my own small urban farmstead

So it's been a few weeks since the last post and a lot has happened! To start with, I went on an amazing tour of City Farm here in Chicago. The farm is situated on a city lot that is in a residential and commercial area that borders Cabrini Green. They have all kinds of goodies growing there, from tomatoes and basil to squash and many varieties of peppers and even honeybees! The tour was put on by Angelic Organics Farm and went from City Farm to the Green City Market and concluded with lectures by the farmer coordinator of the market and then a book reading from Holley Bishop and her book, Robbing the Bees. (which of course I am now reading!) It was a lovely day and we were able to enjoy the full summer sun and the products it helps produce!

I have also been in the kitchen, just a little. I made a few rustic nectarine and blueberry tarts that turned out quite beautiful. But, how could they not, both the nectarines and blueberries have been nothing short of divine this year! I've also been slightly addicted to sun tea. It is that time of year I suppose. The cat however, not so sure about the tea. (ha!)

And, in the garden, I have harvested my first round of peppers, continue to eat the sugar snack tomatoes and am about to take in the first eggplants! All of the plants have new flowers and babies on them, which means they must like the fire escape methods I've been employing. Maybe I'm onto something here!

good, clean, fair

A few nights ago I attended a dinner event at Uncommon Ground here in Chicago. The event was entirely based on local farms and products, with Seedling Farm being the main producer. I cannot express how excited I am about how gorgeous this dinner was, how amazing their roof top garden is (complete with honey bees!) or how much I stand behind their decisions of how to do business. The evening started with a tour of their garden on the roof, custom built boxes line the edges and then fill the center of a very large space and contain everything from Pruden's Purple Tomatoes to Chocolate Peppers to a Chicago Fig tree (which is built for our nasty winters!). They served sangria with some sort of beautiful gingerale in it and passed mini crostinis with proscuitto and cherries, lettuce wraps with fresh veggies and some sort of croquetta made with pork. After letting the sun soak into our skin and the plant beds, we went downstairs to the dining room and began the four course dinner.

I've scanned the menu in for you to see, the salmon was out of this world and came out on planks of cherry or pear wood! The first pairing was a house-made melon infused North Shore Vodka with a proscuitto rim, so perfect and lovely.

More so even than the food, what I enjoyed the most was the passion that Helen and Michael Cameron have for their restaurant and for sustainability. It was inspiring to see all the chefs come out from the kitchen to be introduced to the diners and appreciated for their amazing work. Seeing the gardeners and farmers enjoying dinner with everyone, the community made at this dinner, was refreshing. There was really good food, without any of the pretension that sometimes accompanies this type of event. The attention to practices that they can stand behind and speak elegantly about made it worth it for me to be there. I thoroughly recommend dining at either of the Uncommon Ground restaurants in the city and supporting the kind food we all should be eating, the kind that is good, clean and fair.

staked out

I have had to re-stake the tomato plants, their going wild! They certainly can have a mind of their own, but the wind is the real boss. It's been pushing them around, so I staked them higher and then tied them to the fire escape, no more blowing in the wind! The tomatoes have new baby blooms that hopefully will dawn new baby fruits and the peppers are getting huge. The eggplants are the most impressive so far.

new fruits

i have three tomatoes! after a lot of dirt was spilled on the sidewalk out front, i have fruit box flower beds that are already producing goodies. the three peppers are all blooming into sexy sprouts of green and the eggplant is starting to drop into place too. my basil was so happy that i cut it back and had to give it away.
the cat is loving on the papyrus plant, strange, but who am i to judge.