Oh yeah... I moved to Kentucky

I think my mood over the last several months has been lazy... as evidenced by my complete lack of tending to this blog. In January, Joe and I moved to Western Kentucky to work at a little newspaper in a small but interesting town.

For the first time ever, I've got my own yard (sort of) and a very small container garden on a patio that overlooks a real garden. A kind, old Southern gentleman grows leeks, carrots, big boy tomatoes, purple hulled peas, broccoli, cabbage and corn. And he and his wife like to share-- even with strangers.

Tom Morris, a retired city official, is out in that red dirt and glaring Kentucky sunshine everyday. He doesn't move very fast as he makes his way down the furrows with frequent pauses-- leaning on his bulky green garden tiller. But it seems very little time has passed between our seeing green shoots poking through the earth and our munching on spicy leeks between mouthfuls of biscuit (Tom's suggested way of eating the fat green onions.) They are good. I can maybe almost see why the children of Israel liked them so much.

My 'garden' is not really so impressive. But I do have four edibles--basil, sage, dillweed and lemon thyme. Not quite like Simon and Garfunkel... but close enough. I've already harvested a few of the feathery dill leaves for sandwiches. The dill's so sweet I could just eat the stuff out of the pot. OK, I did eat some out of the pot the other day. The lemon thyme has made it onto a couple tilapia fillets and the basil into some bruschetta. Not quite sure what to do with the sage, but it sure is a cute plant. I've got it grouped with some white petunias, white and purple daisies, the thyme and some midnightblue flowers whose name I've forgotten. The fuzzy, wrinkly leaves look like lime green lambs ears and seem to attract an equally fuzzy lime green spider. Twice I've pulled this critter out of a leaf that he bent and stitched with silky web into an arachnid-sized sleeping bag. I guess the little pest likes good smells, because he's also taken to one of the basils.

This is already long and rambling enough. I doubt anyone reads this... but more KNE food columns are forthcoming.