Day 26 (7/10/12): Cookout and Coffee Cake

I had one of those days.  Everyone has them.  I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess.  I wasn’t mad at everyone, I just didn’t feel like my normal self.  I was all bent out of shape that there wasn’t any bread left for breakfast.  I was so looking forward to pb on toast, and I saw the last piece taken right before my eyes, one that could easily have been sliced into 2, it was so thick.  I stubbornly had only a plum and a plum-sized apple.  No surprise, I was hungry all day until lunch.  

I had to water the seedlings in the upper hoop house with a watering can because there have been screens put on the side of the hoop house to protect the tomatoes from bugs.  We got a late start to planting this year, so usually there aren’t seedlings still in the hoop house awaiting planting.  I couldn’t water with the hose through the side of the hoop house as I usually do because of the screen.  

We had a group of Americorps people come today.  Americorps, as it was explained to me, is sort of a homeland Peace Corps.  I brought down a ton of tools (hoes, shovels, rakes) and buckets for them to weed ‘the jungle’ in Field 7 for the 2 hours that they’d be here.  We had been expecting a larger group of strong, young people in their 20’s.  Unexpectedly we got 5 helpers, including a family and a couple of older woman.  One of the older women coincidentally used to live in Richmond, VA and her son even went to the Governor’s School while it was at TJ for a few years.  After showing them how to hoe-weed, I hand-weeded a row of broccoli and the sides of the black plastic where the remay was covering weeds so the hoe couldn’t get to them.  Those were the toughest weeds I have ever hand-weeded, some of which not even my whole body weight could make budge.   Kenya and I checked out the weeding job of the Americorps people.  They’d come late and packed up early, but they did weed about 1 row total and cleaned up the weeds very nicely after themselves.  

I had been feeling hungry all day (no surprise there, so I snacked on the last of the dying peas), tired (as if I hadn’t gotten a good night’s rest in days), and my hamstrings were sore probably from all the bending I’ve been doing.  I took my full lunch break to refuel, recharge, and rejuvenate.  I hoe-weeded a footpath for the rest of the day, still not being as productive as usual.  Singing songs with Katie and Jillian made the time go by faster, although I work even slower when I’m distracted with singing along.  We also decided that we wanted to start a Language Lounge, where we’re going to teach each other foreign languages (primarily), poetry, and skills, and we’ll do it every day after dinner.  Thia was hand-weeding with us for a while, and we had an interesting conversation about gender neutrality.  Bing has long hair, by choice, and is often confused as a girl, despite being 7 years old.  She noted how differently other children treat Bing depending on whether they think he’s a girl or boy.  Thia, a feminist, doesn’t limit Bing’s toys to just cars and leggo’s, and actually only has him play with girls, as to avoid playing guns and war with other boys.  Thia is trying to bring him up without the societal pressures of gender as much as possible.  Bing almost cut his hair before visiting us.  I described my philosophy class’ final paper, addressing why there are more male than female math and science professors in post-secondary education.  Nature or nurture?¹  All of this gender equality talk was stimulating, and had my mind wandering, making the time pass by quicker.  

Kenya showed me how to harvest the broccoli and green peppers that will be saved for CSA on Friday.  Harvest the largest broccoli heads (close to 6”-8”), cut off and toss if the heads have gone to seed (turned to yellow flowers), and make sure the green peppers are at least 5” before picking them off.  Tired and exhausted, I put the produce in the farmstand fridge, and helped prepare for our cook-out.  Kenya was going to see the new Spiderman movie with a  friend so she wouldn’t be at dinner, but this afternoon she baked a coffee cake just for me since I never got to have a scone of hers the other day.  An entire coffee cake for one little scone?  That’s quite the deal.  She’s the best.  

We grilled our hamburger patties on an open fire.  Having always wanted to be a nutritional therapist, Thia told us about a doctor who reversed her Multiple Sclerosis finally by changing her diet.  I’ve heard of this being done with Type II Diabetes and other diseases.  

I’ve been eating raw kale almost every day, and tonight as well with my burger.  Mary described how raw kale upsets many people’s stomachs (including hers) because of its high fiber, so that’s why kale is often served cooked or sautéed.  ‘Massaging’ kale with salt can break it up to make it more easily digestible.  

After cleaning up, I cut the coffee cake for the three of us (Katie, Jillian, and me), and shared some with Bing and Gil.  We enjoyed our evening treat while Jillian gave the first Language Lounge lecture, teaching us German.  Gute Nacht. 

¹ Canadian family is raising their 3 children gender-neutrally: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/genderless-baby-controversy-mom-defends-choice-reveal-sex/story?id=13718047