February 7, 2010
Gardening in small spaces, making pickles, growing specialty crops and healthy affordable food for all are just a few of the topics at the 3rd annual Rooting DC urban gardening forum. This day-long event – which includes panel discussions, workshops and talks - is free and open to the public.
Mark your calendar now for February 20th from 9:30 – 4:00 at the Historical Society of Washington.
¡Se ofrecerán algunas sesiones en español!
February 4, 2010
Although spring is still a ways away, now is the time to sign up for your CSA share.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) helps connect local farmers to local consumers, contributes to regional food security and supports land stewardship
Most CSA’s involve subscriptions where you invest at the beginning of the year and reap the rewards in weekly boxes of farm fresh produce throughout the growing season. Ready to sign up? You can find a listing of farms with shares still available (as of Jan 2010) right here.
Want to know more about the history of CSAs in the US? You’ll find an excellent article from the Rodale Institute here, and your tax dollars at work helped generate another excellent article from USDA’s Alternative Farming Information Center here.
February 1, 2010
Seeds sales sprouted last year with major seed companies expecting a 30% increase in sales.
A poor growing season last year for seeds here and in Europe, an expected increase in demand for seeds and an overall decrease in farmers growing seeds could mean some varieties of vegetable seeds are hard to find.
Read more in this NY Times article.
Have you ordered your spring seeds yet?
January 30, 2010
For this old house, two (relatively) simple steps will make a difference in our utility bills. The easy one first – replace the old programmable thermostat. The display is just about gone – we can set the temperature but not program it to go down at night.
The other step is to add insulation to the attic. Like most old houses, we have the yellow fiberglass stuff. And the R value is certainly below what is recommended for the DC area (which is 49). Fortunately there are quite a few options for increasing the coziness level; lots of useful information can be found on this site.
January 26, 2010
Would you drive to VA where, unlike DC, you pay taxes on your groceries? Would you tuck six bottles of wine under your arms to carry to your car? Would you just say no to a bag for your take out dinner and risk having it end up on the sidewalk?
Apparently yes, yes and yes.
According to this WPost article, some people are going to great lengths to avoid paying the DC bag tax that was implemented on January 1st. This, plus the many who already brought their own bags plus free tote bags from the big grocery chains has lead to a drop of more than 50% in plastic bags consumption since the program began.
If you don’t like the look of the Giant or Safeway totes, check out the Chico bags. Or make your own. Although you might need to shop in VA a few times if you wanted to make your tote out of crocheted plastic bags.
January 24, 2010
Although we had to say goodbye to our borrowed garden last fall, we also said hello to our new gardening space.
A community garden just a few blocks away opened up some space for plots. It was a “build your own” as these plots needed to be dug, framed, soil amended, etc. But at the end, we had a beautiful 4′ x 6′ space all ready for spring planting.
January 19, 2010
What green technologies both save money, protect our environment and maintain the architectural integrity of old homes? What home improvements are the most cost effective?
Learn this and more on Saturday January 23rd from 10:00 am – noon at Stoddard Baptist Home, 1818 Newton St NW.
Free to Historic Mount Pleasant and DC Preservation League members. $10 for non-members. Light breakfast included.
January 6, 2010
Is it because of economic reasons, concerns about food safety, farm to table movement, or another reason that the interest in urban chicken farming is on the rise?
Back in March of last year, city chickens were in the news and we had visions of a small coop with a few Buff Orpingtons providing fresh eggs.
Seems it is technically legal to own chickens here in DC. However, they cannot be within 50 feet of a resident which makes it virtually impossible for your Rhode Island Red to be a legal resident.
But D.C. Council member Tommy Wells has introduced legislation that would allow residents to to keep chickens if they have the written consent of at least 80 percent of the neighboring property owners. So city chickens may still come home to roost in DC.
December 12, 2009
Kids from Bancroft Elementary learned about crop rotation, the benefits of organic gardening, composting, healthy eating AND got to meet Bo through working with Michelle Obama on the White House vegetable garden.
An interview with two of the Bancroft gardeners can be found here.
December 2, 2009
We recently said goodbye to our borrowed garden — it has been sold, along with the accompanying house.
We spent time cleaning up the garden space including taking down all the tomato vines, many of which had green tomatoes still attached.
Now looking at the peck of green tomatoes we picked, and thinking about green tomato salsa, chutney, ketchup, soup, pickles…what else?
After you’ve fried a few and are ready for other options, you can find good green tomato recipes here.
