Sometimes its a nice feeling to flip back a few pages in your own handwritten journal, to watch wedding DVD`s of a few years before, take out an old album, look at your family where all of them are a few years younger, smile at a lovely moment caught frozen for a lifetime….I always love doing that….Going over and over a past memory, a card, an old crumpled letter, again and again. Today I was doing just that with my own little creation – my website…and I suddenly realised that I was on my 149`th post.  This award from Indu of Kaipakkuvam took me way over the clouds….and with what perfect timing???

Incidentally, this afternoon, I was looking for authentic Kerala Recipes and stumbled on Ginger and Mango`s blogsite which had an interesting link – The Green Blog Project.

The aim of this project is to cook up something as the main ingredient, right from our garden without those harmful pesticides and fertilizers. It could be anything small, a creeper, a herb, a root, etc. The aim is to try growing at least one vegetable for summer and another one for winter and keep on trying a new vegetable every season, so it will be really interesting. Many of us are limited on space because of living in apartments and in cold places. But I guess, a little help here, a little trial there would really help in making this planet more greener, less pesticide dependant, and our foods more wholesome. My suggestion is to start with little herbs, basil, mint, methi etc and gradually start on tomatoes, okra etc.

My aunt has a little garden at her home , and she has the tallest curry leaf plant you ever saw…almost as tall as a human!  She started out with mint, tomatoes, jasmine, roses, hibiscus, and hey even the banana tree.  All summer she gets basket full of fragrant jasmine. She never buys curry leaves from Florida doling out 1.99 for a pound, and every festival she goes in to the yard and cuts banana leaves for them to have their special feast. In fact many days, when she hosts little gatherings for chanting shlokas etc, she distributes “Neivedyam” on little banana leaves. The leaves dry out when they stay on the plant for too long. So she cuts them in to little squares and uses them for serving food. I guess its a small way, but a very commendable way of a greener planet. There is absolutely no plastic, no paper, no recycling.

Another blogger friend Mriganayani has just harvested her first home grown tomatoes.

Jay & Bee are my all time favourites on this front. They grow peas, strawberries, raspeberries, onions, okra, cherries, lavenders,roses and just about everything under the sun. I take my time to drool at those awesome pics clicked on the Mark 5D and the patience and devotion put in to their gardening passion!

A close friend of mine living in Phoenix, AZ has tomatoes, curry leaves, mint, cilantro, okra, jasmine, sweet peas, banana plant and even a tender Drumstick Tree. In summer, spring and winter, they get different vegetables and much of their cooking is self sufficient on the pesticide free veggies right out of their home garden.Imagine how tasty and fulfilling that must be??

I realise I have not mentioned some thing, one has never waxed eloquent about before. Its just that, at this time and place, as I was inspired by GingerMango`s blog, and I felt, if I could reach out to even a handful of people through my blogsite, I have achieved my goal in to making this world a better place. Yes its an effort to buy out the pots, fill it with soil, tender to the plants, move them inside during winter, and out again during summer, but the joy in reaping the benefits of one`s own  labour can never  be fulfilled with a couple of leaves stashed in a plastic ziploc cover out of a refrigerator!!!