‘Maters

I planted some tomatoes today. This act--jolting me out of my month-long pout about how short the Boston growing season is--was inspired by a talk I went to yesterday, given by Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I haven’t read either of these books yet in their entirety, but from reading bits and parts and from listening to his talk, I’m psyched to read on. He captured two things perfectly: One is the luxuriously nurturing feeling you get from planting seeds on a sunny spring day. The other is the simultaneous glee and monotony of purchasing an organic-farm vegetable subscription. On the one hand, you are inspired by weekly surprises of arugula, beets, turnips, and okra--rare vegetables one seldom thinks to experiment with--and thus, one gets to look through and try out some fun new recipes. On the other hand, there can be a few weeks when the box is mostly okra, and you get real sick of okra, even in the form of such Cajun delights as gumbo and jumbalaya. Anyway, Pollan talked about this fun way of getting great veggies, though kind of glossing over the negative side in order to prop up his PR campaign for supporting the local farmer. He also reminded us how good a garden-grown tomato tastes. Mmm! I can’t wait for a crop. Sadly, neither my shady little porch nor the lead-poisoned, dog-bespoiled backyard that I share with my neighbors will likely yield any real tomatoes, but it’s fun to have something to water again.

Irish greenhouse