FarmCity Food Gardens

Ever Considered Growing Mushrooms?

 

Winter is the time to dream up plans for the spring - and one of mine is the idea of growing mushrooms for the first time.  I figure mushrooms are a great way to use the shadiest parts of the yard to grow good, nutritious food - and to save money, considering the cost of some of the tastiest mushrooms!  

To that end, I recently ran across this great book on mushrooms, wild and cultivated:

Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets

Be warned: Paul Stamets is a true fanatic: he argues that mushrooms can save the world, no less! Personally, I have a wide tolerance for fanatics, and to his credit, Stamets offers some pretty good arguments about how mushrooms can be used to remediate badly polluted soils and water, and how they have huge potential as a source of undiscovered medicines.  And he offers a LOT of really good information on the cultivation of mushrooms.  

If you're already growing mushrooms in your yard, let me know how it's going!  I think it has great potential!

(PS: The photo is a stock photo from Coniac Publishing)

Winter Beauty - Cabbage, Broccoli and Radishes

Last night's heavy frost is just the thing for these winter cabbage and broccoli: it's the cold that makes them so sweet-tasting come the spring!   

 We planted these broccoli and cabbage from seed in July, then transplanted them from the seed bed to this bed when they were about 4 inches tall - near the end of August.  They're dormant now, but will start growing again in February, and be ready to eat in March. 

The cabbage below is ready to eat - we're just storing it "on the vine" until we need it!  The seed was sown outdoors in early May. 

These radishes, we planted in late August, and we're harvesting them now.

Bird Life in the Dark of Winter

A collage of a few of the birds that come to our feeder: chickadees and a junko (the feeder a Grade One project of my daughter's).  We also get various sparrows, bushtits, housefinches, vireos, flickers and downie woodpeckers.  Come spring, some of the chickadees usually stay to have a family in one of the birdhouses.

Recommended Links for Vancouver Gardeners

A couple of local websites to check out! 

Probably most of you know about the City Farmer News (http://www.cityfarmer.info): they provide dozens of good news stories every month about urban agriculture within Vancouver and around the world.  They must have the most incredible list of contacts who feed them this info - there's nothing like it.  It's truly inspirational!

And then, there is: Growing Edibles in Vancouver, British Columbia: Vegetables in the Front Yard (http://growingedibles.blogspot.com/), a blog by Janice Kreider, a retired librarian who obviously goes for a lot of walks!  She takes note (and often pictures) of front yard food gardens, commenting on what she saw and how it was done.  A really good resource for ideas about how to design and expand your food garden. (What ARE tomatillos, anyway?  They sound great).

Enjoy!

Great Animated Video

I just ran across this really sweet and enthusiastic animation by The Juki Museum, about local food! 

    

 Home is Where the Food is from The Juki Museum on Vimeo.

Holiday Gifts for Growers

We can mail or deliver the Gift Certificate to you.  The recipient can phone or email us for a consultation any time, to redeem the certificate.

Any other service we can provide?  Don't hesitate to ask!

*The Backyard Ecologist - $120 (+GST)

Mason Bee House and Two Birdhouses: the bee house is approximately 10 x 10 x 10", and has 25 six-inch holes for the bees to lay their eggs in.  The bird houses can be any size, within a range of houses from those suitable for chickadees and swallows to those large enough for a flicker.  All are made of sanded, untreated cedar - but if something else is desired, feel free to ask (see, for example, the photo at The FarmCity Project).  Within Vancouver, we will gladly come and hang them for you at a suitable spot in your yard.

*The Balcony Package - $350 (+GST)  

Three Custom Planters of Your Choice: these can be any size up to 16 (high) x 24 x 36".  If desired, one of these planters can be either a Strawberry Condo or the Tomato Terrace (for photos, see Small and Balcony Gardens).  Great value!  Within Vancouver, we will deliver them to your yard or balcony, and fill them with weed-free, nutritious soil.

*The Veggie Garden Starter - $250 (+GST)

One Raised Garden Bed: usually made of untreated fir, your garden bed can also be made of cedar (which costs more, but which has the advantage of added beauty and weather-resistance).  We are also happy to adapt to the particulars of your situation: we can alter the dimensions or the shape of the bed as needed.  The basic price, above, assumes a reasonably straightforward installation (on your lawn, or other more-or-less clear surface) - but if the bed requires notably more lumber, soil or labour to install (shrub/tree removal or other more extensive landscaping), we will charge by the hour for the extra work, by price for the extra material.  If you're not sure, don't hesitate to call for an appointment!  We'll come look at your space and do our best to come up with a good solution.

The Beauty of Bitter

Thanks to my partner's good eating habits (not mine, believe me!), we have a salad just about every day - and thanks to our garden, the main salad ingredient for six months of the year is fresh greens picked only moments earlier from the back yard.  

This late in the season, some of the greens are getting REALLY green - a rich, dark colour - which forecasts a pretty strong flavour.  But when these hardcore greens are mixed with younger, sweeter greens, I'm surprised to find myself enjoying the deep, bitter notes that the hardcore ones provide.  What an array of flavours in a small pile of leaves!  Who knew that the range of flavours in store-bought lettuces was actually so limited?

 

The Last Tomatoes of the Season

Today the rains came to Vancouver - but what a summer and fall we've had!  We harvested the last of our tomatoes on Thanksgiving Day - a record for us. Some are still green but they'll ripen up on the windowsill - a colourful decoration as the grey days begin.  

We also finished "winterizing" the gardens - sowing a cover crop of rye and vetch on the fallow beds, and mulching the garlic and asparagus beds with hay.  The photo above shows the cover crop (planted 4 weeks ago) growing between winter broccoli.

Jessica's Fabulous Kale Salad

Kale is so easy to grow, and in Vancouver can be grown and harvested almost all year round.  But EATING it can be a challenge for some of us!  Here's one fool-proof recipe: everyone I know who's tried it, LOVES it.

INGREDIENTS:

Kale – a bunch of kale (6 large leaves)

1/2 c. olive  oil

2 large tbsp miso

juice of 1 lemon

dash of tamari sauce

3 cloves crushed garlic

 

PROCESS:

 Whisk all the wet ingredients together

Chop kale well

Pour sauce over it.

Mix well.  Put in a covered container in fridge to marinate overnight

Keeps well (1 week in fridge)