Beating The Heat

My son is enjoying the finest fountains Naperville, Illinois has to offer. Today we went on our first official vacation getaway of the summer. We live near Des Moines, Iowa, so a suburb of Chicago is not super far away, but it is really the first time my son has really known what 'vacation' means. He has been looking forward to this for months. We drove about 5 hours today to get here, and we are staying with a very close friend who had a baby back in November.

Here my son is taking a break to look at the map while we are at a rest stop. Yes, that is his rabbit hanging from the clothing hook. His idea, not mine. Anyways, today we drove to my friend's house and needing food, went to tour the local "Whole Foods" store. I had never seen one of these before. It is kind of like an organic supermart. I was impressed by the sheer amount and variety of produce they had, it was beautiful. Anything you wanted organic, they had it. They also have a lovely card by each product telling where it was made. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of Mexicos, and United States, California, but not very many Illinois, or even Wisconsin or Ohio. I think it is kind of sad, because people obviously shop here because they care very much about what they are eating, or why else would you buy organic? However, there didn't seem to be much focus on what is local. In all though, it was an impressive selection. They seemed to have all the hard to find products that I usually have to go to three different natural food stores in Des Moines to get. I did purchase a cool Holy Cow shirt. It is organic cotton, which doesn't make a big difference to me, but is supersoft, and sweatshop free and fair trade.

"You wouldn't put chemicals in me, would you?" he seems to say. Ha ha. This is the cute little guy we came to visit. Look at those baby blues. My son is having a lot of fun helping to take care of the baby. It is neat to see a nurturing side to my son, because I kind have always wondered, if I had another baby, would he smother it?

After our visit to Whole Foods, we went to the Naperville Riverwalk area, to give my son a chance to unwind. He made himself comfortable splashing in the edge of this fantastic fountain. We are planning to come back Saturday and check out the farmers market (YaY, local produce) plus check out the paddle boats. Tomorrow, we are planning a visit to the Field Musuem in Chicago proper.

I love this picture. He is so peaceful looking. Yes, I do feed him; I know you can count his ribs, but if you saw his dad, you would know that it is genetic. He has been such a sweetheart all today, very polite and helpful. I just know it is going to be a wonderful vacation.

New Movie: Food Inc.

I just found this movie trailer when looking for websites about sustainable farming. The site that tells about the movie is:

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

I have to see this movie. I feel more and more that we as consumers have to make changes in the food we buy and the choices we make. Like he says in the trailer, we are voting when we run something past the scanner in the grocery store. We can go one step further and grow things ourselves. When I can grow something myself and eat it, and know that nothing was harmed to create that food for me...that is a wonderful feeling. I know I am not perfect yet, but everytime I switch to a local product over one that is shipped a thousand miles, that makes a difference. When I grow tomatoes and herbs in my backyard, or go to the local farmers market, instead of getting them from Mexico, that makes a difference too. 2 years ago, I made a switch to only eat meat that I knew where it came from, and that it wasn't filled with chemicals or antibiotics, and it had a happy life until it was made into food. This has sometimes been expensive, and sometimes difficult, and sometimes I just eat no meat at all, but it has been a gratifying experience. Occasionally, I will eat something that may have come from a factory farm...but overall, it is local and happy or nothing. I love this quote from Wendall Barry:

"I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable in order to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade. And I am getting just as fussy about food plants."

I also love this one from Barbara Kingsolver:

"I find myself fundamentally allied with a vegetarian position in every way except one, however selectively, I eat meat."

We have given all the power over to large corporations, factory farms, and giant seed companies that 99% of them have no concern about how animals are treated, what chemicals are used on our vegetables, or for our welfare at all, as long as they turn a profit. Let's show support for small sustainable farms and local growers by buying their products instead. Spread the word about this movie, so that people can be educated about their food.

Pumpkin Carrot Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed (made it super moist)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon plus 1/2 tsp each ground ginger and nutmeg)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 whole can (14 oz) real pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (vanilla will work too)
• 1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup, however I prefer the honey)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup finely (or coarsely if you like to see it) grated carrot
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, flaxseed, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, yogurt, honey, butter, egg and vanilla. Stir in carrots.

4 . Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir using a wooden spoon just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips (and walnuts, if using). Batter will be thick.

5. Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups. Bake on middle oven rack for 20-22 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

6. Cool on a wire rack.

I got the original recipe off the internet, and then I HIGHLY adapted it to what you see here. These are great hot...I throw them in the microwave for 20 seconds to get the chocolate gooey before I have one. I would include a picture, but we ate them all already.

Weeds, Weeds, and More Weeds

Ahhhh...my seemingly immortal enemy....creeping charlie. It seems to grow anywhere and everywhere. If I put down mulch to suppress it, it tunnels underneath and surrounds my plants coming up out of the small hole. Sometimes I think it is mocking me, and when I pull a handful out and turn around, it sends up two handfuls in its place. At least creeping charlie is easy to pull up in large clumps. And it is really easy to get rid of in cultivated soil with my new best friend: the shuffle hoe. Also known as a stirrup hoe, or a double action hoe. I have even heard hula hoe.

The point of this hoe is that it has a double-edged blade that cuts weeds under the surface and it cuts going forward and backward. So you get twice as much work done in the same amount of time. Now this doesn't work with very dug in weeds. I learned that the hard way. I let my garden get runover with weeds and tried to use this hoe to clean it up. I got nowhere. I had to use a regular hoe and get blisters hacking the weeds from out of the ground. However, once your area is clear, this is SOOOOO helpful in keeping the weeds out.


I weeded a 25 by 25 garden today (that hadn't been done in at least 2 1/2 weeks, with heavy rains) in about 20 minutes. The soil was still loose and the weeds hadn't had time to dig down deep yet, so this thing just tosses them up on top. Then you leave them and the sun cooks them dead. Creeping charlie doesn't stand a chance with this. Then of course you could put down some mulch of the kind you prefer, but with this thing you really don't need it.


It is getting a little dark in this picture, but I was able to get between all the lettuce rows easily in just a few minutes.

My son can even use it and we went between all the pepper plants without cutting them down. Anyways, do you think I like it? Ha ha. I also use a natural vinegar and soap spray to kill weeds that are in cracks and along the edging. I use an empty pump sprayer and just fill it up with a gallon of white vinegar. You can buy a more concentrated version, but I just use plain old white vinegar from the store. I put it into the 1 Gallon pump sprayer with about 2 tbsp dish soap to help it stick and just spray right onto the weeds. It is best to do this on a sunny day, because vinegar is a defolliant, which means it sucks the moisture out of the leaves. If you do it on a cloudy day, your results won't be nearly as good. You can also just take the vinegar and pour it straight onto the roots and soak it. That will work very well too, but you use a lot of vinegar fast that way.


This is my sickie. He has some kind of coxsackie virus. There isn't much you can do about it, except give him motrin and ride it out. He has been averaging a 102 temp since Tuesday night. The motrin brings it down, but then it pops right back up when the medicine wears off. He says his throat hurts and his appetite is down. He also has been sleeping more. Hopefully this virus will be done soon and he can go back to having fun in the summer time.

Now that Gardening is My Day Job

Thank goodness for summer break! I thought that school would never end. It isn't that I don't love all my kids, but teachers need a break so that they can stay sane and be fresh and hopeful for the next school year. So far, it is just wonderful to relax, sleep in, and tackle more gardening projects. Here is a current pic of my veggie garden. You can see green onions, spinach, and several rows of lettuce.

This is kohlrabi, tomato plants in various stages, and various varieties of peppers. Plus basil and eggplant.


Here the corn is up. The first two rows. I am going to do another two rows the end of this week. I also have 4 rows of beans (3 kinds) planted next to the corn, but they aren't up yet.

More peppers and kohlrabi. I haven't ever eaten kohlrabi, but I will try anything once.

This is some of my five-color chard, which I have transplanted into my garden. As far as I can tell, I have all five colors, but I guess time will tell. The colors are very mute when the plants are small.

This is a view of the field that you can see from my back and sideyard. It is starting to green up. You can see down by the field is a box, and small canna bulbs (actually rhizomes) lying along the edge. I planted all the bulbs along the field, so I will have a canna 'fence'.

I just thought this guy was pretty with the dragon's tears in it. I am hoping tomorrow to get my marigolds planted, and also some of my squash. I will also have to do some repair, the storm that came through this evening beat some plants down. My sunflower seedlings are all beaten down. I hope they all come back up on their own, and I don't have to stake them up. All I know is that the wind is so strong it knocked down my tepee, so I will have to put that back up, and it was pushing my gas grill across the patio!

Completely unrelated to the wind, is my son's grill. He lost the two top front teeth in two days. They were loose anyways, but the process was speeded along by the hard skull of one of those horrible triplets from preschool. The first tooth was knocked loose onto the gym floor...the second one he pulled out himself on the second day. Just when I thought he couldn't get any cuter...

Say "Braces"....