These are broccoli stalks. There's also some cauliflower stalks. They didn't grow any broccoli or cauliflower florettes to speak of but they did have magnificant stalks and magnificant leaves. We weren't sad about that. It was the leaves we loved in the Morning Stir Frys. You might remember they were beset by aphids. And that Kristen suggested planting with Hops to avert the aphids.
Gardening with Alyssia is interesting. She loves the whole process of the plants and continued to love them into the winter when they maintained life continuously, or a form thereof. As you see here. Stalks with some leaves. But in the last weeks, at the bottom of these stalks there are NEW leaves rising from their earth. I had planned to thank them and pull the stalks. But i knew how she would feel, so told her what i planned, but asked for her input and all i ever got was watching her gaze go off to somewhere in the sky. There's no way she could pull a plant that was not completely totally dead. Even weeds. So today, i trimmed them and looked and thought we can plant new seeds in their midst.
the same, or similar with the Gigunda Parsley Forest. THICK and the leaves tough now but so so GREEN. What to do?... they take a lot of space. So i pulled some and left the biggest Mothers in the back. I see that there too, at the bottom of the stalks, there are new shoots. There is one complete new plant, just a ways away. You might imagine there would be a zillion. One.
I planted green beans. And tried to decide where to put the Kale. the Spinach. What seemed to be a huge garden space last spring is not so much this time. This time we know that whatever we plant will grow. So we are thinking to try to plant what we actually will eat and in quantities we can consume. Like...not acres of Parsley, although the Parsley was an excellent and nutritious component of the stir frys and will be again. So, this was today.
All the while i thought of that phrase AS IS. How back when i moved from Ann Arbor Michigan to first Oregon and then New Mexico, how i wanted to change my name to As Is. Legally. Like for real. I talked and wrote about it a lot.
AS Is. There is something about the concept. that dictionary definitions don't cover. But if you like it, you can extend it in different ways. As is....not new. not perfect. having flaws? or, discrepancies? But there. Standing. Firm. WITH those flaws, discrepancies and nonetheless of Good and True USE. Good and true Value.
and it took me back to the days of my 20's and early 30's in Ann Arbor. My great pleasure was walking into town to a Resale Shop....Treasure Mart. By the Farmer's Market. A 3 story building. Large. The first floor was just a variety of things, furniture, antiques of all kinds. Upstairs things like paintings and china. Curios. The basement, things of less value and in the far back left corner of it was the place where the textiles were. Some tables of things...larger things and then a wall of small containers of threads and i can't think o the word, but stuff having to do with sewing....? I would save that for last.
and on everything, a tag with description and consignment info and then....often....the words AS IS. Sometimes it was obvious. a chip. but sometimes you would have to look closely to find it, the flaw. The textiles, maybe a loose binding or a small hole somewhere? Always a very reasonable price for things As Is.
Treasure Mart is still there. I wonder what they have now? 30 some years later? This is me, the kind of thing i'd do...if i traveled, i'd fly to Ann Arbor and go to Treasure Mart. Fly back. Could do it in a day, right?
So....As Is. I'm thinking of my Self as AS IS. It's good thinking.
