An Organic Valentines Day

Every year my husband stresses about Valentines Day. First of all, he hates spending money, second, I'm so damn picky that its nearly impossible to shop for me.. But this year he did pretty good. I picked out 90% of my presents and he bought 1 on his own, which I ended up loving! But that's not whats so special about this valentines year. This year we bought presents for each other that will last a while and help us grow together as a couple. LOL, grow, you'll get it later I promise.
Lets start on what I got Craig. Seeds! Craig loves growing anything and everything. Every time I eat anything with seeds in it, he insists that if there is one that has intact seeds in it, to keep them. Right now he has two kinds of orange trees, a grapefruit tree, limes tree, an avacado tree, and a clementine tree all growing upstairs. These are just the ones that I am aware of. There are many more I'm sure. But to add injury to insult, I added on many many more projects. I found a place online that sold organic seeds for a reasonable price.
http://www.sweetcornorganicnursery.com/
Sweet Corn Organic Nursery had their organic seeds all at the same price, 2.49, but the amount in each varied I think. Either way it beat most of the competitors and offered free shipping.
Here's a list of the organic seeds I got Craig:
Basil (Large Leaf), Spearmint, Oregano(Italian), Chives
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Carwile's Virginia Peanut
Cinderella Pumpkin, Early Sweet Sugar Pie Pumpkin
Bonny Best(I think these are tomato's..), California Wonder Sweet Pepper, Early Alaska Pea, Habanero Hot Pepper, Green Sprouting Calabrese Brocolli, Mary Washingtons Asparagus, Black Beauty Zucchini Summer Squash, Pablano Hot Pepper, Roma Tomato, Tall Utah Celery, Giant Noble Spinach, Long Orange Carrot, and Walla Walla Onions.
Listed on the back of each is a description, soil preparation, planting and recommended fertilizing and amending.


He was very excited to see that I had taken an interest in growing our own food. So he took me out and bought me some tools since I had never owned any in my life, to help with the gardening.
On top of that we had to buy even more seeds. Burpee offers organic seeds now.. here are a few we bought from them:
Summer Squash Black Beauty(an unknown repeat) and Sweet Peppers Carnival Mix. AK Lawn and Garden also offers organic seeds. We picked a few of them too: Pink Beauty Radish, Calabrese Brocolli, and Jalapeno Peppers. But some seeds we just could'nt find organic at the store. We had to settle for these: Yellow Round Onion, Scallions, Kohlrabi, Sweet Corn, Blue Lake Garden Beans, Beafsteak Tomato's, Rutgers Tomato's, Delicious Tomato's and Cherry Tomato's. I'm sure we could have easily found these online, but we cant resist a sale and figured 85% of its organic, next year we can work on 100%. Plus since we don't use fertilizers or pesticides, its mostly organic anyways. So 35 packets of seeds later, we decided that we may be in over our heads. Only time will tell at this point.

To go along with the gardening we got a few books. One 100% recycled notebook for keeping track of what we have planted. "Plenty" by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon, which is a documentary like journey of the couple who eat within 100 miles for a year. Very good so far!! "The Backyard Homestead" by Carleen Madigan which I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend to anyone interested in growing your own food. Its easy to navigate and has a ton of awesome information. I read it cover to cover because it was that interesting.

To go along with the rest of valentines day, we got a few eco friendly items that were needed. A compost can for the kitchen. Craig tells me its to hold the scraps until we can get them into the real composter outside. We saw a real one at the Home Depot for 50.00. That's probably next.
And we also needed a few extra reusable cups. I got these at T.J. Maxx for a fraction of the cost. I got the compost holder at Marshalls. Both are great places to find these types of things for a good price.










So our valentines day didn't consist of chocolates or flowers or those awful greeting cards which I think are the biggest load of B.S. and so wasteful.. ugh.. anyways.. sorry, I HATE greeting cards. I hate them even more if they aren't holding anything inside. Whats the point then? Lets get back on track...
Our valentines day will live on all year as we grow and harvest our own organic food. I honestly cant wait!!

P.S. Sorry it took so long for another post. I was out of town for a few weeks. Leland's birthday is coming up soon and lots of fun organic toys to review!!!! YAY!!!!

My Revelation

It seems these days that the "IN" thing to do is to go green. And by going green they mean changing your lightbulbs, carrying cute reuseable bags and so on. Well, I guess that the awareness of it is great, but are they really doing enough?

I recently read the "No Impact Man" book by Colin Beavan. I was blown away by how much I could be doing but havent. I was a somewhat green person before. I used the bags, changed the bulbs, went vegan(decided it was too hard) then went to organic only vegetarian. I even declared that my soon to be 2 year old son Leland was now also an organic vegetarian. My husband Craig still loves his meat too much, so we made a comprimise that he only eat grass fed local meat instead.

So here we go. Another "going green" blog. Another journey. I would like to think that my journey is a little different than most. My journey will be a little harder than you would think. You see, I live in the suburbs of Northern Indiana. Right now the snow is so deep that even the thought of riding a bike, walking anywhere, growing any food or getting any local food, is just insane. Not to mention people from Indiana LOVE their meat and put it in everything!

So how about we start with a little background of me and my family, to makes things easier. My husband and I both grew up in Indiana, him from Fort Wayne and myself from South Bend. We met at Ball State University, him studying Landscape Architecture and I, Art and Art History. I never finished my degree because I decided that it would be better to follow my new guy out to Colorado and marry him on an impulse over his lunch break one valentines day. We loved Colorado! It opened our eyes to a completely different kind of culture. Back in Indiana everything was so meat and potatos and obesity. Here its riding bikes, Whole Foods, and doing everything outdoors in the sunshine. It wasnt hard to fall in love with Colorado.

But it didnt last long. Craig found a job in Tennessee and as fast as Colorado came, it was gone.

So Nashville here we came. Yes, the country stars were everywhere. When I went to get my drivers license changed to a TN one, I sat accross from Bucky Covington. He mysteriously went into the bathroom for 20 mins came out, complained about the line, and him and his tall bald friend got to cut everyone and leave. Of course at the time I had no idea who he was. While in Tennessee I learned so much about religion and how crazy they where. Dinosaurs apparently where put in the ground by the devil to confuse man crazyness. We stopped believing in anything the few years we where there and because agnostic. Religion made people so mean, ignorant and stuck up, we just never wanted to become that. We hated Tennessee. Only one good thing came out of there and that was our son Leland. Our wish came true about getting out of TN by ways of the economy. Craig was laid off and we had to move back to Indiana. Back in with his parents. Which is where this journey begins. So where are we at today?

Right now I sit in a dark basement. Even though the sun is out outside, its too cold to enjoy it. My husband is rocking our son in a swing which we attached to the basement ceiling. He is watching Ratatouille.. if thats how you spell it. The movie about the cooking rat in Paris. He loves anything pixar. The TV watching really has to stop. When it is on I can walk up to Leland, say his name several times, wave my hand in front of his face and nothing changes. He is addicted. I blame myself for letting him watch Hannah Montana and Phineas and Ferb so much as a baby. Craig and I both agree that the TV has to go. Its just a matter of when. We dont really have control over when it is on and off. His parents do. Well, Leland looks like he is about to fall asleep. Better get him down for his nap.

So the adventure begins. I hope some of you come along for the ride.

-Natalie