Big Move

The big move is happening. The seasons are changing. Potatoes and winter squash have been drying in the woodshed, along with the gladiolus corms. Now it's time for everything to move to the basement, so that the wood can start coming into the woodshed.

Onions and garlic are already in the basement, but i have to shuffle them around to make room for incoming vegetables. I need more shelf space.

They say that wood warms you twice: once when you stack it and once when you burn it. Potatoes and squash aren't nearly as heavy, but there's a lot of up and down on the basement stairs. Good exercise!

Change. It's the only thing that's constant.

Mulch Hay

Part of putting the garden to bed includes mulching the vegetable garden. First, the onion beds, then the winter squash bed, and finally the potato bed.

I call my local farmer, Bonnie, who knows how to load my pickup truck with 22 bales of hay. Right now, i ask her for only 10. The mulch hay i put on the garlic bed, the gladiola bed, the potato bed in the spring has become thin. The local turkeys are taking dust baths in the dirt there. I need a new thick layer to prevent grass from creeping in to the beds. By next spring, the hay will have dissolved into dirt. Oh, the soil in those beds is so deliciously dark and writhing with earthworms.

It's hard to believe, but taking a break from the world--meditating or going on retreat--can make us feel more alive. We mulch our world by muting all the incoming texts, phone calls, emails, and news. Stress dissolves. We begin to actually feel our bodies. Hey! I'm alive! Feel that.

These winter months of hibernation are a great time to retreat. I'm doing a 10-day silent retreat in October. How about you?

Harvesting Garlic

This early morning, before the tropical storm arrived, i pulled my garlic. I "only" have 90 bulbs. After subtracting 25 as seed for next year's crop, that leaves me with a little more than one bulb of garlic a week. That is not enough! What was i thinking when i planted it?

Garlic is so good as a heal-all. When i feel a cold coming on, i dice up a clove and swallow it with a glass of water. I may smell like garlic, but the cold is usually short-lived.

Dharma is our heal-all for everyday living and for these times that we find ourselves in.

Harvest some Dharma wisdom every day.

I Have a Cold

I have a cold. Drip. Drip. Drip. Lying down is the driest position. When i stand up, drip, drip, drip. When i walk around, drip, drip, drip.

I throw my used tissues into the compost bucket beside the kitchen sink. It fills up quickly. I throw used tissues into the fireplace, and soon they look like a white snow drift.

My mind is dull. I try to focus on the unpleasant spots--right sinus under the eye, right sinus above the eye, a general feeling of heaviness. Unpleasant. Unpleasant. Unpleasant.

I am of the nature to become ill. Sickness is unavoidable.

Yes. Here it is. The mind is too dull to contemplate. I merely recite the phrases.

Day 2: the drip recedes. Eventually i remember garlic--my cure-all. I mince a large clove of garlic and swallow it down with warm water.

I am of the nature to become ill. Sickness is unavoidable.

Minced Garlic

Next week, garlic will be ready to harvest, and i have 35 heads of garlic from last year still in storage. What to do? Make minced garlic.

I put a quart of (peeled) garlic cloves into the food processor, added olive oil, and let it whir for 30 seconds.

So, yes, the thought of too much garlic was unpleasant.
The thought of peeling 35 heads of garlic (= 150 cloves) was unpleasant.
The thought of having minced garlic in a jar in the refrigerator throughout the winter was, however, pleasant.

Peeling garlic is one example of prioritizing intention over mood. My mood would almost never be right for peeling that much garlic. I have to galvanize my intention.

The same holds true in meditation. Just sitting down to meditation often requires privileging intention over mood. Mood might say, "Later." Intention says "Now."

This Sunday morning, while my sweetie was eating his leisurely breakfast, i gathered my intention and stood at the sink for half an hour and peeled and peeled. His company was pleasant. Listening to classical music was pleasant. And putting the final product of minced garlic into a glass quart jar was very pleasant. Mission accomplished!

Minced Garlic

The garlic harvest is in, and i still have 4 dozen heads of last year's garlic that are starting to sprout. I'm rich in garlic, but what to do with it all?

One evening, after turning off the computer at 9:00 p.m., i peel all that garlic and throw it into the food processor. That makes a quart of minced garlic, which i cover in olive oil and store in the refrigerator. This jar of minced garlic will keep longer than the raw garlic, some heads of which had already turned brown.

We, ourselves, don't last forever. One writer-friend tells me that, at 80, she's forgetting many of the names she wants to write about in her memoir about back-to-the-land in the 1960s.

Now is the time to sprout your meditation practice or your own creativity. Don't wait. Life doesn't last forever.

Garlic Harvest

Time to harvest the garlic! I pulled mine yesterday, cut off the top stalks and the roots at the bottom. Now they are resting in a dark, dry place for a couple of weeks before i store them in the basement. In fact, they are stored in my woodshed, which is attached to my garage, and the garage smells like garlic. Fresh garlic.

The smell of garlic pervades my woodshed and garage. In our meditation, we pervade the world--or our little corner of it--with loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Choose one, and for today, just try pervading your body with the smell, with the taste of loving-friendliness, for instance. Can the people you meet "smell" your friendliness? Can they "taste" your friendliness?

We know garlic is good for us, and friendliness is also very good for us.

It's Snowing

It's snowing. I kid you not.

The first killing frost last night, and winter has begun. Whaaaa....???

Wait a minute. I still have garlic to plant, lime to spread on garden beds, kayaks to store away, and a dozen other change-of-season tasks. Suddenly, it's time to put up Christmas lights? And it's not even Halloween yet!

A friend emails me that her brother who has outlived his cancer diagnosis by 2 years now has cancer metastasized to the brain. The doctors say he has maybe a month to live.

We have a day to live. This day. Don't resist it. Go jump around in the snow now.

The Smell of Garlic

Today i gave a talk on using garlic from your garden, specifically garlic scapes. Using a bag full of scapes, my food processor, and olive oil, the four of us made garlic scape pesto in a jiffy. We scooped it into containers. Everyone went home with a half-pint of plain garlic scape pesto, and the public space we were meeting in smelled deliciously of garlic.

Most of us learn best experientially, though of course, sometimes it takes many "experiences" for us to finally learn our lesson. (Ahem!)

The path of mindfulness is an experiential path. Of course, we can use our intellect to guide us and to understand our experience, but mindfulness happens through the body, even though it's called "mind"fulness.

Aware of the body, we breathe and smell the delicious aroma of garlic scape pesto.

Ramps for Lunch

I dug ramps today. Ramps, also called wild leeks, are one of the earliest foods to forage from the forest. Ramps smell like garlic, but cooking quickly dilutes the garlic flavor. If you're making ramp pesto, do NOT add garlic.

It feels appropriate, this day-after-Earth-Day to dig my lunch out of the earth--ramps sauteed in butter with pasta, which is not me, and not mine.

Earth "element"--of leeks--goes in my mouth. Still not me and not mine.

Sometime tomorrow, an unrecognized version of earth element--my composted lunch--will exit via the trapdoor at the bottom of my torso. Earth element returns to earth. Still not me and not mine.

Ramps--a fun meditation on the relationship of how my body is entirely dependent on the earth.

Garlic Turkey Broth

Garlic Scape Pesto

I have a cold, so i'm eating garlic, lots of it, every day. Last night's dinner was a quart of turkey bone broth with a half-pint of garlic scape pesto. It's strong. I'm hoping the bone broth makes my own bones strong.

Garlic is a strong taste, somewhat unpleasant. Yet, the thought of garlic is pleasant, since I trust the healing powers of garlic.

Pleasant. Unpleasant. These feelings, these impressions simply arise and pass away. The rest is story.

Gigunda Garlic

Time to harvest garlic. This year's harvest is gigunda. One head of garlic is as big as my palm! And i have a couple of hundred of these. It's time for roasted garlic and.... Send me your garlic recipes.

I love this stiff-neck garlic--it grows really well for me. Much better than the soft-neck garlic you buy in the grocery store.Of course, i haven't bought garlic in a grocery store for 20 years.

It's time to give away garlic. But first, i choose the biggest heads and put them away for planting in October.

It's a form of loving-kindness. First, we are kind to ourselves. Then we can share our inborn feelings of kindness and caring with those around us. The more we give, the more open-hearted we feel. We create a positive feedback loop. Just like we do when we plant the biggest garlic cloves for next year's harvest.

Easy to Peel Garlic

Last summer's garlic has become so easy to peel. All winter long, i placed a knife flat against each clove and banged it with my fist in order to coax each garlic into shedding its jacket. All winter long, garlic held its white papery coat tight against its body.

Now that it is spring, i can peel each garlic clove with ease, as if the garlic is only too happy to take off its winter coat. Ahhh. Released.

Our minds hold onto certain stressful thoughts as if they are really true. Eventually, the mind sees through the thought. Eventually, the mind realizes that suffering does not keep it warm nor make us a better person by being right. Eventually, the mind lets go.

Another Cold

My sweetie came down with a draggy cold on Monday. He believes he caught it in the doctor's office, 3 days earlier. Now, 3 days later, i am coughing and sniffling and.... Wanh! I don't want to have a cold. I just had a cold 1 month ago. I do not want another one!

And i practice the 2nd Daily Reflection:
 I am of the nature to become ill (whether i want to or not).  
My body is of the nature to get sick.
 
My favorite remedy is to dice up a garlic clove and swallow it with a glass of water. I'm chewing Vitamin C. I'm sucking on zinc lozenges. I'm drinking fluids--coconut water is my current favorite. I'm napping. I'm cancelling my appointments.

And i am coughing, coughing.

I feel grateful for a body whose immune system can fight off the invaders.

My eyes are narrow slits. My mind has no idea where this blog is going. And despite the outer circumstances (ugh!), an inner smile is walking me to bed. Right now.

Pure Green

I made almost a gallon of parsley pesto and stored it in half pint containers. That means I have a dozen containers in the freezer, which translates into a dozen meals of parsley pesto pasta this winter.

Parsley pesto--just the paste of parsley plus olive oil that comes out of the food processor--is so green. It's St. Patrick's Day green. In contrast to basil pesto, which turns brownish-green when it comes in contact with the air. (i.e., almost immediately). Parsley pesto loses its strong parsley flavor and fades into the background, mixing very comfortably with garlic and Parmesan.

I'd like to emulate these qualities of parsley--it maintains its purity in the company of others. It even antidotes the garlic!

Too often, in the company of others, we are carried away by their unskillful behaviors--gossiping, complaining, drinking. We pledge ourselves to act more in accord with our conscience, but then.... Belonging to the group overrides our best intentions. Sigh. Our behavior turns a bit brown around the edges.

One verse of the Greatest Blessings Sutta that I read for 2 different Thanksgiving services, says:

Avoiding those of foolish ways,

Associating with the wise...

These are the greatest blessings.

Perhaps we can't or don't really want to totally "avoid those of foolish ways." They may be people that we dearly love. So, for balance, we spend more time associating ourselves with wise people. Oh, that feels so much better, even though we "only" feel friendly; we don't love them particularly.

"The wise" can give us the strength of character that we need to practice our good intentions in public. We might even, in an unseen or low-key way, antidote the unskillful behavior of others.

Oh, that pure green parsley pesto is so beautiful.

Substituting Kindness for Complaining

Since we went to a community Thanksgiving dinner, we don't have any leftovers. So I tried parsley pesto pasta for dinner. So delicious! And so green-green.

Instead of basil, I substituted a half pint of the parsley paste I made 2 days ago. Instead of pine nuts, I used walnuts. As usual, I used garlic, Parmesan, and my own sun-dried tomatoes.

When we substitute a good habit for a bad habit, we develop our strategy before the bad habit strikes (again). For instance, we substitute loving-kindness for irritation, impatience, and frustration.

Lauren, my step-daughter, has Asperger's syndrome and is very sensation sensitive. In her new apartment (and she has had 3 new apartments in the past few months), the downstairs neighbor, an old man, turns his TV quite loud. Instead of complaining to the management,  Lauren took him a pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. (She's a very good cook!) She chatted with him and noticed that his TV is not loud in his  living room. She substituted kindness for her usual why-don't-people-understand-what-I-need attitude.

What a delicious and refreshing change of habit, change of heart.

Just a Spoonful of Parsley

I bought a 6-pack of parsley in the spring, and each one developed into a nice bushy plant. What to do with gallons of parsley? Obviously, i need to use it as more than a garnish.

Since i can't bear to let anything in the garden go to waste, i cut it yesterday and made parsley pesto, which i am freezing in little containers.

Parsley is the antidote for garlic breath, and because we eat a lot of garlic in this household, we can probably use all the parsley. I just have to get into the habit of using it :)

Our bad habits also have antidotes. The way to stop a bad habit is not to directly stop it, but to replace it with a good habit.

When we feel irritable, worried, or anxious, we practice loving-kindness.
When we desire something, want something, yearn for something, we practice generosity of spirit.
When we are confused, doubtful, and lacking self-confidence, we practice wisdom.

I'm keeping one container of parsley pesto in the refrigerator, so i can dip into it, a spoonful at a time.

The End of Chard Season

The end of Swiss chard season is fast approaching, and my sweetie is picking grocery bags full of rainbow chard. This morning i used half a bag to make Eggs Florentine. It's a good thing chard cooks down from a heaping mound to barely half-a-skillet-ful.

I caramelized some onions and garlic, chopped the chard, and let it simmer with a lid on. Then i added bits of feta cheese and made nests in the chard for 4 eggs. Ten minutes later, we were eating a delicious breakfast.

Chard is a good substitute for spinach, which i have never successfully grown. Chard lasts and lasts, from May into November, and it doesn't bolt. The flavor is a bit stronger than spinach; chard is in the beet family.

Some of us choose meditation as a substitute for our previous religious tradition. And some of us still practice both.

Meditation has lasted me more than half my lifetime. And i usually have it before breakfast.
 

Garlic Generosity

The garlic harvest is in: 200 heads of big fat garlic cloves. (I get these great results with stiff-neck garlic, not with soft-neck.) So, perhaps you can imagine why i had about 40 heads of garlic left over from last year.

By this time, the old garlic are so easy to peel. The papery skin falls right off of each clove. But, the cloves are beginning to dry out and look a little aged (sort of like moi). Still, they are good for throwing into sauces or sautees where they pretty much disappear.

In the past, i have peeled my excess garlic cloves and stored them in olive oil. But i am so rich in fresh garlic that i don't get around to using the olive-oiled garlic. So it's time to give them away. I take them with me to every meeting and class i go to (yoga, writing, trapeze), and it's not long before last year's garlic have gone to other women's kitchens.

Now i can start giving away some of this year's harvest as a hostess present every time i go visit friends.

Garlic for Colds

Garlic Scapes

My home remedy for colds is to eat a lot of garlic. Sometimes i dice up the cloves. If the clove is small, i swallow it whole, like a pill. I really do believe garlic shortens the life of a cold.

Although i have plenty of garlic heads stored in the basement, this cold has knocked the energy out of me. It is much easier to grab some garlic scape pesto from the freezer. When i say "pesto," i mean a "paste" made with olive oil. Garlic scape pesto is simply garlic scapes that i ran through the food processor last June with enough olive oil added to make it a paste.

I froze 2 quarts of the stuff in half-pint containers. Today i'm using one batch to make pesto pasta. Straight garlic that is way too strong for my sweetie, but I think i could acquire a taste for it. It's probably a good thing i'm not seeing anyone today, not even my morning meditation group.

Buddhist teachings sometimes come across as strong medicine. Medicine that is counter-intuitive, or that we don't want to take because it "tastes" bad.

Dr. Buddha diagnoses our existential dis-ease with the First Noble Truth:
"Stress exists."
He tells us the etiology of our dis-ease with the Second Noble Truth:
"Craving"
He gives us the prognosis for our dis-ease with the Third Noble Truth:
"Cessation" of craving
And he prescribes the remedy for our dis-ease with the Fourth Noble Truth:
"The 8-fold Noble Path"

We may not like the sound of this diagnosis and prescription. Hey, i don't like the sound of my cold. But i'll do what's good for me.

Photos from purplemaizefarm.blogspot.com and kalynskitchen.com