What's in a carrot...

So I was featured on the frontpage of Uppsalatidningen, and got at chance to count my collection of chins. The hubby and I are discussing in which way we are going to loose weight this time (we became goldmembers of the Weightwatchers three years ago, and then I got pregnant...). To leave questions about my weight the article was good. I've nevered been interviewed by real journalists before and was a bit nervous. How would I look in another person's eye - or two persons' since there were a photografer involved. And the text turned out to be very good, as well as the pictures. Since Uppsalatidningen is a free newspaper we picked three copies, just to be able to send some to elderly relatives that might be interested.

To grow seeds in leftover cardboardboxes for eggs and boxes for takeaway turned out to be a good idea. They are easy to handle and watering the seeds is a piece of cake; you only remove the cardboard and pour a small amount of water in the plastic box - just enough to cover the bottom, return cardboard and let it soak for a while. Seems to dry out fast, though, I may be forced to water twice dayly. I hope my little seedling will grow so fast that I can replant them into bigger pots soon.

Newly 'hatched' seedlings:

• Tigernut (two out of six, perhaps a few more will sprout, but one of the nuts are definately going moldy).
  
• Alaska Scarlet, nasturtium (six out of six)
  
• St Clements, nasturtium (five out of three, I put two seeds in each bowl if I have enough of them)
  

This week I harvested the first carrot that actually looked like a carrot. It was about five centimeters (two inches) long, and slightly orange. I haven't planned for the carrots to grow much bigger since this will shorten the time it takes between sowing and harvest, and I have a vague memory of baby carrots tasting sweeter. Hm, I'll think twice about this. After taking its' picture I ate the carrot and some of the tops since I now know that the tops are edible too. To tell you the truth the tops tasted much better than the carrot - that was bitter as ****.

Now I have two mysteries to solve; why do my carrots taste bitter, and why don't we eat carrot tops, when the tops actually tastes good? What have I missed?

The sage, the hubby and the wardrobe

I manicured my sage yesterday. The reason was that I expected a visit from a journalist and a photografer who wanted to write an article for Uppsalatidningen (local weekly paper) - about my indoor gardening. I spent the forenoon looming over my plants making sure they would behave. The journalist and the photografer turned out to be very nice. The only thing that bugged me was that my newly sown seeds hadn't come up yet. Seedlings are photogenique. The photografer took some pictures of the soilfilled boxes anyhow. (I have to add that she, like every good photografer, had a kind of feeding frenzy, photografing just about anything that could pass as a motif and didn't fought back.)

But I was about to talk about sage. I have found a recipe that requires big amounts of sage, but I hadn't the time to use it this day. (Basically you drench a chicken in bacon and sage, and bake it in the oven wrapped in dough.) I decided to dry my surplus instead. To dry herbs you need darkness, special containers and an airy space. Those special containers are very hard to fit into a normal flat. Perhaps I should have given up the idea.

But we do have a walk-in closet. It's dark. Perhaps not airy, but we do go in there ever so often (and I could swing the door a couple of times each day...). I had no possibility to build those special containers, so I made bouquets out of my sage (and mint) instead. Then I placed a pole on the shelves in the closet, crossing the empty space between them and tied the herbs to it. This morning when my hubby went in there he shouted.
"Arrgh! I'm attacked by wild sage!"
"It happens to be garden sage." was my reply.
"Can be wild anyhow!"

Today the iceplant and broccoli seedlings have showed their pretty little faces, and the Alaska Scarlet are comming along too...

Ah well, there are plenty of other pretty pictures for this article.