I have given up baking for farming. More accurately, I’m making a city-guy’s attempt at gardening, transforming my withered fire escape into a budding ranch of herbs, a patch of land to bring forth bounty under the summer rays of Sunnyside, Queens.

In my imagination I look forward to an autumn of fresh salad greens. Just as likely I will find these metal grates now packed with dirt upturned by squirrels burying nuts… or pigeons digging for them.  I ordered a window-based micro-green gardening kit to ease the way.

Along with the contained specialty fiber soil, seeds, and an instruction manual, my most useful tool was an improvised use of plastic wrap to help capture moisture. Our windows do get hot! My first harvest was a hardy bunch of radish sprouts on my BLT on a bagel