We’re having a pretty successful first season of gardening in Richmond, all things considered. There’s too much for my family to eat, but not quite enough left over to create a bountiful display at the farmer’s markets. (I often show up at St. Stephens in the west end and the Byrd House market in Oregon Hill.) If one or two families were interested in full or half-share size CSA-type arrangements, that would about take care of my surplus. I’m offering baked goods as well — breads, granola, and a couple of varieties of cookies made with maple syrup and mostly organic ingredients. (No eggs or dairy.)

Send me an email [peasantfare@gmail.com] if you’d like to talk about having a weekly delivery.

All the lettuce is finally gone — with the heat, it becomes too bitter to eat. But the green bean season is well under way, beets and carrots will be plentiful for a while yet, and I expect to have at least another dinner or two of redskin potatoes. The chard is beautiful, and along with the beet greens, amaranth, and lambsquarters, I really have a nice variety of braising greens (my favorites).

I just started picking Juliet tomatoes, the smaller peppers, and zucchini. I should have eggplant to eat in a day or two. I’m cutting basil whenever I want it, and the plants are replacing the cut stems within days, it seems. Still have dill, but the cilantro will be gone before long.

I only planted a few flowers, a couple of cosmos and sunflowers, but they look healthy, and I’m looking forward to seeing the blooms brighten up their beds. The nasturtiums remain really lovely, and taste good, too.

I put some cantaloupe and watermelon seeds in the ground last week and hopefully they’ll trail the ones I planted earlier just enough to keep the harvest steady. A new bed of beans should sprout soon, and I plan to continue planting more of those, along with some more chard (in a somewhat shady area), more summer squash, and a few butternut.

Not for eating, for gardening. Worm composting is a great way to keep your kitchen waste out of the landfill. In the worm bin, decomposition of organic matter takes place in a way that is very good for your soil and much better for the environment in general. The finished compost helps plants get the nutrients they need from the soil and promotes the health of your plants. See the Worm Bin Starter page at right for more information.

Usually people buy worms mail order. Minimum order is often over $30 for a pound of worms, including shipping.  I’m selling Worm Bin Starter by the quart at the St.  Stephens Farmer’s Market. If you’re on a budget, you can get your bin going with one $5 quart of starter. To speed things up, buy more than one. I’m also offering a couple of mature worm bins in five-gallon buckets, full of completed worm compost and chock-full of worms of all ages and their eggs. $75 for a full-functioning bin, about 3 and a half to 4 gallons.

My cousin Ellen and I shop together, and try as we might to find a good, healthy, delicious granola or breakfast cereal, we just haven’t been able to get satisfaction. So we made granola yesterday with sunflower seeds, pecans, sesame seeds, almonds, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Wow. It’s really delicious. I prefer it without dried fruit, because I’d generally rather add fresh fruit. Also, Ellen points out that dried fruit can get too dry when it’s surrounded by all those oats. And no flippin’ coconut!

So I’m adding granola to the list of baked goods I’ll be offering my customers. Speak up [peasantfare@gmail.com] if you’d like some. I’ll be experimenting with ingredients including ground flax seed and pumpkin seeds. And raisins and coconut if that’s what you like..

We are still offering organic breads (cornbread, garlic bread, rosemary bread, crunchy whole wheat), cookies (organic peanut butter, almond-raspberry), and selected vegetables and herbs. I have mixed washed organic salad greens, whole heads of romaine, herbs including cilantro and dill, small tender beets with greens attached, baby carrots, and green beans.

Still working on the plan that will make the full package of prepared foods available for ordering online. Stay in touch.

I’ve been developing a “Greens and Beans” menu as an all-purpose, one-size-fits-all diet improvement strategy, and made it part of my business model for the Fulton Hill project to promote anti-diabetes and anti-heart disease cooking. This morning I went to the ADA website and found beans and greens are the top two foods on the “diabetes superfoods” list. That’s really helpful.

A farm in Tappahannock that raises chickens, pigs, and goats will be feeding its fish tanks with red wigglers! The system involves setting up a worm bin large enough to produce a steady excess of worms while maintaining a stable population. The compost will help grow plants to filter the fish water and I suppose will also go into the vegetable garden. I sold him three gallons of worm starter that, given a good environment and lots of “stall hay” from the goats, should be able to produce a half-pound or so of worms every week by next spring. I’m making some pretty wild guesses about time and quantities, and hope to visit his farm to see how it all works.

Most composting worms are sold online and delivered by mail. I sell “starter,” which is a bucket (from a quart to as much as five gallons at a time) of worms, well-composted bedding, and castings — a healthy, functioning worm colony full of worms of all ages, eggs, and all the other little bugs and microbial life forms that convert organic waste (kitchen scraps, leaves, sawdust, paper) into an excellent soil conditioner and fertilizer. Using starter instead of mail-order worms to start your own bin makes for a smoother transition for your worms and helps you avoid the troubles that new worm farmers sometimes have. Email me at peasantfare@gmail.com if you want to get started with your own organic garbage disposal!

As soon as my application is approved, I hope to be selling at the Farmer’s Market at St. Stephens (Grove and Three Chopt) on Saturdays.
But I won’t be there tomorrow, so if you need anything on the list, please send me an email.

Here’s what’s available:
Worm Bin Starter (with living worms, castings, and eggs)

Baked goods: Martha’s organic breads
Organic peanut butter cookies
Almond-raspberry cookies
Organic vegetables:
Romaine lettuce
Green leaf lettuce
Spinach
Mixed washed greens, including spinach, three kinds of lettuce, arugula, spinach, baby beet greens, and nasturtium
Fresh dill and cilantro
Beet greens
(Ask about broccoli, new potatoes, baby beets. I’m just starting to get these, and am eating most of them myself!)

If you’re not too far away, I’ll deliver. Email me at peasantfare@gmail.com.