Garden Update: Bodacious Boxes of Bounty

I thought I'd give a box-by-box update on our first-year front yard garden adventure. The veggies and flowers seem to thrive on all the rain. Can't speak to the produce yet as all we've harvested thus far have been salad greens and herbs. The great drainage from the slope keeps everything from getting drowned. I did get a few cabbage worms that got to my cabbages before I sprayed them with garlic-cayenne water (steep it for an hour).

This box contains tomatoes (San Marzano, Chinese Yellow Grape, and Ukrainian Purple), Chiogga and Detroit Dark Red beets, turnips and Swiss chard.

Herbs (Italian flat leaf parsley, Basil, fennel, cilantro, French thyme) & tomatoes (Cherokee Purple and Amish paste).

Tomatoes (green grape, Amish paste, and Ukrainian purple), carrots, and onions (started late, on the right).

We've been eating the hell out of these salad greens (Amish Deer Tongue, Cimmaron, Ella Kropf, Gold Rush, Petite Rouge, Oak Leaf, Out Redgous, Chadwich Rodan, various arugulas).

Cabbages, collards (Georgia Southern and Vates), kales (Dwarf Blue Curly and Lacinato), cauliflower & Brussels sprouts

Squash box (Table Queen, butternut, Golden zucchini, Black Beauty zucchini, Patisson Panaché Vert et Blanc Patisson Panaché Jaune et Verte).

Rhubarb Peach Crisp

My peaches aren't ripe yet, but my rhubarb is. Thus, it gets top billing in this recipe modified from one found on tasteofhome.com. These are perfectly ripe and juicy white peaches from, gasp, Costco. These slippery devils have had their skins removed. The trick to this is treating them like tomatoes. Submerge in boiling water for 30 seconds then in an ice bath for 10. The skins just slough off. 

Post baking note: this recipe sucks. I think the peaches were just too juicy and require a shorter cooking time from the rhubarb. I'm not sure it can be salvaged.

Rhubarb Peach Crisp

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 cups sliced fresh or frozen rhubarb

3 1/2 cups chopped peeled fresh peaches 

Topping

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons cold butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, nutmeg, lemon peel, salt, rhubarb and peaches. Transfer to a greased 9 inch deep pie dish.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add hazelnuts and sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender. Serve warm or cold. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Garden Update: Plain Rain Disdain

I must be turning into a farmer because all I can do is bitch about the weather. On the plus side of our new climate of constant rain, everything is growing so well, the weeds are completely crowded out. Don't know the down side yet as the only thing we're harvesting so far is salad, and that's been ridiculously delicious.

The squash trellis is sure getting a workout.

Urban Squash Sprawl

The squash plants were spilling out over the sides of the beds, so I figured I needed to make some sort of trellis for them to climb. Continuing the cedar and copper theme from the tomato cages, I designed a simple hinged ladder trellis to straddle the boxes. I made two smaller four foot square trellis to allow for easy transport and storage.

The frames are made from  2"x2" cedar simply drilled and screwed together with 3 inch deck screws.

Two frames were attached by two utility hinges.

Notice the quarter inch deep 11/16" holes spaced a foot apart. these are where the copper cross pieces will fit.

Next step was to cut 12 pieces of ½" copper pipe to 45 ¾ inches to serve as cross pieces. 

All that's required for one trellis: the hinged frame, six vertical braces drilled for the copper cross pieces, and six pieces of copper pipe.

Gratuitous artsy shot of me taking a picture while attaching one of the vertical braces.

Finished trellis, shown on it's side for some reason.

And the final shot, with both trellises installed. My sister complained that there was a lack of symmetry, as compared to the tomato cages, but what's a properly zen garden without a little wabi-sabi (侘寂) ?

New Food Porn Flick: Tomatoes in Cages

First of all, the garden is doing quite well. This lent all the more urgency to getting proper cages to support the sprawling tomatoes. I knew I didn't want those cheap, flimsy, and short store-bought wire cages, and I also I wanted something that wasn't a total eyesore, although that last item is of least importance. I am going to grow food in my front yard no matter the aesthetic. However, I happen to like the look of vegetable gardens, especially in my front yard.

So I decided to design and build my own cages. The articles I read recommended cages at least six feet tall, seven foot even better. Seven seemed too tall to me, and from each eight foot 1" x 2" cedar board I could use one 1 ½ foot piece for a cross member. Thus, I arrived at 6 ½ feet, allowing me to make one cage with four 1" x 2" x 8' boards. Since I am going to build 12 cages, I will need 64 1' x 2"s.

To maximize repetitive stress and the aggravation of my carpal tunnel, I set about creating an assembly line of cutting, drilling, and screwing. After a day, I had all 24 frames completed.

The frames were attached to 2' x 2" x 20" hinged pieces thus forming a sort of step ladder, at once flexible as well as easily stored.

Each cage frame will have four cross bars, with 11/16" holes drilled near the outsides. These holes would be for the perpendicular cross pieces made from ½  copper pipe cut to 20 inches. This meant drilling 16 holes per cage, or 192 holes in all. For the ease of drilling 192 holes, I naturally drilled four at a time. 

I placed the 20" cross pieces six inches from the bottom...

...and then at one foot intervals.

About a quarter of the way there.

After I carriage-bolted each pair of frames to the hinged 2 x 2 top pieces, I then used 3" carriage bolts, washers, and wing nuts to attach each cage to eight foot 2 x 2 rails to fit nicely on top of each of my three eight foot raised beds.

Each cage would need eight 20" pieces of ½" copper pipe. That's 96 pieces and 16 10 foot copper pipes.

96 times this. Ow.

Pipe organ to nowhere. And for those of you who are sticklers for accuracy, I'm well aware that there are only 64 pieces here. That's because I already cut 32 pieces for my prototype cages. Ha!

There's probably an ordinance against this in West Des Moines, or any of the other suburbs for that matter. Glad I live in Des Moines.