Grow Your Own Foodie

On Saturday, the second day of my son's life, I went to the Tricycle Gardens seedling sale looking to fill in the raised beds that I built in my backyard. After failing to grow grass for three years, I decided to embrace the practice of (and not just the slogan) "food not lawns." The past couple years I bought up all the plants I could carry from the Maymont Herb Sale (coming up 4/28), and now I've decided to branch out. I'll probably hit up the Lewis Ginter Sprint plant sale on 5/1-5/3, where the Tricycle folks will have a wider selection of veggie plants.

This site is not going to be a baby blog, but the people close to me (and their eating habits) are bound to wind up in my writing. Jasper Diego's diet is in transition. He spent the first few days gulping down mama's milk, which is actually colostrum, aka "liquid gold," during this stage. Like a reverse version of royal jelly, which ordinary bees feed to their queen, Karen, my queen bee, feeds colostrum to Jasper to prepare him for life outside the womb. Adults can buy it at the local supplement store and it may have some alleged benefits. But I think I'll stick with my clearance bin royal jelly from Vitamin Shoppe and let the little guy conduct his own naturopathic experiements.

At the seedling sale, I was a little disappointed. The only plants they had were greens (lettuce, kale, etc). They told me that these are spring plants, but I was hoping to get a jump on the summer with some heirloom tomatoes, obscure chiles, annual herbs to replace what didn't come back from last year. I don't know much about planting seasons. In my past experience gardening every I've lived since college, I usually only had a few square feet of space and so the plants that went in there stayed until they didn't produce any longer. And by then, it's usually past season to introduce new plants. Now, thanks to these raised beds, I've got a little more space, but not much. The empty spaces here (and on the other side of the salvaged bedposts turned garden fence) Karen will probably plant tomatoes and such during her maternity leave.

On his first night home, Jasper earned a new nickname. You see, as the nursing turns from liquid gold to regular old mama's milk, babies' diapers go from odorless black meconium to stinky yellow dijon mustard. Last night was the debut of "RVA Poopie." He didn't sleep well at first, not having any idea why he was left alone in a dark room. I took the first shift, bouncing him around the house, trying all of the various rocker/swing contraptions, and ultimately reading !Hola Jalapeno! to him. In the end, the secret was a really snug swaddle to recreate the womb and the "4th trimester" experience. Frankie the Pug snuggles Jasper: Brothers in Poop and Couch Snuggles

Greens will have to do for now, because these April showers are going to pay dividends for whatever crop gets sowed. A couple weeks back, I bought cauliflower plants (for cauliflower popcorn!), brussel sprout stalks (just so I can see a living phallic pole of mini-cabbages), and collard greens (so I can make my own Cajun Bangkok coconut apps.). To that, I've added some red romaine, kale, and some exotic sounding lettuce mix. Does this sound like a recipe for a good diet? No doubt that I'll be making green smoothies from my own backyard in no time.

This post was created rather hastily and will be updated/edited in the next day or so.