Avignon - 6-25-12

Um, I haven't done this in a while. I guess I'm back.

After three flights and untold hours waiting in airports (well, none of our layovers were over two hours, and no flights were late. Told, I guess), Katie and I arrived in France. Our flights took us from Columbus to the Twin Cities to Amsterdam to Marseilles. My sister-in-law, Maggie, picked us up from the airport and drove us to Avignon, about 1.5 hours away. It was a lovely drive through Provence. Since I was suffering from jet lag (not to badly, I might add) and becoming accustomed to a new point-and-shoot camera, it was some time before I actually took it out and started shooting. My first photos were of the Palais de Papes, or Palace of the Popes, in Avignon.

During the so-called Babylonian Captivity (1309-1377), the popes resided not in Rome, but it Avignon. From 1378 until about 1415 (during the so-called Great Schism), the Antipopes resided here. I prefer to call this the Antipapal Palace rather than the Papal Palace. After all, antipopes have resided there more recently than popes.

On a side note, Maggie's boyfriend, Bouba, is originally from Senegal. In Pular (or is it Woolaf?), the word for "poop" is "poop." Bouba's English is quite limited. My French is even more limited. Nonetheless, I could call the Palais de Papes the "Palais de Poop," and both of us could laugh.

I guess this is the church attached to the Palais de Poop.

Close-up of the statue.

I bet this is called the Place de la Palais de Antipapes.

This photo is around the corner from the Poopal Palace. A guitarist was playing something in a harmonic minor key. It sounded vaguely Gypsy. I gave him a Euro. The acoustics were tremendous.

So, there's a vandal in Avignon who attaches tiles to buildings shaped like objects from Space Invaders.  I found myself photographing vandalism whenever possible. Enjoy.

Spacey Invader.

Bouba, Maggie, and Katie.

This is a "Green Wall." This is an amazing way to cover a blank cinderblock wall. It is energy efficient, cleans the air, and is attractive to look at (please ignore the bright red cherry picker in the foreground).

Political graffiti. Woot!

Miscellaneous Gothic church in Avignon.

Ganesh and more graffiti (possible Ganesh that IS graffiti).

Well, that was Day 1. After our stroll through Avignon and a late evening dinner, we returned to Maggie and Bouba's for some much needed slumber. At that point, we had been "up" for almost two day. I had managed to nap on the transatlantic flight, thus fooling my brain into thinking it was the next day (which it was). Officially, this was my least-bad eastbound jet lag of my life. One of my superpowers is, indeed, the power of sleep. Speaking of which...

Garden details

Bibb Lettuce, Pablo Lettuce, and Black Valentine Bush Beans

American Spinach, Parisian Carrots, and Pinto Beans

Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Butterhead Speckled Lettuce, and Tenderette Beans.

Buttercrunch Lettuce, Watermelon Radish, and Cilantro/Coriander.

Gourmet Lettuce Blend, Dwarf Blue Scotch Curled Kale, and Early Mazuna Mustard.

Buttercrunch Lettuce, Wong Bok (Chinese Cabbage), Cilantro/Coriander.

Arugula/Roquette, Evergreen Bunching Onion, Moss Curled Parsley.

Boston Pickling Cucumber, Speckled Roman Tomatoes, Shallots.

Celery, Brussels Sprouts, and Eggplant.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Chioggia Beet, and Clemson Spineless Okra.

Nutri-Red Carrots, Hamburg Parsley - Rooted Parsnip, and Detroit Golden Beet.

Danvers Half Long Carrots, Hakurei Hybrid Turnip, Cayene Chili, Poblano Chili.

Watermelon Radish, Carnival Blend Carrot, Jalapeño Chili and Cayenne Chili.

Vietnamese Mint, Kentucky Colonel Mint, Roma Tomato, Sweet 100 Tomato, Pineapple Tomato, 2 Tomatillo plants, Defiant Tomato, Green Zebra Tomato, and Cherokee Purple

Garden Update - mid June

Well, between the end of the quarter and the wedding, I have been crazy effing busy over the past 2 months. I FINALLY have some time to blog. Although I barely had enough time to even shit, I did make certain to keep up with the garden. It's planted, and pretty much full. Here's an updated photo:


I will go through what I have planted plot by plot over the next few days or so. Keep an eye out. BTW, I LOVE Summer break.

Foraging for dinner

So, I had already begun to regress from a full consumer economy member to an active participant in agriculture. That is, of course, the whole point of this blog, these days. Now, it is safe to say, that I have further devolved into a hunter/gatherer (well, a gatherer). I have foraged for my first meal.

Last week, I heard a story on NPR about urban foraging. This compelled me to think of some of my weeds in a different light. One of the biggest problems I have faced with my raised beds is that the system that I used to smother the grass has failed to kill the Wild Garlic (and violets). Wild Garlic, aka Allium vineale, had become the bane of my existence. Sure it looks like harmless little chives, but damn that shit is resilient! Well, instead of hating it, I decided to try to eat it. That was the right choice.

First off, the only way to get rid of wild garlic is to pull it out by the bulbs. (This will not completely get rid of it, but is better than mowing it down.) Since the bulbs need to come out, I thought, perhaps I should just eat it. I consulted another blog about the possibility of eating the stuff - whether it is poisonous, tastes bad, that sort of thing. I decided to give it a try. I made a pasta con aglia e olio (pasta with garlic and oil). It was delicious. Here is the procedure I used.

1. Harvest the weed. This involves digging the bulb structure with a trowel. Wild garlic reproduces in two ways: a. using flowers (not common in urban yards, as it usually gets mowed before flowering), and b. laterally by creating little neighboring bulbs. Consequently, the bulb cluster has a huge variety of size.

2. Clean the plants. I started with about a 2" diameter clump of bulbs and dirt, shook off as much as I could, and brought the remaining plants inside. To clean them, I ran them under the faucet for a few minutes (being sure not to let any stones go down the drain), then I filled the sing with water and soaked the entire plants for a few minutes. The cleaning process was very time consuming. Most of the bulbs (and corresponding chive-like leaves) are too small to use. These I discarded. I wound up keeping about 15 bulb-chive plants. The bulbs were about a cm in diameter, the leaves were about 8" long (give or take).

3. Prepare the food. I boiled 1/2 a box of pasta (I used fancy-shmancy gourmet market pasts. I'm an Epicurean, so sue me!). While that was cooking, I separated the bulbs from the leaves and roughly chopped the tiny bulbs. Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I returned it to the pot, added EVOO (or olio) and butter, then added the garlic. I put both the chopped bulbs and the leaves in. The latter were prepared using kitchen scissors, cutting them directly into to the pot. I did not want to overcook the garlic, but I wanted to temper the volatile flavor a bit (as I would do with normal onions or garlic). Meanwhile, I sliced grape tomatoes in half (useful hint: use two round, plastic container lids, put them together with the tomatoes inside, run knife between the two lids - no fuss, perfectly sliced tiny tomatoes!). I tossed the tomatoes with the pasta, threw in some crushed red pepper (aka birdseed), and topped it all with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and freshly graded Parmaggiano Reggiano.

It was delicious. It was also super cool to turn a nasty headache of a weed (and the bane of my organic gardening existence) into a delicious meal. Yay killing two birds with one stone by turning weeding into lunch! Yay foraging!

Trees = planted

In the past 48 hours, I have planted or transplanted a total of 13 trees. Cool, huh? Step one was to transplant the crabapple tree from the back of our property to the front. This was the most difficult job, as the tree is about 7' tall. It's a nice tree, but the previous owners of our home had planted it right where it would eventually shade out the garden. I couldn't have that, so I moved it to the north end of the property. Assuming I did not kill it, problem solved!

The other 12 trees (well, 10 trees and 2 shrubs) were all obtained from the Arbor Day Foundation. Yeah, that's right. I donated money to the Arbor Day foundation. What did I get out of it? 1. A tax write off (woo, $25 bucks). 2. 10 trees and 2 shrubs. They came in the mail this week. Let me repeat this. I received 10 trees and 2 shrubs IN THE MAIL. That either means that I have brought abuse upon our femail man, or the trees were tiny. That's right. Tiny trees. Twigs with roots.

The two shrubs are Lilac bushes (well, twigs) that I planted between our fruit trees (that are flowering nicely). The 10 trees consist of 2 White Flowering Dogwoods (both planted at our house - one in front, one in back), 2 American Redbud (both, now, at my sister's house), 2 Golden Raintree trees (one at Dea's, one at Katie's 'rents' house), 2 Washington Hawthornes (both at Katie's 'rents'), and 2 crabapples (one at Katie's 'rents' and one back beyond our back fence). I am proud of myself, but I am tired of digging for a while.

New beds 5/5/11

Here, at long last is a photo of my recent work. Of greatest prominence are the two new raised beds. Hopefully, I will find the time to get down to get down to Com-Til, this week. The new beds need LOTS of soil fill. The older beds need a bit (that is mainly my own leaf litter that you see). Notice that the back fence is not as monotonous as it once was. Over Spring Break, I transplanted all of those boxwood bushes from the front of the house. Hopefully, they will thrive, here. We received a Forsythia bush as a present over the weekend. I plan to plant it to the left of the boxwoods.


Finally, I would like to give a shout-out to my father. He turns 70, today. I look forward to how his genes will play out for me, as, apart from being semi-retired, he could easily pass for someone 20 years younger (Actually, this is true for both of my parents. I won the genetic lottery, bitches!).

Arbor Day

So, I donated some money to the Arbor Day foundation. In return, I received ten (that's right, TEN) saplings to plant. I received them in the mail, today. I have two Sargent Crabapples (Malus sargentii), two Eastern Redbuds (Cercis Canadensis), two Washington Hawthorns (Crateygus phaenopyrum), two White Flowering Dogwoods (Cornus florida), and two Goldenraintrees (Koelreuteria paniculata). As a special gift, I also received two Fragrant Lilacs (Syringa vulgaris). I plan to plant the two lilacs, two dogwoods, and one of the redbuds, here. Speaking to my fiancé's mom, yesterday, they have a bunch of dead space in their yards. I think I can plant the others at their house. I really like the idea of planting trees. It feels empowering.

Productive

Holy shit, I was productive, today. Katie and I planned a party (in the future), we finished our taxes, and we completed the other half of the raised bed system I spoke of earlier. We accomplished this all the while finding time to spend with Katie's family, as her grandfather passed away early this morning. RIP, Huck. He would have approved of the gardening.

Anywho, the second bed is complete. The two recent beds are both 3' deep. The longer of the two is 16' wide, with a divider in the center. The shorter is just over 10' long, with one bay being about 3'-6" and the other about 7.' By having separate cells, I can better regulate soil content for specific crops. Also, the dividers provide extra structural reinforcement. Between each of my beds I have left 3' paths. This is wide enough to get the lawn mower through. 3' is wide enough that I can pivot the wheel barrow 90 degrees. The 12" height of the sides of the beds is a perfect fit for the wheel barrow. I can upend the barrow with the lep fully over the wall. I have several inches to spare. It is wonderful being able to DUMP compost into the beds (from a 3' wide path). Yay, MATH!

The growing medium composition is a work in process. Just like the 6" beds from last fall, I smothered the grass with newspapers (3-5 pages thick) that were then hosed down. The smothered grass composts in the ground. Atop the newspapers I put a layer of composted leaf litter, a layer of composted manure, and another layer of leaf litter. The compost comes from several bags I hadleft in the garage since last year. Yes, I know that they've lost much of their goodness. I am mainly thinking of filler, at this point. I am reluctant to use the soil from my tomato pots from last year. I had some blight, and I don't want to risk it being transferred to the new beds. Most of the soil (which will be deposited on top of the leaf litter layers in all beds) will come from Comtil. I have never used Comtil, before. I am REALLY hoping that the soil is delivered in bags. If not, I might have to look elsewhere.

I should have photos for you tomorrow.

New Raised Bed

I added another raised bed, today. I had planned to complete an entire row of beds, but I ran out of 1" screws (and then ran out of washers). Oh well. As you may have observed, my first row of beds is made of 2x6 boards of untreated pine, held together by corner braces and reinforcing braces. This row will be ideal for leafy greens that do not require a deep system of roots (lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and the like). The second row will consist of two 3' by approximately 15' beds constructed using 2x12 boards of untreated pine. Yes, I know I will need to replace the boards in a few years, but the untreated wood will not leak chemicals into the soil. Growing up, we had beds made of bricks and railroad ties. The ties leak creosote. That's bad. The bricks were just too thick. I did not want to waste that much space on the walls. 1.75' is enough, thank you.

The second tier of beds will be ideal for deeply rooted veggies that do not grow particularly tall (root veggies such as beets and turnips, low chili peppers, herbs). I am taking into consideration that some plants I intend to grow - sunflowers, corn, hops, tomatoes, etc. - could potentially block the sunlight of plants planted to the North of them. My southernmost plants will grow close to the ground. My tallest plants will be sown in the northernmost begs. Today's bed is of the middle ground.

Photos to follow.

Today's Fardening

I finished transplanting the boxwoods from the front of the house to right along the back fence. The previous owners installed the fence to add privacy. I see it as a sun-blocking device (but I like that no one from the alley can see my produce). By placing boxwoods along the fence, I break up the monotony and fill up otherwise (constantly in shade) dead space.

I also bought two raspberry plants, today. They have been planted along the eastern fence (left, below). They should get decent light from about noon to about two hours before sunset. Because raspberries like acidic soil, I "mulched" them with the limbs (or should I say boughs) from the Xmas tree. The trunk of said Xmas tree will eventually be firewood, but right now it is a scary ass club.

I also planted a rhubarb plant and several asparagus plants. All three main crop plants are delayed gratification investments: none of them may (or can) be harvested in the first years. I'm okay with delayed gratification... for now.

Urban Organic Farming (aka I'm back-ish?)

As you can plainly see, I have not updated my blog in quite some time. Other priorities, I suppose. Anywho, although I do hope, some day, to finish documenting my 2007-08 trip to Italy, I intend to shift gears with Teenage Wasteland, and mainly document my efforts at Urban Organic Farming. Well, "farming" might be too strong of a term. I plan on turning my yard into one hell of a garden - a farden, if you will.


This is what I am starting with. Some of the work was begun last Autumn. The raised bed at the rear (southern end) of the yard are composed of untreated pine 4x6's. To kill the grass, I put down newspaper, wetted the newspaper with water from my rain barrel, and topped it all off with compost. Theoretically, the newspaper would smother the grass and compost itself in the process. It was a near complete success. There are some chive-like weeds that survived the process. Kudos to the previous owners of the house for not chemical treating their lawn. If this means that I can have safe veggies and only have to pull up the occasional shitty chives (as opposed to non-shitty chives, which I will be growing), I am a happy fardner.

Last September, the beds had been planted with (from east to west) mustard greens, white radishes, turnips, more turnips (Jan Jansen would be proud), miscellaneous Asian greens (small section), spinach, and some sort of pinkish greenish lettuce.The thought was that I would get some baby greens, some roots, and use the rest as green compost. The mustard greens grew really quickly and were delicious (still "baby" greens) until the frost killed them off. The radishes survived the frost, but were mainly eaten by wildlife. The turnips ARE (present tense) doing well. I'm gonna see where they are a little closer to the frost date. The Asian greens did well and seem to be returning. I'll see where they are in a few weeks, as well. The spinach was eaten by wildlife in its infancy. The lettuce was killed by the frost. Some of it came back, but not enough to bother experimenting with, so I covered the dead-ish beds with composted leaf mold. They'll get a dose of composted manure closer to the frost date.

La Fornace e Montepulciano

Outside Montalcino 31 December 2007

Being in the general region of Italy where Sangiovese grapes are grown and the specific region of Tuscany where Brunello is bottled, we then set forth to find a small vintner from whom to taste.

The entire region is dominated by small farms, each of which seems to specialize in viticulture.

The one that caught our fancy was named La Fornace. Above is the farmhouse. The door at the center leads to the dedicated tasting room.

Can you say atmosphere? So, the above image is the dedicated tasting room. We were privileged to be permitted to partake of delicious Rosso di Montalcino (2005), Brunello (2005), and Brunello (1998). Sadly the 2005 Brunello was not permitted to be sold. Italy has very strict laws governing the bottling of wines. For wine to called "Brunello," it must be made of a certain percentage of locally grown Sangiovese grapes, and it must sit in the bottle for a specific number of days. Once those criteria are met, the government issues a little pink sticker to go over the cork, certifying that the wine is, indeed, Brunello. We were three days shy of the date on which the 2005 Brunello could be sold (i.e. when it would receive the pink sticker). Since the bottles were already labeled, it was illegal for them to sell us the 2005 Brunello. We were able to purchase the 2005 Rossi do Montalcino. We also bought a bottle of the 1998 Brunello, which we are sitting on. The vintner also allowed me to taste his grappa. Grappa is a hard liquor made from distilling the left over stems and must from the winemaking process. I really like it. It reminds me of tequila. If you add grappa to espresso it is called "corretto," or "corrected." Sadly, they were out of bottle of grappa, otherwise I would have bought one of those, as well.

This is the vintner and his dog, Astra.

Astra is very cute.

By the time that we finished at La Fornace, it was beginning to get dark (5pm, or so... it was right after the Solstice). This image captures the last glimmer of sun on the Tuscan landscape between Montalcino and Montepulciano (where they make a damn fine Vino Nobile - Katie and I just drank the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano that we bought. It was transcendant.).

Montepulciano is another picturesque hilltown in southern Tuscany known for its viticulture. It ranks slightly below Montalcino in the quality of its wine. It was also approaching dusk when we arrived. Just after parking the car, I was able to capture the above image, which, I feel, capture the atmosphere of small town Tuscany.

This is the clock tower on the town hall of Montepulciano. Since it was dusk when we arrived (which, on New Years Eve, fell about two hours before the restaurants began to serve dinner), all we did was walk around, take in the sights, and purchase food at an authentic Italian equivalent of a deli. I bought prosciutto for my dad; pasta, cheese, and pancetta for dinner (I cooked spaghetti carbonara for dinner that night - it was damned good!); and we purchased the aforementioned transcendant Vino Nobile. The rapidly diminishing sunlight would preclude further photographs. Another day, another gig of jpegs. The next day is next year. I would travel back in time and trespass, all while my stomach acid slowly digests me. Stay tuned!

Castello di Montalcino

Montalcino 31 December 2007

The above belvedere (beautiful view) shows part of the town and surrounding landscape of Montalcino. Note the natural tinting of the background landscape as it recedes into the distance. This is, of course, a consequence of light being diffused by the air molecules between the camera and the distant landscape. Artists would struggle in the Renaissance to create the illusion of three dimensional space on a two dimensional canvas. The depicting this "Atmospheric Perspective" accurately would greatly help create the illusion of distance. Incidentally, Montalcino is the region in which Brunello, one of the world's finest red wines, is bottled. More on that later.

The above image depicts the curtain wall of the Castello di Montalcino (the castle of Montalcino). The castello served as a defensive space within the town (which is, itself, fairly defensible, as it is high atop a hill). The high curtain walls were designed to withstand a direct attack from Medieval military technology (catapults, trebuchets, ballistas, etc.). An attacker would need to find another way to get to the chewy center of the castle...

Indeed, even getting close to the curtain wall would be difficult. An attacker would need to either scale tall terraced walls, or travel along the winding access road. The latter option would expose the attacker to defensive firepower.

Approaching he wall with the intention of busting through would have been potentially deadly to the Medieval attacker. The protrusion of the towers allowed defenders a stright shot down the length of the wall at potential enemies. They would be sitting ducks for archers.

Incidentally, the castle courtyard affords a glorious vista of the town church. I insisted on walking up to the church, insisting that it was of architectural significance. Sadly, I had mistaken Montalcino for Montecassino. The above church was quite boring, somewhat gaudy, and clearly decorated in the late 19th century. Laaaaaaaame!

If attackers manage to get all the way to the main gate, they face the "Murder Hole." From these slots above, defenders can dump all manner of damaging stuff down on attackers. By "damaging stuff," I mean boiling oil, molten lead, arrows, spit, what have you.

Where's a vat of molten lead when you need it?

The view from the other (non-gate, non-church facing) side of the castle was upon the scenic Tuscan landscape: Vineyards as far as the eye could see. The primary grape grown in this area is the Sangiovese varietal, which produces Rosso di Montalcino and Brunello. The next wing of our journey will involve our efforts to acquire some of that.

I suck, but I intend some day not to.

So, I have been totally lame and have not updated my blog in quite some time. Don't feel left out, I have also barely updated my deviantART page, and I have completely ignored my geocities homepage. Anywho, I hope to remedy all of this in the very near future. Stay tuned!

P. S. In the meantime, check out my older posts using the convenient calendar menu/function, below. There are tons of great photos of Italy, there.

Guillermina's Home

San Francesco 31 December 2007

I should work for the agency that promotes the house we stayed in: San Francesco. That's Italian for Saint Francis... as in Saint of Assisi. You know, the place where I ate pigeon and tried (non-neurotoxic) Absinthe. Anywho, it was a great place to stay. Each bedroom (and there were, like, 8) had its own private bath. The toilets had two flush settings: light and heavy (or, Number One and Number Two). Live pigs, chickens, cows, horses, donkeys and kitties, plus the aforementioned Etruscan Ruins. It was great.

San Francesco

This is a view of the Montefiascone from San Francesco. We will be visiting Montefiascone in a few days. It is a lovely hill town.

Guillermina is a good kitty.

I miss her a great deal.