Arugula

Arugula seedlings

Arugula (also called "Rocket" and "Rucola" among other names) is a peppery green rich in vitamins. This year's arugula, leaf lettuce, beets and radishes have sprouted and it won't be long before we have these veggies ready to sell at One Love Farm!

When we were in Italy several years ago, we saw local women gathering wild arugula in the folds of their aprons and dresses on the roadside. If you have ever had arugula and enjoyed its strong flavor, wild arugula is even more intense.

We have been growing it at One Love Farm for years and it is very popular at Farmer's Markets. It is so popular, in fact, that we often sell out early.

Arugula loves cold weather, so we plant it in early spring (early to mid April). Arugula will bolt (flower) in hot weather and become stringy and bitter so it is important to plant arugula in the spring to get a good harvest before the hot months of summer. Because arugula is cold weather loving, it is often one of the first crops availble in the New England.

Other spring crops grown at One Love Farm include several varieties of leaf lettuce, radish and beets. This year we are experimenting with new varieties of beets and radishes that we hope will offer new flavors for our customers.

Bulbs!

Daffodils and Hyacinth

Here in New England, crocus are the first bulbs to bloom. They bloom so early that they are often surrounded by snow. While I welcome their arrival, it isn't until daffodils and hyacinth bloom that we can be sure that spring has finally arrived. With several 70 degree days at One Love Farm in the past week, the bulbs are definately blooming and shrubs and trees are leafing out. Spring is surely here!

Greenhouse - completed (finally)

After weeks of experimenting I have come to the conclusion that with regular 40-50mph spring winds, we cannot have a greenhouse made of PVC at One Love Farm. Even with all the steps I took to solidify the greenhouse, the PVC pipes were still vulnerable at the connections. During the last big wind storm several joints failed and I had to take down the greenhouse for good. The only viable solution will be to use a steel or wood frame, which I will consider next year.

In the meantime, I have used the 6mil greenhouse plastic and shorter PVC hoops to cover raised beds. This is a good solution, but with the much shorter hoops I will not be able to walk into the hoop houses and watering seedlings under the plastic will be quite a chore. However, I do have lots of space for seedlings and overall am very happy with this temporary solution.

Greenhouse Redux

We have had lots of problems with our new greenhouse. Forty mph winds (typical for spring at One Love Farm) caused the plastic skin of the greenhouse to come loose on several occasions. In addition, the constant movement of the plastic caused rips in the skin at the pressure points (especially where the clamps affixed to the poles).

I made several attempts to correct this issue. First, I extended the length of the greenhouse. This allowed the hoops to be flush agains the 4x4 clothes line base. Since these 4x4s were in concrete, they didn't move at all.

Next, I used PVC cement to reinforce the joints of the PVC piping used for the hoops. When these joints came loose, they would pop through the skin of the greenhouse and rip the film.

Unfortunately, these measures only helped marginally due to fact that the greenhouse was now 30 feet long and the longest availble 4mil plastic is 25 feet long. I tried using weather seal tape reinfored with duct tape to add the extra 10 feet. However, during a particularly windy day last weekend, the seal failed and skin was again flapping in the wind.

Finally, I decided to upgrade to 6mil clear greenhouse quaility plastic for the skin. This should have been done from the beginning. It is so much heavier and stronger than 4 mil. I also weighed down the film on the side with about 50 cinder blocks and bricks to prevent the wind from moving the plastic. Finally, I am attaching the plastic on the inside of the greenhouse with velcro and not clips.

This seems to have worked well. Today, there is a breeze and the plastic is not moving. Also, the temerature inside the greenhouse is over 100 degrees F! With the 4 mil, the temp rarely got to 70. However, the real test will come Tuesday, when the spring winds return.

Greenhouse

One Love Farm's new greenhouse
We have wanted a greenhouse for many years at One Love Farm. This year we finally got one. Rather than buying a prefab greenhouse or building one with wood and framed out walls, we used a hoop house design and built the greenhouse ourselves.

We used PVC pipe, rebar, clamps and heavy duty plastic. The total cost of materials was about $100! It took one afternoon to construct the frame and one afternoon to pull the plastic over the frame and secure it.

The difference in temperature is amazing. It is 40 degrees in Rhode Island today and with the wind it is very raw outside. Once we finished building the greenhouse, I took a thermometer into the greenhouse. It reads 66 degrees. I think our seedings will very much enjoy their new environment.

October 2007

Muskrat

The other day I went out to check on my fall crops and this muskrat was busy eating my lettuce crop. He had meticulously munched his way down the row and was about halfway to the end when I saw him. I yelled at him to beat it and he looked up at me. Then he lowered his head and went back to work on my crop. I loudly reminded him that although I am vegetarian, I would be willing to make his little muskrat life miserable if he didn't move on. Mr. (or Ms.) Muskrat paid me no mind and kept at his feast. Karen came out to check on the commotion and that is when I decided the muskrat must go! I got a large plastic container and dropped it over him, effectively trapping him underneath. At that point I realized my plan was not fully conceived. While he was trapped and could do no more crop damage, I had no way to pick up box without releasing him.

So, then my superior human mind came up with a better plan. I needed a container with a lid! As I returned from the garage with the recycle bin (and lid!) I saw the plastic box slowly moving across the yard. When I caught up with the box I saw the muskrat valiantly pushing the box, his head peeking out from underneath. I deftly kicked the plastic box to one side and dropped the recycle bin over the muskrat. Then, I slipped the lid underneath.

The muskrat was agitated now that he was in a dark space (the plastic box was clear and let in light while the recycle bin was opaque). Since we wanted to minimize his anxiety we quickly put the recycle bin in the back of my pickup and drove a few miles to the river. I assumed muskrats like the water and there is certainly plenty of vegetation nearby for him to munch.

Here is the muskrat in his new home.

September 2007

Morning Glory in bloom

One Love farm planted two varieties of Morning Glory this year. One is the typical Heavenly Blue and the other is Scarlett O'Hara. The colors match the names, of course. Morning Glory is a perennial in tropical regions, but in New England, they are grown as an annual. Morning Glory sends out tons of tendrils so they are great for climbing and on trellises.

Morning Glory spreads like crazy so I keep it out of garden beds with other plants as Morning Glory can strangle other plants with its runners. In fact, Morning Glory has become a problematic invasive weed in Australia.

One of my favorite characteristics of Morning Glory is that it attracts hummingbirds. that is why I put a bunch on the patio at One Love Farm. Every spring, we sell Morning Glory seedlings at the Farmer's Market.