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.

Looking towards 2017

I've spent the last year or so investigating land options-- buying, renting, or backyard expansions. At a farming workshop I attended last weekend, New Farmer U, I met many new farmers who are shopping for or have recently purchased land. They dream of acres of vegetables or crops, quiet days and dark nights, lots of room for livestock (I loved learning about goat farming!), and raising children in the country. And then there was me...

I finally learned from all of my soul searching that although I really love visiting the country, I am a city farmer at heart.

Kids raised in the city can still grow food! My daughter grew these gorgeous 40 pound heirloom pie pumpkins this summer at the urban farm.

Bikes

It all goes back to bikes. Not that agriculture hasn't been my passion since I started working as an hourly for the cotton breeding program in college, but biking is such a large part of my life-- both for recreation and transportation, as well as biking instead of driving for health and environmental reasons-- I need to live somewhere I can bike as much as possible. The country would allow me road rides for exercise, but it wouldn't be reasonable to run errands by bike.

Adding beds to the urban farm. Having my plots in town allow me to work all day on the urban farm and then bike into town for happy hour (Capital Brewery anyone?).

Neighbors

My friends who grew up in the country will tell me that they had neighbors. But as a city kid at heart, I like have people close to me. Really close. I enjoy chats over the fence and waving at the lady across the street. I also like sharing my life with neighbors, showing them that you can grow food in the city. I've had several visitors just this summer who came over because they were curious about the urban farm. I love that! My hope is to get more people over next summer to tour the farm and share my excitement about local food.

Food vs. Lawns

I need to start off by saying I don't hate grass. My black lab, Olive, loves to chase her tennis ball and she needs a lawn to do that. But grass can be expensive (both monetarily and environmentally) because it can take so many chemicals and so much water to keep it looking perfect. This is especially bothersome to me if no one is out enjoying it. These are the yards that are underutlized and could grow vegetables.

Food or grass? We have chosen food. And hopefully we'll be feeding more people than just our family next summer!

Two Wheels Urban Farm's Future

Because of these reasons, the urban farm is staying within the beltline! We are expanding our home growing plots and moving into at least two additional yards this year (thank you awsome Land Owners!). The program works when a land owner trades yard space for a weekly share of vegetables harvested from all of the urban farm's plots. With the cost of CSA being several hundred dollars a summer, I am trying to provide a good value for my land owner partners. (This will also give me the opportunity to practice growing a weekly CSA). The rest of the vegetables I plan to sell at a local farmer's market. (Two Wheels Urban Farm now even has a tax ID, so we are official!)

My dad working on a new addition to a land owner's existing plot. Looking forward to the urban farm's expansion!

Planning, planning, planning

Some deep thoughts from a very long bike ride with way too much time to think!

Ok, it's true. I am a big planner and the nerd of the family. I like to spend time in Excel spreadsheets and really know my numbers. This is why when on my bike ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI) someone said, "you're just lucky to be able to afford to stay out of the workforce and live your [urban farm] lifestyle," I had to stop and think about how we grew the urban farm from idea to reality. Maybe it was part luck (isn't everything?) but we did plan for a long time.

So much corn in Iowa ...

After some thinking I did during the hours and hours I spent each day peddling roads along corn fields in Iowa, I decided to share my thoughts on how my family made this urban farm and homesteading lifestyle doable and sustainable, and perhaps I can help someone else find their path.

1. The most important thing we have done is get out of debt. For us this was the only way we could realistically live on one salary and allow me to leave my regular 8 to 5 gig. In our situation, we spent about 10 years paying off all of our student loans, car loans, and eventually even our mortgage. Basically my entire salary and a good chunk of my SOs salary went to paying extra payments each month. We were fortunate to both have steady work during this time (and for that I am very thankful) and we were also living the St. Vinney's Thrift Shop, save up and pay cash, one-car family, Dave Ramsey beans and rice, rice and beans lifestyle.

2.  Secondly, we live in a house that has a farmable yard. Of course, you can grow some food almost anywhere (patio, windowsill, straw bale), but it is helpful to have the right amount of space to accommodate how much food you want to grow. Ample sunshine and access to water is crucial (even for a very small space plants need to have good light). And if animals are in your plan, learn the rules of your town and neighborhood. If you rent, you'll want to make sure that your landlord is onboard as well.

3. This certainly isn't romantic, but health insurance is also really important. Anyone who has run their own small business or even decided to stay home with the kids knows that buying health insurance can be a big financial drain. Having a spouse with insurance has been a great money saver.

4. Lastly, it's important to know what you want out of life. Before you quit your job to live off the land, think about what things in life make you happy. For example, I have friends who like to eat out often. If you are growing your own food, will staying home to cook all that produce fit in with what you like to do? Trying out the new budget before you dive into your new life (and out of the work force) is really helpful while you're doing some soul searching.


This week at the urban farm

Beautiful Black Swallowtail caterpillar found in the urban farm this morning.

I came home to find that some of the pullets now have real combs!

Onion harvesting and curing is underway.

The pressure canner is my new favorite toy. I'm really looking forward to harvesting and processing tomatoes into sauce, whole tomatoes, and salsas. Tomatillos, too!

No time, no space

It has been really fun to talk with people about my urban farm. Friends and neighbors have had a ton of interesting questions and ideas, and they have all been super supportive of my small patch of country in the middle of town (hopefully they don't think about The Settlers commercial when they think of me!).

No, thanks

Several people have expressed an interest in starting a garden, but there are obstacles standing in the way between some of these friends and fresh fruits and veggies:

• lack of yard space for a garden
• fear of soil contamination in urban areas
• lack of time for all that weeding while working a full time job and/or parenting

What are some options for getting local produce?

Community gardens-- find one, get on the list. In some areas (like Madison) community gardens are plentiful. It may take a little digging around, however, since some gardens can have waiting lists while others will have open plots this summer (my current community garden has available space). Also, some apartment communities have plots for their tenants. If you don't have any local gardens or they are full, a good option for the go-getter is to create a new community garden. Churches or schools are good places to start. Another option is renting from a land owner. I noticed recently that a farm close to our local dog park rents small garden plots. A free option is borrowing land from a neighbor or friend-- you could propose to plant and work the gardens together or you could do all the work and share part of your harvest as a thank you for the space.

My community's garden, Bock Garden

Raised beds, hoop houses, greenhouses-- if you're concerned about your soil, a soil test (such as this one that tests for lead) can help you find out if you have soil contamination. Raised beds can be used to avoid the city soil all together, and you can even set them on concrete if you don't have a yard.

Photo from nonabrooklyn.com

Another option is building raised beds inside a greenhouse or hoop house. Hoop houses can be inexpensive to build, and these "indoor" options will extend your growing season, which is especially important in locations with short summers (this blog is a great example of growing under cover).

A cool hoop house with raised beds from the blog Greenhouse to Table

CSA option-- if time is an issue, you can do small, easy things like growing herbs or microgreens in your windowsill and, of course, frequenting your local farmer's market. But the way to get a full summer's worth of garden goodness at a fair price is to join a local CSA (community supported agriculture). CSAs offer a subscription service with one price for a season's worth of vegetables, and sometimes fruits, eggs, honey, or meat. The produce is local, sustainable, often organic, and you are supporting a local farmer. In some cases you can get CSA discounts through health insurance or your workplace.

Have fun planning out how to grow, buy, and eat all your summer veggies!

Winter on the urban farm

Spring will be here in just a few days, so I have been contemplating winter. When I was working a desk job and dreaming of my future life on the urban farm, a couple of thoughts nagged at me: what would I do with myself all winter and would I go crazy? Sitting around my living room day after day is not my idea of a good time. I like to be busy and physically active. Now that I have a month of winter farming under my belt, I have a better picture of what next winter will look like.

So what do urban farmers do in the winter?

Winter in Wisconsin.

Planning: winter is a good time to go to your office (in my case that would be riding my fat bike through the snow to the local coffee shop) to plan for next year.

My winter office.

During the growing season and at harvest I make notes of what crops did well. This will help me decide what varieties to keep and which to replace. I also have planting maps from each year, so I can work on the next season's rotation and companion plantings. Since Two Wheels Urban Farm is in the growth stage, winter can be spent mapping out where new raised beds and other new farm additions will go and estimating supplies and budget needs.

One map iteration from my big farm notebook.

Education: there is always so much to learn! Which soil amendments are best, how can I make compost faster, and how difficult is it to raise my own chickens?  The winter provides cold weather and short days, just right for camping out at the library and reading. There are also many options for conferences and classes. This year I attended the 2016 Gardens Summit in Madison and learned about veggies, pollinators and composting while networking with local growers. There is a free online conference called the Home Grown Food Summit, and next year I'm planning to attend the 2017 MOSES (Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) farming conference. I'm also currently finishing up a women's bicycle maintenance class called We Are All Mechanics-- I'm thinking Park Tool School might have my next bike repair class.

I keep re-checking out this book and should probably buy a copy for myself.

Volunteering: another important way I spend my free time is to volunteer. The winter is the perfect time of year for me to slow down and give back to the community. This year I've volunteered for three organizations that mean a lot to me: Fair Share CSA Coalition, Wisconsin Bike Federation, and the Madison Area Master Gardeners Association.

A cool sign from the Fair Share CSA open house.

I'm going to enjoy these last days of winter and start making my spring to-do list... continue indoor seed starts, fence building, prepping the beds at the community garden plot, and harvesting asparagus!