Alisa Maier

I grew up in Louisiana, Missouri in a time and place when kids owned the neighborhoods in the summertime from the moment that dads left for work in the morning until the streetlights came on in the evening. We rode bikes, played in and around all the houses that had kids and some of the ones that didn't, and hung out in places that our parents pretended that they didn't know about to give us a sense of indepence.

Louisiana, Missouri is the town where a 4 year old girl was abducted, apparently by a stranger, last night while playing in her front yard with her brother. Please take a moment to look at her photo on the Amber Alert Page and offer up a prayer.

Grow Your Own (Salmonella-free) Sprouts

I feel myself becoming a zealot about having everyone grow at least a little of your own food. It makes such a difference how you think about all of your food if you put a little effort into even one small plant. If you haven't bought your basil plant yet, now's the time!

Here's an idea for growing your own food that doesn't even involve dirt: sprouts! Growing sprouts recently got a whole lot easier because the Sprout People put videos on their website. I had an Easy Sprout (bought from another company) for a couple of years but the instructions that came with it were so bad that I wasn't using it. With the videos, though, I'm now completely confident.



I've been making sprouts for several months now. I switch between Mother's Mix (no, I'm not pregnant -- the nutrients match up with what I read about the needs of perimenopausal women) and Nick's Hot Sprout Salad. I keep them in the freezer and start two tablespoons every time the Easy Sprouter comes out of the dishwasher from the last batch. I'm growing enough sprouts for us to have some on every salad, sandwich, and pizza that we make. They are yummy, too -- I actually catch myself craving sprouts!

Hermann, Missouri

We ended up with a perfect May day to take a 3 mile walk with our cameras around Hermann.

R was fascinated by the iron crosses that the German blacksmiths made for St. George Cemetery.

We also got a kick out of this staircase which, on paper for the original city plan, was supposed to be Mozart Street. But these steps are all that exist of the one block that was way too steep to join the two sections of the road. A staircase was the only option. I imagine kids and parishioners still use it, though, since St. George church and school sit on the top of this hill. R took this photo.

More photos on my Flickr page.

Bamboo Shoots

I bought a bamboo shoot at the Maplewood Farmers Market at Schlafly Bottleworks from the lady at the Ozark Forest Mushrooms booth. She sold them with this brochure (pdf) from the Extension Office of Washington State University. I peeled the shoot, sliced it into rings, and boiled the slices for twenty minutes. According to the brochure, you can then serve it just about anyway you would any other vegetable -- on a salad, in soup, stir-fried, etc. We thought the flavor was pretty delicate (reminds me of Heart of Palm) and so decided it would suit us best on a salad.





If you haven't been to a Farmers Market this spring, things are really popping out early. I bought a chicken, beet leaves, and mushrooms. There were all kinds of other greens available as well as radishes and chives. I saw a sign that said strawberries, but they must have sold out before I got there. Also, lots of plants for your garden.

Class Field Trip 2

For the second Sunday in a row, we got up before sunrise to meet our photography class at the Missouri Botanical Garden, two hours before it opened to the public. The azaleas and tulips are spectacular.

More photos on my flickr page.

Evening light at the Garden

We stayed at the Missouri Botanical Garden after volunteering at the Archive during the day on Wednesday. It was fun to see how active the ducks and geese were at that time of day. The azaleas were brilliant.





More photos on my flickr page.

Photography Class field trip

Rick and I are taking a photography class through the Missouri Botanical Garden. Today's adventure was a field trip starting two hours before the Garden opened to the public. I took 269 photos, but culled them down to 21.

The Japanese Garden has beautiful light at 7:00 in the morning.



The class is called "Understanding Exposure," so I took many shots of this white bridge to get a good exposure.



The tulips are blooming with more to come.



Many more photos on my flickr page.