I bought lentil soup from the school cafeteria today, and brought it back to my office to eat. However, when I stirred my soup around, I found white crescent shaped things in the soup! There were so many. Worried that they were worms, I examined them. The first time, I couldn't be sure-- they were not all uniform, and I couldn't make out any segmentation-- seeming to say that they were not worms. However, for one or two of the white things I examined, I found a slight black spot near the top of the crescent. A head?!
Frantic, I googled "lentil soup white worm" and came up with a couple comments on blog posts reporting the same problem. Relieved that I was not alone in this, I read on. It seems that there is a small controversy among readers about whether these are indeed worms or if they're just sprouts.
The entries I looked at:
Red Lentil Soup Recipe at Dove's Eye View
Living the Life: Lentil Soup
Most readers seemed to think they were sprouts. Only one wrote a strongly worded comment saying it could possibly be worms, but she detailed her findings as "segmented crescents"-- which was not my case.
Upon further examination, some of these white crescents were attached-- seemed a part of-- a piece of lentil skin. This was quite often the case. Other crescents seemed to have a fibrous ending. I did not find any white crescents with segments. So, I have come to the conclusion that these are indeed lentil sprouts, and I am now eating my lentil soup in decided peace.
I intend to make lentil soup later this season and add kale from my garden for extra nutrition :)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
May gardening
I only got started with this summer's garden at the end of April.
Today, I planted some beans! I haven't weeded the actual garden plot enough yet, so I decided to get started in little containers. I also inoculated them, which is supposed to make them healthier and yield more beans. I bought a small package of inoculant at Wells-Medina Nursery. It consists of a couple kinds of rhizobial bacteria. Hopefully my beans will have some good symbiosis going on! Two way relationships are good for everything and everyone... Makes for healthy beings all around. Even beans :)
I have three types of beans this year: Sugar snap, "Renegade" bush beans, and "Burpee Stringless Green Pod" bush beans. I had the sugar snaps from last year, I bought the "Renegade" bush beans this year, and one of our caregivers gave us a package of the Burpee kind.
Yesterday I went to the Seattle Tilth plant sale at their Good Shepherd Demonstration Garden in Wallingford. I was supposed to go to the "1-2-3 grow a garden" class, but traffic was SO BAD yesterday, especially in the UDistrict, that I was only able to show up for the last 15 minutes of a 1 hour class :/ I walked around the demonstration garden and took notes about the plants and the informational signs they had around, so although I felt really frustrated for missing most of the class, I did come away feeling like I'd gotten something from my visit.
I bought some plants at the plant sale: 2 lavender plants (hopefully they will help attract pollinators to my garden!), a lemon thyme plant, a "crookneck squash" plant, a "Sweet Million" cherry tomato plant, and another cherry tomato plant that is supposedly a relative of "Sungold," the tomato I liked the best from last year.
Here's a picture of the "Crookneck" summer squash seedlings-- apparently native to this area. I'm excited for it!
I bought some strawberry plants at Home Depot a couple weeks ago. Hopefully their yield will be bigger and better than last year's. I can't put much energy into getting a couple dinky strawberries again... :p
Here's one of the salad planters I've got going. I bought the mesclun mix from Wells-Medina nusery. I hope to be grazing all summer long :) You're supposed to be able to cut leaves off a maturing plant, and keep coming back as the plant grows more leaves.
Finally-- problem of the season. I reused pots and some soil from last year. I didn't see any slugs, but I think I potted my plants with sluglings!! They're eating some of my plants. This is a ruby red chard plant, but they're a little leany because I think a slug has been chewing around the stem. I intend to go out tonight and see if I can find those nasty things. If I do, it is their END! >:( This is annoying because I planted many of these specifically in pots to reduce the predator load. I may actually go out and buy me some beer. This slug business is not acceptable!!
One thing I'm going to try this year include building a "cloche" -- kind of like a portable greenhouse you can set over the top of a garden plot to ward off animals and also raise the temperature of the ground and air inside. I'm also going to try to get "floating row covers" -- looks like a gigantic dryer sheet-- to try and keep bugs away from my plants while still allowing them air, sun and water.
Today, I planted some beans! I haven't weeded the actual garden plot enough yet, so I decided to get started in little containers. I also inoculated them, which is supposed to make them healthier and yield more beans. I bought a small package of inoculant at Wells-Medina Nursery. It consists of a couple kinds of rhizobial bacteria. Hopefully my beans will have some good symbiosis going on! Two way relationships are good for everything and everyone... Makes for healthy beings all around. Even beans :)
I have three types of beans this year: Sugar snap, "Renegade" bush beans, and "Burpee Stringless Green Pod" bush beans. I had the sugar snaps from last year, I bought the "Renegade" bush beans this year, and one of our caregivers gave us a package of the Burpee kind.Yesterday I went to the Seattle Tilth plant sale at their Good Shepherd Demonstration Garden in Wallingford. I was supposed to go to the "1-2-3 grow a garden" class, but traffic was SO BAD yesterday, especially in the UDistrict, that I was only able to show up for the last 15 minutes of a 1 hour class :/ I walked around the demonstration garden and took notes about the plants and the informational signs they had around, so although I felt really frustrated for missing most of the class, I did come away feeling like I'd gotten something from my visit.
I bought some plants at the plant sale: 2 lavender plants (hopefully they will help attract pollinators to my garden!), a lemon thyme plant, a "crookneck squash" plant, a "Sweet Million" cherry tomato plant, and another cherry tomato plant that is supposedly a relative of "Sungold," the tomato I liked the best from last year.
Here's a picture of the "Crookneck" summer squash seedlings-- apparently native to this area. I'm excited for it!
I bought some strawberry plants at Home Depot a couple weeks ago. Hopefully their yield will be bigger and better than last year's. I can't put much energy into getting a couple dinky strawberries again... :p
Here's one of the salad planters I've got going. I bought the mesclun mix from Wells-Medina nusery. I hope to be grazing all summer long :) You're supposed to be able to cut leaves off a maturing plant, and keep coming back as the plant grows more leaves.
Finally-- problem of the season. I reused pots and some soil from last year. I didn't see any slugs, but I think I potted my plants with sluglings!! They're eating some of my plants. This is a ruby red chard plant, but they're a little leany because I think a slug has been chewing around the stem. I intend to go out tonight and see if I can find those nasty things. If I do, it is their END! >:( This is annoying because I planted many of these specifically in pots to reduce the predator load. I may actually go out and buy me some beer. This slug business is not acceptable!!One thing I'm going to try this year include building a "cloche" -- kind of like a portable greenhouse you can set over the top of a garden plot to ward off animals and also raise the temperature of the ground and air inside. I'm also going to try to get "floating row covers" -- looks like a gigantic dryer sheet-- to try and keep bugs away from my plants while still allowing them air, sun and water.
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