Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

I just finished reading Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter.

While there is a lot written lately about eating locally, growing your own food, etc ... this book takes on the unique twist that it was all done in a run down section of Oakland, California rather than some sprawling acreage in Virginia, New Mexico, or British Columbia. In a relatively small, urban space she not only has a vegetable garden, but bees, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and, eventually, pigs. The many solutions she comes up with to the problems unique to her tight conditions are extremely interesting and give food for thought to those of use who may have previously felt constrained by the proximity of our homes to those of our neighbors.

There is also much on eating locally and the value of community which are also very interesting and the entire book makes for a good read, even for the non gardener. She also has a blog at Ghost Town Farm.

Simple Saturday Bird Feeder

This is quick and easy to make and a fun thing to do with a young child on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon.

It will also remind the birds that your yard is a good place to eat to which they will hopefully return in the spring to eat the bugs in your garden.

1. Mix several packets of unflavored gelatin per the package instructions with enough bird seed to make a good, dense mixture.

2. Pour the mixture into a small bundt pan or other container and chill it for several hours. Try to find something with a fun or seasonal shape to it.

3. After the gelatin is very firm, turn the pan upside down and gently tap the back until the gelatin / bird seed mixture falls out.

4. Poke a small hole through the birdseed using a pencil, screwdriver or similarly shaped item and thread a loop of stout twine or ribbon through the hole and hang the entire thing to a tree, porch railing or similar near by a window of the house and enjoy watching the birds eat.

Our favorites are the boldly colored birds. We get blue jays, cardinals and gold finches, but even the chickadees are fun to watch. It's also fun to watch the frustrated antics of the cat as he also watches the birds through the closed patio door.

6 Reasons To Rake Your Own Leaves

This year, all the leaves in the yard were raked by hand with a rake. It really wasn't all that much more effort than with the leaf blower and made me feel good for several reasons:

1. A rake does not make exhaust and does not contribute to global warming.

2. Raking leaves burns more calories than watching t.v..

3. It saves money. Rather than hiring someone, it costs very little to do it yourself and a rake costs less than a leaf blower.

4. A rake de-thatches the lawn and brings up maple seeds, small rocks and sticks and other junk that the leaf blower would leave behind which makes the lawn healthier.

5. Rather than going to the landfill, the leaves can be dumped in the vegetable garden for some added carbon to the compost.

6. Have the family join you. Raking leaves together as a family is better for you than watching t.v..

Eating Things To Save Them

Marketers tend to only offer the varieties that they sell the most of. As time goes by, this results in certain varieties being dropped. This happens both with fruits and vegetables as well as animals. Sometimes people will keep passing on the disappearing species, such as heirloom tomatoes, but sometimes they just disappear forever.

Here is an interesting idea in the times people eat more of these endangered varieties as this will, in turn, drive up market demand and increase the incentives to breed these species.

New York Times Story

Sunflower

The Circle Of Life

A lot was written in the newspapers and gardening blogs about what tough year this was for growing things. In addition to this being a very rainy and very cold year, there was also a tomato fungus that impacted in a good part of the east coast. In spite of all the troubles that people had in getting plants to grow where they wanted to grow, here are several examples I've found recently of things just growing without any help:

I had been sprouting seeds in trays on the patio earlier in the year. Here shiso and basil sprout next to the patio from seeds which most likely dumped from the sprouting trays.



At the end of the year last year, there were some green tomatoes left on the vine which Sean was tossing around. On the right of the shiso patch is a grape tomato plant which grew from one of those discarded tomatoes.



I had transplanted some tomato plants which later died, but which had dropped a lot of tomatoes which rotted on the ground before doing so. Now there are dozens of small tomato sprouts in that spot.



I had hung some pea plants upside down to dry for saving the seeds. Here a few peas must have fallen off the drying vines and sprouted on their own.

Seed Saving - Tomatoes

Tomatoes are in full swing now and we have more than we can use ourselves. Next week I'll probably try to make some sauce, but this week I'm saving the seeds for next year.

1. Select the best fruit which will carry on those good genes to the next season. Free of cracks, good shape, good color, and plants that have a lot of fruit are all things to look for.

2. Slice open the tomato and put the seeds in a small bowl. Cover the seeds with 1/2 - 1 inch of water and place the bowl in a warm, dark place. Let the bowl sit there two to three days until it starts to ferment. That little sack around the tomato seed is there to keep it from sprouting inside the tomato and this process will remove the sack.

3. Skim off any junk which float to the top of the bowl.

4. Gently rinse the seeds under running water.

5. Spread the seeds on a dry paper towel to dry. Throw out any seeds which are brown, green or otherwise look odd. Let the seeds sit for a few days until completely dry. Store them for next year in a cool dry place.

3.