Sunset's One Block Party contest with Team Found Fruit. Experiment 1. Escargot

You may have read about Team Found Fruit getting into Sunset Magazine’s One Block Party Contest. Over the summer we will be growing over 25 different veggies and fruit, and will be taking on food projects like eggs, honey, cheese making, etc. to create a 100% locally grown feast which will happen in early September. The winners get a spread in Sunset magazine and $500 bucks. We are competing with 9 other teams from various parts of California, Washington, and a team from Colorado.Meet the Teams / Meet the Teams part 2.

We are all very excited and have divied up the grow and projects among Found Fruit's 8 team members. To get into this contest we figured we had to pull out all the stops, so we picked some pretty far out food projects, one of which is foraging for garden snails…welcome Team escargot. Needless to say this was not on my top 10 list of delicious foods for our menu…But, since we made it into the contest and have the inevitable end which is our feast, my partner Jamie and I decided to do a preliminary experiment.

First let me say that our garden snails are a culinary delicacy imported from France over 100 years ago. These mollusks are about “15% protein, 3% fat, and the rest water” says Michael Ellis of Bay Nature. They are hermaphodic with no natural predators, which is why they grow in your garden as abundantly as your plants. If, the plants survive that is, with the snails hearty appetites.

First we caught a bunch from the garden and put them in a pot covered with cheesecloth.

Snails must be purged with cornmeal for a week or more to clean out their systems in case they have consumed any poison. Some people even feed them herbs like thyme to pre-flavor, if you will…

Our dog Mini Wolf was perplexed.

1 week later we boiled them changing the water 3 times until is was clear. They were then chopped and sauteed with butter, garlic, and parsley. I expected them to be chewy but they were quite tender and well, they tasted like butter, garlic, and parsley. Not bad!

We may call on Found Fruit members to forage us up a bunch for the feast in September, but all in all I think Team Escargot will fare ok. If you are tired of those pesky snails in your garden and want to eat local food then you may want to consider cashing in on this easy to find delicacy! Bon appetite~

The Edible Landscape

Who needs a front yard? Grass requires so much water and really, can't that space be put to a better use? Second year goals for the Elephant House included sheetmulching the front yard and planting drought tolerant and edible landscape. Here's the before picture:

It started off with the herb spiral. It was made with recycled top soil, cardboard and found rocks.

First we piled the top soil about 2 feet high on top of the cardboard then weeded it. Next, we formed the spiral by pushing in the rocks and mounding the soil.

Planted it up with edible and medicinal herbs and wallah!

Next we moved on to creating 2 sheetmulched beds for edible and drought tolerant plants. We removed old borders, laid compost over the area, and then sheetmulched with burlap around some of the larger plants we had already planted.

More compost and soil was added on top of the burlap along with a layer of mulch. We planted quince, lavender, strawberries, thyme, chives, sage, and lots of edible flowers like yarrow and calendula.

Here's the second bed with an artichoke as the centerpiece, with more lavendar, sage, and several annuals.

We dug in found pavers and planted chamomile in between them to make a path from the walkway and around the herb spiral. Here's the after picture:

Notice the bamboo teepees on each side, these are our pea and bean towers. Next to these we started mounds for melons and squash. There are blueberry bushes planted along with huckleberry off to the right, and blackberry vines along the fence to the left. These will go well with the already established pear, nectarine, and orange tree. All in all there are now almost 30 new edibles growing in a space that before was all bermuda grass and weeds. The hummingbirds and bees will love it too!

Havenscourt Homestead

Unbeknownst to me I have a fellow urban homesteading neighbor. I knew there had to be more of us in the neighborhood. Well, Kitty Sharkey at Havenscourt Homestead is the real deal. From the street you see beautiful edible and drought tolerant landscaping on a sheet mulched front yard. There’s a sign that says fresh eggs in the driveway and a swing overlooking all the flowers. Hardly a clue as to what’s in back… As you come around the house in the narrow side yard there’s a young orchard of 10 or so fruit trees planted about 36” apart to one day be a fruit hedge. On the other is a large raised bed veggie garden and other smaller containers for vegetables and fruit growing. Kitty will love to take you on the tour and talk your ear off about sustainability and her family of feathered, furry, and cloven hoofed friends. She’ll give you the low down on Oakland municipal code and tell you how she put together this farm in just three years.

In the backyard barnyard the tour started off at the clawfoot tub filled with a brackish water with 3 ducks hanging out at it’s rim, quacking a hello. The homestead has a pair of Nigerian Dwarf goats that recently born a couple of kids that were hopping around. These goats are curious and friendly and especially liked eating my keys and shirt. “They like shiny things” Kitty explained. All of her animals also function as therapy animals, and are trained to be taken to hospitals, homes, and to be good with children. There’s quite a number of bunnies at the farm and Kitty will be quick to pop one into your arms. Don’t forget about the dozen or more chickens and bantams clucking around. “Do you eat them too?” I asked. “Yes all of them” Kitty answered “I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

It is astounding to see how this home on a 4000 sq foot lot has been transformed to be an efficiently running farm. It is also self governed. Everyone free ranges. “I don’t need to lock up the coops or goats at night…the raccoons would have to get through the goats to get to the chickens so there’s no problems” Only the bunnies cages remain caged, and even they get their chance to free range. On top of the converted garage are the langstroth hives which happened to have two nearby swarms when we were there. “Now what about the neighbors?” I asked. “Everybody loves me” Kitty says. She explains that on one side lives a retired teacher and on the other is a family with children and cousins many of whom have participated in life on the farm. It’s a lean, green, clean, operation running in the middle of an East Oakland neighborhood. Kitty produces 75% of her meat needs and much of her fruits and veggies. She took Bay Friendly classes and took advantage of programs like EBMUD's cash for ripping up your lawn , from websites like Alameda County’s Stopwaste.org. I highly recommend checking our her website and videos at http://www.havenscourthomestead.com/