"It will be years."
I knew that was going to be the answer, but I told him how long I'd lived here anyway and that I was married on the property. I gave him dates. He added me to the waiting list for a space.
I tour the community garden once a week and the fence lines are bursting at the seams with blue borage. The borage volunteers indiscriminately and appears to be happy in any amount of sun. I stop and eat a few flowers. Aside from being fuzzy on my tongue their taste resembles cucumbers. Very cool. And on a bed of salad greens - instant art.
I've wanted to plant borage in the backyard but I'm wedded to the vision of white perennial beds. Once I allow color, and I'm tempted constantly, the project would be over.
On Sunday though, the ladies with the plant starts from Sebastopol brought in two pots of white borage. The gospel singing women that ride around on my shoulders broke into song. This was the farmers' market find of the year.
White borage. Food and art rolled into one. And I don't have to wait. That alone is worth singing about.
5 hours ago
10 comments:
Ahh, borage. I only have the blue variety. I have to say that of everything I've planted this years - the seed potatoes, the pea seeds, the radish seeds - the borage was the easiest. It's like, if you spit on them, they'll grow. I love it when something is easy, beautiful AND edible. Enjoy your white variety.
green bean - Laugh out loud. I needed that. This morning the news of food shortages in Haiti, their dependence on imported food, the rising cost of food everywhere and the continued reluctance of Burger King to pay the Immokalee tomato pickers a higher wage after 30 years without a single raise had me feeling fairly foolish for blogging about borage for reasons of art. Now I feel better. Thank you.
I know what you mean, Katrina, but I think it is these simple things that help us stay connected and feel at peace in this crazy world. These are the things that give us hope and hope is what motivates us to create a better world. Bravo borage!
You wonder how we have all these world problems when stuff like borage (and sunchokes and sorrel) pretty much grow wild. I must confess I had an aha moment when I clicked to your page just now. I've been looking at those fuzzy plants in our own community garden with the bright blue flowers for the last year, came to recognize they weren't weeds (so stop pulling 'em up), understood they were something I ought to know about. But I didn't 'til just now!
green bean - I know. Sometimes I just want to do bigger things.
audrey - Great idea. Instead of the great sunflower project there could be a borage without borders project to distribute borage seeds with instructions to just spit on them and they'll grow. That is practically true and the greens are edible. I'm glad you've stopped pulling them up.
Last year we planted blue borage between the tomatoes and this year we have little borages growing up everywhere. In fact I just said to my husband yesterday that we should start a Borage, Amaranth, and Wonderberry (some strange berry we grew a few years back) Farm because all three grow like wildfire in our backyard without any work on our part. We'd be the laziest and most productive farmers around.
Kendra - What's funny is I've never seen borage for sale at a market or a grocery store. You may be on to something. I'm going to have to look up wonderberries although you don't sound too thrilled about them.
Slightly off-topic... we're starting a San Anselmo Garden Exchange, this Saturday (6/27/09) in Robson-Harrington Park, 9-10am... We're skipping July 4, then from July 11 on, we'll be meeting at Creek Park. More info at Marin Open Garden Project http://www.opengardenproject.org
David - Thank you for leaving a comment. I've only recently found your blog and have been meaning to write about the harvest garden exchanges happening in the area. I'm so excited about it even though I don't actually have a garden. Just that it's happening is exciting.
I can't resist nibbling like a deer at the veggies that pop through the fence mmmm yummy
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