Vacation Day

 Merry Rainy Day. 55 degrees and 2 inches of rain, which melted our 20 inches of snow. 

I took advantage of the thaw to run out to the garden and dig up more Jerusalem artichokes and pull the last of the turnips. Now there is truly nothing remaining in the garden. Nothing. Empty.

Still, i feel delighted to wander around my garden. Some green growing plants give me joy as a warm southern breeze melts more snow.

Winter returns tomorrow. But today, we had a vacation.

Broccoli Christmas Tree

 It's finally time to start eating out of the freezer because any remaining vegetables in the garden are frozen. (I'm ignoring the turnips, the Jerusalem artichokes, and the small kale leaves.) I've been preparing my freezer for this day, and it is brimming with possibilities. 

Oops, my sweetie went to the food coop and saw the organic broccoli Christmas tree. He had to buy broccoli. We are having broccoli for dinner. The freezer will have to wait.

Desire strikes. Fresh organic broccoli looks so much better than a cold frozen vegetable.

Maybe tomorrow.

Native Sun Chokes

 It's time for Jerusalem artichokes, which are now marketed as "sun chokes." One friend says sun chokes are better than potatoes. Sun chokes are just a little bit sweet.

I like all the perennial vegetables (and fruits) that show up in my garden. I do hardly anything, and voila! There they are.

If i want to decolonize my diet, sun chokes are a good way to begin. They were grown by the indigenous peoples of North America. They are native to this continent. No fossil fuels were used in the transport of this vegetable. Just foot power. One foot for the spade to dig them up, and two feet to walk them from the garden to kitchen.

Delicious.

The Fall Garden

The fall garden is the unsung season of gardening. So many edibles are still growing out there--kale, collards, mustards, lettuces, cabbage, and parsley. It's time to harvest some leeks and jerusalem artichokes. Apples are still hanging on my apple trees; let's make applesauce.

Every afternoon, i can walk outdoors and harvest enough for dinner. It may not be bountiful exactly, but isn't that a relief! There's just enough.

When we come to the downsizing phase of life, enough turns out to be plenty. The cornucopia garden is bountiful, indeed.

Parade of Wheelbarrows

My neighbor and morning meditation friend, Whit, turned 70 yesterday. Whit is not so fond of big parties or surprise parties. Nevertheless, his wife cooked up a surprise based on her gift to him of a new wheelbarrow.

Friends planting the Birthday Hillside

Last fall they had cleared a hillside at the back of their backyard. The hillside needed to be planted or else it would return to its native goldenrod-and-sumac-and-lots-of-weeds state. I loaded up my truck with various native groundcovers and met my neighbors with their wheelbarrows at the top of the path leading down the edge of the cleaned-up hillside. We filled each wheelbarrow with one kind of plant--a wheelbarrow of Canadian ginger, a wheelbarrow of Allegheny pachysandra, a wheelbarrow of Solomon's seal, a wheelbarrow of black cohosh (bugbane), a wheelbarrow of Jerusalem artichokes.

Neighbor Connie played Happy Birthday on her trumpet as we wheeled down the hillside into Whit's backyard. He was surprised, all right. Pleasantly surprised. And in half an hour, the 10 of us had planted the hillside in the drizzling rain.

Happy plants. Happy friends. Happy Birthday, dear Whit.
Happy. Happy. Happy.

Parnsip Patience

The ground is frozen. And frozen into it are leeks, parsnips, and jerusalem artichokes. Even my neighbor Connie, who has been known to take a hatchet to the dirt so she can pry up some roots for roasting, couldn't extract her leeks from the ground.

And so we wait. Patience my dear. The vegetables in in the deep freeze embrace of Mother Earth. They will still be there when the earth thaws--in January or next spring.

We put our wanting on hold and call it patience.

Crunchy Jerusalem Artichokes

I did it! I popped a raw Jerusalem artichoke into my mouth and chewed. The flavor is ever-so-slightly sweet, and the crunch--like a water chestnut--is fun. I'm making raw kale/raw Jerusalem artichoke salad today.

Sometimes we prefer to hear the Buddha's teachings as they've been "cooked" by popular teachers. Sometimes, we're ready to read the raw words straight from the scriptures of the Pali Canon.

The phrase i've been crunching on this week comes from the Buddha's list of improper topics of conversation (for monks, anyway). The list begins, "Kings, robbers, ministers of state..." It doesn't take much to translate that into "Presidents, lobbyists, and Congress" or "Presidents, white collar crime, super PACs, and international affairs."

In this election week, it's hard to refrain from all the juicy news, so i limit my intake. Yes, friends bend my ear with their political views (Are any of these Wise View?). I listen to their fear, their anger, their relief.

It's an excellent opportunity to practice compassion--for everyone.

Photo from brooklynfarmhouse.com