July 3 Adventures in Gardening

 
How's your Garden, SPJ? SO GLAD YOU ASKED! Look!!

 Front garden has lavender, roses, salvia, lettuce, hot peppers and summer squash thriving. Had a killer radish harvest (fairly sure using "killer" in reference to a radish harvest is not what the coiners of that phrase had in mind).  The carrots and onions remain to be seen. Spinach was my big bust.

 

In back,  a tomato plant that is thriving, a green pepper plant that is on life support and corn. Yep. corn. How can I call myself a wannabe homesteader if I don't try corn. Dogs and child keep running it over. Don't they recognize a crop when they see one! This yard isn't just for fun and games, ya know!

And the big winner? WEEDS. And not the fun kind. At least once I day I contemplate if all those chemicals in the weed killer are really so bad for my kid and dogs. Come on! How bad can they be? Grrr. Back to weeding. And not the fun kind.

Canning and Preserving- A Parent's Tale

I heard you started canning and preserving things. Is that true?

Why yes. The rumors are true. I distinctly remember being about 25 and broke and in the midst of tech for a show and embroiled in some existential twenty something crisis and turning on the television to see Martha Stewart giving a tutorial on canning tomatoes. I shouted at the tv some version of "WHAT!?! WHO the FUCK has time CAN TOMATOES!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!"  And now I know exactly who has time to can things- parents who are seeking...something.  Something permanent. Because raising a child is incredible and beautiful and one of the most amazing jobs a person can have, but my child is not a product. Heck, I don't even really believe this little soul I am caring for is really "mine" I have been charged with taking care of him. Protecting him. Helping him. Teaching him. And being a guide on his journey through his one wild and crazy life.  There is no clear beginning, middle and end.  Being a parent seems to be about living in a constant liminal state, constantly on the threshold of...something. So I started making jam. Because there is something really appealing these days about taking something I watch grow, cooking it and then putting it in a jar to save. Also I am secretly preparing for my fantasy artists' commune where selling jam and preserves from our organic garden will be a large source of our income. So, here is my first attempt- watermelon rind preserves!

Wanted to practice on something I wasn't worried about ruining. Too bad parenting doesn't have that option.