My sweet old pug has been sick now for a couple of weeks. i thought he was slowing down but he got REALLY sick this weekend! it has been a complete challenge keeping up with him these past few days and i am exhausted! he is on antibiotics now and eating again
I just dont know what i would do without this little critter snorting and tooting and snuggling, sometimes all at the same time.
Last night i attended a PLATE AND PITCHFORK event at CLARKLEWIS. The theme was cheese and we had Steve Jones from STEVE’S CHEESE with us.
The menu was really wonderful and although i sat next to a woman who was terrified that she would not get enough to eat when they served us family style, i had a fantastic time.
Here is the menu from last night. My favorites of the evening were the Pork Shoulder and the Almond Frangipane. Oh well, the pasta was insanely good too. They cut it thick and wide. I need to make more Pasta 
I also loved the idea of putting red Quinoa in the salad.
Stay tuned for the Plate and Pitchfork summer schedule where you get to eat on farms!
I stayed home yesterday with my nasty cold..again. At 5 I pulled myself off the couch for an hour to meet with Scott. He is a living garden landscaper who i hoped would reveal the secrets of my garden to me. Although that didnt happen, he gave me some good suggestions all of which i knew but didnt want to believe. Sometimes you just need to hear it out of a stranger’s mouth. So the butterfly bush is out to make room for my Fig Tree and the raspberries are moving for a mega composting pile extravaganza. I am excited about this! He also designed a 40 foot garden box to edge my patio. This box will be in the most direct sun, double as seating for my friends and give me lots of fresh veggies.
After Scott left, i got more and more nervous about all the changes he suggested. At one point i was ready to scrap the whole thing and just continue on as i had planned. Then i opened this beautiful website called CULINATE. i read one of her articles about farmer’s market veggies and came across this;
Nutrients dissipate quickly. Broccoli loses 34 percent of its vitamin C in just two days. Asparagus making the refrigerated trek from California to New York arrives with only about one-third of its initial vitamin C.
Growers who sell to supermarkets can’t do anything about the nutrients, but some do try to combat moisture loss: they wax the produce. Waxes on cucumbers, peppers, rutabagas, melons, citrus, apples, and other fruits and vegetables keep moisture in and give the produce a shiny appearance.
According to Bryan Jay Bashin, writing in the magazine Harrowsmith, the wax is sometimes mixed with fungicides and sprouting inhibitors before it’s applied. The only ways to get rid of it are to scrub your vegetables with detergent or to peel them, which eliminates more nutrients.
I knew that wax wasnt the best thing to eat and i dont scrub it off with detergent or peal them but i had no idea that the nutrients disappeared so quickly. it made me much more motivated to get my garden box built so i could pull my veggies out of the earth and eat them that day.
I also watched this beautiful interview with ALICE WATERS and good god do i want her garden…and her egg cooking fireplace! I love all these places to find inspiration.
So Onward! i am ready to conquer the yard this year. My sprouts are starting to look like real things now too.
Last night we said good-bye to a dear friend who is heading home to Ireland. We will miss you and your ridiculously sexy accent. Slainte!
i am still feeling tired but i had to get the peas and beans into the ground today. I am already 3 days behind! i also caught a few shots of the garden.
My Daphne is in full bloom. I plucked a few blossoms and put htem next to my bed. I think their intoxicating scent finds its way into my dreams that way. It is also the first thing i smell when i wake up in the morning.mmmmm.
My first seeds have popped up! So far i have beets, fennel and melons!
OH i almost forgot! a few months ago i signed a petition to convince the new president to take their rediculously large useless lawn and turn it into something worthwhile, a kitchen garden! well ground was broken on the garden on the first day of spring. I am so excited about this. I think that no matter what you think about who is in the white house, it just makes sense to lead by example and this is simplicity at its finest. I hope the garden grows big and bountiful and inspires people to start their own kitchen gardens. I think that with everything going on in the world right now, this was a nice fresh air sigh.
Happy first day of Spring! the weather maybe be gray and rainy and cold but there are so many things popping out of the ground and in the trees, i know it has arrived.
I am celebrating my first day of sping by getting my first nasty cold of the year…at least i hope it is a cold. I will still be cuddled up under the blankets with my cup of hot tea for at least another day. I hope you get to do something more fun!
i did go out to the green house this morning and i have some fennel, onion, melon and 1 leek popped out of the ground. this is something!
Happy St Patrick’s Day! i dont know why i am feeling so Irish this year, but i am!
When i was in grade school our classroom had been visited by the leprechauns! There were little green footprints everywhere on tables, chairs, the floor and chocolate gold coins. I wish i had remembered this earlier. I would have done it at work today and freaked people out.
To make your own green footprints, just make a fist and press the side of your fist (pinky side) into some green paint and press onto a surface. Then use your finger prints for the toes. they look EXACTLY like feet. So FUN!
Keeping with the green theme, today is the day to plant your green peas! St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional time for sowing green peas. The earlier they mature, the sweeter they’ll be. Peas should be planted as soon as the ground can be worked. In some areas, you might have to drill holes in the soil to plant peas on St. Pat’s! Sow them right under the snow, if necessary, but save some for a later planting as well.
So brave the wind the rain the sleet and the hail and get those peas in the ground! You can do this while drinking Irishwhiskey too if you want Slainte!
today i had a meeting with a Chef i want to hire for my Annual Spring Dinner. Chef Tselani taught my French Provence cooking class in January. i LOVED that class and i learned so much. Tselani was fantastic and i was really excited to have my Cooking Bees meet her. She refers to herself as a Fig Whore…i knew i would love her. So she is coming to my house May 2nd to cook a 5 course meal with me. So far we have Pate, Spring Green Pea Soup, something with fava beans, maybe duck? and honey lavender ice cream on the list. YUMMMMY!
After Tselani left, i decided to get some things in the dirt. I planted sweet peas, fava beans, arugula and radishes in pots. In the green house i got my beets, onions, leeks, eggplant, zinnias, butterfly weed, basil, poppies, zucchini, melons, cantaloupes, and maybe i am forgetting something but that is a good start. I moved the chicken coop lights into the green house so that the seeds dont freeze. Last night the temp didnt drop below 50 in there so i think i am going to be ok! of course it is monsoon season today. We havent had rain like this in weeks and weeks.
So now i have a bit of a break between replanting the seedlings and getting the garden beds ready. right now, things are pretty wintered looking.
March 15, 2009
Garden, Pre-Spring beds
after i peeled myself off the couch yesterday, i caught some pics of the critters enjoying a day in the sunshine. sigh, where did that sun go?
I traveled to Seattle to visit my dear friend Mina. She is having a baby in 4 weeks! She looks so beautiful and round.
i cant wait to meet my new Nephew.
On the way home i white knuckled my way through 2 huge snow storms and into sunshine. It makes one feel a bit schizophrenic!
When i got home however all of my seeds had arrived and i got giddy about spring again. I sat and read all the planting times for each seed. I need to get busy!
i also have some big plans for the yard. stayed tuned!
