Fresh Start: Starting Pots of Vegetables

The New Farmer has been anxious to start gardening. However, we continue to have wild weather. Ice earlier this week and a few snow flakes were coming down this morning when I went out to check on the plants.

Despite the tremendous cold there are still some broccoli and other winter greens that have made it through, probably because they are partially shielded by a hedge that is a wind break. Those cotoneaster have to be trimmed back severely each year but I think I will wait a few more weeks before I cut them back.
However, today was Week Minus 9 (which means 9 weeks before the last frost). Each week there is a plan to start either pots inside and/or plant/transplant outside into the garden.
We have spent time last week improving the soil with Black Kow compost, lime, blood meal and then tilled in all the improvements. The soil looks great.
On other news, The Farmer's Friend came over and helped with digging up the Fig tree saplings that were started last year. They were laid on the ground and covered with dirt. They put down fig tree roots where they were buried. So we took up the new saplings and put them into milk jug pots (thanks to our local Starbucks) and potentially have started 8 new fig trees that were shared with friends. The Farmer has been thinking about Figs since he has been sharing canned figs with friends and family.
The New Farmer will start adding her own posts to our blog this year.

New Year 2011; Some New Seeds and Continued Harvest

A continued harvest. Although the photograph is a little dark I have harvested a few heads of broccoli from the garden. Today the plants are covered with snow again. To me this is my own continued evidence of climate change. It is hotter at times and then we have extremes of temperature. Some people point to times like this and say there is no change in the climate, but they forget the over 100 days of over 100 degree temperatures that baked the Farmers plots this last summer. I hope that the plants which have many side shoots will still have time to produce.
There are some preparations that have been going on. I have taken the tiller in for a tune up and stocked up on compost, lime and later this month I hope to start some soil preparation. The New Farmer has made a lot of new pots and we have added lights on the top and bottom shelve of the potting bench so we can double up on the numbers of seedlings that we start. I noticed that some things were not as successful as others and that perhaps larger pots and letting them get a little larger before putting them out will help. Since we have more room we can do this.
Great trip to the International Market in Atlanta and found some parsnips, some peppers and kabocha, which is a oriental pumpkin that I hope to try out this year. However, my own surprise is still ripening  tomatoes tomatoes that I was able to bring up from the basement.
The Suburban Farmer has gone through all the seeds and thrown out old ones, replaced some that have been used up and ordered new types of seeds, like peppers seeds, that might enable us to grow fruits like this.
This new year we have harvested 580 grams of produce to report with  broccoli, spinach leaves and a few other things that the Suburbam Farmer can still harvest.

Wrapping Up and Making New Plans

 This will probably be the last post for this blog this calender year. We have had some pretty amazing accomplishments. They would include making our goal of 200 KG in November which was the basic goal and then surpassing that when the tomato crop took us up to 500lbs+ for year.
In fact we are still eating tomatoes that are ripening in the house as you can see from the photo. All of the food has been chemical free and organically fertilized.
So where do we go from here? The New Farmer and I will be studying the seed catalogs and making our selections. I want to grow some old favorites but also substitute some new varieties for versions that seemed less successful. The Farmer's daughter has suggested a specific tomato varietal that she would like to have us grow.
Goals and focus for the coming year.
Try new varieties
Devote more space to preparing and cooking the produce we gather
Eat out of the garden all year. Last year we started in January but only started to eat from the garden in late February. This year with the winter greens we have the possibility that we have something to eat in the garden every day of the year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
The Suburban Farmer

Hallelujah 500 Pounds of Produce Seasons Greeting

This is what the Farmer and the  Farmer's Wife have done to celebrate the season but also mark our front yard which this week has produced a little more leeks and kale that has brought our total of food produced organically and freshly in our front yard to over 500 Pounds. It is an amazing thing to think that so much food has come out of our front yard.
We are still getting fresh tomatoes with the green tomatoes we brought in almost 3 weeks ago  that are still ripening. A lot of friends and colleagues at work have benefited from the rapidly ripening fruits.
However, it was some kale that helped push us over the next goal.
I don't mind these deer visiting the garden since although they graze they are doing no harm to what we still have planted in the vegetable plots. 
227.482 KG which is over 500 lbs

Leeks and Collards

These stringy things are part of my leek beds. I have now been trying to grow leeks for almost a year.  Even for the professional farmer leeks take a long time to mature. You start them inside and the transfer them outside. When about 10 inches tall you make a 6 inch deep hole and plant the leek deeply into the earth to get the blanched part. So I will try them in some soup tonight.
I also picked up some collards. These greens look very vigorous. The weather is unusually cold. I found some water drops that had turned to ice.
This was 770 grams for a total of 227.182 KG which is 499.8lbs.

Turnips and Green Tomatoes turn RED!!!!

Turnips can stay in the ground even through a frost and not be damaged. Some people think  they taste better after a freeze. Today we picked 1.3 KG of turnips that the Farmer and the New Farmer will be sharing.

There are not that many plants in the garden still. The weather was strange with really warm temperatures and no frost till late November.  That might be good for tomatoes but not so good for my winter crops.























Now we are dropping down into the 20's and even teens overnight and things like broccoli that normal like cold weather are looking a little rough. This is usually the best time to grow theses kinds of crops in the South because in the spring it gets too warm to quickly and cabbage moth is a real problem. On the other hands the collards look robust.

This picture of red tomatoes was taken today. These are nearly 2KG of tomatoes that have ripened from the green tomatoes we had brought in to place under the light. Now that is great to have fresh tomatoes in December.

1.726KG to add brings the total to 226.412KG

I had made a calculation error last post and this new amount is  498 LBS so the New Farmer will be disappointed  we did not pass her goal of 500lbs; we will soon.




 

Red and Green for the Season

I have not been able to post for the last two weeks. The New Farmer has been busy. It has gotten cold and she has worked hard to cover and protect the tomatoes. Today we decided to take down the tomatoes as it is too cold outside for them to ripen.

The New Farmer has found that if you took some fruits into the warm and put them under the light they finish ripening.I sampled one of these December tomatoes and it is still much better than what I could get from the store.

Since this test was successful we decided to bring in much of the fruit and see if we could ripen it. I will share some of the green tomatoes with friends if they want to try to ripen some tomatoes for themselves. We picked 15KG of green tomatoes and took up the dead and dying plants and the front yard garden is starting to look pretty good again.
















With the New Farmers pickings over the last 2 weeks plus the large harvest of green tomatoes today I have 24.633KG to add to the 200.053KG gives us

224.686 KG which for the 

English System means that we are now at 498 LBS