Free Lunch

Philly you've treated us well

2010-07-13T13:22:00.000-04:00

Growing with style

2010-06-23T00:12:00.000-04:00

They just keep growing

2010-06-22T23:08:00.001-04:00

For Kristina

2010-06-07T23:37:00.001-04:00

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/23k3qS/www.womansday.com/Articles/Shelter/10-Magnificent-Urban-Gardens.html

because our blog is your homepage

Rebel without a cause

2010-06-02T22:37:00.002-04:00

We didn't plant any tomatoes, hoping that our plants from last year would take care of that for us, and sure enough, they did! We've got tons of little tomato plants all over the area where we planted them last year, and this one plant that hopped across the garden and outside the fence.

Swiss chard

2010-06-02T22:35:00.001-04:00

Bright lights!

Romaine lettuce

2010-06-02T22:33:00.000-04:00

We're running out of ideas for what to do with the lettuce. Suggestions?

Back to work!

2010-06-02T22:28:00.003-04:00

We're slowly settling into summer and our life as college graduates, and we're getting back to the garden. We started spinach, kale, pole beans, and watermelons from seeds, and planted romaine lettuce and Swiss chard starters. They all look great, except that we've can't find any watermelon starts. We suspect that they didn't grow because the seeds were dry and we have not been the most diligent waterers, but we're not totally sure...maybe they just don't like our soil! That's gotta be it...

Getting ready for summer

2010-05-05T00:09:00.002-04:00

Some baby leeks, some baby onions, some baby arugula, and some baby bright lights!

2010-04-15T11:22:00.005-04:00

Check out this Cuban revolution re: Urban Gardening.

http://kitchengardeners.org/blogs/roger-doiron/havana-homegrown

Close up

2010-04-15T11:16:00.001-04:00

Romaine lettuce

Beets

and some starters

2010-04-15T11:14:00.002-04:00

New season-SEEDS!

2010-04-15T11:11:00.003-04:00

Last year we used starts, but this time we're going to try direct seeding. Let's hope it works! We planted cold crops, including kale, watermelon, and spinach.

Through rain and shine

2010-04-15T11:09:00.003-04:00

Collard greens may be the most resilient plants on the planet. Here are our collards from LAST SUMMER.

Picking our dinner

The year of urban agriculture

2010-02-22T15:08:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting article on what's going on in Seattle and the actions that the city is taking to promote urban agriculture: http://civileats.com/2010/02/19/rain-city-farmers-get-a-year-in-the-sun/. Organizations like Philadelphia Green (run through the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society) have provided similar support for gardens in the city, but Seattle seems to be a little farther along.

Mind the Food Gap

2010-02-07T21:41:00.006-05:00

Photo credit: Allen Ruan

This past week Ingrid, Ori and I worked together to organize an event focused on food justice for Penn's Food Week. The event was a smashing success, with over 100 attendees sitting down to a dinner of delicious local food and discussing issues related to food justice. The evening kicked off with a presentation by Sayre High School's Nutrition's Most Wanted on healthy eating. We then proceeded to talk about issues related to food access, availability, and education. The goal of this dinner was to present unique perspectives on food justice, which we hoped we accomplished by bringing together Penn students, local activists, and professors at the dinner table.

Did we ever tell you about our ROOF GARDEN?!

2010-01-19T23:54:00.006-05:00

We had a roof garden of herbs along with everything that was growing out near the street. We neglected to showcase this in the blog so far, but thanks to Sammie Lammie, devout water-er of said roof garden, and fellow third floor inhabitant, we now have the photos to prove that we not only had a plot up there (which we fashioned out of drawers we found while West Philly shopping), but we had feasts up there too!

We had a marvelous dinner of fish tacos!!

good friends, good food, good weather, good garden....what more could you ask for?!

ANOTHER NIGHT, ANOTHER DINNER
complete with homemade tortillas, homemade hummus, home grown peppers and cucumbers, artichoke and collard cheese dip, sauteed garlic and collards, onion and gruyere tart, roasted vegetables, broiled tomatoes, and home grown/made rosemary salt bread

Not our garden but...

2010-01-07T19:54:00.001-05:00

Little garden along the Nile in downtown Cairo. Cool, right?

Fall bounty

2009-12-06T22:49:00.000-05:00

Memories of summer

2009-11-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

Fondue harvest feast

2009-11-11T16:21:00.006-05:00

Menu:

Gruyere, white wine and garlic fondue

Sausage cooked in beer

Sourdough bread

Roasted potatoes and onions

Roasted acorn squash with brown sugar and butter (from the garden)

Butternut squash soup (from the garden)

Sauteed collard greens (from the garden)

Clark Park apples

Cucumber salad (from the garden)

Chocolate fondue

Marshmallows

Bananas

Biscuits

Apples

Our baby's all grown up

2009-11-11T11:40:00.002-05:00

Lemon cucumbers

2009-11-02T16:15:00.001-05:00

Tastes like the name- lemony cucumber

Hey there habanero

2009-10-21T14:42:00.000-04:00

Payback time!

2009-10-11T18:06:00.002-04:00

Do I do it?

Bahhaha (evil laugh) of course!

Free, free at last!

Victory!

Squash moods

2009-10-11T18:02:00.003-04:00

Squirrels, bah!

Hi squash

Eww

Smile and pretend this squash didn't get attacked by a squirrel

Anyone know how to harvest sweet potatoes?

2009-10-06T14:56:00.001-04:00

We're not sure that we did it right...

Our first acorn squash

2009-10-06T14:53:00.000-04:00

Impromptu harvest feast: pizza party!

2009-10-06T14:46:00.004-04:00

Zucchini tomato basil

Zucchini roasted red pepper

Zucchini roasted red pepper eggplant

Red and green pepper jalapeno pepperoni

Aphids!

2009-10-05T18:57:00.004-04:00

Back

Front

We got the blight

2009-10-05T18:51:00.003-04:00

Early in the summer when our green tomatoes were refusing to turn red, we heard rumblings of a tomato blight that was sweeping across the northeast. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html) We were able to successfully avoid it and reap a bumper crop...until now! We think that our tomatoes held out for so long because they're organic and weren't raised in an industrial garden center, but alas, we got the blight.

Harvest brunch: the feast

2009-09-20T12:19:00.000-04:00

Harvest brunch: the friends

2009-09-20T12:13:00.004-04:00

Harvest brunch: the food

2009-09-20T12:00:00.007-04:00

Menu:

Tomato, cucumber, goat cheese and balsamic salad

Cucumber, cream cheese sandwiches

Sweet potato leaf, tomato, green pepper, onion, cheddar and jalapeno quiche

Sweet potato leaf, tomato, green pepper, jalapeno, cheddar, onion scramble

Collard greens, onion, cheddar and ham quiche

Leek and goat cheese tart

Beer bread

French toast

Chocolate chip and caramel pancakes

Yogurt and granola

Grapes

Peach cobbler

Hungry yet?

Fine art

2009-09-14T00:02:00.003-04:00

Vanitas still life

blender (garden) party

2009-09-13T23:17:00.003-04:00

we finally figured out what to do with our:
cucumbers
tomatoes
spicy peppers
bell peppers
(and store bought garlic, onion)

GAZPACHO OF COURSE!

uses of a cucumber...

2009-09-13T23:10:00.003-04:00

our first heirloom tomato!

the new cutting board was pulled out for this...the mirror really is a useful object.

taste test! which one was better you ask? The smaller one had more of a crunch. The larger one had a more juice core and larger seeds...refrigeration may have helped the larger one out, but we couldn't wait that long!

harvest

2009-09-13T22:30:00.003-04:00

our "sunflowers" grew into these!

the "vine-porch" which increases privacy as the vines grow up the strings and along the fence

First cucumbers!! (this was a long time ago...)

a gem of a tomato

Why Sandra has to walk to class

2009-09-13T21:20:00.000-04:00

We don't have the heart to kill it.

Leopard print

2009-09-13T21:18:00.000-04:00

Peter Piper picked a peck of...

2009-09-08T18:21:00.002-04:00

Go bees, go!

2009-09-08T18:16:00.003-04:00

Surprise!

2009-09-08T18:06:00.002-04:00

Reluctant to turn down any plants that looked like they might live, Ingrid and I planted eight butternut squash plants despite secretly hoping to be surprised with zucchini and/or summer squashes. You can imagine our shock when some of the plants turned out to be cucumbers, and now we've discovered that we also have acorn squashes and a crazy (delicious) yellow striped cucumber!

Bushwhacking

2009-09-08T18:04:00.001-04:00

That is indeed a bread knife.

And we're back!

2009-09-08T17:58:00.005-04:00

Shocked? It's madness!

collard artichoke dip feast from July!

2009-08-04T14:00:00.003-04:00

An ode to the squash

2009-08-04T13:54:00.003-04:00

The squash--potentially butternut squash, but we've been wrong before--has been such a vibrant set of creatures! The vines grow in any direction, onto tomato trellises, across the garden to the sweet potatoes, up the railing of the porch, onto each other (where they begin to death-grip each other with their new vines), and even up and over the unsuspecting non-fruit-bearing shrub in the garden. We're tempted to pick the flowers, stuff them with goat cheese and herbs and bake them to deliciousness; we resist thanks to the prospect of butternut squash soup come fall. Apparently though, we can, as long as we determine which of the flowers are male and which are female...and pick the males. Anyone have any tips on this? If so, then we cultivate our squash and squash blossoms too!! (and you can join us for the feast!!!)

Buds and curly cues!

male? or female? any gamblers out there?

First poop, now LITTER?!!!?

2009-08-04T13:53:00.004-04:00

No Smoking In The Garden Please (grrrr)

Fun in the sun

2009-08-04T13:49:00.008-04:00

Our first slew of daylight photos appropriately coincided with our first multiple-vegetable-harvest! The collards keep growing back (massive massive amounts!), our first bell pepper rang in the harvest, the tomatoes eagerly awaited us, and another pepper was ready for pickin'! We were delighted with our bounty, as usual!! What fun....and what a feast that followed!

Dun dun DUN! Cucumber!

2009-07-31T13:18:00.009-04:00

It took awhile to concede that our zucchini plants were in fact cucumbers, and our fantasies of zucchini bread reluctantly turned to gazpacho. The first little guy started out looking like a pickle cucumber, and we weren't sure if it'd grow anymore, but fearing premature death, we decided to give it a chance to keep going. Behold, our behemoth cucumber, Herbie. Yum...

Sizing it up.

Ready, punt!

Movin' on up.

Victory!

Building a weighing device. Very scientific.

Recipe for success: plant vegetables, revel in ensuing madness

2009-07-31T12:53:00.010-04:00

In the true fashion of a dedicated West Philly shopper, Ingrid picked up a clothesline while on a run earlier in the day. Given our revived interest in elementary school throwbacks (yo-yos, gecko lanyards, or capri sun, anyone?) and our ears/minds/souls still reeling from an incredible performance by Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock, we couldn't not JUMP ROPE FOR YOUR HEART! It's only fitting that as we spend hours upon hours admiring the prickles on cucumbers and fuzz on cherry tomatoes, we add some cardio to our epicurean lives. Funny that at the height of preparing for post-college life (MCATs, GREs, LSATs, existential freak-outs) all it takes is the snap! of a rope brushing pavement to get everyone out of the house and onto the sidewalk on a hot, humid summer night.

Not again!

2009-07-31T12:52:00.002-04:00

For those of you who think that we should get over ourselves and welcome the generously donated free fertilizer, let us assure you that one whiff of this masterpiece will make you reconsider. Seriously. Please remind any pet owners you know to CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR PETS! AND KEEP THEM OUT OF FOOD-PRODUCING GARDENS! Please!

Feelin' hot hot hot

2009-07-31T12:49:00.007-04:00

Our trellis seems to be working pretty well in keeping our plants off the ground and growing vertically. We're getting a little bit nervous that it's nearly August and we've gotten a grand total of three edible cherry tomatoes, but at least the cool, rainy summer has meant fewer trips from the bathtub to the front yard hauling buckets of water. I think that all of our biceps are grateful. A passerby told us that it needs to be in the 80s degrees F at night for the tomatoes turn red, so whenever you're bored please feel free to do a rain/hot weather dance!

We picked that tomato!

2009-07-28T15:04:00.010-04:00

(if you're new to the blog---WELCOME!...and start from the bottom of the post)

Chopin (on a cassette tape!) accompanied our first bites into ripe tomatoes!

-OUS!

-LICI-

SO DE-

LET'S EAT IT NOW!

RIPE!

Not ripe yet.

We had to race this slug to pick our tomato! We watched as this little guy did some tight rope crawling-acrobats to get to the wooden post. We're still unclear if he's a good thing for the garden or not. Any ideas?

Directing Growth

2009-07-28T14:44:00.017-04:00

Our tomato plants have quickly out grown the early supports (of dead sticks from the bushes in the background) that we had propped them up with. Their arms are now like new plants themselvels and they've begun to hang over with the weight of the early tomatoes. So with the wood left out by our neighbors and a dollar's worth of string from Chinatown, we consructed what might just be the next genergation of trellises: the trellis-web. The structure will help guide the plants from growing on to one another, but they're not confined to a wooden post.

This was also the night that the policemen were out in droves...putting up no parking signs. The signs were placed in what seemed to be a 3 block radius of our house between 8:30 and 9:30 that evening. The parking regulations were for the following day from 6am until 2pm, or else your car would be towed. 1)apparently cars were towed, even though there was very little warning of the regulation and 2) it was for a plaque ceremony for a police officer who had been shot and killed a block away in 1910. 1910!! It seems like it was a bit late coming. That was the neighborhood drama (as people were walking to their houses from the cars they had to park 5 blocks away, they told us of their woes) as we were putting up our own regulations for the plants in our garden.

An interested passerby, Washington, was kind enough to take our photo with the garden and our trellis!

We saw the trellis potential of everything we passed by that night.

Our loot! (including baskets full of law school and med school books that were on the verge of being tossed).

When a garden begins to GROW GROW GROW...it's hard to keep up!

2009-07-28T14:29:00.015-04:00

(Once again, start from the bottom of the post to follow chronologically)

Our garden was getting a bit out of hand. Too many branches going every which way, covering up other plants and tomatoes lying on the ground! We did some West Philly shopping and found some promising trellising material

Collards part two!

The promise of a squash!

Sandra and the tomato in one shot! We were not expecting it to be ready that day! It turned red while we were at work.

Our CUCUMBER! It is almost ready to be eaten--we're just giving it some extra time to plump up a bit more. I'm still a bit sad that it isn't a zucchini, but all in due time.

Is that your leaf or mine? Everything in our garden has grown so much that the leaves and vines have become intermingled. We have had to guide the squash away from one another--they grow so fast!

BELL PEPPER! This specimen has grown incredibly fast from a dime, to a nickle, to a quarter, to a silver dollar, and is now getting close to picking-size!

We though that we planted zucchini plants...but from the sizse of these blossoms and the resulting vegetable they are, in fact, cucumbers.

Our first batch of (red) tomatoes peak through the massive branches that have developed! What a gem!

Starting to bear fruit (question: can this phrase also refer to vegetables?)

2009-07-26T17:13:00.004-04:00

Baby cucumbers...one normal-looking one, and one that's...interesting.

Who knew that squashes could crawl so far?

Mystery plants turn out to be tomatoes!

Our first pepper!

First Garden Feast || Ham Hocks and Collard Greens

2009-07-22T17:54:00.011-04:00

Welcome again to our gardening adventures. We had the most delicious first garden feast on Thursday the 16th of July! After deliberating about which recipe to follow, finding ham hocks (whatever those are) at the grocery store, and harvesting our collards, we filled our house with the mouth-watering aroma of a new and fresh dish from our garden.

(Start from the bottom of the post)

And a bottle of wine to finish off the meal. Thanks Lauren!

Our delicious feast: ham hocks and collard greens, rotisserie chicken, candied yams, corn bread.

Probably the most highly processed and store bought first garden feast ever...but those collards were divine!

a rotisserie chicken to complement our collard greens and ham hocks

Step 2: Add collards and chicken stock

Our beautiful beautiful 1st harvest of collards!

Step 1: sautee onion, and smoked ham hocks in olive oil

We didn't let it go to waste!

Our first tomato...it came off in the excitement over the collards.

We found ham hocks at Fro Gro! Ham hocks are the ankles...kinda. Here's a diagram to give some context.

Our first harvest

2009-07-17T17:10:00.017-04:00

Ian trying to explain why it's okay that he accidentally decapitated a sweet pepper bud.

The culprit!

FINALLY. Collard greens and a jalapeno. Please recall the condition of the collard starters. I don't think any of us thought that they'd survive past the first week, and now we're eating them!

They're still alive! And growing!

2009-07-17T16:50:00.009-04:00

On July 8, 2009 we realized that all of a sudden our little plot of plants had exploded overnight into a perfect verdant cacophony. Our scrawny little plants were actually growing and we'd hardly noticed. We finally have a real life garden!

We got sweet potatoes! For free!

2009-07-17T16:05:00.000-04:00

Free on craigslist = best site ever. Sweet potato starts courtesy of a very generous West Philly gardener.

A dog pooped in our garden.

2009-07-17T15:51:00.000-04:00

Gardening can't always be fun.

D Day + 1

2009-07-17T13:58:00.001-04:00

Butternut squash and mystery squash and/or zucchini and/or cucumber plants. UCHS.

Cherry and mystery tomatoes. Nice woman we found on craigslist who lives in Upper Darby and UCHS.

Ace sweet peppers. UCHS.

Habanero, jalapeno, another hot pepper. UCHS.

Collard greens. UCHS.

We officially broke ground on Wednesday June 24, 2009. On June 25, 2009, they were still alive. Success!

How it all began (scroll to the bottom first)

2009-07-17T13:08:00.001-04:00

DONE!

Innovative watering techniques.

Pruning with a bread knife.

Our (free) plants! Courtesy of Nic Esposito and the fabulous people at University City High School and the Urban Nutrition Initiative.

Crazy weed pile.

Breaking new ground!!

Our overgrown garden-to-be.

Who we are

2009-07-17T12:30:00.000-04:00

Gardner 3: Sandra "Spring Rabe/Mystery Plant" Zhao

Gardner 2: Ingrid "Ace Pepper" Lindquist

Gardner 1: Ian "Butternut Squash" Slack

Free Lunch Grows

2009-07-17T01:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings! This blog is intended to document our summer as quasi urban farmers as we navigate the wild world of gardening in West Philadelphia. Join us as we plant, water, weed, admire, exclaim, harvest, cook, eat, drink, muse (and repeat). It's all local, it's all organic, and best of all, it's all free. Come grow with us!