Magic at the Edible Office

Mustard

Mustard, originally uploaded by edibleoffice.

Mustard loves the fog of San Francisco. My dream of a purple peacock terrace has come to life with four cultivars of mustard: Giant Southern, Giant Red, and Ruby Streaks, and Osaka Purple Wave.

The White House Vegetable Garden

Today the Obamas are digging up the White House front lawn and planting an organic vegetable garden! The Obamas love spinach, judging by their garden plan. If you live in their neighborhood, take some pictures of the family and their crew of fifth graders getting dirty.

This is a rewarding moment for all the white house farm advocates out there like The Who Farm, The White House Farmer, Alice Waters and Michael Pollen.

Urban gardens are having a long-needed comeback, as evidenced in San Francisco with the revival of a victory garden in Civic Center. I recently visited Boston's Fenway Victory Gardens, the longest running urban garden program in the country. With over 500 community garden plots, this is the gardener's version of Disneyland.

On the art front, check out urban agriculture projects – The Greenhorns, Future Farmers, Eco Heroes, Edible Estates, the Mission Greenbelt project, and Edible Office's Urban Homesteader Trading Cards :) Know of others?

Comic by Kat, Redwood, and Zoey Kroll

The Edible Office Christmas Menu 2008

Feast of Green & Red

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Christmas Menu
at the Edible Office
with
Chef-in-Residence Margaret Tedesco &
Farmer-in-Residence Zoey Kroll

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Radicchio, frisee, pomegranate salad
Watercress & tomatoes on flax crackers
Giant green & watermelon radish slices
Peruvian oca root & shiso leaf
Chicken & lamb sausage
with gravenstein & pink lady apples
Homemade s'mores

Seeing Through Plants

A Garden Picnic: How Seeds Travel

Edible Office, in collaboration with fellow information designer Erin Wilson, has been busy developing the Pocket Seed Library (PSL). The PSL is an ongoing collection of seed packets and growing instructions designed to encourage people to plant, save and share seeds. Check out the Pocket Seed Library blog and, if you're in the Bay Area, join us for A Garden Picnic: How Seeds Travel, a community potluck in the magical backyard garden of Southern Exposure Gallery.

Fingerlings

Camofood

Yin Yang, Pandas, Eggs, or Beans? I like food that looks like other food.

Alice Waters and Me

At Slow Food Nation, I got inspired by the Edible Education panel featuring Alice Waters, founder of the pioneering Chez Panisse restaurant and the Edible Schoolyard, a model garden education program in the public schools.

The New Economy at San Francisco City Hall

Dad & the Beanstalk at the San Francisco Victory Garden

Is this food to eat? Or is it for show? Dad asks why they plan to take the Victory Garden down this month: "It shows a lack of commitment." Let's rally to keep the veggies at City Hall!

Mr. Tomato Head

Adventures with vistalux and a tomato from her mom's local farmer's market

Faux Carrots

Marzipan carrots
Carrot carrot peeler (The carrot peeler has a sculpted carrot handle.)

Art from the Edible Office Retreat!

Stills from "Facedown"
Originally uploaded by edibleoffice

Dia Felix wrote and directed a movie in the course of the 7 hour Edible Office Artist Retreat. Starring: Bonnie Dundee and Corinna Press. Cinematography: Jed Bell.

Margaret's Stone Fruit Radicchio Salad

Margaret's Stone Fruit Radicchio Salad
Originally uploaded by edibleoffice

At the Artist Retreat, Margaret improvises a savory salad with seasonal fruit and bitter greens: plums, red and green nectarines, white and yellow, apricots, radicchio (fresh from the Edible Office), spearmint, raw walnuts, shallots, fresh ginger, olive oil, salt and pepper

Chef-in-Residence #2

Yariv Presents His Work

Yariv makes mint and shiso mojitos for the other artists.

He also makes broiled tempeh with a glaze duet:
Spicy-brown sugar, jalapeño pepper, shallots, garlic, fennel seeds, fresh rosemary
Fruity-blackberry jam, fresh sage, garlic and shallots

Artist Retreat

media1.jpeg
Originally uploaded by edibleoffice

Lilly makes coffee at the Edible Office Artist Retreat

Chef-in-Residence #1

During her residency at the farm, Margaret Tedesco of [second floor projects] harvests the first of this summer's cultivars, then experiments in the kitchen. Let's just say, I hope to have her here for another residency! Yum!

• Mixed farm greens with nasturtium and calendula flowers, feta, dates, & lemon vinaigrette
• Thai red rice cooked with coconut milk & sage
• Corn relish with sautéed shallots and red peppers
• Sauteed pumpkin seeds with nutmeg and cayenne

Hairy Flowers: Specimen 1

COLOR

PALETTE

Regrading the Front Yard

Ceci N'est Pas un Artichaut

Call me Cardoon.

Let's Trade Seeds

Spread this activist meme: the re-awakening of community through urban farms and farmer's markets.

• Let's share. If you have seeds, I'd love to trade with you.
• Meet me at The Ecology Center's Seed Library, where people can 'check out' seeds and then return their "spawn" within a few years.
• Contact me if you want an invite to the next seed trade and Urban Homesteader Trading Card Exchange.
  
• Get involved with a food advocacy organization or local farm.

U-Pick at The Edible Office: Day 1!

Food Advocacy Organizations & Other Farmy Links

Keep spreading this activist meme.

Food Advocacy Organizations: We like to eat great food grown lovingly by great people! Save small organic farms!

• http://www.organicconsumers.org
• http://www.thefutureoffood.com/involved.htm
  
• Environmental Working Group
• On the Commons
• The Seed Alliance
  
• http://nfu.org/
• http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/
  
• http://www.ucsusa.org/
  
• http://uas.coop/
  

Urban Farms: Get involved! Or make your own!

• Urban Home on the Free Range
• Victory Gardens

Seed Banks: Preserve Diversity! Fight Monsanto!

• The Ecology Center
• Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Farm Art: Inspire Beauty and Wonder!

• Edible Estates
• How to Homestead
• Bill Basquin
• Secret Suppers

Seed Suppliers We Like

• Seeds of Change
• Seed Savers
• Nichols Gardens

I have been tending to your yacon plant until J makes her trip to Santa Barbara. She tells me you have a bee in your bonnet about getting it. I can relate! I'll send you pictures to try to hold you over. Do you think yacon will like your hot weather? I just found out that one of its common names is "ground apple". It does have the light crispness of a golden delicious (but milder in sweetness and flavor), don't you think?

My dad ordered a greenhouse kit and five humongous boxes just arrived in the mail. I'm trying to convince dad to hire J to help, but he's insisting on doing it himself, which means it may be sloping and crazy looking....

Last week I visited my friend Topiary on the day she redesigned her garden. I wanted to bring her a yacon plant but didn't feel like haggling with airport security. I settled for showing her my wallet pictures: Here's Yacon when she was just a wee tuber, here's her at one month, here's what she made at harvest time...ah, I'm a gramma now! (I have a dozen or so yacon babies I have been gifting to friends).

For the record: my obsession began long before yacon became totally trendy, a foodie rage which I predict will grow over the coming year. Yacon is so in demand, it's now near impossible to order. This is why it's good to have farmer friends.

Tuber photo by Seeds of Change

Growth Cycle of a Yacon Plant

Urban Homesteader Trading Cards!

Know the eco-heroes in your neighborhood?
Collect & trade Urban Homesteader & EcoCitizen Trading Cards!
Want to be featured on a trading card?
Convert your lawn into a vegetable garden!

Urban Homesteader Trading Cards feature people engaged with a sustainable, activist, or DIY activity, who then share this practice and knowledge with others. The cards are designed to build community and illustrate innovative approaches to urban living.

Contact me if you want to be part of the trading card deck. All participants will get a set of cards and an invitation to the next trading card exchange party.
Share the inspiring activities you are doing.
Then let the trading begin!

My First Seed Exchange

I recently crawled out of winter hibernation so that I could participate in the seed exchange at the Ecology Center. The potluck hoedown seed trading event reminded me of the best parts of my hippy childhood. Between us, we had an amazing diversity and abundance of seeds. Year round, at the Ecology Center's Bay Area Seed Exchange Library (BASIL) "local gardeners and farmers can 'check out' seeds with the agreement that they attempt to grow them out and 'return' some seeds of the next generation at the end of the season."

Seed Apothecary

I Hope This Year the Front Yard Looks as Good as Last Year.

Dinner Guests

Planting Party #1

Photo by Vistalux

Babies

Plant Markers Waiting for Spring

Alphabet Garden v.1.0

Specimens from the Alphabet Garden

Diagram by farmcore

I'm having left-brain right-brain wars as the information architect tries to collaborate with the farmer. Taxonomy is a shared sport. Sort of. My heart gets distracted by the poetry of names: "love lies bleeding." It does, doesn't it? Farm lore changes the flavor of a vegetable: Yacon is a secret among farmers. I reach into the dirt to pull up the tuberous root, native to the Andes. My fingers navigate through clusters of bulbous roots, pick a promising one. Then, excavate! Peel off the skin. Bite into a body of water. Like jicama, but gentler. Only a slight taste--unexpected and almost chemical. Saffron?

Farmers at Work

Artwork by Kat and Redwood (AKA mom and dad)

I never saw a purple...

Time is my friend

Icons by TimeTimer

Photo by Lissa Ivy

Pomelo: Sense of Proportion

Photo by Lissa Ivy

Family Farm: One Year Old!

Photo by Lissa Ivy, cake design by Julianna Sassaman

Timers: Red & White

Catalog: Fall's Harvest