rowlocal
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.
