May 2010 Archives

Today was my sixth Saturday working on the farm at the High School for Public Service in Brooklyn. I've mentioned the farm here before- it's a project of a small Brooklyn company called BK Farmyards which started up a little over a year ago to farm the backyards of brownstones and create a totally Brooklyn-based CSA. The Stacy Murphy and Bee Ayers, the two women who founded BK Farmyards, are cool cats and you can learn more about them and the company here. Every time I go to the farm I get a taste of what an apprenticeship will be like in the future- strenuous, dirty and a bit monotonous but instantly rewarding as I see a lawn transformed into a local food source--not just before my eyes but by my hands!

Today our project was digging out the last four beds, breaking up the clods of dirt, raking in compost, covering with landscaping fabric to ensure the demise of the sod and keep down weeds, and, finally, planting! We planted Swallow Eggplant today. Going down the rows on my knees, reaching my hands into the soil to make room for the seedlings, and easing the loose soil in around the young plants makes for an incredibly satisfying couple of hours! I will admit that I prefer the planting to the digging, and Bee and Stacey are kind enough to offer my many opportunities to indulge that preference. So far I've planted turnips, dill, collards and callaloo in addition to today's eggplant.

The community is increasingly engaged in and curious about the farm. The number of students coming to work with us has steadily increased since work days started in March. That's students coming to school on SATURDAY to dig in the dirt!! And every time we work some pedestrians will stop and ask about the project. It feels good to be contributing to such a dynamic community improvement project.

One final note- the biggest lesson I've learned over the last weeks is that grass sod is inedible, resource intensive, and incredibly difficult to get rid of. Why bother?! I'm not lucky enough to have a yard just yet, but I will take this opportunity to encourage you to kill your lawn- or at least a bit of it. For just a couple of hours a week you can grow food or herbs or flowers or put in some bioregion-appropriate plants that will require basically zero maintenance. The bees, birds, bugs and maybe even your neighbors will thank you! (and I will admire you even more than I already do!)

Do not be alarmed. We are still here, holding down the fort here with the yuppies of park slope. Life has been busy since our trip to Austin! The sun is out, the tomato plants are fruiting, I'm dancing and gardening my booty off every weekend, the Brain Trust and I are busily plotting the Dacha of the Future, and everything is generally swimming along.

This past weekend my dear friend J. and I drove up the Hudson Valley to the Culinary Institute of America to attend a class on Artisan Bread Baking. It was a fabulous way to spend a Saturday. We watched and helped to mix the doughs for 6 different breads. We manipulated the doughs as they rose, shaped 6 different types of loaves, put them in the huge industrial ovens and removed them with wooden peels. Then we took our loaves home to feed our friends!

We made Sourdough, Ciabata, Baguettes, Cinnamon Raisin, Pizza dough, Onion-Cheddar Rolls. A couple of universal lessons about all these breads: use INSTANT yeast rather than active dry yeast; make a starter or sponge the day before you mix up your bread dough to improve flavor; the time available to make your bread is inversely proportional to the amount of muscle you need to prepare it; resist the urge to add more flour--if the dough is sticky you need to work with it more. I'm going to try out my new skills over the next couple of months using the shiny new recipe book that I also got as a part of the class.

Saturday night J. and I invited our friends over for a Breads and Spreads extravaganza. We asked everyone to bring a favorite bread topper and we provided the bread we'd baked that day. The spreads and cheeses were AMAZING. The stars of the evening were an artichoke-lemon spread that my neighbors made and a horseradish ale cheese spread that my dear friends Jason and Jacy brought. MMMMMMMM horseradish!! My favorite bread was probably the Ciabata because it was delicious, had amazing texture, and I know how easy it was to make. The Cinnamon-Raisin bread was a close second with a smooth soft texture and a really lovely cinnamon flavor.

This adventure has inspired me to think about bread as a potential part of my future cottage industry. Has anybody out there used or built a mud or brick outdoor bread oven? How did it go?