Farming in the City

Yesterday I was harvesting the cherry trees in our front yard and our neighbor came out and said "Keep farming Joe, just pretend there is not a city street right behind you." I laughed because it is so true. Seattle is crowded, not as dense as other metro areas, but the surrounding bodies of water limit our escape routes significantly. We have a relatively large yard for Seattle, still only about 10,000 square feet though. We have done our best to put our little plot to work though. This year we have strawberries, cherries, pears(not edible), plums, apples(starchy and gross, but still apples), peaches, snap peas, salad greens, cilantro, dill(which we are actively trying to kill), blackberries(see dill), two kinds of basil, mint(for hot day mojitos), shallots, carrots, cucumbers and garlic chives....all on our little .22 acres of land in the middle of the city. It is not enough food to sustain us, but is certainly a lot of fun to have around and constantly makes me forget my urban surroundings which is definitely worth the work. So, my little friend Lena helped me harvest four and a half pounds of cherries last night, Rainier cherries to be exact, YUMMY!!!