Summer’s Over, and I Have Lemons!

Last spring I bought a lemon tree because it wasn’t always easy to find organic lemons in the grocery store. I decided I’d be better off to grow my own.  I really didn’t consider that with just one tree I likely wasn’t going to have enough lemons to supply all the lemon water I like to drink.  I bought the tree, positioned it on a rolling stand and set it outside by the backdoor.  I was pleased that it already had several budding lemons on it – all dark green.

Months passed and the green lemons grew quite healthy.  I counted eleven in all by the time the tree stopped flowering.  As the lemons grew from pea-size to golf-ball size, they stayed a beautiful dark green.  I wondered when they would turn yellow.

The kids wondered too.  “Mommy, are you sure you didn’t buy a lime tree?”

“I’m pretty sure.  We’ll just see what happens,” I commented, thinking to myself that if I was actually growing limes I would just find some salt and tequila and roll with it.

When the weather snapped two weeks ago I brought the lemon tree inside and set it next to the window to enjoy the sun without the cold air.  And then the temperature stayed in the 70’s, making me wish I had waited to bring it in.  BUT – the lemons, then almost tennis ball size, began to fade into yellow.  Within a week two of the lemons were bright yellow and the rest were half-way there.

Then Victoria came to me one evening with a worried look on her face.  “Um, Mommy, um…I didn’t pull it, but this lemon came off the tree when I accidentally bumped it,” and she held one of the brighter yellow lemons in her palm.

“If you didn’t pull on it, then it was ready to come off of the branch and be eaten.  Let’s see how it tastes!”

We cut into the lemon and a fresh, soft lemon scent filled the air around us.  Wow.  I think if all lemons had that gentle a scent, even Dom might like them.  I was surprised at how soft the rind was, mostly because I am accustomed to the thickness of store-bought lemons that I assume have been force-ripened.  The rinds on my lemons are very thin – so thin that gently squeezing an uncut lemon will ooze a little juice (or lemon oil?) through the tiny pores.

So even though I have the tiniest crop, I am pleased beyond measure with my little Charlie Brown lemon tree!!

Day 358: Folly at the Farmer’s Market

Last week I was so pumped up about going to the local Farmer’s Market to find awesome organic veggies and grass-fed beef!  And while I did manage to find both (and will share the details on the good stuff tomorrow), I learned a lot that sort of burst my bubble about the market in general.  Here’s how Saturday morning went:

First off, Mom, Victoria and I met up with roughly half of the Shreveport population to shop opening day of our Farmer’s Market.  I wasn’t prepared for the crowd.  Last year when we went there were a lot of people, but I was still able to park within the first block near the market.  Not so this time around.  The Hubster had offered to let me use his parking space at his office garage, and I SCOFFED!  “Ohhhhh, no thanks, sweetie…that would be waaaaay too far for us to walk!”

I now admit…I have made more ignorant decisions in my life, but not many more.  This one ranks pretty high.

So after driving ALL OVER CREATION to find a parking place preferably less than four blocks away, Victoria and I opted to just try to get as close to Mom’s car as possible,  which basically meant just being on the same side of the river as her car.  (Okay, okay…so I exaggerate…a little.)  We managed to get about 200 yards away from where Mom parked, and considered our patch of grass by the bike trail a win.

Secondly, this was 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday.  You know I had Starbucks in my hand.  Yes, hot, hot coffee in near-90-degree cling-to-you weather. As I strolled around sipping my cup of hotter-than-hell java, I secretly longed for the refreshment of everyone else’s handy water bottles.  Note to self: drink the coffee at home in the A/C; bring water for survival at the market.

As we strolled through all of the farmers and vendors, I noticed signs on many booths that stated where the veggies had come from, i.e., “80% from our farm, 20% from  neighbors’ gardens, 0% from grocery stores.”  As I saw this mention of “No Grocery Store Produce” on more and more signs, I commented to Mom how odd I thought it was that they needed to say that.   She informed me that she had seen comments on-line about people selling grocery store produce at the market, and how customers didn’t think that was right.  I would have to agree, but I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone buying veggies at Kroger and hauling them down to the Farmer’s Market to sell at a higher price.

Imagine my surprise when I witnessed it LIVE!!  We stood near a van which was backed up to a vendor booth with the back doors of the van splayed open and towers of  Driscoll’s strawberries piled in the van.  One man was emptying the strawberries from grocery store containers into little wooden baskets and setting them on a table above a sign that read, “Fresh East Texas Berries.”

Dude.  REALLY?????

Raise your hands if you know where Driscoll’s strawberries come from. That’s right…California.  Driscoll’s are – in my opinion – the superior strawberry.  I fell in love with them back in my cake-biz days and I still purchase them regularly and exclusively…AT THE GROCERY STORE.

Were it not for the immense crowd around his table and my jaw resting on the cement ground, I wish I had said something to this vendor, if for nothing else than to literally  ask, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???????”  When I return I hope I see him again, because I want the full story on this deal, and “straight from the horse’s mouth,” as they say.

There were many positive things about the market that I still plan to share with you, and I don’t mean to just focus on the disturbing, but I have to ask – what is your Farmer’s
Market like?  Would a vendor re-selling grocery store produce be run out on a rail?  I am quite curious to know if this is standard practice everywhere, or if this does in fact violate the very premise of the Farmer’s Market in your minds as it does in mine.

Day 354: Look, Y’all!! A Veggie!!!

I wasn’t planning on posting anything tonight, but I got home to water my garden and LOOK!  We have a squash!  Granted, it’s a harvest of ONE so far, but there are more on the vine.  This one just plumped up so fast, it surprised me.  It’s about 7″ long, so I decided to pluck it from the plant.

First harvest. Small, but significant nonetheless.

I don’t quite understand what the braille-looking bumps are on the neck, but I’ll research that to make sure it’s a healthy squash.  When I walked inside with it tonight, Aaron looked puzzled and asked, “Where’d you get that?”  I replied that it came from the garden, and he exclaimed, “You grew your very own organic squash!  Mommy, that’s great!!”

I’ll bet my paycheck he won’t even taste it.  That’s alright…more for me.  😉

Day 327: Makin’ Dirt

Victoria saw me digging in my compost pile the other day as I was burying some potato peels.  She peered over my shoulder and exclaimed, “Oh my gosh!! Is that turning into DIRT?”

“Yes, sweetie. That’s what compost is: plant and vegetable material that biodegrades and becomes nutritious soil for our growing plants.”

“Wowwwwwww!  That is waaaaaaaay cool!!!”  And then she skipped right back inside, leaving me to wonder how I had been composting for four months and she NOT know what was happening.  Maybe she thought I liked burying food and then playing with it later?  I can only imagine what she told her friends.

The compost pile is working beautifully!!  I actually have dirt in place of kitchen scraps.  And the termites I reported seeing earlier?  Finally gone.  Well, for the most part.  When I turned the pile yesterday I didn’t see any termites, so I guess they got bored and moved on…which is actually probably not a good thing.  Oh dear…

Ahh, but my worms are still enjoying the pile.  They are a huge reason my compost pile is working so well, I know.  I feared that they would abandon me, but I keep giving them plenty of incentives to stick around.  I’m amazed at how fast they work.  We added a whole container of kitchen scraps just last week, and already they are barely recognizable.  This reassures me that my “little” compost pile can survive and succeed.

I have a plastic container at the office now so that I can collect all the coffee grounds from the 7+ pots of coffee we make per day.  The coffee grounds are going all in my flower beds and in my compost pile too.  They add acid to the soil, and the herbs LOVE them.  Last year my basil grew by leaps and bounds on a diet of coffee grounds.  This year I’m sharing the grounds with ALL my plants. 

Lord, I just hope my new gardenias like coffee!

Day 316: Keeping It Simple

My most recent Facebook status update went something like this: “People are always for healthy lifestyle change until it affects their lifestyle.”  I was in a rather sullen mood this weekend, despite it being the most glorious weekend of the Church year.  It felt like everywhere I turned somebody was throwing one more excuse in my face as to why traditional Easter candy with all its preservatives and artificial colors is okay (duhhhhhh, Mom!), frozen pies from God-knows-where are perfectly acceptable, and crappy chemical ingredients are just fine as long as “it tastes good!”  

So I threw a tantrum.  Yep.  Lenten promise #3 out the window.  I actually let out a primal scream.  One dog came to see what was wrong and the other dog ran and hid.  My husband blinked at me in disbelief. I have to admit, I felt much better after that.

I can see a bit more clearly now, and I have profusely apologized to all the heartbeats in my home for the inappropriate disruption to our daily lives.  Many thanks to my sister-in-law, Kasie, who served as my light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel on Sunday, and brought me back to myself. 

So what do you do when it seems all hope for healthy change is spiraling down the toilet at breakneck speed?  I mean, aside from yelling at everyone you love and accidentally wounding yourself in your own Tasmanian-devil-style fit? 

You find something small, and you focus on that one thing until you can mentally (and emotionally) handle everything else.  I focused on my garden and flowerbeds.  They look lovely. 

This whole spiral-into-oblivion got me thinking about little ways in which we can make healthier choices – little bits of good that we can focus on until the rest is manageable.  Here’s my tentative list of little things to do that can eventually lead to big change:

• Change your makeup remover and/or moisturizer.  I’ve been using almond oil as moisturizer exclusively for two months now, and it works really well.  It’s relatively inexpensive, totally natural, and a little goes a long way.  Making this one change will save your face from at least nine chemicals a day.
• Switch to buying organic milk and/or eggs.  Just this one little change to your habits can make a big difference for you and your family.
• Buy small quantities.  Mega grocery stores and warehouses are great if you consume a trailer-load of food and disposables in a relatively short time period.  But I always found that buying food in bulk made me waste more.  It’s very hard to break the habit of thinking I need to “stock up” on something, especially if it’s on sale, but refocusing on what I will actually consume in a smaller period of time helps keep my grocery budget in check. 
• Buy one or two versions of organic fruit or vegetables. Think of the fruits or vegetables you’re going to want to eat or cook with this week, and buy the organic variety this time.
• Plant your favorite herb and use it fresh while you cook.  Fresh herbs make any dish better, and knowing where it came from and how it has been treated is an added benefit you can enjoy every time you cook.  Plus, plants are happy little fellas. 
• Drink 8 ounces of water right when you wake up in the morning.  I have not done this exclusively yet, but I did it for a while during the winter and I noticed that it helped me continue drinking water through the rest of the day.   Water makes your skin healthy.  Healthy skin doesn’t show age as fast.  Where’s my glass????
• Plan two meals a week, if you’re not on a meal planning schedule already.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, but put real effort into it.  Having a plan ahead of time makes the cooking more fun, and the meal more enjoyable.    And just think of the money you’ll save by not eating out!
• Drink a glass of green tea a day.  Add some orange or lemon and honey to it for some flavor. 

Well, that just about exhausts my wee little mind for the day.  😉  I’m off to move the sprinkler so my new flowers can drink up.

Day 306: While I Am Out…

I am presently on my way to a family reunion with my parents, leaving behind Dom and the kids to manage our household and care for each other. Before I left this morning, I assigned each person a chore to keep them busy while I’m away.

I told my son that he is responsible for watering my garden each day when the sun is not shining directly on it. “Water it real good so it’s not thirsty,” I told him, knowing that he would appreciate any chore that involves water.

Vic began to get offended that Aaron scored the watering chore, and that’s when I told her that she is responsible for making sure Mason (the older dog) gets his medicine each morning and night and gets his ears cleaned. I know Dom will take care of Mason in my absence, but its easy to forget that he needs the meds when he no longer appears sickly, and I know Vic will supply the proper amount of nagging. 😉

And then I asked Dom to please not let me come home to a houseful of dirty laundry on a Sunday night.

Everyone agreed to their assigned chores and bid me a safe trip before they left for school and work. Please send some positive-energy, you-can-make-it-without-mama vibes their way to get them through the weekend.

I’ll be back on Monday, friends. 🙂

Day 304: Let the Sprouting Begin!

Recent weather has been custom-made to order, so the garden project is officially underway.  I had a few issues come up over the past few weeks, but here’s how everything played out:

Not-So-Square-Foot-Gardening:  I was supposed to make my soil mixture from equal parts peat moss, vermiculite and multi-ingredient compost.  And to fill my 15×5 foot raised bed, I calculated that I would need 14 cubic feet of each.  I bought the peat back in February at Home Depot.  The vermiculite and compost were going to be another story altogether.  For starters, vermiculite is pretty hard to come by locally. Shipping was going to cost me twice the vermiculite price, so that put a pretty good pause on my planning.  My second issue was that the compost needed to be multi-ingredient compost, not just single source stuff.  One day while driving home down I-49 with the kids I told them to read the landscape supplier’s phone number off of the big red sign looming over the interstate so I could inquire about their compost.  I dialed them up, and whaddaya know? Their compost is multi-ingredient, with peat and wood chips already in it.  The gentleman explained that wood chips serve the same purpose as vermiculite in the compost.  Taaa-daaaa.  (Yes, I returned the 7+ bags of peat to Home Depot!) That Saturday, we filled Dom’s truck bed with 1½ yards of compost, which was actually more than enough for my garden area.  The next weekend the planting would begin!

We grid the garden area with string in accord with the SFG guidelines, and I mentally ran through the list of what I would plant.  The whole family was excited about the planting…for about twenty minutes.  Then I suddenly noticed I was the only one standing in the garden.  To make matters worse, every dang square looked just like the others, and I couldn’t tell where I had just planted.  So I have accidentally married Sugar Snap Peas and Squash in one square and Carrots and Parsley in another – may the best sproutlet win.

 Now, since my garden is growing from seed, it looks nothing like the wonder of my friend Sabrina’s garden.  She has beds all over the place, and although her crops are new they already look healthy.  I love that so many people are backyard gardeners!  Healthy food makes healthy meals, and if you look at Sabrina’s site, you’ll see that her meals look delicious as well!

So, here we are in our third week of gardening and I have tiny sprouts in every square except the asparagus, parsley and thyme sections.  Itty-bitty carrot sprouts, some ADORABLE squash sprouts, peppers, spinach, and even my green beans and basil are peeking through the soil.  Aaron’s Science Fair cherry tomatoes are standing tall, and the other tomato sprouts seem to have adjusted equally well to their new home.    Eeep!!

A cousin to the backyard garden, my front flowerbeds suffered quite a bit this winter, but I have noticed some lilies, begonias, mums and geraniums returning with gusto.  And my hostas and hydrangeas are rebirthing themselves too!  My next addition to the front of the house will be some Double Knock-Out Roses, and I think I’ll plant more herbs in the front beds too.  Let’s see just how leafy we can make it over here!

Day 264: Welcoming the Worms

Tags

compost, garden worms, red worms, Uncle Jim's Worm Farm

TAA-DAA!!  The worms have arrived!  Happy and squishy and ready for their new home, they came shipped to me in a fabric drawstring bag stuffed into the kitchen scrap canister that I ordered.  They sat on my desk through most of yesterday.  Then at quittin’ time I asked if they were ready to go home.  They answered with a resounding “YES!” (actually, they wiggled a little) and I scooped the box and headed to the car. 

Confession:  I seriously believed that I might be totally creeped out by the worms. Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm site has the cutest little cartoon compost worms in the header, and that kept everything comical for me.  (See this little dude?)  But the moment of truth came when I was told my worms had arrived, and a large brown box was placed on my desk.  Three co-workers watched as I opened the box, and for a moment I thought I might totally wig out and do that embarrassing (yet completely uncontrollable) oh-my-god-there’s-a-bug-in-the-room dance. 

But, I mean, c’mon.  They’re just worms. 

I thought to myself as I cut into the box, “You can do this.  These worms are going to help in the compost pile and be an integral part of all this gardening you plan to do.  You are going to have to be cool with them squirming around you.  Cowgirl up, Lori.”

So I did.  I watched them closely for a while at my desk.  But they were in a state of shock, I think, what with their Postal Service ride and all.  I gave them something to drink and let them rest.  When I brought them home we went out to the compost pile and I watered it down a bit.  Then just as the instructions said, I poured the mass of 2,000 worms out onto the top of the compost and ceremoniously covered them with the handy piece of newspaper provided by Uncle Jim. Within 24-48 hours they should be over their travel experience and start doing what worms do best.  I think they will be happy here. 

And I think I’m going to like having them around.  They kinda grow on ya. 

I know… Eww.  🙂

Day 261: Waiting on Worms

I started my compost pile already, which is to say that I have initiated a spot in the yard which shall henceforth hold fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, rabbit litter, leaves and pine straw.

And worms.

Eep! Yes, I mail ordered worms. True, I probably could have gone to my local marina and bought some regular old earthworms suitable for fishing, but would the marina have thrown in a $20 kitchen compost canister to hold a couple days’ scraps?? In my choice of black or white? Oh, I think not.

Hey, if I’m gonna buy worms, I figure I should at least get some sort of perk with the deal, right? It’s kinda like buying shoes from a store that sells the matching purse.

Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm shipped 2,000 red worms to me yesterday morning. I should have the little fellas in a day or two. And then I will show them their new home, a small-ish flowerbed area in the back yard which was originally intended to hold hostas and hibiscus. With no immediate plans to officially detail the planter, we decided it would be a great compost holder for the time being.

I have had some concerns about my compost area because of some articles I read that implied my pile needed to be 3 feet high or it wouldn’t get warm enough to do its thing. My pile is only going to be a foot high at best. But Mickey, my co-worker and source of information on all things garden, says my pile should do just fine.

I did have to put some tiny wire over the pile so Mabel won’t go all crazy in it. She is only moderately interested in it now, but I fear if she digs around in it, my potential compost will be all over the yard before its time.

I hope the composting works out, and I hope the worms like their new home. I want a happy garden. 🙂

Day 253: The Garden Groove

Spring is just around the corner and I am R-E-A-D-Y.  I spent Sunday in the backyard getting particular seeds ready for the growing season, partly because it is really time to do that sort of thing, and partly because I am sorely impatient when it comes to starting new projects.  I just can’t wait until my garden is bursting forth with food for all!!

Ok, I’ll settle down a little. 

I have some practical seed organization tips for any of you who can’t resist buying those cute little seed packets.   I have confessed more than once my natural tendency toward frugality, so I’m sure you aren’t surprised to learn that I choose to grow things from seed because of the cost factor.  HOWEVER, I have only had about 40% success growing from seed in the past.  (Recall my previous confession about my habitual neglect of my plants’ thirst…)  And to answer your next question, YES, I am willing to ride hell-west-and-crooked to make this garden succeed.  It is, after all, expected to feed us throughout 2011 and beyond. 

Wanna know what I plan to grow?  Sure ya do.  Herbs: basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, mint and oregano.  Vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, peppers, sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots, eggplant, and onions.  Leafy greens: arugula and spinach.  Flowers: lavender and marigolds. 

Did I mention that I have 75 square feet of garden to fill?  And no, with all of this in the list, I am still not going to fill the garden.  That’s okay, though. I gotta have room to walk through it and work, so there will be patches of veggies within the confines of the garden. 

I have decided to use the Square Foot Gardening technique for this venture, since it offers sound advice with the goal of minimizing effort and maximizing reward. (And I found an app to help me plan the garden space.)  I still have to purchase some soil components before I can grid off the area.  But so far I have bricked the border and installed a fancy fence just inside the brick to keep the dear Miss Mabel (our black lab) out of the goods. 

And now here’s the organization tip you’ve been waiting for (with bated breath, right?!):  Since I have a bajillion seed packets now, and some seeds (thyme!) are so incredibly small it makes me wonder how in the heck they ever found the seeds to begin with, I devised a plan for storage and seed preservation.  After all, an open packet of seeds is likely to be spilled.  I use the snack-size zip-top baggies for seed packets (the store-brand baggie, of course). The regular size seed packets fit perfectly in the bag – one bag per seed variety.  If your packet is larger, as some of mine are, simply fold it in half to fit. 

Get one of those photo storage boxes from Hobby Lobby or Michaels which are the perfect size to store all the seed bags.  The dividers that come with the box work great for separating different kinds of seeds, if you have a lot.  And since I have more bags of seeds than I realized, I also used the tiny return address sticker labels (Avery 8167) to put on the top corner of each bag so I can easily find the seeds I’m looking for.  Oh yeah, I alphabetized them too.  ;0  Did you really think I wouldn’t????

With the help of the Farmer’s Almanac, it looks like I need to go ahead and get my tomatoes and peppers started indoors.  So I planted a whole bunch of seeds today.  And I decided to go ahead and get my herbs going too.  Victoria is responsible for one pot of rosemary, at her request.  And the already sprouted seedlings?  Those are from Aaron’s Science Fair Project!!

So there it is, folks…my first step toward becoming an actual gardener.  Wish me luck!