Yikes, the whole summer gone.  Quick update:

Tomatoes lasted well throughout the summer.  Still getting a few a week.

Bell peppers finally have picked up and there are approx. 15 growing on the 5-6 bushes we have (Seth counted them)

Lots of rosemary and chives.

Italian broccoli was not a big hit.  we have a lot of it but neither of us are crazy about the flavor.

Some lettuce popped up after I dug up all the old plants.  I feed it to the chickens.

The chickens!  We have 2 chicks now.  Technically they are “pullets,” not chicks and not yet egg-laying hens.  They’re pretty cute and fun to watch.  Today I let them free range around the yard for the first time.  They loved it.

Having chickens has led to some yard improvements.  Today I fixed a section of the fence that was broken and nailed wood over some holes in the fence on the opposite side of the yard.  I found ways to close off a few of the gaps between the house and the neighbors on both sides.  it’s *almost* fully ready to let the chickens roam all the time, just need to make a little fence to close off the main entrance into the yard from the driveway.  Will probably just use chicken wire and some wooden posts to make a fence that can be rolled up and stored when not needed.

happy fall!

Happy July!

I can’t believe it’s July already.  Crazy.

Part of my delay with posting is that I’m always waiting to add photos, so I’ve decided that I’m not going to let a lack of photos hinder my writing.  I’ll add photos when I can but won’t stress about it.  Cool?

Garden update:

Tomatoes (Early Girl): We just got our first ripe tomatoes in the last week – and when it rains, it pours!  we went from 0 to 14 red tomatoes in just a couple days.  We’ll have to make some tomato sauce, tomato soup, and caprese salads very soon.

Tomatoes – Cherry: I grew a few from seed, and of the ones that sprouted and survived the transplant, they are getting HUGE!  No flowers yet but the plants are shooting up.  They’ll be a fun surprise – the packet was a “rainbow blend” and I have no idea which colors I have growing.  Also planted some seedlings from the nursery and those are doing fine.

Apple tree - we ate the one (1) apple yesterday.  It was delicious, juicy, crisp, perfect.  Too bad there was only one, but pretty impressive for a baby tree that was little more than a stick when we got it back in March!

Green Beans – doing well & very popular in the household.  Seth likes them raw, I like them lightly boiled.  I would have planted more had I known he would like them so much.  I planted them too close together, though – was a bit greedy – and now I see why you shouldn’t do that.  The plants are competing with each other for space and light and aren’t as strong as they should be.

Lemon tree - doing okay.  Not growing much and the few lemons on it are small and green.

Strawberry plants – doing well, seem to give us about 1 strawberry every couple days.  A nice sweet treat but definitely not a high yield crop.

Corn – amazing!  Tall!  I can see the start of the corn itself with tassles on top.  the plants are about 4′ tall right now.

Sunflowers – 2 sprouted, the rest will sprout soon.  Tall and fun.

Watermelons – 1 plant is doing really well and has a vine that’s about 2′ long.  The others are still very small with just a few leaves.

Cucumbers – doing well, lots of flowers on my 4 plants.  I hope each flower = a cucumber – if so I’ll have quite a few.

Fig tree – we have a fig tree!  Still haven’t figured out the perfect picking / eating ripeness for these.  I don’t think I like raw figs.  Tried one at the farmers market last week but still wasn’t thrilled. Might be better in a fig spread or preserve of some kind.

Chives – getting tall

Herbs – Now have rosemary, lavender, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme.  Discovered that one of my favorite middle eastern dips is thyme based (Zatar Bi-Zait, served before every meal at Gaby’s).  Makes me want to grow lots and lots of thyme so I can make jars of this dip.  Need to grow more parsley & oregano so am planting more seeds.

In other plant news, an orchid that was dormant for ~2 years finally bloomed again!  I had forgotten what color it was.  Turns out it’s a lovely magenta / purple hue.  Thanks to Troy who got this for me at the downtown farmers market years ago.  What a treat. 

that’s the garden update!

Oh, I should mention that thanks to “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” in conjunction with “Fast Food Nation” (the book) I was re-inspired to look into grass fed beef options here in California.  After loads of research and emails I finally settled on a ranch and placed an order for a 25lb beef sampler, which we’ll get on Monday.  I highly recommend this site as a good launching point for finding a farm near you and learning more about the issue:  EatWild.

Did you know that grass fed beef is healthier than regular beef, and in fact, has less fat than dark meat chicken (and almost the same amount of fat as white meat)?  It’s also high in omega-3s, vitamin E, and CLA which supposedly helps fight cancer.

I’m excited about trying this new method of meat purchasing.  I really like the idea of knowing where exactly my food was raised, how it was treated, and what it contains.  Hopefully this meat will be delicious and a good start to the experiment.  (We have been eating grass-fed ground beef from the Hearst Ranch lately and that’s been really good.)

Between the beef order, buying almost all of our produce and free-range eggs from the farmers markets, and growing some of our own food, I’m feeling good about our food supply these days.  One of the biggest missing links for me is a local dairy provider.  There is no way I can do without milk, cheese, and yogurt.  I imagine when we officially settle down (i.e. buy a house) I’ll try to find a local dairy.   Someday I’m going to follow Kingsolver’s example and try making cheese…

thanks to seth & his parents for the recent additions to the yard: a beautiful two person hammock and a gas grill.  we have now have a  new weekend “activity” called hammock-time.