City Farm Project

I’m not dead yet

Derrick Tennant — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:58:18 +0000

Oh man, what a crazy two months! Did anyone else get that horrible outbreak of zombies? Well, luckily most of us here at City Farm have survived. It sucks being boarded up in a school while the undead scratch aimlessly into the night.

I sure am glad we had some stuff canned already, or we would have surely died (I mean hell, who wants to eat school food for two months?).

Expect some updates from me in the next few days about what’s been going on since last we spoke.

Stay tuned . . .

Man It’s Hot

Matt — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:31:59 +0000

I know what Indiana summers are like, but often forget the intensity until they hit. So due to the heat and humidity that makes summer almost unbearable we are planning a midnight madness this weekend.
Using a halogen worklight we will do all of the dirty work that has pushed aside. Weeding and mulching will probably take most of the night. The cucumbers and squash are almost lost in the wilderness that is the garden.
We often talk how next year will be better because we are going to plant in raised beds and mulch heavily when we transplant. I hope this works. I am starting to feel lost in the weeds myself.

I am mobile!

Matt — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:39:14 +0000

I have other interests in life besides food and football. I am also really into technology. It is a bit weird considering my ideas on how life should be, but I reckon everyone has a vice or three.

Due to my unbridled infatuation with technology, last summer I stood in line for an iPhone. Thanks to Apple and WordPress I am now able to blog from anywhere in the world. Especially the garden. I am very happy to have this ability as I often wanted to write a note to everyone, but couldn’t.

I think that I will enjoy being mobile and I hope you enjoy my newfound ability also.

…and the moment I’ve been waiting for…

Derrick Tennant — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:11:38 +0000

For over a year now I’ve been planning and dreaming of making my own fermented pickles. Last fall I came across a recipe to make pickles, but it was for fresh pack pickles. After I tasted them, I knew something was wrong; this isn’t how the good pickles are supposed to be. So my adventure began…

I found out what I actually wanted was a fermented pickle. After searching across the internet, and finding new and interesting sites, I came to find out that pickling crocks are not Dollar Store items–especially if you have to have the heavy things shipped across a few states. I thought for sure that my dream was gone.

Fast forward to early spring, and I find myself at a Rual King store in their clearance section. For less than $30 total I was able to pick up a 1 gallon and a 3 gallon (from the best I can remember) crock. Happy days!

I’ve done some preliminary tests with sauerkraut and I think I can do it now.

So, right now I’ve got four pounds of cucumbers from our garden that I’ve washed, speared, and soaked in lime for 24 hours.

I’ve made up my batch of brine with dill and garlic (both from the garden) in the bottom, and have added the infant pickles. I just wish I had more batteries for the camera

Be sure to stay around for more updates about my little pickle experiment.

Sauerkraut: Day 6

Derrick Tennant — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:27:27 +0000

Nothing much going on in the sauerkraut world… every other day it’s: unfold cloth cover, pull out weighted jar, pick off floating “stuff,” wash off jar, put back in, push down kraut, cover.

It smells, but almost in a good way, something like sauerkraut. I’m guessing I’m doing it right, since I’ve read that if it’s done wrong, it will just plain old stink like rot.

Here’s some pictures you can’t make out because they’re in a crock:

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week”

Derrick Tennant — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:58:55 +0000

We had another small harvest today! Submitted for your reading pleasure, our lovely story about pulling weeds, re-caging tomatoes and tying up limp peppers after a storm, and trying to figure out how exactly composting is supposed to work.

Saturday evening we had a little rain; from what I can tell via the internet, about four inches in two hours. This compounded with rather high winds and heavy green tomatoes proved that gravity is a force to be reckoned with.
We had our work cut out for us Sunday–well, it wasn’t too bad actually. There were perhaps seven plants that had fallen down with their cages. The bell pepper plants were all laying down (cage-less), and we had to put some steaks in the ground and tie them up.
After that we went ahead and did some regular maintenaince: pulled weeds, put down mulch, moved vines around, etc…

Finally we had dinner. The lovely ladies cooked us some delicious hamburgers (something having to do with bacon and cheese I think?), corn, cottage cheese, and…

Straight from our very own garden! We had Squash and Zucchini! It was seasoned with our very own garlic and onions.

Life is good.

Sauerkraut schmeckt sehr gut!

Derrick Tennant — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:27:22 +0000

You guessed it! It’s time to harvest some cabbage! Like I’ve said before, I want to give fermenting a try this year. Our cabbage has come of age, and it’s time for it to take it’s place in my stomach the world.

Matt wants to take a few heads and boil them down with some sort of pork-like meat–we’ll have to get with him to find more out about that. I am going to make sauerkraut out of some of it. I’ve never done this before, but I’ve been reading up on it via that dangerous internet thing (I’ll share some of my more favorite sites on the subject at a later date).

So it beings: Diary of a Kraut; for the next two weeks (or however long the fermenting process takes) I will be documenting my prodigy as it zombifies into an undead treat for me.

The first thing I had to do was take five pounds of cabbage (it only took one head!) and slice, dice, and rip it up into a respectable size. After that, I added three tablespoons of salt to the shredded cabbage. I have to admit, I tasted it at this point and it was good enough to eat already!

As the water started seeping out of the cabbage, thanks to our friend osmosis, I transported my mess to a pickling crock. Then I placed a plate on top of the mix and added a mason jar full of water for weight. The plate and extra weight are there to push down and squeeze the water out of the cabbage.

The next 24 hours are very important to this process. If enough water isn’t suqeezed out of the cabbage to cover it, then I will have to add a brine mixture to it so that it will halt the microbial action that I don’t want; this will make a great home for Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus.

Stay tuned for the next update and we can watch this sauerkraut bloom together!

Getting Ready for the Fourth

Matt — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:48:58 +0000

Our town REALLY takes an interest in Independence Day. We supposedly have the largest parade in the state. So in order to get City Farm ready for the big day there was mowing to do and and alot of mulching around all of our tomatoes. Thankfully we got it all done. Our tomatoes look really nice now that they are all mulched.

On Vacation (part 7 Vacation’s Over)

Matt — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:35:06 +0000

So today Derrick and I emptied the truck of sawdust. I had no clue a pickup truck could hold so much. After we finished that we got cleaned up to go out for my birthday dinner. I love being able to choose where we are going to eat.

On Vacation (part 6) (redeux)

Matt — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:11:31 +0000

I have never really had Quinn by myself. I mean, sure, for an hour here or two there, but never a whole day. Until today. Beth didn’t have enough time saved up to take my entire vacation with me. Since she works in the financial field, Friday’s are generally the busiest day.

It started out fine. We took Beth to work and got some breakfast. Came home and goofed around on the Net for awhile. Then Quinn woke up. At first she was all happy and cheerful. Seeing that she was quite jolly I decided to take her to visit my grandmothers house. Having only seen my grandmother a few times she was not real thrilled with the idea. She cried and fussed. What had happened to my happy daughter? I am still not sure. Next we went to see mommy for some lunch. We all ate and talked, but then it was time to go. From where my wife works to my house is around a mile or so with a few stoplights and stop signs. In that time Q fell asleep. When we got home I carefully exchanged vehicles as to not wake Quinn and took the truck to the local sawmill. I bought a truckload of sawdust to help mulch the garden. I came back home and carefully exchanged vehicles again. Off we went to Bloomfield to visit Dunkerley’s Greenhouse to look for cilantro. If our Roma’s are to be judged, we will need a ton cilantro to make salsa. Quinn slept all the way there, but unfortunately they didn’t have any cilantro.

So now with Quinn awake and a little fussy I did what any normal male would do. I took her to the closest woman she knows. My mother. My mom also works for a financial institution, but she generally works behind the line. Quinn seen her and practically jumped in her arms. The race was on to show Quinn to everyone and everyone to Quinn. Quinn was very cordial and even decided to let a few strangers hold her.

With time getting close to meet mommy for snack time, we left Bloomfield and headed towards Linton. Practically the whole way home Q threw a royal tantrum. So much so that I stopped halfway there and tried to console her. Seeing that I could not, I made the rest of the trek and suffered along with her. Upon seeing mommy Quinn’s mood became immediately jovial and she didn’t cry again. Until later.

After snack time Q girl and I made our way home and decided to play on the internet some more until we fell asleep. An hour and a half later the alarm woke us to let us know that it was time to pick up mommy. Another tirade when she had to get into her car seat yet again, but we picked up mommy and all was well.

Last but not least, a big storm blew through and hindered our emptying the truck of sawdust. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.