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!

Basil

One of the best things about summer is making a batch of pesto with fresh basil. Because of the wet cold spring (and summer) everything has been slow to mature at here in Rhode Island. But, eventually, everything comes around at its own pace. This week, basil is ready to start being harvested. I put fresh basil in salads and serve it with cheese and tomato or chop some in eggs. But, my favorite way to prepare basil is in pesto. Most folks have a pesto recipe that uses basil and olive oil, salt and garlic. Some recipes call for red pepper flakes (we use our own chili powder). You can also add roasted nuts. Pignoli (pine) nuts are traditional, but I also know people who roast walnuts for their pesto.

I like to add other stuff to my pesto as well. Arugula is a hearty leaf that will stand up to the food processor. I have tried to make straigh arugula pesto, but found the flavor too one dimensional. Now I often add a handful of arugula to the food processor with the basil for a basil/arugula pesto.

Another of my favorite pestos is garlic scape pesto. Garlic scapes are the flower stalk the garlic plant sends up in early summer to try and reseed itself. I have made pesto with just garlic scapes, salt and olive oil with chili powder. This is a very strong pesto and I don't recommend eating it with pasta alone. It is best when a spoonful is tossed in a pot of sauce or soup. You can dilute the potency of garlic scape pesto by adding basil to the garlic scapes. This makes for a very fresh and green tasting pesto. In fact, this is my favorite way to add garlic to pesto. Try it!

Herbs

We grow a wide variety of herbs at One Love Farm. We use basil and parsley in our lettuce mix. Rosemary and oregeno are used in our focaccia. Dill, chives and other herbs are used in our seasoning mix. Mint makes a wonderful iced tea. We also use a ton of herbs to make our chili powder every fall. In addition to lots of hot peppers, we use oregeno, parsley, thyme and other herbs in the chili powder mix. You would be amazed at the volume of herbs required to make a tiny jar of chili powder.

In the past, I would fit herbs in anywhere I could. A patch on a hill here, a bunch next to the steps there. I would even mix them in with the lettuce and other veggies where I had room. This year I decided to expand the herbs and give them their own garden. So, I put down a few yards of good soil, added in my organic fertilizer and planted several dozen parsley, sage, thyme, mint and rosemary plants. I added in a bunch of basil for good measure. So far the herbs have done great. In fact, I found a rabbit enjoying some parsley this afternoon.

There is an old saying that herbs thrive on neglect. I think that meams they don't like to be fertilized too much or watered too much. I know that a lot of herbs like to dry out between waterings. No such luck this June as we had rain 24 out of 30 days. However, with the very dry months coming up, I am sure I will be watering the herb garden quite a bit this July and August.

Grape Vines

New Grape Vines

For years we have had a small vineyard at One Love Farm. The grapes were red and white varietals that could stand the winters in Rhode Island. However, a couple of harsh winters killed a third of the vines. Some vines produced a decent harvest, other vines, almost no grapes at all. I tried to make wine from the grapes, but the quality was never good enough for anything more than cooking. For the last few years, I have made jelly out of the grapes.

This spring I ripped out all the vines. I saved four vines and will use them to wind up an arbor I am planning to build this summer or fall

However, I wasn't prepared to give up on growing grapes. Last year I bought some vines with the intention of using them to replace the vines that were killed over the last couple of winters. I put them in pots until I could get them in the ground. Shortly after that I decided I would be ripping out the vines, so they sat in pots until today. I picked what I hope will be a better spot for the vines where they will get more morning sun and may be protected from some of the harsh winter winds that I think contributed to the demise of some of the vines in the old location. These new vines are table grapes. They are for eating and making jelly. We haven't given up on making our own wine. But now we buy the grapes from the professionals in California.

Lettuce

This has been a cool and wet spring at One Love Farm. Seeds have been slow to germinate and seedlings slower to grow. However, cool season crops like this weather. Lettuce is a cool season crop that is doing very well.

We grow several different type of greens at One Love Farm. Romaine and Green Leaf lettuces are fairly well known to most people. Lots of people also know about the peppery green Arugula. We grow all these. But, we also use some lesser known varieties in our lettuce mixes. They include a variety called Nevada, which has a nutty flavor. We also grow a cress called Upland that is several times stronger than the peppery Arugula. We also take basil thinnings and beet greens to add flavor to our mixes. Every week we have a slightly different lettuce mix depending on what is growing that particular day.

Radishes

Radishes are in season at One Love Farm. I was never a big fan of radishes, but Karen got me to like them just like she got me to like Brussel Sprouts and Beets and how I got her to like Mushrooms.

Radishes are an early spring crop that like cool weather. Luckily, this spring has been very cool in Rhode Island. Most people are only familiar with the round red radishes you get at the grocery store. When picked and eaten fresh, they are tasty. We grow and sell them at One Love Farm (see picture above). But, like many vegetables, there are lots of varieties of radishes. You may have seen the white Daikon Radish. It is long and kind of looks like a carrot. At One Love Farm, we are partial to the French Radish. Especially a variety called D'Avignon. It has a slighly milder radish flavor (see picture above) and has a nice red and white color and tapered shape.

Last year, our friends made a dish or roasted veggies. It had all the usual yummy indgredients like potatoes, peppers, carrots and garlic. But we were shocked to learn that they roasted radishes as well! I was skeptical, but trying them, I found that the radishes had taken on an entirely different flavor that was mild and sweet.

We will have both round radishes and french radishes for the next few weeks at the Richmond Farmers' Market, so stop by and get some for your salad or be adventurous and roast some!

Opening Day

Saturday was the first market of the season at the Richmond Farmers' Market. The weather was perfect and turnout was tremendous.

Above is a picture of the Future Farmers' of America tent at the market. The kids at Exeter-West Greenwich High School have been growing plants all spring and they sold the fruits of their labor to many happy customers. You can see the One Love Farm tent right next to the FFA tent. Karen took a picture of the tent with the new One Love Farm banner, but for some reason I had a rotton look on my face, so I'm not posting it!

Since spring has been cool and wet in New England, not many crops are ready for sale. Cedar Edge Farm has lots of veggie and flower transplants, but One Love Farm won't have spring crops like lettuce for a couple of weeks. We do have a limited supply of chili powder and cayenne pepper along with birdhouses I made from gourds we grew last year. The market is also selling Narragansett Creamery
cheeses. This week we sold out of all our cheese, so be sure to get to the market early to get yours! Next week Chariho's signing group Encore will be performing at the market. See you there.

Above is a picture of Cedar Edge Farm selling veggie, herb and flower transplants.

Hyacinth

There are several different varieties of hyacinth. The most common are Grape Hyacinth and the kind pictured above, Hyacinthus orientalis. Hyacinth comes from a bulb and is poisonous. It needs a cold winter to bloom every year which is why it does well in Rhode Island. We planted our hyacinth bulbs near the front door since they have a wonderfully strong perfume aroma.

Magnolia

A couple of years ago Karen bought me a small Star Magnolia tree. We planted it in the front year and it has been doing well. It is still small, but this year was the first year it had a full bloom. Magnolia, I've sometimes heard it called Tulip Tree, blooms in the spring in Rhode Island. This picture really doesn't show off how nice the tree looks, but in a few years this specimen should be a real show stopper every spring.

Greenhouse

After two years of trial and error and six months working on this project, the greenhouse is finally up and operational. I certainly learned the hard way not to cut corners or scimp when building a greenhouse. Several earlier editions tried using PVC pipe for the greenhouse frame. These plastic frames ulimately failed in high winds. So, last year, with a lot of help from Fletch and Karen's brother Jeff, I finally was able to frame out the greenhouse and get the steel hoops in place. Karen helped me pull the plastic skin over the frame (on a very windy day!) and her experience with greenhouses helped me secure it down. So far so good. We have had big storms and high winds and everything is still in place. As you can see from the picture above, we have moved tables into the greenhouse. I have also put a potting bench in there with seed starter mix, fertilizer and a wireless thermostat. The greenhouse is small by commercial standards (only 28'x14') but when I am inside it seems like a lot of space. I've already planted several flats of lettuce and other greens and expect to plant several flats of tender annuals next weekend.

Spring is here!

It's been a rough winter in Hope Valley. There was lots of snow this year and hard blowing winds. However, it looks like most of our plants came out none worse for the wear. The first sign of spring is when the crocus pop up. They are still blooming at One Love Farm. The next sign is when daffodils bloom. While we are a few weeks behind the rest of Rhode Island due to our location in a low lying valley, protected tete a tetes (mini daffodils) are in full bloom! It won't be long now!

Lilacs

Last fall we moved lilacs from an unprotected area in front of the house to behind the house near a wall (see post below). Although we had a harsh winter in Hope Valley, the lilacs seem to be thriving this spring. We are very much looking forward to watching their progress throughout the spring and summer.