Ramblin'

It's been a loooonngg week. I'm not sure if its the pregnancy or my zeal for over scheduling and packing as much as possible into every day, but I'm feeling a little worn down and over tired. So far this week I've worked, cleaned, made cookies to celebrate a birthday, walked the dog, swam, volunteered, knitted, shopped, gardened, and tried to sleep - though the heat is kicking my ass. Miser that I am, over the weekend we ran the central air AND the window unit in our bedroom and I was still dreaming of a bathtub full of cold water. It's interesting how all winter I dreamed of laying out in the hot sun on the beach only to find myself this summer trying to find a walk-in cooler to crawl into.

I've also noticed this week that it seems like I'm having increasing trouble breathing - almost like I can't get enough air in. It's likely due to the baby taking up more and more space but this doesn't help to quell my already high anxiety level at all, but I just keep thinking about the 15 more weeks to go.

Thanks to the slightly less humid weather this week the garden is finally mostly in - I do need to stop and get some straw to mulch the onions and greens but other than that most of the hard labor is done. The tomatoes, zucchini, and cukes are quickly making twining the supports necessary, and the eggplant and brussel sprouts are creeping higher and higher. I'm hoping to get some pictures up this weekend when I get the mulch down.

On another pregnancy caused accident prone note, last weekend I endured an almost injury - while sleeping. I had just gotten back to bed after spending some time in front of the tv - I was having some problems sleeping so I had gotten up extremely early and gone down to watch some tv until I was able to snooze again - and I was looking forward to a few delicious hours of sleeping late with nothing to do. The hubby and the critters were of course still snoozing away as I snuggled into my (tiny) spot. I had no sooner started to drift off when the hubby started to snore - loud. Frustrated and half asleep, I flopped my giant pregnant self over (which is getting to be a production) and ...fell off the bed.

NO, I wasn't hurt at all, but I was a little "surprised" to say it nicely. On a brighter note, it woke the hubby up so I was able to get back into bed and asleep before he started snoring again.

Food not lawns

I finally planted some things in the garden this weekend - tomatoes (yellow pear, roma, currant, paste and beefsteak), eggplant, cukes (pickling and burpless), zucchini squash, and brussel sprouts. This week I need to get in the peppers (sweet and jalapeño), greens (lettuce, kale, spinach, swiss chard and collards), herbs, beans, onions, beets, and radishes. I'm trying a new "caging" system for the tomatoes and vine crops that was recommended in my Veg Gardening 101 class through MSU's extension program - it involves building "fences" for the vines to grow up, reducing the amount of horizontal space they take up (and allowing hopefully for more plants in a smaller space). Courtesy of my overzealous hubby our garden is also larger this year - almost double the space of last year and slowly encroaching over more and more of our yard. (Food not lawns!) We've also got plans in the works to add a new back door to the house onto a new back patio - to be complete with space for a fire pit and seating area, so I'm slowly inching closer to my goal of no wasted lawnscape.
I spent Saturday afternoon volunteering at Gull Meadows Farms in Richland and we all know no trip to a greenhouse can be complete without a purchase...hence two new shade loving perennials joined me for the trip home. Though we disappointingly didn't get very many questions (other than where do I find x?) I did enjoy my time wandering among the greenhouse plants and watching people excitedly fill their carts. It's nice to know people do care about and want to add to their landscape - I did even see a couple filling several carts with perennials (awesome) for their house.
As much as I'm still dedicated to it, it is harder this year to work on the yard - harder to bend over and I'm so much slower at working through things. The heat definitely is having a greater effect on me as well. I'm determined though to spend as much time as I can on it hoping it will have a positive effect on the little person in utero and they'll come out a little garden loving dirty footed hippie child.

Yummilicious - and on the way to being even more so

I love food. Everything about it is exciting to me - it's origin, where it comes from, how it grows, the different ways it can be prepared, preserved and presented. One of my favorite places to shop is the grocery store, and I beeline for any store selling kitchen or food related products. I'm a weekly (and often more often) shopper at the farmer's market, and I buy my apples and pumpkins from a farm or orchard (not a parking lot stand). I'm so excited to serve food grown in my garden. I've even found great local wine!

Previous to this year I didn't give much thought to where my food was coming from. I lived in consumeristic bliss, happily making the bulk of my food purchases from the local Meijer, preparing my meals with little concern for the seasonality of my food.

I'm not sure where my transformation started. Maybe it was Fast Food Nation. It progressed to the Omnivorous Dilemma, and Animal Vegetable Miracle. It moved to Local Harvest, Fair Food Matters and Eat Local. And somewhere along the line, my feelings about food and concern for where it comes from started to change.

My first real personal change concerned the origin of my meat products. I'm an animal lover, a foster "mother" and a often guilty feeling omnivore. (I've tried vegetarianism but I love a good bologenese sauce way too much). So if I can't change my taste at least I can change where and how I get my meat. I stopped buying meat from the grocery store and started making my purchases from a local butcher, Quality Meats. I lost my squeamishness for venison and started adding it to more and more recipes. Recently I located an organic farm offering a meat csa and I'm currently plotting my purchases to store in my freezer.

Next I reconsidered my veggie choices. With the Farmer's Market open 3 days/week I've been really successful in limiting most of my vegetables to locally grown, but I've been troubled about my options for the winter, and still getting my out of range produce (i.e. lemons) from my local megamart. I was so excited to learn there are several local growers offering winter csas.

I'm really interested in finding more sources for local food. I'm not sure I could ever limit myself to living totally local - there are some things I just couldn't give up. Recently I read somewhere that even those who eat local allow themselves 12 items outside their food shed they just can't live without. So I started thinking - what couldn't I give up? Let's see..
1. Real Parmesan cheese (and maybe all cheese in general. I did find a local producer of ricotta cheese, and keep perusing the how to make cheese website - which may soon be another blog!)
2. Olive oil
3. Cocoa power/chocolate
4. Vanilla
5. Flour
6. Spices (can I make this one entry?)
7. Salt
8. Milk/soymilk (though I'm doing some research on local options)
9. Rice/cornmeal/couscous
(I'm actually surprised to find that at this point it's getting hard to think of other things I couldn't live without or find a local source for.)
10. Coffee
11. Soda
12. Fish

Update: I stopped at Centre Street Market today and found a flyer for a local cheese producer, which led me to a website listing several local producers. I'll continue to post my food finds in my blogroll for those of you interesting in pursuing other food options as well.

Ramblin

I'm finally done painting and very glad to be - I was getting so tired of it I was starting to slosh paint other places than just all over me (well, and the walls, floor and animals of course). The tape has been pulled off, the furniture put back in places and most of the decor put back up, so now starts the really hard part: deciding what fabric to use for curtains. Last night I stopped at Field's after dinner with my lady friends and 8 samples later was almost chased out the door by the sales clerk (I would have kept going but they were closing). There are just too many choices! That and they have an entire section of Amy Butler prints that I can't get enough of. Any advice on good decision making tactics (than iny meany miny mo)?

I met with a gentleman from SCORE this morning (they offer small business counseling) and Sarah and I are slowly making our way to getting our catering business underway...as soon as we register our name, register for a Federal Tax ID, register for a MI tax ID, get approval from the Health Dept, submit our paperwork for the LLC, meet with a lawyer to draw up and operating agreement....so sometime around 2112 we'll be able to cater your event.

I also spent some time helping out in the Growing Matters garden this morning doing some harvesting with the garden manager...seeing someone else's garden always gives me lots of inspiration. And makes me want a bigger yard.

Going bananas

As part of my gardening fever, I've become slightly obsessed with collecting new and different species of plants, especially those that are native to Michigan or are just plain wild and fun. So last Saturday when I was browsing at the Farmer's Market I couldn't resist this little (ok not really little) delight.


It's an ornamental banana! I've heard they can actually produce bananas but I'm in love with it's spotted foliage either way. It nearly fills my crafts room so hopefully I'll be able to move it outside next year where I can enjoy it - and my neighbors can too!

A little piece of paradise

Last night I had the pleasure of touring a private garden with the garden club I just joined. Being a aspiring gardener myself, I was in awe - not just of the sheer size of their garden and landscaping but of the magnitude of maintenance it must require. After having grown up in the country, I've never been excited to go back, but seeing what they've done with the space they have really had me wishing for more than my small city lot boundaries.

Here are a few pictures to give you a tiny taste of what it was like.




The pond above is the lower of two ponds, fed by a small brook that falls over a small waterfall into the pool (see left hand corner of photo). Both ponds are full of small carp - I even saw a few frogs resting the on lillypads of the upper pond.

Hell's kitchen and for a good time...

See that above? That's the devil's handiwork. I've put up a fence, let the dog hang out in the backyard and mercilessly chased every small critter I can find out of the yard but nothing is keeping whatever it is from eating my beautiful bounty. Grrr.....

On a much happier and less murderous note, I took my friend Stella to Jungle Joe's .
I've been hearing what a great place it is and after checking it out for myself - I believe every word of it. It's only an extra $2 for adults to play too - and I recommend it. Along with some headache medicine.

Long time no hear

Yes, I know, it's been forever. Some quick updates.

My sweetums celebrated a milestone birthday. To commemorate the occasion he requested a delicious meal of... Jack's Naturally Rising pizza, frozen corn and Jello No-bake cheesecake with Cherries. I tried not to consider it a comment on my cooking abilities.

I've been feeling rather creative this past week, which lead me to paint my bathroom orange and make these two fabulous items. (Yes, I said orange. It's awesome and I love it. You all shouldn't be so afraid to have some color in your lives.)

Curtain for bathroom

Super cute apron

I'm in love with Amy Butler's fabric (which is now available at Fields). I recently purchased one of her books, In Stitches, and have been making aprons like it's my job.

My garden has been kicking production into high gear - I've been giving lettuce away like nobody's business. Here are a few other things I picked this week:


I visited the beach for the first time in years with my friend Alicia, and let me say - you have got to go. Van Buren State Park is just south of South Haven - less busy, way less commercial and well, fabulous.


We're off to Traverse City tomorrow with the family. Hope you have a fun (and safe) holiday!

Mary Mary quite contrary...

Here's what my garden grows...

it's a jungle in there!

tomatoes

Scarlet Bee Balm

Hollyhocks

something!