Dahlias

Well, it's been a really busy summer, and now it's already fall. We've been bad bloggers (and not much better gardeners), and now we're heading into the dormant season. Hopefully I'll get around to posting something new now and again, some progress on the hop tree in the front planter bed, or a view of the forest of onions I started in the backyard bed. The community garden has been mostly cleared and I may get some leeks in the ground, with the knowledge that I'll not be by there but once or twice a month through the rainy season.

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basil, basil, basil

I have high hopes for garden basil. In the past, planting it in the main veggie bed, it's the first to be devoured, it's tender leaves perforated nearly overnight. I'm hoping that isolating into a tall planter will keep it from falling prey to the cut worms and slugs that are inevitable in the main bed, and let these tender babies flourish!

I planted three species: lovely genovese sweet basil for caprese salad, delicate yet spicy thai for soups, and a new-to-me flavor: purple basil. Apparently it's fabulous in pesto, so if it takes off, I'll give that a try!

Now: fingers crossed!

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chicken stuffed with (garden) sage, over roasted (garden) fennel

1. stuffedchicken, 2. breadedchicken, 3. chickenfennel

I'm in love with fennel. I oughta marry it.

I'm also currently in love with the two kinds of sage that are going like gangbusters in my gardens - one is long and willowy, with light silvery green leaves, and the other is squat, with rounder, darker and more textured leaves. I'm slipping the thin leaves under a lot of chicken skin prior to roasting (yummilicious) and dicing up more of the rounder leaves for sauteing into risotto, soup, etc.

This time I diced up the round leaf sage with shallots, garlic and s&p and stuffed the mix into skinless chicken thighs, pinned together with toothpicks. Breaded and roasted over quartered fennel, leeks and sage, this was a PUUUURFECT summer al fresco meal on the back deck!

(I didn't think of it at the time, but I should have served it with this)

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bulb onions

Yes, this is pretty much the equivalent of every parent thinking that their kid is the cutest/smartest/best in the world:

Yes, I know that they are 'just onions', but they are MY onions, and I think they are beautiful!

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the lettuce lineup

Just planted, back in April
















Abundant and harvestable, and downright delicious!

spring onions

This is actually from a few weeks ago, but just now getting around to pulling photos off the camera... These were harvested to take over to Julie's backyard BBQ to grill with the chicken and pork tenderloin - YUM!

squash blossoms

These are not from my garden - I wish! Swung by the Ferry Building Farmer's Market today and as the stands were packing up, a purveyor offered me my pick for $1. They are a little thorny, but I'm going to see what a little shallot/ricotta stuffing and some braising in chicken stock will do....


ps. Kris, if you haven't noticed, this is my FAVORITE bowl for veggie photo shoots! Thanks for it!

jumping on the fava bandwagon!

Reaped a good haul of favas - round 2!- along with some lovely, lovely leeks! I feel like I've waited a LIFETIME for those leeks, but LOOK AT 'EM! Gorgeous!

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Fava's Are In

Don't they look great? I still have a bunch more to harvest. Tonight I'm heading home to make Fava Garlic Spread. Easy to make and great on toast points. Recipe to follow.

All In

Tomatoes are in!!! I've planted 8 plants total. 6 in the garden with the neighbors and 2 more at my new Brooks Park Community Garden. I will be blogging more about that later.

They are all smaller tomatoes: Sweet 100, Sun Gold, Yellow Pear and Sun Cherry. I have not had any luck with larger tomatoes. Just not enough sun in Ye Old San Francisco. I've also planted Lemon Cucumbers, Regular Old Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Zuccini, Strawberries, Lettuce, Blue Lake Beans, Peppers and Peas. Not much to do at this point but water and look for slugs and sow bugs.

Commonwealth Club - The Urban Farming Movement

Always an entertaining and thought provoking venue, SF's Commonwealth Club is paneling a group of enterprising folk working to bring local food production back in urban environments.

The Urban Farming Movement
When: Wednesday, May 12 6:30pm
Where: 595 Market Street (conveniently kittycorner from 2 of the GardenHoe's offices)
Cost: $12 members, $20 non-m, $7 student

Panel guests:
Jason Mark, Co-manager, Alemany Farm; Editor-in-Chief, Earth Island Journal
Novella Carpenter, Author, Farm City
Christopher Burley, Founder, Hayes Valley Farm
David Gavrich (aka The Goat Whisperer), Founder, City Grazing
Sarah Rich, Writer; Editor; Co-founder, The Foodprint Project; Co-author, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century - Moderator

Springtime Garden

The garden, or what was left in it, fared pretty well over the winter. The favas are tall and producing well. I haven't harvested yet, but any day now. The leeks are too gorgeous to pull. The flowers are so pretty that I...just...can't...pick. I've purchased and planted lots of seedlings. Photos to follow. My garden is inundated with sow bugs. Everything I read says that they don't harm your garden, but my brand new summer squash was attacked. I say it was their doing and after cruising the internet found that they hate cayenne and oil so into the kitchen I go to create my Sow Bug Death Spray. I'll let you know how it goes.

sage

leek flower bud

fava pods

tall fava plants

An Apple A Day

Spring is here and husband and I were walking around Flowercraft and came upon the coolest tree ever. It's an apple tree with four different kinds of apples grafted onto the tree. I had read the following:

"All apple varieties should be considered self-incompatible, meaning that they cannot pollinate themselves or any flowers of the same apple variety. The highest quality fruit is harvested when cross-pollination occurs with a suitable pollinizer variety. You will need to plant at least two varieties of apple trees together in order to maximize fruit production and quality."

So having the four different varieties on one tree should solve that problem. We choose a lovely spot in the front yard and it seems to be doing great.

succulent pot

My 'other' garden is a succulent pot. It has a central top opening, and 4 lower openings where I've planted a variety of sedums and succulents, mixing in a blue/grey spectrum, to match the pot glazing.

Easy peasy, I'm actually SUPPOSED to let it dry between waterings!




Now THAT I can handle. And isn't this pretty?

bee maintenance

Upkeep update - it was time to remove the Queen's transport box and respace out the frames, to ensure proper 'bee space' that keeps the comb-making in line. Bees. I tell you, ya gotta keep on 'em. Worse than teenagers. [wink]



1. patient keeper, 2. prying up a frame, 3. busy bees

backyard bee bonanza begins!

And the adventure begins! After buying and prepping the hive (soy sealant, with no harmful VOCs) and lots of back-breaking work by Scott to prep the platform area in the yard, the bees arrived! We had a limited window in which to get them transferred from the shipping box to the hive, as a high wind advisory storm was brewing. The weather may have helped, actually, because the drizzly and chilly air probably dissuaded the agitated bees from getting too aggressive towards the guy whacking them outta their comfortably boxed cluster.



1. Box O'Bees, 2. LOTS of bees, 3. no paper OR plastic, 4. uncorking the bees

fleece lined sweatshirts

Harvested the first round of fava beans from the community garden. I hadn't been around for a few weeks, so was quite surprised to see they'd shot up to taller than 6 ft, and that fabulous 6-8 inch long pods were abundant.

Each pod holds 3-6 beans, ranging in size from large peas to the standard full 1-inch long favas. What surprised me most was the interior lining of the pods - they were like fleece-lined sweatshirts! Someone oughta look into fava pods as an eco-insulation material - these were at least an R-12!



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garden visitor

I've never been one for snakes. Never crossed their paths as a kid (Hawaii doesn't have them!) and still crawl out of my skin when I do now.

S found this one slinking it's way around the backyard garden, and while it was only as thick around as my thumb, I still got quite freaked out. But then I thought of the mice it might be keeping under control, and I started to warm up to the slithery thing.

But I'm still not touching it. [shudder]



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