2010 change of plans

Last year was certainly a learning year. I came into the spring only knowing that I wanted to garden on the lot. I didn't know what to do with the produce. I tried a CSA and for various reasons, concluded that a CSA is not for me.

So for 2010, two friends and I will be sharing the workload and the produce. That will greatly reduce the amount of time I will be spending in the garden, and will reduce the amount of produce I need to eat.

Also new for this season, there will be no irrigation on the lot. Last year, I got water from a neighbor, but there's a new homeowner and that arrangement is not continuing. Instead, I'll be irrigating by hand, by bucket, and growing using "dry farming" techniques, which will further reduce the workload and yields.

This Week's Availability & Prices

The Fruits of our Neighbors Market Garden is dedicated to growing very high quality, super-fresh crops for individuals and restaurants. You are welcome to walk the garden with me and select specific individual pieces of produce that you'd like to buy. Keep an eye on this page for availability and prices.

Lettuces, $1/head:

• Red leafy
• Green leafy
• Romaine
• Butter/Bibb

Carrots, $2/bunch:

• Parmex (French, little and round)
• Purple
• "Regular"

Braising greens, mixed consisting of: $3/lb

• Mustard greens
• Beet greens
• Chard
• Arugala
• Spinach

Beets w/o greens: $.50/each

Swiss Chard "Bright Lights": $1/bunch

Parsley: $1/bunch

Cilantro: $2/bunch


Peas: $5/pound


"Green" Beans, $1/pound:

• Green, "Blue Lake Pole"
• Purple, "Violet Podded Stringless"
• Scarlet Runner

Cucumbers: $.50/each

U-Pick Cherry Tomatoes, $2/pint:

• Golden Nugget
• Sweet Millions
• Sunsugar

Fresh Tomatoes, $.50/each:

• Legend
• Fantastic

Zucchinni/Summer Squash: $.50/each



Cantaloupe Melons: $2/each

• Charentais "Edonis" (Super-sugary)
• Fastbreak Cantaloupe

Pay in person on Wednesdays. No checks, cash or paypal only please. Feel free to get what you want and pay later.

From CSA to Farmer's Market

In the last couple weeks, I've had something of a change of heart with regards to the CSA.

All along, I've planned on this being a learning season, with no idea what I'm going to do next year. Well, I've learned enough in six weeks of deliveries and five months of work in the garden to figure out what I want.

After this week's pickup (today), I will not be providing a pre-filled bag of produce each week.

Instead, anyone who wants produce will be able to pick-and-choose what they want, from what I have available, instead of paying a fixed price for a fixed bag of veggies.

Every week, I will send out an email (and post to the blog) what will be available that week, along with a price. You'll either tell me what you want via email, or show up on Wednesdays (market days), and I'll slaughter the produce fresh from the garden, just for you.

I'll have standard prices for produce like heads of lettuce for $2, a pound sack of mixed greens for $3, a bunch of greens for $2, a bunch of cilantro or parsley or basil for $2, tomatoes for $2/lb, a half-dozen eggs for $2, etc. The prices will be relatively equal to New Seasons prices. The availability will vary greatly from week-to-week. Some weeks, there will be only greens and lettuce. Some weeks there will be tomatoes or squashes or melons. If things go well I may put a sign up on Ainsworth: "Fresh Veggies For Sale".

I'm doing this change for two reasons:

1. I don't like making money with the CSA, and when running a CSA, there are expectations to deliver specific quantities and varieties of produce each and every week. Hence, there is a lot of work to do for very little money, and working for money takes away the enjoyment of the project.

2. We (Sarah, Lily and I) need to remain the primary consumers of the produce, which means that some crops that I had planned to include in the pickups are now going to be nearly 100% canned/preserved by us instead. Take for instance the peas - I gave out about 15 pounds of peas this spring, but as it stands, we're going to run out of our frozen-preserved peas before the winter is through, so I really should have given out none (or planted about five times as much as I did). Take also the onions - I've been yanking those spring onions early, to fill out a weekly bag when I should have just left them in the ground to mature.

I cannot continue to provide an abundance of high-quality produce to my CSA subscribers, and still meet my goals of growing for our family while enjoying the work.

My primary goal with this project was to experiment a bit, and through the act of trying, figure out how I wanted to garden. I now know that I don't want to be a farmer, I don't want to make money gardening, but I do want to grow a lot for my family and be able to offer extras to friends. Thank you again for helping me get this far - I've learned a lot.

So stay tuned for next week's post with produce availability, and you can always use the new link at the top of the page, "This Week's Availability & Prices".

Sorry CSA folks, but Lily ate all the peas

We've been eating peas here and there for the last week or so. But mostly it's been just Lily. A week ago Wednesday, I had Lily and Jordan each fill up about a cup's worth of peas for a salad topping. But today, I actually harvested maybe a pound of peas - probably 50 pods altogether.

I thought that Lily would eat a few, and I would have about a pint for each share this week. But I made the mistake of putting the harvest bucket down in front of her and she just could not be stopped.

Now they're all gone. Maybe there will be more ripe ones by Wednesday.

First CSA Share! Yay!

Last week, I harvested some mustard greens, broccoli raab and radishes that were nearing their prime, and today I finished off the harvest for this week's share. It was quite exciting assembling all the produce, splitting it into equal shares, bagging it up, and presenting it altogether.



This week's share included:

Bunch of mustard greens
Bunch of broccoli raab
Small baggie of micro greens
Big family-sized salad's worth of loose-leaf lettuce
Head of bibb lettuce
Bunch of radishes
Big baggie of pea shoots
4" potted delicata winter squash

Peas!

One happy girl.

FooN in the News (NeighborhoodNotes.com)

This past Monday, Jennifer Coughlin, a freelance writer for NeighborhoodNews.com came out to talk and take some pictures. I showed her around, we talked about the garden and Woodlawn neighborhood. She just posted her article and (oh my gosh) it's entirely accurate!

Thanks, Jennifer!

May 20,2009

Fruits of Our Neighbors Transforms Empty Lot Into Flourishing Garden

by Jennifer Coughlin

What would you do if an empty lot across the street from you was filling up with trash? more...

Micro greens harvest

Our first batch of micros grew a little bit beyond "micro" size, but they're not yet "baby" greens, so call them whatever you like. I checked the calendar and these greens were in the ground for exactly four weeks.



I harvested about a pound and a half on Sunday, and shopped them around today on the bike. The closest restaurants (Firehouse, Good Neighbor Pizzeria and Rumpspankers) are about 6 blocks away and I didn't even have to pedal, just coast downhill. Everyone expressed interest, wondered about regular availability, so I came home and planted another bed! I'm going to ramp up to producing two pounds a week.

A full day

Things have definitely shifted over the last couple weeks, from single tasks to general garden work. I've been putting in more hours each week, including one full day (Mondays), with work to do seemingly every day. As a result, the blog post frequency has taken a dive.

Today was a long day and I did a dozen things such as weeding, thinning, watering, planting, fertilizer side dressing, and more.



Last Monday, I had the help of Ryan Langsdorf in the first half of the day. Together we weeded some overgrown paths and some beds that have been fallow. Ryan is trying to set up a garden at Roosevelt High School to grow produce to be eaten by the students, in the cafeteria. We shared some ideas and I gave him some contacts.

A few days ago, I harvested our first bed of micro greens. One bed (40x2 feet) netted a little over one pound. I'm going to replant that bed, and add another bed next Monday. And tomorrow, I'm going to visit the three restaurants to which I'd like to sell. Dan gave me some talking points and we agreed on a price - a firm $20 per pound.



Tomorrow I'll be harvesting a lot of mustards and raab. It will be in the fridge until next week's first delivery for the CSA. I'm still a little unsure about that second week's delivery. I don't want to give customers the same stuff every week. And the "exciting" stuff (peas, carrots, beets) is still at least a few weeks away. I am very happy with the raab. At this rate, I have no plans to grow broccoli proper, although I might try a broccolini next year.



A few days ago, I planted out my Big Max Pumpkins in the side yard, and opened up another shady bed for lettuces, which will be a mid-summer lettuce bed.

After next week, every bed will be planted.

I'm sprouting veggies!

It's kind of exciting to try something new, and even though starting seeds inside isn't anything exciting to most people, it's something I've never done. In the past, I've tried to stick with veggies that are best suited to our climate, and last year I got a number of starts from friends and bought a couple tomato plants.

But this year, Dan is starting most of my tomato collection, and I decided to start some other things myself. Last week I planted the seeds, and one week later, everything has germinated (except the dill) and the Big Max Pumpkins are growing, well, big!



I've been planning to expand my indoor growing operation next year, once I get some space in the house for a shelf and a hanging light. There really isn't any good space now, and I'm growing these starts in my one south-facing window.

Today I planted sweet potatoes

Actually it was Saturday, but I'm a little late getting this post out.



I bought the slips from Territorial Seed a couple months ago and they arrived in the mail on Friday, in a cute little box with "LIVE PLANTS" printed on the side. Carefully opening it up, I found about 18 tiny slips, which are sprouted potatoes, each about 12 inches long. I also planted a few slips we grew from a grocery store purchased potato.

Planting was easy - just mounded up the soil, made a furrow, and dropped them in. They're hardy plants, but we did have a ferocious storm blow through a few hours after I planted them, followed by a lot of rain, but that's par for the course around here.

I'm hoping that my one row of sweet potatoes will net about 100 pounds of edibles. If things work out, I'm going to pay more attention to them next year, over regular Irish potatoes since we all prefer sweets in this household.

Today I started pumpkins, winter squash, tomatoes, dill and basil

Another long day working in the garden today. After doing a bunch of work in the lot today, I spent an hour or so seeding some things indoors. I do not have a good indoor growing situation since we're doing some serious remodeling to the house, so Dan has been growing my tomatoes for me. I wanted to do a few things myself, mostly because I can squeeze in about one window's worth of flats.



Today I planted a six-pack of "Big Max" pumpkins. These aren't "Dill's Atlantic Giant", the one that all the gigantic-size record-holders use. But the package says it "regularly produces 250 pound giants." Sounds big enough to me. I also planted two six-packs of delicata winter squash, as well as some dill and three types of basil. I also planted precisely 24 seeds of Sunsugar hybrid tomatoes. I payed about $3 for 24 seeds, so I expect 100 percent germination, incredible growth, lots of fruit that easily ripen, and incredible flavor. The basil and delicata are for the CSA, the rest is just for me.

Today I planted taters and peas

You may be wondering when I'm going to stop planting peas, and well, today is the last. I've got a total of five beds planted with peas, for about 225 row-feet of peas total. A couple days ago, Lily told me that "very soon", she's not going to come into the kitchen between breakfast and dinner when she's hungry. She's been eating a lot of pea shoots so far, and being kind in her grazing, so I think we'll have enough for her appetite and some freezing.



The big job today was planting the taters that I've had resting in my garage for a couple weeks. I have three varieties: a red-skinned mid-season, the classic Yukon Gold, and some French fingerlings.



Dan gave me his opinion about bed prep, so I first dug a deep trench in each row. My rows are about 18" apart (center-to-center), and I tossed the dirt to the sides. Then Lily came through and dropped the chitted taters in equal spacing. If that's not a great garden job for a 5 year old, I don't know what is.



When they were all properly spaced, I tossed a bit of fertilizer and some dirt back on top. As the season progresses, I'll regularly scrape the hilled dirt onto the growing tater plant. You want nice, loose soil surrounding the roots, and since taters only grow above the seed tater you planted, the easiest thing to do is encourage the formation of the roots above-ground.

The rest of the garden is looking so spring-y, I decided to snap some pics of how various crops are growing. Here are some mustards (purple) and raab (green):



The beets are looking healthy:



I'll be thinning these lettuces into a salad later this week:



And here are some just-sprouted lettuces, which are the second succession planting:



Plenty of radishes for even the most radish-happy people:



And some yummy spinach, which didn't germinate terribly well, but is growing like gangbusters now:



Oh and the microgreens are all sprouting now. We'll harvest them in about two more weeks:

Today I planted micro greens, lettuce, carrots, radish, cilantro, parsely, joi choi and spinach

I spent a marathon day in the garden today. Well, marathon for me so far, but I bet I'll spend another few long days in the garden before this is all done.



Dan came over this morning and we started by tilling some beds. He tilled his half, which had some long grass starting to come up, and I tilled a few of my beds that didn't have anything growing in them (yet). I took the chance to destroy most of the grape hyacinths. I don't expect they'll come back up for a while.



Then we carefully screened a long bed and planted it with a mix of spring/micro greens. We tightly seeded chard, spinach, mustards, arugula, carrots and green onions and will be selling this harvest in about two or three weeks. Our plan is to do some experimenting with this bed, trying to sell baby greens throughout the season to local restaurants and at farmers markets. Most "micro greens" consist of these and other varieties, but instead of being grown in the ground, they're grown in flats with special soil. We're seeing if we can grow a comparable product with less investment. The goal is to sell tiny little greens, with a variety of colors, textures and tastes, used for super-fresh salads and garnishes. If they grow big, then they turn into "braising mix", which is generally cooked, being too tough and spicy to eat raw.



While we were doing all this work, Lily stayed busy eating pea shoots and throwing rocks. I told her it's okay to eat only one leaf from the very tallest plants - I hope any stunting will be minor. Then again, we do have 5 beds of peas - far and away the most of any crop.

Finally, I planted the first radishes of the season (I'll be planting them once a month), some more spinach (the batch planted on March 22 look great), the one planting of joi choi, as well as cilantro and parsley. I also planted a little round carrot called parmex, as well as two kinds of purple carrots, which we really enjoyed last year. And finally, I planted four more rows of lettuce - butter, green leafy, red leafy and romaine, right next to the bed I planted identically on March 22. The succession planting begins!

Today I planted beets, chard and scallions

We have had a rash of very warm weather earlier this week, starting way back about a week ago. But unlike every other gardener in Portland, I haven't set foot into the garden. In fact, I've spent the last six days inside, doing a major kitchen remodel. This is tangentially related to the CSA because I really do need a better place to process the weekly veggie harvest, and this will make room for a really nice processing area.



Yesterday was rainy, but last night and all day today was dry, so I took the opportunity to do some direct seeding which I was scheduled to do during the week. I planted about 4 feet of scallions and beets, and a full bed of swiss chard. I also used the dry weather to hoe all the beds since the grass was coming up, but I carefully left the grape hyacinths growing all over the place. I had forgotten that there was a field of them last year in the same spot. They're not doing any harm, so they get to live a little while longer.



I also screened one full bed using 1/4-inch wire mesh on a wooden frame. Some of the beds are very rocky, which makes planting quite difficult, so having nice smooth dirt is a luxury. Eventually I'd like to screen all the beds down about 4 or 6 inches.



The seeds I planted about three weeks ago are coming along nicely. The mustards and spinach are in that super-cute seed leaves stage where they look like little butterflies. And the raab is tall and tasty (I had one little nibble - couldn't resist). And so are the peas (again, I couldn't resist). The carrots are pretty much not germinating across the board, but that's not too much of a surprise. I prepped the potatoes bed, which will get planted this week. I actually have them in hand now, so after I get some drywall mudding done in the kitchen, I'll find some time to plant the taters.

Everything's looking very green and Spring-y!