Morning Glory: a blog for all seasons

Colleen Planting Pole Beans

2009-05-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Spring Plantings 2009

2009-05-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

After a long, cold winter - it finally feels warm enough to garden. We live in a new house this year - a funny little Craftsman with a large porch that simply begs people to hang out with ice tea and a good book and a crazy patch of yard. We built raised beds last weekend and planted beans, heirloom tomatoes, baby carrots, rainbow kale, lettuce and peppers. I ordered most of my seeds on line this year from an organic seed company - no hybrids! A few months ago we bought a big garbage can, punched some holes in the lid and for about $8.00, had a dandy composter. When it came time to plant, we mixed gorgeous compost in with the bags of organic soil we purchased for the raised beds. I admit I was tempted to buy the 200.00 deluxe composter I saw at the garden store but I am satisfied with the garbage can that works just as well for a fraction of the price.
I will post pictures soon - John put our raised beds together and they are beautiful!

Autumn

2008-09-23T08:54:00.001-07:00

We have officially passed the first day of Autumn. This has always been my favorite time of year. I enjoyed returning to the structure of books and school rooms after long summers of unstructured time. I still do.

School has started and a new crop of students has joined us. John and I moved into a different house and left our organic garden behind. We went back there one day to pick pumpkins we'd left on the vine and someone had chopped our giant sunflowers down. I am not sure why anyone would want to do this but it reminded us this was no longer our place.

We have started to plan next year's garden - a much smaller operation. We will build raised beds in our tiny back yard. Even though we have very little space, I am still composting. Most of our garbage is recycled or composted - this still makes me proud!

Our new house is still an old house - a Craftsman with lots of period details. We do not miss the other places' toxic mold farm in the basement. We get to start over. We will, however, miss our garden! Gabh Glas - Go Green!

August Dog Days

2008-08-07T15:41:00.000-07:00

The other morning I woke up at 5:45 AM and it was pitch dark outside - a sure sign that Autumn is just around the corner. For now we spend time each afternoon looking for vegetables that are ready to harvest. Right now we our enjoying a bumper crop of sweet cherry tomatoes - red, yellow and 'chocolate' and are large tomatoes are slowly turning red. It seemed my watermelon radishes were taking so long that I forgot them. I noticed some the other day and realized several had become huge! They are so beautiful - white on the outside and bright red in the center - very peppery too. Our squashes are growing - I love the pumpkins and butternuts the best. The freezer is filled with green and wax beans too. We also have cucumbers - gourmet lemon (round and yellow, they can be eaten like an apple) and more traditional green ones. Both are excellent in salad - unfortunately our lettuce is all done.

We are moving at the end of the month to a lovely turn of the century Craftsmen - lots of woodwork and bright windows ... and space for next year's garden. We will be building raised beds, however. We learned a lot this year, most of all how important it is to weed more. We are looking forward to having a garden that does not share space with a backyard 'jungle' - not that I am complaining really. This year's garden has been tremendous fun and we feel so excited to have mastered composting and to be leaving the soil in this garden healthy and ready for planting next year.

Fruits of Our Labor - Literally!

2008-07-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had salad with our dinner. Everything in that salad - red lettuce, Romaine, fresh peas, French baby carrots, cucumber and nasturtium for garnish - was picked this afternoon from our garden. The photograph hardly does it justice. I wish I could send everyone a bite of the sweet little carrots or invite you to smell the cool and fragrant cucumber slices. This time of year makes those hot cranky afternoons pulling weeds so worth it! (And for the record - I do not pull weeds probably as much as I should!). We are truly enjoying the fruits of our hard work and its been so worth it!

Besides the salad, we also cooked fresh green beans - wax beans to be specific. They were so sweet and delicious lightly steamed with a little sea salt and pepper. So far I have picked and frozen 6 quarts of beans and there is no end in sight. I have given some away and will be sharing more with co-workers and our neighbor. Originally I calculated we would eat half a quart of green beans per meal so that 6 quarts would equal 12 meals, roughly. However one of the advantages to eating whole vegan foods is that over time, one simply eats much less. So a quart bag of green beans will actually feed John and I for 3 or even 4 meals, if they are a side dish. As a main dish, we might eat more.

I recall vegans 'preaching' to me the many advantages of the diet and lifestyle when I was still an unapologetic carnivore. One of the advantages, I was told, was that vegans eat less food overall because they consume whole, organic foods, which are more nutrient dense. We get more from our food because it is so much richer in nutrients and vitamins. It is true! Prior to becoming a vegan, I thought it would not make much difference. Even when I ate meat, I ate very little and was a part-time vegetarian. I was so wrong. In fact since January we are buying less food and spending far less money on food, overall. I still enjoy a special trip to Whole Foods, Georgetown Market (local organic store and one of the few non-chains) or Trader Joe's in Indianapolis. We will splurge on vegan goodies that can only be found in such places. Yet most of the time, we shop locally at the grocery stores and the farmer's market. And of course with the garden, we are harvesting new foods every couple of weeks. So far we've enjoyed lettuces, spinach, cherry tomatoes and green beans. The squashes are beginning to grow so we should have summer squash soon, although all of the squashes have grown very slowly. I can see we will probably have a bumper crop of Butternut - my favorite variety for squash soup.

There are entire sections of the grocery store I do not even visit anymore. The list of ingredients we require for any given dish is far shorter and just about everything that goes into our meals is fresh. It is not only healthier, it is just so much easier! Our lives are so busy so its nice to rely on recipes that take no more than 30 minutes to an hour to prepare, most nights. We used to spend so much time cooking meat - now a stir fry with tempeh and rice is ready in a snap. We've relied a lot on veggie burgers - which are ready in minutes on the George Foreman grill - but we are moving away from these because they are often high in sodium. They are nice for those nights when we get home late from work so we keep a couple of boxes in the freezer at all times. The Boca crumbles are awesome too for recipes as is Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP).

When we made the decision to go vegan I invested in a broad selection of spices and herbs - knowing we would need these to spice up otherwise bland foods like tofu and tempeh. I also found a very thick vegan cookbook - Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson to add to my collection of vegetarian cookbooks like the Moosewood series and Laurel's Kitchen. I find that many recipes we previously enjoyed like scones and pancakes can easily be made by substituting egg replacement powder and soy milk. In fact, vegan pancakes are fluffier and more filling than the homemade recipe I used since Alaric was a baby. I have learned to make a number of new dishes. One ingredient I with which I especially love to cook is coconut milk - generally available in the Asian section of the market. It makes a wonderful base for creamy soups (like squash) and sauces. It has a nice mild flavor and thickens easily. I use it as the base for a vegetable curry I make with rice - yum! Coconut oil is 'good' fat that will increase good cholestorol - very nutritious! I use the Light variety to cut calories, however.

Neither of us wanted to try to simply re-create our meat-based diet with processed, high sodium vegan "substitutes." We were determined to make a real lifestyle change. We felt if we were going to make the most of these changes, one of the advantages should be eating fresher food that is low in fat and sodium, high in fiber and delicious. I believe vegan cooking is a cuisine in its own right. If you are considering making this sort of change, and remember it is possible to simply introduce more vegan or vegetarian dishes into weekly menus, I recommend cooks find a good vegan cookbook and experiment with recipes. Non-vegans are far more likely to try something different if it looks good too. I do not recommend stir-frying plain old tofu with broccoli and dumping it on brown rice - nothing will turn people off more! Find interesting textures, flavors and colors and slowly adapt meals. Perhaps have a meatless night 2 or 3 nights a week.

Another way to coax people (especially kids) to try vegan cooking is to find a good vegan restaurant. Recently we visited Chicago for the Dropkick Murphy's concert. We ate at a restaurant John saw advertised on the Internet, Karen's Cooked Food (she also has a Raw Foods restaurant). We ate some of the most delicious restaurant food I have had in a long time. It is gratifying to know we can eat out, enjoy ourselves and stay true to our dietary preferences. We ordered from the lunch menu and tried a variety of things - salads (delicious, fresh and loaded with yummy stuff - the dressing was homemade and delicious), macaroni and cheese (made with whole wheat pasta and vegan cheese and excellent), veggie chili, skewers of seitin 'meat' marinated in barbecue sauce (excellent!) and dessert. John ordered a luscious chocolate and walnut cake and I had a carob-banana soy shake (what a treat that was - I thought I would never enjoy a milkshake again. This was a refreshing, nutritious and lower calorie substitute for one of my favorite non-vegan treats). Since we do not order wine or alcohol, we enjoyed a lovely meal that replaced lunch and dinner for us (portions were ample and filling) for about $30.00 - worth every penny!

I am so looking forward to harvesting big tomatoes in the weeks to come. My friend, Melanie offered me this tip: parboil tomatoes, remove the skin and dump into a freezer bag (3 or 4 per bag). Store in the freezer and over the winter dump a bag into homemade stews and soups. What could be easier?

Stay green!

Our First Tomato

2008-06-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Last night I picked our first tomato - a small, ripe cherry tomato. I am afraid John ate it before I thought to photograph it so you will have to believe me when I say it was absolutely perfect!

Today it is as chilly as early Autumn. "What kind of summer is this, anyway?" John queried our cat, Seamus, who did not reply. It has been a strange one although we have not lived in the Midwest long enough to know what is strange and what is routine. Its all strange to us, to be honest.

We've been preparing some awesome vegan food this summer - all kinds of interesting and tasty dishes made from tempeh - which I consider the new miracle food. Like tofu it tends to take on the flavors with which it is cooked. One hint - poach it before using it in recipes. Place it in a pan and cover with water and cook until the water boils and then cover and let it steam a bit. It tends to neutralize the flavor a bit and make it easier to use. I have done it both ways and enjoyed it much more poached.

I would like to give a Two-Shovel Salute to the wonderful folks at MOMs - Motivate Our Minds - a local nonprofit in Muncie whose mission is to educate children about health and wellness through gardening. They are a wonderful organization dedicated to the Slow Food Movement - a global effort to make people more aware of the food they consume. MOMs is one of several organizations that has been invited to Turin, Italy to participate in a global conference on Slow Food. The October conference, Terra Madre will include farmers, cooks, students and educators from around the world. Congratulations, MOMs!

Summer Solstice

2008-06-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we experienced the longest day of the year - summer solstice. The actual solstice (which may or may not be the day printed onto our calendars) usually occurs a day or three before John's birthday. For us, solstice and John's birthday merge into one celebration - 'birthday week' - which begins with the Solstice followed up by John's birthday on June 25th. It has also earned John the nickname 'Summertime Jesus.' I apologize to anyone who may be offended but remember, our Spanish-speaking friends and neighbors often select the name Jesus for their boy children. And Joshua is Jesus in Hebrew... Besides, it is thought-provoking to consider the implications of a Summertime Jesus - when He returns will it be in June? Who knows. I always thought if and when Jesus does return, regardless of the season, is he going to be pissed! I can only imagine what He would think of the whole Christmas as Consumer Heaven debacle that allegedly is meant to honor the day of his birth - hah! Enough of that, the Christmas season will be soon enough. On to the garden.

Things are really growing. The rains came and keep coming. Every day we begin with sun that quickly transforms into violent rain, thunder and lightening storms and then in the early evening, the sun returns. All of that rain has encouraged a growth spurt for veggies and weeds - we can practically watch them get taller and broader. I have had to make my peace with all the weeds, which I try to pluck out but I must be ever aware of poisonous plants lurking in the brush. I planted several packets of radishes in some of the emptier areas because I read they are good ground cover and will literally crowd out the weeds. Where they are pushing through the dirt, this seems to be working.

The area of the garden I have dubbed the 'Three Sisters Patch' is a wonderful example of the wisdom of growing plants together. The maize, beans and squash are planted together and make a delightful jumble - the corn stalks serve as a bean pole for the growing beans and the squash creates an undercover of plants. Although this does not eliminate weeds all together, they are much smaller and there are fewer of them, overall. Ever since I read about this method for growing crops developed by early indigenous farmers I have wanted to try it myself. It seems quite successful so far.

I am especially proud of the pea blossoms blooming in the pea patch - we are going to have a bumper crop! I have such fond memories of shelling peas for my mother when I was a little girl and then, one day, I went to buy peas in the shell so my son could do this chore with me and they were no longer carried in grocery stores. When did that happen? Ever since then, I have wanted to grow fresh peas and finally have done so. I bought a bag of dried little peas and planted them directly in the soil after the last frost. They began to grow rather quickly and now are just beautiful, I cannot wait to shell and eat fresh peas!

Our herbs are doing remarkably well - every evening I gather handfuls of fresh herbs to dump in whatever we are cooking. Sometimes I pluck a basil leaf or a hunk of cilantro or parsley and just munch on them because they are so gorgeous and tasty. And the lettuce/spinach bed is amazing! It grows faster than we can eat it but we enjoy fresh lettuce in salads. It will be lovely when our tomatoes and cucumbers are ready for harvest.

My final exciting news is we have squash blossoms on one plant and our cucumber plants are covered in tiny yellow flowers - a good sign. One troubling detail is that the heavy rains have knocked off several squash blossoms, although others are hanging in there, besides, I have never known any gardener who lamented a lack of squash in the garden. I am sure all will be well.

Please enjoy the compost picture - I have already mulched my garden with compost I created. This is the next batch - what an amazing process this is! In many ways this is my favorite area of the garden - where everything begins and ends and begins again - a lovely metaphor and a healthy green reality.

Stormy Weather

2008-06-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

I am waiting for a thunderstorm and I have been waiting all day. We are under 'severe thunderstorm' watch so we wait ... and watch.

Last night we attended an outdoor concert with friends. By the end of a perfect, beautiful early summer evening, I started to itch and swell a bit so we went home. It was fun while it lasted. In Muncie, people turn out for public concerts so it is a fun way to see people of all ages have fun. I enjoy these, even if the music last night was selected to celebrate Flag Day. There were some highlights!

I decided to try a bit of weeding today and suffered no ill effects from my lingering allergy problems although John found an unknown patch of poison ivy in our main garden, which I will now have to avoid since it is nearly impossible to get rid of it safely at this point.

I really find weeding to be a dull and uncomfortable activity. Usually it is far too hot during the day to crouch outside and do much of anything. I pulled out my organic gardening bible and read up on weeding and hoped to find a simpler solution. Here is what I read - weeding may be way overrated. Some gardeners love to weed out every single stray bit of fluff. Others do not weed at all. The authors of the bible suggest finding one's own rhythm. In fact, they say, hoeing out the weeds may cut down on garden productivity and of course they end with the old truism about how weeds are just plants out of place. I can live with that. They also offered several green-friendly solutions to weeding including spraying weeds with white vinegar at least three times.

I went ahead and weeded around some of my cucumbers and Brussel sprouts. I also celebrated an earlier decision to plant a 3 Sisters patch so that my corn, beans and squash, at least in one corner, are a tangle of new growth with little room for weeds. The few there are small and hard to even see. My tomatoes are just amazing - I will photograph them later this week. They looked so yellow and icky for so long and now they are strong and green with brave little yellow flowers. There are even a few small green tomatoes - promises of sweetness to come.

I also transplanted an eggplant to the main garden - it is so beautiful but needed more sun. Tonight we had a vegan feast of Cajun beans and rice - I simmered the beans with a handful of fresh herbs - marjoram, rosemary, big juicy leaves of basil - whatever I could quickly snip and dump into our stew. It was simply delicious over steaming Basmati rice. I cannot wait for more food from the garden.

Still waiting for the storm although the clouds are gathering, there is a slight wind through the basil in my kitchen window and heavy feeling to the air. Hopefully, the garden will enjoy the rain and everyone in Indiana will sleep safely in their beds tonight.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

This week in class we discussed gender - in particular the tender balance of power between males and females. I wanted students to imagine the many possibilities that exist when men and women engage. Must someone always lead and the other follow? What about the complementary dynamic that many indigenous cultures proffered as the ideal arrangement? The magic of men and women or the male and female in balance - different yet both necessary if there is to be a dance of life at all?

There is no ying without the yang and definitely no flowers without the bees ... you get the picture. So for all the men in my life - past and present - living and dead - young and old(er) - friend, family and stranger - I say to each of you, "Happy Father's Day!" Even if you are not yet a father per se, surely somewhere there is a younger person who probably benefits from knowing you. It is a wonderful day to celebrate the men we love, so I salute you all!

And for my favorite pirate - and partner in all things fun and funny - the one, the only 'Rez Jack,' Happy Birthday, Sweetheart, I love you!

Salad Bites Back

2008-06-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

OK - maybe not salad ... nonetheless I learned earlier this week that my garden is, in its own way, a wild place with unexpected 'surprises.' In my effort to cut back a fair amount of out-of-control Indiana 'jungle' plants, I got into something to which I am highly allergic. The best guess is poison ivy or oak.

At first I was not alarmed by the trailing rash on my leg that I transferred to my other leg through careless scratching. After a few days, the rash began to ooze and spread. Although it was not attractive or comfortable, I was still not too worried. Later I would learn that even trying to keep it clean with alcohol wipes produces histamine, which makes everything worse. Eventually, I ended up with a puffed up face and attempted to treat it at home with Benedryl. The next morning I woke up at 5 AM to a full-on anaphalactic response - the term 'deadly allergic' is actually true for me in this case.

My husband rushed me to the ER where I was treated. At one point I was having trouble breathing and yes, it was life-threatening. Over the next few days I made two more visits to the ER - once with giant hives and finally with medication problems. I am happy to report that while I am still on steroids and anti-histamines, I am on the mend. It was hard to sleep for days but last night I actually had almost a full night's sleep, so I feel much better.

What did I learn? When we first planned our garden, we wanted to create a space that would provide humans with healthy organic vegetables, serenity in the form of beautiful nature and also a space that would serve as sanctuary for plants and animals - large and small - wild and domesticated. We've achieved that - although I regret having to spray in a limited way for ants, which invaded our kitchen. Other than that, things were and are looking good. Its just that I had to recognize that at some level, I was still playing Goddess of my universe in the backyard. I do not control that or any universe, I share it with other things, some of which need lots of space. I cannot even cut or weed out poison oak and ivy, I simply must avoid it and let others deal with it. It could kill me, no joke.

I am not quitting my garden, I am committed to learning from this and I will get back out there. I am a steward, however, not the owner or the ruler of a tiny universe. I am just the weed-puller.

This week in the Midwest we've dealt with some awful challenges - floods, tornadoes and mega-storms. People have lost children and other loved ones. Homes have floated away with raging flood waters. The faces of our fellow citizens warn of fear and fatigue. Hoosiers, I am learning, are tough people. I used to think this was not a friendly place. But that is not true. People can be very friendly and kind here. They just do not have a lot of time or worry to spare. It is not an easy place to stay or make a living - was it ever? I do not know, I only know Hoosiers send more kids to war than other people do. They do not live in a place that attracts tourist dollars or venture capitalists - unlike my experience of living on the right and left coasts. Indiana is the daisy in a giant garden of roses and dahlias. Its easy to overlook daisies. I will say this, Indiana and its people, those for whom this is home and always will be, are earning my respect and in some instances, my affection. I still adore the Pacific NW and every day my soul yearns for the sounds and smells of a good tidal zone. But I am adjusting, like a good daisy. :^)

What else can happen? In light of that, my close encounter with poisonous plants does not seem like much, except that there could be a link between the huge storms, tornadoes, ferocious plants and global warming. It seems scientists think that poisonous plants will become worse with warming trends - bigger and more toxic for humans. Circle of life, my friends, circle of life ...

Stay green!

Compost

2008-06-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! For the first time we have our composting set up so that we are now able to compost or recycle the majority of our waste. We only have about 25% of our garbage can filled by the time the trash collectors arrive.

Although we have recycled for years, we were not impecable with regards to composting. Problem solved! Last year we picked up a free composting bin and this year we purchased a simple aluminum pail, which John will drill holes into the lid today. The composting of our green waste begins in the kitchen and continues in the bag yard. From this we will build dirt for our organic garden.

Even though we are 95% Vegan, recycle, compost, ride bikes most days to work - we still would require 4 planets to sustain how we live. Where we lose points according to the Ecological footprint site is our big old drafty house, which is not very green with regards to energy we must use to heat it in the winter - but we are working on it.

Today I turned over the compost pile - there are lots of critters in there working hard to break down biomass - you can feel the warmth of the moldering organic leftovers of our lives. It will eventually make its way back into our soil to feed us by feeding our plants. I read in an organic farming book that its all about building good soil - so that is what we are doing - with the help of critters and the natural process of crap breaking down.

My dream is to have a composting toilet ....

Vegan Planet

2008-06-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

I am a vegan. I made this decision because I wanted to my insides to match my outsides - I want to live on/with the earth in ways that our healthy for me and the earth. So, I am now a vegan about 95% of the time. I reserve the right to eat wild salmon (okay - its a process!). And when we go home to my husband's community, its not always possible to get the kinds of food we like to eat now. I think its important to be flexible.

When we are in Muncie, IN - where we live and work - we choose veganism. I decided to plant a vegetable and herb garden this summer to stay busy on my 'staycation.' I have planted tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, a variety of squashes and pumpkins, lavender, basil, marjoram (what do we use that for anyway?), cucumbers, lettuce, lots of hot peppers, eggplants and two kinds of melons. whew!

Things are growing - it is amazing and exciting to get up every morning and see something real happening. Every day, no matter what, I make progress with the garden and that feels fantastic! We hung up CDs - space age scarecrows. They twirl and throw light, which creates movement in the garden and will hopefully scare rabbits away. We are trying to keep it all green - no chemicals - but when I see the damage snails can do in one night of munching, it is frustrating, and I am still determined to keep it real. Besides, this is Indiana - the land o' gardens. If you cannot grow a tomato in Indiana, well, that is just pitiful!