Boba Tea!

Let's take a moment to talk about boba tea, shall we? It's positively silly to live in Barnum and not take advantage of the culinary delights and curiosities of our bit of Federal Blvd. Those delights and curiosities include boba tea, which is available at most Asian restaurants on Federal between Alameda and Florida.

Technically, boba is Chinese for big boobies, at least according to Wikipedia. But, it's also apparently slang for the balls of tapioca that are added to milk tea, or fruit smoothie, or whatever sort of drink you're getting. Heck, it doesn't even have to be black tapioca: I've had weird jelly pearls too and they're also delicious. There's a lot of variations. And, there's a lot of different names for essentially the same thing: Bubble Tea, Pearl Milk Tea, Boba Milk Tea, etc. Though it was invented in Taiwan, it's pretty popular at Vietnamese restaurants and cafes. Like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this is one of those weird things that was created in the 1980s that is strange and maybe a bit immature but still quite rad.

So, boba tea. It's a fancy cold drink of various flavors with big balls of black tapioca or colorful jelly at the bottom. You drink it through an uncomfortably large straw. It tastes good and adds a touch of whimsy to your day. Is it a little weird? Sure. Yes. It is a little weird. But it's also awesome. Just like Barnum.

Nearby Farm Stands

Eggplants from Gabrielle's Garden website! Mmmm...

I still haven't heard of any farm stands or farmers markets within the Barnum borders, but I have stumbled upon a couple of nearby farm stands to add to the list of Farmers Markets and CSAs nearby.

Gabrielle's Garden: A farm stand at 832 Kalamath St., open Saturdays from 9:00-noon and Wednesdays from 5:00-7:00.

Sprout City Farms Community Farm Stand: Farm stand at Mountair Park, 5620 W. 14th Ave. Lakewood (on 14th, four blocks West of Sheridan). They're open Fridays 4:00-6:00 mid-August through Halloween.

Trader Joe's is coming...3 miles away.

Photo from 5280 Magazine

Yesterday, Trader Joe's announced that it is opening its second Denver location 3 miles from our doorsteps. It's headed for 7th and Logan. And, because it's off 6th Ave, Google Directions estimates it's but a 5-10 minute drive, even during morning rush hour.

I can't decide if I'm super happy or super bummed. Trader Joe's is crazy popular but it's still not quite close enough to call our own. In fact, it completes the circle of large grocery shops 2.5 to 3 miles in any direction from Barnum/Barnum West. We have King Soopers to the North at Sloans Lake, King Soopers to the South in Mar Lee, King Soopers and Whole Foods to the West at Belmar. Now, with Trader Joe's to the East, we've formed a perfect perimeter of not-close-enough-to-walk-to large chain grocery stores.

Oh well. At least we have all our little local grocery shops for walking trips. And at least Trader Joe's is closer to us here in Barnum than they are to the Highlands. Hey Highlands! You like apples? How you like them apples? Cause you have to drive past Barnum to buy them from Trader Joe's. Here's a link to the 5280 article about the new Trader Joe's.

Barnum's View of Denver

Sunrise Barnum Park, Denver Time-Lapse [One Day in Denver Campaign Raw Footage] from Ryan Dravitz on Vimeo.

I'm so glad to have discovered this awesome video capturing a sunrise over the city from our glorious Barnum Park. Nicely done, Ryan Dravitz. Huzzah for having one of the best views in Denver!

Barnum Garden Tour: Charlie's Charming Cottage Garden

This hill took FOREVER to dig up. Totally worth it,

Remember when I said I have zero journalistic objectiveness? Yeah, here I go again. Today's garden tour is my very own. I'm rather proud of myself for waiting this long to post it.

When we first moved in, the entire front yard was sun-baked dust and weeds. The backyard was worse -- 12" of sand that even the weeds refused to grow in. And, of course, no trees. Each summer, we fill in a little more empty space with something either pretty or delicious.


Our Names: Charlie and Keegan

Garden Style: Cottage Garden and kitchen garden

How Long We've Been Gardening Here: 6 years

The internet tells me this is feverfew.

What's New In The Garden This Year: We just planted a little hedge of Coralberries beside our front door. I'm pretty excited to see them festooned in pink this fall. And, I'm hoping to extend my flower garden a little later in the summer -- maybe a row of delphiniums, hollyhocks, and foxgloves behind my peonies.

What We Love To Grow: My favorites are normally whatever is blooming or fruiting at the moment. If I had answered last month I would have said lilacs, strawberries, and peonies. But, right now, I have to say I'm in love with my Pink Grapefruit yarrow. Also, there is a volunteer feverfew growing behind my blackberries that is charming as hell.

What We Cannot Grow: I'm originally from the East Coast, so when I first started planting six years ago, I learned the hard way that in Denver, rhododendrons and azaleas need more attention than I'm willing to give them in the winter. We also have one of those little hills in the front yard that I tried to keep grass on for four years. Last year I finally gave up, dug it all out, and covered the hill with mulch. I planted some cotoneasters that I'm hoping will grow up to take over the whole thing.  

Biggest Battle: Bindweed. I fucking hate bindweed. And squirrels.

Our Advice To New Gardeners In The 'Hood: Lots of plants are pretty, but how and where you plant them matters too. Step back across the street and look at your garden as a whole.

Favorite Nursery/Supply Shop: O'Tooles is wonderful, but Echter's in Arvada also rocks.

Do you garden in Barnum or Barnum West? Send your pics into the blog! Selected gardens will be featured throughout the summer. Pics can be emailed to welcometobarnum (at) gmail.com.

Barnum Garden Tour: Danielle and David's Earth-Friendly Edibles

When I visited Danielle to photograph her lovely organic kitchen garden in Barnum West, I was instantly charmed. No neat lines and strict compartments separated her plants. Instead, her garden is a riot of colors and textures, full of abundance and stunning variety. Chinese Cabbage lay hidden under Egyptian Walking Onions, exotic-sounding varieties of radishes and salad greens crowd around lush walls of raspberries. Danielle's young son happily ate peas right off the vine, his brightly colored toys scattered about, forgotten in favor of fresh vegetables. Her family's backyard garden felt like a home.

Her ambitious side garden that lines the street is still in it's infancy, but already shows careful consideration for sustainability. Danielle has laboriously reshaped her slope into swales and hugelkultur berms that will conserve Denver's meager rainwater. Young jujube trees, cardoons, yarrow, squashes, and service berries line the swales, ready to turn a sun-beaten hill into an urban oasis. Looking at her new project, I couldn't help but think her garden will someday grace the cover of Mother Earth News.


Our Names: Danielle and David

Garden Style: Permaculture

How Long We've Been Gardening Here: 3 years

What's New In The Garden This Year: We have added perennial greens like sorrel, Italian dandelion and lovage, as well as medicinal perennial herbs like motherwort, skullcap and astragalus to our cooler weather polyculture garden. But the biggest change is turning our hot and sunny side yard into a permaculture garden where we aim to create a more complete ecosystem with perennial crops that play diverse roles like nitrogen fixing, attracting pollinators, drawing up minerals from deep in the earth, providing beneficial insect and animal habitat, confusing pests, creating more soil fertility, and suppressing weeds. We've added jujube trees and serviceberry bushes for fruit, surrounded by a number of supporting perennials, with our hot-crop annuals mixed in. We also did a lot of earth-moving, creating sunken beds that are more water efficient than raised beds.

What We Love To Grow: We have lots of great early spring crops like arugula, lettuce, orach (similar to spinach but a lot more productive), and snap peas. Later in the season we make a lot of salsa with our chiles, tomatoes and tomatillos. Cucumbers (pickles!), raspberries and winter squash (especially delicata) are also big favorites.

What We Cannot Grow: We have struggled to get New Zealand spinach to germinate. It's supposed to be a great hot-weather green but we've only been able to get one little plant to grow. Generally each year will be good for some crops and not others. Last year our tomato crop was limited but we were swimming in cucumbers. The year before it was the opposite.

Biggest Battle: Slowly building up our soil. We've sheet-mulched with compost and manure but it'll take time for the earthworms and other helpers to break up the hard clay underneath.

Our Advice To New Gardeners In The 'Hood: Carefully consider the water needs of the plants you want to grow. "Full sun" plants may thrive with more shade than you think. Building up the organic matter in your soil will dramatically increase the amount of water it can retain, and be sure to mulch deeply. Consider sunken beds instead of raised beds. Finally, don't bite off more than you can chew at first--we speak from experience!

Favorite Nursery/Supply Shop: Timberline, though in Arvada it's not the closest.

Thank you very much to Danielle and David for their hospitality and for sharing their garden with Welcome To Barnum!

Be sure to leave a comment for the gardeners below!

If you live in Barnum/Barnum West and would like to submit your own garden for a garden tour, please email a couple of photos to welcometobarnum (at) gmail.com. Selected gardens will be featured throughout the summer.

And, as always, if you are a Barnum or Barnum West resident who would like to contribute content to the Welcome To Barnum blog, please email us!

Bicycling in Barnum

I just stumbled across this notice that there will be an Open House with Denver Public Works tonight at the Barnum Recreation Center! They'll be discussing making improvements to South West Denver's bicycling infrastructure. Here's a link to the pdf notice.

I sure do wish they'd schedule these meetings a little later in the evenings so that I could attend after work. Oh well. If you go and get the skinny on what's happening, help a gal out and send me some notes via email!

welcometobarnum (at) gmail.com