Friday, September 18, 2009

September Garden Update

Well here it is September 18th and we haven't had a frost yet (probably going to jinx us now). We don't consider it fully fall until the Hummingbirds have left. We did see them yesterday, but not today. We'll have to be more observant tomorrow to see if they are still around. Last year, September 8th was the last day we saw them.

Our garden is still producing pretty well as a result of the warmer September weather. Our popcorn is the tallest we've ever had, onions are all harvested now and are huge. We've pulled up all the late cabbage and have two big crocks full of sauerkraut. The early cabbages that we cut off (leaving the roots and a few leaves) have put up fairly decent sized additional cabbages. Brussels Sprouts are "sprouting", pole beans and eggplant are still coming in pretty strong, and the fall veggies I planted (carrots, turnips, beets, peas, lettuce, kale, spinach, and swiss chard) are doing fairly well. The cucumbers, zucchini and bush beans are all still producing some, but the end is near for them. The winter squash got a very late start, but we now have some pumpkins ripening, a few butternut, few spaghetti, and thanks to some "volunteers" several acorn squash. The leeks are still sitting in the raised bed, waiting for a frost before I pick them for storage. And I probably need to yank up the celery and get it into some sand for storage soon, too. Despite the late blight which hit most people's tomatoes and potatoes, we managed to get some potatoes and enough plum and cherry tomatoes to can enough juice and sauce for us.

It will be time soon for us to get the garlic planted and to also plant several daffodil bulbs around our apple trees. We are trying a permaculture technique that Paul Knapp (Cobblestone Valley Farm in Preble) told us about. An organic farmer friend of his from Wisconsin has planted daffodils, mint and comfrey around his apple trees and is seeing some real benefits - so we also decided to give it a try. We were able to get some comfrey from Karl Frost (Frosty Morning Farm in Truxton) and have that planted. We are hoping it helps out our struggling apple trees which are having a hard time in our horrid soil and windy location.

Sunday we are looking forward to gathering with some other Cortland County gardeners to talk about our successes and failures this gardening season and what we might need to consider with the late blight for next summer.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local

This afternoon I had the pleasure of attending my first Cortland Women Working Together (WWT) luncheon. The theme of this month’s luncheon was “Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local”. The luncheon was held at Linani’s in Homer where they took care to use many local foods in their preparation of our meal. Lisa Lickona, co-founder of the East End Farmers Market located in Cortland, was the guest speaker. Lisa focused her talk around some of the many reasons she has become a local foods advocate. The ideas Lisa shared in her thought provoking presentation initiated many discussions and encouraged several individuals to stay and chat afterwards.

One of the ideas that came to light was the idea of local women sharing their knowledge about growing, purchasing, and preserving local food. Several questions (some shared below) were asked by different attendees during these discussions. I have had (and are still asking) many of these same questions. Some, I have addressed in previous blog entries and other resources that I have provided on this blog. However I, too, would enjoy hearing additional responses to these and other questions. I haven't been gardening in Cortland County for very long. I am still learning quite a bit about what grows well in my very wet clay soil on top of a windy hill. I am continually experimenting to find out what varieties of vegetables to grow, how many to grow (oh - I guess 12 zucchini plants might have been a few too many) and what soil additives (like compost, and SAND - LOTS OF SAND) I need to add to help things grow well (like straight rather than crooked carrots). The questions I share below are meant to encourage further discussion and to elicit responses, comments, and additional questions posted here on this blog. This way we can all learn together.

To get us started, some questions include:

- What varieties of vegetables that grow well in different parts of Cortland County?
- How do I know what soil conditions I have?
- What planting zone am I?
- Where should I buy seeds?
- What kind of plant seeds should I buy?
- How many seeds do you plant to feed your own family?
- Where are the local farmers markets and farm stands located?
- How can I find and sign on with a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)?

Then once we gather the local produce other questions arise such as:

- How do I cook new types of vegetables?
- How can I preserve my produce?
- How do I can, freeze, dry, and pickle produce?
- Do I need a root cellar to store vegetables long term?
- Where can I go to learn these skills?
- What books and resources are there to help me?


Luckily for our community, there are plenty of women in Cortland County who have expertise in these areas. For example, Heather Birdsall, of the Cortland County Cooperative Extension shared at the luncheon that they have a staff member who has gone through extensive training on proper techniques of food preservation and their office will be providing workshops.

As i said before, I’d like to also offer up this blog as a mechanism for sharing success stories, failures (like the late blight that took so many of our tomatoes this year), ideas, expertise, and a device for offering up encouragement to each other as we each work to better our community. Along the right side of the blog I have been listing local food sources as I locate them. I would encourage anyone to write that has additional resources and local food sources. Also please post things in the comment section of this and any other entry and feel free to - ask questions, post answers, and add comments.