The grainy photo here doesn't really do this meal justice, but you get the idea; it's the sort of thing you'd otherwise see arranged self-righteously on a square plate in a schmancy restaurant.
So far, little Noe Farm, so good!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Microgreens, mega-tasty
Call them thinnings or microgreens or dollhouse arugula - whatever you call them, they're really tasty little things, peppery and tender. The final resting place for our weekend rocket harvest was atop a lovely piece of wild Coho salmon, dressed with a little lemon juice and olive oil. Some roasted cauliflower from Alemany rounded things out nicely.
The grainy photo here doesn't really do this meal justice, but you get the idea; it's the sort of thing you'd otherwise see arranged self-righteously on a square plate in a schmancy restaurant.
So far, little Noe Farm, so good!
The grainy photo here doesn't really do this meal justice, but you get the idea; it's the sort of thing you'd otherwise see arranged self-righteously on a square plate in a schmancy restaurant.
So far, little Noe Farm, so good!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Hard Work, and the Rewards
What a weekend of hard work at the Noe Farm. Brad worked so hard he may have actually thrown his back out. And it's no surprise, because we brought in a half wine barrel, 12 cubic feet of soil, lumber for 2 new raised beds, lots of flowers, and more; then he dug through the hard clay soil to make a giant hole for our new raised bed; and then he filled it up with said soil and we planted.
Between our visit to the nursery and Home Depot, and our work Saturday evening and all day Sunday, our entire weekend was about gardening. And it was awesome. We had 70+ degree weather and full sun the whole time. It was hard to go back into an office today after so much time outdoors.
One of our projects for the weekend, perhaps the most delicious one, was to thin out our arugula. We might have been overzealous with the seeds, so we had what amounted to "arugula grass" that would never grown into big, leafy arugula as packed in as it was. I wasn't sure if I should really thin all the way down to 1 little stem every 6", so I started with little clumps every 4". I suppose we will thin again if the arugula doesn't start growing more.
The great thing about arugula is that you can keep planting on a rotation, so I put some new seeds in the ground. The even better thing about arugula is that you can eat the thinnings! So we had some absolutely delicious microgreens from our garden. They were spicy and fresh and the sort of delicious you can only get from growing it yourself
Arugula, before and after:
Our microgreens, up close:
Not a bad crop for only 4 weeks of growth:
The bigger project, of course, was the new raised bed. We decided to build 2 4'x4' beds so that we could walk between them. After a day in our yard though, we realized that the second one would never get any sun. So we are holding off on bed number 3 until we can find some good plants which can grow well without direct sun.
We took this big project on because (1) we simply ran out of room in the other bed, and still had seeds we wanted to plant, and (2) because we're so lucky to have a yard in San Francisco, it seems like such a waste not to use more of it.
The new bed, in all its glory:
We planted nasturtiums (edible flowers), cucumbers, radishes, and will plant some potatoes as well. We also bought some Cosmos and Yarrow, waiting to be potted, to attract "good bugs":
We read (link to follow) about putting a plastic pot (with holes) into the ground with your squash all around it for evenly distributed watering. Who knows. It certainly looks cool, so we're pleased:
One half of the Noe Farm duo:
We also did some landscaping at the front of the house but our camera (left overnight in the rain) isn't giving us great shots so we'll have to post that later. We have certainly given ourselves some serious work to do, and come harvest we're hoping to be up to our ears in produce. A good problem to have!
Between our visit to the nursery and Home Depot, and our work Saturday evening and all day Sunday, our entire weekend was about gardening. And it was awesome. We had 70+ degree weather and full sun the whole time. It was hard to go back into an office today after so much time outdoors.
One of our projects for the weekend, perhaps the most delicious one, was to thin out our arugula. We might have been overzealous with the seeds, so we had what amounted to "arugula grass" that would never grown into big, leafy arugula as packed in as it was. I wasn't sure if I should really thin all the way down to 1 little stem every 6", so I started with little clumps every 4". I suppose we will thin again if the arugula doesn't start growing more.
The great thing about arugula is that you can keep planting on a rotation, so I put some new seeds in the ground. The even better thing about arugula is that you can eat the thinnings! So we had some absolutely delicious microgreens from our garden. They were spicy and fresh and the sort of delicious you can only get from growing it yourself
Arugula, before and after:
Our microgreens, up close:
Not a bad crop for only 4 weeks of growth:
The bigger project, of course, was the new raised bed. We decided to build 2 4'x4' beds so that we could walk between them. After a day in our yard though, we realized that the second one would never get any sun. So we are holding off on bed number 3 until we can find some good plants which can grow well without direct sun.
We took this big project on because (1) we simply ran out of room in the other bed, and still had seeds we wanted to plant, and (2) because we're so lucky to have a yard in San Francisco, it seems like such a waste not to use more of it.
The new bed, in all its glory:
We planted nasturtiums (edible flowers), cucumbers, radishes, and will plant some potatoes as well. We also bought some Cosmos and Yarrow, waiting to be potted, to attract "good bugs":
We read (link to follow) about putting a plastic pot (with holes) into the ground with your squash all around it for evenly distributed watering. Who knows. It certainly looks cool, so we're pleased:
One half of the Noe Farm duo:
We also did some landscaping at the front of the house but our camera (left overnight in the rain) isn't giving us great shots so we'll have to post that later. We have certainly given ourselves some serious work to do, and come harvest we're hoping to be up to our ears in produce. A good problem to have!
Meyer Lemonade from our own lemon tree
Recipe for refreshment:
2 meyer lemons, juiced
1 part agave syrup
4 parts water
Ice
.jpg)
2 meyer lemons, juiced
1 part agave syrup
4 parts water
Ice
.jpg)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
A teaser while we garden...
We had a big trip to Alden Lane Nursery yesterday. It was hot in Livermore, CA, which reminded me remarkably of Amarillo, TX with its flat, wide streets. The nursery was great, although probably pretty pricey as compared to other stores. We attended a class and learned a lot about garden pests. More on that later.
While we were at the nursery, we considered giving up on our squash. After 4 weeks and no sign of them, as well as the large holes we'd found in our garden just after planting which seemed to be evidence that squirrels had made away with our seeds, we were losing hope. We were completely shocked to find when we returned home that the squash (4 of them, as if they are conspiring with one another) had stuck their heads up through the soil. A few of them had apparently done this after significant effort, literally moving earth out of their way and shooting up an inch on the first day.
One thing we'd been wanting for a while was a big half wine barrel for tomatoes and herbs. We got one, but not without significant damage to our car. More on that later.
We have a long day of work ahead to put in 2 additional raised beds. We'll be planting cucumbers, nasturtiums (edible flowers), some tomato seeds we received at Christmas, possibly potatoes, and eventually some lettuces. We also have some new decorative plants to fill in the area in front of our house, and some flowers that we learned will attract good pests in our talk tomorrow. More later (if we can move after all the work ahead...)
While we were at the nursery, we considered giving up on our squash. After 4 weeks and no sign of them, as well as the large holes we'd found in our garden just after planting which seemed to be evidence that squirrels had made away with our seeds, we were losing hope. We were completely shocked to find when we returned home that the squash (4 of them, as if they are conspiring with one another) had stuck their heads up through the soil. A few of them had apparently done this after significant effort, literally moving earth out of their way and shooting up an inch on the first day.
One thing we'd been wanting for a while was a big half wine barrel for tomatoes and herbs. We got one, but not without significant damage to our car. More on that later.
We have a long day of work ahead to put in 2 additional raised beds. We'll be planting cucumbers, nasturtiums (edible flowers), some tomato seeds we received at Christmas, possibly potatoes, and eventually some lettuces. We also have some new decorative plants to fill in the area in front of our house, and some flowers that we learned will attract good pests in our talk tomorrow. More later (if we can move after all the work ahead...)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
A Big Weekend Ahead
First off, I have fallen in love with Sunset Magazine. I remember that my grandmother used to have a subscription, and I don't think the magazine's cover has changed much in 25 years. As such, I never assumed I was in the target market for this magazine. I also thought it was focused on the south (like Southern Living). Amarillo, TX is known for its sunsets. So you can see how I was confused.
Until last week when I picked up a copy. And learned that its tagline is "How to Live in the West". And it's actually very current and useful. And pretty. I love it. We'll be using a lot of valuable guidance from it this weekend to add some more landscaping to your yard. We are aiming to put in a second raised bed as well. Updates to come.
I also really want to try playing around with succulents. I was first inspired by this installation at Flora Grubb Garden in San Francisco. I'll be starting much, much smaller, but maybe someday our patio can be covered in this organic art.
Until last week when I picked up a copy. And learned that its tagline is "How to Live in the West". And it's actually very current and useful. And pretty. I love it. We'll be using a lot of valuable guidance from it this weekend to add some more landscaping to your yard. We are aiming to put in a second raised bed as well. Updates to come.
I also really want to try playing around with succulents. I was first inspired by this installation at Flora Grubb Garden in San Francisco. I'll be starting much, much smaller, but maybe someday our patio can be covered in this organic art.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Spring's Bounty
This weekend we had some time to tend to the garden with some weeding and a more extensive photo shoot than we've had time for until now. But before we got to that, we made our weekly trip to the Alemany Farmers' Market (here is a cool review on LocalForage). This farmer's market is part of our weekly routine and it's the real deal, having been in the same location since 1947 and offering really fresh produce and cheap, cheap prices.
For example, this week, we spent around $30, and for that we got: an 8lb bag of oranges ($4), 5 lemons ($1), celery ($1), rainbow chard ($2), 3 pints of strawberries ($8), a bag of salad greens (mesclun if you're curious) ($2.25), some dried lavender for decor ($4), and 2 bouquets of flowers ($3 and $4). We also had a delicious breakfast - Brad went for the Salvadoran pupusa and I went for the Mexican sopa.
We're looking forward to buying less and less throughout the summer as we have our own arugula, onions, carrots, beets, and (hopefully, if they come up!) squash; but in the meantime we're happy to rely upon Alemany to keep us stocked. I'm sure that the same loot would cost $60 at Whole Foods, or $40 at Safeway for much, much lower quality. It's too bad that there aren't farmers' markets like this in every city. Of course, it's also just a reality that Northern California produces some seriously good produce.
Some of our best farmers' market finds from this week:
Very cool red-and-yellow striped flowers ($4). I have no idea what they are:
A small assorted bouquet that was criminally cheap ($3):
Delicious lemons ($1 for 5) which come in handy now that I've learned I'm allergic to yeast, making vinegar-based salad dressings a thing of the past. As you'll see later, we have a bounty of our own lemons growing on the patio but we go through about 1 lemon per day:
Holy moly strawberry season is here! They often have a small amount of strawberries year round, but we only buy them when they are in abundance and cheap. They are back to their summer rate of $8 for 3 pints of these gigantic beauties. We have this great Local Foods Wheel that tells us when foods come into season, and it tells me that strawberries are not in season until May. I'll let the free market win this round though - at $8/3 pints, I'll say they're in season.
Garden Update
Back on the farm, we took some time to weed - we have some aggressive wild mushrooms, oxalis, and other weeds trying to make their way in. We haven't yet seen the basil come up, so we left behind a few potential weeds that might be basil just in case. Here are some better close-ups of our beet and spring onion sprouts.
First, the arugula, which is continuing to flourish:
Itty bitty beets:
Tiny spring onions. Someday these will be as wide as a pencil. And then we will eat them:
Also, let's take a poll: Basil or weed?
Evidence of Northern California's climatic superiority:
Since we're just now coming up on our second full summer in our cottage, we are really starting to appreciate the perfect climate that San Francisco provides for our plants. We have a number of things we planted last summer and completely neglected throughout the winter, only to find them coming back stronger than ever this year. I present to you our Zombie plants:
Sage - more sage than we have any idea what to do with. I just clipped off the flowers yesterday so it should grow even more. If anyone wants some sage, let me know:
What the... we found this one hearty strawberry plant just before we razed the garden for planting. We didn't have a great success with strawberries last year but maybe this year will be different. This is the only 1 of 3 plants that made it through the winter:
I was completely shocked to find that my 2 pots of irises are growing. These essentially flooded and died last year, not long after I planted them. The pots have literally not been touched in months, and for a good part of the winter there was standing water floating at the top. If I weren't so lazy, they would have been dumped out. And now we have at least 4 healthy iris plants growing which may actually require me to re-pot to give them room to grow. Anyone have any tips on irises?
And our trusty lemon tree, Lemony Snicket as we call him, cranking out meyer lemons. The season should be ending soon but it's been pretty impressive how many tasty, tangy lemons have come off of this little tree. We're thinking about planting it but aren't sure if it's big enough, also if we move we'd like to take this with us. But I suppose it can't live in a pot forever?
Whew, if you've made it this far you're obviously a big fan of Noe Farm Report. Follow us on twitter if you'd like!
For example, this week, we spent around $30, and for that we got: an 8lb bag of oranges ($4), 5 lemons ($1), celery ($1), rainbow chard ($2), 3 pints of strawberries ($8), a bag of salad greens (mesclun if you're curious) ($2.25), some dried lavender for decor ($4), and 2 bouquets of flowers ($3 and $4). We also had a delicious breakfast - Brad went for the Salvadoran pupusa and I went for the Mexican sopa.
We're looking forward to buying less and less throughout the summer as we have our own arugula, onions, carrots, beets, and (hopefully, if they come up!) squash; but in the meantime we're happy to rely upon Alemany to keep us stocked. I'm sure that the same loot would cost $60 at Whole Foods, or $40 at Safeway for much, much lower quality. It's too bad that there aren't farmers' markets like this in every city. Of course, it's also just a reality that Northern California produces some seriously good produce.
Some of our best farmers' market finds from this week:
Very cool red-and-yellow striped flowers ($4). I have no idea what they are:
A small assorted bouquet that was criminally cheap ($3):
Delicious lemons ($1 for 5) which come in handy now that I've learned I'm allergic to yeast, making vinegar-based salad dressings a thing of the past. As you'll see later, we have a bounty of our own lemons growing on the patio but we go through about 1 lemon per day:
Holy moly strawberry season is here! They often have a small amount of strawberries year round, but we only buy them when they are in abundance and cheap. They are back to their summer rate of $8 for 3 pints of these gigantic beauties. We have this great Local Foods Wheel that tells us when foods come into season, and it tells me that strawberries are not in season until May. I'll let the free market win this round though - at $8/3 pints, I'll say they're in season.
Garden Update
Back on the farm, we took some time to weed - we have some aggressive wild mushrooms, oxalis, and other weeds trying to make their way in. We haven't yet seen the basil come up, so we left behind a few potential weeds that might be basil just in case. Here are some better close-ups of our beet and spring onion sprouts.
First, the arugula, which is continuing to flourish:
Itty bitty beets:
Tiny spring onions. Someday these will be as wide as a pencil. And then we will eat them:
Also, let's take a poll: Basil or weed?
Evidence of Northern California's climatic superiority:
Since we're just now coming up on our second full summer in our cottage, we are really starting to appreciate the perfect climate that San Francisco provides for our plants. We have a number of things we planted last summer and completely neglected throughout the winter, only to find them coming back stronger than ever this year. I present to you our Zombie plants:
Sage - more sage than we have any idea what to do with. I just clipped off the flowers yesterday so it should grow even more. If anyone wants some sage, let me know:
What the... we found this one hearty strawberry plant just before we razed the garden for planting. We didn't have a great success with strawberries last year but maybe this year will be different. This is the only 1 of 3 plants that made it through the winter:
I was completely shocked to find that my 2 pots of irises are growing. These essentially flooded and died last year, not long after I planted them. The pots have literally not been touched in months, and for a good part of the winter there was standing water floating at the top. If I weren't so lazy, they would have been dumped out. And now we have at least 4 healthy iris plants growing which may actually require me to re-pot to give them room to grow. Anyone have any tips on irises?
And our trusty lemon tree, Lemony Snicket as we call him, cranking out meyer lemons. The season should be ending soon but it's been pretty impressive how many tasty, tangy lemons have come off of this little tree. We're thinking about planting it but aren't sure if it's big enough, also if we move we'd like to take this with us. But I suppose it can't live in a pot forever?
Whew, if you've made it this far you're obviously a big fan of Noe Farm Report. Follow us on twitter if you'd like!
Friday, March 20, 2009
A Promising Week
New crops are popping up every time we look away. When we arrived home from work last night, we saw our Stover seeds Scarlet Nantes Carrots beginning to poke through the soil. We aren't completely sure that the soil below our raised bed is loose enough for the carrots to reach their full potential but we'll see. Here are our newborn carrots:
We're also seeing the beginnings of the spring onions but not enough to get a good photo.
Here is our morning routine - a good watering and a photo shoot as we head out the door.
I can't help but worry a bit about the garden while a construction crew rebuilds our neighbors' deck right next to the garden. Stay strong, little ones! Of course, the biggest threat is probably not an errant footprint but the rogue weeds trying to take over our arugula - aggressive oxalis just outside the planter and even creeping in a bit. We also have some wild mushrooms -- think we should try eating them? (Just kidding.)
Tomorrow some serious weeding will commence. In the meantime, our trusty lemon tree just keeps cranking out the produce.
We're also seeing the beginnings of the spring onions but not enough to get a good photo.
Here is our morning routine - a good watering and a photo shoot as we head out the door.
I can't help but worry a bit about the garden while a construction crew rebuilds our neighbors' deck right next to the garden. Stay strong, little ones! Of course, the biggest threat is probably not an errant footprint but the rogue weeds trying to take over our arugula - aggressive oxalis just outside the planter and even creeping in a bit. We also have some wild mushrooms -- think we should try eating them? (Just kidding.)
Tomorrow some serious weeding will commence. In the meantime, our trusty lemon tree just keeps cranking out the produce.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Update: You Can't Beet Arugula
This morning (I'm finally done with back-dated posts), March 19, we finally got to check in on our little farm after our trip to SXSWi (including the Delicious Tech panel on Food 2.0 which got us fired up about the many opportunities to use technology to help people eat better). We were a little nervous because California finally got some sunshine and we were far away and unable to water.
Fortunately for us, it looks like everything is moving along. This morning, we were ecstatic to notice two rows of beets coming up! I am obsessed with beets - roasted, grated, cubed, pureed, sorbet-ed (yum, Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream in the Mission). So I'm glad to see we're well on our way to having beets of our very own. We planted Ferry Morse Organic Tall Top Early Wonder Beets.
.jpg)
Still, the arugula/rocket is putting the rest of the plants to shame. The thinning may come sooner than we're ready (emotionally, I mean) at this rate.
.jpg)
Note: Apologies for the photography. As great as the iPhone camera is, it leaves a bit to be desired in low light. We'll switch to our Nikon going forward, and may even get our hands on a DSLR soon.
Fortunately for us, it looks like everything is moving along. This morning, we were ecstatic to notice two rows of beets coming up! I am obsessed with beets - roasted, grated, cubed, pureed, sorbet-ed (yum, Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream in the Mission). So I'm glad to see we're well on our way to having beets of our very own. We planted Ferry Morse Organic Tall Top Early Wonder Beets.
.jpg)
Still, the arugula/rocket is putting the rest of the plants to shame. The thinning may come sooner than we're ready (emotionally, I mean) at this rate.
.jpg)
Note: Apologies for the photography. As great as the iPhone camera is, it leaves a bit to be desired in low light. We'll switch to our Nikon going forward, and may even get our hands on a DSLR soon.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Update: Rocket Already Rocking Out
Call it Arugula or call it Rocket - we call it our first plant to sprout, a mere 4 days after planting. We planted Stover Seeds Arugula with the help of our friend Richard and it started popping up much to our surprise this morning.
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Once these guys reach 1" tall, we will thin them and have a tasty baby arugula salad.
.jpg)
Once these guys reach 1" tall, we will thin them and have a tasty baby arugula salad.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
A Farm of Micro Proportions
Today we planted our little garden in Noe Valley, San Francisco, CA, on March 7, 2009. Aside from some hearty sage still hanging on to life from last season, we're starting from scratch. More detail on what exactly we planted to follow. Thanks for stopping in and we'll do our best to keep you entertained by the miracle of (plant) life.
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