Archive for the ‘Fall Veg’ Category

I’m getting quite a few questions about the prospective new Lactuca Urban Farm site, so figured I’d share where things are at. The quick answer: it’s in Inglewood and we’re in the process of negotiating the lease. Although nothing’s a done deal, we’re very near the end of the process. Perhaps I need to back up a bit.

Travis and I started looking at prospective farm sites some time ago. Despite being totally sold on the feasibility of backyard operations, we decided to scale via tapping into unused urban space for a variety of reasons – mostly financial and logistical, partly because we could, but also because both of us are keen to explore the potential of ‘what could be’ in urban ag. This site was our best hope: large enough for a considerable scale-up, easy striking [read: biking] distance for he and I [~1km or so as the crow flies from his house and mine], reasonably tucked away. It’s a site slated for residential development down the road, currently sitting unused. We approached the developer and they were on board if we could clear it by the City and the Community League. We’ve done both those things over the past couple months, with resounding support from the community. So now it’s time to sign on the dotted line.

The site’s over an acre. So we’re adding to the roughly 1000 square feet in the backyard intensive setups by about 45,000 sq ft. It’s more than we need, in fact, and we’re only going to use a portion of the space in the 2013 in order to manage our growth. All this space allows a serious expansion on the salad greens front, but also gives us the space to go to market with heirloom tomatoes, heirloom carrots, heirloom leeks, beets, radishes, cooking greens, and plenty more. The farm plan is drawn up. Seed is in-hand. Logistics are being finagled. Fingers are crossed.

This one was a year in the works. Way back when, while shooting Episode 23 at Riverbend Gardens, I was enlightened to the situation that is common at vegetable farms in the fall: harvests fill up storage capacity, labour is relieved for the season, and anything left in the ground becomes compost-in-place. Sensible, really. Wouldn’t make sense to try to anticipate the storage capacity and shoot for it, as the first lean growing season would teach you that’s a really bad business plan. So surplus is normal.

At the time, I’d just been introduced to veg gleaning, as a farmer had called the Food Bank asking if they wanted a 1/4 acre of vegetables he had in the ground. The Food Bank, unresourced to go get it, put him onto Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton - who have people swinging on the front lines all fall rescuing fruit of all types. So OFRE put a crew together to harvest it. And win-win-win happened.

So having made arrangements for this one last year, I was awaiting the call from Riverbend Gardens, who had a year earlier generously offered their surplus to charity if OFRE could come get it. The text msg arrived on my phone. I lined up a Salvation Army truck to pick up the charity’s share. And win-win-win happened.

I built my first cold frame back in March of 2011. It has undoubtedly changed the way I grow food. I’m now up to 8 frames under lids, with another 6 soon to be built for the 2013 season – the majority for market. This vid is simply a look at how we’re building them now, after much homework in old-school books about how the Dutch and French used to rock this technology, and much debate between Travis and I about the best way to tackle it.

A simple description of the current design: 2×10 back and sides, 2×6 front for the frame on the ground. The lid is a 2×4 back board hinged to the ground frame. 2x2s are then added to the sides and front of the lid, and a space-age corrugated greenhouse plexi is affixed to the top. That’s it. It uses geothermal and solar heat to assist on temperature, and the biggy is the lid itself protects against hail, pounding rain, heavy winds, and frost. And leaf debris, and house sparrows, and neighbourhood cats, and romping children. And snow. I’ve grown greens as early as April and as late as November before without much effort. Now that we’re supplying restaurants, food trucks, caterers, the local culinary school, and the public, it’s time for some effort to extend the season in an energy-passive way and with some volume. I’m not interested in heaters – not just because they’re energy pigs, but because they falsify seasonality, and alter the culture around it. I am however interested in advocating for a re-think about what’s in season, helping sharpen the #yeg pencil around terroir, if you will. There you have it.

I find I’ve been under-representing how much I’ve dived head first into salad greens production for market with Travis from LACTUCA. It’s been a weekly harvest and seeding gig for the past few months, and I’ve learned loads, about zero of which I’ve documented here. Can’t win them all I guess. I blame spending most every waking hour in the past two weeks either picking or crushing or pressing apples and pears.

Today’s salad going to market is delicate and lovely. The endives are starting to shine, growing robustly and light on the bitter in the cool weather. The varieties that are brown or red are also entering their season – a striking difference in color intensity vs even a few weeks ago in August. Growth has slowed considerably, which is posing some challenges for yield. The spring and summer blossoms are long gone to seed. Cold hardy varieties like spinach, arugula, minutina, and mache are about to have their day again, closing out the growing season that they brought in. The romaines and leaf lettuces that were gorgeous through July-August are now being trumped by the epic scarlet frills and merveille des quatres saisons. What a treat to watch varietal performance evolve through the seasons – the best teacher for how to nail down the best seasonal salad mix possible.

I have 8 4′X8′ sheets of corrugated greenhouse plexi arriving this week to top next season’s additional 8 production frames. Demand continues to be heavy, and we’re doing what we can to max out production for the 2013 year. What a project. Urban ag rocks.

It being February and quite possibly a particularly early spring, I was contemplating my annual seed potato order from Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes when it dawned on me that perhaps I should go check them out. So I did. I knew they’d be filling my order in the next couple months, so they had to be busy prepping for that busy season – which was exactly the case. More seasonal food action that you perhaps wouldn’t think is going on up north in February.

This farm should be celebrated by Slow Food and anybody who values biodiversity. While others are farming a single variety of potato in serious quantities, this 4th generation family farm is growing 40 or so varieties and counting. Potatoes need not be a boring staple. What struck me when listening to John was his focus on taste – choosing potato varieties because they have the best taste. What a novel concept for something we eat. John also offers some great advice for what varieties to use in different cooking applications. I thought I knew potatoes, but apparently I have a few things to learn. They also do a veg CSA, raise heritage laying hens and turkeys in a straw-bale construction coop, and all kinds of other cool stuff. Add to that a stunning location atop a high point with a view over the Rockies, and it’s quite the memorable place.

Their online catalog is here, if you’re in the mood for potato enlightenment and/or want to order from them. I will be, again.

This year’s tomato vintage sports both pretty substantial fails and victories, but on the whole, it’s a win.

First, the good. I planted space that wasn’t in production last year, on the south side of my garage along the alley. ‘Aren’t you worried people will steal your crop?’, asked many. I figure if they need it that bad, have it. Turns out they did not. The tomatoes in the photo came from that otherwise wasted urban space. Another big win is that I have heirloom varieties like the yellow pear, chocolate cherry, and matt’s wild cherry that I’ve never enjoyed before – one of the yellow pear plants hitting about 6′ tall trained on a string. I also have the best crop of Roma’s I’ve ever had. Lastly: my toddler girls can pick a bowl of tomatoes like this when I had no intention of harvesting – unexpected food-wealth.

The cons. Wet, cold year. And we had a week of nasty brutal spring winds that pummeled my transplants. Later, I neglected many, many plants sprawling about on the ground, some strings broke under the weight of the vines, and all around the tomatoes just didn’t look that pretty or put together. Disheveled. A little like me, with a bit too much on my plate this year. Perhaps they were in tune with my energies. I joke.

I am already enjoying a moment gardeners get to revel in – planning what I’ll do differently and improve on next year. And I’ll take one thing away from this year: get some of the fundamentals right, and the details become not so important at the end of the day.

Last night I tackled the next round of bean harvest and shelling. I’m realizing one of the perks of being small-scale on this I can harvest as they ripen – which they are not doing all at once – and it’s actually quite pleasurable to sit and shell them. Yes I will likely thresh them as my production increases.

Some results are becoming apparent. The pinto bean is a winner in my garden, by far. I’d guess that it has out-yielded in number at least 4 to 1. That’s big. So if somebody asked: ‘hey, what single bean should I plant in Edmonton for good yield‘, I’d have to go with pinto at this stage. Not only do I have lots already relative to the other varietals, there are still lots coming. They’re also a climbing bean, which means they’re particularly useful for space maximization in an urban setting. Many of the others are bush beans.

Next up is the first one shown below. I have to contact my source of seed [bought 3-4 yrs ago, as I seed save], Salt Spring Seeds, to have them ID it for me. If you know what it is, weigh in. Nice uniform large size – larger than the pinto. Then it’s Jacob’s Cattle – the reddish mottled one below. It’s a very attractive bean, and size was really good this year. Favorite after that was the red kidneys, then the orcas – neither producing much, but they’re lovely to have coming from the garden. I’d say the pintos out-yielded them by 10:1 or so. I have about 4 other varieties that grew, but yielded so little that I won’t bother next year. There will likely be more to say once the harvest is done, but I’m pretty sure the outcome won’t change much.

Dry bean harvest has begun. This is my 3rd year at it, and it’s now one of the crops that gets me most excited. There are some seriously compelling reasons to grow this stuff.

First, there is no other substantial protein from the garden that can store as well and as easily. No solar dehydrator here – leave them out on a sheet pan, done. No special root cellar storage required – leave them in a jar in a pantry, done. I had a moment this April, when the root cellar produce was eaten or spoiled, the coldframe greens were just producing, and the last of my dried beans from the prior year stared me in the face. I realized at that moment how key a player dried beans could and should be in our diet. Produce from the garden, year-round, with ease. That’s rare.

Second biggy: crop rotation. Any time you can get a nitrogen fixing crop preceding a heavy feeding crop, it’s a win. So when I plant a big crop of dry beans, not only is it easily storable, it’s fantastic for whatever plant will follow it in that space. I needed legumes in my rotation, problem solved. Then there’s its dietary contribution – carb and protein that isn’t a potato. It’s a welcome addition to the diet, especially when there’s an abundance of it’s friend, pork. And the icing on the cake is that seed saving is a no brainer – no extra task required. Simply grab a few of last year’s from the bean jar, and plant them. All exceedingly genius. Hence my new love for dried beans. Once the full crop is in, I’ll post an update with which varieties performed best for me, as I have quite a few kinds going at the moment.

One of my goals this past gardening season was to extend our harvest, and provision more of our veg from our garden via our newly built root cellar – which I checked this morning and was sitting at 1.1C. I’m very pleased. We’re already vastly enjoying the luxury of having a passively cooled walk-in fridge, and the winter’s hardly started.

Little did I know that this fall would offer an unusual opportunity to harvest well into mid-November. I’m sure this is normal for some, but it certainly is not here. We’re used to garden harvest ending early in October for the most part – so this extra month of garden feels like a gift. Today,  the ground is white and it’s snowing – but only a couple days ago I was harvesting Jarusalem Artichokes, celery, swiss chard, sorrel, kale, baby salad greens sown early fall, belgian endive roots to force in the cellar, etc. And this is without any help from a cold frame, which I intend on using going forward to extend the seasons.

So as the snow flies, I have bags of fresh greens to enjoy in the coming weeks. I’m very grateful. I got lucky this year. Hopefully next year cold frames will allow the same kind of late season harvesting. We shall see.

Tired. Today was winter-veg harvest go-time. Our unseasonably warm October tomorrow shifts to a weather pattern that may include snow. I’m not so concerned about the temperatures, but if it rained on my root veg then froze, or snowed and stayed – I’d be pretty screwed. They’ve got to come in some time.

So in came the rest of the potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, cabbages, and about half the parsnips. The pace would have been fine had I not started the day at my dad’s pulling and packing away into storage the truckload of giant carrots he had that he wasn’t going to use. So I have about four 5-gallon pails of carrots stowed away in sand. My dad gets through the winter into April with one pail, so 4 should do us if the conditions in my cellar allow. I’m on a bit of a mission to at least have SOMETHING from the garden available year-round here, so this winter, we may start that trend with carrots.

One of the interesting parts of my day was reviewing how my dad stores his root veg – his techniques differing quite a bit from my tome of guidance: Root Cellaring. He washes his veg thoroughly – something most sources say not to do. He harvests on hot sunny days to allow the veg to dry  in the sun prior to storage, post wash – another no-no, as harvesting on cold days = cold veg to start storage + less handling = better. This isn’t to say that he’s doing it wrong, as his results are successful. So I was tempering what I’ve researched with what has worked for him as I’m largely storing the same crops in a similar climate.

So my root cellar, after all the planning, building, fussing, just got its first heavy load for its first winter.