I made Huge Soup; I'm going to be eating vegetable soup for days. But I couldn't think of any other way to make a dent in all of my beats. All of my other beat preparation experiments ended up rather tastelessly, fried, baked and grated, but in the soup they are quite delicious. These beats were gifted to me, because they are plentiful, everyone has beats.
Does anybody know what the best way to do compost is if I actually want to produce rich dark soil up on my fifth story balcony? I have a giant bucket, and access to chicken wire. I think it needs some sort of balance between moisture and ventilation, but I have no real idea. It will probably turn into some giant, out of control experiment, like so much of my cooking. The reason I really want to start composting is that so much of my waste is food trimmings, skin from onions, potatoes, beats, carrots, apples, oranges, and cucumbers. Since I have started reusing plastic bags for grocery shopping, the only packaging waste I produce is yogurt and sour cream wrappers (yes, all dairy comes in bags). I get my milk in a water bottle, and when I want more I bring the empty bottle and get a full one in return. Bread isn't packaged at all, and my now steady supply of plastic bags takes care of everything else. I'm really anxious to add as little as possible to the growing pile of trash outside my window. Trash collection has been suspended for some reason, something about gas prices or mechanical problems with the truck. Also recycling does not exist, so it really feels bad to know that everything is going into some hole in the forest.
I also want to grow a bunch of stuff on my balcony, especially peppers, snow peas and tomatoes. I will probably have to start with some dirt from somewhere else, but it would be great to slowly enrich the soil with my own compost. Spring is coming, but I have no idea when the best time to plant things is. It's the first time in years that I will be staying in the same place long enough to actually have a garden. Even when I travel this summer, I'll just pay one of my students to water a few times a week.
Classes are going, one failure today when the tape player conked out and my lesson plan revolved around listening to Bob Dylan's "Blowin in the wind". That left me high and dry, and my backup totally failed because the longest essay that these 10th graders have ever written, even in Ukrainian class, is half a page, so the idea of thesis, and argument, and independent thinking is non-existent. I wanted them to cite the passages in the song that had something to do with war, class struggle, death and poverty. They had no idea how to quote a text and then comment in their own words. Oh well, baby steps, baby steps…
