Wellies, bee observation box, rabbit cages, metal nesting boxes.
That’s a little sampling of the items I’ll be selling at tomorrow’s farm stand. I’ll also have greens, tshirts, and books for sale. The storm is supposed to blow over by Sunday.
What: Ghosttown Farmstand
When: April 1, 12-2
Where: corner of 28th street and MLK, Oakland
What else: if you drive, park on MLK not 28th street
Posted in random thoughts
Well hello! Thanks for everyone who came out to Willow and my first live demonstration promoting the Essential Urban Farmer. We showed people how to build this sub-irrigation planter with repurposed plastic buckets.
the white pvc pipe connects to the water reservoir below. I can’t wait to grow a tomato plant in it this summer.
We will be doing another talk on UCBerkeley’s campus this Monday, March 19 at Barrows Hall, 6:30pm. We’ll do a powerpoint presentation, there might be silk screening of aprons!
Next, March 24, I’ll be tabling at what sounds like an amazing conference, called the Economics of Happiness.
Then, April 1, it’s open farm day!!! I’ll be selling greens, t-shirts, and copies of the Essential Urban Farmer. Come on by! 11am-2pm. Corner of MLK and 28th street.
Posted in Biofuel Oasis, Essential Urban Farmer
There’s always something new to learn. Like, you can eat carrot greens (in moderation).
Here they are, frying with some bacon. I enjoyed them with some coconut oil/goat milk/whole wheat flour waffles that my sister, Riana, left before she left, going back to France. I won’t lie, the day she left, I cried like a baby. Partially because I have a baby. My sister was a whirlwind during the week she was here, helping me with baby Francis. She reorganized the baby clothes, figured out what was making all those cupboard moths in my kitchen (a bag of Hoody’s peanuts), made me breakfast, and took care of the baby ducklings (photos coming soon).
Then there was more: When her friend Dean arrived, they chainsawed (thank you Oakland Tool Lending library) down that horrible feral plum tree, found me a new couch and kitchen table, scrounged and fixed four dining room chairs, cleaned my nasty turquoise kitchen chairs, and much much more. It was humbling and contagious. I even rearranged my kitchen cupboards. I feel like a new woman.
She also taught me some new tricks, like using duck eggs to make pound cake, trim baby fingernails, and–eating carrot greens. They taste like slightly bitter carrots. She sautees hers with maple syrup. The flavor will always remind me of my sister and her kindness and love. I’ll never forget it.
Posted in vegetables, visitors
Three years ago, bad-ass urban farmer Willow Rosenthal and I were complaining about email. It takes up so much of our time! Questions sent asking about how we plant, harvest, muck, milk, etc were delaying us from planting, harvesting, mucking, and milking. What to do? Write a book of course.
Here she blows, at over 500 pages, it took us the full three years to write the beast.
We are thrilled with the results, and we hope you will be too.
To promote the Essential Urban Farmers we will be at the following places, more to come, and details to be announced:
-February 29, 18 Reasons, San Francisco. Talk at the Women’s Building, exploring the possibilities of urban farming, followed by a dinner discussion at 18 Reasons, to buy tickets for the dinner, click here. The talk will be general admission.
-March 10, Biofuel Oasis, Berkeley
-March 15 or 29, Ecology Center, Berkeley
-April 21, Market Hall Oakland
-June 2, Sunset Garden Expo
See you there, I’ll be there with babe in arms!
excuse the brevity of this post: I’m recovering from giving birth. Believe me, I look at my goat Bebe with new respect; birth ain’t easy. We are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. She’s healthy and happy and loves to eat.
So having a baby around is making me realize I need to pare down my goat herd. Namely I need to find a new home for Ginger. Let me know if you’re interested in buying her–$100–she’d make a great grazer or pet. She’s two years old and had twins last year. She’s not a great milker but is beautiful. Email me with questions and to see photos. Serious inquiries only, from people with goat experience only.
I planted a Bearass, I mean Bearss (he he), lime when I first started squatting on 28th street. The lime went from a little stick to this towering green monster of fruit.
Some of my neighbors pick the branches and leaves to make a cold remedy, some kids like to use them to throw at each other, others like to hide behind the tree and piss. I like to pick the limes–and WASH them very well–and make lime sherbet (recipe at the end). The fruit is big and juicy, and ripe when it turns yellow (but it’s actually fine when green too).
Like everything on my farmlette, the tree is not pristine, it needs to be pruned way back, and a swarm of Argentinian ants have made it their favorite place to farm an insect called scale, so the branches are coated with hard-bodied parasites which suck from the lifeblood of the tree. Somehow, the tree keeps alive, and thriving. I must have harvested 50 pounds of fruit so far and it’s still flush with fruit.
Thanks to the power and stamina of this tree, it’s become a tradition for me to send the fruit to friends and family for the holidaze. This year some of the limes will be more special than others, because I ran across a new magazine called Lucky Peach. It’s a brainy food magazine with hipster appeal. The writing is hilarious and they often have fun things like this quarter’s Fruit Stickers.
The sticker on the lime reads, “The Fruit That Likes the Knife”.
The pomegranate, picked by moi, is headed to my mom. The sticker, if you can’t read it says, “Hand-picked by Poor People.” Other favorites include, “Actually Pretty Tasty” and “This Plum Is Not Gluten Free” (that one’ll have to wait til next summer.)
I guess what I’m trying to say is, thanks Lime Tree! Thanks Lucky Peach. Happy Holidaze to you all.
Lime Sherbet
It’s not sorbet, cuz it has milk. This is good to bring to follow a Hannakah brisket, Xmas Goose, or Solstice Nutria
(obviously, triple this)
1 1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 water
1 cup sugar
Rind finely sawed up from 1 lime
1 cup milk
1 TB vodka
Blend the lime juice, water and sugar together. Throw in the lime rind and vodka. Chill to 38 degrees. Mix chilled lime solution with milk and pour into your ice cream maker. You don’t have an ice cream maker? You’re screwed. No, no, you might be able to put it in the freezer and stir every few minutes and it might be ok. But I’ve never tried that. This is not a food blog.
The Urban Orchardist 