Flying Tomato Farms

Despite my fears of having to pull a quarter of my tomato patch due to curling leaves, those plants that exhibited signs of environmental stress are doing quite well and setting lots of blossoms and fruit.

I had broken down the walls of the little “wells” I planted them in so they didn’t collect quite so much water (some years we flood, some years we’re parched–some years we get both!). While the plants still have some leaf roll, they seem to be coming out of it as they mature.

However, it looks the the bottom leaves of some of those plants are exhibiting a little bit of leaf-spot–not sure of the exact type at the moment. It’s not bad though, so my management strategy, seeing that the plants look otherwise quite healthy and there are very few affected parts, will be to go out in the patch on a dry day with a pair of scissors and a jar of bleach water and snip off the affected branches, dipping the scissors in the bleach solution between each cut.

Then, I’ll re-apply the mulch I pulled off when I was trying to dry out the patch a bit, so whatever the disease is, it doesn’t splash up onto the plant again next time it rains.

Another interesting note on this issue–when I was weeding out the plants again yesterday in anticipation of the surgery and mulch-laying, I noticed that many of the lamb’s quarter around the plants that exhibited the leaf curling also had curled leaves. Hmm.

Despite all this curling and spotting and the like, these plants look like they’re going to do pretty well if things stay moderately warm and dry for the next few weeks. I can’t believe how many blossoms and fruits they’re setting!

However, I’ll be sure to give that part of the garden a few years of unrelated crops before planting tomatoes or any other nightshade there again.

Sometimes it seems easier to gauge the velocity of a thing when it is going rather than when it is coming.

A few weeks ago I had told my members that the snap peas were blossoming and a few pods were forming, and it would likely be two weeks before they appeared in deliveries. The next week, they were out in sufficient numbers to deliver.

Now, though today I harvested maybe three or four gallons of the pods, I can see that they are on the wane. The vines have reached their full height, and the blossoms are fewer.

I guess there will only be enough for deliveries for another two weeks, and then the powdery mildew that is not yet visible, but that always takes them down in the end, will begin working its way up the vines and hastening their demise.

So, too, did I tell my members last week that I would likely have to split broccoli deliveries–putting heads in half the bags this week and the other half the next week. Yesterday I walked down to the patch and realized that I’d better start cutting heads for deliveries right then, or their tight green buds would open into yellow flowers, and the heads would be spoiled.

Now I have seven heads in my fridge–two harvested yesterday and five today, and unless some disaster befalls the patch before tomorrow morning, I’ll have plenty of nice big heads for all the deliveries, plus one or two for Harry and I, and a couple for the market on Thursday as well.

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In other news, I find it somewhat disconcerting that here in Vermillion we have “Code Enforcement” officers to tell homeowners when their grass gets too long, and to mow that grass and fine the landowners when they exceed the length requirements for too long, yet the sprinkler system of my neighbors to the north has been trickling water into the street for over a week, and there are no repercussions for that other than a higher water bill.

Sure, the neighborhood birds have been bathing and enjoying the steady stream of water that continuously bubbles up from the corner of their lawn, but the waste of resource seems to me a kind of sin. The length of a person’s grass seems a fairly short-term cosmetic issue compared to the drainage of a resource we all must share.

But it seems in this country, if you are willing to pay for a thing, it offers a sort of indulgence or excuse for using much to much of it. I am not sure that I would go so far as to tell people how much of a thing they can and cannot use–it may come to that eventually anyhow.

I just wish that those who consider themselves “conservative” and drive enormous trucks they don’t need and let water flow down the streets from their faulty sprinkler heads would practice a bit more real conservation.

I am still getting a lot of hits on my last post on this subject, but I am concerned that there is some misunderstanding about the raw manure-salmonella connection. I have at least one commenter note that he feels “safe” because he didn’t use any manure in his garden.

I commented back that gardeners can and should use manure in their gardens–but they should only use composted manure on crops already in the field. If you want to use raw manure, it’s better to spread it in the fall or very early spring to give it time to mellow. Raw manure can burn plants with the excess nitrogen, and it can contaminate crops if there are pathogens in it.

But manure is one of nature’s very best fertilizers–it’s the cycle of life, folks, and broken-down plant and animal debris (including sh*t) is what makes this planet tick. All those little soil microbes and earthworms are here to help that breaking down process–making the nutrients in waste and decaying matter available to grow more life (and veggies!).

Think of using manure on your crops like using a distinfectant in your kitchen. Not exactly the same–but the idea is that you do not want it directly on your food, and you want to exercise care in the use of it. Just because eating or drinking bleach or other disinfectants can make you sick doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them–only that you should use them wisely.

But many of the salmonella, e. coli, and other food-borne illness outbreaks aren’t even caused by farmers directly applying raw manure to their fields. They’re caused by contaminated raw manure being tracked into fields by domesticated or wild animals or even on the boots of farmers or fieldworkers or by contaminated raw manure getting into the irrigation supply.

The theory about the 2006 outbreak in spinach was that the contaminated manure was tracked into the fields by wild pigs that broke into a feedlot. The pigs didn’t have the pathogen–the cows did. But the pigs got the contaminated cow poop on their hooves and tracked it into the spinach fields and/or irrigation supply.

One of the best things we can do to control contamination on produce is to practice better and safer ways of raising animals for food. If we’re going to eat meat, we need to give these animals more room, better care, and a more natural diet so that they’re not always getting sick and then making us sick when their brains or poop get mixed up with our food supply because we’re doing it on such a huge scale we can’t possibly check it all. I know it may be un-American to suggest we get smaller and less efficient, but sometimes smaller and less efficient is safer and healthier.

(I would also argue that small farms are more efficient–but the marketing end is what makes them seem less so–markets are generally owned and operated by those who buy big and sell big and don’t want to deal with the little guys.)

I spoke with a woman at a farmers market conference last spring who allowed her chickens to roam in her asparagus patch eating bugs and fertilizing the asparagus at the same time. She picked and washed and ate the asparagus and never became ill.

Though I would not recommend letting chickens or other livestock into the garden near or during harvest time, this woman probably never got sick because she took good care of her chickens, allowed them a good diet and plenty of exercise, and they didn’t have salmonella (this is why I’m skeptical of the chicken advertised as being fed a “vegetarian diet” like that’s somehow better and safer–chickens are not vegetarians!).

The reason for all the “cook thoroughly” warning labels on our food nowadays is that the USDA knows that the food supply is dirty, and they know there’s not much they can do about it except tell us to be really careful eating that dangerous stuff called “food.”

I do not believe that the government is going to be especially effective in cleaning up our food supply–the meat packing industry is getting to be so powerful and consolidated that most legislation would trickle off their backs like so much water off a duck’s–they can afford to just pay the fine or pay the inspector to look the other way.

Typically the legislation that uninformed folks think will make their food supply safer just ends up putting unnecessary burdens on the backs of the little guys who are already making a healthier, safer product, and often forces them out of the business.

So it’s really up to consumers to make smarter choices and ask informed questions of those who grow and sell food. It’s a lot easier to get straight answers in a timely fashion from those who are direct-marketing to you through a CSA or farmers market or roadside stand.

A lot of people will pay extra for the organic label on their food because they believe it’s a safer, healthier product. But “organic” has become industrial–it is done on the same large scale as conventional crops. So, the safer, healthier bet is more likely from your neighbor’s backyard or your local farmers market.

I will have sugar snap peas at the market today.  I also have a couple bunches of turnips, but mostly there’s peas.  I’m going to bag them up now.  There’s a lot.

Otherwise, it started thundering and raining while I was out harvesting this morning, and out of respect for Lightning Awareness Week (and my own little life), I quickly finished up the pole bean planting I was doing and made tracks for dry ground.  These are big flat green beans that have the real, nutty beany taste–variety “Northeaster.”  So they got in and watered, too.

Looks like I’ll be delivering broccoli next week, and boy is it tender and tasty.  Harry is a huge broccoli fan, so I may have to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t sneak down to the garden and graze on all those lovely green heads.  Just kidding.

But we did have a stir fry last night of cubed ham plus broccoli florets and stems, baby beets and greens, carrots, snap peas, and a summer onion.  I just had the rest cold with a little soy sauce and sesame oil, and  I love how the beets stain everything a bright pink color.

Now the sun’s out, and I could do some more harvesting in the muddy garden, but there are about twenty students waiting patiently for their composition paper grades, so I’d best get on that.

My posting has dropped off a bit in the past week or so.  There’s a reason for this: we’ve been spending some of our nights camping on the river.  It’s a nice break from the heat and noise of town, and the sun wakes us early enough to paddle back and get some early watering, weeding, and other work done before it heats up too much.  Oh, and my dog Vega, who has a bad hip, gets some good, low-impact exercise from the swimming.

I’m loving my bright pink Ocean Kayak, and though I’ve tried out Harry’s bigger kayak and a few of the boats in Terry’s fleet, I’m still just as smitten with my zippy little craft.

I should probably get some images of it on the river, but I don’t want to expose my camera to all that sand.  A couple of nice points about it–slightly less than 40lb. weight makes it easy for me to load, and the under-twelve-foot length means I don’t have to register it in South Dakota.  I do still want to get the hatch kit for the front of the boat so I have more semi-dry carrying capacity.

My thumbs are in the very tender (blistered, that is) stage of developing paddling callouses, so I’ve had to keep them bandaged during the day to protect them from inadvertent and painful knocks.  Well, off to figure out what supplies we’ll need for tonight’s river adventure!

Flying Tomato Farms News

A newsletter for members of Flying Tomato Farms C.S.A.

Vol. 4, Issue 7

GARDEN NEWS:

The reusable bags are here—aren’t they fun! I will be picking up this bag next week when I drop off that delivery in a second bag. I’ll wash them as needed as they come back to me—no need for you to do this. If you ask me to deliver to a secondary address (if you’re out of town), I’ll go back to using a plastic grocery bag for that week. If you’re not home during delivery time on a Tuesday, you can leave your bag hanging from your doorknob (or in the place I usually leave your produce).

Broccoli will be coming next week, but it looks like I’m going to have to split deliveries because the maturity rates are very staggered. What this means is that some of you will be getting broccoli next week, while others will get it the week after. I’m hoping I can get broccoli to each of you at least twice, and maybe more, depending on the plants’ side-shoot production.

Otherwise, I’ve just been watering, fertilizing with fish/seaweed emulsions, and weeding. The eggplant were looking a little ravaged by the emergence of the flea beetles, so I concentrated my effort on weeding them out well, dusting them with organic pesticide, and giving them all a healthy shot of fish emulsion to help them “grow past” the damage. Potato beetle larva are also out—I’ve been squishing most by hand except in concentrated clusters of them, where I dust. There’s only so much hands-on bug squishing I can stomach! But, they are not too bad this year, despite the three long rows of potatoes I’ve planted.

Mulberry season is upon us! I had hoped to deliver some little packages of them this week, but despite all my tree-shaking, I only ended up with about enough to do a small crisp for myself (oh, drat!) plus purple stains all over my hands and arms. Serious mulberry harvesting, to my mind, requires a couple people to hold a sheet, plus a designated “tree shaker.” It was just me this morning, so many of the mulberries missed my big bucket and rained on my head instead! Mulberries grow just about everywhere around here, but they are not particularly flavorful. Collecting them is more about fun than food, and they are nice and juicy this year from all that rain. They do make a nice purple dye, as you’ll notice from your hands after eating them.

THIS WEEK’S DELIVERY:

Beet greens with the baby roots attached, baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and summer onions.

These beets can be considered two separate vegetables, and I’ll give you a recipe for each. Beet greens are incredibly nutritious (they are technically the same vegetable as chard) and good as a cooking green, so here is a recipe for a simple ham and greens dinner. Heat some oil in a large skillet, and add two ham steaks (I buy a Cedar Hollow ham from Jones’ and cut ¼” steaks off it—it lasts us quite a few meals). Grind black pepper all over the “upside” while they are browning, then flip and grind more pepper over the browned side. While the ham is browning, wash beet greens (with stems) in a couple rinses of cold water, then chop the stems and leaves into separate piles. You might like a little minced onion or clove of garlic as well, to go in with the stems. When the ham is done browning, remove to plates and add beet stems and garlic or onion, if desired. Sautee for a minute or so, then start adding handsful of beet greens, stirring until wilted. When all the greens have been added and wilted down, serve them alongside the ham with a good brown mustard and bread to soak up the drippings. This recipe is “farmer-tested”—I am just finishing the leftovers from last night’s trial recipe run as I type this newsletter.

For the little beets and carrots, try balsamic-roasted root veggies: Cut them (if needed) into bite-size pieces (no need to peel either one, and you can leave a nubbin of the stems attached too) and spread them in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a grind or two of black pepper, then roast at 325 degrees, stirring to baste occasionally, until they are tender (pierce easily with the tip of a sharp knife). You can add any leftover turnips you might have to this dish as well. If your balsamic vinegar is on the tangy side (instead of very sweet), you can add just a little brown sugar as well. This recipe has “cured” many a beet-hater (and yes, I consider hatred of beets a condition that should be cured)!

These carrots are true babies—that is, they are a variety bred to be harvested at small tender size (rather than the so-called baby carrots in supermarkets, which are big carrots turned on a sort of lathe). The variety is called Kinko, and they are very sweet and nice for snacking. You do not need to peel these—I would urge you not to. Just give them a good scrub with a veggie brush and save the skin, where many of the nutrients reside. Carrot greens are edible, and sometimes used as a parsley substitute, as they are from the same family. I usually don’t use a lot of them though, as their flavor is a bit stronger and greener than parsley.

The sugar snap peas are really coming on now—some of the vines have reached seven feet in height. I had pulled out some pint-sized bags to deliver them in, and realized quickly that quart bags were needed. Once again, no need to shell—just pop off the “cap” and pop in your mouth (wash first, please). You could also try adding them to some version of the ham and greens dinner above—after adding the stems and garlic but before adding the greens. Heck, you could even make a beet stem, summer onion, and sugar snap stir fry and save the beet leaves for yet another dish (and the stems would stain the onions such a pretty pink color)!

The summer onions are simply thinnings from the onion patch—to give some of the other bulbs room to expand. At this size, you can chop and use the whole thing—bulb and leaves.

Remember to

WASH YOUR VEGGIES!

The longest day of the year–midsummer, or Midsommar to our local Scandinavian populace.

My annual summer solstice ritual inevitably involves taking a dip in some wild water.  Some years that’s meant Lake Superior, some have been in the incredibly clear and frigid waters of the Middlebury River.  One year, while working on a farm outside Madison, my fellow farmhands introduced me to Mazonomie Beach on the Wisconsin River.

But for the last few years, my solstice dip has been in one of the last remaining stretches of the wild Missouri River.  That’s where we’ll be tonight–enjoying the lengthy sunlit hours of this transition from spring into summer.

Do you have any summer solstice rituals?  I’d love to hear about them.

Today’s post will be short !

We got rained out at the end of the market yesterday.  Well, “rained in” is more like it–we had to wait under the pop-ups until the downpour let up enough that we could break them down, pack our trucks, and grab the signs.

A fun day nonetheless, and three new vendors!  I ended up bringing home most of the 20 bunches of dill I’d brought to sell–so I whirred up a pint, plus a couple smaller containers, of dill puree with olive oil for my freezer.

The leftover turnips and beets I roasted with the last (moan of desperation) of this amazing balsamic vinegar I got from my friend Matt in Seattle a couple Christmases ago, plus a little oil, salt, and pepper.  OMGosh were they sweet and good.

Today it was hot, and I spent the afternoon out in it filling the gaps in the summer squash, cuke, and melon rows.  Weeded out the hot peppers and tomatillos and okra.  Transplanted (almost) all the rest of the basil. Sometimes it just feels good to work in the heat and work out the toxins.

Now, speaking of toxins, I’m going to get ready to drink beer.

And eat yummy Mexican food.

Good night.

I don’t have a lot of stuff, but what I have is good and fresh–harvested this morning.

I’ll have a few heads of speckled and red romaine lettuce, a ton of bunches of dillweed, some carrots, baby beets with greens, sugar snap peas, and white turnips.

If you are wondering why I didn’t mention the asparagus that appears in the first image, it’s because I am about to can three quarts of dilly asparagus spears (a girl’s got to have something to garnish her Bloody Mary with!). If there’s any left, I’ll bunch it up and bring it, but I don’t want to advertise something I’m not sure I’ll have there.

By the way–if you are in the Vermillion area and have extra produce–(anything! everything! people have been asking for rhubarb a lot lately), or if you make crafts or baked goods or anything else homemade, homegrown, or garden-related, please do come down and set up a table.

We really need more vendors! It’s only $5/week (or $75 for the season), and the rules and regs form is very simple. We have a great location that gets a lot of visibility. Even if you just brought a few items (perennials you divided? herbs that need trimming back?), you’d have a hard time not recouping your expense.

Vendors 65 and over sell for free! And you can sell out of your truck bed if you need to–you can just drive right into a space and get comfortable.

Did I mention we’re really nice?

Vermillion Area Farmers Market

Thursdays, 3-7pm, Clay County Fairgrounds, Corner of Cherry and High Streets.

Vermillion, South Dakota, U.S.A.

If you are waiting to start preserving the harvest until the cucumbers or tomatoes ripen–don’t! There are lots of little pantry and freezer-filling projects you can do right now. In fact, while writing this post, I am procrastinating just such a project!

This is a big bucket of cilantro I harvested yesterday, as most of the herb is starting to bolt in the gardens. I started out just harvesting a little, to make a dish for a potluck barbeque we attended last night, but realized if I was going to do it, I could almost as easily do a bunch extra for my own freezer. I said almost as easily…

This is what I turned some of it into–cilantro-feta pesto with peanut and lime. I’ve got a ways to go in processing all this fresh herb–this is just what was left over from filling the party dip bowl.

This stuff (not to mention just straight pureed cilantro paste in oil) freezes exceptionally well, and is a great solution for those herbs that either don’t dry well (cilantro and dill especially) or that change in flavor when dried (I’m thinking of basil).

I pack the puree or pesto in can-or-freeze pint or half-pint jars or reusable plastic freezer boxes, or I freeze little cubes of it in an old metal ice cube tray I found at a thrift store. Then I can pop the cubes out and store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. The frozen cilantro makes a great addition to mid-winter salsa–it makes it taste freshly-made all over again.