Cosmos

It's been overcast and rainy for the past few days in the Rhode Island. So, here's a picture of a cosmos to brighten the day. You can see the purple basil and zinnias in the picture as well.

Beets

You can really feel the change of the season at One Love Farm. Days are cooler (it is barely getting to 60 today) and shorter (it is getting dark before 7:00). Tomatoes are done, basil is getting to the end, and I'm just waiting on some peppers to turn red.

But, the fall season has tons of upside, too. Fall carrots are crisp and tasty. Dill has reseeded itself and is sprouting. Lettuce and arugula love the cool nights. And, the fall planting of beets is ready for harvest.

Beets are a cool weather crop. They like warm days, but also chilly nights. In the summer, they languish in the heat. Now, they are really coming into their own. Last week I pulled over 20 pounds of the root crop for the Richmond Farmers' Market. Hopefully, I will get at least that much for tomorrow's market.

Grapes

Last year I posted about a grape vine that survived the purge when I pulled out the small vineyard a few years ago. This picture shows one of the grape clusters ready for harvest this year. I think I'll be making sorbet again.

Eggplant

Unlike the incredibly production eggplant crop in 2010, this has not been the best year for eggplant. Growing conditions have been good, though not great as we never got the intense summer heat that eggplant likes.

My problem was the greenhouse. Eggplant needs to get off to a strong start. This year, the eggplant got hammered by insects in the greenhouse. This causes stunted growth with the plant, fewer flowers and late development.

While everyone else has been harvesting eggplant for weeks, I am just now getting a few fruit. We will continue to harvest until frost, but certainly not in the quantities we are used to at One Love Farm.

I have posted many times before about eggplant. Here is a link to my first post about eggplant in 2008. Here is a post in 2010 about the lost eggplant year of 2009 (probably the reason there are no posts about the sad eggplant crop that year). I also posted later in 2010 about eggplant parm. In 2011 I talked about flea beetles preying on eggplant in this post. And, in this post from last year, I talked about how to freeze eggplant.

This year, I am preparing eggplant in a new way. Baba ghanoush. First I roast my eggplant on the grill with the skin on. When the skin gets charred I peel it off under cold water and chop the cooked eggplant. Setting the eggplant aside, I put some tahini paste and salt in a food processor and drizzle in olive oil until the mixture is smooth. Then, I fold in the eggplant. Most recipes will have you add the eggplant to the food processor, but I prefer to have the eggplant chunky for a nice texture. Just make sure the eggplant is fully cooked or it will be stringy and chewy (the worst!). Serve with pita chips or veggies like cucumber rounds or carrot sticks.

Mike's Wild Cherry

Tomatoes are almost done for the season. But, I have been able to scare up a couple pints of Mike's Wild Cherry Tomatoes. These tiny beauties will sprout anywhere (check out my post earlier this month about a tomato plant that sprouted behind the patio stairs).

I used the little cherry tomatoes to make a nice marinara. Using onions and carrots from the farm, I sauteed them in olive oil and then added some garlic I pulled earlier this summer. After roasting the tomatoes in the oven, I used the immersion blender to make tomato sauce which I added to the onion mixture. Taking the marinara off the heat, I added some basil leaves.

Spirea

When we bought this property in 2002, there was zero landscaping on it, except for a single tree in the front yard. So we spent the quite a bit of time planting. Near the back of the house, we planted lilacs, herbs, azelea, astilbe and spirea.

Spirea gets its name for for its alternating leaf pattern. There are a hundred varieties that come in tons of colors, so spirea is definately worth planting.

Purple Basil

Last month I posted about Purple Basil and how it had reseeded itself in the herb garden. I also posted about it last year.

This picture shows purple basil going to seed. You can see why the plant is able to reproduce so prolifically. The seed heads are huge, filled with tons of seeds that will make an amazing purple basil patch next year.

Carrots

Today is the first day of Fall. And I sure do like the veggies that the season brings. Crisp greens, beets for roasting, sharp radishes and, of course, carrots.

We plant carrots in the spring as well, but I really love them in the fall. They grow more quickly when planted in late July and August with the warm days and nights. But, as the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, the carrots really flourish. They get big and sweet and are perfect for salads and soups and stir frys or even smoothies.

Here are links to two posts from this year about carrots. This one gives several tips on growing successful carrots. This one talks about the gospel of succession planting which I have been preaching hard this year.

Rogue Tomato

Tomatoes like a spot with well drained soil and lots of sunlight. Except when a seed drops behind the stairs leading to the patio. Then, they grow competing with spearmint and other plants in damp soil that only gets a couple hours of sunlight a day. And, they produce fruit!

Turtlehead

Turtlehead is one of our favorite perennials at One Love Farm. We planted it next to the driveway so we can see it all the time. It has glosssy green leave most of the year, but the explosion of pink blossoms in September is what we look forward to.

Turtlehead can be grown in shade or sun. We have ours in full sun, but if you grow it in shade, pinch the plant back to keep it from getting too leggy. Turtlehead likes moist soil with lots of composted leaves. That said, we don't regularly water our turtlehead and it has done well for many years.

Ornamental grass

The area around One Love Farm used to be a large strawberry and pumpkin farm. Then, in the early '90s it was divided up and sold off as housing plats. This flat land with no landscaping presented a blank canvas when we bought the property in 2002. With a single tree in the front yard and grass everywhere else, we knew it would take a while to create the images in our mind.

The first thing we did was to build a brick paver patio. On the hottest August day in 2002, Karen's brother and I set brick pavers on a huge 20'x25' outdoor patio. I remember I couldn't walk for a week after that.

Karen's brother made an off the cuff remark that we should build a berm around the patio for privacy. He may have been half joking, but I thought it was a great idea. So, I had 120 yards of fill trucked in and Karen and I started working on putting plants on the mound.

We first added some pine trees and mountain laurel. Later, we would plant a weeping cherry, rose of sharon, russian sage, roses, lupine, lavender and countless other plants to fill in the huge space. But, one of our best ideas was planting ornamental grasses on the berm. The verigated leaves provide a nice contrast in the summer and in September they send up the plumes that you see in this picture. They also provide shade for us to grow hosta and privacy for when Karen and I want to enjoy a meal or a bottle of wine on the patio.

Carmen Peppers

Every year, we plant a variety of peppers at One Love Farm. Some standards, like Cayenne, we plant every year and use in our chili powder and hot sauce. But, mostly we like to experiment with varieties of chilis that we have not planted before.

Carmen is one of those peppers we have never planted before. It has a wide top that grows to a tapered end and ripens from green to red in late summer.

I had been harvesting the peppers during the summer when they were still green and enjoying them in stir fry and stuffed with rice or cheese or veggies or all three. But, one they turn red, they get an amazing sweetness. So, I have been roasting them on the grill and using the roasted red peppers on pizza, on salads and as an antipasta with goat cheese. While smaller than the common bell pepper, they are much sweeter and tastier!

Sedum

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of sedum. I promised to post more sedum pictures when they turned from a light red and pink to burgandy. Here are those pictures.

Sweet Potato Vine

Sweet Potato Vine has become a very popular ornamental plant in the last few years, especially in container gardens. Karen arranged this container garden next to the garage. She used the striking purple vine on one side and the more common lime colored sweet potato vine on the other. She added a verigated plant in the middle for some height in the container. These vines have grown so much that you can't even see the container any longer.

Cathedral of Junk

While in Austin, Texas, Karen and I visited the Cathedral of Junk. This monument of kitsch, trash, antiques, and the obsolete is a hundred feet high and contains tens of thousands of items. You can even climb to the top for a bird's eye view of Barbies, license plates and rotary phones. Best of all, it is in a residential neighborhood, unmarked and unadvertised. Just another dot on the freak map that is Austin, Texas.

What does this have to do with organic farming? Nothing, really. Except that I found it interesting and funny and wanted to share it. But, it also made me think about what people do with outdoor space.

Some people build swimming pools or tennis courts in their backyards. Others have massive entertaining spaces with a wet bar and fancy grill. Some of us, obsessed with plants and food, pull up tons of grass and build huge raised beds and spend all their time planting, weeding, watering and harvesting more crops than they could ever eat in a lifetime. And still others collect junk and pile it a hundred feet in the air. Who are we to say who is crazy?

Basil

Here is a link to my post about basil earlier this summer. Since then, the basil has gone from outstanding to out of contol. The plants are over three feet high and bushy and vibrant. That can only mean one thing: Pesto!

Aster

A week and a half ago I posted about Asters. Those pictures were taken of asters in containers on my patio. I also planted some asters in the garden.

These asters are in the front of a bed with zinnias behind them followed by sunflowers for a nice multileveal effect. Asters are great because when a lot of others flowers have died back they are just starting to bloom, keeping interest in the garden through first frost.

Birds

Tons of birds hanging out near the herb garden and the wildflower garden.

Mike's Wild Cherry Tomato

Tomatoes have been a bit of a disappointment this year. The harvest has been less than normal and shorter than normal. Not that I'm complaining since other crops like peppers, lettuce, beets and carrots have been much better than average this year.

A variety of tomato that has done well was one that I didn't even plant this year. Mike's Wild Cherry is an heirloom variety with very small, but very tasty fruit. I planted a couple dozen of Mike's Wild Cherry last year. At the end of the season I pulled up the old plants but in several spots the tomatoes reseeded and sprouted this spring. I left a half dozen plants grow to maturity and they have been producing like crazy.

Lettuce

We received over 3" of rain the last two days in this part of Rhode Island. That means I didn't have to water the carrots, beets, lettuce and arugula seeds I've planted. When seeds are germinating (aka getting ready to sprout), it is very important to keep them watered. This is especialy true for carrots. If you miss a single day of watering the number of seeds that germinate will be decreased. In order to keep the soil moist, I add peat moss to seed bed. Peat will retain water and helps with germination. It also keeps the soil light a fluffy which is important for root crops like beets and carrots.

This week I have focused on succession planting for the fall. I've posted about the beets and carrots I've planted this fall, using the space that was previously occupied by spring and summer lettuce, carrots and beets. The lettuce mix we grow at One Love Farm is a spring and fall variety. So, in the heat of summer, we don't have any lettuce. But, with temperatures forecast to be in the 70s next week and lows in the 50s, we should have a big crop of lettuce in the coming weeks.

Carrots

I'm posting about succession planting this week. One thing to keep in mind when succession planting is the variety of veggie. There are types of lettuce that do best in spring, or summer, or fall, but not all three. Some plants do best in greenhouses, some outside. While we planted one variety of carrots in the spring, this picture shows carrots that do best in the fall. As you can see, they look big and healthy and they will be ready to harvest in a couple of weeks.

Hawk

In 2011, I posted about the family of hawks that makes its home near One Love Farm. Today, one of the hawks perched on top of my greenhouse. When I spotted him I knew I only had a few seconds so I ran and got my camera and took his (or her) picture through the screen door. I knew that as soon as I opened the door to get a better picture, he would fly away and that's exactly what happened. So, I'll just have to be satisfied with this one lone picture.

Beets

The week I'm focusing on succession planting for the fall. Yesterday I posted about the fall arugula that is ready for harvest. There is still time to plant lots of cool weather crops like beets as well as lettuce, carrots, and radishes.

This picture shows beets that will be ready for harvest in a couple of weeks. Before that, this bed was full of greens like Kale and Tot Soi that were planted in the spring.

One Love Farm is for sale!

After 10 years at One Love Farm, we are moving out of state. That means we have to sell this little piece of paradise to some lucky person or family. Five plus acres of mature landscapes including a water garden, huge paved patio and gorgeous perennials. And, of course, huge raised planting beds with enough space to feed your family and then some! We sell our produce at the Richmond Farmers' Market and donate the rest to the Martin Luther King Center. You can expand or contract this planting space easily to fit your lifestyle. MLS link is here. Agent is Sandy Bliven.

Succession Planting

I've been preaching the gospel of succession planting since 2010. In 2011, I posted about the advantages of succession planting with lettuce and radishes. This year, I talked about succession planting with bulbs and carrots and beets.

This week, I will be posted pictures and talking about succession planting in action. The reason this is so important is because it extends your growing season by weeks and months AND produces a MUCH bigger harvest!

Thoughout May of this year, I was harvesting tons of arugula for our meals and to sell at the Richmond Farmers' Market. By June, it was done and I planted carrots in the spot where the arugula was planted. That is the first example of succession planting. Then, when the carrots were done in late July, I prepped the beds with organic fertilizer and compost. This is important in succession planting. The prior crop, in this case carrots, have used the nutrients in the soil to grow nice big veggies. Now, the soil needs to be replenished for the next crop. I add some granular organic fertilizer and compost to the bed and make sure to add liquid seaweed fertilizer every two to three weeks during the growing season.

In early August I planted the arugula. Even though it was hot in early August and arugula is a cool weather crop, I was hoping that by the time the arugula would be ready for harvest in early September, the temps would be cooler. Indeed, we have had a couple of weeks with nighttime temperatures in the 50's, conditions that arugula loves. So, I will be enjoying arugula salad this week and have plenty to sell at the Richmond Farmers' Market on Saturday.

Sedum

There are hundreds of varieties of Sedum. Some are upright, and some spread along the ground. They come in a huge variety of colors, too. We grow a couple varieity of sedum at One Love Farm. This particular variety is one of my favorites because it has tall green stalks all summer that turn pink in the late summer and dark burgandy by fall. I'll be sure and post another picture in a few weeks when that happens.