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.

Fourth of July weekend

What a productive weekend for the farm!  We had a house full of guests, including my parents, Mamie, Anne and Eric, Anne's parents, and a total of six dogs.  We also had a combination of heavy rain and high heat, which caused the garden and lawn to explode.  In photos, here's a recap of our weekend.

On June 30, I harvested a bumper crop of radishes.  They never ended up quite radish shaped, but they were delicious.

We threw together the above salad with our own radishes, arugula, lettuce and mustard greens.  Aren't the lettuces beautiful?  I love the speckled lettuce the most, and have been trying to ration those plants among our many, many salads.

On July 2, I harvested our first cauliflower with more broccoli.  The cauliflower is just gorgeous - lovely white heads with a slight purple tint at the base.  We had two heads of cauliflower, so on Saturday night I made a potato salad with grilled broccoli and cauliflower, dressed with a viniagrette, which was outstanding, and on Sunday night, we had a side dish of roasted cauliflower, broccoli, and beets (all our own!) with dinner.  Both recipes were great.  The fresh cauliflower was really amazing - buttery and sweet.

Anne helped me thin the beets, which was a far more productive chore than I originally thought it would be.  Looking at my beet bed, it seems like all of the seeds germinated.  Above are the beet greens that we harvested during our thinning efforts.  We pulled the plants from the roots, so in addition to the greens, we ended up with some marble sized beets, which were wonderful roasted with the broccoli and cauliflower.  My mom used some of the beet greens in a vegan calzone filled with sweet potatoes, beet greens, garlic, onions, and a dairy-free white sauce, and I sent Anne home with two more gallon sized bags of greens - which still leaves me with one more bag in my fridge.  Luckily, I like beet greens. 

Mike built me a new compost bin in the garden over the weekend.  Our compost used to be a pile in the shade next to our run-in, which was an inconvenient location for us, but a fabulous location for the dogs.  Now the compost bin is (somewhat) safely enclosed within the garden, so Bullet at least can't get to it.  Lily has proudly figured out how to squirm under the garden gate to get to the compost, but she's growing so quickly that I hope this access to  the compost is temporary for her.  Mike used old picket fencing that was left in the run-in for the structure, and I think it looks really cool. 

The girls also had a good weekend, with the exception of some inevitable heckling from the six dogs.  We gave them lots of radish greens, which were initially viewed with much suspicion, but then accepted as delicious.  Anne won the girls over with several offerings of slugs and snails plucked from the garden, and Taperman reconnected with the flock by setting up a folding chair outside of their yard and communing with the girls during the early mornings.

The giant pumpkins had a mixed weekend, and we're back to calling them the less dead (top) and more dead (bottom) giant pumpkins.  The more dead giant pumpkin was a victim of a particularly vigorous game of chase between Mamie's great danes, Bullet and Lily.  The less dead giant pumpkin was spared, though, and looks great.  If the more dead giant pumpkin recovers, I'll be pretty shocked.

Our bok choy and swiss chard are now ready for harvesting, so this afternoon I picked both.  I sent Anne and Eric home with plenty of each, and used more for a chilled sesame peanut soba noodle dish, which was delicious.  I can't believe how we've gone from just having lettuce to picking swiss chard, bok choy, beet greens, broccoli, cauliflower and radishes within a week.  We're thoroughly enjoying it all, although the lettuce is never ending, and I won't be planting a full bed at once next year - although we've been having salads all week, the bed is more overgrown than ever, and the arugula is beginning to bolt.

Cauliflower blanching

We had rain for most of the end of last week, and my garden was very, very happy about all the water. My plants have really taken off, and even though I'm harvesting lettuce and arugula several times a day (arugula omlettes are fantastic for breakfast, by the way), each time I go out it looks like the plants have gotten bigger.

The herbs that I started from seed are also coming up nicely, which is a little surprising to me because I did a very haphazard job planting them. Below, the front left is thai basil, with regular basil in the back left. Thyme (which I bought as a seedling) is in the back right, and the front right is dill started from seed.

My tomato plants continue to look extremely happy - planting them in beds full of compost and manure was definitely a good call. Below, you can see that blossoms are starting to form on the tomato plants. The stems are nice and thick and strong, and I spent more time this morning pulling off suckers, which seem to grow back as soon as I turn around.

The snow peas are now all tall enough to reach the trellis, so I've held off on giving them more support as they seem to be hanging on well. Today as I was weeding, I also learned that snow pea plants smell wonderful - almost sweet.

Remember that dud row of swiss chard that I mentioned before? Well, it's finally germinated. Very strange, but I'm not questioning it. Below are the little guys - looking at the bed, it's very hard to believe that I planted them on the same day as their tall neighbors.

The pepper seedlings that I bought are also starting to blossom and form peppers, although the purple peppers that I started seem to be a little behind. I think that the seedlings I bought were older than the peppers that I started - at least, I hope that's why! Below is the green pepper that has started to flower, which you can see if you look closely below.

The cauliflower looks beautiful. Two of the plants have started forming heads - the more developed one is below. I read in my gardening bible that you need to blanch the heads to keep them nice and white, so I blanched the two heads that were ready this morning. The process was really quite easy, I just loosely pulled the outer leaves together over the cauliflower head and tied them together with twine.

The radishes and carrots look good, although I pulled a few of the radishes and the roots were all spindly and not radish-like at all. I'm borrowing Mike's homebrewing motto, and just giving them more time.

The broccoli below is probably ready to be harvested, so I think I'll be going out later today to grab it before it flowers. I'm thinking a quiche with broccoli and arugula will be delicious.

Finally, below are the beets (back) and bok choy (front). Given how much damage the bok choy sustained from the flea beetles, I'm impressed by its growth. It's time for me to thin the beets, which I think I'll do later this week. We have quite a few people coming this weekend for fourth of July, so thinning/weeding might be a group activity.

You're just a potato bug, potato bug

When Mamie and I were little, there was a song on some PBS show that went something like, "you're just a potato bug, potato bug, a little potato bug." I think Mamie was sick when the song came on, and somehow she was given the nickname of potato bug. Well, I've now met actual potato bugs, and can say to Mamie that they really aren't anything like you. But you are still a little potato bug.

This morning I was successfully able to wear out the dogs long enough to get some garden time in. I pruned more suckers off of the tomato plants, which are just starting to form flower buds and look beautifully green! I did some haphazard weeding as well, and keep telling myself that every pulled weed counts when I look around and see how many beds there are.

Above, tomatoes and marigolds, 6-22
Below, swiss chard 6-22

I checked on my squash field, and the garden dust doesn't seem to have made much of an impact on the cucumber beetles, but they also haven't done too much more damage to the plants, so for now, I'm calling it good. Soon, I'll have to thin out the hills, as several had three or four plants sprout. Above and below are two of the hills, as of this morning.

On my to-do list for this week/weekend is some snow pea maintenance. The plants seem to be having a little trouble grabbing on to the trellis, so I'll have to help them out somehow. They're growing really fast, but as you can see below, they're a little floppy.

And here is a poblano pepper! With the plants that I bought as seedlings, I feel like I can't be quite as proud of their progress, especially when, like this poblano, they were quite big when I acquired them. However, the fact that the poblano plant is alive and producing fruit is a definite victory.

Separately from the main squash field, I have two giant pumpkins growing. My mother bought the seedlings at a library fundraiser, and we transplanted them a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if I've written much, if at all, about them, which is fairly on par with the amount of attention I've given them. Each week, I give them about five more days of life, but they're still hanging in. We refer to them as the more dead and less dead giant pumpkins, so that about sums up their current status. In the above photos, the top plant is the "less dead" giant pumpkin, and the bottom is the "more dead" giant pumpkin. It's all about low expectations here.

And speaking of what good setting low expectations can bring, I'm experiencing a bit of a marigold miracle! Remember those poor marigolds and zinnias that I lovingly raised from seed indoors, only to harshly set them out on a hot day without any hardening off? Well, I was pretty convinced that they were all going to die, given how terribly sunburned and shriveled they got. This week, though, they've staged an impressive comeback. You can see above that new, healthy green leaves are growing, so I think these guys might actually make it. This has not helped reinforce the importance of hardening off for me.

Look at this lettuce! I harvested a bit yesterday to bring over to my parents, and think I'll be grabbing some more tonight for dinner. I'm kind of excited and irrationally nervous for my first partially home grown salad. Like, it's kind of a big deal.

Also a big deal, are my potato plants - good god, they're getting huge. They also have a few potato bugs, which I hand picked off of the plants and put into soapy water. That is very brave for me, because I hate bugs (I know, I know, that's really unacceptable for a farmer). Potato bugs are really big and move slowly, so it wasn't very hard once I got over the ick factor. There also weren't very many, which helped. Then I hilled the plants, which means pushing extra dirt on top of them, so that only the tops show. This was a little challenging since my potato plants are wildly different heights. Some ended up completely buried, while others still look quite exposed.

Above are the cucumbers, arugula, and brussels sprouts. You can kind of see that the majority of the brussels sprouts are growing nicely, but one plant in the middle is stunted. It doesn't look dead, so I'm not really sure what's going on. The cucumbers are all growing well, and arugula has really taken off.

The broccoli and cauliflower, above, also look great. The broccoli plants have almost all started forming heads, and it looks like a few of the cauliflower plants are beginning to develop as well.

Below is the bok choy/beet bed. The bok choy is in the front, and the plants on the left side of the bed, at least, have grown quite a bit in the last week. The ones on the right aren't doing much. I'm not sure if the seeds just didn't germinate there, or if I had technical difficulties while planning. That's certainly possible.