Stringing the Tomatoes and Setting Up the Hoop House

Want to show you all some of what we have been doing. Yesterday it rained enough to call for a job that kept us out of the wet weather. Tomatoes needed pruning and stringing so that is what we did. I went ahead of the others and pruned each plant, Bryne tied the strings from the wires and the gang attached the clips and carefully wound each stem around the string.  After it was all done each plant was watered. Its always a tedious job but so important to get done. Every week we will prune and wind the growing point of each plant around the string. You want the energy of the plant to go into developing fruit and not growing more stems.

There are about 300 plants in this hoop house and about 12 varieties. Black Krim, Black from Tula, Black Prince, Black Cherry just to name a few. Looking forward to a good tomato harvest.

Early last week we reassembled our original hoop house into another field. We have planted it full of basil. The location gets the very last rays of sun for the day. Good for basil. Those are my dahlias on the right side of the hoop house and snow peas on the left.

Bryne putting the finishing touches on the hoop house before the planting begins. We planted first, watered the transplants in with the sprinklers on and then put the plastic on the next day. I will post some photos of the basil soon. Here on the west coast you really can't grow large amounts of basil successfully without cover. Made some pesto for supper last night. What a great smell and flavour.

Principles of Plant Health

The past few days have been full of questions and discussions about health and herbs. I love it when I get to talk about plants and their uses in our lives. I studied herbal medicine and nutrition and believe that food should be a substantial portion of our daily medicine. Plant foods that are grown conscientiously and with good, sustainable practices are some of our most powerful allies in maintaining good health. I remember my naturopath doctor telling me long ago that "ideally" his job was to help me maintain my good health and not to wait till I got sick before seeking guidance and assistance. I should prevent disease not wait till I was diseased. So much about health and growing plants go hand in hand. Organic growing follows the same principles, prevent disease, not create conditions for disease.

With 16 years of certified organic growing and countless programs and courses under my belt I have learned a thing or two about maintaining my health, my families' health and the health of the plants and the farm. The number one question people ask is "What do you do about pests and disease ?"

I say you have to first ask what you consider a pest ? a disease ? Everything alive on this planet is food for something else. If you keep taking the so-called pest away you are taking away food from another living thing. Even diseases are alive and have to eat. Take away what they normally feast on and the system becomes unbalanced and open to attack. Its all about balance.

That is the beauty of bio-diversity. In nature you never see anything living in isolation, on its' own. It is a great community that operates on co-operation and balance. No one, nothing is an island.

Plants and foods grown using the "industrial model" have been manipulated to the point of having no natural defenses of their own anymore. We have taken their ability to look after themselves away. Many crops are grown in enormous quantities, essentially in isolation, and do not have the benefit of their plant communities to help them out. They have been altered and hybridized to grow in a specific way with predictable results and rely on chemical applications to feed them, force their growth and protect them. If "anything goes wrong" in this model the results are often disasterous !

Science is beginning to show and understand that plants "think" and "communicate" with each other and their surroundings through chemical interactions. Stands to reason that they adapted this ability. I have often thought about this. A plant,a tree, cannot move to get away from something the way we can. They are forced to stay in one spot for the duration of their lives. They are at the mercy of the wind, weather, insects, animals, whatever comes their way and they have shown the many ways they have made brilliant adaptations to their environment. They have had millions of years to figure things out. A lot longer than we have.

Some of the most important practices we use at Ironwood Farm are crop rotation, green manures (cover cropping)and companion planting. By NOT using any types of chemical controls the farm attracts and thereby hosts all manner of insects, birds, wild life and most important, beneficial bacteria and micro-organisms. Together this bio-diversity creates a balance and feeds everyone.

We need to get back on track and let nature take the lead. By using and implementing practices that ensure soil health and vitality, bio diversity and mindful handling and care we not only help the planet but we help ourselves too.

The Home Stretch

We're coming into the home stretch of the planting season. Another week or so and we will have the main season crops into the ground. The last of the tomatoes are going in. Yesterday climbing cucumbers were added to the greenhouse mix. Still have to put in a row of field cucumbers and basil. Now we are going to seed carrots and beets one last time for this year. Radishes, lettuces and spinach are ongoing. 

Big job is getting the irrigation set up. There are always pipes to mend and seal. Bryne has his work cut out for him in this department. In spite of us living on the "wild, wet coast" we do need to irrigate. Yesterday was a prime example of why. We had a crazy "sou'wester" blow through here all afternoon well into the night. It took down trees, branches and the power ! These summer winds dry everything out ! Especially young plants that are still establishing their roots. Have to keep things irrigated so that they get their feet and grow properly.

Today I will walk the fields and make sure everything is accounted for and recorded on my charts. It is another part of farming that needs to be done. Recording and staying on top of what you do, have done and did do. Not just for the organic certification but for our own information and knowledge. Keeping records really helps. We can look back on any given year and see what we have done, where, how much, what the weather was etc. Our harvest records will indicate what did well and what didn't by how much we picked, bunched and bagged off to market.

We harvested spinach this past Friday for market. Harvested 150 pounds of rhubarb. Strawberries are beginning to form, the first potatoes are flowering(the photos show the plants and the size of a few potatoes I dared to dig gently with my hand) spring onions are almost ready to bunch. I ate the first snow pea, couldn't resist !

Its an exciting time to be on the farm. So much is happening and the growth is spectacular from just a week or so ago as the days get their longest and the heat units take off !

Gotta go, the day won't wait for me. The hummers (hummingbirds) are out doing battle on the feeders already!

Well the day is done, just had a hot bath and want to finish off this blog. Had a great day. Got the worst of the weeds out of fields A and B. Weeded the spring onions, rhubarb, snow peas and beets. Got the tallest of the grass weed whacked to a tolerable height. The crew was great today, everyone working together.

Those winds picked up again late afternoon but guess what ? As I sit here it is raining outside, pouring rain, a rain that will do the plants a lot of good and go deep. Lucky Bryne, he is SO happy when he doesn't have to irrigate. It doesn't get much better than that !

Good night, sweet dreams. ;-

)

Squash This Way

Weather has finally cooperated and we're getting some heat on the soil, plants and our bodies. It feels pretty darn good when your out on your knees looking at countless dozens of dug holes that are about to receive a squash plant each and the sun is on your back.  It has taken a lot of work to get all the heat loving various varieties of squash into the ground. Each hole is manually dug, a shovel full of compost put in and then the plant is put in. There are about 225 plants in each row times 7 rows = 1575 plants, give or take a few.

Now the irrigation pipes need to be laid out and made ready so we can irrigate when needed. The weather forecast is calling for clear, sunny weather for the next two weeks with slightly above average temperatures. The plants will need water until they get their roots developed and anchored into the ground, about 5 weeks. 

The summer type squash, zucchinis and patty pans, will take no time at all to get fruit on them. I saw the beginnings of some yellow balls on the patty pans last evening as we walked the fields. Always exciting when you see the first appearance of squash on the vine. I know from experience that you can sit and literally watch the zucchini grow at certain times of the season. Its incredible !

It really is a marvel when you think that you put a seed into the plug trays in the spring and then watch the plant take root and grow into this enormous plant that wants nothing more than to produce abundant food for you. Well actually its trying its' best to go to seed so that it can reproduce itself. :-)

Anyway today is a short article as it is harvest day once again. Today we are picking a new crop of spinach and Tofino has ordered 120 + pounds of rhubarb. Hurray ! I will keep taking photos of the squash as they grow and will make sure to document the first squash we pick. Will it be a zucchini or a patty pan ?

Stay tuned .
p.s. I have added a photo of our latest hatch of chicks, born June 4 and 5. They are SO cute and doing well.

Good days, always :-D

What's For Supper ?

One of the main features of participating at Ironwood Farm is the food. The guest books are full of "adulation" about the food. We have a lot of mouths to feed at any given time and everyone is hungry after a day of physical labour. You have to consider that most of them are 19 to 25 years of age, many are still growing into their bodies and they need sustenance.  At the moment we have seven farm stays as well as ourselves. Three to four farm stay participants is normal but we have a cross over of comings and goings at the moment. What to feed a hungry crowd ?

Over the years, like anything, you acquire a feel for quantity and what you can reasonably prepare for a hungry gang. There is a budget to consider as well. Cooking for 10 is not unreasonable in a household kitchen. An ordinary kitchen stove with regular sized pots can accommodate most quantities to feed up to ten people. One thing we did purchase a number of years ago is a substantially sized wok.

Our kitchen is never without certain staples. Brown rice, potatoes, pasta , bread, onions, celery, carrots, frozen peas and various cuts of meat. When cooking and preparing the evening meal we always try to cook enough rice, potato or pasta to have leftover for the next day. This way we can quickly prepare a stir-fry of some kind for lunch or supper.

Of course having our own supply of seasonal vegetables and produce is one of the highlights to any meal. Early in the season we rely on items we have frozen or canned during the previous season. I freeze lots of rhubarb, kale, corn, squash, tomatoes, basil, apples, blackberries etc. to have through the winter and spring. Freezing is the easiest way for me to make use of abundant produce during the growing season. I simply don't have time during the busy farming season to can a lot.

An interesting aside story. We have had a young Japanese man with us for a number of months. He is an Italian chef by trade. That in itself is interesting. He has prepared a number of outstanding meals for us. I remember when I asked him which colour of tomatoes he would like to use out of the freezer. He was amazed at the selection and even more astounded at the taste ! Even the frozen tomatoes from last season had more flavour than anything he had ever experienced. He had NO idea tomatoes could have so many different colours and flavours. He was in heaven ! He is SOLD on organic food.

I must have instinctively  learned through observing my Mother how to manage and manipulate ingredients that are on hand. I usually finish my part of the farm work at 3 p.m. I indulge myself with a fresh cup of coffee and try to take an hour for myself to relax. In the back of my mind I am starting to think about supper and what I might prepare. By 4 p.m. I get at it. By 6 p.m.. supper is on the table. I know lots of you out there don't or won't use microwave ovens but it is a very useful appliance in our household at times for defrosting something if I haven't thought about taking it out the night before.

I REALLY enjoy baking bread for us and have incorporated it into the work flow of the day. Usually on Monday mornings I get the dough prepared and go out into the fields while it is rising. Come into the house and punch it down once and go out again. While I am preparing lunch I shape the bread and/ or buns and let them rise while we are eating. By the time we are doing the lunch dishes the bread can go into the oven I have remembered to preheat. NOT ALWAYS (lol)

We have some kind of dessert almost every day. Fortunately my Mother (who is soon 88) still can and loves to bake. She surprises us many times a week with some German style confection. I have a number of favorite recipes that are quick and easy to prepare for dessert. The top favorite for votes over the years is definitely any kind of "CRISP especially rhubarb and apple topping the list. CRISP with blackberries is a close second. Over the years my dear friend and neighbour Kate, who has since passed away at age 92, shared many wonderful recipes with me. She loved to bake as well and I remember many happy hours drinking tea and writing down her time honoured recipes.

Tonight Bryne prepared the main meal which was a wonderful stir fry with lots and lots of vegetables. A big pot of brown rice. Breaded, baked halibut. A banana bundt cake with peanut butter, cream cheese frosting. This was for the birthday of one of our farm apprentices who turned 20 today.

I have always enjoyed cooking and baking for my family and friends. I read once in an Ayurveda cook book that in India there are songs that women sing for preparing food. These songs infuse the food with love and good thoughts. This is how all food should be prepared. Much like the food we grow here on the farm our energy and thought patterns are transferred to the plants and into the crops we lovingly care for. The same thing applies to the food we are handling and preparing for a meal.

Everything we eat was once alive in some original form. It makes me wonder sometimes at the alarming statistics in rise of chronic illnesses if there is not some correlation between how industrial complex food is grown versus food that is grown with thought and care and hand held. I know from my experiences here on the farm that the difference is significant. The produce is positively brimming with vitality and energy.

Good people, good energy, GOOD FOOD !

Growing Tomatoes

The push is on. We're into the last week of May. These next two weeks we have to get all the long season, heat loving plants into their annual summer positions. Here on the west coast we have determined that if the squash and nightshade (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tobacco ) don't get into the ground by the end of the first week of June they simply won't have a long enough growing season for their fruits to mature. Last year we had the squash in on time and still much of the squash didn't mature properly on the vines before the rainy season was upon us in September. We had a slow start to summer last year and then some cool, rainy weather in August. Squash and tomatoes, peppers need those heat units to give them the sugar content they need to come to full maturity. Fortunately for tomatoes there are more and more varieties available for our cool, damp, often low-light summers.

 Some of our most successful tomatoes are Super Fantastic and Celebrity. Both these can be counted on to provide abundant fruit over a long period of time. Cherry tomatoes do well here too. Red Cherry, Gold Nugget, Yellow Pear, Snow White, Black Cherry are some of the best. They produce until frost in most cases. Many of the older heritage breeds do really well in our climate especially any of the dark brown/black varieties. We try a few new ones every year. This year we are trying Defiant, bred for our climate and resistant to early and late blight. We will see !

We grow our tomatoes in covered, but open-sided greenhouses. The blight is a given and we have learned to live with it. We still produce massive quantities of amazing tasty tomatoes. We try to save seed from some of our favourites  and it is noticeable the strength and stamina of our own seed produced plants. Eventually you get a plant that is aclimatized to it's surrounding soil and weather conditions.

We plant each tomato into a well-dug hole with a level shovel full of aged compost and a small amount of rock phosphate which is the middle number in the NPK formula. We use rock phosphate in place of bone meal. This promotes good fruiting, strong roots and greater resistance to disease. We also feed them with a foliar spray of weak, fish fertilizer solution a few times during the course of the growing season. The tomato can be planted to a depth up to and including it's first leaves. This ensures a good, solid stem and the stem underground will form roots to anchor it in. Once the plants are firmly planted in we string them up to support the plants as they grow and bear fruit. The plants get incredibly heavy once they form fruit and will topple and break without support. One thing we are fussy about is that we don't allow anyone who smokes tobacco to handle and work with the tomato ( nightshade) plants. The hands of smokers can harbour and transfer disease to the tomatoes from the tobacco.

Once the plants are in and actively growing your job is to keep the plants pruned to one stem and assist them by winding them gently along the length of the string. Pinching out secondary growth is crucial to getting good, abundant fruit that will ripen in time. I can recall on more than one occasion going into the tomato house after a week or so and being overwhelmed at the amount of growth in such a short time ! Tackling these plants if they get away from you can be daunting and potentially does a lot of damage to the plants. When you have 500 or more plants to deal with it pays to be on top of the job.

A lot of people ask about growing tomatoes in containers. There are more and more varieties available that are suitable for containers. I suggest you keep to the determinate varieties. This brings me to an explanation of determinate and indeterminate varieties. These words indicate the growth habit of the plant. Determinate means that the plant will grow to a predetermined height and the leader (stem) does not have to be pruned or pinched off. These are usually stocky, bushy plants by their nature. Often a tomato cage alone will support them. They are a better option for container growing due to this growth habit. Indeterminate varieties are the vining type of tomato. The main stem, leader, will grow and grow. We train them up along strings in the hoop houses. Again you want to train them to one stem and keep the branching off to a minimum. In our climate it is a good idea to pinch off the leader at a certain height so that fruit can set and mature. You can determine this once you are happy with the amount of flowering on the plant. We usually pinch them off at about 6 to 8 feet.

So, back to the containers. From what I have heard from people is that they think by growing the plants in containers they are less work. Not true. They are in fact more work. By confining the plant in a container you are taking away it's ability to seek out water and food. It is now dependent on you for those essentials. A tomato plant will totally fill a container with roots in a short time. They have big root systems with hungry appetites. We did this many years ago with about 200 plants in 5 gallon buckets. The watering became an endless task as the roots filled the buckets and any soil was basically eaten up. No soil, nothing for the water and nutrients to hold onto. It all just goes through the container. So my advice is to make sure you grow varieties that are suitable to containers and that the containers are large enough to support the needs of the plant. The plant will require you to water and feed it regularly.

There are places in Canada where tomatoes are planted in the fields with no support and lie on the ground. Ontario and certain areas of B.C. even, this is done. Field tomatoes require dry, dry, sunny conditions. It is really hit and mostly miss to attempt this here on the coast. The dampness and moisture will compromise the plants and the slugs will have a feast ! Slugs love hollowing out tomatoes. Peppers too by the way.

As to planting the tomatoes read and look at my blog on dahlias. The instructions apply to tomatoes, peppers and eggplant as well.  Good size hole, some good finished compost, a bit of rock phosphate or bone meal, a means of support and your good to go. Pruning and pinching them out is an ongoing task. I will take some photos as I do this throughout the season and will post an addendum to this blog when the time comes.

There is no taste comparison to a home grown tomato ! It is worth every bit of effort to grow these luscious, nutritious, tasty treats that you can do so much with. Hopefully I have covered most of the basics about getting them off to a good start.

Please, don't hesitate to comment and ask me any questions you may have about them. Sometimes it is difficult to know how much to say and write about a certain thing. Good luck and happy gardening.

Growing Dahlias For Market

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Today we planted out the dahlias. I love, adore, have to have, flowers. Flowers are truly the showpieces of Mother Nature. Dahlias are one of my most favorites and they are relatively easy to grow and will give you years if not decades of pleasure if you take proper care of them. Dahlias are also one of the easiest to grow for the cut flower market. Dahlia bouquets sell themselves for their colour and variety. We have always made flowers part of the diversity of product we bring to the farmer's markets. They make your stand, stand out !

Dahlias are native to the mountain areas of Mexico and Guatemala. They are the national flower of Mexico. They were originally a 20 foot or more tall plant and were used extensively by the Aztecs for food as well as practical purposes. The tubers are like a potato, starchy, and have a similar taste. The stems are hollow and were used as irrigation type pipes to transport water from a distance to the crops in the field. When growing they are also full of water and could be used as a source of water to drink.

Today dahlias come in an amazing array of blooms and spectacular colours. I have read that there are 50,000 or more types. WOW ! Once they start blooming they keep on flowering for about 3 months here on the west coast.  You get a LOT of SHOW for a small cost and the tubers if properly cared for will last decades.

We usually start them in gallon pots in late March, early April. Earwigs and slugs love to eat the first new growth that appears above ground so we have learned to start them in pots and avoid disappointment. We get them into their permanent summer spot by late May. By this time they are 2 feet or more in height.

We dig a good size hole, at least as deep as the size of the pot, add a shovel of compost and mix it with soil. Next I put a tomato cage into the hole. I tap the plant out of the pot and GENTLY remove it and lower it through the ring of the cage into the ground. Finally the soil from the dug hole is filled back in and the plants are watered.

Other than weeding around the plants during the season and watering them the main work is done. Once they start blooming it is important to keep the flowers cut off so they don't go to seed. You will want to keep them picked and enjoy them in your home and in bouquets to give.

I make sure to have a bucket of water with me when I am cutting them. The sooner any flower gets into water, the better. At the house I put them into a vase of relatively hot water. They take up the water much quicker if you use hot water. NOT boiling water, just hot tap water. To keep your vase water from getting "skunky" you can put a tiny bit of bleach in the water. It also keeps your vase cleaner. The flowers will last a good week or so this way.

At this point I will not discuss digging up and storing the tubers. This will be another blog in the fall once the tubers are dug up. I have had blooms till November some years here on the coast. Normally its till mid October or Thanksgiving here in Canada.

If you like having flowers and growing them then give dahlias a try. They give me enormous amounts of pleasure and beauty and really show off at our market stand.