I’m not much for conspiracy theories.  I don’t often rail against the government or big companies.  Perhaps it’s because I work for a big company!

But I am trying to be very careful about which agriculture companies I support.  Local is good.  Usually.  Sometimes.  Unless you live local to Monsanto!

These days it is harder and harder to figure out who is behind the stuff you think it’s safe to get behind.  We are in the garden catalog season and I look carefully through all of them.  I’ve got my steady seed suppliers, but sometimes I want to try something new.  So, when the catalog from cooksgarden.com came in, I decided to see if I could track down who they are.  Perhaps they are a fine upstanding company.  Perhaps they are a front for some vile, dark creatures from Monsanto.

So, how can you do this?  How can you figure out who actually owns “Happy Organic Land O’ Farmers Pastoral Beauty And Niceness”?  A few ways.

1. Check their website.  Sometimes they will tell you who they are.  When they do, don’t stop checking.  Follow the trail further.  When they don’t, at least try and find an address beyond a p.o. box.  In the case of cooksgarden.com, the website did not give me any information on who actually owned them.  Spidey senses tingling, I kept looking.

2. Hoovers.com is hooked into Dun & Bradstreet.  You can often find company information here, but it’s much more applicable to publicly-traded entities and you frequently have to pay to get more information.  But give it a shot.  I gave it a shot for cooksgarden.com (aka The Cooks Garden) and came up empty.

3. The good ol’ government!  Almost every state (except New Jersey) requires any business to register.  And just about every state has an online interface to allow you to search a business.    And this link from the Consumer Advisory Council provides links to every state.  Incredibly handy.  Since I knew that Cooksgarden.com was in Warminster, PA (Warminster, Warminster.. sounds familiar for some reason) I clicked through to PA and there it was!

(Yes as my programs show I was playing World Of Warcraft.)

What I learned was that The Cook’s Garden is actually a “fictitious name”.  That sounds ominous, but it’s fairly standard.  It really means that they are “doing business as” (dba) and many individuals do this.  And many corporations do too.  It lets you run a business under a different name without having to set up a new legal entity.  No big deal.  Usually.

In this case, The Cook’s Garaden of Warminster, PA is actually owned by Burpee.  Good to know.  Now I can decide if I’m okay with that.  (Repeating the search process will show how Burpee has changed hands.  George Ball Jr. runs the show   Beware!  Seminis Inc. is involved and that is a Monsanto monstrosity these days.)

By the way, The Garden of Eatin blog has a compiled list of seed companies that have links to Monsanto.  Super easy to check the list here.

At the end of the day you may or may not agree with how I would assess the merits of one company over another.  Let’s not quibble about that! Do your own checking on your own companies.  I’ve got a pretty thick anti-Monsanto streak in me and you may not.  (But you should.)  The point is, check these companies out.  Be careful.  Be vigilant.  Be supportive of the companies and their parents, and their holdings, and their LLCs, DBAs once you have all the facts.

Happy hunting!

Update: I wanted to add a late-breaking link from Daphne’s Dandelions. She’s using Fedco Seeds and they apparently use a identification system on their seeds that lets you know where the seeds are coming from.  There’s even a category for Monsanto – with only one variety linked to them.

Might as well also link to my seed suppliers.

Pinetree seeds in Maine.

Seed Savers Exchange

Another Update:

Ali from Henbogle commented on the confusion around Johnny’s Selected seeds.  I think it’s worth pointing out here in the body of the post that they are not owned by Monsanto.  They are family owned and partially employee owned – on the way to being wholly employee owned.  Here is the link from Johnny’s that explains it all.

A repeating effort to chronicle the odder search terms people use to find my silly little blog.

Today’s search term: I Want To Go Blueberry Picking Today Jim

In so many cases search terms lack the needed punctuation or emphasis to truly unravel the deeper meanings.  I can most assuredly agree with this eager web fruit searcher that picking, once imagined, must happen now.  Today.  Immediately!

You can pick your friends.  You can pick your fruit.  But if your friend is named Jim, perhaps you can’t normally pick the fruit today.

Now, this Jim.  What can we claim to know about him?  I think that he is the oppressive sort.  The kind that likes to keep sweet rewards tantalizingly close, but very much out of a person’s immediate reach.  ”Perhaps tomorrow we can pick blueberries,” he might say as he begins further scheming.

A word of caution to Tantalus Jim.  These sweet treasures that you keep so close and yet so far, create powerful longings.  I suggest that you hire Oompa Loompas.  Once tasted at long last, after years of teasing denial, intense desire, covetous imagining, these blueberrries will cause a person to over consume.

Other Search Term Mysteries:

Part 1 Where Do Eggshells Come From?

Part 2 Blindfolded Honey On Tongue

Part 3 How Do You Get Suckers Off Of Tom?

Part 4 Pole Been Eatable

Fall in Connecticut means lots and lots and lots of leaves.  Piles of them.  Maple and Oak mostly in my forest.

And today the compost fairies arrived!  My friend Jeff had about 22 bags of leaf and grass clippings and delivered them hot and fresh to my house.  Nobody was spared!  Kyle and Sean got to help drag all of the bags out to the pile while I “supervised”.

The hard part will be getting some balance now to this compost pile.  It’s way, way over its allotment of carbon now and I’ll need to get some greens added quickly.  The old pile was fairly small and was already cooking with a good mix of carbon to nitrogen.  Now.. it’s HUGE!  I don’t plan on turning it for a while and may even let it sit through the winter untouched.  That will allow me to augment it next spring and cook it through the summer.

The magic number for compost is 25:1 carbon to nitrogen.  A little excess carbon (like my pile now) and it just won’t break down very well or very quickly.  Excess nitrogen can bring on the stinkies.

Here’s a quick video shot on the iPhone.

I blame the weather.

Really.  I blame it for everything.  I blame it for the NY Giants recent collapse.  I blame it for bad television and movies.  I blame it for irrationality.  I blame it for the fact that I’m only 5′10″.  I blame it for the fact that I just lied about my height.  I blame it for my tendency to oversimplify blame.  I blame it for poorly used irony.

Why? Because I’m too mentally lazy to think of the real things to blame.

So it goes with the garden this year.  I want to blame the weather for the smallish yields and weeds.  But if I really think about it, I’m the one to blame.

Bean Blame Game

The beans were okay, but I overplanted.  The bush beany humidors created a smothery, diseasy extravaganza.  The pole beans performed the best, but I was not diligent enough in my picking.  Also, the supports I created were not supportive enough.  Solution? Concentrate on pole beans next year, planted more thinly and with a crazy support system.

Pea Blame Game

Three varieties.  99 plants.  Not a bad yield, but some disease turned my Carouby’s into sad, twisted, gnarled knuckles.  The Cascadias were the clear winners.  They are the most delicious anyway.  Solution? Next year, go with 75% Cascadia.  I am replenishing the beds with cover crops and should have great luck.  I will also be building a better trellis system that will be permanent.

Onion Blame Game

It’s time to stop putting my onion in eggs in the set basket.  Sets are great for cute little guys, but they aren’t good for much other than immediate chopping and eating.  Solution?  As part of the seed starting plan (which involves me and my friend Chris turning his furnace room into a garden center) next year, onions get a starring role.

Greens Blame Game

Just about all of the lettuces did well.  Arugula? Great, but not my favorite variety. The spinach? Not so much.  And really the biggest problem with the lettuces was succession.  Solution? More cos/romaine next year (my wife’s favorite) and everything gets planted in two-week successions.  Spinach? I need to devote more space to it.  It is perhaps my favorite thing to eat and I just don’t get enough of it.  Diligence in thinning, picking, eating – gotta have it.  For the arugula, I will go back to the Seeds From Italy variety that I love so much.

Garlic Blame Game

The garlic was fantastic, but as usual I probably planted it too tightly.  Solution? Already planted and given some elbow room.

Peppers Blame Game

I can’t seem to screw these things up all that much.  They had a very slow start because of the weather (I swear!), but once they kicked in they didn’t stop.  I’m still picking them.  If anything, I simply wasn’t diligent enough in picking.  Easy to fix that.

Broccoli Blame Game

It’s a family favorite.  This wasn’t a bad year for the broccoli, but again I simply need to plant more, space them out better and be more diligent in picking it.  I had a few that flowered.  Inexcusable!  Solution? Pay attention!

Cucumber Blame Game

Is it possible to screw up cucumbers? Yes, yes it is.  This year mine were a mildewy disaster.  Tons of rain did me in.  However, even if the rain hadn’t been so horrible, I’m not sure I would have had a great crop.  Solution?  Move to a less rainy location.  Also, I just need to plant a few more and space them properly.

Next year I am not going to pursue so many one-off crops.  I filled in a lot of cracks with silly experiments.  It’s time to return to basics and plant more of what I use the most.  I will be avoiding tomatoes again next year, but may run with some potatoes or corn.  We’ll see.

Happy offseason!

A quick video showing peppers hanging on, spinach, and some other stuff.

Fall is definitely here.  We haven’t had a frost yet, but we will shortly.  Sometimes it’s a good idea to wait for that first light frost and then get the garlic in, but I should be fine getting it in the ground now.  The point is to let the roots get established before things get too cold.  Of course, if you put it in to early, you’ll get some growth and that is to be avoided.

I’ve got three types.

1. German Hardy.  Stiffneck.  Planted this near the back of the row.
2. Music.  Stiffneck.  Should grow great.
3. Susanville.  Softneck.

I did a few quick videos to show the bed prep and planting.  I could edit them together I suppose, but I’m a little lazy.

Video 1: Oh My The Bed Is Mess!

Video 2: Oh My The Bed Is Clean!

Video 3: Garlic Types

Video 4: Root Side Down, Pointy Side Up

More garlic posts:

Fall Garlic Planting

Garlic Update

Scape

When To Pick Garlic

Garlic Harvest

Two years ago I smelled it.  It was early in the morning as I walked through my neighborhood and I smelled grape bubblegum.  Sugary, sweet, winey.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t bubblegum.  It was the real deal.  Grapes.  I could see the vines snarling almost over every tree on the side of the road and I plucked a fruit and ate it.  Fantastic.

That year my friend Chris made some nice grape jam and it made us desperate for the return of the grapes.  But they didn’t return.  Somebody decided that they needed to be cut down.  Terrible!  Now, I get how these vines can smother trees, but if I could be smothered by anything I’d pick wild grapes in my top 3.  (The other 2 are probably NSFW.)

This year?  They are back and better than ever.  You can’t keep a good grape vine down.

Now part of the problem is that TECHNICALLY the grapes are on somebody else’s property on two sides of the road.  But since it was really only me and the yellowjackets who seemed to notice that they were there… I say they are mine by divine providence.  Snakes, fruit, and my own knowledge.

Chris and I made the pilgrimage to the trees yesterday and through a sophisticated fruit extraction method (tree bending, plucking and shaking) we got a bunch.  Today, Chris turned them into delicious jars of sweet perfection.  I will ration them all winter.

I believe that I am going to make it through this whole summer with a constant supply of lettuce from the garden.  Most of the greens in the main garden have bolted, but I’m replanting in some shade and thanks to the power of the rolling earthbox, I’ve got shade whenever I need it for arugula and some buttercrunch.

While I’m on the subject, earthboxes rule.  I’ve had mine for three years now and have bought one for my dad and my father in law.  I tend to grow peas in mine and then move to greens.  Next year I’m getting at least one more.

To see it in action, check out the shibaguyz in a post devoted entirely to the earthbox.

Mr. Vole looked himself over in the mirror. “What a fine figure I cut, don’t you think so Mr. Mole?”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole from beneath his blankets.

Mr. Vole turned slowly about, admiring the cut of his cuffs.

“There’s much to do today Mr. Mole.  You’ll not get anywhere by staying in bed.”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole settling deeper into his pillows.

“Well I’ve made us a list you see. A list that tells us all the things we must do,” said Mr. Vole adjusting his reading glasses.

“A List By Mr. Vole,” he said and cleared his throat.  “Number 1.  Wake up,” he said.  “And I have done that.”  Mr. Vole placed a checkmark next to number 1, glanced toward Mr. Mole and began erasing.

“Hmmm. No matter.  Number 2.  Dress,” he said.  “And I have done that.”  Mr. Vole placed a checkmark next to number 2.  “Are you listening Mr. Mole?  This is where the list gets very, very good.”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole turning on his side.

“Number 3.  Use Mr. Mole’s tunnels to feast at the upside-down vegetable buffet,” Mr. Vole said.  “Oh very good!  Very good. I shall have to be random in my eating so as to confuse the gardener, don’t you agree?”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole.

“Number 4!” said Mr. Vole.  “Return with grubs for Mr. Mole and drink tea. Excellent!  What a day Mr. Mole, what a fine, fine day.”

“Hmmph,” said Mr. Mole.

I am back from an excellent vacation in NY.  I had some friends watching the garden for me (gotta keep picking beans… don’t stop… keep picking) and they enjoyed beans, peppers, and onions.  In fact, they got some nice local peaches and made a peach salsa that I can’t wait to try.  Best of all, they go away this week and I get to watch their chickens!!

I let the garlic sit the extra week.  This is late for garlic, but the weather has been so weird that I’ve stopped paying attention to normal harvesting times.  I harvested yesterday and some may have gone a little long as there was some clove separation, but no big deal.

All in all, the harvest was pretty good.  I got 80 bulbs and of those about 40 are in excellent shape, large, skins forming, lovely.  Another 25 or so are in good shape.  The rest are very small or cracked, but I’ll just use them right away.

For me harvesting is easier and safer by hand.  I don’t have that many to pluck and I can be easier on the garlic.  Most people use a garden fork, but I didn’t want to stab anything so I just reached in, cleared around the bulb a bit and worked underneath to get the roots out.  Garlic can be pretty delicate so I used my gentle hands as opposed to my very strong hands of crushing.  Stop laughing.  I have very strong hands of crushing on account of my incredible strength.

After gettting them out of the ground, I cut the necks off down to about half an inch.  I washed most of the dirt off, but did it very carefully.  I want the skins to cure and they are in a delicate state right now.  Too much scrubbing and I’d take the skin off and that will hurt my chances of storage.

I will hang the bulbs now in my garage, out of the sun, out of the heat, but not too cool.  After a couple of weeks of hanging and even airflow, they should have pretty good skins going and I can store them in a cupboard.