The main body of this salad contains approximately the following, although it could be modified quite a bit… the gist of it though is that it’s a mix of shrimp, tomatoes, and rice, with other vegetables added as you like them:

1/2 pound of shrimp
1 1/2 heirloom tomatoes
8 grape tomatoes
4 mushrooms
1/4 red onion
2 cups of rice

The dish is served cold so the shrimp and rice should be cooked in advance. Total cost for the above for me was just over five dollars and it serves two to three people depending on hunger — just mix up the above and add a light dressing. I had already made the dressing in advance for another salad that was a mix of 1/4 mayonnaise, 1/4 lime juice, 1/4 balsamic vinegar, and 1/4 olive oil, with a little red pepper and sea salt. A delicious, inexpensive meal. Terrible photo unfortunately…

I read about how the DMZ, the border between North and South Korea has become an amazing nature reserve because for the last half century this quarter million acre zone has been virtually untouched by humans… not many other places on the planet can say that. I’ve read that to some extent the area around Chernobyl has similar characteristics.
But in the city? The closest we come in the core of the city are the small strips of land surrounding the railroad tracks, which like Chernobyl, are a little polluted, but go through wonderful bursts of growth as their maintenance is neglected for long periods. For the many warehouses that dot the tracks, this also provides good cover for artists who choose to improve property values.

This blog will document the journey toward a new and better life and related and not-so-related thoughts… A place to record adventures in homesteading, as well as various creations along the way. The pictures from this entry are from the wondeful and inspiring (and unfortunately out of print) 1971 classic, The Ex-Urbanite’s Complete & Illustrated Easy Does-It First Time Farmer’s Guide: A Useful Book by William Kaysing, which I’ll post a full review of in the future.

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