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...