Apples and other dangerous Harvest(s) Monday

I've shared with the bugs. I will share with the critters including deer. And then we will feast on the bits that remain. This tree is close to ripe now.

A hint of autumn was in the air when I made my first batch of apple sauce yesterday but not before braving the bald headed hornet. Actually I didn't come face to face with them but my poor niece did. I just hope that the now eradicated nest build at head level in the apple tree isn't the thing she remembers most about her trip to Canada.


I asked the name of the tree that we got the large, early maturing soft and delicious apples and the previous owner answered: "This is an old tree." So that's their name folks: Old Tree Apples.

We are also dripping with ground cherries. I bought these starts at a local organic nursery and I asked what variety they were and got 'Ground Cherries' as an answer. They are not partial to the searing heat we've been having or the mini-drought which thankfully was broken by a nice soaking yesterday. Other than eating out of hand, anyone have some good recipes?


Some sort of ground cherry that has been getting sunburnt over the last week. Still lots of life left in it though and it's smothered with fruit.

Related to the cherry in the husk is the tomatillo. I suppose these are almost salsa verde ready but not quite ripe enough for me yet -



- and their dangerous cousin, the Litchi tomato or Morelle De Balbis as it is known in French.


It's a pretty plant. In my garden, only reaching about 3-4 feet though I've heard stories of tree like monsters.

Unripe berries equiped with the same spines that cover this plant.


It's a weed in some places but here we 'just' get ripe fruit. Certainly not something I'd like to step on while trapsing around the garden.

I really like the flavour though some are less partial. I also like the fruit Sunberry (another tomato cousin) which is sweet and can be eaten out of hand unlike Garden Huckleberry but I know there are some who aren't fans of this fruit either. Well were on the subject, I like eggplant. Doesn't everyone?*


Todays tomatoes lining up for the cutting board.

That's a small list of the harvests this week which included herbs, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, greens, and much more. What I'm really looking forward to is the first of the melons! I have hopes for next Monday.


For the interested, the weed perennial Clammy groundcherry. The berries are not ripe yet but this originated from Yuko's Open Pollinated Seed and she tells me they taste yummy. They will cover the ground rather like Chinese Lanterns and also like them, the Colorado Potato Beetle seem to prefer them so might be a useful trap crop.

* Okay so not everyone likes eggplant. I figure it's because they haven't had it lightly battered and fried until it turns creamy inside and crispy outside. So good.

Time to get seedy!!

A bunch of Brassica napa seeds.


I've up to my armpits in Brassicaceae seeds such as rattail and daikon radish, as well as Michihili Chinese Cabbage (or that's what my tattered memory tells me it is), Red Ursa kale and however much mustard seed I'd like to collect which is none unless I get a request. I'm letting this generation create a dense, edible dirt cover for early spring next year, and hopefully a semi-feral population after that.


I've made many a post on collecting seeds of this most delicious family so I won't repeat myself (this time) but here is a pictorial of how we threshed a large amount of Chinese Cabbage Michihili.

Possibly way more than you want to know about brassica seed saving



My eldest demonstrating with very serious face how she walks the chaff off the seed.


To date, I've collected:


Michihili (I think) Chinese Cabbage*
Daikon and Rattail radish (these might have crossed)*
Unnamed Ground Cherry*
Red Streaks Mustard*
Sunberry
Chickpeas, mixed
Beans, many kinds
Peas, many kinds
Buckwheat, scant



The beautiful but leathally spined Milk Thistle's seeds.


Coriander*
Some Dill
Milk Thistle*
Edible Chrysanthemum

Double somniferum poppy*
Asian Poppy
Flander's Poppy
Blanket Flower*


If they have a star, then they will be appearing on the trade list soon.

... TBC ... When I finish cooking a couple lasagnas and make a fesh salad for the visiting Fam.

Harvest Never Stops Monday

About half the onions braided in sister-in-laws hand - Hi!

Summer and vegetable production is in full swing. Alongside visiting with my family who are here for a month, volunteering for Canadian Organic Growers (visit them :) and trying to get the gardens here into shape, I'm also harvesting. It is the time of year that it might be faster to tell you what I'm not harvesting than the reverse but here goes in bad poem format:


Various tomatoes - lots of blossom end rot on some - grrr - with ground cherries and some sunberries.

When summer sun starts to shine
On greens I do dine
Waiting for the first taste
Of fresh tomato paste
Eggplants, peppers and zuchini
Make a lovely sauce for fetuccini
Not outdone by the berries
Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
Did I forget the currants?
Or the beans and peas in torrents?
How about all those crops of cole?
Broccoli and cabbage on a roll
Garlic, onion and carrot
Gosh I have a healthy diet
Squash and cantaloupe are almost done
I know I am forgetting some
Like the weeds that grow just as fast
But soon summer will be past

Did you get all that?


My mouth waters ever time I see this melon.

***

In other news, per suggestion of a friend, I have been thinking of turning my twitter account into a nagging garden Aunt alert so if you wish me to nag you about what to plant when, let me know.

P.S. Plant some more lettuce would you!

P.S.S. Upcoming blog posts: more weird veggies, my acreage under construction and lots of brassica seed threshing.


Daikon radish, rattail radish and chinese cabbage are among the many brassica seeds that are currently in the drying shed.

While I'm away...

...have some broccoli


The variety is nutri-bud

My youngest couldn't wait.


There's nothing like homegrown brocco-buds

More on growing broccoli, cabbage, cauliflor and other favs

See you soon!

Harvesting the Garlic Monday

Approximately 170 bulbs of Music.

I've harvested our main eating garlic that was being unduly harassed by leek moth a few weeks early. Hopefully, I hit the right balance between maturity and lack of pest induced bulb damage for good storage. The above garlic was all from a local, nursery source of the variety Music. I also have a mixed variety patch of planting garlic that came from my old garden. I've been selecting them for a couple of years and they seem much healthier so they'll stay in the ground for now. Among the adapative pressures was leek moth which might be the reason.

Even kids love garlic - youngest hugging harvest.


You can exclude leek moth by using row covers. I've noticed that plants growing in areas that are overgrown with other plants (yes, I mean weeds) suffer less damage so interplanting might be an interesting strategy to explore.



How to Grow Garlic Easy Style


Seed Garlic - Source Locally


This is the time of year to start thinking about your glorious garlic harvest next year. Keep an eye peeled for local garlic festivals. Most market gardeners have copped on to the fact that people buy to plant as well as eat so sell bags of seed garlic too (yes, it all about packaging). Don't be shy about asking whether your supplier suffers any disease or pest issues in their fields. I am pretty sure I first got leek moth from a supply of planting garlic. Our mini farm came with it this time. Examine and discard any bulbs with feeding damage or mold issues.




Yaaaaaaank! This is a great crop to grow with kids as it is easy to plant, grows without too much problem and is pretty easy to harvest. Some kids might enjoy fresh garlic bread afterward too or just the bread... but at least they will get some joy out of harvesting even if they dont' want to eat it on purpose.


Around These Parts, Plant in the Fall


Plant out seed garlic around the same time you plant spring bulbs for the best yield around here. Just like other 'root' crops, they'll grow best in lighter soils but garlic is pretty adaptable. Any normal veggie garden soil will do. You can also plant out those little bulbils that develop on the end of the flowering stalks called scapes but they'll take a few years before producing anything sizeable.


I space each garlic clove with centres about 4-6 inches apart, several inches deep. They'll put down roots in the fall and be up first thing in the spring, often before the snow has completely melted.

Works well in a permenantly mulched bed


I've never had to water or feed garlic but ammending the bed with compost, green manure or the like and watering when needed along with mulching to hold in fertility might give you prize winning bulbs. So far, I've been happy with yields without much fuss other than mulching to keep out the weeds. This is one veggie that works well in a lasagna / continutallly mulched beds.

Depending on what ails alliums in your area, you may need to watch for fungal diseases, viruses or pests like the aforementioned leek moth. I like to examine plants for feeding tunnels and then squish any cocoons and larvae I find. If you enjoy scary stories then check out the OMAFRA link to garlic growing with its usual list of problems.

Eat the scapes as an early garlic treat

You don't have to snap off the scapes but it helps to redivert energy into bulb formation. They also taste great in pesto, fried in butter, pickled or just raw cut in salad if you like the sharp garlic taste. You could leave them on to harvest the baby bulbils that form on top. Some people even use these to sprout in the winter as well as to increase planting stock.



Tada! I love taking pictures of veggies in my kids hands. It's all about scale.


You can braid softneck types but around here, we normally grow hardnecks. The difference is obvious if you've ever grown garlic. Hardnecks have a hard neck. Besides, I like to flame the foliage to get rid of any leek moth that I may have overlooked and to help control disease. You could try hot composting in a sealed plastic bag or in an active compost pile or discard.



Kids cleaning up the garlic. They had this whole storyline about hair cutting and skin cleaning going on as they worked. We did have 170 bulbs so after the first five minutes, the excitement of just staring at garlic wore off.

Store garlic in a dry, airy place to scare away vampires and improve longevity.

The garlic needs to be cured which just means dried for a couple days before storage. This is best done in a dry, airy local. Afterwards, store as you would normally garlic. I tend to peel off the outer layer to reveal a clean bulb beneath but be careful not to take off too much protective skin.
These guys also have instructions for drying garlic which would be great for those damaged bulbs and to extend the time you have homegrown garlic.

If you forget to harvest a bulb, it'll split into a bunch of crowded mini bulbs. You could try to grow some feral garlic though I think they'd suffer from too much competition to perform at their best. You could pull up your second year mini bulbs for replanting in the fall too!


P.S. Elephant garlic is actually a bulbing leek and I imagine that leek moth would LOVE it.


***


More on different varieties of garlic

Boundary Garlic Farm on Growing Garlic - lots of great tips

Garlic Festival in Carp and the rest of the calendar

Harvest Monday - not for chicken hearted

We'll start with the safe harvests:


Mixed new potatoes, red currants and some delicious white currants.

The girls were helping me do all the harvesting today which consisted of new potatoes (and a couple a bit longer in the tooth), shelling peas, currants, a few cherries and a bunch currant sized wild strawberries.


Colorado Potato Beetle eggs are in orange clusters under the leaves.

There were some Colorado Potato Beetle larvae and eggs but not in plague like proportions. I'd like to thank the predators that were also hanging out on the potato foliage such as daddy longlegs. Ladybugs, ground beetles, lacewings, spined soldier bug, two-spotted stinkbug, parasitic wasps and two fly species also prey on CPB eggs or larvae according to Growing Potatoes Organically by Canadian Organic Growers.


Young larvae of the Colorado Potato Beetle munching away. I take care of them with my crushing fingers.

We also 'harvested' a couple chickens this week. As I have not parted a chicken's life since I was a little girl on a hobby farm back in the day, we did two this week as practice before the girls witnessed the event. However, they did quite happily come out for the processing afterward.

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Don't Scroll Down if you aren't a fan of eating meat.
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Still here?


My former Non Gardening Partner, now Garden Helper and Poultry Processer.

By the way, the girls named them all. The first two, that are currently sitting in our freezer, were known as Bomb and Plasma.


The kids love the chickens in both forms - pet and plate.


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Colorado Potato Beetle

Good Video on how to slaughter a chicken.

Pretty Peas

Landrace shelling peas from Joseph

It's pea time in the garden right now and the vines are full of flowers and pods.


Tendrils in a triangle on golden podded pea.

I have never succeeded in planting enough peas.


Spring Blush pea mingling with a grape vine

Shelling peas are my favourite garden snack...


Purple podded pea Joseph's landrace shellers.

... but I don't turn down edible podded peas for their sweet crunch in salads and stirfries...


Snow Peas have been a major feature in our salads this last week.

...or dry peas made into a hearty soup in cool weather.


The golden pod for contrast.

My variegated pea plants are growing well. These are second generation plants. The mother was a chimera from a group of Lincoln(?) shelling peas that I grew the winter before last for pea sprouts.


Pea plant chimera.

I saved the seeds last year and this year several seedlings are showing variegation.


Flowers of variegated pea are a complimentary white.

Speaking of peas, my chickpeas and peanuts are flowering too, mauve and yellow respectively.


Chickpea starting to bloom.