Bitter, Bitter Cold

Times like this, I am sooo jealous of our friend Carey's wood-burning stove. And we don't even have (today at least) the sub-zero temps they have north of us. It's above zero, barely, now.
Until lately, I nodded and smiled when people said, "Keep warm!" because, well, isn't that a DUH? We have a house, four walls and a roof, and a functional heating system. So by keeping warm, you basically mean stay inside, right?
Turns out you have no idea how many drafts your house has until the breeze coming through them is sub-zero. My toes, frost-nipped in junior high, have been hurting for two or three days straight. That's INSIDE in socks and shoes. I have blocked a drafty window in the family room with a rolled-up garbage bag along the sill. Husband has taped a garbage bag over the kitchen window through which there REALLY WAS a breeze. This morning we shut a blanket in the doorway of the laundry room, which is uninsulated and unheated (yes, I've been tossing a coat on to do laundry) and it seems the doorway from it into the living room does not shut entirely. Funny the things you notice when it's exactly 2 degrees outside. Husband and I are now sleeping in the family room, where the heaters work the best of all. And we have a FROZEN PIPE. The hot water pipe (of all pipes, that one) in the kitchen is frozen solid. Husband is hoping to put heating tape around all pipes to which he can find access when he gets home from work tonight, which will be after 8 p.m. because of church tonight. Vespers for St. Anthony's Day tomorrow. I really wonder who will show, honestly. WE'LL be there, because we live ten minutes away and we're just crazy like that. And the verse doesn't say, "Where everyone who SHOULD be there are gathered in My Name", it says "Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt.18:20) and Father plus us equals four. So there. We're going to the dance tomorrow night, too.
So for now, being the only "sink" of any size with hot water, the bathtub is considered the biggest sink in the house. Laundry is actually being done in bulk at a laundromat, in draft-free warmth, albeit at higher expense, until it gets above freezing again, just because it's not going to get done otherwise. I need to at least put down some carpet scraps on the concrete floor, because the little rag-rug from Walmart doesn't cut it, that floor is COOOOLD. And the two warmest spots in the house are right in front of our greenhouse of a front window in the living room, and sitting here at the computer right in front of the heater here.
In other news... my tomato plants, in the front window that is so wonderfully warm, HAVE BUDS. They have buds. I have until they flower to figure out how to pollinate them without so much as a cooperative housefly. I need to take a picture of how it looks, these thriving tomato plants with tiny little buds now, against the backdrop of the snowy and bitterly cold outdoors.

Roast Brussels Sprouts

I'm copying this from nytimes.com, because being from February of LAST year, every time I try to "share" the page, it says it can't be found. Sounds REALLY good to me! I hope to grow a Brussels sprout plant indoors this summer, or maybe two if I try this recipe and it's as good as it sounds. From what I read, they're VERY finiky plants - too hot outside, the flavor is strong and unpleasant. Not enough water, same problem. Hmmm... sounds like an indoor plant to me. I thought for the longest time that sprouts were supposed to be horrible, but had honestly never eaten them. So one day (as an independent adult) I bought some and steamed them with basil and such, and they were good. Just like little cabbages. And the plants are FUNKY looking - a single stalk with little sprouts growing off of it, like a bat with baseballs stuck all over it. That alone makes me want to grow it - this recipe, though, is doubly tempting.

February 21, 2008, 11:11 am

Recipe of the Day: Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Garlic By Mark Bittman

Ingredients

• 1 pint brussels sprouts (about a pound)
• 4 to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to coat bottom of pan
• 5 cloves garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Method

• 1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Trim bottom of brussels sprouts, and slice each in half top to bottom. Heat oil in cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers; put sprouts cut side down in one layer in pan. Put in garlic, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• 2. Cook, undisturbed, until sprouts begin to brown on bottom, and transfer to oven. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until sprouts are quite brown and tender, about 1/2 hour.
• 3. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in balsamic vinegar, and serve hot or warm.

Source: The New York Times

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Racing the Cold

I spent this afternoon feeling like a pioneer woman in the face of an oncoming blizzard - harvesting and hauling plants inside, because tonight it will get down below freezing. 50 mph winds added to the sense of urgency. We moved another set of shelves in front of the biggest (and hottest) window, and that window has 2 massive tomatillo plants in 5gal buckets, a pot of basil, four tomato plants, and one tomato plant that's hanging. Our crown-of-thorns is in a yet-bigger pot, a masive pot of aloe is on a bookshelf, an ivy and a wandering-jew are on another bookshelf, a German ivy and unidentified philodendrony thing in the kitchen window, two aloes, a kalanchoe, and a pot of ferns in the bathroom, three more philodendrony things and a jade plant in the family room.
We will have VERY clean air this winter.
Almost everything had to be repotted. I am now to the point of "if it doesn't produce something, I might not have room for it." Basil, tomatoes, and tomatillos produce. Aloe produces. Anything else may become expendable, especially if it requires sun. You should have seen the front room, full of pots and plants and shelves, with me sorting "needs sun - doesn't - needs sun - doesn't." Three philodendrony things are posted on Freecycle, and an aloe and the kalanchoe are going to my mom. Another aloe is going to a friend in exchange for lemon balm and catnip. This is necessary because philodendrony thing started as one plant and is now four (got divided AND repotted), aloe started as two pots and is now three, and I'm going to be planting some cherry tomatoes shortly and will need the space. Speaking of cherry tomatoes - anyone know where I could get a CHEAP grow-light? Because propping up our fish-tank's light this spring got to be a hassle. There's got to be something easier.
I'm beat! Goodnight!

Gardening... WWCD?

I loooove my garden this year. I have sixteen tomato plants, two zucchini (actually three if you count the volunteer on the compost pile), five potato, miscellaneous herbs, cabbage that I don't think is going to do anything, and an apartment-dwelling friend planted 100 square feet of beans in our yard. Looking at all this STUFF (and looking at the food dehydrator and pressure cooker I got for my birthday), I am getting SO many ideas for next year!
Definitely beans again, planted in my tomato patch behind the house, and corn and squash in all that lovely nitrogen-fixed soil where the beans are. I'm hoping, under Carey's instruction, to can a lot of tomatoes, and I'm already drying plenty of herbs and lambs-quarter. The mint is getting WELL established.
I've seen "What Would MacGuyver Do?" t-shirts, with pictures of duct tape and Swiss Army knives and whatnot, and I think I need one. The funny thing is, when I'm debating where to put something, or reading the back of a seed packet that says this plant should have been in the ground months ago (my dwarf sunflowers, for example), the first thought in my mind is typically, "Well, what would Carey do?"
My friend and current mentor of sorts, Carey, describes herself as a chaos gardener. Whatever wants to grow, whereever, however. And for her, it works! Her whole yard is her garden, basically, and it rocks. My dwarf sunflowers, planted a good month late, will probably have flowers before the growing season is TOTALLY over. I've had pretty good success this year just by experimenting, planting one item in various locations to see what happens (known as unschooling), and have discovered that what the back of the seed packet says, is not always so.
Square-foot gardening, for example. Square-foot gardening (to really dummy it down) is cramming a whole bunch of plants in a square foot instead of rows. The theory is, and it appears to hold true, that what little production you may lose per plant because of crowding, is much more than made up for in how many more plants you have. So you don't HAVE to space them far out in rows - you can just throw stuff in what space you have tilled, and it will probably work. My tomato plants are only about 18" apart from each other, and they're doing well. Bill, who planted the beans, actually calculated that we should get about 3-4 times the production per square foot as you would get from a bean field planted the standard way.
So now that I've spent this summer asking, "What would Carey do?" I am SO jazzed about next year, putting into practice what I've learned - and not being afraid to say, "I want a new bed here!", grabbing a shovel, and DOING IT.