Celebrating resurrection, renewal, and springtime here at Plant B by planting Easter Egg Radishes for early harvest. Hoping to have ready for farmers’ markets in May.
organic gardener podcast
Jackie Marie Beyer of the Organic Gardener Podcast interviewed me about Planet B Gardens and my first year as a farmer’s market gardener with Planet B Harvest. We talked about how to grow sunflower greens indoors year-round, how to get started as a new gardener, the importance of localizing food production, plus food preservation tips. You can download the Planet B podcast interview here. To subscribe to the Organic Gardener Podcast, search in iTunes for “organic gardener” under Podcasts, or go to Jackie’s episodes page to download the latest.
soil blocks for seedlings
Playing in the mud was my Sunday today. I’ve found starting seedlings in soil blocks is a more economical approach than buying all those seed start trays and transplanting to a larger pot when ready. With a medium- and large-sized soil block maker, you can dispense with pots altogether. An added benefit is seedlings “air prune” — meaning when the roots hit the edge of the block they stop rather than becoming root-bound like they tend to do in a pot. The soil block maker comes with a dibble insert to create pockets in the soil to plant your seeds, or you can attach a block instead of the dibble
March 13, 2016
preserving eggplant
My favorite way of preserving eggplant is freezing. I’ve heard people say you can’t freeze eggplant because it gets bitter. Here’s a technique I learned from an ’80s recipe in The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook that works great as a pre-freeze treatment and removes the bitterness: Cut the eggplant into 1″ cubes, skin on Put it in a colander, sprinkle with little coarse salt (like a kosher salt), and toss to cover Place the colander in a dish to catch the liquid, and leave it in the fridge overnight During the night, liquid will drain from the eggplant leaving you with slightly dried-out looking cubes. Spread the cubes in
March 8, 2016
doe plus 5
Earlier this winter I put up a couple trail cams to see what kind of animals are roaming about the snow. Caught a glimpse of a fox nose sniffing the camera, and the bushy tail-end of a coyote, but mostly it’s deer this time of year. This mama looks like she’s got 5 babies in tow. Hope another mama is out of frame — 5 is a lot for one doe. Or maybe the middle one is a doe, too — if so looks like a young one.
hothouse blossoms
Tomatoes are starting to blossom in the hothouse. Looking forward to having fresh Kakao, Climster, and Frederik tomatoes in the next month. Only one of my Imperial Star artichoke seedlings survived. I planted 10 seeds, 7 germinated, 5 got to cotyledon stage, and 1 made it to second-leaf stage — despite careful temperature, fertilizer, water, and ventilation control. Artichokes have a reputation for being finicky to raise from seed. The lone survivor looks like it’s doing well, though. If it makes it all the way to maturity, I’ll let it go to seed and save those seeds for next year’s planting. Fingers crossed, the sturdy genes will be passed on….
first beehives
Assembled my first beehives today. The parts come precut, so assembly entails a bunch of nailing and gluing pieces together to form the hive boxes, inner covers, hive stands, and outer cover. The bottom boards are screened and have a grid beneath the screen to make counting any unwanted pests — like Varroa mites — easier. Fingers crossed, mites will be a nonissue. Next comes sanding the outer wood and finishing. Most people I’ve talked with paint the outsides of their hives to protect the wood from the elements. I’m going to try using a couple coats of food-grade mineral oil, followed by a raw linseed oil and beeswax mix,
February 15, 2016
speaking of miracles…
This book came to mind again with my recent experience witnessing the miracle of microwaved, composted, neglected popcorn kernels coming to life in my compost bucket. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle captured my imagination back in 2007, and is at least in small part responsible for my departure from city life to beginning to cultivate crops and building a homestead in the rurals of Montana. Mixing botanical history, recipes, first-hand stories, and personal dreams, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle speaks beautifully to the power of intention meeting the realities of (the rest of) the natural world. Even if you’re not a gardener, this book is an intoxicatingly-written celebration of the will to life —
February 8, 2016
popcorn sprouts
Kind of miraculous, these…. I make popcorn by tossing kernels in a bowl made for making popcorn in the microwave (no oil or butter — just kernels). Usually there are a few unpopped kernels left. Those get tossed into the compost bin. This morning when I emptied my kitchen compost bucket into the big outside compost bin, I noticed a dozen or so sprouts. It took me a moment to realize they were from the tossed popcorn kernels. Amazing that even after several minutes in the microwave these guys still had so much life in them. A miracle, really.
bees for spring
My bee provider sent me a pic of his healthy bee nucs (short for “nucleus colony” — a starter colony of bees). Glad to see they are handling the winter well. Assuming all goes well between now and April, I expect to be re-homing them to Planet B Gardens in the spring.