I invested 13 dollars in nothing but garden supplies, and plants, into my garden last year. Minus, the water, and rabbit litter I dumped into the soil. Including that I lost money last year because of an immature set of blueberry bushes, and crappy new plot of soil. This year I have sunflower seeds from the rabbit food that Fawn doesn't eat, green bean seeds from the food pantry, cherry tomato seeds as my valentines gift, turnip seeds from the junk draw labeled 2008 all that I didn't have to pay for. I paid for two seed starting greenhouses 5 bucks total, the topsy turvy strawberry planter 3 bucks, the seed starter mix 2 bucks, the garden soil 6 bucks, and finally the strawberries 4 bucks. Let's see if I make back the twenty dollars I invested in food I don't have to buy this year.

Seedlings

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebalou/888745855/

I'm one of those weird people who is either obsessively neat or over the top scatter brained. My seeds are neatly labeled on vibrantly orange sticky notes with the type, date, location bought or collected, and storage process on them. That's my obsessively neat side. I started my seeds inside in a preset gardener's delight humidome with peat pellets. I simply read directions then shoved the seeds to proper depth now my green beans are out growing the round holders and entangling themselves with my tomatoes and I don't know how to fix it because it hailed and sleeted today so that means it's too cold to put them outside. I do have a pot to put them in so they might end up there until it gets warm again. I wanted to use that pot for the cosmos and baby's breathe I planted and actually managed to grow though.

Weeds and worms

I'm celebrating weeds and worms today! I did a previous post on how to improve clay soil into loam. My soil last year was so heavy with clay it didn't grow weeds because without intense help the roots couldn't push through the soil. I spent two weeks turning corn cob which has a lot of little air pockets deep, upto two feet deep into the spaces where my plants would grow. I gathered worms after a storm to put into my garden. I imagined it would take a least two to three years of the intense work, mixing, raking, slowly and carefully irrigating to make my garden a stick plants in the ground, water daily and get vegetables space. This morning I discovered my worms are thriving under the rabbit and guinea pig litter I laid down last fall, and I have a mild weed problem! I'm so happy.

My boyfriend Rob and I helped a female hairy woodpecker who ran into a window two days ago. His wings were folded normally across her back, but she had a small head wound. Rob got gloves and some rags to wrap her in and I got my emergency kit for the bottle of witchhazel in it. The liquid extract you can buy at walgreens in a clear container is good for animal wounds because they can lick it off safely. Anyway we stuck him in flower pot turned open side to a chain link fence so nothing could get to him but he could still breathe. While he warmed up, we hurried to buy chocolate chips for breakfast. Then came home and shifted the flower pot so she could get out he hopped from planter to tomato vine until he reached the top of the fence and then took off like she was playing instead of flying.

Reconsidering food options.

Okay, no morality talk for me. I'm avoiding issues of cruelty in this post and talking straight numbers. Ever heard of Jumbo X Cornish Rock chickens. These are your big chickens that can make a single meal for five people sitting at a table in the US. The chickens reach full size in 40 days approximately which means 9 life cycles from birth to slaughter occur in a year from a single "crop" shed anywhere on the planet. In each of these crop sheds half a million birds die in a rotation from starvation or illness. That's 4,500,000 meals a year not going to people across the world where four out of seven continents have 20% to 100% percent of their population living for under two dollars a day. And yet we allow this waste and stupidity to continue as even more food is wasted because of the ill, not dead animals we slaughter that later contribute to recalls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percentage_population_living_on_less_than_$2_per_day_2009.png

http://paleodietnews.com/1675/eating-animals-ethically-on-the-paleo-diet/

Scream

I'm told what I want is a damn retirement dream! It's not a business, it's a pipe dream, it's not viable in today's world. Be happy working a part time or full time crap job out of the fucking house, with people I give not a shit about. Work in the noise, the smells, and sights that make me want to bury my head, and flinch. Work through head aches, cramps that put me in the hospital, and asthma. NNNNOOOO! I want to be fucking useful, not someone people make exceptions for! I want to rotate crops, collect my own eggs, create a haven for animals, myself, and most of all be a mother worth her weight in salt. It's not a hobby, or a dream what I want it's a god damn full time difficult, precious business. I want to cook and teach about farm fresh foods. Why the hell, when people say I have to work, is the response to me talking about having a farm fresh restaurant is why do I fucking want this, is it's so much work. "Why won't you change your mind get a couple chickens, a crap job, two kids, and be a lazy, unhappy bitch, who doesn't care until you're sixty, so the rest of us can be proud of you?" Once again NNNNOOOOO!

Funny Green Eggplant Soup

My poor mother got told by my sisters that I managed to make eggplant soup pea green. Actually I had made Asparagus Lemon Soup, it was the only vegetarian recipe I found and because I had no broth at all, I needed a soup with a lot of flavor. My yummy work is still in the fridge waiting for me to be like Eric Carmen.

1 pound fresh asparagus

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

knife
saucepan with cover
blender
whisk
measuring spoons
measuring cups

Directions
1. Place asparagus and onion in a saucepan with 1/2 cup vegetable broth. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until the vegetables are tender.

2. Reserve a few asparagus tips for garnish. Place remaining vegetable mixture in an electric blender and puree until smooth.

3. Melt butter in the pan that was used for simmering the asparagus and onions. Stir while sprinkling flour, salt, and pepper into the butter. Do not let the flour brown. Allow the mixture to cook only 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth and increase the heat. Continue stirring until the mixture comes to a boil.

4. Stir the vegetable puree and milk into the saucepan. Whisk yogurt into the mixture, followed by lemon juice. Stir until heated through, then ladle into bowls. Garnish with reserved asparagus tips. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 134 Total Fat: 5.7g Cholesterol: 15mg Powered by ESHA Nutrient Database