Who's a Foodie!

Recently a friend of mine remarked that the girl that he is dating considers herself to be a “foodie” but is not really. Which made me wonder: I never considered myself a foodie, but am I one? Hmmm… This led me to look up the meaning of the term “foodie”. According to Wikipedia, foodies are amateurs “who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.”

Here are some signs you are a foodie:

• Activities and interests include the food industry. Check
• ...wineries and wine tasting. Check
• ...food science. Check
• Enjoy watching specialized shows about food such as Top Chef and Iron Chef. Check and Check (Also “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares”)
• Have specialized cookbooks. Check
• Read specialized periodicals like Cook’s Illustrated. Check
• Seek out fresh produce from the farmers’ market. I’m growing my own vegetable garden. So check

Looks like I might actually be a bona fide foodie! I’m not so hard core as to photograph and post on the Internet every meal I ever make or consume, as Wikipedia states that some foodies do. Aren’t you glad?

You know what this means? I think this is the first cultural “club” that I’ve ever been a member of! Never was a yuppie. Nor a preppy. Nothing. Might have been a dork, but that’s not a club. :-p

Well, it looks like perhaps I found a comfortable space in life to settle into!

Irrigating The Garden

Last week I planted the garden full of Fava Beans. I was worrying that maybe I planted them too late in the season because it started to get quite chilly, but as soon as I put them in the ground we got a "warm wave" which is not as hot as a "heat wave", but is significantly warmer than normal for this time of year. So, the fava have had a week of nice, sunny, warm weather and hopefully should be showing their little heads soon. Since we have had no rain since I planted them I needed to set up a sprinkler for them. It took three attempts but I think I got it right. First try: I set up our big oscillating sprinkler, the kind that sprays back and forth in a big arc overhead. The problem was that it oversprayed so much that it was spraying over the fence and into our neighbor's yard! They have 2 kids and a dog so I didn't want to make a wet patch over there every day for the kids and dog to get muddy in. So, try number 2: We got 2 pulsating sprinklers:

This style didn't work because it throws water out in a curve and soaked the fences. We just weren't happy with the performance. So try number three was this:

These are two "square" sprinklers hooked up together. These cover the entire garden and I can control it so that the spray almost, but not quite, reaches the fences. Success!

The picture below is of the composting area. I have two bins working right now. The one on the right is as big as it will get. The one on the left will hold more and there's still a section I can add to make it as tall as the other one. That piece of plywood is to chip/shred on. I lean it up against the tree when not in use but when I have leaves and trimmings to shred into the bins then I lay it down to make a nice firm surface to work on.

Last week I also planted 2 kinds of kale into two of my planter boxes. The seed packet indicated that it would take 10-14 days to germinate but I planted them in November 12th, and it's now the 18th. This morning I saw the first of the little seedlings poking their heads out so they are eager to get going!

That's all the garden update I have for now. Once the fava sprout I will share a photo.

Compost Is Down In The Garden

Last Thursday I decided to add a lot of compost to the garden area to enrich the soil so I used an online calculator to help me decide how many cubic yards to get. I ended up ordering 7 cubic yards for the garden which was actually a pretty thick layer (the other 2 yards of material were for the planter boxes. That's another story!) Saturday morning we hired two guys to help haul it all back to the garden area and spread it out. David then rented a large tiller to incorporate the compost into the ground. We do own a small electric one but that one would have taken all day and it wouldn't have tilled nearly deep enough. This large gas one only took 2 hours and dug in much deeper. So anyway, here's a pic of David tilling the compost in:

The area at the bottom of the photo is never going to be planted as it's the pathway from the gate to the composting area so we didn't bother adding compost there.

It took several passes with the tiller but hopefully it got mixed in well enough. This week I will plant the fava cover crop and cross my fingers. :-)

Irrigation Is Complete

Well, the garden is progressing. It's a lot of work converting the vineyard to a garden so it's not going very fast but is almost there. Today irrigation valves were installed and hooked up to the timer. There are 3 valves total so I can have three different areas that can water independently from others with different watering needs. (For instance, if we do melons they will need a LOT more water than tomatoes.) Tomorrow 9 yards of compost material will be delivered here and dumped in the street in front of our house. Saturday morning two guys will show up with wheelbarrows and shovels and start hauling it back to the garden. I was told it will take 4 hours for 2 guys to haul this stuff back there. How big of a mountain will we have in front of the house??? Anyway, they will take it to the garden and spread it out. David will then take out our handy dandy electric tiller and start tilling it all in. Boy, will he be tired at the end of the day! I will then let it sit for a couple of days and hopefully get the fava planted mid-week. This will serve as a cover crop to add nutrients into the ground as we will till it under in the spring. Then the real gardening will begin!

Anyway, that's the plan. I'll let you know if anything goes astray. By the way, did I mention that the garden total area is just over 1100 square feet? (I re-measured today. The 1200 square feet mentioned in the previous post was taken off of the landscaping plans.) There's an area that we won't plant (the composting area) so we will have roughly 1000 square feet available for the garden.