Flower Power Friday

A post dedicated to my front yard and the flowers therein...


zinnia

daylilly

shasta daisy

coreopsis

bee balm

astilbe


more photos [here]

The Great Garden Update

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my garden. Unfortunately, I got a bit of a late start this year. There was a fence to construct. Then, of course, there was the issue of me not knowing what I was doing...but all that aside, plants are doing well. The cool wet weather has been more springlike than summerlike, so I think that's worked in my favor.

Raised beds seem to be the method du jour. J and I constructed two 4'X8' boxes out of 2"X6" pine. It's worked fine, though it takes a lot of soil to fill each one. I have alternate plans for next year.

What you see above: Oregon Trail shell peas, parsley, white sweet alyssum, Wonder of the 4 Seasons lettuce, Red Core Chantenay carrots, Italian pole beans, and California Wonder red bell peppers.

Above is bed number two, which showcases my rustic trellises, made from branches salvaged from our yard. I like the way they look, but the nature of the material makes it hard to plant in rows and get plants to climb the trellis. Next year, I may break down and make something a little...straighter.

The big leaves are plants I'm quite excited about: Long Island Cheese squash, so named because it resembles a wheel of cheese (don't worry, it's vegan). Also in the bed are zuchinni, lemon cucumbers, pinwheel marigolds, and nasturtiums.

I dug a circular plot for the tomatoes and basil. Since I started all these plants from seeds, the tomatoes started their lives indoors. I was worried when the leaves got spotty and wilted, but I put them outside anyway, hoping they'd come back to life. In about a week, they perked right up. Now they're going strong - I have high hopes for lots of little tomatoes (Principe Borghese, the traditional variety used for making sun-dried tomatoes).

Baby basil, sharing the tomato bed.

Future cheese squash! Hopefully...

The peas got a rough start when a rabbit broke through our deer netting and bit the tops off all nine plants. We've since erected "rabbit guard" - metal fencing on the exterior of the deer netting. So far, we are bunny free and the peas have made a remarkable comeback, even if they're a little late.

Heirloom lettuce close-up. Today I plan to clip a lot of this so we can have our first homegrown salad.

Finally, these are Italian pole beans with carrots in the background.

Hope everyone is enjoying July and getting lots from their gardens!

In a Macro Kind of Mood

At the recent Friends of the Library booksale, I picked up a copy of Aveline Kushi's Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking for something like 50 cents, and I was inspired to begin reading it the other day. Fascinating stuff. Not that I didn't know it was fascinating before - I read a few books and took some classes while we were in Chicago, if you don't remember, I just haven't been thinking all that much about it recently. So now that I am thinking about this subject again, here is what I have to say...

pressed salad

The human body is amazingly self-regulating. It's something I take for granted. As Aveline points out in the book, our bodies maintain their temperature within a few degrees - that's not something I ever gave much thought to. There's so much that goes on without any notice from us within our own systems, and many of us have such a disconnect from our bodies now that we abuse them in all sorts of ways. And you know what? For the most part, they keep right on doing what they were built to do. That's enough to make me a little awestruck. It makes me want to treat my body well, thank it, respect it.

dried daikon, shitakes, and onions

Aveline collected rice from around the world on her travels as other people collect wines. She would save particularly good batches for special occasions. Isn't it interesting that a crop could have so many variations simply based on the location in which it's grown? Apparently, brown rice is smaller in Europe than it is in the US, and Japanese rice contains more minerals due to the volcanic ash in the soil.

rice, of course

In addition to my reading, I listened to an interview with Jessica Porter (scroll down to December 2, 2007 or go to edit:find:jessica porter), the Hipchick, yesterday from a couple years ago. One thing in particular really struck a chord with me at this point: she spoke of the relationship of mood and sugar, how she didn't really know herself until she stopped eating it, how we feel so disconnected from mystical forces when the sweet stuff is draining our souls. Yes, yes...so much truth. I gave up cane sugar for over a year (also in Chicago), but it weasled its way back in when we began our house search last spring. I would like to kick the habit again, and I know it will probably be hard, but worth it. The sugar blues plain old suck.

As you can see from the pictures, I did some macro cooking, too. The pressed salad is made by mixing chopped vegetables with sea salt, placing them in a bowl with a weighted plate on top (if you don't have a pickle press), and then draining out the water after 30-60 minutes. The veggies will be crisp and sweet - even the radishes, which I don't normally love. The dried daikon dish is from Meg Wolff's blog (thank's Meg, it was good!). I think I have a mental block with daikon - there is a voice inside me that insists on repeating that I don't like it, yet when I tasted this particular recipe, it wasn't bad at all. The voice is completely unjustified, and yet it persists - aren't we humans strange?

OK, enough rambling - have a great weekend!