Showing posts with label Forli Restaurant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forli Restaurant. Show all posts

Monday, October 24, 2011

New Year

It only took a couple of days after the first rain, and the world began to turn green. At first it was just a thin green shadow under the dried grass, and then suddenly one morning the world was glowing green, as if lit from within.
Even the vineyard is greening...
...the new year starting while the old one is still on the vine.
I count the new year not from the calendar, but from the first green shoots of grass. I have a friend who has had a horrid year, she says she can't wait for this one to be over. Ellen: the grass is growing, it's a New Year! 

I still have tomatoes
Huge and meaty they are from seeds Mike at Forli Restaurant in Alamo gave me. The seeds came from his brother in Greece. No idea what they're called, but they are Ginormous. I start them from seed on heat mats in winter. If you come for Christmas dinner you'll have to work around the seedlings. 

One year is beginning while another is winding down. Leaves coat the surface of the pool, acorns ping off the metal horse and wake us. Squirrels thump onto the roof and harrumph across to raid the apple tree. There is not enough net in the world. But the apples are almost over, the grapes will be in this week, and we're having the last of the tomatoes for dinner. 




Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Summer Whine

I'm whining about no peaches but I took a walk around the front garden this afternoon and I found figs...
and tomatoes. Still green but they are from Greece via Mike at Forli's Restaurant in Alamo and I have high hopes.
some are ginormous.
I have oranges for marmalade,
Immature lemons for winter (think Limoncello)
Kaffir limes for Thai food (you use the leaves)

There is milkweed for the Monarch butterflies

cherry tomatoes (picked clean) a white peach (no fruit this year it's small) Owari Satsuma mandarins (too muddy to climb in for a photo and they fruit at Christmas) - all this in a normal suburban front yard that blends in well with the neighbors.

 No one notices the fruits and vegetables, only the iris and dahlias - the flowers. We eat something from the garden every day...and this is only the front! The back is ten times bigger.  If I can, so can you. This is being green on a whole host of levels. We even have neighbors who are growing olives - and Lisa's dad picked the olives from the trees at the school next door last year and made The. Best. Olives. Renzo? I want lessons. And more olives please.