I thought they were ready, because they are popping up out of the ground. I think I need to wait to see tops that are a bit thicker, perhaps another 7 – 10 days.

I also see my bread poppies and quinoa sprouting, both of these are new plants for me. I direct seeded them on a border in the garden 10 days ago.

I harvest my salad directly into a big bowl with a few ice cubes in the bottom to keep it crisp. I snip the outer leaves of the plants, because new growth comes up from the middles. I also threw in some dill and mint, because we have copious (read: invasive plants) amounts of both and I love them.

Jon and I ate giant salads for dinner last night.

In summary here is what has happened over the last couple months. I planted a batch of seedlings in mid-March using tiny starter pots that I made out of toilet paper rolls. Very quickly those seedlings developed a white layer of mold, so I scraped that whole endeavor and started over a couple weeks later with jiffy pellets.

Jiffy pellets are like those little tablets you used to get when you were a kid: they soak in water and wah-lah you have a little hand towel or stuffed animal or something. When you pour water into the pellets, they become little germinating pots. After several weeks they did develop a little bit of mold, which I think was caused by a lack of circulation…very minor compared to the toilet paper roll debacle. I mixed a little hydrogen peroxide in with the water I used to water them and got that under control pretty quickly. I did like using the jiffy pellets. Eventually some of the plants outgrew the pellets and I moved about 40 of  them to small peat pots.

A bunch of my tomato seedlings have bounced back after a sunburn incident  (I put them outside to “harden them” on a particularly warm and windy day) and they are happily in the ground as of yesterday.

I lost all my brussels sprouts  seedlings after putting them in the ground the day before an awful wind storm (seriously people, pay attention to the weather when you are planting). They were replaced by a four pack from the nursery where I work.

I inherited 6 asparagus crowns from the farm (where I intern), because we found them in the bottom of a bucket after we were too utterly exhausted to plant anything else.

And I bought strawberries from the nursery! I know, what a space hog. I couldn’t help myself though.

All in all this is what I have in the ground as of today:

swiss chard (gurney seed)
garlic (planted last fall and another round in march)
french breakfast radishes (gorgeous! seed savers seed)
broccoli (seed savers seed)
clemson spineless okra (seed savers seed)
ancho peppers (seed savers seed)
marconi peppers (seed savers seed)
thai hot peppers (seed savers seed)
french filet beans (seed)
lazy housewife beans (seed savers seed)
cucumbers (gurney seed)
cherokee purple tomato (2) (seed savers seed)
nebraska wedding tomato (1) (plant from the nursery)
hillbilly potato leaf tomato (3) (seed savers seed)
beam’s yellow pear tomato (3) (seed savers seed)
mortgage lifer tomato (2) (seed savers seed)
jade cross brussel sprouts (plants from the nursery)
collard greens (passed along to me by Jara)
siberian kale (seed savers seed)
baby bok choy (seed)
butternut squash (seed savers seed)
zucchini (seed savers seed)
genovese basil (seed savers seed)
purple basil (gift from Anna)
mint (perennial–from mom)
dill (perennial)
thyme (perennial)
oregano (perennial)
lavender (perennial)
cliantro (seed savers seed)
chives (perennial)
ground cherries (seed savers seed)
strawberries (plants from the nursery)
asparagus (crowns and plants from farmer’s market)
lettuce mix (seed savers seed)
mesclun mix (seed)
sweet peas (seed savers seed)
fairytale eggplant (2) (bought at farmer’s market)
japanese long eggplant (1) (bought at farmer’s market)
diamond eggplant (2) (seed savers from seed)
purple viking potatoes (seed potatoes from the nursery)

waiting for these seeds to germinate outside:
quinoa
bread poppy flowers

I know it seems like a lot, but I have just a little of a lot of things, because I am so curious about growing various items. I have one small space left. Maybe I will try sweet potatoes? Any suggestions?

zone map

In Omaha, its time to start planting seedlings indoors. The  last frost date in my zone is May 10 and lots of seeds can grow inside for 6 – 8 weeks. Starting plants from seeds can seem really complicated, and anyone who has known me well through a growing season knows that I  can get a tiny bit obsessive over my seedlings in March and April. A couple years ago I started hosting my parents for Easter weekend, because I absolutely refused to abandon my defenseless plants so early in their lives. But really, it shouldn’t be that complicated.

I’ll write more about how I am planting my seeds this year soon.

2010 Seedling. Photo by Brittany Hanson.

In the next few days, I will sit down with piles of seed catalogues that have made their way to my door and make some tough decisions about what I will grow in the garden this summer. Last year I discovered the joy (and agony) of growing my plants from seed. It was such a roller-coaster. First, the excitement of seeing the seedlings make their appearance followed by the agonizing wait while they slowly, slowly take the shape of the plants they will become. I worried if they would survive, if they were bolting, getting too much water or not enough, and on and on. Eventually they were set in the ground and left to their own devices. Although it was questionable in that cold, inhospitable spring,  by mid-summer almost every single one of my grown-from-seed plants were flourishing.

This year I’m going to create an illustrated documentation of the development of the garden from seed to table experimenting both with photography and organic growing methods.

by Malcolm Guite

My poetry is jamming your machine

It broke the photo-copier, I’m to blame,

With pictures copied from a world unseen.

My poem is in the works–I’m on the scene

We free my verse, and I confess my shame,

My poetry is jamming your machine.

Though you berate me with what might have been,

You stop to read the poem, just the same,

And pictures, copied from a world unseen,

Subvert the icons on your mental screen

And open windows with a whispered name;

My poetry is jamming your machine.

For chosen words can change the things they mean

And set the once-familiar world aflame

With pictures copied from a world unseen

The mental props give way, on which you lean

They world you see will never be the same,

My poetry is jamming your machine

With pictures copied from a world unseen

Daphne is my hip, beloved supervisor. She’s been working it at WMF for 10 years! Due to the enormous volume of photos floating around, when I look through WMF photo albums sometimes I get confused whether or not I was around for the event. I flip through to find a photo of Daph, because I can keep time according to her hair color, cut and style. She threw some auburn lowlights into the mix the summer I moved here. So blonde Daphne is definitely pre-Marcia. Since I’ve been here the hair in question has been alternatively  stick straight, wavy, with bangs straight across the forehead, and with bangs swept across the forehead in varying shades of red. Some examples:

Pretty much she’s edgy and could pull of just about anything.

So today at lunch we had some suggestions for her hair appointment this afternoon: asymmetrical hair cut, just a trim, super short

or a mohawk.

We sort of got stuck on that one. And offered to pay her to do it. It escalated quickly.

Like I said before Daph has been serving with Word Made Flesh for 10 years! She is receving a much needed sabbatical starting the end of this month and is in need of a little extra financial support before she goes.

So, see Daphne get a mohawk by supporting her sabbatical.

Check out the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyiRFBb0s8Y

Go to wordmadeflesh.org and hit the “donate now” button and in the designation line write Daphne’s mohawk.

Special thanks to:

Carol Lakey Hess, Walter Wink, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Abuna Elias Chacour, Parker Palmer (and all the Quakers)

More on this later or in person.

I have never really kept track of the books I read. I remember all through late elementary school, Jr. High and High School I would read anything I could get my hands on. I estimate I read at least a book a week. I would read on the school bus, in the car on the way to church, during church (if I could get away with it), under my covers at night with the door cracked open for light, in waiting rooms, at breaks during choir rehearsal. I would also wake up in the morning and immediately read whatever book I had tucked under my pillow the night before, which habitually made me late. My childhood best friend’s mom is an English teacher who always kept me supplied. Even now, if I’m late its probably because I got distracted by some book.

Of course, as I’ve entered the working world my reading has slowed down considerably and finishing a book a week seems like a huge task to me (also the density/quality of my choices has gone up exponentially since 7th grade). This year I am participating in a competitive reading contest. Complete with lots of rules, a couple amendments, a few acronyms, and an entrance fee. So, I’m keeping track this year. I think  you can tell a lot about a person from their reading list, I guess I won’t read anything I’m embarrassed to post to the competition in 2009. I would pretty much recommend any these books. Here’s what I read in the first quarter of the year.

1.) Finding the Flow: A Guide for Leading Small Groups and Gatherings by Tara Miller and Jenn Peppers 

2.) From Brokenness to Community by Jean Vanier 

3.) Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou 

4.) City of Joy by Dominque Lapierre 

5.) All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou

6.) Miramar by Naguib Mahfouz 

7.) High Fidelity by Nick Hornby 

8.) We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates 

9.)The Umbrella Man and Other Stories by Roald Dahl 

10.) Eve’s Revenge: Women and Spirituality of the Body by Lillian Calles Barger 

11.) The Broken Body by Jean Vanier 

12.)The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert 

13.) Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men by Joan Chitister

The stretch of street from my little house in Omaha to the WMF office where I work is almost 1.5 miles, or 28 minutes walking. As the seasons change, so do my walking clothes. In August, my feet are snug in my sandals, and I continue to sweat at least an hour after arriving at the office. By the time December is ushered in and I’m repurposing my favorite headband to shield my ears from the cold, I can barely remember the sticky feeling of summer.

How quickly I forget.

My quiet trek on one of the most chaotic streets in town wears a path in my heart. I know I pass by three churches (or is it four?), a couple questionable bars, a Mexican grocery store, at least one guy who thinks I’m beautiful and two breakfast diners. Sometimes, lost in thought, I am surprised to look up and already see the incense-and-perfume store to my right or the blinking furniture store sign up ahead.

I am prone to lose my way.

God calls me to obedience. God calls my forgetful, cloudyeyed self to obedience. In our community, we celebrate nine lifestyles in a particular order. There, nestled between “intimacy” and “humility” and a close neighbor of “community,” rests “obedience.” We begin with intimacy. I need to know God to obey God. Intimacy with God leads me to spaces of obedience. God promised to dwell among the brokenhearted1 and said that those who mourn will be comforted.2 I follow God to those places. As I take steps forward, one after the other, I stumble and yearn for obedience to a mysterious God. I am humbled by the pieces of God revealed to me, and I am humbled by the vastness of God. When I forget, and when I lose my way, the people around me help jostle my memory. Together we pick up the pieces; together we remember. My community sees facets of God I have not seen, and they help me know God more and press deeper into obedience.

Eugene Peterson says that Psalm 132 points out the role of remembering God’s faithfulness as instructive to obedience. A collective memory of faithfulness is the foundation for obedience. In the first half of the psalm, the Israelites remember the faithfulness of God by recalling the long and harried history of the Ark of the Covenant: carried through the desert, wielded in war, lost to foreign conquerors and finally recovered by David. They remember the Ark of the Covenant as the sign of God’s presence among them. They mourn the memory of how it was misused by their ancestors as a talisman in battle. And they relive the joy of restoration. The last half of the psalm paints a picture of hope for a new type of community. The first will be last, and the most vulnerable will be at the center of the community.

In May I spent time with our community in Sierra Leone. While I was there, I revisited many of the old questions that knock on my idealist’s door: What are we doing here? What will our small efforts achieve? It is easy to become discouraged in Freetown. The sun is unrelenting, unless the sky is dumping sheets of water during the rainy season. It is difficult for our North American staff to find a place to fit into the culture. It is a challenge for the Sierra Leoneans to find funding to continue working with WMF. The North Americans and Sierra Leoneans working with WMF answer my questions with their lives. Growing in intimacy, they work tirelessly in simple acts of obedience to God, who is close to the brokenhearted. My friend, Noah, who works with WMF, grew up in Kroo Bay, a slum squeezed between the city and the ocean. While I was visiting, I heard Noah say something so simple and yet so easy for me to forget: “God is working in Kroo Bay. With or without us, God is moving. It would be nice if we could help.” So today, I choose to join with God in the work. I choose to obey. I quickly forget, and I sometimes lose my way, but enveloped within my community, I join the movement of God