Ever Growing

Now we have taken up farming teenagers at the Copeland Street House. Our 17 year old nephew has moved in with us and will stay with us for at least the rest of the school year, perhaps longer if he wants. This has already been an amazing experience for us. Farming our little plot is as much about nurturing things as it is for nutrition and sustainability. Now we have another human to nurture. Kalvin is a great guy and I'm looking forward to the holidays around our urban homestead with all the more reason to decorate and celebrate the little moments.

Sunday night was just one of those moments. Kalvin had been at his parent's for a few days and we celebrated him being back with us by baking chocolate chip banana muffins. We put on a little "Pink Martini" and enjoyed the warmth of our newly repaired furnace on a cold November night. There is so much more to a homestead than the things growing outside of it or the selections of food and furnishings one makes. The energy one choses can go beyond the literal way you power your house.

Arty Food Blog

A friend of mine just started a new food blog. She is working on her PhD in Art History, so I think there's potential for a visual and tummy appealing combination. The Artful Kitchen

Call Me Weird, Compost Makes Me Feel Good Inside

What would have gone into the trash if we didn't compost. Instead it is as good as potting soil, but free! I kinda think it's pretty too. 

The Non-Garden

I keep saying I don't have a garden this year. Well, I don't have my normal garden and I really only planted a few things. It is, however, inaccurate for me to say I don't have a garden. Here's what I have:
A garden bed with onions and garlic that I actually planted.
In this same bed I have cherry tomatoes galore, chard and nasturtiums that came up volunteer from last year.
A new bed that we planted this spring that is small but contains four growing blueberries that will be productive next year.
Additionally in that bed, I have four pepper plants that are producing gigantic peppers. My sister-in-law gave me the plants.
Oh and I have rosemary in that bed that I planted this spring too.
We also have chard, parsley, garlic, lemon balm, oregano, mint, chives, and sage in the old garden that came up on it's own. And broccoli that we didn't completely pull up last year that produced small stems of edible broccoli that has since produced seed I plan to harvest.
Up front we have thyme, sage, more chives, and bay laurel.

What abundance we have for our non-activity!

Ripe

Two cherry tomatoes off the vine today. I ate them before I could photograph them for you!

Dry Spell

OK, it's time for me to admit why I haven't been posting much this year. It's not because I haven't had time or have been so busy with projects or anything like that. The fact is, my little homestead is quite barren this year. I have no garden to speak of this year!

It's the first time since we moved into this house that we do not have a garden. It wasn't supposed to be this way. We had great plans for this year. Unfortunately I kinda blew it. We had planned a HUGE garden with our neighbors in an empty lot next to their house. It wasn't until months and months of wet late spring weather (into the end of June) that I realized my mistake.

After attempting to till the new garden space after a few sunny days in early June, I realized we should have done this last fall.... Ugh. What a realization to have. Especially since the ground could not be worked despite the break in the weather. It was still too wet. I didn't think about the fact that most of the ground around here is really heavy on the clay side. Our own garden had been supplemented and worked for years before we got here.

Our plans had been to let our own garden beds go follow this year and to build permanent raised beds where they are. So no garden. No lovely mid-summer produce to photograph and experiment in the kitchen with.

We have been making due with an abundance of chard, gifts from the neighbor's own raised bed, and such. It has really hit home to me too how much joy I get from being in the garden too. Not just from the produce, but from just being out there and surrounded by the bees, hummingbirds, flowers and smells.

Well, hopefully soon we will get a chance to make those permanent beds and you'll get some reports from about how that goes. Maybe even some winter garden pictures. Oh, and maybe we'll get those beds prepped in the neighbor's lot too.

Volunteer for Local Food

Interesting opportunity for those interested in local food issues in the Portland-Metro area:
http://cnrg-portland.org/content/interested-local-food-food-access-enjoy-volunteering-get-involved-august