Aster

This year, we've expanded the space we dedicate to cut flowers and have been trying some new varieties. Queen Anne's Lace, Sweet Pea and Nasturcium are a few of the new types of annual flowers we have grown this year. We have also been using perennial flowers in our arrangements. Hydrangea, hosta, ornamental grasses and holly have been especially nice in vase arrangements.
Chinese Aster is one of my new favorites to grow. Native to China, it is pretty easy to grow in the northeast. The flowers are multi colored and striking in bouquets. We will definately be growing more Chinese Asters next year!

Tomatoes

It is tomato season in Rhode Island. This year is bittersweet for tomatoes. Blight, the same disease that caused the potato famine in Ireland, also can wipe out tomatoes. Tomato blight has ravaged the crop in the northeast and all the way to Ohio and West Virginia. I personally know farmers who have pulled out 3,000 tomato plants due to blight. I have avoided the worst of the blight through dumb luck and a little prevention. However, I have had to remove some plants as well. The blight seems to be mostly contained at One Love Farm and the tomatoes we have harvested are especially sweet knowing the bullet they dodged going from the farm to my plate.

One of the most enjoyable parts of growing tomatoes is all the different varieties. This year we experimented with a lot of varieities we had never grown before. One of the most successful was a Japanese variety called Trifle. The pear shaped friut is picked with green shoulders but the base is a deep red, almost black which looks striking sliced on a plate. Another favorite this year was pineapple. The huge globes are all yellow on the outside except for the very bottom which is pink. When sliced, it reveals a gorgeous pink heart surrounded by yellow flesh. We're also loving a variety called tall rose. Beautiful lobed fruit with a very strong tomato flavor. Of course we also can tons of tomatoes every year. All September and October my kitchen is filled with pots and jars as I process tomatoes into marinara and salsa for the winter. This year we grew Juliet (pictured above) as we do every year. This small, roma shaped tomato has a wonderful flavor. In addition, we grew some other Italian varieties including San Marzano which is like Juliet, only bigger and meatier. We also grew Striped Roman (also pictured above) which may be a new favorite. The oblong fruits are huges and incrediblly meaty which means they yeild a lot sauce and not much water making for a very rich marinara. We'll definately be growing more Striped Romans next year!

Peppers

I've been talking all summer about the tough growing season due to an unusually wet and cool summer. Chilis (peppers) generally prefer hot and dry conditions, so it has not been a banner year for them. However, we are getting chilis right now. Some of the best are sweet bell and Pablano. From the picture above, you can see that the pablano chili plants are producing well. Pablano are great in salsa or roasted on the grill. I also like them with beans and rice. My favorite way to have Pablanos is to stuff them with mashed potatoes and cheese and roast them in the oven. Or, can stuff them with beans and rice and roast them in the oven. If you have some time, try making Chilis Rellanos. Here is a vegan variation on the classic, but if you want yours to be vegetarian, try this recipe. Or, Google Chili Rellanos if you want to find another recipe, there are a million different variations!

I am growing Paprika for the first time. However, the fruit on the plant doesn't look like the paprika peppers from the seed catalog where I ordered them. I am hoping that they turn color, but for now it looks like I'll have to wait til next year for my first paprika peppers at One Love Farm.

Frogs

Shortly after moving to Hope Valley, we built a water garden in the back yard. Ponds surely attract wildlife, and this one is no exception. Birds love to get a drink from it and one time a pair of ducks were swimming in the water. Frogs also found their way to the pond. We have some bullfrogs and the population grows every year. What starts out as thousands of tadpoles is whittled down to what is now a population of half a dozen bullfrogs and an unknown number of spring peepers. While it is pretty easy to find bullfrogs, spring peepers are difficult to locate. They are nocturnal and hide well due to their camoflage skin. Spring peepers are small, about the size of a quarter. I will often be surprised to find them under a leafy canopy in the garden. Spring peepers are known for the LOUD mating call. In spring they start pepping loudly. So loudly, in fact, that we have to run a fan in our bedroom to drown out the noise. Sometimes the mating calls get so loud that I will yell out the back door "Get a room and do it already!"

Peaches

August means peaches in Rhode Island. There is nothing like picking a peach right off the tree and eating it. We have a couple of fruit trees at One Love Farm. The birds get all the cherries and the apples never really produce well. This year the pear tree didn't flower at all. But, we got some great peaches!

From the picture above you might wonder what that is hanging from the tree. We've always had trouble with birds getting the fruit off the tree before we pick it. This year Karen put some small aluminum plates on the tree. When the wind blows, they come together and make a sound that scares the birds. It worked and today I picked a couple dozen peaches.

It is very hard to grow organic fruit in Rhode Island. That is why our peaches are far from perfect with lots of blemishes. But the taste is out of this world. Since we only have two peach trees, we don't sell our peaches at the market. But, Sharon from Narrow Lane Orchard has peaches, apples and nectarines at the Richmond Farmers' Market.

Lettuce gone to seed

Lettuce gone to seed

Lettuce is a cool weather crop. When it gets hot the lettuce bolts, or goes to seed. The lettuce will turn bitter and send up a shoot. The shoot will have tiny yellow or white flowers which will turn into seeds. After the lettuce plant dies or there is a frost, the seeds will drop to the ground. Birds can also scatter the seeds by eating them.

Most people pull up lettuce when it turns bitter, but we let some lettuce go to seed. If you let your lettuce bolt, some of the seed will drop and if it finds a hospitable location, it will sprout next spring. We find the seed is most successful overwintering near the wall of a raised bed garden or near a rock. This provides shelter some the cold winter and the heat from the wall or rock will radiate at night creating a tiny microclimate. This year, don't pull out all your lettuce when it goes to seed. Leave some in the ground and enjoy some early spring lettuce next year!

Beans

We usually don't grow a lot of beans at One Love Farm. For some reason, the rabbits love them. Actually, I think there is only one rabbit, down from dozens due to the local hawk and his extended family, but that's a story for another time. When the bean plants get to be about 3-4" high, the rabbit(s) come by and eat off all the leaves. They don't eat the stalks, mind you, just the leaves. This year I tried a little experiment. I planted 80' of beans and left them uncovered. Then I planted another 80' and covered them with bird netting. Sure enough, at 3", the uncovered plants were mowed down. I pulled them out and replanted with some extra tomato seedlings I had. Bad, bad year for tomatoes, but again, that's a story for another day.

The beans covered with the bird netting, however are doing great! The plants are vigorous and we now have beans ripening. You can see from the picture that we planted purple string beans. I've never grown them before and we'll let you know how they taste, but they are striking with their majestic color on the plant and I imagine they will be gorgeous on a plate.

The only drawback with this method of rabbit control is weeds. it is a bit of a pain to remove the bird netting, so weeding this area has been neglected. I weeded this bed two weeks ago and before I did so, it looked like I was growing an extrememly successful crop of grass. But after some back breaking work, being careful to leave the bean plants undisturbed, I saw rows of beautiful bean plants. Now if I can just figure out a way to keep the flea beatles off the arugula!