from the fall garden

first cauliflower...I think it weighs about 8 lbs...
ok. now what goes with frog legs and cauliflower?
this is a difficult menu!

Hay...finally!

 ...and the Pretty Boy could not care less...

Heap of Burnin' Love

...from Will re: Most.Awesome.Compost.Pile.
first: an early morning video:

and now, an explanation.

A Heap of Burnin’ Love

A few comments on our farm-scale composting effort; I have been building compost piles for as long as we have had gardens…that is…decades, and they have varied from small backyard piles to fenced bins consisting of a few pickup loads of leaves, hay, debris and horse manure; all with varying degrees of success.  Probably my best composting effort was during a period of my life when I had the time to do a lot of fishing and composted a lot of fish waste…boy that stuff heats up fast.

On the farm in Zachary, not so much however…  Due to lack of raw materials and time (plus an increasing disincentive to hand shovel manure into the pickup truck like I used to), when I have the materials I typically practice “sheet composting”, which is simply spreading materials in the field and eventually plowing them in.  To build soil fertility, I mostly rely on green manure cover crops and such items as processed chicken manure and crab meal, plus a lot of mulching.  It works, and I will continue these practices.  What has changed is that we now have these two high tunnel greenhouses in our field, and green crops cannot be feasibly grown and plowed in under the tunnels.  Also, organic matter does not readily decompose when not exposed to the elements.  Therefore, pre-digested organic matter must be brought in, and we need a lot of it (area under the tunnels is approximately 2,700 square feet).  Just a 2-inch layer of compost in the tunnels would require 16 yards of compost, about an 18-wheeler load, and that’s “finished” compost.  You would need double that volume of raw materials to start with.

What you see in the pictures is my first attempt at large scale composting.  I started with a large pile of garden debris, including all of the bean plants, half of the corn crop stalks, and all of the other vegetable matter left over from processing.  Composted, this would have given me a couple of square yards of material (a yard is a pile that is 3 foot square and 3 foot tall).  I needed more.  Plus, I was having trouble locating enough horse or cow manure to build a big pile.  My solution was to purchase a dump truck load of corn gluten from a supplier in Baton Rouge.  Corn gluten is a by-product of corn starch manufacturing and is used widely as animal feed.  It is about 9% nitrogen.  I still needed more dry material, and was fortunate enough to have a 650-acre plot across the road, from which about 2500 round bales of hay is cut each year.  I was able to get 11 round bales of spoiled hay at no charge.  That is the equivalent of about 250 square bales, about what we have cut from our 2.5 acre field (ours is used for mulch).  The garden debris, gluten, and hay is layered and wetted down.  I added about 300 gallons of fish emulsion to really get things going, as you can see.  My fear is that it is getting perhaps too hot.  I have a truckload of sawdust coming that I plan to incorporate when I turn the pile, which should slow things down a little.  Overall, though, I could not be more pleased.  Other than a mushroom farm I went to a long time ago, this is the most composting I have seen.  (BTW, the effort took me about 12 hours so far and could not have been done without the front end loader.)

CORN GLUTEN

and one more video because, as you can see, we just can't get enough of this...

ok. more later from Will on his new Science Project

World's. Most. Awesome. Compost Pile.
I;'m not the scientist in this crowd, so no comment. But a picture and a film.
All I know is 11 round bales of hay, all of last season's garden refuse, and a load of corn by-product.
I promised to get the tripod and make a suitable film in the morning. But this is awesome.
It got so hot so fast, it has been steaming visually for days and days.

This and That

...I wanted to get a picture of the tarragon blooming....so I went out and got wet shoes in the early morning grass...here is a snapshot of fall happenings...some of it doesn't look like much, but to finally have the energy and cooperative weather at the same time...and to get started on fall projects - all good.

 

teeny tiny fall lettuce...Will spread the last of the hay and got down there with the baby plants...a long long row, but no point in taking a picture of it...the plants are so small all you would see is a hay row...and then it rained that night - just enough to make them happy.

 here is the ongoing retrieval of the herb beds...which will constitute our little fall garden. Fall is a dicey time for gardens here...seems like you always get a really good crop of one thing, and less success with other things - but you never know how it's going to pan out; unlike the spring, where you can pretty much count on a big beautiful garden. For this and other reasons, we keep it small this time of year.

 Ah - the tarragon. I had a bucket of roots given to me by a friend, and have had tarragon for years. But this year, I dug it up and divided it and planted it into a new herb bed Will made for me...and it exploded! The reason for the bed in the first place was for a new round of rosemary...which has a life span of only about 4 years or so and indeed there is rosemary behind all of this. But this moment belongs to the tarragon. It will freeze back for the winter.

 This is a very big deal. A water source next to the garden. yea~! one of many faucets, but i cannot tell you how happy this makes me...do you realize Will watered the lettuce without having to drag a hose across the yard? oh yes.

 my little crazy fall flowers. I did start the zinnias, but the cosmos of course was voluntary.

and here we have Pretty Boy watching as Mousey Tongue digs aroud for the catnip that I cut back..I have more catnip and really should put it out, because for this cat it is a staple.
Finally, a shaky yet still lovely little film of the pond in the morning, I'll do better next time...

oh please!

Can't he find somewhere else to nap?

Fall Farm Project...Irrigation!

Not an exciting thing, you would think; trenches all over the place, from the front gate - to the bees - down the driveway - to the new greenhouse site - to the garden. But I must tell you, this is a long-awaited happy thing. It means Will can lay drip irrigation tape down every row in the garden next year. And we can just turn a valve and water whatever needs it...no more dragging hoses from the house, first of all! No more watering seedlings one by one. And no more going out to move the sprinkler every hour, sometimes through the night. Although we invested in new tripod sprinkler this year, the old one was actually better, but you had to put two bricks on the bottom to hold it in place, and when you needed to move it, you had to slog through what was now mud, and pick up the bricks and move them, then pull the sprinkle down...then get the bricks - you get the picture. And a terrible job it was when you had to go out every hour in the scorching heat. It's a big project, but here are some pictures of where we are at the moment. Of course the trencher we had borrowed just would not start, and the one
Will rented conked out 2/3s of the way through the job AND it's going to pour down rain this weekend. But we'll get on the other side of this, like we do with everything else. And next season will be easier. Well, the watering part anyway!

It must be fall..

Satsumas, sweet potatoes and pecans.

Good Riddance Isaac

Lots of scary wind lots of rain...got lucky this time...friends without power but only for a few days. It just wasn't our turn. But a lot of people got hit by unexpected flooding and many lost everything. Another year, another hurricane - no two are alike. Yard-trash everywhere but at least the beehives didn't tip over.

It's METEOR SHOWER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

every year...August 10-12. It's been many years since the Perseids were on a Saturday night, when everybody can go ahead and lose some sleep over this...we'll be out there as usual - boiled peanuts and wine at hand. We've watched these showers for more than 30 years Don't miss it !

All 4 Tulsi Basils...into the herb dryer you go!

...and after an hour or two, the whole house smells exactly like a big cup of Tulsi Basil tea...this is what I was hoping for!

Getting on the Holy Basil Bandwagon

 krishna and kapoor

 rama

 vana

A while back, Will decided to stop drinking coffee in the mornings...he thought it was making him jittery at work...so I hunted around Whole Food for a tea I thought he might like...and came u with Tulsi (Holy) Basil. The original blend - no caffeine. It's fabulous stuff; tastes dark and a little spicy and altogether kind of wonderful. Well, after buying little boxes of these teabags for a month or two, I though - 'this is rediculous'. I mean, it's a basil for goodness sake...I have nine kinds of basil out in the garden, and there's no reason I can't grow this too. Even though it was late in the season and I had to hunt down the seed online and have it shipped and start the plants etc. etc. But I did all that. Now, in the post-season garden...in the herb beds...there are things that will last and things I will save and much to be torn out. But my little plantings of the four tulsi varietals are in all that mess and i've managed to keep them weeded and all the craziness away from these parts of rows. There would be more, but the amount of seed I received was skimpy. Germination was good, however. We'll see how this works out. If  I can get as good flavor as the product I've been buying since April, I'll grow a whole bunch of this next year.

Bye Bye 2012

...and another CSA season bites the dust. This morning, we had all of the baskets laid out and ready for members to cart away. The garden has just played itself out and we just divided everything up between the members - and everyone got their much-awaited jar of honey. I figured everyone was exhausted (and we all are) so we were ready for people to just come and take away the last of the goodies. But then members  started showing up -ready to help. And before Will got home from his morning meeting (he's on call), both cucumber fences were stripped of plants, fencing was rolled, stakes were pulled and put into the barn. The two tomato rows in the greenhouse were pulled up (although the stakes won't be coming as easily)...and I think our members would have stayed had we asked. They are truly amazing.
Jen brought a giant Cushaw and a handful of lavender from her own garden (a lovely gesture); Pam gave us a galvanized tub (yea!)

  ...As usual, we had some ambitious young entrepreneurs. A young man (on the right in the green shirt) who made jewelry and sold quite a bit of it between last night and this morning! Everyone's a sucker for a cool young person

The tomatoes had been delivered of their green babies and, on the way out, members stuffed some into their bags...there is a Questionnaire this year - maybe we'll gain enough insight from our members to do some tweaking in the off-season. It finally rained yesterday, after two weeks of hot and dry and wind...garden killing weather. It's strange to look forward to the destruction of the garden - the plowing and cover-cropping. You hold on and hold on and then you just
let go.

Week 7

..more bounty than we thought there would be...but it's been a hot and dry two weeks with more of the hot and dry stuff to come...at least the drought waited until the end of the season...

Week 6 and the Big Countdown

It's Week 6 of the CSA, and the garden is trying so hard to wrap things up for the season...we've been harvesting and pulling up plants and Will has been tilling and plowing; this has gone on for several weeks now, since our Great Beanapalooza two weeks ago. We try to shoot for a 9-week season, but sometimes the garden says 'excuse me, but I think it will be 8'. As always, we are winding down to the last couple of weeks and there will be melons and eggplants and cucumbers and hot peppers- the great hangers-on of a late summer garden. The squash will linger a while (particularly since we planted more of them along the way!) and there are field peas that have yet to bloom - and it's looking like that event will be a post-CSA one. The loofas are still in a flat - the very very last flat to be dealt with - and we'll build a fence behind the barn and set them out. The herb beds look like they will hold out and stay beautiful long past the season...one the one hand, I love to work out there and enjoy the rows and rows of herbs - but still, so much never gets harvested and thats a shame in a way. That's a problem for another day.

In the meantime, we work all week and work and visit with our CSA members Friday nights and Saturday mornings and everyone seems quite happy with their experience (and their weekly haul). Some have been bringing eggs to sell or to just give us (lucky us)

...but everyone is showing the wear and tear of the season - all are tired. More later....the great weekly cleanup is underway while we try to put things to rights - the tablecloths are in the dryer, the carport has been hosed off...and of course Will is out there weed-eating because he just can't help himself...after lunch it is most definitely nap time.

...for some.

Turtles?...What Turtles?

Every time I cook down the dinged tomatoes to make a sauce, I always throw the scraps in the pond - long ago we saw a turtle eat one (or maybe two) and so it's for the turtles - right? wrong!

I threw the bowl of icky tomato parts into the pond and then I thought - I'll just wait and see...so I stood there...and there were clouds of disturbed mud from the bottom and I thought 'man, that must be Big Boy' (the turtle caught several times and always escapes and once bit Will o the leg and now Will has a scar).

Well - I'll be....GALOOSH!...It's a giant catfish! He ate a whole tomato - one gulp!...So I ran back in to get the camera...I sat and watched this phenomenon for a few minutes - no way was I quick enough to actually get a picture of a fish eating a tomato. But there you have it. Case closed.

...a little Father's Day Chillin'

CSA Friends...

..and a few minutes of fun

Coons in the Corn...

HA! They outsmarted us this time!

No raccoons in thefirst planting of corn - not a one. Well, there was one in the carport...you'd walk out at night and there he'd be, up on a table eating the catfood...and he's just look at you like..."What!?"
But none in the corn. And here comes the second crop...pollinated and lookin good...and Will walks out and...aw, man...And we didn't have any sardines so he set the trap with shrimp - did get a possum but no raccoon. Sardines at the moment and we shall see...we're thinking everyone is going to have to have corn just a bit early...just a few days early - I don't know. In the meantime, here is our farm update from Wednesday....

CSA Farm Update and 5^th Week Selection Sheets

It is with palpable relief that we bid adieu to cornucopia and bean-o-geddon last week.  We hope everyone got their beans shelled and consumed or frozen before they spoiled or grew into new plants.  One large bowl of shelled horticulture beans, which were beginning to sprout as we shelled them, had uniformly sprouted overnight in the cooler before we processed them the following day.  I joking told Thais that we should plant them and received a stern look.  Sprouted beans are supposed to be good for you and make no difference in the final product, so in the freezer they went.

In other news, our near-perfect garden run was dealt a setback when I discovered yesterday that we had been hit by the masked bandits.  The little guys faked me out this year when they left the first batch of corn completely alone and, when I dropped my guard, snuck into the new corn to do significant damage.  Usually they don’t hit the corn until the ears are full, but I am sure that they get together and strategize on how to keep me off balance.  I’m thinking we should organize a vigilante group, perhaps with shifts of CSA members in the corn all night with torches and pitchforks.  Sign-up sheets will be in the carport.

Farm Update:

In contrast to Baton Rouge, we have had perfect rains; a half-inch last Thursday and (just when it looked like we would be watering again) another 0.6 inches Tuesday.  The remaining plants in the field are in full gear.  You will find an abundance of the following items.

Tomatoes – Slicer and Roma varieties

Bell Peppers

Eggplants

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Cucumbers

Peppers – Bell, Jalapenos, Chilies, and Shishito

Green Onions – adding green onions to the list this week– these are real nice

Radish – No promises on the level of heat.  These got lost in the bean shuffle, but there are a lot out there to be picked.

In somewhat less abundance, we have Red and Yellow Beets

We are also adding Potatoes to the list this week (thanks to all the help from the pickers).  If selected, you will receive red potatoes this week and white potatoes next week, etc.

We know everyone wants garlic, but it needs another week to dry sufficiently to divide easily into “toes”.  It also needs to mellow out a little.  It will be on the list next week and through the end of the season.

Herbs – You will see a complete compliment of herbs this week.  Only dill and cilantro are in somewhat short supply.

Flowers – They are in such abundance that you can substitute flowers for one selection of either vegetables or herbs (instead of two) – just adjust your selection sheet accordingly.  But bring jars.  We do not have enough jars to accommodate all of the flower requests.  This round we have zinnias, and sunflowers from the back of the field.

Again, thanks to everyone for your participation and help.  Remember to bring back your baskets and jars and to come early (between 6:30 AM and 8:30 AM) on Saturday or late (between 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM) on Friday to help out and receive your basket.

Will and Thais Perkins

Port Hudson Organics CSA