I think I can, I think I can

I love anything pickled and I love the idea of eating from my garden all year long. So I was really excited to learn how to “put by” my own vegetables. Putting food by is the classic reference for food preservation, e.g. canning, drying, preserving and freezing. Last summer I learned how to pickle and can green beans, cucumbers, spiced carrots, and peppers from my garden and okra that I bought at the Farmer’s Market. This year, I have tailored my garden plans so that I am growing plenty to can. It’s going to be a pickling kind of summer!

These are a few photos from my pickling project last year:

An elongated, fast-swimming cephalopod mollusk with ten arms...that tastes delicious

I work at a grocery store. Not just any grocery store. It’s the best for hundreds of miles around. In fact, we have folks drive into town from halfway across the state to shop at our store. We have over 600 local products, a certified organic produce department, a soon to be completely sustainable seafood department, and an amazing wellness department, which I help run. I should also mention that I love the people that I work with. They are the bee’s knees. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t have an episode of side splitting laughter. It’s great. Another perk to working at a natural food store is that I lightly grocery shop almost everyday. I can choose from the freshest seafood or from produce that has just been dropped off by a local farmer. The other day I walked by the seafood case and saw that we had fresh squid. I immediately knew I would be cooking up some fried calamari that night. Not having a clue how to make it, I walked right over to our head chef and asked for a quick lesson on how it was prepared. Everything is right there at my fingertips, even advice about food preparation. I always keep my eye open for a recipe that the Merc can help me carry out.

Here's the plan.

It’s time to try our hand at a garden once again. I’ve decided to sketch out a plan for my garden every year. This is a helpful practice because you have to make sure to rotate your crops. This is done in order to prevent disease from spreading and dormant bugs from waking up and infesting your plants. So there is definitely some thought that has to be put into it. It’s a wonderful end-of-winter project and the perfect way to get really excited about spring and being outside again. Chris and I got ourselves fired up about the changing of the seasons when we were showing pictures of last year's garden to an old friend. Everything was so green, which is quite different from the weather now. The sun hasn’t shown itself in over a week and everything is dry and crispy. You look outside right now and think “I’m never going to see the sun again.” Then all of a sudden the seasons change and there you are, out in the heat, eating a great big salad made with only vegetables that you grew. It's pretty neat.

Pictures of last year's garden:

Spring is in the air.

Well, I don’t know how official it is but it sure feels like spring! Today was magnificent. The snow that has been here since December has finally melted away. I put on my rubber boots and surveyed the yard in the warm sunshine. The birds were busy singing their song and the ground was squishy and wet. It won’t be long before the wet snow is just a faded memory. The fish in our pond are still alive. It amazes me that they can survive a Kansas winter in a little pool of water. The excitement and stress of preparing the garden is fast upon me. Our chance to buy a truckload of compost from the city is a week away and I haven’t even had time to process the sudden change of the seasons. I’m sure I will get over that as soon as I am allowed to spend some time out in our dreamland of a backyard.

These snowy photos are only a few weeks old, a surprise snow on a sunday afternoon.

The Surprise Lilies (or Naked Ladies) have popped up!

Only stick arms and a little pile of snow are left to show for the snowman that Chris made over a month ago. I can’t believe it stuck around for so long. According to a lot of folks around here, “the longest winter EVER.”

Who dat?

I love Super Bowl Sunday. I don’t watch a single other football game all season. And no, it’s not because of the commercials. I really get into the game even though I don’t care which teams wins. I also really get into the food. My friends know good food so I anguished over what I was going to make. I decided on Vegetarian Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce. They took a while to make but they turned out to be quite delicious and really beautiful on the platter. My friend Quinn said that his roommate was leaving the house for his Super Bowl party with a liter of Pepsi and a package of Chips Ahoy cookies and he asked Quinn what he was doing. Well, he was preparing Eggplant Caponata for our party. I just think that’s hilarious. It was so delicious. I ate until I couldn’t possibly eat any more. And it was a great game!