I read an article the other day on the $64 dollar tomato. I thought it was interesting, because I’ve probably spent 30 bucks growing a single tomato…I thought I’d do my own list of things that you can grow yourself that may save you money. Of course, if you’re like me, you’re always finding some new plant you have to try, you need more dirt, more mulch, some special new organic bug killer, etc. But I’ve found the following provide a decent return of eats!

Fruits:

All three of these are mighty expensive items to buy in the grocery store. The good news is that they are easy to grow. The plants are relatively inexpensive. Look to see which types do well in your area, especially with blueberries.

Blueberries - easy to care for. They basically require water. If your soil isn’t acidic enough, you might have to get some pellets and add to the soil once a year. Not hard at all and not expensive. If you have two bushes, you will more than reap the cost of the plant.  (Some blueberries require two bushes to pollinate properly.)

Raspberries - pretty easy, but can be invasive. They will grow wherever there is enough damp/water. You can grow early and late varieties and have them for a longer period.

Blackberries - pretty easy, but can be invasive and the thorned kind may reach out and grab you. I’ve also had some varieties that aren’t all that sweet so do your homework before putting these in.

Melons:

One plant can easily grow enough melons for a family–whether you’re talking pumpkins, honeydews, cantaloupe or watermelons. They all need plenty of water and plenty of space, but you get lots per plant, so you should be able to grow enough to recoup your costs, and save money compared to store costs.  You can cultivate favors by giving the extra away to the neighbors!

Cucumbers:

Same as melons–one plant should keep you in cucumbers for the season. I recommend growing at least two if you have the room because if one dies, you still have a good chance of enough cucumbers to eat and give away. Cucumbers run about 50 cents a piece in the store in Texas when they are in season so you only need to grow one or two to break even on the cost of the seeds. A couple more and you pay for the dirt or fertilizer (and I do recommend fertilizing cucumbers!)

Zuchini:

I don’t even like zuchini much, but as an investment, it has large returns if the plant makes it. One plant produces enough for the family and to give away (or sell). I grow the bush type so it doesn’t take up quite as much room as the vine type. I’ve lost a crop or two to cutworms, but when a plant makes it, I get about 3 to 6 zuchinis a week all summer long.

Tomatoes:

Tomatoes take a little more care. They get all kinds of bugs, beetles and spider mites. Just when you get rid of one kind, another bug takes its place. But they are well-worth growing. You’ll get several beauties from any single plant. You can grow early varieties, mid-season and late varieties–and they come in many sizes. I recommend a good ferilizer for these as well, so yes, you put a little more money into them, but the return is pretty good. You can freeze them, can them, give them away or make sauce and freeze the sauce. There are varieties that last quite long fresh also. And given the price in the stories (anywhere from abot 1.09 to 3.99 a pound in Texas) it’s not hard to earn back your initial costs. They are a popular item so grow enough to give away. Once people find out you have them, you will have no shortage of volunteers to take extra off your hands.

Beans:

Snap peas and snow peas: You only need about four handfuls to break even on these veggies. They are so expensive in the store, that three or four plants easily give you back your investment.  These do not require fertilizer, but watch for aphids and spider mites!

Most green beans are easy to grow and you get so many beans per plant, they are a good garden investment. You’ll need about five plants to have enough beans coming ripe at the same time so that you have enough for a meal.

Fruit Trees

Any kind of fruit tree usually pays for itself within a few years.  You may have to spray for bugs once a year or so, but peaches and cherries, if they make it through late freezes, easily pay for themselves.  Grow one or two of your favorite fruits and you get a shade tree and maybe some free eats!

I chose to grow pecans.  I won’t see any “fruits” for at least ten years. Most trees produce after they are about 4 years old.  The larger the tree, the more you pay, so hedge your bet: pick a strong young one and be prepared to wait!

 The good news is that once you get started, the costs do get better.  You only need to put in the raised bed once and each year you can add less dirt.  Of course, if you’re like me and you expand every year…

Today I picked my first Siberian tomato. It’s supposed to be the very earliest tomato–but I’ve already had a full-sized opener, an early girl and…a sugar grape! The Siberian is an heirloom tomato, meaning it hasn’t been crossed or improved. I didn’t know this when I bought the seeds. In the past when I’ve tried heirloom tomatoes I’ve been woefully disappointed. The brandywine I tried was a giant plant–as big as me with leaves as large as a potato plant–but the tomatoes were soft and few. Very few as in about 4 and they cracked very badly in the Houston heat.

The Siberian tomato is only slightly bigger than a golf ball–a nice red. And does it ever have a LOT of taste!!! It’s sweet right at first, but with plenty of acidic tomato flavor! Quite good. I’m very pleased with it. The plant has been disease resistant, hasn’t suffered too much in the heat and the bugs left it alone until the tomatoes started getting ripe. I’ve had a few of those beetles that get on the tomatoes and scrape the juice out. I’m trying to figure out what to do about those because I’ve only seen one or two, but they fly off before I can kill them.

The plant has very large leaves and was slow to grow. The seeds took so long to germinate, I thought they weren’t going to. I have a couple of the plants, so we’ll see how the overall yield goes. I definitely recommend them over a cherry tomato. They are twice the size and a lot more flavor. The plant is supposed to be quite cold tolerant, although I don’t think I’ll be testing that aspect here in Texas. It’s pretty much been 95 for two weeks now…

The turtle got a rather impromptu bath yesterday…I didn’t know he was under those plants, I swear!  He came barreling out of there, mad as a hornet…

Later in the day, he must have found his good humor because he found some dogfood that the grackles had dropped (grackles are a bird–they steal dogfood from neighborhood bins and then show up and eat in our yard because we have a birdbath.) 

Here he is–happy as…a turtle! 

As for those tomatoes I told you about–I’m going to upload a picture very soon so that you can check out the currant tomatoes! Working…

Here they are–are these not the tiniest tomatoes you’ve ever seen??? The large, normal-sized one is an “Opener.” I picked it a bit early because I didn’t want the birds or the turtle to get any ideas!

Turtle

That little guy is still around. I see him out at the garden, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening. Yesterday, I watched him motoring around the water dish (which we actually put out for the birds to bath and drink from). He seemed to be hunting for pill bugs (also known as sow bugs, rolly-pollies, and potato bugs). He gets around pretty quickly for a turtle–peddles fast! Our yard is…oh quarter acre maybe, and I’ve seen him at every end. I do suspect that he tried one of my grape tomatoes–I swear the breakage screamed turtle beak! He didn’t eat it though, so he must have been expecting a strawberry (some of which are probably missing from the two or three plants, but he’s welcome to them. I don’t get enough to really amount to anything.)

Writing or Reading

Fantasy Magazine (editor Sean Wallace, magazine pub’d by Prime Books) has started an interesting column–blog for a beer! Check it out. Basically they’re looking for input on a “topic of the week” and they’ll provide you with beer (or fudge sundae) money (10 bucks) if your wisdom is chosen. It’s an interesting idea and kinda neat–give people that like to comment a chance to be pulled from the comments into the frontline so to speak.

Fruits of the Garden

The first full-sized tomato is turning red!!! No really! It’s going to be one from the “Opener” plants. I’ve had two grape tomatoes turn, several currant tomatoes–do not plant currant tomato plants, folks. They take up a lot of room and so far, the tomatoes are not even the size of a dime…not that size is everything, but it’s rather odd eating fare. You put a handful in a salad, and you can’t spear them to eat them. Then when you do get them in your mouth, they kind of roll around your teeth like they’re trying to escape. You finally nab the suckers, and they explode with a rather hefty pop. Seriously, they are the weirdest tomatoes I’ve grown. There must be 40 million on the plant, but what am I going to do with them? I can’t exactly can these suckers.

The snap peas are about done. It was a decent year, but by no means a bumper crop. I never had enough to give any away. We had enough for salads and as a side dish several times, but now the heat is starting to wither the plants. The zucchini is going strong; we’ve eaten a few already. I have two Chinese cabbage still producing. I cut a few leaves here and there when I need cabbage–put some in with the zucchini and snap peas in the shrimp/veggies for tonight’s meal in fact. Pretty good stuff.

I should have a cucumber in a couple of days–small and kinda curled–looks a bit like a large pickle, even though it’s supposed to be an eating-type. If I get lucky it will be ready at the same time as the tomato.

No takers yet on the cantaloupe, but the plant is hanging in there and snaking around this and that. I’m sure it’ll take here in a bit.

The early raspberries are coming in. May not be a bumper crop, but they are enough to snack on while I’m out there pretending to pick weeds!

Just finished State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy. I really enjoyed it. I opted to do a review over at www.fantasybookspot.com - you can find the review here:

http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/2656

Every year, I get a few visitors to the garden–usually a frog or three, definitely a cat or two and even an opossum. The opossum wasn’t welcome really. They have a tendency to take a bite out of the bottoms of tomatoes just to see what they taste like. Once they’ve tasted one or two, they aren’t a problem, but still. Have you seen those things up close? Worse, have you smelled them? These are not cute, stuffed toys, people. They are rats with longer fur. Yick. Ick, Blick.

Anyway, this year, we have a new friend in the garden. I don’t know whence it came, and I don’t know how long it will be staying. I don’t know if it needs water, but I put a bin of water out there anyway. I don’t know if it was a pet or a visitor from the wild. I suspect it is an escapee because it is not covered in disgusting mud or algae, but it did not answer when I asked. I left it a lettuce leaf or two, although if it finds it, I suspect that my cabbage may be missing a few leaves in the morning.

If anyone knows what kind it is, do write in and let me know!!!

Interesting post over at Dead Guy on what book buying will be like in 5 or 10 years. I love Janet’s posts, and I always find the topic of book returns by stores to be interesting. I never understood how publishers allowed returns to get so out of hand (For example: A bookstore is moving? They send everything back instead of paying to move it.) The basic problem is that publishers made it too easy to return anything. The booksellers have nothing to lose if they don’t push sales (even by such simple things as doing the marketing they sign up to do.) In the past, the only way a publisher could get a book to the public was through stores. That simply isn’t the case anymore and it’s high time the booksellers lost some of their leverage and had to start doing more to sell what they actually order. They would waste less fuel (in getting books there and then returning them), and other people’s money if they weren’t allowed to willy-nilly send anything and everything back.

Anyway, in the article Janet basically thinks that bookbuying is going the way of print-on-demand. You walk in, browse, and when you buy the book, it’s printed right there in the store. In the comments, someone argued that regular bookstores would never go away completely because there are collectors and die-hard book shoppers (I’m paraphrasing). Hmm.

My take? Things do change. I used to browse a bookstore almost every weekend. Now? I browse Amazon or other online bookstores, including Barnes and Noble (their website is somewhat faster a lot of the time.) I used to buy at least two to five books a month. Now? I go to the library once or twice a month and I buy almost exclusively online. For one, the selection is much larger and let’s face it: I don’t like every book I try. I’ve gotten pickier and I want to try authors for free. For two, the used book selection became very accessible–both by listing and by price about 7 years ago. So for several years, I did most of my purchases via Amazon used.

Right now I’m finding that used books are no longer nearly as accessible by price because of shipping charges. Until there is some way to combine used books and save on shipping, this route is fast becoming obsolete for me. It’s actually cheaper in many cases for me to find three or four new books on Amazon and eliminate shipping charges altogether using their promotions. I get more books in one drop. It takes me longer to shop, but I store up the books I read about that I want and then I go buy them all in one or two clicks.

There are times, of course, when buying used is still the cheapest option, and I will contiue to exercise such option when that is the case.

The point I’m making is that people younger than me are going to be even more inclined to shop online. They grew up with a computer in the household. They won’t care if it’s print-on-demand or shipped from a warehouse. Buying online will be a normal part of their lives and they may never even learn the fine art of browsing. For those desiring instant gratification (been there with books many a time–but often, the bookstore doesn’t have it anyway!) the bookstores will always serve a purpose. Bookstores are already changing–they are becoming places to socialize. This may or may not lead to a book purchase.

I agree that book buying is changing. I happen to think that it is going to be more influenced by online purchasing than changing bookstores. Bookstores will change, but they would have to change an awful lot to get me back in there. If they become more “interactive” in sales by adding video and sound, that’s not going to bring me in the store. To get me, the product would have to be accessible and cheaper than I can find online. Right now that isn’t the case and it doesn’t appear to be headed that way.

What are your thoughts? How do you buy most of your books now? Has that changed in the last 10 years?

Heliotrope is an online magazine put out by the fine folks at www.FantasyBookSpot.com; mostly spec fiction although in issue 3, they did do a crime story and I hear more crime is to come. This latest issue there is an excerpt from Sandra Ruttan’s latest book (crime fiction). I haven’t read any of the short stories, but you *must* go check out the cover of the latest issue. The artwork is totally awesome!!! It was done by artist, Teemu Vedenoja.

Helioptrope Issue 4

We stayed at a great little place in DC and it was in fact, the only place I found that was remotely affordable. 

I found 25 Quincy Place through the rental service www.Rentalo.com.  This place won’t be for everyone; it’s about 1/2 mile from the nearest metro station, which means quite a bit of walking if you aren’t used to it.  The nearest grocery story is a metro stop away–but another 1/2 mile walk from that metro to the store, so to get groceries, you have to be prepared for about 2 miles of walking total.  It’s doable if you’re in shape and don’t mind carrying the groceries.  Of course it would be even easier if you’re willing to pay for a cab to get yourself situated.   You can rent a car, of course, but I believe that only certain sized cars can be accommodated and there may be an extra charge for it; check the rental page for details/updates.  Not only that, parking a car in a lot of DC locations appeared to be next to impossible.

We loved this rental for several reasons; one of which was price. For four of us to stay in a hotel would have been $200 to 300 a night and we would have had to cancel the trip altogether.  We stayed at the Quincy place for around $150 a night for all four of us (not including tax and check the rules for minimum stay requirements.)   There are two bedrooms in the place so we had our privacy.  The master has its own bath; the other room has one three steps down the hall, and there’s a powder room on the first floor.  The neighborhood appears to be in the middle of renovation, but it was not noisy either during the day or at night.   The people renting the place were wonderful–they answered my questions and went above and beyond in a couple of cases. 

You’ll do a lot of walking in DC if you decide to use the metro to get around.  Again, it’s very doable if you don’t mind walking and are in shape for it.  Carry a water bottle–and an umbrella!

Eats

I spent a significant amount of time reading through the Washington Post recommended eating sections online.  Don’t bother; it was completely outdated and wrong for most of the restaurants we tried, especially where prices were concerned.  In our search for good restaurants, about all we did was add a lot of extra walking.   We should have eaten at Union Station more. Union Station was accessible, had lots of food choices and had some of the most reasonably priced food we saw.  I don’t usually recommend food courts, but honestly the price/quality was better than at least two of the sit-down restaurants that came highly recommended.  We got breakfast goodies from two of the bakeries at Union St, and there’s a place there that serves a full breakfast (dad recommends the french-toast). In addition, I highly recommend Great Wraps for sandwich type goods and Burrito Brothers for their wonderful selection of very large and reasonably priced burritos!

Other than Union Staion, I recommend a stop somewhere in Chinatown.  We ate at Full Kee (509 H St. NW, Washington, DC) and the food was great.  The prices were around $10 to 12 dollars per entree, but we generally ordered three for the four of us and had the perfect amount of food.  Full Kee served hot tea with the meal, a tradition that I love.  Since no one else in my family drinks hot tea, I got the whole pot!

There were lots of other places in the Chinatown area; many of them looked very good and prices in this area seemed to have a wide-range to cover all budgets.

That about sums up the DC trip.  All in all we had a decent time, but I don’t think I’ll need to go back anytime soon. I felt we saw everything we needed to and it’s always good to be back home!

Been a while since a book has made an entire post by itself.  This one will make the author favorite lists as well.

The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez   With a pulp-fiction cover and the ridiculous idea that anyone would want to read about a robot detective in a futurized (and much changed) earth, this book is a great read.  It’s funny, it’s comical, it’s absorbing and most of all, it’s FUN.   Martinez does such a good job with characterization, this robot manages to be endearing yet stay within the bounderies of a robot!  Fantastic!

As I mentioned in a few other posts, the museums weren’t everything we expected.   The best, by far, was the Natural History museum. An excellent displays of rocks, gems and metals (gold, copper, silver, paladium)  with everything well marked and easy to read.  The Hope Diamond was also displayed (would have been nice if the story of the curse that supposedly follows it was posted.  Or even a larger post of where it was mined and who owned it.) 

There was also a very good display of preserved animals–a chance to see what ibex, bats, and various other animals look like.  The display was well done and enjoyable with many exhibits.  There was also a separate exhibit with birds.

The mummy exhibit was almost interesting, but I’m afraid compared to the British museum it came across as rather scant.  There is an exhibit of a human mummy and a very interesting one of a bull that was mummified.  The stone sarcophagus didn’t look real.  The wooden coffin looked very real and was interesting.

There was also a dinasaur exhibit on the first floor geared towards children, but worth a very quick tour.

One of the more frustrating issues we dealt with was the lack of information–both inside and outside the buildings.  When you are in the courtyard of the “mall” of museums, the buildings are not marked well.  You have to walk up to the actual door to see the name of the buiding.   Finding out what is on display inside pretty much involves looking for yourself.  The volunteers at the information desk do hand out a booklet that is supposed to help you decide which museums to visit, but the information is so scant and general, it is not worth the paper it was printed on.  Most of the “guide” was ad space.  The most useful information was a map of the buildings that I printed before I left.  I think the same map was probably inside the guidebook, but the one I took was very helpful when we first stepped off the Smithsonian metro station and had to choose an unmarked building to get started.

For some odd reason the back of the museums where the streets ran were better marked.  There were even ads outside the buildings with some pictures and information about what was on display inside.   I’m not sure why this type of information isn’t available from inside the courtyards and why there isn’t more information available.  I know that the Smithsonians have a lot of material.  I wish they’d include more of it in their exhibits and some sort of online listing of what can be found at the various museums.  I know the displays change frequently, but keeping an updated list would be extremely helpful to visitors. 

We saw an ad on the DC metro for a “live frog” exhibit at National Geographic, so when the museums weren’t working out too well, we decided to find it. It rained the day we went, but the frog exhibit was worth the walk in the rain. It wasn’t a large exhibit, but we enjoyed the variations in the frogs and of course, found the poison dart frogs fascinating. They are the most beautiful of frogs (well, they are the most colorful anyway) and also the most deadly.

Indigenous Emberá people of Colombia have used the poison from the frogs for centuries to tip their blowgun darts when hunting, hence the genus’ common name. There was a nice display of a blowgun and the the quiver used to store the darts. From what I read, the toxicity of the frog is most likely dependent on what the frog eats; frogs in captivity are not toxic and for those in the wild, the toxicity varies in each population.

We hadn’t intended to visit the botanical gardens in DC. I mean, you can pretty much put up a garden anywhere, but when the museums didn’t have enough to hold our attention…

Turns out the garden was one of our favorite places. Granted, it was pouring rain outside so we probably stayed longer than we otherwise might have, but it was orchid season! There were other flowers there too, of course, but the gallery below is pretty much dedicated to the orchid room. The last flower in the picture is actually from a tree that was along the Potomac basin. I don’t know what kind of tree it was, but the flowers were just gorgeous. Only about half of the flowers in the botanical garden were marked so if anyone wants to write in with a name, I’ll add a caption. My favorite was the purple flower with white lace lines through it–there was no marker, but what a lovely, lovely orchid!

Click on the pictures to see larger images.

Recently completed the grand tour of Washington DC. Took the parents and took in museums, monuments, restaurants and anything else we could find. The problem? The museums were a bust as far as good ones. Yeah, I know. I almost had to read that twice myself. The great Smithsonians were like a picked over Blue-Light Special clearance section.

What the hell happened to them? I was there twenty some years ago and loved them. There was so much to see, I could barely stand still long enough to take in the exhibit in front of me. This time around, it looked like some marketing specialist for modern art was in charge during the renovation. Two of the museums in the mall area were still under renovation and completely closed. That in and of itself was a bummer. Why weren’t some of the exhibits from those museums moved to other buildings? There appeared to be PLENTY of empty space in the buildings we visited.

Just one example: In the Native American building, the first two floors were dedicated to empty hallway space, a restaurant and two very small museum shops–the only exhibit was a canoe that appeared to be a “replica” rather than a real one on the first floor. The hallways were wide and empty enough to race bicycles.

There were a lot of contemporary bowls and contemporary native clothing–essentially native garments done by today’s artists. They were gorgeous mind you, but I really didn’t go to a museum to see a modern artist’s rendition of an outfit that was originally designed back in the 1800’s. Several were sewn in 2000 and after, sitting next to the odd one here or there that were made in the 1800 and early 1900s. All of them were beautiful, but you had to check the dates to even know whether you were looking at something done by modern hands, or something done back on the plains using hand-prepared hides, bones, and seeds. There was little documentation to explain what ceremony the outfits might have been used for.

There was very little pottery and if there were old ones recovered from archaeological sites, I didn’t see them, mainly because once I figured out we weren’t talking history, I moved past them. There may have been older pottery bowls mixed in, but there was only a single, short wall of pottery period.

Drawers along one wall contained arrowheads and some steel tomahawk type weapons. Not much by way of documentation to be able to tell who used the weapons, although there were dates.

There were no teepees or utensils such as bone needles, scrapers for the hides, stones for grinding corn. In fact, there was very little information about the different tribes–none of the various artworks such as blankets (Navajo), baskets, pottery or dolls (Kachina or otherwise). I think I saw a few pieces of Indian jewelry, but not much (Not a single piece of Zuni jewelry, for example.) From what I recall, each tribe had their own styles when it came to pottery and painting of pots. Too bad the Smithsonians hid all that in the back somewhere. I certainly would have liked to see some of it.

The Indians didn’t all live the same. They had various ways of life–hunting, planting, pueblos, war-mongering, etc. None of that was mentioned anywhere. The different arts and ceremonies from the different tribes was completely missing. What a letdown.

We also visited the Smithsonian Castle, a museum that supposedly had exhibits/examples from each of the other museums. It was very nice and the samples were great–All two rooms on one floor that was was shared with an eating area and a small restaurant/snack place. We thought we’d be able to see some things from the museums that were closed. And we did. Probably two or three exhibits. What a letdown.

I don’t understand what changed or why. The Smithsonians are supposed to be premier museums in the world, certainly in the United States. There may be more lighting and “interactive” displays, but the content was sadly, sadly lacking. I’d rather have clutter to explore and wonder about than artfully arranged glass cases with one sample of one theme.

I’ll blabber some more about the trip and post some photos in future posts. We did enjoy the Natural History Museum–it contained at least 3 floors of exhibits. My husband visited the Space museum and found some good things there, although there were probably a few too many “replicas” rather than the real thing. Its main purpose appeared to be dedicated to entertaining small children.

We also enjoyed the monuments. There truly is something wonderful about reading the inscriptions at the Lincoln memorial in the hushed environment. People were very respectful and polite.