies exist between permaculture and education research. It is just a matter of creating a guild.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Oh, that was exhausting. For you too? This post takes a different approach than previous posts. If this is your first read, take some time to explore others. There should be something here for everyone. Maybe not Rick Perry.

For a snippet of the methodology chapter, see below. Please note it is an unedited first draft that I wrote this morning on 3 pots of organic fair trade coffee. I'd appreciate any insights or feedback. I may even acknowledge you in my thesis.

Peace, Estwing

The P of METHedology

4.7 Validity and Reliability

Many tables have four legs, but stability requires just three. A guild of three complimentary plants - such as the Hopi “Three Sisters”: corn, beans and squash - provides a stable cultivated ecology for growing food. A ship lost at sea can find its way using three beacons by a process called triangulation. In research, triangulation allows for stable (robust) findings and locates conclusions out of an ocean of data. Stable research is said to be reliable (Cohen et al., 2007).

But triangulation in every case described above is not a linear progression. In other words, two plus one does not represent the same incremental increase as one plus one. For example, a table with one leg benefits little from adding one more leg, but hugely from adding a third. Corn and squash planted together do not thrive like they do when beans are added to fix nitrogen in the soil to feed them. And a lost ship is still lost with only two points for reference. In all of these cases, there is a tipping point of integrity reached by triads when symbiosis turns to synergy. The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, and the system punches above its weight. Three, it appears, really is a magic number (Johnson, Year?)

In the world of research, triangulation is defined as the use of two or more data collection methods (Cohen et al., 2007). Campbell and Fiske (1959) contend that triangulation is a mighty way to demonstrate concurrent validity, and the process is deemed more or less essential for those doing qualitative research. Mixed method, or multi-method, approaches in social science research provide a number of advantages. For instance, blah blah…more here...

While major advances in validity and reliability occur between one and two, and two and three forms of data, subsequent improvements tail off quickly thereafter. A more-the-merrier attitude turns to four’s-a-crowd. That said, redundancy is bad neither in research nor permaculture. If one plant in a guild succumbs to an insect pest or disease, or if one method is found to lack validity, then an extra component in the system suddenly proves helpful. In fact, ecological validity in education research requires the consideration of as many characteristics and factors involved in the subject of study (Cohen et al., 2007). Brock-Utne (1996) promotes ecological validity when studying the adoption of new educational policies in actual classrooms. I submit that, when politics and scale are removed, that is essentially what I did in this case. In other words, I developed a new approach to teaching science, provided it to a teacher, and then attempted to chart what actually happened in his classroom. However, ecological validity can run up against boundaries determined by ethical considerations such as anonymity and non-traceability (Cohen, et al. 2007). These considerations were paramount for this study, which took place in a small school in a small town in a small country.

To be continued...

and continued...

and continued...

Times for Permaculture

There is a fantastic article on permaculture in the New York Times that is well worth reading.

I especially love the Lexus ad at the top of the page.

Of particular interest to me as an educator are the many references to transformative learning experiences that tend to accompany peoples' discovery of permaculture. Permaculture is a holistic, regenerative design system that can be applied to rehabilitating degraded land...

Transformed from a weed-infested yard full of rubbish.

...a falling down house...

Transformed from the verge of collapse to a warm, cozy home.

...or a dysfunctional, unsustainable culture.

The belief in perpetual growth without consequences must be overcome.

For learners of all ages, permaculture can be both the journey and the destination. And the truth is, we never really arrive. It is all about embracing certain levels of sustainability, peace of mind, and joy. Here are a few gems I picked out of the article that just might make their way into my dissertation. (See link above for source.)

“It’s an ecological theory of everything,” Mr. Cody said.

The ethic of permaculture is the movement’s Nicene Creed, or golden rule: care of the earth; care of people; and a return of surplus time, energy and money, to the cause of bettering the earth and its people.

In its effort to be universal, permaculture espouses no religion or spiritual element. Still, joining the movement seems to strike many of its practitioners as a kind of conversion experience.

As a system, permaculture impressed him as panoptic and transformational. “It shook my world,” Mr. Pittman said.

“I don’t know that anyone has ever done a double-blind study of permaculture,” said Mr. Pittman of the national Permaculture Institute. “Most people in permaculture are not that interested in doing those kinds of studies. They’re more interested in demonstrating it. You can see the difference in species diversity and yield just by looking at the system.”

As Mr. Weiseman observed, permaculture may be a “leap of faith.” But not leaping might have its own consequences.

“We know what’s right,” Mr. Weiseman said. “We know what’s best. We feel this thing in our bones and in our heart. And then we don’t do anything about it. Or we do. And I did. And it’s bearing fruit.”

And I thought all the NYT was good for was mulching the garden...

Peace, Estwing

Add it up.

After excellent feedback on our first schools programme, The Science of Sustainability, we have developed a new programme we're calling Eco-Maths. This will be delivered to primary and intermediate teachers in the form of a professional development session in about a month. Here is a preview:

Hey teachers...

Want to include sustainability in your lessons but don't know how?

Want to engage students in real life application of maths?

This is your chance. This training session uses eco-design and home renovation to teach mathematical concepts through saving energy and money.

Topics covered:

Area, Volume, Ratios, Percents, Units, Graphing, Rates, and More.

Date and Time: TBA

Location: TBA

Peace and Pythagorus, Estwing

The sad fact...

I'm sad because my beautiful wife has become stranded in Sydney on her way from New York to Wellington because of a Chilean volcano. She has been there for three days and it looks like at least one more. They stamped her passport "Indefinite." (Yesterday she went to a wildlife park and hugged a Koala.) But I know this sadness will pass.

This sadness, however, is another story.

Before my wife became stranded in Oz, I used to spend my idle hours (between dissertation writing and eco-renovation) talking with her. But these days I fill those hours reading blogs. One of my favorite is James Howard Kunstler's weekly contribution. Not only is the post a good read, but the comments section is equally insightful and entertaining. The image above is from the comments section quoting JHK, "The sad fact is we don't want to go where history wants to take us: to a smaller human imprint on the planet, with all that implies."

As an environmental educator for over 20 years, this sad fact is...a very sad fact. I for one, do want to go there, but I appear to be in the minority. The next comment in the thread reads: "Best, I think, to choose poverty before poverty chooses you." Indeed, I have been living below the poverty level in the USA and NZ for over a decade - often below half the poverty level as measured by income and expenditure. And during that time I have lived a rich, full life in beautiful places with healthy food and friendly people. My lovely wife, god bless her, has agreed to live this way too.

And we have fun doing it!

But there is a big difference between voluntary poverty and involuntary poverty. For us it is a mindful endeavor where we are simultaneously saving money, saving resources, and reducing waste. It is win-win-win for us, our bank balance and the Earth. That is why it is so sad that most people refuse to voluntarily shrink their ecological footprint. And now, from what I can observe, it is being forced on many of them by: high energy prices, high food prices, high personal debt, high municipal debt, high national debt, austerity measures, unemployment, population growth, etc.

I read a great blog yesterday talking about how the "Baby Boomers" lived far beyond their means during the real estate bubble (house = ATM) and are now having to postpone retirement because of the fall in house prices and the stock market crash (not to mention, gulp, the coming under-funded pension disaster). Forgive me, but I have no sympathy.

Living beyond your means = Destroying the planet on credit

To me, this is another sad fact. :(

Peace and poverty! Estwing

Perfection

I appears that many global forces of unsustainability have been swirling of late. The synergy with which these forces interact, and the non-linear effects make predictions near impossible. Most economists and politicians appear to be in utter denial of anything other than a return to "growth" and "business as usual." (I'd say that is the one place we are not headed.) But one economist in particular seems to be able to recognize potential problems better than others.

You may recall that Roubini was the one who accurately predicted the financial crisis of 2008. Are you going to believe him, or someone like Greenspan or Bernanke or Geitner who had no clue?

While the right mixture of forces can, indeed, make storms perfect, the right combination of design, communication and education can make solutions perfect. For example, this weekend the ECO School helped the YMCA manage the waste stream for the Connecting Families Day.

No, not that YMCA, this YMCA.

With over 20 years of experience in award-winning resource recovery programs, we felt confident about working with the Y with the goal of a zero waste event. I'll write more about the mechanical details in another post, but the guiding principles for success when managing events such as this are:

1) Plan ahead. Sometimes called "pre-cycling," this means thinking about the entire waste stream of the event and planning accordingly. For example, we ordered compostable cups for both hot and cold drinks. Zero waste.

2) Design. ("Failure to design is to design to fail.") The physical lay out of collection containers is important. They must be clustered together. For example, we had bins for compost, paper recycling, drinks bottles recycling, and miscelaneous rubbish all together at one station.

3) Communication. This comes in a couple of forms. A) Signage must be brief, clear, colorful and at eye-level for both children and adults. B) Announcements can be used to remind attendees that this is a zero waste event and their efforts are crucial for success.

4) Education. Including the why and how of resource recovery is important to give people reason to act. Our education effort took two forms this weekend. A) I manned the resource recovery station to interact with people and monitor quality control. B) Our friend, Hadi, provided home composting advice at the Sustainable Whanganui table.

5) Quality control. Essential, essential, essential. No one wants to pick through dirty bins afterwards. Make sure everything goes in its proper place during the event. As mentioned above, quality control can and should go hand-in-hand with education.

By employing the above strategy, we were able to divert over 95% of the waste stream from landfill while role modeling positive behaviours to families. Those are world-class results. Not bad for weekend work.

More details on our composting process in a later post.

Peace, Estwing

Permaculture Education in Wanganui Schools

After a great deal of effort from the Sustainable Whanganui Trust and we of The ECO School, permaculture education is reaching Wanganui schools.

A recently completed project with Wanganui High School used the Eco-Thrifty Renovation with senior students in a Level 3 sustainability course. The project was used as an example of a "sustainability initiative" for the students to assess on its merits. Two class meetings at the school were followed by a site visit. The project received much praise from students and teacher alike. The teacher said he would definitely get his Level 2 class out for a site visit.

The current project - The Science of Sustainability - at Wanganui Intermediate School involves over 700 students. In coordination with the school's science teacher, The ECO School has designed a programme to get students excited about the upcoming science fair through highlighting the science - physics, biology, chemistry - of a permaculture installation: The Eco-Thrifty Renovation. The scientific topics highlighted include passive solar design, solar cookers, rocket stoves, insulation, thermal drapes, compost, aerated compost teas, organic food production and various aspects of bicycling. Response has been excellent so far.

We've also had meetings with primary school teachers, but term 1 has proved a difficult time to ask them to take on anything new. We continue to meet with primary schools as term 2 appears more favorable regarding work load. Funding for these programmes comes from Wanganui District Council and is administered by Sustainable Whanganui. Thank you!

Peace, Estwing

10 Watt Pasta

We ran a new workshop this weekend with excellent response from participants. The workshop - Solar and Energy-Efficient Cooking - is part of an ongoing workshop series by The ECO School.



We covered a number of different solar cooker designs and cooking techniques during the first half of the workshop. But for those who have not yet made their own cooker, or for cloudy days, we introduced a number of other energy-efficient cooking techniques. Central to many of those techniques is the straw box.



Our straw box happens to be full of towels, not straw. But we still call it a straw box. The key to a good straw box in insulation on all 6 sides.

A great example of using a straw box - not to mention an excellent energy-saving cooking technique - is what we call "10 watt pasta." This cooking technique uses a small fraction of the electricity of boiling pasta for 10 minutes on a hob (stovetop). Here's how to make it.

1) Boil a jug. Because the heating element is inside of the container, heat transfer is more efficient than heating a kettle or sauce pan of water on the stovetop (hob). We fill the jug with our solar hot water which comes from the tap at a high temperature using no electricity.


2) Pour over pasta until covered and place in the straw box.


3) Cover the straw box and wait 20 - 25 minutes. Stir once at 10 to 12 minutes. For al dente pasta, remove at 15 minutes and stir at 8 to 10 minutes.


The pasta comes out perfectly cooked as long as you drain the water at the prescribed times. Use the intervening 25 minutes to make a healthy sauce from fresh veggies and herbs from your garden.






Bon apetito! Estwing