Our first growing season completed

Our first growing season is now officially over. This past weekend, I pulled the last of our tomatoes off the plant (late October and still quite a few good ones- is this normal??), pulled the plant, composted most of it (NOT any seeds!), and raked the garden. Our first season of vegetable gardening is now in the books. And I am officially hooked! We already have ideas rolling through our heads for the spring. We've learned so much and are looking forward to putting that knowledge to use next year. And, having jumped right in this year, it's no surprise that we have ambitious plans for next year too- we're doing to add a second garden for our squash, zucchini, and any other gourd-like plants that might need to run wild, and I hope to try my hand at canning. Perhaps if I get good at this, we can enjoy our delicious home grown food for the whole year!

Hippie Documentary of the...year: The World According to Monsanto

I've already stayed up too late watching this French-made documentary that I just stumbled upon, but it's already too good to not pass along to fellow hippies. Like all documentaries focusing on Monsanto, I'm quite disgusted. Thus far, I have been particularly disgusted by the footage of George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle. Oh yeah, and puss milk. Definitely disgusted by the discussion about puss in cow's milk. Enjoy!!

Mystery plant revealed!

Apparently Godzilla plant is some type of gourd...

babies...

finished product?

The question remains.... is it edible?? Any of you not-so-amateur gardeners out there recognize what exactly this is?

A few amateur mistakes...

I always enjoy reporting the silly mistakes we are making in our hippie attempts. For one, sometimes they are quite funny and it's always good to share funny, and hopefully someone reading this might realize that if I can fall on my face a few times while trying out some of these endeavors, and still find some enjoyment, maybe you can try something new too!

Amateur mistake #1: composting seeds. Last season, I spoke of the rookie compost mistake we made- composting mostly green materials- and its disasterous results. This year we discovered yet another rookie composting mistake- composting seeds. We ended up with dozens and dozens of seedlings in our compost bin, and were not quite sure what exactly they were. So we decided to take a few, put them in the garden and see what they would become. A few got shocked and died off, and one took root. And is now taking over the earth. The husband and I are still trying to determine exactly what it is. Could be acorn squash, might be pumpkin, but I'm guessing it's cantaloupe. Despite numerous attempts to trim it back, it's still taking up about a quarter of our garden. This weekend we are going to see what we can do to tame it and hopefully keep it from taking over any other plants (current casualties of Godzilla plant: 2 jalapeno plants, 1 dwarf pumpkin plant.

Amateur mistake #2: Not caging the tomato plants from the get-go. I knew tomato plants needed cages, I just never got around to doing it! But with all the sun we have had lately, the tomato plant has had immense growth in the last week or so. A few days ago, it practically imploded from the weight of all the tomatoes. So it finally became do-or-die. The husband and I just spent about 45 minutes wrestling with some cages, and I think we successfully have all the tomatoes up off the ground. Phew.

Our next issue to tackle, aside from taming Godzilla plant is to figure out how to keep the friendly neighborhood ground squirrel from treating our garden like his own personal buffet.

Tomato casualties to date:

Ground squirrel: 3

Wresting tomato cages into place: 12 (d'oh!)

Two kids' curious hands: 10

And yet, we still have plenty tomatoes on the plant that will hopefully mature.

And even with all these hiccups, we are still enjoying garden fresh veggies several times a week.

Garden updates!

Our garden is flourishing! We have a handful of plants that seem to be taking over the universe. The Early Girl tomato plant has over 30 tomatoes on it currently (I lost count after 30!), and our yellow squash are giant! I'm very happy with how things are growing so far. Looks like we're going to have quite a few potatoes, onions, jalapenos, green peppers, and definitely plenty of squash and tomatoes. I think I'm going to have to find some spaghetti sauce recipes! Oh, and we're enjoying fresh garden salad at least once a week. Can't complain about that! The growing season is treating us well- not to mention the beautiful flowers that we have around the yard. Happy gardening!

First harvest of 2011!

Today, we enjoyed our first garden grown meal- salad! Even though we didn't have much this time around (this batch was grown in a pot next to our garden), it was quite tasty, and made me very happy to get to eat something from our own backyard! I have a row of salad planted in the garden, so hopefully we'll have more tasty salads to come (as well as many other home-grown veggies!).

Intriguing article

Motherhood has changed me. To claim otherwise would be lying. It has made me question things I otherwise would not question, ponder things that I wouldn't have slightly cared about before. And, while in the midst of parenting two children under age 3, I have also opted to work with children under the age of 3. I go into their homes, and I have the opportunity to see how other parents operate their households. I have gone into developmental hyperdrive. So many children, so many different developmental levels, personalities, and temperments. Nature vs. Nurture crosses my mind about a hundred times a day. Does a child's diet affect his behavior? Are certain children predisposed to be the way they are? Just how much TV is ok? How much outdoor activity does a kid need? Is the amount of chemicals they are exposed to a factor in their development? All of this developmental thinking goes hand in hand with my recent hippie push. I'm seeing more and more benefits to natural, home-based living everyday. I'm a huge advocate for breastfeeding, cloth diapering, reducing the chemicals we are exposed to, and parents stepping up to actually raise their children. I find this very empowering. If you are a loyal blog reader, you may remember my review of the book Radical Homemakers. The perspective that feminism and motherhood can go hand-in-hand is absolutely fascinating to me. I recently came across this article. I don't necessarily agree with 100 percent of what the author says, but I'm intrigued by her message. I requested her book from the library. A review is sure to follow.

Inspired to garden!

My new rain barrel

Spring has sprung!

In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

- Margaret Atwood

Hippie Hair- an update

I was a bit unsure of myself in October when I decided to stop using shampoo. I had read a lot of websites and many accounts of people who swore that ditching shampoo did wonders to their hair. I liked the idea of using fewer chemicals on my hair and ultimately making my hair more natural. I liked the idea of spending less money on hair products. And mostly, I liked the idea of being able to go more than a day in between washing my hair and not having my head look like an oil slick. I decided I would give it a try- I chose to use baking soda wash with an apple cider vinegar rinse (BS/ ACV). I alternating using this combination daily to every other day. I experiemented with the amounts of BS/ACV. The first few weeks were... well, rough. They weren't kidding when they said my hair would go through a transition phase. I spent the entire month of December battling my hair. How could it be possible for my hair to be greasy and staticy at the same time? I almost gave up on numerous occasions. But, since I had read that everyone goes through the transition phase, I decided to stick with it. I knew my scalp trying to rebalance the amount of oil it needed to produce. My poor scalp was used to being completely stripped everyday since I was little. I've determined that this process of eliminating shampoo is a bit of trial and error. I have a handful of different items that I use to clean my hair, but none of them are conventional shampoo. I still do BS/ACV about once a week or so. I was amazed by how well ACV detangles my hair. Who knew that something typically used for cooking would make my hair so silky? I also occasionally use a natural shampoo bar that I found at a health food store near my house. But, I think my favorite shampoo substitute is Dr. Bronner's. It's made with a combination of oils- coconut, jojoba, hemp, and olive oil. You can use Dr. Bronner's for pretty much anything- you can dilute it and use it as a household cleaner, you can use it as soap, shampoo, and even toothpaste (I have not used it as toothpaste, and probably won't anytime soon). I also have Dr. Bronner's in foaming hand soap dispensers by all of my sinks. Another thing I like about Dr. Bronner's is that it's a fair trade product. I wish there were more fair trade products! I recently read that the company caps their executive pay at five times what their lowest paid employee makes. Can you imagine if more companies functioned this way? Once you get past the cooky sayings on the bottle, Dr. Bronner's is quite a product. For those of you wondering if I stuck with it- yes!- no more Garnier, Suave, Pantene, or Redken for me. And what a relief- fewer products, fewer chemicals, and healthier, natural hair!

I'm still here!

Back to work, so much less time to post! But fear not, I am still experimenting with new hippie stuff everyday! I just need to find some time to post about my endeavors! Stay tuned....