Gross, huh? Looks like our orange half experiment didn’t work out as planned. Over the weekend, we noticed mold popping up on top of the dirt in our oranges. By Monday evening it had spread to the tray and the sides of the citrus fruits. After swatting away a few fruit flies, we decided to call it: the orange experiment had failed. While the mold may not be a huge issue to the plant directly, it was causing me to sneeze and the flies were not welcome in our apartment. The two of us sadly tossed the oranges into the garbage (if only we had our compost bin ready!) this morning and bid them farewell.

BUT….

Check out those pea shoots! Our very first sprouts popped up overnight and made the loss of our citrus seedlings a little bit easier to swallow. Did you know that you can eat pea shoots and tendrils? The entire plant is edible; I was reminded of this while browsing through spring menus from years past at MK. Pea tendrils have been on quite a few of our dishes, and they are commonplace at many Asian restaurants as well.

I’ve learned that it is wise to plant lots of peas to garner a decent harvest and plan to pop some more into our leftover peat pots this evening along with a packet of cilantro I forgot about while doing the initial planting. I’d like to have both peas and pea tendrils, so a much larger planting is required. Peas grow quickly and you can cut the top off once they reach about eight inches; this pushes the plant to keep growing. Apparently, you can keep cutting off the top two to six inches every three weeks and what you snip is totally edible! Pea tendrils taste almost exactly like… well, peas. I remember my first bite of them last year. It was weird to taste a familiar vegetable with a completely different texture and look.

We have two other tiny sprouts pushing through the soil so far. They were too small to photograph but so far, minus the orange issue, our little guys are doing well! Looks like we’ll need to build our raised bed sooner than expected…

A little interview with Milwaukeean James Godsil, co-founder of Sweet Water Organics and former board member at Will Allen’s Growing Power, where his love affair with urban farming began. He is also my papa. Additionally, he is a great fan of Youtube. And those little babies above are last season’s raspberries.

Why should one start composting at home?

Composting is easy, fun, and leads to many forms of wealth!

What simple tools and materials do you need to start with?

If you are discreet you can simply start your compost pile in a shady corner near a fence or garage/house wall. Start by putting down 3 or 4 layers of cardboard. On top of that put leaves, grass, or wood chips. Save your own leaves and your neighbor’s leaves too! Most cities have places you can go to get wood chips or composting leaves. Call landscape or tree trimming companies and ask them to dump some of their “carbon” ingredients at your house or some place you can get access to, e.g. the lot or backyard of someone who would not mind. Once you get the equivalent of about 3 trash cans worth of carbon ingredients like wood chips, dried leaves, grass, etc. you can start adding “nitrogen” elements from your kitchen, e.g. fruit and vegetable wastes (but not meat, not dairy!). If it gets too hot out, water your compost pile. If it doesn’t rain for a long time, water it anyway.

How does the breakdown in plant/natural matter occur and how long does it take to get to usable compost?

A small compost pile will probably not generate that much heat and could take as long as a year to be ready. If your pile becomes about 6 ft. high and wide and long, it will probably be large enough to generate enough heat to be ready in 8 months. It will be ready faster if you use your pitch fork and “turn it over” every week or two.

Julia Swanson, one of the more experienced organic growers I know, says that compost is like a chili or cake recipe. Everyone has their favorite approach and often swear by it. But if you google “composting youtube” you will learn of many approaches, most of which are probably pretty good.

Is it practical to use worms in home composting? Is this widely practiced? Why should I go out and get some worms?

Worms are great friends of a composter. They aerate the materials and when compost passes through a worm’s gut, there are three glands that secrete calcium carbonate which, when mixed with the compost, affords twice the amount of beneficial bacteria, nitrogen, calcium, and phosophorous. I also highly encourage your readers to google “worms youtube” and watch the great shows!

See more of papa’s urban farm here and here.

For a detailed guide to easy composting, read this archived article from Mother Earth News.

The last time we visited God’s Hill City Farm, it was the last warm day of fall and the plants in the backyard were resplendent in their glory and ready to harvest. Would you believe that they are still picking fresh greens every day, now, in the first week of severe winter weather?

With a new hot house and lots of TLC, God’s Hill City Farm will be able to keep up their growing throughout the season. If you have questions or want to learn more about urban farming, email godsil.james@gmail.com.

Community Composting in Riverwest

Sura Faraj posted this on Facebook this morning. How cool! Located in Riverwest, Milwaukee (my hometown and home neighborhood) on Booth St. between Burleigh and Chambers in the front yard. Would love to do a project like this in my neighorhood.