My Bit of Earth

I Read Banned Books

So what do books have to do with playing in the dirt? (Aside from the fact that books are also one of my reasons to be.) Ahh! I'm glad you asked. See, one of my favorite things about having a little garden is that (theoretically in my case now, but someday) it is a wonderful place to curl up and read a good book. And because I'm very much against someone else getting to tell me I can't curl up in my garden and read whatever I want (especially my most favorite--the Harry Potter books) I am going to celebrate Banned Books Week this week.

"Each fall since 1982, the American Library Association (ALA) has started the school year by reminding Americans 'not to take for granted their precious freedom to read.'

Every year the American Library Association's office of intellectual freedom receives hundreds of requests to take books off shelves (otherwise known as a "challenge") for various reasons; this office estimates the number of challenges is actually four or five times higher than the number of challenges reported to them."

You can find more information on Banned Books Week here. Especially be sure to check out the list of most challenged books--it was kind of an eye opener to me. Many of the books (e.g. "James and the Giant Peach", "The Giver", "A Wrinkle In Time") that I grew up with and still love are listed. And for some I don't really even understand why--what's not to love about Roald Dahl?

The cite also lists many, many things you can do to celebrate Banned Books Week. As for me, I think I'm going to go to the library tommorrow, come home and spread a blanket on the grass, and enjoy the freedom to read whatever I please.

(Not) Environmentally Friendly Labels

Eh! Very upsetting! I was doing my usual morning news scan and I came across this article on MSN. For some time now, I've been trying to buy more free range chicken and eggs because, while I feel that eating chickens is ok for me, having them tortured first is definitely not. But apparently the "free range" label on eggs, chicken, and beef is basically meaningless. Urgh!

If anyone wants to learn more about the environmetally friendly labeling system here is an index that is pretty helpful. As for me, I guess I get to reevaluate my shopping practices.

Squish Squash

This fall I'm collecting gourds. Isn't that a silly thing to collect? It feels very frivolous, but I can't seem to resist them. It all started when I went to the farmer's market last Saturday. I never, ever go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings, but the dogs had woken me up early and I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to go check it out. I was wandering through, soaking it up (and people who have told me that the Saturday market is way more exciting than the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon market were 100% correct) when I saw a big basket of gourds, 10 for $2.

"Well, that's a really good deal," I reasoned to myself.

And then I passed a sackful at the grocery store the other day that were all knarled and other-worldly looking. And then two smallish little pumpkins that were just the right size to have around as Halloween decorations. And the butternut squash that was such a pretty, buttery color...(sigh).

So, now we have two fun Cucurbitaceae (the family that squash, pumpkins, and gourds belong to) tablescapes, and a few just sprinkled around for good measure.

Thankfully though, just after my little obsession started, the October issue of Martha Stewart came out with some very tasty recipes for all manner of squash (this is why I *heart* Martha).

Having grown up in a family that does NOT eat "controversial vegetables" (to borrow a phrase from a friend) I was a little bit skeptical, but I was plesantly surprised.

First, we tried the Butternut Squash Risotto which was a beautiful orangey color, and so tasty that we fought over the leftovers the next day.

Next, I made the Spicy Squash Pasta on a night that sweet husband had to work late (wiser the second time). The roasting pumpkin smelled all toasty and nutty, and the ricotta chesse made it so nice and creamy on my pasta. I'm warming up the leftovers for lunch as I type this and it's making my mouth water.

And there are several savory pies that I think we may have to test out soon as well...maybe I need to go buy some more squash.

Autumn

I've spent an hour now looking for a poem or a quote or some snippet that expresses my autumn. I want the nip in the air...the cool clear nights...the magic of jack'o'lanterns and cider...the feeling as you land in a big pile of leaves that you've been building up for what seems like forever...pulling out soft sweaters and cozy blankets...and I couldn't find that all in one nice package. Even poets aren't perfect I guess.

But aside from the perfectness of the weather, I've always thought the science behind an equinox is so very cool.

"In astronomy, the autumnal equinox (fall equinox, September equinox, or southward equinox) signals the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere: the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward; the equinox occurs around September 22–September 24, varying slightly each year according to the 400-year cycle of leap years in the Gregorian Calendar.

At the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. In the northern hemisphere, before the autumnal equinox, the sun rises and sets more and more to the north, and afterwards, it rises and sets more and more to the south." (Wikipedia).

I read a bulletin at school the other day about a professor who does walks on campus for each equinox. The technical perfect moment of the equinox today was at five this morning, so that's when they walked. It sounded a ted bit magical--walking around campus in the middle of the night, stargazing...but alas, as fall creeps in and as the nights get cooler, there's no amount of stargazing to beat hunkering down under the covers with sweet husband and two warm dogs.

Blue Potatoes!

Another one for the "when I have more space" list--Blue Potatoes! This site also has red potatoes and purple potatoes. They suggest that it would be fun to do a potato salad in red, white, and blue for Independence Day, but I'm thinking wouldn't it be even MORE FUN to do a red and blue potato salad for a JAYHAWK tailgate party?

(Oh, or you could do purple and white for that other Kansas team....)

Learning About Radishes

For a few weeks, I've been gradually picking a radish or two a day so that I could tell when they were big enough to pick. I wasn't sure how you tell when something like that is done, and I was afraid they'd just rot in the ground (thereby denying me Tasty Radishes!). Then this past week I got a little busy and forgot to go out and check on them. But tonight, lo and behold, when I walked outside there were some pushing themselves up out of the ground. Lesson: Radishes (and many other root-type vegetables I would wager) will let you know when it's time to eat them.

I read somewhere that if you are not very careful to see that your radishes have enough water they will be too spicy to be very good. I like radishes to be just a little bit spicy anyway--and we have had a good amount of rain--but I was very lazy in my watering and they still ended up very nice. I didn't really make sure to break up the soil well before planting them either, hence I didn't get perfect little nice fat Santa-shaped radishes. But I kind of like the way the shapes ended up--like little gnarled and grizzly garden gnomes that I can bite the heads off of.

And, in the future, when scrubbing radishes, I will be much more alert thanks to this little guy. He was pretty lucky, he came very close to going down the drain. I think he's the reason my radish tops have holes in them.

But I have enough to share a little with so fuzzy a little gentleman, so after letting him nibble his fill out of the leftover tops, I let him go outside back in the garden.

The World's Most Local Burger

Tonight sweet husband and I went to a new restaurant in Lawrence called "The World's Most Local Burger." Local Burger is similar to a typical burger joint, but the menu consists of all humanely raised and mostly local product.

The concept for the restaurant is great. It's all tricked out like a 50's style diner, right down to the little red baskets that your burger comes in. The food was also quite tasty. I had the chili and sweet husband had a burger, and both were very good.

There is a great review on lawrence.com as well as a nice summary. The only caveat I have about the review is that I think they're wrong about the price. It was about double the cost of our average fast food bill by the time we got drinks and all of that (which is reasonable considering you're getting a lot better quality food).

The only thing we were a little disappointed with was lack of extras. The menu offers a regular burger and a deluxe burger, and then in really tiny print says that the difference between the two is that the deluxe burger comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. Sweet husband didn't read the fine print and was pretty disappointed when his burger came out completely plain. And since the restaurant is not full service it wasn't simply a matter of asking our waitress for the toppings. To get them, he would have had to start over waiting in a (very long) line, or cut in front of someone in the same line (not so good either way) so he just ended up going without. The table next to us had the same problem, and I also ended up going without crackers for my chili.

Being ex-restaurant people (i.e. extra picky) that kind of irritated both of us, because, really, the "extras" we were missing aren't really extras anymore--they're "expecteds." And I know some restaurants don't put stuff on the side unless people order it because it creates waste--and that's ok--but we just thought it should have been either more evident from the menu or explained to us by the person who took our order, ya know?

Other than that though, Local Burger was great, and now that we know how to order and get what we want, I think we'll go back now and then.

Pretty Purple Pepper Plant

Once I gave it some room, the purple pepper has taken off. The peppers have been very pretty, but they're a little difficult to use. They don't have as much flavor raw as a green pepper does, and if you cook them the tend to turn kind of grey instead of becoming a more intense purple. I think next year I would like to experiment with another variety of purple pepper to see if I can't find something a little more usable because they are so very nice to look at....

Clark's Heavenly Blue

I planted these morning glory vines early this spring and ended up cutting them way back before they bloomed because they were taking over. But one or two resilient vines have popped back up and every few days I've been getting one of these little treasures.

Hurricane Katrina

I've been kind of keeping up with the weather on this blog, so I feel like I can legitimately post about Hurricane Katrina. I feel like I need to turn off the news, but I just can't. I feel like I can't help, but I can watch.

It's a little eerie and personal for me, because sweet husband and I almost moved to New Orleans for school. Most of the time when you make a big decision like that you never get to know what might have happened if you had made the other choice. It's really unusual that you get this kind of confirmation from the universe that you chose well.

And even though we ultimately decided not to move there, there are parts of New Orleans that are completely amazing that will probably never be the same again. When we were there someone told us that, because of erosion, we all needed to enjoy New Orleans while it was there because, basically, it was gradually being reclaimed by the ocean--too true!

Then there are aspects of New Orleans that are horrible. I've just started to hear the media take notice of the fact that the people who are left are poor or old or sick, and mostly black. The people who probably were in the worst parts of the city, the people who really needed to get out, were the ones that just couldn't. Now, I'm a big girl (most days) and I realize that economic and race and class distinctions will always matter. But I think it's harder for me to take when people are dying in large numbers based on those distinctions, here in the United States, in a place that I've been and know and enjoyed.

And then there's the storm itself. Of course, living in Kansas, most of my experiences have been with tornadoes, but--from the time I was very little--I can remember loving storms. A summer thunderstorm was an excuse to go stand on the porch and watch and maybe (if mom wasn't watching) duck out for a "shower" in the rain. One time during a tornado warning I can remember standing at the door to my uncle's basement just watching it--wide-eyed at the electricity in the air, at the absolute power--while my cousins cried because they were afraid. It can be completely devastating (and it's also a horrible cliche) but the power of nature is...awesome...humbling...incredible. And no matter how much we learn and predict, it's unstoppable.

Wanting to learn more about hurricane's (being, as I said, a Kansas girl and woefully ignorant) I did some research on how hurricanes are formed. I found a pretty good animation here that generally explains them if anyone else wants to check it out.

wow....

The End of August

We got out and did some clean up tonight. The purple pepper plant is really taking off and I wanted to give it a chance so I pruned back the tomato plant quite a bit to let the pepper breathe. The midget is still doing great, although the tomatoes don't quite have the flavor that they had before we started getting all of this rain.

I also had to take the pumpkin vines out. I didn't want to give up on them yet, but they're so fragile and the dogs had completely trampled them. We got two little pumpkins, but one was a little chewed on (by a dog or by bugs, I'm not sure which). When we have more room I would really like to grow some more, but trying to allocate such a small space between dogs and plants that can't take at least a little abuse just wasn't working.

I have a whole nice big box of arugula sprouting up nicely and the radishes and carrots are coming along too. We had a nice baby arugula salad for dinner the other night from the thinnings (heavenly) and I'm wondering if we can eat the greens from the radishes and carrots? Think I'll have to do some research on that one.

One thing the rain we've gotten lately has been amazing for is the roses. The Bicara has really shot up, and the Leo is looking a little less peaky too. Both have lots of pretty burgandy new growth. I'm trying to let them alone, so that they can get ready for winter. I did one last fertilizer just before school started a few weeks ago. I'm trying to let them form rosehips, and then sometime in October I'm planning to cut them way back and find a nice warm place for them in our attic cubby to ride out the winter.