This Imperfect Plot

Planting a fall crop and seeing the seeds sprout is like experiencing a mini-spring. The onslaught of autumn can be overwhelming if you let it. Fall is beautiful, what with the crisp air and colorful leaves and all, but let’s face it: the implication of autumn is nothing more than winter. Cold. Dark. Winter.

Ah, but the planting of a few seeds in late summer gives your garden a new lease on life. Or at least a seasonal sublet.

With this in mind, let me introduce you to the vernal soldiers of the fall: my kale seedlings.

I read somewhere a long time ago that if you want to start a new habit, you have to repeat the behavior 12 times before it will likely stick.

Well, I’m not quite there yet. I have only packed my lunch 10 times in a row. But I feel good about it. I am confident that I’ll complete this brown bag challenge and make it to the end of the month. And who knows—I might just continue to brown bag it after that, saving trips to the corporate cafeteria for special occasions and dire emergencies.

Last week, I mentioned that one of the unlooked-for benefits of packing every day was that our fridge didn’t fill up with orphan leftovers and moldy containers of last week’s suppers. But this week, I report on the downside. My wife and daughter would usually eat some of those leftovers for lunch and this challenge has been depriving them of some quick lunches. Hmm…what to do, what to do.

Here’s my Brown Bag wrap up for the week:

Monday.

Another leftover i-oy: Fusilli with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. In this picture, you get a glimpse of how I sometimes spend my lunch break: reading Paul Krugman in the Times and compiling a list of semi-obscure holiday tunes to record this year for the annual family Christmas record.

Tuesday.

Leftover Frittata. This meal was inspired by a recipe in next week’s Garden to Table Newsletter.

Wednesday.

A roast beef sandwich with horseradish, cheese, and a tomato from the garden. And a side of organic grapes. This is a leftover sandwich because my wife actually cooked the roast the night before. Local, grass-fed beef. Plus a cookie from Kimberton Whole Foods.

Thursday.

Another excellent chicken soup. With corn, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli and who-knows-what-else. My wife makes good soup.

Friday.

I swear this was a bowl of tortellini. With a red sauce made from Eden Organic crushed tomatoes, strained tomatoes, & tomato paste, cooked with onions and fresh parsley from the garden. I was so hungry today that I simple forgot to take a picture until it was all gone.

I’m taking part in the Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

That’s it.

I give up.

I’m done.

I’m going to rip everything out, scatter grass seed, and never garden again.

Or at least that’s how I feel. In a word: defeated.

Was it the weather?

First there was the super soggy spring. Then came what felt like months of blistering heat, followed by weeks and weeks of hurricanes and rain.

Or was it the dark armies of garden pests—the wilt-wielding cucumber beetles, the nectar-of-life-sucking squash bugs, the alien Mexican bean beetle larvae that transform into skeltonizing oversized yellow-spotted merchants of death? Or perhaps it was the stupid plodding stink bugs or the colonies of swarming ants. Did I mention the slugs? And forget about the green worms on my broccoli.

Forget about it—I’m done.

I’m guessing the weather had at least a little bit to do with my bugs. These swings in temperatures and conditions undoubtedly caused my poor plants much stress, and as we all know, stress affects overall health. Once the health of your plants is compromised, your garden falls easy prey to those garden-wrecking hexapods from hell.

I thought I had a handle on the bugs, what with my daily diligence of leaf inspection and insect-smashing. But once the rains set in, my routine collapsed and it all veered toward oblivion. And now I just want to rip it all out, plant grass seed, and be done gardening forever.

But there is a garden in my heart and I know several things:

Next year will be better, or at least different.

And:

To garden is to have a hand in Creation, to be a part of the giant wheel of the world.

Bugs and all.

One week ago today, I started packing my lunch, instead of buying my lunch from the café downstairs. My first lunch was a glorious chicken salad sandwich made by my loving wife. My subsequent lunches have been reconfigurations of leftover dinners.

Friday, September 2, was leftover homemade chicken soup with lentils and vegetables.

Monday was a holiday.

Tuesday was leftover Pasta Fazul. That spelling looks weird to me, but then again, I’ve never tried spelling it before. It’s my mother-in-law’s recipe and it’s good. A little Locatelli cheese and some red pepper flakes and you’re all set.

Wednesday was leftover i-oy. What? Yep. I-oy. That’s what my wife’s family calls aglio olio. Maybe it’s a regional dialect thing, but whatever it’s called, i-oy is always good. I made this one the night before with onions, beans, garlic, basil, parsley, and tomatoes from the garden. Plus I added frozen organic spinach, broccoli, and peas. I also made meatballs from some local ground pork. Again, a little Locatelli and some red pepper flakes and you’re good to go.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the i-oy, but I did manage to remember to take a picture of the homemade cup cake I had for dessert.

When I heat these meals up in the microwave, I use a Pyrex bowl. I never put plastic in the microwave, because I’m sure that microwaving plastic leaches all sorts of toxins into your food.

And today, I had another chicken sandwich. This time made by yours truly, so it wasn’t quite the sandwich event that last week’s was, but it was still pretty good: Leftover chicken cutlets with a slice of cheddar cheese on multigrain bread. I brought a whole avocado and a tomato and sliced them up right on the spot.

Why do i like the Healthy Eats Brown Bag challenge? Yes, I’m saving money. Yes, I have complete control over what I’m eating. But there is something else: the dinner leftovers aren’t piling up in the fridge. Our refrigerator is sort of famous for being the place where leftovers go to die. So the surprising benefit of the brown bag challenge? A cleaner fridge.

I’m taking part in the Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Funny how a long weekend can seem so short. All it takes is rain. And more rain. And more rain.

I’ve been meaning to plant my fall crops  for a few weeks now, but you know how that goes…earthquakes, hurricanes, rain, more rain, birthday parties, work, more work, and so on…..it just gets away from you.

But Saturday morning, I found some time and some clear weather to prepare some beds and plant some seeds. Here’s what I intended to plant:

In the end I only planted eight out of eleven: beans, spinach, turnips, carrots, mache, and 3 types of kale. I felt it was too late to plant the peas, and I wasn’t really into planting chard this year.

Here’s a 4×6 bed of carrots, with a Black Icicle tomato plant in the corner:

Carrot Bed

I’m excited about the mache. I’ve never grown it before. I’ve never eaten it before. But from what I’ve read, we might be eating it well into winter.

Mache Bed

I am also very excited about my turnips. I planted turnips last fall, they overwintered and went to seed late this spring. This is my first real venture into saving seeds. (See my earlier blog posts about turnips).

Turnip Bed

I will refrain from posting pictures of  the beans, spinach and kale—after all, how many pictures of dirt do you need to see? I think three is plenty.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress. I hope all this rain hasn’t washed my seeds out.

Lunch is one of the most important meals of the day. It’s in my top 5 for sure. Which is why this brown bag challenge might be, uh, challenging for me.

Here’s the thing: here at Rodale, the café is pretty amazing. The food is always fresh, usually local, and mostly organic. I’m totally spoiled. Here’s a screen shot of today’s menu.

So why would I want to pack my lunch every day for a month? Two reasons come to mind:

• It’s an exercise in self-discipline and self-sacrifice. I will become a better person by packing my lunch.

• I will save money. The café isn’t SUPER expensive, but it adds up. Plus, if swipe my employee card, the money comes right out of my paycheck, so I hardly ever pay in cash. It’s easy to forget that this food is costing me money.

I admit, though, that I loathe the idea of having to prepare a meal in the morning before work. I did this every day for years when I worked in the electrical and solar trades. In my early morning pre-coffee fog, I would throw together the saddest little lunches you’ve ever seen. And then these lunches would sit in my truck all morning until it was time to eat and they would be wholly unfulfilling. So when I got to Rodale, the café was an oasis of goodness.

This morning, however, something wonderful happened: My wife offered to make my lunch. Now, you have to understand that she doesn’t just make a sandwich—she builds a sandwich. She takes such care with each ingredient. Her every action is deliberate. The result is an amazing testament to good food made with real love.

So my first day of the challenge, I will have the pleasure of eating a chicken salad sandwich (local, organic, free range chicken of course), with onion, tomato, and parsley from our garden (picked this morning), on multigrain grain bread. Plus, a handful of organic grapes, a box of raisins, and a piece of leftover blueberry cake that my wife made for my daughter’s third birthday 2 days ago.

I’m probably more excited about lunch today than I’ve been in a long time. So thanks to the Good Eats people at the Food Network for challenging me in such a way, and thanks to my wife for making this incredible meal.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some eating to do.

(wondering now if the other challenge should be to not eat lunch in my office.)

We’re teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you’re eating on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

Well, the storm rolled in, as we knew it would. The wind wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, but it was the rain that did my corn in. I can’t be too upset. Things could have been much worse, indeed. My wife and baby girls are safe and sound, and that’s what counts the most.

Sure, I’m a little sad—about the popcorn especially. But maybe it will bounce back?

Here are the “After” pictures that I anticipated in my last post.

How did your garden fare?

Hurricane

I’m an optimist. Or at least I’d like to think I am. But still, I’m not sure what state my garden will be in after Hurricane Irene steamrolls through with her predicted 100 mile an hour winds. I’d like to think that everything is going to be fine, that the hurricane will be much smaller than predicted, that we’ll just get a little wind and a little rain. But just in case, I am posting some “before” pictures. It would be a shame to lose my popcorn and tomato plants in this storm. I’m hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

Harvest

Here’s a picture of what I harvested last night. See that purple eggplant on the side? It’s the first eggplant I’ve ever harvested from my own garden. Ha! Actually, I grew it on the deck in a big pot. In years past, flea beetles would decimate my eggplants when they were mere seedlings. This year I outsmarted those flea beetles with a container, and there you go: eggplant.

A few nights ago, I was making a tomato salad and needed some basil. I asked my 3 year old, who was playing out on the deck, if she would go down to the garden and get me some basil leaves. She thought about it for a second, and then said yes. A few minutes later, she came back with a handful of perfect basil leaves. Not sure if I’m fully able to express how proud I am of her.

Spider

And finally, I leave you with another video. This time it’s an orb weaver spider. Every night she builds a web on my porch. Every morning I have to remember to duck or I’ll get a face-full of web. Enjoy.

The accompanying music is by my band Tin Bird Choir.

It’s funny, the difference between my job as online editor at OG and the rest of the editorial staff. They work months in advance—even years—to line up writers, plan photo shoots, edit stories, design the layout, and everything else they do. And as they get closer to closing an issue, they all seem pretty tense and super busy. I try to stay out of their way.

My job, on the other hand, is in real time. I’m forced to live in the present moment a bit more than the rest of the team, between the social media, the day-to-day maintenance of the website, writing newsletters, keeping track of our traffic numbers, etc. Web publishing is immediate—it happens right now. What I do online today will have an effect today. I don’t have the luxury of time.

There is a point, however, when my online & digital duties intersect with the print team. There are a few weeks in our publishing cycle—after it goes to press and before it goes on sale—when my work is centered around the new issue.

And that time is now.

The October/November issue is wrapped up. While it won’t be on the newsstand until the beginning of September, there are copies of it floating around the office. And where the rest of the team has already moved on to the December/January issue and beyond, it’s only now that I get to enjoy the new issue. And it looks great: Very cool features about Japanese maples, hard cider, heirloom apples, and the garden at Colonial Williamsburg, plus tons of helpful information for the garden and kitchen and all around organic living.

This week and next I will be taking the print issue and making it digital. I’m creating online versions of the articles—and am knee-deep in creating the iPad version of the Organic Gardening, too. I like this part of my job for many reasons: it’s always challenging in a beat-the-clock kind of way (I have to get everything built before the issue hits newsstands). Plus, I get to dig in deep, mining the new content for “extra feature” possibilities for the iPad. But what I think I like the most about this time is that it makes me feel like I’m part of the print team, even though they’ve already moved on.

It was a very interesting day for insects at our house yesterday. First we found this large black beetle clinging to the wall of our porch. It was about 2 inches in length and rather intimidating looking. But nonetheless, my 3-year-old daughter wanted to touch it. First she touched its back and then she tried to pick it up and it fell to the ground. She was very excited about it. And I was very impressed with her fearlessness.

Then when we went out to the garden we witnessed what I suppose was some kind of ant hatch. There were thousands of ants all over the raised bed that until recently had been growing lettuce. Some were normal ants, others were winged ants, and still others were giant winged ants. Check out this video to get a sense of just how creepy-crawly my garden was yesterday.

I’m no entomologist, and can only speculate what was going on. Was it a hatch? Were they moving their colony? Was it related to the loud thunder we had all afternoon? I have no idea. Anyone want to venture a guess.