Scarlet runner beans have sprouted and are climbing up a string to a former laundry line on Bob’s side of the cabin.

Some very brave nasturtiums are struggling out of the bottom of a pier on my side.

Bok choi started in water sprouted and is unhappily regaining its footing after re-potting

Volunteer kabocha and acorn squash continue to grow out of a mound of soil, but don’t seem to be sending out runners.

Planted some sweet peas and nasturtiums alongside my collards.  The collards reaaaaalllly hate the heat, and spend most of their time looking leggy.

The tulsi/Holy Basil plant was going bonkers, so I trimmed it back in the hopes that it’d bush out. 

The sweet-smelling herb I bought from the grocery store is Aztec sweet herb, and while it’d be as sweet as stevia, it has enough camphor to be dangerously medicinal. Ah well.

Conventional basil and culantro continue doing their thing.

Celery sprouted, but the top of the soil is getting moldy.  Like the collards, I think it hates the heat.

Three orchids are content to blossom, as well as a fuchsia.  Don’t eat those!

Lemongrass, after a few weeks, finally put out roots.  I’ll plant them when the roots are two inches long.

Sprouted adzuki beans: on round II.  This batch seems to be reluctant to sprout as quickly as the last one.

A sweet potato on top of the fridge decided to put out leaves.  I guess I’ll eat them soon!

Tonight I made some meals for the week:

• Churrasco steak cooked in a cast iron pan with butter, lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, and the Trader Joe’s 21 spice seasoning salute (thank you Ti!)
• Gravy out of the liquid remaining in the pan, dredged with coconut flour (thank you Kseniya!)
• Steamed green beans with butter
• Roasted sweet potato
• Spinach, egg, coconut flour, and local green (Anaheim?) pepper muffins

Hopefully this next week I can avoid eating in the cafeteria.

Tomorrow’s lunch:

• Spinach, arugula, and watercress salad dressed with lemon, cilantro pesto, and sprouted adzuki beans
• Green beans over steak over kimchi

On Friday I bought two bunches of wilting cilantro from the fruit vendor by Pueblo for about $2, then all of her remaining bananas for another $2.

Washing off the cilantro tonight to make pesto I found not just attached roots and dirt, but also a SNAIL IN ITS SHELL.

There’s a first.

Added walnuts, olive oil (ran out, for the first time! signs you’ve been in one place for six months, partial list), some Korean red pepper, garlic (from China, sigh), salt, and a splash of apple cider vinegar.  Pretty darn amazing.

Took the bottom of a clump of bok choi and put it in water.

Within 12 hours it’d sprouted more leaves.

Planted collards earlier in the week.

This morning they sprouted.

I’d like to move off-site so I can plant hyacinth vine, loofahs, bitter melon/goya/ツルレイシ all growing up trellises. At some point I should plant the giant pumpkin.

• Handful of kale
• 1½ inch of a bunch of cilantro
• 4 generous discs of cucumber
• 2 spears of bok choi
• 2 spears of celery 
• Pinch of Korean red pepper
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• Juice of one lime
• 5 miniature bananas, approximate 2 standard bananas

Blend with some water. Drink. The pepper’s just enough to remind you that you have 15 hours of observing tonight.

The little bananas are great: the fruit vendor sold me at least three or four hands for $2 yesterday.  I froze some and would love suggestions on what to do with the rest.

Bob had the grill out tonight and admonished me for not using it.

I rapidly chopped up a sweet potato and my last acorn squash that’d been languishing on the top shelf of the refrigerator, then pulled three slightly freezer burned slabs of churrasco out of the freezer.

The churrasco turned out better than I thought, surprisingly tender.  Acorn squash is a delight, nuttier and smoother than local pumpkin.  Sweet potato takes a bit longer, but it’s a reliable breakfast.

For lunch I brought along a tub of kale (smuggled in from Whole Foods on the Upper West Side), bean sprouts (organically grown in Puerto Rico!), and spinach, dressed with olive oil and some pomegranate balsamic vinegar.  Made the midday cafeteria meal much better.

rhazade-waterbender:

dishesfromthedish:

I carefully removed seeds and guts from kabocha and acorn squash cavities, putting them in a colander to separate later.  The colander upended, sending seeds all across the porch.  I swept them onto the gravel walkway and the rocky border, then went abroad for two and a half weeks.

Upon my return I found them eagerly sprouting their second sets of leaves up through the stones.  I’ve never had this much luck with squash in the past, especially my poor loofah of spring 2010.

Plucking one of the sprouts, I tried it: deliciously spicy.  Like a nasturtium.

Bob’s psyched.  He wants plants enveloping his deck.

Nasturtiums, squash, beans, morning glories?

Let’s try planting things again.

Cucurbita stems/leaves are edible?  I knew that the flowers were, but I didn’t know about the rest of the plant (aside from the fruit, of course, that is).

I mean, I’m sure they’d be way too fibrous after a certain age, but even so.  Good to know.

My Nepalese and Indian colleagues discussed recently their recipes involving pumpkin shoots, like this one from Nepal with spices and sautéed pumpkin greenery.  Frying pumpkin and squash blossoms is another fun way to eat parts of the pumpkin plant if you’re trying to promote growth of giant squashes (like this 56-pounder).

I carefully removed seeds and guts from kabocha and acorn squash cavities, putting them in a colander to separate later.  The colander upended, sending seeds all across the porch.  I swept them onto the gravel walkway and the rocky border, then went abroad for two and a half weeks.

Upon my return I found them eagerly sprouting their second sets of leaves up through the stones.  I’ve never had this much luck with squash in the past, especially my poor loofah of spring 2010.

Plucking one of the sprouts, I tried it: deliciously spicy.  Like a nasturtium.

Bob’s psyched.  He wants plants enveloping his deck.

Nasturtiums, squash, beans, morning glories?

Let’s try planting things again.

The entire Houghton clan (James, Alli, mum, dad, and two sisters) visited!  We had a Caribbean meal at Salitre with baked snapper, seafood paella, tostones, and mofongo.  

This morning we woke up around 6 and toured the telescope platform.  It was a bit cloudy, but cool as crepuscular rays peered over the knobby karst hills.  We came back to the family cabins to make a huge breakfast of pineapple, grapefruit, leftover stuffed squash/lasagna stuffing (ground chicken, sage, spinach, shallots, red peppers, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms), scrambled eggs, watermelon, bacon, orange juice, milk, coffee, tea, toast, and red peppers.

I had a brainwave to wrap the pineapple in bacon.  Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 ˚F, flipping once in the middle.  The warm sweet acidic pineapple with the fat and salt of the bacon is a perfect balance.  I bet a dusting of cumin would work, too!  James’ dad declared that this would be a repeat recipe in their household.

Tonight I took the pineapple remains and started vinegar: 1 quart of filtered water, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup raw unfiltered vinegar (supposedly with the mother, but there’s no obvious structure), and one pineapple’s worth of skin and eyes.  I’ll leave it for a week then strain out the solids and hopefully there’ll be the start of a mother structure.  I can afford to be patient here: I’m leaving on Friday for two and a half weeks, so it’ll be hard  to prod whatever developing structures exist from Houston, Boston, New York, and Dana Point!