Blessings of the Garden

The first harvest is here!

My bag was spilling over with scallions, asparagus, mixed greens, spinach, Romaine lettuce, butter head lettuce, radishes, kale, fresh oregano, and chives. I am a truly blessed lady.

Salad Days

Tomorrow the first farm delivery of the season comes, and I’m looking forward to a bag of goodness each week, a little bit of sunshine and love no matter how uncertain and bumpy the road is along the way. This week’s task list involves putting together the composted and ordering worms, cleaning the refrigerator shelves, and generally shoring up the organization to accommodate Tuesday afternoon processing and cooking. 

A friend asked a million years ago how to store vegetables, and I’m a big fan of using less plastic.

Ahhh, spring! 

That time of year when the garden starts sending out leaves and shoots of every variety! There's a reason that good times are called "salad days." 

For those of us with gardens or CSA subscriptions, storing the weekly harvest can be the most difficult part of the season. Here's a handy reference guide to keeping your lovely produce without plastic (and often without refrigeration):

Tuesday: local food tastes better

Y'all know I must be moody or busy or both if I'm only dropping in to post videos. This past week has been both, and all my mental energy has been hijacked by worrying about if my jeep would break down on a milk run. So I sat in my Druid Chair (not real -- but I need to have one) and just looked at all the moving parts that were sucking the air out of the room.

I found:

The Jeep can't be expected to do what I'm asking her to do. I cancelled milk for four weeks while I find out if I can craft a better solution.

I'm angry. Now, Bruce Banner and I share a secret, so *being* angry isn't a problem for me, but *denying* anger is. So. I'm angry, and it's going to stay that way for a while, probably. Anger is an unaddressed wound. I'm angry at the persistence of this situation with my daughter, but processing this means facing how vaguely powerless I am in the situation and also honoring that I will not quit my relationship with her, no matter how many conditions and hurdles are placed in the path.

I'm tired. This seems ridiculous, since I don't *do* anything, but I'm tired anyway. Ok, then. Be tired.

When I got through that, I opened the document for the blog post I'm editing and started writing up the parts that I had figured out. A couple hours later, the piece was complete. This is how the Way works for me, it seems

I'm letting the piece sit for a couple hours more before I send it off (fingers crossed -- this is the final editing round for the position).

In the meantime, the vegetables arrived for the week, and the tomatoes were so lush I washed and used them with the lettuce and cucumber right on the spot. Sourdough croutons from this week's bread and a quickly whipped-up vinaigrette of Meyer lemon and balsamic vinegar brought the whole thing together.

This afternoon, I'm less busy but still moody, so:

Restorative return

I tried out a new yoga studio this evening, and it was very nice indeed. The class was restorative yoga, and there's something to be said for a 90 minute session just before bed.

Vegetables and milk arrived this week, I had a great session this afternoon, and there was a lot of good camaraderie over knitting when I went to the yarn store.

What a good day.

Love & peace, y'all.