Dreaming + Garden = Mondo

Five years ago Tim and I took a trip North. We were visiting family in the Pacific Northwest and tacked on a week to head to Canada. We spent some of our Canadian time on a little piece of land called Salt Springs Island. I actually posted about it here when this blog was first started.

That island changed me. Quite literally in many ways. I remember we carefully motored off the ferry onto small winding roads and I was struck by that feeling I once had as a little girl ... as if I had found a place of magic and fey folk. The island itself is close and intimate, peppered with small farms and sheep and artists. We had to hike to our campsite, right there on the water. I got pregnant with the boys on that island. I still get goosebumps when I recall the days there.

We found a winery; small, local, like everything there. It was a warm day and remember I was so silly, afraid to sip the wine tastings 'just in case'. I tried their white and bought a bottle and we watched our then puppy Mishka plunge into a small pond with the 'winery local' dogs, paddling around and splashing. I loved that day, that feeling.

The first thing that I noticed when we pulled up to the winery was the land. It rolled a bit up to the home, down to the tasting room. The owners were clever gardeners, terracing with raised beds, junk repurposed into garden art, flowers mixed with food. It was like a page out of Sunset magazine and we got to spend the day in it. There is nothing that gets closer to my heart than real life Sunset mag scenes.



I think that day enbedded itself into me, my psyche and dreams. It certainly embedded itself into my garden aesthetic. Since that day we have had twins, raised them, revisited another island, and finally finally realized some of the gardening dream that buried itself into my heart that day.





I will never be a farmer, far from a proficient gardener even now. But over the last 4 years I have learned so much about what I love. I was never really a 'growing' girl, impatient with what I thought the earth would just let go of freely. I have tempered that impatience now, learned to observe, learned to only plant what we like to eat, learned to play and plan all at the same time.



The backyard this year looks like that place, that sweet spot on the sweetest spot I have yet been in all my travels. It has the beds and the mixed purpose planting. It has flowers and fruit and food and us. A place for us to sit and talk or play or eat. It is far from done, I have come to realize no garden is ever really done, just fluxing in and out of states. But it is as close to the 'perfect' as I want it to be.



If we do leave here I will mourn just a bit. But also know that if that scene from 5 years ago ran so deep that we created here, well, then we can create it anywhere. And if we do go North, we will be that much closer to Salt Springs.

I realized this dream and wrote this post a few days back (before the blogger black out). I also came to the realization that sometimes dreams need a little refresher and signed up for a second round of Mondo Beyondo, this time with a few good friends that I cannot wait to work with as they do their first course. I am very excite about this.


And just as the garden space became something onto itself, I think it may be high time to seek out a new space on the internets and so I hope to move house this weekend to Squarespace where things just look a little prettier. I hope that you, my reading friends, do follow and I will make sure to update here if it does actually happen.

Here is to Dreaming in Action, right?

How Does your Garden Grow?

To answer :: sometimes I am not really sure. But it does.


It will be our second real season with raised beds and I still feel a little thrill when I see them in the backyard. What it is about the growing of things that I find so very very satisfying? There is something about watching little bits of seed that have been placed by your hand come through, fight up through the soil and then make something beautiful and edible and sustainable.


Each season has bought new lessons, ones of bugs and holes in leaves and the results of refusing to thin out the bunches of seedlings. Slowly new knowledge accumulates and I have started to realize how long it actually takes to grow a carrot or a sweet delicious leek. Food goes from piles of inanimate produce in great heaps at the grocery to a precious pinkening strawberry that is anticipated like a Friday night beer.



Gardening is not rocket science but there is a science to it, and an art. There is a vigilance required and I am learning about all of these things in the process of growing things in my backyard.

Last year we had a fairly dismal strawberry crop, harvesting one or two here or there until the season for strawberries was gone and I thought it a total waste of the front bed space. I wanted to rip them out but was too lazy to take it on. But then the strawberries started to run and replant themselves in their instinctive plant ways and they weathered the chill and came round this year.

I read up on how to manage the plants and found out that the second season is always better than the first and that they need some mulch and elevation from the soil and then the pretty little bunches started to have flowers and flowers and flowers and now we are waiting on whole bunches of strawberries. Not enough to anticipate making home jam from really close to home but enough to make it worth the keeping.

Gardening is not easy but it teaches patience, it is a laboratory for my children who now know to smash the chubby grey cutworms and leave the silky red worms be. It is a place to teach us that food is not easy to come by, it is not to be taken for granted and it is to be eaten. It is also a joy because even though I did not make that little seed sprout, that maybe had it been scattered in any place at anytime, it may have come to fruition with intervention unneeded. But it did come up in my yard, under my hand. It's better than Church.

The chard, the peas, the bok chok and celery (which I whooped with joy to see because apparently it is tough to start celery from seed).


Eating young fava bean leaves because you can, watching the boys record strawberry size growth in the notebook with their Uncle, anticipating and then receiving. It is a good thing.

But it makes one realize the preciousness of food. That if it were gone tomorrow, the Trader Joe's and Sprouts and Costco, would we know what to do? Hell no. But never say you can't learn.

Next up> Sweet potatoes and garlic scapes.

Rip and Resow

Unlike many others out there, I do not mind the yearly making of resolutions. I always do better with a list and really, resolutions are just another one of those to me. I tend to make the list for the New Year, casual but with good intentions and then try not to sweat it too much when they do not all happen. Better to make the list and cross of a few then plod along without any change to greet this new happenstance, 2011.

A few days before the New Year we gathered in the 'garden' and surveyed the somewhat sorry state of affairs.


There were scads of basil bush gone to seed, old tomato vines curled upon themselves and peppers looking more than worse for the wear. There were also strawberry runners promising new fruit and some self seeded onions. It felt good to pull out old roots, scatter some basil seed liberally and take stock of what could be. Then the rain came in again, drenching it all. Plans for this year started to form and visions of an actual 'good' tomato harvest came to mind.



Then the weekend came and went as did the New Year, no lists written, the planned for vision board as suggested by Karen sinking to the bottom of the list that included storing Christmas stuff and digging out from under the laundry. But the list, those resolutions are there, simmering under the surface and waiting for a few moments with pen and ink and clear head that has more than 4 hours sleep in it.

The idea of doing Mondo Beyondo again came to mind a few weeks ago, but I did not pounce. I loved it so but feel as if I am still processing it even a full year later. But then I did find something I want to join, something that has intimidated me from the get-go. Project 365. Not of me, not my face, but of our lives, our daily life in and out and about. This fine lady and her video convinced me it was time. And so it has begun, Day 3 now.

I look forward to see the mundane and the special, the vertical change that may (or may not happen) with the boys, the subtle shift in facial expression and line that 365 days can bring. This may be a year of upheaval and opportunity, change and growth. Or it may just be 2011.

We will just have to see, right?

P.S. They are almost ripe. The New Year looks good so far, my friends, doesn't it?

Playtime :: Part Two

God, I am loving summer this year. I am not sure if it is due to the gentle reassurances the Dream Lab keeps shooting my way (think photos of Love notes on sticky paper showing up in your inbox and telling you that you can Rest and Slow Down) or the fact that hot hot weather has held off and we are settling into the high 80s and low 90s while watching the boys water the garden and attend to all things in a naked state. Whatever it is, I will take it.

Garden news :: This year the raised beds hold a special soil mix suggested by the Square Foot gardening and it has made all the difference. The soil is light and supporting all types of combination planting. There is basil mixed with carrots, strawberries that are slow to give fruit but so sweet and tangy, tomatoes working their way up to maturity and the pumpkins are loving the sun.






It is a wonderful thing to look out the kitchen window and see the growing things. But I will say this. We do not make enough to truly feed ourselves. Three strawberries a day does not a breakfast make. Growing food has given me a new respect for farming and the sheer amount of land and water and effort that must be required to grow the huge amounts of produce that we do. A cello bag of carrots at the market make me stop and think about how much effort that must have been....and it scares me a little too when I think that if it collapsed one day, would we really know how to do this. Guess it is a learning curve and next year we will be devoting even more ground space to food production.

Slow Stitching :: I am still deep in the stitching love and finding all types of fabric laying around to play with. This skirt is in the works, hopefully finished for this weekend.

It is a busy stretch knit print layered over plain pink and then I tried the felled seams as illustrated in Studio Style.

Super fast and simple and the result so far is pleasing. The seams break up the business of the print and I have high hopes that this will be comfortable and pretty. I did learn a few things this round:

- I tried the skirt as a single layer with felled seams and it was way too light to support that construction. I picked out the seam and layered with the pink and it feels much more substantial.
- I went with a small size because all the skirts I have made grow and grow as I wear. I think I made my grey skirt a medium and the first bloomers a large and both hang once worn for a few hours. We will have to see how the small works out. I'll let you know.

Exciting Finds :: I never did get to those recap posts from the Trip but I have a few pretty bits that I brought back with me. I found a sweet little antiques shop on Orcas Island right before we jumped on the ferry back to Mainland and there were buttons and books and an old tomato timer with a jarring ring (That was not really entertaining trapped in a small Subaru with boys who thought it was hilarious to hear it ring again. And again).

And then the oilcloth at the Mill End store in Portland. Oh, the oilcloth. These were some type of absurd deal, maybe 1.50 a piece.

I just used my 50% off coupon from JoAnn's to get this...which holds all the regular Martha brilliance and a few projects using oilcloth. Yippee.

Kitchen:: One word. J E L L O.

Cannot stop eating it. We made it with the boys the other day, floating berries in the red and mango in th orange. One taste and I was a kid again..in my best dress out to dinner at Michael J's, the local family friendly restaurant in town. It was the only one my parents dared take their brood, 8 rambunctious kids that always ended up sliding the slippery peach halves across the table at each other, sans dish in which they had been served. We were heathens. We always anticipated dessert, jello served in parfait glasses, perfect firm cubes crowned with the mandatory whipped topping.

They just tore it down, Michael J's, it was crumbling slowly and fed only the seniors from the mobile home park up the street. And then it was probably only on Fish n' Chips special night. It will now be a new Panera. That makes me a little sad. But I can always make Jello at home for the boys. And me. Might even be sneaking some of the whipped topping into our diet because it is mandatory, you know?

And I am over the Moon about....Babies! Not mine, of course. But finally our friends have jumped on the bandwagon know as parenting and I have so many little people-to-be to sew for. Right now there is a doll coming together for a little girl almost one and then it is on to the newbie stuff. I am so excited about these additions to all of our lives and so glad mine are big enough to send out into the yard naked to play while I sew.

Now, off to finish that skirt so I can sport it at the local 4th of July parade tomorrow. I know, it is the 3rd tomorrow but all of a sudden La Verne fancies itself Christian and apparently we cannot hold the holiday festivities on the Lord's Day. Except for the fireworks...those are fine in God's eyes. Whatever. I will be playing tomorrow with the boys and watching the fireworks burst on Sunday night. I'm easy.

Hope if you holiday, that yours is lovely and fun and special and bright. Cheers.

Sundays are for...

Waking to the sweet scent of blooms, spring coming in a frothy white. Remembering to use that early morning light to capture this year's show.




Seeking a new point of view of something very old.


Serious fun.


Salvaging enough wood to make a deck and a tree house for the boys. This is like finding a pot of gold to a carpenter.


Sewing and sewing and sewing seams. And finally feeling like I am getting somewhere on the Scrappy Summer quilt.

(I chain pieced two squares, pressed and decided on a rough layout and then started on the strips. Totally made this up. I bet there is a better method).

Silly colored Easter bagels. Mason chose pink and Owen chose blue. Shockingly colored but still very tasty.


Salad in a barrel. We water it and then pinch it carefully (you have to hear Mace tell me not to pull it, pinch it, Mama, no pull roots).


Seeds and soil. Turning the beds and pushing in the bean seeds. Dirty but fun.


Sun on bare feet. Muddy toes. Blankets on grass. A few stitches in the warm rays before I have to get up again and make something else for someone.



Sundays are not for rest around these parts. But that is quite alright.

Okay, now after writing this post I am tired.

Summer Eating in the Heat

It seems appropriate to follow up a garden post with one listing some of the recipes sparked by the garden and its offerings. There is not a huge harvest yet, but we are well into summer eating. Last week a heat wave mugged this area and it was all I could do to even think about food. Nothing like day of 100 + weather with high humidity and crabby boys bouncing off the walls because it was too hot to go outside and Grandpa's pool was on the fritz. We did manage to come up with some good meals and ideas that I will share in case the heat wave comes to your town.

The key to hot days is to try to cook very little, and if one does need heat, to do it outside. This panzella salad takes 5 minutes and is filling enough to get you through dinner.

All I do is rough chop tomatoes in a bowl, preserving the juice and seeds, chop tons of fresh basil and douse generously with olive oil and balsamic. You will need a good sturdy bread loaf, we always pick up the La Brea bakery bread, it keeps for a few days, but is actually better used in this recipe when a little stale.

Chop up the bread into rough chunks, toss with the tomato mixture, add salt and fresh ground pepper and you have your meal.

My Mama picked up a great recipe while watching Emeril's show but she put her own spin on it, as she is wont to do. It is a cilantro based marinade/dressing that packs so much flavor. Tangy and fresh with lots of good cilantro flavor. I find it irresistible.

This is the basic recipe we used::
1/2 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
2 bunches cilantro
Juice from 1 lemon and 1 lime
1/4 c. sweet chili sauce
1/4 c. canned pineapple chunks
Juice reserved from pineapple

Chop onion, garlic and cilantro and add to blender with juice, chili sauce and pineapple. Blend until mixture emulsifies, add pineapple juice or water to thin mixture until it is pourable.

I have used this on salad with a little added olive oil for flavor, on fish and chicken as a marinade and today I mixed a spoonful into rice and beans with a little yogurt to make a delicious creamy saucy rice dish. We were out of pineapple the second time around, but it seemed to come out just fine.

One way to get dinner done when it is hot is to turn to the grill. I love grilling fish in a packet with a side of grilled vegetables.


For this meal, I made a simple marinade with lemon juice, chopped fresh herbs including basil, oregano, marjoram and thyme, olive oil, a crushed garlic clove and salt and pepper. I fashioned long pieces of foil into packets for the fish and veg, poured the marinade over each, dotted the fish with butter and grilled until tender. Easy and fast and very yummy.

I finally had a chance to try my hand at making spring rolls, but I am calling them my 'summer' rolls. I love these, always order them from a local Thai restaurant. We have been trying to eat at home to save money and these can cost a pretty penny. I picked up a package of rice wrappers at our local Asian market, I think they cost $1.29.

They are simple to prepare, you just dip the sheet into warm water until the pattern disappears, then place it on a piece of wax paper.

I filled mine with whole basil, mint, cilantro and spinach leaves, shredded carrot, cucumber and green onion and shrimp. They tasted great, but I found the rolling process really difficult as the wrappers get extremely sticky once wet. Not pretty to look at, but very good to eat.

I mixed up a quick peanut dipping sauce by combining peanut butter, agave syrup, hot chili sauce, lime juice and water. Double yum.

Hope there is something that calls to you, especially if you are dealing with the heat of the summer. Happy eats.

* I have a few exciting posts coming up : A knitting 'recipe' for the littles and a great project I 'unvented'. Look for them this week and next.

Lessons in the Garden

I am learning so much this summer out in my garden. I have always wanted raised beds and our journey towards home growing started in earnest this year. After we set up the beds it took me some time to figure out a plan. I have always been a lackadaisical gardener at best, planting a few squash and tomato plants and hoping for a few successes.

This year we took a more structured approach, placing some permanent beds in a place I felt would be fortuitous and there they sat as I collected seeds and dreamed about what to plant. It took awhile for me to decide then what to do, but now in July, I am slowing figuring out what works and what does not. And that it might be good to read up a bit more and pay attention to some of the plethora of gardening forums and podcasts out there. So far, I feel the success outweighs the failings and there has actually been some edible results so far.

Want to know what I have learned?

:: That sometimes it is okay to let things go to flower or seed on the off chance that I can gather those seeds and use them again.

Our artichoke exhausted itself in one season, giving about 20 artichokes, all of a medium to smallish size, but all equally delicious. And we might be able to grow another. Maybe. I have heard that is hard to do, but I like to dream big.


:: Reading the seed packets is a good idea. If the packet says bush beans they will not grow up your scaffolding. They will grow as bushes. So then you will have to move the beans to make room for actual climbers.


And that if you hand your little boy a seed and he loves the dirt as much as you, he will plant his own. And make it grow. Even if it is in the row that is designated for the chard.


:: Gophers make me mad. Really really mad. Especially when they eat the roots of a heirloom tomato and then disintegrate my tomatillo plant. Gopher, you gonna' die. Or least go away.


:: Seeing your plants make food is magic. Lemon yellow round cucumbers, Japanese cucumber, slowing ripening tomatoes hanging on their vines. Lesson from this is when you pick it is is best to just eat it. Right then in a salad.




:: Follow seed packet instructions for thinning. Otherwise your beets stay baby size. But still pretty delish.


:: Plant lots of lettuce. Every day I come out in the morning to harvest....every morning next there is more to take.

These seem to stand not being thinned much. And taste very yummy lightly braised or tossed into a sandwich or just eaten so that I can say I got my greens for the day.

Gardening is both harder and simpler than I thought. It rewards me in small measure and large. The boys experiment more for the caring of the food. They know about seeds and what happens when you place one in the ground. They know about growing of the plants, the need for water and for weeding (sure, they choose the wrong thing to weed, but I planted a lot). They taste more, though they still spit what they do not like.

As for me, I know the time it takes to grow food and marvel at the tables and stacks of produce at the grocery. I think twice before buying. And I realize anything grown at home tastes three times better than that organic bit you picked up at the market. It really does.

So, it is not too late. Go get some seeds, a small space and good soil and plant. Make your own food. The benefits far outweigh the costs...and make up for the damn gophers eating your roots.

Some crafting/knitting up next. Here is a sneak peek at a project that I reduxed to make a School Boy Vest in anticipation of September.