one for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow

yesterday i spent mony a weary nibble laying out my plans for the garden. i tried to use companion planting principles whenever possible, like planting carrots and basil around tomatoes, throwing in lots of patches of radishes since practically all plants supposedly like radishes, and interplanting peas/pole beans with corn and sunflowers so the vines can use the stalks as natural trellises. i might even plant some squash with the peas and corn just to have a spot of “three sisters.” it gets confusing trying to sort out who’s friends and enemies and then space them accordingly. extra tricky since i’m working with small spaces, i have to squish everything together and hope they play nice.

this is the creek bank--for mapping purposes i chopped it into three segments, so these are all one long piece, not three separate rows.

and the raised bed. the left side is already planted and growing, right side is waiting for me to make up my mind.

the list of container plants on that last map is already out of date as of today. i picked up a few herbs and flowers to finally plant the teacup planter...

i was going to use all tisane herbs but somehow that limitation crippled my ability to plant anything at all, so i did away with it.

i planted my caterpillar container with prickly caterpillar today. it’s a crazy-looking novelty plant i got from seed savers exchange.

elephant container is full of parsley...

blueberry bushes are already blooming...

lots of baby strawberries...

radishes are a couple weeks away...

nasturtiums seem happy enough...

oregano is on steroids...

peas are enjoying the old aluminum knitting needles i gave them to climb on...

and even my lettuces are doing well. for some reason i’ve never had much luck growing leafy veggies, so this is encouraging.

i picked some lettuce for a salad (which turned into a sandwich after the photo). i also threw in some dandelion greens and petals--the petals are light and sweet and delicious, almost like honeysuckle.

spring bug

lately i can’t seem to finish anything, and it’s making it difficult for me to even begin. for instance, i’ve had a mother’s day gift in mind for weeks now, have it all designed in my head and ready to sew, yet i haven’t even cut the fabric, and mother’s day is this sunday. other projects are just sitting around, waiting for me to catch up. i feel like there’s some kind of blockage in my brain, and floodgates will open as soon as i drano the bastard...but i don’t know how to go about unclogging myself.

two weeks ago, on wednesday, april 21, i saw a spring bug. i still don’t know what kind of insect it is, it looks sort of like a beetle larva, or a rove beetle--shiny and black with a long, segmented body, short legs at the front, large pincers, about 1/2 inch head-to-tail. i call it a spring bug because i see it every year and its appearance seems to signal the end of cold weather, meaning no more hard frosts, no more snow. normally i glimpse this herald of warm weather walking along by itself, but this year was different: i noticed an earthworm emerging from the soil and spazzing out mid-day, which is odd behavior for an earthworm, and when i looked closer there was a spring bug clamped onto its tail. i separated the two and fed the freaked-out worm back into its hole. the spring bug ran away before i could get a picture.

i don’t like this violent emergence of the spring bug. it seems like a bad omen. the last average frost date for boise is may 9, so i’ve been planning to watch the forecast around the week of the 15th and put plants outside then if the weather is right. my mom told me the other day that the snow has melted from shafer butte, which according to popular local gardening wisdom means it’s safe to plant outside, but i’m just not feeling it yet.

i think i’m being more protective of my plants this year because i started them all from seed. they’re my babies! i’ve put so much time and effort into raising them, and my instinct is to be clingy and protect them their whole lives. a few weeks ago i placed a basket of tomato plants out in the sun and my dog somehow snapped the terminal shoot of my biggest, bushiest, healthiest tomato plant. it was devastating. it’s not like i don’t have a couple dozen more where that came from, but did it have to be my best plant? i’ve held on to it, hoping for a miracle, but my intensive care treatment has pretty much turned into hospice.

all the trees in the city turned green while i was sleeping. how do i always miss the moment it happens? i was in the back yard taking pictures of lilacs and suddenly i looked up, looked around, and everything was green.

last wednesday i went to BSU for an article interview, and i ran into everyone i have ever known ever. i was already in a weird mood being back on campus. i felt old and like i didn’t belong there, even though it’s only been a year since i graduated and i’m younger than probably half the student body. but as soon as i walked into the sub i started seeing so many familiar faces, friends and acquaintances and former professors, and getting hugs left and right...i swear in the years i went to school there i never ran into so many people i knew in one day. and the interview went better than probably any other interview i’ve done. i left feeling jittery and jubilant and spent the rest of the day cooking like a maniac.

i had another interview last thursday at the art museum, which also went great. afterwards my contact guided me on a tour of the artwork i’m writing about, and i saw another familiar face...and body. the mother of one of my best friends from way-back-when is one of the patrons who commissioned artwork for this project, the only patron who commissioned a portrait. a 100% nude, full-body portrait. that woman is bold. what makes the situation even more unusual is that this wasn’t the first time i’d seen a painting of her naked. when emily and i were kids, before her parents split up, there were nudes of her mom painted by her dad hanging in the living room. i think it’s awesome. weird, certainly, but very cool that she’s so comfortable with herself, especially as an older woman.

after that interview i went to the pioneer cemetery to take photos, which i already posted on here. the cemetery is located directly across the street from a school i attended, east junior high. the school is currently being demolished. i stood there watching machines tear it apart for a while. strange, conflicted feelings. it was a piece of shit old school and i have mostly bad memories from my internment there, but losing it means i can never go back and walk around and remember all the good things that happened too. the other day i started cataloguing some memories, good and bad, from when i went to east. i’ll probably post them on here once i finish.

crazy weather arrived monday. i was roaming around a nature area taking pictures and it was warm, mostly overcast, without even a hint of breeze, and extremely humid. it kept drizzling off and on, teensie little raindrops. that weather combined with that setting reminded me of being in maryland, hiking around the deciduous forests. a few times it started pouring rain and it was like being in a tropical rainforest.

later that day i got to live out a fantasy of mine: standing in the middle of a field of knee-high spring grasses and wildflowers during an intense windstorm.

the wind blew in at 5:15. luckily i’d stopped in at home at 5, and i was just about to peddle away when the perfectly-still air turned into a goddamn hurricane with one sudden gust. i parked my bike, flew through the house and out the back door to scoop up my poor defenseless plants and carry them to safety. once everything was secured i left on my bike, enjoying one of the most intense tailwinds ever, which of course turned into a brick wall on the way back.

andy hates the wind. any bad weather scares the shit out of him...literally. he’s normally a very calm dog, but when there’s wind or rain or thunder he goes into panic mode, shaking and panting and looking pathetic, following me around the house, sometimes hiding in the laundry room. then the next day (or following night) he has extreme intestinal difficulties. he’s good at politely waking me up to be let outside, but the other night i was dead tired...at four in the morning he did his thing where he sits next to me, staring and making quiet wimpering noises. i woke up, but i was so out of it, i fell back to sleep and dreamt that he was an FBI double agent and he wanted to be let outside to make money by standing under a certain blooming tree at night. i woke up again, still in a sort of delirium with the emotional aftertaste of that dream, and for a few minutes i took the attitude that, “hell no, andy, i’m not letting you outside just so you can see that stupid tree.” eventually i came to and let him out before disaster struck.

my mom just emailed me a notice from downtown boise that they’re rescheduling the cinco de mayo celebration. “Please join us NEXT Wednesday May 12, 2010 from 4-8pm, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo!” did no one notice the absurdity of rescheduling the celebration of a holiday that’s named after the specific day it falls on? the email says “due to high winds and low temperatures,” but it’s been warm and sunny and windless all day. i’m confused. maybe they’ve got april fool’s day mixed up with cinco de mayo? i guess it looks like a storm is blowing in now...but still, what the hell.

in other crazy local news, scientists at U of I recently unearthed a giant palouse earthworm specimen. according to legend, the worm is a foot long, albino, smells like lilies and spits when agitated. there may have been some embellishment. i like the quote: “The problem with earthworm stories is that they get longer and longer, and you can always stretch an earthworm.” (story here, from NPR) i love how the farmers are already gearing up for a fight to protect their “freedom.” if this turns out to be another bruneau hot springsnail-type debacle it could mean further weakening of the endangered species act in idaho. that is unless the worms contain a substance that cures cancer so pfizer can grind ‘em up and bottle them, given that the only sensible reason to limit environmental damage and protect biodiversity is for the direct benefit of human beings and the interests of capitalism.

pressed herb and flower pasta with garlic

isn’t this the most elegant sheet of pasta you’ve ever seen? all the additions (except parsley and garlic) came fresh from the garden--pansies, dill, basil and oregano in the dough, then rosemary in the sauce and chives as a garnish. i do have parsley growing that i could’ve used, but i had a nice fresh bunch from the store anyway.

to make this pasta, start out with a basic pasta dough. one slight alteration: while making the dough i minced two cloves of garlic...kept mincing and crushing and mincing until it became a fine paste, then added it at the same time as the olive oil. garlic is optional but recommended.

i rolled out the dough pretty thin--ending on the second- or third-to-last setting on the machine--then cut it into pairs of equal-sized rectangles and laid out the herbs. i rinsed the herbs just prior to setting them down and the moisture helped adhere them to the dough.

i also spritzed the top dough rectangle with a little water before carefully layering it on top of the herbs. i gently rolled it with a rolling pin to seal, then ran it through the pasta machine until it became thin and transparent.

this was my second attempt; my first attempt didn’t turn out how i wanted. i didn’t make the dough very thin before placing the herbs, so when i rolled it out enough for the proper effect the herbs became extremely stretched out:

which is not a bad look, but not what i wanted. keep in mind that the herbs are going to stretch a bit no matter what. if you use a rolling pin instead of a pasta machine you can stretch them in all directions instead of just one.

i also placed the leaves too far apart the first time. with the second sheet i gave a lot more thought to layout. i tried to make the dill look like plants the flowers are growing from--afterwards i realized i could’ve used saffron threads at the base to look like roots. there’s so much creative potential with this technique--i love the idea of using it to make pictures or abstract patterns.

i sliced the finished pasta in thick ribbons. here it is cooked:

for seasoning i heated a bit of olive oil and added a couple coarsely-chopped garlic cloves, some rosemary and salt. as you can see i overcooked the garlic a little...it didn’t burn at least, and it was still delicious. then i scattered fresh chives around the plate and added a sprig of oregano for garnish.

israeli couscous with mushrooms

if you haven’t had it before, israeli couscous is a sort of toasted wheat pasta made in the size and shape of large tapioca pearls. you can probably find it in the bulk bins or ethnic foods section of the grocery store. it’s got a nice texture and very little flavor on its own--extremely versatile. this dish is quick and easy to prepare. the recipe makes about enough for two people (or one very hungry person) and is easily multiplied for larger batches.

1 cup israeli couscous
1 1/4 cup water
6 baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons dehydrated onions
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic salt (or garlic powder)
1 teaspoon cumin
olive oil

boil the water and add it to the couscous in a medium saucepan. stir in onions, parsley, garlic salt and cumin and simmer, covered, for about 8 minutes, or until the water is absorbed.

while the couscous is simmering, heat some olive oil in a large pan and sauté the mushrooms. make sure the pan is large enough so that the mushrooms can cook in a single layer.

add mushrooms to couscous and stir; or, serve mushrooms as a topping on a bed of couscous.

variations:
instead of dehydrated onions, dice half a medium-sized onion and sauté with the mushrooms.
use vegetable broth instead of water to cook the couscous (and garlic powder instead of garlic salt, so it’s not too salty).

ani’s raw sesame sunflower bread sandwich

this is my first time making raw bread...and really my first time making a whole raw meal, since most of the things i’ve made are just pieces, not dishes.

the bread recipe is from ani’s raw food kitchen by ani phyo. (this person has already blogged the recipe so i won’t bother). the only changes i made were adding chopped parsley and cumin, and substituting white sesame seeds for black ones.

i made one major mistake: i spread this stuff waaay too thick on the dehydrator tray. it still dried alright, but when i ate it it was thick and extremely filling. i should’ve spread it to less than half this width.

to make the sandwich i layered fresh homemade hummus, alfalfa sprouts, sliced sweet peppers, sliced tomato, salad greens, and a thick chunk of purple cabbage. i’ve been using purple cabbage as the star of a lot of my sandwiches lately. when you slice it thick enough it makes a perfect patty.

i added a side of cheesy kale chips. yumm!