No Rain, Day 44 and Counting

The title says it all.  Today is day 44 without significant rainfall.  We had 20 or 30 drops several times, but that doesn't count.  To go with that, we have been having highs in the 90's and south winds at 25-35 sustained for the past 4 days.  Starting to understand what the Dust Bowl went through.  Wheat harvest is starting, (a month early), center pivots have been running non-stop and dryland crops look poor.  Nonetheless, I am pushing forward. 

I have been watering almost around the clock to stay ahead, most things are looking good. We are really starting to harvest a crops and sales are picking up at the markets. 

How dry is it, I spend 4 plus hours today putting down plastic mulch for my outside peppers.  I had to run the tiller back and forth to pulverize the clods.  I ended up with a decent bed, but the soil to cover the plastic looked like this.


Here are the 4, 70 foot rows.  The plastic mulch is covered with dust, that is why it is gray and not black.


The peppers in the high tunnel are really looking great!





Pickling Cucumbers are looking really good and I am picking every other day to keep them at the right size. I have sold out for the last three markets.  They are blooming and setting like crazy!



Inside Zucchini is looking good, Kinda concerned, it isn't blooming as much as normal. 


We have been picking zucchini outside for two weeks too.


Cucumbers are looking rough, the wind has really hurt them. I am hoping they start producing soon.


Not planted in this picture, but I got half of my melons planted and they are up. I hope they didn't fry in this heat in the plastic mulch.


Not planted in this picture either, but my Okra is really popping up.


Sweet potatoes went in on Thursday, not in this picture. Waiting for the last 100 to come in the mail soon.


Inside onions are looking nice, some really huge onions in there too!


Outside onions are bulbing up nice, like the crack in the ground?  They got a good soaking after this picture.


My pride and joy, tomatoes are LOADED!


Picked a few Cherry tomatoes tonight, big ones aren't quite ready.


Sold our first Green beans of the season on Saturday also planted the 4th planting on Saturday. 


Still need to transplant peppers (later this week), get more cucumbers and zucchini planted. 3rd planting of tomatoes are suppose to go in this week.  Also need to weed some things and dig potatoes (plants are already dieing too hot!)  I also have 3/8 of an acre of winter squash to plant.  Finally, I have to get thing harvested and sold.

Sorry for the long post, but I need to share some success.  We have had too many failures already.

Enjoy!

Jay

No Rain, Day 44 and Counting

Fall and Winter Garden

To all my RVP customers, I wanted to share where all your produce is coming from this fall and winter. Want to learn more, www.rvp.locallygrown.net My fall and winter garden consists of 3500 square feet of high tunnels and 1000 square feet of low tunnels.

Here is Hoop A
From left to right, Radishes, Beets, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Haikuri Turnips, Some left over broccoli, Lettuce, Napa Cabbage, Joi Choy, Red Choy, Tatsoi, Longevity (a type of tatsoi I guess), and Arugula.



They all still need mini hoops and row cover to cover them, but that is on the to do list.

Hoop C
My most mature crops and most recently planted.
Left to right, Lettuce, Kale, Spinach, Under the cover Green onions, Bok Choy and Napa Cabbage, Freshly Planted Haikuri Turnips and Carrots



Hoop D
This building grew Bell peppers and Cherry Tomatoes this spring and summer. I tore out the cherry tomatoes. Too overgrown and slowing production. The bell peppers are great. They are loaded and I have been picking bunches every week for the Farmers Markets.

Outside rows are bell peppers and under the row covers I have spinach and lettuce. I just transplanted the 250 plus lettuce plugs yesterday and the spinach is coming up or getting its true leaves. I still have grasshoppers in here and they love spinach. They don't mind the lettuce, but they will eat the spinach down.



On to the Movable Buildings. I have two movable buildings and I have crops growing outside and I am going to move the buildings over the crops soon. One probably this week and the other one once I loose the green beans or in about two weeks.

M1

Haikuri Turnips, Beets, Carrots, Carrots, Haikuri Turnips


M2 Has the same crops growing in it as M1.



M1 also has green beans growing inside.


Low Tunnels Broccoli and Cauliflower.
I have over 400 broccoli and cauliflower planted. They will go under row cover soon. I have to get a lot of other stuff done first!





The first low tunnel hoop.



Brussel Sprouts

They go planted too late, but we are going to see what happens.




Last outside planting of Green Beans.

This was a last second Hail Mary Planting. I have rinsed the frost off of them once and I have picked 40 pounds of beans off of the first picking. I am hoping to get 1-2 more pickings!

Fall and Winter Garden

Friday's Featured Food: Q...

How about, Q is for Quite a Fair! Before I share the pics, let me add that the girls each selected their own veggies from those already picked for the Market. We told them that they should try to find 3 (or 5 or 12) that match exactly, and this is what they came up with:

Lainie's yellow tomatoes

Jay's red tomatoes, Grand Champion open class

Lainie's snow white cherry tomatoes

Maggie's black cherry tomatoes, Reserve Grand Open Class

Jay's Display, blue ribbon

Maggie's purple heart potato, "novelty vegetable"

Jay's Green Beans

Katie's Sweet Gold cherry tomatoes, Grand Champion Jr Division 4-H

Katie's Big Beef red tomatoes, Reserve Grand Jr Division 4-H

Lainie's pink potatoes, white... and proof that she picked her own.

Katie's garden display for 4-H

Katie's reserve champion pig. She also got Reserve Grand swine showmanship.

Like I said, Quite a Fair!

Friday's Featured Food: Q...

If at first you don't succeed

Remember back when our first green bean planting got annihilated by the bugs? Well, as the saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. The second planting (and third and fourth and fifth) look great. Two rows and 15 minutes resulted in this:

Aren't the beautiful! Hardly a bug bite or blemish to be found. They have that fresh, earthy taste that you can only get from fresh picked green beans. YUM!

If at first you don't succeed

Friday's Featured Foods: Green Beans

There are some food traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, traditions that are about much more than the food. These traditions are about making time to do something as a family, working toward a common goal. Some are more complicated and time-intense. Others are as simple as, well, snapping green beans.

It isn't truly summer until I am sitting on the front porch with three bowls: one full of freshly picked green beans, one for the "trash" ends, and one of the good pieces. I enjoy the taste of green beans and they make routine appearances at our dinner table, but my favorite part of green beans is the cleaning. Why? Because I remember cleaning beans with my mom, she remembers cleaning them with her mom, and now my girls and I are continuing the tradition. You see, cleaning beans doesn't take a lot of mental fortitude, which means you can talk about all sorts of things while you are sitting there. And that is what makes food traditions so wonderful.

Enough about the sentimental stuff... on to the facts.


Green beans are an excellent source of of vitamin K, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, folate, and iron. They are a low calorie, low fat, filling food, and a great pairing with so many dishes. Because they are so easy to can and freeze, I try to preserve enough beans to feed us through the fall and winter, and we usually have them 2-3 times a week.

Like most of our vegetables, the "normal" color isn't enough for our crazy garden. We have yellow, green, and purple green beans, although the purple turn green when you cook them. We have tried pole beans -- meaning the plants grow up a lattice of some sort -- but were disappointed with the production so only planted bush beans this year. Specifically, the green varieties are Contender, Provider, and Jade.

They are also super-easy to prepare. The fruits and veggies matter Web site recommends that you either take green beans out just before they are cooked the way you like, or plunge them into ice water immediately to stop them cooking further.

Our standard treatment for green beans is to boil them in water for 5-6 minutes. Drain. Drizzle a little bit of EVOO or melt a tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle lightly with garlic salt or garlic powder and serve. I also tend to eat them raw, straight from the garden, with the sun's heat making them just the right amount of warm... but I should recommend that you wash them first.

There is of course the famous green bean casserole and three-bean salad, too. What creative recipes or family food traditions do you have?

Friday's Featured Foods: Green Beans

Friday's Featured Food: Fried!

I have a confession to make. I have a weakness for fried foods. Fried cheese, fried chicken, fried ice cream... you fry it, I'll try it and probably love it. My love of fried foods combines with my love of veggies quite often. Jay jokes that I have learned how to make every veggie a little less healthy.

It's true that cooking veggies can decrease their nutritional aspect. Fried foods are less healthy because the foods absorb the oil while they are cooking and because of the added fat from the breading. I try to minimize the negatives of frying food by by using a thin, light batter, such as tempura. I also prefer to fry in canola oil, which has a lower amount of trans and saturated fat compared to other cooking oils. Now, the nutritionists out there will tell you that it is still bad. I know this. But, a girl's got to have some bad habits, right?

Back to the batter. As I mentioned, I like to cook the veggies tempura-style, which is defined as deep fried veggies or seafood often eaten in Japan. Tempura batter is super-easy:

1. Beat one egg in a bowl. 
2. Add 1 cup ice water in the bowl. Be sure to use very cold water. 
3. Add 1 cup sifted flour in the bowl and mix lightly. Be careful not to overmix the batter.

See? Easy! The difficult part is deciding what to fry. We have fried fresh broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, onions, carrots, green beans, pickles, radishes, green tomatoes, and just about anything else that pops up in our garden.  Now the rest of the process:

1. Wash and cut the veggies and set them in a bowl of ice water until ready to cook. 
2. Heat oil to 340-350 degrees Fahrenheit.  
3. Dip the prepped veggies in the tempura and set them into the hot oil. Watch out for splashes of the hot oil!
4. Fry for 2-3 minutes, or until batter turns golden.

Fried Squash Blossoms is another delicious fried treat we made last year. It truly has very little nutritious value, but it was such a delicacy and oddity that the entire family had fun eating it.

Squash Blossoms can be stuffed with whatever you wish, then dipped in batter and fried. Our favorite recipe had a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar cheese and spices inside. You can go all out, with Emeril's crab stuffed squash blossoms, or keep it simple, with no stuffing. They are a heavy food, in that you won't need to eat many to be full. We budget 2-4 per person when making them for our family or friends.

And while you have the oil heated up for the squash blossoms, why not throw in a few other veggies... just for fun. Or, do the right thing and balance all that fried stuff with a fresh garden salad. Either way, yum!

Edited to add: I love that, once I posted this, Google changed my ads on the right to "cut down on belly fat" and "Fried Cinnamon Rolls". It cracks me up!

Friday's Featured Food: Fried!

Beans = Fail

Just in case you think our green thumb is golden, check out this beautiful picture of our green beans:

It is the third consecutive year that some animal or insect has taken out our first bean planting. Jay tilled under the first attempt and replanted them tonight. It won't set us back too far, and it will be so worth the effort. Green beans are delicious!

Beans = Fail