Anti-Garden.

So.

I didn't plant the cold crops this year.  I delayed, the seedlings didn't take off for some reason under the lights, it was hot...then it was cold, and I never got around to it.

The chiropractor sealed it.  I thought I pulled a muscle last fall taking out the kale stalks. December and January brought doctor visits, "almost positive it is your gall bladder" conversations and expensive gall bladder-y tests only to confirm, it wasn't my gall bladder.  It's "probably a muscle issue..."  Lovely.

So.  Off I sent to the chiropractor.  Who told me it was in fact my shoulder, massive scar tissue and some other business going on.  Long story short, no lifting, no pulling,.....no vacuuming.  I asked about roto-tilling the garden.  

Nope.

So.   This is the garden this year so far.  I do have tomatoes and peppers coming up under the lights.  I will be gone for at least three weeks with Italy and Turkey and we decided that the tomatoes and peppers would be more at home and easier to deal with in the self-watering pots that can be up closer to the house.

But at least I have some volunteer lettuce coming up.   And the asparagus in the corner at the far end.

Drama Queen....

When it comes to the botanical world....I love myself some drama. Sure it can be said that everything doesn't have to be all showy....take a look at vegetables. Great for you...good looking? Not so much. Although, I do like the look of carrot tops, for some reason.

Nope. For me, the bigger the drama, the more I usually like it. I like the unique, I like the colorful, fragrance.....I have never really been into smell. In fact, if it "smells" I probably won't like it, with a few exceptions. Roses? Sure, they are pretty to look at, but the smell turns me off of growing them. It's too powerful, don't like it. Marigolds have a double whammy against them, as do geraniums--in my book. It may be the reason is that everyone and their Aunt Gertrude has them, I don't really like the tiny petals and I think they reek. They stink to my nose parts.

These above are zinnias, but not ones that I have ever grown. I like them because they aren't trying to be showy. I know I just said I like showy, but I am capricious, I can change on a dime, at the drop of a hat. I might like this in a flower garden of just green flowers. For....wait for it...the dramatic impact of a variety of flowers all in the same color family.
This one I believe is called something like "Angel's Halo". It is a green bush/tree that has a wispy-flowery-stem-y thing most of the summer. Then in fall, the berries arrive in this floating halo configuration. I really like it, it makes me want to eat the juicy berries, but I would probably die. Actually I have no idea if they are poisonous, I just wanted you to think I live on the edge of danger most of the time...even on my walks.
These are globe amaranth. I just like them because they look like Dr. Seuss flowers. Or gumdrops. Or both. I like their compact simplicity.
I can't remember what these are, I looked at the label tags that you can see, but have since forgotten. I like the drama of a mass of color. Bright, obnoxious color. The kind you can't ignore.
Here's are some up closer. I want to say Mexican something something for the name, but who knows? I cold be totally making it up. Wouldn't be the first time.
This is one of my all time faves. Morning glories. They bloom in the morning and are a vine that crawls over anything and everything. It is pretty much a weed. But I like it.
This is a variety of hibiscus that can grown here and weather the winter. I don't know that I would choose white if it were going into my garden, but it might be kind of cool if it glowed in the night light.

I really don't like most flowers that smell. Except lavender, I do like lavender. And wisteria. In small doses. I don't know what it is about smells. I hate, hate, hate going down the laundry detergent aisle at the store. All the scented stuff. I have to breathe through my mouth.

Air fresheners. Don't get me started. I get car sick when I am in my dad's car because he always has some sort of air freshener hanging somewhere.

Drama. If I can't find it, I create it.

Grown Home

This is a grown house, designed by Lois Walpole for the place where I do some of my walking. It is really quite interesting. Obviously for decoration here, not for actual living. Most everything is living and formed into the shape of something you might find in an actual home. Such as a bed. Like deeeees:

Or a table and chairs, like so:

I find it all interesting because I picture fairies and elf-ish type characters (fun fairy tale ones, not the Hobbitt-y ones) living in places like this for real. I picture myself shrinking down so that this would be from their perspective, and I would be fairy sized and this could really be my home. And my fairy friends could come over and have tea and crumpets at this table and it would all be so very wonderful.

Do you think I should cut back on the cold medicine or the gin first?

If I Were a Melon..

How sweet would this be? If I were a melon, this is how I would want it to play out. Hanging around, in my hammock, soaking up some rays, getting all fat and juicy. No dirt napping for moi. I love the idea of trellising melons (if you are dyslexic and transpose the "m" and the "l", you get lemons. How fun is that?). Watermelon is my favorite fruit. I might have to try this in my garden next year. I am hoping to be in our next house by planting season, cross your fingers, K? I have big plans. My first successful year with tomatoes has motivated me more than I thought it would. The canning/freezing trend is one I see continuing at our house. I'd like to branch out and am truly considering seed catalogs this winter to peruse in the snowy tundra of Minnesota. I shall read them and pine for spring. But for right now, it is 7:05 pm and still 74 degrees....it is absolutely beautiful out. Later.

Espalier. Espal--huh?

So. I have an itchy gardening finger today. It has been raining for the past two or three days. A good, steady, cold, fall soaker. I could technically go out and harvest some stuff, but I probably won't as we have been to my parents the whole day and Sophs has me on LockDown and won't let me out of her sight.

I really wanted to dig up my rosemary plant to pot for over the winter, but the ground is way too wet to do so. I have peppers galore to also harvest, but won't most likely. I probably will just talk about all the things I could be doing in the garden, but won't actually get out there and do. Yep. That sounds about like how it is going to go.

If (when?) we should some day, get some land, somewhere, here is one thing I would absolutely want to do. It really could be done anywhere as the whole point of espalier is cultivating fruit trees is tiny spaces. I could start one in the spring, but probably won't as we are listing the house. Although, who knows how long it will take to sell it. I might think about it.
I could start it at the next house, that we are planning on being a fixer-upper...so we should be there for at least a couple years. And, if it is back in the city, it won't matter as the trees don't need the normal amount of space. That's the whole point. Here I am going on and on about espalier and I haven't really explained it.

It began in the Middle Ages in monasteries where there was limited space inside the walls for regular fruit trees growth. It is the practice of pruning and training the limbs of fruit trees (or other plants, such as some vines) to maximize space. You can train them up against a wall. This can help retain heat, which technically could help someone in Minnesota (me) grow a variety/species of tree that might not normal grow here. I think that a lemon tree might be overreaching it a bit, but perhaps a variety of apple or pear not usually seen here? Basically, it is growing a tree in two dimensions instead of three. Here is a picture I took yesterday when my mom and I went on a walk at the Arboretum. We occasionally make the trek there, walk, and go home. It is really neat to see everything on the Three Mile Walk route as it changes for the seasons.
I love the way they look. This one is a Honey Crisp apple tree. You can see one ripening on the middle trunk there. I cannot wait for Honey Crisps to be available. They have a short season, I am not even sure they are available outside Minnesota, but they are lovely. They were "created" (?) here at the Arboretum, by the University of Minnesota. Some crossbreeding/hybriding of various secret apples. I wait for them, I eat them, and I am not even really an apple "fan".

You don't really need a fence. This summer, when we were lunatic enough to take 40 high school kids to Europe, they had trees pruned in the medians that were sort of like this, but denser. Just regular trees, not fruit trees. I think the fruit trees need more support because of the weight of the fruit before harvest time.

I love the way it looks. All neat. All tidy. All fertile. It symbolizes patience. For me, that is challenging. But......that challenge is one of the reasons that I garden and one of the reasons I enjoy gardening. You can't rush it, no matter how badly you want to---there is no instant gratification. It is, by definition, a study in patience. Could this activity be my summer school version of Waiting 101 and Waiting 102 that I have failed miserably this---and every---year??

Pepper Roastin'.

Remember this from yesterday? Today, we are going to look at one way to roast peppers...red, green, hot, mild, sweet. The whole sordid lot. There they are, top right, having been picked minutes earlier from my garden. I have found that they are easiest to peel after roasting if they are fresh. The fresher, the better.

My mother in law works at a hospital and gave me a surgical tray one year for Christmas. It was seriously one of the most useful and beloved Christmas gift ever received. It is about the size of a half cookie sheet, shaped like a jelly roll pan with higher sides and just perfect for this, or most any, cooking or baking job.

My broiler is in the oven as opposed to a separate unit below; turn that baby on and put all the peppers in for some roastin.

Now, there are a lot of different ways or locations to roast peppers.

In Bulgaria, every fall at my bloc apartment building, people would roast over open fires and do multiple humongoid bags in one day. They were making lutenitsa, among other things, which is a roasted pepper spread.

When I lived in Santa Fe, I witnessed (in a parking lot of all places) a huge hopper for the green "Hatch" chili peppers being roasted over, again, an open fire. This hopper was like a Bingo numbers cage on steroids. It was made out of wire and was on a rotisserie that could constantly be turned to jumble the peppers so they could all get flame licked.

I have also seen then done on a grill, but this seems to take longer if the grill on top is keeping the peppers from direct flame. Think of the time to roast a golden brown marshmallow vs. the nuclear option that produces a flaming ball of molten mallow.

In a pinch, I have also roasted a pepper over the gas stove burner with metal tongs. Don't judge.

This is after a couple minutes. They are not ready to turn yet, you want the side to be completely black. You may hear some popping; that is the skin of the pepper bursting open to release the steam that is being built up inside the skin. If you are able to be patient and sit and watch the peppers during this first stage, you will see the skin bubble and form a blister before it turns black.

Now, these are mostly ready to turn to a different side. You can see some of the pepper juice and water from inside the pepper that has leaked out through the burst skin. Unavoidable....or at least I haven't figured out how to avoid it. I am thinking that turning more might prevent the skin from bursting, but then I am not building up the heat in the oven because I am constantly opening and closing the door.

Maybe it wouldn't make a diff.

This is after turning multiple times to get all surfaces blackened. You can see all the juices that have leaked out have also blackened.

Time to carefully move them to the paper bag. They can be pretty fragile, especially if they are stuck to the pan.

Any paper bag that can fit all the peppers and can still close can do. I usually use a paper lunch bag. If you are going mega-batch, you could potentially use a paper grocery bag. This is a bag from the liquor store that is a little bigger than a lunch bag. (Gin, if you must know.)

They don't need any special treatment at this point, other than having the bag closed.

Then, let them sit in a place that is out of the way for 15-ish minutes.

Unless you are me and you forget them because you are also in the process of peeling a butt load of tomatoes at the same time.

No matter.

The beauty of using the paper bag is that I just rip it open and make a place mat for the peeling stage. The peppers are soft, pliant and still warm at this point.

You want to make sure that you are using a variety of pepper that has pretty thick walls....peppers that have a lot of "meat" on them. Then there will be something left after you have peeled the skin a way. If the variety is too thin, you peel a hole into the pepper when you peel and there is nothing left.

The same thing will happen if you roast too long on one side...there will just be charred everything instead of peppers that have been roasted.

These peeled very nicely. It is a huge mess, but totally worth it. There was actually one pepper that the entire skin peeled off in one huge piece. I was going to take a picture but my fingers were all gunked up.

Make sure to take the seeds and the top off. You can take the veins that run up and down the sides, but sometimes I leave those in. If you have some seeds that stick to the peppers, it is no big whoop.

You won't suffer any catastrophic side effects or anything.

Now, I just have to soak the pan. Most of this will come off with soaking and scrubbing. I pretty much just use this pan for roasting, so I am not too concerned with getting every little bit off.

If you are the type to be concerned with things of this nature, use an old pan or one you have already designated for roasting. Don't use your all time fave. You will have tragedy.

Multi-tasking.

SO. Lots on my To Do list today. Here's part of it:

Roasting those peppers in the upper right, making Sugo (tomato sauce) from all those tomatoes, and a crap load of pesto to freeze from all that basil.

AND I just got a call that we have a showing tomorrow at 3:45pm. So, now I can add spiffin' up the plantation to my list of things to do. Nesty McNesterson is totally my mood today, so I got that going for me.

Plus, I can procrastinate correcting the homework assignments I brought home from Friday.

Where Has the Summer Gone?

Did the summer FLY by? Now, I realize that it is still the beginning of August, but I have half my body mentally out the door of summer. August, for me, means gearing up for School.

Usually, the first Sunday paper adverts containing back to school stuff start appearing mid-July. Bastards. Our neighbor children are still shooting off fireworks on a nightly basis how can they even fathom purchasing the big box of Crayolas or pencil boxes??? (Newsflash: The Surfers are being evicted!!! Sweet. More on that in a later post....)

August, despite the heat and humidity, is a good month. Not my fave, but up there. (I don't know if I have a fave.) Anyway, the garden, begun a couple months ago, is beginning to come to fruition. Literally. I actually made and froze pesto a couple weeks ago with half my basil crop. That was a proud moment. Usually, it goes to seed and I haven't followed through with my big plans. Not this year, dammit.

So...There...Then...Girl: 1, Garden Procrastination: 0.

Yay me.

The tomatoes are in and beginning to ripen:

This year, as last year, I have a variety called Druzhba. Yep. It is a Bulgarian heirloom variety. I heart it; I spent 2 years in the Peace Corps there and it reminds me of my former home. I used to hate tomatoes. HATE them. (I would still eat ketchup and salsa, but plain RAW tomatoes? Barf. ---Side note---I love the word "Barf". The "Buh" with the "Are" ending nicely and conclusively with the "Fuh". One clear syllable.) Turns out, if you eat produce that has been allowed to ripen naturally, it makes a friggin' difference. Not any of those pink, mealy tomatoes of Minnesota groceries in the winter trucked in from who knows where. The tomatoes in Bulgaria converted me. It was like, "SER-iously??? I like tomatoes now??"

I now grow them in my own garden. If you would have told 13 year old me THAT, she would have rolled her 'Tweener eyes, sighed dramatically and with the condescension only a 13 year old can perfect, "Yeah. Riiiight. WhatEVER. (Silently, in her head, "I hate you. And tomatoes.")" Those of you that deal with 13 year olds know of what I speak. Or...if you knew 13 year old me.

I also have Bulgarian peppers, simply called Chushka. Which is just "Pepper" in Bulgarian. If I remember correctly, Druzhba means friendship, but I can't be certain.

I am really doing well with this whole healthy living thing. I went for a walk with my mom this morning where we usually go. It is a four season landscaping research area; I really have enjoyed going at various times during the year to see the different seasons in action. We HAVE gone in the winter. Once, I think. It was late winter and a "nice" day, maybe just above freezing.....What??? That counts. While I have been doing great moving by walking everyday and doing good food-choice-wise, I fear myself.

See, this is where I am in my Militant Freakshow Wannabe stage. I am full steam ahead with new lifestyle, new choices, new motivation. I fear that it won't last. But, really..........that's just stupid. Part of the reasoning in creating this blog is to acknowledge these fears, put them out there in the Interweb-o-sphere and then laugh at them. Scoff in their face, if you will. I would never spit at them, though. That's gross. Barf.

I fear that it won't last because history has shown that So...There...Then Gal always starts out like this and then gets bored, frustrated, crabby, restricted-feeling, lazy...you pick one....and then melts back into old habits of excuses and patterns.

Then, I start getting mad, disappointed, frustrating with myself for having failed again at losing weight and sticking to it. (For those of you that have struggled with weight or something similar, you know of what I speak, yes?) Then it all goes to s*** and I eat a suitcase because it doesn't matter anymore and I have given up already.

I have matured to a point in this struggle that I know that the "fear it won't last" is pretty spot on about me......but also, at the same time, pretty ridiculous. The fear is not coming from something imposed from the outside, it is all me. Duh. I can chose to, or not to, do something. No one is barring my way from walking, no one is somehow opening my mouth and making me ingest a morsel of food. It is a decision to be made in the moment. If I do "screw up", then I get back on track and move on. A screw up is put in quotes because it is only a screw up if I eat a suitcase's worth of food as a result.

It is not a "screw up" if I acknowledge it, make the decision to NOT eat a suitcase, enjoy whatever it is that I decided to eat or do instead of exercise. Then, in the next day's moment, maybe I walk an extra 20 minutes or eat a salad to compensate for the previous day's decision.

It isn't rocket science here, people. (Insert eyeroll/dramatique sigh combo here.)

So. There. Then.