Mostly planted

I had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend, with lots of farming and even a bit of sleep.  Mike and I hit the farmer's market on Saturday morning to pick up eggplant, pepper and herb seedlings, and then stopped by Skillins to get a few last herbs and tomato cages.  When we got home, Mike strapped Landon into the Ergo and they had major father son bonding time while I spent two wonderful hours in the garden, weeding and planting.  On Monday, we repeated this setup and I "finished" (are you ever really done?) weeding and planting the summer seeds of bush and pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, winter squash, and basil.  Mike then managed to pull off the feat of watering the garden while wearing the baby, which was impressive but ultimately unnecessary given the huge amount of rain that we got yesterday.  Also on Monday, my mom planted day lilies, gladioli, and peonies in the flower bed around the well.  Lily has spent the past two days trying to dig up the bulbs and eat them.  She also helped herself to a generous serving of last Thanksgiving's fried turkey oil that was in the barn.  Anyone want a bearcub?

The tomatoes seem to have benefited from the actual hardening off that I did this year, and they look happy in their spots in the garden.  The carrots, radishes, snap peas, potatoes, and swiss chard are germinating very well.  My beets have barely come up at all.  I'm not sure if they are just being slow to germinate, if they were duds, or if something is eating the seedlings.  Also in the category of garden puzzles is the fact that some bug is snacking on my scallions/leeks/shallots.  I was under the impression, from all of my gardening books, that bugs left onion family plants alone.  Not in my garden.  These tiny black and white caterpillar/inchworms are munching the tops off of all of these plants.  Very odd, and I haven't found a solution yet since none of my go-to garden guides mention this type of pest.  So for now I'm just hoping they go away.  I'm sure that will work.

cabbage 5-30

chard 5-30

herbs 5-30

from front, eggplant, arugula, tomatoes 5-30

potatoes 5-30

radishes & carrots 5-30

beets (?) 5-30

We started spraying the arugula, mustard greens, and cabbage family crops with organic insecticidal soap as the flea beetles are just terrible this year, and they've officially killed one broccoli plant.  The soap has helped a bit, but we'll need to keep on top of it as it only works when it's wet.

Our peach trees both have a fungus, so I think we are once again going to spray and forgo the notion of organic trees this year.  I think if we don't, we may lose them.

In chicken news, the girls continue to look like a very ratty bunch due to all the pecking, but are laying very well and are enjoying the weeds that I bring to them from the garden.  One of the rhode island reds has become broody, and she spends her days and nights trying to hatch the fake lime in the corner of the coop.  She may not be intelligent, but she is very determined.  Expect baby limes any day....

Beginning the fall cleanup

Since it was so gorgeous out last weekend, Mike was inspired to begin the fall garden cleanup, and I was inspired to pick lima beans.  While Mike pulled out the cucumber, green bean, zucchini, summer squash, snap pea, and cabbage plants, I harvested the lima beans.  One of us is clearly a more industrious farmer than the other - I'm lucky I have a productive teammate.

Below is the lima bean/asparagus bed pre-harvest.  As I started picking lima beans, I realized that the majority of the pods were at the base of the plants, and that the lima beans were really crowding the poor asparagus.  I also realized that the odds that I was going to go back for a second lima bean harvest this late in the season were not good, so I decided to pull out the lima bean plants and harvest the pods that way.  It was much easier to harvest the lima beans, and I think it made the asparagus happy.  As I was yanking, I promised the asparagus that I wouldn't plant anything else in their bed next year, and I apologized for doubting their growth potential.  We got a pretty good yield of lima beans, and I think the asparagus is much happier now that it has breathing room.



Asparagus and lima beans pre-harvest

Asparagus after the lima bean harvest

Lima bean harvest

Shelled lima beans!

We had a spaghetti squash from our neighborhood squash lady that we needed to use, so we came up with a fantastic dinner.  We roasted the spaghetti squash, and cooked up some angel hair pasta and lima beans.  Then we made a white sauce and tossed everything together, finishing the dish with some crumbled soy bacon.  It was creamy and delicious, and we were very proud of ourselves for coming up with the recipe.

My parents were over, and so I took the opportunity to unload as much produce as I could on them.  Our tomatoes are still going strong, as are the eggplants, chard, leeks and bell peppers.

Tomatoes

Gourds, chard and tomatoes

Hansel eggplants

Mom's haul of bell peppers, eggplant, chard, summer squash, and lima beans

The red peppers look great - I guess when you ignore your pepper plants, that really allows them to fully ripen into their colored glory.  Our orange and yellow pepper plants were duds, but the greens, purples, and reds have produced very well.  The hansel eggplant has been by far the most productive eggplant variety.  I must have sent my mom home with about ten small eggplants, which are the perfect size for roasting.

We've harvested almost all of the squash, and now it's out curing in the barn.  Because our squash yield was so much lower than what I'd hoped for, and because I think I'm addicted to squash, we've supplemented our crop heavily with squash from the squash lady down the street.  She grew a huge range of varieties, so in addition to my own squash I have quite a few of her more rare types to try out, including a marina di chioggia, which is supposed to be great in ravioli and gnocchi, and two Australian blue squashes.  Yum!

My candy roasters and rouge vif d'etampes squash

Giant pumpkin!

We haven't picked the giant pumpkin yet, and I think we'll be leaving it on the vine for at least another week given the mild weather forecast.  My guess is that it's around 95 pounds, Mike thinks it's closer to 150.  I'm not sure how we'll weigh it (or move it) yet, but I will somehow have a final giant pumpkin update in a few weeks.  It's starting to turn a deeper orange - I'm not sure if that means that it's not going to get bigger or what.  We went to the Cumberland Fair last weekend and ogled the truly giant pumpkins, and I was inspired to be a more diligent giant pumpkin grower next year.  Some of the pumpkins were over 1,000 pounds, and two had really nice shapes.  Of course, if we did have a 1,000 pound pumpkin, then Mike would argue that we needed a tractor, so maybe I don't want to go down that road yet.

Still no eggs, but Mike has started giving motivational speeches to the girls.  Some of you have told me your guesses for the first egg day, but I have to confess that if you didn't post a comment, I don't remember what your day was (that includes my own guess).  So, if you want in on the egg laying contest, leave a comment here with your guess on the first day, or send me an email and I'll put a comment in for you.  The guesses that we have so far are:

Mamie:  September 15
Mike:  September 28

Clearly, Mike and Mamie have lost, so the field is wide open.  I'm calling October 15, although I'm also hoping that I'm wrong because I'd like them to lay sooner than that.

Tomato hornworms. Ick.

The other day when we were re-staking the tomatoes, Mike and I noticed some brown chunks on the leaves of the plants.  After playing a fun round of "eggs or poop" (a common farming game, I'm sure), I consulted the internet and learned that these were tomato hornworm droppings.  I've been dreading the tomato hornworms all summer, as other more experienced vegetable gardeners frequently bemoan these pests.  After three days of fighting them, I have to agree.  Tomato hornworms are incredibly hard to see, as they are green, blend in thoroughly with a tomato plant, and cling stubbornly to tomato leaves and stems.  They are also supposed to be very destructive and can get up to 4-5 inches long, so I have an incentive to find and destroy them as quickly as possible.  In addition to being well camouflaged, tomato hornworms are unpleasant to handpick.  The big ones are very difficult to pull off, and once you manage to get the worm off the tomato plant, the worm makes this creepy clicking sound.  Clearly, this task required much bravery on my part. 

Today I was able to get about seven of them, and found the one upside to having tomato hornworms.  The chickens absolutely love them.  I gave the worms to the girls, and in a matter of seconds they were gone.


Tomato hornworms (with an extra potato bug)

Chickens munching on tomato hornworms

We are heading off on a family vacation to the Cape tomorrow, so in preparation I harvested a good amount of veggies.  I think this is a particularly good looking selection, with carrots, eggplant, beets, summer squash, and zuccini.  I also grabbed some chard, potatoes and bell peppers, which aren't pictured.

Siamese twin eggplant!

Harvest for the Cape

This vacation means I'll be leaving the farm in Mike's hands for the next week and a half.  He told me that he's praying for rain, which I said is a terrible thing to ask for when your wife is going to the beach (although I do sympathize with him - it's nice not to have to water).  I'm hoping to come back to ripe tomatoes and more eggplant.

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.