Eating to Live!

Dreaming of spring vegetables

Martha Stewart just published a new cookie cookbook and Ben and Jerry’s introduced Cake Batter ice cream to celebrate their 30th anniversary, but I am dreaming of a fresh tomato.

Last weekend, I finally put some seeds into soil and ended up with a tray that looks more like tiny grave markers than something soon to welcome new life. As I watered the four-day old seeds this morning, I thought I saw, for just an instant, a small tendril of green trying to poke its way through the surface.

The greenhouse temperatures are still too cold at night for starting sun-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers, although during the day, even when the sun is lost behind overcast skies, the temps go up.

My husband, ever the diligent but perhaps frustrated farmer, carefully carries the tray of seeds outside during the day to bask in the warmth and the sun, but then back inside at night. With a slow turn of the gas valve on the greenhouse heater, we were able last night to keep the temperatures up in the low 60s. The seed containers just might spend their first night in the greenhouse tonight.

My plan is to start more fast-growing but cool-loving seeds this weekend, which will include several varieties of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and brussels sprouts. I also have a packet or two of onion and leek seeds looking for a place to germinate and several flowers and herbs that could use a head start on the season as well. It may be a busy weekend getting these things under some soil, but in about four or five weeks, we could be snipping off tender young leaves for our table.

Do I sound anxious to help take some of the strain off of the nation’s energy supply used to transport fresh vegetables to my local grocery store? Well, I am. Eating locally gets easier when our growing season begins and there’s nothing more local than my own backyard.

After several busy days, I’m playing catch-up here in blog-land, so I will instead offer a quick run down on the past few days meals and show you the seed starters. I managed to stick to the pyramid program of eating healthy pretty well, notwithstanding a few dark chocolate, foil-wrapped mini-eggs and a cookie on Easter Sunday. Sunday temptations could have been worse, because instead of cooking we went to a local restaurant buffet. By the time we were ready to partake of apple pie, the dessert table was empty. What remained were a few plates of cookies (my one cookie resembled a Pecan Sandee), and a chocolate fountain with a few other cookie varieties for dipping. (I think, at one time, there were strawberries and maybe other fruits, but those were gone as well).

I started Tuesday morning with the usual breakfast of oatmeal, but tossed on around a quarter cup fresh blueberries. By lunchtime, I was more than ready for the four-ounce turkey burger I’d cooked the night before. With that I had a bowl of broccoli slaw with low-fat Italian dressing and an orange. For dinner, my husband put together a stir-fry of peppers, pea pods, onions and mushrooms with olive oil and whole wheat pasta. I grated a bit of romano cheese on top and sprinkled on freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley.