Farm share, week 11

• a bunch of golden beets with greens
  
• two large or four small eggplants
  
• a head of Napa cabbage
  
• two Biscayne sweet peppers
  
• a pound of carrots
  
• a pound of green beans
  
• three pounds of tomatoes (heirloom and slicers were available)
  
• a bunch of chard (I chose Bright Lights, though I considered red for contrast or yellow for mixing in with the beet greens)
  
• a bunch of leeks
  
• a head of lettuce
  
• a small bunch of flowering dill

Having the dill and the beans meant dilly beans! The eggplants were gone in vegetable sautes, and the cooking greens were tossed in with potatoes (also feta, eggs, walnuts, and some soy sauce). I'm mostly through the tomatoes, though there are some left to go in salad with the second half of the lettuce. I want to make a new batch of sauerkraut with Napa and red cabbages, but need to finish one of the current batches (plain green, or spicy green with kale).

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Harbor Arts dock tattoos

Yesterday's adventure was helping klingonlandlady with a huge art project she's doing on one of the docks of East Boston (which, in classic Boston geography, is of course north of the North End).

I have now found the first area where Google maps have a longer walking route than driving (due to the bridges). I decided to walk anyway, and how now found my new least-pleasant road for walking: Beacham St. in Everett, which is off Rte. 99 (between Sullivan Sq. and the rotary, which had been among my least favorite walking streets already). On the other hand, I now know where to go for wholesale fruit and mushrooms. Farther on, I found a new-to-me park that I want to explore, and there are some great pediments in the Eagle Hill section, too. Plus I have a much better sense of where Maverick station (on the Blue Line) actually is. Still, while I originally planned to walk back, I was happy to get a ride most of the way home.

The art project is a series of art pieces drawn on the dock, all in black, all big (more than person-sized), each from a different region of the world. There's a triskellion for Ireland, a huge rooster for France, a twining dragon for China, and so on. I helped make lines blacker (the first pass is over chalk, which makes it adhere less to the concrete), and filled some all-dark spaces in. I don't know whether I've ever used big paint brushes before; I had to learn how to get the best edges, and hope I'll get better with straight lines. (I'd thought I was good with them, but now I'm not so sure.) Still, I could see progress, and that was great.

I was concerned I'd end up kneeling a lot (my knees are not designed for kneeling), but I ended up squatting and bending and just plain sitting, and it was fine; I can feel it in my muscles today, in that enjoyable "hey, we got used more than usual" way. It felt great to help on a big project like this, and see a new view of Boston, too. I'm hoping to go again the next few weeks before they're all finished.