Fri, Feb 01, 2008 · Filed under Indoors, Seed starting, Veggies, Winter
That was quick! Early morning, and the arugula (and Granada lettuce) has popped up in barely two days. Air temperature in the Milkhouse where the grow racks are stays mostly in the 60-65°F (15-17°C) range. Around the plugsheets, the close fluorescents warm things up an extra 5°F or so, and the clear plastic over the trays creates a little greenhouse effect that adds at least a couple more degrees. Altogether, ideal germination temperature! It’s kinda fun to think you’re in control of precisely what’s going on, but in any case, however they pulled it off, the first seedlings of the year are good to see! :)
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Tue, Jan 29, 2008 · Filed under Indoors, Seed starting, Veggies, Winter
Started the first seeds of the year today: lettuce and arugula. At night, the grow racks remind me of a lab experiment, with the plugsheets in trays, carefully labelled and sheathed in plastic under the intense white light (fluorescents up close are pretty bright). And there’s the digital min/max thermometer, keeping score. The whole set-up looks like what it is. It’s great! In the beginning, I kind of obsessively (and largely unnecessarily) check every few hours to make sure the soil mix is sufficiently moist, the temperature is above 60°F, to see if anything’s emerged and it’s time to take off the plastic. Maybe after another five or 10 years, it will become simply routine, but for now, every single plant to emerge is still cool and exciting… For this, the earliest lettuce attempt yet, I’ve started five varieties, all with maturity dates of 50 days or less. There’s Simpson Elite (a really fast 40-day) and Two Stars, both green leaf, Granada and Red Salad Bowl, both red, and Sierra, which is red tinged. As a salad mix in any combination or all together, they’re a great blend of colors, textures and tastes. The arugula, Rocket and Skyrocket, intended for the mix, is faster growing than lettuce, but I felt like starting some now (I’ll start some more, later). If all goes well, these will hit the unheated greenhouse in the beginning of March, a good three weeks ahead of last year!
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Mon, Oct 01, 2007 · Filed under Autumn, Veggies
Although we haven’t had frost and the weather’s been overall incredibly mild, it’s still the fall cool season crops that’re doing best. Here, a mix of spicy brassicas, grown entirely in the post-flea beetle season—no row cover and no holes! There’s arugula, mizuna, tatsoi (a kind of bok choi), and red mustard. It’s a zesty, peppy salad on its own, or mix with lettuce. The leaves are a little past the baby greens stage—they’re growing so fast—so just tear ‘em up! (That’s what I say at the farmers’ market… :) Oh, and while the weeds have slowed down dramatically, they’re still around: can you spot the mallow?
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Sat, Jul 07, 2007 · Filed under Summer, Veggies
Life moves fast through our short growing season. Lushness and abundance peak and fade quickly into decline. The garlic, so green and promising only a few weeks ago, is already dying back, ready for harvest by month’s end. (Here, we’re splurging on a watering by sprinkler; I’m not sure of effectiveness of this exact timing, but a nice soaking round about now should give those garlic bulbs an extra growing boost during their last days.) In front of the garlic, more crops past their prime. The third planting of mesclun (we’re already harvesting the fifth) has started to bolt, ready to be plowed under. And a bed of arugula that, despite row cover, had been invaded by flea beetles, was chopped down and now lies brown and overdue for tilling in. Wheel keeps on turning…! (LATER NOTE: Watering garlic during its last few weeks is not considered a great idea, but in this case, it didn’t hurt.)
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Fri, May 18, 2007 · Filed under Fieldwork, Greenhouse, Harvest, People, Spring, Veggies
In the greenhouse, harvesting in the first and last couple of hours of the day is the only way to ensure tasty salad greens. Daytime harvest is near futile, as the leaves go limp and require serious rehydration. In the chilly evening weather, plants perk up, and it’s all right as rain! Here, cutting greens in the evening before market means clearing the arugula that bolted during the week and rapidly buried the lettuce. Out of arugula chaos comes delicious, garden-fresh salad mix! (On the tomato front, yesterday’s field transplants did well, only a few leaf burns where they touched the cover, this despite quite a hard frost. That’s good.)
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Wed, May 02, 2007 · Filed under Greenhouse, Indoors, Spring, Veggies
The early lettuce has company. Several other varieties of lettuce, self-seeded from last year’s crop that was left to flower, just took off. Somehow, there’s tasty arugula mixed in as well. To munch on and to fill in where the voles had their fun, I let it all grow. This year’s lettuce is in there, doing fine, and should be ready not for the first day of the farmers’ market, which is this Saturday, but probably for next week. It’s all…good!
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