Picture of the Day

What ISN'T doing well

Lest I give you the impression that every plant in our garden is going great guns, take a look at this bell pepper plant above. What? You say that all you see is a stick?

Exactly.

Our bell peppers have never really done anything. When they first started growing, the bottom leaves died and fell off. Now, ALL of the leaves are dying and falling, leaving us with what you see above.

And absolutely no bell peppers.

As I mentioned before, we aren't the only ones afflicted with this problem. But we don't really know how to solve it and we are about to pull all of our bell peppers. If it had been up to Adam, we would have pulled them long ago but I'm slightly more optimistic (or naive, take your pick) and we've left them.

But after arriving at the garden and finding the above, I'm about ready to relent.

Something else that isn't growing well, almost overnight, has been our squash. They started getting these milky white coating of fungus all over them and they just didn't look healthy. Adam theorized that it was because we were watering them at night and, after speaking with a more seasoned farmer, he determined that he was correct.

After one day of watering during the day, instead of at night, the squash started making a rebound.

Amazing.

The only other plant that isn't thriving is a tomato. ALL of our tomatoes are doing great except one and, of course, it is the one that was a gift. For whatever reason, it started getting all wilty despite the fact that it was getting just as much water as the rest of the tomatoes. It is a Brandywine tomato so I'm not sure if they have different requirements than roma or beefsteak.

So there. I've sufficiently tarnished your picture-perfect vision of our garden and our small reputations as gardening professionals.

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Pickles!

Well, cucumbers actually. But they will be dill pickles soon.

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Bean Blossom

Who knew a bean blossom could be so pretty? This is a blossom from one of our purple pole beans that are climbing up a rusty piece of metal. They are getting big but no beans...yet.

On the Menu

Stewed collards

Fried Okra
Grilled Summer Squash

Stewed Collards

The trick to these is to wash them well and to get rid of the stems. If you do those 2 things, you cannot fail.

An easy way to cut them is to stack them up on top of each other (after washing and removing stems), roll it up and slice it in about 1/2-inch thick strips.



For this recipe, I added about a half can of vegetable stock and a dash of red pepper flakes to a small pot.


Once it came to a boil, I added the collards and stirred them until they were coated in the stock. I turned the heat down to medium-low and covered them. I only let them cook for about 10 minutes, then I added 1/4 can of stewed tomatoes.



And there you have it!

Some people cook their collards for much longer (like an hour or so) but I prefer them with a little bit of a crunch. Also, we didn't have too many so it didn't take long for them to cook down.

These collards are, of course, vegetarian but you could always add ham or bacon if you are so inclined.



Fried Okra

The "breading" for this is very simple:

1 cup yellow cornmeal

A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper
A pinch of cayenne pepper

First, cut off the "caps" and the "tips" of your okra.


Wash them well and the boil them for about 5-8 minutes (until they are somewhat tender).


Once they've cooled, cut them into pieces and roll them around in the cornmeal "breading." The natural "sliminess" of the okra will allow the breading to stick without the need for an egg bath first.


Fry in about an inch or two of oil and enjoy!



Grilled Summer Squash



Obviously, this is pretty straightforward. Cut the squash and grill it. Yum.

We added some of the remaining stewed tomatoes and just a pinch of shredded cheddar cheese because we decided the rest of our meal was entirely too healthy.

That last step, of course, is up to you.

We ate our collards, okra and squash with a serving of wild rice that we harvested from our garden.


Now, if you believed that last bit, you haven't been paying attention. We don't have rice in our garden! Although, perhaps next year...

No, the rice is from a box.

And delicious.

Serving recommendation: Serve with tall glasses of really cold iced tea (Just plain tea. Not some fancy ylang-ylang flavored tea. And absolutely NOT Snapple tea, please.)

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This One's for the Girls!

In honor of my new niece Jacqueline, born exactly 1 week ago today.

And for my not-as-new-but-still-pretty-darn-new niece Dorothy who is now about 9 months old and was the youngest person in attendance at my wedding.

Enjoy the flower, girls, while I try to think of something manly for your new cousin (and my new nephew) who is also new to this world. Perhaps some good bug pictures?

It'd be a nice departure from all the flower pictures of late. I just can't stop myself. They are all so pretty!

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Send Good Sweet Potato Thoughts (Part 2)

Keep 'em coming because I think they are working!

A mixed bag and some mixed feelings

I didn't much like being at the farm today.

It was hot and the mosquitoes were biting and I kept inadvertently harvesting the wrong things. Grabbing the stalk of a flower that hadn't bloomed instead of the one that had. Or yanking off a pod of okra that was a bit too small.

So I wasn't feeling the farm today. And it wasn't feeling me either.

I was attacked by a garden stake.

Twice.

Despite all of this, we had a great harvest today. Along with the now-regular harvest of collards, kale, herbs, cucumbers and squash, we were able to harvest (for the first time!) the following:

Flowers

Okra

And tomatoes.

Of which I don't have a picture. On account of the fact that I was too busy cursing that garden stake. For the second time.

Today was a first in other ways too. We had our first sunflower bloom:


And our first corn feather:


In light of all its bounty, I suppose I can forgive the farm its many faults today. I'll give it another chance and go back tomorrow.

But I'm bringing bug spray (non-DEET of course). And perhaps an ax as punishment for one particular garden stake.

UPDATE: Adam tells me that what I called "corn feathers" are actually called "corn tassles." Silly me.

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Peppers Performing Poorly

Our peppers are not well. At first, all of the lower leaves fell off. Now, the plants are spindly looking and the leaves have brown spots on them. We are really disappointed because peppers might just be our favorite vegetable. But, we are somewhat mollified because all of our neighbors' peppers are doing the same thing.

Someone said it is a bacteria that lives in the soil. When you water the plant, the bacteria splashes up on to the lower leaves and proceeds to kill them.

I don't know if this is true or not.

Adam and I haven't given up on them yet. We have mulched them and are looking into some different fertilizer for them.

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Arugula

Thai Basil

Herbs in a Hurry

While we were out of town, our herbs bolted. It is only natural, of course, but it isn't what we want them to do. Not yet anyway. So we ruthlessly pulled off the blooms and hoped that our herbs weren't bitter.

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Small Harvest

This is the last harvest we took before we both went out of town for the weekend+. What you don't see in the picture are the mounds of arugula and basil that we gave to a farm friend. I sincerely hope some of our neighbors harvest some things while we are gone.

Otherwise, I'm going to come back to a jungle on Thursday when I return.

I have been in Nashville to greet the birth of my new niece, Jacqueline Elisabeth. She was born Monday at 12:38am and is beautiful. Adam is out of town working at a science camp and he'll be back this coming weekend.

I just hope I don't destroy the garden in the meantime. Make no mistake, Adam is the brains of this little operation of ours. I'm merely the help.

I weed. I water. I plant. I harvest.

I basically do what I'm told.

Mind you, some ideas were mine. The flowers, for instance, were my idea. Both what we planted and where we planted them.

The basic garden layout, with the circular herb/flower beds in the center, was also my idea.

But how often should we fertilize? Haven't a clue.

What pollinates a squash but eats a bean? Don't ask me.

For the sake of our hobby, our blog, our free vegetables and our confidence in our future livelihood, I hope the garden survives until Adam's return.

I'm keeping these weed-picking fingers of mine crossed.

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Sunset on the Farm

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Have you ever wondered what an okra blossom looked like? Yeah, me too.

I've never really taken the time to look at the plant itself. Mostly because I've been too busy eating the pod. But, it is a really pretty plant.

I think it's my favorite in the garden...and not just because I'm dreaming of bindi masala.

Here they are!
I always thought okra would hang down off of the plant but look at them! I'm not sure when we are supposed to harvest them. I'm hoping Adam knows something about that.

I'm liable to get impatient.

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Roma Tomatoes!

Adam and I are away from the garden this weekend so you'll have to make do with this picture of our tomatoes that I took in the middle of last week. These Romas were literally nonexistent one day and there the next. It will be interesting to see what they are like when we return to the garden after the weekend.

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A Bloom Before We Go

Adam and I will both be out of town for the next few days. He is off to the Audobon Society Camp to be a counselor in (what else?) entomology.

I am off to Nashville to welcome my new niece or nephew into the world.

Our garden treated us to several zinnia blooms before we left. We treated it to a good hours-worth of sprinkler time to keep it nice and wet through the weekend.

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Grow, beans, grow!

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Send good sweet potato thoughts!

When we planted the garden we left one row vacant in case we thought of any other veggies we'd like to cultivate. Adam bought me some sweet potato plants that were on sale (you might be able to tell why) to make up for the fact that we planted so many potato-potatoes and we made use of this empty row. After planting, we watered and fertilized the puny guys with the fish emulsion.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.

We also planted some mint because the mint we started from seeds didn't quite make it through all the rain. I planted some tarragon seeds and I'm in hopes it actually grows. I sort of threw them into the dirt on a prayer but I don't have a lot of faith they will make it.

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Swiss Cheese Bean Leaves

Something has been eating our bean leaves. We just weeded the bean patch and I'm hoping the lack of vegetation will discourage the scoundrels. Is that too optimistic?

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Gettin' fresh in the garden.

We don't know if these bugs are beneficial or not. They eat our beans (see tomorrow's Picture of the Day) but they pollinate our squash. They look kind of like yellow, oval-ish ladybugs. Do you know what they are?

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A-tisket, a-tasket. Our cat, Junebug, in our "harvesting" basket.

I think she's trying to tell us that we're spening too much time at the farm. Our weekend was so busy that I didn't have time to post, but I'll get to it sometime this week. Rest assured, copious amounts of mulch, weeds, water and sweat were involved.

A Month of Growth

Remember these wildflowers?



This is what they look like now:



Here's the okra before:



And here's the okra now: (not much taller...but we have a pod!)



The corn before:

And the corn now:


Happy Harvesting!

Out, out damn weed! (And other adventures)

Our mission this weekend was to rid our garden of weeds.

Or, as many weeds as humanly (and non-chemically) possible.

Which means a lot of hand weeding. And a lot of mulch. Luckily, we heard about some free mulch that would be available to anyone with enough gumption to shovel the stuff and not enough sense to know better.

This particular mulch was made from the debris left by the spring tornadoes. It was good to know that a tragedy (or, actually, several tragedies) can become something positive for everyone.



We brought a box of garbage bags and loaded them with mulch. This mulch was great and seemed to consist mostly of downed trees. While we were shoveling (or, I should say, while Adam was shoveling and I was holding the bag) we would see a piece of siding every once in a while that would remind us that some of this mulch wasn't just from trees. Some of it was from people's houses.


And did I mention it was hot? Not just the air and the sun but the mulch itself. You could feel the heat radiating off of it as we (again, Adam) shoveled it into the bags.

We took the mulch back to the garden and got a lot of use out of it! We were even able to mulch our seating area, which seemed rather important since we plan to spend an evening or two out there with wine bottle(s) in tow.




If you think the transformation in our seating area is dramatic, you should see the rest of the garden! I only hope we did it in time for our bush beans, which are looking pretty haggard.

After we weeded and mulched, we fertilized everything since it had been at least 3 weeks since the last time we added fertilizer. We did this with the same water-diluted fish emulsion fertilizer as before.

I'll do a farm-photo-catch-up post tomorrow!

Link of the Day

Click here for an interesting article in the New York Times sent to us by Adam's brother, Chris. The article is titled "Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat" and discusses the trend of non-farmers starting small organic farms.

It was an interesting read for me because, this dream of starting our own farm wasn't something we decided on because it was trendy. I wouldn't even say it was something that we planned. If anything, the dream sort of found us.

And it's cool to know that it found others too.

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Weeding Interrupted.

We went out to the farm with every intention of finishing the weeding. But Mother Nature had other ideas. This storm didn't just have rain. It had lightning, thunder and high winds too. Some of our plot-neighbors' bean poles were knocked over but our plot stayed intact.

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Watering the garden.
(Obviously)

Curried Radish-Coleslaw

I'll admit, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all the radishes we will soon have. I took this first (small) harvest home, washed them and stared at them.


What do you do with radishes?

I'm not a huge radish fan but maybe that's because I've only really had them sliced in a bad iceberg lettuce-filled salad.

It was a hot day so I didn't want to roast them, although I've heard tell they are good roasted.

So, instead of an iceberg lettuce salad....I did coleslaw. Here's the recipe.

Warning for this and all future recipes: I don't really measure. I dash, pour, mix and taste. Then I dash, pour, mix and taste again. The measurements listed below are estimates.



1 small head cabbage, cut into strips
10 radishes, cut into small pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1-2 Tbs Vegenaise (or mayonnaise, if that's your poison)
2 Tbs curry powder
1/2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1-2 tsp turmeric
1-2 tsp mustard powder
1-2 tsp paprika
1 tsp sage
dash of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate. (This definitely got better over time.)


We put some on Boca patties and ate them en route to the farm. If I made it again, I'd add green bell peppers instead of yellow and I'd add a minced red onion for a little kick.

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First Harvest

Clockwise starting from the top: red leaf lettuce, kale, radishes, arugula and collards.