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

Early Summer Workdays

This past weekend, we had so many amazing people out to the rooftop to get dirty! Everyone was glad to get their fingers (and toes) in the mud. And, holey moley was it muddy. Rain poured down so hard you couldn't see at times. But, by the end of breakfast, the sky cleared, and we got straight to work.







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Dietrich's sister and kids came to help (and get muddy!) After much digging and mixing dirt with perlite and worm castings on Saturday, we planted all the tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and basil. All the beds were lined with landscape fabric by Nick and Elena, and most of one side was filled with dirt. Mike turned the compost over, To celebrate a long, hard day of work, we had a lovely huge dinner- compliments of Roman Berock'n, with wine by Mr. Prince and a delicious salad made from goods of the roof.

Sunday brought spontaneous rain showers- forcing us to take a break every once in a while :) Alex constructed a lovely light new lid for the compost bin!


Dietrich and I planted all the medicinal herbs starts into the golden spiral bed. It looks great- We can't wait until the plants make the bed a living spiral.













We thinned the carrots- and ate most of them (with lots of help from Izzy.)


We finished filling the beds with great amounts of digging. (Thanks for all the elbow grease, everyone.) We planted corn- in preparation for a "Three Sisters" bed. The Native Americans would plant their corn, then plant climbing beans to climb up the corn stalks, and then pumpkins as a ground cover.


Amna and I seeded sunflowers, Joel and his wife weeded almost all the beds, and Alex and Dietrich finished off the last half-sized beds. The muddy muddy sod was evened out a bit, and reconstructed to form some semblance of a lawn.





The garden is completely transformed. It's beautiful. The fruits of our labor are growing now, and will sustain us for months, and years, to come.

garden awakenings

Most mornings, I get to go out onto the roof and check things out. A grounding way to start my day- coffee and water bucket in hand.

I'm becoming obsessed with watching the growth of all the plants on the roof. I can't wait to see
someing sprout! The nasturtiums, burgundy and green garden beans, and pickling cucumbers. Checking them everyday (most times twice to thrice) is a beautiful way to learn plant anatomy and the different processes of plants growing: from sprout to leaf to flower to seed.

We were gifted all the seeds from our garden from friends who saved them or donations of Gethsemane Gardens. Most of them are heirlooms or heritage breeds- meaning they are older "tried and true" seeds. Their genes have not been puzzled about but by bees or a curious grower.
Heirloom breeds are not often found in supermarkets because they don't yield crazy amounts of fruit. Instead, their fruits may be strangely shaped or colored, smaller, and fewer. But, do they sure taste succulent. Subtle and powerful flavors and textures.... I can't wait.....

sage from our friend Matteo in bloom, along with spinach going to seed in the heat in the most conical way, and the first sunflower of the garden (with squash monkey hangin' out in the background.)

oh, gardens!

PS We have a garden workday coming up Saturday, June 5 and Sunday, June 6 from 11-5. Please contact me to join us!