These are the people in my neighborhood

I've been working on converting the front yard to ebdibles for a couple of years, it's a long process-- getting rid of bermuda grass, palm trees, planting fruit trees rearranging the dirt to create swales and lowered garden beds and so on. I hope to have it all finished by the end of this year, but spending a lot of time in the front yard has made me grateful to be an urban gardener (urban homesteader if you will). I see lots of people pretty regularly while I'm out there working, my close-by neighbors of course, and those are varied, kind and interesting people for sure, but today I'd like to talk about the other folks that pass by. So here are some brief profiles:

Backwards man: One of my favorites, he goes around the neighborhood several times a day in his wheelchair, backwards. We have brief conversations; when he sees me out working, he stops at my house to light his cigarette. Apparently he used to garden when he lived in San Diego. For awhile he got a motorized wheelchair and went forward, but he's recently returned to going backwards in a regular wheelchair. I asked him what happened to the electric chair (I'm sure this term isn't ideal) he replied, "It got a flat tire man, I'm totally bummed out!"

Murphy, the mayor of 14th St: I learned about the "mayor" part from a guy that lives a few streets away (on 14th St) that works at Home Depot. We figured out we were neighbors once when he was helping me with some appliance questions. Ironically, I see him nearly every time I'm at Home Depot and get caught up in neighborhood news, but have never seen him once around the neighborhood, but I digress. If there ever existed a man that would be well-served pedaling a bicycle instead of riding a converted one (powered by a lawnmower engine) it would be Murphy. However, he has lots of "business" around the neighborhood and must need to make his pick-ups and deliveries expeditiously. He's recently branched out from his uhm, herbal sales to making those irritating motorized bicycles. His sounds like a big giant bee, which sort of fits with his appearance, another one that he's made for a neighborhood guy sounds like a sputtering fart, and a third that was made for a possible business partner sounds like a mosquito, which brings me to....

The mosquito: Built like a mosquito, otherwise looks like a hippie. Almost like a cross-dressing hippie. He tends to wear a lot of tank tops and very short cut-off jean shorts. He used to ride an old ten speed around but then switched to this. He has a long-time lady friend that sometimes doubles up on the bike, but I have also seen him taking her around in a cart attached to the back of the bike that I'm pretty sure was made from an old wheelbarrow/dolly with the handles bent upwards for gripping. She looks a bit like the grandma from Beverly Hillbillies so the sight of this contraption going by will make anyone laugh and really brighten your day.

That old whore Lois: She's the neighborhood nuisance. Really the only regular pass-by that I really don't care for. I have no idea what her actual name is, but the term comes from a family member several generations back whose husband left her for, "That old whore Lois" Lois is always drunk/high and is often seen dressed bumbling around looking for business in a Jackie O-style outfit/sunglasses/scarf, with old beat up sneakers. She begs you for money with a variety of obviously untrue excuses and curses you if you don't give her any. No one gives her any. Her one positive point (that I've been able to find) is that she walks the dog that used to just stay chained up in the yard where she stays (I think it's an invalid's house who may be her grandfather). She peed on my neighbors wall a few months back.

The non-speaking dog-walker: A slight girl who looks to be in her early 20's that walks a great big hairy dog most everyday... in heels... that she can't walk in very well. I hear her clopping down the street and know who it is immediately. I usually say hi to her and she never says hi back. I don't think she's being rude, probably just shy, or maybe too focused on not falling over.

Jose: Jose unfortunately died of a stroke this past year, but he was one of my favorites and deserves recognition. His English wasn't great, my Spanish isn't great so our conversations were choppy. He always wanted to see what I was growing, we would talk about plants and cooking tips. One day he showed up in my front yard with some different agaves and instructed me to plant them, so I did. :) I showed him my two cotton plants once and he doubled over laughing saying, "You gonna beee reeeech!" I miss Jose.

I could go on, as there are a lot more, but this post is getting long. I'm so grateful to have this huge mix of folks surrounding me, maybe I'll do a part two to this post down the line.

Urban Homesteading at Rachel's Tiny Farm

Most folks by now know about the Path to Shooting Yourself in the Foot AKA the Dervaes family's trademark of "Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading". For those of you that have managed to miss it, the brief summary is that a prominent urban homesteading family in Pasadena got the phrases Urban Homestead and Urban Homesteading trademarked late last year. They then sent intimidating cease and desist style letters to other urban homesteaders or that dared use that decades-old term in their name or events. They had Facebook pages taken down of some folks and small businesses like Denver Urban Homesteading, a small farmer's market in Denver that also teaches and promotes self-sufficiency. There's a lot more that adds to the egregiousness of the situation, but a quick search will pull up dozens+ of stories about it, so I'll refrain from writing another one here. The long and short of it is that essentially the entire urban homesteading movement is upset. This is not a great move when your income, via donations and an internet store that sells urban homesteading-related items (with a pretty hefty markup so purchasing from them also includes an implied donation) depends primarily on other urban homesteaders.


I remember picking fruits and veggies at my grandparents house starting when I was very young, my grandmother also had shelves full of what seemed like hundreds of jars of canned foods that I liked to sit and stare at, though the only thing I wanted to eat were the cinnamon apples. She didn't teach me how to can, but she sparked the thing in my brain that made me want to do it, and has helped me along the way. It probably started in my grandparents gardens in the Ozarks when I was too small to remember and slowly snowballed into what it has become today, picking up bits of information and skills as I roll along my way.

Enough about that. In response, here are some things relating to self-sufficiency that are practiced here at the tiny farm. This is a post standing with my fellow urban homesteaders showing an overview of some of the things we do, illustrating that urban homesteading is a widespread phenomenon, deeply rooted and not something that one family can own. (No pics this time, sorry!)

Aquaponics: We're about 8 months into raising tilapia in a small (200 gallon tank, 100 gallon grow bed) home-made aquaponics system and loving it. I love the results and the concept, it's almost like having my own tiny biosphere in the backyard, without the late-night pizza deliveries... for those of you that remember that little fiasco. My goal for 2011 is to get the bigger system set-up and running. We're half way there, the pond is built and has gambusia (mosquito fish) swimming around eating any would-be baby mosquitos, I've just got to get the grow beds in and the mechanics finished. Another goal is to switch over to feeding the fish completely with homegrown feed (black soldier fly larvae, duckweed etc).

Food preservation: We do both dehydrating and canning. I prefer to dehydrate because the resulting product takes up less space and it uses only the arid AZ weather to create. (We use a solar dehydrator that I built which you can read about HERE.) This last year I found a brand-new pressure canner for cheap, so I'm able to do both water bath and pressure canning now. The pressure canner still makes me nervous and the safety monitor in me wants to wear a helmet and goggles while using it. For now I'm resisting the extra apparel and am I'm grateful to have the option to can low acid foods.

Chickens and Quail: We raise these (in separate areas!) mostly for eggs, occasionally meat. Because you can have quail roosters in the city, I'm able to breed the quail. In fact there's a batch in the incubator due to hatch the first week in March. The birds' manure can't be overlooked either, with attempting to grow as much as I do, that valuable fertilizer is necessary!

Composting: Because of composting, re-using and recycling, our household of two, including our businesses, now creates a small bag of trash every two weeks. Of course there are the other obvious benefits of composting.

Year round food gardens: Although we hit a new record low this year of 19˚ (how do you cold climate people get through winter??!!) our winters are pretty mild, generally with only a handful of freezes. Interestingly, the September through February season is often the most productive time of year in Phoenix, so 365 days a year there is something in the yard available for eating.

Solar power: The house, though on grid, creates 100% of the electricity it uses annually from photovoltaics on our roof. We also often cook with a solar oven, and dehydrate with the aforementioned solar dehydrator.

Rainwater collection: We have one 275 gallon rain collector and a few other smaller ones. Someday we hope to have a cistern, but that's likely a year or two off.

Household miscellany: I do our haircuts, we repair rather than replace when possible, use a clothesline, use a lot of homemade cleansers, make gifts or buy them from friends or other individuals that make neat things.

Seed Saving: With the exception of one Super Sweet 100 tomato I'm growing this year all of our seeds are open-pollinated. I love both the action and the idea of saving seed. As many of my friends know, I'm a seed hoarder. I'm trying to divest myself of this problem(?) but it's tricky. With all the horrible things that are going on in the mega-seed world, preserving open-pollinated varieties seems like an easy way to do some good deeds.

Helping others: Helping other folks that want to be more self-sufficient is one of the most important things an urban homesteader can do. You've got some skills or books you don't need anymore? Pass it on. Even if it's just taking the time to answer someones email questions. This year I feel lucky enough to have the ability to not only continue teaching chicken raising classes for the Valley Permaculture Alliance (formerly Phoenix Permaculture Guild) but to be recently added to their board of directors (It's unpaid, so don't get too excited about the possibility of the Tiny Farm adding acreage or anything). I was also able to host two seed swaps for Arizona Homegrown Solutions and donate about 700 packs of seeds (Remember that seed-hoarding thing?).

Our reasons for doing all of this are many-fold. Lessening our environmental impact is a big one. Another one is financial. My husband and myself are both self-employed freelancers, I'm a painter (art not houses) and he's an animator. As you can imagine, our income is sporadic and not huge. The relief of not having to worry about paying an electric bill is great. Due to saving rainwater, using many native-adapted plants and earthworks to use water most efficiently, our water bill is no higher than a house with a standard lawn. Our food tastes good, I know where it comes from and that it hasn't been genetically modified or covered in pesticides and our grocery bill is reduced. Finally, it's just a good feeling to live as self-sufficiently as possible, tens of thousands of people agree.

Aquaponics Update

I'm about 6 months into the aquaponics experiment. My first system, looked great (IMHO) and worked pretty well until it sprung a leak in the grow bed. I'm pretty sure this was in the drain area. I unfortunately placed the drain near a seam in the EPDM, which wasn't in itself a problem except that one side was regular thickness and the other was double thickness where the seem was and I think that caused a tiny leak that ended up making the wood swell and cause a big problem. Lesson learned. I didn't lose any fish, but I had been wanting to try an IBC system anyway. (IBC's are the giant plastic 275 gallon containers that things like bulk pineapple juice and liquid soap are shipped around in). These are a couple of pictures of that system.



I have the fish tank section shaded to prevent too much algae growing in there so it's a bit hard to see in these photos. I cut the 275 gallon container into two sections, an approximately 175 gallon fish tank and a 100 gallon growbed which is filled with hydroton (expanded clay pellets-- very lightweight, easy on the hands). The grow bed is mounted on top of a structure I built for it made out of 4"x4"s and 2"X6"s. It's on casters like the original system. Right now, because the fish need to stay warm I keep it covered in greenhouse plastic. One interesting thing I learned was that, even though the temps in the grow bed get up above 100˚ during the day, the greens don't bolt, presumeably because of the 68˚ water flowing over the roots every half hour. I keep a 250 watt tank heater with a built in thermostat in the fish tank just in cases the water starts to drop at night.

Growing tilapia

conrete reinforcing wire being used as a structure to support the greenhouse plastic

So far I'm impressed with how aquaponics is working out. These plants have no supplements of any kind, they are strictly being fed with fish water.

P.S. Now I'm working on system #3. The 400 gallon pond is nearly complete...

Seedlings are started...

75% of them so far...


I started the first round of my seedlings a couple of weeks ago. They won't go into the gardens until mid-late February but I like having a good sturdy plant to get into the ground so we can make the most of our short spring before the blazing summer when most tomatoes either die or stop producing fruit until October. For that reason I like to plant tomatoes that are mostly 75 days or shorter. I'll go as high as 80 if the variety really strikes me, but beyond that there isn't much hope of getting much, if any, fruit out of the plant. Peppers and eggplants, on the other hand, will tolerate the heat much better so I'll go as high as 90 days for them.

Below I've listed my "catalog" of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants for the 2011 season. The descriptions are mostly straight from seed catalogs. I'm growing hundreds of plants, but I'll only keep about 40-50. The rest I'll sell for $2.50 or so in the spring to help raise money for improvements to the tiny farm. :)

Eggplant:
Rosa Bianca: 70-90 days – A lovely Italian heirloom that bears medium sized, 8 inch, oval fruits.  The pink/lavender colored fruits are occasionally shaded with a cream color.  Always sweet and mild, with no bitterness.


Pepper:
Hungarian Yellow Wax: 70 days- Developed in Hungary, this medium-hot pepper has a beautiful golden waxy color that resembles bees’ wax. The fully mature peppers are a more orange-red color, but the fruit is traditionally picked when fruit is 3”-4” long and still yellow. A favorite for soups and stews, pickling, frying, canning, or roasting, the 5” long and 1.5” wide peppers have thin walls and don’t need to be peeled before cooking.

Italian Relleno Sweet Pepper: 65-75 days- 18-24 in. Delicious roasted, fried, and especially stuffed. Popular variety similar to the Anaheim chile, but slightly earlier maturing. High yielding and well worth growing. Transplant when soils are warm, spacing seedlings 12-18 inches apart. Enrich soil with mature compost. Needs warm conditions day and night to germinate and fruit well. Watering tips, during germination, keep entire seedbed evenly moist. Harvesting tips, pick at peak of color.

Nardello Sweet Pepper: 65-75 days- Delightful fresh or fried, the sweetest non-bell Pepper when ripe. An italian heirloom from the Nadello family. Red when ripe, these 6-8 in. peppers have shiny, wrinkled skins. Almost like candy.

Ordoño (NS/S): 90 days- An ornamental type of chile producing green, yellow, orange, purple and red fruits, which are an inch long and grow upright. Hot and edible. Collected from Batopilas Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico. Good for container gardening.

Pasilla Bajio (chile negro): 80 days- The Pasilla Bajio offers a rich, smoky, mildly hot flavor to many dishes. It is also called 'chilaca' and 'chile negro'. The name, 'Pasilla' means 'little raisin' in Spanish, referring to the dark brown, wrinkled dried pod. It is called 'chilaca' when fresh and adds character to red chile enchilada sauce and salsas. When used as a dried pod or in powder form, it is a very flavorful ingredient in many mole sauces.

Sweet Canary Bell: 80 days- Canary Bell peppers ripen to a beautiful golden yellow that adds a gorgeous golden color to any recipe. We chose this variety of yellow Bell pepper for its exceptional flavor, thick walls, and incredible color. Canary Bell sets its fruit early and continues to produce peppers throughout the summer. You can use these peppers as a vibrant accent in salads, and they are also wonderful when sautéed or grilled. Easy to grow, you can plant them in the garden or grow them in large containers on a patio or deck.

Tabasco: ~90 days- Hot, prolific, and hardy, this is the famous ingredient in Tabasco sauce. Narrow 1" fruits are yellow or orange maturing to red. Good for container gardening.

Yellow Banana (Sweet) 72 days- An AAS Bronze Medal winner for 1941 and still extremely popular. Large, pointed fruits measure 6-7" long and 1½" across. The mild yellow peppers ultimately turn brilliant red. A favorite for pickling.

Tomato and Tomatillo:
Ace: 80 days, indeterminate- This robust tomato has wonderful fresh flavor, but is an old favorite for canning as well. It has clusters of 6-8 ounce fruits, 5”-6” in diameter, growing on bush type plants that do not require staking. Being a low-acid tomato, it may be easier on your digestion if you are sensitive. You will be impressed by the excellent yields these plants have for such a large tomato! Resistant to Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt (Race 1)

Black Cherry: 65 days, indeterminate — This is a new variety that is very productive with cherry shaped fruits that have the dark, purplish coloring of 'Cherokee Purple.'  Flavor is wonderful, very rich and sweet. 

Black From Tula: 75-85 days, indeterminate- Deep reddish-brown beefsteak tomato has a rich, sweet flavor that is delicious. Fruit is smooth in texture and weighs from 8 to 12 ozs. This outstanding variety is very productive and seems to set well even when weather turns hot. Russian heirloom.

Bradley: 76 days, semi-determinate- A disease resistant variety released in 1961 by Dr. Joe McFerran of the University of Arkansas. Our TomatoFest organic tomato seeds produce compact, bushy, semi-determinate, regular-leaf, tomato plants with heavy foliage that yield copious amounts of 7 to10-ounce. dark-pink tomatoes with a wonderfully, delicious sweetness that is well balanced with just enough acidity to give you that old-fashioned big tomato flavor you love so much. Tomatoes ripen at the same time making it a great variety for canning and freezing. Suitable for Southern regions. An excellent fresh market tomato. Fusarium wilt resistant.

Chadwick’s Cherry: 70 days, indeterminate- Heirloom cherry tomato named after the late master gardener, Alan Chadwick, originator of the biointensive method of gardening. Flavorful, 1-inch, red fruits borne in vigorous clusters of six.  Add these cherry tomato seeds to your collection of cherry tomatoes and taste the difference.

Chico III: 70 days, determinate- Compact plant produces high yields of 3 oz plum shaped red tomatoes. Plants set fruit well during high temperatures. An excellent processing variety used to make sauces and puree. A variety suitable for mechanized harvesting. Great for salads and sandwiches too. Suitable for home gardens and market growers in Texas and the Southwest. Disease Resistant.

Chocolate Cherry: 70 days, indeterminate. Plant produces high yields of 1" diameter chocolate cherry tomatoes. This cherry tomatoes grow in cluster of 8 and are very flavorful. The tomatoes are crack resistant and hold very well on the plant. They can be picked several days before completely mature and allowed to ripen off the vine without sacrificing quality.

Coyote: 50 days, indeterminate — This variety was given to heirloom tomato collector Craig LeHoullier by Maye Clement during a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Harvest Fair show, as a cluster of fruit on the vine. She indicated that it grew wild in her home country of Mexico. It is a tiny cherry tomato that ripens its prolific crop to an ivory, translucent yellow color, shading to darker yellow at the shoulders. Flavor is superb.

Gardener’s Delight: 65 days, indeterminate- Also known as Sugar Lump, these red cherries range from 3/4 to 1-1/2 inch across and are loaded with sugary sweet flavor.

Hong Yuen: 75+ days, indeterminate- This Chinese tomato produces clusters of many red, mostly two-inch, sweet fruits. Hong Yuen is fine tasting for salad or sandwich; this excellent cropper can also be used for sauce or whole-pack canning.

Juane Flamme: 70+ days, Indeterminate- Extremely prolific French heirloom tomato that bears in clusters of 6, beautiful, 1 1/2-inch, round, golf-ball sized tomatoes that are persimmon-orange colored inside and out. A delicious full-bodied tomato flavor that literally bursts in your mouth.  Very decorative. Makes a great flavored sauce.

Nichol’s (NS/S): 75 days, indeterminate- These seeds originated from the Nichols family in Tucson. Volunteer seeds that just kept coming up, they have been maintained by the family patriarch for about 50 years. It is well adapted to the desert; it is heat-tolerant and prefers full sunlight. The tasty, “pink cherry” tomatoes are prolific producers. Halfway between a cherry and a plum tomato.

Principe Borghese: 75 days, DETERMINATE — Italian heirloom variety very popular in Italy and California for splitting in half and sun drying. They maintain color and flavor well. The plants produce heavy yields of small, red plum-shaped fruits. The plants will benefit from support such as caging.

Prize of the Trials: 75-80 days, indeterminate- Best overall cherry tomato for flavor, yield, and crack resistance. Productive vines bear orange, apricot-sized fruits that thrive in hot dry climates.

Punta Banda (NS/S): 75 days, indeterminate- Collected on the Punta Banda Peninsula in Baja California and grown out at our Albuquerque garden. The plants produced hundreds of red meaty, thick skinned fruits despite heat, water stress and poor soil. Great paste tomato.

Red Grape: 60 days, semi-determinate — This variety is modern and currently very popular in the fresh produce market. The fruits are bright red, weigh about an ounce, and are smaller than most cherry tomatoes (½ by ¾ inches). Since they are mouth-sized they are perfect for salads and garnish plates. Twelve to sixteen fruits per cluster.

Rio Grande: 80 days, DETERMINATE- Very large, blocky pear-shaped tomatoes are borne in profusion, making for large harvests to turn into tomato sauce, paste, or juice. Deep red fruit is about 4 inches long. Vigorous plants are well adapted to extremes in temperature.

Roma: 78 days, DETERMINATE- One of the most popular varieties for paste, sauces and canning. Compact vines yield large harvests of 3 inch long, bright red fruit that may be pear-shaped or plum-shaped. Thick walled and solid with few seeds; slightly later than Roma with heavier foliage.

Sugar Sweetie: 65 days, indeterminate- This organic, perfect, cherry tomato has classic sweet flavor. You may eat so many right in the garden, that it will be hard to get them into the house for salads! Large numbers of 3/4" to 1" fruit are produced in grape-like clusters on 2 foot tall plants. Even though the plants are indeterminate, the plants may be grown in containers on a sunny patio, deck, or balcony. As the plants continue to grow until fall frost, they will likely require a stake, small cage, or some sort of support.

Sungold Select II (Open Pollinated): ~75 days, indeterminate, This is a selection from the regular Sungold tomato, sent to us by Reinhard Kraft of Germany. This is one of the tastiest orange cherry tomatoes out there! This variety is not completely stable and a few plants still produced red fruit.

Super Sweet 100 (F-1 hybrid): 65 days, indeterminate- This is a home gardener favorite that has more disease resistance than Sweet 100 while keeping the same fabulous taste. Small round 1 oz. cherry tomatoes are deliciously sweet with a high Vitamin C content. Long clusters of fruit load up on tall, vigorous plants and continue to bear until frost.

Toma Verde Tomatillo: 65 days, indeterminate- YOU MUST PLANT AT LEAST TWO NEXT TO EACH OTHER FOR POLLINATION TO OCCUR. If you can grow tomatoes, you can grow Tomatillos! They can be used in a wide variety of Mexican dishes, and their unique flavor makes an indescribably tasty 'salsa verde', which some say is superior to red salsa. The 'Toma Verde' is a large-fruited variety that has been adapted to grow successfully in a wide variety of climates. Related to tomatoes, tomatillos prefer similar growing conditions, but they will handle a lot more heat and drought. The 3'-6' tall, indeterminate plants grow quickly and produce well in both southern and northern climates. Fruits grow inside a paper shell and keep producing until the first fall frost.

Violet Jasper: ~80 days, indeterminate. When these little Oriental jewels ripen, your eyes will be stunned with color. They have pretty violet-purple fruit with iridescent green streaks! Fruit weigh 1-3 ounces, are smooth and have good tasting (though some have complained it’s grainy), dark purplish-red flesh. This variety will also amaze you with its yield: it’s not only high, but incredibly high, being one of the most productive tomatoes we have grown. A great variety for marketing. Introduced to you from China.

White Currant: 70-75 days, indeterminate. Treat yourself to one of the most unique and sweetest tasting tomato varieties known. The tiny fruit are half the size of a cherry tomato and grow in nice heavy clusters. Creamy-white in color with just a tinge of yellow. Deliciously sweet, a favorite of many.

Yellow Pear: 78 days, indeterminate- These prolific miniature pear-shaped tomatoes are 1-3/4 to 2 inches long and clear yellow in color. They are delightfully sweet considered by many as 'garden candy'. Baskets of these are as pretty as can be. Tall plants bear large and continuous harvests

Yellow Plum: 70 days, indeterminate — A very old variety. The plants are large and open with small oval fruit, 1 by 1¼ inches, that taste mild and sweet. There are typically eight to ten fruits per cluster, some late fruits have slight neck. Very productive.

Zapotec Pleated: 80-85 days, indeterminate- Deeply pleated, pink to dark-red 6-8 oz. fruits originating from the Zapotecs of southern Mexico. Unique appearance with a rich and earthly flavor. Excellent stuffed, baked or sliced.



What varieties are you planting this year?

Deviled Quail Egg recipe!

People are always asking what in the world they can do with quail eggs. My favorite thing to do is to devil them. When the Phoenix New Times asked me for a recipe of something I'm baking right now, it seemed like an obvious choice (even though technically it's not baked :) )

HERE'S a link to my deviled quail egg recipe.

Picking from the yard and foraging the foreclosures

First off, let me say that my camera bit the dust, so I'm having to rely on a little digital point and shoot that I'm not too familar with and as such have been hesitant to use it. No pictures usually= No posts. :( However, a new camera is coming soon. :)

Our neighborhood like many of yours is full of vacant foreclosed houses. Many of these houses have fruit trees, and I'm not shy of saving that fruit from the roof rats. Here in Phoenix right now the daytime temps are around 70 and the lows are around 50. (Today was a beautiful 80 degree day!)With this kind of weather, November is one of our best times for harvesting. Today in addition to all I picked from home, I grabbed a big basket and went for a walk around the block. Our first stop is a house around the corner that has a big pecan tree in the front yard that reaches right up to the street. We always stop there and get pecans that are in the public right of way, people live here (though I doubt they harvest many of their pecans from what I've observed) so I don't get too grabby or go up into their yard. A few houses down from that is an empty house with a giant pomegranate tree out front so we hit that up with our citrus picker. Then around the next corner and halfway back to our house is a foreclosed house with no gate separating the front and back yard. The backyard has a huge lemon tree with hundreds of lemons on it. We got some. :)

There are also mulberries and a recently discovered fig tree (ripe at different times of the year) in vacant housing or in the public walkway in the neighborhood. I only know of one other neighbor that bothers to pick any...



So here is a picture of most of today's harvest, everything not mentioned above came from our front and back yard. I even canned some dilly beans (like a dill pickle, but using a green bean instead of a cucumber) from our beans.

Do you have anything to forage for in your neighborhood?

A day in the life at the tiny farm

I'm jumping on the "Day in the Life" meme bandwagon. Here is Sunday 10/10/10 at the Tiny Farm.

6:30- Changed the chickens' water, checked the automatic (timer) feeder and the treadle feeder, both had food. I gave the hens some leftover cantaloupe rinds and seeds from last night's dinner and a few greens. I have one hen that sleeps on the lip of one of the nest boxes and I've never been able to break her of the habit, so I take the big spackling knife I keep hanging on a nail in the coop and clean the poop out of one nest box.

Our biggest fish are around four inches now

6:40- Feed tilapia. Check on the quail chicks. I sold 25 of them, but still have about 72 in the stock tank. Luckily I just inherited a bigger stock tank, so they fit pretty comfortably in there, and since it's two feet tall, they can't fly out of it yet. :) I change their water, give them food and clean the bedding a bit.

A few 8 day old quail

6:50- Check on duckweed/mosquitofish pond. Feed and water all of the adult quail. I also collect a few eggs that got laid after I collected them Saturday night. For whatever reason, one pen likes to lay just after dusk. I have them in 6 separate hutches right now so all of this takes awhile. I'm looking forward to their aviary being completed!

7:05- The quail hatch before the most recent one had a few wry necked birds in it. I'm pretty sure this was caused by excess humidity during the incubation. I've read that it's genetic, but I've never had another wry-necked bird from my breeders, so that doesn't really make sense to me. Either way I want to be sure that the trait doesn't get passed on, and it's been awhile since we've had quail. I pick out a tuxedo quail for butchering, and after I grab him I realize I don't have my butchering scissors outside so I take the bird with me inside to get them. The whole time he just kept looking up at me in a pitiful way that landed him back in the pen and I ended up processing a much more severely deformed jumbo brown instead. This was a better choice anyway, as the tuxedo's posture is barely off, whereas the jumbo's neck was so crooked that it definitely impacted his quality of life. Butchering always makes me sad and a little queasy.
After processing the bird, I put him in the refrigerator in a pyrex bowl with a very light brine. (1/4 tsp salt and about 2 cups of water).

7:25- Water all of the garden beds. I usually have the automatic drip system on, but we got a huge storm and we have hundreds of gallons in rain barrels, so that means doing it by hand. I fill up watering cans with the rain water and hit all of the beds, most of which have newly planted seeds in them.


One of the rainbarrels

7:40- Pick stuff! My favorite part of the morning. I bring in some passionfruits, my first fall tomato of the year, a few black-eyed peas, some cotton and a lime. There is a lot of eggplant (and mint) still out there, but I have a bunch in the kitchen already and need to use it up!

8:00- Make breakfast. I cook up some chicken and quail eggs on the stove and have them with some cantaloupe and morningstar fake bacon. My husband hasn't eaten pork in at least 10 years so thinks this stuff tastes as good as the real deal. He's waaay wrong, but since I have no desire to butcher any pigs, I don't argue (much).

I have recently become pretty firm that I will no longer work on the weekends. If I don't hold myself to this, I get really stressed out and am an unpleasant person to be around (the word "tyrant" comes up a lot and is about the only PG-13 word that gets used to describe me). It's a nice day and the high is only in the low 90's so we go to the zoo and buy an annual membership with some of my birthday money. One of my favorite part is the goats, chickens, turkeys and peacocks. I just can't get enough of those things and I'm plotting to find some room to put some turkeys at home...

3:00- Back from the zoo, I feed the tilapia again and give the quail chicks more food and water.

5:00- I collect the chicken and quail eggs and seed two beds with peas, lettuces, spinach, golden beets, early wonder beets, thyme and onions.

A few of the chickens just wanted to say hi!

6:00- Start dinner. It's melon and roasted roots with quail. I chop up all the "roots" we have, which this time around are just carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic and add rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil and put them in a baking dish. In the center goes the quail from this morning stuffed with garlic and a little butter with a few extra pats put underneath the breast skin. Bake at 350 for a little over an hour, turning the quail every 15 or 20 minutes and basting with a small amount of butter.

7:15- Dinner! We saved all of the bones and little cartilage bits to make stock with in the solar oven tomorrow. Even a tiny quail can make a couple of cups of stock.

9:30- Final check on the baby quail, they get more food and water to last them through the night.