Eat The Yard

I have had this … pile in my yard for nearly six months.  It grows and shrinks, but mostly just sits there doing nothing spectacular — at least nothing I have been able to notice.  Six months is the amount of time I have most often read that it takes for a pile like mine [...]

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Over the past few days I, and my friends Paul and Charles, built a green-roof chicken coop in preparation for the chicken raising that will be going on in my yard this spring.  I’ll be ordering three or four day-old chicks when they become available in February.  We can hardly wait. I researched and designed [...]

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There’s little chance of growing 100 percent of anyone’s daily calories in a suburban yard.  It’s true for us, and our near fifth of an acre is a pretty good size as far as yards go.  It’s true for most people.  Beyond lot size, there are also light and soil quality concerns, not to mention [...]

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In the spirit of the listing that this season entails — the New York Times has no fewer than 11 book lists to guide what readers read and buy — and the good reading weather the cool season brings (though it is 77 degrees in San Diego as I write this), I thought I’d jot [...]

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If our production and consumption of calories had been even and steady throughout the year, then by the end of November we should have harvested and eaten 75,030 calories from our property, or about 5 percent of our annual calories.  It would be friendly but false to characterize our effort so far as either even [...]

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This past weekend I found myself with a free moment to finally trim back the Bougainvillea that has grown with abandon for some time.  This vine thrives along the fence between our yard and our neighbor’s, and I have hated it for years and avoided dealing with it.  But this plant had gotten so tall [...]

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I could have planted 125 square feet of Calabrese Broccoli.  And 30 square feet of Jiu Cai Garlic Chives.  And 25 square feet each of Correnta Spinach, Marvel of Four Seasons Butterhead Lettuce, and Q’s Special Medley Mesclun. Put another way, I could have grown 400 White Lisbon Bunching Onions, 300 Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions, [...]

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One reason it can be so hard to accomplish the ends of sustainable-small-organic-green-ecofriendly-slow-local eating is just that: It’s not clear what we mean when we mean it.  At least for those trying to live responsibly outside of an organization, group, club, or some other coordinated_activism.org.  This lack of clarity is part of the problem in [...]

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My wife and I moved into our first home about a year ago: A little 1950s Ranch that clocks in at just under 900 square feet and sits on an 8,250 square foot lot, which is right around the American median in terms of land.  Less than a fifth of an acre.  Great view.  Lots [...]

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