A city so green, they call it emerald

Here is this weekend's discovery: you can actually compost at Mariners games. I'm pretty sure this was also the case at the Sounders game, but I spent the entire game screaming and chanting -- so I couldn't tell you whether or not they had a compost bin. At Safeco, the Mariners have converted most garbage cans into compost cans. This is because they have switched from using plastic silverware and plastic-coated concession trays to corn-based silverware and paper concession trays. Since in Seattle we can put all that stuff in the compost, the garbage cans have become compost bins.

The irony of this is that I walked around Safeco for ten minutes trying to find a garbage can. Someone in my row, upon seeing that I was making a compost run, put a non-compostable Lays potato chip bag onto my very compostable paper tray. Sigh.

Anyway, the Mariners efforts have made Safeco one of the greenest stadiums in the country. Something like 80% of all waste at Safeco Field ends up composted or recycled. This is awesome. Especially since God knows the Mariners aren't leading in anything baseball related...

How is this possible? Well, I live in a city so green they call it the Emerald City. Granted, Seattle got this moniker because of all the trees and parks, but we're really a leader on the recycling front. Our buses run on a combination of electricity and bio-diesel; our food waste goes into the yard waste (and gets cooked into compost); and we can recycle almost everything. I love it that even the sports teams are getting in on the act. My town is a green town!

In case you are following the saga of Anna and her many tomato plants (oh, how I wish my camera worked so I could post photos!), I have fifteen tomato plants now. Well, seventeen, if you count the two I bought today -- I allowed myself to buy a yellow taxi tomato and a red brandywine, since they were all out of yellow brandywines at the Seattle Tilth sale. Thankfully, a couple of my surviving starts are yellow brandywines. Good, because those are my favorites!

All of my tomatoes are now in big teenager pots. I may have to move them into gallon pots (and buy yet another light) by planting time. A good rule of thumb around here is to plant summer veggies around Memorial Day. The week before Memorial Day, I will be busy hardening off my new plants -- getting them used to outdoor temperatures after growing inside my cozy little house. I have a feeling I'm going to feel like a proud Mama Gardener...as long as my little babies survive!

At the plant sale, in addition to the aforementioned tomatoes, I bought Genovese basil (caprese, anyone?), King-of-the-north sweet bell pepper, Walla Walla sweet onions, yellow zucchini, and yellow crookneck zucchini. That's right, I forgot that I could not grow a zucchini to save my life last summer, and now have two zucchini starts. Hopefully I have learned from my missteps and can grow zucchini this time. (Incidentally, yellow crookneck zucchini grill up quite well. And go well with bacon. But everything goes well with bacon, right?)

I also put my CSA on hold today. I've been so busy that I haven't been using all the veggies. Besides, the Wallingford Wednesday Farmers Market is set to return on May 19th! I hope my favorite vendors haven't forgotten me...I tend to buy a lot of tomatoes and zucchini. I'd like to keep putting my money where my mouth is, too, and continue to buy locally raised meat. I have tasted my first locally raised porkchop...and bought some ground beef and sausage from the same ranch to try this week. I'll let you know how it tastes. Tomorrow night, I will be using the beef in tacos!

My busy life continues to be, well, busy. I went to two Mariners games this weekend, and ended up at the Sounders game last night. I was screaming and chanting the entire game -- so much so that today I have no voice. Sounders fans do this wonderful un-Seattle like thing -- every time the opposing team's goalie kicks the ball after a shot on goal, they yell "you suck, asshole!" Seattle, as many of you know, is a passive-aggressive city. We don't ever call anyone an asshole to their face...but we are often thinking it. Anyway, I got a little bit too excited about yelling "asshole," and yelled it when I shouldn't have. It ended up sounding like more of a question, because as soon as I got to the "hole" part of the word, I realized my mistake. So, if you were at the Sounders game last night and heard a woman yell "you suck, asshole?", it was me. This guy in front of me turned around, looked at me, and said "that was cute." Seriously? I'm cute when I swear? C'mon now.

And, on that note, I will bid you all good night. I promise you, I will be dreaming about yellow brandywine tomatoes. Or about the next Sounders game I will attend. I really want to be in the section behind the goal with all of the crazy fans who lead the chants and wave flags the entire game...