Man has begun to tame nature

Inspired by She La and Jamie at Home, I have begun taming nature by growing my own crops and raising livestock. Well, maybe not the latter just quite yet. This cookbook comes highly recommend by the Blackened Out Book Club. Even if you don't have an immense garden like Mr. Oliver or some pots like myself, this book will help you learn how to think about cooking with seasonal ingredients. So the next time you go to a Farmer's Market that enormous squash won't be so much a challenge as an opportunity.

Here are some photos of how easily nature bends to the will of a human.

Oregano, culled from Mt. Olympus and made palatable by the Ancient Sumerians, it is now prized for its noble qualities: honesty, wisdom, and formality.
Domestic basil, which is actually rarer than wild basil, grows here in an illegal, uber-organic bed of damp soil. This strain of basil is mostly found in the wake of lava floes, eons after the floe stops. Somehow I was able to smuggle in some seeds via an Air Nepal flight 2 years ago.

Cucumberus magnus. Seen here in its infant stage. These stalks, just a week after this photo was taken, are now fifteen feet tall. The zoning board of Broadmoor is not happy with my command of nature.

Okra. The leaves are fuzzy. This attracts a special bee which in turns produces the slime which makes okra famous. These bees live on average to be 34 years young.

These are two doves which have followed me my entire life. That is Mort on the left, and Sharon on the right. They have made a nest on the front porch. They seem content right now. Such contentment late in April usually means we are due for a mild summer, but I would buy an extra umbrella.