Catching up on baby greens and unidentified plants

Sorry I've been absent from this blog in a while. I've been mostly tending to my family and my job and occasionally tending me and a garden. I finally updated the writings section of addiebroyles.com, where you can find all of my most recent articles and columns. If you've been checking Relish Austin, you will have seen my backyard/Victory garden go from two boxes of dirt to a budding produce aisle.

I've been cooking a lot for work lately. I tried to brew kombucha, but my SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) grew a mold in the first week! I was so bummed, but I'm going to give it another try. Ian and I are going to make a shepherd's pie tonight with Loncito lamb, THE Central Texas lamb dude. (Julian and I actually met and talked with Loncito - that's his first name - at the farmers' market today. Nice guy. Passionate about meat.)

As you can see, I have plants growing out of the bottom of my compost pile. I uploaded a bunch of garden and kombucha-making pictures to flickr. If you can tell me what those plants are, I'd be very grateful. Ian says the are potatoes; he's eager to eat them.

Here are our two garden beds. One is filled with carrots, beets, onion, shallots, garlic, dividing onions, chives, purple and white onions, broccoli, spinach, kohlrabi, flowers and lettuce.



The other box has peas, flowers, onions and a "spring mix" of greens.



In the "non-gardening fun" category, we've reconnected with Tasha, the wonderful friend who introduced Ian and me. It had been about three years since we'd stopped hanging out so much, but Tasha and I kept running into each other. When we finally got together for dinner, we fell in love with her girlfriend, Camille, and remembered why we befriended Tasha in the first place. They really connected with Julian. We went out to dinner last night and they all worked together on this painting. Even Camille, who is a bona fide painter, loved Julian's nontoxic, plasticy paint.

How to become a food writer in 2009

I get queries every few weeks, either in the form of Facebook messages or during a panel discussion I'm participating in, from people who'd like the opportunity to write about food for a living. It humbles me that I have been given the opportunity to do this and reminds me not to take it (all of it: the job, the blog, the column, the Twitter following, the food writing/blogging community that supports each other) for granted.

Here's what I told one aspiring food writer today:

So here's what I'd have to say about food writing. First of all, you're without a doubt off to a good start with the blog. I think it's already an above average blog, so just keep it up, cultivating your readers through comments (leave comments as often as you can on others' blogs and respond to those on yours), twitter, facebook, etc.

I'd just try to get a job anywhere right now, and when you get there, bring (or cultivate) social media in the newsroom. If you end up with a job doing PR or community relations for a food company or nonprofit (which is actually a great place to start), you can do the same thing. The idea is to just get as involved in the community you're working for/with. Use facebook and twitter for both personal and professional and give more than you get. Check out GaryVaynerchuk.com, and be inspired.

I love blogging. It waxes and wanes, but just embrace that as part of the experience. Start tracking your readers. Use a Google Reader to read/skim as many food blogs as you can (you'll find lots of inspiration there). The food job kind of found me (the old writer retired; I optimistically applied and convinced them that my tech know-how would benefit the newspaper tremendously. The gamble has paid off for both my editors and me.), so keep your mind open for unique opportunities that might not have to do with food, but that have an environment you could flourish in.

Hope this helps! Says GaryV, whose Wine Library TV has revolutionized food/wine video blogging and online personal branding, there's a lot of money to be made in this economy, you just have to hustle.