karismar

This morning I made the trek over to my favorite urban nursery in Portland. When you walk in you just want to find a spot on the floor, sit down and take it all in. Glamorous it isn’t but the bins full of organic matter, soil, compost, barley, wheat, etc… will pull you in. Handmade soaps sit next to the unbleached wool hanks, which sit across from the plant starts, vegetable starts, flowers and anything else you can hope for.

Since I’ve been plotting out a year round garden I wanted to find some winter vegetable starts, as I can’t find my seeds anywhere!!! I found some kale, bok choy, butternut and other squash. Beautiful starts to feed us this winter. At the counter was a very knowledgeable, very young girl who wanted to know what I would do with these starts and how my garden was so far. As I told her about my winter garden dream, she told me how she has secured an internship in Thailand for 6 months and leaves in November. She will be learning about their sustainability life at the feet of the elders in the village. When her time is up she’ll come back to Portland and pass on her newly acquired knowledge. Currently she teaches small children about backyard livestock and victory gardening. How cool is she?  I was so proud of this stranger friend and as I left with my treasures I had a rush of hope jet through me. I’ve always loved teens/young 20somethings. They have such big hearts and big minds and aren’t cut off from the world. I feel re-charged with my winter garden dream and know it doesn’t have to be a dream, but a reality.

The books from the library have been arriving this week and my current read is "Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest".  It’s everything I thought it would be, and more. The topics on the front state…organic gardening, leeks in November, bok choy in January, crops for continuous harvest, cold frames and cloches, fresh winter salads, dealing with pests without pesticides. I’m  LOVING this book!  I realize it won’t be miraculously morphed over one winter but I figure every addition is one step closer to my dream. It’s been raining the past few days and should continue on into the weekend, giving me more time inside to read.  More squash and pumpkins will be planted this week, along with onions and leeks for the fall. I really have no idea what I’m doing with this fall/winter crop so it’s a learning game for me.  I’m in love with fall/winter and usually by this time during the summer I have to push down my inner voice which is screaming to hurry the summer along and bring on fall. However, this year I made an effort to really enjoy the summer, all of it, and so far so good. Last year I was ready to close up my garden at this time!  Next week my daughter and I are heading over to the island to pick blueberries, enough to enjoy this summer and freeze for the winter. 

Did I tell you my daughter is home from Europe?!!  and that she has decided to stay on the west coast for college??  I’m doing cartwheels I’m so excited. Does anyone remember cartwheels? lol   Her trip was amazing and what she experienced over "the pond" opened her world up even more. She fell in love with the history of it all and now wants to study art history. very cool!

I’m off to Portland to pick up some vegetable starts from my favorite organic heirloom gardener. I can’t find my seeds anywhere and I’m not waiting to order new ones.

It’s hotter than blazes outside and still too hot inside to do much of anything. We were at 104 yesterday and look to top that today!! woo baby!  I’m keeping everything watered outside but my basil is droopy. Basil can be somewhat tempermental…it wants it warm but not HOT. Once the new moon is here I’ll transplant it into a much larger pot or directly into the garden. My other basil plants are in the garden but I like to keep one plant potted so I can coax it into holding on into the early fall. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

I saw my first butterfly of the season last week in my backyard and several more this week. Their arrival every year lets me know I’m doing something good outside.  Butterflies in the gardens/yards tell us that some of the balance is shifting back to a chemically free zone. I saw more of them when I was a child, when lawns weren’t abused by weekly visits from the "lawn manicurist" and weeds in the yard were accepted.

Speaking of chemically free zones…did anyone watch the LiveEarth concerts?  I cried through much of it. Melissa Etheridge gave a very inspiring talk during her song Wake Up. wow!  If you haven’t heard it, Google it and listen. I understand how daunting a task it can be to navigate through this world with as little harm done to mother earth as possible, and the feeling like what we do isn’t enough. BUT, one small change made by each of us is HUGE and it will impact us all in a profound manner.  Just find one thing that you can change about your daily life, just one. Once that becomes habit for you then pick another….and so on. It can be as small as recycling the toilet paper cardboard rolls instead of tossing them in the garbage.  Then, move onto building a compost bin that you can toss the cardboard into, in turn giving you some amazing "black gold" to ammend your soil with. These are just some examples but you get the point.  I’m doing more too. I seem to have slipped back into the horrible habit of using paper napkins. gah!!  As an accomplished seamstress I have NO EXCUSE and should be downstairs sewing some very easy napkins. If I took a few hours I could kick out a few dozen. So, if you need some encouragement or support, leave a comment and I’ll gladly support you in kicking your habit as I’m kicking mine!  We can do so much in our own little worlds.

 

I’ve come to the conclusion that preparing one meal a week from local food isn’t the greatest task, it’s taking the picture before everyone devours the food that is my largest obstacle!  Last night I rotisseried a whole, locally grown chicken, rubbed down with olive oil and several herbs and spices. Green beans were found at the farmers market yesterday morning, at the booth of my favorite heirloom farmer, and sauteed in olive oil and plenty of garlic.  Dessert was an added bonus. I had exhausted my efforts to find any last strawberries as the season has passed for us, which meant no strawberry jam!  June had been a busy month for us with graduation, college preparations and Europe travel and I just didn’t get out to the fields. What a lovely surprise as I turned to leave the market and there he was, a very local farmer selling the last berries of the season. They were beautiful!  We took the last two flats, so happy with our treasures and I came home and made 12 jars of jam. With a handful of berries leftover, I made a strawberry streudel which we enjoyed in the evening as we watched the LiveEarth broadcast. Oh how I love Al Gore and what he stands for.  I’m still holding out for him to jump in the ring for President!

 

 

 

 

 

Mabel the dog hoping to snag the chicken before it heads out to the patio table! 

 

The problem with being so connected to someone is the separation. I am missing my daughter in a crazy mad sort of way. She is trotting through Europe, having a fabulous time I’m sure. I’m afraid that this is a trial run to prepare me for when she leaves for college. She had decided to stay on the west coast but then the day before she left for Europe, she told me she had her transcripts sent to the east coast college, just in case she changed her mind. WHAT???!!  I remained calm and went to cry alone. I have a sick feeling she’ll come home later this month and say she is in love with travel and will go east.  It’s life, I know this and I know it will all be fine. One thought I keep hearing in my overly active mind is how lucky am I to be her mother for there is no greater connection than that of a mother and her child, however far they are distanced.

I’m out to the gardens to spend some time in the dirt!  Besides yoga, it’s the best relaxation I know. 

One Local Summer challenge came and went without me documenting my meal.  I prepared a delicious meal of local hanger steaks, fresh greens from my garden and sugar peas from my garden. Unfortunately, we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture. My excuse is somewhat exceptable….I was busy all day helping my daughter get ready for her trip to Europe. She left early this morning.  The picture really isn’t the significance of the challenge, its’ the mindset.

So, off I go to tape the "must have camera" sign to the refrigerator!  

I’m still struggling with my tomatoes and have no idea what is wrong but their growth is definately  stunted this year!  All I can do is continue to give them the best care I know and chalk it up to "that summer my tomatoes didn’t grow".

I hope to spend most of the day outside trying to fool myself into not thinking about my girlie trotting off…….separation is tough with the connection is so forged.