Mini Season
May 14th, 2009 by Matt
The rewards of our urban farming endeavors are showing up now in miniature form. A couple of weeks ago, we found the first egg laid by our most modest hen Buffy. It was tiny. A few days later, she went teeny tiny – maybe half the size of the first.
These eggs are in good company, as some of our crops are starting to bear. Fava beans that Amy planted last winter as a cover crop are now prolific with one inch and smaller pods. We have literally thousands of them.
Our fig tree, planted maybe 3 years ago - and produced a handful of fruit last year - is now hitting on all cylinders. The figs look like little peas right now, and from what I can tell we have over 50 showing already.
Speaking of peas, we haven’t had blooms on ours yet which is a little peculiar? They are growing well and their tendrils wrapping around the wires of Amy’s climber structure make for a cool shot on the macro-lense setting.
Next on the agenda is finishing off tomato starts. Many of these are going in the Front Forty, which has really shaped up nicely. Stay tuned for a special update on that work soon.
Figs are one of my fav fruits, but I don’t think anyone grows them locally. What is their climate preference? Are they hard to grow?
MC,
My experience is limited to this one fig tree at our house and seeing them grow prolifically around Eugene. We have done nothing more special with this tree than plant it in a sunny location.
I thought I didn’t like figs until we started pulling fruit off this tree. Amy was the driving force for getting this one, and raising our own has totally changed my mind.