Fasting, Overcast, Woody Allen, Farm City, The Garden

Today is a fasting day. It's chilly and overcast in Oakland. The sun has been peaking out for a couple of hours every day and the air is heavy with moisture from the ocean. It feels humid like the East coast.

The new Woody Allen movie is great. Kate Blanchett is, in a word, simply incredible. This is a must see for any Woody Allen fan. It was filmed in San Francisco. It's nice to see some familiar sights like The Ramp down on Mariposa. Woody's dark side of life comes across in this film, interspersed with some hilarious scenes. It's great.

I've been reading this book titled Farm City by Novella Carpenter, Penguin Publishing. It was a national bestseller, and if you're thinking of becoming a serious urban farmer this book is a guide to what you can expect.  She can also be found at www.novellacarpenter.com. There's nothing I can say that will usurp the praise she received from the NY Times book review. Even if you don't want to be an urban farmer read it. It's very entertaining, and have lived in the urban jungle for so long I can relate to her street stories all to well.

Speaking of urban farming on a very tiny level, I made a tomato sauce for dinner from the fruit (brown berry cherry tomatoes) we harvested in our back yard. Geri says they're the best tomatoes she's ever had, and I'll admit they are very sweet and full of flavor. I got those starters from my friends Rick and Pilar at Sunnyside Seedlings in Richmond. I added 3 tablespoons of olive oil, fresh basil from the herb garden, 5 cloves of crushed garlic, 1/4 yellow onion sauteed, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, tablespoon dried herbs of Provence, a little red wine, and water. I filled a two quart sauce pot 3/4 of the way with the tomatoes, added water to the top of the tomatoes, and reduced it till I had a little more than a quart, about 3 hours. This and some salad, will be our dinner tonight, no meat today.

I'm getting ready to plant fall and winter veggies. I started by working on one of the large 30 gallon galvanized troughs where the mint was dead as a door nail. I amended the soil with some chicken shit fertilizer and soaked it.  I'll add some more cow shit and a little more fresh topsoil to all the beds and rotate some plants that won't rob the soil of all it's nutrients.

I bought some shirts today, size large. I haven't been anything smaller than double XL for 15 years.

This is my stupid world today.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Food Consumption;

Breakfast; black tea, juice

Lunch; nothing

Dinner; Pasta and salad

Exercise; 3 miles walking