Lightweight Eats

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably noticed that I've mentioned getting produce from "our farm". No, we didn't buy a farm. Instead, we signed up for a CSA box!

"Our" farm

In Oakland, we tried a CSA share, but didn't find it worthwhile. Our local grocery store had better prices on local, organic produce and was half the distance (super important when you're biking up hills to pick up groceries). Heading out to Connecticut, I expected things to be a bit different, so I researched local organic farms.

Boy, was I wrong. Things here are WAY different than California. All of the vegetables in grocery stores look like caricatures of their original—the colors are too even, the shapes too regular, the flavor quite lacking and the prices astronomical. We could hardly afford vegetables, let alone organic veggies. Local was definitely out of the question—the going rate for ZUCCHINI, which grows like a weed, was $4/lb at our local market.

So in late spring, just a week before the first shares went out, we signed up for a seasonal CSA. It was a bit of a gamble, but it looked like a good group of guys running the farm, with a nice selection of vegetables.

And fortunately, I was oh-so-right!!

Visiting the farm!

Our CSA so far has been a marvelous experience. We pick up our box every Thursday about a mile from the rowing center. When I can, I like to ride my bike to pick up our veggies.

The farm is located about 20 minutes drive north of New Milford. It's a 30-acre, all organic farm. They grow a bunch of different things—greens, tomatoes, sunflowers, potatoes, radishes, beans, peas, blueberries and more! We get a nice variety in our box each week.

Coming from California, there haven't been any new vegetables. Still, it's been fun to get back some of the variety we'd had out West. Daikon and turnips have both made an appearance, as well as some fun shelling beans and very sweet snap peas.


Knowing that we eat a lot of veggies, we talked to the farmers and decided to get a full share instead of a half share. We could certainly eat fewer vegetables, but when we put our minds to it, we easily finish our full share each week.

In fact, we've also been supplementing our CSA share with veggies from our garden.


I'll write more about the GMS garden later, but we're slowly establishing a 30ft x 30ft vegetable garden just outside the house. So far, we've gotten a good harvest of mint, lettuces, zucchini, beans and cucumbers. It's definitely a work in progress, but it's fun making zucchini bread with veggies from the backyard!

Expect more updates through the late summer and fall, as we experience the full season of the CSA and continue to make progress in the garden.

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Apologies for the radio silence! We've been busy welcoming spring here at GMS.






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One of the things I am already learning is that productive vegetable gardens can be a bit overwhelming! At our old apartment, with limited sunlight, a lot of wind, and very few beneficial insects, we lost a lot of our growing ability.

Spring mix was mildly successful on the balcony.

We've eaten three heads so far.

Future grapes

We have harvested peas 4 or 5 times already.

The grapevine.

I like to micromanage the garden—pulling every weed and making sure each plant is perfectly placed in its individual plot. So I left the garden at just the right time on my adventures to Australia and CT/NJ.

Early spring is the time for inaction: seed and seedlings are in the ground; nature is providing regular watering; the sun is abundant; and the fruit is not yet enticing to garden pests. I know a lot of gardeners might disagree with this. In many places, spring is time to till the ground, weed beds, plant seedlings and prepare for the summer growing season. For us, that happened in November, December and January.

Some updates from around the garden:

Our beets and carrots are growing nicely, even in our lovely clay.


The peas have exploded; this was our early January planting (or December?). The trellis is less than expertly constructed but these huge peas are a blast to harvest.




This basil plant is a start from our new farm and garden store, Pollinate. It has five brothers and sisters hiding throughout the yard, some of which are quite happy.


The cabbages have made friends with the local cabbage butterfly and slug population, as have our lettuces. We're trying beer traps for the latter.


We've harvested about 7 strawberries so far this year! I'm looking forward to letting this strawberry patch run wild. I've interplanted bush beans recently, and I'm waiting on the arrival of some borage seeds to go in with these.


A blueberry fell off recently; definitely not ripe, but definitely a blueberry. Can't wait!


The grapes are growing nicely. I've also planted sunflowers in this area to help extend our fence and draw in the birds and the bees.


This is my first time growing corn. The women at Pollinate helped me pick out the right type of corn to grow: a hybrid that will hopefully make wind pollination more successful. I've interplanted squash, cucumbers and pole beans, although they have yet to germinate.


We harvested the last of the reachable orange crop this weekend. The tree needs a severe prune, but I don't want to disturb the flowers. Maybe next year we'll harvest earlier, before spring growth.

Next year's orange crop.

We've installed raised beds in the garden. The plants seem to be happy. Our spring mix is exploding and the radish harvest has been regular and tasty.





A few other treats growing in the raised beds: tomatoes, kale, broccoli, eggplants, peppers, green onions, basil, lettuce and more!

Our stone fruit tree is heavy with fruits. I've removed a lot of the fruit so the tree can focus on establishing itself and strengthening its limbs instead. Still, couldn't resist a few apricots, nectarines and plums.


The awkward contraption on the right, above, is all set to house pole beans, melons and cucumbers; just waiting to put the seeds in the ground. There's one little pole bean that survived the transition to the ground.


The raspberry bush is thriving; harvest has begun.



Peas, properly planted. These plants are short and mighty. They are just dripping with sweet, tender peas. I do wonder, had I planted them slightly farther apart, if they might have grown taller.


Our happiest little basil plant. I've been pruning this guy to encourage bushy growth; it appears to be working. I'm hoping for oodles of basil and homemade pesto this summer.


A young fig tree. Who knows what this tree has in store. For now, it's about a foot tall.


Lemon and lime trees, starting to produce fruit again. Our lime tree is much happier with the full sun and wind protection than it was on our balcony last year.



Chives, parsley, oregano and bolted spring mix.

The chives seem to have attracted every aphid in the yard.

In the front yard, we've got some cute little raised beds with mint, chocolate mint and nasturtiums.

Basil and cilantro. (And maybe some marigolds in the future.)

Kale and cabbage.

Spring mix, beets and lettuce.


I'm a little bit late with planting our flowers, but I'm hoping to put in some wildflowers as well as alyssum, marigolds and a nice shade bush in the front yard. It's time to start attracting some pollinators and beneficial insects!

Looking to the future, I've also got some seeds starting indoors still. Once our radishes, lettuces and peas are harvested, I'm hoping to replace them quickly with summer veggies, like cucumbers, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. By starting these guys indoors, I'm hoping to get ahead.

The ugly pea trellis is actually getting replaced by a planting of summer corn, probably interplanted with more cucurbits (squash/cucumbers) and pole beans.

The number one trick to having a green thumb? Grow things that require very little care and attention. My personal favorite? Fruit trees!

Our orange tree was left abandoned and unattended for months before we moved in, and yet we had an unbearably huge crop of oranges. I've had to put in some effort to prune the tree, making sure it didn't get too big and that air could still flow through the branches. Still, overall effort level was low. It got no water the whole winter and, aside from picking the fruit, no care.

The trick is to pick fruit trees that are suited to your region. The most important factor for the Bay Area is chill hours--or the number of hours that fall below around 40°F. From what I understand, Oakland tends to fall around 500 chill hours, too few for most tasty apples.

On the other hand, here in Connecticut, there is plenty of chill and perhaps not quite enough sun for summer fruits like peaches and nectarines, and it's certainly too cold for winter citrus.

If you buy a tree from a big nursery, it's probably labeled with the minimum number of chill hours. If your region is cold, apples, pears, cherries and plums will probably work; if it's hot, you could try figs, citrus, or some varieties of stone fruit.

Another factor is sunlight--our yard has more than full sun, which lets fruit ripen nicely. I think both blackberries and blueberries grow well in partial shade--and the former does have a thornless version if you're concerned.

We are using our full sun to grow strawberries and raspberries (notoriously easy to grow), as well as grapes and melons.

So far, in Oakland, our citrus and stone fruit have been most successful. Our lemon tree grows in a pot and produced over 20 lemons this winter. We will let it bear more fruit this year as it has grown considerably in the last 3-6 months. Our lime tree is producing its first fruits after suffering too little sun last year. And our necta-plum-cot tree has the tiniest of plums and rapidly growing apricots hanging from its limbs.


Fruit trees also produce shade, so be careful how many you plant if you want to grow veggies. We are using the shade from our fruit trees to try to extend the spring veggie growing season. Most of our favorite veggies are cool weather crops--peas, spring mix, lettuce, cabbage, kale, carrots and broccoli. We're hoping the shade keeps them from bolting before we're ready.

One of the most important parts of organic gardening is pest management. I'm currently working on planning the garden out at GMS. Since I won't be here, and garden care is likely to be minimal, I'd like to set it up to minimize damage from pests.

There are a few different ways to manage pests in the garden. I'm going to be relying on companion planting to take care of a lot of the pests while I'm away.

When I first started gardening, I wondered why anybody would waste any space on flowers. It turns out, flowers are a vital part of both pest management and the encouragement of pollinators. There are a few flowers that seem to be particularly beneficial, including nasturtiums and marigold.

Flowers work in a lot of ways. Some flowers attract beneficial insects, like ladybugs, that eat pests in the garden. Others act as sacrificial plants attracting the pests away from your vegetables, like nasturtiums for aphid management. Others, like marigolds, actually repel pests naturally.

I have always understood the value of herbs—they're a delicious addition to most meals and we use them in a lot of sauces and dressing. Fortunately, they're also spectacular for pest management.

However, some herbs don't jive with some plants. For example, chives can retard growth of spring peas. Other herbs help plants thrive: the classic tomato and basil combination can increase tomato productivity, and chives help carrots taste sweeter.

When planning a full garden, there are a lot of combinations to consider. I'm trying to approach the problem systematically.

Most plants can be grouped into families, which helps with companion planting. For example, brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, etc.) work well with the allium family (onions, garlic, chives, shallots, etc.). I've made a few general combinations (nightshades + mint family, brassicas + alliums) and plan to plant these into individual beds.

I've been trying to place flowers throughout the garden, as well as some generally beneficial, although less common, herbs. I've tried to leave spaces for: marigolds, lovage, borage and nasturtiums.

For the actual layout of the garden, I've been using Google Drive's spreadsheet. Our GMS garden is going to be 30' x 30' so I made a spreadsheet with 30 cells by 30 cells and dedicated each one to a square foot. I've been numbering all of the different plant varieties; after re-sizing the cells to be square, I can fill in the squares with plants and walkways.

We still have a lot of work to do—the area isn't tilled, and the seeds aren't really started yet. I have a feeling everything won't get planted in time in such a large garden, but with some sense of layout, hopefully things get planted in generally the right place!

There are an abundance of reasons to mulch your plants. In California, where summers are hot and dry, moisture retention tops my list. Weed suppression is another big one.

Some plants don't do well with mulching, like radishes and beets. But other, like peas, trees and bushes, do. I knew it would help me out a lot to mulch as many plants as possible--I hate watering and I'm pretty inconsistent about it.

If you go to your local garden center and ask for mulch, they'll show you big bags of bark chips. That's a great permanent weed prevention solution for walkways and around trees. Less great for annuals, where you'll want to turn up the soil and amend between plantings.

Since I'm working with relatively uninspired soil, I wanted my mulch to also improve the soil conditions. Partially decomposed compost was definitely an option, but my supply is super limited, and I'd like to keep it for direct soil amendments. If we had a car, I might have considered picking up bags of finished compost as mulch.

Instead, I went with a free solution: shredded paper. Between recycled newspapers and foraged ahredder byproduct, I'm slowly working on mulching my most precious plants. To keep the paper from blowing away in the wind, just wet it thoroughly.

As the season progresses, the paper will begin to decompose. When my veggie plants have finished their growing cycle, I can simply work the paper bits into the soil, where they will as organic matter, and probably improve water retention in the soil.

The peas have already received the royal treatment. Up next are the cabbages, lettuces and raspberries.

There are numerous blogs about gardening in Oakland; unfortunately, most of them stopped posting sometime in 2009. Of course, I'm a total amateur, so we'll have to learn together. I'd like to use some of this space to chronicle our quest to use our pitifully small but wonderfully sunny backyard to provide fresh produce for two hungry adults.

The first step was, of course, planning. I am, by nature, a planner. I will read and study, plot and plan until the time for action has passed. Fortunately, planning and forward thinking seem to be a gardener's friend.

I had two main planning concerns: soil quality and winter.

The previous gardener loved roses, and planted them along a portion of the edging. The soil shows signs of care--dark, loose, rich, lightly moist and sweet smelling. I expect it is slightly acidic (perfect for blueberries) but otherwise healthy.



The remaining soil was less fortunate. Dry, crumbly and pale, it seems only the hardiest of weeds were interested in growing. Had we purchased the house, and were sure of permanency in our residence, I would likely have sacrificed the first year of planting for soil amendment. If only I were that patient.



Instead, I have compromised. I purchased an organic fertilizer to amend the soil during this growing season. In the meantime, I am educating myself in composting and hope to seriously amend the soil this fall. Quality soil produces more, healthier fruits and veggies. From what I've read, if your plants are failing, fix your soil.

Compost Take 1: A Work in Progress

My second concern was winter. I would rather not have to can and preserve produce, having been spoiled by fresh produce my whole life. I'm ok with freezing some fruit and vegetables, but our freezer space is limited.

We don't get any snow and frosts are rare and mild, which allows winter growing. Still, daylight is limited and cold temperatures definitely limit the options. Planting for winter takes some planning.

After consulting a number of Bay Area gardening websites and scrolling through their resources, I came up with a planting calendar. I started by collecting suitable planting months for all of the fruits and veggies I wanted to grow; these were compiled into a giant chart.

In March and April, the possibilities are almost endless, but the harvest is all summertime. Instead, I focused on planting done in September through December: any edible marked as suitable for planting during these months was highlighted. These mostly constituted hardy vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale) and cool weather plants (lettuce, spring mix, peas).

The rest of the chart was highlighted to ensure regular harvest of favorites and staples (beets, radishes, lettuce, etc.) and abundant, extended harvest of summer's best (tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, etc.). This is the schedule I came up with:

JANUARY cabbage carrots lettuce peas radishes
FEBRUARY beets lettuce radishes parsley
MARCH lettuce peas radishes
APRIL beets cucumber eggplant lettuce melon peppers radishes
MAY beans carrots lettuce melons
JUNE beets cucumber lettuce peppers tomatoes
JULY beans cabbage lettuce radishes squash
AUGUST beets broccoli lettuce radishes
SEPTEMBER carrots peas radishes
OCTOBER cauliflower Chinese cabbage kale
NOVEMBER peas
DECEMBER lettuce parsley

This is the basic plan. I can obviously supplement these categories as space becomes available. However, I know that, come April, I will need space for a lot of plants. (Many of these are actually already started indoors; more on that in a different post.)

In addition to vegetables, we have supplemented with some fruits. At our old place, we had thriving lemon, kumquat and lime trees. (Ok, mostly the lemon tree was thriving.) Our current place had a very healthy orange tree when we moved in, which has kept us well supplied with oranges this winter.

We have since added: a grape vine, two blueberry bushes, strawberry plants, a nectarine-plum-apricot tree, and a fig tree. We tried to space out fruits so that we would have a year round harvest. Oranges should last us through April. May might be a lull, but we should have stone fruit by June. Berries will arrive late summer, followed by figs and grapes in the fall.

The nectarine-plum-apricot tree.

I'd like to keep track of what works and what doesn't, as well as note how well stocked we were in produce through the winter months. We are also toying with signing up for a CSA--we are excellent at using all sorts of strange veggies and it would allow us to grocery shop every other week. A small box might be enough to supplement our own supply of veggies.