“Their catalog is an encyclopedic romp through enough plant history to keep a garden geek awake at night well into planting season…” The Houston Chronicle.
I had recently heard about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. And as luck would have it, we passed through Petaluma this past weekend.
A visit is nice but what you really want is their awesome seed catalog/free at the store/a small charge for mailing one to you: RARESEEDS.COM
Click on arrow below for music your might remember:
And if you’re in the area, stop by Risibisi for lunch. The best minestrone soup either of us have ever had.
154 Petaluma Blvd. North Petaluma, CA 94952 Call: 707-766-7600 Fax: 707-766-7610
Given the extraordinarily flavorful salads we've gathered from our garden this week, I could quite easily imagine becoming a full-fledged vegetarian.
This is an Astounding Shift. Truly a fresh perspective. One worth considering.
Join me for a walk through forty acres of tropical rainforest nestled near the ocean just eight and a half miles north of Hilo, HI. If you're vacationing on the Kona coast and decide to take the two-hour trek to the other side of the island, call ahead for a weather report. While it was overcast on all of my many visits, I’ve yet to encounter rain/I think I've been extraordinarily lucky. Guidebooks warn of mosquitoes the size of small birds/again, I’ve never witnessed even one. But bring mosquito repellent just in case.
It's the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Garden on The Big Island. Unbelievable foliage and flowers. The photos are completely natural/I did nothing to enhance my images in any way. Nature/pretty phenomenal stuff.
Make your walk even better by clicking below to enjoy a little slack key guitar.
And if you like the music, check out a few of my favorites. Lovely listening at home, in the office or on the road. Have a nice trip.
Oh, PS, if you think that I'm making a killing on Amazon links, think again. I've made a grand total of...are you ready???? $7.50 so far this year/WOW. YES!
Know that my recommendations are, as always, just that/recommendations. Not attempts to make a fortune. Though that could be fun, couldn't it?
Bolani, the wonderful Afghani flatbread, is back in the blog.
For good reason. Each time I serve it, I receive the same response: Love the mix of textures, flavors, colors.
My only addition has been edible flowers and/or herbs from our garden. And, as much as I’ve shared this flaky pastry with friends and family, no one has tired of consuming new combinations.
My current favorite: Pumpkin Bolani topped with garlic mint cheese, sun-dried tomato hummus and finished off with sweet jalapeño jelly.
Thanks to Anne’s ingenuity, a thorough search of the site revealed that they do indeed ship across the country. So what was originally found only in Bay Area Farmer’s Markets and Whole Foods can be enjoyed on both coasts and everywhere in between. Shop and ship here: http://www.bolaniandsauce.com/pgallery.php.
If you live on the SF Peninsula, enjoy generous samples each Sunday at the California Avenue Farmer’s Market, Palo Alto, CA.
Be sure to check out their website, http://www.bolaniandsauce.com/home.php, for additional recipes. "Recipe" is too big a word for the little effort it takes to enjoy something so flavorful.
Bolani continues to be my top pick for a super fast/incredibly easy/definitely delicious appetizer or light meal.
What about you? What easy/fresh/flavorful ideas beyond Bolani do you have for simplifying summer meals and/or entertaining?
Something you probably thought was impossible: Taking a 1906 streetcar ride in San Francisco! Filmed just four days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire that destroyed so much of SF, this footage had been shipped by train to New York for processing.
Here's a terrific opportunity to enjoy some time-travel. The film was taken from a streetcar traveling down Market Street. You can clearly see the clock tower at the Embarcadero Wharf/still standing. The quality and detail is great, so be sure to view it full screen.
The footage was originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum determined exactly when it was shot. New York trade papers announced the film, the streets were wet from recent heavy rainfall and shadows indicated time of year. Weather conditions exist on historical records. Additionally, the cars were registered so he could determine who the owners were and when the plates were issued.
According to Wikipedia, traffic signal lights were not invented until 1912 and not common for some years later.
And I think we’re on to something. After Judi, Jan and Susan left, I began experimenting with leftovers from our time together. Spreadable goat cheese, purple basil, miscellaneous edible flowers.
Then, for some reason, all my pictures disappeared. Last time that I "delete originals" after importing them. Not good.
It was a spontaneous “Come at 4:30 to brainstorm ideas for Father’s Day and beyond.”
We began picking and eating fresh things from the boxes and mixing them with what little I had on hand (Bolani, goat cheese, a few ready-made sauces).
Judi rolled a piece of arugula around the goat cheese. And it went from there.
Not only were the ideas that were generated ones that I definitely/ultimately want to implement (go horizontal with fabric to define an intimate eating space) but sharing time together laughing in the newly formed, not quite completed, garden, was simply terrific. Thank you, good friends.
Let’s do that again. And again. Soon, OK?
Next time, I’ll give advance warning so that perhaps you, too, will join us!
And, Anne, I loved our time together both walking this morning and tonight after your Big Tournament.
Much love and safe travels to you, wonderful person/mom/soon-to-be grandmother.
OK, I know some of you were a little skeptical about my wheel-it-anywhere, moveable feast. But take a look now. Little yellow squashes almost ready to harvest/much farther along than those planted earlier in our beds. Bees buzzing around the licorice basil. Nasturtiums nodding in the wind. Exceedingly happy marigolds/a fun addition to salads or beverages/see below.
It's not too late to enjoy this edible/educational/green and growing concept. And, more importantly, to share it with your child and/or grandchild. Or simply with yourself.
Just pick up a bag or two of potting soil. Position plants into holes that you've poked in the plastic. Plant strawberries down one side. Herbs down the other. A tomato on top and a squash of some sort. Basil to compliment the tomatoes. Nasturtiums to accent the dish.
Here's to you, amazing miniature garden on a wagon.
Trust me, this little garden is well worth the small amount of effort it takes to construct it.
You'll be delighted you did.
Update on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 7:16AM by
Lois
Fun/sometimes funky/definitely friendly/very informative. What could be better? You may have heard about their collection of roses. What you may notknow is that they stock all the traditional annuals and perennials as well as an abundance of other plants that you might not find at most other garden centers.
Crank up your volume. Then click left and listen to Jack Johnson while viewing. I'll eventually figure out how to merge music with info/until then, enjoy.
It's Regan's Nursery on Decoto Road in Fremont, CA. Just a few minutes from Menlo Park/Palo Alto via the Dumbarton Bridge.
Take a short ride to find: Some pretty sensational succulents. Numerous heirloom vegetables. Interesting and often unusual herbs. Lots of labels featuring educational bits of info and/or fun facts.
It was raining recently when Susan and I were there pretending to be in England. We loaded up on herbs guaranteed to boost brain power (gotu kola). She apparently has a slew of very smart snails in her garden. Back to restock what they quickly consumed.
There's not much shade, so come prepared. And hold on to your hat. If it’s windy on our side of the bay, it’ll be much windier there.
I think you'll enjoy, as I always do, their awe-inspiring array of plants. If this info piques your interest, plan to spend at least an hour wandering around Regan's well-organized five acres. Clear your trunk just in case you locate a few new finds to bring home.
I make the short trip on a regular basis. See you there one day?
Bay Area friends...other than the following nurseries: Redwood City, Ladera, Portola Valley, Half Moon Bay (another top pick), Los Altos, Summer Winds (Palo Alto), Roger Reynolds (Atherton), Wegmans (Redwood City)...where else do you go/what other nurseries do you enjoy?
I'm thinking that Annie's Annuals could be a great adventure. Want to go one day? I'm game.
As you may have noted, I've been publishing Cheater Posts this week.
Here's why: I'm spending time trying to figure out what to do with twenty-five years of FP material. As you might imagine, there are a LOT of good ideas. All instantly useable/accessible. You may not know that. But trust me. And thousands of other terrific mothers.
Summer is almost here. I'd love to share ideas that could be helpful for today's moms and grandmoms/what do we call ourselves these days? Hopefully not that.
Thanks for your patience. I finally figured out how to merge music with pictures today. It's a little "ghetto," as they say, but it works. Now to determine how to input info. Or not. I'll be asking your opinion in upcoming days.
I ONLY WISH I COULD BLOG ABOUT TODAY. OMGOSH. COMPLETE CRAZINESS. And goodness.
Carry on, dear friends.
And because I want to leave you with something useful. Here it is. We absolutely loved this idea: Filling your water element/bird bath with seed instead of water.
What fun watching moms feeding babies.
Will send a picture of Tina, the turkey, scarfing down as much as she could when discovering this new element.
Apparently, the little things in life please me a lot.
Friday’s goal was to organize the vegetable garden in such a way that I could easily identify herbs, various salad greens and vegetables. And not poison people. I wanted to have accurate information accessible for those who visit and hope to transplant ideas into their gardens.
Purchasing pre-printed stakes for, let's say, oregano used to be simple. But today there are so many varieties of each herb that generic labels don't define the distinctions.
Wooden stakes fade and break. Same with plastic.
My handwriting is OK but I can never judge the length of a word and often run off the edge.
As the weather warmed, our arugula began to bolt. Rather than tossing it in the trash/adding it to the compost/chucking it in the chicken coop, I stripped off all the incredibly minuscule leaves. Why I chose to tackle that tedious task remains a mystery. But my work was later rewarded when everyone inhaled the exceptional, flavor-filled salad.
The flowered stalks still seemed happy so I placed a bunch in my favorite vase where they stayed fresh for a several more days.
Don’t you love it when life takes these surprising and tasty turns?
The same was true of edible pansies/violas/johnny jump ups that we planted in the vegetable garden for use in salads. Rather than compost what had begun to mildew, I recycled a bunch in a bowl filled with water.
Hmmmmm. I'm beginning to wonder what else might be rescued from Death's Doorstep.
If you're eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.
The group, a nonprofit focused on public health, scoured nearly 100,000 produce pesticide reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine what fruits and vegetables we eat have the highest, and lowest, amounts of chemical residue.
Most alarming are the fruits and vegetables dubbed the "Dirty Dozen," which contain 47 to 67 pesticides per serving. These foods are believed to be most susceptible because they have soft skin that tends to absorb more pesticides.
"It's critical people know what they are consuming," the Environmental Working Group's Amy Rosenthal said. "The list is based on pesticide tests conducted after the produce was washed with USDA high-power pressure water system. The numbers reflect the closest thing to what consumers are buying at the store."
The group suggests limiting consumption of pesticides by purchasing organic for the 12 fruits and vegetables.
"You can reduce your exposure to pesticides by up to 80 percent by buying the organic version of the Dirty Dozen," Rosenthal said.
The Dirty Dozen
Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce
Not all non-organic fruits and vegetables have a high pesticide level. Some produce has a strong outer layer that provides a defense against pesticide contamination. The group found a number of non-organic fruits and vegetables dubbed the "Clean 15" that contained little to no pesticides.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 6:15PM 
I had recently heard about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. And as luck would have it, we passed through Petaluma this past weekend. 
And if you’re in the area, stop by Risibisi for lunch. The best minestrone soup either of us have ever had.
