To all those out there not yet sold on urban farming, foraging or eating your yard all I have to say to you is that arugula freshly picked from right outside your front door is peppery joy on the tongue. This is my fourth day of eating fresh arugula that I planted in early April as starts – I do not regret the 1 hour I spent blending topsoil and compost to turn the the farrow land on either side of my landlord's rosebush into a garden of greens (kale, arugula, spinach, bok choy, mustard, and mystery spicy salad mix). I only mourn the eight baby kale plants who fell victim to an unnamed little creature who appears to have a strong hankering for purple kale starts and digging little holes around all the other plants.
This past Sunday I joined my former cooperative living environment housemate Noam, who is now my gardening buddy at the Picardo P-Patch (the Seattle community garden plot). We have a 20 by 20 plot that features onions, beets, lettuce, kale, carrots, peas, green beans, squash, potatos and more Kale. Here is a shot of it in its infancy.
Above is the beet patch. We have six rows of would be purple earthy bulbs planted this year.
These green shoots above are the Walla Walla onions and shallots I planted on Sunday morning as Noam dug the lettuce and beet patches.
In my hand are carrot seeds attached to my soon to be very sun scortched arm with an awesome gardening glove tan line.
Seeds in the Ground
Such tiny bits of life
waiting to pop
up to drink the sun
bask in rain
become harvest of many name
dark green kale
shiny orange carrot stalks
golden squash and long zucchini
beets coming home to roast
you shall be recipes
after many blue skies
If you are an urbanite or suburbanite or any type of "ite" I highly encourage you to join the grow your own food revolution. Start small – hang some tomatos or start a window sill herb garden.
Don't have the time but want to transform your yard? Live around Seattle? Sister Sage or Eatyouryard.com can help you out with this endeavor. Both specilize in edible landscaping. Not around Seattle? Check out Sister Sage anyway as she has an amazing herb package that can be mailed straight to your door with a subscription.
Want to do it yourself? I recommend the book The Urban Homestead: your guide to self sufficient living in the heart of the city. It has everything from farming your yard, chicken husbandry to urban foraging to keep you occupied getting to know your food more intimately.
Whatever way you decide to go there will be no harm in trying – I promise you will be rewarded by flavor, among other things.