Fresh from the Farm This Week

We have the usual suspects coming out of the garden this week: blueberries, lettuce, snap peas, spinach, basil, kale, collards but we also have some newcomers to the table this week.



My first flowers grown from a seed mix called "Grandmother's Cut Flower Garden" from Botanical Interests are now blooming. (I do really have granny tendencies!)




I planted these a bit later than they should have been and don't often see folks mixing flowers along with their veg but I thought they'd give the garden some variety and the bees something to be happy about. They also give me something to look forward to in the midst of all the weeding! Bachelor's Buttons (or Cornflowers) and Sweet Peas, which true to their name give off a lovely scent, make a sweet bouquet.



Also new this week is borage, these beautiful blue flowers that taste like cucumbers albeit a little spiky, summer dill, and tons of wonderful fava beans.



This photo is from David Lebovitz' site "The Sweet Life" and he happened to do a post on a French cafe that was using borage flowers in its smoked trout dish. It's one of those things which I had not heard of previously but now recognize them being used as beautiful accents to salads and other dishes like this. Viva la summer!

I Dwell In Possibility

I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--

Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--

Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise--

--Emily Dickinson

Wonton Gluttony

Almost 5 years ago, when food blogs were still kind of newish, I had the idea that I would start one with some friends called "Wonton Gluttony." Our "slant" (since we were all Asian Americans) was that all the contributors would learn to cook traditional dishes from his/her ethnic heritage and post photos, recipes, and stories on the site. Besides learning to make some good food, we would also get a chance to reconnect with our family members and our heritage on a gut level (pun intended). I even made a graphic for this supposed blog in my computer art class but I don't think I managed to save it anywhere still accessible. Alas, this venture did not happen, mostly due to inertia and the fact that my father cannot wait for me to cook anything. Instead, he has to have all the stuff bought, prepped, and almost completely cooked by the time I get to his house. This makes it hard to figure out precisely what he did since he usually doesn't know exactly what cut of meat he's using or how much of it he used. Nor does he keep track of precisely how much of an ingredient he used to marinate or cook things so that can also make replicating his recipes hard. Insisting that he allow me to shop, watch him prep, and cook the whole thing, would probably be too torturous for all involved so thus, Wonton Gluttony lives still only in my mind.

Nonetheless, I have been cooking in the last 5 years, just not learning much about what my Dad cooks since I have him to do that, and with all the summer veg in farmer's markets and and at the farm needing to be eaten, I've gotten to try out some new dishes. The most recent one was inspired by the desire to cook the leeks that I'd planted last fall. In looking around for a recipe that uses them, I came across this one for ratatouille, which is perfect since I had been thinking about this dish ever since watching Disney's Ratatouille on the plane home from Paris last winter.



Ratatouille (adapted from Eating Well)

4 Tb olive oil
2 C sliced leeks or young onions
1/2 C white wine
1 tsp salt and pepper
1 15 oz can of Cananelli beans
2 large tomatoes, sliced 1/4" thick
1 zucchini, sliced 1/4" thick
1 small eggplant, sliced 1/4" thick
1/4 C shredded Parmesan
1 tsp dried summer herbs (marjoram, thyme, oregano) or 1 Tb fresh

Preheat over to 425 degrees. Sautee leeks (and onions if using) in 2 Tb of olive oil on medium heat and cover. After about 5-7 minutes, when leeks are soft and wilted, add in the white wine and salt and pepper and cook a minute more until liquid has mostly been cooked away.

Put the leek mixture in a 11X7 baking dish and top with the drained, cooked Canellini beans. This is optional but I found the beans gave the dish some heartiness and nice flavor.

Layer the tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini over the top of the leek and bean mixture, overlapping each of the slices. When done, drizzle olive oil over the top and then sprinkle salt and pepper over the top.




Put the dish into the oven and bake for about an hour and 15 minutes at 425F. At the hour mark, sprinkle the Parmesan and then herbs over the top. It's a gorgeous dish and easy, healthy, and delicious.

Rereading The Great Gatsby

I'm always jealous when someone gets to read a great book for the first time, anticipating the marvelous journey of discovery that they will go through that I've already taken, but rereading The Great Gatsby again after over ten years reminds me that rediscovering the familiar is a pleasure in its own right.

F. Scott Fitzgerald has so many great descriptions in this story and here are some of my favorite lines:

"Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope." (1)

"If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life....This responsiveness ...was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person...." (2)

"It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or fives times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." (48)

"His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one." (94)

"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart." (97)

'"They're a rotten crowd," I shouted. "You're worth the whole damn lot of them."' (154)

"Its vanished trees...had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." (182)

"It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And one fine morning--So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (182)

Fresh from the Farm This Week

Blueberries and cherries, which were not planted by me but of which I am a grateful partaker, are ripening, and the birds are definitely aware of it. I'm also pulling up the last of the leeks that I planted in the fall, but I'm afraid I've waited too long as the stems have become incredibly woody.



Snow peas are in abundance this week as well as black kale. The chrysanthemums are starting to bloom, which causes the greens to become bitter, so again, I'm learning that timing is everything in planting and harvesting.



The happy campers in the garden are again the lettuces. 4 types this time as well as some lovely spinach. Those are also starting to bolt so each time I try to pick what I can and stall the inevitable but alas, time waits for no man, woman, or plant.

Seed of Life

One of my new favorite art forms are the botanical illustrations on seed packets, especially these lovely ones from Renee's Gardens and Botanical Interests.



Before I started planting things from seed, I never thought much about the various shapes of seeds and how that is yet another way that you can see how various plants are related to each other.



These spiky guys are beet seeds but then if you look at the seeds for Swiss chard, they are the same shape so you know these two plants, which I wouldn't have thought were related, are in the same family.



My new favorite plant family is the Brassicas with these little dark round seeds. These are comprised of fast growing leafy greens like collards, kale, cabbage, broccoli raab, bok choy, etc. Not only are the seeds similar looking, the starts, when they first emerge from the soil, also begin life similarly. But what I really love about Brassicas is how easy they are to grow and how good they are to eat and good for you.

Jill of All Trades

If I had to count up all the various hobbies or skills I've tried to cultivate over the years in search of "the thing at which I'm effortlessly brillant," I'm not sure how long the list would be. Let's see. It would include ceramics, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting, photography, watercolors, drawing, silk screening, stamping, card making, computer graphics, knitting, crocheting, snorkeling, scuba diving, surfing, volleyball, running, kayaking, and now biking and gardening. The negative side of me would say I've got adult ADD but the positive spin would be that I have a Renaissance spirit.



The latest incarnation takes the form of collage. Collage is a pretty low key investment. All you need are some images, paper, glue, some kind of sealer, and sharp scissors and you're set. I took the class through ArtEast, an artists' cooperative in Issaquah, WA: http://arteast-education.org/MM_MixedMediaCollage.aspx I decided to do my collages in remembrance of my trip to Paris last winter, mixing up some of my mementos along with some pictures that the instructor had. At the end of the day, I'm not sure what the difference is between collage as art and scrapbooking as hobby but nevertheless, it was fun to give it a whirl.

Fresh from the Farm This Week

Harvesting leaves from all my favorite dark leafy greens: chard, spinach, collards, black kale as well as leek buds, basil, and snow peas.



The mesclun is also going gangbusters! I'm competing with the slugs for these but there is more than enough. Lots of red leaf lettuce and Romaine lettuce so salad's the operative word right now.

I Live My Life in Widening Circles

I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I've been circling for thousands of years
and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?

--Ranier Maria Rilke, Books of Hours I,2

5 Levels of Communication

I've been discussing the 5 levels of communication, which Pastor Nancy told me about, with the lovely Ingrid. In a nutshell, here they are:

1) CLICHES - Typical, routine, oft repeated comments, questions and answers given out of habit and with no real forethought or genuine intent. "How are you?" "Fine." "Having a good day?" "Yes."

(2) FACTS - Information/Statistics about the weather, the office, friends, the news, personal activities, etc. Requires no in depth thinking or feeling.

(3) OPINIONS - Includes concerns, expectations, and personal goals, dreams, and desires. Due to differences of opinion that naturally arise between two people, especially between men and women, this is typically the level at which we run into the "wall of conflict."

(4) FEELINGS - Having gone through the "wall of conflict" via applying the communication skills following, you both feel safe to share your deepest emotions.

(5) NEEDS - The deepest level of communication and intimacy where you feel completely safe to reveal your unique needs with each other. Truly, unless needs are known and met, a couple will remain "strangers."

(Resource: Secrets to Lasting Love, by Gary Smalley)

It seems like many of the women we know operate regularly on levels 4 and 5 with anything less than that being more informational rather than personal and thus less satisfying in terms of "connecting" with another person. This is in contrast with most guys that we know who seem to operate mostly on levels 1 and 2 and sometimes 3 and find that completely satisfying. Perhaps we're biased and our sample field is far from random but again, the differences between the sexes really is baffling.

I thought I'd also include the transcript of Gary Smalley talking about his 6 levels of communication. He's obviously talking to guys in this one as he says about three times at different points why intimate communication with your significant other is so important: sex. She feels close to you, you get sex. It's all about the right motivation. It's hilarious.

Question:
My wife says that our communication is not satisfying, what do I do?
Answer:
So, she doesn’t think you communicate very well. Well, join another
billion men around the world, because most men really don’t know the
levels of communication and what really is satisfying in communication.

So, let me go through six levels of communication, and you can tell me
which ones you’ve touched on in your marriage. But if you go all the
way to the sixth level and go there regularly—ew!—watch how your
wife’s going to say, “Thank you, Honey. Have you changed or what?”
In fact, you know what? This really turns a woman on sexually when
you get to the sixth level, and stay there regularly. All right?
OK. Here are the levels. See where you are in your marriage or in your
friendships.

Level number one: The least satisfying level of communication is
cliques—meaningless words. “Pass the pepper,” you know, or, “Yeah,
I’m fine,” you know. “What was your day like?” “Ah, I’m fine.
Whatever.” And so, it’s just real low level, no conflict at that level at
all. That’s the lowest level of satisfaction.

Level number two: We’re moving down deeper into communication—
sharing facts with one another. “What happened to the President
today?” you know, “What happened in the weather?” “Oh, did you hear
about that tragedy over in Africa?” You know, just sharing facts. Most
people don’t get into big arguments, but you can. But it’s just sort of
weak level. But do you know what? A lot of couples stay on levels one
and two, and then their communication is never satisfying and they
don’t know why. That’s because they’re not moving closer to the sixth
level.

Level number three is when you share your opinions with each other.
Well, most husband and wives and friends have a different opinion
about everything, because of how we were raised, our own beliefs, a
million reasons, personalities. But here’s the key—at the third level of
opinions, you have most of your arguments. Just remember that all
arguments that are in level three are designed for you to go deeper in
your relationship—deeper love. Do you know that all verbal fights are
all doorways to deeper intimacy? The reason being, arguments almost
take you to the last three levels of deep communication, deep
friendship.

And so, when you have a disagreement, what you want to do is move
to the fourth level, which is “what does a person feel about this
argument?” Any time you start sharing your deep feelings—extremely
important guys—don’t even worry about it. Don’t say, “Eh, I don’t like
talking about my feelings.” Most guys aren’t in touch with their
feelings anyway, so you have to get help from your wife even to know
how you feel. But the better you get at sharing your feelings—you
know, “I feel sad,” or “I feel discouraged,” or “I feel fearful,” or “I feel
lonely,” or whatever your feeling—you try to become in touch with it
and share it with your wife. This is like pouring warm oil on her life,
and this is why it causes her to feel so pleasant with you, and actually,
most—a lot of women, wives, will respond to you sexually with you
right at that level. It’s just amazing what that does.

Level number five is when you share your needs. “Honey, you know
what I really need in my life? I need,” you know, whatever you need in
communication. But whatever you need mentally, and educationally,
and physically, and whatever your own personal needs are, personal
needs really help a couple or friends go deeper into their relationship.
And when you do that, it’s just amazing the feeling your wife has,
because she really feels connected to you, close to you, and you feel
closer to her.

And the sixth level, which is really, really important, is when you take
your relationship to your mate’s beliefs, your beliefs, your mate’s
beliefs—when you start uncovering and discovering, “What do you
believe about life?” “What do you believe about God?” “What do you
believe about food?” “What do you believe about your job?” “What do
you believe about your future?” “What do you believe about your
past?”

You know, you’ve got hundreds of beliefs in your heart. And the
deepest love—ever heard someone say, “I love you with all my heart”?
That’s, “I love you with, I believe, everything about me cherishes you.
I crave you.” That’s what love really is. “I crave to be with you. I crave
to serve you. I crave to want to know you. I’m fascinated by you.” But
that’s a belief you have, and, when you share your belief, that’s the
deepest level of communication. And when your wife is hearing your
beliefs, and you’re hearing hers, she’s going to lie in bed at night and
just go, “Woo, do I like this guy or what? I wonder when the next
time’s he going to touch me, so we can be sexually involved?” Watch
what happens. Trust me it works.