farm with a view

Hope to be back in some way, shape or form. For now, San Francisco beckons.

A few quick photos to show how things are progressing at the plot. Actually, more just an excuse to experiment with my new-ish camera.

(Compare with this Jan. 20 farm update)

(The Swiss chard – bright yellow, magenta, red, white and everything in between – is producing well. However, still battling insidious false garlic that pops up everywhere, as evidenced in the lower left corner)

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There are two sides of me: The organic veggie-growing, back-to-the-land “me,” and the “me” who’s been known to dump out a can of Campbell’s Chunky Soup and call it lunch more than every so often. I have no excuses ‘cept that their clam chowder has a special place in my heart. (Blame Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “The Long Winter.”)

In these next few months, though, I’ll be veering decidedly toward the healthy, green tea-drinking “me.” Andrew is embarking on a new diet due to inflammation-related health concerns, and so, his new eating habits naturally translates to our new eating habits. Which is actually a very good thing, because the non-inflammation approach makes a lot of sense from a healthy eating perspective and doesn’t require one to do anything that’s just plain wacky, like eating steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The premise of the anti-inflammation diet, in a nutshell, is to remove all the stuff that has been known to increase inflammation or allergic or digestive reactions in the body – wheat/gluten, sugar, dairy, caffeine, acidic foods like citrus and tomatoes, etc. – and replace them with lots of fruit, vegetables, beans, fish, good fats and non-wheat whole grains, in order to get your system back to its baseline level. Then, gradually re-introduce these foods one a time, and see how your body reacts. It’s also recommended to avoid processed wheat and refined sugar regardless of whether your system can or can’t tolerate them, but we all know that.

Obviously, the first few months of the diet is the most limiting. Especially since Andrew is allergic to fish.

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We haven’t checked if this is factually accurate, but we’re pretty sure our plot’s the only one at Ocean View Farms with random concrete pieces/rocks for our walls. We’re actually quite proud of it – well, Andrew, mostly. We didn’t have to pay a nickel to construct it, and surely we absorbed plenty of good karma for turning some dude’s construction trash into something that serves a real, hopefully lasting purpose.

What didn’t cross our minds at the time was how our walls would also become Club Med for Snails.

Indeed, all the nooks and crannies are the perfect habitats for these slimy gastropods to gather, stay cool and chillax during the day:

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Cabbage worms are chomping through our kale plants at lightning speed. There’s perhaps nothing more disheartening than arriving at the garden and seeing what was once a large, broad leaf, shorn off with only ragged bits and pieces hanging off each side of its stem. (Except maybe arriving at the garden and seeing all your seedlings scattered about, dead.)

I decided to harvest the few leaves that were still intact, knowing that if I didn’t, the worms would most surely get to them that very evening. (We’ve also been hitting the plants with fertilizer emulsion regularly, hoping they’ll outgrow the rate of the worms’ voracious appetites.)

(Holey kale … And these were the better leaves)

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