Pulling up stakes

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

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!

Frost

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.

Peppers

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.

Succession planting

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.

Chili Powder

Rista Chili ready to be dried

Dried Rista and Hot Portugal Chili

Chili Powder

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!

More Eggplant

Good thing I love eggplant, cuz there is tons of it this year! I just picked another boatload on Saturday and made Eggplant Parmigiana. Here is a link to Mario Batali's recipe, but I prefer to slice the eggplant and use the 3 dish method to coat the eggplant. First dunk the eggplant in flour (with some salt), then drop in an egg bath and coat. Finally, put in a dish of seasoned bread crumbs and put in a baking pan coated with olive oil. Bake in a 400 degree oven until crispy and brown. Then, let the breaded eggplant cool. Put some nice marinara in the bottom of a lasagna pan and add a layer of cooked eggplant. Then a layer of mozzarella cheese and another layer of marinara. Repeat at least one more time (two is better) and sprinkle with parm cheese. Cook for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is gooey and a little brown. Take out of the over and let stand at least 20 minutes or you will get eggplant parm soup. I had some last night and again today for lunch!

Check out my other posts about eggplant here and here. Also, check out one of my all time favorite recipes for Eggplant Balls!