It’s hard to believe it is almost time to start planting the fall garden here. Our season is long enough we can double crop many of the garden veggies, and there are some things like turnips that I normally only plant in fall. I’m a bit behind in starting seeds for fall, but I now have brassicas up and going. I’m starting them indoors in 72 cell plug flats, and I’ll move them out to the greenhouse once the true leaves start coming on. I will likely pot them up into 3.5 inch pots before transplanting them out to the garden.
fall brassicas in plug flat
I like to keep the garden producing as much as possible, and over the years I’ve worked out a plan for succession planting. For instance, the garlic is out of the ground by mid July, which leaves that spot open for fall planting of brassicas like broccoli, cabbage and kohlrabi. And by August the spring planting of kohlrabi and cabbage has been harvested and the broccoli is done producing, so I prepare that area to make room for kale. I’ve already planted about a dozen kale plants where the spring kohlrabi was growing. A few (if not all) of the summer squash plants are usually done for by August, and that leaves room for turnips to be sown. Later in fall, after the sweet potatoes are dug, I can replant that bed with next year’s garlic crop.
2016 fall planting
I’ve got a spot in the kitchen garden area where onions and shallots were growing earlier, and I’m prepping that bed for radishes and multiplier onions. I can only grow things the deer won’t eat in that area, and so far they have left the alliums and radishes alone. I don’t like growing the same thing in the same spot over and over, so next year I will grow the onions and shallots in the main garden. I also have a spot in one of the cold frame beds for more kohlrabi. That way I can close the cold frame cover at night to keep the deer from eating up those plants. I’ll also start some lettuce seeds soon to go in another one of the cold frame beds. For more information on timing on when to plant things in our area, check out my Seed Starting and Planting Schedule. I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!
Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. We’re heading into summer veggie season here, and the weather is all summer all the time here, with temps in the high 90°F range last week. Cool for us this time of year is a high in the 80’s, and any morning temp below 70°F is a cause for celebration! The summer crops love it though, and we have been rewarded with a nice supply of squash and beans. I have to say the zucchini plants are mostly done for though, with a squash bug explosion that attacked them worse than the other types. I plan on starting a few zucchini plants for a fall crop, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. I do have one Astia plant growing in a Smart Pot that promises to crank out a few more zukes, and so far the squash bugs haven’t found it.
squash and beans
Even as the zucchini plants are going away, a zucchini substitute is just now coming on. I got the first Tromba d’Albenga last week, a big one that weighed two and a half pounds. I usually harvest them a bit smaller but this one surprised me! The vines are quite vigorous, and more squash are setting on already so I am hoping for a good crop on this one. In years past it has produced abundantly, and I imagine those who have grown a tromboncino squash know exactly what I mean. We spiralized this one and roasted it in a cast iron skillet. Since the flesh is much drier than a zucchini, it browned up a bit and turned out quite well. I can see us cooking it up that way again, seasoned with just olive oil and a bit of salt.
Tromba d’Albenga squash
The Derby bush beans are also winding down just as the pole beans are starting to set on. That was my strategy, to plant a small amount of bush beans to give us an early taste and then lots of pole beans to supply us throughout the summer. The Derby beans produced quite well, and I have gotten right at 5 pounds of beans from a 10 foot row. The first pole beans to set were Early Riser and Trionfo Violetto. It’s my first time growing Early Riser and this flat podded bean from Adaptive Seeds seems to be living up to its name.
first pole beans
The Gold Marie and Musica beans weren’t far behind, and a few of the Rattlesnake beans should be ready today. Fortex is just starting to bloom. The pole beans have turned into a ‘speed dating’ site for the Japanese beetles, which is unfortunately an annual event. So I visit the beans daily with a cup of soapy water and invite them for a swim.
Musica and Gold Marie beans
Another summer veggie starting to come on is eggplant. I have a couple of plants in containers, and the Patio Baby plant was the first to set fruit. This 2014 Regional AAS Winner is a true mini eggplant, making perfectly proportioned little fruits that are about 2 to 3 inches long. We used these in a mixed veggie stir fry, and the eggplant was mild tasting with tender skin. It’s my first time growing this one, and based on early results I need to grow more of them next year! I also want to try a few grilled. It will be awhile before the large fruited ones are ready, but the smaller Fairy Tale should give us a few before long.
Patio Baby eggplant
The spring crops aren’t completely done though. I cut a big head of Late Flat Dutch cabbage last week. It’s hard to judge the size in the photo but it weighed a bit over six pounds. I have two more heads of cabbage in the garden, and the broccoli is still trying to make side shoots.
Late Flat Dutch cabbage
I have really been enjoying eating the radish kimchi (kkakdugi) I made with our daikon radishes. The Sweet Baby daikons have a pinkish purple streaked flesh that turns a solid shade of color after fermenting. The kimchi radishes are crisp, tart and mildly hot, and I eat them fairly often as a side dish. The spring radishes are all gone now but I will be planting a fall crop soon, and Sweet Baby is on my grow list for sure.
Sweet Baby kimchi
My wife and I slipped away last week for a quick trip to Berea, Kentucky. We each attended a couple of classes in their annual Festival of Learnshops. I took one class on Making Natural Artisanal Sodas and one on Shiitake and Oyster Mushroom Log Inoculation. Both were quite informative, and I came home with two logs (one each Shiitake and Oyster) plus a kombucha scoby. I drink kombucha occasionally, but I had resisted making it myself since it would be something else to feed and keep alive. I already have water and dairy kefir grains, a ginger beer ‘plant’, plus my sourdough starter to keep going. But I couldn’t resist, and now I have my first batch of kombucha brewing. Grow little scoby! It may take a couple of batches to get the hang of making it to suit my tastes. The instructor brought a batch of blueberry booch to the class to sample which was quite tasty, and that helped convince me to make my own. His tasted way better than any commercial ones I have bought.
kombucha scoby
While we were in Berea we also visited their annual Craft Festival. There were lots of artists there selling and displaying their works, as well as live demos. In the below photo I’m standing by one of the 12 hand sculptures scattered around town. They are part of the 2003 Show of Hands public art project, featuring the designs of twelve artists with ties to the Berea area. They moved this one in for the craft festival. To me the six foot hands are also symbolic of Berea reaching out to visitors as well as the artistic community. I wore one of my wife’s custom dyed tee shirts for the occasion, since she is my favorite artist. And let me also say how happy I am to have a wife who doesn’t mind when I load two big logs in the trunk along with our luggage for the trip home!
me by one of the hand sculptures
And I can’t resist sharing a pic my wife got of our cat Puddin. She has taken to lying on the floor on her back lately, but this latest pose makes us think she is practicing cat yoga. It’s not like the cat-cow pose though!
Puddin in a yoga pose
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!
Today I finished digging the last of the alliums. Lately I’ve been working in the garden early in the morning to escape our brutal heat and humidity. It was already 80°F when I got started at 7am this morning, but that’s better than the 98°F it reached this afternoon! First off I dug the remaining 35 garlic plants, which were all silverskin types including Idaho Silver, Nootka Rose and Silver White. I had thought earlier the garlic bulbs were running a bit smaller than last year, but these silverskins actually seemed a bit bigger than last year’s crop. I’ll know for sure when I weigh them up after they are cured, but either way we will surely have plenty of garlic to eat for the next year or so. The plants were falling over much like onions do when they are ready to dig.
silverskin garlic ready to dig
The silverskins are good keepers, and I always save them for using last after the other ones are done for. Nootka Rose is one of my favorites, and last year’s crop of it was still usable as of last week. All the newly harvest garlic went to the basement, where I hang them up to dry. It’s the best place we have, and with the dehumidifier running they should be fully cured in three or four weeks. At that point I trim the tops and roots and put them into shallow containers for storage.
Nootka Rose garlic
I also pulled the shallots from the main garden this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised to see some had done better than I expected. All of the shallots were planted last fall from sets, and all bolted in mid to late spring, so I had low expectations. I planted Dutch Yellow and Conservor, and the Dutch Yellow actually went ahead and made some decent shallots. We typically don’t use a lot of shallots here, but that could change with homegrown ones available. The Dutch Yellow is supposed to be a good keeper, even if it isn’t as mild as some of the other shallots. My plan will be to use the bigger ones and save some of the smaller ones for replanting this fall.
Dutch Yellow Shallots
The Conservor shallots didn’t do as well, making mostly small bulbs. The two in the below photo were the biggest of the lot. The sets I got were huge, and that might have contributed to the poor performance. If they keep, I’ll try replanting some of the small ones and see if they do better next year.
Conservor shallots
I also planted Yellow Potato Onions last fall, and I think they did quite well. They didn’t bolt like the shallots did, and matured and dried down like they are supposed to do. These are a multiplier onion I got from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and their heirloom strain dates back prior to 1790. I didn’t get any of the 4 inch bulbs mentioned in the listing, but I did get lots of nice 2 inch sized ones. I grew these in the kitchen garden area, and I think this fall I will replant them in the main garden area where soil fertility is a little better.
Yellow Potato Onions
Earlier in the week I pulled all of the remaining onions from the kitchen garden bed. I grew Candy, Super Star and Red Torpedo Tropea this year, with plants from Dixondale Farms. They did better than last year, and while none of them were huge they were nice sized and will be useful in the kitchen. I plan to grow these in the main garden next year also, assuming I can find room for the onions and shallots.
onion harvest
Red Torpedo Tropea usually does well for me here, and is the best red I have grown here in our intermediate day latitude. They are a tasty onion, and I especially like them grilled. None of the onions I grew are storage types, but they should keep for several months and keep us well supplied.
Red Torpedo Tropea onions
I hope you have enjoyed this update on the 2017 alliums, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings from Happy Acres!
The All-America Selections Organization recently announced the first three 2018 AAS Winners. For those not familiar with it, the AAS was founded in 1932 and is the only independent non-profit plant trialing organization in North America. I’ve grown quite a few of the AAS Winners in my gardens over the years, and many have become my favorites to grow year after year.
The new group of winners, all in the National category, includes:
American Dream sweet corn
Onyx Red ornamental pepper
Red Racer cocktail tomato
American Dream is a bicolor hybrid sweet corn that is ready to harvest in 77 days after sowing. The ears are 7 inches long, and the plants grow 6 to 7 feet tall. In trials it compared favorably with Honey ‘N Pearl.
American Dream sweet corn
Onyx Red is an ornamental pepper with dark black foliage and shiny red round fruits. The compact plants are suited for in-ground and container plantings. In trials it compared favorably with Black Pearl, which is a 2006 AAS Winner itself.
Onyx Red ornamental pepper
Red Racer is a cocktail tomato with small red fruits that are larger than a cherry or grape tomato and mature as a cluster of ripe fruits. The compact determinate plants grow to about 3 feet tall, which make them great for small gardens and container plantings. It compared favorably with Mountain Magic in the trial gardens, which is a popular tomato in this small-fruited salad tomato category.
Red Racer cocktail tomato
I am excited to be growing Red Racer here this summer in our garden. Harris Seeds and Garden Trends Wholesale are promoting this variety, and made transplants available for garden communicators and the media to try out. The folks at the AAS asked me if I’d like to try growing Red Racer, and regular readers should not be surprised to hear I said yes! I plan on growing a couple of plants in-ground in the main garden, and one plant in a 10-gallon Smart Pot behind the greenhouse. With any luck I should be harvesting the first tomatoes around Labor Day, and I will be sure and share the results here.
