Inner City Farmer

There are many excellent reasons to start a garden in the city. Price is one. If you’ve got any sort of green thumb, you can eat like a king while greatly reducing your visits to the grocery store. Another is reconnecting with nature. A garden forces you to be outside, and only good things can come of that. But perhaps the greatest reason is the one that gets talked about the least: security.

It seems every other week there’s a huge recall of beef because of E. coli or salmonella. Eating store-bought meat these days is like playing Russian roulette. At least we can be sure the vegetables we buy are safe, right? Well, think again. Last year, Metz Fresh, a grower based in King City, California, issued a recall of 8,000 cartons of spinach after salmonella was detected in a routine inspection. Now Texans are being warned not to eat two of the most popular kinds of tomatoes (Roma and the ambiguously named “full-sized”) raw because of an outbreak of salmonella in nine states.

Suddenly, the tiny sun-scalded tomatoes I’m finding in my garden don’t seem so bad. My “Green Zebra” variety is doing especially well. Not only do they look cool, they taste great as well… and, most importantly, they’re safe. And what’s more important than that?

Self-Sufficiency Meter: 28%

Yesterday, my neighbor Craig, the Home Brewer, was talking to Ernest, the old man with the very prolific garden, and during their tete-a-tete they hit upon the same observation: their tomatoes weren’t doing so well. Sadly, mine aren’t either. Hoping to solve this mystery, Craig start doing some research and discovered a very discouraging fact—tomatoes stop producing flowers after the temperature gets above 95 degrees. Well, guess what? It’s been above that mark just about every day for the last two weeks, and 100-degree temperatures are projected for later this week. Only in Texas.

The lack of tomatoes combined with the near obliteration of my zucchini crop (thanks to what appears to be fungal rot) is a real blow to my quest for full self-sufficiency. I’m going to knock two whole percentage points off the…

Self-Sufficiency Meter: 27%

I’ve harvested four big red fatties so far, from two different plants. Only one of the eight tomato plants I put in the ground in March failed to flower. The others are looking good and healthy. If production keeps up, it’s going to be a bountiful summer. Mmmmm, salsa. Mmmmm, fresh marinara. Mmmmm, tomato sandwiches (Recipe: toast, fat tomato slices, a liberal spread of Vegenaise, a dash of Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt, and some fresh basil leaves.) What more do we need? Perhaps a couple eggs (check), maybe a few cucumbers (on their way), some peppers (picked one yesterday), and an eggplant or two (not looking great, but not dead either). All from my backyard.