Fall takes Hold

Usually, I am not a fall season girl.  Summer is my time of the year.  Spring is a close second.  Winter is for cocoa, cider, fireplaces and hibernation.  Fall is ragweed, goldenrods, and razor dry air.  This fall has been no exception.  However, what is different this year is that I am newly inspired to get my kids to take advantage of a fleeting few weeks of nice outdoor weather that bridge the unbearable heat to southerners freezing our a**es off.  Perhaps my son joining the Cub Scouts has also fueled this.  He has his first overnight camping trip in a couple weeks, so we broke out the tent and sleeping bags last night, and he and Jon spent the night under the tent under the stars in our front yard.  They came in around 7:30 this morning after the birds woke them and went back to bed upstairs, but that's nature for ya.
This afternoon we went to a fly fishing clinic in a beautiful nature preserve.  Only Jon got the hang of slinging the fly rod, but we all got a few casts in and enjoyed some beautiful weather.

The garden is also slowly growing; it's definitely not the summer time trailblazing growth.  It's a more subtle development.  The roots have taken hold, there is a new set of leaves; the grape tomatoes and eggplant still grow slowly.  The basil hangs on.  My reluctance to cut down the bloomed stems eggs on the remaining bumblebees to continue to pollinate.  The days may be waning but nature pushes forward.

Yummy Fall Food

I'm just here to brag about my best yet clean-out-the-produce-drawer pasta dinner to date!  Let me just say that typically when I use the odds and ends out of the fridge to make dinner, it is met with the groans normally associated with cafeteria mystery meat or left over casserole at home.  So tonight, while one child colored on the family room floor and the other headed out to play in the neighborhood, I was smoothly evasive about what would be for dinner.  So, just crowing here, but the kids cleaned their plate.  Triumph #1.  It was only after they had mostly finished their meal that I revealed all the ingredients in the pasta.  And surprisingly, no shudders!  Triumph #2.  So because this turned out so well, I thought I would share.  Hopefully you have the exact same leftovers in your drawers!

Fall Odds and End Pasta serves 4
8oz fettucine (or half a box)
1/2 fennel bulb sliced thin
1/2 bag spinach
1/2 bag salad mix
1 green apple thinly sliced
2 slices of bacon and 2 chicken tenders minced together
2 scallions white portion sliced into rings
1/2 c chicken or veggie broth
1/4 t dried or 1t fresh thyme

Cook pasta according to directions and drain.
Mix apples, scallions and fennel bulb together in a bowl and set aside.
Saute mixed meat until just cooked through in a med high heated pot.  Remove meat but reserve oil in pan left from cooking bacon.  If necessary, and an additional tablespoon canola oil.  Toss fennel, apple, scallion mixture in and saute until fennel is tender.  Add spinach, salad mix and then broth and cook just until leaf veggies are wilted.  Season to taste with salt, if necessary
Toss pasta into veggies and broth and mix thoroughly.  Serve with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Fall Preview

Since I have been grounded from travel this week due to inadequate after hours child care status, I have had a lot of time to enjoy the waning days of Indian summer and the burgeoning of fall all the while getting a lot of badly needed office work done.  Being grounded rocks.
Today I spent almost 3 hours rooting out big chunks of weeds and spent summer vegetable plants from the main garden.  I saw a black widow spider and discussed how to tell the difference between a venomous and non-venomous snake while on the phone with a New England friend.  Gratified in my work done, I ventured to the fav garden store to supplement the fall garden.  Lettuces already in the works, I'm going to try some rainbow swiss chard, broccoli and cauliflower, and some beets - only 2 each of the last 3 items.  Last years cauliflower grew to the size of a peach and then just quit on us.  Beets - well I am just skeptical.
Anyhoo, just get yer-selves ready for next week's preview pics.  And I am still waiting on recipes, folks.  Let's go for something with the swiss chard or beets.  I think I can figure out the rest.

Woohoo - Fall! And Regret.

Today was not the first day of fall, but it sure felt like it here - only a few days late.  We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the cooler weather.  25 days of September had highs in the 90s.  Yes, today is the 27th - so we had the 4th hottest September in 70 something years.  But the cool weather instantly inspired all things fall for me.  I cooked a big pot of chili heating my kitchen back up the 90 degrees that I escaped just yesterday. I started thinking about squash and apples and Chinese hot pot.   I wore long sleeves and steadfastly refused to push them up when the kitchen got said hot.  We opened the windows.
So, while I was stirring my big pot of black bean chili (with some eggplant sneaked in for veggie bulk), I looked at my can of roasted tomatoes.  And I felt regret for the end of tomato season.  Oh sure, I can get tomatoes at the supermarket year round, but, seriously, it just ain't the same.  And then I realized that there will be no more peaches, no more zucchini, no more blueberries, no more super succulent, sweet and tender corn on the cob.  I am so sad.  Like then end of a summer time fling, I leave summer satisfied, but secretly long for one more kiss from a sun drenched Caprese salad.  Rats.  I guess that is the beauty of eating seasonally.  We enjoy the best of the best, and then they leave us wanting more, waiting in anticipation for the next first fresh taste.
Oh well, on to fall.  Autumn is fledgling here.  Send me your favorite fall recipes, please.

Fall is Coming, I Swear!

I've been feeling the first inkling of fall coming.  When I let the dogs out in the morning, the air is actually not muggy.  The highs are below 90 degrees.  I actually feel like looking at something long sleeved.  Yep, fall is on the way.  The over grown garden is in emergency need of a weed-ectomy.  And once a harvest has happened, I'm not very good at removing the dying plants.  But here is my first inkling of fall:  sweet potatoes!!  This was pulled from 2 plants.  We are baking them tonight as company to shrimp pasta with home grown basil and anchovy a plenty.  I don't think I've ever had a sweet potato fresh from the ground a la Scarlett O'Hara.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Insect Oddities and Coming to the Same Place

An acquaintance-friend called me today, and we were talking about the "healthy happy hour" that she had hosted this week.  It was all about putting clean foods into your body and working toward a whole foods lifestyle - basically taking care of yourself and your family.  It wasn't preachy or judgmental.  It was really nice.  I learned a few things and tasted a couple things that I normally wouldn't have.  For those of you that are not aware, I am not a big sweets person.  Every once in a while, I like a little chocolate or a cookie. But mostly, for me, it will be fruit or yogurt - or even better - a giant salt lick.

We talked some about my garden, how I completely overextended myself, and the strange things I have observed.

1.)  I was sure that the squirrel and birds would eat all the strawberries - that was pretty much true.  Thankfully Jon constructed the mega cage of chicken wire and the last part of the season's berries were spared for us humans.
2.)  Nothing ate our tomatoes.  In previous seasons, we had to guard tomatoes with shiny curling ribbon, more large chicken wire nets, swinging pie pans, cayenne pepper sprays, all to no avail.  Birds and squirrel buffet the tomatoes were.  But not this season.  Perhaps they don't like heirloom yellow tomatoes or grape tomatoes.  By the way - the grape tomatoes are still going strong!  Also absent were the giant green horned worms that are scary to have to pick away and can devastate your tomato plants in a single day.  I am truly thankful that I did not have to deal with them.
3.)  Ants love beans.  They don't love corn, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, carrot fronds, chive tops or sweet potato leaves.  They do, however, love green bean leaves and Chinese long beans.  Most recently I observed 2 giant army ants perched at the top of each long bean.  They grow in sets of 2, and it was as if each ant was guarding a bean.  No seriously, 2 on every set of beans.  I had noticed a few sets that had turned brown and dried up, and they appeared to have some sort of eggs on them.  Perhaps ant eggs?  So why, beans and not tomatoes that are grown in the same bed?  And why long beans and not the green beans which had only the leaves cannibalized and the beans left intact?  CALLING ALL ENTOMOLOGISTS - Please explain!
4.)  Not discussed but disconcerting to me - the cantaloupes and watermelons grow to about 6", then split and rot.  What is wrong?

But circling back to the healthy happy hour, it was interesting to see how people end in the same place coming from completely different directions.  My friend Teena had her happy hour to promote the idea of needing to de-toxify or cleanse our bodies.  She talked about how processed food is full of toxins, food allergies are up, and it is all because of the way our food is prepped and processed for us.  So she was promoting eating whole foods, low glycemic carbs, and gluten free foods.  Her end goal was to be healthier and have more energy.  Well, I cannot give up my carbs - sorry Teena!  But I started our garden for several reasons - to teach the kids about how food gets on our table, to reduce the environmental (pollution) impact of the food we eat by growing it ourselves, to support the local economy by buying seedlings and seeds locally and use local resources to help them grow, and to be able to control what I put in my and my family's bodies.  In the end, the food that we produced encouraged me to cook and eat fresher, and I truly believe that eating more whole veggies made us healthier overall and gave us more energy.  It was just the pasta that dragged us back down.

Wow, this is a long entry for me.  The point is that I think (and hope) that everyone that is reading this has a goal that somewhat includes feeling better and being healthier.  It's pretty cool to me to learn why other people are growing gardens, eating differently.  There is always an interesting personal story that starts the whole thing.  On the other hand, perhaps you enjoy my cheesy puns and gardening whack-a-doodles.

Ciao baby!

OMG those damned mimosa thingies

So, it has been a couple weeks since I have actually set foot in the garden.  My faithful dad has been watering regularly since we have no rain for a while now.  I open the gate, and the first thing that greets me is a 2 ft wall of those wild, crazy mimosa looking ferny weed things.  I don't know if they are actually mimosa plants, but they look like them, and the grow like CRAZY!  Anyway, I had to rip them out just to be able to set foot in the garden.  Not a good sign.
I make my way immediately to the back to check on the grape tomatoes as I can see flashes of red back there.  I think I need a machete.  Whack, whack, pull, rip as I plod back to the tomatoes and melons.  Surprise - tons of old yellow tomatoes.  Still lots of grape tomatoes growing, and lo and behold, a fresh batch of long beans!  Too bad there is an ant the size of my pinky fingernail poised at the top of each and every bean.  No, really, there is an ant on each mature bean.  I totally didn't get it.  But I wanted the beans and not to be bit, so thus began a weird game of "flick the ant". Flick flick flick, snip snip snip.
Then more ripping and pulling of whatever those weed trees are to be able to see the melon patch.  2 melons growing.  :)
Clipped a few eggplants, banana peppers, and another large dose of sweet potato leaves.
Its nice to know that even though I've been ignoring you for a few weeks, sweet garden, that you still grow food along with those weeds.  Thank you.
Tonight for dinner - slow poached chicken with scallion oil and ginger with long beans cooked with fermented black beans and garlic and sweet potato leaves sauteed with ginger and sesame oil.  :)
And now it is finally raining outside.  Keep on growing, baby, 'cause we're still hungry!

I totally miss you!

So much travel and so much time.  I totally miss my garden.  I know that it is over run with weeds and overgrown eggplants and peppers, but there is nothing I can do when I am not home. (frowny face)  I go home tomorrow and will check the whole thing out.
In a couple weeks, I will start to clear for the fall garden.  Taking suggestions . . .

In the mean time, here is an image of nature's perfect snack.

I'm sorry, I was mistaken

Well, it has been a few weeks again, and the garden has been growing out of control.  So have the weeds.  So are the ants.  And why do the ants only like the beans and their leaves and nothing else?  The tomatoes are right there - juicy and sweet.  I've got a little corn left, some peppers . . . no dice.  I am an ant and I only like to eat your beans.  Oh well.

So here is something new - we have melons!  No really, there are melons! We have been watering, but the skies have been pretty stingy, so I never thought we would ever get fruit.  Also, our luck with the monstrously large single sexed flowers zucchini plants just made me assume that we were going to have the sample problems with melons.  And I have no idea if you need cross pollination for melons or not.  Nevertheless, I am pretty excited now.

Where I came into error, however, is in the tomatoes.  I bought this heirloom plant, and I totally don't remember what variety it is.  So when the first fruits were turning yellowish, I was stoked that we would soon have some red ripe fruit.  I was prepared to beat away all birds and squirrels in their defense.  And strangely, they did not turn orange and then red but stayed yellow.  So I waited.  And I waited.  And then I thought perhaps I should pick them and bag them with some bananas to see what would happen.  And they stayed yellow.  So then my suspicions began to grow.  Should I taste one?  What if it is still green?  But after 2 weeks at yellow?  Hmmm.  I did slice one to put on a sandwich but ate a slice solo first.  Holy cow, it was delicious - mellow and super sweet with lots of juice.  Yay, I have some kind of heirloom yellow tomato that I don't remember and therefor won't be able to find it again for next year.  C'est la vie.  Oh well.
Enjoy the pics.

Long Time No See

Wow, it has been quite a while!  Between work and the heat, it has been hard to remember to come visit y'all.  So this is what has happened since we have parted. 

1.)  The corn produced.  Here is a pic of the kids with the first pick.  Since then, we have picked once more.
2.) We grew lots of beans.  Lots and lots of beans.  And then the ants ate lots and lots of beans and the plant leaves too.
3.) Eggplant success - both Japanese variety and Fairytale.
4.) More banana peppers. Of course, the one thing that we would eat the least of is what produces the most - naturally.
5.)  Sweet potato leaves go crazy. 3 or 4 harvests.  I am pretty sure we are getting more out of those plants as leaf bearers than whatever lies below the surface.
6.) And speaking of below the surface, the carrots are just okay and I have one green bell pepper.

There was one week that the garden produced enough food to cover a whole week!  That was pretty exciting.  To bad I was out of town the whole week after I picked it all and got to eat none of it.  Oh well.  I heard that the corn was super sweet and the beans super flavorful.
And today, I harvested a boat load more sweet potato leaves, some grape tomatoes and carrots - and 2 more ears of corn.  I have 3 more days at home, and will get to enjoy it all with the barbeque  this weekend.  Everyone have a great 4th of July weekend!

Great Progress and a Snack

Its been a crazy week, but I spent one whole morning in the garden pulling weeds, staking and harvesting.  It was an exciting and bug biting time despite my liberal use of insect spray.  Something wayward did bite my ear, and it still hurts to wear my Bluetooth earpiece.  Ironically, my mother, who helped weed for the first hour, was also bitten on the ear and cannot wear her hearing aid from the swelling.  As a result, she has been unable to hear me complain additionally about the mosquito infestation.
I have attached a big wad of photos of the garden's progress post partial weeding.  I was most excited about the first harvest of beans and have already taken a second batch since the photo taken on Tuesday.  A Japanese eggplant has also been harvested since the pics.  The leaves in the bag are sweet potato leaves, and I am told by my mother that they are quite tasty sauteed like greens.  And I am stunned that we have corn growing!!  My doubting Thomas days are over, and I hope that they grow nice and fat, so that we will have some sweet juicy corn for summer cookouts.

At our front and side yard garden, the zucchini flower continue to grow, but I have no squash.  I have no idea what is wrong.  Anyone with any idea, please contribute to my learning process.  The dill has completely taken over and I have taken to ripping out entire plants to save space for the basil and rosemary that are just coming up to speed.  Below, I have a picture of my latest dill creation - gravalax, or as my daughter calls it, fish ham.  Gravalax is the heavenly combination of sugar/salt cured fresh Pacific salmon with peppercorn, dill, juniper, and a little fennel.  Actually, I didn't have any juniper berries so I cheated with my next best substitute - Hendrick's gin.  3 days under a brick, and this is what you get!  Jon is currently at the grocery store procuring bagels for tomorrow morning's breakfast feast. 

Well, I'm off to heat up the repairs from my roasted chicken fiasco from 2 nights ago.  Everyone have a great weekend!

I Remembered!!

So, I was sitting in this sales meeting today, and we were talking about why people blogged.  And, while I didn't verbalize, I was thinking the whole time, "hello, we blog to be able to say what we want to say while under the illusion that someone might be listening or paying attention."  I have no illusions.  I know that there are, like, 5 of you that read this on a regular basis and might comment.  And thanks to those of you, truly, because I then remembered that the real reason that I am blogging is to get support from all 5 of you to not be a quitter in my quest for local food consumption and production.  Thanks again.

Now, another "I remembered".  I made a dish the other night from the homegrown dill and remembered to do a before and after photograph!  Here is the before.  I ripped the entire plant out because it was impinging on my basil's ability to flourish.

And now the after - lemon dill chicken with crimini mushrooms.  Please forgive the elementary photo skills.  Thanks to Down Home with the Neelys for a little inspiration.  I totally couldn't find the recipe on their site so you just get the link to their page.  Sorry.  Plus, I made up my recipe as I went along.  Next time I will try to remember to write down the recipe for you.
While I have been gone, I am told, by my sweet hub, that the corn is human adult height now, so I'm thinking that we should get some flowering and pollination (fingers crossed) pretty soon!  Pics of that next time.

Oops I Did It Again

I swear, every time I get a little inspiration from my garden, I plan out this wonderful menu.  I'm not the best cook in the world by any stretch of the imagination - probably not even the best cook on the block.  But what I can make, I can make really well.  So my intention is to photograph the grown or local ingredients, make something, and then photograph the finished dish.  The problem is that some time in between completing a dish and then getting the family rounded up and to the table while it is still not, I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  And I have done this more than once.  So, let's just pretend that I took all those after pictures. 

Before pic: the zucchini blossom photo from the last entry
After pic: deep fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with anchovy ricotta served on a bed of pureed tomatoes and basil

Before pic:  dill from last entry
After pic: roasted wild Pacific salmon with sour cream lemon dill sauce served with short grain brown rice

Before pic:  assorted colored carrots and watermelon radishes from the farmers' market
After pic: said root vegetables cut down and sauteed in butter and a little brown sugar (technically my hubby made this one, but it would have been a beautiful pic)

Envision it all in high resolution, well lit, mouth-watering glory.  There.  I will try not to forget again.

The First Day

Today is the first day of no school.  We celebrated with another trip to pick strawberries.  This time, it is near the end of the season.  So the farm we visited was a bit overgrown with weeds and many berries were over ripe and rotting.  But we were able to collect a sweet gallon of berries plus a local melon and a small cup of sweet onions.  The scents were so heady that after a brief stop for lunch, we came back to a car overwhelmed with the strong smell of berries and onions - nice.
The turn of the lifestyle season from the rigid 6am rising to a more pleasant 7:30 debut to each day is welcome.  Then there is a languid meandering to the breakfast table after a quick check of the e-mail; a more relaxed evening after a late supper.  I love it.  Hello summer, it's good to see you again.

And Down Comes the Rain

Woohoo!  There have been fantastic rains followed by nice periods of bright sun for 2 weeks.  The garden is prospering for the most part, and I am stoked!  I have lots of great pics to share with you.  Check out the corn!  Wow is all I can say.  I am pretty impressed - especially with the fact that this has taken very little effort up to this point.  We are even doing a great job of feeding the birds and squirrels our ripened strawberries.  Jon built a chicken wire coop around the berries the other week, and lo and behold, a few days later, we come back to find a spot where the "fence" had been slightly raised and half a giant red strawberry gone.  Really - it went under the coop.  And why did it eat only half the strawberry??  Would it not be more prudent, if you were already stuck under the coop, to go ahead and eat or take the whole thing?  Stupid smart squirrels.

I am thinking, and certain people are telling me, that we got too late a start on the sugar snap peas.  That is the plot that we worked the least, so the weeds seem to out number the plants about 50:1 right now.
So, what do you think, anyone?  Do we try to let it ride or rip them out and wait for late summer to start working on some fall tasties?  I was thinking about some bok choi or this Chinese spinach like thing called Gai Lan.  I'd love to hear some other ideas.

But back to the gardening.  You will see, I have a lot of dill coming out.  I had 4 plants last year, and it just seeded like crazy!  The basil did not seed as aggressively, but I still have about 6 or 7 little beauties coming out in the plot in our front yard.  I'm already thinking about some homemade pickles and gravalax and salmon with dill cream, . . . and I have no idea what else I can do with dill.  Perhaps dill zucchini, because that is the first veg I see coming.  So beautiful.  I can't wait.

Envy and Pride

I spent this last week far from home in La Jolla, CA.  It was picturesque, tranquil, and completely what I expect from California.  Even though I was in the desert, generally speaking, Californians have it so easy with the food chain and all.  They have the best weather, the best views, the best land in which to grow and raise just about every kind of food that you could ever want.  They have great wine and great cheese.  They provide more produce for the rest of the country than any other state.  And then, they have beaches, mountain, desert, snow, sun, rain, and movie stars.  I can only think of the joke I read in a novel about how France (insert California here) is blessed with all the same great things - great weather, bountiful food, delicious wine and cheese, etc.  So the rest of the countries of the world complained to God that it was totally unfair that France was blessed with all these things and many of the other countries received none of these blessings.  So, being a fair deity, God saw this as a reasonable complaint and evened everything out by creating the French people.  I am not knocking the French people, by the way.  But I can't even say that God has evened things out with Californians; pretty much everyone I know from this state is a pretty cool person with no more than the average amount of quirks embedded in the rest of the country's general population.  Perhaps it is the earthquakes and the cost of owning property that evens things out.
But, anyway, I got back home on Friday morning to a gloriously humid and sunny day.  I felt like I was having hot flashes and the back of my neck got sweaty as soon as I walked out of the airport.  But uncomfortable as I temporarily was, it was good to be home - sweet home Alabama.  Later that day, I was thinking about all the good food that I ate and tasty wine that I drank.  It would be nice if I lived somewhere that I could get almost everything that I want to consume within my home state.  Alabama is not exactly quite there yet.  But I am proud of the foods that we do produce.  We have fantastic goat cheese produced in Alabama, delicious strawberries and sweet potatoes.  And I can't wait for the peaches!!  The local summer farmers' market season has begun.  In a few weeks to months, my garden will be, hopefully, overflowing with zucchini, beans, corn, and all sorts of other yummy goodies.  I am psyched!  So while California this ain't, I am so proud of the efforts put forth by the hard working people of Alabama, and my family, to produce bounty for our tables.  Cheers to all!

Eat Dirt You Worm!!

Actually, I think that the correct phrasing would be something like "Poop dirt you worm" but that just doesn't really sound like an insult.  And it isn't.  But its what my little colony of red worms and red wrigglers have been doing since the beginning of the year.

Out on the not so cutting edge of green farming and green living is this little "dirty" practice called vermicomposting.  Oooh, sorry, I couldn't resist that word play.  Call me a dork.  Anyway, its foreign to most of us that live in urban and suburban environments, but its been around for pretty much forever.  Here it is in a nutshell:  Worms eat rotting organic matter - dried leaves, lawn clippings, food scraps/garbage; worms poop a super nutrient rich dirt called worm castings.  This soil is dark, fine, and light and fluffy. They also create a liquid by-product called worm tea.  These by products are fantastic for your garden, lawn, and potted plants like a sort of organic super fertilizer.  So, while, this is what I've been doing with my garbage for the past 5 months independent of my garden., its now something that I do for my garden.

I have to admit that while I've been completely gung ho on this idea for a couple years now, my fears of the icky and stinky plus some good old fashioned procrastinating have delayed my venture until this year.  But I can testify now that this is fantastic!  There really is no smell.  This winter we kept the bin indoors by the kitchen.  It was out in the sun room for spring, but I'm going to have to move it into the garage before it gets too hot.  The compost actually has a really fresh earthy smell to it like right after you have turned the ground after a rain and are really to plant for spring.  The bin doesn't get buggy either.  I keep a layer of shredded newspaper on the top tier to create a barrier for flies.  And, finally, I'd much rather have my kids playing with these worms and dirt than digging big holes in the front yard.

But, the best part about this whole process, to me, is that while my worms are having a great meal and doing their part to help my gardens grow, I am also reducing my waste footprint on our precious planet.  Almost no vegetative waste goes into our garbage cans now.  Eggshells, coffee grounds and filters stay out as well.  And the amount of newspaper that is having to be recycled is also reduced.  When I reduce my waste that goes to landfills, I also help to reduce the methane that is produced at said landfill.  Both my kids get excited about collecting food scraps and wanting to feed the worms.  It is so cool when your 4 year old points to the tough outer skins from broccoli that I have peeled for dinner and says, "Can the worms have this?  Can I put it in the bag?  When the bag is full, can I help you feed the worms?"  That is so awesome.  She doesn't see it as reducing waste or changing our carbon footprint on the earth.  She just sees it as the way we do things.

And this is the way we recycle our garbage.

If you want to start your own vermicomposting bin, there are many ways to do it.  You can purchase your needed materials like we did or you can make your own.  Here are a couple links to get you started.
Worms Wrangler
How to build a worm bin  This video is just plain fun to watch!

Save the Corn

Yesterday, I had a great lunch.  I went to a Share the Harvest luncheon at Grow Alabama.  They are a multi-farm cooperative that offers freshly grown produce, meat and dairy, mostly from the state of Alabama, through a weekly subscription.  It you are not into growing your own food or don't have time to make it to the farmers' market, this is a great way to get the freshest possible food while supporting the local economy.  Everyone was super nice and provided tons of information without being preachy about it.  And the lunch was delicious.

After leaving that meeting, I was energized to return to my own garden.

At last post, I was wrestling the fact that it was time to thin out my seedlings.  With a heavy heart I did trod to the boxes and began to decide who should live and who should die.  And mind you, while I was contemplating this, I noticed that the carrots are starting to sprout, and I will have to thin those seedlings as well.  Anyway, the night prior, I devised a scheme to save the corn.  So when I went out to the garden, I carried with me an empty flat from the zinnias that I planted the yard.  Uh huh, are you getting what I did?  As I pulled out the extra corn seedlings, I replanted them into the flower flat!  Okay, honestly, now I have the problem of 35 corn orphans.  Um, any one want some seedlings?

Beyond that, the carrots are finally breaking through soil and have grown enough that I can tell the difference between them and the weeds.  The sugar snap peas and green beans have sprouted too.  Only the potatoes have provided me no action.  I can't bat 1.000, so out they came, and into the ground, some nice Japanese eggplant.  My kids don't even like eggplant, so this will be an interesting experiment to see if hands on ownership in their growth will be persuasive to their palates.

Plant Murder and Side Bar

I knew that this day would come eventually.  Oh, how I hoped that it wouldn't.  I'd hoped that I would turn out to be, yet again, a very mediocre gardener, and everything could be avoided.  But alas, I am having to face the inevitable - the garden is growing vigorously, and I need to thin out the seedlings.  This may not seem to be anything close to a big deal to everyone else; you just choose the strongest seedlings and then extract the ones in between that are too close or seem weak.  I CAN'T DO IT!!  I have, somehow, become very attached to those dried and shriveled little seeds that I dropped in the ground 3 or so weeks ago.  I watered them; I pulled out the weeds around them; I scrutinized the soil looking for little breaks where green could be seen emerging from the ground.  I counted days of sun and inches of rain.  I debated the pros and cons of watering in the morning versus the evening.  Mothering/nurturing instincts in complete overdrive, how can I kill something that I have helped create, is so young, and could potentially produce delicious food for my family - or someone else?  I blame the person who wrote the instructions on the back of the seed packet, or the seed producer themselves.  If they had indicated to me that every single seed that I planted would sprout, then, surely, I would not have planted so many and be in the position of having to rip their sweet, tender roots out of the ground.
May day, may day, anyone in my local area: if you would like some dill or corn seedlings, please let me know.  They need a good home.

On a side note, my son and I went to a beautiful farm last Friday and picked 2 boat loads of fresh strawberries (and a few onions) to bring home for feasting.  The picking process only took about 30 minutes including berry eating right off the plant time.  But let me tell you, 2 gallons of strawberries is a lot more than I thought it would be.  7 jars of jam, 2 pies, countless bowls sliced for snacks, a salad, and a full sheet pan flash frozen for future use, we are almost finished - until our next trip.  Thank you to Marsh Farms in Cleveland, AL.  The berries were delicious.

Zen garden

Today was a tough day at work.  Sometime I love my job, but today, not so much.  And as I am driving, a few hundred miles away from my home and family, I find myself wishing that I was in the garden, kneeling in the damp earth, plucking out weeds like an overly aggressive brow threader at my salon.  I can feel the satisfaction of feeling the roots give way and release from the dirt in an overgrown thready chain.  And I think about how, yesterday, I was peering over my neatly formed rows and saw the first tiny shoots breaking through the soil.  That's yellow corn and Blue Lake green beans.  And a few tiny strawberries losing the white petals from their bloom.  There is nothing like anticipation.
About that time, I am passing through this tiny town in Southwest Georgia called Ellaville.  I don't think that there is any particularly special about this place.  But there are all these cute little garden homes seemingly freshly painted white.  Azalea bushes overflow in each yard making giant splashes of jewel toned color.  The sky is blue; I can smell jasmine.  And all is good in the world again.
There is nothing like a little nature to remind me . . .  well, it doesn't remind me of anything.  But it allows me to forget the rest of the world and find a little peace.

Dig and Bury

First blog, first post, first sentence.
Well, okay, that's over with. Much better. For introductions, I'm Sharon; I live in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, and my family and I have planted a vegetable garden. Every spring, I have these great aspirations to grow lots of fresh food for my family, and every summer, something grows - plants without fruit, harvests forgotten, and lots of weeds. I'm really good at growing weeds. So I have started this blog to encourage me to not be a slacker and quit. And I want to teach my children the value of food. Hopefully, along the way, I can entertain someone else. I am assisted in this venture by my very strong husband and 2 marginally interested children.

Last weekend, I went to my parents' home, armed with gloves, manure, seeds and family, and began to clear out their fabulous and overgrown garden in the back yard. It was covered with weeds, weeds, some dead okra from a previous gardening attempt, and a lot of wildly growing Chinese garlic chives. I pulled the weeds while my husband, Jon, turned the soil. We cleared out 3 1/2 plots, planted half a plot of asparagus roots and called it a day. Feeling pretty good about our progress, I exclaimed on my Facebook page that I am going to try to become a produce locavore this summer and feed my family only things we grow supplemented by purchases from the farmers' market. But California or Florida this ain't. I hit post, and then immediately start to think of the things that I will have to make exception.

The next day, we nearly clear out the balance of the garden and plant carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes, strawberries, and 2 plots of yellow corn. Very ambitious. I also have 2 or 3 varieties of tomato seeds that we can plant in the last plots and the Botanical Garden's heirloom plant sale is this weekend. My husband already has aspirations of a vast patch of melons, peppers . . . and I look over the garden and the vast clump of hoses in the corner that resemble an intimidating cluster of snakes, and I wonder if I can actually do this.

But here I am making my commitment before you all, that I will do my best to water this garden, pull out the offending weeds, and harvest all produce grown in a timely manner. I hope I don't let you down!