Container Gardening Book Recommendation

I recently purchased a book to help me with my garden. After several hours at Barnes & Noble, I came across "The Bountiful Container" by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. It seemed to be full of useful content and included all of the plants I own. I purchased the book and after several hours of reading, I am so glad I purchased it! If you are just starting out or are several years in, this book will give you useful tips and advice on how to handle your plants, from start to finish. It's organized well and user friendly. I highly recommend it!

Wilbur the Pepper Plant

Good things come in small packages. This is true in the case of one of my pepper plants. I have named him Wilbur, as in Wilbur the pig from Charlotte's Web. Wilbur is the runt of the family but is quite the pepper producer. My theory is that since Wilbur isn't expending energy on growing tall, the energy is spent on producing the peppers. As of today, the count is 7 peppers on Wilbur.  The size difference between Wilbur and the other plant, as yet unnamed (I'm open to suggestions) can be seen in the photo below. It's a big difference! 

The larger pepper plant has produced 2 peppers so far. More are clearly coming, but it's not nearly as productive as Wilbur. Good ol' Wilbur. 

Wilbur the pepper plant is on the left, obviously.

6 of Wilbur's peppers can be seen here. It's a bit of a 'Where's Waldo' to find the 6th one in this pic.

The larger pepper plant has fewer peppers, but they are bigger, as seen here.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" may be a children's book, but the darn things are so not cute. Why do we lie to our children????

I just googled the type of caterpillar I found on my tomato plants the other day and found this blog with information and a photo.  http://greenfrieda.blogspot.com/2009/06/tip-4-there-will-be-bugs.html

Going through recent photos, I realized I snapped a photo of one without even knowing it was there!!!

Tomato hornworm. Eeewwwwww.

It's called a tomato hornworm and eats everything! Has anyone had success in keeping these things away? Any tips or tricks?  And how do they even get to my plants since I'm on the 2nd floor? I check on my plants every day and stare at the wonders growing there. How did I not see them until they were big, fat, and well fed?  They do blend in with the plant with their color, but still.

So far, I've found 3 of them on my plants. They are big, green and just nasty. If you read the description on the blog above, they are squishy to the touch when they get big, which these were. Gross! I used a plant stake to flick the things to the soil and then a plastic cup to scoop them up and throw them over the side. Now that I know what they are and how much damage they can do, I realize I probably shouldn't throw them into my landlord's garden below as I've been doing. Granted, his garden is plants only, not edibles. (I personally think he's growing weeds, but whatever. To each his own.)

When I showed Chris a picture of what type of caterpillar I had discovered in our (my) garden, his first reaction was "I wonder if you can eat them."  Of course that's how he'd react.  Well, it turns out my friends, that you can. And in fact, they are supposed to be pretty good.  See a recipe here:  http://www.bertc.com/subfive/recipes/hornworms.htm

I don't need any opinions on this one. I'm not cookin' 'em! I have drawn a line and the caterpillars are clearly on the other side, not on my plate. 

Since these caterpillars can do some pretty serious damage, do I:

A) Toss the caterpillars over the railing into my landlord's garden - maybe it's a weed control method.
B) Toss the caterpillars over the railing onto the driveway that others use.
C) Kill them in soapy water, the recommended murder method? Again with the murder.

What would you do??

Beans, Bacon and Butt

I recently had one of the most pleasurable weekends ever. Friends, family, and food – a wonderful combination, and that’s just to start.  Put the word great in front of each of these nouns and multiply by some big number. Then you might begin to understand what a great weekend I had. 

It was Foodiepalooza and I had a front row seat. It was a weekend at my parent's house, the house where Mark and I grew up. The only thing that could have made it better was if Hubby had been able to come down for the weekend. Alas, work got in the way.


Let me give you the run down of the menu. I will be posting most of the recipes up on my new Recipes page. Check back soon for those.

• Green beans and a lesson on how to can them
• Pork butt (in massive amounts)
• Cole Slaw
• Potato Salad
• Aunt Fanny's Baked Squash
• Lentil Salad
• Baked Beans
• Deviled eggs
• Fresh guacamole and chips
• Chess Pie, 5 kinds (regular, chocolate, peanut butter, sweet mango tea, apple butter)
• Chocolate Cream Pie
• Bacon Moon Pies

I repeat, Bacon Moon Pies. I'll give you a moment to process that.  

This all started very organically. A couple of friends had this brilliant idea about learning how to can beans. Enough of us thought that it was an interesting thing to learn and we just decided to get together and do it! 

Throughout the weekend 15 people, friends and family, came by or stayed over to learn how to can beans. Everyone had to eat of course and my parents are great cooks, which is how we ended up with half of the menu above. The other half came about through random requests made by someone in the group. Because who could plan a menu like that??

Saturday was the big day.  My cousin Teresa was the teacher and she did a great job of showing us how the process works and what is supposed to happen and what's not supposed to happen. The point is to put your veggies in water in a jar and seal the can air-tight so you can open them in winter and eat your fresh veggies. Turns out the pressure cooker didn't work properly this weekend and there's a million and one reasons that could've happened. But our cans did seal themselves, after coming out of the pressure cooker and sitting for several hours. So we each went home with a prized can of beans!

And in the mean time, we had an amazing weekend of great conversations, food and general happiness. We had pork butt, a specialty of my dad's and now my brother Mark's too. They take a pork 'butt', which is really the butt end of a pork shoulder, put the spice mix on and cook it low and slow for most of the day. One of Mark's friends is a self-proclaimed 'occasionally kosher' Jew. So that he could feel less guilty about eating pork butt, we all referred to it as 'chicken butt'. If anyone made the mistake of calling it pork, the rest of the room shouted ‘chicken butt!’  And it somehow never got old. It still makes me smile.

As you can see from the list, we had a smorgasbord of desserts. Anh was responsible for most of the damage. Four chess pies and the bacon moon pies are her fault. It’s why we love her so.  She came over that morning laden down with the 4 of the 5 pre-made chess pies (regular, apple butter, sweet mango tea, and peanut butter. Mom made the awesome chocolate chess pie), bacon shortbread (using bacon grease instead of butter, no kidding), bourbon marshmallow fluff (still not joking), caramel (I wonder if any bacon was used?) and chocolate to melt and dip the shortbread sandwiches into.  I think my left artery just clogged up thinking about it again. Personally, I justify eating these because the shortbread cookies were small. Therefore, portion control was in place. Nevermind that I had 3 of them in just as many minutes.


My friend La-Verna pointed out that the people in attendance were a smorgasbord as well! People from all kinds of backgrounds. Both sides of my family were represented, which is a smorgasbord in and of itself. My mother is Chinese. My father is from east Tennessee (we call him hillbilly white). So my brother and I are our very own melting pot. Then you had our mix of friends from north and south, they were jewish, catholic, atheist, baptist, they had blond, brunette, black and red hair. Loud people, quiet people, and some of the most interesting senses of humor! In addition to my parents, Mark and me, 5 more people slept at the house. Which meant that the fun lasted through mid-day Sunday as well. We talked about nothing and everything: food (shocker!), politics and the future of this country (not necessarily the same thing), glass blowing, fashion school (go Melissa!), gardening and farming, jobs, making pottery, dogs, retirement, birds, and trapeze school. And I'm sure I'm missing 1,000 other things.

The weekend reinforced what gardening has taught me in a few short weeks. The simple things really are the best. The TV was on occasionally for a couple of people but it was by no means a focal point, which was a welcome break for me, at least.  I am a gadget girl through and through. I love getting the latest technology (although I usually have to wait until the price is marked down. Ipad anyone?) and can't imagine ever not having these things.  But I've recently felt the need for a slower pace in life. Maybe that's just a result of getting older (not old, just older!). Whatever it is, sitting around the table most of the weekend, just enjoying interesting people and fabulous conversation was a special treat that I will always remember. So although the title of this blog post is all about food, it's really the people that made this post worth talking about.


Below are a bunch of photos of the wonderful people who were part of a great weekend.

"And then I added bacon in this food!" ~Anh

Mark cutting the "chicken" butt, Melissa at the table, Richard - still in his corner.

Benny, Mark and Josh (he's literally a master gardener who I will be pestering with questions!)

La-Verna, Mom and 1/2 of Josh

Melissa, Mom, and Teresa- the canning expert

Richard, in his favorite corner: a rare moment when he wasn't eating pie! 

My parents' garden on the side of the house.

The backyard.

Beau-dog, protecting us from birds, from his place under the bench.

Month 1 Garden Update

It has been 1 month to the day since I have started my gardening journey. And people, I've done it! I have grown a tomato!!! There's a scene in the movie Castaway where Tom Hanks spends weeks trying to start a fire. And then when he finally does it, he yells, to no one at all, "I have made fire!" That's how I feel. I have made 'maters!!


What has appeared are a couple of the cherry tomatoes. That's right, a couple of them. Meaning, 2, which is more than 1. So, not a fluke, right? 

I do remember this being the plant that I didn't want in the first place. It was the mistake purchase. And now I am sooo glad I got it. It's given me my first success, and momentum to continue with this! When my flowers wilt, my tomato leaves curl (on a different plant), and my pepper flowers turn brown and fall off, these 2 little round green things are keeping my spirits totally alive. Thank you cherry tomatoes! When can I eat you?


Photos of my 2 new babies are below. As well as a comparison from day 1 and day 30. Amazing. I think I'm liking this whole gardening thing.

My first cherry tomato!

Notice the 2nd tomato in the back. Success!

My Garden, Day 1

My tomato plants, 1 month from purchase - not a bad progression!

Oh right. This is the reason I needed the good news of tomato growth. No more petunias on this side of the pot.

It's Hard Always Being Right

To quote myself in my recent post titled Blobster, talking about Chris and me: 'Disagreement is our MO.' 


Hubby read the Blobster post tonight and this was our conversation:


Hubby: 'That's not true. Disagreements aren't our MO. We don't disagree a lot.'
Me: 'I think we do. We aren't mean and they aren't serious disagreements, but we do disagree.'
Hubby: 'Well I don't think we do.'
Me: 'Well, I think we do.'


See? I win. So sad.

Herbilicious!

I am so proud!! I just finished my first meal using products from my garden. I came across a super simple recipe highlighting herbs. It's pasta, I used whole wheat, with herbs and olive oil. That's it. You cut the herbs and put them in a bowl, heat olive oil and pour over the herbs. Pour al dente pasta over the herbs and oil and mix! I added a little grated pecorino romano cheese on top too. De-LISH-ous!

It truly highlighted the herbs that I used. I used basil and chives since that's what I'm growing, of course. I have more chives than basil so I used more chives than basil. I realize that's a logic that may take you awhile to understand. Such complex concepts are for the uber-brilliant, you see.

I forgot to take photos before I dug in, so below are the pics of the leftovers. Hubby is recovering from a small bout of food poisoning so food just isn't his thing at the moment. Okay - more for me! (And before you even ask, let me cut you off at the pass. NO, I did not poison him.) He still had a bite and I think he enjoyed it. At least, he had this twitch that I'm interpreting as a twitch of approval. Really, you must try this if you can. And the scent of the basil being brought into the apartment just can not be beat. If nothing else grows in my garden this year, I may be disappointed but I have a feeling the glow from the simple success of tonight will last me a good long while.

Whole wheat pasta, basil, chives, olive oil, pecorino romano cheese, salt and pepper

Blobster (Blogging Lobster?)

I love long weekends. Especially ones that don't involve complicated logistics up or down the east coast. Just an extra day off from work with not much to do. That's what makes Independence Day a cool holiday. King George did us all a favor when he imposed taxation without representation. That move paved the way for 3-day weekends for most of America. Good ol' George. (We'll just gloss over the anger, war, death and destruction part. 3-day weekends are so much more fun and I'm choosing to stay positive here.) 


Why did I love this particular 3-day weekend? Several reasons: 1) Lobster  2) A spontaneous visit from my mother-in-law from upstate New York and 3) a trip to Long Island for more good seafood with someone who owns an actual car.


There is only room in this post to talk about the lobster, which caused a sizable disagreement in our house. Not a surprise, really. Disagreements are our MO. Have you ever seen that movie The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston? BIG, big fight over that movie. If you've seen the movie, it's the scene in the beginning about the lemons that started it all. I know. Utterly ridiculous. But I won, hands down. And since I'm the one with the blog, that's how it's going down in history. Ha! Major benefit to blogging just discovered. 


So anyway. Lobster. Chris and I enjoy many, many, many (many x infinity x 10) kinds of food. My waist line can verify that. And lobster is one of our all-time favorites. I thought it would be a good idea to stay home and away from the crowds, get a couple of lobsters, some enticing sides and a few beers, and kick off our first long weekend of the summer in chillaxin' style. That's right. Chillaxin'. 


We have cooked lobster a couple of times before, although quite unexpectedly. We order most of our groceries from FreshDirect, a food delivery service in New York, and they sell local lobster. You can buy them live or have them split for you. The first 2 times we ordered, I asked them to split the lobster. FD fail. I was met at the door by moving, creepy crawly antennae. You can imagine the shock. The solutions to any live lobster situation are to boil the lobsters and watch them squirm or split them in half with a knife, while still alive, Julia Child style. Neither option is appealing. I have always loved Julia Child and realizing the courage it takes to split a live lobster and the nonchalant way she handled it just made my respect for her skyrocket. I could blog about that, but someone's beat me to it. We decided to boil the red ocean-rodents.  


First we had FD fail. Then I had husband fail. Chris refused to boil the lobsters. He didn't want to be in the room, didn't want to watch, but you bet he wanted the tasty results! Call me crazy, but I was not at all appreciative of his new PETA like stance. Okay, he's not like PETA, but the end result is the same. It left me with this awesome (as in big, not cool) responsibility. Chris did participate by googling how to treat our latest house guests and told me that I had to rub their backs to help them calm down before I killed them. Seriously?? I huffed and I puffed and I squealed and I squirmed. Then I rubbed their weird little backs and I boiled. (On a side note, I realize that this is the 2nd blog post including murder in a very short amount of time. Curious.)


The 2nd FD fail upset me, but FD credited 100% of the lobster price for their goof. Okay, I can deal with that. This third time, I didn't even ask them to split it. I'll do it my damn self! I am woman! 


When I suggested the idea to Chris a couple of weeks earlier, he was not loving it. 
Me: "Why don't we order lobsters for July 4th weekend?"
Chris: "Nah. I don't think I want to."
Me: "Why not?"
Chris: "Because I don't want to have to kill them."
Me:  Blank stare. ".......??????......."   


Then:
Who do you think you are?? YOU don't want to have to kill them? What do you mean YOU don't want to kill them? YOU think it's a pain? YOU'RE the guy who REFUSED to help ME!!! Now I'M the one wanting to order them knowing I have to do all of the work anyway! What the hell?!?!


I ordered lobsters. That'll show him. I'll go against his wishes and order the lobsters because I want to, dammit. Then he'll enjoy eating them, feel guilty about it and THEN he'll see who's boss! HA! 


After all of that arguing, July 4th weekend comes around and guess who decided to watch the kill? That's right, Hubby!! This time, of course, our lobsters decided to give me more trouble than ever before. Flexing their rubber-banded claws so they couldn't fit in the pot, they reminded me of Sebastian the lobster in The Little Mermaid in that kitchen scene. But not as much singing. Then, Chris decided to lift the lid at one point and one of the claws shot up and sprayed a small bucket of water on us, a la Julie & Julia. After all that drama, the meat was just okay. But the sides and the beer and the long weekend made up for it. 


So what's the point of this blog? Nothing really. 3-day weekends are awesome. Killing lobsters is not. Oh, and I'm always right. :)

Victim #1

  

Victim #2

Punked

I've been punked. By birds. They're like Ashton Kutcher without the punch line. I like strawberries and it turns out birds do too. I woke up the other morning to a disheveled strawberry bed and ditto on the beefsteak tomatoes. It's like they thought it would be fun to kick a bunch of my dirt out. That's expensive dirt and I don't appreciate that. 


Two of my strawberry leaves had been torn up by the roots and thrown aside. These birds mean business! On 2 of my tomato plants, birds left me a little present too. How nice of them. Bleccchh! I'm not sure what to do about that, but I figure that's just nature. Soil is manure so who cares if it comes from birds, right? 


I had been considering if I should buy netting and/or pesticide and this just solidifies my decision. I got both.  Take a look at my ruined strawberry leaves. I'll spare you the bird poop. You're welcome.

NOT WHERE I LEFT THEM:

2 STRAWBERRY LEAVES WITH ROOTS