Suburban Farmshare

Ever since the Edo Period, farm fields have flourished on the fringes of the city to feed the urban dwellers.
This summer a neighbor asked us to lend a hand with her farmshare, which was growing faster than she could manage.
Who would ever guess that one little plot in one little field could be so productive?

September seeds turned into October sprouts

...that were ready for thinning in November

...and kept growing faster than we could eat

Squeezed between a warehouse and a sand lot full of backhoes and dump trucks is a small organic field subdivided into tiny plots for farmshare members. Every few months there is an event led by the veteran farm manager, to guide the members through everything from seeding and weeding to harvest.

The summer season was already in full swing when we joined in, but we were able to lend a hand simply by going there to pick before the produce could spoil

By August the potatoes were done and the corn was stunted, but the tomatoes were delightful and the cucumbers would not quit!

Without chemical pest killers, the field is alive with bugs ...and their predators

After the other summer greens gave out the molokhia just kept putting out tender new shoots, growing larger by the week

In the end we had to cut it down to make room for the fall planting

A single week's haul - limited only by how much my bike and back could carry