Here it is; another example of the family’s chef wannabe. He really does plate the meals well. Everything is aesthetic as well as delicious.
Salmon. Yum.
Those are an odd hybrid tomato on top of the platter. They’re Kum-atoes, or a crossbreed of kumquat and tomato. I didn’t grow them; they jumped off the shelf into Chuck’s grocery cart.
One of the many advantages of having Chuck home on vacation- he cooks. And I mean he cooks. If I’m Rachel Ray with my thirty-minute meals, he’s the Iron Chef.
Full Points for Presentation!
The Main Dish: Swordfish
Side dishes and Beverage
Dessert: crowned with Door County cherries
Eat your hearts out, people; he cooked all week.
Oregano the Old
Wow. This oregano is growing.
Sorry, friends. I don’t have an after picture yet. I thought I’d wait until the roots have a chance to settle into their new home.
I will tell you this: the transplanted oregano looks a lot better than the rosemary.
Sigh. Green thumb took a break.
Parsley
Sage
More Parsley
and Thyme
Did you notice? Oh, darn, you did. Readers, the song refrain changed at the O.K. Chorale because the rosemary died. I still need to find a new starter rosemary.
The thyme is recovering. I haven’t killed thyme, at least this thyme. Time.
You should see the oregano!
It’s amazing to see how some plants will go to any lengths to reproduce. My walking onions are huge this year. Now they’re finally reaching out to make new green onions.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave
Don’t let this deceive you. The bulb, caught in the chicken wire as it is, will not give up and quit. If the bulb doesn’t land on ground, it sends out a shoot with a new bulb. If that bulb doesn’t reach the promised land, it’ll send out another extension. These bulbs were made for walking, alright.
All aboard!
This one, for example, will only need one shoot to get to the fertile soil that awaits. Yeah, yeah, I know the prose goes overboard a little. A lot. Never mind.
Score!
Give it a few weeks. We’ll have green onions galore. Onion soup, anyone?
Imagine the scene. Daisy, the compostermom, guardian of all things family, school, garden, and coffee, passes the Jeopardy test and gets on the show. A leap of faith, maybe. I do very well in the privacy of my own den, I’ll have you know.
The first commercial break is over, and Alex comes over to talk to the contestants.
“Daisy, it says on my card that you feed your family dandelions.”
“Yes, Alex, but only in season.”
Alex turns his patented reaction face toward the camera, which cues the audience to laugh.
“In season, Daisy? When are dandelions in season, and how do you serve them?”
“They’re in season in spring and early summer, and they’re good in salads, pesto, soups, stews, herb mixes…”
And Alex moves on.
It’s true, readers. Dandelion greens are edible and delicious. I had leftover pasta with dandelion pesto for my lunch at work today, and my coworkers were suitably curious. I was eating veggie today purely by accident (I wasn’t enthused about any of our leftover meat), with my pasta + pesto + leftover green beans. It was delicious.
As the dandelions fade away, there ought to be fresh lettuce and spinach in the garden.
Meanwhile, I’ll take Eating in the Wild, Alex, and I’ll make it a true daily double.
The majority of these conversation starters turn up on Facebook or Plurk. If it makes me laugh out loud, it’s good. If it makes me think, it’s even better.
delicious
I’m growing a few of these. Rosemary, Dill, Sage, Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and unintentionally, mint. Believe me, the mint is tenacious. The others are either in my spice cabinet or could get there on my next trip to Penzey’s.
Ah, yes, the quotable unquote.
My fair state’s standardized tests will be changing dramatically in 2014. I’ll reserve judgment until I see how well the new creation assesses my students.
living art frame
Meanwhile, I’ll resist signing up for Pinterest. I might find something like the living art frame above. And if I find the directions, I might feel like I really need one. Or two. Resist, Daisy, resist!
I skipped blogging about last month’s Joy of Less topic: cutting down on energy use. We’re in a position right now that it’s really, really tough to make changes in the appliances we plug in and the hours the heater runs. Later -perhaps much later – I’ll be able to walk to work again, and we’ll use the car less. That will be a good start in lowering our energy use and in turn our carbon footprint.
This month, Mother Nature Network’s Joy of Less project features a topic close to my heart: growing your own groceries. MNN’s goal includes “plan and grow a garden that can replace part of your food bill and give you a healthier diet.”
We noticed recently that we rarely have empty jars any more in the O.K. Chorale kitchen. We usually keep one to collect the grease from bacon or ground beef or other meats that leave a little fat behind. Last weekend, Chuck noticed we were completely out of jars for that purpose. I found something for him, but that’s not the real story.
The story is one more sign that we’re buying less as we make our own. Pickles, tomato sauces, salsa, jams, applesauce – these are all things I make and can myself. We no longer need to buy the commercial versions, and therefore we no longer have commercial jars left over. Take that one more step and realize that if we’re not buying those products, our grocery list is shorter and therefore we’re spending less. In all honesty, I don’t think we’re spending less as much as we’re buying other things, like better cuts of meat and more seafood. In the end, we are using the garden to adjust our bill and edge our diets to a healthier level.
MNN calls it a “DIY Food Revolution.” This movement label reminds me of the burst of Recession Gardens several years back. Friends, I was gardening before it was trendy. My family has enjoyed DIY tomatoes on our BLTs and salads for years and years. I fit the statistical profile rather well. The typical American gardener is female (54%), age 45 or older (68%), and college educated (79%).
Many of this month’s feature stories are aimed at beginning gardeners. I read them anyway because there’s always something new to learn. Their indoor herb garden is similar to mine. The feature on body mechanics and gardening for fitness reminds me to take care – I’m still slowly recovering from last fall’s stroke-like experience. I can build strength gradually and get my seedlings in the ground little by little, too.
Growing your own groceries – I’ve started planning and planting (indoors) already. I still browse idea – filled articles that address small-space gardening, organic gardening for kids, and easy vegetables for various zones.
All this makes me crave spring. Despite the low temperatures during this spring break, I do see the backyard snow melting. It’ll be the OkayByMe Swamp for a little while, and then I’ll be out doing what I do to grow our own groceries.
This is not a sponsored post in any way. I enjoy Mother Nature Network and subscribe to their newsletters. There’s always something fascinating on the site.
I went thrifting today and found – instead of telling you, I’ll show you.
What a deal!
Pants on the left: 75 cents.
Jacket in the middle: a light wool coat, Talbots brand, $4.50.
My favorite: denim Fleet Farm jacket, $2.95. And lest you think I’m joking, I tried on the jacket. Despite Fleet Farm’s reputation as the Man’s Mall, the jacket is for me. Because I buy a lot of garden supplies, rabbit food and litter, canning supplies, and more at Fleet Farm, this jacket is not just a cool piece of kitsch. It’s simply cool.
Not to mention that buying this jacket reminded me of an old post – enjoy Top Ten Reasons I adore Fleet Farm.
10. Fleet Farm had the tomato supports I needed when no one else in town stocked them.
9. My receipts come with a discount on gas at their gas station. If I fill up the minivan there after making a purchase, I save. I fill my van so seldom; if I can wait to fill the tank when I’m at Fleet Farm, it’s a winner.
8. The clerk at the Fleet gas station resembles a young Brad Paisley. If the teen girls start hanging around the bait counter, we’ll know why.
7. I can resist most impulse buys because of the unique merchandise. I do not need a blaze orange negligee. Really, honey.
6. I said most impulse buys, not all. I did buy a small funnel for my jam. It turned out to be a perfect fit for the tops of the jars, and it prevented waste and messes. I’ve never seen this little gizmo anywhere else – only at Fleet Farm.
5. It’s a huge store; getting what I need requires exercise. Who needs a treadmill? Who needs to walk the mall? I just shop at Fleet Farm.
4. It’s easier to say than Farm and Fleet.
3. Chuck and I bought our bikes there several years ago, and they’re still going strong.
2. It keeps me humble. Walking from the canning supplies to the garden center I pass through the equine section. There are things on the shelves that a city girl like me will never need. Need? I don’t even know what most of the equine equipment is!
1. At Fleet Farm, I found everything I needed to make my first batch of jam!
Maybe you’ve seen – or maybe you haven’t – this simple Haiku.
Refrigerator. Of course.
Our refrigerator stopped making sense, too. Thanksgiving weekend the freezer continued freezing while the refrigerator quit refrigerating. Thanks to the Internet, we found and implemented a fix. As we got closer to Christmas, the freezer started warming up. Losing cold? Whatever. The ice cubes were still ice, but the ice cream was getting softer. Chuck asked (rhetorically, of course) “Why do our appliances taunt us whenever it’s a major holiday?”
Don’t answer that, people. Just don’t.
This time, at least, we had two advantages. 1: Chuck and I did the homework at Thanksgiving in case we needed to buy a new refrigerator. We knew what we needed. 2: This month, Mother Nature gave us an alternate storage place called Snow on the Deck. Storing the frozen food was easy. Some went in a cooler, and a few of my frozen market goodies went right in the light and powdery snow.
Getting it out was another story.
But wait – there’s more! I used a broom to brush away the layers that had accumulated overnight and found strawberries and blueberries, also frozen last summer.
Not stepping stones: tops of coffee “cans” full of frozen berries.
All is calm, and all is cool, at least for now. If I forgot anything, it’ll show up in the next thaw. Next: clean the oven.