patrick and i went shopping at the farmer's market at greensgrow farm a few days ago and picked up some big portabellas, a candyhead onion, and butterhead lettuce. the portabellas looked so good that i knew i had to make burgers with them. portabella burgers are a fantastic veggie substitute - they're so juicy and meaty and have a really refreshing texture from veggie burgers. i also have an old french fry cutter i found when cleaning out my parent's kitchen before i moved back - it worked great and i went through four potatoes in a matter of minutes. i baked my fries at 450ºF for 30-45 minutes.

for two burgers you will need:
2 portabella mushrooms
4 leaves of lettuce, rinsed
1 onion, sliced
1 tomato, sliced
2 slices of cheese (daiya if you're vegan)
2 good rolls or buns

for the garlic aioli:
1 garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
1 tbsp mayonnaise or veganaise

first you need to wash the mushrooms. don't run mushrooms under water - they absorb it and become too mushy. instead, gently wipe off the top of the cap with a damp towel to get rid of any excess dirt. flip the mushroom onto its cap and gently scrape off the gills with a knife - the gills will absorb too much of any oil or vinegar you use, and will blacken the mushrooms as they cook. slice off the stem and rub both sides of the mushroom with oil.

broil the mushrooms at 450ºF for 20 minutes or grill them for 5-7 on each side. toast the buns and spread each side with the garlic aioli before assembling your burgers with the lettuce, tomato, onion, and cheese.

also, instead of ketchup for the fries we used banana sauce - it's an asian condiment that resembles tomato ketchup, but is slightly sweeter. you can get it at most asian grocery stores, and i actually like it better than the regular heinz 57.

"supermarkets have branches, farmer's markets have roots"

(via greensgrow)

i've been excited about what we've done with our backyard space - our little shock of green in the city has given me a really great ongoing project...we started a little late in the season but i have high hopes for my little garden. but my backyard is just a tiny drop in a bucket compared to some amazing city gardens - and in fact i live a short bike ride away from one of the leaders in urban sustainable farming, greensgrow farm.

greensgrow is located on e. cumberland street, only a few blocks from the memphis taproom, and for only boasting a single acre in the city, it crams in a farmer's market, nursery, and csa operation into one area. i originally came across greensgrow when researching different csas in the city, but i've decided to put faith in my little garden and decided against buying a share this year. but i did want to stop in and check out the farm, market, and nursery.

(via compostconfidential)

(via compostconfidential)

(via greensgrow)

(via greensgrow)

my little garden is still too young to grow anything yet, so we bought a little bit of everything from the farmer's market. they had some gorgeous candy head onions, big portabella mushrooms, crisp butterhead lettuce, and lots of bright yellow zucchinis at the stand. everyone was really friendly - we were encouraged to taste everything and ended up carrying an armful of fruits and veggies back to the truck. they also carry a lot of local dairy and proteins - fresh milk, eggs, cheese, and even seitan and tofu.

greensgrow is still accepting pro-rated csa applications for full and half shares for their saturday pickups. you can also shop at the farmer's market on thursdays from 2pm to 7pm and saturdays from 10am to 3pm at 2501 e. cumberland st. in philadelphia.

(via compostconfidential)

(via greensgrow)

(via greensgrow)

trashpicking on tuesdays

yesterday was a seriously successful day for finding free stuff. patrick spotted these two chairs while driving around and i brought home some polygon tables from a previous floor set at my store and some chandeliers i saved from the trash. the chairs have a few tears in the fabric and the chandeliers are missing a lot of pieces but i'm hoping to make one full chandelier from the parts from both. obviously i'm painting everything white, and i'm super excited to have a bunch of new projects to work on over the weekend.

ferns and mica at fairmount park

on saturday patrick and i drove to fairmount park to hike in the woods for a few hours. we also brought some bags to collect rocks, moss, and ferns (we're going to try making a few terrariums). we found a lot of moss and mushrooms and a lot of mica at the riverbank edges. we (and by we i mean patrick) ended up with about 10 lbs. of little stones to carry home.

patrick also filled up a test terrarium with some of the moss and stones we found at fairmount park. we didn't put any activated charcoal in it so we'll have to keep an eye on it for a few days, but it looks awesome!

windowsill gardening

(l-r: parsley and lavender sprouts)

even though i have a pretty decent sized garden going for me, i still like indoor and windowsill gardening - especially herbs for the kitchen. i have about half of my herbs hanging from tomato sauce cans i turned into planters and the other half potted below them so i'm able to utilize the entire window.

even though i cut my chives back the other day, they're growing back faster than ever

my pegboard pot rack

rosemary

(l-r: thyme and basil sprouts)

strawberry apple crumble

i decided to make a crumble the other day. i'm trying to get better at using the ingredients i have on hand instead of having to buy them for a specific recipe, and crisps and crumbles are perfect for just about any fruit combination. i had strawberries and apples lying around so that's what i used. my favorite combination is mangoes and blueberries, but i'd also really like to try mulberries and rhubarb or blackberries, raspberries, and tart green apples.

what you need:
4-6 cups of whatever fruit you'll be using (in my case, 2 cup strawberries and 3 apples)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp. lemon/lime juice

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (and/or granola, wheat germ, nuts)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter (or earth balance for vegans)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

preheat oven to 350°F. slice the fruit,mix in the sugar and lemon/lime juice, and spread into a glass baking dish. mix up the remaining dry ingredients and butter, and then sprinkle evenly over the top of the fruit. bake for 30-40 minutes.

i didn't take any finished product pictures - we ate the whole thing as soon as it was out of the oven!

backyard update

our plants are all starting to get super big. the peas are about a foot high and we've had to keep adding nails on the pallet to give them something to grab onto while they climb. the zucchini and squash in the planter are sending out vines so i'm trying to figure out the best way for them to climb around without suffocating the peas or any of the other plants.

the carrots are starting to get little tops and the snap beans are so big that we're trying to decide how to let them grow without shading the carrots from the sun. and, best of all, patrick planted a jade plant into a darth vader head and a spider plant into a millenium falcon toy that he's going to hang from the ceiling in our star wars media room.

snap peas, squash, and cucumbers

(clockwise from top left: strawberries, habaneros, hens and chicks, lavender, bell peppers, jalapenos)

our blackberry plant started climbing up an old fishing pole like crazy

cherry tomatoes planted upside-down in a paint can

little carrot tops

darth jade-er and the millenium falcon!

eggshell seed starters and vertical garden pt. 2

broccoli sprout in an eggshell starter

the first part of my vertical garden is up and growing! i had a little trouble at first (we needed to add more eyelets and zip ties to space out the weight) but i'm excited that everything is finally planted! we have the top few rows of lettuce planted - some of them are already big enough to poke out from the top!

(via patrickblake)

i'm using these 6"x6"x4" pockets for lettuce and spinach

and i planted zucchini, squash, and cucumbers in the 6"x8"x4" pockets

it was taking longer than i'd planned to get the canvas up so i had even started giving away some of the bigger seedlings that looked like they didn't want to wait any longer to get planted. so i started another tray of seeds - i've planted about half of them already and now i'm just waiting for the other half to sprout!

i like to start seeds in rinsed out eggshell halves in old egg cartons. it's a good way to reuse the cartons, they're the perfect size, everything stays neat, and once the seeds are big enough to transplant all you need to do is pick up the eggshell and crack it apart enough the the roots can eventually break through. it's much easier than trying to spoon out seedlings and worry about cutting the roots.

for the left side of the vertical garden pockets i started three types of lettuce (bibb, vivian, and a musclun mix) and spinach. i planted zucchini, squash, and cucumbers in the large pockets, and i'm putting scallions and broccoli in the pockets on the right side.