Drills, Goats, and Radical Love.

You know you're an urban farmer when...
1. You grow your own food.
2. You share what you grow.
3. You've named your farm.

This definition was provided by Greg Peterson of The Urban Farm at the recent Jump Start Your Garden class, and I was finally ahead of the game.  Though I've yet to grow any food big enough to fill an actual salad bowl, my sign was in the ground weeks ago.  Yesss...

So Kevin recently went to Germany.  This left me ample time to buy wood at Home Depot and play with his power tools.  That experience went something like this:

Okay, found a drill. But what the heck is a bit, and where would I find one?  

      (About an hour later...) Googling "how to insert a bit"...

There are people in the world who operate on a "What is my time worth?" daily philosophy.  I am not one of those people.  Many, many hours later, I was quite proud to have accomplished the jerry-rigging (after google-based Drilling 101) of the following two raised beds:
        

                PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Girls should take shop in school!!!

In other news, did you know that you can get a free compost bin from the city?  It needs about three parts "brown" (carbon material like leaves) to one part "green" (the nitrogen supplies, like kitchen scraps and manure).  Here is our new compost bin:

I may not have my own goats, but that hasn't stopped us from having goat manure adventures!  (Jealous yet?  No, you say?  Permaculture schmernaculture!)  Anyway, it is easy, fun, and free!  Madison played on the property's trampoline and with the many adorable goats while I shoveled goat poo into bags.  You do what you can in the desert to try and get healthy soil...

Permaculture is REALLY neat.  Imagine your property as a self-sustaining space (chickens, veggies, herbs, water harvesting, composting, and how about a solar-powered pizza oven?).  Still, my personal dream is to have more dominion over what we're putting into our bodies, to cultivate heirloom versions of God's designs for our food, and to see a long-term, very healthy version of:

You got it.  The loves of my life.

For so much, I am thankful!!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

The Secret Garden.

What happens when Jesus and Barbara Kingsolver sit down over an omelet and cappuccino?  Oh, how I would love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation...They haven't invited me yet (Barbara is much harder to reach than Jesus), but I am at the ready, notebook in hand!

Of late, I've been trying to turn all of my prayer sessions into "Can we talk about farming now?" conversations.  I've scoured the libraries for gardening (on the sun) books.  I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  I've researched CSA boxes, took an Urban Farm class on fruit trees, called farms, visited the local farmer's market, tested my soil, raked rocks to start a plot, set out experimental seeds, and pestered (in the nicest way possible) our local AJs produce workers about where the food comes from.  I've even named my garden-to-be and made it a sign, the only thing currently growing in that particular (west-facing...sigh) plot.  But nothing, not any of these efforts, beats visually seeing the extraordinary little place I found with Madison the other day...(scroll down, if you will):

People, this is exciting!  LIFE, green things and beautiful things- but mainly for our purposes, delicious things- right here in the desert!  This secret space of wonder is actually the University of Arizona's Cooperative Extension garden (open to the public) off of Broadway.  Madison and I had the place to ourselves, so no need to act dignified or tree-savvy.  We scampered around from species to species taking ridiculous pictures, posing with purple eggplants and oohing and aahing loudly.  Hope springs eternal!

While I certainly didn't envision a new, overtaking interest in backyard farming at the onset of this blog, it has come upon us with force...and we are hooked.  Grow our own healthy food?  Not such a radical idea in the Bay area.  And not such a radical idea in the desert, if you're on the grapefruit and rattlesnake diet.  But variety, Lord?  Can you really do that here?  Don't we have to import our food from, I don't know, somewhere with a natural water source like rain?

Oh please, child.

Thanks to farmer boy Keefe's diligent watering, we have been growing citrus for the last three years.  We just added pomegranate to the mix, and hope to add apples, berries, peaches, plums, and a veggie garden in the months ahead.  Our growing seasons are quite short, and totally different from the directions on most every seed packet in America, but we are optimistic!  The Creator has graced even the badlands with some serious potential!

And as we continue along our path to sustainable family health, we have to think creatively with the less adventurous eaters in the clan.  Last week, the oldest kids were given five dollars each to spend at Sprouts however they wanted (no sweets allowed):

Keefe smelled his way to fresh bread, then rounded out his bounty with Sprouts' brand Cheese Puffs and six lemons.  

Our fruit girl didn't disappoint with watermelon, a pear, and an apple the size of her head.  

Three-year-olds may not be given the same $5 budget, but they're certainly not to be left out.   We turned these whole wheat muffins into pumpkin muffins w/ flax meal, almond milk, and Enjoy Life chocolate chips.  

Any of you locals who have gardened veggies successfully, I'd love to hear from you!  Be well!