Bug Busting

  "Alright you two; break it up!"
     
  Geoff Farintosh, Age 8, squishing two mating potato beetles.

  Anyone who grows potatoes or eggplant already knows way more than they care to about Colorado Potato Beatles.

 Beneath their handsome striped shells lurks a stone cold killer with the ability to strip the leaves off a potato crop almost overnight.They create millions of dollars in damage every year.

  What makes them so singularly successful is their legendary ability to develop resistance to any insecticide thrown at them. Starting with DDT in 1952, there is a long list of failed chemicals that are no longer effective.

  Chemical control typically involves several applications of insecticide every growing season.

  Their kryptonite, however, is what they call "mechanical control", or in layman's terms, hand-picking-and -squishing-them. It is 100% guaranteed and there is absolutely no chance of their developing resistance.

  It is slow and tedious work. Not only do the adult beetles have to be squashed, there is also the matter of larvae and egg masses to deal with.

 Given that an adult beetle can lay up to 800 eggs, times a couple of generations per year, that's a lot of sons and daughters of anarchy wreaking havoc on your crop.

  We only grow about one acre of eggplants, so it is within our means to practice mechanical control, which we do when the plants are small, typically within the first couple of weeks after transplanting, when they are most vulnerable to insect damage.

  This is when my son wishes he was 8 again, rather than  6'5".

  Our other ace in the hole is the use of predatory beneficial insects, or biological control. This is sheer serendipity, but about the time that the second generation of potato beetles is laying eggs, lady beetles (lady bugs ) appear in great numbers, usually attracted by aphids on other crops.

  Potato beetle eggs are chocolate truffles to lady beetles, who typically destroy about 60% of the egg masses.

  By then, the host eggplant is usually big enough to fend for itself without any chemical intervention from us.

  We grow a dozen or so different kinds of eggplant, all using the same system. They are picked every morning at the height of their creamy goodness. Sicilian, Asian and the more usual purple varieties are all on offer.

  So look up your favorite recipe and stop by the farm. We will have them ready for Pick Your Own later on in September.

  Best,

  Guy









  

Home field advantage

  " Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

                                               Oscar Wilde

  The big Plymouth pulled over on to the gravel shoulder beside where I was selling sweet corn off the back of a pickup truck. It was a hot, steamy day in late August with not a whisper of a breeze.

  " How much is your corn?", the woman asked.
  " Sixty five cents a dozen. It's Seneca Chief and it was just picked this morning", I said, brightly.
  " It's fifty cents a dozen in Windsor" she replied, unimpressed. Emphasis on the "fifty".

   Windsor; 240 miles to the southwest from where we were; in the heart of corn-growing country.

  " That would be the place to buy it then", I answered, helpfully.

  She pinned the accelerator, putting up a rooster-tail of gravel and dust that enveloped my truck and I, as she fishtailed back into traffic.

  Sigh. Another satisfied customer.

  Local food was a tough sell in 1975. Price was the number one concern of most shoppers; the cheaper, the better. The whole notion of local food actually tasting better or being more nutritious was appreciated by few consumers.

  Whole Foods wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in 1975 in our area. Knob Hill Farms ( a deep discount chain) was king.

  So why is it a lot easier for me to sell that fresh corn today?

  A better informed  population, with its increased interest in health and well-being has really propelled the local food movement to the fore. They get the fact that fresh food is more tasty and nutritious than produce that has traveled further to get to their supermarket shelf than they did on their last vacation.

  This is where smaller growers, like myself, enjoy a distinct advantage. A local chain advertises "if it was any fresher, it would still be in the field." Well, as a matter of fact, it probably is still in our field, and will be until a few hours (or minutes, even) before it is sold.

  We are far more nimble at managing our fresh inventory because we can delay our harvest until the last possible moment to ensure peak ripeness, flavour and nutrition.

  There is an ever increasing body of scientific evidence that directly links the freshness of certain vegetables  to their health benefits. While a potato can be stored for several months without compromising its nutritional benefit, broccoli begins to lose its cancer-fighting compounds within 24 hours of harvest.

  The book "Eating on the Wild Side" by Jo Robinson discusses many different fruits and vegetables through this lens.

   For the ultimate fresh local food experience, why not try picking some of the many different vegetables at our farm yourself. We are sure that once you have tasted the difference, you will be back for more!

  Outstanding in his field,

  Guy

Whatever happened to real carrots?

"Sowe carrets in your gardens, and humbly praise God for them, as for a singular and great blessing"
                                   
                                                   Richard Gardiner  1599

  
  So what was the best carrot that you ever tasted?

 Most people I ask remember it as that one they pulled out of the garden themselves, wiped on their sleeve and popped into their mouth. There it was: earthy, crisp and sweetly delicious.

  So why do so many carrots taste so "meh" these days?   It's a very good question.

  The first issue to address is the varieties of carrots grown today:

 For a large scale carrot grower, the goal is to harvest and store the maximum tonnage that can be coaxed out of his land. Obviously the money for commercial seed houses and plant breeders is to address the needs of these high volume producers, which is only fair.

   Commercial seed catalog carrot descriptions will include "good interior color", "strong tops", "good shipper", "good storeability"or "excellent yields". Flavor and sweetness are mentioned, but they are secondary concerns for most large commercial growers.

  The appearance of "baby carrots" several years ago was a canary in a coal mine about the disappearing taste. It was a tacit admission by the industry that, okay, our cello-pack carrots have no flavor, but how about these cute baby carrots with bunnies on the package!

  Then the truth came out that these were merely large carrots that had been mechanically shaped to resemble baby carrots. It was all an elaborate ruse.

  So, what about bunched carrots, sold with the tops on?

  California accounts for about 80% of the bunched market every year, due to their year-round growing season. Ask any farm market operator what the sweetest carrot type is, and they will tell you: Nantes, which is the only type that we grow.

 California doesn't grow Nantes carrots for bunching; preferring long, thin types to the generally shorter and less uniform Nantes varieties.

  The second contributing factor to the sweetness of carrots is the soil in which they are grown.

  Most commercial carrot growing areas have sand or muck soils to aid with seedling emergence and the development of long straight roots. Clay soils are anathema to commercial growers, tricky to work with and difficult to harvest from due to their "sticky" quality.

  Those of you familiar with wine may have heard the word "terroir",which, although it literally means soil, actually refers to the specificity of a place. This includes the soil, rainfall, climate, etc.  Bordeaux and Burgundy are well known examples of wine regions where the superior flavor is inextricably linked to their terroir.

  I don't think that it's much of a stretch to apply the word to vegetables as well. We find that the more complex that we can make our soil's biology ahead of carrots, the better they taste.

  This means using cover crops and growing diverse species of green manures to incorporate into our clay loam soils. A clay fraction in soil seems to confer a better taste to vegetables for reasons that are not fully understood, but may be due to its ability to hang onto more minerals such as Magnesium and Potassium.

  A less subjective and more quantifiable method that we employ is to measure the degrees of Brix or sugar, found in our carrots.  Vegetable farmers have stolen the idea from those savvy wine growers again, who have measured Brix readings for years to help determine the optimum timing for harvest.

 We may have readings of 9 early in the summer, climbing to 12 with the cooler weather of fall, which, again helps make sweeter carrots.

  Obviously, I have simplified the whole issue, but you now have enough information to make you dangerous at any discussion involving the taste of carrots.

  We have been digging some great tasting carrots lately, with brix readings of about 12; unusually high for this time of year. Stop by and catch them while you can!

   Guy

What are those red striped beans?

" I did not read books the first summer. I hoed beans."
         
          Henry David Thoreau       Walden Pond


We grow acres of snap beans every year, both green and yellow. We pick them every morning from late July until frost, weather permitting.

  Snap bean varieties grown for shipping are specifically bred to have added fiber to help them withstand the rigors of being loaded on and off trucks on their way to the supermarket. We have all tasted those beans. I'm sure that is why they used to be called "string" beans.

  The bean varieties we grow are bred to have less fiber, making them much more tender. We stagger our plantings over the course of the season to give us a steady supply of young, tender beans.

  Weather clearly sets the agenda, but 2014, with its cool, wet growing season was about as close to perfect a bean growing season as one could ask for. The quality and flavor were both excellent. Our 2015 beans have been great as well thus far.

  Most people are familiar with how to handle a green bean in the kitchen, but the appearance of those plump beans with their gorgeous splashes of pink, red and white marks the reappearance in our market of that perennial question:

  "What are those red striped beans and what do I do with them?"

  Romano beans is what we call them here in Ontario. They are also known as French Horticultural, Borlotti or Cranberry beans depending on where you hail from. Our West Indian customers call them, simply, "peas" which created some confusion on my part in the early years of my farming career, but we're all on the same page now.

  Unlike a snap bean, Romano beans are left on the plant to mature until the beans inside the pod are swollen. The beans are harvested at this point and  easily shelled, yielding strikingly colored white beans with deep red specks. The outer pods are discarded.

  These beans are now cooked, which will cause the color to fade to a uniform beige color. The flavor is wonderfully unique; a nutty,earthy, somewhat sweet taste with a creamy, substantial texture. The taste is nothing like a lima bean, which was a very pleasant surprise to me.

  The easiest way to use them is to add them as the last ingredient to chili, soups or stews. They only need about 35 minutes; if cooked much longer they will split and then start to break down.

  Or, you can boil them on their own. Cover them with two inches of water or stock and add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and cook them uncovered for about 35 minutes or until tender. Drain, toss with some olive oil , lemon juice, salt , pepper and some minced fresh parsley and you have a delicious warm salad.

  Another one of the really great things about Romano beans is the ease of preserving them. No need to blanch them, we just lay the shelled beans in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze them until they're solid. We then transfer them to plastic airtight bags. Because they're individually frozen, it is easy to take out a little or a lot, as required.

  We are all looking for healthy sources of protein these days, and these beans fit the bill. A one cup serving has 16.5 grams of protein along with 17.7 grams of dietary fiber. Added to that are their substantial quantities of potassium, copper, iron and calcium. We're talking about a nutritional powerhouse!

  So, why not take some time to spread your culinary wings if you have been a stranger to Romano beans until now. We'll have them available from early August to late September.

  Best,

  Guy










 

FrankenCorn

"Peaches and Cream! My husband and I don't eat genetically modified food; where's the yellow corn?"

Customer in our market, August 2014.

I grew my first crop of sweet corn in 1972; a variety called "Golden Bantam", that had been around since 1903.

Discovered by a farmer in Massachusetts, it was the first yellow sweet corn variety that bridged the gap between feed corn for animals and something that would be enjoyed by people.

Golden Bantam was (and is; it's still available from some seed suppliers) an open pollinated variety, meaning that it reproduces true from seed year after year.

Although many of our older customers suggest that Golden Bantam was the best sweet corn ever, I would suggest that their misty water-colored memories are flawed. The variety has neither the tenderness nor the sweetness of modern day sweet corn offerings. It displays a chewiness and flavour that was enjoyed by many back in the day, but again, doesn't compare favorably to present day hybrids.

So what is a hybrid ?

In its simplest form, a hybrid is developed by crossing two parents with individual desired qualities to create a new variety with both of the desired characteristics present.

When a female horse is crossed with a male donkey, a mule is created, combining the hardiness of a donkey with the size and strength of a horse.

Similarly, when when sweet corn breeders wanted increased tenderness and sweetness, they crossed two sweet corn parents with these qualities present. When a yellow variety and a white variety of sweet corn are crossed with each other, a bicolor variety may very well be the result (Peaches and Cream is but one of many bicolor varieties).

This is a gross over-simplification, and yet this is textbook classical plant or animal breeding. It has gone on for centuries; however the hybrid concept really came to the fore in the 1930's, especially in field corn breeding.

This is where the confusion creeps in for a lot of people, who figure that any new, improved variety has been genetically modified.

Genetic modification involves insertion or deletion of genes in a lab between organisms that could be conventionally bred in the field. The reason this is done is to create resistance to certain herbicides or insect pests. Field corn, soybeans and cotton are the most widely grown G.M. crops. They are often referred to as "Frankenfoods" for obvious reasons.

As most of you know, the practice is highly controversial. Europe has an outright ban on all G.M. crops. A large part of the problem, as myself and many other farmers see it, is that consumers were never made aware of the benefits of G.M. crops before they were introduced. Many highly toxic pesticides that were widely used by most farmers are no longer needed, due to the introduction of rootworm resistant field corn, for instance.

That said, rest assured that we grow absolutely no genetically modified vegetables on our farm.

There is a G.M. sweet corn that is resistant to corn earworms, but we don't grow it. There are also G.M. tomatoes and peppers; again, we don't grow them.

Any new variety of vegetable that we grow has been created the old-fashioned way: through classical plant breeding, because that is what you want and that is what we would prefer to grow.

Un-modified near Markham,

Guy

Seed Orders

" I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."
                              Henry David Thoreau

  The annual arrival of seed catalogs is a wonderful time of year.

  Whatever our successes and failures of the previous season may have been, we have a chance to give that farming Etch-a-Sketch a good, hard shake and start over with a clean slate.

  To settle down in a comfortable armchair with a brand new seed catalog is to be transported into a garden of  boundless possibilities and future perfection.

  When I was thirteen, my family received our annual Dominion Seed House catalog, mailed from Georgetown, Ontario.

  This was not a catalog that would be remembered for its lavish illustrations. What it was instead, was an absolute masterpiece of copy-writing craftsmanship, generously leavened with descriptive phrases, like  "deep-red tender flesh", "monstrous succulent fruit" and "powerfully delicious fragrance."

  Although these phrases evoked some mighty powerful imagery in a thirteen year old boy, the most unfailingly compelling words for me were "unusual" or "unique", probably a reflection of my own awkward state in 1966.

  The following description stopped me cold:

BANANA MELON. Muskmelon. Dates to 1885.

      "Unique banana shaped fruit, having a powerful and delicious fragrance and banana-like flavor. Grows 18 to 24 inches long."

 There it was: the whole package. That magical intersection of the exotic, the mysterious and the delicious.

  My order arrived a couple of weeks later. The seeds were planted into peat pots, tended on our kitchen windowsill and transplanted with care to their prime piece of sunny, fertile garden real estate.

  Their steady growth throughout the summer became exponential when the sultry, steamy dog days of late August arrived.

  By Labour Day weekend, the vines had receded enough to clearly reveal a couple of dozen green to light tan colored, 18 to 24 inch long caveman club-like fruit, with a curved flourish at the handle end. An aromatic sweetness hung lightly in the air.

  I picked my first fruit and carried it into our kitchen to share with my family. I was about to discover whether truth in advertising really existed or whether banana melons were going to be just like the sea monkeys ordered from the back of the Superman comic book: a bust.

   In the grim world of mid-sixties rock hard 39 cent supermarket melons, we tasted muskmelon nirvana. The taste was everything that Dominion Seed House promised and more: the salmon colored interior was plush and exquisitely sweet, unlike any melon we had ever tasted before. We were sure that we could taste banana.

  We ate until we burst, and my parents offered samples to family and friends, who were unanimous in their rave reviews. I was ten feet tall all week.

  It remains a defining moment in my life. For one brief, delicious moment, I was no longer the kid who was struggling in Chemistry, but a rock star in the muskmelon world. How could I have gone on to do anything else but be a farmer?

  And so I think it is as I fill in my 2013 seed order that I am looking to recapture a small slice of that magic from long ago.

  Some years we fail. But in most years that wonderful and mysterious chemistry of seed and soil, sun and rain align in such a way to create something that is close-your-eyes-and-look-to-the-heavens delicious, whether it be sweet corn, tomatoes or banana melons.

  "Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected by a more or less tangible link with some memory of the table"  
                                                            Charles Pierre Momelet

  We are looking forward to helping you create some wonderful memories of your own this season.

  Here's to a sweet 2013!

  Guy

Deep and crisp and even

"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted"       Mae West

It is still in the early innings of the 2013 ballgame, but this winter is shaping up to be a good old-fashioned one, meaning lots of snow to go with those colder temperatures.

Those of us who live in, drive in and shovel our snow may curse it at certain moments, however, it provides several important advantages for northern farmers:

 Increasing soil moisture:

Our annual precipitation in the form of rainfall here in Gormley averages about 28 inches (71.8 cm.)
In addition to that, we also average 56 inches (142 cm.) of snowfall.

If that seems like a lot of snow, bear in mind that it takes roughly 10 inches of snow to provide 1 inch of water, thereby adding 5.6 inches to our rainfall total. Therefore, 17% of our annual precipitation comes in the form of snow!

If that doesn't seem like much, imagine your life with 17% more holidays, 17% more golf or 17% more whatever-floats-your-boat and you begin to understand how vitally important that additional moisture can be.

Many variables affect the quantity of snowfall melt water that is actually taken into the soil to recharge it with water in the spring. Simply put, a slow,steady thaw in the spring that allows the melting soil to percolate down through the soil profile is best. A mid-winter thaw with most of the melt water rushing away over frozen soil is not on our farmer wish list.

We seem to have had very few winters of late with snow that lasted throughout the winter. January thaws seem to have become the rule.

 Insulating the soil:

That cozy duvet that keeps you warm in your bed works because of the air trapped in the down insulation.
Similarly, air trapped between snow provides a blanket to help protect the soil ecosytem. Our winter wheat requires at least 3 inches of snow cover to help prevent it from winterkilling. Garlic needs this protection as well. More is certainly better in this case.

 Preventing wind erosion:

Once you have a thick layer of unbroken snow on the ground, the wind is unable to blow soil around. That fact alone helps me to sleep much more soundly this time of year.

 Increasing soil fertilty:

Snow has been called "poor man's fertilizer" for a reason. As reported by the Michigan State University Extension service, snowflakes trap dissolved organic nitrogen, nitrate and ammonium in the atmosphere, delivering it free of charge to cold and quiet fields.

Rain and snow together will provide between 2 and 22 pounds of nitrogen per acre per year. Given that sweet corn (our largest feeder of nitrogen) requires about 100 pounds per acre, all that free fertilizer is a lot better deal than a bunch of pennies from heaven that you'd have to clean up.

 Floating your boat:

 Thinking globally rather than locally for a moment, consider the plight of the Mississippi river. The U.S. had their worst drought since 1956 last year. That has created historically low river water levels, so low in fact, that all shipping on the Mississippi could grind to a halt by mid January as of this writing.

 Although dredging of the river bottom is currently taking place, a heavy winter snowfall upstream along with the subsequent melt waters and some timely rains would certainly help our neighbours.

So, all together now; "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...."


Enjoying powdery snow rather than powdery mildew,

Guy