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It's tomato season and pepper season and eggplant and cucumber and zucchini...
AND daylily season! They are one of my favorite perennials - ephemeral, tough, beautiful. I have acquired many over the years. This one from a friend, Ardys. It is not yellow nor peach but some wonderful shad between. and it changes based on what it is near.
And I think this double came from Lesa
then there is one I traded to get
And one from a favorite vendor at the St Paul Farmers Market
And one from unknown origin that I have split and given to others. the photo is not true color; it is deep red.
They bloom in the heat of the summer. each bloom lasts only one day. I so enjoy them.
Greetings from the Garden! This box has lettuce, arugula, cucumbers, green or Walla Walla sweet onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, and the first of the tomatoes and garlic!
Field Notes. After a few weeks with no rain, Ken is preparing to irrigate the fall crops in the field. He is in the process of reconfiguring how he does this now the long greenhouse is out there. He keeps looking at the forecast as these younger crops need rain to fill out for fall harvest.
Ken also has picking and doing maintenance. I snapped this photo of him as he was trimming the tomatoes in the mobile high tunnel. We have just started to get tomatoes. This is later than usual and the reason is the wonderful cool nights have slowed down all the heat loving crops. But they are coming!
Ken has been irrigating in the garden where he has lettuce, celery, and other crops that need a steady supply of water to grow. With the organic matter in the field the root and vine crops can tolerate a less even water supply. Ken read a couple years ago for each percentage of organic matter, the crops can go one week without the optimum one inch of rainfall.
Our customer base dwindles each year as home gardens come in. If you know of anyone who wants vegetables, please spread the word on the quality and service we provide. They can order conveniently from our website - kepperspottery.com - Thank you!
From the Kitchen. Garlic is a long season crop - planted in fall for mid summer harvest. The allium or onion family is very sensitive to length of day, and once the tops start to droop, the bulbs are done filling out, and the harvest begins. Fresh garlic has great fresh flavor. I use it everywhere - salads with tomato, minced in sauces on meat, in pasta salads, cucumber salads, in vegetable medleys and stir fry, on braising greens. I read recently that garlic retains fresh flavor if added near the end of the cooking.
Tomatoes are really a fruit. The first ones are a great addition to salads. Usually we eat the first raw, and then start to cook and can. We will have tomatoes for canning and drying. Just let us know you want some
'Til next week, Judith
Well, Who would think that the preferred new spot to nap is an egg carton on a shelf by the sprouter?
But that is the new spot we find the kitten between his big adventures. At this point he fits in the jumbo lid!
Poor Oscar. In his five years he has injured himself three times : twice he was impaled with a stick running through the woods chasing something. Once he had to go to the vet to have the piece of stick removed. Last week we heard a yelp and found him with a long gash through his skin. The next morning it was a trip to the vet.
And stitches. Ken believes by the tipped feed barrels and other evidence that Oscar had crawled under a table to play with the kitten. Then a paw with claws came at him and Oscar backed up, caught himself on something sharp and ouch!
The two animals are working out how to play. Oscar remains a bit cautious. The moral: Don't mess with Big Red!
Greetings from the Garden! This box has lettuce and salad greens, carrots, chard, green onions, turnips, celery, radishes or daikon radish, and the first cucumbers, zucchini and raspberries.
Field Notes. Ken is in the final planning of fall plantings. This involves not only figuring out what we will put in the root cellar, but also calculating how long crops will take as days shorten. This is very different from spring planting when days are lengthening and heat is on the rise.
Ken is picking about every other day - cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes. Soon we will make decisions on peppers. Do we focus on ripe peppers or green peppers. Picking green peppers means the plant will keep making peppers at a faster rate than if we allow them to ripen. Ripe peppers take longer and have less shelf life. That is why ripe peppers cost more than green ones. Many of our CSA members and on line customers prefer ripe peppers. We do as well. Ken will probably balance requests for green peppers with those for ripe ones.
From the Kitchen. Chard, a summer green, is a cousin of spinach and beets. We like chard in any recipe for greens - I usually braise it, and it is nice in cooked egg dishes. I like to cut out the stems and chop them and cook them a bit longer than the greens which only need wilting - similar to bok choy or Chinese cabbage. We have LOTS so if you want some to blanch and freeze for winter, contact us soon.
Cucumber and zucchini! These members of the cucurbit family are often the first heat loving crops followed by the nightshades or solanaceae family of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants. Ken often runs a fork lengthwise down the cucumber to form thin lines that break the skin and look nice. We both slice and salt an let stand about a half hour. I often add a yogurt dressing and sliced onion or an Asian dressing with tamari, sweet wine, hot pepper, and some sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds.
There are so many flowers now - some I planted like the astilbe
Some Ken planted like the zinnias.
The sunflowers self seeded and Ken moved some, and left others.
Then there are other self seeding flowers like Ken's morning glories that come back from seed each year
And the comfrey that had bees in it
And the milkweed I leave for the monarch butterflies
There is one short hollyhock in the perennial bed, too!
Ken is always busy in the summer! He has been trading off location, and in heat he may work a split shift as he comes in during the heat of the day , and then goes out once it starts to cool and stays out until dark.
He clears space for new plantings
He trains cucumbers and summer squash to grow up the fence
picks cucumbers and zucchini
Then there is the mobile high tunnel location - tomatoes to tie up
Out in the field the asparagus is heading out - it is making and storing energy for next season
Many people are amazed when Ken tells them he is still planting - but he is.
For late season crops and root cellaring vegetables for winter, planting continues. He has been preparing seed beds like the one on the left.
and transplanting; here are some seedlings in the brassica or cabbage family
And there are parsnips, beets and carrots to thin
Lots to do, and the days are starting to get shorter. the push is on!
