Colette’s Hot Sauce

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Small batch hot sauce made in Takoma Park, Maryland.  Five different varieties available (see below).

I grew the peppers in my backyard container garden, using organic potting soil and compost from my own composter.

Ingredients: Hot peppers, White Wine Vinegar, Sea Salt

 $8.00/bottle 5 oz.

 

“Just a note to say thank you for creating such a fresh and natural hot sauce. I was surprised at the richness the Devil’s Tongue and Red Ghost Pepper hot sauces brought out in my food. I’m looking forward to trying some of the other choices.”  –Audrey

“Colette’s hot sauces are absolutely DELICIOUS! They are incredibly versatile and spruce up so many different types of dishes. I’ve used them on a variety of dishes, including: pastas, tacos (ghost pepper on my fish tacos are a favorite!), chilis, and salsas. As someone who loves her hot sauces and the quality of it, I can honestly say that it continues to spruce up and complement the flavors of my my dishes daily. Go ahead and taste it on it’s own too — its so fresh and pickled just perfectly!   –Tina

“Here is why we love it –the Dragon’s Tongue packs a hot hit without overwhelming the delicious smokey pepper flavor. Great for tacos and chili.”  –Mike

 

TO ORDER PLEASE CONTACT:  coletterausch@gmail.com

Front door no contact delivery for $1 in Takoma Park and Silver Spring area (inside beltway).

 

Hot Sauce Varieties:

Carolina Reaper 

Scoville heat units (SHU): 1,400,00 to 2,200,000

Sweet. Fruity.

White Ghost Pepper

Sweet. Fruity. Earthy.

Scoville heat units (SHU): 855,000 to 1,041,427

Devil’s (Dragon’s) Tongue

Sweet. Fruity. Citrusy.

Scoville heat units (SHU): 125,000 to 325,000

Habanero

Sweet. Fruity. Tropical. Smoky.

Scoville heat units (SHU): 100,000 to 350,000

Lemon Drop

Sweet. Fruity. Citrusy.

Scoville heat units (SHU): 15,000 to 30,000

To read more about hot pepper varieties and where the information about each pepper above came from, see: www.pepperscale.com/hot-pepper-list/

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Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Nepal: A Slow Path

This report is a USIP PeaceBrief copied in full here. The original appears at: https://www.usip.org/publications/2017/08/reconciliation-and-transitional-justice-nepal-slow-path

August 2, 2017 / By: Colette Rausch

In 2006, the government of Nepal and Maoist insurgents brokered the end of a ten-year civil war that had killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands. The ensuing Comprehensive Peace Agreement laid out a path to peace and ushered in a coalition government. Nepal’s people were eager to see the fighting end. Their political leaders, however, juggled competing interests, power dynamics, personal ambitions, and party interests. Nepal was confronted with profound challenges, including determining the nature of the state and rewriting the constitution. Meanwhile, the open wounds of the conflict cast a shadow over hopes of moving forward.

Summary

  • The 2006 peace agreement between Maoist insurgents and the government of Nepal promised constitutional and political reform, reconciliation, and transitional justice.
  • Implementation of the agreement, however, has been slow.
  • Yet, despite skepticism about government accountability, more than sixty thousand victim complaints have been submitted, suggesting an enduring hunger for justice.
  • The government can help satisfy that appetite by clarifying jurisdiction, furnishing resources, and creating mechanisms.
  • Meanwhile, Nepal’s people and politicians have grown accustomed to working together. Disaffected groups no longer feel that violence is their only recourse.
  • If these gains are to continue, the transitional justice process must continue to advance, even if piecemeal.

Introduction

Nepal’s capital city is a boisterous place. By day, Kathmandu’s roads are a vehicle-clogged chaos. Even in the relative quiet of the evening, a visitor senses a city brimming with life and cautiously optimistic. This is a stark contrast to 2006, when streets in the evening were not just quiet but dark and desolate as well, armored personnel carriers standing sentinel at checkpoints.

That year was momentous for Nepal. In the spring, nineteen days of public protests in Kathmandu became known as Jana Andolan II—the People’s Movement II. Jana Andolan I had in 1990 ushered in parliamentary democracy. Those initially peaceful demonstrations had turned violent, injuring some security forces and leaving dozens of protestors dead or wounded. King Gyanendra reluctantly declared that he would relinquish executive authority to political parties and reconvene the dissolved parliament.

The backdrop to this turbulence was a violent conflict between Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN Maoist) insurgents and government forces, a ten-year war that had taken more than thirteen thousand lives.1 After the king stepped down, the new government in May began peace talks with the CPN Maoist. A cease-fire was declared. In November 2006, the government and the rebels signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which laid out a path to peace and brought the CPN Maoist into parliament and a coalition government. Key elements were provisions for reconciliation and transitional justice.

The Nepalese watched anxiously to see whether these and other provisions would be implemented. Had they known then what they know now, they might have been disappointed. But they might also have taken heart that though the steps of reform were small and slow, they did advance. This is a story not of a breathtaking sprint toward justice and stability, but of how peace can take root slowly, almost imperceptibly.

Transitional Justice, a New Concept

In 2006, most Nepalese were only just beginning to hear about transitional justice. The question was whether it could work in Nepal to hold people accountable for abuses committed during the insurgency. The term has come to mean a process or a series of processes that address past abuses to accomplish such goals as establishing the truth of what happened, acknowledging the suffering of victims, holding perpetrators accountable, compensating for wrongs, preventing future abuses, and promoting social healing.

War crime tribunals are perhaps the best-known mechanism but are by no means the only one. Some mechanisms are judicial, such as tribunals. Others are nonjudicial, such as trauma-healing programs, reconciliation projects, reparations, or memorials. Whatever form it takes, transitional justice has the same fundamental rationale: by addressing the past, the future will not be scarred by wounds that make it difficult for peace and security to grow. The rationale is sound but the task enormous; healing a society after atrocities and abuses is almost always a complex and long-term undertaking.

It is unclear whether the CPA authors appreciated how challenging transitional justice can be to put into practice. And although some skeptics question whether the CPA signatories really wanted to see that happen, no one doubts their readiness to sign an ambitious peacebuilding agenda. The CPA not only called for restructuring the state and drafting a fresh constitution but also included progressive provisions for a truth and reconciliation commission. The commission’s goal would be to create “an atmosphere for reconciliation in society” by probing “into those involved in serious violations of human rights and crimes against humanity in the course of the armed conflict.” 2

Toward Justice

Implementing the peace agreement, however, posed a greater challenge than drafting it. Most of Nepal’s people were eager to see the fighting cease and to tackle the issues that had driven the conflict. Their political leaders, however, were juggling competing interests, power dynamics, personal ambitions, and party interests. The open wounds of the conflict were also casting a shadow over hopes of moving forward.

Issues were profound and had far-reaching implications. The nature of the state had to be decided. What type of federal system and how many states should Nepal establish? What type of electoral system, governance, and judiciary should be set up? How should power be shared across national, provincial, and local governments?

Many issues are related, directly or indirectly, to transitional justice. How could the rule of law be fostered and the era of impunity ended? How could security forces, Maoists and other political leadership be held accountable when they are in government? How could conflict be prevented if accountability was not handled carefully? How could the needs of the victims be met and the exclusion of marginalized groups ended? How could failure to do so avoid fueling resentment and provoking violent conflict?

How bleak is the outlook for justice and reconciliation in Nepal? On balance, there may be reason for guarded optimism.

Progress therefore came slowly. Not until 2015 was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CEIDP) established. The TRC and the CEIDP had been envisioned in the CPA as well as the Interim Constitution promulgated in 2007, but creating the two commissions had stalled in the years of political stalemate and judicial wrangling over whether the guilty could be given amnesty.

The TRC reports that it has collected nearly sixty thousand complaints, which include allegations of torture, rape, and murder by both security forces and Maoists. The CEIDP has received almost three thousand.3

The number of complaints suggests a continuing hunger for the truth and accountability. Concrete examples of accountability, however, are hard to find. Recently—in spring 2017—the Supreme Court sentenced three former army soldiers to life imprisonment for killing a fifteen-year-old girl during the civil war, but this was only the second such conviction.4 Many victims’ families are skeptical of the ability of either commission to deliver justice. As the sister of one of the disappeared said, the CPA’s “provisions were good, but the political party has been defining the process [of establishing the CEIDP] to their advantage and the commission will not proceed independently.”5

Many others share this lack of faith. In January 2017, a Human Rights Watch researcher said that “it has become clear that no political party, including the Maoists, were ever committed to the idea of delivering on justice and accountability for victims. There is absolutely no political will.”6 A former government official declared in an interview that the TRC is not functioning and doubted that it ever will. A human rights activist agreed. Both felt that political will is lacking because accountability would implicate not just high-level political actors but also high-ranking members of the security forces. In the absence of international pressure, the former official remarked, the government would do little to hold individuals accountable.

A former senior police officer observed in an interview that many who served with the security forces during the conflict see themselves as innocent because they were following government orders. If they are to be held accountable, many ordinary soldiers and police believe, the political leaders who dictated strategy should also be brought to trial. Should a tribunal be established, the jurists need to have the specialized training and experience to understand the realities of wartime actions. The situation is further complicated by the fact that veterans within the security forces are choosing to forget what happened during the conflict. In addition, new recruits are often uninterested in discussing—much less addressing—the past. Meanwhile, the wider divisions within society that catalyzed the conflict are not being tackled. The danger is that this inactivity will push Nepal back into political turmoil or violence.

A Case for Guarded Optimism

How bleak, then, is the outlook for justice and reconciliation in Nepal? On balance, there may be reason for guarded optimism. Yes, the country has a long way to go before it can overcome its trauma and divisions, and a variety of factors and forces could erode its social fabric unless carefully handled. The government’s sluggish response and inefficient distribution of aid following the 2015 earthquake that killed nearly nine thousand, injured thousands more, and displaced nearly three million has left the public highly dissatisfied.7 The constitution adopted the same year continues to stir controversy, some groups—notably the Madhesi, in the lowlands that border India—demanding that it be immediately amended to better represent their interests.

Many countries—such as Libya, Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan—that have experienced violent conflict and a change of regime have failed to emerge from conflict. In contrast, Nepal has stopped the fighting and so far avoided a renewed cycle of violence. Some former Maoists combatants have integrated into the security forces or returned to civilian life. After many years of negotiation, a new constitution was finally adopted.8 In May and June 2017, local elections were held (in six of seven provinces) for the first time in twenty years; amid tight security, turnout was high and few violent incidents were reported.

No less important, the tone of some public discourse has shifted. Nepalese still bemoan corruption and self-interest among government officials and political party leaders, but those complaints used to be angry or resigned at the inevitability of corruption. Today, people see the possibility of accountability and are readier to participate to improve the quality of governance. In the past, disaffected groups felt that violence was the only option; today, they seem more open to constructive dialogue and to conflict resolution mechanisms.

Publicly at least, Nepal’s political leaders are voicing a strong commitment to transitional justice. In June 2017, just after being elected prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba declared that “completing the transitional justice” would be a “major focus” of his government.9 Deuba’s election, which was supported by the Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, is itself a sign of reconciliation. In 2001–02, Deuba’s cabinet put a bounty of five million rupees on Dahal’s head. Today, the two men are honoring a gentleman’s agreement to take it in turns to serve as prime minister, and are “promising to work together to institutionalize the gains” of the postwar years.

Recommendations

If Deuba’s public commitment is not to be dismissed as rhetoric, the government needs to help the TRC and the CEIDP win the trust of victims’ families and the respect of those accused of wartime crimes. Similarly, if the gradual shift in the national mood—from fear and anger to a unifying sense of building a society developing dialogue—is to continue, the transitional justice process must continue to advance.

What government actions might encourage progress?

Determine jurisdiction. The debate over whether the regular courts or the TRC should have jurisdiction over wartime crimes needs to be resolved openly and promptly. The act that established the TRC gives the commission jurisdiction. The Nepal Supreme Court, however, has ruled that it has jurisdiction over cases already lodged and that such cases cannot be transferred. The Court has also invalidated a general immunity provision in the TRC act. To date, no decisions have been discussed or made to amend the TRC in accordance with the Court’s orders. Lack of resolution undermines rule of law.

Allocate resources. The government needs to commit adequate resources for the TRC and the CEIDP to function effectively and begin working. Resources include everything from logistical and administrative support to experienced and expert personnel. International donors are not interested in funding unless the government can show compliance with international legal obligations. The government must commit to providing adequate financial support or find a way to satisfy international donors.

Consider parallel mechanisms. Policymakers should recognize that the TRC and CEIDP cannot realistically handle tens of thousands of cases. To deal with the backlog, parallel mechanisms could be set in motion. Determining jurisdiction could clear the way for a division of labor whereby the courts would handle the most serious crimes. Those accused of serious crimes would be tried by jurists well versed in crimes arising from armed conflict. Victims’ families would benefit by seeing their cases dealt with far more promptly than now.

Such steps would help Nepal move forward. The transitional justice process has been slow, imperfect, and undramatic, but it remains essential. If the past is ignored rather than addressed, then sooner or later conflict will return.

Notes

  1. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal Conflict Report 2012 (Geneva: UNOCHR, 2012), http://www.lan.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AsiaRegion/Pages/NepalConflictReport.aspx.
  2. For the text of the agreement, see http://www.usip.org/publications/2006/11/peace-agreements-nepal.
  3. Lekhaneth Pandey, “TRC, CEIDP to Accept Complaints Again,” Himalayan Times, February 16, 2017.
  4. “Maina Sunar Murder: Three Army Officials Sent to Jail for Life,” Himalayan Times, April 17, 2017.
  5. International Center for Transitional Justice, “Ten Years after Peace, Is Nepal Finally Serious about Finding Its Disappeared?” August 29, 2016, http://www.ictj.org/news/nepal-disappeared-search.
  6. Kai Schultz, “A Decade After Nepal’s Maoist Rebellion, Little Justice for Victims,” New York Times, January 29, 2017, http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/world/asia/a-decade-after-nepals-maoist-rebellion-little-justice-for-victims.html.
  7. Mark Leon Goldberg, “Nepal Earthquake Facts and Figures,” UN Dispatch, May 19, 2015, www .undispatch.com/nepal-earthquake-facts-and-figures/.
  8. For the text of the constitution, see http://www.lawcommission.gov.np/en/documents/2016/01/constitution-of-nepal-2.pdf.
  9. Binod Ghimire, “Deuba Elected PM for Fourth Time,” Kathmandu Post, June 7, 2017.

About this Brief

This Peace Brief examines the slow progress Nepal has made toward transitional justice and reconciliation since the 2006 peace agreement that ended a ten-year civil war. It complements other United States Institute of Peace (USIP) efforts in Nepal, which include facilitating discussions and sharing resources on transitional justice.

Colette Rausch is an associate vice president, Global Practice and Innovation at USIP, where she leads the development of new approaches, research, learning, and tools to be used to address violent extremism, strengthen inclusive societies, and promote justice, security, and rule of law. She recently visited Nepal, eleven years after she first began working on rule of law–related projects in the country.

Inclusive Peace Processes Are Key to Ending Violent Conflict

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(This report is a USIP PeaceBrief copied in full here. The original appears at: https://www.usip.org/publications/2017/05/inclusive-peace-processes-are-key-ending-violent-conflict)

Friday, May 5, 2017 / By: Colette Rausch; Tina Luu

Violent conflict, refugee flows, and internal displacements present international policymakers and practitioners today with unprecedented challenges. Tackling these problems requires not only signed peace agreements but also sustainable peace. It is not enough to bring armed actors to the negotiating table, however. To be effective, the peace process needs to be inclusive and participatory. But what constitutes inclusive participation, and how can peacemakers and peacebuilders achieve it in their own, very different societies? Drawing on discussions in a public forum held in early 2017, this Peace Brief looks at the elements of peacebuilding and explains how critical inclusive participation is to that process.

Summary

  • The number of armed conflicts reached a post–Cold War peak in 2015, exacting a terrible death toll and forcing millions to flee.
  • One key to reaching a sustainable peace is inclusivity, which can knit together a frayed social fabric and give all groups a stake in transforming their country.
  • Conflicts have many levels, and peacebuilders need to create paths between them, creating opportunities for involvement and linking issues and groups.
  • Various peacebuilding strands of issues or activities—such as building trust and consulting with affected groups—can be woven together to strengthen a peace process.
  • Enabling marginalized groups to influence the content of a peace process increases the chances of a sustainable peace.
  • Peacebuilders are sharpening their understanding of how to achieve inclusivity but knowledge gaps remain. Multidisciplinary efforts are required.

Introduction

Violent conflict has taken a heavy toll in recent years. Surging refugee flows and internal displacements have presented international policymakers and practitioners with stark challenges.1 Any effective long-term strategy to tackle these problems must prioritize processes that not only produce agreements but also bring sustainable peace. The chances of such an outcome are greatly enhanced by an inclusive process.

Why Does Inclusion Matter?

More armed conflicts—both state-based (fifty) and nonstate (seventy)—broke out in 2015 than any other year in the previous twenty-five years.2 The death toll totaled an appalling 118,000, down from 2014 but still the third highest since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Most of these deaths are occurring in societies not only scarred by protracted violence but also torn by deep divisions.

In countries ravaged by war, social cohesion is typically threadbare. Populations are divided along multiple fault lines, with some communities denied access to social, political, or economic power because of how they identify themselves and are identified by others. These identities, which typically overlap, can include age, gender, race, ethnicity, and culture or language as well as physical, economic, and social status. Fragmentation and competing identities within a society, coupled with real or perceived exclusion, can fuel violence and undermine peacebuilding efforts.

Building more sustainable peace depends on healing the wounds and defusing the underlying tensions that have pulled apart the social fabric of a country. An effective peace process can be the tool with which to knit together that frayed fabric and generate enduring stability.

It is not enough to bring the armed actors to the negotiating table. To be effective, the process needs to give all groups in a society the opportunity to be heard and to have their concerns addressed. This in turn ensures that those most affected—in terms both of fighting on the front lines and of bearing the brunt of the consequences—are actively involved and have a stake in their country’s transformation. An inclusive peace is likely to be a sustainable one.

But what constitutes inclusive participation, and how can peacemakers and peacebuilders achieve it in their own, very different societies?

Multiple Levels, Multiple Strands

Conflicts have multiple levels, and thus many paths “must be pursued in the efforts to attain peace,” explains Jonathan Cohen of Conciliation Resources. Those levels can be defined in a variety of ways—politically, socially, geographically, thematically, organizationally, and so forth—and peacemakers and peacebuilders need to determine the most efficient paths into and between them. Each level consists of subparts (political parties, identity groups, issues unique to regions within a country, ranks within a government bureaucracy, or armed group) that peacebuilders should assess as they draw up their plans. Achieving inclusivity requires identifying key stakeholders across these areas, creating opportunities for meaningful involvement, and linking relevant issues and opposing groups.

For instance, the peace process in Northern Ireland involved efforts to mediate and facilitate not only at the highest political levels but also at lower ones and within civil society. Indeed, especially in the initial stages of the peace process, most activity occurred at the civil society level. Mari Fitzduff of Brandeis University estimates that 60 percent of that success was due to civil society’s capacity to mediate, educate, brainstorm new ideas, and bring members of antagonistic communities together. Peacebuilders worked hard to develop this capacity: civil society leaders “can go where politicians cannot go,” and “civil society provided opportunities that were unthreatening to bring political and paramilitary parties together.”

Nonetheless, building peace is not possible without engaging those with the power and authority to foster legitimacy for the process and ensure that outcomes are translated into institutional change. Although Fitzduff emphasizes that “civil society can do a lot of the difficult work that political and military parties cannot do themselves,” she also points out that “people-to-people talks, by themselves, will rarely develop into the kinds of conversations you need in terms of developing an actual peace process….There is little point in developing just relationships if you’re not prepared to also develop structures. People become very suspicious if they think you just want to be friends and not address existing inequalities.”

Moreover, those inequalities need to be addressed across international, national, provincial, municipal, community, and even individual levels. As evidenced in Iraq, localized efforts to facilitate reconciliation in the aftermath of conflict require community- or tribal-based consultations, which can also help bolster the durability of a national peace agreement.3 Michael Shipler of Search for Common Ground emphasizes the need to localize peacebuilding efforts, affirming that “most violent conflicts are deeply personal,” even those that engulf an entire country.

Conflicts and peace processes that seek to resolve them also have multiple strands—that is, issues or activities. Common peacebuilding strands include building trust between opposing parties, generating public support, and consulting with affected communities. If interwoven intentionally and skillfully, with a keen understanding of the conflict environment, these strands can significantly strengthen a peace process.

In Nepal, for example, after a peace agreement ending a ten-year civil war was signed, a critical period when further violence could have derailed implementation of the peace process, the Justice and Security Dialogue program at USIP brought the police and local communities together to build trust, dispel prejudices, and develop joint responses to common concerns.4 Police-community relationships were improved, paving the way for justice, security, and rule of law reforms that helped solidify the nascent peace and prevent violence. In the district of Morang, in southeast Nepal, the number of violent youth demonstrations fell by 80 percent after youth were engaged in the program. Today, ten years later—and two years after locals assumed complete control of the program—many of the partnerships and initiatives continue to have a sustained positive impact. The Nepal program has become a model for efforts in Burkina Faso, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Similarly, in the Philippines, local nongovernmental organizations worked to engage women in the Mindanao peace process by consulting with women in conflict-affected areas and raising social awareness. This outreach resulted in seventy-two consultations with approximately 2,750 women from diverse backgrounds throughout the Bangsamoro and helped extract important insights, foster intercommunal dialogue, and address common challenges and concerns.5 The consultations also led to a Women’s Summit of three hundred Muslim, indigenous, and Christian women and a set of recommendations they presented to the Bangsamoro Transition Commission for the new Basic Law, a regional constitution for Bangsamoro.6

Given the multiple actors and levels and the complexity of interweaving multiple strands, clarity of objectives is essential, as is a realistic timeline. The goals of peace processes should be identified “and made clear from the start,” argues Doga Eralp of the School of International Service at American University. “Too often,” Elizabeth Murray of USIP’s Africa team observes, “national dialogues will result in dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of recommendations without a clear plan of how they can be implemented through law and policy.” But, Murray adds, it is essential that key recommendations be translated into action and that the public see implementation occurring.

Build Partnerships and Broaden Participation—but Not Blindly

Ensuring transparency and creating channels for public participation can help legitimize the process. For example, Murray notes that national dialogue processes “can garner more legitimacy when [public] participation is included at an earlier stage.”7 The importance of this participation lies in the public’s ability to “contribute to the national discourse and dialogue about the change of their society,” Shipler explains. Peacebuilders should facilitate participation by creating channels—such as through social media or radio shows—through which the public can contribute to the national discourse on how to change their society.

Cohen explains the importance of understanding and responding to diverse constituencies and constructing partnerships across communities; doing so, he says, is essential if peacebuilders are to address root causes and develop relationships that can push the boundaries of conflict lines. “All stakeholder groups affected by conflict conditions in the country [must] have a seat at the table,” Murray observes. The participation of groups with a direct stake in either the continuation or the termination of conflict will create opportunities to foster trust and cooperation. Murray cites the challenges in South Sudan’s National Dialogue, where the government’s centralized control of the process and a lack of meaningful public participation led to a discredited process and opposition group boycotts.

More specifically, engaging historically excluded or marginalized groups, exemplified by the positive engagement of women in Colombia’s peace process, is vital to fostering inclusion.8 Indeed, increasing evidence suggests that not only including women but also enabling them to have an influential role increases the likelihood of reaching and implementing a peace agreement.9

Last, the timing and manner of inclusion requires forethought. Depending on how they think a peace process will affect their interests, both powerholders and marginalized groups may try to act as spoilers. To minimize this potential, those managing the process need to carefully choose whom to involve, their degree of involvement, and the timing of each participation.

Conclusion

Conflict in divided societies is complex and has no single solution. Peace processes are vital tools but cannot on their own achieve sustainable peace. The international community should not only help develop an agreement and shape a process but also grapple with longer-term challenges of building national identity, transforming entrenched systems, and improving poor governance. As Fitzduff argues, societywide efforts to create or transform institutions and power structures and to strengthen rule of law and justice and security are required to address inequalities and other drivers of conflict.

A variety of definitional and structural knowledge gaps remain around the process of inclusive participation. What do we mean, beyond formal negotiations, by the term peace processes? How do we weave together levels and strands of peacebuilding activity? How can we deal with dilemmas in the politics of inclusion (such as when the inclusion of one group creates a backlash or brings a process to a halt)? What mechanisms have been used, and how effective have they been?

Addressing these knowledge gaps using a multidisciplinary approach will help develop innovative tools and good practices for practitioners and policymakers working on the design and implementation of inclusive peace processes.

Notes

  1. Alexandra Bilak, Gabriel Cardona-Fox, Justin Ginnetti, Elizabeth J. Rushing, Isabelle Scherer, Marita Swain, Nadine Walicki, and Michelle Yonetani, 2016 Global Report on Internal Displacement, Norwegian Refugee Council/Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, May 11, 2016, http://internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2016/2016-global-report-internal-displacement-IDMC.pdf.
  2. Uppsala Conflict Data Program, “2015: Number of Deaths,” Uppsala University, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, http://ucdp.uu.se/#/year/2015.
  3. Fred Strasser, “How to Foster Peace in Iraq after ISIS,” USIP In the Field, February 13, 2017, http://www.usip.org/publications/2017/02/how-foster-peace-iraq-after-isis.
  4. Nigel Quinney, “Justice and Security Dialogue in Nepal,” USIP Building Peace no. 1, June 2011, http://usip.org/publications/2011/06/justice-and-security-dialogue-nepal.
  5. “Operationalising Women’s ‘Meaningful Participation’ in the Bangsamoro: Political Participation, Security and Transitional Justice,” Conciliation Resources Research Report, September 2015, http://.c-r.org/downloads/803%20CR%20Womens%20agenda%20Bangsmoro%20ready%20for%20web02.pdf.
  6. “A Better Bangsamoro for All,” March 2014, http://www.c-r.org/resources/better-bangsamoro-all-womens-contributions-bangsamoro-basic-law.
  7. For more information, please see Susan Stigant and Elizabeth Murray, “National Dialogues: A Tool for Conflict Transformation?” USIP Peace Brief no. 194, http://usip.org/publications/2015/10/national-dialogues-tool-conflict-transformation.
  8. Virginia M. Bouvier, “Gender and the Role of Women in Colombia’s Peace Process” (New York: UN Women, March 4, 2016), http://usip.org/sites/default/files/Gender-and-the-Role-of-Women-in-Colombia-s-Peace-Process-English.pdf.
  9. Thania Paffenholz, “Can Inclusive Peace Processes Work?” Inclusive Peace & Transition Initiative Policy Brief, Geneva, April 2015, http://inclusivepeace.org/sites/default/files/IPTI-CCDP-Can-Inclusive-Processes-Work.pdf.

About this Brief

This Peace Brief draws from discussions at a 2017 public forum, “Building Inclusive, Stronger Peace Processes: Here’s How,” held at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The event was part of the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum, a consortium of organiza-tions that have worked since 1999 to share ideas across disciplines to improve the ability to manage con-flicts and prevent violence. Colette Rausch is associate vice president, Global Practice and Innovation at USIP, where Tina Luu is a program assistant.

Some Like it (Really) Hot: Making White Ghost Pepper Sauce

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Collection of Hot peppers, Including White Ghost Peppers

We were perusing one of our favorite garden nurseries a few springs back when my son Calvin saw a lone Ghost Pepper mixed in with the tomato plants. Its label reflected an eerie ghost figure surrounded by flames. Calvin had watched a number of You Tube videos showing people eating whole Ghost Peppers and then, within minutes, not being able to speak, as eyes began to water and stomachs began to lurch. Burping was also involved. A lot of burping. Chugging large amounts of milk or shoveling in ice cream was usually involved in an attempt to sooth the now on fire mouth and digestive system. It was all so fascinating for a then eleven year old.

Calvin explained to me that Ghost Peppers (otherwise known as Bhut Jolokia) are some of the hottest peppers in the world. Peppers are rated on what is known as the “Scoville” scale which measures the spicy heat level of peppers. Jalapenos come in at 2,500 – 10,000 heat units, while Thai Peppers rank at 50,000 – 100,000 units.  Ghost peppers? They range from 855,000–1,041,427 units.

So Calvin was very excited to grow his own Ghost Peppers. So we bought the little pepper plant and carried it home excited as if it were a rare find from a flea market. Then we searched stores for the perfect container befitting of such a pepper. We found one that looked like it could be a prop in a halloween movie, with its gothic design emblems adorning the pot. Then we planted the Ghost Pepper and waited and waited (as peppers take a bit of time until the heat and sun give it power and growth.)

By the end of the season, we ended up with a good sized harvest. I had every intention of making hot sauce out of the peppers. I researched recipes and made lists of ingredients to buy.  I even got as far as putting the list in my purse. As Summer turned to Fall, Calvin inquired a few times about the status of the hot sauce making endeavor. Heck, I even started this blog and had it half way done, ready to complete it as soon as the hot sauce was made. But then school started and work and life got busy.  The hot sauce never got made and the peppers ended up going from plump peppers to drying up peppers to rotten peppers. Calvin asked about the peppers off and on over the Fall and then gave up.

Fast forward two years. Yes two years. Calvin had heard about another pepper that was hotter than the Ghost Pepper. It was called the Carolina Reaper and he asked if we could grow that. So I made a renewed effort to overcome my past failure and ordered hot peppers seeds for Calvin.  I ordered seeds for Carolina Reaper, White Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper), Marbles and Devil’s Tongue. We started the seeds in our indoor greenhouse and then planted them in our community garden plot and container pots at home.

It was amazing to see the peppers turn colors over the summer. The White Ghost Peppers turned a milky shade of white. The Devil’s tongue peppers were yellow while the Carolina Reapers where a vibrant red. The marbles were purple, red, white and yellow. We had an incredible harvest. I used our dehydrator to preserve most of the peppers.  But then I remembered the failed attempt a few years back at making Ghost Pepper hot sauce.

Like many things in life, I had a chance to do a “do over” on the Ghost Pepper hot sauce.  So late last September, I harvested the last of the peppers and made hot sauce. I was also at the time just getting into the “idea” of fermentation and decided to use the method to make the hot sauce. As to not have much attachment to the process, I decided to just do it all as an experiment and see what would happen. Detachment was my motto.

Here is the recipe I used:

WHITE IMG_6865GHOST PEPPER HOT SAUCE

Ingredients:
  • 15 white ghost peppers
  • 1 Tablespoon of salt without additives such as iodine or anti-caking agent (Himalayan pink salt or Salt is good.
  • 1 cup of white wine vinegar
 Caution:
  • Wear gloves while handling the ghost peppers.
  • Take care that you do not inhale any of the fumes that will waft out as you pour the vinegar over the peppers and when you remove the blender lid.
Steps:
  • Put white ghost peppers in the blender.
  • Add the salt
  • Boil the vinegar and pour over the peppers.
  • Put the lid on the blender tightly and blend all items together.
  • Let cool before removing lid.
  • Pour into  jars
  • Ferment for 8 weeks at least (I fermented mine for five months before using)

I used a canning jar with a fermentation lid. It was easy. Then after I let it sit in a dark corner for about five months, we tasted it. We were so surprised how rich tasting it was and not too hot at all!  It had an incredible depth of flavor. Calvin loves it and uses it on his eggs. He loved the idea so much that we went to the Container Store to buy a cool looking glass jar with a cork for him to put it in, like a magical concoction. We also bought a few tiny spray bottles to turn it into pepper spray. But we realized that the small pepper particles clogged up the sprayer. But it was fun anyway.

IMG_6864After we realized it was a success, I decided to order some of those pepper sauce bottles you get from the store and also add a label.  A few years back I was in Nepal for work and had lunch at a friend’s house. He showed my colleague and I how his wife and son had started a small business right out of their house. They made pickle and other Nepali delicacies. His wife is an amazing cook so it was a natural thing. His son helped with the business side. They bottled and labeled their own product. This really impressed me. So I had this in my mind as I ordered the bottles and labels.

Now I am inspired to make more hot sauce using different peppers. So this year we are again growing hot peppers from a variety of seeds. Also, my husband Patrick who is an artist and advertising guru, will design a label so we can customize the label for the next batch after this year’s harvest. Who knew how much fun growing hot peppers would be?  Well, actually Calvin knew.  It just took me a few years to catch on.

(Recipe adapted from the following website: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ghost-Pepper-Sauce/)

Warning:  In 2016, it was reported that a man who engaged in an eating contest involving pureed ghost peppers on a hamburger ended up with a hole in his esophagus following  violent retching and vomiting.  He was hospitalized as this could have been fatal. 

Winter? Spring? What???!!!

IMG_2689.jpgForget rigidly following the traditional wisdom of when to do what when it comes to gardening. Global warming (yes, deniers, it does exist!) has thrown the playbook out the window. I have learned over the past five years that one needs to look at the calendar and guidance on when to start seeds indoors, when to harden off and when to put seedlings in the ground — with a grain of salt.  Or grain of compost in the gardening vernacular.

On the bright side,  the unpredictability of a gardening season is an opportunity to go a bit with the flow, let go of a little control, get over disappointments of crop fails and move on. And, in the process, learn that hey, doing so is actually not so bad. As a matter of fact, it is kinda liberating and an adventure in accepting and going with the ebbs and flows of nature.

To that end, a few days ago it was freezing. A few days before that we had snow followed by freezing rain and ice. We are talking temperatures in the teens. I decided to be in full denial of the deep winter freeze and planted a few tomato seeds last weekend. A few are already sprouting.

 

Today?  It is in the 60’s. So, I took the cue, even though I know this is transitory, and planted a few pepper seeds in one of my indoor greenhouses. I know it is a bit early. But hey, so what. Be bold. Peppers actually need a bit more tender loving care and time to sprout than tomato seeds. If this does not work out, I can always start a few more later and see how it goes.

This year I ordered the 2016 Art Pack Boxed Collection of seeds from the Hudson Valley Seed Library. I love this company. I was introduced to it by my sister-in-law who sent a few seed packs to me for Christmas a few years back. I was hooked. I love the beautifully and creatively crafted artwork depicted on each seed pack. In previous years by the time I got around to ordering seeds, the Art Packs were sold out. What is an Art Pack?  It is “15 spectacular varieties packed in artwork by 15 artists, using mediums including: Watercolor, oil painting, pen and ink, stained glass, paper sculpture, and paper-painting. The original works from each year form a traveling exhibit called Art of the Heirloom.” See: http://www.seedlibrary.org/art-packs/new-for-2016.html

This year I thought ahead and ordered the Art Pack early. Also, as a bonus, since this year I am buried with work and all sorts of commitments, I very much appreciated the Art Pack because it took out the pressure of figuring out what to order. When the box arrived, I was like a child at Christmas time opening up a gift. Not sure (well actually, I am quite sure) that my husband and son were not as enthused as I was but they did the obligatory smile and showed enough encouragement as to not dampen my excitement.

So the 2016 gardening season has officially begun, at least in my house. The few seeds have been planted in the anticipation of a bountiful year.

Gardening Season in Full Swing

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It is hard to believe we are already in September and about a month away from the end of the Spring/Summer gardening season. It has been a wonderful gardening season so far. Having an indoor greenhouse set up let me kick off the season in February so I broke out the seeds, set up the greenhouses and started planting the seeds. Hagrid the cat got into the action and decided to plant himself on the shelf of the indoor greenhouse. IMG_4915

IMG_5505IMG_5503 IMG_5587Come March, everything was doing nicely and the greenhouses were full of seedlings including kale, swiss chard, bok choy, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and a variety of herbs. I decided this year to plant catnip, chamomile and anise to use for tea. Hagrid the cat has been loopy a number of times after he got into the catnip while i was drying the leaves for tea. Lovage was also planted although I have not yet decided what to do with it. I gave a seedling a few months ago to my kind neighbor who invited us over for dinner this past weekend for an amazing lovage soup that she had made from the leaves.

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Then the two outdoor unheated greenhouses helped the hardening off process proceed smoothly and protected the tender seedlings when the periodic dips of temperature threatened a frost. A few times this year though we had to bring in the seedlings and, like last year, my son’s room was taken over by tomato and peppers plants.

We spent April and May getting everything planted in our community garden plot as well as in large containers we situated around our back yard patio.The herbs and small pots took their place on the shelves against the house.IMG_6406 IMG_6029 IMG_6389

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June, July and August kept me busy with harvesting, canning and pickling. Now the freezer is full of pasta sauce, salsa and pesto while we have pickled peppers in the cabinets.  Pickled beets are lined up in the refrigerator.  I estimate that more peppers will joint the others that are pickled as the pepper plants continue to produce prolifically.

My son got in the creative mode and made vegetable people out of the bounty from our gardens. The white squash pictured here went crazy. I only planted two seeds yet the plants to date have produced over 30 large squashes! After coming up with various ways of cooking them (stuffed with meat, stuffed with cheese, sliced for vegetable lasagne, eaten with just butter), I started to give them to friends and neighbors. Then a box of them went to the community food kitchen yesterday. We still have about ten  more growing in the garden and more blooms after that!  So all in all, it has been a great season so far.IMG_6832 IMG_6834 IMG_6820 IMG_6830

The Hydroponic Betta Fish Adventure

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Hydroponic vegetable gardening has fascinated me ever since I saw a YouTube video of a New Yorker growing lettuce in two-liter soda bottles strung vertically along the living room window of his tiny apartment.  When I was in the market  for a professional-strength grow light for my indoor greenhouse last year, the supply shop had all sorts of tubes and paraphernalia for hydroponic growing.  I couldn’t get my head wrapped around it all and decided it was not yet time for me to delve into the mystery of growing plants indoors, in water with no soil.

As I brought my single grow-light purchase to the shop owner, he pointed over my shoulder to a small-sized box and suggested I take a look.  Wow!  It was a self-cleaning fish tank that promised to also grow food.

IMG_4971It was an “Aqua Farm” with everything needed to dip one’s toe into the hydroponic growing world.  Not only that, but it was also a fish tank!   Since my son and husband were with me, we agreed that this was the answer not only to my desire to hydroponically grow lettuce, but to also finally replace the fish that had sadly died a few months back when our old fish tank, well tanked. So we purchased the kit and took it home. Here is a link to the website that tells more about the Aqua Farm:  https://www.backtotheroots.com/shop/aquafarm

Not only did the kit include everything needed, including seeds, it even came with a coupon for a free fish at one of the chain retailer pet stores.   Well, that was a year ago.  The kit sat for a few weeks in the living room, then migrated to the hall, then it — and my plans to delve into hydroponics — ended when the kit landed somewhere in our upstairs storage.  We had been so consumed with setting up the indoor greenhouse and purchasing the multiple types of grow lights, little greenhouse-ettes, seedling heating pads and such that we never seemed to get the mental bandwidth going to set up the Aqua Farm last growing season.

So a few weeks ago, I came across the kit and got inspired to get the job done.  I pulled out the wrinkled free fish coupon only to find it had expired. No matter, we went to our local independently owned and operated fish store to pick out a beautiful Betta fish.

After we selected our new family member — who is also conveniently a nitrogen producer — we walked around the shop, looking at the multi-colored tropical fish and saying hello to the erstwhile desert tortoise who lives in the shop throughout the winter until it can live a leisurely life eating grasses in its owners backyard once the warm weather returns.  Since, at the time, we were in between snow storms, that warm weather was a long way off, and you could tell the giant tortoise was growing impatient by the worn edges of the wooden enclosure, worn smooth by many slow motion escape attempts.  We walked past slumbering cats and intermingled with two small dogs darting in and out of the gaps between aquariums, much like the clown fish above us were doing as they swam in and out of the tentacles of their sea anemone home.  Then we came to the counter to buy our Betta, pick up a little ornament bridge to dress up the tank and choose some fish food.  The owner counseled us to ignore the package’s liberal feeding instructions, as it was just a ploy to get unsuspecting fish owners to buy more food.  The store owner insisted, instead, that we use the much less generous portions of  2-3 pellets a day, thus also avoiding mucking up of the water in the tank.  We left the store happy and content, having done business with a local honest business owner.

IMG_4975Then we got home and set up the tank.  Okay.  I didn’t exactly do anything. I watched. My husband (sherpa, as he labels himself) and son did all the heavy lifting.  But I did select two varieties of lettuce to plant in addition to the basil and wheat grass seeds that came with the kit.  Now our betta, who my son affectionately named, “Madame Bubliea” given her billowing, colorful and elegant tail, was introduced to her new digs. We were all excited to see what hydroponic growing would produce.

IMG_5588Now fast forward to four weeks later, and thankfully Madame Bubliea is still alive.  The wheat grass is doing magnificently, albeit a bit flattened thanks to Hagrid the cat, who has developed quite the knack for jumping on the tank and pulling out the newly sprouted grass strands with his teeth.  IMG_5598

The basil and lettuce are barely sprouting but coming along, still safely out of reach of Hagrid’s pruning teeth.

So the hydroponic experiment is going well.  Who knows, if the tank can produce some usable lettuce and basil, maybe next season I’ll expand the operation.  Maybe.

Spring to Fall: Gardening Across the Seasons

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Aunt Ruby’s Green Tomatoes

The changing angle of the sun, shorter days and cooler temperatures signal that Fall is sneaking up. It also tells me it is time to reflect over the past six months and the gardening adventures. This year, starting in March, I went all in with starting seeds indoors and setting up a series of indoor greenhouses outfitted with grow lights. As discussed in my previous post, it was quite the production, including multiple trips to various stores, to get it all set up.

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Hardening off the tomato and pepper plants

It then got tricky. The seedlings had grown into solid leafy plants but the fluctuating weather meant that I had to wait until after Mother’s Day in mid-May before I could safely plant outside in the community garden plot and at home in my patio container garden. So we spent the good part of a month “hardening off” all the plants to get them ready to go outside. This hardening off process was a feat in and of itself because although I was able to use our two outdoor unheated greenhouses, there were many a night where the temperatures would dip too low for tomato and pepper plants.

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Outdoor unheated greenhouses

The challenge was these plants were getting quite big and had already outgrown the indoor greenhouses. So I had to find another home for them when they needed to be shuttled from the outdoor greenhouses where they resided during the day back to the safety of the house at nights.

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Hardening off process. Using a bedroom for overnight protection with unpredictable temperatures in April and May.

I ended up taking over my son’s bedroom where the door could be shut to prevent Hagrid the cat from digging up and destroying the plants. (Previous years’ experience told me he could take on five plants and eviserate them in 15 minutes flat.) The benefit of my son’s room is that I could open up the window out to the patio and hand the plants to my husband who then carried them to the greenhouses. Then we reversed the process the next morning. Tedious? Yes. But necessary.

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Compost. Ready for use.

We then got the community garden plot and the containers at home ready. We used our own compost and compost tea that we had pulled from our Envirocycle composter and collected in empty cat liter plastic tubs. I’m a fervent composting booster. We compost everything we can. It’s very easy because we have a colorful ceramic canister on the kitchen counter and just drop in appropriate food waste in it.

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Rotating the compost from holding bin to Envirocycle composted.

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Compost tea.

Then my husband takes it out to an old scuba box that he had buried in the backyard. It has two compartments so we can rotate. Then when one side is full, we scoop it into the Environcycle composter, add dry leaves that we had collected from our yard and give it a spin periodically. Then when the compost is ready, we store it in the cat liter tubs. The tea is made from the droppings and is collected in a bin under the rolling part of the composter.

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Community Garden Plot.

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Taking an iPhone break in the Community Garden Plot.

Over a series of weeks, we began setting out the plants in the community garden plot and in our home patio garden containers.

This year’s harvest was bountiful to say the least. I am a huge fan of the Hudson Valley Seed Library. From now on, that is the only place I will get my seeds from. Not only are the seeds of high quality, the packaging is fun. There are “art packs” with vibrant colored artwork that differs from pack to pack. I just LOVE these seeds and the art. Here is the link to their website: http://www.seedlibrary.org

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Baby Bok Choi.

We planted baby bok choi seeds indoors. In previous years, I tried to direct sow the seeds but did not have success. This year, the seeds loved being started indoors and when I transplanted them, given they tend to bolt when the heat starts, I put them in containers on my patio so I could move them out of the direct sun when needed. Also, since they also do not like really cold weather, I rolled them into the outdoor greenhouse and put a row cover over them when the nights got too cold.

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Brilliant Beets.

My family loves beets. So we planted seeds indoors from the Brilliant Beet Blend. I had read conflicting reports on whether it was a good idea to plant beet seeds indoors since they can easily be direct sowed into the ground once the soil is ready to be worked. But I was on a planting frenzy and decided to give it a go. I am so happy I did. My beets got a great head start and were ready early. In addition, I went ahead and direct sowed beets later around the existing beets. I had beets all summer and still do. We had beet salads, pickled beets and I froze many for use in the winter.

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Two varieties of Kale.

I also went ahead and started indoors two varieties of kale: Vates Blue Curled Kale and Dino Kale. In the past I would direct sow the seeds but with the varying weather and heat, it was a mixed bag. I also planted Silverado Chard. The key to getting healthy chard is to keep on top of the bug problem. There is a beatle that comes around fairly early in the season and will damage the leaves. But if you frequently check under the leaves for the eggs and scrape them off, then all is well. There is also a beatle that likes Kale and later in the season they can nearly swarm the plant. But these all can be picked off too. The key is to be vigilant and check leaves and pick off the pesky bugs.

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Donation bin: “Produce for the Community”

This year I had more kale and chard than I could keep up with. So I gave away some of my plants to fellow community gardeners. After I had frozen enough to get us through the winter, and the harvest was nearly overwhelming, I brought in bags for my colleagues at work and also donated bags to our local food kitchen. My husband built a bin at the community garden for folks to donate extra produce and every morning after dropping me off at the Metro to catch the train to work, he stopped by and picked up the donations and took them to the food kitchen. In past years I often felt overwhelmed with the combined produce that we grew ourselves and the weekly community supported agriculture share from our local farmer. But having the food kitchen donation was perfect.

IMG_3298The tomatoes were amazingly hardy and productive. In past years, the blight, being a common problem in our region, was a constant battle. But this year it was not so bad because we had a surprisingly mild summer and the humidity was not as oppressive. I grew Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Goldie, New Yorker and Mama Leone. I had an abundance of fresh tomatoes throughout the season (and still going even now).

photo-3The peppers were just as successful. I grew King of the North bell peppers and Gatherer’s Gold Sweet Peppers from seed. I also picked up a sweet banana pepper plant at our local nursery. With the harvest, I was able to fill up my freezer with homemade pasta sauce and salsa as well as can whole tomatoes for the winter.
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IMG_0529Of course I had lots of basil and have lots of pesto cubes in the freezer. Finally, as in past years, I had two shelves of herbs, strawberry plants, spinach and lettuce on the patio. In the community garden plot, I grew a few cucumber plants to ensure a supply for pickling.
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The community garden plot and my home container garden is starting to slow down but still producing. I figure we have another four weeks or so before it will be time to call it a day and clean up for the winter. I had planned to do some Fall planting but frankly am worn out. It has been six very active months, my freezer is absolutely full, I still have some pickled cucumbers left from last year and I have canned enough tomatoes to get us through the winter.

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Pulled from the composter: a few vegetables that sprouted and looked like little compost creatures 🙂

So all that I planted is some lettuce. I am going to conduct an experiment to see how they do in the indoor greenhouse and then the outdoor greenhouse when the weather dips. So with that, I am bringing this gardening season to an end.

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Hagrid jumped in the little greenhouse as soon as I had removed the seedlings.

Snow? An Indoor Greenhouse to the Rescue

IMG_2288 Snow. It snowed today. We even set a few records for the level of snow this late in the year. But no worries at my end.  I have an entire greenhouse operation going on inside my house.  Over the past few years I started indoors a few things from seed, including tomatoes and peppers. But lack of space and my cat made the endeavor very challenging. After Hagrid (the cat) ravaged my tender seedlings a few years ago, I ended up setting up my system in a small area in my living room using a big cage with clip on grow lights and warming pads.  It did the trick but greatly limited me in the amount of seedlings I could grow.  It was also difficult to regulate the temperature and the peppers had a hard time, resulting in a meager yield of survivors. But this year is different. Thanks to my husband who did some renovation in our upstairs half floor attic, I have more space and with it, more ambitions for the growing season.  I ordered a multi-shelf covered greenhouse from Lowe’s that I had coveted over the past few years.

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Seeding tray and my seed packets.

Then I got my seeding supplies ready and began planting.

Patrick and Hagrid building the little greenhouses from IKEA

Patrick and Hagrid building the little greenhouses from IKEA

During a trip to IKEA, we came upon little greenhouse units and picked up a few of them.  Then over a  few weekends, we collected an assortment of grow lights. One professional grow light was picked up at a local hydroponics store and the owner gave us a great discount on a super cool unit in addition to some excellent growing advice.  I learned that the key is to get florescent lights that are “daytime” intensity.   I also learned that LED lights are the best but also the most expensive.  The other grow lights I purchased from local hardware stores included a collection of  inexpensive under the cabinet style plug in florescent units and small clamp on shop lights.

What happens when you spend too much time looking for grow lights. Loved these clamp on lights.

What happens when you spend too much time looking for grow lights. Loved these clamp on lights.

My son. Worn out by the grow light shopping marathon.

My son. Worn out by the grow light shopping marathon.

Then I rounded out my purchases with a few new seedling heat mats since I only had two and needed a few more.

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IKEA Greenhouses with tomatoes and peppers (3 weeks after planting seeds)

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Just over one week after planting seeds.

Ta da!   Three weeks later I got four varieties of tomatoes, two varieties of sweet peppers, beets, baby bok choi, lettuce, kale, swiss chard and basil growing strong. As soon as the snow clears, I will get the kale, swiss chard, beets and baby bok choi into the ground under the hoop cold frame in my community garden.   Then I look forward to moving the tomatoes, peppers and basil into the outdoor greenhouse to begin the hardening off process before the last frost date (estimated to be May 1). Now back to today.  Snow.  Lots of snow.  Hard to believe that in just a few weeks, we will see the buds of Spring.

Today’s snow. The outdoor greenhouse and the “add on” greenhouse started over the warm weekend, waiting for another warm day to be completed.

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To Everything There is a Season

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It’s that time of year again. The winding down of the vegetable garden. I always feel a mix of emotions including relief, sadness, satisfaction and exhaustion. The cycles of nature are tracked through the work of a gardener. The fall brings a sense of transition with hot weather plants browning and struggling to eek out a few more red tomatoes and healthy peppers.  It also brings out the gardener’s lowering energy levels that come with shorter days and the preceding six months seemingly non-stop activity of planting, harvesting, canning and freezing. Then the cool weather plants of swiss chard and kale are growing at a moderate pace calling the gardener to keep moving. For reasons that are beyond my understanding, my fall lettuce planting was a big bust. Two times up planting seeds, two times I struck out. A few beets are keeping up but the rest of the seeds that I planted are a no show.

So all in all, my fall planting crop is a mixed bag. But I am too tired to worry about it. I’m in that space between memories of spring/summer energy that gets me through cleaning up the garden to visions of winter hibernation on the horizon. As my own leaves turn a lovely hue of orange, I’m being called to curl up with a good book, and well, read about gardening instead of doing it.

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The Community Garden plot before the grand clean up

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The Community Garden Plot cleaned up. Getting ready for the cold frame installation.

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Calvin returning from the Community Garden Plot on his bicycle

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A straggler eggplant

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Calvin and me outside the Community Garden

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The final tomato harvest. Now what to do with all the green tomatoes…….