Sorry I've been so remiss in writing. This situation will change as of this week. I have been doing many things, including some traveling, working on getting our kitchen remodeling plans done, keeping the house clean, cooking, working, working out and all kinds of other stuff. But documenting things here as well as having an outlet for creative writing and some photography is still something I want to do, so we'll see if I can change things around a bit.
More soon!
I finished digging the potatoes this weekend, and by measuring them on the bathroom scale, discovered that we grew over 61 pounds of them this year. We ate the split ones last night with some butter and a bit of milk- man, nothing beats homegrown potatoes!
I tried to find my Fedco order, to see how many I started with. I believe it was 6 lbs- 2.5 of red, 2.5 of white and 1 of fingerling, which results in a 10 to 1 yield, which is supposedly average.
Also, in other gardening news, I also picked the first brussel sprouts yesterday and topped the plants for the fall. We are going to have a boatload of these suckers. I boiled those that I picked with the potatoes, and we put our good vinagarette on them- I think I'm going to really enjoy them.
My tomatillos which keep on giving ( I haven't planted them at the garden but once, maybe 3 years ago, bu they come back every year as volunteers, and as long as I can figure out which ones they are in the spring and not pull them all out, I have tomatillos!) have been plentiful too. I've made chickpea chili 3 times and will probably put them on some kebabs soon.
Picking potatoes tonight! I just went by the garden and many potatoes were uncovered by soil and starting to turn a tiny bit green. The size seem to be good on them, so I guess it's ready to dig! This is one of my favorite gardening tasks.
The topic of how much of yourself to put on the Internet is a very interesting one. Blogs often seem to act as the personal diary of the writer, and it's fascinating that everyone can suddenly publish their thoughts for anyone interested to read. A very interesting look at how much disclosure is too much can be found here. It is a reaction to a blog post by a useful jobs/career writer named Penelope Trunk. Trunk posted about a recent visit to a marriage counselor with her husband, and I agree that the post was somehow a bit too personal. Finding the right balance of sharing your thoughts versus disclosing personal information is something that each person publishing on the Internet has to grapple with at some point in their life.
On the flip side of this discussion is the issue of the readers. It is a new dynamic in social situations now: if you post thoughts and details about your life to the Internet, it can change how you deal with people in real life. I pretty much always assume that no one has read what I write, but if they somehow had, this could mean that people would hear the same story twice (something I try to avoid). Of course, in person you can always ask for clarification, extend the story with your own reaction or any number of other responses.
Then there is the issue of people who you don't know very well, but you have stumbled upon their blogs. In this case, you may know more about them than you ever expected and so seeing them in real life can be a bit strange. "Yes, I know that you like to picnic naked in your backyard and that Van Halen is your favorite band... My name is Sarah..." That's just awkward, and it makes for a new social dynamic that isn't often discussed. I'm curious about how people have dealt with this in the past. It's not a big issue for me at the moment, as I tend to mention to everyone that I've read a recent blog post of theirs, which lets them know that I know. But there are blogs I read that I have just happened upon, and if I ever met those people, I think it would be really awkward.
Any thoughts?
WV Trip 008
Originally uploaded by aerniwow.
Due to all the travel, I haven't been writing here much lately. However, there are plenty of new pictures as a result. You can find them on my flickr page, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/99794795@N00/
Our community garden is going to be donating extra produce to the East End Cooperative Ministries this summer. Our first donation was last week, and it was only a big bag of chard and kale, but I'm pretty excited about it.
The guy there told me that this food will be added to the things given away at their food pantry, and in the two halfway type houses that they run. He said that anything is good, as they try to give produce along with canned items, and that greens are especially good.
I love the whole concept of this, and have gotten some very positive feedback on the idea from other garden folks. For one, it gives people a little more incentive to tend/weed/use their garden plots. It gives everyone a little more stake in the place. It also feels like it's ok to grow more than you can ever eat yourself, as it is likely going to people who may not get much fresh produce. Other organizations in our area do donations to this place too, so they are not dependent on us for produce, but I also like it that ours just comes from down the road.
help!
a random friend of Jeremy's girlfriend (got that?!) somehow decided to ship us 5 POUNDS of whole bean coffee for our wedding (which was over 8 months ago). It all arrived in the mail sometime during the weekend. What in the world are we going to do with this?
Now I like coffee, but I don't host parties much and I also don't drink more than one cup a day. My Mom gave me one pound of coffee for Christmas that lasted for about 4 months! I have also been reading about how coffee is best freshly roasted. So ahhh! This is a small problem. Anyone out there in my vast readership who has any ideas about how to get rid of this bounty?
Potatoes planted this year (on Earth day, April 22nd)
Chieftan (2.5 lbs)
Austrian Crescent OG (1 lb) - I think these were fingerlings
Keuka Golds OG (2.5 lbs)
I'll report back on how much they yield. When I went by the garden today, the heads were poking up across most of the rows. Jeremy helped me plant these, and they might have been a little close together, but we'll see).
Also, on Tuesday May 8th I planted some Cherokee purple and some German Johnson tomatoes at the Homewood garden. I also put in the rest of the brussel sprouts (that I didn't put at home), carrots, radishes and okra! Today I went by to water, and the brussel sprouts look like they came through the transplanting just fine.
Crazy for skipping stones
Originally uploaded by aerniwow.
What a fun way to spend a quarter hour on your 30th birthday- slowly throwing many flat rocks into a fast moving creek.
That's Andy, Jeremy, Stijn, Tina and me.
New screen door
Originally uploaded by aerniwow.
This picture shows off the new screen door that was one of our weekend projects. Jeremy gave me the door and the labor of putting it in as a birthday present.
We both love it!
