The Incredible Will Allen

I've met many people who are fans of Growing Power's Will Allen, including my friend Lisa Rogers of Feed Denver. The New York Times just did a great feature on Will, and how he's growing a tremendous amount of food using greenhouses, aquaponics, vermiculture, and other cool things in an underserved part of Milwaukee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

Video: Chickens in New York City

A great video on urban chickens (about 3.5 minutes):

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7868138

Why They Call It Cherry Creek

The beautiful Cherry Creek (and Cherry Creek bike path) run through the heart of Denver. Last year my friend Josi told me about her experience picking cherries from the trees up the street from her house, then baking a pie. I had to laugh at myself for never previously noticing the trees, and apparently believing that the "Cherry" in Cherry Creek was just a figure of speech.

I'm a huge fan of all things cherry, so the thought of fresh (and free) cherries available for the picking was exciting. The act of foraging in the trees is definitely an important part of the experience for me. It's a lot of fun to be face-to-face with the tree that's producing your food, poking around and wrestling with it a bit to get to the best cherries.

Last year I picked from the Cherry Creek trees, and also found a couple of trees to forage from in my neighborhood (with the homeowner's permission, of course), and ended up with some wonderful pies. This week Josi and I went out to pick some of the early cherries, before the birds have a chance to get to them!

Trees overlooking Cherry Creek.

Sunlight in the trees.

Josi doing her picking.

Many of them aren't ripe yet, but we still found a bunch to take home.

Getting ready to pit! This is just my batch of cherries --- Josi picked enough for another big bowl.

Cherries and tea.

Josi's cat Bila was observing, ensuring that everything went well.

Fourteen Pounds of Peas

Peas picked on Wednesday for the CSA shares. Most are a type of English pea (sugar snap) called Laxton's Progress, but we did have a few of the Blue Podded peas that were ready to go. We should have more next week if all goes well!

CSA Info for June 25th

Veggies to Enjoy this Week

Baby Beets & Beet Greens

Varieties harvested: Chioggia (candy cane), Bull's Blood, Albino, Golden

Arugula & Wild Rocket

Garden Cress

Lettuce

Varieties harvested: Big Boston, Dark Lollo Rossa, Amish Deer Tongue, Rocky Top

Spicy Micro Greens

Petite Itsy-Bitsy Baby Carrots

Varieties harvested: Cosmic Purple, Kuroda, Atomic Red, Amarillo, Lunar White

Kale

Russian Red Jack

Amaranth Greens

Herbs

Varieties harvested: Tarragon, Savory, Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley, Oregano, Cilantro, Sage, Dill

Also, we'll have English Peas for those of you that didn't receive them last week!

Meet Your Farmers

"Meet Your Farmers" will be a weekly feature to introduce you to the people that grow your food!

Barry has lived in Berkeley for 13 years with his wife Vicki, and now his 5-year-old son Conner. Barry joined Heirloom Gardens to learn more about gardening, and also to help introduce Conner to where food comes from. He likes to grow things that get big and grow fast (like squash and cucumbers), but his favorite thing to eat from the garden is fresh tomatoes. When he's not gardening Barry enjoys reading magazines, seeing movies, and learning about public policy.

Brenda has been gardening since she started growing flowers in her grade school 4-H program. Her favorite veggies to grow are things that vine - they're gifts that keep on giving! She loves to eat tomatoes and fresh peas, and cooks some incredible things including potato leek soup, mushroom risotto and an African dish called doro wat. When she's not in the garden Brenda likes to plant trees, read comics with her husband Brian and snuggle with her cats.

Featured Item

Amaranth plants are typically cultivated for their seed, which is cooked as a grain (similar to quinoa). However, the leaves are often used in Asian cooking and are quite tasty. They are similar to spinach in texture, and can be used in the same way. You can eat the leaves raw in salads, give them a light steam or saute, or include them in eggs, casseroles, or other baked dishes. Last night I made a pasta with sauteed garlic, shrimp, and amaranth leaves, and it was delicious! Amaranth leaves are a good source of vitamins A, K, B6, riboflavin, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, and a few other things. You can read more about amaranth leaves on Wikipedia.

Recipe Ideas

Roasted Beets with Beet Greens

This recipe was featured in an "In My Kitchen" segment of 5280 magazine. It's a recipe I created based on a dish prepared by the chef at my old job, and it's one of my favorite ways to prepare beets. You can view the official recipe by clicking the link, but this is a simplified version. The portions of veggies can be whatever looks good to you.

Our beets this week are still baby-sized, but they're big enough to enjoy being roasted!

Beets, with greens attached

Green beans

Head of garlic

Olive oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon horseradish

3 tablespoons milk or cream

1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim beet greens, coarsely chop leaves, and reserve. Cut beets in half (only if they're big, otherwise you can use the whole beet) and rub lightly with olive oil. Wrap beets and garlic head separately in foil. Roast beets for one hour (or 45 minutes if they're small), roast garlic for 45 minutes.

Cook beans in boiling salted water until tender. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add beet greens and saute until lightly wilted. Sprinkle with salt to taste.

Mix sour cream, horseradish, cream and 1/2 tsp salt. Peel beets and cut into wedges. Spoon the sour cream dressing onto the bottom of the salad plate. Next, arrange the green beans, then beets and roasted garlic cloves. Top with beet greens and serve.

Rooftop Gardens in the NY Times

Many thanks to Lexi for sending this to me - a great article about rooftop gardens that are sprouting up :) in New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

I know that there are some restaurants in Denver interested in starting rooftop gardens, and the whole concept of green roofs is interesting too.

As with so many things pertaining to urban agriculture, the development of rooftop gardens will depend on whether Zoning allows it. I will be interested to see how Zoning responds when this movement sweeps through Denver (as it surely will).

Do you know of a great rooftop garden in Denver? Tell us about it!

The Happiest Barnyard in the West

Yesterday I indulged in one of my favorite pasttimes --- watching the animals play in the barnyard. It's endlessly entertaining, because with nine critters (ten, if Lucy has decided to join the fun) doing their thing, there's always something to see.

As I watched the chickens pecking the guts out of an old cucumber, perching on the hay bucket, and lounging under the ramp, I got the sense that these are some very happy chickens. As it should be.

The crew.

Cinnamon, Sage, and Cardamom exploring the cucumber.

Rosemary, Cayenne and Thyme. At first they just pecked the open end of the cucumber, but eventually they learned that they could make new holes in the skin. Notice how Rosemary is lying on her belly. She likes to do this when she's relaxed, and it took me a while to get used to. The first time I saw it I thought something had broken one of her legs.

Peaberry can reach her head into the hay bucket from the ground, but really it's much more satisfying just to crawl in there.

The closest I got to a smile. She didn't appreciate being distracted while eating.

I committed the horrifying act of going a whole 15 seconds without paying attention to Dasha, so she decided to check in and see what I was up to. Note the straw between her ears --- she likes to forcefully scratch the top of her head on the straw bales and ground. Sometimes she leans over too far when scratching, and she'll actually do a somersault and land on her back.

"Aw, Mom... cut it out!" (See Lucy in the background?)

Sage at 12 weeks. Her feathered cheeks are so cute.

Cardamom is a blur as she scratches her ear. Her feathered feet make her the favorite of all of our barnyard guests.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.