so many radishes!

Our fall Harvest in the City garden is doing amazingly.  Here is one harvest of our heirloom Pink Beauties!  They are so delicious.  Aaron did the first harvest, where I think he pulled up more than 1/2 of what I got up.  We are also harvesting a spicy micro green lettuce mix, which is super yummy.  We have been making soups with all the greens and radishes. You would like it would be salads, but with the cooler weather, we are really enjoying our soups. 
I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Gardening advice from Triathlon participants

My husband, my hero, completed a sprint Triathlon this weekend!   The reason I am telling you this is because I am super proud of him, but also I was eavesdropping on another conversation while waiting for him to complete the bike leg of the event.

Two guys were talking about gardening and I heard 2 great pieces of advice:

1) You know those pesky weeds that are in your garden, especially the grass that just doesn't disappear by pulling it out by the roots?  Well, a suggestion for that was to get a PVC pipe, about 8" wide and cut it down to about 6" high.  Put the PVC pipe over the weeds/grass you want to disappear and spray it with weed/grass killer.  WE are not into using chemicals in our garden, so be careful of the kind you use.  Make sure when you are using the PVC pipe it is not close to your veggies. And of course there are other ways of taking care of your weed situation, but this is just a piece of advice.

2) If you decide to grow melons next spring/summer, put hay down all around the plants.  That way you will keep the weed situation at a minimum and when the melons set down shoots you don't have to weed around the plant as it is getting bigger.

We want chickens!

We want chickens.  We want them for a few reasons:
1) add egg shells to our compost
2) eat the eggs
3) maybe eat the roosters
4) they are cute
5) entertainment for our dog

The last two are just silly.

We moved our garden this fall to a sunnier area so where we had the garden before is still fenced in and perfect to just add a chicken coop and some chicks.  This is our plan for the springtime.  I have been peeking around online for the best chicken coop and so far this one is my favorite.

http://www.kippenhouse.com/index.html



Not only it is chicken coop but it is also a green roof.  The roof is the perfect place to grow some nutrious food for the chickens and the family. 

If you have chickens, what kind of coop do you have?  We would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Have a fun weekend y'all!

not quite a year .....

I think that the time we stopped blogging, we were in high wedding water... meaning that we were almost drowning in favors, dresses and flowers. We took a break and got to marry our best friend (each other : )) in April.  Then a few days after we got married we found out we were pregnant. And Baby Leff is due to be born sometime this winter. This has been quite a year with many beautiful changes. 
Aaron and I decided today that we need to stay on top of our Facebook and blog postings.  So for now, expect that we will be putting a post in both places at least once a week.

As for Harvest in the City business, we are steadily selling our compost in three stores in North Carolina:
1) Durham - Barnes Supply Co.
2) Raleigh - Homewood Nursery
3) Greensboro - Ace Hardware at 419 Pisgah Church Road

Please check out all three locations if you are in that area, because each store has a feel of its own. Barnes is known for its diverse pet food and treats, Homewood for it incredible plant selection and Ace has an all around supply of everything you need, but locally owned by a couple of great guys!  And each place sells the incredible system for returning your Harvest in the City Compost pails. 
We are happy that we are back and we hope you are too!!!
Let us know how your garden grows this fall, we would love to hear from you too.

bok choy bolt

We planted some heirloom baby bok choy this fall - - - the seed packet said baby and they meant it!!!

So we didn't harvest it quick enough or plant enough of it to have a meal, so we let it bolt.  Aaron and I always enjoy seeing flowers in the fall and winter.  Here are the beautiful cluster of yellow flowers from the bolted baby bok choy.

I think that Aarons enjoyment of seeing flowers this time of year stems from the years he lived in Alaska.  When there are 24 hours of sunlight the pansies get HUGE!!!!

And I just love seeing the colors and shapes!

SIDE NOTE:
After greens (collards, lettuce, spinach, basil) bolt the leaves are way to bitter to munch on - I think its best to just leave the plant in place and admire.

Kosher Nation

Aaron and I heard Sue Fishkoff talk last night at the UNC Hillel.  (Thanks for the tip Emily)  She was brilliant, funny, and witty.  She engaged the audience of 50 people for over an hour.  Here is a link to her book - check it out.  And there is also Amazon.

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780805242652

In this link it says, "She explains why 86 percent of the 11.2 million Americans who regularly buy kosher food are not observant Jews—they are Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists, vegetarians, people with food allergies, and consumers who pay top dollar for food they believe “answers to a higher authority.”

I can't wait to read it.

Balloon Peppers

That is what they are!  Spicy and delicious - - - -