Celery Abundance

We have officially had our first abundance of a crop!!  I planted celery seeds last June.  And let me just tell you, they are the tiniest seeds, so there were a LOT that went into the dirt! At first, I thought they were duds.  And then a long time later, they started looking like weeds.  I wasn't sure what to do so I left them.  They were in the middle of a tomato/snap pea/cucumber/cantaloupe patch so they were quite crowded.  Well, they grew up to be celery.  We were able to start harvesting last September.  It's been the one crop that I've been able to quantify our savings with.  We generally buy one bunch of celery per week or so (probably 3 per month).  From our farmer's market that's $3 per bunch or $9/month.  So we've been saving $9/month since September.
In December it seemed like the crop was waining.  We haven't studied up much on celery so we weren't sure what to expect.  Have actually been wanting to pull it out to get ready for the tomatoes for this upcoming season (it's the perfect tomato growing place in the garden!).  So Mike cut a bunch of it out, thinking that would be our last batch.  Wrong!!  It came back with a vengeance.  So I finally got around to thinning it out again and came up with 5 full bunches - way too much to eat at once (and by the way, $15 worth of celery!)   And believe me, there is PLENTY left in the ground!
So we decided to share with our gardening neighbors and gave two bunches away.  We spent two hours visiting with the two neighbors we shared with and came home feeling just wonderful.  It was really nice to share a bounty with others (for once) and it got us to randomly socialize...just like they used to!!

I got home and realized just how fitting this was.  The celery is the one crop (besides Parsley) that is still growing strong from my original plantings last June.  And this week marks the one year anniversary of losing Liliana.  So Liliana's garden fed other families this week.  It made me feel really good to know that although she is not here, she lives on.  She really does ;-)

A head start on the garden

Last year we started the gardens in June - mainly b/c that was when we got the gardens "made!"  So this time we get to have a better start on the season.  Mike has really take charge of the gardening this year.  And it's really taken over the kitchen!
Here are some pics of all the indoor seedlings we've been starting.  He did a bunch of lettuce, spinach, chard, and broccoli in January that is already in the garden and growing pretty strong.  The latest crop is over 120 heirloom tomato seedlings with probably about 100 starting off strong.

Mike designed his own egg-carton greenhouses...

A pic of the garden from February...

The kitchen window.  It gets great light for the seedlings.  This shot doesn't even show it at it's fullest ;-)

A cucumber start that is going really strong.  It even started flowering already.  The cuc's he transplanted in February to the outdoors didn't make it.  Hummm...

Master Gardner Mike (with a fourth of his tomato seedlings!

We did all organic, heirloom seeds this year and purchased them mostly from www.naturalgardening.com (including 10 varieties of tomatoes). We have HIGH hopes for having tomatoes overwhelm us this year!!

A "Local" Birthday Celebration

This post has been a long time in coming. For Mike's birthday this year (in January ;-) he decided he wanted to have a couple friends over and serve a dinner that was all "local" food.  So, it took some planning, but we really pulled it off. We are so lucky to live in a place where food grows year round.  But there still were a lot of lessons learned about just how difficult it is to find things that are grown locally and not flown in from around the world.  We know consciously do an "all local" meal once a week.

A delicious New Zealand Spinach and Strawberry salad (the spinach was grown locally) fresh from the farmer's market.

Mike's favorite Bruschetta (mine too!).  This was quite popular.  We are lucky both Strawberries and Tomatoes have a January season here.  The bread is an Artesian bread from our farmer's market.

Undoubtedly the favorite dish - dessert.  A persimmon pie.  Persimmon's are a fruit that I consider to be a cross between an apple and a peach.  We only stumbled upon them when they came into season last August.  We ate so many that we got a little tired of them.  Then I discovered they are wonderful dehydrated so I started buying them again.  For Mike's dinner I was so excited to think of adapting my yummy and healthy peach pie recipe with these persimmons.  I had no idea how wonderful the pie would be.  I think each of us would have eaten our own if there were enough.  Alas - the next week the farmer's market was out of persimmons.  We must wait to experience this pie again until next August.  Ugh!

And another of our favorites - Artichokes.  These have been just wonderful fresh from the farm since January and we have been enjoying them ever since this dinner - sometimes twice a week.  

I forgot to take photos of the fish but we also were able to grab some yummy fresh local caught halibut at the farmer's market.  Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

Happy Birthday Mikey! Let's do it again next year ;-)

A Different Child

I've been meaning to post this poem for a long time now.  Being pregnant again is full of mixed blessings.  It's important to focus on the blessing itself. I feel we have worked so hard to do everything in our control to keep this baby.  And if we do actually hold this baby screaming in our arms, I will be the proudest person in the world for putting so much effort into something successful.  But I still think every day, about the little 8 month old, or 4 month old, that I would be caring for each day if history would have been different.  The different child, the other child, my little girls, that everyone but me will forget.  So I share this poem, because I will raise this baby (boy) to be the person who can relate to and comfort some mother or father who has lost a child. And who will never forget, that he has two sisters that aren't here for him to torture;-)


A Different Child
A different child,
People notice
There's a special glow around you.
You grow
Surrounded by love,
Never doubting you are wanted;
Only look at the pride and joy
In your mother and father's eyes.

And if sometimes
Between the smiles
There's a trace of tears,
One day
You'll understand.
You'll understand
There was once another child
A different child
Who was in their hopes and dreams.

That child will never outgrow the baby clothes
That child will never keep them up at night
In fact, that child will never be any trouble at all.
Except sometimes, in a silent moment,
When mother and father miss so much
That different child.

May hope and love wrap you warmly
And may you learn the lesson forever
How infinitely precious
How infinitely fragile
Is this life on earth.
One day, as a young man or woman
You may see another mother's tears
Another father's silent grief
Then you, and you alone
Will understand
And offer the greatest comfort.
When all hope seems lost,
You will tell them
With great compassion,
"I know how you feel.
I'm only here
Because my mother tried again."

For Madoka Marietta Rosalie, from your mother, Pandora Diane Waldron, March 4, 1999.

The Perfect Green Smoothie

We are drinking "green smoothies" each day now - one quart in the morning and one quart at night.  Some are super great and others are just okay. This is our favorite and you gotta love that color!

2 cups water

1 banana

1 cup mango

2 cups lambs quarters (above - it's a weed so you have to get it from a farmer)

Hmmm....  you say this is gonna taste good??

Oh yeah... can I drink the whole glass?