How to Grow Nutrient Dense Foods

Most agricultural soils have been depleated of the minerals that we need in our foods. If the mineral is not in the soil it cannot be in the vegetables grown in that soil. The minerals in the soil come from centuries of weathering of the base material (typically rock) of the soil. So the build up is much slower than the minerals used by crops and typically removed from the soil.

So what's a farmer to do...

Sweet Pickles - Bread & Butter

I have often wondered why those nice crunchy sweet pickle slices are called bread and butter pickles. Maybe it is obvious to everyone else, bread and butter has the connotation of sandwiches, so I guess it is a sandwich pickle vs. a hamburger pickle.

So I did a little research on this.

Turns out the sandwich part is a good guess. These pickles were developed during the Great Depression when food was scarce and cucumbers were plentiful. The pickles could be preserved for a time of winter scarcity. Cucumber sandwiches were a frequent healthy meal during the off season when garden vegetables were not available but bread and butter were plentiful.

Here is a great recipe that I have made several times and have been fine tuning the approach and seasonings. The first time I made it we ate two jars in the first day.

You can make these two different ways one is without canning call refrigerator pickles and the second by using a water bath to heat and seal the jars. You can also salt the cucumbers for a more crispy pickle or use them unsalted if you want a low salt alternative.

How to Freeze French Fillet Green Beans

There is nothing more delicious than freshly frozen green beans on a frosty winter day (except maybe the fresh ones). I especially like the french fillet bean variety we use, which are long, pencil thin and never have any strings.

This post is about how to freeze these delicious morsels. It is really quite easy.

How to Grow Rosemary - Our Featured Herb of the Week

How to grow rosemary. Rosemary is a woody perennial herb native to the Mediterranean region.  The name Rosemary is derived from the Latin "dew" (ros) and "sea" (marinus) or "dew of the sea" because in many costal regions the only water it needs is the humidity of the sea breeze. It has needle shaped leaves and blue flowers. It is a member of the mint or Lamiaceae family.

Rosemary is typically started from...

How to Control Flea Beetles

Have you noticed those little pin holes in leaves of brassica plants like kale, broccoli and cauliflower. Well those are cause by tiny beetles that are no bigger than a grain of sand.We often ignore them as they don't really cause more than cosmetic damage. However, there are two excellent organic controls.

The Best Value in Basil Plants

Early in the season we typically grow basil by scattering a pinch of basil seed in the middle of a three inch pot and when they are two or three inches tall we transfer them to a five inch pot and bring them to market. For a couple of weeks we have these multiple plant pots and then we switch over to mostly single plants five inch pots that are 4-5inches tall. So what is the best value in basil plants?

How to Maximize the Production of The Herb Rosemary

To maximize the production of Rosemary for your kitchen garden, do the following...

How to Grow Mint Julep and Mojito Mint

How to Grow Mint Julep and Mojito Mint. By special request we have acquired starts of the  mint (Yerba Buena) used in these summer time drinks. We will have this mint all summer.

Serendipity in the Herb Garden

We noticed that oregano, mints, thymes and chives would come back year after year in old garden plots and around old homesteads. These were always earlier than herbs we grew and planted. Why were these established plants "way ahead" of their more domesticated cousins. Could we establish our own "persistent" or perennial herb garden.

How to Grow Mint - Our Featured Herb of the Week

Mint is one of the easiest of the herbs or garden plants to grow. It is extremely winter hardy. During the summer it is so aggressive that some people plant it in a large pot in the ground so it doesn't spread to the whole garden bed.

We had an extremely harsh winter and a number of people have reported that their mint did not survive the winter. So what to do...

How to Grow Peas, The Emralds of Spring

Spring is the purview of the delicious Pea. There are snow peas, snap peas and shell peas. This post is about how to plant and grow the "Emeralds of Spring".

How to Grow Cipollini Onions

Cipollini (pronounced chip-o-lee-knee) were once the province of high end restaurants and gourmet magazine. But they are becoming more common at local farmers markets. We have grown these little gems for over 10 years. We start our cipollini onions from transplants. We started planting about 3000 plants last night and will finish by the weekend (weather permitting).

Here is how we do it.

How to Select the Best Leeks

The use of leeks in cooking is growing in popularity in the last few years. It is important for the consumer to understand how to select the best leeks...

How to Plant Leeks, A Deep Subject

Onions grow on top of the ground and bulb enlargement takes place at the air to soil boundary. Leeks are typically planted in trenches about 8 inches below the ground. Leeks do not form a bulb but...

10 Ideas for Personal and Family Success

I was thinking about elements for success for a family and a farm. Here are my top 10.

1. Have a strong faith.
2. Mary the right person. Someone with similar values and faith
3. Make your family a top priority.
4. Handle money well. Spend less than you make, stay out of debt and save for the future.
5. Be generous and give. To church, to the poor and to your family.
6. Work at something you enjoy. Farming is a great career.
7. Under promise and over deliver to your customers.
8. Be persistent in reaching your farming goals.
9. Be honest and loyal.
10. Be innovative and open to change in your farm.

But Dad...No One Else Has to Do This!

My children haven't always liked the discipline of having to do farm work and get up early (4:30 AM) on Saturday mornings to go to the Farmer's Market:

• They often observe that NO ONE ELSE had to do the things they had to do. (This was true. But none of their friends had the level of experience they had and none of them made the amount of money they were making either. You can't sleep until noon and watch TV all summer and pile up money for college at the same time.)
• They would say that EVERYONE ELSE got to do fun stuff when ever they wanted to and sometimes fun stuff had to take second priority for them. (This was not as true as they thought. Many other children were not able to do what ever they wanted when they wanted. I submit that our children were probably more involved in attending school, church and skill building events than most. We ran into situations frequently where their friends had to attend a family event or were on restriction and couldn't participate in something fun. I've never "grounded" one of our children for a rule infraction. I guess we keep them busy enough that they don't have time to get in trouble. They also have done well at their choice of friends.)
• However, because they LIVED LIKE NO ONE ELSE growing up 
• They now have discipline, experience, knowledge, life skills and savings for their futures like NO ONE ELSE. So sometimes it is very good to be like NO ONE ELSE.

The point was not to make them farmers, though they are very good at that. But to teach them skills and values that are transferable to any future endeavor. So my children can make choices and seek opportunities where ever God would lead them.

Double Digging

Double digging your garden beds will pay dividends for decades. Double digging means going 24 to 36 inches deep with a potato fork or other flat tined fork. You incorporate compost and fertilizer as you dig. In my opinion this is the Cadillac of gardening approaches.

You can find the complete method in John Jeavens, "How to Grow More Vegetables". If you don't want to purchase a copy (which is highly recommended) the library has several.  When I was gardening on a much smaller scale I double dug all our beds. I would do 8-10 of the 100 square foot beds a year until I eventually had dug about a 10,000 square feet or about 1/4 of an acre.

I made my own digging board and a broad fork about two feet wide for bed maintenance. I still have the fork that was cut and welded by hand. My brother then painted it a metallic grey with some left over base coat and clear coat automotive paint. We should have done pin stripes.

I took several seminars from John Jeavens and found his approach quite thoughtful. I have binders full of his class notes. We used to correspond a little and he occasionally referred folks in this area to me for help getting started.

When ultra-blond Reed was three I sent a picture to John Jeavens of Reed stretching on tip toes to pick a cherry tomato with an absolutely crystal clear blue sky in the back ground. He put it in their news letter that month. It was a great picture.

I wrote an article for John's new letter that I'll put in a future blog.

Grilled Corn with Chipotle Butter

This recipe has a great balance of sweet, spicy and tangy zip from the lime juice. Our sweet corn great all by itself but you can do some interesting and very tasty things with butter. If you are not familiar with how to roast the corn, see below.

Ingredients:

6-12 ears of Petersen's sweet corn husked.
1 stick butter
1-2 Petersen's chipotle peppers minced (pour boiling water over them and let sit 15 minutes)
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt or mineral salt such a pink salt
Lime wedges

Directions:

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add chipotles minced, fresh lime juice and salt. Reduce heat and cook 1 minute to mix flavors.

Brush fresh corn with the chipotle butter mixture. Cover and refrigerate if needed.

Heat up barbecue. Grill corn until tender and blackened a bit, turn frequently. This should take 5-7 minutes. Serve corn with lime wedges. Drizzle lime juice from wedges on corn just before eating.

Kick it up:

1. Cover liberally with fresh ground pepper
2. Salt to taste
3. Sprinkle with a dash of cayenne pepper (careful this is hot)
4. Make your own fresh butter with a little cream (yum)
5. 
   

How to Grow Great Radishes All Summer Long

Radishes are mistakenly thought of as a “flash in the pan” spring crop. This once and done mentality deprives the radish lover of some delightful summer and fall crops.

The key to a continuous supply is to succession plant. Only plant what you will use in a week or two, but plant more radishes every two weeks. If you don’t use them when they are ready, pull them and put them in the compost pile, then plant some more.

In the heat of the summer radishes can become more strong flavored and pithy (woody). A rich environment (lots of compost) that is well weeded and has a steady supply of water, will keep this heat to a minimum. We have had radishes as large as a tennis ball be very nice and not a bit woody using this approach.

Fall is another time when radishes really shine. You can plant and harvest until freeze up.

I’ve mentioned in the post on How to Grow Organic Carrots that radishes can be planted at the same time as carrots and harvested as the carrots are emerging or still very small. They essentially become an edible row marker and protect the carrots for a week or two. Never under estimate the micro climates that a crop canopy can create around the plant. Radishes can shield the very fragile carrots at a time when they are vulnerable. 

Cherry Belle is a good standard radish. We have tried some other varieties with good success. Since they are typically 20-25 days to harvest you can try several varieties in a season.

A Simple Arugula Pesto

With the taste of Arugula Pesto still fresh on my tongue I thought I would write down the recipe. We has some really nice baby leaf arugula at the market today. It had a nice full flavor without being too spicy as arugula can be in the summer months. We succession plant every few weeks to keep our greens top quality.

The unique thing about ARUGULA pesto is it stays bright green even during cooking.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh ARUGULA leaves, packed
2 cloves garlic (1 clove if you don't like strong garlic or if they are very large)
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts (you can toast or use raw)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese

Directions

Process ARUGULA, garlic and nuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Add oil slowly and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in cheese if using immediately. If freezing leave the cheese out.

We used the pesto as a bruschetta on some fresh bread. We toasted our bread and that mellows the ARUGULA a little for a spicier pesto toast the bread and then put the pesto on it right before serving.

ARUGULA pesto works well on pasta and can be used to stuff squash blossoms.