As the sun beats down and the humidity melts us, we start daydreaming about going to the beach…However, most beaches are several hours drive from DC.

I recently came across Breezy Point Beach in Calvert, Maryland, which is about 45 minutes away. If you decide to swim, it is jellyfish season so watch out…

o Inspiring - Bristol Bike Project
o Hilarious - LALO
o Melancholy, Moving - Bicycle/Jitensha

This year I got to the Caribbean Carnival much later, so I didn’t get good shots of the parade.  However, I got there just in time to catch people in the beautiful golden light of the sunset.  Many people were still hanging out at Howard University.

This weekend I harvested garlic and carrots. I planted the garlic October 19, 2009, almost eight months ago! Garlic requires a lot of patience. Two varieties of garlic I got from the farmers market are Music and German White. This garlic had not been treated like most garlic you find in the grocery store. You plant one clove and magically they turn into full heads of garlic!

I planted the carrot seeds on April 4th, so they took about 3 months. Carrots come in all colors, not just orange. I planted several varieties, including yellow and red ones. The key thing about growing carrots is you have to thin them if you want them to grow properly. Thinning carrots requires that you snip off the plants that are too close together.

I munched on a few golden and red raspberries while I was harvesting. They were sweet and delicious. Raspberries are easy to grow.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, peppers and watermelon are growing and look promising…

Odunde is the creation of its South Philadelphia founder, Lois Fernandez, who launched the festival after visiting similar celebrations in Africa. The concept originates from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, West Africa, and celebrates the coming of another year for African-Americans and Africanized people around the world.

The annual Odunde Street Festival, held every second Sunday in June, brings a genuine taste of Africa to South Street and one of Philadelphia’s oldest, historically African-American neighborhoods.

The festival begins with a procession to the Schuylkill River, where prayers are offered and blessings bestowed. The procession then returns to 23rd and South Streets for the start of the street festival.

Shame on The Game – EWOK – mp3 by Creamy Ewok Baggends
The Khulumani Support group is currently undertaking the prosecution of 5 major corporations complicit in supporting the Apartheid Government of South Africa during the struggle. These same companies are current investors in the FIFA World Cup. This track is part of a Hip Hop compilation being released in June 2010 to create awareness around this apparent lack of justice.

FOUL! is the result of seven year’s research into the dark depths of the men controlling the world’s favourite game. It charts the degeneration of FIFA under the leadership of Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter.

I purchased the 4 gallon Zen Water Filter Purifier through Amazon for $49 and I am so happy with the way the water tastes. I would like to test the water and compare it to the water from the faucet filter I was using and regular tap water to get a more scientific assessment of the quality, but for now I am happy that at least it’s better than what I was drinking before.

Click here to check out the Zen Water Filter Purifier.

Sweet potato! It’s easy to grow in a hanging basket if you have limited space. You can also cook up the leaves. Sweet potato greens with garlic and soy sauce is common in Taiwanese cuisine.

According to Wikipedia, “Sweet potatoes are native to the tropical parts of South America, and were domesticated there at least 5000 years ago.

The genus Ipomoea that contains the sweet potato also includes several garden flowers called morning glories, though that term is not usually extended to Ipomoea batatas.

Besides simple starches, sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene (a vitamin A equivalent nutrient), vitamin C, and vitamin B₆. Pink and yellow varieties are high in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A.”

I came across this great article How to Plant and Grow Sweet Potatoes. Here’s an excerpt of the article. See the rest at the link above.

Step 1: Start the Slips

Sweet potatoes aren’t started by seed like most other vegetables, they’re started from slips. Slips are shoots that are grown from a mature sweet potato. You can order slips from a mail order or Internet catalog or you can start slips from a sweet potato you bought at the store or one from your garden. If you buy a potato from the store, be sure to find out if you’re getting a bush type or a vining type.

To start your slips, you need several healthy, clean sweet potatoes. Each sweet potato can produce up to 50 slip sprouts. To create sprouts, carefully wash your potatoes and cut them either in half or in large sections. Place each section in a jar or glass of water with half of the potato below the water and half above. Use toothpicks to hold the potato in place.

The slips need warmth, so put them on a window ledge or on top of a radiator. In a few weeks your potatoes will be covered with leafy sprouts on top and roots on the bottom.

Step 2: Root the Slips

Once your sweet potatoes have sprouted, you have to separate them into plantable slips. To do this, you take each sprout and carefully twist it off of the sweet potato. Take each sprout and lay it in a shallow bowl with the bottom half of the stem submerged in water and the leaves hanging out over the rim of the bowl. Within a few days roots will emerge from the bottom of each new plant. When the roots are about an inch long the new slips are ready to plant. To keep your slips healthy be sure to keep the water fresh and discard any slip that isn’t producing roots or looks like it’s wilting.

> Click here to see the rest of the article.