Germination

Isn't it beautiful? These are Carmen peppers, a green-to-red, elongated, thin-walled, sweet Italian pepper that I love to grill or eat raw.

It took some experimentation to refine my seed-starting technique for pepper, eggplant, and tomato seeds, so I will share my secrets for successful germination.

Start with a good sterile commercial seed-starting mix. I pour it into a big bucket and add about a gallon of warm water, mixing it into mud with my hands. To start seeds, I use the little six-packs I saved from purchasing annuals. It's important that the initial container is not too large, because heat is the key thing. The heat mat has to be able to warm up the whole pot, which it will not do if you start out with 4" pots. Yes, you will have to transplant them into 4" pots in a few weeks. It's worth the extra step.
Once you have scooped the mud into the containers, no matter what the seed package says, place the seeds on TOP of the wet mix. They need the light! Then place the six packs directly on the heat mat. Don't put them in another tray, because they won't get warm enough. Yes, it will be messy when you water. Try a plastic drop cloth UNDER the heat mat if you're worried about the mess.
Water twice a day so that the mix never dries out completely. The holes in the six packs will ensure that the seeds aren't sitting in a puddle and won't rot.
Place your light (I just use a 4' fluorescent shop light) as close to the top of the containers as possible. If you have trouble getting the whole thing warm enough, drape a piece of plastic over the light.

Make sure you use good quality surge protectors and don't overload your outlets. Check frequently when you first set everything up to be certain that nothing is getting too hot and causing a fire hazard. With commercial heat mats and fluorescent shop lights, you shouldn't have a problem.

I do my germination in the basement, starting peppers on March 21, and tomatoes and eggplant March 28. When the plants are large enough to put in 4" pots, (mid-April) I move them to a friend's greenhouse until I'm ready to put them into the garden. Here in Upstate NY, I usually don't put out tomatoes, peppers or eggplant until Memorial Day.

So why start seeds when you could buy plants? First, because I want to grow and eat certain varieties that I can't get unless I start them myself. Also, the commercially grown plants at the big-box stores have been causing all sorts of disease problems in recent years. Plus, once you have the heat mats and the lights, it's MUCH cheaper to buy seeds than it is to buy plants. I haven't done the math, but I bet it wouldn't take long to recoup the start-up cost if you have a medium-sized vegetable garden. But the best reason for starting seeds? To have the satisfaction of seeing those gorgeous little babies sprouting up when there's still snow on the ground outside!

Where do you get your protein?

It's the first question I get asked when I say I'm vegan, and the short answer is, "from plants." But that's not what people really want to know, is it? I think they are really asking, "Do you have to eat a lot of weird stuff and slimy tofu?" They are also so conditioned by the advertising media to think that it's difficult to get enough protein that it seems like a big concern. But in reality, too much animal protein is killing Americans and it's easy to get all you need from a plant-based diet. And you don't have to eat anything "weird."

Do you know what protein deficiency looks like? It's called kwashiorkor and you see it in third world countries experiencing famine. Children with stick-like arms and legs and distended bellies suffering from malnutrition have protein deficiency. If you are getting enough calories (and not all from junk food) you are probably getting enough protein. Remember the idea that vegetarians had to combine types of foods to get complete proteins? It's a myth. The ADA busted that myth in 1988, and even the author of Diet for a Small Planet, who came up with the idea in the first place, reversed her position on that long ago. Plants have all the amino acids needed to provide all the protein an active person needs to thrive.

So, where do I get my protein? I get it from vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and fruits. I get it from FOOD.

Seeds are sprouting!

Bell pepper seeds have sprouted and tomato seeds are now in six-packs under the lights, on the heat mat! My plan for this summer's vegetable garden includes peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, chard, beans, peas, radish, beets, squash, garlic, rhubarb, asparagus, raspberries, and hopefully blueberries. I planted three dwarf blueberry bushes last summer, and I think one survived. If it did, I'll need to plant more because they need to cross-pollinate in order to produce fruit.
I decided not to use my limited garden space to grow things that are cheap and decent at the supermarket. So no onions this summer, and no carrots.
Meanwhile, I have almost exhausted the store of vegetables I froze last fall. I ate the last of the eggplant and summer squash last week. There is one tub of sauce left, a couple of containers of shredded zucchini (for making quick bread) and some pie apples and rhubarb. Spring can't come soon enough for me!

Inconvenient?

Is it inconvenient to be vegan? I don't find it to be so. I already knew how to cook and enjoyed doing it though. I suppose if you currently subsist on fast food and pre-packaged food-like substances, then you would find my way of eating inconvenient. But if you think cooking healthful meals is inconvenient, you should ask someone with Type II diabetes how convenient it is to poke their finger, check their blood sugar, and give themselves shots of insulin. That's where your convenience food will get you.

It is a myth that you need a lot of weird, hard-to-find ingredients to be vegan. You also don't need to eat "fake" meat unless you want to. There are so many delicious whole foods out there that I could eat something different every day and never feel deprived. My food world has gotten bigger since going vegan, not smaller!

Gone Vegan

After 22 years as an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I became vegan last winter. It's better for me, better for the environment, but more importantly, it's better for the animals!