Greetings! Did you think I forgot about my grog? I didn’t forget, and I’ve been living green, but I’ve more or less taken a summer vacation from the blog. It turns out that summer with 2 kids home is not an opportune time to reflect and write about one’s green life! If there are still any readers out there, then come on, let’s jump back in where we left off, shall we?
My Veg Garden Awards, June-July:
Best Producing Plant: Cherry tomatoes, by a landslide! Honestly best tasting tomatoes ever.
Bounty of cherry tomatoes
Most Disappointing Plant: Tie between squash and peppers. Neither did well. Something liked them both too much and my organic pesticide did not help them one bit. RIP, squash and peppers.
Biggest Surprise: Cukes! They are going nuts and we should have a big crop in the near future. Remember when I was using them for a decoy for the pests? The underdogs of the garden! We’ve had one so far, huge and perfect and delicious, with big seeds. We ate it sliced with nothing on it. We are quite proud of our first cuke. We’re pretty sure it will go to Harvard and be a brain surgeon someday.
Our first cuke's younger sister...she's going to Yale to study rocket science.
Most Resented By the Other Plants: Mint! Wow, it takes over just like they say it will. It is growing all throughout the container. It is going nuts. The kids love chewing on it. It has been a nice addition to our iced tea this summer.
Loveliest Plant: Tie between eggplant and basil. The eggplant is such a pretty color and although tiny in size, it had big flavor! The basil has also done very well and I really have loved using it. I can’t get pretty basil in Newnan in the grocery store and now I’m spoiled rotten.
Purty little baby japanese eggplant...
Favorite Dish Made With Veg Garden: Tie between salad with cherry tomatoes, and bruschetta with produce stand tomatoes (shout-out to Veggie Patch!) and our basil. Nothing is better than a real, homegrown tomato with homegrown basil in the summertime. When you slice a real tomato, you smell it right away, and then it has all these little pockets (?) with seeds, all over the inside of the tomato, not just a few. I’m obsessed. I center entire meals around summertime tomatoes, like it’s a steak or something!
Best Thing About the Veg Garden: It’s been a family project, one that we all care about. The kids love to check it, to pick the herbs and veggies, I love looking at the progress and talking to the kids about it, and Scott keeps up with the weeding. We’re already planning our fall/winter garden and are still going to start a compost pile to use for it. What can I say, it’s just fun!
Little Green Things You Can Do- from The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen
(thanks to my friend Jennifer P. for giving me this book!)
1. Don’t pre-rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
2. Turn off the tap while you scrub your hands.
3. Take shorter showers.
4. Set your thermostat a degree higher for air and a degree lower for heating.
5. Store food in glass or porcelain containers instead of plastic.
6. Use water filters on your tap instead of buying bottled water.
7. Turn off the tap while your brush your teeth.
8. Avoid plastic shower curtain liners.
9. Recycle your junk mail.
10. Change light bulbs to compact fluorescent when they burn out.
11. Use commercial car washes- they use less water and recycle their rinse water.
12. Leave the clippings on the lawn.
13. Grab only the napkins that you will need at a restaurant.
14. Buy rechargeable batteries.
15. Recycle cell phones.
If we all do even one little thing, they will add up to big things. For more info on the list above, read The Green Book.
Let me know what green things you’ve been up to this summer, what you’ve been growing in your gardens, what you’ve been reading, what little green things inspire you?
Take care of yourselves and each other,
Katie
Songs of our summer:
“You and me together, can do anything, baby, you and me together, yeah, yeah…” -Dave Matthews Band, You and Me
“Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself…if I don’t go on and quit you, I’m gonna lose my mind.” -Eric Clapton, Before You Accuse Me
“Boy the way you blowin’ up my phone won’t make me leave no fast-uh, put my coat on fast-uh, leave my girls no fast-uh, I shoulda left my phone at home ’cause this is a disas-tuh, callin’ like a collect-uh, sorry I cannot an-suh!” -Lady Gaga/Beyonce, Telephone
(Disclaimer: While it pains me to put the last one in with the first 2, it is what it is and I make no apologies.)
(Note: The first 2 are hilarious together! Just realized it!)
Do you have the marinated tomato topping recipe? Here it is:
4 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 t. e v o o
3 T shredded fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T chopped fresh chives. Stir together and spoon it onto a slice of toasted baguette. Yum!
They had a tomato tasting at the farmer’s market on Sat. I bought some interesting varieties and made this on Sun. It was quite tasty.
I can’t wait to try it. It’s one of my favorite summer things. Thanks for the recipe!
I’ve been working on a family owned, organic farm this summer. We’ve been having amazing success with a homemade pesticide or dishsoap and water. It beat out pygenics, which is an organic pesticide that requires the use of a respirator and Tyvek suits during application. The only thing we haven’t been able to safe have been our tomatoes and yours seem to have done fine. Just curious what you do?
I had read about some make-your-own pesticides, but I opted for a product from Home Depot called “EcoSmart Organic Garden Insect Killer.” It has rosemary oil, peppermint oil, thyme oil, clove oil, water, mineral oil, octadecenoic acid potassium salt, and lecithin. I don’t know what those last 2 things are. It hasn’t worked for my peppers or squash, but everything else has been ok. I never got around to putting up a fence, and even the deer have stayed away! It comes in a spray bottle and is very easy to use. It has to be sprayed (lightly!) on a dry day. Good luck!