birthday peach cobbler w. cinnamon ice cream!

I always think I should post, but forget what I wanted to write by the time I do. I had a really nice birthday weekend. It was fun having my parents visit and being able to take them to some of my favorite places. Some new places we went were Mt. St. Helens in WA and Paley's Place for birthday dinner in PDX.

 I got a weather-proof, point & shoot Nikon camera - which the above fotos were taken with. Still getting a feel for it. Hopefully, I'll take it to the coast soon.
Pretty much all moved into the new place now. My desk is set up and I'm thinking more about decorating than unpacking boxes. While we're still having 80 - 90 degree days here, I'm starting fall habits. I'm finishing up the short-row sweater that I started in June, and already thinking about knitting these gorgeous mittens. I already know they'll go with my coat as I have the same one in the photo :) I've also been thinking about sewing more since I made the Wiksten tank dress. Using a pattern changes the whole experience! I don't have to make any decisions, just follow the instructions and I get an awesome dress at the end. Plus, I learned new techniques too, which is rad. I should probably do a post on these projects, as well as one on the place when it's looking nice. to do.

no surprise - moving is exhausting! I unpacked necessitates, but have no idea what is where in which box for everything else. moving once a year is starting to be to often for me - am I getting old or just have too much stuff? both probably, my 25th birthday is this sunday! i'm a quarter of a century old, truly horrifying. my parents are coming out and we're visiting mt. st. helen for a day :)

while looking for cheap, used furniture, i found an old wine crate - which I suppose is "vintage" these days as I was never able to find them in use like so many D.I.Y.S suggested I might. I planted arugula seeds in it yesterday & hope they thrive! it'll be my first go at a winter garden out here in the PNW. I'd like to find spots to plant spinach, kale, cabbage and maybe a quick harvest of turnips.

Arugula sowed: 09.05.12.
germination: (est. 5 days) 09.10.12  Start looking for sprouts & micro greens!
predicted harvest: (est. 30 days) 10.10.12

Hi friends -
I haven't been around here much. I went to Denver, then Michigan, then Canada. I've been back in Portland for 2 weeks now. So much is going on, and yet so little at the same time. Big things include - the house I'm living in was sold, we're moving! I'm awesome at doing unpaid work & have started 2 internships (1 garden, 1 UX design mobile apps). And, I'm still looking for any form of paid work, it's gorgeous outside everyday, and I've been digging carrot juice (i love having a juicer!).

Also, I've been getting tomatoes from the Blue Stupice since I've been back (08.10.12) and with lots of new fruit to come. They have such nice coloring and taste - lightly acidic, sweet, with a smoky finish. In other garden news, kale and chard are still going - I eat them everyday, it's awesome. Beans & peas are done. The pea plant dried up one particularly hot weekend (08.03.12) & the beans "went to seed." Rather, all the pods left on the bean plant were dry and ready for saving or rehydrating. I rehydrated them and ate them w/ a bunch of bulk black beans - yum.

13 weeks from planting date - here's a snapshot of what the garden is doing. Above is the one Sugar Star snap pea plant that has made it. There are a handful of peapods that will be ready to be picked in the next 2 weeks - they're ready to pick when they look so plump they might explode! I think pea plants are the prettiest with they're delicate vines and cute little leaves.

baby pea pod

I've been getting a good harvest from the 4+ kale plants. There have definitely been some munchers - I've been picking off big fat green caterpillars and wiping away yellow and white egg clusters on the undersides of leaves. The yellow eggs corresponded with finding the Small White Cabbage butterfly caterpillar (Pieris rapae) munching on the leaves. The white eggs are probably Leafminers (more info here). Both insects overwinter in the soil, making them hard to beat. But, I don't mind eating veggie w/ some pest damage - it's only aesthetics.

2 carrots made it!

Blue stupice tomato is a new addition! I helped plant these seeds to grow into starts at Bluehouse Greenhouse Farm! I planted this guy in my garden with some bat guano & lots of water - I've already go 3 baby tomatoes! I haven't had to prune many suckers off & it seems to grow relatively vertical. Easy peasy.

I'm listening to the podcast On Being, which I'm not sure if I like yet, but I'm listening anyways. I like this bit below about language shaping experiences/ concepts. My house was just talking about this the other day. I wonder about my experience being shaped inherently because of concepts built into language - and more in the sense of the things not appreciated because they're not built into the way we speak. I also wonder how much language vs culture effects values and things generally undervalued in our society like time vs money, happiness vs success. Something like that.

"You know, I send this out and then I get these messages, "Wow, this is happening in Iran?" Or I send pictures. I just realized afterwards that our visual vocabulary has been affected. If we think of Iran, we only have certain visions of unfortunate moments in recent history that get repeated. And our language — Rumi is so aware of that. Language can take over our lives and make us not see things. He actually has a fabulous verse, he says [Persian spoken]. "Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world." I mean this is the most sophisticated, philosophical approach to language. Now we talk of language as being constitutive of experience, but that's exactly what he said. You know, "Get yourself a new language and then you will be able to see a new world." And that's definitely what we need to do in relation to that part of the world and certainly with Iran, to see the dynamics. A tremendous amount is going on that we don't get to hear about."

Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz
From APM On Being: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi

an enormous, fast moving worm!

If you follow me on Instagram, sorry for the repeat of pictures! I want to post on the progress of the Spring garden. It's been 3 weeks since I turned and seeded the soil. I did a little bit of weeding today and have been watering if there's no rain. I would call my style pretty low maintenance! The radishes are the biggest and fastest growing, but here's a peak at how the other veggies are doing.

Black Coco bush bean

Purple Dragon carrot.  

These guys are slow to get going - I haven't grown carrots before so I hope they survive!

Rainbow chard

Kale "Frizz" variety

Sugar Star snap pea, so cute!

kimchi.08

Recently, Trader Joe's started carrying kimchi, in a bag no less. Ryan found it & pointed it out to me. It was only $1.99, so I tried it, AND it was good! As in better than all the kimchi I've had since coming to Portland. oh my. I looked at the ingredients list and it was simple and things that are suppose to be in kimchi. So, I decided to modify my recipe to see if I could make even better kimchi.

The thing I've never tried, other than adding fish sauce, is making a flour and water base. I also poured in the left over juice from the TJ kimchi to help kick start the fermentation. I'll be really surprised if none of the kimchi at TJ explodes at some point (seriously, it's in a bag). 

Here's what I did (modified from Bap Story):

.ingredients.

half a Napa cabbage

1 C water

1 T sweet rice flour

7-8 cloves of garlic

good hunk of ginger (2-3")

3 T red chili powder

1 T agave

1 apple

2 shakes o' sea salt

3 green onions, cut however you like

.process.

cut cabbage into 1 inch hunks. place in bowl w/ some sea salt dissolved in hot water. then cover cabbage with cool water, so it's submerged. placed a plate and weight on top and let it sit overnight.

next day, drain and rinse cabbage. set aside.

warm 1 C water and add 1 T rice flour and whisk until combined. let simmer until runny glue consistency.

pour  water/flour mixture into mixing bowl. grate apple, ginger, and garlic into bowl. add 1 T agave or honey. add 3 T of red chili powder - less if you want less heat. add green onion and cabbage and mix with your hands (careful if you have cuts)!

stuff all into clean jar. press it a little to see the juice and have everything submerged. store in dark, cool spot for a few days. check it everyday and push everything down to submerge in juices. while checking, give it a taste and see if it's fermented to your liking. 3 days is usually good for me and then I stick it in the fridge and enjoy!

kimchi mixin'

i need a large jar!