More Books

But first a shot of my birthday present, a fancy Ninja blender.

Purple cabbage in a smoothie is actually really good. If there are enough berries, you can't taste the cabbage. And finally I found something to do with the cranberries I somehow over-purchased at Thanksgiving. Costco sells giant bags of frozen spinach and kale, so I tossed some of it in on top of the bottom layer of frozen raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. Someday maybe a Vitamix, but for now we're having fun coming up with combinations. So much better than making smoothies in the food processor. Knocking down those suggested daily servings of fruits and vegetables while hardly even trying. Until R gets tired of smoothies, which I'm sure will happen soon.

I wanted to keep a record of some of R's favorite books right now. This one was from Santa this year. It's one of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

"The antidote to fuzzy thinking!"

It's such a funny, imaginative treatment of a dry subject. My favorite part of studying logic was always the examples of bad arguments.

These are far and away her favorite books right now.

Beautifully drawn cartoon of the Japanese folk tale, "The Boy Who Drew Cats." We are big fans of the animated version narrated by William Hurt. We checked out several versions of the tale from the library, to compare illustration styles.

Three books that happened to be on the dining room table. A friend gave me Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in high school, and we're starting lessons from it. I wish I knew what happened to my original copy. I found this one at the thrift store.

This is a fantastic book to teach shape, color and composition. How powerful lines are, the emotions they evoke.

And finally, another book to immerse yourself in, by the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick. Wonderstruck.

From the website: "A boy named Ben longs for the father he has never known. A girl named Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room, and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Ben's story, set in 1977, is told entirely with words, while Rose's story, set fifty years earlier, is told entirely with pictures. The two stories weave back and forth before ultimately coming together. Rich, complex, affecting, and beautiful–with over 460 pages of original artwork–Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary."

New Year's Beans for Good Luck and Prosperity

Traditionally it's black eyed peas or lentils that bring good luck when you eat them early in the new year. I hope Mario Batali's Braised White Beans count too. After soaking the beans for two days, I sauteed the vegetables in olive oil but cooked everything long and slow in the slow cooker. I added a smoked turkey leg and a small square of salt pork I had left over in the freezer after homemade baked beans. I added a defrosted a jar of turkey broth from Thanksgiving, scented with citrus and poultry herbs. These beans are so luxurious and melty.

I also roasted a spaghetti squash with some Irish butter and sea salt. We're learning that gluten free cooking is only tricky when it comes to baking. So far it's been a great way to refocus on produce, lean proteins, nuts and legumes, without reaching for easy carbs. D and R love their baked goods though, so I'm learning to work with "flours" that behave nothing like wheat.

Serving greens is traditional to encourage prosperity in the new year. So we also had a chopped kale and mixed greens salad with dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

March Seedling Progress

Here is some of the progress since I started the first seeds on February 14.

The artichokes are up! Some of them. They are pretty tricky to germinate. The cardoons keep coming and everything looks  strong and healthy.

Leeks are just poking up. 

Salad greens, kale and broccoli varieties are getting ready to go out in the garden under frost cover, and free up space under the lights for the next round: peppers and eggplants.

Spinach (Bordeaux and regular green) and cabbages in the sunny front windowsill.

I'm trying to sprout sweet potatoes for the ornamental vines. If it works, I can transplant the slips when they grow out the top of the potatoes, root them in water, and have enough for my containers and a few for the flowerbeds. Next to them is Red Russian kale.

DeLaney Farm Brunch

Farm-to-Table brunch this morning at DeLaney Farm in Aurora. They made breakfast burritos with produce from their own fields. It's an historic farm started by Irish immigrants, who deeded their land to the city as open space and a place to grow food. A lot of labor, paid and volunteer, goes into growing food on this farm, donating it, and delivering it to CSA members.

This is how you would make salsa if you had a whole field full of heirloom tomatoes. It was amazing.

We got there really early and staked out a table. When they started serving breakfast, we put our coffee and orange juice cups and a jacket & bag at each seat to hold our place. We came back from getting burritos to find people sitting at our table, our drinks gone, and our stuff swept into the dirt next to the table. I tried not to let that ruin my morning, but it was hard. I didn't feel like taking pictures for awhile, so I don't have any of the breakfast.

My high school friend T, the most talented gardener I know, came with us. Everything is more fun with him. He brought an elegant carpet to sit on and his iPad and speakers with music, and we set it up in the dirt and had a great time anyway.

After brunch, we walked out into the fields and saw their bee houses.


I got so many good ideas, from signs to smart ways to stake tomatoes. They do rows of fencing with tomatoes tied to each side, and also a single stake or rebar for each plant, with the main stem tied to it with plastic ties, and the rest pruned away.

Aurora peppers, which turn purple-black when ripe, and are supposed to be insanely hot.

T had just been telling us about Indigo Rose tomatoes, which he tasted for the first time at his community garden. He was blown away by how sweet and smoky they are. And then we saw them in the field. They are truly purple.

Once we got past the table-stealers, everyone was so friendly and happy to be there.

Onions and greens.

 . . . and pumpkins!

Rain Garden

A whole night and day of drenching rains, finally. Everything is perking up.

One of the front yard beds is looking better, thanks to my friend Tom and his gift of columbine and snapdragon yesterday. I got them planted just as the rain started falling. The little grassy things are thrift from Tom, I hope they take. Behind that is the pretty white flowers of bacopa, one perennial that came back for me this year. And way in the back, the Shasta daisies. I love the dark green foliage even before they bloom. These came from one seedling I started under lights indoors three years ago.

Charlie gets a wet head from the dripping bushes. Still a handsome gentleman.
Peas planted on St. Patrick's Day, loving the rain.

Magenta Swiss Chard.

Mesclun ready to be planted.

Charlie in the spot where he dug up all the grass. That stage didn't last very long, he is mostly a good dog now.

Georgia O'Keefe in the salad greens.

The dwarf blue spruce planted all around with purple alliums is my favorite thing in the backyard. I wish I could go back three owners ago and say thank you.

Allium and a peony bud in the back yard.
So many things bloomed this year that had been sulky or just absent in the four years we've lived in this house. I think it was the first year without a late killing freeze.

Tom's columbine. I always think of them as blue, I love this creamy color.

I have been planting out the winter sown milk jug seedlings. I'm following the instructions, we'll see if anything actually blooms. That will be another post.
Dandelion skeletons are lovely. I will still work to eradicate them.

Front yard peonies just ready to burst open.

Wild rosa eglantina by the front door. I wish whoever planted these could know how much they are appreciated years later. Who knows how old the gorgeous peony is, how many owners back it goes.

Buds on our Home Depot David Austin rose from last year. I have been fertilizing and watering and putting epsom salts and coffee grounds around all the roses, mostly out of shame for how I neglected them last summer.

April Rain Song 
by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night—

And I love the rain.

Seedling Update

The upstairs seedling room has been through several iterations since my last post. A lot of the cold-hardy seedlings have been spending time outside hardening off.

Salad greens, pansies, Johnny jump-ups, leeks, sweet peas and stock flowers.
Some have been moved outside to the cold frame and hoop house that D built for me. I'm putting in more lasagna beds (no fun to put down the newspapers on a windy day, but we wanted to get it done).

Some of the wintersown seedlings in jugs are starting to come up. This is spinach.

Cleome and alyssym.

Stock.

The asters I planted in January.

Salad greens moved from the front window to the garden, and herbs moved in.

Newspaper pots in the upstairs seedling room.

Genovese, spicy globe and opal purple basil. The basil has really taken off in its heated beds.
 
Japanese eggplant just sprouting. The peppers and tomatoes are still waiting.

Gorgeous mesclun. Botanical Interests Valentine Mesclun, one of my favorites.

Although I promised I wouldn't, I started a little colony of seedlings in the basement.

Impatiens, phlox and rainbow coleus.