How we got a garden even though we don't have a house

Before this year I'd NEVER cooked cabbage before. Or gotten familiar with chard, kale or rutabagas (I'm still not entirely sure what those last are). Or had a bounty of fresh, free lemons, oranges, avocados, rosemary, mint, lavender, etc. at my finger tips (when in season). Or probably ever thought I would because I live in a 2bedroom apartment in the middle of a major urban center.
It all started during our downtime over Christmas break. Ian read Michael Pollan's 'Omnivore's Dilemma.' I didn't read it, but I got the play by play and I can tell you it's pretty fascinating. Basically, corn syrup and/or some kind of weird Iowa corn permutation is in practically everything we eat, and Pollan advocates getting closer to our food (ie. growing or raising it) the way people used to. Ian thought we should make it a New Year's Resolution to do that this year. I don't need any convincing that we should grow our own food because I think it tastes really good. My grandparents had a rockin garden and after eating one of their tomatoes I thought the stuff from the produce aisle should be called something else entirely. So Ian and I started planning our dream garden, complete with hives, fruit trees, veggie plots... chickens (yeah, don't ask) we made a fancy diagram one Saturday.
Hold up. This looks great on paper towel. For a minute we forgot we have children sleeping in our closets, let alone having space for figs and radishes. Plus, after breastfeeding, diaper changing and playing Spanish charades all day I barely have time to floss let alone deal with aphids and compost rotations. So... backburner, right?

One of the things I love about Ian is his amazing persistence. He has found some really creative ways to get us 'homegrown' food without having to grow it ourselves. He joined a farm group that delivers farm fresh produce each week to somebody's house nearby for pick up. They fill the box with what's growing in season, hence all the weird veggies. Yeah, this unfamiliar stuff is what grows in the area I live. And while I kind of long for the cheap grapes from Chile, these vegs are phenomenally delicious. Those rutabagas and baby potatoes were amazing just baked with olive oil, and Caleb and Julian really dig the cabbage pie. So do I. It's yum.

Ian also asked his mom to plant some fruit trees in their massively huge yard. She graciously agreed and they planted peach, apricot, nectarine, pluot, and some other things. How awesome if this stuff actually produced at some point?? We'll have fresh, delicious fruit coming out of our ears.

Finally, Ian has gotten us into scavenging or gathering certain fruit growing around people's yards. I guess it's legal, and militantly supported by some groups. Our friend's Gramps was a millionaire living in Beverly Hills 90210 when he died, but he wasn't too rich to enjoy his own personal 'fruit walk'. He picked overhanging guavas, lemons, oranges, avocados, etc. through fenceposts. So the other day Ian drove through an alley on the way home and grabbed a bunch of overhanging lemons. I found a huge rosemary bush and a bunch of other herbs near a street intersection, and we discovered a huge orange tree by where we live. Don't laugh, it's fun. We made these lemon bars with the spoils- the fresh lemon juice and rind made all the difference in the custard.

Anyways, I don't know if we'll ever get our beehives and bok choy, but for now I'm kind of liking the work around.