Since the election, I had been in a black hole like so many of my friends and family. I tried to look at it as a gardener: Sometimes I dig up an entire area in my garden, I rip out everything to replant it. It is messy and unsightly in the beginning, and it takes muscle power, sweat, patience, perseverance, and quite a few blisters and calluses on my hands to turn it into a pretty flower bed or into a productive vegetable plot. Continue reading
“Green Card Gardener” is my story, a work in progress about how I came to America on a Diversity Visa that I won in the Green Card Lottery, how I became a passionate gardener on a remote rural hilltop in Pennsylvania, and how with every gardening season I feel more at home in America. Yet, there is not a day I forget where I come from, a family of diverse identities, traditions and heritage.
By renaming this blog “Green Card Gardener” I speak as an immigrant to this country. Continue reading
A long and productive gardening season is winding down. After the first frost, the last peppers and tomatoes are ripening on trays indoors, the freezer is packed to the top, the basement shelves are filled with all kinds of canned goods, and the water-bath canner and all the other canning equipment has been put in storage. And I finally have time to get on my bike again.
Well not so fast…. From one of my bike rides I brought back a whole basket of windfall apples. Continue reading
When Lynn Prior, founder and director of Buy Fresh Buy Local Greater Lehigh Valley, asked me whether I wanted to do a talk and cooking demo at Taste of the Lehigh Valley: A Celebration of Local Farms and Food on July 24, I knew instantly what I wanted to talk about: cooking from global cuisines with local ingredients. Continue reading
As a Master Gardener I should know. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I have been skimping on fertilizing my own garden. That fact dawned on me last fall after attending a refresher training.
“Think about everything you harvest from the garden in a growing season. You must return the nutrients to the soil,” the speaker said. “There is nothing wrong with regularly fertilizing your garden but sometimes people who garden organically have this odd reluctance to do that.” Continue reading
Sometimes an annoyance has a bright side too. Last week I temporarily lost the entire content of my email inbox but luckily was able to retrieve it. In the tedious process of sorting through lots of lots of old emails I did some long overdue filing and sorting. When my husband sent me a photo of a fox he took from our kitchen window this morning, I thought, “Wait, this is almost identical of what he took in February of last year!” Maybe it’s not the same fox, but no doubt it is again a beautiful representative of its species. Continue reading
Last week we buried Woody, our beloved Vizsla. He was almost 15½ years old. I know we were lucky to have such a wonderful dog, and for so long, still it aches terribly. Continue reading
Every year I try one or two new things in my garden. This year it was Mizuna greens (Brassica rapa nipposinica) and Mexican sour gherkins (Melothria scabra), Spanish name: sandita. Continue reading
What to do with too many zucchini or summer squash is a recurring topic on gardening websites, blogs and forums. In the years when I have a zucchini glut (which is not a given, there were years when the striped cucumber beetle wipes out all the plants) I find myself looking for new recipes that use a lot of zucchini – we are talking baskets and baskets full. Continue reading
