So it's true: I'm a troll. The worst kind, too: condescending, pedantic, annoying, concerned. I guess we all have our failings, and these are mine. But so long as I'm going to be a purist, I have to rant like one. I like eating and I bet most people do too, that's my "motivation" here.

Hoss asks why urban (commercial) [not/for profit] {large scale/vertical} non-residential gardening is worthwhile. I was a good grrl, I didn't lose my cookies, immediately. But it's Saturday and I'm relaxed and silly, so this comment made me have a Sad:

... planting hemp seeds on the front lawn of DEA headquarters.

Sorry I haven't had the time to gardenblog. I've been, well, in the garden too much, and too wiped out after canning and harvesting to do pics. But I have some. I missed a period for good pics but I'll show some results instead. First up: Fleurs. Hecate has some going still, and I do too:
Mums did well, if a tad slow, this year. Nice and bright.

Baby pumpkins. So cute there's no need to carve them.

Well, the Summer ticks on, and the garden is beginning to show its maturity. I'm seeding in what will become the Winter Garden: lots of greens, turnips, and beets, mainly.

The Pole Beans are producing ten meals worth of beans every two days, and I'm close to having my winter needs met. The Romas are getting to the end of their Determinate production time, and are finally petering out. I have, between canned jars and freezer bags, forty quarts of tomatoes set up for winter. Plus another 15 pints of roasted tomatoes, and 18 pints of salsa (that salsa won't make it til Christmas).

Today, I am roasting what looks like the last ten pounds of Romas that I'll get en masse. I have been spending a LOT of time picking and drying Basil, Oregano, Sage, Rosemary and Parsley in the dehydrator. It'll be nice having that on hand without paying money at the store.

While the tomatoes roast, I went out and picked an assortment of Yellow and Green Bell Peppers, some Sweet Banana Peppers, and a mess of Jalapenos, and am going to roast, skin, can, and pack them away for Winter, too.

I found this recipe for easily-canned roasted peppers at CopyKat Chat Forum. I think it replicates the type you might buy at a grocery store, so I'm going to try it, today. Recipe follows after the break.

I don't see it in my garden (yet) but the local organic farm that delivers to my neighborhood has late blight. Grrrr. I won't be able to report on my preventive efforts since I got too sick to spray with Serenade, and now that I'm well (a) it's raining again (!) and (b) I'm leaving this morning for a week in Brigadoon.

Good luck to all you tomato fanatics out there! I'm hoping against hope that there will be yummy fruit when I return to reality.

Les Enragés.org has an interesting challenge up for both the left and right:

Million Can March: Yes We Can!

Welcome to the Unruly Mob and the launching of our Million Can March! This all started with a vague notion that we should do something more than just have a good laugh at the next round of tea parties scheduled for July 4th. I thought that if teabaggers are so afraid of socialism, maybe we could show 'em socialism on a national scale. And what is more socialistic than sharing our food with others. Food banks across the nation are struggling with shortages as increasing demands meet head on with decreasing donations. But bloggers also reach across the nation - and the world - and we could make a real difference for our neighbors and make this a memorable 4th of July.

_{(First Lady Michelle Obama hosts the Bancroft Elementary School for the garden harvest of the White House in
Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009. Offical White House Photographer Samantha Appleton)}
According to the White House website:
More than 90 pounds of produce has been harvested so far. Some of it has been used for meals at the White House, but much of it has gone to area soup kitchens. While fresh fruits and vegetables are delicious, unfortunately they are not easily accessible to everyone, especially those in low-income areas. As the First Lady explained, for those Americans who live in areas where healthy food is out of reach, a healthy future is also out of reach. This is why community gardens are so exciting. They provide the opportunity to make healthy, affordable food readily available while bringing communities together. People are learning the benefits of community gardening -- over 1 million community gardens are flourishing right now, many in underserved urban communities. These gardens are bringing neighbors together to create a healthier community and a healthier future for the kids.

Yesterday, Ms. Obama welcomed Bancroft Elementary students back to enjoy the fruits of their labors -- you'll recall that in March they were instrumental in helping plant the White House garden.

But I want to just welcome everybody here in the First Lady's Garden at the White House, and I just wanted to say a few words to make sure that we all really understand why we're here and what we've accomplished, because today is really the culmination of a lot of hard work. I mean, we -- I'm really proud of you all, you kids, all the Bancroft kids, for sticking with this process and for joining us here today at the harvest party. This is our reward for all that hard work, and we -- and I want the media here to give these kids a round of applause. Put your pens down! (Applause.) We're really proud of you guys for sticking with us.

The end of the DC school year and (another) gathering of organic produce coincided yesterday. Among other duties, the First Lady shelled peas.

We are trying something new this year. Growing potatoes in barrels. Basically you get a barrel or large bucket, something kinda deep and with holes in the bottom for good drainage. Throw in 8 inches or so of rich dirt and/or compost, then plant your seed taters in that. Once the "green shoots" emerge you keep filling up around the potato plant stems as they grow, gradually filling up the barrel with compost. Apparently potatoes will form throughout the barrel along all the buried stems. Seems like a good way to make efficient use of space. Also allows you to bring the barrels in the greenhouse come fall to keep the new potatoes coming year round. If you are careful you can dig and eat potatoes without killing the plant. We, as they say, shall see.

I'm sure we've had a post on self-irrigating planters before. But what the heck, this is neat.

Mother's Day present to me: new peat pots, fresh starting soil, clean water, seeds.
Six tomato pots, six corn (three each red and white), four okra, two peppers, three each zucchini and summer squash. Waiting for later? radishes and cilantro, maybe more squash. Should be ready to go out in ten days!
The backup plan? Since the mower is still broken (but the new washer is wonderful) I'll try using a hoe/shovel/tiller in the back yard, then a soaker hose, then seeds in the ground. It's mid-May, for catsakes. We should be through with cold until October.

When I first moved to my current digs, I dealt with my depression and the wealth of window space in the new place by planting found seeds. The second year I had this:

I'm reposting and updating this from last year, for the top of the gardening season for most folks.

Our good friend MadSat, is still in Iraq, and still safe, and thankfully, he still has access to blogs.

MadSat is a rather remarkable beekeeper and bee remover (among a host of other amazing skills and talents). He sent along a great recipe to encourage and feed bees in a very healthful way.

It was so good ( posted my experiences with it last year), I want to share it here, with better measurements from MadSat:

In honor of the High Holy Daze....

I love the closing guitar solo on that track. It's so... slack.   Read more…

It is all about the dirt.

at the White House site -- thought I'd share with y'all:

Looks like maybe the squash won't become weapons of mass destruction this summer. Those of you who have successfully raised more than two zucchini plants at a time will know what I'm talking about.

It's springtime in DC. Michelle Obama and the Bancroft Elementary School students are busy:

_{Daily Mail Photos}

The London Daily Mail takes note:
"First lady Michelle Obama got her hands dirty has she planted the first fruit and vegetable seedlings in the new White House garden.
She pulled on brown gloves and a red waterproof and trainers and got down on her knees to help plant alongside a group of 25 eager fifth-graders from a local school.
And she said the Obamas could be enjoying salads fresh from the garden within weeks.
Designed as a year-round kitchen garden, the L-shaped plot on the South Lawn will produce herbs such as oregano, sage and rosemary, vegetables including lettuce, chard and peas, and blueberries and raspberries."  Read more…

You’re not supposed to show any part of a woman’s nipple if you want a PG/PG-13 TV rating.

Twelve years ago I made what was one of the first features shot on DV. DV was a new video format that allowed you to acquire footage you could transfer onto a hard drive with minimal if any loss of data. That footage could then be cut and otherwise manipulated, while retaining a production value that, while low, was acceptable to many viewers.

This 90-minute movie is called AMAZING WORLD. A reporter and a photographer working for a quasi-Weekly World News periodical are targeted by a back-from-the-dead psychic who is actually a murderer.

I'm only able to write part one tonight, more later.

Gosh, Obama pissed me off today ["clean" internet users: skim down to the end for the non-DFH related point to this post].Yes, that's not new, and no news to this blog. Ironically, he did so on one of those verboten issues that "stains" bloggers like me just by their very mention: he giggled at the idea, put forth by lots of 'reglar' folks at one of his outreach websites/media tools, that marijuana normalization is Serious. Worse, he slurred the online political community in the process, furthering the meme that all of us who write, speak, read and think about policy with online tools are Dirty Fucking Hippies and Hopheads. You know, not like Real Americans, such as the Two Wetsuits Good guy, or Senator Diapers 'n' Hookers.

I guess I don't write about pot policy more because to me, it's beyond obvious. Everything that our government does with respect to pot is ass-backwards. It's racist, expensive, wasteful, hypocritical, stupid, anti-environmental, supportive of terrorism, and a lost cause. I assume that all thinking people more or less agree with me, or at least admit that research, science, the history of policy, and the example of other nations, pro and con, back that up. It annoys me how many "progressives" and liberals remain silent, in this period in which we make all the mistakes of alcohol prohibition, but more seriously and at greater cost. But such is the price of being a Loyalist- no Serious Democrat speaks about legalization, ever, nor of any kind. We've spent a lot of time talking about Big Problems like why the "bailout" plans are a horror; I'm going to spend a little time talking about why Obama's remarks today are a smaller scale version, but big example of the same problem.

How many reasons can you come up with, which suggest and prove that marijuana normalization is the right and proper course for a civilized society? Never mind me, Glennzilla will be speaking on this topic at CATO on the 16th of April; I'll let him throw down hard data and numbers for me. But just tossing off, let's see what I can come up with:   Read more…

The garbage bag hung, kilt-like, over my legs as I proceeded to wash the tools I had been using. These tools were in need of washing because I used them to mix up lime putty. Other tools also got washed, though they ware not used for such an operation. They were, in fact, innocent bystanders.

As were my pants, sweatshirt, and pull-on work shoes that I really really like and are now kinda wrecked.

I have mixed batches of goo---mud, plaster, concrete, even clay---using a drill and paddle many times before. My drill has an adjustable speed and you can control it by how much you pull the trigger. So I didn't really give a second though to what I was doing. I put down some kraft paper and had an extra bucket of water for clean up.

I just lost my mind a little bit. I'm sure you'll understand why:

The Garden. The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

Action Alert. They are still fighting this battle, it seems.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/2009012...

Fab GF sent this to me awhile ago and I finally had a chance to read it. Yes, that's where we live (only we're outside of the city and have a septic system, so we won't participate, er, directly) and I think I know which farm the compost will be used.

The world may be falling apart, but some of us bumpkins are trying to make a, um, go of things.

with these pictures of fruits and vegetables that are just ... well. If Hefner'd cornered this market, that girl wouldn't've been running away from his manse, y'know?

So what are y'all gonna plant this year?

(x-posted from drinking liberally in new milford even though part of this was already pointed out here...)

When the Big Pharma pushers try to sell it to you:

Conceding that it has long been viewed as Republican-dominated, the industry's lobbying arm plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on an advertising blitz promoting Obama-style health coverage for every American. The first spot -- sponsored by the drug lobby, consumer and labor groups, and health providers -- will be unveiled today.

It's snowing here, again. The wind is blowing. I find myself really missing the garden, and looked at flower pics for a half hour of longing this morning...
I think I miss these guys the most.

So, up here in 5b land, it's dark, bleak, and cold. A lot. The moon is shining and making pretty play on the snow just now here in MI, but of course that never lasts. Like many, I fill my winter 'downtime' with indoor hobbying and crafting. Last year, as you may remember, it was tiling. I plan on doing more this season, but I like to try to learn new things every season. This year, I have to confess: I'd scheduled learning to sew "for real," but coming back from London and all the museums, I'm more inclined to...paint. I just love "modern" art! It's probably pathetic, but I don't care.

Given that I've rebuilt my house over the last few years, room by room, floor by floor, etc., I've got a lot, and I do mean a lot, of 'spare' paint lying around. And some brushes, and not a few flat, white-ish papery surfaces to mar. So I think I will! What about you? I know we're officially the knitting-home construction-tiling-gardening political blog these days, what are you adding to that list? I promise I won't torture you with pics unless I'm really high.