Adventures in kitchen gardening in the front yard.noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Wed, 28 Aug 2024 15:42:29 -0700Blogger http://www.blogger.com112125http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/en-usnoAdventures in kitchen gardening in the front yard.noreply@blogger.comhttp://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2011/02/random-sustainability-seafood-thought.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Tue, 1 Feb 2011 14:06:00 -0800tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-5863732481490181414 Sustainable fish is such a complicated issue.  One major component of this issue is that many fish are essentially carnivores and in order raise them in "farmed" setting, they must be fed large quantities of other fish for protein and oil, and this is bad because we end up "eating" the equivalent of a few pounds of fish for every.  Vegetarian feed alternatives can work, but often don't0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/08/processed-food-bad.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:44:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-550058419612085050What to do from a policy standpoint about processed food.  Let's review what we mean by processed food, i.e. why is it different than traditional methods of making food.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/06/snap-son-baseballer-ryan-howard-gets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Mon, 8 Jun 2009 15:22:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-7742313806782167685seriously, we have baseball players at the whitehouse talking about organic food and how awesome it is!?  crazy times0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/arugula-wild-seeding-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:41:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-1700234939123306990No, I'm not going to stop talking about arugula. so just deal with it.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/potatoes-again-maybe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:18:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4071127732444793419So my last attempt at potatoes failed (pretty badly it turns out) due to some pest, I think pill bugs, so I think that I am inspired by this to try again.  It involves building things, so that's good.  It is a great example of intensive gardening, so that's good.  I will employ some methods to keep pill bugs at bay, organically of course, so that's good too.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/white-house-garden-quiz.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:29:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-2094724562235269244I am obviously a little obsessed with the garden.  But not obsessed enough!! i only got an 86% on an online quiz about it!!!!See well how you can do.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/rhubarb.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:25:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-1663368502371496788So yet another vegetable that I wouldn't know much about without home gardens. I vaguely remember my mom growing some and then a friend made some great rhubarb cobbler when I was in graduate school in Georgia. Then some other vague times to have some here and there, but now it is time for me to have some of my own. I planted some seeds in a cup on the window sill. ~6 weeks later, here we 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/5-minutes-13-seconds.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:50:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4384201029130076644That's how long it took me to plant a new bed of lettuce greens.  Let me show you, because, we all are pressed for time.  Especially those of us with 3 kids.I did this after putting the baby to sleep, before I put the big kids down.  They were brushing their teeth.1. walk to garage to get a handful of bonemeal.2. walk to veggie bed and level a 2'x2' patch of soil that had been previously cleared.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/ask-fyv-preparing-soil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:55:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4832768060113488337"Take care of your soil, and your soil will take care of you"-some smart guyFor maximum growth of your vegetables, you must have loose, nutrient-rich soil.  Here is why:Look at that picture and you see the roots of a carrot going down up to 7 feet down.  As I will show below, that only happens when your soil is well cared for.I am clearly no Michael Pollan, but let me attempt to boil down my 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/bad-day-for-planting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:35:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4383795041441173156So I went and bought a few plants for the garden (eggplant, melon, zuchinni, more basil), and THEN I looked at the forcast.  (this is the printout from the next day, you still get the idea)Sunday turned out to be 97, today ~100.  I will wait until Wednesday to plant those babies...0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/need-more-arugula.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:48:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-534011524273227279that is all.uh, green beans too.don't forget to pick up an eggplant either.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/boy-likes-fresh-strawberries.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:01:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-3761567189353047962and he knows that they are in the front lawn.  He don't need no stinkin' clothes to go get them.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/great-new-blog-to-me-that-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:17:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-1171782838953569151So, if you are one of the many (many!!) people who read my blog AND People magazine, then you will already know about the blog, theslowcook.com, but in case you are not, then I highly recommend his stuff.  It is great.  I will just point you to a single quick post about the blooming peach tree at his daughter's school.  It reminds me of my peach tree right now and the apricot tree that is now 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/carrots-and-lunch.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:43:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4787558435021508109Well, yesterday was a fantastic Easter, and in the midst of the clean-up and gearing up for the upcoming week, I came across a sprouting onion in our kitchen that my mom had given us in case we could use it.  I thought, well now is the time to use it for something.  I realized I could use it a bag of lentil soup mix that also came from her. (I think!)  Along with a frozen ham bone from some 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/white-house-garden-update-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:52:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-8000771822129702003Yes, they did have the planting day, and it was with the same kids who helped dig up the patch of lawn a couple weeks ago.  Apparently, they will have them return yet again and cook some of the food and eat it together.  That is cool.  A few notes: The emphasis that Michelle is putting on the symbolism of the kids' participation is simply fantastic along with the connection to eating the food 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/white-house-gardening-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Thu, 9 Apr 2009 17:51:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-6257163941625299877Apparently, today is the day!  I will update as I find out anything!Thursday, April 9: The First Lady will host an event in the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn of the White House to plant the garden. She will be joined by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and students from Bancroft Elementary, the school that participated in the groundbreaking of the Garden on March 20th. Students 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/feed-it-then-brace-for-bounty.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Tue, 7 Apr 2009 18:16:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-2152139556676583886This is a Teaser for what I am working on.0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/ask-fyv-pests-pill-bugs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Tue, 7 Apr 2009 15:27:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4356382048624476792A friend writes:do you think Pill Bugs are bad for the garden. I have quite a few; found this snippet on internet and wondered if you agreed:Pill bugs (or roly poly's as I have always called them) feed primarily on decaying matter. I have observed them in my garden for long periods of time, and done a little research, just to figure out what they are doing (I obviously have no life (but am 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/yeah-still-want-to-be-farmer-someday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Thu, 2 Apr 2009 22:54:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-7542668978214699617things like this don't help the itch.  cool website too.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH7o3fxw6oE&feature=player_embedded]0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/04/organic-oreos-still-bad-for-you-but.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Thu, 2 Apr 2009 18:27:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-4184664353626974148I was alerted to the existence of these:by this post at the internet food association.  It raises, especially in the comments the entire issue of the "paradox" of organic junk food.Michael Pollan has discussed this at length as well, using hypothetical "organic Coke" as an example.  He concludes that there will be positives and negatives. Likewise, I think that at one level, organic oreos are 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/03/eat-less-red-meat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:05:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-6258046222672238818A new study shows a pretty startling correlation between eating red meat and dying!Apparently eating ~1/4 lb of red meat per day increased the chances of dying by 30% over the course of the 10 years of the study.  My wife and I got to talking about this, and we realized that we have gotten to the point where we are only eating red meat 2-4 times a month at most.  That was a conscious shift over a0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/03/notes-on-white-house-veggie-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:49:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-6352203009155486309I think that it is instructive to look at what the layout of the WHVG (White House Veggie Garden) tells us about how it will be used.  This is probably interesting from a political standpoint, but I am much more interested in it from a kitchen gardener's standpoint.  Here is the layout as provided to the NY TimesAs you can see, they are planting just a few types of veggies:lettucesspinachchard, 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/03/ask-fyg-first-time-gardener-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:28:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-1531142971259681524I was thinking about writing a couple ideas for first time gardeners, when a friend of mine thinking of getting started on a veggie garden this year sent out a Facebook SOS.  She had gone to a gardening class and became completely overwhelmed as the lecture devolved into details about testing pH levels in her soil (a reasonable thing) and watching for the waxing and waning of the moon (umm... a 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/03/hurray-white-house-is-planting-kitchen.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:22:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-9091264177240028312Well, it is apparently official!  The White House at Michelle Obama's instigation will be putting in a 1000 square foot vegetable garden.  They are planning on having it a visible part in the menu planning for the first family.This is a huge victory for the Eat the View campaign. Congratulations to visionary, Roger Doiron!!I must say that I find myself slightly let down.  I am, of course, 0http://frontyardveggies.blogspot.com/2009/03/weekend-update-mar-14-2009.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christopher Brandow)Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:55:00 -0700tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1122290985802303822.post-8787111151301677970Just a few random shots that I took over the weekend with comments:I have always struggled to get carrots, but this sucker is just one of many monsters growing in my plot.  I ate this guy right after taking its picture.  Very sweet.  I am really excited.  I will probably make a carrot soup out of this.This was a poppy plant that grew from last years planting.  It has very reddish-orange flowers.0