A heart full of love

Every year, sometime between transplanting and the craziness of harvest, I start to think that it is not going to work out, that nothing will grow into food, that everything has gone horribly wrong. Then I realize that there is a five gallon bucket full of potatoes on the kitchen floor, that we have been eating green beans for weeks, that the hammock is full of curing onions (good thing it is way too hot to swing in it myself), that those two cloth sacks full of garlic make for a LOT of garlic, that I can eat as many tomatoes as I want and there are still enough left over for canning, and that despite the appearance that it is knocking on death's door the cucumber are steadily growing, I realize that it worked out again this year. I have food!!! AND it is raining. I feel happy.

Independence Day

What a great day! A day off in the middle of the week made for good fun and good farming. I finally harvested the onions; they are drying on the hammock. This system seemed to work pretty well last year, and we never got around to making something a bit less.....holey for this year, so hammock it is! I also harvested two types of garlic and shallots. One type of garlic made very small heads, so I think I will plant more of the second type next year. Then we biked to the Eno Festival for some food and music. We also learned that we can download plans for a screech owl house on the Piedmont Wildlife Center's website, so maybe we will try to attract a screech owl next spring. Then bike home and harvest POTATOES. If you have read previous posts, you know I love potatoes. I pretty near filled up a five gallon bucket of these wonderful things, even though all of my plants succumbed to a terrible disease this year. Secretly I am pleased that this means I get to procure all new seed potatoes next year. I like trying new things. Happy 4th, everyone!

Conquering the weedy hillside

This has been an awesome week in farming! On Saturday, I had help planting lettuce, peas, beets, carrots and radishes from my sister, Darko Urban Farm's new volunteer, and my friend Danny who walked by and contributed 30 minutes of mulch moving. In addition, two students from Duke's Center for Documentary Studies came to the farm and interviewed me and Will. They were learning to make a brief slideshow with audio. We had a lot of fun and hope to get to see their finished product.

On Saturday, we also mulched the berm. It looks good, but needs more understory plantings to obviate the need for mulching in the future. Thankfully. . . There are tons of plants on their way to us from Useful Plants! I am excited to put into practice some of the amazing things I learned in my Edible Landscaping class as we add hardy kiwis, pawpaws, cherries, elderberries, persimmons and more to our landscape.

Then, on Sunday, Will and I implemented the best idea I have ever had. No kidding. Best idea ever. Ready? We got a bunch of pine trees from a guy who was cutting them down in his yard. We borrowed an angle grinder from Amber's dad (thank you!), and cut rebar to 3 foot lengths, pounded it into the ground so that about a foot was sticking up, built up the pine logs against the rebar and backfilled with mulch!!! Voilà terrace! There are three levels. I ordered King Strephoria mushroom spawn from the really helpful folks at Mountain Mushroom in South Carolina (thanks, Tradd!). These mushrooms are edible and they have strong roots (or whatever you call them with mushrooms) that will help control erosion. They will decompose the wood chips, hopefully leaving us with great soil in which to plant...more food!!!!!

Also (I said it was a big week), I started seeds in the awesome planting cabinet Alexis made for me, and cut up potatoes to be planted later this week. Let the growing.....BEGIN!!!!

Ice and snow mean it is time to order seeds!

It snowed and iced last night, so that means it is time to order seeds! I am slowly getting my act together; I took stock of the seeds I still have from the last two seasons, the seeds I saved last year, and the seeds I was thrilled to get at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Sustainable Agriculture Conference . Next year, the conference will be in Raleigh and I will be bringing seeds to share!

I have a lot of seeds; nevertheless, it might be impossible not to buy new seeds. Everything sounds amazing- every new seed is a chance for a miracle. Kind of like Seminole pumpkins. If I don't see another Seminole pumpkin miracle until July, that will be fine with me. We gave I don't know how many away and we are still eating them! So, despite the surfeit of seeds, I did in fact just place a $90 order with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Fully half of that cost went toward perennial onions, a new seed potato, and soft neck garlic; things that I will hopefully not have to buy again. And I didn't have to buy the potatoes, it just seemed like the right thing to give the amazing Carola some company. I am sure that I have mentioned this before, but I say it again. Potatoes are the best thing you can plant. Ever. I strongly recommend the Carola. SASE sells it. It is prolific, disease resistant, and has been pest free for two years here. Okay. Off my potato soap box.

The 2011 highlights are..... Baby corn! Lots of beans! And of course a reappearance of the never ending Seminole pumpkin. If you are hungry in September, please stop by and pick up three or four or ten of these prolific bastards. And (drumroll.......) BEES! Yes, we will be adding bees to the hive in March. I am very pleased and excited. Chickens may make their appearance in 2012.

Potato princesses dig!

Sunday, Alexis and I harvested 1/3 of the potatoes. Harvesting potatoes is great fun, even when it is 100 degrees. Which it was. But it is like a treasure hunt. Alexis even claims that she enjoyed it. Potatoes are the best!

Will canned 11 jars of potatoes and there are still more in the harvest bucket. Will says there are enough for 6 more quart sized cans.

Will helped me stake a bunch of the tomatoes on Sunday and we staked five more Tuesday evening after work. Twenty or so more and we will be done! And we will be drowning in tomatoes. They were so small and cute when they sprouted so I had to plant them all. And now I have a tomato jungle.

There are days when it seems like the bugs and weeds are winning. And then there are days like Sunday, when what appear to be dead potato plants covered in weeds yield up enough potatoes to keep us fed all winter long. Golden potatoes that appear like a prize as I swirl my hands through warm, dark dirt. I think that, aside from seeing baby seedlings appear in February, the gardening thing that makes me most feel like crying for the sheer amazingness of it all is the potato harvest.

Early on a Sunday

I woke up at 6 am and headed out to the garden. It has been over 90 degrees everyday for weeks and so I have to get out there early to avoid heat stroke! I weeded the front yard bed, which contains peppers and some volunteer potatoes that I missed in last year's harvest, also some tough parsley left over from when the front yard bed was the winter garden and today I noticed that kale has started coming up as well. Every day I learn more about how tough plants are! I used to baby them and cry if something bad happened. Now I cover them with mulch and tell them I will see them in a few weeks!

The peppers are doing better this year than in past years so far. They generally don't thrive until fall when it cools down.

I am a member of the Bull City Garden Exchange, a listserv/community group about gardening in Durham. We have been discussing two of my pressing questions of the summer--pepper difficulty and sterile squash family plants. Apparently Stone Brothers staff recommended calcium for the peppers. And someone said they hand pollinate squash family plants with a paint brush. Sigh. I guess it is time to enhance the sex lives of 30 or so pumpkin, luffa, cucumber and watermelon plants. Woo hoo!

And about those squash plants: I am very nearly holding my breath with hope; Alexis put a plate (made of corn!) under the first Moon and Stars watermelon yesterday!!!! I really hope the plants thrive this year. They got hit by some dread disease last year and the teeny melons rotted on sickly vines. Apparently the rotted melons decided they wanted another go at life and volunteered this year.

In other squash related news: I harvested the first Yamato cue yesterday!!!!!

I am the potato princess!!!

Today, I went to grab some beans for dinner and noticed that there were a couple of potatoes poking out of the ground. This is bad because once potatoes start to photosynthesize, they aren't edible. I am going to have a LOT of potatoes this year, it appears. They're busting right out of the ground! So I scratched around a few of the plants close to the path and had twelve good sized, muddy potatoes (it rained a lot this afternoon) before I knew it. Potatoes are the best crop ever. Sometimes I really wonder why tomatoes are the popular backyard choice. I find that they are a lot more finicky and tend toward weird problems that my potatoes just don't seem to have.