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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Evergreen Bunching Onions-December 20th Planting



With the bunching onions, you can cut off about an inch on the end and trim the roots back. Then you can plant this nub and it will regenerate itself. I planted about 20 of these nubs today. And I picked about 20 nice green onions yesterday. This year I planted some seeds in March, and then randomly  set them out in a bed. They are really foolproof little plants. The only thing I did was weed them all year. Next year I want to plant them in rows in trenches and mound them up to blanch them as they grow. I think the idea is to plant them in deep trenches, because the white edible part can really be lengthened by burying them.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Radish Harvest

, we picked 10 bags of them. The white icicle and the Easter Egg Radishes did the best. The Easter Egg had nice size and were very uniformly round and have nice colors red, white and purple. I didn't take any pictures of them washed and cleaned, my hands were to wet and cold.

Last picking for Bright LightsSwiss Chard


Calcots- Forcing Onions


Grey Griselle French Shallots


Planting Sugar Snap Peas-December 4th


Friday, October 21, 2011

Fall Mustard Greens

Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes. October 21st

Radishes

Egyptian Onions- Walking Onions-Topsetting Onions

Winter Spinach

Swiss Chard October 21st

October 21st Fall Garden Overview

Calcots- Spanish style green onions.


Friday, October 14, 2011

Radiator Charlies Mortgage Lifter. Picked october 8th.

I planted 4 or five varietys last spring, but really the only ones that did any good are the Radiator Charlies. They have very good size and flavor, when they are ripe they are a nice pink almost red color.It was very hot here this summer and I think the fruit didn't set very well. Here at the end they have really come on strong. Most of these were picked about 6 or 7 feet off the ground. Look how clean and shiney they are.They have never been any where near the ground.

Planting Calcots- Spanish Green Onions

I planted about 75 onions, about setember 5th. They are buried about four inches deep. Each bulb will produce about 5 or 6 green onions next spring. They will be ready to harvest in April. I planted each bulb about 6 inches apart. If you look online there is quite a bit of information how to cook and make special sauces for them. In Spain they have big Calcot Onion festivals.

Calcots

Be sure you cut the top off, and not the root end.

Calcots- Forcing onions

I planted my calcots about September 5th. I bought a few bags of onions at the grocery store. I think its a good idea to use as nice and big ones as you can find. You cut the tops off and bury them in a trench about four inches deep. They will sprout in about 5 weeks, as they grow you keep backfilling dirt around them. In march they will start to grow and you will have the nicest green onions you have ever seen.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Getting ready to plant radishes.Double Digging, Trench composting, Horse manure.

I am experimenting with hot beds. I am filling the trenches with about twelve inches of horse manure. I am curious if it will raise the bed temperature and speed germination. I dig a trench and work up the sub soil with a potato fork. Then I filled the trenches with the horse manure. Everything is covered with 6-8 inches of top soil.

Fall Radishes. Double dug raised beds using trench composting.

This week I planted French Breakfast, White Icicle, Crimson Giant, Easter Egg and Cherry Belle Radishes. The beds are sitting on twelve inches of horse manure. I am curious if the beds will heat up and produce later in the year. The burlap is to help with germination. I have been watering by hand because it is very dry and about 30% humidity. This bed was planted the 22nd of September.

Pole Bean Trellis.

I made this trellis out of electrical conduit, ten feet long. I didnt cut any pieces. They are wired together at the top, anchored with wire tied to wooden stakes, with two poles running horizontally on both sides. The horizontals are connected with plastic wire ties. There is a guy wire at each end tethered to a stake. It made it all summer through every storm. It was wrapped with light weight bird netting for the plants to grow on. To reach the beans, for picking, you can just tear a hole to fit your hand through. I am quite encouraged that it survived every storm, and most of the materials can be reused year to year.

Nine foot tall tomatoes. Eight foot tall tomato cages

I made some eight foot tall cages out of reinforcing wire. They really worked well. The tomatoes grew inside of them and didnt even need to be tied as they grew.

Among others, they are Radiator Charly, and Big Zac.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Venezuelan Corn-Cachapas. Venezuelan Pancakes

This is some of the corn from this years Venezuelan seed. My theory is that maybe it has a higher protein content than U.S. corn. The flavor is very different with U.S. corn and you can  use field corn to make these pancakes, but they taste horrible. All they are is a little bit of milk and sugar mixed in with the ground kernals. I run the corn through my Cuisinart after the kernals get a little doughy. The cachapas are delicious with Mozarella cheese.Here in Illinois the corn seems to take 100-110 days.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Fort Laramie Everbearing Day Neutral Strawberries

Texas Supersweet White, and Sweet Red Onions

Top Setting Onions, Egyptian onions, or Walking Onions


Big Zac, Radiator Charly's Mortgage lifter, Beefsteak, and Aunt Gerties Gold Tomatoes

Grey Griselle French Shallots