Bodacious Garden

I really love our Potluck Sundays.  I made a Kale Quinoa Salad with tahini, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice.  Yum!

Work in progress of the 3rd page of my fabric book.  This page will introduce the chickens.  Honey the Buff Orpington is not on there because she is getting her very own page.

I still have to add the beaks and feet.  I call them Dinos because these chickens look the most like their ancestors and there is so many of them that is hard to tell them apart.

Baby Barn Swallows!  They look so angry and tough!  They hardly fit in their nest anymore.

Snap peas!  We have been harvesting many snap peas and snow peas.  Today we harvested 64 pounds of snap peas!

Cauliflower is so cool.

When they get about the size of a fist we "blanch" them, which means we tie the leaves around the cauliflower to keep it white, or else it turns yellow.

Little purple kohlrabi!

We will be harvesting green beans tomorrow.

A bed of carrots growing bigger each day beneath the ground.

And my favorite, onions!

Eat a Romanesco!

Here is a tiny update on the second corn I am sewing. I have finished this piece today and have another one to do before I can say I have two pieces of corn done. They take a very long time but it is very relaxing sewing each kernel on.

This is a Romanesco Cauliflower. He was super yummy with horseradish hummus. It is so mesmerizing to follow the pattern of this vegetable.

Last Thursday, Chicago Artist Resource hosted "Public Art: How to do Art in Public Spaces" at the Chicago Cultural Center. I went to educate myself for Potluck: Chicago's project we will be doing in February, and because I have an idea for Version 12. It is a festival where creative people will "open and remix" twelve temporary spaces for the month of May in Bridgeport. Their "plans include opening up a used bookstore, a nightly performance space in a church, a home brewing club kitchen, a department store/gallery showcasing all locally manufactured small batch and artisanal products, nomadic collaborative restaurants, and community kitchens, parking lot flea markets, a neighborhood tourism bureau, and a rotating exhibition space for artist and designers."

I want to propose a public art piece that would produce food as well so that people could take from the piece. Kale and Chard to be exact! I want to draw up some ideas and see if this could actually be possible and then hopefully find some people who would be interested in joining me and making this idea stronger.

I can't wait for summer. I want to farm!

Monstrous Monsanto Hand

I'm done sculpting the huge Monsanto hand...it ended up bigger than I intended, but that's not a problem. Next, I will work on the farmer's hand, but I may use clay instead because I don't want the farmer's hand to look so rough.

I will dress him with a sleeve from a suit jacket. I think I will go to a Salvation Army to buy one and sew two sleeves together. Originally, I had the idea to put nuts and bolts throughout the piece but it didn't look right and it made the piece easier to break. I may still glue them on...but I don't think I will. Nor do I think the piece needs it anymore....not sure.

This is for scale. Jacob's hand against the Monsanto hand. It's actually very light though. I will be picking up tiny pieces of plaster for days... :0 )

A Summer of Farming (hopefully)

I am finishing up my application for Wormfarm Institute in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. It is an artists residency on an organic farm...kinda perfect! If I were accepted, I would be gone for two months in the summer, making artwork and working on the farm. My experience this summer volunteering at Green Earth Institute taught me a lot about farming in a small amount of time. I met people who were also very passionate about farming and sharing what they know. Each person had such big ideas and dreams and it was eye-opening for me. I want to do something very different from my everyday life and live in Wisconsin for 2 months and meet more inspiring people.

I have also been checking out Growing Power, a 2.5 acre farm on the Southside of Chicago. Who knew there was a farm in Chicago? They do a lot of teaching at this farm to young children and teenagers. I want to be involved with working with kids because if they only knew how their food grew they would respect it so much more and would enjoy eating a carrot once in a while. This could be a great start to something bigger in my life...but first I need to learn how to grow food because really I haven't done much yet. They have an internship for 2 months working 6 days a week on the farm. If I don't get Wormfarm, I may try for this or do both...either way, I expect to volunteer at Growing Power this summer at least. There is always next year to intern.

THEN a friend of mine (Sonia!) gave me an article about Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. This is a 6 month apprenticeship in Santa Cruz, Callifornia. It looks like they want people with a bit of experience, which I haven't got quite yet...but eventually I hope to apply here. It would be more than working on a farm but a real education about how it all works so that I may someday have my own farm or start a community garden...who knows!

And now some photos of greasy, sweet...kinda vegetable-less, vegan comfort foods from our unconventional Thanksgiving with my mom and sister.

This looks like an add for Daiya cheese...cheezy, Sun-dried tomato basil pesto potatoes.

My Mumah makes amazing vegan Flautas twice a year. mmm...

The end result.

Cinnamon Rolls (from scratch) that I made for breakfast. This is before the icing engulfs them.

And then the not so vegan Angel Food Cake. It required 12 egg whites so I brought a dozen eggs that I bought in Chicago from Hedge Row Farm in Sullivan, Illinois...where they have happy chickens. My Mumah made this for me just like the old days. So soft and fluffy. She is amazing and the cake is all gone.

Now it's time I consider taking a break from sweets for while...if I can help it.