Home Farm Produce

Home Farm Produce

We have a small home farm, well, that’s how we think of it. It is more of a teeny tiny carved out section of our suburban yard

Each year we plant tomatoes not only because we like them but also we know that they will grow for us. We planted potatoes because some of our store-bought ones started to sprout and we figured we might as well give them a chance. We planted the bottom of a red-leaf lettuce when I read somewhere that it would grow, and it has; we’ve been enjoying the crispy new leaves in our nightly salads. The zucchini plants have grown high and with the bright yellow flowers, we expect some yummy veggies soon.

Last year we bought a small, thornless blackberry bush. It produced a few berries but most of them went to the birds before they ripened. This year the bush spread out, sending shoots in a wide circle. I haphazardly tossed some netting around them to see if we would get any berries for ourselves this season. Boy, are we getting fruit!

We wrapped screening around the plantings to keep out the squirrels. We (mostly my husband) fertilize the plants with natural products and water them but otherwise we kind of leave them alone. Yes, I talk to them, telling each how much I appreciate its providing us with such beautiful, edible products.

We are delighted with it all, considering we really know not much about farming; we are more improvisers than farmers. But our home farm produce connects us with something larger than ourselves. Each time we bite into a tomato that has come from our own garden, we pay attention – to its flavor, its value. When we pick the berries, we know exactly where they have come from. We are all part of nature. What a joyful thing to experience.

Two sites to help you make your own vegetable garden:

http://www.vegetable-gardening-online.com/making-a-vegetable-garden.html

http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/vegetable-gardening/5069.html?SC=XNET9465

Tomatoes on the Sill

Tomatoes on the Sill

It has been a good tomato season for us. I rarely bought any this summer. There is nothing better than picking something from your own garden, warm and juicy, and serving it right then. Yum.

But the season has changed and it was time to clean out the greenhouse. Our plants were just about done, though there were several green tomatoes that I couldn’t bear to let go. So I picked the remaining ones and put them on our windowsill, hoping that they would ripen. They wouldn’t be fresh-picked when we ate them but they wouldn’t have traveled for days (weeks?) to get to the market so they should still have a newness about the taste.

This weekend on my regular afternoon walk, I saw that someone else had culled a tomato garden. The wilted vines were laying at the curb – with tomatoes still on them! Some were even red. Why weren’t they picked before the plants were uprooted? Did they have bugs or fungus that prevented a late harvest? It was all I could do to not dive in and rescue the poor produce. It seemed like a gift rejected. When I returned home, I looked at the tomatoes on my sill. One already started to show a blush on its mostly green skin. I was glad I had saved it and the others.

I wouldn’t make a good farmer. I would not be happy if I had to destroy any crops because of blight or government mandate or lack of a living wage due to overabundance. I am grateful for the local, organic, non-GMO, pesticide-free produce offered in my area. I look forward to visiting the farmers’ markets that pop up in Spring, to buying and supporting sustainable agriculture. The little I grow on my own connects me with the earth and I am grateful for the taste it provides. 

There are so many little things that add to the joy in life. Why not tomatoes?

Some easy, practical tips to growing tomatoes:

http://www.backyardgardening.net/article/grow-tomatoes/

More involved info:

http://www.sunset.com/garden/fruits-veggies/how-to-grow-tomatoes-sunset-guide

Harvest Delights and Future Worries

Harvest Delights and Future Worries

Harvest time provided delightful veggies this year. There were cauliflowers bigger than dinner plates, broccoli heads that challenged them, zucchini from the size of small cucumbers to large gourds, red beets and yellow beets, tomatoes of all sizes, colors, and shapes.

We are fortunate to have access to local farms where I live. The farmer’s markets abound with produce and the supermarkets try to offer as much local fare as the season will allow. Organic is becoming more available and when on sale will often equal the price of non-organic goods.

Lots of cities celebrate the fall harvest with festivals, antique auto events, arts and crafts fairs, 5k races, swim meets, wine tastings, apple picking, hay rides, you name it. It is a time to appreciate the labor that went into producing the food we place on our tables and to acknowledge the change of seasons.

But let’s not forget how fragile the land that is the basis of this bounty can be. The recent Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, besides being so deadly and destructive, played pick-up sticks with the coconut palms, laying them flat, their roots in the air. In 2012, the corn crop, which was headed toward a bumper year, was caught in a heat wave that greatly reduced its potential and with less corn to sell, prices rose.

It’s a reminder to not take it all for granted. We need to tend to

the land in a more nurturing way and to be more responsible about how we affect the climate so that we may have many more fall harvests to celebrate.

First Lady Michelle Obama celebrates the harvest, too:

http://www.letsmove.gov/blog/2013/10/31/get-cooking-these-delicious-recipes-2013-white-house-kitchen-garden-fall-harvest

A look at what may be limiting our future celebrations:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/science/earth/warning-on-global-food-supply.html?_r=0