A couple of weeks ago, I was photographing a lovely apartment for AirBnB in Bethesda. (I love working for AirBnB – it’s a total location scout’s dream – I not only get to go places I’ve never been but I get to go inside them and chat up the folks living there.)
While the owner of this place and I were chatting, I mentioned that I do a bit of growing my own vegetables and she recommended that I read Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” I told her I would look for it in the library and she leaned forward, looking me right in the eyes and, with all the gravity of SOMEONE WHO KNOWS, intoned:
“This isn’t the kind of book you get from the library. You will want to keep this book. And you’ll want to have additional copies of it to give to people. I would give you one but I just gave away my last copy. You should buy it.”
Now, saying that I have a tendency to skepticism is sort of like saying rain has a tendency to wetness or mosquitoes have a tendency to suck your blood. But when I saw that every single copy of “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” in the DC Public Library system was checked out, I figured she must be on to something.
Sensing that I could be starting something life-altering and wanting a witness, I called up my friend Sherin to see if she wanted to meet at the bookstore and grab dinner. Mother Nature (or Fate or someone else with a similar sense of humor and appreciation for synchronicity) apparently wanted to be sure that I got the message that this is a book of GREAT IMPORTANCE, because, when I cracked a joke to Sherin about what the lady had said, a perfectly normal and legit-looking nearby customer glanced over at us and the book I was carrying and said, “She’s right. That is a really good book.”
Skeptic balloon? Let me introduce you to universal truth hatpin. I’m sure you’ll get along just fine…
These three tiny new buds on my Purple Beauty pepper plant will soon turn into nice, fat bell peppers with purple skin and green flesh. Now if I can just refrain from snarfing them down long enough to make some art photos…
I’m 3/4 of the way through the book now and, while I can’t say it’s changed my life, it has solidified my thinking about the food I eat and how I eat it. One of the really cool things about the book is that Kingsolver’s farm is not far from DC so it’s a nice reference for what kind of things I can grow here and what to do with them once they’re harvested (the book has lots of seasonal recipes). It also turned me on to Seed Saver’s Exchange, which is sort of like porn for this urban farmer-in-training.
(Check out the Rainbow Chard, AKA Five Color Silverbeet – now, that is a SEXY vegetable! Looks like the love child of Mother Nature and Versace.)
So, my cold weather garden plans evolved from “maybe some onions, potatoes and carrots” to 3 varieties of greens for fall: radicchio, mache, and curly endive, 3 varieties of greens for winter: the aforementioned rainbow chard, Russian kale, and Brussels sprouts, and lots of root vegetables for stews and roasting: turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, leeks and two kinds of carrots – good ol’ Nantes and Dragons, a dark red variety that are supposed to have a “sweet, almost spicy flavor.”
I also added a few new herbs to the current mix of oregano, thyme, mint and basil: marjoram (which is already nearly dead and soon to be replaced with sage), rosemary, tarragon, bay, and some more basil. If this seems excessive, let me just point out that two blueberry bushes were also on the agenda. I still want them but I’ve got to make some more money first. Or find a donor. Wanna be my blueberry patron? I promise you the blueberry dessert of your choice next year – a pie, a tart, a crumble – you name it, I will make it for you! And I’ll publish the recipe in your honor on the blog – you could be famous!
Just so there’s no confusion, I am completely serious about this. If you’re game, let’s talk – tweet me or email me.
We nearly lost the cucumber vine in the corner to draught but it has rallied back amazingly. The ginormous yellow tomato plant fared better and has been dropping meaty, juicy tomatoes at the rate of 7 or so a week. Pepper plants in front of them, right chuffed with all the dry weather.
Why a container garden? I hear you ask. Well, in the spring, we had our soil tested. The results that came back were pretty surprising. Given that we live right in the heart of NW DC in an ancient house that has been modified numerous times by numerous owners, I was somewhat expecting there to be a ton of lead in the soil. But there wasn’t – just enough to make growing root veggies and leafy greens a bad idea. All our fall and winter veggies fall into both of these categories. Thus the containers.
We also have a secret plan for actually getting the lead out of the soil in the works, which I’ll talk about more once we get cracking on it.
2 Comments:
Do you have an overarching garden vision? If you could lift some of the patio area you could grow more…
I’d recomend growing potatos once you’ve sorted the lead problem – they’ll help fix the soil.
Posted by tom on 10 August 2009 @ 18:47pm
We actually put the patio in with various throwaway stones and bricks. The yard when we got it was a horrible mess of scattered pea gravel, random paving stones (now the platform at the bottom of the stairs), and various “decorative bushes.” Since we share the house with another couple in the upstairs apartment (we’ve got the downstairs), the patio goes a long way towards keeping erstwhile guests out of the veggies. I’d like to plant proper rows in the spring so I can get a rotation going and that will require some creative repositioning of the bushes.
The garden vision has certainly come a long way since “Let’s see if anything will grow.” Potatoes are on the list for spring – definitely fingerlings and a baking variety. I had dill earlier in the summer and Wayne made a fantastic potato salad with it. Depending on the success of the spinach lead-leaching experiment I’ve got planned for the winter, the potatoes may be able to go right into the ground but, if not, I’ll try them in the containers.
Posted by xiana.aretta on 10 August 2009 @ 19:18pm
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