By way of introduction...

Hello! Welcome to the inaugural post of my photoblog, The Farm City Chronicles. This is going to be a blog documenting my progress as I attempt to raise a crop of organic vegetables, fruits and herbs to sell in Baltimore, Maryland. Though I am a veteran gardener and have grown my own crops in the past, this will be my first attempt at selling my produce for profit. This blog will document the successes and failures I encounter, as well as providing a forum for larger musings and news in the world of organic and local food, and some stories from the front lines.

A little bit of back story:

My name is Patrick. I am twenty-four years old and I live and work in Baltimore. I decided to start this project back in December, 2008. I converted a large chunk of lawn at one of my parent's house into a new vegetable garden, created a new compost pile, and cleared out the four existing gardens for full-scale production. In the basement, I started about 350 seedlings under grow lights.


This is one of the growing tables I have set up. The lights can be raised and lowered individually. Each earthen tray contains about 5-10 seedlings.

I have about 15 varieties of heirloom tomato plants currently growing, and about 150 tomato plants going total.

These are almost all tomato plants.

Here's a closeup of a Brandywine tomato plant about 10 days after sprouting:


The one on the left is named Michele, by special request, for my friend Michele. If you want a plant named after you, let me know, give me a good reason why, and I'll think about it. No promises, you hear?

Besides tomatoes, I have several varieties of peppers and eggplants growing.


These are Applegreen eggplant sprouts. They are an heirloom which produces long, thin zucchini-shaped eggplants which are bright green and shiny like a Granny Smith apple.


These are Corno di Toro Rosso pepper sprouts. The variety is an heirloom from Italy. They grow long, red peppers which are sweet, but also contain capsicum and are quite tangy and almost spicy. Or so I read. I've never grown them before. In addition to these, I am growing several other varieties of hot and sweet peppers.

These pictures were mostly taken in early Febuary. Since then, I have transplanted about 70% of the plants into individual pots and containers. Half of them are in sunny windowsills:


While the rest are still hanging out in the basement under lights.


These are most of the tomatoes from the earlier photograph. Very few seedlings have died on me so far, and almost everyone is thriving in their new location.

Well, that should about do it for an introduction. I'll have much more soon about how I plan to market all this into something at least semi-profitable, my search for grant money to start a new urban farming project in town, plus my adventures with deer-proofing a tomato garden. Here's one last photo of Michele the Brandywine tomato plant in her new home.


If you are interested in buying/bartering some produce or plants from me locally this Spring or Summer, let me know and we'll work something out. I am also looking for help naming this project. Come up with a good suggestion and I will name a pepper bush named in your honor. Much more soon!