Tag Archive | heirloom tomatoes

The Right Tool for the Job

Aug19

I’m always grateful for the right tool for the job. This morning seemed perfect to plant some fall seeds: There was rain last night to moisten the soil, and more rain expected over the next few days. We’ve likely got a couple of months or more til the first freeze, and some of the crops I planted can go into early winter under mulch. I got my handy planting ruler and set to work putting in lettuce, mixed greens, cabbage, carrots, and beets. Though I watered them in this morning, I’m grateful for a lovely rain this afternoon because nothing nourishes them better. Once they start to sprout I’ll cover them to keep the grasshoppers from devouring everything. Hope springs eternal. We’ll know more later.

Months go by without a ruler crossing my mind, and today two very different rulers popped out of hiding. Long before my dad was a Colonel, he was an engineer. His sister married an engineer, so my Uncle Charlie who recently passed away was also an engineer. Cousin Melinda was telling me about her father’s slide rule and I said it sounded like my dad’s, which I kept because… well, because I liked it. She sent a picture of her brother holding their dad’s slide rule, so I got the Colonel’s out of its nice leather case to compare them. Just alike! Down to the location and color of the name. We guessed maybe they were both Army issue… or maybe they just all looked like that from the 1940s. Wren thought it looked like another toy for her to add to her collection on the floor.

I have no clue how to use this ‘simple analog computer,’ but it’s a beautiful tool: elegant, smooth, precise, and clearly at one time the right tool for a variety of mathematical calculations. Closer examination of the tool revealed the manufacturer’s name (Keuffel and Esser Co, NY, founded in 1867 by two German immigrants); a serial number I think (660673), and the model number, 4081-3. I’m grateful for Wikipedia where I learned that K&E manufactured slide rules from 1891 – 1975, when pocket calculators rendered them obsolete. I also learned that “The K&E 4081-3 Log-Log Duplex Decitrig was a mainstay for engineering students and practicing engineers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.” (I’m enjoying exploring the value of Curiosity, #40 on the List.)

And finally, among many other things today, I’m grateful for the first ripe tomatoes from the garden. I sautéed some garden green beans with chopped onion and walnuts, added everything to a pile of torn romaine, and topped it with a yogurt-mayo dressing using Penzeys Creamy Peppercorn base. So simple, so delicious!

Zoom Cooking with Amy: Moussaka

Oct1

We’ve been planning it for weeks. I chose traditional Greek moussaka because I wanted something to do with the Navdanya eggplants I grew. I’m not a huge eggplant fan (we had a falling out many years ago), but I want to like them. This Asian variety is hardy in this climate, and gave more fruits than any previous eggplant I’ve grown. This moussaka recipe calls for potatoes, tomatoes, garlic and eggplant, all of which I was delighted, and grateful, to provide from my own back yard.

Even the tomato paste came from my garden! It is such a gratifying feeling to reach in the freezer and pull out a cube of homemade tomato paste, all that summer distilled into one little frozen block. The lamb in the meat sauce came from a nice rancher I know in the next valley over. It was a busy day, so I fit in making the first sauce with my morning coffee…

…and I whipped up a quick béchamel on my lunch break. With both sauces in the fridge I went to teach my first mindfulness class, filled with gratitude for all the day had brought so far.

Stellar rallied this morning after a long night’s sleep, eager to take a walk, and excited to see Mr. Wilson when he came to cut up slab wood for the stove. Stellar spent most of the morning here by the gate, one of his all-time favorite locations, keeping watch over his domain as always. I’m grateful for another day with him, and I showered him with attention every chance I got.

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

After class, and another short walk with Stellar, wheezing as he went, it was right back to zoom cooking with Amy. Our first task was to slice the eggplants a centimeter thick, salt them, and set in a colander.

Three of the precious few russet potatoes lent their texture and flavor as the bottom layer in this recipe. As the eggplants baked, the potatoes were sliced, fried first, then layered into a buttered pan…

One layer of eggplant covers the potato layer, which in turn gets covered by the meat sauce…

Another eggplant layer, topped with the béchamel sauce, and shredded parmesan…

And baked til golden brown! Amy has the patience of a saint. She’s two hours ahead, so she didn’t even sit down to eat til after nine p.m.

I’m grateful for a full day with lots of meaningful connection, celebrating joy in the face of sorrow, attending to a full range of emotions and letting them flow through. I’m grateful for Stellar’s resilience, rainclouds, mindfulness practice, teaching, a warm evening fire in the woodstove, and zoom cooking with Amy, moussaka edition. I’m sure I’m grateful for way more than that that I can’t remember, and I’m grateful for the warm soft bed I’m heading to now.

Sep23

I’m grateful for sprinklers of many kinds, and for the water they use to make plants grow to provide for insects and birds.

I’m grateful for the friend who gave me the Max sunflowers who grow like a weed when I water them, for the sprinkler that brings the water, for the pipes and tunnels and machines and people involved with delivering the water, for the bees and other creatures that derive sustenance from these fall-blooming sunflowers.

I’m grateful for the tomatoes that grew from tiny seeds planted with care and nurtured into seedlings, watered and trimmed and tended into astonishing huge vines full of luscious fruit: Pizzutello, Brandywine, Maritza Rose, and Amish Paste.

I’m grateful to have had the best UPS driver ever for fifteen years, and since the new guy doesn’t bring cookies, I’m grateful for the inspiration that struck me this afternoon to put a cookie for Stellar on top of any packages left by the gate. He’s very confused as to why there are boxes sometimes but no more cookies, and he looks for them. He struggles up from bed if he hears the UPS truck, but no longer bothers to announce it, or even go see what’s happening; he doesn’t understand why his friend Tom isn’t leaving him a treat. Now, Stellar can still believe til his dying day, because now there’s Santa Tom!