Garlic is in the ground. Vampires beware!

12 different types, 27 heads, and  220 cloves of GARLIC were planted yesterday! We were worried that we may have missed window of opportunity to plant it, but luckily it was a beautiful 50 degree day yesterday. Supposedly, garlic is a very easy plant to grow. As long as you plant it before the ground freezes in the Winter, it will start to grow through the cold months and be ready for harvest in late Spring. It prefers loose, organic soil; however, it can grow in a variety of soils and pH levels.  Garlic plants are usually very hardy, and are not attacked by many pests or diseases. Garlic plants are said to repel rabbits and moles. I wish it could help with repelling deer, but I will take what I can get! :)

We planted our garlic in a mixture of soil and compost. We punched 3 rows of holes about 8" apart and dropped 1 clove in each hole, root side down and pointy end up. They were covered with about 4" of compost and we plan to get enough straw to make another 6" buffer for the garlic against the elements.



Bags of Garlic

We are growing both softneck and hardneck varieties of garlic. Almost all supermarket garlic is a softneck variety. This is because softneck garlic is easier to grow and plant mechanically and also keeps for longer than hardneck. garlic. Softnecks are recognised by the white papery skin and an abundance of cloves, often forming several layers around the central core. Hardneck garlics have fewer, larger cloves then the softnecks. They also have less of an outer bulb wrapper, sometimes none at all. This makes them more sensitive and reduces their shelf life.

Each of the garlic cloves has its own unique color and flavor. Some are spicy and hot while others are mild flavored.  We planted the following types of garlic:

• Persian Star
• Georgian Fire
• Georgian Crystal
• Broadleaf Czech
• Chesnok Red
• Music
• German Extra Hardy
• Siberian
• Lorz Italian
• Bogatyr
• Elephant
• Erik's German White



Chopping broccoli in November and December

We planted the transplants in September and are finally harvesting our delicious broccoli! It took longer than we expected to grow and we were wondering if the plants would produce broccoli after the temperatures started to drop into the low 30's in the evening. It has taken about 90 days to grow but the broccoli plants have proven themselves to be very cold hardy plant. Usually when stressed, the lower leaves of plants start to yellow; however, our broccoli leaves don't show any signs of yellowing. We expect for the broccoli to continue growing into the middle of December.

Some of the broccoli is a deep green color while others have a little bit of a purple hue.  Eating it fresh, it is crisp and flavorful! When cooked with cheese, it is even better! I tried two new recipes with the fresh broccoli we picked - Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Pasta Con Broccoli.  Here are the links to the recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-and-cheddar-soup/
http://www.food.com/recipe/pasta-con-broccoli-80704

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Pasta Con Broccoli

The Joys of Pac Choi

We have eaten more pac choi this year than we have ever eaten in our lives! In fact, I believe that we are officially, "pac choi eating fools!" Due the large size and quantity of our pac choi harvest, we had to get creative in the kitchen in order to make use of this wonderful vegetable!

Damian holding pac choi

Beautiful bottom of pac choi

After looking for recipes online, we were a little disappointed to see that pac choi was basically only used for stir fry. We followed a few recipes and made the basic soy sauce sauteed pac choi and added pac choi to stir fry rice. Both were delicious. However, we wanted to take pac choi out of the Asian cuisine realm and have some fun with it. We decided it tasted like a sweeter and lighter spinach when cooked, so we chopped it, wilted it, and used it as if it were spinach in several newly invented dishes. We added pac choi to the following: pizza, ravioli, soup, quiche, etc.

Try it! You might like it to! Let us know if you are interested in experimenting with some pac choi because we still have some growing at the farm!

Pac choi stir fry rice with Korean BBQ rib

Pac Choi, chicken, mushroom, and cheese ravioli





Pac Choi, ham, mushroom, and onion quiche



Pac Choi, steak, and rice soup

Beg, Barter, and SELL!





We begged for the plants to grow and the weeds to go. We put a lot of time in planting, weeding, and protecting the plants from pests. And, it has payed off! We are proud of the beautiful Fall plants that are growing and everything we have tasted and created out from our veggies has been delicious.



We bartered a box of lettuce for eggs, persimmons, and kale



We got our first invitation to barter our lettuces for fresh eggs. I was excited about the opportunity tobarter with one of our blog followers and fellow Art Therapists, Rosemary. She has her own backyard farm in St. Louis city where she and her husband are growing everything from a fig tree, fennel, and 5' tall kale. She has four beautiful hens that lay eggs daily and we agreed on bartering two lettuces - romaine and red leaf- for a dozen fresh eggs. After touring her backyard farm, I also left with kale, persimmons, and baby onions. We have already made fabulous omelets with the eggs and I look forward to making my first batch of kale chips in the oven soon.  

One of Rosemary's beautiful hens

 

With regards to selling, we have been able to establish a relationship with a upscale local restaurant specializing in European cuisine. We met the executive chef and he was willing to purchase as much local and organically grown vegetables as he can. We were able to sell him our romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and pac choi. Yay! Our farm is making money and we are feeding families at a local restaurant!



Boxes of lettuce ready to deliver

Amber boxing up the lettuce

Lastly, we also came up with a new slogan for our farm: "Good People, Growing Great Produce."

Ready... Aim... FIRE!

 

My fiance is a flamer; that is, he likes to throw flames with our new weeding torch. Actually, "likes" is too casual of a word. He LOVES throwing flames with our torch, much like most men are instinctually drawn to fire. He grinned the whole time while torching the weeds. Perhaps, it was because it was gloriously faster than using a hoe or a weed eater, or maybe he has a pyro inside him.

Flaming the weeds is an experiment much like everything else. We talked to a farmer in Springfield, Mo that was successfully using a torch for weed suppression. So, I found a torch for $15.99 at a local hardware store and planned to use the bbq grill propane tank as the power source. I loved how the flame torch  advertised that it was: "An environmentally safe way to eliminate weeds organically. It's an organic weed killer! No expensive chemicals, no dangerous threats to our environment."

We had to we wait several weeks to hook everything up because the weekend winds seemed to be at a consistent speed of 90 mph. We wanted to kill the weeds and not catch the whole farm on fire. Smoky the Bear finally gave us the green light this weekend because the winds had died down. 

When we took the torch out of the box to hook it up, I saw that the torch was a lot bigger than I expected. It was not going to be able to do the precision weeding I had in mind. Unfortunately, it would probably char our plants if we got within 5 feet of them. It looked like it would be great to kill large areas of weeds only, so that is exactly what Damian did...I turned on the faucet and grabbed the hose - just in case!

Damian is firing it up

Getting two rows ready for garlic by flame weeding

Smoldering rows by our cabbages

Flames killing the weeds

Lettuce Be Healthy. Eat More Leafy Greens.

Romaine lettuce leaf lit from behind

We are getting ready to harvest about 140 heads of lettuce and 60 pac choi and I want to do a little more investigation about the health benefits of these leafy greens. Whenever I think of leafy greens, I assume they have to be good for me because THEY ARE GREEN!  However, I want to know HOW they benefit my overall daily health.

Romaine, red leaf lettuces, and pac choi are packed with the following nutrients:

• Vitamin C - reduces your risk of cataracts and macular degeneration. Vitamin C helps the body make collagen too; collagen is a major component of cartilage that aids in joint flexibility, may reduce your risk of arthritis, and keeps your skin and hair healthy and beautiful. Lastly, vitamin C aids in the prevention of the oxidation of cholesterol, which can reduce risk of stroke and heart attack.
• Beta-carotene/vitamin A- contributes to the growth and repair of the body's tissues. 
•  Potassium - helps lower high blood pressure, which can contribute to heart disease, and protects against osteoporosis.
• Fiber - Helps aid in digestion, helps satisfy your appetite to prevent overeating, and lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It can also help to temper blood-sugar swings by slowing the absorption of carbohydrates into your bloodstream after meals.
• Folic Acid - helps keep blood vessels healthy and clear, which also reduces the risk of heart attacks and stroke. Also plays an important role in cell maintenance and repair.
• Vitamin K - used by your body to regulate blood clots, essential in forming various bone proteins necessary for bone formation and repair, and contains anti-inflammatory properties.
• Folate- can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and memory loss. Folate also contributes to the production of serotonin, which may help ward off depression and improve mood.
  

Another fascinating fact is that a one cup serving of romaine lettuce can provide you with 82% of your daily value of vitamin A, 60% of vitamin K, 19% vitamin C and 16% folate. This is an amazing amount of nutrients in just one small cup of lettuce.

Our lettuces are growing big

We have already enjoyed fresh salads

And added lettuces to our sandwiches

There will be a super salad eating extravaganza!

Our Fall crop is looking great! We planted most of our crop in early September & we are so  happy  to all of the beautiful greens  growing. Fall in St. Louis means that temperatures fluctuate greatly and  evenings are a little chilly, but these plants do not seem to mind at all.

We have about 140 lettuces thriving right now.  We have romaine, red leaf, and iceberg varieties. I have already done a taste test on some of the baby leaves and they are delicous. The super salad eating extravaganza will hopefully start in early November!

We are also noticing that Pac Choi, a type of Chinese cabbage that I did not know much about earlier this year, are amazing plants. With almost 100% germination rate and transplant growth, we are expecting about 60 fully grown Pac Choi in late October.

Our sugar snap peas, carrots, beets, and broccoli are also looking great. Unfortunately, we had some transplant casualities  in the cauliflower and cabbage rows. I think I may have been too rough with some of the delicate transplant roots when planting, but I am not sure. It is really curious when you use the exact same method, dirt, and amount of water on each plant and  some thrive while others shrivel up and don't make it. I can't figure it out yet. My mother told me that I planted in the wrong astrological sign. :)

Check out the pictures of the beautiful growth at our farm.

Damian planting more lettuce

Red Leaf Lettuce

Pac Choi and broccoli growing in our rows



Pac Choi





Pac Choi is huge