I've never spent more than $5 for a pair of pants. My parents have bought me a few pairs for birthdays that probably hit $20, but in general, there wasn't much point in spending that much - what I didn't outgrow, I usually outlived.
I wear through clothes like a diarrhetic porcupine through a roll of TP. Some might apply the verb "trash" to my clothes usage, and it wouldn't be a big stretch. I've been aware of this for a while, so when I shop thrift stores I always look for the most rugged, durable-looking jeans in my size range... but they still wear out! And its not like I'm usually even doing anything crazy like sliding down rough granite or wrestling wolverines. The last pair of jeans I broke tore on a beach! The one before? Swing dancing!
Anyways, I'm in the process of sorting through all my personal belonging in preparation for my move to Florida, and I've come across a dilemma. Yesterday I sorted and packed all my "stuff", today comes my wardrobe. Fortunately, I've been planning for a transient early-adulthood lifestyle for a while now, so I don't have too much to work through in either category. I've realized, however, that I need to make some adjustments to my selection of trousers. The internship description for the farm I'll be working at starting in July recommends bringing "lightweight work clothes," "modest shorts," khakis for giving tours and some "nice clothes" for attending churches or conferences. As most of my pants currently are of the $5 don't-quite-fit-cause-I-bought-them-at-a-thrift-store variety, and none of them could be considered "lightweight" (important in FL's humid summers), its time for some exchanges. I can think of several options:
1. Keep the pants I have that are comfy or in good shape, and augment them with further thrift store purchases as these wear out. (We'll call this the 20x$5 option)
2. Invest in several pairs of decent pants that won't last much longer than thrift store pants, but at least will fit well and be of a lightweight material. (5x$20)
3. Research heavily and choose just one or two "ideal" pairs of pants, ones that are convertible, ultra-rugged, fit well, dry quickly, and look good. (something along the lines of this) (1x$100)
The advantage of options 1 and 2 is that I have a certain degree of flexibility in choosing a pair of pants in the morning. On the other hand, with option 3 some degree of flexibility is built in, and I have 4-96 less pairs of pants to shop for and cart around. There is a certain risk you run by putting all your money in one pot though, so perhaps option 2 is a good compromise.
In general, I prefer 1 of something that does the job well to 3 of something that do the job less well. It costs fewer resources (though not always money) and simplifies moving, cleaning, and organizing. But with my track record with clothes and everyone else's preference that the color of my pants doesn't clash with my T-shirts, is it worth it here? Thoughts?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Another post about food
I remember eating fennel from the garden occasionally as a kid - we would place entire fennel bulbs in a casserole dish and bake them in the oven with cheese. If you've never eaten cooked fennel before, you might expect it to to have an overpowering anise flavor, but this ends up being very faint; overall, the flavor is actually pleasantly sweet and mild.
Before our oven broke down in the fall, someone had planted fennel in the front yard. This may have actually been a year or more ago - by last week, the largest plant had a base nearly the size of my head, and many new pups had sprouted up nearby. Unfortunately, since we don't have a functioning oven and had only ever baked them before, we were at a slight loss of how to process it in quantity: I think the last harvest in December got turned into a pasta dish:
Well, as the fennel was flowering and threatening to seed out (never a good idea with this species, it tends to get invasive), we decided to tear the remaining plants out this week. I'm never a fan of throwing food out, so it was time to find some new stove-top fennel recipes!
I found a simple recipe on allrecipes.com that looked good, and it turned out great! The fennel is cooked in white wine and broth with a little honey and mustard. Here are the smaller bulbs (I cooked the large one as a separate meal) trimmed down and cleaned:
I followed the recipe pretty closely (I didn't have mustard seeds so I substituted ground mustard), and served it with spanish rice:
The result isn't particularly eye catching, but the tongue reacts differently! I would highly recommend fennel as a super easy vegetable to grow, and a great alternative if you find yourself tiring of the same old green beans every night.
Before our oven broke down in the fall, someone had planted fennel in the front yard. This may have actually been a year or more ago - by last week, the largest plant had a base nearly the size of my head, and many new pups had sprouted up nearby. Unfortunately, since we don't have a functioning oven and had only ever baked them before, we were at a slight loss of how to process it in quantity: I think the last harvest in December got turned into a pasta dish:
Well, as the fennel was flowering and threatening to seed out (never a good idea with this species, it tends to get invasive), we decided to tear the remaining plants out this week. I'm never a fan of throwing food out, so it was time to find some new stove-top fennel recipes!
I found a simple recipe on allrecipes.com that looked good, and it turned out great! The fennel is cooked in white wine and broth with a little honey and mustard. Here are the smaller bulbs (I cooked the large one as a separate meal) trimmed down and cleaned:
I followed the recipe pretty closely (I didn't have mustard seeds so I substituted ground mustard), and served it with spanish rice:
The result isn't particularly eye catching, but the tongue reacts differently! I would highly recommend fennel as a super easy vegetable to grow, and a great alternative if you find yourself tiring of the same old green beans every night.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
A salad we didn't plant
Well, this blog has been mostly dormant since its inception, but I've decided to make a stab at posting regularly. So here goes a quick entry to start things off, and I have some further posts in the pipes that will hopefully show up here soon as well.
My parents bought the house we currently live a few years ago. At the time, the soil was fairly degraded, and apart from a lawn in need a good dethatching and your usual smörgåsbord of overutilized shrubs and trees, the flora consisted primarily of invasive European grasses, annuals, and a particularly obnoxious species of sorrel (Oxalis pes-caprae). Since then, the yard has been divided into several zones marked by various phases of ecological warfare. Our eventual goal is to have a rain-fed, low-maintenance garden that supports native wildlife
[1] and produces food. Toward that goal, we have begun an aggressive but organic campaign of weed suppression and soil improvement. In the photo below you can see a stand of "green manure" in our side yard.
These plants, which include nitrogen-fixing fava beans (Vicia faba) and vetches (Vicia sp.), are then dug into the ground before setting seed, adding valuable organic matter to the soil. We then cover the soil in a thick layer of straw (foreground in picture), which helps suppress weeds until we are ready to landscape.[2]
Anyway, today I was scything[3] the patch of green manure in the photo above, and realized I was mowing a fair amount of miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) that was growing in the understory of the larger plants. My brother John had planted this California native from seed less than two years ago in a nearby bed, and it had spread prolifically.
Well, as the name implies, miner's lettuce happens to be one of the ~1000 California native plants that are edible. Without much trouble, I harvested enough plants from 3 square feet to make several salads over. For dinner we chopped up a portion of this, and added greens or flowers from four other weedy non-natives: Common chickweed (Stellaria media) tastes much like the Claytonia, Oxalis leaves add a tart zing, and borage (Borago officinalis) and nasturtium (Tropaeolum sp.) flowers add color:
All around a great crispy and refreshing salad, and all of it from naturalized plants!
----
[1] In our case, we live half a mile from the nearest extant native habitat, so local wildlife means mostly birds and microfauna such as insects.
[2] Since we are currently also beginning a renovation of the house, we are holding off installing much of our permanent landscaping, to avoid having transplants crushed by contractors.
[3] Yup, my mother owns a honest-to-goodness scythe. Not only is it the most efficient and quiet weed-mowing tool I've ever used, it is by far the most fun!!
My parents bought the house we currently live a few years ago. At the time, the soil was fairly degraded, and apart from a lawn in need a good dethatching and your usual smörgåsbord of overutilized shrubs and trees, the flora consisted primarily of invasive European grasses, annuals, and a particularly obnoxious species of sorrel (Oxalis pes-caprae). Since then, the yard has been divided into several zones marked by various phases of ecological warfare. Our eventual goal is to have a rain-fed, low-maintenance garden that supports native wildlife
[1] and produces food. Toward that goal, we have begun an aggressive but organic campaign of weed suppression and soil improvement. In the photo below you can see a stand of "green manure" in our side yard.
These plants, which include nitrogen-fixing fava beans (Vicia faba) and vetches (Vicia sp.), are then dug into the ground before setting seed, adding valuable organic matter to the soil. We then cover the soil in a thick layer of straw (foreground in picture), which helps suppress weeds until we are ready to landscape.[2]
Anyway, today I was scything[3] the patch of green manure in the photo above, and realized I was mowing a fair amount of miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) that was growing in the understory of the larger plants. My brother John had planted this California native from seed less than two years ago in a nearby bed, and it had spread prolifically.
Well, as the name implies, miner's lettuce happens to be one of the ~1000 California native plants that are edible. Without much trouble, I harvested enough plants from 3 square feet to make several salads over. For dinner we chopped up a portion of this, and added greens or flowers from four other weedy non-natives: Common chickweed (Stellaria media) tastes much like the Claytonia, Oxalis leaves add a tart zing, and borage (Borago officinalis) and nasturtium (Tropaeolum sp.) flowers add color:
All around a great crispy and refreshing salad, and all of it from naturalized plants!
----
[1] In our case, we live half a mile from the nearest extant native habitat, so local wildlife means mostly birds and microfauna such as insects.
[2] Since we are currently also beginning a renovation of the house, we are holding off installing much of our permanent landscaping, to avoid having transplants crushed by contractors.
[3] Yup, my mother owns a honest-to-goodness scythe. Not only is it the most efficient and quiet weed-mowing tool I've ever used, it is by far the most fun!!
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