Laura Parker

Today we are tasting Zucchini from Green Strings Farm, near Petaluma and Carrots from Tierra Vegetables in Santa Rosa.

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I am doing trial tasting for Jil, Geoff, Thomas and Chef today…no pressure.

Beginning at Green String Farm right outside of Petaluma, one of Bob Canard’s farms. When I think of Bob I think of weeds. His fields are full of weeds and he appreciates every one of them as they each have their own job in the field, providing nutrient, carbon, holding water or any number of other things. Watch this video of Bob talking about some of his growing practices

Here the farm stand is abundant and gorgeous. Walking down the rows of beautiful food I stop in front of the potatoes and ask Sarah my contact at the farm what variety they are, she said “Oh, yellow potatoes. You know Bob, he saves all of the potato starts that he likes and over the years they have just become Bob’s potatoes.” And they are wonderful. As I eat them I think of the bags of potato bits sitting in the shed waiting for spring. Today I decide to taste the zucchini and chard

and maybe potatoes from Green String Farm.

The second stop on my route is Tierra Vegetables, just off of Airport Blvd in Santa Rosa. This farm is nestled in the crux of the freeway. Is it the nature of a farm stand that is directly attached to a farm to be so vital because the vegetables are so close to their source? I don’t know, but I do often feel myself swoon as I walk from the heady aroma of the fresh picked carrots or close my eyes and inhale over the arugula. It was hard to choose between the Romano beans, kohlrabi and carrots. I decide on all of the above and postponed the decision until later.

Ensconced in Jil’s kitchen. I decide to make a little amuse bouche to be served after the first part of the tasting, just to notice how beautifully these vegetables retain their original nature.

We begin with the soil from Green String a Clear lake clay, a drop or two of water, beautiful rich color, breathe deeply…“Ah, wow, I smell carrot.” “What!” Impossible this is zucchini. Oops, no, it isn’t. I had pulled the wrong glass and Geoff had nailed it. I always worry that in this process the roll of suggestion might play a big part in the success of a tasting, so I am very happy about my mistake. Geoff had just put that worry to rest. Correcting the glasses and now serving the Clear lake clay from the zucchini, a little more subtle, but when you taste the long thin strip of zucchini and smell the soil, there it is lurking just under the surface. Now back to the Yolo Silt Loam

from Tierra and the carrot. We notice that even when the soil is harvested from exactly the same spot as the carrot some of the soil holds more of the scent of carrot. Maybe there are more of the roots retained in one spoonful than another. For me this is always fun and different every time.

Menu ideas for the Taste of Place dinner with Bard Diva and Chef Ryan Francher on the 27^th were flying.

Visit www.barndiva.com/happenings.html for more information. Ever Saturday in August we will be doing free tastings at Studio Barn Diva. More information about Taste of Place a http://ww w.tasteofplace.info/

The amuse bouche from Green String Farm is grated zucchini stuffed into the zucchini blossom and lightly poached in a chard broth with the young red chard

stems cut as garnish, oh yes, and pieces of leek blossom for texture. From Tierra Vegetable I sauté grated carrots with olive oil and quatre epice and make open face sandwiches on round of raw kohlrabi. I hear a grated theme here.

Our next stop will be Early Bird’s Place on Chalk Hill Road and Canvas ranch in Two Rock.

Green String Farm- www.greenstringfarm.com

Tierra Vegetables - www.tierravegetables.com

Taste of Place…at the Table at Studio Barndiva, the entire month of August

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To check it out, all of the information at

http://www.barndiva.com/happenings.html

A sandy question

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Do we call it dirt…or soil… and when?

This comes up over and over again & I would like to know what you think. My roots are rural Iowa. In my childhood it was always called dirt, but there was nothing dirty about this dirt, that is until it came into the house, then it was dirty. Dirt is the skin of the planet, the source of everything that grows. When does it become soil & why? Is there a hierarchy? Is soil better or more prestigious than dirt? Does it matter? Is it always soil until it is displaced, then it becomes dirt? Does it become soil when amended or augmented? Can it be soil if it lives in nature in the woods?

I recently fount an abstract published by the Southern Rural Sociological Association titled "Dirt Farmer" vs "Soil Scientist": Representative Tensions in the Constructed Identities of Farmer, hummmm, very interesting. It can be found at:

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/auxiliary/srsa/pages/Articles/SRS%202007%2022%201%2040-64.pdf.

I would love to hear what you have to say about soil and dirt. I don't even know where I land on the subject. I just know that when I open my mouth one word or the other comes out. What do you think?

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It's the good news and the bad news

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We have our seed balls out in 8 of the 10 sites. There are still a few sites available for adoption for adoption. If you are interested let me know. we will still be documenting throughout the summer and fall.

Now on to the bad news. We have had no rain this spring to speak of so the seed balls have not germinated but the GOOD NEWS is this is exactly why we used seed balls. They will just rest there until the environment is perfect for their growth, safe, sound and protected from predators and wind. Most will germinate this winter for harvest next spring. Unfortunately we will have to cancel the harvest this year.

Adopt a site, seed balls are broadcast…mostly

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We have now identified 11 good sites and continue looking for more. If you know of a perfect site in your neighborhood and would be willing for this project to adopt it send me a picture and the address. To adopt a site all you have to do is broadcast the seeds and weekly check how they are doing. A picture to me and posts to this site documenting growth would be good.

The site criteria are: 1) it must have public access 2) be untended 3) within the city limits 4) non toxic 5) not be set aside for native restoration. That's it.

The seeds we broadcasted this weekend should be ready for harvest in May. Of course there is no way to be sure the exact date. Watch for updates.

We still have some sites to get seeds to. If you can help email me @ lp@lauraparkerstudio.com and we can figure out how to get you seed balls.

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ADOPTED

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Seed ball workshop February 16, 2008; 10:30-12 noon

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We had a lot of fun at the second seed ball workshop January 27th. It was great to meet so many new people interested in this process and foraging. Also, thank you to everyone who helped spread the word.

This Saturday will be the first day we begin broadcasting the seed balls. We will begin at 10:30 making more balls and after everyone will be able to take some with them to broadcast at the chosen sites if they would like to. The fava beans will be the first seeds to be broadcast. It's hard to know if they will reseed next year but even if they don't they will act as a mini cover crop. Currently I have nine really good sites and hope with your help to find many more. Please send me your ideas for sites. If you are out with a camera, even better, send me a picture with the address. Again the criteria are: 1) the site is fallow, untended land 2) within the city limits 3) have public access 4) not obviously toxic 5) not be land set aside for native restoration.

I look forward to seeing you Saturday.

Interested in wild bees? Check out Gordon Frankie's website. See link to the right.

Seed balls: promoting urban foraging in San Francisco

2008-01-20T17:33:00.000-08:00

In remote or rural areas, berries and greens can still be freely foraged. By reclaiming many of our city's under utilized sites Urban Growth promotes the possibility of reclaiming the commons by seeding bare and untended earth under freeways, vacant lots, spaces between buildings or soil just emerging from abandoned and broken concrete. Land, which has been left abused and fallow, is revitalized and will offer it's bounty to feed the surrounding people and animals with plants that will nourish only those who eat them but also the ground they grow in.

The project:

Urban Growth will create and broadcast thousands of seed balls filled with native and edible seeds around San Francisco on fallow urban landscapes. Seed balls are known throughout the world as an efficient and successful strategy to reclaim difficult or abused land. The seeds are rolled up in mud and humus containing a high degree of clay, and strewn over the ground creating a self-sustaining mini-community (for information about seed balls, see links to the right). The clay protects the seeds from being eaten by birds, and when the rains come, the humus and clay help hold moisture and nutrients so the seeds germinate. Some of the seeds I plan to use include, miner's lettuce, burdock, mint, nettle, wild leeks, dandelion, chicory, mustard, lambs quarter, wild spinach and purslane.

Support materials, including maps of the planting sites, will be handed out in neighborhood communities or through this blog so that those who want to gather the food will know where edibles have been planted, what they look like and what to do with them. When these plants grow, they become part of a living sustainable community of relationships that includes billions of soil micro-organisms, worms, insects, other plants, birds, and humans, all of which work together to create the possibility of more foraged foods within our everyday landscape.

Join us to make seed balls, find the sites, broadcast the seeds and finally to harvest our labors.

Watch for postings of events here.