A quick update after Sunday afternoon chores are done.  Spinach-parmesan puffs (above) are cooling, a pot of 3-bean soup is simmering on the stove…looking forward to bringing them to our Sunday night homegroup in a bit, where we share a meal and fellowship with friends, and dig in to our new book together.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. – Acts 2:46

The kits are finished!!

Many, many thanks to the nine ladies and three girls who helped sew, and the ladies who purchased fabric and undies for this project!

Together, we have blessed and changed the lives of eleven young ladies in Ethiopia in a simple, but substantial way.  Thank you!

I’ve been given permission to put up a section of a recent post from Andrea’s blog, Babe of My Heart:

Every month, I have to deal with what most girls deal with…a monthly cycle. Sorry if that’s too personal to say–but it should come as no surprise to you. I take for granted that every month I stock up on the things I need…and I can get them in any size, weight and style I would like. And not only that–I complain about my cramps. I complain that I am a bit inconvenienced and I remind my husband that he is lucky to be a boy and he doesn’t have to endure such hardship each month.

SO…let me ask you this—what do you think the women and young girls of Korah do during this time? What will it be like for the hundreds of girls who are (praise GOD!) being sponsored to leave Korah this Fall and go to a boarding school? What will they do as they try to sit in class during this time? What do the woman and girls we support in Zambia do?

EVER THOUGHT ABOUT THIS?

Well, let me tell you what they do. They squat. They wait for their week to end. On their heavy days, some roll up newspapers and make their own tampons. Many get infections. The infections make their parents and husbands think they have STDs and they endure being left or abused. Some use a single piece of old clothing–and when it’s soiled–they rinse it and use it again…although it’s still wet—it’s some what clean.

Did you know that in Africa the dropout rate for for young girls in school is 40% when they have no sanitary supplies? BUT when they are provided them–it rises to just 8%?

What can we do about it?

Andrea, and also  Sarah at Titus Home, have put out a call, and given us a practical way to help these girls – they are encouraging ladies around the country to have sewing parties and make washable feminine products to be sent to these girls and young women in Ethiopia and Zambia.

So, if you’d like to take up the challenge, and spend a few hours in service to these young women (and make a concrete difference in their lives!), I’d like to invite you to join me

on September 25 · 9:00am – 12:00pm

at Central Bible Church

8815 NE Glisan St

WHAT TO BRING: your sewing machines, sergers, cutting mats, scissors, rotary cutters, thread, old towels or flannel sheets (for batting). Any spare velcro, snap closures you might have.

WHAT IS PROVIDED: patterns, ALL FABRIC, a few extra sewing machines and sergers. Coffee, snacks and CHILDCARE.

Last night, I made a sample kit today using the pattern supplied by The Red Tent Project.  The kit consists of 5-6 envelopes, each with snap closures, and half with leakproof PUL, for heavy days (see above).  It also includes 4 thick, “maxi” pads (see below), which unfold for easier drying on the line,  and 8 regular pads (see 2nd picture in this post),  which can be doubled up if needed.

If you are interested in making kits, but are unable to attend on the 25th, please e-mail me at angela.baker.knits@gmail.com, and I will send you the pattern and instruction details, as well as shipping addresses.  Or, if you prefer, select a pattern you like from the internet.  They are requesting that you use bright or dark print fabric, and prefer foldable inserts, since thicker pads and AIO designs do not dry well on the line.

To round out the kits, we are sewing a drawstring bag for all of the pieces, and attempting to collect 2-3 pair of new undies to include, as well.  If you might like to contribute to the project by donating funds for new undies, please contact me at the above e-mail address.  Thanks!

A few things from this morning’s harvest.  Carrots, beets, 3 types of kale, lots and lots of chard, and buckets full of sugar snap and snow peas.

So grateful for the constant stream of Teaching Garden volunteers today.  Folks were working hard from 9:30 am straight through to 4:30pm.    We’re feeling very, very blessed.   A big thank you to all of the helping hands!

It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!  Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,  summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing. 

The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.  We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard -

A few shots of the front yard, here.  Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!  Taken late-February 2010.)

Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.  In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.  They’ll grow big, too!  Be patient!)  I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the house  -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.  I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)  The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,  is currently overrun with weeds.  I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.  We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop on  Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.  We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.  We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.   Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.  Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, at  tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.

The other night we tried out a new pizza recipe from Good Eat’s guru, Alton Brown.

I really liked that the dough is made the night before and allowed to set-up in the fridge – this way, when I’m in a hurry to make dinner the next night, I can quickly take out the dough, stick the pizza stone in the oven, and quickly whip up some homemade pizza.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how the pizzas turned out (one recipe makes two medium pizzas) -

2 chief issues – my husband didn’t love the texture of the dough, and Alton called for flour on the pizza peel – I went against my instinct and trusted him on this.  Big mistake.   Using flour made the dough stick to the peel horribly, and, as you can see from the wonky shape of the pizzas, it was a real pain to slide the pizza off onto the 500F stone without destroying the pizza and losing all the toppings.  Always ALWAYS use cornmeal on the pizza peel, and you won’t have dough stick to it.

The kids had simply mozarella, parmesan and ham on their pizza, and we added red peppers on ours.  I’m looking forward to having enough basil from the garden soon to add that, and in retrospect, I should have added some kale as well, which crisps up nicely on a pizza.  But, I used what I had on hand and was in a hurry.

We are hoping to build an outdoor wood-fired bread and pizza oven this summer (not sure yet if it’ll be cob or brick), so that we can continue to bake in the heat (if it ever arrives), and would like to start our own version of Barbara Kingsolver’s tradition of homemade pizza on Fridays – using whatever fresh ingredients the garden or market provide.

Eventually, we hope that the bread/pizza oven would be a place to foster community in Parkrose – folks in our neighborhood could gather and bake bread once a week (just like an article I read in Sunset magazine about the Cully neighborhood’s bread oven).  I’d let people know that I’m going to fire up the oven every Friday at a certain time, and anyone who wants to bake can come with their dough and we can have tea and chit-chat while it bakes.

In the meantime, we’re still in search of the perfect pizza dough recipe – if you have a favorite, please share it with me!  Thanks!

Anyway,  best get out to the yard for a bit while the sun shines!

Happenings in the garden this week so far:  Mustard greens, lettuce and kale are all getting big!  (Red Russian Kale in the foreground, with Mizuna mustard behind.)

A volunteer and I got 20 tomatoes planted this afternoon – half in front, half in the back.  (I have room for another dozen or so, but am out of cages and will have to jury-rig some bamboo supports – the cages were donated, and I’m trying do as much free and homemade as possible.)

I got 7 De Milpa tomatillos (they have beautiful purple fruit) in the ground, and am trying to find room for three more in some sunny corner.  While I planted them, I kept thinking about roasting tomatillos and making purple salsa verde with chips, or chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce  – can’t wait!

Most of the front yard beds can be seen here (I still don’t have good pictures of all of the backyard, since it’s a mess) – beets and chard and peas are really coming along.  We are harvesting lettuce every day (despite the continuing slug issues).   Pole beans and pumpkins are just beginning to peek up through the soil, and the wildflowers are germinating as well.

Baby parsnips in the backyard are putting out true leaves.  Only 90 more days or so, and they’ll be ready to eat!

The summer squash in the backyard cold frame is coming along beautifully – looks like we’ll have lot of starts to give away to any volunteers that want them!

On the right is a new veggie I’ve never tried before (thank you, Patty!) – variegated garden cress.  Can’t wait to get it established and try some in a salad!

The first of three potato beds out back are really going gang-busters.  I have to mulch them almost every day (cutting tall grass from the yard and quickly using up our last bale of straw).  The second bed planted will soon catch up – the leaves are 6 inches high.  And the third bed potatoes are just barely peeking leaves up through the straw.   Looks like we’ll need to run to the feedstore for another couple of bales soon!

Not pictured – 3 types of mint planted in pots buried around the garden

-bronze fennel starts and lots of chives transplanted around the garden; cilantro and lemon balm starts planted out as well

- bulb fennel, Waltham butternut and Golden Hubbard squash germinating

-  Scarlet Runner and Kentucky Wonder pole and  4 types of bush beans planted in the back, along with Christmas limas on the side yard.

-3 dozen Fordhook Giant leeks were transplanted out  in the front and side yard and another 30-odd Walla Walla Sweet onions in the side and back (wish I had room for more!)

- And many, many flower starts inter-planted amongst the tomatoes.

And -just as importantly- many, many people have stopped by and talked to me this week about our gardening project – I’ve met a half dozen new neighbors, and am connecting more with many others – the garden is building community, not only amongst volunteers, but also in our neighborhood, and that’s really encouraging to me.

As my next-door neighbor said, “It’s starting to actually look like a garden!”

Slowly, slowly, things are taking shape in the garden.  Last Saturday, 9 volunteers came to help pot up summer squash, plant potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and continue dig up bamboo for the future raspberry bed.   And earlier, I was able to get 25 donated asparagus crowns planted.

Baby leeks, onions, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme are all happily growing in their pots, and I put in rosemary, lavender and tarragon plants in the front yard.   I still have to figure out where to put some mint (in pots!) and add several more herbs, but it’s a good start.

More and more the yard is looking less like a disaster zone and more like a garden.   The front yard (stage one) is complete, and over the coming year, we will move on to stage two, adding grape arbors, perennial fruit bushes/vines/trees and herbs and perennial flowers.

Two large swaths of the backyard have become (for the time being) annual veggie beds, with the section sloping downhill designed with swales the catch and conserve water.  Much of the back still requires major work, however,  including finishing the chicken coop (running grapes up the side), building a shed (with trellised plants – hops and roses, most likely), finishing the small “lawn”, building a bread oven, removing the remaining bamboo to plant berry canes, and planting more fruit trees (persimmon, fig, apricot, plum), blueberry and currant bushes and maybe even some cranberries.

One side yard is 90% complete, but the other is barely begun (where the shady natives garden will grow thimbleberries, huckleberries, Oregon grape, etc).  But there has been so much progress, and we are going to be able to produce an amazing amount of food for BCS this year, I am sure.

I’ve given away twenty or so, but the remaining 50-plus tomato-lets and little tomatillos are outgrowing their pots, anxious for the frost-free weather, so they can go in the ground, and out of my living room at night.

The tulips are fading, but the peas are slowly reaching up and grabbing their supports (and the Tall Telephone peas in the backyard are twice as tall as these Oregon Sugar Pod II’s).

A third load of mulch, and 20-odd tomato cages were delivered (we still need 15 or so more).

Baby poppies are taking hold between the lettuces and mustard greens.

And most exciting to the children – the first signs that there will be fruit this summer (Quinalt strawberries in flower, as are the other varieties and our early blueberries, and our red currant has set fruit already.)

What plans/hopes/dreams do you have for your garden this year?  If you’re in Portland, we’re always willing to help out with garden work,  just let us know (many hands make light work)!

We’re working on a converting our front lawn into veggie beds, and the unseasonably warm and dry weather has helped us get a jump start on sheet mulching.  Goodbye lawn, hello permaculture landscape!  While Tum Tum and I spread cardboard, straw, manure and compost, Little Hen and her Daddy were busy building cold frames out of scrap wood and old windows from the ReStore. (Firecracker was either resting inside, or resting curled up in a nest of blankets on the driveway, since she not only had strep throat, but then a head-to-toe reaction to the amoxicillin meant to cure the strep.  Poor kid. )

(Collage posters Little Hen made calling for Garden Volunteers – I wrote the words, but she went to town with the scissors, a stack of old issues of Mother Earth News and a glue stick.)

Last year we worked at Penelope’s Garden, but this year, we’ll be hosting a community-building garden of our own.   It will be years before our seedling fruit trees and berry bushes obscure many sunny patches of our yard, so we thought we’d make good use of it all and put in veggie beds to grow fresh, organic produce for families of limited means.  This weekend, a team of volunteers will help us finish installing the front yard beds and create many more in the backyard, so that the organic veggies grown here and cared for by volunteers can be delivered to the families at Birch Community Services, a local non-profit serving needy families in Portland.

We saved a little time for planting poppies and sweet pea seeds, rhubarb and asparagus crowns.  We also started tomato, artichoke, and cardoon seeds in pots in the basement.   The dry evenings allowed me to plant blueberry bushes, dozens and dozens of strawberry plants, and a red currant after dinners last week.

As Little Hen’s sign (which she hung on the front door) says -”Gardening – You want to sign up?”  If you’re interested in volunteering to grow food for needy families in the Portland area, and teaching those families to grow their own nutritious, organic produce, please e-mail me at

angela(dot)baker(dot)knits(at)gmail(dot)com

I’m working on setting up a little blog dedicated to the garden this year.  More on that soon.   If you have any ideas on a name  for the Birch Community Services’  educational and food producing organic garden hosted at the Baker’s house, I’d LOVE to hear them (short, sweet and whimsical is best).

Happy gardening!  The rains and cold weather are on the way, so I’m sure I’ll be posting more from indoors later this week!