Skyler at 2 1/2 Years Old

I have a feeling I’ve said this before, but this is my favorite age yet. At two-and-a-half, Skyler is completely charming. She is at her most dynamic—stubborn, dramatic, affectionate, expressive, and all around wonderful. It’s difficult to watch her without remarking how happy she makes us and how much we love her. She’s so full of joy—bright, blinding, contagious joy.

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In Season: Figs

The fig trees around our neighborhood are brimming with fruit this time of year. Some neighbors even start putting out signs, offering to share.

They always remind me of a summer trip to Croatia, where we stayed in a house with a woman who would get up each morning to check the trees. But as it turns out, they have a lot to do with California, too: we produce 98% of the fresh figs in the country! 

Last week, I got a nice surprise when the California fig board sent some of this year’s crop my way to try. They’re especially sweet this year, plump from the rain we finally got.

Sweet enough to eat out of hand, or one of my favorite ways: over a creamy whole milk yogurt with pistachios and honey. 

Here are some tips for choosing and keeping figs, if you’d like to try this:

Touch: Choose plump, fragrant figs that have a little give when touched. The fruit should be soft but not mushy. Handle fresh figs carefully—they are fragile and bruise easily.

Smell: Don’t be concerned about small slits or tears in the skin as long as the fig has a fresh aroma. Avoid figs with a fermentation odor; it indicates that the fruit is overripe.

Taste: You can eat them whole, skin and all. I like to slice off the stems and then quarter them. There are many varieties, so test each to see which you prefer.

Keep: Store figs in the refrigerator for as long as five to seven days. Or to keep longer, just rinse and freeze, arranging in a single layer on a pan. Transfer frozen figs to a sealed plastic bag, where they can be kept in the freezer for up to six months.

If you’d like, you can also sautée the figs, cut-side down, in a pan with a bit of honey to caramelize them and serve over yogurt of mascarpone for a simple summer dessert!

How do you like to eat figs?

Urine as fertilizer: Would you try this?

“You know what really works? Urine.”

That was what my UPS carrier told me the other day in an exchange about keeping my plants alive. I had a lot of houseplants I’d just bought sitting outside, waiting to be repotted. “Who’s the green thumb?” he asked, handing over a parcel. “Well… they’re mine, but they’re replacing things I killed. So… not me,” I replied.

And that’s when he said it: “I started using some urine in my planters and everything is thriving!” he beamed.

“I’m never going to look at those plants the same way again.” I told him, slowly backing away. (And thinking: ‘I’m never going to look at you the same way again.’)

But I looked it up, and he’s right.

Scientific American published an article, appropriately titled “Gee Whiz,” and it makes a really compelling argument for peeing in your yard:

Recycling urine as fertilizer could not only make agriculture and wastewater treatment more sustainable … but also bolster food production and improve sanitation in developing countries.

Urine is chock full of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which are the nutrients plants need to thrive—and the main ingredients in common mineral fertilizers. There is, of course, a steady supply of this man-made plant food: an adult on a typical Western diet urinates about 500 liters a year, enough to fill three standard bathtubs. And despite the gross-out potential, urine is practically sterile when it leaves the body, [researchers] pointed out. Unlike feces, which can carry bacteria like salmonella and E. coli, urine poses no health risks—astronauts on the International Space Station even drink the stuff—after it’s purified.

What do you think? Maybe that Fiddle Leaf Fig of yours would finally make it!

P.S. Small-space living