The 9 Word Diet

As spring reaches its peak and summer begins to be more than just a distant memory, a woman's thoughts naturally turn to her winter flab as in how to tame Squishy (doesn't everyone name her fat?!) into submission in preparation for the ensuing shorts/tank top/swimsuit season.  This was a particularly stellar year for me in the fight against fatness with my foot doctor telling me that it wouldn't hurt to lose 5 pounds as that would be 5 less pounds each time I step down on my poor overworked plantar.  (He really meant 10.)  It's a good thing I have a thick skin about these things.

My co-worker Greg gave me his 9 word diet plan, which pretty much  distills the whole sordid process down to the essentials.

It begins with the 3 word diet:

eat less food.

Then you advance to the 6 word diet:

walk long distances.

Finally, when you're ready, you work up to the 9 word diet:

lift heavy things.

So forget the Paleo Diet, the Atkins Diet, South Beach, etc.  9 simple words are all it takes.  And if it doesn't work, that's okay too because as my other co-worker Thom says, the bigger we are, the closer we'll all be to one another.

Tiptoeing Through the Tulips

After a few gorgeous days of 70 degree weather, we're back to our usual "liquid sunshine."  I comfort myself by rationalizing my plants need it.   But truly, without the wet stuff, we wouldn't have the sort of lovely flora we have out here.  Exhibit A: tulips

Last week we took advantage of a break from rain showers to visit Tulip Town out in Mount Vernon in the Skagit Valley.  Even without the blue skies, the flowers were impressive, as always.  Nothing says spring like tulips!

 

Fresh From the Farm Begins Again!

I was super excited this week to harvest my first crop of the season: curly kale and some lovely rhubarb!  The kale I planted last winter and the rhubarb I inherited from the previous owners.  Definitely signs that spring has sprung.

I chopped up the kale and sauteed it with some olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes, my standard for these kinds of veg.  Because it was so young and tender, the kale didn't have any of the bitterness that is usually associated with the more mature leaves.

As for the rhubarb, it's a funny plant.  It puts out these huge, luscious leaves which are poisonous to human consumption, so the only parts that we can (and should!) consume are the stalks.  

Strawberries and rhubarb are a natural pairing and so pretty (and tasty!) together.  I decided to put together a fruit crumble, which when eaten warm and topped with vanilla ice cream, is just a spectacular combination of textures and flavors--sweet and tart, and warm and cool.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble (adapted (barely) from Smitten Kitchen)

This is a simple recipe that uses melted butter so you don't have to spend a lot of time cutting it into flour.  Also, the use of baking powder cuts down on the need for additional butter (many recipes I looked at took 11/2 - 2 sticks) so with the fruit inside, this can almost be considered health food! :)

For the topping:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons sugar
Zest of one lemon
1/4 pound (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional--I used walnuts but any kind would do)

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F and chop the fruit.  Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, and salt and put the filling into a deep pie pan or oval baking dish.

Prepare the topping by mixing together the flour, baking soda, sugar, lemon zest, and melted butter until you get small and large clumps.  Pile the topping evenly on the fruit filling and pinch together some crumbs for variation in size on the topping.  Put into oven and put a baking sheet in the tray underneath to catch any bubbling fruit juice.  Bake until the crumble is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 minutes.

Serve warm with French vanilla ice cream.  It doesn't get much better than this!

Spring Babies

Babies are cute, no question.  And baby animals, like baby llamas and baby chicks are pretty darn cute, too.

 But have you ever considered how cute baby seedlings are?  Look at these little guys coming out of the dirt--they're adorable!  (Yes, I believe I've entered that annoying space called "Proud parent of a plant.")

It's definitely planting season out here at the Farm and this year, having ignored my little garden all winter, I went out there to see what was still growing and found a bunch of lovely surprises: the lettuces had come back as well as all the brassicas: kale (Siberian and Tuscan), collards, and broccoli rabe.  The Swiss chard was back as well (yodoleheehoo).

A bunch of the chrysanthamums had reseeded itself and were growing quite swimmingly in the sea of weeds that had taken over the beds during winter.  Although the bees were humming happily amongst the purple blossoms, I had to get rid of them.

As I loosened up the soil again and begin uprooting all the weeds, the dark rich soil revealed all the lovely worms within working away to make the soil loamy and fertile.  I planted some peas, carrots, beets, and other cool weather crops I usually plant too late.

After a couple of days of weeding, wacking, digging, and replanting, the beds are starting to take shape again.  Yay, spring!   I can't wait to eat the fruit of my labor in the coming months!  (Uh oh, this is starting to sound a bit like a Greek tragedy...)

Blossoms

Spring is busting out all over the place!  I think we've finally turned a corner around here.  The skies are a bright grey with tinges of blue rather than a dull flat grey and then there are the stretches of gloriously sunny weather and of course, blossoms and flowers budding and blooming everywhere.  All this life surging forth can't help but make me feel that this is what Lee speaks of when he writes "There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom."  A perfect time to celebrate new life, resurrection, and restoration.  Happy Easter!

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward   

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

--Li Young Lee

The Peace of Wild Things

Badwater Road

Winter quarter was a difficult one.  With the terrible weather here in Seattle, the non-stop workload, and various student issues, I found myself waking up a couple times from some mighty angry student-related dreams, which was strange because I didn't think I was really that angry.  But clearly instead of becoming more zen about things, I have just been becoming more repressed. :)  I began daydreaming of the desert.  It was time to hit the road.

Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things" reminds me of how restorative venturing back out into nature, into the "peace of wild things" can be.  We flew into Vegas to go to Death Valley and a common response when I told people I was going to Vegas was enthusiasm followed by a quizzical expression when I told them actually we were heading into Death Valley for part of the time.  The man at the rental car company even outright said, "It's not worth it," but I would disagree.  The hot sun (in the 80s!), salt flats, sand dunes, blue skies with gorgeous clouds and the starkness of the desert landscape was just the antidote to rain and more rain.  Even the lovely Ingrid who thought at best to survive the experience without having to drink her own urine found the park to be beyond her expectation in terms of its austere beauty.

Badwater Basin: Lowest elevation in the US below sea level

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

--By Wendell Berry

Salt Pool in the Devil's Golfcourse

Par for the Devil's Golfcourse

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

View from Dante's Peak

Zabrieski Point

Rhyolite Ghost Town

Flora

Waiting for rain