Topsy Turvy Tomatoes

Just a quick link.  Cindy Haas at Urban Garden Casual (same group who does one of my favorite blogs Tomato Casual) is doing an experiment that is right up my alley.  Can it be true that upside down tomatoes can produce better and remain more disease free than normal tomatoes?  She’s seeking to discover for herself by planting an upside down bucket tomato and a tomato set in the dirt.  Since I’ve got more tomatoes coming in the next week or so, I think I’ll do the same. 

She posts a great how to here. 

Filed under: vegetable garden , tomatoes, upside down tomatoes

Podchef’s Potato Video

Informative video here from the Podchef on planting potatoes.   (If you aren’t listening to his gastrocast podcast, you should give it a try…)

My potatoes are getting big.  Most are at or past the 4-inch mark and I’m going to do one dirt hilling to give the potatoes more room to become potatoes and then I plan on mulching with straw. 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: potato, vegetable garden , podchef, potato planting

Amazing, Annoying Nature

At this time of year, many plants turn their energies toward reproduction.  Just to the side of my garden sit three sugar maples who seem to be particularly intent upon making a fourth, fifth, and six hundredth sugar maple.  It falls on me to sweep up the manifestation of their efforts from my garden paths – hundreds of perfect gliders, each with one maple seed.

The sheer number of them is staggering.  At times, when the wind blows and shakes them loose from the tops of the trees or pushes them chaotically down from off of the roof, it looks like a swarm of spinning locusts intent upon a kudzu’s plan of world domination.  “Is that snow?” Kyle asks and I have to agree; it does look like a blizzard, the air so thick with them that we can hack with our swords and destroy them in eddies of jedi wind.

The garden beds are piled with them, maple seed mulch, soon to be hairy with the green sprouts of trees to be.  I can sweep them away, I can pluck them one by one by the thousands and still there are more.  It’s exasperating and fascinating at the same time.  What amazing patience we would need to have watched the evolution of this natural wing, weighted perfectly and it’s veiny wood angled just right to allow it to be carried on the same wind that finally coaxes it away from it’s fostering branches – scattered a few feet or hundreds of feet to fall into years and years of composting leaves from the same parent, generations of familiar genes that welcome it to the ground to begin again.

How infuriating!  How frustrating to stand beneath a pelting rain of them, all the while picking, picking a patch clear beneath it all.  How staggering!  How humbling!  How perfectly fulfilled!

How.. .much Thoreau have I read?  Whatever.  These things are cool. 

And annoying.

 

Filed under: vegetable garden , maple tree helicopters

Mesclun Mix Up

Greens are great.  Spicy, sweet, bitter -  I love them all.  I grow radishes and beets as much for their greens as for their fruity bits.  A good mesclun mix can be a real treat, but it’s getting harder to know what’s in the mix. 

Most seed companies seem to provide the mesclun mixes pre-mixed in a packet.  That’s good.  But what can be bad about that is that it makes you dependent upon their definition of mesclun.  These days you can grab a mesclun mix (or “spring” mix as it’s often called since nobody knows what mesclun means and it sounds vaguely narcotic) just about anywhere and in all kinds of pre-packaged conditions in the supermarket.  By most classic definitions of mesclun, what we get pre-mixed and packaged (in seed or bag form), is not often all that mesclunish.

Mesclun is a French and Italian thing.  The goal is to mix key flavors of baby greens together.  Bitter (perhaps from an endive or radicchio), mild (from some leafy type like oak leaf, red sails or ruby), piquant (spicy and pungent like mustard greens) and peppery (like arugula).  That’s right.. piquant AND peppery.

These days, in most bags of salad, you’ll find it’s high on the leafy and therefore low on the likey.  Are the seeds following suit?  This year I got two mesclun seed mixes from two different places.  Seeds From Italy, not surprisingly, seems to hit closer to the good ol’ european definition and I’m seeing some spice in my sprouts.  My other selection (can’t remember where I got it!) looks decidedly Dole – lots of red sails and not much oomph.

Caveat emptor.  Next year it’s time to be more discerning.  I want greens that clear my sinuses not ones that disappear completely on the tongue.

Filed under: greens, vegetable garden, vegetables , mesclun

Hello Last February Me

Now Me: Dude… I don’t really know where to start.

Last February Me: The superbowl is tomorrow.  Who wins?

Now Me: The Giants.  I’m not kidding.

Last February Me: Don’t toy with me.  That’s not funny.  We haven’t won in 18 years.

Now Me: Trust me.  Just watch the game.  And don’t run into the kitchen during the “catch” because you can’t bear to watch. 

Last February Me: There’s a “catch”?

Now Me: Focus please.  I have a few things to tell you about your garden plan.

Last February Me: Gonna be bigger this year!  Woo hoo!

Now Me: Yeah you crazy bastard it is going to be bigger.

Last February Me: Sweet.

Now Me: First, you aren’t planning on buying any bagged compost.  Rethink that please.

Last February Me: Why?  I have a giant pile of leaf, vegetable and cardboard compost.  That thing is huge!  I tended it all last summer.  I even brought back seaweed from vacation.

Now Me: Yeah.  You tended it out in the woods.  With barely any sun.  And little real turning.  Do you really think it ever got hot enough to compost?  Plus, and you knew this you just didn’t want to believe it, it was A LOT of leaves.  Did it ever look soilish?

Last February Me: Hmmmm.. not really.  But I worked so hard on it!  I don’t want to lug 60 bags of compost again.

Now Me: Suck it up dude.  If you don’t, you’re going to spread that pile of compost over your newly tilled garden and it’s just going to be too dry and leafy.  Trust me.  Your soil that results is barely going to be able to hold moisture. 

Last February Me: Okay.  What else?

Now Me: Your seed starts are going to be about 50% crappy.  You’re imagining a shelf, light set up, but you aren’t going to take the time to really secure the grow lights in a way that lets you raise and lower them.  You’re going to plant a bunch of seeds and fail to re-pot them soon enough.  Your heirloom tomato that you seed-fermented last year will look good and then you just won’t water it enough and you won’t have the right light.  It will devastate you, cause you anxiety, and force you to curse the heavens.

Last February Me: Man I’m lazy.

Now Me: Yes we are.  Take your time.  Build the shelf and lights the right way.  Plan to re-pot with better soil.  Lower the lights.  Water.  Fertilize.  You can do it.

Last February Me: Okay, okay.  What else?

Now Me: Call your friend Jake right now and place your life savings on the Giants to win.  Buy some champagne… the good stuff.  Oh, and you’re going to be in a meeting at work in about 2 months and somebody important asks you a question.  The answer is “About 200″ and not “ummmmm….. hmmmmm… I don’t know.”

Filed under: Uncategorized

Cheap Garbage Can Composter

I could spend a lot of money on a big compost tumbler and I’m sure I would love it.  But there’s a cheaper way.

I now proudly present Compostings Cheap Aerobic Composter Method.  (No patent pending.  This method has been done by billions of people before me and you can find it all over the place.)

What you need:

1. A cheap garbage can.  Mine is plastic with wheels.  The wheels come in very, very handy.  Get that kind if you can.
2. A drill.  Or a nail and hammer.  Or some kind of pokey thingy that can pokey through plastic (or aluminum if you go that route).  You’ll note from the pictures that my drill is hand cranky which makes me cranky.  Use a real drill and save yourself some labor.  I just couldn’t find mine.
3. Nitrogen contributors.  Green stuff.  Grass, veggie leftovers, etc.
4. Carbon contributors.  Brown stuff like cardboard.  Newspaper strips (not brown, but you get the idea).  I don’t like to use colored newspaper because I believe (with absolutely no science probably to back me up) that the colored ink is icky. 
5. Water.  Life-giving water.
6. About 30 minutes.  (Took me about an hour because I kept searching in between hole pokes for a real drill.)

The Incredibly Uncomplicated Process

1. Drill holes in the garbage can.  We’re trying for aerobic composting and the little buggies that will do the work need air.  Let it flow.  Get holes on all sides and the top and bottom.  The bottom holes will also allow extra water to drain.
2. Begin adding your ingredients in layers.  I started with strips of newspaper.  Then I added some cardboard and some leaves.  Then (and this ingredient is not necessary, but it’s like starter for bread dough) I added some fairly composted horse manure.  You should add your green layers like vegetable matter, grass clippings etc.  Since I used manure, I am going to let this compost for a long time.  I won’t use it until next year to be sure every pathogen is dead.
3. Build your layers like a club sandwich or a lasagna.  Keep alternating.  You want about equal parts of carbon and nitrogen contributors but don’t sweat it.  Nature finds a way.
4. You could fill it all the way up leaving 6 – 12 inches of space at the top at this point.  For me, I’m going to use this as an active composter throughout the next couple of months and I’ll be adding our kitchen scraps. 
5. Either way, once you’ve got it filled to where you want it, add some water.  Don’t be water stingy.  Get it good and wet.  It shouldn’t be swimming by the time you are done; it should be like a wet washcloth.
6. Put the lid on and tip the can over.  Roll that thing a few times to make sure the junk inside is getting to know one another.
7. That’s it.  Set it up someplace with some sun exposure but don’t sweat that too much either.  It’s also good to raise it a bit to let the air flow through the bottom.  Place it up on blocks.
8. Once a week, roll it and add some water.  The aerobic bacteria will consume the air, nitrogen and carbon and start to die off.  As they do that, the thing heats up.  You can check the temperature (160 f) and if it starts to drop, you know you are running out of your workers and the rolling will reintroduce air.  The goal of the rolling is to kind of get the outside parts that are rich in oxygen into the center.  Don’t sweat it.  Just roll the thing.  It will work.  Over time, as the nitrogen and carbon are consumed, the heat won’t be so heaty.  It’s all part of the composting thing.  It just means that the next round of organisms are rolling in to do their part.
9. In about 8 weeks you’ll have some nice compost.  Once the temperature has cooled, it’s ready to use.  It can be a good idea to actually let it stew longer now outside of the garbage can.  Put it in a pile and wait for the worms to come in.  They’re a good indicator of your compost.  If they’re in it, it means it’s not heating up any longer and it’s good to go.

Addition: Anthony from thecompostbin has a nice suggestion in the comments.  Drill the holes a bit bigger (3″) and cover them with a fiberglass screen to keep the pesties out.  Larger holes would certainly allow more airflow.. that’s a good thing.

Stuff You Need

Drill it

Newpaper layer 1

Cardboard in layer 1

Leaves layer 2

I added composted manure

I’m leaving room for veggie scraps

Added water

Roll it

Ready to get composting

Filed under: composting, vegetable garden , composting, garbage can composter

State Of The Stuff: What’s Growing

It’s May 18 and just about everything is in my garden.  I’m holding off on tomatoes and peppers for another week because it’s supposed to be pretty cold and wet for about 5 or 6 days.  I’ve got some tomoatoes just sitting out in the garden getting used to the place and I’ve still got several transplants under the growlights.  Can’t wait.

Beans checking out their pole

Beet sprouts

Broccoli (Gastrocast)

Started from seed 3/25

Green rows

Bean teepee

Potatoes looking pretty

Wasp is thirsty

Pole Beans: They’ve been in the dirt for 3 weeks and are just poking their little muppet heads out now.  I’ve got a few varieties.  Should be spectacular.

Bush Beans: Same story as above.  Just a few poking up now.  I’m a little worried, but we’ll see what the week brings.  If they don’t pop, I’ll just replant.  Plenty of time for beans.

Beets: 3 good rows have been in since May 4 and they are popping very nicely.  These are the ones I’m using for the Growing Challenge.  So far, so good.

Greens: Mesclun transplants have been made into many a meal already.  Delicious.  The staggered plantings I’ve done have all sprouted at various stages.  I’ve got about 3 successions.  Tom Thumb lettuce, chard, oak leaf, mesclun, tyee spinach, space saver spinach, arugula, miners lettuce are all doing well.

Peas: Carouby de Mausanne and Cascadia.  The peas in the earthbox are about 8 inches now.  They’ve been going since the end of March.  The peas in the garden are about 4 inches and were planted mid April. 

Carrots: Not a whole lot happening here.  They’ve been in since 5/4.   Just a couple of little peekers.

Radishes: Black radishes are doing great.  They’ve been in since 5/4.  Radish mix that I have going in a container on the deck (planted chaotically.. we’ll see) are doing well too.

Broccoli: Just a few plants.  Two are transplants and they are absolutely thriving so far.  Foot tall already.  The third is a transplant from the seeds I got as part of the Gastrocast’s seed special.  It was a bit sickly early on, but recovered very well.  I popped it into the garden yesterday.

Cucumbers: Just put in a Bush Crop.  Six plants.  I had so many cukes last year that I cut down a bit.

Potatoes: Bigger patch than last year and they have all sprouted.  The potatoes are approaching the 4 inch mark and I’ll need to get some straw going soon.

 

Filed under: Peas, beets, growing challenge, potato, vegetable garden, vegetables , beans, chard, lettuce, mesclun, Peas, pole beans, potatoes, spinach, tomatoes, vegetable garden

CS A OK

Come on.  That title had to be done.

We’ve got a full CSA share with our good friends.  Last year was the first year we did it and we’re back for more!  For many, having a CSA is about knowing where your food is coming from – look the farmer in the eye, know him, know his farm and feel good about the produce and meat.

Well, I’m not much of a look-anybody-in-the-eye kind of guy.  But it’s undeniably nice to feel like we’re doing something good for farms, the farmer and ourselves.  The vegetables are great, the pork is great, the beef is great, etc. etc.

Yesterday, 20 or so of the shareholders gathered at the farm for a cookout and a chance to gaze into the eyes of the farmer and the whole crew.  Connecticut has been getting some weird, cool, rainy weather lately and the forecast was for more of that.  But it was easily one of the prettiest days of the year so far with blue skies, lots of sun and temperatures in the 70s. 

The farm is gorgeous.  I always feel like a bit of a tourist when I’m there.. as if the locals indulgently smile at my t-shirt and postcard buying, but that’s more my own issue and nothing at all from the people at the farm!

All in all, a great day with our friends and all of our children.  Lots of children.  Good god!  Where did all of these children come from?

Julie and Sean

Jen, Kyle, Devon

Seth peeks back

Julie and Seth

Kyle: There were dinosaurs here

Jen and the Twins, Seth and Kate

Kyle and Devon: Farm Friends

Kyle and Devon: Play Chicken

Kyle and Devon: Fingers Look Like Carrots

Julie’s Farm Meal

Sean: My hat is cool.

Chris and Kate

Kate gets a shoulder ride

Babies!

Jen and Kate

Kyle’s bread sandwich

 

Filed under: csa , community supported agriculture, csa, vegetable gardening

Bittman Says: Save The World

Mark Bittman, NY Times food writer, is a reasonable man.  Much like Michael Pollan, he sees the problems with the earth and our diets as complex, but the solution as fairly simple.  Where Pollan boils his argument down to the pithy “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”, Bittman brings his down to the even pithier “eat good food”.

Good food, as it turns out, is mostly plants.  Plants, he says, and not the components of those plants.  The tomato, not the lycopene.  The carrot, not the beta carotene.  Lycopene, beta carotene.. those things are all good for you, but it is the tomato, the carrot that provides them.

The video here is from Ted Talks.  Ted, and I am hip enough to have heard about this long, long ago (two weeks… so sue me), is the intelligentsia’s way of creating a social site with just enough exclusivity to make it feel ivy league.  All longing for inclusion aside, it is actually full of good stuff from good thinkers.  Bittman was a surprise.  Not that he isn’t a good thinker.  He is.  It’s just that Pollan would have been a much more obvious choice. 

But Bittman more than  holds his own.  His talk is excellent and his points are well presented.  No real new ground is broken for those of us who read or watch this kind of stuff all the time.. except for this.

Locavores (people who seek local food), vegetarians, gourmets, we’re all essentially the same.  Opposition to industrial food is a common goal and it’s all about good food.

Fight the fight.  Grow a garden.  Eat your vegetables.

 

Filed under: reviews, vegetables , eat good food, mark bittman

That Sounds Like Hooey

Yeah, so I like to brush my dog and put his fur around my garden fence.  Why?  Because I like to think that it wards off vampires and critters who are eyeing up my (still imaginary) tomatoes. 

The truth?  Assuming that whatever it is that makes little critters afraid of bigger-toothed critters can be conjured up via things that still smell like that bigger-toothed critter even when it’s no longer attached to the toothy body AND that that smell is strong enough to perfume the air and permeate the earth around the entire garden perimeter AND, AND, AND.

It’s not likely.  I’m no scientist.  I’m no expert on the preservation of stink molecules on predators and their repelling benefit to tomato thieves, but I don’t see it happening.  But I do it anyway.

I think that gardening is replete with pseudoscience.  Harvesting or planting by the moon cycles?  Hogwash.  Washing hogs with homeopathic hoof juice?  Moonwash. 

We do things and we aren’t even sure why.  Soaking seeds before planting them?  Could be good.  Can you find a real scientific study that says it is?  I can’t.  I can find one that says it might be good to soak certain kinds of legumes in plant food or inoculant.  But plain old water for some kinds of seeds?  Hmmm… can’t seem to find one.  I think it works.  But does it?  Probably doesn’t do any harm, probably really does do some good.  It would be nice to know.

There’s good science too.  Rotations, fertilizers, soil types, sun, pest control… evidence based.  Good stuff.  But surely you have some weird things that you do too. 

What kinds of rituals do you do for your garden that you aren’t so sure are based upon science?  There’s no shame!  No vegetables were harmed in the conducting of your odd druidic moonlight ritual!

Filed under: Uncategorized , pseudoscience