Draft 2021

In a heroic act of normalcy, my husband and I dashed to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning before heading to the hospital and my seriously ill son. This may sound like a heartless and unfeeling act by a dispassionate woman. My God, how could you go fruit shopping with your son in the hospital? But to me, making sure I had enough raspberries and blueberries to feed my family for the week, and enough to make jam and start the winter storage hoarding, was an act of anxiety reduction. I know. It made sense at the time. You see, I've been worried about that raspberry situation for several weeks now, and I haven't gotten much jam made yet this summer, what with Sarah's headaches, multiple trips to the doctor, and that dog of mine... so I a little fruit therapy seemed warranted. Of course, Zachary had a bad day on Saturday, adjusting to different pain meds and fighting nausea. I wasn't prepared for a step backward, so I was thrown for a loop and my anxiety ratcheted up

Right now I'm sitting in my son's hospital room, watching him sleep. Zachary, 19, has been in the hospital since Tuesday night's trip to the emergency room. What we thought was simply a nasty stomach virus, turned out to be much, much more. It started with him feeling nauseous Sunday afternoon, and several episodes of vomiting throughout Sunday night. By Monday afternoon, the vomiting had stopped, only to be followed by diarrhea. The diarrhea continued, with the addition of gut-wrenching cramps over night. By Tuesday morning, his stools were mostly blood, the cramps continued, and he couldn't keep anything down. A trip to the doctor's office, and we left with a stool sample kit in case the bloody diarrhea continued into the afternoon, and advice to sip Gatorade. He couldn't keep any of it down and had been dashing to the bathroom every 12 minutes for nearly 3 hours. A late afternoon call to the doctor ended with the advice to take him to the ER, as he likely was

Finally, my garden is starting to produce in earnest, with many of this week's veggies coming from just a few feet outside my back door. I use my Italian vegetarian cookbook all the time , with this week's marinated cauliflower salad a new find. The lighter cauliflower is from my garden, that glorious purple cauliflower is direct from the farmer. I've never seen cauliflower in such a gorgeous hue! I lightly steamed the cauliflower, made a quick vinagrette-type dressing, and tossed in a handful of calamata olives for extra flavor. After a quick one-hour marinade at room temperature, it offered a crunchy, tangy, counterpoint to the rest of the meal. This is the first year I've successfully grown eggplant! My kids made fun of my little happy dance on the porch when I spied the first fruits, and a friend offered only cheerful disdain regarding my joy over "tasteless purple vegetables," yet I remain undaunted. I love eggplant! I sliced the eggplant and some garden-

Yesterday one of our chickens mistook Sarah's toes for "fat little grubs." I think that was how I put it, anyway. She was somewhat unappreciative of the remark, but her "little piggies" put me in mind of the nursery rhyme and how, as a child, I always thought the piggy who "went to market" was going shopping. Whether for good or ill, today's children, in our society, at least, are so far removed from many of life's nasty truths. And when they aren't, there's often no one there to help them through it. Life certainly didn't used to offer children much protection. Just look at nursery rhyme content and you'll see that children were not only exposed to much of the worst life had to offer, but lived and breathed it as well. I know I heard all the nursery rhymes when I was little, but don't remember my mom reading them to me. Now I see the same with my youngest child; without a younger sibling, she didn't continue to hear th

Posthumous portrait of Carl Totemeier by artist James Yale. I've been thinking about my dad a lot this past week. The day lilies outside my window conjure up many memories of my dad and his plants. A horticulturist, we were always surrounded by plants and flowers. After retiring, my dad went into the farmer's market business, gradually shifting from fruits (apples, berries, peaches) to perennials, especially day lilies and hostas. He was well-known and much beloved by all who knew him. Known as a raconteur, he could regale us with story after story of his youth on an Iowa farm, his college years, and so on. We've moved a lot in our nealry 24 years of marriage, from Missouri to Delaware to Ohio to Iowa, and to 4 different locations in the Des Moines area. At each and every house, my dad would come visit with loads of plants and help us landscape. Our house previous to this one was landscaped solely by us, using the plants my father left when he died. This is the only house I

Cauliflower-cheese pie. This is one of my absolute favorite meals, and is quite well-suited to local dining. The crust is made from grated potatoes, lightly salted and pre-baked . The filling is cauliflower sauteed with onions and thyme and the custard is made with a couple of eggs, salt and pepper, and a dash of cream. I've never been a big fan of cooked cauliflower, but this pie is delectable. We had a wilted lettuce salad, using lettuce and onions from our garden. The lettuce is quickly tossed in hot bacon grease (just a dab!) and a dressing of vinegar, salt and pepper. A few pieces of bacon are crumbled over the top. I keep thinking my lettuce is done for the season. I cut it way back, then the weather cools again and I get another growth. Not that I'm complaining! The coup de grace was mulberry sorbet. The mulberries were picked from at a friend's farm, juiced, then put in the freezer with a little sugar added. Mulberries are quite sweet, so I added the juice o

This has been one of those weeks. I don't handle stress well, and my stress load went stratospheric this week. Zachary has been dealing with GERD for a couple of years now, and has undergone numerous tests this summer trying to pinpoint the cause. His gastroenterologist believes it likely that he suffers from a slow digestive tract (gastroparesis), but he doesn't fit the typical profile (i.e. he's not overweight, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink alcohol, isn't diabetic, is only 19). This makes diagnosis and treatment more difficult. We're not talking about the occasional heartburn here, either. He suffers from reflux throughout the day, every day. He's made modifications to his diet, tries to eat multiple smaller meals, raised the head of his bed, and takes Prilosec, which, by the way, has made no difference to his symptoms. He decided, and we agreed, that a course of Reglan (recommended by the doctor), might only provide temporary relief and is not wor