Self explanatory

Quan Item No. Description Price Extension==== =========== =============================== ============== ================
1 7145 Cabbage Palm Tree di Toscana NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 5260 Parsley Gigante Italian NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 6190 Chervil Curled NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 6150 Borage NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 6180 Chamomile German NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 6490 Sorrel NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 6205 Chives Garlic NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 8730 Zucchini Costasta Romanesco NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 7105 Beetroot Cylindra NZ $2.50 NZ $2.50
1 7555 Kale Red Russian NZ $2.75 NZ $2.75
1 6015 Anise Hyssop NZ $2.75 NZ $2.75
1 7700 Lettuce Webbs Wonderful NZ $2.75 NZ $2.75
1 8593 Tomato Sub Arctic Plenty NZ $2.75 NZ $2.75
1 5025 Bean Slenderette NZ $2.75 NZ $2.75
1 5030 Broccoli de Cicco NZ $2.75 NZ $2.75
1 6017 Astragalus Milk Vetch NZ $2.95 NZ $2.95
1 5350 Squash Burgess Buttercup NZ $2.95 NZ $2.95
1 8221 Pumpkin Musquee de Provence NZ $3.75 NZ $3.75
TOTAL NZ $43.15
SHIPPING NZ $4.00
ORDER TOTAL NZ $47.15

On another topic, just got an email about our local writers' group which begins next month. I have to bring along something I have written. homework. Something other than a blog about vege seeds, it would be reasonable to expect. hmmm. I'll have to get a pen out for that. Some things are computer things and some are pen things. In my world.

Today my community is

... sitting at the local supermarket selling raffle tickets for my son's school for an hour. Noticing how quite a few people are wearing home made jerseys. Bewing wowed at the generosity of so many people regarding the raffle. Enjoying exchanging smiles with people who passed but did not buy a ticket. Noticing how the supermarket is one place where people of all ages come together, even if they don't all talk.

... receiving a birthday invitation from my lovely friend and childminder Robyn for her fortieth. Reading that she doesn't want presents or cards but if we wish, she would love some support for the Watoto project. Robyn and her husband and a larger group from their church travelled to Uganda last year and built a classroom for this project which changes the lives of orphaned children. Involvement in this project also changed the lives of many people here in our small town. Now they are planning a second trip in 2009. I am very proud of Robyn's commitment and achievements and grateful that my children have her as part of their community also. We'll be buying some bricks and rolling up to her party later next month.

... learning that Robyn can't look after my children tomorrow when I am at work and being able to find alternative care within twenty minutes from two lovely friends.

... Organising a playdate at our house for my son with another mum who has a pile of other commitments every Thursday. Seeing how excited the two boys are at this prospect.

... Visiting my elderly cousin Mary and organising to collect her for the school gala on Saturday morning. Sharing with her my news from Muriel-who-I-saw-at-the-supermarket. Muriel is in her seventies and yet until the beginning of this year was showering and otherwise caring for many local elderly people each day. She cared for my cousin Lou daily and was held in enormously high esteem by Mary and Lou. When Lou took seriously ill, Mary rang Muriel who stoppped everything and drove to be with them. She was with Mary and Lou when he died.

A lot of love.

Training

Fabulous weather today, if a little cold. Major breakthrough on the gardening front: Brighid (18 months) stepped out of the garden when I told her to without me having to go over and haul her out. She and her brother filled the child-sized wheelbarrow we gave her for her first birthday with peastraw several times and helped me mulch two garden beds. When Fionn was two, he was very helpful in the garden, so odds are on that Brighid will understand how it all works (the where to stand and to only pull plants with permission aspects) in another six months. I'm sure we'll get on splendidly in the garden every day then.

As well as mulching, I also started to extend the bed which runs along the back wall of the house. It is only 30cm deep at it's narrowest point and I am extending out to double that. So I weeded and then mulched one log's worth today. The bed is bordered by about five beach logs which is partly why it is wider at some points than others.

Favourite Handyman continued work on the poultry palace. More recycled chicken wire went on today - this lot was gifted by one of our neighbours last summer when FH and his visiting father cleaned, repaired and painted the shed which borders with aforementioned neighbours.

Only 3-4 days ago, our place was pooling with water and the rain had been relentless for days. Yet today (and the previous two days) the soil has been damp but nevertheless neither soggy nor difficult to work with. Every article on weeds as indicators of soil type which I read suggests poor drainage. We have creeping buttercup, docks, plantain and daisies. I don't think we do have poor drainage, or at least not on the entire section. We just have phenomenal rainfall which means the soil is very wet for extended periods of the day/week/month/year.

Celery, onion weed, compost

I thoroughly enjoyed today. No prizes for guessing where I spent it.

I dug out three celery plants and dug up lots of onion weed. Inside I hauled out the dehydrator which I have owned since 1996 and used once before today. I have celery (including the leaves) and onion weed drying in it now. I also dried some in the oven slowly. So far, so good. My idea is to have a jar of the crumbled mix to to spoon into soups and risottos instead of stock cubes.

Then I sprinkled lime on the garden along the sunny back of the house and then I put my home made compost, beautifully dark and crumbly and full of worms, on top and then I put peastraw on top of that. That should give the soil a boost. I'll harvest some leeks next week and we will soon have enough room to plant out the six broccoli plants I bought yesterday.

wet wet wet

The garden is seriously sloshy. At least it has stopped raining today and fine weather is forecast for the next two days. My broad beans are looking sad and battered and some of them are black.

The onion seeds are coming up - I'd better eat some leeks to make room for the onions.

Mesclun and sprouts progressing nicely.

I bought a punnet of broccoli seedlings today but it is too wet to transplant them. I'm pushed for room in the established garden beds which have sufficient winter sun, but it has to be worth a try when broccoli costs $3.30 per small head in the supermarket.

Some potatoes are sprouting already.

I might pull out some or all of the celery to make more planting room. I could freeze the stems. Or another thing I learnt tonight is that I could dry the foliage (low oven or dehydrator) and keep for stocks/soups.

processed foods

I've just had a wee squizz round the internet on processed foods, thinking about how to define them. The ones pointing out that milk is a highly processed food made me realise I was going to have to create my own working definition or allowable/rejects list.

Then I found this sentence:

If the food did not exist in pre-industrial times, don’t eat it.

Perhaps this would serve me well? I am thinking of not eating any processed foods for one week. But I'm going to have to play around for a while before I get my own useful definition of exactly what I am working to avoid.

So yesterday, which didn't on the outset strike me as a truly exceptional day until I did some tallying, here are the foods which I ate which I wish to rule out (I ate good stuff as well but have left that out)
1 sausage roll
1 bottle of fruit juice
3 pineapple lumps
2 pieces of gorgeous home made Russian fudge
some salt and vinegar chips (crisps)

I had a pint of Guinness with the chips but I'm not yet sure that I'll specifically rule out alcohol this week. Actually Favourite Handyman and I drank Guinness in the pub on the way home from work while leaving our young children in childcare. If you need a mother to disapprove of, here I am. I did go to the school PTA meeting later on though.

My off list:
no bought pizza, no potato chips or chocolate or sweets
no soft drink
no muesli bars

That's all I think for now. I have this suspicion that I think I don't eat these things whereas in fact I do, but they slip in underneath my consciousness radar.

Work

I was quite emotional this morning listening to a man on the radio who worked at the freezing works (abbatoir or meat processing unit) for 40 years and was laid off when the Islington plant closed (as were my uncle and cousin) and then again as the Belfast works closes this month. Unskilled abattoir work is what put food on the table in my childhood home and I hate to see how vulnerable people are in recession and what it can do to the hopes of whole families, even entire generations.

Sometimes I know capitalism sucks.