“What would happen if we were to start thinking about food as less of a thing and more of a relationship? In nature, that is of course precisely what eating has always been: relationships among species in systems we call food chains, or food webs, that reach all the way down to the soil…There develops a relationship of interdependence: I’ll feed you if you spread around my genes.“Health is, among other things, the product of being in these sorts of relationships in a food chain… It follows that when the health of one part of the food chain is disturbed, it can affect all the other creatures in it. If the soil is sick or in some way deficient, so will be the grasses that grow in that soil and the cattle that eat the grasses and the people who drink the milk from them… Our personal health cannot be divorced from the health of the entire food web.”—Michael Pollan

Crazy Beautiful Flowers!
Yours: 4 for $40  

                              
That’s FOUR beautiful bouquets,
redeemable anytime during this flower season.
Purchase the gift card online here.
Actually, you can buy single bouquets from us, too. But you save 30% if you buy the gift card 🙂
Email us to arrange pick-up ahead of time on Wednesdays or on Saturday mornings on the weeks of your choice. Pick-up of bouquets is at our farm at 3310 N. Olie.

We are swimming in flowers right now (thank you, rain!) They are crazy beautiful, they make us happy and we hope they’ll make you happy, too. We thank you for your support of our neighborhood farm.
Garden School: Worms Make Me Happy— Composting and VermicompostingSaturday, July 21
11 a.m. to noon
3310 N. Olie
July 21

Allen has been building compost piles, as well as composting with worms, for many years, and has a profound appreciation for rot! Allen will discuss the difference between a worm bed and a compost pile, and demonstrate how to build one successfully to make that beautiful, rich, black substance we call “gardener’s gold”.
Instructor: Allen Parleir, coordinator of Closer To Earth and co-founder of CommonWealth$10 per class; $15 per couple/pair; free to volunteers. See full schedule and season rates HERE.

Coming Up Next: Plant-Based Cooking

Saturday, August 11 
11 am to noon

Armenian Cucumbers

A Photo Essay

Armenian cucumbers are a favorite vegetable at our farm; nourishing, prolific, resilient, and impressively long. Here’s a peek inside the story of these delightful fruits of the vine.

 

It all starts with a seed… From which, astonishingly, emerges a real live little plant. On this brand new seedling, you can see the cotyledon leaves; the first true leaf is just barely emerging between them.

Armenian cucumbers are fast-growing vines that covered this trellis in just a matter of weeks. The delicate appearance of cucumber tendrils belies their strength and tenacity in holding the vines to a trellis or support.

 

 

Male cucumber flowers have skinny, straight stems. Female cucumber flowers have a mini-fruit (ovary) under their flowers. Pollen from male flowers has to be carried to female flowers for pollination and successful fruiting to occur.

 

 

How do cucumbers do it? With a little help from their friends…

 

 

Immature Armenian cucumber, with dried flower still attached to the end.

Two tiny Armenian cucumbers, still with their baby fuzz

 

An almost mature cucumber

 

The dreaded cucumber beetle! Besides damaging the plants, they also spread bacterial wilt  

 

The harvest! The striped ridges on Armenian cucumbers give the slices a decorative edge. Bon appetit!

Apprentice Spotlight: Emma Yeung

 

NE OKC Farmers Market Festival of Greens

 As a child in England, when Emma Yeung ate something with a seed in it, she would go outside to the yard where her mother designated, dig a hole and plant the seed. Checking each day, she dreamed of apple trees and orange trees, but she never grew an apple or orange tree.

In college, she studied international business, including a stint in China, where she met her husband, an Oklahoman also studying there. Together, they came to Oklahoma on vacation—and decided to stay. They’ve been here 7 years, raising their 7-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 4 and 2. As it turned out, Emma has been working in early childhood development rather than international business. She runs a Waldorf School here.

And that’s how her childhood dreams are coming true. Children in Waldorf schools spend three hours a day outside each school day. With the children in her school, Emma is once again planting and growing seeds in her backyard. And this time, there’s food!

Growing up in England and then moving to the US, she was struck by the huge part junk food plays in the US diet. Food is more regulated in England, she says, where health care is also different—free. Knowing how what we eat affects our health, she says she wanted her children to eat healthily. So she wanted to grow food.

Which led her to an apprenticeship at CommonWealth Urban Farms. “I want to increase my knowledge, grow more food with the children. I want to be doing something worthy of imitation for them.”

Not only do the children in her school grow food, they chop, make soup and bake. Emma has new dreams as well. “When my daughter enters public school, I’d like to have a school garden club that meets weekly and takes care of a schoolyard garden.”—Pat

Of a Certain Nature…

Sightings & Sounds at CommonWealth

Friends drop by the CommonWealth Urban Farm community off and on for a few moments of quiet and to breath in nature. Volunteers tell us how lovely it is to enjoy nature as they work on the farm. They tell us we should celebrate the beauty of this place.  And so, we are.

Last Saturday, Debbie, Barb and I were tending the vegetables at the Veggie Club table when we heard a searing whistle, up high. We looked up to see a Kite sitting in the sun atop a power line pole.

Barb called out excitedly so everyone around could notice it. Then we heard the whistle again and realized it wasn’t coming from atop the pole; rather, somewhere a little ways away.

We watched the Kite preen a bit, listened to the distinctive whistle and it wasn’t long before the Kite flew off in the direction of the sound made by another Kite.

All sorts of nice surprises of nature await people in
CommonWealth’s Urban Farm.—Pat