let's get real

Over some wine & outrageously, addictive snacks last night, I spoke with a group of long time friends who happen to be amazing moms. They brought up one of the biggest obstacles "living green" has to overcome. And it's a BIG one...cost. I remember watching Alice Waters (of Chez Panisse & edible schoolyard fame) on 60 minutes. Leslie Stahl directly asked her about how "real" people could afford to buy organic. I believe her response went something along the lines of.."some people spend a lot of money on shoes, leslie." You can check it out online at CBS.com.

I promise to come back to this subject again (& again & again) it is close to my heart. In the meantime, I will continue on my quest to find family friendly, cost effective & less time consuming ways to eat healthier.

I'm honored

Just a quick shout out to my peeps (that's you, not the sugar coated variety). Thanks for all the feedback! This has really been fun & I'm glad to have you along for the ride.

all in the name of research

I need help, really I do. The indoor seed starting had mixed results, if you will recall from my first entry. Successful, as of now anyway, are the peas, green beans, cucumbers & flowers. Even the smothered tomato shoots are showing promise. But there have been funerals, I'm not going to lie. The root veggies went into the compost pile ( a term I use very loosely right now, but may in fact be a squirrel smorgasbord!) with a lesson learned for next year.
My immediate dilemma is lettuce. Mesclun greens to be exact. I have transplanted my wimpy, little seedlings into the garden. To be honest, I have no idea what they need. It reminds me vaguely of when my son was born. After 5 glorious days recovering in the hospital, we were on our own. No manual, no money back guarantee. Just the slowest car ride ever with frequent stops to check he was still breathing. He's 8 now, there has to be hope for my greens as well.

I decided to turn this rocky start into a true experiment. Seed starting vs slacker- plant buying at the depot. By the way, most big name garden centers have lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower & a strange but intriguing kohlrabi plant all for the taking right now. And all can be planted in containers, if you'd like to get your hands a little dirty & reap a late spring harvest.

I grabbed the perfect cohort-in-crime for the half hour drive to MY FAVORITE GARDEN CENTER, Terrain at Styler's farm. My friend had never experienced this magical oasis & I was truly excited to share it. Some great conversation, a little traffic & we were there. From the moment we stepped out of the car, we were both kids on christmas morning. Visually, this place rocks! ( a side note: urban outfitters/antropologie took over this center a few years back. They earned a best of philly 08). Even when I go for very specific reasons, like today with my lettuce mission, I always get sidetracked with the lighting, cookbooks, furniture, candles & so on.

When I was able to re-focus, I headed outside to grab the much hardier looking (than mine anyway) baby mesclun. No luck but they did have a good amount of other choices & a surprise, brussel sprouts. Now don't turn up your nose. These are not the steamed balls of mush our mother's tried to get us to eat by loading each one with a olfactory numbing dose of vinegar ( when overcooked brussel sprouts take on a sulfurous odor, yuck). I am hoping they grow up to be beautiful, compact shoots which I will roast with pancetta. Yum! A bonus would be getting my kids to eat them as well. I may have a chance. Last week I found purple cauliflower & roasted it with buttered bread crumbs, not a crumb was left! Maybe it was the butter??

the paper trail

I am a tactile buyer & learner. I need to see it, smell it, turn it over in my hands, etc. It's just the way my mind processes incoming info. So, while I do like to peruse a good catalog or search a website, I typically make my purchases in person (airplane tickets, hotel reservations & staple groceries are exempt). If you know me, you would have already guessed this. In addition to checking out the goods, I like to talk to people. My one friend has a word for this..."pesty?" I share the description with her preschool age daughter. :) My chatting it up slows down progress, I guess. I see it differently. I enjoy my interactions with the good & the bad, I always learn something new about the world at large or just myself.

The "hands on" hang up actually helps my husbands argument about keeping our newspaper subscription. While it pains me to see sooo much in our paper recycle bin, I can respect the paper & cup of coffee ritual.

This has lead me to figure out other ways to reduce the paper mountain. About 2 years ago, I signed up on a few different lists to stop my junk mail. Well worth the effort! (google it) Now I am ready to take the next step, my catalogs. This is actually a multi-front attack. Catalogs are vehicles for spending. Whether the front is sporting cute, little kids or beautiful rooms you'd like to be sitting in...all are trying to separate us from our dollars & bring more stuff into our homes. The backlog of catalogs is another time suck ( I don't need any more minuses in the time dept!). Who needs to be sorting catalogs to see which one is the current season? Lastly, all that paper. No matter how "environmentally" friendly the paper is it has been printed on, it is ultimately a waste. My mailman will even thank me for lightening his load.

So adios, filler in my mailbox, temptress of spending! If I need a fix, I can always go online.

The Promise Land

Standing outside with my nose pressed against the window, I really wanted to enter what looked to my "green" dabbling eyes as the promise land.

A little back story...my dear friend & fellow nyc-ophile, Chris & I had been all over lower manhattan for the better part of the day. We had discovered ricotta & prosciutto balls (2 for a dollar & beyond heavenly!) in little italy and stumbled into chinatown for the last stirrings of the chinese new years (WOW!). And as our last mission of the day, we were headed up bowery in search of a single restaurant supply place open on sunday so I could purchase a pan I had been dreaming about. The shop was only open for 15 minutes & I froze...so many choices of unfulfilled culinary dreams...

Ok, ok before I lose you. The aforementioned land of plenty was The GreenDepot . And it was calling my name but I realized we'd have to wait to rendezvous at another time, the store & I that is. For my fellow traveler & I needed to prop up our feet & have a nice cocktail. Which we did. And that's another story for another time but back to The GreenDepot.

I have not been back but have visited online @ www.greendepot.com . And all I can say is wow. This 3,200 sq foot eco-superstore sells all things organic, recycled & sustainable. One reviewer likened the building & goods to a "green minded Ikea". Probably minus the swedish meatballs?! The website touts services to help serious green machines with overall projects. Adrian Grenier (aka Vinnie Chase of HBO's Entourage) sourced a contractor & green materials, including recycled denim insulation for his Brooklyn townhouse (now if they'd source the delivery address, we'd really be in business!). But I believe even the newbie-greenie would be just as at home choosing from products like chemical free cleaning supplies, LED light bulbs & the ubiquitous reusable water bottle of this worthy movement.

I am on a mission to get to the little sister store On New State Road in Philadelphia. Any co-pilots?

just a little more eye candy

This is my little helper, Miss Elise. She was so proud to be posing in the new "garden" with a strawberry plant direct from union square in nyc (Thank you, Auntie Chris!). I actually found the plant in her room an hour later. She was carrying it around like a pet!

By the way, you may not be able to discern the amount of dirt covering her from head to toe in this picture but a neighbor thought she was wearing a grey shirt not white! That's my girl.

the box is built

So as you can see, my husband, Tom, pulled it off. He constructed a beautiful raised bed for me to get planting in.



We had 3 yards mix of compost, soil & in Tom's words "mushroom stuff" delivered this past saturday (there was PLENTY of extra). The delivery guy was apparently very proud of how well he mixed the three. Boys are funny.

Now I am feeling a huge amount of pressure to make sure I grow a kick butt garden. My little peas plants are looking awful lonely & really wimpy in the 10 x 4 plot. The even tinier mesclun shoots look kinda pathetic to be honest. As you can imagine I was feeling out of my depth, so I walked away.

You'll be happy to know I didn't go far but needed a moment to regroup. As I was mindlessly cutting back a hydrangea bush (poor plant!), I formulated a plan. I will go to my favorite garden center, Terrain, and grab some baby plants a more experienced gardener started & see which do better. My little weaklings or their green, lush promises. Hmmm, I don't sound very optimistic do I. Let the games begin!