Let the sun shine in

The past day and a half were sunny, now we're back to grey skies and hovering rain clouds. However, the corn took full advantage of the rays yesterday and is now 4 inches tall! And we have Oregon Spring Tomatoes coming in strong. The Golden Sweet Peas are blooming, giving us some color on the rooftop farm. It's like Spring is finally here! Wait, isn't it supposed to be summer. Hmmmm...

Yeah for Urban Agriculture!

Two new articles about us...exciting!

These two articles came out today...just thought I'd share!

Metromix called yesterday about this article, they had no idea what was going on, so it was nice to talk with the writer, Lisa, about all things rooftop.
http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/article/rooftop-gardens/1243828/content

This one is from Mr. Brown Thumb at the Chicago Garden...another fantastic garden blog!
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-garden/

Thanks for keeping us in mind for all your green and gardening adventures!

This garden goes to 11!

One of my favorite scenes from a movie is out of Spinal Tap (yes I know this dates me). It's where they are standing by the food table and one of them says, while inspecting the food, "Look, look at these olives. This one has a little friend, but in this one there's nobody home! And look at these little sandwiches. I mean, how do they get the meat on there? You just have to keep folding and folding and folding, I don't think it ever ends." I feel that way about the rain these days, it just keeps raining and raining and raining. And I'm convinced it may never stop.

As a result, our season is behind by at least 2 weeks. Our radishes and beets that we planted in early May are failing miserably. The ones we succession planted last week are, however, doing marvelously. They think it's spring, even though it should be summer. I suppose I should be glad that they are growing well, but I am instead very frustrated. We now have to replant whole beds of arugula, carrots, beets, carrots and even some tomatoes. Errr. The beans and peas though, they love it. So up they grow, they're even starting to flower! And our corn is popping up. A beautiful circle of Bantam Gold. I love spring. Even if it's supposed be summer.




















This post comes with a few extraneous photos from the neighborhood around us. The peonies were just too gorgeous, I had to take some up close shots of them.

First Friday Farmer's Market

The first Friday Farmer's Market was a complete success!!!

We had 20 vendors who were all wonderful and had amazing goods to offer. Slow Food held a heirloom tomato sale and they had some beautiful plants, including Thai Pink Egg Tomatoes, who knew there was such a thing. We had beautiful jewelry from Nomadic Ant, great bags from Malia Designs, clothing from Kiitchipan, and gorgeous food from Delightful Pastries, Harvest Moon Farm, Mint Creek Farm, and Seedling Farm. Goose Island and Koval Distillery were there to give out tasty samples of Matilda beer and Rosehip Liqueur (my favorite). Green Box was there to sell their fantastic planter boxes with City Farm compost included, a really great way to garden in alternative spaces (rooftop/fire escape/patio). We had several other community vendors there to get the word out about all the fantastic work they are doing too. Overall the day was beautiful and it was a pleasure to see everyone shopping from these local businesses and enjoying the honky tonk music to the fullest.

Come every Friday for fun and good local food and music, 4-8pm!
We also give rooftop tours throughout the evening, so it's always a great time to see what we are working on up there.
Thank you so much to our vendors and our shoppers!

An update in pictures

I thought I'd give a show of what the farm is looking like these days. Bean tipi's are installed, our strawberries are being eaten on the vine (if anyone has some tips for keeping the critters out, let me know), and there are mycelium thriving in the raised beds (a good thing).