Meditating Monday

Growing My Own Vegetables

Recently a friend on Facebook talked about her development of a community garden and I sent her a message immediately. The main reason is that I had never gardened and I thought this would be a great learning opportunity, especially since others were going to be working in the garden.

So Saturday I got to go out to the site and help out a little.  The half acre had already been plowed and my friend had acquired some compost from the City of Norman.  Here is her post. It is really interesting.  The Sexiest Men Alive.

My friend was so excited when she was explaining the garden to me and I loved it.  Her enthusiasm was a breath of fresh air.  It made me want to learn more so I asked several questions and then we started laying out the plots.  They had already been drawn but we needed to measure them out.  So here is the site after hammering in the stakes and drawing the string to show the plots.

Here is another shot that lets you see the size of the garden.  I realized that a half acre is quite large but it will be a great size once people start picking plots and working on it together.  

I think I was truly excited about this project because I learn from doing and I thought how could I go wrong working on a project where others were going to be doing mostly the same thing as I would be doing.  This was a win, win situation.  Plus my friend wants to have a plot so that some of what is grown is donated to a local food bank or other organization.  

This little bit of work took a lot of effort but I was so proud once we finished.  My friend also helped me the next day plant some lettuce and tomatoes. I am excited to see what is going to grow from the seeds.

I will be doing future posts on this project.  It is one thing to eat fruit and veggies but it is a whole other thing to grow them too.  

Traveling in the Tropics

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Nicaragua and wanted to share some insights on eating fruits and vegetables while traveling.

Actually this is sometimes a very difficult task for me.  I tend to go back to my comfort zone of fast food because it is so easy to do but I try to taste the local fare as much as possible.



The best thing about traveling to the tropics is lots, and I do mean lots of fruits are available.  Especially tropical fruit, which I love.  Check out the papaya.  It is huge.  Nicaragua also has these fruit drinks that are made with different fruits and either water or milk.  This is what I mostly drink while in Central America or water.  Definitely need lots of water.

So I can usually get fruits into my everyday meals but vegetables is another matter.  Usually when you get vegetables on your plate it is a mixture of shredded cabbage, carrots, tomato and maybe a cucumber.  I was also able to get iceburg lettuce but the people close to me will tell you that I do not like iceberg lettuce.  It has no taste and no nutritional value but does have good moisture content so if I can find it, I will eat it.

One item that I do eat a lot of in Costa Rica and Nicaragua is fish. I love the way they cook fish but make sure that you ask for a filet otherwise you might get something like this. The whole fish and I hope you like head and tails. Some people eat the whole thing. I cannot.

The last item I wanted to talk about was a fruit I got to try for the first time this trip.  It was a Nispero.  It is also known as a Japanese plum, loquat, and nispolero. It has a wonderful brown sugar taste. It is sweet and has large dark brown seeds in the center. I was so thrilled eating this fruit because of the texture and taste. Try it the next time you are in Central America. They are said to be native to Costa Rica.

So these are a few of my thoughts on my recent trip. I had an amazing time and I will share one more photo with you on Las Penitas, Nicaragua. Next time you travel, try something new when it comes to fruits or veggies or a new place or drink. You might be surprised!