Thoughts and musings, illustrated
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Things are beginning to get under control in the garden. Almost.
Well, I didn’t harvest any of the arugula or the basil, which I probably should have. And I didn’t scrummage around through the bean patch, either. It’s the beginning of the end of tomato season, alas. But on the other hand, despite being cruelly crowded out by the green beans, the basil, and the zucchini, the peppers are now starting to come in. This is our first.
You know the garden situation is getting out of hand when you turn down an invitation from friends to go out for dinner because you *must* *keep* *eating* *salads*.
Really, really good salads.
But today for lunch I made a zucchini frittata with one of the (er, many) garden zucchinis. Thanks to my friend Vicki Rowland for the idea!
Ingredient note:
* Our “medium” zucchini is equivalent to someone else’s “large” zucchini. Our large zucchini can be used for batting practice.
Preheat the broiler.
If you haven’t already thinly sliced the zucchini and the red pepper, I’d suggest using a mandoline. It’s really fast and easy!
Heat the olive oil in a medium nonstick saute pan on the stove. Add the onion and saute till transparent. Add the garlic. Saute for a short time and then add the herbs, the sliced zucchini, and the sliced red pepper. Cook until the zucchini is tender, but not cooked through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Blend eggs in a blender with a little bit of milk and some salt and pepper.
Pour the egg mixture into saute pan and let it sit for a minute or three, or until there isn’t much loose egg left in the pan, or until you don’t want to cook the bottom any more without cooking the top too. Add grated Parmesan and mozzarella on top, and place pan in the broiler for a minute or two–until the top is beautifully brown.
Take pan out of broiler, let it cool and set in the pan for 5 minutes. When cool invert a plate on top of pan and turn over. Take photographs (alas, I didn’t–but I should have!). Slice and serve.
Since there’s not enough sunny garden area around our house for growing vegetables, that’s what we use the community garden for. And again this year, we’ve been lucky enough to be given one of the unclaimed plots as well. Despite this wealth of sunny land, we had to pack things kind of close in order to fit in everything we wanted to grow: tomatoes and cucumbers, of course; arugula, basil, peppers, eggplants, broccoli, zucchini (that space hog!), and this year kohlrabi and beans. A lot to grow in a limited space, and let’s just say that it’s our own private jungle out there. The vegetable jungle.
And it’s finally that wonderful time of year when the tomatoes are ripening. I am eating two tomatoes a day–two wonderful, sweet, homegrown garden tomatoes–and I’m falling behind.
Can you see the problem? The bowl on the right contains yesterday’s harvest. The one in front, the day before. The one on the left, the old ones we have to use up first.
Tomato salad for dinner, anyone?
This is one impressive vegetable.
I’ve never grown kohlrabi before, but I will definitely do it again. If only I can figure out how to cook it.
All unbeknownst to Dan and me, my mother submitted our garden to the Newton Community Pride organization, a nonprofit loosely affiliated with our city government, for an award. Each year, Newton Community Pride gives out a number of these. So behold, last week we got a letter in the mail saying that we’d won!
Our first thought was that there must have been some kind of mistake, and we’d have to give it back.
But no. They read me the description over the phone. “A steep hill was terraced into a gorgeous triple-decker garden complete with waterfall.” There aren’t too many like that. Definitely had to be ours.
Tonight I went with my mother and my delighted landscape architect Vicki Hibbard to the awards ceremony. Where I was presented with a professional-looking certificate suitable for framing, and my picture was taken for all posterity.
Tags: award, garden, Newton, Newton Community Pride, Victoria Hibbard
The Buddha’s kingdom is within. And the chipmunk’s…?
Take it from me: The chipmunk and its kin are lords and masters of the entire garden.
It seemed buddha’s lap would soon reappear amid the melting snow, but today we got another four inches or so of new snow. And Buddha got a new white coat and hat.
I’m thirsty.
I’m thirsty, and there are weeds in my garden that I can see from the study window.
I’m thirsty; there are weeds in my garden that I can see from the study window; and the protagonist of my novel has a major character-development problem that will be devilishly hard to fix. I’ll probably have to rewrite the first four chapters. Again.
I think I’ll go get a bottle of cold water out of the fridge.
I think I’ll do that and then put on my gardening shoes and go out and pull some weeds while the ground is still soft.
Who knows–maybe by then it will be time for dinner.
You never know when or where you might get an idea for a new blog post. Or for a new story or novel, for that matter. Or for how to live your life. It’s not just the dark inner creative places where these things bubble up from; it’s also the sum of your experiences and your relationships and your emotions and thoughts and dreams, and your way of making connections among these things.
Looking over the statistics for this blog for the last few days, I noted a search that had resulted in two views. The search term was “whimsical buddha”.
What was this person looking for? And why? Did he find it?
Would I be disappointed if I knew?
Well, I don’t know, but I do have a whimsical buddha for my mystery searcher, wherever he is, if he’s still looking. The buddha sits in the garden at night in the drenching early April rain. “He looks so forlorn,” I say to Dan. “I feel sorry for anyone who has to be out in the rain on a night like this.”
“Oh–just a minute,” replies my kind-hearted husband, and the next thing I know he too is out in the cold rain carrying an umbrella, to lend the poor buddha a hand.
