New Chapter, New Blog

Hello everyone!  We've finally settled into our new home.  For those of you may still be interested in reading about my gardening adventures, I've started a blog called 'Seeding the Good Life', which I'm very excited about.  While I still need to work on my sidebar and tweak some remaining design issues, I've gone ahead and written my first post. 

New house, new chapter, new perspective on things...and it feels nice to be writing again.  Here's the link:

www.seedingthegoodlife.com

Hope you all are well!

Thomas

Alive and Well and On to New Things

Hello everyone!

At this point, It's been almost a year since I've posted anything.  To all of you who've followed my blog during the past few years, first and foremost, I wanted to apologize.  Dropping off the face of the earth is not a very nice thing to do to your friends.  So shame on me!  I hope that all of you are doing well and I can't wait to reconnect with many of my blogging buddies.  Secondly, I wanted to give a quick update on what we've been up to these days.

But before I get into that, I just wanted to briefly explain why I stopped blogging last year.  Since moving to Vermont, our family has been busy exploring the state and our neighbor to the north.  Canada is a wonderful place - one that I hope all of you get to visit.  The summer of 2012 was one of our best.  We spent most of our time outside - going on many picnics, hikes and farm forays, swimming in Lake Champlain, cooking with great friends and drinking our fair share of wine.  When confronted with this new found joy, blogging became less of a priority for me.  Then a credit card glitch tipped the scales.  You see, I had set my domain registration to automatically renew each year but for some reason, it didn't happen last summer.  Unbeknownst to me, a third-party had placed a reserve order for my domain name and once I failed to renew in a timely manner, they were able to buy it from underneath me.  Now they are listing it for sale at the bargain price of $28,000. All I have to say on that subject is 'Boo!!!!'.  In any case, I looked upon it as a sign.

Fast forward to winter, we continued to enjoy what our new state had to offer in terms of winter sports.  Jonathan took ice skating lessons, went to hockey games and we went cross country skiing for the first time.  The cold was brutal, but it didn't take long for us to adjust.  Then earlier this year, completely out of the blue, we were confronted with an opportunity to move back to Massachusetts.  The choice was a difficult one to make, but since I was still commuting into Boston part of the week for work, as difficult as it was to leave a state that we'd grown to love, it seemed like the most logical decision to make for our family financially.   So as Spring arrived, we packed up our stuff  again, said goodbye to our new friends and moved back to the Bay State (admittedly with some reservation).

Readjusting to life in a larger city (and a more densely populated area) has been somewhat difficult to say the least.  We miss the slower pace of life that we got to experience in Vermont.  The work day now goes by slower, our daily commute seems much longer and finding the sense of 'community' we'd grown accustomed to in Vermont has proven to be much more difficult than expected.  That being said, we're determined to take the best parts of our life in Vermont and transplant them here. 

In late August, we are set to close on a new home in Scituate, Massachusetts.  We are very excited to be living about a mile away from the ocean, in a community with great schools and in a town with great historical character (Scituate happens to be the second oldest town in the United States).  Our family is looking forward to laying down permanent roots, starting new traditions (Jonathan and I now dig for our supper on the clam flats of Duxbury Bay) and I'm looking forward to starting a new garden.  

Once we settle into our new home, I plan on starting a new gardening blog and I hope many of you will come along for the ride!  Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful summer!

Sincerely,
Thomas

I'm Baaaack!

 
 I have to apologize for being MIA for so long.  I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting something.  But now that things are starting to warm up here in Vermont (this week being an exception) and I've gotten our community garden plot squared away, I'm sure I'll have more to talk about. 


These are just two random pictures I took of Lake Champlain a while back.  They're nothing to write home about and don't highlight some of the spectacular mountain views you can see from the shore, but on this day, we came across some bird watchers and even spotted a few Bald Eagles circling in the sky.  (I was sorely disappointed that I'd neglected to bring along my telephoto lens.) We're really looking forward to exploring the nearby forests and mountains this summer.

We're finally getting some much needed rain this week, though it might end up being a bit too much.  I don't remember the last time we've had a spring this dry.  The soil in the raised beds behind our townhouse had begun to take on that grey sandy dust bowl-ish look.  Hopefully this is not the start of another wacky year of weather.  This past winter was wacky enough.

My Gardening Helper

(Are my pajama pants really that red???)

Around and About Where We Live

It just hit me that I've neglected to post about our little neck of the woods. Here's a picture of the small community garden that lies within our 4 acre cohousing development. Many families here also have growing beds in front or behind their homes and there are lots of fruit trees and bushes planted throughout the common grounds. My friend and neighbor Dorothy gave me a little tour of her garden today, which includes a rather marvelous looking peach tree that has produced well during the past couple of years. She also gave me a baggy of frozen gooseberries that she grew last summer, which I plan on turning into a dessert for one of our common meals next month.

On that front, I cooked my second common meal for about 40 people yesterday night and I'm happy to say that it went really well. 'Common meals' are held on even numbered days except weekends and allows everyone who signs up a chance to break bread and catch up with their neighbors. I made three different stir-fries and there was not a single spoonful of anything left over by the end of dinner. Preparing a meal for that many people can be quite challenging but I had two wonderful helpers and since I love to cook and feed people, it ends up being quite fun for me. For dessert this time around, I made some Meyer lemon marmalade thumbprint cookies from my homegrown stash and everyone got a kick out of eating some locally grown citrus.

Anyway, directly behind our development is Burlington's Centennial Woods, which is a 68 acre nature preserve. The paths are quite hilly but it makes for great exercise. And it's nice to have a bit of wilderness close to home and within city limits.

Even at this time of the year, the woods are quite beautiful. I can't wait to see it in summer and fall. (Spring I am told is a rather muddy affair here in Vermont).


And of course you cannot hope to get around without a pair of these. They might as well call Vermont the 'Icy State' because I don't think I've ever lived in an area that gets as much ice as we do. Within the first two weeks of our arrival, I slipped and fell hard twice. These Micro Spikes make all the difference. I can literally run on a sloping sheet of ice with these on. In any case, I'm hopefully that the season for them will be over soon!

Finally, I had handed in my application for a plot at one of the city's community garden sites in early February. The Parks an Recreation worker told me that the site down the street from us was full but there were spaces available at the Tommy Thompson community garden, which is Burlington's largest site located at the Intervale and about a 5 minute drive from us. I don't know exactly what the rules are but apparently most of the sites are open to the gardeners sometime in April and close in late October. The land is tilled at the start of each growing year, though returning gardeners can ask for a no-till plot, which would allow them to extend their growing season beyond October. Thank goodness we have the raised beds behind our townhouse to plant a true fall garden. Hopefully I'll get my plot assignment soon.

A Short Message

I'd like to apologize to anyone who may have emailed me within the last...ooooohhhh...say 2 1/2 months or so. For a long time now, I've sorely neglected my personal email but will plan on going through everything tonight. One thing about posting your email address on a blog - you get hit will TONS of spam. It's like digging for buried treasure in order to find the legitimate ones.

Again, I'm sorry if I haven't gotten back to you! I will soon!

Moving Day

Moving day has arrived. Yikes! The truck is being loaded as I type. I can't believe that we'll be in our new home tomorrow. Jonathan and I will be spending another night here while Marc has already started his new Job in Burlington this week. Admittedly, it hasn't really hit me yet that we'll be living in Vermont.


It's always sad to say goodbye to a home, especially if it was your first. In many ways, I feel like I've leaving an old friend behind. :(

And goodbye garden! It was nice knowing you!

A Peek At What's To Come

So I'm happy to say that we've found a new place to live - well at least for the next 18 months. It didn't take us very long, which is nice considering several folks have warned us of how difficult it can be to find decent housing in Burlington, Vermont this time of year. Like other college towns, most rental units in Burlington come onto the market during the summer months when the vast majority of students are looking for housing. In our case, we were lucky that the present occupants of our future home had to break their lease. When we entered the front doors, Marc and I looked at each other and we both knew instantly that we were destined to live here.

I have to give Marc all of the credit for finding this gem. It was by far the best place we'd seen on Craigslist. Interestingly, it is located in a cohousing development in Burlington. What is 'cohousing' you might ask? Well, you can learn more about it here. I will admit that the concept of cohousing is something new to me. (In my mind, I was picturing a 60's style commune.) But the more I read about it, the more confident I am that it will be a very good fit for us. I'm looking forward to living and on occasion breaking bread with other families who share similar values and interests.


This particular co-housing development is situated on 4 acres, was built using green materials and designed for energy efficiency. There are also solar panels on the roof of this unit. According to the property manager, the owner intended to spend the rest of her life here and as such made extensive upgrades to the interior and exterior of the home. Sadly, she had to relocate a couple of years ago. (We assume the reason was health-related.) She was an avid gardener and had installed four large raised beds in the back and two rain barrels on the side of the house. There's also a small composter. Around the unit she planted strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries and several fruit trees.

The exterior space could be considered tiny in comparison the the half-acre we currently have, but this just means that I'll have to be much more creative in utilizing the limited space available for growing food. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge as I've long had an interest in urban vegetable gardens. Besides, the way I see it, urban farms may one day be the norm and and not the novel.


I'm looking forward to planting in these beds this upcoming spring. From what we've been told, they've remained unused for the past couple of years. I'm sure the owner will appreciate the fact that they're being put to good use again. (Maybe I'll have the property manager send her some pictures this summer.) I will try to grow more vegetables in pots as well, although up until now, I haven't had much success with this. The development also has a small common garden but space appears to be extremely limited. There are several community gardens nearby so I'm hoping to get a plot elsewhere.


My favorite feature of this home is most definitely the glass conservatory. Since it's an addition to the home, it's also heated. The room has a sink, work surface, adjustable shelves and a drain built into the floor for easy cleanup. It also has a fan and remote controlled shades installed in the event it gets too hot during the daytime. I can't wait to start sowing seeds in there. I'm certain my citrus plants will appreciate the space has well.

In addition to all of these things, the unit also has one of the most beautiful kitchens I've ever been in. As you can imagine, I'm feeling much better about the move (which is in three weeks) now that we've secured a place to live. I'm just happy that I'll be gardening again next year!

Where Life Takes You...

I guess I should break the news - We're moving.

Though I'm still getting used to the idea, it seems certain now that we'll soon say goodbye to the garden I'd started less than three years ago. Though it's extremely sad, in the back of my mind, I've long considered gardens to be temporary things. Years ago, I remember returning to one of my childhood homes, now located in a particularly dilapidated section of Philadelphia, to find that my dad's once beautiful garden had been reduced to bare earth, weeds and broken concrete. Though I'm hoping that the future owners of our home will choose to keep the garden and that it will bring them as much joy as it has brought me, I won't be too devastated if the space is eventually returned to lawn. In a way, it's strangely comforting to know that at least for a brief time, this particular patch of earth was worked and productive.

So where to now? Marc, Jonathan and I are relocating to Burlington, Vermont in January. Marc has a great job waiting for him there and my employer is letting me work part of the time from home. I'll still be commuting several times a month to Boston. We plan on renting for at least the next couple of years so I'm hoping to get a plot at one of the city's community gardens. Hopefully there won't be a long waiting list and I'll get to meet other avid veggie gardeners in the area.

In many ways, I'm excited about the move. Burlington, Vermont has long been a place that has embraced small farms and the local food movement. I'm also looking forward to exploring the surrounding towns and of course Canada. Burlington is only 40 minutes away from the Canadian border by car and I've heard that Montreal (an hour and a half away) is a great city to visit. My only reservation is that I'll be loosing about a month of gardening time since Burlington and most of state lies within climate zone 4. I also doubt that I'll be doing much winter gardening in Vermont. But this seems minor in comparison to all of the wonderful new things we'll get to experience.

Whether we'll decide to settle in Vermont permanently or return to Massachusetts after a couple of years, in the end, I think this will be great adventure for us. I hope you all will keep reading and come along for the ride!

Sharing the Harvest

I didn't harvest too much from the garden this past week. Our fridge is still packed with greens brought in from the week before, and sometimes the best place to store your veggies is in the ground.

Yesterday our friends Sarah and Doug came to visit us for Jonathan's 4th birthday party. Sarah writes her own blog called "The Gaga Diaries," documenting her first pregnancy and adventures as new mother. I was able to send them home with a bag filled with goodies. As we toured the garden, we picked a nice bouquet of Swiss chard and Red Russian kale, as well as some Napoli carrots, American Flag leeks, Hungarian Wax peppers and herbs. It's always nice to share your homegrown produce with friends who are equally as passionate about food as you are.

This upcoming week's harvest should be a bountiful one. The broccoli is looking absolutely fantastic this year!

Thoughts on Family, Music and Memory

I was lucky enough to have been raised a child of the '80s, though at times it feels more like the 60's and 70's. You see, when our family (my father and his five children) immigrated to the United States in November of 1980, direct from the Vietnamese refugee camps in Malaysia, we had essentially nothing but a few bags of clothes and the flip-flops on our feet. The vast majority of what we owned in our first home, a rented one bedroom apartment in Philadelphia, was either donated to us by the local Catholic church or left on the curb. More often than not, these items were beat-up old relics from the 60's and 70's, which probably explains my love for the music, fashion, toys and furnishings of the time.

I can't imagine how scary it must have been for my father - to be alone in a strange new country and not know the language or have the means to support his children, who were all under the age of eleven. Eventually however he was able to find work at the local Catholic retreat estate - first in the laundry house and then in the fifty-acre gardens. I have fond memories of being with him in that steamy laundry house while my brother and sisters were off at school. I was close to being four years old and to this day, I can still imagine those enormous industrial-sized metal washers and dryers, the constant loud pulsating rhythms they produced and the endless heaps of white linen that went into them. I remember that following a morning of washing and drying, my dad and I would sit down to a packed lunch of rice and leftovers. And after our bellies were full, I would nap on a clean towel laid directly on the concrete floor while he finished the afternoon folding.

It's strange how some memories stay with you - I think this as we come upon the 10 year anniversary of my dad's death (today, in fact). Years later I would come to realize that our stint in the laundry house was an experience he and I shared exclusively - something precious and rare when you have four other siblings. My son is now the same age I was back then and sometimes I wonder what memories the older Jonathan will have of me at this age decades from now. Hopefully they won't be of me leaving for work everyday, but rather of us in the garden while the sound of Marc practicing on the piano echoes in the distance.

As I go about my work in the garden, more often than not the music of the Carpenters, Joni Mitchell, Bread, Ann Murray and most notably John Denver reverberate inside my head. The same records heard in the early years of my life. The same ones I associate with my Dad's garden. I hope these songs will make their way into Jonathan's head when he plants his own garden one day. Maybe he'll read this some time in the distant future and decide to pick up a CD or two (that is, if they still make CDs).

The Gardener - Unmasked

Yes, that's me. (Cringe!) I don't particularly enjoy having my picture taken, but in this case, it was necessary.

Jonathan and I were featured on CNN's Eatocracy website today. (Pretty exciting, I have to admit.) They wanted to highlight my blog and decided to run a piece that I had written a couple of years ago. If you'd like to check it out, click below:

Blogger Spotlight: A Growing Tradition - CNN's Eatocracy, July 18, 2011

Ouch

I just got my wisdom teeth out this morning, 15 years overdue....pass the apple sauce.

A Message for Prospective Farmers and Homesteaders in Eastern Massachusetts

Ok, a bit of background before I deliver my message - A few months ago, Marc woke me up on a beautiful Sunday morning and told me to get dressed because we were heading to church. Knowing that Marc is an atheist, my immediate reaction was, "who are you and what did you do to my husband?" It had been more than 15 years since I'd attended church regularly. I was raised by a rather strict Roman Catholic father and attended Catholic school up until I went off to college. Plaid uniforms, scary old nuns, holiday processions - I will admit that I truly enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, if the Catholic church wasn't so opposed to my "lifestyle", I would consider sending Jonathan to Catholic school...but I digress. Despite this, I still reacted to Marc's request with a pound of skepticism and a dash of sarcasm.

Anyway, Marc told me that it was not "that" kind of church service - and so began our current (yet slow) journey towards Unitarian Universalism. Whether or not we'll ever fully get there is still up in the air but we like what we've experienced so far. (I'll save the church stories for another time.) Ok...ANYWAY, one of the best things to come about from this journey is that we met fellow church-goer Kate, who along with her husband have quickly become our good friends. They even have a son Jonathan's age and they get along like two peas in a pod. Kate, like myself is really into growing food, learning artisanal skills, eating responsibly - locally - ethically and basically all things having to do with sustainable living. When you're passionate about something, you instinctively want to share it with others and learn from others as well. I'm grateful everyday for my readers and blogging buddies. Without you guys, growing my lonely little plot wouldn't be nearly as fun, which is why there are times I wish I had a plot at a community garden. Kate is the first local person I've befriended who shares my same passion.

Recently, Kate and I came up with the idea of starting a local group of farming/vegetable gardening/animal husbandry/urban homesteading/sustainable living enthusiasts (we haven't come up with a formal name yet). Currently it's just a group of two (LOL!) but we would like to reach out to our fellow MA residents and invite all who might be interested in joining.

Our mission is pretty simple at this point - Kate and I want to learn as much as we can about small-scale farming, market gardening, animal husbandry, artisanal crafts (like cheese making, craft brewing, etc.) and some good old fashion country skills. Both of us have always wanted to intern at a farm but because of our careers and life commitments have never been able to do so. We are interested in learning real skills and practical knowledge - those that we can apply to our own gardens (and potentially our future farming/homesteading endeavors).

In a nutshell, this is what we had in mind:

To start, we would like to organize a series of farm tours several times a year. Our idea is to reach out to our local small-scale farmers and ask if they would be willing to offer our group a nuts and bolts look into their farming operations. These tours are meant to be instructional (and open to adults only). As the tour progresses, our group will be able to ask questions and seek advise on all things having to do with the running of the farm from the big picture (like soil fertility, animal health, etc.) to the mundane (state regulations, equipment maintenance). We are hoping that these tours will greatly expand our current knowledge and offer us a realistic glimpse into small-scale farming as a skill/career/lifestyle. In the end, we think that these tours will appeal to the artisan, veggie gardener, prospective farmer or urban/suburban homesteader in each of us. For the farmer, it would mean a small fee for their time and an opportunity to share their expertise with members of their community. We would like to keep each tour group small - anywhere from 5 to 10 people max. At say $30 a person, that would mean up to $300 dollars for 2 to 3 hours of the farmer's time.

Currently, Kate and I are working on a farm tour for sometime in August. We have found a local farmer (who has a 10 acre vegetable and poultry farm) willing to conduct our first tour if we can get at least 3 other people to participate. We are also speaking with a local goat farmer, who has a small cheese operation, about a possible tour later on this year. Obviously as the group grows we can discuss ideas for future tours.

Anyway, if any of my fellow Massachusetts readers would like to join our group/help us get it started/be on our farm tour email list, please email me at agrowingtradition@yahoo.com. And if you are a small scale farmer interested in giving a tour, please reach out to me as well!

Footnote - I probably should have mentioned that Kate and I are not planning on making this a for profit enterprise. For us it's about building a local community of like-minded people and giving us an opportunity to make some new friends! All fees associated with each tour will go to the farmer. Also, $30 is just a hypothetical figure I put out there. The cost will be negotiated based on the length of the tour and the activity involved. The last thing we want to do is make the cost prohibitive for members of our group. I'll let everyone know the cost well beforehand, whether it be $10 for a basic hour-long farm tour or $30 for an intensive morning-long chicken processing workshop.

The Dog Days

Maggie (aka 'Magpie...formerly 'Baby') - Yes, we changed her name. I just couldn't say 'Baby' with a straight face in public. Besides, I think she was a bit embarrassed by it too.


Bobby (aka 'Bear', 'Fatty', 'Tank') - How could you not love that face? Sweet as pie, he's the gentle giant of the family (though you best move out of the way whenever Bobby decides to set his fanny down).


We sure love our dogs. While they've only been with us for two months, it feels as though we've had them forever. In an ideal world, I would be able to work from home. We would live on a farm, plant an orchard and surround ourselves with animals. (I wonder if yellow labs are good at herding sheep.) Doesn't that sound nice?

Our Growing Family

A little over a week ago, Marc and I took Jonathan to the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, Massachusetts. We were on our way to a play date at a friend's house and decided to kill some time, or at least that's what we thought pulling into the parking lot. What we didn't know at that moment was that our family would be growing again. In this case, we were welcoming not one but two dogs into the mix....yes, two adorable 4-year old yellow labs with a combined weight of 172 lbs. It's true, Marc and I tend to act on impulse, especially when our heartstrings are being pulled. Usually it works out for the best, which is luckily what happened here. One look that these two dogs and we were smitten. The car ride home was an interesting one to say the least.

A little about our two new family members - Bobby and Babe were born from the same litter. Their prior owners had brought them to the no-kill shelter the day before. As is often the case, the family was moving and could not take the dogs with them. (It would kill me to have to make that kind of decision.) Anyway, the dogs had been together since birth so adopting just one was completely out of the question. One of the staff members mentioned that a few years back, the prior owners had intended to take only Bobby, who was one of the larger male puppies of the bunch. But seeing as how he was ultra protective of the runt of the litter, his sister Babe, they simply didn't have the heart to leave her behind, especially considering she was also the last one remaining. And so, they decided to take them both and the pair have been inseparable ever since.


This is Bobby. He's a rather big fella weighing in at a 111 lbs. Needless to say, he's now on a diet. He spends most of his day chewing on his stuffed lambie and loves it when you scratch behind his ears. I would describe Bobby as simply a walking bundle of love. When out in the garden, he doesn't like to be more than a few feet away from his sister (or run much for that matter). Bobby is also effortlessly endearing. This morning, he walked into the kitchen with one of Jonathan's rather large stuffed animals dangling from one side of his mouth and looked up at us with an expression that read, "Can I chew on this?" We couldn't help but laugh.


And this is Babe the runt, weighing in at 61 lbs. She is innately curious and extremely loving as well. When not running around the yard at lighting speed, she loves to torture her brother by taking his toys away, which he happily relinquishes every time. She just likes to prove that she's faster than he is. Babe also loves to lick her brother's ears and face at night, which is probably one of his favorite things as well.


So there you have it - our growing family. Aside from vacuuming the house everyday, our lives haven't changed all too much. In fact, it seems as though Bobby and Babe have always been a part of our family. I'm sure Jonathan would agree.

A Place to Call Home and Wild Strawberries

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend. All I can say is - it's hot. With temperatures in the 90's, it's hard to find the motivation to do much gardening. As a result, like so many other chores on my to-do list, the weeds will have to wait yet another day.

The other night, Marc and I watched the movie, "Julie and Julia." Part bio pic of the late Julia Child's adventures in Paris during her formative years as a chef, it reminded me of how much I want our lives to be centered around good food (and how I would love to visit France one of these days).

One day, I hope to live in a town in which I can purchase the bulk of my family's food from local vendors as passionate about what they sold as we were about eating it. I would buy only what we planned to eat for the next day or two, not what will keep in its shrink wrap for weeks on end. In the early morning, I would head out to the local baker for some crusty artisan bread. The produce market would be bustling - stalls overflowing with what was seasonal and fresh. The local fishmonger would go on and on about the morning's catch. And the town's butcher would describe not only the different cuts of meat he sold, but also how the animals were raised and slaughtered.

If all of these wonderful things describe where YOU live, please let me know! Who knows, maybe one of these days, we'll be neighbors. (I'm a good one, I promise.) Admittedly, Marc and I haven't fully committed to where we're living now, and we're excited to do a bit of traveling during the next few years in order to find a place that means to us what Paris meant to Julia. Until such time this dream becomes a reality, we'll have to settle for what's growing in our garden and baking in our home oven.


So what does all of this have to do with wild strawberries? Let's just say you'll never find one of these at your local supermarket. But if you're lucky, you may come across it at an open air market in Europe. Sometimes, I wish I could properly convey to my non-gardening friends some of the truly wonderful things they are missing out on. Until earlier this week, I had never eaten a wild strawberry before. And if I hadn't decided to grow some this year, I may have lived the rest of my life without having experienced this pleasure.

I'm growing two varieties of wild strawberries (Red Wonder and Yellow Wonder). The seeds were started in the beginning of February. These perennial plants are just now starting to bloom aggressively. During the past few days, we've been able to sample a couple of each variety. Both are extremely delicious but the yellow ones in particular are a feast for the taste buds. Aside from the intense strawberry flavor you ordinarily get from the wild sort, I would describe Yellow Wonder as having an interesting floral taste as well, somewhat reminiscent of roses.

I've said this before but part of the joy in vegetable gardening for me is being able to grow varieties that are almost impossible to source commercially. Maybe if more of us did, we as a country would expect more from our food economy.

On a final note, I just realized that today is my one year blogging anniversary. Oh, what difference a year makes. Thank you all for participating in this growing journey with me. Your wisdom and guidance are much appreciated.

Favorites

I thought I'd mix it up a bit and write a post about something other than gardening (almost). I don't have time these days to do much quality reading, but I thought I'd share with everyone a couple of my favorites things.

My favorite culinary magazine is SAVEUR. This monthly publication focuses on food traditions and culture from around the world, and is in my opinion the best out there. I have been a subscriber for years and can honestly say that I've learned more about food and cooking from this magazine than from all of the cookbooks I've bought through the years. To me, food history and culture is just as interesting as the recipes themselves, which is why I give SAVEUR two big thumbs up.


For those of you history buffs out there, I highly recommend EARLY AMERICAN LIFE. This is a relatively new discovery for me but has quickly become something that I read from cover to cover. I have a Bachelor's degree in history (focused specifically on early American history) so this magazine definitely feeds my passion. Reading it on the train everyday offers me an escape from the grind of modern day life. (I suspect that many of us, including myself, grow our own vegetables for the same reason.) This month's issue has interesting articles about colonial ice cream, heritage breeds of livestock, historical adobe homes and early forms of lighting. Again, another two thumbs up.

Finally, I found a couple videos a while back featuring everyone's favorite winter gardening guru, Eliot Coleman. Pretty soon, it will come time to plan this year's winter garden. Enjoy!

Four season gardening from Cultivating Life on Vimeo.

I love getting reading and video suggestions from others who share the same interests and values that I do. So if you think that I should read or see something, please do share!

Today's Rant - Double Cuppers

I don't normally use this blog as a platform to vent my grievances but I feel obliged to today. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill and because yesterday was Earth Day but for some reason, it REALLY bothers me when people double-cup. Let me explain.

This morning, I was at a local Dunkin' Donuts to get my fried/sweet fix for the day and the young woman in front of me ordered an ice coffee, which was handed to her in a plastic cup. She then asked for a Styrofoam cup (which the cashier gave freely) and proceeded to place the plastic cup inside the Styrofoam one before leaving the shop with ice coffee in hand. Maybe this woman wanted her coffee to stay chilled longer or the plastic cup alone was too cold for her delicate hands to carry...who knows? All I could think of was how incredibly wasteful this is. If this woman purchases her morning ice coffee this way 5 days a week, that's 260 unused Styrofoam cups wasted every year!

The first time I witnessed this double-cupping phenomenon was when I worked at a small coffee shop during my college years. I remember thinking how absurd the request was and how annoyed the customer looked when I responded bluntly, "Why?". Eventually, I convinced the owner to charge extra for double-cupping but if I had it my way, it would have been banned all together.

It's not in my nature to criticize a stranger openly in public, so instead I've been fuming about this in my head all morning long. All I know is that WE ALL waste and can surely cut down on the huge amount of trash we leave behind in this world. What this woman does with her coffee is utterly stupid and unnecessary. So please, just say "No" to double-cupping!

Apologies and Thanks

I feel like I've been a bit remiss in my blogging and blog reading lately. I have no excuse other than to say, "life happens" and that I can't wait to read about what you all have been up to lately. I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes I feel pulled in too many directions or stuck in an endless rat race - a symptom of living in this day and age I guess.

First of all, I've been meaning to thank Winnie (Mac) from High Desert Garden for the wonderful gift she sent to me this past week. She was kind enough to share with me a couple of root divisions from her garden (on top of the many seeds she gave me not too long ago). I'm really looking forward to transplanting this English lavender (right) and French lavender into my garden. Hopefully, they won't miss the American Southwest too much. Lavender has to be one of my favorite flowers/herbs from the Old World. I like to imagine that in a previous life, I was farming the French countryside.


And as an unexpected bonus, Winnie also gave me some homemade Honey Yuzu Marmalade grown from her own tree! (Score!) I will have to bake something extra special to have with this treat...maybe some challah bread.

Thank you so much Winnie! I will have to find a proper way to repay your amazing generosity one of these days.