From the kitchen

No, I'm not sharing a favorite recipe. Anyone that has ever eaten my cooking is thankful. While I'm not an accomplished chef, I detest fast food, junk food and TV dinners. After years of being a road warrior, I prefer to eat in rather than eat out. Since my Mama lives too far away for me to pop in at supper time, I somehow manage to do okay in the kitchen - at least I can eat it.

This past winter, after cooking some beef stew, I saved the carrot tops. I tucked them into my garden in some of the more bare spots left from my unsuccessful attempt at growing lettuce and brussel sprouts. (I don't really think they are genetically designed to live happily in Coastal Zone 9). A few weeks later, I saw green peeping through and fortunately remembered the carrots before I hit them with Round-up. Now, I have one carrot plant this is almost as tall as I and several more that are trying to catch up with it.

I made one unsuccessful attempt at growing carrots before. I am not really sure when to harvest -if there is indeed anything to harvest (which I can't know without pulling them up out of the ground). I've decided to let them be until the foliage begins to deteriorate - and then see just what is growing under there. If anyone has, any advice, I welcome it!

One addiction I have learned to overcome is planting the seed from avocados. I absolutely love avocados and I like to plant what I love to eat. I didn't think any of them would survive. We get a hard freeze every couple of years -and it is usually enough to erode any progress any seed has every made. However, I went through a spell where I had avocado trees all over the place. Now, one must be at least 20 feet tall. A few didn't survive, but I have three trees in all. I quit planting the seed. My yard is not that big. I have yet to have any blooms or fruit, but I remain optimistic. Even if they never produce, there is a satisfaction that comes from seeing the results of minimal effort and my kitchen recycling.

My next goal is to start recycling my leftovers into a compost pile - or a worm farm, something I want to investigate and learn a little more about.