Weeds for dinner!

For all intents and purposes, Chile practically came to my house and made my dinner for me last night. OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I do have to say thanks for two fabulous posts that inspired dinner around here last night - the first was about how to make stock.

I was excited when I first saw this post because I love making soup. I gave up buying cans or boxes of stock a while ago - too package intensive. I switched to the little bouillon cubes. A lot less packaging, but check out the ingredients sometime - disgusting. Well, I don't know if disgusting is the right word. To be fair, I don't know what most of those things actually are - like silicon dioxide and disodium guanylate. I think I'll pass, thanks. The other nice thing about Chile's stock recipe is that it gives me a way to use up those onion bits that normally are the one bit of food waste in my trash (I've heard worms don't like onions). So I'd been saving up bits of onion, squash ends, tomatoes and such for the past week, I threw it all in the pressure cooker and made what is hands down the best veggie broth I've ever tasted in my life.

Making my own stock is great for a few reasons, besides the fact that it is delicious - I'm using something that otherwise would have been waste, I'm saving money (not tons, but a penny saved and all), and I'm able to reduce my consumption of prepackaged food items.

I didn't let the inspiration stop there, though. Chile also wrote about a veggie (weed) called purslane last week. Hm, interesting, I thought. I didn't run out to buy any though - but it showed up anyway, in my CSA box this week. A gigantic pile of it, in fact. I normally would have pushed this to the back of the fridge, not knowing what to do with it, and probably end up freezing it just before it went bad. But I felt encouraged yesterday, and found two great recipes yesterday: one for purslane and pea soup and the other for a rice and purslane melange. Both were relatively simple - especially the rice, which was super easy. They also both had a surprising creaminess to them (surprising to me anyway, because, aside from the small amount of butter used in the soup, they are both entirely vegan recipes). Lucky for me, they were also both pretty forgiving recipes - I substituted onions for leeks in the soup, and I had a lot less peas than what it called for. No matter. I also used brown instead of white rice for the rice dish.

The best part? I've mentioned before that someone around here (hint: not me!) is a picky eater. He's declared repeatedly how he finds brown rice disgusting and has no interest in eating it. Well, I gave him a spoonful of the rice with purslane, and he proceeded to polish off the entirety of what was to have been my lunch today. That's ok, it makes me happy when people like the things I cook - and I have plenty of purslane left, so I'll be making more of the rice today. I think I might try freezing some for the next time I have a lazy day and don't feel like cooking.

I liked this stuff so much that I am going to try to grow some in one of my containers. I figure if it really is a weed, I should be able to keep it alive. Has anybody grown it before? Where do you get seeds? I've never seen them for sale before. Any growing tips?

Didn't really think this one through...

23 March
Originally uploaded by carolyn.will

So I've grown stuff before, like tomatoes, and lemons - the kind of stuff that grows on a tree or a plant, right out in the open where you can see it. I know what a tomato or a lemon should look like when I eat it.

I am growing several things this year that I haven't tried before, including beets, radishes, garlic, and potatoes. What do all these things have in common? Well, the part that we eat from these plants is hiding under the ground.

Is it odd that it never occurred to me before that I'd have no way of observing the progress of these roots? I've looked online for instructions. They all tell me to harvest before they get too big or reach a certain size. Hmm. Except I can't actually see what size they have reached. Do I just dig them up and sacrifice the little guys if they aren't ready to eat yet? Can I replant them if they're too small?

I only have a small container of each of these things, so I don’t want to pull too many out trying to figure out if they’re edible yet. For example, I have exactly two garlic plants at this point. It looks kind of big, but I’ve never seen what garlic looks like except for in the white bulb form I buy at the store.

The websites I’ve found all emphasize how critical the correct harvest time is, explaining that radishes, for example, will be hollow and cracked inside, not to mention super spicy, if I wait too long to harvest them. I know if I wait for them to flower, it’s too late...

So, how do you know when to harvest root vegetables? Any tips or hints are appreciated!

bathroom reading

bathroom
Originally uploaded by axeldeviaje

Lots of the thoughts I've been having lately focus on the smallest room in the house. This is because there is a lot of water consumption that takes place here, and there are a lot of consumables here.

The consumables that I can find alternatives to will be dealt with separately. For now, I'm going to think about the water consumption, and the one consumable I don't plan to stop using - toilet paper. Basically, I've just been thinking about it when I use it. By that, I mean I think, do I need to take a foot of this stuff, or could I get by with a little less? That's it. We have quite a stock from a warehouse place at the moment, but when that runs out I'll be putting some thought into what brand I buy. I'll let you know what my research turns up.

On to the water usage. If it's yellow, let it mellow. Pretty self explanatory. Not recommended when using public restrooms.

So I hadn't yet put a brick in the back of the tanks, because I hadn't gotten around to going to a store to buy a brick. Wow, I am so trained to buy, buy, buy! It finally hit me today that outside, there are a lot of rocks...hey, how about I put a free rock or two in the back of the tank? Problem solved! For free! Less water used in every flush. Reduces my water consumption, and saves me money on the water bill. Hooray!

In India, the showers all have a large bucket with a smaller "mug" inside. You don't stand under a stream of hot water. You fill the bucket with water from the tap, then use the mug to dump the water on yourself when you need it. It's a pretty cool idea, and I'm sure it uses a small fraction of water when compared with the typical North American shower. That said, while I was in India, a nice hot shower was one of the things I missed most. As a compromise, I'm thinking of investing in a shower timer (after writing it on my shopping list and waiting two weeks, of course).

I've also started using that silly looking shower cap I've had lying around. I wear it every other day and wash my hair on the alternate days. I'm lucky my hair doesn't need every day washing. I save time, therefore saving water. My better half has always turned the water off while soaping up. I will steal this idea next time I'm in there. I have a feeling it will cut down on my tendency to get lost in thought while standing in there.

My other resolution for tomorrow's shower is to find a bucket to put in there to collect the water to use for my plants. This will allow me to reduce my water consumption by not having to turn the tap on to fill the bucket later, and allow me to reuse some water that would otherwise go down the drain. Also, I'm hoping that I might trip over the bucket while I'm in there and be more likely to actually remember to water the plants in the first place.

Yes, I turn the tap off when I brush my teeth.

And a final word on the weekly challenge to myself (find as many ways to reuse things that are already in the house) I am making some progress on this front. A partial list of things I will find a way to reuse includes:

toothbrushes
plastic bottle caps
plastic mesh onion bags
toilet paper tubes

I'll reveal the fabulous second lives of these items on Friday. Until then, don't throw any of these items away!