Harvest Moon

base camp with yellow jewelweed in the foreground

Counting our blessings. Since the end of the retail season for vegetable transplant sales, my husband and I have managed to maintain abundance for ourselves by running our own businesses. Emily’s Express Cleaning Service cleans empty houses and apartment buildings for property managers. This summer the property managers also needed help from my husband with their landscaping and yard maintenance, and thankfully that work has carried us through the last few months. Recently, we even had to turn jobs down because of a new project that is more ongoing. A property owner has asked us to help clear his fields of an invasive species called autumn olive. When it‘s not raining, we stay for several days out of town in a camp that we cut out of the brush on top of a ridge, just inside the forest from the field. This is highly physical work, and it’s great to get all that exercise and fresh air! Not everyone would enjoy cutting through 6-ft tall grasses and wildflowers to extract hundreds of thorny shrubs for several hours per day, then going back to camp, bathing under a solar shower or in the creek, cooking dinner over a fire and sleeping in a tent. To us it feels like paradise.



Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, green jalapenos, sweet Costa Rican Red Peppers
and a Black Beauty Eggplant from our garden next door.


Garden update. The garden we planted in our neighbors’ yard is growing beautifully. We have gotten plenty of big, juicy Mortgage Lifters, Cherokee Purples, Pink Brandywines and Black Krims and a multitude of little Chocolate Cherry tomatoes - so many we have to share with our other neighbors! The sweet basil plant is tall and stately, and produces far more than I can use at any one time, which necessitates more sharing and preservation.

We have gotten one big shiny Black Beauty eggplant so far, a couple of large, elegant Costa Rican Sweet Red Peppers that are absolutely delicious and several handfuls of hot green jalapenos. Our bell pepper plants are producing good-looking peppers, but I’m letting them grow bigger before harvesting. J The good thing about gardening behind a fence in the middle of the city is that there are no deer.

Sadly the tomatoes in the greenhouse did not set any fruit this season - with the notable exception of the Chocolate Cherry tomato plant. The Roma hybrid produced a few very small tomatoes, but only the Chocolate Cherry could withstand the extreme heat and humidity created by the greenhouse cover being left on all summer. We had been hoping to produce tomatoes in our yard, but instead will have to appreciate the results of this sort of misguided “field test.”

Transplants that were rootbound when I up-potted them didn’t do anything. It really isn’t worth the trouble to mess with rootbound plants. Also, I learned that parsley really needs a big container, probably 18” or so, to fulfill its culinary destiny. The parsley in the ground next door is huge and loaded with big deep-green leaves.

Pizza in progress.  Fresh basil and fresh thyme
are essential ingredients in my pizza sauce. 

Canning tomatoes. I will always associate late summer in Ohio with canning tomatoes. There is nothing like a homegrown Ohio tomato, fresh from your garden. If you grow them, you know how they all come at once. One year when we lived in the country, I canned 32 quarts of tomatoes - and ended up composting at least as many as I canned. It was impossible to keep up with them while working 40 hrs a week!

I would only recommend attempting to can by yourself if you are already experienced in this process. Fortunately I have a lot of memories from a childhood blessed with lots of homegrown food. Dad maintained a good-sized vegetable garden and kept bees. My mother baked bread, processed honey, and canned and froze all sorts of fruits & vegetables when my sister and I were growing up. I remember my Grandma would always come over to help her on canning day, and we girls would get involved too. A few weeks ago, my sister and I shared a wonderful day together canning dozens of quarts of peaches!

Canning is a food-preservation technique that is enjoying a renaissance as more and more people want to master the art of storing their own harvest in a way that does not require ongoing energy input (i.e. freezing). As we find ourselves moving forward into an uncertain future, it can be comforting to know at least you’ll be able to eat round red tomatoes from your own garden, or peaches from a local farm during the dead of winter. The image of shelves lined with jewel-like jars of green beans, peach halves, applesauce, apple butter, peach butter, salsa, whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, jam, and honey satisfies some of that archetypal need for your own personal food security.

Here is a link to the Ball Canning & Food Preservation site:

Another great source of info about canning is the Presto Pressure Canner website:
I think it’s interesting reading, if only to understand the nature of your food a little better.    

Sweet Costa Rican Red Pepper and Jalapeno, ready to
become pizza toppings!


Experience of time. When we first began our ERB Gardens endeavor in the early spring, I knew that we had a lot to learn about timing. Learning to understand what time it is, not by the clock but by nature, is a skill that we have largely lost as dwellers in urbanized human society. Ancient Greek philosophers differentiated between these two qualities of time and named them chronos and kairos. I think people are most familiar with the way these types of time intersect through their experience in the kitchen. For example, you can go by the recipe, but when your nose says the cookies are done, you take them out of the oven even if they haven’t baked as long as the recipe says.

From wikipedia: “Kairos (καιρός) is an
 
Living and working out in the wild blue yonder evokes your awareness of kairos. Though we use chronos to measure how long we work, the “when” of our work is directed by kairos, as is the bigger picture of food production. Living in kairos time means you wake up when you hear the rain falling on your tent roof, or hopefully just before the sun comes up. When the cool of the morning gives way to the heat of midday, you stop working and rest. When the shadows begin to lengthen in the afternoon and the hues bend towards orange and purple, you resume work until the light fades in the evening. It means you gather wood and water, consolidate & make a mental map of your campsite before darkness falls.



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afternoon break - sharpening the chain saw blades


Linear time falls away as you begin to live in more direct relationship to your environment. Your senses and appetites become sharpened, untethered from the flickering umbilicus of the television set or the internet and honed to interpret the signals of the world around you. Your senses expand in nature the way millions of years of evolution designed them to work, and your mind returns to balance. Returning to the city is a difficult transition -requiring a great contraction of the senses and re-installation of the filters that allow you to function “normally” in the structured urban environment. It’s like going between two worlds - the world of the wild, and the world of the caged. If we can be receptive to the world of the wild, it can nurture the spirit, heal us & remind us how we are supposed to feel. This is why I think people have a deep inborn need to be in nature. It gives meaning to the rest of our lives and lets us know we are just tiny elements in a much bigger picture. I’m still puzzling over what nature needs from us.

fields before clearing, taken from the edge of the forest

 

Honey on the tractor.  cleared field in background
except for the autumn olive shrubs

ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.”http://www.gopresto.com/recipes/canning/index.php http://www.freshpreserving.com/home.aspx 

From Our Garden To Yours



Citronella-scented Geraniums



The tomatoes are ripening here in Columbus, Ohio and our mouths are starting to water for fresh homemade salsa and capellini primavera!  I hope your garden is growing well this summer. 

We experimented with taking cuttings from citronella-scented geraniums, rosemary and lavender this year.  We used an organic rooting gel and have found that the rosemary and lavender seem to benefit from a mixture of about 25 - 30% sand with 70 - 75% potting soil.  Not all of them survived, but the ones that did are growing more each day.  



Common Sage grown from seed

 

Pink & Yellow Brandywine Tomatoes



Taking a walk through our backyard... we encountered space as our major limiting factor this year with our business.  Once we had made all of our deliveries, our yard was filled with shelves of leftover tomato & pepper plants that we had hoped to plant in the ground at our friend's property.  We finally got to till seven beds there on June 27, but our other contracting work picked up and we were unable to go back to plant.  We held onto the rootbound tomato & pepper plants until it was too late, thus missing the next planting cycle.   



Hornworm larvae



 Gardeners Beware of the Hornworm Caterpillar!  This voracious creature will be the bane of your container garden unless you check your plants DAILY and remove any hornworms.  According to Mother Earth News, natural pesticides that control hornworms inclue the bacteria bT (Bacillus thuringiensis) and a substance called Spinosad that is produced by Saccharopolyspora spinosa bacteria.  Please note that spinosad also kills beneficial insects such as honeybees and should be used sparingly & only if absolutely necessary.



Hornworm victim (now recovering - all leaves eaten off within a few hours by 2 hornworm caterpillars)



I came outside one evening to discover that something had completely stripped every single leaf off an unfortunate Yellow Brandywine tomato plant.  A closer look revealed two enormous, fat green caterpillars:  the notorious hornworms.  This happened within the space of only a few hours.  Being a good gardener requires constant vigilance by making daily rounds. 



Herbs



 Our transplant wholesale business this spring was a success.  Though I wish we could offer more potted culinary herbs at harvest time, we have simply run out of space in our tiny postage stamp portion of the backyard.  The herb cuttings are growing slowly, and I would like to see if they will continue to grow indoors over the winter.  If they do, we will have a decent stock from which to propagate more.   



Sweet Basil and Rosemary



Mortgage Lifter in 2-ft container

In the fall, we plan to divide the roots of 3-year old perennials that we planted by the lake before our wedding in 2009.  These include hybrid daylilies, purple echinacea, butterfly plant, butterfly balm, and lavender.  We would like to be able to offer perennials for sale in the future.

Golden Calwonder Bell Pepper

 We did not dismantle the greenhouse but only removed the top panel of plastic over the air-conditioner.  This way, our tomato plants are protected from late blight by being shielded from having their leaves get wet when it rains.  We water them at the bottom and gently shake blossoms to ensure pollination.  I am a little worried it may be too hot & humid inside the vented greenhouse for them to set fruit, but especially the Black Krim is known for its ability to set fruit despite high humidity. 

Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter and Pink Brandywine

 We up-potted one of each variety of our heirloom tomato seedlings to grow in our container garden, plus an extra Mortgage Lifter and a couple of extra Brandywines.  We have ten tomato plants in containers on the patio, and another seven next door growing through the fence.  I have read that tomatoes are pollinated by vibration, and that there is less concern about cross-pollination of heirloom varieties due to this.  However it will be interesting to find out if the seeds remain true. 

Yellow Brandywine (left) & Cherokee Purple (right)

 One of our major costs this year was potting soil.  A cubic foot of potting soil cost about $4.50 for the organic brand we used, and we went through at least 16 bags.  Until we are in a place where we can produce our own organic potting mix, we will have to continue to purchase it - a major expense. 

I also want to grow fresh culinary herbs for sale in the future, mainly sweet basil and flat-leaf parsley.  Although we did not get to plant the garden of our dreams this summer, we hope to grow Asian greens, spinach, lettuce and other cold-season vegetables under high tunnels this fall & winter on the beds we tilled. 



Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes growing through the fence



 Country Folks Grower Midwest, a monthly horticulture trade paper, reports in their May 2011 edition that the use of high tunnels to extend the growing season here in Ohio continues to grow.  The use of high tunnels is clearly the next step in the evolution of sustainable agriculture, and it could add immeasurably to the wealth and true  homeland security of Ohio if more small farmers adopted this technique.  The high tunnel production method has been refined and documented by Eliot Coleman in his books The New Organic Grower and The Winter Harvest Handbook.     

the garden next door growing through the fence

 The Sweet Basil and Flat-Leaf Parsley plants growing next door in our neighbors' garden are huge, shiny and green and full of vitamins and life essence.  We top the basil periodically to remove flowerheads and encourage leaf production. 

How To Preserve Fresh Basil

To preserve the fresh greenness of the basil leaves, I chop them along with 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, put it in a jar, and pour olive oil over the mixture until it is submerged and squeeze lemon juice over the top.  In this way the basil is preserved for several weeks in your fridge.  I scoop mine out by the tablespoon and use it to make aioli (by adding mayonaisse) which adds light years to the dimension of a plain old sandwich. 



Black Beauty eggplants just starting to flower



Business Snapshot:

From late April through early June, ERB Gardens made six deliveries to three local clients. We sold 652 plants and had 305 plants left over, mostly tomatoes that never got up-potted or planted. Our plants cost roughly $.21 each to produce, not counting our labor/time. According to wikipedia’s definition of profit margin, we have a 13% profit margin so far, and next year that is expected to increase due to initial investments we will not have to make again next year. Our markup appears to be 852% if we sell each plant for $2.00 wholesale or $36/tray, but that figure decreases if we include the kind of labor/time data we will need to collect next season. If we estimate cost of electric and labor/time to equal a rough cost/plant of $.75, our more realistic projection of markup is about 167%. The retail markup is 50% for our buyers if they sell them for $3.00 each.

Five Deliveries Later...

Over the Memorial Day weekend, a glowing disk in the sky radiated light and heat down on Ohio. This bright sphere, known in legends as “The Sun,” made witnesses blink and rub our eyes when it reappeared after weeks and weeks of rain and flooding. Farmers got to plant their corn crops. We got to start planting tomatoes. Things outside in our garden began to grow again! My sunburn attests to the worship of this legendary deity, performed by canoeing and then relaxing on the shore of a beautiful lake this weekend while the guys went fishing.

Before the Return of the Sun, the cool and moist conditions in Ohio created the right conditions for the spread of many fungal diseases. Even if our greenhouse prevents the transmission of most wind- and rain-borne pathogens, fungus spores can still affect our plants after they go to market. We are working on addressing these issues with one of our three clients and have recommended they try neem oil spray to make the microenvironment of the plant inhospitable to fungal diseases. Outcome remains to be seen - will update.

Here is where you can find a recipe to make your own neem oil spray: http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-insect-spray.html  For the soap you will need to emulsify the neem oil in the water, I would recommend a non-toxic vegetable-based formula like Dr. Bronner’s castile soap.

Texas A&M University has a wonderful online tomato troubleshooter with excellent images of the various tomato afflictions. You can find it here:  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/tomatoproblemsolver/ To prevent fungal diseases from attacking the leaves of young tomato plants, it is important when they are being watered that the leaves are not getting wet, either from the watering wand or from soil-splash. Water the soil, not the leaves.

To prevent soil-splash and weeds in the garden, we put down black fabric weed-block before transplanting, and just cut through it to dig the holes. This breathable fabric lets moisture through and also warms the soil, which tomato plants, peppers, eggplants, melons and squash appreciate.

To prevent insect damage to crops, my dad is having great success using floating row covers over his young plants. On our way up to the lake this weekend, we saw these air- and water-permeable fabrics being used on a larger scale on a farm off Rt. 4 It was beautiful how the wind made them ripple and resemble some sort of large serpentine creature galloping down the field under a sheet. Prevention is one of the hallmarks of organic gardening. If you can nurture the soil correctly and provide the right environment for plants, you shouldn’t have many pest or pathogen worries.

I am extremely excited that we may have found a landowner on the near East side who is interested in a cooperative gardening arrangement. He has transplants ready to go in the ground, and if he hasn’t already planted them, we are willing to help. We have a lot of heirloom tomato starts that we would like to plant. Most are over a foot tall now. In fact, we have more tomato plants than should probably go in one garden. Alternate marketing, e.g. a roadside stand, of some of these may become necessary unless a bunch of our friends would like to plant some in their gardens. We also have broccoli, cauliflower, lots of flat-leaf and moss-curled parsleys, caraway, sweet marjoram, thyme, catnip, marigolds, Sweet Costa Rican Red peppers, jalapenos, Golden Calwonder bell peppers, California Wonder bell peppers, eggplant and chives to plant. The rosemary cuttings I took 3 weeks ago are now rooted and growing, and we just took cuttings of some lavender from the lake.

The greenhouse is being taken down this week due to the fact it encloses our air-conditioning unit and is no longer necessary to maintain night temperatures. We will probably suspend strings from its frame to train potted tomatoes & peppers vertically in our corner of the yard.

As we plant tomatoes etc. and clear more space on the patio, we will be able to grow more varieties of herbs for sale throughout the summer at Clintonville Community Market. I am especially keen on growing several of the different kinds of basil, like purple-leaved basil and cinnamon basil. It will be fun to start growing several different kinds of geranium too. One of my most enchanting childhood memories is from when we would visit the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, NC -  www.elizabethangardens.org - because they had such beautiful grounds & statuary, and so many different kinds of scented geraniums. I remember a favorite being the chocolate-mint geranium. I currently have a citronella-scented geranium which I think will be very popular. I expect cuttings of this and lavender to be ready for sale in a few weeks.

Mother's Day & Last Frost

Here in Ohio, the word is to wait to plant things outside until after Mother's Day.  This year, Mother's Day was one week before the last frost date - May 15th.  Instead of planting tomatoes in January like we did last year, we decided to do a whole batch of herbs first, and then plant tomatoes in April.  They'll be 6 weeks old by the last frost date if we plant April 1st, we reasoned. 

through the window

 Compared to the fertilizer-drenched transplants shipped in from Arkansas and Alabama that are on the shelves of the mainstream garden centers like Lowe's or Home Depot, our transplants are tiny. 

herbs & French double-dwarf marigolds

Tiny plants CAN grow into strong behemoths, even if they aren't grown by soaking in a bath of chemicals.  Even though most consumers go for bigger plants, I think people will be impressed by the quality of our seedlings.  We do not try to disguise the true nature of our seedlings by feeding them "plant steroids."   They are not crowded or rootbound, and their heritage is strong and true. 

the greenhouse at night

 Last year on May 8th, we planted heirloom tomatoes on a windy hillside near Flint Ridge.   Then it frosted that same night.  We tied cellophane bags over the newly transplanted tomatoes to protect them, then removed bags the next day before the tomato plants got cooked in the sun. The soil was only about 4 inches deep in some places.  The tomato plants survived and actually produced a fair crop of tomatoes, even in these non-ideal growing conditions. 

with the moon in the background. 

 This year, due to gas prices, we hope to farm a plot of land much closer to home.  I would encourage everyone to check their soil depth before planting tomatoes, and don't plant them in a place where they will bear the brunt of direct west winds.  Marigolds are a tremendous companion crop for tomatoes.  Not only do they attract hoverflies, which eat aphids, but marigolds also inhibit nematodes from attacking root systems. 

Batch 2 up-potted.  We have been putting things on the floor at night so they don't get MORE RAIN. 

heirloom tomato seedlings

 Next year we will be offering tomatoes in 4-packs instead of solely in single 3.5" pots. 

heirloom Black Beauty Eggplant seedlings

Urban gardeners can grow tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in containers.  These usually need at least an 18" diameter container to develop an adequate root system.    Excellent growing tips are available at http://ohioheirloomseeds.com/Growing_Tips.html 

The soil mix is very important for each plant.  Each variety prefers a certain habitat.  The more you can re-create the plant's natural habitat  - in terms of soil conditions, temperature, light and moisture levels, among other factors - the better the plant will do.  Soil is the basis for all life on earth.  If you take care of the soil, you take care of the plants.  If you take care of the plants, they will take care of you.   

Dayton-area heirloom seedling sources

Here is a list of plant nurseries near the Dayton area where you can buy heirloom tomato seedlings.  I looked for heirloom vegetable seedling sources too, but was unable to find any online. 

Burkhart's Nursery, at 1530 E. Central Ave. in Miamisburg carries 5 or 6 heirloom tomato varieties. 

Knollwood Garden Center in Beavercreek has heirloom tomatoes.  http://knollwoodgardens.com/

Siebenthaler's Nursery in Beavercreek (937-427-4110) carries several varieties of heirloom tomato seedlings.  Siebenthaler's in Centerville (937-434-1326) said they have a whole rack of heirloom vegetable and tomato seeds. 
At the University of Dayton, the Marianist Environmental Education Center http://meec.udayton.edu/ has a Native Plant Workshop June 11, and Native Plant Sale June 19.  If you have a lawn, Native Plants are a great way to conserve water and attract birds & butterflies. 

I don't know if Wegerzyn Gardens Metropark has ongoing plant sales - they and Cox Arboretum just hosted plant sales last weekend.  Wegerzyn Gardens seems to be a hub of the local food movement with a focus towards sustainability.  http://www.metroparks.org/Parks/WegerzynGarden/Home.aspx

If there are any small natural foods grocers in your area, they may be a good place to look for chemical-free herb seedlings.  Two of our main clients are cooperative community markets.  These types of locally-owned retailers attract the customers who know where to look for organic, chemical-free and locally grown foods.  Because this demographic often embraces a do-it-yourself spirit, I wouldn't be surprised if your local natural markets are having plant sales this year. 

Dorothy Lane Market https://secure.dorothylane.com/departments/produce/localfoodclub.html has a local food club this year which seems to operate like a CSA, in case you're interested in getting locally-grown organic produce in the Dayton area.   

Pictures from today - New Moon, Batch 2 Growing

chives, sweet basil, broccolis and celery seedlings from Batch 1 outside hardening off

catnip, flat-leaf Italian parsley, fernleaf dill, double-dwarf French marigolds and lemon basil outside

close-up of Batch 2 - Summer vegetables including 7 types of heirloom tomatoes, heirloom Black Beauty eggplant, heirloom jalapeno peppers, heirloom Golden Calwonder bell peppers, heirloom California Wonder bell peppers, and hybrid sweet Costa Rican red peppers. 

plant's eye view:  heirloom tomatoes & peppers

lettuce & spinach windowboxes.  time to have some fresh salad! 

Ovation Greens Mix from Johnny's Selected Seeds:  contains Arugula, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Red Mustard and Kale.  I ran out of shallow containers with large surface area, so I started these greens from plug trays in non-porous mixing bowls that I wasn't using.  Thanks Dad for getting them started!  I can't wait to devour these greens - we have them in windowboxes available now at Bexley Natural Market and Clintonville Community Market.   

sweet Costa Rican red peppers and heirloom California Wonder bell peppers

Inside the Greenhouse - First Batch

Here are some pictures from the inside of our greenhouse, before we made our first delivery.


First batch (hardy vegetables & herbs) pre-sale.  Includes heirloom Waltham broccoli, Arcadia broccoli, heirloom Snowball cauliflower, Franklin hybrid brussels sprouts, heirloom Copenhagen Market cabbage, sweet basil, marigolds, Florence fennel, fernleaf dill, lemon basil, caraway, Tango hybrid celery, flat-leaf Italian parsley and tiny others that are not yet visible in this photo ... thyme, sweet marjoram, cilantro, sage and tarragon. 



This is the view from our dining room window - we have an oscillating fan secured to one of the 2x4s for air circulation.  My husband installed two screened air vents in the bottom of the greenhouse with flaps that can be opened & closed manually to regulate temperature.  We use the brick wall of the apartment for thermal mass.  Since installing the greenhouse, it is making a distinct difference in heating our home on cool days.  Besides being a micro-environment where we can grow our seedlings, the greenhouse made it unnecessary for us to turn on the furnace during the whole month of April, despite having only 2 or 3 days of full sun and a lot of cool, rainy weather.   

Heirloom Waltham broccoli seedlings

the automatic vent opener

citronella scented geranium