meansoybean

The vedettes of this week’s basket were French onions, Savoy cabbage, radicchio and a small bunch of radishes. The onions are quite spectacular; under the bronze skin there are two bulbs, almost reminiscent of garlic. The radicchio was very large and leafy. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. Other items from the basket included: field tomatoes, daikon and carrots. A very modest week of veg, in anticipation of the autumn harvest, as my farm reported. So… what did I make?

Some yummy treats this week! As you can see, I got some leeks, ground cherries, red onions, cayenne peppers and two kinds of very fragrant basil. Other basket items were romaine lettuce, green peppers, cantaloupes and beets.

The ground cherries were a first for me and they’re really, really good! I didn’t expect them to be sweet. I might look into growing them in containers next summer, if it’s even possible.

The peppers were tied up with string for drying. Even though they’re not very thick-walled I still cut a one inch slit down the side of each for good measure. This year, once dry, I plan on saving the seeds. These peppers are so easy to dry and store, and they’re great for crumbling into a curry for heat. I hope they’re just as easy to grow.

If you have pets, you’re going through life with some degree of pet hair on your clothes. The use of fabric softener is pretty much a must. So when I heard that Method had a dryer cloth that’s vegan-friendly I jumped at the first chance I got to try them out. Actually, all of their products are free of animal by-products and apparently other brands of dryer sheets use animal fats. Ick!

Here you see my pack; it’s the Free + Clear scent which is unoffensive to my sensitive nose. The reason why it’s in plastic is that the cloths are actually damp! They’re infused with plant-based softeners, according to the Method website. To my surprise, you can use each cloth two times or once for big laundry loads. I’ve been sprinkling a bit of water on them before the second go. I’m not sure if it helps any but it can’t hurt.
So how do they measure up?

Have you ever seen such a blatant disregard for clean laundry in an IKEA blue bag before? I think not. But N’s too cute to shoo away. Damn these manipulative cats!

Time to break out the lint roller…