Various things going on:

Garden: got a patch of beets planted, need to do one more (maybe two) and the patch of carrots/lettuce/radishes and parsnips. Then I can go work on other things that need help, such as parts of the herb bed and the front beds, not to mention plant the few things I’ve purchased already. Spinach is coming up, Kale is doing well. Arugula hasn't sprouted yet, though.

Put in about 200lb of potatoes today, with about 200 more to go. Sore? Yeah, I'm sore.

Work: hard to make myself go in every day. Really hard.

Matt’s work: he seems to be enjoying the new job, he’s been working out of Chambersburg almost every day, training mostly. He goes to a 2-week training session in Syracuse next month. At first we were hopeful I would be going along, but that tanked. So, we’ll have a mini-vacation from each other. He’s planning on going to dig at the Herkimer Diamond Mine on his weekend off.

Other stuff: I’m planning on going to this place while Matt’s in NY. Looked interesting. I still haven’t finished the online business license (Wuss. Chicken.) I need to open a business checking account, buy a domain name, etc etc. I’ve been too busy with the garden. And I’ve been putting it off. It’s a bit overwhelming. I’m afraid I’m going to forget to do something, like file my sales tax with the state and get a huge fine.

Food: I’ve found the most wonderful thing ever: Brown Cow yogurt. Now, I have never liked yogurt, I struggled to get it down. I LOVE this stuff. They just started carrying it at the Giant in Gettysburg when they renovated to add in the big organic section (they should have it in Hanover, too). I highly recommend the whole milk, cream-on-top raspberry and the low-fat pear/raspberry with the whole grains mixed in. Very good. Also, a smoothie recipe from Runner’s World (no I don’t run. Silly):

8oz Brown Cow cream-on-top chocolate yogurt
2 shots espresso (I just made some really strong instant coffee and used that)
12 chocolate covered espresso beans
1 large banana, frozen in chunks
12 ice cubes (or whatever you prefer)

Blend. God this was good. I didn’t really follow the recipe exactly, either, one cup of yogurt is 6 oz, so I used that and half the banana, espresso beans and ice, but the full 2 shots of strong coffee.

I’ve also found the joy that is a Yukon Gold potato. So much better than those white, dry potatoes I grew up with.

We went to the Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurant in Thurmont the other day and I ordered the seaweed salad. I could happily live on this. It was incredible.

And the other day I made some yogurt cheese. You take a fine sieve and line it with a double layer of cheesecloth, put it over a bowl and dump in some plain yogurt (either full, low or no fat). Let it sit for 24 hours, then dump the water out of the bowl and put the remaining ‘cheese’ in a closed container. It comes out the consistency of soft cream cheese. You can doctor it up, too, I added minced garlic and black pepper to some and vanilla extract and a bit of sugar to some other, which was really good with strawberries. Lemon zest, or any other extract would work, fresh herbs too. Mint might be good, served with some chocolate ice cream. Hmmm…..or the garlic on a baked potato!

I have a bad feeling with this economy, and also with recent food riots around the world. Wild fish number have dropped drastically off the coast of CA/OR and Africa. The price of eggs in the US has jumped 24% in the past year. I’m planning on growing as much as I can this season and trying to preserve the hell out of as much as possible, just in case. Am I an alarmist? You bet. But I’m going to be an alarmist who’s eating.