I am a brave bug hunter. Kind of.

This week I've tried to make a concerted effort to spend more time in the garden performing bug maintenance, because the squash bug eggs have begun to hatch, and it isn't pretty.  Squash bug nymphs have little white bodies and black legs, and they gross me out (not as much as potato bug larvae, though).  Mamie and I first noticed them on Sunday when I asked her to help me scrape squash bug eggs off of the plant leaves, and we found these little guys in addition to eggs.  These little guys move fairly quickly, so I'm becoming much more motivated to eradicate all of the squash bug eggs to prevent more of the nymphs.  Those squash bugs are prolific reproducers, though, so it feels like a never ending battle.  The giant pumpkin plant has the most squash bugs/eggs/nymphs, while the actual squash field itself isn't so badly infested.  Part of my daily routine is now to scrap eggs and kill nymphs, in addition to patrolling for potato bugs.  Hopefully I'll be able to kill most of them before they grow into adult squash bugs, who, in addition to damaging squash plants, also look and smell and awful lot like stinkbugs.

In happier squash news, the spaghetti squash plant won the race in the squash field to be the first plant to produce flowers!  Below is a female flower on the spaghetti squash plant - female flowers have fruit at the base, while male flowers are only a flower on a stem.  If the female blossom is fertilized by a male blossom, then the fruit will grow into a mature squash.  If not, it will shrivel up and die.  In the squash kingdom, reproduction is not a game!


female spaghetti squash blossom 7-27-2011

 On the potato bug front, it looks like I am beginning to win my battle with the disgusting larvae.  I still find a few every day, but not so many as I was finding even a week ago.  Some of my potato plants still aren't looking so good, but I'm trying to remain optimistic after last week's sampling of new potatoes.

This week, I've noticed a beautiful sound when I'm being quiet in the garden - the soft hum of bees.  My flowers are covered in them, and in the mornings I can see the bees working hard to fertilize my squash plants (I know, I said I was going to help with that.  I haven't yet.  I'm trusting in the bees for now).  I've even seen a few honey bees, which makes me especially happy to see.  Hearing that gentle vibration from the flowers makes me happy that we've gone without pesticides in the garden, as I can see by the substantial bee presence that at least I have some good bugs in there.

Bee in marigold 7-27-2011

Bee in pattypan squash flower 7-27-2011

Also, isn't that marigold above just gorgeous?  It's one of the marigold plants that survived my shock therapy transplant technique.  I love the soft yellow white of the flowers, and the plants themselves are looking lush, green, and very happy.  I'm definitely growing more unique marigolds next year, and maybe I'll even be kinder to them when I set them out.

When Mike came home from work on Wednesday, I greeted him at the car with the terrible news that "we have a tomato situation."  While doing my daily bug inspection, I noticed with horror that most of the tomatoes in one of the beds had turned black at the bottoms.  I anxiously googled "tomatoes turning brown," and learned that these plants are experiencing blossom end rot.  Luckily, it's not terribly serious, and it's not an infectious condition.  Most likely, the temperature and water fluctuations were too much for these plants, and the calcium uptake to the fruits was interrupted, which causes them to rot from the bottom up.  It shouldn't affect new fruits that the plants produce, and it only happened in one bed, so the tomato situation isn't as bad as I first thought, although it is quite ugly on the affected fruits.  I've started picking the bad fruits and offered some to the chickens, but they weren't terribly interested, so I'll have to compost the rest.


Heirloom tomatoes with blossom end rot 7-27-2011

I think I mentioned before that the heat wave we had was not kind to my broccoli and cauliflower plants.  A few of the broccoli plants have some small shoots that are still nice and green, but the cauliflower is just a disaster.  I've been pulling the plants out and giving them to the girls, to make room in the beds for the next crops (I haven't figured out what those will be yet - this is a plan in stages).  The chickens are funny - they have a distinct preference for broccoli plants over cauliflower plants.  They'll eat both, but they will strip a broccoli plant of leaves and buds within five minutes, while they'll work over a cauliflower plant over the course of an afternoon.  The girls even prefer broccoli plants to lettuce.  Funny, funny chickens.

Chickens eating broccoli and cauliflower plants 7-27-2011

All week I've been watching the swallow eggplant, and yesterday the first fruit was ready for harvest!  The swallow eggplant is the plant that was under the heaviest attack by potato bugs a few weeks ago, and I feel gratified that it became the first plant to produce fruit, and that it is now potato bug free - it gives me hope that I'll be able to keep the potato plants going.  Swallow eggplants are an Asian hybrid, so they have a long, slender fruit that is not bitter - pretty much my ideal eggplant (I find that eggplant is often a vegetable that I like more in theory than on the plant).  I don't like the large eggplants that you usually find in the store, but love the more unique, smaller varieties.

Swallow eggplant 7-27-2011

In addition to the eggplant, I also grabbed a green pepper, carrots, green beans, snap peas, broccoli, scallions, chard, thai basil, and a baby pattypan squash for dinner.  I cooked up some udon noodles and sauteed all of the veggies, then once the veggies were cooked I made a quick spicy peanut sauce with coconut milk, crunchy peanut butter, chili garlic sauce, and soy sauce, and tossed everything together.  I don't have a picture of the final dish, because we were too hungry for photography by the time it was finished.  This is the dinner harvest, though.

Long carrot!  7-28-2011

Harvesting a pepper 7-27-2011

Dinner harvest 7-28-2011

We took the dogs to a local trail system that has river access in the evening, for a nice walk/jog.  The dogs had a fantastic time - Bullet absolutely loves the water and cannonballs into the river at every opportunity, while Lily prefers to gently dip her tushy in, and then wait to tackle Bullet on the shore.  Bullet and Lily had a great time running, swimming, and wrestling at the park, but it meant that by the time we got home, their dinner had been delayed by about an hour.  As I was cleaning veggies, I looked down the hall to find Lily in her best starving pathetic dog pose.  Note that she is using the counter to support herself, as she is so weak from hunger.  Completely understandable, since the only snacks she got on our walk/jog were ample amounts of cheese and chicken.  How does Mike not think this girl is a lab???


Starving Lily 7-28-2011

New potatoes make the potato bug picking worth it

We had a surprise full family visit yesterday, culminating in a garden-centric feast.  Mamie, Taperman, my mom and I all went out into the garden in the afternoon, and I explained to the group that I am getting worried about my potato plants.  Some of the plants have yellowing, curling leaves at the bottom, and I'm not sure if it's from the heat, the potato bugs, or a terrible potato virus/blight/disaster of some sort.  Since I don't know anything about growing potatoes, I've been reduced to googling the problem, which as I'm sure you can guess, never results in reassuring information.  Mamie decided that the only way to be sure that the potatoes are okay is to reach in and grab one.  As was revealed to my family last night, I get oddly nervous about the first harvest of any vegetable from the garden, so I hadn't pulled any new potatoes (or onions) yet.  Mamie doesn't share my fears, though, so she reached under the plants and pulled out a gorgeous baby yukon gold potato!  Once she realized that pulling potatoes is very similar to clamming, there was no stopping her, and we quickly had over a pound of new potatoes.  Mostly yukon golds, but there were a few red potatoes, and several of the "mystery/who knows" unlabeled varieties.

Potato and beet harvest 7-24-2011

Yukon gold potato 7-24-2011

While Mamie and I harvested beets, green beans, and herbs for dinner, Taperman took some great shots of the plants. 

Green apple eggplant 7-24-2011

Broccoli 7-24-2011

Green beans 7-24-2011

Gretel eggplant 7-24-2011

Heirloom tomatoes 7-24-2011

Heirloom tomatoes 7-24-2011

Mamie and me with our harvest

Zucchini 7-24-2011

Sugar snap peas 7-24-2011

Our first onion!  It smelled great - seriously

Swallow eggplant 7-24-2011

The sugar snap peas, green beans, zucchini, herb bed, swiss chard, and lettuce are all producing like crazy, and we've been trying to come up with as many different ways to cook them all as we can.

Last night, we made a frittata with squash blossoms, and served it with roasted new potatoes, beets, and green beans.  It was all fantastic, but I do have to say that I think squash blossoms may be a bit overrated.  It was quite a lot of work to get the bugs out of them, and they didn't have a noticeable taste in the frittata.  Maybe I overpowered the flavor with the herbs that I added, so I'm willing to give them another shot, but I have to say that I wasn't blown away.  The finished dish was lovely, though.

Squash blossom frittata with fresh herbs 7-24-2011

Roasted new potatoes, beets, and green beans 7-24-2011

The girls haven't been suffering, either.  The heat was not kind to the broccoli and cauliflower, so I ripped out one of the broccoli plants that had bloomed, and gave it to the girls, who were extremely appreciative. 

Chickens approaching broccoli 7-24-2011

Aracauna 7-24-2011

The barn cats are also still here!  I have to go out and replenish their food now, but yesterday we saw both Pam and Persephone, so that was encouraging. 

Hot! But at least the veggies are happy.

Both dogs are stretched out, unconscious on the floor right now, because it is SO HOT!  90 degree weather in Maine is quite the shock to the system, and it looks like only the garden is handling it at all well.  The dogs and I are suffering, and Itch (the cat) is dramatically lying prostrate on the floor of the hottest room in the house, as she seems to have forgotten that the air conditioner is in the next room over.

I've been watering the farm more regularly, because we've had such a long streak of hot weather with no rain.  I'm at the point of actually hoping for a thunderstorm, because then at least we'd get a little moisture.  I visited the squash field this morning, and I'm sad to report that the nutty delica plant is no more.  I guess it couldn't withstand the constant assaults by cucumber beetles, in combination with my unfortunate habit of dragging the hose over it every time I watered.  Let this be a lesson - apologizing for crushing a plant repeatedly is not enough to ensure its survival.  The Uncle David's Dakota Dessert squash plant also doesn't look good.  This morning it was covered with cucumber beetles and the leaves were full of holes.  I tried to pick off as many of the bugs as I could, but I don't think it's going to end well.  The rest of the remaining crop all look very good, though, and I'm hoping that they've now reached a large enough size where they'll be less susceptible to bugs, bad weather, dog roughhousing, and my inexpert hose usage.

We had a fantastic farm centered dinner last night, in which we had our own pattypan squash, zucchini, and green beans for the first time!  Mike was in charge of picking the green beans, and I'm pretty sure he ate more than ended up in the bowl.  Fern, I had to include a picture here so that you know I'm not lying...

We also have our first eggplants beginning to grow.  It looks like my daily potato bug harvesting has eliminated them from the eggplant plants as well (although they continue to show up on the potato plants.  And they're still really gross).



Eggplant 7-20-2011

 The pattypan squash and zucchini plants have all begun to set fruit, and so I'm trying to come up with as many ways to use them as possible.  Tonight I'm planning on stuffing some with a lentil, swiss chard, and soy sausage mixture, but the heat is seriously testing my resolve to use the oven.



Pattypan squash 7-20-2011

 The cucumber plants have also begun to flower, so we should see our first cucumbers soon.  I planted lemon cucumbers, which I've never actually eaten (or seen) before, so I have my fingers crossed that we'll like them.

Cucumber flower 7-20-2011

The asparagus/lima bean bed is looking quite lively now.  I need to research my lima beans to see if they need a trellis.  I thought that they were a bush bean, but the stalks are looking awfully bendy and in need of support.

Lima bean/asparagus bed 7-20-2011



Swiss chard 7-20-2011

 Also, I want to be sure everyone knows the swiss chard situation that we're facing.  It's just like the lettuce, except that it's more versatile (there are only so many times I can serve salad).  Despite the fact that we're eating it with almost every meal, and I've sent every visitor we've had home with a bag, it's still taking up almost a full bed.  The side of the bed that is facing you in this picture is the side that didn't fully germinate.  I'm not really complaining, as I love swiss chard and I've managed to be able to work it into most of our dinners, but I am impressed by the crop.  The picture here doesn't quite do the range of colors of the stems full justice.  Some are red and white striped, and others are an almost neon orange/pink combination, in addition to stems that are monochromatic white, yellow, red, and orange.  The chickens also absolutely love greens, so if the chard becomes too much, or if it bolts, I know they'll be ready and willing to assist.  I think they ended up eating about 90% of the bok choy, which bolted quickly and isn't something that I plan on planting again.

The barn cats have now had the run of the barn and land for four days, and we still seem to have all three of them.  Mike and I have both seen glimpses of Oreo and Persephone, and Mike allegedly saw Pam last night.  Bullet and Lily also saw Oreo and barked at him, so to add extra insurance that the barn cats don't take off I've begun to leave them massive offerings of catnip in addition to cat food and water.  This is also my attempt to try to halt the catnip takover of the herb bed, since the catnip is overshadowing the regular and garlic chives, and Itch seems to have no interest in consuming it.  As you can see below, Lily was convinced the catnip was actually for her.



Catnip 7-20-2011

 Back to last night's dinner - I made a double broccoli pesto with pasta (based on http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/double-broccoli-quinoa-recipe.html, although I had to substitute like crazy since I didn't have a lemon, soy parmesan cheese, and used tofu cream cheese instead of creme fraiche).  I sauteed our pattypan squash, zucchini, green beans, and swiss chard to toss with the pesto and pasta, and made the pesto with our own basil and parsley.  The end result was delicious, and if Mike is getting tired of me endlessly repeating how amazed I am that WE GREW THESE VEGETABLES, he hasn't let on.


Dinner harvest 7-20-2011

Finally, this morning I saw that our giant pumpkin plant has started to flower!  It was just one flower (a male), so I couldn't put my newly researched squash assisted reproduction skills to use.  The flower was also just filled with cucumber beetles (they are attracted to yellow/orange).  I tried to scrape most of them out without disturbing the bees that were circling the flower.  I didn't get stung, and I got at least 10 of the beetles, so I'm counting the experience as a win.

Green all over

Despite the lack of rain that we've had lately, the farm is doing incredibly well.  In the past two weeks, we've begun to harvest baby carrots, lots of beets, broccoli, swiss chard, and have had the first hints of snap peas.  I've been out watering nealry every morning to try to prevent the garden from totally drying out, but it's been so hot and dry that the soil always feels bone dry in the evening.  The plants don't seem to be wilting, though, so I'm trying not to worry too much.

The bok choy ended up bolting, for real, very quickly, and I gave up on trying to eat it.  The chickens have been the very happy recipients of the bolted bok choy and mustard greens, both of which are foods that they go totally nuts for.  My dad's favorite chicken now dashes out to meet me when I come to the fence so that she can have first pick of the greens.  She gets so excited that she hops around on top of the veggies, then tears off as many leaves as she can carry and dashes away, all before the other girls have made their way over.

Last Thursday was Fern's birthday, and we made her a heavily garden-fueled dinner, with a salad that included our own lettuce, carrots, scallions, green pepper, and herbs.  We also roasted some of our baby beets in olive oil, and sauteed the greens with garlic.  A few weeks ago, beet greens were tasting almost beet-ey, but now they taste just like spinach.

Herb bed July 15 - that huge green mound at the front right is the catnip, which is staging a serious takover of its end of the bed



Onions and scallions July 15

Zucchini flowers July 15

Potato beds July 15

Close up of the sugar snap peas

Sugar snap peas latching on to their new chicken wire trellis July 15

Swiss chard July 15

Peach tomatoes July 15

Tomato beds July 15

Zucchini and green beans

I think that the squash plants may begin to flower soon, which means that this week I'm going to be doing some reading on squash fertilization.  Apparently, squash plants are quite promiscuous and will cross-pollinate with any other squash family crop, so the conscientious farmer will hand fertilize her plants to prevent cross-pollination.  It seems like the process is fairly straightforward, and I'll report back later on how it goes.

The great egg prediction contest of 2011

For this farm, we all know that the chicken(s) came first.  The real question, though, is when will the eggs arrive?  As Taperman mentioned a few weeks back, we're having an informal contest to predict when the first egg will be laid.  Winner gets a case of Mike's world famous homebrew.

You'll have to do your own research to make a fully educated guess, but the girls were hatched on May 5, and most rough estimates have chickens beginning to lay at 6 months old.  We have twenty chickens in total, and the contest is guessing the day of the first egg laid by any chicken.  Make your guesses in the comments, and we'll see who gets closest!