Did you know?

April is National Gardening Month! As well as Earth Day month. Speaking of which, the Botanical Gardens has a festival type thing on the Sunday before Earth Day....and it's free! I am going and would love for anyone to join me. their plant sale begins Friday (it is at the old Bruno's by Brookwood). I may go and peruse their offerings.

It looks like rain tonight. Good, my new strawberries can dig into their new home! (Thanks Anna).

adios

Strawberries

Hello ladies, I am here to invite you all to come by and get some strawberry plants today! Emily Spear asked if she could come over after work to get a few plants, so I thought that if anyone else wants some and has some free time at any point today, they should come get some too. This is the perfect time, as they are just flowering, and will be bursting with strawberry goodness very soon.
BUT A WARNING FOLLOWS:
I have pink eye...in both eyes. I have no idea where this came from, but I went to the doctor this morning and was diagnosed. I have started my ointment treatment, so all should be well, but be wary and don't get too close to me. Cost benefit analysis...GO!
But it should be fun anyway, right?

Take to the world

I've got lots brewing--thoughts, projects and tea--and will share more later. But I wanted to pop in for a second and share this post from The Kitchen, a meditation on food, cooking and belonging.

Planted and Ready

I finally got the garden planted. Through process of careless elimination the weak seedlings died, so now I am positive I have the best ones. They are like my babies. After it rained I had to go out to make sure they were okay. There was rain holes everywhere so I covered the bare areas with mulch.

Now about compost. I had it in the corner of the our tiny yard but it was smelling pretty bad (not as bad as the neighbors dogs they never walk!). So I wanted to get a big plastic garbage can with a lid. Apparently it's better have it aireated so I go two big planters to switch the compost in and out of weekly to make it compost faster.

Somehow i feel like right now i am doing the maximum benefit health-wise for my husband and I by growing my own food (or a portion of it). Really it's the beginning to a long excited journey of being a conscience eater.

Weeds

I hate weeds! They are awful. My garden would be so beautiful now if it were without weeds. Well...maybe not so beautiful, but more leaning in that direction. I have lovely oregano, thyme, mint, lemon balm, and rosemary; all are thriving. I have a bazillion strawberry plants on the cusp of blooming little white flowers which will then turn into succulent strawberry deliciousness. And then I have the cursed dandelions and other weeds that I do not know the name of. Some of them, I confess, are pretty easy to just pluck out of the ground, and I will put my lack of plucking down to laziness. But there are others, such as dandelions, that are just impossible to get out of the ground in one piece! The roots end up firmly on the ground with all of the leaves crushed in my fingers, and mere moments later there is new growth - teasing me, taunting me.
ARG! I AM SO ANGRY!!!

OK. Enough of my rant.
If anyone wants a strawberry plant, let me know. They will soon be taking over my whole plot, me thinks.

I hope I always, always feel this way

I went to look at my little garden space today and, after looking close, I found them...LITTLE GREEN SPROUTS! My poppies are starting to come in. I was worried because after all the rain, my soil was beginning to again resemble clay. I was sure that the little friends would not be able to push their way through. I misjudged them. Like me, they are stronger than they look. A little difficulty was not stopping them from basking in the sunlight of spring. I almost cried.

My seeds came in today. Some of the veggies say to sow outdoors in early spring, so I guess that is now?! The tomatoes and tomatillos need some indoor lovin' first, so they are going to be set up on trays in my bedroom (the best light in the house). I am hoping to get dirty this weekend.

Amy, my Amaryllis is just about to bloom. She is in the phase where she has 3 distinct leaves, pink and green and vein-y just waiting go burst. Her stalk is so green and solid. I love it. Maybe tomorrow.

I love Spring. This year seems especially special...life after death. Green after so much brown. I keep mentioning this, in my personal blog, to everyone I see...it is on my mind a lot. I feel like I am maybe opening up again as well.

**Stay tuned to hear about CJ and my first week as members of a CSA. What veggies will we be enjoying this week???

Cast iron heaven

Allen's grandmother recently passed on some of her cast iron that she's not using/doesn't have room for anymore, and I'm in cook's paradise with them. I don't know what it is that makes using cast iron so enjoyable. Maybe it makes me feel more in touch with my past; maybe cast iron is just more fun. I couldn't really say. It's certainly more picturesque. Last night I sauteed up some shitake mushrooms with green onions, garlic, and lots of butter to go with Allen's steak, and those mushrooms surely did look wonderful resting in that small black skillet with a wooden spoon poised ready to serve. Almost made me want to eat some too. lol. I'm not a mushroom purist. They're wonderful with cube steak simmered in gravy or in marinara sauce but not so much alone.

I'm still getting used to how cast iron cooks though. It holds and tranfers heat differently from stainless steel. I found that out while cooking some steaks on my griddle pan last night. Since I was tired of making a mess of my everyday pan I decided to go ahead and try my griddle. First, I've smoked up the apartment more than once, but that perfectly seared surface is still barely eluding me. Second, what might be medium rare in a stainless steel pan is more like medium well on a cast iron griddle. If you're good you're supposed to be able to tell doneness by the resistence when you poke the surface of the meat, but I'm not quite there yet. I still tend to go by the clock. Hint, if your cast iron pan is smoking hot, 1min 30sec per side is a tad long for medium rare steaks. They were still good though thanks to a little help from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen and her wonderful instructions for turning cheap steaks into outstanding steaks. Yummy. I can't wait to do some more practicing in the upcoming weeks.

Great Article

In light of CJ and my new CSA membership, I found this article particularly interesting. It is from Time Magazine on eating locally. Also see The Eat Local Challenge here. Looks interesting.

My seeds are in the mail!!!

I am hosting Easter Dinner at my house Sunday. Mom, sister, brother (6 years old), grandma and her 'friend" (boyfriend!). In my TINY apartment. Yikes! I will let you know how it goes. I am planning on making a lot of it outdoors if weather permits, and it looks like it will.

Have a Hoppy Easter!!!

When it's good, it doesn't seem so bad

I didn’t have to get far into Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, a book by Thomas McNamee, before I began planning my own pilgrimage to the Berkeley restaurant. Now, only days after completing it, Elisa and I have have subscribed to a community-supported agriculture farm and are looking forward to cooking with locally-grown, seasonal vegetables ourselves.

OK, I can’t give Alice Waters all the credit. Elisa and I started talking about this weeks ago. And honestly, I may never have done it if she hadn’t done the research, the phone calling, the math. But I am very excited that she and I will be splitting this local produce without increasing our grocery bills!

We’re joining Grow Alabama, and our plan (which we’ve been told is just enough for two single people) works out to just $11 per week. I spend about $100 on groceries monthly, and half of that is produce, so I feel good about this new venture.

Cooking seasonally has also been on my mind lately. I’ve slowly started to attempt figuring it out, just by paying attention to cost. (Did you notice that Publix’s asparagus recently dropped from $3.99 a pound to $1.99?) And The Cook and The Gardener, a cookbook by one of my favorite food writers, Amanda Hesser, focuses on seasonal recipes divided by months.

Bring on the leeks, the cabbage and the snap beans. I’m ready.

Organic fuel

I promise to stop now.

This is dedicated to a book on Elisa's coffetable

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this

I just bought my first round of heirloom seeds! From Seed Savers Exchange , a non-profit which sells heirloom seeds at a great price. Here is a blurb from their mission statement:
"Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations. When people grow and save seeds, they join an ancient tradition as stewards, nurturing our diverse, fragile, genetic and cultural heritage."

um, YES! I bought kale, tomatoes (2 varieties), tomatillos, arugula, beans, lemon balm, flowers. And all for $33 including delivery. that is way good for heirlooms.

I still need to figure out a way to test the ground, otherwise it will be container love for me! I am anticipating a great, challenging, hopefully somewhat rewarding spring and summer full of learning and eating!

I am planning on starting them indoors. Martha Stewart has great ideas for how to do this (in eggshells!) and DIY growing lamps. As does You Grow Girl (incidentally, I use this book every single day) Where on earth are growing lamps going to go in my apartment? Looks like the cart in my closet is going to get another use!

Now I need to figure out how to get a chicken, cow and goat in my backyard area...

I heart real butter...or how does Giada stay so darn skinny?

Am I the only one who notices that as I cook more and really enjoy eating more, my waist gets larger? I thought that cooking good food and really enjoying food, not eating just to eat is not supposed to do that?
Once I realized that regular cream cheese is 167 times better than reduced fat, and "I can't believe it's not butter" pales in comparison to real, rich butter...well, the weight has come too. Now, don't misunderstand me, I realize that I am not overweight. But, if I keep gaining like I have been the past few weeks, I soon will be.
Yes, I am eating more vegetables. Yes, I am eating more whole grains. I just happen to be adding avocados to my salads and tons of olive oil to my grains. Then there is the muffins I can't stop making, and the cookies that cry out to be tested. Plus all the pasta dishes that I discover every day.

Is this a phenomenon that others have experienced as well? I have even started walking or riding my bike to the grocery store, so as to stave this off (plus, walking really limits what I can by as I have to be able to carry it all home).

I am not planning on changing my eating habits...I am cultivating a love for food, and if that means a size bigger, so be it. Women are designed to be soft and rounded. We really are. It is just our stupid culture that has Lindsey Lohaned this out of us (Yes, I just made Lindsey into a verb!).

I don't want my posts to be about weight, but as I was preparing for my shower to rinse the dirt that was coating my knees, feet, hands, ears (how? how?)from my gardening, i took a look in the mirror and was surprised at what i saw. Maybe it wasn't the dryer that made my jeans too small. Maybe it was the creme fraiche on my morning muffins.

Link love?

This is more an internal, blog admin thing, but don't we really need a link list for all the cool stuff we find? Maybe also a tag list?

The girl who cried freezer! (or the awesome thing that is Grow Alabama)

Having just found out about this wonderful program called Grow Alabama I must admit that I'm particularly bemoaning my lack of freezer space. Grow Alabama is a program that works to make in-season, locally grown, all-natural/organic fruits and vegetables available on a weekly basis. If you look on their website they have a harvest chart of when certain fruit and veg will be available throughout the year. Their boast is that every delivery is 48 hours away from the field. My challenge with this sort of program is learning to eat seasonally. Being a former hamburger second helper I'm still learning to eat my veg. Tomatoes better be in a sauce. Squash better be hiding under a lot of something else. If I had to pick three vegetable to live off they would be onions, carrots, and broccoli. However, Grow Alabama wants to tantalize me with freshly picked bok choy, ripe eggplant, turnips, persimmons, and okra. My ideal solution? Load up on vine ripened tomatoes, just plucked apples, fresh leeks, and delicate mushrooms and start prepping them for the freezer. Imagine. My own diced tomates with chilies. My own apple butter. My own sauteed mushrooms waiting in the freezer for the perfect steak dinner. My own pasta sauces. Unfortunately my freezer is small and would never stand for it. Never. I'm already storing beef in my in-law's freezer as is. Still, if you have a freezer, or you enjoy the challenge of eating in season I really sugest you check Grow Alabama out. It's local, healthy, and a thrifty (or so it seems) alternative to the various Whole Paycheck establishments popping up across the nation.

Hmmmm, I wonder how much a freezer really is.....

Hi. It's me. What's for supper?

I ask myself that a lot -often when I've spent too much time with one of my Rex Stout novels and should have started supper half an hour ago. Yeah, that's me. Love to do everything, but usually don't get around to it 'cause I'm too busy reading about doing it. Oh well, back to supper. I grew up with approximately two recipes under my lovely vintage cloche hat: Granny's chocolate meringue pie and an honest to goodness best pound cake ever. Apart from those two I couldn't boil water (or so it was said). Then I got married, and OH MY GOSH no one's mom was around to do the cooking! Since man cannot live on pie alone I closed me eyes, whispered a desperate prayer, opened them up again, and opened a can of spaghetti sauce. I haven't looked back since. Not only can I open a can of spaghetti sauce with the utmost style and confidence, but I also know something I bet you don't know about cooking the perfect steak. My soups are brother-in-law approved, and Grandmom commended my clean, subtle approach to mashed sweet potatoes. Seriously, I enjoy cooking. I also enjoy reading, which is why I enjoy making meals with lots of leftovers to maximize my reading to cooking/dishwashing ratio (Allen is my dishwashing king). I love reading half a dozen recipes, doubling the veggies, and coming out with something completely my own. if you want a classification for my kind of cooking think healthy comfort food. Spaghetti with extra sauteed onions and bell peppers. Baked chicken with mashed sweet potatoes. Steamed broccoli galore (with plenty of melted herb butter). Italian pasta soup with spinach and zucchini topped with freshly grated mozzarella. Lots of free range meats and organic veg. If you are what you eat then I'm a quality lady. Either that or green and drizzled with butter. Did I mention we eat a lot of broccoli? I also like to experiment with tasty alternatives to sugar and gluten laden recipes. There are plenty of options out there for those who are interested, and I'd be happy to share with anyone who's interesting...err...interested. Inquiries from interesting people are welcome too :D

I'm really excited about the opportunites to share and learn with the women of Birmingham. I may try to do anything (domestic that is, no roller coasters or huge bungy cords), but I readily admit that I sure don't know everything.

Lets get to gardening!!

I began my gardening career in our front yard two summers ago, and it has been frustrating, exciting, and just plain strange. I have tried all manners of vegetables, flowers, fruit, and herbs. Some have been surprising successes, others have been absolute failures. By the end of the summer I really just want to bulldoze the whole thing and can't wait for winter so I don't have to deal with it anymore. However, spring soon returns and I begin to frequent garden shops, dream of beautiful foliage, and can't wait to get my hands dirty. I am very exciting about this upcoming season, especially because I have Elisa to commiserate with this time around!
As I was contemplating my gardening tactics, I ran across this old post from the you grow girl blog that Elisa mentioned, and it opened my eyes to the risks I am taking with my street garden!
I definitely have dog shit issues, and trash issues (including used condoms, ew), and unknown chemicals, but I had never really thought about the impact that these elements might have on my well being. I guess the fact that I have grown and consumed many things in this plot and survived is a good sign, but I might stick to porch containers this year for my new edibles and keep flowers on the street. But, I have strawberries (of which a few have started flowering!) and I am not giving those up!
So so much more could be said, but I'll leave that for next time...and the next I suppose.
Here's to this new gardening season and to community! Chink Chink!

Welcome!

Hi All,
As i was messing around in my garden (or spots of dirt outside of my apartment!), I started thinking about You Grow Girl, a gardening blog that I love. This let to my thinking about Apartment Therapy, a home blog that I love(see also The Kitchen). I was wishing that we had something like for Birmingham...a place to share our triumphs, trials, experiments in all things "Nesty", like gardening, cooking, decorating, baking, entertaining, etc.

So...here we are! I am hoping that this will be an online community of women who are trying to figure out life and beauty and what they mean to us and to The Kingdom and our relationships to each other, our families and our communities.

Blog as little or as much as you like. I chose the title "Like as a Garden" because all that we do for our homes, our gardens, our families and friends are sowing seeds and hoping that they grow.

If you would like to be a part of this blog, let me know and I will get you added. My vision is women of all ages and walks of like sharing and learning and encouraging.

So, welcome!