Veggie And Happy

Thank you, Yankees!

* * *

Given that I love to run, and that I'm a mom of two boys, it isn't much of a stretch to think that I'd be living in a family of sports freaks. And I am. We're all sports freaks round here.

Which makes sense, considering how this family started.

At a Yankees game.

Huh?

Let me explain.

I met my husband, Owen, at a Yankees game, when we were both young, single and living in the Big Apple. It was just a random game that we both decided to go to with friends -- I went with my roommate and some other friends, and he went with some high school friends. Both groups were meeting up with a common friend.

So we all sat together and since we were all young and single, we all chatted.

And that was that. I had a party to go that night so I said good-bye to the group after the game and thought nothing more of it.

Except that my roommate happened to meet -- and hit it off with -- one of those high school friends from the game. They started dating. I hung out with them and ended up meeting Owen again.

And then, to make a long story short, we dated, he proposed, we got married. Thirteen years and two kids later, we're still here.

Thank you, Yankees!

Oh, and that roommate and the high school friend? Yeah, they got married too. And have two kids. They probably thank the Yankees as much as we do!

Honestly, though, we're not just Yankees fans. We're full-on sports fans. Hockey is probably Owen's #1, but I'm still partial to baseball (and anything in the Olympics).

And football? Sure thing. We're all Giants, all the time around here.

Right, Eli?

He knows what I'm talking about!

I made this custom calendar, thanks to SportsFreak365. It's pretty awesome and I'm pretty sure my two little guys are going to love it.

This one sure does:

In addition to customizing each month with a favorite NY Giants player, I even customized special dates, including this all-important one:

So, again: Thank you, Yankees!

* * *

Showing off your team spirit has never been easier! Whatever team you root for and whatever sport they play, find the gear you need at SportsFreak365.com. Just in time for the holidays, you can get 30% off any purchase using the code “Clever30.” And while you’re there, be sure to enter to win $500 toward team gear in Ditka’s SportsFreak of the Week Contest! I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective.

Late November in the Garden

It's just gorgeous out there - 12 C in my backyard and sunny.. the perfect garden-working weather. So, I pulled myself away from the computer to work in the garden for a few hours. It really needs tending.. I've been negligent for months and months, but happily things keep coming along. I'm also very thankful for the re-seeders like mizuna, mustard, arugula, mache and kale that have populated the garden with many babies that I can then dig up and move to new beds or the cold frames for overwintering.

Here's a glimpse into our garden on this lovely November day..

I love this 4 by 10 foot bed.. It's thickly planted
with arugula and spinach with young Red Russian
kale seedlings moved from other parts of the
garden. We'll eat the greens for months and then
the kale will take over in for a March bumper crop!

The arugula-spinach-kale bed covered with a
medium weight row cover.. A mini hoop tunnel
will soon be erected over top.

Beside the above mentioned bed, a bed of Japanese turnips,
two types of kale, radishes, arugula and mixed Asian greens.

Here are those mixed Asian greens. Love the
crazy colours and textures! Oh yeah, they taste
pretty good too! :)

Close up - Ruby Streaks mustard.. can't get
enough of this in salads.

Oops.. the mild weather has made some of the Asian greens
bolt! No worries, the buds and flowers are edible too.

Green Wave mustard.. gorgeous texture!

Not sure who this mustard is, but his colour
is extreme red! A random ingredient in the mixed
Asian greens.

Hello again Ruby Streaks!

This Italian parsley is re-sprouting.. shall I take
my chances, dig it up and move it to a cold frame?

An experiment - Various mustards and mizunas
thickly seeded on Oct 1st. Now they're 2 to 4
inches tall and will overwinter for Feb/March.

The carrots are covered with their foot of leaves.
In the back, a mature mizuna has been giving us
non-stop salads since APRIL!! Crazy productive!

Rainbow lacinato kale.. I love your blue-green,
red-veined foliage!

Done! This big bed is weeded and amended with
composted and topped with chopped
leaves/grass mixture. Time for tea!

Whatcha Want from Santa?? Garden Books!

Hot off the press! Andrew Keys wonderful new book!

I'm trying very hard to keep Christmas as uncommercial as possible and I am determined (stubborn) to do most of my shopping locally (can't get more local than a big pile of aged manure!!). That said, I also feel that it's my duty to support my local bookshops and have added a small (large) pile of books to my own Christmas list.. In my current article in the Halifax News, I profiled some of my favourite gardening books to hit the stores in the past year or so - mostly Canadian - and thought I'd share the list with you..

Which leads me to ask.. what have been some of your favourite garden books - old or new?

Read my article Here!

Award winning and slightly naughty!

Love Liz and loved this book.. interesting and
inspiring.

A Maritime classic full of Jodi's top plant suggestions

A fun and informative read from
Marjorie Harris! Great tips combined
with her wonderful sense of humour!

Figs in Canada? Yep! Steven Biggs of Toronto
details his sneaky (and easy!) techniques
for growing a bumper crops of figs in the north.

Not released yet (Jan 2013) - BUT, this will be the big book of
2013!! Love love love Amanda and I've had
the privilege of previewing. Read my mini review below:

Here is my review 'blurb' from Amazon.com of Kiss My Aster -

Amanda Thomsen is a quirky, badass landscape genius! This is the first time I've read a garden book (or heck, any book for that matter!) that required me to use 'jazz hands'. And I liked it. Kiss My Aster is cavity-inducing eye-candy, but it's also packed with solid information that covers all aspects of crafting a stylish, yet stainable landscape. The choose your own adventure form is easy to follow and allows the would-be gardener to change direction when new inspiration strikes or a project seem overwhelming ("call a guy!"). Thanks to Amanda, I'm no longer ashamed of my love for garden gnomes and my new landscape goals include sculpting a life-sized topiary of Mr. T from boxwood. If I plant it near the veggie garden, will it keep the deer away? ("I pity the deer that tries to eat my pole beans!") . Kiss My Aster is THE new bible for anyone who wants to learn, laugh and landscape.
(Niki Jabbour, author of The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener )

Upcoming Event in Tantallon this Weekend!

Building Community Resilience to Global Challenges

transitionbay.ca

Transition Bay St Margarets is pleased to invite you to our coming big celebration, the Great Unleashing- Maritimes: Building Resilience in an Era of Limits to Growth. We hope you will be able to enjoy this event which has never before been held in the Maritimes (and perhaps anywhere in this particularly innovative & regional way). The event will be Friday evening and Saturday day, November 23 & 24. Additional information is available at our website at  http://transitionbay.ca/ and at http://transitionbay.ca/content/great-unleashing .

We wish to particularly draw your attention to Nicole Foss, our dynamic keynote speaker. Her address will be particularly relevant and important to understand in the face of current world and local events.

Building Resilience in an Era of Limits to Growth

Keynote address by Nicole Foss at 7:00pm, Friday, November 23^rd, entitled “Building Resilience in an Era of Limits to Growth.”  The address will be given at St Luke’s United Church, 5374 St. Margaret's Bay Road (HWY 3), Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia. Suggested donation at the door: $10.00.

Nicole Foss, a world recognized author and blogger about economics and energy, and co-founder of www.theautomaticearth.com, promises to deliver a frank, hard-hitting and timely assessment of the current status of the global economy and global energy supplies -  two major factors impacting the human race today, and the need for communities around the world to implement transition-orientated changes.

"We are the generation that is going to find out what unsustainability really means, as we are approaching many limits to growth, both natural and man-made. In laying out the scope of the problem, I will be focusing primarily on resource limits, notably energy, and limits to the credit expansion in our financial system,” said Ms. Foss. “I will also be looking at the consequences and what we can do to mitigate the impact if we act in advance. The Transition Towns movement has a great deal to offer in this regard. We need to relocalize, restore the local control and safety margins that confer resilience, and build strong communities to help us navigate challenging times. We can achieve a great deal if we are prepared to work together."

Ms. Foss is the Senior Editor of TheAutomaticEarth.com, where she used to write under the name Stoneleigh. She and co-author and Editor-in-Chief Raúl Ilargi Meijer have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it.
Nicole is also an international speaker on energy and global finance. She has lectured in hundreds of locations across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and has made numerous media appearances.  Nicole was previously the editor of The Oil Drum Canada, where she wrote on peak oil and finance. She also ran the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, focusing on farm-based biogas projects, grid connections for renewable energy and Feed-In Tariff policy development.

While living in the UK she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level.   Her academic qualifications include a BSc in Biology from Carleton University (neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, and an LLM in international law from the University of Warwick, UK.

Rob Hopkins, the founder of the international Transition Movement, will deliver a closing address from England about Transition Initiatives in Maritime Canada in the context of the global Transition Movement.

The keynote address is the opening event for Transition Bay St Margarets’ The Great Unleashing – Maritimes. Saturday, Nov 24^th, will feature a full day open house.

On Saturday, Nov 24^th, from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, there will be a full day regional public open house at St Luke’s United Church featuring transition-oriented groups and organizations from throughout Maritime Canada. Information tables and displays will be punctuated with guest speakers, networking, and break-out groups. Topics to be covered during the event include: local money, slow food, local gardening and farming, alternate energy, biofuels, transportation alternatives, local markets and economies, relearning of old skills and more.

This exciting day will have 3 concurrent venues – the Expo, the Mainstage, and the Transition Café. The Exposition on Saturday, Nov 24^th will include display and information tables from at least 18 organizations from across the region involved in transition and sustainability. There will be speakers throughout the day on the Main Stage, including several newly elected HRM officials. The Transition Café will host discussions groups on topics which include Transition in the Maritimes, Peak Oil and Peak Economy and Resilient Energy for the Home and Community.

Our festive finale features a local food and live music reception. All free, but a donation at the door of $5.00 appreciated.

We are quite excited about this event and plan to have a lot of fun while we help set the stage for the Transition Movement to have an ever wider impact in the Maritimes.

About Transition Bay St Margarets:
Transition Bay, a registered non-profit volunteer organization, is part of an international movement (transitionnetwork.org) dedicated to following and extending the innovative Transition Town model. Thousands of Transition Initiatives worldwide are each unique responses to the need for resilience at the community level in order to address the many possible global impacts due to economic fragility, energy supply instability or environmental changes in the years ahead. Transition Bay St Margarets is the first registered Transition Initiative in the province of Nova Scotia, with over 60 other registered transition communities in Canada.

Transition Town Initiatives and the Transition Movement are poised to play an increasingly beneficial and influential role in the Maritimes. We invite you to attend, and to start now to learn about this dynamic energy in our area.

“Transition Bay is all about the community being able to take charge, and engage its residents in the areas of food, energy, transportation, economy, relearning of old skills, and other key areas of rebuilding local resilience,” says Chair person Bob Cervelli. “There’s no point is a community being at the mercy of global events as they unfold, when it could be building its adaptive strengths.”

We look forward to seeing you there to share this celebration and growth.
And please share this widely.

We now have a Facebook page. Please "like" us there. https://www.facebook.com/TransitionBay

Thanks much,
David Wimberly

Un-stinking with ShowerPill #stayfresh

During the week, I am the queen of fitting in my runs and workouts. I squeeze in runs that end just minutes before I need to get my older son off the bus, or that leave me just enough time to make dinner. And I'll squeeze in runs or workouts before I have to meet people or head out to run errands or whatever. I'm the queen of fitting it in.

This means, however, I don't always have time to shower after. And, as a big time exercise sweater, that's not a great thing. Because dried-on sweat = smelly body. Fortunately for me (and my friends and family!) I found ShowerPill. Because now I can un-stink!

Truth be told, I didn't just find the wipes -- I was invited to try them out for review and I was so excited to do so. I frequently rely on baby wipes to reduce my sweaty smelliness when I don't have time to shower after a run. And, really, there's only so clean you can get using a baby wipe. Those things are fine for babies but sweaty mamas? Well, they're passable but that's about it.

So, what about ShowerPill?

ShowerPill wipes are individually wrapped, designed to be tossed in a gym bag or stored in your car and used after a workout, when you don't have time to shower:

When my box of wipes arrived, I wanted to try them out immediately. I've given them a good test, using a wipe after a fast 5-mile tempo run; a crossfit workout that included 100 kettlebell swings, quarter mile repeats, and 100 squats; and a quick 3.25-mile easy run.

Each workout left me sweaty, for sure. Here I am showing my sweat after my 3.25-miler:

Yes, my friends. Those are beads of sweat on my forehead. And, yes, that's a drenched-with-sweat running top I'm wearing.

Suffice it to say, I was a sweaty mess after that run.

After using the ShowerPill wipes, I was CLEAN. And neither sweaty nor stinky! What a win.

What I like about the wipes:

They are individually wrapped, so it is easy to take them with you on-the-go. I could easily keep some wipes in the car, in my jogging stroller, in my diaper bag, and in my bathroom for home use.
They really work. The wipes are damp so they really clean. After I wiped down my body, it was slightly damp but dried quickly and was not sticky afterward. That's a problem I have using baby wipes -- the post wipe-down stickiness.
Again, they really work. After my crossfit workout, I had to meet some friends for my monthly freezer meal swap. I didn't have time to shower so I used the ShowerPill wipes and felt confident that I wouldn't gross-out my friends at lunch!
The wipes are fairly large (9" x 8") so one wipe will work to clean your whole body. The wipes come folded and the instructions recommend using one folded part of the wipe for each body part. Follow those instructions because they work!

Would I buy these with my own money? Yes. I can honestly say that I would. I live the kind of life where I can't always shower after a run so these would definitely come in handy for me.

And for you? Well, I recommend them. I think they'd make great stocking stuffers -- for you or for the other exercisers in your life!

Lucky you: ShowerPill is running a special on Amazon. You can get a FREE box of 10 ShowerPill wipes using code SPFRIDAY:

Between November 23rd and November 25th, just order 2 boxes of ShowerPill wipes from Amazon and you'll get 1 free! You must add 3 boxes to your shopping cart and enter the code SPFRIDAY to get the 3rd box for free. Don't forget!

You can learn more about ShowerPill on their web site HERE.

Review disclaimer: I received free ShowerPill wipes through FitFluential. I was not otherwise compensated and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Today - a radio spot!

Join me this morning at 11 am Atlantic (10 am EST) when I join Rob Howard on The Home & Garden Show on AM900 CHML for a 1/2 hour radio chat! We'll cover year round veggie gardening and (I believe) we'll be taking questions! Listen live online a twww.900chml.com. You can find Rob and his weekly show on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RobInTheGarden

Should be fun!! :)

An Excerpt from The Year Round Vegetable Gardener

Wow, I just learned that one of my favourite magazines, Mother Earth News has published an excerpt of The Year Round Vegetable Gardener - woo woo! To read it, click here!

Gardens East Love

I've got to give some love to Gardens East! My latest issue just arrived a few days ago, but because of impending deadlines (cue dark, booming music), I've not yet had a chance to flip through it.. well, now that I'm finishing up writing a garden profile for the Feb issue of the magazine (a very cool moss-hosta garden just outside Halifax), I decided to procrastinate a bit and brewed some tea and grabbed the issue you see in the photo.

I typically write two articles per issue - one is always a garden profile on a Maritime gardener (Tom Hall in PEI in this issue) and the other article is on another aspect of gardening.. from sweet peas to winter veggies and everything in between. (got ideas? Just make a comment below, I always want to hear suggestions from gardeners!) I also love that Gardens East employes some of my favourite Canadian garden writers - Larry Hodgson (seriously, the king of perennials! In the new issue he covers Garden Myth Truths), Brian Minter (Winter Baskets for the Holiday Season) and Ward Teulon, another veggie lover (Storing Vegetables).

As a gardener, I am so glad we have such a detailed resource - for the Maritimes.. and as a writer, I grateful for the opportunity to work for such fun folks. You can check out their website here. And a 1 year subscription is 33% off!! Hello holiday season!

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on NS, NB, PEI or NFLD gardens that should be included in the magazine - just comment below. And, Gardens East welcomes and encourages you to e-mail, snail mail, tweet, facebook your garden questions/photos/adventures which may end up in the next issue!! (e-mail - talkback@gardenswest.com) Tell them Niki sent you! :)

Fall Greens and Autumn Thoughts

Well, I think today is it. After this day is done, the 'real' November weather should be arriving and I better get the mini hoop tunnels set up and ready to go before the sun sets at 5 pm (thanks SO much time change) today. We've been very lucky with only a few lights frosts and one hard frost so far - it's Nov 4th for goodness sake - but after today, our lovely 12 C weather is sinking to just above freezing and I want to make sure our beds of hardy greens are protected and ready for winter.

Speaking of beds of greens, these hardy plants have been thriving in the mild Oct and Nov weather.. I started none of them from seed or transplant - at least not on purpose. They're all reseeded (aka, volunteer) babies that I dug up and moved as they popped up in the beds in September. Some of them were moved in hot, dry weather, but they all took. Another reason to love these resilient edibles. Talk about easy gardening! Now, we have 3 cold frames full of crops for winter and about six 4 by 10 foot beds overflowing with hardy greens and root crops. I also late seeded a few more beds with assorted greens that will overwinter and be ready for harvest from mid March until mid-May when the 'real' garden takes over once again.

As for now, here's a few photos I took this morning as the most beautiful golden autumn light bathed the garden.. mind you, once I snapped the first photo, clouds appeared and that light was gone, but nevertheless, here is a glimpse of our garden..