omg so.
Over the weekend, temps in NY were a blistering 80 to 90 degrees. Blistering is a poor choice of words, it was more like meltingly sweltering. I was a small, sad, damp puddle, too overheated to even consider dragging my sorry self anywhere except to the shower to cool myself. No AC unit, so I finally decided I'd had enough and hauled myself off to Home Depot. I was too hot to even bother putting makeup or real clothes on (I was in my pj's/gym clothes).
All this lethargy, but I perked right up once I stepped inside Home Depot. Partly because HD was about 30 degrees cooler, partly because I was thinking about how much I adore the new sandals I'd gotten myself as a reward for attempting to do something productive like fetching myself some AC (whoever put a shoe store next to HD is a genius), but mostly because I saw green things! Cute, little green things! In the basement level of HD, they have their semi-nursery and growing tools and seeds and I couldn't help myself.
I checked the boxes of AC units piled high in the front of the store and made sure there was no danger of them running out of units while I had a look around, and hopped onto the escalator going down. I didn't come back up for another hour, I was so taken by all the fun things I found.
Limited space, limited resources, but I decided that it didn't matter. I was going to have sprouts and pretty green things in my apartment this summer, dammit!
So I grabbed the smallest window box I could find, a plastic liner, some soil, and a packet of seeds marked "container herbs." I realized that was maybe a poor decision because I can barely drag an AC unit around with two free hands and now I definitely had less available hands than that, but luckily I am a small girl and the HD employees were very kind and they carried the AC unit all the way through the checkout line and onto the street for me. And the taxi cab driver was very sweet and told me "Don't touch the box! You hurt yourself!" in broken English, and hoisted it into the trunk for me. And my roommate carried it up the stairs for me once I got home. Profuse thanks to all, a big tip for the cabbie, and a returned favor for my roommate absolved my guilt and I set to work on my makeshift garden. What I really should have done was install my AC, but I was too hot and tired from all that work (that I didn't actually do myself lol).
I filled the container with soil, dampened it carefully, scattered half the seeds, and tucked them in with another quarter inch of soil. Swept up all the dirt off my floor and carefully set the box in full sunlight. I kept watching that box, checking it every few hours, hoping something would happen. Like a pot set to boil, nothing happened while I was watching it. But I went to sleep last night and woke up and SURPRISE! Little white pins reaching up out of the soil, some of them with tiny green berets. I counted four sprouts this morning and I said my goodbyes tenderly as I hopped out the door for work. I can't wait to come home and see how many more little seedlings have popped up in the last twelve hours. I'm so excited. I need to probably calm down but...eek! They're so cute!! <3
Showing posts with label the little things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the little things. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Thursday, October 11, 2012
CSA Share #18
This has been the week of chicken soup. Sometimes, a small gesture goes a long, long ways. A friend, not even a very close friend, dropped by last night because she was "in the area," to pick up a few books I'd promised to lend her (Atonement by Ian McEwan and If This be Treason by Gregory Rabassa, if anyone was curious). She came by as I was in the middle of sorting out my vegetables, with a warm smile and two bowls of chicken matzo ball soup for me and my sick roommate (who she is also friends with). Plus several lovely, thick slices of challah bread. What an angel.
She lives all the way on the UWS and is incredibly busy with her studies, but somehow she managed to make the time to stop by Kips Bay and drop off chicken soup. By the way, "in the area" was actually Penn Station, which is not even remotely in the area at all. Anyways, I really appreciated it and I hope someday that I can return the favor or pay it forward.
After she left, I went back to the task of de-stemming my giant pile of kale. See, I've been getting sick and tired of sauteed greens, and I was far too time-pressed to make kale chips, so I googled kale and what did I find? Recipes for massaged kale salad. Repulsed at first, I was slowly won over by the descriptions of the kale salad that kept popping up. "Silky," "tender," "luxurious," were all used to describe the compliant kale leaves post-massage. I had a lemon slowly drying away into oblivion in the fridge and of course, I had olive oil on hand. So I figured why not, rolled up my sleeves, and set out to make massaged kale salad. It's quite good! I had a small bite and then left the rest to marinate for a few days in the fridge while I do some damage to the more perishable items. The leftover kale ribs were not discarded either. I tossed them in a baggie and added them to my growing "leftover ends for chicken soup" pile in the freezer. I really must make soup this weekend. Anyways, I'll make a post on the kale salad later. I have a lot of posts to write this winter, it seems.
On to this week's CSA share. Lots of repeat vegetables and a few new ones.
CSA Share #18
- 2 sweet dumpling winter squash
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch arugula
- 6 ½ ounces salad mix
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 2 eggplants
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 3 red bell peppers
Full disclosure: I swapped out the salad for a head of garlic. I just couldn't handle the thought of more salad...
CWTC: Winter dumpling squash! They really are just so adorable. It's perfect that we got these in our share this week, because I've been eyeing all the little displays of decorative mini squash and pumpkins that the corner delis have set out. They're perfect for decoration and they'll keep for a long while. Multi-functional vegetables that last a long time are definitely my favorite.
TAV: Kale. See above for my little ramble on massaged kale salad.
WTF: Cilantro. T______T No matter. I've been on a roll with preserving fresh herbs lately. I set out to dry the cilantro, remembered that dried cilantro tastes like dried paper flakes, and opted to chop and freeze the cilantro instead. I divided the bunch in two, washed each half-bunch, and chopped them finely and coarsely, respectively. Into ziploc baggies they went, along with a little bit of water (to avoid freezer-burn). I laid them flat in the freezer until they were solid and then stored them away next to the flat-packs of frozen chicken soup.
Side note on the fruit share: Once again, I die. This week's fruit share from Maynard Farms included a bowl of beautiful little Seckel pears and a bowl of large, bright, juicy Golden Delicious. Looks like Maynard Farms was spared the weather problems that have decimated most of the Northeast region's apple crop (yields are down 50%!) This is just not a good year for corn or apples, is it? Apparently raspberries have been hit hard as well, but not by weather problems. Spotted wing Drosophila have decided that the raspberry fields make excellent feeding grounds for their larva and have been quite actively laying their eggs in the berries. Gross. I had to look at Drosophila flies, breed them, mutate them, draw them, examine them, and write papers on them for my entire freshman year of college. These days, I prefer they stay unseen, especially in my food.
In any case, I am still dreaming about that heavenly Macoun I had a few weeks back and I really do wish I had signed up for the fruit share this year. Perhaps next year.
Side note on using up CSA shares: I've noticed that as the summer (and fall) have crept by, I've become more adept at what I've come to think of as vegetable triage. I take stock of this week's share and the leftovers still in the fridge, and quickly assess the survival time of each item. Things that can be frozen or dried are taken care of right away (e.g. garlic, herbs, green onions, soup stock vegetables).
Cut lettuce oxidizes very rapidly, so I store it as a whole head and use it up leaf by leaf, rather than slicing it all up at once. Loose, cut leaves go bad first, so I try to eat those or cook those first (e.g. bok choy, salad mix, arugula, beet/radish/turnip greens).
Long-term storage vegetables, which include essentially all the root vegetables, are separated from their bushy green tops and stored away until the more perishable items are used up first (e.g. potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, carrots, turnips). Even if I really want to eat them, I try to hold off until the more perishable items are used up. I actually haven't seen much of these in recent weeks - I assume Free Bird Farm is trying to keep those in the ground as long as possible as insurance against an unexpected frost that might decimate a planned CSA share. Plus, this gives them extra time to grow. At least, I hope that's the case! I'm really looking forward to at least one more haul of onions and garlic. I'm hoping for potatoes too, but I might be asking for too much. I do think there's a crop of peas headed our way too, but that of course, depends on the weather and the bugs. This week's forecast looks chilly but I don't see any real danger of a sudden frost (knock on wood). Then again, there's still four more weeks to go!
She lives all the way on the UWS and is incredibly busy with her studies, but somehow she managed to make the time to stop by Kips Bay and drop off chicken soup. By the way, "in the area" was actually Penn Station, which is not even remotely in the area at all. Anyways, I really appreciated it and I hope someday that I can return the favor or pay it forward.
After she left, I went back to the task of de-stemming my giant pile of kale. See, I've been getting sick and tired of sauteed greens, and I was far too time-pressed to make kale chips, so I googled kale and what did I find? Recipes for massaged kale salad. Repulsed at first, I was slowly won over by the descriptions of the kale salad that kept popping up. "Silky," "tender," "luxurious," were all used to describe the compliant kale leaves post-massage. I had a lemon slowly drying away into oblivion in the fridge and of course, I had olive oil on hand. So I figured why not, rolled up my sleeves, and set out to make massaged kale salad. It's quite good! I had a small bite and then left the rest to marinate for a few days in the fridge while I do some damage to the more perishable items. The leftover kale ribs were not discarded either. I tossed them in a baggie and added them to my growing "leftover ends for chicken soup" pile in the freezer. I really must make soup this weekend. Anyways, I'll make a post on the kale salad later. I have a lot of posts to write this winter, it seems.
On to this week's CSA share. Lots of repeat vegetables and a few new ones.
CSA Share #18
- 2 sweet dumpling winter squash
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch arugula
- 6 ½ ounces salad mix
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 2 eggplants
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 3 red bell peppers
Full disclosure: I swapped out the salad for a head of garlic. I just couldn't handle the thought of more salad...
CWTC: Winter dumpling squash! They really are just so adorable. It's perfect that we got these in our share this week, because I've been eyeing all the little displays of decorative mini squash and pumpkins that the corner delis have set out. They're perfect for decoration and they'll keep for a long while. Multi-functional vegetables that last a long time are definitely my favorite.
TAV: Kale. See above for my little ramble on massaged kale salad.
WTF: Cilantro. T______T No matter. I've been on a roll with preserving fresh herbs lately. I set out to dry the cilantro, remembered that dried cilantro tastes like dried paper flakes, and opted to chop and freeze the cilantro instead. I divided the bunch in two, washed each half-bunch, and chopped them finely and coarsely, respectively. Into ziploc baggies they went, along with a little bit of water (to avoid freezer-burn). I laid them flat in the freezer until they were solid and then stored them away next to the flat-packs of frozen chicken soup.
Side note on the fruit share: Once again, I die. This week's fruit share from Maynard Farms included a bowl of beautiful little Seckel pears and a bowl of large, bright, juicy Golden Delicious. Looks like Maynard Farms was spared the weather problems that have decimated most of the Northeast region's apple crop (yields are down 50%!) This is just not a good year for corn or apples, is it? Apparently raspberries have been hit hard as well, but not by weather problems. Spotted wing Drosophila have decided that the raspberry fields make excellent feeding grounds for their larva and have been quite actively laying their eggs in the berries. Gross. I had to look at Drosophila flies, breed them, mutate them, draw them, examine them, and write papers on them for my entire freshman year of college. These days, I prefer they stay unseen, especially in my food.
In any case, I am still dreaming about that heavenly Macoun I had a few weeks back and I really do wish I had signed up for the fruit share this year. Perhaps next year.
Side note on using up CSA shares: I've noticed that as the summer (and fall) have crept by, I've become more adept at what I've come to think of as vegetable triage. I take stock of this week's share and the leftovers still in the fridge, and quickly assess the survival time of each item. Things that can be frozen or dried are taken care of right away (e.g. garlic, herbs, green onions, soup stock vegetables).
Cut lettuce oxidizes very rapidly, so I store it as a whole head and use it up leaf by leaf, rather than slicing it all up at once. Loose, cut leaves go bad first, so I try to eat those or cook those first (e.g. bok choy, salad mix, arugula, beet/radish/turnip greens).
Long-term storage vegetables, which include essentially all the root vegetables, are separated from their bushy green tops and stored away until the more perishable items are used up first (e.g. potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, carrots, turnips). Even if I really want to eat them, I try to hold off until the more perishable items are used up. I actually haven't seen much of these in recent weeks - I assume Free Bird Farm is trying to keep those in the ground as long as possible as insurance against an unexpected frost that might decimate a planned CSA share. Plus, this gives them extra time to grow. At least, I hope that's the case! I'm really looking forward to at least one more haul of onions and garlic. I'm hoping for potatoes too, but I might be asking for too much. I do think there's a crop of peas headed our way too, but that of course, depends on the weather and the bugs. This week's forecast looks chilly but I don't see any real danger of a sudden frost (knock on wood). Then again, there's still four more weeks to go!
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