You've Been Winterized!

Yesterday I began winterizing the garden. What does this mean you say? Good question because I didn't really know until this past week either! This is the process of preparing the garden for next year's crop. It involves cleaning up all the old plants, weeds, etc., tilling the soil, planning what you'll plant next year and where, etc.

I also went a step further and planted rye grass on the tilled soil. This grows before the snow arrives, then in the spring comes back and a couple weeks before you plant, you till that grass into the soil and let it compost to add nutrients for your veggies.

I've also dug three more plots in the backyard and will probably do one more and essentially double the size of what I can plant.

I'll be focusing my crop much better next year. Instead of nine different veggies, I'll likely cut that in half and focus on more staple foods and just have more of them. The main reasoning behind that is the project I plan on getting up and running, the food stand.

I'll be working with Brent and our friend Jon in developing exactly what this stand will be and look like and its main purpose. Its primary purpose will be to have available for the local neighborhood, cheap healthy food for purchase or trade. It will not be 'manned' but will go on the honor system. They'll be able to get the same, and better veggies than at the local grocery store and people will be urged to pay whatever they feel is fair (with a recommended minimum price).

It will also be a source of information, the main one being to promote local gardening. In another blog of mine, I've been vocal about the economy for the past few years and the coming "hard times". While I don't believe we're heading towards soup lines, I can all but guarantee that the rest of 2008 and 2009 will be very tough on the average person. Providing cheap, local and healthy food, in my humble opinion, will be something welcomed by almost anyone.

Fall Season

So fall is here in New England. For those who have never been witness to this time of year on the east coast, it's one to savor. The four distinct seasons out here is one of the many reasons why I love this area. The landscape transforms into the very colors we associate with Thanksgiving. A sea of reds, oranges and yellows.

It also means the spring and summer crops are on their waning days. Before the day of First Frost approaches and executes the coup de grace though, I'm taking advantage of my large baskets of veggies. I will briefly break down the status of each as of today:

Cantaloupe: Unfortunately, wiped out by a disease or fungus. Powdery Mildew struck the plants hard. I'm not sure if it was the culprit or it weakened it enough to be attacked by something more, but the vines died and the fruit rotted. Too bad as I had about 6 cantaloupe on their way to my stomach.

Basil: Early on I ate a lot of basil, throwing it on Provolone cheese with tomato's. Later it was attacked by a beetle and it was almost a month before I wiped them out, then by the time it grew back they were bolting and just didn't taste as good.

Cucumbers: I probably yielded close to 30 or 40 from 4 plants so far. They are slowing down considerably but I still get about one or two a week. Note to self: skip the cucumber next year. Low nutritional value and just not all that useful in large numbers.

Tomatoes: After much struggle with bugs and fungus, I've managed to get loads of tomatoes from about 9 plants. A fungus that destroys the leaves, however, has gone unchecked as it's too out of control. I'd have to douse the plants with chemicals to have a chance of eliminating it at this point. But, it doesn't directly affect the fruit, the low leaf count just slows down how fast we get new fruit. Next year I'll have to plant somewhere else as the soil is now contaminated and would affect next years plants.

Red Onions: I've been getting small onions from these, but I don't think I planted them correctly. I think these need deep, loose soil to grow bigger. Nevertheless, the small ones have been enough to chop up into a morning omelette!

Fiery Portugal Hot Peppers: Damn, now here is my most successful and interesting crop. It took awhile for the peppers to mature into a bright red, but now that they have it was worth the wait. Taking them green is fine, and you'll get some heat out of them, but when they're fully red you get a sweet pepper with a bulldog kick. What a challenge to eat these suckers! I've managed to chop them up into omelettes or dice them onto a fresh slice of pizza, but now they are coming by the dozens. So, what do you do with two dozen volcanic hot peppers in a region of people not accustomed to *truly* spicy foods?

Yesterday I pulled out some gloves and got to work. I took about 15 peppers, cut off the ends, cored them (and eliminated about 80% of the heat intensity) and sliced them down from top to bottom and filled them with a cheese concoction, breaded them and baked in the oven. Here is a picture of the result! They were a hit and just spicy enough for those with the timid tongues.

Eggplant: This is a veggie that, when used, has been great but I haven't found too many uses for it outside of eggplant parmagian. My father in law just brought over a big batch yesterday that I'll have for lunch, but next year I may skip this one.

Conclusion: My endeavor to create a useful "backyard farm" has met with success and with a lot of lessons learned. For all the veggies that have been grown, in actuality it isn't as much as I was expecting. As long as you find ways to cook or use the abundant stuff it will go pretty quickly. The only veggie I've had trouble getting rid of or using has been the cucumber. Everything else has been used so far, and nothing has rotted while in my kitchen. In fact some of the fun is finding ways to use a veggie that you have too much of so they don't go to waste.

Next year I will be going into the farm with much more knowledge and experience. I plan on ripping out the chain link fence separating my front and back yard, and expanding the farm by nearly double the size to about 1,000 sq. ft. Before I do so I am going to have to invest in some sort of watering system, as hand-watering the 500 sq. ft. plot I have now is very time consuming.

Also next year I plan on doing what I originally imagined my little farm to inspire: local trading, buying and selling of backyard produce. I have to look into the legal aspect of setting up a little spot on my yard where I can leave produce to be traded or bought, so if anyone happens to know anything about that, PLEASE let me know.

There are quite a few people in my neighborhood that have gardens, and I'm sure plenty more that would interested in locally grown food. It's not a money making idea, at the most it'd be nice to off-set some of the costs to grow the food, but rather a way to promote a local area to consume healthier, cheaper and rely less on the global food market.

Anyone want some veggies?

Things are exploding in the Scott Farm. I pulled out about 18 cucumbers this week. I'm giving them away. Cherry and Grape Tomatoes are ripening left and right and I have to say, they are one of the best things you can grow. There is nothing like a vine ripened tomato. It makes me look at store-bought ones with disdain, "What the hell ARE you?"

They certainly aren't the sweet babies I'm pulling out of my garden. I'll post some pics soon of this sexy harvest.

I'm just happy this Zero-Year garden has produced a-plenty despite incessant fungus, disease, bug and weather attacks. I'm so emboldened, I'm already looking towards next year when I'd like to plant double of what I did this year...except maybe fewer cucumbers this time.

This and That

Brief update with a hodge podge of little tidbits for your gander. Or something.

Just had a delicious home made eggplant parmigian, using of course my own eggplant. My mother in law cooked it up nice.

Hot peppers are slow to mature. In fact, I have yet to see a red one. It hasn't prevented me from picking the biggest one and chopping it up into an omelet once in awhile though.

I also had tonight a strange concoction of fat free yogurt, cucumber, garlic and mint (as far as I remember) all chilled. Good little appetizer my father in law whipped up. I have so many cukes I have to find ways of giving them away.

Speaking of cukes, I went into Shaws this past weekend and saw an "Organic" aisle in the produce section. I was staggered to see two cukes, roughly the same size as mine, wrapped carefully in cellophane. Two of them. For $3.99. Mine are organic, and if I could sell them at that price I wouldn't need a full time job anymore! Who pays $2 for a cucumber? An insane person, that's who, and I'm just the guy to provide it for them.

...and then they appeared.

Suddenly everything is producing veggies at once. Two plants in particular are the hot peppers and cucumbers. I have two cukes in the fridge now, and another 4 ready to be picked by tomorrow. I made a garlic pepper omelet this morning with a 7" hot pepper from the garden, and my mouth feels like I swallowed lava. When they say these portugal hot peppers are "fiery hot", they weren't exaggerating...and I have a pretty high tolerance in the scofield department. I grilled them up first with a little olive oil, salt and garlic before adding the egg.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to have to decide what to do with all the excess veggies. I'll eat what I can, but when I have a dozen peppers sitting in my fridge I'd have to be a little loco to find a way to eat them all. I'm sure I'll find some people who'd love some fresh cukes, peppers and tomato's.

Next year, I plan to explore a goal I made when I first started this endeavor. Network with others in the neighborhood that have gardens and trade excess veggies and fruit for items we don't have. I've already met a couple just from working in the garden when they've passed by while walking their dog, so next time I'll see them I'll broach the subject.

*Dr. Wilbert Scofield developed the Scofield Scale to determine how hot a pepper is. A typical jalapeno pepper is 2,500-5,000 Scofields and is considered "Medium", while a "Habanero" pepper can range from 100k to 325k. Better to have some painkillers nearby when chomping into one of these bad boys.

ThunderSoy

Another storm passed through tonight. Clapping, earth-rattling thunder accentuated by blinding lightning and heavy downpours. At the same time this monster is rolling through I decided to cook up two soy burgers. Unfortunately for me all the tasty toppings I wanted were out in my garden.

I briefly read online earlier that if you feel the “hair standing up on the back of your neck” that means you’ve won the lottery, so throw yourself to the ground, tuck yourself up and hope that after the lightning courses through your body you escape with some new cool superpower.

Did that deter me from going outside? A little. But I really, really wanted my romaine and hot pepper for my burger. I grabbed a pair of scissors (yes, the metal ones) and dashed outside amongst booming thunder and atomic-flashes in the sky, clipped the pepper and ripped three leaves of romaine off before running back in.

I had then realized I wanted more romaine but I figured I pushed my luck already. My concoction was simple but tasty and just hot enough. The pepper supposed to mature to a bright red but I wanted to see how hot it was in its current state. This pepper also held some significance as the only veggie that had survived the hail storm.

I have to admit there is something uniquely satisfying knowing that the food you want is right outside your house growing out of the dirt. Just make sure to plan your harvest times a little better than I did.

Farm Update

It’s been almost a month since the hail storm blasted my crops seemingly into oblivion. The alternative to rooting everything up and replanting it all was to let it sit and see if anything would grow back. Thankfully, and surprisingly, almost every single plant regrew itself. Now it remains to be seen how much fruit and vegetables they’ll produce. I have new peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and romaine all growing again.

I have a new, sinister pest I’m trying to deal with too. A little brown beetle thing that sleeps during the day and snacks on my basil and pepper plant leaves at night. We had another freak storm today while I was at work. High winds and blasting rain. When I came home, a bunch of my plants were wind-whipped to the ground. When I pulled one of the basil bushes straight again, a crack at the base of the soil revealed a bunch of these sleeping beetles. I had no idea where they were hiding during the day and now I’ve terminated some of them, thanks to the storm.

My first real harvest of the year has been romaine. It grows like crazy and I can usually fill an entire colander with leaves after letting them grow back after 4 days. The taste is a little bitter but it’s been a great complement on BLT’s and burgers lately.

The photos included here show what the tomato plant looks like a month after the hail storm, a full-grown pepper, growing cucumbers, and a full bowl of romaine. Pictures are a little more interesting when you actually have veggies to show!

Zesty wholegrain garden fritters

These hearty pancakes are packed with vegetable goodness, varied textures, and the flavorful kick of feta and sundried tomato. They're so good, they can be enjoyed sans condiments, though a a bit of vinegar or ginger dipping sauce never hurts.

These were actually the result of a derring-do kitchen venture - my chard was starting to look droopy, and a lot of it was waiting to be eaten. Since I had been spending a lot of time away from home, I needed something I could pack for the road that wouldn't spoil.

• 1 yellow squash, chopped


• swiss chard*, chopped


• sundried tomatoes, softened (soak overnight), chopped


• whole wheat flour


• 1 egg


• water


• milk


• oil


• feta cheese chunks


• sprinkle** of organic flax seeds


• sprinkle of salt

Put on some Satchmo or Count Basie to bring out the flavor. Add ingredients, roughly in the order listed above, to a large mixing bowl. Stir, adding flour or water as necessary to achieve a sticky texture. Mixture should be about 1/2 dough and 1/2 vegetable chunks - don't go stingy on the veggies! Fry in a bit of oil. Once pancakes are golden brown on one side, flip, then squash with spatula to cook the insides well. Once crispy on both sides, serve with good company and a nice Malbec. Save some for work the next day.

*Fun veggie facts:

Swiss chard, beta vulgaris, is of the same species as the common beet. Vulgaris sounds vulgar (crass), doesn't it? But vulgaris just means "ordinary," from the Latin vulgus, meaning "a crowd."

**How much is a sprinkle? More than a pinch, less than a pound.

Ye olde Tomato wheat oat hemp bread

Guided by the lordly wisdom of Tim and his King Arthur's Glorious Roundtable Wheat Bread recipe, I forged in my oven a loaf of wondrous flavor and texture the likes of which Camelot itself has never known. The tale of its noble origins:

• 1 dozen(ish) sundried tomatoes
• 1 1/3 cups water (the very same water that softens the tomatoes!)
• 2 packets active dry yeast (not instant)
• 5 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup whole oats
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar (substitute with honey, molasses, or syrup)
• 1/2 cup hemp protein powder (optional)

There's an element of sorcery in the measurement of these ingredients; there's no need to be precise. The devil is in the details, they say, and I have no taste for devilish breads.

Tomato prep: Soften sun dried tomatoes overnight in water. Save that water, friend. It becomes the color of an afanc's* blood; adding it to the dough gives the bread its scarlet tint and earthen flavor.

The following 'morn, slice the tomatoes into small bits, then combine all ingredients into a deep bowl. The following steps share those of Tim's kingly bread, so follows are his words, minced with those found on a King Arthur's Whole Wheat Flour bag:

Mixing: Stir the dough until it starts to leave the side of the bowl. (I put the water and the sugar/honey in the bowl, mix it up until it's blended, then dump the yeast on it and let sit for 5 minutes and let the yeast "work". After that, I dump the rest of the ingredients in, saving the flour for last). Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes (I do 10-15, the longer you knead, the less crumbly the bread will be) or until it becomes smooth and supple. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily double in bulk, about 60 minutes, depending on the warmth of the kitchen (You'll be able to tell, push the dough down a bit and if it springs back, you're good).

Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface and shape it into a [hearty] log. Place the log in a lightly greased loaf pan, cover the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the bread to rise for about 30 to 60 minutes, or until it's crowned about 1 inch above the edge of the pan (Whatever size the bread is when you put it in the oven, is how big it will be, so I let it get nice and puffy).

Brent adds: I lack a bread pan. I let the dough rise in a deep bowl, then baked it in a large, flat, broiling pan. The bread, freed from its constraints, grew to mammoth proportions!

Baking: Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Test it for doneness by removing it from the pan and thumping it on the bottom (I leave it in the pan and tap the top with a long butter knife a few times, it should sound hollow), or measuring its interior temp, it should be 190 degrees at the center. Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out of the pan and cool on a rack before slicing (I'd say at least 20 minutes or more...you don't want to cut it too early).

Brent adds: I removed the bread from the hearth a bit early, while it was still a bit moist. This made for a most glorious cuisinary experience that ripened with each day of passing. Enjoy with soft cheese, or dipped in cabbage-beet-soup.

*Afanc: Demonic lake monster from Welsh mythology - part crocodile, part beaver, part dwarf. Some say the creature was slain by King Arthur himself. Arthur's steed dragged the beast from the deep, allowing it to be killed. -BBC: Wales History

Heirlooms, hybrids, and the anachronistic tomato man

I felt like a sandaled wanderer from another time, traversing the city with odd hardwares and bits of lumber (for my new apartment, a few carpentry projects here and there); a backpack, only recently released of its contents - twelve pounds of dense compost: Chewy spinach stems, some chicken bones, beet peelings, and a bit of discarded stir fry (I'm ashamed to admit, it's disposal was less of a result of it spoiling before I could eat it all, and more because I grew weary of daily servings of tofu - unless I can come up with innovative methods of preparing it, I'm on a soy hiatus for a least a week). I save and deliver my food scraps (compost-to-be) to Whole Foods; local farmers pick it up and use it to fertilize their crops. Unfortunately my compost deliveries don't grant me a discount; however, this time around I did walk away with my first (and free!) tomato plant: An heirloom variety called Brandywine. Whole Foods was overstocked, and I was in need of my first crop, so the friendly vendor crossed off the UPC symbol and handed me the gracious gift along with some sage guidance on its proper care. And so, it was this tomato plant - strapped to my backpack with bungee cords, leaves bobbing along with my every step through urban Baltimore - that completed this odd visage of an anachronistic journeyman.

Key in this story was the long, scrutinizing gaze I gave to each tomato plant on the Whole Foods display, as I read each name tag carefully: Beefsteak, hybrid. Big boy, hybrid. Brandywine, heirloom. Heirloom. Hybrid. Why were these words so important? All of the plants looked nearly identical, after all, and the tomatoes they produced would no doubt be delicious and satisfying regardless of name.

Hybrid breeds are the result of a cross-pollination between two varieties of plants, often to produce bland-yet-durable produce that can survive a long haul in refrigerated truck, or stand up to the groping, poking fingers of choosy supermarket shoppers. Hybrids are bred for size, color, toughness, and sometimes taste, but their offspring are most often unpalatable. Genetically modified (GM) crop breeds take this one step further, by mixing the genes of two different species - say, a sea urchin and a banana (I made that one up, very un-scientific of me... If it wasn't midnight I'd find an actual example). GM crops can do nifty things like combine potatoes with vaccines (it's feasible that kids will be eating french fries to get their Hepatitis vaccine instead of getting a shot - though this is work-in-progress technology), infuse rice with extra vitamin A, or produce crops with resistances to pests or herbicides. Hybrid and GM technologies, when used wisely, can arguably have positive impacts on the food system and human health (please feel free to agree/disagree and post your thoughts).

Unfortunately, the overuse of hybrid and GM crops by industrial agriculture, along with some unhelpful government policies like the U.S. Farm Bill (which, ironically, no longer supports "farmers" as we typically think of them), have resulted in a sea of identical, "inbred" crop species. According to Indian crop ecologist Vandana Shiva, humans used to rely on 80,000 varieties of vegetables; now we grow roughly eight on an industrial scale. One need only look to the Irish potato famine to understand the risk of relying on such a slim variety of crops: Less diversity results in less resistance to disease. If one of our eight primary crops falls ill, every single one of its genetically identical inbred and/or genetically modified twins are equally susceptible.

Furthermore, from a social standpoint, agriculture business giants like Monsanto are "copyrighting" their hybrid and GM crops. It's become illegal for farmers to save seeds from Monsanto breeds, forcing them to purchase new seeds every year. To enforce this, Monsanto has engineered breeds with "terminator technology:" Plants that would normally sprout anew each year are encoded with a gene that causes them to die after a season, forcing the farmer to - you guessed it - buy more seeds. There was even a recent lawsuit where Monsanto sued a Canadian farmer for growing canola with patented Monsanto genes - genes that drifted via pollen. The farmer didn't even purchase Monsanto canola, but because the GM genes drifted into his crops, he was forced to pay damages.

I could go on and on with similar tales of woe. But let's end on a positive note.

Heirloom seeds are unique varieties that have been passed down, from farmer to farmer, across generations. Unlike hybrids, heirlooms produce offspring that are equally tasty, should one wish to save the seeds from, say, and heirloom tomato, and plant them again next season. I've heard the quality and taste of an heirloom vegetable put the cross-bred alternatives to shame, but I'll have to verify that for myself once my tomatoes come to fruition!

Perhaps most importantly, heirloom varieties support greater biodiversity - essential not only for a reliable food system, but also for pollinators such as bees and birds that depend on a variety of plant species for survival (and we depend on them, to pollinate our crops).

So the message to my fellow farmers and farmers-to-be is this: Dear friends, when you buy your seeds and crops, look for "heirloom" on the label. If you find it troubling that six multinational agriculture giants own 98% of the seed market while pushing environmentally damaging crop technologies, forcing farmers to abandon sustainable farming practices, and suing the overalls of small farmers for unintentionally growing "copyrighted" seeds, then take care to avoid those products. Monsanto, for example, markets seeds under the name American Seeds Inc. Sticking to heirlooms is a safe way to avoid supporting agribusiness giants.

Finally, should you happen to encounter a strange wanderer with a garden growing out of his mongoose-nibbled backpack (it's true, a mongoose once ate part of my backpack, but that's another story for another time), stop and ask for an heirloom tomato.

Cheers, and happy tomato-eating, or whatever it is you love!

Ground Zero

I checked my garden tonight and the grim reality is that I've lost roughly 90% of the plants to the hail storm. I've read about farmers dreading hail and now I understand why. The size and velocity of the falling rocks of ice must have been like firing at the plants with birdshot from ten feet away. This weekend will be busy for me as I replace some of what I lost from a local nursery and, in a gesture of defiance, rip up more of the backyard and plant twice as much corn as I originally planned.

It Came From The Heavens!

Hail. A massive hailstorm hit our neighborhood yesterday. My father-in-law called my wife in a fit, saying the plants I put in at his house were torn apart. I was at the Sox game last night and stayed in Boston, but tomorrow I'll be inspecting the damage in my garden. Considering there was a good, fat layer of ice all over the ground I imagine the destruction is considerable.

I'll post pics soon.

Food, fertilizer, and an agrorevolution.

Great post, Aphid.

The industrial agriculture system's heavy production and use of nitrogen based chemical fertilizers contribute to a score of environmental and health harms. Ironically, the advent of mass chemical fertilizer production has sustained billions of human lives, and continues to be largely responsible for the results of the "green revolution" that allowed crop production to meet the needs of a population that literally quadrupled between 1900 (1.6 billion people) and 2000 (over 6 billion people). The very means that have granted so many lives are now becoming increasingly responsible for potentially irreversible changes to the climate and natural resources upon which we depend. Fortunately, industrial agriculture as it is currently practiced is not the only way to feed the world.

________________________________________________

Nitrogen fertilizers are typically produced by combining hydrogen, derived from natural gas, with atmospheric nitrogen, under intense heat and pressure. The result is nitrogen-containing ammonia. Plants soak up the nitrogen through their roots, using it to produce essential proteins for growth and survival.

The production of chemical fertilizers requires enormous amounts of natural gas to produce hydrogen, and electricity to drive the process and create the conditions under which the reaction can occur. Furthermore, the application of nitrogen fertilizers contributes to the release of Nitrous Oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

Finally, farmers apply typically more than twice the necessary amounts of nitrogenous fertilizers to ensure high yields. Excess nitrogen runoff, as the TIME article describes, creates massive "dead zones." The area in the Gulf of Mexico, roughly the size of New Jersey, is one of many regions affected by fertilizer use; The World Resources Institute identifies over 100 eutrophic (excess chemical content) and hypoxic (too little oxygen) sites along the coastal U.S. alone.

Chemical fertilizer production and use is one of a number means by which the industrial food system impacts the natural environment and human health. On the whole, the U.S. food production system accounts for 17% of the fossil fuel use and 20% of all anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. In addition, 2/3 of water use worldwide is accounted for by agricultural needs.

None of this is to suggest that food, agriculture or fertilizers, chemical or otherwise, are inherently "bad." In fact, the Haber-Bosch process, by which nitrogen fertilizers are created, is responsible for providing billions with food. The process' inventors, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, won the Nobel Prize for their contribution to human growth and survival.

Without chemical fertilizers, four-fifths of the world's population may not exist today, and many more might be suffering of hunger and starvation. However, at the current rate at which our agricultural production system is consuming natural resources and fossil fuels, polluting air, water, and soil, and producing greenhouse gas emissions, we are outstripping the earth's capacity to sustain human life faster than it can be replenished. The irony is that the technologies designed to feed humanity are now contributing to polluted waterways, depleted soil, droughts, sea level rise, coastal storms, and the spread of disease.

But this is not a blog about doom and gloom. I think I speak for both Tim and I when I say we write for hope, change, awareness, and a simple desire to share the literal and figurative fruits (and vegetables) of our labors. While much of the food industry is - for the moment - utilizing methods that compromise the health and well-being of current and future generations, there is a growing realization among the American people that we can experience healthy, affordable, and delicious food that satisfies both body and spirit without causing harm to the planet or its inhabitants (human or otherwise). More and more people are attending farmer's markets, joining community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, reducing red meat consumption, choosing organic and locally grown foods at the supermarket, and rekindling the close relationship to the soil beneath our feet by growing crops in our own backyards, or even on our rooftops (the soil over our heads). This is a revolution of sorts, or if that's a bit too extreme sounding, perhaps just a much needed change - and we're happy to share the experience with you.

Cheers and happy eating, growing, cooking, or whatever it is you love,

-Brent

"Dead Zone" Grows in Gulf Of Mexico

Here is a stark example of what "factory" farming can do:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1815305,00.html?cnn=yes

To summarize, millions of tons of fertilizer is used in the American Midwest to grow our food. Rains drain it out into the Mississippi and then dumps it in the Gulf of Mexico. The fertilizer feeds oxygen-sucking algae, creating a "dead zone" where nothing can live. The most telling part of the article I'll quote here:

"Unfortunately, the dead zone isn't simply an environmental failure, but also a consequence of our national agricultural policy, which subsidizes farmers to grow vast, heavily fertilized quantities of corn and other grains. The pork-laden farm bill, which recently passed Congress over President George W. Bush's veto, will only worsen the problem. And even if we can begin to reduce the future flow of fertilizer, repeated dead zones are having a cumulative effect, with smaller amounts of nitrates and other chemicals in the Gulf having a larger hypoxic impact than in the past. "We have to decide how much we're willing to spend to save the Gulf fisheries," says Daigle. "Right now, we don't seem to be willing to invest much." Put simply, the Gulf is running out of air — and we're running out of time to fix it."

Cutting Out The Middlemen

(Two recently picked basil plants)

If you're thinking, "Why the **** would I want to waste time growing or making my own food when I can buy it right down the street?"

1. Growing local, or at least buying locally made foods, drastically cuts economic costs. Wonder why gas is so high? Look to the tens of thousands of diesel trucks moving every single day to deliver food to hundreds of thousands of stores across the country. Why buy a tomato that was grown 1,000 miles away when you can get a better one from your backyard?

2. 4oz of basil costs about $4. For $3 or less you can have a basil plant that will produce many times more than that, up to a pound or more. A container of blackberries costs about $5, while a blackberry bush costs $20, comes back every year and will produce 10-20 pounds each year. Planting seeds from last years harvest costs nothing. You get free food!

3. Sure, five pounds of basil or 20 pounds of blackberries sounds like a lot, but most fruit and vegetables can be preserved for months or years, allowing you to enjoy your harvest well through the cold winters and into spring giving you year-round access to cheap, healthy food. Canning, drying and freezing are all viable ways to preserve.

4. Make your own bread. I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now and to great success. You can make 5-10 loaves of honey wheat bread for the price of 1 from the store. It tastes better and you know exactly what goes into it. Trust me, even high quality store bread doesn’t hold a candle to home made stuff.

5. Lower yourself from the food pyramid by doing all of the above. Most of us live at the top where all the food we eat has been worked for and prepared by many, many other people and puts unnecessary demand on our oil supply.

America was built on the farmer, the independent grower. Everyone has an opportunity to take part in one of the world’s oldest professions. All it takes is your time and the time you spend pays back in dividends. I challenge you to grow something, even if it’s a couple basil plants in your windowsill. And when you have basil pouring out of your ears over the next few months and you’re making pesto, spaghetti sauces and bruschetta with it make sure to invite me over!!

Up Next: Update on my own garden…where’s my damn food? And the wife brings home more seeds to plant, should I rip up the front lawn to plant more?

Get This Party Started

I thought planting a garden would be easy. As a new “grower” you will face a lot of early challenges, I sure did. When you start your garden you are opening up a whole new world, and window, into nature itself which most of us don't see anymore in our busy lives.

When first planting your garden, decide what you want to grow. If you don’t feel you have the time or the space to care for a lot of plants, grab a few tomato and basil plants at first and Google topics on growing them. I recommend finding a local nursery, but even right now you can go grab tomato plants and basil from most grocery stores or Home Depot and put them in your yard or a large pot. Growing from seed is for experienced gardeners, so stick to buying "saplings".

The photo above is my garden, about 500 sq feet. In the lower left foreground is a blackberry bush. I also have cucumber, cantaloupe, sugar snap peas, red onion, basil, romaine, hot red peppers and tomatos. I'm a little addicted, so I jumped in head first. The red circles is mulch to keep weeds down and avoid soil "splash" when watering.

Dig up a nice hole for each plant and mix a good amount of compost into it so that it’s underneath the plant your putting in. As the roots grow they’ll tap into this nutrient rich soil which is key to having healthy, productive plants. I won’t go into detail about specific plants, which is up to you to find out regarding how much sun and watering they should get, pruning, spacing, etc. Basics to Remember: Good Soil, Good Sun, Water!

Bugs I learned about the hard way, quickly and unexpectedly. My plants were attacked my aphids and a cut worm. Aphids suck the nutrients out of your plants and cut worms, well, cut down your plants like an enraged lumberjack. As a new grower, keep an eye on your plants day to day. This way you will know when something isn't right.

It is tempting at this point to go buy a canister of insecticide. You essentially drop a nuclear bomb on a problem that could have been solved by a little reading, creativity and old fashion bug huntin’. Insecticides kill EVERYTHING, even the good bugs. Not only that but it soaks into the soil which the plants suck from to grow and produce the food you're going to eat, and of course gets all over your food if it’s hanging on the vines.

I lost 3 tomato plants and part of a pea plant to the cutworm before I found his hole one morning, dug him out and killed him after 3 weeks of torment. For the aphids, I bought ladybugs and released them in the garden. They are little hungry hippo’s and will cull your aphid population in a matter of days. You can get them at a plant nursery for about $9 for 1,500. You can also buy praying mantis’, which can help take care of the bigger bugs.

I resisted using insecticide even though I was losing my plants to a one inch Terminator, but natural pest controls worked. I also had the satisfaction the other day of finding a baby mantis near my cucumbers. I never bought any, they just showed up! If you can help keep the right “good” bugs in your garden, and even certain types of plants that attract/repel certain bugs, you can organically and safely handle insect problems.

My goal is to stay organic. However, as a first time grower this is a difficult task unless you do a lot of reading beforehand for tips and tricks. I broke down and bought an organic, copper-based fungicide because my tomato plants were all attacked by early blight, a fungus that will ruin your tomatos. Even if it’s called “organic” it’s still a chemical, but I did not need to use much to save my plants so to me it was worth it.

Do your best to stay organic. It is a big reason to grow your own vegetables. You will have the satisfaction that everything you eat has nothing harmful in it. You’ll also come to appreciate nature when you can see prey and predators all working together to keep each other in balance, and your plants thriving due to your care. For me, the garden is a very personal investment. If I take care of it, it’s going to take care of me and many other people in the end.

Up Next: Why have a garden when we have food at grocery stores?

Welcome to Grow Local!

I am Tim Scott aka Vampiric Aphid, and will be bringing to your cerebral cortex my first hand experience at growing and making my own food, which is also my first experience at doing either. Through this blog I will show that anyone can begin living this way and for a surprising number of excellent reasons which I and Kimu will go into greater detail about. While I will be in the trenches providing first hand accounts of my effort and putting theory to practice, my good friend Kimu will offer his own insight and hard facts on the impact of our current living standards on the world and how it simply is not sustainable. I guarantee you won’t ever look at vegetables, fruit or meat the same ever again!

Some things I will be discussing:

- How to start growing fruit and vegetables
- Lessons to learn
- How growing and consuming locally saves you and others money
- How to easily make your own food
- Caring of a garden and its impact on your life
- Health benefits
- Long-term storage of excess produce and fruit
- Philosophical meanderings about it all

Up Next: How to start a backyard garden and the fight to be an organic grower.