Thursday was garlic harvest day. Miraculously, the bulbs didn’t rot away during the month of rain-of-biblical-proportions. Although they came out of the soil with plenty of mud attached, they’ll clean up nicely and be ready for garlic lovers at our weekly Farm Stand on Saturday. One clove of garlic planted in October turns itself into an entire head of garlic by June. That we should all be so productive! If you haven’t seen the “How To Peel a Head of Garlic in less Than 10 Seconds” video by Todd Coleman, it’s worth a watch (it works, but you have to shake the bejeezus out of it.)

Onions, garlic, green onions, chives and shallots are all in the allium genus. Although they look similar, garlic and leeks have flat leaves, while onions and shallots have round, hollow leaves. Garlic is generally harvested all at once, but leeks have a long window during which they mature and can be enjoyed. I’m a newbie when it comes to cooking with leeks, but since we’re growing them, I’m playing around with them now in the kitchen. Leeks are much milder than onions or garlic; I ate one raw yesterday, just to see what it tasted like. Pretty good! A mellow, delicate flavor without the kick of onions. My current favorite recipe is simply to saute a couple leeks in some butter in a cast iron skillet, then braise them and EAT them right up, before guilt makes me put some aside for my beloved spouse (busted as soon as he reads this.)

New crop of baby arugula this week. Tender & mild; I was eating it by the handful while harvesting. I love arugula when it’s got tang but not bite.

CommonWealth Farm Stand Saturdays from 9 am to noon
CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie, OKC
In addition to the alliums (garlic, leeks, onions & green onions) we’ll also have bok choy, chard, kale, lettuce mix, arugula, pea shoots and our lovely Slow Flower Bouquets.

Slow Flowers: Snapdragons
I planted THREE varieties of snapdragons (or snaps, as we affectionately call them) this year. Hey, I limited myself to just three!

It’s pretty dang easy to fall in love with snaps. All those sweet little florets lined up vertically on stalks, in an array of gorgeous colors. Love the soft peach-rose combo in the photo here. Plus they have sturdy, straight stems, which makes them a snap (ha ha) to use in bouquets.

Snaps don’t like hot weather; get them transplanted out early in the spring so you can enjoy them in May and June before the heat ramps up. They’re fairly cold hardy, so plant before the last freeze date.

And what about that name? According the Wikipedia, it comes from the flowers’ fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed.

Garden School: Saturday, June 6th from 8:30 – 9am
The Heat Lovers: Okra, Yardlong Beans & Sweet Potatoes
It’s not too late to plant these vegetables that thrive in our hot Oklahoma summers. Whether planting sweet potatoes “slips”, yardlong beans by seed, or okra by seed or transplants, we’ll give tips on how to successfully grow all three crops. Seeds of our favorite varieties will be available for donation.

-Lia Woods

Sara and I, along with a few hundred mosquitoes, got our tomato plants caged today. Afterwards, as I was sloshing through the rice paddies – er, the urban farm, I took note of where the soil is waterlogged. In the low areas with the poorest soil, we’ve lost a few rows of crops, but the damage has been minor.

There’s a stark difference between new garden rows and areas that we’ve cultivated for several years, adding wheelbarrows of compost and growing cover crops to improve the soil. I was pulling green onions from one such row yesterday; the soil was dark brown, friable, moist but not saturated. Compare this to new rows that are heavy red clay now turned to red MUD. Astonishingly, it takes only a few years to transform the mud rows to fertile, loamy garden soil. I’ve watched this process repeatedly in our gardens, and it still amazes me. A few dollars of cover crop seed, a couple compost heaps, and you and your soil are in business.

Our hearts go out to those who have lost houses and livelihoods to the flooding. Farmer friends in Texas have written of the devastation there, and of the work ahead to restore homes and lands.

Garden School

Saturday, May 30th from 8:30 to 9:15 am, with Paul White of OKC Compost.

Don’t miss this one! Paul will lead us through the steps of brewing compost tea with a simple method you can set up at home. Compost tea can be used as a foliar spray or soil drench to suppress foliar diseases, increase nutrient uptake in plants and speed the breakdown of toxins. Bring lots of questions!

Slow Flowers

Larkspur is our featured flower this week. An annual often confused with its perennial cousin, delphinium, larkspur is a spring bloomer with an open, airy appearance. Spurred petals, like fairy wings, hover along tall spires in hues of lilac, white, rose and deep purple. Grown en masse, the effect is a fog of flowering softness.

As delicate as they appear, the long stems are sturdy in bouquets. Harvested before the upper blossoms have opened, we easily get a week or more of vase life. This is a reliable flower to grow at home. Simply broadcast the seed in early fall; after they germinate, the young plants will carry through the cold of winter, then grow rapidly in early spring. Larkspur usually flowers in late April and early May, although the chilly weather we’ve had this year has allowed us to enjoy larkspur all month. My front yard, now the larkspur capitol of the neighborhood, is happy testimony to larkspur’s propensity to self-seed.

Our Slow Flower bouquets are available at our Saturday morning Farm Stand, or pre-order here.

Farm Stand: Saturdays from 9 am to noon

CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie, OKC

Rain makes for happy greens, and we have them! Chard, kale, broccoli greens, pea shoots and a new crop of bok choy. Plus the last of our green onions and some lovely new leeks. Broccoli and new potatoes round out our offerings this week.

Farm Stand: Saturdays from 9 am to noon

CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie, OKC

Lots of yummy veggies this week! Our green onions have been particularly delicious all through the spring. I think the bountiful rain has made them sweeter than usual. Big, fat green onions are my favorite as they are quick to prepare. Green onions can be eaten at any stage of growth. When they’re tiny, they’re often referred to as scallions. As they get large enough to just start to form round bulbs, they’re referred to as spring onions.

Onions, shallots, leeks and garlic are all members of the illustrious allium family This time of year, they start to send up long stalks called scapes with a bud on the end that will eventually open up to a lovely, spherical flower. There are many ornamental varieties of allium grown just for the flower, like these drumstick or Allium sphaerocephalon. You can also harvest the young scapes and buds for a tasty treat.

Green onions are a natural with eggs, as in this recipe for Mushroom & Scallion Frittata. They’re also wonderful roasted or grilled.

Broccoli Greens are my new favorite green; flavorful and very mild. None of that spicy kick like mustard or turnip greens. All these years I’ve grown and harvested broccoli, not realizing that the greens were just at tasty as the florets!

This week:

Broccoli Greens and Broccoli

Skyphos Red Buttercrunch Lettuce

Chard, Ruby Red and Fordhook

Red Russian Kale

Green Onions

Baby Leeks & Shallots

Pea Shoots

Flower Bouquets

Slow Flower Bouquet

Snapdragons, larkspur and roses, oh my! We’re a week into flower-bouquet-season, and almost every day I see another type of flower starting to bloom. Snapdragons are the star this week, with delicate Ammi (False Queen Anne’s Lace) just a step behind. Come by our Farm Stand on Saturday between 9 am and noon to pick up a bouquet of our local, sustainably grown flowers. Or sign up here for our Slow Flower Coupons or season membership.

No Garden School this Saturday due to Memorial Day Weekend. We’ll be back on Saturday, May 30th for a special workshop from 8:30 to 9:15 am with OKC Compost presented by Paul White: Making Compost Tea.

Our new Farm Stand is now open on Saturdays from 9 am to noon at the urban farm. Drop by for some uber-fresh veggies and take a stroll thru our beautiful, beloved farm. My personal favorites this week:

Lettuce: Forellenschluss romaine & Skyphos buttercrunch. Crazy good lettuce! Buttery, sweet, slightly addictive.

Green Onions: Sweet, juicy, with just a hint of onion-zip. I usually shy away from raw onions, but I’m eating these darlin’s straight out of hand.

Baby Leeks: sauté in a bit of butter until just browned. Absolute ambrosia.

Plus kale, chard, broccoli greens and fresh shallots. And…

Slow Flower Bouquets! Woo hoo! It’s flower inauguration week at CommonWealth. We’re going whole hog growing cut flowers this year, in partnership with our dear friend, Kamala Gamble of Guilford Gardens. Come by the Farm Stand on Saturday to pick up a bouquet, or sign up here for our Slow Flower coupons or season membership.

Like Slow Food, the Slow Flowers movement comes from an appreciation of what is local, seasonal and sustainable, a desire to support small farmers and family farms, and an emphasis on quality of life rather than speed or quantity.

Garden School, May 16th: Peppers, Chiles & Eggplant
8:30 – 9 am at CommonWealth
Details & Sign-Up here

Sweet or hot, peppers are easy to grow and fun to eat. Eggplants come in a beautiful array of colors and shapes, and are terrifically versatile in the kitchen, yet often underappreciated. Learn about some of the many wonderful varieties suited to the home garden, how to plant them, disease and pest solutions, and harvest tips.

CommonWealth Garden School

Saturdays from 8:30 to 9 am, March 7 thru October 31, 2015

CommonWealth Urban Farms at 3310 N. Olie, OKC

The first week will be a special 1 hour class, Designing and Starting Your Home Garden. Saturday, March 7 from 8:30 – 9:30 am. What kind of garden do you want? We’ll cover site selection, raised beds vs. growing in the ground, preparing a garden bed, seeds vs. seedlings, plus planting potatoes and onions.

Course Description

A practical, hands-on, weekly class specifically for home gardeners. If you’ve never gardened before, or if you want to deepen your gardening knowledge, this course is for you. Take what you learn straight home and put it to use in your own garden!

Each class will focus on a specific topic relevant to the season. For instance, in our class on broccoli, you will learn about different types of broccoli, when and how to plant broccoli, join in as we plant broccoli seedlings together, and go home confident in planting broccoli successfully in your home garden. Seedlings will often be available for purchase on-site.

Instructors

Elia Woods plus guest presenters. Elia is co-founder and farm manager of CommonWealth Urban Farms. She has 30 years of home-gardening experience, and previously worked as farm manager at Guilford Gardens before co-founding CommonWealth in the fall of 2010.

Cost

$10 per session; attend as many sessions as you wish

OR $200 for entire course ($100 savings!)

OR Volunteer for 2 hours on a Saturday and get a free session

Email info@commonwealthurbanfarms.com for more information.

Commonwealthurbanfarms.com

Topics for 2015

Several of these topics will be addressed by special workshops.

Upcoming topics will be listed ahead on our FB page

Vegetables

Potatoes & Onions, Green Onions & Leeks

Broccoli & Cauliflower

Salad Greens: Baby Lettuce & Head Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula & More

Greens, Greens & More Greens: Kale, Chard, Collards, Mustards, Tatsoi, Bok Choy, etc.

Roots from Seed: Carrots, Beets, Turnips, Radishes

Green Beans, Bush & Pole

Tomatoes

Peppers, Eggplant, Chiles

Vines: Summer Squash & Cucumbers, Winter Squashes

The Heat Lovers: Sweet Potatoes, Okra & Yardlong Beans

Asparagus

Garlic, Elephant Garlic & Shallots

Kohlrabi & Chinese Cabbage & Other Overlooked Wonders

What Else Can You Grow?

The Cut Flower Garden: Growing Flowers for Bouquets

Herbs for the Garden

Microgreens & Pea Shoots

Growing Mushrooms

The Bigger Picture

Cooking from the Garden

Composting

Vermicomposting (composting with worms)

Soil Health

Bugs: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly & The Cute + Planting an Insectary

Plant Diseases

Season Extension: Solar Cones, Row Cover, Cold Frames

Bio-remediation

Rainwater Harvesting

Irrigation & Watering Needs

Bio-Char

Growing Seedlings: soil blocks, in-ground, pots, potting soil mixes

Seed-saving

Cover Crops

The Year-Round Garden: Succession Planting, the Fall & Winter Garden

Putting the Garden to Bed for the Winter

CommonWealth Urban Farms is a small urban farm located in near NW Oklahoma City. We provide fresh, nutritious vegetables to 30 families weekly from April through November. We fully support the proposed urban agriculture and urban hens ordinances that will clarify city code in relation to gardening and urban farming in OKC.

Being part of the cycle of growing food is a new and profound experience for many people who have grown up as city dwellers. I’ve watched it in the wide eyes of a child pulling a carrot out of the ground for the very first time, in the smile of one of our members as they walk through our farm and say, “Oh, this is where my vegetables come from!” and in myself, each time I watch a seed grow and push its tiny leaves through the soil’s crust.

Over the two years since we began, I’ve seen how eager our members have been to eat fresh, healthy food, and to learn where their food comes from. Members bring their children and friends over to show them our urban farm, they ask us questions on how to grow different vegetables, they volunteer for the chance to get outside and get their hands in the dirt.

Whether it’s planting a tomato patch in the backyard, or a pepper plant in the flower border, or reaching into the chicken coop for a still-warm egg, nothing can replace the experience of connecting with our sources of sustenance.

A new neighbor told me that his realtor listed our urban farm as one of the selling points before he bought his house. I receive emails almost weekly from people throughout OKC asking me to add their names to the waiting list for our “Veggie Club.” We field questions from people all over the city, in fact, from across the country, regarding urban farming, composting and bio-remediation.

We believe both ordinances will help make Oklahoma City a healthier, more vital community. Thank you for giving the urban ag and urban hens ordinances your serious consideration.

Forest Gardening Presentation and Workshop

We are super excited to bring permaculture author and teacher Dave Jacke to OKC on November 15-17. A passionate and engaging speaker, Jacke will give a public talk on Gardening Like the Forest: Home-Scale Ecological Food Production on Friday, Nov. 15, from 7-9 pm at the OCU Chapel at Oklahoma City University, 2501 N. Blackwelder.

In addition, Dave will lead a workshop (limited to 27 people) on Gardening Like the Forest: Fundamentals of Ecological Gardening on Saturday and Sunday, November 16-17, from9 am to 5 pm. Cost is $200. Scholarships available.

This is a superb opportunity for the Oklahoma City community to learn about building perennial food systems and sustainable living.

Click here for more information about the workshop.

Dave Jacke is the author of the award-winning two volume book Edible Forest Gardens published by Chelsea Green Publishing. He was trained by permaculture co-founder Bill Mollison in 1981, and has run his own ecological design firm, Dynamics Ecological Design, since 1984. He has consulted on, designed, built, and planted landscapes, homes, farms, and communities across the United States and overseas. More information at www.edibleforestgardens.com.

Our first mini workshop on Saturday was great! We had a good group turn up to talk about planting fruit trees and we got some pears and persimmons into the ground.

If you missed out, don’t worry, we have more workshops coming up. Mini workshops are on Saturday mornings from about 9:30-10, with a chance for hands on experience for those who want to stick around.

Our upcoming topics are:

Sat. April 6 – How to plant tomatoes; how to prepare the bed, selecting varieties, different methods of staking/caging, dealing with pests and diseases. A free tomato seedling to first ten participants. Additional seedlings will be for sale.
Sat. April 13 – OU Big Event volunteer day (No workshop)
Sat. April 20 – Flowers for Bouquets: what to plant to keep your vases filled all summer long. (Followed by our Earth Day celebration.)
Sat. April 27 – Composting with worms

Mini workshops are held at our Olie Avenue lot, one block east of Western between NW 32nd and Hill Streets.

For more information, or requests for future workshop topics, you can contact us at 405-524-1864 or info@commonwealthurbanfarms.com.

No! We sure don’t!

Our volunteers have been out in the bad weather and the good getting ready for the spring. Besides doing a lot of maintenance, cleaning and organizing – we have rows of garlic and other cold weather veggies growing and our composting is going strong.

A few weeks ago some of our volunteers learned about making soil blocks to start some of our seeds in. No more need for all those disposable plastic trays! This makes our budget and the environment a little bit happier.

A fantastic team of youth volunteers dug in and turned over our newest lot, all by shovel, sweat and muscle. We’re very impressed, and extremely grateful! Now this space is ready for our newest exciting project – bioremediation. We’ll be using mushrooms to reduce the soil’s lead content so that’s we can be sure it’s 100% safe for growing food. Is your interest piqued? I hope so! More to come on that in the next month or two – or better yet, to learn more, come get involved! We look forward to seeing you!

So we have been running the farm all summer and haven’t had much time to create blog posts. Today the team harvested compost from the compost piles created with waste product from Whole Foods Market. Today’s picture is of that compost being spread over a row that will be planted in the next two weeks.

The Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions have been going since Earth Day this year and delivering a basket of food, about once a week, to 20 families.