You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March, 2008.
ready to eat right now:
arugula
broccoli
celery
leeks
lettuce, butterhead
lettuce, escarole
lettuce, frisee
lettuce, romaine
mizuna
radishes, french breakfast
scallions
spinach
swiss chard, rainbow
herbs: burnet, chives, garlic chives, cilantro, dill, english thyme, espazote, lemon thyme, marjoram, oregano (greek), parsley (italian flat-leaf), rosemary (barbeque), sage, tarragon (french), lemongrass
growing, but not ready to be eaten yet:
asparagus
beans, fava
beets, bull’s blood
beets, dutch baby balls
brussel sprouts
carrots, scarlet nantes
cabbage, napa
cabbage, savoy
cucumbers, armenian
cucumbers, english
cucumbers, pickling
eggplant, japanese (ichiban)
horseradish
melon, charentais
melon, canteloupe
strawberries
tomatoes, black cherokee
tomatoes, black krim
tomatoes, crimson carmello
tomatoes, costuolo
tomatoes, early girl
tomatoes, stupice
tomatoes, yellow pear
tomatoes, yellow boy
peas, english
peas, snap
peas, snow
peppers, hungarian
strawberries
zucchini
polka-dotty2 pretending to be a farm girl
We like to think of our place as a peaceful one – an almost-farm, a gentle haven in the middle of the city. With gardens overflowing with bounty, and fruit trees beginning to blossom, we putter around in the rich soil, or break bread with good friends at the weathered picnic table, with chickens gently clucking (or at least chirping) underfoot, whiling away the warm, sunny days.
But there are other times, say for instance, last night- in which you’ll find us banging things late in the evening, assembling various Rube Goldberg-esque constructions, consisting of anything and everything, including styrofoam insulation sheets, moving blankets, bases of old architectural site models, and boxes containing as-of-yet-unassembled ikea kitchen cabinetry, in an effort to keep the chickens safe and sound…(Let me add that eventually it was dissasembled, with many a squawk, swear, and suggestion of taping the birds to the wall, to really keep them out of harm’s way for the night. Obviously, this was not suggested by the one who slept on the couch for two nights, with her hand draped over the edge of a cardboard box so that a injured, sleeping birdie could perch upon it and feel safe and warm… )
It’s been a crazy week for the chickens – crazy enough to cause the big lapse in blog entries this past week. Our fine-feathered friends are not timid creatures- not by any stretch of the imagination- they like to go boldly forth where no chicken has gone before! And with every adventure, our increasing desperate security measures…
As a bit of background information, you need to understand the girls’ current living situation. Right now, they are housed in a big “rubbermaid” type plastic container, on the counter of our second bathroom. (Refer to the photo from the previous post to see a little bit of the setup). The bathroom itself is galley style- a long counter on one wall, and the shower + toilet on the opposite, with the circulation space being the “hallway” in between, with door openings at both ends. (This makes for easy access for us- from either the library, or the mud room – which is very helpful when cleaning). Baby chickens can’t control their body temperature until they are fully “feathered out”- the fluffy down with which they begin their lives is not enough to stay warm, so they need a controlled environment with plenty of bright light, in order to develop properly. Besides food, water, heat + light, they also eventually need a place to perch. In our case, before we had time to place one in their container, they decided that they liked the edge of the same bin (look again at the photo from the previous post). They also have another container, shorter in height, and smaller in area, on the counter adjacent to their current home, that’s more of just a “holding area” to corral them, while their home is being cleaned, and food + water changed. These days, they like to hop back and forth from one box to the other, just for fun, and a change of environment. This is generally fine, but the problem of the height above the ground, coupled with their ever-increasing curiosity and ever-increasing ability to fly, has made things a bit more crazy than usual, and at times, a bit more dangerous.
This has led to, among other mis-adventures on separate occasions, overturned boxes with chickens squawking madly underneath, a temporary limp for one, a more problematic crooked neck for another (hence the late nights on the couch, propelling us further and further into deeply uncharted crazy pet people land), and perhaps most memorably, a little house tour…
I’ve mentioned that the chickies can fly, but in a pretty limited capacity. Its really more that their wings allow them to take bigger hops and jumps- there’s certainly no grace in their frantic flapping! As they grow older, the body weight of a chicken in proportion to their wing strength and capacity, will only let them get a maximum of about five or six feet off the ground. Right now, our girls can manage about 18 inches, max- just enough to get from the floor of their bin to the top lip, (in order to perch), and back down again.
Anyway, up until this little adventure, none of them had managed to fall off and land on the floor of the bathroom, so it hadn’t occured to us that we needed to block the doorways of the bathroom, to stop them from wandering. Well, this changed when we got home that morning, just a few hours later. Usually, they go to sleep when the house is quiet, and we come home to find them perched on the rim of their container, sleepily snuggling beside one another. This time, when I peeked inside the doorway, no one was visible! As I’m about to crane my neck to peer into the bin, thinking that maybe they’re just quietly eating, B exclaims, “look!” as he points a finger into the dining room, at the far end of the house. Six little chickens, milling about- looking for crumbs (and sigh, probably finding them), under the dining table.
Aided by the Hansel + Gretel-like trail of “accidents,” we deduced that the ever curious creatures had taken a full tour of everything minus the bedrooms of the house, and had probably started their free ranging adventures only minutes after we had left!
Quickly, we rounded them up, and had them all happily chirping and eating away, with just enough time for me to sanitize, mop and scrub all the (thankfully, concrete) floors. All order was barely restored before our next guest arrived, eager to partake in some freshly-squeezed lemonade, and homemade cookies, to spend some restful moments at the weathered picnic table, with chickens happily pecking and chirping underfoot, on a blissfully warm afternoon at our ever-peaceful, idyllic oasis.
the chickies perched on top of their home
More photos and stories to come soon! Hopefully, later today…
Here are some photos of the Barred (Plymouth) Rocks at 28 days. They grow so fast- probably double the size they were almost a month ago! You can see the changes in proportion (head to feet, to body ratio), and in feathers- their silky black down is being replaced with variegated black + white feathers.
This past weekend, we were in the local paper. Front cover, and above the fold, even. Its amazing to me how many people actually glance at the local paper- I’m such a creature of the computer age- the online version of the NY Times is about all the newspaper I generally peruse, other than on Sundays, when we spend a leisurely morning at the coffee shop, and read the Sunday edition.
So, all of our local friends and acquaintances saw it- and it was a big enough photograph that they recognized us. The article was actually about how rising prices and health scares regarding food have turned more people into backyard gardeners- not at all why we garden- but apparently that was the assignment for the article, and we were the only “normal” (laymen) gardeners to whom they talked, so we got to appear as the cheap, paranoid gardeners! The photo however, wasn’t bad, other than the overly serious look on my face as I planted my tomato seedling!
Anyway, all that fame went straight to my head. Picture the scenario: it was later that day, I was at the grocery store, it was past my dinner time, and I was starving. I thought I could just grab a few things. As is always the case when you’re in a hurry, the place was packed, and every checkout line had at least half a dozen people waiting. I scanned my options, and chose what I thought would be the shortest, fastest line- it actually only had 3 people ahead of me. I was dead wrong- as I watched with increasing disbelief as the cashier started talking to the customer, slowing her “checking” as she became more and more involved with the conversation.
I could talk about how the woman didn’t know how to use the debit card processor, how she picked up the wrong item and had to exchange it, how she came back and wanted smaller bills in change, how the next woman wanted things rung up on three separate tickets, etc., but suffice it to say, things did not speed up.
When it was finally my turn, (half an hour later- no exaggeration) I was not in a very good mood. The cashier started her normal pleasantries, with not even a token, “sorry for the wait” and I started bagging my own groceries to hint at the degree of my displeasure, and in order to just get-the-heck-out-of-there. Completely oblivious to the length of the line, let alone my mood- the checker stated telling me how much she loved the variety of potatoes that I had picked, and how she loved to make mashed potatoes with them, but only after first baking them, as she stopped checking my items – needing her hands to talk!
I had been telling myself she was young and new, and to be nice, but it was just too much! I opened my mouth to tell her how much I didn’t give a d–m how she liked her potatoes, when the woman behind me tapped my arm. “Excuse me,” she said,”but weren’t you in the paper this morning?” (Undoubtably the grim look on my face made me recognizable)… I took a deep breath, smiled and nodded. (Luckily, this break also got the cashier to start checking my groceries again). We chatted a little, and finally, I was on my way home, celebrity scene barely averted. Five seconds of fame, and I’m ready to start yelling at the “little people” – imagine what 15 minutes would do?
Having recently moved here (Phoenix) from the Pacific Northwest, where it seems like everyone + their brother/mother/neighbor/barista gardens, its a surprise to find that we’re among the few, at least among the regulars that we know, that garden fairly passionately. Oh, I’m sure that there are a lot out there, its just that we don’t seem to know very many. We do, however, seem to know a lot of people who are interested in starting to garden, or adding some new veggies to their repetoire. Lately people have been asking us where we get our gardening information- so we thought we’d share some of our favorite gardening resources:
The best thing we’ve found for growing in the desert is a vegetable growing calendar published by the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.
The same group also puts out additional information. Just click on the link that says, “home + urban horticulture”.
Our favorite gardening book is Desert Gardening, Fruits + Vegetables, by George Brookbank. If you live in the Phoenix area, you do need to adjust a little bit, because its written for primarily growing in the Tucson region.
If you’re not in Phoenix, and looking for information of growing in your area, a good resource is always the statewide Master Gardeners Programs- I believe every state has one, and they are there to help educate people in their community. Just ask at your local nursery for information.
As far as other information, I find the articles at Renee’s garden, a seed company with some terrific varieties of vegetable seeds to be very useful- particularly the bits about growing tomatoes from seed.
There’s always your local nursery, in our case, Bakers, where they are always willing to help out, especially our favorite people there- Jim and Wayne. They’re also our key resources for chicken information! And if you’re thinking about getting chickens, Jim can help…and who wouldn’t want help from a guy who named his toughest looking chick, “Jack Chicklson“!
There are a host of other resources out there, but we just wanted to mention a few. We’re also always perusing different seed catalogs, magazines, books and articles for updated growing information.
Happy gardening!
(sleeping sweety)
Months before we were even close to getting chickens, we were thinking of names. I’d been favoring the well-known and beloved chickens: Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Camilla (Gonzo the Great’s girlfriend). The problem was coming up with more than three- it seems as though the only other famous birds we could name were mostly canaries- Tweety, Woodstock, Big Bird, at least I think Big Bird is a canary… There’s also Woody Woodpecker and The Roadrunner, neither of which seemed very applicable, since their names state their bird species. This led to another tangent of naming the chicks after other animals- for instance, wouldn’t “Turtle” be a cute name for a chicken? (Although undoubtably somewhat confusing to the hordes of small visitors the chickens have been seeing). B generally favored less thematic names, the best of these being “Tamago”.
In the end, we ended up naming them by their distinguishing characteristics:
Sweety (right)+ Tweety (the Production Reds). Sweety, because she’s the sweetest, friendliest, and most willing to be held, and Tweety, because she’s the loudest, and the chirpiest- whenever everyone else is asleep, she’ll still be up, “tweeting” away- trying to get everyone else to stay up with her.
Chippy + Chirpy (the Ameraucanas)- because they look a bit like chipmunks from above- at least, when they were baby chicks. Chirpy is also quite talkative- almost as much as Tweety, chirping away the hours…
Spotty + Polka-Dotty2 (the Barred (Plymouth) Rocks). (Yes- we did get another chick to fill the void left by Polka-Dotty- more on this in another post). They both have a big white spot/dot on the top of their heads.
All the names have worked out pretty well, except that we seem to have a tendency to hybridize (hy”bird”ize?) them- much like parents with more than one child- Chippy + Chirpy are refered to collectively, as “the chipmunks” and Spotty + Polka-Dotty2 usually both get called “Spotty-Dotty”!
There are usually a couple of factors that play into our seed selection in the garden:
tried + true: seeds of stuff we’ve planted before- particular varieties + brands that have worked well in the past, that are generally consistent, easy to grow, and of course, tasty.
cookbooks: I scan through anything by Alice Waters, Suzanne Goin, or Thomas Keller, for references to particular varieties of vegetables that they prefer.
catalog descriptions: The better the description, the more susceptible I am to purchasing the seeds. Who doesn’t love seed catalogs? Not only because of the artful photographs of produce at its best, the useful facts and tips, but more than anything, for the possibilities that abound. The better the description, the more likely I am to by the seeds. Each different variety has got to be the next best thing- the one I need to have.
Its the last one that gets me in trouble- which is why I’ve got about 20 different varieties of lettuce seeds, neatly (or not so neatly) organized in my seed box. And why I only end up planting a handful. The best comparison I can find: pairs of black pants. A woman I know, at one point, owned ( I kid you not) about 40 pairs of black pants. Each pair was slightly different in cut, style and material- but it was all about the goal of finding not just the perfect pair, but the perfect pair for a number of scenarios. Some were all about the material- the weight of the fabric, the drape, the right amount of warmth. Others were about the cut- the pair that made your ass look amazing, the ones that lengthened your legs, that shaped your waist. The ones for going out, the ones for work, and the ones for hiking (damaged good pairs that were relegated to outdoor wear- not that they were actually suitable for strenuous activity). The point was that there were so many different pairs, each the next best thing- the perfect pair.
Now, I know that there is no one perfect variety of lettuce- there are soft, blowsy butter lettuces, for subtle salads with light dressings and sprinklings of herbs that let the sweetness of the lettuce shine. There are hardier romaines, for the crisp crunch of green, that can stand up to heartier dressings and seasonings. And don’t get me started on other types of greens, like spinach, arugula, + baby vegetable leaves (beets, chard, mustards) that will satisfy a number of disparate recipes + cravings. And then factor in all of the other requirements- growing days, suitability, hardiness, etc. that are part of every decision as far as what to plant in a garden.
But you always end up with favorites- pants that you continuously wear, lettuces that you eat over and over again. There’s a comfort, and familiarity that in the end, that makes them your favorites, that will always delight you, always make you feel good.
So I bring you one of our favorite salads- its an everyday affair- my default, at least when the handful of ingredients it contains are in season. Its not a fancy thing, or a subtle thing. We’ve served it to guests, but not at fancy dinners- its the sort of thing you whip up for nights that friends drop by with pizza, or a sunday afternoon barbecue, while having a few cold beers. Once again, the recipe is just more a guideline, rather that an exact specification. Most of our recipes with vegetables out of the garden are that way, which makes sense- since produce is so variable- sometimes the ingredients are sharper, more bitter, other times, less so. We like it more sweet than astringent, more crisp than bitter, but it’s up to you- so adjust accordingly.
Note: For information on how to supreme citrus, look here.
Grapefruit salad
serves 2
1 grapefruit, about the size of a softball
a handful of arugula
about 3 cups of romaine, torn into bite-sized pieces
1-2 tablespoons sugar, to taste
1-2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt, and pepper
parmesan or cojita cheese, to taste
Place lettuce + arugula in a large bowl. Supreme the grapefruit, saving all of the juices by squeezing every last bit of peel and membrane into a small bowl. Add the sectioned grapefruit to the same bowl, and sprinkle sugar on top, turning citrus in the juice, to coat lightly with the sugar. Remove the grapefruit sections with a slotted spoon, and place on top of greens. Add salt + pepper to remaining juice + sugar mixture, then whisk in olive oil. Pour entire bowl of dressing over salad greens. It will look like a lot (about a half cup) of dressing- but its really very mild- not your typical sharp mix of red wine vinegar + olive oil. Toss well, be careful to keep grapefruit sections evenly distributed throughout the greens. Shave parmesan on top, (alternatively, crumble cojita cheese), grind additional pepper on top, and serve immeadiately.
