Turn and Burn

This is a hot compost bin we maintain at the P-Patch. It's filled with weeds and other stuff pulled from the garden, green grass clippings and brown leaves. The deal is, if you mix green and brown you get compost (nitrogen plus carbon equals humus). The beauty of hot composting, which is what this is, is that you can put things like weeds in and the heat will cook the seeds, not to mention that all of it breaks down faster. Compost is about the best plant food you can use. This bin has been hot for over a week, meaning that steam rises from it and it's warm when you stick your hand in it. To keep it hot, it needs oxygen, so I turn it every few days or so from one bin to the other. How do we have brown leaves since it's the end of summer still? They are saved from last year!

Tomato Envy

These belong to a fellow P-Patch gardener. They are about the size of baseballs. Then again, since fall has already arrived in Seattle, who knows if they will all ripen?

Fresh from the P-Patch

Some dinners are just too good to relegate to the wall. Some dinners require a photo. Tonight's dinner was supposed to be about trying out international wines from Trader Joe's, but the dinner really outclassed the wines and required a post all its own. Paul grilled a pork loin over apple wood, creating some of the juiciest most flavorful pork I have ever eaten. The rest of the meal was fresh from the garden: slow cooked Kale with balsamic and olive oil, zucchini browned in a cast iron skillet, and a salsa verde made with grilled tomatillos, walla walla onions, and parsley. Unbelievable. The wine, while pleasant, was nothing to write home about. We finished up half a bottle of La Boca 2006 Barrio Chardonnay from Mendoza Argentina and dove right into a Gaetano D'Aquino 2005 Valpolicella (Italian red). Both had a nice smell, easy drinking flavor, and no finish to speak of. But, for under $5 a bottle, we can't complain.