Thinking about growing vegetables
This summer I missed not being able to grow some of my own food, so I hope that I can get a plot in a community garden next spring. It would be great for growing cheap greens. During one winter break in Gettysburg, I was able to pick from the snow some Swiss chard that was still fresh. And it would be easy to pig out eating peas directly from their pods while still in the garden. [The stereophotos I took of the site/sight in Madison turned out poorly, so maybe I'll return there before the weather gets worse and just take a digital photo.]

My election official training was Thursday afternoon at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, and I arrived early to walk around while listening to the news on my mp3 player/radio. It made me think of two things--Zizhuyuan (Purple Bamboo Park, in Beijing) and the vegetable gardens I've grown for my grandmother. Because writing about Zizhuyuan now would take up too much space, I'll I just say something about growing vegetables.

A new project that I especially like in Madison is a little vegetable plot, Madison FarmWorks Capitol Vegetable Garden, started this past spring at a corner of the capitol square. Sometimes while taking a look at the plot, I've overheard people wondering about the lemon cucumbers grown there, and I've told them about growing them at my grandmother's. They taste about the same as typical cucumbers; the name comes from the color and shape. Many of my seeds, such as the lemon cucumber, have come from Seed Savers Exchange, a non-proft focused on saving heirlooms. This summer I'd hoped to visit their huge gardens near Decorah in northeast Iowa and get some ideas about what to grow, but that trip will have to wait until next year.

I recommend trying, from seed, ground cherries, which are about the size of small cherries within paper-like husks [see photo at Seed Savers site] and taste sweet and slightly tart. One tiny bush can grow about the same as what's in the $4 pint-size boxes sold at the farmers' market. Noir des Carmes is an easy-to-grow cantaloupe because the color changes from dark green to orange when they're mature. I agree with the catalog description that rosa bianca eggplant can be very good for cooking, but I've yet to see it at the farmers' market. Some of the tomatoes I planted within sight of Fourth Street, the busy road that ran past my grandmother's, so as to encourage others to think about using their front yards to grow some edible plants.

Amaranth has interested me ever since I read in 10th grade about the Aztecs growing it for the nutritious grain. When I tried last summer a variety best for the leaves, the results were just so-so sized leaves, maybe because I planted them too late and in a bad spot.

Because of the numerous community gardens in Madison, I'm thinking about including them as an option for an in-the-field exploration assignment for intro soc or contemporary American society.  Here's a working paper from 1998 on community gardens--"Harvesting the City: Community Gardening in Greater Madison, Wisconsin" http://www.cityfarmer.org/madison.html  The relatively small garden closest to me, Sheboygan, had a waiting list of at least a dozen people this spring, so maybe I should try Eagle Heights for next spring because of the turn-over rate of students from the nearby Eagle Heights apartments owned by UW. Another important community garden in Madison, probably among the best in the US, is Troy Gardens.