Grow Better Veggies

Class: Tomato Masters 2009

July 12, 2009 (Sunday) 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

August 23, 2009 (Sunday) 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Sorry, July 12 and August 23 classes are now full, please register for:

September 1, 2009 (Tuesday) 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

If you can't make the Sept. 1 class, email Cynthia at loveapplefarm@gmail.com and let her know you'd like to attend a week-end class if she adds another date.  With enough interest, another date in September will be added.

This is a hands-on seminar on advanced backyard tomato growing.  Learn the latest techniques for fertilizing, pruning, and soil amending for maximum production, health and taste.  Yes, you CAN help your tomatoes taste better.  Yes, you CAN achieve results to make even your most doubting relatives and neighbors envious.

We'll also talk staking, proper garden siting, mulching, watering, disease and pest control, harvesting, the heirloom vs. hybrid debate, and seed saving.

Classes are held here at Love Apple Farm, where you can observe over 100 tomato plants growing.  Cynthia will take you through the garden and discuss her tips and tricks to help you grow better tomatoes.  You need not have experience growing tomatoes to get a lot out of this class.

Cost:  $45 (advance registration is required)

To register and pay, click on the Paypal button below.

Cynthia offers discounts for bringing a friend, as well as if you've taken prior classes.  Email Cynthia at loveapplefarm@gmail.com if you'd like to ask a question about how the discount process for buddies and returning students works.

Shade Garden at Love Apple Farm

Love Apple Farm has a lovely shade garden nestled among the tall Redwoods. In the heat of the summer, this area of the farm is a delightfully cool sanctuary. A water fountain in the center is surrounded by edible violets and cosmos. Ferns and other undergrowth plants flank the Redwoods, and rock-lined bark paths meander through it all. Here, Cynthia is leading the farm helpers through a rundown of the daily chores (with Sara taking notes), which include weeding the shade garden and removing some invasive blackberries.

 

Posted via email from Annette's posterous

Herb Garden Update (from Annette)

Hi, this is Annette, a regular volunteer at Love Apple Farm. I usually volunteer for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. Last Sunday my task was to transplant 40 Anise Hyssop seedlings into the last unused section of the Herb Garden. Here you see the seedlings waiting to go in to the prepared bed. To help with drainage, each bed is surrounded by a small ditch up to the small brick path / divider that separates the sections. I also added a small berm (lip) to the edge of the raised bed to help keep the water in as I gave the bed a deep watering-in. On the other side of the Herb Garden I transplanted some Thai Basil, and weeded the parsley. Nestled among the shady Redwoods, this is one of my favorite gardens to work in at Love Apple Farm!

Posted via email from Annette's posterous

Class: Jam Making

Irma Rombauer, the author of Joy of Cooking, wrote in her chapter on Canning:  "It is a thrill to possess shelves well stocked with home-canned food.  In fact, you will find their inspection - often surreptitious - and the pleasure of serving the fruits of your labor comparable only to a clear conscience or a very becoming hat."

Unfortunately, the Canning and Preserves chapters of current editions of Joy of Cooking have been removed in favor of more modern culinary techniques and interests.  I think that's a shame.  Gone are the neat line drawings of pressure cookers and Mason jars.  One can't ogle a diagram of how to skin a squirrel or find a recipe of how to cook an armadillo (I am not making that up).  These are definitely lost arts.

The art of jam making doesn't have to be lost on you, however.  Here at Love Apple Farm you can learn this fun and satisfying craft.  We will make at least four kinds of jam during the workshop, utilizing several different methods.  Students even get to take home jars of preserves.

Class size is strictly limited, so that it can be hands-on.  Do not delay in signing up, as this is a popular class and gets full fast.  Multiple class discounts and buddy discounts do not apply to this workshop, sorry.

July 18, 2009 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

July class is now full, sorry!

Another class date added, due to popular demand:

August 22, 2009 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Tuition:  $65
Materials Fee: $30 

To register, sign up through Paypal:

Class: How to Install a Simple Drip Irrigation System

As people come to the garden to look around, one of their most frequently asked questions is about the drip irrigation system I use.

When I first started out, there were many different configurations and types of equipment I used.  After installing and testing thousands of feet of line and hundreds of emitter heads, I found a system that works for any type of vegetable garden and for all seasons.  My system even works for raised beds and container gardens.

One of the great things about my type of irrigation is that it's simple.  Any one who has opposable thumbs and the ability to kneel can do it!

I show you how to install a system from the spigot out to the garden.  You do not need special, dedicated water pipes for this.  Bit by bit, fitting by fitting, we install the system as you watch and learn.  I even get you involved, hands on, to show that YOU CAN DO IT!

I reveal who my commercial-grade parts suppliers are, give you a detailed parts list, as well as discount coupons from one of my sources (available to my workshop students only).

Advance registration is required. Workshop will be held at Love Apple Farm, 9299 Glen Arbor Road, Ben Lomond, CA 95005.

Class dates:

June 14, 2009 (Sunday) 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

June class is now full!  New date added:

August 15, 2009 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Tuition:  $45
Register and pay via Paypal:

I offer discounts if you bring a buddy or if you have taken any of my prior classes. Email me (Cynthia) at loveapplefarm@gmail.com to inquire how to receive the discount.

Class: Natural Bee-Keeping

Do you know that you can keep bees in a small family hive in your backyard?  You don't need a lot of space for it.  A normal size yard will do.  I know several people who live in average-size spaces and have two or even three bee hives.  They enjoy honey, wax candle making, body-product crafting, teaching their children the wonders of bees, while pollinating local fruit trees, vegetable patches, and other important fauna.
Come learn what it takes to keep a busy, productive hive of bees happy.  Learn where to get your bees, how to set up the hive, maintenance, disease and pest control (all natural), and the bonus: honey extraction!  Also receive great information on wax products that you can make from your hive: anything from candles to lip balm.

This class is suitable for ages 8 and up.  Adults can bring a family member for an extra $20 (pay for them at the door).  Pre-registration required, as we will have limited space in this class.  To sign-up, please click through to Paypal below.  If you've got questions before you register, you may contact Cynthia at loveapplefarm@gmail.com.

Class date: June 20, 2009 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

June class is now full.

Class date: July 25 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

July class is now full.  Email Cynthia to let her know you are interested in having her add another class date: loveapplefarm@gmail.com

Tuition:  $45
Register and pay via Paypal:

Re-post: How I Plant a Tomato

This post was originally published last year. I'm putting it up to the top again, as we go into tomato season. Don't forget folks: Love Apple Farm's tomato plant sale is in full force, each Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, from 10 to 3. Click the photo to the right for more info. In the meantime, take notes on what you should be saving (fish heads and eggshells) and buying (read on), preferably at my favorite source: Mountain Feed in "downtown" Ben Lomond on Highway 9.

How do I plant a tomato, you might ask?  With a ridiculous amount of stuff in the hole, is the answer.  When someone ropes me into telling them and I start the long answer, I eventually see their eyes glaze over.  That's the point where I say, "Then you throw in the kitchen sink and cover it all up."  To date, no one has laughed at that joke. I think they're just either too overwhelmed by the real stuff I put in there, or they actually believe I'm throwing in a sink.

This is how I plant a tomato.  First off, let's take a look at our sexy specimen here on the left.

I started this beauty here in our heated greenhouse in late January. I potted it up too a gallon container about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  It will go into one of my freshly prepared beds, shown to the right.  For instructions on how I prepare garden beds for replanting, click here.

The tomatoes are placed three feet apart. I've learned over the years that spacing them closer than that means less fruit.  I dig a nice deep hole to accommodate all the additions - the exact depth is dependent upon how tall the seedling is.  I want the plant to be almost completely submerged into the soil, and the fish head and amendments put into the hole need to be covered with a bit of soil, so I plan accordingly for the depth.  This particular hole ends up being almost two feet deep, and is ready for our first goody, these impressive fish heads.I get them from the restaurant I grow for, Manresa.  You might be able to get them free from a good butcher or fishmonger.  I even know of someone who called a few restaurants in their area and was quickly rewarded with a nice bounty of juicy fish heads.  Fish tails, spines, guts, as well as shrimp, crab, or lobster shells are all good as well.  Some of you may worry about critters digging these up later.  I've never had a problem with animals digging up my tomatoes, and I've got two dogs, four cats, and what seem like an endless supply of raccoons living on my property.  I stress the point that this is the first thing that goes into my very deep planting hole.  That may help keep it from getting dug up.  You can see the six inch long fish head staring up at us from the bottom of the hole here:
The next thing that goes into the hole are a couple of aspirin tablets and some crushed chicken egg shells. The aspirin is to help jump start the plant's immune system.  You can read more about that science here.  I'll put three or four crushed egg shells into the hole as well. You can see our three colors of eggs from our fancy chickens - yes, those are green eggs in there. The eggs supply a nice calcium boost, which will help prevent blossom end rot, that nasty brown patch on the bottom of tomatoes that lack calcium (the fish head bones and bone meal also help with that).

Bone meal is the next to go into the hole.  I put in a heaping handful of bone meal.  This is a nice organic phosphorus source, which is essential for blossom production.  More blossoms, more fruit.  Bone meal also increases calcium availability for the tomato.

I then put in two handfuls of Sustane (trademarked name) all-purpose slow release organic fertilizer.  I use the 4-6-4 type.  You can use any type of slow release all-purpose fertilizer.  The key is that it's got all three macro-nutrients (the 4-6-4- designation) and that it's timed-release.

I also recommend putting a handful of pure worm castings in the bottom of the hole.  I amend my beds with worm castings and I also spray a worm casting tea on my plants while they grow.  Really great stuff.  Another post on worm castings will be coming along shortly.

The hole is complete (sans kitchen sink) and I'm now ready to pop in the tomato plant.  I trim off the lower leaves, be there one,two, three or more, leaving only the top-most leaves.

I put an inch or two of soil on top of the amendments in the hole.  The plant is eased out of the pot, and before it's placed in the hole, I sprinkle the rootball with a product called RootZone, which is a mycorrhizal fungi that attaches to the roots, growing as the root ball grows.  It protects the plant from some diseases, such as verticillium and fusarium wilts.  The product is sold under other names, such as Power Organics Mycorrhizal Root Booster. 

Once the tomato is in the hole, I double check the depth by judging how far out of the ground the plant will be sticking.  If it's going to be too far down, I'll add some more soil.  If it looks like it'll be up above the soil more than I want, that's too bad because I ain't gonna be fishing them fish parts and all that other stuff up out of that hole and digging it deeper.  No siree.  So I try my  best to gauge the depth of the hole according to the height of the plant I'm putting in.

We then back fill GENTLY - only one quasi-firm push settles the soil around the plant. Please do not man handle the soil around the plant by stomping on it or pressing too hard.  That's not necessary and it expels all the air out of the soil.  Believe it or not, the roots need oxygen down there just as much as they need nutrients and water. 

A temporary well is then made around the plant base to catch the first watering.  The first watering is the most critical.  I do it multiple times.  Water it in once, twice, three times at least.  Wait a few minutes to allow the water to drain through.  If you have a deep hole, likely way more than 12 inches deep, you will be amazed at how much water it will take to wet the root ball a foot or more under the ground.  So don't be stingy with the water the first day. Thereafter, you can back off the watering, and we'll talk more about the watering needs of tomatoes in a later post.  Here's our finished bed.  You can see the tomatoes are spaced pretty far apart:

Drip irrigation will be repositioned on the bed, and staking and mulching has yet to be done.  You can find out more about those items here.  In the meantime, please feel free to email me or leave a comment below with any questions.

Good luck, folks!

Welcome, Iron Chef and David Kinch Fans!

The uber-chef that we grow for, David Kinch of Manresa, was on Iron Chef last night. If you saw it, you know that he pummeled Bobby Flay in kitchen stadium. Final score: Kinch 52, Flay 42.

The secret ingredient was cabbage. Cabbage, you might think, is not a very difficult or sexy ingredient, but I would disagree. So would the judges, as they were blown away by Kinch's preparations. Chef was also delighted that his ingredient turned out to be a vegetable, rather than a protein, since he is very involved with Love Apple Farm, his kitchen garden. Here we grow many members of the cabbage family: Savoy, purple, golden, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, pac choi, tatsoi, Napa.

It takes a lot to keep one of the top chefs in the world in fighting form. We do our best here on the farm, particularly since Chef is here every couple of days, snipping, cutting, sniffing, tasting, and watching over the plants. He doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the garden.

If you missed this particular battle on Iron Chef America (Food Network Channel), you can catch it again later this week. And if you've never seen an episode of Iron Chef, you're in for a treat, as it's great fun. Even for non-foodies. Congratulations, David!

Fava Beans: Lots of Uses

These gorgeous fava bean flowers (broad beans to some of you) are edible.  Not only can you eat them, you can enjoy eating them.  That's important in an edible flower, as Renee Shepherd once said when asked about such things, "There are a lot of edible flowers; whether or not they're tasty is another thing."

Fava beans have a lot of wonderful purposes in the garden.  They are a great cover crop.  You can sow them in the autumn here in coastal central California, and while they are growing all winter and early spring, they are improving your soil.  They do this by "fixing nitrogen."  That means that they somehow grab hold of the nitrogen in the air and infuse it into the soil.  The roots also improve the texture and "tilth" of your soil as well.

You can start cutting the tops of the favas after they get about four or six inches tall.  The tender greens can be used in salads, soups, or stirfried.  When cut down to a node (a point at the stem where a branch juts out), the fava will then grow two shoots to replace the first one.  When you do that, you get a bushier plant and ultimately more flowers.  And of course, when you get more flowers, you get more beans.

After the long fava pod forms, you can eat the interior bean as well after it's been shucked.  Eat it raw when small, cooked when mature, or even dry it for reconstitution and cooking later. There are few plants with so many uses.  They also look lovely in the garden!

The Most Magnificent Magnolia Soulangeana You'll Ever See!

This is my pride and joy (other than my son, Zach).  And unlike my son, I had nothing to do with this beautiful tree at my farm.  It's a Magnolia x Soulangeana.  Sunset Western Garden book says that it is often improperly called a tulip tree.

I often see them out and about this time of year.  I have never seen one nearly this size.  It's a very slow-growing tree, as any of you who have one will attest.  I estimate it's age at pushing 100 years. 

I think it's that old because of some of the other very old unique landscape specimens we have here.  None of them are indigenous, so I know that a long time ago a very generous gardener planted them.

Every spring I profusely thank that gardener.

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.  ~Nelson Henderson

A Pest to Watch Out for This Spring: Leaf Miner

The damage done to this young chard is made by what can be quite a pernicious pest in the spring: Leaf Miner. There are many types of beetles and flies that have offspring which burrow inside leaves.  They make trails or tunnels that can meander around inside the leaf, looking like it has been "mined."  Another gross thing is that when you hold the leaf up to the light, you can sometimes see the maggot inside its tunnel.  Definitely NOT yummy.

The leaf miner in my garden loves the beets and chard the best.  No wonder, they are sister plants.  Leaf miners also bother (to a smaller extent) my spinach and lettuces, but boy, if there's a beet patch around for them to play in, that's where they're going.

I don't exactly know which species of critter I've got here at Love Apple Farm which is the exact "leaf miner," but I do know how to get a handle on them.

Our first line of defense is to trap them with a blue sticky trap, as you see in the pic below.  Position it at plant level in the garden, and your offending leaf miner is attracted to the trap instead of the plant, gets stuck on it, and that's the end of it.
We also can hand pick each leaf off that has the miner inside.  Be careful what you do with these  Don't simply throw them away, the maggots will hatch in the trash (or compost pile) and continue their life cycle.  Either put them in a sealed plastic bag or squish each one, killing the maggot.  Better yet, give them to your chickens.  They'll love eating the leaves AND the maggots.  The ultimate lean protein and leafy green diet.

Don't have chickens and wish you did?  Consider taking my class in April on Keeping Backyard Chickens.  In the meantime, watch out for those leaf miners, they can do some serious damage!

Manure Compost as Passive Greenhouse Heating

Here is a photo of a big steaming pile of s**t.  Actually, nice fresh stinky horse manure.  I'm going to put it to good use.

In trying to figure out how to keep our greenhouse heating costs down, I thought I'd investigate a couple of ways of increasing the night time temps of the space.  Previously, I blogged about how our greenhouse benches (aka tables) sit on barrels filled with water.  The idea was that the barrels would absorb heat from the sun during the day and exude it at night. 
Then I thought of a way to add a little extra something something.  I looked around the farm and realized that this old orchard box would fit perfectly underneath a bench and inside of the barrels.  Hmmmm, let's get seven more of these boxes.  John, or master composter and our worm-keeper, sprang into action and arranged to bring me enough bins.

Filling the large boxes with fresh manure would start the decomposition process, and heat up.  The mass will give off much-needed warmth for the time it takes to decompose.  Since I'm only heating my greenhouse for a couple of months while I propagate and grow on tomato seedlings, I figure by the time the masses cool off, I won't need the supplemental heat anymore.  At least that's this season's experiment.

Daniel, my excellent volunteer, has been endlessly patient positioning these giant bins in place and moving the manure into them.
We needed as much compression of the manure into the bins as we could get, so we put our newest volunteer, Sarah, to work stomping on it.  I'm glad she took me seriously when I told her to show up with rubber boots.
Once completely topped off with manure, we repositioned the bench tops.  Now they're ready to accept our young plants, help warm up the greenhouse, and definitely exude that fragrant "je ne sais quoi" that will keep people wrinkling their noses a bit upon entering.

Class: Container Vegetable Gardening

Whether you want to grow tomatoes in hanging baskets, like I'm showing off above, or you want to utilize a small space, our Container Vegetable Gardening class is the workshop for you.  Learn all about how to successfully grow vegetables in containers.  It's harder than it looks!  From the proper potting soil to use, to a plethora of available container options, we also investigate space requirements, sunlight needs, the all-important fertilizing, and companion planting for maximum yield and results.

We will discuss warm weather-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, cucumbers, squashes, corn, and more.  This workshop is ideal for:
 - Renters who need to take their gardens with them when they move.
 - Those who have gopher problems.
 - Plots with poor soil or other disease issues. 
 - Apartment dwellers who don't have any ground to grow in.
 - Folks with large decks who would like to grow vegetables in pots rather than the standard landscape container plants.Students take home both plants and seeds of many types of vegetables, along with ideas and information on how to grow better veggies in containers! Scroll down below for a registration button.  This class is offered on two different dates: Tuesday, April 14, 2009, and Sunday, May 10, 2009.  UPDATE:  The April 14 class is now full, please register for May 10 if you're interested.

The class is held at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  Click here for farm directions and a map.

Available Dates: (Choose one)

April 14, 2009 (Tuesday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. (FULL)
May 10, 2009 (Sunday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Tuition: $50

Choose a Class Date for Check-out

April 14 is full May 10, 2009

Photo credits: First photo of Cynthia and the hanging basket taken by Jamie Cole and originally published in Progressive Farmer Magazine. Second photo of the tiered garden boxes from Fraserside Community Services in British Columbia.  Third photo courtesy Darlene Marie. Last photos are from the website of one of our great local companies, Knox Garden Boxes.

A wonderful edible flower and bud: the Choys

Here we have a beautiful little flower bud of a pac choy plant.  It's edible and unusually tasty.  The chef has been loving them ever since our older choy plants have sent up a flower spike and have started to blossom.  We like to let a lot of veggies here at Love Apple Farm flower, because most vegetable flowers (particularly winter vegetables) can be eaten.  We also do it to save seed and to feed our bees in the winter time, when flowers are scarce.

This bud though, is equally edible and lovely.  If it reminds you of a tiny broccoli head, then you've got a good eye.  Pac choy, pak choi, bok choy, or however you want to spell it, is a sister of broccoli.  Both are members of the Brassica family.  I think you would find this particular bud, though, quite sweet.  The rest of the plant is wonderfully edible as well, including the stem after it sends up its flower spike.  So don't be shy, eat those greens....all of them!

Can you believe this commitment?

Rachael, my long-time excellent volunteer, came over today to help out at the farm.  She had some hand surgery a month ago and has been in a cast every since.  Notice her mad skills with the scissors in her left hand (and she's not a leftie!).  You just try to cut something with your non-dominant hand and see how far you get.

Rachael has missed coming over to the farm the last few weeks, and has been asking if there is something, anything she can do with just one hand.  It took me a while to find a task for her: cutting and laminating our new tomato photo labels.  As usual, she's up to the job.  It's always a good day when Rachael comes over.  Sergio definitely agrees, as he tries his best to distract her with his adorable cat-in-a-box routine.

What Rachael's doing is important to the farm, as it will be the first time photos will be posted for each of the 127 tomato varieties we'll be offering at our annual tomato plant sale.  She's got to cut and laminate each one, but it will be worth it.  Below are a couple of examples.  They're coming out great.   Thank you, Rachael!

Tending Tomato Seedlings

This time of year, we're busy sowing, pricking out, and tending thousands of baby tomato plants, also known as seedlings or starts.  These are for our annual tomato plant sale which begins on March 14. 

Keeping track of and keeping happy over 125 different varieties of tomatoes is difficult.  Right now, we are keeping all the babies in my small greenhouse while our big one is being readied.  We need to bring in every night and take out every morning about 50 flats of starts.  Lisette is on the job taking the flats out into the sunshine.
My heat mat is on the left, with smaller drill flats full of germinating seeds on it.  I keep that mat around 80 degrees, about 5 degrees over the optimal temperature for the tomatoes, and about 5 degrees under for the pepper seeds also germinating there.  Each flat holds 20 "drills" or rows.  I sow about 50 seeds per drill.  Each flat represents close to one thousand plants.
Once the true leaf emerges (the second "set" of greenery), we prick each tiny plant out into its own pot.
Then begins the arduous process of hauling them outside each sunny morning and bringing them in each night to the heated greenhouse.  That's a lot of tomatoes.
We can't wait for the big greenhouse to be retrofit.  This process gets old pretty fast.  But it is the way I've been doing it for a long time.  These babies need babying.  That's why it's called a nursery!

If you want to learn how to get a tiny tomato seed up and growing strong enough to plant out to the garden, consider one of my tomato growing classes.  I've only got two left this season.  You choose varieties from my exotic tomato seed bank of over 125 kinds, and take home a sown flat.  You'll soon be bringing outside and taking back in your own fledgling plants.

Pinching Basils - the Key to Success

These are some of the little basil seedlings growing in our greenhouse.  I've talked to loads of people who seem to have trouble with basil.  They plant it out in their herb garden or kitchen garden, and find that it never gets very big or bushy. The key to its success is pinch pinch pinching.  Even at this very young age, we pinch off the top.  No scissors or clippers required, the growing tip is easily removed with just your fingernails.

Right below your pinch point, the basil will send out two new shoots.  This starts the branching process.  Once the two new shoots get bigger, you can then pinch the tops off of those.  Four new shoots will then sprout, two from each pinch point.  Repeat the process continuously throughout the season.  Eventually, the basil will send up some fledgling flower spikes.  It's imperative you immediately remove those as well.  If you don't, the basil "senses" that it has fulfilled its biological destiny, which is reproduction.  It then stops growing, and dies. 

You see, basil is an annual plant.  It has a short life span, just the warm part of the year.  Here in coastal central California, we start the seeds on a heat mat in our greenhouse in late January.  We then separate the tiny plants into larger pots about a month later.  Shortly thereafter, we start to pinch.  Since our last frost will be sometime in April, we will wait until after May 1st to transplant these babies out into our herb garden.  But we still get the taste of summer now, as the pinched tops don't go to waste.  We will take these precious handfuls into the house, and throw them into a pasta sauce, or even the quick and dirty quesadillas we often make for lunch.

Low Germination - What to do?

This is a bed of newly sprouting beets.  Beets need to be sown directly in garden beds.  The term "direct sown" means that rather than starting seeds in flats in the greenhouse, we sprinkle the seeds right on top of the soil, covering them lightly with more soil.  We then keep the bed moist until full germination happens.  Sometimes, that germination isn't 100% or even close to that. There are numerous reasons all of your sown seeds don't germinate.  It could be the time of the year (too cold or too hot).  It could be you've sown the seeds too shallowly (not enough soil on top of them) or too deeply (as often happens with carrots).  Perhaps you have accidentally allowed the soil to dry out between waterings, which often kills the sprouting seeds.  Whatever the reason, you can usually fix it.

A few weeks after sowing seeds, if they haven't sprung up in the numbers you expect, then you should probably assume you have reached the maximum germination you could hope for.  We sowed these beet seeds on January 3; we've done our best to keep them well hydrated.  As a veteran gardener, I am pretty sure that five weeks later, the reason we have a 60 or 70 percent germination rate is that it's darned cold here in the coastal mountains of California this time of year.  Temperatures overnight often dip into the twenties and low thirties (Fahrenheit), thwarting germination of even cool-weather crops like beets.  Not to worry, we can add more seeds to the bare patches.

Just sprinkle more seeds right on top of the soil in the bare spots.  Our aim is to get about one seed per square inch.  We don't go overboard creating grids and expending too much time on this.  We've got work to do!

Once you've added more seeds to the bare patches, go ahead and add more soil.  Don't have any more soil?  Take it from a too-full bed, or use potting soil to lightly cover the seed.  You're adding about a quarter of an inch on top of the seed.  In this photo, you can see the darker, new soil, in the lower half of the shot.  Don't worry at all if you get soil on top of your tiny sprouted plants.  Once you water, the soil will settle around them.

You will then need to water the whole bed in a bit, as the photo below shows.  Don't over-do it, as you only need to moisten the top half inch of soil if your seeds are only lightly covered, right?  It's not like you're watering a big tomato plant.  Every day thereafter, check the moisture.  Water if the top of the soil starts to show minor signs of drying out.  If you keep your re-sown seeds constantly moistened, you should see some good seed sprouting within a couple of weeks.  That way, you get full bed coverage.  No wasted space!

Transplanting Brassicas with a Little Dog Help

We planted out some Brassicas today: Purple and White Kohlrabi and a bed of Purple Sprouting Broccoli.  Although we've had these growing all winter, and we've been harvesting them for the chef, I am trying to get one more opportunity for these cool-loving crops before the garden gets taken over with the summer plants.  The tray of Purple Sprouting Broccoli above was seeded in our greenhouse about 9 weeks ago, and then pricked out into our small rose pots about 4 weeks ago.  We do an off-set spacing with them in our garden beds, taking maximum advantage of the space by doing so.  Here is what I mean:
Broccoli gets pretty big when mature, so we space them about a foot apart, and start with five across.  The next row's plants are then placed in the middle of the previous, in an off-set (or grid) pattern.  That allows us to place more in each bed.

Since I wanted to give James and Rois as many "farmy" experiences as possible, they were asked to help out popping the seedlings in the ground.  As usual, they cheerfully obliged. 

One of my main tips on transplanting seedlings, is to get them deeper in the ground than they were in the pot.  Don't compact the soil as you back-fill.  We give them just one gentle push to settle the soil around each fragile root-ball.  Looks like the Brits have the technique down:

Our farm dogs, Indy and Trinity, always find lots of opportunities to check out what we're doing and try to horn in on the action.  We're never too busy to give them a quick cuddle before carrying on.

Dogs certainly can make life more interesting, and our dogs are real characters.  I don't think we'd have nearly as much fun around here without them.  Sara always has a smile for a dog eager to distract her from her duties.

Welcome, New York Times Readers!

Hello to those folks who are new to Love Apple Farm's blog from a link in an article today in the New York Times.  You've no doubt clicked through in an effort to find David Kinch's fabulous essay on his "Into the Vegetable Garden" dish he creates for his restaurant, Manresa.  That was posted back in 2007, and can be found here.  In the meantime, feel free to peruse these pages, and perhaps consider subscribing to Love Apple Farm's free email newsletter.  That way, you can keep up with how we grow 200 different varieties of fruit, veg, herbs and edible flowers for one of the world's finest restaurants!

And for my loyal readers who want to check out the NY Times article entitled "Gargouillou:  A New Meaning to 'Garden Variety'" you can click here (but they might require you to register for a free account to view it).

Getting Ready for Spring - Amending the Garden Beds

Between crops, we always amend our beds.  There's an exception to that, and it's carrots.  But I digress.  See how dark and luscious that soil looks above?  That's not soil at all, it's a nice thick application of our compost.  It's from the very compost pile that I pictured in one of my previous blog posts dated December 2, 2007.  That 14 month old compost pile is now producing some very stinky compost.  No doubt because we had put 5 whole Bluefin tuna heads in this pile.  There were a few almost indistinguishable bones in it, but it is remarkable how fine the compost is.  We don't even have to sift it.

Sara can take it straight from the pile and into a wheel barrow.  We add two barrows of compost to each 50 square foot bed.  Our beds were too full before we started, so we took a couple of barrows of soil out first.  We saved it on a tarp, and will use it for some good purpose later. 

Once the compost is on the bed, we add about 5 quarts of Sustane 4-6-4 dry organic fertilizer, a cup of Humic Acid, and a good amount of worm castings.  To us, since we "manufacture" our own worm castings, that amount is probably much more than a normal farm would add.  To a 50 square foot bed we add about 5 quarts of our pure worm poop.  Great stuff.  Below, Roisin adds the castings while James gets a start on turning the amendments into the bed.  And yes, to all of you Brits following along here, those are your mates in barely-there attire whilst London has ground to a halt with inclement weather.

In case you think that digging is only a man's job around here, Rois works on her technique for getting that compost under ground.  Go girl, go!

Look closely, and you'll see both of them are using my favorite tool, a gardening spade fork.  Every good gardener needs one of these "pitch forks on steroids."  Essential for forking compost into wheelbarrows and turning amendents into beds, we use the heck out of them at Love Apple Farm.

Once the beds are turned, we rake them smooth.  They're now ready to plant.

P.S.  For those of you rightfully concerned about the plight of wild bluefin tuna, Manresa receives its tuna from a Japanese university fisheries laboratory.  Raised from an embryos, Kindai tuna is considered by many to be the sustainable alternative to catching the in the wild.

What's Going on at the Farm Today

 
As usual, our Saturday morning was spent harvesting for Manresa.  Above, Sara assembles some delicate Red Frizzle Mustard into our yellow delivery bags.  Next to her are some Fava Bean tops and Bordeaux Spinach.  Here, Irish lass and fab helpexer, Roisin, cuts some Green Mustard:

She looks positively giddy cutting those leaves!  I would have thought she was a bit maniacal, had I not just told her a silly joke to get her to giggle.  Below, James, our helper from England, gets up close and personal with some beets (that's beetroot to you Brits).
Back in the house, Annette, our volunteer, puts in some desk time helping me out with several blog glitches and yet another Adobe Photoshop tutorial (I'm a slow learner).  She looks like she'd much rather be outside, harvesting veggies, than inside explaining something to me for the umpteenth time.  I'm so grateful she's endlessly patient!

One of the nice things about farm life, though, is that it's constantly changing.  Next time she visits, we'll get her out in the sunshine where she belongs. 

We did a bunch of other things, too.  I spent the afternoon getting my classroom ready for a couple of gardening classes tomorrow.  Manuel fixed the porch light and the back screen door.  Sara, Rois, and James worked on amending and turning several of our garden beds.  The Brits leave next week, so I'm trying like heck to give them a full taste of California gardening

Thanks, troop, for everyone's good hard help today!

Essays from My Gardening Students

I asked my newsletter subscribers to submit an essay on the topic of what it means to them to have a vegetable garden.  I was hoping to get various perspectives to share with you, and indeed I received a few inspirational compositions, as well as some photos of backyard gardens.
 

From Cheryl Brondstotter:

For many years as a bus driver, I drove past this little farm on Glen Arbor Road and noticed a hand–painted sign for heirloom tomatoes pointing down towards the end of a long driveway. Season after season, I would say “one of these days I’m going to see what’s down that drive.” And time, being the elusive rascal that it is, slipped by until the Spring of 2008. And then I retired and visited Cynthia (with Manuel’s help) for a tomato cage class down that inviting blacktop.

A remodel many years ago left me with lots of broken concrete, various sizes of lumber, and a sincere hope of re-using these leftovers in a beneficial way. Voila! Add an 8’ by 4’ straw bale perimeter container bed, a premier visit to the Love Apple Farm and I embarked on my first ever vegetable garden. With stone, wood and straw, I had a 3 Little Pigs garden!!

Being in the “banana belt” of Santa Cruz, I’m still more coastal than not. Hence, my medium sized tomato choices did much better than any of the others. The wonderful heat of June passed into the fog doldrums of July and August. Lots of green fruit manifested by the 4th of July, but then a long stall happened until the warm sun at the end of August, early September.

Tomato Love….Stupice, Earl’s Faux, Paul Robeson. My family loves me, my friends are SO receptive, and fresh mozzarella hides behind anything un-Caprese and basil. I can’t wait until next year. Everything grass-like will be eradicated from my yard. Raised bed gardens will replace it; with lots of room for new heirloom varieties, Love Apple classes, and a few new ventures into the unknown. The inspiration I received from Cynthia and her vision of sustainable living has motivated me to attempt a REAL all-encompassing vegetable garden, keeping my family stocked on an annual basis. Many new beds will appear before the call goes out for 2009 Love Apple tomato seedlings sale. I’ve progressed from the 3 Little Pigs to When Pigs Fly Farm. Reach for the sun and be prepared for the warmth. And revel in the warm, red, ripe juicy wonder that is a love apple tomato.

Thank you, Cheryl.  I love it when people rip up their lawns and decide to dedicate their entire small spaces for edibles!  Now, this one from Damara Ganley:

Permaculture's founder Bill Mollison is often quoted as saying, “If you set out to solve the worlds’ problems at some stage you will become a gardener. If you set out to become a gardener at some stage you will see that you are working to solve the world’s problems.”

I think that this is because at the center of what we call humanity is a garden.  A sacred place where our relationship to the earth is unquestioned and where our connection to our truest nature can be forged. To garden is to honor the seasons, to honor our bodies, to honor the cycles of living. In many spiritual traditions, paradise or other spiritual realms are depicted as a garden. In all cultures some form of gardening is a necessity.  Whether it be in large swaths of farm land or in tending to available wild plants, the earth provides our physical, social and spiritual sustenance through a garden.

In my life, my garden has meant home. It is where I seek to learn how to be a better human being.  It is where peace and purposeful contemplation can be found and cultivated. It is where change and challenge is expected and met with careful consideration and conscientious action.  It is where my internal world is found reflected in the outer landscape – a bit messy, well-meaning, growing under good conditions, wilts when forgotten, expresses with color and abundance.

The truth is I worry about the planet and climate crisis and biodiversity and wildlife endangerment so much that I often feel a sense of paralysis.  But then I go into my garden and I see the growth and I watch a butterfly sip from the dew on a borage leaf and I feel a deep sense of renewal.  As writer Minnie Aumonier has written, “When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden”.

Many thanks for your continued inspirations.

And thank YOU, Damara.  Your beautiful words have inspired me right back.  Now, schoolteacher Larry Volpe tells how he connects with his students and their parents through his school garden:

I started gardening with my students ten years ago, shortly after I started teaching fifth grade.  Nothing gives me more joy than to spend time gardening with the kids and their families. Over the years it has allowed me to form very special relationships with the community I serve.  Many children are tireless and cannot get enough. These kids can apply this hard working ethic, which many get from seeing their folks working in our garden, to many life skills, including succeeding in school.

I teach at Seven Trees School in San Jose in a low-socioeconomic neighborhood made up mostly of Hispanic immigrants.  When I started teaching I quickly noticed that the non-English speaking, immigrant community I served was reluctant to come to school. I had very few parents coming to Back to School Night, and even less would come to various other school functions. Working in the garden has changed this to the extreme. When other teachers get fewer than ten parents coming to Back to School Night, I now get over twenty. Parents coming to school is extremely important to the academic success of the child. Gardening with my students is one of the activities that has allowed me to become a more effective teacher.

It all started with a few tomatoes and now it has bloomed into over fifty tomato plants among forty or so varieties of organic heirlooms. Summer is filled with watering, caging and caring for the plants so that they produce loads of luscious fruit for the families once school begins in a few weeks. Working in the garden over the summer gives the kids something to do and it allows me to stay in touch with some kids whom I love dearly.

Once the harvest begins so does the feast. The kids get great joy from eating the tomatoes right off the vine. Most of them have never seen so many colors and sizes of all the different kinds of tomatoes. They love to compare and choose their favorite kinds. Many kids bring home tomatoes to meet their families' needs and they use them in their traditional dishes.  Some parents show their appreciation by sending back fresh salsas for the teacher to enjoy. If I am lucky they will send me some enchiladas. The best part comes when they invite into their home to share a meal. This is by far the best part of my job! While there, I bond with the kids, help them with homework and ask the parents to show me how they make their homemade salsas. The tips I have witnessed in the culinary arts of cooking with tomatoes the “Mexican way” are such a beautiful thing.

Now the days are filled with prepping the beds for the winter garden. Garlic, onions, leafy greens along with the cruciferous vegetables will soon be thriving in our garden just as we are about to harvest our pumpkins...one of the kids' favorite events!  After a very informative winter veggie class at Love Apple Farm, I now have a few dozen 4 in. pots getting ready to put into the ground. The kids ask me every day without fail, “Are we working in the garden after school today?” Like I said, they just can’t get enough. While this is way more fun than lesson planning and prepping, to mine and the students’ dismay, a few days a week I just have to say no.

I would not give up my position in the community for anything. It is a very fulfilling part of my life that I would not trade for the world. I look forward to many more years of gardening with my students and sharing the food and culture with their families.

Wonderful, Larry!  I know you must go above and beyond the call of duty to maintain that garden and reach out to your community.  I'm sure you're changing the lives of many of your students.  Fabulous!

Images are from Cheryl Brondstotter's garden.

Planting Potatoes in Pots

What are we doing in the garden right now? A whole lot of stuff, but let's consider the humble potato.  We only grow fingerling types for Manresa.  They are tastier and more useful for the chef.  We can start harvesting them earlier than standard-type potatoes as well.

I buy my seed potatoes from Ronniger's in Colorado.  They are certified disease free, and that's important.  Potatoes, being in the nightshade family like their cousins tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, are disease-prone.  That's one of two reasons why it's not a good idea to take a sprouting spud out of your pantry and plant it in your garden.  The other reason is that potatoes purchased for consumption have often times been treated with an anti-sprouting agent.  Since you WANT your young potato tubers to sprout, this is not a good quality.  I like the price and the selection available from Ronniger's.

When the potatoes arrive, I cut up the larger ones (I know they tell you not to, but hear me out here).  When you look at a potato tuber, there are more eyes on one end.  Never noticed that before, did ya?  Well look at one next time, and you'll see I'm right.  So I always cut the tuber such that it's not exactly in half; the end with more eyes doesn't have to be as big as the end with less eyes, get it?  I will sometimes cut extra long fingerlings in thirds.  Small tubers don't get cut at all.

All the tubers get put in a single layer in seedling trays (open at the bottom for air flow).  I then put them in a warm, bright room.  The combo of the two gets the potatoes to pop their eyes out (or sprout slightly).  This process is called "chitting."  No giggles, now.  That takes a couple of weeks.  Since I put them in an open tray, and give them plenty of air space, the cut ends seal themselves.  If I had cut them and planted them immediately, I would run into some rotting issues.  That's the reason Ronniger's gives you instructions on not cutting the tubers before planting.  I guess they don't trust you to chit them properly.

I like to grow potatoes in 15 gallon pots.  That way, I don't have to mess up my planting beds when I harvest them.  I can also easily "earth them up" as they grow.  Earthing up is essential.  As the potato plant sprouts out of the ground and gets bigger, you need to add soil to promote tuber growth under the surface.  If you don't do this, then you get less tubers and risk the possibility of the tubers you do have being too close to the surface and photosynthesizing.  Green potatoes: bad!

First, we disinfect our stash of used pots with a mixture of one part bleach to 10 parts water.  This kills any over-wintering bacteria or viruses on the containers, and is a key step to keep them as disease-free as possible.  We also use brand new potting soil.  I like Sunland's Premium Grower's Mix.  This is sterile and doesn't risk imparting soil-borne bugga-boos into the potato pots.  Here's a pot being dunked and twirled in a disinfecting bath:

We then place only 4 inches of potting soil into the bottom of each pot. Lisette, our farm intern from UCSC, is on the job:
Once the soil is in the pots, we simply push five tubers into each one, about two inches under. That means there are two inches of soil below the tubers, and two inches above. The pots are then placed in our large unheated hoophouse and watered well. Although the ambient nighttime low temperatures inside the hoophouse aren't much greater than outside, the potatoes will be happier in there. Since it's late winter, we'll place a heavy frost blanket over the tops of the pots on nights that are forecasted to be frosty, and remove the blanket in the mornings. We'll water them perhaps once a week until they start to break the surface. When the plants reach about 8 inches tall, we'll add 6 or so inches of soil, water again, and let them grow. Another 8 inches or so of growth will trigger another 6 inches of soil added. This will be repeated until the potato plants are quite tall over the top of the container and the soil has reached the rim. They'll continue to need watering every week. When they flower, we can start harvesting.  We overturn a few pots every couple of days for the restaurant, dig through the pile of soil, and pull potatoes from the earth that are truly delicious.

These gorgeous Purple Peruvians were photographed freshly pulled last spring here at the farm. Courtesy Chezpim.

Sergio - one of Love Apple Farm's Cats

Sergio is the newest cat at Love Apple Farm. He joined us in the spring of 2008.

Not only is he beautiful (look how bright his white areas are and check out the black eye-liner!), but he is the most gregarious of all our cats. While our other cats are busy lounging around or hiding from our dogs, Sergio loves to mingle with my gardening students and doesn't mind being grabbed by a little kid and hauled around the farm.  He likes to boss the dogs around.  Purposely lurking in shadows and around corners, he lunges out and tries to swat Indy or Trinity as they follow me around.  He has them totally cowed, and everyone else totally charmed.

The Chickens are Really Going to Town Now!

Our chickens were laying a low number of eggs this past fall (seven eggs daily from 70+ hens!). We switched their food and increased the amount of green leafy veggies and their production has improved significantly.  We get so many eggs now, the chef is happy, and we have enough left to sell a few dozen a week to our loyal local customers.

 

January Sprouts

Sunflower and pea sprouts in the small greenhouse.

The temperature of the sprouts and seedlings growing in our greenhouse is carefully controlled using heating pads and a soil thermometer.

The soil thermometer is really an instant-read meat thermometer. It does the job! As you can see, the temp is reading about 60 degrees. That's a bit low for most seeds, but just fine for these pea shoots and sunflower sprouts.  You might be wondering why we've sown them so densely.  That's because chef David Kinch uses the sprouts at Manresa.  We sow trays of sprouts every three weeks, and the chef takes them, soil and all.  It's great fun for me to see our sunflower sprouts adorning something divine at the restaurant.

Cabbage and Broccoli in January

January's frosty mornings and short day length are no match for the cold loving veggies like broccoli and cabbage.

Savoy Cabbage

Broccoli

This broccoli (below) has whiteflies. Time for some organic pest treatment, pyrethrin spray at dusk (so we don't hurt our honeybees that are out only during the day).

2009 Roster of Gardening Classes Announced

I've started working on my 2009 roster of gardening classes, which you can find here.  I don't have all of the classes completely fleshed out yet with full descriptions, but I will very soon.  At least you can save the date.  Love Apple Farm also now has Gift Certificates, with which you can buy a class for a loved one.  Click here for that information.

New classes I've added include Early Spring Vegetable Gardening (starting next month!), Growing Peppers from Seed, Growing Herbs from Seed, Bee-Keeping, Jam-Making, Preserving your Summer Harvest, Garden Bed Design & Construction, and Edible Flowers.

These are in addition to my roster of tried and true classes: Growing Tomatoes from Seed, Summer Vegetable Gardening, Container Veggie Gardening, Drip Irrigation, Backyard Chicken Keeping, Tomato Cage-Making, Winter Vegetable Gardening, and my formidable Tomato Masters workshop.

Class: Garden Bed Design & Construction

This is a vegetable garden landscape design and construction workshop.  Learn where and how to site your vegetable beds for maximum effectiveness (considerations of climate, season, and sun exposure are all discussed).  You will discover numerous approaches to bed design: from hay bales to lumber to cinderblocks.  Learn basic carpentry skills as we construct a bed during class.  See how we do it! 

Also receive valuable information on how and what to fill your newly constructed beds with.  Not all soil is alike!  We've got supplier recommendations for you that will save you money and give you maximum results due to superior soil fertility. 

Topics also covered in class:

Starting out: Learn how to install a vegetable garden on any surface, from an existing lawn to concrete.

Bed sizes: Proper sizing is important, from their height to their width.  You want maximum workability and comfort to you, the gardener.

Paths: Considerations of path materials, cost, and efficiency.

Holding in your soil:  From various types of lumber, to many other hardscape materials, learn what you can do and how to save money doing it.

Filling your new beds: Top soil blends vary in vitality and useability.  Learn how to get a deal and the best start for your new plants.

Available Dates: (Choose one)

March 31, 2009 (Tuesday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
May 16, 2009 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Tuition: $50

Choose a class date for check-out:

March 31, 2009 $50.00 May 16, 2009 $50.00