Posts under ‘Life Before Iowa’

Before I moved to Iowa, I was already a devotee of farmers and locally-grown food and all that good stuff. I was the only of my friends to join a CSA, I was a customer of Washington’s Green Grocer, and in the summer, the farmers at the market whispered behind their hands about how the [...]

There have been plenty of times this summer when I’ve had to step away from the garden, but mostly, those times have been spurred on by work travel. This past weekend, I attempted a by-my-own-choice travel mash-up of two Major Events, neither of which I wanted to miss: BlogHer ’07, and Cal Ripken Jr.’s induction [...]

I’ve been tagged for a blog meme once before, and now, recently, I’ve been tagged twice. Once, by Kenny of Veggie Gardening Tips for 7 Random Things About Me, and once, by Cole of Blah Blah Blah for 8 Things About Me. So, here it is, folks. The definitive Inadvertent Gardener meme post. And why [...]

Back when I lived in Virginia, back before Iowa was even a consideration, back even before I was married (because I was, once), my ex-husband moved into a squat apartment building with a distinct lack of personality just two blocks from the Clarendon Metro Station. He asked me to marry him in that very same [...]

If you live somewhere for awhile, you develop Weather Memory. It’s the skill that allows you to be the person, at parties, who rains on the parade of others because you remember that every year, for the last twelve years, it has rained on the day of the town parade. Or some such dealio. I [...]

When I was a little kid, I remember eating bowl after bowl of cereal. I loved eating Cheerios with milk and sugar, and then, when the cereal was done, scraping the bottom of the bowl for milk-saturated sugar crystals. It was almost like breakfast and dessert, all in one bowl. During high school, my boyfriend [...]

I came home late last week and discovered a lovely little box had arrived. “The garlic is here!” I exclaimed, as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. “What?” Steve looked up from his laptop and over at where I hovered over the little box, scissors in hand. “The garlic!” I tore into the box [...]

When I was in high school, my parents embarked on a major home renovation. They closed in the carport of our 1940s-era modernist house, and turned it into a dining room and foyer. They knocked out the wall between the teeny, outdated kitchen and combined the original dining room and kitchen into an eat-in kitchen [...]

Back when I lived in D.C., one of my friends watched me wax rhapsodic one day about French fries. “You’re part Irish, aren’t you?” she asked. “On my Dad’s side.” “It’s so obvious, you potato eater,” she said. “It’s definitely not just the freckles.” I love all things potato: potatoes au gratin, garlicky mashed red [...]