A non-monetary enterprise? (guest post by Alex)

Jenise and our girls are away for 2 weeks, and I am here running the garden by myself. We have truly entered into the harvest phase. I am struggling to find good homes for the fruits of our labors, but more than that, I am struggling to find a model for how this is going to work in the long term. Except for the seedlings, it just does not make sense to try to sell our veggies for money - the scale is too small, and if we need money there are easier ways to get it. So I have created an email list of friends & helpers and set the challenge: how should we organize ourselves to trade vegetables for labor and social capital? If you would like to be part of the discussion, just email me, or subscribe yourself at cropmob-subscribe@highgroundmicrofarm.org .

Good Fungus, Bad Fungus

Fungi play important roles in a garden, both as hero and villain. I went away for a week-long vacation, and just before I left, I noticed yellow spots on some tomato leaves.

Insect damage, heat stress, or early blight? All of the above?

This looks more like the beginning of early blight.

When I came back on Monday, it was clear that this was early blight, characterized by expanding yellow spots that spread to nearby leaves. I removed all the affected leaves this morning and will spray with copper this evening, when it's less likely to harm beneficial insects like bees. For those of you who are concerned about the march of late blight across the state (last I heard, it had moved as far east as Concord), here's a guide for diagnosing your tomatoes and some clear pictures of early blight.

I also noticed on Monday that a lot of the corn had fallen over. My husband said it was due to the high winds we'd been experiencing. Today, I tried to tie up a lot of the corn with string, and I noticed some sort of infection on the stalks. After some investigation, it looks like it's Gibberella stalk rot.

Gibberella is characterized by pinkish streaks on the stalks, which soften and fall over.

Looks like this stalk is starting to split.

Some stalks have broken off altogether.

I'm going to check with other local farmers to see if my diagnosis is correct. I'm hoping not, because there's basically nothing you can do for Gibberella except try to keep the corn strong with frequent water and fertilizer. I'll have to rotate the corn in a big way next year. And I will likely switch from the heirloom varieties I chose this year to a fungus-resistant hybrid  next year. Thus far, only the Extra Early Golden Bantam pictured above seems to be affected. The Hooker's Sweet Indian corn, a red-kernelled variety, seems to be mostly unaffected. Then again, it's setting ears at only 3 feet tall! Maybe it's outrunning the Gibberella.

So those, along with a light dusting of fungus on my summer squash, are the current fungal villains in the garden. Now for the heroes:

Look carefully. Can you spot the Japanese Umbrella Inky Caps?

Unidentified Mushrooms. Lawnmower's Mushrooms? Dunce Caps? Witch's Hats? Who knows?

Mushrooms can be beneficial in a garden. The Japanese Umbrella Inkys help break down decaying matter, such as these wood chips in the garden paths, and make those nutrients available to the veggies. I often find Alcohol Inkys in the straw, performing the same function, but these mushrooms have such a short lifespan that, by the time I have gotten around to fetching the camera, they have generally deliquesced.

Other mushrooms exist symbiotically with the veggies, making minerals in the soil available in exchange for nutrients. I'm hoping that's what those little tan mystery mushrooms are doing. I haven't been able to positively identify them as yet. I keep loaning out my mushroom reference books and only have Fascinating Fungi of New England available, which is a great beginner's reference but not at all comprehensive. A comprehensive reference would be massive, given that mycologists estimate that there are around 20,000 species of mushrooms in North America alone.

Anyway, those little tan mushrooms are in beds all over the garden, but they seem to particularly like the pumpkins and grow happily in the shade of those broad squash leaves. If there are any mycologists reading this, the cap is bell-shaped, the gills are free, crowded, and a light cinnamon color, and there's a slight bulb at the base but no root. I'm working on a spore print now and will report on the results tomorrow, but I'm guessing they will also be cinnamon-y, like the gills.

Abundance

The garden, along with the weather, is heating up. We've been happily harvesting kale and cukes and lettuce for a couple of weeks now, but in the last week, we've also been getting zucchini, summer squash, and new potatoes, and we've begun carefully harvesting dill. Here are some before and after pics...

Basil on June 27th

Basil on July 9th

First Zucchini Harvested on June 27th

Jumbo Zucchinis and Pickling Cucumbers Harvested on July 11th

What a difference a couple of weeks makes! I delivered that box of zukes and cukes to the Beverly Bootstraps food pantry last Wednesday, along with some lettuce and yellow crookneck squash:

Donation to Beverly Bootstraps

Nice, Plump Yellow Crookneck Squash

I just went through the garden and harvested everything we had ripe except kale (they apparently have trouble getting people to take kale, alas). I brought it to the food pantry, where a nice volunteer asked me where it was from, and I said, "Um, my garden?" All three volunteers in the place turned around and stared at me. Then one woman broke the silence and said, "That's so kind of you." I shrugged and told them it was more than we could use, but inside, I was astonished.

Doesn't anyone else do this? Almost all of the other food there was neatly bagged and labeled, and while I was there, a large truck from Richardson's Dairy pulled up to deliver milk. I guess the vast majority of donations come from corporations and organizations. I know an intrepid middle schooler at Harborlight Montessori School was collecting non-perishables during the school year. But apparently, individuals never make food donations, or perhaps not donations they've grown themselves. And that seems terribly sad and broken, somehow. So if you find yourself with more zucchini than you know what to do with this year, I encourage you to find a local food pantry and donate.

Anyway, they weighed our produce, and it came to 16 pounds. They had me sign for it and indicate whether I'd like to receive a thank you note from them (I declined), then handed me a receipt. Woot! I can't wait to bring another box full.

With this heat, though, that may be a while. I checked this morning, and most of the zucchini are turning yellow and shriveling up on the vine. I will increase the watering schedule to an hour every morning and evening and hope that turns things around. Everything else seems to be growing even faster. The husk cherries now have palpable cherries in the husks, the giant pumpkin is growing like mad, and the corn and mammoth sunflowers are racing for the sky. Birds have found our strawberries and seem to be eating them in the early mornings, but there weren't all that many left anyway. And those first few new potatoes were scrumptious. We're pretty happy with the Bintje variety, and the Yukon Golds are pretty much as expected. Next, we'll try some Rose Finns. And I'm guessing that in another week or two, we'll start having ripe tomatoes. Ahhhh, the anticipation!

Catching up: Sustainability Guild

Oof! I got sick two weeks ago, then I spent all last week catching up. Now I'm back up to speed and catching up on my blogging, and there's a whole lot to cover: bean tunnel, new potatoes, gigantic zucchini, escaping pumpkins. Today, I'm going to focus on the Sustainability Guild.

Two Mondays ago, we started transporting all of our remaining seedlings to the Sustainability Guild. On June 25th, Alex loaded up the Prius and drove out to Dorchester. I took these photos before we loaded.

Plenty left to give.

A few gaps where we'd managed to sell seedlings at the Beverly Farmers' Market.

Laura Kozar, Strategic Projects Manager at the Sustainability Guild, came that afternoon and loaded up her car as well. The following morning, she came back with a ZipVan and Renato Riccioni, Sustainability Guild's Creative Director. We all gang-tackled the greenhouse and packed their van.

Sustainability Guild van is nearly full.

Officially stuffed! Off to Dorchester.

l-r: Alex, Renato Riccioni, and Laura Kozar prepare to close up the van for the long drive back.

Happy High Ground Farmers, Alex and Jenise Aminoff

And why are we looking so happy?

Nothing left on this side but the peppers and beans in their EarthTainers.

Even after all that, we still had a few seedlings left.

So Alex loaded up the car again on Wednesday morning and took all the remaining seedlings to Dorchester.

Even more than having an empty greenhouse, we are delighted that the seedlings will be put to excellent use. Laura described the some of the planned uses for the seedlings: planting in public urban spaces where anyone can just walk up and pick a tomato, vertical plantings on "living walls," and more. Hopefully, we'll hear more from them on how our seedlings are doing in their new urban home.

Save the Honeybee

Hi, folks. There's a petition going around requesting that the EPA ban Clothianidin, a pesticide that is suspected of contributing to the massive honeybee die-off we've been experiencing in the U.S. Clothianidin is already banned in several countries, including Germany where it is produced (there's something very odd about that). So if you like apples, blueberries, and pumpkins, all of which depend on bees for pollination, please consider signing the petition.

First Harvest

My friend Denise and I dashed out into the pouring rain and harvested kale for dinner tonight, our first harvest from the garden. We took just one or two leaves from each plant and filled the colander.

Our daughter Annelise painted the kale marker as a birthday present for Alex. We'll put it out when the rain stops.

Alex prepares to cook the kale that he himself planted.

In general, the garden is looking stupendous. The recent heat and rain have really gotten everything growing, including, of course, the weeds.

Weedy but happy.

The really tall stuff on the left is the potatoes, half of which I managed to bury a bit more yesterday before I ran out of soil. Oops. I'm still trying to decide whether to get more soil for the other three rows of taters. On the right, you can see our bean tunnel. Made out of two cattle panels, it is just high enough for Alex, at 6'4", to walk through. We are working on covering the paths with cardboard, and I'm slowly weeding the beds, laying down paper between the plants, and covering it with straw to provide both weed barrier and moisture retention. You can see this in the front central bed of peppers.

Here's Alex's favorite recipe for kale:

Alex's Central African-New England Kale and Sardine Stew

2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 colanders full of fresh kale leaves, chopped
1 can skinless, boneless sardines in olive oil
1/4 cup raisins or currants
1/4 cup pine nuts
cayenne pepper to taste
parmesan cheese

Over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic until transparent, and season with salt and pepper. Add the kale and cook it down. Add the sardines, raisins or currants, pine nuts, and cayenne. Serve hot over brown rice or pasta and top with parmesan cheese.

Alex recommends vinho verde with this dish.

Catching Up

Whew! 97 degF here in Beverly today. It made me wilt, but the garden is loving the heat.

The farmers' market is over. We did about as well this week as last. Seedling sales are done; we're donating all the remaining seedlings to the Sustainability Guild for use in urban gardens around Dorchester. I just have to do an inventory first so that I can run my expenses properly.

The Great Chile Experiment is begun. I pulled up the peas last week and harvest the last pods, then planted two NuMex Espanola Improved chile peppers in the newly cleared EarthTainer. Then I harvested all the kale from another EarthTainer and planted two NuMex Sandia chile peppers in there yesterday morning. After today's heat, the bush beans finally gave up, so that EarthTainer is next on my list to be cleaned out. I need to select a tomato to go in there, but which one? A Sun Gold, a Juliet, a Stupice, a Valencia, a Brandywine? If I let the kids decide, they'll choose a Sun Gold. I think I'd rather have a Brandywine. They take for-freaking-ever to come ripe in the field. Perhaps they'll be faster in the greenhouse.

The garden is fully planted now. It just needs weeding, watering, and harvesting, which should begin quite soon. The kale is growing full and bushy, and I have teensy 3-inch-long zucchinis. In this heat, they'll be ready to eat in a week. We tried digging for new potatoes on Father's Day, but they're still about the size of the last segment of my pinky finger. I need to bury those potatoes more. Maybe this weekend, when it's cooler.

This evening, I went out to turn on the irrigation and hand water the few areas that don't yet have drip tape or well-developed roots that reach the existing tape, and I discovered that the garden has been colonized by fireflies. So I finished the watering, slapping at mosquitos the whole way, came in, and wrote a poem about it.

It feels like the mad rush of spring is finally over and we can settle into the long summer routine: weed, water, eat, repeat.

Farmers' Market a Success

We went to the Beverly Farmers' Market today, not really knowing what to expect. Would we sell anything? Would we sell everything? It turned out to be right down the middle. We sold about half of what we brought and grossed $128. Minus the $30 fee for the space and the growing expenses, that's not a lot of profit. It was tremendous fun, though, chatting with the homemade pasta vendor to my left and the soap vendor to my right. Many people asked about our farm and were surprised at all that we had to offer. I loved them moments when someone would walk up, read a sign, and do a double take.

We'll go back next week, then run our expenses to see where we stand. I think that unless we have a serious bumper crop of veggies, we won't be returning to the market. However, I think we made some nice connections and can set up relationships where we grow only pre-ordered seedlings.

We're now down to only one or two of the following:
Tomato, Juliet
Pepper, Yankee Bell
Winter Squash, Kabocha
Summer Squash, Yellow Crookneck

And we sold out of Little Leaf cucumbers, Mexican oregano, and Sugar Pie pumpkins, of all things.

The greenhouse seems oddly empty now. That won't last; I still have squash, pepper, basil, and tomato seedlings in desperate need of larger pots. But not many. I should finish those up in a day or two. And then I'll have a couple months' respite from potting... until it's time to start in on fall seedlings. Meantime, our focus will shift to the garden and keeping ahead of the weeds. Will trade seedlings for a few bales of straw. ;)

Beverly Farmers' Market Today

We'll be at the Beverly Farmers' Market today selling seedlings. Most of the seedlings will be tomatoes, but we still have some cucumbers, summer squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, and peppers. It looks like we are only one of three veggie farms at the market, but there will also be meat, seafood, bread, pickles, soaps, and lots of other goodies. The market starts at 3pm and ends at 7pm. It's right at Beverly Depot, so if you're along one of the North Shore commuter rail lines, it's an easy ride in. Come by and say hi!

Heat and Light

Today, just as Alex entered the greenhouse to coordinate our crazy weekend schedule, the fan came on by itself. It's powered by a single solar panel on the roof of the greenhouse, but it has never come on before. Alex surmises that the recent downpours cleaned off the panel enough to make it usable. I also wonder if it is connected to a thermostat somewhere, since it turned itself off about 20 minutes later, after I'd opened the vent. Regardless, I'm delighted. We have a greenhouse ventilated by solar power.

Also, tonight, I spotted the first fireflies of the season. Summer must be here at last.

World Peas

Today, I donated most of our remaining herbs and flowers to World Peas for their Pick Your Own herb and flower garden. The person who came to pick them was driving a Prius, and she'd already picked up three flats of flowers from another donor, so we had quite a time trying to cram everything in. As it was, we missed three little paper sets of various species of basil, a few Mexican oregano, and absolutely all of the cilantro. Still, all the marigolds, zinnias, and sage are gone, along with the mature basil. Between that, the Harborlight sale, and delivering all but the very last of my orders, I have space - blessed, blessed space - in the greenhouse again, and I've been slowly refilling it with larger pots: peppers, squash, melons, and lots and lots of tomatoes.

I am somewhat hampered by the fact that all my compost is thoroughly waterlogged by the recent downpours - my own fault for leaving it out in the wheelbarrow and an uncovered bin. Then again, if you have rain, make compost tea. I have gallons of it now and have been happily feeding it to all the seedlings. My rain barrels runneth over. Also a happy consequence of the rain: the Rose Finn potatoes finally sprouted! Tomorrow, I'll start burying them again.

MicroCSA?

A friend came by today and complimented me on the garden. Our conversation went something like this:

Her: Did you plant a lot of tomatoes?

Me: Oh, yes. I have thirteen out there so far.

Her: Are you planning to sell tomatoes?

Me: I don't know. It depends on how many I get.

Her: Well, if you do, I want to be the first on the list. I love tomatoes!

And that got me thinking... should we offer a microCSA? It seems rather premature to make plans like that. I have no idea how the garden will produce this year. We've already lost half the carrot and beet crops. On the other hand, the potatoes are performing way above my expectations. The corn is growing like gangbusters, as are the squash and pumpkins. What will we do with a bumper crop? Can it? Freeze it? Give it away? Sell it?

My friend may have hit upon a simple solution: a list. We could make a list of people who'd be interested in our excess produce. We could even make a list of what excess produce, in particular, they'd want. And then, when excess produce makes itself available, we can email those folks and offer it to them.

Also, we don't necessarily need to sell it. I'd be happy to exchange foods. For example, if we get tons of tomatoes but our zucchini crop fails, I'd happily swap. I don't know how to can food, though I'd love to learn. If you're planning to can this season, I could give you food in exchange for getting some canned food back or for some lessons or help canning. Like making pesto? I'll give you basil to get some pesto back. Sweat equity works, too; come weed the garden one afternoon and walk away with fresh produce.

If any of these possibilities interests you, let me know. And if you'd rather just pay money, let me know how much you'd expect to pay so that I can price things accordingly. Please send your responses and inquiries to info@highgroundmicrofarm.org.

Greenhouse Tragedy

Well, today was a day of serial fails. I wrote in an earlier post that the Norkotah potatoes hadn't come up yet. I was incorrect. The Norkotahs are coming up fairly well, though not as robustly as the Yukon Golds or Bintjes, but of the Rose Finns, only a single tuber has sprouted. That was fail #1.

As I worked, on the potatoes, I noticed that my second seeding of beets was coming up nicely, so I decided to check on the first seeding of beets, carrots, and onions. I peeled off the row covers, and to my considerable dismay, I found nothing but weeds in the carrot bed, two or three straggly onions, and three sad looking beets. What could have happened? All of the beets and carrots were sprouting quite happily in other beds. Well, when I pulled up the row covers, I noticed a lot of what looked like small houseflies under the cloth. After some investigation, I've concluded that they're fungus gnats, and their larvae ate all my seedlings. This is another good reason why we plant successively. Now, I've seen these gnats all over the garden, and they haven't been doing anywhere near that amount of damage in any bed that doesn't have a row cover. My guess is that the row covers were protecting the gnats from their natural predators. So I ran around and stripped all the row covers off of everything, and everything else seems fine: lettuce, gala mache, Ovation greens, and swiss chard. I left the row cover on the leeks, which were coming up nicely, because they were still so teensy. That was fail #2.

Now for the epic fail:

CRASH!

I brought these into the greenhouse last weekend after using them for the Memorial Day seedling sale. They were balanced a bit precariously, and Alex helped me shift the legs to be more stable, but clearly not stable enough. Argh. All the big tomatoes were on that shelf (which may well have contributed to its tipping over), along with the vast majority of my Sungolds. I recovered and repotted as many of the tomatoes as I could.

Survivors of the Crash

Note the completely empty shelf on bottom. Before the crash, they were all completely packed, minus one tray of Valencias I'd removed for repotting. But the worst thing about this is that, when these fell, I lost the markers for most of them. The leftmost two trays on the second shelf are all unlabeled tomatoes. I can make educated guesses, but I can't guarantee they are what I think they are, so I can't sell them. I think I'll donate them all to the Beverly Bootstraps Community Garden, if they'll take them. They're mostly Sun Golds and Bellstars, I think, both of which will do well in a community garden. I'll wait a day or two to see how many of them recover.

In every disaster, there's a teachable moment. Here's mine: use old nylons or tights to tie up your tomatoes.

Old ballet tights get a new life as tomato ties.

The fabric will stretch with the plant as it grows, supporting it without strangling it.

And lest you think the day was a total loss, I did get the potatoes mounded.

Yukon Gold (left) and Bintje potatoes in their trenches.

A single Bintje rising from the trench.

Bintje now happily mounded.

All the happy mounded potatoes.

I'll continue doing this as they grow, heaping more and more soil around the stems to encourage tuber development.

Finally, I noticed one curious difference in the Yellow Crookneck summer squash seedlings.

The pot makes a difference.

The seedling on the far right looks happy and healthy and green. The one to its left is much smaller and yellower. The difference? The one on the left is in a CowPot, and the one on the right in a coir pot. This surprised me quite a bit, since CowPots are basically both container and fertilizer in one, but perhaps they're just a bit too much fertilizer for summer squash. Other seedlings, such as zinnias, did significantly better in CowPots than in coir pots. I should do a trial next year with several different seedling varieties to see which pots work best for each species.

Well, I wanted more space in the greenhouse, and I got it with a vengeance. I did make use of the space to repot some Olympus Bell and Sweet Chocolate bell peppers, which are finally starting to shoot up, as well as the last four Little Leaf cucumbers and last two Kabocha winter squash. Tomorrow, Delicata, Lemon Basil, and, of course, more tomatoes.

Harborlight-Stoneridge Montessori School Benefit Sale

In an effort to clear out some of our greenhouse stock, we're holding a benefit sale now until June 5th. Half of all proceeds go to Harborlight-Stoneridge Montessori School. And we're extending the Memorial Day prices:

2-3" pots - $1
5" pots - $2
8" or larger - $4
6 packs of marigolds - $2

The zucchini is all gone, and the cukes are going fast, but we still have a TON of tomatoes. Also lots of basil, chile peppers, summer squash, winter squash, and pumpkins.

Basil, Tomatoes, and Cukes: Oh, My!

Today's selling went a lot better than yesterdays. The surprise hit: cucumbers! A few people mentioned that they'd like to grow cucumbers but just didn't think they had the space. I explained the principles of vertical gardening and steered them toward the Little Leaf cukes. Both the plants and their fruit are small and fit well into the nooks and crannies of a garden (or a greenhouse, which is why I bought that seed in the first place).

Actually, I spent a surprising amount of time explaining and demonstrating gardening techniques, such as how to rabbit-proof your garden, how to seed lettuce, how to mound squash. I'm wondering whether I should start offering a Basics of Backyard Gardening course. How many of you would be interested in such a class? What would you like to see in the curriculum? And where shall I hold it? Ideally, I'd do it here so that I can demonstrate some of the techniques, but that might be a bit of a hike for some of you.

At any rate, I sold enough tomatoes, cukes, basil, the very last zucchini, and assorted other veggie seedlings this weekend to give myself some wiggle room in the greenhouse at last. Next week, more mad potting.

Meanwhile, today I finished prepping the last of the garden beds, and Alex finished setting up the header and added a few lengths of drip tape to the irrigation system. It's a lovely feeling, knowing that most of the garden is planted and cooking. Here's how things were looking last Wednesday:

Happy strawberries are growing like mad. Note the irrigation header on the right.

Cucumbers for Beverly Bootstraps

And some cukes for us.

The red trellises are tomato ladders that I'm trying out this year. I have a Brandywine planted on one end and a Hillbilly planted on the other. After planting the cukes, I realized I had a fair amount of space on either side of the bed, so I planted some extra carrots. On the right, I planted Nantes and Bolero, and on the left I planted Kaleidescope Mix. Now, if I'd thought of this before planting the cukes, I'd have put the fencing on the north (right) side of the bed so that the cukes wouldn't be shading half the carrots later on.

Zigzagging Melons

I did something a little different for the melons. Here I've planted Sweet Siberian watermelons, Yellow Doll watermelons, and Sweet Granite cantaloupes in a zigzag pattern to maximize growing space for the vines. Once the eggplants are large enough, I plan to plant two Orient Express and two Ravenna Green in the triangular spaces away from the fence.

Oops! Didn't quite cover all the Ovation Greens braising/salad mix.

Annelise's Giant Pumpkin

I really should have put an object next to this to help indicate its size. Giant is right! Each of those leaves is larger than my hand. Annelise saw the giant pumpkins at last year's Topsfield County Fair and insisted that she wanted to grow one. So we bought a small packet of 3 seeds, two of them came up, and we planted the more robust of the two. The other is promised to her best friend. Our plan is to let it grow in among the corn, which has just sprouted in the last day or two.

A mixed bed of zucchini (foreground), tomatoes, and husk cherries.

Husk cherries are essentially a sweet tomatillo, and this variety is reputed to taste like pineapple. We shall see.

I bet you're wondering: Why on earth isn't she putting down black plastic mulch cover on these things to prevent weeds? Well, here's your answer:

How Not to Mulch. Seriously.

These are Yellow Crookneck summer squash plants. I used a solid black plastic bought from a small farm supplier in NH. When I asked for black plastic mulch cover that was water-permeable, the salesman said, "We only have solid, but that's fine. You run your drip tape under the plastic." I really wish I'd stopped to think about that for a second. The problem with solid plastic, as you can see from the photo, is that rainwater pools and runs off, forcing you to use the drip tape a lot more than you otherwise would. I'm seriously annoyed by this. I could see using it someplace like New Mexico, where you'd irrigate a lot and want a plastic barrier to prevent evaporation, but this is New England, where it rains frequently, and with this stuff, I can't make use of the rain. Worse, other beds on the same drip tape probably don't need watering as frequently. So if anyone prefers this solid stuff, I have a whole roll of it for you. I will likely never use it again.

I have so many tomatoes in the greenhouse that, rather than scattering them randomly about the garden as I usually do to prevent the spread of wilt and parasites, I dedicated a bed previously earmarked for flowers to them. And here's a tip I'd include in my hypothetical class:

Bury Your Tomatoes

These two Valencia tomato plants were the same height before planting. Tomatoes are vines in the nightshade family, and they grow roots all along their stem, just as potatoes do. The more stem you put in the ground, the stronger and healthier they'll be.

I didn't bother taking pictures of the potato beds that day because there was nothing really to see. But the very next day...

Bintje Potato Sprouting

The Bintjes and Yukon Golds sprouted beautifully and are growing big and bushy now. Tomorrow or the next day, I'll start burying them, little by little, to encourage more root, and thus more tuber, development, just as with the tomatoes. Today, the Rose Finns just began to sprout, so I'm guessing the Norkotah aren't far behind. Our hope is that either the Bintjes or the Rose Finns will give us new potatoes by midsummer, i.e., the summer solstice.

First Strawberry

Also, that day, I spotted the first strawberry blossoms. Alas, we have to pick them all off and forego our strawberries this year to have healthier plants and a better harvest next year. Fortunately, I have a farmhand who loves picking flowers. Seriously, most of our roses never make it to a full bloom.

Eleanor, the Fashionista Farmhand

There's very little left to plant in the garden. I have a bunch of Mammoth sunflowers I want to get in the ground, as well as the Delicata and Spaghetti squashes. Still waiting for the eggplants to mature enough to plant. I have two more successions of corn planned, and we'll be direct seeding the beans sometime in the next week. That should be an interesting blog post. Finally, I have one last flowerbed waiting for my mother-in-law to come and seed wildflowers in it. And then, I can just sit back and water. And weed. And harvest.

Specificity

I'm out here manning the seedling sale, and I've had not a single customer. Thus far, three cars have driven up, taken a look, and driven away. I'm guessing they were looking for flowers, not veggies. Alex has gone out shopping for groceries, and I asked him to pick up two big red posterboards for me. I'm going to write "Heirloom Tomatoes" on them, cut them in the shape of a tomato, and stick them on the easel we have out at the corner of Williams and Elliott Sts. This will at least save people the trouble of driving by.

Also, I'm covered in mosquito bites. We went to Mad Martha's on Plum Island for breakfast, and the instant I stepped out of the car, they pounced on me! I have at least eight welts on my face, neck, and arms. Fortunately, there are no mosquitos here in Beverly. Either that or I'm too drained to be enticing.

Memorial Day Sale!

Seedlings are on sale this weekend! Come on over and pick out the tastiest tomato varieties for your garden.

3" pots - $1
5" pots - $2
8" pots - $4
10% off orders over $30
25% off orders over $50

17 Williams St, Beverly, MA 01915
978-927-1969

We're open noon to 7pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Found in the Compost

I am finally getting down to the bottom of the old compost heap that came with the house, scraping concrete at last. I think I'll get maybe 40 more gallons of useful compost, and the rest will go into the compost tumblers for finishing off. Then I'll take down the old bin with the rotting slats and peeling paint and replace it with... who knows what? A playhouse for the girls? A hen house? Well, we'll see how it looks without the rotting vegetation first.

All season, I've been amused, annoyed, and occasionally astounded by what I've found in the compost, both the heap and the compost we had trucked in for the garden. So far, I've found:

• Pot sherds, both plastic and clay
• Old plant labels
• Entirely too many rocks
• A disturbing amount of broken glass
• Random bits of wire and plastic and twine
• A few coins
• A used toothbrush
• An empty cigarette lighter (but no butts)
• Bits of rusted chain, pipe, and metal
• A whole tire iron, of a rather old design
• These cheeky fellows:

Cast iron compost bugs - not a critter I usually find in the heap.

 But I have to say that my favorite compost find was what greeted me in the bin this morning:

Oysters in the compost.

Yup, those are delicious oyster mushrooms, growing from some spawn in a spent mushroom kit I'd discarded in the compost. I love it when that happens. These babies are destined to be my breakfast tomorrow, along with scrambled eggs and sauteed wild ramps. So, if you happen to find a mushroom growing next to the seedling you bought from me, don't panic. It's probably a beneficial mushroom from the mycological amendments I use, and it might even be a tasty gourmet mushroom. If you're wondering, take a picture and send it to me.

Now, I didn't find these two in the compost, but they're worth sharing anyway.

Annelise waters the newly-planted zucchini.

Eleanor on her way to water the nasturtiums.

Annelise and I planted her giant pumpkin today! She is so excited. She can't wait to grow a champion squash and enter it into the county fair. We'll see if she can keep up with it. Also planted today: Baby Pam and Sugar Pie pumpkins, Kabocha squash, Parthenon zucchini, husk cherries, Little Leaf and Endeavor cukes for Beverly Bootstraps, one Sun Gold cherry tomato, and one Valencia tomato. Tomorrow: more cukes, melons, spinach, delicata and spaghetti squash, some other varieties of tomato, the two varieties of fingerling potatoes, various flowers, and, if I can get the beds finished, corn.

The Peril of the Peas

Last week, the greenhouse was abuzz with - not bees! - drama. The peas were just overgrowing everything, and I had to think of a quick solution. So I got out a trellis net and created a pea hammock!

Hey, look! There's kale under there!

And now the bush beans are safe from strangulation.

The following day, I got a large order for brassicas from a small farm in Westford who lost their entire crop to cutworms. Grr! So I went to the greenhouse to see how many kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower seedlings I had for them. The good news: lots, more than enough kale, plenty of broccoli (though I'm now mostly cleared out of that), and all the remaining brussels sprouts and cauliflower. The bad news: APHIDS. EVERYWHERE.

Apparently, the kale that had previously been overgrown by the peas had become infested with aphids. When I lifted up the pea vines into the hammock, all those aphids looked up, blinked in the sunlight a bit, and said, Hey, look! More kale! Yum! And they ran riot through the greenhouse. Apparently, aphids who like kale also like zinnias, and I actually lost two seedlings to them (not to worry, those of you with zinnia orders, I have more than enough to go around). Oh, how I miss my ladybugs.

So for the next three days, while the rain came down, I was out there sniffling with a cold and spraying with organic insecticidal soap solution. I sprayed three times/day for the first two days, then 2x/day, then once the morning of delivery, and one more time at delivery. I'm pleased to say that by then, there were almost no aphids left, and I've seen very little of them in the greenhouse since. And in the bargain, I nipped nascent thrip and whitefly infestations in the bud, too. Moving my remaining brassicas out to the coldframes has helped, too.

I'm learning a great deal more about parasites, both from direct experience, and from various mailing lists. Aside from aphids, thrips, whiteflies, and cutworms, I've also heard that this is a particularly bad year for wireworms. Look for bright orange, segmented worms in your soil and kill them on sight! I have turned up a few in the compost but none so far in the garden. Keeping my fingers crossed. Nematodes will apparently take care of them, but then what do you do about the tomatoes? Sigh.

Meantime, I'm getting a slow but steady trickle of orders, and I suspect that I'm approaching the breakeven point. I'm hoping that the Beverly Farmers' Market will put me over the top. I'm also planning another craigslist ad featuring tomatoes, which are currently completely overrunning the greenhouse. I keep running out of trays, then space in which to put them, then potting soil, then trays again. But thanks to some donated plastic pots, I am blissfully catching up with the teeny stuff left in the seedling trays: sage, mexican oregano, various flowers. And I'm starting to sell out of a few things, like dill and zucchini (only two left!). If you're considering putting in an order soon, check the updated order form to see what we have left.