I found this to be a really interesting article, and just wanted to share. Please not that I am not posting this as any sort of pro-vegetarian or anti-vegetarian statement. I just like seeing more folks out there who agree that if you're going to eat meat, it better be the Au Naturale kind that has been raised by ranchers who care about the health of the animal, the land, and our stomachs. And hopefully articles in major publications like this will cause more people to buy from and support these farmers.
Some vegetarians beat a ‘humane’ retreat back to meat
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
A Theory
I have this long-running and mysterious ailment that I have taken to calling, very scientifically, my "funky stomach pains". They are exactly that: funky and unexplainable, and they can range from just the mildest nausea/discomfort, juuuust enough to make me lose my appetite, to all-out feeling of ohmygodI'mgonnabarf-ness.
What makes them even more unexplainable and funky is that there is no pattern to when the pains decide to announce their presence. Goodness knows I've tried to figure it out, first by visiting a doctor and having hundreds of dollars worth of blood tests done, which revealed zilch (thank goodness I was still a minor and mom and dad's insurance covered that. Thanks, mom and dad!). That failure behind me, I attempted to simply observe when it happened and determine a pattern, also to no avail. Sometimes it's before I eat, sometimes after. Sometimes right before I go to bed or when I wake up. Sometimes it pops up at 3:23 PM while walking down the block with a slight breeze blowing. It's never at the same time of the day or month. There is really no pattern to it whatsoever. As you can imagine, it became incredibly frustrating.
The closest pattern I could eventually deduce was that it tended to pop up more frequently when I was eating badly. Mind you, this is years and years and yeeeaars before the Au Naturale diet was even a thought in my mind. But yes, when I went through phases where I managed to stop eating Pappa John's pizza at midnight for a week- okay, slight exaggeration there- and focused on a more (somewhat) balanced diet, the funky stomach pains went on a vacation. I finally just decided that I had nothing more than an overly-sensitive stomach and considered the mystery solved. That being said, I realized this self-diagnosis has also had the added bonus of being a nice self-warning system, like a built-in nutritionist. Whenever a funky stomach pain shows up, I stop and reflect on what I've been eating the past week and immediately change.
Lately, though, the funky stomach pains have returned with an alarming frequency- alarming in that I've had a series of them over the course of the week including one severe enough that I had to briefly excuse myself from a social gathering and hide out in the bathroom. Thankfully it passed, but again my brain began to replay my meals of the previous week or two. As usual, I saw patterns of bad eating, from granola bar lunches during the Mississippi trip to moderate gorging at a couple of summer BBQs (as you will remember, I break the Au Naturale diet when a guest at someone else's house. I won't be THAT person).
But something else stood out in my mind like an alarm. These funky stomach pains came on much more quickly and severely from less "bad" food than they had in the past. I've noticed that one of the changes since I went Au Naturale diet is that I have become more sensitive to processed food than I ever had before, such as when I indulged in that Easter candy and felt heavy on the bus ride home. Now I wonder: is that sensitivity catching up with me? Is it possible that I could have organic-ed my way out of being able to handle any processed food ever again?!?! Say it isn't so!
This seemed counter-intuitive to me. I should be feeling better and stronger, having purged preservatives and toxins out of my body through organic, natural, and basic foodstuffs, not more nauseous. If this is what is going to happen to me all summer, and possibly for the rest of my life, is it worth it? Are all my Au Naturale efforts really for naught?
Once again, I decided to self-diagnose and have come up with what I think is an interesting theory. Everything I am attempting to eliminate from my diet is all things humans should never be ingesting anyway; preservatives, pesticides, lab-invented additives, you name it. Could it be that the severe resurgence of the funky stomach pains is really a warning system that my body has reached it's limit of acceptable amounts of these things for the day? "Alright, Cohen, that's enough. Slowly back away from the Velveeta dip and nobody gets hurt."
So, following along on that theory, if our bodies do have a warning system to protect us from these toxins- a harsh description, but I'll go with it- why aren't 90% of Americans walking around clutching their abdomens and moaning in pain all the time? Why are there no airplane-like sick bags at every table in fast food restaurants?
My immediate answer was that my theory was wrong. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought I may be right. The biggest difference between my stomach pains now and in the past is that they now come on much more quickly, almost immediately after eating a number of "bad" things. In contrast, back in the day it took a while, a gradual build-up of bad meal choices, to finally get me to the point of discomfort. The more I mulled this over, the more the thought of a "build up" took hold in my head. Is it possible that we eat so much processed and artificial foods that we've built up our tolerance to them? Is this why, as the fattest nation on earth, we can comfortably keep eating and eating and eating long after we should stop? Perhaps the funky stomach pains are a self-regulatory system, that if my health is already in a good place and I've hit my calorie/fat/sodium/preservative intake for the day, my body automatically tells me to stop to maintain that good health balance. All humans do have a fullness factor, but perhaps it's been diluted and stretched. Perhaps the fact that we've over-saturated our bodies with all of these things has meant that we've not just muted that warning system, but we've turned it off completely. This could be yet another explanation for why it has become so easy for us as a society to get too big and stay that way. Our fullness factor is numb. There is nothing telling us to stop until we are, as we like to say, completely stuffed.
Does this make sense? I realize I came by this theory through my extensive background in nutrition and medical training, which is to say I still have not yet figured out how to successfully put a band-aid on a knuckle. I could very well be way off and some PhD food researcher who will stumble on this post in a Google search will laugh his ass off and then go about his day. It's also very possible that my funky stomach pains are just back with a vengeance because they feel like it. And of course I know, even if there is a grain of truth to my theory, that my reasoning is not the whole answer. Americans are still obese because we simply eat too much. But perhaps this "numbness" is part of a root cause of why we allow ourselves to get to the point of mindlessly eating too much.
And every day I'm learning that my own Au Naturale journey has brought up questions and surprises that not even I expected when I started.
What makes them even more unexplainable and funky is that there is no pattern to when the pains decide to announce their presence. Goodness knows I've tried to figure it out, first by visiting a doctor and having hundreds of dollars worth of blood tests done, which revealed zilch (thank goodness I was still a minor and mom and dad's insurance covered that. Thanks, mom and dad!). That failure behind me, I attempted to simply observe when it happened and determine a pattern, also to no avail. Sometimes it's before I eat, sometimes after. Sometimes right before I go to bed or when I wake up. Sometimes it pops up at 3:23 PM while walking down the block with a slight breeze blowing. It's never at the same time of the day or month. There is really no pattern to it whatsoever. As you can imagine, it became incredibly frustrating.
The closest pattern I could eventually deduce was that it tended to pop up more frequently when I was eating badly. Mind you, this is years and years and yeeeaars before the Au Naturale diet was even a thought in my mind. But yes, when I went through phases where I managed to stop eating Pappa John's pizza at midnight for a week- okay, slight exaggeration there- and focused on a more (somewhat) balanced diet, the funky stomach pains went on a vacation. I finally just decided that I had nothing more than an overly-sensitive stomach and considered the mystery solved. That being said, I realized this self-diagnosis has also had the added bonus of being a nice self-warning system, like a built-in nutritionist. Whenever a funky stomach pain shows up, I stop and reflect on what I've been eating the past week and immediately change.
Lately, though, the funky stomach pains have returned with an alarming frequency- alarming in that I've had a series of them over the course of the week including one severe enough that I had to briefly excuse myself from a social gathering and hide out in the bathroom. Thankfully it passed, but again my brain began to replay my meals of the previous week or two. As usual, I saw patterns of bad eating, from granola bar lunches during the Mississippi trip to moderate gorging at a couple of summer BBQs (as you will remember, I break the Au Naturale diet when a guest at someone else's house. I won't be THAT person).
But something else stood out in my mind like an alarm. These funky stomach pains came on much more quickly and severely from less "bad" food than they had in the past. I've noticed that one of the changes since I went Au Naturale diet is that I have become more sensitive to processed food than I ever had before, such as when I indulged in that Easter candy and felt heavy on the bus ride home. Now I wonder: is that sensitivity catching up with me? Is it possible that I could have organic-ed my way out of being able to handle any processed food ever again?!?! Say it isn't so!
This seemed counter-intuitive to me. I should be feeling better and stronger, having purged preservatives and toxins out of my body through organic, natural, and basic foodstuffs, not more nauseous. If this is what is going to happen to me all summer, and possibly for the rest of my life, is it worth it? Are all my Au Naturale efforts really for naught?
Once again, I decided to self-diagnose and have come up with what I think is an interesting theory. Everything I am attempting to eliminate from my diet is all things humans should never be ingesting anyway; preservatives, pesticides, lab-invented additives, you name it. Could it be that the severe resurgence of the funky stomach pains is really a warning system that my body has reached it's limit of acceptable amounts of these things for the day? "Alright, Cohen, that's enough. Slowly back away from the Velveeta dip and nobody gets hurt."
So, following along on that theory, if our bodies do have a warning system to protect us from these toxins- a harsh description, but I'll go with it- why aren't 90% of Americans walking around clutching their abdomens and moaning in pain all the time? Why are there no airplane-like sick bags at every table in fast food restaurants?
My immediate answer was that my theory was wrong. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought I may be right. The biggest difference between my stomach pains now and in the past is that they now come on much more quickly, almost immediately after eating a number of "bad" things. In contrast, back in the day it took a while, a gradual build-up of bad meal choices, to finally get me to the point of discomfort. The more I mulled this over, the more the thought of a "build up" took hold in my head. Is it possible that we eat so much processed and artificial foods that we've built up our tolerance to them? Is this why, as the fattest nation on earth, we can comfortably keep eating and eating and eating long after we should stop? Perhaps the funky stomach pains are a self-regulatory system, that if my health is already in a good place and I've hit my calorie/fat/sodium/preservative intake for the day, my body automatically tells me to stop to maintain that good health balance. All humans do have a fullness factor, but perhaps it's been diluted and stretched. Perhaps the fact that we've over-saturated our bodies with all of these things has meant that we've not just muted that warning system, but we've turned it off completely. This could be yet another explanation for why it has become so easy for us as a society to get too big and stay that way. Our fullness factor is numb. There is nothing telling us to stop until we are, as we like to say, completely stuffed.
Does this make sense? I realize I came by this theory through my extensive background in nutrition and medical training, which is to say I still have not yet figured out how to successfully put a band-aid on a knuckle. I could very well be way off and some PhD food researcher who will stumble on this post in a Google search will laugh his ass off and then go about his day. It's also very possible that my funky stomach pains are just back with a vengeance because they feel like it. And of course I know, even if there is a grain of truth to my theory, that my reasoning is not the whole answer. Americans are still obese because we simply eat too much. But perhaps this "numbness" is part of a root cause of why we allow ourselves to get to the point of mindlessly eating too much.
And every day I'm learning that my own Au Naturale journey has brought up questions and surprises that not even I expected when I started.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Urban Garden: Week 3
Many thanks to my downstairs neighbor who kept these kids watered while I was traipsing around Mississippi for a week for work. They grow up so fast! (sniff...)
Speaking of both growing up fast and my recent travels, I have some questions for you, oh loyal 3 or 4 readers:
First, the best way to keep plants-- especially herbs-- healthy and growing is to pick them regularly. I know it sounds counter-productive but pruning actually causes them to grow new, bigger, and healthier leaves all at the same time. So, that being said, I now need to find some creative ways to use both the basil and parsley as they are springing to life faster than I can cut them back. My favorite use of basil is for caprese salads, but I know there is much more out there to play with. I also need to trim back the arugula in a huge way but I see a grilled pizza in my future for that (and yes, basil will feature prominently there, too). Any ideas or suggestions for basil, parlsey, or combo recipes?
Second- I promised I wouldn't bore you all with minute details of the eating dilemmas of my work trips anymore. And so there were dilemmas of the usual sort down in yonder Mississippi-- my favorite was noticing all the scary looking chemicals/preservatives in the coffee creamers; really, is that the only way to keep them from spoiling while unrefrigerated?-- but there were nice treats too, such as indulging in some incredible crayfish down in Hattiesburg, just an hour from the Gulf Coast. As I was gone for a full week this time, I invested in a box of granola bars for the inevitable days where I didn't have time for lunch between meetings. After spending more time than I should have pouring over the ingredient list of every brand of granola bar in Whole Foods, I finally settled on Annie's Homegrown.
This one passed the Au Naturale test because it was the only "all natural"-labeled brand that actually seemed to be all natural. Sure, the rest looked perfectly fine... until you got to the last few items on the ingredient list. There I found the soy lechitin, xanthan gum, and ever-ambiguous "natural flavors". Not preservatives per se, but certainly invented or manipulated in a food lab somewhere. With Annie's, I recognized every ingredient from start to last.
However, they were... okay. Not bad, but certainly not the best granola bar I've ever had. With a summer full of travel coming up, the hunt for a better bar continues. So my second question for you all is: do you have a brand you love (preferably chewy)? Or better yet, a homemade granola bar recipe that you love? If so, please share in comments below (along with your basil/parsley recipes)!
Speaking of both growing up fast and my recent travels, I have some questions for you, oh loyal 3 or 4 readers:
First, the best way to keep plants-- especially herbs-- healthy and growing is to pick them regularly. I know it sounds counter-productive but pruning actually causes them to grow new, bigger, and healthier leaves all at the same time. So, that being said, I now need to find some creative ways to use both the basil and parsley as they are springing to life faster than I can cut them back. My favorite use of basil is for caprese salads, but I know there is much more out there to play with. I also need to trim back the arugula in a huge way but I see a grilled pizza in my future for that (and yes, basil will feature prominently there, too). Any ideas or suggestions for basil, parlsey, or combo recipes?
Second- I promised I wouldn't bore you all with minute details of the eating dilemmas of my work trips anymore. And so there were dilemmas of the usual sort down in yonder Mississippi-- my favorite was noticing all the scary looking chemicals/preservatives in the coffee creamers; really, is that the only way to keep them from spoiling while unrefrigerated?-- but there were nice treats too, such as indulging in some incredible crayfish down in Hattiesburg, just an hour from the Gulf Coast. As I was gone for a full week this time, I invested in a box of granola bars for the inevitable days where I didn't have time for lunch between meetings. After spending more time than I should have pouring over the ingredient list of every brand of granola bar in Whole Foods, I finally settled on Annie's Homegrown.
This one passed the Au Naturale test because it was the only "all natural"-labeled brand that actually seemed to be all natural. Sure, the rest looked perfectly fine... until you got to the last few items on the ingredient list. There I found the soy lechitin, xanthan gum, and ever-ambiguous "natural flavors". Not preservatives per se, but certainly invented or manipulated in a food lab somewhere. With Annie's, I recognized every ingredient from start to last.
However, they were... okay. Not bad, but certainly not the best granola bar I've ever had. With a summer full of travel coming up, the hunt for a better bar continues. So my second question for you all is: do you have a brand you love (preferably chewy)? Or better yet, a homemade granola bar recipe that you love? If so, please share in comments below (along with your basil/parsley recipes)!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
"C" is for cookie, That's Good Enough For Me
Especially this cookie. Decadent but not too overpowering. And notice how few ingredients you need to make it that way? (I know that I keep preaching the same thing, but it feels so good to be validated!) Sure, these cookies might spoil faster due to the lack of preservatives, but I have a feeling they won't last long in my house, anyway:
They're local to boot: made in Evanston. Many thanks (or maybe many curses for turning me on to these) to my wonderful boyfriend who picked them up at his farmer's market. Their website is currently under construction but if you google "katz cookies" and then click on the cached link, it will take you to a placeholder where you can view and order items- including gluten free for those who swing that way. Enjoy!
They're local to boot: made in Evanston. Many thanks (or maybe many curses for turning me on to these) to my wonderful boyfriend who picked them up at his farmer's market. Their website is currently under construction but if you google "katz cookies" and then click on the cached link, it will take you to a placeholder where you can view and order items- including gluten free for those who swing that way. Enjoy!
Friday, June 10, 2011
A Quick Local Meal
I just had to share the first full use of all that produce I just rambled on about:
This is a take on a caprese salad, minus the mozarella. Organic tomatoes from the farmer's market grown hydroponically (what a joyous surprise to find tomatoes so early at the market); basil and arugula from the back deck; homemade red wine vinegar from a family friend, and organic vidalia onion (the only thing store-bought from Whole Foods). Ahhh, delish. Summer food happiness is on this plate.
This is a take on a caprese salad, minus the mozarella. Organic tomatoes from the farmer's market grown hydroponically (what a joyous surprise to find tomatoes so early at the market); basil and arugula from the back deck; homemade red wine vinegar from a family friend, and organic vidalia onion (the only thing store-bought from Whole Foods). Ahhh, delish. Summer food happiness is on this plate.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
'Tis the Season
So, I have this dream. It's a dream of my own home, with a big yard, and flowers and plants and shrubbery as far as the eye can see. Of fragrant buds and so many homegrown veggies and herbs and fruits I would never need to visit a grocery store, much less a farmer's market, ever again.
Alas, I live in a condo in downtown Chicago.
This was not always my dream. For a very long time I always thought I had a black thumb. Someone would give me flowers and I would put them in a vase on my kitchen table and inevitable over- or under-water them to death. My first attempt at outdoor planting was a bit of a failure, too-- or should I say a "self-destructing overachievement". I do have a decently sized outdoor deck that faces west, so I naturally assumed that it meant my deck got partial sun and bought the appropriately corresponding plants. What I didn't realize is that even with the western view, I get a full 6-8 hours of sun a day. My poor "partial-sun" plants grew like mad, then fried and died. And the cycle went on over and over and over again for the 3 months of hot weather Chicago can manage to eek out of the year.
I learned my lesson and soon managed to dye the symbolic thumb green. After trying a few other plant and flower combinations I settled on petunias, which grow in my flower boxes like they are on steroids. I also branched out into herbs, and found that there is one particular corner that a basil plant rules like a dictator and produces leaves the size of the palm of my hand- no joke. Now, every year as I make the annual pilgrimage to Home Depot for my planting supplies my eyes get bigger than my stomach and I want to buy everything I see. Which I guess I could... if I never wanted to use my deck for anything else, such as grilling, or dining, or stretching out with a book. So I purchase modestly. But last year, as the seeds (no pun intended) of an Au Naturale lifestyle began to germinate in my head, I decided that growing veggies might be a neat experiment to try.
Hold on.. back up. That's not entirely true. I have actually tried veggies before, in the way of tomatoes. I love few things more than a fresh tomato in any summer meal I make. The problem is that tomatoes are notoriously finicky. They need a lot of sun and water, but too much of either and they're dead. I ran into that problem the first year when I successfully grew a couple of big, round tomatoes, but then the plant mysteriously began to die. It also didn't help that my stalks attracted what I have non-affectionately called Vampire Flies: they would land on the fruits and just suck the juice out. So the tomatoes didn't rot or fall off or get chunks bitten out of them-- they just slowly shriveled up and withered away. Yes, it's as freaky looking as it sounds. Tomato failure #1.
The next year I decided to give the tomatoes another go but this time with a cherry tomato plant. No vampire flies appeared, but it produced fruit so slowly that by the time I had enough tomatoes for a very small salad, I had stripped the plant clean and had to wait weeks more for another small crop. I think I got the equivalent of a bowl of tomatoes the whole summer. Tomato failure #2.
Last year I got bold and decided to buy a Topsy Turvy. Do you know those things? It's like an "advertised on TV" type of thing. You hang it from wherever and the plant grows upside down so you don't have to stake it. I thought, hey, this sounds easy and I save some floor space! This was failure number 3, but more due to the Topsy Turvy than anything else. After just a week after planting we had a huge wind storm and the nails holding up the decorative hanger pulled right out of the wall, causing the heavy device to land smack-dab on a railing, crushing the plant. I refused to be defeated, though, and rehung it (using sturdier nails, of course) with another tomato seedling. However, a second wind storm a few weeks later tossed and turned the Topsy Turvy so hard that it actually twisted the stalk of the young plant into a spiral. Alas, it didn't survive the trauma, and the seedling was dead days later.
At that point, I decided that tomato plants were not meant to be. Ever.
My boyfriend, however, had piqued my interest with a new-fangled device called an Earthbox. Foolproof growing, foolproof watering, and you can plant a mix of veggies and fruits and herbs in specific configurations. I decided to take a risk and try it, planting cucumbers as my first crop, another summer favorite. The Earthbox was a smashing success and I'm sorry I don't have pictures to show you here. My cucumber vines grew to over 6 feet tall and would have grown even taller except I ran out of staking systems that could handle the monstrous hight. I had cucumbers coming out of my ears, which is pretty impressive for a 10 foot by 10 foot city deck. I made some damn good salads from those cukes.
Now I'm hooked. In prep for this summer's planting, much like the Home Depot shopping trip, I stared for hours at all the possible earthbox planting combos. I wanted to do everything! And my dreams of a big yard with earthboxes planted with every veggie under the sun began to dance in my head anew.
But of course there was that whole space thing to consider. I smacked myself back to reality and settled on pepper plants: favorite veggie number 3. As full disclosure, I did try the peppers along with the cucumbers last year but they failed mainly because I misunderstood how the planting combinations worked and learned too late that the two didn't go together. In any case, my plants are a week in and seem to be taking well. I plan on documenting their growth throughout the summer, starting now:
In addition to peppers, I didn't know how to fill out the rest of the box. I wanted greens but they prefer cool weather.. however, the local plant store suggested this arugula as it might be hardier. I've had some already-- spicy and delicious! It may not last through the whole summer, though, so I may have to fully harvest it soon with a fall planting to follow.
And don't forget the herbs! I can't wait for the basil to really start popping:
Yay for summer!
Alas, I live in a condo in downtown Chicago.
This was not always my dream. For a very long time I always thought I had a black thumb. Someone would give me flowers and I would put them in a vase on my kitchen table and inevitable over- or under-water them to death. My first attempt at outdoor planting was a bit of a failure, too-- or should I say a "self-destructing overachievement". I do have a decently sized outdoor deck that faces west, so I naturally assumed that it meant my deck got partial sun and bought the appropriately corresponding plants. What I didn't realize is that even with the western view, I get a full 6-8 hours of sun a day. My poor "partial-sun" plants grew like mad, then fried and died. And the cycle went on over and over and over again for the 3 months of hot weather Chicago can manage to eek out of the year.
I learned my lesson and soon managed to dye the symbolic thumb green. After trying a few other plant and flower combinations I settled on petunias, which grow in my flower boxes like they are on steroids. I also branched out into herbs, and found that there is one particular corner that a basil plant rules like a dictator and produces leaves the size of the palm of my hand- no joke. Now, every year as I make the annual pilgrimage to Home Depot for my planting supplies my eyes get bigger than my stomach and I want to buy everything I see. Which I guess I could... if I never wanted to use my deck for anything else, such as grilling, or dining, or stretching out with a book. So I purchase modestly. But last year, as the seeds (no pun intended) of an Au Naturale lifestyle began to germinate in my head, I decided that growing veggies might be a neat experiment to try.
Hold on.. back up. That's not entirely true. I have actually tried veggies before, in the way of tomatoes. I love few things more than a fresh tomato in any summer meal I make. The problem is that tomatoes are notoriously finicky. They need a lot of sun and water, but too much of either and they're dead. I ran into that problem the first year when I successfully grew a couple of big, round tomatoes, but then the plant mysteriously began to die. It also didn't help that my stalks attracted what I have non-affectionately called Vampire Flies: they would land on the fruits and just suck the juice out. So the tomatoes didn't rot or fall off or get chunks bitten out of them-- they just slowly shriveled up and withered away. Yes, it's as freaky looking as it sounds. Tomato failure #1.
The next year I decided to give the tomatoes another go but this time with a cherry tomato plant. No vampire flies appeared, but it produced fruit so slowly that by the time I had enough tomatoes for a very small salad, I had stripped the plant clean and had to wait weeks more for another small crop. I think I got the equivalent of a bowl of tomatoes the whole summer. Tomato failure #2.
Last year I got bold and decided to buy a Topsy Turvy. Do you know those things? It's like an "advertised on TV" type of thing. You hang it from wherever and the plant grows upside down so you don't have to stake it. I thought, hey, this sounds easy and I save some floor space! This was failure number 3, but more due to the Topsy Turvy than anything else. After just a week after planting we had a huge wind storm and the nails holding up the decorative hanger pulled right out of the wall, causing the heavy device to land smack-dab on a railing, crushing the plant. I refused to be defeated, though, and rehung it (using sturdier nails, of course) with another tomato seedling. However, a second wind storm a few weeks later tossed and turned the Topsy Turvy so hard that it actually twisted the stalk of the young plant into a spiral. Alas, it didn't survive the trauma, and the seedling was dead days later.
At that point, I decided that tomato plants were not meant to be. Ever.
My boyfriend, however, had piqued my interest with a new-fangled device called an Earthbox. Foolproof growing, foolproof watering, and you can plant a mix of veggies and fruits and herbs in specific configurations. I decided to take a risk and try it, planting cucumbers as my first crop, another summer favorite. The Earthbox was a smashing success and I'm sorry I don't have pictures to show you here. My cucumber vines grew to over 6 feet tall and would have grown even taller except I ran out of staking systems that could handle the monstrous hight. I had cucumbers coming out of my ears, which is pretty impressive for a 10 foot by 10 foot city deck. I made some damn good salads from those cukes.
Now I'm hooked. In prep for this summer's planting, much like the Home Depot shopping trip, I stared for hours at all the possible earthbox planting combos. I wanted to do everything! And my dreams of a big yard with earthboxes planted with every veggie under the sun began to dance in my head anew.
But of course there was that whole space thing to consider. I smacked myself back to reality and settled on pepper plants: favorite veggie number 3. As full disclosure, I did try the peppers along with the cucumbers last year but they failed mainly because I misunderstood how the planting combinations worked and learned too late that the two didn't go together. In any case, my plants are a week in and seem to be taking well. I plan on documenting their growth throughout the summer, starting now:
Summer Produce: Week 1
 |
| back row, left-right: red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, green bell pepper front row, left-right: poblano pepper, 2 arugula plants |
And don't forget the herbs! I can't wait for the basil to really start popping:
 |
| left to right: basil, oregano, flat-leaf parsley |
Yay for summer!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
More Websites I Love
As you have all probably noticed by now, I use quite a bit of the internet to research my choices and changes in my diet. I thought today might be a good day to share some of the sites I've found and enjoy. Some I reference a lot and some I've only hit once or twice, but those are still included below as ones to take a quick jaunt around.
All these sites are added to the "I like these" link located directly to the right of where you're reading. Of course, there are other websites that I've referenced in past posts that are also in that link but are not repeated below. If there are any additional locavore/au naturale/general food-focused sites that you enjoy and think I might be missing... please comment below and let me know! I'll add them to the list.
http://www.slowfoodchicago.org/
-the Chicago chapter of the Slow Food movement.
All these sites are added to the "I like these" link located directly to the right of where you're reading. Of course, there are other websites that I've referenced in past posts that are also in that link but are not repeated below. If there are any additional locavore/au naturale/general food-focused sites that you enjoy and think I might be missing... please comment below and let me know! I'll add them to the list.
http://www.slowfoodchicago.org/
-the Chicago chapter of the Slow Food movement.
http://www.localharvest.org/
-a fantastic resource to find a listing of your nearest farmer's markets, CSAs, specialty food shops, etc. I've visited this site more times than I can count!
http://www.eatingrealfood.com/
-I stumbled on this site when I was doing my sugar research and find it to have some very interesting articles, specifically ones focused on straight-forward answers to the question of mystery ingredients we often find in our foods: Natural with a scary name? Or made in a lab somewhere?
http://deliciouslyorganic.net/
-A simple real-food blog, especially focused on eating organic on a budget. Specifically, though, I like her pantry list. It's part inspirational and part affirming as I continually focus on refining my own pantry. Hmm, maybe I should dedicate a post/page to that, too?
-a fantastic resource to find a listing of your nearest farmer's markets, CSAs, specialty food shops, etc. I've visited this site more times than I can count!
http://www.eatingrealfood.com/
-I stumbled on this site when I was doing my sugar research and find it to have some very interesting articles, specifically ones focused on straight-forward answers to the question of mystery ingredients we often find in our foods: Natural with a scary name? Or made in a lab somewhere?
http://deliciouslyorganic.net/
-A simple real-food blog, especially focused on eating organic on a budget. Specifically, though, I like her pantry list. It's part inspirational and part affirming as I continually focus on refining my own pantry. Hmm, maybe I should dedicate a post/page to that, too?
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