Idyllic City's Urban Farm Goods- Homemade Gifts for the Holidays

Idyllic City is busy making handmade urban farm goods to give as gifts this holiday season.

Since there is no better way to your show appreciation for friends and family than to give homemade gifts from your garden-  we will be posting some of our best recipes for hand-crafted holiday gifts made from your school or community garden.

Ingredients for our organic teas, granola bars, cookies, chocolate bark, oils, honey, nuts, live herbs and succulents are all garden grown and hand-crafted at our urban garden in San Francisco.  They will also be available for purchase on Etsy.com.   Many of our gift ingredients are grown by our K-5th grade gardening classes.

Our Top 2 Gift Ideas: Organic Teas and Organic Hand Dyed Baby Clothes

These homemade gifts are high quality, healthy and more environmentally friendly than store-bought items.  They are kid friendly and can be wrapped up using unique packaging or recycled materials- think empty tin cans, candy boxes, painted egg crates, or even cloth bags made of old curtains.  For more packaging ideas click here or here.

Gift Idea #1: Organic Teas

These wonderfully flavored, organic herbal tea blends make a perfect gift for anyone. You can customize your blends and packaging to suit the occasion or recipient.  They are made using chlorine-free tea bags without string, staples or glued tags to keep your tea free of chemicals and to allow fuller flavor.  The best part about this gift is that the ingredients can be grow in your community or school garden.

YOU WILL NEED:
1.)  Organic loose leaf tea and organic dried herbs. Harvest these from your garden or purchase at: Rainbow Grocery, theteaspot.com.
2.)  Chlorine-free, compostable tea bags. Available at: Coffee Bean Direct Coffee Roasters.
3.)  Self- sealing cellophane baggies, ziplock sandwich baggies or reusable plastic containers (optional).  You can find a variety of printed or clear cellophane bags at craft and art supply stores.
4.)  Adhesive printable address labels. You'll find these at Staples or Office Max.
5.)  Decorative environmentally friendly packaging, such as fancy reusable gift boxes, jewelry boxes, recycled tin cans, cookie or tea tins, or cigar boxes.  For a huge selection of fancy reusable boxes visit Flax Art & Design.
6.) Standard measuring spoons.

TO PREPARE:

1.) Follow the tea recipes below and mix your loose leaf tea blends.

2.)  Use a baby spoon or teaspoon to  carefully fill each chlorine-free tea bag with about 1.5 heaping Tablespoons of tea mixture. Fold over the top flap, making a sharp crease to keep tea securely in the bag. Place full tea bags in self sealing cellophane bag, plastic sandwich baggie or reusable plastic contain to keep fresh (optional).

3.) Use printable mailing labels to label teas, ingredients and directions for each type of tea you make. You may also want to include a note about the health benefits or medicinal uses for each of the teas and herbs used, which I've linked on ingredients below. Most herbal teas should steep 3-5 minutes (add honey for additional flavor). Lastly, package and decorate your finished teas using recycled materials or fancy reusable gift boxes.

TEA RECIPES:
 Try these (crazyfortea.com, Squidoo tea, About Coffee/Tea) or some of our favorite recipes below:

Lavender Mint Tea:
4 Tbsp organic dried, crushed lavender flowers
4.5 Tbsp organic dried crushed peppermint leaves (or spearmint leaves for a tea with more bite)

Chamomile Mint Tea:
3/4 cup organic chamomile flowers
1/4 cup organic spearmint leaves

Ginger Peppermint Tea:
4 Tbsp organic peppermint leaves
1-2 Tbsp organic dried ginger root

 Catnip Chamomile Tea:
1/2 cup organic catnip
3/4 cup organic chamomile
1/4 cup organic lemongrass
1 cup organic lemon balm
                                                                1/4 cup organic peppermint leaves

Gift Idea #2: Organic Hand-Dyed Baby Clothes

Many parents want organic, chemical-free clothing for their newborns. This great gift idea is a fun project to do with kids (with supervision!) and creates gorgeous, earthy, one-of-a-kind baby t-shirts or baby onsies from natural dyes you'll make using organic fruits and vegetables from your garden. This is a simple 2 day process that will require overnight soaking. 

YOU WILL NEED:
1.) 2-3 large pots for boiled ingredients down & overnight soaking
2.)  2-3 plastic or wooden spoons for stirring dye (wooden spoons will stain)
3.) Cutting board and sharp knives (to chop ingredients before boiling)
4.) Potato masher (optional- to crush boiled ingredients while boiling)
5.) Strainer
6.) organic cotton baby onsies or t-shirts (any size you like)
7.) Plastic hangers to dry each onesie after dying
8.) 1 cup salt
9.) Fancy ribbon, paper to make clothing tags
10.) Safety pins, staples or needle and thread to attach your clothing tags
11.) 1-2 lbs of fruit or veggies for every 1-2 onsies you want to dye
 (Note: Beets, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, black beans, kale, and broccoli make the best dyes. Use beets, raspberries, and strawberries = reds. Blueberries and black beans = purplish blue grays. Kale and broccoli = greens and yellows.  Dyes vary from batch to batch depending on the type and quantity of fruit or vegetables used.) 

TO PREPARE:
 Follow these directions- click here.

Or, here's how I do it:

1) Place each organic cotton baby onesie or baby t-shirt in its own pot of boiling water with 1/2 cup salt.

2) Boil for about 30 minutes- this is to make the cotton color fast (so it holds
dye better).

3) While the onesies or t-shirts are boiling, wash off and chop up the organic fruits or veggies you'll be using. Keep separate from each other.

4) After 30 minutes, remove the baby clothes from salt water using a spoon and set in the sink to cool- they will be hot!! (Do NOT let children handle the hot clothes, water or dyes.)

 5) Dump out salt water, rinse pot, fill with several cups fresh water and each fruit or vegetable to be used (in separate pots), and return to a boil.


6) Boil down the fruits and veggies down for at least 30 minutes, until a thick, concentrated color is created, using your potato masher if necessary, to extract extra color from the fruit/veggies- don't worry, you'll strain out the pulp and pieces later.

 7) Wring out the baby clothes in the sink once they've cooled, and set them aside while you continue to boil down your produce.

 8) As the fruit/veggies boil down to create your dye, a lot of the liquid will evaporate. Make sure enough liquid remains so that it will completely cover your garment once you put it into the pot. (Step 10.) It's best to dye only one garment at a time to ensure the deepest, most even color.  Keep checking the amount of liquid and add more water and/or fruit/veggies if needed.

9) Once the dye has reached the desired color, carefully pour the dye and boiled-down veggies through your strainer and into a large clean bowl- you should do this several times if necessary until your dye is free of fruit and vegetable debris.

10) Place the strained dye back into the original pot, return it to the stove and place one baby t-shirt or onsie into the pot. Return to a boil for about 1 hr- making sure the liquid doesn't evaporate too much and stays above the level of the garment. Stir occasionally to ensure even color and to keep your garment completely submerged in the dye.  Add water and/or turn down the heat if your dye begins to evaporate too much.

11) After about an hour, turn off the stove, cover the pot and allow the garmet to soak in the dye over night- you may want to place a metal spoon or other object to weigh down the garment so it doesn't float to the top while it soaks.

12) Remove the garment from the dye the next day, wring it
 out in the sink (remember the dye will stain surfaces), pat it dry and then hang it on a plastic hanger and allow to air dry in the shower or bathtub. If when dry, your garment has a salty odor, you may wish to spray it with fabric refresher or toss it in the dryer with a dryer sheet for a few minutes.

13) The garment will have a beautiful handmade, slightly tie-dyed look to it. The dye will fade quite a bit when washed, so wash in cold water only, with like colors.

14) Use fancy ribbon and paper to make handmade garment tags, explaining your organic dyes and what you used (or grew yourself) to make the dye- safety pin, staple or sew on your tags


So there you have it- happy holiday gift making!

Organic French Chocolate Bark- a perfect holiday treat!

Check back in a few days for Part 2 of the homemade gift-making series!

 I'll share some of my best holiday treat recipes--
- French Chocolate Bark
- Gourmet Granola Bars
- The Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

(all organic, of course!) 


And in Part 3 of the series we'll cover even more homemade gifts- soaps, oils, herbs, and flavored nuts!

Urban Farming IS the Future

It's thrilling that San Francisco urban farming and school gardens are getting great press lately. Check out this article by The Huffington Post.  More importantly, parents, educators, scientists and politicians are getting behind this movement as it becomes evident that urban farming may be a necessity for future generations, not simply a hobby, according to the UN, CNN,  the Havana Journal, City Farmer News, and other sources.

In the coming decades our kids will have to contend with global warming, depleted natural resources and a population expected to reach 8 billion within the next 30 years.   In all likelihood, our future will depend on finding innovative solutions to energy and climate issues, as well as utilizing sustainable farming practices within urban areas to produce nutrient-rich food required to sustain us.  We'll need unpolluted outdoor spaces with clean water supplies and rich soil- and we'll need a generation of young people who understand how to produce sustainable, highly nutritious food.  Calling all Furture (urban) Farmers of America.
 
For information on becoming involved in a community or school garden in your neighborhood, here are some resources to get you started:

Garden For the Environment
Hayes Valley Farm
Urban Spouts
SF Green Schoolyard Alliance 
American Horticultural Therapy Association

Seaweed Salad, Anyone?

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about seaweed salad- one of my favorites!- and wondering how to replicate this dish at home, and what the possible health benefits of this curious salad might be.

I was excited to find this article  from SFgate.com about the different types of sea vegetables growing right here off our Northern California coast, in Mendocino, CA... and some tasty looking recipes that I can't wait to try! (You can even get products and info straight from the source at the Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company.)

As it turns out, not only are sea vegetables delicious- but they are full of vitamins and minerals, and some forms are extremely rich in calcium and other unique properties that studies have shown help protect against cancer and rid the body of radioactive toxins.

A great place to find a variety of dried sea vegetables here in San Francisco is at Rainbow Grocery (the best!) in SF.  Even if you aren't in the market for seaweed salad ingredients; Rainbow is a must if you've never been.  Organic, fresh, sustainable, ethical- need I say more?

Here's a partial list of sea vegetable cookbooks to really get you going, and another article about the local sea veggie industry in Mendocino.


So check into the exciting world of sea vegetables... and let's get to eating!

Fall Seed Planting Time!

Arugula, lettuce, kale- oh my! As we enter the fall season in San Francisco (and most parts of California), our Mediterranean climate allows us the benefit of year-round food growing.  So it's time to start seeds for our yummy winter harvests!

This will be a quick how-to on getting your seeds going.  It's so easy - anyone can do it.
You can turn these:

empty food containers

Into these:

lush little seedling containers!

   There's no excuse not to have a terrific salad this winter. Or how about a sumptuous, super nutritious winter kale & potato gratin to get your family through the winter?  You don't need a lot of fancy equipment or space.  A sunny window, some empty food cartons and a few containers outside (or space in the garden) will do. 

Starting seeds indoors is also a fantastic project for kids.  Little ones love the physical part of planting, doing and watching, while older kids enjoy the sense of responsibility and accomplishment of nurturing a seed into maturity and offering it up as real food for the family meal.  Most kids are eager to eat (or at least try) veggies they grew themselves.

First off, you can start with any number of used food containers or plastic water bottles.  Wash and rinse them well.  Then use a knife to cut the tops down and poke drainage holes in the bottom.  Drainage is key or your seeds can rot in the soil.  Same goes for the seedlings once they sprout.

Fill your containers with a few inches of good organic potting soil and follow directions from the seed packets for the type of seeds you are planting. 

7 day old Arugula sprouts! Can you spot them?

Once the seeds sprout, you'll be able to thin them accordingly. Don't worry about spacing them exactly right.  It's always better to plant more seeds than the number of plants you want, as invariably, not every seed will sprout and not every seedling will make it once transplanted outside.  But have confidence in your seeds!  If you will them to grow- they usually do.

use lids for run off or baggies to maintain moisture

Seeds will need moist soil and some warmth- a window sill works great.  Keep them protected from wind, cold and extreme heat so they don't dry out. 



 You can put a plastic baggie on top of your open seed containers- like a mini green house- to help maintain warmth and moisture.

 Don't be shy about what types of containers you use.  Rather than ending up in the landfill or the recycling bin just yet-  get creative and re-purpose empty food containers!  Plastic lettuce, strawberry and blueberry containers, yogurt & deli tubs-- all work fine for getting seeds started. 

 My arugula and lettuce seedlings don't seem to mind their humble beginnings in a Starbucks cup or a strawberry container.


Once the seedlings sprout and develop several sets of leaves you can gently transplant them outside to containers or directly into the garden.  You may want to harden them first, for best results.  This is a process whereby you take the seedlings out for a few hours a day over the course of a few days, to acclimate them to the colder outside air.  This increases their success once they start spending the night outdoors. 

This cute little carrot is enjoying his new home in a pot on my balcony overlooking SF.  It is always best to label and date your seedlings.  Although you can't see it in the picture, I've done this using the leftover plastic parts of my yogurt tubs. The inside of the yogurt tubs are white, perfect for writing on with a waterproof Sharpie, and they can be cut into the just the right shape for garden tags.

For carrots however, because they do not take well to transplanting and can be a bit harder to seed directly in the soil, I recommend pre-seeding.  My pre-seeding technique is to put the carrot seeds on a plate on a wet paper towel.  Fold the towel over and leave it wet for a few days until the carrots begin to sprout a root tip.

Label and date the paper towel.  You can sprinkle the seeds around, or space them out accordingly and plant them directly with the paper towel.  Be sure to keep it moist at all times and monitor it over the next few days.


 

 Within a few days, you should start to see a root tip appear, even through the paper towel.  There are probably different trains of thought as to when exactly to plant these outside, but I tend to leave mine for a week or two in the towel and then go straight outside with them.  As long as you keep keep the soil very moist (but not soggy!), these carrots should take.  Use care in pulling them off the paper towel, as you don't want to damage the tiny root or microscopic root hairs that will eventually become your carrot. 

Often it's best to just plant the carrot seedlings with their towel turf, and allow them to grow right up through it. This is also a good way to ensure they stay moist once they're in their new soil since they will be so close to the surface where they can dry out easily. 


Since carrots are a bit more stubborn to seed, it's always better to start with much more than you need and thin as you go, once they take.   You'll get progressively better with each round of carrot seeding and will figure out your preferred method for your growing conditions. 


As for seeds and varieties, what you use chose to plant will depend on your growing conditions, what you want to grow- and what you like to eat!  For the Bay Area climate at this time of year, in sun and part shade, some good things to try would be lettuce, arugula, carrots, kale, chard, and "cool season" vegetables.
 

I have great luck with organic Botanical Interests seeds.  I buy them at the SF Botanical Garden, but they're also available in nurseries.  I have also used other seeds, but I like that these are organic and I seem to have better success with them.  For the very EASIEST lettuce seeds, I have yet to encounter, I love the Botanical Interests Gourmet Baby Greens Lettuce Mesclun, Lactuca sativa.   My new Winter Kale sprouts are turning up beautifully too!

 As a rule of thumb, do the research if you want to plant seeds from existing fruits or vegetables- they usually have very specific temperature and moisture requirements in order to germinate.  Most store-bought produce is also not suited to growing from seed, so do yourself a favor and buy a packet of good seeds to avoid frustration. And remember, you can grow most things in containers, so don't let that deter you if you are limited on space and want to start seeding.

I'll be back with another post about transplanting and proper growing conditions for container gardening once our seedlings are ready for the big outdoors.  In the meantime, let me know what delicious items you'll be eating in a few months!

 

A Tasty Meal from from the Garden

This morning we prepared a delicious brunch using organic ingredients from the garden.

First, we harvested some heirloom lettuce mesclun (Lactuca sativa) from the balcony lettuce garden, that I had sown from seeds purchased at the SF Botanical Garden. 


These gourmet baby greens are beautiful and easy to grow.  And even easier to harvest!

We use a clean, sharp pair of scissors and cut larger leaves periodically, leaving enough baby leaves remaining so the plant keeps growing, thereby extending the harvest so we can enjoy our San Francisco-grown salads a bit longer.  

Home grown greens taste better!

These tender leaves are light, crisp and have a fresh, clean flavor with a bit of a bite to them.











Next we tossed them with an organic garden grown tomato, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and a few basil leaves from the herb garden.  And a scrumptious, nutritious salad was born!

We paired it with a wild caught Sockeye salmon fillet that we seasoned with organic garlic and herbs- thyme and two types of parsley, flat leaf and curly leaf (Petroselinum crispum, 'Aphrodite'), also from our container herb garden.

 
We finished off the meal with a perfectly sweet and tart blackberry crisp, from blackberries we harvested from the park earlier in the morning.  This is urban foraging at its best!

How can you resist these fantastically juicy and nutritious berries, often ignored and growing wild throughout SF and northern California?
 






You can create an unforgettable dessert to share with friends or family and get some important antioxidants and micro nutrients that help fight cancer.  According to Web MD, "Foods such as broccoli, berries, and garlic showed some of the strongest links to cancer prevention."  Check out the health benefits of blackberries while you savor... every... bite.

Make Time for Power Naps (at Work Too)

As the warm summer evenings finally arrive in San Francisco and we find ourselves enjoying some late nights, there's more reason than ever to make sure we get a daily nap, even at the office.   Studies have now proven the health, mood, stress reduction, weigh control, and productivity benefits of taking even short 20-30 minute naps during the day, particularly in the early afternoon or after lunch when you may feel sluggish.

Check out this 2 minute video on how and why to power nap. (Or if you prefer a Scottish narrator, try this one.)

And the great news is that more and more employers are recognizing this as a healthy norm in the office, according to Yahoo News.  Try saving the last 30 minutes of your lunch hour, dim the lights and find a quiet spot.  Or make a sleep mask and try napping in your parked car.  To help you fall asleep, you can even download some relaxing napsounds. And don't get discouraged if you can't fall asleep the first few times you try, eventually your body will welcome this down time and learn to nap. Just don't forget to set your phone alarm.  

For more how-to information try these tips wiki.how or ehow.com.

Happy napping!

Fun Upcycling Projects

Recently, a reader asked me to talk about "upcycling." For those of you that don't know, upcycling means taking your used or worn out items and turning them into something else that's useful, ideally of even better quality and higher environmental value (and hopefully cute, clever and practical). To me, upcycling is like re-purposing, which I talk about in a previous blog post Reduce & Reuse- Even More than Recycle, and it means finding ways to create a usable item out of something after its initial intended purpose has worn out- and before it hits the recycling bin- which we now know often ends up getting shipped to China- eek! (see earlier blog post)

You've already seen the practice of turning plastic water bottles into reusable shopping bags- here's a great, inexpensive one on reuseit.com - but I wanted to find some ideas closer to home and inspire you to try some fun upcycling projects on you own.

Check out these 6 upcycling projects from Sustainablog.org. Granted some of these might not be your idea of "fun" so you can always try a few of these (easier!) ideas from this list at Ecosalon.com.

And don't forget about the limitless ways of upcycling used clothing! Try Threadbanger.com for great ideas; I once used a pattern on their site to create a reversible dog carrying bag for my 10 lbs dog, Trixie, out of my grandmother's old polyester pants.

But my favorite example of upcycling used clothing is New Dress A Day, about a blogger who vows to upcycle one new outfit a day for 365 days for only $365- and she manages to look cute while doing it! Think of all the pollution, waste and money she saved that year by upcycling; nothing more was wasted on shipping from China, or chemicals from new leather, or inflated department store prices.

Here are even more ideas to get you upcycling. Be sure to share you ideas with me and leave comments about on the ones you've tried! Whether you're a tech nerd, a mommy, a grandmommy or just a pet's mommy- there is something you can upcycle.

• UPcycle Tee Shirts to Toddler size
• Upcyled Pet Projects
  
• 100 Upcycling Projects
• 20 Wood Pallet Upcyling Projects (I'd rate these amazing, but advanced)
• Easy Upcycled Coasters