Petaluma Bounty Farm by Dana

On Thursday the 24th Darnell went on a field trip which was apart of his class he's taking.  They went to this farm called Petaluma Bounty.

Darnell brought these strawberries home and they were so sweet and yummy

Green house

Petaluma Bounty Farm

Oregano by Dana

Hello all, so with all of our herbs we have in our garden I figured I could dry them out and replace what was missing in our herb rack in the cabinet.  So I decided to start with the Greek Oregano

Missing Herbs

 Fresh Greek Oregano

I soaked leaves in a little soap and water to get tiny bugs off

I let the leaves dry on a towel

I put them in a bowl so they can dry

The leaves were cut on the 22nd.  They we somewhat dried on the 24th.  At the end of the week they were completely dried

Ready to separate the leaves from the stems.

I rubbed the leaves in the palm of my hands to separate the leaves from the stems.  By the way my hands smelled like Oregano which smell so good.

I didn't have an herb grinder so I used the bottom of the glass container to crush a little more

I bent the paper plate and used it like a funnel to put the herbs in the jar

Walla a finished process

Greenstrings Farm by Dana

On Thursday April 24 Darnell went to this farm called Greenstring farm in Peteulma CA.

While he was there he learned that they allowed weeds to grow in with the edible plants to help aerate the soil

Here are other pictures of what was growing on the farm

Peyton by Dana

Yesterday at our garage/bake sale my niece Peyton helped us and to thank her we gave her one of our Strawberry Plant's, Wasabi Arugula, Purple Tree Kale and Chard.

Fundraiser to start our first Crop Swap by Dana

Yesterday Darnell and I held a fundraiser garage and bake sale. We've been planning this event for months and it finally happened.  On Friday we baked 75 Ghirardelli chocolate brownies,  we plated and wrapped them  and of course I had to sample one.  We didn't sell all of them but some of them did sell which is good.

The garage sale of course was our focus because we had a lot of stuff to be sold.  It was good to get things out of the garage.  Doing a garage sale is hard work but it pays off.  Our goal for the garage and bake sale was to raise funds for: 

• To make improvements to the Crop Swap feature on our website, Playndirt.com

• Start a Crop Swap location at: 

Adams Crest Farm 

5000 Patterson Circle, Richmond, CA 94805

Operated by Urbantilth.org

Apple Pepper Plant by Dana

Our Apple Pepper plant has started growing the blossoms again. 

 

The blossoms are a beautiful small purple flower

 

Once they open and die the apple pepper will come from the flower

 

The apple pepper is a circular pepper that resembles an apple. 

 

 

It has a nice, mildly spicy flavor and thick, crunchy flesh.  The pepper is excellent for fresh salsa, pizza or a salad. the pepper start out a yellowish green when ripe it turns a reddish orange.

Urban Tilth Tomato Plant Sale by Dana

Yesterday Darnell and I went to a really cool tomato plant sale at Adams Crest Elementary school on Saturday 4/12/14.  The sale was sponsored by Urban Tilth a non profit organization, based in Richmond.

 Urban Tilth grow your own Food

 Darnell is holding different varieties of peppers and a tomato plant

 More varieties of tomatoes

 More varieties of tomatoes

Urban farming

Monica's garden by Dana

Today Darnell and I checked out Monica's garden.  She's a local Richmond dweller.  Here's pictures of her garden.  

 Tomatoes and Red onions

Strawberries

Different varieties of Lettuce

We also gave her some of our plants and seeds as well.  We gave her Wasbi Arugula, Chard, Chive seeds, Parsley seeds, Basil and Purple Basil

Grits and Greens by Dana

On Thursday March 27th, Darnell and I went to this event called Grits and Greens in Oakland.  Grits and Greens was an event that was a part of Impact Hub of Oakland Community which is Organizational Connection of different entrepreneurs trying to make network connections to affect change within different communities.  The idea behind the Hub is to co-learn and co-work.

There we also had food, we had,

1. Red Flint Polenta with Coconut Milk

2. Coconut Greens

3. English Peas and Asparagus

4  Roasted Strawberries with Rose Geranium

There was also 2 dance pieces that was shown that was based on real life events that happened in the news.  The first dance piece was about a young woman who was from Mexico who moved to America.  She got a job working in the field, she was pregnant and died because of not having enough water to drink.  The second dance piece was on hurricane Katrina. This older man was trying to swim to a safety boat and the woman rowing the boat told him it wasn't enough room, but the older man kept trying to get into the boat, the woman had to hit him to prevent him from drowning the boat.  Both dance pieces were sad. 

After everything was over Darnell and I met the executive director of a non profit called Urban Tilth based in Richmond.  They have different locations here in Richmond where they are teaching people about growing your own food.