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.
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 …
After Thursday’s great escape, new pig pasture moved to the top of the priority list. In spite of the heat Ken went to work. Friday morning Ken first moved the troughs, so the pigs and Oscar knew where to go. Then I showed up and Ken opened the gate. The pigs meandered and two headed into the new spot. One over shot the fence, so Ken and Oscar herded him around and …
Once you get animals you have fences to maintain. Here we have pigs. Ken moves them frequently so they have new ground to dig, they get exercise and are not bored. This year part of the rotation was to have them dig up the turkey yard. They did a great job and Ken has intended to move them, but weeds, transplanting, appointments and such got priority. Today Ken left for an appointment – even …
Ken has had bees for years. At first having bees was fairly easy – hive checks, routine maintenance, taking off honey, preparing for winter , and such. Then he started losing bees, and it has been a struggle to maintain a healthy hive. Large honey producers ship hives south and west for the winter. People are paid to pollinate crops like almonds in California. Many bees in one location …
Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, summer cabbage, carrots, kale, green beans, radishes, potatoes, bok choy, Walla Walla Sweet onions, and parsley Field Notes. Mulching the garden continues. Ken is cultivating, wheel hoeing and mulching. He also planted six flats of fall crops one evening last week. He transplants in the evening so the plants experience less shock and recover to grow more quickly. Ken is tying up tomatoes weekly as …
