And So It Begins … And Ends (Kinda)

So the garden was planted over the May Long Weekend.  It was the third year in a row we were out planting the garden as the chuckwagon trucks rolled by.

This year instead of rushing to get everything planted we took our time and spread the planting over two days.   I still have my seedlings to transplant and now that the fence is up they should be in the ground tomorrow.

I think we went a little crazy with what we planted, it everything grows well we could have an over abundance of fresh vegetables – nothing to complain about that’s for sure!!

This is what we planted:

                                  Sunflowers (45 ft)

                                  Potatoes – Yukon Gold & Norland (approximately 60 of each)

                                  Peas – Green Arrow (50 ft)

                                  Peas – Sugar Sprint (15 ft)

                                  Soy Bean – Beer Friend (5 ft)

                                  Spinach – Tyee (36 ft)

                                  Beets – Detroit Red (36 ft)

                                  Beets – Touchstone Golden (18 ft)

                                  Beets – Chioggia (Candy Cane) (18 ft)

                                  Beans – Yellow, Gold Rush (72 ft)

                                  Swiss Chard – Silverado (36 ft)

                                  Carrots – Bolero (72 ft)

                                  Turnip – Purple Prince & Laurentian (18 ft of each)

                                  Onions – White, Yellow, Red (10 ft of each)

                                  Green Onions (5 ft)

                                  Shallots (5 ft)

                                  Dill (10 ft)

                                  Garlic (10 ft)

                                  Squash – Small Wonder (Spaghetti), Papaya Pear (2 plants of each)

                                  Zucchini – Golden Dawn III (2 plants)

                                  Zucchini – Elegance (6 plants)

Still to transplant: tomatoes (18), celery (6), broccoli (6), cauliflower (4), cabbage (2)

Goodness that seems like a lot… did I mention my garden is bigger than some people’s houses – it’s approximately 1800 square feet!!!

Similar to last year, the day after we were done planting we received two days of heavy rain followed by a thunder storm on the third day.  The rain was the first in a long time and it allowed us to get about 1400 L of water in storage; which was a good thing because its been so hot and dry the past few days we’ve already been watering.

On Sunday we noticed the turnips (purple prince), spinach and potatoes were starting to make an appearance.  Today we notice a single pea (green arrow) and bean and that almost the entire row of beets (detroit red) are also gracing us with their presence.  We’re supposed to get some lite rain over night so hopefully that will give everything else a little boost!

So that being said, the beginning of garden season has started; and I think the end of blogging is near. Last year I enjoyed blogging about my garden but by the end of the season it started to feel like something I was obligated to do.  Anyone who has a blog can truly understand how time consuming it can be and right now I would rather spend my time doing other things.  From time to time if I stumble across something interesting that I feel the need to share I will but the multiple postings per week will stop…. And who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind later!

So thank you to everything who followed my blog, keep in touch and Happy Gardening!!

I'm Still Here!!!

A few weeks ago marked the beginning of summer for me – it was the first time since last year that I did something outside, and it was wonderful.  To be out of house and doing something outside instead of being a lump on the couch felt refreshing and exhilarating.

I tackled one of the flower beds removing last years plants and pulled a few weeds – yes, there are weeds already.  As I cleared the dead plants I was reminded why I love perennials.  Hiding amongst the dead leaves and stems were numerous little buds pushing through the earth; and now, two weeks later they are flourishing.  I love my perennials because they never let me down, every year they reappear and make things oh so easy for me.

I must admit, I haven’t really given this year’s garden much thought yet.  We always seem to be busy with something and have had a few things comes up that required our full attention so garden planning, and blogging, have taken the back seat.

One thing I did do over the winter was stumble across a wonderful garden book.  It’s called “NO GUFF VEGETABLE GARDENING” and is a book I would recommend to any gardener.  It’s a fun book that is easy to read and is full of useful ideas and suggestions.

I’m still having a hard time believing it’s a week into May already.  Over the weekend I actually took the time to try and plan the garden layout.  In previous years I would have done this several times already.

Over the weekend the temperature was in the high teens and it was tempting to start planting but I know it’s too early.  On the long weekend we’ll tackle the garden and start planting – I’m starting to get excited.  And I promise once the seeds are in the ground you’ll be hearing more from me.

Seed Vitality & Longevity

When I started to make my seed wish list for the garden I began to wonder if the seeds I had in storage were still good; I tend to over shop for seeds and have a surplus from the previous year’s garden, some of which would be entering their third year.  I figured I could risk using the old seed or throw them out and get new.  As I wasn’t too keen on having to purchase new, I decided to do some research - off to the inter-web I went.

Very quickly I discovered there are many website that discuss seed longevity.  By reviewing many different lists, I drew the conclusion that most seeds are good for 3 to 4 years, with a few exceptions.  This got me thinking, are seeds like that container of yogurt or sour cream in the fridge that lasts well past its best before date, or are they like raw chicken left uncooked – something you don’t want to touch?  And then I stumbled across a blog that talked about testing seeds.  Perfect!

So here is it, how to test if your seeds are good:

1)      Choose 10 seeds from the package of seeds you wish to test. 

Ten is a good amount to use because it allows you to easily extrapolate your finding to the rest of the seed package.  Ex: If only one seed germinates, you have 10% chance the rest of the seeds will.

2)      Take a damp paper towel, fold in it half, and place your ten seeds on half of it. Fold the paper towel again so that the seeds are sandwiched between the layers.  (If you are testing larger seeds like peas or beans it may work better if you put them in a glass jar with wet paper towel on top.)

3)      Place your “seed sandwich” in a zippy and seal.

4)      Keep the baggie in a warm area and check daily to make sure the paper towel is damp.

5)      After a week, or a few days if you’re impatient like me, take out and unfold the paper towel to see what is happening.  You may start to see some sprouting action or you may see nothing.

6)      Make sure to keep the paper towel damp and continue to check your seeds until they have sprouted or you feel nothing more is going to happen.  Keep in mind the longer the seeds take to germinate the less healthy they are. (Of course this also depends on the type of seeds.)

When I did this, I tested three types of onion seeds.   According to what I had read, onion seeds were only good for one year.  As these seed were about to enter their third year of existence I felt it important to test them.

My results: only 40% of the green onion seeds sprouted, 80% of the white onions sprouted (extremely slowly) and 100% of the red onions sprouted within a ten days.  My conclusion: turf the green and white onion seeds, keep the red onions.

Happy seed testing!

A Storage Note

Last fall a majority of our garden vegetables ended up being blanched, vacuumed sealed and frozen.  What we didn’t freeze ended up in our Cold Room.

When storing in the cold room, we placed the potatoes, onions and garlic in burlap bags so they could breathe and the carrots were packed in sand in plastic bins.

As the end of March approaches we are noticing a significant reduction in our vegetable stash: there is only one pack of turnip left, a handful of packs of swiss chard, peas and beans, about 1/3 of the potatoes, ½ the carrots and the onions, garlic and shallots are long gone.  (Note: In the fall  we ended up with around 160 pounds of potatoes and 2.5 - 20 gallon plastic tubs of sand packed carrots.)

We’ve noticed the Yukon Gold Potatoes store a lot better than the Red Norlands.  The red potatoes are softening and starting to sprout while the Yukon Gold are sprout free and are as firm and crisp as the day they were harvested.

The carrots, despite the odd top trying to grow, are firm and crisp and are showing very little sign of drying out and decay.  In the past, we haven’t had this sort of luck with our carrots.  Over our few years of gardening, we have found that different varieties and different storage methods have a significant impact on the duration you can store carrots; and I’m sure this applies to other veggies as well.

The first year we had our garden we stored the carrots in a plastic tub packed in sand; they did ok, but many become soft and dried out over time.  The second year we grew the same carrot but stored them packed in sand in a plywood box; we will never to do this again as the wood absorbed the moisture from the sand leaving the carrots soft and wrinkly very early in the winter.  This (or last) year we went back to plastic, to keep the moisture in the sand, and grew a carrot variety that was good for storing.

When storing vegetables, it seems as though there is an element of luck to it.  Keep in mind though there are also a few things you can do to improve your “luck.”  When shopping for seeds consider how you plan to store or process your vegetables.  Most seed descriptions specify if they are good for canning, freezing, or storing- I look for these qualities in the seeds I buy to ensure that we can get the most out of the garden for many months after the final harvest.

Eating Local… Really Local

Eating local and knowing where your food comes from is something we hear about more and more.  It is something we should all pay a little more attention too as there are many benefits to eating local, not to mention it’s important to know where your food comes from.  We have all become dependent on grocery stores to provide us with our food and in doing so, people are losing sight of where our food comes from and kids think food “grows on shelves.”  We have become a society where we care more about what something costs as opposed to where it comes from.  The “Eat Local” movement is trying to remedy this by making us think twice about the food we buy and consume. 

Here’s an interesting watch if you have a few minutes.

Some people take the whole eating local thing to the extreme defining local as a certain radius around the area they live;  have your ever seen or heard of the 100 Mile Challenge show on Food Network??  For many Canadians limiting what we consume to food that was grown or harvested in a 100 Mile radius would make eating a healthy balanced diet difficult.  We consider anything Canadian to be local; if I’m at the grocery store and I have a choice to buy an apple grown in Canada vs. the States, I’ll take the Canadian apple.

With a garden, we know exactly where our food comes from and it can’t get much more local than your back yard.  The wonderful thing about gardening is you can grow as much or as little as you want; you can have a huge garden with multiple vegetables or you can grow a few different vegetables in pots on your deck or apartment balcony.  The only problem with our garden is that it only provides us with vegetables; it doesn’t provide us with any meat.  It may be food for meat, but it can’t grow meat.

Last fall after the garden had been harvested and put to sleep another type of harvest began; a harvest that would add some meat to all the veggies in the freezer, a harvest also referred to as hunting season.  By the end of hunting season we had successfully harvested three deer leaving our freezer close to overflowing with vegetables and meat that we knew exactly where they came from.  In fact, one of the deer came from the green belt directly south of our acreage. 

Now we can proudly boast, at times, that we had a 100 Mile Meal, and depending on what deer meat we eat, a One Mile Meal.

Tomatoes: A Sad Story

Last year our tomatoes sucked – plain and simple.  We didn’t have a single fruit ripen on the vine and the ones that were brought inside didn’t do that great either.  We attempted to ripen the tomatoes inside using two different methods.

The first method was the pick the tomatoes and simply to lay them on a brown paper covered table in the basement.  (The table wasn’t big enough for all of them so we put some in cardboard boxes on the floor.)  These tomatoes did change color but I’m not sure if you could say they ripened.  By the time they were red their skins were starting to shrivel and the flesh inside was starting to dry out and break down.

The second method was to remove the entire plant from the ground leaving the tomatoes attached and hang them in the cold room.  We used this method before and it worked wonderfully; this year it didn’t work at all.  Instead of ripening, the tomatoes shriveled, started to mold, and proceeded to fall off the plants.  This was very disappointing as we had utilized this method on the healthiest plants with the most fruit because of previous success.

When we hung the plants upside down we did one thing different from previous occasions and this “one thing” proved to give the exact opposite results.  Previously we left the roots on the plants, this year we removed the roots.  We cut the roots off because the root system is difficult to remove from the ground and it creates a lot of mess inside.   I’m thinking that by removing the roots we killed the plant rendering it incapable feeding/ripening the tomatoes; if we ever do this again we’ll be sure to leave the roots on the plant.

(If all works out as planned we won’t have to ripen tomatoes inside anymore as the intent is to build a greenhouse in the spring.)

Anyway, we had brought all the tomatoes inside in mid September.  By the time the end of October rolled around, as sad as the tomatoes looked, something needed to be done with them.  We simply couldn’t turf them; there was a lot of time and effort put into them.  There may have been a hand full of tomatoes that we could have eaten as is but the bulk of them were not looking too appetizing.  So what did I do with them?  I made tomato juice – lots of tomato juice.

I washed and cut them in chucks, and placed them in my largest pot; by the time I was done my 2 gallon pot was almost overflowing with tomatoes.  After cooking on low for a few hours I gave them a quick blend with my boat motor (hand mixer) and then they were ready for straining.  To strain them I ladled the mixture into a fine mesh strainer and then used the underside of the ladle to stir/force the juice through the strainer.  This would push the juice and some plump through leaving the seeds and skin behind to be easily discarded.  When everything was said and done, I ended up with about 30 cups of pure tomato juice.  Unfortunately the quality of the juice wasn’t that great, it was watery and quite acidic.

So what does one do with 30 cups of tomato juice? Freeze it and worry about it later!

Last weekend I finally took a few of the containers of tomato juice and made tomato soup.  The recipe I used was one that I had used last year and had found on a blog a visit frequently.  I had to tweak the recipe a little because of the poor flavor of my juice and also because I had tomato juice instead of tomatoes.  All and all it turned out pretty good.

We served it will a dollop of sour cream for some extra richness.  Soup anyone?

Tomato Soup Recipe:  http://www.formerchef.com/2009/08/02/how-to-make-fresh-tomato-soup

A Smell of Summer

I love the smell of dill.  It’s such a fresh vibrant smell that reminds me of summer.

Besides liking its fragrant aroma, why do I grow dill and do I use it for?  My mom would always grow it to use in her pickles but I can’t remember it being used in anything else.  I grow it for my pickles too; but I use very little of what I grow.  So what do we do with the rest of it?

We try to use it as seasoning in some of our cooking.  I say try because more often than not we forgot about it or are too lazy to go pick it.  Dill pairs well with potatoes.  Sometimes we will throw some of the leaves/franz (the fernie stuff) in with potatoes while they boil/steam, or cut it fine and season pan fried potatoes with it.  (I love pan fried tators and dill… yum!!)  On occasion I’ve used it to make my own dill dip and if I would plan ahead more often I would do this a lot more as I love dill dip.  I’ve never put it in soup or salads but they’re both viable options.

Last year the dill in the garden didn’t grow too well so we didn’t have too much good quality dill left at the end of the season.  The cool weather early in the season stunted its growth and all the rain weakened its flavor - it was disappointing.

Two years ago in the fall I picked a bunch of dill and dried it the food dehydrated.  The best part about this was the entire house smelt like dill for about a week.  It dried and stored well but the flavor just wasn’t there.

This fall I decided to freeze it.  One weekend early in the fall I picked what was still healthy and had survived the frost.  I only picked the franze as I’ve never used the heads/flowers except for pickling.  After picking it, I gave it a quick bath and air dried it.  Once dry it was given a quick chop, put in an air tight container (I used a freezer jam container) and put in the freezer.  The idea behind this method is whenever we wanted dill all we had to do is take the container out of the freezer, open it and sprinkle some dill. 

Last night with dinner we had fried tators will dill, the entire house ended up full with the pungent smell of dill.  It was wonderful!  It reminded me of being in the garden on a hot summer day.  It was a smell that broke my will power to put off “anything garden” until March as I ended up spending the night on the couch seed shopping and planning the garden.

Cooking Tip:       As the chef house (aka Steve) has discovered, dill does not do well with excessive heat.  If you add it too soon in your cooking you will lose all of its flavor.  (This could be why I had a loss of flavor when I used the dehydrated a few years ago.)

No Excuses

No excuses?  Actually, I have tons of excuses for the lack of blog follow through, but I won’t waste your (or my) time with them.  It’s hard to believe my last posting was September 25 – almost 4 months ago!  

Just before Christmas I received my new seed catalogue and have been itching ever since to plan the garden for the upcoming season.  It’s taken a lot of will power but I have yet to do more than a quick flip through the catalogue.  I also know there are other things that need to be tended to right now and once I get into that catalogue the garden obsession will begin again.

Anyhoo, in light of the new catalogue I have been thinking a lot about my blog and all the things I mentioned I would blog about but never got around too.  Thankfully I was able to find a hand full of half started entries that I had intended to post in the fall.  Over the next little while I will try to polish ‘em up and post them.

Stay tuned!! J

Winding Down

As the garden winds down for the year, it seems as though so is the blogging.

Over the past few weeks everything excluding the carrots and turnips have been harvested and removed from the garden.  Unfortunately a lot of it is literally just lying around the house while we keep our fingers crossed that it will ripen. At the moment there are spaghetti squash in the living room in front of the windows and green tomatoes covering a table and the floor in the basement while others are hanging in the cold room.

The spaghetti squash needs sun and warmth to ripen which is why it has taken up residence in our living room; I am glad to report it is slowly turning yellow. (That’s a good sign.)  There hasn’t been much change in the tomatoes but there are a few that are starting to turn red. (We might get some after all!) 

We do have one lonely zucchini plant in the garden that is living under a permanent cover of burlap.  When I picked the last of the zucchini two weeks ago I left one plant as it was just starting to form a few zucchini and I was curious to see if they would develop.  The last time I looked they were still growing, slowly, and more leaves and buds seem to be growing as well.

The beets, both red and yellow, have be picked and pickled, the onions and garlic and drying in the cold room, the last of the swiss chard has been blanched and frozen, and the potatoes are drying in the wheel barrel in the garage.  The turnips (what doesn’t have worms) should be cleaned and blanched within a few days, and the carrots will probably be staying in the garden until Thanksgiving weekend.

I have an assortment of shorter blogs started regarding specific vegetables so be prepared to see and handful of new entries posted later this week. (hopefully)

Standing in the garden this afternoon seeing it so empty was both exciting and sad.  After a long summer of gardening it’s exhilarating to pull the plants knowing you don’t have to worry about them anymore; it gives you the freedom to move on to other things.  At the same time it’s sad because, well, it is done.

Not much left, 'tators are gone now too...

It’s kinda ironic but as one garden winds down, the next is already being planned.  While standing in the near empty garden this afternoon, and on a few other occasions, we’ve already had discussions of what to plant next year and how to do things differently.

Frost: A Silent Killer

For a garden, frost can have huge implications.  In the spring it can wipe out your new seedlings without hesitation and in the fall it can kill mature plants spoiling their fruit and an entire summer’s work in one night.

The average first frost date in Grande Prairie is September 13.  So far we’ve had “damaging” frost three times this year.  I say damaging frost because excluding these occurrences, there were signs of frost but the garden was not affected.

The first damaging frost occurred on the evening of September 1.  Because of the warmer days it was hard to imagine having a frosty evening so I reluctantly threw some burlap over the spaghetti squash.  The next morning the spaghetti squash was warm and cozy and the zucchini, tomatoes, and beans all had their top leaves burnt and killed by the frost.  Thankfully it was not a hard frost, but it was enough to do damage; it saw to the end to most of our zucchini plants.

The second occurrence was a few days ago (11^th) and was a hard frost, it fact, it actually froze.  This time we had the tomato plants, squash, zucs and beans covered and they survived reasonably well.  Instead of fighting with poly and small pieces of burlap, we dug out a huge tarp and covered just about everything in one sweep.  Surprisingly, the potato plants got hit extremely hard; they now are all brown and withered and will have to be harvested soon. 

The past week has seen frost on several occasions: I am beginning to see trend.  I was planning on picking everything that is above ground this weekend but ended up starting to pick the tomatoes mid week.  With the weather being cooler and the days shorter things are not going to ripen outside so it’s time to bring them inside and see what some warmth can produce.

In this country frost is a nudge telling you that it’s time to wrap things up, it’s a watered down preview of things to come.  I guess I can’t complain too much as we were lucky to avoid frost throughout the spring and summer months (if you exclude the June snow).

What’s been goin’ on...

The past 2.5 – 3 weeks have been a busy time for me.  Thankfully our summer was surprisingly extended until last Sunday.  The weather over the past few weeks has been well above seasonal with some of the hottest days of the year; we even came close to 30C a few times. 

The last week of August I took some time off from work and I made use of just about every minute.  I wasn’t planning on spending the week in the garden but ended up there just about every day for some reason or other.  If I recall correctly I spend 2 – 3 days picking, blanching and pickling beans, one day pickling cucumbers (Steve managed to get a hold of 20 lbs for me), one day picking and blanching swiss chard and peas.  Just by looking at everything in my freezer I know I did more but it’s all such a blur right now.  I don’t know how I would have managed to get everything done had I not had the extra time.

Needless to say everything is the garden is close to being done and it is starting to look a little anemic.  If it wasn’t for the warm weather it would have been done a while ago; most days I wish it was done already. 

After their last harvest the peas and green bean plants were removed.  The yellow beans are still in the garden and have just recently stopped producing; the green were pulled because we simply just didn’t want anymore.  The red beets have recently been removed as well and have already been pickled; the golden beets are still in the garden until I figure out what to do with them. 

The warm weather was a welcome gift for our sunflowers as it gave them a boost and they are now flowering and hopefully the frost doesn’t kill them for a while.  Unfortunately the warm weather didn’t help our tomatoes and we still don’t have any that are ripe.  We’ve had frost a few times and have taken to covering things at night because it would be such a waste to lose the green tomatoes and squash out of laziness.

Looking at the forecast I have a feeling the rest of the garden, excluding a few root veg, will be removed and brought inside this weekend.  This is something I am actually looking forward too; it’s the time of year where I’m ready to move on from the garden and do something else.

I’ll post some pictures from the past few weeks on facebook in the next day or so.

The Spinach Experiment

About three weeks ago, ironically just after complaining about being overwhelmed, I had a crazy idea. 

I had just returned from the Farmer’s Market where I had gone in search of spinach.  We didn’t get much spinach out of the garden this year so I thought it would be nice to buy some so that we would have more in the freezer to last through the winter.   There wasn’t a single vendor at the market that had any spinach and I was told by one that “you can’t grow spinach this time of year.” 

This got me thinking, why can’t you grow spinach this time of year?  I’ve tried a second planting of spinach two years in a row and have yet to have any success.  So I got on my computer and started doing some researching.  As it turns out spinach is a cold weather crop; it does best in the spring and in the fall and it is one of a few plants whose seed has a very poor germinate rate.  Also, if you plant spinach in the warmer months, it simply will not grow.  Once temperatures reach 23C it becomes dormant; seeds will not germinate and plants simply refuse to grow.

As the weather was cooler and it was mid August, I got the crazy idea that I would try planting some spinach.  I took to my computer again to see how I could increase my odds of success.  One common suggestion that I kept coming across was to soak your seed and to get it to sprout before planting.

So here I was, August 13, soaking spinach seed for a fall planting.

After soaking the seeds for almost 24 hours, I transferred them onto damp paper towel that was laid on a plate and covered them with another damp paper towel placing another plate on top; it was kind of a damp paper towel and spinach seed sandwich with plates for the bread.  The idea was to keep the seeds moist by keeping them in direct contact with the paper towel.  Twice a day I sprayed the paper towel with water to keep it damp.  After one day the seeds started to sprout.  We left them in the paper towel sandwich for a few days and then planted them in garden.

Seeds Sprouting after a day on the damp paper towel.

Sprouts planted.

Once planted, we watered them regularly and waited for something to happen.  Within 3 – 4 days it started to grow; and then it disappeared.  Everyday we checked it and saw new growth but the next day it was gone.  We had failed to take into account something very important.  That something was the over abundant amount of grasshoppers; they were eating the spinach as fast as it could grow.

New growth to feed the grasshoppers. :(

We tried covering the new growth to keep the grasshoppers from eating the spinach but then the weather turned unseasonably warm, we got tired of fighting the grasshoppers and eventually gave up.  It was frustrating because if the grasshoppers weren’t so plentiful I would probably have a decent amount of spinach in the garden right now.

It was an interesting experiment and if grasshoppers are a non-issue, I will attempt a fall plantings of spinach in the future.

Potato Outlook 2011

Despite getting a late start and being nibble on by grasshoppers, our potato plants seem to be doing very well this year.  We’ve had a few plants start to die, from too much moisture we think, but overall they are doing much better than last year.  By the end of August last year most of the plants were dying and had to be pulled because we didn’t want the spuds to rot in the ground or be eaten by the ants.

Last year we battled ants, grubs, and potato scab and our yield was very low.  So far this year we’ve pulled a total of two plants, both Norlands (red), and if our findings are any indication of the rest of the potato patch, we’re gonna been eating a lot of spuds this year.  Each plant we pulled had a yield probably equal to that of 3 plants last year.  We’ll try to leave the potatoes in the ground as long as we can so they can continue to grow; once they are harvested we’ll store them in burlap bags in the cold room.

partial harvest from 1 plant

Our two biggest issues with the potatoes are scab and grubs and unfortunately it is very difficult to do anything about either one.  Neither seems to be much of an issue the year, or at least as far as we can tell, so far…

Potato Issue #1: Common Scab

Potato scab is a bacterial disease that affects the appearance of the potato; it results in tan to dark brown, rough-textured lesions/scabs on the surface.  Scab can be introduced to your garden by planting potato seeds that have scab, or by adding manure or dirt that has the bacteria present.   Because the bacteria that are responsible for scab lives in the dirt once you get it you’re pretty much stuck with it.

That being said, certain potatoes are more resistant to scab than others.  Norland potatoes are one of the most resistance variety and Yukon Gold are one of the most susceptible variety; both of which we planted.   You can also try to control potato scab by adjusted the pH of your soil; the more acidic your soil is the less of an impact scab will have on your potatoes.  Adjusting the pH of your soil is easier said than done though, especially when you have a garden the size of ours!  This fall Steve wants to add lime to the garden in attempt to lower the pH.

Scab on last years Yukon Gold

Thankfully, scab only affects the appearance of the potato and the flesh just under the skin (if severe enough) and does not make your potatoes un-edible.  They only downfall of having potato scab, in my opinion, is you end up having to peel a lot of potatoes.

The Norlands we’ve dug up this year have shown signs of scab but once exposed to the air and cleaned it is extremely difficult to see.  The scab is so small it looks like little pen dots.  We have yet to dig up any Yukon Gold but I’m guessing the scab will be more evident on them, similar to last year.

The tiny white spots are scab on 'tators fresh out the ground.



Small brown dots are scab on 'tators after being cleaned & dried.



Potato Issue #2: Grubs

In previous posts I’ve mentioned grubs but I’ve never really discussed them.

The grubs we have in our garden are the larva of either the June Beetle or Chafer Beetle.  They are white or yellowish and have fleshy, wrinkled, C-shaped bodies with a darker head and six spiny legs close to their head.  They vary in size with the mature grubs being about the size of a quarter.  They are a gross little bug; Steve says they look like aliens.  We hate grubs.

Grubs feed on the roots of plants and are more known for causing severe lawn damage.  They can also cause serve crop damage to home gardeners and farmers.  This year I think it was grubs that were eating the roots of my young beets, spinach and swiss chard.  Last year they only noticeable grub damage was in the potatoes.  Grubs can be devastating to your crops; they don’t just nibble on the potato, they actually eat part of the potato leaving the rest to rot in the ground.

So far this year they don’t seem to be much of a concern in the potatoes.  Out of the two plants we’ve pulled we’ve only see one grub and only one small potato showed damaged.  Hopefully this is an indication of things to come.

Grub damage in last years harvest, see the holes?
(bottom left & top right)

Like every other pest in the garden, grubs are next to impossible to get rid of without using harsh chemicals.   I think like any other bug, they have their cycles and some years will be worse than others.   I’m hoping they didn’t like all the rain at the beginning of the year and either drowned or went deeper into the soil to escape the moisture.

The preferred method of getting rid of grubs organically is to use beneficial nematodes.  Nematodes are small microscopic worms that will seek out grubs and other soil born pests and kill them.  They infect the grubs, using them as a host for their young, eventually killing them.  Unfortunately nematodes are quite temperamental.  They are sensitive to temperature, your soil temp needs to be consistently above 15C, and the soil needs to be damp, the wetter the better.  A dry, cold soil means dead nematodes.  We tried using them last year without much success.  (It was too hot & dry and we didn’t have the water to keep the soil consistently wet.)

Another method is to trap the beetles before they burrow into the dirt to lay their eggs: there are scent traps you can buy to attract and trap the beetle.  We’re not too sure of this because it has the potential to make the issue worse by attracting more beetles.

This year we planted the potatoes in a different part of the garden in attempt to “hide” from last years grub infested soil.  We’re also hoping that if we can get the pH of the soil down the dirt will become less hospitable to them and the will go away. 

One can always hope.

My Jam & Jelly Day

I haven’t been doing much of anything lately as I have been consumed with picking raspberries.  We have so many berries and I hate to see them go to waste so for the past few weeks I have been picking berries almost every other night.  Since the berries have started to ripened Steve figures we have picked close to 5 gallons of them and there is likely still plenty more to come. 

The bulk of the berries have gone into jam and my first attempt at freezer preserves.  Last Saturday I refer to as my “Jam & Jelly Day” as I spent all day making jam, jelly and preserves.

Saturday started with me scalping the rhubarb and picking through the stocks for the cream of the crop: I only wanted the red tender stocks.  Some of the rhubarb went straight in the freezer for baking and some was turned into jam or jelly.  This was my first attempt at making any jam or jelly with rhubarb and I made Blubarb Jam (blueberry and rhubarb) and Rhubarb & Orange Jelly.  I taste tested as I went along and I am quite pleased with the flavor of final products.  I ended up with 8 - 246 ml jars of the jam and 6 – 246 ml jars of the jelly.

I’ve made raspberry jam on numerous occasions and was confident in the outcome.  When making jam I’m always amazed and how much sugar is used.  Unfortunately you can’t cut back on the sugar because if you do your jam won’t set properly.  I’ve tried “reduced” sugar recipes that use a different type of Certo (pectin) and the flavor just isn’t the same so I stick to the regular “full” sugar recipes.  We don’t eat a lot of jam so I’m not overly concerned about the extra sugar being consumed.   Anyway, I cooked up two batches of jam and if I recall correctly I ended up with 20 – 246 ml jars of raspberry jam.  Have I mentioned before jam makes a wonderful Christmas gift for just about anybody??

Raspberry Jam (left), Rhubarb & Orange Jelly (centre), Blubarb Jam (right)

This was also the first time I had attempted freezer preserves.  The process is similar to making jam but without adding any pectin to thicken it.  The flavor was spot on but I think I over stirred it because I was expecting to have more “chunkys.”  Next time I’ll know better!  I ended up with 4 – 16 oz cups in the freezer.

I was also planning on making some freezer jam but thanks to Steve, just before I started, we realized all the lids on the containers I had bought were cracked.  That stopped me dead in my tracks; which was a good thing because it was time to be done with my Jam & Jelly Day. 

My day had start with cutting rhubarb around 11:00 am, and it ended when the last pot was clean at 10:00 pm.  It was a long day but it was nice to get everything over and done with in one day.

I hope all of you that end up with jam or jelly at Christmas appreciate it!