Todays Harvest.

We are getting lots of good stuff from the garden. Way more then we can eat so we share with friends and coworkers. We are not weighting the veggies this year. It takes a lots of time and we have done it for several years. It was dry but this week we have had rain which is good. Here are some of the things we harvested.

Back in the Garden

These are some recent produce from the garden.  This year I have not been weighing everything I bring in but I have some new types of crops to show off. Plus I am working at Grace.

These long beans are a type of pole bean from Southeast Asia.  the are used in stir fry dishes a lot and are a lot of fun.

I have a bunch of new types of tomatoes but the usually ones like the yellow pear and cherry tomatoes. Soon some of the new varieties like the black cherry are just coming on.

I made this roast of vegetables yesterday.  It had purple potatoes, turnips, carrots, ,magda squash, long beans, tomatoes pear and cherry, with thyme and marjoram, all from the grarden

I have some of my best carrot crops. I have lots of beans today much more than I can pick, eat or use.
The Grace Garden is going well with nice large eggplants, tomatoes.

Todays Harvest.

This is the harvest for today
. Been getting lots of blueberries, green beans and the lettuce is still good. Some peppers are starting to come in. There is lots of figs.
A few tomato's the cherry kind are getting ripe. The last few days have been cooler and it seems to have slowed down things a little.

Strawberry Hills

 
The Farmer is coming in from the Strawberry Patch.today. This farm has a small patch. With limited space the Farmer fits things in where he can. The harvest this year has been only fair. The patch is old and needs to be taken up and replanted.  You can take and divide the plants and make new patches so you don't have to through them away.

When there are berries they are delicious. These are usually small secondary berries the are incredibly flavorful and not like the large strawberry in the store that looks wonderful but which is often white on the inside and insipid in taste.
 
If you are not use to strawberry in nature you may be surprised to see stubby little plants lying on the ground. We lose a lot the crops to slugs and probably chipmunks that can easily nibble on the fruit. The name strawberry comes from the idea of putting straw down around the hills so that the fruit would rest on straw and be lifted up off the ground away from the slugs. I would say this is only partly successful.

Farmers will plant large fields with mounds, plastic and lots of sprays to grow those fruit you see in the store. These are one of the most contaminated foods when it comes to pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_strawberry
Learn more about strawberry here.

 
Thought the farm would show off 8 foot tall sugar snap pea plants and
 
new potatoes which will be featured on a future post.
.

FAVA BEANS

 
The Farmer is growing Fava Beans again this year. The Farmer would like to give a shout out to Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds. In previous years the beans were grown for interest and then the plants themselves are so handsome and unusual. However, lots of flowers and few if any beans.

This season there are lots of beans on each stalk. Where before if there was one pod the plant was being productive this year many stalks have 5 or 6 pods on them.

None of the pods are mature yet. When mature there will be four or five large beans, as big as a large butter bean. Also the beans are snug in a furry lined pod. When older they are first blanch and the outer hull is removed. Lot of work. This is supposed to be one of the oldest of the domesticated crops. The broad bean is common through out the Middle East and Mesopotamia.

Little known fact is that felafel is often made with this kind of bean. 

For more cool facts about Fava (Broad) Beans check out this link. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicia_faba

The Garden at the church is producing well now. The Farmer was gone last week but apparently a very good crop was harvested and then this week 5 large bags of mustard, turnip, chard and also some sugar snaps filled the basket for the offering. With 90 degrees predicted for this week it was time to take out thing before they bolt and put in some squash and cukes.

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

 
Lettuce is a cool weather plant. Either in the spring or in the fall and winter. The Farmer has some loose leaf that was sown in a patch and also some head lettuce that was started in the side under the lamps then brought out. Lettuce is ancient and the Romans grew lettuce and introduce it throughout the Empire.

The head lettuce is a butter-head variety. The leafs are soft and have a butter kind of texture to them. They will go well with some fresh lettuce, walnuts and some cheese.

The leaf lettuce that was sown into the soil has four different varieties. Two are cos/romaine lettuces one red and the other the more standard green. If the cos had more room it would grow into the large heads you see in the stores. Then there is a green and red leaf lettuce.

There is a lot and it may be time to make a lettuce soup.

Today the poppy had another bloom. This was a pleasant surprise and we will see these only for two to at most three days.

Learn more about lettuce.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce

Spring 2012 Photographs: Pisum Sativum (Common Pea)

Dear Reader
The Suburban Farmer has not been very active on the blog this year. The Farmer, the New Farmer and others have been farming but what should we say in the blog. This year The Farmer is not going to weigh all the food we grow. For the last 2 years we have been measuring all the crops and have meet our goals of raising more than 225 KG each year which is enough to support the calories needs for one adult  for the year.

Things though have been busy with the new garden down at the church. Today was the second time this month we have been able to harvest from the raised beds. Today there were 6 shopping bags of beets, beet greens, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens and radishes. There was a wicker basket that was presented as an offering and along with the bread, wine;  this food was presented and placed on the alter during the mass. At the conclusions of worship 6 different people took food away. Beaming faces.

So instead of weighing food the Suburban Farmer plans to have photos of the wonderful plants that grow in the garden. 

The Farmer was moved to do this when he walked outside and find that one of the poppies, Asiatic Poppy,  had suddenly bloomed.

Today the Farmer shares the sugar snap peas. These peas  had to be planted in February and have been growing and now are nearly 5 feet tall.
 
This plant is one of amazing delicacy. It needs a strong netting as a trellis to stand up. Constantly the leaves are bending and folding so that peeping out will be the flower. A white flower that usually means that it will be a night time visitor that will pollinate this plant.
 
Learn more about peas here. 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea

Working in gardens.

The weather was beautiful yesterday. The new farmers sister was visiting so we told the chance to use the extra help. We worked in both the home garden and the downtown church garden.

Everyone wanted to be outside in the spring weather. We took wire cages down town for the tomato's plants. We planted Tomato's, peppers, egg plants, herbs and so very hot peppers. We need to be sure not to put any of them in the salad. It does not take much to make it to hot for most people.

We have spinach, lettuce, radishes and some greens left over from winter to eat now. we can hardly wait for some fresh tomato's. Our snap peas will be ready soon. It was a great day for all

Farmer away family plays.

While the Farmer was away the Farmer's wife, daughter and new Farmer did some renovation to the farm. It looks really good and will keep wild life out. The Snap peas should be ready in a week or 10 days.

Things are blooming everywhere and the pollen is high.

We have tomato's, peppers and other things ready to go into the ground. It is over 80 today but they say you could have frost until April 15th.

Good farming to all.

Plants ready but ground to cold?

We have some beautiful plants ready to go into the ground but it is still to cold and we could still have a frost. We do have some peas and radishes coming up. I can't wait to work in the garden again.

We have some new varieties this year, I think about 10 different kinds of Tomato's.

Cold weather and Plants almost ready to go into the ground.

We have had some very cold weather and we have some plants ready to go into the ground. These pictures are of some plants we planted the last week of January. As you can see they are growing quite well. As soon as the weather warms up we will try to get them in the ground.

The Artichoke we planted last year has so far made it. We have mulched it when it gets cold and it is still green, so hoping to have some this summer.

Hoping to have more growing news soon.