Sing it…I know you want to sing it.

Did you catch the gardening bug from my last post?

Did you enter to win some of my seeds? I know that Miz Heather B. entered the contest, cuz she WON! I’ll send you the seeds this week, missy!

Guess what…there’s MORE!

I have MORE organic gardening tips!

Organic gardening is more than just growing from organic seeds. To optimize produce nutrients, you must also garden in organic soil. There are books and studies and tests and scientific data on developing the perfect soil, but, as I said before, I am a gardening hobbyist…I only play at gardening. So, if you are looking for the latest and greatest, guaranteed perfect soil recommendations, you can just stop reading now. Because I know nothing of such things.

What I DO know is that gardening soil must be vibrant, and alive…it must have nutrients and minerals…it must be a welcome environment for worms and fungi and bacteria and any number of small and microscopic creatures, all of which can d.i.e. under chemical assault.

Enter: composting

Composting is a form of recycling, in which plant material is allowed to decay back into soil. Most composters have a designated bin, and, again, there are classes, and studies, and formulas, and paraphernalia to establish a successful compost heap.

I don’t have the space for a compost heap. I am not interested in the classes. I don’t want to spend money on more stuff.

I bury my raw, organic produce clippings straight into the ground.

Think of vegetable clippings as solid sunshine: a plant converted all that sunshine into something edible, tangible, solid. Doesn’t it seem wasteful to throw away solid sunshine?

Besides, you already paid for the produce. Just because you aren’t going to eat the carrot tops doesn’t mean that carrot greens are trash: raw produce clippings are chock full of nutrients and cellulose, which are vital to soil health.

Why buy a bag of organic soil when you are throwing away organic produce clippings? Talk about paying for something twice.

I keep a large bowl on my kitchen counter, and throughout the day, the bowl gets filled with apples cores, banana peels, onion skins, carrot tops, even egg shell. When the bowl is full (read: overflowing onto the counter), I bury it somewhere in the yard. Then worms and other creatures move in, and within 2 months, break down the compost into beautiful, dark, organic soil.

Parts of my yard that previously would not grow anything, now overflow with vibrant plants. I’ve even harvested potatoes and beets from my compost!

Plus, see the extra thing you are doing here? Recycling. Reducing your waste. Less trash is going to the dump. How can you go wrong? Check out this site for some inspiration.

Perfect French Fries

4-5 organic potatoes
olive oil
Celtic sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 350*F.
Cut potatoes into 1/2″ strips. Toss with enough olive oil to lightly
coat. Spread potatoes evenly on baking sheet, single layer only.
Sprinkle with Celtic sea salt.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven, turn with a spatula, and return to oven.
Bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove from oven, turn with a spatula, and return to oven.
Bake for another 7-8 minutes, until cooked through and crispy.
Enjoy!

My family does the happy dance when I make these French fries, saying these
fries are the best, ever!

PS For the brave of heart, check out this article.

Lori Rivas, organic homeschooling mama to 4 great kids

Fresh, new leaves are budding here in my town, on the trees and on the ground. Seeds that were shed last fall are sending up shooters. Cherry, pear and citrus trees are blossoming. It is my favorite season of the year.

Spring.

It is so cliche, but the hope of new life in spring is rejuvenating.

My thoughts turn to gardening.

I am no expert gardener: more of a hit and miss hobbyist. Mainly miss. I do it for fun, and it is, really, thrilling to watch a seed sprout, plant grow, flowers bloom, and a fruit or vegetable develop. The kids love helping with the gardening, too.

One year, I had an explosion of horn worms on my tomato plants, and I paid my kids one dollar for every horn worm that they removed and destroyed. Sounds a little expensive, except, guess what? Those critters totally creep me out, and I cannot do it myself. I needed motivated helpers. The kids saved my tomato plants that year; I had a bumper crop.

I do not have much of a yard for planting, as our backyard is all cement. I started my garden with a small strip of dirt on the north side of our house — not exactly prime real estate; I had limited success with sugar snap peas, blueberries and grapes.

Three years ago, I was itching for more gardening space, so I dug up portions of my front yard. Last year, I added container gardening to my back yard.

Now, don’t be impressed. My dreams are most often higher than my reach, and, at any given time, you are likely to find my yard filled with more dormant (read: dead) plants than live. I am far from any one’s gardening teacher.

It’s a fun hobby.  I have found ways to make it *cheap* and organic.

I save seeds. This is how people grew crops for generations, by saving seeds from one season to the next. This is also a hot topic in the world of GMO (genetically modified organism) crops, such as soybean, corn and cotton. GMO seeds are bio engineered to resist particular pesticides, such as Round Up, so that, when the corn, for example, is growing in a field, the farmer can spray the pesticide Round Up, kill the weeds, but leave the corn, unharmed.

How can this happen?

Because scientists mess with the plant’s DNA.  As I understand it, and correct me if I am wrong, the scientist will modify the DNA of a plant, such as corn, though a series of (secret) mutations, resulting in a patented corn seed that is unharmed by the target poison, such as Round Up. Thus, a poison which would normally kill the corn is now rendered harmless to the corn. The seed company now owns both the patent on the GMO corn seed AND the specific pesticide to which the corn is resistant.

Do you see where this is going?

It’s a monopoly, ladies and gentlemen.

If a farmer is not allowed to save his seed because of the patent, yet he must buy both the seed and matching pesticide from only one company, what choice is left? It would be as if one company owned the car manufacturing and the car repair shops.

And so, duh duh duh! Here is where YOU can be a hero! Save your own organic seeds! Propagate plants as God intended! Let nature unfold, unhindered by genetic manipulations!

Enter the contest, and I will share my seeds with you! I only save seeds from especially delicious produce, so, hopefully, these seeds will produce an equally delicious bounty. You will receive seeds for: spaghetti squash, watermelon, green zebra tomato, bell pepper, garlic and white fleshed cantaloupe.

Too much peppermint spa water

If you grow peppermint, you know the plant almost takes on a life of its own.
A friend introduced this easy recipe to me:

handful of freshly rinsed peppermint leaves
gently crush leaves at the bottom of a gallon size pitcher
top leaves with a generous amount of ice
fill pitcher with water

allow mint leaves to steep for at least an hour
sweeten, if desired

Lori Rivas, organic homeschooling mama to 4 great kids

photo credits:
peppermint from: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/CulRes/herbs.htm

My life is messy.

Lest you think otherwise, because I am so witty and eloquent with my words, let me re-assure you that, indeed, my life is messy.

My house is messy.

My relationships are messy.

My family is messy.

My thoughts are messy.

My spiritual life is messy.

My physical body is messy.

My finances are messy.

My diet is messy.

My morality is messy.

In short, I am a mess.

Oh sure, I do a fairly decent job of presenting a good front. I look like I have it all together. I think about things, I have high aspirations, I read, I homeschool, I write, I am a community activist, I love my husband and he loves me, my kids are a delight.

All this goodness is in spite of my messy self.

Allow me to walk you through my day, backwards:

Currently, I am watching videos and drinking a glass of red wine, while my husband is tucking in the younger two.

*I* am not putting the younger kids to bed because I am irritable and it shows. Thus, the wine.

Before the wine, I ate a big bowl of roasted potatoes and vegetables, heavy on the starch, light on greens, lest you think better of me. Sure, it was all organic. Sure, I made it from scratch for today’s lunch. But did I need to eat a bowl of cold potatoes at 9PM? Um, no. Again, messy.

When I returned home from running errands, my girl looked very sick, and said she had the worst headache ever. My husband said he had just given her ibuprofen. I asked, logically, since it was 6PM, “has she eaten dinner?” No, came his reply. “Did she eat lunch?” …same answer. Lastly, I ask my dear, sweet, patient, saint of a husband, “what did she eat for breakfast?” He couldn’t remember. Well, ladies, you can guess that at this point, out comes the bitchy wife, and I am rolling my eyes all the way to China, and sighing until my lungs ache for breath, while I FEED my daughter.

I wasn’t very nice, and my husband graciously avoided me for a bit.

Let’s see…what else…

I went to Starbucks and had a slice of lemon pound cake and a double espresso. With two sugar packets. And a buttload of half and half. That was lunch.

The morning was filled with complaining about housework, being short with my kids, sarcastic about a relative, self-righteous about my opinions, and so on.

What could prompt such a seemingly awful day? For starters, I slept until 9AM and lounged in bed while my husband got up with the younger kids. Plus, my husband brought me tea in bed. Plus he pawed at me, expressing his never ending desire to love and enjoy me.

Yup. Pretty crappy beginning of the day. No wonder I was a crab and made life miserable for my loved ones (insert sarcastic face here).

I share this all to let you know that I struggle. I am fully human. I may have this opportunity to publish my thoughts, to wax poetic about the virtues of organic living, which may give the impression that my life is neatly packaged, but I have *SO* not arrived.

I am one woman, one mom, trying to make sense of this crazy world, hoping to make amends for my mistakes, praying for mercy, and clinging to hope for my dear life.

Life isn’t like a book. Life isn’t logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time.
And theology must be lived out in the midst of that mess.
- Chuck Colson, from his book Loving God

Lori Rivas, organic homeschooling mama to 4 great kids

photo credits:

messy lady image from: http://www.picturesof.net/pages/100608-004190-954053.html

roasted potatoes from: http://dietrecipesblog.com/2008/07/25/spicy-roasted-potatoes-recipe-177-calories/