Kids LOVE Berries!

We have just two more weeks with the kids at Ujima- with this school year ending, the kids will be off to their summer fun.  We are hoping that they will continue to come to the garden through the summer to taste ripe raspberries and blueberries, watch the corn grow and poke around for the ripest strawberries in the patch!  We’ll see them around, i’m sure- because….kids LOVE berries!

The salmon berries (native raspberries) are just starting to ripen, which is exciting because the kids will have fun searching for them tomorrow.

It will be a bit longer before the raspberries will be in full fruit, about mid to end of June we’ll have two varieties ripening and in mid summer a third variety, with the forth one fruiting late summer to October, can you guess that we like raspberries!!!

The blueberries will begin ripening around July/August, we moved them last year- so it is uncertain whether they will fruit much this year.  They had a great flowering,  so we’ll just wait and see.

:::One of the raspberry patches is middle right side of this photo, the strawberries in the foreground:::

The strawberries are going wild- SO many berries!!!  I only hope that they will ripen before next Tuesday, so the kids can have some fun!  I’ve heard that if you want the plant to focus on fruit, then you need to cut back the runners that the plant sends out to make more plants.  So i am trying this on most of the patch, and encouraging the runners to an area where more strawberry plants will have room to grow.  I’m sure that the amount of berries on now will be enough to keep us busy for a bit- and the birds, as well!  Corey shared a tip with us on birds and berries…if you want to harvest berries, you have to be the ‘early bird’…

Blessings of abundance for all beings!  linda

Harvesting the Garlic

As the heat of summertime approaches – the garlic patch got me thinking, ok it’s time to bring up all the learning of the past seasons to ready for this year’s harvest. The garlic is, at this time, up to my waist! Mckenna calls this the garlic house, and it has quite a lovely place to sit in the center, where one can be hidden to the untrained eye…

This is the healthiest garlic i’ve ever had the pleasure of tending to. It’s now time to watch for the sending of the flower, it curls it’s way up very subtle like- it’s best to snap the flower stalk while still in a bud form, these can be cooked up with other veggies! A way I like to remember it is- if you let the garlic flower- all the energy will go into producing that. If you snap it off, the energy will go back into the root to form the ‘head’. Really it’s a very similar approach as other bulb flowers (if you don’t cut the stalk after the flower, the plant will focus on the seed…).

Once this has been attended to, you wait to watch the upper portion of the plant begin to die back, at this point you stop watering the lot- it likes to be dry for at least two weeks prior to harvest. My friend Chuck let me in on one of his secrets- when all but three leaves of the plant have died back, it is ready to harvest. I have let mine die all the way down in the past, but end up with a thinned skin head. The ‘three leaves’ technique, gives three solid layers over the head. I tried this with the seed garlic he gave me two years ago, and it was perfect. The hardest part of it was to save the healthiest heads for planting last fall- but I’m so glad I did! We have approximately 90 garlic stalks, 4 different varieties. We’ll save a good portion of that for planting this October, while adding a few more that we couldn’t get last year.

Spending a few hours with the garden and my farm community is such amazing food for the soul- there’s really no words to describe it, this feeling. Divine Love.

Planting seeds and ‘hardening’ tomatoes and chili peppers

WoW- another whirlwind planting on the farm-  We…

planted scarlet runner beans- built a trellis out of bamboo and long canes from a native rose, planted cilantro, soybeans, sunflowers and watered all!  We then picked lilacs for the kids to take home.

I know it doesn’t sound like much as i write it, but maybe i should add  that this all in an hour with the kids.

The tomatoes spent their first full night outside last night, i was a bit worried like a mother hen- crazy i know.  I’ve been slowly acclimating them over the past three weeks, starting with just an hour or two, and slowly building their time outside to ‘harden’ them.   I think the tomatoes will be ready to plant in the garden by next week.  We have a flat of basil about two inches tall in the kitchen greenhouse- and the second planting of chili peppers is reaching 7″ now, the first planting is almost a foot tall and about ready to flower.  With them being so ahead in the season, we may actually get some peppers!  I read once that a trick to getting chili peppers hotter is to let the soil fully dry out in between waterings- almost to wilting!  We might have to give that a try.  I’ve been doing the same ‘hardening’ technique with the first planting of chili peppers- but they haven’t stayed out overnight, just yet- we’ll wait until it’s a bit warmer.

The one thing about it being such a whirlwind of activity is that soon we will have a visual of all that will be growing on the farm this year- it will be stunning as well overwhelming!!!  We’ve been documenting a bit here and there with the camera, and that will make it’s way here soon… We had most of the photos on our website that was slowly coming together, but yesterday, Cote went to the site and everything was gone- vanished!  The site now looks as though we haven’t even started yet- back to square one- I’m happy that we kept the blog going, to know that we have a backup of most everything- we’ll just need to piece it together again, after the seeds are in the ground, of course!

Happy Spring to all!  linda

Seeds and Mushrooms!

23th of April and we are seeing signs of spring!  i’ve set the tomato and peppers out for a bit of fresh air, and they seem so happy to drink it in, a gentle breeze  tickles their leaves and stems!

We’ve got broccoli  and basil planted under the lights, kale, chard, garbanzo and quinoa, fennel, leeks, spinach, peas and potatoes in the garden…..whew…it’s actually a whirlwind around here.

Next week it looks like we’ll spread a nice bed of wood chips down and inoculate  them with mycelium spores, in hopes to see Garden Giants some months from now.  I’ve never attempted this before, and i’m so looking forward to witnessing what will happen.

Yesterday, for Earth Day, the kids took a group of folks through their garden and shared their experience with compost, horse manure and worms!  City kids turned farmers!!!  As a gift to all who attended, the kids handed out packages of seeds, Sunflower, Bush bean and Chard- all seed collected last harvest season here on the farm! The kids were so excited to share these seeds with others, so they can be planted in many places.   They we’re really excited about this part of the event.  I love working with them!

Happy spring!

what we’ll plant in April!

The new moon is approaching- April 5th, by my calendar. April is a big month to really start to get going on the outside planting, which means we have to get caught up on the preparing of the planting beds! We’ll work on that today at Ujima.

Below is a list of what we’ll prepare to plant (best days are 7th, 8th, 11th, & 12th);

Outside planting of seeds : leeks, green onions, chives, cilantro, swiss chard, quinoa, lettuces, fennel, parsley, broccoli, beets, spinach, peas. In late April we’ll plant sunflowers, scarlet runner beans and Nicotiana (some of my favorites)! If we stick to the moon planting guide this may be more like the week of May 4th.

Inside planting of seeds in late April: cucumber, pumpkin, basil- did I say BASIL-YUM, amaranth and blue morning glory. We are going to plant so much basil!!!

Thanks to the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, it doesn’t seem so overwhelming.

May all enjoy the beauty of growing our own food, and may food always be abundant for all! Linda

Watering the seedlings…

…some tips to watering seedlings, based on my experience.

Rain water is optimal for seedling growth. Capturing rain water- whether it be a pail, or a fancy capturing system- it’s pretty easy to do. My suggestion would be to fill a container and bring it inside to get to room temp before watering the seedlings, as not to shock them.

In the ‘urban greenhouse’, I’ve been using a combination of re-used water (gray-water) and tap water that has been let to sit in open air for a few days.

The gray-water comes when i wash some freshly harvested greens from the garden in a small pail, the water from this is then saved until the seedlings are needing a drink.

The tap water method is simple, just fill a few containers with water and let then sit out for a few days prior to watering, this allows some of the chemicals to escape into the air.

Watering depends on the environment- the seedlings need a moist environment to thrive, but too much water is not good. If the seedlings are under lights, you’ll need to pay more attention to the soil. At first, you may need to water lightly every day- I like to do it in the evenings, when the lights have gone out, so the bed is moist and dark for a bit. As the seedlings get larger, reducing the frequency of watering may be in order.

Most important to keep in mind- the seeds need certain temps to thrive, so adding anything that is outside that temp range will shock them.

There are so many approaches to this, this is just one that I’ve worked with. Keep a journal with your trials, see what happens with what you are doing, and always keep in mind that the plant world can be very forgiving!

.post-note.  One of the beauties of writing these posts, is that i am reminded of things that i have done in the past, and in laziness, have left to the side.  I realized with writing this particular post, that i wasn’t using rain-water as i did last year, and the ease of it, as we have a catchment tank so close to my kitchen door.  So i now have a bucket of rain-water in the urban greenhouse to water the seedlings.  So happy to be back to that!  Linda

Blessings of abundance!

Urban Greenhouse

The tomatoes are bustin’ out of their four inch pots! Our ‘urban greenhouse’ is working well, my large kitchen window faces south, and with the sun still low in the sky, they are getting what they need. In a few weeks we’ll need to transplant them into gallon size pots, not sure where they will all fit at that point, and we have until May before they get transitioned outside! Last Tuesday, with the kids at Ujima, we transplanted some tomatoes that Becky had planted at her place (seeds saved from an heirloom tomato from the Co-op) we’re excited to see how those go! The kids also transplanted some lettuces outside and planted Tomatillo seeds to put in my kitchen.

This is quite different from doing it in small scale on my own. I have more attention to keeping track of the different varieties- making sure we know what is what as we go. I don’t feel so overwhelmed by the amount of plants we are caring for, because I am excited about all the abundance of food that will go home with the kids, and anyone else that is working on the farm. This brings a smile to my face.

I planted the rest of the peppers today- Anaheim, Ancho/Pablano, Jalapeno and a tangerine Pimiento sweet pepper, as well as the rest of the Tomatillos and some more spinach. We are planting in succession the spinach and lettuces, to extend the harvesting possibilities.

In the next few weeks, we will work on preparing the rest of the beds, as April will be a big planting month for us. Come May, we’ll begin to bring out what we have indoors now, as the evenings get warmer. I love this aspect of it, having to really listen to the seasons, and the subtle changes, the moon, and her different phases. Being in the garden, right now, is so amazing- Robins, and other feathered creatures going crazy with activity! The flowering red currants are in full bloom, which makes for happy hummingbirds! The plums are also in full bloom, with the apples soon to follow, i’ve noticed a few buds peeking out on the peach trees and the Asian pears that i’ve been working espalier for the last few years are really showing signs of possible blossoms this year!

What is coming together, this year is beautiful- when i first began working my little P-patch plot 9 years ago, i looked around at all the other plots-separated by boundaries, and i thought- what if we all got together and each grew large amounts of what we like to grow, and we share it at the harvest…..break through the boundaries, work together, to grow our own food collectively! Well, this is what a few of us are doing right now, and i say…it ROCKS!

spring greens-nettle tea!

I’ve been foraging in the nettle patch this past week, the first few sets of new growth popping up everywhere!

Yes, i encourage nettle in my small garden, it feeds the soil it grows in, and the young spring leaves nourish my body with iron and many other minerals!

I begin making the tea by boiling filtered water at home, pour the hot water in a mason jar, cap it up and carry it across the street to the patch of nettle. Some days i brave it and harvest with bare hands, other days i bring a small pair of scissors with me to snip the leaves and drop them gently into the jar of hot water. This process is done with complete focus on this beautiful herb, as i have been taught (by the herb, no less) that if you do not pay attention to the nettle, while harvesting it, it will demand your attention…with a proper sting!

after i have put a fair amount of fresh leaves in the water, i sit in the garden while the infusion rests for a bit- a chance for me to appreciate the beauty i am surrounded by, and give thanks. If there is time, i sit in the garden while drinking this spring tonic. Or i carry it with me on my morning’s journey.

A note about stinging nettle- the best time to harvest is when the plant is alive with fresh spring growth, harvest gently, a few leaves here and there- and it loves to be talked to while harvesting-read…complete focus on the plant you are working with! It is my understanding that it is not advisable to harvest once the plant has flowers, as it may be toxic to the internal organs-(liver, specifically).

Oh…i always thank the nettle, for her grace in the garden and in my body!

Sweet spring greens abound!

Linda

spring greens!

…the best dinner i have had…in so long…traveling across the street to the garden with my wooden bowl, i began to meander my way through the young kale patch, pinching a few tender leaves here and there-the kids tasted some raw yesterday and said they tasted like broccoli!  Then i made my way to the chard patch-young seedlings from seeds planted last summer.  The small plants lay dormant through the winter, and begin their spring growth as the days turn warmer.  Along the way, i found some miner’s lettuce- this is very prolific every spring here, and so tender.  The last graze was in the young spinach patch that made it through the winter, the recent warmth encouraging beautiful tender new leaves here!

The abundance traveled back across the street to my flat.  I revived some old stale bread cubes (cut up before the bread was too hard to cut…)  in a hot pan with some butter substitute, salt and pepper.  I tossed these about in the pan until crispy.

The dressing was made with organic olive oil, 3 small cloves of finely chopped garlic, Bragg (liquid aminos-a bit like soy sauce but not fermented)  pepper and fresh lemon juice.

In a wooden bowl I tossed the spring greens, croutons, dressing and pecans.

So perfectly fresh and delicious!

…and this is just the beginning of a beautiful season of eating from the garden.  I am so grateful to have this opportunity to grow my food in the city.

Be well, and plant a garden- for the earth, it’s creatures and as a blessing, you’ll harvest a bit of food for yourself!

with wildsynergy! Linda

by the moon….

When the Moon is New, the energy is in the below ground portion of the plant. When the Moon is Full, the energy is in the above ground portion of the plant. It’s good to remember this for planting, as well harvesting. A great way for me to remember is the reference to ‘light of the moon’ and ‘dark of the moon’.

Combining astrological signs with tasks in the garden:

Fertile signs- Cancer, Pisces, Scorpio; Taurus and Capricorn*

-the first three being water signs- the best

-the two earthy signs promote strong, hardy plants*- my interpretation here is that these are good for long season crops.

Barren signs- Aries, Leo, Sagittarius, Virgo; Aquarius, Gemini and Libra

-the first four- best for effort in prep, weeding*.

-the last three- air signs- are great for harvesting (especially plants used medicinally)

The Moon’s Phases:

1st and 2nd Quarters- New-waxing-Plant, graft or transplant annuals which bear above-ground crops*.

3rd Quarter- waning-Best time for pruning, the planting of biennials, perennials, bulb and root crops*.

4th Quarter- prior to new moon-Best for bed prep, weeding, cultivation and harvesting above ground-crops*.

I am in the process of drawing a diagram for reference, it will be posted as soon as I am finished. It seems my impression is that above-ground crops like to be harvested by the full moon- when the moon’s energy is in that portion of the plant and root crops may like to be harvested during the phase that brings energy into the earth- roots-dark moon. Maybe this is with medicinals mostly. If you do harvest above-ground and root crops by the moon, try it during the air signs, rather than watery signs for best luck with storage.

Combining Astrological signs with the Moon’s phases seems, at first to be a bit overwhelming, considering all that you have to remember. A good reference is Jim Maynard’s Pocket Astrologer, to which I have drawn information for this post- (highlighted with*).

My trick for the past 10 years has been to sit down with my references for the coming year, and my daily calendar in the midst of winter- with a cup of tea!- and mark the planting, pruning and harvesting days of the coming season. This way, there is no guess work, and it is a motivator to get me to the task at the best time, rather than scrambling at the last minute. I have gotten to where I find myself, doing much of it intuitively at this point.

Blessings for a fruitfully abundant year for all!

Linda