My Garden

We're now harvesting hundreds of pounds of tomatoes each week, along with buckets full of summer squash, zucchini eggplant, carrots, cucumbers, and peppers. Add that to a couple hundred pounds of cabbage, some fennel, beets, broccoli, endive, kale, chard, scallions, onions, and purslane, and we've got quite a few farm-fresh veggies on our hands.

Compared to the farm's 4+ acres of organic vegetable production, my little garden is laughable. Its 10 foot by 10 foot perfect square is jam-packed with vegetable plants -- some of them experiments -- so who knows how they'll do. But much like the Little Red Hen who planted the wheat, harvested the wheat, ground the wheat, and made the wheat into bread all by herself, I've been taking care of this garden from the very beginning, and it's all -- for better or for worse -- mine.

I ripped up the sod on the lawn, I turned under the compost (which was acquired with the generous help of my co-workers), I raked it smooth, I sowed the seeds and planted the seedlings, I staked the tomatoes (more or less), I added the fertilizer, and wouldn't you know it -- I'm harvesting the vegetables!

The farmers were so kind to let me rip up a portion of their lawn so I could have a garden of my own. The following photographs show a little bit of the method to my madness:

In the beginning, there was sod. I measured out a ten by ten square plot, staked it, and started digging up the sod with my favorite farm tool: the digging fork. I started my garden rather late; this photograph was taken over Memorial Day weekend.

My enthusiasm for the garden was in constant flux as I dug up the sod. For all the sweat and effort I was putting into the digging, what I was really getting out of it (in the short-term, at least) was a perfect square of not-so-great dirt...

The digging fork, at rest.

 

I bought a package of  organic Clemson Sprineless okra seeds at a natural foods market in town. Here they are, germinating away, in the greenhouse. This photograph was taken in early June. 

The newly planted garden: more dirt than green. Here's a list of what's in it:

- 6 okra plants (sowed from seed in the greenhouse)

- 2 tomato plants left over from the seedling sales (sungold cherry tomato and green zebra)

- 2 volunteer tomato plants that I dug up from section 1. Last year's cherry tomatoes went crazy with the re-seeding, and these guys would have been pulled up to make room for this year's leeks and brassicas. I had no idea what kind of cherries they'd produce, but that was part of the fun.

- 3 volunteer husk cherry plants, which also re-seeded from last year. I dug them up like the cherries.

- 2 tomato plants I rooted from "suckers" pruned off of tomato plants in the greenhouse. I still have no idea what variety of tomatoes they'll grow, but they seem very healthy!

- 1 sorrel. yum.

- 2 lemon cucumber plants

- 1 zucchini

- 1 lacinato kale
- 3 pepper plants (1 mystery variety that lost its tag during the plant sale, 1 "lipstick" pepper plant, and 1 "King Arthur Bell" that I bought at Volante Farm)

Since this photograpg was taken I've added:

- 1 bok choy

- 3 Russian kale plants

- 3 lettuce starts

- 5 basil plants

- 12 red onion starts, which I found in the compost spreader we borrowed from a nearby farm. They're doing great. 

- 1 stunted sunflower, which has bloomed and is now looking a little sad.

I think this is a picture of one of the greenhouse "suckers" when it started producing fruit. These tomatoes are now huge but still green. Still not sure what kind of tomato plant it is. If only I could remember which plant I pruned it off of!

 

Lacinato kale. Scrumptious! 

Stay tuned for another post about what my garden looks like now-a-days. I'd love to say that I'm trying to build the suspense, but in truth I haven't yet uploaded the photos to my computer and I'm too excited to share the news about this little garden-that-could to wait. So far I've harvested one zucchini,  two lemon cucumbers, some kale, the bok choy, and a few leaves (here and there) of sorrel. Today, I ate my first two sungold cherry tomatoes! I definitely couldn't live off of this garden, but hey, it's a start.

Sugarsnap Finale

On a farm, nothing is ever static. There is constant motion -- constant changes in weather, in season, in plant growth, in farm chores. Just when you think something is in its place, it must be moved. Just when the lettuce is looking its best, it's time to harvest it and head on to something new. The beauty of each crop, each row, and each plant is ephemeral.

This week marked a number of seasonal milestones. The one that left the biggest impression on me was the sugarsnap pea finale. In other words, we took down all the trellising that had been blistering our hands for the last two months, removed the stakes, and then, sadly, mowed down what was left of the peas. Sure, they were still producing, but only a little. Mostly, their leaves and stems were brown, their pathways were overgrown with weeds, and their pods were swollen and past their prime.

The night before our good-bye, I went out in the field with my large kitchen colander and filled it to the brim, snacking on the crunchy pea pods as I went along.  When I got back to my kitchen, I washed them, pulled their strings, and stuffed them into several pint jars. If you can't have 'em fresh all year long, why not pickle 'em?

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Below is the recipe I used, which is a modified version of a recipe that originally came from The Joy Of Pickling....

       - Peas. Stuffed into two pint jars or one quart jar.
       - White distilled vinegar. 1 and 1/4 cups
       - Cold water. 1 and 1/4 cups
       - 1Tbsp. salt (or so)
       - 1 Tbsp. sugar (or so)
       - 2 garlic cloves, sliced
       - Hot pepper flakes

Add the garlic and pepper flakes to the jars of peas. Heat up the vinegar with the sugar and salt on a stovetop until dissolved. Then add the water. This will help the liquid cool down. When cooled, pour the liquid into the jars, over the peas. Put the lids on the jars. Refrigerate. Peas will be pretty pickled within a couple of days. They'll last quite a while in the fridge....unless you eat them all. They're yummy!

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So that's it for the peas. Until next year.

What else happened this week? Carrots. And eggplants. Sweet onions. Fennel. Harvests that go on for hours. Bountiful CSA shares and farmer's market stands. A sighting of a tiny baby watermelon. The fluttering of a monarch butterfly's wings. The discovery that the clover I pull out from so many beds is called lemon clover, which is edible, tangy, and delicious. The seeding of our fall plantings of kohlrabi and bok choy. The planting of two more beds of lettuce, affirming the fact that I'm much better at using the transplanter now than I was in May. The half-way point of my apprenticeship. Adding fertilizer to my personal garden, and spotting tiny zucchinis and cucumbers. Sunflowers in full bloom. Ripening cherry tomatoes and husk cherries in the field. The browning of garlic leaves, telling us they're almost ready...not quite...almost...

It's so satisfying to recognize different points in natural cycles as they occur. Last week the Japanese beetles went wild -- eating away at plants and mating like there's no tomorrow. The wild parsnip is almost ready to go to seed, so we have to make sure we chop it down before that happens.  Monarch butterflies have been joining us on the farm this week. Spiders are laying their eggs in sacs.

In nature and in human-dominated landscapes, there's no rest. Full of life, everything is changing and moving and growing and senescing. Next year, there will be more peas.

What's in Bloom! (A picture story)

 Mountain Laurel was recently in full bloom at Mount Everett State Reservation, and it gave the trails a lovely fragrance. It's in the laurel family (fitting, right?) along with cranberries and blueberries.

Milkweed has a gorgeous pink bloom.

In my garden plot, the tomatoes are flowering. (And if you look closely, there are already some tiny fruits!) I planted this little garden very late in the season, so it's a thrill to see it coming along so nicely. More about that later...

 The part of the broccoli plant that we eat is the flower head. We've been harvesting broccoli for a couple weeks now.

 Snow peas are just about done for the season, but our sugar snaps are still going. 

 Oh, zinnias! Our members picked their first small bouquets this week.

You can't go anywhere around these parts without seeing the bright orange glow of day lilies poking their heads out onto the road. I recently learned that the flower is edible, and it's quite tasty. It would make a beautiful addition to a fresh summer salad.

 We're just about done harvesting garlic scapes, which is what the garlic plant shoots up in the spring. These are the garlic's flower stalks. When they first come up, they curl around and keep growing until the flower bud eventually faces the sky to open up, which is what the one is this picture is getting ready to do. You pick 'em when they're still curled and tender. Pure garlicky goodness. 

 Eggplant has a beautiful purple flower. 

 We haven't yet harvested eggplants for distribution, but as you can see, they're growin'!

 Same with the peppers. Lots of flowers, lots of maturing fruits, but not quite ready for harvest. They look good though!

 Wild parsnip is also in full bloom. This a weed in the umbel family (apiaceae) which is the same family that carrots, dill, and Queen Anne's lace are in. Wild parsnip is everywhere, and I recently learned that the sap is toxic and can cause a reaction if it touches your skin. Beware of wild parsnip and its relative hogweed. Don't put them in your bouquet!

And of course, summer squash. We've been picking hundreds of pounds a week of yellow squash, patty pan, and zucchini, and the harvest has only just begun! Male blossoms can be picked and eaten, though I have yet to try this out.

It's starting to really feel like summer.