Just Starting Out

Well, this is my first post, on my first blog, and I'm not quite sure what to do now that I've created it.  I think the most logical thing to do is to introduce how I came to this point and what I intend to include on the blog as I start this new path of writing along with gardening.

First of all, I fully blame Barbara Kingsolver for my present condition.  She doesn't know me, and I don't know her, but she is definitely the one who led me here.  About 7 years ago my partner and I bought a house together that had a wonderful spot for a vegetable garden.  We both liked to grow our own herbs and veggies and we started cleaning out the chosen area that next summer.  I bought some books on organic vegetable gardening and gardening in Illinois.  At the same time I was reading every Barbara Kingsolver book I could get my hands on; she came highly recommended by my mom and has such a lovely writing style.  Sometime during late 2007 or early 2008 I learned she had a new book out: "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it sounded like a wonderful read - while not fiction like the other books I had read of hers, it was about growing her own food and, after all, I had this little vegetable patch, it would be a fun read!  And that was the start of it all. 

Some people say I get a bit obsessive about the things I love to do, perhaps that's the case or perhaps I just get enthusiastic (a description much more to my liking).  In either case after reading that book I decided I wanted to learn more about growing as many of my own vegetables as possible.  I bought more books (and more books) and the more I read the more I planned and plotted and schemed.  I was seen outside at night, and in the snow, with measuring tape.  I started getting all manner of seed catalogs and even farming magazines.  I had decided I wanted to grow enough vegetables and herbs (and hopefully one day fruits) that I would never have to purchase them in a store or farmer's market again.

Now, here I am.  In the complicated throes of trying to balance a busy professional career with growing as many veggies and herbs and fruits as I possibly can...and loving every minute of it.  I hope you will join me.  There is nothing that I would like better than to inspire at least one other person to come home after a hard days work and relax by walking their vegetable garden, pulling a weed here and there, and going "shopping" in their own back yard when the produce is ripe on the vine.

This blog will include my own adventures with different organic and heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as information on other backyard gardeners, beekeepers, and farmers, along with recipes, book reviews, and whatever I stumble across that I think others might be interested in, or might help them grow more food.  I like to learn from my mistakes and hope you can too - and I'm always open to suggestions for how I can do things better, so whether it has to do with my garden or this blog, let me know.
Crysta