I can't believe it's almost the end of August and I haven't posted since mid spring.
Blame it on summer! Summer, that demanding season that started out (here, anyway) feeling more like early spring with hints of winter.
Now, finally, we have real sun (mostly) and dry, warm days and our Permaculture members are spending more time holding onto the end of a hose.
Many gardeners think that watering is easy. You can choose to put water on your garden in a number of different ways, using all sorts of watering devices. Choosing the best way for your soil and lifestyle and knowing when you've watered "enough" is the tricky part. I've seen many gardeners water with a trigger nozzle on the end of the hose, set to a hard-spray setting, knocking their plants sideways with what the plants would consider a gale-force hurricane and wonder why the plants always look a bit beaten up. Usually this forceful method does not lay down enough water to get the job done and often damages the plants.
How much water is enough? Well, it depends. No, I don't put out measuring cups or use water meters. I do what most people surprisingly don't do: I bend down and dig into the soil and feel with my fingers feeling how much moisture is in the ground around the plants. If I detect dryness, I go down to see how far down that dryness goes. Only then do I start watering. After I water, I check the places that were really dry again.
Hand watering does take considerable time and for many people it's very relaxing, especially if you spend most of your day indoors. The attention to each bed allows the watchful gardener to notice ripe fruit and vegetables, pest problems, how well plants are growing, nutritional deficiencies, birds, pollinators, pet damage, natural random splendors and experience a time to just "be".
Our soil is sandy and anything in addition to plain old sand is put there by us. The only sand that's sandier is on the nearby beaches. Sand is very difficult to keep hydrated and if it is allowed to completely dry out it develops a personality disorder known as "hydrophobia". In other words, it chemically repels water molecules. Re-hydrating dry, dusty sand is a discouraging and difficult business. If large droplets of water hit the sand they will roll right off and find a more welcoming location. Sprinklers with mist settings work well to lay down tiny amounts of water over a period of time. Be patient. It can take days of intermittent soft watering to fix this problem. Once the soil rehydrates, use a layer of mulch and regular watering to keep it moist.
We strive to keep our sandy gardening soil evenly hydrated by watering frequently. We do all our watering with a 50' hose and a watering wand, set for "shower", snaking it down the aisles between raised beds. It's kept on the path by strategically placed neck-down-in-the-ground buried wine bottles which are slick and keep the hose off of the planting beds.
The first solution to sandy, fast-draining soil, is the addition of practically anything comprised of organic matter: manure, compost, leaves, coffee grounds and husks, straw, garden debris, composted wood products and fresh-water rinsed seaweed, to name a few. The second part of the solution is watering frequently enough that the soil never reaches the hydrophobic stage.
It would seem sensible to use soaker hoses (made of nubbly-black recycled tires), and next year we may do that in parts of the garden. Because we are visited by the public, we try not to have hoses across the pathways. Soaker hoses which weep water though tiny pores, sometimes do not water enough square footage in sand as the water tends to run straight down instead of fanning out sideways. Small sprinklers may work better until the sand has accumulated enough organic humus over the years to be able to absorb and hold more moisture.
Here in the Alder Creek Permaculture Garden, we lay down water exactly where it is needed, especially on the beds that have just been seeded during this warmer weather. We water in the morning if we can and put the nozzle down under the leaves near the soil so that standing water droplets will not burn the leaves if it's a hot day.
Seed beds usually need water twice a day to keep the seeds and seedlings viable. Fall plantings are completely at the mercy of the gardener. Vigilant gardeners in these here "sandy parts", who put in their watering dues now will reap the most bountiful Fall harvests. Come late September, we can all sit back and watch the clouds take over our watering chores.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
QUACK ATTACK!
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| Our slug-terminating Khaki Campbell ducks at Alder Creek Farm "Blue Moon" upfront and center. Photo by justinbailie.com . |
These are not ideal conditions for germinating seeds that need higher soil temperatures to grow, (and not rot). These are perfect conditions for slugs and ducks!
We are lucky to have a very large greenhouse to grow starts in, allowing us to bypass the worst of the spring and plant ready-to-go healthy seedlings later in the season when, hopefully, the weather will be more beneficent.
Meanwhile, the slugs and snails are happily procreating in what's left of last year's crop, the grass next to the gardens and under every rock, board, and brick possible.
Send in the ducks! With portable fences, we can drive the ducks daily into garden areas to seek out and destroy the slimy mollusks and hungry grubs. They never tire of waddling about wiggling their bills under every nook and cranny to feast on slugs, snails and red worms. And, in an incredible alchemy witnessed every morning before the ducks leave the "Quack Shack", slugs are magically transformed into big, beautiful and tasty eggs.
When we decided whether to get ducks or chickens for egg-laying, thankfully, we chose ducks. Because of their love of the wet conditions that are prevalent here, they are a perfect fit. Having lovely, khaki-colored down coats with natural water-proofing, which they reapply daily with their bills, our ducks are, well, just "ducky" in all kinds of weather.
Once when I was out gardening with them, a big hail storm swept in. I ran for the cover of a roof and they kept right on grubbing while big ice pellets bounced off their backs.
Ducks are easy to care for and have fewer diseases and other problems than other domestic fowl. They are ideal in a home setting. Though their quacking can be loud at times (ours hear us drive up to the farm to do our duck chores and loudly ask to be let out of the small pen that keeps them safe from raccoons, coyotes and dogs at night), most of the time they are happily and quietly cruising the gardens making friendly little peeps. They don't crow at dawn either.
I often work in the garden alone and the quacky Campbells work right alongside me, especially if I'm pulling up plants or otherwise exposing worms and slugs. If one of them finds a big prize, the others give chase and their antics are highly entertaining.
They need safe shelter, access to water in the form of a small tub or kiddie wading pool and with laying hens, laying mash (the same type fed to chickens).
Domestic ducks are very well suited to our fickle coastal climate. I'm not knocking chickens and I've had them before, but I must confess these little rascals are a heap of fun and they don't tear out plants if monitored and moved regularly.
This year the Quack Shack will have additional ducks and their 4H caretakers, local kids who are raising them to show at the Tillamook County Fair. Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack, quack.
Look out slugs!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Rambunctious Self-Seeders,Creepers & Tubers in the Vegetable Garden
There are a number of edible plants that oblige us with their presence in a robust and adventurous way.
Many of them are herbs, both medicinal and culinary, like dill and mints. Edible flowers are another large group, including: viola, pansy and calendula.
Some folks prefer a more controlled environment, but I love the rascals that pop up on their own because I didn't have to expend any energy planting them or money to buy them. This kind of indulgent plant-parenting does require a few rules or the garden will have only these hardy characters.
I call this "Subtractive Gardening". It's very simple: if you like the plant, leave them where you want them and remove them where you do not (or transplant to a preferred location). Sometimes transplanting doesn't work as well as letting the seeds choose their own places, but most often they happily settle in elsewhere.
Self-seeders are usually annual plants that grow from seed to bloom to setting new seed in one growing season. Stout annual seeders include: arugula, borage, calendula*, dill, feverfew*, catnip*, epizote*, fennel*, lemon balm, nasturtium*, sunflower, viola and pansy. Those with an asterisk, are the ones to keep an eye on, especially nasturtiums and calendulas. These two can easily take over the spring plantings with their extreme vigor. On a weekly basis, I pull the majority of seedlings. If I didn't they would quickly out-compete the fussier garden vegetables.
Then there are the creepers. These are usually perennial plants which come back from their roots year after year. While many perennial garden plants keep to their own tight root ball, others crawl over and under the surface of the soil with their exploratory roots.
All of the mints fit this category and my strategy is to put them in a large bed of their own where they can compete with each other. I keep them out of the rest of the garden entirely.
Two years ago I had to dig out a bed of apple mint that in just two or three years had grown from one 2 gal pot stuck in the ground, to a circular plantation 10' in diameter. It no longer is allowed anywhere in the garden. Apple mint roots that occasionally show up, go into the garbage. I can't risk having them coming back in the compost bin or weed piles.
A few biennials (plants that survive the winter and finish their life-span the following summer) also reseed. There are a number of vegetables in this group: carrots, parsley, kale, broccoli, lambs quarters, spinach, beets and swiss chard. I don't count on these to reliably come back, but I do honor the tenacity of those that do by letting a few of them share space throughout the garden. I still order fresh seed from nurseries to hedge my bets.
Two tuberous vegetables are loved and/or feared by seasoned gardeners and they are: Jerusalem artichokes (sun roots) and potatoes.
Sunchokes are sunflower family plants which I have praised in a previous posting, however, do plant them in an out-of-the-way spot and don't throw their tubers willy-nilly about the garden. Potatoes leave tiny potatolets in the previous year's potato patch, which sprout and become new potato plants under, in and around everything else you try to grow there in the years following. Sometimes they can grow between things where they are, or they can be transplanted when small to their own bed. Some people say that potatoes lose vigor after years of doing this without bringing in new tubers. In the permaculture garden, so far, so good.
Little seedling that pop up all over the garden are like little presents or little scoundrels, uniquely leveraged in every beholders eyes. Choose your friends wisely and chase away your personal villains. If I were you, I'd think twice or thrice before planting calendulas, catnip or fennel unless you are fond of weeding or committed to cutting the flowering heads before they turn to seed.
Here's to the happy little rogues!
Many of them are herbs, both medicinal and culinary, like dill and mints. Edible flowers are another large group, including: viola, pansy and calendula.
Some folks prefer a more controlled environment, but I love the rascals that pop up on their own because I didn't have to expend any energy planting them or money to buy them. This kind of indulgent plant-parenting does require a few rules or the garden will have only these hardy characters.
I call this "Subtractive Gardening". It's very simple: if you like the plant, leave them where you want them and remove them where you do not (or transplant to a preferred location). Sometimes transplanting doesn't work as well as letting the seeds choose their own places, but most often they happily settle in elsewhere.
Self-seeders are usually annual plants that grow from seed to bloom to setting new seed in one growing season. Stout annual seeders include: arugula, borage, calendula*, dill, feverfew*, catnip*, epizote*, fennel*, lemon balm, nasturtium*, sunflower, viola and pansy. Those with an asterisk, are the ones to keep an eye on, especially nasturtiums and calendulas. These two can easily take over the spring plantings with their extreme vigor. On a weekly basis, I pull the majority of seedlings. If I didn't they would quickly out-compete the fussier garden vegetables.
Then there are the creepers. These are usually perennial plants which come back from their roots year after year. While many perennial garden plants keep to their own tight root ball, others crawl over and under the surface of the soil with their exploratory roots.
All of the mints fit this category and my strategy is to put them in a large bed of their own where they can compete with each other. I keep them out of the rest of the garden entirely.
Two years ago I had to dig out a bed of apple mint that in just two or three years had grown from one 2 gal pot stuck in the ground, to a circular plantation 10' in diameter. It no longer is allowed anywhere in the garden. Apple mint roots that occasionally show up, go into the garbage. I can't risk having them coming back in the compost bin or weed piles.
A few biennials (plants that survive the winter and finish their life-span the following summer) also reseed. There are a number of vegetables in this group: carrots, parsley, kale, broccoli, lambs quarters, spinach, beets and swiss chard. I don't count on these to reliably come back, but I do honor the tenacity of those that do by letting a few of them share space throughout the garden. I still order fresh seed from nurseries to hedge my bets.
Two tuberous vegetables are loved and/or feared by seasoned gardeners and they are: Jerusalem artichokes (sun roots) and potatoes.
Sunchokes are sunflower family plants which I have praised in a previous posting, however, do plant them in an out-of-the-way spot and don't throw their tubers willy-nilly about the garden. Potatoes leave tiny potatolets in the previous year's potato patch, which sprout and become new potato plants under, in and around everything else you try to grow there in the years following. Sometimes they can grow between things where they are, or they can be transplanted when small to their own bed. Some people say that potatoes lose vigor after years of doing this without bringing in new tubers. In the permaculture garden, so far, so good.
Little seedling that pop up all over the garden are like little presents or little scoundrels, uniquely leveraged in every beholders eyes. Choose your friends wisely and chase away your personal villains. If I were you, I'd think twice or thrice before planting calendulas, catnip or fennel unless you are fond of weeding or committed to cutting the flowering heads before they turn to seed.
Here's to the happy little rogues!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
My Favorite Vegetables: Harbingers of Spring; Purple Sprouting Broccoli & Chives
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| Purple Sprouting Broccoli in Alder Creek Farm Permaculture Garden Photo by Justin Bailie March 2011 |
PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI
Purple Sprouting Broccoli is an extremely cold-hardy, over-wintering British heirloom vegetable that is planted late spring or early summer of one year and produces its tender purple sprouts the following year in early spring.
The advantage of this is having mature plants that are ready to produce a prolific crop at a time when most of the overwintered kales and collards are tatty and wind-damaged or you're sick of eating them.
Just when it seems as if winter will never end, these plants begin to wake up and start growing new leaves in early February (here on the Oregon coast).
In just a few weeks, they send new leafy growth upright, and pale purplish buds appear on loose heads. These buds grow into smallish purple florets which become the first new crop from the broccoli clan to be eaten in spring.
Our farm's location, less than a mile from the wide-open and windy Nehalem Bay on the north coast of Oregon, presents great challenges to wintering-over taller plants.
Plants that would normally be 30" tall are buffeted all winter by gusts of up to 80 mph or more, driving rain and recently, more freezing days than normal.
Experiments with tying each plant with twine to a wooden stake last winter produced stalks badly damaged by constant rubbing. I've resigned myself to allowing the plants to chose their own tendency to lean away from the wind and keep a lower profile without staking. They take up more sideways room but the impressive amount of harvest gleaned from these sturdy survivors more than makes up for their sprawl.
Other advantages to this plant are: the large size of the mature broccoli is difficult for slugs to reach and it bears early enough to avoid much of the damage caused by cabbage moth caterpillars. (I refuse to use Bacillus thuringiensis, also sold as BT, because it indiscriminately targets all larval species including rare butterflies.)
The harvest can be used in the same way as other broccolis. I prefer simple steaming or stir-fry, which turns them dark green. Raw, they hold their gorgeous purple color and add an eye-catching accent to a green salad. Add purplish chive buds later in the spring (see Chives below) for even more sassy salad color!
CHIVES
Chives are one of the most useful of herbs. Small members of the onion family, they have many culinary uses and are excellent for making mulch as they grow prolifically and can quickly recover from being cut off at the ground. Throw into a compost pile, where they will quickly break down, or use directly as a mulch.
In the late fall chives slowly disintegrate into mush and disappear. By late February they are shooting up again and I begin adding them to everything: soups, egg dishes, salads, garnish on baked potatoes and vegetable stir-fries.
In another month, chives will start budding up and the minaret-shaped buds are my favorite edible flower.
I pick and use the buds regularly, both cooked and raw, to keep them producing. When the flowers are so numerous that they start to open fully, I use a few in salads by breaking the large blooms into florets and sprinkle them on top.
When the stalks and flowers are becoming bent and blowsy, they are cut them back to the ground for a new crop. I cut them back two or three times a season and never tire of their delicious mild onion flavor.
Now is a great time for planting them in the garden or putting them in a pot just outside the door. Snip as needed, cutting down low so it will grow back fresh. Water moderately and mulch around the outside edge of the plant.
Place in full to partial-day sun. Plants in shade will become lax and floppy.
Once you plant them, you will always have them!
Purple Sprouting Broccoli is an extremely cold-hardy, over-wintering British heirloom vegetable that is planted late spring or early summer of one year and produces its tender purple sprouts the following year in early spring.
The advantage of this is having mature plants that are ready to produce a prolific crop at a time when most of the overwintered kales and collards are tatty and wind-damaged or you're sick of eating them.
Just when it seems as if winter will never end, these plants begin to wake up and start growing new leaves in early February (here on the Oregon coast).
In just a few weeks, they send new leafy growth upright, and pale purplish buds appear on loose heads. These buds grow into smallish purple florets which become the first new crop from the broccoli clan to be eaten in spring.
Our farm's location, less than a mile from the wide-open and windy Nehalem Bay on the north coast of Oregon, presents great challenges to wintering-over taller plants.
Plants that would normally be 30" tall are buffeted all winter by gusts of up to 80 mph or more, driving rain and recently, more freezing days than normal.
Experiments with tying each plant with twine to a wooden stake last winter produced stalks badly damaged by constant rubbing. I've resigned myself to allowing the plants to chose their own tendency to lean away from the wind and keep a lower profile without staking. They take up more sideways room but the impressive amount of harvest gleaned from these sturdy survivors more than makes up for their sprawl.
Other advantages to this plant are: the large size of the mature broccoli is difficult for slugs to reach and it bears early enough to avoid much of the damage caused by cabbage moth caterpillars. (I refuse to use Bacillus thuringiensis, also sold as BT, because it indiscriminately targets all larval species including rare butterflies.)
The harvest can be used in the same way as other broccolis. I prefer simple steaming or stir-fry, which turns them dark green. Raw, they hold their gorgeous purple color and add an eye-catching accent to a green salad. Add purplish chive buds later in the spring (see Chives below) for even more sassy salad color!
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| Chives with coffee bean mulch and blue bottle hose-guides Alder Creek Farm Permaculture Garden Photo by Justin Bailie March 2011 |
Chives are one of the most useful of herbs. Small members of the onion family, they have many culinary uses and are excellent for making mulch as they grow prolifically and can quickly recover from being cut off at the ground. Throw into a compost pile, where they will quickly break down, or use directly as a mulch.
In the late fall chives slowly disintegrate into mush and disappear. By late February they are shooting up again and I begin adding them to everything: soups, egg dishes, salads, garnish on baked potatoes and vegetable stir-fries.
In another month, chives will start budding up and the minaret-shaped buds are my favorite edible flower.
I pick and use the buds regularly, both cooked and raw, to keep them producing. When the flowers are so numerous that they start to open fully, I use a few in salads by breaking the large blooms into florets and sprinkle them on top.
When the stalks and flowers are becoming bent and blowsy, they are cut them back to the ground for a new crop. I cut them back two or three times a season and never tire of their delicious mild onion flavor.
Now is a great time for planting them in the garden or putting them in a pot just outside the door. Snip as needed, cutting down low so it will grow back fresh. Water moderately and mulch around the outside edge of the plant.
Place in full to partial-day sun. Plants in shade will become lax and floppy.
Once you plant them, you will always have them!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
My Favorite Vegetables Part Four: Rooting for Roots; The Jerusalem Artichoke
SUN ROOT, SUNCHOKE, JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, EARTH ROOT (take your pick)
While doing a google search this morning, I discovered many interesting facts about this native North and Central American tuber. Not only is it far more nutritious than I had thought but its history is full of intrigue.
Native Americans had been using this member of the Sunflower genus as a staple part of their diet long before the establishment of Jamestown on the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States. Settlers soon learned to cultivate this easily grown food and took it back home to Europe where it was enthusiastically co-opted by the ever-experimental French. Europeans still use the Sun Root more than we do and it was one of the foods responsible for saving people during famines.
Sunchokes are a nubbly, ginger root-like tuber that is the underground root system of a type of sunflower. Like other sunflowers, the small yellow blossoms on the 3-10' tall plants, turn their faces toward the sun and follow its arc throughout the day. The roots are attached to the center of the original tuber and radiate outward into a dense mass of tubers connected by sturdy, stiff, cream-colored narrow roots. One starter tuber can amass an impressive amount of mature tubers in one season.
Raw, the sun roots are crisp, crunchy and juicy with a sweet earthy, nutty-flavor. They can be stir-fried, sauteed, roasted, baked and put into soups, breads, salads and other dishes limited only by your imagination. Their cooked texture ranges from water chestnut to baked potato
The easy cultivation of this plant is also its only drawback: it grows like a weed and is best planted in its own area or bed so that it will not take over the garden. Every tiny tuberlet that remains hidden underground will rise the following year and must be weeded out or moved to a select location.
To plant, bury tubers about 4" deep in the soil with preferably near to full sun. It takes them a while to push up the narrow, green, recognizably sunflower shaped leaves on their sturdy stems. Then, just leave them alone through the summer with a nice mulch and regular deep watering. In late summer, if you reside in a windy area like I do, you may want to add some tall stakes with twine to form a wind-proof structure around the clumps because these plants can reach 10' tall in one season and they have been blown over in the late summer's unseasonably early storms we've had the last two years.Some years here, after a wet and cloudy summer, the plants don't bloom but that doesn't affect the root production. After the winter storms have set in, I cut back the stems to about 6" tall just to mark where they are. I also use the stems to help pull them free of the soil when I harvest them.
I find much to love about plants that are effortlessly effusive in producing food. Jerusalem Artichokes store beautifully in the ground all fall, winter and spring. Harvest the roots by digging up the whole clump or whittling away at the tubers from the sides. Here on the Oregon coast, in our sandy soil, I like to leave them in the ground until I need them. They also store well in the refrigerator and though most google sites say they last one or two weeks in the frig, in my experience they last much longer.
Sunchokes have been known for their healing properties and nutritionally, these plants are a treasure trove of iron, potassium, Vitamin C, B-vitamins and more. Sun Roots are an unusual source of vegetable protein, with 3 grams per cup. Diabetics can eat the fresh roots without their usual restrictions regarding carbs as the Sun Root contains Inulin (which can be difficult to digest for some). Apparently, Lewis and Clark, who had to live on these roots during their long journey when other foods where unavailable, complained of flatulence. (Poor dears; at least they didn't have to carry a baby the whole way like their guide).
While doing a google search this morning, I discovered many interesting facts about this native North and Central American tuber. Not only is it far more nutritious than I had thought but its history is full of intrigue.
Native Americans had been using this member of the Sunflower genus as a staple part of their diet long before the establishment of Jamestown on the eastern seaboard of what is now the United States. Settlers soon learned to cultivate this easily grown food and took it back home to Europe where it was enthusiastically co-opted by the ever-experimental French. Europeans still use the Sun Root more than we do and it was one of the foods responsible for saving people during famines.
Sunchokes are a nubbly, ginger root-like tuber that is the underground root system of a type of sunflower. Like other sunflowers, the small yellow blossoms on the 3-10' tall plants, turn their faces toward the sun and follow its arc throughout the day. The roots are attached to the center of the original tuber and radiate outward into a dense mass of tubers connected by sturdy, stiff, cream-colored narrow roots. One starter tuber can amass an impressive amount of mature tubers in one season.
Raw, the sun roots are crisp, crunchy and juicy with a sweet earthy, nutty-flavor. They can be stir-fried, sauteed, roasted, baked and put into soups, breads, salads and other dishes limited only by your imagination. Their cooked texture ranges from water chestnut to baked potato
The easy cultivation of this plant is also its only drawback: it grows like a weed and is best planted in its own area or bed so that it will not take over the garden. Every tiny tuberlet that remains hidden underground will rise the following year and must be weeded out or moved to a select location.
To plant, bury tubers about 4" deep in the soil with preferably near to full sun. It takes them a while to push up the narrow, green, recognizably sunflower shaped leaves on their sturdy stems. Then, just leave them alone through the summer with a nice mulch and regular deep watering. In late summer, if you reside in a windy area like I do, you may want to add some tall stakes with twine to form a wind-proof structure around the clumps because these plants can reach 10' tall in one season and they have been blown over in the late summer's unseasonably early storms we've had the last two years.Some years here, after a wet and cloudy summer, the plants don't bloom but that doesn't affect the root production. After the winter storms have set in, I cut back the stems to about 6" tall just to mark where they are. I also use the stems to help pull them free of the soil when I harvest them.
I find much to love about plants that are effortlessly effusive in producing food. Jerusalem Artichokes store beautifully in the ground all fall, winter and spring. Harvest the roots by digging up the whole clump or whittling away at the tubers from the sides. Here on the Oregon coast, in our sandy soil, I like to leave them in the ground until I need them. They also store well in the refrigerator and though most google sites say they last one or two weeks in the frig, in my experience they last much longer.
Sunchokes have been known for their healing properties and nutritionally, these plants are a treasure trove of iron, potassium, Vitamin C, B-vitamins and more. Sun Roots are an unusual source of vegetable protein, with 3 grams per cup. Diabetics can eat the fresh roots without their usual restrictions regarding carbs as the Sun Root contains Inulin (which can be difficult to digest for some). Apparently, Lewis and Clark, who had to live on these roots during their long journey when other foods where unavailable, complained of flatulence. (Poor dears; at least they didn't have to carry a baby the whole way like their guide).
Monday, February 14, 2011
My Favorite Vegetables Part Three: "Eat Your Greens!"
LE GREENS & OTHER LEAVES OUTA MY BOOK:
When I say greens, I am referring to the cooked leafy top of a number of edible plants. Most greens are packed with large amounts of vitamins and other nutrients. Amaranth and Lamb's Quarters are rare sources of leafy vegetable protein.
This is a list of my favorite greens so your list may be shorter or longer. Greens are one of my staple home-grown foods.I eat a number of them but tend to concentrate on a couple of favorites. There are some, like mustard greens, that I'm not a big fan of, but they love the coast so I've grown them. But I noticed that I avoid eating them. They're so pretty though.
This leads me to this advice for novice gardeners: grow what you will actually eat, not the latest in vegetable fashion. If your garden space is limited, adhering to this advice is even more important.
Believe it or not, plants, both edible and ornamental are just as blatantly and seductively advertised as any other commodity. Seed catalogs are my crack. I allow myself to look and circle like mad but when it comes to ordering, I get real. And, I remind myself what plants I habitually eat, not how pretty the latest purple, red or chartreuse vegetable will look in the garden. (OK, I try something new every year).
That said, gloriously beautiful vegetable varieties can be used in the same way as ornamentals and I have designed gardens for restaurants using tricolored corn, blazing red lettuce, wildly colored nasturtiums and other designer veggies. Now I throw those colors around in the permaculture garden, designing little color vignettes as I go. Very pretty and very delicious.
SWISS CHARD
I never met a chard I didn't like. It's one of the plants veggie fashionistas have coerced into wearing neon-colored foliage and stems.
Chard is related to beets and has a beet-like bulbous root below ground though it's the flamboyant puckery green, bronze or red tops that are eaten as greens. Yummy!
I've grown many of them: "Fordhook Giant", an enormous plant with wide, cream-colored wavy gigantic stems of the large tropically lush green leaves; "Bright Lights" are yellow, orange, gold, red, pink or white stemmed;"Ruby Red Chard", gorgeous red stems and dark foliage and "Perpetual Chard", available through Territorial Seed Co. which is supposedly last to go to seed but was first in my garden. It comes back though and winters over well. The leaves are small and more substantial than other chards, making them excellent in soups or stews as they don't melt down.
Once chard is out of the ground and up in the air it's less vulnerable to slugs. I like to start it in pots and get it up to a six pack or a 4" pot. After they've grown all summer, I leave them in the ground over the winter and put manure around them. Right now in February, they are pushing up small new succulent leaves which I love in quick stir-fries. They will continue into the early summer until the newly planted ones are big enough to harvest. Eventually the old ones go to seed and I pull them or let a couple make seed and fall where they may.
BEET GREENS
Beets, like chard, pack a lot of nutrients in their leaves. The flavor of their leaves is earthier and a little more bittersweet than chard. I love the greens in salads when small and steamed chopped with Ume Plum vinegar as a condiment (actually, on all my greens).
I grow open pollinated seeds as much as possible so that I can potentially allow some plants to go to seed and have my own source of some vegetable seeds. Last summer I had an overwintered "Bull's Blood Beet" plant (with purple leaves) produce a pint of seed which I will be planting soon this spring.
KALE
There are so many types of kale it's mind-boggling and they seem to morph within one's own garden. I do have my favorites though.
Top of the list is "Nero di Toscana', also called Black Palm or Dinosaur kale. In the early spring I eat the little palm trees (the budded flower sprouts) growing out of the storm-beaten sturdy 3' tall over-wintered plants that have few mature leaves and are trying to go to seed. These can be eaten in salads or steamed and used until the newly planted spring crop gets big enough to eat. Later in the summer, the long, dark green narrow nubbly leaves can be harvested and steamed, stir-fried, baked, made into kale chips, put in soups and stews and on and on. Very versatile, great flavor, sturdy but tender texture and hold up in longer cooking without being woody. I pretty much live on this kale all winter.
"Redbor" kale made its debut in the P garden this winter. It's a stunning red-purple and has sturdy stems and crisp frilly leaves. it held up in storms well. We have several other kales with soft leaves, also troopers throughout the stormy weather. If you like kale, there's no such thing as a bad one. Kales are very much at home in our maritime coastal climate.
Slugs, cabbage moths (worms) and aphids are the primary pests. Once kale gets a big stem and is above the ground, slugs are less of a problem. At the farm, we are using Khaki Campbell ducks to combat the slug problem.
Using permaculture advice, I no longer go after the aphids that occasionally appear and bide my time until their predators, lady bugs, have a chance to swell their ranks and gobble up the aphids. This has worked for the last two years. The ladies eat the aphids, the plants recover and life in the kale patch goes on and nobody got sprayed or yanked out.
The cabbage worms are a bit more frustrating but, again, I stay my hand from interfering and though the mid-summer kale sometimes has lots of holes, eventually the worms leave the tops alone and perfect leaves reappear. Using a row cover would keep out most of the moths. I don't like looking at the cloth. I design the vegetable garden to look as gorgeous as an ornamental garden so any accoutrement has to be functional and arty
The hands-off approach works well because it allows the natural order of things to find a balance. It's a zen-patience thing. Not a bad spiritual practice.
SPINACH, FRENCH SORREL, ORACH & QUINOA
I plant spinach every year but get tired of the slugs. I have yet to make sorrel soup but I hear it's delicious. A new Permaculture member is a cafe owner and I'm going to see if she will lend a recipe or two to this blog.
Orach and quinoa are on my list of things to try in the P garden soon.
LAMB'S QUARTERS & NETTLES; A TASTE OF THE WILD SIDE
These are two of the most nutritious greens you can gather or grow. Lamb's Quarters was already growing in the P garden when I took over management. It's a common weed in poor soils. My mother gathered and cooked it when I was a kid so I'm used to it. The plant has a strange sparkly crystal texture on its silvery-green leaves that goes away when the greens are steamed. It has a deep-green flavor packed with nutrients. If you're looking for a daily vitamin, here it is!
I've been tempted to grow nettles in the garden but I hesitate because it can be invasive. The wild place along a nearby creek where I gather it in the early spring has been taken over by this loved/hated plant.
It's a European native and the stems are beaten and used to make a fiber, (the same one used in the fairy-tale about the brothers who were turned into wild swans by an angry sorceress and were saved by their sister who made magic shirts out of stinging nettles which turned them back into men).
Gathering nettles if best done with rubber gloves or plastic bags over your hands or long handled scissors. Don't touch the plants with bare skin or you will experience the fire of the nettle. Nettle leaves and stems are covered in tiny hairs that inject the familiar "sting" that most people have unwittingly experienced at some point while out walking. The ability to sting is disarmed as soon as the leaves are cooked. Until they go into the pot, handle them carefully. If you get stung, it will go away in a few hours or within one day if you really got a good swipe.
So, why on earth would anyone even bother with such an intimidating plant? NUTRITION, with all caps! Nettles are a traditional "spring tonic" food in many European cultures and that's how I use it.
I once when I was younger, I made negative remarks about nettles to an herbalist who gently, but firmly, explained what a gift to humanity the nettle plant is. I never again disparaged the remarkable nettle.
She gave me her simple recipe for nettle soup:
NETTLE SOUP
Pick several handfuls of tender young nettle tops in early spring (with gloves or plastic bags)
Remove any woody stems or dead leaves
Wash and place in a vegetable steamer with a small amount of water
Steam until tender, saving the water in the bottom of the pot.
Heat up ready-made broth (Chicken or Vegetable) I use chicken.
Put the steamed greens, with the liquid from the pot and some of the broth, into a blender
Buzz until the greens make a fine-textured puree
Add to heated broth and stir
Ladle into bowls, adding a dollop of sour cream and a little chopped chives
This is one of the prettiest soups on earth! It's a brilliant living green and you will feel like Popeye after you have a bowl. The flavor is musky, earthy and unique. I'm happy to have one or two pickings a year of nettles and my body tells me that's enough.
Jump-start your spring with a little weedy magic!
When I say greens, I am referring to the cooked leafy top of a number of edible plants. Most greens are packed with large amounts of vitamins and other nutrients. Amaranth and Lamb's Quarters are rare sources of leafy vegetable protein.
This is a list of my favorite greens so your list may be shorter or longer. Greens are one of my staple home-grown foods.I eat a number of them but tend to concentrate on a couple of favorites. There are some, like mustard greens, that I'm not a big fan of, but they love the coast so I've grown them. But I noticed that I avoid eating them. They're so pretty though.
This leads me to this advice for novice gardeners: grow what you will actually eat, not the latest in vegetable fashion. If your garden space is limited, adhering to this advice is even more important.
Believe it or not, plants, both edible and ornamental are just as blatantly and seductively advertised as any other commodity. Seed catalogs are my crack. I allow myself to look and circle like mad but when it comes to ordering, I get real. And, I remind myself what plants I habitually eat, not how pretty the latest purple, red or chartreuse vegetable will look in the garden. (OK, I try something new every year).
That said, gloriously beautiful vegetable varieties can be used in the same way as ornamentals and I have designed gardens for restaurants using tricolored corn, blazing red lettuce, wildly colored nasturtiums and other designer veggies. Now I throw those colors around in the permaculture garden, designing little color vignettes as I go. Very pretty and very delicious.
SWISS CHARD
I never met a chard I didn't like. It's one of the plants veggie fashionistas have coerced into wearing neon-colored foliage and stems.
Chard is related to beets and has a beet-like bulbous root below ground though it's the flamboyant puckery green, bronze or red tops that are eaten as greens. Yummy!
I've grown many of them: "Fordhook Giant", an enormous plant with wide, cream-colored wavy gigantic stems of the large tropically lush green leaves; "Bright Lights" are yellow, orange, gold, red, pink or white stemmed;"Ruby Red Chard", gorgeous red stems and dark foliage and "Perpetual Chard", available through Territorial Seed Co. which is supposedly last to go to seed but was first in my garden. It comes back though and winters over well. The leaves are small and more substantial than other chards, making them excellent in soups or stews as they don't melt down.
Once chard is out of the ground and up in the air it's less vulnerable to slugs. I like to start it in pots and get it up to a six pack or a 4" pot. After they've grown all summer, I leave them in the ground over the winter and put manure around them. Right now in February, they are pushing up small new succulent leaves which I love in quick stir-fries. They will continue into the early summer until the newly planted ones are big enough to harvest. Eventually the old ones go to seed and I pull them or let a couple make seed and fall where they may.
BEET GREENS
Beets, like chard, pack a lot of nutrients in their leaves. The flavor of their leaves is earthier and a little more bittersweet than chard. I love the greens in salads when small and steamed chopped with Ume Plum vinegar as a condiment (actually, on all my greens).
I grow open pollinated seeds as much as possible so that I can potentially allow some plants to go to seed and have my own source of some vegetable seeds. Last summer I had an overwintered "Bull's Blood Beet" plant (with purple leaves) produce a pint of seed which I will be planting soon this spring.
KALE
There are so many types of kale it's mind-boggling and they seem to morph within one's own garden. I do have my favorites though.
Top of the list is "Nero di Toscana', also called Black Palm or Dinosaur kale. In the early spring I eat the little palm trees (the budded flower sprouts) growing out of the storm-beaten sturdy 3' tall over-wintered plants that have few mature leaves and are trying to go to seed. These can be eaten in salads or steamed and used until the newly planted spring crop gets big enough to eat. Later in the summer, the long, dark green narrow nubbly leaves can be harvested and steamed, stir-fried, baked, made into kale chips, put in soups and stews and on and on. Very versatile, great flavor, sturdy but tender texture and hold up in longer cooking without being woody. I pretty much live on this kale all winter.
"Redbor" kale made its debut in the P garden this winter. It's a stunning red-purple and has sturdy stems and crisp frilly leaves. it held up in storms well. We have several other kales with soft leaves, also troopers throughout the stormy weather. If you like kale, there's no such thing as a bad one. Kales are very much at home in our maritime coastal climate.
Slugs, cabbage moths (worms) and aphids are the primary pests. Once kale gets a big stem and is above the ground, slugs are less of a problem. At the farm, we are using Khaki Campbell ducks to combat the slug problem.
Using permaculture advice, I no longer go after the aphids that occasionally appear and bide my time until their predators, lady bugs, have a chance to swell their ranks and gobble up the aphids. This has worked for the last two years. The ladies eat the aphids, the plants recover and life in the kale patch goes on and nobody got sprayed or yanked out.
The cabbage worms are a bit more frustrating but, again, I stay my hand from interfering and though the mid-summer kale sometimes has lots of holes, eventually the worms leave the tops alone and perfect leaves reappear. Using a row cover would keep out most of the moths. I don't like looking at the cloth. I design the vegetable garden to look as gorgeous as an ornamental garden so any accoutrement has to be functional and arty
The hands-off approach works well because it allows the natural order of things to find a balance. It's a zen-patience thing. Not a bad spiritual practice.
SPINACH, FRENCH SORREL, ORACH & QUINOA
I plant spinach every year but get tired of the slugs. I have yet to make sorrel soup but I hear it's delicious. A new Permaculture member is a cafe owner and I'm going to see if she will lend a recipe or two to this blog.
Orach and quinoa are on my list of things to try in the P garden soon.
LAMB'S QUARTERS & NETTLES; A TASTE OF THE WILD SIDE
These are two of the most nutritious greens you can gather or grow. Lamb's Quarters was already growing in the P garden when I took over management. It's a common weed in poor soils. My mother gathered and cooked it when I was a kid so I'm used to it. The plant has a strange sparkly crystal texture on its silvery-green leaves that goes away when the greens are steamed. It has a deep-green flavor packed with nutrients. If you're looking for a daily vitamin, here it is!
I've been tempted to grow nettles in the garden but I hesitate because it can be invasive. The wild place along a nearby creek where I gather it in the early spring has been taken over by this loved/hated plant.
It's a European native and the stems are beaten and used to make a fiber, (the same one used in the fairy-tale about the brothers who were turned into wild swans by an angry sorceress and were saved by their sister who made magic shirts out of stinging nettles which turned them back into men).
Gathering nettles if best done with rubber gloves or plastic bags over your hands or long handled scissors. Don't touch the plants with bare skin or you will experience the fire of the nettle. Nettle leaves and stems are covered in tiny hairs that inject the familiar "sting" that most people have unwittingly experienced at some point while out walking. The ability to sting is disarmed as soon as the leaves are cooked. Until they go into the pot, handle them carefully. If you get stung, it will go away in a few hours or within one day if you really got a good swipe.
So, why on earth would anyone even bother with such an intimidating plant? NUTRITION, with all caps! Nettles are a traditional "spring tonic" food in many European cultures and that's how I use it.
I once when I was younger, I made negative remarks about nettles to an herbalist who gently, but firmly, explained what a gift to humanity the nettle plant is. I never again disparaged the remarkable nettle.
She gave me her simple recipe for nettle soup:
NETTLE SOUP
Pick several handfuls of tender young nettle tops in early spring (with gloves or plastic bags)
Remove any woody stems or dead leaves
Wash and place in a vegetable steamer with a small amount of water
Steam until tender, saving the water in the bottom of the pot.
Heat up ready-made broth (Chicken or Vegetable) I use chicken.
Put the steamed greens, with the liquid from the pot and some of the broth, into a blender
Buzz until the greens make a fine-textured puree
Add to heated broth and stir
Ladle into bowls, adding a dollop of sour cream and a little chopped chives
This is one of the prettiest soups on earth! It's a brilliant living green and you will feel like Popeye after you have a bowl. The flavor is musky, earthy and unique. I'm happy to have one or two pickings a year of nettles and my body tells me that's enough.
Jump-start your spring with a little weedy magic!
Monday, January 31, 2011
My Favorite Vegetables Part Two: PEAS & BEANS
Last year was a great year for peas and a lousy one for beans. The peas joyously sprouted forth and multiplied while, later in the season, all my beans spent their summer pouting and whining.
I didn't grow any fava beans, which are a cool-weather European legume more closely related to vetch and are delicious, but an acquired taste for some. They probably did fine. Anyone who wants to comment, please do.
PEAS
Shelling: I grew three different varieties; one short-type normal-size pod that had high production (that I can't remember the name of); another short-type (laying-on-the-ground) with massively curly-cue tendrils that made it easier to find the pea pods but was pretty snarly (also no name); and "Petite Pois", a gourmet pea with delectable teeny-tiny peas that it takes a lot of shucking to accumulate enough for dinner (but delicious).
Keep an eye on your shelling peas when the pods begin to swell because they tend to start ripening all at the same time and there's a point-of-no-return at which they become chewy instead of tender.
Sugar Snap: I've tried both knee-high and telephone-pole types and the tall ones are definitely the best; higher production over a long period and nicer sized pea pods. For my money, the snap peas are the best of all the peas: productive (you eat the whole fat pod), super-sweet and delectable fresh or cooked and relatively easy to grow in decent garden soil.
Snow Peas: I always grow these for stir-frying. "Oregon Sugar Pod II" is the standard and is an easily trellised 30" tall. Snow peas are also eaten as the whole pod like sugar snaps but while they're still flat and are not super sweet which makes them better for savory cooking. Be sure to pick regularly to keep them producing and they will keep bearing for weeks.
Pea Shoots: These are all the rage recently and are found in heaps at farmers markets. Any pea variety can be used. Simply snip the tendrils off the plants and put in salads or stir-fries. Yummy! The shoots will keep growing back and cutting doesn't stop pod production. Last year, I grew some in a big pot just for the shoots.
Sweet Peas: these are the deliciously scented relatives of edible peas and they're also happy in our coastal climate. Oh, the fragrance is to-die-for! Find a place for some in your garden. They'll provide bouquets for weeks and weeks.
OTHER PEA TIPS (get it? ha, ha!):
Use a non-toxic slug-bait (beer, Sluggo, coffee grounds, or use a board to catch them sleeping. Sow peas thickly as they're happy living close together (and some will fall to the pests). Be sure to keep watered when the weather gets warmer. Plant groups of shelling peas every couple weeks apart if you don't want them all to ripen at once. If your peas don't germinate, do a little digging to see what's up. If they've rotted or disappeared, keep replanting. If you think birds are eating the seeds, you can make hardware cloth tents or some other netting to get them up and out of the ground without interference.
BEANS, THE MAGICAL FRUIT:
Beans are a member of "The Three Sisters" Native American sacred triad of bean, squash and corn. Corn provides the trellis beans need to climb and is fed by the nitrogen-fixing bean roots and the squash rambles happily between the corn hills. Nutritionally in harmony, these three provide their gardeners with a complete nutrient alchemy above and below ground.
Runner beans, our only New World bean, is native to Mexico (Phaseolus coccineus).
Phaseolus vulgaris are the Old World beans most of us are more familiar with including: snap, filet, romano, horticultural and dry-shelling beans.
Soy beans,(Glycine max) have been an Asian staple for centuries. Lima Beans (Phaseolus lunatus) are kissing cousins with the other Phaseolus spp. Yard Long beans are a completely different species, Vigna unguiculata, which I have no personal experience with.
I'm using Latin here, not to impress, but to help point out the relationships between the different legumes called beans. It's a very smart thing in gardening to have some knowledge of where our food plants originate, which can help us provide the conditions of their native origins or eliminate those vegetables that prefer climates much different than ours.
Here in the Nehalem Bay area, not all the beans are happy every year, especially during cloudy, drizzly, misty, low-temp summers. All beans enjoy heat though some of them are better at dealing with cooler conditions. Last year was a very frustrating one for beans in the Permaculture garden at Alder Creek. It took forever to get good germination and then they grew slowly and fitfully. Yield was disappointing. Not everyone had the same experience in their own micro-climates but generally, I'd considered it a bad bean year. I hope this one is much better because I love beans.
Romano beans (Phaseolus vulgaris):
These are the large flat-podded Italian favorite and available as bush or climbing. I've grown both and love them short or tall. I don't have a favorite yet but I'm excited about growing an old Tillamook County variety that I was given at the last "Groundswell" meeting (a new Nehalem Bay Area edible-gardening group). Members at the meeting also gave high marks to "Helda", a pole (climbing type) Romano available through Territorial Seeds. Romanos are meaty and delicious. They hold up well in soups like Minestrone. Romanos are available in green, gold or purple.
Snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) also known as green beans, string beans, pole beans, bush beans, French filet beans:
Almost everyone know the humble green bean. They also come in green with splashes of pink, solid purple or gold and a range of sizes; short bushes to 6' or taller climbing types. Reading garden catalog bean variety descriptions can leave the "Undeciders" considerably overwhelmed. Look for those with the shortest days to maturity and any that suggest they can take colder spring soils if you live near the coast.
I love any green bean, but I particularly like the French fillet bush beans for their succulent, slender, fast-cooking long pods. All the bush green beans are very productive if kept picked regularly before the seeds inside start swelling. All beans grown for their fresh pods need to be regularly picked before they start making seed to stay in production.
Climbing beans have tendrils which reach out for support and wrap themselves around whatever is nearby, which the gardener should provide. Structures can be simple teepees (consisting of three or more, 6-10' 2"x2"s or Bamboo poles) to elaborate bean trellises with string or netting. They can also be grown up an existing wire fence. The important thing in our coastal climate, is to stake down or bury the lower part of the poles or trellises because we have been getting high winds clear up to early summer the last two years which can easily flatten a weak structure covered in vines. I made a teepee from long driftwood poles with the tree roots still intact which I buried in the sandy soil and this Herculean teepee has stayed up through two winters of winds up to 85mph. Make your structure strong enough to carry the weight of many pounds of mature beans and their foliage.
Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus): I haven't tried to grow them, assuming these heat lovers wouldn't make it, but I was just informed by a close-to-the-farm neighboring gardener that he has grown them and they did fine. Try them but don't put all your hopes on just this one.
Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus):
In an interesting reversal of vegetables varieties that mostly cross the Atlantic to the U.S., Runner beans, native to Mexico, are loved more by the British than Americans as a superior green bean. The vines of the unadulterated original Scarlet Runner Bean can grow a vine 12' high and are gloriously covered in brilliant scarlet-red blossoms. The pods are flat, wide and heavily textured and can be eaten early at 5" or so, and are still tender and delicious at 9". The pods are meaty and crunchy with a more distinctive flavor than other green beans. They're also excellent fresh-shelled (allow the seeds to swell) for soups or a side of beans and can also be allowed to finish out into dried beans for seed or cooking. "Sunset" (peach-pink blooms) and "Painted Lady", (scarlet and white blooms) runner beans are not only gorgeous but with only 5-6' vines, are easier to acommodate on smaller trellises. I have been a great fan of these beans for years and they have more cold tolerance, especially during germination, than other bean species. I had some sprouting during spring that had fallen to the ground from the old pods the fall before.
French Horticultural (Phaseolus vulgaris):
I haven't tried these here. They are 65 days to maturity so may be a good bet in warm year. These beans are an Heirloom variety, semi-runner, fresh shelling and dry bean. I think it would be a good one to trial.
Dry Shelling (Phaseolus vulgaris): The year before last we experimented with growing dry bean in a couple places on the farm to see if it was a viable option for producing vegetable protein here on the coast. That year we had a good dry fall so beans matured and mostly dried on the vines then were picked in the pods, dried some more and shelled. I grew "Yin Yang" beans, which are beautiful black and white beany yin-yangs signs including the dots. I wasn't fond of their flavor or texture but you might be. I give them away to people as magic beans. Another bean that made it was "Jacob's Cattle". Last year I didn't even bother with them as the spring and early summer were obviously going to be challenging for heat-loving vegetables. The fresh pods of shelling beans are also good for cooking but it's probably better to let them hurry along to seed by letting the first beans rush to maturity. Choose the shortest season varieties to try. Most varieties are bush types.
Edamame Soy Beans (Glycine max):
These are the salted beans served in the pod at sushi restaurants. We tried them in both the community and permaculture gardens the year before last and successfully had them mature. I can't say that the yield was impressive for the amount of space they took up but they were very tasty. They are mostly self-supporting but a string stretched between tall stakes on either side of the row will keep them from going over in rain and wind.
Fava beans (Vicia faba): These beans are grown as a green-manure crop to add nitrogen to the soil and cut down before making pods and dug in or left to break down on top. They are also grown for their delicious beans which are an Italian favorite for antipasto.They can be planted in the Fall or early Spring. The sturdy plants are self-supporting. I love their earthy flavor, especially sauteed with garlic, olive oil and herbs. These babies can take the cold and are a great fit for coastal gardens. A rare few people have a genetic allergy to these beans so if it's your first time trying them, have a small amount to start with.
I didn't grow any fava beans, which are a cool-weather European legume more closely related to vetch and are delicious, but an acquired taste for some. They probably did fine. Anyone who wants to comment, please do.
PEAS
Shelling: I grew three different varieties; one short-type normal-size pod that had high production (that I can't remember the name of); another short-type (laying-on-the-ground) with massively curly-cue tendrils that made it easier to find the pea pods but was pretty snarly (also no name); and "Petite Pois", a gourmet pea with delectable teeny-tiny peas that it takes a lot of shucking to accumulate enough for dinner (but delicious).
Keep an eye on your shelling peas when the pods begin to swell because they tend to start ripening all at the same time and there's a point-of-no-return at which they become chewy instead of tender.
Sugar Snap: I've tried both knee-high and telephone-pole types and the tall ones are definitely the best; higher production over a long period and nicer sized pea pods. For my money, the snap peas are the best of all the peas: productive (you eat the whole fat pod), super-sweet and delectable fresh or cooked and relatively easy to grow in decent garden soil.
Snow Peas: I always grow these for stir-frying. "Oregon Sugar Pod II" is the standard and is an easily trellised 30" tall. Snow peas are also eaten as the whole pod like sugar snaps but while they're still flat and are not super sweet which makes them better for savory cooking. Be sure to pick regularly to keep them producing and they will keep bearing for weeks.
Pea Shoots: These are all the rage recently and are found in heaps at farmers markets. Any pea variety can be used. Simply snip the tendrils off the plants and put in salads or stir-fries. Yummy! The shoots will keep growing back and cutting doesn't stop pod production. Last year, I grew some in a big pot just for the shoots.
Sweet Peas: these are the deliciously scented relatives of edible peas and they're also happy in our coastal climate. Oh, the fragrance is to-die-for! Find a place for some in your garden. They'll provide bouquets for weeks and weeks.
OTHER PEA TIPS (get it? ha, ha!):
Use a non-toxic slug-bait (beer, Sluggo, coffee grounds, or use a board to catch them sleeping. Sow peas thickly as they're happy living close together (and some will fall to the pests). Be sure to keep watered when the weather gets warmer. Plant groups of shelling peas every couple weeks apart if you don't want them all to ripen at once. If your peas don't germinate, do a little digging to see what's up. If they've rotted or disappeared, keep replanting. If you think birds are eating the seeds, you can make hardware cloth tents or some other netting to get them up and out of the ground without interference.
BEANS, THE MAGICAL FRUIT:
Beans are a member of "The Three Sisters" Native American sacred triad of bean, squash and corn. Corn provides the trellis beans need to climb and is fed by the nitrogen-fixing bean roots and the squash rambles happily between the corn hills. Nutritionally in harmony, these three provide their gardeners with a complete nutrient alchemy above and below ground.
Runner beans, our only New World bean, is native to Mexico (Phaseolus coccineus).
Phaseolus vulgaris are the Old World beans most of us are more familiar with including: snap, filet, romano, horticultural and dry-shelling beans.
Soy beans,(Glycine max) have been an Asian staple for centuries. Lima Beans (Phaseolus lunatus) are kissing cousins with the other Phaseolus spp. Yard Long beans are a completely different species, Vigna unguiculata, which I have no personal experience with.
I'm using Latin here, not to impress, but to help point out the relationships between the different legumes called beans. It's a very smart thing in gardening to have some knowledge of where our food plants originate, which can help us provide the conditions of their native origins or eliminate those vegetables that prefer climates much different than ours.
Here in the Nehalem Bay area, not all the beans are happy every year, especially during cloudy, drizzly, misty, low-temp summers. All beans enjoy heat though some of them are better at dealing with cooler conditions. Last year was a very frustrating one for beans in the Permaculture garden at Alder Creek. It took forever to get good germination and then they grew slowly and fitfully. Yield was disappointing. Not everyone had the same experience in their own micro-climates but generally, I'd considered it a bad bean year. I hope this one is much better because I love beans.
Romano beans (Phaseolus vulgaris):
These are the large flat-podded Italian favorite and available as bush or climbing. I've grown both and love them short or tall. I don't have a favorite yet but I'm excited about growing an old Tillamook County variety that I was given at the last "Groundswell" meeting (a new Nehalem Bay Area edible-gardening group). Members at the meeting also gave high marks to "Helda", a pole (climbing type) Romano available through Territorial Seeds. Romanos are meaty and delicious. They hold up well in soups like Minestrone. Romanos are available in green, gold or purple.
Snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) also known as green beans, string beans, pole beans, bush beans, French filet beans:
Almost everyone know the humble green bean. They also come in green with splashes of pink, solid purple or gold and a range of sizes; short bushes to 6' or taller climbing types. Reading garden catalog bean variety descriptions can leave the "Undeciders" considerably overwhelmed. Look for those with the shortest days to maturity and any that suggest they can take colder spring soils if you live near the coast.
I love any green bean, but I particularly like the French fillet bush beans for their succulent, slender, fast-cooking long pods. All the bush green beans are very productive if kept picked regularly before the seeds inside start swelling. All beans grown for their fresh pods need to be regularly picked before they start making seed to stay in production.
Climbing beans have tendrils which reach out for support and wrap themselves around whatever is nearby, which the gardener should provide. Structures can be simple teepees (consisting of three or more, 6-10' 2"x2"s or Bamboo poles) to elaborate bean trellises with string or netting. They can also be grown up an existing wire fence. The important thing in our coastal climate, is to stake down or bury the lower part of the poles or trellises because we have been getting high winds clear up to early summer the last two years which can easily flatten a weak structure covered in vines. I made a teepee from long driftwood poles with the tree roots still intact which I buried in the sandy soil and this Herculean teepee has stayed up through two winters of winds up to 85mph. Make your structure strong enough to carry the weight of many pounds of mature beans and their foliage.
Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus): I haven't tried to grow them, assuming these heat lovers wouldn't make it, but I was just informed by a close-to-the-farm neighboring gardener that he has grown them and they did fine. Try them but don't put all your hopes on just this one.
Runner Bean (Phaseolus coccineus):
In an interesting reversal of vegetables varieties that mostly cross the Atlantic to the U.S., Runner beans, native to Mexico, are loved more by the British than Americans as a superior green bean. The vines of the unadulterated original Scarlet Runner Bean can grow a vine 12' high and are gloriously covered in brilliant scarlet-red blossoms. The pods are flat, wide and heavily textured and can be eaten early at 5" or so, and are still tender and delicious at 9". The pods are meaty and crunchy with a more distinctive flavor than other green beans. They're also excellent fresh-shelled (allow the seeds to swell) for soups or a side of beans and can also be allowed to finish out into dried beans for seed or cooking. "Sunset" (peach-pink blooms) and "Painted Lady", (scarlet and white blooms) runner beans are not only gorgeous but with only 5-6' vines, are easier to acommodate on smaller trellises. I have been a great fan of these beans for years and they have more cold tolerance, especially during germination, than other bean species. I had some sprouting during spring that had fallen to the ground from the old pods the fall before.
French Horticultural (Phaseolus vulgaris):
I haven't tried these here. They are 65 days to maturity so may be a good bet in warm year. These beans are an Heirloom variety, semi-runner, fresh shelling and dry bean. I think it would be a good one to trial.
Dry Shelling (Phaseolus vulgaris): The year before last we experimented with growing dry bean in a couple places on the farm to see if it was a viable option for producing vegetable protein here on the coast. That year we had a good dry fall so beans matured and mostly dried on the vines then were picked in the pods, dried some more and shelled. I grew "Yin Yang" beans, which are beautiful black and white beany yin-yangs signs including the dots. I wasn't fond of their flavor or texture but you might be. I give them away to people as magic beans. Another bean that made it was "Jacob's Cattle". Last year I didn't even bother with them as the spring and early summer were obviously going to be challenging for heat-loving vegetables. The fresh pods of shelling beans are also good for cooking but it's probably better to let them hurry along to seed by letting the first beans rush to maturity. Choose the shortest season varieties to try. Most varieties are bush types.
Edamame Soy Beans (Glycine max):
These are the salted beans served in the pod at sushi restaurants. We tried them in both the community and permaculture gardens the year before last and successfully had them mature. I can't say that the yield was impressive for the amount of space they took up but they were very tasty. They are mostly self-supporting but a string stretched between tall stakes on either side of the row will keep them from going over in rain and wind.
Fava beans (Vicia faba): These beans are grown as a green-manure crop to add nitrogen to the soil and cut down before making pods and dug in or left to break down on top. They are also grown for their delicious beans which are an Italian favorite for antipasto.They can be planted in the Fall or early Spring. The sturdy plants are self-supporting. I love their earthy flavor, especially sauteed with garlic, olive oil and herbs. These babies can take the cold and are a great fit for coastal gardens. A rare few people have a genetic allergy to these beans so if it's your first time trying them, have a small amount to start with.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
My Favorite Vegetables Part One: SALAD VEGGIES
My goals as volunteer manager of the permaculture garden at Alder Creek Farm are; first, to feed myself and p-garden volunteers; second, to demonstrate to the public what a family-scale garden (using your typical front and backyard-size areas) could look like; and thirdly, to create an outdoor lab with ongoing experimentation in soil-building with local materials, field testing of food plants for reliability in coastal conditions, home and field testing of the taste-y-ness factor, pest/disease resilience, fuss-freeness, garden-play with egg-laying, slug-terminating ducks, growing a home pharmacopeia (herbs) and rocking your eyeballs with visual delights.
Herein is the list of vegetables that have passed muster after the above scrutinies.
It is by no means the last word on the subject. You can and should conduct your own trials. I merely aim to inspire. Get with your neighbors and trade vegetable secrets. Pass the knowledge on to your progeny so that they too will eat the best food possible.
LETTUCE:
Crisphead: "Summertime" (I like to add this for extra crunch in salads later in the summer when leaf lettuces are more lax)
Romaine: "Flashy Trout's Back" (Gorgeous), "Little Gem" ( a sweet mini-size)
Butterhead: "Tom Thumb", (another very tasty mini, good for a single-person salad, very fast growing; "Flashy Butter Oak" (my favorite of all the lettuces-beautiful green oak-shaped leaves, splashed w red, and its open form is less vulnerable to slugs)
Loose-Leaf: I love the reds..."Merlot", "New Red Fire"& "Sunset" (add excitement to any salad with these hotties)
OTHER SALAD GREENS (add to the above}
My faves: Arugula, Kale (baby, esp "Nero Di Toscana"), Spinach, French Sorrel, Radiccio, baby Swiss Chard, "Bulls Blood Beet" (young purple leaves), chives.
OTHER VEGETABLES:
Above-ground: Broccoli (love Purple Sprouting), Bulb Fennel, Cauliflower, Green Beans (steamed), tomatoes,
EDIBLE FLOWERS (the visual and sometimes peppy pizazz)
Faves: Violas, Pansies, Calendulas (break apart), Borage, Chives (whole buds or full blooms broken apart), Garlic scapes, Rose petals, Nasturtiums and Thyme.
ROOTS REGGAE (sliced, diced, shaved, grated, strips or whole)
Love: Carrots, Beets, Green Onions, Kohlrabi (technically, a stem), baby Potatoes (steamed) Radishes.
HERBS (the spice of life):
Golden Marjorum, Bronze Fennel, Dill, Cilantro, Parsley, Tarragon and Chervil.
Look for "My Favorite Vegetables" Part Two: Peas & Beans (Coming Soon)
Herein is the list of vegetables that have passed muster after the above scrutinies.
It is by no means the last word on the subject. You can and should conduct your own trials. I merely aim to inspire. Get with your neighbors and trade vegetable secrets. Pass the knowledge on to your progeny so that they too will eat the best food possible.
LETTUCE:
Crisphead: "Summertime" (I like to add this for extra crunch in salads later in the summer when leaf lettuces are more lax)
Romaine: "Flashy Trout's Back" (Gorgeous), "Little Gem" ( a sweet mini-size)
Butterhead: "Tom Thumb", (another very tasty mini, good for a single-person salad, very fast growing; "Flashy Butter Oak" (my favorite of all the lettuces-beautiful green oak-shaped leaves, splashed w red, and its open form is less vulnerable to slugs)
Loose-Leaf: I love the reds..."Merlot", "New Red Fire"& "Sunset" (add excitement to any salad with these hotties)
OTHER SALAD GREENS (add to the above}
My faves: Arugula, Kale (baby, esp "Nero Di Toscana"), Spinach, French Sorrel, Radiccio, baby Swiss Chard, "Bulls Blood Beet" (young purple leaves), chives.
OTHER VEGETABLES:
Above-ground: Broccoli (love Purple Sprouting), Bulb Fennel, Cauliflower, Green Beans (steamed), tomatoes,
EDIBLE FLOWERS (the visual and sometimes peppy pizazz)
Faves: Violas, Pansies, Calendulas (break apart), Borage, Chives (whole buds or full blooms broken apart), Garlic scapes, Rose petals, Nasturtiums and Thyme.
ROOTS REGGAE (sliced, diced, shaved, grated, strips or whole)
Love: Carrots, Beets, Green Onions, Kohlrabi (technically, a stem), baby Potatoes (steamed) Radishes.
HERBS (the spice of life):
Golden Marjorum, Bronze Fennel, Dill, Cilantro, Parsley, Tarragon and Chervil.
Look for "My Favorite Vegetables" Part Two: Peas & Beans (Coming Soon)
Thursday, January 27, 2011
And the Winners are...
SMALL FRUITS FOR THE COASTAL EDGE
This is my third year as manager of the Alder Creek Farm permaculture garden, which is one of several garden projects within the Coastal Food Ecology Center here at the farm, on the north coast of Oregon on the Nehalem Bay.
Over time, I have found favorites among the fruits and vegetables; plants that are hardy enough to take the vagaries of our climate (high winds, low summer temps, salt, sandy soil, fog, rain, rain, rain, etc.), plants that produce very tasty produce and plants that have proportionately more output than input.
About seven years ago, "One Green World" nursery (www.onegreenworld.com) donated a generous selection of fruiting shrubs and trees which were planted and have been alternately nurtured and ignored.
I took over general care of the plants last year and have been grazing the fruits (my favorite way to eat them) during work breaks in the vegetable garden next to them.
Here's the list of what we have and my comments on flavor, suitability to our coastal climate and yield.
If you do not reside on the coastal edge (on the west side of Hwy 101) you may have a very different experience with these plants. If you live on the ocean side however, we may be of some help in your choices.
FIG: "Desert King": the tree is healthy and has managed to stay upright with staking but produces very little fruit; only a handful make it to ripening. If you have a sheltered place against a building with good sun, you may have better luck. It is a very pretty plant.
MEDLAR: this is a weird fruit tree popular during the Middle Ages, with largish leaves that are easily tattered in the late spring wind. It bears odd brown fruits in November that are mushy when ripe and really do taste like spiced applesauce. Output is small but I really love the strangeness factor and flavor even if it's yield is small. (Winner of the strange fruit award)
COLUMNAR APPLES: "Golden Sentinel", "Northpole", "Scarlet Sentinel"; there is a surprising amount of fruit produced by these tiny trees and they are small enough to be integrated into the vegetable garden beds where ours live. Wormy apples are a problem, but that's normal around here. Definitely well worth having and their small profile can handle the wind better than larger trees. (Winner)
ARONIA: an American native berry shrub that produced an enormous yield last year but along with most of our other small fruits, was gobbled by a plague of Robins. Bird netting would allow the fruit to ripen in peace. It's not tasty to me fresh; is said to make great juice. (Winner)
CURRANTS: Black, Red, Pink and White; these plants are some of the best adapted to our fickle climate. High yield, mostly carefree. Last season I did see some kind of rust. They blow over in the wind unless staked or planted behind a wind barrier. The Robins ate all but the white ones, which I'm guessing they considered unripe from the color. Currants are tart and tasty for fresh eating or jellies, cordials and syrups. (Winner)
GOOSEBERRIES: we have one reddish-pink gooseberry and I love it! It's sweet enough to eat fresh, unlike the old varieties and bears heavily every year. Gooseberries are related to currants and have long, nasty, bird-discouraging thorns. If you don't plan on using bird netting on your fruit plants, I recommend these or Sea Berries as the fruits most likely to be ignored by birds. (Winner)
PINEAPPLE GUAVA: they bloom, but don't bear. The blossoms are pretty and edible. The plant itself is a very handsome rounded silvery-leafed evergreen. Perhaps if you live on the coast a bit further away from the shore it would be happier and bear fruit. A great choice for the edible/ornamental garden.
CORNELIAN CHERRY DOGWOOD: This is a shrubby member of the dogwood family that bears small bright-red, pear-shaped fruit. Ours look wind-beaten by summer and may have Dogwood Anthracnose. They've had modest production of fruit so far and are tasty to us and the birds.
HONEYBERRY: the fruit is somewhat like an elongated blueberry that hangs hidden under the leaves.These are my favorite grazing fruit. Last year I brought granola and milk to the garden in the mornings and picked enough for breakfast until the robins came and wiped them out.The smaller, rounder bushes we have, which bloom later, do much better than the one we have that is a tall, early type.
Honeyberry plants are very handsome and make great ornamental shrubs and are a good choice for edible garden designs where aesthetics are a priority. (Winner w/bird netting)
GOUMI: these are a member of the Eleagnus family that bear tart, tasty bright-red fruits. Ours haven't produced heavily yet. I don't know why. They appear to be less attractive to the birds.
ELDERBERRY: European (Sambucus nigra) & Blue Elderberry (Sambucus caerulea). The black elderberries bloom really well (great for elder-blossom wine) but fruiting hasn't been as predictable, possibly due to under-watering in the summer. We have sandy, nutrient-poor soil. This year we're adding cow manure and a heavy mulch of wood chips to all of our small fruits. Elderberries probably prefer better soil and more shelter from the wind than we have.
Last year I purchased a one gallon native blue elderberry (which grows up near the summit of the coast range and in the Willamette Valley). It's too early to tell if it will adapt to the coast. I hope so; I grew up with these and my mother made jelly and wine from them.
SEA BERRY: of all the plants, these seem to be the happiest in terms of growing big and sending runners everywhere through the sand. They are a nitrogen-fixing pioneer-type of species, good for poor soils, but they are, in our garden, somewhat invasive. So far, unimpressive production, but they have mighty thorns which prevent the robins from snacking on them. Yay! If only I can figure out how to set more fruit. They are supposed to be good in coastal climates. I'm going to move one of the male plants that popped up, over next to a lonely large female plant as they are wind pollinated. Maybe that will help. I love the tasty, nutritious, tart, citrus-flavored bright orange fruits. (Win yet to be proven)
QUINCE: these trees are planted in a more protected area of the large fruit orchard and are clear winners. Everything about them says yes, yes, yes! Beautiful form and leaves. Spectacular, large, delicious (usually cooked) golden fruits. No pests! No bird problem! And they like our climate! What's not to love? (Big Winner)
Many thanks to "One Green World" for their generous donation.
Alder Creek Farm is part of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust and is located at the end of Underhill Lane between Manzanita and Nehalem off of Hwy 101. Open to the public every day. Gardens are located within the elk-fenced area next to the barn.Visitors, volunteers and new members welcome.
For more information about LNCT and Alder Creek Farm go to: www.nehalemtrust.org
Maia de Gaia's Garden Design
Maia Holliday
Edible, Native and Ornamental
Garden Consultation and Design
maiadegaia@gmail.com
This is my third year as manager of the Alder Creek Farm permaculture garden, which is one of several garden projects within the Coastal Food Ecology Center here at the farm, on the north coast of Oregon on the Nehalem Bay.
Over time, I have found favorites among the fruits and vegetables; plants that are hardy enough to take the vagaries of our climate (high winds, low summer temps, salt, sandy soil, fog, rain, rain, rain, etc.), plants that produce very tasty produce and plants that have proportionately more output than input.
About seven years ago, "One Green World" nursery (www.onegreenworld.com) donated a generous selection of fruiting shrubs and trees which were planted and have been alternately nurtured and ignored.
I took over general care of the plants last year and have been grazing the fruits (my favorite way to eat them) during work breaks in the vegetable garden next to them.
Here's the list of what we have and my comments on flavor, suitability to our coastal climate and yield.
If you do not reside on the coastal edge (on the west side of Hwy 101) you may have a very different experience with these plants. If you live on the ocean side however, we may be of some help in your choices.
FIG: "Desert King": the tree is healthy and has managed to stay upright with staking but produces very little fruit; only a handful make it to ripening. If you have a sheltered place against a building with good sun, you may have better luck. It is a very pretty plant.
MEDLAR: this is a weird fruit tree popular during the Middle Ages, with largish leaves that are easily tattered in the late spring wind. It bears odd brown fruits in November that are mushy when ripe and really do taste like spiced applesauce. Output is small but I really love the strangeness factor and flavor even if it's yield is small. (Winner of the strange fruit award)
COLUMNAR APPLES: "Golden Sentinel", "Northpole", "Scarlet Sentinel"; there is a surprising amount of fruit produced by these tiny trees and they are small enough to be integrated into the vegetable garden beds where ours live. Wormy apples are a problem, but that's normal around here. Definitely well worth having and their small profile can handle the wind better than larger trees. (Winner)
ARONIA: an American native berry shrub that produced an enormous yield last year but along with most of our other small fruits, was gobbled by a plague of Robins. Bird netting would allow the fruit to ripen in peace. It's not tasty to me fresh; is said to make great juice. (Winner)
CURRANTS: Black, Red, Pink and White; these plants are some of the best adapted to our fickle climate. High yield, mostly carefree. Last season I did see some kind of rust. They blow over in the wind unless staked or planted behind a wind barrier. The Robins ate all but the white ones, which I'm guessing they considered unripe from the color. Currants are tart and tasty for fresh eating or jellies, cordials and syrups. (Winner)
GOOSEBERRIES: we have one reddish-pink gooseberry and I love it! It's sweet enough to eat fresh, unlike the old varieties and bears heavily every year. Gooseberries are related to currants and have long, nasty, bird-discouraging thorns. If you don't plan on using bird netting on your fruit plants, I recommend these or Sea Berries as the fruits most likely to be ignored by birds. (Winner)
PINEAPPLE GUAVA: they bloom, but don't bear. The blossoms are pretty and edible. The plant itself is a very handsome rounded silvery-leafed evergreen. Perhaps if you live on the coast a bit further away from the shore it would be happier and bear fruit. A great choice for the edible/ornamental garden.
CORNELIAN CHERRY DOGWOOD: This is a shrubby member of the dogwood family that bears small bright-red, pear-shaped fruit. Ours look wind-beaten by summer and may have Dogwood Anthracnose. They've had modest production of fruit so far and are tasty to us and the birds.
HONEYBERRY: the fruit is somewhat like an elongated blueberry that hangs hidden under the leaves.These are my favorite grazing fruit. Last year I brought granola and milk to the garden in the mornings and picked enough for breakfast until the robins came and wiped them out.The smaller, rounder bushes we have, which bloom later, do much better than the one we have that is a tall, early type.
Honeyberry plants are very handsome and make great ornamental shrubs and are a good choice for edible garden designs where aesthetics are a priority. (Winner w/bird netting)
GOUMI: these are a member of the Eleagnus family that bear tart, tasty bright-red fruits. Ours haven't produced heavily yet. I don't know why. They appear to be less attractive to the birds.
ELDERBERRY: European (Sambucus nigra) & Blue Elderberry (Sambucus caerulea). The black elderberries bloom really well (great for elder-blossom wine) but fruiting hasn't been as predictable, possibly due to under-watering in the summer. We have sandy, nutrient-poor soil. This year we're adding cow manure and a heavy mulch of wood chips to all of our small fruits. Elderberries probably prefer better soil and more shelter from the wind than we have.
Last year I purchased a one gallon native blue elderberry (which grows up near the summit of the coast range and in the Willamette Valley). It's too early to tell if it will adapt to the coast. I hope so; I grew up with these and my mother made jelly and wine from them.
SEA BERRY: of all the plants, these seem to be the happiest in terms of growing big and sending runners everywhere through the sand. They are a nitrogen-fixing pioneer-type of species, good for poor soils, but they are, in our garden, somewhat invasive. So far, unimpressive production, but they have mighty thorns which prevent the robins from snacking on them. Yay! If only I can figure out how to set more fruit. They are supposed to be good in coastal climates. I'm going to move one of the male plants that popped up, over next to a lonely large female plant as they are wind pollinated. Maybe that will help. I love the tasty, nutritious, tart, citrus-flavored bright orange fruits. (Win yet to be proven)
QUINCE: these trees are planted in a more protected area of the large fruit orchard and are clear winners. Everything about them says yes, yes, yes! Beautiful form and leaves. Spectacular, large, delicious (usually cooked) golden fruits. No pests! No bird problem! And they like our climate! What's not to love? (Big Winner)
Many thanks to "One Green World" for their generous donation.
Alder Creek Farm is part of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust and is located at the end of Underhill Lane between Manzanita and Nehalem off of Hwy 101. Open to the public every day. Gardens are located within the elk-fenced area next to the barn.Visitors, volunteers and new members welcome.
For more information about LNCT and Alder Creek Farm go to: www.nehalemtrust.org
Maia de Gaia's Garden Design
Maia Holliday
Edible, Native and Ornamental
Garden Consultation and Design
maiadegaia@gmail.com
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