Archive for October, 2010

HERE COMES THE SUN!

Sure is nice to see that yellow bright ball in the sky! The greyish clouds are moving out, leaving brilliant blue skies and nippish temps – just in time for fall!

RAINY DAYS N’ MONDAYS

After a week’s worth of rain, the sun did slightly (for a brief glimpse) peek thru on Saturday just before another storm blew in giving us another round of heavy drizzle last night and into the morn.

SWEET DREAMS

I mixed in some fragrant botanicals that are growing here on the urban homestead like roses, lavender, lemon verbena, mint and chamomile. Smells delightful! The herbs in this blend are traditionally associated with rest and dreaming.

MEET THE FARMERS DINNER

The wet weather does help the garden but it doesn’t help the produce business. It’s hard to pick produce, especially salad, in the rain. The front porch farm stand is quiet; but we did have a very large order this week which helped pull us through. The Chef at Cal Tech put on a special “Meet the Farmers” dinner featuring many a dish made with our very own homegrown produce.

CITY FISH

The fishy, as you can see, are doing well. In fact, the NY Times just had an article about urban fish farming

NAMASTE AMERICA

I can’t believe it’s already a year since our family visited India as urban homestead ambassadors. It was truly an amazing trip, made even more special by the fact that we got to stay with wonderful families. (read our India adventures)

RAINDROPS ON ROSES

Another rainy day, what a blessing! The garden is rejoicing, soaking in the liquid sunshine.

HOMEGROWN

Back in the late 1990′s, the GMO corn food contamination forced our family to radically rethink our growing efforts by turning our typical “hobby” garden into a full scale micro farm which provides our family with over 90% of our produce, annually harvesting 6,000 lbs on just 1/10 acre plot.

EGG-UCATION

With the front porch farm stand’s customers numbers growing on a daily basis, one thing I’ve learned that there’s still much to be done in educating the public about seasonal produce and eggs. Our modern, convenient eating habits are no longer defined by season and place. Food routes and patterns are forgotten, thanks to the advent of supermarkets.

GROWING COMMUNITY

I know it’s not really “homesteady” news but one of the most important aspects of urban homesteading is to share with our neighbors.

Requests are pouring in – folks want us here, there. Unfortunately we can’t be everywhere.