My Favorite Trick

This little trick seriously never gets old with me. Whenever I buy scallions from the supermarket, I re-grow them at least once. Re-growing scallions is so easy. I've done it in soil here and here. I usually can only get it to re-grow properly for me once in water, but if you plant these, you can cut off the tops and have them continue to regrow throughout season. If you have kids, it's a fun experiment for them to try. I have to try to regrow ginger one day, I heard that is pretty fun and easy too!

My First Aquaponics Harvest!

It's been over a week since we set up the Back to the Roots Aquafarm. Despite not having a grow light, the seedlings were doing so well. This past Thursday we harvested the wheat grass! Look at that! How amazing huh? The plants are so loving the nutrients that Simon the betta fish has been producing, and Simon seems to be happy too! I've been thinking about adding a grow light to the setup for the lettuce and basil to really take off. Since this tank is indoors, the only light it's really getting is the overhead fluorescents. I wonder what I should grow next. Maybe some chives? Ooooh. excited!

Win a $25 gift certificate towards a class at the New York Botanical Garden!

For those who read my blog, you know I love to take gardening classes.

The New York Botanical Garden has some exciting new gardening classes for spring starting in March! There are great eco-friendly gardening topics such as sustainable pest control, soil basics, planting pollinator-friendly plants in the garden, and container gardening.

Even though I've been gardening for the last 6 years, I still consider myself a "novice". There is always something to learn! For example, I have a tendency to kill my orchids. Here's a prime example.  Every year I buy orchids only to have them end up like this every time, without leaves, dry roots, and sad looking. Maybe I should take their Orchid Growing 101 class or Troubleshooting for Orchids. I need some expert advice! Don't you think?

There are also some cool gardening classes like Raised Bed Gardening, Vegetable Gardening,  or how about learning how to raise your own backyard chickens?! I've always wanted to raise chickens! And if you live in a small apartment, there are also classes like Container Gardening or Super Small Space Gardening where classes are held in Midtown Manhattan. They offer so many classes, browse beginner and introductory certificate classes here: http://bit.ly/NYBGGardening

And here's something super cool. The New York Botanical Garden reached out to me to offer one of you a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to use towards any class at the New York Botanical Garden. All you have to do to be entered to win is to "Like" the NYBG Adult Education Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/NybgAdultEd. And then leave a comment for me below to let me know that you liked their page, and you'll be entered! The winner will be picked at random using the generator on http://www.random.org. Enter by 11:59pm PST, Monday, March 3rd, 2014. Enter now, and GOOD LUCK!

Food Swaps: Like minded foodies converge.

When I see the announcement go past my news feed on Facebook that a new Food Swap event is occurring, I mark the ticket sale date on my calendar right away. Woohoo, it's exciting!! I soooo look forward to the BK Swapper food swap! Tickets are actually free to this event, however, getting tickets for the BK Swapper event is coveted by many, and from my experience, it's hard to get in. I usually get wait listed, and then when people drop out, I get into the event. This has happened to me the last two events I went to.

The BK Swapper event is well organized and is a lot of fun. Many people bring their A game. They make such incredible foods to swap with like minded folks. I spotted this really unique food item, "bacon infused vodka"! Wow, I wonder what that tastes like!

I brought with me 6 jars of my Angry Mimi's Hot Sauce. I have the recipe here.  I brought it to my last swap event as well, and it traded well, so I decided to bring it again. The actual "swap time" is a little frenetic. Even though we have slips of paper next to our swap items where people can write what they would like to swap with you, when we actually start swapping it's crazy! I always feel overwhelmed with the actual swapping process. But this time around, I looked at my swap paper carefully and was able to swap with everyone on it. Check out my cool haul!  Chocolate pecan bars, limoncello, chocolate sauce, lavender lemon soda, chai almond butter and butternut squash butter! What's so fun about these types of swaps is that ever time you come home with something completely different to try! I can't wait to taste all my goodies!