Looking for Roots

An Act of Subversion?

2008-05-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

Since I love the idea that I might be a bit of a rebel, I really enjoyed this quote from "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan:

"To reclaim this much control over one's food, to take it back from industry and science, is no small thing; indeed in our time cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts."

Where You'll Find Green

2008-03-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Popular Science put together a list of America's Greenest Cities, based on survey data and stats in 30 categories that basically boil down to how well the city deals with electricity, transportation, "green living" and "recycling and green perspective."

I was happy to find Chicago in the top 10. It might seem surprising to people who are not familiar with the Windy City, but Mayor Daley is a green devotee. The U.S. Green Building Council is headquartered here, and some of our city buildings were some of the first to have green roofs.

Here's the top 10:

1. Portland, Ore.
2. San Francisco
3. Boston
4. Oakland, Calif.
5. Eugene, Ore.
6. Cambridge, Mass.
7. Berkeley, Calif.
8. Seattle
9. Chicago
10. Austin, Texas

Don't Drink the Water

2008-03-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

As just one more piece of evidence that we are slowly poisoning ourselves, check out this recent AP report:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031000621.html?tid=informbox&sid=ST2008030901877

The time to care about our water supply is now. Don't think you're safe if you're drinking bottled water, either. In addition to creating a whole lot of unnecessary waste, you're also just drinking tap water that someone spent energy to put into a plastic bottle.

Juxtaposition

2008-01-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

It's negative three outside today. I am sitting at the breakfast bar, looking out the window at my rhododendron...or is it an azalea? I'm so bad with flowers, I always mix them up. Anyway, it stays green all winter, but on days like this, the leaves curl up and fold themselves down like they're trying to keep the plant's branches warm. It looks lonely there. And cold.

And as the temperature dips about as low as we've seen this year (I saw a cool graphic on the weather section of the news last night showing how this air originated in Siberia and made its way across the polar ice cap to get here, making this a true arctic freeze), I'm thinking about making my order for tomato, pepper, eggplant and onion seedlings. Because the seed catalogs arrived the same week as Christmas, and I've been drooling over new introductions, weighing the pros and cons of ordering from someone new, or going with the tried-and-true providers. This year, I know that if I lose a plant or two, I can just head out to the farmer's market or the nursery and replace what I've lost with a locally bought seedling, but mail ordering increases my options. The tomatoes and peppers pictured here came from nursery-bought plants last year, after all.

So I think I'm going to go with Burpee's hot tomatoes selection, mainly because I can't resist those white cherry tomatoes (white?), along with Seeds of Change's Farm Favorites, because they added Cherokee Purple to the mix, and I think Cherokee Purple might be the best-tasting tomato ever developed.

For eggplants, I'll probably go with Harris Seeds, because they're the only supplier offering a nice package that marries a traditional eggplant (the big black-purple teardrop-shaped thing) with some smaller finger-shaped eggplants and some white ones.

I'm still debating whether I want to try onions. After all, it's pretty cheap to pick them up at the market...and the varieties you can grow aren't all that different from what you'll find in the produce section. Still, I'm tempted because I've never grown them before...and growing something new is always a treat.

At any rate, it's nice to sit inside the warm house as the temperature dips, thinking about veggies that grow their best in the hot days of summer.

A Tip to All You Aspiring Writers Out There

2008-01-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

This is a bit off-topic, but I've been doing a lot of reading lately, and wanted to weigh in on what I think might be one of the laziest writing habits around: beginning a story with a definition.

Yes, as in, Webster's defines "writer" as "one that writes," but we all know that there's so much more to writing than writing.

Please. Use your imagination. Use your creativity. Don't use the dictionary to create your lead.

Rocket!

2007-06-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

By now, most people are familiar with arugula, and have eaten it at some point, even if they didn’t realize it at the time. It tends to be a standard in some of those bagged mesclun mixes you can buy at the store.

People have been eating arugula a long time. It’s native to the Mediterranean region, where it grows wild, and people have been eating it at least since Roman times. They ate the leaves, just like we do. They also used the seeds for flavoring oil, and believed the plant had aphrodisiac and medicinal qualities.

Check out this article from The Sierra Club: “Food for Thought: Beyond Wheat, Rice and Corn” . The introduction describes how arugula was brought from the wilds around Pompeii into the prominence it enjoys on our salad plates today. Actually, the article isn’t about arugula. It’s about the loss of diversity on our dinner plates. It’s a great, and quick, read. I didn’t know this, for example: “Wheat, rice and corn alone account for half of all calories” consumed by humans. Yikes!

But back to arugula…

A mustard relative, the leaves are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and potassium. Like most of the brassicas, it has plenty of phytonutrients, which can help reduce the risk for some kinds of cancer.

Arugula likes it cool, so it’s on its last legs in my garden right now, though I’ll be able to plant a fall crop and get plenty more greens in September, October and probably even November and December. (With a cold frame, you can really grow arugula year-round, from what I've read.) Once the weather starts to get hot, the leaves get a little less spicy and a little more bitter, as I discovered when I made my dinner tonight.

Arugula is a quick grower and virtually care-free in the garden, so it’s wonderful for first-time gardeners who like the taste. In less than a month, you can pick your first leaves for a salad, a sandwich topping or to stir into a soup. Dressed with a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, it’s absolutely delicious. And my personal favorite way to prepare arugula is to cook a bit of fettucine, then return it to the pot with a bit of the cooking water and stir in some younger arugula leaves, cherry or grape tomatoes and goat cheese over low heat until the greens wilt and the cheese melts. Toss in a few toasted pecans, add a few twists of freshly ground black pepper (tellicherry is my favorite), and you’re good to go. Quick and easy to eat, just like it is to grow.

Arugula is called “rocket” by some people. Who knows why? Maybe it’s because of the way it blasts out of the ground.

John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds describes the flavor of young arugula leaves as “mild, but zingy” and “radish-like.” Others describe the flavor as “nutty” and “spicy.”

It’s not just the leaves that are edible. I’ve not yet tried eating arugula flowers, but I plan to pick them as soon as the blooms open this year and try them out. Scheeper’s describes the flowers as “sweetly tangy in salads.” They're not only beneficial to your salad bowl though. They also attract beneficial insects to the garden, as I noticed last year. Hoverflies, in particular, seemed to be drawn to the arugula flowers. So don’t be afraid to let them bloom to their heart’s content. They're pretty, tasty, attractive to beneficials, and--who knows?--you might just create your own garden's wild crop of arugula that returns every year...just like it grows wild around Pompeii.

Daily Suspense

2007-06-18T08:02:00.001-07:00

I love this time of year in the garden. It seems like every day brings something new, and I progressively get more and more excited as I wake up in the morning and anticipate my first of many daily walks through the garden.

On the weekend, I usually wake between 6:30 and 7 am, when Wrenna stirs in her crib. Her bedroom window looks down on the garden, so I usually catch my first glimpse from her room after her diaper is changed.

Then I look out the window next to the bathroom, a bit closer, as the garden is right outside it.

Then I put my shoes on and ask Wrenna if she wants to take a walk in the garden. She'll run up to the door saying, "Gar, gar, gar," and off we go. What will we discover?

Weekdays aren't quite as fun. Wrenna's not with me, and I get out the door around 5:30 for those first few glimpses. But no matter which day it is, there always seems to be something to discover.

On Friday, it was flowers. Everything seemed to be in bloom: tomatoes, peppers, the tomatillo, the cilantro (alas!).

On Saturday, it was the Italian Romano pole beans that popped out, and--maybe?--the first celery seedling. (It could be a weed. It's still too small to tell, and since I've never grown celery before, it's hard to identify.)

Yesterday brought loads of new green faces to the garden, with the first sightings of corn, delicata squash, zucchini and mesclun (mostly mustard greens).

This morning, in the pre-dawn light, I saw the first Howden pumpkin seedling popping up, along with Yellow Crookneck squash, Sunburst patty pan squash, and the first of the basil--Sweet Genovese, which has that classic pesto basil flavor. And, I noticed that the tomatillo--whose flowers I only just noticed on Friday--actually seems to be working on its first fruits!

And the cool thing about a work day (hey, you've got to find SOMETHING positive to say about a Monday) is that I'll be away from the garden all day, so when I get home, there could be a whole new round of surprises in store.

Love Science? Love Art? Love Your Garden...

2007-06-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

Is gardening an art or a science?

I had a rare chance to show off the vegetable garden to some visitors today. I truly enjoyed giving them the tour, pointing out the lettuce and greens that are harvestable size, and showing them the tomatoes, peppers, and where various things have been planted but haven't come up yet.

Tonight, as I thought about the garden and what a great love it's become for me, I realized something about what gives me such a powerful connection to the place.

It's the perfect space to conjoin my love of science with my love of art.

Where else can you learn about ecology, biology, chemistry (soil science is all about chemistry after all) and so on, and apply those lessons daily, while you also get to express yourself creatively. A dash of color with some zinnias over here? Yes! Some beautiful bamboo teepees to support pole beans over there? Definitely! A combination of red and green lettuces to delight the eye and the taste bud? Certainly!

Is gardening an art? Is it a science?

It's both, of course!

Water Water--Everywhere?

2007-06-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Are you a water-waster?

Here in the Midwest, it seems almost second-nature to turn on the hose to water the lawn when just a couple of days pass without rain. We don't suffer from the same water shortages seen in places like Southern California, so many of us seem to think that the water will run endlessly.

I ask for two reasons.

First, last night I took a stroll with the dog, and I noticed that nearly every other yard was running a sprinkler on the lawn. This is despite the fact that we've actually had a fair amount of rain in the past month (nearly 3 inches since May 18). OK, so there's not been a drop in the past week, but does that mean you must run the sprinkler? And water the sidewalk?

Secondly, I received my GreenGuide e-newsletter this morning, and it included a link to this Tip of the Week: http://www.thegreenguide.com/blog/tow. It's about wise watering for your lawn. Among the suggestions are watering in the morning, not watering every day, and not wasting water spraying off your driveway and sidewalk. (I can think of at least one neighbor guilty of all three transgressions.)

I'd like to add a couple of my own tips.

1. Don't mow the lawn so often. It's actually better for your grass to let it get a bit longer. Cutting it short every two to three days only stresses the grass. If you let it grow, its ability to retain moisture improves, along with its vigor.

2. Plant some trees, already! Sure, it's nice to see that vast expanse of green, and the kids love playing on it, but having a few trees in the yard will cool things down for your lawn and for your kids, helping you conserve water--not to mention reducing exposure to UV rays. (But you should still use sunscreen too!) We have a well-shaded lawn, and in the height of the driest summer, our grass is still mostly green, though we've never once been tempted to turn on the sprinkler.

3. Plant something other than lawn. This is a bit radical for some people, but there is a movement afoot. People across the country are getting rid of their grass lawns in favor of a permaculture situation, where they grow various edible and non-edible plants suited to their climates.

I'm sure there are plenty of other suggestions out there. If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them with the blog-o-sphere by posting a comment here.

Oh, and by the way, I have to admit that I was running my sprinkler yesterday too. Those baby seedlings (onions and carrots in particular) were looking wilty, and I thought a nice long drink would do them good. So I turned the sprinkler on the garden and gave my peppers, tomatoes, various greens, beets, carrots and so on a good dousing.

The Spice of Life

2007-06-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I managed to find a few spare moments to do a bit of weeding and go ahead and plant some of the summer garden, including corn, summer and winter squash, watermelon, Brussels sprouts (actually these are the fall garden, but they take 100 days to mature, so now's the time to get them going), celery and some others.

As I put in the various varieties of summer squash, and checked out progress on what's already growing, I thought about the enormous difference between what you find in the produce section at the supermarket and what you can grow in your garden.

It's all about variety.

For example, this summer I'm growing five different kinds of snap beans. At the grocery store, you might be lucky enough to find two kinds of beans: green and wax. At a really good market, you might find some French filet-type beans. Obviously, you can do a lot better at a farmer's market. But even better, when you grow your own, you can select varieties that have great flavor, as well as characteristics to suit your garden.

I'm still growing the beans I started with: Bush Blue Lake 274, a tasty green variety that's never failed me yet, and Royal Burgundy, a beautiful purple-podded heirloom that looks lovely in the garden and on the plate. I've also got Buerre de Rocquencourt, a yellow wax bean; Black-Seeded Blue Lake pole beans, a green bean with black seeds; and new this year, Italian Romano beans, reputedly one of the best-flavored beans around.

Romano beans have flat pods, and I have never seen one in a store.

But that's just beans. There's also the seven varieties of lettuce, the three varieties of summer squash, the five varieties of tomatoes, 10 peppers--hot and sweet, six kinds of basil, and so on and on.

And I picked my seeds based on the description of their flavor. So what, you ask? Well, the farmer who grows vegetables for the supermarket is less likely to select varieties based on flavor, and more likely to pick them because they can be picked earlier, are sturdier to handle shipping, or have a longer shelf life. Flavor is generally secondary to these considerations. That's why you'll never find a grocery store strawberry that can even come close to what you pick yourself.

So here's my one little bit of advice for home gardeners for the day: When you're shopping for seeds, or seedlings, consider your garden's conditions and make taste your first consideration. If the description says "stores well," but says nothing about flavor, keep looking. Your second consideration should be disease tolerance, but only if that's a problem in your garden. Sturdiness and how long the vegetable can be stored can be your next considerations, but I wouldn't even worry about them unless you're thinking about winter squash, onions, potatoes or anything you want to keep in a root cellar over the winter.

One special note about growing conditions. It's not something to take lightly. If you live in Maine and a heat-loving vegetable takes 110 days to mature, you might want to move on, or build a greenhouse.

But all in all, taste--and a bit of experimentation--should trump everything else.

Now if I could just remember to cherish the harvest and extend it as long as possible before I have to go back to the supermarket and its choice between red and green lettuce...

Teeny Tiny

2007-06-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

This week, I discovered one more of many benefits of working from home (which I do on Tuesdays and Thursdays).

Aside from saving a couple gallons of gas (no small thing these days), I found that when lunchtime comes, I can step into the garden and pick some tasty treats for a really fresh salad.

Even better, the beets, carrots, lettuces, chards, arugula and mustards all need thinning now, so I added a nice pile of microgreens to the top of my salad.

Popular in frous-frous restaurants for several years now (with a price at the market to match that popularity), microgreens are essentially the seedlings, with maybe one set of true leaves, of various veggie plants. They pack a nutritional punch, but better yet, they're very tender and tasty.

So I get to thin out the seedlings, but I also get to have a tasty treat. Dressed with a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, they were perfect.

Thanks for the Bonus!

2007-06-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

This year I ordered some seeds from a company called Seeds of Change. They devote themselves to growing organic seeds, and have a wide variety of heirlooms, as well as many rare and traditional varieties.

I got my shipment yesterday and have many new things to try, which is exciting. I've always enjoyed trying new fruits, veggies and so on when I pick up groceries, and in the garden it's even more fun. This year there are several new selections, including corn, watermelon, broccoli & Brussels sprouts (which won't go in until about a month from now for a fall harvest), spinach, Delicata winter squash, and of course, as I mentioned before a tomatillo plant, which I already got. I'm also trying some flowers I've never grown before, because it's fun to bring in bright blooms to grace a table that's already loaded up with homegrown produce. I'm trying Zinnias and Cosmos, along with my usual favorites: nasturtium, marigolds, morning glories and sunflowers.

But what's kind of fun when you order from Seeds of Change (and I've noticed that some of the other seed vendors do this too, including Cook's Garden), is that they usually throw in an extra seed packet for you to try.

This year, they gave me Celebration celery. I've never tried celery before, but I'm excited to see if, like most everything else that comes out of the garden, home-grown celery is a vast improvement over store-bought.

I've read that celery requires a great deal of patience (and compost), so we'll see how I do. If it doesn't work this year, no worries. It's not like I paid for the seed. And it's always a learning experience.

So thanks to you Seeds of Change, for inspiring me to go one step further in my gardening adventures!

Slow and Steady Grows the Garden

2007-06-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Seems like no matter what, I always feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short in the garden--literally.

But that's alright, because slowly but surely, this year is shaping up to be my best garden yet.

It started on its own, under the weeds, with some volunteer lettuce that must have dropped when last year's crop bolted. Then I spent four successive weekends doing near-constant battle in every free moment to remove the weeds that are threatening to take the whole thing over. I'm happy to report that the war's been won, and I've now got a happy crop of my usual favorites--lettuce, mustard, arugula, sugar snap peas, carrots, beets, chard and so on--springing up where once you could only find dandelions, thistles, grass and some things I can't even identify. The weeds threaten a comeback every few days, but I try to get in there for 10 minutes every morning before I get in my car and keep them in check.

This year I wasn't quick enough to mail-order my seedlings, which is how I've handled things like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant in the past. So instead I drove out to Montgomery to a garden center that advertised heirloom tomato plants. I ended up with a scaled-down tomato plan this year...probably wise, because my tomato eyes always seem to be so much bigger than my tomato stomach. This year I've got four heirlooms and one hybrid Better Boy. The heirlooms include a Yellow Pear tomato, Caspian Pink, Brandywine and Pineapple. I just put the first ties on them to train them up their bamboo stakes yesterday.

I also have five hot peppers and five sweet peppers--a buck each at the garden center. They were looking pretty droopy on Saturday, after being transplanted for a little over a week, so I watered them with some compost tea I accidentally made (when it rained in my wheelbarrow full of compost, ha-ha), and now they're taking off. The sweet varieties include Big Bertha, Better Belle, Chocolate Beauty, Purple Beauty and Gypsy. The only one of these I've grown before is Purple Beauty. I had a Gypsy last year, but killed it early on. The hot varieties--almost all of which are new to me--include Jalapeno (the old standby), Caribbean Red Hot (habanero-like, I think), Long Red Slim Cayenne, Tabasco and Thai Hot.

The best part about being at the garden center was that I got to pick up some things I hadn't planned on. I got a Toma Verde tomatillo seedling, and it's standing up nicely to the past week's storms. In fact, I think it's grown about 6 inches in the past week. I've heard that tomatillos do best when you just leave them to sprawl, so that's what I'm doing. I also ended up picking up a bunch of herb seedlings, including Cinnamon Basil, a Greek Oregano (mine didn't make it through the winter this year), a couple of Rosemary plants, Pineapple Sage, French Tarragon, Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley (because I hate waiting for seeds to germinate, though I still threw in some seeds) and an English Thyme.

I added some bush and pole beans over the weekend, and put up supports for cucumbers, which I plan to plant this coming weekend, along with corn, watermelon, summer squash, a delicata squash, and about 6 more varieties of basil.

All told, with my slow and steady progress, everything is coming along beautifully. And the first pickings are ready now. Those volunteer lettuce seedlings have grown into the most beautiful heads of lettuce I've ever grown. And I didn't even have to lift a finger!

My Zone 5 Garden...Not Zone 5 Anymore?

2007-04-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not here today to debate global warming. If you've read my past posts, you probably know my stance. In fact, I continue to register utter disbelief that we're backwards enough here in the United States to still be debating whether or not global warming is actually happening.

We're laughing in the face of the evidence, but then again, there are still parts of the country that think creationism belongs in a science classroom. (When, when, when will people learn that science can't prove or disprove the existence of god(s)? When will they understand that spiritual matters--because they cannot be tested and proved through scientific method--have no place in science class?) Sigh...

But the Arbor Day Foundation, anticipating a change expected later this year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has updated its hardiness zone maps. Yes, you heard correctly.

The hardiness zone maps we all rely on to help figure out what types of plants can and can't grow in our gardens are outdated, and even the USDA has plans to change the maps. You can check out the updated map (along with comparisons to the old map) online at www.arborday.org. Expect an updated map from the USDA sometime later this year.

Surprise! My garden--which falls squarely in Zone 5 on the old maps--is now a borderline Zone 5-Zone 6 garden.

What does that mean? Well, I might be able to plant my tomatoes earlier. For now, I plan to monitor temperatures and frosts closely in my own microclimate.

Bluebirds of Happiness

2007-02-07T05:49:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie this morning for all of my bird-watching and bird-loving readers.

Some (rare) good news! The Eastern Bluebird, which has been threatened for years due to a combination of pesticide use, habitat loss and the booming populations of birds like starlings and sparrows, is finally making a comeback.

It's nice to think about the sweet little bluebirds right now, especially here in the Chicago area where we're facing yet another day of single-digit temps. I never saw a bluebird in my life before I moved out to the western burbs and started walking the forest preserve trails. Now I know that every spring, usually starting around mid-April, I'll get to see plenty of these beautiful, quiet-songed little guys out at McKee Marsh, which is part of Blackwell Forest Preserve.

Spring may not be in the air, but it's nice to have spring on my mind.

At any rate, the bluebird's comeback is being credited largely to the construction of safe shelter for the birds.

To learn more about the improvements and to learn how to construct a special bluebird home, visit this Web site: http://www.landscapeonline.com/research/article/8369.

And just think, it will really be only about a month and a half--maybe less--before our favorite feathered friends will start showing up in our area again. (That's not including the hawks, owls, woodpeckers and cardinals who've stuck around all winter.)

A Resolution Against Resolutions

2007-01-03T06:05:00.000-08:00

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions.

Oh, I used to make all kinds of resolutions every year. I would spend several hours on New Year's Eve making up my list of goals for the year. Then, I'd stick the list in a drawer and conveniently forget everything on it.

This year, I've made a resolution to make no resolutions. Because ultimately, a resolution has nothing to do with action.

Instead of resolutions, I am taking action and making the changes now.

For example, with leftover baby weight (plus the extra weight I was carrying before I got pregnant) causing some really painful sciatica, I've made a commitment to get myself healthy, so I can feel more comfortable in my body.

The actions I'm taking:

I actually joined Weight Watchers with a friend from work, and the accountability seems to be helping me.
I signed up for a weekly yoga class through the local park district.
Typical for me, I am reading multiple books to help me change my attitude. Currently, "French Women Don't Get Fat" (the audiobook version) is entertaining me during my commute to work. Also typical for me, I'm not taking every bit of advice (leek soup for 48 hours? no thanks!), but am adopting the pieces that work for me. Slow change is alright.
An hour-long walk with the dog every evening.
Cleaning the house, or scrapbooking, or (eventually) gardening when I'm bored, instead of turning on mind-numbing television and eating mind-numbing foods.
Spending time cooking and taking my time eating my meals.

These are all seemingly physical changes, but here's what that means in the bigger picture...

It's about changing my mindset, because a lack of attention to the physical has a tendency to spiral inward and create a lack of attention to the mental, the emotional and the spiritual aspects of our lives.

Oh, I can overanalyze to my heart's content. I can sit in my comfy chair and think about all the changes I need to make. But actually taking action has been a problem for me in the past.

And the main problem for me is lack of attention. Eating things that I don't really like, usually junk, and usually because I am too busy, hurried or hungry to stop and think about what I'm doing. Sitting around bored instead of getting up and moving.

So I find myself with junk chocolate: a Reese's peanut butter cup, a Snickers...whatever. Or with junk fast food: fried food, potato chips and so on. Or with junk television. Or junk reading.

And the thing is, that stuff isn't really all that appealing to me. So it's time to stop and think: What do I really like?

Good dark chocolate, red wine, hand-crafted cheese, home-cooked stews chock-full of veggies, lovingly baked breads, a fresh apple, blueberries in oatmeal. A comfortable and clean house with candles lit and music playing. A beautifully constructed photo album to thumb through. Carefully considered and thoughtfully written books and articles.

Thoughtfulness. Attention. Grace. Gratitude. Activity.

These are things we've lost as Americans.

Take food as just one example.

We want convenience, but in creating a vast landscape of convenient-food outlets, we've given up something far more important, which is the ability to nourish ourselves and care about what we put into our bodies.

How many people have an inkling of where their food is coming from? How many people even remember that the burger with bacon they ate for lunch was produced by actual living animals? That the bun comes from plants grown in a field somewhere?

With each meal, even with each bite, it is important to remember, with gratitude, where that meal came from.

And in remembering where it came from, we get back to eating more mindfully, which eventually leads us to make wiser choices, selecting those foods that not only offer the most nourishment, but also those that are the most satisfying, physically, but also ethically, mentally, spiritually.

And by the way, I've lost nearly 4 pounds so far. But that's really only the side benefit. More importantly, the sciatica is starting to subside. And the dog is in bliss from our nightly one-hour walk.

Light Reborn and a New Look

2006-12-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

So, we're through the long winter night, and now the light has been reborn, and we're ready to head toward the new year.

Along with that, I decided it was time to change the look of my page here. Freshen things up a bit, you know? I hope you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

I hope everyone enjoys their holidays--regardless of which one you celebrate and which version of the overarching spirit of goodness you call divine.

Namaste

Emily

Must-See Movie

2006-12-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

I know some of you guys check the site daily to see if I've posted, so I guess I'd better try harder to post more often! (Sorry Jen!)

At any rate, I've actually been meaning to log in for a while. We watched "An Inconvenient Truth" a couple of weeks ago. This is the film narrated by Al Gore, about his crusade to convince people that we need to care about global warming before it's too late.

All I can say is, there is a lot of shocking information in the film.

And it may be too late.

Further Explanations Are Necessary

2006-11-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

OK, I've had some response from readers asking for more info on my mint problems, and I think I'm starting to get past the trauma, so here's an explanation.

Mint and its relatives can be incredibly invasive. If you don't constantly cut them back, and search them out in places where you didn't expect them to pop up, your yard will soon be overrun.

Don't get me wrong...I really like mint. I just don't like having it take over my yard and garden.

When we moved in here, I was happy to see a nice patch of peppermint and lemon balm growing between the house and the garage.

The day of my last post, I spent 1 1/2 hours pulling up mint and lemon balm from between the house and the garage.

In years past, I'd just pull up half of it, and leave the rest to come back in the spring. But I always end up with way more than I can handle.

So this year, I pulled it all up. I have no doubt that it will still return with a vengeance in the spring.

I'd like to plant some other stuff in there. I simply don't have a need for that much mint and lemon balm. I could dry it and make enough tea for myself, my family and all of my friends for a year to come, but really, I'd be better served by a wider variety of plants in that patch.

The problem is, I don't know anything that can compete with it, except for plants that are even more invasive, and then I'd be worse off than with the mint. The only people I know who've dealt with this problem have handled it with herbicide, and you know I'm not resorting to that.

My current plan (which could easily change come spring) is to fill the space with various herbs and just stay on top of pulling out mint-relatives all summer. Maybe if I can keep ahead of it, I can slow down its spread.

If that doesn't work, I may try solarizing the patch. This involves covering the soil with black plastic and leaving it there for a summer to kill off everything beneath it. It's drastic, but it would possibly give me a fresh start.

Then I could grow several mint varieties in pots on the porch, and save the garden for things that don't want to take over the world.

One Piece of Advice...

2006-11-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

If I could offer you one piece of gardening advice today, it would be this:

Do NOT plant mint or anything related to it in the ground in your yard. If you move into a house where someone has planted mint or something related to it, be prepared for battle.

I'd explain further, but I'm still too traumatized.

By the way, congratulations to Pinetree Garden Seeds and Totally Tomatoes--the first to get the 2007 garden catalogs out.

Stay Sharp!

2006-11-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

Hello from your friendly neighborhood gardener. Just so you all know I’m not really a slacker as you might think, I’d like to report that I am halfway through the fall gardening chores. I’ve raked the leaves over the perennial beds, and have torn down all the veggie remains and thrown them into the compost piles. All that’s left is raking the back yard and piling leaves up over the vegetable garden to protect the soil through winter. I’ve even gotten a head start on next year by cutting down some of the hydrangeas and other flowering perennials. I left the big one in front of the porch—for a neat eye-catching effect (I love it when the poms catch the snow)—but the rest are down and mulched for winter. I also tried to leave enough cover for any birds that might want a place to rest.

But now to today’s topic.

November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month. We’re all familiar with Alzheimer’s. It’s the disease that involves a loss of nerve cells in the brain that control memory and other mental functions. Forgetfulness is the first sign of the disease, but as it progresses, it can affect language, reasoning and understanding as well.

Now you’re aware. What else?

Well, I may or may not have reported it here before, but going organic is one of many, many ways to protect yourself from Alzheimer’s. Seems that many of the herbicides and pesticides we use to mass-produce various crops have been connected with the disease.

Even better? Grow your own—organically. How does that help? It cuts down on pollution by requiring less shipping—fewer gas-guzzlers mucking up the air. Less pollution for you to inhale.

And growing your own ensures you have plenty of the healthy vitamins and minerals that help prevent Alzheimer’s—and a host of other diseases—from rearing its ugly head. Vitamin B in broccoli, spinach, acorn squash and potatoes; vitamin E in sweet potatoes and leafy green veggies; vitamin C in broccoli, red peppers, strawberries and snow peas; and magnesium in spinach, broccoli, green beans and artichokes—all of these together can help you maintain a healthy brain.

Found in all of your body’s cells, when vitamin E is deficient, damage to nerve tissue can result. Vitamin B has been shown to preserve brain function and sharpness, and a declining memory and increasing inability to focus are linked with low folic acid, as well as B-12 and B-6. Vitamin C keeps brain tissue healthy, and magnesium can protect you from substances that can damage nerve cells.

If you’re eating a good diet with lots of fruits, veggies, nuts and legumes—as well as some tofu, dairy or even meat if that’s what you’re into—you should be getting enough of all of these vitamins and minerals. Supplementing is OK too, but don’t go overboard. Like anything else, many vitamins and minerals actually become bad for you in higher doses.

Besides eating right, what else can you do?

The American Osteopathic Association wants everyone to exercise their bodies, which has also been shown to help. According to the AOA, a study from the University of Illinois has found that walking for just 15 minutes can help you increase your memory and your ability to multi-task (still a bad word in my book…why can’t we be allowed to concentrate on one thing at a time?) by 15 percent.

I’d be willing to bet that as gardeners, we’ve got this one taken care of. We’re out there shoveling, hoeing, weeding and harvesting—keeping active to keep good food on our plates and beauty in our surroundings.

After you’ve gotten active, get relaxed. Yoga and meditation are also known to benefit your brain.

I’ll bet you’ve got this one covered too. If you’re like me, once you’ve finished your gardening chores for the day, you like to sit down and converse with your plants. If that’s not a form of meditation, I don’t know what is.

Now that you’re relaxed, get active again—mentally. If you’re an avid gardener like me, you’ve probably already got this one covered. The world of gardening is constantly evolving, so there’s always something new to learn.

But it doesn’t stop at the garden gate. What interests you? It doesn’t matter if you’re 8 or 80—you can get out and learn something new.

More Reasons to Go Organic...as If You Needed Any

2006-11-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while since my last post, but I found some interesting info on the Green Guide Web site (www.thegreenguide.com) that I thought you readers out there in garden-land might like.

The title of the article was "Save Energy, Eat Organic." Apparently, a long-term study has shown that organic farms produce more foor per energy unit than conventional farms.

I didn't really need one more reason to buy organic--I've been a proponent for years now--but this study just put one more nail in the coffin of conventional produce for me.

If you want to find lots of good advice for living green, check out The Green Guide online. Remember: Every little change you make does make a difference. And if your eco-friendly living inspires someone else around you to make a change, you're having an effect.

Happy greening!

For Lazy (or Busy) Gardeners...

2006-10-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

Good news, fellow gardeners. Your friendly neighborhood blogger has found a full-time job. It's been a while since I was working full-time doing anything other than being a mom (June 1, technically), and I'm happy to put my nose back to the grindstone (actually, that sounds kind of painful).

So between full-time editing and full-time mothering, where do I find time for the garden? That's the thing. I don't. There's been precious little time this year to take care of my veggies and herbs, and that's where this post comes in.

You see, since I had so little time to devote to the things I planted this year, I discovered something: Some plants really don't care if you ignore them. Others will waste away without weekly care.

On the ignore-them-and-they-will-still-prosper side are veggies like tomatoes, peppers (at least in my garden), Swiss chard, beets, green onions, mustard greens, summer squash (as long as you pick it regularly) and beans (as long as you pick them when it's time). Herbs that don't mind a little neglect include chives (they pretty much take care of themselves), cilantro, parsley, mint. Actually, now that I think of it, there weren't ANY herbs in my garden this year that minded the neglect.

On the other hand, a few of the plants I grew this year suffered through my neglect: carrots (the squirrels really seemed to enjoy gnawing on the tops of these this year), eggplant (without fertilizing and constant checking for flea beetles and other pests, these turned to brown sticks. I did manage to get one eggplant), lettuce (it did well early in the year, but in the heat of summer, it needed a little help with some shade cloth or something), peas (I didn't give them enough climbing support, so they fell over and created deformed pods. Maybe they resowed themselves for next year.), cucumber (again, they needed more feeding than I could give them) and a couple of the hotter pepper plants (since they're not quite adapted to my Zone 5 garden, they need more help to make it through).

I guess the big lesson from the garden this year is, even if you ignore it--whether through laziness or busyness--you'll still get something out of it.

And the good news is that now I'm finding time to put things to bed properly (last year I was pregnant and exhausted, and only got it half-done), which will give me a good head start on next year's garden!

Replacing the American Lawn

2006-08-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Wrenna tends to eat sometime between 5 pm and 6 pm every day, so I often find myself watching ABC's Nightly News (even though I prefer to get my news in readable form...usually via the New York Times). I was impressed last night when the newscast included a story about re-creating the American lawn.

Check out the story online here: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2344206&page=1.

Basically, Architect Fritz Haeg is convincing people to dig up their lawns and replace the grass with various kinds of native plants and food plants. I enjoyed seeing one of the neighbors on the newscast complain, "Not the front yard."

Why not the front yard?

Our neighbors would probably prefer it if we went this route because we do not spray for weeds, so our lawn is full of dandelions and other "invaders." And, of course, dandelion seeds aren't selective about where they grow.

What Haeg is recommending is basically a first step toward permaculture. This term was coined by a couple of Aussies, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, during the '70s, and is derived from "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."

The basic idea is creating a system of food production and land use, in conjunction with building community, by using sustainable methods. It incorporates ecology, landscaping, organic gardening and more to design permanent ecological communities--where people interact with their geological and biological environments to the benefit of all.

Ultimately, permaculture is about ecological ethics. According to Wikipedia, there are three aspects of these ethics:

Earth Care: All life comes from the Earth. Many people don't seem to understand that they are integral parts of the Earth ecosystem--buying gas-guzzling, atmosphere-polluting cars whose tanks now take nearly $100 to fill; consuming and consuming and consuming while creating more and more garbage without thought for what happens to it after it gets thrown in the can. This is our home folks. Once it's ruined, we've got nowhere else to go.
People Care: Homo sapiens has the ability to think, problem-solve and plan like almost no other species (at least, as far as we know). Why are we so apathetic about the damage we're doing to our own environment? The basic idea of people care is that we can cooperate to alter our lifestyles and adopt new ways of living that don't harm our ecosystem (not just the planet, but our human communities as part of that planet). In the process, we can develop healthy, sustainable cultures.
Fair Share: Why do Americans get to consume more and create more garbage than anyone else in the world? Why does your neighbor get to eat steak five times a week, while a young child in some other part of the world struggles to find a bowl of rice? The fair share ethic is about using our limited resources wisely and without preference for one culture--or species--over another.

So this is just a very basic description of permaculture. It's a theory I've yet to explore in more depth, but I'll definitely keep you posted as my understanding grows.

In the meantime, if you're interested, you can search on "permaculture" on Amazon.com and find a whole bunch of related books that will help you create a tiny, sustainable ecosystem in your own yard.

And Speaking of Bats...

2006-08-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

Blame Bram Stoker, but humans have some sort of blood-curdling, primordial fear of bats, and it's completely unfounded. Bats get a lot of bad press--they're blamed for rabies, and some people still think they suck blood. In fact, any mammal can be a carrier of rabies--bats aren't any more likely to carry it than other critters (in fact less than 1 percent of bats carry the rabies virus), and while vampire bats do exist, they only live in Central and South America.

The unfortunate truth is that most people don't consider bats cute or cuddly, so not many people are particularly concerned that their habitat is rapidly disappearing.

So what's so great about bats?

Amazingly, bats are the only mammal that can fly. Isn't it kind of surprising that these thousand or so species are the only ones that have come upon that particular adaptation? Not only can they fly, but they're also very acrobatic fliers--something you'll notice if you spend any amount of time watching their stunts. Sitting on my front porch, I get plenty of chances to watch these little guys perform their aerial acrobatics.

Bats actually perform a few favors for mankind too. One is the number of pesky insects they eat. One insect-eating bat can consume anywhere from 500 to 1,000 bugs in an hour. What insects do they eat? Some of the gardener's (and anyone's really) least favorite bugs: moths, beetles and mosquitoes. Other bats are nectar-eaters, and are responsible for pollinating such plants as bananas, peaches, dates, avocados, mango, cashews, figs and many more.

Living in an area where city governments feel the need to tell people to close their windows and keep their kids and pets indoors while their neighborhoods are sprayed with pesticides (due to West Nile Virus fears), I can tell you that I have a deep appreciation for the work done by these little flying rodents to help control mosquito populations and maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Wouldn't it be great if, instead of spraying our homes and yards with potentially dangerous pesticides (dangerous enough to warrant keeping your kids and pets away from them, anyway), we all built or bought bat houses to encourage these critters to hang around our neighborhoods?

A bat house is similar to a bird house, but the holes are in the bottom so the bats can fly in and out. You need to put it about 15 to 20 feet above ground, and according to Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, it's best to put it on the east or southeast side of a building.

To build your own bat house, check out this Web site--Bat Conservation International--for instructions. Check out this site--Organization for Bat Conservation--if you'd like to purchase a ready-made bat house, and to learn a lot more about bats in general, including far more detailed info on where to locate your bat house.