Fall Back

 What's new:
As fall time truly sets in around the Bay area and rains begin to fall we're seeing the big changes we were expecting at the garden.  The end of a season is exciting.  It paves way for new ideas and fills us with inspiration.  It provides opportunity for improvement by forcing us indoors to reflect on the season.  

In the case of Amyitis, it provides opportunity for us to think about expansion.  We've had such a great response to our call for more space.  Marcia at tablehopper.com gave us a shout out that has produced some amazing results.  Already we've had a large group of people excited about sharing their space.  So, thankfully, as our garden grows more and more dormant over the winter we'll be free to plant and prepare more gardens for next season.  For now, I will be going from space to space to see what we can grow there.  Our 22ND street garden has shown us that it receives amazing summertime light but the surrounding houses block a lot of light in fall.  As the sun drops toward the horizon, in a city especially, all spaces will have these kinds of issues.  Our task this winter is predict what will do best in each space.  I now know that our 22ND street garden will be great for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and salad in summer and then continue to produce great looking salad all the way through November.  We'll still have to see about what will grow (if anything) over the winter.  I've planted a lot of salad mix and head lettuce with hopes that it will survive the low light times that lay ahead.  I am also experimenting with growing some culinary mushrooms in some of the shady areas around the yard.  Anyone with sawdust or wood chips out there? Come find us.  

Veggies in Action:

We've had a fun time with our veggies.  Every time we bring them to Weird Fish we are so excited to see them in action.  It is pure satisfaction to look at a plate with something you grew 5 city blocks away looking back up at you in such a beautiful display.  If I might wax poetically for a second, greens may be some of the most elegant food to eat.  They really tie any dish together and can easily become the focal point.  We had some fun with some of our 22ND street mizuna at a party we threw for a friend's birthday.  Above are some pictures of what we prepared for the event.  We topped some crackers with pureed steamed beets we'd gotten at Rainbow with some local chevre.  We then set them atop a sprig of our mizuna and topped it off with a thin slice of scallion.  Delicious!! The result was a slightly sweet, lightly cheesy, spicy little bite.  They were really easy to make and a hit at the party.  

Link of the week: 

A blog follower turned us on to this really cool link about someone named Fritz Haeg who has started a project called Edible Estates.  It looks very similar to what we are doing.  Here is the link Edible Estates.  As we've said before, we are so inspired by anyone doing this work.  The whole reason for doing this work is that it needs to be done for us to truly move to be more sustainable as a culture.  If we are to create cultural and environmental change it needs to start with ourselves.  We're excited to hear about anyone doing something similar to what we are doing.  Keep it up!! Support it!! Get involved!!!

best, 

David