Mango Mania!

Its mango season, yo. Such a great way to celebrate the first day of spring! The big red and green mangoes are alright but my favorites (the ones I wait all year for because they're still blessedly seasonal) are the little, golden ataulfo mangoes. I buy them by the case and A balances them in long lines on all our shelves and windowsills, an ever-ripening  line.  Then one day the first one is ripe and they begin to pile down on us ripely ,we eat them end to end, slicing off the two cheeks and then gnawing all of the leftover flesh from the large seed in the middle.

I have many plans. There will be cardamom lassis, broiled mango halves a silken mango pudding and a saffron colored mango salsa over wild salmon. YUM.

The ataulfo mango is different from the standard mango on a couple of points. If selected properly they are sweeter, the color is richer and so is the depth of flavor. You get none of the stringy fiber in your teeth with these babies, the flesh is soft and melty, no ropy bits to be found. The pit is also more slender so even though the fruits are smaller the proportion of meat to seed is greater.

Having a naturalist in the house is contagious. We were eating one over breakfast one minute and the next thing I knew we were dissecting the seed and examining the embryonic sprout end vs the stem end and letting the boys touch the papery brown skin. Its living on the window sill now in a tiny metal pot of water. Google tells me I have good odds of growing a mango tree! I'm for that.

 Must be time to buy another case.

Fruit Of Our Labors

This is the first official produce of our new mini-orchard we planted last year. We have a bunch of new baby trees we planted on our property last spring: two plum trees, a peach tree, a cherry, a pear and a nectarine to keep our ancient apple tree company. Last year they just grew, and this year that's still where most of the energy went (they are starting to look like real trees now!) but one of our plums pulled out all the stops and made a single golden fruit.

It was condensed deliciousness. All our fruit farming hopes and gardening efforts congealed in one glowing orb. A and I split it one very early morning for breakfast while the dew was still on the grass, dripping juices on our hands, alternating bites. Sometimes we share an achingly happy vision of life together.

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Some Like It Hot

Two of the tomato plants fell over yesterday. They're getting so top-heavy with fruit in this steamy, blazing weather that the turgid stems can no longer do the job. They've come to depend on a diligent gardener driving in stakes thicker than a broom handle to hold them up. Next thing I need to do is make a trip out to garden with twine to lash them to their masts so they won't fall into the raucous sea of cucumbers below. Those cucumbers of ours are going like gangbusters!

I had to pull the lettuce because it had all bolted up into hopeless towers of bitter leaves but the cucumbers and the watermelons (real watermelons maybe!) and squash of all kinds are taking over the ground in a crawling, spiky, explosively fruitful tangle. Every time I walk into the backyard there are more cucumbers to harvest. I have started a jar of refrigerator pickles and am dizzy keeping up with the munching and the jar stuffing by turns.

The weather is hot but not the blazing 90's it was a week ago where all you do is sit languidly in a dark corner in the house and sweat. We're having solid high 80's temps now and the garden is very happy as long as I water and the mornings and evenings are cool enough to be pleasant walking windows.

The boys and I are even enjoying a little yard play during the day when we feel buzzy or brave. And even Nana had a stroll in the middle of the day today, sauntering off down the block with her phone on a chat with a friend. You can manage to cook but the summer dishes do sound best, just a quick saute, no oven work...and salads...always a few of those on the menu as they sound better and better in this heat.

I think we're off to the beach again tomorrow...maybe we'll go north to Rhode Island or try some other beach we've never been to. We're drifting off into the weekend with dreams of picnic hampers, sand in every crevice, the feel of the surf and the scent of the beach rose swirling through our minds. Be well friends, be well!

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Gettin' Saucy In My Kitchen

We have the very first applesauce, from our very own apple tree. I have been waiting for this day for a really long time. All these sunlit apples came off that one overgrown, neglected tree that leans over the hedge between our house and the neighbors. In fact, this was only one round of the windfalls from our tree, I have another bucket-full downstairs that I need to start processing this afternoon. I am glad we happened to have this five gallon bucket around, I'm not sure what we would have put the apples in otherwise, laundry baskets?

I need to do more reading on rehabilitating old, forgotten apple trees and learn more about how to bring the tree into it's full glory again, full of great fruiting possibility. Even though it is only August, all the apples are done on our tree. I am not sure if it is because we just have an early fruiting variety or if the tree was stressed and dropped its fruit too soon. We didn't end up "picking" anything...as every single fruit fell off the tree. I hope to do some research this winter to learn what that means, maybe identify our apples (they are a nice yellow variety and obviously on the earlier side), and figure out what the next pruning steps will be in shaping the tree. I think this year we'll make some bigger cuts.

I was encouraged to hear the neighbors tell me, as I picked up apples on their lawn that they have never seen apples this large from the tree. I could also clearly tell, both when the tree blossomed and when the fruit developed where I had pruned. The pruned areas were flush with healthy growth and produced more and larger fruit than the other parts of the tree. It's really encouraging to know that an old heritage tree like this can be encouraged and tended and begin a new life.

And all winter while I collect books on old apple trees and draw pruning diagrams, and sharpen my tools I can eat apple sauce, small bowls, with tiny spoons...sipping the cinnamon tinted happiness that can only come from raising your own fruit. Ah, the good life!

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Tomato Stars

These shining beauties were the first tomatoes off our vines this year. Am a big fan of the orange streaks and stripes. It still takes my breath away to pluck something out of the yard and take it straight to the table for dinner, there's a really deep empowerment to the process, somehow being part of something deep and mystically sacred, much bigger than you, but paradoxically also something you did by the sweat of your own brow. I get fairly drunk on it all.

Winter Sowing My Little Heart Out!

Image by nociveglia via Flickr

Winter Sowing is a genius way to plant things. I mentioned earlier that I had made a silly gaffe and left my giant box of seeds out in the un-heated, un-attached garage for the winter. Heh. For most of my seeds this means a certain doom but, there are some that can handle the cold, usually flower seeds and of those, usually the ones that are native to cold or and/or mountainous regions. These seeds can not only handle being left out in cold winter weather, they actually tend to sprout well and grow in these conditions...with a little help.

I first learned about Winter Sowing on Garden Web...one of my favorite places online. (If you're interested, even sort of, in growing things...any kind of things, Garden Web is a wealth of comradarie and information.) So, that I don't have to belabor you with an explanation, suffice it to say that Winter Sowing is a way to start seeds, fuss-free, in little mini-greenhouses made of recyclables, right in the dead of winter when there's snow and ice and little else outdoors.You can find out what to Winter Sow and when, here. And here's another blogger or two who are walking through the steps and a great article on the method to boot! I love Winter Sowing because I'm the type of gardener who stresses seedlings out by forgetting to water and God does a much, much better job at keeping them consistently moist. Starting seedlings in homemade terrariums is painless.

I just hauled my box out of the garage and spread everything out in a massive swirl of seed packets and scribbled-upon envelopes and started working through it all. Eventually I arrived at a decent amount of things that qualify for Winter Sowing. I raided my recycling bin for what had around to use (anything with a lid will work, even bottles and jugs).

Then, on to the dumping in of potting soil, the splashing and sprinkling with water, the inevitable leaking onto the floor, and small fingers covered with mud and then it was planting time.

And that is how it was that I came to have a small, misty looking pile of various plastic containers, in my back yard. The greenhouse effect makes them condense and bead droplets of steamy water all over the insides of their lids once they are out sitting in a snowbank. I didn't plant all of what could be salvaged, not nearly, but there will be more plastic containers and slowly the flock will grow...and someday soon we will have little sprouts of green to greet us and slowly grow tantalizingly taller by our back door.

Man! I have got to get that apple tree in the yard pruned or else! Heavens how the winter has flown!

The Handsome 8th Month

Nib, our little big-man is 8 months old! 

 He continues to be sunny and easy-going although he's starting to "mature" into a more opinionated fellow: he'll go to most anyone's arms for a grinning visit but he requires a strong right shoulder pin these days to keep him on the changing table while you reach for a wipe.

  We are starting to think about how we'll celebrate his birthday (Oh wow does it sound good to have May be looming!!!!) and are happy to see him blooming and opening and becoming his own, shining, little person.

He says "Dada!" clearly and proudly, cruising on furniture incessantly, eats most anything besides cow's milk, honey and citrus and is the triumphant owner of seven teeth. He dances, he sword-fights (thank you older brothers) and his favorite food is ice-cream. Ladies, he'll be available in about 18 years for bids...until then, swoon chicas, swoon. This one's a winner.

Vital Life Insights

In my plan to savor my own life experience and really accept age and the passing of time and wisdom and not just smooth skin and young energy...I have just made a new step forward. We, all of us, are learning things, all the time....lessons that are our own little gold nuggets that slowly compile to create wisdom. I think it's a shame that we never really consciously examine what we've learned and what we are learning and turn each nugget over in our hands, really looking at it and really feeling it between our fingers, appreciating the things we have learned through hard won experience.

I used to be a big journaler, never really consistantly the every-single-day diary scribbler, but consistant enough that I've filled several lined books with reams of accounts of "what I did today." I don't journal that way anymore. I'm glad that I did it because it got me started: I wrote, I thought, however shallowly about my life and my self. These days my journalling is more expressive and more insightful and much more useful, I use my journal to sort out my insides and plot life in ways that count and make sense.

All my classic lined page journals.

My current journals (I have two at the moment, one for writing and one for visuals) are a little out of the box. This is what journalling looks like for me right now. I'm often answering questions, making lists, making bold statements and writing down my hopes and small healing reminders to the tattered, quiet bit of me inside.

My visual journal

My written journal, in a sketchbook.

This week I decided to start making a list of my major life insights in my writing journal. We all know there are certain trite bits of wisdom (however true and meaningful) that could pepper any individual's list, but what I'm talking about instead are the things that feel vital to you right now. Personal insights: things that have to do with your own individual thinking and pondering and feeling and reading. Here are some good ways to dig them up if nothing is coming to you.

• Revisit old journal entries (if you journal) and look for recurrent themes.
• Think about the things you're talking about all the time to your spouse, your children, your best friend, your mom...vital bits of wisdom are often things we're so struck by that we talk about them over and over while digesting.
• Think about someone who bugs you a lot and ask yourself what they are doing that you would never do, write that down and look at it. Is there some life insight there that you can gather up?
• Look around you at your bookshelves and remember, as you spot particular books, important things you learned from them.
• Think about a painful life experience you've had. Are there any life lessons you can say you learned through it?
• What did you trip over lately and then you say to yourself "I sure thought I learned that a long time ago!"
• What do you consider to be the most important things your parents and your spiritual community have taught you?

So....there's some prompts to get you going. I'd love to hear what you're all learning at the moment, feel free to share in the comments.

Here's what's on my list so far:

1. Christianity, and maybe all of life is about LOVE...and nothing more.
2. We are all failures who are valuable.
3. All personal connections/relationships in life are good and of value.
4. I need respect.
5. Morning headstarts are the key to sanity.
6. Kindness earns you love, respect comes via achievement.
7. All emotions are valid and need to be looked in the eye and accepted, even the big scary ones.
8. Beauty is important for my vibrant health.
9. Junk food addiction is passive suicide.
10. Generosity is very important.
11. Repetition=Skill
12. Anger, unaddressed becomes bitterness.

 What has life taught you through experience? Dish it out!