That I was playing around with Wordpress over the weekend and have decided to move over there permanently. It is much more intuitive to use and allows you to have more of a 'mini website' which I am keen to experiment with as I am currently beavering away at a few articles and fact sheets/tips that I'm hoping to use with FOE.
Please update any bookmarks/links to http://sproutingbroccoli.wordpress.com.
The management apologises for any inconvenience caused. ;-)
Monday, 12 May 2008
Thursday, 8 May 2008
You win some, you lose some...
Ta-da!!!!
I am proud to report that after MONTHS of trying and ending up with everything from slightly warm milk with a tablespoon of yoghurt whisked through it to a globby ricotta-type mixture that was okay on pasta, I have finally managed to make yoghurt and end up with something resembling yoghurt. Looks like yoghurt, tastes like yoghurt, smells like yoghurt.
I have exorcised my yoghurt demons.
And the initial capital expenditure (item: Thermos flask; quantity: one) should have been recouped by November! (Though that's not counting the additional benefits of owning a Thermos flask. Money saved by making yoghurt: 35p/week. Having proper loose leaf tea on the 7.56 to London Waterloo: priceless.)
I very nearly danced around the kitchen when I realised it had worked. I am not a total abject failure when it comes to yoghurt. =D
However, my Grant loaves were an abject failure. I was getting all lyrical, thinking of the wartime women working 12 hour factory shifts and bringing up children alone rejoicing over this bread recipe that took about 10 minutes to prepare, and I forgot to keep an eye on the kettle and the water got too hot and then it killed the yeast. I tried to repair the damage, but despite a token rise overnight, they then cooked too quickly and I basically have flat bricks of bread.
Ah well. You win some, you lose some....
I am proud to report that after MONTHS of trying and ending up with everything from slightly warm milk with a tablespoon of yoghurt whisked through it to a globby ricotta-type mixture that was okay on pasta, I have finally managed to make yoghurt and end up with something resembling yoghurt. Looks like yoghurt, tastes like yoghurt, smells like yoghurt.
I have exorcised my yoghurt demons.
And the initial capital expenditure (item: Thermos flask; quantity: one) should have been recouped by November! (Though that's not counting the additional benefits of owning a Thermos flask. Money saved by making yoghurt: 35p/week. Having proper loose leaf tea on the 7.56 to London Waterloo: priceless.)
I very nearly danced around the kitchen when I realised it had worked. I am not a total abject failure when it comes to yoghurt. =D
However, my Grant loaves were an abject failure. I was getting all lyrical, thinking of the wartime women working 12 hour factory shifts and bringing up children alone rejoicing over this bread recipe that took about 10 minutes to prepare, and I forgot to keep an eye on the kettle and the water got too hot and then it killed the yeast. I tried to repair the damage, but despite a token rise overnight, they then cooked too quickly and I basically have flat bricks of bread.
Ah well. You win some, you lose some....
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
I knit... I garden... That's about it....
Damn, I thought I was just going to be compiling glossaries today so I was all set to go and work outside, but I've just had a transcription come in, so looks like I'll be stuck indoors with the world's most ginormous wasp instead.
Spent the weekend at the bf's mum's house as she is moving and we had to help clear the garage and loft. I did my best to save as much as I could from landfill, but things still crept into the skip when I couldn't make a convincing case for putting them on Freecycle. Including a perfectly usable single bed and a bike, repairing which would have been cheaper than buying a new one. I did manage to salvage (for my own use) several plant pots, an old wooden lavatory cistern and a hanging basket for growing things in, plus a beautiful wicker picnic hamper (which the bf immediately placed in the loft, as the ugly free M&S cool bag donated by my parents is 'practical') made by the bf's grandfather and a pair of curtains, and the bf found some apple juice that was three years out of date that is now in a demijohn in the downstairs bathroom, bubbling away.
I have also acquired a desire never ever to move and never ever to hoard things I don't need. Books and CDs are going on Freecycle as I write this. It's hard, though, to work out what to get rid of. I have so many CDs and books that getting rid of the two I might feasibly not like much seems like a very small drop in the deep, stormy ocean of decluttering. One birthday card takes up very little room, so keeping them seems innocuous, but assuming I'm lucky enought to have 60-odd more birthdays, that's a lot of cards to keep....
My sock is driving me mental! I keep knitting about three rounds and then discovering I've gained a stitch, not being able to figure out where, having to unpick it all because it's messed up the ribbing and hurling the four-needled sock monster at the wall shouting, 'No! No! No! I'm not knitting you any more!' I mean, going barefoot isn't that bad....
I am having more success with the cardigan though. It looks more or less like half a cardigan! I've been preening and feeling proud of myself since it started getting big enough to be recognisable.
Peas and beans are out in the garden and still alive, but being rather recalcitrant and not climbing the canes. Planted some salady greeny things yesterday and will pot on tomatoes later today. I also think I saw some peppers coming through. And some wee potato shoots are poking their muddy heads above the soil. Hurrah. I also weeded one side of the garden in deference to suburbia and not having to spend a month sorting it when we move out.
Oh, and I've been reading 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver and it truly is inspiring. I thoroughly recommend it. I really want her life now - write fiction, grow vegetables, have entrepreneurial children who run their own egg business...
Spent the weekend at the bf's mum's house as she is moving and we had to help clear the garage and loft. I did my best to save as much as I could from landfill, but things still crept into the skip when I couldn't make a convincing case for putting them on Freecycle. Including a perfectly usable single bed and a bike, repairing which would have been cheaper than buying a new one. I did manage to salvage (for my own use) several plant pots, an old wooden lavatory cistern and a hanging basket for growing things in, plus a beautiful wicker picnic hamper (which the bf immediately placed in the loft, as the ugly free M&S cool bag donated by my parents is 'practical') made by the bf's grandfather and a pair of curtains, and the bf found some apple juice that was three years out of date that is now in a demijohn in the downstairs bathroom, bubbling away.
I have also acquired a desire never ever to move and never ever to hoard things I don't need. Books and CDs are going on Freecycle as I write this. It's hard, though, to work out what to get rid of. I have so many CDs and books that getting rid of the two I might feasibly not like much seems like a very small drop in the deep, stormy ocean of decluttering. One birthday card takes up very little room, so keeping them seems innocuous, but assuming I'm lucky enought to have 60-odd more birthdays, that's a lot of cards to keep....
My sock is driving me mental! I keep knitting about three rounds and then discovering I've gained a stitch, not being able to figure out where, having to unpick it all because it's messed up the ribbing and hurling the four-needled sock monster at the wall shouting, 'No! No! No! I'm not knitting you any more!' I mean, going barefoot isn't that bad....
I am having more success with the cardigan though. It looks more or less like half a cardigan! I've been preening and feeling proud of myself since it started getting big enough to be recognisable.
Peas and beans are out in the garden and still alive, but being rather recalcitrant and not climbing the canes. Planted some salady greeny things yesterday and will pot on tomatoes later today. I also think I saw some peppers coming through. And some wee potato shoots are poking their muddy heads above the soil. Hurrah. I also weeded one side of the garden in deference to suburbia and not having to spend a month sorting it when we move out.
Oh, and I've been reading 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver and it truly is inspiring. I thoroughly recommend it. I really want her life now - write fiction, grow vegetables, have entrepreneurial children who run their own egg business...
Friday, 2 May 2008
The sad state of local politics
Well, how about a little rant for a Friday, eh?
Walking back from the polling station yesterday evening, my bf turned to me and said, 'I didn't realise there wasn't a Green party candidate here.' (I have trained him well, muahahahaha....) I scoffed and said, 'I didn't realise there was a Lib Dem candidate or a Labour candidate.'
Now, I'm a bit of a leftie. I don't really ally myself with any particular party, but I general fall somewhere between what Labour should stand for and what the Lib Dems stand for. I readily admit that the kinds of changes I am looking to see in this country are waaaay beyond what any actual politician would be prepared to put in their campaign literature, but I'm pretty realistic and would be happy to be swayed by a convincing candidate, especially in the local elections: in a general election, although you aren't really supposed to, I would tend to vote for a party and a Prime Minister, but in the local elections I would tend to vote for the candidate I felt most confident in. Overall, though, I generally believe that public services are in principle a good thing, I think we need to do more for the environment, I think the gap between the rich and the poor is too wide and I'd love to completely overhaul the education system.
So, I was looking forward to all the candidates coming around and asking me what issues were on my mind so I could grill them about their ideas for making Wokingham a more sustainable, resilient and environmentally-friendly place, about how they would follow up on the suggestions FOE gave them and if they would please stop concreting over everything and get rid of all the cars.
Now, I work from home and am usually in most evenings, so if anybody had come round canvassing, I would have known. We had leaflets shoved through the door by the Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP. Labour and the Lib Dems didn't even bother to do that, let alone actually try and talk to me. It never even entered my mind to vote for UKIP or the BNP, and I didn't really want to vote for the Tory candidate because a) his environmental policies were rubbish (basically: environmental issues begin and end with waste and recycling, and we couldn't ever have alternative weekly collection, never, never, never, never) and b) all the material we've ever had from him has contained a big whine about how little funding the Borough gets from central government compared to..... councils where there are more poor people. Now, there is a genuine issue about how basing it on averages means the worse off in overall richer areas are even worse off than they would be in poorer areas where there was more central funding, but do they talk about this? No, it's just 'poor us, aren't we hard done by, never mind that that's how local government funding works or that the reason we don't get as much is because we're all well-off and don't need it' - it's like saying, 'Oh, poor stockbrokers, they have to pay more tax than nurses and bin-men.'
So I didn't want to vote for him either.
And so since I knew nothing about the candidates representing the two parties I might have swung between or their policies, I was damned if I was going to vote for them.
So, ladies and gentlemen, since people died so that I could have the right to vote and I did not want to dishonour them by allowing apathy to win the day, I am ashamed to say that I spoilt my ballot. I voted for all the candidates and drew a silly face at the top of the paper for good measure.
Walking back from the polling station yesterday evening, my bf turned to me and said, 'I didn't realise there wasn't a Green party candidate here.' (I have trained him well, muahahahaha....) I scoffed and said, 'I didn't realise there was a Lib Dem candidate or a Labour candidate.'
Now, I'm a bit of a leftie. I don't really ally myself with any particular party, but I general fall somewhere between what Labour should stand for and what the Lib Dems stand for. I readily admit that the kinds of changes I am looking to see in this country are waaaay beyond what any actual politician would be prepared to put in their campaign literature, but I'm pretty realistic and would be happy to be swayed by a convincing candidate, especially in the local elections: in a general election, although you aren't really supposed to, I would tend to vote for a party and a Prime Minister, but in the local elections I would tend to vote for the candidate I felt most confident in. Overall, though, I generally believe that public services are in principle a good thing, I think we need to do more for the environment, I think the gap between the rich and the poor is too wide and I'd love to completely overhaul the education system.
So, I was looking forward to all the candidates coming around and asking me what issues were on my mind so I could grill them about their ideas for making Wokingham a more sustainable, resilient and environmentally-friendly place, about how they would follow up on the suggestions FOE gave them and if they would please stop concreting over everything and get rid of all the cars.
Now, I work from home and am usually in most evenings, so if anybody had come round canvassing, I would have known. We had leaflets shoved through the door by the Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP. Labour and the Lib Dems didn't even bother to do that, let alone actually try and talk to me. It never even entered my mind to vote for UKIP or the BNP, and I didn't really want to vote for the Tory candidate because a) his environmental policies were rubbish (basically: environmental issues begin and end with waste and recycling, and we couldn't ever have alternative weekly collection, never, never, never, never) and b) all the material we've ever had from him has contained a big whine about how little funding the Borough gets from central government compared to..... councils where there are more poor people. Now, there is a genuine issue about how basing it on averages means the worse off in overall richer areas are even worse off than they would be in poorer areas where there was more central funding, but do they talk about this? No, it's just 'poor us, aren't we hard done by, never mind that that's how local government funding works or that the reason we don't get as much is because we're all well-off and don't need it' - it's like saying, 'Oh, poor stockbrokers, they have to pay more tax than nurses and bin-men.'
So I didn't want to vote for him either.
And so since I knew nothing about the candidates representing the two parties I might have swung between or their policies, I was damned if I was going to vote for them.
So, ladies and gentlemen, since people died so that I could have the right to vote and I did not want to dishonour them by allowing apathy to win the day, I am ashamed to say that I spoilt my ballot. I voted for all the candidates and drew a silly face at the top of the paper for good measure.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Bikes, socks and the promise of nettles
I have just taken delivery of a swanky, curvy, RSI-vanquishing ergonomic keyboard courtesy of the folks at the day-job, so please excuse any typos. It's taking a while to get used to and is a bit like typing with one finger.
Seedlings continue to take over my living room. I'm kind of bored of talking about it now, but the peas are hardening off well and I let them stay out in the rain this afternoon for a while. I don't know if this was good or not, but I thought they might want to get used to it before living outside. I wanted to plant them out this weekend, but we have to go and help the bf's mum sort her house out before she moves (read: shift all the cr*p he refuses to throw away from her loft into our loft) and I don't know if I want to be away for two nights while they're all on their own in the big wide world... Gawd, I'm so pathetic. And demonstrably not bored of talking about it, clearly.
I've ordered loads of compost too, and this is a turn-up for the books: not only is Wiggly Wigglers' organic, peat-free compost cheaper (including delivery) than the bog-standard stuff from the hardware shop at the end of the road (which is exceptionally useful in a crisis, so I'm happy to pay a bit more to support them and cover the running costs of an actual physical shop in an area of extortionately high property prices) but also cheaper than the bog-standard stuff at Wyevale. In fact, Wyevale is more expensive than the hardware shop. Economies of scale my *rse.
I have also acquired a bike on freecycle. Hurrah. It needs a clean and a new saddle, but it might have gears that work, which is a massive advantage over my current old banger.
Last night was the first meeting of Reading's first ever sock club. Well, I assume it's the first, anyway. 'Sock club?' I hear you ask. Yep, four of us from the knitting group have decided we want to learn to make socks, so I now have some scary dpns (why does the wool not fall off them??) and the world's most gorgeous wool. Mmmmm.... Wool.......
Which, given that Sharon says that learning to knit socks is the single most useful thing you can do against the apocalypse, is very appropriate, I feel. I'm not normally one for taking part in challenges that people put on their blogs, largely because I have several ongoing challenges of my own, in addition to the general hassle of living and trying not to centre all of that around the internet, but this one is largely food related and is flexible enough so that it's likely to fit around what I'm doing anyway. So I'm in. I have pledged that I am going to do two of the following things every week (thus by definition including a mandatory non-cooking one):
Seedlings continue to take over my living room. I'm kind of bored of talking about it now, but the peas are hardening off well and I let them stay out in the rain this afternoon for a while. I don't know if this was good or not, but I thought they might want to get used to it before living outside. I wanted to plant them out this weekend, but we have to go and help the bf's mum sort her house out before she moves (read: shift all the cr*p he refuses to throw away from her loft into our loft) and I don't know if I want to be away for two nights while they're all on their own in the big wide world... Gawd, I'm so pathetic. And demonstrably not bored of talking about it, clearly.
I've ordered loads of compost too, and this is a turn-up for the books: not only is Wiggly Wigglers' organic, peat-free compost cheaper (including delivery) than the bog-standard stuff from the hardware shop at the end of the road (which is exceptionally useful in a crisis, so I'm happy to pay a bit more to support them and cover the running costs of an actual physical shop in an area of extortionately high property prices) but also cheaper than the bog-standard stuff at Wyevale. In fact, Wyevale is more expensive than the hardware shop. Economies of scale my *rse.
I have also acquired a bike on freecycle. Hurrah. It needs a clean and a new saddle, but it might have gears that work, which is a massive advantage over my current old banger.
Last night was the first meeting of Reading's first ever sock club. Well, I assume it's the first, anyway. 'Sock club?' I hear you ask. Yep, four of us from the knitting group have decided we want to learn to make socks, so I now have some scary dpns (why does the wool not fall off them??) and the world's most gorgeous wool. Mmmmm.... Wool.......
Which, given that Sharon says that learning to knit socks is the single most useful thing you can do against the apocalypse, is very appropriate, I feel. I'm not normally one for taking part in challenges that people put on their blogs, largely because I have several ongoing challenges of my own, in addition to the general hassle of living and trying not to centre all of that around the internet, but this one is largely food related and is flexible enough so that it's likely to fit around what I'm doing anyway. So I'm in. I have pledged that I am going to do two of the following things every week (thus by definition including a mandatory non-cooking one):
- Plant something
- Harvest something
- Preserve something
- Prep something
- Cook something
- Manage your reserves
- Work on local food systems
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Sod resilience; eat Spanish omelettes
Well, I was going to write a post about Grangemouth oil refinery closing, the hike in food and fuel prices and resilience and relocalisation, but I can't be bothered. The long and the short of it can be summed up by two anecdotes: one of the hospitals I spoke to during my hospital food project last year after the town was cut off by snow and the food from the centralised NHS supply chain couldn't get in, so they had to buy food in the local shops instead, and everyone also thought the food tasted better and was healthier (who'd've thought it); secondly, when we first heard the fuel protests of 2000 were going to happen, we stopped at every petrol station on the way home from school, every BP garage, every supermarket, and none of them had any petrol, and it was only when we got to the tiny garage near our house (after dithering about it because it didn't seem likely they'd have any and if not it was an unneccesary detour) that we managed to fill up.
Ooh, we're now having a thunderstorm and lots of rain. I don't think my seedlings will be going outside today.
Yesterday was gorgeous, though. We went on a wild food walk at a park in Bracknell in the morning, which was quite interesting but a bit odd, as the person who was supposed to be running it hadn't turned up, but instead of going home, a group of us went anyway as someone knew a bit about it. She promised to take us out looking for mushrooms in the autumn, but whether she'll remember to email two total strangers in six months time is anyone's guess.
In the afternoon, I put some potatoes in and sat in the garden doing important research, trying to work out where I'd put things. I'm dependent largely on containers this year, but I noticed that one side of the garden gets a lot of direct sunlight and the other is much shadier. I wonder how you'd do a proper crop rotation like that: surely at some point you'd end up growing peppers against a north-facing fence and lettuces in direct sunlight.
For supper, we had a great Spanish omelette, loosely based on Jamie Oliver's frittata in the Jamie at Home book (which I bought last week with a book token from Easter) only with less chorizo and more greenery and a bit of goat's cheese on my half. And most of a bottle of red wine.
Ooh, I just saw lightning. I'm going to get away from the electrical device now. ;-)
Ooh, we're now having a thunderstorm and lots of rain. I don't think my seedlings will be going outside today.
Yesterday was gorgeous, though. We went on a wild food walk at a park in Bracknell in the morning, which was quite interesting but a bit odd, as the person who was supposed to be running it hadn't turned up, but instead of going home, a group of us went anyway as someone knew a bit about it. She promised to take us out looking for mushrooms in the autumn, but whether she'll remember to email two total strangers in six months time is anyone's guess.
In the afternoon, I put some potatoes in and sat in the garden doing important research, trying to work out where I'd put things. I'm dependent largely on containers this year, but I noticed that one side of the garden gets a lot of direct sunlight and the other is much shadier. I wonder how you'd do a proper crop rotation like that: surely at some point you'd end up growing peppers against a north-facing fence and lettuces in direct sunlight.
For supper, we had a great Spanish omelette, loosely based on Jamie Oliver's frittata in the Jamie at Home book (which I bought last week with a book token from Easter) only with less chorizo and more greenery and a bit of goat's cheese on my half. And most of a bottle of red wine.
Ooh, I just saw lightning. I'm going to get away from the electrical device now. ;-)
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Potatoes for Victory!
I really wish, when I confidently declared to Scientist Boyfriend the other day that, in the light of rising food prices, climate change, peak oil, the GM issue and biofuels, it was my moral duty to grow potatoes, that I had remembered that the bin I was going to plant them in* had harboured some pork bones for a couple of months. Of course I remembered as soon as I went out to inspect its potential potato-growing capacity. Oh yes, they'd smelt so bad I'd put them out there instead of in the kitchen one as the bins weren't going to be collected for another few days. Well, I can tell you, two months later on, that really would have been the lesser of two evils. Yeurgh. Maggots. Yeurgh.
My seedlings are coming on nicely. I have actually potted on the Brussels sprouts and the peas (I accidentally decapitated a sprout... I'm a bad mother...) and the peas' roots were SOOOO long already. I will now have to consult my gardening books, my forums and my dad and learn what to do next. I think it is that strange thing known as 'pricking out'. Or 'hardening off'. I wonder if there's a difference. Some squash and pumpkins are coming through, and even some of the butternut squash seeds that I saved from a squash from the farmer's market and kept in a mug over the winter cos I never got round to roasting and eating them are maybe, possibly, starting to possibly think about germinating.
Ruddy peppers resolutely not though.
The bf finished his exams last week. We walked an hour through the forest to get to the 'village' down the road to get to a celebratory curry and everyone thought we were nuts. At the weekend we put a big vat of chardonnay (mmm...) and stout (erm...) on to brew, which basically meant we spent the whole weekend washing up, and I tried to fix my bike and bent half the cutlery drawer getting the tyre off and then it turned out to be the valve not a puncture, and I'm actually tempted to get a new bike because that one is so rubbish I almost resent spending any more money on it. I had to get the back wheel replaced (or something... the bf did it while I was at work and he didn't really know what he'd spent £40 of my money on) and that was almost the worth of the bike. There was a 1930s ladies' bike for renovation on Freecycle, but I didn't get it. Meh.
I've splurged and bought the Jamie at Home book, because I'm actually warming to Jamie Oliver (even if I say it through gritted teeth) and we're having courgette carbonara tomorrow.
I've also bought a bokashi bin. I have come into some money - not very much money, not enough for a smallholding or anything fun: enough for a woodburner maybe, but not for a Clearview - and since the world is going to hell in a handcart, I thought that as well as whacking some of it into savings and praying it didn't get swallowed by the banking crisis monster, I should invest some of it in sustainable things, so some of it is on the way to various useful charities and some of it earmarked for the furtherance of backyard sustainability.
I bought compost-related items.
With free seed potatoes.
My mother, who spent countless holidays and Christmases quietly tearing her hair out while my father and his father and sisters discussed chitting and ericaceous compost and carrot fly over the breakfast table, is close to disowning me as it is. She was only wincingly enthusiastic about the seedlings. She fears I am lost.
I didn't tell her how excited I was about getting grow-bags.
Free seed potatoes though. Don't care if it is a bit late, I'm so enthusiastic about potatoes saving the planet I had potato salad for lunch instead of pasta or a sandwich. Get me and my reducing my grain dependency.
* This plan may be scuppered by the fact that bins tend to lack drainage and it doesn't seem polite to drill holes in the bottom of someone else's property, even if it is your contribution to alleviating the food and fuel crisis.
My seedlings are coming on nicely. I have actually potted on the Brussels sprouts and the peas (I accidentally decapitated a sprout... I'm a bad mother...) and the peas' roots were SOOOO long already. I will now have to consult my gardening books, my forums and my dad and learn what to do next. I think it is that strange thing known as 'pricking out'. Or 'hardening off'. I wonder if there's a difference. Some squash and pumpkins are coming through, and even some of the butternut squash seeds that I saved from a squash from the farmer's market and kept in a mug over the winter cos I never got round to roasting and eating them are maybe, possibly, starting to possibly think about germinating.
Ruddy peppers resolutely not though.
The bf finished his exams last week. We walked an hour through the forest to get to the 'village' down the road to get to a celebratory curry and everyone thought we were nuts. At the weekend we put a big vat of chardonnay (mmm...) and stout (erm...) on to brew, which basically meant we spent the whole weekend washing up, and I tried to fix my bike and bent half the cutlery drawer getting the tyre off and then it turned out to be the valve not a puncture, and I'm actually tempted to get a new bike because that one is so rubbish I almost resent spending any more money on it. I had to get the back wheel replaced (or something... the bf did it while I was at work and he didn't really know what he'd spent £40 of my money on) and that was almost the worth of the bike. There was a 1930s ladies' bike for renovation on Freecycle, but I didn't get it. Meh.
I've splurged and bought the Jamie at Home book, because I'm actually warming to Jamie Oliver (even if I say it through gritted teeth) and we're having courgette carbonara tomorrow.
I've also bought a bokashi bin. I have come into some money - not very much money, not enough for a smallholding or anything fun: enough for a woodburner maybe, but not for a Clearview - and since the world is going to hell in a handcart, I thought that as well as whacking some of it into savings and praying it didn't get swallowed by the banking crisis monster, I should invest some of it in sustainable things, so some of it is on the way to various useful charities and some of it earmarked for the furtherance of backyard sustainability.
I bought compost-related items.
With free seed potatoes.
My mother, who spent countless holidays and Christmases quietly tearing her hair out while my father and his father and sisters discussed chitting and ericaceous compost and carrot fly over the breakfast table, is close to disowning me as it is. She was only wincingly enthusiastic about the seedlings. She fears I am lost.
I didn't tell her how excited I was about getting grow-bags.
Free seed potatoes though. Don't care if it is a bit late, I'm so enthusiastic about potatoes saving the planet I had potato salad for lunch instead of pasta or a sandwich. Get me and my reducing my grain dependency.
* This plan may be scuppered by the fact that bins tend to lack drainage and it doesn't seem polite to drill holes in the bottom of someone else's property, even if it is your contribution to alleviating the food and fuel crisis.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
