I’m writing this from my couch in our new apartment, listening through the screen doors as the rain hits the deck and waters our newly-planted container garden. We wanted so badly to have a little garden and missed planting season by a long shot. But despite my worries to the contrary, like the rest of the big moves/changes/projects this summer, this too seems to be falling gracefully into place.
I’ve been desperately trying to keep two little sage and basil plants from our CSA alive on the balcony of a high-rise for the last month or so. The previous tenant left us a little jalapeño plant, oregano, some Thai basil, and the tiniest little flash of green of chocolate mint, that I almost pulled thinking it was a weed. A colleague moving out of town was looking for a home for few herbs and veggies, which we gladly offered to adopt. A trip to the garden section of the hardware store for some basic garden needs also produced two little lavender and rosemary plants. I feel less like we planted a garden and more like it just arrived and settled in with a little help from us. But, here it is. And bit by bit, out of the suitcases and moving boxes, I’m starting to see our home emerge.
Some of the herbs might have to come in for the winter or be dried and added to comforting soups and roasts during those cold months. There’s a little, inherited mint that’s on its last legs; but, we’ll do what we can. And, I’m determined to save the perfect little tomatoes from the squirrels that no doubt have their eye on them already. It will be an uphill battle no doubt (just ask this guy).
As much as I’d like to stay and putter around in our new space, a clean-out-the-fridge meal is simmering behind me because we’re off to California. I hope to have some things to share when we return. In the meantime, here are some interesting things I’ve come across lately:
This post on salmon fishing.
A super user-friendly website that tells you when and what to plant based on where you live (unfortunately their service selling seasonal seeds seems to be suspended indefinitely).
I’m coveting one of these Public Bikes out of San Francisco …
… and this amazing (if astronomically expensive) helmet to go with it. More about the awesome ladies behind it here.
United Noshes, cooking through UN Member States and raising money for WFPUSA along the way.
This new column focusing on vintage pieces from the crew at design*sponge.
This broke my heart. Fellow SF residents past and present, let’s make sure this isn’t how these ladies spend their twilight years!
In defense of travelling when you’re young.
On making pesto, with abandon.
Missing my old haunts in the “trendiest swamp in the world”
We can all aspire to be this awesome at 80+, don’t you think?
A tribute to a humble staple: “My point, I suppose, is that cooking, at its roots, is simple, and that those of us who are advocates of cooking — for health, for recreation, for the sake of the dinner table — would do well to remember that and project it. We may revel in the challenges of constructing a gâteau opéra or in experimenting with sous vide cookery, and those things are fine and exciting, but we would do well to remember the homely pot of beans.”
More valuable lessons for anyone who loves to cook here.
Cute, useful & affordable. I need one (or three) of these.
à plus,
S
