Snow Peas, Sugar Peas, Greens and purples and so much more...

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Before I ever decided to leave Manhattan for the farm I wanted to learn "real life skills" as Matt and I called them.  Skills like growing food, building things, getting our hands dirty and having a more balanced understanding of how life worked, things that were always left for other skilled people to handle and things that we viewed as obviously important for any human being to be introduced.  Where does our food come from and how was our house built were never questions that crossed my mind growing up, there were more important things to me at the time.  There were basketball games to win and miles to run, girls to find and basically other experiences that never led me to slow down and ask these simple and seemingly innate questions, instead I had trust.  I started having countless conversations with people about how little we felt we actually knew outside of the city world, a world of dependency and an unwritten trust that someone was taking care of these answers.  It wasn't until I stepped outside of my reality that I realized that there was much more going on behind the scenes.  It's funny to look back and think how much I assumed the world had taken care of over the last few thousand years.  I grew up just assuming that people had already sorted through the tough questions about health, food, medicine and land and it was time to go into outer space, yet once I stepped off this island I realized that as a society we are only just beginning to see the results of our actions.  Time is so relative and with an 80 year average lifespan, there just isn't that much time to develop from the past.  I mean we spend the first third or more of our lives learning how to speak coherently and many of us never quite get there, then we're supposed to play catchup by sorting through the puzzle pieces the past generations left us and figure out solutions to problems we can't even understand why they were problems to begin with.  It's pretty amazing to think how far we come and yet how far we still have to go.  Nevertheless, I say le me take certain matters into my own hands on this journey and let me tell you nothing feels as good as seeing a project through from start to finish.  Whether it's seed to carrot or wood pile to trellis, the opportunity to build something is a validating and invigorating feeling.  This week I was given the task of building a trellis for a plant breeding experiment...

Pic of The Week

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY

Stand out from the crowd...

Winter Hearty Transitions and Crops

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

It's December, which means it's officially been six months since I've traded in my tie and the bustling concourse of Rockefeller Plaza for a rake and the rolling hills of the former Rockefeller Estate.  It's been six months since Matt and I spent our weekdays foraging for delicious street food meals and fought with tourists over awful punchcard lunch salads I am ashamed to call salads and even more ashamed to have paid for to get a 10th one free.  And after six months, I've decided to stay onboard at Stone Barns for another unique 6 month adventure.  Now the fun really begins, the pressure is on, my faithful teammates have taken their talents out into the world and all the learning, prepping, making harvest lists, watering and developing we did together is going to show.  It's just me, the Captain and the greenhouse left for the next few months before the new batch of apprentices come on.  With this added pressure, comes the beauty of...

Who Knew Garlic Came With Instructions?

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

It's IN the garlic clove...it's so simple.  The winter is coming and it's already time to plant for the spring, it's kind of like working in the fashion industry,  we're already preparing for next season's new flavors.  Although I haven't had much time to write while being out of the country and off the grid for a few weeks, last time we discussed different techniques for saving heirloom tomato seeds. Similar to tomato seeds, Garlic also has a protective outer coating, but it can be removed by hand, something most of us have done if you've ever eaten garlic.  As I walked into The Captain's office holding a garlic bulb, I heard him discussing the winter's garlic plantings.  I had never planted garlic before and had no idea that the fall was a good time to do it.  Being the novice farmer I am,  I asked him to tell me where the garlic seeds came from, but to my surprise, he told me...

Saving Sweet Summer Seeds

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY

This summer we talked about the beauty and diversity of heirloom tomato varieties and how they differ from hybrid tomatoes.  Heirloom's are selected for desirable traits such as color, shape, resistance to disease and/or flavor (of course).  Since these specific varieties are perpetuated and passed on from one season to the next and one generation to the next, the seeds must somehow be stored and saved during the winter in order to sow them the following year.  Although you can clearly see the seeds sitting in pockets of the tomato above, the gel that surrounds the seed is actually...

Clever Corn: How Seeds Travel

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY

Weeds have been one of the most common topics and chores discussed on the farm since starting to document this experience almost two years ago.  As we now know, weeds are simply plants that have unintentionally made there way into a plot of soil.  There are a number of ways in which seeds travel and as we saw a few weeks ago, some varieties extend for hundreds of miles.  Sometimes seeds are blown by the wind, dropped and kicked around, or moved by insects and animals all depending on how the plant has adapted and evolved to survive.  Sometimes it can be tough to understand how a seed can really move like this, but this week everything finally came together...

"Foraging" for Mushrooms in your own backyard Part II: Let's Eat

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY



According to Paul Stamets, one of the leading minds in the study of mycology, humans are more closely related to fungi than any other kingdom.  We both breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide and even share many of the same pathogens, which is why some of our greatest and most useful medical discoveries have come from fungi including our strongest and most important antibiotics, penicillin being the most common.  Medical, delicious and environmental mushroom discoveries seem to be sprouting up all over the world including the use of oyster mushroom mycelium to detoxify industrial and petroleum waste whether near a factory or a farm.  Mushrooms can be used to not only preserve our environment, but more importantly to help it flourish.  So mushrooms are incredible, good, let's celebrate by...

"Foraging" for Mushrooms in your own backyard Part I

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY

Last Friday the autumnal equinox led us out of summer and into the fall, a time that I generally find myself reflecting on the past 12 months and projecting what I want for the next 12 ahead.  For me, the beginning of fall is more of a yearend than December 31, with the summer's close feeling like the end of a chapter in my life.  All the winter planning and summer fun come to a culmination here in the fall.  School starts again, people come back to a more full time schedule at their office jobs, even the media industry reigns in their "summer fridays" (yes, this really exists).  There is a sense of completion and review as everyone discusses how they just spent their warm summer days, what went right and what they would look forward to changing for next year.  Completing my first summer season on a farm, I can see a natural connection between my fall feelings and those of the plants I am working with.  Although this is a time of completion, it is not a time of sadness longing for more summer days, instead it is a time of great celebration.  Winter planning led to spring seeding into summer growing and harvest all culminating here in fall where the full harvest can be enjoyed.  In my opinion, early fall is the best season for food.  The diversity of flavors is incredible and delicious.  Summer tomatoes, peppers and potatoes finally meet fall squash, kale and mushrooms.  All the summer plants are pushing out their last fruits and at the same time all the fall and winter crops are starting to show up.  A great celebration where all of the plant families come together.  Almost 5 months to the date, these amazing...

Can't Nobody Hold Me Down...Oh no, I got to keep on movin

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY

I can remember walking through Manhattan for most of my life thinking that people must have planted all the trees and plants throughout the streets, but now I realize that for most of my life, all plants were the same and I never thought twice about their origin or diversity.  It never occurred to me that some of this natural green was actually still fighting a battle in an age old war between New York City and nature.   Without even the simplest level of understanding or desire to see individuality, things can look similar and unfortunately, this can lead to some pretty narrow-minded thinking and potentially stereotyping or grouping.  Living in the hustle of New York City, it is easy to forget that the city was completely created by man, but that the land it sits on was once almost all natural, even some farmland hundreds of years ago.  Empty of concrete slabs, streetlights, buildings  and almost 9 million people.  Even with all that history hidden under tons of asphalt, nature still pokes its head out constantly reminding us that...

Cob Oven Comeback

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

There's no better time than now...after months of talking and debating about when to use this beautiful cob oven we helped build last year, it was finally time to take the plunge and light it up.  Almost a year to the date of it's completion this infamous...

Attack of these Killer Tomatoes

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

But seriously, these are killer tomatoes and so many different varieties too, even without including the life-changing Sungolds that may or may not be a large part of my reason to leave Rockefeller Plaza for the Rockefeller Estate.  Before we slice into the names and flavors of this year's colorful crew, let's discuss what defines an heirloom variety, a term so often flaunted around at summer markets.  Unfortunately this term, although commonly used to describe specifically bred vegetables, is missing one standard and widely-accepted...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Continuing our conversation on the Asteraceae family, a sunflower is another great example of a Pseudanthium.  These greenhouse grown sunflowers are doing much better than the field sunflowers which I believe has to do with our ability to control a lot of the variables effecting plant growths such as wind, water, weeds and pests to a certain extent.  Additionally, controlling all of those factors helps us maintain a more consistent soil.  This variety of sunflowers are called...

False Flowers: There's Power in Numbers

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Back in May, right before I started working full time on the farm, I helped the terrace team plant some Dahlias.  We buried the...

Acting "as if"

"How I live my life, that is my teaching"

- Mahatma Gandhi

(CLICK  PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

One of the beautiful things about farming are the moments of intense thoughtfulness that come with each task.  A goal is set i.e. prep a bed,  pull a bed, seed a bed, etc., the proper tools are gathered and the task is mapped out, then the work begins.  In these moments there is the need to find balance and focus.  Wandering thoughts come and go trying to break my concentration, thoughts of the future, reminders of the past, yet it's always important to come back to the task at hand and ensure that I am doing what I need to do and to do it well.  Recently I was working in the greenhouse in the late afternoon, there is something incredible about this "4 O'Clock" sun that puts a golden glisten on everything it touches as you can see above.  I've found that my best work gets done extra early in the morning and extra late in the afternoon.  Even if I'm having a sluggish midday and I think that I'm too tired to do good work, all of a sudden the sun begins its descent and a newfound energy arises in me.  This must be the nocturnal cityboy in me acting up again.  This particular afternoon, I caught myself in a familiar thought, something that I remember motivating me throughout my basketball days practicing alone late at night when all the coaches and players were home and it was just me and the game.  I started thinking about...

Growtown Motown

(CLICK TRAILER TO WATCH AND ENJOY)

The more I search, the more I find.  Last week I went down to Brooklyn for a screening of The Greenhorns, a film being shown around the country discussing the emergence of young farmers in America today.  A manifesto of sorts, the film looks to create awareness and empower the idea of change by exemplifying some of what is currently being done in the world of locally sourced food.  While there I met many people interested in food, farming and working on other projects of their own including...

Sustainability is a Relationship

(CLICK VIDEO TO WATCH AND ENJOY)

To me sustainability is a relationship and any working, thriving relationship relies on communication.  Whether it's a friend, girlfriend, tree, family member, carrot, employer etc the strength and vitality of that relationship will rely on some form of communication.   To clarify, this does not necessarily mean verbal communication.  Taking from the old saying, "it's not what you say it's how you say it,"  I can remember visiting Venezuela, as an insecure 6 or 7 year old that felt so confused and disconnected because I did not speak a word of Spanish, but yet found friends and laughed harder than ever.  There was something outside of the language and it doesn't seem to be any different than the communication we need to have with our land and food, in order to have a strong sustainable relationship.  I think it has become very obvious that our nation's agricultural system has dismissed this idea of communication.  Instead we've replaced a continuous, complex, conversation with "we know best" and stopped listening.  This concept of definitive and exact understanding of something as dynamic and fickle as nature is becoming counterintuitive, the more I learn about farming.  I've heard a lot of people associate sustainability with having to give up something in order to have a more sustainable relationship with our food i.e. lower yields, more pest problems, more people without access to affordable food, but I think it's just the opposite because when you really love and want something to work for the long term, we don't give anything up, we are actually gaining something much more valuable and long lasting.  A few months ago I posted a TED talk from Dan Barber, Executive Chef and Co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant which is located on the property of Stone Barns, the farm I currently work on.  His talk was about a sustainable fish farm in Spain.  A great storyteller, this time he uses another interesting and unique example from his personal experience to show the incentives and beauty of sustainability.  

Holy Shiite: A more in depth look at an ancient Indian tea

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

  While volunteering on a weekly basis, I was constantly missing huge pieces of the farming puzzle including many stages of plant development from seed to harvest which left me with an incomplete feeling.  I could read and talk about what was happening while I was sitting behind my desk Cubing in Rockefeller Plaza, but to me theorizing never feels as good as the real thing...experiencing something for myself.  Similar to a classroom, without real world application, it's all just an idea and not a reality.  So after a year of thinking, reading, listening and dreaming, I'm finally getting my first taste of what it's like to care for these plants through each stage of growth.  Holy basil (AKA Sacred Basil or Tulsi) is a plant that caught my palette from first steep.  Difficult to walk past without stopping to stare at it's beauty and stature.  Although attention grabbing, it wasn't until I finally got to work hands on with this ancient Indian panacea that I learned that the real power was actually found...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

In life, sometimes your hat will also be your salad bowl

When Will Then Be Now?...Soon

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

What's wrong with now?  When a good idea sprouts in my head, sometimes I think "I can't wait to get started" yet I just go back to what I was doing and leave it for the ominous later, but so much happens between now and later that nothing ever gets done.  If I truly wanted that idea to turn into something real, wouldn't I want to start that process now?  But now is a beginning, a transition, a first step of many and that can be extremely intimidating.  Acting now requires sacrificing something in the short term for something better in the future, but it's a trade without guarantees.  There is also fear of making a mistake, or following the wrong path too far and wasting your time.  The truth is acting now and failing is not failing at all, it's taking a step in the direction of your ultimate goal even if...

One Long Saturday

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Well it's been a while since my last post, not in actual days and minutes, but in its feeling.  Seems like a lifetime ago, which reminds me of how relative time really is.  There's a huge difference between feeling like the days will never end and the days are way too short.  This change was an incredibly subtle moment that altered my perception of everyday life in such a profound way.  Since making the switch from finance to farming, I haven't had a minute to do what seemed so commonplace before.  Checking emails has become an incredibly difficult task, but not as hard as simply finding the time to set up a wifi connection.  Nevertheless, time is what you make of it and with two separate phone calls from some of the people that helped me set up this website telling me basically it is true that "if you don't use it, you do lose it, I've decided to make some time.  Welcome to the office/farm/lab/university/playground...

Veggie Sandwich: Simpler than you think

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

As a former college athlete and active person in general, I never thought it made much of a difference what I put in my body since I was always burning so many calories every day.  As a skinnier kid, playing basketball at a high level, I was also pushed by my trainers to eat large quantities without much focus on where the food was coming from, if it was available I should eat it.  Once Matt and I began our time on the farm and researching food more thoroughly, I realized the more I learned about the agricultural state of the US, the less I wanted to eat here (i.e. industrial farming practices involving intense chemical spraying, close quartered livestock factory farms using heavy doses of unnecessary hormones and antibiotics, etc.), but while that seems like a strongly negative statement, the grass can be greener on this side of the fence too.  What does this mean?  It means I finally realize what my dad's been trying to ingrain in my head since I was a little kid...

The Proof is In the Nails

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

I can't tell if it's me or this city, but over the last couple of years I've started to notice a ton of farm stands and locally sourced restaurants in Manhattan.  This may simply be white car syndrome, once you want to buy a white car you start noticing white cars everywhere you go.  Nevertheless, it has been great to come across all of these new options (at least new for me).  While walking down on Carmine street and 6th avenue (near the W 4th street stop on the E, F train), I came across Woori farm stand.  With a table completely covered in greens, I couldn't help but stop and check out the goods.  It turns out...

What A Beautiful Day For Some "Mistakes"

"I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward"

- Thomas A Edison

(CLICK  PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

As the soil continues to warm and the spring rains pour down, each clear day on the farm shines with an incredible wild, colorful beauty unlike anything I've experienced in the city.  This drastic change in climate propels the growth of a lush, green, unkempt pasture whose call to lie down is rivaled only by the extreme comfort of your bed in the morning when you have to get up way before you are ready.  What a beautiful day for some...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Although I won't be in Tuscany this summer watching the Sangiovese grapes develop, I will have the opportunity to watch these deep purple Concord grapes (above) grow at Stone Barns.   During my experience tying grape vines at Casa Raia vineyard, I learned to avoid touching the delicate buds as even the slightest brush with the fingertips or wrist can inhibit the growth of what I now see are beautiful and colorful leaves.  Here's a first glimpse of the Concord grape buds springing into action on the farm.  

26: New Beginnings

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

On the farm, spring is an exciting time of year.  The winter was filled with planning and idealizing, but the spring is a time of action and trust.  Risks are taken creating a sense of anticipation.  Once the ground is tilled and the seeds are sown, there is only so much left to do but wait to learn from the successes and failures of the summer harvest.  Once awakened from it's winter hibernation, everything begins to change at a rapid pace.  Last spring I watched as the farm developed into a beautiful array of delicious and colorful food, this spring I've become engulfed in its transitions.  Over the last few weeks, as my 26th birthday approached, I...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

That's one fine carrot.

Okra: Understanding a Plant From the Bottom Up

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Walking through the propagation section of the greenhouse on a cold, rainy Saturday morning, I came across a roomful of bright green sprouts unaffected by the ascending storm battering the plastic casing of the greenhouse.  These resilient babies were looking to take their first step on a long journey from seed to fruit.  The propagation room is a special section of the greenhouse where life begins, the birthplace for many of the delicious plants that will eventually be transplanted out to the greenhouse beds and rolling fields outside.  This Stork's nest gives babies a competitive advantage against the challenging wilderness that awaits them in the ground.  When direct seeding, plants will have to compete for nutrients with weeds and predators looking to devour their tender little leaves.  Especially in a greenhouse, where economic efficiency requires every square inch to be monitored closely, a farmer wants to maximize the yield efficiency of their crops and ensure that each bed is able to produce the strongest, healthiest plants possible.  In the progation room, everything from tomatoes to lettuces, okra to artichokes are being prepared for their life on the farm...

Innovation, Profitability and Integrity: Agribusiness right in your own home

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

There's something beautiful about combining business savvy, innovative thinking and integrity.  In the spirit of spring mushroom growing I figured I would touch on a fascinating story.  I stumbled onto BTTR Ventures (Back to the Roots), a DIY mushroom kit company using leftover coffee grounds from Peet's Coffee shops in the Berkeley area.  Berkeley is gorgeous, located in the Bay area just outside of San Fransisco.  A thriving small city with a focus on environmentalism brought about by the community and facilitated by a University that encourages the creativity of young minds such as Nikhil and Alex, two 23 year old recent graduates from Berkley's Hass School of Business.  Having visited Berkeley last Spring on an incredible trip through Northern California, I discovered that Peet's Coffee is something of a staple having slightly more shops than Starbucks in the surrounding area.  In a recent interview with Civil Eats, Nikhil and Alex were asked if they had experience farming in any capacity.  Surprisingly their answer was...

Where Do Babies Come From?: A Truly Spicy Question

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

When I eat an apple, a pear, or an orange I can easily see how these fruits reproduce.  The tree grows and eventually produces fruit, the fruit is picked or falls off the tree and some of the lucky seeds end up in the ground either by chance or through the back end of some satisfied animal.   Either way, these few seeds will spread out and some new trees will develop; a fairly well known and obvious process.  Now this got me thinking, what about the not so obvious plants like spinach, lettuce, mustard greens, turnips, carrots, radishes, etc, stuff that doesn't have such an obvious seed?  Well it turns out us city folk are missing out on all the good behind the scenes action.  If we rewind a bit and take these veggies from the supermarkets back out into the fields, we would discover...

Hay Is For...Oysters

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

In the final spring installment of Have You Ever Grown A Mushroom, we take a look at The Captain's 3rd and quickest method for homegrown mushroom production.  While this is the fastest way to produce mushrooms, it also has a much shorter life span than the Oak log or Poplar stump production methods.  Nevertheless, depending on your home situation, any one of these methods will get you to your goal of...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

But seriously, have you?

Teamwork, Totem Poles and Oyster Mushrooms: Turning Lemons into Lemonaide

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Unfortunately, it's not very productive to complain about situations that are out of our control.  These circumstances can really bring us down, stop us in our tracks and slow the progress we believed we wanted so badly, but through these adverse situations can come some incredible new light, some opportunity we didn't even know was an option.  Whether it be the opportunity we wanted or not is another question, one I think may be less important in the end than we may initially believe.  Along the path, we are always picking up new experiences that come along for the ride.  Continuing on in our spring mushroom series, we look at the "totem" method for growing your own mushrooms at home.  Here a roadblock is literally turned into a wealth of opportunity, a perennial home for mushrooms.  The "Totem" method is...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Drill, Plug, Mushroom

The Captain's Guide to Easy, Delicious Mushroom Production: So easy, even you can do it

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Mushrooms are often a topic of discussion, whether it be cooking with them, or simply reviewing the highly nutritional and medicinal benefits they can offer.  We've touched on a few gourmet varieties such as the Oyster and Shiitake, but this week I finally got my chance to take The Captain's annual mushroom class at Stone Barns.  It was a beautiful spring afternoon for inoculating some...

Garden in a Box: 7 Easy Steps to Making Something Out of Nothing

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Are you tired of buying all your fruits, vegetables and herbs, but don't have much arable land?  Is your rocky, clay-filled soil getting you down?  Well have I got a deal for you...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Working Late

Raspberry's and Blackberry's: Turning Dimes into Nickels

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Last year The Captain taught us all about raspberries, we learned that they are biennial plants that fruit every other year on the floricanes.  If you want annual production you must plant primocanes and floricanes at the same time to stagger production.  This year I travelled all the way to Spello, Italy to learn just how unique and interesting these versatile berries really are.  While in Spello, I lucked into meeting one of the most interesting and knowledgeable people I've ever had the pleasure of working with and learning from...

Wine Breakdown: Brunello, Rosso and IGT (Super Tuscan)

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY) 

Lucky for me, I came to Montalcino at just the right time.  Handcrafted and straight from the heart, after 5 patient years, Casa Raia's Organic Brunello masterpiece was finally aged long enough to bottle and of course... 

With Struggle Comes Strength

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Thankfully, a very wise friend constantly reminds me that no one climbed a mountain without taking his first step.  Reaching a goal can be gratifying, but to embrace each step along the way is truly beautiful.  How did you reach that goal?  What did you pick up along the way?  I'm discovering that true success lies in the desire to learn from each challenge because these struggles are what drive us to develop and grow stronger.  Great winemaking is no different and as it turns out, the key ingredient is...

A Full House: Three Kings and Two Queens

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

After 18 hours of traveling and incredible Italian train station coffee, I found myself with an hour to kill in Grosseto, a small hub station town at which I made my 4th and final transfer on my way to Montalcino.  I was heading to the only true home of the world famous, highly praised, fine Brunello wine as well as...

Traveling Farmers: Italy Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...Stay tuned, the next few weeks I will beet report from some Italian farms in Tuscany and Umbria (if there's internet).  3 farms, 1 bag of Graunola...things are already getting crazy.

Let Us Transplant, but Seriously...

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Last week we finally got our chance to directly seed a bed, so this week we mixed things up and got our hands dirty with some transplanting.  Transplanting can be a much more efficient germinating technique depending on what you are growing.  Some seeds, like the Mache from last week can be directly seeded because it tends to germinate well right in the soil, whereas other seeds like these Breen lettuce pictured above tend to have a stronger germination rate when they are first seeded in plastic cell seedling trays or soil blocks in another area of the greenhouse called the...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Always choose your tools wisely.

Sow You're Telling Me There's a Chance...Yeah!

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Surprisingly enough, I recently realized that there was one step I had never completed in the greenhouse...sowing seed.  You'd figure something as basic as actually seeding a plant would have happened a long time ago when working on a farm, but then again don't doctors go to school for like 10 years before they deliver a baby?  On some level it makes a lot of sense (to me).  I finally got my chance with these little mache seeds and it's a lot harder than it looks.  Okay it's probably a lot easier than I made it, but either way...

We Are What We Eat Eats: If A=B and B = C, then A = C

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

As the saying goes, we are what we eat, but what does that really mean?  I've learned that quality, taste and nutritional content go far beyond what we can see with the naked eye.  Many foods may look the same on the surface, but if we dig a little deeper, we can see that...

My Way is Long, But The Road is Foggy

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Interestingly enough, 1 year to the date of starting Have You Ever Picked A Carrot?, I received a  message from Google explaining that we've reached our capacity for free picture storage on Blogger.  It felt good to reflect on the 1 GB of pictures uploaded on the website and the multiple GB of pictures I have stored in total.  It was all fun and games until they asked for my credit card number.  It's been an...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

A packed Kubota is a happy Kubota.

Move Over Egg and Cheese: Eating Swiss Chard and Freshly Crushed Hot Red Peppers

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Somewhere over the rainbow of beautiful swiss chard, lies a delicious and easy to make sandwich.  Move over egg and cheese, I got your irresistible and nutritious breakfast right here.  It never ceases to amaze me how simple things can be...

Pic of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Have You Ever Picked A Carrot?

Pig of the Week

(CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.  It's the age old story, boar meets girl (sow), boar falls in love with sow (and her 3 friends of course), sow's boarfriend finds out...

Market Research

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE AND ENJOY)

With my first potluck dinner only a day away, it was time to get cooking and what better way to start then...