My Alter-Ego February 25, 2009

This is where I out myself as a (hopeful) gardening profiteer, and also reveal where most of my energy has been focussed this winter (when not on my fam, cheesy ghost-hunting TV shows, and translating work). A couple months ago I started smallgreengarden.com and have since patched together a bunch of WordPress plugins, learned some PHP and SEO the hard way, and have generally been working zealously and planning feverishly whenever Freya sleeps.

The idea behind the site is that anyone can grow their own salad, almost year-round, even if a shameless penny-pincher and already-cluttered-home dweller like me, thereby treating themselves to much tastier and healthier produce, and quite possibly doing Mother Earth a good turn, too. And then there’s the very attractive prospect of including a small virtual store-front on the site and earning money with my favorite past-time. Who wouldn’t want to do that? It’s a dream job. So, that’s the idea, but the site is still nascent, needs a lot more work, and some sort of community aspect, which a forum might fulfill, but then again, maybe not. In the meantime, it’s mainly an informational blog in which I learn while writing and doing — much like The Root, but with the underlying motive of $$ (and, dare I say it, a little bit of homegrown world-changing?).

I hope to keep up The Root as my personal gardening blog, because, hot damn, I still love you, old blog, and I find I can write a lot more freely and easily when not concerned about getting my facts straight, or attracting the ever-wily Google bots.

Windowsill-garden event of the day/appropriate metaphor:

Growing Again December 16, 2008

This weekend I pulled out the dirt and the seeds and I started some lettuce, arugula, chard, spinach. It was very rewarding to have a tiny helper who was all too willing to get her hands dirty with the project. And it was wonderful to smell soil again.

It’s the heart of winter — cold blue outdoors until 7:30 am, on overcast days, and this town just shook off an ice storm that slicked every last twig and lasted for days.

But we might just (knocking on wood, not counting any chickens) have homegrown salad soon. I have had the urge for several weeks to grow greens right here at home — maybe on the balcony in some elaborate miniature hothouse contraption, maybe under the dreaded, sap- and soul-sucking fake lights…or maybe, as it turns out, on the living room windowsill. That might do just fine.

Sprinting to the head of the class is some red leaf lettuce, which sprouted in three days and earned a place on said windowsill. This is pretty exciting stuff. The arugula and chard are sending up spindly shoots, over on a top shelf of the media center.

This is all it takes. I am already imagining a pea plant on the windowsill, sending tendrils all the way up to the curtain rod. Freya and I will eat snap peas for breakfast. I will just keep trying until it works, until some vegetable grows green enough to eat. Dude. Nothing like optimism on a sub-freezing day.

Winter Squash: Garden-Planning Escapism December 14, 2008

Freya’s napping, I’m perusing the seed catalog again, and I can’t help posting a quick-and-dirty poll asking everyone what their favorite winter squash variety is. Do you love any of these? Do you have a different favorite?

Using space efficiently is definitely a priority, here — I have pretty much decided to completely turn over Firstplot to herbs and picking flowers — so my remaining vegetable-growing plots consist of Vineplot (approximately 3’x4′), the pumpkin patch, and my balcony. I’m looking for a very compact squash plant, if there is such a thing…I don’t know, as I have never grown winter squash before…

Coconut “Faux-Pound Cake” December 11, 2008

Butterless coconut pound cake

Neville and I have always joked that the kitchen is never really clean because we use it; lately, this has actually been the case. It’s thoroughly winter, everybody’s hungry pretty consistently six times a day, and we all need energy to be/keep up with a one-year-old. But since I’m also a sucker for efficiency, it’s my de facto mission to get good at making several simple recipes and then use variations on them forevermore — last summer it was pizza, grilled chicken salad, and frittata.

This winter it’s been more of a crapshoot, but we do seem to eat a lot of Indian dishes and “experimental” baked goods. That has generated a lot of half-used cartons of coconut milk, yogurt, and buttermilk. Which is good cause for more experimentation. That’s how this cake was born. Buttermilk is amazing — I have been using it as a substitute for butter in a lot of things, and I love how they turn out. (I used to substitute store-bought buttermilk with regular milk mixed with vinegar, but that has none of the frothy good thickness of cultured buttermilk. It’s worth the extra cost, in my book.)

Coconut Faux-Pound Cake

2 eggs at room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk at room temp.
1 C. lite coconut milk at room temp.
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tsp baking powder
2 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut

Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together and then add them to the dry mixture, along with the coconut. Pour into a greased, 9×5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until just brown on top and firm to the touch. Let cool completely on a rack. Eat, eat, eat!