Raised Beds and a Meaningful Seder
Finally, it has warmed up enough to spend a good amount of time outside. Woody has been putting in two new, what he calls maximum security, raised beds in his, the main garden. We’re trying hard to keep the varmints from eating all our broccoli pants and red cabbage pants—as they did in 2022. It made Woody angry and made me sad, as I had raised those seedlings from seed, nurtured them, thinned them fed them and finally pronounced them ready to go out into the garden and into soil.
He has also cleared leaves form all the beds in my garden and his. He plowed first one then another of the raised beds in my garden. In the first one, I transplanted lettuce seedlings that had grown almost too large and then five kinds of lettuce seeds and the cilantro I had started in February.
Today I must plant seeds of arugula, garden cress, radishes and mustard in the far raised bed in my garden that he plowed yesterday. Maybe I’ll get into the herb garden and see what survived, if anything – as there was no snow cover and it got very cold twice.
Mice are coming into the house lately—I can’t imagine why. It’s spring. In the winter, I can understand, but now? It’s great for the cats. Shaman caught his first mouse on his own this morning. It was a jumping mouse al the cats had been chasing for two days. Jumping mice ran run up walls. The first time I b came aware of their unique abilities was many years who when I was awake lying in bed and my cat at the time, Oboe, kept staring at the ceiling. Finally, I saw something moving around the top of the bedroom walls. Apparently, jumping mice don’t taste as good as other mice and re seldom found [by us] half or two thirds eaten.
Wednesday, we had an excellent seder. There were eight of us. Everybody was into it. Every year, I add a bit, often a new poem, often adding or removing specific political references and statements.
The food was terrific. I made a Sephardic charoset, as I can’t digest walnuts. It was made of almonds, apples, figs, dates, spices and sweet kosher wine. I always make a lot of it, so we can eat it for days. I also made a Sephardic salad of fennel, cucumbers and hard cooked eggs with an olive oi and lemon dressing. I roasted a cinnamon leg of lamb, this time a Ashkenazi recipe from my grandma. Woody made matzoh balls in chicken soup. Chaim and Theresa brought fresh gefilte fish from NYC. It was the best I’ve ever tasted. Elaine brought lots of wine. Bonnie and David brought desserts that included an entire ‘seder plate’ made of delicious dark chocolate.
This has been an exhausting week, between the party we made for twelve people--celebrating three people’s birthdays, including mine--and prepping for the seder, that begins weeks in advance with updating the Haggadah, printing it out in enough copies and stapling overs to it, preparing food for the seder, cleaning, setting everything up, etc. We were too exhausted Thursday to do much of anything. Then yesterday, we got into the garden for much of the hours of light. Saturday night, we are invited out to eat with old friends up for the holiday weekend. Woody will make what he calls his ‘famous’ Caesar salad and we’ll bring champagne.