Fruit.

This morning I was walking to work from Cumberland Ave where Michael dropped me off, and at the corner of Congress and whatever street it is that parking lot is on a woman approached me and asked if I had any spare change.

She looked 50-60ish though it's hard to tell with addicted folks, and she was definitely a smoker and drinker if not more than that. (As an aside, it's scary how being the child of an alcoholic gives you a nearly unerring "drunk meter" where you can tell if someone's had even a couple of drinks, and if they're career drinkers.) She was very thin and had a large abrasion on her chin that looked like it was healing badly and needed some Neosporin. Her lined face was kind and a little baffled in that hungover chilly morning way.

I apologized as I didn't have any money on me - in fact, I rarely carry money and what I do I keep tucked in my bag so it's not easily accessible. As she was telling me that was all right, I realized that I was holding a plastic bag with a banana and an apple in it, which I was bringing to work. I asked her, "Would you like a banana?" and she did an excited little two-step shuffle, exclaiming, "Oh yes! I would love a banana! They're great for varicose veins!" I grinned and handed the bag over to her, saying, "There's a banana and an apple in here, go ahead and take them." She tried to refuse, saying she felt bad to be taking both, and I reassured her that I had more at work and I wanted her to have them. We exchanged goodbyes and I headed for the park. As I was crossing it, I looked back and saw her continue down the street, happily eating the banana, the bag looped over one arm.

Something about her reminded me of Mom. I don't know if it was the fact she looked like an alcoholic, or that she looked around Mom's age, or something about her face was similar, but I let out a quick sob and let a tear dry at the corner of my eye without wiping it away as I made my way to work.

Eric

On my way back to work from lunch I saw Eric standing outside of StarBux and went back into JavaNet to buy him a sandwich, a banana, and a cup of hot cocoa. I brought it to him and he thanked me profusely again, telling me what a surprise it was to find the $10 bill in the cookie I gave him the last time I saw him and how it was helpful in buying food for the next day so he didn't have to spend all day outside panhandling. He looked clean and sober, which was great to see, and though the day was bitterly cold he was in good spirits. I noted that he needs mittens. I chatted with him for a few minutes and then made my way back to work. It feels good to be able to do a little something for someone.

I brought a bag with some toiletries we've had kicking around the house but never used and probably won't - a tube of toothpaste, a bottle of 2-in-1 shampoo, a toothbrush, dental floss, two bars of coconut soap, a small bottle of cocoa butter hand lotion, and a sample-sized bottle of peppermint foot lotion. All of the items are new (except the hand lotion which I used twice) and either brands we don't use any more now that we use natural products, or extra stuff that I have way too much of anyway. I was thinking it would be a nice thing to give Eric, and ensure that the stuff is used instead of languishing in my bathroom cabinet.

I haven't written much in this category lately, so I guess I'll take the time to talk about my garden for 2006.

Broccoli
I found that broccoli will more or less comtinue producing all season long, I had no idea. I thought it was that one big head and pfft, that's it. On the contrary, after the one big head is harvested, offshoots will continue producing lovely small to medium sized florets as long as you keep cutting them off. I also think I'll plant twice as much - in 2005 I had five plants, I think? We could easily handle ten plants - what comes from five is enough for a meal (for us, anyway, we really eat a lot of broccoli) and the yield from the other five can be frozen.

Beans
I had four rows of yellow beans and this seemed to be a good amount for 2005. Dave planted two rows on Memorial Day when the garden was put in, then a few weeks later planted two more rows to stagger maturation dates. Like the broccoli, I found that as long as I was cutting beans, more beans would grow. Since discovering that Dilly Beans are really easy to make and wanting more frozen beans, maybe I'll plant four more rows to make that happen.

(Of course in the back of my mind I keep thinking that maybe I'll bring my extra yield to the farmers' market, but I won't bank on that at this point.)

Tomatoes
OMG tomatoes, I had SO many and only three plants, crowded as they were. I think I'd go with two to three plants again for 2006, two plum-type tomatoes as they grow prolifically and are great for making sauce, and one more standard tomato as they're good for sammiches. Hmm...maybe I'll throw in another of each, now that I think of it, as I'd like to freeze a lot more sauce and maybe do some canning. That way I can do away with buying canned tomatoes altogether.

Chives
I could care less. I'll see if that patch comes back again this year, and if not, no big loss.

Shallots
Shallots, however, I really liked having. It took a while to see real production, but they had great flavor and were abundant when ready. Not to mention buying them in the store they're damned expensive, so I'd much rather grow my own and stockpile them. I had two rows planted, I'd like to expand this to eight or ten. I don't like onions much unless cooked into mush, but I do like shallots as the first thing I cook to add to just about everything.

Squash
Squash did not do well in 2005 due to where it was located, I think it was too shady. I want to try some various squash again in a spot that gets full sun. I think I'll do one hill of pumpkins, one hill of summer squash, and one of butternut.

Basil
One can never have too much basil. Drying it is hard as it turns black and tasteless almost every time (I don't have actual drying racks set up, which I really should), but Heide clued me in to freezing it and I am a convert. Freezing works beautifully for anything where it will be cooked. I had two measly rows of six plants in 2005, this year I would like to have at least ten plants if not more, and if possible I'd like to get a few red basil plants as I've heard great things about them. I'm thinking about all the tomato sauce I want to make, in addition to pesto. I'd love to freeze a ton of pesto.

Thyme
My single thyme plant was such a champ! I was able to give thyme to everyone I knew, dry a bunch for the Winter months, and what I had fresh was awesome in anything I added it to. I'd like to get another thyme plant to keep the first one company.

Oregano
Same with the oregano - one plant produced a ton. I want to expand my oregano to two plants for 2006.

Rosemary
I have none at the moment, this will be my experimental herb for 2006. I'll get one plant and see how it fares.

More Garden 2006 info as I think of it.

Fermenting pumpkins + St. Bernard = Dis-ass-ter

The dog exploded in the house again overnight. Michael took little Michael out into the kitchen to have breakfast and quickly returned, an angry, shocked look on his face. "AGAIN!" he said. "Oh NO, not the dog?!" I asked. "YES!" he said, "In front of the back door! Again!" I took care of kidlet while he hauled out the carpet cleaner and swore a lot. Stupid carpeted room. Why couldn't she spray liquid shit on the linoleum?

When I went outside to put her in her kennel I saw the culprit - she's been getting into the compost heap. Her tracks led right up to it, apparently she made herself comfy lying down with her face right IN it and just tucked in. I think she ate one of the frozen pumpkins from our front porch, which would explain all the fiber making her poo. Stupid dog.

I called Michael once I got to work (he's home with kidlet today, daycare is closed for MLK Day) and told him what was causing the trouble with the dog. When we built the enclosure for the pile we left a little opening in it, thinking the dog wouldn't have any interest in rotting vegetables. Now it looks like we'll have to close it off so she can't get at it any more. This is starting to make one of those $300 compost tumblers look really attractive.

Speaking of composting, I went out to the pile the other day to add a few buckets of scraps I had been collecting the last month. It rained Friday and Saturday and was in the high 40s, so most of the snow had melted and I could get to it (as could the dog, apparently). What was once a 2' high pile was nearly flattened, it was almost a depression. Cool! Poking through it with a stick I could see that the snow had saturated the lawn clippings, fallen leaves, and all of the kitchen scraps and reduced them to nearly nothing. The earth under the top leaf layer was rich and brown. Man, that composting works fast. Beside the enclosure was the huge pile of raked leaves and lawn clippings awaiting layering on the pile, and even that was less than a third of its original height. I dug into it with my hands and found that it was wet on top, had a frost layer about two inches down, and then beneath that was virtually dry. It was really neat. I can't wait until kidlet is old enough that I can show this to him. I also can't wait until Spring when I can use my lovely rich compost on my garden.

As long as I keep the dog out so she doesn't eat it all and spray it all over our house, that is.

Compost!

On Sunday we did a bunch of raking and hauling leaves to the compost pile...we had so many leaves that we overloaded the "to go on" pile and started dumping them down the man-made hill into the woods behind the house. It'll all turn to dirt eventually. I get so irrirated at how our backyard is set up, the former residents dumped a bunch of fill to make a parking area for tractors (he's a landscaper) so there's a ridge at the back of the property that's 5-8 feet higher than the forest floor behind it. Kind of obnoxious, but there's no way to flatten it all out without doing some major terraforming. I'm settling for little by little adding organic fill to even out the slope. Maybe in ten years there'll be enough leaves thrown back there to make a difference, heh.

I checked the compost pile and it's working nicely! All of the stuff I threw in there nearly two weeks ago is actually composting even though it's Autumn and not all that warm. I dug down to the bottom layer and could recognize a few items but they were all black and looking more like rich dirt than kitchen scraps. The only drawback to layering my kitchen waste with leaves and grass clippings is that my compost will be on the acidic side...though I'm sure there's something I can do to help balance it if need be. The important thing is I've saved a lot of material from going to a landfill, and that feels good. Of course tonight after letting the dog out I found her lying in the pile eating some moldy bread. I guess I'll have to make a gate for the enclosure to keep her out, the partial fence isn't enough to discourage her. Drat.

Hello November

Speaking of composting, that is going well, too. For the past month I'd been collecting non-meat scraps in a couple of empty cat litter buckets, and this past weekend we finally had the time and nice weather to build a composting enclosure. It's a very simple thing, really, just four metal fenceposts wrapped with some of the 2' wire fencing we used on the garden this year. Michael mowed the lawn while I worked on ripping up the remains of the garden, and it all went on the pile. I'd throw down a layer of wet scraps from the kitchen, then cover with a layer of leaves, then another wet layer, then a layer of grass clippings, etc. We put a ton of stuff onto the pile, and hopefully enough neutral matter over each layer and covering the top that it won't attract animals. We'll see how it goes. It felt very satisfying to get that done, plus the lawn and garden were taken care of for the winter at the same time. Today I think I'll go outside and cut down all my perennials to get that out of the way.

Garden stuff

Today we were outside in the garden picking ANOTHER huge bowl of tomatoes - I think I've picked easily thirty quarts of tomatoes in the past week - we've been giving them away like crazy to Heide, to the roofers, Michael brought a bag to work to dole out. If I feel industrious this afternoon or tomorrow maybe I'll do some canning. I also picked a ton of basil, five or six green peppers, a huge handful of shallots, yet more broccoli (I'm stunned that the plants are still producing!), and a double handful of yellow beans. The total filled two huge bowls, and now I have plenty of fresh veggies for the next few days.

Michael helped me with the garden, too, and was so tickled to be there with me. He kept saying, "Michael in the garden!" and dancing around. There may have been a few refrains of "Garden song" in there, too. I'd pick yellow beans and put them on the ground next to his foot, then he'd look down, gasp in excitement, them pick them up and put them in the basket. He especially loves to find the broccoli under the broad leaves, saying, "Oh! Brockee!" When we were done he said, "Bye garden!"

I froze the yellow beans and broccoli, then washed the shallots and hung them in a recycled mesh bag in the pantry. I used a couple of them and some fresh garlic from my stepdad to make guacamole out of the remaining two Floridian avocados that were languishing in my fridge and looking as if they were threatening to bolt any day now. Also a couple of tomatoes, of course. It came out good. I could eat guacamole every day of the week. Next year I need to grow some cilantro! Yeah!

In fact, my fingers still smell like garlic. Yummy. I keep smelling them. For some reason garlic is a very strong "foody" smell to me, in very much the generic sense. As in I smell it and think, "food".