Winter garden journal: And the beet goes on...

If we do not get beets from our CSA box, we will (hopefully) get beets from our new “cool season” garden. Almost all the vegetables are up and running, or climbing if we’re talking about the snap peas. And we still have the fava bean seeds and fennel seeds under ground working hard to sprout stems and roots.

The cool season growers are: (in no particular order, though I do favor the fennel :)

Fennel
Fava beans
Sugar snap peas
Beets
Broccoli
Oregano
Aloe vera-planted to add all-year greenness to the garden

It was a difficult decision selecting the right vegetables for the winter garden. There was many a quarrel between Tyler and me at the garden center regarding our choices.

“Let’s get some broccoli and beets. Mmmm beets.” Says Tyler

“But we don’t have enough room to plant 6 broccoli. Besides I already made a list of the plants I want.” Snarks Marci

“Broccoli would be so cool to see grow though. We can plant them all in the same big pot.” Pleads Tyler

“We don’t have a big enough pot for them…well, just buy them and you can take care of the broccoli then.” Acquiesces Marci


So I thought, okay, now it is Tyler’s responsibility to care for the broccoli and if he over crowds them in a small pot, then I tried to warn him. Low and behold, 2 days later as we were getting out of the car in the parking garage I spotted a huge ceramic pot sitting next to the recycle bin. Hoorah! Problem solved for the broccoli and I was secretly happy Tyler bought all the broccoli. Yay for dumpster diving.


The sugar snap peas are my favorite to watch grow so far. They wind their green tentacles up the twine and hook on to each other for support. They have already grown a couple inches in only a week and a half! Tyler came up with the idea of bending a wire hanger into a diamond shape and tying 4 pieces a twine to it, one on each corner. The twine hangs down to the peas and loosely tie each piece of twine to the 4 plants. Then the peas can have ample space to climb onwards and upwards without cramping any other plants style.


This is the first time I have ever grown any of this plants. Will they get enough sun? Will I over water them? Will the plump green worms return and devour the leaves?

We’ll see, and that’s the fun of it!

Marci

Word of advice: Don't write your blog post in Word and copy and paste it. It doesn't transfer over to blogspot and it takes up lots of time to fix. :(

First Fall Meal: Roasted Vegetables with Pork Tenderloin

To me, fall cooking means savory, hearty, warm, filling and slowed down. Days are shorter with evening's darkness falling around 5pm. Senior special dinner anyone?

Growing up, my parents always had the dinner on the table at 5pm. My dad rolled in from work and...bam! we were all settled and ready to eat. When the weekend finally arrived my dad always made up some slow cooked, hearty meals like beef stew. So when I noticed this week that the days were colder and night was falling early I thought I would bust out a simple fall meal that pleases all. (well at least Tyler and me)

Roasted Vegetables with Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

5 carrots
1 sweet potato
3 rutabagas
2 onions
1 tablespoon of rosemary
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sprinkles of salt
Twists of pepper grinder
1-2 lbs pork tenderloin
Pork tenderloin marinade

Prepare pork tenderloin marinade and put in large plastic bag with pork tenderloin. Mix together and place in refrigerator to marinate for 1-2 hours.
With 30 minutes remaining to finish marinating the pork, preheat oven to 350F degrees. Cut all vegetables into 1/2" pieces and place in 13X9" glass pan. Chop up rosemary and sprinkle over vegetables along with salt, pepper and olive oil. Mix everything together. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove roasted veggie dish and place pork tenderloin in middle, surrounded by the veggies. Return dish to oven and cook for an additional 25 minutes, or until pork is done.

Good way to use root vegetables from CSA box! You can use potatoes, yams or squash too.

Bon appetit!

Marci

P.S. Our pumpkins only lured 3 trick-or-treaters this Halloween. One for each pumpkin I suppose. There was even a Luke Skywalker to match Tyler's Yoda pumpkin. I don't think the boy understood who Yoda was when I mentioned his friend was one of the carved pumpkins though.

Happy Halloween from Yoda, Jack and Monkey

Jack and Monkey, by Marci and Lauren

Yoda, by Tyler

Have a spooktacular night! Bruahahahaha

-Marci

Celebrating Halloween in your late 20s

I turned 27 last weekend and realized I am now considered in my late 2os. Aren't people supposed to be married and have kids by now? Well, that is what I thought growing up in a small town where that did happen very often and if that didn't happen to you, you were probably not coming back anyways.

I was never a party hardy gal in my early and mid 20s and this Halloween is no exception. We have been gearing up for the big day by carving pumpkins tonight and thawing ze sweess cheese for a fete de fondue Halloween night. I must be getting old if I have to break up my pumpkin carving session into two nights, or my dad did way more carving on my pumpkins than I remember as a little girl. (Probably the latter.) Our porch will host an eclectic bunch of orange globes: Yoda, Jack (from "The Nightmare before Christmas) and a happy monkey (I think :). Pictures will follow tomorrow due to one member of this household taking on a rather difficult design. (up a little and to the right)

Cleaning out pumpkin guts means eating roasted pumpkin seeds. Roast clean seeds on cookie sheet at 300F degrees for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown. Just as you are taking them out of the oven, quickly sprinkle salt or other seasoning so it melts and sticks to seeds. I was thinking it would be yummy with a spicy cajun seasoning too. Next year...

To relax after the grueling pumpkin carving I made my first batch of hot mulled cider of the year. Mulled cider is one of my favorite drinks during the holiday season and if I lived in a cold, wintery city I would probably make it everyday.

Marci's Mulled Apple Cider

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon good quality apple cider
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon whole allspice
3 cinnamon sticks
1/4 cup brown sugar

Add all ingredients to sauce pan and heat on medium high until gently boiling. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve in mug with cinnamon stick.

You may also combine the spices and tie them up in cheese cloth and add to hot cider.

A couple years ago for Christmas I bought glass jars and filled them with the mulled cider dry ingredients and recipe as gifts to friends and family. It turned out quite cute I might say.

So this Halloween will be a relaxing, belly filled with cheese kind of night. And hopefully with a few trick-or-treaters that we can greet and act frightened by their monster, witch, vampire costumes.

Still loving fall,

Marci

Cool Season Vegetables

I stand corrected. There is not a "fall" in San Diego. There is a cool season and a warm season. And that's that.

I did learn more than that though at a free workshop put on by San Diego Food Not Lawns that I attended this past Saturday about how to plan your cool season garden (or "winter garden" if you love seasons so much you can't accept the fact that the city you live in has only 2). One thing that is great about having only 2 seasons is that I can still start a winter garden and it is almost November!

Cool Season Super Plants:

Fava Beans
Kale
Mustards
Peas
Artichokes
Fennel
Legumes
Dandelion Greens
Chard
Lettuces
Spinach

Yum, now don't those look like an appetizing bunch...

My one foodie fallback is that I don't particularly like dark leafy greens. And I certainly don't want to be growing them on TOP of getting them in the CSA box. So, I am thinking of trying fennel, snap peas, fava beans and possibly some new and different types of lettuce. I will also intersperse the vegetable plantings with some edible flowers because it brings wonderful color to the garden and biodiversity. Biodiversity is crucial to a happy environment for plants. Diverse plants add different nutrients to the soil and attract helpful (and sometimes harmful) bugs that pollinate the blooms, ward away predators and aid in keeping your plants healthy.

Even though I don't have an "in the ground" garden, I did find it interesting that planting legumes, like fava beans, in the winter can help restore your garden soil with nitrogen and prep it for the spring. The legumes act as a cover crop because their roots have nitrogen fixing bacteria that is stored in the nodules. When the crop is finished for the season you just let it die and leave the plants to act as compost for the soil.

Did you know that your dried up summer artichokes can revive themselves in the fall and begin producing again in the spring? (To: Lila) So, maybe you will get some arties next spring!

I think next weekend will be a spooktacular time to start planting. :)

Marci

Why does Pioneer Woman always have a new recipe up for something I have in abundance? (first squash, and now pears) I might have to try it this week.

L & R's trip to the farm

Ryan and I have been members of a local CSA for almost two years now (or at least that's what I think, our time here in Merced has all just merged together). The farm we get our weekly produce from, Rancho Piccolo, is about 7 miles away from where we live. It's located between Merced and Atwater and is run by Michelle and David Silveira, who are thoughtful, socially conscious farmers who are dedicated to sustainable ag practices.

We headed out to the Silveira's farm for a fall open house yesterday. We took a hayride through the 63 acres to check out the produce growing, met some of the other members (membership is now up to 200 people and a lot of those out at the farm yesterday were from out of town in Modesto and even Stockton), and had some soup that Michelle had made.

It was lovely visit and a great opportunity to get a sneak peak at what we can expect from our CSA box in the next couple months!

Here's a couple of pics from the day:

Farmer David leading a hayride tour of the farm.

Looking out over all the yummy produce growing.

There were so many kids at the farm yesterday. Here they are making bird feeders. The boy in the back is Antonio, one of the Silveira's boys. It's funny, we think we know Antonio because Michelle writes about him and his brother Joseph all the time in our weekly newsletter but he has no clue who we all are.

Ryan getting his soup on!

Paintings all the kids did while out at the farm.

Sugar Glazed Kabocha Squash and...spiders

Not to be confused with the fermented tea drink, Kombucha, kabocha squash is a japanese winter variety we received in our CSA box this week.

Colorful kabocha from the farm

I don't normally buy squash in the supermarket, but I am always delighted to see the fall colored vegetable among the greens and reds in the farm box. Last week while browsing cooking blogs I came upon a sweet squash recipe that looked so amazing I had to try it. So, when I saw the kabocha in the box this week I knew it was meant to be. I made this recipe from Pioneer Woman, but instead of using acorn squash, I substituted kabocha.

Brown sugar+butter+rosemary=Amazing!

Don't you all just love fall? And even though I live in what seems to be a year-round summer city, there are slight changes as November nears. Nights are cooler, morning and evening fog rolls in, dew is dripping from trees and webs, and spiders have come out en masse. I feel it is quite a nice thing Mother Nature has done for us humans: placing dew on pesky eye-level spider webs to reveal them to us before lunging into them.

While I was out taking kabocha squash photos this morning, I spotted several dewy webs in the distance and snapped a few shots. Spiders are nature in the city too, I think.

Loving fall-

Marci

I am off to a fall planting class. Can't wait to share the delicious info! :)

This is how I do kale:

Bacon bits and goodness...with kale

To make:

Saute a couple pieces of bacon until crisp. Add 3 cloves of garlic and a small hand full of pine nuts. Place a bunch of kale on top of mixture and cook down, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Enjoy a kale-less flavored meal with all the kale from your CSA box.

Fall gardening: mystery plants and zombie artichokes-- how appropriate for October!

I am loving gardening in the fall! I actually didn't even know fall was such a fantastic time to garden until this year. We all know spring is considered the season to be out working in the yard but fall has just been a time where I've found myself being more motivated and wanting to spend lots of time outside so it's a perfect time to be gardening.

We've been working on the backyard this season and we started by replanting the veggie garden. I ripped out all the spring/summer plants and now have fabulous fall veggies, including broccoli, cabbage, sugar snap peas, mint, rosemary, brussels sprouts, spinach and:

Mystery plants
So last season we ended up with a million squash because our compost didn't get hot enough to kill the seeds, well this season we have new mystery plants, can you identify them?

We have about seven of them in the yard. I hope they are some mystery veggie but seriously at this point I'm wondering if they are just non-flowering weeds that need to be pulled. Any ideas? Let me know!

Zombie artichokes
Last May Ryan's mom gave us artichoke seedlings (is that what they are called? oh well) and we planted them. We had been told that the Valley is too hot to grow artichokes but I figured if Mary could get them to grow in Red Bluff we could make them work here. Sure enough I planted five and they slowly died. One by one they were taken out by the summer heat. One plant held on for months but come August when it had just one leaf left I figured it was a lost cause. But in September our evenings started cooling down and that one little plant that had held on made a comeback. And it wasn't just that plant either, two of the other artichoke plants came back from the dead. Now we have three thriving plants. Incredible! I don't know if we'll get any actual artichokes from them before the cold gets 'em but it's pretty neat to watch them grow.

Beyond the veggies we've got new vines (carolina jessamine) on the fence and five new trees too! Four against the back alley fence, in the hopes that they will eventually create a screen for the backyard, and a new flowering pear. We'll post pics as they grow!

CSA Bounty Cooker: Roasted Tomato Soup and Sunchoke Gratin

Yay, it's veggie Tuesday! Or, maybe the day after, but I was busy cooking up a veggie storm last night and therefore, had no more energy for posting.

This is our CSA bounty:

Beets
Chard
Cherry tomatoes
Cilantro

Kale (my arch nemesis)
Oregano

Rutabaga
Strawberries (lasts about 1/2 hour once in the house)

Sunchokes (umm, google please)
Tatsoi

Winter squash

Yellow tomatoes

The first vegetables under fire (pun intended) were the yellow tomatoes. I recently made a Roasted Tomato Soup from 101 Cookbooks when I received several pounds of red tomatoes and it was so delish and flavorful I couldn't resist trying it out with yellow tomatoes.

Making tomato soup was actually quite a feat for me because I have always despised tomato soup since eating it as a child while having the flu. There is something about upchucking food that you just ate that makes you abhor it for almost ever. But I digress...back to trying to make you also love the roasted tomato soup too! :) I mean think, this must be good stuff then.

Roasted Yellow Tomato Soup
Adapted from Roasted Tomato Soup recipe, by Heidi Swanson
My changes in bold

Ingredients:

8 medium yellow tomatoes, quartered
6 cloves of garlic, left in skin
1 red bell pepper, quartered
3 onions, quartered
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 cup Feta cheese

To make:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Place parchment paper on 2 baking sheets. Lay tomatoes on 1 sheet and the onions, bell pepper and garlic on the other. Generously cover onions, bell pepper, and garlic with olive oil. Sprinkle each sheet with sea salt. Place in oven and cook for 50-55 minutes. Turning onions a couple times so they don't burn on one side.

Take out veggies from oven when tomatoes have flattened and onions are caramelized. Place all veggies on onion sheet in food processor, squishing out roasted garlic from the skin. Blend together. Add tomatoes, blend. Add vegetable broth, several turns of pepper grinder and smoked paprika. Blend until at desired consistency.

When serving, add some crumbles of feta cheese and dip with baked sourdough baguette. Yum!

And we cook on. Mystery vegetable this week was the sunchokes. I had never seen or cooked with them before yesterday. I decided to google it. I discovered sunchokes, AKA Jerusalem Artichokes, are a type of sunflower that is grown in the eastern United States and the root, or tuber, is what I received in the veggie box this week.

Sunchoke before being dressed in cheesy goodness

Sunchoke Gratin

Ingredients:

1 pound of sunchokes
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, plus sprigs for garnish
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

To make:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Cut or break sunchokes into about 1" pieces. Place into pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain sunchokes in strainer and add vegetable broth, milk, oregano, salt, pepper and cornstarch to warm pot. Heat until bubbling and thick. Cut cooled sunchokes into 1/4" slices and place half in small baking dish. Pour half of milk mixture on top and add half of cheese. Repeat by adding rest of sunchokes, milk mixture and cheese. Cook for 30 minutes. Add fresh oregano after baking. Enjoy!

Now do you have any suggestions for my most favorite veggie of all: kale? Any help would be appreciated. :)

P.S. I am looking to make these tomorrow...I love the fall.

Happy cooking,

Marci

Nature in the City

Birdwatching? Yeah, that was never for me. For one, I was not patient enough to sit and search for the always bashful birds hiding in the trees. Secondly, holding up binoculars is kind of tiring to my arms. Thirdly, there are much more exciting and larger creatures to excite me, like foxes and goats and pikas. And lastly, isn't it for old people?

Some of my fondest memories of my grandparents was staying the night at their house and falling asleep to National Geographic bird programs on the T.V. My grandpa would carry my sleepy self to bed and then I would wake up the next morning to my grandma making Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes. My grandma was the birdwatcher. There were always binoculars sitting in the dining room window seal waiting to be snatched up to make a rare sighting in the backyard. She had bird books on the shelves, a lovely birdbath right outside the window and bird-feeders galore encircling the house. My grandparents had an open field for a view from their back windows with prime creature watching.

My view from the city apartment is a little different from my grandparents', to say the least. We are very lucky to have trees surrounding most of the apartment, which makes for a pleasant view compared to other apartment dwellers' view spying into other windows and I admit that I would be the last to say I would ever see any wildlife from our home. However, I am happy to say I was wrong.

One afternoon this past spring while tending to the porch garden I kept noticing hummingbirds fluttering about and acting brave enough to fly and pause within a foot of me. I was intrigued and kept watch. Not a moment later one of the hummers landed in the tree a few feet from where I was standing on the porch.

Hummer in trance

My eyes grew larger when I saw the hummer perch on it's nest. "A nest! Hummer babies! What a fantastic surprise in the city!" I immediately thought. So, for 2 weeks Tyler and I were on hummer patrol, binoculars and all. The eggs incubate for 2-3 weeks while the mother keeps them warm in a trance-like state during the night. The female returned to the nest every evening before the sun went down. We watched and waited (impatiently) to hear lil' chirps.

But, disaster struck.

Just as I was getting my hopes up for baby hummers to hatch soon, Tyler made his morning round to the porch and...gasp! The nest was torn apart on the ground. No eggs or mother bird. We were in a mild depression for days. Our nature in the city was gone. It made me think of the National Geographic moments I saw as a young girl visiting my grandparents. Food chain, cycle of life, whatever. I didn't like it.

Although my first birding experience has a sad ending, it did peak my interest in birding and helped me better understand my bird loving grandma. What I most appreciate about birdwatching is that it is a sport that you can do almost anywhere. City or country. I have even started reading about them. "Red Tails in Love" by Marie Winn is a great read chronicling a bird watchers dream in Central Park. And recently I spotted a red tail hawk flying across the street and if you read the book you would understand how excited I was. Tyler even benefited from my new hobby; he received a birding book for his birthday. I am not sure why he says I sometimes gift him presents that are really for us BOTH and not just HIM. Hmmm.

Happy birding and please share any city birding experiences you may have!

Marci

Dear Millicent...

Our CSA is having an upcoming open house on the 24th! We haven't been able to make it to the last couple so I'm looking forward to it. In our newsletter this week Michelle Silveira, one of our farm owners, encouraged us to contact a reporter in Sacramento who focuses on healthy living and has expressed some interest in coming to the CSA open house. Here is the e-mail I sent to the reporter about the impact the CSA has had on our lives:

Hello Millicent,

I'm writing to encourage you to attend the Rancho Piccolo CSA open house on the 24th. I just wanted to let you know a little about my experience with being a member of the CSA and how it has made my life a healthier one.

I've been a member of the CSA for about two years now. My boyfriend and I joined pretty soon after we moved to Merced from Orange County. When we made the decision to move to the Central Valley we talked about what great farmers markets and produce we would have access to. But what we didn't know was so many farmers in the area take their produce to farmers markets in the bay area where they can make more money (that's understandable). So we were a bit disappointed about our farmers market choices locally. After asking around we learned that joining the CSA would be a good way to access local Valley produce, so we signed up!

Joining the CSA has impacted the way we eat in the following ways:

1) It changes your mindset about planning meals. We used to think about meals in terms of "what do we want to eat" and then we would go grocery shopping or out to eat and this type of thinking about meal planning makes it much more likely that you will make unhealthy decisions about meals (for example heading to In and Out or the local taco shop on a Wednesday night wasn't uncommon for us). Now we think about meals in terms of "what do we have here to eat." We want to make sure we eat all our produce from the CSA so we build our meals around what we have in the house. Though this means sometimes being creative we've ended up eating a lot more simply at home, like more roasted vegetables, soups, and salads, so we can take advantage of our CSA produce and use as much as possible.

2) You learn to eat seasonally. I never thought about seasonal eating until we joined the CSA. I had no problem eating berries in the winter and corn on the cob all year round because I could get any produce I wanted at the grocery store any time of the year I wanted. Even though we still supplement the CSA veggies we get with grocery store veggies, now I buy seasonally to complement the CSA produce. There's just something about eating seasonally that makes sense and makes you feel that much more connected with the experience of cooking and eating. It just makes for a more conscious and thoughtful experience with food and that can really change the way you think about how and what you eat. And eating seasonally decreases the miles traveled for produce and that improves air quality making the Central Valley a healthier place for all!

3) We started to understand that food is connected with community. We know that individuals who have strong social networks lead healthier lives. They are less stressed and live longer. Well in an interesting way the CSA has strengthened our social network and ties. It's like the Silveira family are friends of ours! I look forward to hearing from them every week through the newsletter and I look forward to meeting other members at open houses. It's like a little social ripple that all starts with the food we eat. Without the CSA I don't think I would have fully understood the linkages between food and community. When you buy food at the grocery store there aren't any "community strings" attached to it. I don't know where grocery store produce always comes from, I don't know who grew it and with the CSA instead there is a full understanding of this, and beyond just knowing where your food came from I experience a sincere feeling of social connections through it.

Hopefully these three reasons help you to understand how the CSA has made our lives healthier!

I hope to see you on the 24th here in the San Joaquin Valley!

Best,

Lila

Now let's see if she shows up!

Farm Day!

Pulling weeds on a Saturday morning. It was just what I needed.

Tyler and I took an early morning trip to our CSA site this past Saturday to volunteer our unskilled labor by pulling weeds, picking strawberries and playing the role as overly enthused city dwellers on a farm. It was quite refreshing and relaxing to be in the valley surrounded by mountains, with views of orange and avocado orchards and three Red-tailed hawks circling overhead. It wasn't all fun and games though; I did have to babysit a little girl's squirmy green worm named "Jeremy" when she decided she was tired of weeding for the moment. But, she did come back shortly because her friend called her out on being lazy and not helping. They were 7.

Loofah plant before and...

...after! Now you may use it to scrub yourself clean!

The reason we were able to pretend to be farmers for the day is our CSA, Tierra Miguel Farm, holds a monthly volunteer day to allow farm share subscribers to help them out with various chores around the farm. They are also gracious enough to give us an educational farm tour, share fruits and vegetables along the way and answer all our gardening questions. As we were walking and talking one of the kids noticed long green leaves poking up from the soil. "What are those?" They asked curiously. "Carrots!" answered Mill, the resident farmer. "You should pull some out." And, boy, were their expressions priceless when they magically pulled out long orange carrots from the soil! Later on in the morning while I was weeding and conversing with a fellow adult, she shared that her friend brought her son to the farm one volunteer day and since then he hasn't stopped talking about "the farm" and how he loves his fruits and veggies now. Isn't that awesome? It can take only one day of exploration and hands-on experiences to discover where food comes from and a child eats healthier and enjoys it.

I feel fortunate that small farms, like Tierra Miguel, are available to us urbanites, to replenish and renew the senses with a clean, open environment and memories to tide us over until next time. And it is important that there will be a next time. I am glad I have the opportunity to support one farm by being a part of the farm share and taking my good experiences to other people to share. But small farms are few and far between in the U.S. and finding ways to support their business and ideals can be challenging in the mega-corporation world, but if we don't where are we going to take our kids to discover where carrots come from or taste the best strawberries in the world?

So, we filled our bellies with sweetest strawberries you'll ever taste and nourished our country-loving souls until next time...

Enjoy!

Marci

Garden Journal: Tie up the 'maters and other blighty news...

"Please produce. Please produce." This, I have been whispering to the tomatoes since we planted them a few months ago and have only eaten 2 tomatoes in that time. They have hit some speed bumps along the way and definitely got a beating from the BLIGHT (what a fright!), along with the fact they only get a couple hours of direct sunlight a day probably doesn't help. However, they keep chugging and they even grew out of their metal frames. (They must take after their mother ;)

Blight has been a real pain in the ass this year to many tomato growers, however, it does make me feel a little better to discover it is a fungus that is killing my plants and not me. ;) To fight the blight, Tyler the resident scientist found an organic solution to keep the fungus at bay. He read a scientific study (oooh fancy) concerning a mixture of sunflower oil and water to reduce the "powdery mildew" on leaves. So we tried it and mixed a solution of water to sunflower oil at 1:200 in a spray bottle and thoroughly dampened the leaves with the mixture every other day or so...and it has worked! Now, we still don't have any tomatoes to show for it, but it has been quite hot down here lately and many new flowers are forming. I have high hopes for the next few weeks. *fingers crossed*

In other "Operation Keep Tomatoes Alive" news, the 'maters are outgrowing their cages. Solution: Tie them up and strangle them. Okay, not really strangle them, but give them some support to climb upwards and onwards towards the all mighty sun.

First, I started with a long piece of twine and tied a knot at the bottom of the tomato stalk.

Then I wound the twine up through the tomato stalk to the very top.

Lastly, the twine was tied to a hook in the porch ceiling. Yay for healthy tomatoes!

I think they look quite pretty in the afternoon glow.

I have come to the conclusion that while container gardening on a not-so-sunny porch produces much frustration and not much food, it does provide me with plenty of new opportunities to learn about caring for plants that I will be able to bring to my ginormous garden in the future. It is not an ideal size for growing food to sustain 2 people, but has been an ideal size to do battle with plant pests using organic methods. I would take one thai basil infested with aphids over a whole garden any day!

Oh, and by the way the ladybugs DID work and we only occasionally see aphids anymore in the garden. Success with the ladies!!

Happy gardening,

Marci

Sweet Video

Here's a sweet little video about cupcake love. It is a super cute animated film about sugary goodness finding butternut love on a vegetable island. It is creative, fun, whimsical and even a little naughty in the "lemon love cave" (as one commenter aptly named it).

Enjoy!

Marci

Garden Journal: Assault on Aphids

My dear, poor garden is being ravaged on all fronts. Worms are making themselves cozy gorging on tomato plant leaves, blight has been a fight, unidentifiable bugs are sucking the life out of the mandarin tree and aphids are attacking ALL plants, rapidly devouring our precious thai basil we love to munch on so dearly.

Bugger off aphids!

Aphids are squirmy, reproduce frighteningly quickly, eat way too much and are a pain in the ass to spot on your plants. They arrive in your garden, make a ginormous family and don't just concentrate on one plant; they like to share the wealth. We have the problem of them almost destroying our thai basil plant, jalapeno plant and sweet basil, while we just noticed they moved in on our tomato plants too. Mochi (our roommates' new dog, yay!) even gave an aphid a piggyback ride into our house. They're invading our lives! I knew then it was time to take serious action, but in a friendly to the environment kind of way. :)

Like this:

Lady bugs resting up in the dairy company of milk and cheese. They need to save their energy for aphid hunting.

Release the hounds! (the ladies)

"We've come to save the basil!"

Besides being cute, pretty and actually helping your plants grow instead of devouring them to nubby stems, they also EAT aphids for dinner. What more could you ask for in a garden bug?

After some research on the internet by my resident garden scientist Tyler, we found that ladybugs are natural predators of aphids. Problem solved! I stopped by the local nursery and picked up a carton of hibernating ladybugs and quickly raced back home to place them safely in the wintery temperatures of the fridge. (They wake up and fly all around when their body temperature rises and I didn't want that happening in the car.)

Garden center information regarding Ladybug Liberation:

• Release the ladybugs in the evening
• 15 minutes before release, take desired quantity out of fridge and place in separate closed container. They have to "wake up" before being dispersed in garden
• Release a small amount every couple days because there will be some who may think the grass is greener on the other side
  
• Watch and enjoy the aphid assassins
  

There are other organic methods to ward off aphids that we are also experimenting with, like planting chives next to the infested plant because aphids don't like onion and garlic smells, and planting nasturtiums in the general area because they act as a repellent too. There is a great article here that shares natural tips to get rid of aphids.

So, I will keep you posted on the bug issues and whether the ladies are earning their keep in the garden.

Happy gardening,
Marci

Swap Meeting for Treasures

I'm unemployed. Oh wait, I'm employed, but not working (yet). Are they the same? To me it feels so. Which means I am being frugal and spending my time cleaning closets, bathrooms and under beds. It also means I have more time to notice items that we *should* have around the house. Like those new shoes I got for $10 (but they were so cute, you know?).

What is a great way to save money, hunt for treasures, NOT buy new things and have fun in the sun? Why, head to the swap meet of course! This past weekend my roommate and I did just that and went to Kobey's Swap Meet to search for some used goods. We had high hopes (since our last total letdown yard sale trip left us yearning for more) that through careful rummaging we could find what we were looking for. And we did! (and a little more :) Look what I got!:

Lovely green glass canning jars. I haggled (though I was nervous the first time) and paid $2!

One wooden chair for patio, which means I need to return to look for another ;)
It replaced one of the fugly camping chairs uglying up porch

And my favorite purchase of the day:

Cast iron skillet! For $6.25! Lodge brand! Can you tell I'm excited!?

It needs some TLC. Re-seasoning time is near.

So, all in all I spent $15.25 for all my goodies and entrance fee into swap meet. Now I keep asking myself why I didn't come here sooner. I told bf that we should go this weekend too. I mean, I think I should be making up for all the times I never went when I only lived miles from the place!

Swap meeting has opened my eyes to all the used, quality goods goodness. It just feels nice to find a perfectly fine used item for LESS money and know you are saving the world from another thing to throw in the land fill. I am pretty sure all my family is getting Christmas gifts from Kobey's this year.

I am not kidding.

Happy thrift shopping,

Marci

Video: The Story of the White House Garden

Okay I love the White House Garden too... but I do just want to call out Michelle Obama for looking so gosh darn glamorous while she's out in the garden in this video. I mean I get super dirty and fugly when I'm out gardening so I can't help but think that if you are looking that good working in the dirt, chances are good it's just a photo op.

Food For Thought: A Different View

"Meanwhile, Professor Pollan, eat all the "plants" you like -- but don't try to pry me from my Haagan-Dazs dark chocolate ice cream. I bought it at Safeway, and it's sitting on my IKEA kitchen table."

... so states Charlotte Allen in her Los Angeles Times OpEd that was published in Sunday's paper.

Here's the link to the entire opinion piece:

Keep your self-righteous fingers off my processed food

Truthfully I feel conflicted about Ms. Allen's piece, an opinion piece that critically evaluates a new book by Ellen Ruppel Shell. Shell's book "Cheap" (which I have not read, or actually even heard of until today) explores America's constant pursuit of the cheap commodity and the damages it causes to our society and environment.

Anyway, the piece is critical of the sustainable/local food movements and how these movements to some degree take for granted the availability of inexpensive food and commodities . I must say I do appreciate the availability of choice in our marketplace today (including my much loved and appreciated IKEA bookshelf and my closet full of Target and H&M wardrobe pieces) and though I can't say I fully agree with Charlotte Allen's point of view, I do think that it is a great way to continue the conversation about the way in which the sustainable/local/green food and commodity movement must learn to move beyond white middle and upper class America in order to be successful.

Farm Fresh Foods

What do you make with a daikon? Or fiddleheads? Or more importantly, how do I discern which "never before seen" vegetable in my CSA box IS the daikon?

Daikon: Why am I so unappetizing?

Sometimes...okay, almost every week...(but I'm getting better!) I have trouble identifying an uncommon vegetable from the box we receive from a local farm. And *sometimes* if I'm not sure what to make with the unnameable, I don't make anything at all...I toss it. (gasp!) It is definitely a tendency I have that I don't brag about and that Tyler has counseled me on a few times. I made a mid-year's resolution to stop wasting those unnameables: daikon, parsnip, mesclun, etc...

This morning, while flipping through radio stations I heard the word "daikon" and I stopped. Hmm, that root vegetable is being discussed on NPR. It must be important. So, I listened and discovered a great new program called "Farm Fresh Foods". It singles out a fruit or vegetable to discuss by sharing history, recipes, storage information and fun facts. I was happy to hear daikon is tasty when eaten fresh with miso paste or julienned for a salad of sesame oil, salt and pepper.

Maybe the daikon salad is delicious and I have no idea what I have been missing. And maybe not. But I won't know if I keep tossing them out just because I can't figure out what to do with the unnameables.

Thanks NPR for a fresh, new source on fruits and veggies
Marci

Family Gardening

It happens every time I visit my folks in Red Bluff. I arrive. I give hugs and kisses to parents and dog. I take a tour of the garden. I make comments on how lovely the garden looks and then, invariably, my parents tell me they have saved several garden "projects" just so they can do them with me. It makes me feel warm and special inside, actually. I appreciate their offer of spending time with them while doing manual labor to beautify their backyard and I know they appreciate my efforts several years ago to encourage them to transform a large plot of dirt into a garden sanctuary for them to enjoy whilst all their grown children are away. Let me tell you about the garden...

The garden project started about 20 years after we moved into the house. The previous 20 years were spent spraying weed killer multiple times a year on the future home of the garden to combat weeds that were taking over the plot of dried dirt. How dare they! Finally, as I was going to graduate from college in 2006 and I had been living with my parents the last semester, I decided it would be fun to have a garden party for a graduation celebration. However, we didn't have a garden. So, we mulled over the idea and began discussing plans for patio placement, raised vegetable beds and perennial choices. We didn't always agree, but we all did add some nice touches to the garden to make it our own. For instance:

Jeff had to have an artichoke plant. It is still coming back every year and now that my brother is away in the Air Force my parents always smile when they look out at the purple, blossoming artichoke and think of him.

My dad really wanted a meandering brick pathway. We did it and I think it looks pretty meandering.

My mom loves pansies and violets. Every spring they plant all the pots with the small, delicate flowers for her to enjoy.

I wanted ferns under the Redwood trees. We planted them and few months later they died. Boo. I also wanted berry bushes. And just this year my dad planted some blackberries. Yay.

It turned out to be great fun digging holes, pulling weeds, laying bricks, trimming trees, making numerous trips to Home Depot and the local nursery and planting vegetation with family.

My dad, mom, brother and I manually labored for about 2 full weekends and we transformed the dusty dirt plot into a colorful home for bees, butterflies, crazy bee chasing dogs and a tired family in need of some ice, cold lemonade to enjoy on the new patio under the Redwood tree.

Mom and dad keeping the garden growing.

I will always look back at that time we spent together as a family and see my brother and I becoming more of equals in our parents eyes, like we were hanging out as friends: sharing opinions, appreciating ideas, working together and enjoying each other. So, now when I return home for vacations and holidays I always know there will be a special, saved project for us to do together in the garden. I look forward to those times and realize family gardening is my favorite way of spending quality time with my parents.

View of winding brick walkway that leads to patio and passes Grandma's old bird feeder on the left.

Rex admiring the garden. Or he could be waiting intently for a throw of the ring.

Marci

P.S. I realized the before and after pictures of the garden are on my parents' computer, so next time I am home I am going to post them to the blog for more drama, you see.