I’ve put in a few weeks at the CSA already, at first I was super motivated to do that in conjunction with growing tons of stuff here too…. but an afternoon of turning 100 foot long beds really put the scale and scope of the CSA Farm into perspective. Oh, how I’ll be rolling in the veggies before too long…

BUT… seeing the empty spaces in the yard, and the seed swap forced me to toss out all my many years old seeds and picked up new ones… and seeing the variety of organic heirloom tomatoes sold nearby…. I briefly forgot how exhausting farming can be. (not that i’ve done little more than scratch the surface.)

But at home, I’m “just gardening”, no prob!

Barely an hour into this long holiday weekend I’ve planted 4 varieties of tomatoes. Green Zebra, German Striped, Cherokee Purple and Yellow Pear Cherry. I also have some ‘sweetie’ cherry tomatoes to start from seed. So one of them will be red! According to phrenology, the time is right to plant tomatoes when lily-of-the-valley is in full bloom, which was about two weeks earlier than normal this year… but that should still be just fine. Going to have a nice mix of slicers and cherries to complement what I get at the CSA!

Prepped a couple self watering containers for two of the above tomatoes and another for some banana peppers (courtesy of the seed swap) and basil. Got to have some basil with the tomatoes. Also some nice mozzarella, imagine that’s a full shade plant. ;)

Still going to prep a couple spots for carrots, and figure out where the pumpkins, ‘rouge vif d’etamps’ (cinderalla) won’t take over the yard, as well as some of the pumpkin or butternut seeds I saved last fall.

I’m also going to try to sneak out and get a few more plants if I can get away with it. My herbs didn’t like it indoors this winter too much. The rosemary wouldn’t have made it outside, but the sage and oregano should have been just fine. I think I want to grow some more stevia to use it fresh in sun tea.

I also planted some flowers for us to eat – nasturtiums, and some for the butterflies. (A butterfly blend – some sort of flowering milkweed.) We already had some milkweed that I’d practically, finally, pulled out, and then I read it was one of the biggies for butterflies. Also planted some perennials ‘foxglove’, ‘lupines’, and I forget what else to help bring in the birds and beneficials. – My wife tells me that at least one of my birdhouses is occupied. Goldfinch.

I was also pleased to see that one of the small (teeny tiny) white oak saplings I got from my parents yard did survive the move. 1 out of 2 did at least. I’ve read that blueberries like it under/near pines and oaks, but not maples…(which I have coming out of my ears, they’re like weeds. Seriously.) So I’m trying to create a nice little haven for some blueberries – which thrive in the woods up the hill from me, or so I’m told.

So much for deferring to the CSA for most of our produce needs and freeing up some time this year. Well, they will be providing with chard, taters, sweet taters, broccoli, lettuce, corn, kale, strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries (I just never get berries here) and lots more good stuff… I just can’t bear not to have some amount of an edible landscape outside my door.

off to brainstorm some more self-watering containers, and a compost/waterer I read about last year. Will post pictures as I get the yard cleaned up and things start happening – or if I can catch the birds in action!

Happy Memorial Day!

What my salads are missing, is just about any other summer produce. I had a few carrots, so that would have to do. I’d read, shortly after taking down all my tomatoes last fall, that you could prune off a sucker, plant it, and continue to enjoy tomatoes indoors all winter. I set out looking for seeds, but as one can imagine, the garden centers and big box stores stock for the coming season, not my whim. But I figured I’d eventually put in an early order for some seeds and get some cherry tomatoes going this winter, which I attempted today.

I looked up Seeds of Change, and seedsavers.org today, If I’m going to put in an order, i might as well make the cost of shipping worth my while. (and yes, everything has to be organic, heirloom a plus.)

I’m paralyzed by all the options, How does one choose? I gave last summers catalog to my six-year old, and had her circle anything in there that looked good. Anything she thought would be interesting to grow, and more importantly, she’d want to eat. She ate very well as a toddler, then got picky for a while, lately she’s really come around again. After chocolate (of course) she lists avocado as her favorite foods.

She helped me pull up the carrots and leeks last fall, as well as watered the tomatoes, peas, scallions, squashes and herbs. When I put nasturtiums atop our salads (just to see what she’d do) she got a kick out of em, and would ask for more.

Anyhow, I figured she’d do a good job with searching through the catalog, and help me narrow down from the plethora of choices. Yellow and red carrots, blue and yellow corn, peas, broccoli, strawberries and habanero peppers. Habaneros, really? (I had to laugh, and explain they were the hottest pepper there was) “No, I don’t want to eat that.”

Ok, so now that I’m back to square one… I figured I’d ask what everyone else was thinking of planting this year. as far as edibles, herbs, and beneficials. Favorite varieties?

Meanwhile I’ll keep looking, trying to narrow down which tomatoes, potatoes, kale, leeks, etc… I really want to grow, and more importantly, I think my family will eat. And I’ll continue reading up on 4 season gardening, and methods of food preservation so I’ll be ready for 2010!

Are we all this obsessed, thinking ahead to warmer days, or am I just living and worrying about what’s next, rather than what’s now?

I’ve mowed up all the leaves a couple times, and got a nice heavy mulch down on the garden beds. I pulled off the rock mulch on the lilac and flower bed… with the success of my tomatoes this summer, it’s too valuable a piece of real estate to dedicate to non-edibles.

I pulled up a few dozen carrots from my self watering containers, as well as a couple dozen small (or rather thin) leeks. Those containers worked great, and required very little attention all summer – weeks of rain didn’t hurt either. yet it didn’t overwater the carrots causing them to split as I feared they might. I’ll make more to also use them for tomatoes next summer.

The zucchini failed miserably, no self watering container for that next time. I also only got one baseball sized buttercup squash from the three plants that grew from 6 seeds (in a raised bed) I guess those seeds might have been too old, or perhaps not quite enough sun in that edge of the yard location.

I put in a heads worth of garlic cloves a month or so back, and mulched that heavily with leaves, so that is all ready for a summer harvest. Meanwhile I’ve got 7 plants of lettuce going in my indoor hydroponic garden. Should have just enough for sandwiches everyday, and salads all winter and spring.

I meant to get some spinach in, but while I was researching all the winter vegetable possibilities I missed my opportunity there. Did spread grass seed in the bare spots though.

I’ve already saved seeds from butternut squash, from the local farm stand, and this years jack o lanterns. horrible (seeds) for eating – i tried – but nice looking for decoration (the pumpkins, I mean), which is too bad because these had almost no fibers and all seeds inside. I may buy some other heirloom variety to plant that will do double duty, otherwise my daughter will get a kick out of growing the next generation of this years jack-o-lanterns.

In checking out what I could grow outdoors this winter, or get in for early spring harvest I’d read about how to keep your cherry tomatoes going indoors all winter. If only I’d read that a few weeks earlier I could have kept cuttings from my plants. Unfortunately none of the garden centers had anymore flats I could have, so I may start some tomatoes from seed – just as soon as I set up a place the cats can’t get at. They sure like the oregano, sage and rosemary I brought inside. (Yes I’ve recently learned that I could have kept two of them outdoors. I’m glad to know what I have thats a nice edible perennial.) Speaking of the cats, they really like the hops. I might have lost those.

All that, and plenty of dried herbs and pesto too. Totally can’t wait for getting the garden going strong again in the spring.

Meanwhile my brother-in-law has been brewing beer the good old fashioned way, (grinding his own grain, buying the raw ingredients, rather than simply opening cans of malt extracts – boiling the wert for hours and hours….) For his birthday or father’s day this year he was gifted some (ok, lots of) hops seeds. Surprisingly all the seeds were viable, and now, having more than he knew what to do with, gave me some of the seedlings!

I know I’ve got a little while before I find a home for these little guys – seriously little, I can’t get a clear picture, gonna have to wait a bit to see em! – But I know they’ll need to be tricked into thinking it’s winter at some point during their indoor stay, before they go outside next year. – and once they start growing they’re gonna need trellises to keep em from taking over the yard. (Future Lumberjocks project there).

Who knows, in a few years I might be able to harvest my own hops, and can brew up a really local batch of beer!

but until then, anyone have any experience or advice on getting these going?

From seed: Squashes. Zucchini and buttercup.

I put 4 zucchini seeds in a large self watering container, 2 sprouted (which saved me from having to pull two) these got off to a fast start, and I had high hopes for their success. Once the zucchini flowered the plant didn’t really grow much anymore. the first few flowers dried up and died, the leaves have a light green color and in the recent heat started to get “wilty”. At first I thought they were being overwatered, and recently they seem to be underwatered. Today I finally saw the first fruit! (yes squash are fruit)

(zucchini before and after – peas behind the zucchini in the before photo)

The buttercup took a while to sprout, 6 seeds begat 3 plants, and these were very slow growing in a raised bed. The vines started taking off in the past week or two, and now have some great big flowers. Before finding the first zucchini today, I was coming to expect that the buttercup would be the only ones to grace the table this fall.

Early tests were all in favor of the self watering containers, and I was thinking about using nothing but next year, lately I was rethinking…. but now, things may be looking up.

Carrots and leeks were also in self watering containers. Both started from seed, spaced according to the square foot method.

It took a while (a long while) for the carrots to finally sprout, and sprout they did. As of 2 weeks ago the roots are nothing to speak of, but they are growing well, and don’t need a lot of watering, which is nice. The leeks took so long to sprout, I thought they weren’t going to, and I’d totally given up on them and was out looking for some veg flats to transplant into those three containers. Fortunately I didn’t find anything at the local gardening center (save for Basil, which I already have a lot of.) because now it’s lookig like I’ll be getting 70 – 80% return on the leeks I planted. (another argument in favor of self watering containers!)

Given the viability of the carrot seeds, I started another patch of them with the remainder of the packet in the raised granite bed I built a few weeks back, hopefully I’ll be getting a second harvest from them, but to date, nothings come up. (not that I’ve expected anything yet.)

Also in this late started bed I put in a couple dozen nasturiums, three have come up so far. hopefully more come up, and will be gracing our late summer salads. If I get a slew of them, I can picture putting the blossoms in some wide homemade pasta. Otherwise, in salads they will go. Come fall, this bed will be getting a deep layer of compost and mulch to prepare it for good things next season.

Transplants this year include three kinds of tomatoes, peas, peppers and herbs. The tomatoes include Roma and the generically labeled “tomato” and “heirloom.” The former and latter are the only two to have set fruit. Not a lot, but a fair amount of little green tomatoes. One green roma is about full size, but not ripe for the picking. (am I supposed to let it ripen on the window sill?) Out of approximately 20 plants, the two in barrels are the biggest. One looks very healthy, the other looks like its on the verge of giving up. Half of the ones in the ground are outpacing the rest size wise. I don’t know if they are competing with underground roots (the lilacs or each other). Interestingly the bigger ones are fairly well spaced out, so I don’t have a clear idea of what to do next year. If the left, right, front or back was clearly better, I’d certainly know what to do next season.

I harvested the first few pea pods a couple weeks back. They weren’t really climbing the twine I set up, so last weekend I replaced the twine with 2×4” wire fencing, and threaded the pea vines up that. This seemed to be a good idea at the time, The buttercup didn’t mind me changing its support structure, but for the peas it was the kiss of death.

The plants, in a weeks time are all but totally dried out. I thought I was gentle, and at first the only casualties seemed to be the two I re-transplanted. But the other 4, in a move of solidarity, got all crispy despite the water. My grandmother has always grown bushels full of sugar snap peas, delicious right out of the pod, or cooked – if we could wait that long. The generically labeled “peas” purchased at the local garden center turned out to not be a starchier type. They were mediocre at best, even though we ate them minutes after picking, so we won’t miss them. The frozen ones from Trader Joes are much better tasting. But, I hope Grammy can offer us some of hers.

In front of the peas, I recently put approx 1” pieces of scallion – the root end. In a weeks time these have tripled in size. Soon I’ll be able to snip off more scallions than I’ll ever need – a never ending supply! – for the rest of the season at least.

The pepper (purple bell) is a recent transplant and hasn’t done very much at all in two weeks. The herbs: basil, oregano, stevia, rosemary and sage are all doing quite well.

(the “S” portion of the garden – stevia on left, sage on right)

In years past I inherited tomato plants from my grandmother at our mid-summer family picnic, and I recall becoming inundated almost immediately from those plants – so hopefully we’re fast approaching a more bountiful time of this garden. – otherwise I’ll really be regretting not joining up with the local CSA!

Just a bit of cross-posting fun.

Has anyone seen the self watering container info in the latest Mother Earth News?

Anyone tried this or have similar tips on these ideas to share. – after my success with my indoor hydroponic garden i’m excited to give this a shot too!

A small stack of baggies in the freezer have bulked up considerably, and I’m on the verge of starting a second bag for the cilanto and parsley. The mint has also come into it’s own. The Basil’s are both still doing well, but I’m not amassing as much, as these get used much more often.

In the past week or two, we went from having a full yard of Knee deep (or more) snow, to virtually none. Gotta start looking at planting/seeding dates against the last frost date. I’m less prepared for “real” gardening outside now than I was January 1st!

The Dill started coming back from being chopped down to nothing, but with a little elbow room, the Cilantro has pretty much taken over. I”m not kidding, when I say I have to trim it a little every day or two. Yesterday I trimmed a few of the taller stalks, and right before I went to bed, another one was practically touching the light. At first I was refilling the water tank every two weeks, then weekly, now more often. I’ve got a machine that turns water into herbs!

The Basils are doing well, as is the parsley, the chives could be doing better (under the shadow of the cilantro as well), and the mint is fine. But the clear victor (and if only to taunt me with a lack of knowledge and experience) is the cilantro. (I’ve always subsituted parsley for it in recipes, not liking the “soapy” flavor of it in dried form. – but I love the citrusy scent of it fresh!)

I’m debating letting this batch run its course for as long as possible, or let it run it’s course and clear crop it down in a month or so when I”ve used up the last of the nutrients for it, and start a crop of lettuce in time for the summer (I’ll do well enough with tomatoes outside). OR talk my wife into running a second garden to do both.

Lettuce sounds like a good next step, as we buy the organic heads, or clamshell packs, and never use it all up before it spoils. Clipping a few leaves for sandwiches everyday really appeals – now that I have a freezer filling up with fresh herbs!

I’d earmarked this meatloaf roll I’d seen on the Phantom Gourmet a few weeks back, and intended to test it sometime before next Christmas (as it looked, and sounded) good enough to serve then – I mean, c’mon Bacon wrapped meat – not a tough sell, even with spinach inside.

Their recipe, courtesy of McIntosh College, called for 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 Ground pork. Previously on Good Eats I recalled Alton Brown suggesting a 1/3 mix of Beef, pork and Lamb… but still being somewhat vegetarian, I knew I’d still stick with turkey regardless, but when I saw the sign for fresh ground dark meat turkey, I knew this was what I needed.

It went together pretty easily, even considering I altered it somewhat by making my own breadcrumbs (have you looked at the ridiculously long ingredients list on a package of breadcrumbs?), sauteeing down some baby spinach and harvesting my own herbs from the hydroponic herb garden I got for Christmas. (Ok, that still doesn’t really sound like extra work – I still only got one bowl, cutting board and knife dirty in the process of prep).

Looks good, smells like bacon wrapped goodness (yes that was turkey too), and even though I’d overcooked it by at least 10 degrees, It was moist, juicy and delicious.

Not Your Mom’s Meatloaf
By McIntosh College Chef Michael Ciuffetti, CEC with culinary student Kelly Eddinger

1/2 pound bacon slices
1/2 pound ground beef (1)
1/2 pound ground pork (1)
2 eggs
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs (2)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons mint – chopped
1/2 tablespoon garlic – minced
1 teaspoon salt and pepper — as needed
2 tablespoons parsley – minced
4 ounces prosciutto — sliced thin
4 ounces mozzarella cheese
4 ounces roasted red pepper – sliced
10 ounces spinach — cooked and drained (3)

Prepare the meat loaf mix:
Combine beef, pork, egg, breadcrumbs, cheese, mint, garlic and seasoning. Combine to form a smooth mix.

Lay out plastic wrap 24 inches by 24 inches. Lay slices of bacon side by side along the top of plastic wrap.

Spread the meatloaf mix on the bottom of the bacon. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on meat loaf mix then slices of prosciutto.
Sprinkle more cheese on top of the prosciutto. Spread the cooked spinach along the prosciutto slices. Arrange the pepper slices along the spinach. Season with salt and pepper.

Roll up the meat loaf into a spiral and wrap with the bacon. Use plastic wrap to wrap the log nice and tight. Season with black pepper.

Place on a greased baking pan and bake in a 350 degree oven to an internal temperature of 145 degrees about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest 10 minutes

Slice into 12 slices.
Great with a fresh tomato sauce.

(1.) I susbstituted 1# of Ground Dark Meat Turkey (if have only White, take a tip or two from the seasonings in These Burgers
(2.) or bust up 1 1/2 slices of dried out toast in the food processor, and add some basil, oregano and parsley in lieu of all the additives (and sugars) in commercial bread crumbs
(3.) a large 7 oz. tub of baby spinach leaves, sauteed with a little olive or grapeseed oil sure beats the frozen stuff they tried to give us in grade school.