A Narrative of the University of Oregon Urban Farm

Archives for harvest

Edible Flowers

Did you know there are some flowers you can eat? And they are delicious! As summer approaches at the Urban Farm, there are a variety of tasty flowers in bloom. Keep your eye out for these unassuming treats as you meander through the farm.

Borage: This is a flower you might be familiar with by now if you have spent much time in the garden. It grows and spreads profusely after being introduced to a garden. The little indigo blooms are edible and have a mildly sweet taste. Make sure to only eat the petals and avoid the stem, which is rough and fuzzy.

Daylily: These are some of the best edible flowers, in my humble opinion. The petals are large and fleshy, and they taste super sweet! Tear off one petal for a taste, or eat the whole flower for a great snack.

Nasturtium: This annual flower is not sweet, as you might expect it to be. It is instead deliciously peppery. The soft crunch is oh so satisfying.

New Farm Happenings

Hello to the University of Oregon blog community! My name is Ayla Ginger.

I am so happy to be placed here on this wooden bench, spilling out my first, long awaited post for the Urban Farm blog. I wish to bid the previous blog writer and urban farm friend, Kat, a loving hello and farewell. It has been over a year since she last posted on this blog, now living in Portland and partaking in many great gardening endeavors.

My goal here is to post weekly updates on the growing narrative that is the Urban Farm, similar to Kat. I took the Urban Farm class almost two years ago and fell in love with the place, the process and the people of the farm. New plants, topics and issues are constantly sprouting. Hundreds of students occupy the outdoor classroom a term; think about all the hands that have collectively dug into this dirt that have contributed to its healthy state today! Who are these hands? What is their experience on the farm?

From what I have gathered over time spent and conversations had; this place, this outdoor classroom, this cultivated open space, has affected, and continues to affect the lives of an innumerable amount of species. I aspire to bring light to the place, process and the people, and to share this narrative with any who may be interested to listen. Gardeners, urban farmers, nature lovers, academics, ecologists, poets, what have you, all welcome!

I wish I had photos to share, but I am having some technological difficulties in that area. Photos to come soon!

Feelin’ Great From My Head Tomatoes

Currently Listening: Minor Threat - Complete Discography

It’s been rainy here the past couple days which as I’m sure you can imagine makes everything in the garden just POP! Thus far, we’ve harvested 37 pounds for the month of May.

Check out this ridiculous allium: (whose name I do not know!)
upper terrace tom w allium may 12

We transplanted some peppers already (we’ll see!) and check out the spinach that we planted from a Territorial Seed Co. seed strip (May 12):

upper terrace spinach n peppers may 12

At the bottom bed of this photo on April 21, you can see the spinach sprouting up!:

raised terrace beds april 21

Bok Choy on April 14:

bok choy and beets april 14& on May 12:

upper terrance L bok choy beets may 12

I have a bunch of varied, what I like to call ‘general harvest work photos’ that I think it is time to share!

April 7, not even a storm can deter the Urban Farmers from prepping beds for spring planting:

group work storm coming April 7

Every group was busy working and harvesting April 9:

general work April 9 1

general work April 9 2

general work April 9 4

general work April 9 5

general work April 9 6

Someone took a leek in the sink:

leek in sink april 9

 

April 14:

Deion and Riley april 14

harper and lineman april 14

Tom sweeping up for the week on April 23:

tom sweeping april 23

Taking out some brassica’s April 21 to prep that bed for some Thai eggplant:

taking out the brassicas april 21

 

May 5, nice romaine harvest:

 

Happy student lettuce harvest may 5

students working may 5 3

students working may 5 4

upper terrace may 5 1May 7:

group work may 7

May 12:

dans group 2 may 12

dans group turnip carrot may 12

Okay so this isn’t a work shot, but look at how beautifully laid out this bed is!:

horizontal lines lettuce onions may 12

Great job everyone, and don’t forget to study your plant families for the exam tomorrow ;]

Later Days

-Kat B!

Life Alive!

Currently listening: Menace- Best of

Today I went around and just took pictures of both classes and both locations, the Columbia street and the UO one. I’ll elaborate more on that later, but first I want to post these pictures!

Morning Class at UO Urban Farm:

Lauren’s group examining the bee’s:
Laurens AM class and bees April 28

Harper’s group setting up tomato cages:
group hello tom cages april 28

tom cages getting it done april 28

om cage standing 2 april 28

tom cages emma funny pose april 28

Shelly’s group is all like ‘lettuce party over here’:
Shelly very happy lettuce april 28

Shelly group lettuce party april 28

Shelly planting lettuce April 28

Shelly before group shot april 28

Shelly Group Shot April 28

 

Morning Class at Columbia St. Urban Farm:

Some group dialogs about classroom projects and real-world events before beginning the days work:

Keegan and Dan group bales April 28

group bales 1 april 28

group bales 4

Kasey’s group is Taking Care of Brassicas: 

kasey brassica action 1

kasey brassica action 2

Using a machete helps to ensure they get chopped up into decent sizes for the compost pile! The more surface area the greater the exchange rate between microorganisms during decomposition which in turn leads to a faster rate of decomposition within the entire compost pile. Life!

kasey machette skills

sow those hardy stocks up

Kasey is holding a sprayer full of compost tea!:
kasey compost tea sprayer

Goofing around:

kasey group goofing

Dan’s group getting ready to plant some Solanaceae:

Dans group gathering 2

Dans group solanaceae 2

Dans group solanaceae 1
Keegan’s group talking about reworking ‘the boneyard’: 

Keegan bone yard

Afternoon Class at UO Urban Farm:

The afternoon class ran out of sunshine and got rain instead, but fear not! they continued their journey and had a great turnout!

Dan’s group checking out their turnip & carrot bed:
group thinning turnips 1

group looking at turnips 5

Kasey’s group putting up tomato cages:

We learned that to improve water resources the tomatoes were going to be planted in little trenches- to help with watering come summer time when there are less ‘hands on deck’ in the Urban Farm.
Katie tomato cages April 28

Rainy and cold but Happy April 28

 

cheyenne tomato cages april 28

Leeks!:
Leeks April 28

All of this happened within a normal day of classes at the Urban Farm!

 

We harvested about 18 pounds of food security today, radical! You can check out the up-to-date harvest log here.

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Later Days

-Kat B!

Not Rhubarb Pie!

Currently listening: Tom Waits- Rain Dogs

Recipe time!

I think during every class I get asked, or hear someone else asking “What do I do with this? / How do I cook or eat this vegetable?”

Today we harvested rhubarb, I wanted to make something else besides ‘strawberry-rhubarb pie, that if you add enough strawberries it’s almost as good as strawberry pie’ :]

Being a person born in the late 80’s I naturally turned to my cookbook’s first, but they only had dessert’s. I was hungry for a savory dinner, which lead me to internet searches. I found one on Vegetarian Times. We also harvested leeks, broccoli, and cilantro today, which I wanted to use in my dinner. (If you want to view our up-to-date harvest log, click here!)
Each term (or last term and this term) students are asked to complete an “Eat Local” assignment, in which they must eat local for two days. This recipe fulfills that requirement, which is always a personal goal of mine. Seriously, try eating with the seasons, your body will thank you.

How I revised the recipe, I started by cooking lentils and barley, then sautéed the leeks in the spices suggested, and added those to the lentils and barley. I did not use as much, since I did not have as much, duh! I also added dried cranberries from hummingbird wholesale and raisins that I had dehydrated last fall. Once the lentils were almost done I added chopped up rhubarb (1.5 cups/2 stalks) and steamed for about 10 mins, also added broccoli and cilantro in the last bit of time. I added more seasonings like cumin, ginger, mustard, nutritional yeast, braggs amino acid, and salt n pepper.

Just look how tasty eating local is!:

Rhubarb Meal

And what is an Urban Farm post without a picture of the activities today?

Dan’s group inspecting their turnip and carrot bed:

april 16 turnip carrot bed

april 16 covering turnip bed

Later Days

Kat B!

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