Figs, Potatoes, & Beans, Oh My!

The first figs of the season are ripe and ready for devouring! We have three fig trees on the property (and hopefully soon many more - as in, an ORCHARD!) - two young ones in the Herb Garden, and one mature-ish tree next to the house. The mature tree is LOADED with fruit this year, and the first few pints-worth were ripe this week. There are basketfuls of unripe ones still on this tree, which I am sure will be ready in another month or two, meaning a delicious and sustained fig harvest this year (yay!). Our trees are the variety known as "Desert King," which is ironic because they are one of the best varieties for the higher, cooler elevations here in the Applegate Valley. B&B guests this week were treated to quartered and decorated figs as an accompaniment to their breakfasts!

Also ready for the first time this season: the heirloom potatoes! Yesterday, we harvested ~half of one of our potato beds - roughly 10 lbs of potatoes, mainly comprised of Blue Shetland, Kennebec, and a few of the rare & delicious Negresse (aka "Truffle" potato!) shown below.

I noticed an interesting mutation of my Blue Shetland potatoes (at least out of this bed): instead of the traditional ring of blue/purple spots, there is a solid band of color...weird...I rather like it!

And of course we are still harvesting many pounds each week of my favorite heirloom bush bean variety: Dragon's Tongue.

Further Bean News: the rare Lenape Cutshort/Indian Hannah pole beans have mature pods now, and should be ready for harvesting in a few weeks (when the pods dry on the plants). Also, the equally rare Flagg pole beans in the Herb Garden were dry and ready for harvesting yesterday, so I spent much of the afternoon working on that!

Harvest Season is in full swing now, so stay tuned!...

July 1st Potato Harvest

I really wanted to make some potato gratin tonight, so I went rooting around (har de har har) in some of my potato beds to see what I could come up with. The results were happy (and surprising!):

I managed to grab tubers off of the Adirondack Blue, Purple Cowhorn (aka "Bear Poop"), Yukon Gold, and Russian Banana Fingerling plants. I tried to be gentle about not hurting the roots while I went digging for tubers, but I am a bit worried that I might have accidentally killed a few of them. Sigh. We shall see. Most of my potato plants are late season varieties (120 days+), so I plan to refrain from harvesting any tubers until the frost kills the tops of the plants.

In other news, my Ajawiri plants are flowering!! I hope they go to seed! What an absolutely fantastic planting experiment that would be!!

Here are photos of the two individual varieties, along with my gardening notes, that I plan to grow again next year. The Purple Cowhorn is a very rare heirloom potato variety.

Adirondack Blue

Purple skin, dark purple flesh. Planted in April. A hard frost completely killed off the plant tops at least once. 90+ days later, bringing in the first of harvest. Multiple medium-sized tubers per plant - better than I expected this early. This is a late season potato variety. I would definitely plant this again. The flavor is very wonderful, and I would say it's a mid-range producer.









Purple Cowhorn (aka "Bear Poop")

Larger tubers seem to have brown skin, while smaller ones have purple skin. This harvest was off of a single plant, and there were actually many more tubers on the plant, but I was worried about damaging the roots too much by spending any more time rooting around. VERY prolific producer. This potato was planted in May. The tops of the plant are already beginning to turn yellow and die back a bit.

Here's Hoping...

I have planted roughly 2/3 of my tomatoes outside this week. Yes, it's a bit early, but I have been keeping my eye on the weather report, and I think things are going to be okay. May 15th is the average date for our last frost in the area, and as that is today, I'm hoping the numbers play out. Tomatoes can survive down to about 38 degrees - it sets them back, but they can make it to the morning alive. Ideally, your nights should be 45-55 degrees for maximum tomato (and pepper!) happiness! However, with the recent trend of high 70 degree weather, my plants (except the peppers who LOVE it) are frying with the heat inside of my greenhouse. So I had to weigh the choices of possibly losing plants to heat stroke or losing plants to frost. I figured that frost was the less likely danger, and thus the reason that over half my tomatoes are already outside. Unfortunately, with the recent thunderstorm predictions, I now have to worry about hail!...sigh...

I have been busy gardening, weeding, and filling out last minute plant orders this week. There is actually space to walk around inside of my greenhouse - I had forgotten what that felt like! Yesterday, my Georgia Jet sweet potato slips arrived in the mail, and I spent the day planting them in pots until the nights are warm enough to set them outside. I think they made a mistake on my order however: instead of 12 slips, they sent me 24! Ah well, more potatoes for me! I am also still eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Purple sweet potato slips.

Speaking of potatoes (well, we were technically speaking of morning glories, but whatever), I have discovered a fascinating new "potato!" It's call the Negresse Potato, but it's technically a wild relative of the potato and not a true potato. The Negresse is a little known and under-appreciated tuber! It is jet black in color, and tastes like a truffle! Unlike the black potato,
"Congo," it does not have a bitter skin. Negresse is the cheapest "truffle" you can grow, and also one of the easiest! It is very difficult to track down, but I finally did manage it (thank you, Seed Savers!). I am on the waiting list for my own set of seed tubers in 2011. In the meantime, I have ordered seed tubers for the Ajawiri. This tuber is thought to either be the same, or the parent of, the Negresse. Thus, I will be able to grow both plants over the next two years and make comparisons. What is rather exciting is that, because of how little known these varieties are, I will be sharing notes with others about the two tubers!

Other plants that I am trying out in my garden this year for the first time: Crosnes, Lemon Verbena, Purple Cowhorn Potatoes, Oaxacan Green Dent Corn, Violetto Artichoke, Lazy Housewife Pole Bean, Cherokee Trail of Tears Pole Bean, Camellina, and more!

Four Sisters Gardening

After much delay, we finally managed to get the pasture garden tilled last weekend (or at least a large portion of it). Every year we expand our garden a bit further, amending the soil with our own "home grown" compost. When we first began gardening on this little patch of land at the back of our property, it was nothing more than rocky, hard pan clay soil. After 3 years of amending, it's finally beginning to look like good garden soil. I estimate that it will take another two years of soil amending before the ground is the quality that I would like it. The good news is that we will never run out of compost!

At the back of the garden plot (the west end), our grains will be planted: camelina, amaranth, quinoa, etc. Next will come the usual corn, beans, squash, melons. This year, I am excited to be growing Oaxacan green dent corn (used for making green corn flour!). I will also be growing two different heirloom pole beans, and training them to grow up the corn stalks, in the traditional manner. There will be plots of heirloom bush beans, and black beans, giant sunflowers, four different varieties of heirloom winter squash, three types of heirloom melons, and two heirloom watermelons, of course spread out over my two different garden plots to try to prevent cross-pollination. For those who have been following my previous posts, I have begun converting an old goat pasture at the far east end of the property into my second garden plot. I will unfortunately not have the time to complete this 2nd garden this year, but I have it about a 1/3 of the way amended/planted (and filled with onions, leeks, artichokes, and herbs). It's going to be a great gardening year!

My tomato plants are doing fantastically! I have had to replant most of them into gallon pots, and many are flowering already (one even has a little green tomato on it!). I feel proud for what I have accomplished thus far.

I have converted two raised beds into heirloom potato patches, and am waiting for Ryan to build me a third bed. This year, I am raising All Blue, Red Norland, Russian Banana Fingerling, Kennebec, and (the one I am most excited for) Purple Cowhorn (whose true name translates into "Bear Poop" - it hails from Scotland, go figure!)*. I am also excited to see if any of my potato plants go to seed this year. Raising potatoes from true seed is a fun and interesting way to discover new potato varieties. However, potato seeds do not reproduce themselves true to form, but will often produce throwbacks to ancient potato varieties, or sometimes the seed simply won't be viable. Still, with a little time and patience, it can be a fun way of growing potatoes (though you should never rely solely on potato seed for the following year's crop! Always save tubers from your harvest for planting.).

I will also be raising the now almost unknown pot herb, Good King Henry. This versatile plant - one of the earliest greens in summer, and one of the last greens of fall - is great for extending your salad season. The leaves taste like spinach (and are high in vitamins A & C as well as calcium), and the stem can be eaten just like asparagus (& tastes similar). Good King Henry was once very popular, but is now almost impossible to track down (I managed to find seeds for it at Fedco Seeds and Bountiful Gardens). More people should grow this plant in their gardens, and help to preserve this valuable herb from our past!

Lately I have become absolutely enamored with two books written by Seed Savers Exchange member and Master Gardener, William Woys Weaver. I discovered him through the local library (where I checked out his Heirloom Vegetable Gardening), and scrimped and saved until I could afford to purchase a copy of my own. That book has now become one of my most treasured volumes, and recently I also purchased his "100 Vegetables and Where They Come From." Both are what I consider the Bible on heirloom vegetable gardening. I absolutely recommend reading them!

* = Cowhorn is also known under the synonyms Purple Cowhorn, Purple Cow Horn and Seneca Cowhorn. Though listed as a fingerling in most databases, its name comes from its general appearance. It is oblong, thickest at the far (apical) end and curved to a narrow end at the stem attachment. Skin is dark purple. Flesh is cream colored. Eyes are shallow and few in number. It has large spreading plants. It is valued as a 'quick bake' baking potato. Specific gravity is 1.069. Maturity is mid-to-late and it is low yielding. It is a heritage variety with uncertain origins. It has been grown in New York state since before 1853. There is some speculation that it might have been developed in Vermont. There is further speculation that it might be identical to La Crotte d'Ours (Bear Poop), a Canadian heritage variety, thought to have roots to Scotland.
- Cornell University's "Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners" website