Unexpected, But Lovely

That is the brief description of our weather the last little while in Sparta at Elm Street Gardens.  The temperatures are just right, not too cool and not too warm.  There is often a nice breeze and the clarity of the light has been remarkable.  I guess this type of pleasant weather is not unusual at this time of year, but I don’t remember it being nearly this nice last year so our recent spell of perfect weather seems especially delightful. 

And, with our recent rains (and lots of hard work), the garden looks fabulous.  There is something growing in every square inch of the beds, including some beds that were recently created in spots where we have not grown vegetables before.  Using our no-till, all-over mulch techniques, Jim, Elm Street Gardens manager, and interns, Andy and Reggie, have created new beds and managed the continuous rejuvenation of beds where the winter crops are spent and now have summer’s delights sprouting and growing. 

     So walking through the garden is a delight these days with not only the fruits and vegetables blooming and growing and producing, but also flowers of the season:  Lilies, Rose Campion, hydrangeas and many others blooming almost everywhere you look.  Son, Brownlee (aka as RBC Image), the real photographer in our midst, has shared some of his recent pictures of our blooms and bees with me so here is a composite of his pictures and mine.  His are the really striking ones!

Suzy

Wonderful, wonderful day lilies make me feel happy just looking at them.  

Rainbow Chard is as pretty as a flower.

Purple coneflower borders our front herb bed and has just begun to bloom.

Have you ever seen a prettier blossom?  These are potato blossoms captured by Brownlee's lens.  

Here on the flower bank overlooking the main outdoor garden beds is a regular jungle of rose campion with its dusky leaves and vibrant blossoms.  It is one of those plants that likes to wander about the garden, happily reseeding itself.  This one over the years has wandered from Robert's mother's garden on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee where we first acquired it in the 1970's to Atlanta and then to Sparta.  Behind it you can see blossoms of the native garlic we found on this bank where we first came to Sparta.

Christmas amaryllis always get replanted on the flower bank and blooms in the spring.  

And then there are the blossoms of our SunGold tomatoes with their abundant fruit in its early stages.  it won't be too long before these juicy little golden cherry tomatoes are ready to eat.  

And last, but not least, are the honey bees.  Brownlee captured this picture of one of our hives right after it had acted as if it was swarming, but decided to return to the hive.  Bees are so important for their work in pollinating the blossoms in the garden as well as producing honey!

Summer Begins Here: A Preview of Good Things to Come

While we all may have mixed feelings about the heat of a Georgia summer, most of us are pretty sure we enjoy the fruits and vegetables of that hot time.  After all, it takes heat to produce a tomato with real tomato flavor. And those shipped from warmer places . . . well, they are shipped; what more can I say?

I, for one, don’t buy or eat “fresh” tomatoes in the cooler months.  Why bother?  We have plenty in the freezer in the form of roasted tomatoes or roasted tomato sauce with which to cook during the winter.  So I just eat fresh real tomatoes every day during the summer.  There is hardly a meal in our house during the summer that does not have a plate of sliced tomatoes as part of it. 

In the summer we not only have delicious tomatoes, we have juicy cool cucumbers and other heat loving stalwarts like eggplants, peppers, squash and okra.  (And admittedly mourn the loss of many of our leafy greens and delightful lettuces; but you can’t have everything all the time.  That reality really hits home when you are eating out of the garden full time.)

So it is now May and on Elm Street we have hoop houses full of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant, which we began planting at the beginning of April.  That way, they have an early start with the warmth afforded by the hoop house covering.  And in the open beds, you will find earlier plantings of potatoes, leeks, garlic and onions.  Summer squash and more tomatoes were just placed outside too. There are varieties in our garden of many of these summer standards that we think are among the best in their category.   I’m practically drooling just writing about it.  Especially about the tomatoes. 

Suzy

Here are some views of the beginnings of the summer delights to come.  

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes are a big favorite.  They are incredibly delicious with a dense juicy interior.  The outside is a purple red with green shoulders.  This old heirloom variety is a large beefsteak style tomato.  

We have plenty of SunGold Tomatoes planted too.  They are one of the sweetest, tastiest of the cherry tomato type.

We grew these wonderful small eggplant, Fairy Tale, last year.  These petite eggplant will be joined this year by more conventional eggplant as well as a white type and the long slimmer Japanese variety.

It is important to keep potatoes heavily mulched.  Here's a row that shows how we pile the mulch on.  We have a variety of potatoes in the ground this year, including Adirondack Red, Island Sunshine and All Blue.

Oops!  We may not have to plant any more sunflowers this year.  The birds seem to have already done it for us.  If only they had been more orderly in their planting.

Our yellow granex onions are coming along nicely.  Here are some of the first planted and, therefore, largest ones.  

Evans Towne Farmers Market

We are now selling at the Evans Towne Farmers Market every Thursday on the grounds of the Columbia County Public Library outside Augusta, GA.  http://www.evanstownefarmersmarket.com/

Its a great market in a beautiful location.

School to Farm

Today we had about 100 students and teachers out from M.E. Lewis elementary school, who learned about our vegetable production and the mushrooms across the street.  Here is Jim with one group in the hoop house.

Food That Is Good For You and Tastes Good, Too

“This year we’re throwing something extra into the conference mix that we hope is revolutionary for the good food community: a focus on how farm-fresh food can transform our health. We’ll welcome new health allies, such as dieticians, doctors, nurses, therapists, hospital administrators, nutritionists, students, and many others on the front line of our country’s healthcare crisis.”

These words above are from Alice Rolls, Director of Georgia Organics (and a really smart, nice lady) and I lifted them from the Georgia Organics website because I was not only thinking about their theme for this year’s big conference (which is February 22 and 23 in Atlanta), but also conversations we have almost every day from visitors who come to Elm Street Gardens from all over. 

People come here for many reasons:  Some come because they are interested in gardening and the type of garden we have here, some come because they are friends we’ve known from our past life; there are a multitude of other reasons for their visits.  All are more aware than ever before of the effects of the food we put in our bodies.  We also see the people at the GreenWay Farmers Market in Milledgeville who come to buy because they are concerned about the food they eat.  So healthy food is a hot topic and a concern for many these days. 

Eating from the garden has become a way of life for Robert and me and it makes eating a pleasurable event every day.  We became vegetarians almost seventeen years ago after Robert had a massive heart attack and we now firmly believe in the benefits of a plant-based diet.  (Let me say here that we are not opposed to those who eat meat; especially meat that is raised in a healthy, sustainable way as our friends at Fort Creek Farm do with their grass fed beef and at Three Centuries Farm with their pastured pigs and chickens.)  We have simply found that being vegetarians works for us and we are reluctant to give up a proven way of life, especially now that we eat from the garden every day.

Nutrition aside, fresh food from a sustainable growing operation is not only is better for you, but tastes better too.  I find myself hyper-critical when I go to a restaurant and eat their broccoli and lettuces. Rarely are they as flavorful as what we pick here at Elm Street and enjoy every day. Our son, Brownlee, who is the family foodie, pointed out to me the other day when I was complaining about an Atlanta restaurant experience that my food expectations are on a different level from most folks given our access to truly fresh vegetables. 

Whew!  Got on my soapbox there, didn’t I?  At least I didn’t pull out the charts that show the difference in the nutrients contained in organically raised vegetables versus those that are conventionally raised.  I’ll save them for another day. But I will close with saying that I feel lucky every day for having such good healthy tasty food from the garden.

Suzy

Not only does it taste good and is healthy, but this red butter head lettuce is beautiful too.