drip irrigation

We got drip irrigation system in, just in time for days and days of rain! We're using branches of drip-a-long (6" spaced holes) coming off of a 1/2" diameter main line. For our 100 sf, we spent under $100, including timer, pressure regulator, brass splitter, connections, and tubing (some I found in a freepile!). These compression fittings are pretty nice compared with the barb and hose-clamp type.

By the way, watch out for Gilmour brass splitters. I was about to buy one because it was the only one that was all-metal including the valves, but then read on the package that it contains lead--and to wash your hands after handling--yikes. So I went with an almost-all-metal one instead.

Also, we harvested our first radish....yesssss!

the porch

Our friend had this great idea to start a restaurant, except on a really small scale. Think custom menu for two people on his apartment's porch and open just once a week. Brilliant!

Eric and I were the first customers. We agreed in advance on Mexican food but wanted the details to be a surprise. When we showed up for our meal, we were greeted with margaritas, chips, salsa, guacamole and of course hugs, smiles, and a warm kitchen.


After plenty of chatting and relaxing, we ate our main course - vegetable enchiladas with a homemade enchilada sauce. So good! And for dessert we ate arroz con leche (mexican rice pudding). Delicious! Thank you friends!

open-faced spinach melts

When I went to the farmer's market on Wednesday, it was raining and turn out was low. The devotion of the people who showed up to sell in the rain made me more compelled than usual to buy produced goods like these locally made chips and salsa which we enjoyed last night for dinner with friends.

Guess what else we had for dinner! Let me give you a clue. For our first dinner with friends we had spinach soup, for the second we had wildrice and spinach casserole, and now for the third we had... that's right, something with spinach. It actually turned out to be really delicious open-faced spinach melts (homemade kalamata olive bread, garlicy local spinach, local mushrooms, carmelized onions, and gouda cheese).




And for dessert, we ate vegan vanilla-lemon-orange poundcake. We used the recipe in Veganomicon. I couldn't get my hands on any rhubarb to make a sauce for the poundcake. Maybe this weekend I will be able to...

garden update

Well, it's been 5 weeks since we planted. The bush peas and radishes have been doing the best. Spinach and chard were slower to start, but are coming up now. We'll have to take germination time and percentage into account in the future. Experience!

Speaking of experience, we've been helping get a shared garden plot going at our UU church. We roto-tilled and planted last weekend. It is interesting getting exposed to different styles of gardening: traditional rows vs. densely packed "biointensive" at our plot, roto-tilling vs. double-dig at our plot, wisdom of experienced gardeners vs. reading books for our plot.

Well, the rain's been coming all at once for over 24 hours now--hopefully we get a break soon!

straw bale transport

I split a straw bale with a friend...just another bike trailer glamor shot.