All Kinds of Progress

It’s been three days since planting and we’re seeing good progress on golden harvest tomato, purple basil and  thyme sprouts.  Regular basil has also sprouted and everything looks good so far.  Chives are also showing tiny signs of growth inside the pods.  Don’t see much action on parsley or mint yet.

It’s been a fun start and I’m looking forward to seeing everything grow.  Meanwhile, I’ve been reading up at Aerogarden Growers forums.

We’ve got some gardening going on!  Aerogarden, if you haven’t heard about it, is a simple hydroponic system that allows you to grow fresh herbs and vegetables year round.  It features self-timed light and water pump cycles and promises quick growing and harvests that last for months.  Since I’m doing a lot of cooking, I’m tired of running out and buying $3 packs of fresh herbs that just go to waste after one or two uses.  I’m hoping these will be a practical and fun solution.

Using a combination of Bing cashback, a coupon code, and an Aerogarden online store sale, we have manged to get 3 Aerogarden units and a wall shelf to fit them all for about $210.  We’ve just set them up and planted them.  Here are some first pictures.

Aerogardens

The wall shelf has a vertical orientation and the gardens sit nicely on it.  I think it’s working well and hides the electrical cords nicely.

Cherry Tomato Kit

One of the three kits we planted.  There are many other kits available and it seems there are several options to grow any type of seeds using third party sponges/pod refills and nutrients.

Wall Mounted

Two of them are planted with gourmet herb kits and the other one is planted with cherry tomatoes.  In theory, we should be able to grab fresh thyme, basil, purple basil, dill, mint, chives, parsley, red and yellow cherry tomatoes as needed.  These have just been planted, so I will document the results here as they develop.

The Instrument

My friend got me these Crate and Barrel tongs for Christmas.  At first, I was excited.  I’ve been cooking regularly with the same pair of metal tongs for my whole life.  My parents bought them probably 20 years ago or more.  A pair of tongs can only take so many grabs, squeezes and pokes and mine had seen their share.  As much as I liked my trusty old tongs, I was in need of a new pair and these seemed to fit the bill.

Unfortunately, what I got was nothing short of a design disaster.  To be fair, I had requested these tongs when he (the friend) asked what I wanted, so I will excuse him from blame.  Crate and Barrel, however, should be ashamed of themselves.  (Looking at their site, I don’t see these for sale any more)

Resulting Wound

I received the above wound when the tongs snapped shut after a failed grab at a veal bone.  In fact, this is the second time I have received injuries during the use of these tongs.  What’s to blame?  Two things actually.

The Scissor-Like Design

The two metal arms of these tongs are not congruent.  They taper, when closed, to a scissor-like intersection of raw metal toward the back of the tongs.  No other pair of tongs I have ever used tapers to such a close tolerance near the handle.  The result is that the metal arms close mercilessly down on anything in between them, especially near the area where your hand is on them.  This would normally cause only a crushing injury to an unlucky edge of a finger or palm if it were not for…

The Razor-Sharp Inside Edges

The inside edges don’t just come together with surgical precision.  They are also honed to a razor-sharp edge.  As such I was able to receive not only a crushing but also a slicing injury from the tongs.

I replaced my tongs with a Sur La Table (a store I have come to love) pair that I have thoroughly tested for injury capability.  New ones look good, but I will be sure to report back if there are more casualties.

Apple is just wrapping up their announcement for the iPad today.  It’s essentially a HUGE, higher resolution iPhone.  Cutting through all of the BS, here’s why it’s different / worth it:

• 3g and wifi data with a large, usable screen and faster CPU
• Keyboard is almost life size and easy to type with
• Office apps for iPad can be used to work on docs, presentations, etc without a laptop
• Powerful e-reading features and bookstore (and a screen large enough to read comfortably on)
• Supports ePub open e-book format
• Uses same app store and interface as the iPhone.  Anyone who has used iPhone already knows how to use iPad.

Image taken from Gizmodo, where I was watching the live blog.  Credit to them.

Will it be worth it?  Will it be great?  I think we have to wait and see how it feels and how it’s actually used.  So far it’s a little underwhelming, but if it does what it’s supposed to do really, really well then it might just be great.

I got some goodies today… hats off to triumvir for creating this collection.  They are finally here.

Two things I love to photograph: food and clothing.

TRIVMIR x STREET FIGHTER – DIV. PSYCHO BRIGADE

triumvir