Bulb Vegetable Harvest 2009

Way back in the fall, we started the bulb vegetable journey by planting some garlic cloves.  Because they were already growing in our onion bin, there was really no downside to planting them to see if they would grow. Alex thought shallots would be fun too so he bought some starts and planted those alongside some onion sets in a raised bed.

I never expected how pleasant and easy they would be to grow.  Requiring little water and minimal weeding (we mulched with straw in early spring), onions, garlic, and shallots were a piece of cake.  The hardest part was waiting for harvest time!

In mid June we chopped off the garlic scapes and ate those in a few stir fry dishes.  They were tasty and such a beautiful vegetable to behold.  Lil called them her magic wands.

Finally last week the rest of the leaves began to turn brown and fall over.  That's the sign we were waiting for!

In about an hour Sunday afternoon Alex pulled up all the bulbs.  He knocked off the dirt and chopped the tops.  He sorted them, put them in a set of baskets and they are currently aging in the basement.  I took pictures.  ;)

We have already used some of the garlic.  At this young age, the garlic is creamy and mild flavored.  I predict we will use it all by November at the latest.

What we learned is we could easily have fit twice the shallots and garlic into the bed.  In the fall when we plant again we will leave only about 4 inches between the garlic and shallots.

Commercial Farms in NorthWest Ohio

Yesterday we drove through Ohio to visit relatives in Napoleon Ohio.  Once off the four lane highway, we were driving past commerical farms on the left and right.

There were only two crops: field corn and soybeans.

Every field looked exactly the same, except for differences in the seed/chemical branded signs at the ends of the rows.

The only farmers I saw working were using huge machines, some visiably spewing exhaust.

Only one farm house I observed had a personal garden.

The only wildlife I saw were a few birds on lines and two deer.

This all made me think of the state of farming in our state and country.  What does it mean for our society that farmers are now most skilled at machine operation?  What discounts and rebates are offered to display those agrichemical signs? What are farmers earning from the government to grow corn and soy, whose biproducts unnecessarily infiltrate nearly every processed food? What are the costs to the environment and wildlife of these mega farms?

I don't have all the answers.  Farming and farm policy is complicated.

I do know that driving by all these farms made me feel sad.  Mega farms are not beautiful in the way I know gardens can be.  The farms clearly did not attract wildlife and possibly poisoned it away.  The crops are only questionably useful.  I am disappointed that farmers have adapted their skills towards mechanization so much that most don't even bother with a hand tended family garden anymore.

As this little blog grows, I hope to explore more philosophical issues like this.

What's Growing: July 10, 2009

What's growing?  Everything!  Well, almost everything. Peppers are starting to mature and we are eating them as we need.  If we keep them on the vine, they will ripen to red, which is fine by me.

We have tons of green tomatos on the vine.  A very few have started blushing red.  One cherry tomato plant (a volunteer) has given us our first two ripe tomatos!

Speaking of volunteers, the sunflowers are a delight!  I might actually plant them on purpose next year.  The big blooms provide the perfect playground for us to observe goldfinches, cardinals, and bees.

Every day or so I pick a handful of green beans.  Beans are one of my very favorite veggies and I can't help but eat a lot of them raw.  We are leaving the rest of the dragon tongue on the vine to dry out for dry beans.  I've never done this before and hope it works out!

Only one broccoli plant has a broccoli head.

And one has this:

Not a broccoli. Maybe cauliflower?  Except we started these all from a single seed packet and I didn't intend to plant any cauliflower.  Hmmm...

We have eaten a few servings of kale from the forest that is happy along the fence.  Swiss chard is almost ready for picking too.

Blueberries didn't like the cool weather and dropped most of their berries.  We were able to eat a few ripe ones, but only maybe 10 in all.  Boo.

Then there's the squash.  We started with just four mounds and they have now taken over a huge chunk of the garden.  The golden nugget variety has lots of fruit, some of which is almost ripe, I think.  (Never grown it so I'm not sure.)

We were calling the hokkaido blue variety a bust until today when I saw these squashlings.

I thought I could illustrate the size of the squash monster by placing our little squash princess in the picture.

We tapped the rain barrel as we watered this evening.  I am hoping for a storm tomorrow to soak the plants and refill our barrel.

What's growing in your garden?

Infusing the Harvest

The harvest this time of year is so perfect and precious, it's hard not to eat every morsel of herb, berry, and pepper.  If you can spare a bit of the garden raised, CSA, or farmer's market bounty, consider making some alcohol infusions. Herbs, berries, flowers, and veggies all release their flavors into alcohol.  Making homemade infusions couldn't be simpler and in the middle of winter you will appreciate tasting a little 'summer'.

Here's how I do it:

Pick your poison I prefer infusing into vodka because it has minimal flavor and is uncolored.  Any liquor will do, of course, so feel free to experiment or use what you have available. Top shelf isn't necessary, but swill will not be improved by flavor, so choose something in the middle.  I picked up some Tito's at Weiland's market for the summer infusions this year because then I can say they are 100% made in the USA.

Prepare the infusant (yeah, we made up that word) Wash and dry a handful of prime in-season herbs, fruits, and/or vegetables.  Remove stems and pithy parts.  Add them to a jar or bowl you will not need for a week.  Mascerate with a fork to release juices.

Add infusant to liquor This year I plan to make small batches of about 2 cups vodka to a handful of infusant, but use your best judgment.  So long as all the infusant is covered by liquor you won't risk spoilage.

Wait Close the jar and shake once a day or so.  Taste and add more infusant as needed. Heavy aromatics like peppers or hard herbs need only a few days.  Lighter flavors from berries and soft herbs can stay in the jar a week or more.

Strain Remove the fruit from the liquor.  (If you're a lush like me, turn the vodka soaked juicy fruit bits into a blended drink.)  For perfectly clear infused liquor, strain again through layers of cheese cloth.

Label Anyone who has been preserving for awhile has mystery jars sitting around.  Save yourself the trouble of tasting and guessing!  Label with the ingredient(s) and date.

Enjoy Flavored liquor is great as an aperitif, mixed into a cocktail, or made into a spiked sauce. Flavored vodka in pretty jars make good holiday gifts too.

Gardening Events: Columbus OH Late Summer 2009

There are several growing events happening around central Ohio in July, August, and September *Ohio Farm Bureau Grow And Know Seminar is July 18 at the Bob Evans center in Rio Grande.  Topics from bees to mulch.  Registration closes July 6.  $25 members, $85 non members.

*The American Community Garden Association is holding their annual conference at the Franklin Park Conservatory this year August 6 - 9.  Early registration ends July 6.  Full conference cost is $200 members, $250 non members.  I'm considering going to the Saturday only, which is $100.

*Franklin Park Conservatory also offers weekend gardening programs.  They are $15 per session.  The most recent Franklin Park newsletter suggested they are starting a certificate program, which I inquired about but haven't heard back any details.  At any rate, upcoming classes are:

July 18 10:30 - 12 - wise water use

August 1 10 - 11 planning your fall garden

September 19 10 - 11 putting your garden to bed

*Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) is offering a whole series of farm tours and workshops around the state.  I will be attending the Beekeeping workshop Sept. 13 for sure.  I have this crazy idea that we might try an urban hive next spring.

*September 11 - 13 is the Franklin Park Conservatory Field to Table event.  There's a wicked expensive dinner ($300 per person?!) on Friday night and a details-to-be-added festival Saturday and Sunday.

If I missed any sustainable gardening events, please comment and let me know.

What's Growing: June 26, 2009

Oh goodness.  We went on vacation for a week and a half and the garden GREW! It was green stuff everywhere, and most of it didn't belong.  The grass was almost a foot high!

We threw out the peas (they were past the sweet stage by the time we came home) and transplanted some tomatoes in their place.

The strawberry bed needed major work.  Can you even see the strawberries in this picture?

An hour later, and it looks much better.  We have a late bearing variety that will hopefully fruit in September.

The squash are crazy big.  We spotted a few squash babies and some bees doing a little pollinating.

Raspberries are ripe and delicious.  The plants are only a year old and not producing much yet.

The garlic sent up scapes which we harvested.  Our reading indicates that if you cut off the scapes the plant puts more energy into the bulb which is the more useful part.  We have been using the scapes in meals.

Our dragon tongue beans are producing too.  We are picking the young ones to eat as fresh beans, though they sadly lose their color when cooked.  Some are left on the vine to dry for dry beans.

The pole beans are just starting to send out beans.  We planted another row where some of the peas were hoping to extend the harvest.

After a nice thunderstorm wet the ground, I was able to thin the carrots tonight.  We had a lot of thinnings!  When you wait this long to thin, the babies are tasty and can be eaten too.  Don't thin (like we did last year) and you'll have lots of nifty looking entertwined legs that are impossible to clean, i.e. very gritty.

I love the growing season and learned an important lesson this year: I will never take a vacation for more than 3 or 4 days in June.

Strawberry Struggle

Every year we go strawberry picking.  Usually we eat a third fresh or in baked goods, freeze a third, and make the rest into jam. This year, our little garden patch has produced well enough to satisfy our out of hand desires and I even froze about a pint.

We tried to pick twice in central Ohio but the weather was awful once and the patch was picked over the other time.  Then we left on vacation to Massachusetts.

My sisters picked up our fruit CSA from Wayward Seed farms.  We got 6 quarts of beautiful strawberries(!)....but I was out of town and couldn't process them into jam.  My youngest sister Heather did freeze half for me and also brought the rest with her to Massachusetts for a huge batch of strawberry shortcake. Thanks Heather!!  But, no jam yet...

I got a crazy idea that we could spend an afternoon picking here in Massachusetts and make jam here.  The house has a nice lovely kitchen and I need to buy more pint jars anyways.

So, I called around nearby, but the farms are almost out of season and price per pound is outrageous, even when picking ourselves.  Foiled again.

I am crossing my fingers that I can pick my own when I get back on June 21.  I could just buy strawberries, but homemade jam becomes an expensive proposition when we do that.  I could use the frozen berries to make jam, but then we wouldn't have any frozen for smoothies and yogurt in the winter.  The last alternative is to just forget about strawberry jam and make peach or blueberry preserves this year.

Any other ideas?

Plants grow UP

No matter which way you plant them, seeds grow with leaves up and roots underground.  Climbers like ivy, always reach for the top of a tree. Green beans always climb up their support, never down.  This one in my garden was heading down a support but changed direction and is now growing right back up on top of itself.

It's an effect called gravitropism, or tropism.

The plant hormone auxin causes plants to repspond to gravity by always sending roots in the direction of gravitational pull and stems against the direction of gravitational pull.

Try this to observe gravitropism with your kids:

1) Prepare three growing environments by inserting a folded paper towel in a ziploc bag.

2) Put a bean seed in the middle of the paper towel and wet it. Partially seal the bag.

3) Tape them to a sunny window.

4) After the bean has sprouted (note the sprout going UP), turn two of the bags a quarter turn. Leave the third one in place as a constant.

5) Keep the paper towel moist but not soaked.

6) Let the plants grow another inch or so and turn again.

What happens?  Do the plants get confused?

PS.  I am on vacation and the house we're at has a  slow internet connection.  I am reducing pictures because they take too long to load.  Sorry!