Harvesting Beets

A quick trip through the garden (pointedly ignoring the gaping hole that used to be filled with tomatoes) for dinner.

The peppers are prolific. Cubanelle and Frigitello in particular. Very tasty, sweet. The habeneros are coming along nicely and we’ll be making some great hot sauce from those.

The beans are going strong.

And the beets are just delicious. These got baked and I cooked up the greens with just a little honey.

Filed under: growing challenge , beets, growing challenge

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

Beet Sowing

Truly accomplished gardeners – especially those who follow the intense market garden practices – would sow beets like crazy, scattered almost haphazardly without concern for the symmetry of rows.  Truly accomplished gardeners would use beets as part of a rotation of crops, interplanting them, thinning them, moving them, encouraging the overlapping of leaves for the cooling impact on the soil around the swelling roots.

I am not truly accomplished so I plant in rows.

Ultimately, you want beets to be about 3 inches apart from one another on all sides with the leaves brushing one another gently, fanning the soil and keeping the heat down.  Beets grow with their tops exposed (beets gone wild) just slightly and they are demure little things – keep em covered! 

Get the soil turned and loosened to about 6 inches with a pitchfork or shovel or your bare hands so that you’ll never get the dirt out from underneath your fingernails no matter how long you soak them in the tub while your son is in there.  Get rid of any rocks (I had lots) and make sure you’ve broken up any soil clumping parties. 

I used a stake to make a shallow indentation of about 1/4 inch.  Drop your seeds in (soaked the night before) and space them a few inches apart.  Cover lightly.  Go buy yourself some vinegar and wait…

These beets are what I’m using for the Growing Challenge.

Filed under: beets, growing challenge, vegetable garden , beets, growing challenge, vegetable garden

Beet Soaking

As a part of the Podchef’s Gastrocast Seed Special, I got some great beet seeds. I’m using them as my entry in the Growing Challenge.

Step one for beet planting (they get sowed directly) is to soak them. Soaking the seeds prior to planting them allows water to penetrate through the husk. The seed will do its work and absorb the water and since it is not competing with soil for the absorption, it gets a big ol’ dose that kick starts germination. A 24-hour soaking is about enough. (Soaking is not a good idea with all seed types.)

Here are the soaking pictures. Looks like grape nuts. Delicious.

Filed under: beets, growing challenge , beets, growing challenge, soaking seeds

Growing Challenge: Challenged

I came across the elementsintime growing challenge the other day. Rules are pretty simple – if you’ve got a garden, commit to growing something new in it this year and then write about it once a week. Seems like a cool way to connect with other people who are growing stuff.

I have a bunch of new seeds. The Podchef Neal Foley at the Gastrocast podcast started a seed trial of sorts with Seeds From Italy. Another great thing. Plant some seeds that the Podchef has selected and give them a shot and follow how others are doing in different parts of the country.

Celeriac was one of the seeds included in the set. It seemed like a great one to use for the Growing Challenge. I started the seeds over a month ago, but the celeriac is included in my seed start set that just isn’t doing too well. I’m pretty sure I was not diligent enough with the light and the soil seems a bit funky now and even has some white mildew. Bummer. I still have other seed starts going, but the celeriac is probably out. It needs to have a good head start.

So, for the Growing Challenge, I think I will use another of the Podchef’s seeds – this time beets. I’ve never grown them and I am learning to love them. Especially the delicious green tops. The other seeds I think I’ll use for the Growing Challenge will be arugula also from the Podchef’s seeds. I’ll also use a variety of pea that I’ve never grown, carouby de maussanne.

All in all, pretty cool. Stinky about the celeriac (and my other seed starts that aren’t going to make it including a lovely heirloom tomato) but at least I have a few others to include.

Filed under: growing challenge , growing challenge, vegetable garden