I will miss them, but it’s time to take a brake from chicken keeper.  I suppose that having a baby has added a . . . → Read More: Bye Bye Chickens]]>

I will miss them, but it’s time to take a brake from chicken keeper.  I suppose that having a baby has added a handful of extra responsibilities to my life and I’m feeling the need to lighten the load elsewhere.  Chickens have a way of warming the heart.  I will miss their beautiful feathers, their funny coos and clucks, their piercing stare and their little profiles darting around  in the background of the garden.  Over the last two years I’ve kept 7 different heritage breeds; each one with it’s distinct personality.  They were all chosen for similar characteristics, most importantly their above average egg laying, their general tendency to be calm and for being good foragers.

The Black Australorp has been hands down my favorite breed.  They are the best layers of large brown eggs and they are the calmest and most docile chickens.  They are large, beautiful and tend to be at the top of the pecking order.

Buff Orpingtons are similar to the Australorps in their size, egg laying and calm personality, but they are a little bit more “blonde” if you know what I mean…  They seem less driven to forage or fight for their food and they tend to be the lasts ones to figure out it’s time to go in the coop at night.

The Ameraucana is of course one of the most charming breeds, with their blue and green tinted eggs, their furry cheeks and their multicolored feather patterns.  I found these birds to also be extremely docile, friendly and not the least bit aggressive towards others in the flock.  They tend to be at the bottom of the pecking order.

Dominiques stand out in a crowd with their speckled black and white feathers.  They are very good layers of light brown eggs and although they are pretty calm birds, in my experience they have been the most aggressive towards the rest of the flock.  The dominiques hang out near the door of the coop every evening harassing everyone that tries to come in for the night.  Similarly, they hang out by the water and food dispensers bugging off anyone who approaches.

The Cuckoo Maran is also speckled black and white, but with a bit less contrast.  They are one of the few and rare breeds that lay chocolate dark eggs!  They’ve been a nice addition to the flock, generally calm and tending to be in the middle of the pecking order.  I suppose one of their only flaws is that they can be squacky and loud.

Welsummers are the other chocolate egg layers.  The majority of my flock right now consists of these ladies and they just started laying a few weeks ago.  Their eggs are very dark and often speckled, really beautiful and fun.  They are calm and peaceful birds, tending to be on the lower end of the pecking order.

The Blue Andalusians are the only white egg layers in my flock.  They are the smallest breed and lay the smallest eggs, but they lay regularly.  The Andalusians are not all blue; due to the recessive gene that makes them blue, sometimes they are all black, all greyish white or mottled.  A truly blue hen is very very rare and very very beautiful.  It turns out these birds are pretty nervous and don’t like to be caught or held.

Here we are, end of February, peak of the season.  At this time of the year the majority of our crops are doing great because growing conditions are optimum.  There are exceptions of course, and some of them monumental, . . . → Read More: Farm Open House]]>

Here we are, end of February, peak of the season.  At this time of the year the majority of our crops are doing great because growing conditions are optimum.  There are exceptions of course, and some of them monumental, for example tomatoes are beginning to taper off around now, but pretty much everything else we grow is flourishing.  The days are getting longer so we have more sunlight, the nights are still relatively cool so we have better chances of good germination and the lack of rain lets us finally get ahead of the weeds.  The biggest issue is water; without a good irrigation set up it can be hard to establish new direct seeded crops, but we aren’t doing much of that anymore since there isn’t enough time for most new crops to mature before it’s time for cover crops.

The garden looks amazing and I wanted to share it with all the people who participate in our mailing list so I had an open house.  Sunday was a beautiful day and it felt good to be there with my family and friends, hanging out and talking shop.  It was also very satisfying to meet some of the people that I didn’t know who follow the work we are doing in the garden.  Everyone was very enthusiastic and curious; such a perfect combination!  The images above are stills from a film that two girls are working on for the FIU student film festival about local food in South Florida.  Stay tuned to find out if they make it in….. it will be a worthwhile watch.

A couple of weeks ago someone contacted me about sourcing produce and eggs for their pop-up brunch.  Well, actually the story starts further back… Back in November of 2012 that same someone contacted me about sourcing produce for their pop-up restaurant.  . . . → Read More: Ruthie’s Pop Up Brunch in Wynwood]]>

A couple of weeks ago someone contacted me about sourcing produce and eggs for their pop-up brunch.  Well, actually the story starts further back… Back in November of 2012 that same someone contacted me about sourcing produce for their pop-up restaurant.  They told me they were participating in Restaurant Day, an international food event where people open their own restaurant for the day.  I thought the idea was really interesting and visited the official website, www.restaurantday.org to check out not only her menu, but to see what this event was all about.  It turns out to be a really big thing in Europe, with Finland being the main hub, presumably the place where Restaurant Day was created.  The website has a global map where individuals pin their restaurant location and viewers click on the pin for details such as location, time and even menu.  Ruthie’s is one of two pop-ups participating in Miami.

Amanda, the chef/proprietor of Ruthie’s is a really sweet local girl and I admire her aspirations.  Both times that she has participated in Restaurant Day she has sourced ingredients locally; and I’m talking about so local she didn’t even have to go to Homestead, she was able to find fresh ingredients with people like me, Proper Sausages and ACME Bakery & Coffee, all of us based in the heart of Miami.  I’m no food critic, but her menus are mouth watering and from what I tried on Sunday at her brunch, she is on point, keeping things simple and letting ingredients speak for themselves.

Sunday was cold.  Well, chilly really.  Cold for Miami.  As someone mentioned at brunch, it was like a typical San Francisco day, brisk and sunny.  We showed up in long sleeves and sunglasses, glad to be seated outside in the sun.  The atmosphere was very laid back and welcoming.  We all agreed the food was great.  We all agreed we wanted to hang out there long after we had finished our meal, chit-chatting with friends who showed up and soaking in the fresh Wynwood air.

Check out Restaurant Day Miami on Facebook or visit www.restaurantday.org to find out when the next Ruthie’s is opening again.

Last February I wrote a blog post about saving Jicama seeds and almost one year later I am finally reaping what I sowed.  Well, the truth is the CSA members are reaping what I sowed.

In the meantime, crops in the garden . . . → Read More: Back in Business]]> December is a blur to me.  After being pregnant for nine months, my baby, who was due on December 14th, was more than 2 weeks late.  She was born at home, big and healthy, on January 2nd and we are overwhelmed with happiness to finally hold her.

In the meantime, crops in the garden kept growing, climbing and blooming, thriving under the perfect December sun.  On my first visit back I was blown away by how the landscape had changed.  To experience a garden daily, or even weekly, is so different from any other time span; in even just one month the landscape of a garden can change dramatically.  I have to give a lot of credit to Tiffany whose been making some of the big changes happen by taking down bean trellis, planting many beds of new crops and keeping up with the weeds, but nature clearly had a big part in it too.  The kale is knee high with broad leaves, the chard is also big and bright with intense colors, the rows of tomatoes seem to have quadrupled in size and are dotted with colorful globes of ripening fruit.  Cabbage patches are full, carrots are peaking out of the soil and new beds of arugula, mustard and radishes create long green lines again the dark ground.  Bees are buzzing around bolting brassicas, butterflies are indulging in milkweed flowers and some bad bugs are lurking in the shadows.  It’s clearly peak season for gardening in Miami.

I’m growing the same variety of cabbage I grew last season because it did really well in the field, it formed pretty consistent heads and it tasted awesome.  Caraflex is a hybrid variety with good disease resistance and forms a rather small . . . → Read More: Transplanting Cabbage]]>

I’m growing the same variety of cabbage I grew last season because it did really well in the field, it formed pretty consistent heads and it tasted awesome.  Caraflex is a hybrid variety with good disease resistance and forms a rather small head, which I think is more manageable for CSA members because they get fresh veggies every week and prefer to keep things moving in their refrigerators.  Probably my favorite part about growing Caraflex is it’s shape.  When fully developed, the heads are nice and round at the bottom, but come to a puckering point at the top!  In the field when they still have all their outer leaves they look like gigantic green roses.

Seeds were started in plug trays at our nursery in early September and have been ready to transplant for about a week.  I finally got to it this morning.  They developed really nice roots in the plugs and were very hardy seedlings.  The beds I had reserved for cabbage was still planted with a Sunnhemp cover crop so the first thing I did was cut it down using hedge shears.  The cover crop was at it’s peak, just beginning to flower with bright yellow pea-shaped blooms.  It’s roots will stay in the ground to break down over the next couple of weeks and will release accumulated nitrogen for the cabbage as well as hold moisture and prevent erosion if we get more heavy rain before the cabbages have grown their own matted root systems.  The green tops of the cover crop will dry on the soil surface, acting as both a green manure and a mulch.  After cutting down the Sunnhemp I used a pointed hoe to dig two trenches per bed in which the seedlings were transplanted about 8-12 inches apart.  After any transplanting a good watering is very important to help the seedlings get established.  Now it’s a matter of watching for pests, most likely some kind of worm that will eat the leaves.  In a couple of months we’ll be enjoying fresh cabbage!