Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Still planting and CSA Week 6

People in my CSA must be wondering if in fact I planted anything other than greens as today again greens dominated the baskets. Trust me, there's lots in the garden, but some it was planted late.
Some of it in fact was still being planted today.


It's nice having both girls here to help out on Tuesdays. Generally I pick and they wash things up and put the baskets together. The bonus today was that Emily drove the baskets into town for me, helped by Mollie of course, the navigator.
I knew that the weather forecast called for rain, so my goal when they were gone was to get some more seeding done.
It was only yesterday that I was able to get a low spot tilled up, and it still did end up being a bit rougher than I would have like it. But good enough for beans, and my goal was to get lots more of them in.
Not that there aren't a whole lot already, but beans are one of those crops that I never seem to have too many of. Especially when my goal is to have lots of dry beans for cooking up and keeping us all "proteined" up.

Some of the beans are so very special. One that I must plant every year is a lovely green bush bean with purple striping called"Bobis D'Albenga". I bought my original seed for this bean years ago...maybe 15 or so, from a seed company that specialized in Italian seed from New Mexico, but then the company disappeared.  I'm not really sure what happened to them, but I was very glad I saved the seed. I guess it is a pretty rare bean in North America, but apparently it is being sought out by chefs in the US now.
You just never know when the phone rings who it is going to be, and a few weeks back it was a gourmet seed company in the US looking for 50 lbs of this bean seed. I didn't have that much, but I guess I was it while they awaited a shipment from Italy. Interesting. I always knew it was a great bean and I'm glad others are discovering it too.
Today 4 good long rows of Bobis went in, as well as another 14 more rows. Insane isn't it, that for the first 17 years of this farming career, I planted every single seed by hand. Those days are done as I have much more faith than I thought I would in my Earthway seeder. The time it has saved me this year is astounding. I finally figured it out.


More beets went in today too. Some sugar beets, Avalanche-a AAS winning white beet, and Cylindra, my favourite beet of all.
Now is a great time to plant for fall crops.  Celeriac, winter radishes, rutabagas, kohlrabi, carrots, beets, parsnips, salsify and scorzonera if your tastes run that way.
I've got a bit more garden space left and in an area with superb soil, so I'll choose carefully.

Today's baskets contained a head of heirloom lettuce, chard, kale, your first taste of tomato, gooseberries, parsley, mint, golden purslane, zucchini or pepper, rat tailed radishes.

So purslane-what to do? Pesto!

Purslane Pesto
1 bunch purslane
3/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon
2 tsps honey

Blend together all ingredients and enjoy!

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