Love Apple


I picked two green tomatoes: a Black Krim and a Pineapple (or is it Hillbilly?). The Krim had the faintest faint of color, hardly color. The other, a tomato yellow and pink when ripe, was nowhere near ripe -super green, but large! We traveled with them in a shoe box.

When we arrived in Minnesota, I found a ripening apple and put it in the box. Now, after 36 hours, the Krim is ready and the other has only one small spot of yellow on top.

The application of ethylene gas is common commercial practice to aid ripening of fruit. In fact, when fruit ripens, it naturally produces ethylene. Placing a ripe apple in a box or paper bag with your green, but mature, tomatoes will speed up ripening. It may even ripen a completely green, immature tomato, although it won't improve it's quality.

If you pick tomatoes at what is known as the "breaker" point, an apple will speed up its ripening. If the tomato is already "turning," meaning it has up 30% coloring, you won't need the apple because the tomato is now producing its own ethylene gas. Just put it in a bag to speed it along. If your tomato was immature when picked, like my Hillbilly/Pineapple, it may ripen with an apple, and why not try -it can't be any worse than a grocery tomato in wintertime. Or, eat fried green tomato.


It's A Start


There's not much in mushrooms in the woods, but there is a stirring. The corals are on the way out, but others are poking up, including some oysters too small or aged for picking. We'll keep a look out.

A Tale of Two Tomatoes


About the tomatoes -all other problems aside, I must report that I completely eliminated blossom end rot from my tomato patch this year. It was a dastardly problem last season, particularly bad in the roma tomatoes, affecting nearly half the crop. What is different this year? I planted them same type of tomatoes in the very same beds using the very same drip system for irrigation. But, I did have the soil tested, which led to important information about my plot. First, I found that my garden soil was acidic, somewhere near a high 5 pH. Second, I found that I had more lead than I wished, somewhere near 100 ppm.

The first thing I did was lime the beds in February to bring up the pH. Lime is high in calcium and has other trace elements, all useful for tomatoes suffering from blossom end rot which is often described as a deficiency of such. Liming also helps locked up minerals become available -it's all part of a neutral soil program (see this). 

The second thing I did was add 25 pounds of granulated fish bone meal into the beds in March. I had read that the EPA was using fish bones to remedy soils high in lead (in short: the lead binds to a mineral in the bones, creating a new, insoluble mineral). My thinking was that their fish bones couldn't be any fancier than ordinary fish bones, and how much could it hurt anyway. Fish bones are also high in calcium and trace minerals, again, useful for the tomatoes suffering from blossom end rot.

And today, not one instance of blossom end rot in my tomato beds. This should suffice as evidence of a solution, but we also had contrary situation nearby to underscore our results.

Just outside our plot we planted our extra tomatoes. The soil is the same as ours, of course, but didn't receive any amendments this winter. Almost all of the roma type tomatoes look like this. Blech -I'll never go back.


First Morning


We arrived near 9 pm. There was still light, but by the time we unleashed our cats into their domain, it was dark.

Early this morning, to loosen a body confined by automobile for two days, I headed to the woods for a walk. The air is cool, in the 50s, with a light breeze keeping mosquitoes at bay.

I found snakeroot and fallen red oaks. I found the trails covered in plants. This I've never seen. Rex must not be getting out and this is written in the woods although he won't speak of it.



Cleaned and Graded


It's my least favorite task. Cutting the roots and leaves to their proper lengths, then meticulously cleaning the bulbs with a brush, making sure to avoid removing too many bulb wrappers, all the while inspecting each for blemish, disease, and good form. I can do 30 to 50 an hour depending on the variety and size. Next year it will have to be different.

 Compost and decayed wrapper cling to these Artichoke.

I finished cleaning and grading all the garlic and shallots after a couple of 12 hour days this past weekend. The racks will stay in the studio with 24-hour fans until we return from Minnesota. Be on the look out for my call to sale! I have a little over one thousand to market, some large, some small. I will bundle the different varieties, although I do not have enough that all bundles will have all varieties. The early bird will get the full compliment. All sales will help me grow bigger and better this coming fall on Long Island's east end.




Last Chance Redux



Remember this from the other day? Cracked tomatoes. What comes with cracked tomatoes is diluted-flavor tomatoes. Thanks a lot rainstorms. Incidentally, the Black Russian tomatoes had more flavor than the Black Krim. I figured them for the same. Figured wrong.

We had to harvest anything near ripe, anything with even the faintest blush of color, because we are a day or so away from leaving town. I even took two really large but totally green fruit. August is a terrible time to leave the vegetable garden, but it's the best time to get away.

Finally we discovered what the 'Indigo Rose' tomato looks like ripe! It's gorgeous, really, with a red bottom and black-purple top. Taste? The jury's out, as I'd like to try more than one and not after too much rain, but it was mildly tart, with an almost green tomato flavor. Fun fact: This tomato has been hybridized as a high anthocyanin tomato. Anthocyanin is responsible for the dark coloring, and only appears on the top where the fruit receives direct sunlight. It appeared to me that this tomato was a cross between a more or less "wild" or "old world" tomato and a more highly bred tomato thanks to the dark coloration that recalls other nightshades. Turns out this is true.

The 'San Marzano' tomatoes are doing excellent, although the vines are not quite as large as last season.

I seeded these a month ago. After three weeks of not sprouting, I gave up on them -too hot for romaine seeds I said. Then, on the day I transported the seed tray to the beach farm, there they appeared. A week later they look like mini-romaine. I should have seeded more!

The carrots are up and well, while Larry's leftover broccoli isn't too shabby. My starter tray brassica -the prized purple cauliflower and Romanesco broccoli, are barely surviving the onslaught of cabbage worms. The cauliflower has been transplanted into the beds, new irrigation lines trained on them. I poured some fish juice onto the small Romanesco sprouts in hope that it energizes them into out competing any worms that evaded the two finger pinch.

Basil, green beans. Successive plantings of green beans saves us from overload. Smart. Should've been doing this all along. Vacationing, however, means picking fancy French filet beans too late. French beans don't tolerate being over-sized, whereas their American counterparts are pretty comfortable with it.

And here our box of tomatoes, most eaten that night, the rest given away. Tomorrow we leave, cats in tow, for Minnesota and all that awaits us there. I'll be scouting for old-fashioned manual farm tools, studying tractor implements, and keeping my eyes on the woods in search of mushrooms -it's been too long. It was near this time two years ago that I found the large Laetiporous cincinnatus. This time, we eat.


Severe Tomato Watch


They're predicting torrential rains tonight. They're saying we should be concerned with urban flooding. But I'm not too worried about that. I'm thinking about the tomatoes.

My tomatoes are on a drip, creating a cone of moisture which widens as it travels deeper into the soil. This system keeps the fruit taut and sweet and relieves me from water duty. It is great.

But when summer storms roll through with heavy rains as the tomatoes approach maturity, cracks form in rapidly expanding fruit.

In the tomato below, a couple of days left the ants to find this wonderful source of sugar. I blew in the hole until every last ant left the tomato and consider it perfectly good to eat. Ants are clean insects, they are kashrut to me (although not by law -too honest and smart, apparently, and I agree).

A New Season



I just placed my last garlic set order for this coming growing season. Wow. By farm standards, it's not all that much, but by my experience, it is a lot. It is easy to argue that if one is going to jump in, one may as well get all wet, but I have a measured perspective on capital investment. I don't have any, so I need to increase my stock over three years from a much smaller quantity. This is only possible thanks to the support of the Peconic Land Trust, the organization that administers the farm preservation program that I am about to join.

I've done my level best to buy only the highest quality, Certified Organic, retail garlic sets (seed) over the lower cost, wholesale-oriented "farmers" garlic sets. There are several nasty diseases floating around out there right now, including White Rot or Sclerotium cepivorum, Bloat Nematode or Ditylenchus dipsaci, and a new one this year affecting many Midwestern farmers -Phytoplasma. These diseases are everywhere garlic is grown, but Nematode is hitting the Northeast hard and White Rot has been endemic to California growers for decades.

I've added Elephant Garlic or Allium ampeloprasum to my field this year, but only 20 pounds worth. That adds up to about 280 heads -too little to make any significant sales next year, but enough to increase my yield to over 1000 the following season. This is a small-scale farm magic number for me as it allows me to save 300 for the coming season and bring 700 or so to market.

And how about this: I've decided to jump in and grow 300 Crocus sativus! In a few years that can add up to a lot of Saffron. Even if I can't find the time to harvest the stigmas next year, they will make for a beautiful field companion in autumn.

My experience this year has led to some revisions in my garlic planting list, although some I am giving a second chance because they did poorly only as a consequence of poor seed. This autumn I will be planting:

Softneck or A. sativum sativum
Artichoke 'Inchellium Red' and 'Red Toch'
Silverskin 'Nootka Rose'

Hardnecks, or A. sativum ophioscorodon
Rocambole 'Spanish Roja' and 'Italian Purple'
Porcelain 'Georgian Crystal', 'Music', and 'German Extra-Hardy'
Purple Stripe 'Chesnok Red'
Marbled Purple Stripe 'Siberian'

The Confusion-Creating Weakly-Bolting Hardnecks, or A. sativum ophioscorodon

Creole 'Aglio Rosso' and 'Burgundy'
Asiatic 'Japanese' and 'Asian Tempest'
Turban 'Tuscan' and 'Thai Purple'

In addition to these there will be the aforementioned Elephant Garlic Allium ampeloprasum (not a garlic, but looks like one) and French Grey Shallots Allium oschaninii. I am also testing garlic cultivars that one cannot yet purchase in quantity, and a few Allium vineale.



The Lobster Pot


After a morning of reading we headed out to last year's swimming hole. This year minus the hike over Schoodic Mountain. The hike is superb, especially if you like views of Mt. Desert Island, the coast, and blueberries, but we did a lot of hiking yesterday.

Now, we wait for our lobsters. They're incredibly cheap this year. We hear it's because Canadian lobstermen have flooded the market. I have not tested this, but a quick google search finds a NYTimes article on the topic from 2 days back.

While live lobsters are cheap, the lobster rolls are still coming in at 10 bucks a pop (I don't eat them). Lobster dinner at the shack with the 1/2 cob corn and a bib is still rolling at 20 or 25 a plate (1-1/4 lb).

So we kill our own over our camp fire or stove. It's messy, but someone has to reduce the overstock of lobsters, may as well be us. In the mean time, they squirm in a brown sack, placed ceremoniously over the wood we are about to burn.

As soon as we locate a pot without a hole in the bottom (how did we miss that?) we will get our boil on. If not, we will figure how to grill them under a bed of seaweed. I've seen it done, but that was long ago, and another story.

Quoddy



We left behind the Maine scene that begins at Ogunquit and ends at the ferry to Nova Scotia. Do this some time. All that was seen cannot be presented here, but these two images and one word suggest the reason for our travels. Bog.





When In Rain


Today is a day of light rain and we are tent bound, with trail mix and books. I am reading Greenmarket farmer Keith Stewart's book and weighing my constitution.


Schoodic Light


It's not that the plants growing in Maine are unique, it's simply that the light's relationship to them is, giving every moment, from the canopy's translucent greens to the forest's luminous shadows, a mystique found nowhere else in the northeast. A phone camera such as mine cannot even begin to approach it.







Some Heavy Weather On The Way



Look at the radar. Just click on that New York weather link on the left. Don't water the plants, they should get a dousing.

... Severe thunderstorms expected this evening...

A line of severe thunderstorms is currently moving through central
New York and central Pennsylvania... and is on track to enter the
forecast area this evening. These storms have a history of
producing wind damage... and are not likely to weaken as they
approach the local area.

This line will first enter the lower Hudson Valley... northeast
New Jersey... and New York City between 5 PM and 6 PM... and will
move east into Connecticut and Long Island between 7 PM and 8 PM.
Additional thunderstorms will linger over the area through
midnight.

Severe thunderstorms are capable of damaging winds over 58 mph and
hail over 1 inch in diameter. Frequent and dangerous lightning
strikes are expected with these storms. Torrential rain with rates
between 1 and 2 inches per hour is likely... possibly producing
flash flooding over the area. Isolated tornadoes cannot be ruled
out.

Please stay advised for warnings that will be issued.


Mps







Decamp



As we prepare to take off for a few days camping on the coast of Maine, we must make sure the garden is fit to survive a week's neglect. It was hot at the beach farm yesterday, the wind from the west, and had only an hour to make sure the irrigation was still in good order, the fruit picked, biggest weeds pulled.

Good luck fall broccoli and cauliflower, lettuce and fennel seedlings. Placed at an intersection of several irrigation sprayers, these will need to toughen up while we are away. 

Indigo Rose they call it. Lots of them, none near ripe. 

These are called Speckled Roman, but I would've called them Jupiter.

All sorts of little red orbs plucked lately. Notice the flocking on the back one? That's the Velvet Tomato, its vine a blue gray fuzz. It's taste is mellow, more sweet than tart, but not real sweet.

The first planting of French beans. Nickel, in the middle, has started producing. The flavor is the best so far, a floral note over the green bean. Velour on the left, producing heavily now, a touch bitter green in flavor, and good looking. Easy to pick because they're easy to see, the purple pods also stick to the vine, running the risk of pulling out the weakly-rooted plant.

Maxibel and Soleil have finally begun producing. Soleil is looking more healthy now, sizing up, although still small compared to the others. Maxibel has good flavor, second to Nickel. Soleil hasn't produced enough yet to be well-considered.

Rabbit bites. The rabbit like the green bean tops, but not the beans? Excellent.

Too many cukes on the dancefloor. When we get back I will need to thin these.

Visited by several swallowtails now. They love fennel.

A minor haul, which is good, because these don't travel. Gave most away.

Summer travels in a paper bag. A hot car, sun light, and a plastic bag are deadly.


Campus Domesticus


Now we're camping in style. Two burners means two large pans simultaneously. No more wood smoke for breakfast. Easy coffee. Car camping has reached the next level. The cat, however, wants to pounce on this new object of my affection.

We leave soon for the Maine coast. Let the tomato ripening delay until our return!