PATH TO FREEDOM
PEDDLER'S WAGON
FREEDOM GARDENS
"LITTLE HOMESTEAD"
DERVAES GARDENS
URBAN HOMESTEADING
Entries (RSS)
November 3, 2008
Greens and broccoli
Fall tomatoes
Potatoes growing among the submerged ollas or clay pots
Peas growing among the ollas or clay pots
Towering fall tomatoes
Garden in transition
Fall peppers
Tomatoes!
In the garden
Over the weekend, we experienced cooler weather and even some measurable showers. Definitely a blessing for the winter garden that’s shaping up.
The cooler weather has brought the peas and other brassica and green crops out of their suspension mode. The cooler weather hasn’t affected the tomatoes - yet. There’s lots of yellow blossoms, loads of green tomatoes and even a basketful of ripe ones! Sweet.
As you can see from the photos the garden slowly growing over into a fall winter mode. As our readers know, we can’t bare to see bare soil so as soon as the old crops go out, a new batch goes in. Our motto here at the urban homestead is “leave no soil/dirt exposed.” In a successful garden, it’s all about the soil and fall is an ideal time for us to improve our soil structure. Thanks to our many composters and citified farm animals here on the ’stead we have loads of rich, dark and loamy compost to improve any depleted soil. Take care of the soil and the soil will take care of you, providing healthy plants and bountiful harvest. So if you are starting out gardening for the first time, Farmer D’s advice to you is “healthy soil equals healthy plants”. So before you start growing all out - grow soil first.
Another thing, with the cooler temperatures means we are having to water less. Well, actually even with the wacky dry year, we managed this year to cut our water usage in 1/2. I would say about 90% of our water use here the urban homestead goes into the garden and so to have successfully cut it in half certainly is a plus. Thanks to heavy mulching, smart gardening, clay pot irrigation and spot watering we have been able to save water. We only water when necessary - hand watering to make sure those plants that need it most get water and those that are doing well we let them till they look like they need water. Sure it’s time consuming but in the end it saves both money and water and it makes the plants healthy not being water pampered, allowing the plants to roots to grow deep. Speaking of growing deep around the clay pots submerged throughout the garden, we noticed that the plants grow considerably better because the roots are forced to grow below the surface.
Let’s hope and pray for a wet winter!
So, fellow urban homesteaders’s, how’s your fall-winter garden shaping up? Are you liberating more of your yard this year - growing less oramentals and more vegetables?
(6 votes)
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Filed under: In the Garden, Posts by Anais |
Tags: Garden, in the garden, peas, Weather
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November 3, 2008
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The salad greens are finally coming along, so we were able to enjoy some tasty salads this week. The fall batch of tomatoes are still growing - even producing red ripe tomatoes. So summer still lives on here on the urban homestead.
HG = Homegrown
SATURDAY
Breakfast - homemade pomegranate pancakes (made with HG eggs) and homegrown honey
Dinner - homemade tortillas with homemade spanish rice ( HG peppers, tomatoes) topped with HG sauteed peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and organic cheese
SUNDAY
Breakfast - organic oatmeal and homegrown preserves
Lunch - leftovers from Saturday’s dinner
Dinner - (meeting with friends) homemade pizza topped with HG peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and cheese with HG salad greens and pomegranates
MONDAY
Breakfast - organic oatmeal and homegrown preserves
Lunch - homemade vegetable patties ( HG peppers, zucchini and herbs) with HG salad
Dinner -homemade vegetable patties ( HG peppers, zucchini and herbs) with HG lima beans and salad
TUESDAY
Breakfast - organic oatmeal and homegrown preserves
Dinner - HG lima beans and Ca organic rice with HG herbs
Lunch - HG lima beans and Ca organic rice with HG herbs
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast - homemade biscuits with HG, homemade preserves
Lunch - HG lima beans and Ca organic rice with HG herbs
Dinner - homemade tomato sauce ( HG tomatoes, peppers, herbs) over pasta
THURSDAY
Breakfast - organic oatmeal and homegrown preserves
Lunch - HG lima beans and homemade organic cornbread
Dinner -homemade pizza topped with HG peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and cheese
FRIDAY
Breakfast - organic oatmeal and homegrown preserves
Lunch - HG lima beans and homemade organic cornbread
Dinner - homemade tomato sauce (HG tomatoes, peppers, green onions, herbs) with organic whole wheat pasta topped with organic Parmesan cheese
(4 votes)
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Filed under: 100 Foot Diet, Homegrown Diet, Posts by Anais |
Tags: eggs, Herbs, homegrow, homegrown, homemade, honey, weekly meal wrap up
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October 31, 2008
Keeping It Real
Sure we have a lot of goings on beyond our urban homestead lifestyle (websites, events, film, etc) and it’s good to keep things real where our readers can see and read first hand about what’s happening here on the ’stead.
The ground was certainly wet this morning, but nothing in the way of any substantial rain - more like heavy mist. Should be like this through the weekend.
Yesterday, Justin spent a couple hours whipping together another bee hive so when Farmer D goes in he can, if need be, divide the hive.
A friend of ours, spurred on by our beekeeping efforts, keeps coming by to borrow our smoker. He’s on a mission to capture free bees - good luck D! Hope this time around you get your bees.
In the garden, harvesting the last pounds of peppers and putting them up for winter use. Lots of greens and fall crops (garlic, potatoes) being planted and the cooler weather does help. Still battling harlequin bugs since we are finding pockets of resistances underneath the wood of the raised beds. In the the backyard we have over 50 raised beds so you can imagine there’s lots of hide outs.
The towering summer crops are slowly coming down, bed by bed. As the season changes so does our garden. No more hiding amongst the towering beans, squashes and tomatoes. Everything goes, er grows, low.
The pole lima beans are still producing like gangbusters and the hearty beans a welcome addition to our homegrown meals.
On the tinkering front, Justin’s a little peeved that the instructions seemed to have left out something leaving him unable to finish putting together his contraption. He’s has been emailing the person he bought the plans from. So far, no luck. Too bad, he was so excited over this latest project of his and now he’s bummed. Let’s hope the guy email’s him back.
Our winter preparations pale compared to other parts of the county, but there’s still somethings on the urban homestead we have to do. So far, it’s not been cold enough to even come close to firing up the wood stove, but we’ll have to get around to contacting our friend who can get free scrap wood so we can start piling up stacks for the cold days ahead.
With the upcoming premier of HomeGrown in New York, I think Jordanne summed it best when she commented that she was “happy and yet horrified.” It will be interesting to see what folks have to say since we haven’t even seen the film ourselves. So for those who will be attending we hope, at least, you get inspired to take on your very own sustainable journey - one step at a time.
Actually, the film’s producer is a bit apprehensive, worried that on an eve on a historic election that he’ll be screening the film to a 1/2 filled theatre. He’s right. It will be interesting to see the turn out.
Stay tuned for our weekly meal wrap up and more photos from here on the urban homestead.
(6 votes)
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Filed under: Homestead Life, In the Garden, Posts by Anais |
Tags: homegrow, homegrown, homegrown meal, homegrown meals, meals, potatoes, Weather
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October 31, 2008
Some of elements of a complete urban homestead: intensively productive garden, cob oven, solar ovens, outdoor shower, shed, solar panels (on garage), bees (can you see spot ‘em?) clothes line and at least three composters.
I finally got around to updating some of the harvest stats, egg count and honey production (see left hand column)
Even with the wacky weather year, we’ve managed to squeeze out (so far) over 4,000lbs of produce, over 2,000 eggs and 25 lbs of honey. No doubt what the earth has provided is certainly a blessing.
With the garden in transition and many beds with bare earth exposed (waiting for the seedling transplants) the resident urban farmers have declared an all out assault on the harlequin bugs. In their arsenal is hot pepper and pyretheum. Justin commented the other day “that [he] can’t stand the site of them any more - they are gonna die!” Yep, good ol nature Justin is on a mission to murder every and all harlequin bug in sight. I wouldn’t want to be a harlequin bug.
What’s Growing On?
We are busy with fall and winter plantings. In to the garden go radish, potatoes, onions, garlic, broccoli, peas, cabbage, assortment of all sorts of salad and asian greens. We are hoping for a better brassica crop this year. Last winter’s was pretty warm and dry so the winter vegetables didn’t do too well. Me, I am hoping for some huge cabbage. I really want to make a big crock of sauerkraut.
How’s your garden shaping up?
(5 votes)
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Filed under: Homestead Life, In the Garden, Posts by Anais |
Tags: eggs, homesteading, honey
Keep This Site Growing: Did you get some inspiration or glean an informative tip from this post? Please support this site by either making a tax deductible donation or a purchase from our online store. Thank you!
October 30, 2008
It’s crazy! Everyone’s busier than a bee on a blue basil - well, our ’stead bees. Anyhow, we are just plum out busy.
Skuttlebut has it that the long overdue and anticipated upgrades to Freedom Gardens is close, really close! We’ve waited - and waited, biting our nails over delay after delay after delay. Hopefully this is the real deal and the FG will be relaunched and reloaded. You are gonna love it. As for us, well, we are going to celebrate. The waiting has really stressed us out (sleepless nights, even a few gray hairs) if and when the upgrades come I promised Jordanne that we going to hit the donut shop around the corner. Seriously. We aren’t one for bars or drinks so a hardcore sweet binge it is.
But the work doesn’t end there. FG site needs content and that will be our next step. To build up (with your help we hope) the site with growing guidelines, blog and more. Hey, we could use your input and help on this. So dig in and help grow this site into something that we all can be proud of. Then upwards and onward to a social network for urban homesteaders and backyard citified farm animals.
The weather’s turned weird again. Or actually I should say “back to normal.” After a scorching week, temperatures have dropped back to normal - 65-70 degrees. There’s a chance of rain over the weekend, but it’s looking more like a slight chance.
Jordanne’s working on our short HGR film for the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. Lots of editing and licensing to go through. We are touching base with a few friends to take care of things while we are away - goats need care. Still not sure if we want to board the goats somewhere or have a friend of ours, who is a pet sitter, take care of things while we are away. So I’ve been busy talking with friends going over dates and such. Ok, I think I need a paper bag!
The Wild & Scenic FF has a list of things they need from us and dates they need them by. First on the list was a cover, poster for the film. Which we finished and it looks really nice. They’ve also asked for a trailer, so Jordanne’s putting that together as we speak.
Justin’s been tinkering, spending late nights in the garage. Farmer D is putting together another bee hive for expansion. He’ll be going in to check the health of the hive soon to make sure everything’s looking good before winter.
Of course, there’s gardening - lots of planting, turning the compost over in our huge compost pile at the back of the property. Cleaning out all the dead growth from summer’s growth and so on.
Also, PTF has two community events to attend on Sunday. Some of us will be at Pasadena City College and some will be at Pacific Oaks School on California Ave. So stop by if you can and say hi.
It’s a busy, busy time and believe you me, I haven’t even written a half of what’s going on. I wish I could because it would make for some good reads.
More later….
(5 votes)
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Filed under: Homestead Life, Posts by Anais |
Tags: Bees, community, Compost, event, events, freedom garden, freedom gardens, Garden, gardening, goat, Goats, summer, Urban Homestead, urban homesteader, urban homesteaders, Weather, wild & scenic film festival
Keep This Site Growing: Did you get some inspiration or glean an informative tip from this post? Please support this site by either making a tax deductible donation or a purchase from our online store. Thank you!