Garden 2012: It begins!

How is my garlic doing?  Well I'm not totally sure but I think it's still alive and growing.  It seems to be drying out a bit but I'm not sure if that's good or bad and it fell over quite a long time ago:

I'm not sure if this is good or bad or what but it's a bulb, so I don't think I can really kill it unless I overwater it too much right?  I'm nervous to dig them up to check but maybe I should - like I said, it's a bulb.  Maybe this is a project for next week so stay tuned.

What are those little plants at the bottom of the picture?  I started some of my summer plants already!  Hooray!

A few weeks ago I started my Goyo Kumba eggplant, which I learned from trying to grow eggplant last summer, probably need a big head start on the tomatoes.  Most of the plants are poking through the soil now, with a few late bloomers still coming up.  I'm not totally sure if this experiment will work but I'm excited to at least try!  A close up:

One thing I'm doing with all my indoor starter pots is filling them completely with vermicompost from last summer's harvest instead of dirt from the store - I'm hoping this ensures a super healthy head start!  Seems to be working fine so far, and I've actually had to weed the pots a bit because random seeds from other things that got composted last year are sprouting in the fertile mix.

Today (note: this post was scheduled - I actually wrote it last weekend) I got impatient and with an okay from a plant scientist I decided to start my tomatoes!  I think this is okay because at the rate spring is coming, I imagine I'll be able to start keeping my plants outside a lot earlier this year than last year, so starting them a couple weeks ahead of time this year should be okay and will actually give them a good head start.

This year, even though I don't like to mess with a system I know works, I decided to buy a Jiffy Greenhouse for my tomatoes to save space and so I wouldn't have to go through the whole separating of plants like I did last year:

So that's 24 little starter pellets in a compact little tray (and I added a bunch of vermicompost for the nutrients) that when the seeds are ready for transplanting, I just pick up the dirt clump and plant it in a bigger pot!  I'm hoping there's no downside to this.

I'm doing the same variety of tomatoes as last year, plus the spoon tomatoes I talked about a while ago, and a really dark, almost black variety that I can't wait to taste.

I also planted something REALLY COOL today that I really hope works:

That's cauliflower!  (Source - I ordered from here too.)  It looks so cool and I love cauliflower anyway so I wanted to try it out.  Because cauliflower is in the cabbage family I'll have to be careful about maggots, but I'm prepared.

I think this might be it for my vegetable planting this year, since I also want to plant flowers for wedding use (post coming about that soon).  No doubt I will have all my usual herbs, and I'll probably be too tempted to not pick up another vegetable seedling or two at a greenhouse sometime in the spring (it's seriously an addiction) but these are my major food-growing projects for the summer.

I can't wait to see how these all turn out and I hope this is interesting (possibly inspiring?) for you to read!  Planting things is so much fun.

One Hundred Pushups

About 4 years ago Brahm and I both started working on the One Hundred Pushups training program.  It's a very very simple pushup program where you do (ideally) 5-8 sets of pushups 3 times a week for 6 weeks (but most likely it will take you much longer than 6 weeks, probably more like 10-20), adding a few each time, until you are strong enough to do 100 pushups in a row at the end of the program.  Check out the website to see how the weeks work.

It's really for absolutely anyone, even the tiniest, weakest weaklings like me because the first day you literally do sets of 2 and 3 pushups.  It's super amazing though how fast you do build muscle and how fast you can suddenly pump out 20+ pushups in a row like it ain't no thang.  Two weeks in and you'll suddenly realize you have muscles and can lift things that you couldn't before.

Last time I tried the program I ended up giving up in around the 4th week - we went on a camping trip and it is basically impossible to do pushups when you are camping, and when we got back I just felt like I'd fallen behind and didn't want to do it anymore so I stopped.  But this time I started again because it was really cold at work (like -40) so I couldn't walk to my office from camp, and I am a gymophobe (afraid of going to the gym because I don't know how to even turn on a treadmill), so I felt like I needed to at least do some sort of exercise, even if it was just a bit of strength training, so I started the program again.  I also admit I was being a little bit vain and wanted my arms to be toned in my wedding dress this summer, although those results could realistically be achieved just by doing a few pushups each day during the week or so before the wedding, given how fast pushups build muscle.

I'm now about halfway through Week 5 (the weakling Week 5, i.e. the one that starts with 17), meaning I almost did Day 2 of Week 5 but not quite, so I'll repeat it until I can get all the sets done without collapsing.  At the end of Week 5 I'm supposed to be able to do 45 pushups in a row (I know, me??) and then it will be on to the final week, after which I should be able to do 100 pushups in a row!

I cannot stress how easy this program is to follow if you decide to commit to it, and how incredibly fast you begin to see and feel the results.  And how awesome would it be to be able to brag that you can do 100 pushups in a row?  Even most athletic-types suck at pushups! 

A couple neat things I've learned this time around:  a lot of being able to do the sets is in your head.  If you dread doing them and feel like you're not going to get a set, you probably won't be able to.  I've definitely noticed that as soon as I give up mentally I struggle a lot more, but if I'm in a better mindset going in, I can usually squeeze out a few more pushups.  Also, resting a day or two between program days is crucial - it's much harder when you try to do the sets the next day.  It's really neat to see how your body requires the time to grow the muscle (is that how it works?  It grows muscle tissue?  Sounds right I guess), and how much stronger you suddenly are two days after doing the sets.

I'd recommend this program to anyone, but especially anyone who is looking for a really easy program to follow and an easy, free way to get some muscles in the comfort of your own home.  It really works great and it's super cool to feel these almost immediate changes in your body as you build strength on a daily basis.

Lime Yogurt: The Continuing Saga

Note:  the day after writing this I FOUND SOME LIME YOGURT at Sobeys so it really does have a happy ending, but I had already wrote this tragic blog so why waste it right?  Just know that you don't have to be super sad for me after all.

OMG okay you guys I am SERIOUSLY sad.  Remember how I was so excited about Oikos making key lime yogurt, because key lime yogurt is like my actual favourite food of all time?

So anyway, you would think that this is where the saga ends because my favourite food is once again available for purchase in my local grocery store so I can just go buy it whenever I want!  This should be the happy ending to the story of me and lime yogurt, star cross'd lovers.  BUT IT'S NOT.  The story does not have a happy ending.  The story has an EXTREMELY SAD ending and we are still star cross'd lovers.

On Thursday I went out to buy some lime yogurt.  I went to Sobeys, where it had been on sale, and it was sold out.  A little bit of sadness set in.  All I wanted was lime yogurt and it was the one thing Sobeys didn't have.  I remembered my sister telling me that some of the people she works with told her you have to go early in the morning because it always sells out.

After Sobeys, I went to every single other place I thought might sell Oikos lime yogurt on 8th St in Saskatoon:  Superstore, Co-op, Safeway, and even Shoppers Drug Mart and London Drugs.  NOTHING!  The only other store that actually sells it besides Sobeys was Co-op, and they were also sold out.

Sad and dejected, I went home with a plan to hit up Sobeys early the next day.  I was sad that I'd have to wait a whole extra day to get my favourite food, which I'd been looking so forward to for almost 2 weeks now since I last had it in Montreal.

The next morning, I got up early and headed over to Sobeys around 9 am.  The lime yogurt spot on the shelf was empty.  I asked one of the shelf stockers if he knew if they were getting more in.

"I don't even think the company can keep up with the demand for that yogurt, because we keep trying to order more because it sells out so fast but they hardly ever send us any" he said.

WHAT.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

So I went to Co-op, hoping for a lime yogurt miracle, but it was the same situation.  Co-op sure had tons of strawberry yogurt though, which is gross, like who actually eats strawberry yogurt, how about NO ONE.  Hey Oikos how about stop making so much gross boring strawberry yogurt and make more lime yogurt which is WHAT THE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY WANT.

I am now very very sad about this, because who knows when and if I will ever get this elusive key lime yogurt again.  What if the company is like "it's not worth all the extra work to keep up with the demand" and discontinue it?  I don't live close enough to a Sobeys or a Co-op that it's feasible for me to keep checking out the stock every single morning that I'm home, and from the sounds of it on the rare occasions that they actually do get any in stock, it sells out right away.

Unless I have a stroke of luck to be at the right grocery store at the right time, or unless Oikos decides to start producing way more, it is not looking good for me and lime yogurt :(



Just give the people what they want, Oikos!  And what they want is not strawberry.