In addition to seeding and planting, this time of year has several maintenance tasks that Ken must attend to on a timely basis. There is mowing the electric fence in the field There putting up the pea fence so the peas can grow straight and picking is easier There is irrigating in greenhouses. Although there has been quite a bit of rain, it does not go into the …
Having a steady supply of flowers blooming over a season provides pollen and nectar for pollinators. This season flowers started a bit slower than usual, but with some heat and two major rain events they are now moving ahead of usual bloom time. After the trillium, the woods here fill with wild geraniums. They are a small pink flowered plant. Then we have a wild apple or hawthorn tree …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, spinach, salad mix, beet thins, French breakfast radishes, green onions, asparagus, and herbs. Field Notes. The word for the week is PLANTING! Ken has been busy on two fronts: moving up seedling for future greens and crops, and getting roots like potatoes, leeks, seeding in carrot and beet and burdock root. There is also the maintenance tasks – with …
Ken is always starting plants – greens, herbs like cilantro that bolts, etc When he is unsure of the germination rate, he sows in trays, and then moves to soil blocks He makes the soil blocks He then moves the tiny seedlings into the soil blocks, fills with soil, waters and once they are large enough they go out in the garden or field. This means thinning …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, spinach, salad greens, braising greens, radishes, green onions, asparagus, and herbs Field Notes. Since we have had drier weather, Ken has been busier than ever! Many things are behind the usual planting schedule. He has been planting and transplanting: onions in the garden, greens in the garden and by the mobile tunnel, sweet potatoes in the field, replanting washed out carrot seed, watching the beans …
The mobile high tunnel is now over the heat loving summer crops. And even though we have gotten lots of rain recently, very little of it goes into the greenhouse – even when Ken opens it up all the way. So, Ken irrigates the plants. He moves hoses and uses an irrigation pump to get water from the irrigation pond to the plants Then the water moves from his trenches between the plants to …
Ken has been trying to work around the weather. It sounds a bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears – too wet, too cold, just right. He finally got to put in several seedlings and now there are rows of small plants. Soon they be large and form canopy and fill the garden with green. With the last “weather event” of nearly 2 1/2 inches in under an hour, and close to 6 inches …
Each season Ken constructs a cuke fence. Since he rotates crops the fence is always in a different place from the prior season. This year he got it almost done and I offered to help on the top portion – I lift one end of each panel and hold it in place while Ken ties it in place. Ken finds an angle and vertical growing area for the cucumbers results in fewer curved cukes. People …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, spinach, salad mix, asparagus tips, green onions, chives, radishes, and herbs- probably dill. Field Notes. Ken has transplanted the tomatoes and peppers inside the mobile high tunnel. He has also been busy transplanting in the garden – onions and brassica family. After the torrential rain – 2 1/2 inches in less than an hour (nearly 6 inches total), Ken had some places where soil was …
Spring greens also include some stronger flavored greens. In Asia and Europe cooks work to provide the bitter flavor as part of any meal. In America we usually avoid it. In Europe folks buy bitter tonics as a digestive and spring tonic. In Japan every meal we were served had a sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (savory or brothy). Here we currently offer chicory and turnip greens. we have offered dandelion greens. Each …
