Children's Garden

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Children's Garden Program at City Farm. Chris, the Children's Garden Coordinator, and I met before the kids arrived to go over the day's agenda: there would be two groups coming in to see the farm today, a group of 11 from the Bright Horizons Family Solutions, and a group of 22 from Luv 4 All Childcare Center.

When the first group arrived in the morning, we all sat down underneath the shade of the Crab apple trees and introduced ourselves. We wrote down the rules of the farm on a large pad of paper (staying on the paths- no walking in the beds, no running, no picking vegetables/fruit unless we say it's ok). Chris and I split the group into two, and each led a tour around the farm. We made it a point to ask the children questions like: what is the difference between the soil in the beds versus the soil on the pathways? What is this vegetable? What is compost?

I was especially impressed with some of the children with this last question--some already had a knowledge of what compost is. I did not even know what compost was until my senior year of high school! With this confessed, it is even more apparent that school programs on gardening should be in place.

On the tours, we showed the children what a ripe raspberry looks like and how to pick it, and then we let them try one. I also showed them what flowers were edible and gave them the pleasure of eating bachelors' buttons and nasturtiums.

We sent them on a scavenger hunt after the tour- Chris typed up a list of things they had to find and observe, then draw in their journals. I always enjoy seeing little children's drawings and creative takes on the world. I found myself drawing chickens along with them and having just as much fun.

Next Monday is a holiday, so the kids will not be joining us, but they are scheduled to come back to the farm for more lessons for the rest of the summer.

After the second group filed back into their buses, I helped Rich spread finished compost onto a newly cleared bed, for lettuce. We sifted the dirt from an old compost pile, throwing unfinished bits like shells, pieces of cardboard, and compostable plastic (which takes a couple of years to finally break down) into a bucket for further composting, and took out stones and misplaced garbage.

The end result from sifting is a gorgeous, rich soil that can be spread over the top of a (freshly aerated) bed. After raking the compost over the top, we watered the soil and got to work transplanting lettuce seedlings.

Rich uses a biointensive method for growing lettuce; this is when the lettuce is planted close enough together to grow into an almost carpet-like appearance when mature, but far enough apart to ensure that all of the plants receive enough nutrients to grow to their full potential (we planted the seedlings about 4 inches apart). Below is a picture of the newly planted lettuce... notice the staggered planting style.



And in a couple of weeks...


Fully grown lettuce, ready to harvest.

Less light to the ground= less weeds :>


Finished product of yesterday's work:




This is a great way to grow food if you are concerned with water conservation- the shade on the ground ensures less evaporation from the soil, and organic, composted soil retains more water than synthetically treated soil.

After transplanting the lettuce, we watered the bed as a final step in transplanting. It is important to transplant in a way that is least shocking to a plant. The bed was watered before planting, the seedlings were watered before planting, and the ground was water post planting.

Planting all this lettuce reminded me of the funk band, Lettuce. Both are delicious!!

Gooseberry Attack

Today we started off the morning picking berries and flowers. Raspberries were, of course, on the agenda for picking, but Rich added a new berry to the list: the gooseberries located in the back of the City Farm plot. 6 pints to be sold to Olga's. My mom is especially fond of gooseberries because they are a regularly enjoyed fruit in Sweden, her homeland. We have had a gooseberry bush in New Jersey for a couple years, but the birds always seem to eat the berries before we can get to them.

These berries start out white/translucent and slowly grow bigger, getting softer and turning red-ish. Finally, you know it is ripe once it is a dark red and tastes sweet.





They taste very similar to grapes, with lots of seeds and a tougher skin. You have to watch out when picking from these bushes because they have a lot of thorns on them. What the heck, Rich, why can't we grow berries that won't maul us? haha, joking, joking.



Raspberry battle wounds.

Today was unbelievably hot. Basically, as soon as we harvested a plant, it wilted. We had to be very conscious about the temperature because of this, and timing is everything. After picking a bunch or two of greens (Giant Swiss Chard, Dinosaur Kale, Dill, Golden Chard, and Oregano today) we had to run over to shade and submerge the veggies in a tub of cold water, where they would immediately bounce back from the refreshing rush of water.

We also cut flowers for cute little wild arrangements to be sold at the market today. Rich told me that they are not usually a big hit at the market, but having them there attracts people to the stand, like little bees :D

Maybe if we planted more flowers in our dying city streets, then more people would come around to build them back up. Guerilla Gardening, anyone?

Energy Exchange

Friday June 18

Today Rich and I traveled to several different places to donate some extra food from the farm. The Genesis Center on Potter's Ave was the first stop- this place is an adult education center that provides a window of opportunity for immigrants, refugees, and low-income residents to learn valuable skills; City Farm donates food to the organization's culinary arts program.

After dropping off lettuce, mint, and some other delicious produce from the farm, we were treated to some awesome fries from the chefs-in-training at the Genesis Center. The next stop we made was over at the Rhode Island Food Bank. I was surprised that we were donating to the Food Bank because I had figured that this type of organization would only accept canned food. I was really excited to find out that fresh food is accepted because it seems that the people who need fresh food the most are often those who have the least amount of access to it.

Rich loves the idea of community exchange; a concept in which many different people participate in a barter system where everyone engages in their individual interests, contributing to the community in exchange for other people's contributions. He even implements this idea of exchange with produce and compost pick-ups.. At the Friendship Cafe, Rich delivers produce in exchange for coffee credits. At White Electric, he picks up coffee grounds in exchange for coffee credits as well. Being a lover of coffee, I would not mind growing food in exchange for coffee.

Hearing Rich talk about this, I was reminded of the alternative money system in Ithaca. "Ithaca Hours" are slips of paper that are used to trade one person's hour of work, for another. For example, you are a carpenter that works on someone's house for one hour. You receive a slip of paper that entitles you to one hour of another person's skill. This is an interesting form of bartering that would perhaps be a little more tricky when it comes to farming. So many hours are spent on the farm tending after plants.. how would you even be able to calculate how many hours you spent planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, cleaning/bagging, etc. for a bunch of collard greens? If you know anything about how this barter system works in terms of food, then I would love to know- leave a comment!

The rest of the day we spent harvesting for the Hope Street Market. The Gator Spinach is finally reaching a large enough size and volume to harvest! I have never tried this type of Spinach, but I am sure it is popular at the market because it is a variety that you never really see for sale.




Gator Spinach <3

Rich also put us to work on the raspberry patch- It is absolutely amazing how many raspberries these bushes have produced over the past few weeks.

Rich likes to keep notes everyday, recording when the first harvest of certain plants take place, if it rained, and other information about the produce and farm. He took out two calendars and laid them out next to each other. One was from last year and the other, from this season. Little notes and drawings filled every square- a thorough recording. He looked at month of June 2009-- First Raspberry eatin'- June 30th. Tracing his finger over this year's calendar, he stopped at June 9th, 2010. The raspberries were in fact, nearly 3 weeks early this year. I am a strong believer of climate change, but I was really surprised to see such a difference in only a year. I will be interested to see when the first picking happens next summer...

Sean, the apprentice at the farm, is full of useful information about farming as well. Just yesterday he told me that the more raspberries you pick, the more raspberries your bushes will produce. This makes sense if you think about it in the energy exchange sense- when a ripe raspberry is picked, the plant no longer has to put energy into making that one raspberry more ripe that it already is, and that energy can go towards ripening another, less ripe, raspberry. You just have to make sure that you don't accidentally rip off a whole bunch of unripe raspberries when you only meant to get one ripe one. That seems to happen to me more than I would like it to. That concept also applies to peas and tomato plants.


oops, picked off a bunch of unripe berries...

I have always enjoyed taking clippings of plants, putting them in water, watching them grow roots, and them eventually planting them. My roommates and I always do this with geraniums in our house. Recently, I found out something new about how to grow tomato plants from clippings... Sean told me that if you pick off a large sucker, you can just stick the end of it right into a pot. I am super excited to have learned that little tip about tomatoes.. they are one of my favorite savory fruits- well, avocados too of course. It is a little harder to grow avo's in this northeast weather though.




Sucker plant!

Garlic Scape Heaven

Yesterday we took a trip to pick up horse manure at Roger Williams Park Stable. Being from horse country, New Jersey, I was happy to make the trip; I love the smell of horses. After shoveling a couple trash bins full, we set off back to the farm, stopping off in just one place: Mills Coffee Roasting Company. Rich and I popped in to ask if they would be interested in saving their coffee byproduct for our compost bins again--this will be the second summer collecting compost from them. Composting coffee is always a good idea. It covers up any unpleasant smells (especially those coming from the wet, decaying weeds I wrote about a couple posts ago) and is an awesome edition to the energy content of the soil.

Today was the Thursday farmers' market, so we spent most of the morning harvesting. We started off picking raspberries, then moved onto kale, cilantro, garlic scapes, collards, dill, lettuce, bronze fennel, and edible flowers.

The morning began with heat, hats, sunglasses, and raspberries. All of a sudden, Patricia pointed at the sky and I was shocked to see a huge ominous rain cloud, swollen purple and stirring on the North side. In minutes, the clouds had spread, spanning the entire sky. We were about ready to run for the greenhouse (or dance in the rain) in an anticipated torrential downpour. Surprisingly, the clouds left almost as fast as they came, delivering only a few drops. Soon the sun was out again and it was time to harvest garlic scapes.

I had never even seen a garlic scape before I started working at City Farm this summer. For anyone unfamiliar, it is a long shoot that grows out of the top of a garlic plant in a swirling formation.





Scapes taste like garlic but become ready for harvesting earlier in the season than the actual garlic bulb. By cutting off this shoot, you not only get to enjoy a delicious alternative to garlic bulbs, but you will be helping the plant to transfer it's growing energy from the top of the plant to the bottom, where the bulb lies. By doing this, the bulb can grow much more easily.

I like to chop up the scapes and stir-fry them with other veggies. It is cool that garlic plants are able to give produce for basically the whole summer with scapes early on and bulbs later.

After Harvest, we set off to SCLT to weigh and bag the produce. I especially enjoyed it today because we gave the lettuce mix a little color by tossing some edible flowers. We also put together a little carton of the left over flowers to sell at the market. They included Calendulas, Evening Primrose, Johnny Jump-ups, Flax, Nasturtiums, Bachelor's Buttons, and Borage Flowers (which I tried for the first time today, they taste like marshmallows!).

~Johnny Jump-ups~

Tomorrow is the big harvest for Saturday market :)

A Sucker for Tomatoes

Monday June 14

Today we went to work harvesting more raspberries. It is amazing how fast these berries ripen; in only a day, there were hundreds more looking red, delicious, and ready for picking. Raspberries are tricky to harvest; they like to hide underneath the bush's leaves- According to Rich, this is basically a defense mechanism for the plant against birds who may want to eat their berries. Crouching down is a necessity if you want to find all of the juicy, ripe, amazing, purple-y, mouthwatering, well you get the picture I think, berries.

I have realized that peas are my favorite plant to harvest. Pea plants are awesome because of several different reasons-

1. Pea plants are really interesting looking. Their strange leaf shape and stem structure has always reminded me of the physique of a praying mantis (!).

2. It is amazing how much produce you can get from a small number of plants.

The Mammoth Melting Sugar Pea plants at City Farm are so abundant with pods. I could hardly even spot any of the pods when first harvesting these plants, but they have become easier to find with the more I work with them.

These plants in particular are filling in amazingly, so it is especially hard to find the hiding pods that are in the dense, chaotic greenery. I have found that lightly swaying the top of the plant (be careful not to hurt it) and looking for swinging pods works well.

I realized the other day that I am learning a lot of valuable information by just being at the farm and noticing how everything changes day to day. Recently I noticed that each pea pod starts as the center of a flower and gradually grows out of the flower, shedding petals and forming seeds. I had never realized this...

We also staked the tomato plants today. Rich uses vertical stakes placed on each corner of the bed and along the sides every couple of yards. Tying a string from stake to stake along the bed, he created a "ladder" for the plants to climb.




Tomato plants are interesting because they don't look like vines, but they grow in the same fashion. It's important to stake these plants because ripe tomatoes weigh so much that the stems may break before harvest. Using strips of t-shirts, we tied the tomato plants to the nearest string, being careful not to strangle the plant



We also went to work doing some pruning to the tomatoes, breaking off the small shoots, or "suckers", that grow in between large stems. Rich is always speaking about the expenditure of energy in plants; by breaking off the suckers, the plant will use more of its energy to produce the tomatoes rather than growing new stems.

Right now, the cherry tomatoes are about the size of a marble and totally green. It should be a couple more weeks until they are ready for the picking. I can't wait-- tomatoes are definitely in my top five of produce.

Late Start, Early Season

Thursday June 10, 2010

Today I woke up a little late; I have recently woken up wide-eyed in the morning, excited to hop out of bed to travel to City Farm, but for some reason my mind went on a vacation, dreaming, this morning-- straight through my alarm. I blame it on the Sage Rich gave me the other day- I did have some interesting dreams last night :P

I managed to get ready in 5 minutes and motored over to the farm, arriving at around 9:30... Thankfully, Rich was very forgiving about my late arrival. Today we harvested for the Thursday afternoon Parade Street Farmers' Market. I was able to munch on some Mammoth Melting Sugar Peas for breakfast while harvesting this particularly delicious variety.



The raspberries are ripening very quickly at the farm- a couple weeks before they usually arrive. This is one part of climate change that has been visible: a shift in the growing season. Farmers have a firsthand look at the effects that are taking place in the climate and are also given the task of having to prepare for these changes.



Building up the soil with organic matter is one important part of the preparation for climate change that will put organic growers at an advantage. If rains come with greater vigor, rich non-compacted soil, reinforced with compost, will be able to better absorb the rains than that which is highly degraded from synthetic fertilizer. Similarly, if droughts occur, humus-rich soil is able to retain water at a much greater amount than degraded soil.

After harvesting peas, Patricia, Wendy, an older volunteer, and I stepped over to harvest some Sage. While clipping off the top of the larger stalks (giving it a "haircut" :D ), Patricia and I looked over and saw Wendy struggling to unravel a poor sage plant from the grasps of a bind weed.

This vine-y plant is highly invasive and can quickly take your garden out, turning it into a bind weed monoculture. Rich has been pulling this plant out and throwing it straight into the trash- it is just too much of a risk to even think about composting it. The rest of the morning I was put to the task of trying to eliminate the bind weed from this area. I spent more than an hour carefully unwinding the tendrils from sage plants and trying to unroot this crazy ivy-like monster. I even saw it attempting to creep towards the chard! Okay, so it doesn't grow that fast, but it was only a couple days away from being able to strangle out a golden chard plant. The roots on this plant are very hard to rip out of the ground. I found myself breaking the plant halfway down the root, and then digging into the earth in search of the other half.

Nasturtium Madness

Tuesday June 8, 2010

Today I had the pleasure of harvesting Edible Flowers.

Just some of the varieties that are present at City Farm:

Calendula
Bachelor's Button (both blue and dark red)
Johnny Jump-ups
Nasturtium
Flax Flowers
Evening Primrose

Many of the flowers we harvested have little flavor but are still added to salads for aesthetic purposes. Although this is the case, the Nasturtium was a complete and utter surprise to eat. I was not expecting such a flavorful and spicy taste from a flower! I think this is my new favorite snack at the farm:



I was especially excited to be introduced to the Evening Primrose plants at the farm. I take supplements of this medicinal plant (it helps with skin complexion and women's reproductive health), but I had never seen one in person. These have bright yellow flowers.


Evening Primrose


The rest of the morning we harvested for local restaurants, a regular task during this time of the week for Tuesday deliveries.

Restaurants delivered to today:

Friendship Cafe.
AS220
Local 121
La Laiterie

While harvesting some Sage for the restaurants, Rich told both me and Patricia, another intern from Bates, to take home a bundle ourselves to put by our bedsides; he explained that in Native American tradition, it has been used to induce dreams.

Overall, a successful start to the week..

Harvest!

On Friday we harvested for the Saturday market! There is something that is so satisfying about a harvest- I love seeing the finished product arranged so nicely in a bunch. Sweet peas, scallions, dinosaur kale, red russian kale, lettuce, arugula, golden chard, and garlic scapes were among the vegetables that we picked for the day.

Being a lesser experienced grower, I discovered a trick from Rich for harvesting lettuce. In the past, I have picked the largest leaves on the lettuce, letting the plant continue to grow until it was a long, vine-like, scraggly, and bitter plant, no longer resembling the head of lettuce you might pick up from the grocery store... I was pleased to learn that there is a better way; If you chop off the top of the lettuce just above the base of the head, then it will grow back in about 8 days!

The result:


Though doing this rather than ripping out the plant from the ground (and selling the entire head rather than loose leaves) causes the lettuce to become more bitter the more times you chop it, it saves seeds and makes the process much easier and less labor intensive. I was super excited to tell my mom about this, and I hope that she passes on the knowledge as well!

Harvesting the Golden Chard was one of my favorite tasks of the day. Cutting this plant with scissors makes this really satisfying crunch sound, and this type of chard is just so beautiful! The leaf is green in color, but the stem is where the plant earns the right to be called "golden." I could not get over the amazing yellow color....




It became apparent to me today that City Farm is more of community center than a private entity. At 8 a.m., Chris (the Children's Garden Coordinator for Southside Community Land Trust), Sean (Rich's apprentice), and I were the only people there. As the day continued, more and more people trickled in, coming to volunteer. Soon, there were 6 other people helping out with the harvest. We all sat around in the shade cleaning produce, chatting, and laughing (...singing Lady GaGa...). Around noon, even more people stopped in, including Raul, the head chef of the nearby Friendship Cafe, a place where Rich started delivering produce just last week. People came and went; some who were familiar with the farm stopped in to say hello, others new to the area curiously peeked over the fence until we invited them in for a closer look.

Around noon, it became even more apparent that City Farm is a community center; Sister Holly and Tyrone appeared at the farm, looking distressed. They had come in search for Rich because their nearby community garden (just recently established) had been vandalized during the night. Someone had trampled through their beds, breaking tomato plants and smashing chards into the ground. When they first started the garden, Rich had provided some plants and they were hoping he would help them again in rebuilding the collection of plants lost from this tragedy. Soon enough Rich presented them with trays of tomatoes, squash, and cabbage.

It is sad to think that so many days of good work could be intentionally destroyed in seconds.

Kale plants look very strange once they get large and take off flowering. Out of the top grows the flowers and bunches of seed pods, shooting out everywhere. Today we also chose the best kale plants to save seeds for planting next year's crop. Rich explained that his judgment for picking the best plant is choosing the one that has the most seed pods and the least amount of leaves. The reason behind choosing one with less leaves is that it must have produced the largest leaves (those which are now gone, having been harvested). When determining which plant to save the seeds from in your own garden, make sure to keep an eye out for the plant that seems to give you the most produce with the best quality.



Kale flowers and seed pods.



I also was able to learn another trick for composting: When composting weeds, throw the weed scraps into a bucket (or trash bin for large amounts) full of water. Let the weeds decay for a couple of weeks in the water, and the seeds will actually swell and become unable to germinate. Then, use a pitch fork to scoop out the green matter to put as a layer in your compost bin. When your compost is then ready to be put into your beds, the weeds won't start sprouting up from having weed seeds in your mix. You can keep reusing the water in the bucket, but be careful not to get any on yourself- this stuff gets awfully pungent!

More tips: Do you have a cutter worm problem?


Cutter worms love chopping off City Farm's tomato plants. A natural pesticide? Closely place two toothpicks on either side of the plants stem, about halfway into the earth. The cutter worm won't like trying to bite through the wood and will become discouraged from biting into the stem:

City Farm

I have officially returned to one of my favorite spots I have ever encountered-- a little urban organic farm in the Southside of Providence. This little gem of a place is called City Farm. Hidden among the litter and concrete beyond Broad Street lies an oasis of greenery, a sanctuary for plants, {wo}man, and other animals. Birds thrive in this area, both wild and domestic- today I was especially enchanted because as I entered the gate of the farm, the sound of a fife filled my ears; Phil, a longtime gardener of the adjacent community garden, was serenading the chickens with a beautiful song; the chickens happily listened with calm curiosity.



I was reminded at this moment why I had returned.

After listening with the same soothed expression as the chickens, Rich Pederson, the manager of City Farm, greeted me with a warm hug and explained the day's agenda. This summer, I will be working with him on the farm as an intern.

The first task that Rich introduced me to was washing and sorting through arugula, one of various vegetables that City Farm sells to local restaurants and customers. Munching on arugula leaves deemed unacceptable for sale was the most delicious part of this task-- I love the spicy flavor of this plant.

Rich weighed and bagged the plants heading to local restaurants-- oregano, lettuce, dinosaur kale, chocolate mint leaves, paak choi, and scallions are among the many plants that are harvested in the spring at City Farm. Today, we set out in Rich's truck to see Catherine Mardosa, a local farmer at Red Planet Vegetables. Rich and Catherine have been working together to pool vegetable resources, part of the network of farmers in the Little City Growers Cooperative, and delivering fresh produce to Providence restaurants Local 121, AS 220, and La Laiterie, among others.

Rich has been involved with compost pick up at these restaurants as well; Local 121 and White Electric Cafe regularly save their vegetable scraps and coffee grounds for his compost pile at the farm.

Produce Delivery: Check.
Compost Pickup: Check.

So, how do you even compost anyway...? What is the best way to turn you vegetable scraps into dark, rich humus to make your soil amazing so your vegetables thrive?

One of the many pallet compost bins at City Farm:


Rich explained to me and a few other interns that there is the need for a 3 to 1 ratio of carbon (or browns) to nitrogen (greens). Carbon materials include leaves, coffee grounds (according to Rich- this varies depending on the farmer), straw, cardboard, etc. while nitrogen rich materials are basically your veggie scraps, chicken manure, weeds, etc.

Before putting down the compost we gathered, we had to make sure the bin was doing its proper job by feeding it oxygen. We did this by taking a stake and thrusting it into the top of the bin (so it goes deep into the pile) and moving the bar around to create a small pocket of air in the pile. This also discourages rats from nesting in the bin; you can also use a pitch fork for this.

Rich composts in layers in his pallet compost bins: starting with flattened cardboard box over the first layer,we started by spreading vegetables, then coffee grounds, and finally used straw from the chicken coop. We repeated this layering, again starting with the layer of cardboard.

Before leaving, we weeded the kale beds; digging my hands into the dark brown earth was a sensation much like that of plunging my hand into a moist chocolate cake. I love dirt. Those little microorganisms do great work!