Well, it doesn't look like a strawberry

Strawberries have started to make their debut at farmers' markets around New Jersey.  Despite the fact that stores have been shipping them in from the west coast for months now, it is time to fill up.  I would imagine that many people do not actually know what a strawberry plant looks like, though (yes, they come from a plant, not a plastic container). These are the ones I've got at home...they are very easy to grow.  They come back year after year and do their own thing; I just throw on some compost or shredded leaves in the fall.  

You can always count on them

We all know the economy sucks, and except for porn and Wal Mart a lot of companies and people are hurting. In an article in the NYT, Stuart Elliot wrote about how food companies are competing to stretch your dollar. After discussing the new ads for French's mustard and how Pepsi Co is stuffing more Frito's in your bag for the same price, he mentioned the new campaign by Del Monte which features elongated corn cobs and pea pods (stretching your $) :

"The campaign — the biggest for Del Monte canned goods in a decade — is prompted partly by “an increase in private-label sales as consumers react to the economy,” Mr. Pearce said.
But the validity of the message is meant “to resonate more than just in a tough economic climate,” he added.
The reason, said Miles Smith, partner and business development director at Smith Brothers, can be found in the story about a neighborhood barber whose livelihood is threatened by the arrival of a chain offering $5 haircuts.
The barber “hires a marketing consultant,” he added, “who hangs a banner above the shop, ‘We fix $5 haircuts.’ ”
The moral is “don’t go down that road of discounting yourself into being considered a commodity,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s damaging to your brand to train consumers to expect a sale every day.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah; great moral, but isn't this exactly what the Health care Industry does- drug companies, vitamins, nutritionists, pediatricians???? We eat the crap ( Doritos, Kraft mac n cheese, and canned fruit cocktail floating in lord knows what) and then boom we pay for more drugs, vitamins, and diets to fix what we have done. If we all just ate healthier to begin with perhaps we wouldn't have such a health crisis- cancers, childhood obesity, diabetes, etc.

That is not to say only tofu and beans, but don't buy anything that has an ingredient you cannot pronounce; or if it has more ingredients than you could make it with skip it; if your grandma would not recognize the ingredients/food item put it back! If you see something and cannot explain what it could possibly be made of don't buy it; and if it's something that you would never store at room temperature because it has dairy or meat, but sure enough it's in the pantry isle - don't get it. It's not hard, but it does take self responsibility, something Americans surely lack.

watch the garden grow

I'm salivating....thanks to the 68 or so days of rain everything really took off. See arugula, green leaf, spinach, flame lettuce, romaine, red swiss chard, kale, and sugar snap peas(climbing).

And opal basil & parsley...

I feel like Tom Hanks

It's finally May and its finally warm and not raining. It's that time of year that I look forward to most of all as a college student. On a Saturday or in between classes I go down to the local green house/ garden center and just walk around. Yes, beginning in late March I just walk around the greenhouses wishing it was warmer and looking at all the tiny plants wishing I had the "infrastructure" they do (they beat my 4 shop lights in the basement). I must say, however, that as I walk around now and see all these people buying flats of salad greens that are pretty much full grown and various other herbs and vegetables for $1.79 a pack I feel like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. You know, when he gets found and is walking around the celebration room and he finds a lighter which he flicks with his finger and boom there's fire. This means nothing to you or I, but we quickly remember the incredible work and time he put into building fire on the island- an amazing accomplishment- one that not many people I know could ever do.

For me I got the seeds and started them in a place that was warm and went and got more lights; one I bought, one 2 I borrowed (thanks, Grandma). Then I had to monitor the lights and the water- in the morning the plants are drenched, when I come home they are wilted and bone dry. I started putting them outside during those hot April days to have them fall over in the wind or jumped on by Rhone. I would rush to bring in the full sheet trays of baby plants when they warned of frost because I knew the heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, herbs, and greens would be worth it. All I ask is that you do not forget the work that goes into that 4 pack of vegetables you picked up- it's a shit load.