Remember these? I’m proud to say that by early June, those twelve little seedlings had grown up into ten healthy broccoli plants (I misjudged the location for a couple of them and had to tear ‘em out) that have given us a steady supply of this:

At least twice a week–and honestly, we’d be getting more if I hadn’t forgotten to get to them before the stalks grew too long and flowered a couple of times. (It happens faster than you might think!)

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with all things domestic. Love, because I love to garden and bake and concoct my own cleaning supplies and sew buttons on and read Martha Stewart Living…when I can find the time. Hate, because many times my life has gotten in the way, or my scattered personality has gotten in the way, or some new shiny hobby or time-suck has gotten in the way and thwarted my best efforts and most dearly-held ideals. And, as you can see from the community garden story in my previous post (above), I also suffer from an inability to do anything halfway. Whether it’s overhauling our diets, meal planning, gardening or crafting my tendency is to start out with big expectations and big plans and then crash and burn when I don’t meet my own expectations.

But the nice thing about being–gasp–31? I’m learning a lot about myself, I recognize all those little habits, and even though I can’t always fix them at once (though it would certainly be in my nature to try) I can make little changes. And one of the little changes I made this year? Focus on one crop. Sure, I planted some tomatoes and peppers and zucchini later in the summer, just to see what would happen (so far not much), but I focused the majority of my attention and time on those little broccoli seedlings. And I was rewarded for that single-minded focus–so hard for a girl like me to acheive–with a steady crop of fresh broccoli.

If the tomatoes redden up and the zucchini keeps me in bread until Christmas, that’s icing on the cake. But that broccoli was my main objective, and there it is, helping me feel just a little bit better about our place in the world and the food I’m feeding my family. Even when I pair it with this:

Speaking of inspiration and focusing on one thing at a time, check out this fantastic article by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

As for me? My gardening confidence has definitely gotten a broccoli-boost, and next year I’ll be ready to bite off a bigger project. Like growing broccoli AND tomatoes, perhaps.

And now I’m feeling inspired to go pull out my needle and thread and sew on some missing buttons. But just one or two, mind you. Just one or two.