Joseph's Doings...

[cortona]

astronomy domine hears are realy showstoppers! beautiful colors!

[12540dumont]

Joseph, When I worked for the University, the standard advice was two weeks before a frost. This was supposed to get you root development without top development.

When I was in Europe they planted garlic in the North on the equinox...this year September 23, and in the South they planted on the Solstice, December 22.

I myself would not want to have my hands in the cold and wet soil in December. We have planted every year on Oct 15 or as close as we can get to it. Our first frost is normally Halloween...but sometimes not till December.

As I said, Autumn is upon us. The sun has lost a little of it's power in the late afternoon. It was 90 today, but not the kind of 90 you have in July. It's getting darker earlier, and the chickens hate me, because I'm doing the evening feeding at 7:30 and I need to bump it up.

You know my irrigation is separate, and I can water anything when it needs it. When I came to the farm, we had huge aluminum pipes that had to be moved across the field. They overhead sprinkle or flood irrigate. Take your choice. The county now makes you put in a reclamation area if you use that kind of irrigation. I switched long before they put in the mandates. I could never figure out how to irrigate the corn without busting the grapes.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Of the 600 watermelon seeds that I planted this summer I only had 3 melons that were nearing maturity on Friday. No other watermelons are expected to mature before frost. Today when I visited the garden one of the melons had been stolen. The thief may never realize how harshly s/he damaged my watermelon breeding program.

It's so sad... A perfectly lovely watermelon that was genetically suited to my garden will never have the chance to reproduce. The hundreds or thousands of it's descendants that I would have grown for my neighbors will never be grown.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Thats really a bummer.

...maybe you need to start posting signs next to your breeding stock...

have you been able to identify by markings which ones may have survived best? I know you planted a lot more varieties than me, so don't sweat it if you can't tell. Of mine, i think i have identified one yellow doll melon, and one yellow Hopi melon. Of the reds, i have no idea. I have a few still ripening. One is what i consider quite large (small bowling ball size), and is showing signs of getting slightly more yellowish tone everyday. I'm not convinced it's quite ready yet though, but I'm watching it carefully. I can imagine your own anguish when i start to imagine what it would feel like if tomorrow it was gone.

Hope you have better luck next year though.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Charleston grey, is one that survived and was not taken. It's from the seed that my father has grown for decades in our village. The other two fruits were round and striped. I'm looking forward to opening the remaining striped one in a day or two.

I normally put ribbons on things I want to save, but this year I am about the only one picking things so I didn't see the need....

[12540dumont]

Joseph, I have collected every seed from every good melon that happened at the farm this year. It was below average in GDD here as well. I harvested the last of the melons over the weekend. AND thank God because it's 100 today and more tomorrow and I'm ready to fall down. I am putting them in your seed package.

Last year the two leggeds came and stole every one of my watermelons and all the honeydews as well. This year I put the electric fence up and when the migrants came to pick next door, we went out to the field and picked every thing that was within a day or 3 of being ripe.

I have trialed these melons over 3 years. The year where it was so hot, that every day was over 90. The year with no summer. And this year. There are some really good melons in this mix. Early, mid and late. Sweet, "pepino" and so sweet you'll need to go to the dentist.

I'm so sorry about your melon. I was so lucky with the Grover Delaney that when I wrote to Amy Goldman, she very nicely sent me seeds again. So, you'll get those too.

As you always remind me, maybe next year.

Regards, Holly

[Joseph Lofthouse]

It's not as bad as I thought....

I stopped weeding the melon patch when most of it didn't germinate. Today I found two more fruits that got lost in the weeds. So now I am up to 4 remaining fruits for the season.

But it's worse than that... Because the weeds went to seed so that spot will be a bugger next summer.

[12540dumont]

Joesph, I hear Steev is looking for a place to weed.

[steev]

Sometimes the voices in my head have good ideas, but I fear the voices in yours are mendaciously fomenting discord. Of all the things in which my life may be inadequate or undersupplied, the need to find more places to weed isn't one.

[12540dumont]

It was the heat, it got to me ...sorry steev.

[olddog]

I would die for your soil, it is absolutely gorgeous! So rich and dark. Do you add compost or manure to it, or just plant?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I love my soil. During the last ice age the spot where I garden was about 300 feet under water. Nutrients accumulated for thousands of years. Then a mild earthquake and landslide ruptured the lake and it drained leaving behind my rich soil. It's quite silty, so it can be hard to work in early spring, but the rest of the summer it is a joy.

My fields are so large and my budget so meager that I don't use compost. I use conservation as my primary means of building soil fertility... That is, I don't let plant matter leave my garden unless I get paid for it. Corn stalks get tilled under. Weeds get tilled under. Kitchen scraps get tilled under. I don't make compost piles, I just return everything I can to the soil. I allow the leguminous weeds to grow until I need the space for something else. The pea crop gets rototilled under in late summer to grow a crop of pea greens. The season is never long enough for a second crop, though some years I get immature pods.

I don't use manure. I have enough of my own weeds without importing someone else's.

[steev]

Have you ever tried cooking tender tips of pea vines? Chewy, but tasty, and a source of chow even when there's not time enough for pods.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I think pea greens are tasty. Can't get my family or friends to try them though. And they'd be hard to take to market. So hard to pick. So wilty.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

This week's CSA distribution contained two baskets: One for vegetables and one with enough storage onions to last until spring. That's part of the deal. They support me during the growing season, and when there is an abundance of something they share in the bounty. Most families this week also took something extra from the table: tomatoes or cucumbers.

This week's basket contained: Summer squash, Interlaken seedless grapes, the last of the apricots, tomatillos, kale, green onions, potatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, storage onions, a huge slicing onion, a cantaloupe that I obtained from a friend in a warmer valley nearby, and the last picking of Astronomy Domine sweet corn. I hope to post GDD calculations soon for the AD.

[Edited later to include eggplant in the list. It's one of those non-food items that I can't see even when I have the photo right in front of me. ]





The turnips were grown from seeds that I produced on my farm earlier in the year.



Ha! do I have enough turnip seeds yet? The turnips I took to market are seconds. I left the best growing roots in the garden so that I can repeat the breeding cycle one more time next year. I don't know when it reaches the point that I say, my turnips are well enough adapted to my garden, I don't need to make more seed for a few years. That really is the worst thing about growing my own seeds. I keep the best growing plants for myself and take the seconds to market.



p.s. I have plenty of seed to share.... giggles.

I'm about half done harvesting the winter storage onions.