Putting baby plants outside

Mort, I have a couple hundred parsley plants now, and twice that in green onions! They're all over the house, near any window with sun, with some LED grow lights on them. But it's been warm enough a couple of days to take them out in the sun for the day.

How cold is too cold outside for the baby plants?

Those babies can handle anything above 30 degrees (actually a little colder than that). What they won't like is too much direct sunlight with those ultra violet light that the glass stops. Put them out for three or so hours the first day and increase the time an hour or two as they get used to the UV rays. Think of yourself spending too much time in the sun before you have a good tan.

That's a lot of parsley; for the restaurant, I assume.

quotes from Essays by Montaigne

I wanted to add some quotes to my website but I'm having trouble getting in so I'm posting some of my favorites from Montaigne's Essays here. You might enjoy the quotes from other favorite books as well.

All the glory that I aspire to in my life is to have lived it tranquilly...according to me. Since philosophy has not been able to find away to tranquillity that is suitable to all, let everyone seek it individually. [P 471]

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. [p 178]

On the one hand Nature pushes us on to it [sex], having attached to this desire the most noble, useful, and pleasant of all her operations; and on the other hand she lets us accuse and shun it as shameless and indecent, blush at it, and recommend abstinence. Are we not brutes to call brutish the operation that makes us?

The various nations in their religions have many conventions in common, such as sacrifices, lamps, burning incense, fasts, offerings, and among other things, the condemnation of this action. All opinions come to this, besides the very widespread practice of cutting off the foreskin, which is a punishment of the act. Perhaps we are right to blame ourselves for making such a stupid production as man, to call the action shameful, and shameful the parts that are used for it. (At present mine are truly shameful and pitiful.) [p 669]

...in truth there is no greater, more constant, or more uncouth absurdity, than to become worked up and stung by the absurdities of the world....In short, we must live among the living, and let the river flow under the bridge, without caring, or at the very least, without being upset by it. [p709]

Those who go to the other extreme, of taking delight in themselves, of valuing what they have above other things and recognizing nothing as more beautiful than what they see, if they are not wiser than we, are in truth happier. [p 723]

Oh, what a vile and stupid study it is to study one's money, to take pleasure in handling it, weighing it, and counting it over and over! That is the way averice makes its approach. [p 727]

Not by the calculation of your income, but by your manner of living and your culture, is your wealth really to be reckoned {Cicero] [p724]

I should have thought as much of giving pleasure as of gaining profit. [p 741]

It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully. We seek other conditions because we do not understand the use of our own, and go outside of ourselves because we do not know what it is like inside. Yet there is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we must still walk on our own legs. And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump. [p 857]

Time to plant

The snow is up to the windows but I've already had my hands in soil. I started three varieties of leeks; King Richard for summer, Pandora for late summer and Bandit for fall and wintering over. I have also planted parsley and scallions. I figured out a great way to grow scallions. I plant one to two dozen seeds in each compartment of a 6-cell flat, put the flat in a plastic bag to keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate and then just let them grow in the flat for about 8 weeks when I transplant the cells to the garden. I don't separate the individual plants just plop the whole cell in the ground. For the restaurant I do this about every three of four weeks and when they want a bunch of scallions I just pull a whole bunch, wash them, cut off some of the root and put a rubber band around them. It amazes me how many years it took me to become this clever.