Mmmmm, Food

It's lunchtime in San Francisco. I skipped breakfast to go skipping actually. I know most people say dumpster diving here, but skipping is a term I picked up in London that I'm keeping. It sounds nicer and is so much easier to say. Anyway, I'm feasting on stir fry with leeks, yellow and anaheim peppers, carrots, spinach, and fresh lemon juice. I added some chickpeas and put it over rice/quinoa. (Did you know that quinoa is in the same genus, chenopodium, as goosefoot?)

I've been training myself to like sweet peppers because you can always find them in skips. I still cut them in big pieces so I can pick them out when I've had enough. I love hot peppers, and thus have 5 types growing in the garden. Apparently earwigs love peppers too, cuz they're eating the hell out of ours. They're also going for the lettuce, Brussel sprouts, and my flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum.

I kinda wish they'd shoot for the plums. I know I should stop maligning the plums. They've been yummier this year than ever, and with the help of some nifty folks, the first tree was fully harvested. I did my usual deliveries, batches of bread, and 2 small jars of jam. Then I posted on Neighborhood Vegetables for folks to come get what they could . That worked perfectly! A family came to get plums as the youngest loves them. And some folks from the Free Farm Stand got the rest to distribute before they became over ripe.

For the first time we really didn't let any go to waste, granted, there is another tree ripening at the moment. Loquats are in right now. Lettuce is harvestable but I skipped 4 heads today so I'm letting the leaves keep growing (just because I like earwigs or something). I don't think the corn is going to make it, but I could be wrong. I'm the only one who's grateful for our foggy weather, but it's definitely inhibiting grown in the vegetable patch. (And now that I'm finished with all of my grassland plots, the sun can come on for all I care.)

My native patch isn't food for humans, but it is definitely food for invertebrates. The patches would be bigger but Blake unintentionally slaughtered two of my plants for lettuce space. I got misty over one of them, but I'm not going to go there. Instead, I'm happy with the current buffet for bees, moths, other bugs.

Here's a moth on Phacelia californica. (You can double click the pix to see them full size.)




And here's something stingy on yarrow flowers (Achillea millefolium).


















The bigger patch with some grey water to go on at dusk. In the back is the Ribes sanguineum. The yellow flowers are Grindelia hirsutula or gum plant. To the right are some volunteer poppies that joined the patch, Eschscholzia californica. The ones sticking up to the right and front of the Ribes are Scrophularia californica (bee plant). And the white flowers are the yarrow.


Poppy, yarrow, and gum plant close up.