This past weekend we attended an event at the Acta Non Verba Urban Farm. Kelly Carlisle, who runs it asked us if we could bring some of our chickens and we happily obliged. There was a woman that taught a cooking demonstration about how to make Sweet Potato Butter that was so very delicious Tom couldn’t…
I’ve been pretty hush hush about what our plans will be in the future. Well the future is coming quick and it’s time to spill the beans I suppose because things are about to get C-R-A-Z-Y. Urban farming in our city is great if you’re doing it for your family but we still don’t have…
Using as much of your property to grow food is becoming more and more popular.Unfortunately there are some that don’t feel that food growing should be in public view. I don’t know when fruits and vegetables were looked at as unattractive but proper planning can make for an attractive vegetable garden. Sometimes, however, no matter…
It’s getting to be that time to start my pepper and tomato seedlings. I definitely don’t want to fall as far behind this year as I did last year with them. In my experience, peppers can actually be one of the harder plants to get to germinate. I used to start everything but peppers by…
After a completely miserable potato harvest this year we’ve decided to pull them out of the ground and do them in boxes made out of pallets. That way we can use weedblock under them to eliminate the whole bindweed issue. So today, the boxes went up. We cleaned up an area of our yard which…
Not all cool season vegetables are created equal. At least that’s what I’ve been realizing. Just because a plant prefers cool weather doesn’t mean I can just stick it in the ground in the fall and/or spring and expect it to perform. Nor does it mean that I can plant a cool season crop when…
The days are getting shorter and the nights colder. As we quickly approach our average first frost date I realize that it’s time to pull out our sweet potatoes. Because of late rains all over the U.S. we didn’t receive our slips until late June, giving them a rather short season. As usual, most of…
It’s Watermelon season so I figured now is a great time to teach you how to pick the perfect watermelon whether it’s at the store, farmers’ market or in your own backyard. Most people just grab one out of the bin and hope for the best. But nothing can be more disappointing than a lackluster…
I’m a huge proponent of heirloom and open pollinated (OP) seeds. The difference between them and F1 hybrid seeds is that heirlooms and OP seeds can be saved each year and the offspring will be consistent with the parent plants. F1 hybrids cannot produce similar offspring the following year. Heirloom and OP seeds help keep…
We raise plants and animals already. We’ve decided to add onto our farm by adding fungi – a new mushroom garden. For those that were at our potluck you probably noticed this small area fenced off between the house and the tower. It’s a nice small area that we don’t use that spends…
Dog Island Farm is a small urban farm in the San Francisco Bay Area.
