Though most of the harvest is done for the year, there is still lots to be done before the ground freezes for the winter. Shrubs, like lilacs, can be transplanted. Bulbs can be planted. Beds can be cleaned of weeds and debris so they are ready for planting in the spring.Yesterday I was doing another fall chore, planting garlic. Garlic likes to be planted in the fall. The cloves will overwinter and then send up green shoots in the spring. When they send out their seed pod in the form of a garlic scape in June, you cut that off to promote growth of the bulb below the soil. When the leaves turn brown, you harvest the bulb.
Usually, we harvest garlic in August and even September. But, like everything else, garlic was early this year so we harvested in July. This year, I am planting a variety of garlic from Russia. It is supposed to be a more flavorful variety. While planting the garlic, I noticed a couple of onions left behind in the bed. Since we are down to our last few onions harvested this year, I gladly grabbed them and brought them into the house. I'm sure we'll find a good use for them!
Fall is when the plant really comes into its own. With its red leaves and orange/red berries, it is a showstopper in the fall garden. If you want to add this shrub to your landscape, know that it is very easy to grow, has few pests and likes sun, but will tolerate partial shade. With a plant this easy to grow and maintain, there's no reason not plant it. Just make sure that if you have space limitations to get a dwarf variety.
Bamboo stakes headed back to storage
I've tried several different methods of supporting tomato plants through the years. In the end, I found that the old reliable bamboo stake is the best way to support these vines. It makes it easy to tie them up, prune them and keep space between the plants.
At the end of the season, it's time to pull out those bamboo stakes and put them away. After a summer of tying them up, this can be a tricky job. Especially when you have several hundred to take out. All but a couple were fine and are now safely stored until next spring.
Marigolds after the tomato plants have been pulled out
Tomato Hornworms are a vicious pest in the garden. One mature hornworm can destroy a whole tomato plant in one day. Get infested with hornworms and you can lose all your plants in a matter of days.
Because of the damage they can do, controlling hornworms is a big topic of discussion among farmers and gardeners. There are several organic methods to control these pests. Pick n' drop is a method many folks use. They pick each hornworm off the plant and drop it in a jar of gasoline or kerosine. Not exactly environmentally friendly when you have to dispose of the hornworm corpses, though. BT is an organic pestiside that some people use and it does a good job of controlling catepillars. But, I normally only use BT as a last resort as I resist spraying any kind of pesticide, even organic. I've also heard of people having success using parasidic wasps as a control.
For us at One Love Farm, we use a combination of crop rotation and hand picking of the pests (disposing them in the garbage instead of a can of gasoline) along with BT if the infestation gets really bad. This year, however, we tried using marigolds as a pest repellant. We've heard that hornworms hate the smell of marigolds and will not come near areas where they are planted. In the past we'd half heartedly planted a couple marigolds but this year we decided to go all out and see what would happen. I can tell you that we had a bumper crop of tomatoes and I didn't see a single hornworm the entire season! While one year doesn't prove anything, we will definately be using marigolds next year to try and keep those nasty hornworms away!
Basil done for the year
Zinnias - dead
We always get early frost at One Love Farm. I spoke to someone who knew the farmer who used to own this property and he said one of the reasons he sold it was the short growing season. But, as I pointed out last week, by being aware of the seasons and planted accordingly, you can maximize the veggies you get over the course of the year. While most of Rhode Island was in the 40s last night, we dipped into the low 30s in Hope Valley because, well, we live in valley. One Love Farm is even lower than most of Hope Valley, so we can get frost even earlier some years. But, we count on a hard frost sometime the second week of October. To put that in perspective, when I lived on the water in Warwick Neck, just a few miles north as the crow flies, we could sometimes get tomatoes well into November!
I prepared as best I could for the frost by cutting almost all the basil and making pesto and freezing it (that job took a long time!), I couldn't get it all. As you can see above, a few basil plants were lost as well as all the annual zinnias, morning glory, nasturtium, etc.
While some plants died, others thrived in the cool weather. Check out the beets and lettuce below. As I have pointed out before, these plants love the cold weather. See how colorful and vibrant they look after a frost? As an added benefit, many greens, like Arugula, get a more intense flavor with a little cold weather. Can't wait to pick some fall Radishes!
Beets love the cold!
Lettuce is bright and vibrant.
I've posted about peppers in the past, mostly the hot chilis we grow for salsa and chili powder. But, we also grow several varieties of sweet peppers at One Love Farm. What you may not know is that all bell peppers start out green and, depending on the variety, change color over time. If you are very observant, you will notice green peppers readily available locally early in the season, followed by purple and then red.As the peppers mature and turn color, they get more sugar in them and get sweeter. This is why you will notice that red peppers are noticably sweeter than green peppers.
Peppers are so popular because they are so versatile. You can use them in salads and salsas, in omlettes and homefries, in stir frys and sauces and soups. My favorite way to have peppers, though is roasted. Some people think you can only roast the red peppers, but all peppers are nice roasted. You just need to make sure they have a thick skin so the whole pepper doesn't disappear when you roast it. Put the pepper over an open flame on your grill or your stove and keep it there until the skin turns black and blisters. You want to make sure you have good ventilation if you are roasting hot peppers because the oils released during roasting can irritate your eyes and throat. Then, turn the pepper and roast all sides until they are black and blistered. Remove from the heat and let the pepper cool. Some people cool their peppers in a paper bag to conserve moisture. Being impatient, I run cool water over the pepper and remove the blackened skin. Then, remove the stem and seeds and you have a roasted pepper! Chop it in strips for fajitas or salads or dice and add to a salsa or soup.
One of the most important lessons I have learned about farming is to follow the seasons. Plant at the right time and maximize the short summer months and small spaces we have in Rhode Island. For example, we plant lots of lettuce, beets and radishes early in the spring (sometimes as early as March) because these crops love cool weather. We plant these same crops again late in the summer so they are ready for harvest in the fall when the weather is cool again. This not only allows us to extend the season from March until November, but it also allows us to maximize our space by planting fall crops in places where summer crops are finished producing veggies.In the picture above, radishes are planted in the space where beans and squash were giving their bounty only a few weeks ago. The key to this method is fertilization and succession planting. By getting multiple harvests out of the same soil (sometimes three, four or more harvests) you use up all the nutrients in that soil. So, we add tons (literally) of compost at the beginning of the season and be sure to add our own organic fertilizer to the soil before planting each crop.
Also important is the concept of succession planting. Backyard gardeners often complain of getting all their tomatoes in a short three week period. Or all their eggplant at once. While you can't stop your crops from producing too much (is this really a bad problem) one thing you can do to make sure you'll get the crop for a longer period of time is succession planting. This strategy can be especially useful when growing lettuce but can also be used with almost any other crop.
The idea is to plant a little of the crop once a week or every other week over the course of a month or two. That way, when one plant is finished producing, the next one is giving you more veggies. You can see in the picture of the radishes how we planted three rows on each hill. Each hill was planted a week apart. We are harvesting the first hill this week and next. The next hill will start next week and so on. Try this method with your beets and carrots and greens. You can also try it with tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. Perennial producers like fruit trees, blueberries, strawberries or elderberries cannot use this method.
Early fall is one of my favorite times of year at One Love Farm. The cool weather means fall beets are ready and cold weather crops like radishes, lettuce and arugula thrive. It also means hot peppers (chilis) are ready to pick.
We grow several kinds of chilis and sell them at the market. But we also grow lots of chilis to dry and make chili powder. I posted some pictures above showing the major steps in making chili powder. First, we pick the peppers. At One Love Farm we use Cayenne, Hot Mexican, Hot Portugal, Rista and Pablano in our chili powder. For the adventurous (read crazy) we also make a limited amount of chili powder using Habanero! Next, we dry the peppers in a dehydrator. If you're thinking of drying chilis, you can do so by hanging them in a cool, dry place or placing them on a cookie sheet and putting them in the oven on its lowest setting.
Once dry, we crush the chilis in a blender. Last, we make a spice mixture of smoked paprika and other organic herbs like parsley, cumin and oregano and add it to the crushed chilis to make the powder.
We add more or less chilis to change the flavor profile and heat of the chili powder, but any way you like it has a smokey and spicy flavor that is great on anything. We add it to olive oil for salad dressing or marinade, put it in soups and sauces and even have it with omelettes. We also make a chocolate truffle with chili powder that is very popular, if unusual. Since I only use chilis that I grow myself, we make less than 100 bottles of chili powder a year and always sell out.
Luckily, I always keep some back for us at the farm and to send to my family at the holidays. My father was in town last weekend and he was sure to remind me before he left that he was getting low on One Love Farm chili powder!
Check out my other posts about eggplant here and here. Also, check out one of my all time favorite recipes for Eggplant Balls!
I bought a cookbook about Italian cuisine from the region of Puglia (the heel) and found a variation on one of our all time favorite eggplant dishes, eggplant balls! If you have eggplant in your garden, give it a try because I know that if you grow eggplant, you have tons of extra and are wondering what to do with it!
We don't grow a lot of onions at One Love Farm. As my fellow farmer John Jackson says "Why grow it when you can get it just as good at the grocery store." While the fruit and veggies you grow in your yard and I grow on my farm are way, way more tasty than anything you can get in the grocery store, there are exceptions. Tropical fruit is one exception. Another might be onions. That is why we grow only a few dozen onions every year and just tuck them between spaces of other crops.One of the reasons we grow onions is because it is very rewarding. I like watching the shoot grow larger until it topples over signaling harvest. I also like knowing that every ingredient in the salsa I make, from the tomato to the garlic to the peppers to the onion all came from the farm. The only thing I have to buy is the salt and lime juice!
Here is a nice salsa recipe. Feel free to adjust amounts and substitute ingredients. That's how you make it your own!
Ingredients
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 seeded and minced jalapenos, plus 2 roasted, skinned and chopped jalapenos
1 red bell pepper, fine dice
1/2 red onion, fine chopped
2 dry ancho chiles, seeded, cut into short strips and snipped into pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Chili powder, salt, and pepper, to taste
Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for an hour
Serve with tortilla chips
In addition to the beet root (a lady from England told me that they call beets "beet root" in the UK) the greens are also wonderful to eat. When the plant is very small (an inch of two high), we thin the seedlings and use the greens in salads. Then, when the plant is fully mature, we pick the beets and use the greens as well. They can be steamed or sauteed in olive oil with garlic. After taking the pan off the heat, you can add sea salt, red pepper flakes or Parmesan cheese to finish off the dish.
This year we experimented with a new variety for us, called Forono. Forono is an Italian beet with a cylindrical shape rather than a sphere. They have a wonderful taste and tend to be more tender than some beets that can become fiberous as they mature. While some traditionalists were skeptical of this new beet, once folks try them they are hooked. We will definitely be planting lots of Forono beets next year.
I have tried to research the origins of this tomato, but there is not much information about it. Except that this is an heirloom, I don't know a lot about this variety except that it is delicious.
Unfortunately, when the remains of Hurricane Earl blew through Rhode Island and dropped two inches of rain, all the cherry tomatoes split. But, there are still some green ones out there, so I hope we will have a few of these delicous tomatoes before the season ends!
Now, morning glory. Morning glory was first cultivated in the Far East where some varieties are still used in cooking. Here in the US, morning glory is used as a reseeding annual flower. The vines twist and twirl and will climb up just about anything. Lots of people use this characteristic to brighten up walls and arbors.
We've grown morning glory for years, and I can tell you few things about this plant. First, it doesn't mind poor soil. We were growing it in a container near some very sandy and nutrient depleted soil. In fact, the only thing in that area was gravel and few stray weeds. The morning glory dropped its seeds in this area and the plant has flourished there. We're happy to have it there because nothing else will really grow there.
Second, which is related to the first, is that morning glory is invasive. Some varieties have been listed as noxious weeds by the federal government and are illegal to possess or sell. I know from experience to keep morning glory away from your prized veggies or ornamental plants. Years ago, I planted some morning glory near a fence and some tomatoes. My idea was to let the morning glory climb the fence. It did climb the fence, but it also strangled some tomato plants! Ever since then, we have kept the morning glory out of the veggie patch.
Either way, this heirloom produces early and has a sweet flavor. In fact many of my friends say it is their favorite of the heirlooms we grow. It has lower acid than many of the red tomatoes, but is well balanced and not so low in acid that you don't get a true tomato flavor.
Few people grow the Valencia and it is considered to be endangered. So, we will definitely be growing more of this tomato in the future.
We find the taste of San Marzano to be much better than Roma and they have fewer seeds, which is a plus when you are making gravy. San Marzano are also prolific producers, so if you plant this variety be ready to share with your friends!
San Marzano is considered an heirloom. Heirlooms have two main characteristics. First, they must have been used for at least fifty years. San Marzano certainly qualifies as it was planted in Peru hundreds, and maybe thousands of years ago. Second, the seed must be able to faithfully reproduce year after year. While this may seem obvious, modern hybrid seeds will not do this. If you plant a seed taken from a hybrid plant the following year it will either not produce fruit or produce a fruit that is inedible.
I have been pickling and canning fruits and vegetables from the garden for many years. In late July and through the fall you are sure to find me in a steam fill kitchen sterilizing jars and packing them with marinara, salsa, jams, jellies or pickles. Last year, I tried something new. Instead of of canning all my tomatoes, I froze some of them. So much less work and that same fresh taste when you want to make a marina on a cold January day.
The way I figure, I can spend more time outside working on tending plants and less time in a hot kitchen in the middle of the summer. Some might argue that you can't get the same taste, but I used to think the same thing. Then, I tried a frozen tomato that I took fresh from my garden and was amazed. Further, the onions and carrots you use to make your marinara store well, you just need to get some celery. The last ingredient is basil, which we use in the form of a spoonful of pesto which freezes well, too. Give freezing a try and I think you not only will save time and enjoy more of the summer, but have great tasting fruits and veggies when those cold winters blow into New England.
Arugula after it has bolted and made seed pods. The pods are now dry and ready to harvest.
The arugula stems are cut down and put in a bin. This is less than half the stems I harvested from one row or arugula.
The pile is getting smaller and smaller. I took out the stems so all that is left is the papery pods and seeds. The next step is to sift out the pods and leave just the seeds.
Finally! The finished product. Since I don't use commercial, mechanical seed sifting machinery, my process is not very efficient. It takes a long time and I can't get all the non seed organic matter out of the mix. It doesn't do any harm, but it is still not pure seed. This process also means that I can't get every seed out of every pod. Rather than throw away the waste, I toss it in beds around the house. Arugula is such a hearty seed that it can grow in mulch and I even find it under the stairs on the patio! Wherever it can find a crevice, it will sprout!
I know it doesn't look like much compared to what I started with, but trust me, there is a lot of seed there. So much that we will have enough for a fall planting at One Love Farm plus seeds to plant next spring AND seed packets to sell at the Richmond Farmers' Market. Stop by and get yours and enjoy some spicy arugula this fall!
Last weekend Karen's family came over for a party. We enjoyed some great food like squash Parmesan from Karen's sister-in-law and Karen's mom made a cake for Karen's brother's birthday. We had some sangria with our homemade wine, too. Karen's uncle took some pictures of the frogs posted above. As I was looking and them and comparing them to older pictures I was struck by the fact that the frogs has not only grown in size, but population. What started as a couple of frogs has multiplied into maybe a dozen. I imagine the population will continue to grow until nature takes the inevitable turn and a predator finds their habitat in our back yard.
With this abundance of sage, I had to decide what to do with it. I couldn't possibly use it all. In the past I've burned sage leaves as a kind of incense but this year I decided to try my hand at making a smudge. Smudges are made from all kinds of dried herbs and are have been used in Native American ceremonies for hundreds of years. I found my smudges burned very nicely and next year I'm looking forward to trying to make smudges from different kinds of herbs like lavender.
One note of caution. If you use a smudge, make sure you burn it in a ceramic or other non flammable dish. Just like incense or a candle, do not leave your smudge unattended. Finally, tell your family what you are burning and show them the smudge before you burn the sage the first time. Trust me, most people think it smells like pot and will ask you what you are doing!
Brandywine also reward patience as they are one of the longest tomatoes to get to harvest, up to 100 days in some cases. This year, we are getting a bounty of Brandywine early (like everything else at One Love Farm).
The trick with Brandywine is to stake them well. The plants grow tall with lots of branches and the fruit are heavy, over 1.5 pounds each in some cases. So, the weight can snap branches or pull the whole stake over to the ground if it is not pounded well into the ground. The other key with Brandywine is knowing when to harvest. Unlike the tomatoes you buy in the grocery store, Brandywines tend to be pink, not deep red. IF you wait too long, they become overripe or crack. I recommend harvesting when there is still a little green on the top of the fruit (so called "green shoulders").
Brandywine has a wonderful sweet flavor, but still has the acidic tomato taste that fans love. Use them in a green salad or on sandwiches. They are also fantastic in a Caprese Salad or just sliced with some salt and olive oil!
Most of the tomatoes we grow are heirloom varieties. Heirloom varieties have been grown for decades with the seeds being saved and handed down for generations. One exception is the Orange Blossom tomato. We grow this for the great flavor and early ripening. The fruit are round and smooth with a lovely light orange color. I found the this variety to be resistant to the dreaded blossom end rot and it did not crack which is a problem with a lot of tomatoes.This week was our first week of the season selling tomatoes at the Richmond Farmers' Market. We had several varieties with plenty of samples for everyone who stopped by. I enjoy having folks taste all the different kinds of tomatoes and comparing their flavor and texture. By the end of the day it was apparent that the two winners for taste were heirloom variety Mortgage Lifter and Orange Blossom. While not as mild as some yellow varieties, Orange Blossom definitely has a milder tomato flavor, while still being rich and juicy. An added bonus is that Orange Blossom has more Vitamin C and Beta Carotene than yellow varieties. As the season progresses I will be talking about the cultivation, harvest and flavor of other tomato varieties we grow at One Love Farm.
I once heard someone say that a weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it. The meaning being, I think, is that weeds are plants just like your lettuce or peppers, only you didn't plant them so they are unwanted but should be preserved. I take a more hardline approach. Weeds are squatters, robbing water, root space and nutrients from the rightful inhabitants of the soil and should be removed.
Being an organic farmer, that means removing them without herbicides and toxic chemicals. There are many organic methods for weed control. Vinegar is supposed to kill off weeds, but I haven't had any success with it. Some people use portable flamers (really) to burn the weeds. I'm sure this will work, but since we have pine bark mulch and wooden raised beds, this is not a smart option for One Love Farm.
That leaves us with two real options. Manually pulling the weeds (and hoeing them) and smothering them with mulch. We like to use the plastic weed block that breathes and allows air and water circulation. This works well in paths and between beds. However, it is not very attractive for ornamental beds. For those we use pine mulch. We weed the area first as weeds will easily grow through the mulch and then pile it high. This will smother most weeds, but you have to be careful to keep the areas around the bed weed free as weeds will creep into the bed over time.
Yesterday was over 90 degrees with oppressive humidity. But it was the only day we could do our weeding chores. Above shows the before and after picture. You can surely see why it took two people working hard five hours to clear this one patch. We've only got about twenty more areas that same size to go!
I know I sound like a broken record (do people under 30 even know what that expression means>) but I am amazed at the early harvest we are getting this season. Tomatoes in mid July! Lavender three weeks early! And now, garlic in mid July! Normally, garlic is harvested in late summer or early fall, but not this year.I bought some garlic from Kenyon Mills last fall. As you can see from the picture above, it is a purple hardneck variety. People sometimes ask me why I don't braid the garlic like they see in country stores and out west in California. The reason is that there are two varieties or garlic. Hardneck and Softneck. As the name implies, hardneck garlic has a hard stem, which prevents braiding. However, it keeps well and tastes great!
I still have quite a bit of garlic in the same bed that I planted this spring. The bulbs are getting big but have not formed cloves yet, so they are staying in the ground until later in the fall. In the end, I may get to harvest some garlic in the fall after all!
I've been talking all season about how early all the crops are this year. Hot, dry weather has allowed everyting mature very quickly this year. And, there was no late frost to kill off early plantings. Normally, we do not start harvesting tomatoes until mid August. Last year's cool temps kept us from harvesting tomatoes until Sept. That means this years crop is almost two months ahead of last year's late harvest!Over the next couple of weeks I will post entries about each of the different varieties of tomatoes we grow at One Love Farm. We have several new heirloom varieties this year. Above is a picture of three of them, Black Cherry, Oxheart and Orange Blossom.
One of the most common questions we get at Farmers' Markets is "How do you keep the deer out of your plants?" The truth is, we don't. The deer keep themselves out. Only once or twice a year do we see deer near One Love Farm and then only for a fleeting second. As you can see from the picture above, they don't hang around long enough to have their picture taken.
Karen and I have a few theories as to why they stay away from us. Most revolve around where we live. One Love Farm backs up to Arcadia Management area which is protected open space and forest in Rhode Island. We think that the deer must have plenty of food to feast on in the forest so they don't come near us.
Second, we are in the sticks of Rhode Island. There are lots of hunters here. During deer season it sounds like a firing range outside our house. Deer must have come to fear humans and open space which is why they are reluctant to come near us where they are out in the open.
Finally, when we first moved to Hope Valley, lots of people told us we would have big problems with deer. Karen researched how to keep deer away organically and found that they do not like Irish Spring Soap. So we hang Irish Spring at the end of planting rows. So, one or two or all of these factors are why we don't have problems with deer. Then again, maybe they just don't like organic veggies.
With apologies to Karen's Italian heritage, our favorite variety of eggplant is Asian Eggplant. The long, skinny fruit are easier to peel and taste better because they have fewer seeds and therefore, get less bitter than their Italian cousins. As you can see from the pictures above, we grow several varieties of eggplant, including Italian.
Last year was a lost year for eggplant. The weather was cool and wet and Eggplant likes it hot and dry. In addition, flea beetles completely devoured the plants and we had to rip out every last one. Not a single Eggplant at One Love Farm in 2009. This year has been the polar opposite. Warm and dry weather has ruled the summer and the eggplant has thrived! In additon, the flea beetles were not as invasive this year and we have a bumper crop of eggplant. In fact, we usually don't harvest eggplant until early August(note the date of this post from 2008), but right now we've got tons of fruit on the plants ready to pick!
If you grew up in the 70's like me, you probably remember the Elton John song "Elderberry Wine." Check out the song on YouTube with video from the Carey Grant movie "Arsenic and Old Lace."I planted elderberries at One Love Farm a few years ago. The plants are fairly prolific and, like raspberries, send up new canes each year. Because of this it is important to prune back old canes to keep the plant in check. But, you don't want to cut back all the canes as the elderberry plant produces fruit on one, two and three year old canes. I've used elderberries to makes jams and jellies and as a garnish in cocktails. You can also make pies from elderberries and, as Elton John suggested, make wine.
My favorite use for the plant, however, is to use the flowers. The blossom heads are huge (eight inches or more across) and can cover the entire plant in late June and early July. If you take a dozen of these blossoms and put them in a mason jar with two cups of simple syrup and the zest of a whole lemon and let it sit for a few days you will make a nice elderberry infused syrup. Then, add two cups of water and the juice of two lemons (more to taste) and you will have a wonderful Elderberry Lemonade!
Lavender in bloomLavender is a member of the mint family. It is used in perfumes and soap for its fragerance. We dry it and use bundles around the house. We also use lavender in our chocolate truffles. Like everything, lavender is blooming early this year. We'll have some lavender bundles for sale at the Richmond Farmers' Market this weekend.
Years ago, Karen and I visited the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on vacation. My family had vacationed in Michigan every summer when I was a kid, so I was anxious to show Karen some of my favorite spots. One day we took a ferry to Mackinac Island. By sheet coincidence, the day we were there was also the day of the finish of the Chicago to Mackinac Island sailboat race. As each boat passed the lighthouse, a cannon sounded to signal their crossing the finish line. Karen and I watched several boats finish the race and I took pictures that hang on the wall of the office at One Love Farm. The other striking thing about the island is the residents love for Hollyhocks. Many of the island cottages have hollyhocks behind white picket fences or framing doorways making for a quite a sight when they bloom every July. Hollyhocks are biennial meaning they will bloom one year, seed the next and then bloom again the following year. They come in many colors and we love our hollyhocks for their striking black color. This creates quite a contrast to the orange Tiger Lillies which bloom at the same time.
Yugoslavian Red lettuceThere is a lot of talk about heirloom vegetables right now. Most people have heard about heirloom tomatoes, but there are many heirloom varieties of other vegetables. Heirloom simply means a seed that has been saved and passed down for many generations. Some heirloom varieties are over a hundred years old, or more! The reason they are so popular is because they they tend to have a better taste than seeds that have been bred for shipping and consistency of size and shape. The tomatoes your grandmother grew may have looked funny, but they tasted great. The problem was when food buyers started demanding tomatoes in January (where they are out of season in most of the US), the tomatoes had to be shipped very long distances from California, Florida or Mexico. Shipping is very hard on ripe fruit and veggies, so they are picked when they are hard and not ripe so they can be transported thousands of miles.
Over the past few decades, seed producers have bred for characteristics in plants like long shelf life and resistance to herbicides, not flavor. As a backlash, many growers are looking to heirloom seeds for more variety and flavor in their fruits and veggies.
At One Love Farm we are growing many heirloom varieties of tomatoes and lettuce greens. One of those heirloom varieties is Yugoslavian Red (pictured above). We will be sampling this lettuce as well as several others at our annual Greens Day celebration at the Richmond Farmers' Market Saturday June 24th.
We have tried many different ways to stake and trellis tomatoes over the years. Tomato cages were unwieldy, often tipped over and made the fruit hard to access. We also tried a trellis system with nylons, but the plants were so difficult to prune that we often neglected this chore. In the end, old fashioned bamboo poles do the trick. The plants are easy to access and tie to the stakes. But, if there is one piece of advice I could offer, it would be to wear gloves when pruing and staking the plants. Without gloves, the plants get a black gum on your hands that you really need to scrub hard to get off!
We've tried several new varieties of lettuce this spring including several heirloom varieties. One of the most successful has been a Red Romaine. We got the seeds from a small company in the Pacific Northwest. I've been cutting some of the leaves when they are very small and adding them to our lettuce mix. Now that the larger heads are maturing, we are cutting them whole and selling them at the Richmond Farmers' Market. On June 26th, we will be having the second annual Greens Day at the market where we will sample several different varieties of lettuce, including Red Romaine!
Garlic Scapes had been thought of as a by product of the garlic growing process until recently when they came back into fashion. We've been eating Garlic Scapes for a while and have found that far and away the best way to enjoy them is in a Garlic Scape Pesto. So easy to make, too. Just roughly chop some Garlic Scapes, add them to the food processor with a pinch of salt and then drizzle in olive oil until the pesto is smooth. You can add other stuff like chili flakes, but we like it simple with these three ingredients so that fresh garlic flavor comes out. We store the pesto in sanitized jars that we put in the freezer to enjoy yearround. A spoonful on the top of a pizza crust is wonderful and we love putting some in soups and marinades or using to coat veggies before they go on the grill.
As these larger plantings and some trees have filled in, we have been able to put in some other perennial plantings to fill in spaces. We have used Jumiper, lillies, lavender and Lupine to fill in these spots. Lupine has been cultivated by humans for centuries. Native Americans harvested the beans and Romans planted it as their empire spread. Most gardeners are familiar with the spikes of the ornamental variety which is quite striking in late spring and early summer.
