Mystery Turnips

First of all I would like to say thanks to everyone who was exposed to the great White House Farmer frenzy last week. Although my name ended up in 14th place, somehow we collected over 700 votes in the span of three days. That is pretty amazing. I am still looking into other strategies to pursue the position (maybe on craigslist?...)

Secondly, and more to the point, I ate the worlds largest turnip this week (please see attached photo)

You see, a few months ago, I was in Latin America doing some "research" on tropical agriculture. In mid-November I was visiting a great sustainable ag. education farm called La Flor de Paraiso in the central highlands of Costa Rica. At the farm, I met travelers from all over the world, and I met a guy from Oregon named Jim.

Evidentally a friend of Jim's had been looking for the seeds of an old heirloom turnip grown back in the days of their grandparents. No seed company or seed saving organization had the seeds in question. Then they found an old jar of the seeds in just sitting on a windowsill in grandmothers house! As fate would have it: the seeds were still viable; some of the seeds were passed on to Jim; Jim promptly grew the turnips; and Jim let them go to seed while he travelled to Costa Rica. I can admit a little skepticism when Jim told me in his plain-speaking manner:

"These are the biggest turnips you've ever seen."

In fact I hadn't seen that many turnips for comparison, but I gave Jim my mailing address, hoping one day to get my hands on some of these rare seeds. Not two months later I recieved a mysterious package in the mail, originating in Oregon and weighing approximately 400 lbs. (hyperbole) Inside I found a package of seeds and the biggest turnip I've ever seen.

After posing for some glamour shots with the turnip, I proceeded to slice off 5-10 lb. pieces to give away as Groundhog's Day gifts to my closest friends. The remainder was cubed, roasted and integrated into my Winter Root Crop Consumption Program (WRCCP). It turned out to be very good eating.

As you can imagine, we are greatly looking forward to sowing, growing and collecting these turnip seeds (scientific name unknown) and hopefully disemminating some next spring on Pennslyvania Avenue... Thanks Jim!

Tree Fruits

Tree Fruits, Berries and...actually just fruit trees

Well, I guess it is February 23. Right about the time to start planting fruit trees, brambles, and other fruiting whathaveyous. So...what can we grow here in Seattle? I will use this as an opportunity to put in a plug for one of my favorite businesses, Raintree Nursery. Raintree specializes in fruiting plants and has a great catalog and website that can be crucial resources if you are planning to do some edible landscaping. You literally won't believe all of the crazy s*#@ they grow.
For the time being, I am going to try to decide what the most common fruiting plants that produce well here in Seattle:
In no particular order, we have Apples, Plums, Pears, Cherries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries.
As you will notice, there are a lot of fruiting trees on the list. No matter where you live, there are certain varieties of each that will produce well, and other varieties that won't.
Here is a short list that I lifted from Washington State University (which has a lot of agricultural programs):

Basic Home Orchard Variety List:

Apple - Gravenstein, Akane, Chehalis, Liberty, Jonagold
Pear - Clapp Favorite, Bartlett, Orcas, Comice
Plum/Prune - Methley, Beauty, Shiro, Early Italian, Seneca
Cherry - Van, Angela, Hardy Giant, Emperor Francis
Peach - Early Redhaven, Harken, Frost
Apricot - Not generally successful; try Puget Gold
Nectarine - Not generally successful; try Juneglo

As you will also notice, it is not recommended to try apricots and nectarines (unless you have some sins that need atonement). Also, peaches often seem more trouble than they are worth, especially since there are so many grown just over the mountains...

Here is another thing to consider when picking trees for your yard: plant dwarf or semi-dwarf varieites. Standard size fruit trees are great to look at, but very difficult to maintain and harvest.
So...just in case you are interested, here is a brief primer on rootstocks: what they are and why it matters...(you might want to stop reading at this point)

Why do you need a rootstock in the first place, what is grafting and why velcro shoes are worth the investment?

To get a fruit tree that bears a particular variety of fruit (Gravenstein apples for example), the plant must be propagated vegetatively. This usually means that a piece of a Gravenstein apple tree (for example a branch) is cut off and "grafted" onto another tree or rootstock. (it is absolutely necessary to call the branch a "scion" or it won't work).
Grafting can take many forms but usually involves taping the scion and the rootstock together until they grow into a single plant (kind of like when your shoelace breaks and you tie it back together). This is a very precise technique and I would highly recommend reading up on it a bit and/or going to a workshop if you intend to try it at home.

The Grafter's Handbook, by Robert J. Garner is considered the book to read and I am pretty sure that it made it onto Oprah's reading list last month.
Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation is putting on a workshop this March.
If you want to know how to tie your shoelace together, try a square knot.

Anyways, after the scion attaches to the rootstock, it will grow into a tree that produces Gravenstein apples. The rootstock does not effect the variety of fruit but it does determine the size of the tree (and other things such as disease resistance).
If the seeds of a Gravenstein apple are sown, each seed will grow into a tree with a new variety of apple (but not Gravenstein apples). Some of these new varieties may be very good, but most will become the "I am not going to eat this apple" type of apple.
Since certain trees produce fruits that taste better than others, people have developed grafting in order to propagate these fruits in perpetuity. Otherwise there would have only been one Gravenstein apple tree and when it died this type of apple would cease to exist.

To make things much more interesting, horticulturalists have been developing different types of rootstocks for these trees. Some will make the tree "semi-dwarfing" and some will be "true dwarfs", etc. Here is a link to descriptions of different rootstocks and their characteristics.
Bay Laurel Nursery

Generally speaking, it is good to grow smaller trees in your landscape so that you can reach the fruit when it is ready to eat...
I guess I will try to say something about berries next time.

Varmints

It's Groundhogs day!

Lets talk about varmints. First, this is a typical conversation during the course of a garden consultation:
New Client: “We have a lot of raccoons (and/or rats) in our neighborhood…are they going to eat everything?”
Me: “Of course!”
New Client: “How dreadful!”
Me: “Life is merely a series of tragic episodes, each more devastating than the last!”

Based on our experience, every neighborhood in this city (and presumably other cities?) is full of raccoons, rats, opossums, moles, voles, crows and countless other vermin in such numbers that we are probably better off not thinking about it. The good news is that, generally, most of these varmints have little interest in your vegetable crops. (Your chickens are another story altogether: chickens will eat your vegetable crops and varmints will certainly eat your chickens).

There are of course many, many exceptions to this…one notable case would be that of the lowly vole. Should you worry solely about voles, or voles and moles? Remember this, Voles eat Vegetables (esp. the roots of your favorite crops) and Moles eat Moths (or at least the larvae of moths). If that is a poor pneumonic device it is only because I just made it up. I am sorry. Moles may make mounds in your lawn, but generally won’t go after your crops; whereas voles are straight-up varmints. Maybe this is better: Voles are Varmints and Moles are Marmots (even moles aren’t actually marmots).

Anyways, if voles become a problem, as far as I know, the best strategy is peanut butter baited mousetraps...The other most common varmint we see is the rabbit. If you have seen rabbits hanging out at the end of your street after school, it is best to organize a neighborhood watch with the other parents on the street. Alternatively, you can put up a short (2-3’) fence around the perimeter of your garden before planting. Rabbits should be considered ruthless, and at the very least, not merciful. You might also have deer. In most of the urbanized greater Seattle region, deer don’t pose much of a threat, but if you know that deer are in your area, you probably have little choice but to build a fence (a high fence).

Other varmints can become troublesome from time to time, especially in the late winter (the lean months for varmints of all kinds). For example, rats seem to have an affinity for Peas, which are planted early and therefore a likely target for a hungry beast. Come to think of it, there are endless cases of animal attacks on unsuspecting vegetable plants. Just last summer I heard one report of a rouge raccoon attacking a Zucchini plant! The creature did not have the common decency to eat the fruit, but instead shredded the plant down to a ragged nub! There was also a report of a Mountain Beaver cruising out of the nearby woods to wreak havoc in an otherwise civilized garden...Not to mention the crows in Wedgewood that will pull newly transplanted Brassicas out of the ground and let them wither away in the summer heat! Always keep in mind that your neighbor’s cat will inevitably mistake your newly cultivated garden beds for…well, you know…

As you can see, there is much anecdotal evidence of varmints in the vegetable patch, but it has been our experience that most city gardeners will have limited trouble with these small and medium sized animals. If you feel the need to worry about something, worry about insect pests and plant diseases (which we can discuss later).

There is certainly no shortage of bizarre happenings in the garden at night (crop circles, drum circles, etc.), but for the most part the free-roaming animals of the city are not going to destroy your vegetable garden...at least that is what my blog says...

Onions & Leeks

I just sowed our first onions and leeks. As with so many great gardening traditions (e.g. planting peas on President’s Day, planting chocolate on Valentine’s Day, or planting hot dogs on the Fourth of July), I figured it would help to start the year's first seeds on a holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As with all great gardening traditions, I got a late start.

At this point, I am sure that you may be asking yourself something like, “Isn’t mid-January a little early to start vegetable seeds?” or maybe “Why am I reading this blog?”

Well, for now please let me attempt to elucidate a few of the wonderful properties of the onion. It should be noted that, the more unique characteristics a plant has, the higher its rating on the "SUFCo Plant Fantastic Index".
That being said, there are many things that make the humble onion a subject worth exploration: First, we should note that the seeds should be kept in the freezer. These seeds have a shorter shelf life than many other vegetable seeds and will likely only be viable for a year if left in your normal seed storage facility (a dark, dry place with zero gravity and free of drastic temperature fluctuations).

Second, onions can now keep the distinct honor of being the earliest sown seed (at least here in the PNW). For this same reason, many home gardeners are apt to grow their onions from sets rather than seeds. It is obviously difficult to get them sown early enough and to have the space and energy to do so.
There are, however, a few advantages to growing from seed.
One, lower cost: seeds are much less expensive than sets or young plants.
Two, the plants will be less likely to bolt: when grown as a set, the onion has already lived for one season and is thus being grown as a biennial, which means its evolutionary programming will tell it to send up a seed stalk ASAP effectively stopping bulb growth.
Three, you have something besides groundhogs to cheer for during February.
So...we sow our onions and leeks in late January, set under a grow light until early spring and get into the ground as soon as we can.

Because onions and leeks take so long to mature, and they are always necessary, we like to plant as many Alliums as we can:
Chives,
Garlic Chives,
Scallions (which are really just non-bulbed onions),
Green Onions (which are really just onions with very tiny bulbs),
Shallots (which are really just onions with slighty larger bulbs)
Leeks,
Sweet White Onions and,
Yellow Storage Onions.
Also an Allium, but requiring its own personal blog, chauffeur, and penthouse apartment: Garlic.

The last fantastic feature that I will mention is “Allium Day-Length Sensitivity”. Different species and varieties have unique light requirements, but bulb growth in most Alliums is triggered by a change in day length. Some types will not start bulbing until days exceed 12 hours, or 13 or 14 or...These differences make certain types more or less suitable to your region. You would want to grow different varieties in Panama (near the equator) than in Alaska (near a moose). Such distinctions are irrelevant to non-bulbing types (leeks, scallions, etc.).
Mostly, I just think that onions are continuously consumed but rarely considered.
In conclusion, at least I now have something to check up on every morning (besides the weather report).

Another Word on Seeds

I am not expert on this and I don’t want to belabor the subject, so I will try to make this brief. While putting together this year’s seed order, I ended up doing quite a bit of poking around on the web. It seems to me that there is a lot of both confusion and disagreement about seeds (and everything else in the world). Especially when it Industrial Agriculture starts looking for backdoors into the organic/sustainable food system. Specifically, no one seems sure what is going on, but there are rampant rumors that Monsanto owns just about every seed company in the known universe. Here is the short story of what is going on.

Once upon a time there was a relatively large seed company called Seminis. Seminis collected and breed a whole lot of seed varieties (esp. hybrids) and most every small seed company out there bought some of their varieties from Seminis. A few years ago, Monsanto bought Seminis. This sent the industry into chaos and nobody was quite sure what to do. Some seed companies vowed to eliminate all Seminis varieties from their catalog with the disclaimer that it might take a few years to find alternate sources (ex. Fedco). Other companies are still hemming and hawing about the right thing to do (ex. Johnny’s Selected Seeds). That being said, Monsanto doesn’t own Territorial, Fedco, Johnny’s, etc…but some of them might still have Seminis varieties in their catalog. Here is a really in depth article about the whole shebang: shebang

Also, M and M/Mars does in fact own Seeds of Change, which inexplicably started using plastic pouches for their seeds (with the claim that this is the most environmental option). I am not sure what the future holds for all of this, another reason to start seed collecting I suppose.

As for SUFCo, we are going to stop buying seeds from any company that continues to carry Seminis seeds (it should be noted that I have a very large grudge against Monsanto) and I don't see us buying organic seeds from a candy company either. Here are a few organizations that I believe are trying to do the right thing :
Fedco
High Mowing Seeds
Seed Savers Exchange
Victory Seeds
among others...here is a long list from ATTRA http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/altseed_db_results.php?Class=3&resultpage=1&SearchBtn=Go

Seed Ordering

It is the first of the year. This means I am finishing our seed order. Due to our variety choices, the seeds are coming from a few different companies. While choosing seeds can be considered a great way to pass chilly winter days, it can also be considered the scourge of my existence. There are a lot of factors to consider; herein I will attempt to describe one of the inherent difficulties. I will spend the next few minutes nerding out about the differences in seed types because I think it is confusing, hopefully this is a useful thing to talk about…

Hybrid seeds v. Open-pollinated: Generally speaking, most commonly grown vegetable plants have been breed over generations (just like poodles and pot-bellied pigs) to have the traits we find most desirable. For example, plants are bred to taste better, produce more fruits, or show disease resistance. More recently, breeders have begun producing hybrid (F-1) seed that is derived by cross breeding two distinct “pure” genetic lines (more similar to labradoodles and cockapoos). These pure lines have been bred for generations to exhibit one spectacular trait: one of the lines may produce high yields while the other produces a resistance to a common plant disease. The crossing of the two lines creates a plant with both high yields and a resistance to the disease. This has obvious benefits, but it also has certain downsides. The principle case against F-1 hybrid seeds is that they will not “breed true”. This means collected seeds from the plants will not produce a plant similar to their parent. Often these second generation seeds produce plants with little or no vigor. In essence, this means the grower is required to purchase new seed each year.

As an aside, it should be mentioned that hybrids are very different than Genetically Modified plants. GM plants are another story entirely and their creation involves direct manipulation of the plant genes (more similar to Frankendoodles). Genetic engineers can directly insert genes that come from bacteria or animals (Bt corn:) to increase a plant’s vigor. I should mention that we don’t use any GM seeds whatsoever. This will probably have to be discussed later with scientists on hand.

Open-pollinated seeds are those which are able to breed true and produce plants similar to their parents, thus allowing seed saving. It should be noted that cross-pollination between varieties would change the genetic makeup of open-pollinated seeds, leading to changes in subsequent generations. For example, growing Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin and New England Pie Pumpkin in the same garden could lead to a medium sized pumpkin that tastes like tires.
Heirloom plants are simply old-time, open-pollinated varieties. I don’t believe there is a consensus how old a variety must be before it can be considered an heirloom. It is often cited as somewhere between 10,000 and 50 years ago. Heirloom varieties are often considered better tasting than new varieties or hybrids. Keeping heirlooms viable means protecting the bio-diversity of our food crops. If you don’t think this is important, read about the Irish Potato Famine Heirloom varieties are becoming more available. The more people growing these seeds, the better chance of their continued survival (www.seedsaversexchange.org/)

When possible, we chose open-pollinated seeds so the option of seed collecting remains open. Seed collecting is a beautiful thing: it closes the loop on the growth cycle, cuts costs and further connects you to your garden. Starting seeds that I have collected is unequivocally one of my favorite things to do. Some people have very strong feelings against hybrid seed (and dependence on seed companies), many of their sentiments I can share, but there are times that we choose this seed over open-pollinated varieties. Such a situation may arise if we have had terrible trouble with a crop in the past. For example, peppers. Peppers have a difficult time ripening in the cool nights of the pacific northwest. If a hybrid is available that ripens better in cool weather, our options seem to be: stop growing peppers, continue growing peppers that produce no peppers, or try a hybrid. I do think that we should be growing plants that naturally thrive in our local climate, but…these things are complicated. At this point, we have selected open-pollinated (esp. heirloom) varieties when possible, and chosen hybrid seed on selected crops when our past experiences taunted us into submission. Maybe I will have more to say about exactly what we selected this year once the order is totally finished...