Helping Feed Family and Friends

This weekend was the official start to canning and preserving! I spent 2 hours in the garden this morning pruning tomatoes, removing dead and moldy foliage, winnowing yellow crookneck squash leaves to let the bees in, and I harvested 3 heads of Sylvesta butterhead lettuce, 6 Red Ace Beets, 11 Olympian cucumbers, and 18 pickling cukes. When all was said and done, I processed 9.25 quarts of pickles and 1 quart of pickled beets. Not bad for 5 hours worth of work! And as I type, I'm hearing the satisfying "pop!...pop-pop!" as my ball jars seal tight.

And the bees!!! I don't ever remember so many bees! While I was out in the garden, there was a steady, loud (yes, it was loud!) buzzing hum as the bees took nectar and pollinated the very many squash, tomatillo, tomato, and cucumber flowers. I think I'll have to tell my husband we should consider an apiary. There were about a 50 bees (or more) in and amongst all my plants this morning.

I sent my kids to the neighbors house with a head of lettuce and 4 cucumbers.

I also gave my kids one peeled, sliced cucumber (5 minutes off the vine) each to snack on. There is nothing quite so charming as my kids tasting the first cukes of the season and saying "mmmmmmm mmmmmmm, thanks, Mama, for growing cucumbers!!" And I have more for dinner....and lettuce!!!!

It looks like I'll need to visit the garden every other day at this point. I have many yellow crookneck squash growing, and about a bazillion pickling cukes. Which means I need to stock up on pickling supplies...

I buy my pickling spices from Penzey's Spices. They have a great selection to choose from. For pickling, because Johnny's plants produce so voluminously, I usually buy 5 lbs of dill seed, 2 pounds of multicolored peppercorns, and a few others while I'm at it. I buy Morton's pickling salt and fresh garlic from the local supermarket.

Here's my pickling recipe, should anyone be curious (I'm told I make some pretty tasty pickles!)

For 8 quarts of pickles:

• 7 cups water
  
• 7 cups apple cider vinegar
  
• 9 TBSP pickling salt (can use kosher as a sub)
  
• 32 cloves of garlic
  
• 2-2/3 cups of dill seed
  
• 48-56 2-3" pickling cucumbers
  
• 16 TBSP of black or mixed whole peppercorns
  
• 2 pot holders
  
• Pair of tongs
  
• Soup ladle
  
• Permanent black marker or Sharpie
  
• Fan or a husband with a large palm leaf
  

I start by cutting the garlic into 1/8 inch (yes, I'm that precise) slices. I use 4 cloves per jar. Feel free to reduce or increase the amount of garlic to your taste. I think I was bottle-fed garlic by my Italian grandmother, because I like LOTS if it! This takes the longest, so it's good to get it out of the way.

Next, I sterilize my jars in roiling hot water for 15 minutes. Remove jars, and add all ingredients to the jars. Per quart jar I add: 4 cloves of sliced garlic, 2 tbsp peppercorns, and 1/3 cup dill seed.

Next, add your pickling cukes. I seem to fit 5-6 per quart jar. If you find a monster pickling cuke or two that you forgot last time you picked, cut these into spears or into hamburger slices for a bit of a twist. Wipe the top rim and the outer ridged areas of the jars with a clean cloth or sponge when you're done.

Next, combine your water, vinegar, and salt (brine) and bring it to a light boil. Keep it covered as you heat it up or you'll experience a lot of evaporation. While this mixture is heating up, add your jar lids and cap tighteners to a pot of water and bring to a boil.

If you can, have 2 other pots half-full of water and bring them to a boil.

It's probably getting hot in your kitchen with all this boiling going on. Have that fan or palm-leaf-holding husband at the ready!!

When the brine is nice and hot, ladle 5-6 scoops into your jars and bring the liquid level to just below where the cap ridges start. Give the top a quick, clean swipe with your cloth or sponge, and then using tongs, first retrieve a flat sealing lid (set it on top of the jar) and then retrieve a cap. With a pot holder on your hand, grab hold of the jar and tighten the cap as much as you can. Repeat these steps until all jars are filled.

Now add all your filled, sealed jars to the half-full pots of boiling water and "water bath" your jars for 15 minutes.

When you take them out, give the cap a firm twist and then set them aside to cool.

About 15 minutes after you set them aside to cool, give all the jar caps another firm twist.

Within an hour or so, you should hear your jars start to pop.

Finish them off by recording the day you jarred them on the lid with a permanent black marker.

I love this part of summer. It's just amazing to me, and so rewarding, to see all the fruits of my efforts, literally, appearing from all the labor I started in February with starting my seedlings. I never get tired of this yearly labor of love. And my kids appreciate the fruits, too. Hopefully, in a another year or two, I'll have them helping me! I'm considering giving them their own little 4' by 4' section of my raised beds next season so they can experiment, weed, and feel the reward of their own efforts. Next generation of gardeners, here they come!!

What's New At The Farm? 7/23/08

We got rain; two and a half inches but a little too fast for my taste. There was some erosion around the farm but it was minimal at best. Having cover crops in place and the fact that it was so dry helped the rain to soak in. I also held off grinding some crops we are done with until we can grind and reseed the same day.

The fence is progressing well. They finished putting the posts in last week and will start putting wire up this week. They should be all done by the end of next week. Just in time as the deer are starting to eat the pumpkins. A couple of weeks ago we had to put floating row covers on the green bean trial or we wouldn’t have anything to evaluate. Beans and peas are on the list as deer’s favorite foods.

The farm looks really good this year; the weeds are under control, insects are kept in check and crop maintenance is on schedule. The tomatoes are worth the trip out here just to see them. All of field 11 (the field behind the pond) is in breeding tomatoes this year; the trial is in field 10. The squash and pumpkin fields look good with the mulch all laid out and few weeds visible. The corn is growing by leaps and bounds and everything else looks good as well.

We sprayed galinsoga at the ends of several fields last week with Matratec AG on Thursday last week. Matratec is an organic herbicide with the active ingredient being clove oil. It is an OMRI approved herbicide that kills on contact usually within 24 hours. We sprayed one of those brutally hot days and damage was visible with a couple of hours. It’s hard to hoe or otherwise eradicate the weeds at the ends of the rows as there are water pipes, valves and drip hoses from the irrigation lines there. Spraying is quicker and more efficient on a hot day than hoeing. The best weather to use an organic herbicide is on a hot day; the weeds really take a beating then.

On the home front we’ve frozen peas, Swiss chard and beets greens. We spent the bulk of last weekend picking, shelling, cleaning and blanching them. This week we’ll put up green beans and more beet greens. They’ll sure be good in the middle of the winter! We planted Big Top beets this year and they really do have big tops; nice big and tall tops that are easy to clean and easier to grow. We’ll definitely put these in the garden next year.

Until next week, Brian.

What's New At The Farm? 7/16/08

The hot and humid weather from last week is gone but the crops certainly liked the heat. The corn outside my window is tall enough that I can’t see the farm. I’m sure the crew likes that. It looks like it grew a foot in the past few days.

On the insect front the Mexican bean beetles and Japanese beetles are back. We’ll start spraying for them as well as onion thrips this week. Floating row covers have again prevented much damage from striped cucumber beetles on the cucurbits. Colorado potato beetles have been introduced to Entrust and the aphids are feeding lots and lots of ladybugs and their larvae.

Weeds are somewhat under control; the ever present galinsoga continues to challenge us. The squash and pumpkin trials and workshops have had the hay mulch placed between the rows so weeding there is complete. The isolation fields will get their final cultivation this week so we can concentrate on some other projects around the farm. Like what????

Like seeding down cover crops, picking rocks and crop maintenance of what we have planted. Lots of irrigating to do as we haven’t had any rain in a couple of weeks. Tomato trellising is always a popular activity. Thanks to Lisa Robbins for coming back solely to work on tomatoes this summer. If you haven’t seen them by all means stop by they look beautiful this year. And there’s lots of them.

Scouting for insect damage now is another popular activity here on the farm. Susan Anderson is starting an insect collection and now is a good time as we have lots of insects to collect. I saw Japanese beetles and squash bugs so far this week and am sure I’ll find more specimens. There are still some fat and sassy potato beetles that would like to spend an eternity in an alcohol filled glass jar.

Until next week, keep the bugs at bay, Brian.

Hacking into the Irri-Gator

Every once in a while, my husband accidentally runs something over with the lawn mower, usually because the grass has grown so long we’ve both forgotten what might be under it. Earlier this year he got a little too close to the corner of the garden, and my Irri-Gator pressure regulator ended up under the blades. Thankfully I had a spare one. I kept the remnants of the broken one because one never knows when such things will come in handy. And handy it was!

Before I worked at Johnny’s, I purchased the Irri-Gator system from them, and in my few years of gardening I’ve enjoyed using it. I’ve laid out my garden with it in mind, so all of the rows have tubing along them and all of my plants can get enough water. It is under my black landscaping fabric, which protects it from the UV rays. Watering hasn’t yet been an issue this summer, but it is starting to get hot and we don’t always get a thunderstorm, so I’ve started using it intermittently.

One thing that I like about the Irri-Gator is that I can use my hose timer to just “set it and forget it” (to quote a certain infomercial). One thing that’s always made me wonder, though, is whether there is a way to get the Irri-Gator to distribute liquid fertilizer throughout my garden. Other watering systems offer this option – Johnny’s offers a fertilizer injection system that you can attach to a sprinkler, for example, but the low water pressure used by the Irri-Gator is incompatible with it. So that got me searching on the web. I did find a system that can be hooked into the Irri-Gator or similar systems, but I’m pinching pennies this summer (we’re buying a woodstove and chimney plus cord wood, so we can stop using oil as our sole home heating source) and the $50 plus shipping just seemed like too much for such a simple thing. So I got to thinking – there has to be a way I can fashion such a thing cheaply at home.

I did consider that all of the fertilizer might stay close to where I have the Irri-Gator connected to the hose. I can live with giant onions if that is the case, and I can always reconfigure the attachment to better accommodate other areas of the garden. Other liquids disperse pretty well in water, and I think that the fertilizer will be spread out pretty well through the garden.

A couple of Sundays ago, I wandered my local Agway for a while and found a hose end sprayer which appeared to be made up of component parts that I could separate. The one I chose has a dial on top to regulate the ratio of fertilizer-per-gallon of water that passes through, and it sucks the fertilizer into the water going through the sprayer, rather than mixing the two within the container. I purchased two, just in case I could splice parts and end up with a hose end on both sides, and I also purchased a female-to-male hose adapter, so I could hook it to the system if that worked. I hoped that I could just change some parts around, attach the fertilizer sprayer between the hose and the Irri-Gator’s pressure regulator, and go.

Fertilizer Sprayer, converted
Alas, that did not exactly work out according to plan.

The sprayer I purchased was injection molded plastic, and, while I could get it somewhat apart, the hose attachment end and the sprayer end were firmly attached as one solid piece. However, I found another way as I took it apart. The sprayer nozzle opening, behind the adjustable attachment that allows you to vary the spray, is the perfect size to connect a piece of aquarium air tubing, of which I have plenty for my fish tank. I attached that and dug through my box of Irri-Gator spare parts. I found the broken regulator, which had a male end, which could fasten to the pressure regulator, and had nothing blocking the way for water to flow through in reverse. The broken female end held snug one of the Irri-Gator’s tee connectors, but it did pop back out with little coaxing. To the air tubing I tightly taped a piece of Irri-Gator tubing (sans irrigation holes), and connected that to the other end of the tee. I blocked off the side connection on the tee, as it was unnecessary (I just didn’t have any straight connectors – a straight connector would be perfect for this application, too).

Air Tube Connection
And then I tested. Things went pretty well. I filled the sprayer vessel with TerraCycle’s worm poop liquid fertilizer, which I had left from last summer, and set the sprayer to it’s highest fertilizer:water setting. I turned on the hose and it started going. It worked – but there were a few bugs to work out.

Tee Connection
First of all, the heavy hose tipped the sprayer vessel over when I turned on the water. That was an easy fix – prop it up with some rocks. Then there were some leaks. Water was spurting out from around my tee joint to the broken regulator connection, and also coming out of the broken regulator through a small hole in its side, which probably adjusted for pressure when the regulator was whole. So back to Agway I went.

I returned the extra sprayer and adapter, and picked up a tube of silicone sealant/caulking and a roll of Gorilla Tape. After allowing my Frankenstein sprayer to dry, I caulked the tee into the broken regulator, and caulked the small hole in the regulator. I shortened the length of the Irri-Gator tubing that I’d connected to the air tubing, and re-taped that connection. I let everything dry for a couple of days and tested again.

Connection to the Irri-Gator
It worked pretty well. I adjusted the fertilizer to a lower setting but the uptake wasn’t quite as thorough – there was still quite a bit left in the vessel at the end of my test. Also, the taped connection leaked quite a bit – obviously the tape isn’t the best solution. Next I am going to try caulking that connection and see how that works. There are a few more steps to be taken to perfect my device, but I’m excited – my theory worked, and so far it’s only cost me about $15 plus some old spare parts. And I can forgive my husband for running over the Irri-Gator with the lawn mower.

What's New At The Farm, 7/09/08

We’re busy; that’s for sure!

The pollination crew started last week and the fence crew starts this week. The weeds, insects and diseases are upon us along with what could be a shortage of water if we don’t get some rain soon. Actually we’ve done very little irrigating so far this season, some in May but little since then.

We’ll hook up the irrigation system and get some water out there this week. Unfortunately we have received no moisture this week so will start pumping some water Thursday this week.

The last two weeks we’ve spent trimming trees and cutting bushes around the farm where the fence is going to go. It had been at least six years since it has been done and the trees and bushes had grown in quite a bit. It’s also a lot more work than it used to be, or perhaps I am older than I was once. Either way I’m glad we left it to the time of year that’s warm. Too warm really.

We borrowed a straw spreader from a local farmer this week to spread mulch hay between the rows of squash and pumpkins in the breeding workshops. After many years of weeding all kinds of different ways, we have settled on spreading mulch hay between the beds. This has several advantages besides controlling the weeds. It keeps the soil moist and keeps the fruits up off the ground. It also adds some organic matter to the soil.

We used the mulch spreader on Wednesday this week, and although it’s not quite what I had in mind, it does speed up the task of spreading mulch. What took us a week last year will take us two days this year. Works for me; I’m sure we can find something else to fill our time.

Until next week, enjoy the weather.

Brian

Images from the farm

Cultivating Radishes


Pruning Tomatoes


Removing row covers

Removing another row cover from squash plants

Photo from one of Johnny's Customers, Westridge Produce

We love our customers.

We especially love it when our customers send us great pictures of the products that they grow from Johnny's Selected Seeds.

One of our customers, Westridge Produce from Blue River, Wisconsin, recently sent in a photo of their daughter, Autumn Rose (4), holding a huge head of lettuce that Johnny's sells called "New Red Fire". This head of lettuce looks almost as big as Autumn! Mom and Dad (Kimberly and Jake Jakubowski) must be very proud!

Westridge Produce, located in southwestern Wisconsin, farms intensively and organically on 1 acre. Per Kimberly, they sell their produce at local farmers markets and co-ops. Kimberly reports that this is their 3rd year of doing the garden full time and she gives all the credit to her husband of 10 years, Jake (they are celebrating their 10th anniversary in August - congratulations Kim and Jake!). They have a small hoop house that they use to start their seeds in and they hope to get a greenhouse this fall and try some greenhouse tomato varieties. Good thing Johnny's has them!

Autumn Rose also has a little brother, James, who is 16 months old.

Thank you, Jakubowski Family, for sending in the terrific picture and for sharing with us. We at Johnny's wish you the best growing season yet - and when you get pictures of those greenhouse tomatoes, be sure to send them in!

What's New At the Farm 7/02/2008

At least we’re not irrigating!

With three inches of rain last week we won’t need to irrigate for a while. That’s the good part; now for the bad part: the weeds keep on growing and diseases run rampant now what with the humid clammy weather. You can cultivate all you want; it doesn’t amount to much. The weeds take root wherever you move them to; it’s kind of like transplanting them. Killing weeds is much easier when the sun is shining. They shrivel up and die right before your eyes.

I’m not going to talk about weeds this week, any more than I already have. Instead I’m going to switch to insect pests; aphids in particular. Aphids are known to gardeners and farmers everywhere and are usually kept in check by natural predators. Usually chemical control is only necessitated when the population gets out of control.

By far the most interesting info about them is their life cycle. They begin as eggs laid the previous fall which hatch out as soon as the weather warms, or as soon as the greenhouse gets heated which may be the case. The first generation consists entirely of females which give birth to live young which also starts feedi immediately. As the population increases, winged aphids make up a generation which flies off looking for new feeding grounds. Rapid population explosions are common in the aphid world. They say if all the descendants from a single aphid lived for a summer there would be over 5 billion of them.

As the summer wears on and the food is becoming limited and the temperatures are cooling, a generation consisting of both males and females appear. They mate, lay eggs and die setting the stage for the next season. Aphids will over winter in a greenhouse; opening the sides or otherwise providing cold air circulation will help kill them off.

Aphids pierce the plant stems and leaves and suck the juices out. Because of their high population; a single leaf can have over 100 aphids, the effect of their feeding is both noticeable and devastating As soon as they feed on a leaf it will curl and provide a safe haven for aphids as it is hard to get a pesticide into the curled leaf area. As they move from leaf to leaf and from plant to plant they spread diseases between plants. As there are literally thousands of aphids diseases spread quickly throughout the field.

Control is easier said than done. Because there are many generations per year, they quickly build up resistance to pesticides. When a pesticide is used it kills most of the insects; the ones that aren’t killed have some resistance. Their offspring will typically have some degree of resistance to the pesticide when their born/hatched. Aphids have so many generations per year they can really build up resistance fast. Where Pyganic worked earlier in the season nothing seems to work really well now.

Susie has released lady beetles and lace wings to gain some control. She sprayed last week with Neem oil before the beneficials were released. The Neem oil seemed to work pretty good, but it rains as soon as we spray – best way to get it to rain is to spray.

Until next week, Brian

Video from the Farm

Treating cucurbits with Surround, Entrust, and Golden Pest Spray Oil

July already!

Wow, I can't believe it's July already! I've got almost everything planted in the garden, and my beans, squash, and corn are looking good. I do have a flat of lettuce and a flat of leeks waiting for me, but that's it. I got the peppers in (hot and sweet, several varieties of each), and my 45 tomato plants are thriving as much as they can considering that we've been averaging 3 thunderstorms per week lately, complete with downpours. Rain is good for the garden, but an inch in a few minutes can take its toll. Lots of my plants have holes in their bottom leaves from the violent splashback. I haven't noticed any hail but it's not impossible that we had it.

Last week I was in the grocery store when a thunderstorm rolled through. It rained very hard for about half an hour, and when I got out my car was in an eight-inch deep puddle. I had to wade to it - luckily my pants were easy to roll up, and I was wearing waterproof sandals. Here is a (cell phone) picture of the maelstrom at the drain in the parking lot.







We're sure not lacking for rain this summer!

Last Saturday it was barely misting, so I went to a local strawberry farm and picked 25 pounds of berries. Many went into the freezer, but some will be used for strawberry shortcake, and I'm also going to make some nice strawberry jam. It is a good feeling to have lots of strawberries put away for the winter, and having a taste of summer in February is very pleasant indeed.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Fourth!! I think I'll be buying my peas this year, since things are behind in my own garden. Thankfully there are lots of farms in central Maine, so I'll just take advantage of what they've grown.

What's New at the Farm, 6/25/08

Work continues at a feverish pace on the farm. Lots to do: tomatoes to trellis and prune, weeding and cultivating all our crops, cover crops going in and the ever present pests eating their way through the farm. Along with those activities are getting ready for the deer fence to be installed, last minute planting and transplanting and keeping the deer, turkeys and geese from eating what we’re trying to grow.

Last week I wrote about Hairy galinsoga so this week I’ll write about another hard to control weed: Purslane.

While closely related to the purslanes we sell, there are a few distinct differences, namely the ones we sell are bigger, more succulent and don’t make a nuisance of reseeding. Wild purslane in the field is a big nuisance. It forms a prostrate mat that can grow in the understory of our crops. You’d probably not know it was there unless you looked for it. Purslane spreads by seed and by stem pieces, so if you rototill it you’ve created lots more plants. Pulling purslane and leaving it on the soil surface doesn’t work either as it will reroot and/or just grow without any roots being in the soil. If you pull up the plants and toss them on black plastic, they will continue to grow and set seed without any soil.

The best method to get rid of wild purslane is to remove it from the field. It makes a good salad green and animals love it, especially chickens. Composting also works well. Unlike galinsoga, wild purslane doesn’t migrate into the fields nearly as bad. If you only have a few plants, pull them out and get them into the hen yard or compost pile and you will have the weed under control.

So in order to control weeds there are a few basic guidelines which need to be followed:

1. Identify the weed in question – what kind of weeds they are, what is their life cycle and what best to use for control? Will they be easily killed or do they require special attention? No need to kill galinsoga if there’s a frost coming in the next few days – better spend your energy on something else.

2. Kill weeds when they’re young; that’s the easiest time and you can kill thousands quite easily. Good scuffle hoeing will kill thousands of weeds in a relatively short amount of time; much faster than pulling thousands of weed individually.

3. Let no weed mature to the point of setting seed. Pull them out, cut them off or otherwise get rid of them before they set seed. Where you have one weed this year you could easily have a thousand next.

Until next week, I’ll be in the field.
Brian

Pictures from the farm, 6/19/08

Transplanting tomatoes into the hoophouse.


Putting up the new hortonova as a temporary fence.

Thinning carrots.

Distributing ladybugs for pest control.

Cultivating tomatoes in the field

What's New At the Farm? 6/18/2008

The planting is 99% complete and now all we have to do is take care of everything. Weeds are an ever present challenge as you well know. Today I will address one common weed and its life cycle and how to avoid getting the weed along with some of the controls used battling it.

Tracking soil or mud from one field to another is a sure fire way of getting new and unwanted weed seed into your garden or field. Be vigilant about keeping equipment clean between fields. If you have your garden tilled for you, make sure the tiller gets a thorough cleaning and washing before it sets down on your garden. Make certain there’s no dirt or mud on the equipment prior to tilling. This may come across as excessive, especially if you till gardens in your spare time, but believe me when I say it’s worth it. Same advice goes with your hand tools and your shoes. I’ve brought galinsoga into my garden and greenhouse by way of my shoes.

I know about moving weed seed from personal, as well as professional, experience. We bought a piece of land several years back which hadn’t been planted in at least 40 years. I thought we would have few if any weeds and, after battling weeds here at Johnny’s so long, would be happy to have a plot without them. My well meaning but unknowing neighbor tilled the garden with a tiller used in a conventional corn field. You could tell by the weed germination pattern exactly where it was tilled. The plant population of lambsquarters, redroot pigweed and velvet leaf was easily noticed. I had seen none of these weeds previously and now have my hands full.

Galinsoga is clearly the worst weed we have. If you don’t have it, don’t get it at all costs.
I quote Weeds of the Northeast “Hairy Galinsoga is one of the most difficult to control weeds of vegetable crops”. Be vigilant in your efforts to not get it. Years ago we didn’t have it here on the farm. One year it appeared in field 11 and the rest is history. It now has spread to every field on the farm and most of our isolated fields.

First the bad news: Galinsoga has small yellow blossoms which hold seed that is mature once the blossom opens. That seed has no apparent dormancy so as soon as it blossoms, it can germinate creating generation after generation rapidly. Several generations per year are common. The plants have a large root system so when pulled out and left on the soil surface, they will often reroot. Each plant is capable of producing up to 7500 seeds so you can see the importance of getting all the plants in blooms out of the field.

Now the good news: Galinsoga seed is short lived. Estimated time of viability is two years in the soil. If you have a plot you can take out of production for a couple of years, you can get some control of this weed. Killing Galinsoga is also relatively easy. If cultivated when small it is easiest to kill. It also is susceptible to flaming and kills easily with organic herbicides. Galinsoga is frost sensitive so will turn black and mushy with the first frost. Timing is crucial in controlling this weed; if you are expecting a frost at a certain time, you can let it grow until then and hopefully you’ll get that frost; if you don’t you’ll have to use some kind of control lest it get out of hand.

Until next week, Brian


Webmaster's note:
For more information on Hairy Galinsoga, as well as some pictures, Virginia Tech's weed identification guide website is a good resource.

Corn and cucumbers, so far

Whoops, time got away from me! When summer showed up last weekend and really drove the garden guilt into high gear. The tomato plants have been patiently waiting for me during this time, and are now hardened off and ready to go in the ground. After my hectic weekend I was exhausted, and just happy to come into work and sit under the air conditioning vent and mouse around doing my job. I also used every muscle in my body to excess (note to self: wait for husband to get home before you move the chest freezer or other heavy appliances) and needed a little rest. Going home in the heat after work did not preclude getting out into the yard, I’m afraid. Finally, last night, after some more reasonable spring weather arrived, I got some direct seeding done in my own garden. Also, weeding was completed, last year’s tomato plants torn up (with the help of my husband), and cucumber seeds and some corn seeds were planted.

Last Saturday I helped a friend put in her garden, and we had a wonderful time hanging out for the rest of the day. Sunday I had a lot of household stuff to do in preparation for visitors at my house (happy birthday sis!), so I never got to any work in my own garden. During the “lets hang around outside” phase of the birthday party I did get the irrigation system hitched up (it’s set up underneath my “I don’t have time to weed” garden fabric, and rows are set up along it so every plant gets plenty to drink right at root level, to prevent fungus growing on wet leaves. I know its a little OC…). Luckily, it had only come apart in a couple of spots, and it was a pleasure to fix the geysers on such a hot night. I set my automatic timer to water it nightly, which may seem excessive, but our soil has super drainage and the onions have grown quite a bit this week alone.

I sure hope that no relations of the pesky chipmunk who made our garden home last summer show up this year. That chipmunk systematically ate every squash, cucumber, and corn seed I planted, and dug up the beans and left them on top of the soil because they weren’t tasty enough, apparently. He is now in chipmunk heaven, and I hope that none of you think less of me for it. I tried bribing him first with some delicious sunflower seeds, but apparently his appetite was insatiable. I finally figured out what was going on and got all of my seeds replanted in mid-July, and had to buy cucumbers to make my pickles. This year I don’t want to have to do that.

So goals for tonight and tomorrow (before I head south for familial obligations) I want to get more seeds planted (squash, beans, and more corn), and get tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the ground. I am probably deluding myself in thinking I can get 80 seedlings planted tomorrow, but I can try!

What's New At The Farm? 6/11/2008

Transplanting, that’s what’s new. Well, not really new, but we’re pretty busy doing it right now! Tuesday we did the pumpkin trial and workshop and part of the winter squash workshop and put floating row covers on the fields. Today we’ll finish the winter squash workshop, put row covers on and start on foundation line increases. By Friday we should be about 95% done planting; all we’ll have to do then is take care of all the crops we have in the ground. And plant the cover crops, and trim the trees around the farm fields, and do some work at some of the isolation fields, and so on.

The deer are currently eating the tomato trial so we’ll have to fence that in this week. We’ll use eight foot tall posts with Hortonova stapled to them. This will work for a while, hopefully until we get our new fence installed. Haven’t heard? Johnny’s has decided to have a deer exclusion fence installed around the farm. River Valley Fence Systems from Deerfield, Ma. will be here on July 7th to start the installation process on 5500 feet of eight foot high steel fence around the farm. The deer have given us headaches for years; eating our trial crops, destroying our breeding workshops and eating our seed productions.

The deer fencing is a permanent solution to a long standing problem. The estimated life span of the fence is at least 30 years. Pressure treated posts are used along with painted, galvanized woven steel fence. Deer have been a hot topic here for as long as I can remember and it will be nice not to have to spend any more time on this project. Well, not too much more. We still have bushes to cut and trees to trim, a small section of stone wall to move and I need to flag exactly where the fence is going to go. Probably should do that first.

The fence company will take 3-4 weeks to install the fence. They will be staying locally for a couple of weeks at a time.

Until next week, we’ll be in the field.
Brian

Succession Planting Guide

Ben Wilcox in Customer Service has provided this wonderful succession planting guide. This reference will help you keep your garden providing for you as long as possible!

Succession Planting Guide

To expand the harvest season from your garden it is important to keep planting new areas of varieties that will ripen sequentially. With fast maturing vegetables it is also possible to follow one crop with a second in the same area. It is important to utilize varieties that can withstand lower temperatures and possible frosts when double cropping at the beginning or end of the season. Shorter day length and low sun angles in the northern states make leafy vegetables the most successful candidates for this type of cropping.

The following tables illustrate the best choices in the northern half of the United States for early, mid, and late-summer plantings of vegetables with rapid maturity.

Spring to Early Summer Plantings
April-May
Many of these vegetables will withstand light frosts. The factor limiting initial planting dates is the ground temperature of 50-55 degrees F necessary to initiate germination. In northern states the first dates the soil can be worked varies from year to year. An open winter with little snow cover can result in deeper frosts, which delay drainage of the surface water until the soil thaws completely.

Beets 35 days greens, 50 days mature
Broccoli transplants 60 days from trans.
Cabbage transplants 60 days from trans.
Collards 50 days
Greens Mix 25 days baby, may be cut again
Lettuce 60 days mature, 30 days from trans.
Lettuce Mix 30 days, may be cut again
Mustard Greens 21 days baby, or 45 days mature, may be cut again
Napa Cabbage 70 days, or 50 days from trans.
Peas, Snow Peas, Snap Peas 60 days
Radish 25-30 days
Scallions 65 days
Spinach 30 days baby, 45 days mature, may be cut again

Mid Summer Plantings
June - July
Most crops have a picking window which is quite short and benefit from succession plantings at two to three week intervals to allow a continuous harvest.

Beets 35 days greens, 50 days mature
Cabbage 60 days from trans.
Carrots 70 days
Cucumbers 60 days, frost sensitive
Lettuce 60 days, or 30 days from trans.
Lettuce Mix 30 days, may be cut again if weather cool
Rutabaga 95 days, very frost hardy
Scallions 65 days
Snap Beans 60 days, frost sensitive
Swiss Chard 30 days baby, 55 days mature
Turnips 40-50 days


Late Summer to Early Fall Plantings
Aug - Sept
Late July and early August are the time to begin plantings that will mature during the cooler fall months. Light frost sweetens the flavor of many greens, and cool temperatures enable some to re grow after cutting the first harvest.

Arugula 21 days baby, 40 days mature
Broccoli Raab 40 days, may be cut again
Broccoli transplants 60 days from trans.
Cabbage transplants 60 days from trans.
Cauliflower transplants 60 days from trans. frost will damage heads if not protected
Cilantro 50 days, will survive light frost
Collards 30 days baby, 60 days mature
Daikon Radish 60 days
Greens Mix 21 days baby, may be cut again
Kale 30 days baby, 60 days mature
Lettuce Mix 30 days, may by cut again
Napa Cabbage 70 days, or 50 days from trans
Mustard Greens 21 days baby, or 45 days mature
Snap Beans 60 days, must be protected against frost
Spinach 30 days baby, 45 days mature, may be cut again
Turnips 40-50 days

08.11.06 B. Wilcox

Johnny's founder getting reward for growing great seeds

From the Kennebec Journal editorial pages, 6/09/2008.
We're all thrilled for Rob to receive this well-deserved reward!


On Thursday afternoon, Rob Johnston Jr., will shed his work clothes, pull on what passes for a set of fancy duds and head south from Albion to Wellesley, Mass., where the veteran seedsman will receive a coveted award in the world of horticulture, the Jackson Dawson Memorial Award from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

Johnston is the founder and chairman of Johnny's Selected Seeds, which he started in 1973 and led from $7,000 in sales in those early days to its current sales volume of $17 million.

He has done this almost as an accidental businessman -- "I've never been motivated by money," he says. Rather, his interest is in the rarified world of plant breeding, what he calls "a big test in delayed gratification, a very disciplined and mostly tedious affair."

Well, it may be tedious for Johnston, or at least a tedious process, but what his own personal interest has led to is real delight for the rest of us.

From a wildly popular new kind of colorful swiss chard he developed (think sherbet colors) to the Bon Bon buttercup squash he bred (which merits eating for its name alone, but the taste is great, too), Johnston's perseverence has meant a richer world for gardeners, farmers and those of us who sit down to dinner every night.

And with his work -- now carried on by the employees who own Johnny's -- he has proven that good taste and beauty can be good business, too, especially if it begins in good Maine dirt.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/columns/5130217.html

What's New at the Farm? 6/04/2008

WHAT’S NEW AT THE FARM?
6/4/08 BLM


Planting season is in full swing on the farm. Last week we transplanted peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. We also direct seeded dry corn and did quite a lot of ground prep in preparation of the upcoming plantings that we have to do. It is with much appreciation that we had some help from the Winslow crowd on pepper planting day. That was Wednesday. Peppers are always challenging as there were eight thousand five hundred fifty plants to put in, hoops to go every six feet and row covers to be installed the same day.

Friday we planted the tomato breeding workshop. There were six thousand nine hundred twenty plants to transplant into the field. Monday this week we did the tomato trial which consisted of one thousand one hundred and eighty plants. Pepper trial also got planted with one thousand eight hundred and seventy plants. And the eggplant was 345 plants, so that’s nearly 19,000 plants transplanted in five days. Pretty good I think.

This week we will get the ground ready for the squash and pumpkin trails and workshop. These two projects will cover about five acres. That, along with field prep for the foundation line increases, extras for Outbound, ground for grow outs and maintenance of the crops we already have in the ground should keep us out of trouble for the remainder of the week.

Last week we were also kept busy setting up irrigation. The peppers and tomatoes needed irrigation as soon as they were planted. The soil under the plastic was dry – too dry so we set up the drip irrigation and pumped water for a couple of days. The drip system puts water exactly where we want it so there’s no watering of the weeds and areas that don’t need water. Drip irrigation also uses far less water than overhead does. It’s also fairly easy to set up – once it’s set up, it’s set up for the season; no moving pipe around. The biggest problem with drip irrigation is the plastic pipes run just about everywhere and you have to make sure you don’t snag one with a piece of equipment. Luckily you can run over them just as long as you don’t catch one and tear out a few lines rather quickly.

Until next week, Brian

What's New At The Farm? 5/21/08

We received a little bit of rain this week, but not enough to do any good. It’s getting quite dry and we’ve been irrigating for the past couple of weeks. Mostly the fine seeded crop like carrots, beets and onions but also some transplants, namely flowers and lettuce. The crops are really growing fast with the ample sunshine and the water they’re being given. Field work progresses at a steady pace and we continue to stay ahead of schedule.

We seeded down four acres of organic ground last Friday with Johnny’s Spring Green Manure mix. I’d like to see some rain on it to get it started but won’t go to the expense of irrigating it. Once the peas start to blossom, if the deer leave it alone, we’ll mow it and let the hairy vetch take over. Hairy vetch will add lots of organic matter along with an ample supply of nitrogen for next years crops. We’ve had field 14 in crops for many years; now and it will be good to rest it and let it rejuvenate.

With our decrease in seed production this year, we’ll be able to put more acreage into cover crops. It would be ideal to have enough land available so each year we could cover crop at least one third of our ground. Crop rotation is important to help break weed and disease cycles. Let’s say we have a particular pest in one field this year and next year we plant a cover crop the particular pest won’t have anything to eat. It will either move on or die.

I finally managed to get out into my garden last week and do some much needed planting. Now that I’ve got a fair amount planted how about some rain? My garden is clay on top of ledge. It was for years a pasture for cows, hayfield for a while, a pasture for sheep and an un-mowed hayfield for the past ten years or so. The farmer whom owned it sold it to a developer and he subdivided it. As there were two house lots directly across from where I live, we bought them to prevent close neighbors. So, now with the addition of plenty of materials from my henhouses and leaves I pick up here and there, we have a large garden spot for our summer, fall and winter vegetable needs.

The past two seasons I rototilled the garden but this year decided to plow it. Mistake – perhaps – but plowed it none the less. I managed to pull up some rocks, roots and more clay but was able to plow under a large amount of organic matter from the chicken houses. I am unable to buy large amounts of compost to apply to my garden ( too expensive), but have chosen to use animal manures and cover crops to enrich my soil. The south end of the garden will get sweet clover this year as the soil is compacted and just generally poorer than the rest of the plot.

Using cover crops will enrich the soil and break up hardpan naturally. No chisel plowing, rototilling or other field work needs to happen other than preparing a good seed bed for the greenmanure to get established in. Once planted and growing I need only to mow it a couple of times per season to help it build a strong root system. Next year I’ll till it in before it gets too much growth on it in the spring. Here at JSS I would allow it to bloom then till it in, but at home I don’t have the necessary equipment and rely heavily on my walk behind tiller for crop incorporation.

Until next week, I’ll be in the garden.
Brian

The Perfect Sunday

It is so nice to stay home for one day on the weekend to catch up on all of those things that need doing in the garden. After spending Saturday at a family party, we came home to a pile of work on Sunday, which we started promptly after brunch. I didn't get everything on my list done, but my little fruit trees are planted, and I got a bunch of seeds in the ground, and did some weeding in our big perennial bed.

I am very lucky to have a recently deceased elm tree in my yard. I know it sounds odd, why would anyone want a dead tree? Well, I'm lucky that it has been infected with the fungus that produces morel mushrooms! I know, I sound crazy for eating mushrooms I found growing in my backyard, but I did my research, and apparently I've lived to tell the tale. (NOTE: I am not encouraging the reader to go out and willy-nilly eat wild mushrooms you might find. Please do some research!) I sauteed several morels in butter and we had those with our comforting Sunday supper of cube steak, twice-baked potatoes, and salad. They were absolutely heavenly! There are a few morels in my crock pot right now, simmering with a nice pot roast, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs from the garden. There isn't much better than coming home to dinner all ready to eat.

This week I need to divide my tomato, eggplant, and pepper seedlings, and pot them up for planting and sharing. I have some more seeds to plant, and some strawberry plants, as well as potatoes. I'm afraid the taters won't be planted in their special wire container until next week. Aaah, Memorial Weekend, time for some fishing! Hope you all enjoy it!!