The weather was cooler this week. We even had a few scattered showers! The greenhouse doesn’t seem to be leaking, so that’s exciting.
Tasks:
Greenhouse door and tables
Seed blocked chard, broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, and lettuce
Harvested, blanched, and froze Red Noodle Beans, okra, eggplant, acorn, pumpkin, and zucchinis
Froze cantaloupe
Pickled okra
Canned 14 quarts of stewed tomatoes
Weeded asparagus (we only pulled the large weeds; next year we need to approach the whole bed with a different method)
Scrapped metal, salvaged shelves, and cleaned garages
Cut, painted, and hung chalkboards
Found bookshelf for cans and began loading it up
Solidified fall schedule for Garden Crew
Worked on the website
Watered
Edited article for the Radish only to find out that thy want to write it themselves
Harvested tomatoes
Built a cold box
Installed hinged vents on greenhouse
Notes:
Harvesting Tomatoes: When harvesting tomatoes, pull all rotting or insect-eaten tomatoes of the vine and place them on the side of the walking path. Then once the harvest baskets are full of good tomatoes, come through the rows with a wheelbarrow and pick up the bad ones. This process will prevent rotten tomatoes from accumulating throughout the garden plots.
Chalkboard: In a very visible place hang a chalkboard or message board to welcome and inform all guests and crew members. This will allow you to convey clearly which crops are ready for harvest, including which crops should be harvested and immediately preserved, which should not be harvested, and which crops guests can freely harvest for to take home. We have also incorporated a “red stake” system. Even when visitors are far away from the chalkboard, they can know which crops we have a surplus of because those rows marked with large red stakes.
Eggplant: Again, the eggplant this year are amazing! They are one of the tastiest things that we are growing, without a doubt. This week we continued freezing our eggplant but with an added step: before we blanch the eggplant we salt it heavily and let it sweat. This leaves the final slices much dryer and denser. (It would work even better if we placed a weighted cooking sheet over the slices while the salt is working)
Working Log and Formal Log: This summer our log system worked brilliantly. We always have a working notebook (in our case, it’s a pad of paper on a clipboard) that everyone can write on and work from. Each week our tasks get one full page. One page per day is because tasks often cross over from day to day. We write the task on the paper and then check it off when we complete it. We also reserve one corner of the page for notes to be made in the formal weekly log. At the end of every week, we process the information on the working notebook into a official, electronic log. The document is then printed for the records and published on the website.
Sifter: Recently we built a compost sifter. We used 2x4s to make a rectangular frame that fits over the wheelbarrow rim with ease. We then attached a section of wire screen (with 1 cm x 1cm squares) to the frame with poultry nails. Staples would work just as well. After the screen is attached, we cut 1x2s to fit the parameter of the frame. We then screwed the 1x2s to the frame on the same side that the screen was attached. This is meant to sandwich the screen between the boards and ensure durability.
With the sifter in place on the barrow, one person can shovel from the pile onto the sifter while another person moves the compost around with a hoe. The small particles should fall through and the large particles (sticks, large stones, and balls of clay) should stay on top. The waste material can be discarded or placed in a separate, long-term compost pile. (We purposefully left one side of the frame without a 1x2 so that we could easily push the large particles off the sifter without having to lift the sifter up or deal with the raised lip.)
Cold Boxes: This week we built what we call a cold box. The box is made entirely out of wood except for the top face, which is meant for a window to sit on. After we constructed the box we stapled in a plastic liner (made from a heavy duty garbage bag) and filled it with five inches of sifted compost and peat. We intend to place this box in the greenhouse during the cold months and then grow greens. The hope is that by growing plants in what is essentially a double greenhouse, we will be able to extend the season exponentially.
Seed Block Mix: Recently our seed blocks have not been doing very well. Germination is poor and water retention is even worse. We decided to try a new block mixture: 8 parts peat, 2 parts sifter compost, 1 part lime powder, and 1 part sand. As of now, the blocks look much closer to the desired consistency, that of chocolate cake.
Pickling Mixture: Our new pickling solution has worked very well so far, but because it is a bit too salty we must amend it. We will now use a 1 part water, 1 part white vinegar, to 1/8 part salt ration (or 8-8-1).
Guest Book: We need one! We need to have everyone who visits for tours and produce sign in. By keeping a record of our visitors and their interest, we can show the impact of the garden on the community at the turn of a page.
Butternut squash: should be picked when the entire fruit turns tan. No strings of coloration should be present.