(Culinary) Mushroom Adventures

Not long ago I happened across this nifty thing, a Back to the Roots Mushroom Kit. I didn't get any freebies from them - I saw the kit online, decided I'd take a chance and try it out. So far, it's pretty dang cool.

Day 5 Growth

These guys take used coffee grounds from a local (to them) coffeeshop and prepare them for growing mushrooms. They ship you the kit, you soak it, you spritz it with water, and blammo: you get oyster mushrooms blasting out overnight.

If you are reading this and you happen to know my father, don't tell him about it. I want to give a kit to him for his next birthday. :)

Growing Things

This spring, I have tried my hand at some gardening, of various sorts.

In the backyard, we have/had onions, potato plants, a strawberry plant, rosemary, and tomatoes. Mostly, my crop has been a shining example of laughable and puny, although so far everything has proved edible.

I have learned that this is the difference between caged tomatoes (big) and staked (small):



Same variety of plant, even.

I have also learned that Central Texas soil is really tough to work with. I can grow better things out of that nasty poly fiber-fill stuff than I can from the clay-heavy crud that's in our backyard:



Pattern: Lucky Bamboo by June Gilbank
Mods: I made the stalks shorter; my yarn choices (scraps) meant that the stalks were turning out relatively bigger than the pot and sand.

The Creatures You Meet

Yes, it's been a while.

So we bought a house.

And I didn't want to say anything, because for a while there it looked like it would all fall through. Then it didn't, and we had a house, and we had to move into the house. And I was like, blog? What? Do I have one of those?

But we're moved in now. It's way more suburban than we'd prefer, but there's this thing about price ranges and location.

On the upside, we have a yard. I've planted some things that will hopefully survive, and there's room for us to take crazy art projects (more on that later) outside where we won't destroy the wood floor.

On the downside... we have a yard. DANG it.

And suburban though this might be, I'm learning that having a yard brings you a little closer to nature. You take care of the lawn and observe every critter you see, in case its behavior turns invasive.

In fact...

We chose this morning to attack the lawn. I went as the vanguard, trowel and gloves at the ready, pulling weeds so the fella could mow. (And by the way, there is no faster way to age yourself and face the sudden reality that your hipster days are like so totally finished than to push a lawnmower around the place. Again: DANG it.) Everything was going swimmingly - and then, I spied something unusual:

At least, I thought it was unusual. I don't know, we're new to suburbia. Maybe these things crawl out of the sewers all the time.

But that's probably Florida. And this is Texas. Do they have free-range crawfish in Texas? Um.

He was still alive, too - he was crawling through the St. Augustine. I was willing to pick up the guy, but we had no idea where to put him. Should we be humanitarian and give him a shot at life? Or boil him ourselves?

Turns out, the neighbors are having a crawfish boil. He'd set down the cooler for a few minutes next to the house... and a couple escaped, and tried to make a run for it. Quite fresh and healthy little buggers, too: they were like five feet from where he'd set the cooler. The neighbor kindly picked up the stray crawfish and returned them to death row.

We combed the yard to make sure no more renegade crustaceans waited for us. After all - and I'm no expert - but I think that would gunk up the mower.

(DANG it.)

Hello and Good-bye, Mr. Bean

This spring I planted a few beans in a pot on my fella's balcony. It's been an up-and-down winter, with me not always here to water or move the pot inside when the temperatures dipped below freezing. The basil in the next pot over never even poked its head above the soil, but beans are almost completely dummy-proof. Exhibit A:

A week ago, I noticed a tiny bean!

In my enthusiasm and total lack of experience, I picked it. This past Wednesday, I also stir-fried and ate it, along with a handful of organic store-bought beans. But I took special note when little Mr. Bean (Hi there, Rowan Atkinson fans) showed up on my fork.

I'm pleased to report that he tasted just the same as all the rest.

The internets tell me that I am to expect several more where he came from. Fingers crossed for home gardening!