September 23, 2008

The autumnal equinox has come and gone, the days are getting shorter, and the nights cooler.  Yes, the season is winding down.  The mad rush of the high season harvest is over.  A few zucchini and cucumbers are still showing up here and there but they're mostly done.  The tomatoes are slowing down, as well, but the late planting is producing some beautiful German Heart, Wapsinicon Peach, and Moonglow fruits.  The winter squash survived the onslaught of pests earlier in the season and are maturing in the field.  I tucked little beds of hay under them to prevent the still wet soil from softening the shells.  The spaghetti squash are ripe and the Butternut, Delicata, Sweet Dumpling, and Gold Nugget are close to perfection.  Pretty pink, gold, and purple radishes are also coming out of the fields as are gorgeous little beets.

As always, I approach the end of the season with mixed feelings.  I am glad that the mad rush is over.  It's exhilirating for a while but it can also be a bit wearing.  Still, the shorter days remind me that winter is coming and that I will need to forego the pleasures of the field for too long a time.  I will miss the feel of the soil, the exuberance of the harvest, the sight of bees, butterflies, frogs, toads, and salamanders.  I'll miss the song of the wind in the Sudan grass.  I will miss this time of year the most, the golden warmth of the afternoon and the cool of the nights.  But still, the earth must rest for a season.

Too, I've turned to other activities.  I am back in school, taking a course in counseling skills, and am also taking Yoga Teacher Training.  I have started my field placement work as an intern in a local nursing home, working on the Alzheimer's floor.  I will also be returning to my volunteer work with troubled teens this week.  The search for my winter job is on - back to my old haunts in compensation and benefits.

And - we've adopted two old dogs from a local shelter - a Bichon/Poodle mix named Jeffrey and a Miniature Poodle named Pumpkin.  Jeffrey is 15 and Pumpkin is 17.  We hope that they'll both feel safe and happy here as they live out the last years of their lives.  If you're thinking of adding a companion pet to your family, please consider a shelter animal.  Saving the life of an abandoned dog, cat, or bunny is one of the greatest experiences life has to offer.

September 15, 2008

The first rains after the dry dry August (after a wet wet spring) were welcome and gave the arugula, edamame, and radishes a real boost.  But, of course, too much of a good thing is, well, not a good thing.   Over three and a half inches of rain fell on the fields this weekend making it too wet to do much.  The grass I planted in between the rows sure did make a huge difference in being able to at least walk (most) of the fields.  Last year I was sinking in mud.  This year I could actually walk down most of the rows.  In a few places, despite the grass, the ground was still to mushy to walk in.  As of Sunday, most everything seemed to be surviving the latest deluge. 

Cucumbers and zucchini have finished their run (though a second planting of cucumbers may yet produce) but edamame is just coming in and the second harvest of radishes is also underway.  The arugula is looking good but is not yet ready for harvest.  The tomatoes are still hanging in there but I am officially declaring the eggplants to be a lost cause.  Eggplants have been a problem for other growers as well which makes me feel at least a little better!  The pepper plants are finally blossoming so there may yet be a harvest of sweet and hot peppers - much will depend on long this cool snap lasts.

I was going to muse a bit about the weather and the coming fall, but writer's block has hit - so maybe next time!

August 30, 2008

Even vegan organic farmers have junk food days.  Mine was today.  Dinner was potato chips, a cocktail, and chocolate.  In my defense - the potato chips were made from the Yukon Golds I had put aside for this purpose and the orange juice in my cocktail and the chocolate for dessert were organic!  And - I had a very very healthy - and yummy lunch of MiniWhite cucumbers and the last of the Dragon Beans.  (One of the perks of farming is keeping back some of the stuff you really really like for yourself!) 

The harvest is now in full swing.  All of the onions and garlic have been harvested and processed and are available.  Consider buying in quantity now while the selection is still good.  The sweet cooking onions will last a month or two with storage in a cool dry place and the garlic will last into December and likely into February.  Delaying purchases will not get you "fresher" onions and garlic - only a slimmer selection!

Zucchini and summer squash, after a slow start, are now coming on gangbusters and so are on sale for a reduced price.  However, the plants are starting to die back so this bounty won't last long!  Cucumbers are also in peak season but the yellows and whites are very popular - if you haven't tried these yet make sure to do so - you won't find Boothby Blonde's or MiniWhites anywhere else and the season is short!

Tomatoes are starting to ripen and new varieties are coming on line on an almost daily basis.  Currently available are Oregon Spring, Tigerella, Cosmonaut Volkov, Illini Star, Double Rich, Black Prince, Paul Robeson, and Rose de Berne.  Check out the Planned Varieties page for pictures and descriptions! 

Potatoes are also being dug.  While Yukons and Norlands are almost gone you can still get Cranberry, Huckleberry, Carola, and Desiree right now.  These lovely specialty potatoes cannot be found outside of farmer's markets and most of these varieties are hard to find even there.  Coming soon are All Blue and Elba, the world's best mashing potato.

Of course, cabbage, beets, and carrots are also available and are excellent keepers.  If you want to eat local through the winter you'll want to give serious thought to buying and storing these great veggies (along with onions, garlic, and potatoes) for great local eating all winter long.

Sweet and hot peppers are now flowering so I do hope to bring at least some of these to market by the end of September.  The cool wet weather followed by a hot spell just as the peppers were flowering the first time have been less than ideal conditions for these finicky plants.  Eggplants are also giving me a hard time - an early small blossom set has been followed by a stubborn refusal to set more flowers!  But, I have been foliar feeding with a molasses and comfrey mix and am hoping the eggplants will see fit to reward me with some fruits!

August 20, 2008

A great way to learn how to deal gracefully with adversity is by taking up farming.  Weather, insects, plant diseases, and weeds often team up to deal fatal blows to some crops.  This year's fatalities include both the spring and fall plantings of peas as well as the spring planting of arugula and spinach.  The late planting of sweet corn is also taking a beating.   Though the plants grew well they silked just in time for the invasion of the striped cucumber beetles and Japanese beetles who all seem to think that corn silk is an uncommon delicacy.  Oh, well - just like the Cubs - there is always next year.

On the other hand, the triumphs make up for the trials.  The farm looks beautiful this year.  I employed a new integrated weed management strategy that included undersowing with clover, stale seedbedding, hoeing out weed seedlings at an early stage, putting down heavy hay mulch, and sowing grass and clover to the pathways.  I have had to pull some weeds by hand but remarkably few (especially compared to the weed fest I had last year!). 

I also seem to be prevailing against the depradations of the Japanese beetles in the edamame crop.  After trying comfrey tea (good fertilizer, bad bug repellant) and garlic and pepper extract (made my eyes water but made no never mind to the beetles), I finally read that spraying canola oil on the plants is a deterrent.  Well, I had no canola oil but did have some old olive oil so I used that, and lo and behold - the beetles went back to muching on the smartweed (they can have it!).

Of course, the greatest triumph of all is being able to eat freshly grown produce that cannot be found anywhere else.  I'm enjoying munching on Mini White cucumbers, Black Prince tomatoes (tonight - panzanella - an Italian bread and tomato salad for dinner - the bread is baking now!), Walla Walla onions, sweet basil, fresh Georgian Crystal garlic, freshly dug Huckleberry potatoes, sweet Raven and Zephyr zucchini, and all the rest of the summer bounty!

Yep - farm living is the life for me!

August 14, 2007

After a long day crawling through squash plants and performing surgery that is not for the squeamish, I belive I may have saved the squash.  Yesterday's rain helped as well.  The plants that were wilting are now looking alive.  Only time will tell of course but the effort has been made and now all that is left is to wait.

Today was spent weeding since it was too damp to do much else and I must say that the place looks marvelous!  Weed free in the places that count (we won't speak of the other places...).

Potato digging comes next.  Most of the plants are starting to die back (normal behavior for potato plants) so now is a good time to start the harvest.  Eight varieties of potato are on tap for this year:

Yukon Gold - these make the very best homemade potato chips ever

Huckelberry - My current very favorite potato

All Blue - A blue skinned, blue fleshed potato that has high levels of anti-oxidants, not to mention great taste.

Cranberry - A pink skinned, pink fleshed potato that is also sweet and creamy.

Norland Dark Red - New to the line up this year - I have yet to taste it.

Elba - The best potato for baking and mashing - a flaky texture and great classic potato taste.

Carola  - The best yellow fleshed potato.

Reddale - A red skinned white fleshed potato - also new to the line up - I haven't tried it yet but will let you know what it's like shortly!

Time for bed - digging potatoes is hard work and I need to rest up!

August 12, 2008

The farm is looking really really good these days, neatly mown grassy pathways, mostly weed free beds, mulched and trellised tomatoes (and they are finally ripening!!), pretty purple and green cabbages, flowering eggplants and peppers, and beautiful winter squash.

But...all is not well in fantasy farmland.  The squash bugs and squash vine borers have found Reverence Gardens, as I discovered while weeding the winter squash today.  Sigh, what to do??  Well, as soon as I got home I went straight to my Rodale's Organic Gardening Magazine primer on controlling bugs.  Yes, there they were, squash bugs and squash vine borers.  And, hosannahs, I can save the squash, though it will entail crawling through the plants looking for the critters...but, that's what jeans are for!

I do believe I have saved the edamame from the ravages of the Japanese beetles.  After trying both comfrey tea (a great fertilizer in any case) and a garlic/hot pepper concoction I finally tried spraying the leaves with olive oil - yes, olive oil mixed with water and sprayed on with my trusty RocketSprayer.  This seems to be working.  I am not sure how it works but there are many fewer Japanese beetles on the plants right now (or, maybe the beetles are at the end of this year's life cycle and just naturally dying off...who knows).

As mentioned earlier, the tomatoes are finally ripening.  I've taste tested the first few ripe beauties and am pleased to say that they are fabulous.  I've also tasted the very first of the cucumbers and carrots!  The first eggplants ready to be picked (and grilled with garlic and basil - yum!) and the pepper plants are flowering and setting fruits, as well.  The zucchini are still producing steadily and are receiving rave reviews as are the beets, cabbages, onions, and garlic.  The beans are done for a while but a small new crop is currently flowering and is looking promising.  A new crop of radishes went in today and lettuces will be seeded within the next few days.  I am still holding out hope for the watermelon but it will be dicey - no fruits yet and time is growing short. 

OK - enough for now - my eyes are crossing and that's usually a sign that it's time for bed!

August 5, 2008

So, yesterday I took the day off to celebrate my 54'th birthday!  It rained most of the day but it was nice to kick back and relax!  I spent the day reading some new books I checked out from the library and eating farm fresh veggies!  Heaven!

All the garlic has been harvested and is now in the process of curing.  The bulbs of these hard neck beauties are huge!  I'll be saving the very largest of the bulbs for planting stock for next year but that leaves plenty of premium sized and large bulbs for your eating pleasure!  The garlic comes in six varieties - Georgian Crystal, Polish Jenn, Northern White, German Extra-Hardy, Unexpected, and Gary's.  There is a story behind each and I'll tell it soon - but now have to get ready to run up to the farm to harvest for this week's sales!

July 20, 2008

Many thanks to Andrea of the Hair Source for her great green bean recipe -  it's simple and oh, so yummy!  Simply lightly steam the green beans and chill them quickly.  Then dress with a mixture of lemon juice, garlic, mint, and olive oil.  I didn't have mint so used Anise Hyssop which added a light anise flavor.  To prepare, zip the lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil through a mini-processor.  Finely mince the mint or other herbs and add to the lemon juice mixture.  Add the beans and you have a wonderful dish!  It's good right away but even better after a few hours in the fridge.

Visitors to the farm today were wowed by both the Purple Dragon Tongue (the striped beans above) and the Royalty Purple beans.  Even my farming mentor wanted to know which variety of purple beans I was growing!  The Royalty Purple beans have a slightly fruity and nutty taste while the Purple Dragon Tongue are juicy and crunchy!  Both will lose their purple color during cooking and are fabulous raw so you might want to forego cooking them and just have them au naturel!  (PS - One of the great perks of farming is getting to eat produce right in the field - talk about fresh!)

July 20, 2008

If you haven't taken a tour of the rest of the website be sure to check out these pages:

Photos of the farm can be seen at: http://www.reverencegardens.com/gallery

The Price List of available produce including photos and descriptions can be found at: http://www.reverencegardens.com/content/799

Information on Healthy Living can be found at: http://www.reverencegardens.com/content/650

The Healthy Living page includes informatin on topics such as the most effective sunscreens on the market, the hazards of imported produce, healthy and environmentally sound ways to have a green lawn, and healthy eating tips.

Recipes can be found at: http://www.reverencegardens.com/recipe

July 18, 2008

I never had a beet growing up.  It is the one vegetable my Dad cannot tolerate and one of the many vegetables my Mom won't eat.  The only beets I ever had until 5 years ago were the horrid canned beets that show up on salad bars.  I kept thinking that anything that looked as beautiful as a beet had to be good, but experience kept saying I was wrong.  Until, that is, I had my first fresh beets when I was working on Sue and Gary's farm.  Wow!  Beets are good!  Especially good are those first young beets of the season.  Tonight, at 9 pm and just home from the farm, dog tired and mosquito bitten, I was feeling too tired to make anything to eat.  Then I remembered the baby beets I had steamed and chilled, waiting in the fridge.  I slipped the skins off the Detroit Red, the Golden Detroit, the Cylindra, and the Albino - hmmmm - ambrosia....  Really, who needs candy when you have sweet baby beets? 

More great food just keeps popping up all the time now - luscious fresh garlic, three varieties of bush beans, heirloom zucchini, savory hot and sweet table onions, red cabbage, and the first of the sweet basil.  I love this food - it's the reason I started farming - so I could have these wonderful varieties fresh on my table.  I also love that other people love this food - and that I'm bringing fresh, flavorful, and nutritious produce to people I care about!

Potatoes will be coming along in another 10 days or so.  A recent test dig yielded only two decent size potatoes in the hill - but I may have a new favorite!  The Huckleberry potato has a brilliant purplish red skin and a creamy sweet tasting white flesh shot through with pink streaks.  Sue and Gary said they were good, they were wrong - these are great!  Look for them soon!