Varietal Comparison, Winter Harvest

I wanted to take a brief minute to compare two garden crops on the basis of variety

For many years, I was of the belief that, while the particular variety of a crop you grew mattered, it didn’t matter as much as the quality of your soil, the care taken to provide ideal conditions, the vagaries of weather and pests, etc. in terms of your final yield. Obviously, such a belief flies in the face of seed catalog promoters, university extension services, and the process of species domestication generally but, if there is any trait common to organic homesteader types, it is a willingness to discount conventional wisdom in favor of gnostic revelation as regards science. I was/am by no means immune to the siren call of cheap, and have on numerous occasions favored inexpensive seed when planting my garden.

Now, this is by no means uniformly a bad thing. Though quite stringy, the grocery store pinto beans I planted last year were quite high yielding and tasted great, while the fancy yellow fleshed stringless French beans were terrible. Likewise, the ‘Hales Best’ muskmelon seed purchased for $1.29 grew healthy vines and fruit, but said fruit were not as flavorful as the Charentais melons grown from seed that cost a staggering $2.79. Needless to say, the amount of work, time and resources invested in producing a melon far outweighs the extra buck and a half that the different seed cost, so it PAYS to grow good varieties. Shocking, I know.

These experiences and others have led me to change my outlook somewhat, but this year I did a little more scientific experimentation and have decided to grow two varieties each of chard and spinach at the same time.

Here are the results…

Chard “Bright Lights” (on the left) vs. “Fordhook Giant” (on the right)

Spinach “Oriental Giant” (on the left) vs. "Bloomsdale" (on the right)

As you can see, the chard varieties are pretty different. While the Bright Lights does have interestingly colored stalks, the Fordhook Giant leaves and plants (not shown) are so much more productive that it hardly seems worth it not to grow them instead. Just for a sense of scale, here is our friend Nicole holding some chard leaves.

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Here are some nice pictures of harvested vegetables from the past month or so. I'm quite proud of them.

Unfortunately, I don’t like these turnips very much. They aren’t very sweet. You know, that reminds me of another variety related comment. Don’t buy Shogoin turnips. Well, don’t buy them if you like turnip roots. They are passable greens, if you like such tings. I found them to be a bit fibrous as greens and kind of bitter as roots. I’ve had great experience with Hakurei turnips on some farms I’ve worked on, but the seeds are fairly expensive, and since these were also all white roots I thought it might be similar. They aren’t. Though highly productive and large, vigorous plants, the end result of growing Shogoin isn’t worth it to me.

Just if you want to know, the cabbage is “Early” (not sure if it’s early round dutch, jersey wakefield or what, the tag at the nursery just said Early). The carrots are Red Core Chantenay. The beets are Detroit Dark Red. Anyone who has spent much time looking at seeds will immediately recognize these varieties as being among the most common, cheapest seeds available. The carrots, however, I chose because of the Chantenay’s purported ability to grow in heavy soils, an advantage in the black clay I have in my garden. However, I have added so much compost, and the particular bed I grew in this year is quite sandy, that I think I would have been better off growing a longer variety, like Kuroda or Danvers, as it would likely have done well and produced more. Nevertheless, the yield and quality of these carrots is perfectly acceptable and I am happy with them for the most part.

I think the biggest determinant of yield in carrots this year has been my thinning regime. I have two carrot beds right now, a winter bed and a spring bed. The winter carrots were planted in late October, while the spring bed were planted in late January. Maybe that’s more like Fall and Winter according to the calendar, but in Austin we don’t really have seasons according to the calendar. Anyways, the winter bed (sandy soil mentioned above) was not thinned as aggressively as the spring bed. The carrots in the winter bed consequently have relatively tall tops (possibly also due to over fertilization with nitrogen), while the roots are sort of scrunched together. I thinned the spring bed furiously in reaction to the overcrowding in the winter bed, spacing each carrot about 4 apart compared to the inch and a half or so in the winter bed. The tops are much shorter and thicker, while the roots are already overtaking some of the winter carrots, despite having been in the ground for 3 months less time. This is in the heavy clay soil, too!

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And finally, the chickens in their new budget chicken tractor, and some awesome bread I made using some wheat that I malted in the fall.

The budget chicken tractor is made of old scraps of chicken wire and some bamboo stakes that I used for tomato supports last year. It allows me to put the chickens out in the garden or yard without having to worry about them getting into stuff I don't want them in. It is about 5 or 6 feet long and is fit to the width of the garden beds. This allows me to put the chickens onto a recently harvested section of the bed, where they can scratch around for the bugs and little weeds, while fertilizing the top layer of soil. They especially love to eat baby snails, which are very nutritious for them and a pest that I would like to keep somewhat under control. I like snails, and don't want to exterminate them, but some predator pressure is good. I put the chickens on the first bed for several days after I removed the spent broccoli and boc choy, before planting tomatoes. So, we'll see what happens.

leaves and compost

So I wanted to give some pictures to go with my last posting. Here is the wonderful broccoli that I mentioned harvesting. It weighed in at over 1.25 lbs! Sorry for it being rotated sideways...

And here are some of the cabbages that I mentioned. I'm eating one for dinner tonight, it isn't pictured. Unfortunately I don't remember the variety, I bought them as transplants and threw away the little tag.

This picture shows some interplanting of garlic and arugula. About half the garlic is a Czech heirloom that a local farmer grows, the other half is from another local farmer but I don't know the variety (I bought the cloves in the summer and stored them till fall). They are already doing better than last year's garlic, which was chocked out by way too much lettuce. I've been more careful with my interplantings this season. But, I think the soil is also more fertile.

It's leaf season, which means I've been collecting collecting collecting to put them in the animal pen. They stay in the pen for a year, slowly breaking down and absorbing the urine and manure. The two or more feet of leaves rapidly break into little pieces and compact into about 10-12 inches of organic matter, which acts as a sponge for all the animal waste as well as habitat for bugs and microbes. The chickens eat the larger bugs and larvae, keeping flies down, and continually aerate the litter, mitigating odor. By next fall, the leaves have been converted into a great deal of wonderfully rich stuff, ready for a final composting in a pile. The pile I made of 2011's leaves has been curing for about 3 months now, and is ready for application this spring. I have, however, been using it already for the winter plantings. Here's a closeup of the compost.

Finally, here is a snapshot of the 'shogoin' turnips. They are described as a sort of dual purpose turnip, meaning they are good for both greens and roots, but I think they are mostly good for greens. I pulled these to make roasted roots, along with some beets and carrots, but the roots lacked the sweetness I was hoping for from turnips, and weren't as good as the beets or carrots. I'm growing chantenay carrots and detroit red beets, both widely available varieties, and while they are good, I think I will be switching back to a danvers type carrot next planting, as the chantenays are just too short for my taste. I like a long carrot, and with all the organic matter I've been adding, I think I can pull it off. (Chantenay carrots are short and fat, recommended for heavy clay soils, while the danvers are a bit longer)

Howdy loyal readers,

First of all, my apologies for not writing the last 2 months. I've been busy with some stuff.

So, getting right along to the garden!!
We have had a lot of changes since my last post. For one, a very light FROST actually hit some parts of the garden a week ago. So, it has cooled off substantially since the summer, which is good since it's already mid November...

What's growing: Carrots, beets, chard, boc choi, cabbage, broccoli, kale, turnips, sugar snap peas, lettuce, garlic, arugula, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, & tepary beans.

What's being harvested: Boc choi, okra, peppers, & turnip greens. I should be harvesting tomatoes right now, but since I am lousy at growing tomatoes, I'm not. I'm tempted to rip em all out, but there are a few little green fruits, so I'll keep them and see what happens. Sarah says my greatest challenge in gardening is my love of plants, which makes sense. I am so curious about what they will do, that I leave them in the ground even when they aren't really productive.

I've more or less abandoned the 'native prairie' in favor of a highly productive forage plot for the goats. This means I have overseeded the yard with annual ryegrass, including the area I had seeded with the native prairie mix. I decided to do this for a couple of reasons. First of all, the native area was totally infested with weeds, mostly henbit and mimosa, as well as some ryegrass that went to seed last year (so it was already there anyways...). Secondly, alfalfa is running at $15 per bale right now, and I am tired of paying so much for goat feed. My hope is to reduce costs a bit by supplementing with ryegrass this spring and maybe winter if it grows fast enough.

So, here are some pictures of the vegetables. You can see boc choi in the first one, tomatoes and kale in the second one, beets and carrots in the third.