In addition to the small tomato success, I harvested about a dozen cucumbers all told. We ate them almost straight out of the garden so my canning jars are still waiting and wondering how I’ll use them.

The herbs did okay, I struggled with basil this year. My belief is that because it was constantly grey and damp, I’m lucky to have what I did.

Total failure was the raspberry plant. The container I put it into on the deck was too small. I’m hoping it isn’t completely dead and I can revive it next spring.

The other failure was a small sweet pepper plant. I over crowded the bed and planted it late and one of the tomatoes shaded it and it barely grew at all after transplanting.

I also forgot to plant lettuce for an autumn crop. Oops.

Our squirrels and other wildlife are quite agressive, we need to do the netting different next year. Once it was in place, the cucumbers and tomatoes grew without insult or much injury. Lesson learned.

This afternoon I hope to pick up some garlic at the Union Square Green Market and remember to plant it before the ground freezes. I have to figure out which bed it will go into. I have a plan (somewhere) of ideal rotation of my four raised beds.

We recently completed some exterior renovations and I will try tomatoes in a different spot next year and keep them completely in containers. It should be sunnier there. I also hope we’ll remember to plant sunflowers.

Overall? I call this year’s gardening adventure a success. I’m already planning for next spring.

Somehow I expect come morning after it is automagically published, I’ll believe that I sleep blogged which is silly, since Shadow has shown improved typing skills.

This shabbat, I accomplished my goal of re-reading Mistwood and enjoying for the first time Nightspell, two fantasy young adult novels penned by Leah Cypess. There were a few parts of Nightspell I didn’t see coming and I enjoyed it all the more for that. Both books are well thought and written. I recommend and will review them up proper soon.

I’ve been checking the garden every day. My tomato count still remains about the same and my cucumbers are growing up a storm. I’ve been counting more blossoms setting every day. Imagine my surprise today when I went to photograph proof of a small sampling and hiding beneath a leaf I found this!

There is a trip to the store for mason jars in my near future. I am not limiting myself to produce from my garden, anything fresh may find itself frozen or in a jar for later. I hoarded last summer’s corn until well past March. Sunday found me baking two loaves of zucchini bread for E (one went directly into the freezer) and grating and blanching more green market zucchini which I put up ready in amounts for more quick bread this winter. To be different, I used Jodie’s zucchini bread recipe and E says it’s really good! For the curious, you can substitute the flour with 1c all purpose, 1 c whole wheat, and 1 c gluten-free mix and according to the picky-eater E, it’ll turn out nice and yummy. It was an unplanned substitution since I ran out of AP flour and didn’t want to go completely whole wheat.

I actually made it to the Union Square Green Market, therefore, Wednesday dinner was local summer squash, some late season scapes, and pasta.

I also brought home lots of peas.

There are still a good number of growing and ripening tomatoes in my little garden and blossoms on my … er … at least I thought I planted cucumbers. Maybe they’re squashes? I forget. I don’t care. I grew blossoms for something!

Health of my friends and family continues to mostly improve all around and good thoughts are still greatly appreciated, especially for those going into and out of hospitals for various reasons. May all have a complete and speedy recovery.

A broccoli treehouse, how cool is that?

I’m not sure this exactly brings happiness per se but stories on trains almost always make me smile: Amazing trains that were never built (found via boing boing)

Thank you.

I turn to fast and simple foods during these times, it seems I almost always have noodles of some sort in the pantry. So weeknight dinner is often noodles in broth with (almost) whatever is in the fridge. Mushrooms, spinach, and egg are my favourite additions.

Ramen?

Yes, I’ve been known to, if I don’t have any other rice noodles or pastas in the pantry.

Do you want some ideas on how to make fast cheap simple ramen into something more? Check out this article on Ramen Hacks (via lifehacker).

It was no where near as good as fresh local green goodness, but I couldn’t resist its siren call any longer. We needed a taste of Spring.

He and I ended up there a day early with an emergency visit due to something else entirely.

Shadow has some crystals where there shouldn’t be crystals.

He is doing much better now. (So am I)

I am happy I was working from my home office at the time and was able to see a rapid change in his condition and take him.

What does this have to do with my post category of food?

He is now on a new diet to help dissolve the crystals and hopefully prevent more from forming. He has a few new water bowls around the house too. While he has access to clean water all over the house we decided to make it even easier.

Please, your cat will probably eat dry food without complaint, but supplement it with more canned food than I was doing. I wasn’t being cheap and trying to make a small can last longer, I just didn’t stop to realize the importance of it to his diet. He was getting water, however, most likely not nearly enough.

There is another side to this coin, however. You need to be careful that you don’t over feed yourself or your pet. Pet obesity is growing, as is human obesity. There’s an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, “When Man’s Best Friend Is Obese” which covers some of the basics on the issue. Read the serving sizes included with the food you buy for your pet (they generally go by weight) and talk to your vet about what is right for your situation.

We hope Shadow’s current diet is temporary and that we can then maintain his health with food more easily accessible. Yes, there will be more canned food in his diet.

I highly recommend Meadow Veterinary Hospital– both the staff and Dr Mendez for being able to see Shadow at the last minute and following up on him yesterday by phone. Dr Mendez took an unhappy and uncomplaining Shadow for an ultrasound and explained to me what she was doing and why. She made sure that we knew not just the phone number and services of the local emergency veterinary hospital, but also identified another which might be faster for us if we needed it (may we not). She also took a few moments to look at a sample before she sent it to the lab for confirmation and sent me home with Shadow’s new diet. The staff is friendly to everyone and knowledgeable as well.

Please, take your furry friend for routine health checkups, preventative care saves lives! If you notice a change in behaviour make that visit now!

Here’s to healthy, happy, and well fed pets!

p.s. Shadow’s ears are fine.

What am I thinking most about?

Joining a CSA. I know. I know. It’s a bit late and my most local CSA has already sold out of the plain veggie share for 2011, but I really wouldn’t be upset if my share included fresh eggs every week (it costs a little more but not a considerable amount). I haven’t joined one in the past because when I lived in NYC, I could visit a green market every day of the week if I wanted to. I still can, since I work part of the day in Manhattan, but it’s not as super easy for me as it once was since I work steps away from Grand Central.

Wait, wasn’t I planning on growing lots of stuff? I am, but I am also a realist. Properly maintaining a garden takes time. I have two businesses I’m trying really hard to grow this year. Adding in lots of vegetables would be nice but I don’t think it would be successful. I’d rather have oodles of awesome herbs and hopefully some tomatoes than feeling overwhelmed and burnt out from all spheres of my life. I also think that Margaret Roach’s article my seed-catalog shopping rules should be included with all seed catalog mailings. I think there would be many more happy gardeners and it might actually increase sales!

So here it is the 11th day of 2011 also known as 6th of Shevat. Why is that significant? The 15th of Shevat is known as Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for Trees. So?

It is in preparation for this Tu B’Shevat that I ask:

What are you doing to think, act, and eat local this year?

I’ll live with the gluten headache.

Soon I’ll start baking bread for myself as well. I just need to re-borrow a few books from the library and figure out how to make the work-flow possible for my schedule.