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I’ve been busy over here for many weekends in a row now, planting corn, murdering my front lawn, deconstructing the huge “live-in” shed attached to the garage, and repurposing the shed materials into a few awesome building projects: namely a compost bin and a chicken coop.

The chicken coop is still in the works, but the compost bin is done!

I did a lot of research into bin design, looking at models using recycled wood pallets, buying a big plastic bin instead of building one, or building one out of the heaps of 2x4s rescued from the shed.

I settled on this 3-bin compost system, in part because I expect I’ll be able to generate a LOT of compost (I have so much yard waste already), but also because I saw a really well-done version of it on featured on Re-nest.

Mine isn’t quite as pretty — after all, most of the materials  are recycled — but it does the trick! In the end, I spent about $150 on materials I didn’t have or couldn’t salvage, including the wire hardware cloth, two Trex boards (the slats on the front are this composite material — I had enough for two sections, salvaged from another Oakland homeowner’s pile of scrap, but needed more for the third section), one 9′ redwood 2×4, since i didn’t have enough of that length, and all the screws, hinges, and hardware. The Oakland Home Depot and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore saw my face a few times that weekend…

I don’t want to think about what it would have cost to buy all new material! I guess the message is DON’T! Even if you don’t have salvage of your own, I found several places to buy recycled wood for really cheap. Urban Ore in Berkeley, for example, sells 2x4s at around $2 a pop!

Steve and I managed to build this guy in about two weekends, with a little extra work on his part on his time off during the week.

The PDF design I followed can be downloaded by clicking here.

Have your own compost bin design to share? Or another repurposed yard project? Send them my way, I’d love to share them on here!

And here’s Brendon with a chicken coop sneak peak…

I only visited one of the five sites on last weekend’s first annual Urban Farm Tour, organized by Oakland’s Institute of Urban Homesteading. But I was pretty blown away.

I toyed with the idea of saving these photos, hoping I might do an interview and full story on Kitty Sharkey, who lives on her 4,000 square foot “Havenscourt Homestead” in East Oakland.

But I couldn’t wait — I was too amazed and inspired by what I saw.

Kitty — a 9-5 working woman in love with her 52 goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and cats (plus several bee hives) — lives on a smaller property than I do. Her own little 2-bedroom home was bought as a foreclosure, just three years ago. THREE YEARS, and she’s done all this.

What might I do in that time…

Kitty’s front yard is an official Bay Friendly Garden — she tore the lawn out (much as I’m doing now!) and put in low water plants.

The driveway used to run from the street to the garage at the very back of the property — now, just the front portion is for parking, while most of the length is used for veggie gardening! The secret to getting huge plants in containers? Poop, Kitty says. Amending the soil with manure has done wonders for her tomatoes and other vegetables.

Somehow, there are 52 animals on this homestead. That includes goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and cats — but doesn’t include the two bee hives on the garage roof. All that and a hammock occupy most of the backyard. Remarkably, it doesn’t actually smell like a barnyard! Kitty practices the “deep litter” method of maintaining the animal coops and pens, which allows manure to compost in place underneath a deep layer of hay or pine shavings while keeping things relatively odor-free. Whatever she’s doing, it works.

At left, a small tomato plant grows with marigolds to keep away pests (her other, poop-planted tomatoes, are taller than I am).

At right, Kitty addresses the crowd while the goats pull and nibble at the bottom of her shirt for attention. Maybe I should get goats on my homestead… ;)

Friends, readers — if I have any readers left at this point — this is old news for most of you.

Despite being old news, it is pretty HUGE news, so I’m counting on a little forgiveness for my not blogging in ages.

The news?

I bought a house: a 1945 bungalow in East Oakland.

And more than that, along with my cute 2-bedroom “cosmetic fixer,” I bought a nearly 5,000 square foot lot.

But it’s been hard to remember that part of the deal over the last four months, while I’ve been caught up in painting, finding and installing light fixtures, running back and forth to the Oakland Tool Lending Library, and doing late-night internet research on everything from how to install a new toilet flush handle to how to safely remove the lead paint shedding off my kitchen wall.

A 5,000 square foot lot. Really, you see, I bought a piece of future urban farmland that just happened to have a great house sitting on it too. And now that the housewarming is over — meaning things inside are tidier, if not actually finished — I can move from the dreaming phase to the doing phase in my garden.

But I only have so much space (or reader attention span?) in one post, so I’ll stick to sharing just the dreams with you today…

Dream #1: Front Yard Veggies

I have no idea what the neighbors will think of this idea, except that I know from my neighborhood listserv that many in the area do plenty of edible gardening. One neighbor — who’s been here 45 years — warned against putting anything edible (or more so, throwable and squishable) in my front yard. At least without a fence. (There was a story of a pomegranate tree they cut down because of the fruits’ tendency to be hurled at the house…)

But my front yard gets the most sun. And I do NOT want to mow any grass (or buy a lawn mower, for that matter). Even more so, I like the idea of showcasing — Rosalind Creasy style — that edible gardening can be beautiful, functional, and community-forming.

There will be no veggie rows. And, probably, no tomatoes (my big front window seems the most likely target). But artichokes? Eggplant? Asparagus? Edibles that don’t necessarily LOOK like edibles? Blueberry foundation plants? I think so.

Though the more I think about it, the more I’m willing to consider building a fence one of these weekends… Oakland, my dear Rosalind, is no Los Altos.

Dream #2: Backyard Chickens

Actually, this one is already in the works! To celebrate my 26th birthday, I gifted myself three baby chicks. After two weeks in a borrowed brooder, they’re getting bigger by the day! The next step is building the coop — I’m hoping to build that and a compost bin mostly out of wood salvaged from the huge shed some of my guy friends demolished a few weeks back. (Thank you Steve and Brendon!)

Dream #3: Mostly Edible Landscaping

So the tomatoes can’t go in the front yard. Lucky for me, I have plenty of space out back for the “ugly” (corn, wheat), squishy (tomatoes, peaches), too tempting (peppers, strawberries), and shade-loving (lettuce, herbs) veggies.

I’m dreaming about: Kiwis and grapes on arbors or a patio pergola. Blueberry and Nanking cherry foundation plantings. Finally planting my peach, orange, and cherry trees, while the fig and olive grace the patio in pots. A backyard hammock, picnic table, cob oven, and fire pit for full enjoyment of said edibles. Ah, the ideas… and more coming, with the help of my good friends Katrina and Ashley of Ashtree Designs!

I have online shopping carts full of future plants waiting for a credit card number at Raintree Nursery and Seeds of Change, and I’ve been scoping out Evergreen and Broadway Terrace nurseries locally. I’m ready.

Dream #4: Wood-fired hot tub

Ok, so it’s not edible. But it sounds amazing. And somewhat sustainable, if you discount the fact that there’ll be smoke (I’ll be able to grill on the heater, so at least they’re dual-purpose greenhouse gases, right?)

I acquired half of a huge (2-3 person) industrial storage tank a while back, from a woman in West Oakland offering rabbit manure compost on CraigsList, and I dream of magically turning it into something like the Dutchtub, which I saw at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show earlier this year.

Dream #5: Monthly Dinner Parties

So far, the hardest part of being a homeowner is that I’ve lost a huge part of my social life. I live farther away from downtown, and can no longer walk to a bar, restaurant, or the weekly farmers market. And I spend my weekends working on the house, rather than going out with friends. So I’m hoping to bring the party to me! And, after reading about all my edible landscaping plans, you probably realize as well as I do how big a harvest I’m going to have…

As for my progress so far?

To summarize: There are 36 stalks of corn growing in the backyard. Gertrude, Virginia, and Sylvia, my lovely lady egg layers, are getting bigger every day. The front lawn is officially torn out as of last weekend (because Steve is an effing rock star), and PDF plans for a 3-bin composting system are pulled up on my laptop, ready to be used this weekend.

Oh, and I am finally — FINALLY — back to Urbivore, with 5,000 square feet of inspiration in front of me, and a long list of ideas for continued posts on food politics, DIY ideas, interviews with urban farmers, and more: the real meat of the blog.

Stay tuned…

Pilar Reber jokes that she’s “your typical American that doesn’t have time to garden.”

But that isn’t the whole story.

Her yard at home might be bare — much to the disappointment of friends and visitors — but that’s because Pilar spends most of her time starting 400 varieties of vegetable and herb seedlings in an old greenhouse — a.k.a. Sunnyside Organic Seedlings — tucked into an industrial zone in Richmond, California.

A neighboring greenhouse hosts the beginnings of an aquaculture system (with a Target-bought above-ground swimming pool full of hundreds of three-inch koi fish), and a third holds 10 or so chickens, including a few accidental roosters who will soon be somebody’s dinner.

Outside, one of her staff, Kenji Warren, keeps a vegetable garden for the Bay Area Rescue Mission — at a volunteer day last week, a dozen volunteers harvested more than 100 pounds of Swiss chard and planted a few hundred cloves of garlic, most of which will be donated to the organization’s food kitchen.

The remaining greenhouses and gravel-strewn lawn on her 7-acre plot give plenty of space for dreaming, she said.

After moving here from another Richmond site early this year, “suddenly there’s room for vision. Before, I had no space to think about anything other than Sunnyside.” Will that mean more chickens? Building an office on-site for her boyfriend’s business? A few more rows for Kenji to tend? Crazy ideas — or at least good crazy ideas — are welcome, she said. So are donations.

In the meantime, she’s happy with all her seed start trays. Walking down the rows of upcycled wire, pipe, and garden hose tables, she points out a tray covered in what looks like short white hairs — these onions are one of her favorites, she said, especially when they’ve just started to sprout.

But organic, heirloom onions, oregano, arugula, and artichokes aren’t the only things she hopes to start here — in addition to selling seedlings, she said, “we’re growing farmers.”

In Richmond, not only are climate conditions ideal, but there’s also high unemployment.

Greenhouse Manager Rebecca Blanck-Weiss explains, “our larger goal is to provide job training for the community through sustainable business and organic food.” That means bringing in local students, maintaining a coterie of volunteers, and donating food and seedlings to various organizations.

Sunnyside’s seedlings are sold at more than 40 Bay Area garden centers, or you can find Pilar manning the stand at several local farmer’s market, including the Sunday San Rafael Civic Center market, the Tuesday Novato market, and — my own personal favorite — the Saturday Grand-Lake market in Oakland.

Interested in volunteering? Follow their Facebook page for more info, but volunteer day is generally the last Friday of the month, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Your time earns you lunch and free seedlings — who could refuse?

Oh, I’ve been bad. Urbivore, I’ve been ignoring you.

In my defense, I have been spending an awful lot of my free time actually IN the garden — while it’s getting chilly and the leaves are falling elsewhere, summer has finally arrived in Oakland, along with a lot of my harvest! Green beans, eggplant, corn, tomatoes, carrots — and while all of that is coming out, new stuff gets to go in: I’ve planted snap peas, more carrots, onions, garlic, and salad greens for the winter. Needless to say, it’s been a deliciously busy month!

But I’ve also been distracted by something of a vice: HBO’s The Wire. It’s entirely not garden related, but man oh man… I can’t get enough of Omar, Stringer Bell, and good ol’ McNulty!

Anyone who has no idea what I’m talking about needs a Netflix account.

Which brings me to the bulk of my post — in between Wire episodes (which I anxiously await  to arrive in the mail), I’ve been scoping out some of the food and agriculture related films on Netflix, many of which are available to play instantly online!

Now, I apologize for anyone who doesn’t have a Netflix account. But I DID already tell you that you need one, so… no excuses. All of you heading into autumn — with harvests already behind you — might appreciate this list of movies for those cold, lengthening nights, as you dream about what you’ll sow next spring!

King Corn
Sarah’s Rating: Four Stars (average 3.7)

Two young guys from Boston move to small-town Iowa to grow one acre of corn in an experiment to learn how America’s most subsidized crop is grown and to track where their acre ends up in the food system. It’s funny, informative, and hey — they even visit the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota (a very memorable stop on my own family’s 1995 cross-country road trip!).

Food, Inc.
Sarah’s Rating: Five Stars (average 4.1)

It’s a classic by now, but this one sticks with me as my introduction to food-related documentaries. The interviews are excellent — you get a sick-of-the-system chicken lady, a salt-of-the-earth all around organic farmer, and of course, my idol (and hopefully future professor), Michael Pollan. If you haven’t already seen it, definitely add this one to your queue (or watch it instantly tonight!).

The Garden
Sarah’s Rating: Five Stars (average 3.9)

Lesser known, but perhaps my favorite of all the food movies I’ve seen, this one follows a low-income, mostly Latino neighborhood in Los Angeles as they create the largest (14 acres!) community garden in the country — before they’re forced to fight the impending bulldozers of the owners and developers. Tragic, charming, inspiring, and controversial, don’t watch this one when you’re looking for a happy ending.

Still in waiting my instant queue:

The Botany of Desire — Oh, Michael Pollan, I can’t resist.

The Future of Food — Delves into the “unappetizing truth about genetically modified foods.”

Food Matters — How the food we eat is helping — and hurting — our health.

A Beautiful Truth — An investigation of the idea that diet can cure cancer and other diseases.

Super Size Me — Eating nothing but McDonalds, the director takes “a hilarious and often terrifying look at the effects of fast food on the human body.”

Mondovino — A French film looking at Big Wine versus family-run wineries in Europe, South America, and the United States.

Julie and Julia — OK, I know, this one doesn’t quite deserve to be on this list. But lots of women who know me and my love of food, cooking, etc. tell me I have to see it, so here it is.

How to Cook Your Life — Part Zen meditation, part cooking class, it’s about “the role food plays in our bodies and spirits.”