What seeds can I plant for a fall garden?

Along about the first of July the garden centers box up all their remaining seeds and send them back to the seed companies. But you know as a educated and well informed gardener that the season is far from over. In fact some of the best vegetables come from the fall garden.

I just got my fall seed order from Johnny's seeds in Maine. Let's talk about what you can plant from seed that will thrive in the fall.  Here is my top 10 list.

What Transplants Are We Planting Now?

I get asked occasionally if you can still plant the things we bring to market as transplants. At this time of year this would be things like broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbage, peas, beans, cilantro, kale and herbs. The answer is emphatically yes. We are planting what we bring.

So you may ask, why don't the local garden centers still offer these same transplants. The answer is...

10 Ways to Use Fresh Basil

There is nothing better than fresh basil. Even non-Mediterranean Minnesotans are highly attracted to this very healthy food. We sell basil during the main growing season for the same price as lettuce. What a great deal. Like many things that are good for us we love the taste of basil. Here are 10 ways to use basil:

1. Pesto, one of the most popular. See our post on how to make your own fresh pesto.
2. Layer a few leaves on your hamburger as you grill or serve. Also looks great.
3. Pizza sauce. chop finely and add 1/2 cup to your favorite sauce. Also is good with a white sauce.
4. Pasta sauce. Add 1 cup finely chopped to your favorite sauce.

Market Menu for June 28, 2014

With the July 4th Holiday next week we will have lots of folks stocking up for their holiday entertaining needs. Reed says the Walla Walla onions are going to be ready and we will bring the first harvest of many weeks to come. Yum, I can't wait.

Jenna picked two tubs of beautiful baby Kale this week. We have been running out towards the end of the market the last few weeks, we hope to have that remedied this week. As a fun side note, I planted a bed to Lacino (dinosaur) Kale a couple of week ago. We are going to try this as a baby cut Kale and it will be ready by next weekend. This is one of the more tender kale leaves and should be really amazing as a baby cut green.

As we pass through the longest days of the year, the garden plants are working overtime and many are doubling in size weekly. Jenna says we will have some fresh basil and mint this week. We just transplanted it to the field two weeks ago and the nearly ideal conditions of warmth, rain and long days mean we can start harvesting already.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, June 21, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)

Should You Use a Scale?

It almost seems like we have always sold certain crops like garlic, shallots and onions by weight, but there was a time before we got our scale when we sold by volume only.

It seems more equitable for both parties to sell by weight, especially when various vegetables vary a lot in size.

The effect on sales was...

My Favorite Tomato

My favorite tomato is the heirloom Brandywine followed closely by the shorter season Pruden's Purple.

As a farmer you might think I am partial to these two tomatoes because of their superior disease resistance (I pick many varieties because of this). Or maybe outstanding yields, that is another selection criteria for some of our vegetables.

But these are my favorite tomatoes because of only one thing. It is...

What Happens When It Rains 4 Inches in Three Days

We had 4 inches of rain in three days last week and had another 1/2 inch of rain this afternoon. I have had quite a few people ask me if we have had a lot of erosion, standing water or flooding. Well frankly we have had none of these issue and here is why:

Three Dimensional Growing Vegetables in Pots

Did you know there is an easy way to grow garden plants in pots in a space saving three dimensions...

Growing Great Garlic

Growing Great Garlic is the definitive source of organic garlic wisdom. The author Ron England is the owner of Filaree Garlic Farm in Okanogan, Washington. I got some of my early garlic starts from Filaree and they have been adapted to the Minnesota climate over several seasons.

Next week we will start our garlic season with...

Market Menu for Saturday, June 21, 2014

After some much needed rain earlier in the week we have a great menu for this week. With the June warmth and rain things are really popping in the garden. Many of the garden plants are doubling in size every week. We are getting close to the end of June and the longest days of the year.

The onions and garlic are starting to bulb. We will have garlic scrapes for the first time this week. Check out Jenna's great selection of mints.

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, June 21, 2014 (New items are in Bold Print)