The happenings of an urban gardener

A lot has happened since my last post.

1. I had an amazing white Christmas. Jake and I went to Portland and had another fabulous trip there. This is trip number two to Portland for us. As you can see by the picture, we went to our favorite place - Powell's Books. This time, we split up - Jake spent his time at Powell's Technical Books browsing computer books and I spent my time in the garden and cooking section, looking for some new books to further inspire my New Year's endeavor. I managed to find a ton of fun books, but had the self control to only buy two. I bought a garden book called Square Foot Gardening, which outlines how to grow the maximum amount of vegetables in the minimum amount of space (literally how to use every square foot of space you have). I love it!

2. I used the new cookbook I bought at Powell's, Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, to cook some new (for me) and interesting vegetables. I made Celery Root and Wild Rice Chowder, which was super delicious. Celery root (see the before and after pictures) looks pretty gnarly, but once you cut away all the growths on the root ball and dice it, it has the texture of a potato and a lot of flavor. I also made Purple Potato and Cabbage Gratin with the most beautiful cabbages I have ever seen. My new cookbook inspired me to make Sage Oil too. I absolutely love sage and thyme. It reminds me of fall, probably because they are the predominant spices in Thanksgiving stuffing. To make the oil, I put 24 fresh sage leaves in 1/2 cup of olive oil and cooked it over low heat for about 10 minutes. Then, I put some of the sage-infused oil on roasted spaghetti squash with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and it was amazing! The sage oil is super easy to make and gives the food a really deep and delicious flavor. Tonight I made Sunchoke (otherwise known as Jerusalem Artichoke) Bisque. Sunchokes look like overgrown pieces of ginger and taste pretty mild and nutty. Turns out, sunchokes are pretty good. I'm glad I decided to give them a whirl.

3. I took the first step towards creating my new backyard garden. I hired someone to take my old backyard fence out and build a new one, 11 feet back (to the end of my detached garage). My yard looks huge! It's amazing how much wasted space I have been missing out on. Unfortunately, the fence did not quite turn out according to plan. The fence is not level on the bottom and there is a big gap (big enough for Beans to sneak out of) because of the uneven ground back there. So now, there are retaining wall stones temporarily filling that space until I can get the woman I hired back out here to finish the project the way I want it. I assumed that we had the same idea in mind and I guess I should have known better because you know what they say about making assumptions... (you remember that silly middle school quote, don't you?). I'm a little disappointed because I want it to look right...now. But luckily, I have enough vision and imagination to see what is about to become of my backyard in my mind. I'm getting closer and I can already see (crook-eyed fence and all) that it's going to be great! I'll post photos of my new fence when it looks a little more like the picture in my head.

Finally, I know this blog is supposed to be all about my garden and my goal to be a localtarian, but I'm feeling compelled to write about all the crazy crafting I've done lately too. And, as it turns out, most of the projects I've done, beautify my kitchen and garden...so I guess this "bird walk" does fit into my post somehow. During my two weeks off from school for winter break, I made mosaic garden stakes to keep track of the veggies I plant (see previous blog post); I painted my dining room table and chairs and made chair cushions for them; I made my sister and me "Recycled Jeans" aprons; I gussied up my "green" grocery bags; and I made the cutest clutch purse ever with an Amy Butler pattern and delightful Amy Butler fabric (my new favorite creator of cute and savvy patterns and fabric). While Jake and I were in Portland, we came across this amazing fabric store called Bolt, which had tons of cute and hip fabric. Jake dipped out for a cup of tea across the street while I stayed in that store for over an hour. The hardest part about it was choosing which fabric to buy. I couldn't be happier with the fabric I finally picked out for my purse though. It's like carrying my garden around with me.