While the garden grows...

I've been busy over at @aunder and @foodcrusader has cranked out a few posts as well.

Check out the new digs

We're trying out Tumblr at http://blog.noefarmreport.com -- come find us there!

And.. we're back!

We have a lot of excuses for being silent for months. They include:

(1) We got married in Austin, TX on February 27

(2) We both started new jobs last fall

(3) We weren't really growing anything, which is both a symptom of our busyness and a cause for lack of blogging

All valid excuses, we'd like to think, but now we're back with a vengeance. As much as a vengeance as one might exert for gardening, that is.

Last year was all about learning. Perhaps it's obvious to some of our readers, but to those we fooled -- we were blindly finding our way last year. We had the books, we had a lot of good advice from family and friends, but mostly, we were throwing a bunch of seeds in the ground to see what stuck.

A few things we learned last year:

(1) The seed spacing suggested on seed packets is there for a reason. When you put plants too close together, they don't reach their full potential, and they may even rot.

(2) Some crops just aren't worth it. For example, our carrots were no better than the carrots we buy at Alameda Farmer's Market. Those carrots cost next to nothing most of the year, and for the time and effort it took to grow a few 3" carrots, we could have bought a bushel. This year we'll be focusing our crop selection more stringently.

(3) Get someone to water your garden while you're away for a week, or install drip irrigation.

Our action plan based on this new knowledge:

For (1), there was a quick fix. Today when we planted, we fastidiously placed our seeds 1/2", 1", or 2" apart as stated on the seed packet.

For (2), more thought was required. The criteria being considered during crop selection were:

• Frequency of consumption at Chez Thunderwood
• Cost at competing groceries/farmer's market
• Differential in taste/quality between home-grown and grocery/farmer's market

The carrot fell down on all 3 criteria - because we don't eat it often, it's cheap to buy, and it taste the same. Arugula, on the other hand, wins on all 3 - we can find a use for it at all 3 meals, it's $2-$4/bunch, and it really tastes amazing straight out of the ground. Assuming that other greens would equally qualify, we went all out on greens and herbs. Our crops for this year:

• Green and red leaf lettuces
• Bibb lettuce
• Mesclun
• Arugula
• Spinach
• Romaine lettuce
• Beets
• Radishes (these were particularly good last year)
• 2 tomato plants (down from something insane like 10 last year, none of which flourished)
• Tons of herbs: rosemary, thyme, spearmint, tarragon, plus our existing oregano

For (3), we will be taking volunteers for tending the garden should we go out of town. No plans to for now though - we're very happy to stay home and watch our garden grow.

The Noe Valley Sunday-Night Trifecta

I'm really digging the new Noe Valley Whole Foods, I'll admit it. I still have big love for the cheese shop, Bernie's, Church produce, Drewe's, and I think I'll do most of my shopping there. The main reason I like the WF is because it seems to have given the neighborhood a "center" that was missing, particularly in the evenings when most of Noe wraps up in a blanket of darkness and fog at sundown. 

In the WF this weekend, I saw a long lost friend, I procured some 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon that I haven't been able to find elsewhere in the neighborhood, and I got to commiserate with my fellow Noeistas while moaning about the long Sunday-night checkout line through the freezer aisle. 

After that, I picked up a magazine at Good News and stopped into Walgreen's for the final errand of the night. All of that in under 15 minutes. Thanks, NV. 

xoxo,

NFR

The languishing summer garden

This season's urban crops here at the Noe Farm have zoomed past middle age straight into their twilight. It's a little embarrassing. The arugula gave up long ago, and turned into a clump of tall straw-like flower sticks. The carrots and beets started to falter and let their leaves get ugly, so we harvested them and ate them up weeks ago, leaving a desolate patch of dusty blank dirt. Now the zucchini is starting to yawn, and the cucumbers are getting dwarfed by the rogue dandelion that has just sprung up nearby. It's looking like last call at the Home For The Aged Edibles party.

Aside from the promise of late-season tomatoes, this is a pretty depressing scene. If we had a bit more foresight, we might have started some autumnal crops earlier in the summer, so that the new plants could take the torch when the old timers retire. But we didn't do that.

Nonetheless, I think the time can still be nigh for our little garden to get some rejuvenation. Luckily, it's not as if we have a big scary cold winter ahead of us here in San Francisco, so I'm sure we could get away with planting some autumn crops this late. So the question now is what to plant? Any suggestions out there?

A Second Shot at Tomatoes

At some point soon, we'll post photos of what happened to our beautiful tomato plants. We thought we'd been neglectful, after taking 2-3 weeks of being away from home and regular watering. Fortunately, I came across an article in the SF Chronicle which absolved me of my guilt - apparently this year's unusually cold weather in SF has had a negative impact on tomatoes across the city.

Lucky for us, we planted an additional late batch of some heirloom seeds, which still have a shot at benefitting from San Francisco "summer" which is only now getting started. These guys are supposedly black krim heirlooms, which are supposed to be large beefsteak tomatoes. Looks like ours are a bit stunted, but hopefully they'll still be good.

Eat Real Fest Rocked

We headed across the bay today to the Eat Real Fest at Jack London Square in Oakland. It's still running tomorrow (Sunday, August 30) so if it's not too late, go there now!

It was one of those magical festival days when everything was just perfect. Some of the highlights:

• Stunning weather (if a little warm for our tastes)
• A performance by Bhi Bhiman, probably one of the only local SF musicians we know and love
• A new session beer discovery: Linden Beers' Black Lager - this delicious beer which is dark in color is very drinkable and surprisingly refreshing on a hot summer day. We are committed to finding a place to buy/drink this beer from a new Oakland brewery.
• The picked tomatoes from Saul's deli were insane. I didn't even know that picked tomatoes existed, and I was hooked after a single bite. 

We also stumbled upon a great housewares store, The Homesteader, in Rockridge. We scored 2 items for our home/garden - a vintage '50s kitchen scale in turquoise and a large white star, apparently crafted by the Amish in Lancaster County. I'd wanted a star of some sort for our patio for years so this is a big day on the Noe Farm.

See pics below....

Apparently, we have nearly 5lb of miscellaneous bulk foods from Rainbow Grocery.

The stars at night... are big and bright...

We also had the chance to welcome a very dear friend to the city who has just traveled 6000 miles across the country to move here. We're ecstatic about our new neighbor and the newest friend of the Noe Farm.