slow-going garden

At first I didn’t believe the squash were real. It wasn’t until mid-June that I planted my “garden” (consisting of three plants: green bell pepper, cherry tomato, and yellow squash) in the sun showered corner at the front of our house after two days of reclaiming the flowerbeds from years of overgrown grass. And I admit, I was not hopeful. Still I faithfuly churned the clay-ridden earth and mix in nutrient rich soil, watered the plants religiously, and waited.  

By mid-August the pepper plant had been the most productive of the three, yielding a small, slightly bitter pepper. The squash plant continued its trend of producing beautiful orange and yellow flowers and nothing else and the tomato plant was growing bushier by the day without any sign of tomatoes budding.

Well, I thought, it was worth a try.

I continued to water the plants and occasionally inspected the tomato plant for any signs of fruit. I’ve never seen a tomato plant not deliver. And I was not to be disappointed. Just last Thursday a gleaming red ball caught my eye as I walked by the garden. By Friday I had picked enough tomatoes to warrant a salad; more ripened and another bowl was filled after Labor Day weekend. Heading into September with one pepper grown and an ever full bowl of cherry tomatoes I felt content.

You can imagine my surprise then when I saw the thin, elongated yellow shoots extending from the leaves of the squash plant. As I edged closer I saw not one but two small, crooked neck squash growing from the stalks. That was Monday. Today there are three!  I must confess a slight feeling of guilt, since I had written off the squash plant as a failed effort weeks ago. Perhaps I will weed today to make amends.

     So, does anyone have a good recipe involving yellow squash?

 

Zen and the Art of Vegetable Chopping

“You spend a lot of time chopping vegetables every day,” my brother-in-law observed during a recent visit to our house. I agreed. Upon further reflection, I decided that I spend a large amount of time peeling and then chopping vegetables, since fresh garlic and onion go into just about everything I make and both require a lengthy peeling process. My brother-in-law went on to make the very useful suggestion that I set aside a block of time at the start of the week and do all of the vegetable chopping for the week. The suggestion certainly makes sense and would save me time but something inside me was against it from the start.

My immediate write-off was that I like vegetables cut in different ways for different meals. Onions for example seem better when diced in some dishes and better as halved-rings in others. Bell peppers are another case in point – I prefer them in long slices for stir-fry but find that diced is best for burritos. And I could go on. It is for this reason – combined with my preference for a very precise way of dicing garlic – that my husband is scared to chop vegetables for our meals. And I don’t blame him. I’m picky. Thus the task falls on me. But to call it a tasks makes it sound tedious and unappealing which couldn’t be further from the truth. And while my meticulous, picky nature played a role in vetoing a day of weekly chopping, the real reason that I did not want to schedule all of my chopping on one day was rooted in what I get back from my chopping episodes.

For me, chopping vegetables is kind of like fly fishing. Just like following the rod’s rhythm from 10 to 2 as you cast a fly line, I find myself following the knife across the cutting board and my mind settling into a repetitive task in which I lose myself. It is a time when I am undisturbed and can processes thoughts weighing on my mind that I have pushed aside in the day’s rush. Once my thoughts quiet, it is a wonderful exercise in mindfulness. I simply enjoy the smell of freshly chopped basil, or I notice that I am being more brutal in my attack on a carrot after a frustrating day. Time may pass slowly or quickly and becomes arbitrary; dinner will be ready when it is done.  We all have our vices, our “pick-me-ups”; I guess chopping vegetables is one of mine.