My kitchen musings!

I once taught a freshman ‘exploratory’ course at ASU. Basically it was for incoming freshman who were undecided on their major. Sort of like an intro course to college, some introspective work, and some trips to career services and online ‘tests’ to see what they may be geared for. 

Being an instructor I also took those tests so I knew what the students were in for. One of them was a 500 question ‘personality’ test that was supposed to tell you what your top career choices might be. Here were mine (and this is almost 7 years ago and I remember it clear as day): 1. Farmer 2. Lawyer 3. English professor. Interesting right? What’s funnier? I was a Lit major as an undergrad (studying 16/17th lit in grad school); I LOVE Law & Order (read: fanatical); and I love to garden. Farm, a bit far fetched. But yea, that’s what it said about me! Coincidentally, a large percentage of lawyers actually have a background in Literature. How cool, right!

So I’ve always had my hands in dirt. I think I got it from my mother. Flowers are beautiful things and watching something grow that you’ve cultivated is quite fulfilling. Yes, I stole a bit of Voltaire there…cultivate your own garden. 

It wasn’t until I lived in Dothan that I took the route of ‘farmer’. My patient husband built free standing veggie boxes so that I could plant tomatoes, herbs, okra, squash,cucumbers, and peppers- all from seed. And I loved every minute of caring and upkeep. I used to freak out a bit when we would take a weekend camping trip because I was afraid our sprinkler system would fail and they’d die of thirst. I know, roll your eyes. 

And then we moved to Puerto Rico with lots o lots of room! So I needed a garden. Instead of the hubby taking on the duty my father, who came over with us, was charged with the task. He dug out 8 ( to begin with which expanded to 12) squares for some square foot gardening. Good sport!

 

We’ve come across some great times, and also some hard times with the garden. I’ve also learned a lot about trellising and going vertical, especially with the tomatoes. We’ve got 20-30 mph wind gusts here so making sure everything is staked and secured is a must. 

 

 
I’ve recently encountered little critters that love to eat up my squash and zucchini buds. I’m on a third planting now and this time around I’ll be deploying eggshells to deter the snails and slugs, who I think are the culprits. 

There has been a lot of trial and error. Good harvests and others not so good. But I keep coming back for more. And as Aubrey Hepburn says, ‘to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. ‘