Flowers Become Fruit: An Homage to Simon & Elaine’s Garden

Every time I see a flower on a fruit tree or a garden vegetable, I get hungry. Maybe this is common knowledge, but I didn’t know until recently that where ever there is a flower on a plant that grows fruit, there will be a fruit! It’s like an awesome movie trailer of what’s to come. Or even better, the X on a pirate map of where the treasure is. Or even best, a beautiful flower that’s come to say, “I will soon be a tasty piece of free food for you to eat!”

When I was farming, we would weed the strawberries regularly, and take all the brown parts off of them in client’s yards so they would be pretty, or pot them up to sell. And I slowly noticed that the little yellow center of their happy white flowers would get bigger and make a dome. And sometimes I’d see pre-ripe, young, small strawberries that hadn’t turned red yet. But it took me a while before I saw the same little yellowish strawberry emerging out of the center of a flower. Holy crap! “Does each flower become a strawberry?!” Continue reading “Flowers Become Fruit: An Homage to Simon & Elaine’s Garden”

Morning Mind Seed Curiosity

I’m embracing my thoughts. It’s a whole new world and I’m the carpet AND Jasmine. And Aladdin? Hmm. AND the monkey! Yay! Who is the tiger?

Anyway, I’m letting it all flow free and seed is what I woke up curious about. I’m collecting seed, but I don’t know much about it. Here is a fine mind ramble from Gamble that may come in handy later. It also may just scare/confuse you/me, so if you want to read something more sane, skip to the photo caption below. Also, many of these questions probably have answers. I was just having fun relishing in wonder this morning…

  • Seeds have protein, so wouldn’t strawberries have a bit of protein?
  • Is the protein in a banana in the seeds or the meat?
  • What do you call the banana part of a banana? Other than banana? Or meat?
  • What makes us eat certain seeds and not others? Cashews (big) vs. lemon seeds (smaller), I’d think we’d eat the smaller one… Is it just taste? Or texture? Or some other biological reason?
  • Many seeds are designed for animals to eat, travel around with in their belly, and poop out later to spread the seed. Some scientists think avocados were designed for bigger animals to eat, digest, and poop out the seed. Does that mean I am really over-stepping my boundaries as a small person every time I eat one?
  • Do all seeds have tannins like an avocado seed?
  • How come those large animals could process avocado seeds while to some smaller animals, avocado seeds are toxic?
  • When we chew seeds, doesn’t that kill their chance of survival?
  • And doesn’t that go against this idea of ingestion for poop seed sowing?
  • Is that why seeds and beans are harder for humans to digest?
  • Because chewed seeds are stickin’ it to the man?
  • Are you upset by that bad joke? Is that a joke?
  • I heard that when flax seed is eaten whole, we don’t get its full nutrients so its better to eat ground flax seed. But we end up chewing it when it’s whole, so what’s the difference?
  • But it’s true that when I eat whole flax seeds, so many end up in my poop fully intact. Seems like that would be good for them- why wouldn’t the flax seeds make that option appealing to us nutritionally?
  • Nuts, seeds, beans, peas, and legumes are all seeds. Why do we call them different names?

Seedy Tower TheWholeRuth

#savingseed #cdtower #seedytower #getit?

Avocados are a virtue

I’m bringing the guacamole to the party… in 13 years!

This is the 100 year old avocado tree in our back yard. Beautiful.
This is the 100 year old avocado tree in our back yard. Beautiful.

I just found out that it takes 5-13+ years for an avocado tree grown from seed to bear fruit! Whoaholymybatmanthatsalongtimegoodness!

That made me realize that if we all understood how long it really takes for nature to move, for a tree to run it’s natural course, and we were the specific person that tended to that tree for all of those years, we would respect them in a totally different way. If I cared for a tree for 12 years and it got sick and died that year, the year before it fruited, I would be so attached to it at that point that I would weep.

Continue reading “Avocados are a virtue”

Why can I buy avocados?

So I’m hoarding avocados now. It’s really fun. I feel like I get all the beneficial feelings of being a crazy cat lady, without the pre-packaged judgement 🙂 But give it time, the world will soon have a new breed of stereotype: The Hoarding Avocado Woman.

This morning, while cleaning the kitchen, I looked at my pile of four avocado seeds sitting in a puddle of water on the back edge of the sink. I leave them there as a visual to-do list and because this is the best thing I’ve thought of so far to keep them alive until I can plant them. The water from washing dishes each day splashes on them and kinda forms a little life-nest beneath them, giving me the time to come up with another glass jar somehow.

Everything in the store in a glass jar has a new meaning to me. I want to crouch down and surprise-leap onto my prey in Trader Joes, and flailingly leave it’s contents strewn wherever just get to it’s magnificant glass hide and display it with pride along my window sill. Continue reading “Why can I buy avocados?”

Johnny’s Seeds~ Their story makes me happy

This is a wonderful company that my boss introduced me to when I was a farmer. I’m excited to start buying organic heirloom seeds from them! After watching this video, I feel so inspired to be in the sun, work in the soil, plant some life-giving food, care for it, and save seeds for the future…