Feeling guilty in paradise

It has been quite a few days since I have posted...I am out of town. I somewhat guiltily left town, on a planned vacation, without mentioning it to anyone but my family and a couple of friends. But two of my friends called me while I was here and I felt awful trying to hide it from them so I told them, as I'll tell you...Kauai. I am here in Kauai, HI with my hubby and son.

Two important people in my life were really down in the dumps last week and I couldn't bring myself to tell them where I was going. Ugh. Guilt, bad economy, more guilt. Both of my friends were adamant that I should have told them so they could share in my good news, so I think I should just count my blessings for the moment and enjoy the beauty.

We are trying to enjoy this place without spending too much so we didn't rent a car and today we went to the local farmer's market to avoid eating in too many restaurants. Wow! I took great pictures that I'll post when we return. Lots of lovely, tropical fruit and flowers. Our little fridge is overflowing with mangos and bananas and passionfruit!

Summer is a wonderful time of year. I'm thinking about putting in a very small garden for cold weather veggies...is August a time to plant? I have so much to learn. What can be planted in August in California? It's so darn hot it seems like it would burn upon contact with the ground! We've got some good compost to start a garden though. Any suggestions?

Tomatoes!

I went through the back gate this morning into my neighbor's yard to help pick tomatoes. He had underestimated how fast they would grow and how much they would produce...wow! I spent an hour picking cherry tomatoes while Tristan slept in. My neighbor rewarded my efforts with a full-size grocery bag completely filled with tomatoes of all different varieties. 

Needless to say, we'll be eating a lot of gazpacho.

-genny

Devouring a wonderful new book

"How did supermarket vegetables lose their palatability, with so many people right there watching? The Case of the Murdered Flavor was a contract killing, as it turns out, and long-distance travel lies at the heart of the plot. The odd notion of transporting fragile produce dates back to the early twentieth century when a few entrepreneurs tried shipping lettuce and artichokes, iced down in boxcars, from California eastward over the mountains as a midwinter novelty. Some wealthy folks were charmed by the idea of serving out-of-season (and absurdly expensive) produce items to their dinner guests. It remained little more than an expensive party trick until mid-century, when most fruits and vegetables consumed in North America were still being produced on nearby farms....Then fashion and marketing got involved...In just a few decades, the out-of-season vegetable moved from novelty status to such an ordinary item, most North Americans now don't know what out-of-season means."
-from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (p.48)

My goal of going green gradually has changed my way of looking at so many different things, including my househole chores, the food I eat, the hobbies I play in, and the books I read. I finally picked up my copy of this great book by one of my favorite authors (I've read all of her fiction, but this is my first time reading her non-fiction) at the Portland, Oregon Saturday farmer's market. This is really changing my thinking, probably for good. I've long lamented to my husband about the lack of taste in certain fruits and veggies bought from conventional markets, and I'm learning why that is...and why those fruit that are picked well before they are ripe never seem to ripen well, and how 98% of the seeds for our food supply comes from just 6 companies (eesh!), and lots of other super interesting things...this book is chockful of goodness!

Many months ago, my husband and I decided we would like to have some acreage of our own. Not much, just enough. Enough to plant our own garden and as many fruit trees as possible. Enough to be able to learn from our mistakes and try out new things. My foray into composting this year is just the beginning, I hope, of a lifelong learning process. It is exciting to think about. I keep my ears open for hints and tips that will come in handy in the future. We will learn much more about companion plants, ideal crop rotation, and nature's best pesticide (no chemicals please! - I remember a college roommate keeping capfuls of beer near her little herb garden to keep the slugs away...) Maybe I can even learn about canning this year, as we have a nectarine tree that delivers the sweetest nectarines I've ever tasted...almost all at once. When we return to our home after this lovely little trip, we will check to see how much longer until the nectarines are ripe, and I will start planning a canning spree around subsequent summer vacation time.

My interest is especially perked as I read in this lovely book about heirlooms vegetable varieties (there is a lot more than just heirloom tomatoes) - you know how I am about all things history...well, imagine getting to taste history! It's so exciting to think about growing vegetables, living things, that are almost extinct (almost a Jurassic Park quality about it, only more natural) I'm so looking forward to one day growing some heirloom varieties of vegetables, so excited to see how they taste! I told my hubby we would definitely do that someday, but that we should probably get some practice first so we don't waste precious heirloom seeds on our learning curve...

I am so excited to be reading this book, so excited to be learning about the food we eat, about how it's not just important to eat organically, but maybe even just as important (if not more) to eat locally. I am learning about alternative possibilities, and picking up little hints, tips and tricks from neighbors, friends and other blogs.

It is so interesting and wonderful where life leads.

Sunday suppers, grace, less waste

bountiful organic garden in Esalen, Big Sur

Sunday night suppers have been a tradition with my father and step-mother for around 10 years. Several months ago it became an issue with Tristan because after his nap he would want to stay home and getting him changed and dressed and over there for supper by 5:30 became too much of a forceful event and no longer fun, so I put it on hold for awhile. I'm hoping that now spring is here and he's a little older, maybe we can start to go again. Sunday supper, after all, is where Tristan learned about "Grace." My father, though not overly religious in any one direction, starts each supper with a grace. "Dear God, thank you for the food you have set before us and for the precious hands that prepared it." Tristan seemed to love the idea of holding hands before a meal and as often as his daddy and he and I sit down together for a meal, there is also a grace. Tristan initiates it usually by spreading wide his hands to hold one of each of ours. "Say grace Tristan." "Mommy say grace." O.k., I say grace - something long and overly inclusive. Then I say, "O.k. now Tristan's turn." Tristan has a lovely, simple grace. He bows his head low, and then very quietly he says, "Dear God thank you for the food. I love you God. Amen." How sweet is that?

In the book I mentioned in the April 4th entry, You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy, she talks about the importance of grace before meals also. The one she mentions that I like best (unfortunately she cites the author as "Unknown") goes like this:

Before the flour, the mill,

Before the mill, the grain,

Before the grain, the sun and rain,

The beauty of God's will.

Yesterday, my hubby and I in a three-hour period got to plant 8 varieties of tomatoes, 3 varieties of cucumbers, some garlic and some dill. Some of the ground we planted in hasn't seen a plant in decades. I am far from being an expert on soil but this little patch in particular gets a good 6 or 7 hours of sun each day, at least in the spring and summer. We'll see how that goes. We also planted a few of the items in containers. We had great luck with containers last year and hope to have more luck with them this year. Planting our own veggies definitely gives me more consideration about wasting food. We have such a plentiful state here in California. Food is everywhere, easy to get and the varieties are endless, all the time. How spoiled we are here! But when we are growing our own, I become more mindful of what gets lost - the squirrels who get the tangerines and persimmons before we do, the little hands that pick the tomato before it's ripe! I am so happy that Tristan has taken to saying grace, as it gives a little moment of pause to remember just where the food came from, the energy and time that went into growing and picking, and to be mindful of its waste. One nice thing about having that compost hole is that I can often put some of the waste back where it belongs. I do notice that between composting our kitchen scraps and recycling, our garbage has become smaller, which was one of my main goals in creating the compost. I think I'll call the city and order a smaller garbage can. That will save a little bit more!

Have a wonderful Monday.

Field of Poppies, that changing wind, "two-year old" issues

field of poppies

Ah, it's Saturday and the moodiness is starting to lift. The sun is shining today and the sky is a glorious blue. The wind I enjoyed last week for flying a kite has become hair-whipping and full of pollen and seems to have affected the moods of everyone around me, including myself. Wind has that tendency. The stomach flu has been making its way around the blogs I've been reading and in the people I know and love. I hope it is on its way out.

In the middle of the night last night I couldn't sleep and so I read from a book that I've kept handy since Tristan was just a wee babe! It's called You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. The writer uses Waldorf-inspired child rearing principles and I enjoy reading it because it is the gentle path to raising a child. I refer back to it now and then - especially when I hit a bump in that child-rearing road. Lately, Tristan seems to be living up to that ubiquitous "two-year old" personality I've often heard about. Clean-up time and tooth-brushing are two of the major problem areas. Today I avoided issue with the clean-up issue by not talking about it as clean up time, but merely playing a game of "ba-doop" - the sound I'd make as I through something in its container. I asked Tristan to "ba-doop" something in the container too, and it seemed to work. We got through cleaning his playroom, and when we were done (save for sweeping) he said, "My room is clean!" So although I was worried that I was manipulating him into cleaning up, it looks like that wasn't the case at all. He seemed to be aware I was making a game out of it. Phew. That's all I needed - confirmation from him!

Today my hubby brought home some tomato, cucumber and green onion plants to put in our garden. Our current house is not a permanent home so I haven't wanted to invest too much time in a garden, but we'll have a few items at least. We seem to have a small strawberry patch in the front yard, so we may add more strawberries to that! Anyway, this afternoon and tomorrow is planting time. The weather is perfect for it.

Sign of the Times

couch, lamp, early spring

The "clothesline" collage-card scene that I posted on March 21st seems to be following a trend of ideas that are indicative of the current economic situation as well as the environmental crisis that we face. I sit here everyday and can easily see our neighbors yard. He had a ton of space and used it to create a huge, beautiful organic garden including a small orchard with trees that have blossomed. It's great to see such bounty so close to such a busy street.

I've noticed the trend in my own home too. We are going to farmer's market lately - more often than we used to, and we are making a lot of our own food. My husband makes great homemade yogurt that we all love to eat daily. We strained it through a cheesecloth and made some yogurt-cheese to use hopefully instead of cream cheese. I've been making my own cereal by using old-fashioned rolled oats, nuts, dried fruit, honey, oil and spices and it is delicious. I eat cereal often and it is not cheap, so making it saves us a little bit o' money. We've been eating brown rice and veggies or salad with homemade dressing (also saves a bit).

On the going green gradually front, I've asked my hubby if he minded if we stopped buying the big plastic trash bags for our tall trash can and go back to using the paper bags we get from the store. He said yes - the only downside there is we'll have to be more conscientious about taking it out more often when it gets full. Also, I got the clothespins I've been looking for. Now my hubby has the lovely task of hanging a rope out somewhere in our backyard and I'll try a hand at NOT using the dryer!! We'll see how that goes.

Little by little is how this is going. Oh, and I found this great site through Elizabeth Mitchell's (the musician, not the actress) website. It gives specific info about having a healthier home environment for your children - (and more friendly for our Mother Earth) in "Five easy steps." If you have a child, this is a must. See the website http://healthychild.org/5steps for more information. I've also posted this in my "Places I like to go in digi-land" list.