comfort me with food trades

Ok, so I borrowed a little bit from the title of one of my favorite books, but it's true! This food trading business gives me comfort. Our bounty is more well-rounded, our family diet is more varied, and no one gets sick of any one fruit or veg. More food choice, more comfort.

We now have loads of Meyer lemons (our tree is in it's infancy and still not producing) and first-of-the season Granny Smith apples from our friend in Oakland. Thanks to my dear husband, we didn't even have to trade food; just a little advice on deck building. The apples are a bit tart to eat out of hand...but perfect with a little cinnamon and sugar, softened up by a dash of heat. The ubiquitous Bay Area fog makes me want to bake. Tarte Tatin, anyone?

edible schoolyard

I took the kids to the Edible Schoolyard today. It's a place I've always wanted to visit and I finally decided that today was the day! I can't say how happy I am that I finally got to see exactly what the place looks like.

I felt like I was walking in my dream garden, on a much larger scale. There were edible plantings of all kinds: corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, amaranth...a gorgeous bounty of summer fruits and veggies, with a few surprises thrown in, like cape gooseberries. There were many fruiting trees, including apples, pears, and figs. Where we spent most of our time, though, was at the chicken coop.

We sat outside, in the shade, just watching. We used to have chickens years ago, when we lived in Bolinas. Sitting there today, watching the lively pack of hens, I realized how much I actually missed having them around. We've talked about getting chickens again, but still have not put forth the effort in making a home for them in our garden. We got sidetracked by the idea of beekeeping, among other things! At any rate, being at the Edible Schoolyard aroused my desire for chickens yet again. Without them, an urban farm is not complete! I'm hoping by this time next year, I'll be happily scrambling eggs hatched by my own feathered friends and teaching my kids the joys of poultry husbandry.

trading

I've become a fruit trader this week. I am not overwhelmed by any one fruit or veg, but I feel the need to diversify my portfolio. Miss Clara across the street brought me about 5 pounds of peaches from her tree. I don't think she gave me the pick of the litter, as most of them were looking a little haggard, but still, great for pancakes this morning and hopefully some pie on Sunday. I didn't want to send her home empty handed, so I asked her if she wanted any plums in return. She was happy to take some off my hands.

I don't have a plum tree, but my friend Sara does. She lives a mere two blocks away and is sick of eating her Santa Rosa plums. Last week, I traded her some of my figs and zucchini and came home with WAY too many plums. She made sure to give me the warning about eating too many plums. In her house, they call it the "cha-cha's".

So, cha-cha's aside, our fruit portfolio is looking pretty good. Still have oranges from our friend next door, plums from two blocks away, peaches from across the street, and figs in our backyard. I wonder if my other neighbor will want to trade for some of her raspberries? So far, no money spent and a heck of a lot of fruit! If only I could stop the flies from coming...

city in the front...farm in the back

We're midway through the summer and the 5 pounds of figs that I harvested from our tree yesterday inspired me to document the amazing joy, satisfaction and true rewards we receive from growing our own food.

(thank you, also, to my inspiring rapscallion friends R & B)

Our family has the privilege of living in this San Francisco Bay Area food mecca, where sourcing food grown within 100 miles of home is much easier than in other parts of the world. Like way too many people in our little slice of California coastline, we consider ourselves foodies. We pride ourselves on knowing about the best restaurants, the best food-related anything. Sure we want the freshest, most beautiful produce, the insider information on underground speakeasy restaurants, the latest microbrews. But now that we're all grown up...No. Never. Ever.

But seriously, now that we have kids and our kids are eating, we want them to aspire to their foodie roots...in a major way. What we really want is to teach our kids about where their food comes from and how to grow it. You might call it sustainability in its purest form.

So here we are, growing food in this urban jungle, surrounded by houses and concrete, drug dealers, police cars, ambulance sirens, booming stereos, domestic violence, exhaust and crime. We've got it all..with organic produce...and somehow the food and the kids don't mind...they just keep growing!

Our "farm" is really not a farm at all. It's the backyard of our plus-sized city lot, which is just beginning to take shape with raised planting beds filled with organic soil. (props to the husband and his handy green-builder skills!) We inherited two 30++ year-old fruit trees with the property: a beautiful Black Mission Fig that nearly spans the width of our yard, as well as a Yellow Bartlett Pear. I started all of our veggies and herbs from little seeds back in April and in just three short months we are now beginning to enjoy (and eat!) the fruits (and veggies) of our labor.

and so it begins...

today's harvest:

one giant bunch of red chard
one pound of haricot verts green beans
one prize-winning giant cocozelle zucchini
seven not-so-giant cocozelle zucchini
one big handful of arugula
two handfuls of basil
two cucumbers*
one pound of figs

*the cucumbers never made it in the house because little E can't get enough of them...he crunches them down to the stem and makes no apology for the lack of sharing.


adventures with zucchini to follow...