Planting Good Seeds

JC put in the new garden bed today while I felt like I mostly worried over the many things we have going on at the moment. Goodness! What have we gotten ourselves into! Despite the business and rush of it all, it is still a good feeling to actually see the progress coming along so quickly. Its as if every new bud or ripening fruit is a novelty. As spring crosses over into summer, we are amazed at the lushness of it all. The garden is becoming quite lively around here!

Among the everyday work here at the homestead, I picked a rather large beet that I hadn't noticed before. Reports from my Mom and Aunt Judith tell me that it was one tasty veggie! Our new Buddha Hand Citrus tree is another curiosity here that's drawing quite a bit of interest. Luckily, it came with a recipe for Candied Buddha Fingers that I'm just dying to try. 

I should also mention, we've discovered a much nicer way of planting beans here at the Urban Farm. Escaping from the heat of the day with seed packets in hand, planting our pole beans at night left us giggling like mad children on a secret adventure! Planting by the light of the moon is not a new invention though. Biodynamic agriculture principals use the lunar phases to plant by:

At the core of Steiner’s biodynamic philosophy is the controversial idea that lunar phases affect plant growth. Biodynamic gardeners contend that the same lunar forces that cause oceanic tidal changes effect plant root and foliage development.

What is Biodynamic Farming all about?

In the early 1920's a group of practicing farmers, concerned with the decline of the soil, sought the advice of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, who had spent all his life researching and investigating the forces that regulate life and growth. From a series of lectures and conversations held at Koberwitz, Germany, in June 1924, there emerged the fundamental principles of biodynamic farming and gardening, a unified approach to agriculture that relates the ecology of the earth-organism to that of the entire cosmos. This approach has been under development in many parts of the world ever since. Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, who worked with Dr. Steiner during the formative period, brought biodynamic concepts to the United States in the 1930s. It was during this period that the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association was founded in 1938.

Wake Up Call

This morning I got an early start to the day by a surprise cockadoodle that got me up at 5am wandering out to the Chicken Arks to see what the racket was. I found 3 of our beautiful bantam "hens" making their first attempt at crowing! We actually were expecting about half of them to be male as the hatcheries don't sex bantam chicks. Sadly, it seems that our favorite, Isabella, a cuddly black cochin bantam is actually an Izzy instead. (Name was changed to Sprocket since) We will be finding a good home for him soon as we can't have noisy roosters here in an urban (suburban) neighborhood. We're all really sad to see Sprocket go. I would have loved to be able to wake up to the sound of farm life every morning instead of the blaring of fire engines! 

Just a few errands to do before coming home to do more gardening, cleaning up, etc. Looking forward to eating more of those delicious heirloom yellow snow peas that are just dripping from the vines!

Updates!

The past two days here at the Urban Farm have been busy! Yesterday Justin planted the rest of the squash and melons in the last bed. There are far too many but we managed to squeeze them in anyway, maybe we can find more space for them later. Mom even planted the pot of marigolds that I seeded a couple months ago. We also planted a few vining jasmine flowers for the trellis behind the citrus bed. Things are finally beginning to look bushy!

I am so excited about the two new fig trees we bought! It will be necessary to decide where to put them soon to allow them time to take root. Other plans starting to take shape are the mini fruit tree orchard to be constructed on the side of the yard and a large retaining wall in the lawn area near the street; both to be built from free recycled timber JC found online at freecycle.

 
My huge goal for this weekend is to get supplies for the vineyard trelessing and dig/pipe the irrigation for the raised vegetable beds. I'm hopeful but the weather has been scorching and really unpleasant to work in lately. Would also be nice to get the Permaculture Mandala Garden started at the Vineyard for the fall garden and start sewing seeds for that. 

Speaking of sewing, one of my goals is to begin producing our own fibers for clothing. Getting some angora/pygora goats would be a dream project of mine. Another goal would be to finally learn more about bio diesel or running a car on SVO (straight veggie oil). Baby steps right?

Feeling the heat

Here's Justin prepping another raised tomato bed on one of his gardening days. His untiring efforts never cease to amaze me. I think his fantasies of going back to the earth are really starting to kick in! That reminds me, I'm getting my own camera and software soon so I can practice my photography skills while my friend get their share of horticultural therapy ;)

It is satisfying to grow your own food; ethically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Living simply as we were meant to as a functioning part of this planet has become our greatest gift. In making the right choice to live as congruently as we can on the earth we are taking part in a revolution.. its happening now right in people's backyards across the country and more. Giving back to this beautiful planet is the least we can do.

May has been a blur of new challenges for us. From using the wrong mulch and experimenting with soil mixtures to finding out just how much the chickens love to peck at baby seedlings (especially cucumbers!). The first year will surely be a test of will and hopefully only strengthen my resolve to continue on this amazing path.

Finding out just which vegetables do best here will probably take much longer. We hope to improve that aspect more and more as additional beds are added. Other projects underway are installing a rain percolating back patio planted with edible herbs to help retain the little rain we get each year instead of sending it down polluted streets to end up in our sewers. With our chicken arks completed and filling up rapidly with new additions we are planning a full-sized coop to house everyone!

Another bit of news, I harvested our first tomato last week along with the first radishes and some tiny yellow snow peas of the season. The tomato and radish were incredible and like nothing you can find in a grocery or even a farmers market. For some reason, only small backyard gardens seem to be able to produce tomatoes such as these! YUM. The snow peas are not as sweet as they should have been and it may be due to the late planting or maybe the variety... there's so much to learn!

Mystery Visitor

Up and Coming

Mystery Skull

Pre-Planting

Mystery Mushrooms

Leafy

Purple and Red (again)

Red! Red! Red!

Honey Lady Honey

Broccoli and Bounty

Snip! Snip! Snip!

Cinema

Bowl

Down came the rain...

It's been pretty rainy around here for the past 4 or 5 days. Being stuck indoors was almost like a vacation since we weren't able to get outside to do much of anything. This blue cochin is one of four new babies at the ranch! Last Thursday when I went to the feed store to pick up more food for everyone I... ended up with more chickens too! Wheee! :) (They are like crack, I need help. But seriously, make sure you have room to keep chickens and are willing to care for them if you get them.)

The book next to the chick is Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking and there's also a packet of yeast up there. I'm going to make bread tomorrow. I should probably learn how to make GOOD bread sooner or later. Anyway, home made bread sounds like one of those things you should experience in your life and probably makes the house smell delicious so I hope they turn out better than my curry puff experiment yesterday. (I'll be working on a better recipe to post soon) I really want a pedal-powered grain mill so I can grind the grains I want and help to reduce how much fossil fuels I use. Every home should have one. 

Yummy yum, Lemon, Butter Asparagus for dinner tonight. Trick is to not boil it too long and eat it when it is tender and still bright green. (2-3 minutes?) Over-boiling your veggies lets all the good stuff out. 

This is a steaming Curry Potato and Cabbage dish I also made tonight. This was also the stuffing for Curry Puffs last night.

Honey

Bunny Boy

Yes! Found out how to add pictures to my blogs just now. (heehee, there's a little button, who knew?) 

This is a bunny that lives at Jake's house. He is very spoiled and gets fresh carrots and apple slices every day. His name is Bunny Boy! I think he is much bigger now and has one ear that is floppy :) He lives in the bushes. 

Not much else going on in the mean time; it's been raining for about 4 days straight! Good for the garden but not too good for all the things I'd like to get done out there. There IS something new I'd like to share though...