Sweet potato greens

September 29, 2016 Garden techniques, In the Kitchen, Other recipes, Tips & Tools

In a small garden space, I always aim to grow as many crops as possible that allow me to plant the bed space more than once a season. However, there are certain veggies we love enough that it’s worth growing them even if they do take a while. Sweet potatoes are one of those crops that take up bed space for a long time, from mid-May until at least mid-September. The upside is that you usually get quite a hefty harvest of tubers at the end of this time. And, even better, sweet potato plants actually offer a second harvest option that many people don’t know about- the greens. All you...

September photo shoot

September 24, 2016 Monthly Photo Shoots, Weekly Updates

After a fun trip to Atlanta, it’s back to work in the garden. This month’s photo shoot is certainly looking greener, with leafy greens dominating more and more bed space as cool fall weather sets in. However, I did just start pulling the first carrots, an exciting addition in both taste and color!...

Bean crazy

September 14, 2016 Pests, Tips & Tools, Weekly Updates

Last week’s mild heat wave gave new life to the summer crops and forced me to withdraw from my “no more canning” stance. I simply couldn’t help but put up another round of pickled roasted peppers. Additionally, we’ve seen a new influx of cherry and slicing tomatoes, which are now once again covering much of our kitchen counters. But the real beneficiary of the warm weather was the string beans. I harvested almost 3 pounds in one day over the weekend and then another pound two days later! Harvesting beans even this far into the fall is something new for me. At the farm I managed until this year, we had a serious...

Panisse Lettuce

September 10, 2016 Garden techniques, Tips & Tools

Yes, I couldn’t resist using this picture again! One of the benefits of participating in the City Harvest program is not just that I get free transplants in exchange for our donations, but more specifically that this pushes me to try new varieties of crops that I may not have grown otherwise. After years of farming, I have a personal list of my favorite varieties to grow. I know which types of lettuce do best in summer heat, the sweetest carrots, and the heaviest-producing tomatoes. This is great on the one hand, but in another sense can limit me from trying other, potentially even more amazing varieties. When I got the...

Harvest season

September 6, 2016 Weekly Updates

It’s been tough keeping up with the garden work recently after getting sick twice in a week and a half. I didn’t even know that was possible! Even though the weather has cooled down significantly, meaning that growth and ripening have slowed some as well, this is also the time of year that both warm- and cool-season crops are coming in strong, hence our association with fall as harvest season. So even with slightly less summer crops to harvest, we’re still getting more than enough to eat, donate, and save for the winter. With the cooling temperatures, however, it’s officially the end (or near end) to canning for the season. We have been...

Two Feet in the Dirt

Archive for September 29, 2016

Sweet potato greens

Panisse Lettuce