DC Solar Home Tour - Visit Falls Church Erdhaus on October 2

The annual Washington, DC Solar Home Tour will be held October 2-3, 2010, and our home will be on the tour on Saturday. The tour runs from 11am-5pm and it is sponsored by:

• Virginia Solar Council
• Potomac Regional Solar Energy Association
• American Solar Energy Society

Pick up your tour guide at Washington, DC area REI stores, or one of several other locations listed at the link below. The guide costs only $5 and is your family's "ticket" to all of the homes on the tour. You also can download the guide from the Solar Tour's website: http://www.solartour.org/guides.html.

Our home is #4 in the tour guide. We hope to see you on October 2nd!

Let Them Eat Grass

A couple of months ago, I was introduced to Broadview Ranch, a multi-generational family owned and operated business that is dedicated to sustainable farming, ethical animal husbandry and fine eating. Since we're living in a green house, I thought this might be a good option to "green" my diet habits a bit. Broadview's tagline is "let them eat grass," referring to their grass-fed beef Their current offerings include beef, pork and eggs.

I was impressed with the quality of the meats and eggs that I bought earlier this summer, and plan to place another order for pick up in September. I thought that some of you might want to try out Broadview Ranch's sustainable food products as well. You can place your order and pick up your products at their ranch. Or, once per month they deliver to specific locations in the Washington, DC area. Order by September 23rd for this month's delivery in DC.

Before you place your order, complete a short referral form and note that you were referred by Mike Nichols to get a first-time customer gift including:

• 1 package ground beef
• 1 package pork sausage
• 1 dozen eggs

I hope you enjoy their products as much as we have.

Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe (also cantaloup, muskmelon, rockmelon or spanspek) refers to two varieties of Cucumis melo, which is a species in the family Cucurbitaceae, which includes nearly all melons and squashes. Cantaloupes range in size from 0.5 kg to 5.0 kg. Originally, cantaloupe referred only to the non-netted orange-fleshed melons of Europe; however, in more recent usage it has come to mean any orange-fleshed melon (C. melo). (From Wikipedia)

At the Falls Church City Farmer's Market a couple of months ago, we picked up a few vines on sale for $1 each. We didn't know how well, if at all, they'd do in the back of the house, but we thought we'd give it a try. A few weeks ago, I noticed a little green ball forming where one of the vine's flowers used to be. It grew, and grew, and grew into a nice cantaloupe. Each day it's been getting more yellow and closer towards ripeness. Today when I went back to water the plants in the back yard, I saw the cantaloupe was detached from the vine and a beautiful ripe color that one never sees on cantaloupe in the grocery store. I brought it inside and began to devour it. YUMMY!