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Weather Report:  Last night’s low 35.7 F.  Today’s high: 81.5 F.  Precipitation: 0. 

I spent most of this morning pruning fruit trees -an activity that I both love and hate.  More about that another day since it was the afternoon that was the highlight of my day.

I attended a talk by Deborah Szekely, founder of Rancho La Puerta and the Golden Door, the spas that spawned no pun intended) the health and fitness spa industry.  Rancho La Puerta (“the Ranch” to those who’ve been there”) came first, founded in Tecate, Mexico, in 1940 when Deborah was barely 18 years old. 2009 marks her 69th year in the business!

I’ve had the honor of interviewing Deborah for several articles over the years.   She is one of the most fascinating and inspiring people I’ve ever met.  At 86 years young, her energy and creativity are the envy of people half her age, myself included (though I am a bit more than half her age).

Today’s talk was to promote the Ranch’s new cookbook, Cooking With the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta - Recipes from the World Famous Spa, a collaboration between Szekely and chef Deborah Schneider.

Cooking With the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta - Recipes from the World Famous Spa

The two Deborahs spoke at the Bookworks, a wonderful, independent bookstore in Flower Hill Mall in Del Mar, California.   For an hour, Deborah Szekely addressed a packed house on healthy eating, personal determination, being true to one’s self, and taking power over one’s life, among other topics. 

The audience laughed as the diminutive Szekely (“I’m five feet tall but I used to be five one and a half”) spoke about the evils of dieting (“The word ‘diet’ has the word ‘die’ in it”)  and how much more sense it makes to eat in moderation.  

So, for example, when Szekely dines out, she asks for at take-home container at the time her food arrives.  That way, she is done eating when she is full, rather than becoming so engrossed in conversation that she loses track and finishes everything on her plate.   That’s a great idea for us small people (On a tall day, I measure 5’ 3”) and one I’ll try next time I dine out.

Clouds hang low over Tres Estrellas organic farm on a late winter morning

Deborah Schneider spoke about Saturday cooking classes offered as one-day visits to La Cocina Que Canta (the Singing Kitchen), the Ranch’s cooking school located on the grounds of Tres Estrellas, the organic farm that supplies Ranch guests with fresh herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers. 

Gardeners care for organic vegetables destined for Rancho La Puerta

Red and golden beets grown at Tres Estrellas

Having spent time at the Ranch, I know how fabulous the cuisine is.  So, of course I bought the book.  Actually, I bought three, one for me, one for my mother, and one for my youngest sister, and had them signed. 

The books for my mother and sister are a surprise, so don’t tell them, please!  

Weather Report:  Last night’s low 35.9 F.  Today’s high: 81.4 F.  Precipitation: 0.

 What a glorious day!  Sunny, warm enough but not too warm, and I got to spend most of it gardening.  This morning was “garden club” at my children’s school. 

Several years ago, the school asked me to create a planting activity for a holiday celebration.  “Sure,” I said, “where’s the garden?”  Where was the garden indeed.  Seems that in the original plans for the school (this is a private school), there had been a garden, but by the time construction happened, the garden had fallen by the wayside.

Six years and hundreds of volunteer hours later, the school has a 5,000 square foot (more or less) garden that includes a butterfly garden (of course!), an herb garden,  raised bed planters for the lower school children, a greenhouse, a raised bed in the shape of California planted and replanted each year by the fourth graders as they study about the state, and so on. 

Everyone is invited to work in the garden on the first Sunday morning of the month.  This month being January, we gathered on the second Sunday.  Several adults and a bunch of kids showed up to weed, prune, water, and rake.  Once a month is never enough to keep the garden as clean or weeded as I’d like, but that’s as much time as I have.

That was the morning

The afternoon was working in my own garden, something that I seldom have time to do these days, between giving talks, teaching classes, scouting gardens for articles and TV shoots, writing books, designing gardens and the kazillion other things I do. 

I’m pretty excited, though, because for our next episode of A Growing Passion, my TV show, we’ll be focusing on home vegetable gardens.  One segment is on building raised beds and for that, we are going to build three new beds for my garden.

Most of the beds in my vegetable garden are nearly 15 years old.  Though my husband built them of redwood, they are now paper thin.  I found that out when, for the first time, a gopher got into one of the beds this past summer. 

I assumed that the wire mesh that lines each bed had rusted away, until I started digging out the tunnel to see where it went.  Much to my surprise, it went sideways (!) right through a piece of wood that sat just below the soil surface.    Clearly the bed had lived a good life that now, sadly, was over.

Replacing the beds, of course, means that I also have the opportunity to update the layout.  The entire vegetable garden is surrounded by a perimeter fence to keep out bunnies and, in the early years, kids, balls, and toys.  

The kids are teenagers now, but the rabbits are still here, so I still need that fence.  The space measures 24’ on each side and I’ve often regretted not making it larger. 

Because the rest of the garden grew up around the vegetable garden, I can’t really expand its size of, but by playing with the length and arrangement of the beds, I can just about double my planting space.  Now that’s exciting!

So, in preparation for tearing out the old beds, I had to empty them.  One of the 4’x 8’ beds were was filled with self-seeded leeks (if you grow leeks, leave one to go to seed and you’ll have leeks for years to come).  They were going into a big bed (4’ x 11’) built a few years back for a show on the DIY network.  

Digging and planting, digging and planting.  Two of my three favorite activities (the other is pruning).  

As the sun went down, I finished mulching the leeks with a thick layer of aged straw.  Funny thing, the leeks that took up about 4’ x 4’ self seeded expanded to just about fill the larger bed!

I can’t wait until the leeks are big enough to harvest.  When they are, I’ll make my family’s favorite leek recipe, braised leeks with lemon.  Yum!