Oh, it's May? Already?

The last 7 months have been a bit of a whirlwind, but things seem to be calming down a bit and once I'm past June 8th, I'm free and clear for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, what's been up?

• Well, I attended Craftcation in April and loved it.
• I'm getting bees.
• I'm almost through with loquat season, which, unfortunately this year has not been nearly as productive (entirely my fault)
• I've planted, but not nearly the spring garden I was hoping for by this point

Over the next couple of weeks I'm planning on replanting my cucumbers as SOMETHING (I suspect squirrels) ate the plants right out of the ground, roots and all. When I told the owner at the garden shop, he barked; 

"REDPEPPERBLACKPEPPERCINNAMONMUSTARD!". 

"All of them?" I asked. 

"REDPEPPERBLACKPEPPERCINNAMONMUSTARD!". 

OK then.  Apparently, I am to encircle the cucumber plants in these spices, which I have now purchased in bulk to sprinkle throughout my garden. I have to replant 2 artichokes as one just died a miserable quick death and another one stuck around looking runty until one of the chickens scratched it right out of the earth. Damn chickens.

All the chickens are doing well. Gave their coop a nice, thorough scrubbing this weekend after attending the UC Pathology lecture on backyard chicken diseases. Frankly, I'm used to medical slides but the necropsy slides from the pathologist...well, I needed to clean the coop. Thankfully, I'm not going to post any pictures.

As for the bees, I'm going to be hosting two hives of my very own at a sanctuary up north a bit near Westlake Village. I'll post photos as I put the boxes and frames together and get them painted up all pretty.

It's Spring

Spring sprung! And I've already fallen behind on my plans for this year! By now, I was supposed to have

1. 1 chicken coop
2. 5 chickens
3. 6 raised garden beds teeming with peas and tomatoes and lettuce

What I actually have as of this weekend:

1. 1,320 square feet of sanded and stained wood for raised beds (includes front and back for those of you counting).  
2. 8 dying pea plants ready to go into said raised beds
3. 4 wilting tomato plants waiting to go into raised beds
4. 30 seed pots of basil, dill, and tomatoes that never sprouted or got eaten by birds/bugs/squirrels/feral cats/opossums (opossi?)
5. 10 beautiful Italian cypress trees for privacy along the back wall

My coop was, I thought, being built but it turns out I hired a scam artist who flew the proverbial coop, and while I am unbelievably disappointed, I have found another person to do the building and I am supposed to be meeting with him tomorrow.

My schedule for this week is:
Tuesday: meet with new contractor, lay down the weed barrier and hopefully move the soil into the beds
Wednesday: it's supposed to rain :)
Thursday: Finish moving soil and move still living seedlings into the new beds
Friday: Move compost piles into their new home

Hopefully I'll have a new post next week to update y'all on how this went and some before and after photos!

Oh, P.S., the loquats are just beginning to get ripe so next week is going to be the beginning of canning season!

When we last spoke...

Well, actually, I skipped a bunch of stuff in that first post. I skipped how I rented a sod cutter, cut up all of my grass in preparation for a gorgeous new yard and our sewer line broke to the tune of all of the money we had saved up for the yard and then some.

Then I decided I would put in a new sprinkler system myself and dug trenches through the back yard. It took me a day of really sweaty work to dig one trench. But I kept going for another couple of days only to realize that I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about sprinkler systems. (we looked on Google Earth yesterday and you can see the trenches from space...it looks like freaking half-finished alien crop grids. Awesome.)

At some point in all of this, I realized that the tree in the front yard wasn't a chestnut tree, which seemed sentimental in a Currier and Ives way but is totally useless to me as I don't eat nuts. It was a loquat tree. Lemme tell you, that shit is good.  Loquats are lovely, apricot-like fruit, but they don't really last more than a day off the tree, which is why you never see loquats at the market. So, if I was going to pick the loquats, I was going to have to do something with them.  I bought a ladder. I bought a fruit picker. I flung loquats jai alai-style into every neighbors yard within a block of me.  I eventually PUT. DOWN. THE. FRUIT PICKER.  I started canning.

Throughout it all, the Mr. was, for the most part, exceptionally supportive of my efforts. If he minded the sugar-encrusted walls in the kitchen and the awe-inspiring chasms in the yard, he didn't say so (much). He was also very supportive when I started picking up drills and saws and shovels and hoes (he he), as long as he didn't need to take me to the hospital. Toward which, I might add, I have a propensity. 

Now I have a beautifully planted side yard with 4 gorgeous raised beds producing snap peas, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries and Kentucky beans. The fifth bed is in the main section of the yard where the entertaining patio will eventually live. It accommodates a sizable herb garden with oregano, sage, dill, rosemary, thyme, and basil. Separately, I have 4 pots of mint, each one a different kind, I think it's grapefruit mint, chocolate mint, peppermint and pineapple mint.  I'm going to experi-mint...ha ha.  Finally, there are pomegranate, peach, lemon and lime trees.The lemon and lime are doing poorly.  I can't quite figure out what I'm doing wrong with these, but that's another post.

Sounds good so far; but the farm is FAR from complete. I have that 60' x 24' patch of weed that was once the lawn, which I am turning into the core of the farm. The plans are drawn up, now I just need to start. It all begins with water. I can't really have a farm without it. So we're back to the sprinklers; which, I believe I might actually have to pay someone to install. It just seems like it's too important a job for me to screw up (I'm sorry, use as a learning experience).

I read. I love to read. When I find something I love to do, I read about it. I go to the library and check out books, I find magazines, I spend hours perusing Amazon for the best reviewed books. I started reading and doing, more reading, more doing.  Pros and cons. Horror stories and success stories. I read them all. It started with just a few books and a few raised beds. Then a composter. And another bed. Then a worm bin. Then another composter.  Eventually, I found my way to The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. It's a good book. Funny. Clever. Well-written. They encourage getting backyard chickens.......

More tomorrow. :)

Swapping

So, early in April I saw a notice somewhere that GOOD Magazine was having an event in Atwater Village to celebrate the kick-off of GOOD L.A. I also learned that there would be something called a "food swap" at that event and you could bring food to swap with other people. Having recently canned about 80 jars of marmalade from my brother's mini orange orchard, I happened to have some swappable items. I brought 6 jars.

I went home with some home-baked sourdough, some other jam and a few things that I probably snacked on in the car on the way home, but ultimately, I came home inspired.

I also came home with a postcard for an event called Artisanal L.A. at the new Santa Monica Place, and Emily Ho, of the Kitchn and the L.A. Food Swap would be having a workshop. I tend not to travel over the hill during the weekend, but this was worth it, and by the end of the workshop, I had committed to a swap in the SFV (San Fernando Valley, for those of you who are not from 'round here).

Made this sign from a scrap of wood in the garage.

This past weekend was the first San Fernando Valley Food Swap, held in my living room and what a HUGE success. We had 20 people signed up and they all showed. We also had a reporter from the Eat Real Festival which is happening in Culver City this July 16-17.  Unfortunately, I'll be in the Napa/Santa Rosa area that weekend and am a little bummed that I can't make it.

I hosted it in my home and while I LOVE opening my home to people, these were primarily complete strangers! It worked out beautifully.  Everyone was very respectful and it felt kind of old-timey. Two people brought their parents and three people brought their kids. Everyone was super nice and easy going. I never felt like anyone was disappointed with the event.

To swap, people brought homemade maraschino cherries, can breads, cookies, muffins, cake pops, marinades, chocolate covered stuff, salsas and more. Also present were homegrown lemons, rosemary, and pink peppers.   Here are some photos of the items!

I still had marmalades from the Great Orange Harvest of 2011 and I had jarred about 24 cans of apricot jam from my sister's tree, not to mention the somewhat-not-as-great Loquat Harvest of 2011, I had already canned more than 120 jars of jam, marmalade and jelly.  I had also already given away about 2/3rds of it, but clearly I had more to swap.
 

As you can see from the photos, people brought samples of their wares. It was quite fun to go around and taste everything before you sign up. The marinade was delish and the Mr. tasted some before he rode off into the noonday sun and said something about "definitely getting one of those...."

Ultimately, it was a real community event, where people who wouldn't necessarily meet, came, interacted, oohed and aahed over each others offerings and went away, if I may say so, pretty happy.

I'm definitely doing it again. I may make some new guidelines for the next swap though. While I love baked goods, and really, who doesn't, I would like to have a more sustainable swap. I'm not sure how to go about it but I think I'd like to encourage people to bring more home grown/pantry or refrigerator stable items like fruit, eggs, honey, herbs, veggies, marinades, rubs, jams (of course), spices, sauces and such.We'll see...

All photos courtesy of Emily Ho and Gregory Han