Last of the Bounty

I forgot I had this shot from late October showing the last of the Valencias cut up for dinner. I had pulled everything that remained just before our first big frost warning. This was one of the heirlooms we trialed this year and they will definitely be back next year. Besides the low acidity of a yellow tomato, they are very meaty almost like a Roma, but are a classic mid-sized globe. They exhibited no cracking, very little skin damage, and had excellent yield; very tasty and a nice change from standard reds.

Time for a long Winter's Nap

Well its the end of the season and except for a few remaining carrots, the plot has been cleared, tilled, and covered with some shredded leaves from the yard. All that remains is one last pass with the tiller assuming it ever dries out enough before the first big freeze, and a straw mulch cover for the strawberry patch.

Overall it was a successful season but there will be a few changes next year. We'll probably go with bush beans for a change since the pole beans continued to have variable yields. However, the bean wall will stay up over the winter as a ready support for some early spring peas. These will be started indoors in peat pots in February to get around germination issues and then set out as soon as they are large enough.

The peppers will be caged and sprayed to get around breakage and stink bug damage. We'll probably also trial a couple more different varieties of grape tomatoes since we had severe split damage with the two we tried this year.

So the outdoor work is done. There is one more batch of tomato juice and one more batch of strawberry jam to be made from frozen stock in the freezer. From then on it will be settling down for a long winter's nap and the anticipation of next season.

Early Snow (October 29)

We haven't even had a killing frost yet but were treated to a rare early snowfall yesterday of just under four inches. Our red maple tree had barely started to turn and is still in full leaf. To keep from loosing any branches, I had to go out three or four times during the worst of the storm to knock off the snow.

The garden is about done, and all I need now is some dry weather so I can clear it off. Everything will be coming off this year except for the bean wall. I plan on leaving that up so I can use it to plant early peas next spring.

A few notes from this season:

1) The peppers will be caged and sprayed aggressively next year. We lost a lot of prime fruit due to stink bug damage and over-loaded branches that would break off.

2) We will stick with heirloom tomatoes as our major crop. They really are superior to hybrids in the home garden. Most likely only one plant each of Valencia, Striped German, and Pruden's Purple should do along with the Romas and maybe one grape variety.

3) The lima beans were nice, but for the space they take up, the yields were not that great. They will be replaced next year with bush snap beans.

4) The beets, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers and squash were excellent and will be planted again next year.

5) The raspberries and strawberries were a treat too. I just made about twenty-five pints of raspberry and strawberry jams which should keep us going for a couple of years. Maybe next year will finally be the year to make that batch of country wine.

The Bounty

Its that late summer problem; how to handle the deluge of produce that seems to come in all at the same time. A few weeks back I was able to do some pickling. Now it is time to figure a way to process all of the tomatoes that are coming in. The Romas will be either dried or converted to juice and canned. The others are eaten out-right or given away, there are just too many. The peppers are just starting to come in and these will be eaten fresh or pickled.

Romas are also good for tomato pies. First they are sliced and de-seeded along with some wedges of yellow Valencias. The wedges are lightly salted to pull out some of the moisture. Meanwhile the pie crusts are backed and the basil chopped.


The pies are assembled together with ample cheese and minced garlic.



Baked, and then............what's not to like?

Near Full Production

A lot has been going on over the last few weeks. This past Saturday, the beet row was pulled and turned into 12 quarts of sweet beet pickle. I didn't pickle any last year and I have been out since the holidays (I always have pickled beets for Christmas dinner).


The Lima bean patch is in full bloom and it looks like a bumper crop assuming each bloom produces a pod.


The heirloom tomatoes as well as the grape and single hybrid (planted for emergency back-up) are really starting to crank out. The Romas are poised to start coming in any day now and that means in the next couple of weeks having to take a day and concentrate on making tomato juice.


I also was able to clear out the floricanes from the raspberry bed so the primocanes should have plenty of room to come in and make side shoots for next years crop. It was a bit like bailing barbed-wire, but it is nice to see the top of the mulch again.


And the peppers are doing nicely too.

Anticipation

Things are growing nicely. We had a family function to go to last week and luckily we were able to get someone in to do some watering for us. That together with the straw mulch and evening thundershowers kept things in good shape until our return. The bugs are staying in check too although I'll be watching the beans very closely for stink bug damage as they begin to flower. I have no intention of loosing any of the crop this year to these devils.

Although we are waiting in anticipation for full production, so far we have harvested a handful of our first grape tomatoes, some squash and zucchini, and lettuce. Anticipation is high for our first full sized tomatoes. The basil is about ready to go in to for the first batches of pesto.



The herb bed in in full glory although I can never seem to be able to time the blooming of the dill with the cucumbers. This section of the bed reseeds itself every year.

Love Them Berries

The long awaited raspberry patch came into full production last week and the yields and quality are very good ! Last summer I opened a straight trench bed in what is probably the only remaining section of our yard without significant sub-surface limestone deposits. We put in five Jewel blacks and five Encore reds alternating them along the bed.

So far, the blacks have out-performed the reds. They come on in clusters of five fruits going from red to black as they ripen. The reds on the other hand seem to come in clusters of three and go from white to red as they ripen. The blacks definitely have more flavor and are sweeter at least for this first year. Needless to say we are seeing about 75% black to 25% red in any one picking. Summer bearing floricane-type bushes only produce fruit on second year canes. So our current production is coming off the canes that came up last summer right after we put in the bed. The new canes for next year (primocanes) are shooting up right now and some are huge. Perhaps we will get more reds next year.

Luckily we have seen very little insect damage; only an occasional cluster of leaves with a Japanese beetle or two and so far no sign of stink bug infestation which is very surprising since I've seen them on some of the wild berries on the edge of our property. Raspberries are very tender so I would imagine they would have no problem feeding off of them. Also no sign of any significant bird damage, and our ground-hog seems to be content with the mulberry bush.

The real fun will be in a few weeks when the harvest is complete. The second year canes will have to be removed and the primocanes thinned to make room for next years production. Like any bramble weed, the bed is already out of control so it will be tedious picking through the canes and cutting out the right ones. Right now we continue to pick and freeze and most will go to jam and fruit leather.

Seed Rows

Well the strawberries are about finished for the season and the raspberries are just about ready to come in. What an excellent transition between fruits. I can't wait to get all of this fruit processed into jam and dried fruit leather.


The seed rows are sprouting in the main garden. We have string beans, lima beans, carrots, beets, squash, and cucumbers. We've also had several cuttings of lettuce although last week's heat wave was not particularly beneficial for a spring crop. Once the pole beans are up six inches or so we'll do a good mulching with straw and put up the bean wall. The Johnny's basket-weave system is working well for the tomatoes so far. We'll have to see how it does when the plants get really big and heavy fruits start to develop.


The herb garden is coming in well too and the central butter fly bush is about to start blooming. All and all life is good, and the spring rains look to have put us back by only about a month or so.

First Harvests

It certainly has been an interesting spring. The recent monsoons really put a hold on planting but we were rewarded with previous hard work by this week's arrival of the strawberry crop. The first pull was actually last week along the outer south-west edge of the bed. I guess these are the first to receive the most direct sun. Yesterday we were able to collect several quarts throughout the bed and I expect the next two weeks to be peak production times. The berries are of excellent size and quality. However they aren't quite as sweet as last year and I suspect this is due to all of the rain we've had.



The tomatoes went in two weeks ago and I had to plant them in the rain (and in the mud) because they were out-growing their pots and I was getting tired of having to water them and shuttle them between the lights and the few periods of direct sun we received between storms. So far they are doing well and I hope to begin the basket-weave support system on the main line in the next few days. I got this idea off of the Johnny's site, and it looks like a convenient method of support especially for the heirloom varieties that don't tend to have the vine strength of the hybrids. I'll be cutting down my older concrete wire cages for the Romas and the grape tomatoes. Unlike years past where early intentions were noble but not followed, I plan to aggressively prune our vines this year.



Also this year we decided to go almost completely heirloom except for one hybrid that will be our emergency backup just in case we have a major crop failure with the heirlooms. This year's hybrid is Johnny's Defiant PhR. This mid-size slicer is advertized as being bred for both disease resistance as well as taste. Since it is a PhR strain, it will be interesting to see how it does with late season blight since that is a common occurrence in all local gardens. The basket-weave support system along with aggressive pruning should also help with the blight situation.

This year's heirlooms are our old stand-by Pruden's Purple along with Valencia, and Striped German. For drying and juice, we are sticking with our old favorite Roma VFN. And for the grapes we are trying two new varieties this year; Sugary, the 2005 AAS winner, and Tinkerbell which is reported to be a mini plum.



And this will be the first year of production for the much anticipated raspberry bed. Last spring we planted five reds and five blacks alternating along a single straight row and as expected this "weed" bramble is definitely doing it's thing. If the number of flower clusters is any indication of yield, we are in big trouble. Maybe this year it will finally be time to try some country fruit wines using some of the excess strawberries and raspberries.

Spring Monsoons

Things are a bit behind with the garden plot this spring. The trail has been calling and the grass suddenly needs mowing. The spring monsoons have made it nearly impossible to get in and do the final work-up with the tiller in order to begin planting. I did manage to do an additional shallow work-up to try and help all of those oak leaves rot in. The leaves are really helping to hold in the moisture. Of all years, this was probably the worst to have added in oak leaves but I just couldn't pass them up. It will probably be another week or so before the final deep till.

The tomato seedlings are also about two weeks behind schedule but this is not a bad thing. They got a little frost nipped last year and I actually lost a few so I don't mind not being the first kid on the block with a ripe tomato by the Forth of July this year. I'll still have plenty of time to transplant them to larger pots before moving into the garden.

I am sure glad I was able to get the strawberry bed taken care of early on. They are doing well and beginning to bloom. We'll keep our fingers crossed but even more rain is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.

First Day of Spring 2011

Today was the first day of meteorological spring and it was a gorgeous day so I figured it was time to wake up the strawberry patch. Surprisingly, the garden was fairly dry so I also went ahead and started working in all of those shredded oak leaves Dad gave me. This was a real chore taking nearly all of the afternoon. Once they begin to rot down some, I'll do one final deep till and the plot should be ready to go for spring planting.

The berry patch survived the winter in great shape and some of the crowns were already sending up new leaves through the straw blanket I put down last fall. I pulled off the straw, mowed the leaves down being careful not to hit the crowns, aerated between the crowns with a turning fork, added in some limestone and a pound of 10-10-10, and then topped it all off with an inch or so of chopped straw. This should get things moving for a second year of production.

I was supposed to have had lettuce seedlings ready to go into the black film by now but life has been busy so I hope to get the plant lights up from the basement this week. The raspberries are just beginning to show some buds too and I can't wait to see how things turn out for their first year of fruit production.

The First Work-up

The incessant winds that have battered our area for nearly three full days finally subsided during the night and the morning broke sunny and warm. With showers predicted for tomorrow, I thought it might be a good idea to see how the garden plot was doing. Even with all of the wind we have had the soil still was fairly damp (no shit; its February 20th for crying out loud!). Anyway, I just had to get the hoe in there and get a small area worked-up for some early lettuce seedlings I hope to plant by March 15th. Some pelleted limestone, a handful of 10-10-10, and some shredded leaves, and it was ready to go. I covered part of the area with black plastic to help it begin to warm up a bit over the next few weeks.



I had been holding onto a scrap of concrete reinforcing wire that I had left over from making tomato cages a few years back and it was just crying out to be made into a tunnel so I covered it with heavy-duty poly. I'll stake that down over the area once it is planted and block the ends with bags of leaves. I'll also include a few gallon milk jugs full of water. These will soak-up heat during the day and radiate it back out to the tunnel during the night. That should give me sufficient frost protection to get some lettuce by late March and also offer a nice area to harden-off other seedlings for spring planting.

Varieties for 2011

Here is a breakdown of the seed varieties we intend to trial this year. Some selections are based on past experience and they will be described in detail later as they are planted.

Tomatoes
Roma VFN (for juice)
Defiant (F1, determinant; catastrophic failure insurance)
Sugary (grape)
Tinkerbell (grape)
Pruden's Purple (indeterminate heirloom)
Valencia (indeterminate heirloom)
Striped German (indeterminate heirloom)

Lettuce
Johnny's Allstar Gourmet mix

Beet
Red Ace (F1)

Carrot
Chantenay
Hercules (F1)

Cucumber
Marketmore 76
Alibi (F1 pickling)

String Beans
Brittle Wax Yellow (bush)
Trionfo Violetto (purple pole bean)

Lima Beans
TBD

Summer Squash
Raven (F1; zucchini)
Zephyr (F1; yellow)

Pepper
Flavorburst (yellow bell)
Karma (red bell)
Atris (red horn shaped)
Orangesicle (orange horn shaped)
Sweet Pickle (mini multicolor for pickling)

Herbs
Red Rubin Basil
Genovese Basil
Leaf Parsley (dark green italian)
Chives
Bunching onions

Start of the Garden Year

Our backyard kitchen garden has been producing steadily since 2003. And so after nearly nine years of production, I thought it would be interesting to try and document a full garden season as blog posts. And so in the depths of winter, we launch the "The Food Patch". As a native Virginian, I've often tried to keep an extensive written journal for each garden year much like Jefferson did with his gardens; logging in varieties, plantings, yields, weather, etc. These attempts have started out well enough, but always tend to fall off dramatically once the busy season of spring planting sets in. Life is even more complicated with a very active set of kids and various other outdoor activities that compete with the green-thumb side of things once the weather turns warm.

We started out in late 2002 with classic Washington County bed-rock clay soil and limestone. A local farmer was kind enough to come by one evening with his tractor and plow and do the initial turn over for us. It was hit and run there for a while since we have quite a lot of subsurface lime stone outcrops and it took some doing to find a patch of yard that was big enough, relatively rock free, and out of the shadows of the house. Over the years we have maintained the plot with a tiller and steadily built the soil by picking out rocks, adding amendments, and planting lots of winter rye as a cover crop and green manure. We also have made due with literally tons of spent mushroom soil, a trick we learned while living for a short time near the mushroom barns in south-east Pennsylvania. Up there the stuff is nearly free if you have a truck. Down here it runs about $30 a yard. With hard clays, you can never have too much of this stuff. Mushroom soil and coarse builders sand have been the best improvements for our patch so far. This spring we will be making due with three truck loads of shredded oak leaves from my parents house in Richmond.

Over the years we have kept to the staples (peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers. lettuce, carrots and squash) in combination with more exotics (garlic, shallots, odd colored cole crops, etc.). We also have had very good luck with potatoes, corn, melons and winter squash. But these take up a lot of room and are still fairly cheap in the stores. We also have a lot of local farms that grow sweet corn. So this season, we intend to stick to the basics that will consistently produce and fill up the canner, freezer, and dryer while maximizing production. I also hope to tighten up my secession and rotation schedules to try and keep every square foot in production (with rye if nothing else!).



In 2009, we decided to give up about a third of the patch for our new strawberry planting. The previous patch was around one of the rock outcrops (now the camp fire pit) and the soil was of very poor quality. We also made the mistake of planting day-neutrals so the yields and size were highly variable. We harvested our first season in June of 2010 and the yields and quality were excellent. In 2008, we took our other unoccupied outcrop of limestone and put in a herb patch. A combination of medicinal and culinary varieties filled in with a butterfly bush for visible effect; not exactly Brother Cadfael's herb garden but it will do. Spring 2010 saw the addition of the raspberry bed, and anticipation is high for the first harvest of both red and black varieties this summer.

Stand by, it is just a few short weeks away before it will be time to haul up the plant lights from the basement and start some lettuce.