2018 Life Logs, Day 29—Dirt Made My Lunch
Date: Monday, January 29, 2018
Weather: Overcast, Turning Colder; High 42, Low 27 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
I have a feeling that not many, maybe not any, of you spent your day baking dirt. But, indeed, that is how I spent my day. Last winter, and again this year, I have tried to bring my huge pots of parsley indoors from the deck and keep them going through the winter. And this year, as last, I got an invasion of little bugs that thwarted my efforts. These little guys look like a cross of fruit flies with mosquitoes and the worst problem is that they are in the potting soil and kill the roots of the plants. So today I went on a rampage and baked all of the potting soil in the two large pots to get rid of the critters. Baking the soil to 180 degrees F supposedly solves the problem. But my two very large pots hold a lot of soil, so it took all day to bake away the bugs. Tomorrow I will plant seeds and start a new crop of parsley. I use fresh parsley in my green smoothies and in my chicken mineral broth, so it is a staple for me. Hopefully, I will have a new crop, free of little bugs, in a few weeks. The whole process of baking the ‘dirt’ brought back memories of my days teaching first grade. In the spring, I always did a plant unit and taught my students the song, “Dirt Made My Lunch.” Here are the words of the chorus:
Dirt made my lunch,
Dirt made my lunch.
Thank you Dirt, thanks a bunch,
For my salad, my sandwich
My milk and my munch ’cause
Dirt, you made my lunch.
