Blitz

Been busy lately, no shock there, but I have some catch up to do here, so I'll update as my memory allows.

First the tomatoes...oh the tomatoes. Here's a taste of one evenings take.



not sure what my final poundage was for the year as I still have a few out there, racing the weather to ripen. But there was enough to can about 4 quarts of the most delicious garlicy sauce courtesy of my brother from another mother's recipe. Next year there will be twice as many vines.

The last corner of the potato patch got dug up. Thar be monsters!
granted 1 lbs 1.25 oz may be pedestrian by onestraw's standards...but its a record for me. no final tally yet.

Even more significant. I have achieved a benchmark. I have made a succession plan work. Previously I was just shy a few weeks time to have a good crop of beans after potatoes. I am fairly confident I can repeat the results now. We've had a cool gray wet summer, so even with that taken into account, I can fit the two crops in the same spot and avoid the frost. Yeah! This year, the first major harvest day for the green beans planted after potatoes came in at a touch over a pound. This is enough to have a couple good meals at home and give away the rest before they go bad. Not enough to can though (nor do I have a pressure canner). Thankfully...I only planted about a third of what I could have, so next year we should have enough for fresh and putting aside. Here is about one half the take on saturday morning.



Speaking of beans, the vermont craberry shelling beans were sufficiently dry to pick and shell. It was so much fun that my wife insisted on finishing shelling the rest. Pretty productive, I got a good cup and a quarter of shelled dried beans from about a 10 foot row. Next year I'll buy more seed, since I'll likely use up all these beans in cooking, though I could technically save it.



And lastly, the sunflowers did not happen this year. I think my seed saving methods may be at fault. I only saved one head a year, so I'm betting the lack of diversity lead to an inbreeding depression. Spindly little things that couldn't stand on their own. Here's the real surprise. My wife remarked that she missed seeing them around the house. The same wife who in prior years remarked that their presence was a bit hippyish. I just smirked, she insisted that I not read to much into it...yeah right.

Oh by the way

yep another post on the run. lets get the bad news out of the way.

my garage was broken into by kids...how do I know it was kids? because they took the time to rip the car stereo out and left the thousands of dollars worth of tools sitting in the open.

Germination of the in situ squash and melons has been aggrivatingly poor.


now the good news.

my wife and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this sunday. I cooked her favorite dish. Chicken marsala. Despite being an avowed vegetarian I will handle chicken twice a year. Valentines and our anniversary, with one caveat: It must be free range organic. Pricey but I'd like to think it contributes to the results. And the recipe translates well to mock chicken too. Behold

"Chick'n" "Marsala"

Dredge thawed "quorn naked cutlets" in 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp salt. (I am approximating the measurements, I have made this so many times I just eyeball it now. Secondly, if the cutlets are slightly damp, it helps the flour stick.)

saute in 1Tblsp olive oil/1Tblsp butter on medium heat until both sides are golden. Throw in a cup of sliced crimini mushrooms, naw go ahead and throw in the rest of the crimini mushrooms because they are just that good. Pour in a cup of Marsala wine (white port also works very well) and cover. Lower heat slightly and Simmer for about ten minutes until the wine reduces and thickens a bit. Flip the cutlets once during cooking. If the sauce has not thickened sufficiently, add a scant teaspoon of flour and stir well with a fork to prevent clumps.

then yesterday I finally got to use the morels I found at the grocery store. Granted the joy pales in comparison to finding them in the wild, but I have never cooked with them. I sliced and boiled them in a cup of water in a saucepan for about 30 minutes, then added whole cream, about half a lemon worth of juice, some minced fresh thyme, a little salt and pepper, then let that reduce again by about a third, and added just a touch of flour. This went over angel hair spaghetti Sadly I was the only one who really liked the results but my enthusiasm more than made up for the lack from the rest of the family. My wife said the look and texture reminded her of the infamous dinner scene from Hannibal. Apparently she does not have the stomach for anything resembling brains. The taste though...was out of this world in my less than humble opinion.


In garden news, the potatoes are flowering! Time to start the green beans in the flats! My lemon tree is making more flower buds! The soup beans appear to be doing well, the black eyed peas...not so much.

Thats it. Gotta go. Take care.

coming up for air

I've been lax in my posting, especially when you consider all that has happened. The situation may continue until the 27th when my work gets the equivalent of a new president. Lets just say I am going to be beyond busy for the next week and leave it at that.

I do feel the need to say a couple things though. This past sunday (17th) we had a baptism and party for our children. I am, to my core, normally averse to large social gatherings. This was incredible though. So many people came, including my best friend of25 years. (thats 1st grade for those doing the math)...all the way from North Carolina. I have to be honest, I worked my butt off getting everything outside tidy and presentable in the garden for the sole purpose of impressing people, not because of any vanity thing, but because I am so desperate to spread the word as it were. Nate and I wandered outside and walked around, I gave him a quick tour, he nodded a lot and said. "You know, I really want to start a garden back home."

I'm counting that as three!

I also found out his father in law has similar proclivities for diggin in the dirt. Its amazing who you'll connect to sometimes.

I also discovered that another longtime friend also recently adopted. I don't know if my example planted that seed or simply gave it a little fertilizer, but I'd like to think that in some way I was at least a snowflake in the avalanch of the decision.

Melinda at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op penned this fantastic piece. Its amazing sometimes how things seem to be "in the air." I'd like to think that my own transformation has allowed me, in at least some regard to similarly manifest my true self. It did remind me how far I need to go. During one of our late night chats with friends who were visiting this weekend, I found that I was the sole person in the room who, if given the chance, would not return to school to persue a more advanced degree in my field. I do what I do because it pays the bills, is pleasant, allows me to work for an organization that I can "look at myself in the mirror each day" and barring major events like the one currently going on...lets me go home at 4:30 and leave work at work.

There are drawbacks to this though. There are times when I feel like I am cheating, I find the work easy most of the time. I spend 40 hours a week doing something which I have no passion for, I simply derive enjoyment from interactions with my coworkers, and the sense of "helping out" that I get from fixing their technical difficulties. I have wrestled with ennui for most of my life, which I'm sure is equal parts genetic, chemical, and cognative. My demons flog me with alterating blows of doubt, anxiety and angst and how far from my goals I am. But there are moments, like this weekend, when I my joy can barely contain itself. I don't think I could proclaim that I too am living absolutely true to my inner ethos, but I think each baby step I take brings me that much closer, and sometimes (like this weekend) its nice to stop and realize how far we have come.

that being said I have tons of other things that I will try to get posted, but bear with me. Oh, and I spotted potato plants poking through!

Spuds down

well despite an earnest desire to start them on the 15th, my potatoes did not go into the ground until yesterday the 23rd. Hopefully we get a late frost and I can get a full bean crop in. Hopefully.

In the ground

Well yesterday evening, the spinach, lettuce, peas, broccoli, radishes and beets went in the ground. And of course there was a light frost this morning, but nothing seemed to be really bothered by it. This evening I'm starting the tomato plants for my dad's house, planting some podding radishes and flax outdoors, cutting the potatoes into smaller chunks, and approaching my wife about a spot I think would be perfect for another garden bed. Its worth a shot right?

Out and about in the yard I noticed lemon balm, bee balm, chives, mint, and wormwood poking up out of the ground. The buds on the ornamental cherry are swelling, the lilacs are getting ready to leaf out. I've got about 4 1-year-old blackberry primocanes that are budding and 3 coming up out of the ground. The berry yield will still be small but much better than the 7 berries I got last year.

Tempting frost

According to Cornell's map (which is great if you live in NY like me) Our final expected frost date is somewhere between april 10 and 30th (we live on the boarder between two areas). Last year the spring crops went in the ground on the 21st. Though I had a bit of a frost scare, everything pulled through. One of the problems I found with the time table I used last year was that some seedlings were a bit small, and some which I know are cold tolerant tended to take a long time to mature and were holding up the succession plan.

Since I have a new bed I will be working with I am going to try an experiment. I am still determined to grow corn, but I know I have to get it in the ground long before july 7th which is when it went in last year. I figure between 70-80 days should be enough to get a decent yeild from a pea variety rated at 65 days. Cornell rates mid may as optimum planting time in accordance with IPM. This means the peas would have to go in mid march. On more than one occasion I have heard people suggest planting peas on st. patrick's day, which is of course mid march. The problem is, I don't remember a st. patty's day in syracuse where I have not sputtered some inappropriate metaphor about the cold. What the heck! lets do it! Its so crazy it might work, and I have seen fall planted pea vines shrug of frost and even a dusting of snow. My concern is germination. I'm thinking a floating row cover or makeshift cold frame to protect the seedlings, but will they germinate without outside help? do I put some peas in flats for a week, and then pop them in the ground once they sprout?

I'd like to do a similar think with the potatoes though not as radical. Last season I followed the potatoes with bush beans and I'd like to do so again, but the beans had just started producing when they were frost killed. A week or two sooner (say Aug 1) to get the potatoes out and the beans in would probably give me a full crop. Since last year I dug the first new potatoes on the 29th of July and the last full sized Aug 13, it seems feasible if memory serves that so long as they get to me in time, It should be warm enough and safe to plant by April 15th or so, roughly two weeks earlier.

Where credit is due

If any of my readers are in the upstate NY area you are probably familiar with the megagrocery store Wegmans. I have several friends who have worked there for a number of years, and I know that unlike other grocery chains, they treat their employees well. I normally am quite cynical when it comes to giving the thumbs up to big businesses like this but well...they really get it, or at least it seems like they do. The organic produce section is almost a full third of the total and seems to get bigger each week at my location (dewitt). Some veggies you can only get organic. When you walk through the front door the local crops are right in front of you (and you cant get anywhere else in the store without walking past the local veggie racks). They have a huge chart on the wall with what vegetables are in season, and they post pictures of the farms they buy from right above the vegetables.

If I were better at planning and had more time I wouldn't need grocery stores, but lets face it, I'm not. So when I have to pick up a green pepper and some celery to complete an otherwise homegrown potato salad...I'm happy to report that its still local.


even the cherry tomato (the first of the season) Yesterday two more ripened (which my friend loved...but still no brandywines.)

Look what happens when your mammoth sunflowers are grown to close to your lemon queens, next year you get this.



Glamor shot, another 7 ounces of the most gorgeous cuke I have ever seen. I will be a shame to eat this one...no it wont, I've got three more on the way.


And on saturday I was a participant in a crop swap, and I didn't know it before hand. Some friends of my wife who live in CT met us at a halfway point (Albany) for a picnic. They (who has noticed similar problems with tomatoes being slow to ripen) had what he thought was a mix of zucchini and summer squash seedlings given to him. Turns out they were all yellow summer squash! He is swimming in them, so he cut about 10 lbs from his garden and gave them to me.

Desperate to start chipping at the mountain of yellow on the counter I pulled together this experiment, which I'm happy to say was great!



I worked in aMom&Pop pizza operation all through high school and college, so I consider myself fairly adept at the art. This one was a combination of one side just shrooms (for my wife who was not willing to be part of the experiment) and the other side with the rest of the green pepper, a little bit of our backyard onions, some rosemary and chunks of yellow squash.

It was fantastic, I've got some leftover dough and I'm cursing the brandywines right now because there is nothing better than pizza with slices of fresh tomato on top. Oh well.

If anyone has any favorite vegetarian recipes that use summer squash, please hit me up! I still have a mountain of it and so far only a few people at work have volunteered to take some. Abundance is killer isnt it.

Speaking of killer, the aforementioned killer in the previous post is a potato berry. Full to the brim of solanum, the thing that puts the deadly in deadly nightshade. In other words, eat the spud, not the bud.

from the dept of weights and measures

I wasn't lying about the rain, 2.5" in 3 days.



Saturday thankfully it was sunny long enough to get at some of the potatoes. I got about 16 sq. ft. dug up. Behold the results.


Thats what 12 lbs of blurry potatoes looks like. Based on the picture you'd probably guess there are slightly more of the purple caribes than the yukon golds. You'd be right, especially when you consider that I pulled up 4 more yukon plants than caribes. The yukons were an abysmally poor producer. And given that I like the taste of caribes better, yukons are out of next year's plan. Originally I picked two varieties for earliness, in accordance with the plan in Jeavon's book. The bottom line is that I simply do not have time in the season to follow potatoes with something so long growing as corn. Next year it will be potatoes first and then something like beans, or maybe a second potato crop. Suggestions are welcome of course. I will say that having never tried the caribe I was pleasantly surprised by the fine texture and taste. The skin however, is frail I don't think I pulled a single one out of the ground without scratching or nicking the skin. I did however notice a couple yukons and caribes having what looks like the early stages of scab. A season or two away from spuds is in order. I may have to dig another bed to make a three year rotation in coming years...aw shucks

So what did I do with the spuds, well all of the small ones and some of the medium ones went into the briny deep of my stock pot for some NY salt potatoes. Well recieved at the picnic, though I was left with several of the larger caribes left floating in the salty, buttery, oh so healthy slurry. What to do? We had friends coming over for dinner so I figured a little recycling was in order. I cut up the potatoes into smaller pieces, (almost losing a finger in the process) pulled a couple small onions from the garden, cut a handfull of garlic chives, reused the aluminum foil that covered the salt potatoes to make a pouch for the melange, drizzled some of the butter over it with a little poultry seasoning, and threw it on the grill. Behold the attack of the 50 foot grilled potatoes. It was delicious even if I do say so myself.



By the way, since I haven't exactly been forthcoming with my totals I am at about 18 lbs of produce for the year, the inaccuracy due to an old scale which has been replaced now. I know it looks light, but please remember most of the things I have been pulling up were light, like lettuce, peas, broccoli, etc. There are ten more pounds of spuds in the ground, the onions ought to get me a few pounds, and the zucchini...well, I think we all know how that is going to end.

100 pounds from 100 square feet in upstate NY seems a bit high in retrospect, but I think its possible, maybe not this year, but with experience and improving soil, possible.

Proof of Life

Here it is, a baby potato plant. This is one of the several Caribe's to have emerged of which I probably planted 20. The Yukons were no show until this morning when I found two. At this point they look pretty much the same as far as the above ground portion. Its been very wet lately and I was concerned for their health in the heavy clay soil. Hopefully as the years progress, the successive additons of organic matter ought to improve things. That still blows my mind. The act of gardening sustainibly can improve a soil's quality and increase fertility. How far a cry from the days when land was plowed to death and then left behind for greener pastures.

Being the descendant of a people who depended on the potato to sustain their lives, there is a certain deep ancestral joy I got from seeing these sprouts come up. It never hurts to think back on where we have been when we start to consider where we are going. In a time when we were tennant farmers, and the landlord gave us one acre to feed our families, potatoes were one of the few crops to be calorie effective in the small plots. In a time when we are once again constricted by lack of land, we may once again find salvation in the humble potato. Thankfully, we know the value now of crop rotation and genetic diversity to keep the troubles of the past at bay.

Hope Faith and Love

Hope: twice in one day our daughter, completely unprompted and unprovoked, blew my mind. First in the home depot while we walked by the toilet aisle on the way to get screws to fix the deck gate. Her: composting toilets? they compost your poop? Me: yep Her: can we get one? Me: I don't think it will be equally appreciated by everyone in the house. Her: huh? Me: ask mom.

second, while riding in the car with the family and my mother a roadgoing monster passed us. Her: Was that a hummer? Me: it certainly was. Grandma: Do you like hummers? Her: No, they waste gas and pollute the environment.


Faith: Yesterday I saw the first buds of the potatoes pushing through the soil. I'll say it again, I'm an anxious person, and I'm sure by now I've spent hours staring at that side of the garden. Being my first time with spuds I was apprehensive. Did I plant to deep too shallow? upside down? was the soil to dry? too wet? Anyhow, as of this morning, about 6 of the 50 or so have completely pushed their leaves up through. As Tyler Durden would say, stop trying to control everything and just let go.

Love: Yesterday my brother shipped off to 29 palms california for 2 months training, after that, iraq. The family event at the reserve depot was remarkably different from the first deployment 4 years ago, you could read it on the faces of everyone there. The trust is gone. The trust in safety, in the rightness of the mission, in the leadership. Gone. The most unsustainable, unrenewable action a government can enact, wanton destruction of participant and bystander alike, the squandering of resources, starving the needy to feed an all consuming beast, and somehow, by not spending every breath trying to avert it, are complicit in the crime. No More.

Anger is not sustainable, Faith, Hope and Love are.

potatoes and timing

onestraw reminded me that I hadn't ordered potato seed yet either. The problem is actually 2fold. First, I calculated the actual number of days in the ground I need according to the 100 sq ft plan in How to Grow... based on frost dates and things are going to be tight. Jeavons says that the plan is for people with 6 months of growing season, which is just a touch more than we get here in zone 5. Not enough for me to say"Well, I just have to forgo one of the succession phases" But its just enough to make it ...tight. It means the zone devoted to early salad crops like peas, lettuce, carrots, radishes, broccoli etc get about 55 days, which thanks to the wonder of genetic diversity is doable if using some of the heirloom seed stocks available...like my favorite Alaska Peas. Back to the matter at hand if I am to follow them with the late crop of corn, then potatoes get a window of 65 days. (Which by the way is exactly what Jeavons suggests).

So bottom line is I need to find some good seed potatoes that grow to maturity in 65 days. Unfortunately most online sources do not list days to maturity, only "early" "late season" etc. Second, is finding a quantity that is cost effective. I need about 10 lbs and a lot of the sources offer 2.5 lbs which at 4 quantities costs the same as the 20 or 50 lbs quantities being offered. And not to be too picky but I need a potato that keeps well, with only two adults and 1 eight year old we will not go through them too quickly. Why not plant less? two reasons. First, having more on hand means we will eat more home grown produce, and I will get to cook more, and share more with friends and family. Second, ego. I haven't actually declared as such but I am going for a poundage goal. 100 lbs from 100 square feet. I think its a reasonable goal given my level of experience. For comparison, Path To Freedom averages @ 1.5 lbs per square foot of garden space based on their advertised statistics. They also have a ridiculously long growing season and waaaaaay more experience.

Any suggestions?


PS:

Jeeze, how could I forget this one, I got some vine cuttings from our soon to be adopted daughter's great aunt. Great productive vines, the ever popular northern staple Concord. My father the amatuer winemaker was less than enthused with the variety, but as a lover of grape juice and jam, I could not be happier. I took the cuttings based on the Cornell Extension guide, but I'm still nervous, I know grapes are pretty reliable rooters from cuttings, but this is my first time propagating in this manner, so there is always some apprehension I suppose. If these take off I might try a hardy table variety like Himrod or Niagra next year. I don't have the space to do any large scale production for wine grapes, which is no real big loss, we're not far from Western New York's wine country which spans from somewhere near Rochester all the way out to Fredonia, which is where my Dad goes for his big juice buckets every year. I'm so excited, even though I know It will not be of age to bear fruit for at least 3 years. Given the space and number of vines I have I should be able to get around 14 quarts of juice once the vines are in full swing per year. Not enough to sell or live off of, but nice for the occasional treat.