Independence Days Challenge Week 4: The Madness Begins

While spring doesn’t officially start for several weeks, the spring rush for gardeners—or at least for this gardener—has begun. Last Sunday, on what ironically was one of our coldest days in the winter of 2011-2012, I went on a mad seed-starting binge. For the last few days, my morning routine has including nurturing and oohing and ahhing over plant-babies.

Which is the last thing my morning routine needs, seeing that I already have trouble making my train most days, but that’s a story for another post. On the other hand, perhaps it’s a story to avoid boring you with. I suspect many of you understand the pain of a night person forced by the necessity of a day job to live on a morning person’s preferred schedule.

Plant Something: lettuce; Chinese kale; mizuna; boc choi; basil; lemon basil; early tomatoes; jalapenos; eggplant; cutting celery (which I probably should have started a few weeks ago); and peas and radishes for sprouts. I think that’s everything!

Harvest Something: a few leaves of wintered-over cutting celery and kale to augment a soup. Oh, and daffodils, since they were about to be zapped by last week’s cold weather.

Waste not: Was smart enough to freeze part of my minestrone (see below) before it started to rot or I got so tired of it I tossed the rest of it instead of eating it. Finished up leftovers. Made stock, which both made good use of chicken bones and filled in space in the standing freezer, which is looking awfully bare, so it would run more efficiently. The usual composting and recycling.

Want not: nothing unusual

Eat the food: Minestrone with local and homegrown greens, home-canned/frozen tomatoes, and homemade stock—in fact, I think everything in the soup was local except the dried beans. Eggs in baskets with homemade rye bread—heavenly! Lots of local eating, in fact. And then we spoiled it all tonight by going out for Thai, but we were both tired and damn, that pad thai and stir-fried beef were tasty. Even tastier because we didn’t cook them.

Support local food systems: Farmers’ market shopping. More eggs from the “egg lady,” who gets Jeff’s homemade bread in exchange; she’ll get veggies later in the year. Sent an email investigating a grain CSA in western Massachusetts.

Skill up: Growing another batch of sprouts and finding it much easier this time. Working to figure out better ways to use Twitter and FB to promote and network, which doesn’t really fit into the food independence category but in the long run may lead to more financial independence.

This weekend, I get to start actually working outside in the garden, though I won’t have a lot of time to do it. We have some social plans, and besides, I have an ARC to review and an almost-finished book (Blood and Lotuses, an older fantasy novella with romantic elements I’m finally revising, playing up the romance/smexiness) to get out.

But the garden is definitely calling to me. I’ll spend some time outside. Dammit. And I’m past due for a walk in the woods.

A completely random picture of my cats, Rumble (gray and white) and Noodle (ginger and white)