Catalog & Supply Time

If you ordered any seeds or other garden supplies in the past few years, then you know what to expect when you open the mailbox in late December. Catalogs- lots of them, full of the latest and greatest varieties, tools, gizmos, gloves, books, etc.

There are several catalogs that head straight to the recycling bin. There are a few that I know I will need handy eventually, so I put them into the SAVE pile, but they don't really call my name at this time of year. Then there are a few that I scan like a detective hunting for clues. Topping the list of the catalog most scanned, read, and eagerly anticipated is the catalog of Johnny's Selected Seeds.

First question: what's new? I find myself gravitating towards the tools section. Has Eliot Coleman created a drill-powered mini-copter that allows you to hover over beds of greens in the hoophouse? Perhaps in 2011. But the big push on quick hoops seems right for the times. Cheap, effective, and serious profit potential.

Second question: what's changed? Now I'm looking at prices. I go straight to lettuce mix for that one. Almost no change. Smart move! Now to Zinnias- prices have risen sharply for the Benary's mix, probably in part due to the events in the flower seed world that Growing for Market has covered in 2009. Either way, I wish that Johnny's would just stick with weights of seed (1/4 oz., 1 lb, etc.) or quantites of seed (50 seeds, 1000 seeds etc.), but not tinker around with these units for different varieties, or from year to year. Everything else about the catalog is excellent, but I'd rather that Johnny's just be more open about price changes than trying to muffle them with changes to units and sizes of packets that prevent an easy comparison.

Third question: in what direction is the company headed? I'm interested in what new areas the particular seed/tool company seems to be expanding. Johnny's appears to be renewing focus on the commercial grower, and expanding in the tools/equipment aspect of the company. That says two things to me- one, that small-scale farming is booming in a time of economic stagnation, and two, that Johnny's is concentrating on strengthening its position as the 'go-to' seed & supply company on the East Coast for the small veggie farm. That may seem like the obvious move, but my observations of several companies in the past few years lead me to conclude that many small companies make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people. Johnny's has avoided this pitfall, by concentrating on becoming all things to a particular group of people (market gardeners and small veggie farmers), a group which is clearly surging into 2010.

The Seeds of Change catalog really surprised me by removing the tool section entirely! This says to me that after dabbling with all kinds of different stuff, they may be concentrating again on the backyard gardener. I get the sense that the company is a little bit scattered in terms of focus, and perhaps might be returning home to a focus on heirloom seeds.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has the most compelling catalog of the year, in large part due to the catalog cover, which is creative and enticing. Little gnomes with caps that mirror hot peppers. Very well done. Everything about this company says that it is heading in a positive direction. Like Johnny's, Southern Exposure is clearly concentrating on strengthening its home base, but in this case the home base is heirloom seeds and the backyard gardener. Quantities of many seeds are certainly sufficient for the market farm, but Southern Exposure has smartly continued focus on the victory gardener and establishing itself as the go-to seed company for organic gardeners of the mid-Atlantic. I am impressed by how Southern Exposure has crafted and communicated such a clear and consistent identity over the years, and how each year seems to feature solid and measurable improvements...all this I gain from the catalog!

But a picture is worth a thousand words. In summary, the catalogs of 2010 communicate to me that this is a year of 'energizing-the-base'. Smart companies are identifying the things they do well and improving them. The small farmers and backyard gardeners these companies serve are doing the same thing. 2010 motto (expanded from an old funk song)- "Whatever you do, do it good, and what's good, make it better."

Airlie in the Snow

A couple weeks ago we were excited to harvest Arugula from beneath a light canopy of snow...well now we have two feet of snow in the garden! so not much harvesting happening. We're relieved that the hoophouse shed the snow, and look forward to uncovering the arugula in the garden if this snow ever melts! Looks like it will be around for a long time, so we'll just hang out in the hoophouse until then...

Arugula, Class, Snow & Winter

Four inches of snow sits atop beds of arugula in the Local Food Project garden- meanwhile, winter sowing of arugula and greens carries on in the LFP Passive Solar Hoophouse. As we wrap up a year full of workshops and seminars at Airlie Center, we look forward to our January 2010 Conference- Nordell & Martens: Culture in Cultivation, featuring a small vegetable farm powered by draft horses, and a 1,300 acre organic grain operation with custom milling of animal feeds.

Winter, where the harvest is soooo sweet, literally! That's because the cool temps concentrate sugars in cool weather crops, from carrots to kale to yes, arugula. If you have ever wondered why your garden carrots are not that sweet, is may be partially due to the temps of the soil during harvest. So many crops that are bland or even bitter during the summer and early fall take on an entirely new flavor in the fall and early winter.

The key becomes how you keep these crops alive in the garden for that sweet harvest.

At the LFP garden, we believe in simplicity. Metal hoops (you can cut your own using any decently thick steel wire) straddle our three ft. wide garden beds. Over these hoops, we drape floating row cover, a poly-fabric that provides a mild amount of frost protection (a few degrees), but creates a temperate, wind-free environment in which cold-tolerant greens and roots (like radishes, carrots & beets) can hang around and sweeten up until harvest. The row cover comes in varying thicknesses and price, but we like to use the stuff that is in the middle- not too light, not too heavy.

So when it snows, the cover will at least provide a little buffer between the plants and the snow, provided the snow is not too heavy. It is truly amazing to dust off the snow, and uncover a dazzling green bed of crispy greens amidst a winter wonderland!

For heading deep into winter, a hoophouse is the way to go. It's the same concept of providing a little protection for the crops with hoops and a covering, but the hoops are much larger and the covering is a high-grade plastic. In the LFP garden, we have a 30x72 ft. gothic frame hoophouse. The frame came from Ledgewood Farms. The plastic, vents, and end-wall paneling came from Griffins Greenhouse Supply. We harvested and milled all the white oak baseboards and door framing ourselves, with the guidance of experienced timber framer Eric Westergart.

And that brings us back to winter. I encourage all gardeners to go for a winter harvest, which is essentially an extension of your fall crops via a little protection from the elements.

Exploring the Small Farm Dream

This past Wednesday, December 2, 2009, eighteen emerging new farmers gathered for the fourth and final session of this year's Exploring the Small Farm Dream Course, held right here at Airlie Center. The course, developed by the New England Small Farm institute, is designed to be a concise and effective catalyst for small farmers to better evaluate new enterprise ideas, identify resources, and determine next steps. The course is so valuable because of the holistic design of the sessions, helping small farmers look more closely at the dollars and cents of a particular production model, as well as quality of life and family dynamics.

Each session, we invite a local farmer or two to share their story, experience and advice for the group. The goal of the course is not to teach how to farm, but to facilitate the connection of aspiring farmers with one another, with experienced mentors, and with the right questions. At the end of four sessions, course participants create an action plan with next steps, from additional research to mentorship opportunities to launching an enterprise!

This year we took a field trip to Moutoux Orchard and helped Rob Moutoux plant garlic while learning about his developing CSA and local grain & flour projects.

It is our hope that Exploring the Small Farm Dream and other programs create the beginnings of a more effective infrastructure to advance new farmers and new farm projects throughout the region.

Hallows' Eve: Scythe Time

This past Sunday's Hallows' Eve workshop was a blast from the past, and into the future! Guest presenter Harvey Ussery demonstrated proper use of the scythe, a mowing tool of old (commonly associated with the grim reaper & Halloween) which has come back to life recently as backyard food producers and small farmers alike focus on minimizing their use of fossil fuels. The high-quality & properly used scythe is not only efficient, as Harvey demonstrated, but meaningful and enjoyable!

The rest of the workshop examined the use of the broadfork and other hand tools in the Local Food Project garden system, and the consideration of season extension strategies and protection of crops in the late fall garden.

Cider and good times all around, we can see the Hallows’ Eve workshop becoming a pre-Halloween tradition here at Airlie Center.

Lettuce Revolution

Lettuce loves the fall, in and around DC. Cool, moderate conditions are perfect for the tender leaves of lettuce, which acquire a sweet crispiness in October.

Lettuce can tolerate frosty weather, but it needs a little protection. That’s because those tender leaves can take a hit if they freeze and are exposed to a punishing wind.

At the DC Green Fest a week ago, we launched a lettuce revolution, giving out 1,500 baby lettuce plants to 1,500 Green Fest visitors who signed-up for our Local Food Project newsletter- the Broad Fork Express (named for our favorite garden tool). But with a lettuce head in hand, now what?

How to grow lettuce in and around Washington D.C. (in October).

At the Local Food Project at Airlie, we have a simple acronym that identifies four areas an organic gardener must address to achieve success with a crop. This acronym is SNAP! (Seed, Nourish, Advance, Protect).

Seed- without seed, you don’t have a garden. Even a vegetable garden dependent on transplants from the nursery is one ultimately dependent on seed! The first thing an organic gardener needs to know is that not all seeds are the same. Lettuce is not lettuce is not lettuce. There are hundreds of varieties out there in a range of garden catalogues. Some are hybrids, some are heirlooms (save that discussion for later…better yet ‘google’ ‘heirloom seed’ and read), and have been bred over generations for a range of needs and conditions. For instance, some lettuce varieties thrive in colder weather, and make it much further into the winter- they have been selected and developed for this property. All the lettuce seeds we started in the greenhouse to give out at the Green Fest and to plant in our passive solar hoophouse are varieties bred for the winter. They are heirloom varieties we purchased from Southern Exposure Seeds.

*Capitan

*Yugoslavian Red Butterhead

*Rouge D’Hiver (“Red Winter”)

*Forellenschluss (“Speckled Trout”)

*Deer Tongue

These five lettuce varieties all do well in the cold, have excellent flavor, have been tried and tested and passed down through generations, and will be planted all over the DC metro area after the DC Green Fest this weekend. If the Green Festival were in early summer, the Local Food Project would focus on lettuce varieties that can withstand heat (Sweet Valentine, Jericho, etc.). But the days of October grow colder, and we need lettuce plants that are up for a winter challenge.

You won’t feed a family with one lettuce plant, but we hope that one single lettuce plant, put into the garden, or window box, will become the catalyst for food-producing-transformation in many of those folks who adopted the plant and Nourished that little lettuce into a whopping Thanksgiving treat.

Before we move on to Nourish, two more points about seed. First, seed varies in quality, so get it from a reputable source. Second, “seed”, in common organic gardener and farmer vernacular, is also a verb, and is synonomous with “sow”. Instead of “Sow that bed with some lettuce seed,” the efficient farmer will often state to her crew, “Seed that bed!” And the tool often used to sow seed is a “seeder”.

We lead off our acronym with Seed because, above all else, you need seed to have a veggie garden, but you also need to seed the seed. Sometimes we gardeners over think our gardens, get out a hundred books, and never get to the actual seeding and planting. Stick seeds in containers, stick ‘em in the ground, but don’t leave them to wither in packets!

Conclusion- Seed good seed with a seeder.

So Nourish, the second word encoded in our clever acronym SNAP! Nourishment for vegetables comes in many forms. For organic gardeners, we should create another sub-acronym for Nourishment, but the problem is that there are so many forms of nourishment it would be hard to come up with the right acronym, unless the acronym was N.o.u.r.i.s.h.m.e.n.t, but that would be working backwards, and trying too hard.

Nourishment for most vegetables includes:

Sunlight, and lots of it. Lettuce really likes the sun. Problem is, when we have lots of sun around here, it’s often too hot for lettuce. That’s why spring and fall are so important to the lettuce family in and around DC. Enough sun, but not too hot.

Water, in even moderation. Lettuce loves water, but like most vegetables, not too much. Many organic gardeners, conscientious beings they are, water too much, and drown their plants. It’s better to water thoroughly 2-3 times a week than every day. In the fall and spring, water less. That’s because the water table tends to be much higher, and soils stay moist much longer in the cooler temps.

Healthy Soil- so you’ve got sunlight and water, but if you’re growing organically, you need a nice, healthy soil. Healthy soil has plenty of well-decomposed organic matter, like compost and decayed root systems and plant matter, that feeds microbes which in turn feed growing plants. Healthy soil is well-draining and well-aerated. The organic matter helps with this, as do the worms creating channels through the soil as they digest organic matter. Plants need air in the soil for expanding root systems and optimal microbial populations to enhance plant growth. Healthy soil also has a good balance of rock minerals & slow-release nutrients that work in concert with organic matter and microbes to provide plants the full-spectrum of food they need to grow with speed. A soil-test can help reveal which minerals may be missing in your garden soil. A final component of a healthy garden soil, many organic gardeners would argue, is a mulch over the surface of the soil that boosts microbial activity near the surface of the soil, feeds worms over time, and keeps soil evenly moist during dry-spells, among other things. Straw, leaves & other plant matter are popular organic garden mulch materials.

Nourishment can also include optimizing the soil & air temperatures that vegetables want to grow best. Floating row cover (hot link) and other materials can add warmth to plants in the beginning and late stages of the season to speed their growth. Most lettuces in the DC area are going to want a little supplemental warmth, in the form of a protective cover, in late October and Fall, so this is where “Nourish” might overlap with “Protect”, but first let’s consider the ‘A’ in SNAP- Advance.

*A final note about Nourish- the best fertilizer, as the old saying goes, is the footprint of the farmer. That means that the attentive care of the farmer and gardener goes a long way in seeing crops through to a bountiful harvest.



Advance – Organic farming and gardening can be a real challenge. All kinds of pests want to eat your crop, and one lettuce plant out there in the garden on its own is no exception! We need that lettuce to grow fast. There are many ways we can help plants grow fast. We can start them out in the sheltered environment of the greenhouse, so the seed germinates quickly and does not have to fend off neighboring weeds that want to grab all access to sunlight. We can supplement the garden with more water during hot spells, or dry spells. We can cultivate around our lettuces and vegetable plants to stimulate the soil and remove weed competition (overlapping with ‘Protect’). As our plants grow, we can add a little organic booster, like fish emulsion or compost tea, or a top-dressing of compost right around the plants on the surface of the soil. These are all things we organic gardeners can do to ‘Advance’ our plants and help them grow as quickly as possible. Plants that are stalled out because they are in overcrowded conditions, or poor soils, or unsheltered from weather extremes, are plants in trouble. ‘Advance’ is all about the little things we gardeners can do to make the difference, the proverbial ‘Green Thumb’. The trick is not to overdo it. A little bit here and there can go a long way.

Protect- The final component of our LFP garden acronym, but should probably be the first! That’s because ‘Protect’ is arguably the weakest component of many an organic garden. Here’s why- we get excited about ordering seeds, working up the soil and planting, we get excited about the harvest, and in all this excitement we forget about the importance of protecting the crop. Only when the deer have razed our plants to the ground, or the squash bugs overtake our zucchini, or a frost kills all our hardwork, do we think “Gee I should have done a little something to protect the harvest!” “Protect” is about working backwards, imagining the things that will inevitably happen if crops are unprotected, and working to prevent the damage from being done. Working backwards kills the spontaneity of the organic garden, or so it seems, but ultimately creates much more satisfaction. First, protect your garden from large critters like deer and groundhogs and rabbits by building a good garden fence. The ideal fence is tall enough to keep deer out, and reinforced at the bottom to prevent gnawing. Any fence at all would be a good start if you don’t currently have one. Second, protect your crops from bugs by monitoring them closely. So many infestations can be prevented just by recognizing the warning signs. Row-cover and fabrics can be employed to keep bugs off certain types of vegetable plants until they are large enough to withstand some pest pressure. Non-toxic biological controls can be employed in select circumstances where all other approaches fail. Promoting habitat for beneficial insects in the garden is a form of ‘Protect’. Third, protect your crops from frost and weather extremes. Blankets and row cover can protect your crops when it first starts to get really cold outside. Another strategy involves patience, and planting your plants at the right time of the season! Many gardeners plant their tomatoes too early, only to be nipped by a frost, or to languish in cool weather.

SNAP- Seed, Nourish, Advance & Protect is a basic way to understand the areas of concern for the organic gardener.

Regarding your singular heirloom lettuce plant-

Seed- stick the thing in the ground, and fast. Work up the soil around the plant, and try to keep the leaves above ground level, and the roots below ground level, just like planting a mini-tree. Water in gently.

Nourish- hopefully you have planted that lettuce into a nice rich organic soil. If not, sprinkle some compost in a six inch wide circle around the plant, and incorporate lightly into the soil. Create a little greenhouse (with breathing and air flow) for the plant at nigh as it gets colder. Cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug, and remove the cap- a perfect greenhouse that can release heat. But don’t leave it on all day, because your lettuce plant wants as much sunlight as possible. Drape some fabric over the mini-greenhouse on a really cold night.

Advance- Lettuce does not need much additional help, aside from a little water now and again, and a bit of protection and warmth when it gets colder outside. The crops that really need advancement in an organic system are fruiting crops. Squash, for instance, benefit enormously from a handful of compost packed around the base of the stem right as the plant begins to set fruit

Protect- Bunnies and deer and groundhogs want to eat your little lettuce, way more than you do. Think about fencing up front!

Harvest Update

The days are getting cooler and fall has truly come to the Local Food Project garden. Tomato production has slowed down, but we’re still harvesting lots of sweet and hot peppers. We’re picking overflowing baskets full of tender green beans. And the LFP crew is harvesting new plantings of fall greens—Encore lettuce mix, Minutina (a succulent micro-green), Arugula, and Tatsoi. Even after first frost, these greens will keep growing—as long as we keep them protected with row cover.

Local Food Project at DC Green Festival

The Local Food Project met a lot of new friends at the Washington, DC Green Festival October 10 and 11. At our booth in the enormous exhibit hall we shared information about LFP and Airlie Center, handed out over 1700 lettuce starts for folks to plant at home, and talked about the role local food can play in an institutional setting. The festival provided a great opportunity to expand our outreach to an extended community and talk about LFP’s work to promote the benefits of local food. See more photos.

If you picked up a lettuce seedling and want to identify your variety, check out the October 8 post below to view photos.

What Kind of Lettuce Will You Plant?

Did you stop by the Local Food Project booth at the Green Festival October 10 and 11 and pick up a free lettuce seedling? Then check out the pictures below to figure out what variety you have! Keep visiting Sixteen Foot Ladder in the coming weeks to see how the same lettuce varieties are faring in our hoophouse.

Yugoslavian Red Butterhead

Deer Tongue

Forellenschluss

Capitan

Rouge D'Hiver

Mystery Plant Solved!

A mystery plant has been growing in the Local Food Project hoophouse. When it first sprouted in early June, we thought it was a cucumber. When its leaves grew huge and broad and it put out little green fruits, we decided it must be an Eight Ball summer squash. But when they kept growing and got as big as basketballs, we had to take another guess. Then, in the past month, the squashes began to brighten from deep green to rich orange—mystery solved! How that pumpkin seed took root in the hoophouse we’ll never know, but we love the three beautiful pumpkins it produced—just in time for fall!

My Summer Experience at Airlie

My name is Madeline and I’m a summer intern at the Airlie Local Food Project Garden. What an experience this has been! I was so excited to have this opportunity and yet very nervous that I didn’t know enough and wouldn’t be able to do this job well.

My first day I put on my farming clothes (old shorts and shirt) and got to the garden at a bright and early 8:00 AM. The garden is so beautiful and Pablo and Brynn introduced me to the other intern, Lauren. Everyone has been so nice and patient with me as I learn. I’ve learned that gardening is hot, sweaty, buggy, dirty, and a muddy mess sometimes, but extremely rewarding! It’s been so great to see the plants that I’ve planted thrive and it feels great knowing that they produce healthy food for others.

Now that my time as a garden intern is ending, I’ve seen that gardening is full of surprises. One of the biggest for me was an odd-looking “cucumber” plant in the bed of cucumbers! It seemed to grow bigger and bigger every day, far out-growing its fellow cucumber plants. We had no idea what would become of this weed/cucumber plant. After observing for a few weeks, we realized it was no cucumber plant, but an unusual (and still unidentified) pumpkin/squash plant! So like in life, amazing surprises can come from unexpected places.

I’ve learned more about gardening and seen how much impact one garden can have on so many people, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to work here.

Fistful of Baby Carrots

Growing carrots in our Virginia clay soil is always a challenge, but the Local Food Project crew has been carefully tending a test bed of four different varieties this season. We’ve weeded and thinned and loosened the soil and weeded again. Now we’re harvesting our first sweet and crunchy baby carrots! We have creamy-colored White Satin, shockingly vibrant Purple Haze, bright orange Nelson, and small round Parmex. Picked straight from the soil, this fistful of carrots smelled fresh and delicious—the hard work was worth it!

Back-to-School Buckwheat

Back to school, in the garden! Three weeks ago, we decided to sow a cover crop of buckwheat in an area of the garden where we had grown potatoes. Cover crops can have several positive impacts on the organic garden system. First, cover crops add biomass and build organic matter in the soils, breaking up clay soils and making more nutrients available to crops that follow. Some cover crops, like legumes and clovers, fix nitrogen from the air into the soil, working cooperatively with soil bacteria to do so. Cover crops can outgrow and smoother weeds (especially buckwheat, which has to be the fasting growing non-weed we’ve ever seen!), and can also facilitate the disruption of pest and disease cycles in the garden. Cover crops tend to have a ‘mellowing’ effect on the soil, and also protect soil from erosion & the elements.

Point is, cover crops are cool. Problem is, many of us organic gardeners know that cover crops are a good thing, yet can never seem to get around to actually sowing them in our garden. The two main barriers to a lack of cover crops in the organic garden are space & seed. Unless you live in the outerburbs, many garden centers do not carry cover crop seed. And unless you have a large garden, it may seem like a waste of space to put a section of the garden in cover crop.

The key to using cover crops begins with having a stockpile of cover crop seed on hand. Most garden catalogues carry cover crop seed in small enough increments to use over the course of a couple years in the backyard. Four good cover crops to have in your closet are: buckwheat, oats, winter-rye, and white clover. If you have an area that is ‘spent’, like an early planting of squash, and are not about to do a second planting, just get out there and broadcast some of your cover crop seed. It’s fun, and makes you feel like a wise gardener. Buckwheat is a fast-growing summer cover crop, but does not do well in the cold. When the frost kills your tomatoes, you still might be able to sow a cold-hardy cover like winter-rye. Each cover crop has its purpose and place in the organic garden system.

Now that you have the seed, you might find yourself with a space problem, particularly in the urban garden. The space problem can be solved through the technique of undersowing, or getting cover crops started a few weeks before a particular vegetable crop is done, right underneath the vegetables, in the same bed. For instance, now’s a great time to ‘undersow’ your tomatoes with oats. The oats germinate, grow up a few inches, then the tomatoes die back, and the oats can carry on into the fall before eventually dying after several hard frosts. Eliot Coleman, the Maine organic farmer and author, writes extensively about undersowing cover crops in his book, The New Organic Grower.

Once you get started with cover crops, you won’t want to stop. Buckwheat is a great one to start with, and you can probably still sow it this week, giving you a few weeks of growth before the first killing frost…

Harvest Update

Fall is right around the corner and the Local Food Project crew is preparing for new crops of cool weather greens while continuing to harvest record yields of tomatoes. From meaty Brandywine to juicy Pineapple, prolific Virginia Select Roma to smoky Nyagous, the LFP crew has a lot of picking to do! Peppers are taking off and ripening up in the hoophouse—Corno di Toro, Lipstick, Joe’s Long Cayenne, Chocolate, and more. Other staples of the harvest include lots of Bright Lights Swiss chard, sweet storage onions, and a wide variety of summer squash. There’s also the first fringes of fall lettuce mix—perfect for pairing with summer’s last tomatoes! See more photos in our online album.

View from a Ladder: The Evolving Garden

It’s been a busy year for the Local Food Project and there’s no better way to get perspective on all the changes than to climb up on the sixteen foot ladder and get a bird’s eye view of the evolving garden. We can take in the entire boundary of the expanded fenceline and see how the sections we newly tilled this year fit in with the overall layout of our growing space. We can look down on the passive solar hoophouse and realize how big a role it’s playing in our summer vegetable production. We can gaze at two new herb garden areas (the heart and the baseball diamond) and check out the progress of our sprouting buckwheat cover crop. And we can look forward to a productive fall and winter season, with our eyes already on plans for next spring. The view from up here is amazing!

Small Space Gardening: Feed a Family Garden

New this year, the Local Food Project crew laid out and planted a small scale garden designed to feed a family of four. The 700 square foot Feed a Family Garden—with a mix of short and long beds, a variety of popular crops, and a fun zig-zag pathway—demonstrates how a family might create a small veggie-growing plot in their own backyard. We used a broadfork to loosen the soil—an easy and inexpensive (not to mention quiet!) alternative to using a tiller that family members of all ages could help with. We’re also monitoring the effects of our nearby oak tree on the Feed a Family Garden (shade, water, roots, etc.). View photos.

The bounty of this new little garden has produced a lot of food! We’ve harvested more than 7 pounds of Swiss Chard, 12 pounds of zucchini, 3 pounds of cucumbers, 30 pounds of tomatoes, and a 7-pound watermelon. Visit Sixteen Foot Ladder again to see updates on the yields!

Small Space Gardening: Parking Space Garden

The LFP’s 9x19 foot Parking Space Garden is producing a lot of delicious vegetables in a small space. Our senior intern, Lauren, prepared the soil back in June by double digging the beds—using a garden spade to dig out a trench one foot deep, then loosening the sub-soil with a garden fork, repeating down the length of each bed. The result was four fluffy beds perfect for close-planting a wide variety of crops. So far, we have harvested 9 pounds of Swiss Chard, 13 pounds of Lettuce Heads, and 2.5 pounds of basil from this small space. And there will definitely be more to come! See pictures of the Parking Space Garden. Check back to read about the yields in our 700 square foot Feed a Family Garden.

Harvest Update

Tomatoes are here! The Local Food Project crew harvested the first of our Sun Gold cherry tomatoes last week. The wait was worth it! These sweet-tart little jewels just taste like summer. Other summer crops in our recent harvests include Cocozelle zucchini, Adam pickling cucumbers, Mangan eggplant, and Corno di Toro peppers. Our broccoli plants are still producing nice heads and we have plentiful onions and leeks. View more photos from the LFP’s harvest days.

Harvest Update

As we harvest out the last of our spring lettuces, other crops are ready to take their place! From onions and leeks (nearly 8,000 in all—wow!), to baby potatoes (French Fingerling and Russian Banana), Gonzales cabbages and Gypsy broccoli, the Local Food Project garden is full of good things to eat. Airlie Center’s chefs always seem eager to see what’s coming next! And they’re waiting patiently as we prepare for our first tomatoes in just a few weeks. View more photos.

We’re Fenced In!

The Local Food Project crew wrapped up constructions of a new fence last week—protecting all of our favorite veggies from deer that seem to love them even more than we do! The freshly harvested cedar logs we installed for the corner posts give the garden a fun fortress-like feel. Black plastic mesh fencing, ten feet high and zip-tied to metal poles, ensures that deer won’t jump over the top. And swaths of tall bamboo woven into the gates create an airy invitation to guests wandering over to visit.

Celebrating Our Food Independence

Our July 2 workshop and food independence celebration was a fun and inspiring gathering of farmers and foodies alike. After performing a new skit about a crazy farmer’s market, the LFP crew showed visitors our small space growing areas—the favorite Parking Space Garden, the new Feed a Family Garden, and the emerging Urban Box Garden. We also demonstrated how to double dig a garden bed (using a spade and fork) and how to use a broadfork to work up soil without damaging its structure. As the sun set over the garden we enjoyed great conversation with friends, toasting our food independence and looking forward to our next chance to visit. See more pictures in our online photo album.

Tomato Trellising Twist

The way our Sun Gold tomatoes are growing lately, they’ll soon reach the ceiling of the hoophouse! With warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine lately, the Sun Golds are loving their protected home inside the tunnel. To keep up with the plants’ growth spurt, we pounded in eight foot T-posts every eight feet on both sides of the four foot bed. Then we strung twine around the posts and criss-crossed between every set of four. We’ll add additional levels of twine as the tomatoes grow and begin to crank out our favorite little cherries.

The Next Generation of Local Food Leaders

The Local Food Project at Airlie summer internship program helps prepare young growers to become the next generation of local food leaders. Not only do interns gain practical experience in sustainable agriculture, they also learn communication, decision-making, teamwork, and strategic planning skills that they can apply to future activities at school, in their careers, and around the community. Each intern designs and carries out a summer-long project, then presents it in a creative way at the end of their time with the LFP. You’ll also hear from them occasionally on this blog! View photos from the intern experience in our online photo album.

Grow a Lot in a Small Space

Looking for strategies to produce a lot of vegetables in your own backyard? Find out how you can garden using Small Space, High Yield growing techniques at the Local Food Project’s next evening workshop on Thursday, July 2 from 6-8 p.m. We’ll discuss biointensive methods and talk about ways to increase soil fertility, decide plant spacing, keep pests away, and more! Local wine and beer, as well as snacks made from local ingredients, will provide a delicious start to the night. A new skit performed by the LFP crew and friends will spark plenty of laughter. And we’ll kick off the July 4th holiday with a fun and relaxing evening in the garden. Cost, $20. Learn more on our website. To register, send an email to bslate@airlie.org by July 1.

Lots of Lettuce

The Local Food Project crew is harvesting baskets and baskets of crisp, crunchy lettuce these days. Pink-tinged Fireball, frilly green Nevada, and tall ruffled Concept all appreciate the wet, mild weather. We planted the little seedlings close together (six inches apart in four rows) and began harvesting them out as baby lettuce heads. Now they’re all growing fast and we’re supplying bountiful lettuce for lots of fresh salads for Airlie guests.

For the Love of Leeks

The leeks in the Local Food Project garden are thriving in all the rain we’ve been getting. Back in March, we ordered leek starts from Dixondale Farms, then planted them in four rows with six inch in-row spacing. After reading an inspiring article in Growing for Market about one farmer’s special leek-growing strategy, we decided to adapt it to our smaller scale. His technique of hilling soil around the base of the plants produced leeks with extra-long snowy white shanks that were a hit with his customers. We thought Airlie chefs would be equally as excited about tender, flavorful leeks so we’re hilling ours with a narrow-bladed hoe every 2-3 weeks. When harvest time comes, we’ll post a picture of the results!

Feed a Family Garden

In anticipation of the Local Food Project’s upcoming workshop on July 2—“Small Space, High Yield Gardens”—we’re working on a companion growing area to our popular 9x14 foot Parking Space Garden. Our new Feed a Family Garden covers approximately 700 square feet and we’re planting enough veggies and herbs to provide all the summer produce a family of four could ask for. The plot includes a wide range of crops—from tomatoes and basil, to watermelons and pole beans. We’ll be keeping track of the harvest yields, along with any unique problems or pests, so we can offer tips to visitors growing on a similar scale in their backyards. Come to our July workshop to learn more and check out the Family Garden’s progress!

Local Food Field Trip: Herbs for the Heart

The Local Food Project crew recently made a trip to DeBaggio’s Herb Farm and Nursery in Chantilly, VA to pick up plants for some expanded perennial sections in the LFP garden. We picked out several varieties of hardy rosemary, sweet and tangy apple mint, exotic curry plant, aromatic Spanish lavender, bright red flowering sage, and other interesting herbs and beneficials. Back at the garden, we transformed an old composting area near the hoophouse into a fun heart-shaped bed. More shapes are coming soon!

Intern Impressions

I recently read an article published in the New York Times focusing on the increased desire for summer internships dealing with organic agriculture. On a national scale, more and more college students are searching for a more meaningful summer experience. I am definitely one of them. Since I first learned about the Local Food Project Internship a few years ago, I could think of no better way to spend the summer. This is my second season at Airlie and I am thrilled to be able to learn even more about gardening and local agriculture. The interns interviewed in this article had different reasons for working in these agricultural positions. A few of them are merely looking for an escape from their everyday experiences whereas others have given serious thought to creating farms of their own. For whatever reason, more young adults are searching for farm internships than ever before. This interest points to a greater general trend of public interest in sustainable agriculture.

The author, Kim Severson, states that food is the political movement of our time and I wholeheartedly agree. Films such as “Fast Food Nation” and the work of several authors have helped to shed light on the state of nutrition and food in America. Last year in the garden we were able to read and discuss several books that helped me to understand the role that farms play in the overall health of our nation. If I never work in a garden again after this internship I will still have this knowledge and my actions will have forever changed. My experiences in the garden have helped me to understand the work that is being done and all that still can be accomplished with respect to changing the system. I am excited that there are so many young people who share the same interests that I do and are just as passionate about bringing higher quality food to others. Hopefully there is someone in the ranks who will go on to adjust government policies and perhaps even reorganize the FDA. The time has come for a higher respect of farmers and the contributions of sustainable, responsible agriculture.

My interest seems to have turned into a rant, but I am just excited about the prospect that the work I do everyday, and the knowledge that I am gaining over this season can be put to further use. I am eager to see some form of change or to at least bring my knowledge to others. When I returned to the University of Mary Washington after my first summer in the garden I couldn’t help but talk to people about what had become my own personal soapbox. I noticed that others were just as excited about these programs as I am and it is something for my generation to change. This article shows that an increase in the desire to work on farms over the summer is no coincidence, as young people are becoming even more empowered. If nothing else the farmers in sustainable agriculture are successful in creating a generation of knowledgeable consumers who will think before they buy and hopefully choose to support those who work so hard to provide for us.

Tomatoes, Start Your Engines!

As temperatures begin to climb, the Local Food Project hoophouse is becoming a hot, humid environment—perfect for tomatoes eager to get out of their flats and into the ground. Last week the LFP crew planted three hoophouse sections (about 100 square feet each) of different kinds of tomatoes. We gave our favorite from last year—Sun Gold—center stage in the wide bed right inside the main door. Other varieties we’re looking forward to harvesting include Pineapple, Brandywine, Geronimo, Glacier, and Cobra. With basil interplanted between the tomatoes, the hoophouse truly has the aroma of summer!

Organic Garden Primer Workshop a Success

We had blue skies and plenty of sun for the Local Food Project’s first evening workshop of the summer. About 35 people joined us for “The Organic Garden Primer,” enjoying the chance to see the LFP garden’s recent updates, mingle with other local food enthusiasts, and sample juicy mini-burgers made with local beef. Yum! The sixteen foot ladder also made an appearance, reprising its role in last year’s skit about organic gardening techniques.

If you missed the workshop, plan to join us for another great celebration on July 2. An LFP favorite, “Small Space, High Yield Gardens” will gather urban growers, suburban gardeners, and small farmers alike to learn about maximizing vegetable production in tight quarters. We’ll also enjoy local food treats, wine, beer, and lots of great conversation. Learn more and plan to attend!

Techniques and Tips for Your Garden

Are you ready to dig into your own soil and begin harvesting a bounty of fresh produce this summer? Join the Local Food Project for our Organic Garden Primer workshop on May 21 from 6-8 p.m. and gather essential information for success in your backyard garden. This fun evening event will provide helpful ideas from the LFP crew and local small farmers, plus the chance to explore the LFP garden and hoophouse, try out handtools, and network with other local food fans. Light fare and local refreshments are in included in the $20 workshop fee. To register, send an email to Brynn Slate at bslate@airlie.org. See you there!

We Want Candy…and 1st Edition and Leeks!

It’s onion planting time at the Local Food Project garden and we’re excited about getting this crop in the ground. We planted Candy, a delicious yellow onion we couldn’t get enough of last year, alongside Red Candy Apple, a new red variety from Dixondale Farms. In another section (five 3x33 foot beds), we’ll plant 1st Edition and Red Torpedo Tropea, then put in a section of leeks. We’re also experimenting with two different planting styles. The first is our regular four-row, one onion every six inches layout. The second has only two rows spaced wider apart and bunches of four onions every foot. The same number of onions go into each 33 foot bed so we’ll see how they do and compare the yields from each.

Lunchtime for Tomato Starts

At the end of March the Local Food Project crew started our summer tomato crop in flats. We sowed seeds for our favorite cherry tomato (Sun Gold), a strain of Roma selected especially for Virginia, a volunteer heirloom we saved seeds from last year, plus several purple/black tomatoes to compare which varieties we like best—Black from Tula, Cherokee Purple, Nyagous, and Purple Russian. Now (about four weeks later) we’re transferring the tiny seedlings to larger flats, giving them a fresh dose of nutrients and more space to spread their roots—a tasty lunch after breakfast in the smaller flats. Soon they’ll help themselves to dinner in the soil of our garden.

Planting Potatoes for Earth Day

The Local Food Project celebrated Earth Day by inviting Airlie Center staff to come visit the garden, enjoy the sultry warmth of the hoophouse, and join us for potato planting. Inside the hoophouse, we talked about the fast-growing Arugula we’re harvesting from the north bed and the soon to be transplanted Sun Gold cherry tomatoes that will thrive in the coming heat. Out in the field, a crew of energetic volunteers from Airlie’s housekeeping department planted an entire section (five 33-foot beds) of Russian Banana fingerling potatoes in only 20 minutes! We really enjoyed visiting with all of our Airlie colleagues and look forward to welcoming them back when the garden is in full bloom.