Three point nine pounds.

Lately I've been feeling the need for affirmation that the work I do in our home is valuable. Not that Jonathan doesn't tell me he appreciates the effort I put into hour home, but words aren't tangible; you can't quantify them like you can a paycheck...

I've gotten in the habit of weighing our garden produce when I bring it in. It shows me what grows well here, and what I might like to plant more of next year. I'd like to figure out how much money we'd spend on the food we can grow by comparing how much I've harvested to the prices at the market. And I realized today, it gives me a value that I can hold up and say "through all that hard and yucky work of sifting compost and picking bugs off of things, I earned this!"

harvesting, the best part.

first meal 100% garden grown. lettuce, peas, calendula petals.

coming soon: our first carrot!

Three point nine pounds was the figure, in case you're wondering. Three point nine pounds of homegrown produce, in one month! Most of which was chard, kale, arugula, and leaf lettuce. Let's rephrase that...not three point nine pounds of produce but three point nine pounds of leaves!!

Dang. That's a lot of leaves. Now I'm really stoked about harvesting tomatoes...of which I will theoretically have about 12 plants...imagine the poundage!!! I'll beat 3.9 pounds in 5 tomatoes or less!!

Lest I get carried away, however, I must remember: You can't put value on the mystery of nature. It is amazingly interconnected (worms & germs = dirt = plants = food = us) and amazingly beautiful.

the beauty of an average backyard veggie plot? priceless.

change can be beautiful.

If there's one thing true about gardening, it's that it's always changing. Having a garden has been an exercise in embracing change without even realizing it; my favorite morning activities include (but are not limited to): checking my email, drinking tea, eating toast, and going outside (usually in my pj's, bathrobe, and gardening boots, to the probable dismay of my neighbors) to check on the plants.

Remember when we toiled away this summer, digging up our yard? Here's what's happened since then:

the tall ones: peas and favas.  next to the a/c: baby radishes. to the left of the path: garlic, onions, baby beets. to the left of the peas + favas: lettuce, arugula, chard. All those things in pots: kale, collards, broccoli

my personal fave: the greens plot. oh homegrown salad is the BEST!

a broccoli plant. I've been checking for signs of broccoli for days...

do you see the baby broccoli inside?

oodles and oodles of strawberries: 50 plants in all.

the community garden plot. remember last year? almost exactly one year later + lots of homemade compost = a healthy garden: left & clockwise: peas, garlic, carrots, leeks, onions, kale, parsnips, radishes, chard, and in the middle beautiful purple borage flowers, bringing in the bees. 

the bees have found our fava beans, too. :)

an alternative to coffee

Ok so I love coffee. But I don't love coffee's after-affects, you know the palpitations, the increased nervousness...once I weaned myself off I realized that I'm a much less anxious person without all of the caffeine. But I missed the routine of drinking something warm and rich in the morning. Tea is too thin, and I tried Miso Soup (as touted by one of my favorite blogs here), but I have a sweet tooth and miso just didn't cut it. Although it is delicious and very good for you.

So I've gotten into the habit of making hot chocolate every morning. Not from a mix, but from cocoa powder. It's delish! Here's my "recipe":

Fill a mug 1/2 way with just-boiled water.

Put at least 1 1/2 heaping spoonfuls of cocoa powder into the mug. Stir well.

Add a squeeze of local honey.

Bare Bees Honey in La Verne, CA
Find 'em at your local farmer's market!

Fill the mug the rest of the way with milk. I've been using whole raw milk and have noticed none of my previously experienced lactose-related tummy troubles. For those of you afraid of raw milk - I've been drinking it for a few months now and have been perfectly healthy. This is purely anecdotal, but I'm pretty sure that one is more likely to get sick eating out at a fast food joint/restaurant than drinking raw milk from a reputable source. So try it! :)

Haha and no, I was not paid to advertise for any of these companies. I just think they're great products and wanted to include some pictures! :)

Now go enjoy a cuppa hot cocoa!

radishing radishes.

I know, I know. All of my attention has been focused on The Mini-Farm. So much so that you thought I'd forgotten my humble radish and carrot plot right outside my own front door. Not so! I've been checking on it almost daily (and watering as often).

Here's what I've found:

radish poster child. 

I'd say this one is almost ready to be picked!  It is also the most normal looking radish of them all; the rest of the stems are long and horizontal to the soil as they reach for the sun. Even growing sideways, they are beginning to swell!

We christened it...

(by "it" I mean our little plot in the community garden)...J&M's Mini-Farm. Or The Mini-Farm for short. Yahoo!

J and I began work on our plot 6 days ago. Here is a chronicle of the events:

Step 1: Bought all of the seeds and took hours planning where each plant should go. See my last post for all of the details.

Step 2: Measure and mark off the the 1 foot by 1 foot squares using stakes and twine.

J tying twine to a stake

The grid takes shape

 Step 3: Study the "map" and start planting!

 The map. A little hard to read, but you can sort of see that I have a place for each crop and how many of each crop can grow in a square foot. The map is based on the websites I shared with you in my last post. 

Step 4: Get really bummed because I forgot that some of the seeds had to be soaked overnight before going into the ground. Hence the beans, peas, beets (much to J's disappointment), chard, and parsnips had to sit out planting day. Boo! 

Step 5: Shrug it off and plant the rest of the crops. Leeks, carrots, kale, broccoli  and turnips are in the ground! 

Step 6: Water, water, water. 

a watering pro

Step 7: Go home. Place the beans, peas, beets, chard, and parsnips in ramekins of water and let soak.

Top row: beets, peas, chard

Bottom row: Beans, parsnips

Step 8: Return to plot a day and a half later, plant the remaining crops, now happily primed for germination. 

 

pea in a hole

Step 9: Water, water, water. Then proudly stand over your plot, beaming in the sunlight. Photograph it.  

  The Mini-Farm. In all of its glory. 

Oh, and in case you're wondering, those two craters you see in the front corners of the plot are where the leeks are planted. As the leeks begin to grow, we'll fill in the dirt around them to blanch the stems.

So, there you have it! Our first planting endeavor. I went to water the Mini-Farm yesterday (which would be Day 5 post planting) and I saw little turnip sprouts! So far, so good!

Will keep you posted on the Mini-Farm's progress. 

Blessings, 

M   

 

general updates and goings on. (with an exciting announcement at the end)

First of all, it's time to update you about my itsy-bitsy garden. I'm sure you're all wondering how my radishes and carrots are doing, so here are some photos:

 

about 1 week after planting

1 

 does this mean good luck?

taken today!almost 1 month since planting

It's hard to tell if the radishes are doing better or if they're just maturing faster than the carrots. I know they are faster growing plants. At any rate, it's fun to grow things from seed! 

Let's see, what else is new on the home front? 

I'm still on the "no-poo" bandwagon, which has been a fun experiment. I've perfected my regimen and now here is what I do, for those who are curious:

1. I use diluted apple cider vinegar (about 1/2-1 oz vinegar to 12 oz water...just an approximation) as a rinse about every day. Sometimes I can skip a day, but if I just use water I notice my hair becomes dried out. We have very hard water where I live, maybe that is why. I just wet my hair and run my fingers through as though I'm shampooing (but I'm only using water) and then I rinse with the vinegar solution. I rinse the vinegar out with water. 


2. Twice a week or so I clean my hair with baking soda. I put a few tablespoons of baking soda in a little dish/ramekin and add warm water. I stir it up with my finger and then pour over my dry hair in the shower. The baking soda solution is definitely watery. I had to play around with the amount of water to get a consistency I liked. I then scrub my scalp with my fingertips and let sit for a minute or so. Any longer and it starts to dry out my scalp and make it itchy. Then I rinse and follow with the vinegar solution as described as above. 


I've noticed I can't use the baking soda more than twice a week because it dries out my scalp. But if I don't use it at all, my hair is too oily. I still have some days that are more oily than others, but I'm much happier with my new "hair cleaning" method. No more trying to find a shampoo that works for me, no more spending so much money on hair products. And my hair is SO HEALTHY! Oh, and as far as the vinegar smell goes, once your hair dries the smell is gone. I'd like to try infusing the vinegar with herbs (lavender?) - I'll let you know how that goes if I do it. 


Oh - and while we're on the topic of home-made cosmetics, I've been exclusively using coconut oil and jojoba oil as facial moisturizers and have been loving the results. The coconut oil is heavier, so I use it at night and on days where my skin is more dry. The jojoba oil is lighter and can be used any time. 


Switching gears completely, I went on a trip home to visit my parents in the SF area earlier this month. While they worked during the weekdays, I busied myself in my dad's garden:

jalapeno peppers, still blooming

 these roses have a lemony-delicious scent

 

strawberry blossom

cherry tomatoes

1/2 of the cherry tomato crop!

on a roasting pan, getting ready for oven-drying

 sprinkled with salt...yum!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the final results of the oven-dried tomatoes (which we put in 2 jars, covered with olive oil, peppercorns, and basil). Which means I'll have to make them again the next time my dad has a plethora of tomatoes that need to be used up. But I will say that they tasted soooo good on some crackers with the feta cheese I picked up at Happy Acres Family Farm on the way up to my parents house. I took some pictures there to supplement my previous post about the farm, when J and I took a tour and learned how to milk a goat. Here are those photos: 

quizzical duck

how are goats so photogenic??

 my favorite is when they awkwardly stand on rocks and other tall things.

 lazy farm dog

their farm stand, decked out in October attire

I will now conclude my longest-blog-post-ever by sharing one more fun-fact:


Our church is starting a community garden! Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! I am very excited. J and I spent our car-ride on the way to meeting his parents for lunch making up names for our future plot. His parents have already made requests as to what we should put in it (his dad wants some of those saucer-shaped squash). How fun is that! The plots are 4' x 6'. Not sure when they will be available yet - I think they're still working out what the financial commitment will be and all of that nitty-gritty stuff. But I'm excited! Keep your eyes peeled for more about that! 

Phew!

Enjoy your last week of October

<3
M

radishes and carrots hit the dirt

There comes a time when you've researched a subject so much it hurts, and if you don't just go ahead and try doing the darn thing you've been reading about, you'd be a fool. Hence, I, for the first time, planted my very own veggies from seed. I'm not going to lie, I got a little anxious out there on my front step...questions soaring through my brain: did I use the right size pot? enough soil? the right kind? the right seeds? blah blah blah, around and around we go. Which is why it's easier to sit around in your air conditioned living room drinking iced tea and reading about all of those projects that cool people do.

But I did it. Wahoo! And (probably thanks to the heat wave we're having right now) I got as close to instant gratification as I could get - little radish seedlings sprouting left and right within the first day. I literally went outside every few hours today (now 3 days since planting) to check on them and am just stunned by how fast they are popping up.

baby radish, stretching it's little leaves

hope these varieties are yummy

my setup. carrots and radishes hanging on the fence

 guidebooks

Since it's pictured, I'll go ahead and just talk about it: the urban homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is my latest favorite read. It is jam packed with ideas on how to become an "urban homesteader" - i.e. do things for yourself like grow your own food and then preserve it, recycle rainwater, compost, raise chickens (and other small livestock), and even how to make bread with just flour, water, and salt - old school styles. Check it out, and check out their blog, Homegrown Evolution. 

Back to the produce: I'll keep you posted! 

<3

M

So-Long, Summer.

I just heard the first ice cream truck to pass through my neighborhood all summer, which is ironic because it is Sept. 7, Labor Day has passed, the kids are back in school, and today was overcast.

Yes friends, summer is waning away, making room for the next of seasons.

As an aside, this makes me very happy for a few reasons:
1. The more time passes, the sooner I will be getting married.
2. Cooler weather makes cooking much more fun
3. I got to wash my car today with the knowledge that it will stay clean as the tree I park my car under is done producing the mystery fruit that the parrots (yes, parrots) love to eat. The evidence of which ends up all over my car and thus I have resigned myself to letting my car look like *cuss it* all summer. But now it is clean...muwahaha.

But really, this blog entry is about how I made vegetable broth and put it in mason jars to be frozen.

Today, I made vegetable broth and put it in mason jars to be frozen. It was a wonderful thing to do since I get so tired of buying salt-water-with-a-hint-of-vegetable-essence whenever I need broth for cooking. And I get tired of throwing out veggies that are too old to do much with but not quite bad enough to throw out. Enter broth-making.

It was really quite easy...you don't even need to cut the veggies up, just pop them in the pot. Unless they are to big. Then you can cut them.

how pretty. 

Here's what I used: 

Leftover green beans, some squash, 3 carrots that had lost their crunch, 4 stalks celery, 1 red onion, 3 garlic cloves, some kale, a bay leaf, some fresh rosemary, and a sprinkling of whole peppercorns. The sources I used said you can even use vegetable peelings. One woman said she keeps a bag in her freezer for makeable-into-broth-items. I bet you can guess what she does when it gets full.

Then I filled the pot with water. Enough to just cover the veg. Then I let it simmer for about an hour and a half. Then I let it cool. Then I strained it over a big bowl and ladled it into jars, leaving room for expansion.

so much delish potential

I let the jars cool a little longer and popped them into the freezer. It made 2 1/2 jar's worth, which is about 7 1/2 cups. A lot cheaper than the store bought stuff, and it tasted pretty good!

Happy September, folks. 

Meg

P. S. 

As a tribute to summer, I will include this photo of what I'll call the Summer Fruit Cobbler I made many times this year. The recipe is in Simply In Season (under Fruit Platz), or you could just make some shortcake, cover it with assorted fruit, and sprinkle that with some brown sugar and cinnamon, and bake. That's the rough version. 

until next year, old friend.

What it's truly all about.

I've been trying to buy as many of my groceries at the farmer's market as possible lately and have found myself in a slight conundrum - which sellers to buy from. With some, it's easy. There's one guy who sells honey. Buy his honey. There's one guy who sells bread. Buy that bread.

But when I get to the fruit and vegetables, it's a toss up. I wander around the stands a few times, waiting for the perfect produce to jump out at me and scream "pick me! pick me!" as if one grower's crookneck squash could really be that different from his neighbor's. I've thought about buying from the grower who is the closest, or who is the most organic. But I haven't really felt like asking all of them detailed questions about their farming practices, or doing the math to find out which one uses the least amount of gas to get to Myrtle Ave. every Fri. night.

And then my coworker gave me the "well...duh" answer I needed. I was blabbing at the breakfast table about how I've been buying from the farmer's market and I get stuck wandering as I try to figure out who to buy from and she simply said just buy from the people who are the nicest. I mean, let's think about it. What is the most basic point of the farmer's market anyway - to foster community, to bring consumers a step closer to the land they live off of, and to eliminate the middle man between the farmer and the hungry farmer's market goer. Does it not make sense to buy from the people with whom you could forge a relationship? Alright, so maybe one guy's produce is a little bit more organic (whatever that means) than the next guy (or gal's). But who cares if the next gal is someone you look forward to seeing every Friday night? I mean really!

I got to thinking about the time I gushed about the farm-fresh chicken I brought home (and then had to figure out how to get it off the bone! spoiled by boneless-skinless all my life...eek) and I realized that I really look forward to seeing the chicken farmer and his wife (whose names I now wish I knew, and will ask the next time I need eggs. Or chicken). They are familiar faces, and they provide me with something I really need - food - with no gimmicks, no song and dance, just a smile and a nice to see you again.

And then there's Sam, the fruit guy with whom J bonded over plums. We can't go to the farmer's market without stopping by Sam's stand, sampling all of the plums we've already tried before and chatting it up with our pitted-fruit pal. And he always slips us a new variety, gratis, just for being loyal. Or maybe just because he likes us. Regardless - thanks, buddy.

J, thanks for remembering what is important - the people. As I got all caught up wondering how organic Sam's plums were, you were asking his name. I'm glad I'm marrying you.

Like my parents always said: Let's keep it simple.

An education is a dangerous thing to have. With knowledge comes power, and with power comes obligation and the need for a wholelotta wisdom.

It all began when I watched Food, Inc., a modern-day equivalent of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Thanks to filmmaker Robert Kenner, my eyes were opened to the truth behind the industrializaton of food - how big business has sacrificed food quality increase profits. The cow and the chicken are no longer complex creatures belonging to an ecosystem but commodities to be processed, genetically modified organisms are beginning to dominate our landscapes, and single-crop "farms" are depleting the soil of vital nutrients leading to an increase in disease and need for more pesticides and antibiotics. Ignorance is bliss; after seeing the film I felt like crawling into an imaginary void and curling into the fetal position - my understanding of food and American culture was deconstructed before my very eyes. (Paradigm shift anyone?)

Since my curiosity was piqued, I felt obligated to take a stand, for my health and the health of my community. Encouraged by the movie to vote with my dollar, I chose to only buy organic for 40 days. In doing so, I had to give up the myriad of choices offered to me by my local grocery store and get creative with my cooking. Saying no to tomatoes since they weren't in season was difficult, but it also made me look forward to summer when they would be available in the organic section.

During these 40 days I also began reading. What do all of the different organic certifications mean? What is a grass-fed cow? What is the difference between a free-range chicken and an organic chicken? I read In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan. I've contemplated joining a CSA. I've bought more food from my local farmer's market. I'm currently reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson as a continuation of my environmental education.

The bottom line is that it's all about stewardship. It's incredibly disheartening how our fast-paced Western lifestyle has disconnected us from the very earth we live on. We favor accomplishing tasks and have forgotten that the greatest joys are found in the process of getting from point A to point B. And this lifestyle has permeated the very core of our culture - our eating habits - as evidenced by the fact that we no longer know where our food comes from, how it's made, or quite frankly what is in it. Eating is a means to an end instead of a daily time to stop, gather together and share.

It's all I can do to keep my feet planted here in LA, where a grass-fed dairy seems nonexistent and where fast-paced is the norm. I daydream about my little utopia; I live in a small community where each of us is interdependent upon the other for the necessities in life, neighbors share meals, and nobody worries about reading food labels because they simply don't exist.