edible ecosystem

Creating an edible ecosystem is what permaculture is all about, looking for ways to layer in more life, more food, and fewer tasks for the gardener. When Christopher Shein came to City College this week to introduce his engaging new book "The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture" I was grateful to be there with my friends Dorothea and Ellie.

I was reminded that the leaves and shoots of Chayote squash are edible. First introduced to this idea at a Hanoi restaurant where sauteed pumpkin leaves were on the menu, I had forgotten that these vital fuzzy greens are delicious! Chayote is a vigorous grower that will overrun anything in its path. Trimming is essential, and these tender early parts will soon be on our dinner table.

We talked about climbing Malabar spinach that produces year-round in coastal San Diego. Lucky us, to have the leaves of such a beautiful vine to add to salads. It has a slippery texture and tart flavor more like purslane than spinach. I've only eaten it raw. It may taste more like spinach when steamed.

From the garden at Merritt College in Oakland, Christopher shared seed for collards, chard and the Mimosa tree. I've planted them all. My Aunt Pat had a pink-flowered "silk tree" in her front yard when I was little. It's a nitrogen fixer that improves the soil as it spreads a broad canopy, but lets through enough filtered light that lots of food can grow under the Mimosa shelter. We do need some leafy cover to buffer the bright Southern California sunshine. Now to find the right place for it...

back to the garden

"We are stardust. We are golden. We are billion year old carbon.
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."

[Woodstock ~ Joni Mitchell]

mission fig watercolor

Sitting in the garden and drawing what I see is very meditative.  Unpacking my new paint set and mixing the colors is where the challenge lies.  Finding the right shades of green and mixing just the right size "puddle" of paint so that the greens will be consistent takes patience.

Next time I'll take a shot at the bright blue pot the Mission fig grows in.

fennel marmalade and coleslaw

Now a traditional New Orleans Po' Boy has some kind of meat and is served on a baguette. The women of Hearty Vegan Meals created one with a fried sweet potato layer, crusted with cornflakes and other interesting things, which sounds kind of irresistible, but I was seeking more simplicity. The sammy you see here has beautiful thick slices of baked butternut squash on sprouted grain bread (to up the protein content) sprinkled with nutmeg, and dressed with coleslaw and fennel marmalade from Hearty Vegan Meals. I've made the coleslaw three more times since and it's a winner.

Lucinda's column from Suzie's Farm newsletter this week talks about "fennel fatigue" but with fennel marmalade and roasted fennel on the menu, I don't think I'll ever tire of this delicious bulb. I love hearing her musings on the subject, just the same.

Coleslaw

for the slaw:

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots

for the dressing:

1/2 cup plain non-dairy milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped fresh fennel leaf
1 tablespoon agave nectar
freshly ground pepper, to taste


Fennel Marmalade

1 bulb fennel, julienned, leaves reserved
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup onion, thinly sliced
pinch salt
2 tablespoons agave nectar

Add fennel, garlic, onions and salt to a shallow pan with a little water. Slowly cook until very soft and tender, and just beginning to caramelize, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add agave and toss to coat. Crank up the heat and cook for about 5 more minutes, until sticky and browned. I added a spoon of olive oil at the end to bring up anything good that stuck to the pan.

lemon in its many forms

Kwan Yin (the bodhisattva of great compassion) sits peacefully under the Lemon Grass in our garden. At our house Lemon Grass goes into Thai green curry and Tom Kha soup. I understand it can also be cleansing and a very effective anti-inflammatory tea. Applied externally, it's a natural insect repellent, and was a good friend to me in Vietnam.

This Lemon Grass lip balm was made (in a bottle cap!) at Honeyfest, a weekend of community events to raise awareness about the global implications of the dying honeybees, and benefiting Grow Strong, an organization that promotes self-sufficiency in rural Kenya.

Lemon Verbena grows just out the back door.

Drying Lemon Verbena, soon to be enjoyed as tea. That's Oregano on the right.

Meyer Lemons from a neighbor. A key ingredient in coleslaw dressing.

Even more Meyer Lemons from another kind neighbor! Fresh-squeezed lemonade anyone?

hearty vegan meals

Suzie's Farm delivers greens galore every week, and has stocked our cabinet with a subtle rainbow of dried beans and winter squash. Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites has been a terrific resource for rounding up ideas for squash and beans and fresh greens, plus herbs and peppers from our own backyard garden. This Chocolate Stout Chili layers on complex flavors topped with Smoky Creamy Almond Sauce from the Recipe Renovator, and a bright handful of chopped cilantro. Oh, and I made a batch of corn tortillas following the tips in Viva Vegan, with help from my trusty aluminum tortilla press from the local Latin grocery store. Being in San Diego has it's advantages!

Chocolate Stout Chili
adapted from Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman

1/3 cup chopped onion
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 large cloves garlic
1 jalapeno, cored, seeded, diced
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1.5 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can (15 ounces) fire-roasted tomatoes, with juice
4 ounces roasted green chiles
12 ounces vegan stout beer (or water or veg broth)
3-and-1/3 cups cooked red beans

Soften onion, bell pepper and garlic in a little water until tender. Add jalapeno and seasonings, cook another minute or so. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, chiles and beer. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook another 15 minutes. Add beans and simmer another 15 minutes, until thickened.

Next up: Cabbage, carrots, fennel and butternut squash make a gorgeous Po' Boy sandwich. Picture and recipe coming soon!

moments of joy

1. flying down Presidio hill on my bike
2. practicing yoga that connects me deeply to Mother Earth
3. meaningful work for a new client
4. becoming a neighborhood CSA hub for Suzie's Farm
5. hearing about a childhood friend's aspiration to become a priest
6. seeing the return of Barn Owls to our canyon

jardin de la vida

Venture over to the Sophia Circle for my guest post on the La Maestra garden today. My, how it has grown!

cactus blooming this morning...

There's a whole miniature world inside.

san diego getaway

Portland friends Holiday and Don came for a weekend visit. On a sunny Saturday, we did yoga with Bhava at Ginseng, picked up some Rooibos Chai (with lots of cardamom) and Moroccan Spice chocolate from Eclipse at Halcyon Tea in South Park, and later walked along Moonlight Beach in Encinitas after a terrific lunch at Lotus Cafe. One enormous vegan cupcake cut into quarters was just right for dessert.


Fresh off the plane, we walked them to Santana's for burritos and used hats and hands to carry home our bounty from the farmers market. That evening we enjoyed a Camarada performance at Saint Paul's Cathedral, right at the edge of Balboa Park.


Sunday it rained lightly and the whole garden was aglow.


Succulent in Bauer pot.


[All photos by D. Vanderlaag]

Donald has a knack for photography, don't you think?

sweet oranges

From John McPhee, I learned that the word 'orange' evolved from Sanskrit. "The Chinese word for orange ... is jyu, but it did not migrate with the fruit ... The Hindus called an orange naranja, the first syllable of which, according to Tolkowsky, was a prefix meaning fragrance. This became the Persian naranj, a word the Muslims carried through the Mediterranean. In Byzantium, an orange was nerantzion. This in Neo-Latin, became variously styled as arangium, arantium, and aurantium -- eventually producing naranja in Spain, laranja in Portugal, arancia in Italy, and orange in France." Fascinating.

By any name, I will never tire of having sweet oranges right outside my door in January. We've harvested 90-something so far (I'm trying to keep count) and the tree still looks full.

On the other side of the garden, aloe flowers glow orange against the canyon this afternoon.

infinity

The other day I dreamed that I made a flagstone infinity sign connecting our two small apple trees. Who am I to question important messages that come through the dream state? I went out and did it.

Maybe I should meditate right there in the center.

morning greens

Baby bok choy, plus cabbage, beets, onions, tatsoi, kale, spinach and peas are all loving the greenhouse conditions, as the sun returns after a couple of rainy days.


Doesn't the Sweet Orange Studio look great this morning in our new colors? I'll have to post a "before" picture soon, to give you the full impact of this change.


And speaking of oranges, how about this enthusiastic bunch of tangerines preparing themselves for winter?

la maestra urban garden

This is Irma. She is transforming a city lot into an urban gardening space for people in the City Heights community of San Diego.


La Maestra (which means "the teacher") is doing so many good things for the community, that I won't list them all here, but you can learn more at their website. A beautifully designed new LEED certified building is at the heart of their operation.


And just down the street a little clinic is buzzing with activity.


The big blue house right next door is the site of yet another valuable program, and provides the space for the garden.


The front garden will be filled with flowers and herbs, and maybe a water feature? The design is still developing. Should the design match the style of the house? Or should it be a wild riot of color?


Around the side and back there is room for a dozen individual plots, plus a nice sized space for composting, and a building with two bathrooms and a shower. What a bonus! If gutters were installed on that small building, rainwater harvesting could begin this year.


Irma is gathering resources, seeking assistance from Victory Gardens San Diego, and from the Sophia Circle. The garden is fully fenced and Irma has her soil test back. She has cinder blocks and good organic compost on the way. We will transform this pile of dirt into a lush and productive garden!

corn

We grew a small cornfield of "Luscious" this year.


Here's a hopeful sprout on June 3.


Looking pretty hardy on June 13. How he's grown in just 10 days!


By July 27 they're all looking strong. Same view, longer shot.


Organic growing results: One-third to the worms, two-thirds to us.

giving birth to a dancing star

One must have chaos in oneself in order
to give birth to a dancing star.
[Friedrich Nietzsche]

Learning permaculture protocols for designing human settlements is broad and all-encompassing, and simple as well. I'm unlearning a lot of my old favorite gardening techniques that have created visual peace and order, and embracing more natural patterns and techniques that actually open up more productive time and space. It's a new take on Zen.

I haven't even fully unpacked from last weekend in Costa Mesa and have had two more seriously mind-expanding experiences this week.

A circle of nine women traveled out to Lake Henshaw for a day on the Double "J" Ranch on Wednesday. In a gazebo overlooking the lake, surrounded by free ranging horses, goats, chickens and dogs we connected and sent our deepest wishes for harmony with the natural world, for clear energy, and for open hearts. We trekked through the woods for a shared lunch under the oaks, and walked the perimeter of the nine-pointed Earth Star labyrinth. The silence and beauty at the base of Palomar Mountain is powerful, and the silence and beauty within each of my Sophia Sisters is positively glowing! Many thanks to Amanda and to our guide Jana, for facilitating the birth of dancing stars.

Yesterday I journeyed to the Tijuana Estuary in Imperial Beach via lovely Coronado Island to hear a talk by UCSD's Teddy Cruz. With the eye of an artist, he had a wonderful way of using provocative headlines and visual images to explore the flows and relationships between San Diego and Tijuana, through the "forensics of urbanism". Walking us along the border fence (with various maps and photos) observing the informal structures of Tijuana, he suggested that Density could be a measure of social exchange or level of collaboration, and that informal energies could be translated into economic value. We could view each parcel (each human settlement) as a small socio-economic system, where Democracy is redefined as the ability and willingness to coexist with others.

What if the border fence makes San Diego the largest gated community in existence? Does this philosophy of separation achieve highest good?

fruitful time

Our fig tree survived transplanting beautifully into it's gorgeous new pot. It has 20 figlets showing and no signs of distress. How sweet would it be to have a crop this year?


After a meeting with the California Rare Fruit Growers, and inspired by our friend Mary, we went shopping for blueberries. It's a bit off season but we were confident in choosing Misty, a vigorous grower with low chilling hours needed.


We were a little less confident when we brought Jubilee home. The fruit is ripening and that's fun, but it actually wants cold winters, so I don't know exactly how this relationship will go. Does anyone have coastal SD experience with a blueberry called Jubilee?


Our pomegranate tree has set flowers before and that is worth the price of admission (as they say) but has not yet produced fruit for us. Maybe this is her year! With its abundance of seeds, the fruit has long been a symbol of fertility, bounty, and eternal life.