Donate veggies to the local food bank

The Oregon Food Bank has started a new “Plant a Row” campaign in an effort to get more fresh produce to their clients: http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/ofb_services/food_programs/PlantaRow.html

Here is their “most wanted” veggies list:

Food pantries and soup kitchens need produce that stores and transports well. Refrigerated space is often limited, so foods that don’t require refrigeration are always wanted. Here are some recommendations: Tomatoes (pick while slightly under-ripe) Green beans Winter squash (acorn or butternut) Garlic Hot peppers Cucumbers Zucchini Collard greens Onions

How to start your own community garden

Here is a comprehensive resource for starting your own community garden: http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=MP906  and also: http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/starting-a-community-garden.php

This has come up recently because many people have expressed a desire to garden in plots rather than group gardening a large space.  The existing community garden managed by LNCT does not have the resources to do this.  I’m familiar with this model and it is very similar to the one I’ve gardened before.  So I’m just weighing pro’s and cons and poking around on the web out of curiosity.

Eat your weeds!

Now that I’ve had my first weeding session in the garden it has made me think, once again, about how many of the plants we call “weeds” are actually edible.  Not just edible but some are downright gourmet-level yummy.

My favorite edible “weeds” are nettles but I’m hoping to broaden my horizons and try to find more favories out there.  One potential new edible I have not tried yet is called Japanese Knotweed.  There are spots on the river, here, where it is coming up all over the place.  The young shoots are high in vitamins and are tart/tangy like rhubarb.

Also, there is a weed called “pepper grass” or “shot weed” that is all over the permaculture and community gardens.  Maia told me that it’s actually quite tasty and indeed, it had a bitey, perppery flavor and lacy texture.  I plan to start using it with salad greens…

Here is a more information on common edible weeds >>

companion planting table

I’ve been successfully using companion planting or inter-planting methods for over 3 decades now and swear by the method.  Not only are you able to grow more veggies in less space but they are healthier…and the layering makes for a more interesting looking garden.

(this table is from the ATTRA website)

CROP	COMPANIONS	INCOMPATIBLE
Asparagus	Tomato, Parsley, Basil
Beans	Most Vegetables & Herbs
Beans, Bush	Irish Potato, Cucumber, Corn, Strawberry, Celery, Summer Savory	Onion
Beans, Pole	Corn, Summer Savory, Radish	Onion, Beets, Kohlrabi, Sunflower
Cabbage Family	Aromatic Herbs, Celery, Beets, Onion Family, Chamomile, Spinach, Chard	Dill, Strawberries, Pole Beans, Tomato
Carrots	English Pea, Lettuce, Rosemary, Onion Family, Sage, Tomato	Dill
Celery	Onion & Cabbage Families, Tomato, Bush Beans, Nasturtium
Corn	Irish Potato, Beans, English Pea, Pumpkin, Cucumber, Squash	Tomato
Cucumber	Beans, Corn, English Pea, Sunflowers, Radish	Irish Potato, Aromatic Herbs
Eggplant	Beans, Marigold
Lettuce	Carrot, Radish, Strawberry, Cucumber
Onion Family	Beets, Carrot, Lettuce, Cabbage Family, Summer Savory	Beans, English Peas
Parsley	Tomato, Asparagus
Pea, English	Carrots, Radish, Turnip, Cucumber, Corn, Beans	Onion Family, Gladiolus, Irish Potato
Potato, Irish	Beans, Corn, Cabbage Family, Marigolds, Horseradish	Pumpkin, Squash, Tomato, Cucumber, Sunflower
Pumpkins	Corn, Marigold	Irish Potato
Radish	English Pea, Nasturtium, Lettuce, Cucumber	Hyssop
Spinach	Strawberry, Fava Bean
Squash	Nasturtium, Corn, Marigold	Irish Potato
Tomato	Onion Family, Nasturtium, Marigold, Asparagus, Carrot, Parsley, Cucumber	Irish Potato, Fennel, Cabbage Family
Turnip	English Pea	Irish Potato

Use your green (unripe) tomatoes!

Growing tomatoes out on the Oregon coast is challenging any year but this season was particularly late.  We are going to end up with a bunch of unripe, green tomatoes and I can’t say that I’m too unhappy about it.  I LOVE cooking with green tomatoes.

When I mentioned this, more than a few people looked at me funny.  I received a sort of vindication, yesterday, when I looked at the Food Section of the Oregonian…it featured recipes for green tomatoes!

More >>

Suburban sustainability

Brings into question the usefulness of full-blown permaculture for gardeners who rent their homes:

Growing edamame

I found this on growing edamame:

By LEE REICH
For The Associated Press
No need to ramble on praising the many health benefits of soybeans, their high quality protein, their healthful oil, and so on. We’ll assume you’re not living in a cave.

Let’s also keep quiet about the gustatory alchemy that has been wrought on this bean, transforming it into tofu and tempeh as well as “meat,” milk and ice cream.

However, soybeans deserve special mention in their simplest form: the fresh green bean merely steamed or boiled then popped out of its pod into your mouth.

This vegetable often goes under its Japanese name, edamame. If you want one new vegetable to try in your garden this year, make edamame that vegetable.

GETTING STARTED
Soybeans are bushy, frost-tender plants that you grow just like bush green beans. Make rows a couple of feet apart, or, if you garden in beds, plant a row down either side of a bed. In either case, drop seeds three inches apart into furrows an inch deep.

Green soybeans taste something like a cross between a fresh lima bean and shelling pea – and it’s as easy as those plants, or easier, to grow.

Soybeans tolerate hot weather better than peas, which languish in summer heat, and cool weather better than limas, which languish in spring’s coolness. And Mexican bean beetles, which in some years devastate green beans, have little interest in soybeans.

Once you’re smitten by the delectable taste of edamame and want to stretch the harvest season, do so by planting varieties that take different times to mature.

OF NOTE
Soybean plants grow larger than bush green bean plants, so they tend to flop over. If you like your garden to be neat, just put stakes around the edges of the beds, then let the plants lean on one or two courses of string tied to the stakes.

I also must mention animals: Soybeans are dessert to rabbits and deer. If either of these animals are present and can get into your garden, forget about growing soybeans – unless you want to grow them as a trap crop to keep either of these creatures from feeding on other plants.

THE HARVEST
Harvest edamame pods when they are fully plump and still bright green. As with limas and some other beans, edamame must be cooked before they’re fit to eat.

Steam or boil them in their pods for about eight minutes before eating.

Cooled pods gladly release their beans when gently squeezed between your fingers. If you harvest more than you can eat fresh, pack excess cooked pods into bags and into your freezer. When you’re ready to eat them, put the beans in a pot with an inch or two of water and boil for five minutes.

http://gardening.lohudblogs.com/2008/05/07/how-to-grow-edamame/

Artichoke pesto (vegan)

The artichokes are saved! I hit them with two doses of a natural insect killer (one had oil of clove and one was sesame oil) a few days apart and the infestation has lifted, although there are still a few of the green beetles, here and there.

Had my first artichoke and a big length of stem and was glad I went to all the trouble of saving them. So tender and delicious!

Today I plan to use more stem in this recipe which I have modified to be dairy-free.

Artichoke Pesto
12 ounces artichoke hearts or tender stems
1/2 cup olive oil or to taste
1 cup pistachio nuts (or use pine nuts or almonds)
1/3 cup lemon juice or to taste
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (instead of Parmesan cheese)
salt and pepper to taste

Blend all in a blender or food processor. Serve with pasta or spread on toasted, crusty bread.

Green beetle infestation on the artichokes

Meet Cassida rubiginosa…aka, thistle defoliating beetle, green tortise beetle, eucalyptis beetle

After a little creative internet keyword and image searching…the mystery of the artichoke beetles is solved.

Unfortunately, as these links show, some farms have released them as biological thistle control for their fields. Not good news for artichoke growers!

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/thistlecontrol.html
http://www.ewrs.org/BCWG/aims_and_objectives.htm

Just talked with a woman who bought an artichoke plant from a local nursery and it was covered in the beetles, too.

I sprayed the two artichokes with pump spray natural (organic) insecticide from the greenhouse…it looks like it did the trick. I have weeded well and trimmed the infested plants and plan to water deep for a while and fertilize them well to strengthen them.

Garden of Eden meets the Sacred Grove

This article from Mother Earth News does a great job detailing an actual permaculture project. The following passage from the article offers a great explanation of permaculture as a sort of a reigned-in wildness where the existing trees and land determine the parameters we may operate within:

To me, forest gardening is exciting not only because it promises to increase food yield, but because it offers a deeper connection to the natural world. Those of us who are gardeners usually work with such a “tame” version of nature that we forget we’re part of a much larger and more complex “garden” that we can cooperate with, but cannot control. The forest garden merges the cultivated and the wild; offering food not only for the body, but for the eye and the soul. It can be the place where the Garden of Eden meets the Sacred Grove.

Read more >>