It’s that time in the term. I am sleeping just enough… I am showering just enough… I am battling colds just enough… and I have a lot of drawing to do. That’s about all I can handle. But to temper that, I am eating more than well enough. I cannot compromise on that point. I was explaining to a friend just earlier this evening how
Swiss Chard for Dinner
We have been having swiss chard for dinner now for about three months. It’s a versatile vegetable packed with great vitamins and minerals – especially great for getting through these last weeks of winter. I thought I would share some simple ways we have been cooking it up. Nothing fancy – just simple cooking with freshly picked greens. Spicy Chard Warm a couple tablespoons of
Planting Season Begins
Well, I didn’t get my peas in by President’s Day… but I was damn close! I woke up to a sliver of sunshine outside, stuffed seed packets in my pockets, and made today the first planting day for our new garden. I decided to let my never-ending to-do list just wait while I got some dirt under my nails. The recent winter rains have really
Winter Garden Chores
Planting season is just around the corner and it’s time to prep the beds that will soon hold spring crops. You can hardly make out the spinach in my beds through all the chickweed right now. As the winter rains let up for a couple weeks, the ground was nice and soft for one of my favorite winter chores: weeding. Weeding is not everyone’s favorite
Winter Harvesting
My outdoor garden beds have been providing me with a steady supply of the usual winter suspects: kale, swiss chard, spinach, collard greens, leeks, and tasty brussel sprouts. Oregon, especially the Willamette Valley, is fortunate to have relatively mild winters and we pretty much live on brassicas from November through February. This is the first winter I have had the pleasure of gardening with a
Spring Greens
Oh, the wonders of a greenhouse! The Urban Farm has a pretty simple, plastic greenhouse that has been keeping me well-fed for the past month. This lovely photo is an abundant harvest from a couple weeks ago. Today we hauled out about twenty pounds of these fabulous greens. What we are looking at includes, starting at the top left and working clockwise, a) Romaine lettuce,
February Veggies
I am feeling the rush of gardening season as the soil becomes workable again! The Urban Farm has a nice head start on the season inside their greenhouse, which houses some of our latest seed starts and lovely greens that are already reaching maturity. Most of the larger vegetables in the ground are lettuce varieties: red butterleaf, romaine, green leaf, etc. The arugula is getting
Winter Gardening
It is that time of year to start planning the coming season’s garden and get our seeds going indoors. I have to admit that I haven’t started a thing yet and I am already feeling really behind. Hopefully this weekend will allow me a sliver of time to get my seed starting organized. In the mean time, there are still things to do outside in
Goodbye Urban Farm
It’s time for me to spend the last of this year in New York, so I said goodbye to the Urban Farm a few days ago. Sure I’ll be back in January, but going away for the next few weeks without my favorite corner of Eugene made me a little sad to be leaving. I spent a chilly morning out there mixing compost and admiring