MSSF Table at Summer Gardening Fair

Lisa, David, and Norm (left to right behind the table) of Mycological Society

I left the farm today to spend some time with MSSF (Mycological Society of San Francisco) at Summer Gardening Fair next to San Francisco Botanical Garden. I have been a member of MSSF for the last 5 years.  It all started with a visit to its annual Fungus Fair 5 years ago.  Over the years, I have volunteered in a few events to talk to the public about the society and mushrooms.

Unlike the fungus fair, which is held in December during mushroom season, we didn't have a display of fresh wild mushrooms today.  We used several colorful posters and some dried mushrooms.  What made up for lack mushrooms was Lisa's Kombucha tea tasting.  I tried Kombucha tea for the very first time earlier this year from Lisa's brew.  I thought it was good, so I bought a bottle of commercial Kombucha tea from a store, and it was horrible!    I learned that not all Kombucha tea is created equally.

I have tried a few other people's home brew, but Lisa's Kombucha remains number one on my list. It's not likely I'll be making my own Kombucha tea anytime soon but I will definitely buy from Lisa when she launches her Kombucha line. Look at the flavors she has - Gingery Aid, Strawberry Bliss, Key Lime Pie, and Orange Julius. She had a few other developmental flavors for us to try, and they were amazingly good.

Lisa gave us a few bottles (full soda size bottles!) of sample when the fair ended at 3 PM.  I got one Ginger Aid and one Orange Julius. Instead of drinking coffee,  I am going to be sipping on Lisa's Kombucha tea all day tomorrow in Master Ken's class.  Can't wait! 

Master Ken (center w/beard) gives Lisa some feedback on Kombucha flavors while Lisa's husband, Joe, explains to people about Kombucha.

Second Generation Potatoes

Wine barrel potatoes fertilized with Dusty's litter box contents

Back during last week of December 2009 I planted my first batch of potatoes. Although they have been quite low maintenance, I have wondered whether it was cost effective to grow a vegetable that is so cheap to buy. After I started harvesting the potatoes, I have replanted some tiny potatoes to regenerate them. Now the second generation is growing in one of my wine barrel planters.

Tiny potatoes on the left were planted in the wine barrel

I very much enjoy digging for new potatoes. Apparently, I really enjoy digging into dirt for "treasures" (see Wild Mushrooms Photo Album). Additionally, I recently found out that commercially grown non-organic potatoes consistently contain pesticide residues. It is one of the top 12 worst offenders. The full list is on Environmental Working Group (EWG) website. Now I am quite happy with the constant supply of new potatoes right on the farm.

More second generation potatoes are sprouting in the raised bed

The Future of Food

I don't watch TV.  It didn't start out as a conscious decision.  I grew up watching TV, and my family embraced commercial free cable TV back in the early 80's.   Over the years, the price of watching cable TV increased insanely so I just decided not to pay for TV anymore. I have been using that time doing many other activities including this blog and the farm.

Tonight I decided to take a break from reading.  I thought I would watch something on Hulu.com.  I browsed through pages and pages of TV shows and nothing really piqued my interest.  Somehow I stopped at The Future of Food, a full length documentary.  I had no idea what the movie was about other than it's about food, and you know I love food.

I had people questioning me why I grow my own food when the supermarkets have everything, and it's so convenient to just buy whatever I need.  Some people even ask me why I make everything from scratch.   There are many reasons, and I normally give one or two short and more obvious reasons since it would take a while for me to talk about all the reasons I am doing this.   The Future of Food shows you why people like me are involved in and promoting urban farming.  When you start growing your own food, you become much less wasteful.  If more Americans are willing to spend a couple hours every other day growing a few vegetables either in their yards or patios, they will not need to go to the gym.  People will be healthier in general, and it's better for the environment. The benefits are countless.

Do you know that most of American farmers can't even save their own seeds? They are losing their family farms to big corporations.  It's heart breaking to hear how they are being screwed over and lose all their savings and respect. You can watch The Future of Food without commercial on its website.   Here's a 2-minute trailer:

Late Summer, Late Tomatoes

Early Girls, Husky Cherry (the tiniest tomato), Yellow Grapes, and Green Beans

I planted 5 varieties of tomatoes on March 29, 2010.  They were Early Girl, Roma, Yellow Grape, Yellow Cherry, and Red Husky Cherry.   It's now August, and the Early Girls are just started to turn red. They are quite sweet, but did they take forever to grow!   Last year at this time, I had a huge yellow cherry tomato bush covered with orange little tomatoes.  They were so ripe that they turned orange!  I had so many little orange tomatoes, I was giving them away.

Early Girl

This year, I am just now started picking Early Girl tomatoes on a daily basis, but the plants are already drying up.  I have picked 2-4 Yellow Grape, Yellow Cherry, and Red Husky.   I have yet to pick any Roma tomatoes.  Last year I was able to make some tomato sauce with home grown tomatoes.  I hope that I'll have enough tomatoes to make it again.

Red Husky Cherry

Dusty Behavior

Similar to a parent who loves talking about his/her child, I love talking about cute things Dusty does. Unless you own an indoor bunny, you are probably not familiar with their behaviors. And even if you have owned a bunny, one bunny can be very different from another. Dusty certainly behaves differently from the other bunnies I had.


I noticed that one of the things he likes to do in the early morning is to sit on top of his box. So far I have only spotted him on the box in the morning but not in the afternoon or evening. He usually hops off when he hears me. He also likes to chew, push, and dig his rugs. I keep 2 pieces of rugs in his room so he can have his ways with them. Of course, he likes to scratch behind his ears and chew on his feet just like a cat or dog would.

Dusty is so fuzzy that most photos of him seem to be out of focus! He might not show much expression on that hairy face, but something is going on in his little fuzzy head. He certainly knows to run up to me when I extend my arm out with a treat between my fingers. He even takes treats from my fingers without ever biting my hand by accident. Similar to a dog, he normally tries to pull the treat off my hand and hops over to a different location to enjoy his treat in private.