starting seeds

this post is a little belated. these seeds were soon seedlings, and now are fully adolescent sprouts. i was terribly nervous about growing things from seeds this season, but thankfully i was talked through it by an experienced gardener (thanks lis!) and now have chard, broccoli, green beans and arugula happily soaking in the sun on my fire escape.

this weekend was already time for re-planting. did you know that 5 gallon buckets are just as good as fancy pots? and about 5 times cheaper? if you just drill holes in the bottom, you're good to go. i also made use of a rubbermaid storage bin, and soon, (maybe too soon according to grace) will make a worm house for my compost out of a similar bin. all of this is just to say that my rant last year about gardening being expensive is only partly true; the containers can be much cheaper than you think.

oh and while i was sifting through last years pots to reuse all the soil i found at least 15 whole peanuts! do you think those squirrels brought them all the way from the five guys on 7th and 5th!? where did they come from? i sprinkled cinnamon around all my plants so that the squirrels don't dig them up this year!

chinese watermelon seeds or butong pakwan

my most vivid childhood food memory concerns these tiny, salty treats. i was in the philippines for the summer, a common occurrence for me in elementary school, and i was keeping one of my elderly aunts company for the afternoon. my tita ditas (tita is the diminutive of tia, and the prefix to all of my aunt addresses) is a devout catholic, a wearer of hilariously ill-fitting wigs, and a lover of the telenovela. sitting in her room, surrounded by statues of saints, we lazily watched one episode after another. during one of the breaks, she pulled out a jar hidden behind her bed full of black seeds. having no idea what was going to happen, i was actually surprised when she offered me some to eat, demonstrating how to carefully extract the heart of meat from the salty shell. i already have a natural affinity for salty foods, like my father, and so i was immediately excited about these; i went home that day with wrinkly lips and a sodium headache.

now every time a family member comes from the philippines to visit, i always ask them to bring me these treats, and i try to be sparing in my consumption so i always have half a jar in the cupboard. i just ran out last week and no one is coming to visit until june, so i've googled and found you can buy some at my local asian market for very cheap. although, for some reason i just think they taste better having traveled halfway around the world.