a carlson and a zerger, too.

Perhaps it is the fact that light is slowly returning to our days here in Minnesota (thus I feel like my personal productivity must follow suit) or perhaps it is the fact that December 31st fast approaches (and I'm well aware I should be setting January 1, 2010 resolutions) that I find myself back here on Furlough Food. Whatever reason may be, I find myself with renewed interest in the blog-o-sphere. Forgive me, my dear readers, er, family, for such a long hiatus. But, you likely know many of the reasons, er, excuses, I would conjure. Wedding, fantastic but harried change of employment, Devin challenges, and the holidays are the first to come to mind. All these little life details have ensured months of emotions, and though it may seem that I have lost interest in culinary exploration if one were to assess such by my blog posts, nothing could be further from the truth. I've made delicious sauces and soups with vegetables from the garden, Swedish meatballs for Papa san and Melissa, cookies and candies galore for holiday treats and a few delicious experiments in between. I will fill you in on the finer details but surely need good food photos and stories to do so. For now, I leave you with a few iPhone photos...Along with a personal goal of writing more regularly, I also intend to step it up a notch and - pause - photograph things with a *real* camera, so these may be the last few from my iPhone to you.


Ah, blessed summer. Don't these look delicious? They were. The tomatoes were insanely productive this year and the size of the zuchini is a direct result of the August 1st nuptuals (read: week or two of garden neglect). I made a few delicious soups and salads and pasta sauces with the above.


Our lovely Socrates. Yes, those treaty-weaties were delicious, thanks.

Oh, and what of the title? Well, more on that later of course!

vegetables and a tree

Two wonderful things come of indefinite furlough. One: time in the garden. Two: fruits (and vegetables) of garden labor. A few years ago we tackled the front yard and created what I call the graduate school experiment, and now we are tackling the back yard. Our lack of attention to this part of the property has been a boon for creeping charlie, wild violet (which I like), dandelions, ostrich ferns, sticker weeds (not the technical term, but my term) and every possible aggressive species there is. It is a disaster, and our Disaster Remediation Project kicked off on May 1. Slowly but surely it will assume semblance of a designed space (Todd to Cindy, "I'm not touching or moving anything until we have a plan"). We're attempting to phase in the design..small chunks at a time, instead of razing it to a dirt dust bowl and then having 'zones' for planted areas but no specific plan like in the grad school experiment. (You see, I had only been through the site analysis part of the studio progression in grad school by the time we addressed the front yard. I was great at creating a big analysis blobby diagram that said 'sun / prairie type plants', 'buffer / shrub area', etc., but not so good at creating a cohesive plant palette - the plants in design class didn't come until my second year - dammit.) Anyway, we learned our lesson, and Todd and I have been working through an awesome Japanese garden-inspired design (read: minimal palette & areas of contemplation), but I did reserve the existing back corner raised beds for a veggie and cutting flower garden. Here's a glimpse (click on image to enlarge):



And, Todd's task today: slaughter the silver maple. Kidding of course, but he did have every sharp engine-powered tool we own out there. I imagine she is a little sad losing such a big limb. But, it was pretty sick so it needed to come down for long-term health reasons. Though she'll initially miss it, I think she'll thank us for helping her lose a little weight as she enters into the latter phases of life. While we'd not select this tree if we were starting from square one, she's got a cool twisting form, so we're glad to have her anchor the back yard. We promise to not give her a hosta ring, but to pay due respect to such an old beauty.

Here's Todd doing the duty.


And here's Todd going, "Holy $#%#!! what did I do?"