My Bananas Are Your Bananas

 I started the rooting process with some lemongrass stalks this weekend. Rooting lemongrass in order to make new plants is super easy.

The last of the garden tomatoes became sauce over the weekend. No more tomatoes. Sadness.

My husband: a man mostly allergic to fresh fruit. So it is always surprising and thrilling when he starts poking around in the fruit bowl, looking for a snack. My strategy is to keep the bowl full all the time, and looking colorful and appetizing. If he doesn’t eat the mangoes, bananas, oranges, papaya, and pineapple that are always there, I do. I eat a lot of fruit. It never goes to waste.

There are always bananas in the house. Last night, when he realized that he had eaten all of the salty chips and sugary cookies that he stockpiled earlier in the week, but still craved something tasty, he started hovering over the fruit bowl.

“Can I have one of your bananas?” he asked.

After I died from the cuteness of his request, I spelled the rule out to him: these are not MY bananas. They are OUR bananas. I may be the almost exclusive banana eater in the house, but my bananas are your bananas. Always. He doesn’t have to ask permission. Same goes for the rest of the fruit.

This includes the kombucha, tofu, seitan, veggies, coconut water, almond milk, Daya cheez, spirulina, maca, dragonfruit powder, and any and all of the minimally processed hipster foods I stock the pantry with. Eat it, please, baby. Anything is better than a Twinkie and a Mountain Dew.

So this morning, he grabbed an orange on the way to work. This is going to start costing me some money, but I don’t care. I’m so happy to see my old man occasionally eating fresh, whole foods.

I started the rooting process for some lemongrass stalks this weekend. Rooting lemongrass to make new plants is super easy. Cut some fat stalks from your existing plant, right down to the soil line. Peel away the older, fibrous layers, leaving a fresh, light green stalk. Trim the bottom sparingly. Trim the top. The stalks should be about 6 inches long.

Put the stalks in fresh water (spring or distilled is best), and place in a bright spot. Change the water every few days. In a couple of weeks, you’ll have rooting lemongrass that you can pot up. New plants, for free.

We also cooked up the very last of the garden tomatoes, and jarred the sauce. This is it. Not another garden tomato until next summer. The lean times are here. Today is October 3.

Finally, we did a major purge of personal possessions this weekend. In total, we gathered 8 huge trash bags of clothes, belts, and accessories for giveaway. The giveaway pile that was growing in my dressing room has been moved along to its new homes (Goodwill). I had a single rule to the cleanout – if I hadn’t work it in a year, it went. My husband’s older clothes are too small for him now, so they were bagged up too.

I feel lighter and freer. So much so that I’m looking at other areas of my life that could use this kind of liberation. There’s just no doubt whatsoever that the less you own, the easier and more joyful your journey.

Live in peace.