Cement Gardening

Joshua and I have a little apartment attached to our collegiate institute. We really like the idea of having a garden and being able to grow our own food. Of course, having a cement deck does not really help our plight. When my mom came to visit in May, she helped me get the ball rolling with getting plants and seeds in the pots and helped me get a system going.
It's been almost two months now and I thought it was definitely high time to show the progress that has been made. Here's our little cement-deck shot. We live facing a youth sized soccer field that is encircled by Virginia's favorite tree: the Crape-myrtle.Already planted at this time (early June) were our tomatoes, herbs: (Italian basil, oregano, chive, sage, mint), lettuce, cucumbers and seeds were in the ground for our spinach, dill, peas and radishes.I don't think I've ever gotten anything to grow successfully from seeds and these little beans were giving me some serious hope for my future as a green thumb. I bought these seeds from the farmer's market from a local farm and I was so tickled when they started sprouting early! Two weeks later, my beans were looking for somewhere to grow:
Somewhere in those two weeks, I was feeling pretty good about seeds, so I also planted Italian flat-leaf parsley. Such sweet little green blooms of life:My mom planted my cherry tomato plant when she visited in May and it has done nothing but flourish. I put it at the end of my walkway and it gets excellent amounts of sun in the morning and throughout the day. I have neighbors who planted inverted tomato pots (I'm still not keen on the idea) and had a rocky start with it, but have finally started forming fruit. I've already been harvesting mine for a couple of weeks. Check out the growth on these tomatoes:After two weeks, it had already grown over the top of the tomato stake and was looking for more room to grow.Then one morning after my walk I noticed it was full of blossoms and one tiny little green tomato! I was so tickled, I had to take a photo for posterity.No sooner have I uploaded the photos from my camera when I find that my tomato plant is really growing and I have a beautiful cluster of fruit beginning to ripen!One week at the farmer's market I noticed they were selling plants, of which I had already planted most of the basics, but I saw they were offering lettuce. I had sown seed for spinach and a spring mix, but I thought perhaps this "deer-tongue" variety might be fun to try. The six-pack of lettuce plants was being sold for $1.50, so I figured if it bombed, I didn't lose much. They were looking a little tender and I was rather apprehensive whether I thought they would actually take root, but about a week later, I was already harvesting leaves for sandwiches and to accompany salads.Shortly thereafter... they really started to take off. I went on a trip for two weeks and a couple of my plants died from the heartbreak of my absence, but the lettuce plants that did survive did really well. Also, the spring mix of micro greens I planted by seed in the center of the pot were progressing way beyond my meager expectation of my cement garden.Below is the photo I took this evening of my crazy lettuce plants. Yes, they have gone to seed because I can't harvest their sweet leaves fast enough. I'm hoping to dry out the seeds after it goes wild so I can try my hand at deer-tongue lettuce again. It was such a wonderfully mild lettuce and for our climate and sun, grew extremely well.






















The cucumber starter plants I bought I thought would never reach maturity...
...but those words were barely out of my mouth, when my cukes were already reaching out of the box. I quickly learned that cucumbers have really extensive root systems that bury themselves at least 18" and I needed to transplant even though they had already begun to flower.The transplant was a success and my plants were quickly covered in pretty yellow blossoms and fantastic looking cukes!As far as herbs are concerned, my oregano, chives and rosemary came back from the years' prior, and we purchased starter plants for the Italian basil, purple sage and grew parsley from seed. Now isn't that a fantastic looking herb pot?
I have this special love for Kentucky Colonel spearmint. Just after I got married, my dad had a layover in Norfolk before he flew to Iraq and as my own husband was deployed elsewhere, I had this really special daughter-daddy time where I made him lots of fresh mint iced tea. Somehow I always associate bright, fresh, huge Kentucky Colonel mint leaves with that memory and I love having it on hand in case he should happen to drop in, I have plenty on reserve for him!

This is my purple-leaved sage as of tonight. Joshua and I really enjoy frying sage leaves as a fantastic amuse-bouche styled appetizer. It's so remarkably fresh and clean on the palate and it's rather unexpected... I can't wait to preserve it for the winter and have on hand for our Thanksgiving turkey. For as long as I can remember, my mom has put sage leaves under the skin of the turkey with stems of chives, to look like growing plants under the skin... it makes a wonderful presentation after the bird is browned.

This is my sweetie rosemary plant. I've had the same plant now for three years and though it never seems to get amazingly large, it has been very resilient to the changes (4 different pots, 3 different locations, droughts, floods...). Rosemary is most certainly Joshua's favorite plant in our garden (just ask our friends), so I make sure to take extra care with this plant!

We planted zucchini and Brussels sprouts as well this year. I think they got a late start and were not potted in enough soil (part of the drawback of having to put everything on a cement deck), they both are rather floundering this year and though the zucchini continues to produce gorgeous orange blossoms, I have yet to see fruit.

We also planted bell peppers and jalapenos. The jalapenos blossomed and produced fruit first and are almost ready for an initial harvest, which tickles me because I have a great recipe for preserved peppers that I'm dying to try out!

Speaking of preserving, after my cucumbers were done, I transplanted my Italian basil to the cuke pot and they have really dug deep and grown large enough to start me thinking about caprese salad and pesto!

Of course no garden is complete without it's wildlife and Aoife and I have been able to see many stunning butterflies, moths and dragonflies frequent our garden space. But this one takes the cake. I only saw it once climbing on my tomato pot and then I didn't see it again (I'm sure metamorphosis is to take credit for that), but I still have no idea what it is. Any clues?

The dipledenia I killed from last year was replaced with this gorgeous beauty which I can see from my kitchen and I absolutely love. My mom and I have this kindred relationship for dipledenia and I don't remember ever not having one... the climbing aspect of this flowering shrub just captivates me.

I have so many blossoms on it now it has been such a refreshing scent on my porch and a wonderful spray of pink for the Davis ladies who desperately need something girly!
Thanks for sitting with us on our porch... if you stay awhile, I'll be sure to mix up a tall frosty glass of rosemary lemonade or minty iced tea!

Farmer's Markets

I love my farmer's market.

Yes, that photo up above are my goodies from a recent trip to the farmer's market, including free-pastured Americana chicken eggs (whose eggs are green, blue or brown), free-pastured duck eggs, raw and unfiltered honey, farmstead cheese (made from the milk produced on that farm), buttermilk and cream, grass-fed Dexter beef, and all sorts of organic lettuces and fresh produce.

Looking for a farmer's market near you? Check out these resources to get connected to your locavore community:

• Local Harvest: A great springboard of information for restaurants that source locally, farmer's markets as well as CSAs offered by your local farm.
• Organic Consumer's Association: Looking for only organic? Check out the OCA's GreenPeople Directory link to find co-ops as well as local farms producing organic grain, meat, dairy and selling and utilizing non-GMO seeds.
• Eat Well Guide: Another great resource for people trying to find local sustainable and organic restaurants, farmer's markets and grocers in their area. This is also great if you are going to be on the road travelling and you want to know where to find SOLE food around you quickly.
• Edible Communities: This has become one of my favorite "insider" resources. Edible Communities highlights regions' local seasonal harvest. I live in the Chesapeake watershed, so my Edible Chesapeake magazine gives me great advertisements on professional restaurants, regionally sourced products as well as articles and recipes. You can buy a subscription or find this publication at your local farmer's market.

Live in the Tidewater area? Check out these markets:

• Five Points Farm Market: Located in Norfolk, this farmer's market is open 5 days a week and is housed in an old warehouse building. Many local farms drop off their produce or products at regular intervals during the week and 5 Points sells them. Saturday morning is when I go purchase my dairy, produce as well as dried legumes and meat.
• Old Beach Farmer's Market: Located in Virginia Beach, OBFM is an open air market only open 8-noon on Saturdays. Beyond the standard fare of veggies, there are vendors who sell fresh granola, bread, croissants, dressings and seafood.

Found: Mulberries

I found wild mulberries while walking with Aoife. It made me do a double take… are those really the mulberries of famed nursery lore?

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush,
Here we go round the mulberry bush.
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we wash our hands,
Wash our hands, wash our hands,
This is the way we wash our hands,
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we wash our clothes.
Wash our clothes, wash our clothes,
This is the way we wash our clothes,
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we go to school,
Go to school, go to school,
This is the way we go to school,
On a cold and frosty morning.

This is the way we come out of school,
Come out of school, come out of school,
This is the way we come out of school,
On a cold and frosty morning.

At any rate, I tipped my hat to Michael Pollan, kept watching the tree to wait until they were ripe, then brought Joshua out with a bucket one evening and we went crazy! Mulberries are white when they are first forming, then they turn pink, red and finally a deep blackberry-purple. Of course, I had to do a little digging online to make sure the leaves and fruit matched up with an edible fruit, since Aoife is still nursing I wanted to make sure I didn't consume something poisonous.
A quick Wikipedia search confirmed the leaves, bark and fruit development to be mulberries and safe for eating. Joshua and I picked almost two quarts of mulberries and after much rinsing, we drizzled on a little honey (from Peace and Plenty farm in North Carolina) and amazing half and half cream (from South Mountain Creamery from Maryland - it's rBgh free and they do not regularly treat with antibiotics. We're buying into a cow share soon, but for now our farmer's market offers SMC's buttermilk, whipping cream and milk and we really love the flavor!). We couldn't believe how fantastic our berries were and can't wait for the wild black raspberries we found to ripen (more on that later).

Pick Your Own: Strawberries

The first weekend in May I went strawberry picking with the family. My gardening meet-up group sends out great reminders at the beginning of the peak season for picking produce utilizing local farms she finds on PickYourOwn.org, which is how we found Flanagan Farm in Pungo. Flanagan's chief crop is strawberries and after picking in their fields it is easy to see why they are third generation strawberry farmers. Flanagan's farm is off the main drive in Pungo, which afforded us a really quality interview with the farm, away from crowds, traffic and businesses. The rows were dry and well maintained and the staff were friendly and personable.

Pungo is renown for their Strawberry Festival that they host every year which draws an amazingly large crowd. Of course, the main event happens during the peak of strawberry maturation, when the fields have already had a majority of their fruit developed. We didn't attend the festival since we were already swimming in berry goodness by the time of the main event.

When Joshua and I went picking up the rows of strawberries there were still blossoms on the plants, there were no bugs and it was still cool outside, offering us a really wonderful first-time experience. In what seemed like no time at all, we had already picked 17.5 pounds of strawberries. Joshua kept finding "the perfect strawberry" and, well, he had 9 pounds of berry in his box to prove it.

What did we do with it all? Well, I hadn't prepared our house to receive all of our very ripe produce, so we froze some of it, we made some of it into buttermilk and mint smoothies and ate a lot of it with cream, but we also tried to get our friends interested in the local farm offerings by dropping off bowls full of berries to our neighbors.

As much as we loved the PYO scene, our main reason for driving into the country to pick something that was available at my local market was for the sake of my daughter. We have decided together one of the best things we can teach Aoife at her young age is where food grows. It doesn't grow in a package on a shelf in the grocery store. She needs to see how food is grown, harvested and how superior the taste and quality is when you are close to the source. Aoife has been reared exclusively on breast milk and strawberries are her first taste of "mommy" food.

Turns out, she loved it as much as we did!

Green Holiday: Easter

In my efforts to start eating more locally, I built a holiday menu that was seasonal, local, organic and almost entirely homemade. In efforts to reduce waste and reduce our carbon footprint, I purchased almost everything at the farmer's market with my reusable grocery bags and produce bags and utilized cloth napkins at the table. Here's a listing of our SOLE food Easter menu:

Eggs Benedict:

• Local chicken eggs (purchased from Peace & Plenty farm in NC)
• organic whole wheat English muffins (from the Organic Food Depot)
• oven roasted turkey slices (I don't eat pork... so this were a substitute from the Fresh Market)
• hollandaise made with cream from a local dairy and organic butter from a company that advertises its sustainable business practices

Crepes Suzette:

• Local duck eggs (also from Peace & Plenty farm in NC)
• Locally produced cream (from Homestead Creamery in Roanoke)
• organic butter
• domestic flour (from King Arthur in VT)

Blanched Asparagus:

• locally grown and harvested asparagus (purchased at the Eastern Market in Capitol Hill)

Chocolate Truffles

• locally made chocolate truffles that are made without additives or preservatives using only seasonal ingredients (bought at 5 Points Community Market from Cocoa Noveau: she recently set up an Etsy store so when she bakes for the farmer's market you can purchase her fantastic European chocolates online!)

My only regret was that I didn't take a photo of us enjoying all this fantastic food!!

Patio Garden

It's almost time to start planting. This weekend I'll start turning my dilapidated deck space into my garden. This year will be a little different since we moved during the winter and our new apartment is completely westward-facing. (Read here: only afternoon/evening sun... almost entirely useless for growing vegetables). I have not yet begun researching plants that will be more accommodating to part-sun and shade since I really just wanted to plant cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, beans; all of which are sun-lovers. I have half a mind to plant them in my studio on top of my architect's desk, which would ensure that no pests reach my plants but would also inhibit pollination of the fruit later which would likely pose a problem, at least for my tomatoes.

My rosemary, chives and oregano are already back from last year and are excited about this new season. Our new apartment is on the base floor and is completely sheltered from the rain which also poses an issue for growing. Rosemary is from the arid mountainous terrain of Italy and does well in dry soil but chives and oregano do not. I've started running outside when it rains and pushing my little window boxes into the rainfall so they may get some of the free nutrients but my dipledenia and hibiscus from last year aren't even budging.

This year, Joshua and I have talked about planting lettuce and scallions, both of which would go really well in the large pots that are currently hosting my dead (am I already pronouncing that?) dipledenia and hibiscus plants. My mom may be journeying this way next week and perhaps dirt digging will be a quality mother-daughter activity. Last year my mother planted my garden alone. I was nine-months' expecting and we were biding our time until Aoife came, so I kept her company while she planted all my flowers and herbs.

I won't lie: I cannot successfully grow anything from seed. I buy seedlings and small plants because my green thumb was amputated at a young age: I believe in kindergarten I grew marigolds and that may have been my last successful venture.

I am undecided from where I will purchase my plants this year. Traditionally, I buy them from the McDonald Garden Center, but this year I was thinking about purchasing from something a little more "grassroots". Our local community college has a horticulture club that is sponsoring a plant sale, including a nice list of herbs and vegetables, all of which seem to be well researched for hardiness and resistance to disease. The other location is my local farmer's market: Five Points Community Farm Market which is sponsoring the sale of starter plants. Last weekend while in Washington D.C I went to one of my favorite farmer's markets: The Eastern Market at Capitol Hill. The purple Thai basil and lamb's ear sage they were offering made me wish I lived closer!

I'll post before and after pictures of my deck so you can see how I'm transforming the space into something edible, enjoyable and sustainable. In the meanwhile, I'll start resarching a type of tomato that grows in the dark in dry soil...

Slow Food

Sometimes I forget I don't have a microwave.

Like last week, for instance. While I was at the Organic Food Depot, I bought a mixed rice/barley blend and a couple of organic burritos. Did I forget I don't have the essential small appliance with which to make them? So here I am, hungry and looking in my pantry for something to go with my roasted sweet potato from last night's dinner and I see the package for microwaveable food.

I think I'm getting ahead of myself. I've started reading increasing research about "slow food"... the fabulous counter-movement to the microwaving-drive-through culture we now find ourselves in. Slow Food USA defines it this way: "Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment."

I'm starting to find it everywhere, even on Etsy. Previewing through some hand crafted toys for Aoife tonight, I found a gift guide for slow food. I was remarkably impressed. I wouldn't call the selections on that gift guide anything close to the quality craftsmanship I've come to expect from Etsy, but I thought it was fantastic that they were thinking about it.

So, I found instructions on how to cook my rice on the stove... a little more oil, a little more time, a little more dishes but I blended it in with my sweet potato and it tasted better than I remember microwaving tasting. I grew up in a household where dinner was eaten as a family. All four of us, every night at the table, talking about our day, laughing and enjoying community. I want to instill in Aoife a need for quality food and that slowing down to enjoy it is worth the wait.

All good things are.