ert

While Nature continues here as she has for year after year, many of us are watching the tragedy unfolding on the other side of the world, in Japan . We can only hope and pray that some sort of balance will be restored there once more. The loss of life and physical upheaval is so staggering – we should all focus on sending our healing thoughts and prayers to that corner of our Earth. Please do what you can…

As mentioned in my last post, we have been really enjoying my birthday gifts. The sprouter has grown everything from alfalfa (mild and crunchy), to radish (very, very peppery/sharp) to a salad blend (still growing).

I sprouted some wheat seeds of our own, then when I saw how quickly the roots were developing, I transplanted the whole mat to a pot. This way, I can get several cuttings of the green shoots and make wheat grass juice. The first “harvest” yielded a meagre ounce of juice, but when I added an apple to the juicer, it made a glassful for me to share with Ralph! It tastes a bit like licking the lawnmower, so maybe a few more fruits blended in with the next one There are some sunflower seeds on the go now, too, which I think I will transplant onto some soil as well, so I can get some larger, juicy sunflower sprouts (my absolute favourite!)

Some of the seeds I purchased last month are now growing, too. It is SO exciting to see that little shimmer of the green seedling, pushing it’s way up. I used a variety of growing containers: peat pellets (which expand when hydrated) are great for plants I know I will be transplanting, such as tomatoes, a soil-less growing medium in larger trays or peat containers for my basil, leeks, onions and stevia . I’m really looking forward to growing the stevia, will keep my fingers crossed that the tiny sprigs of green that have just germinated will grow into healthy plants. The trays all needed to be covered to help with the germination, so I used the large plastic boxes I buy my organic greens and spinach in as lids for plastic rectangular storage containers – it works well. Now, our windowsills are starting to get filled up with trays of seedlings Here are some fledgling heirloom tomato plants.

They may look tiny now, but in a few weeks, they will be ready to transplant to larger pots and I’ll update with a new picture!

Ralph has also been preparing for spring planting. Last summer, he grew some beautiful varieties of open-pollinated field corn. When it was mature, he walked his fields and hand-selected the cobs he wanted to save for seed for this year. He recently acquired a cob sheller that removes the seed from the cob – pretty slick! Here are some pictures to show it at work. I have been using some of this corn when I grind grains (wheat, flax, rye) for baking our bread every week. It adds a delightfully sweet smell and flavour to the bread.

Well that’s about it for this update – I would love to hear about your spring plans, whether you’re tapping maple trees (like my Maine friends or still pondering the seed catalogues. I’ll leave you with a quote by Robin Williams, the actor and comedian:

Spring is Nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”

Hardware cloth in greenhouse bed

As I’ve mentioned before, we have industrial grade moles in our yard. When we put in most of the raised beds, we didn’t mole-proof them. It just didn’t occur to us. Well, it occurred to us that we had a problem when the moles started building massive tunnels in the beds. I guess the nice, soft soil was a mole’s dream house. Since then, we’ve been retroactively installing hardware cloth barriers in the beds. This task is no fun. It requires a whole lot of digging and stapling. But it is necessary. Over the last few weeks, we’ve finished two of the three beds in the greenhouse. Just one more bed to go there and then on to more outdoor beds.

Seedlings in the greenhouse

Speaking of the greenhouse, the first bed that we mole-proofed is now filled with my first batch of seedlings. This bed has lettuce, kale, bok choi, and Chinese cabbage. I also threw in a few garlic bulbs I found leftover in an outdoor bed. On cool nights, I’ve been covering everything with a grow cloth, but generally everything is doing really well and showing good growth.

Tomato & pepper seedlings

With my first batch of seedlings hardened off and planted, I started my tomato and pepper seedlings a few weeks ago. This year, I have started Italian Roma, San Marzano, Celebrity, Ace, and Sun Gold tomatoes. For peppers, I’ve started Italian Sweet, Creme Brulee, and Purple Beauty. For the last few years, I’ve had some trouble with my tomato seedlings, but this batch looks great! I also have some Candy onions started with this batch.

Carrot harvest

Finally, we harvested our last batch of overwintered carrots. The kids helped me dig out the carrots, then I dug out the entire bed so Derek could install the hardware cloth. Soon, we’ll get our first batch of peas planted in this bed.

Happy gardening!

Sandy

On to fun things: The tomato seedlings are up and more items are being seeded as I write. We are gearing up to plant hanging flower baskets – so if you are a Lunenburg customer, don’t despair, we’ll have something fabulous for you when the snow is gone! During these winter days that seem to drag on, it is a real lifesaver to start planning this year’s garden. Even for those of us in the business – we’re always looking forward to a new plant, a new pot, a new combination…

Precious tomato seedlings!

There’s been lots of discussion around our dinner table about whether some of our favorite food and retail companies are softening on GE crops, like alfalfa. Though we remain neutral on this topic, and really because we admit we don’t have all the answers, Glenn does not grow any genetically engineered, or modified crops, AND since we do not source produce from any other farms (or the wholesale market), you’ll never get any from us. -Just thought you’d like to know

by Matt Cramer on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 1:26pm
This year begins a series of energy and money saving ventures at our house. One of these is reducing the miles our vegetables travel while teaching Owen and Eden about where vegetables come from.

The winter has been spent determining what we would like to grow and planning the best way to grow it. We finally settled on a series of 4-foot square wooden raised beds that allow for plastic tents to be raised over them to protect young seedlings from cold and frost. Back in early March we got five of these beds constructed and the soil prepped for planting.

March 12: The whole family went out and planted the first of the beds. Snow Peas, English Peas, Spinach, and Carrots went in with much excitement on the part of Owen and Eden who were quite thrilled to take turns planting rows of each variety. After we covered each row of seeds with a thin layer of soil and watered them in we rolled out a plastic cover to keep the soil warm at night.

March 14: A cold wind from the east greeted us this morning. I asked the kids if they wanted to go plant the next bed but they preferred to stay in the cozy indoors. I quickly planted a row each of Swiss Chard, Flashy Trout’s Back Butter Lettuce, Nevada Romaine Lettuce, and Green Kale under the plastic A-frame tent covering the bed. After applying a quick shower of water I too retreated to the warmth of the house to plant a seed flat with San Marzano & Principe Borghese Tomatoes, Red Bell Peppers, and Parsley. These I placed on the heat mat in the garage under a plastic cover set at a balmy 85 degrees.

March 19: Snow. Lots of snow. Fortunately the seeds are comfortably under their plastic tents. Nothing to do but wait for warm weather again.

March 22: The first of the tomato seedlings pokes up looking for sunlight. It is small and spindly but eager to grow. I realize that we will need grow lights very soon to ensure strong young plants.

March 23: They’re everywhere! Nearly all of the tomatoes are up. Now we wait on the peppers. According to one book I read recently, they will appear about the time you give up on them and set out to start over. I improvised a grow light today from a shop light and a cool blue CFL bulb I had around the house. I can already tell I will need more light but at least the seedlings are not growing sideways–trying to reach the kitchen window–anymore.

I started these from seed about 6 weeks ago and decided it was time they moved into their new home.  It was touch and go there for a while.  Poor little babies.  Sun was scorching, heat was dreadful – I had to water them twice while I was out there!  But they made it.  The fates were shining upon me (actually rained upon me – better luck, in the case of sprouts) and all turned out well. 

Until the next day.  Not one to waste water, I turned off the sprinkler due to the massive rainstorm the night before.  Bad idea.  I was so busy during the day, I forgot to check on them!  Wasn’t until late afternoon I remembered.  Ugh.  Multi-tasking gone wrong.  They almost died. 

My peppers suffered, too.   But a fresh spritz of water brought them back to their grand stature in no time!

A good thing, because I nearly fell over from heat stroke getting them in.  It’s hot in Florida and presents quite the dilemma for this gardener.   Do you keep your sprouts on the patio for a longer period of time, sparing them (and yourself) the horrendous heat of September?  Or do you go ahead and get them in to set roots, deep and early. 

Remember last year?  Our first frost came and caught my tomatoes in full bloom!  I had a wagon full of green tomatoes and my family was none too happy about it.  No red tomatoes means no red tomato sauce.  A bad day in an Italian household, let me tell you. 

So this year I’m going with sooner rather than later.  I put out these lovely kitchen towels for inspiration. 

My plants are in and have plenty of time to develop the strong root system they need to produce big beautiful tomatoes. 

All I have to do is baby them during the day.  Which is okay.  I can manage it. 

On second thought, maybe I should set a timer…

• Two paraffin lamps, one ancient Pifco battery lamp (from my granny’s garage).
• Two feather pillows with striped ticking covers.
• One bucket, one bowl of my grandfather’s old woodworking tools (rusty, but salvageable).
• One tray of runner bean seedlings plus a stray courgette plant.
• One metal plant stand in the shape of a bird.
• Two trays of tomato seedlings; it’s probably too late to get anything from them now, but I’ll give it a go.
• Bamboo canes, for the above runner beans.
• Wood (including chopped-up bits in the white plastic sacks) for the log-burning  stove. I was not ashamed to knock on my mother’s neighbours’ door and ask if I could dive into their skip; my mother was rather more embarrassed. I, however, will spend far less on central heating this coming winter.

Tomato seedlings

It’s an appropriate title so I thought I’d keep it I’ve decided to skip the whole “hello my name is” part and get straight to the blogging.

Recently I’ve become interested in gardening specifically vegetables. So about a week ago I planted some tomato seeds in some coconut fiber pots and with some sunshine, water and love they’ve now sprouted. They’re so successfully that I got 5 sprouts from one pot and others have 3! So now I have to transplant the extras to their on pots because just like everyone else we need our own personal space.

Say Hello sprouts!

The only variable: the monsters were planted in sterile soil and those in the smaller peat pots were not. Could that be it?

I checked up on my seedlings — the zucchini is such a sunflower! Its huge leaves were practically pressed up against the window. I think I should be able to transfer it to a bigger pot soon, at least once the second new leaf is more established. the house for a morning run.

My tomato seedlings have plateaued for the moment, but I’m not too worried (especially with the duck on guard). I think their leaves are resting while the roots get stronger. I’ve got some great seaweed-based root encourager so I’ll mix some of that into its water tomorrow morning.

Satisfied, I slipped into my running shoes and was just heading out the door when I was met by my postie, bearing fabric!

Cute owls and more of that gorgeous Bambi print, hurrah!

Fabric Rehab has been putting together these fantastic bundles of FQs for ever and as soon as I saw the owlie fiesta, I had to have it! I love how bright and bold those colours are.

Then, during my run this morning I got a text from the blogless Dr Quick saying Ysolda had mentioned our bags in her latest post as one of the things keeping the spring inside, even if it’s gone a bit grim out. She added a pic of some of the bags she’s picked up from us, including Blushing Ducks right at the front! (You know, it’s because of that bag, or rather that fabric, that I now stand by the rule: If you like it, GET IT! I’ve never found it since and it’s so one of my favourite prints.)

Thanks, Ysolda, for the mention among other very cheering ephemera! Oooh, and to our readers, check out her spangly blog make-over! I love the green lettering, but those plush purple tabs are the Business.

Orchard Mason Bee House

 Just as I was about to embark on a series of beekeeping classes, I found Steve the bee guy on Craigslist. Steve offered to help me set up an orchard mason bee house. This was great timing because my schedule was getting crazy and adding beekeeping to the list was a little overly ambitious for this year.  So Steve came by yesterday and set up this cute little bee house.  The blue tube under the roof of the house contains about eighty dormant orchard mason bees. They look a bit like dried beans. Over the next 5 – 7 days, the bees will wake up and begin to fulfill their purpose, pollination. They will work hard for a few months, lay their eggs in the bee house holes, and will be done by June. Steve will then collect the house (and larvae) and which will be stored until the following spring. The bees do have an interesting life cycle and while they don’t produce honey, they are lower maintenance to keep than honey bees while being good pollinators.

Tomato and pepper seedlings

A few weeks ago I bemoaned the sad state of my tomato and pepper seedlings. I’m happy to report that after following the advice of my trusted gardening friends, the seedlings are doing much better.  After plugging the heat mats in so that they would be on full time (I previously had them plugged into the same timer used to control the lights) and giving them a light liquid fertilizer when watering, the plants have rebounded and are showing good growth.

Front ornamental planting area

And now on to the disappointment of this weekend.  I wanted to fully weed and bark the ornamental planting area in front of our house.  Every spring this area needs a good weeding or the weeds take over.  Yesterday was the day to do this because the sun was out and it was so nice. Unfortunately, I could only tackle this project in small chunks.  My daughter was participating in her school play and there were two showings yesterday.  She also had dance class.  I probably got about 70% of the job done, but it definitely isn’t finished.  I haven’t even managed to put all the tools away.  Maybe I’ll make finishing this up my after work project this week now that we have more sun in the evenings.

I didn’t finish the weeding, but I did manage some planting today.  The weather was highly changeable, but I had about an hour of nice weather and managed to plant two ‘Pink Lemonade’ blueberry bushes. Definitely click on the link and check these out.  They look very interesting! I also started a new strawberry patch, planted a second rhubarb, and planted onion starts.  So, even though I didn’t finish everything I wanted to, it was a productive weekend.

Happy gardening.

Sandy

Let me put this in perspective-  used to not be able  keep a houseplant alive.  Now I can plant seeds that are barely even a millemeter in diameter only to have them to emerge as plants just a few day later? Days people.  I am humbled and amazed!! I will soon post a detailed description of how I did it so that you too can share in all this vegetable gardeny joy

That Ambijawn…She may be emo, but she is oh so sincere.

Because, hey, I like pink, and I like pleats

because well, they’re purple.  nuff said.

Looks and feels like a peach- tastes like a tomato? FRESH.

wait wait wait- you mean to tell me they are tomatillos, yet also purple?? That’s freakin awesome dude ;p I’ll take it.

So as you can see this season, I’m going for both style AND substance in my organic vegetable garden.  How about you?

PS- here’s a great little article on how to start tomato seedlings over on yougrowgirl.com:

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/tomatoes_health.php

Now get to planting!!

San Marzano tomato seedlings, LED vs. fluorescent grow bulbs

Previously, I mentioned that my LED grow light system was not working out well. The plants were too leggy and were not maturing as fast as they should.  I broke down and purchased a new light system before the next round of seedlings need to be started (which will be this weekend). I ordered a single-shelf fluorescent grow light system from Gardener’s Supply.  I love it!  I am still bummed about the LED system not working out because it uses less electricity than the fluorescent bulbs, but clearly the technology is not quite there yet.  All you need to do is look at the pic above and compare.  The seedling on the left was grown under the LED lights, and the seedling on the right was rescued from the LED system and has spent a week under the new grow light system.  Huge difference.

Shiro plum tree in full bloom

Well, I’ve got a busy gardening weekend ahead.  Can’t wait to get outside tomorrow.

Sandy

We have flats and flats of giant branywine heirloom tomatoes and yellow plum tomatoes in the window.

We have 20 new plants we purchased from Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond that are varieties ranging from Green Zebra to Julia Child and their own Love Apple.

On the whole, the little guys performed exceedingly well. We’ve had only one casualty, and to be fair it was the weakest of the sunflower class, of which we had already had a high sowing success rate. Unfortunately a few of our tomato plants have suffered from a little bit of sun-scorch, turning a couple leaves slightly white towards the tips. Interestingly it was the centiflor variety Millefleur that took the brunt, whilst the Rose de Berne and Gold Medal are still a nice green.

Moral of the story is hardening off should be done, and should be done patiently. Here is a pic of the white on the leaves. They will recover just fine.

The Oasis is progressing nicely. I will take a week ending photo once the light goes down a bit. Yes, the sun is blazing out there and I have the door and windows open (as I have had most of the week).

PAPAYAS

Earlier in the week I was pleased to see that the papaya seeds I planted, before the last cold snap, had sprouted up with a vengeance.

I replanted a good number of these seedlings, tasted one (sweet and peppery at the same time), and gave the rest to other people in the park.

After giving them away (which I don’t regret) I learned that the sprouts are recommended as a salad topping, and that the dried seeds can be ground and used like pepper. Since I had another papaya on hand (gifted from my business partner), I saved those seeds and am drying them now.

COCONUTS

My business partner and his family went wildnerness camping on an island last weekend. His yard is full of papaya and coconut trees. He brought along some coconuts and experimented by roasting them on the fire. I was the beneficiary of two of these beauties.

On Monday I cracked one open and proceeded to scarf down more than half. I couldn’t stop because it had a great smoky, roasted aroma and flavor. The next morning I wished that I had stopped before I ate so much. The old saying “Too much of a good thing” certainly applies to coconuts; and that’s all I am going to say about that!

VOLUNTEER TOMATOES

The papayas  and coconuts were just the beginning of the natural abundance I enjoyed this week. I took a look at my poorly managed (see “neglected”) compost heap and noticed some strange looking sprouts poking out. Surely this is sign that no composting is taking place? It’s OK, because I got a bunch of volunteer tomatoes for no effort (other than burying some kitchen scraps and ignoring them).

The little rascals have since been relocated to The Oasis where they are getting plenty of water. As soon as I planted the newbies my first tomato plant (purchased from the flea market) has stepped up to the plate and started to flower (I think it may be showing off).  I have no idea which variety  any of these tomatoes are, but I hope to get a good mix.

CITRUS JUICE

Another gift from my business partner was a big bag of locally grown Indian River grapefruit and oranges. Since we have orchards to the west of us, the fruit flies are plentiful. The bag of citrus has been attracting fruit flies all week and I finally got annoyed enough to do something about it.

Yesterday I washed the fruit (although it doesn’t look like it) and proceeded to make juice.

This handy little juicer strains the seeds and pulp and collects juice in the cup with a pour spout.

The lid holds the fruit in place while you twist to squeeze.

Here is the aftermath. I added a little raw sugar to take away the bite and ended up with 3 1/2 quarts of excellent juice.

OKEECHOBEE BASS

To top off a week of goodness we got a knock on our door yesterday. It was our neighbor, Fred, bearing a nice bag of filleted Okeechobee Bass. We sell wild caught Florida shrimp and have a bartering agreement with Fred.  We get our fill of shrimp and he gets his fill of bass so every now and again he comes by for a trade. He even brought some homemade batter! Since last night was our fifth wedding anniversary (we don’t make a big deal out of spending money to celebrate) we had a little fish fry and enjoyed the tastiest, freshest, most delicate bass you can imagine. Sorry, no pictures. We ate it too fast.

OUR ANNIVERSARY  PRESENT TO EACH OTHER

A couple of weeks ago AJ’s mother asked us to sell our Volvo to her so that his sister can have it. This care is safe, runs well and is in great shape. It has a few cosmetic issues such as a bad headliner, cracked dash and peeling paint. It is also two colors, since I smashed it up a little and AJ had to replace a fender and some other body parts. Still, it’s a great car and perfect for a young, “carefree”  person, such as his sister. Our perk for letting go of this car for super cheap was that his mom would finance our purchase of a “new” car. Neither of us believes in paying the outrageous price of a new car only to have it depreciate immediately; so new to us means “old but in great shape”. The hunt for this car and the surprising result will have to wait until we pick it up. AJ will immediately get to work sprucing it up (although it is already stunning), and when he is finished I will post the story of the search and some nice photos of the gift we got each other on our fifth year married.