What are you doing this weekend?

I know it's already Sunday, and therefore a little late to be asking, but what are you all doing this weekend (or did)? There's a lot of day left plus it was daylight savings this morning in the Pacific Northwest! For me, this weekend consisted of some typical college bar hopping on The Ave, IKEA treasure hunting in Renton with lady peeps, urban farming, flexing my chef skillz, and UW football. It was a helluva weekend to say the least. 

Since my weekend was fairly packed, one thing I wanted to do but didn't was swing by my neighborhood farmer's market. Luckily I scored some free, green tomatoes at the farm (more on that later), but I wanted to peruse the booths on 52nd. I love visiting farmer's markets wherever I am. There's this exciting energy that comes with shopping outdoors (rain or shine!) and the people there are so, so knowledgeable. Who you buy from deals directly with the product they're selling. There's no middle-man, it's something wholesome from them straight to you. I feel like that's pretty rare here.

So, find your local farmer's market here if you don't know yet where yours is!

As fantastic as farmer's markets are, there's something even more intimate about farming your own food. I've recently started volunteering/working at the farm on UW's campus and I couldn't be happier. Every Saturday or so, I meet with a group of great people and we harvest and dig and weed and build, and more than anything else we learn. I learn about organic matter, I learn how to double-dig beds, sheet mulch beds...and much more! One of my favorite aspects about this is that we're farming in the city. In the biggest city in Washington, we're farming food to help feed students on campus! I happen to think urban farming is, and should be, a growing project everywhere. Cities are pretty resource-sucking, let's be real, but if we can cut carbon emissions from food traveling to us from farms by having food already in the city, then it would be a big step towards a more ecological system. Besides, it's much more personal and we get to understand more about food production instead of just blindly accepting anything that's given to us. Ignorance isn't bliss, folks. It's stupidity. 

Anyway, here are some pics of my farming experience so far:

We're planting garlic varieties for the winter!

A decent shot of a part of the newly acquired farming plot.

Katherine delicately planting a garlic clove.

Our meeting place, the gazebo by the farm.

More beds bursting with greens!

Learn more about the UW farm their website and blog!