The Urban Farmer’s Almanac

It’s still technically winter, but the cherry blossoms have blossomed and it feels like an early spring. We have started some seeds inside, and some of the plants that were dormant are emerging from colder months. In order, below are photos of Swiss Chard and Pea starts inside, garlic coming up (planted in late December), rhubarb, and the new Egyptian Walking Onions.

All it takes is a self-addressed stamped envelope to get some starter.

Came across this free sourdough starter offer… I think it’s actually from the Oregon Trail and 150 years old. I’m mailing off for it today; look for an update in a month or so. Sounds like a fun thing to try with our bread technique. Read the “About Carl” section… what a champ!

This just posted on the Seattle Urban Farm Co-op listserv by Dave:

Here’s an interesting bit of chicken lore: Did you know that chickens can’t taste pepper heat? That’s right! You can feed a chicken a fresh habanero pepper, and it won’t even flinch. Lizards and chickens are alike in that manner.

Just in case you were wondering…

Our garlic is looking happy and healthy in the ground for next fall’s crop.  This is the only successful propagating we have done so far this year (or ever).  We used last year’s garlic to plant this year’s and so had no need to buy anything to get another crop.  Having a self propagating garden is our sustainable dream, but apparently reading one library book on the subject did not give us enough understanding to pull it off.  Hopefully this year we can choose better varieties and see if anything sprouts next spring.

Our kale has proven to be the most resilant crop we planted this year.   Our recent freeze finished off the last of the other vegetables still in the ground, which only consisted of lettuce, chard and one, rather ugly artichoke.  The lettuce had long ago stopped being of use to us since it was quite bitter, but neither Dan nor I had bothered to pull it up so it remained in the garden surrounded by the burlap which covered the rest of the bed.  With the frost it became slimy and unsightly enough to motivate Dan to pull it out for the chickens.  The kale wilted for a day or two and popped right back to life after warmer temperatures returned.  We’re now in the midst of a stand off about what to do next.  Dan thinks we should move it to the backyard in the hoop house to give it a warmer, frost free environment.  I say leave well enough alone.  We’ll see who wins this one.  In the meantime we’re enjoying what little bounty we can from our garden and using up the fruits of my canning labor over the summer.