Mr. Sun is Shining!

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on, please shine down on, please shine down on me!

Anyone else humming that tune this weekend?  It is GORGEOUS here on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts.  The soil in my beds is dark and crumbly.  The worms are plentiful.  I peaked under the bed of straw in the garlic patch and the aroma of garlic hit me almost immeditaly.  The little sprouts are still poking up in rows, I am so excited to have home grown this year!

Some Ichelium Red peaking out of the garlic bed.

I have a handful of Short N Sweet carrots from a late Summer sowing.   My husband got quite a kick out of this.  The Napoli sowed in late Fall were just pencils, what was left of them anyway.  Some creature kept getting under the plastic to dig them up.

The Winter Rye (cover crop) has filled in nicely.  I think I will turn it in along with the straw and leaves now, and top it with an inch or so of compost in a few weeks.  I planted the rye to use as a green manure of sorts, turning it in now will provide a bit of nutrients come summer.

It is time for most of the seedlings to go out into the cold frame.  The Red Russian Kale and Spinach will be planted out this week along with some pea seeds that I will likely germinate indoors first.  The greens have sized up nicely.  It is amazing what some fluorescent light and occasional feedings will produce indoors isn't it?

Here are the onions.  The larger are from my original sow date, and the smaller are the red variety that I had to replace due to zero germination.

Lastly, these tiny Orange Thyme seedlings were even tinier when just a seed, I could barely see them with the naked eye.  They were sown just over a month ago.

This is going to be a busy week out in the garden.  Today we are expanding the fence to make room for the new beds.  I also need to prune and spray the fruit trees and bushes, clean up the asparagus bed, and finalize the year's layout so I can start direct sowing those early Spring crops.  Mmm, I can't wait for those first peas!  Happy gardening everyone, I think I officially have Spring Fever!

I'm Still Here!

Life has been busy lately, and the camera has been out of commission.  And by busy I mean cutting down trees, pouring footings, diagnostic tests at the hospital (me), 22 teeth being pulled (my dog), lost dog turning up at the penitentiary (my other dog, not the toothless wonder), ripping up carpet and laying down hardwood floors, the re-organisation (or further mess making) of every closet and cabinet under my roof,  you get the picture.

The good news is everyone is home and healthy, AND the camera is back in action.  My seedlings are huge.  HUGE.  I will show you soon I promise.  I am very excited to see March on the calendar, the garden will be in full swing in no time.

Winter Applesauce

So I went to this fruit market I heard about recently that sometimes carries produce seconds.  I was hoping to stock up on something good and do some preserving/canning/freezing, whatever may be.  Today they had apples, 3 pounds for 99¢.  Macoun, Fuji, and Gala, so of course I bought all that I could carry over in those clear plastic produce bags.  I would have preferred a bushel basket, but I guess they don't have those available.  :)

After much peeling and coring it was time to make sauce, and to my horror I do (did) not have a large enough pot to cook down my apples.  So, off to the store I run, and of coarse they don't have an inexpensive commercial sized stock pot.  Nope.  BUT, what they did have was a very expensive 8.5 quart dutch oven,  which when combined with my usual stock-pot will provide enough volume to cook down all those apples.  The new problem is that I can't boil water in the lobster pot (my canner) to sterilize and seal my jars with the other two darned things on the stove top.  Sigh.  What I need is to borrow one of those fancy, high-end, commercial grade appliance, six-burner gas ranges.  Yup, that is what I need.

But that is not happening, so I am trying to come up with plan B which is looking like boiling the sauced (thus reduced) apples in the new big 'ol pan once the canning set-up is up to a boil.  My husband doesn't understand why I wanted all these apples to make sauce when I can just buy some at the store......I am starting to not understand why either, lol!

Sweet Potato Know-How

After talking sweet potatoes with one of my gardening girlfriends this evening (Linna over at Linna's Garden Journal) I decided to try and nail down my technique for this upcoming gardening season.  It of coarse helps that we had some baked sweet potatoes for dinner tonight, but they weren't my own.  These were farmstand potatoes and were quite large and delicious.  I want large and delicious tubers out of my garden this year.  And the photo?  While looking for a an actual potato picture I came across this this little "sweet tot" and had to put him in instead.  I can't believe how quickly they grow, these children.

Alright, now back to the vines.....the article linked by the title above is written by a Canadian maritime gardener and I found it to be just what I needed.  Simplified.   No-nonsense.  I have been debating over raised rows or containers for the Georgia Jets.  After reading this article and talking with my friend I think I will fill one of the new raised beds using the lasagna gardening method as Linna suggested, along with raised rows composed of light soil for planting the slips in.  Why not combine multiple techniques, right?

An Interesting Atlas

The USDA put together a Food Environment Atlas, it is linked above.  The part I found most interesting was the "Farm to School Program" statistics.  Boy would I like to see more of that on the map!

When looking under my county in Massachusetts I found the following:

*There are 359 Fast Food Restaurants, but only 156 farms with direct sales.  Hmm.  If only we could reverse that number.  Fast Farm Food anyone??

*There are zero Farm to School programs, and 16 Farmer's Markets which worked out to be around .02 markets per 1,000 people.

Massachusetts didn't do so hot on the Food Insecurity figures either.
Check out your State (and County) and tell me what you find, inquiring minds want to know!

Plastics

Plastics.  I personally have a love-hate relationship with them.  I try to use glass as much as possible for food storage and serving, but having small children means a total avoidance of plastics is unreasonable.  Back when I had my son you couldn't find glass bottles in the baby stores, at least now we have the option. Instead my kids were fed using those endocrine disrupting plastic bottles.  No good, but I figure my milk also went through the plastic breast pump so it would have been 'tainted' no matter what.  Then it was years of BPA ridden sippy cups.  Finally, BPA free bottles and cups are easy to find.  But what about the rest of it?  I am constantly reading up on these things, but then my Mummy brain forgets them.  Which brand of plastic wrap is OK?  Which stuff should we avoid like the plague?

I decided to compile a short list here on the blog so I know where to look the next time I 'can't remember'.  I have not done extensive research here, just a quick "Ok", and "Not Ok" list.  Please inform me of any mistakes I may have made along the way.....this info is probably constantly changing!  (And, of coarse as a side note heat can/will cause all plastics to leach so avoid microwave and dishwasher treatment.  Some sources even recommend avoiding hot beverages.)

"O-kay":

• PETE/PET (#1), single use only!
• LDPE (#4)
• PP (#5)
• Ziploc brand bags/wrap use LDPE

"Not O-kay":

• PC (#7)
• PVC (#3)
• PS (# 6), **no alcoholic beverages or fatty substances for styrofoam containers.**
• Avoid Reynolds brand plastics (PVC or vinyl)

You Will be Missed

This morning over coffee my husband deliverd the somber news of Captain Phil's death.  The Captain suffered a stroke during a crab off load in Alaska while filming.  Some of you may be familiar with Discovery's hit show Deadliest Catch.  We have been fans since day one.  It all started when on a vacation on a little island called Jost Van Dyke.  Here we came across two characters one evening, a captain and client of a sail boat charter.  There were funny stories passed along that evening over drink, but the captain also talked of his first, and only trip as a crab boat hand as a young man.  He said of his life at sea, that those were the scariest days he had ever had, and the pay he received was large enough to be the downpayment on his first house.

We had seen how hairy life on a crab boat could be thanks to reality television, one of those 'top ten deadliest jobs' shows or something of the like.  It was not long after that the Captains and crews of the Discovery Channel's show Deadliest Catch were regular guests in our family room.  We have been devoted fans, enjoying both the laughs and the frightening moments that come along with watching these characters fish.

We had a chance to hear captain Phil speak a few years back, he and another Captain from the show came to New Bedford for a Q and A at The Working Waterfront Festival.  Phil and Jonathan were every bit as colorful in real life as they are on TV, there is nothing "extra" put on for show.   I am grateful I was able to witness this man talk about his life's passion in person, and he will be remembered by those that welcomed his gritty voice, chain smoking, family fights, and constant antics into their homes over the years.   R.I.P. Captain Phil Harris, you will be missed.

Boy am I behind on posting.....we had quite a bit of germination on the 26th of last month, here is a shot of one of the cells sprouting:

And here they are today, chuggin' right along:

It's the standard seed growing station.  Fluorescent shop lights hung on adjustable shelves.  Everything is growing quite nicely aside from the Red Wing onion seeds.  Nadda, nothing, crickets.  Hmph.

So, I have been saying for a week now that I need to do a germination test on the buggers, but of coarse, I haven't yet.  They can take up to 13 days to germinate so there is a minute possibility they are taking their sweet time, but I don't remember things taking this long last year.

I have ben squirreled away reading my latest gardening periodicals as much as possible lately.  My 'Christmas Cash Stash' has just about run dry, but it was fun while it lasted!

Lastly, I have been trying to nail down the 2010 garden layout which has been proving difficult since the new beds aren't actually built yet, so it's more fantasy than reality at the moment. Below are my cut-outs, each meant to resemble one raised bed.  The trouble is I grow more nightshades than anything else, so proper rotation is an issue.

 (And some good news, we are expecting............a shed.  :)  Well, not yet, but very soon we will, and that means I will have a potting shed/bench for potting, storing, and curing.  YIPEE!!!)

Blight, Famine, and Biodiversity

Thomas over at A Growing Tradition had mentioned the Irish Potato famine in a recent post. I have read so much conflicting information on the famine (and it's lack of potato diversity) that I had to look further into these reports.  It seems as though the poor relied on "lumper" potatoes in particular for their higher yields, so there we have the source, and evidence of the 'monoculture' theory.  There were however many varieties of potatoes grown in all of Ireland.  One report listed 12 varieties grown in a town outside of Dublin alone, but this diversity seemed to have dwindled over decades, so by the 40's the poor and overly populated areas were heavily reliant on genetically similar or identical varieties.  The largest case of monoculture in Ireland was the lack of crop diversity for the poor as a whole, crops such as oats were abandoned entirely or exported, leaving the people of Ireland to perish as they relied so heavily on one crop.  Blight hit other countries, including the Eastern United States, but thanks to the numerous variety of crops grown the devastation was not as great. The Irish seem to have been doomed by their sole reliance on the potato, which was then magnified by large areas being further reliant on lumpers only (reports cited anywhere from 1/3 to 90% of the population surviving on potatoes when the famine years hit).  Below is the original article I had read which sparked my interest in this subject many months ago.

From Heronswood Nursery, click the post title to see the article in it's entirety:

Records show that northern Europe was battered by persistently gloomy springs, summers and autumns interrupted only by the typical dark winters.  This weather—of which we’ve received a 5-month dose—so favored late blight that all but a fraction of Ireland’s potato crop was devastated for several consecutive years.  It is hardly known that the rest of Europe and the United States suffered from potato losses only slightly less devastating than those that occurred in Ireland.  The tragic difference was that these other parts of Europe and the United States had a more diverse food crop base than did Ireland, where over a million people starved and from which several million emigrated over the subsequent decade.

Even lesser known is the surprising fact that, contrary to conventional wisdom, in the 1840s there were nearly two dozen distinct potato cultivars grown throughout Ireland and over fifty in the rest of Europe.  Far from the popular image of a “monoculture”, potatoes grown in Ireland included a diverse group of white, yellow, pink, brown and red skinned varieties. These had been collected both in the wild and from native markets in South America and deposited in the botanical gardens of Europe over 300 years before the famine.  While it is certainly true that many of these various cultivars existed within a “type” of all-purpose boiling and mashing potato, it’s also true that, out of this quite diverse gene pool, post-famine “survivors” appeared.  These became the ancestors of new and resistant potato cultivars grown to this very day.*

Therefore, the first lesson to be learned from the near collapse of so many fields of tomatoes on farms and in home gardens dotted across the northeastern United States, is that no normal diversity of cultivars or genetic variation can resist an aggressive, virulent strain of the late blight organism under conditions that nurture its explosive growth and dispersal.

However, there is a second lesson that is of—literally—great value.  Modern hybrid tomatoes—carefully and deliberately developed over many years—possess sufficient vigor to withstand all sorts of diseases, including a particularly destructive and widespread attack of late blight.

This is vividly demonstrated in the high survival rates of hybrid tomatoes throughout the hardest hit growing regions.  In our trial gardens at Fordhook Farm, we see rows of old-fashioned heirlooms and open-pollinated market varieties of tomatoes lying in heaps of wilted foliage and diseased fruit, and—just a few feet away—rows of healthy hybrid plants loaded with heavy, flawless fruit.

As the name implies, late blight generally occurs later in the season.  It has never occurred this early nor been so widespread in the United States; last year there were only a few reported incidences of the disease.  The same varieties of tomato have been grown in the Northeast for years, and the various stains of the disease-causing organism have likewise been present for years.  However, our recent, freakishly unseasonable weather has been ideal for the growth of the organism and the spread of the disease. 

If the spring and summer of 2009 is followed in succession by similar seasons in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, we could face a complete extinction of many—not all—of the old-fashioned heirlooms and open-pollinated tomato varieties that folks in the Northeast have come to enjoy since those varieties were reintroduced in the early 1980s.  However, just as there were survivors among the potato varieties that succumbed during the years of the great famine and which gave rise to the modern, resistant potatoes of today, so the hybrid tomatoes of the 20th century as well as those of the early 21st century will be the saving grace of tomato lovers everywhere.  We might even discover utterly new sources of resistance, although that will probably come from wild, weedy relatives of tomato and potato.  It’s the silver lining of, quite literally, a very dark storm cloud.

Media stories about the monolithic food industry, Big Agriculture, “bioengineering”, and “industrial farms” ill inform us of the virtues of modern agriculture and obscure the role of plant breeding as a science and discipline.  Plant breeders who work in productive crops such as wheat, corn, rice, potatoes, and the wide range of vegetables and fruits upon which the world depends, struggle toward their various goals with many positive purposes in mind.  One of the most important of these is disease resistance.

Plant breeding is ancient.  In its essence, it was probably practiced before agriculture was widespread.  Early nomadic people may have saved seed that was larger or that was easily separated from unwanted parts, carried it with them, and planted it far from its source.  In this way, they honed plant characteristics that were useful to them.

Plant breeding has its formal roots in the work of the humble Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel, who with the common pea first demonstrated predictable patterns in the transmission of genetic traits.  Since Mendel, plant breeding has progressed to the point that scientists are able to breed food crops that can thrive in salty water and deep shade and withstand a host of pests while, at the same time, yield abundant and delicious produce.  It has been due to the skill of the plant breeder that plants have been selected and hybridized so that they require less water, less space, less fertilizer, and less protective chemicals.  This is the height of human discernment.

Society should cherish the human ability to select different traits from various plant populations and mix them together, just as Nature would under ideal circumstances.  Call plant breeders the “nuclear physicists” of the biology world.

* To elaborate, let’s take Ireland in the 1840s.  In a nation smaller than the state of Maine, the Irish had raised potatoes for at least 125 years.  Within the two-dozen distinct or unique varieties, there was a wide variation due to the separate and diverse genetic background of each cultivar.  They differed in tuber size, tuber shape, size of yield, time of yield, quality of tuber (wet or dry), color of skin, color of flesh, thickness of skin, ability to tolerate bad soils (hard or low in nutrients, etc.) and ability to remain viable in long periods of storage.

Dizzy yet?

More interesting to my point is that they differed also in resistance to heat, to cold and to frost.  Plus, they varied in resistance to a virus called “Leaf Curl”, as well as to a tendency of tubers to develop warts, and—most important—to fungi and molds.  This last genetic variability proved decisive in providing the post-famine Irish with new varieties—based partly on the surviving potatoes—that would replace those that lacked the strength to fight off late blight, a phenomenally destructive plant disease caused by a water mold or more technically an Oomycete.

So, an interesting question might be:  Do today’s potato farmers of Maine—an area substantially greater than the size of Ireland—grow 22 distinct cultivars?  For those of you in the south, Ireland would fit comfortably in South Carolina.  For midwesterners and westerners, two “Irelands” would fit in Wisconsin, and three would fit in Oregon—with Connecticut tossed in.  Rather than the Irish farmer in the 1840s, could it be the contemporary potato farmer who best exemplifies a “dependency” on a handful of cultivars? 

Thanks to the noted historian Redcliffe Salaman, here is a list of the “top ten” varieties of the nearly two-dozen potatoes grown in tiny Ireland in 1839:

1. Champion aka Congo aka The Cup:  a red skinned, cream fleshed, early to mid season, medium sized tuber; extremely popular due to its flavor and nutrition.  A bit hard to digest, so it was mainly sold to people in towns and cities where it got above average prices.  (A much later progeny of Champion, “Flourball”, proved easier to digest, as well as blight resistant.)

2. Howard aka Cluster aka The Turk:  White skinned and white fleshed, great in poor soils, forming medium sized tubers on short stolons in tight clusters.  It was very popular with rural people and the poor.  It was early to mid season and turned out to be somewhat resistant to blight, i.e., not all plants succumbed, and many were entirely resistant.

3. Irish Apple Red:  Red skinned, late and also somewhat long-keeping in storage.  Very dry tubers rather than wet—perfect for both boiling and mashing to which milk could be added.  Extremely popular and well liked, due to tuber quality and storage, but also because it produced crops in the mid July to late August period when most other varieties of its kind did not.  Susceptible to fungal diseases and very hard hit by late blight during the famine, it has virtually disappeared from cultivation.

4. Irish Apple White:  White skinned version of #3.

5. Kerr’s Pink aka White Kidney:  Very early, small to medium sized tubers with pink skin and white flesh.  Could be double-cropped in some areas.  Good tuber quality for all-around purposes.  Some but not good blight resistance.

6. Lumper aka Leinster Wonder:  Extremely productive, versatile variety that was, therefore, popular with the poor.  White skinned and white fleshed tubers of medium size and poor to average quality.  Early to mid to late season.  Minimal resistance to blight.  Legendary in famine history due to popularity with poor, who comprised nearly all the starvation dead.

7. The Manly:  Medium to large tubers with white flesh and brownish tan skin.  Extremely productive main or mid season variety that would produce record weight harvests.  Average tuber quality, but was popular due to high yields.

8. The Noble Ox:  Very large tubers that some described as “ugly”, some were also misshaped.  Dark brown to almost “black” skin and white flesh, very productive with continuous yields mid to late season.  Virus resistance and some blight resistance recorded.  Used for both human and dairy cow consumption.

9. The Yam aka Surinam:  Red skinned with red streaked flesh.  Variable sized from medium to large.  Was considered very flavorful and attractive, sold well in towns and cities, less in rural areas.

10. The Lapstone Kidney:  White skin and tuber, “mid early” which was popular due both to its niche harvest time, and to its outstanding ability to keep well for almost a year in storage.  Also, it was medium to higher yielding with high quality, long, medium-sized tubers.

Remember:  the potato farmers of Ireland grew more than twice this number of diverse cultivars—hardly the “monoculture” characterized in recent popular history.  In fact, they turned out to be the single most influential group of farmers in modern history.  It was the tragedy of the Great Potato Famine that spurred worldwide interest in plant genetics and led, indirectly, to the popularization of not only Mendel, but also Darwin.

Another snippet from Victory Seeds:

To increase their harvest, farmers came to rely heavily on one variety, the lumper. While the lumper was among the worst tasting types, it was remarkably fertile, with a higher per-acre yield than other varieties. Economist Cormac Ó Gráda estimates that on the eve of the famine, the lumper and one other variety, the cup, accounted for most of the potato crop. For about 3 million people, potatoes were the only significant source of food, rarely supplemented by anything else.

It was this reliance on one crop--and especially one variety of one crop--that made the Irish vulnerable to famine. As we now know, genetic variation helps protect against the decimation of an entire crop by pests, disease, or climate conditions. Nothing shows this more poignantly than Ireland's agricultural history.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a Dublin Society survey recorded at least a dozen varieties of potato cultivated in the county of Kilkenny alone. Then, adults could still remember when most of the poor raised oats, barley, or rye, along with beans and other green vegetables. But according to Ó Gráda, this diversity had largely disappeared by the 1840s. He notes that while some people warned that Ireland's reliance on potatoes might prove disastrous, no one likely conceived of a famine as complete as what occurred. The poor certainly could not; it is doubtful they could have avoided it anyway, given the social and political conditions of their lives.

So there you have it!  here are some interesting pieces of information on Late Blight I came across along the way I wanted to note:

• Early potato varieties are very vulnerable; plant early so they can be harvested before blight season hits (typically July).
• There are now 2 strains of blight, there was only one until the 1970's.  
• Phytophthora has been studied or held as a biological weapon in many countries, including the U.S. and Russia. 

1st Seed Sowing of the Year/ Seed Sowing 101

The Biodynamic Sowing Calendar shows Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday as root days, meaning that is the part of the plant enhanced by the Moon or planets.  So today (a fruit day) I decided to begin my 2010 gardening season.  Early?  yes.  A few couple of my onions like 10-12 weeks of growing before being set out in late April.  The spinach and kale will go under cover (either under reemay and plastic, or in the cold-frame).   I love my new set-up, I was able to complete this task in my kitchen with little to no mess.  Below is basic tutorial on indoor seed sowing.  I know all you regulars could do this stuff with one arm tied behind your back, but for any newbies out there searching the net for hours on end (as I was not so long ago), this is for you!

1. Gather materials.  Here I have some organic seed starting mix, a water bottle (and a cup off to the side) and my potting tray.  Today I will be using a 72 cell Pro-Tray (good for small seeded herbs & flowers, lettuce, leeks, onions, beets, endive, and kohlrabi (YUCK!)).

2.  Spray surface of soil with fine mist, or in my case continue to moisten by dumping a cup of water over moistened surface soil.  You want the mix to be moist, not real wet.  I go for a consistency that will lossely clump in my hand when squeezed.  This wetting of the mix can be done in a bucket or wash bin.

3. Scoop/pour/dump mix onto flat and brush across into cells.  Fill to the top and then compact.  If you have 2 trays of the same size use one on top to gently apply pressure into the cells below.  The seeds I was sowing today required a 1/4-1/2 inch of depth.  Below I have my Chipollini rows labeled, the seed in the dish, and the mix lightly pressed to the desired depth- ready to begin sowing!

4.  Drop desired amont of seeds into individual cells, be sure to mark the variety sown and date if you are sowing more than one variety in a flat.  The seeds can be difficult to see and remembering what just went where can be easily forgotten or confused, especially when small children are interupting the task.
Two seeds were sown per cell on the onions and kale, I did 3 for the spinach since spinach seed deteriorates quickly with age, and these are 2009 seeds.  There are many methods of getting the seeds placed where you want them....I either drop a couple in by hand or use a small dish and a plant marker to slide 'em in as I go.

5.  I used the dish pictured above to dust the top of the tray with mix after all cells were sown.  Take caution to not dislodge any seeds when smoothing out the mix over the cells.  One could also just spoon mix into each cell and avoid this risk.  Once the cells are topped off, spray with a gentle mist to moisten.  My seeds were covered with a dome to help retain moisture.  Some seeds will now require being placed on a heat mat, but the varieties I sowed prefer a cooler soil temperature (50-75 degrees) so they just went onto the heated floor in my bathroom.

6.  Keep soil most during the germination period.  As soon as you see green get the seedlings under lights.  My light et-up will be assembled this weekend, stay tuned!