Old Fashioned Lifestyle

Snowy winter afternoons, a perfect time to read that novel you haven’t found time for yet, work on that knitting project, or start preparing for the garden.

What?

Prepare for the garden? We still have months of winter left!

True enough.

But now is the perfect time of year to start figuring out what to plant, where to plant it, and get ready to either order seeds from the catalogue or exchange seeds with other gardeners.

Exchanging seeds can be a great way to go if you like to plant heirloom seeds or you are in the market for crops that are not sold at your local grocery store in the spring.

This year, I will be planting some new (to me) crops, as I plan to follow the methods presented in “Four-Season Harvest” In this book, Eliot Coleman teaches his reader that it is possible to harvest year round, even if you live in a zone 5 climate. One of the most elements of his process is to pick a crop that can tolerate cold weather.

So, this year, I am in the market for the following (new to me) garden seeds:

• Arugula
• Green Chicory
• Endive
• Escarole
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leek
• Mache
• Mizuna
• Radicchio
• Sorrel

While I love the winter, this afternoon has made me look forward to spring!  Do you have any of these seeds?  I’d love to exchange with you.  I’m listing my barter items at Swaperoo.

August brings in a mix of feelings for the gardener. The garden is in full abundance. All the hard work that was put into the soil earlier in the year is now paying off. And yet, there is a feeling of regret. It is too late for this year. Time already to think of next. Next year, I will get more tomatoes into the ground. Next year. Next year.

The feeling is accentuated if something has gone wrong. Perhaps a hail storm has come along and wiped out your harvest. Perhaps the animals found their way into the garden and helped themselves! Perhaps you were busy, and the seeds went into the ground late. I have coped with these gardening dissapointments by thinking of next year.

Until Now.

Why?

Because, I’m reading the book, ‘Four-Season Harvest’ by Eliot Coleman. Mr. Coleman lives in Maine and he manages to harvest greens all year long.

What? I can plant seeds in August and September? Let the dirt digging begin. I am inspired.

Technorati Tags: Gardening

I really enjoy James Michener books – and I really enjoy reading as much as I can when I am on vacation.    I don’t know why it did not occur to me to get the James Michener book “Mexico” before leaving on our trek through Mexico – but I didn’t.

So, I went to Amazon to add the book to my “wish list” so that I can order it when I get home….  better late then never, right?  And I stumbled across a second book that I just can’t do without – “My Lost Mexico”

From the description on Amazon.com:

In this intermittently interesting portrait of a writer’s mind at work, Michener reconstructs the birth of his recently published novel Mexico , which he had originally abandoned in 1961. He blames the novel’s derailment on a mocking editorial suggestion by Bennett Cerf, then his publisher at Random House, which caused him to lose control of the story’s diverse strands. Misplaced for three decades, the lost manuscript turned up in 1991 and Michener completed the multigenerational saga centering on a three-day bullfighting festival. Discussing the “colossal” writer’s blocks he has faced over the years, Michener offers advice to aspiring writers as he describes his many trips to Mexico, divulges his sources of inspiration and relives the writing of Mexico with the aid of reproduced journal pages, workbook entries and photographs.

As an aspiring writer – I can’t wait to read this account.

Technorati Tags: Books, Mexico