The Beacon Food Forest is up and running. Not much fruit production yet - those types of plants take longer to mature and become productive - but plenty of annual veggies being grown and shared. Produce was being offered free at an onsite site stand through early October. The garden is apparently staffed by volunteers and does have a management board that oversees the project. Not sure why this type of public garden would be significantly different from the various p-patch community gardens scattered about the city, other than the produce is not grown for a single family's consumption but for anyone. Many p-patches have a communal gardening plot as well, with the produce donated to local food banks. The p-patches are hugely popular and very successful and operated on completely organic gardening principles.

The easiest way for you to create patina is to buy (samples are free at most stone yards) a sample and play with it. I personally opted NOT to do marble because I could not live with it. I got many samples (all honed) from stone yards and played with the samples, dribbling vinegar, tomato sauce, wine, lemon juice etc. I tried to "get out" the etches with scotch brite etc. In the end, I was not happy with the blotchy look that new marble develops on its way to real "patina" that takes many decades. If you are in Seattle, Pental stone yard in Georgetown has marble and basaltina installed in their show room. They are both premium stones. I remember this because they were the only two stones that I seriously considered. In the end, the stones were too porous for me. I have stone in my bathrooms, and they end up having a bit of mineral spotty ring/stains/look around the faucet over many years. I did not want to deal with that in the kitchen.. When you are there, remember that they do not cook in these showroom kitchens. The marble has "coffee etching" from the coffee pot sitting there. I think they have Calcutta Gold, which is a relatively expensive marble compared to your standard much cheaper carrera marble. Only you will know what is acceptable to you or not. You can get a pretty accurate picture by playing with samples....

I'm sort of a lurker here - we're working on the new kitchen plans right now, so I'm just reading about your kitchens. I did a kitchen 5+ years ago with the help of this forum. So here's my two cents on marble countertops. I have always wanted a period kitchen with marble counters.I was talked out of it last time for re-sale issues. This time I'm going for it. I don't like shiny, so I will probably start with it honed. At the beginning of April, we went to Venice and Milan for a week. That trip sealed my marble decision. All you have to do is walk through the churches, up and down the stairs, the sidewalks,touch the railings, the counters in the cafes- all marble, and all white marble. The stuff is, frankly, bulletproof. And more beautiful with all the age and "love" on it than anything I've ever seen. More than 500 years can't be all wrong!

I did. I found a source for a stone that I couldn't source locally no matter how hard I tried. Loved the photos, had a sample sent to me that I could abuse to be sure I was happy with it, then had a second sample sent so I could see a bit more of the colour variation possibilities, then ordered two slabs which were shipped to me from across the country (several days drive or many hours of flights+car rental were both out of the question for me). I had issues with the fabricator which is totally unrelated to ordering the stone without seeing it, but the supplier was excellent and the stone was exactly what I wanted, even better than I thought. It was risky, but necessary in order to get what I really wanted (a hard enough soapstone in a large enough slab with a dark enough base) I had no other choice. And FYI, I was relatively flexible about the colour variations that I couldn't see the details of, and my soapstone is quite dark - perhaps not as affected by different lighting. To me the hardness and the size were the most important features, neither of which was related to the stone in person. I was on pins and needles waiting to actually see it, and had several "what the heck were you thinking" moments along the way. I think I'm pretty lucky that it was even more beautiful in person than I had hoped. If you can't take that kind of stress, and if the drive/childcare situation is feasible it might be worth seeing them in person.