garden: August

eggplant blossoms

mammoth red rock cabbage

Rooftop green dent corn

Black Beauty peppers

The rooftop- post Feastival trampled.

Edible Alchemy Summer Feastival 2010

The feastival last weekend was amazing. Completely amazing.

I estimate that we had over 300 people out through the night to come and support Eco and Edible Alchemy (the co-op I help to organize)! It was quite magical to experience the rollercoaster that is preparing for an event. So much hard work; CLEANING, re-arranging, planning, contacting volunteers + performers, ordering food, prepping food, coordinating things, CLEANING, and thinking through every possible scenario to anticipate all the details. (I was exhausted). Then, the event! Photo credit: Eric Scott Baker

the event itself was magic. A continuous wave of dear friends, new faces, acquaintances, and total strangers all wanting to share their energies and excitement during the night. !! Oh, and the food! and the music :) and the fire!

Our menu:

Edible Alchemy Feastival

Menu

Summer 2010

Bruschetta with goat cheese and raspberry balsamic reduction

Polenta squares with tomato-mushroom tapenade

Quiche with rainbow chard

Collard wraps filled with cucumbers, carrots, avocados, and marinated mushrooms, dressed with peanut sauce

Indian spiced sprouted lentils in lettuce cups

_____

Raw coconut and chocolate coconut macaroons

Vegan chai latte cake

Gluten-free raspberry cake

All produce is locally and sustainably grown, with the exception of avocados and ginger.

**

it was scrumptious! We're very excited to continue to do catering projects for events- our next feastival will most likely be a fancy schmancy harvest dinner party at eco, in October or early November. yum! The Edible team is currently canning like fiends to capture the delicious ripeness of the harvest season. We've been making pickles of all sorts, canning sauce, dehydrating apricots and peaches, simmering down berries, and macerating the most delicious herbs into pestos. It's good to put up food this year- I always want to and never make the time to.


On a fire-y note: spinning fire in the garden was a big part of the feastival for me. I love spinning fire in the garden... it's something about connecting two things that I love so much right now- the fire and the plants. (Though they don't mesh very when when put in tight quarters, sadly.) So many good friends from all over came out to play :)



Here, Kanyon from detroit throws down on the roof.
Photo credit: Eric Scott Baker

So, even though the Feastival was an insane amount of work- it was totally worth it. And I'd probably do it again. Probably sooner rather than later. (Look for a fundraising fancy schmancy benefit dinner, coming round harvest time. )

am I crazy? I hope so.

Edible Alchemy Feastival

Fire!

photo credit: Jen Dollface

Quite incompatible with plants: FIRE! I've been doing a lot more fire spinning lately, the summer lends itself to fire with the warm weather pleasant nights. We've been performing with Solaire a lot more, playing with choreography and group interaction. And costumes. oh, the costumes are so much fun.

photo credit: Maciej Strzelczyk

garden notes: seed saving and basil

we're saving kale seeds, which you can see in the weird pods in the front bed. There are so very many! The garlic is small (we need to plant it in deeper beds next time) and has been pulled out since this picture to dry to for 2 days.

Beyond, the lettuce is bitter and bolting- we're saving those seeds too. Dietrich and I are learning how to seed save this year. So, while we could quickly rip out the lettuce and re-plant, we're instead letting them "bolt" (flower and go to seed) so that we can replant them again, without having to buy more seeds. Hopefully the pollination went well.

And beyond, the tomatoes are huge for how late they were put in, with little babies already starting on the cherries! The peppers are starting, and the corn is looking great.


The basil is rockin' it. Here, the Tulsi Holy Basil, an Indian variety, is starting to flower. We'll be clipping off the flowers tomorrow to ensure big leaves to harvest and make into pesto. When the plant flowers, the leaves become smaller and less pungent because the plant is putting all it's energy into making flowers to become seeds. This is how it reproduces for next year's generation... we're trying to trick it to wait a while.



Here's a view of the center beds. The medicinal herb bed is amazing, it's filling out really well. And they all smell so good! Like plants should ;)

Baby Beans

These royal burgundies grow everytime I look at them. Soon, nom!

growth

The garden is growing! Amazing to see how everything perseveres on despite all the rain and spring storms.



Above: earth dent corn.

above right: Thai Basil

right: Flat leaf Parsley




The cats still love it out there. I mean, duh, really.



Kale flowers, and Sweet Genovese Basil. Nom.


and, Eleven kitty exploring!













Monsoon season this year was indeed a monsoon season. It stormed and rained most of June- flooding out a lot of our farmers and their crops for Edible Alchemy. Eep. But, the fruit looks absolutely decadent. The vegetables are a little sad, but not that sad :) They're still delicious. Things are getting a bit dry-er now, which is more than welcome. Although it'll require more watering on the roof now.


Eco gets a new roof, a re-organized garage, a re-finished attic live space, new roommates, and re-intentioned basement all this coming July. Watch out for a flurry of work... Wa-hoo! Eco reboot 20.10