Now Norma Knits

Garden Love and A Wee Diet Update

I went out to the garden first thing yesterday morning to see what was out there, since I had not been able to visit for a couple of days because of either lack of time or heavy rains.  

Among other things, I found one small zucchini and another couple of baby ones on the way (the zucchini plant seems to be on qualuudes or something -- it's been extremely sluggish all summer long); a Portugese hot pepper; many greens; a nice little serving of broccoli; carrots that are ready to be pulled; late-planted beets that are going great guns; and many more tomatoes, both green and ripe.  Blight has hit me a bit, but many of the plants are still strong and green.  I have a theory that the red tomato mulch must make the plants so healthy that they can fight off disease better.  I might just be cracked, but it does seem like a strange coincidence that a) the blight came to me so late when it has all but decimated everyone else's crops, and b) even as it's here, the plants are still seemingly able to fight it off with no intervention, and they are still producing very well despite all the rains and the cold nights we've been having.  

But the best little gift of all was to find these:

I planted some French green bean seeds (left over from my seeds from the season of 2008) on August 1st, and sadly I got very sparse germination.  But from those few plants, we had a most delicious meal of steamed haricots verts yesterday, and there are more to come.  After I lost most of my crop of yellow bush beans when the heat wave while we were in NYC made them go all big and tough, and this being so late in the season, these were especially welcome -- and soooooo delicious!  I can see another meal coming from these plants, and I can't wait.

Having so much produce at the ready has made it very easy to stay focused on the diet.  I feel great, and I've been working out regularly.  I love the FitDay site for being able to record everything I eat, to be able to plan my meals and make them fit into the parameters I have set up for myself with regards to calories, protein, fat, carbs, and fiber intake, as well as my calorie expenditures.  Progress:  I've lost 2.5 pounds.

*Thunk*

I picked up the books for the two M.A. English courses I am covering this fall.  

Holy crap. 

(Mind you, I don't have to read all these - just familiarize myself with the vocab and concepts.)

Yesterday Margene remarked that with the opening of the new school year, I am back in my element. As usual, she is right. I love a challenge, and you know what?  I'm good at what I do.  It's nice to find something you're good at, that you enjoy, and to be able to make a living at it.  As tenuous as that last statement is from semester to semester, season to season, because it is hard to be self-employed and to always be unsure whether I will indeed be able to make a living at it, I do feel that I am in my element and it's where I should be.  Have I mentioned (yes, I believe I have once or twice) that I LOVE WHAT I DO?!

So today I'm off to cover Convocation.  The featured speaker is Tracy Kidder.  And next week?  Kristen Schaal is visiting.  In the meantime, there is orientation for an OB/GYN rotation bright and early Monday morning.

Pinch me.  

If all this variety does not stave off Alzheimer's, I don't know what will. 

Busy, Busy

This is opening weekend at the university, so I'm very busy.  Events here and events there all weekend, followed by classes very early Monday morning.  But yesterday I was able to go to the gym, and also take a nice break in the autumnish-feeling cool-yet-warm-and-sunshiny day, to enjoy a Skinny Vanilla Latte avec knitting at Starbucks.  

And after getting set up for the evening event, I had about an hour to knit some more, so the scarf, it is a-growing, and boy, do I love it!  So soft and squishy, and such a wonderful color.  Keep your hands off my scarf!  It's mine, all mine!

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Thank you for the wonderful card ideas yesterday!  They were uniformly great and very inspirational.  

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Unleash Your Inner Hallmark Poet

Anne wrote yesterday:

So... I was standing in front of my selection of greeting cards, and I wonder what type/theme should I pick to go in with the scarf.  Not a lot of specifically Valentine's cards out right now.  A congrats card?  Something totally blank and if so, what sort of things shall I include other than Hope you enjoy the scarf! ?

 

Inquiring minds......

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Ya know what?  I have the same problem.  I can write the blog entries urging you and cheering you on, but when it comes to writing the card attached to the scarf, I really am at a loss.  I don't know the recipient, so it's hard to sound personal.  And impersonal just comes off sounding, well, impersonal.  Everything I write sounds trite.  

So, sad to say, I'm not much help.  The OFA suggests writing a card with "words of encouragement," and again I find that hard to do in such a generic fashion without knowing the recipient.  I usually write something along the lines of "Hand-knit for you by Norma from Vermont, with best wishes," or something boring like that.  One year I wrote my blog address.  I have absolutely no idea if the recipient ever looked at the blog or not.  I think if your scarf was knit on a trip to someplace interesting, or has an interesting story to go with it in some way, that would be a fabulous addition to the note. 

I can only cite the wisdom of my gut to say that probably Valentine's Day cards are not the right thing, and probably not a congratulations card either.  I lean more towards a blank card -- or perhaps one with a lighthearted joke on the cover, or even inside -- a "thinking of you" kind of thing.  Or something representative of your geographic area, I think would be nice.   

Any ideas, oh clever readers?  

Here are the three scarves I've completed so far. My favorite is the Corrugator in the dark red -- the one on the left.  It was done in KnitPicks Swish.

Oh, That AnnaMarie!

Let's just say, the number of necessary gym visits has been increased.

And I will probably be taking her name in vain with every additional 30 minutes on the elliptical machine or the rowing machine or the hiking simulator.

But it was worth it.  

Not photographed:  Homemade ginger cookies and a latte courtesy of Barista Wes.

Mmmmmmmm.

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And there was knitting.  I cast on for the new wider Palindrome scarf.  

An added cable to the width makes all the difference!

I'm crossing the cables every 8th row instead of every 5th.  AnnaMarie says I'm a fast knitter.  Who knew? 

Random Wednesday

1.  After some deliberation, I decided to rip out the Palindrome scarf and start it over with four cables instead of three.  It presently looks like this:

2.  Mr Jefferies and I took a hike on the hill behind my house with my sister and nephew yesterday.  There is a lookout partway up that is a classic spot for viewing the entire city of St. Albans, the lake, and the Adirondacks beyond.  There is a wonderful turn-of-the-(20th)Century sketch done of the city, when St. Albans was quite the railroad boom town, from up there.  A few copies of it are floating around, like in the county courthouse and the historical society, etc., and it's very cool to look at that when one is familiar with the actual spot from which it was drawn. My sister and nephew had never been at the lookout, so I took them there.  It was a very lovely day and the view was pretty good.  I tried to get a Rin-Tin-Tin-style photo of Mr J, but he wouldn't stand still long enough.  He was all like, "I'm busy!"

 

3. I've been working out a lot lately and keeping a close watch on my calories/fat/protein/carbs/calcium.... oh, cripes, the list does go on and on.  I want to get back solidly in the "excellent" BMI range, as I'm topping out that range right now and NOW is the time to nip that in the bud.  But I'm going to visit AnnaMarie again today, and so this will likely be a "one step back" day, since she serves me up with delicious and delectable food every time I'm up there.  I did the hike in addition to a regular workout yesterday, and tons of weight-lifting, and I attempted some unassisted chin-ups and pull-ups (not very successful, but better than ever before) so I'm hoping that will mean something, and I will eat my cookie without guilt.  

3.a).  It certainly is a lot easier to fulfill the carb/protein/fiber/calorie requirements with the garden.  I have so many fresh, fiberful, low-carb, low-calorie veggies available at my fingertips and can add them to every meal.  I'll miss it so much when it's gone.  

4.  Don't hate me because I have beautiful tomatoes!  I've still got a big bowl of them that need to be taken care of, and picked these yesterday:

5.  A friend asked me yesterday if I had enough to give away.  Oh yes, I certainly do.  This basketful is going to AnnaMarie today:

We have a little barter arrangement going on, and today her payment is in tomatoes.  

Terrier Tuesday, The Garden Helper Edition

Hey there, readers!  

Well, A.Alpha and I have been awfully productive in the garden this week. She showed you all those tomatoes we picked over the weekend.  She didn't show you all the weeds we pulled, though, and how well the new asparagus bed is doing.  Here, I'll show you.  

Look at how piled to overflowing that compost bin is!  We did all that, and all those weeds came from the asparagus bed. And can you see the asparagus ferns coming down the row sort of in between the two compost bins?  They're doing pretty well, but that certainly seems like a modest yield from the 30 roots we planted this spring, if ya ask me.  More like 8 is what's growing.  But they're lookin' real good, what there are of them. That red thing is the little portable stake she puts in the ground wherever she is if she wants to keep me from going far. Goodness, she is picky about that.  

And we were excited to see that the Dolloff beans are finally doing pretty well.

There aren't a whole lot of them -- certainly not enough for a batch of baked beans -- but A.Alpha says she's going to try to eat them just cooked something like lima beans, as a little side dish.  Bet they'll be good. 

Yesterday we planted some spinach seeds.  A.Alpha says she hopes we get some fall spinach, which would be nice except I abhore spinach.  I like a lot of vegetables -- broccoli, cabbage, kale, peppers, green beans, beets, carrots, peas, and such.  I mean I REALLY like them. I always tell her every day to put some of those things, chopped up nicely and steamed for about 20 seconds in the microwave, into my kibble, and it makes me so happy when she does, I eat up every last morsel. 

But I really don't like spinach, Swiss chard, or beet greens.  I mean, I really don't like them.  If she tries to put them in my dish, I pick them right out and put them on the floor and eat around them.  She says her old dog Vincent used to do exactly the same thing, and she says that one thing she knows that those greens have in common is oxalate.  That's a fancy word, and I don't know anything about oxalates, but whatever it is, I know I don't like it.   

Anyway, A.Alpha always tries to make it sound like she's the one who does everything around here, but don't let her fool you -- I'm a big help, too!

Yours,

Mr. Jefferies

Bonuses

When I got up yesterday morning, I found that one of the seven jars of tomatoes I canned the night before did not seal.  What sort of mischief is this?!  In all my years of canning, I don't think that has ever happened to me before. So anyway, that meant that that jar of tomatoes had to be eaten soon.  Oh, darn. 

At lunch time, I got to work chopping garlic and onions and green peppers, sauteed them up in olive oil, added the tomatoes, some fresh basil and some (dried) oregano and a bay leaf, and let it all simmer to thicken, while I put some frozen turkey burgers on the grill and went to the garden to pick a bit of Swiss chard and Lacinato kale.  I coarsely chopped the greens (and finely chopped part of the kale so Mr. Jefferies could have some -- he was teasing for it at that moment, that little health nut) and added them to the top of the simmering sauce.  They steamed there briefly to wilt.  Then I put the whole lot on the top of the burgers and sprinkled with a bit of Pecorino Romano.  

Lunch.

De-frickin-licious.

Later in the afternoon, after I got home from the gym, there was an email from Marcia who asked if I was doing any fall crops.  Well, I hadn't really thought about it. In the past they have not been all that successful for me.  I think the angle of the sun truly compromises the ability to grow vegetables here after September 1st.  But I did have an empty grow bed that was all ready to go -- the one that the yellow wax beans had been ripped from. And though it was raining, I was all wet from the gym anyway, and it's not like it was a cold rain. And I did have the seeds... so I went out and threw a packet of mixed lettuce seeds into the bed and gave it a good water. Despite all the rain, that bed was bone dry.  Go figure.  So we might have fresh lettuce in September -- you never know.  And wouldn't that be a bonus!

Focus On Folate

My gynecologist recently asked me:  Do you get enough folate in your diet every day?

I think I do.  I eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruits -- you know how I love my greens! -- and I usually take a multi-vitamin as extra insurance.  How about you?  

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What can high-folate foods do for you?

Support red blood cell production and help prevent anemia

Help prevent homocysteine build-up in your blood [this one really interests me, since high cholesterol runs in my family and in me, but not any heart disease....I just wonder if we have some counteracting factor going on... for me, perhaps a highish-folate diet...and perhaps other things as well?...]

Support cell production, especially in your skin

Allow nerves to function properly

Help prevent osteoporosis-related bone fractures

Help prevent dementias including Alzheimer's disease

What events can indicate a need for more high-folate foods?

Irritability [ha, and there I thought I was getting enough folate...]

Mental fatigue, forgetfulness, or confusion

Depression

Insomnia

General or muscular fatigue

Gingivitis or periodontal disease

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Excellent sources of folate include romaine lettuce, spinach, asparagus, turnip greens, mustard greens, calf's liver, parsley, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, and lentils.

This site has an excellent article about folate, its benefits and sources, and is the source of most of the info in this post.  

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I was surprised to learn that tomatoes don't really provide that much folate naturally*. However, they do provide lots of other good things, including, for me, the thrill of the harvest.  This is a mondo bowl (punch-bowl size or bigger) and I can tell you it was pretty heavy to carry down the hill from my veg garden:

Just two weeks ago, I had puny little green things, and I thought this might be the first year in a decade or more that I have not had a tomato harvest.  Lo and behold, though, Mother Nature came through for me, and I picked these yesterday.  Yesterday!  It was an unbelievable transformation in a couple of weeks.  AnnaMarie has asserted that she believes my garden thrives on benign neglect.  She could be right.  

Want to see the same bowl of tomatoes in a different view?

 How *did* all those fit in there?  Seriously!

And that's not everything -- there are more semi-ripe and green ones on the way.  How many tomato plants do I have, you are probably going to ask, to get so many tomatoes.  I have a total of 12 tomato plants, but this is the partial yield from just nine of them.  The Brandywines are huge and beautiful, but have not started to ripen at all.  You can see some of the Purple Cherokees in this photo, and there are a couple of other heirloom varieties whose names I have forgotten.  One has succumbed to disease and does have a few little tomatoes hanging on, and the other is healthy but still green, as well.  And there were some Purple Cherokees that were slug-munched and/or little-black-and-yellow-beetle infested, so I tossed them in the compost bin.  

Guess what:  All the ones that are still green are in beds without the red tomato mulch, but otherwise they've had all the same advantages as these red giants -- the same good soil in the same raised beds, with the same food (bone meal, lime, epsom salts, and Gardener's Supply Organic Tomato Fertilizer, applied at the time of planting and midseason).  All hail the red tomato mulch, Baby!

I canned seven pints last night.  I could probably can seven more, but I want to save enough for eating fresh, and maybe for roasting, this week.

Oh, and I got a few other things from the garden yesterday, too:

Peppers. 

And pears.  While I was disappointed that not more pears got pollinated this year, I am quite pleased with the 14-pear Summercrisp harvest that we got.  These are not huge, but decent-sized, and very crispy, delicious, and juicy.  Summercrisp pears have to be eaten right up -- they don't keep well or cook that well -- so 14 is a good number for us to happily consume.  We will savor each one, and the health benefits of pears are apparently myriad, as well -- including that they are a significant source of folate.

There is nothing better, fresher, cleaner, or more satisfying than bringing in the food from your own backyard.

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* Never fear:  The food scientists are here.

All of A Sudden I'm Wondering Where Summer Went

As the upcoming semester bears down upon us like a speeding semi, I'm wondering a) where summer went, and b) what have I got myself into?  Heh.  I sure do have a lot of irons in the fire.  So far I feel on top of things, but ask me at the end of next week and I might have a completely different answer.  

Tonight in thinking about this, I was reminded (with a chuckle at the overblown analogy to my situation) of the film Steven Spielberg made way back when he was an unknown -- Duel.  Do you know the one I mean?  Here are some clips of it.  It's a bit long, but it's very much worth watching if you never have.  

 

I'm going to try to get some organizing done around my house this weekend. Let's try to get this fall off to a good start, shall we?  Have a great Saturday!