"living off the fatta' the lan'" - the next generation

when last we spoke, my garden was in it's infancy. spring lettuces were young and tender, tomato plants had just been nestled in the earth, and the potatoes had not yet been planted. after three beautiful months of colorado summer, things look quite different. the broccoli, cabbage, and lettuces have now all been harvested, the tomatoes (as you'll see) are downright prolific, the herbs have all taken off, and the legumes, potatoes, and carrots have flourished.

pictured left: legume patch - purple bush beans, sugar snap peas, broad beans, and one ornamental gourd for good measure.

pictured right: first of the "purple haze" carrots.

pictured below: harvest of "kennebec white" and "purple peruvian" potatoes.

while i'm truly proud of ALL of the offerings from my very first garden, it's the TOMATOES that have really impressed me this year. in what i've been told had been a "bad tomato year" here in colorado springs, our 12 tomato varieties have surpassed anything we could have hoped for. we've enjoyed tiny, sweet, juicy orange "sun sugar," pointy pink "sugary," mild but tangy "green zebras," plump and rich "black cherry," mild and bright "lemon boy," and the complex, intense, sexy "black from tula." the others (including "pineapple," "brandywine red," "lisa king," and "mortgage lifter") haven't fully ripened yet but all are bearing promising fruit.

because a picture is said to be worth a thousand words and because formatting text and pictures with Blogger is such a pain in the ass, here are some pictures of our produce bounty:

it was daunting at first and i still have TONS to learn, but this gardening year has already been more rewarding than i could have imagined. we're living on less than half an acre here (much of which is not plantable) and i think we've really gotten a lot out of what little area we have planted. i'm learning more every day and i just set some seed today for fall harvests of parsley, arugula, leaf lettuces, collards, broccoli, and spinach.

i'd eventually like to get to something much more organized, calculated, and productive (like a system reasonably close to what the Dervaes family has accomplished) but, for our first year gardening here, i could scarcely be happier.

gardening, like i've preached about in my previous vegan-hippie-tree-hugger posts, is another way YOU, yes, YOU can take a step toward self-sufficiency and away from the commercial food machine. dirt is cheap, seeds are cheap, water is relatively cheap (and sometimes free!), sunlight is free. homegrown food is fresher, more nutritious, tastier, cheaper, and more fun than what you'll find at the store. here is the Dervaes family to get you inspired:

there are tons of online resources, and, for you neo-Luddites out there, your local library is sure to have enough info to get you started growing on your own. take a chance - throw some seeds in the ground. you might be surprised at how much fun (and food) you get out of it.

greenly,

~thorny appleseed

unplug yourself: part two

over a year ago, i extolled the virtues of investing in your health by educating yourself and examining the sources of the food you eat. the essential message was to take off the blinders that commercial food producers force on us through advertising, media, etc., and to seek better, more sustainable food sources. if you missed part one, shame on you but here it is once again.

barbara kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, chronicles her family's year-long pledge to eat things they grew on their farm, could trade their home grown items for, or could get from other homesteaders in their community. one cue that i took from the kingsolvers is to abide by the tenet of eating SLOWly, a philosophy that has been acronymed as Seasonal, Local, Organic, and Whole. in doing so, i strive to unplug from the frenzy of commercial grocery purveyors and choose to patronize the community-supported food chain from days of old...the food chain of our grandparents... the food chain i'm glad to see being revived.

one of the best ways i've found to participate in that revival is to purchase a share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. farmers who sell to large supermarkets traditionally get a woefully small percentage on the dollar from the sale of the produce they grow. as such, if they experience a bad crop year, they're seldom able to mitigate that hardship and survive til the next year. with the purchase of a share, you are assured that ALL of the dollar goes to them and you share in the bounty (or lack thereof) that their hard work yields. this year, we chose the Greenhorn Acres Farm. for the cost of our share we get 26 weeks of fresh produce that was organically grown and picked fresh by caring hands. the variety is inspiring, the freshness is unbeatable, and having met the family that works the land and tends the plants makes it even more rewarding.

this is the typical share basket we collect each week.

there's a head of beautiful crisp lettuce, swiss chard, chiogga beets, pattypan and ball zucchini, fava beans, and english peas. with the two latter treats, i took inspiration from jamie oliver's recipe for "posh beans on toast" which another blogger transcribed for our convenience. it was incredibly fresh and really delicious. the mystery of the weekly bag's unknown contents really lends to inspired cooking and forces one to eat or preserve what the earth provides when she provides it. i've experimented a little with canning and pickling and expect a lot more in my near future. good thing i got this book as an father's day present this year :-)

so, again, i'm not preaching but inviting you to find a CSA near you or at the very least visit a weekly farmers market and directly support the people who take the time and put forth the effort to grow our food. you'll be rewarded with fresher, tastier, more nutrient-rich food that was honestly grown and lovingly harvested for you. you'll be glad you did.

organically,

~thorns

who knew?

in my endeavor to buy locally as much as possible, i was discriminatingly scouring the bins at my local whole foods and discovered a new (to me) vegetable! these peculiar green tentacles were produced at a farm about half an hour south of here and are called garlic scapes. the scape is the green flower stem that the garlic bulb shoots skyward as it matures. these shoots are delicate and pliable and will curl into the little tendrils you see here. i promptly googled them and discovered lots of recipes and other facts about them. though i haven't eaten them yet, the literature i've found suggests they have a crispy texture similar to asparagus with a mild garlic flavor without the acrid garlic bite. i gather that they are most readily found at local farmers markets and whole/natural/organic food stores. if you're inclined to find scapes or discover other new and unusual local produce, check HERE to find a local farmers market or a farm near you.

~thorns