Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, basil, beans, carrots, and parsley Field Notes. Planting, mulching, and harvesting continue. As the days shorten this becomes more of a juggling act! Ken picks several crops like tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, etc several times a week; that takes a chunk of time. He spent part of Sunday making next year’s compost. In the midst of all this I …
Most years we have a lettuce gap during the heat of the summer. During this brief time I focus on the many other salad options. For a cucumber salad we have found that a combination using small seeded cucumbers, breaking the skin and salting results in “burpless” digestible side dish. Asians often salt sliced vegetables to alter the green flavor of chlorophyll and enhance the vegetables’ sweetness. First I take rinsed cucumbers and run a …
Although I love tomatoes, there is one part of me that dreads tomato season. I find selling tomatoes challenging. We grow tomatoes for flavor, texture, and thin skins. They are wonderful. Many people want a perfect looking tomato that is perfectly ripe. One can determine ripeness by rolling a tomato in one’s hand and feeling its firmness or ripeness. Many people pinch tomatoes and a couple days later bruises appear – these …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, beets, chard, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, beans, Walla Walla sweet onions, and parsley. Field Notes. Ken has been transplanting fall crops. We dug the garlic and it is curing on racks. Ken keeps up with weekly tasks like tying up tomatoes. Fun fact: Daylight shortens three minutes each day during August. Several cultures have a harvest holiday in August; In old Celtic …
Summer’s bounty can extend through the year with a minimum of work. Gardeners and farmers know crops taste best in season, but freezing or canning food at its peak is nearly as good. I take time when we have enough extra to freeze and can “treats” for later use. Today I blanched and froze beans and broccoli. First I nip the ends off the beans Then place them in boiling water. I usually watch for …
Over the course of a season Ken will plant a crop, harvest it, and plant another crop. This sequence is repeated throughout the season. An example of this is one area of the garden where Ken prepared a space in the garden last fall. Then he planted garlic which grew from fall through this week. Once pulled, he had space to transplant fall greens.
The soil was dry. Ken has gotten hoses out to irrigate. This afternoon we had a lovely summer shower. Although it was brief, the dust settled, the steam rose from the ground and the rain barrel filled. All good.
After a morning of picking and putting up some beans and broccoli, I took a break from those pressing summer tasks. I returned to weaving a rug I had started before spring was upon us. It felt good to be at the loom and hear the summer rain. While I was weaving I thought of Ken out in the field. When the summer shower started I am sure he and Oscar took refuge in the …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has cabbage, kohlrabi, potatoes, green peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, onions, and parsley Field Notes. Ken got a new area set up for the pigs, and we moved them Friday. Ken is also irrigating green houses, planting fall crops, and more. The soil is dry, but I am careful what I wish for – some friends just got six inches of rain! Ken checked his …
About a third of our food requires pollination. Any food crop that flowers and sets fruit like apples and many vegetables like peas, beans, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and berries needs an insect or bird or even some mammal to pollinate the flower for a successful harvest. We have a good population of native pollinators like bumblebees here. This week I have seen some Monarch butterflies, too. And …
