Spinach

Oh, glorious spinach from the garden, how many ways can I photograph thee? Many, as it turns out.

I decided to pick the largest leaves because we are going away for the weekend and I wanted to avoid the possible disappointment of coming home to bunny ravaged spinach. I think the bunnies have been so far deterred either by the high (for them) wall of the planter, or, they are unaware of the spinach because it is pretty much the wallflower compared to its planter cousins: cucumber, squash and beans.

Check out this beauteous bounty. (The spoon is a teaspoon.)






What to make with the spinach... Well, first the kids and I sampled a tender leaf raw. They chewed and swallowed thoughtfully, but did not want a second bite.

I had scape to use up, so made a scape-basil-spinach pesto. We're seeing Will this weekend and he's a fan of the scape pesto, so I was glad to make a bigger than usual batch.



We brewed some mint tea with mint harvested this morning and I was set to bake and cook to use things up and bring some goodies up north with us tomorrow. Then, I burned my left thumb while pouring some tea for Gem. Poured the tea right onto my hand.

Lately, this type of thing has been happening with more frequency. Crazy as it may sound, I feel like this, too, can be chalked up to strange hormonal doings. Maybe it's just age and I'm in denial, but this is reminiscent of the clumsiness/forgetfulness that I experienced right after having my babies. As if part of my brain had gently gone out of focus for awhile.

Anyway, instinct had me putting my thumb under the faucet with cold water running, but I remembered something Vinny said and quickly turned the water off. (Cold will make it feel better by numbing, but can actually hinder proper healing.) I applied some aloe (I finally got some from my mom the other day because I've been burning myself so much lately) and settled in with some pain and irritability.

But, within an hour, with a second application of aloe followed by an application of calendula, the pain is almost completely gone. And playing with bananas and kale and garbanzo beans in the kitchen feels like a possibility again.