The Noe Farm Report

While the garden grows...

2010-04-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

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

Check out the new digs

2010-03-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

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

And.. we're back!

2010-03-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T01:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Scoop: New Gardening Store Coming to Noe!

2009-08-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

We at NFR may have been dormant while we've been running around the west coast this summer, but our fellow Noe gardeners have not.

We just learned today that a new gardening store, with exotic plants as well as gardening classes and more will be opened soon on the patio behind When Modern Was. We've been noting for a while that Noe could use a gardening store (and we've been fantasizing about opening it ourselves, but we're all talk and no action so far), so we're optimistic about the new store's prospects.

See you at a class soon!

Fruit Dude Coverage

2009-06-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

We've been seeing dudes selling fruit (mostly strawberries) on corners around our neighborhood and elsewhere in the city for a few months. We've idly wondered about the fruit, the dudes ("the fruit dudes" as they seem to be called), the cost, and more but we still haven't bought from them or looked into it further.

Thanks to NoeValleySF who, after a heated debate in the comments, did a bit of actual journalism. Hats off to you, NVSF. I think I just might buy some fruit this weekend.

Meanwhile, our house was painted, which now makes it one of the most atrocious on our block. Ah, renting.

Gardening fills the plate

2009-06-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

Although we never really had any delusions that our little garden would be able to sustain us, there is a great sense of satisfaction when, if only for one meal, it actually does.

Tonight we went on a little harvesting rampage, and plunged our fingers into the dirt to retrieve carrots and beets. We've been too wary of committing vegetal infanticide up until now, so we've left them alone all season, but the tops of the beetroots were poking above the earth, and the carrot tops looked pretty healthy, so we dug in.

Our guys might be miniature, but they're ours. Every single part of the beet plant is edible, so today's harvest gave us some greens, stalks, and roots. Carrots were just big enough to join the party too, and our trusty and prolific arugula rounded things out. The non-garden team was pretty light - some chicken, a few drips of olive oil, and some seasoning (sumac, garlic, salt and pepper for the chicken, some aminos for the beet greens, and a little vinegar and mustard as a dressing for the arugula, if you must know.)

Clockwise from upper left - Beet greens, beet stalks, carrots, beet roots, arugula

Chicken got some help from our own sage, dried a few weeks ago

Beet greens and stalks took a sauna with some aminos

And the resulting meal is exactly the summertime reason that springtime gardens get planted:

Sickly Veggies

2009-06-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

Houston, we have a problem. I think.

Our Zucchini plant (generously given to us by SOMA Farm Report after their trip to Love Apple Farm) is getting eaten up by something. It's not clear whether it's impacting growth, but it certainly doesn't look good. We haven't done anything yet to address the situation, and we're open to ideas.

Next to our zucchini, our cucumber plant is looking a little under the weather as well. The leaves are turning a brownish rust color, and no sign of any cucumbers (but perhaps that's to be expected).

Meanwhile, the squash are mostly looking okay. They are huge! Small animals could live underneath them. Perhaps they do -- our one strawberry disappeared in the night in the past week.

Above us, in the (?) 80' tall Redwood tree in our yard, a war rages. Every morning, a pile of branches has been dumped on our sidewalk. We haven't heard a ruckus, but a birds nest was dropped from the tree over the weekend. No eggs - it looks like the birds lost this round. Weird to think all of this is happening in our yard, but it's all out of view and earshot for us.

On the road again...

2009-06-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

We've had a very busy couple of months, which is good because it gives our crops some time to grow without us getting impatient.

Our tomatoes have started to bear fruit - 6 of the Super Marzanos and 1 tiny Rose de Berne have appeared in our crowded half wine barrel. These plants were 4" when we bought them and now they are taller than me!

Our tomato plants started from seed are now about 4-6" tall, so hopefully they can catch up soon.

Last weekend we headed up to Napa and Sonoma for a day of relaxation to celebrate Brad's birthday. One of our favorite regions is Dry Creek in Sonoma, and we got a few great shots of the lush green fields of grapes that go on and on for seemingly miles.

Some grapes up close:

What a refreshing way to prepare for a busy week at work. Seeing these flowers every day when we walk out the front door helps keep spirits high as well:

Back from the wilderness

2009-05-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

What kind of excuse must we have for going so long between posts?! Fortunately it's a good one - we've been lucky to take weekend trips for 3 weeks in a row. First Reno, then last week Monterey, and we just returned today from camping for 3 nights in Camp Mather (near Yosemite).

Our trip to Camp Mather was for the Strawberry Music Festival, a twice-annual, family-oriented bluegrass festival in a public campground (strangely enough, owned by the City of San Francisco) 1 mile outside of Yosemite National Park. The weather was remarkable - 80+ degree days, 40 degree nights, so "layering" was critical for comfort. This was also the first time I'd been completely out of cell phone service for 3 days in longer than I can remember. It was nice to really unplug.

Now that we're back, we have some work to do in the garden: the nasturtiums are going to be removed from the raised bed because they're squeezing out our cucumber plant. They also seem to grow just fine no matter what we do to them so they probably don't need the coddling that some of the other plants desire.

Aggressive nasturtium, crowding out the cucumber

Our radishes have grown to full size and we're enjoying them with our abundance of arugula in salads. We believe some of the beets may be getting close as well but we're a little afraid to pull one just yet.

One full-sized radish, and one tiny carrot

Loads of arugula

Our lemon tree has reached the end of the season, and it seems like it would have potential to grow much larger if we put it in the ground. However, we've been looking at real estate lately and don't want to leave it behind if we move... so it may need to stick it out in a pot for another season.

We've had a great time traveling for the past few weeks, and we'll be back on the road for much of June and July. For now though, we're looking forward to having a few weeks here at home since we haven't seen much of our neighborhood in a while. We still need to check out Contigo, the hot new restaurant a few blocks away, and we have only 6 days to complete the Noe Valley Quest!

A Watched Pot Never Boils

2009-05-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

We can't just sit around and wait for the garden to grow. Summer is here, and it's time to get out of town. Last weekend, it rained for days straight, so our plans for raised bed #3 were thwarted. This weekend would have been perfect weather to put it in, but we had other plans that involved Reno (the biggest little city...), Virginia City (where Bonanza was filmed), South Lake Tahoe, and some shameful, forbidden fast food that we can only enjoy when we're far away from the city.

While we were away, the garden apparently had a party, inviting pests to nibble on the squash, the radishes, and even some of the tiny tomato sprouts. We'll have to investigate further and may posts to get input from our readers as to what's eating our garden.

It's been 5 weeks since we planted the radishes, so we finally plucked out one of the biggest ones (they're supposed to be ready in about 4 weeks). And lo and behold, it was a healthy looking (and tasting!) radish. We enjoyed a small salad of arugula, radish, and some infantile carrot thinnings. We're still trying to get the carrots going, and I can only assumed their cramped quarters are stunting growth. We couldn't really taste the carrots, but it seemed better than throwing them in the compost bin.

The radish and carrots straight from the ground:

Now this was funny. The interwebs told me that all radish greens are edible. I beg to differ. This was fuzzy, vegetal (not in a good way), and tough. Maybe a different variety would be different.

Our harvest, all cleaned up:

The final product:

Not a bad way to end a great weekend. And Happy Mother's Day to Candice, Helen, Kathy, and all of our amazing friends who are moms too!

A Brief Hiatus

2009-05-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our first weekend without a post! Shameful. It rained all weekend, and the garden is looking great. More updates to come this week.

xoxo,
NoeFarmReport

Aspirations...

2009-04-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

So an update on the tart I mentioned. It spilled. It spilled because I did not keep it completely flat while transporting it from SF this morning. But behind that root cause is the deeper issue: I didn't include enough gelatin and it did not set firmly enough. I'm crushed for now, but such is baking, and life: all very trial-and-error.

In the meantime, the Obamas are starting to harvest their crops as well. I wonder how well one of my tarts would hold up if transported to Washington DC? Based on a sample set of 1, I'd say not too well.

A Delicious Harvest

2009-04-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

Last night we got brave enough to harvest some of our arugula. The leaves are becoming variegated, and our friend advised to eat them before they lose their flavor. We didn't protest. We could only bring ourselves to pluck a few leaves for the smallest salad, but every bite was worth it. Arugula always tastes peppery, this these leaves were almost like a pepper steak. We just barely dipped them in a mild vinaigrette to let their own flavor shine through. It was the perfect antidote to a very rich potato and asparagus tart.

I also had a delicious tart in the works for a friend who recently lent me his camera to keep Noe Farm Report running after we drenched our camera with water. I wanted to use as much of our own produce as possible, so I imagined up a lemon tart with a sage crust. Apparently Martha Stewart had the same idea, so I used her recipe for the custard. I didn't like the sound of a cornmeal crust, so I used Alice Water's savory tart dough recipe and added sage from our garden.

Tart dough specked with sage

Four Meyer lemons from our tree got to star in this treat, and with that, I think our lemon tree is spent for the season. He's just a little guy, and this was his biggest role to date.

3 Meyer lemons from our dwarf lemon tree

The final product, with creme fraiche dollops on top.

The final product, which looks more yellow in person

The custard didn't set up as well as I would have liked (I know this because I made one for us, too!) but it's still quite delicious.

In neighborhood news, apparently we missed a Heineken truck catching on fire yesterday. I assume no one was hurt, and I don't actually care for Heineken that much so I guess it's okay I missed the chance to "save the beer".

A Neighborhood, What a Concept!

2009-04-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

Apologies in advance if I'm a bit gushy in this post -- I'm just reveling in the afterglow of a Really Great Weekend. It began with some gardening/blogging geekery: we had a visit from our friend in Dallas who was into gardening (and raising chickens!) way, way before anyone else we knew. I would go so far as to say that our friend's passion for gardening was a harbinger of what was to come. She's really experienced by now -- she was able to quickly identify almost every plant in our garden without any assistance whatsover, and in the dark. While we were awed by her expertise and her adventurous spirit (she's growing hops in her backyard in Texas!), she was excited about our gardening blog. She started her own (carrying on the "[neighborhood]farmreport" meme) and we'll be linking to it soon.

Saturday was a momentous day for us - we'd been talking about visiting Elizabeth Street Brewery since the day we moved to Noe Valley from over the hill in The Castro 2 years ago. We finally got around to it. A short review: the beer was delicious, and the company and conversation were refreshing. We were particularly excited (dare I say "inspired") by Richard and Ali and the way in which they're creating a neighborhood community and making great headway towards living out their dreams. We hope to go back -- if they'll have us! -- soon, and often. I think Brad's going to talk more about our day at ESB over on Food Crusader.

Back on the farm, we have some exciting developments:

The butternut squash, written off as dead for weeks now, popped up out of nowhere this weekend. That's a minor problem because we planted potatoes very close-by, but I suppose it will all work out. I'm pretty excited since BNS (we actually have an acronym for it, because we eat it so often) is one of my very favorite foods on the planet. It's out of season right now, but the Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter and Sage at Lupa is the pasta version of crack.

Late to the party, but better late than never?

The tomatoes outgrew their cage, so we switched to bamboo sticks instead. These guys are planted way too close together, so brace yourself for a disappointment later this season when the tomatoes are few and/or small. For now though, it seems like nothing is stopping them from being all they can be.

Carefully removing the cage, which the plants had firmly wrapped themselves around.

It was a struggle. I won.

Tomatoes, freed from the constrictive cage and given a clear career path to which they can aspire.

All taped up and ready to grow.

Finally, while some plants are just getting started, others must now die. The sage has grown to gargantuan proportions, eclipsing many of the other plants from the sunshine and producing sage leaves that are cartoonishly large. It's also produced some beautiful lavender and pink blossoms that look great in a vase.

That's all for now - I think it's time to head out for a check on the garden and a walk through the neighborhood. A neighborhood that is increasingly feeling like it's full of actual, you know, neighbors.

Beautiful Flowers from Alemany Market

2009-04-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

It's spring time and selection of flowers at Alemany Farmer's Market is amazing. I still think that Seattle has the best flower marts I've ever seen, but San Francisco is no chopped liver.

I used our most recent flower purchases to test the mettle of our new camera. So far I'm pretty pleased.

The ranunculas below were $7 for the 2 bunches (one yellow, one red). I grabbed these just for fun, and short on flower vases I used extra mason jars that are taking the summer off from storing canned fruits and vegetables. I was so pleased with how these turned out that I think we'll be using something similar for our wedding next February:

Post Coming Soon!

2009-04-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

I have a post I'm dying to get out to you all. It's a story of community (we're feeling some major Noe Valley love these days), redemption (what are these butternut squash thinking, popping up 7 weeks after planting?!), and achievement (our sage has a bright future in the form of flower bouquets and sage-lemon tarts). But for now, I have to get back to work. Can't wait to tell you all about it...

Progress and continued drama

2009-04-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

Spring is in full effect - we've got mad growth up in the Noe Farm!

Sage taking over the world

Rose de Berne climbing up

The tomatoes in our half wine barrel have decided that they're here to stay - our three-day heatwave earlier this week may have provided them encouragement. The tiny tomato cage we set up is quickly being overcome by some very ambitious Rose de Berne plants, so I think we'll be swapping out their training cage soon for a more long-term vertical solution - these little guys are going a little crazy.

The mysterious nighttime diggings have continued, only slightly abated by the application of cayenne powder. The most recent victim were our radishes - they managed to escape without any permanent damage, but were covered in dirt this morning as part of an inexplicable series of shallow crater-like excavations. We still suspect that the pursuit of grubs is motivating these nocturnal raids.

In possibly related news, on my way downstairs to pull a few bottles of homebrew from the basement last night, I had a face-to-face encounter with.... a skunk. In Noe Valley. A loud and not-scared-one-bit-thank-you-very-much shout didn't scare him away, and this morning a distinct odor was in the air near our back patio. I've never had occasion to wonder this, but do skunks like radishes?

Were happy to report that the farm has been getting visitors lately. Yesterday, our friend Monica visited as part of a trip to SF from Dallas. Despite the differences between our growing regions, she was able to identify every one of our burgeoning agricultural progeny. An avid backyard farmer herself, Monica's plot of dirt in Texas boasts chickens in addition to bountiful edibles. With luck, we'll see a farm report from her Little Forest Hills neighborhood before too long...

Check out our latest photos (our new camera finally arrived!) here.

Gardening is Blowing Up, Yo

2009-04-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

We were introduced to gardenregistry.org earlier this week. It's sort of like Facebook for gardens. It's a cool concept, and this product at least looks really slick. Some of the features I see include posting extra veggies for trade, sharing of photo albums, and it could obviously be a platform for distributing educational content to interested users. It appears that this was built by a a civic or non-profit entity, so I'm curious what the long-term plans entail. It does call itself a "registry" rather than a social network, but I think there is opportunity for the latter.

I was also contacted by an old coworker and friend who has recently started a garden in Oakland. He claims they were inspired by us, and I'll take full credit. But I think there is a bigger movement afoot here, and I am seeing new gardeners like ourselves pop up all around me. Gardening is the new Knitting.

In the meantime, we finally received our Panasonic Lumix FS15. We're checking it out and comparing it to the camera were borrowing right now and will post more photos this weekend.

Also, arugula update: some of it's ready to eat. Yum.

Early Summer Update

2009-04-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

We've had amazing weather in the bay area this weekend. We spent nearly the whole weekend in shorts, outdoors. We have sunburns! We should have been more prepared though, since there was actually a heat advisory due to the blistering 80 degree weather. You Texans at home should get a laugh out of this. The precautions include avoiding alcoholic beverages and wearing "loose-fitting clothing". We did neither of those, because we're not wussy Northern Californians. Just kidding, we love Northern Californians, and we're actually real wussies in the Texas heat. Anyway, point is, it was so hot here that it warranted advisories and special weather statements and the like.

This gave our garden a good opportunity to stretch its legs -- the tomatoes grew maybe an inch or more this weekend, and the radishes started exposing a new set of leaves which I can only assume mean we're a few weeks away from some fresh-from-the-garden radish on our tacos. We didn't do much work on the garden this weekend but I did have to remove the basil from the wine barrel. After my friend at SOMAFarmReport attended a gardening class recently and impressed upon me the importance of giving the plants space, I figured we'd just let the dying basil go (of course, we'll eat it) and give the tomatoes a chance to shine.

It was my birthday this weekend, too, and my good friend and amazing photographer Isaac (site: isaach.com) lent me a Canon PowerShot SD800 while my ordered and paid-for Panasonic Lumix languishes in UPS purgatory. We used it to take some shots of the garden, as well as our trip up to Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore (despite what the Google search results would indicate, it's not actually a nude beach... not that there's anything wrong with that... but well it's not).

Instead, it's an amazing beach with nice soft sand, decent parking, and absolutely freezing water. Even on a 80 degree day, 10 seconds in this water will make you numb. Before the beach though, we had a wonderful lunch at one of my favorite Marin County eateries, Two Bird Cafe. Brad's sandwich had smoked salmon, bacon, and apples. He swallowed it in one bite. After lunch and a few hours on the beach, we headed back to San Francisco. The only problem was that I had developed an insatiable, birthday-irrationality-fueled appetite for pie. Diner-style pie, not some French substitute like a tart. We completely stumbled upon Bubba's, a diner in San Anselmo which offers organic, high-quality diner food. Sounds paradoxical, yes? I had the Zorba the Greek salad (a large, fresh, delicious salad with gyro meat and feta on top), and Brad had sliders and french fries that were really amazing.

We didn't lose sight of our original purpose, however, and followed all of that with a slice of blueberry pie and a slice of lemon custard pie. They were both delicious and totally hit the spot. A wonderful birthday full of sunshine, tasty local food, and a garden photo shoot is complete. See the results below.

See the whole photo set.

Rocky the Raccoon

2009-04-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Drama on the Noe Farm!! Is this the face of our enemy?

This morning, on our way out the door to work, we were startled to find that 4 basil plants, in 2 separate locations across the yard from one another, had been uprooted. Not eaten, not even really damaged, but just pulled out of the yard. The Twittersphere was quick to answer our quest for an answer as to "what would do this?!" Thanks to our friends at noevalleysf.blogspot.com for sending over some information about the potential culprit: raccoons!

We obviously don't want to do anything that would, you know, result in dead mammals in our yard. So we're going to start with some cayenne pepper (a recommendation in the article linked above) and keep a close watch over this garden of ours. Tomorrow, in anticipation of my birthday weekend, I'm going to work from home. I hope I don't have a face-to-face encounter with a feisty, basil-loving raccoon.

A Quick Photo Update

2009-04-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

We are still waiting on our new camera, but with the gorgeous weather this weekend and endless sunshine, it's been easy to get a few good shots with the iPhone instead. Before we head out to see what our neighborhood is up to on this beautiful Easter Sunday, we wanted to provide a few photos of the garden's progress.

Beet thinnings:

Arugula:

Radishes:

The thinning of the squash (so traumatic):

Although we started the garden in an effort to eat seasonally and very, very local, I've gone a little crazy with the flowers lately too.

Evidence that the repotting of the lilies was a success:

Cosmos looking so beautiful that I forget we bought them for a functional purpose, to attract good insects:

An awesome potted succulent arrangement in a white elephant (just like a teapot I bought my mother) - from, can you believe, Home Depot:

Some beautiful spring-like flowers whose name I always forget from the farmer's market:

That's all for now. Time to get out into the day!

Camaraderie Through Gardening

2009-04-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

I loved this article in the HuffPo this morning about Michelle Obama and the White House garden. A few weeks back, when the Obamas first began their garden, there was a ton of press coverage about what they were putting into the garden (not beets!) and so on. But one of the things I'm finding so fascinating about gardening is how it's such a conversation starter.

My coworker and new office-mate started SOMA Farm Report around the same time we started this blog, and our shared interest in gardening is a source of a running conversation at work. Another coworker, visting from London when we first planted, came to our house to help put in the arugula ("rocket", to him). A classmate from grad school noticed a few of my status updates and wrote me about the garden he and his wife are planting over in Berkeley. My mother has continued to show me every week that she has the answer to every question I might possibly have (as she always has!) about gardening. Even more interesting, we've become aware of other Noe Valley blogs that we never would have discovered if we hadn't decided to report on our gardening efforts through the blog and Twitter. It's been a lot of fun already, and it's only been a month.

Which brings me back to the article about Michelle - it's incredible to read that she's having a similar experience! Apparently during her European tour for the G20, Prince Charles and other dignitaries and leaders showed an interest in her garden. How funny to think that their conversations are ones that I could have contributed to - maybe the Queen would like to add some photos of our blog to her iPod? Gardening is a common thread amongst people from all over - producing your own food is fundamental to being human. It's also fun and tasty.

Thin is In

2009-04-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

The thinning we did on the arugula last week, as I've mentioned, was a huge success. The clusters that were thinned the most are flourishing, with leaves 2 or more inches long emerging. The clusters that were left a bit thicker are still stuck in the microgreen stage. Perhaps A/B testing was invented on the farm.

Note the larger leaves emerging in the top and right bunches, with some leaf stagnation occurring in the more crowded bunches at bottom and left:

The lessons from Project: Thinner Arugula are now being applied to the carrots, beets, and spring onions. Although traumatic to pull these seedlings out, we now realize that we far over-seeded them. A few of the rogue carrot and beet seeds which strayed from the designated rows are growing taller and producing more foliage than the ones in the overcrowded rows, so we felt confident that some thinning would help. The one victim of our thinning that we can eat is spring onion - these baby spring onions could pass for chives and smell delicious.

Baby spring onions, who sacrificed themselves so that other spring onions could be big, tall, and tasty:

More photos to follow - our camera has really bit the dust so the few photos we have today were the exceptions in a 40-photo shoot of mostly overexposed digital waste. I even tried watering the camera (inadvertently) but it didn't seem to help.

We also spent a lot of time today on our ornamentals. Our cosmos and yarrow, purchased to attract friendly insects, have been sitting in a cardboard box all week. Our irises (turns out they are lilies, oops) were crammed into 10" pots like 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. Today we took the time to brave IKEA and Home Depot to get new pots and some fresh potting soil. You can see the results below, and more photos to follow.

Lilies, given room to be all that they can be as individuals, hanging from our front balcony:

Finally, you won't see much of the gardeners on this blog but after completing most of our major milestones for the garden this spring, we thought we'd show our faces briefly. But we know you're not here to see us, and that's okay.

With new pots, giving some basil a new home:

Looking satisfied at the progress with potted yarrow and cosmos near the beds:

Completely exhausted. This gardening stuff is a real workout! Very happy with how the farm is coming along.

Business as Usual on the Farm

2009-04-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

We've been a bit quiet this week, because after all of our hard work last weekend, things are running their course. The strawberry plant is sprouting some new leaves, as predicted by my mom, the squash is now starting to take over the garden*, and the beets are probably ready for some thinning.

One concern is some white substance appearing on one of our cucumber plants. Photos to follow - maybe our readers can help us diagnose and treat the ailment.

We've also enjoyed hearing from a few of our Noe Valley neighbors in the comments and on Twitter. I'm really enjoying the latest neighborhood news (and gossip?) on the Noe Valley SF blog. We're hoping to make it down to the Elizabeth Street Brewery before too much more drama ensues - we've been curious about the place since we moved to the neighborhood almost 2 years ago but still haven't made it over. Maybe in a few months we'll be in a position to trade Noe Valley produce for home brew.

A few photos from this week. We can't wait for our new camera to come in - hopefully Panasonic will start shipping the new models of the Lumix any day.

* Small exaggeration - but we do have 8 squash sprouts coming in. Not bad1

Microgreens, mega-tasty

2009-03-31T09:09:00.000-07:00

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!

Hard Work, and the Rewards

2009-03-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

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!

Meyer Lemonade from our own lemon tree

2009-03-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

Recipe for refreshment:

2 meyer lemons, juiced
1 part agave syrup
4 parts water
Ice

A teaser while we garden...

2009-03-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

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...)

A Big Weekend Ahead

2009-03-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Spring's Bounty

2009-03-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

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!

A Promising Week

2009-03-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Update: You Can't Beet Arugula

2009-03-19T08:06:00.001-07:00

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.

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.

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.

Update: Rocket Already Rocking Out

2009-03-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Once these guys reach 1" tall, we will thin them and have a tasty baby arugula salad.

A Farm of Micro Proportions

2009-03-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

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.