Plantings

[liralen]

On the way home tonight, I saw the near new moon, a single, tarnished silver fingernail of light drifting in and out of darkness as storm clouds moved in. It kept disappearing and then reappearing when I looked for it as if slipping away from attention. There should be snow tonight.

I spent the last two days planting. Rows and rows of stuff at the outreach center. Four packets of seeds, hundreds of plants, probably. Most of them will freeze and thaw for the next few weeks, but they're the varieties that can take it at night. Then, today, after a three hour nap, I planted over 100 tomato and sweet pepper plants for myself and the outreach center, and anyone that wants to grow some plants and take the resultant veg back to feed the homeless. It should help. Yesterday, one of the guys came out to help a little, before some group was serving lunch, and when he left, he waved and said, "Keep warm."

I returned, "Keep warm." It always tugs at me, that parting.

Especially when the support for the peas was frozen solid to the ground. I had to yank up all the strings to try and get it out of the ice. Snow still drifts in all the dark, north facing areas. But I planted spinach and lettuce and radishes. They all do well in the cold.

I failed to make kendo yet again. The plants needed doing so badly, and I've been wiped out for a few days and nights. I'm going to be gone for a week and in a week, they'll all be up and sprouted and another week and I'll be transplanting into the greenhouse. Then I'll start more. Last year, they got over 3000 pounds of food from the $40 worth of seed I started like a maniac. I'll keep doing that part of it.

Jet had friends over and with the extra sunshine, they played until it was nearly 7, and then did video games in the basement. I planted while they played, and then tried to get a little computer time in and finally edited down the first chapter of the next two in twin souls. Another to do and another being written, I'm feeling good about the flow through on the stories. But Jet and I had been planning on doing glow golf for the evening. Given that I was leaving for a week, we wanted to do something special together. But the mall had closed even before he'd come in from outside. So we had a McDonald's dinner together, and he was happy with that. I'm glad I have a kid that's easily pleased. *grin*

Comments

[marith.livejournal.com]

Wow. The idea that you got 3000 pounds of food started...that's just amazing. I wonder if the soup kitchens and such here grow vegetables, and if not if they should. hm!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the OUR center's biggest food expense is for fresh vegetables. Salads, especially. So the garden has been really, really useful for them, and I need to really keep up the lettuce and greens this year, compared to last year. Not nearly the weight as the tomatoes or cucumbers or the like, and they get tons of zucchini from everyone that planted too much, so I don't like to grow those.

But they have 1300 square feet of raised beds, which my muscles like to complain about every time I do something there. *laughter*. It's pretty huge, and very useful on the most part. I don't know if other soup kitchens have that kind of room, though, so I couldn't say if they do it or not. It's a cheap way to get a lot of fresh veg, but they have trouble getting enough volunteers to keep it maintained. I try, but it's hard for one person to take care of that much space.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Yah, my first thought on reading this was that that 3000 pounds of food came from $40 of seed... and one Liralen. Most soup kitchens can arrange for one of those, but few are privileged to get the other. :)

I still remember my high school Ec teacher demonstrating pretty conclusively that food you grow yourself is the most expensive food you will ever eat, if one considers opportunity cost of the time and land. (Things are never quite that simple in real life, of course - Liralen being a living, breathing, market externality. But remember the cost of labor and land, when considering whether the soup kitchen should grow its own food.)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yes.

The OUR Center gets volunteers to do the labor. It's a HUGE cost if it had to be paid for. The land was donated, which makes it easy on the organization. The water is probably the most expensive part of the growing, and Longmont has a great water supply, so it's not too bad.

But, yes, as you say, it's not something other outreach centers have as opportunities.

Our home grown stuff is pretty monetarily cheap for us, though. As there aren't really other opportunities for the land, and the labor is my hobby. But, yeah, it's probably as outrageously expensive as my handmade socks. *grin* Especially compared to the kind of money I *could* be making in the same amount of time. *laughter* Especially when I was a consultant during the boom... bah...

[calmingeffects.livejournal.com]

It is so nice that you are working so hard to help. It is a good cause and it must give you real joy. And I would just like to point out that of COURSE Jet was happy going to McDonalds! What kid isn't!!!

also your first paragraph is beautiful

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grins* So true. What kid isn't? He enjoyed it, and we'll do the glow golf today, instead...

*hugs* I'm glad you liked the first paragraph. The moon was so beautiful I had to write it down and remember...