It's an intense crop

Why I can only be a hip urban farmer. .

I'm way to attached to every plant. And that's it.

Who's been in the dirt?

Finally, I have a day off and I won't waste it, I think. Do I go to the gym or to the hardware store?

That old bookcase raised bed finally died. No time to mourn its frugal loss. If I'm working I might as well allow myself the guilty pleasure of purchasing another raised bed.

Guilty pleasure indeed.

Ah, the gym, it's right near the hardware store. Do I jog for thirty minutes at the gym or do I go whole hog and get to the hardware store in my dirt encrusted overalls?

Hmmmmmmm. . . .

It is time to start the seeds!

As I look through the seed catalog this year, I just don't know what to grow. 
Once again, this is another thing that a conventional farmer would not say.

I should have a plan ready to go, but I don't. Remember how last year, I told you to get out that graph paper and plan where to put things?  Well it's still a good idea. And I just might follow it, but uh. . .

Winter activities. . . .

Make Your Own Grow Your Own
So while I've been waiting for Spring, I've been making my own.
Making my own what thou may ask?
Well winter season is knitting season for me. And what better thing to make than mittens.
Yep, I bet you're very smitten with the idea of a mitten.  No?
Well here's my first pair. . .

Who's thinking about. . .

Well, it's winter and it's finally cold outside believe it or not. So I guess it's time to pull out the seed catalog and start the wish list.

What's on your list this year?

Last harvest

As I picked the very last of the peppers , I began to think once again I like doing this!
I always wonder at the last of the harvest year if I will indeed try again. Pulling these last peppers allowed me to reaffirm my faith in the hipness of urban farming.

It is not always an easy road to tread. Though I have never chosen the easy road or followed the path that most people take, maybe it is this willingness to take the less traveled road that allows me to see the value in farming in the central city and finding value in this ground.

There seems to be so much that we just throw away. We don't even compost it. Old houses in the central city are full of history and they have stood for at least one hundred years. There is a history to be preserved in these houses as manifestations of the the original city planning  and economy that gave way to the creation of suburbs. I would argue that central city neighborhoods are a manifestation of the history of labor and industry in our society.

Maybe urban homesteading is a way to preserve the history of the people who helped to create our society. Could there be lessons to learn? I don't know, but it seems we will never know as long as we just throw it away. Seeing a way to compost it all, repurpose it, upcycle it, create new growth. . . That would be interesting. However, there are more than just buildings, but people in central cities. I like to think that my little hip urban farm is like being at my grandmother's house. She lived in the city and I lived in the suburbs, but I always loved going to visit grandma. The point here is that there really is some interconnection of the city to places and people. And there are memes in our ways of living that keep us connected to each other.

There is value in the last harvest.  That value is way to hip for words, though I try to explain it. It's only the hip thing to do!