What things lead to ...

(I'm sure my grammar is horrendous in that title, but so be it.)

It all started when ... I left my job in the corporate slaughterhouse I mean marketplace, and then took a course in Compassionate Listening, and then started writing children's books (more on that later), and then started my own editorial consulting business ("Word for Word" -- catchy name, eh?), and then I got sick and couldn't work ... and then ... well, this is the embarrassing part so I will probably post on it separately, under "Can we talk about ... G-d?" and then, I started building up a backyard garden ... first one little 8x5 raised bed, and I hauled in all the dirt myself from Cedar Grove compost (their veggie mix -- excellent!) and then I discovered that the raised bed I paid someone else to put in for me last year had bad soil! How did I discover this? By planting lettuce in my new bed, and in last year's bed, and seeing the lettuce in my new bed grow like gozongas (you know what those are, right?) and the lettuce in the older bed -- did nothing!!!! So then I got really angry I mean motivated ... and had Cedar Grove deliver 5 yards of veggie mix -- right in my driveway! -- and dug out all that bad soil, and had my farmer neighbor run his tractor over some of my other lawn, (I was too late to get in on the Great Sod Removal project organized by Cascadian Edible Landscapes) and dug out rocks ..... and more rocks .... and more rocks ... (I now have several lovely rock walls)

Deeeep breath ...

And I planted!!!! Corn, squash, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, chives, peppers, onions ... we already had great strawberries and lavendar (don't ask me about the voles and my strawberries!!! I may blog separately on that.)

And then I found Christine Sine and her work on Gardening with G-d (there's that word again) -- check her out at Godspace. And the more time I spent in the garden, digging and planting and whispering to the little growing things, and watching the hummingbirds flit through my scarlet runner beans (you HAVE to plant some of these, check it out at wikipedia and some other links) the happier I am ... and the more time I want to spend in the garden ..

And I planted out my Fall bed with kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts and rutabagas, all of which are happily growing. I love seeing things grow!!! My son Martijn is also catching the fever, and now wants to go live off the land (he's reading My Side of the Mountain for the 3rd time and Making Big Plans). We also have a lovely plum and 4 "asian" pear trees, and I've planted a fig and cherry. Next Spring I'll plant about a dozen fruit trees, peach, nectarine, yellow plum, maybe even some apples. By the way -- for an amazing story, check out Piper's Orchard at Carkeek park.

And now -- it's harvest time! I can hardly believe it. I've already put up 60 ears of corn, probably have another 100 or so to go. Bad year for tomatoes so we got in on the Great Bulk Tomato buy: check out the Amazing Annete's blog, Sustainable Eats). And as I'm preserving my 40 pounds of gorgeous tomatoes (I'll try to get some pics up but I'm fairly lame with visuals--suffice it to say they are multi-colored--green, purple, yellow, and mostly red; and multi-shaped -- all sorts of wonderful whorls and curls, as well as the less interesting .,.. round ones ... )  I'm busy ordering books: Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables" by Mike Bubel, and "Handy Farm Devices, And How to Make Them" by Rolfe Cobleigh, and "The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!" by Carleen Madigan, and "Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners" by Suzanne Ashworth, and "Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation" by The Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante .......

Deeeeep breath ...

So you see ... how one thing leads to another ... and another ... and it's so rich and deep and intricate and myterious and amazing ... and there is So Much Work To Do ...

Love ---

Laura aka "Natural Grrrrl"