NEW PROJECT ALERT: Farming in the city limits. Victory Gardens can happen in any place where there is sunlight and water access. This year, San Joaquin Victory Gardens will start about 50 lavender plants in the front yard of a family who isn't using that space. We will manage the plants for flower production, and plantoo plant soon. Each orange flag will be a plant. Irrigation with drip tape. The single bush in the third picture is the mother plant that I made clones from back in March. The variety is 'Phenomenal' lavender, which can stand up to the heat and blooms all summer. #growster #sanjoaquinvictorygardens #horticulture #permaculture #urbanfarming@

The picture about shows many hundreds of bulblets of the walking onion/tree onion harvested from the #homestead #garden this year. Every year I have this problem of abundance, lol, and my wife shakes her head when I try to plant more of these onions for the next gardening season. My solution this year is to give out many bulblets to my biology/environmental science students and make this year's teaching theme more about the intricacies of food security. Though the onion tops are now dead from lack of water, the bulbs stay alive in the ground until the next season....because onions. I love this plant. They grow fast, and are largely pest free (...damn gophers). They can substitute 1:1 for any other onion, but their taste is a bit spicy. The best way that I have found to eat a mass of these onions is by grilling them or laying them in a oven pan to bake with olive oil and salt. The picture below shows the difference in size between the 2nd and 3rd bulblet set that a plant can throw off. Even though the bulblets are small, they quickly grow into full size plants.

Tree onion - Wikipedia

When I harvested this honey in spring I knew that I had to make a batch of #mead with it. I wanted to keep the flavors of this honey at the top of the mead, so it is a basic show mead recipe (water and honey) with small variations of open air fermentation (wild, random yeast) and some black tea to add nice tannins to the finish. The basic ratio is 1 quart of #honey + 1 gallon of water. I always ferment completely, so I avoid broken, sticky glassware in my storage area. I end up with alcohol content in the range of strong wine. I'm still stirring a lot to wake up the yeasts. I'll later post a follow up picture when the primary fermentation foam head on this bucket is thick and fluffy. I think that many people are unaware of how easy it is to make mead. The hard part is waiting at least a year (preferably three years) for the sugars to properly oxidize and the real flavor come out. #homesteading #homebrew #brewstr #bees

I realized my misstep in opsec, so I had to create a new nsec. Follow me now at @San Joaquin Victory Gardens I will do my best to reestablish my previous follows. Cheers!

Go outside and continue the conversation that you have with your neighbor. Especially if that conversation is intermittent then good terms with neighbors is preferable because they are part of your #victorygarden . A trade here and a trade there makes all happy. It's been orange (BTC) season in California and concurrent with lots of citrus harvesting. A bag of oranges or lemons can be traded with the neighbor who started a flock of Covid chickens. Another bag goes to another neighbor because they'll eat it and be happy. We all win because, honestly, sometimes there are too many lemons and oranges. Circle that economy, yo. Build relationships to create your own luck beyond serendipity. Harvest the tree before it begins the next fruiting cycle. Be timely. #permaculture #permies #homestead #realfood #strongtowns