Potatoes: garden bed, mounds and towers

San Francisco weather is great for potatoes.  I have 5 plants in my little square foot garden (along with a few volunteers).  Most plants I”m growing are obvious about what they need, and when to harvest, but potatoes were a mystery.  So I found this link to help remind me.  It has all the basics.  There are even videos on you tube about ways to plant, propagate and harvest potatoes.

The SF Chronicle also had a great article complete with pictures and a simple how-to of making your own potato tower.  If Ididn’t already have potoatoes in full swing, I would love to put this together. 

The basic idea: use a large plastic trash can, cut out the bottom and invert it.  Fill it with layers of compost, soil, potato starts etc and voila, potato tower.  They also have a how to for using chicken wire.

I’ve even seen that you can build a potato mound, if you have the open ground to do it. 

Anyone else growing potatoes this season?

French Onion Soup

I used all the little new onions I had to harvest because of bolt and made a wonderful french onion soup last night! Voila!  What have you been making with your garden goofs?

Onion Bolt

Onion bolt, or flowering, is caused when you plant onions and it is either the wrong time of year for your area (i.e., it is too warm) or if there is temperature variation in the otherwise correct season.  I researched the best time to plant onion in my zone, and it seemed as though november/december was a good time.  At first, all the right things happened.  But, there is always a but, we had some unusually warm weather in January and again in March.   The bolting started in January.  We have had a lot of variation all spring, so the bolting continues.  I just pulled another young onion with a 3 inch diameter bulb that was bolting.  Back in May, I had a lot of them, so I pulled out the bolted ones and made French Onion Soup with them.  It was EXCELLENT.  I am bummed that my onions don’t seem to be progressing beyond the 2-3″ diameter stage, but we can always find a use for the young onions.

BTW – I have a link for the french onion soup recipe – its from Cook’s Illustrated.  I have a subscription, and if you have a kitchen garden, and like to cook – you would enjoy this magazine if you don’t already.

Any good recipes for young onions? 

I found these:

Wild Mushroom Tart

Various Spring onion recipes – Sichuan

Cream of Onion soup

Of course, there is Cook’s Illustrated “Best French Onion Soup” recipe, but it’s not for young onions.

Man, now I have about 12 of these things – past the “green onion” stage but not quite the “cooking onion” phase.  Whatever!

Harvest Day!

I entertained my daughters by going out to the garden to pick stuff. We got a few nice carrots, sugar snaps and a whole mess’a collard greens!  It’s so nice to garden in winter – almost no pests.

A Modern Day Heloise?

You buy fresh produce and fruit in the hopes of making wonderful dishes for yourself and family.  Then, reality sets in – your 4 year old resolves to eat nothing in the vegetable category,  you end up working late three nights in a row, and the yellow bananas get covered up by the huge bag of cuties you got on sale at Trader Joe’s.  Suddenly, you have fruit that is past its prime and wilting lettuce in the fridge. For many, that food won’t get eaten, and will eventually go to a landfill, with little hope of breaking down properly.   If you’re lucky, you can compost this stuff. 

But, if you feel industrious, make lemonade from those lemons!   Enter Canada’s environmental guru, David Suzuki and his wonderful maven of re-use, Lindsay Coulter (no relation to Ann Coulter – ick!).  Suzuki’s Environmental Challenge program is a monthly newsletter that provides tips for reducing your carbon footprint and living a more sustainable life. Coulter, or the Queen of Green (a modern day Heloise?) has recipes for coffee ground body scrub (I’m not kidding), strawberry/oatmeal facial scrub, hair conditioner, toothpaste, many of which consist of 2 food ingredients.

I have to admit I haven’t tried any of these recipes yet, but I applaud the spirit of finding uses for that food before you throw it out, even if it is to the composter!

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/QueenofGreen/recipes_videos.asp#greenspa

Have weird spots on your squash? Wilting potatoes?

Cornell’s vegetable disease/plant pathology website, cleverly named Vegetable MD Online, can be a good resource before you cart your plant to your nearest nursery.  I know it will save me some hassle this spring.  Last summer, my squash was ravaged and I never figured out the problem.

Green Johanna is tested again…by a rodent

This afternoon, we all went into the back yard. I glanced over at my un-covered raised bed and noticed that again, something had rooted around to get every last seed I had tried to start. Then, I also noticed that it had attempted to find a way into the Johanna.

I became worried. There was a slight depression at the base of the composter where the creature (rat, racoon, possum?) had tried to gain access. But we saw that it was an aborted attempt. Good heavens! The Johanna repelled a rodent.

Let’s see what the next few weeks bring us.

I really am a nerd for compost

Earlier, I mused about “What Kind of Nerd Loves Compost”.  I present my case:  I went to a birthday party out on Chrissy Field Saturday morning, and walked over to get coffee for the hostess and myself at the Warming Hut.  They gave me a nice “egg crate” carrier, which I carried around ALL WEEKEND in my purse to take home to my Johanna.  What a nut.