Despite a hectic life, a garden waits for no one

Which is why I plant so that the garden can carry on with out me.


I've had a few harvest of winter sown arugula, as well as the transplanted kale from last year, but their time is almost up. Now comes winter sown broccoli, as well as spring sown spinach and lettuce.

This is what the broccoli plants looked like in January:

And this is what they look like now:

Here's what my garlic looks like now:

Yes, my garden is quite weedy right now. It isn't choked with weeds though, and I've had other things on my plate, like getting in the the Master in Teaching program. And work, and class. This is why I only plant those things that are vigorous and do well with out help. If they need help, they're not going to make it in my garden.

Observations from a month of eating vegan

I decided to try a month of eating vegan because I thought it would be a fun challenge, and I wanted to see for my self whether the claims I had heard about the health benefits were true. I also did it because I had noticed that I had a certain amount of derision aimed at vegans, and I wanted to challenge the ideas I had about a vegan diet. I decided from the get-go to not fall into the trap of eating vegan foods that were still super unhealthy (vegan cupcakes, anyone?), so I also cut out sugar, white flour and fake meats and cheeses.

Below are my observations and results.

1. A healthy vegan diet is way easier to attain than I had assumed. It took very little effort to figure out how I would get enough protein. Additionally, I tried foods I never would have considered working with (like chia seeds, flax seeds, tempeh, and quinoa) if I hadn't been vegan and thus going beyond my normal food boundaries.

2. I tried several new recipes, and a good proportion of them are now favorites. In fact, Casey won't stop making quinoa tabbouleh.

3. Health-wise, I felt much the same as I did on my normal diet, except my acne went away and I felt slightly more energetic. We were both feeling very, very energetic when we were eating loads of Casey's homemade sugarless chocolates. Doesn't sound like they'd taste good, but boy did they ever. They also gave me more energy than I knew what to do with. I also never over ate to the point of discomfort during the experiment, which I do more often than I'd care to admit on my usual diet.

4. This really reveals how lazy I am, but it's really nice to not have to even think about cross contamination by meat juices. Chopping every thing on the same cutting board with the same knife without having to wash it off until I'm done? Awesome.

5. Most of the flavors I associate with meat aren't actually inherent to the meat. Rather, they are the result of combining various spices and herbs with fats and cooking them. So, Thai and Indian curries which I love are still delicious if you substitute tofu for the meat and adjust the recipe a little.

6. Oddly, I stopped craving beef, eggs, and cheese, but I still crave fish. Perhaps it's because of the great amounts b12 and omega 3 fatty acids they contain. Mmmm, sardines.

I will probably continue eating close to vegan for some time, as this has proved to be a month of fun experimentation and really tasty food, while proving to have very little in the way of downsides. And hey, no acne.

Winter garden update

January is a very slow time of year in the garden. Seeds have been ordered, all of the fall work is completed, and about the only excitement is the arrival of one's seed order and a very optimistic sowing of spinach outside and tomatoes inside.

Today, I sowed spinach. But I also weeded a little, and checked up on the seeds I planted in October to over winter for harvest in spring and early summer.

Below is the result of one of  the broccoli seeds I sowed on the 14th of October:

Given, not a lot of growth for 84 days, but considering that it's not a transplant (so it will have a very deep root system and won't suffer from transplant shock) and all I've had to do was sow the seed, I think it's pretty neat.

Also, the corn salad and the mesclun mix both are growing quite well. I wish I had sown more of them and arugula. The spinach I sowed, however, is still going pretty slowly. We'll see if it starts picking up soon.

In the depths of winter, hope and energy begin swell

It is now just a very short time from the winter solstice, but as happens every year, I am bursting with energy, ambition and hope for the new year. Right now I'm thinking about the garden- and in particular, getting a jump on the growing season.

I've already ordered my seeds, and the winter sown plants are beginning to put on some size, but what I'm really thinking about is starting some seeds indoors under lights. I'll have to buy a light, but I'm really excited and want to see if I can actually successfully grow tomatoes from seed and get a good harvest this year.

I have also seen dandelions blooming, and according to a folk tale I heard, you are supposed to sow spinach when the dandelions bloom. Now, these may be left overs from last growing season, but I still want to try.

Carless, or car free?

When smoke started pouring out of our hood on 20 miles short of home on our trip back from saying with family 375 miles away, I wasn't exactly upset or even terribly concerned. See, Casey and I have a wonderful habit of approaching typically distressing events by staying cheerful and determining how we might turn the situation to our favor and have fun. We were only 20 miles from home, and we had AAA, so we wouldn't have any trouble. While we considered the possible range of out comes given the quick onset of our automobile trouble, we weren't terribly distraught over the idea of the losing the car permanently.

See, we've have debated the various positives and negatives of car ownership several times over the years, and each time we came to the conclusion that having a car had a net negative impact on our lives, However, I have always been to afraid to let of the car. Afraid I wouldn't be able to make it to work, to visit family, or to go hiking on the weekends.

When we got the bill for the repairs, we sat down once again to compare the benefits. This time the bill, which exceeded the amount of money we could expect if we took the car into a dealership to sell, made the decision for us. Frankly, it is a relief.

The past few days have taken quite a bit of adjustment, and we have walked more in a day or two than we've typically averaged in a week. We've also caught rides with friends, but that isn't always going to work.  I also won't be able to work some shifts because I had planned on having a car, but hopefully I'll be able to get some sub work instead. I've learned that renting a car is far cheaper than I imagined (we can rent a car 5 times in a month before we exceed the cost of our insurance policy).


This is a change we've wanted to make for some time, but I was just too afraid to take the leap. The leap has now been taken, and it's going to be awhile before we see and experience the full ramifications. So far, I do not regret lacking a car.

New Year's Eve and New Year's plans

I am very, very excited for this year.

- Casey finally finished college.

- I'm working on my application to the MiT program and I'll be starting next fall.

- We're embarking on the Grand Diet Experiment, by which means we hope to find out once and for all the best diet for us.

- We're finally getting rid of the car- something we've been meaning to do for years.

- We're taking steps to improve our health: going on daily walks, doing yoga, eating well, etc.

- I've come much closer to identifying those things that truly matter to me, and thus I am spending much more of my time and energy on what I value.

- 2012 was a year of incredible internal change and growth, and I'm really looking forward to the results of that in 2013.

Aternative forms of stress relief

I was really grumpy and stressed out: my coworker and I were having communication issues, my roommate had been really noisy the night before making it difficult for me to sleep and then the water go shut off temporarily because I never got a bill or warning that I was late from the utility company. Not to mention it's the week before finals and all the stress that entails.

I did yoga for 40 minutes and I was still pissed off. I watched a comedy with my husband and I was still pissed off. I went on an hour long walk, and I was still pissed off. I at some good food, in the assumption that it might be low blood sugar, but that didn't help either.

However, by the end of work, I was once again content and emotionally balanced. I ascribe this to the 20 minutes of around the world I played against 2 kids, one of which was distinctly better than me.

I think that this is a good reminder that some times when you're angry, frustrated, grumpy and stressed out, the best thing is to get a good work out. In college, I'd go on really long bike rides and runs to clear my head and give me emotional stability.

I think I need to reintegrate hard physical activity into my repertoire of stress managing activities.