Category: Kitchen Garden

Gardening, Farming, Cooking, Recipes, Local Food, Everything that goes into meal production.

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Kitchen Garden

Hope in a Midwest Garden

Just Past Peak Apple Blossoms

On a sunny Friday among peak apple blossoms I cleared the fourth plot for a multi-crop gardening area.

The first three plots have early vegetables and are not completely planted. With eight trays of seedlings ready, and more in the greenhouse, it’s time to get them, along with seeds I’ve been holding, in the ground.

I don’t clear garden plots in autumn. I’ve read it’s best to leave them and let small rodents eat the weed seeds left behind. Clearing a plot becomes a bit of a spring production.

I remove the fencing, cages, fence posts and any non-organic debris. Then I gather brush generated since the last burn pile and burn it with straw from the plot. Once the fire dies down I run the mower over it with the deck as low as it will go. Yesterday this produced a 15 by 12 foot plot ready for planning, soil preparation, planting and fencing.

The plan is for spring onions, celery, spinach, lettuce, radishes, leeks, green beans, red beans, chives, arugula, basil, parsley and cilantro. The plan is written, now subject to further consideration and modification as I turn the soil, spade-by-spade and attempt to beat forecast rain.

This work is the core of who I am. I’m thankful to be able to do it.

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Kitchen Garden

Continuing Spring Rain

Apple Blossoms

I unloaded a flatbed trailer with pallets of soil mixtures in the rain.

It was rain which only partly penetrated the denim in my blue jeans. A day in the life at the home, farm and auto supply store.

Early garden plantings are thriving with generous spring rain. Lots of seedlings near the garage and inside the house wait to be planted. Friday’s forecast is rain will let up, creating a window for working in the garden. I’m ready.

We are at the peak of apple blossom season. Petals have begun to fall and flowers seem to be on every branch. It’s a good start to what could be a great apple season. It goes without saying the blooms are beautiful.

On days like this we reach to appreciate the beauty possible in each moment.

Maybe that’s all there is to this life. If so, it’s a good one.

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Kitchen Garden Reviews

Rainy Days and Smarshing it Up

Tray of spinach and lettuce seedlings ready to plant in the ground.

Early planting is done… then it rained.

The ground has been too wet for planting so Friday became a day for weeding and staking the sugar snap peas.

I moved seedlings from the garage to the dining room to protect them from wind and rain while I worked my usual shifts at the home, farm and auto supply store. They are back outside waiting for the ground to dry. There is a lot of gardening to do over the next four weeks.

While the grass dried I drove across Mehaffey Bridge to the BioVentures Center in the University of Iowa Research Park. A friend arranged an impromptu round table discussion of affordable housing centered around Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown’s trip to Iowa to support his wife Connie Schultz. Schultz interviewed author Sarah Smarsh at an Iowa City Public Library fund raiser in the county seat that evening.

The round table consisted of community leaders introducing themselves and discussing issues raised by the recent purchase of a mobile home park by a group of out of state investors. The new owners plan substantial rent increases which current residents can ill afford. My role was to listen and learn.

Sarah Smarsh is author of the memoir Heartland: Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth. My brief review after reading it last year is as follows:

I was skeptical at first about the reach of this book about rural poverty, hard work, and economic injustice. Yet, I was drawn in to a world I knew existed but hadn’t been articulated in such words. Smarsh’s story resonates with how I was raised, and with much of what I see in rural Iowa today. It was a marvelous read.

Several of my farm friends attended the event. We gathered under the marquee of the Englert Theatre for a photograph. Those who read Heartland felt as I did, that it articulated something about modern life in the Midwest that had been missing. We also concurred that Smarsh had drawn a clear line between what she presented in the book and her personal life which was not up for public conversation. After discussing the book we told jokes and laughed (a lot) in the marquee light before finding our ways home.

Some political friends attended the fund raiser, including my state senator Zach Wahls and his biggest fan, Chloe Angyal. I complained to Wahls I couldn’t remove his bumper sticker from my aging Outback. “American made, baby,” he responded.

I met Angyal who is a contributing editor to MarieClaire.com. We discussed her arrival in the Hawkeye state where she is writing a series of dispatches (here and here) related to the first in the nation Iowa caucuses and the unprecedented number of women running for president. Originally from Australia, she relocated to Iowa from Manhattan. After surviving the polar vortex and one of our coldest winters in years, she said she likes it in Iowa.

I didn’t get the lawn mowed, which means another morning of waiting for grass to dry, followed by the long process of bagging it up then mulching the kale. The forecast is sunny and clear. Hopefully the rest of the apple blooms will open, followed by pollination. Fingers crossed. I’m ready for a solid day’s work in the garden after Friday night smarshing it up in the county seat.

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Kitchen Garden

Cukes, Zukes and Yellow Squash

This Year’s Last Seedling Trays, Zucchini, Cucumbers and yellow squash.

When I returned from the farm Sunday afternoon I transplanted a dozen broccoli plants in the garden. Reserving a couple to replace failures, I gave the rest to my neighbor.

Continuing the minimal tilling experiment, I placed broccoli seedlings in a plot where cucumbers produced in abundance last year. I didn’t remove the plastic and used the same holes. The plot is shaded by the locust tree, so I’m not sure how this will turn out. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

At the greenhouse I seeded cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash, which is likely the last starts. Most everything else will be seeded directly in the ground in May.

I brought home a tray of lettuce and spinach for transplanting.

I seeded,

Cucumbers

Northern Pickling, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 48 days.
Little Leaf, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 57 days.
Marketmore 76, Ferry – Morse, 68 days.
Tasty Jade, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 54 days.

Zucchini

Raven, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 48 days.
Elite, Ferry – Morse, 55 days.
Dark Green, Ferry – Morse, 55 days.

Yellow Squash

Dixie Hybrid, Ferry – Morse, 41 days.
Early Summer Crookneck, Ferry – Morse, 53 days.
Early Prolific Straightneck, Ferry – Morse, 50 days.

While inspecting the apple blossoms yesterday I spotted leaves growing from the stump where another apple tree was blown over in a straight line wind. I staked and put a cage around it to protect from being eaten by deer and from the mower. Not sure what’s next, but it was a very early apple and I may grow it to maturity if that is what it turns out to be.

The spring share for which I bartered at Local Harvest CSA begins today and runs for five weeks. I’m looking forward to a salad made with fresh, local lettuce and cooking greens for a pasta dish.

The next step in the gardening season is upon us.

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Kitchen Garden

Apple Blossom Worries

Apple Blossoms Before the Frost Click the photo to better see the blooms.

Apple blossoms began to open as news of an overnight freeze arrived.

I woke at 2 a.m. and checked the ambient temperature. 33 degrees — barely in the safe zone.

The impact of losing blooms before pollination would be another two years waiting for a crop.

The overnight forecast was a low of 29 degrees, which means there is a chance most of the buds will survive. These things are iffy, so I’ll go outside as soon as it is light and check the progress. Fingers crossed.

News from my fall job at the apple orchard arrived yesterday. They took out 500 trees from the oldest part of the orchard to be replaced with an as yet unannounced “season extender.” The orchard manager mentioned the challenges of starting a new fruit like raspberries, strawberries or blueberries in March at a Johnson County Food Policy Council panel on specialty crops. From the presentation I understand the new crop won’t be raspberries or strawberries, although I could just pick up the phone and call the owners and ask.

I ran into one of them at the warehouse club last week. Instead of the orchard, we talked about how the retail establishment used to sell dried mangoes of the kind they enjoyed while managing an orchard in China. Sadly, the supplier no longer carries that type, saying it is “unavailable from the distributor.” I confirmed my interest in working another season at the retail barn. She said they had already been discussing my return at a board meeting, so I had to come back. It is nice to feel needed, I think.

I could go another year without home grown apples if I have to. We have plenty of apple sauce, apple butter and apple cider vinegar to last. Working at the orchard is another source should frost take my blooms.

According to my weather app, the forecast changed to a low of 32 degrees since I began writing this post. Sunrise is at 6:06 a.m., in an hour and 20 minutes. As soon as dawn starts to break, I’ll be outside inspecting the blooms, hoping they made it through the night.

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Kitchen Garden

Easter in the Germination Shed

First Spring Flower in Our Yard

Seven of us worked in the germination shed at Sundog Farm on Easter morning.

The farmers were preparing dinner for their extended family. I brought them two quarts of home made vegetable soup for lunch in case they hadn’t thought about it with all the meal preparations. It was well received.

My broccoli is ready to plant, however, I seeded it in a tray with parsley, which is not. I brought the tray home to figure out how to make both plants grow optimally. Marginal planning on my part.

The peppers planted two weeks ago have not germinated which is slightly concerning. Peppers take longer but I’d hoped the plants would be emerging today. Tomatoes planted last week haven’t germinated either. That is to be expected.

Everything else is coming along, and the peppers may be coming along, only I don’t know it.

I planted,

Red Ace Beets, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 50 days.
De Milpa Tomatillos, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 70 days.
Bellezia Arugula, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 51 days.
Fairy Tale Eggplant, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 65 days.
Galine Eggplant, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 65 days.

This is the first time planting beets in trays. It is a common practice so I’m giving it a go. There are now eight trays in the germination shed with the next up for planting being spinach and lettuce, maybe next week.

Arugula has tiny seeds. A gust of wind blew through the germination shed taking a batch of arugula seeds with it. Luckily there were more in the packet.

The other experiment this year is tomatillos. I had some from CSA shares last year and they keep in the ice box for a very long time. They are a great alternative to tomatoes for making salsa.

It was a clear, beautiful day, the kind farmers and gardeners want.

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Kitchen Garden

Kale Planting

2019 Kale Bed with 21 plants ready for mulch and fencing.

Temperatures were ideal for yard work so I prepared the bed for kale.

It is important to get kale right because once established, it will produce leaves until November. Sometimes it even over-winters. It is worth the time to measure and plant according to the package instructions.

I put 21 seedlings in the ground and reserved a dozen in case some don’t survive. A neighbor wants some, and after that, I’ll snip the leaves and make a kale salad or two with the leftovers.

My process has a lot of steps after picking up the seedlings at the greenhouse.

  • I run the lawn mower over the plot to remove any tall grass.
  • This year I did a burn pile on this plot so using a garden rake I spread the ashes evenly over the surface.
  • Turn over the soil in bites the size of the spade. Do this by hand. A long-handled spade works best.
  • Spread fertilizer (composted, granulated chicken manure) evenly over the top. For a 10 x 12-foot plot I used a gallon and a half.
  • Using the garden rake, break up the clods of dirt until they are fine enough to rake somewhat smoothly.
  • Make a slight trench with rows three feet apart. Use a yard stick or measuring tape.
  • Using a hand cultivator, break up the dirt in the trench six inches either side of center.
  • Using a plastering brick laying trowel, knife the blade into the ground and pull the soil back until the seedling will fit in. Put in the seedling, then fill the hole by hand with loose soil. Measure distance to the next hole in the role as length of the trowel plus the length of blade. Finish planting.
  • Next I use six inch sections of field tile to protect the seedlings. These will be removed once the stem grows larger. Press each tile section into the ground. The idea is to prevent ground crawling and walking pests from biting the tender young plants.
  • Use the garden rake to even our the surface and remove compressed areas where the gardener knelt during planting.
  • Using metal fence posts, pound them into the ground with a post-driver.
  • Put up chicken wire ensuring to get the bottom to firmly touch the ground. Be sure to leave a place for a gate so you can access the ripe kale.
  • If mulch is available, mulch deep and completely. Return later if mulch is not available.
  • Finally water the entire plot thoroughly.

Sounds a bit complicated, but the process has served well during the last few years.

It was a great day to be out in the garden.

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Kitchen Garden

Planting Radishes

Brush Pile Burning Down, April 19, 2019.

Good Friday has been the traditional time to plant potatoes. With weird weather, tradition has been discarded.

Instead, under a clear sky and cool spring temperatures, I re-stacked the burn pile, lit it, cleaned up around the second garden plot and planted radishes in a container.

I’ll get spuds from local farmers instead of growing my own this year.

I planted,

Radishes

D’Avignon Specialty, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 21 days.
Rudolf Round, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 24 days.

In a week, I’ll plant another crop in the next container until the four containers next to the compost heap are filled with rotating crops for as long as intense heat stays within normal seasonal variation.

Lettuce seeds planted in the ground April 10 germinated and display a carpet of tiny green leaves in the first plot. Nothing else has surfaced.

I inspected the apple trees. Flower buds appear to have survived the Polar Vortex. Tips of the emerging leaves seem discolored, but I don’t know if that’s their normal color. They seem far enough along for a normal May bloom.

The plot with the burn pile will be for kale and something else. As I walk the back yard, carrying tools, seeds and fertilizer during multiple trips from the house, a plan for this year’s garden is being revealed.

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Kitchen Garden

First Seedlings from the Greenhouse

Germination Shed April 14, 2019

Sunday I brought home the kale seedlings I planted March 10 from the farm. They are ready to go into the ground as soon as the soil is prepped, maybe this week. Five weeks from seed to seedling.

In the garden, seeds planted April 9 have not germinated, although temperatures have been cold. Halfway through April, I’m anxious to spend more time in the garden. Looking at the last couple of years I kept records, the garden is where it has been in these days of weird weather.

I planted tomatoes in the greenhouse yesterday, more than I thought, and more than I will use, 360 seedlings.

Here’s what I planted by tray:

Tray One

(Slicers)
Brandywine, Seed Savers Exchange, 80 days from transplant.
Martha Washington, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 78 days.
German Pink, Seed Savers Exchange, 85 days from transplant.
Beefsteak, Ferry — Morse, 80 days.
Abe Lincoln, Ferry — Morse, 70-77 days.
Early Girl Hybrid, Ferry — Morse, 52 days.
Better Boy Hybrid, Ferry — Morse, 70-75 days.
Big Boy Hybrid, Ferry — Morse, 78 days.

Tray Two

(Plum)
Amish Paste, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 85 days.
Moskvich, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 60 days.
Granadero, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 75 days.
Speckled Roman, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 85 days.
(Slicers)
Nepal, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 78 days.
Black Krim, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 80 days.

Tray Three

(Cherry)
Red Cherry, Ferry — Morse, 70-75 days.
Jasper, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 60 days.
White Cherry, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 59 days.
Clementine, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 68 days.
Matt’s Wild Cherry, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 60 days.
Taxi, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 64 days.
(Grape)
Red Pearl, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 58 days.
(Plum)
Roma, Ferry — Morse, 85-90 days.

“I planted too many tomatoes,” I told the farmer.

“You can never have too many tomatoes,” she said.

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Kitchen Garden

Burn Pile

Burn Pile
First Spring Burn Pile

I lit the burn pile with two matches and a pile of scrap paper but the long branches didn’t all burn. In fact, most of them didn’t, except in the middle where fire took hold for a while then died out for want of something.

The the partly charred branches need reworking and another ignition after this morning’s rain. Since today is first of two days at the home, farm and auto supply store, it won’t be until Friday.

Yesterday I planted in the ground for the first time this season, using an experimental limited till method. I have so many seeds, if some fail, they can be replaced.The season is late, but still new, and I’m interested to see if the seeds germinate and dig roots.

I planted in the ground,

Lettuce:

Black Seeded Simpson, Ferry — Morse, 45 days.
Buttercrunch, Ferry — Morse, 70 days.
Mesclun Mix, Ferry — Morse, 40-80 days.

Sugar Snap Peas, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 60 days.

Carrots: Bolero, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 75 days.

Beets:

Detroit Dark Red, Seed Savers Exchange, 65 days.
Moneta, Johnny’s Selected Seeds. 46 days.
Merlin, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 48 days.

Turnips:

Purple Top White Globe, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 50 days.
Hakurei, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 38 days.

The smallest of the plots is now planted and overnight rain will dampen everything down. Spring hope is in the ground.