Nuclear Power PLANT

I have been given a gift. This particular gift has put me to shame and caused significant humiliation, but it is a gift none-the-less. Christine, a summer intern at work, has a dad who gardens - Charlie. Charlie started growing things 3 or 4 years ago in his big backyard on Long Island and does both in ground and container gardening. The first (and only) time I met him I lobbed a ton of questions his way. Poor guy didn’t know what he got himself into.

I’ve been ferrying gardening questions to him all summer through Christine and would expect her to report back with the answers (wasn’t that part of an intern’s job description??). Halfway through summer, before we met but after a couple of questions and answers were exchanged, Charlie sent a gift my way via Christine: a zucchini. It was a beautiful thing and engendered no jealousy because I’m not growing zucchini. It was just a random act of kindness that I could enjoy. I thought I needed to share so I made zucchini bread with it and brought it into the office. 

At the end of summer, to celebrate Christine’s last day of work and her 21^st birthday, a group of us, including Christine’s parents, celebrated at a local dive bar. Christine met us at the office, bearing another gift from Charlie, whom I would meet in a few hours. It was a tomato. A beautiful, ripe red tomato. When I tell you it was huge, I mean it was HUGE. It must have weighed close to a pound. See? 

Almost the size of my entire hand!

Larger than my laptop's mouse pad!

Christine thinks that there is something wrong with her dad's garden - some sort of nuclear power source that makes her dad's vegetables of seriously substantial size. It's a nuclear power plant!! (Hehe, get it??) Christine would often show me photos of the products of her dad's garden, and I have to say - something unnatural may have been at work here. Do people really grow things THAT large?? He needs to enter a state fair.

Whatever the cause of the super-size veggies, I was showing everyone. 

"Look, look! Look at what Charlie grew!!"

 The typical answer was "Oh my god, that's huge!" 

A few minutes later followed by "Okay, Lindsay, we get it. It's a big tomato. Shut up." 

I was so proud of a fellow gardener and the potential of any home garden. It took me a few hours to really start thinking about his tomato as compared to mine. But eventually I got there. I was shamed and humiliated by my measly success with 1 small (but delicious) cherry tomato. When I brought the tomato home, Chris looked at it and immediately said, "Wow. What are YOU doing wrong?" Seriously!

Nevertheless, I intended to fully enjoy this gift. What do you do with such a big fruit? Make it the star! The easiest was to have a slice of tomato with some of my own home-grown basil, plus olive oil, salt and pepper. I would have added mozzarella, but I didn't have any, and it didn't really need it anyway. Deeee-lish! 

Nuclear tomato + home grown basil = absolute goodness.

So although I am humbled by this gift, what Charlie has done is show me the possibilities. He has shown me the potential if I keep at it and continue gardening and learning. Faith in my own abilities to grow something organic, natural and nutritious and I could one day have something like The-Tomato-That-Charlie-Grew. 

Okay. I'll keep at it. Thanks Christine and Charlie for the inspiration!

Leaving the Garden @ Home

I tested my garden's love for me and I am merely mildly loved. Sigh. Each year my in-laws spend a week in the same beach house on the same beach and do nothing but eat lobster and bake in the sun. Not a bad situation and a tradition I have joined since Chris and I were engaged. However, this year came with new anxiety: being away from my garden. Five days is the longest I have ever left my garden and it is the first time I haven't also left Chris at home to water them. I imagine leaving your garden for the first time is like the first time you leave your child with a babysitter. (This is in no way a reflection of my current expectant status. Keep that imagination alive, Mother.)

To help with maintaining proper hydration I asked my landlord, a master of uselessness, if he would be willing to water my plants each morning. Both my husband and my mother were skeptical about the answer I would receive. But I had faith in good ol' Good-fer-Nuthin'. And my faith was rewarded with 3 out of 5 days hydration. Good-fer-Nuthin' and his wife, Hilga (also an alias, but it fits. In a somewhat-related note, she also reminds me of Madam Mim) were going away for the weekend. Not bad, all in all. May he be newly dubbed Almost-Good-fer-Nuthin'.

I could have gone with one of those water hydration systems that you leave in your plants and they supposedly water automatically, as needed. Although very intriguing and an item now on the Christmas list (hello families?? are you out there? Amazon.com if you please!), it feels exorbitant to spend money on all the little watering bulbs I would need so 3 out of 5 days from Good-fer-Nuthin' will have to suffice.

After a severe weather failure (check out this link for a quick taste of that), we came back from the beach whiter than when we left but nonetheless relaxed and having spent good quality time with the family.

But, of course, I was nervous about how my plants had done without me. Would they seek their revenge for my having left them with a crazy Russian? Or would they feel even more neglected by me having now been cared for by someone who clearly knows how to grow things (Never mind that they're weeds; they're strong, healthy weeds).

As I said before, I am mildly loved. Photos will come as soon as I figure out how to transfer PC files to my shiny new Mac. (It's sooo preeettttyyy.)

Here's the verbal rundown:

• Chives - check. 
• Basil - a little wilted, but check, they'll spring back in no time. 
• Tomatoes - check, no harm seems to have been done and 1 more cherry tomato is definitely reddening up.  I don't even see any more black spots! Hoorah for small victories! (knock on wood)
• Peppers - check-ish. I have a couple of small black spots on the ends of a couple of them. Is that my fault, is it Almost-Good-fer-Nuthin's fault, or the pepper revenge? Why are things turning black in my garden? I've been fairly regular about my watering habits now - maybe Almost-Good-fer-Nuthin' was not as religious?
• Strawberries - NO check. They are wilting at a scary pace. Several are just black and rotted. Could this also be blossom end rot or a disease? What is happening??? 

The few small strawberries that haven't turned black are eaten almost immediately because we'd rather eat small strawberries than none at all. They definitely need to be left on the plant longer. I choose to think of this as them being mad at me for leaving them and not because I did something wrong. After all, plants are living things. They have feelings and mine are clearly the sensitive kind. More are still growing in so maybe now that I'm back they'll be okay.

Anyone have any ideas why this could have happened? When I post pictures I would love any opinions on whether this is a disease spreading throughout my containers or blossom end rot which is user error and completely fixable. I need help!!

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