Getting ready for the New Year

It seems appropriate to start this blog now, during the harvest.  And what more bountiful harvest than tomatoes in a place like San Diego!  The ongoing adventure of being a new home owner is worthy of its own blog, to be sure, but instead of sharing photos of newly painted bedrooms and hardwood floors, it just seems more fun to start here, with the yard... one of the main reasons this place felt absolutely perfect for home.

I will warn you now... do not ever begin picking up titles on Urban Farming and Gardening unless you want the bug.  Furthermore, you may want to eat this blog in small quantities.  It may result in germinating a desire in you to start doing things like planning to rip up 1/3 of your yard to plant rows of beans and corn.  If on the other hand you are of this ilk anyhow, then by all means read on and subscribe to my RSS feed!

This entire idea has been growing for a bit in my mind.  How to feel closer to the cycle of life, growth and fertility.  How to connect on a deeper level with the land.  How to do these things relatively cheaply and at home, rather than once a month on camping and hiking excursions to the nearby wilderness.  Somewhere between farmers markets, friends who have begun supporting or even beginning their own Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups, and a few good books at the local public library, the seeds were sown, so to speak.  It all started with a small garden in the backyard with 4 tomato plants, a crook neck yellow squash, a handfull of herbs and a blackberry bramble.  The rest is history.  By harvest time, we were able to bring a small basket of tomatoes to a potluck with friends, place a bowl full of sweet grape tomatoes on the table for a home cooked meal with friends, and make one batch of fresh pasta sauce.  That was pretty much all the convincing needed.

And so, with tomatoes, I both bring this short growing year to a close and open on a project that I hope to share with you in the coming year.  As we attended a tomato festival at Suzie's Farm CSA in Imperial Beach and our local Farmers Market, we picked up a veritable cornucopia of heirloom tomatoes.

Aside from being a delicious addition to our table for dinner last night, and lunch today, we will be busy in the coming weeks with making a time honored recipe in our home for oven roasted tomato soup, seeding every variety of tomato possible for planting in the new growing season, and canning what is left.  And thus, our adventure begins!