http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com Living the good life one patch of dirt at a time. Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:34:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/02/whats-sprouting-in-the-garden/ A friendly fellow gardener named Maya posted some extra onion starts she had on the good old Seattle Urban Farm Co-op listserv, and I was intrigued by the name: Egyptian Walking Onions. They are a pretty interesting plant: "Egyptian Walking Onions are very unusual, heirloom onions. They are top-setters, which means ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/02/walking-onions/ The size of this egg that was laid today is ridiculous. It is at least twice as big as normal chicken eggs... there must be two or three yolks in there. The good news is, I think all of our chickens are laying again. http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/01/introducing-the-one-egg-omlette/ [caption id="attachment_346" align="alignright" width="200" caption="All it takes is a self-addressed stamped envelope to get some starter."][/caption] 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 ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/01/this-might-be-interesting/ There is a post on Craigslist right now for some free composted manure in our neighborhood, so of course I'm all over that. Turns out a truckload was given to the Jesuit house up by St. Joe's by a farm in Enumclaw, and there was a ton (probably quite literally) ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/01/a-steaming-pile-of/ 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 ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/01/feeling-the-heat/ We got some of those apparently compostable spoons on our last trip to IKEA (they're made of corn and feel like soft plastic). I thought it would be fun to see how long they take to break down, so I threw them in the compost as I was turning it ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2010/01/when-in-doubt-compost/ 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 ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/12/garlic-peeking/ 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 ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/12/kale-continues-on/ I got a comment last night from someone saying they saw the blog in the Chinook Book (the Entertainment Book for people who shop at swanky eco-conscious urban stores). That was weird. I told Alicia and she said it must be some kind of spam scam. But lo and behold, when ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/12/well-what-do-you-know-about-that/ We got a couple new chickens the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and I have to say it was a pretty ill-advised move considering the blood-thirsty raccoons that were still roaming the neighborhood. I spend nap-time the day before (if you don't have small kids, that being my only free time of ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/12/the-battle-rages-on/ It's been a bad week for our chickens. A week or so ago, I walked outside to empty the coffee grounds into the compost and the chickens looked a little despondent and on-edge. I looked a little closer, and then my stomach tied in a knot -- there was one ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/11/die-raccoons-die/ http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/11/future-farmers/ [caption id="attachment_290" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Farm City by Novella Carpenter"][/caption] Jared and Kris got me Farm City by Novella Carpenter for my birthday this year. It has a nice Bay Area connection for us, since the author is writing about her urban farm in the ghetto of Oakland, and we all met ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/11/book-review-farm-city/ The week before my birthday cider pressing this year, I changed my Facebook status to "in search of apples." One of my old students Kyle got back to me, saying he had apples and grapes, which was a double-bonus. We went out to his place in Juanita and harvested ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/10/great-grapes/ It's been a pretty crazy month, living in home-improvement limbo, leaving town more than we should have, and trying to keep up with everything. Despite the fact that I don't actually have time to do so, I decided to take a break from work today to turn the compost. It ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/08/compost-zen/ We went to Yakima on our yearly pilgrimage for wineries, minor league baseball, and of course, fruit stands. We came home with way too much produce to deal with, including two boxes (20 lbs each?) of tomatoes. They sat on the counter for about a week, and finally we got ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/08/tomatoes-two-ways/ [caption id="attachment_273" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes from the garden."][/caption] The garden has been neglected due to a massive home improvement project, but I finally got out and picked everything that was ripe in the hoop house and up front in our meager potato patch (that is all the potatoes ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/08/this-mornings-harvest/ Last October we put some cloves of garlic in the ground and wondered what would happen. They sprouted, endured a massive winter storm, and made it to July, which was my harvest date (that's what I remember reading in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, anyway.) Alicia was dying to pull it out ... http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/07/the-great-garlic-harvest/ Thanks to Brian for this link! http://www.theurbanfarmersalmanac.com/2009/06/chickens-in-the-news/