Mike's Veggie Adventures

[farmermike]

steev, this is the stump from that radicchio head. The little red bits in the middle are the new shoots that had already started to grow.

Some varieties will actually make second head (if not cut too low) that can be harvested, and still make seeds. Sugar Loaf (Pan di Zucchero), in particular, does this. I'm sure they would make more seeds if I didn't steal so much of their stored energy, but with my limited space this strategy is working out nicely. They still make tons of seed.

I have found radicchio to be a very resilient crop, that is prone to volunteering, and can be grown with almost no irrigation during our rainy season. I have many seeds to share if anyone is interested.

[farmermike]

richardw, I just pack them in a jar of brine (along with some carrots), and add spices (turmeric, mustard seeds, garlic, paprika, etc.). The little jar on top just holds them down, so they don't float and get moldy on top. Usually takes a week or 2 to reach the right level of acidity -- then I put them in the fridge. It works great at this time of year, but I didn't have much luck during summer. It seems that if the room temperature gets above 75-80F (24C), they don't ferment right, and have an off taste or a slimy texture. Sure wish I had a cellar. It will likely be a few years before I can dig one.

My 3-year-old thinks pickled turnips are candy!

[steev]

Obviously a well-bred child; you must/should be proud.

[farmermike]

Beautiful lettuces! Marvel of 4 Seasons (a misnomer in my experience) on the left, and Red Iceberg on the right.

[farmermike]

Worked on hilling up my, tuber grown, potatoes today. The TPS plants are not quite ready to go in the ground yet -- but soon!


My spring planted spuds are sure doing better than the fall planted ones. A few of the fall crop are sprouting back, but most were done-in by being frozen and then flooded for almost 2 whole months. I'm a little surprised any came back at all. I'm just glad that I saved some seed tubers for spring planting. I had no problem keeping them all winter on a shelf in my covered porch.

Last year my fall planted crop never froze and I got an unprecedented harvest, but alas I guess that strategy is "hit or miss". In retrospect, I think I should have dug some of the tubers, to eat, right after the tops froze down in December. I did a little investigative digging at that point, and found some good looking tubers (on the Yukon Gold), but left them to grow through spring. Would those likely have been mature by then -- after growing for about 45 days in the fall? I have read that harvesting potatoes immature can induce glycoalkaloid synthesis.

Also harvested a few carrots from my landrace project -- which is coming along slowly.

[farmermike]

Found at least a dozen ambush bugs (Phymatinae?) on my beet flowers today!


Near the end of his life, my grandpa saw a photo of this bug in one of my field guides. After that he was determined that I find one for him out in the garden. Never found one until today; made me think of him.

[farmermike]

My first sweet corn just started tasseling at around 50 days (direct seeded May 5th). This patch contains plants from my Painted Hill crossed with SE pollen last year as well as Joseph's Cherry Sweet from steev, Orange Sweet from Joseph Lofthouse, Treaty of Paris from jondear, and SE+ sweet mothers from reed. Thanks everyone for contributing to my sweet corn project.

There are also a bunch of new SE and SU varieties mixed in there. My plan is to de-tassel the SU and let the SE pollinate them. I may have to abort this plan, though, if the SE pollen has run out while the SU are still silking. My long term goal is to select for holding ability (delayed conversion to starch) both on and off the plant. Hopefully, the SE gene will provide this ability in the population and the selection method will increase the amount of SE genes over the generations. Maybe I should just be selecting for sweetness to find the SE gene? I expect to be working on this project for many years -- and enjoying the fruits of my labor along the way.

Here are a couple of my Painted Hill cobs from last year. I ate these raw and they were as sweet and tender as any SE cob, but I picked them at the perfect point in the milk stage. They had great color expression in that stage! Painted Hill is a really nice early sweet corn, in my opinion. Some day I hope to have corn just like this, but with the slowed starch formation from the SE gene.

[jondear]

Nice diversity you have going on there Mike...

[farmermike]

I finally got the last of my summer crops in today, and now I feel like I can relax a little. So I thought I’d write up a list of all the warm season stuff I have going this year.

Things are listed roughly in the order they were planted.

-  PLEASANT HILL GARDEN

Early tomatoes:
Forest Fire, Silvery Fir Tree, Jagodka, Hamsonita, Bison, Ararat Flame, Lofthouse Landrace, several no ID’s.
- Mostly determinate, but some more than others.

Sweet Corn:
SE: Trinity F1, Luscious F1, Ruby Queen F1, Top Hat, Who Gets Kissed?
SU: Painted Hill, Joseph’s Cherry Sweet, Joseph’s Orange Sweet, Treaty of Paris, Double Red, Stowell’s Evergreen, Black Mexican
- I am planning to detassel the SU, and their immediate descendents, for several years, and flood their DNA with the SE gene. Then I will continue to select for sweetness and holding ability to isolate the SE gene while maintaining diverse coloration.

Peanuts:
Carolina African Runner, Gregory Virginia, Negrito Manduvi, Tennessee Red, Fastigiata Pin Striped, Schronce’s Deep Black.
- This is my attempt to adapt peanuts to my dry climate. I am expecting low productivity the first few years.

Bush Snap Beans:
Provider, Red Swan, Borlotto, Capitano, various purple, yellow, green pod no ID’s.
- Selecting for diversity, productivity, and compactness.

Cherry/Snack tomatoes:
Indigo Kumquat F3, Sungold F3, Tomatoberry Garden F2, Chocolate Cherry, Amethyst Jewel, Wild Zebra
- Selecting for flavor, productivity, and promiscuity.

Watermelons:
Sunshine F3 (canary yellow flesh), Wilhites Tendergold, Royal Golden, Yellow Moon & Stars
- Landrace project. Particularly interested in a yellow-fleshed, and yellow-when-ripe phenotype.

Long Beans:
Orient Wonder, Chinese Red Noodle.
- Initial trial.

Maxima Squash:
Red Kuri, Blue Banana, Burgess Buttercup, Lofthouse Landrace, Uncle David’s Dakota, Katy’s Sweet, Sunshine F2, Bagheera F1.
- Landrace Project. Selecting for diversity, dry, sweet flesh, and resiliency.

Giant Sunflowers:
Israeli, Lofthouse Landrace, several no ID’s
- Selecting for large shells and large seeds.

Medium Hot Peppers:
Padron, Mulato Isleño, Pasilla Bajio, Chilhuacle Negro, Poblano x Jalapeno F2.
- Looking for spontaneous crosses, and may attempt some manual ones.

Slicing Tomatoes:
Berkeley Tie Dye, Lucid Gem, Blue Beauty, Black Beauty, Berkeley Tie Dye Heart, Utah Heart.
- Looking for diversity of unique flavors and anthocyanin skin pigments (to prevent sunburn.

Paste Tomatoes:
Indeterminate: Striped Roman, Portuguese Paste, Opalka, Bisignano #2
Determinate: Health Kick F3, Bush Roma
- Looking for productive, acidic-flavored, fruits for processing.

Lima Beans:
Bush: Henderson’s Baby, Jackson’s Wonder, Thorogreen.
Pole: Christmas Red Calico, Colored Willowleaf, King of the Garden, Kurzer’s Calico Traveler, Hopi Yellow, Reed’s Mix, Violet’s Multicolored
- Initial trial.

Flour/Parching Corn:
Magic Manna, Lavender Mandan, Hopi Pink, Reed’s Big Red, Big Red x Cherokee White
- Landrace project. Selecting for diversity,and pure-floury endosperm.

Short Pole Dry Beans:
Hopi Black, Hopi Red, Hopi Yellow, Beefy Resilient Grex.
- I am attempting to select a landrace that is adapted to climbing up short season corn varieties.

Okra:
Clemson Spineless, Evertender, Texas Hill Country, Star of David, no ID reds.
- Once again I didn’t dedicate enough space to okra. 2018 will be the year of okra!

Mospermia Squash:
- Only about 8-10 plants.

Pole Snap Beans:
Trionofo Violetto, Kentucky Wonder, Withner White, Anasazi, Fortex x Northeaster F2.
- Looking for productive snap beans, and possible multipurpose dry bean use as well.

Hulless Pumpkin:
Kakai, Lady Godiva, Styrian.
- 2nd year. Selecting for completely hulless seeds, and jack-o-lantern qualities.

Sweet Peppers:
Sweet Chocolate, Shishito.
- I may try to perform some crosses between these two.

-  MARTINEZ GARDEN

Dent Corn:
Kentucky Rainbow, McCormack’s Giant Blue, Bloody Butcher, Virginia Gourdseed, Hickory King, Silvermine, Tennessee Red Cob, Trucker’s Favorite White, Trucker’s Favorite Yellow, Open Oak Party, Pencil Cob.
- Landrace project. Planning to use this for corn meal and nixtamalization.

Cowpeas:
Indeterminate mix, Determinate mix, Whippoorwill, Rouge et Noir, Blackeye, Shanty
- Will continue to separate into groups by growth habit.

Bush Dry Beans:
Rockwell, Emy Lou’s Golden, Spanish Tolosana, Arikara Yellow, Hidatsa Red, Dakota Bumble, Magpie, Beefy Resilient Bush Selections, Ireland Creek Annie, Montezuma Red, Hopi Red Pod, Purple Koronis.
- Initial trial.

Pole Dry Beans:
Good Mother Stallard, Rattlesnake, Withner White, Hidatsa Shield, Kentucky Wonder, Hopi Yellow, Cannellini, Brown Greasy, White Greasy, Fort Portal Jade, Mayflower, Trionofo Violetto.
- Selecting for dry beans that grow well climbing on my dent corn population.

Watermelon:
Blacktail Moon & Stars F2
- Will be attempting to stabilise this phenotype. Last year these were much earlier than the typical Moon & Stars type.

Cushaw Squash:
Miller Family Crookneck, Orange Cushaw, Mennonite Cushaw.
- Selecting for elongated summer squash types.

-  LAFAYETTE GARDEN

Popcorn:
Robust Pop 400MR F1, Robust White F1, Robust Yellow F1, Puffy Pop F1, Dynamite, Pennsylvania Butter Flavored, Japanese Hulless, Glass Gem, Strawberry, Navajo Copper, Cherokee Rainbow.
- Will be detasseling the ornamental heirloom types and letting them be pollinated by the types breed for popping ability. The goal is colorful, diverse corn that pops well.

Luffa:
Dok Smooth, Extra Long Smooth, no ID smooth, Chinese Okra Angled, Bonanza Angled, Wild Luffa
- Landrace Project. Selecting for craft use of sponge by kids, and maybe immature use as a vegetable. Anyone know if the different luffa species (L. acutangula, L. aegyptica, L. operculata) will cross with each other?

Climbing Melons:
Rich Sweetness 132, Kajari, Sakata’s Sweet, Golden Crispy, Thai Golden
- Selecting for small melons that can climb on a trellis.

Watermelon:
Sunshine F3, Royal Golden, Ali Baba, Yellow Moon & Stars, Orange Flesh, Blacktail Moon & Stars.
- Landrace Project.

Moschata Squash:
Butternut, Climbing Honeynut, Lofthouse landrace, Tahitian Melon, Chirimen.
- Initial trial.

(Cucumbers, eggplants, musk melons, tomatillos, and ground cherries were almost completely left out of my gardens this year.

Looks like a lot now that I write it down! I guess in, subsequent years, I’ll put some projects aside and increase focus on others.

I am in the process of transitioning away from my current day job, and devoting more time towards farming and plant breeding. I am just starting to work up a business plan, as a step towards self-employment.

[reed]

Jul 6, 2017 17:10:49 GMT -5 farmermike said:

I am in the process of transitioning away from my current day job, and devoting more time towards farming and plant breeding. I am just starting to work up a business plan, as a step towards self-employment.

Great! love to hear that. Day job's are generally highly overrated. Hope you have great success. 

[steev]

The trouble with self-employment is that the boss always knows when you're duffing it.