Baby beets coming along just like they're supposed to do in the Winter – the gardener can snip leaves of some of the plants for salads while leaving those that remain to grow the delicious roots – they'll need more space between them, but in the meantime, the discards will make lovely additions to salads.
Who
has time to garden? The days are so short, it’s hard to get into
your garden. And the holiday parties all over the place, who
really can find time for the garden?
As
December comes rumbling through your life, make sure you have in your
flashlight because, Lord knows, I have done more gardening by
flashlight (and I know I'm not alone!) than I want my mental health
provider to know. At least, the cooler temperatures (we hope), keep
plants from growing too fast. On the other hand, nothing makes
plants grow like a good rainstorm. Unfortunately, that applies to
weeds as well.
The
main thing is to keep up with your successive sowings, especially of
salad greens, beets and carrots. You might include radishes and
other root crops too. You might find yourself picking peas, fava
beans, garbanzos, harvesting small heads of cabbage, broccoli, leaves
of kale and chard before the month is out and the more you pick, the
more you will get so don't be shy. Pick and give it to friends and
neighbors (who will become friends) and find ways to keep the
harvest.
I
try to sow nine inch rows frequently rather than longer rows less
frequently, unless I am planning on “putting a crop up,” which
means pickling, canning, drying or other method of preserving the
food. Pickled beets and pickled beans are easy and one of my
favorite ways to keep some of the harvest through the year. I vow
I'm going to learn how to pickle carrots like the ones you find in
Mexican restaurants, but so far I have no good recipes. Of course,
if I grow carrots in the winter and peppers in the summer, how will
the two ever get together in a pickled carrot jar? Carrots can keep,
but I don't have a place to keep them until the peppers are ready –
like most Los Angeles homes and apartments, I do not have a root
cellar or even a pantry that would do the word justice. So there's a
challenge. I like challenges. I'll report back when I figure it
out.
These
cooler months, the deciduous fruit trees drop their leaves –
'deciduous' means they drop their leaves – and when they drop their
leaves, sap does not run in the upper part of the tree. This means
when trees are cut at this time, it injures them less than it does if
the sap was running. With the leaves off the tree we can see the
branches more clearly so this month and next are the times to best
prune fruit trees. This chart gives you the basic concept of the
fruiting characteristics of the different trees and that dictates the
way you will have to prune them.
Fruiting
Characteristics of Common Fruit Trees
Type of Tree |
Location of Fruiting Buds
|
Age of bearing |
Amount of Pruning
|
| Long Branches |
Spurs or Short Branches |
| Laterally |
Terminally |
Laterally |
Terminally |
| Apple |
|
Minor |
|
Major |
8- 10 yrs. |
Moderate |
| Apricot |
Minor |
|
Major |
|
3 years |
Heavy |
| Fig |
Major |
|
Minor |
|
1 yr & new shoots |
Various |
| Peach/Nectarine |
Major |
|
Minor |
|
1-2 yrs |
Heavy |
| Pear, Asian |
Minor
|
Very minor |
|
Major |
6-8 yrs |
Moderate to heavy |
| Pear, European |
Minor |
Minor |
|
Major |
8-10 yrs |
Moderate |
| Persimmon |
Major |
Major |
Minor |
Minor |
New shoots at the tip of 1 yr branches |
Light (thinning) |
| Plum, European |
Minor |
|
Major |
|
6-8 yrs |
Moderate |
| Plum, Japanese |
Minor |
|
Major |
|
6-8 yrs |
Heavy |
| Pomegranate |
Minor |
|
Major |
|
Short new shoots |
Moderate |
| Quince |
Major |
Minor |
|
|
New shoots |
Light (thinning) |
Try
to never prune more than a third of your branches off – and that
would only be the case if you had failed to do pruning for several
years. Over a third is too hard on the tree.
When
making cuts, step back to look at the whole tree frequently to get a
sense of the shape of the tree and locate where the next cut should
be. The thought process behind pruning a tree works with this
matrix:
First,
prune off any damaged or broken branches. Take them back as far as
you can.
Secondly,
prune off what we call 'crossing branches.' These are branches that
come through the center of the tree, crossing from one side to the
opposite, or are branches that are parallel and close enough to be
touching other branches. They can abrade the branches they touch
when moved by wind and that wound can be an entrance point for
insects or other pests. These must come out; take them back as far
as you can.
Thirdly,
do some pruning to shape the tree. Part of 'shaping' for fruit trees
is to limit their height. I know it will somewhat lessen your fruit
crop, but any apple tree humming along at full production, will
inundate you with way too many apples. A little off the top so you
can easily harvest from the tree without fancy footwork or ludicrous
convolutions will not be missed – the ease with which it can be
picked will gladden your heart. And save your back.
Always
use clean pruners – if you have pruned a tree that even might have
a disease, or if you have pruned a tree from a different location,
clean your pruners with Listerine or some disinfectant. I was taught
to use a bleach solution, but unless you are a masochist, I'd suggest
avoiding that. It ruins your skin, your clothes and your tools –
although it does disinfect. Still, there are kinder ways to do this.
I
prefer to use my hand held pruners for most cuts. The saw is my next
favorite tool with loppers being third. Their cuts are less than
clean and a clean cut heals faster for the tree. The pole cutters
and saws are the least favorite of all because of the lack of control
you have over the cuts. I use a chain saw for tree removal – or
branch removal on some branches that have got to come out – I
rarely prune large branches on trees I care for because I take them
out when they are still small enough to be pruned out by my hand-held
pruners.
Always
try to cut back to an area that will heal. This isn't always
possible, but to the degree you can, cut back to an area called the
bark branch ridge. In this graphic, on the left side, the red
line shows where the pruner will make it's cut – just below the red
pruner handle, you can see a branch cut correctly. The bark branch
ridge contains cells that will enable the plant to heal the wound.
On the right of the graphic, you can see the three cuts needed to
remove a large branch without tearing into the tree causing
unnecessary harm.
In
times past, if I was having trouble with perennial pests in my trees,
I would spray them after pruning with horticultural oil. This
petroleum product kills all insects and their eggs that it comes in
contact with and no insect (since the beginning of the 1900's at
least) has ever evolved resistance. It's considered organic. DO NOT
SPRAY IT IN THE MORNING; only in the evening when there is no chance
of harming bees. By the following morning it will be dry and no
longer harmful. I've stopped spraying my trees annually – if I had
a pest, I would not hesitate to use it. But I don't do any sprays
prophylactically any more; there must be evidence of a pest to spray
for before I'll spray – this does mean I loose some food every so
often or I have to eat misshapen or ugly fruit. It's OK. I've
lived.
Another
event in the gardeners' calendar of note, for gardeners who have been
at it for awhile, seed catalogs of the new year have magically begun
to arrive and with them the challenge to not buy several hundred
pounds of lettuce or tomato seeds. Everything sounds so inviting!
Oh my, a new paisley tomato? How can I resist? Every page screams
“Try me!” in full color and we gardeners can be helpless to
these Siren calls
I
grew up in NE Kansas and all through my childhood, spent winter
months in front of the fire with the Burpee catalog. I would read all
the descriptions of the vegetables and compare them over and over
again. Grandpa, who saved his seed, had no use for 90% of all they
sold, so I rarely got to see any of my multitude of lists even
purchased let alone grown. The esteemed Burpee seed company went out
of business for a while after a bumpy few years. They have returned
in name but really in name only; this company is only a shadow of
its former self, gone are the days when the Burpee name was attached
to varieties they bred themselves. Now they are only offering a
rather paltry selection of seed that usually isn't bred for the home
gardener and exclusively carry hybrids, mostly products of a Monsanto
subsidiary, developed for shipping and commercial ventures. However,
what was old is now new again and other catalogs have taken up the
slack – check out my list in Appendix K
– not only catalogs from companies, but also from seed saving
associations, with a huge variety of seeds that were bred for the
home gardener.
On
thing that works for me in December is to take stock of the year just
past. What worked and what didn't work? What variety tweaked your
interests last year? What variety of every kind of plant did you
like best? What did your friend plant that tasted so divine you
can't wait to plant? Do you want to think about not growing any of a
vegetable this year? What dates did pests arrive in your garden and
how will you avoid that this year – can you plant earlier or later?
Here's
my annual recapitulation from this last year at The Learning Garden,
starting with the winter garden and then summer's:
Artichoke:
I know I'm teasing the rest of the world, but I pay rent in Los
Angeles so I figure I'm due my share of teasing. We had a great
harvest last year of artichokes – mostly Green Globe Improved. They
all produced big beautiful chokes with abandon. We had respectable
harvest from Violetto which I love, but it wasn't nearly as
productive. I’ll still grow both because I've got plants of both.
Beets:
Burpee's Golden and Chioggia - both are dynamite and steady
producers year in and year out and both are usually from Pinetree
Garden Seeds although I have been known to get seed from Peaceful
Valley Farm Supply too. These are two old standby varieties that
form the bulk of beet growing – Burpee's Golden is not a prolific
producer with a lower than usual rate of germination but it's well
worth it. I want to try the Albino Beet from Pinetree.
Broccoli:
Nutribud (also from Pinetree) is an OP of respectable performance;
earliness is right up there with the hybrids and the size is
comparable. As the name suggests, it is reported to have a higher
percentage of glutamine. The only other tight headed broccoli that
are OP is Waltham (sometime listed as Waltham 98) and DeCicco –
while Waltham has been the standard, DeCicco is a smaller, faster and
more 'home garden friendly' than Waltham. All the other tight
headed broccoli are hybrids. There are loose headed broccoli like
Romanesco and Calabrese, but I'm not so fond of them – their flavor
is much more pronounced, I'll not say “bitter” outright, but it's
close.
Brussels
sprouts: Bubbles was the hybrid we grew – someone had given
me a couple of plants. They got whitefly and aphids very badly and I
couldn't see cleaning each little sprout thoroughly beore eating;
although a friend did and sent me back a lovely dish of them (thanks
Mary!). Between cabbage and broccoli, I get enough of this family to
skip Brussels sprouts. OP Brussels sprouts include Catskills and
Long Island Improved.
Cabbage:
A good year for cabbage for us. Danish Ball Head, one of my
favorite OP heirlooms performed good after we actually got some
seedlings started. Winningstadt is a pointy head cabbage that
yielded 10 pound heads that were delicious. Both were huge solid
heads and we ate and ate and finally learned how to ferment cabbage
to be able to eat it the rest of the year. At this moment, there is
so much of it that it feels more like a burden than a blessing....
Carrots:
How wonderful, if you
decide to plant some of the different color carrots, you'll be able
to grow open pollinated seeds! Because carrots didn't become
uniformly orange until the last 50 years or so (because of marketing
needs), the different colored carrots are all OP. In the orange
department I found Nantes and Red Cored Chantenay as my big
producers. In containers, Parris Market was the one-bite wonder...
Cauliflower:
Mark Twain is supposed to have said that 'cauliflower was
cabbage that had gone to college' and I can't afford the tuition, so
I stick to cabbage. Cabbage is easier to preserve and broccoli will
give successive cuttings from one plant. Cauliflower is more work
and less results. But, those who must, Early Snowball is the best OP
cauliflower available. It naturally folds leaves over the head just
like the modern hybrids.
Celeriac:
I don't grow celery because it's a hard plant to grow and home
grown celery has always tasted bitter to me. Celeriac, on the other
hand, was easy to grow and produced well. You can't smear a hunk
with cream cheese or peanut butter and have the same delightful
appetizer, but it does a marvelous stand up performance in soups.
Large Prague was our selection this year and I've yet to have
experience with anything else.
Chard:
(I'm dispensing with the 'Swiss' part, feel free to join me, after
all, it isn't really Swiss.) We had seed from Seed Savers
Exchange of Five Color Silverbeet, the Australian term for chard, and
seed of Pinetree's Orange Fantasia. Both were incredibly productive
– although I've never known chard to be unproductive, so I'm not
sure that's saying a lot. Someone gave us a few plants of Fordhook
Giant, large leaves with a tremendous white rib down the center; it
is the most productive chard going bar none. Still, I like the red
chard more and that orange is one helluva show stopper! They all
taste great.
Fava
beans: Windsor is
my favorite and we get pounds of beans from each plant. In fact, I've
given up on peas preferring to grow favas, garbanzos and lentils.
Peas are too much work for too little food. I heard of an Italian
variety of fava called Agua Dulce I would like to try – it
sounds good, yes?
Garlic:
I still love Spanish Roja and Music - hardnecks are supposed to not
like warm climates, but I have great luck with them. Last year, the
crows got to my garlic just as they got started; the crows didn't
eat the garlic, but pulled them out of the ground. After three or
four go rounds with this (crows pull, I replant), the cloves were
hopelessly intermixed so which one was the better producer is
anyone's guess. I'm starting with fresh seed garlic this year:
Music, Spanish Roja, and Red Toch!
Kale:
Redbor or Scotch Blue works for me. I had some plants of Dwarf
Blue, but felt like that was a very stupid idea – same garden
footprint for half the plant. What was I thinking?
Lacinato, or Dinosaur Kale gets a lot of press - and the cooks seem
to love it the best. From my northern friends I have heard that kale
needs a frost to really bring out its flavor – some winter, I bet I
get the chance to test that theory.
Leeks:
King Richard is my usual dependable producer but last year was a
really so-so harvest. I think I ignored it too much. I might try
Carantan or Giant Musselburgh.
Lettuce:
I'm one of those who can't get through the lettuce section of a seed
catalog without ordering four or five more packets! I could supply a
large army with lettuce if I were given the land to do it. Marvel of
the Four Seasons (Merveille des Quatre Saisons), Brown Winter, Red
Winter, Deer Tongue, Buttercrunch, and on and on and on. All
delicious and all open-pollinated. Lettuce is one of the easiest
plants to save seed from. Oh and a new one this year was a show
stopper: Drunken Woman Frizzyhead from Territorial Seeds. It's a
keeper for sure – if just the name alone!
Onions:
I usually buy plants from a local organic farm supply, but they sold
out so I had to learn how to grow them from seed. Worked out fine,
except that it takes a very long time. I like to grow Italian Red
Torpedo – a delicious onion that is absolutely stellar on the
grill. The seed I found was called 'Red Long of Tropea,' and they
looked and tasted exactly like Red Torpedo, so that would explain why
it's called 'torpedo' when it really doesn't look like any torpedo
I've ever seen. Onions, unlike almost every other veggie we grow is
'daylight sensitive.' Most onions offered in the US will not bulb in
LA because they are 'long day' plants and we need to grow 'short day'
varieties. Folks from the rest of the US are not able to comprehend
our experiences and the catalogs rarely indicate short or long day.
Onions grown in most of Italy and Texas are more often than not
short-day onions.
Potatoes:
We gathered leftovers from bachelor friends (they sprout in the
pantry and we just planted them) - I don't know the varieties but we
had a good harvest. I've yet to meet a potato I don't like. Next
year, we are experimenting with different colored potatoes – maybe
we'll do red, white and blue for the 4th of July? Could
happen around here.
Shallots:
I had never grown shallots before, but I found they are easier to
grow than onions and more productive. I planted seed from Pinetree
and I was so impressed, I'm coming back for more! While my original
crack at growing shallots from seed were F1 hybrids, I have since
found an open-pollinated variety that I will be trialing this year.
I just need to learn how to cook with them.
Spinach:
I'm not too keen on spinach,
but... Bloomsdale Long-Standing is the national OP favorite, but I
vote for America. Bloomsdale is savoyed – has 'crinkly' leaves.
America is smoother. Taste the same, but America will be cleaner
faster and better than Bloomsdale on any day of the week. I vote,
always, for less work.
Turnips:
Purple Top White Globe is the only one I've grown and that's all
I need.
All
in all, this was one of the very best harvests we have ever had. We
put up food, donated several tons to the Westside Food Bank and still
ate like kings! It was all that compost, I tell you. The rain wasn't
any great shakes and there were several devastating hot spells last
November, December and again in January. In fact, the winter garden
last year got killed outright by a hard couple of weeks of Santa Ana
winds that sent the thermometer soaring into triple digits several
times and ruined numerous plantings. Oh, and I can't forget the mouse
in the greenhouse that ate all the starts in January. Thank God for a
long growing season; we simply replanted with a screen over the
seedlings.
In
the summer, we ride a different horse altogether. It had warm
moments, but was not hot summer. June was not as gloomy as usual,
which we made up for by having 'June Gloom' in other months so
temperatures were moderated without week after week of gloom all at
once. I think that made for the productive summer that we had.
Basil:
Basil is one of the biggest crops I grow – I put out something
like 50-60 plants a year in order to supply the world with my
Gardenmaster Select Pesto. The ONLY basil that goes into that pesto
is Genovesa Profutissimo, usually nowadays just called Genovese
Basil. The perfume, the flavor and the production is unmatched by
any other basil in my experience. We harvested pounds of leaves off
these plants. We picked the tips, little leaves and flower heads,
all summer long and sent the trimmings over to the Food Bank. We
harvested bags of leaves for over 60 eight ounce jars of pesto and
sold leaves by the armload!
Beans:
I grow lots of beans – I like yellow beans (Pencil Pod, an
open pollinated variety) for pickling, green beans for fresh eating
(Romano or Bountiful, both OP), purple beans for an early jump on the
season (Royalty Purple Pod will grow in even cool and wet soils so
they can be started in March, my first 'green' bean actually starts
out purple!) and I grow drying beans – last year it was Cannelini,
the wonderful Italian white kidney bean. All were very productive
last year – I had a wonderful harvest of each (in the green beans,
we never got around to planting Romano, but Bountiful was
bountiful!). The one thing that can ruin our bean yield is an attack
of snails and slugs. They will crawl over everything else to munch
bean leaves. Do not plant beans near a slug/snail hiding place. Not
that we had that problem last year. We had no pests to speak of.
Corn:
I don't grow a lot of corn, and had no real plans to put any in when
I was given a flat of 'Mexican Wedding Corn.' Mexican Wedding Corn
comes from a Mexican tradition, each family having their own favorite
strain of corn, when a couple marries, the two families plant their
separate strains of corn together in the new couple's field. The
newlyweds chose from the resulting seeds the strain they wish to call
their own. I got several pounds of corn in many different colors and
patterns. I chose one (I'm calling it “Two Mary Corn” after the
two volunteers who gave it to me) that I intend to breed on over the
next few years. These are flour corns (for corn meal) and not fresh
eating corn.
Cucumbers:
We had a banner year with cukes this year. My favorite
'Armenian' cucumber produced so many cucumbers we could NOT keep up
with them. At least Armenian cucumbers aren't hard and bitter when
they get big. One of the most tender cucumbers we can grow, these
are favorites for production and good eating. A close second are the
Japanese cucumbers, Suhyo. Also sweet and non-bitter even when
large, Japanese cucumbers are very spiny with a very dark skin and
are well ribbed. They weren't as productive this year compared to
times past even though they were treated much better.
Eggplants:
With the great year for tomatoes and peppers, the lack of
eggplant production was a puzzlement. We only began to see eggplants
in September and by then it was too late to get much of a harvest.
We grew Pingtung Long, Black Beauty, Turkish Orange and Ichiban and
none of them did much. (Turkish Orange would have done better
perhaps if we had kept it picked, but it was hidden among other
plants preventing us from discovering it until late in the season
when loaded with fruit.) As to how they tasted? Ask someone who
likes eggplant, for me it's nothing but an ornamental.
Melons:
I have never been a big fan of growing melons – they take a lot of
space and don't figure high on my list of foods I have got to have.
As close as my garden is to the ocean, it takes some real effort (and
attention) to get a good crop of melons in. They need heat, like all
these vining plants (see squash and cucumbers) and space. However,
unlike cucumbers and squash, they stick in my mind as a foo-fo0 food.
Having said that, I have grown Ambrosia
cantaloupe
successfully and I have had whole crops fail. When it's good, it's
really good. When it's bad, it's really bad and it's a gamble every
time. I think melons are a bigger risk than I want to take.
Okra:
I really dislike okra, but we had several plants of 'Burgundy' which
always attract a lot of attention. They have a gorgeous flower and
the bright red okra pods sticking up in the air are an admirable
force of nature. I guess they taste good too – folks came back for
more. Clemson Spineless is the gold standard of the regular okras.
I hope in the coming year to trial Star of David... Works for me.
Peppers:
Last summer was a great pepper season! We had a bunch of
different varieties – I hope I can remember them all! First of
all, we had Sweet Banana and we got enough of them to pickle 8 quarts
plus all we sent away to the food bank and the ones we ate fresh. I
dried about 50 Jalapeños (you get the moisture out and all those
peppers end up being about four ounces of dried peppers). We'll
grind them down and make Jalapeño powder out of them. We had Yellow
California Wonder, which didn't do quite as well as hoped, but we
still ate a lot of them and sent more to the food bank. We had
Japanese peppers, Shushito (Wrinkled Man) we grew for a seed crop and
even though they went in very late, we still got a decent harvest
from them.
Squash:
Squash, as always, get mildew and it's hard to get a decent crop
of them. We held off, and got them in the ground as soon as it
warmed up and grew 'em fast, harvested 'em conscientiously and let
'em succumb to the mildew. There is no such thing as a bad harvest
of summer squash and that was true this year. I like to grow
'Lebanese White' (also called 'French White') because I like their
flavor – most summer squashes are too watery and flavorless to me.
We had several months of good harvests – one of the high school
students had a Yellow Crookneck squash that almost took over a 25'
square and pumped out enough Yellow Crooknecks to feed several
families.
But,
of all squashes, I absolutely prefer the Winter Squashes with their
hard rinds – they can be tough to grow here. Two years ago, I
grew Kabocha squash, a Japanese heirloom that was delicious – this
year I did Queensland Blue – both of these are Cucubita moschata,
one of the many squash species and for my money, I will always have
one C. moschata in my garden every year. They have the moist orange
flesh that is sweet and flavorful. Very good eating and each squash
weighing in at 12 pounds or more, means a lot of eating per fruit.
Tomatoes:
My absolute favorite tomato is
San Marzano which I eat fresh and use for sauce (called
“processing tomatoes”); a white cherry, an O/P variety called,
'White Cherry' or 'White Beauty' – more of a cream color really,
but very good eating. We had scads and scads of Garden Peach and
tons of Brandywines, both of which I had never grown before.
Brandywine won first prize at the local taste test and Garden Peach
came in second (the Peach would have won had more folks tried it, but
the skin is a little 'fuzzy,' rather like a peach, and folks just
wouldn't try it - but it is a very good yellow tomato). We had a
great tomato year while many people who had bought Big Box plants
had wilt, no one who started theirs from seed or bought local plants
had a problem. Gardening – food production – should be more
local than not.
This
exercise, looking back over what was successful over your past year,
especially while it's still fresh in mind, is one of the most
important tools for learning how to become a really good gardener.
If you start a garden journal now, you'll begin to write the book
that will teach you how to really garden where you are. Of course,
next year will have a whole new round of problems, but experience, if
you can remember from year to year, builds a person up to seeing the
variety of solutions that are available.
After
I've reviewed the last year, I'm already considering what the next
year will bring – of course, what we've got in the ground is
already fait accompli, but
that won't stop me from looking at the seed offerings from my
favorite seed houses!
By
the way, I've really found refuge in celebrating the Winter Solstice
in late December. A few friends and I have created a simple ceremony
around a fire that we use to celebrate the year just gone by and
welcome the year that is yet to be. We have all found that less
shopping for Christmas or the other holidays is better for our
pocketbooks and stressload and less partying is better for our
health. I think the simplicity of the ceremony makes it all the more
satisfying.
The
celebration of the solstice comes from our agricultural past when
these dates marked time closely associated with agricultural calendar
and the lifestyle of agrarians. As I get more and more focused on my
garden, I feel more drawn to these celebrations and more gratified by
them. I give few presents but lots of prayers for an abundant
harvest and life – and I wish the same to you and your family.
There is always more to learn in a garden. I hope you write your own
book one day chock full of your life in your garden.
God
bless you and yours... Perhaps we'll meet in a common furrow one
day.
Seed Companies I Trust:
BAKER
CREEK HEIRLOOM SEEDS; 2278 Baker Creek
Road Mansfield, MO 65704; 417.924.8917 What
a catalog! Beautiful pictures of the produce – vegetable porn for
sure. They do good work and have a great selection of open pollinated
seeds. They aint cheap but someone has to pay for that catalog!
They have varieties that a lot of catalogs have never heard of!
BOUNTIFUL
GARDENS; 18001 Shafer Ranch Road;
Willits, CA 95490; 707.459.6410 Organic
seed; open-pollinated. A part of the work done by John Jeavons, a
proud and active member of the population of organic and
open-pollinated gardeners. If you see him, he owes me a laser
pointer.
FEDCO;
PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903 207.873.7333 They
are rabidly anti-GMO, though they do carry hybrids in addition to
open-pollinated seeds. A wonderful and extensive selection. Their
catalog reminds me of the Trader Joe's Frequent Flier.
PEACEFUL
VALLEY FARM SUPPLY; PO Box 2209; Grass
Valley, CA 95945; 916.272.4769 I
have purchased many seeds (and other things!) from Peaceful Valley –
I love their catalog. They have an excellent selection of cover crop
seeds as well as a lot of organic gardening supplies and tools. On
line they are groworganic.com, but I find their web site so
cumbersome I rather use their paper catalog. Find their catalog
numbers for the item you want, then use the online site or call your
order in.
NATIVE
SEED/SEARCH; 526 N. 4th Ave. Tucson, AZ
85705; 520.622.5561 (Fax 520.622.5591)
Specializing in the seeds of seeds of south western United States,
concentrating on the ancient seeds of the First Nations People from
amaranth to watermelon. A worthy cause for your money and a great
source for beans, squash and corn seed.
PINETREE
GARDEN SEEDS; PO Box 300, Rt. 100; New
Gloucester, ME 04260; 207.926.3400 Probably
the best for a home gardener – small packets of very current seed,
a very good value. The smaller packets mean a smaller price so a
person can order a lot more varieties and experiment. I have been a
customer for many years. They do carry F1 hybrids so be careful and
read the fine print especially if you intend to save any of your
seed. SEED
SAVERS EXCHANGE; Rt. 3 Box 239; Decorah,
Iowa 52101; 563.382.5990 Membership $40. Free brochure. Almost
all organic, but definitely ALL
open-pollinated. There are two ways to save seeds: one is to collect
them all and keep them in a huge building that protects them from
everything up to (and including) nuclear holocaust (some place in
Norway comes to mind – Svalbard). The other way is to grow 'em
fresh each year and that's what I advocate. That journey starts
here.
SOUTHERN
EXPOSURE SEED EXCHANGE; P.O. Box 460,
Mineral, VA 23117, 540.894.9480 (Fax: 540.894.9481) A
commercial venture that is somewhat similar to Seed Savers Exchange,
but really isn't an exchange. They do carry seed saving supplies -
nice to have if you are going to save seed.
When
in doubt, look for the Safe Seed Pledge
in the front of the catalog. While I have nothing necessarily
against hybrids, many of their patents are owned by the
multi-national industrial agriculture giants. Your purchase of their
hybrid seed 'feeds the beast.' I prefer not to do that. I want my
money to go towards local food production – gardening is always
local.
Start
These In Containers
|
Start
These In The Ground
|
Move
to the Ground from Containers
|
Broccoli
Chard
|
Beets
Carrots
|
Cabbage
family members from earlier
Chard
|
Kale
|
Lettuce
|
Fava
beans
|
Lettuce
|
Other
green leafy vegetables
|
|
|
Peas
|
|
|
Turnips
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Refer
to the text for exact dates.
These will be the last carrots you
can put out until next fall. Beets can still be sown even up until
February, if you need that any beets. Peas, while possible, begin to
get 'iffy' now.
Mom's Pickled Beets Updated
Using
Golden or Chioggia Beets:
1
gallon small beets (about 7 pounds)
4
cups beet juice (gained from cooking the beets)
5
cups vinegar
2
cups water
2
Tablespoons whole allspice
¾
cup sugar
2
sticks of cinnamon, 2 inches long
Water
bath for 10 minutes.
Cook
beets with roots and about 2 inches of stem left on in water to
cover. When tender, dip beets in cold water and slip off skins. If
beets are very small, keep whole; if not, slice thickly or cut into
quarters.
Combine
the allspice, sugar, cinnamon and vinegar, and bring to a boil. Dry
pack beets into hot, scalded pint jars. Cover beets with boiling
syrup, leaving ¼” of headspace. Seal and process 10 minutes in a
boiling water bath.
Keep
up with me (and The Learning Garden!) on the web:
See
you next year!
david
