Donnerstag, 24. Oktober 2013

nothing going on but hurry, it's the LAST DAY TO SIGN

Eleven days have passed and I feel like I owe you another entry. 

I could tell you that I thought I found a legit vegan baking chocolate. It was the other day that I discovered the bar at the hot chocolate section of one of the local supermarkets. Today the supermarket opened a new store. Yesterday evening I was standing in front of the chocolate thinking about buying it. Or not. It was nothing I absolutely needed. So I passed. Just to find out they don't carry it at the new store.

Another thing I could tell you is that I got a call from a supermarket I applied at. They asked me to come in for an interview. Unfortunately the application happened about four months ago when we were planning on moving to Tampa or St.Pete and the opening is over two hours from here.


I could put up those pictures of a squirrel I made the other week. Don't know why. Probably because I was in the yard with my camera and the squirrel didn't run away. By the way, this is why I think squirrels in America aren't that cute as squirrels in Europe, even if this one looks sweet: They don't have such a bushy tail. They are grayish instead of those brown to red shades of the european ones. And they are a lot bigger and miss the little hair tips on the top of their ears.


Furthermore I could tell you that we decided to foster a dog. There's so many at the shelter waiting in line to be euthanized. Since our position right now is kind of complicated we cannot (as we were also considering) adopt a dog. But we can get one out of the line to get him another chance for life.

And last but not least: I can politely ask you to sign and share this petition regarding seed diversity in the European Union. This is very important for small, local and organic agricultural businesses and for the survival of rare fruits, vegetables and grains as well as whole ecosystems that depend on certain symbiotic relationships. Today is the last day to sign! Here's the link in english, german, dutch, french, spanish, italian, portugues,    ALL LINKS ...

Sonntag, 13. Oktober 2013

News from the garden

calendula


before and after

The other day I worked a little bit on our kale bed. I built some sort of raised bed and filled it with a mixture of soils from our yard. Some great compost from a place underneath a tree in our front yard that was full of worms, some leaves for the worms to feed on, some sandier soil mixed in.
Last I transferred the little, not so little any more, kale and arugula plants into the new bed. Most of them had still been in the plastic shells I started the seeds in.
Unfortunately the nights are getting pretty cool already. And the two biggest arugulas had their leaves hanging the next morning. But there's still hope that they come back.

arugula

and kale (and arugula)

I also found out a couple days ago that the compost is composting. I wanted to move it since this is what you need to do every now and then, right? When I emptied the bin I found a maggot party feasting on some fresh scraps. But there already was some good smelling dark compost with lots of huge worms in the middle. So I re-stacked it all and am looking forward to using it!


Apart from that I am waiting for a lot of flower babies to grow and blossom. But that sure will take a little more time. Calendula, nasturtium, phacelia, a lettuce mix and different flower mixes...


lettuce mix (top) flower mix (bottom)

Samstag, 5. Oktober 2013

Fruit here and there

THIS makes me crave Zwetschgen. And Reneclaude fruits. And all those other great plum relatives that you'll never find in any supermarket shelf over here. What a shame!
It also makes me miss the market in Stuttgart where I got about 14 different apples, all different cultivars (look at the possibilities HERE), I could have even gotten more different ones I bet but I chose only tart ones. Even at Portland's farmers market I didn't have the impression of such a variety.

But lets face it, I can't have it, I enjoyed the little glimpse that I had and I'm looking forward for the second strawberry and blueberry season here in Florida. And it's Citrus season, too, pretty soon. First fruit are coming in at "our" produce booth.
Today I got giant grapefruit (I think those are Pomelos) from someone's private fruit tree. And there's one orange tree in our yard and one grapefruit tree around the corner that we have access to (and permission for picking the fruit). Yes!

This little fellow just showed up on the cranky stairs next to our bedroom window. 

Freitag, 4. Oktober 2013

summer days of october

Yeah, I know, it's been silent around here. The thing is there is nothing going on I could tell you about. I am back in Florida. The weather is finally starting to feel a lot nicer - more like summer in germany, with warm days and a little less warm to sometimes even cool nights. I don't really miss real autumn right now, though those couple of autumn days I did experience in germany were a pleasure to me. I'm just excited to get to know a different kind of Florida right now. A less humid one. A less destructive one. A more welcoming one.

However, now is the time for me to spend my time on the computer doing applications. Asking at all the shops in and around Inverness for work. I've not been successful yet. But at least I got two references cleared. See, it's all boring stuff and I really don't know why you would be interested in reading about it?!

Apart from that I sowed some seeds and right now hope for them to grow into beautiful flowers. Against the greenness. Withstanding the burning sun. We'll see, right?