Once again the week got away from me and I haven’t had time for a garden post or a recipe. I’m going to remedy that this weekend and will have a couple of posts lined up for next week. I documented my seed starting process for the vegetable garden and I have a mushroom lasagna recipe coming as well. In the meanwhile, here’s this weeks Friday Roundup. Enjoy.
- We took out the ugly chain link fence in the backyard last fall and I’m glad to see it go, but it did protect the garden from the deer last year. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do this year for protection/fencing and I’ve run across a bunch of sites that claim a nearly invisible fishing line fence works. I’m cautiously optimistic about this!
- Another thing I want to try is growing corn in containers this year. I have been reading that I can put 4-5 plants per 12″ pot, so I ordered this On Deck Hybrid variety. I’m excited about fresh sweet corn!
- I got all my garden seeds started, as I mentioned above and I put a bunch of early crop lettuce and mustard greens right into one of the garden beds. It’s a bit of an experiment and if we get a hard freeze in March, they’ll likely fail, but if they don’t we’ll have early season lettuce by the end of the month. I put in Little Caesar and Little Gem and this Tatsoi Mustard that you can harvest even in the snow (not that we’ll get snow here!).
- Speaking of planting, I ordered one of these planting “spacers” and used it when I planted the lettuce and mustard. Y’all, this thing is a game changer! It makes direct planting super easy – I spaced my lettuce seeds in every 2nd hole and I was able to create nice, evenly spaced rows throughout the whole bed.
- Things have been crazy with the Food52 Cookbook club this month, which is partially why I haven’t posted any recipes. February is always the “throwback month” in the group and I’ll be honest that I’m just overwhelmed with the options of cooking out of any of the past books. That’s over 70 cookbooks to work with and it’s just too much! However, the March cookbook has been announced: Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora by Bryant Terry and, y’all, I’m all about the recipes in this book. Some of them are already Deep South standards that I’ve been cooking for decades, but some of them are brand new to me – drawing from Caribbean and North African foodways. I’m really looking forward to cooking from this book in March!
On two more serious notes:
- What is happening in the United States with the criminalization of trans-affirming medical treatment for children is horrible and heartbreaking. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbot has officially directed Family and Protective Services to begin investigating all trans children in Texas and prosecuting their parents as child abusers. He has also instructed all teachers, doctors, and caregivers to begin reporting any trans students they see. In Alabama, a similar bill has passed the State Senate and is likely to pass the House soon. Many other states are pursuing this same type of law or directive. Make no mistake this will kill people. It will cause suicide rates to skyrocket, especially among children, teens, and young adults. It will also justify physical attacks and even killings by those who think trans people don’t deserve to live. I personally have donated money to TransTexas.org – an on-the-ground organization fighting to protect trans people and helping trans youth in crisis in Texas. Please consider donating to them or to any other trans-supporting organization in Texas or Alabama. They need our help right now. Trans Rights Are Human Rights.
- I have been glued to the internet waiting and watching the situation in Eastern Europe. Russia began invading Ukraine Wednesday night and it appears that as of the time I’m writing this (Thurs night) there is a full on land-war occurring. The historian in me is, quite frankly, terrified as I see parallels to WWII. Whatever your political leaning is, know that this is going to create a refugee crisis in Europe and here in the United States as well. If you want to help Ukrainians, I’ve done some research and found this list of charities vetted by independent Ukrainian journalists. Help for Ukraine. I personally have donated to Voices of Children, an organization that provides psychological and social support to children who are suffering as a result of war operations.
That’s it for me this week. I know the last two items were heavy but they are on my heart this week, so I share them with you.