Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

The first tomato and some ‘chokes

I’ve seen tomatoes at the farmers’ market for almost two months now, and I’ve avoided them like the plague (if only I were so good at avoiding the regular daycare plagues courtesy of Sir).  Sure, they’re locally grown, but most of the very early ones grew in tunnels or hothouses, and they lack that perfectly ripe, hot summer weather tomato taste that makes a REAL tomato.

My waiting paid off last week when my MIL presented our first garden tomato of 2012.  In our eagerness to dig in, I neglected to take a picture before slicing it, but rest assured that it was big and beautiful.

We enjoyed it pure and simple, with some salt and a drizzle of olive oil.  It served as the perfect addition to our meal of quinoa salad and . . .

. . . garden-grown artichokes!

Growing artichokes in our zone requires some special tricks, but Matthew managed for the second year in a row.  I didn’t write much about them last year because most of the harvest came in right around the time Gabriel arrived.

We enjoy them steamed and dipped in a olive oil and butter sauce.

Artichokes with dipping sauce

Recipe by Melissa

Ingredients
Whole, fresh artichokes
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/2 t. lemon juice
salt to taste

Directions
Cut stems off of artichokes (if not already removed) to leave a flat base.  Place artichokes on the bottom of a pot, standing upright.  It helps to choose a pot where you can pack the ‘chokes tightly so they stay upright.

Add water to cover the bottom of the pan, place a lid on the pan, and steam the artichokes until tender, 15-30 minutes, depending on size and freshness.  They are ready to eat when you can easily pull out on of the leaves and/or when you can easily insert a fork in the base.

While they steam, melt the butter and combine with olive oil, lemon juice and salt to make a dipping sauce.

Serve  artichokes whole with dipping sauce.  To eat, pull off outer leaves, dip in sauce, and then scrape the flesh at the inner base of the leaf with your teeth.  As you get closer to the heart, there will be more tender, edible flesh on the leaves.

Once near the heart, use scissors to snip off the top, pointed portion of the remaining leaves.  Dip and enjoy!

The big what-if

Last year, at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant, I had what would be my second-to-last prenatal appointment.  I didn’t know it then, but I would later revisit this day and the subsequent decision I made with much regret.Continue reading “The big what-if”

Maiden voyage

So, in the midst of a final cleaning of the old apartment, unpacking and settling into the new place (we already have pictures on the walls!), and comforting a sick, teething baby, I took my iBert-outfitted bicycle on its maiden voyage with Sir.

He wore his new helmet without much complaint and smiled as he sat in front of me, holding the handle bar and intermittently ringing the bike bell.  The bike handled fairly normally, and I adjusted to any differences in weight distribution and balance without processing it.

It is ironic that I found the seat just before, and used it for the first time just after, we moved to a place with a garage, since one of my major complaints with the trailer was having to lug it up and down the basement stairs.  However, the garage is still a good thing because the mounting bar for the iBert attaches right where I usually held my bike for carrying it up and down the stairs, so not having to deal with basement bicycle storage is still a big plus.

Sir seemed much happier in the iBert than he did in our most recent trailer rides, and I imagine I was grinning like a fool as we cruised around our new neighborhood.  We just rode, and it felt right — simple, easy, and fun.

We incorporated a little errand into one of our trips, and I looked forward to more trips by bicycle with my little copilot.

Still gotta eat

As would be expected, the move altered our usual cooking and eating patterns a bit.  I cooked on Friday night, but by Saturday it was time to start saying goodbye to our kitchen.

We planned to go out to eat on Saturday with my mom, who came to see Sir and help pack.  Unfortunately, I came down with the latest disease from Typhoid Gabriel and didn’t really feel like eating much of anything, much less leaving the apartment to do so.  We settled on take-out from Pho Grand.  Not the greenest dining option, giving their use of the standard large polystyrene containers, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We had a decent supply of leftovers in the fridge, so we worked on lightening that load at both lunch and dinner on Sunday.  We enjoyed a “deconstructed” pumpkin lasagna for lunch (yay for frozen homemade pasta) and a Swiss chard and chickpea dish for dinner.

All bets were off on Monday, our actual moving day.  When lunch rolled around, we’d been up packing and moving for hours.  I picked up some sandwiches and deli-case salads at a nice little deli within walking distance of our new place.

Except I didn’t walk (hangs head in shame).  I was heading back to our old apartment to get Matthew and a last car load, and the deli was more-or-less on a direct route anyway, and it was like eleventy-million degrees outside with high-noon sun, and with a second floor to second floor move, I’d already walked up and down more flights of stairs than I cared to count.  So that’s my excuse for choosing inactive, gas-guzzling transportation.

But lunch was good, though, once again, some disposable containers.  Matt’s mom brought us carry-out pizza for dinner.  The pizza box was pretty darn clean, so that at least got recycled.

The good news is that despite the still-crazy state of our apartment, we’ve gotten back into the kitchen the past few nights.  By which I mean Matthew’s gotten back into the kitchen, of course, per our usual weeknight routine.

The garden supplied almost all of the ingredients for Wednesday night’s dinner.  Boiled beets — some cubed for part of the main dish, some thinly sliced for a side with goat cheese.

Potatoes “baked” in the microwave, cubed, and tossed with olive oil and salt to serve as a base for sauteed cabbage with onions [previously] roasted elephant garlic, edamame, and the cubed beet.

The only produce on the plate NOT from the garden was the edamame and the onions (both of which we’re growing but are not ready for harvest yet).

A greener move

Despite our original plans for one of us to bike to the new apartment with the trailer (since we only have room for two of our three bikes on the trunk rack), I didn’t bike at all on moving day.  I certainly didn’t move by bicycle (while I think this is a cool idea, it was never in the game plan for us).

Don’t have a contingent of friends lined up with cargo bikes and trailers to help move you?  Fear not, there are many ways you can make your next move a little lighter on the planet!

Lighten your load
Know you’ll be moving sometime in the next few weeks or months (or even years, if you like to plan ahead)?  Now’s the time to embrace minimalism and overcome your hoarding tendencies. Attack any drawers, closets, sheds, or other storage-type spaces.  Depending on your time frame, this can be an ongoing project, not something you do all at once.

Sort items into four boxes/bags: 1) Donate/sell, 2) Recycle, 3) Trash, 4) Keep.  If you’re questioning whether or not you need something, you can probably just ditch it, but you could add a fifth “think about it” box.  Follow through on actually getting the items in boxes 1-3 out of the house.  It will feel good!

When it comes to moving, less stuff means less packing, fewer boxes for you or the movers, a smaller truck, and a faster, cheaper move.

Even with using this method, I was horrified by how many boxes we packed.  I would have liked to make more serious cuts before the move, but time ran out.  While I am eagerly opening the boxes that contain functional items that we use frequently (mostly kitchen boxes), there are others that I open and slam shut again, wishing I could just toss the contents into a big bonfire.  Moving on . . .

Rent reusable moving boxes
Several weeks ago, I read about reusable moving boxes over on Daily Garnish.  Emily rented her plastic boxes from a company in Seattle called karmaboxx.  I excitedly searched for plastic moving box rentals in St. Louis, only to find nothing.

While more expensive than reusing cardboard, renting plastic may cost less than buying new boxes, and, while I’m a bit skeptical about how many moves the plastic can handle before wearing out, you can check out this explanation and comparison between plastic and cardboard and decide for yourself.

If they had been available here, I would have been willing to pay a bit for the convenience of not having to deal with packing tape and breaking down boxes on the other end.

Collect used boxes
Ask friends, family members, and coworkers to save any moving boxes that are in good condition.  True, heavy-duty cardboard moving boxes definitely have more than one use if broken down carefully and stored in a clean, dry space.

We already had a good start on collecting used cardboard moving boxes, both some saved from the last move and many more from Matthew’s mom.  I was quite confident we had plenty of boxes, and then, in the eleventh hour, we had to run to Home Depot for a few more (thank goodness we found someplace open on a Sunday evening).  Lesson learned: You’ll probably need more boxes than you think you will, so collect extra.

Ditto for packing materials
If you don’t get a newspaper, ask others to save them for you.  Newspaper that’s headed for the recycling bin makes great packing material — reuse first, then recycle on the other end.  Towels, sheets, and other soft items that you have to move anyway can be useful packing material as well.

Get the right vehicle for the job
We made a few car and [borrowed] minivan runs for items we wanted to move ourselves, including our potted plants and framed pictures, plus a few last minute moving-day items.  Everything else fit on the truck — although it was close in the end (see earlier section on excessive boxes).

Unless you’re moving by bicycle, having a larger moving truck that can fit everything in one load will be more efficient than a smaller vehicle making multiple trips.

We are sloooooowly making progress on the unpacking front.  If we’re lucky, perhaps we’ll finish before finding a house we love and moving all over again!

Your turn!
What are your tips or tricks for more sustainable moves?