Fresh Beginnings

This was our first CSA Pickup of the Season as we resumed our continued eager support of Wimer's Organics CSA or Community Supported Agriculture. Our first box included butter lettuce, red lettuces, green onions, garlic scapes, scallions, kale, arugula and unpopped popcorn. We have since had our second pick up and the third is next week as we are still on the bi-weekly list since, as you can see even without the arugula and popcorn not pictured, it would be difficult for L and I to eat all of it without waste, just given life, love, and of course our crazy schedules some days.

I know it's been some time since I've posted, but I hope you are still out there, dear readers. Like over a year, about which I cringe as I type. But sometimes as we know, life  throws us curve balls that land way in the outfield, far from wireless connections or a computer by which one can upload the latest dish. However, as usual, getting stuck in the outfield has not stopped my experimentation with flavors, food, pairings, herbs, taste and the senses, and of course, cooking.

So what's to come and what to expect? Recipes and pictures of meals and tasty things,  our re-cultivated container garden of various plants, flowers, and fruits, herbs, and vegetables (which are still a work in progress), and the super exciting addition of joining a local business that is all about composting. 

Stick around. If there is anything I can guarantee, it's that you will not be disappointed, nor have wasted your time.

CSA's and Container Gardening

Hopefully my readers can take the summer months of lax posting as it just being the summer, the strange time of the year where time slips away like the freshly squeezed juice of a lemon through a strainer. That's my hope, anyway. There is definitely much to come as we've been overwhelmed with produce from our CSA, Wimer's Organics as well as our own container garden.

If you are a member of or considering becoming a member of  a CSA for this or next season, Wimer's is definitely the one to go with. They seem rather dirt cheap for the amazing, delicious, and organic offerings we get bi-weekly (there's no way we could eat as much as we get in one week!). They even offer payment plans, which I was happily surprised to find out, since joining a CSA is a lot of money to put out up front for the season or seasons you want. I know this had been a reason in teh past we had not joined one sooner, as I have also heard from friends and acquaintances, always with a wistful look in their eye. I was happy not to have that wistful look in my eye this year.

Along with comparing their previous grow seasons yields, which offered tremendous variety, more so we thought than other farms, the close pick up location, and the opportunity to purchase eggs, yogurt, chickens, and other items from their store (like COFFEE!) sealed the deal. We also get a thoughtful weekly email from Bud Wimer about the farm, maybe some recipes, and what to expect "in the box," an advance peep so as to plan ahead for meals and trips the grocer. And what was "in the box" this week you might inquire? In addition to the pounds and pounds of the three varieties of tomatoes you see below, we also got six ears of corn, two eggplants, two red peppers, a hunk of fresh mint, some beets, and a giant onion. Mind you, we still are working off of some leftovers of our last share.

Wimer's is a Certified Organic Farm, and while a lot of families and individuals choose to eat as much organic possible, this could also be a clincher, but as I've stated before, we wouldn't purchase organic fruit or vegetables over non-organic; we're more interested in that the crops and animals are raised and bred with resourceful and ecologically safe manners, (for example, Integrated Pest Management), as local as possible, and cage free (for the animals, not the crops for that one :)

We've had some struggle with some of our crops, particularly the zucchini, squash, and cucumbers. They come up but somehow either don't grow to a picking size before shriveling (zukes and squash) or they turn into some sort of oddly shaped rotund fruit which we can't use, either for pickling or just well, as a cucumber. Our tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and strawberries are for the most part doing well. The marjoram died in one of the earlier of our many heat waves, but the rest powered through..

Right now we are flush with tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes, as you can see. The first two images are beautiful roma, cherry, and beefsteak (?) from our CSA, and the last two are champion, patio, and lemony tomatoes and orange, green, and red peppers recently picked from our garden.

We're thinking some sauce is in order to make use before it spoils.Maybe a  lot of sauce. Stay tuned for that post.

It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. ~James Douglas, Down Shoe Lane

After the last few weeks chock full of gardening with a whole lot of love and sweat and dirt, those long hours in the early morning sun out front (we live without access to a yard so we really do our research and expend a lot of energy and research on our container gardens. After a few trips to home depot for really cheap herbs and veggies, some errands to a box store for some colorful containers to plant in, and the like, our current container garden is looking pretty great. I'm worried about the heat we've had and what it will do to my freshly planted bucket of herbs, but I figure if farmers are planting their crops in the sun, we aren't too far off from the arrangement, aside from our fruits and veggies and recently added herbs being on our our downstairs neighbor;s bay window. My green thumb has been diligent with rising at 6:30am to water the roof, again to pull some things in, such as the herbs for a little bit, (if necessary - they just went out today), and to to then head down to our rode bushes, azalea bush, a jack o lantern pumpkin in a 5 gallon bucket, perennial shasta daisies which I'm desperately trying to revive from the scorchers we've had lately, marigolds and roman candlesticks, and a few other pretty flowers and a large lavender plant that needs to be split as there are several plants outgrowing its tiny basket yet to go in...somewhere :)

I have pictures of the 'roof deck' - Are you ready for this urban farming? :) And please, if you have any tips to pass along, this is the first spring/summer I've gone beyond strawberries and tomatoes. SO far everything looks good, though soon we may have to stake one of the zucchini branch leaf for some added support for the buds arriving. Without further ado (drum roll anyone?) The almost completed 'roof deck.'

This was how the project began: a mishmash of potting soil, containers, water, water, and water, some nutrient food, prepping the containers for drainage holes, assessing which veggies and fruits could go into which pots, and of course, running out of potting soil. Eh. You do what you can in a few hours, pack it up, and if you're anything like me, you run out to Home Depot and the WalMart, whose garden center is closing BTW so the soil and what's left is SUPER cheap.

Patio & Lemon Bay Tomatoes

Champion Tomatoes, Zucchini and Cucumber, and three varieties of Peppers - Green, Yellow, and Red

Yellow Squash, Cantaloupe, a large Strawberry plant, and a wee baby strawberry plant.






More pictures to come of our patio/stoop container garden and the newest addition to our 'roof deck' - a delicious bucket of fresh herbs.Our patio is progressing nicely aside from our perennials having just wilted, not from neglect as I have been going Poppa Bear on this garden, but more we think just the humidity and the shriveling heat. I'm hoping they come back. Some of our marigolds have and there are buds on the Shasta Daisies. My fingers are crossed and I do welcome any gardening fertilization, nutrient, and any other advice anyone may have. Bring it on in the comment section.

Summer Bounty: Tomatoes

This tomato plant is a wonderful addition to our garden this summer. As with our edibles, we have it on our roof to keep neighbors from picking it at street-level. Given that it's a bit unsteady and a little over 3 feet tall, after bringing it home, I tethered the plant base to a very convenient satellite dish protruding from the side of the building, left by a former tenant. Further reinforcing it are bricks stacked three high surrounding the four sides of the base. The plant has remained despite crazy monsoon-like storms.

Speaking of undesirable weather, the plant has taken a bit of a beating from our unusually steamy summer; with temperatures hovering in the high 90s for pretty much all of July, the leaves did wither a bit, but as you can see the plant is still happily producing fruit, which we have been able to add to salads, salsas, and sauces.

When you have a garden full of pretty flowers, you don't demand of them, "What do you mean? What is your significance?" - Balanchine

Sorry fellow readers; I understand it has been a very long time since my last post - almost three months in fact, but in addition to the general insanity of life, I was felled by a Teratoma. I forewarn however, that you do not look at pictures of said benign tumor that was removed along with a ladypart UNLESS you have a strong stomach. It is NOT delicious nor appetizing. Apparently, 1 in 1,000,000,000 people get these so I can officially say I am 1 in a million.

Now that I have returned, fully recovered, from my "sick leave" I wanted to share the status of our garden this year. We tilled and soiled and mulched in the beginning and discovered the gladiola bulbs that were the size of maybe two walnuts had grown to the size of our palms! So far, we have two that have shot up and more on the way, as you can see by the images. Additionally, some wildflowers, a tiny cherry tree, a rhododendron, and two rose bushes. If you have been following since last year, you can see we have reused the same storage bins for our two large containers of green goodness. The cherry tree and the rhododendron are in containers we found in the alley running behind the houses on our block AND we decided that a $4 pink "beer bucket" was good enough for our roses :) Happy End-of-June-almost-July.

Gathering, Sowing, and Waiting

It's that time of year again and My Librarian and I commenced our spring time gardening by starting with our two large containers in the front of our building a couple of weeks ago. We tilled and enriched the soil with some mulched organic plant material that we have been adding to before checking on our gladiola bulbs from last season. No worries there as they have more than doubled in size with multiple baby bulbs, which is really exciting. Since we had such an overwhelming number of gladiolas in one container, we decided to move one of the bulbs - as carefully and delicately as a surgeon mind you - into the second to reduce crowding once they come up. In picture on the left you can see the rhinoculous flowers we found at a local market for a steal AND a very happy, thriving aloe plant. There are three in each container for now, though since they don't last through very warm weather, they'll be short lived but very easy on the eye until then. The aloe is flourishing indoors under our skylight.

The seed packets of veggies and herbs on the right are to be started tomorrow; fortunately we did not put them out for when we had aimed, which was about a week ago when the night time temperatures dipped into what could have a been a dangerous frost for the tender seedlings. As with last year, our herbs and veggies and any other smaller starter plants will take up on the small roof of our downstairs neighbor's bay window, which is about a 5'x4' space. It worked pretty well for strawberries, tomatoes, and assorted herbs and this year we are broadening our selection with carrots, lavender, cucumber, california peppers, green onions, arugula, radishes, and chives. We will most likely get more rosemary and mint, as the former died before I remembered to bring it inside and the latter, as most of you know, will come back as oregano.

After the seeds are on their way we have a few other plants in mind that we wish to add to both the roof and the street level. We're excited and there will be more to come as our garden grows.

Urban Stoop Gardening

Who says you need a yard to have a garden? Urban living may not be all that conducive to the traditional concept of "gardening," but with a little creativity, we found container gardening to be fulfilling not only to us, but also to our neighbors walking past our stoop.

Back in May we bought two storage footlockers and planted gladiola bulbs in one and shooting star bulbs in the other. The shooting stars never really came to fruition but the glads shot up out of the moisture control soil like rockets and have bloomed for the last three months. They have been so successful we recently staked the plants with bamboo to maintain their height. We added some snapdragons, a few annuals, a henna plant, blue daze, and Mexican heather to the mix in addition to the aloe plant we transplanted from my to-be-father-in-law's monster aloe plant in his southern California backyard. The strangest part? All plants have remained untouched, unharmed, and unlittered in, except that recently we noticed that someone stole the terra cotta planter with the aloe in it, which to be honest, was alive, but hasn't looked so great in it's new northeastern home.

Moral of the story: regardless of how dead or how great your container garden looks, go with plastic planters which are ultimately better for the plants and drainage, but also aren't as likely to be stolen.

More on our vegetable, herb, and fruit garden on the roof next time.