Wild Things Farm

Things are rocking right along on the farm, ahead of schedule according to my notes!  No time to celebrate though, Mother (Nature, that is) could change everything in a second!  It takes a lot of courage and discipline to be a farmer for a living.  I think diversification is the key to success though. 

Today is REALLY WINDY!  I mean, like really windy.....I have "fixed" the so-called "floating" row covers twice already, and they keep floating....

The covers aren't really for anything more than heating up the space around the seeds to speed things up a little.  In these beds are planted peas, carrots, beets, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, arugula, and radishes.  Some of them are germinating; others are still asleep.  The pile of garbage bags in the picture is not garbage, it's leaves for mulching!  These black bags have found their way all over the farm, both placed on purpose, and collected from fence wire, tree trunks, in the pond.  I'm learning how to control them better though.  A local community brought a portion of their leaves to the farm to both save them time and help me out--win-win!

In the greenhouse there are flats of broccoli, cabbage, various lettuces, swiss chard, more arugula, kohlrabi, chinese cabbage, chives, onions, about 15 varieties of tomatoes, about 8 varieties of peppers.  Speaking of peppers, I just got seeds for a variety of sweet pepper called "Sweet Diablo".  It is a longhorn-type pepper that gets up to 10" long and 2" wide and turns red when fully mature.  They are supposed to be great for stuffing.  I'm excited about these....also the "Fooled You" jalapeno pepper that's not hot.  This year I was fortunate enough to get seeds for 11 different heirloom tomatoes that I'm anxious to share with the members. 

A new garden was plowed recently and tilled yesterday.  When you're growing veggies on a schedule you have to push the limits sometimes.  Parts of the garden were a little wet (clayey streaks in the soil) but most of it tilled up very nicely.  Now to spread manure and till again.  This will be the home for most of the tomato plants. 

The corn/potato/sweet potato/winter squash field was plowed yesterday.  This field is on a gentle southward slope so it dries quicker than the other gardens on the farm.  This field can rest for a few weeks before time to "dig in" there.

When do CSA farmers plant?  Well, I would say every day--it takes every day planting to have a continuous harvest all season.  This time of year I watch the propagation mats with an eagle eye---every time a flat germinates it goes off into the greenhouse and another flat of "I need heat to germinate" seeds goes on.

Today is also rainy.  I made a batch of peppermint/oatmeal soap, tie-dyed a few shirts, fed all the critters, potted up two flats of tomatoes and sowed more lettuce, herbs, and a few flower seeds in the greenhouse.  Gotta keep "rockin on" no matter the weather!

Farmers select various varieties of crops for different reasons.  Some varieties are disease resistant, some taste better, some varieties are selected for their growth habits (for example bush beans vs. pole beans), hand-me-down seeds (aka heirlooms) and some are just more fun to look at. 

In conversations with folks about vegetables and gardening, the question always comes up:  "What kind of so-and-so do you grow?"   I like to learn about what works for other farmers, so in turn, I will share what works here at the farm as far as varieties go.  Some of the reasons certain varieties are selected can't be easily explained (pretty picture, nice description in the catalog, someone recommended it, I was hungry when I was looking at the seed catalog.....), but I grow them again because they worked.   

We'll try to take this in alphabetical order to keep it organized just a little bit, and every single crop that's grown on the farm isn't covered, either.

• Artichoke, Imperial Star--This is an experiment this year, so I can't really comment on how tasty they are, how they grow, or pest resistance.  I'm growing this variety because the seed catalog said it could be grown from seed in one season in this area (Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee).  We'll see.
• Basil, Lemon, and Large Leaf Sweet--I grow these two because I bought a seed mix for the last two years and it seemed like most of the seeds were those teeny tiny little leaves that didn't look like basil, and a big bunch of the plants were licorice basil too, which not many people like.  The lemon basil and sweet basil seemed to be the most popular, so that's what I'm sticking with.
• Green Beans---Ah, green beans; a favorite of southern gardeners.  I grow several varieties of these.  I grow Case Knife beans which is an heirloom, about 10" long and 1/2-3/4" wide (about the size of a table knife).  This is the only pole bean grown on the farm simply due to the amount of labor it takes to erect the structures for them to climb on---these are worth the effort though.  Roma II are grown because they are tasty and stringless (wide flat bean) and this year Top Crop, Burpee Stringless Bush, and Peanut Garden Beans are being grown because of their growth habit (bush), stringless, and I've read that they are tasty--we'll see.
• Broccoli--Southern Comet is the choice here because it tolerates heat without bolting too quickly.  I don't care how careful one is to plant broccoli early so it will mature "before the heat of the summer" or late so it will "be kissed by the first frosts" it's going to be exposed to SUMMER around here.  This variety is recommended for southern gardeners and I believe it would have worked out well last year if it hadn't been so wet; there were a few heads that matured despite being grown in a rice patty situation.
• Cabbage--The cabbage choice at Wild Things is "Cabbage Babies".  Many members didn't know what to do with an entire head of cabbage since not many folks make kraut any more, so after researching, I found Cabbage Babies.  It's a wonderful variety of savoy, green, and purple cabbage all in one packet.  Each head is a little bigger than a softball, and just enough for a meal.
• Carrots--Little Finger are the faves because they mature quicker, they are sweet as candy, and don't get woody.
• Cucumbers--There's a variety called "Diva" that has all female flowers and doesn't require a male for pollination.  The cukes don't have prickly spines on them and they are very crispy.  Bush type cukes are great too, and Bush Crop and Spacemaster Bush taste well and don't sprawl everywhere, but a vine-type called Straight 8 is grown just because it's a reliable producer of tasty cucumbers.
• Eggplant---Black Beauty is a reliable producer, Ichiban has non-bitter oriental-type fruits, and Cloud Nine looks cool (well, it does). Last year a variety called "Hansel" was grown and it produced like crazy, but required staking.
• Lettuce---My absolute fave is the Lettuce Mix from Pinetree Seeds.  It has the most beautiful mix of lettuces I've seen, it's not bothered by insects, and is a reliable producer if you're careful how you harvest it to not damage the plant. The seed doesn't keep well from season-to-season though, so don't order more than you'll use in one season.  Bibb Summer head lettuce is also planted for the members who like a "loose leaf" head lettuce.
• I grow several onions, but one I've fallen in love with is a scallion-type onion, called Purplette.  I like it because it's pretty in salads and it's a great tasting green onion.
• Parsley--The flat Italian type is the only kind to grow for cooking.  The pretty, fluffy, curled parsley that sits on a plate is only good for that; sitting on a plate and looking pretty.
• Pepper---Oh man, I'm growing 15 varieties of peppers this year (so far).  I LOVE peppers---they can make a dish go from mmmmm, to AHHHHHHH or oooooooh real quick!  Most of the members don't like hot peppers but I do.  I grow a few jalapenos, cayennes, anchos, poblanos and hot bananas for my kitchen and the members who like them, but there are so many great sweet peppers out nowadays that I had to try several of them; Big Bertha, Gourmet Sweet, Chinese Giant, Planet Hybrid, Sheepnose Pimento, Banana Bill, Aruba Cubanelle, and I can't tell you one thing about them yet-----later!
• Radishes---French Breakfast because they are pretty and tasty too, and Cherry Belle cause they are the "proverbial" radish and they perform well.
• Spinach ---Bloomsdale Longstanding, which is not really spinach at all, but spinach bolts really quickly around here, and this is a universally grown substitute that a lot of people don't know really isn't spinach, so shhhhhh, don't say anything!
• Squash---Summer varieties include Yellow Crookneck (taste), Celestial Scallop (pretty, and tastes good too), Black Beauty Zucchini (taste, good performer) and Spaghetti Squash because it tastes really good, is unusual, and is a reliable performer; winter varieties include Butternut (good performer, taste), Ebony Acorn is reliable and tastes good, and some new varieties this year are being tried because of the awesome job the writers did in the seed catalogs.  These include Bush Delicata and Cream of the Crop Winter Hybrid.
• Tomatoes could take up an entire web page as far as I'm concerned, but I grow Better Boy because they taste and look good, Mr. Stripey for the taste, and Cherokee Purple (heirloom) for the taste.  I also like Roma for paste tomatoes, and Early Girl because, well, they're early!  This year I'm growing seedlings of 11 varieties of heirloom tomatoes for a friend of mine and he said I could have some of the plants---the names of them aren't anything you'll see in a catalog but I can't wait to try them!   Lemon Boy is on the list this year too just because the yellow tomatoes have less acid and some folks can't tolerate the acid found in red tomatoes.
• Purple Top Turnips are what you grow around here if you grow turnips.  They are reliable and they taste yummy raw or fried (I can't stand them boiled, sorry!)
• Watermelon--These fruits aren't very reliable here on the mountain, but I grow Sugar Baby because they are small, mature quicker, and they are sweet just like their name says.

Well, that's about it for the variety column.  We'll do a review of them at the end of the season.  Happy planting, everyone!

Anyone who has ever started seedlings in the house or in a greenhouse has looked in on their seedlings at one time or another and found them laying face down on the soil.  The stem is wilted at the soil line.  This condition is called "damping off" and is caused by a fungus.

Several years ago I learned a trick to thwart the damping off fungus:  After you get your seeds sown in the flat (of new potting mix), sprinkle a thin layer of milled peat moss over the entire surface of the flat.  Also, water them from the bottom by soaking the flat in a larger container of water, rather than sprinkling from the top. 

I keep an oscillating fan in the greenhouse also, which keeps air circulating when it gets really humid and "stuffy" in there.

Knock on wood, no one's been laying face down in the dirt since I've done this.  With all the seed starting going on right now, I thought someone might benefit from this trick!

Happy seeding from Wild Things :)

"Why do you never see a rabbit wearing glasses?"  I would say because they would fall off when he jumps, but supposedly the correct answer is because he eats carrots. 

Carrots are one of the crops grown at Wild Things Farm.  Little Finger is a member favorite, probably because they are harvested at a small size and they are really crunchy and sweet.  Carrots are not hard to grow (they weren't crazy about the super wet season we had last year though) and at the farm, carrots are one of the crops already in the ground. 

A quick glance at the nutritional analysis of this veggie shows that carrots are highly nutritious.  This table is on the website www.carrotmuseum.com in UK.  There is a load of other information on carrots on that website that is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in learning more.  I thought this chart was worth sharing:  (all these values are for 1 raw carrot, 7-1/2" long"

                                                    % Recommended daily
Nutrient                 Unit      amt        men       women

As you can see, carrots are chocked full of stuff we should be getting into our bodies every day.  They are readily available year round, even for "locavores". 

It's never happened to me before, but if you eat too many carrots you'll turn yellow---honest, check it out.  It's called carotene.  That's also what our bodies turn into Vitamin A which is what helps keep our eyes healthy.  I wish someone would develop a carrot for vision for folks who need longer arms to read......

One of my favorite way to prepare carrots is a carrot salad my mom used to make called Copper Carrots.  I found the recipe on Recipezaar.com and here's the link:  http://www.recipezaar.com/Marinated-Carrots-83798

We have germination!  It's been 8 days since the artichoke seeds hit the dirt and yesterday there were slight hints of green and today, voila!  We have fresh-born artichokes--well, that may be stretching it a little far. 

I'm currently reading "The Four-Season Harvest" by Eliot Coleman and he has artichokes in his appendix with instructions included.  His comments were that we needed to fool the artichokes into believing that they've been in the garden for 2 seasons since they are biennial, so the first 6-8 weeks they need to be kept warm (their first summer) and then a cool spell, then real summer.  I have ideas on how that can happen, now if I can get Mother to cooperate.......

NASCAR got started last month, and this month in my area of Tennessee, we farmers get started!  Yesterday was the day that the soil in the "Front Bluff Garden" was dry enough to make a ball in your fist, but fall apart when you poke it gently.  Woohoo! 

There are 6 separate garden areas on the farm, and they all have names just so I can keep records of what grew where for rotation, and also to keep records on what did well in certain beds and all that other garden stuff (bugs, weeds, etc.)

The Front Bluff Garden is the closest to the house and it's my favorite garden to work in.  I'm not sure if it's because there's a cool bluff on the back side of it, or that my herb garden sits atop a small bluff on the front side of it, or that a giant sycamore tree flanks the north end of it where I can rest in the shade and listen to all sorts of birds during  days in that garden.  This garden grows awesome lettuce and spinach, and crops such as tomatoes, garlic, peppers and green beans have been rotated in and out. 

This year, plans are to plant carrots, beets, and peas today; there are flats of spinach and lettuce in the greenhouse just waiting to be placed in the ground.  For now, I must go to the manure pile, spread manure, top with composted leaves, then till once more before the seeds "hit the dirt".  It's kind of like following a recipe in the kitchen....only much more fun.

Each year I add new veggies to the crop cornucopia here on the farm, and one of the newbies this season is artichokes.  I remember the first time I ever ate an artichoke--that was an experience!  First off, it looked like a monster-size of something I surely would have pulled out of the garden weeks before.......

Okay, boil it for 20 minutes and then what?  Pull the leaves off and scrape the end of it with your teeth?  Hmmmmm, tastes great, but not filling.  With the leaves all gone, my next question was "is that all?"  Oh no, now you pull it apart, BE SURE to scrape all the nasty-tasting hairs out, then savor the heart of this member of the thistle family.....ooooh, savor I did!

Never thought they would grow in Tennessee, but while perusing the mountains of seed catalogs I receive each year, I came across a variety that is bred to be grown as an annual.  In the warmer areas of the country where artichokes are grown commercially, they are grown as perennials or biennials, but they won't withstand our temperatures around here. 

Anyway, in the Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog I saw "Imperial Star" artichoke seeds.  The info on the packet is that they will mature in 85 days and the narrative in the catalog suggests that they can be grown in most any part of the country, with a little extra care. 

Yesterday a spot on the propagation mat came open so I sowed 2 packets of seed into 1 flat.  Each packet contains "a minimum of 50 seeds", and actually there were 57 seeds in each pack :)  The seeds look like shelled sunflower seeds, and the whole time I was meticulously placing the seeds in the neat little rows in the flat I was thinking to myself that I bet mice sure would love to eat these seeds.......

The next morning, sure enough, there were a few telltale holes in the soil mix, but they didn't get too many---glad there were 57 seeds in each pack!

Yet another use for duct tape:

I took a flat with smaller holes in the bottom of it, flipped it upside down over the flat of vulnerable artichoke seeds, duct-taped it securely, and voila!  Mouse-proof seedling tray.

The saga goes on though.....seed packet instructs that artichoke seeds germinate best under alternating temperatures; huh?  8 hours at 80-85 degrees, then 16 hours at 68-75 degrees.  Okay, I'm doing my best, but I'm beginning to understand why they cost $2.00 each at the store.

As soon as anything exciting happens, the next article in the series will appear on the blog......meanwhile, I think it's time to go adjust the thermostat on the propagation mat (jk)!