Benefit Party for Mill Creek Farm

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

The holiday season gives us many opportunities to support the projects that we care about. Take some time this season to make sustainable and local food part of your giving plan - and have fun doing it! This coming Sunday come out to support Mill Creek Farm, West Philadelphia’s working farm that not only supplies the neighborhood with organic, fresh produce, but also includes children’s programs, a green roof, water recycling and a bat cave!  Tickets start at $25, and can be purchases HERE or at the door.
Please Join Us for the 3rd Annual
Benefit Party for the Mill Creek Farm

Enjoy light food, drinks, live music from Three Stories Jazz Trio
and Old Goats, silent auction and raffle featuring great gifts:
artwork, crafts, gift certificates for yoga, local restaurants,
bike repair, and more!

WHEN: Sunday, December 6, 2009, 3:00-7:00 pm
WHERE: The First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, 2125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

  * Celebrate our fourth growing season!
  * Enjoy light food, drinks, live music, silent auction, raffle!
  * Support Mill Creek Farm’s efforts to improve local access to fresh produce, build a healthy community and environment, and promote a just and sustainable food system.
  * Learn more about our work: education programs, growing and distributing fresh produce, and demonstrating ecological technologies.
  * Childcare will be available.
  * Tickets are available in advance on our website and also at the door.

November GRID is out

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The new GRID magazine is hitting the shelves at local coffee-shops, co-ops and businesses near you. Check out the issue for more bicycling articles, how to cook dried beans, just what is a green roof, local fashion designers, community garden, a green event calendar, and much more. Or, read it online HERE.

Trying out a fall planting

Sunday, October 04, 2009

I’ve always been a summer gardener, in part because I used to live somewhere that started to get snow in November. This year, I’m going for it by growing collards (one shares pot with parsley) and beets.

As you can see, I have a critter problem on the collards (whiteflies? I admit that I haven’t taken a good look), and the beets have been in the ground about a month. I bought both as starters at Greensgrow. I’ll keep everyone posted. In summer garden news, I’m down to the last tomatoes and peppers and have been snipping off any new shoots and flowers on both so that that plants can finish what they started. Also, the basil is still trucking—I should get another batch of pesto in the freezer before they head to the compost heap in the sky.

Red Earth Farm CSA week ? (I have slacked and completely lost track)

Thursday, August 06, 2009

This week’s share included 3 Asian eggplants, 3 summer squashes, 1 pint of sungold cherry tomatoes, a bunch of carrots, a bunch of baby pak choy, and a bag of mixed hot peppers.

Next to the CSA tomatoes are a quart of Roma tomatoes from my garden.

And a pan of uncut blackberry bars, fresh from the oven. The blackberries came courtesy of a gigantic bush a few blocks from our house. I hope the owners don’t mind that we’ve been foraging, but the bush is on our way to the playground and it’s hard for the kids and I to resist.

Wild Strawberries

Thursday, June 04, 2009

I’m a lucky gal. I’ve got a wild strawberry patch growing in my front yard! Considered a weed by some, perhaps because of how fast and easily they spreads,  wild strawberries produce beautiful little red berries on a blanket of deep green. Lovely enough just to look at, you can also eat them! I’ve compiled a few recipes from online sites below. Taste your berries before using them in cooking of baking. They very vastly in sweetness (mine are, alas, not very sweet) and you may have to adjust the sweetness-level of the recipe. If you don’t have your own wild strawberries, just keep your eyes and ears open. Anyone who has them is very willing to share - they grow and spread that quickly, and are easy to transplant.

Champagne sorbet with wild strawberries from Big Oven.
Wild Stawberries and Cream from Emerils.
Wild Strawberry Salad with Parmesan Crisps and Blueberry Dressing from Fabulous Foods
Mini Pancakes with Wild Strawberries from BreakfastandBrunch.
Upsidedown Wild Strawberry Tart from Starchefs.

Summer is coming!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

There are many signs pointing to the beginning of summer: first doctoral qualifying exam taken, seminar papers nearly written, allergies hopefully going away soon, LAST WINTER CSA SHARE FROM KEYSTONE FARM and HEALTHY HERB GARDEN ON THE ROOF.
Clearly, the last two items on that list are the most relevant to this post (either that or my cat stepped on the caps lock key—it happens). All winter I participated in the Keystone Farm organic CSA share, picking up a half vegetarian share every Saturday at Clark Park. Yesterday I picked up my last share for the season (pictured above). There was a densely packed bag of mixed salad greens, romaine lettuce, gigantic onion, asparagus (yum!), and the usual homemade granola, half-dozen free range eggs and a local cheese (sharp cheddar - my favorite!). I can only eat so much cheese, so I opt for two granolas and one cheese. There is some flexibility in this share.
Luckily, the summer share starts next week. I will again do the half vegetarian share. Each week you get 1/2 dozen eggs, cheese, granola and then a large assortment of fruit and vegetables—all organic. I signed up early and paid $275 (full price for 1/2 share would have been $300), which works out to be around $12 a week. For organic produce, plus cheese and granola for the week, this seems a great deal. Fits right in with my goal to eat green on a tiny budget. On top of all that, Phylann is a wonderful woman, running a great farm. It’s more than worth the money to support her and her organic farming. Check out their new website for more information.
I’ll be reporting on my share each week. However, next week is my father’s 70th birthday (!!!!!), so I’ll be in CT. I’ll pick up a double share (or a full share for that matter) on the 13th and show you my summer goods.
On another note. After a somewhat rocky attempt at roof gardening last year, I’ve decided to stick to herbs this year. I have a great space right outside my bedroom window/door, and I use wooden wine crates (with holes drilled in the bottom) as planters. This year I have three kinds of basil, sage, thyme, rosemary, two types of mint, dill and parsley. One planter has a couple of creepy (creeping, rather) flowering plants just for fun. Below are a couple of pictures from when I first planted early spring and from this morning. The sun is pretty bright, so you’ll have to use your imagination!

The Garden Report

Friday, May 29, 2009

Our cement garden has been successful so far this season. It’s been so successful that my husband wants to get a kitchen scale to measure exactly how successful it’s been. The shaded garden box, as expected, isn’t doing as well as the others. The spinach bolted before it produced much, but the lettuce and broccoli rabe don’t seem to mind the shade. We’ve eaten lettuce, spinach, green beans and broccoli rabe, the strawberries are thriving, and the tomatoes, blackberries, and snap peas are flowering. The onions and carrots are growing well too.

I’ve learned a lot in our first six weeks of Square Foot Gardening.  In his book, Mel Bartholomew entices you to try his method by insisting there is little to no weeding if you use Mel’s Mix. That is not true. When I finish weeding one square and start the next a new weed pops up in the box I’ve just cleared. It’s true that they are easier to pull than weeds growing up from the ground, but the weeds are endless.

I have also learned that many of the weeds in my garden are vegetables growing from the compost. We dried the compost and sorted it through a screen before using, but clearly it wasn’t enough. I pulled out the broccoli rabe from one of the boxes yesterday and found several tomato plants growing between them. Upon closer inspection I realized that I’ve been pulling tomato plants from other parts of the garden for weeks. I’ve done the same with squash. There are squash plants growing everywhere. I don’t know if it’s summer or winter squash, but since I didn’t plant it intentionally it is a weed. I’ve let a few seedlings go just to see what happens, but I still pull out squash plants on a daily basis.

The garden pests are worse than ever this year. I don’t know if it’s because I wasn’t as conscientious in years past, or if it’s because the boxes are lower to the ground than the containers we’ve used in the past, but the bugs are everywhere. Ants have decimated some of my green bean plants, green aphids are attacking rose bushes that have never been touched before, and tiny black winged aphids are trying to eat the green beans the ants haven’t yet destroyed. I didn’t even know aphids had wings. I am not looking forward to the squirrel, possum and raccoon onslaught that’s sure to come. Our back yard is like wild kingdom.

Dill, and a recipe

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

I am not a fan of mayonnaise potato salads. This year I’m growing dill so that I can make my favorite and really simple potato salad.

Yogurt & Dill Potato Salad

Handful of fresh dill, chopped fine
Cracked black pepper (a couple of full cranks)
Sea salt to taste (a little at first)
Freshly snipped chives
1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
6 to 8 oz Greek-style yogurt (no less than 2% fat; how much depends on absorption by the potatoes)
1 pound small new potatoes

Mix everything together except potatoes. Boil the potatoes until tender (peeled or skins on, or remove skins after they’ve boiled and are cool enough to handle). Combine. Taste after a couple of hours in the fridge and adjust the salt and add more yogurt if necessary. Keeps well for a 2-3 days.

Get your tomato seeds!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

It may be a little too early to think about eating tomatoes, but it’s not too early to think about growing them.  Mother’s Day (May 5) is, generally speaking, the last frost date in the Philadelphia area and is almost always the day I plant tomatoes.  If you’re a tomato connoisseur, 2009 may be your lucky year: Campbell’s Soup Company is giving away Campbell’s Soup tomato seeds through June 21 at HelpGrowYourSoup.com - this is the first time these seeds will be available in the company’s 100 year history!

Campbell’s is partnering with the National Future Farmer’s of America office and Urban Farming Inc. to promote American agriculture, hoping to grow more than 1 billion tomatoes across the country.  The plan is to donate 22.5 million seeds, and the partnership will also result in several new community gardens across the country.  Locally, there will be an event on May 2 in Camden at the Woodland Community Garden -  that’s the corner of 9th Street and Sylvan Street.

More about the tomatoes:

The tomato seeds themselves also have a rich heritage. Campbell began growing tomatoes from its own seeds on New Jersey farms during in the 1930s. Those “Jersey” tomatoes were renowned for their rich taste and texture, so much so, that when truckloads were delivered to the Campbell facility in Camden, city residents followed and picked up fallen tomatoes from the streets.

Cement Garden

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

We’re giving our usually half-assed garden a chance this year.  With two big bins full of rich, black compost, we decided it was time. Instead of randomly throwing tomatoes in containers and hoping for the best we tracked down the ever-elusive vermiculite at Primex Garden Center in Glenside, mixed up the soil, and built the boxes for our first official Square Foot Garden. Square Foot Gardening in raised beds was a necessity for us. Our back yard is almost entirely cement and pavers. The few areas that haven’t been paved are already planted with shrubs and shade-loving plants as they’re mostly up against the house or on either side of the driveway.  We built three boxes and placed them in the spots where we hoped they’d get as much sun as possible.

I fear that one of the boxes is already doomed as there’s not enough direct sun, but as the season changes the sun’s path changes too, so I threw caution to the wind and planted some early season vegetable seeds in it anyway. I’m saving the second of the boxes for the summer crops- tomatoes, beans, squash, and whatever else strikes my fancy when the weather warms enough, and the third box is already planted with strawberries, peas, spinach, broccolini and lettuce.

My kitchen windowsill is crowded with seeds sprouting indoors. Two green bean plants are thriving, the cilantro is struggling, but may survive, and after rigging a plant light the basil seeds, after three long weeks of nothing, sprouted.

The strawberries are doing really well. It was the first time I’d ever bought bare root plants, and I had very little faith that they’d come back to life, but they are green and leafy. We built a little cage to protect them from wildlife. 

We don’t have a lot of direct sun anywhere in the yard. At 2pm the second box was completely shaded. It’s nice to live in a section of the city where there are tons of trees, but it does make it difficult for sun-loving plants to thrive. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Grow a tomato, save money

Saturday, April 18, 2009

With the weather taking a turn for the beautiful, many of us will be out in our gardens.  The economy being what it is, a lot more people are turning to vegetable gardening as a way to save money.  The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at whether growing your own food is as fiscally inexpensive as people seem to think.

The nonprofit National Gardening Association just produced a study—sponsored by ScottsMiracle-Gro Co.—that found the average family with a vegetable garden spends just $70 a year on it and grows an estimated $600 worth of vegetables.

George Ball, chairman and CEO of seed giant Burpee, can rattle off the savings for dozens of homegrown crops. Green beans will generate $75 worth of crops for each $1 you spend on seeds, Mr. Ball calculates. Even the lowly potato will generate $5 of spuds for each $1 you invest in seeds.

Does it all sound too good to be true? Depending on your situation, it may be. Neither Mr. Ball nor the National Garden Association study focus on how much you may have to sink into your garden before you can grow anything.

I’ve been keeping a garden for a lot of years, both here out in the burbs and when I lived in the city.  I can attest to the fact that it’s easy to spend a lot of money on gardening accoutrements: fencing, soil and soil amendments, shovels, seeds, stakes.  But if you plan to keep a garden long term, the cost of these items - as the article points out - can be amortized over the life of your garden.  It doesn’t mean start up costs are any less hard to swallow, of course.  That said, gardening doesn’t have to involve all the bells and whistles - walk out to your back yard, dig a hole, and plant a seed.

Speaking of gardening, here’s a cool idea out of San Francisco - an urban gardener registry.  It’s basically a social networking site for SF gardeners, but apparently there’s a feature that allows gardeners with an overabundance of produce can get in touch with other gardeners who want their extra produce.  If only I had the programming prowess to make something like that happen here in the Philadelphia area!!

Kensington’s Greensgrow in the Inquirer

Co-founder Mary Seton Corboy at Greensgrow Farm in Kensington. (April Saul / Inquirer)

Friends are used to me going on and on about Greensgrow Farm, in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, like I invented the place. I love it that much. You might, too, after you read today’s piece by Ginny Smith in the Inquirer.

To the Nursery

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Today was my first opportunity to get to Greensgrow in Kensington since it re-opened for the season. I intended to document it heavily, but man, was it raining during the 45 minutes I was there! You’ll have to trust me when I say that the place was hopping. There were tons of lettuces, kales, cruciferous vegetables, and hearty herbs (meaning no basil yet) to buy, plus all sorts of interesting small shrubs and trees (fruit-bearing and otherwise), succulents in many shapes for your hot spots, and grasses. And flowers—every hue of pansy under the sun, plus columbines, lobelia (in 3 shades of blue), phlox, stock (love the fragrance!), and exponentially more. And so many pretty containers, and I’ve always found their prices for those to be really good.

My take looks a bit small, and is, compared to purchases of last summer. But I’m waiting to see what comes up from the bareroots I planted last fall before I put too much more in the ground. That said, I bought 2 blue columbines to tide me over. Also: 2 dills, 2 pineapple sage (as much for the scarlet flowers as for “sage-ness”), and rosemary. And, a package of bird-netting to swaddle a few new plants so that they don’t become squirrel snacks. Not pictured: lemon thyme which I plopped next to the regular thyme out front already.

Garden awakening

Sunday, March 29, 2009

I still get as excited as I did when I was a kid at seeing all the little shoots and leaves and buds. First, the fruits:
The dwarf sour cherry I planted last spring will have a lot of flowers! I just have to keep somebody names Squirrel and another named Birdie away from the you-know-whats. Same goes with the raspberries.

Perennial herbs on the way back: the chives are going great guns, and there’s a tiny new thyme shoot (circled in pink)—I was about to give up.

And last, cutting lettuce seeds from Seed Savers Exchange are beginning to sprout!

Spring Sorrel

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

After my volunteer shift at the Fair Food on Saturday, I came home and took my first look at the garden.  There is definitely some clean up needed - mostly dried leaves and twigs from last season.  And, of course, compost needs to be dug in for soil amendment.  I was shocked and surprised, though, to see all the things growing already!  The garlic, planted last Autumn, is going crazy.  Most of it is already four inches tall!  The strawberries are nice and green.  There is even new baby growth on the collards I never pulled at the end of last season.  My herb plot is looking good: the sage and thyme overwintered nicely, and the chives and parsley are coming up again.  The rhubarb has some nice growth on it, too.

But of all the things popping up in the garden, the thing I was most excited to see is the sorrel!  Last year in April I talked about a few uses for sorrel, some of which I tried and some of which I haven’t.  Here are a few other ideas:

• Sorrel salad dressing
• Lemon Cupcakes and Bitters, Sorrel, and Toasted Meringue
• New Potatoes with Salami and Sorrel
• Sorrel Panna Cotta
• Roast chicken with sorrel