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.