Compost and CSA #3

We missed CSA #2 because we were in Idaho and Montana.  Which is where I wish I was right now anyway.  It is so nice to get out of NYC for a few weeks.  When you live in a concrete world, it is easy to forget how captivating nature is.  Nothing compares to walking around barefoot in soil and grass and taking in a deep breath and smelling wild flowers.  I will post pictures.  But first....

We are guesstimating 20lbs again.  I still haven't bought a scale.

This week's CSA contained tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, kale, chard, beets, red leaf lettuce, a salad mix, onions, fennel bulb and greens, peaches and a gorgeous bouquet of wild flowers.


We're going to make a sausage, kale and zucchini paella today.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

I found this

On my way home from work tonight.

I had no idea NYC had caterpillars this big.  I think it is a tomato horn worm.

http://hsny.org/blog/2010/08/tomato-horn-worm.html

Tomatoes don't stand a chance against this guy.

Do you know how much I hate aphids?

A lot.  I hate them a lot. 

I really want to be a bit of a farmer within the next few years.  So I am trying to learn that plants will die.  There will be bugs.  Weather will be bad.  And I will not be able to save every plant or animal that I am taking care of.  That is life.

Sounds a little dramatic no?  After all, I am raising an herb garden in an apartment in NY.  Not life or death here.  The subway is more life or death than that.  And I have great success using the subway.

However, this bites in a sensitive place.

7 or so years ago, I bought my first herb plant.  It was a mint plant.  It was beautiful.  I had it in a bright sunny window for about a week.  Then, aphids moved in.  I was young and didn't quite understand how to raise a plant.  I lost that battle.  Fast forward five years.  This time a gorgeous chamomile.  It was ravaged.  I had even planted it with chives.  (They say planting with allium plants will ward off the bugs.)  BUt the aphids ate my plant alive.  So...gun shy.  I haven't bought a mint plant or a chamomile plant since.


Pic from Wikipedia

Until now.  A peppermint plant.  Matt wanted to grow mint this year, so I bought one. (sigh) 
You may remember that I brought home a mint plant that had ants.  And I was riding on a high.  I drowned the ants and have not seen a single one since.  VICTORY!!!  Until this.  Aphids.  My mint plant has aphids.  MINT MASSACRE 2003 all over again.  Where are the Fox News graphics for this?

This is what I learned.  Ants like aphids.  They like them so much in fact, that when an ant colony moves they will pack and take the aphids with them to thier new home.  Seriously?  Seriously.  Aphids secrete a sweet nectar that ants like to eat.  The ants stroke the aphids with thier feelers to get them to produce this sweet treat.  It is refered to as milking.  The aphids are cows to the ants!!!  The ants MILK the aphids!!!  Am I the only one who has a problem with this?  So, they live together in harmony.  Killing my plants. 

One more thing, some aphid species give birth to live offspring.  What?

Pic from Wikipedia

Compost #2

Estimated weight: 20-25lbs.  Need to get a scale.

Park Slope CSA

Yay!!!!!!!!!  Today was the first day of our CSA.  CSA stands for Community Shared Agriculture.  That means that a farmer grows food for a certain number of people (people who sign up for a share).  Once the produce has been grown, it is picked and then trucked to our neighborhood.  (And it happens the same day, it doesn't get picked and then shipped to a large refrigerator where it sits for weeks before even making it to the grocery store.)  We go (on that same day) and pick up our share of what the farmer grew.  Cool huh?  We have an every other week share in fruit, veg and flowers.  It has been very wet here lately, so we got a lot of greens, but no flowers.  The greens are all really exciting.

We got Beets, Radishes, Arugula, Kale, Romaine Lettuce, Spinach, Scallions, Garlic Scapes and (our fruit share) Strawberries.  The quality is amazing.  What a difference fresh food makes.

 

Tonight I made a variation on a salad I have been really loving this summer.  Usually it is shaved Asparagus, Quinoa, Spring Onions, grated Parmesan with a little Lemon Juice, Olive Oil and Salt.  Delicious!  Tonight I added my CSA Lettuce, (used my CSA Scallions), CSA Radishes, Avocado and Maitake.  It was super yummy.

Sorry for the poor picture.

Compost and Herbs!

Aren't you excited?   I started this years herb garden.  I am excited.  This year I am doing Oregano, Thyme, Shiso, Rosemary, Basil, Chives and Peppermint and Aloe.  (The Aloe is a couple years old.)  I just transplanted a few yesterday, so we will see how they take.  The peppermint had ants, lots of them.  I do this a lot, where I get a plant home and THEN realize it has bugs.  I always forget to look when I buy.  Anywho, I asked my mom what I should do and she said I would have to throw it out.  Otherwise I would have an apartment full of ants.  But I didn't take "wasn't optimistic it could be done" for an answer.  So, I drowned them.  I filled a bucket full of water and stuck the plant inside.  I will let you know how it does.  I haven't seen any ants since the massacre.

Also, this summer we have decided to compost.  I am damn excited about it.  Since we live in a tiny apartment, that means we will be freezing all our scraps and then once a week dropping them off at the farmer's market.  I am hoping to start weighing our compost, to see just how much waste we are avoiding by turning it into soil.   This is very exciting to me.  I want to start a composting company here in Brooklyn.  This one is in Manhattan near the East River.  I hope to get more involved in another month or so.  Cheers!

The Bees Knees

Matt and i saw the coolest movie yesterday.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoeQodrVoM

Did you even watch the trailer?

Come on.  Don't be a dick.  I tried to make the video watchable from my blog, but I don't know how.  I am a wee bit blogger illiterate.  Go back and watch the trailer.   Gees.

Go see Queen of the Sun.  It is amazing.

The reason I haven't been writing is because I was going to start writing about our super cool CSA share.  But the spring rains caused the farmers to plant late and our first CSA pick up has been moved to the 23rd.  It was supposed to be the 7th.  So, you don't get to hear about cool NY produce until late o'clock.  Sorry sucka.

As an apologie I offer you this.  Pictures of cool Oklahoma City Stuff.  Mostly signs.