First off, like to thank all those who commented on the last post.   We value and appreciate the support.  Better yet, it was great to read how many of you are caring for our good earth - way to grow!

After 25 years of growing food here on our city plot in Pasadena, we’ve had to deal with a whole lot of yard issues (Check out our Photo Gallery and see shocking "before pics").  Many of you who have been following our decade old blog know that when moving here and starting our first city farm, we had to deal with lifeless soil and junk!  Lots of junk –  bricks, concrete, asphalt, weeds and other  junk.    The people who rented the house were in the junk collection business!   Basically, as a friend so aptly said recently “the place was a dump.”   But it did have a nice BIG yard and loads of potential.   Of course, we didn’t see it at the time.  All we saw that it needed a heck of a lot of work.    After the junk was cleared away and the first garden was planted in lifeless, hardpan soil, we weren't just growing food, but faith and hope, too.

Over the ¼ century, as we transformed our home into a homestead, we faced many obstacles and had our fair share of failures.   Thought it would be nice to share what obstacles we are facing now which has given us much to discuss at the dinner table.

• Neighbor’s Trees – 55’ ft pecan tree in the west and 20’ carrot woods running along the southeast and southwest.  Across the street, a bunch of TALL palm trees in the east cast a long shadow The good book says “love thy neighbor” but does that include their shade trees?  We love trees  but  have to admit that secretly we have deeply disturbing thoughts against that pecan tree (which gives NO pecans, btw).  In the fall, the wind blows all of the pecan tree leaves and buries the salad greens.
• What lies beneath – neighbor’s tree roots sucking water, sunlight and nutrients like a black hole.  Need I say why we have such evil thoughts?
• Don’t fence me in - 6’ high south east and south west facing concrete block wall.  One thing good about the wall is that it keeps the water on our property and moles out.
• House shade – we city folks who grow food have to deal with many shade obstacles and, more often than not, the house gets in the way of sunlight.  The shade is nice for growing lettuce  and blueberries in the summer but what we wouldn’t give for a 1/10 acre square plot with no shade obstacles because we'd hanker at doubling our harvest to 12,000 lbs.
• Not babies any more -- maturing fruit trees who taking the sun away from sun lovin’ veggies.  Can’t have all your fruit and vegetables too.
• Front yard farming.  With edible landscaping you sometimes sacrifice beauty for productivity and so it is with our front yard.  Check out our Four Practical P’s to growing food in the front yard.
• Global weirding.  Yep, you can forgot about "global warming"–  We are in for wacky weather & shifting food patterns " The weather anomalies that North American farmers and orchard keepers have experienced over this past growing season may be part of what journalist Thomas Friedman has dubbed global weirding, a far better catch-all term than global warming.... elsewhere, we may be entering an era where much of our current notions about memorable terroir -- the taste of place embedded in wines, fresh fruits, or even grass-fed meats -- will become geographically scrambled... the prevailing patterns of weather, soil moisture, and temperature --  are shifting more rapidly than we had ever imagined they could? What will these shifts mean in terms of food security for the rest of us? " that statement would make any sane farmer wave the white flag.
• Plagues - never in our years of growing food have we seen such infestation as in recent years:  spider mites, citrus leafminers, thrips, and the worst culprit is the hated harlequin bug and, so far no organic treatments that work, we've had to resort to killing the buggers with our hands. It's gotten so bad that we've had to change our yearly growing habits.  No longer can we try to extend the harvest of mustards, kales and brassicas.

What obstacles or problems are you facing in your attempt in growing food?  What failures are you attempting to overcome?

A major tv media outlet is looking to:

" profile someone who is in the LA area (from San Diego to Santa Barbara) that is in process of transforming his/her life as a combined result of the economic conditions and who is taking the Dervaes’ message as the inspiration for that transformation.  The more radical the shift the better.

Eg. The investment banker who is becoming an urban farmer would be an ideal candidate.

Of course I realize that something like that would be a real long shot…but you get the idea.  Someone who is making a gradual shift from one life style to another will work, as long as the long range vision is to end up somewhere very different from where they are today…and the shift is very visibly underway."

Is this you, or know someone who is?

Contact us at info@urbanhomestead.org

(Weather Update FRI AM) It rained steadily ALL night.  Justin has yet to check the rain gauge but I am guessing another 3/4 inches.  That's about 1 3/4 inches since yesterday afternoon.

Forecasters say more rain today and into Saturday.

Whoot!

While the garden and people (with gardens) are happy for this recent blessings from the sky,  Fairlight and Blackberry are, well not to happy, wondering why their human masters can't stop the wet stuff from falling.  Goats hate rain.  I mean hate with a capital H and they make sure you know that they are displeased with the weather.

In other news, we received word that a seed company will donate some bee & butterfly attracting flowers for the Feb 22nd Film & Food event.  So if you are coming to the event you may get to take home some wildflowers!   It's always good to plant a beneficial border near your vegetable garden. Not only are wildflowers beautiful but they attract beneficial pollinators.

This week  we made a bunch of soil blocks and planted our first tomatoes of the year.  Justin remarked that no matter how early he plants tomatoes they seem to produce the same time as the later sowing.

Here are a few pictures taken in the garden when it was nice and sunny.... now it's all soggy!

Soil blocks in the green house

Self sown, or volunteer, purple goosefoot

Blossoming low chill Anna Apples

Lacey snow peas wind up the trellis

Winter salad greens bask under the warm sunshine

It's MATER time.  Look at all those varieties.  Someone (I wonder who) is a tomato addict.

While the kitchen is hub for the harvest happenings and we gals hang out with the likes of Ms Guava and Mr Pepper,  outside we shift gears into a fall garden mode.

In the kitchen, since we had an abundance of whooper squash we made a batch of pickled squash.  Very tasty!  We also grated a froze a bunch to use in winter for cakes, muffins and vegetable patties.

Though, fall has fallen here in So Cal that means tropical fruits like guavas start ripening! So with these tropical delights, we'll be putting up jars of jam and preserves.

In the garden, trays of seedlings wait in the greenhouse to replace expended summer crops.  Our planting efforts turn to cooler weather crops like: broccoli, cabbage, kale, potatoes, peas, beets and more.

We still have harlequin bug issues. Never in our 20 plus years never growing here at the 'stead have we experience such an infestation.  One person we asked advise from suggested we vacuum the little buggers.  Sounds like a plan.

What are you planting and preserving this time of year.  How well did you fair in our Harvest Keeper Challenge?

How are you gearing up for your fall and winter garden?

Another busy day ahead as we stock our pantry full of homegrown.

Roasted peppers

Squash pickles

Pickled banana peppers

Luscious guava jam

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.

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NASA warming scientist: 'This is the last chance'

 WASHINGTON - Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.

James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.

"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance."

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Our different path....  path to freedom