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By feral, on August 9th, 2011%
I’m happy to announce that Tomato Race 2011 has a winner! Two Black Plum tomatoes ripened and were picked on Sunday, August 7, thus officially opening the feral tomato season.
The first and the second runners-up are Black Krim (below, on the right) and Cuore di Bue (“ox heart” in Italian). They were picked white (tomatoes generally turn a lighter shade of green before they become red), and are now slowly but surely catching up on our kitchen counter.
 The Fest of the First Ripe Tomato is probably the most anticipated event of the entire garden season. Last year the joyous day arrived at least two weeks earlier. And so, when Mark Bittman said a few days ago that “tomato season isn’t even halfway over,” I felt a bit embarrassed, as well as hopeful and desperate at the same time… Hopeful, because we still have quite a few days of summer ahead of us, and desperate because I won’t be in the garden for the next several weeks: we’re . . . CONTINUE READING → Tomatoes!
By feral, on June 24th, 2011%
 What a perfect day for a virtual feral garden tour!
Last week my dad came to visit us upstate, equipped with his new Nikon D90 camera and gardening expertise. In just 2 days he delivered such a load of constructive criticism that my garden probably won’t need any fertilizing in the nearest future… In addition to prolific advice, he helped immensely with many of my projects and took hundreds of photos. Today, I would like to borrow some of them to show you around.
Some of you have tasted the feral produce but today I’ll take you behind the scenes. The kitchen behind the kitchen, so to speak… That’s why I chose to greet you with this portrait — if you were one of my vegetables, the photo on the left would be a much more familiar image than the one below.
 But enough about me, let’s get moving.
Here's how the garden looks from below these days.
![]( "garden from above june <span style=") . . . CONTINUE READING → feral garden 3.0 — a virtual tour
By feral, on June 6th, 2011%
I apologize for such a delayed announcement of the results of my latest feral photo charade. Although everyone’s answer was correct in one respect or another, Anna is the official winner!
There are stones, there are barns, and together they spell out the answer: indeed, on our way upstate, we visited Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, NY.
 To my shame, I had only heard of it as the home of the famed Blue Hill restaurant and as sort of a mother-rhizome of the popular farm-to-table movement. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I learned about Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture‘s much bigger mission. This only proves my ignorance, of course. Don’t rely on this post as an exhaustive information source; visit their website instead — the description, the photos, the range of programs and classes they have developed and currently offer are truly wonderful.
Lucky for me, a few weeks ago James reconnected with his college friend Erica who works there and was kind enough to invite us on an impromptu farm tour. Here they are, reconnected in a gateway to . . . CONTINUE READING → a visit to Stone Barns
By feral, on May 22nd, 2011%
 And it’s time to push out some content after an extended blogger’s block!
Last couple of weeks all of my energy was consumed by the grading marathon and other end-of-semester matters but now I’m officially ready for the summer. Whenever it decides to arrive.
While we’re waiting, let’s reflect on what I’ve done so far. This list has no particular order.
Peas — I planted most of them around St. Patrick’s Day. Thought I’d never see them again but they surprised me several weeks ago with some confident and strong shoots. I had to quickly improvise some trellises. To protect the young shoots from my resident rodents, I placed some plastic bottles, cut off on both ends, around them. Onions — planted in April and already sporting some nice green shoots. James’ rhubarb is already pretty enormous. Last weekend we had to remove its giant flower stalks to ensure it doesn’t throw all of its energy into seeds. When spring is as cold as this year, rhubarb tends to bolt (go to flower -> seeds) early, which stops the growth of its edible (stalks) and poisonous (leaves) parts. . . . CONTINUE READING → grades are in, peas are up!
By feral, on April 26th, 2011%
We’re back in the city today, and I’m completely exhausted. It’s almost impossible to express how much I accomplished yesterday. I’ll try anyway, although no one would probably believe me.
The weather was finally so lovely, and I spent the entire day in the garden, digging and planting, planting and digging… It was quite a contrast to Saturday when we woke up and saw snow on the ground. That sight nearly gave me a heart attack but also made me think of a Russian folkloric claim that it always snows during Passover. The politically correct explanation of this meteorological superstition ascertains that this phenomenon serves as a divine reminder of the manna from heaven, sent to the Israelites during their travels in the desert. There are, naturally, other interpretations of this belief that I won’t discuss but it will suffice to say that this unfortunate precipitation made my Easter break in Canaan feel more like a tribulation than a blessing.
It was cold most of the time. I was hoping to harvest at least some young stinging nettles but even they haven’t had enough sunlight to grow more than two inches tall. So, no stinging nettle soup for . . . CONTINUE READING → an Easter parade of amazing achievements
By feral, on April 21st, 2011%
When we were in Canaan ten days ago it was freezing. So, instead of planting things, I concentrated on structural improvements. Terraced garden building requires a lot of feral architecture. Last two years I have mostly been using rocks I’d dig out from the ground while developing the terraced beds. But there are some really steep parts of the slope where primitive rock support (using the boulders I’m capable of moving myself) failed the corrosion test of winter. Therefore, this spring I went into the woods to search for construction supplies. There are several piles of trees that fell and had been cut into various sizes some time ago. Here’s what I used them for — a path made of thick split logs, supported by thinner ones that I dug into the ground.
 To minimize rotting and make this new structure less habitable by my furry adversaries, I used some black plastic lining underneath the logs. So far it seems reasonably stable.
We arrived in Canaan yesterday, and it’s still freezing. Again, not much growth to write home about, so I continued with my architectural aspirations. Today I built . . . CONTINUE READING → design and compost
By feral, on April 1st, 2011%
Amazon — both the river and the website — has been such a source of joy for me. Maybe one day I’ll tell you how James and I went to an Amazonian (the river) eco-lodge 2 years ago and about all the wondrous fruit and fish we saw and consumed there…
But today I would like to focus on the Amazon of the interwebs. Truly, it is an important part of my livelihood: sending me seeds to plant, paying 4% commission on all purchases made via links and widgets on my blog (which — I couldn’t but notice — has not been happening much lately…). And today, as I was thinking what funny thing to post for April Fools’ Day, it emailed me with a suggestion to buy this Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler. With an impressive 4 1/2 star rating based on 665 customer reviews, naturally, I was intrigued to learn more about it. And here’s what I found out.
It appears that number 1 annoyance listed by Scarecrow Sprinkler owners is not birds, rabbits or deer (and not even voles!) snacking on lettuce but rather their neighbors’ dogs and cats going number 2 in their gardens. I’m not . . . CONTINUE READING → a sprinkle(r) of joy
By feral, on February 12th, 2011%
Finally saw The Kids Are All Right last night. Undoubtedly, the centerpiece of the movie is the following quote by Nic, Annette Bening’s character (which I’m stealing, along with the image below, from this post by The Film Doctor):
 “Just fucking kill me, okay? I’m sorry guys, but I just can’t with fucking hemp milk and the organic farming and if I hear one more person say they love heirloom tomatoes, I’m going to fucking kill myself, okay? And did you know that we’re composting now? Oh yeah. Oh no, don’t throw that in the trash. You have to put it in the composting bin where all of the beautiful worms will turn it into this organic mulch and then we’ll all feel good about ourselves. I can’t do it, okay? I can’t fucking do it.”
Now James believes that this is the greatest movie ever because the above quote supposedly conveys our very . . . CONTINUE READING → And did you know that we’re composting now?
By feral, on February 8th, 2011%
My favorite NPR story today — and possibly ever — is about the Bolivian government experimenting with the confiscated coca leaves by turning them into compost. Obviously, the entire story is worth reading – here – but there are some notable quotes in the interviews that I would like to highlight:
“This is why we started doing experiments with coca compost last year. We took it to the University of Cochabamba for testing, and they gave us good results.”
“And under the roof are three large rectangular holes. It looks like you could bury a person in there, but this is where they made the fertilizer.”
“Testimony to this achievement is the ground where the compost was made, where weeds are now growing larger and taller than in the neighboring field. Plants seem to thrive on the compost.”
Which made me wonder why the weeds in my garden seem to be growing larger and taller than in the neighboring field…
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