Categories
Crops & Gardening

Boutique Pumpkin Varieties

Galeux D'Eysines pumpkins
ShannonKwok/iStock/Thinkstock

We have hundreds of pumpkin varieties to choose from with new hybrids in development all the time. While many of them are big and orange and make the perfect jack-o’-lantern, specialty pumpkins steal the show. These are the beautiful boutique varieties that literally stand out in the field. Boutique pumpkins are easy to grow, eye-poppingly gorgeous and surprisingly useful in the kitchen.

The Pumpkin Family

Pumpkins are members of the Cucurbita family, along with squash, cucumbers and melons. The official line between pumpkins and squash is a fine one, and there’s a lot of crossover and regionality in the usage of these common terms. Most experts consider pumpkins part of the winter squash category, along with Hubbard squash, Acorn squash and Butternut squash, all of which have hard skins and store well.

Pumpkins and other squash types fit into four primary species:

Cucurbita moschata

This species consists of many crookneck varieties, including Butternut squash and Cushaw squash. Members of this species are generally more resistant to pests and diseases, including squash bugs and vine borers. Cooking pumpkins tend to be in this group, as well, and it includes the most common varieties for canning.

Cucurbita pepo

This species includes most jack-o’-lantern pumpkin varieties; the miniature varieties; and most soft-skinned summer squash, including Scallopini squash, Patty Pan squash, zucchini and others. Gourds are also in this category.

Cucurbita maxima

This species consists of the biggest members of the family including Hubbard squash, Turban squash, Buttercup squash, and other large-fruited squash and pumpkins.

Cucurbita mixta

Members of this species are not as sweet and flavorful as the other groups and are often cooked with sweeteners. Many types are used as a source of edible seeds. They have good resistance to vine borers and drought. The most common C. mixta variety is the Cushaw squash, which you’ll see with white skin (the Johnathan pumpkin), green striped, and orange or yellow striped.

Regardless of their official familial lines, boutique pumpkins have a one-up on jack-o’-lanterns, especially at farmers’ markets. They’re downright interesting, and for a customer who wants to stand out from the crowd, a display of these unique fruits will get them all the attention they can handle.

“These types of pumpkins draw crowds and give people something unique to take home,” says Danny Neel, marketing specialist with the USDA and an advisor to the Virginia Pumpkin Growers’ Association. “It’s hard to know the demographics of pumpkin buyers, but we know it’s a diverse group.”

And, for now, these diverse customers can’t buy specialty pumpkins at the big box store—they have to either grow them or rely on a small farmer who’s willing to step out of the box.

Boutique Pumpkin Varieties

Many specialty pumpkins were bred decades ago for their use in the kitchen, and they continue to be so, though North America hasn’t caught onto it quite yet. The history of many of the heirloom pumpkin varieties is long, and the breeding efforts to develop new boutique choices continue. Here are some exceptional varieties:

Black Futsu

Jere Gettle, owner of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Missouri, a retailer of specialty pumpkin and squash seeds, says, “The New York Times listed [Black Futsu] as their favorite pumpkin a few years back.” And deservedly so. The flattened, round fruit has heavy ribbing and a bumpy rind. They have dark green-black skin with golden, nutty flavored flesh. Gettle adds that this is a good variety for gardeners with limited space because the vine is more compact than other varieties. He also finds that it has moderate resistance to insects and diseases.

Galeux d’Eysines

A French heirloom with salmon-peach skin covered in tan peanut-looking warts, this variety is a complete show-stopper. The longer these fruits mature, the wartier they become. This corking results from expanded fractures in the skin that occur because of the fruit’s high sugar content and thin skin. The flesh is very creamy and smooth and is a favorite for pies and soups. Its name means “embroidered with warts from Eysines”—the small city in France from which it hails.

Marina Di Chioggia

Sometimes called the sea pumpkin, this variety is surely one of the prettiest pumpkins you’ll ever grow. The 4- to 10-pound, round and flat fruits are a deep blue-green, and the skin is covered with innumerable smooth bumps. The flesh is bright orange and delicious.

Jarrahdale

Hailing from Australia, this variety produces 6- to 10-pound, slate-blue fruits shaped much like a flattened drum. They’re round with deep ribs and beautiful, smooth skin. The flesh is dry and smooth with a nice fragrance. The rind is very dense. Gettle says you may need an axe to cut it in half—but that thick skin pays off: Jarrahdale stores for up to two years!

Musque de Provence

Often called “the fairytale pumpkin,” these flat pumpkins are shaped much like a wheel of cheese and can weigh up to 20 pounds each. Their heavy lobes and deep ribs start out dark green and mature to a deep mahogany color. The variety hails from southern France, boasts decent pest resistance and keeps for up to one year in proper storage.

One Too Many

A recent introduction from the Rupp Seed Company, this pumpkin is a pale cream color with orange-mottled netting all over. The fruits can be either round or elongated and weigh 15 to 20 pounds each on average. It is said to have good tolerance to mildew.

Triamble

A tri-lobed heirloom pumpkin from Australia, Triamble ranges in color from a pale slate-blue to a deep green. It’s a novelty pumpkin with an excellent flavor. The skin is very hard, making it a long-lasting storage pumpkin, too.

Valenciano

These pure-white, flattened fruits are surprisingly elegant. The 12-inch-diameter fruit stands a mere 6 to 8 inches tall and has light ribbing.

Rouge Vif d’Etampes

Translated as “red life of the times,” this French heirloom is sometimes called the Cinderella pumpkin, as it looks much like the carriage-making pumpkin in the fairytale (shown on page 50). Large fruits ripen to a deep orange-red color. They are flattened, deeply lobed fruits that are reported to have been the variety served by the pilgrims at the second Thanksgiving. Gettle suggests harvesting them when they are 9 to 10 inches across, long before the skin hardens. “Pick them young, and fry them whole. They have an excellent flavor,” he says.

Red Warty Thing

The name pretty much says it all! Round, bowling ball-shaped pumpkins are bright red at maturity. They weigh 10 pounds or more and have hard, bumpy skin.

American Tonda

A beautiful, ribbed pumpkin. The skin is deep orange with green stripes between the ribs. Fruits weigh 4 to 6 pounds.

La Estrella

Grey-, green- and peach-colored skin that looks like it was watercolored onto the fruit. This is a newer variety that is the result of hybridization efforts at the University of Florida. Fruits weigh up to 10 pounds each and have deep-orange flesh.

Lumina

A pure-white, classic-shaped pumpkin measuring 8 to 10 inches across. Flesh is great for cooking.

Long Island Cheese

The smooth tan skin and flat shape of this pumpkin make it look much like a wheel of cheese. Weighing as much as 20 pounds each, Long Island Cheese is an excellent roasting and baking pumpkin with deep-orange, sweet flesh.

Baby Boo

A super-cute mini-pumpkin with stark-white skin, this variety is exclusively for decoration and is a real hit with children.

People may look at these distinctive pumpkin varieties and laugh. The laughter, though, translates into purchases. After all, their individuality is their appeal. It seems that these fruits have got the gutsy eccentricity most of us wish we had. They are special plants, indeed.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2010 issue of Hobby Farms.

Categories
Crops & Gardening

How To Grow Pumpkins

Green pumpkin in the garden
iStock/Thinkstock

Any pumpkin-growing foray should start with the same thing: space—and plenty of it. Choose a location for growing pumpkins with a minimum of six to eight hours of full sun and a lot of room; vines can grow to more than 20 feet long.

Pumpkins prefer well-drained soils high in organic matter with a pH of 6 to 6.5. (Testing your soil in the fall allows you to adjust the pH accordingly before spring planting time arrives.) For all but the northernmost zones, pumpkins can be planted from seed after the danger of frost has passed and the soil temperature has reached 60 degrees F. Northern growers can start pumpkin seeds indoors in peat pots three to four weeks before transplanting them outdoors, again, after the danger of frost has passed.

Small farms can plant pumpkin seeds individually by hand, but for larger acreage, mechanized planting may be desired. Adam Voll, farm manager of Soergels Orchard in Wexford, Pa., uses a special technique for planting larger fields of pumpkins. (The farm grows 23 acres of squash and pumpkins.)

“We’ve been experimenting a little with this,” Voll says. “Typically, we’ve plowed and worked the ground into a fine seed bed. We still do a lot of that, but I’ve started doing more strip tilling. I have a machine that uses a sub-soil tooth, and then with a few disks and a rolling basket, I get a great seed bed in one pass. It saves time and is reducing the erosion and helping the soil. I will typically do this in a rye field or an old hay field so that the organic matter on top then helps with erosion and keeps the weeds down. We’ve also planted some on plastic. We use trickle irrigation under the plastic and have gotten great results.”

All pumpkins grow the same, no matter how much space you have to dedicate to their production. Pumpkins are monoecious, meaning the male flowers are separate from the female flowers on the same plant. Male flowers arrive first, ensuring ample pollen is available when the females open a few days later. You can tell the male flowers from the females simply by looking: Males are born on straight flower stalks, while female flowers have a swollen base that develops into the fruit once pollinated.

The pumpkin flowers are pollinated by insects, including many species of bees, flies and beetles (including the dreaded cucumber beetle), so to maximize pollination, plant plenty of flowering plants in and around the garden. The more flowers you have around, the more pollinators will be present in the garden. Hand pollination is possible, too; although, it’s only necessary if problems with pollination have occurred in the past or you need to control pollination for seed production.

Once the pumpkin seeds have germinated, mulch between the plants very well.

“We use a good bed of straw,” notes Gettle. “Once the vines get growing, it’s hard to weed around them. And the straw keeps the fruits clean and off the ground.”

Mulching also retains soil moisture, and pumpkins use a lot of water. Gettle recommends protecting pumpkin vines with floating row cover until they flower.

“Row cover is probably the No. 1 way to control squash bugs organically,” he says.

The row cover should stay in place while the pumpkin plants are young and vulnerable; it serves as a physical barrier between the plant and the pest. The cover is then lifted when the plants come into flower to allow for pollination. By that time, the pumpkin plants are mature enough to fend off any subsequent attacks, and the fruit are more likely to reach maturity. It helps deter cucumber beetle damage, as well.

With many types of squash and pumpkins, powdery mildew is likely to be an issue, especially during rainy summers. This dusty, white mildew appears on the leaves and is prevented, first and foremost, by choosing resistant varieties; secondly, by spacing plants properly to provide adequate air circulation and allow plants to dry quickly; and thirdly, with regular applications of potassium bicarbonate-based fungicides or compost tea. Although powdery mildew seldom kills plants (it’s primarily an aesthetic issue), when combined with pest issues or other plant stressors, it can result in plant death or decreased production.

“The weather has always been our biggest challenge,” says Voll. “Rainy, wet seasons make it tough with diseases like powdery mildew and also at harvesting time. But hot and dry makes it harder for watering and keeping the size up on the pumpkins.”

As the growing season progresses, the pumpkin fruits will begin to set and mature. You’ll know they’re ripe when the rind hardens and the vine begins to die. When the fruit is fully ripe, the skin should be tough to puncture with a fingernail, and the mature skin color should be fully developed. When harvesting pumpkins of all types, leave the stem on as long as possible. If it breaks off, the fruit will start to rot at the stem base, and the storage capacity is greatly diminished.

All types of winter squash, including pumpkins, are best stored on cardboard sheets in a cool place like a basement or a root cellar. Depending on the variety, expect a shelf life of anywhere between two months and one year.

Categories
Equipment

Chainsaw Chain

Chainsaws are one of man’s finest inventions. If you don’t agree, just try cutting down a 20-inch oak with an axe. Just as an axe needs to be sharpened and cared for, so does a chainsaw.

I am pretty careful about chainsaw safety, wearing chaps and a helmet, and I try to keep my chains sharp. However, recently I had a chain jump the bar. Chainsaws are one of the most dangerous tools there are, so when a chain jumps the bar, it gets my attention.

When I went to remount the chain, I was a bit embarrassed to see the shape of the drive sprocket. The sprocket was noticeably worn. It was obvious that it needed to be replaced.

I probably could have replaced it myself, but I took it to my local dealer instead. Jeremy, the service technician, pointed out that not only was the sprocket worn, but so was the chain. It was the worn chain, he felt, that had sped the deterioration of the sprocket and the bar that also needed to be replaced.

I realized that saving a couple bucks by sharpening my chain too many times doesn’t pay if it means wearing out other components. I can afford to replace my chains on a regular basis if it means my sprocket and bar last longer.

So give your chainsaw a quick check. If your sprocket or bar is starting to show wear, let your dealer take a look. Check sprocket teeth for wear and the sprocket itself for play. Is the bar groove worn?

The chain can also cause the bar edge to mushroom back on itself. If you have a question, check with an expert. It’s worth it for your chainsaw and for you!

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Categories
Urban Farming

Online Weather Tool for Farmers

Online farmer's forecast tool

Urban farmers can look up the day’s agricultural forecast using Weather.com’s Farmer’s Forecast tool.

Urban farmers are already strides ahead of generations past, as they transform vacant lots, small backyards and rooftops to luscious garden hosts. But living in the age of technology means urban farmers also have access to resources they never would have found on Grandpa’s farm.

The Weather Channel’s online Farmer’s Forecast tool, found on Weather.com, has pertinent agricultural information that’s easily accessible to urban farmers. Launched in July as part of Weather.com’s site redesign, the online Farmer’s Forecast tool includes several resources that urban farmers can use to prepare their gardens for the season’s weather:

  • Forecast:
    Similar to the standard forecasting tool offered by the site, which provides users with weather forecasts by the hour and up to 10 days in advance, the Farmer’s Forecast tool relays agriculture-specific information to aid in farming decisions. Information includes the expected amount of precipitation; the expected soil moisture and UV index in a given hour; alerts to freeze, frost, wind or hail; and times of sunrise and sunset.
  • Almanac:
    The farmer’s almanac provides average and historical weather conditions for the user’s specified area, allowing farmers to trade in a hard-copy version of the same information. 
  • Maps:
    The Farmer’s Forecast tool gives farmers access to maps compiled by The Weather Channel that show farming-specific information, including soil moisture, precipitation, and typical freeze and wind, as well as a map that can be customized to the farmer’s needs and interests.
  • Growing Degrees Day Calculator:
    In response to farmer feedback, Weather.com launched the Growing Degree Days calculator as part of the Farmer’s Forecast tool. When the user enters a location, base temperature and time frame, the calculator determines crop growth by calculating accumulated heat over that time period. The tool allows farmers to compare the growing degree days of two different years after 2003 and provides a 30-year average of growing degree days.

Although the Farmer’s Forecast tool cannot be accessed via a smartphone, farmers can sign up for email and text alerts that will provide the forecast.

Weather.com’s redesign also included the introduction of several other weather apps, including the Watering Need Indicator, which serves as a gardener’s weather guide.

Categories
Animals

Spider!

brown house spider
Photo by Sue Weaver

Uzzi and Tank and I were licking our lips this morning, thinking of eating our yummy breakfast, when we heard a terrible scream.

Mom bolted out of the feed room holding her hands to her chest and making funny noises (oo-oo-oo-oooo). We ran over to see what was wrong.

“There was a spider in the goats’ feed can, a spider, a huge spider,” she cried. “I didn’t see it, I touched it! It was big as a Volkswagen!”

Uzzi and I looked at each other. We have seen a Volkswagen. It wouldn’t fit in a feed can.
There are 35,000 species of spiders in the world and a lot of them live in the Ozarks. (You can see pictures of some of them here.)

The biggest are tarantulas and we have lots of black widows here, too.

But the ones that scare Mom are those big brown house spiders that live in places like our feed room. Counting their legs, they can be 3 inches across!

Spiders look scary but most aren’t dangerous. Mom’s been bitten by jumping spiders twice this year and it felt like being stung by a bee. Both times the spiders were lurking in their webs under the rim of our water tubs.

So, if you don’t want to be spider-bitten, don’t put your fingertips anyplace you can’t see them (like in a feed can lying on its side).

Also, shake out your shoes and clothing before putting them on even if they’ve been in drawers or the closet and shake towels and bedding before using them.

Wear long sleeves, pants, socks and gloves when working where you know spiders are present and put rubber bands around pant and shirt cuffs if you want to feel extra safe.

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Categories
Urban Farming

Eggscapades

Homegrown eggs

Photo by Audrey Pavia

Our eggs come in some weird shapes and sizes.

I remember the first time one of our chickens laid an egg. We’d gotten the chickens as pullets and had been impatiently waiting for them to grow up so they would start laying. The morning I went out to the coop to let them out and found a lone egg in one of the nest boxes was one to remember. Even though the egg was half the size of the ones I bought in the grocery store, it was the most amazing egg I’d ever seen. I brought it in the house in a clenched hand and told Randy to close his eyes until I opened my fist to reveal the gift within. His gasp of excitement said it all.

Hundreds of eggs have come to pass since I discovered that first one. Most of them are your typical bantam-sized eggs — half the size of the ones marked “small” in the carton. In recipes, it takes two of our chickens’ eggs to equal one regular-sized egg.

Once in a while, we get a rather strange looking egg creation. I’ve seen eggs that are elongated, leaving me to think it must have been squeezed out rather painfully. I’ve seen a few that are perfectly round, teeny-tiny eggs, the size of a marble. After ogling them for a while, I toss them in the trash. I’m afraid to break them open for fear of what weirdness might be inside.

Sometimes the nest boxes are empty, and I know the hens have decided to shake things up a bit by finding a new place to make deposits. More than once, I’ve had to go on egg hunts around the yard to find the hiding place. I once found Gwennyth sitting on more than 20 eggs that had been laid under a bush in the planter. I didn’t know how long the eggs had been there, so I had to toss them. It was heartbreaking.

I wasn’t always so enthusiastic about the eggs our hens produce. It took me a while to get used to the idea of eating them. For some reason, I was grossed out by the idea. Although I’m embarrassed to admit it, this is not an uncommon reaction among city folk to homegrown eggs. Once I got used to the idea, I tried to share the joy of our fresh eggs with others. I wasn’t completely surprised when people turned down my offer, responding with disgusted looks on their faces. I guess seeing my hens scratching around in horse poop didn’t help the situation. (Although if these same people saw the conditions where hens are kept at factory farms, they wouldn’t be eating grocery store eggs either.)

With all the drama that centers around the eggs we get from our hens (including the proud ba-guck! that is sounded whenever a hen produces one of these prizes), what’s most important is how good they taste. The bright yellow yolks and fresh flavor make it hard to eat store-bought eggs during those dry spells when the hens are taking a break. I’ve come to realize that my squeamish friends and relatives just don’t know what they’re missing.

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Categories
News

Sign Up for Pollinator Conservation Incentives

Bee and coneflower
Courtesy Stock.XCHNG
The USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program offers financial incentive to farmers that establish pollinator habitats on their farmland.

New rules passed by the USDA now offer financial incentives for the establishment of pollinator habitats through the Conservation Reserve Program. The program sign-up, which opened earlier this month to new enrollments, provides one of the largest pollinator conservation opportunities in the United States.

The CRP, first established in 1985, is the largest private-landowner conservation effort in the United States with up to 32 million acres eligible for enrollment through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Program participants take highly erodible land out of crop production and establish permanent vegetation to protect topsoil and provide wildlife cover. Contracts, which run 10 to 15 years, provide annual rental payments on enrolled land and cost-share assistance for establishing vegetative cover.

Already in effect, the new rules offer priority ranking for land enrollments that include pollinator-friendly wildflowers and shrubs. Under the current CRP enrollment system, landowners who want to participate are ranked against one another to prioritize enrollments that offer the most conservation benefits. To receive a higher score on the pollinator ranking criteria, participating farmers must plant at least 10 percent of the CRP acres in wildflower parcels or at least one acre for CRP enrollments less than 10 acres in size.

The addition of a pollinator habitat incentive for CRP has been promoted by numerous wildlife and pollinator conservation groups in recent years, and the new ranking system now offers one of the largest potential habitat creation opportunities of its kind for native bees, butterflies and managed Honey bees, all of which have experienced significant decline in recent years due to habitat loss and other factors.

In developing the new CRP technical requirements, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service worked closely with Marla Spivak, a leading Honey bee researcher based at the University of Minnesota, and the California-based advocacy group, Partners for Sustainable Pollination. As the enrollment period for new CRP contracts begins, the NRCS is working with the nonprofit Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to develop wildflower seeding recommendations for states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Oregon. Those recommendations will focus on selecting native wildflower species that are abundant pollen and nectar sources and that are most likely to thrive in their respective regions.

Rural landowners interested in more information about CRP, including the current sign-up period which ends Aug. 27, 2010, should contact their local Farm Service Agency office.  

Categories
Urban Farming

Horticulture Honoree Encourages Young Gardeners

Yvonne Savio, 2010 Horticulturist of the Year

Courtesy Tom Savio

The Southern California Horticulurist Society will honor Yvonne Savio in September for her influence on Los Angeles’ gardening community.

Once a year, the Southern California Horticulturist Society, a forum founded in 1937 to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise within the fields of gardening and botany, deems one exceptional individual to be Horticulturist of the Year. The prestigious award has gone to teachers, plant breeders, scientists and nurserymen in recent years.

In 2010, the board chose to celebrate a woman with unprecedented success in expanding the edible gardening movement in the region and across the country.

According to Steve Gerischer, president of the SCHS, the honoree must be someone who has demonstrated a significant contribution to horticulture in Southern California. When the board of directors met to decide who should receive this year’s honor, Yvonne Savio’s name was immediately and unanimously brought to the table.

“Everyone leaned forward when she was mentioned and emphatically agreed that the timing was perfect,” says Gerischer. Savio is a pioneer in every sense of the word when it comes to organic edible home gardening. “With the time’s trend towards growing your own food, coming right down from the White House, Yvonne Savio’s work is unparalleled.”

Unarguably, her work’s influence in her community has elevated the sustainability movement off the charts.

Most every child likes to play in his backyard, but instead of making mud pies, Savio was growing fruits and vegetables at her childhood home in Pasadena, Calif. After her early start, Savio sought a formal garden education and obtained a degree in horticulture from American River College, Sacramento. Since then, she’s written countless columns for the National Gardening Association, edited books on gardening, such as Specialty and Minor Crops Handbook published by the University of California, served as an advisor for community and school gardens nationwide, and started many groups that teach low-income individuals how to grow their own organic foods.

In her most recent endeavor, she started a rapidly growing program called Grow LA Victory Garden Initiative, which gives beginning gardeners the knowledge and support they need to grow organic foods at home. A staggering 440 beginning gardeners signed up for the Grow LA Initiative in the spring of 2010 for the program’s first season.

As part of the program, students attend a four-week intensive series of lectures and apply their lessons in the garden alongside Master Gardeners. From its inception, Savio has coordinated all facets of the program including location scouting, matching Master Gardeners expertise to appropriate coursework, assisting Master Gardeners during class time, and providing follow-up guidance and materials for the students. 

Upon completion of the course, the students form gardening networks and are assigned a Master Gardener, who is available to them for future support and trouble-shooting tips as they venture into their own garden patches.

Savio is making a huge impact on the edible gardening community in Los Angeles, and that’s precisely why she’ll receive an award from the Southern California Horticultural Society this September.

“It’s always nice to be recognized for doing what you love,” Savio says. “What is really important is that by virtue of giving this award to me, they are celebrating my programs, which is really something. It’s one of the few times that a horticultural society is recognizing the value of edible [gardening] and helping regular people to grow their own food.”

Savio attributes the rapid growth of her programs to the “bad news” the U.S. has received over the past few years. The economy, diabetes, obesity and heart disease were a few of the problems she mentioned that can be improved upon with a little “playing in the garden.” 

“It’s about hope, as well as the beautification of a community [and] working with different cultural backgrounds and age groups,” she says. “Everybody gets together and works in the garden.”

Of course, when speaking with Savio, I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to ask her for a few of her best tips for my urban garden.

“How many books would you like me to send you?” she replied with laugh.

She recommends growing foods that offer multiple harvests, like cherry tomatoes and leafy greens—an excellent tip for dealing with limited space. Cherry tomatoes continue to produce fruit all season long, and a 4-foot plot of lettuce could provide a household with two salads per week.

Savio’s work empowers thousands of people to take control of their food sources, though she stays modest about her many achievements.

“I have a great time telling my Master Gardeners I have killed more plants than you would have thought existed,” she says.

The philosophy behind her work is simple:

“You are just playing in the garden and getting to eat what you play with. I am being recognized for helping people have some fun-time in the garden, but also helping them support their families with some great food they were able to grow themselves.” 

On Sept. 9, 2010, the Southern California Horticultural Society will host an awards banquet in her honor, which many of Savio’s former students are expected to attend. 

To learn more about Savio’s Grow LA Victory Garden Initiative, visit the Los Angeles County Cooperative Extension website and join the Community Gardening and Food Security email list or the School Gardening email list. You may also contact Savio directly at ydsavio@ucdavis.edu.

Categories
Urban Farming

Giving Up and Ghost Towns

Italian creek

Photo by Rick Gush

The creek below our home hosts an abundance of wildlife.

Well, it’s August and that means that almost everybody in Italy is on vacation. I spent last week stocking up on all the hardware and building supplies I think I’ll need for the month because most of those kinds of stores won’t open again until September.

I’m sort of taking a vacation myself, because I’ve officially given up on trying to control anything in the garden. Trellises are collapsing, the weeds are rampant, and what’s growing well is doing so and what’s not doing so well is hopeless at this point. 

It’s been a fairly abundant year overall, and I’m looking forward to next month or so when I get to rip everything up and get ready for the winter season. Around here, most of the gardeners start planting all their cabbage and cole crops in August. This has always discombobulated me, as I’m conditioned to think of planting cool season crops in October, but when I see particularly lush winter gardens around here, the owners usually tell me they planted a lot in August. So, I’ll try to follow their lead this year, but I don’t really have much extra space, so I’ll need to be brutal in ripping out some of the spring crops to make space for cabbages. 

The photo above is of the creek below our home. I really like living on the creek. The constant gurgling of the water and the wonderful mass of birds, plants ands wild animals makes for a very attractive little park. My wife’s mother tells us how all the neighborhood women used to do their laundry in the creek. I’m always surprised how many fish there are in the creek (hundreds) seeing as there are a lot of fish eating birds, like herons, kingfishers, seagulls and ducks, that hang out in the creek. There are a lot of other animals in the creek as well, like feral cats, wild boar, rats, and the occasional chicken or pheasant. A year or so ago, I found a huge black-and-green-striped snake in the creek. I measured it at well over 6 feet long with a head the size of my fist.

Photo by Rick Gush

Ghost towns dot the interior valleys of this area.

The photo to the right today is of one of the many “ghost” towns in the interior valleys around here. This one was uninhabited until a few years ago, and even today, only about a quarter of the homes are occupied. Charming homes can be had in these towns for ridiculously low prices. A friend of mine bought two adjoining homes in a similar town for about 10,000 euros and fixed them up for an additional 20,000. The problem is that there’s no work in these areas, and retired age people aren’t always anxious to live so far away from civilization. My friend now lives in St. Tropez, where he works as the captain of a luxury yacht, and his romantic home in the hills sits empty. 

We recently had dinner at the local annual festival near the town in the photo. Just driving there, I saw a hundred completely charming, old ruined stone houses, and they beg to be adopted and fixed up again. But every time I start waxing romantically on these old wrecks, my wife brings me back to earth by reminding me that there’s plenty of work to be done on our own home and asks me if I would mind painting our shutters.

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Categories
Crops & Gardening

Garden Bounty

The tomatoes have finally started pumping out.  As I suspected, I’m now literally up to my elbows in beautiful red, orange, yellow, white and purple fruits and have been busy processing them into soup and sauce. 

The freezer will be full in no time at all.  They are  so very delicious and I love taste-testing all the different varieties and have already been thinking about which ones I’ll plant again next year.

I’m growing sweet Armenian cucumbers this year for the first time and they must be quite comfortable here. They’ve managed to climb up the fence and have already produced enough cukes for a batch of Polish dills and one of bread and butters. 

I really like them better than the ‘traditional‘ cukes I’ve grown in the past.  The seeds are smaller and each fruit is over a foot in length.  If I picked them younger I suspect there would be no seeds at all.  My mini-cukes (‘Rocky’) haven’t started producing yet but there are tons of flowers.

Yesterday I discovered the first baseball bat zucchini of the season (I have no idea how I missed it!) and am looking forward to a good zucchini bread baking session. 

And the winter squash and pumpkin vines have now officially blocked the garden gate.  I’ve been ‘redirecting‘ them for a few weeks now but they somehow manage to turn themselves around again and grow right back across the gate. 

I would swear that I planted ‘bush‘ varieties of squash, but it sure doesn’t look that way.  One of these days I”m going to fish out the seed packet and check.  Either way, it looks like a bumper crop is on it’s way as long as I can keep the squash bugs at bay. 

The watermelons, too, are looking good, though the vines are a little puny for this time of year.  I’m crossing my fingers that they produce something by the end of the season.  So far so good!     

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