Digging in the Dirt!

Green--a thing of beauty

2011-01-14T01:37:00.000-06:00

The Giant Pepper

This was a huge King of the North pepper I harvested a few years back. My mom put it in a teacup to show just how big it really was. This beauty had very thick walls and the plants produced well. Last year I had terrible luck with peppers. Just goes to show how the weather can really make or break the veggies! This summer I'm hoping to see a few more like this one!

A photo a day...

2011-01-13T00:47:00.000-06:00

So on my FaceBook profile, I started a project where I am taking and posting a photo each day to share a little something about my life. My daughter suggested I do the same thing on my garden blog. Well, right now all you would see of my garden is white snowdrifts! But I do have quite a few photos from previous seasons that I thought I could post with a bit of commentary. During the growing season, I will probably post current photos of what I'm up to in the garden. So here is my first "garden photo of the day":

I so love this picture of Emi and Elias. I was picking tomatoes (and picking... and picking...and...) with the kids. They LOVE to play on the lawn tractor. Emily, as you can see, is a princess at heart so is wearing her pink dress-up "dancing skirt" (gals, you know the kind--when you twirl around in circles it flairs out beautifully). They were just being so darn cute that day. This was about 4 years ago. What cuties! And the tomatoes were great, too!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-07T02:22:00.001-06:00

Classic Flourish Christmas

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Harmon

2010-11-26T10:43:00.001-06:00

Initial Impression Teal Baby Announcements

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Another yummy tomato "recipe"

2010-08-17T23:12:00.000-05:00

So, has anyone noticed that my recipes lately have just been vague directions of throwing vague amounts of numerous veggies together? :-) Well, this one is kind of the same. But you should try it--the beauty is in the simplicity of ingredients and taste!

Slice a large tomato or two in thin (but not too thin) slices... probably about 1/2 inch. (Handy tip of the day: use a serrated knife to slice tomatoes... it will cut right through the skin without tearing up your beautiful tomato). I prefer using Brandywine tomatoes for this dish, but any yummy slicer will work well. Layer the slices in a flat dish or on a plate.

Cut up some fresh basil into thin strips. Sprinkle over the tomatoes. Salt and pepper liberally (or to taste), and drizzle with olive oil. Then sprinkle with some shredded mozzarella. Put in the fridge until it's time to eat to let the flavors blend.

That's all there is to it! Another version is to layer the tomato slices with thin slices of mozzarella (and then skip the shredded on top).

Enjoy!!!

I just LOVE August!

2010-08-08T02:04:00.000-05:00

It's hot, it's humid, and we're in the best season of eating in Minnesota! I seriously LOVE August in Minnesota. It's summer's last hurrah. It's fairtime. It's corn season. The tomatoes are ripe. Ahhhhh!

I think besides eating myself silly with sweet corn, my next favorite summer food is gazpacho. It's a cold tomatoey vegetable soup chock full of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, and cilantro. Here is how I make it (I know using V-8 is cheating, but oh so yummy!):

April's Gazpacho

I cut up a bunch of cucumbers:

Then I cup up a bunch of tomatoes. The varieties I show here are (from top big one, then clockwise) Brandywine, a couple Rutgers, Oregon Spring, Amish Paste, and Green Zebra (center). I like to use a mix of paste and juicy slicing tomatoes in the gazpacho. This batch I only used the Brandywine, Rutgers, and Amish Paste. We had the Green Zebra cut up for supper.

Next on the chopping board: onions!

And then a nice big green pepper!

After mixing together all these wonderful fresh vegetables that came straight from the garden, I add a few cloves of garlic-chopped, ground black pepper, and salt. (Oh, the more garlic, the better!!!) Pour a bit of regular V-8 over all of it and refrigerate for a couple hours to allow the flavors to blend. I've skipped the V-8, especially when I have lots of juicier tomatoes, and then you just have to make sure not to skimp on the salt. Other good additions are lime juice and cilantro.

Certain members of my family enjoy this for breakfast... be warned that if you do this, you will have definite garlic breath! Oh, but so worth it!

So, as I was saying... I just love August. And here is why: this week my CSA customers can expect a couple dozen ears of Bodacious sweet corn, tomatoes--both cherry and slicers, cucumbers, onions, purple scallions, peppers--sweet and jalapeno, green beans, and possibly zucchini (I got my zucchini in late so it's just starting). Next week should include more sweet corn (possibly 2 varieties), more tomatoes, more cucumbers, more onions, zucchini, and hopefully broccoli. And it just keeps getting better... squash will be on the list soon, along with turnips, salad greens, watermelon (!), kale, cantaloupe... Oh yeah... I LOVE AUGUST!

Really good recipe! Black Bean Salad

2010-08-04T23:42:00.002-05:00

Since we are in the midst of the cherry tomatoes and green peppers, I thought I'd share this wonderful recipe. It's very fresh and has just the right amount of light dressing. I hope you like it! I found it in the July 2002 edition of Quick Cooking Magazine. Enjoy!

Black Bean Salad

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 medium sweet yellow or green pepper, julienned

4 green onions, chopped

3 Tbsp fresh cilantro or parsley, minced

Mix all together in bowl.

Dressing:

3 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp olive or canola oil

1 garlic clove, minced

3/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Stir or shake dressing ingredients together and toss with vegetables. Refrigerate. Serve chilled.

Edit: Added a picture! But this was taken before the cilantro was added, so imagine it with little green bits of leaves spread throughout!

The tomatoes are coming! The tomatoes are coming!

2010-07-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the weekly CSA pickup day. The baskets contained beans, peppers, jalapenos, a purple kohlrabi, cherry tomatoes, and even a REAL standard tomato--the first ones to ripen! The picture above is the FIRST tomato I found in the garden. There was just the one, mostly ripe, and our family sliced it up to eat for supper. Yesterday I found about 6 more smaller ones. The heat will really get these guys coming! There are tons of green tomatoes up there, so I'm looking forward to a good harvest.

The rain has me a little concerned, though. It has been very wet and humid here in SE MN. Various fungi are sprouting up in the middle of lawns, in the mulch, and elsewhere. There has been a bit of blight showing up on the tomatoes and the peppers are even showing some leaf drop. The melons and cucumbers are loving it, though. I might have to do a bit of judicious pruning to keep the tomato plants in check and allow them more airflow to try to remove and head off some of the blight. Thankfully, it is not the late blight that is hitting parts of the country. This is the early blight which shows up as spots on the leaves, very common but usually preventable with mulching. The blight spores are in the soil and splash up on the plants during rain. My entire tomato patch is well-mulched, but with the immense rains, it seems that there must have still been some soil splash.

The peppers are not doing as well as they usually do, either. Many of the fruits are getting sun-scald from the lack of leaf cover. This is very frustrating since it means harvesting the peppers before they have a chance to ripen to that beautiful red, orange, or yellow that I love. A couple of the new varieties I planted this year are faring better than the others--Revolution and Flavorburst. Revolution is putting out some huge blocky peppers! Flavorburst are a paler green, almost yellow. As you can see from the photo, some of the peppers are just odd-shaped. These tend to be the New Ace. New Ace are not my favorites, but they usually can be depended upon for plentiful and early yields. They seem to be the worst hit by the sun-scald this year, plus the odd shapes. The kids get a kick out of them, though.

The planting continues... yesterday I planted a bunch of fall crops--chinese cabbage, pac choi, rutabaga, turnips, and kale. There will be more planting occurring through the next few weeks, too! We had a lot of rain this morning, so that puts a hold on re-working some areas, but second crops of beans, peas, and lettuce will be going in right away, along with more kohlrabi (hopefully the rabbits don't find them again!), beets, chard, radishes and carrots. The first plantings of most of those are just being getting ready for harvest now, except for the lettuce, which all bolted a few weeks ago. The lettuce can be a finicky germinator in the warm summer, but we'll see what happens. That might have to wait until later in August.

You might have noticed a new addition to the blog--you can now subscribe to receive updates via email! How handy, eh?! Just type in your email addy in the block to the upper right. The FeedBurner service will send you a confirmation email which you need to respond to in order to be signed up. I'm not collecting email addresses, so no worries there!

Enjoy the heat! Summer is quickly slipping by!

Testing Feedburner--blog posts sent to your email

2010-07-26T00:42:00.001-05:00

Test. Test. Test. :-)

I set up a FeedBurner account with hopes that friends/followers who want to get updates via email can do so! Well, let me know if you get this... comment please! To get email updates (daily digest style), just enter your email address in the box at the upper right, under the title pic. It will send you a confirmation email to which you will need to respond. Good luck! Hope this works!

Back from vacation... time for garden bounty!

2010-07-25T00:11:00.000-05:00

Our family was able to sneak away for a few days in the Northwoods of MN. We got back to find out that our area had some mega-rain, and then we had a doozy of a storm last night with about another inch! I went to the garden this evening, in the cool of the day and did some weeding. The ground is definitely wet, and the weeds are loving it! I couldn't believe what just 5 days can mean to some very vigorous weeds. But the plants that I WANT to grow are also doing great! I think you could probably see growth on the squash if you stood there for 5-10 minutes! Same with the cukes. AND I even found the first full-size tomato tonight. I think it was a Rutger (though not sure, since it was in the cherry tomato row... hmmm, a mystery!) and it was yummy. We sliced it up to have with our chicken dinner.

The chickens were the last of our 2009 broilers. I just cooked them in the crockpot since I knew our day would be busy with cleanup from our camping trip. And it was... I think we washed 7 loads of laundry today, and still have another 5 or so to go! That's what happens when you take 8 people on a camping trip and it rains... every day... Ah well, it's to be expected "up north."

This week's CSA baskets will contain some cherry tomatoes (if they hurry and ripen), some beans, green onions, peppers, and maybe even an eggplant or two. The heat is good for the tomatoes--they love heat and ripen better when the nights stay above 70. So, they will soon be coming along. The corn is also looking pretty good, although the recent storms have cause a lot of blowdown in the corn patch. Nothing was snapped off, though, so it should be fine even if it doesn't look pretty. Ripe corn is still a ways off, but it will taste OH so good!

Hang in there, CSA members! Things are trying to get ready for you to eat!!! :-)

Mud and rain and such

2010-06-10T17:54:00.000-05:00

Well, since the weather seems to think we need even more rain, I went out between showers today and planted. Yep, in the mud. By the time I was finished up, the soles of my shoes were about an inch thicker from the mud (and that's even after scraping them off a few times). So, recently planted are some squash plants and more squash (seed-form) in hills: Burgess Buttercup, Eastern Rise, and a mystery squash ("Gold" or "Sweet Dumpling" or both--a donation from a high school ag department).

The potatoes also went in today. I know... I know... everyone says they should be planted on Good Friday. And this year it was even warm enough on Good Friday to do that! Well, this is one of those unconventional things that I'm doing since it worked before. Two years ago I was a good girl who put in a mountain of potatoes as close to Good Friday as possible. Nothing. I think I got out 20 pounds of spuds from the 20 pounds of seed potatoes I planted. Not a great return. Last year, I bought the seed potatoes, cut them and promptly forgot about them until almost everything else was planted! I threw the 5 pounds or so in the ground (didn't want to spend more on seed potatoes than I spent on store potatoes if they weren't going to do anything!) and HOLY COW--I had tons of taters! Ok, maybe not tons... but harvested at least 20 pounds or more. So, this year I wasn't sure if I was going to plant any or not. (I tend to like planting reliable crops.) Last week decided to go for it. Farmers Seed and Nursery in Faribault still had seed potatoes so had the kids pick up 20 pounds--mix of Red Norland and Red Pontiac. So, let's hope for the best.

Let's also hope we get some drier and warmer weather. It's too wet to try to weed, so the weeds are really starting to get crazy. Two good days with the scuffle hoe would do some amazing things!

Strawberries!

2010-06-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

This is the first year we've been able to reap the benefits of the hundreds of strawberries plants we've attempted to get started through the last 6 years or so! The reason is because we finally are able to deter the marauding deer that have (up until last summer) eaten every last plant down to nothing. A gardener can fall into the depths of despair when faced with a bed full of stems with no leaves. But, since we put the fence around the garden, and then covered the plants with Agribon spun fabric and straw over winter (further protection since the deer DID jump the fence--in multitudes--over the winter) we are finally getting the first tastes of what seems like 6 years of hard work! :-) This is supposed to be the time before one can expect apples off of new trees, not strawberries off of plants! haha! But seriously, the plants we put in last year are doing quite well and we even planted about 200 more this year so that next year I'm hoping we're swimming in berries!

Our CSA members will be enjoying a taste of these little gems this week, and hopefully next week. We only have 4 good rows producing right now (some are earlier than the others), so we'll see what we can do.

Wow! I LOVE summer!

CSA nights start next week! WHEEEEEEE!!!

2010-06-01T00:17:00.000-05:00

This is some of the amazing lettuce that is coming out of the garden right now!

My family and I spent a lot of fun and satisfying time in the garden this weekend. We are continuing to plant more and more crops as the weather keeps warming up, and getting to harvest some things, too!!! The first crop (as usual) is lettuce--the photo above is actually of THINNINGS we took out of the lettuce beds! That's right--this is just the beginning. The heads of romaine and buttercrunch won't be ready for a few weeks yet. By then we'll be planting more lettuce for lettuce blends. YUM YUM YUM.

We also discovered that some of the strawberries are starting to ripen! The kids and I picked the dozen or so that were completely ripe and promptly ate them (gardeners' prerogative, you know!) We will be sharing with our CSA members, though... don't you worry! This year we planted enough new berry plants to DOUBLE the strawberry patch. I'm so excited to finally have a strawberry patch--this is the first time we've been able to thwart the deer and keep the plants going to harvest.

I am so excited with how well the garden is coming along this year. It promises to be a bountiful summer!

Dream gardening!

2010-05-21T01:40:00.001-05:00

I have seen my dream garden--and it is BEAUTIFUL! This week I had the opportunity to travel to Heritage Farm, home of Seed Savers Exchange, in Decorah, IA, with my best friend. Our morning trip was undertaken for the purpose of purchasing pepper and tomato plants to round out our gardens. What we discovered was our "perfect farm." Heritage Farm is nestled in the idyllic setting among the rolling hills of northern Iowa. In mid-May the hills are bright green with freshness and life. We saw some of the Farm's herd of White Park cattle, including some of the most precious calves I have ever seen. The photo above was taken from the barn, looking over this beautiful garden and the Visitors Center/Store.

Hannah and Emily at Heritage Farm

If we had had the time, we could've spent the entire day wandering around. As it was, we were on a time crunch--both of us being busy moms with duties to tend to at home. We brought our younger daughters and Kris' baby with us. The girls had fun exploring the chicken coop. Both of them are familiar with chickens and recognized some of the breeds, since we both have flocks that they help tend. After choosing our plants and a few packets of seeds that we couldn't pass up, we had a quick picnic lunch near the stream before heading back north. It was a wonderful day--enjoying time to chat on the drive, passing a few horses and buggies as we traveled through Amish country, and getting a glimpse of the "perfect farm" that we wish our small holdings could someday emulate.

So, what did I purchase??? Well, I was looking for more Carmen sweet peppers since I didn't end up with as many plants as I'd like from my planting. They didn't have any Carmen, but I decided to try Tolli's Sweet Italian--"This sweet red Italian heirloom is one of our all-around favorites for fresh eating and canning recipes. Great added to tomato sauces. Large, dependable yields of 4–5" long tapered fruits." I also picked up some King of the North bell peppers, a dependable large bell pepper that I wasn't able to order seed for this year. Then for fun, I picked out Sweet Chocolate and Purple Beauty peppers, and Purple Tomatillos (just imagine the colorful salsa or pico de gallo!). Emily picked out some sunflower and nasturtium seeds plus a pack of petunias to plant in her garden.

What a fun day!

Spring cleanup!

2010-04-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

Some people would call this free help (or slave labor! haha!) We prefer to say "character building." :-) Here Mikey and Greg, my garden cleanup crew, are getting ready to burn off the vines from the tomato cages. I don't want them burning up all the mulch left over from last year, so they are removing any big chunky debris to burn, and making a firebreak so the fire from the tomato cages doesn't cage on the mulch. That old decaying mulch is a big part of our fertilization plan--after it has done it's job as a weed barrier, we till it in the following spring to add organic matter to the soil. We've been doing this for about 6 years now, and the fertility shows in our gargantuan tomato plants and pepper "bushes."

I've already been able to plant a few rows of lettuce and peas in the garden. This is definitely the earliest that I've ever done any direct-seeding! I'm so excited to have our own greens and peas! YUM!

Time to plant OUTSIDE?!

2010-04-03T00:43:00.003-05:00

It is so hard to believe that it is already the beginning of April. It's even harder to believe this amazingly warm weather we've been having! We had no snowfall in March, the snow drifts and piles are GONE, and the temps have been hovering in the 60's and 70's--we even hit 80 two days this week! So far I've uncovered the strawberries and checked out the buds on the raspberries. Both look like they survived the winter well. The rhubarb is also making a good showing. So far, I haven't seen any asparagus tips, but hopefully they will be popping up soon, too. (Although I noticed some gopher or mole damage in the new asparagus bed--I just hope they didn't bother the plants!)

The photo above is some of last fall's rainbow carrots. I'll be planting these again this year. They are fun to grow--so colorful and tasty! This weekend or early next week, I'm planning on seeding the first plantings of carrots, lettuces, spinach, and broccoli. With this early spring, is it possible we will be enjoying the bounty of the garden earlier than usual?! We can hope!!!

It's planting time!

2010-02-28T14:56:00.004-06:00

This week I started getting some of the seeds planted. I was a little late getting those onions in the dirt, but the peppers and tomatoes are right on schedule. Planted so far are:

Red Zeppelin Onions (gotta love the name! haha!)
Candy Onions (in place of my favorite Expression which were "out of stock")
Red Marble Onions
Hardy Scallions (the first planting... these will continue every few weeks)
Peppers: Peacework, Revolution, New Ace, Carmen, Jalapeno, Valencia, and Flavorburst
Tomatoes: Brandywine, Green Zebra, Oregon Spring, Pruden's Purple, Amish Paste, Juliet, and Sun Gold Cherry

I'm very excited about the new peppers and tomatoes I'm trying this year. Those would be Peacework, Revolution, and Flavorburst peppers; Green Zebra, Oregon Spring, and Pruden's Purple tomatoes. I've discovered that tomatoes and peppers are my favorite vegetables to grow. I enjoy starting them in the house and watching them come up, transplanting them, turning the house into a jungle, moving the plants out to the cold frames and greenhouse, and then planting them in the garden. Then comes the REALLY great part--watching the plants really take off in the garden soil and produce their fruit. I really enjoy the challenge of coaxing early tomatoes and peppers in short Minnesota growing season.

I am hoping to put up a hoophouse for my tomatoes and peppers this year. I would love to extend our harvest season another month or two. I've been doing some research on these things, and currently am trying to decide if we have the know-how to build one from scratch or if we'd be better off with a kit. Cost will most likely be the deciding factor. So, most likely we will be building one without the assistance of a kit. Thankfully I have been able to find a few different websites and books with very good instructions. Of course, that won't happen for a few more months--we have to wait for the snow to melt first!!!

In the meantime I can create my little jungle inside the house. I'll be posting photos as everything starts getting green. Spring is just around the corner!

So what IS a CSA?

2010-01-26T15:02:00.003-06:00

Young Eggplants--MINUS Colorado Potato Beetles

This question was posed to me this week. The simple answer could be a "subscription" garden... you pay your subscription for the season and get your regular installment of produce. But really, it is, and can be, so much more. Think about sustainable farming, think about knowing where your food comes from, think about getting to know your neighbors, think about supporting the local economy... Consumer Supported Agriculture is all of these things.

For us, our CSA garden provides us with a way to afford being able to produce high quality non-chemical food for our family and friends. We have the land, but there is so much more expense involved--including seeds, water and irrigation, mulch, natural soil supplements, time, and of course, a method of deterring the deer from the HUMAN food. (Yes, maybe the kids are right about this obsession with the deer...) Pushing the limits on our short growing season can also increase the monetary costs of the garden--a greenhouse, hoophouses, and row covers to protect those tender plants from frosts and also to encourage early production. It takes a bit of planning and work to get tomatoes by July 1 in Minnesota! All of these things have monetary costs, but the benefits SO outweigh the costs. And those costs are minor compared to the costs of produce shipped from various parts of the world so that we have the luxury of out-of-season produce.

In these days of Big Ag, it's difficult to support a family by farming alone. This is where Community Supported Agriculture--in the form of subscription gardening, farmer-direct meat purchasing, local farmers markets--make a huge difference. We are far from supporting our family with our CSA garden, but it does support our quest for a healthier style of eating and living.

And not only are you sustaining a farmer's way of living, but consider how that farmer is sustaining the earth. While we are not organic-certified, we grow our fruits and vegetables by organic methods. Last year that resulted in our 2 older sons going out in regular intervals with a jar of sudsy water and a knife to look under each leaf of the eggplants in search of Colorado Potato Beetle bugs, eggs, and larvae. The adult beetles and larvae were sent to drown in the jars while the orange eggs were smashed with a knife and scraped into the jar also. We had only a minor infestation so were able to curtail it with about 2 weeks of the intense "beetle search." The boys learned more than they wanted to about the life cycle of the nasty beetles, but they can identify them in a flash! In a conventional garden, we may have tried a plethora of nasty chemicals, only to find the beetles already had an immunity or developed an immunity to them, while questioning if we really should eat anything that was within 10 feet of the chemical. And then what could the after-effects of whatever was used be on beneficial insects? This is just one small example of how we take seriously our role as stewards of the earth.

So, what is a CSA??? It's building a network, it's protecting the earth, it's getting to know where your food comes from, it's supporting a farmer... and it's GOOD EATING!

PingTung Long Eggplant

Random thoughts on Monday...

2010-01-25T13:16:00.004-06:00

Snowflakes in the backyard

It's back to winter here in MN. Over the weekend we had above freezing temps during the day with rain. Now it's about 20 degrees and blowing snow. Below zero is forecast in the next few days. It's a good time to think about greenhouses and planting! :-)

Who has checked out what was left in their freezer from last summer. Mike and I went through our 2 chest freezers and condensed down to 1. We found a lot of frozen rhubarb, broccoli, snowpeas, and cauliflower from the garden. Other treasures we discovered were frozen strawberries and corn (from another local farm). We decided it's time to start using this stuff up! So yesterday I thawed some rhubarb and made rhubarb cake--what a treat! It was like a little taste of spring in the midst of this bleak landscape of winter foods. (Now don't get me wrong--I love winter foods: comfort dishes like hotdishes, good keepers like squash and potatoes, canned fruits, etc. But that cake brought the odors of spring. It reminded us of fresh peas, greens, and, of course, rhubarb!) Tomorrow we'll be having a side dish of cauliflower with our supper. So I encourage you to dig in the freezer and see what you find!

During the school year, I teach piano lessons on Mondays. I have decided to incorporate a little "me time" into the schedule, because when I'm home the rest of the week there is NO TIME for mom time. We are busy with school, housework, and keeping our family fed! This means MOM is busy doing all those things! :-) So today, I had some extra time which I'm using right now to blog. As I was driving up our driveway this afternoon, I came across a small group of turkeys, which after looking it up in Google, I now know that it is correctly called a "rafter" of turkeys. There were about seven meandering across the driveway, no doubt eating some gravel which they need for digestion. Quite close to the turkeys was a small doe, poking through the woods. This has been a rather common spectacle on our farm. Since we are somewhat isolated and surrounded by a lot of woods, there are large populations of deer and turkeys.

You may wonder if these cause some problems in the garden. Short answer=YES. The turkeys haven't been much trouble (although they enjoy visiting our domestic turkeys when we raise them), but the deer have caused much anguish during my gardening career. Last year we completed a deer fence around the entire fence. Even though it's only 5 feet high, it accomplished it's task quite well. I think it was just enough of a deterrent that the deer figured they could just as easily get lunch elsewhere. Now that the snow is drifted about 3 feet deep around the deer fence, though, the deer have decided to come visiting once more. You see, I made the mistake of leaving an uncovered round bale of straw in the garden. I used part of it for mulching the strawberries, and was planning to use the rest this spring for the same purpose and in the raspberry patch. Even though there are about 7 strawbales outside of the fence, the deer felt a need to destroy that one partial bale INSIDE the fence. One day I sent Greg up to chase the deer away--there were at least 20 inside the fence! Most of them easily cleared the fence, though a few had their hind legs tripped up on it. So, plan B will probably be put into place this spring--topping the fence with electric strands and colored tape-flags. My kids think I'm obsessed with my no-deer-in-the-garden plans. I even have a Plan C and D! Well, someday when they wander up there for a snack of sugarsnap peas to find that every last one has been nosed out by the evil deer, they will understand.

One thing that I did today as I was enjoying some quiet was finish going through the FEDCO/Organic Growers Supply catalog. I was reading through the descriptions of all the organic soil amendments and resolved to test the garden soil again this spring and see if needs some additional rock powders, greensand, etc. We use no synthetic fertilizers in the garden, depending on rotation, compost, composted manure, and cover crops to boost the fertility. It seems to be working, if you look at this jungle of tomato plants. This picture was taken a couple years ago. Last year's tomato plants were even more massive and loaded with fruit. I will be given them a bit more space this year, since I anticipate an even better season!

Well, my free time is up! Time to go back to the cold and snow, and leave my garden daydreams for another time.

2010 is here!

2010-01-24T23:09:00.005-06:00

2010! Yes, it's here! I have sent in my seed order, and expect all those little gems to arrive any day. The onions will need to be started soon, quickly followed by the tomatoes and peppers. What fun! Little growing plants in the house will help to send away the winter doldrums!

We are continuing our CSA garden this year. Last year we supplied food for 8 families, including our own. What an accomplishment! I look forward to another wonderful season this year! I have added a few different varieties of peppers and tomatoes to the mix this year, and I promise the jalapenos will have some heat! Last year, they were so mild our 4-year-old could munch on them fresh from the garden! Over the next few days I plan on posting more of the photos that I took last season. The collage above features (clockwise from top left) Brandywine tomato blossoms, onions and leeks ready for baskets, a variety of cherry and grape tomatoes, and baby melon plants ready to be set out.

I just finished the brochure for our farm items for the 2010 season. Watch for it in the mail or at Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls.

July 23 CSA Night!

2009-07-24T01:35:00.004-05:00

It is SO fun to head out to the garden these days--all kinds of goodies out there! Today I found the FIRST true ripe full-size tomatoes. I called Sue (CSA member and local newspaperwoman for the big Cannon Falls Beacon), so she brought out her camera tonight and snapped a few shots of it. Maybe I'll make the paper this week! Could it be that I have the first ripe tomato in Cannon Falls??? Last year I would've believed it, but this year they are much later. Last year I had a dozen ripe tomatoes on July 4!

Emily was excited to show off her garden tonight, too. Her sunflower has a very full bright blossom. I will get a picture of it on here soon.

Here is what the baskets held this week:
broccoli (and LOTS of it!)
jalapenos
Cabbage
green bell peppers
yellow cherry tomatoes (the orange ones will be ready next week!)
sugarsnap/snow peas
zucchini (green and yellow)
baby eggplant
leaf lettuce--speckled amish and green salad bowl

Enjoy!

DING! Round Two!

2009-07-23T01:01:00.002-05:00

So this is the time each year that I think, "I really need to get some fall crops started." Then I usually let the chance slip by. Not so this year! Last week, with the help of my family, I planted beans, collards, kale, basil, cilantro, dill, and set out some more scallions that were started in soil blocks. Today I continued the push towards a fruitful fall--I made 200 soil block and planted seeded cabbage, red cabbage, more scallions, broccoli, and cauliflower. If it's dry enough tomorrow, I'll direct-seed a lot more in the garden--rutabaga, beans, carrots, radishes, and more lettuce for starters. I'd like to find some more chard, beet, kohlrabi, and pea seeds. I'll be checking Farmer Seed and Nursery in Faribault first chance I get. Many of the other stores are either sold out or the seed companies have already picked up the overstock. More sugarsnap peas would be sooooo nice.

Kids in the Garden!

2009-07-21T01:37:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I wonder if our kids will enjoy gardening someday. They put a lot of hours into it beside us, weeding and harvesting. It starts out as all fun and stuff--planting beans and peas, corn and tomatoes--but it isn't long before that loses it's glamour. The weeds come up, the sun is hot, Mom is cranky, etc., etc. I like to believe that the kids appreciate our family time in the garden; or even if they don't appreciate that, they appreciate the good eats! Alycia is known to run up to the garden to grab cherry tomatoes for breakfast before going to school. (She has asked me if I can send her cucumbers at college! LOL!) Katrina and I spent quite a bit of time oohing and ahhhing over the soon-to-harvest peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and onions last week. Emily has "her" garden. Mikey is my A-#1 tilling man. Gregory would rather just eat the veggies, but will do manual labor if forced. Elias is always about if I'm in the garden, constantly on the lookout for worms--and if that's not exciting enough, the sandbox is right by the gate to the garden.

I like to think that the experience of helping in the garden will be a good memory someday, and that maybe, just maybe, someday they will want a garden of their own.

Elias, that cabbage is as big as your head!

Emily next to her garden--notice the sunflower ready to bloom!

Elias posing next to Emily's zinnias.

CSA Night #4

2009-07-16T23:01:00.005-05:00

Tonight was our 4th CSA night! Tonight's basket included:
a bag of peas (snow and sugarsnap--all edible podded)
a cabbage
2 green bell peppers
some baby pac choi
2 heads of broccoli
a bag of leaf lettuce
some jalapeno peppers
the first yellow cherry tomatoes (many more to come!)

I better jot down what was in the baskets from a week and 2 weeks ago, since I didn't do that yet!
July 9 basket contained:
bag of shell peas
odd cauliflower :-)
a green Carmen pepper
leaf lettuce
green onions
Easter Egg radishes

July 2 basket contained:
beet greens
green onions
Easter Egg radishes
sugarsnap peas
leaf lettuce
sage

Each week the variety in the baskets is growing! You can see why in these pictures--the garden is growing beautifully! It's amazing to look back on pictures from just a few weeks ago and compare them with the plants now. In the first picture you can see the broccoli, with the cabbage and then leeks to the right. The tomatoes and peppers are behind. The second picture shows the pepper and tomato patches better. Be sure to click on the photos--they look much better in full size, plus they are much clearer.

Some things have not cooperated like they should--the cauliflower went a bit crazy and then immediately flowered (there will be a fall planting; hopefully that will work better), the chinese cabbage also flowered before reaching any usable size, and the okra is just not doing well. This week will be when many of the second crops and fall crops are planted--more green onions (some are already started), cauliflower, more beans (the first are flowering now--there should be green beans next week), cabbage, lettuce, rutabaga, kohlrabi... and the list goes on!

But for the few things that have not gone well, we have much more that is going GREAT! The cherry tomatoes are just starting, and with some warmer weather we can expect many many tomatoes of all sizes! The pepper plants are LOADED--I counted 9 bell peppers on one plant! The will start to turn red or yellow or orange with a little warmer weather. In the meantime we can start to enjoy the green ones! The eggplants are also proving to be abundant. Next week I believe we should have eggplant in the basket as well. The onions, leeks, celery, and melons are all well on their way to harvest! I've added a few pictures to make your tastebuds water--some nice bell peppers and a baby Ping Tung eggplant.

And finally, I need to share a couple photos of my fertilization program:

Meet Mr. T and Sir (as in T-Bone and Sirloin). These happy little fellows are currently residing in the first section of the garden, which is not planted. Each year 1/3 of the garden is seeded to a cover crop, which is then turned into the soil in the fall to build up the fertility. Section 1 was seeded to rye grass and clover, but as you can see, there is a lot of ragweed that has sprung up. (This may have something to do with the fact that my son didn't know I had seeded this area when he was disking up some space for me and used this area for turning the tractor around... not that I'm complaining or anything... I'm just saying.) The calves have clipped down all the grass and are now slowly working on the ragweed. As they clear (and fertilize) part of section 1, they will be moved into a fresh area of section 1 to continue their clearing and fertilizing. It is all very scientific. :-) Happy cows=better soil! They will be moved off section 1 later this summer, leaving us plenty of time for the manure to break down before tilling it into the soil.

In this last picture Elias is MOOOing. He seems rather at home in the pen with the calves, doesn't he?!

First CSA night!

2009-06-26T01:14:00.002-05:00

Today marked the first CSA distribution for 2009. Everyone received 2 bunches of green onions, a bunch of Easter Egg radishes, a huge bag of leaf lettuce, and about a half gallon of sugar snap peas. This is just the beginning!

Enjoy!

A Blooming Gardener! :-)

2009-06-19T00:31:00.004-05:00

Our youngest daughter celebrated her sixth birthday in May. She had been helping with various gardening things--from planting seeds in flats to putting out transplants. All this time she had commented that she wanted her own garden. So, for her birthday Daddy suggested that we give Emily her own garden--complete with Emily-sized tools, garden gloves, watering can, seeds, and garden fence. I think she wasn't so sure that she liked this non-princess gift from her well-meaning parents, but the excitement has grown with each step of getting her own little garden underway. First came setting out the fence in a newly-tilled portion of the garden, then marking rows and planting seeds. Mommy has had to help with weeding, but Emily is doing pretty well with that now that the plants have a headstart. The interest grew more with the addition of petunias (leftover from Mommy's windowboxes). So, here are some pictures of Emily's Own Garden. Emily took all the pictures except the first one.

Beautiful Blossoms and Early Crops

2009-06-18T20:09:00.002-05:00

I was just up in the garden and am sharing some of the sights that are to be seen. These are some cheery cherry tomato blossoms, and LOOK! A baby Golden Nugget yellow cherry tomato!

The peppers will not be left out of the act! They are producing blossoms right and left!

The tomatillos are going to be abundant. The plants have literally hundreds of blossoms!

Ahhhhhh! This is a sight to make any Minnesota taste buds jump for joy! Sugar Snaps! Ready to eat!

Then when you peek in the greenhouse, here are all the little melon plants ready to set out.

This is the BEST time of year!

2009-05-30T01:16:00.003-05:00

We have had a bunch of really beautiful sunny days lately, and even a beautiful rainy day with a soft rain that watered and soaked the earth well. Alycia and I were able to spend part of the day out in the garden--finished transplanting the cauliflower and then seeded kohlrabi, rutabagas, chinese cabbage, pac choi, and swiss chard. It was so nice out that I hated to come in, but at some point it just gets too dark to see those little seeds. :-)

After seeing how quickly all those evil little weeds are sprouting up after our rain, I received a timely email tonight from a favorite blogger and farmer tonight--Herrick Kimball, creator of the Whizbang Chicken Plucker. Ok, so the email was a group mailing, but I swore it was meant just for me. I don't know how he did it, but Herrick knew about my dreaming of a wheelhoe... yes, a wheelhoe. If you haven't seen on of these contraptions, check out Herrick's version; it's a beauty!:

Herrick has designed his own model and included the directions on his webpage. One has the option of ordering all the metal parts from him ($99 intro price) and proceed to put the rest together by one's own means, or he even shows how (if a person is familiar with metalworking and has the appropriate tools) to make the entire thing. I have an old high-wheel hoe/cultivator that I have used on occasion, and it definitely could be improved upon. The old metal wheel is bent and rubs on the frame, catching occasionally. But even with those issues, I can imagine the possibilities of using a low-wheel Glaser-style wheelhoe. I've been dreaming about having one of my own for a couple years, but they are gosh darn expensive!!! Now, with Herrick's assistance, I just may be able to have one. Wait til I tell the hubby what I have planned for his spare time! He already succeeded in making one of Herrick's Whizbang Chicken Pluckers, so this should be easy-cheesy! If you want to see it for yourself, check out Herrick's "Anyone Can Build A Planet Whizbang Wheelhoe."

Well, the weather this weekend is forecast to be perfect for more time spent out in the garden! Yay!

Enjoying the sun!

2009-05-24T23:32:00.002-05:00

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. I spent the entire afternoon and most of the evening in the garden. I even had helpers--DH Mike finished up the tomato cages, Alycia watered and then planted broccoli, Greg watered and spread compost, and Mikey played with the skidsteer (well, he did accomplish something while doing that--he moved a bunch of old bales of hay so that they are nearer where I need them for mulching). All is all it was VERY productive.

Now I can say that all the tomatoes and peppers are planted. The majority of the broccoli is planted also, with the cauliflower quietly waiting its turn. The greenhouse is almost empty--it's a great feeling. :-) I'm hoping that tomorrow or Tuesday I can get all the melons planted in soil blocks, then they will go out in about 2-3 weeks.

It has been very dry here. We got a sprinkle of rain yesterday morning, but not even enough to make any puddles. Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 and windy, then rain is predicted for Tuesday. Maybe I can get some more seeds in before the rain...

Getting going... ever so slowly

2009-05-13T00:27:00.002-05:00

Like I said, April is the month that everything seems like it needs to be done at once. Well, April is done and gone, and here we are in mid-May. I still don't have all that I want planted in the garden yet. I have plenty of plants to set out, but have been taking a conservative approach because I fear the occasional late frost. The outlook for the next 10 days has our lows in the upper 40's, though, so I should be safe now. I was also set back a few days with a horrible sinus infection (from which I'm still recovering) that had me laid out flat. That was pure torture!

Today Kris and Penny came over for our weekly "garden day"--we planted the onions, leeks, and strawberries. Now that we have the deer fence up, I have grand hopes of a beautiful strawberry patch full of wonderful strawberriness next spring! I also bought some fall-bearing raspberry plants and was given a lot of summer raspberries from a friend. They will be going in either tomorrow or Thursday, depending on the weather. Of course, they will need to be watered regularly... "hey Honey, so how much do you think it will cost to put that line in..."

The next two weeks I have grand plans for planting, but also need to take into account that our oldest is graduating from high school next Friday. Next week is a flurry of senior brunches, banquets, ceremonies, etc. etc. So I better get out there this week!

Have a great May and enjoy those early harvests!

April... on "April"

2009-04-25T01:42:00.002-05:00

Happy April from April! Teehee. You would not believe how many times I've been called "April May June" or asked (since it's my month!) "Were you born in April?" Short answer... NO. :-) But I digress...

It's April! An EXTREMELY busy time in the gardening year. It seems like everything is screaming to get done ALL AT ONCE! The greens, potatoes, carrots, onions, and peas all need to be planted. The peppers and tomatoes are needing bigger pots since it will still be a week or two before they can go in the garden. Tilling needs to be finished, mulch to be ..ummm.. mulched. And on and on and on. And then there's those pesky front flowerbeds that need to be groomed in time for the upcoming graduation party (I was smart, though, and planted a bunch of perennials last year, so a bunch of my planting is DONE. Just need to fill in a few annuals, plant the windowboxes, and put down some more woodchips.) It really is enough to keep one hopping!

Well, here's how things are looking right now at Chicken Scratch Farm: I put together two compost bins and the son enthusiastically played, I mean drove, the skidsteer to move my old messy spread-out pile into the bins. They are just 6-8 foot diameter circles made out of welded wire. The first section of the garden is tilled and a few rows of peas and spinach are planted. I got them in on April 18, just before a nice steady rain. Nothing like perfect timing! I still need to plant a few beds of lettuce and carrots. The onions are content for the moment in their pots--they will be introduced to garden soil after the early seeds are all in. Today I planted a few flats of broccoli, caulifower, and cabbage. They are out in the greenhouse (it's still getting down in the low 40's and colder at night) until they sprout. The peppers and tomatoes are completely out of control. It cannot warm up fast enough for them! They are huge. A few of the tomatillos are even starting to flower! Time to do some pollinating.

Well, it's been a very busy month, and will even get busier! But I'm having a blast!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T00:54:00.002-05:00

He is risen! Alleluia! Have a blessed Easter!

OH boy, do I have my work cut out for me!!

2009-03-24T00:16:00.003-05:00

I wandered up to the garden to take a look around last Thursday. It's a mess. Last fall, I ran out of time and energy to keep up with weeds and also to clean up after frost killed off everything. I did get a chance to get the last of the leeks out in November, and was rewarded with having our last batch of potato leek soup in January. But this is what it looks like now.

The relatively clean rows closest to you are the strawberry beds, except for the closest bed which is asparagus and some rhubarb. The deer have done a pretty good job of tromping in the mulch that was on the beds and eating a lot of the mulch pile in the bottom right corner. Beyond the strawberry beds is the area formerly home to beans, broccoli, lettuce, etc. etc.

These fences held up my cucumber plants last year. This area isn't too scary and most of the mulch is still in place.

My dad was cleaning out the barn and brought up a lot of old hay for me to use as mulch. Unfortunately, he brought it up last fall, so guess what... we've been feeding the deer all winter.

This picture of scat and prints supplies evidence of the local deer's favorite hangout. Most of the garden is covered with it. I guess in return for feeding them, I have to admit the deer have been providing fertilizer. :-P

Last year we got half of the deer fence in place. This spring we are finishing it! (NO MATTER WHAT!) Around the perimeter of the garden (which includes three 30 strips, each 250 feet long--one strip "rests" each year) we are putting 5 foot high welded wire fence. I know this alone will do little to deter these jumpers, but will do a lot to keep the coon out come corn season. About 4-5 foot outside the welded wire fence will be 2 strands of electric at 6 inches and 3 feet. In my experiences (note the mulch left relatively untouched in between the cucumber fences) and research, I have discovered that deer can jump amazing vertical heights, BUT they don't like to jump into narrow spaces, or into an area that they are uncertain of. My hopes are that the electric wire will make them think twice about clearing a 5 foot fence that is placed 4 feet in front of them. If that doesn't take care of it, then we will attach posts to the top of our wooden posts and string electric above the welded wire. We will also attach shiny things to blow around in the wind. Seem extreme??? Well, this is war, folks. This is all-out war! I have lost too many strawberry plants to count; the evil creatures have been known to stomp on ripe watermelons to eat out the insides, cleaned off the outer cuke fences of vines, and bit the centers out of cabbages and lettuces. They dearly LOVE sugar snap peas and will nose through the vines finding every last one. So, the deer MUST be stopped.

So, as soon as it dries out a bit more, I know where I'll be spending most of my time. I better head to the store to get a few more pairs of work gloves!

Garden Journal Notes No. 2

2009-03-23T01:14:00.002-05:00

March 10--Pot on to 2" blocks: Lipstick and Dulce peppers.
Pot on to small pots: Amish Paste Tomatoes

March 11--Pot on to small pots: Tomatillo, Amish Paste Tomato, Rutgers Tomato, Brandywine Tomato.
Pot to 2" blocks: Kin of the North and New Ace Peppers
Cherry tomatoes and Okra up that was planted on March 3!

March 12: Planted Petunias and Strawflowers in Jiffy Peat Pellets (1 tray of each, Sue gave me "Jiffy Greenhouse" kit). Started on heat mats.

March 20: most of Petunias and Strawflowers up. Such tiny plants!!!

March 21: Potted on Sunray to 3" pots

March 22: Potted on New Girl, Sweet Olive, and Jellybean tomatoes. Moved onions and leeks to coldframe. (Had previously put them out for an overnight, but had brought back in with threat of temps in the 20's.) Today's temps were around 55 for a high. Supposed to have lows in the 40's tonight and tomorrow night. Upper 20's predicted for mid-week for lows with snow showers. Probably will have to get insulation to cover the coldframe.

Catching Up!

2009-03-22T22:00:00.006-05:00

Well! It seems I'm being heckled into updating my blog! LOL! It's nice to know it's being read... thanks, Dennis, for the kick in the pants. (And you better be glad I have a great sense of humor! LOL)

A lot HAS been happening garden-wise around here. But it's all happening IN my house! Specifically, in the sunroom, which is normally the kids art area. OOPS! Well, thankfully the weather has been pretty nice, so the kids have been outside quite a bit and haven't missed using their area TOO much. Plus, they get to play in water and dirt with Mom. What could be better?!

The seed-starting operation has expanded to a potting-on operation, which means that everything takes a lot more room. Currently, we have the original shelving unit which holds 8 flats, and have added a 8 foot table with light setup. The PVC tubes are situated so that we have lower or heighten the lights as the plants grow and are potted on. It may not look like much but it is very useful. My best friend's husband built it to be placed on top of a pool table. Well, my table is not that strong, so we put it on the floor so that it straddles the table. I had thought that I might commandeer the ping pong table for plants, but that was met with MUCH opposition from the family. :-)You can see that the tomatoes are really taking off. The peppers are quickly catching up, too! I was gone all day Friday. When I was checking that night to see if they needed water, I swear the peppers had all grown at least 2 LARGE leaves since that AM. Wow! Almost all of the tomatoes have been potted on now. I put as many as I could in 3 in pots, then went to 4 in after I ran out of the smaller ones. They really take up a lot of room, and every bit of space under the lights is being used right now. The temps have been in the 50's/60's the last few days, with nighttime temps in the upper 30's to 40's, so I moved the onions and leeks out to the coldframe. I'm hoping the weather will hold and continue to get warmer so I can consider moving the peppers out there when they are ready for larger living quarters.

Speaking of peppers... here's how the potting-on went for them. They were started in the microblocks and since that was mainly for utilizing my heat mats efficiently, they grow out of the tiny blocks quickly. Time to step up to the 2 inch blocks. I put the microblock inserts in the blocker--simply popped out the seeds indents and screwed these in with the screw and washer they come with. Pretty easy.

Then on to making the blocks. Got the soil moist and away we go! I can fit 50 2 inch blocks in a flat. Ready for plants!I started getting the peppers potted-on on March 10. They have since all grown at least 2 true leaves, some as many as 4 large leaves. In a few more weeks, they will be ready for lots more space--probably 4 inch round pots.

I mentioned that the onions and leeks have moved outside. So, here are a few pictures of the coldframe setup:

This coldframe, and it's sister, were made from old wood hubbie Mike salvaged from an old deck and old storm windows from my parents' house. We prop open the windows for ventilation with just odd pieces of scrap wood. Very low-tech. :-) What matters is that it warms up nicely inside and protects the plants. I put a thermometer inside and it has been getting up to 70 in the sun, at which point I prop it open so I don't bake my plants. (I know from experience that it can heat up quickly to over 100 degrees in the coldframe even on a 50 degree sunny day!) The coldframe takes a lot of monitoring, and I hope to get a wireless thermometer for it (and to be used in the greenhouse once it is up). Then I can easily monitor the temps while I'm... baking bread or teaching Emily or even updating my blog!

I figure the leeks and onions will be good down to 30 degrees. If it threatens to get much colder than that at night, I will put a small ceramic heater in there and have it kick in at 40. Once the peppers are in the coldframe, I will keep it closer to 70 at all times. During sunny days that won't be a problem. It's the nights and cold rainy spring days that present problems. In the past I have succesfully placed a sheet of foam insulation over the frame at night to hold in the heat. It works amazingly well!

Next up will be pictures of the work cut out for me this spring OUTSIDE. Right now I'm really regretting not getting out to the garden to clean things up before the snow hit. Ah well! Live and learn!

Garden Journal Notes

2009-03-04T11:22:00.004-06:00

Garden journal notes (before I forget to write them down!):

Feb. 25: seeded Brandywine, Jellybean, New Girl, Sweet Olive, Amish Paste Tomatoes; Dulce Jalapeno, King of the North, Lipstick Peppers (all peppers and tomatoes in micro-blocks, except 1/2 the Brandywine and all Jellybean and New Girl planted in cells. All tomatoes and peppers on heat mats);
King Richard Leeks; Yellow of Parma and Expression Onion (planted in rectangles);
Evergreen Scallions (planted in bunches of 10 in 2-in blocks.

March 2: all tomatoes up. Almost 100% germination. Roots visible on many peppers.

March 3: seeded Golden Nugget and Sun Gold tomatoes; Pintung Long Eggplant (all in cells); Sunray, New Ace, and Valencia Peppers, Basil, Parsley, and Tomatillos in microblocks on heat mat; Lincoln Leeks in rectangles.
Tiny spears of Yellow of Parma onion and Evergreen scallions starting to make an appearance.

March 4: many peppers up, King Richard Leeks poking up a few spears.

Soil blocks

2009-03-03T22:51:00.007-06:00

A few years ago I was reading Eliot Coleman's book The New Organic Grower and was intrigued by his discussion of soil blockers. I always seemed to have the worst time keeping enough cell packs on hand for starting my seeds and was never thoroughly happy with them. Soil blocks seemed like the sustainable solution to this problem. Not only would I not have tons of those stupid little broken plastic 6-packs after their use, but the soil blocks provided another benefit--healthier roots. The roots will fill the block, but when reaching the edge (air) will stop and wait to be potted on, unlike in the plugs or pots where the roots will wind themselves around and become a matted rootbound mess. Also, the roots are not disturbed hardly at all when potting on since you just pick up the block and set it in the next sized block or in your pot. So, I ordered my two soil blockers from Fedco/Organic Growers Supply. The all-metal one creates 4 2-inch blocks, while the micro-blocker makes 20 little blocks in a 3"x4" area. The metal blocker has inserts that will make micro-block-sized indents for potting on the micro-blocks.

The nifty blue cushion did not come with the micro-blocker. It is the invention of my friend who got sick of getting scraped-up knuckles when she used it. It works wonderfully!

So you start with potting soil or starting mix that is wet enough to clump together. I prefer Vermont Compost's Fort Vee potting soil. I have also used Eliot Coleman's potting soil recipe, with great results, but it can be a hassle to get all the ingredients and mix them well enough. I did consider borrowing my dad's cement mixer for mixing... that would've worked!

You press the blocker into the wet soil firmly to fill the blocks. I have found that I need to press the soil into the micro-blocker's holes with my fingers to evenly fill it or the outside ones aren't packed well enough.

Then you pop the blocks out into a tray. You pull up on the handle and the spring-action ejects the blocks. This part can be a little tricky, but after a couple tries you get the hang of it! Each block has a little indent in it to hold the seeds. Obviously since the blocks are verrrry little, they work best with small seeds. I use them for my tomatoes and peppers, since I put them on a warming mat and the mini-blocks are easy to keep warm and speed germination. I also use them for a lot of small-seeded herbs and lettuce.

Here is a full tray of micro-blocks all seeded. The larger seeds are peppers and the small ones are tomatoes. As you can see, a tray holds a LOT of micro-blocks. Soon after the seeds germinate, they run out of space in their micro-block and need to be potted on to the 2-in blocks. The advantage here, though, is that I can get a lot of seeds started with only using 3 warming mats. After they have germinated, most plants are content at room temperature or slightly warmer, so don't really need the warming mat.

After seeding, I mist the top of the blocks and use a clear dome to keep in the moisture. I check daily and mist if the blocks seem to be drying out.

In the picture above, you can see the seedlings starting to put out roots, just 2 days after planting! And interestingly enough, I learned from The New Organic Grower that not all seeds need to be covered to germinate. Onion family seeds do prefer the dark for germination. So they should be covered with dirt or, if not coverering them, started in a dark room.

Ta-DA!! Little tomato plants just 5 days after planting. (I love time-stamps on pictures!!) These will need to be moved to 2-in blocks soon. The peppers you can see are starting... they are a bit slower germinators.

This is what the 2-inch blocks look like. I can fit 50 in a tray. These have the regular seed indent in them (not the square for potting on micro-blocks). I use them for onions, scallions (in bunches--just put 12 seeds in each block and they are pre-bunched!), and any larger seeds--cukes, watermelon, broccoli, cabbage, nasturtiums, okra, etc. These blocks are quite a bit easier to make than the micro-blocks. There is a 20-count blocker for these size blocks that I think would be a blast to have, but the price-tag is a bit too much for this frugal gardener. There is also a single 4 inch blocker available, but again, the price tag is a bit much and I have lots of 4-6 in pots, so I use those.

I don't use the soil blocks for all my plants. This year I am starting my leeks in 2X3 inch rectanglar trays. A friend who grows perennials for market had gotten a bunch of the trays and decided they didn't work for what she wanted, so she passed them on to me. I had not considered growing leeks in bunches until I saw them sold that way at a local nursery. They grow together, then you simply separate them when planting in the garden. I am planting some onions in the same manner, but most of my onions I grow in groups of 4 in the soil blocks. This was another idea from Coleman's book, and it has worked very well for me. I also use cell-packs (I reuse everything I can--so I have quite a few from nursery flowers) for some things, mostly marigolds and other flower starts.

Here is my current setup for my early starts. I can fit 8 trays on here (and after a planting spree today, it is full). When I start potting on the tomatoes, I will have to expand to another table with a light system set up over that. I'm hoping that the snow will go away and by mid-April I can start using the cold-frame (though that will have to be with a backup heater and insulated cover for cold nights). By that time, the plants are starting to take over the house, and every spare table area is covered in greenery!

I really enjoy this early chance to play in the dirt. I even get to make mud!!! Wheee!

Starting seeds!

2009-03-02T23:36:00.004-06:00

The seeds came, and now we can get started! I like to have my leeks and onions planted early February, but late Feb. had to suffice. On Feb. 25 my two youngest kids helped to get some seeds planted. We planted most of our onions, and about half the tomato and peppers. The rest will (hopefully) get planted tomorrow, along with a second planting of scallions.

It's lots of fun to play in the dirt! Here Emi is filling a cell tray for tomatoes and Elias is filling small containers for onions. Emily loves helping with the seeds. Elias loves playing in the dirt!

"What Would Life be Without Homegrown Tomatoes?"

2009-02-01T19:17:00.009-06:00

Tomatoes!
The tall jungle-like bushes in the back are Brandywine tomatoes while the shorter greenery directly behind the wagon are grape tomatoes.

Have you ever heard John Denver's song Homegrown Tomatoes?

Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden
Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one

Plant `em in the spring, eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' & diggin'
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one.

Isn't that the truth!? I dream of real tomatoes all winter. The plastic tomatoes we have to deal with during the winter are a disgrace to the word "tomato." I avoid them most of the time, but there comes a time about mid-January when I am lured to the display of red orbs in the produce aisle. Even though they seem rather firm, I find myself wanting to capture that summer taste and buy a couple. I am always disappointed. So, let's dream-plant some real tomatoes. Tomatoes that ripen in the sun. Tomatoes that you have to put in flat boxes because if they are piled, they bruise and crack. Tomatoes that smell and taste like tomatoes. Tomatoes that don't CRUNCH!

It seems with tomatoes, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. The majority of my family falls into the first category. The two who fall into the latter category enjoy all the great meals made with tomatoes, even if you won't catch them popping any cherry tomatoes in their mouths. Our oldest daughter, Alycia, is one who could live on tomatoes, I believe. Well, that and cucumbers. If they are ripe, she is out there snitching them. Not that I mind, of course, but it'd be nice if she'd bring a basket and pick a few to bring in the house while she's there!

I grow more tomatoes than I do peppers. We eat as many raw tomatoes as we can possibly stuff ourselves with during harvest and do our best to can or freeze the rest in quite a few different forms. The majority get canned as simply as possible because of time and the sheer quantity. Quite a few get made into salsa and either canned or frozen. I have a couple favorite salsa recipes and am always on the prowl for more. I would like to try ketchup sometime, IF it would taste like store ketchup because (whispering) we do love our Heinz here. I canned spaghetti sauce a few different times, but decided it was faster to just coldpack the tomatoes and fiddle with the sauce making later when there weren't bushels of fresh and quickly over-ripening tomatoes to deal with.

As for fresh tomatoes, most of them are eaten sliced. There are differing opinions on how to eat them--some like with pepper and/or salt, sprinkled with sugar, even spread with Miracle Whip, and quite often in their pure naked wonderfulness. There is nothing quite like picking a tomato and eating it right out there in the garden like it was an apple. Of course, MANY cherry and grape tomatoes are consumed up in the garden. One of our favorite dishes to make when we have plenty of tomatoes is gazpacho--a cold tomato and cucumber vegetable soup. Extremely delicious and refreshing!

Like my peppers, I work hard to extend the harvest season as much as possible. This means starting those little tomato seeds at the same time I do the peppers--around mid/late February, early March. They are not as dependent on warm soil to germinate as peppers; usually room temperature (65-70 degrees F) will result in excellent germination rates. I start them in mini soil blocks, potting on to 2 inch blocks quite soon after they have germinated and before the first true leaves. They are under growlights the entire time so that they do not get leggy. The growlights need to be lowered to just a few inches above the plants so that they don't have to stretch to get light. I keep an eye to make sure they don't touch the lights--even though fluorescent growlights are cool, they do produce enough heat to burn the leaves if they are too close. As the seedlings grow, I transfer them to larger pots--4 inch and then 6 inch--burying the stem below the leaves to encourage good root growth. Stems of many plants, and especially tomatoes, will sprout roots wherever they are in contact with soil. Burying the stem creates a larger rootball and makes for a sturdier plant stalk.

I follow the same timeframe for my tomatoes as I do with peppers as far as when to move to the cold frame, green house, and garden. The main difference is that while the peppers are usually content in 4 in pots until transplant time, I like to have the tomatoes in 6 in pots which results in a larger plant to set out. This means they take up a LOT of space, so they get priority in the greenhouse. In early May, I want to move these space hoarders out of the greenhouse to make way for other seedlings. I accomplish this by creating a mini greenhouse environment right in the garden, an idea I found in a great book called The Small Commercial Garden by Dan Haakanson, a former commercial gardener from North Dakota.

The process of setting out tomatoes is multi-step. I start by tilling the bed and then mark out the rows. All of my tomatoes are set out in double rows. We run a strip of 3 foot wide plastic mulch the length of the row, and hold it in place by pressing the tomato cages into it, right against each other in double rows. We made our own tomato cages from concrete reinforcing wire mesh--some stand 2-3 foot high (for the determinate tomatoes), some stand 5 foot high (for the take-over-the-world indeterminates), and all are about 18 inches in diameter. This spring I will take pictures of these sturdy cages and post them. Having them against each other means they support each other as the tomatoes grow. Since they are so big in diameter, each tomato plant has plenty of space, but is nicely held upright. At this point I'm ready to start planting. One by one, I lift each cage, cut a hole in the plastic, dig a big hole (remember, I'm putting out 6 in pots and if need be, burying extra stem), put in a quart or so of water and 1/4 cup Fertrell Feed and Grow, and planting the plant. Then I set the cage back in place and move on down the row. The last couple years, I've put the watering and fertilizing jobs in the hands of my youngest children, who seem to enjoy getting wet and measuring! LOL! I usually leave a 2 foot walkway between the rows of cages and mulch this using paper covered with old hay. It's important to keep mud from splashing onto the plants since blight and mildew spores get splashed there right along with the mud. Plus the mulch keeps the water down in the ground where your plants need it rather than evaporating. It keeps your shoes (or barefeet!) a lot cleaner, too!

After the row of tomatoes is put out, we need to protect them from late freezes and give them that greenhouse temp they like so well, so we use a heavy plastic (like vapor barrier) and wrap it around the sides of the entire row, leaving the top open. Over the top we stretch and tie (with twine) Agribon garden fabric (row cover). Light and rain can get in, but while it's less than 60 degrees outside, the tomatoes are enjoying a taste of the tropics!

We leave the plastic and fabric in place until the plants start to touch them. If we have some unseasonably warm weather, we might have to remove the fabric to keep from baking the plants. By the time we remove the plastic, many of the tomatoes are flowering and they have quite a headstart on other local tomatoes.

The last 3 years I was able to harvest my first tomatoes by July 4! These were generally my New Girls, the earliest tomatoes I plant, but they were followed closely by the paste tomatoes and finally the big slicers.

Of all the varieties of tomatoes I plant, my favorite has got to be an heirloom favorite--Brandywine. The plants are massive with huge leaves that look more like potato plant leaves. The fruit are just as impressive--huge deep pink tender fruit. Be careful or your thumb will poke right through the ripe ones. I try to harvest them when they might still have a hint of green near the blossom end so they don't mush on the way to the house. And OH, do they taste heavenly. I daresay they have the perfect tomato taste. They are wonderful for BLT sandwiches--one slice is the size of the piece of bread! Absolutely delicious!!!

Of course, the tomato harvest ends quickly in this northern climate. An early freeze has been the demise of many a ripening tomato. I do my best to protect my precious tomatoes when a freeze is predicted. Tarps, sheets, and blankets are spread over the best rows with hope that it won't get THAT cold. Inevitably, the cold gets them. It's a disappointment, but usually also a relief. Finally we can let up on the canning mayhem. There's usually a couple boxes of ripe tomatoes and (if we got out there) quite a few boxes of green tomatoes that will slowly ripen, or rot, depending on their mood.

I've been saying for the last few years that I want to move my greenhouse up to the garden and put it over a few plants to prolong the harvest a few more weeks. So far it hasn't happened, usually because we are just plain exhausted from the long summer days! So, maybe this year we'll get that done. And then maybe we'll have fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes into November!

Sadly, it's only the first of February. The seeds won't arrive for a few days yet. So until July remember:

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What would life be without homegrown tomatoes?
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...

2009-01-30T01:42:00.013-06:00

I LOVE peppers! I'm not referring to hot peppers, though I do appreciate the wonderful flavor of a hot little jalapeno in my salsa. I'm talking about sweet peppers--bells, pimientos, green, red, orange, yellow! YUM! I love them raw and naked or in a creamy dip. I especially love to pick a bright red sweet pimento or pointed Lipstick and munch it right there in the garden.

I indulge myself in these wonderful little delights by planting a large pepper patch. (By large I am talking about 60 plants total. This includes about 6 different varieties including about 6 jalapeno plants which make more peppers than I can make into salsa!) My goal each year is to push the boundaries of short Minnesota summers so that I can munch on fresh peppers for the longest amount of days. I've learned a few season extension techniques that have helped me in this quest.

First of all--starting seeds. I start all of my own pepper plants from seed, and I start them early. I like to get the seeds planted in either late February or early March. They are kind of finicky little buggers when it comes to heat--they like a nice warm bed! The answer is a seed heating mat. I have had almost 100% germination rates when using a seed heat mat under my seed starting trays. I use mini soil blocks and pot on to 2 inch soil blocks a few days after germination--once the first leaves have opened up but before the first true leaves have made an appearance. They are placed under growlights immediately upon sprouting. I like to leave them on the heat mats for a good week or so before weaning them off to normal room temperature. Clear "greenhouse covers" are a must! They keep the blocks moist and create a perfect humid climate for the seedlings.

Depending on how late spring arrives (usually later than earlier!) I will usually have to pot on the pepper plants to 4 inch pots well before it is time to transplant to the garden. I usually run out of room under the growlights what with all the tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplants, etc., that are clamoring for space. As soon as it is reasonable and safe from horribly cold temps, I move my peppers out to the cold frame on the south side of the garage. Last year this occurred in early April. A bit of watchfulness is in order--the cold frame needs to be monitored to make sure it doesn't swoop down into freezing temps at night and doesn't bake the plants on a sunny day. I've found a little remote thermometer to be just the trick for keeping a close eye on those fluctuating temps. Since it does get rather nippy in April (it's nowhere the last frostdate!) I've used a small ceramic heater in my coldframe. I set it to kick in so that the temp never goes below 55 degrees F and use a sheet of insulation foam on top of the cold frame to keep the heat in.

Once it's getting close to May 1, I start getting antsy to plant those plants in the garden! Our FFD isn't until about May 15-22, so I need to be careful. If there's room in my 10'X10' greenhouse, they may move in there for a bit, but that is usually overflowing with tomatoes--my other veggie weakness. By now I'm removing the cover on the coldframe during the day so the plants are pretty well hardened off. For the last couple years I've set out my peppers between May 10-20, protecting them from late frosts with Agribon cloth tented over the rows. It has worked extremely well! The plants are quite large by now and with this extra TLC they are often blossoming within a week or two of setting out, with the first green peppers being ready the first week of July. They are ripening to red, orange, and yellow a few weeks later. I've had little if any transplant setbacks by making sure the plants never get rootbound or too big for their pots, setting out in deep enough holesinto which we dump a quart or so of water and 1/4 cup Fertrell Feed and Grow before popping the plants in. I mulch heavily using paper under old hay. We get the paper from cutting apart empty chicken feed bags--it is similar to craft paper.

The pepper harvest continues right up to, and possibly after(if I was quick with the blankets to cover the best plants), the first killing frost. I've found that the jalapenos are a bit more hardy than the sweet peppers when the nights get cold and go into super-production when you can start to see your breath in the air. I've been out picking jalapenos by feel on a clear cold October night after they've survived a couple light frosts under the blanket, and I know nothing will save them this time. By then the tomatoes have had it, and I have boxes waiting in the garage for me to do something with them. Then it's time for salsa! I like to use as many jalapenos in my salsa as possible without needing to call a fire department, so I prefer a milder jalapeno with more flavor and less heat. My prior fave jalapeno was called Delicias, and though my brother would laugh at me (he who goes for the extra hot everything), it was mild enough for even this tender-mouth to eat raw by itself. Pack a lot of them into the salsa, though, and it has a bit of a kick.

This year the stars in the pepper patch will be New Ace, an early thinner-walled pepper which turns red very early; King of the North, a thick blocky green-to-red; Valencia, a large thick-walled green to orange; Sunray, another blocky pepper that ripens to yellow; and Lipstick, a supersweet early red pointy pimiento-style pepper. The newcomers will be Carmen, similar to Lipstick, and Dulce Jalapeno, hopefully the perfect replacement for my standby Delicias Jalapeno which I wasn't able to get this year.

Now as for pickled peppers... I've never tried them. Peter can have them. I prefer my peppers raw and crunchy, and preferably eaten right in the patch!

Conservative/Liberal, Christian/Pagan--Polarizing Views on Gardening

2009-01-27T23:31:00.008-06:00

For a couple years now, there is a group of us in the area who get together each January to order seeds together. We are mostly conservative Christian homeschooling moms/families. We get to share some wonderful food, peruse catalogs, combine our orders to receive discounts, and share gardening strategies. By and large this group is also an "organic" group--doing our best to raise our families with healthy food and, as a means to that end, garden organically. We are all at different points in our health-food journey, but we all learn from each other and truly enjoy the fellowship.

Last week during a flurry of emails as we were trying to cement our orders, I was struck (as I have been a few times in the past) at the irony of this group ordering seeds from some catalogs that are quite obviously on the opposite end of the political, and most likely, religious spectrum. I feel somewhat responsible for this since I introduced the group to at least one of the most liberal catalogs, be that good or bad.

I have contemplated this whole matter quite often, actually, and it brought me to this point--while I agree with these seed companies on their safe seed pledge, it really bothers me that many of them seem to have completely OPPOSITE political leanings from me. It seems to me that in the natural food and organic gardening circles that there are 2 opposite political views and rarely a middle ground. Both are just as strong in their commitment towards natural food and organic gardening, etc. It seems to me that while those of us in the conservative Christian circles are viewing our food and gardening practices as a way to be stewards of what God has provided (our land, our bodies, our families), that the opposite end of the spectrum is searching for their god in the name of health/organics/etc. I don't think I'm finding the right words, but hopefully you can get an idea of what my line of thought is on this. I find it interesting that such polarizing views are brought together by the same means. Does this go beyond stewardship to an opportunity for discipleship? Hmmmm.

I would enjoy hearing others' views on this subject. And also your thoughts as to where this leads us.

Now THOSE are cucumbers!

2009-01-25T23:40:00.002-06:00

This is a photo of part of my garden, year 2006--the summer of plentiful cucumbers, tomatoes, leeks, corn, ... YOU NAME IT! Just look at those cucumber plants. Down in the left corner is one of the baskets of cukes we harvested that day--we had to pick every day and emerged with baskets like that! The leeks just to the right of the cukes are now one of my favorite vegetables to plant. They are amazingly forgiving, and as long as they are started early indoors, they grow a beautiful long white shank here in the short MN summer.

This is one of my favorite garden pictures--it amazes me everytime I look at it. It also makes me sad that I haven't taken more garden pictures. I'm planning on taking LOTS of pics this year! And hopefully the cukes will be even more amazing!

The Great Seed Order

2009-01-25T01:11:00.002-06:00

Well, are you ready for this?! Now, bear in mind that some of this will be planted in my friend's garden. We both were looking for a variety of food that will keep our families well-fed all summer and most of the winter. My mouth is watering just going over this list...

Bush Beans: Provider
Beets: Early Wonder
Broccoli: Fedco's "Broccoli Blend"
Cabbage: Chinese Fun Jen and Golden Acre
Cantaloupe: Athena Hybrid and Halona
Carrots: Mokum, Over the Rainbow mix, and cute little Tonda di Parigi
Sweet Corn: Bodacious, Lancelot, and Spring Treat
Cauliflower: Charming Snow
Cucumbers: Marketmore 76 and Cross Country (I'll also plant Burpee's Hybrid II and Sweeter Yet that I can usually find locally)
Eggplant: Pingtung Long
Lettuce: Red Sails, Red Salad Bowl, Amish Speckled, Green Deer Tongue, Butttercrunch, Blushed Butter Cos, and Mesclun Mix
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Winterbor Kale
Herbs: Gigante d'Italia Parsley, Genovese Basil, Caribe Cilantro, Lemon Balm, and Lemongrass
Kilibri Kohlrabi
Cajun Jewel Okra
Onions: Expression, Yellow of Parma, and Evergreen Scallions
Shuko Pac Choi (a mini Pac Choi)
Peas: Green Arrow, Sugarsnap, Oregon Giant Snow, and SugarAnn
Peppers: Valencia (ripens to orange), New Ace, Carmen, King of the North, Lipstick, Sunray(ripens to yellow), and Dulce Jalapeno
Pumpkins: Wee Be Little
Radish: Easter Egg
Laurentian Rutabaga
Space Spinach
Table Queen Acorn Squash
Tomatoes: Rutgers, Pineapple, Amish Paste, Sun Gold Cherry, Sweet Olive Grape, and Gold Nugget Cherry
Watermelon: Sugar Baby, Little Baby Flower, and Sorbet Swirl
Zucchini: Raven and Sebring Yellow

I do have a few seeds that I had left from last year that will round out the garden:

Leeks: King Richard and Lincoln
Squash: Buttercup and Eastern Rise
Tomatoes: Brandywine (my all time favorite slicer!!!) and New Girl (the earliest best tomato here in cold MN)

I also have a perenniel herb garden that includes chives, oregano, chocolate mint, and spearmint. I'm hoping the marjoram and rosemary may survive the winter, but we'll see.

Uff Da! There will be a lot of planting going on over the next few months! We'll start the peppers, tomatoes, and onions sometime in February. Gradually quite a few other seeds will be started in 2" or mini blocks as spring starts to thaw this frozen tundra of the north. They'll gradually move from the cozy warm house and grow-lights to the cold frame and greenhouse, before making their final move to the garden soil.

Now for the wait--for the seeds to arrive and then the right time to plant!

That time of year again!

2009-01-23T23:58:00.006-06:00

It's that time again! It is the dead of winter, yet the hopeful among us are sending our seed orders in so that when this arctic tundra thaws, we will be ready! We will have our tender little seedlings ready to set out. We will plant seeds out in freshly plowed dirt and eagerly await the arrival of the first green shoots! Now the dreams are firm in our minds of how wonderful our garden will be! I invite you to dream and plan with me. The garden is my second home during the months of May-October. And this year will be the best ever! (See, there is that ever-present winter optimism.) I'm planning on sharing my past garden experiences while keeping a current journal of how things are going this year.

I like to think of myself as an organic gardener. I do my best to control of the little nasties that make my garden a not-so-nice-place with natural means. This means a lot of good old getting down and dirty! I do have the assistance of a great tiller that I thoroughly enjoy using, which makes some of the gardening tasks SO much easier. There is nothing quite like watching an aisle of weeds succumbing to the turning tines of my blue BCS wonder! This year I also have the added joy of gardening again with my best friend. We will be sharing the wealth and work of both of our home gardens, and if I can talk her into it, the "putting up of the harvest." (Kris... hint hint!) We have gardened together in the past, and it was wonderful!

This thought of organic gardening brings me to a dilemma--where to get my seeds? I have made a personal commitment not to buy seeds from certain large agri-companies who persist in playing God with questionable practices in bio-technology. Thankfully, I have found quite a few seed companies that have committed to a safe seed pledge that I have come to depend upon. My favorite of these is Fedco Seeds. The majority of the seeds in the garden this year will come from Fedco. There are quite a few others that are worth mentioning also: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seeds of Change, and Seed Savers Exchange. And not only can one depend on safe seeds from these companies, their catalogs are feasts for the eyes.

Next post I will try to include the list of seeds that will hopefully be speeding their way in the mail to me soon! In the meantime I leave you with this quote:

By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months. All is at last in balance and all is serene. The gardener is usually dead, of course.
~Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman, 1981