How’s your garden? At the CATALYST office, the basil is waist-high and still going strong, though we will pull it any day to plant chard and kale.
—by Greta Belanger deJong
How’s your garden? At the CATALYST office, the basil is waist-high and still going strong, though we will pull it any day to plant chard and kale.
Is the concept of winter gardening taking off because we are finally learning to eat our greens? That’s the case at least for me. Little hoop houses—protective covers for gardens, available to buy (I saw one at Western Garden Center recently) or easily homemade—are popping up everywhere.
Beyond basil and kale, I must say that the more I garden, the more I appreciate farmers markets and grocery stores. I’d have starved to death by now if I had to rely on my own plot. This is the last month for farmers markets. Saturday’s Downtown Alliance market at Pioneer Square has long been the intergenerational hot spot for foodies, gardeners and all manor of shoppers interested in the hand-crafted and local scene. If your interest is mainly the food, or you’re overwhelmed by Saturday’s expanse, you should go on Tuesdays instead. It’s small and sweet—and fast, but you can also spend more time talking with the vendors if you like. They vary from week to week—see the CATALYST Weekly Reader for a list of who will be there.
Speaking of which—I personally am really enjoying our new email weekly endeavor, the CATALYST Weekly Reader. I don’t know about you but I get overwhelmed with Facebook invitations and repeated email blasts from dozens of individuals making sure I don’t forget their one event. We invite people to upload their events to CATALYST’s online calendar, and highlight a few (and link you to the more comprehensive online list) each week. There’s also Ralfee Finn’s weekly astro updates, blogs from Adele Flail and Ben Bombard, relevant notes and reminders… and treats. Drop Pax a note, pax@catalystmagazine.net, if you want to be on the list to receive it. (It includes a link to this magazine online, too.)
In case you’re wondering whatever happened to the CATALYST 100, we have resumed working on the project and you will see it in these pages soon: 100 people who have catalyzed positive change in our community, as nominated by you. In the upcoming months there will be more retrospective stories, as well, as we continue to peruse the 30 years’ worth of CATALYSTs and contemplate our journey.
It’s not too late to send me a note re. how CATALYST has been a catalyst in your life. We’ll publish responses next month; a submission also makes you eligible for a drawing in which the prize is dinner for two with the CATALYST publishers at Pago. That just might be a lot of fun. Send me your notes today: Greta@catalystmagazine.net.
Looking over the table of contents, I am amused to see unrelated stories whose titles morph: Adele Flail writes beautifully about a garden for those who live at Grace Mary Manor in “By the Grace of Gardening”; staff writer Alice Toler shares the journey of tracking down her birth mom in “Finding Mother”; and Suzanne Wagner’s tarot reading for the month is titled “Finding Grace.” The unconscious at play? Call it the evolution of a theme. I hope you find grace this month.