Summer Solstice 2014

The Longest Day of the Year! The olde English called it "Midsommer" and Shakespeare wrote a fanciful play about it--and with good reason: It's an almost magical time of year. . .

 Welcome to 7thStreetFarms, an on-going adventure in Urban Farming!!!

The picture above represents this year's garlic harvest. While the image might indeed appear to be very fall-like, nothing could be further from the truth. Northern California garlic is planted in the fall--say, October--and harvested in the late spring and early summer.

We planted two varieties last October: Chinese Pink, and Late Italian, and in spite of our cold and dry winter, we managed to get a fair harvest. Our Chinese Pink came up in late April, and the Italians, which were pulled in very late May, are still not quite dry enough to store.

We now have more than enough high quality Garlic to power our habitually spicy cuisine well into next summer.

Above: Back in April, our freshly harvested Chinese Pinks began to dry in preparation for storage.

TOMATOES

Our obligatory annual tomato crop is now well under way, blooming and setting fruit. This year, besides the usual Burpee Health Kickers, we've invested in an unusual number of Big Mama Romas. The drought being what it is, we wanted to have proven heavy producers in our garden. See last years Tomato Recap for details about Big Mamas.

SCARLET RUNNER BEANS

Another winner from last year, we're attempting this year to triple our production of these tasty and versatile beans. We're again using reclaimed wooden box springs to trellis them along a boundary fence--a real space saver. Last year's crop left us with more than enough seeds to get started again. Check out our article on Scarlet Runner Beans here.

CALOCHORTUS

This year's drought had minimal impact on our Calochortus collection. Every year I fall ever more in love with the Diablo Globe Lily, but each species of this diverse genus has its own attractive qualities.

All our Calochortus have now gone dormant and are enjoying their long dry summer sleep. This year we hope to ship our bulb orders between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will update the catalogue page just prior to the holidays. In the meantime, check out our 2014 Calochortus Image Gallery for exceptional examples of our flowers.