spring garden overhaul

2009 was, for many reasons, not a very good year for our garden. our challenges included a lack of time devoted to gardening (death of a loved one, starting a new job, and starting school were factors), depleted soil, a non-native squirrel population explosion, a broken watering system… not to mention the usual extreme heat and dryness, wind, and pests. ugh. despite all that, we did harvest a few peppers and plenty of arugula. a few peppers and some arugula is not why we garden though, so damian and i have made a strong intention to go big this year. damian spent a week digging and amending the soil with goat manure (when i say he spent a week digging, i mean he spent a week digging. dawn till dusk, that’s how he does things). he got rid of all the old dead stuff that was depressing us when we looked out the window, he completely revamped the watering system with drip lines (we were using the thin gauge soaker hose, but the high mineral content of our water clogged them all up.) then he lowered the re-bar hoops and installed bird netting over the beds. the bird netting is practically invisible and we are hoping it will prevent birds, lizards and squirrels from eating everything. the fence around the whole garden protects just from rabbits, rats, and most ground squirrels.

i made the garden plan, researched varieties, ordered seeds and got busy planting. it’s still early, so outside i restrained myself from planting more than chard and beets. inside i started our pepper plants. soon i’ll start eggplant & tomato inside and plant lettuce and potatoes outisde. when it warms up a bit more we’ll plant the carrots, cucumbers and radishes. and then just before it gets really warm in may, we’ll plant EVERYTHING corn, melons, okra, squash, and transplant the eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers.

here’s a little video of the waiting garden. you may notice it’s raining! i couldn’t resist filming our silly rooster standing there getting soaked. you may also note that you can barely see the bird netting.

boys meet girls

I’m back in school now after a month of non-stop family visiting. I have the greatest family. I always knew that marrying Damian was a great idea, but something I didn’t realize at the time I married him was the fact that I wasn’t just marrying Damian, I was also marrying his whole family- parents, Grandpa Bob, and four brothers. And Damian was of course, also marrying my family. how fortunate for both of us that all the people in our families are super great!

I ended up with a lot of brothers. I was born with the sweetest big brother a girl could ask for, then when I was five I “adopted” my “little brother,” Nick. Two years later Isaac came along, and then I married into four more brothers!  Most of the time Damian and I have been together, most of his brothers have been mostly single.  Being single is great, but what I thought would be really great was if all the brothers found fantastic partners. Not just partners that they want to be with, but partners that I want to be with too. Then we could go on dates together and have lots of fun and live happily ever after! This may very well be an unreasonable expectation. I have very high standards. But hey, a girl can dream, right? And apparently dreams really do come true! As I write this, all four of my brothers-in-law are partnered with women whom I am delighted to have join the family. There is Rebeca, who takes really good care of Ben, loves kids and loves Grandpa Bob almost as much as she does Ben. There’s Maggie, who shares Gabe’s passion for yoga and nutrition, has impeccable communication skills and won’t settle for any crap. There’s Christina who is the perfect remedy for a serious dude like Ely, fun loving and physical, easy going, and a good cook to boot. There’s Reanna, who has no trouble keeping up with Nathen’s IQ or his EQ (no small thing) AND, she just happens to be a dear friend of mine since we were teenagers silk painting and tromping around Europe. And lets not forget my sister-in-law, Anne, a compassionate. Hockey-playing doctor who does a fantastic job mothering her great kids and makes a great team with Mattias. Did I mention that all these women also happen to be extremely beautiful? Did I mention all these women seem to like me and like bonding over tea and cookies? Did I mention that I think they are all really great and I respect them and the relationships they have built with my brothers?

So yeah, good work everyone. Now we just need to all live in the same place…

i’m done with another term of school and am proud to declare i rocked it! i’ve been doing an informal survey of unschoolers in college and feel compelled to share my findings: unschoolers kick ass in college!

a few case studies for you: my brother-in-law, ben, didn’t go to school a day in his life, was not forced or pressured in any way to do math or english. he’s just completed his first year and is head and shoulders above all his classmates in accademic excellence. he has a 4.0 GPA and got 100% on his chemistry final. yes i did say chemistry.

case study #2, my little brother, isaac. (he’s not technically my brother, but it’s the most appropriate lable for him anyway) same as ben, never went to school. he’s 20 now and getting straight A’s in college and loving it.

case study #3, my other pseudo brother, nick, quit school in 3rd grade, was labeled dyslexic, struggled with reading, writing, math. now? straight-A-paper-writing-professor-shmoozing-musician genius!

i could go on. my neighbor, arwen, is still highschool age but at the top of her college classes with teachers declaring, “yes, this is what a portfolio should look like!”there’s my husband, damian (all his teachers want him to major in their subjects), there’s me (not to brag or anything, but i got 98.7% on my math final, the top grade in my class) and we don’t seem to be the only unschoolers that have thrived in college. there’s my friend, reanna, her brothers, damian’s cousins, my old housemate who’s studying engineering, my friend jake who just graduated with a political science degree…

in conclusion, unschoolers seem to perform well above average in the college environment regardless of any prior exposure to the subjects of study. i believe we can at last put to rest the question “but what about college?” in relation to people who don’t go to high school. to quote isaac, “take that, society!”

our favorite bass player

damian has been really into avishai cohen for a few years now. the latter being a jazz bassist-composer from israel. i’m not usually a fan of jazz, but the most recent album, aurora, is so beautiful i’m considering abandoning my long standing contempt for the jazz genre. unfortunately the album was not released in the US or canada so is not available for less than $30 here. phoey. i figure they have to release it eventually. in the mean time, there’s youtube to serenade me while i make my last push of this long school term.

nostalgia

when i was a kid i had a beta tape player and a beta tape of tv christmas specials my parents had recorded. i loved that tape. there was merry christmas charlie brown, the garfield christmas special, frosty the snowman, rudolph (the one with the crazy snow monster thing), and my very favorite, the claymation christmas special featuring the california raisins. i would watch the tape over and over, no matter what the season. i don’t think my family quite understood what compelled me to watch christmas specials that i had seen 100 times before on a warm summer evening, but i didn’t care.

now the tape, of course, is long gone and i sadly have not had the privilege of viewing charlie brown and his pathetic little tree for many years. i also went through a period of grinchdom and scroogieness, which may have had something to do with the lack of christmas specials in my life. thankfully i came out the other side as gleeful and reverent as they come. and thanks to the wonders of youtube, i was able to find all kinds of long lost clips.  let the wassailing begin!

Lester Family Music

the other day damian got a royalty check for music he recorded before he was 10-years-old. that’s the kind of income we like! the check got me thinking and i was inspired to dig out our old ‘lester family music’ cd’s and tapes.

listening to them again, i remembered what gems they are. damian’s rendition of ‘home on the range,’ sung with such passion coming out of those little three-year-old lungs, is still one of the greatest things i have ever heard in my life. that track is on the album titled “the incredible luminous universal musical family.” what an appropriate title.

the instructional cd’s are great too. they are so accessible. even very small children can learn a part and sing in harmony. i don’t think there is anything sweeter than a family singing in harmony together. christmas carols, rounds, and hymns are all broken down and sung by the lester family separately and together for quick learning.

then there’s the breastfeeding cd’s- funny, charming and soothing to little ones. my niece went through a phase where the only thing that would calm her down in the car was the song “don’t hit the baby.”

do i sound like an infomercial? i’m sorry. it’s just that i think this stuff is so great and you will be a happier person if you have it in your life! my intentions of getting you to buy these cd’s has nothing to do with the fact that we might see another $42 royalty check in 5 years, honest!
click here to listen to a sample of what i’m talking about. to buy cd’s and see cute photos, go to http://www.lesterfamilymusic.com

picnic in the park

i just got back from a blissful day at oak glen. i would tell you all about it but i have a test in the morning so i really should be studying. for now i just want to tell you that the picnic was awesome. we had forbidden rice salad, gluten free savory cottage cheese almond muffins, and green beans. the menu was rounded out by ample fudge samples and apples. i highly recommend you try both recipes asap. if it’s not too late for a fall picnic where you live, so much the better.

the best fall soup

in my bio-region daily highs are still in the 90’s (32+ celcius), but the nights have been cooling and the days are getting shorter. the apples are in season and the winter squash is starting to fill up our farmers market booths. that’s good enough for me. i say it’s soup season!

the winter squash we grow here in southern cali generally leaves a lot to be desired if you are used to squash grown in other climates. i think the cold nights make them sweeter, but i’m not sure. the happy exception to this sad squash scenario is the big, green, worty, kabocha. i love kabocha! you probably remember me singing the praises of this long-lasting winter squash a few posts back when i was talking about what great pie can be made of this beauty. my other favorite use for kabocha is this soup. it is so simple, so easy and so, so, so, good! the color is beautiful too- a bright golden color.

Kabocha Red Lentil Coconut Soup

1 kabocha squash, baked*

1 large onion, sliced

1 hot pepper of any kind (optional)

1 cup red lentils

dash of cinnamon and turmeric

1 16oz can coconut milk

2 cups water or chicken stock (probably more depending on how thick you like your soup)

saute the onion and optional pepper in a bit of oil or butter in a large pot. (caramelize the onion if you have the patience). add the lentils and spices along with some salt and stir for a moment. add the water or stock and cook for a bit. scoop out the flesh of the baked squash and add it to the pot. cook until the lentils are soft and have broken down. add more liquid if you need to. add the coconut milk and stir. taste and probably add salt.

*i cut my squash in half and bake seam side down on a baking dish at 350 for about 40 min. alternatively, you could peel and cube the whole beast and just add it straight to the pot without messing with the oven, but i wouldn’t attempt this without a very sharp knife, a really good peeler, and a healthy wrist!

easy as pie

the other day darlene asked me for a dough recipe that could be successfully rolled out and filled by a group little girls ranging in age from two to five years old. i instantly thought of my old stand-by pie crust that never failed me when i was just starting out in pie land. it’s from my old and stained, 13th edition of the fanny farmer cookbook (fun fact: this book was originally published in 1896 and is possibly the first ever published cook book in america).

the recipe header reads, “a good recipe for beginners. somewhat less flaky and tender than the basic pastry, it is still very acceptable.”

we did find it very acceptable indeed. especially when filled with lovingly prepared organic apple filling. if any of you readers are timid of pie crust, give this one a whirl.

hot-water pastry enough for one single crust pie shell. double recipe for a double crust pie.

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup boiling water

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

put the butter in a bowl, add the boiling water and stir until it melts. add the flour, salt, baking powder and mix with a fork until blended. form the dough into a ball, then roll it out and ease it into your pie pan. easy peasy! at this point you can cover in plastic and refrigerate it until you are ready for it, or you can blind bake it (that’s cook talk for pre-baking your shell before you fill it. you do this with pumpkin pie), or fill it with anything and bake yourself a pie! if the filling is already cooked, bake it at 425 for about 20 min. until golden.

musicians in joshua tree

a trailer for a new documentary about musicians and joshua tree. i can’t really tell by the trailer, but it could be really good. looks like it’s been officially selected for a bunch of festivals. more info at: http://www.nowherenowthemovie.com/

do i count as famous if i have sold all these people snacks at the health food store?