Oakleaf lettuce, amish deer tongue lettuce, beet greens, and broccoli

’scuse me while I vent a bit…

This tooth does not hurt me right now. In my childhood, I had this tooth, along with every other freaking back tooth in my mouth, filled to the max with silver. This dentist was related to us and apparently was not up-to-date on the latest pain management techniques, unless you consider increasing pain as pain management. He also liked to make fun of my hysteria.

Fast forward: As an adult, I began to have persistent pain. I had this tooth sanded down and reshaped to fit my bite three times. The dentist told me I needed a crown but she wouldn’t do it until a root canal specialist did a root canal. The root canal specialist said I just needed a crown. The dentist didn’t want to do a crown. In the meantime, I was scrubbing it with peroxide and suffering. Then God intervened and placed a piece of bone in my hamburger. I cracked it and was treated to a blessed crown by a different dentist.

Fast forward to two years ago: “Doesn’t that hurt?” the hygenist says as she pokes a sharp pointy object between my teeth. Well it hadn’t for a long time, but yeah, it hurts NOW that you skewered it. I went to the periodontist. He sent me back to the dentist to close the gap between my teeth. I went back to the periodontist. Again. And again. I went back to the periodontist for that one tooth about TEN TIMES.

Fast forward to one month ago. “Doesn’t that hurt?” the hygenist says as she pokes a sharp pointy object between my teeth. Well, no, as I struggle not to flinch. I know where THIS is going. The dentist comments on how healthy it looks for an infected tooth. Isn’t that nice. I use a prescription mouthwash for a month.

Fast forward to today. “Doesn’t that hurt?” the dentist says as she pokes a sharp pointy object between my teeth. No. I didn’t even have to struggle not to flinch.

Yet, I am going to the damn periodontist tomorrow!

I’m just about ready to have the damn thing pulled and be done with it. It will save me a lot of gas.

It’s “Allergies II.” I thought the spring allergy season was over, guys.

My DH, bless his heart, has been sweeping and mopping floors this weekend. I have been sneezing and blowing my nose this weekend, ever since I worked in the garden yesterday, that is.

I went to one of my favorite places, Edward McKays, where I saw a hardback copy of the revised Moosewood Cookbook. My old copy is tattered and saturated with food stains (in other words, adored), so I pulled it out to see how much it has been revised. Written on the top pages, side, and bottom were the letters BEK. I almost passed out. Seriously. I had to sit down for a while.

Now I realize that this book could have belonged to say, Bernice Elizabeth Knight or Bradley Edward Katz. Or it could have belonged to anyone with the last name of Bek. But my friend Ryan was a vegetarian and loved to cook. It was not his apartment that burned. So conceivably, his family could have packed up his things for a few years and sold some of them after time healed them enough to deal with it.

I will never know if this was Ryan’s book. But I’d like to think that it is, so I bought it.

It is amazing how little space 320 pounds of dirt takes up. But I put down a small narrow bed and expanded the little island bed I made in the front of the garden where there is the most sun.

The island has watermelons, okra, butterbeans (okra and butterbeans are seeds I saved from last year’s crop), basil and nasturiums. I planted the narrow bed with okra and field peas. I planted more green beans in the lettuce/broccoli bed. The field peas I planted last weekend are already coming up!

I bought blood meal from Lowe’s and sprinkled it around everywhere, plus added bone meal to the new beds. Here’s the mystical fertilizer - the last time I was at Mama’s house I roamed around her garden and picked up every little broken piece of china that I found. Then I lined them up along the edge of the narrow bed.

Today’s harvest is radishes and peas. And spinach, but I ate that before I took this picture! I love to eat these peas raw. I don’t grow enough to have for a whole pot, just enough in waves so that I can have snacks in the garden as I work. Why did I ever cook peas, I wonder?

The dirt proves the carrots were freshly pulled out of my garden! There’s also freshly picked dill in that basket for some cottage cheese dill bread tomorrow. This is in the bamboo chair that I’m so crazy about.

I just read Dan Smith’s post about the UCC. He says that if the UCC is fun, then that must make other churches da mentalists. I like that.

So I thought about the Church of the Covenant. I think that it is fun. The minister’s main message is that you should pursue happiness and authenticity, within the context and circumstances of your life. Sin is defined by having the wrong priorities about what is important. By becoming fulfilled, happy, and authentic people, we can serve others and they will in turn support us in our spiritual journeys. In every communication Jim sends out, he asks us to have fun that day, or to find some time to do something we love.

And the Church of the Covenant is mentalist. No one talks down to you as if you are incapable of independent thought. You are encouraged to ask questions, discuss, participate, examine issues, offer your opinions, even and especially if they are different. Their website is called A Thinking Church. The service that I attend at 9:20 is more a philosophical gathering of seekers than a church service.

So the Church of the Covenant is a fun mentalist church.

Here’s an excerpt from one of Jim Dollar’s sermons titled Being the church is about being alive.

“When is the last time you had a good time (anywhere in your life)? When is the last time you did something that could qualify as “play”? When is the last time you laughed from the depths? What do you look forward to? What are the compelling interests in your life? What are the sources of energy and enthusiasm in each day? What delights you about your life? What makes you glad to be alive? What brings you joy? What do you love to do? How often do you do it?”

“What stands between you and what you love? What are the barriers that prevent you from having a good time? What are the obstructions that keep you from enjoying your lives? What is going on in your lives that rules out any possibility of fun?”

“We cannot hope to “have life and have it abundantly” without answering these questions regularly. The church that helps us ask, and answer them, helps us come to life, and be alive. The church exists to help us address the personal issues arising from our experience of life in the world. But talking about personal matters is not what we think the church is for. We think the church is about spiritual matters. And, we have yet to understand that there is no line of separation between the personal and the spiritual.”

Here is an excerpt from an article being written for the Permaculture Activist by Robert Waldrop (of the Better Times Almanac, a wonderful publication) on “Kitchen Permaculture.” This was sent to me via the Slow Food DC mailing list, via Robert’s email to the Terramadre mailing list.

It speaks to the heart of what I am trying to do with my life right now. When people start awakening from the neo-con illusion to the real world surrounding them, they often ask how to begin the shift to a simpler life. It seems so overwhelming at first.

Nobody goes from 100% bad food choices to 100% good, better, or best choices overnight. But procrastination is equally problematic. Wholes are made from parts, and if you can’t see the total solution in the beginning, step back and pick one thing that you can understand and do that. Then look at your situation again and do something else. Everyone can find something to start with and that’s where each person should begin. Slow down, simplify, make better and wiser choices. One thing leads to another, and before a person realizes that time is passing, permaculture has been transformed from an esoteric science to a lived reality in their kitchen. Your work in the kitchen will become beautiful, and as it is said, “The world will be saved by Beauty.”

We had our second official Slow Food event at the Adriatic (soon to be renamed Zaytoon) restaurant this afternoon. Masoud and Anna prepared an assortment of appetizers and entrees for approximately 50 people, and it was delicious.

They have an appetizer that they also sell at the farmers market called the Number 9. These are fantastic marinated little round sweet/hot peppers stuffed with goat cheese and almonds. I asked Masoud what kind of peppers they were, and he gave me what I believe is a brand name - Peppadew - from South Africa. He showed us the bag and it said sweet piquante. I think that is just a descriptive term but I’ll do a search on the Internet. I would like to find the seeds.

I sat next to a guy named David who was just hysterically funny. Someone said that he could be on the Fab Five and I understood exactly why after spending three hours next to him. He reminded me of Carson. We played little games like the Truth and Lies game and everyone at our table was totally engaged with the others and thoroughly entertained. I hope that everyone else had as good a time as we did.

Our table, between laughs

forgot to mention the garden work I did today:

-removed most of the reemay blankets.
-planted watermelon and cantaloupe toward the front.
-a few green beans on the left side - need to plant more as the carrots and lettuce come out.
-field peas in the left middle.
-nasturiums in the left front.
-basil in the middle front.
-moved the peppers to the middle front.
-cucumbers and yellow squash in the middle back. This is where I intend for my woodland perennials to eventually go so I don’t expect a lot from this. Just an experiment with free seeds.