The Vision

I've asked myself this question a lot: given complete freedom, how would i spend my time?  How would I fill my time if there were no bills to pay, errands to run, student loans to dread or the necessary "work" it takes to take care of those "necessities?"
   What would I do if I were truly free?

   I'd grow food. And eat it... and tinker & toy with the numerous projects that entails.

   There have always been hurdles barring the path to such freedom.  And like most humans, I'm prone to use hurdles as excuses.  But I'm ready to jump, wanna jump with me?

I'm not going to wait until we own land.
I'm not going to wait until there's enough start-up capital.
I'm not going to wait until someday in the future, because if I do I'll find myself hoping to retire into the life I wanted when I was young.
I'm not even going to wait until I'm out of the suburbs.
I'm ready to grow, wanna grow with me?

I want Backyard Beddie's to foster a network of local folks growing food in their yards, on their patios, in their kitchens.  I need us to come together, so we can show each other that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  I believe a coordinated network of avid micro-growers can produce enough food to provide for their community and earn a living.

I'm ready to plant, wanna plant with me?

signs of life

     My little babies are breaking through the dirt...
I sowed some seed Saturday, eager to test my lil Seed Starting Station & hoping to get a jump on the fast approaching cool/cole crop season.  Resisting a chronic compulsion to plant everything at my fingertips was difficult, but i managed to start with 3 flats:

• Flat #1: American Flag Leek & Red Torpedo Onion:  this is my first year really breaking into alliums (this fall i planted German White and California Early garlic at me madre's, and perennial Egyptian Walking Onions[cool pictures through that link] in the keyhole bed). As such, i've never grown them from seed, but shoots came up today from the leeks and the onions. Really hoping these work out, cuz i think the joe-knee and i consume at least a pound of onions and a clove of garlic a week.
• Flat #2: Waltham Broccoli: i planted the whole flat and within 3 days nearly all the seeds had sprouted.  Which is good, cuz we love broccoli. All of it: stems, shoots & leaves. It's probably good for you, our tastebuds declare.  Barring some kind of cataclysm, i should have some extras for trade or sale by the time you wanna put em in the ground (around the 3rd wk of February)
• Flat #3: Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage & Red Russian Kale:  these guys have yet to emerge, but they've got some time left. We're overwintering a couple of each variety in our neighbor Randy's bed, so if for some reason they don't want to sprout, we'll still have some to CHOMPCHOMPCHOMP.

The next step is to build some kind of ramshackle cold-frame, to harden off the seedlings & free up more room to germinate my little seedlings. I'll need plenty in the next few weeks to start sprouting my celery, lettuce & tons of tomatoes...
the plan is to start lots of transplant tomatoes: Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter (click link for radio story), Amish Paste, Brandywine & Beefsteak.  These should be ready by the end o' March for trade, sale, and baiting potential gardeners... :)

in other news: i made the ... correct decision? ... and impulse bought 50 strawberry plants when i ordered my heating coil.  My logic was that if i spent $6 more dollars @ www.groworganic.com  i'd get two free seed packets (i picked Kentucky Wonder green beans & Southern Giant Curled mustard), saving myself around $5.  what i failed to factor in was the cost of shipping dormant strawberries across the country (nearly twice as much as the plants) and the fact that since they're shipped from the golden valleys of California, the berries would arrive on my door in January. Sheesh. They're in the fridge until I can figure out what to do with them.  All cuz Joani said she wanted some strawberries, not because i am a berry glutton.

So stay tuned to find out:

• if the shua keep his strawberries alive until their preferred pea-synched planting date
• which plants thrive in this suburban microclimate & which wilt like cabbage in the dog days surrounded by all this noise & all these people
• if catastrophic climate collapse affects our growing season in a good way or just a wierd one
• if shua will go crazy and live in a teepee in the backyard, scaring neighborhood children & neglecting to properly launder his loincloth
• or something else...

dinner from dirt

mesclun mix, baby brassica greens, cilantro and radish

Much is being touted these days about locavorism, farm-to-table, etc., etc...  Numerous studies have confirmed that the nutritional content of our food has an inverse relationship to the amount of time and travel it takes for said food to reach our swollen gullets.  And of course, there's the evidence of our tongues: fresh-picked just tastes better. 

   There's a growing market in the publishing sector for cookbooks designed to help us remember the lost art of enjoying our garden harvest. Before you rush out to buy one, dear reader, take the time to consider my favorite recipe and a few time-tested tips...

a case for overseeding, stoopid.

...

we got swiss chard, broccoli raab, baby collards, baby cabbage, baby kale, arugula, baby broccoli, salad mix thinnins, baby dill, parsley, french tarragon, baby cilantro, parlsey and thinly sliced radish. bag salad's got nothing on this.

      

      it's fancy, but it'll work. we may all be but blips in history, so let's celebrate that.  food production is in all ways beautiful and wonderful and good.  "what's so asinine about food production is that such a small amount of people do it, and such a large amount of people expect it."  So sayeth the Joe Knee.  wanna talk about art? the act of creation? how about growing and consuming vital energies? say what you will about thinning, babies are delicious ~ especially vegetative ones ~ and i spent an hour peacefully examining, caressing and culling the herd.

• joani's going off on qwerty now . . . as a sexist tool. she hates us, sticks and holes. it's cool tho, cuz when she says "they," she means "wii."

     call yer thinnings "microgreens" and you can even exploit the heirs.
  

shua & joe-knee out; to live the good life