A Nutty Night in NYC with #PeanutPower and the National Peanut Board!

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to a sneak preview of the Perfectly Powerful Peanut Pop-Up space, which is open today (Tuesday, March 31) and tomorrow (Wednesday, April 1) at the corner of 47th Street and Lexington Ave. from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm, and then from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

If you're in the area, definitely stop by for some free, delicious (and healthy!) peanut samples and to meet the peanut farmers who are up visiting and happy to talk with you about life on a peanut farm. It is truly a great experience.

I honestly had no idea that the story behind peanut farming was so fascinating, or that the people telling it would be so absolutely charming. If I wasn't so thoroughly incapable of growing even a single Jersey tomato in my suburban garden I would seriously consider moving down south and starting a second career as a peanut farmer.

Even though I spent my childhood in a peanut growing state, Virginia, I realized I had never even seen a peanut plant, and really didn't know anything about how peanuts are grown and harvested. For example, peanuts need to be planted every single year, and they need a very specific and warm growing season, which is why almost all U.S. peanuts are grown in just ten states, with fifteen states in all growing peanuts. 

The peanut farmers were very clear when they explained to me there was no way I could grow a peanut plant like this one in New Jersey.

In addition to seeing a peanut plant for the first time, I learned a little about how peanuts are farmed (they must always be harvested on a sunny day) and how a hurricane or other natural disaster can wipe out a whole season's crop. One farmer was nice enough to show me photos of his farm, and when I admired the neatly planted rows he explained it's done by GPS now, which makes planting more efficient and environmentally friendly. The GPS comes in handy again when it's time to harvest the peanuts, as the GPS makes it easier to "find" the plants and take the peanuts out of the ground.

I also got to meet Carla Hall of The Chew along with other bloggers:

Another huge treat was trying peanut inspired recipes from Chef Joe "JJ" Johnson, like delicious peanut butter gazpacho and an amazing chocolate peanut tart. You can find all the recipes here, as well as learn more about why peanuts are a healthy and nutritious choice.

The Peanut Board was also there to talk about #PeanutEnvy, an important initiative to help feed those in need. Make a donation of $20 or more to Peanut Butter for the Hungry and receive a limited edition Peanut Envy t-shirt.

If you're in NYC today or tomorrow definitely stop by The National Peanut Board's Perfectly Powerful Peanut Pop-Up on the corner of 47th Street and Lexington Ave. to see the exhibits, try free peanut samples, and to meet the peanut farmers and their families, who are honestly the friendliest people you will find in NYC. Once you do, you're going to want to be a peanut farmer, too.

Thank you to the National Peanut Board for including me in this wonderful special event. I received an event gift bag, which included my all-time favorite peanut butter, White Chocolate Wonderful from Peanut Butter & Co. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

Poison Ivy Advice, Identification And Rhymes, Too!

It wouldn't be summer if I wasn't worrying that every plant, vine and leaf that I see is in fact not an innocent piece of flora, but in fact, the dreaded Poison Ivy.

So you can imagine my happiness when recently I saw this graphic:

Not only are the photos incredibly helpful to know what to avoid, but I love the rhymes like "Hairy vine, no friend of mine." I didn't even know that poison ivy can appear as a hairy vine!

So this summer, I will be consulting this Poison Ivy Identification graphic often, while hoping for the best.

I was not compensated for this post and I'm sorry not to have cited the photo properly, I can't remember where/how/or from whom I got it.

MY UGO - Unidentified Garden Object.

You know that old saying, the more things change the more they stay the same?

Well, it appears that is the case right now with my constantly tended, and yet so fledgling, garden.

Last year I posted (with confidence, I might add) this photo and the caption "gardening success."

This year, I am posting the same photo but with the caption "Unidentified Garden Object."

Is this yellow flower I was so proud to have blooming last year, actually a weed?

And if so, why didn't anyone tell me it was a weed and not a flower I should be bragging about as a sign of my totally awesome gardening skills?

Oh well, flower or weed it doesn't really matter.

As my mom always says: weeds are just flowers that nobody wants.

 

And whatever this yellow flower is that is growing in my garden, I totally love it.

So tell me, what do you think? Is my Unidentified Garden Object a flower or a weed?

Garden Update - Because I know you worry

The garden is doing fine, more than fine considering the heat and lack of rain this summer here in Jersey.

The tomato plant has like, I'm not kidding, thirty tomatoes that are almost, almost ripe.

The string bean plant has yielded maybe five, possibly even six, string beans. All of which Kay ate, so that alone made it worth it.

The transplanted flowers from Strong Island have all made it, and the Black-eyed Susans are lately really starting to bloom.

And the herb collection - Lavender, Rosemary, Chamomile and Lemon Verbena - are all good.

Magpie's sunflowers, grown from seed, have all bloomed to her great delight - but given she's eight, not surprise.

Happy Bee!

Magpie's sunflowers, three string beans in a row, and proof the lavender plant is indeed lavender. {Ahem.}

We have not had success with the squash, which I think the local animals have been chomping, and the strawberry plant has also been a no go as well.

But I'm not discouraged. There's always next year.

Do you garden? Are you having a successful year?

Disclosure: This is an actual update about my garden in suburban New Jersey. It is not meant as a metaphor for life.

Gardening Success

My mother and my cousin Mary have taken my fledgling garden - and me, the fledgling gardener - under their experienced gardening wing.

They worry about my gardening success.

I worry about them worrying.

So I am ecstatic to report that today this bloomed:

I think it's a sign that the garden is gonna be ok, transplant shock and all.

Next week, hopefully photos of tomatoes!

Instructions for My Husband: The Differences Between Lavender and Rosemary Plants

We don't have a rosemary plant in our garden.

We have a lavender plant.

I know this because I bought it.

I know this because I planted it.

And, I know this because our plant looks like this:

Image from our garden

And a rosemary plant looks like this:

Image from Pinterest

And here is a handy side-by-side, which shows that while similar, the Lavender plant (in my garden) has many differences from the Rosemary plant (on the Internet):

As you can see, Lavender is a "smoky green grey color" whereas Rosemary is a more waxy green.

And if computers were equipped with smell-o-vision these days - which clearly, they should be - it would make the lavender obviousness that much more, uh, obvious.

This is the twenty-eighth instruction in my ongoing series of Instructions for My Husband.

Update: my kids just saw this post and said, "Uncle thinks it's a Rosemary plant, too!" Really, Uncle?Is this true?

Old Photo Friday: Life in Larchmont

When we first moved away from Manhattan, we lived in Larchmont - a suburb in Westchester, NY, about 15 miles from our old apartment on the Upper West Side.

Because I found the idea of living in the suburbs so abhorrent, I referred to it as us "moving to the Country," and I made our best go at enjoying the fun it was for City kids to have a garden, and a yard.

Now we live in suburban New Jersey, with soil so poor we can't grow anything, although I keep trying.

And as another unremarkable gardening season begins here, I'm reminded of our very nice little Larchmont garden that first suburban summer. Our garden that with very little effort required grew vegetables and bloomed flowers, and I miss it.

And I remember my daughters delighted faces when our weekly Farm Share would show-up on the front porch  - somehow not knowing what would be there make it exciting even for kids who were almost guaranteed not to eat any of it.

So this year, I am hoping to get around to signing-up for a Farm Share before it's too late. Because there certainly isn't going to be much coming up out of the ground here. I'm willing to accept that.

If you're in New Jersey, here's a list of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs.

One of these plants is not like the others

It was, all the way around, a dismal year for my garden.

My tray of seedling tomato mystery plants I forgot to label ended up looking like this:

And because I look for meaning perhaps where there is no meaning to be found, I can't help but ponder why one plant - that I can only believe had the same soil, sun and water as her siblings - made it.

Five things I won't be doing this summer

With my kids quoting to me daily the countdown of days left of school, I am beginning to feel the pressure of Summer Vacation looming. I want the kids to have a fun summer. I also want me to have a fun summer.

I want us to have a fun summer.

So I'm resolving today, as Memorial Day Weekend kicks-off, that I won't be doing any of the following things this summer:

1. I won't be doing the dishes. That's right, I'm taking the summer off. We're going to eat on paper plates for the whole, entire summer. Yes, I know this will have a bad impact on the environment. Mother Earth - I'll get you back in the fall, I promise.

2. I won't be tracking anyone's screen-time. I'm usually strict about how much screen-time my kids get - and we essentially don't have any TV, Wii or DS during the school week. On the weekend, I go through endless machinations to be sure the older ones don't watch TV when the toddler is around (I don't like him to watch any TV at all). And even my husband drives me crazy when he leaves the TV on and watches Infomercials. But not this summer. Watch, click and drive whatever you want. But when school starts, I'm back to my usual Draconian policies.

3. I won't be online very much. Living here in the Northeast, we only have so many nice days, and most of them occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I'm going to spend them outside, cultivating my fledgling garden and hanging with my kids, hopefully poolside much of the time. Twitter - I'll be back to my obsessive ways come September.

4. I won't be taking on any major home improvement projects. We moved last July, and my quest to unpack and have everything just-so in our new home completely consumed me for the entire summer. And here I am a year later, still with boxes to unpack, closets to unstuff and lights to install. So anything still undone can wait a little longer. It will all still be there when summer ends.

And last..

5. I won't be feeling guilty about any of these things I'm not doing. Life is long, but summer is short.

What won't you be doing this summer?

Thinking about summer has put me in a nostalgic mood for my childhood ones. I'm posting 1970s photos all weekend long on Facebook for your holiday amusement.

Instructions for my Husband: Pickles do not grow on trees

Even the cucumbers from which the pickles come do not grow on trees. They also do not grow underground, though that was an excellent second guess. In fact, cucumbers grow on vines. As they did in our very own garden last summer. (The garden is the patch of vegetation surrounded by a very low square wall on the right-hand-side directly next to the garage.) See photo to left.

And no matter how emphatically you claimed that was "what you meant," there's no way you can convince me a vine is a tree.

And last, while we're on the subject, pickles aren't made by putting cucumbers in pickle juice. They're made by putting cucumbers in brine.

This is my fifteenth post in my ongoing series Instructions for My Husband.

Taking A Step Back in Time at My Local Hardware Store

Where I live has a total small-town vibe even though it's just miles from the wonder that is Manhattan.

I've become a regular at my local hardware store, where I like to ask endless questions of the patient and knowledgeable owner. His family has had the store for three generations, and I imagine he runs the place just like his father, and grandfather, did before him.

It is here that my husband bought me my beloved clean-air push reel mower. And it is here that we have bought rakes and hoes and all the other items required of our new suburban life as wannabe-Amish farmers. And here that I had answered 101 questions about what kind of grass seed I should buy. And how to plant the grass seed. And how to water the grass seed. And of course, how to mow the grass should it eventually grow.

I like going to this place. For the chats with the owner. And for the total anachronism.

Yes, the Juice-O-Mat is for sale. And as my friend at Mutterschwester would say, I'm Glad I Saw It.

Instructions for My Husband: What I'd like for Mother's Day

Not that you asked, and certainly not that whatever sweet things the kids make aren't enough (because they are dear children, of course they are!), but if you just so happened to be shopping... here are just a few ideas:

This super-fabulous modern desk from George Nelson:

Anything by Jennifer Fisher Jewelry. Really, I mean it, anything....

From JenniferFisherJewelry.com

And finally? I would love a no gas push mower. To go with my compost. You know I'm serious about being a wannabe-Amish farmer.

You say I'll hate mowing the lawn. But look how happy this lady looks. I'm sure I'll be a smiley happy mower, too.

Photo from CleanAirGardening.com

Think how nice I'll look out mowing the lawn, while wearing my new necklace (or ring, or bracelet, honestly it is your choice). And, just imagine how much I'll love sitting at my new desk, looking out over my beautifully cut lawn, secure in the knowledge it was mowed without creating any noise pollution or causing harm to the environment. And yes, I do think expensive jewelry is compatible with my Amish farmer aspirations.

I recently read a great and funny post from Wendi Aarons "Your Ad Here" about bloggers dropping company names in the hopes that they will take notice. I am only dropping these names for one person, who I don't think is reading anyway, and that is probably for the best.

This is the twelfth post in my ongoing series Instructions for my Husband.

Anyone else have material requests for Mother's Day?