Engagement

Rachna Patel on the day of her engagement to Niral Patel in Phoenix, Arizona

On Saturday morning we arose early and drove around the block to Suru and Anju Patel’s so I could begin taking photos of their daughter as she prepared for her engagement later in the morning. It was about five years ago we went to our first Hindu wedding when their older daughter Alka was married. Today, though, it was Rachna’s turn at beginning the process of moving towards marriage. The engagement ceremony was held at her fiance’s parent’s home. Dinesh and Panna welcomed about 40 friends and family to witness Niral and Rachna become engaged. Mrs. Rajaguru presided over the formalities, she is Kushbu and Shital’s mom and it was Kushbu who was the second engagement we attended. After the ceremony, we took a short drive to a local clubhouse for a reception with approximately 75 guests invited for this part of the day’s activities. Lunch was catered by a local temple that prepared undhiyu (a favorite of mine), tindoora, rice, puris, and one of my other favorites, shrikhand, for dessert. Sonal’s daughters Kushbu and Hemu performed a dance number with Satchi and Poorvi as a small entertainment moment in between speeches given to honor Rachna and Niral – the two are to be wed next fall.

Farm Update

The herb sorrel sprouting at Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm in Tonopah, Arizona

A few days after my last plot update I replanted some lettuce, planted a bunch of herbs and fenugreek, transplanted two cauliflower seedlings, and did some thinning. Today’s photo is of sorrel that is now two days old. The cress and Genovese basil have also sprouted, I’m still waiting on parsley, chervil, lime basil, Thai basil, and lettuce leaf basil. The fenugreek started sprouting within a week of dropping it into the soil. It appears I planted the original planting of lettuce too deep, the new crop is already coming up and looks great. Maybe the corn mache was also too deep as it’s been slow to sprout so next to those rows I dropped some southwest greens called quelite and huazontle into the dirt with a thin cover, slowly they are emerging. Other failures in my plot are my golden beets which seem related to the viability of the seed while the red mustard seems to have suffered the same fate of the lettuce with being buried too deep. Now I know that the tiniest of seeds need the shallowest planting. I’ve been thinning cabbage every so many days as I try to choose the most robust plants to take to maturity – sauerkraut here we come. Eleven cloves of garlic have sprouted, every time I go to the farm they are the first things I check on. The plot was seeded on September 21st and my first harvest occurred on October 27th only thirty-six days later. On that day I pulled half a pound of radishes and cut a mix of almost two pounds of arugula, mezuna, and Tokyo bekana – we are still eating salads from those greens. On October 29th I picked a half-pound of radishes and then on the 31st another half pound of radishes along with a half-pound mix of arugula, mezuna, and Tokyo bekana that was all used for a salad shared on the farm for dinner. Yesterday I picked a bit more than a pound of radishes including my first mantanghong “Beauty Heart” radish – my favorite.