Products for the discriminating urban farmer

Stitch Fix, My Beauty Box, Five Four Club, Styling On... these monthly clothing services keep popping up in my Facebook feed and on other internet marketing (likely because they know I am not up on the latest fashions). For those of you who can remember them, these services remind me of the Columbia House CD club!

But these mail order clothes services got me to thinking...what utilitarian, comfortable, functional, long-lasting items would I want to come in the mail? These clubs always ask about your current style preferences, so here is a list of some items I love. Anything on this list you like or need? Can you recommend any must-have products for me?


Good boots. Some people work in flip flops or bare feet or old tennis shoes, but I prefer to keep my toes fully enclosed. I've had some near misses (urban farming requires the use of hoes and harvest knifes, and there are always those pecking chickens) so my toes are safer in boots.

A good pair of rubber boots are perfect for winter or working in the chicken coop. This Servus pair was amazingly inexpensive at Blain's Farm and Fleet, but they have held up well.

For dry chores I love my Red Wing boots. They are comfy as a pair or sneakers.

Warm coat. Winter is cold and it's often chilly and rainy in the spring and fall. Also, urban farm chores are messy and I really don't want to wear my "town" jacket do messy work. It's good to have a dedicated chore coat.

A Carhartt Active Jac with quilted flannel is the perfect remedy for early morning chores in the cold months. They come in a large variety of women's and men's sizes and many colors.

Long-lasting tools. I've learned over the years that it never pays to have cheap tools. I buy inexpensive things when I need to, but when I can, I invest in products that will last a while and do the job well.

These are my favorite small, sharp, hand tools. The fixed blade Buck knife on the left is easy to clean and good for harvesting. The foldable Gerber knife is my "do everything" tool and is with me all the time. The Pampered Chef shears were stolen from my kitchen and have never gone back. They are super sharp and great for pruning tomatoes, among many things.

A sturdy bike. Living in the city allows me to run errands by bike. Being able to live a more sustainable life is one of the main reasons I chose to stay living in town and farm here.

This one can haul trailers of supplies or help me run quick grocery shopping errands. 

Little luxury. Not only does this wallet give someone a job and reuse a grain bag, every time I pull it out it reminds me of summer, of growing, of enjoying the harvest.

This is my splurge item-- a fair trade, Cambodian-made, recycled "Harvest" wallet from the Willy Street Co-Op. Although I bought it at the store, I'm pretty sure this is the website if you want one, too.

2017 Sneak Peek

The countdown to spring is on! It's hard to believe in only a month I will be planting the first seeds in the urban farm's grow room. In our northern climate, most vegetables have to be started indoors so that their growing season will be long enough. At first glance this may seem like a pain, but it gives veggie growers a chance to baby their plants and allow them to get big and healthy during those first weeks of life. Having a grow room is also just fun, and the grow lights really make the dark days of winter feel warm and bright.

For now, here's a preview of some of the vegetables that I am especially looking forward to planting, growing, harvesting, selling, and eating this year. If there is a veggie you are excited about, let me know!

Meet the Black Krim heirloom tomato. I've never grown a black/green tomato before, so I am very excited to try out this variety!

The Hungarian Hot Wax pepper is a hot pepper (like a jalapeno) but with the texture of a regular wax pepper. I think they would be great pickled or chopped up as a pizza topping.

Tatsoi was the most beautiful vegetable I saw on my WOOFing trip this fall, and I knew I needed to grow it. It's much like spinach and is good stir fried or even eaten raw in a salad. Here are some recipes for this Asian green.

I first had pickled daikon radish at a local restaurant, Graze, and I fell in love with this little root veggie. Here's a link with some other ways to enjoy them.

For years I ate the sauteed greens of chard and enjoyed their surprisingly salty flavor, but tossed the beautiful stems in the compost. I didn't really appreciate this veggie until summer 2016 when I learned that you can cook and eat the stems in much the same way as asparagus! Fantastic! Here's a recipe to get you started.

The ugly side of winter and Parrot Flower Power

Typically winters in the upper Midwest are snowy, with many bright days and surprisingly bright nights, when the snow reflects all of the light and makes midnight look like daytime. This is especially pleasant to view if you have an outdoor hot tub available.

But this winter we have had some oddly warm days followed by normally cold temperatures, resulting in melted snow turning to ice.

The low spot in my yard collected all of the melting snow and then froze into a solid mass of dirty ice (unfortunately, I have to cross this twice a day to check on the hens-- Yaktrax really do help).

It's hard to believe it with the mini glacier in my yard, but planting starts next month (indoors) so I've started working on my planting plan. (A sneak peak at the 2017 season will be in the blog next week!)

For now, my new toy!


Parrot Flower Power

The Flower Power is a small, waterproof, indoor/outdoor sensor that gives real time (as well as historical) information on a plant's growing environment. I decided to try one out because we needed temperature information under the indoor lighting system. There is a slick app to run this Bluetooth enabled device, so I can sit in the living room and watch tv while checking on the plants. Not only does it track temperature, it also monitors light intensity, fertility, and moisture. The only thing it's missing is the ability to monitor humidity.

The Flower Power is set up to monitor the conditions for a specific type of plant. In the app, the user designates the plant type and the advice given is species-specific.

The app's display is easy to understand and the reminders to water and fertilize are handy.

The Flower Power has been fun to play with, especially with my tomato plant. The light I'm using isn't really bright enough for tomatoes (they need very intense light), but it's good enough that I do have some baby tomatoes-- fingers crossed some of them mature! Luckily, the lights work great for growing baby salad greens!

Baby tomato and a flat of salad mix.

Baby greens with some lovely organic tomatoes from the co-op. A 10" x 20" flat of densely seeded salad mix gave us 10 side salads. And the baby greens are so cute! I've never seen anything like them for sale.

So for now, I'm thinking ahead to spring weather, but keeping my fingers crossed for some nice, new snow for fat biking before the winter is over. I'm also enjoying my last 45 flexible winter days, because once I start growing transplants, the fun doesn't stop until fall!

So, what do you do?

At a party last week, a good friend introduced me to a woman, and in doing so told the woman a few things about me, including that I am an urban farmer. The woman was very kind and interested and asked many questions about the urban farm, including where my plots are, what I grow, and where I'm planning to sell produce this summer. We talked about bed building, keeping chickens, vegetable selection, and how I'm looking forward to a busy spring season. After all of this discussion, she posed the question, "so, what do you do?" I looked at her, probably with one of my scrunchy, screwed up faces that people say I make when confused or irritated, and she added, "I mean, what is your job?"

*Sigh*

I get this sometimes, and I am am reminded that "urban farmer" isn't a typical job description (it's never an option in a form's occupation pull-down box). It's also a society norm to ask people what their paying jobs are. So instead of feeling resentful that she thinks my vocation isn't a "real job," I've decided to be thankful that I am in a position to be able to farm without having to support my family financially-- though I do take feeding my family seriously, and with good business practices I'm hoping that my market business will be solvent!

With that, some things I will be working on in 2017:

Be thankful every day. I will find 2 or 3 things every day to be thankful for, big or small. Concentrating on these will keep life in perspective.

This cartoon my mom had made really sums up what I have to be thankful for!

Today I'm thankful for indoor grow lights. I originally set them up to grow transplants for summer, but they have filled the dark winter with light and leafy veggies. And if these flowers work out, tomatoes, too!

Make my own bread. This is something I really enjoy doing, so I want to prioritize it. Also, it gives me satisfaction to know I can pronounce all of the ingredients in my recipes, and I love the way baking bread makes the house smell like a home.

This is a King Arthur Flour recipe that I have been making recently. It toasts up great, too!

Homemade stollen-- a new holiday tradition. And another King Arthur recipe.

Organize the garage. Since the garage serves many purposes for us (barn, tool shed, bike storage, carport) it needs an organization upgrade. I'm happy to say that we can fit our car and my parents' car in the garage as well as all of our bikes. That said, starting this spring our two-car garage is also going to be our urban farm pack shed, and I have big hopes of putting a vegetable refrigerator (probably an old beer cooler) out there.

The organizational system needs a 2017 reboot!

Keep a list of books read. A list will help me go back if I need to review some piece of important information. I will also keep a list of books I want to read. Most importantly, I plan to not always give in to the easiest thing when I'm tired, and instead turn off the television or the internet and read!

Winter is a great time to cozy up with a good book.