A Weekend of Eating Underwood—In 4 Short Updates

The Mysterious Case of the Peach Pit

The peaches are starting to ripen on the peach tree out front. Today I found a peach pit sitting on the front porch. Apparently, Mr. Squirrel had the audacity to lounge on our front porch while snacking on our peaches. The peach tree was covered in netting within five minutes of this devastating discovery. I’m just sorry that we didn’t have the kind hospitality to offer the little dude a mint julep to go with his peach.

Peach

Exhibit A: A near-ripe peach on the tree

Surprises are Sprouting

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I Got Worms: Red Wigglers for the Compost

I got worms. […] That’s what we’re gonna call it. “I Got Worms!” We’re gonna specialize in selling worm farms. You know, like ant farms.
Lloyd Christmas (Dumb & Dumber)

Imagine my surprise when I arrived home from work on Thursday evening and found a package waiting for me. “It’s your early Christmas present, from one of our most faithful readers,” Karyn told me.

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Silverdocs 2010: Gardening in DC

Each summer, I take time off my regular job to work at Silverdocs, a documentary film festival by the American Film Institute and Discovery Channel.

Among their dozens of films each year, they often screen one or two about gardening, such as THE GARDEN, a documentary about Mexican-American families turning a forgotten corner lot in Los Angeles into a community garden. This year, the they are screening CORNER PLOT, a ten minute short about an old farmer on a one-acre lot inside the Beltway who has seen the neighboring farmland gobbled up by urban developments.

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Drinking Underwood: Mojitos

Since we just moved into our new house on May 23, we got a late start planting our garden this year. (Though we did have a peach tree planted by May 24, so we wasted no time at all.) Our harvests have been limited thus far: basil, peppers, rosemary, mint and a small handful of blueberries.

But it’s really the mint that we’ve been hitting the hardest—sun tea with fresh mint, strawberries with mint and—mojitos! Last summer, we raided our mint population so intensely that it was depleted by early July—mostly due to a healthy mojito addiction. This year, we have three pots growing on the front stoop. The mojito, a Cuban drink, may be the perfect summer cocktail.

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I Can See Clearly Now the Tree Is Gone

As I left for work this morning, Banjo cowered under the bed. From the alleyway came rumblings far more ominous than the garbage truck and far more foreign than Coco, his new sister.

If he had had the nerve to peek out the window on the other end of the house, Banjo would have seen something that looked like a slow-motion carnival ride, except these carnies were wielding chainsaws and the thrill seekers were the limbs of a 60-foot tall tree.

Our neighbor had arranged for the entire 60-foot tall, rotten tree to be removed, not just the branch that fell across our yard and onto our other neighbor’s deck.

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If your neighbor’s tree falls on your back yard, everyone hears it…

We’ve been at Underwood for exactly two weeks—a really lovely, but exhausting two weeks. This morning Alex and I walked to the neighborhood natural foods store and to the Takoma Park Farmers Market. At the market we bought three more heirloom tomatoes, two eggplants, Greek oregano, Thai basil and purple basil. (Alex wanted the purple basil because it looks pretty. We’ll figure out what to do with it later.)

Shortly after we got home, the sky began to darken, so we decided to hurry and put the plants in the two new raised beds that Alex built this week, along with some seeds. As we were planting, we started to hear distant thunder. A downpour swept up just as I got the last of the seeds in. (It’s a little late in the season for it, but I planted chard, spinach and collards, all of which promise to be heat resistant). Alex wanted to try and put the basil in, but I could tell that we’d get drenched, so we ran inside for cover.

Not three minutes after getting inside we heard a loud crack, looked out the kitchen window facing onto the backyard and saw a tree beginning to fall. I yelled, “a tree is about to fall on the house,” and darted out of the kitchen. (I may have also ducked while doing so, not sure what good that did). Alex stood there paralyzed and dumbfounded and saw the entire thing unfold.

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Strawberry and Arugula Salad: Marching to the Beat of the Same Drummer

Ever since we received our first CSA box of the summer on Tuesday, Karyn and I have been up to our ears in greens.

I wasn’t sure if the flavors would work well together, but last night I chopped up a nice strawberry and arugula salad with raspberry vinaigrette:

  • Strawberries
  • Arugula
  • Butterhead Lettuce
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Red Pepper
  • Vinaigrette with Raspberry Vinegar

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Two Farm Kids in the City

What happens when two farm kids buy a house in the city?

Is it possible to “live on the land” when the land is only 2,000 square feet? What happens to our quality life when we live in houses that are only separated by a small row of bricks or a tiny patch of grass? Do we find ourselves yearning for the lost small-town values?

For the past two weeks, Karyn and I have been asking questions such as these. We were both raised as farmers: She on a cattle farm in Pennsylvania and I on pig and tobacco farm in Kentucky. Two weeks ago, we bought a house in our nation’s capital and began life as home-owning, city dwellers.

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