My Brown Thumb

Introducing Feastie: a Grocery List tool that shows you matching Coupons.

2011-03-17T05:20:00.005Z

I haven't been blogging for a while because I've actually been working really hard on another project...

Feastie is a brand new grocery list web app that sorts your groceries by aisle, produces a printable list, and lets you access your list on your phone with a mobile friendly version. What makes Feastie different from other grocery list apps is that it's the only one that shows you matching coupons for the items you put on your list. When you're logged in, your list is saved automatically, and you can even check back during the week to see if new coupons become available.

Please check it out and let me know what you think! I have a lot more planned for Feastie, so please "like" the Facebook page, subscribe to the new blog, or follow it on twitter.

Now that the weather is starting to warm up, I'll be back out there gardening again soon.

The Zucchini is Dead. Long Live the Zucchini!

2010-08-23T01:09:00.004+01:00

Just about one month after my Zucchini Emergency, when I discovered Squash Vine Borers killing it, I have a new, healthy looking zucchini plant. The old one died shortly after my post. And I planted this one immediately.

The bad news is that I caught one of these bad boys red handed, trying to lay eggs:

I shooed her away and inspected the plant for the tiny orange eggs. I found maybe half a dozen and squashed them. I'm keeping a lookout for more. If all goes well, I should get my first zucchini in about a month.

Build a Bat House to Save Bats from "White-Nose" Fungus

2010-08-07T19:50:00.002+01:00

The mysterious "white-nose" fungus that appeared on bats in the Northeast U.S. out of nowhere in 2006 could drive them to extinction within 20 years according to research published this week in Science. Whether you find bats cute or creepy, they're important because they eat insects, including mosquitoes. The 1 million bats that have died since 2006 would have eaten 694 tons of insects each year. That's hundreds of trillions of individual insects!

Bat ecologist Thomas Kunz of Boston University suggests building a bat house to provide bats a better summer habitat.

Photos credit: bcostin.

Zucchini Emergency!

2010-07-25T18:54:00.005+01:00

I'm super bummed right now. My zucchini plant went from having many healthy leaves and several blossoms just a few days ago to this sad state.

I pulled off most of the upper stem, which had turned to mush, and found at least three squash vine borers. M****rf***ers!!! I left the few relatively healthy remaining leaves out and covered the ravished stem with some soil in the hopes that it can put out some more roots and recover. I also planted a few new seeds as insurance. I know it's super late, but we could have two full hot months left, maybe I'll get some zucchini in October.

We'll see if it's able to make a comeback. I'll post an update in a few days.

Praying Mantis Among the Peppers

2010-07-19T05:09:00.004+01:00

I found this little guy hanging out in my pepper plants.

Here you can see him exploring the pepper plants a bit. In the background you can hear the good humor truck driving by and Max barking at it -- the sounds of summer.

Winners and Losers

2010-05-14T04:34:00.001+01:00

My kale is performing like a superstar. This is the second huge colander full that I've got since planting it in early spring.

My cabbage, however, is not as fortunate.

Bug-eaten and going to seed. I gave up on it and composted it after taking this photo. I like to think it at least served some purpose as a bug decoy -- keeping the slugs and bugs off the kale. Like Billy Bob Thornton says in Bad Santa "They can't all be winners, can they".

Back from hibernation (with strawberries)

2010-05-07T22:45:00.008+01:00

I actually came out of hibernation a while ago, and planted strawberries and other spring crops (mostly leafy greens) back in the middle of March. Today is the first day I've gotten more than one strawberry:

Unfortunately, somebody else got to the strawberries before I did despite my efforts with bird netting:

Who do you think it could be? Would a rabbit crawl under my netting? Or could a bird peck through it?

Here's the whole garden bed including the newly planted row of peppers and two eggplant plants. The rest of the space is for corn and melons which are hard at work germinating.

The other garden beds have got the leafy greens, some seeds just getting started, and herbs.

This one has got kale, spinach, chard, and Romaine lettuce. The cabbage is a little bug eaten and is starting to go to seed, so I'm thinking I'll start some beans in that spot after ripping that up and eating what I can. The spinach is also about ready to rip up. Kale and chard are still going. In the last row, I've got seeds starting for cucumbers, okra, and heirloom vine tomatoes.

This bed has arugula, mesclun mix, beets, radishes (the fastest growing), carrots, scallions, leeks, and okra (under the plastic salad box to help it germinate).

And this one has my herbs. The oregano is going crazy, and the thyme has just started to flower. The dill is just getting started, and the basil hasn't germinated yet. The rosemary (back, left corner) was just planted from a cutting I got from a friend. I'm saving the middle box for lemongrass!

Another bed, not pictured, has some leftover scallions and leeks that survived the winter, plus Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini getting started. The last bed is a flower bed, and I'm still working on getting that one ready. I got burnt out last year with building the bed. I'm hoping to start my flower seeds this weekend.

Anyone have ides for how to use tons of oregano?

Light the Night!

2009-10-14T21:37:00.006+01:00

This Saturday, I'm participating in the DC Light the Night Walk with team IMAGINATION DOMINATION.

Photo credit: Tsar Kasim.

Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's evening walk and fundraising event. It is the nation's night to pay tribute and bring hope to thousands of people battling blood cancers and to commemorate loved ones lost.

I was inspired to participate in the Light The Night Walk by my friend and team captain, Jessica.

Jessica started our team while she was undergoing treatment for acute myelogenous leukemia. Thanks to innovations in cancer treatment research; a generous, matching bone marrow donor; excellent care at Johns Hopkins; her own amazing, fighting spirit; and the support of many friends, family, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, Jessica is now in remission!

Jessica isn't the only person I know who has been affected by leukemia or lymphoma. One of my ex-roommates is a survivor of Hodgkin's disease and my best friend, Sharlette, is a survivor of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Here's Sharlette (right) and me (left) at Lauriol Plaza:

Every 4 minutes one person is diagnosed with a blood cancer. An estimated 139,860 people will be newly diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma this year.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) funds lifesaving research that has contributed to major advances in the treatment of blood cancers and treatments for other types of cancer, such as chemotherapy and stem cell transplants. These treatments have helped patients live better, longer lives. New targeted therapies that kill cancer cells without harming normal tissue are providing drugs and procedures that are improving quality of life.

So, what does this have to do with gardening or food? Well, not much to do with gardening, but we are having a food related fundraiser tomorrow. Our team is having an event at California Tortilla in Bethesda (4862 Cordell Ave Bethesda, MD). Mention the password "CURE" between 11am and 5pm and 25% of the sale goes to team Imagination Domination. You must say the secret password! Please come and show your support and ask your friends, family, and coworkers to stop by and get some yummy food.

You can also donate directly to the Light the Night walk here. You can donate in ANY amount and every little bit counts!!!

Don't shop at Yardiac.com

2009-08-03T15:45:00.006+01:00

I'm indulging in a bit of bloggers revenge here, but they deserve it. I'll keep the story short.

On June 21 I ordered 5 Soji Solar Lanterns from Yardiac.com for a total of $110.23.

Since I wanted them for a barbecue I was having the following weekend, I paid extra for 2nd day air shipping. On June 25, they still had not arrived. I called Yardiac's customer service and was told that my lanterns had still not left the warehouse. I canceled the order and bought something similar in a brick and mortar store nearby. A few days later, I notice on my credit card statement that Yardiac charged me for the lanterns that never shipped. I've been shopping online for a decade now, and I don't think I've ever been charged for something before it's shipped. On top of that, there was no credit for my cancellation! I called Yardiac's customer service again and was told that my pending credit was being processed by their credit department and that it would take 7-10 business days. Interesting. Yardiac jumped the gun to charge me, but are dragging their feet to credit me. As of today, it's been another credit card cycle and I still have no credit from Yardiac. So I filed a dispute with the credit card company.

To summarize: don't do business with Yardiac.com!

It's impossible to tell if Yardiac is extremely stupid or malicious or both. One could imagine that the inconsistency in how quickly Yardiac charges you versus credits you could be part of a scheme to keep more sales on their books at the end of the month, or before they go under, or are sold.

Update: Many similar stories about Yardiac are posted here. They definitely have a pattern of charging customers before items are shipped and not crediting them when they cancel.

Another baby veggie update

2009-07-14T01:46:00.010+01:00

A friend sent me this video after seeing my last post in which I compared corn to Beeker from the muppets. So on this evenings garden walk, I noticed that the corn now resembles Animal.

I also noticed my first baby bell pepper

and an eggplant!

My neighbors might think I'm crazy. Every time I see a new baby vegetable for the first time, such as with this eggplant, I squeal outloud "OMG, an EGGPLANT!" Then I repeat, "Max, it's an eggplant!" as if I'm talking to my dog and as if that makes me sound less crazy.

Baby Vegetables!

2009-07-09T04:46:00.005+01:00

Watching baby vegetables develop is probably the most exciting and satisfying part of vegetable gardening. It's part of what makes you feel connected to your food. The tomato I eat in a few weeks will be one that I've watched grow from the beginning. It's also fun to learn what vegetables look like as they grow. In previous years, I've only grown tomatoes and cucumbers. I've watched the flowers turn, overnight, into tiny, green fruits that grow rapidly, and then, in the case of tomatoes, turn from green to red at an agonizingly slow pace.

But I've never grown corn before. It wasn't until this past week, when my stalks grew taller than myself that I learned how ears of corn develop. First the male flower emerges from the top of the stalk.

Then bulges form under the leaves, along the stalk, with tufts of hair poking out where the leaf meets the stalk. These are the female flowers which become ears of corn.

They remind me of Beeker from the Muppets.

I wonder how many ears of corn I'll get. So far, some of my stalks seem to have two bulges forming. I only have 5 mature plants right now. They grow very quickly, and it could stay warm here until October, so I'm thinking of planting more.

In other news, my squash plant is just entering the flowering stage. It looks pretty happy despite having been squashed as a seedling by Max (again).

Many beans are forming.

The first tomatoes are emerging. These are cherry tomatoes, so they should ripen quickly. I need to cage them ASAP.

This eggplant flower seems poised to actually become an eggplant. The first few flowers dropped because we had too much rain. There are lots of blossoms on my plants, so I'm looking at a lot of baba ghanoush.

And Mimi gets in touch with her ancient roots by protecting my vegetables from rabbits and rodents. Or at least she's trying -- she doesn't know that they don't eat hot peppers anyway!

Tiger Mosquitoes: They're Ba-ack

2009-06-24T06:21:00.003+01:00

The mosquito population is just out of control. Even in the daytime, tiger mosquitoes are out in full force. Tonight I got eaten alive while watering my veggie garden. I'm not the type of wuss to complain about one or two bites. I'm talking about 20 bites in about 10 minutes.

I'm not the only one who's noticed. The mosquito population is officially out of control according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture. From WBOC:

The Maryland Department of Agriculture says the state's mosquito population is getting out of control. Officials say they current population is the most that they have seen in years.

Department of Agriculture officials say the region's heavy rainfall is causing a boost in the number of mosquitoes. Mosquito control field crews estimate the population by counting the number of females that land on the front of their bodies.

"Typically, this time of year we expect maybe 10 or 12 mosquitoes per minute. Right now. we are experiencing numbers upward toward 80-90 mosquitoes landing on us in one minute," said Daniel Schamberger, a Department of Agriculture spokesman.

I have the pheremone mosquito traps that I blogged about earlier, but if the mosquitoes are just breeding in neighbors yards, then it's not doing a lick of good. Much to my vexation, the site of a recently demolished house a few blocks away from me is now a big, muddy pond. Other neighbors on my street have birdbaths. F*cking BIRDBATHS! Would it be rude to point out to them that these are mosquito breeding grounds? I mean, would it be more rude than allowing a mosquito breeding ground to persist in your yard?

I wish someone would invent a product like Advantage or Frontline for humans, only instead of repelling fleas and ticks, it would repel mosquitoes and ticks. There would be huge money in this! There's this patch, but I'm skeptical about how well it works. Of course, I don't want to have to use DEET on a regular basis. I have found a product called Cutter Lemon Eucalyptus Repellent which seems to work well, actually smells kind of nice, and claims it is natural, though the label still says it can be harmful.

I'm concerned because I'm having a barbecue soon, and I'd hate to have mosquitoes ruin it. I'm planning on having a box fan blowing on my back porch area, as well as having citronella candles (not sure how well these will work together).

Are the mosquitoes out of control in your garden? What are you doing about it?

Photo credits: undertheturnpike and smccann. Video credit: Kida Yasuo.

Beer can chicken with potatoes

2009-05-17T02:19:00.005+01:00

Today, I grilled for the first time of the season. I made beer-can chicken with potatoes. My beer can chicken recipe comes from Taming the Flame: Secrets for Hot-and-Quick Grilling and Low-and-Slow BBQ, but I have my own trick for cooking potatoes on the grill at the same time.

Quarter a mix of golden and red potatoes and toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and whole, peeled garlic cloves in a narrow aluminum pan.
Cover the potatoes with foil, poke holes in the foil with a fork, and set aside.

Spread light olive oil all over the chicken and rub with a dry barbecue spice rub, inside and out. Pour a little bit of beer out of your can of beer, add a few pinches of the rub to the can. Put the can of beer up the chicken's uh, cavity. You can use a beer can chicken stand to help prevent the chicken from falling over on the grill. Use a 12 ounce can, otherwise your chicken might not fit inside your grill with the cover on.

I used this rub, which I bought from Balducci's.

Put the foil pan with potatoes in between the two piles of coals on the lower grill. Put the chicken directly above the potatoes so the drippings drip down onto them. Cover and cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. I use a digital meat thermometer so I can see the temperature without opening the lid and letting the heat out. It takes 60-90 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. I also put the giblets on a cast iron pan for Max.

The finished chicken was falling-apart tender.

The cooked potatoes:

Here's all the chicken drippings that dripped onto the potatoes:

Max in anticipation of his giblets:

I think he enjoyed them!

More reasons to not eat processed foods, as if you needed them.

2009-05-14T23:49:00.008+01:00

I pointed out earlier how the seemingly lax regulations given by Food Defect Action Levels Handbook mostly refer to canned, frozen, or otherwise processed foods. Today's NY Times reports that manufacturers of processed foods openly admit that they cannot guarantee safety.

Food Companies Try, but Can’t Guarantee Safety - NYTimes.com:

Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.

Yet the supply chain for ingredients in processed foods — from flavorings to flour to fruits and vegetables — is becoming more complex and global as the drive to keep food costs down intensifies. As a result, almost every element, not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede.

In addition to ConAgra, other food giants like Nestlé and the Blackstone Group, a New York firm that acquired the Swanson and Hungry-Man brands two years ago, concede that they cannot ensure the safety of items — from frozen vegetables to pizzas — and that they are shifting the burden to the consumer. General Mills, which recalled about five million frozen pizzas in 2007 after an E. coli outbreak, now advises consumers to avoid microwaves and cook only with conventional ovens. ConAgra has also added food safety instructions to its other frozen meals, including the Healthy Choice brand.

Convenience foods seem a lot less convenient if they might give you salmonella poisoning, don't they?

Photo from Don Solo.

The messy reality of my garden in its current state.

2009-05-13T19:00:00.000+01:00

So basically all of my seedlings died. I transferred a few of them, but they didn't make it. The ones I had inside got too leggy. The tomatoes in particular just turned purple in the stems, then the leaves turned yellow. I'm pretty sure it's mainly because I used the wrong kind of lights. I was really discouraged for a while, but life goes on. The garden must go on! I can't let this stop me after I've put so much effort (and um, money) into this project.

So I got some pepper and eggplant plants at a garden store, and everything else I'm starting from seed in the ground. This weekend I built another 4'x4' garden bed (veggie 2 in my garden plan) and I transplanted seven kinds of peppers and two eggplant plants. Some of the peppers already have flowers Plus I started melons, cucumbers, corn, and wax beans. I also just re-started the herbs that didn't make it from seeds. A week ago I built the 6'x6' garden bed (veggie 1 in the plan). Fortunately for me, I have long arms and can reach the middle just fine. I started two Roma tomato plants, one cherry tomato plant, and one crookneck squash plant from seed. Then I inter-planted more carrots, beets, leeks, and radishes. I took a tip from Joe Lamp'l and re-used some plastic containers as mini greenhouses in the hopes that it would help my tomatoes germinate -- we had some cool evenings last week. Whether it's due to the covers or not, the tomatoes have sprung up and look good so far.

Meanwhile, the spring vegetables seem to be doing mostly okay, despite some of the really hot weather we've had. The cauliflower and broccoli are starting to show teeny tiny heads. Only 2-3 cauliflower plants look like they might not make it or at least are way behind the others. On the plus side, if they die, we can plant more summer veggies in their place that much sooner. We really have plenty of cauliflower and broccoli.

Somebody has been eating the bok choi. I found a bunch of slugs on it, and caterpillars on the cauliflower and broccoli. I used the thumb and forefinger method on these little guys, which gave me great satisfaction. The caterpillars in particular bled a deep green as if they were filled with pure chlorophyll. I also scattered some coffee grounds. I haven't seen any uninvited guests since.

Besides that, this is the somewhat messy state of my garden.
Weeds are starting to appear, particularly poke-weed berries, which have enormous tap roots and are really hard to get rid of. I wish I had a picture of what this yard looked like when I moved in -- as messy as it looks now, it's still a great improvement. I'm not sure what to do with the areas between my garden beds. Some have grass (mixed with clover) some don't. I don't think it makes sense to put down straw between some and not others. (I also don't want to buy straw.) I'm thinking of just pulling up the most offensive weeds (dandelion and plantain type weeds) and letting the clover fill in. I actually don't mind the clover in the back yard as it doesn't need to be mowed as often as grass.

I still have to build the last of the garden beds which is for the flowers. Of all the seedlings that died, I am most disappointed about my delphiniums. I'm hoping that with plastic covers to protect them, I can get some seeds started in the ground. They probably won't produce flowers this year though. Bummer.

Lemon Ginger Miso Soup

2009-05-09T02:18:00.006+01:00

This is absolutely my favorite comfort food right now. Eating it has a wonderful calming effect on me. It's also super easy to make and the ingredients are all things that are easy to keep in stock.

The recipe is adapted from Super Cleanse: Detox Your Body for Long-Lasting Health and Beauty by Adina Niemerow.

3 cups water (preferably filtered)
1 crushed garlic clove
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons red miso
a few drops of sesame oil
vegetables of your choice (I use sliced mushrooms and small cubes of tofu)

Bring the water to a boil and add garlic, ginger, and vegetables. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add lemon juice, miso, and sesame oil. Stir to dissolve the miso and serve.

Dream Garden

2009-05-04T02:01:00.004+01:00

At the moment, my gardening is limited by the fact that I'm actually renting, so I'm not going to invest in many perennial plants or expensive installations of beds and trellises. My time is limited to what I can manage on (dry) weekends by myself. Lately my time has been extra limited because of a few very busy weeks with work related things -- you may have noticed I haven't been blogging for a while. Sorry about that.

Here's what I'd have in my dream garden if I weren't limited by time or resources:

Chickens. As a single dog and cat mother, I can't really take on the responsibility of any more animals right now. But I love reading about bloggers like Deetles, fast grow the weeds, and Bumblebee blog with chickens. I'm definitely getting chick envy. I'd love having fresh eggs from my own backyard everyday!

A pond. With frogs and goldfish and maybe a little fountain. I'd have to find some treatment to prevent mosquitoes though.

Ducks. Swimming in the pond. I hear they eat slugs and caterpillars but are quite a lot of work.

A small goat. Maybe those fainting goats because they're so darn cute. I'd have to research which goats give the best milk -- home made goat cheese would be amazing. Must give a shout out to Idaho Small Goat Garden, which is the main source of my small goat envy.

A bat house. Bats eat mosquitoes, and everyone hates mosquitoes. In case you haven't heard, right now bats in the Northeastern U.S. are suffering from a mysterious fungus that causes what's called white nose syndrome. Somehow the fungus disturbs the bats' hibernation causing them to starve over winter. Very sad.

A green house. I'd love to have spring vegetables year round. I may even try making a mini cold frame in at least one of my garden beds this winter. But eventually, I'd love to have one I can walk into.

Citrus trees. I'm a big fan of fresh squeezed citrus juice. I'd love as many of these as I could fit including grapefruits, tangerines, blood oranges, limes and lemons. I'm considering getting Meyer lemon tree in a container.

Berry bushes. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. Who doesn't love berries? I actually had a few small blueberry bushes when I owned my place in Ithaca, but they only lasted one summer. This year I'm trying to grow some strawberries in a container.

I may have to wait till I'm retired to manage what's basically a mini-farm, but I can dream for now.

What's in your dream garden?

Photos from jamesmorton, Sifu Renka, Tambako the Jaguar, vtenger4047, bcostin, Andwar, shawnogram, and Martin LaBar.

Angry rant about the mistreatment of tofu

2009-04-14T01:49:00.012+01:00

In accordance with the convention of giving nicknames starting with 'S' to Safeways in the D.C. area, I hereby dub the Safeway on Old Georgetown Road the "Sorry Safeway" or more elaborately, the "Sorry, we only have silken tofu today, Safeway".

I consider tofu a basic staple. I go through tofu the way some people go through milk or bread (neither of which I buy regularly). So when Safeway is all out of firm tofu, to me that's just as pathetic as if they were out of milk or bread.

Today, Martha Rose Shulman for the New York Times declared that tofu is not just for health nuts anymore. It may not be a super-food, but it is a good source of magnesium, iron, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, and of course, protein. Though it is NOT just a meat substitute. (It's actually more like cheese.) It shouldn't be put in a category with sodium laden, sorry excuses for food-like substances such as smart dogs. Tofu also has the advantages of being super easy to store safely (as opposed to meat), chop, season, cook, and digest.

A major grocery store should stock more than just a few pounds per day!

So with the rant out of the way, here's a recipe for marinated tofu that I learned from an ex-roommate:

1 part balsamic vinegar
1 part tamari
a few cloves crushed garlic (optional)
a teaspoon or so of grated ginger (optional)
a few drops of sesame oil (optional)

Chop the tofu according to your liking (smaller or thinner shapes will absorb flavor more quickly) and marinate for 1-24 hours. Then just sautee the tofu on it's own or add it to a stir fry. Serve with rice.

Photo from justinhenry.

Building beds and spring planting

2009-04-09T21:20:00.004+01:00

Just last week it dawned on me that it's getting late to plant the Spring vegetables. I am new at this afterall. So that lit a fire under me to finalize my plan and start building my beds.

As it turns out, the tomatoes I've started are determinate (bush as opposed to vine) types. I hadn't really paid attention to this before. I had been skeptical of the Square Foot Gardening method just because I remember how big my cherry and Roma tomato plants got last year. Well it turns out that Square Foot Gardening recommends that you give determinate tomato plants 9 square feet. Crookneck squash also need 9 square feet.

I've also decided that I should plant more varieties of fruits and veggies and less quantities of each. So I've gone slightly seed crazy. In addition to the plants I listed a few weeks back, I've decided to plant cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, bok choi, leeks, radishes, cantaloupe, watermelon, corn, lemongrass (thanks to a really helpful comment from lynn'sgarden), container strawberries, and a determinate variety of heirloom tomatoes.

I was yapping about all this to my friend Sharlette who lives in an apartment, and she mentioned that she wishes she could grow a garden. So we decided to do some yard sharing! She'll have a 4x4 plot in my backyard.

So with all of the above considered, I've come up with this new plan:

'Veggie 1' is a 6'x6' square where I'll plant two Roma tomato plants, 1 cherry tomato, and 1 crookneck squash, inter-planted with carrots, radishes, beets, and leeks to use the extra space while the tomato plant is still small. 'Veggie 2' will be for more summer fruits and veggies, to be determined. Last weekend, I built 'Veggie 3', 'Veggie 4' which is Sharlette's plot, and the 3'x3' herb box. Sharlette and I planted cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, bok choi, mesclun, carrots, radishes, beets, and leeks. Here's what it looks like so far:

Notice that the mess of ivy covering two stumps in my before pictures is now a single bare stump. That's because two weekends ago after I ripped up the ivy, I removed a huge rotted tree stump. Yes me. By myself. I'm definitely proud of this accomplishment!

Lemongrass poll

2009-03-31T23:40:00.008+01:00

I've been making a lot of tom ka soup lately, and I've been going back and forth between big chunks of lemongrass that are easy to pick out and small slices that are (somewhat) chewable. I don't think I like the texture of lemongrass much, so I'm leaning towards big chunks. I haven't tried mincing finely. What do you think?

Using Google Earth to map the garden

2009-03-31T01:49:00.018+01:00

I'm noticing a lot of other bloggers like haphazard musings and creations, Heavy Petal, and Kerri Conan on Bitten writing up explicit garden plans and it's making me realize that I ought to do more than just stick my plants in the ground with the tallest in the back. This post from The Urban Garden Project in particular inspired me look into the book All New Square Foot Gardening and think more seriously about my plan. In a nutshell, Square Foot Gardening recommends building 4'x4' square plots which are divided into 16 one foot squares. How many plants you grow in each one foot square depends on the type of plant. The idea is that you can reach the entire plot from each side, and eliminate wasted space.

So I've started by just mapping out where my vegetable beds should be. I grabbed a screenshot of an aerial view of my back yard from Google Earth and used the ruler tool to draw a line representing 4 feet:

Using Gimp (you can also use photoshop, but Gimp has the advantage of being free) I traced out the house and the shed, and drew other features of the yard on a layer:

On another layer, using the reference line I drew in Google Earth, I drew squares which scale to 4'x4'. I dragged these around to come up with this tentative plan:

The good news is that with this plan, I won't have much work to do in terms of removing sod -- I cleared away the area to the east of the shed, and along the north wall last year and now there are just some sparse weeds growing there. The bad news is that even if I ditch the fifth veggie plot, according to Square Foot Gardening, four plots is major overkill for just one person. But I already have four each of my two types of tomatoes, three types of peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and squash started. So I don't want to throw those out. I'd also like at least 4-6 square feet each of beets, carrots, and beans, 1 square foot each of my 8 types of herbs, and at least 8 square feet of mesclun and arugula (planted two at a time, one week apart). That's about 64 square feet.

I might be giving a lot of veggies away to neighbors and perhaps a food bank.

How to Build a Compost Bin in 15 Minutes for about $30

2009-03-24T22:35:00.001Z

I don't want to spend over $100 for a commercially made plastic compost bin, so I came up with my own solution using wire mesh fencing. I spent under $35 total for the materials and was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was to put together.

Here's how to build a similar compost bin. You'll need four 3' light-duty steel fence posts (under $2 each), about 12' of 2' vinyl coated wire mesh fencing (about $27 for a 50' roll -- I'm going to use the leftovers to keep my dog out of the veggies), a mallet, and wire cutters. You can use 4' posts with 3' mesh if you want a taller bin but I wouldn't go any taller than that or it will be hard to turn the compost.

Using a mallet, pound each of the four posts in to the ground in a rectangle until the top of the cross-bar is about level with the ground.

If necessary, use a screw driver to pry open any of the hooks on the posts that have been smashed down.

Hook the wire mesh to one of the posts to start. On the 3' posts, there are two hooks pointing up and two hooks pointing down. It's hard to align all four up at once, so I slip the wires into the top two hooks and pull down on the mesh a bit so the wires on those hooks bend. Then you can easily hook it on to the two bottom hooks and bend the wires back slightly so they all stay in place.

Unroll the mesh, hook it to the three remaining posts, and again the the first one. Don't worry about pulling it tight -- it's okay to have a little slack. (If you pull it too tight at the top, the posts will bend towards each other.)

Cut the horizontal wires one block past where you've hooked it onto the first post.

Pound the t-posts into the ground further, so that the bottom-most horizontal wire is close to or touching the ground.

The Slow Cook has some really good tips on what to add to to your new bin.

Before pictures of the garden

2009-03-23T21:39:00.006Z

After this post from Kerri Conan writing for Bitten, I'm much less ashamed to post a picture of my currently brown, crabgrass over-run garden area.

This photo was taken facing due north at about 2pm. (Cat included for scale.) The back property line of my yard spans two neighboring properties, hence the mismatched fence. The ivy on the left is covering a couple of tree stumps. I'm going to remove the ivy and just plant around the stumps and think of them as added charm.

This photo was taken facing north-west, also at about 2pm. The area in front of the shed gets full sun all morning, and in the summer, the shade will creep in later in the afternoon. This is where I planted the vegetables last year. This year I'm planning to extend the vegetable area out in front of the stumps more, and plant flowers along the back fence with the stumps as sort of a natural divider between the veggie area and the flower area. It's kind of haphazard, but I think it will work. I'm putting the taller plants further north, so they don't cast shade on the shorter plants.

Breaking ground on the white house garden today

2009-03-20T20:40:00.005Z

From the White House Blog:

I love that Michelle is in the garden herself, doing the work with a simple garden rake, instead of hiring people to come in with a sod cutter. I also am in love with the idea of using this as an opportunity to educate children about where healthy food comes from.

Also via Garden Rant and the NY Times, this is the garden plan:

Seems really heavy on the leafy greens to me. No tomatoes? Cucumbers? Peppers? Using flowers in the borders is interesting though.

Crock pot corned beef with Guinness

2009-03-19T03:20:00.010Z

I adapted a recipe from RecipeZaar. The original recipe calls for rearranging the beef and vegetables in the crock pot 8 hours in to make room for the potatoes and cabbage. That's more trouble than it's worth. You can cheat and microwave the potatoes and cabbage together in a bowl with some of the cooking liquid. I also found that while the original recipe called for a brisket, it worked just fine with a round -- a less fatty cut of beef which works better for slicing cold the next day for sandwiches.

The parsnips add a lot of flavor to the meat. If you are parsnip averse, you may want to substitute extra carrots.

3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 onions, quartered
3-4 pound corned beef brisket OR round
2 cans of Guinness
1 1/2 teaspoons of mustard powder
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
10-12 small potatoes (baby red, baby gold, or even Peruvian purple)
1 small head of cabbage, quartered

Mix together mustard, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper and Guinness.

Arrange corned beef and onions over carrots and parsnips in crock pot. Pour Guinness mixture over everything. Set to low for 8-10 hours.

20-30 minutes before serving time, put potatoes, cabbage, and a few ladles of cooking liquid from the crock pot in a microwave safe bowl. Cover and nuke it for 20 minutes.

Shrimp and sausage gumbo

2009-03-13T03:29:00.005Z

I loosely follow this Alton Brown recipe which includes a fool proof way to make roux (baking it in the oven) and a money saving trick to make shrimp stock from the shells. I use frozen shrimp that are deveined but have the shells on. The stock turns out fine for me even without the shrimp heads that Alton calls for. I don't measure the vegetables precisely -- I use one medium onion, one bell pepper, two stalks of celery, and about half a 16 oz can of tomatoes. I also went ahead and used the entire 12 oz package of andouille sausage though the recipe calls for half a pound. It turns out a little chunkier than Alton might have intended, but that's fine by me.

Adding the vegetable to the roux makes me wish I could capture a scent and post it on the internet. It's that amazing.

After adding stock, sausage, and shrimp; the finished product:

Served with brown rice (please excuse my old hand me down dishes):

Signs of Life: Seeds Sprouting!

2009-03-13T02:22:00.009Z

There's something really satisfying about seeing your seeds sprout! One day there's just soil, and then all of a sudden there's a tiny plant poking out.

After a long four weeks of waiting, all 8 delphiniums have finally sprouted. Some were earlier than others. Here's one of the bigger ones:

Of the plants I started at the eight weeks till last frost mark, the alyssum was the first to sprout:

Just yesterday the basil popped up:

A teeny tiny chive:

If you look closely, you can see the doubled over, blue-green stems of two Roma tomato plants:

Still to make their grand entrance are the peppers, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, rosemary, catnip, and parsley. This weekend I'll be starting marigolds, scabiosa, and impatiens.

Even High Fructose Corn Syrup is on Twitter

2009-03-09T17:42:00.005Z

An excellent entry in the Huffington Post by Tara Stiles explains how while HFCS may be metabolized by the body in a way that is identical to naturally occurring sugar, the fiber found in Real Food regulates the absorption of sugar and allows for the absorption of other nutrients. Without fiber, processed foods containing HFCS cause a spike in blood sugar, contributing to diabetes, with the excess sugar turning to fat.

The article also alerts us to the fact that someone is posing as anthropomorphized HFCS on twitter.

My favorite tweets:

"@allisonb17 Sound like someone will be turning to me for comfort in 4..3...2...1..."

"@Thinkreferrals A 4-day, veggie-only cleanse?? What's wrong with you humans? If I had a mouth I would've just thrown up in it a little."

"@stylestar I am delicious, and ubiquitous. What can I say? It's how man made me."

"@AdrienneAXK If you need to talk I'm here for you. Your ol' friend, high-fructose corn syrup. Happy to lend an ear. (That's a corn joke!)"

"@akrukowski A beverage without me is like coffee without a cigarette. (Perhaps that's not the best comparison...)"

"@Pandazing I don't photograph well. Comes with being a translucent liquid."

"@russmarshalek No doubt. My dream is to someday make it into a Kanye lyric. If anyone can rhyme something with fructose, it's Mr. West."

"@baileygenine Coffee's busy right now. We're playing cards with a bunch of fiber. Beatin' the crap out of 'em."

"@innovate Not part of any machine. Not a spokes-syrup for The Man. Just a complex carbohydrate lookin' to rid the world of syrupism."

If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes

2009-03-06T17:50:00.007Z

What a difference a few days can make this time of year! After Monday's "big storm", we are about to have our first weekend of Spring-like weather. I'm psyched. I'm planning to put up some wire mesh fencing so that Max the dog can hang out with me, leash-free, in the back yard. I'm also hoping to break out the grill for the first time.

8 weeks till the last frost: planning and starting seeds

2009-03-05T03:59:00.017Z

Here's a list of what I'm planting this year:

Flowers

Delphinium. It's not the easiest to grow but it's one of my favorite flowers.

Lobelia. I'm taking a tip from Calendula and Concrete. I love things that bloom all summer.

Alyssum. It's easy to grow and also blooms all summer.

Marigold. Allegedly they repel mosquitoes.

Scabiosa. These are leftover from last years cutting garden plan from target (which I don't recommend).

Dianthus. Same as above.

Impatiens. These are good in the shade.

Veggies

Roma tomatoes. These worked out great for me last year. I plan to make lots of salsa again, and maybe can some of them for winter. Not only are winter tomatoes tasteless, but there are some serious ethical issues with harvesting.

Cherry tomatoes. These also worked well last year.

Eggplant. This never got off the ground for me last year because I didn't start them early enough and they weren't in good soil with enough sun. But I'm trying again. I want to make baba ganoush.

Mixed bell peppers. These also didn't work out last year for the same reasons as the eggplants.

Poblano pepper. I wanted to try a new kind of pepper.

Jalepeno pepper. I did get a few serranno peppers at the tail end of the year last year, but the birds ate them. This year I'm starting indoors and they should be ready in time for my summer salsa.

Crookneck Squash. Another one that didn't work out that I'm trying again.

Wax beans. This will be my first time planting these. They're supposed to be easy to grow, so I have my hopes up.

Beets. I've also never grown these, but I just love beets. And I want something that I can harvest late in the year. I also love that you can use the greens as well as the roots.

Cucumber. My cucumbers rocked last year. I made lots of tzatziki which I used to smother grilled fish. This year I hope to make some pickles too.

Mesclun and arugula. This is my first time growing salad greens. I eat them several days a week and they're supposed to be pretty easy to grow.

Carrots. This is also my first time growing carrots. These and beets are the first root veggies I've ever grown.

Herbs

Basil. So many uses, the most obvious being pesto.

Oregano. This is really good tossed with cous cous and tomato (from Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Meals).

Parsley. Again, so many uses.

Catnip. Also allegedly repels mosquitoes. I'm hoping my dog will counter act its tendency to attract neighborhood cats. My cat hasn't shown much interest in catnip in the past, so I'm hoping she won't disturb the plants.

Rosemary. Another supposed mosquito repellent. I'm growing a ton of this and will mix it in with both the flowers and the other herbs.

Cilantro. I actually use this in my tzatziki instead of mint which I have a slight aversion to. I also use it on salad and in salsa. Fortunately for me, I'm not one of the poor souls who has the cilantro hating gene (found via IFA).

Dill. For the pickles and for salads.

Chives. For potatoes and omeletes.

Since we are now about 8 weeks from the last frost in this area (you can find first and last frost dates for the US and Canada here), I've just started the rosemary, alyssum, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, chives, oregano, basil, parsley, and catnip. A few weeks back I started the delphiniums, lobelia, and dianthus. I also threw some mesclun mix in a pot to start growing some salad to eat. The mesclun really wasn't happy so I ripped it up and started over today. The other seedlings were doing okay but not great. I've figured out that the sun from the window isn't enough and today I got a simple grow light which I've hung from the ceiling. Here's my little set up:

As you can see, Mimi the cat took advantage of the photo op.

Google based USDA hardiness zone map

2009-02-23T22:57:00.001Z

This USDA hardiness zone map uses google maps to let you zoom in on your location to find your precise hardiness zone. The main page of plantmaps.com also lets you explore the native regions of hundreds of trees and shrubs.

Cooking is what makes us human

2009-02-21T20:10:00.009Z

I had never really thought of this but after reading What's Cooking from The Economist, it seems obvious that cooking is one of the defining characteristics of being human.

Cooking is a human universal. No society is without it. No one other than a few faddists tries to survive on raw food alone. And the consumption of a cooked meal in the evening, usually in the company of family and friends, is normal in every known society. Moreover, without cooking, the human brain (which consumes 20-25% of the body’s energy) could not keep running. Dr Wrangham thus believes that cooking and humanity are coeval.

In fact, as he outlined to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in Chicago, he thinks that cooking and other forms of preparing food are humanity’s “killer app”: the evolutionary change that underpins all of the other—and subsequent—changes that have made people such unusual animals.

The downside is that while the increased efficiency in absorbing calories from cooked foods allowed early humans to power a larger brain with a smaller gut, the same effect may also be a contributing factor to today's obesity epidemic.

Another telling experiment, conducted on rats, did not rely on cooking. Rather the experimenters ground up food pellets and then recompacted them to make them softer. Rats fed on the softer pellets weighed 30% more after 26 weeks than those fed the same weight of standard pellets. The difference was because of the lower cost of digestion. Indeed, Dr Wrangham suspects the main cause of the modern epidemic of obesity is not overeating (which the evidence suggests—in America, at least—is a myth) but the rise of processed foods.

This confirms what I've always suspected -- that the proliferation of diets based primarily on processed foods is the work of the devil. Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas describes in this podcast from the AAAS how as humans began to practice controlled agriculture, we decreased the range of foods we eat, and our health declined as a consequence.

The Harvard University Gazette also describes Wrangham's theories of how cooking was the impetus for increased mating activity and more civilized social behaviors.

For humans, cooking played a major role in the development of smaller jaws and teeth, bigger brains, smaller guts, shorter arms, and longer legs, according to Richard Wrangham, professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University. He also believes that cooking is associated with females getting heavier and more fertile. That, in turn, changed mating and social behaviors. Instead of large males beating each other with clubs for the relatively rare privilege of mating, smaller guys mated more regularly and began to dine with the family more often.

Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution edited by Peter Ungar is partially available on google books. Evolution of the Human Diet: The Known, the Unknown, and the Unknowable also edited by Peter Ungar contains a chapter on cooking by Richard Wrangham.

People's Garden to be planted at USDA headquarters

2009-02-21T16:13:00.011Z

The USDA broke pavement last Thursday to establish the People's Garden at it's headquarters in DC (via Garden Rant and the White House Blog). The garden will return 1,250 square feet of unnecessarily paved space to a green space featuring native grasses and an organic vegetable garden. The vegetable garden will use compost from government cafeterias and the proceeds will be donated to local food banks. A visitor center is planned to educate tourists on sustainable gardening practices.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Illustrations garden sustainable

New Yorkers Try Composting With Worms, Indoors

2009-02-19T21:58:00.006Z

New Yorkers Try Composting With Worms - NYTimes.com:

ON a recent Saturday afternoon, Stephanie Stern and her husband poured 1,000 wriggling red worms from a brown bag into a plastic bin outside their bathroom, looked down and hoped for the best.

If things went well, the worms, already burrowing into their bed of shredded newspapers, would soon be eating three pounds of food scraps a week, reducing the couple’s trash and producing fertilizer for their plants.

If not, the bin would stink up their one-bedroom apartment in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and attract clouds of fruit flies.

It's a noble effort to reduce putting stuff in a landfill, but that's only part of the benefit of composting. I don't think the risks of germs, mold, and stench is really worth it just to maybe feed some houseplants. Composting outdoors for an outdoor garden is much more beneficial as the compost can be used to replace nitrogen based fertilizers that can pollute the groundwater.

30 pound cucumber grown in California

2009-02-16T03:16:00.005Z

Colossal Cucumber Can Feed a Town @ Yahoo!7 Video

I wonder what kind of fertilizers they used, and what they'll make with the giant cucumber. That's a lot of tzatziki!

By the way, the world's largest cucumber was 59 pounds.

The Maggots in Your Mushrooms

2009-02-13T23:32:00.004Z

Op-Ed Contributor - The Maggots in Your Mushrooms - NYTimes.com:

The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of “natural contaminants” in our food supply — meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots. . . .

Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams. . . .

The F.D.A. considers the significance of these defects to be “aesthetic” or “offensive to the senses,” which is to say, merely icky as opposed to the “mouth/tooth injury” one risks with, for example, insufficiently pitted prunes.

Do the chemical pesticides used in conventional farming not eliminate these contaminants? If not, given their dangers, what good are they?

The examples cited above and in the F.D.A.'s Food Defect Action Levels Handbook mostly refer to canned, frozen, or juiced fruits and vegetables. All the more reason to buy your fruits and vegetables fresh and wash them yourself.

Tiger Mosquitoes in Maryland (and DC and Virginia)

2009-02-04T15:36:00.017Z

While starting to think about planning this years vegetable and (maybe) flower garden, I'm reviewing what went wrong last year. Possibly my biggest problem was the tiger mosquito, an invasive species found in Maryland since about 1987. Last year, storms in May created ideal conditions for an increased Mosquito population. The biggest problem with the tiger mosquitoes is that they come out during the day, unlike regular mosquitoes which only come out only at dusk. Last year, I would come home from work and have to change into long pants and long sleeves just to pick a few tomatoes and herbs for my dinner. Without protective clothing, I would get dozens of bites within a few minutes. They seemed to particularly like hanging out near the vegetable plants which were in shade in the late afternoon. Needless to say, this made any extended gardening and other yard work on the weekends rather unpleasant. The result was that I neglected my garden after the end of June.

So what can be done? We all know to eliminate standing water as much as possible. But that doesn't seem to be enough to keep these pests under control. I also don't like the idea of spraying myself with toxic chemicals such as DEET, especially when I'm handling vegetables I'd like to eat. Gomestic lists five mosquito repelling plants. Curbly describes 10 "low tech" (and seemingly environmentally friendly) ways to repel mosquitoes including attracting bats, eating garlic, and opting for fluorescent lights. But do these techniques work for tiger mosquitoes as well? The only suggestions I've found which are specific to tiger mosquitoes come from Garden Rant where Susan Harris suggests banding together with neighbors to use pheromone based traps.

Obama and the Weather Wimps

2009-01-29T19:20:00.008Z

Obama is right -- DC people are weather wimps.

"My children's school was canceled today," Obama said, speaking to reporters before a meeting with business leaders. "Because of what? Some ice? . . . We're going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town."

The remarks might have captured Washington's attention as much as anything Obama has said since taking office a week ago. With those offhand comments, the president homed in on the one thing that riles Washingtonians every winter. His words reflected a common sentiment among recent arrivals from up North or out West: The denizens of Washington are weather wimps. Life around the Capital Beltway grinds to a halt for climatic events that would barely register in, say, Chicago.

We got two inches of snow and the town shuts down! I admit, I worked from home today, not because I can't handle the snow, but because I'm afraid of all those people who don't know how to drive in it.