First time homegardner

For as long as I can remember, I've had access to fresh, homegrown food. When I was growing up, our next door neighbors, who we affectionately called “Grandma Vi” and “Grandpa John,” even though they weren't our real grandparents, had a great big garden.

I distinctly remember spending time in the garden with Grandma Vi, exploring the vegetables she grew, and plucking carrots from the garden, washing them off and taking a bite with the green top still on, and exclaiming “What’s up, Doc?” like Bugs Bunny. While I’m sure I was never actually helpful, I loved spending time in the garden with Grandma Vi. 

Ever since then, I've been lucky enough to have access to homegrown food. My parents and Josh’s parents have pretty robust gardens and over the years have sent me home with armfuls of fresh fruits, veggies and herbs.

Now that I am a homeowner, I can’t wait to get started on my own garden. In fact, garden space was one of the “must-haves” during our house search. And while our backyard needs a little more TLC before we can start landscaping, I haven’t let that stop me. We have a great deck with plenty of space for a few container gardens, so that will be our makeshift garden for the year.

And because I have been so excited about my own garden, I am pleased to announce that I have officially finished planting the last of my herbs so with a little luck I should soon be harvesting my crops (well, if this rain ever goes away)!

Here’s what I’ve planted so far:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Brandywine heirloom tomatoes
• Sugar snap peas
• Parsley
• Mint
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Chives (that we found growing in our front yard!) 

And here’s what I will be planting later: 

• Peppers 
• Onion 
• Garlic

There are many reasons I wanted my own garden, taste and freshness being the most important. You can’t beat the flavor of a just-picked tomato, and I want that taste all summer long.

But there are also other great reasons to grow a garden:

• Freshly-picked food is healthy and more fun to cook with
• You can save money (usually – I’ll explain how I think I’ll save money below)
• You can share the bounty of your crops and make everyone want to be your best friend
• It’s a great way to incorporate more veggies into your diet
• You can control what goes on your food (i.e. pesticides)
• You can encourage others to grow a garden, which will help others eat healthier too
• Growing your own food helps lower your carbon footprint (think food miles)
• It allows you to connect with nature and spend more time outdoors
• Gardens can be beautiful and don’t have to be limited to food!
• You can buy starts with food stamps, so having a garden is open to everyone
• A garden can be any size and be placed anywhere, big or small, to meet your family’s needs.

Before the garden I just created, I had only grown herbs, and with varying levels of success. So before I got started I wasn't sure what to do. I knew I needed soil, something to plant everything in, and some equipment. But I also knew I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I started asking around and shopping on Craigslist for containers and I asked se at the Portland Farmers Market for some advice on what to plant. And I am pleased to find out that the start up costs for my garden are fairly low.

I also chose to go with starts, rather than seeds. I chose to do this mainly because there are so many great varieties at the Farmer’s Market, but also that it seemed like less work for a first-time gardener. I know there are many people who prefer to do it a different way, but I think that gardening is an experiment so you just have to do what you’re comfortable with, and starts is where I felt most confident.

Here’s how it all shakes out:

• 40 gallon galvanized tub for tomatoes: $50 (Craigslist find for half of its retail price!) 
• Planter for peas: Free (from work) 
• Planter for herbs: Free (from Josh’s dad) 
• Soil: $45 
• Gloves and shovel: $6 
• Tomato starts: $6 
• Basil: $2.50 
• Parsley: $2.50 
• Cilantro: $2.50 
• Mint: Free 
• Chives: Free 
• Sugar snap peas: Free 
• Garlic: Free 
• Onions: Free 
• Peppers: Free

Total: $114.50

=I’m not factoring in the cost of water here, but we are planning to install rain barrels eventually so ideally we’ll be watering our garden for free. So for now, I’m just counting the cost of the materials and plants.

I still need to do some comparison shopping to calculate my potential savings, but for now I’m not too worried. I’m just excited to get outside and see if I can actually keep my plants alive!

What about you? Do you have a garden?   If so, what's your favorite part?

Patience, practice and presence

What three words come to mind when you think of cooking? I bet none of them are “patience,” “practice,” or “presence.”

For many of us, cooking is just something we do to make sure our family is fed. And while it is arguably the most important task of the day, we often rush through it, trying to decide what to put on the table the fastest so we can get on to whatever else we have to do that evening. 

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending "An Evening with Michael Pollan" at the Newmark Theatre in downtown Portland. David Miller, a local radio host, spoke with Pollan about his latest book, “Cooked,” where he explores the idea that cooking at home is the single most important way we can improve our health.

Pollan said that he was inspired to write his book, in part at least, by the idea that he has finally figured out how to cook. But not in the sense that you think – as one of the most influential food writers in the country, Pollan knows how to cook. Instead, he learned how to approach cooking by obeying three simple words: patience, practice and presence. And by doing this, cooking went from being a chore to a task he enjoyed. And for the most part, I've followed this too. After all, if I make a point to buy local, high quality (and sometimes expensive) ingredients, don’t I owe it to myself to prepare them properly? So now, instead of figuring out how to cook and get dinner on the table as quickly as possible, I try really hard to take my time.

Unfortunately, this doesn't always work. Take last night for example. I got home at 5:45, was starving and only had an hour to get dinner on the table before I had to leave (ironically, to go see Michael Pollan talk). When I got home, I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but I started pulling ingredients out of the fridge and cupboard anyway, hastily putting the meal together in my mind. I knew I didn't have long and wanted to relax before I left, so I turned on a recording of The Voice and quickly started chopping up carrots and bok choy to make a stir fry while I listened, dashing back and forth between the counter and the couch to watch periodically. However, I didn't pay attention and before I knew it, the carrots were cut up into uneven chunks and I had failed to pick out the slimy, gross parts of the bok choy before throwing them in with the good parts.

But I didn't have time to go back and cut the carrots again, nor did I have time to sort the bok choy, so I decided to throw the veggies in together anyway. Then I realized we were nearly out of soy sauce so I scrambled for some alternatives in the cupboard and started pouring them over the veggies, hoping the results would be palatable.

I’ll spare you the rest of the details, but despite my attempt to get a quick, healthy dinner on the table before I left, I ended up eating cold rice noodles with a splash of toasted sesame oil before cleaning up the kitchen and running out the door. I was completely frustrated that I didn't take more time to think through my meal to make sure I had the right ingredients, the time to make it, the time to eat it or time to enjoy it. Plus, I had made such a mess that I had no time to relax!

Then I went to hear Michael speak.

The great thing about Pollan is that he doesn't guilt you into cooking or even guilt you into what you should be cooking (but he does have some great advice on that topic), despite the fact that his book is all about the importance of cooking. But it still made me realize that I need to have realistic cooking expectations. Making stir fry was actually a very easy meal to make in under an hour, so I should have slowed down to enjoy the process of cooking, rather than rushing through it so quickly.

Cooking shouldn't be stressful, but because I threw my practice, patience and presence out the window, it was exactly that. 

Unfortunately, this isn't the only night where this will happen, so I am going to start obeying Pollan’s three “P’s” of cooking to try and take the stress out of cooking.

First, I am going to be patient when cooking. I wanted to get dinner ready so quickly that I threw too much in the skillet at once, which actually made it cook slower. 

Second, I am going to practice some great advice a cooking instructor once told me – “mise en place,” which means having all of your ingredients gathered, measured and cut before you start cooking. I know that makes the process of cooking easier, so I’m going to practice that skill.

Third, I am going to be present when cooking dinner. No more trying to watch TV as I chop up my vegetables. Cooking dinner should be the only task I am working on at any given moment. No more chopping up my vegetables in uneven pieces that will cook unevenly. I want to enjoy the process and use it as a time to slow the pace of my day down. 

I am also going to add another “P” to Pollan’s list: please. Specifically by asking “Josh, will you please help me make dinner tonight?” Usually I just make dinner by myself by choice, but hopefully I will get better at being patient and present by inviting him to help me, because if he is there, things will go faster and maybe I will enjoy it more.  

How about you? Do you enjoy cooking? Or do you find yourself rushing through it just to get on to the next item on your 'to do' list?

house update: furnishing our space

Josh and I are finally feeling settled in our house. We've got some pictures up on the wall, a bed for our guest room and we recently took home some nearly-forgotten furniture out of our storage unit.

Before buying our house, we lived in a 490 square foot one bedroom apartment in NW Portland. Before that, we lived in campus housing on Linfield's McMinnville campus where we had the luxury of using their furniture and before that, we lived with friends who furnished our apartments with their own stuff.

trash

Last weekend Josh and I spent a much needed weekend away from home camping near Newport on the Oregon Coast. We have been so busy settling into our house and working on projects that we  needed to get away. Lucky for us, I booked two nights in a yurt at Beverly Beach a few months ago. And it couldn't have come at a better time.

We spent the weekend drinking good beer, whale watching (count: 0) in Depoe Bay, eating amazing food, touring lighthouses, wine tasting, exploring tide pools and hanging out with our good friends Bennett and Rylee. And even though the weather was less than desirable (it rained and hailed on and off) we had a great time.

I love the Oregon Coast. My grandparents own a small cabin in Arch Cape so I grew up taking trips to the coast, spending summers making sand castles, skim boarding, looking for shells in the sand, having hot dog roasts, exploring tide pools and harvesting clams and mussels with my family. Because of this the Oregon Coast is and will remain my favorite place in the world.

House project #1: paint and refinishing hardwood floors

Well, we've survived another week of home ownership! We moved in a few weeks ago and have already made a lot of progress. We painted the walls, had the hardwood floors refinished, cleaned the house, fixed some electrical problems, put in closet organizing systems, cleaned out the gutters, and have started unpacking.

Like I promised in my first blog post about the house, I am going to write about the different projects we take on and how we will strive to make them as eco-friendly as possible, starting with refinishing the hardwood floors and painting.

Indoor air is three times more polluted than outdoor air, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency, paint and finishes are among the leading causes that makes it one of the top five hazards to human health.  Because of that, we wanted to make sure our floors and walls were finished with eco-friendly products when possible.