Abundance

You've heard me say it before, but I just have to say it again: we are SO lucky to be able to go to our amazing farmers' market year round, right in the heart of Seattle. I keep thinking about the part of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, when author Barbara Kingsolver talked about going to her farmers' market in early spring, braving the elements with a few other hard-core patrons for some baby lettuce and green onions.

Even though I'm at the market every Sunday, I am still delighted every time I see the incredible abundance. There is stall after stall brimming with vibrantly colorful winter vegetables like kale, rutabagas, beets, and carrots. Don't get me started on the beautiful leeks and winter apples.

I think even as I begin to grow more and more of my own food (I've got a new 30 square foot bed in my plans for my front yard vegetable garden), I'll still go to our farmers' market. If not for vegetables, for the camaraderie – a place where foodies and garden lovers commune.

And while I don't particularly love pushing myself through crowds of people, I am grateful that so many Seattlites see the value of this gem – a plethora of fresh, local vegetables in the dead of winter. It is an opportunity that I know that many of my friends and family members in other chilly parts of the country would love to take advantage of.

Now on a different note, I wanted to share a link to a website I discovered during my Master Gardener class yesterday. It's called Hortsense and is a resource with easy-to-access information, with color pictures, of our area's most common plant diseases and pests. The menu bar on the left side of the site will take you to all the different options.

The really nice thing about this site is that it gives you a variety of non-chemical solutions to try before using a pesticide. I learned some pretty disturbing information yesterday about how people misuse pesticides and the scary thing is, most of the time, the original problem with the plant wasn't even caused by a pest! It is so important to really understand what is going on in your backyard ecosystem and recognize that there are many creative and non-chemical solutions to very common and pesky garden problems. My new goal is to learn about one plant disease and one pest per month. After all, a girl can never have too many New Year's resolutions.