Future House Farm

Weeding

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Allen) — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 02:53:00 +0000

With the intense amount of rain came an intense amount of weeds. This took me the better part of a day and it was gratifying to say the least.

The Bean Pickers

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Allen) — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 02:36:00 +0000

They do need the occasional reminder to be gentle with the plants, but otherwise I have found picking beans with the kids to be a very relaxing and almost meditative activity.

Dwarf Cherry

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Allen) — Sat, 23 May 2015 17:15:00 +0000

Today we added a dwarf cherry tree to our community garden plot. I can't remember the variety at this moment; but we chose it because it was good for eating (the other varieties said "pie cherries") and at full maturity it will be relatively small, 8'-10'. In regards to the size, we figured it would be good for a community garden plot. Ours is in the northern corner so we won't have to worry about shading out our neighboring gardeners. We will use the dirt around the base of the tree to plant shade loving greens.

The catalogue said that we can expect fruit in 4-7 years. The dwarf plum in our backyard is finally going to fruit after three years. The change brought on by the plum tree to our little backyard ecosystem has made the wait seem like nothing. We anticipate the cherry tree bringing the same benefits to our community garden plot.

Preparing our Community Garden Plot

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Allen) — Fri, 08 May 2015 00:43:00 +0000

Last year we let our community garden plot get a little out of control. Typically we try to go no-till, but this time I needed the help.

Planting Beans

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly Allen) — Wed, 06 May 2015 02:32:00 +0000

Jude has grown into an incredible garden helper.

A Day with Will Allen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 01:53:00 +0000

So we got to meet Will Allen. He came to our school to be the keynote speaker for a yearlong program I ran title "Agriculture and the American Identity." The event was surreal.

The program gave me the time and resources to think about food and food production in ways I had not anticipated. Now I know that I've been far too absent from this rag to go off on a rant; so I'll save us all from that. However, there is something I want to share, something that I have felt for a very long time, but could only put into words shortly before this photo was taken:

If we believe in social justice and the empowered individual, then the conversations about what to do should start with food. If real food is a solution, then agriculture must adapt itself to the needs of the people—not the other way around.

First Pruning

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 20:07:00 +0000

Two years ago we planted a plum tree out back. We have very little experience pruning, but we figured—What the hell, let's go for it. There is no established cone or goblet shape, I just didn't see how to do it. What we did do was eliminate any crossing branches and tall vertical spikes. Oh, and we made sure not to cut more than a third of the branches. In short, we shot from the hip and we're hoping for the best. I think it looks pretty damn good.

Mostly Tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 18:26:00 +0000

Our seedlings are doing great. I believe the number of tomato starts is somewhere between 100-125. A majority of these are determinate paste tomatoes for the community garden's market garden area. In a third tray we have a slew of greens and some flowers. 2014 is off to a solid start.

Planting Peas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 22:05:00 +0000

The 2014 season has begun.

Applesauce

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 03:39:00 +0000

Today $20.00 in seconds became four gallons of applesauce. What's even cooler is that Jude and I got to spend some time together in the kitchen. His knife skills (for a kid who doesn't turn three for another month) are impressive.

Winterizing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 13:38:00 +0000

I'm not sure if this shot is pretty or perverse. Either way, our community garden water storage is ready for the freeze.

Making bread and a brief word about simple food

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 23:48:00 +0000

We have some special guests coming for dinner tomorrow. They know more about food than I could ever hope to learn myself. It can be intimidating to cook for intelligent pallets; however it is also quite exciting. I love to cook, but my dishes are very simply. I grew up with over seasoned food. Now, when I look at Van Gogh's The Potato Eaters my stomach begins to rumble and mouth begins to water. It's all about the (good) ingredients.

On the menu tomorrow we will be having a simple beef stew and brown yeast bread. Jude likes to help in the kitchen, so we have to account for that when timing the meal. Rather than complicate things tomorrow, we decided to bake the bread today. I'm amazed at how good he is in the kitchen and he's not quite three.

The garlic is in

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 01:55:00 +0000

The garlic got in a little late this year. I'm counting on a late start to winter; which has been the norm around here. There are 250-300 cloves planted. We're going with three varieties (all hard neck): Georgia Fire; Music; and German Hardy.

I only planted the left half (southern) of this bed. Our plan is to plant determinate paste tomatoes on the right half. The bed is roughly 4'x30'.

Rare Family Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 01:45:00 +0000

There are plenty photos of us, but not often are we all in the same shot together. Meg says the light's not good, but I'll take what I can get.

Thank You Lou Reed

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 00:03:00 +0000

Very grateful he lived.

Billy Bragg

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 03:50:00 +0000

I caught onto Billy Bragg late. I remember listening to him when I was growing up in the 80s, but I was a kid and his music didn't strike a chord with me like some of the other more trendy/daytime Mtv bands of the time. However, towards the later end of my twenties, when I started to become aware of what the hell was going on with my life and all the little isms that are a part of it, I stumbled across an album of his that started a tirade of collecting and listening. His music since then has had an influence on and given a voice to my moral compass.

This past Thursday Meg and I got to catch a show. The dude is incredible.

The Potato Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 03:25:00 +0000

Since we've been together, Meg and I have had only one good potato harvest. The rest have all been crap.

However,

this year was not too bad. I give credit for our success to Jude. This was the first season that he has been old/able enough to help from beginning to end. He took part in the planting, hilling, and harvesting.

Our literary influence this year was Two Old Potatoes and Me.

The Garlic Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 02:48:00 +0000

This was our garlic harvest over at the community garden this year*. There are two varieties here and both are hard neck. The small bunch on the right is Georgia Fire. Maybe 10% of what we planted actually came up. We won't eat any of this and just plant it later this month. The big bunch** on the left is German Hardy. This is the third season we have planted this garlic from bulbs we bought three years ago. This stuff is awesome. We would be tempted to just plant this variety only since it does so well, but we like to have variety; so we will continue to invest maybe half to two-thirds of our garlic patch to this stuff and the rest to others.

What we'll be planting this season will be ~60 sqft of of the German Hardy, just a few square-feet of the Georgia Fire, and ~30 sqft of Music. The Music garlic will be a new addition. It's all we had when we lived in Downingtown and if we would have known how difficult it would be to get planting bulbs, we would have taken some with us when we moved. I predict that it will be as successful as the German Hardy. Fingers crossed.

*Yes, yes. I know garlic was harvested a while ago; but I have a lot of catching up to do. Who says that this stuff has to be in order? :)

**Don't let the photo fool ya. That wheelbarrow is a Jackson (it's deep).

Best Paste Tomato Year Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 02:05:00 +0000

We planted ten paste tomatoes in our community garden plot and we will probably harvest 100 pounds of fruit. The two bags in the photo are from the first harvest, which yielded 30+ pounds. The second gave us 42 more. We planted two determinate varieties, one called Margherita (I think that's right) and the other is just plain ol' Romas.

In terms of end product, the first 70+ pounds gave us 30 quarts of juice that was then cooked down to 15 quarts of thick sauce. Next year we may plant more, but first we will want to invest in a pressure cooker.

Our New Addition

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 01:45:00 +0000

This is our Daughter Wren. She just joined us on July 2nd.

Hello

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 03:36:00 +0000

I love this song.

To all of you who have been a part of our lives through this blog, we miss you.

To all of you who leave advertisements on our comments, you're assholes.

poem from the garden

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:17:00 +0000

tan lines

left home

without

a watch today

remembered

a sandwich

ham and swiss

on pumpernickel

with mustard

and mesclun greens

a patch of purples

and greens in

a postage stamp garden

planted at the end of summer

when the sun still sings

on necks and arms

kelly r. allen

CSA

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:43:00 +0000

As I had mentioned forever ago, in our quest to be urban-dwelling-locavores we accumulate food from three primary sources: our community garden plot, our backyard garden, and from a CSA. I suppose that there should be a forth source, which is our farmer's market, but that input is pretty small (I'll still try to post about it).

Photoed above is what our CSA pick up looks like. We currently only get a half share, which runs us ~$400.00 a season; and a season is every week from the end of May to the end of October. This box looks a little light, because it doesn't have the abundance of squash and potatoes that we've been getting lately, but as tomatoes come into full swing it will start bulking up again.

We think of our CSA as the food producer for standard veggies that we could grow in our backyard, but by obtaining them this way it allows us to use our limited space for other veggie necessities.

Little Chores

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:21:00 +0000

Jude is over 19 months old and his curiosities in the garden are becoming less destructive. Earlier in the season he could dig and fling dirt and that was about it. Now his fine motor skills are becoming more complex, which is allowing him to help with things like cleaning garlic. The 15-20 minutes we spent on this chore was an absolute joy. Granted, his attention span didn't allow for the full hour we needed to complete the job, but that only meant we had something to do together the next morning, and the next.

Garlic Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:12:00 +0000

I finally got around to pulling the garlic. It's been sitting on this screen door for a few days and the plan is to let it stay there a few more. After about a week I'll cut the stems and trim the roots and then probably let it sit a little more. In the past, our garlic seemed to get a little funky unusually early. Hardneck garlic should at least keep until the next planting, but ours did not. My guess is that we never let it dry long enough, so this year I plan to let it sit a little longer. It's been incredibly dry and hot around here, so the conditions are perfect for this little chore.

The variety we got is called German Extra Hardy. Some of the bulbs got enormous. My plan is keep half for eating and then plant the rest. If time allows I may also get a second variety to diversify the crop a bit. We'll see.