starting seedlings

you can dooooo it!

with lots of help from a few lovely ladies (amy & jessica) and an awesome website, i constructed a few seedling pots from old newspapers, and started 5 types of tomatoes, 3 different peppers, 2 varieties of eggplant and sevvveral herbs. i also used old egg cartons (with drainage holes punched through the bottoms) and a snazzy mini greenhouse (thanks, becky & steve!) to start the li'l sprouts. in several weeks, once there's no longer a chance for frost, we'll transplant these babies to the farm, and cross our fingers that they can survive the golf-eggs, geese, bunnies, deer, sparse watering, and dense clay soil. in other words, we'll be hoping for a miracle.

in addition to the benefit of reusing scraps that would otherwise end up in the trash, another bonus when using the newspaper pots is the ease of transplanting them: you can simply unwrap the bottom and plop the whole thing into the ground! the newspaper will biodegrade, no problemo. the paper pot instructions can be found here:  http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2009/03/how-to-make-newspaper-seed-pots/

aren't they cute?

once the pots were constructed (and labeled with a permanent marker!), we filled them with a starter mix and moistened (ha, becky!) with warm water. we then popped in a few -- or a lot-- of seeds and watered again. i created a setup with an electric blanket beneath the pots initially, since seeds prefer more heat to germinate than the snazzy new programmable thermostat allows in our house. i also secured a grow light nearby, to provide "sun"light for their happiness. a southern-facing window will also do the trick, if you have the luxury.

baby forest

once sprouted, i removed the electric blanket, and have been misting them with a weak chamomile tea, which is supposed to keep them from damping off. they seem to be liking this treatment, but no matter how much i ask them, they haven't spoken back to let me know for sure. i think the idea is to keep the soil moist with the spray bottle, and occasionally water them from the bottom, if possible, to encourage root growth. i've also been rotating them, to keep the stems growing straight-ish, instead of crookedly toward the "sun."

i must admit, after doing this, i truly believe anyone can start seeds at home. with a little effort, it will certainly save money over purchasing seedlings later on. and, it's rather mood enhancing to envision the bounties of spring and summer during the cold winter months.

happy planting!
xx a.

ordering seeds

big hopes in little packages

one of the most fun parts of this farming thing has been the dreaming stage; mulling over a seed catalog, imagining your space and favorite edibles. most experienced farmers, rumor has it, do this during the winter months, as early as december. dad and i, however, jumped on the bandwagon a little late, ordering at the end of february. we didn't let that discourage us from ordering wayyyy too many seeds for our own good. and when they arrived in the mail (within only a few days!), it was incredible.

old seed catalogs enveloped the seed packets

thanks to my amazing urban farmer neighbor, Super Rochelle, we ordered our seeds from a responsible, regional company called Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE). based in Virginia, this group focuses on offering open-pollinated, heirloom, and some organic varieties that grow well in the Southeast. this means you can reliably grow the same crops that have been grow in the area for decades, and save your seeds each year without Monsanto suing you. that's enough to make me do a little jig, even though i haven't learned about saving seeds...yet.

what will we be growing, you ask? everything. well, almost. the plan is to plant onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, melons, greens, garlic, turnips, brussels sprouts, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, peanuts, okra, squashes, beets, and maybe more. mom gave me blueberry bushes for my birthday (er--early birthday?), so i'll be planting those a la maison, along with herbs and tomatoes. one day, we'll clear out the backyard, and have a li'l home farm, maybe with some chickens. one day, many dreams from now...

next, starting seedlings!

xx a.

 

chewy oatmeal banana-nut cookies

pure banana-nut goodness

i never buy bananas anymore, but i LOVE to keep other people's bananas from ending up in the trash. typically, i get 2 - 3 bananas, if i'm lucky, from a friend--*cough*, karen. i crave my recipe for banana-nut muffins, so i almost always make those with my trash-bananas.

with chocolate chips freckles

recently, however, my mother gave me so many bananas that i made the muffins and still had 2 bananas left over! i'm not exactly sure how my mom had so many going bad at once, but i sure do love the fact that she beaming when i last visited her and she told me she'd saved them for me. god, i love that woman.

with half-melted oreo icing

anywho...after singlehandedly eating 3/4 of a dozen delicious muffins, i couldn't bear to bake another batch immediately. however, letting the bananas (a.k.a. gold) go to waste was out of the question. so, after a futile internet search for non-cakey banana cookies, i decided to go to a reliable source for inspiration and guidance: smittenkitchen.com. *swoon* oh, and the oreo cookies i mention later are from the same site, and are worthy of their own post, which is coming soon.

so, please enjoy my adapted version of SK's deliciousness below:

CHEWY OATMEAL BANANA-NUT COOKIES

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 medium-sized ripened banana, chopped into small bits

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (i used whole wheat)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Handful of dark chocolate chips (optional) or smears of leftover homemade oreo filling as icing

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). (or don't, really, since the chilling helps the cookies stay thick)

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add in banana chunks and vanilla, and mix until incorporated nicely. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and walnuts. Dough should be rather thick and sticky.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. You could also bake them right away, if you’re impatient, but I do find that they end up slighly less thick.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool. Add 3 - 4 Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips to the tops while still hot, or ice using leftover oreo icing-- if you're lucky enough to have some in your fridge, as I did.

rogue farming dreams

my original intention for this blog was to document my experiences with food. at first that meant including interactions with food, post farmers' market or grocery acquisition. now, thanks mostly to my mom's influential green thumb and my dad's unadulterated imagination, i am about to interact with food on perhaps the most critical part its life's journey: i'll be growing it! ya-owww!

so, as most of my adventures-in-life go, this blog's focus has meandered and found a slightly different direction than intended. i'll continue the seemingly aimless wandering, wherever it may lead, and post information relevant to the farm in addition to the culinary experiments i embark upon...and whatever else i feel like. it's my blog, after all, right? (and i can use run-on sentences too, ha!)

let's take a look at the potential 5400 SF plot! here's a view from the highway fence line end:

the left fence line from the golf course end (opposite highway end), featuring farmer terry (aka dad):

the right fence line from the golf course end (opposite highway end), featuring yours truly:

as you can see, these tiny people are dealing with either a gigantic "garden", or a teensy-weensy "farm". and since i like the sound of "farm" better and--thanks to becky--the idea of wearing overalls that it engenders, i'm sticking with that title for now. however, you should be aware i adore the practice of naming inanimate objects-- my cars, for example: betsy, bueller, and now, sophia-- so it could find a new nomer. perhaps someone (oh, wait, i only have one follower! ha!) will assist me in coming up with a clever name for the farm?

xx a.

p.s. up next: ordering seeds and starting seedlings for the farm... oh, and those homemade oreos and banana oatmeal cookies i baked... not necessarily in that order.

and so, it begins...

oh, my goodness! i'm so excited today! i originally started this blog -- er, thought of starting this blog? -- in hopes of capturing all of my new experiences in food. at that time, it seemed the blog would be focused on culinary experiments like making cheese or yogurt, or testing out new recipes and attempting to make stuff from scratch -- you know, assembling real foods and cooking them?

i stuck with the prep work for this blog, cooking and experimenting, and documenting with photos along the way... and yet, this is my first official post. not entirely sure why. perhaps because my sweetie and i bought a new home and merged two households? maybe a little. more likely though, is that i got distracted doing other things.

lucky for me, those other things have brought me BACK to my blogging tendencies. here i am! and boy are there some wonderful things in store for these pages -- cooking from scratch, organic FARMING, and living life to the fullest. so, thank you for visiting, and come back soon.

xx a.