From the garden with love

Happy Fourth of July! A story about our own "Victory Garden" seems like a lovely tribute.

Yesterday we had an awesome harvest of produce from the garden to share with my family for a holiday meal.

Basil! My goodness this stuff is expensive at the store, and relatively easily to grow. We decided to pick a good number of leaves, and try out our new food processor (yay!) by making pesto. Not only was it remarkably easy, the resulting pesto pasta was DELICIOUS. We used this pesto recipe, this time with pine nuts. Next time we might try walnuts. We combined the pesto and penne pasta with some added sauteed onion, zucchini, and garlic (since, as you'll see, we need to use zucchini in everything).

Yesterday was also our first harvest of snow peas and sugar snap peas. We grew up these plants from seed, and now the vines, supporting themselves on twine to grow upwards, are as tall as me. It was remarkable to me how quickly they went from seeds in the grown to producing bushes, and the results were delectable. We shared with my family, and dipped in a little ranch.

Our broccoli is a bit less successful. Broccoli is a cool season plant, and this hot weather and drought has been a bit too much. They seem to be flowering prematurely. The florets pictured above are on the verge of opening into yellow flowers, and we felt this head was too far gone. So, it's being employed as a centerpiece/science experiment. But, we did pick some properly mature, if small, heads. We've read that after the first harvest, broccoli will produce smaller side florets, so we're leaving them to see what happens. And we still have many more plants still to flower, so there will be no shortage of broccoli in this household. While I'm not a huge broccoli fan, I have to say that ours is far superior to the stuff I've had in your run of the mill veggie tray.

I can't claim to have grow these lilies from bulbs - I bought a mature plant because our flower bed looked sad - but my calla lilies and Renior lilies are growing. I think 2 of my package of California poppy seeds is germinating as well - apparently they have a low germination rate. Sadly, my lovely lavender plant is looking very sad right now. We suspect it may have a parasite - the joys of garden center plant purchases.

But the real news: we have an abundance of zucchini. I gave the first to my dad and stepmom when they visited earlier in the week. Fiance-with-the-mostest is proudly showcasing the second club-like weapon zucchini from our garden. Many more are on the way, in both green and yellow varieties. We're a little fearful of the sheer volume of zucchini we may be consuming. When I was little, my parents used to tease me about my picky eating and consumption of approximately 3 kinds of food (waffles, grilled cheese sandwiches, and the breading off of McDonald's Happy Meal chicken nuggets) and say that I was "going to turn into" my food of choice. I hope life as a zucchini will treat me well.

David the Gnome is also impressed with our harvest. Beyond an amusing photo-op, we plan to create plenty of zucchini stir frys and pastas, zucchini bread (we'll be taking some to Sustainable Kirkland on Thursday), and zucchini cupcake. Yes, that's right: ZUCCHINI CUPCAKES. I am totally excited about this. Here's a recipe involving peanut butter frosting - how could that not be good?

Did I mention that I plan to force zucchini on everyone I know? Those who invite us over, be warned. And my co-workers, well I just don't see how they can escape. Mwa-ha-ha.

Back from kayaking

It was amazing! We saw so many orcas, and at close range. I have strained my wrist and can't type very well, but it was worth it.

So, for now, enjoy some photo highlights:

And believe me, my co-paddlers got better orca pics! More to come...

Setting off for the Grand Kayak Adventure!

I can't believe that we leave in less than 3 hours to drive up to Anacortes and begin the Grand Kayak Adventure!

Hopefully it will look like this:

Photo by Roger Lynn, Flickr

This is my first big, multi-day athletic undertaking since Climate Ride. I'm a little nervous, but I'm also excited to be going with 6 wonderful friends. It's funny, though. I went into Climate Ride knowing not a soul, but I came out feeling so close to several of the young women. Two of them I spent the entire 320 miles with! Kayaking will be a little different - I've been to the San Juans many times, we have a guide, and I'll be with people I've known for years. It should be interesting to compare the experiences! And, in addition to looking for whales and trying to identify marine invertebrates on the beach (ahh, the joys of my former Beach Naturalist training), I'm REALLY looking forward to some quality time with the girls (3 of my co-kayakers).

As I've mentioned before (here, here, and here) sometimes I find it really challenging to have enough time for all the things that matter in life. And while I think there is a lot of value to simple living, I'm passionate about a lot of things! So, it's wonderful to take the time to get away with the people you care about.

I'll be back on Monday night, so expect some awesome pics on Tuesday and Wednesday!

Apply for a free home environmental performance assessment

If you live in the City of Seattle, recruit your neighbors and apply for free home environmental performance assessments this summer. All Seattle homeowners are eligible, and participants will be selected based on the number of applicants from a particular block. With all the grants and rebates out there right now, you could have home retrofits completed for a very low cost.

Learn more about the Green Blocks Program, and apply to be part of the pilot project.

Writing

This post is scary for me.

I like to write. Sometimes I think I'm pretty good at it, other times I'm less confident. Either way, writing is something that matters to me. When I was in about the 6th grade, I remember spending a day of my summer vacation writing an essay about saving the rainforest. I kid you not. My senior year in high school I had a fantastic English teacher who really gave me confidence in my writing - he helped me to find my voice. Since then I've written in many styles, and I even have a few published pieces.

But what I really wanted to share with you today, is that I sometimes write poetry. It comes in spurts. I'll be inspired, and write 3 or 4 decent poems. Then nothing for 6 months. I love to do it, but I'm far less confident about my work. For some time now I've stored my poetry on a blog at http://jackiemichelle.blogspot.com/. I'm now open for comments.

What does this have to do with sustainability? I think it's part of sustainable living - figuring out what matters to you; what makes you, YOU. Simplicity guides tell us to identify key priorities in life, and to limit those priorities. You can't pull yourself in too many directions and feel satisfied with your life. Sometimes I find this difficult, since there are so many things that I love to do. Writing sometimes gets pushed to the side.

So, here's my challenge and my question to you:
How do we find balance, while enjoying the many passions that make us unique?

Kale chip recipe

Have you ever thought, "What am I going to do with all this kale?" Well I have. First when it came in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box, later when hearing about recipes from a friend, and lately as I've grown my own. In fact, we harvested our first pieces of kale, and I still wasn't sure what we were going to do with it!

I'm not much of a cook...like really at all. So, I needed a recipe that was EASY. So, I got on Google and typed in, "Simple kale recipe." I found various version of kale chips. And they were marketed as a hit with kids! Sounded like a winner.

We tried them, and they are AWESOME. They don't look like much, but the taste more than makes up for it. I swear, these are like a healthy alternative to french fries!

Want to make your own? Here's how:

Needed:
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper (optional)
Brush (optional)
A few leaves of kale
Olive oil
Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Clean and dry your kale (I like to use a salad spinner).

Tear your kale into bite sized pieces. Remove the stem. It works really well to put a piece of parchment paper on the cookie sheet. Place your kale on the covered cookie sheet.

Drizzle with olive oil. I prefer to brush on the oil for a thin coating across the full piece.

Sprinkle with salt. Sea salt is a delicious option. You can experiment with flavors, like added garlic (our fave).

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove when the edges are browned, but not burnt.

Serve and enjoy!

Wedding inspiration board

Remember my post about green wedding basics? Well, we're making some progress in planning, and trying to keep "green" in mind.

Here's my inspiration board for the wedding design:

(Click on the image to see a larger version of the inspiration board).

Here are some highlights on what you're seeing, and how we're integrating "green" principles:

• We've chosen a farm venue for the wedding, so we have a great excuse to keep things "eclectic-chic," the term I've come up with describe the style I like. It also means that we can get our flowers from a field right across the street - we just tell the growers what colors we like. Doesn't get much more local than that!
  
• The farm has rental items available on site, so we don't have to truck in tables, chairs, tents, etc. They even have some great decoration items, including blue mason jars. Rather than driving around to buy all that I would need, I can use jars that will be used for many weddings.
• We're leaning towards corsage and bout alternatives - saving on the number of live flowers we will use. These will double as keepsakes from the wedding for some of our special guests.
• I'm hoping that my friend over at The Radical Cupcake will make my wedding cake. This means we can use local, organic, and allergy-friendly ingredients. Our families are on the look out for perfect pieces of wood for the cake stand, and I can't wait to order bird toppers from Etsy.
• We found an adorable and FREE template for save the dates. We're planning to send them electronically, to save on paper.
• We love the idea of repurposing vintage items like bird cages, flower stands, wood for signs, and chalkboards.
• I've asked my friend from Ace Quilting if she will make our ring pillow.
• I hope to utilize some very crafty bridesmaids and my "wedding design consultant" (two of them are The Ravenna Girls) to help create a number of crafty pieces.

So, what do you think? Do you like the themes and atmosphere? Other ideas?