The Zero Mile DIet

Interview with Adina, The Imperfect Gardener

2009-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

Over the past month I’ve been corresponding with Adina Sara, The Imperfect Gardener. Enjoy! And remember to check out one of her readings. Info below.

Q: How did you got involved in garden writing. The collection of
stories in your new book seem like they were created at various times across many years. Did that process of writing lead you to the Macarther Metro column?

A: When I was asked by Metro editor Toni Locke to write a feature
garden column for the Metro back in 2001, it was a perfect opportunity
to blend my 2 favorite activities – gardening and writing. The previous
garden columnist was leaving, and I explained to Toni that unlike my
predecessor, I was not a garden expert by any stretch. I had been
digging and poking and experimenting for years in my temperamental
landscape, and it seemed like every step forward brought me several
steps backwards in my gardening plans. I assured her this would not be
a “how to” garden column, but rather an attempt to share my own
gardening experiences with readers. She was happy with that.

My garden memoir grew out of the garden columns. At some point I
realized that the evolution of my garden closely paralleled events in my
life, and so I expanded on the spirit of the Imperfect Gardener column,
adding personal details that were not appropriate for a newspaper. I
had learned so many important lessons in the process of gardening, and I felt they were worth sharing with gardeners as well as non-gardeners.

Q: With your column and garden exchanges, you've been an influential
member of the local gardening community for awhile now. How do you see your book influencing a larger community?

A: I am always a bit amused when people ask me gardening advice
because I write a garden column. I was recently invited to join a round
table discussion of garden experts on KQED Forum that included the
garden editor of Sunset Magazine and a local chapter president of the
Native Plant Society. Despite the fact that in my column and book, I
confess to gardening mishaps, surprises and accidental discoveries,
people still think that because I write about gardening, I must be able
to give advice. My best advice is to not take my advice but rather, go
out and discover your own relationship to your garden. If my writing
exerts any influence on others, I would hope it would be to embrace
mistakes, don't be afraid of trying something that intrigues you, observe the successes and failures with equal appreciation, and find joy in the process as much as the outcome. Gardening is a never-ending adventure. After over 25 years, I can still proudly say I am not an expert and likely never will be. Rather, I approach my garden as an explorer and adventurer, and hope that by example, I influence others do to the same.

Q: In your book, you show the beauty of weedy plants, debris, and
imperfection. I'm curious if there are any aspects of your garden that
still grate on your nerves. Ones that beg for your attention to be
changed.

A: My pathways. Always strewn with bamboo fronds, broken bits of
flowers, spots where the tiny pebbles wore away to expose the dirt
beneath, leaving uneven, messy surfaces. I’ve always admired the
alternative – expensive hardscapes of stone, tile, clean gorgeous
surfaces on which to walk while passing through planting beds. Though
the look tempts me, I either can’t afford it, or fear that it will make
my garden feel like a showroom. Finding that balance between orderly
and wild is what baffles me most about gardening. Everything is in
bloom right now, the roses and iris are peaking and nasturtium bloom in every corner, but when I walk through the garden, I still get upset
about the leaf-strewn weedy pathways. It reminds me how easy it is to
focus on the negative, when the positive is everywhere – another of
gardening’s great lessons.

Q: Are there any new plants that you are looking forward to trying this
season? Are there any regular plant guests that you are looking forward
to seeing again?

A: I've been working on my spring vegetable garden, so of course
I'm looking forward to watching everything ripen and hopefully enjoy the bounty throughout the summer and fall. I'm trying out cantaloupe for the first time and plan to train it upward. Also trying some yellow sweet peppers that I've never grown before. I planted and will always plant sun gold tomatoes - there's just nothing like them - delicious, plentiful and seemingly foolproof. And blue lake beans, though the scarlet runners are more spectacular in appearance, I prefer to eat the
blue lakes. I moved the tarragon (my favorite herb) for the third time
in three years. It's a perennial, but it seems finicky. Hasn't found
its perfect home yet, tucked inside the lettuce bed. I'm hoping it will
thrive in this new spot. If not, there's always next year.

How lucky we are to have so many choices year after year - I only wish I
was as lucky in the harvest stage as with planting selections. I've
filled the beds with compost and all systems are go - but still, some
years the food may be plentiful but flavorless, and other years just a
couple of morsels manage to make their way to the table but they are
succulent and delicious and all the more valuable for their scarcity.
There are so many variables to successful vegetable gardening - and the
best thing is that every year we start with a clean slate and fresh hope
for next year's bounty.

Q: With our Mediterranean environment in the bay area, we have the
opportunity to garden all year long. It's both a blessing and a
challenge. I still have yet to master winter vegetable gardening. What
have your experiences been with this abundance of gardening time?

I harvested 2 beets and had them for dinner last night. I don't even
want to tell you how small they were. I'd never brag about my beet
growing skills, but what pleasure I had eating those two tiny samples.
Worms tend to eat more of my winter garden than I do, but if I can get a few well-shaped brussel sprouts, or carrots large enough to slice into a salad, I’m delighted. I try not to put pressure on myself to harvest successes all year round, even though we are lucky enough to have that choice. Most of us have to juggle our work lives, personal lives, and everything-in-between along with the never ending duties that our gardens present us with. My gardening moods do not necessarily
correspond with the dictates of the seasons. I may get a flurry of gardening energy in the winter, cutting back and digging and reshaping planting beds when there isn’t that much growing, and nothing in need of immediate attention. And come summer, when there’s everything to do, I may just feel like bringing out a good book and something cold to drink and enjoy the shade of my overgrown plantings. Some work is necessary to prevent disasters, and certainly successful vegetable gardening requires timely and dedicated attention. But I try not to look at my garden as an arduous year-long “to do” list, but rather as place that periodically invites my attention and affection, so I have no choice but to respond.

Q: I'd like to finish up the interview with asking you if there is
anything else you'd like to say about your book, upcoming readings, or
gardening.

A: Since my book came out, I find that people are asking me for
gardening advice. I recently appeared on a radio program with a few
garden experts and people were calling in wanting to know what to plant and what to dig up, and how to ‘attack’ a variety of pests. So many people seem intimidated by their gardens, afraid they might do something wrong if they don’t get proper information. For me, the garden is a personal relationship. It grows and changes every day, and every day I stumble on new frustrations (black bugs in the kale); surprises (two new artichokes just appeared) and almost constant wonder. What thrives in my garden may not be happy in yours, and though you may love your prize-winning rhododendron, I have never been a fan of that particular plant. The only advice I would ever give is to live in your garden – watch it unfold – notice who else lives there - try everything that intrigues you and enjoy the failures as much as the successes. Anyone who spends time in their garden, and allows the constantly evolving landscape to become an important part of their lives, is an expert.

I look forward to sharing my garden’s stories at the Laurel Book Store
on Thursday, May 21 at 7:00 pm, at the Montclair Great Good Place for
Books on June 19 at 7:00 p.m., and at Orchard Nursery in Lafayette on
June 25.

Hadley's Annual Garden Giveaway

2009-05-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

I recently went to one of our annual neighborhood plant exchanges hosted by Hadley. The two rhubarb plants that I brought were gone before I even had a chance to set them down. I'm sure they will be happy in their new homes waiting to become rhubarb pie come summer.

On the email list that Hadley sent out prior to the event, I saw that he had some Giant pumpkin starts to give out. I've been wanting to try my hands at one of these for years now but I always seem to get caught up in my other gardening projects. I even owned the Giant pumpkin book even while living in a San Francisco studio apartment with only three small container boxes!

By time I arrived at the exchange, the giant pumpkins were gone. Well at least the labeled ones. I did find some with just "pumpkin" on the label which means they could be anything. Maybe this mystery is even better than coming home with my intended score. I always love when unknown seedlings come out from my compost pile. I had some great butternut squash that way a few seasons ago. Well, come fall it's anybodies guess what kind of beautiful pumpkin will arrive.

Imperfect Gardens

2009-04-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

I started my blog about a year ago to document my progress with my yard...sometimes i get stuck...sometimes i accomplish things. We had an article in Oakland Macarthur Metro newspaper which made us instant urban homesteading stars even though many people have been doing permaculture, chickens, bees in the laurel long before we even moved here. But it's cute how we've become "experts". we even received a nice postcard from a lady about chickens lost in the laurel addressed to us as the "chicken daddies" Gave us a nice laugh and made our day

Along with this heightened interested, I received an email from the Metro's garden columnist Adina Sara back in the fall. She was having a new book come out and wanted me to review it. First off I really don't consider myself a writer. It's just a means to document but i was thrilled by the compliment so decided to help her out as neighbors and community members.

Her promo copy of "The Imperfect Garden" arrived in march just as i was beginning to start working on my spring garden. Something else to distract me from half completed garden projects that stopped once the fall rains and winter cold hit. I went to her house on a rainy day. I'd been over to her garden before for plant swaps. We had a nice little chat at her house about the beauty of imperfection and forgetting scientific names. Just enjoying the plants as they are. As someone who is studying up at Merritt's landscape horticulture program, I can really appreciate her simplified approach.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the book. It was a little dinky thing. Obviously published by a small group. The fonts bugged me and the type set. My boyfriend was horrified. But once i looked past its initial flaws the words spoke to me like no other garden book ever has.

She spoke of befriending common foes within our gardens such as oxalis and acacia trees. Finding the beauty of a struggling seedling emerging from the chaos of old wood/debris. You know we all have these "problem" spots in our gardens. Things we easily avoid discussing when chatting about the beauty of our yard. However, Adina gives them the limelight. Shows the beauty in the imperfections.

Alot of times I'm ashamed to have neighborhood groups over to my garden. They'll see the uncompleted projects, the falling down chicken wire, the plants that have been sitting in pots too long. This book gave me confidence to face my gardening demons. It is ok. it is all part of the process....

Laurel neighbor Rachel Michaelsen's photos helped to illustrate Adina's stories. I was nodding with nostalgia to all her common misadventures. The book may be small but i never felt like it was too short. However, I only wanted to devour a little bit at a time. savor the beauty of it over a month or so.

This book is not only for our community who knows Adina and the Laurel district of oakland but for the whole gardening community. She captures the struggle we all share and love so much.

Adina will be reading selections from her book at Laurel Bookstore [4100 Macarthur Blvd]on May 21st. You can pick up the book there or purchase through her website www.adinasara.com

Greenhouse, Fear, and Spring

2009-04-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Ira used to be terrified of growing anything. Slowly I introduced him to cultivating herbs then a lemon tree. I'd give him extra seedlings of whatever i was growing that year. Now a few years later, he is harvesting all kinds of produce from two raised beds in Oakland's Lakeshore district. The house were he uses the raised beds has an old greenhouse that wasn't in use. So starting in December we started to refurbish it. Just last weekend we put our first seeds in to start. Not sure how it will turn out since we aren't sure of how the exhaust fan works exactly. Maybe everything will get fried but it's a start to this spring season

Winter Veggies

2008-12-26T17:39:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to pulling up my tomato, basil, and pepper plants today. The frost we had last week gave them a final death zap.

Last spring I went to the Maker's Faire where i picked up a packet of colored carrot seeds in the permaculture section. I sprinkled them into one of my raised beds and pretty much ignored them. Well, while pulling out the peppers I found this beauty!

The fava beans i started in 6-packs were also put in the ground today. Lots of shelling to look forward to in the springtime

Day of the Dead

2008-11-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

This past sunday we had a small Day of the Dead party. Felt good to share with my community when we've all been under stress over the looming election.

I cooked squash tacos from a recipe received from our CSA Terra Firma Farms newsletter. The prior weekend, I also gleaned tons of squash from the parking lot at open farm day. We were able to pick up all the stuff that was just going to rot such as strawberries, walnuts, and squash. I've been part of the CSA for ten years now but have never gone to one of their open farm days. The vibe is completely different than harvest festivals at county fairs. I felt like part owner/ community member at the CSA. The gathering was a celebration instead of just a money maker. I'll be going from now on.

For our party, our friend Aaron brought us a watermelon from his yard. He lives just down the hill in maxwell park. I've never had luck with watermelon yet but this gives me hope.

John Frando and Nik Lostracco from The Macarthur Metro came over to to interview us and take pics of our yard. You can look forward to seeing the article in december's issue. However, you wont be seeing much of me in the pics because i dressed up as a skeleton farmer for the party. and then realized...oops....the issue will be coming out around xmas so would confuse people

The following monday, I made Day after the Dead bread pudding with the leftover pan muerto. A very tasty way to use the leftover stale bread

Even though alot of negativity has sprouted up in our bay area bubble remember to hang on and bring together the people who are your allies. And to share in food and thought to help make it thru the dark times. I began planting my winter seeds which are beginning to sprout up giving me hope thru the cold rainy winter months.

Eat Local, Shop Local

2008-08-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

The second best thing to producing your own is to buy it locally! Last week a new farmer's market opened up in the laurel sponsered by Oakland Food Connection. Our neighborhood group was also hosting its first annual block sale. Plus I needed to get a birthday present for my friend's 3 year old kid Kahlo. This meant a trip to Laurel Book Store and Komodo Toys. My morning walk was planned!

On my way to the block sale, I had the good fortune in running into neighbor John Frando who was putting up flyers/cones. I love being able to just stroll down the street and see people that I know. I haven't had that much here in Oakland so it was quite the nice change. John is working on an article for The Macarthur Metro on gardens/chickens/sustainability in the laurel and was asking me for an interview.

Not too many people were at the block sale yet but I got the chance to talk to some other neighbors. I've been talking with Stella who organized the Neighborhood Night Out earlier this month to see how we can continue these potlucks to help everybody get to know each other better. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of giving a cheese making workshop. I also got three more people on my waiting list for eggs.

Next I tried Komodo Toys but unfortunately they were closed so I went straight to Laurel Book Store. I found exactly what I needed. Children's books on ducks, chickens, and art. I hope Kahlo loves them. His sense of wonder is fun to watch when he comes over our house to see the animals. The owner Luan even gift wrapped the presents for free! I chatted up another customer about Mark Bittman's cookbook. Normally in a chainstore a person standing behind somebody getting something gift wrapped would get annoyed. But the local scene is more laid back so you have the possibility of enjoying the company of strangers.

The new farmer's market was small but charming. Only being the second week, there is just three vendors. Oakland Food Connection, Purple Lawn Cafe, and a farmer. Unfortunately the farmer didn't show up this week. If I had driven in my car and had to find parking, the situation might have been annoying. But it wasnt, instead I'm glad that something new is being created in my neighborhood. I was glad to hand over money to see this bloom. . I cant wait to see the changes in the upcoming weeks. I'll be returning.

It's nice to have an excuse for a saturday morning stroll!

Buzz Buzz

2008-08-19T11:10:00.001-07:00

I procrastinated too long on the honey harvest this year. The queen had used most of the comb for brood so I only got about a jar's worth of usable honey. The taste is very floral and amazing. It'll just be nice to have extra to give as gifts. Hopefully next year! I think I need to purchase a honey super for added storage space as well as a queen excluder.

This time around I managed to get my ankles stung. Those bees are smart, they find your weakest point. I got a little bit of cabin fever this weekend not being able to walk for 48 hrs.

Milk Alchemy and Cheese Queens

2008-08-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Cheesemaking is an ethereal science. You enter into it with a specific formula and enzymes but who knows what direction the chemical reactions will go. My friend Ira and I took up this insane science about a year ago.

We started out with cow's milk but then wanted to experiment with goat. But 95% of what you find in the supermarket has been ultrapasteurized which means the chemical structure of the milk has already been changed so drastically that it is useless for cheesemaking. We tried to find goat farms that would sell us milk directly but the law has it so that people are afraid to sell because of potential liability. We finally found a goat internship where we receive milk for labor.

On sunday, we had a surplus of milk since the goat owner was on vacation. We decided to try making mozzarella which is something new for us.. Ira's friend Kurt in the oakland hills has been making some mozzarella successfully with Cow's Milk so we went over to his place for instruction.

The newest trend in mozzarella is the 30-min version for instant gratification. In theory, you just heat the milk with citric acid and lipase then add rennet. Squeeze out the initial whey from the curd then microwave for a short period which helps extract the rest of the moisture.

But cheesemaking is finicky. You put in too much rennet or you heat just slightly too quickly or any other little variable changes the texture. We didn't end up with anything that looked like the mozzarella we set out to make but it's still tasty. That seems to happen 2 out of 3 times when making cheese. You end up with an unexpected product.

We really need a west coast cheese guru. On the east coast, Rikki Carrol is the cheese queen who seems to have a monopoly on cheesemaking supply and instruction. I'm surprised by the lack of cheese queens in the bay area. Yes, we have great commercial cheesemakers like Cowgirl Creamery or distributors like The Cheeseboard and Farmstead Cheese but no mentors for the homesteader I wonder who will end up with this title. Only time will tell. But we sure need someone to show us the alchemy of milk.

Andree's New Roost

2008-07-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Andree's new coop was finally finished this week so it was time to bring her chicks over

My chicken wrangling scheme didn't go too well in rounding them up . After we captured the first couple, everyone decided it was time to hide under the ivy. Thus I could only catch half of Andree's chickens. i'll have to make a second trip to Andree's in a week or so.

Yesterdy, our friend Jim from Green Faerie Farms gave her a silkie and a wyandotte. I have a Spangled Russian Orloff, 2 Americanas, and an egyptian fayoumi for her. Plus she was gonna house three of the male Buffs for our friend Ira to eat

Upon introduction, The two older chicks from Jim asserted dominance over the new four. But those girls and boy are smart. They flew way up into the second tier of the coop to hide. once the pecking order is established they should enjoy their new beautiful home.

and being eco-conscious, Andree's new coop design even included solar panels installed on top. Oh! You all should check out her recently redone California Golden Trout art project in richmond

As for our yard, now it is being eaten up a tad slower with four less chickens. We still need to finish the new fence. I'll be sealing the wood over this weekend. We have a garden bbq/potluck workparty planned for sunday august 10th. If anybody is interested in helping out please contact me. We're gonna try to make it a monthly affair.

The Birds

2008-07-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Fowl have overtaken our yard! We like our chickens to be as close to free range as possible since then they get a more diverse diet which make their eggs extra yummy. That was all fine and dandy when we just had four chickens.

In May, I placed an order of four more chickens and three ducks for myself. My eco-art teacher Andree also wanted four chickens for herself so we combined an order. If you dont know anything about chick mail-order, most places require you to get 25 chickens. There is a local place, Mike's Feed, in San Leandro but it's always random on what breeds they have. And I tend to like exotic chickens so i wanted to mail-order.

We ordered from Ideal Poultry which has a $20 minimum order instead of the 25 chick minimum. One of my chicks died in transport so that left me with 3 chicks for myself. They added 5 male buff orpingtons to keep the other chicks warm in transport...sigh....so now i'm raising those for my meat eating friends. I also lost another chick into the sea of ivy that lives behind our property . So that left me with 2 chickens and 3 ducks i was raising for myself and 9 chicks for other people.

After about a month we put them all outside which was fine when they were small but now they are consuming everything in sight. The ducks grew at an incredible rate. doubling size about every week. They've been eating everything that the chickens don't want. Notably the cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and this week it's the artichoke plants. We've been scrambling around trying to get a new fence put in but it will still be another week or two before that is complete.

our neighbors Laurette and Stacy love our eggs and wanted to sponsor a chicken so they could be kept in supply. So we picked up a rhode island red named Ruby from Mike's Feed to add to our bunch. She's still living in a box in the house until Andree's chicks are gone next week. Ruby is probably the most well behaved chicken we've had so far.

For all you urban homesteaders, I wouldn't recommend ducks. They are way more noisy and messy than I expected. They are beautiful and I'll see how their eggs taste once they start laying in a few months. But right now i'm second guessing that purchase.

VIP Victory Garden

2008-07-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Attempted to volunteer at the SF Victory Garden community planting day. I brought along my friend Dustin who I'm initiating into the local food realm .Got up extra early on a saturday to make it across the bay and to city hall by 9am. The area was so guarded. The line of "greeters" wouldn't let us in since Dustin wasn't registered. I understand if they had too many people to plant but not being able to even look around to see what is happening. Ridiculous! Thus began my frustration.

This exclusivity has been my issue with the slow food movement. Their events Always feel like a VIP affair while permaculture events are generally welcoming to anybody. I thought this combined effort would be different. Seems they were more interested in photo ops than community.

I give props to Gavin Newsom for allowing the garden. Even if the motivation was for more tourism, it is still a good symbol. and i congratulate all the designers and volunteers from city slickers, ploughshares, garden for the environment that helped grow the plants and dig throughout the week...

But how can you integrate social justice into the food and green movement if you aren't allowed access or cant afford access.....

Maybe someday I can afford to eat at Chez Panisse....until then i'm doing my thing in my yard with friends and neighbors.

Neighborhood Produce

2008-07-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took another step away from dependence on oil. Scooter is instructing me on how to ride a bike again. I loved the freedom of it as a child with my little BMX mongoose but upon getting my 12 speed schwinn in junior high I became fearful. The machine was no longer part of me but an object that defied me. It was too tall for my little body with new mechanics to learn. And I was banished from the safety of sidewalks to the road. I gave up. That was in the suburbs of michigan. As I grew older and moved to bigger and denser cities, that fear grew. I've seen many car on bike collisions in san francisco.

But gas prices are rising, and I feel guilty every time i have to drive the car to our local market Farmer Joes or down to the library. I should be able to bike to these locations.

The hills by our house are too steep to learn on so scooter started me off on the flats of alameda which was fun. Hopefully step by step i'll get the confidence and strength to do more.

Upon returning from alameda, our mailbox was stuffed with a ziplock bag of apricots and zucchinis. A nice present. I was unsure who it came from at first. Maybe my friend Linda Jo, or possibly one of our neighbors. Turns out that it came from our friend Steve at Berkeley Signs. His family has a nice veggie garden and they are considering adding chickens after seeing ours! Anyways, this was the first time it really hit me that i have an abundance of friends who also have gardens and are working towards sustainability. What a perfect mystery

Our next door neighbors Stacy and Laurette gave us a huge bag of lemons from their tree a couple days ago as well. Once the heatwave breaks, it's time to bake some lemon bars!

Backyard Salad

2008-07-07T13:08:00.001-07:00

Last night we had a backyard salad. Our lettuce greens are getting big so I began plucking the outer leaves. Scooter boiled some eggs from our chickens while I harvested some potatoes.

If you've never done potatoes before, let me just say that they come back year after year. I started with a small amount two years ago and now they volunteer since you can never get all of the tiny seed potatoes out of the ground. We also added some blue potatoes from seeds of change for a little added variety this year.

NOTE: New potatoes cook quickly so dont boil/bake as long as your typically do.

Our salad was pretty darn tasty. The only outside ingredients were olive oil, ground pepper, and some red peppers that I pickled last year [from farmer's market]

Plum Delight

2008-07-06T10:40:00.001-07:00

Over the holiday weekend, we had some friends over for a bbq. Our guest aaron noticed from his seated vantage point that there were five plums dangling from our shaded tree.

We've pretty much given up on this tree. The back of our yard is lined with four overcrowded monterey cypress trees that block ALOT of sun. This plum tree that came with the house is pretty much shaded out. This year the aphids even begun their attack.

So we were quite delighted to spot unexpected fruit that even tasted divine! We've needed a little gardening suprise like this one since our ducks + chickens have pretty much devastated my pumpkin/squash patch [that's another post entirely]

First Time Garlic Success!

2008-07-03T10:44:00.001-07:00

Many gardeners told me that garlic couldn't be done in the bay area. We have so many microclimates here, I am always hesitant to believe anything until i try it myself. In November, I spotted a garlic workshop held at the Garden for the Environment in SF so I quickly signed up. What I learned there was that garlic does well in the bay area. We just can't get the spicy heat of the heirloom garlics because we don't get a cold snap.

I was given some heirloom garlic bulbs from Peaceful Valley Nursery. I would have bought more from Seeds of Change but they were sold out by then. I did plant some store bought organic bulbs to see how they would do.

The general rule of thumb for planting garlic bulbs is to put in ground around Thanksgiving and pull up around Fourth of July. The leaves should be browning around the 4th which is an indicator.

I planted in both 1 gallon containers and directly into the ground. I've had problems with onions getting too soggy b/c of the clay soil so I wanted to hedge my bets by doing it both ways.

All of the container garlic turned brown so I pulled them up. The ones planted in soil still had green leaves so I only pulled up a few. As you can see in the picture, the container ones had much smaller bulbs than soil. Garlic appears to want to root deeply. The roots were hanging out the bottom of my containers. Next year everything is going into the ground!

I left about 1/2 of the garlic in the ground to see what happens if i leave in an extra week or two.

I didn't get enough garlic to last me through the year but I'll have plenty to make pesto with throughout the summer. I'm not too worried about curing this time around since it wont last into the winter. All I did with the fresh garlic is place outside on a table so the outer skin can dry a bit.

BTW, the garlic tastes just as good as what I receive in our CSA box! And I didn't notice any difference between store bought bulbs versus seed bulbs

Why attempt a Zero Mile diet?

2008-07-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend Scooter and I have been getting a CSA from Terra Firma Farm for almost 10 years now. The seasonality has reconnected us to when local foods are available and the taste between in+ out of season produce. When living in the Mission District of San Francisco, we even became a drop host which allowed us to meet a bunch of other friendly people.

About Two years ago we moved to the Laurel District of Oakland into a tiny house [about the size of our SF Studio apt] but the winning feature was a 4000 sq/ft back yard. The experimentation began. We had to reclaim some area from the weedy ivy, oxalis,kikuyu grass, and vinca. We started small with two areas. One being an amended section of our clay soil and another being a raised bed. Those first tomatoes that summer brought me straight back to when I was a child in my Aunt Mary's vegetable garden. I was in love.

Since then I've added fruit +olive trees, two more raised beds, cleared a hillside for annual veggies, bought some chickens,ducks, bees, and started making my own saurkraut, pickles, cheese, and root beer

We've participated in the 100-mile diet which has become popular over the last few years. I was even inspired to help create a locavore reception as part of my eco-art class.

In the Bay Area, the urban homesteading movement has recently taken off as an expansion of the local diet. Chickens really shouldn't be an exotic addition to a backyard. We have lost touch with traditional techniques of food preservation and fermentation. Urban homesteaders look to reclaim these techniques in our current environment instead of moving far away into rural land as was done in the 70's with the communal back to the land movement.

We're also seeing a return of victory gardens with such highly visible ones as the garden being created at SF City Hall.

The one thing I haven't seen is documentation of a city person's journey to sustainability. I've found getting accents to my meals quite easy in my garden. However, creating whole meals has been more of a challenge. I think the benchmark of what I receive in my CSA box every week is a good goal to set. I want to see if it is obtainable from what I can produce in my backyard and trade with neighbors.

Not only do i want to gain a deeper connection to the land and my neighbors but also create an artistic protest against the war. Hopefully, others will be inspired by my trials to try new things in their yards. By creating your own, we reduce our dependence on oil while having yummy treats. A win win situation.

So my Journey Begins
Paul