Ma Ma Ma Ma - Da De Da De

Everything is blooming in the garden. It's so rewarding to go out there and pick some stuff and then eat it for dinner on a daily basis! Here's the beginning of the latest status on the Zemel Farm. Aside from almost daily salads (sometimes we're just too lazy to walk 20 steps to pick lettuce!), we've eaten roasted beets and their greens, radishes, spinach, swiss chard, cubanelle peppers, some onions, and 1 giant zucchini! We've got a crookneck squash that will be ready soon. Apparently it's got bigger seeds than zucchinis do so I shouldn't let it grow too big. As it was, I left the zucchini on the vine for a little too long and then I had to pick out those seeds for Bayla. There are a few other little baby zucchini and squash on the plant as well after this round is done. There are also a million green tomatoes that we're just waiting to ripen and gobble up. The peaches are still little but they're turning pink as well. I hope they grow some more but they may not since the tree itself is so little, I'm not sure. So exciting to watch. We Zemel Farmers go on a tour every day to check on the progress and it's pretty cool.

I can't wait to take Bayla swimming again in her little blow up pool. I just wish I could get in there with her. Part of what I like about the pool is that it inflates on the bottom so she's not actually sitting on the ground. A little soft cushion for her round tush. On the other hand, that inflatable bottom is the very thing that prevents me from climbing in (don't want to pop it!). She was so cute in there the first time ... playing with the water and all the inflatable toys.

Last week, we were invited over to swim and have Shabbat dinner at the Hart's house. We really love going there. They're such a nice, warm, and welcoming family. It was Bayla's very first time in a pool. Zvi took her in and I just loved watching her try to figure out her new surroundings. She kicked and splashed around and didn't even get upset when she'd splash her own face with water. It was really funny watching her lick her fingers and taste salt for the first time. I know that our climate doesn't really support the need to have a backyard pool, but oh boy is it ever amazing to have one. Definitely something I dream about! Zvi told me about a conversation he had once about how people are either cottage people or pool people. I must admit, I do like cottages. It's nice to get away and being on a boat is really fun. But usually when I think about cottages I think about mosquitos and the various bug bites I tend to get and how itchy they are for weeks afterwards. I think this absolutely makes me a pool person.

After swimming, while we were having dinner, Bayla piped up with her very first real talking. She said "ma ma ma ma ma". I know she wasn't talking about me, but it was adorable. And then yesterday, out of no where ... she just started talking and saying all kinds of new sounds with consonants. Zvi was sitting outside on the porch with her, singing some songs and then when they came back in she just had so much to say. It was so nice to hear her voice and we can't wait to teach her words and hear her use them. Our little girl turned 7 months yesterday and she certainly showed us what a big girl she is!

I've pretty much introduced Bayla to every kind of individual fruit and vegetable that I'm going to for now. I'm going to start preparing bigger batches and freezing cubes of mixed foods. The reason I've been making things in small batches for now is because I've been serving the same food a few times a day for a few days to make sure there were no allergic reactions. Now Bayla can start to enjoy some variety both at every meal as well as throughout the day. I introduced her to banana for the first time today which I mixed with avocado to cut some of that intense sweetness. I've named this dish Avonana ... that that may imply avocado with mint so I might call it Banacado instead. We'll see. After this I'm going to give her Papaya and then we'll be onto the mixtures. I may give her mango before the mixtures as well or I may just save the mango to mix in with bananas another time.

Over this past month, since she turned 6 months, Bayla has eaten: apples, pears, nectarines, cantaloupe, banana, avocado, carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, zucchini, peas, parsnips, cauliflower, rice, barley and oatmeal. She has enjoyed everything except the parsnips (they weren't good and sweet like they were supposed to be ... we'll try again), nectarines (not quite in season so may have been too sour for her), and apples (either the texture was weird for her or she just didn't have a good appetite due to her 6 month shots). I don't really know how she feels about the cauliflower since I mixed a tiny bit into the squash and zucchini ... but I don't want to give her too much since it'll just cause gas anyway. It seemed to be a good mixture to sneak some into to see how it goes. Now I'll be able to include it in soups etc or other combined veggie dishes. Anyway, good on her ... she's a great eater and very willing to try new things.

A Return From Hiatus

I've been putting off blogging for so long that I've unfortunately forgotten about most things on my list of things to write about. I know there was a list because I emailed it to Brian at some point .... but the only thing I really remember being on there was the frog that we found hopping around our garden. We only saw it just the once and I haven't a clue of where it came from but while I'm happy I haven't run into it on my own, I am a little sad about it leaving if it didn't like our garden after all. We did take a few photos of him ... but I can't find them now. Maybe he took them with him when he left??? Ooh ... Zvi found it, here it is:

I'm always a little bummed about continuing things when I haven't done them for a while. I just feel like there's so much that I haven't written about already that there's just no point to go on. I feel bad leaving the gap there but I also don't feel right about quickly summarizing everything that happened in just a few words. I feel like that kind of brevity just wouldn't do justice to the true experiences. On the other hand, I also feel way too lazy to actually write everything out properly so I'm kind of at an impasse. If Zvi were here, I'd tell him that this was a prisoner's dilemma. Yes, I know it's not really a prisoners dilemma ... but if Zvi were here, believe me, I'd definitely find a way to explain just how it really is.

I guess my only choices are to either quit (this is the option I almost always choose and then lament over it for the rest of forever) or to just accept that these things will not be perfect and that I will not be able to devote 100% of my time or energy to it and just do what I can. I have real trouble with tasks that I know I absolutely can't do perfectly. It's not that everything I do turns out perfectly - not at all ... but I at least like to know that there's a chance it will turn out that way if I try. With stuff like blogging, I just know it won't happen so it's really hard for me to stay motivated and not get depressed about it and give up. But I'm going to make a commitment right now to at least try.

Well, at least it looks like Bayla is listening! 

That photo was taken after a big poopy explosion all over her bed. We haven't had many of those kind of accidents lately so I was really glad (as I'm sure was Zvi since he's the one that discovered it!) that we were both home to deal with it. It was her first time in the big bath all by herself. Luckily she's gotten to be really good at sitting up so it wasn't so difficult. Even though the bottom of the bathtub is textured, we still found it to be quite slippery so we'll have to pick up a mat before we stop getting into the tub with her for regularly scheduled bath time. The whole thing was kind of gross but it was also just really funny ... and it was the first time we've ever really bathed her in the middle of the day without having bedtime immediately after so it was a great opportunity to dress her in this very cute duckie robe and take some photos. As much as I'm not hoping for anymore poopy accidents, I do hope there are more opportunities for daytime bath tub fun because really, I want to see her in this robe some more. So cute! 

Here is a status update on our garden ... though it's already quite outdated. I'll put up another one soon. 

We did a lot of cooking over the weekend. It's something we both enjoy doing - especially together. Lately we've taken to eating dinner after Bayla goes to bed which has made our evenings considerably nicer and calmer. It's good because Zvi and Bayla get to spend some time together and I get a chance to rest before having to put her to bed. But it also means that Zvi and I have some nice time to spend together and don't have to rush and have a hectic dinner. All around great decision. Here's a lasagna that we made on the weekend. Zvi said it was the best ever. How nice! I just hope I can recreate in the future. 

There's no real recipe here .... I just layered oven-ready lasagna noodles with a "meat" sauce (we used Italian flavoured ground round mixed into a tomato sauce), a ricotta/spinach/egg mixture, and sauteed eggplant/zucchini/mushroom mixture. Shredded mozzarella went on top. Then bake in a 350F oven for about an hour covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

The recipe for today is for a take on Thai Mango Salad. It's got all the same flavours but is prepared more like a slaw with the addition of cabbage. I got the idea from SmittenKitchen.

It's not only delicious but also quite beautiful and colourful. The only thing missing from the picture above is shredded mint and coarsely chopped cashews. I didn't add them in right away because I prepared the salad in advance and those are both last minute additions right before serving. Had I used a food processor or mandoline, this would've been a really quick salad to make. Unfortunately, I value each of my fingers and am thus terrified of the mandoline I insisted to Zvi that we needed to have. Because I'm also lazy about these kinds of things, you'll see that my slices are much bigger than Smitten's. Oh well.

Mango Slaw With Cashews and Lime
2 Mangoes, peeled, pitted and julienned
1 lb Chinese Lettuce, halved and thinly sliced
1 Red Pepper, julienned
1/2 Red Onion, thinly sliced
2 Limes, juiced
1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Canola Oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Red Chilli Flakes
1/4 Cup Thinly Sliced Fresh Mint Leaves
1/4 Cup Coarsely Crushed Cashews

Whisk together lime juice, rice vinegar, oil, salt, and chilli flakes at the bottom of a large salad bowl. Mix in mangoes, chinese lettuce, red pepper and onions. Add mint and cashews prior to serving.

First Harvest

So here we have it - our first harvest. 14 French Breakfast Radishes. I planted 16 but we pulled one out a week ago to check on it and one of the ones we pulled out yesterday really didn't develop at all. I should've taken a picture of the whole bunch but I was too lazy to lay them out somewhere with all the dirt still attached. The leaves are edible too ... when they're young and small you can eat them like salad greens but when they're bigger they should be treated like spinach and sauteed or steamed or something like that. Either way, we just chucked the leaves cause they're a bit fuzzy and neither Zvi nor I really liked the texture. 

I was pretty unimpressed by this harvest ... it really is a meagre bounty. But you know, in retrospect, I think it was actually quite great. For some reason, that little bowl of radishes seemed so small and pitiful it just didn't seem worth it to pack them away and eat them a few at a time over the course of a week or whatever. Zvi and I ate the whole bowl all at once. 7 radishes each. OMG - who does that?! They were really tasty - soft and fresh and spicy ... but 7 at once is just way too many. It gave me heartburn like I haven't had since I was pregnant. No matter how small the bowl looks in a few weeks when I pull out the next square of radishes, we are NOT going to eat them all at once. 

Unfortunately our Oregon Sugar Snap Peas are kaput. Either something is chewing away at them or the crazy rain over the last few days has damaged them beyond repair. We still have 2 squares of Sugar Snap Vine Peas and I really hope they survive ... I'm so looking forward to eating them when they're ready! Maybe I should just dig up the remains of those Oregon Peas and replant them. Yes they'll be a bit behind, but so what? This way the harvest will be staggered rather than all at once. If it's not raining all weekend, I'll do that. 

I'm actually so glad for the rain ... it's been crazy hot the last few weeks so despite the headache the impending rain brings with it, it really is quite welcome. 

No More TV!

Ah - summer, I love this time of year! Not only are the days longer and the weather just beautiful, this time of year is wonderful becomes it brings freedom from the television! The end of the tv season is a little different this time around though because some of the endings are permanent this time. Heroes has been over for a while and I'm not at all surprised that it was cancelled, so that's ok. I think I'm more or less done watching V as well. The show is pretty cheesy and intrinsically flawed in its basic premise but more than anything, I just can't stand looking at Morena Baccarin , who plays Anna. I liked her so much more when she was Inara in Firefly .

But the biggest change of all in the tv lineup for me is the ending of Lost . As far as I can recall, this is only the second show I've ever watched from start to finish that has actually run its course and not been cancelled somewhere along the way (BSG was first).  To be honest, I was ready for this show to end because it had really gotten a bit silly over the years. Of course, that being said, I was still looking forward to getting answers to the island's great mysterious that had piled up over all these years. After having watched the finale, I was pretty at peace with how it all ended. Yes, it didn't answer much of anything about the mysteries, but it was a neat ending that at least left things wrapped up. But the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I got about the conclusion ... basically, the finale told us that everything about the island really happened (unbelievable-magic-fantastica and all) and that at some point all the characters died (when and how is basically irrelevant) and met up in this made up pre-heaven kind of place (the flash-sideways we've been seeing over the last season) so that they could find each other again and then eventually move on to heaven. I like the ending and I like how it explained what flash-sideways was about ... but what about the last 5 seasons?!?!?! It's funny that all the crazy stuff that happened on the show was real and then the normal looking stuff at the end ended up being the made up part. There were also some continuity errors, at least in my opinion ... like why was Sayid reunited with Shannon as the love of his life when it should have been Nadia? If it couldn't have been Nadia because she wasn't on the island, then how come Desmond got to be with Penny? Watching this collection of unanswered questions really just kind of made me more upset.

Anyway, ultimately it really doesn't matter because the show is over. Truth is that as much as it would have been really nice to get answers to all of those questions about the island, I didn't really expect that it would happen in any kind of satisfactory way and I'm actually much more at peace with this ending than I will ever be about the ultimate end of BSG. I just don't get what happened with Starbuck and how she just disappeared and what that was all about. Best not to bring all of that angst up again.

There are a few other shows that I have watched start to finish but it's not the same because they were cancelled somewhere in between so the endings were slapped together and not at all satisfactory. Dollhouse and American Dreams (Heroes too) are in this group. Shows like Tru Calling,  Journeyman, and Kings were just cancelled without any kind of conclusion at all.

So now, I have my Tuesday nights back. That's really great! I just hope that Zvi and I find a better use of our time come the fall instead of retiring to the couch every evening.

In the meantime, we now have our summer to continue working on our backyard oasis. Everything in our garden has been growing a lot due to the hot-hot weather. Check here to see the progress.

I'm really looking forward to start harvesting some of this goodness! Can't wait. 

My First Mother's Day

What a lovely day - err, weekend, I should say. We had to make it a mother's day weekend because there are just too many people to celebrate with to fit it all into one day. Especially with Bayla. We had a lovely brunch with my grandma and aunt, we visited my mom, Zvi visited his grandma, and then we had Zvi's parents over for dinner. And of course there was our very own little breakfast party for me. Zvi made the most amazing oatmeal pancakes for me. Since we switched away from quick oats (for both health and taste reasons), we are both really loving oatmeal for breakfast on weekends. And this recipe took it to a whole new level .... oatmeal = great, pancakes = great, strawberry sauce = great ... so what's not to love? :-) The only problem, as we both unfortunately discovered later on Sunday night ... is that we both truly are lactards and using butter, no matter how small an amount, in the batter, on the griddle, and later on top of the pancakes just does NOT work for us. Oh well ... lesson learned. Small price to pay for such deliciousness.

Despite all the hustle and bustle of the weekend, Bayla was such a good girl. She often gets overwhelmed by going to lots of different places and being surrounded by noise and people. I was really proud of her. Here's a picture of her relaxing on the couch with her saba before dinner last night. Oh how she loves tv.

"Bayla" made me the cutest card too. It really made my day.

And I got these lovely Japanese Forged Flower Shears. I can use them to cut flowers from the garden and also to thin my veggies.

We gave everyone a framed portrait of Bayla. It was such a cute photo that we made one for ourselves as well. I'm hoping Brian will scan a copy for me so that I'll have it online as well. The studio wanted $100 for a digital copy so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get much done in the garden this weekend, or even get to the regular garden chores like raking and mowing because we were busy with mother's day and because despite the fact that May 9th is supposed to be the last frost date in this area - the temperature dropped dramatically and we had SNOW! Zvi had to cover up the veggies with some landscaping fabric and a tarp to keep our veggies safe. We took it off yesterday in the day time but put it back down overnight. I think we may have to do the same again tonight ... but hopefully that will be the last of it.

Zvi did have a bit of time though to go pick up some more stuff for our garden. He's got everything he needs to build the next raised garden bed. Hopefully he'll have some time for it this week. He picked up the landscape fabric and all the soil stuffs to fill the bed. And ... this part is very exciting ... we've got 12 asparagus plants and 2 rhubarb plants to go into the bed once it's ready. Since we got the plants this weekend and since I'm so excited about them, I'm just going to count them as part of my mother's day present :-) They're all happily hanging out in my kitchen by the patio door for now. I'm amazed at how quickly the asparagus is growing ... why just yesterday I was fawning over two very cute little mini asparagus spears and now one of them has shot up at least 2 inches and another 2 have popped out of nowhere. If you look closely in the pictures you should be able to spot them ... and if not, I'm happy to show them off when you come over!

Oh! And how could I almost forget about this ... Zvi and Brian went to pick up some free maple and walnut stumps because Zvi wants to make stools out of them for the backyard. I'm still really not sure how I feel about this.... especially now that I see they're not all the same and are even different heights.  Are we really going to want to sit on these??? Anyway, apparently the walnut stump weighs about 100 lbs! Crazy. Nice of that man with the house on Dufferin to give them away for free.

Mostly everything that I've planted so far has started to sprout ... still waiting on the carrots, and two of the lettuces. While I was uncovering the bed this morning I took some pictures of the cute little sprouts that you can see here.  Looks like it's almost time to thin some of them out.

Loving The Sunshine

Bayla and I have really been enjoying the lovely weather. Why, just the other day I put out some beach towels in the backyard (to do: get a big picnic type blanket), brought out the bumbo chair and we had a blast hanging out and playing our usual games in a different environment.

It was too bright out for Bayla so I lent her my shades for a while. She was a little confused at first and resisted the foreign object being put over her face but eventually she figured out that it was cool because she could now open her eyes. So cute! 

The garden is coming along nicely for now. Zvi finished building, digging, and amending the soil so I went ahead and planted some lettuces, carrots, radishes, beets, spinach, onions and peas. 

Bayla and I take little mini trips out into the backyard daily to check on the progress and do a little gentle watering if there hasn't been enough rain. So far some of my onions, radishes, peas and lettuces are starting to peak out of the ground. How exciting!

On Wednesday, I finally got over my fear of organized activities and took Bayla out for a stroller fit class with a group of 7 other moms with their babies. It was a beautiful day and we did a great walk through G Ross Lord Park. Twice up and down the hills, some squats, lunges, skips and stretches later ... I'm actually embarrassed to say that my legs are sore. I can't wait for next Wednesday so we can go again. Until Bayla fell asleep halfway through I had her sitting mostly upright in the stroller and it seemed like she really enjoyed looking around at all the new sights - grass, trees, people, and nature. I'm planning on taking Bayla to a kindermusik class on Monday as well ... another trip out of the house. I can't wait to see how she reacts to an activity with other babies that will be so focused on her and her development. More on that to follow. 

Gardening = Hard Work!

We've barely even started yet! Well, I should say that I've barely even started. Zvi's been working hard in the backyard getting a plot ready for me to plant my veggies in.

He took on such a huge job by double digging it all. Too bad our soil is hard, clumpy clay and is in need of years before the amendments really improve its condition. He's already mixed in 8 bags of triple mix and a whole heck of a lot of free leaf compost. I can see that it does look better than before, but it still seems like it would be too difficult to plant seeds in. I think we'll just spread one final layer of triple mix before he gets on with setting up the grid and then I should be able to plant this weekend!

It's a little late for some things ... I mean, not late as in I can't plant them anymore, but just late as in we could've already been eating radishes and lettuce if not already then very soon. But it's ok, better late than never. Next week is our last frost date in this area so I'm looking forward to planting everything else as well.

Going forward, I think we now both agree that building raised beds and doing square foot gardening is just really the way to go. Yes it's more expensive to start off with ... but our existing soil is just too difficult to deal with and it's not worth all the time. Now we know. Annoying when hindsight is so clear, isn't it?

Speaking of which, since our plot is up against the fence I'm a little regretful that we decided to make it 3 feet wide instead of just 2. It may be quite difficult to get in there and deal with things at the back. And the worst part of it is that it's quite a permanent set up ... we may end up changing the border some day but I doubt we would take the whole thing out and replant a whole patch of grass. Oh well. Zvi's tall though so if I can't manage to reach into the depths of the veggie forest, I have no doubt that I can count on him to help me out!

I've been looking around at other people's front lawn gardens in the area while out for walks with Bayla and I must say that I really shouldn't have paid attention to the spacing requirements of the tulips I planted in the fall. Our little display of flowers looks ridiculous!

Sometimes it's important to pay attention to instructions ... like when making shakshuka for instance - 5 jamaican hot peppers is not the same as 3 jalapenos!!! But in this case, I'm envious of the lawns that have big beautiful clumps of flowers and I can't help but just shake my head and laugh when I see our display of sparse tulips. I planted a whole lot of other flowers seeds though and I'm patiently waiting for them to show their little heads and improve the situation.

I definitely plan on digging up the tulip bulbs this fall and repositioning them into a more appealing configuration ... and of course I vow to never pay attention to instructions again :-)

Garden Project?

Zvi and I have been talking a lot lately about starting a garden. It's something we really need to get on much sooner rather than later because before we actually plant anything we've got a lot of work to do. The sod needs to be pulled up, a good lot of the existing clay soil needs to be dug up, another good lot of good soil needs to be bought and poured in, some kind of border or whatever will have to be built and the whole bed will have to be divided up into 1x1 foot squares. We'll also have to buy all the tools, equipment, gadgets, and plants that we'll be needing.

Anyway, I'm not sure what exactly is drawing me to this gardening idea. I've never really gardened in the past. I didn't really participate in the activity at home with my mom as a child. I have no love whatsoever for any kind of bugs or pests and not even worms who are actually a really great sign in the garden. I'm also a little weary since I tend to get really excited about big projects and love taking on monumentally sized tasks and then things just fizzle and dwindle and I don't end up doing much of anything. I know that Zvi likes the idea of gardening because he thinks it's good to be self-sufficient (not that planting a few vegetables will actually make us the slightest bit self-sufficient but I suppose that having this skill is good to have JUST IN CASE) since he's convinced that peak oil is a catastrophic crisis that is going to either turn the suburbs into slums or drive zombies to our door. That is certainly not my motivation.

I do like the idea of eating fresh and healthy and I guess it would be organic too which is good. I even like the idea of preserving some of this harvest after the summer. Of course the entire preservation process is an entirely different monumental task that I am weary of taking on. It's another hobby that requires a significant upfront investment for tools as well as books to learn the techniques (no, reading about it online is not enough for me - I need to have a few books on the matter first). My follow-through aside, the idea is nice in any case.

I think for me the real draw to gardening is that it's an activity I'll be able to share with Bayla when she's a little older. I can imagine her coming out into the backyard with me from a very young age and learning about what all the different plants are and I love that she'll be able to come out and help me pick something for dinner that very day. I think the knowledge of where her food comes from will be a really great gift that Zvi and I can give to her. And then when she's a little older we can help her plant a little garden of her own. That will teach her responsibility. Anyway, it'll just be a really nice way to spend some time outdoors doing something healthy and together. Plus it must be very rewarding to see something that you grew and accomplished and can now eat.

So that's the plan anyway... I've been playing with online planning tools (cause when I do something I really do want to do it all the way) and I've come up with a very ambitious garden plan. It's highly unlikely that I'll be able to plant most of my plan this year since I haven't started anything from seed yet and not everything is available in the garden stores. Also, I think this year is going to be a bit of a write-off. Zvi mentioned wanting to plant things like clover and alfalfa so that we can turn it into the soil for next year to help improve the conditions ... so in general I guess I'll need to hold off on all the permanent vegetables anyway.

Here's my overly ambitious plan:


If I can find the right kind of contraption for the cucumbers then I can actually plan some of the lettuce under them and that will free up some more spots for the calendula. That's just another name for marigold and marigolds not only will make the garden look pretty (yay flowers!) but they're also edible and keep some pests away. Garlic and onions are also a deterrent for pests.

I'm going to attempt to get some seeds or seedlings even by trading fenugreek seeds online. I bought them for sprouting but they're really not for us. Actually, they made our whole house smell of curry for 2 months the one and only time we tried to grow them. It's better for me to find them a good home than throw them out ... someone's got to like them!