So-Cal, Cilantro, Ai-yiy-yiy

Oh California dreamin… leavin, on a jet plane… go to California, go to California… okay enough DJ shit. :) The trip was great and we are home in one piece. I lugged my laptop across the country only to use it to check directions to the Barnes and Noble and if S6 went to the coast. (It does.) So we home and holy family and people! I can make conversation for about two hours, I discovered, before I run out of shit to say and start majorly wishing there was a cow to slap around. I spend roughly eighty percent of my time either alone or in the presence of livestock or dogs so being cornered into conversation, and conversation about something besides the pros and cons of grassfed beef say, I run out of shit to say. It’s like the t-shirt says, I’m not a quiet person so if I’m not saying anything it’s because we’re not talking horses. Beautiful country north San Diego though, Escondido and the hills too. We got to hike a little and that was probably my favorite part of the trip, that and the Mexican food in Old Town. I can highly recommend that. The Wild Animal Park and Balboa Park and Coronado were cool too, but driving and getting out and walking, seeing the real California, was even cooler. Touristy stuff has never really been my thing.

In honor of the wonderful food and extremely hard working people who served it to us, today’s herb is cilantro. It’s a classic herb used in Mexican cooking, extremely flavorful and essential to any salsa.

Cilantro is a member of the parsley family and the leaves of this two foot high are used for cooking. It’s an annual unless you leave the flower heads, then it will reseed itself and regrow the following year. Start the seeds directly in pots as transplanting disturbs the roots and causes early bolting. (News to me.) They can also be started indoors six weeks before planting outdoors, I’m assuming either in peet pots or directly in a pot. I’ve had luck with using a peet pot, but the plants last year were very fine and kind of weak so might not want to listen to me. If sown directly and started in rows instead of containers, the plants need nine to twelve inches of space and they grow well in a pH range of 6.5 and 7.5. (So much for my throw manure on and go theory.) Cilantro likes a soil that drains well, can take full sun or some shade mix, doesn’t like to be overwatered, and will grow indoors under lights as well. It takes about six weeks to get a saleable plant.

Amazingly, though I got little else done, I read and wrote a goodly sample of poetry on vacation. Mostly I read Ai and started Wislawa Szymborska. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1996/szymborska-bio.html Here’s a YouTube of some Ai poems, lovely reading and hearing.

Ai uses narrators and persona in her work, brutality and femininity running side by side in a no-holds-barred narrative that’s as beautiful as it is unflinching.

So it’s back to reality today, at my desk early and work tonight. It’s been raining almost since we left so will have to see if the cows are floating or if we need to inflate the ark.

Welcome home  :-p

Rough and Tumble Basil

Probably the easiest and most common kitchen herb, basil is versatile, pretty, fairly easy to grow, and comes in a variety of species. It’s especially great cooked up with fresh roma tomatoes over whole wheat pasta. And pepper. Lots of pepper. And parmesan cheese.

Wow making myself hungry.

Okay, other stuff about basil. Most of this is from http://herbgardening.com/growingbasil.htm, just to cite my sources.

Basil, or Ocimum basilicum if you like the fancy Latin, belongs to the mint family and is used both in the kitchen and in medicinal treatments. A quick glance in my home remedy book, Jude’s Herbal, indicates that basil is useful for digestive problems, another reason to sprinkle it on your pasta sauce, and helps treat bee stings. Basil planted around barns and house also helps keep flies away.

Basil has a delicate constitution and doesn’t like cold weather so it’s best grown outside after all threat of frost has passed. I usually start it in the house and put it outside in June, though this year it might be earlier since we’re having a relatively warm spring. If the nights do get chilly, you can always bring your basil inside. If you live in warmer climes, the seed can be seeded directly into the garden. Always check your USDA hardiness zones though, to be sure. It can be grown outside or inside, and likes a south-facing exposure, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

Basil is an annual, meaning you have to replant it every year; it doesn’t re-grow on its own. Keep the plants thinned to 6-10 inches apart. It’s not a social plant, apparently, and doesn’t like to be crowded. As a Mediterranean herb, it likes a quick-draining, light soil, as opposed to the heavier clays common to more northerly areas. Basil wilts quickly in heat, but revives with a good dose of water. Always pinch off the flowers if you want more leaf production, which is the part of the plant used in sauces, teas, and other brews. Basil grows to between 1-2 feet tall, prefers full sun, does well in most any soil pH, and attracts valuable bees and butterflies to the garden. It is vulnerable to whitefly, thrips, aphids, and fusarium as far as pests go, but you’ll have to deal with that yourself as pests, blights, and insects vary by region.

So there’s a dose of plants. Now for a dose of poetry.

Robert W. Service was called the people’s poet. So was Walt Whitman, but since he called himself that, we’ll let it slide. Quoting Service’s 1958 obituary, “ ‘The only society I like,’ he once said, ‘is that which is rough and tough - and the tougher the better. That's where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.’ He found that kind of society in the Yukon gold rush, and he immortalized it” http://www.robertwservice.com/. A vagabond poet, Service held a variety of jobs in lots of places, drawing as his interactions with real, working class people and his own experiences as a soldier, cook, reporter, clerk, bank teller, and lots more for his poetry.

I’d like to spend some time with this rough and tumble poet this week, because as we covered in poetry month, there’s a time and place for poetry to be literary, but what’s the use of being literary if no one reads it? Pop fiction gets a bad rep, but guess what? That’s what’s on the beach reads table in the summer and that’s what people buy. Sure, some novels are literary, and they’re beautiful, wonderful works. So are some popular, genre novels. Maybe poets and readers of poetry alike should take note of that.