Harvest Monday–22 August 2011

Tomatoes and beans are the story this week. I have been harvesting the tomatoes when they start to show color (or in the case of the Romas, when they drop). The tomatoes rapidly ripen on the kitchen counter anyway and I am hoping the plants will be able to devote their energy to develop the young fruits on the top of the plants before cold weather arrives.

A few heirloom tomatoes below. Upper left is a Cherokee Purple, upper right is a Brandywine. The tomatoes at the bottom are my mystery tomato that came in a 6-pack of Roma tomato plants.



Jade beans, a cucumber and Broccoli shoots.



More Jet Star and Roma tomatoes. The Romas are definitely starting to slump, but the tomatoes are not coloring at the same time, so sauce making may be extended.



Again, more tomatoes and beans, plus another cucumber and a couple of Sunburst patty pan squash. I really like the patty pans. They got a later start than the Zucchini and put out just male flowers for two weeks, but are now setting fruit. The texture is creamy smooth and the flavor sweet and nutty, excellent for eating raw.



On Saturday, I removed the floating row cover from the collard/kale bed and cut a large amount of collard leaves. I am going to try freezing the collards after washing and chopping them.



Another large picking of tomatoes, some beans, and another patty pan. You can also see a Poblano pepper in the front. The beans, Poblano, and a tomato went into another batch of stewed green beans, some of which was frozen.



You too can join in the Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions!

Harvest Monday–15 August 2011

This week it was mostly tomatoes and beans. I cut a lot of basil and parsley to make pesto, which I will freeze.



A couple of Jet Star tomatoes and my first Sunburst squash, hand-pollinated. The cover is now off the squash and I am taking my chances with whatever squash bugs are left.

Brick Ends Farm Compost

Earlier this summer I was in the produce department of a local Hannaford supermarket and noticed a pile of white sacks with a sign about Hannaford recycling its waste. I got the impression that the sacks of compost were made from Hannaford waste, but I am not sure that’s the case.



The compost was made by Brick Ends Farm, a non-profit organization dedicated to “restoring fertility to worn out farmland, initially through green manure crops and later through heavy application of organic compost.” The compost is made from organic produce and is usually sold in truck load quantities. The bag I purchased was the product of a collaboration between Brick Ends Farm and Kidz b Kidz.

Kidz b Kidz is a Needham-based non-profit organization with the goal to teach children about “empathy and the importance of helping others, and encourage them to find ways to use their artful hands and generous spirits to do good in the world.”  The compost is a project of Kidz b Kidz, using compost donated by Brick Ends Farm, and bagged by developmentally disabled adults from Bass River to give them meaningful employment. The artwork was done by kids at Kidz b Kidz, and the profits are donated to Boston Children’s Hospital. How much more feel-good could you get into one bag? The compost is great and it is packaged in a nice cloth bag with a string tie to re-close it.

Frittata

This is a good time of year with all the vegetables from the garden. Dinner planning is easy, usually a little grilled meat or fish with a vegetable and a salad, and the grocery bills are significantly less. I usually look for tasty, low-carb recipes that use a lot of vegetables without increasing their volume. I remember spending hours following a Julia Child recipe for ratatouille that turned an eggplant and a couple of zucchini into a huge pot of grey, rubbery stuff that sat in the fridge for a week before I tossed it.

A frittata is sort of an Italian omelet and is especially useful when you have nothing else in the refrigerator for dinner. The Spanish have a similar dish called a tortilla and made with potatoes. It is a staple in tapa bars.You don’t need a recipe for this, I just sort of eyeball it. Of course, the frittata is best served with a large salad from the garden, to use up some of that lettuce and cucumbers. And it’s great left  over, for breakfast or lunch, cold or reheated. My sort-of recipe follows.

Harvest Monday–August 8, 2011

We had rain this weekend so I did not visit the garden on Sunday. I visited this morning just to check on things and came home with with a bag of veggies. A couple of cucumbers, some Cubanelle peppers, a Lady Bell pepper, Sungold cherry tomatoes, a Raven zucchini, a third picking of Jade green beans, and Jet Star tomatoes. Not bad for having no expectations.

I picked a couple of the Jet Stars with catfacing that were starting to color. The larger one weighs 20 ounces, the smaller one 14 ounces.The one at the bottom of the picture was picked semi-green on Friday and is already ripening nicely. With a heavy load of tomatoes on the vines, I usually harvest the first ones to color up and ripen them at home, so the plant can put its energy into the remaining fruit. This year with the bizarre weather, some of the earliest fruit to set was affected by catfacing, caused by cool temperatures resulting in incomplete pollination of the fruit. The later fruits do not have this problem.

I have several pounds of green beans harvested last week in the fridge. I may try to blanch and freeze some of them using my vacuum sealer. In the past, I found the frozen beans to be mushy and watery. I may also try to freeze some stewed beans, larger beans that are simmered with onions, tomatoes and a chili pepper for about an hour. I will post a recipe later, but this is one of my favorites.

Visual Diagnostic Aid

I visit the garden almost daily and one of the first things I do is check all of the plants for signs of problems. This is how you find you have a pest or disease problem before the damage becomes too severe. With experience we learn to recognize many problems, but there is always something new attacking our plants. The trick is to figure out what is causing the problem from the visual clues we get observing the plant.

I learned of a really great visual diagnostic tool from the High Mowing Seeds blog. The tool is the Landscape Problem Solver from the Home and Garden Information Center of the University of Maryland. The site works by starting with a description of the problem, then offers a list of possible causes. Select what you think might be the cause and you get a page with detailed descriptions and photographs with information on how to treat or prevent the problem. The advice includes information on organic and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques.

This was a fortuitous find because I have just noticed a problem with my zucchini. I have my summer squash under floating row cover to hopefully ward off the squash bugs and borers. The downside is I have to check each day for female flowers and hand pollinate them. I have already harvested two zucchini and have two more successfully pollinated. But now I noticed a lot of leaf damage I am not familiar with. I took the photos below so I would have a reference to use when I go research the problem.



The leaves seem to have lots of small yellow/brown spots. Some of the leaves are starting to yellow and wilt. I looked under the leaves and around the raised bed for evidence of some kind of insect pest but found nothing. Using the HGIC website above, it seems like this type of damage is typical of squash bugs, which suck juices from the leaves. I suspect the bugs are capable of crawling under the row cover. I didn’t find bugs or nymphs or eggs under the leaves. Following the site’s advice, I will lay down some trap boards under the plants and check them each morning. Meanwhile. I sprayed the plant with insecticidal soap. And I decided to remove the row cover so I don’t have to hand pollinate. Hopefully it is late enough that the threat from squash pests is diminished.

Community Garden Update

It is now August and the garden plots in the Bolton Community Garden are looking green and healthy, despite the weather, insects and disease we have had to put up with. Below are some pictures of the Garden.