Life in Cleveland

Summer has been filled with lots of growth. Personal growth, well, that's questionable! But there's no doubt we've been a part of growing the most food we ever have before. From helping neighbors grow food, to helping at our community garden, to working in our own backyard, to going to my job everyday, we've seen the miracle of food up close and personal.

Lynea just started her new job teaching 3 year olds at a school that's just right down the road from us. We're happy to both be able to walk to work.

Then: The first day we planted with the youth at our community garden.

Now: The garden is thriving now!

This was just a normal day of harvesting at the community garden: varieties of lettuce, tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, and herbs.

Harvesting rainbow carrots at my job site, the city farm.

Purple beauty sweet peppers!

Lynea recently surprised me with a trip to West Virginia for Labor Day weekend. We went rock climbing and white water rafting 

Sister?

We repelled off this cliff. Our guide was telling Lynea to "please back up!"

A little nap at this view.

Our rafting partners.

Another harvest.

Our backyard chickens getting some free range time.

We've been getting 2 eggs a day!

Potato harvest at work.

Summer

Here's a few things we've been up to lately:

Weekend with friends at a cabin in the woods.

It was the same place we went to on our honeymoon, only this time I had a toupee.

Wild Chanterelle mushrooms (and a chicken of the woods)! It was gratifying to go by the store afterwards and see them being sold for $12/pound.

Chanterelle and egg breakfast

 

Blueberry pickin' with Lynea's dad.

 I know I look funny, but the mosquitoes were that bad!

Harvesting Garlic

We harvested about 8,000 garlic last week at my job.

“My final, considered judgment is that the hardy bulb [garlic] blesses and ennobles everything it touches - with the possible exception of ice cream and pie.”
Angelo Pellegrini, 'The Unprejudiced Palate' (1948)

Before and After

Summer is in full gear. Check out the before and after.

Carrots

Carrots. It all started with carrots. While we were teaching in India, one of my 9^th grade students came over and helped me plant carrots. I don’t remember why I was inspired to do so. Maybe it was because I had yard for the first time and some primal instinct told me I should have a garden. So we planted carrots. About three months later, I figured I should pull some of the carrot tops out of the ground. And much too my delight and fascination, the tops were attached to the most beautiful carrots I had ever seen, breaking up through the top layer of soil. It was magic. I threw seeds out on the ground and the tiny seeds had tapped into some sort of energy that turned them into huge, orange carrots. Miracle.

With one of my carrots back in 2009.

Fast forward a few years. I’ve had a couple years of farming experience under my belt and now have a new job (!) with Cleveland Crops. I work only a few blocks from where we live, and if you know where that is you’re probably surprised that there is a farm around. It’s an urban farm, close enough to ride my bike to everyday. One of the crops we have growing is carrots. Sometimes when I look at them, I remember how this farming journey began with carrots not so long ago. I’m once again excited to pull them out of the ground when they’re ready. I’m pretty sure that the wonder and fascination will still be there, even though I’m getting paid to do it now.

Carrot tops growing taller

A new site at my job that we're going to plant on.

Picked these zucchini the other day at our city farm.

Bees in every flower. That's a good thing. There's a striped zucchini growing underneath it.