Chapter 3 - In Love With Dino Kale

The main reason I want to build a garden on the roof is so I can grow vegetables that I love. In our house, the current vegetable of choice is dinosaur kale. Recently, we've been sticking to the same basic recipe of crispy kale. I think my friend Maggie originally showed this technique to me and my housemates, and since then we've been hooked. So I'm pretty excited to grow some kale on the roof - even though it won't be enough to satisfy our appetites. My housemates and I could probably eat the kale in this picture in about 10 seconds, and our general serving is about 10 times as much as this.



Other things I'm already considering growing are tomatoes and various herbs - mint, oregano, parsley, cilantro, thyme...depending on how things go, I may expand my garden to grow more items. But for now I think that sticking to kale, tomatoes and a few small herbs is a good way to start. However, I'm always open to suggestions....

I have checked out a few places that sell vegetable plants ready to transplant, and I haven't seen any dino kale, so I'm pretty sure that I am going to order some seeds. Seeds of Change seems like a decent website for ordering seeds - but what do I know? Maybe I'll pick some up locally instead. Advice about this would be great too.

Finally, in case you haven't tried making it yet, here are instructions for making crispy kale.

Take a bunch of loose kale leaves (discard any super-thick stems) and spread them over an ungreased cookie sheet. Make sure that the leaves are totally dry - if you have to wash them, do this way ahead of time so they are completely dry when you are ready to cook them. Fill up the cookie sheet to the brim, since kale shrinks and it's wicked good - it's basically impossible to have too much.

Drizzle the kale w/ a bit of olive oil (no need to do too much) and add some salt, pepper or other spices. Sometimes we stick w/ just salt and pepper, but sometimes we add things like coriander, cumin or even nutritional yeast! Put the cookie sheet in the oven at about 400 degrees - but 350 or 375 is fine too. Cook until the kale starts getting crispy, about 10-15 minutes. Serve immediately.

YUM. I am going to make some right now, and maybe I will post a picture.

Chapter 2 - The Freeway

Right after I got the idea for my rooftop garden, I started getting worried about the air pollution near my house. We live right next to the freeway, which gets lots of traffic, so it's pretty likely that the air quality on my roof is less than perfect. I talked about this with a few people at the City Slickers event, and came to the general conclusion that while the air might not be great for my plants, the vegetables should be fine with a rinse. One friend commented that my organic vegetables from my roof are likely to be much better for me than vegetables treated with pesticides, even with the air pollution. So I think I'll probably be okay, and I'm going ahead with the plans. If anyone has any expertise, feel free to give a shout.

Chapter 1 - Inspiration

It all began two Saturdays ago, when I went to a fund-raising event in Berkeley for an organization called City Slicker Farms. I went with a few friends from San Francisco, not really knowing what to expect. What I found was a room full of people talking about urban farming, and a table full of freshly fermented foods - mainly various sauerkrauts and ginger beer concoctions. Three people made short presentations, and though it sounds a bit cheesy, I was very inspired.

After looking at slides of urban farms close by (West Oakland) and abroad (Mali, Vietnam), and hearing about programs in the Bay Area that support urban gardening and farming, I decided I should finally make good use of our big roof and build a garden. I don't really have any idea what I'm doing, but I figure that it's worth a try.

I set up this blog to document my progress - as can be seen, the roof of my house is empty right now, but I hope that within the next few months I'll begin to have some vegetables, fruits and herbs.



We live in San Francisco, between the Mission and Potrero Hill, and our flat roof gets lots of sunlight. So hopefully my veggie roof will be a big success. I'll do my best to document the entire process, which has already begun! Here it goes....






Be sure to check out my links for City Slicker Farms, as well as the blog of one of the speakers - Novella Carpenter.