Yankee Swap

I have a friend that throws an orphan Christmas party every year. I always find it an amusing affair since I think the non Christians outnumber the Christians at the party. Many of the families (mine included) are mixed. The main activity at the party (besides eating and gabbing) is the Yankee Swap. If we wish to participate, we buy a $20 gift and bring it wrapped. Then in the tradition of our friends, Nat (a friend who loves designing games) makes up the rules and we follow them. Swapping the gifts back and forth desperately trying to get something we want to go home with. My husband was kind to me and got me what I wanted. So here are the two gifts I went home with.

I really lucked out didn't I? I was going to get stuck with a very nice serving platter that I couldn't use. I've been slowly getting rid of serving dishes because I have too many (I catered my own kids' Bat Mitzvah party which means that I am not only insane, but now am the owner of a lot of serving dishes). The person that had the Chinese Vegetable book in her hand was my next door neighbor. I told her it would only be good for her to trade with me since she is often the recipient of my garden excess. She concurred.

The other book my husband won for me. He is not much of a bean lover, but I adore beans. He didn't see anything he wanted in the swap so now I have two fun books to read through during the holidays.

I hope your holidays were as wonderful as mine.

Yesterday Was A Good Day

I had a shift at the store yesterday. As many of you know I'm a crafter and belong to Sign of the Dove, an artist's cooperative in Porter Square. Our members do all the work at the store including the shifts. Usually things are pretty dead. The economy has been bad, so not many want to spend extra money for hand made items when they can buy something cheaper at some big box store.

Yesterday seemed like before the recession hit. We had a lot of people in the store and they were all very happy. It is fun when the customers are in a good mood and want to chat. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit. Even customers that didn't know one another were laughing together.

But even better was when I got home and opened the mail. I received three envelopes, all seed from my blogging friends. Becky's was especially fun since she sent a hummingbird card and inside was some of her scarlet runner beans. Scarlet runner beans attract humming birds. I've only once seen a humming bird in my garden. It came and decided not to stay and quickly hummed away. I planted bee balm in my garden this year (no blooms the first year) to try to get them to stay in the garden. Maybe they will come to my scarlet runner beans?

Then came the envelope from EG. Somehow he didn't make it on the list I made yesterday (must have got lost when sorting the list). Sorry EG! He sent me some unnamed romaine and the best of all some Opalka tomatoes. I was going to buy them from Fedco as they raved about the taste. I had dithered about getting the early Heinz tomatoes (which would probably grow better in my climate), but couldn't resist the Opalkas. So I jumped on getting them from EG. Then I could buy the Heinz from Fedco.

The last but not least for the seeds is some Paris Island romaine and Ching Chang bok choy from Granny. The bok choy seeds hadn't even been opened. Obviously Granny is not so into those Asian greens like I am. Maybe I should send them back and try to convert her. Nah! So now I have myself some Garden Girl seeds.

Then I noticed my husband had put a Fed Ex envelope on my chair. Fed Ex? What in the world was coming from Fed Ex? It was a $50 AmEx gift card. Whoo hoo! I won a contest from the Inadvertent Gardener. Interestingly enough it was from the Pork Board. You had to say how you use pork in the holidays (and every comment gave $5 of pork to the homeless). What I didn't say was that last year for Christmas we brought homemade Chinese pork buns. This year I'm bringing a ham. We are debating appetizers. I might bring a veggie black bean soup, but it might be homemade dumplings (gyoza). Maybe I'll just bring both. But for the gift certificate, you just know it is going to get spent on something garden related. I have such a huge list of things I would love for the garden.

And the best of all, my son came home from school yesterday. So now my whole family is home for the holidays. I wish everyday would be so fabulous.

Seed Order

I'm finally getting together my seed order. I'll probably put it in after Christmas. Paring down what I want is really hard, but will help next year when I find I don't have the space to grow everything. I still need to nix one of my dried beans. I have three on the list to order (and one coming from Dan). I have a lot of dried bean space blocked out this year, but I really do need to be reasonable. I have a small garden that is only about 250 sqft. It is not big enough to grow all my dried bean needs.

I keep thinking what would happen if I got a community garden plot. I much prefer stepping outside my door to pick things. But if we find a house next spring and move, will I have space for a garden? Will I move into the house in July and not be able to collect any of my seeds? I don't know why I'm worrying. I didn't worry much about it last year (and we didn't find a place we wanted). If I had a community garden plot and we don't have a contract by May, I could plant dried beans and oats, which wouldn't take much time and I'd love the crop. If we did, I could plant out all my summer vegetables there and still be able to keep my seeds. I guess it is probably a moot point anyway. The community gardens mostly had waiting lists last year (at least all the ones with basics like water). But I suppose it is possible. If I go that way, I will need to buy more bush dried beans (I really can justify just about any seed purchase).

My order this year is smaller than last year, but not that much smaller. My eyes are always too big for the garden. Below is the list of new seed I'm contemplating. I might make final changes before I order. I also listed all the new (and old in a way) seed that I'll be getting from my friends out in the blogosphere.

Source	Plant	Variety	Price	Thanks to:
	Asian green	Bok Choy		Christina
	Asian green	Bok Choy		Granny
	Asian green	Senposai		Michelle
4	Asian green	Yokatta-Na	$1.20
	Bean	Scarlet Run.		Becky
3	Bean Dried	Black Coco	$1.40
1	Bean Dried	Cannelini	$1.50
1	Bean Dried	Red Kidney	$1.40
	Bean Dried	Tiger's Eye		Dan
2	Broccoli	Piracicaba	$1.00
4	Carrot	Mokum	$1.60
4	Carrot	Purple Haze	$1.80
2	Carrot	SugarSnax	$3.20
2	Chard	Argentata	$1.10
	Chili Pepper	Big Chili II		Dan
	Flowers	Nigellia		Sonali
5	Flowers	Zinnia Zowie!	$2.60
	Greens/Herbs	Fenugreek		Sonali
2	Herb	Cumin	$1.00
	Kale	Mix	$1.50
1	Leek	King Sieg	$1.60
	Leeks	Hannibal		Miss M
	Leeks	Malabar		Miss M
	Lettuce	Cimmaron		OFB
	Lettuce	Freckles		Emily
	Lettuce	Noga		OFB
	Lettuce	Paris Island		Granny
	Lettuce	Renee's Caesar Duo		OFB
	Lettuce	Sweet Valentine		OFB
	Lettuce	Tom Thumb		Stefaneener
	Lettuce	Winter Density		Christina
4	Onion	Red Wing	$2.00
5	Onion	Varsity	$1.80
2	Radish	French Breakfast	$0.70
	Radish	German Beer		Jody
2	Radish	White Icicle	$0.70
3	Romaine	Jericho	$1.20
3	Scallion	Evergreen Hardy White	$1.20
1	Snow Pea	Blizzard	$2.00
4	Spinach	Space	$1.00
1	Squash	Waltham	$1.20
1	Tomatillo	Verde Puebla	$1.20
	Tomato	Cherokee Purple		Dan
	Tomato	Opalka		EG
1-2	Tomato	Heinz 2653	$1.20
	Tomato	San Marzano		OFB
5	Turnip	Oasis	$1.60
1	Zucchini	Costata Romenseca	$1.00

You might have noticed the little column on the left. I'm purchasing my seed from Fedco this year. They label every seed variety with the source of the seed. 1=Small seed farmer, 2=Family owned companies and cooperatives, 3=Corporations not part of a large conglomerate, 4=Multinationals, 5=Multinationals engaged in genetic engineering, 6=Monsanto (only one in the whole catalog).

I have on my (not quite finalized list) eight 1s, six 2s, three 3s, five 4s, and three 5s. I've found the 4s and 5s are all the hybrids. Fedco does a good job of sourcing non proprietary seed from smaller farmers. I know some people have given up hybrids, but I still like mine. Certain types of seed do indeed grow better and produce more if they are hybrids. These are all the outbreeding plants that do better with a large genetic mix. These require a lot of space to save seed from because they will quit producing if they get too homozygous. I personally think these kinds of hybrids are very useful for the home gardener with very limited space.

BTW the zinnias I picked is a hybrid. I love the description, but with only about 10-12 seeds in the pack for $2.60. I'm thinking of changing it. Does anyone have a favorite variety that is a good cutter and I can save seed from? I'd love to try zinnias. I've never grown them before. It has to be one in the Fedco catalog since I'm not ordering elsewhere. Maybe I should go with State Fair or Swirls.

Harvest Monday - 21 December 2009

Or how am I going to eat from the garden in winter?

Over the year I've been preserving some food from the garden. I started as early as May when I blanched and froze my spinach. I don't have enough to eat as well as I do in the summer, but then again I just don't eat as well in the winter anyway. All I want is pumpkin pie, apple cake and soup. OK so I can eat pretty well if I make more soup. Now that we have hit the winter solstice, what is left of my stash?

The first place I'll take you is to my freezer. I have a nice chest freezer that my mom bought for me when we first moved into this house. On Friday I had the fun chore of defrosting the thing. I do this only once a year and need three tools. An ice scraper, a scoop to get the ice out of the bottom, and a pot to collect the ice. I've gotten good at it over the years and it only took about half an hour this time. Which involves totally emptying it first then putting it all back together.

While I did this I counted the frozen goods from the garden (the corn and some squash came from the farmers market). In addition to what is listed I hopefully have my winter stash of ground beef from grass fed beef from the farmers market. I also have things like homemade soups, Mexican rice, chicken pot pie filling, and meatloaf. When I cook for two I often make more and freeze it. Then dinner is pretty fast. I also have a handful of store bought. The wonton soup is one of my husband's favorites (though to be fair to me I made homemade wonton soup for the first time on Thursday).

• squash puree 18 cups
• tomato sauce 23 cups
• salsa 6 cups
• applesauce 8 cups (I ran out of jars)
  
• zucchini shredded 9 1/2 cups
  
• green beans 1 1/4 lbs
• corn 1 3/4 lbs
• serranos diced, 6oz
• jalapenos diced, 14 oz
• raspberries, 1 3/4 lbs
• carrots 12 oz
• spinach 5 cups
• chard 1 cup
• komatsuna 9 cups
• raspberry sorbet 4 cups

Then it was on to the pantry. I have some assorted herbs, but the real fun is in the jars.

• applesauce 11 pints
• raspberry jam 3 cups
• raspberry jalapeno jam 1 cup
• apple pie filling (really very chunky, sweetened, spiced up applesauce) 3 pints
• apple butter 5 pints
• pickled snap peas 6 pints
• dill pickles 3 pints
• dried beans (on the far right) 2 lbs
  

I always love the look of home canned items on the shelf. You can see what is in them unlike commercially canned items. I know most of the things on the shelves are apples. Way more than half. I think I made too much applebutter. But I'll find out come spring - hmm maybe come August or September for the apple products since I won't make any more until then.

I also have my pile of food in the fridge and on the counters. I didn't weight it out, but I still have plenty of carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, cabbage (those three big ones from Wilson's Farm), two apples, a bit of Chinese cabbage and some pickled serranos and dill pickles. I'm more than half through the potatoes and onions. Next year I need to plant more. Though I think I won't have room for potatoes.

I've yet to buy a lot of produce from the store. Besides lemons, ginger, and mushrooms which I buy all year long, I think I might have only bought cranberries so far. So I may have no harvest, but I'm harvesting from my stock. Will it last all winter long (I hope I eat better than that but don't count on it), or

If you would like to help me believe that harvests still exist, put your name and URL into Mr. Linky below. It doesn't matter how big or small your harvest is. You don't have to count the pounds like I do. If you have had a harvest this last week, show us and join in! Really I'm dying here under the snow and ice (we just had a huge snow storm). I need visions of tomatoes and spinach to dance in my head for the holidays.

2009 Overview Asian Greens

Brassica bed in the spring

I've never been disappointed with Asian greens. There are so many varieties to try. Most of them are in the brassica family and those are the ones I tend to grow. Every year I grow something new for fun. I have the hardest time picking what to grow from my old favorites because they all taste so good.

I also have a real problem with what to call them. Bok choy, pak choi, tsai tai, pai tsai... aaarrgghh! I can't keep them straight. I should just stick with Brassica rapa, since all the ones I've tried are of that species. Take for instance my hands down favorite for taste - Fun Jen. It is listed as a Pai Tsai, or Brassica rapa subsp pekinensis which would put it really close to Chinese cabbage (also called Napa cabbage). But I don't think of Fun Jen as a Chinese cabbage (which it is listed under in the Fedco catalog). I've always called it my frilly bok choy (bok choy and not pac choi because the stems are white - don't even get me started on why the spellings of choi are different). It looks more like a bok choy, really it does. Sigh. Someday I wish we could just all agree on names so I could find the dang thing in a catalog.

Anyway onto the real post. I planted my Asian greens indoors on 3/16 and they were planted out on 4/7 under a row cover. Since they are brassicas and I don't spray Bt all over my garden (I like my swallowtails) I kept them under the row cover all year long. Most of them started to be harvested on 5/2, picking the larger leaves. The timing was fine. Many had successions or fall plantings. I harvested a total of about 19 lbs of them. Except for the mizuna they were all bothered by slugs. Handpicking worked if I did it regularly, but with all the wet weather that meant about every other day and I didn't keep up so harvests were lower than they could have been. They were not bothered by any diseases.

Fun Jen was my hands down favorite in taste. I don't like it cooked. I don't think it has enough structure to hold up to it. The leaves are more like thin lettuce in texture. The white stems are crunchy and sweet. It makes the best Asian salads of anything I've grown. However the slugs also find it the tastiest in the garden. I only grew two plants and didn't do any successions because they were just shredded. A 9" space seems optimal. I harvested a measly 0.8 lbs.

Tatsoi

Tatsoi is such a pretty rosette. I plant them 6"-9" apart and did successions throughout the year. They were given about a square foot of space total and I harvested 1.38 lbs. So not bad. Tatsoi wasn't as bothered by slugs as most of the Asian greens, but they weren't left alone. I use tatsoi for soups. It is my favorite soup green. I cut off the stems and put the leaves in the bowl and pour the very hot soup over them. It cooks them perfectly.

I only use purple mizuna for salads. I hear that you can cook them, but I've never tried. So I don't use a lot since it just spices up my lettuce. I had two plants but should have only had one as that would be enough for my needs. It doesn't bolt very easily but the spring planted mizuna will bolt in the summer (late June). When this happened I put in another transplant which held through the fall. Mizuna doesn't seem as bothered by slugs as the other greens. I very rarely found any on it.

Tyfon is huge

Tyfon Holland greens (which technically isn't Asian, but is more similar to them than the western brassicas) were a new one for me this year. They were touted as being the most productive green you can find. They held up to that. I planted two a foot apart in spring and got 3.2lbs of them. That wasn't even from the whole year. The last harvest was 7/14 as they were starting to bolt and I pulled them out. I didn't replace them because they were just OK in taste. If I raised chickens this would be my goto leafy green for them as it is even more productive than chard.

Komatsuna leaves look very similar to Tyfon. They are over a foot long with a good rib. The taste however is delightful. I wish I could describe all the different tastes as each green has a different one. They all have an undertone of the mustard flavor, but that is where the similarity ends. I cook komatsuna by boiling the stems (chopped to 1 1/2") in a small bit of water. After a few minutes and the water is almost boiled off I add the chopped leaves. When it is cooked, I sprinkle with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. Tasty. In addition I'll throw it into stirfries or soup. Komatsuna is also great because it will grow in the summertime and is very prolific. It can't quite keep up with Tyfon in production but it tries. I also grew it near the fence which means afternoon shade. I'm sure this made it grow slower, but it still produced well. I put a lot in and I harvested 5.25 lbs. I spaced them 1' apart. I did about four successions over the year.

Chinese cabbage has always been one of my favorite greens. I love its mild sweet flavor. It is an all around winner in salads, soups, and stirfries. I plant it twice. Once in the spring for a June harvest and once in July for a fall harvest. I started the fall seedlings indoors on June 10th. I potted them up (for the life of me I can't figure out when I did it) and planted them out on July 21st. I harvested the first one on October 2nd and the last of them in December. The fall crop did quite well. The spring crop did poorly. The weird spring weather (we had higher highs in April than in June) really through the plants for a loop and they bolted on me. Chinese cabbage is always riskier in the spring than the fall, but I usually do better than this. I harvested a total of 4.81lbs.

Next year the greens will have my largest bed so I expect I'll have room to grow a lot more Asian greens if I want. I'm not sure this is a good thing. I have trouble keeping up with eating them as it is. They are tasty, but also very prolific. I think I might add Senposai into the mix and I've had offers of bok choy seeds so I'll probably grow those again too.

On Giving and Your Seeds

I've been busy labeling seed packets and packaging them up. For small items I tend to put them in cards. I went through my cards deciding which ones to send out and ran across some Canyon Ranch cards that were a gift for staying there (the times I've been there were a gift from my very generous MIL). They are all have inspirational sayings on them and as I was packing up the seeds they seemed very apropos.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt. I thought this one very spot on for those of you who told me you are using the seed to start a new garden. What is a garden but hopes and dreams? Sometimes they are realized and sometimes not, but they are all beautiful.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi. This is probably my all time favorite quote. I've quoted it to my son before when he was railing against the world one day. It takes the golden rule one step farther. What is my seed giveaway but what I want to see in the world? I want to see generosity. I want to see people growing their own food. I want to see responsibility. I want people to see the miracle in a seed.

"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." - Henry James.

With my family we've stopped giving gifts (except for kids under 18). I never liked the whole commercial Christmas extravaganza. I think it is a little out of control. But I still like to give so for me this year it is seeds to all of you. My mother and uncle solved the problem years ago by giving charity gifts to each other which is a marvelous idea.

As an update on the seed. I hand delivered one yesterday. I braved the PO today and shipped off 17 more in the morning. And I have one on the counter to go in the mailbox tomorrow. I hope I got them all right and didn't miss any. If you haven't gotten it in a couple of weeks (or three to four weeks for non US) ask me again and I'll reship any seed that I still have. And BTW none of you got the cards with the quotes. I'm not quite willing to give them up yet. Maybe next year. For now you had to live with cards by the Nature Conservancy and Rails to Trails.

Seeds in Need of a Good Home

Seeds are small miracles that need to be shared (dill)

Last year I started my own holiday tradition. I don't put up a seed trade page. I put up a page where I list what I have and anyone can ask for them. No trades needed. So if you want something, just ask and you shall receive. Then I put out to the universe the seed that I'm looking for and lo and behold people offer some of it to me and not always the people I send seed to. Gardeners are such sweet people. Though the bulk of my seed will come from Fedco this year (I'm finalizing my order right now), I still love growing seed from other garden bloggers. It is a connection to them especially if they save the seed themselves (not necessary but nice).

This year I have a short list of what I want and a long list of seeds that need a good home so I'm going to list what I'm looking for first.

• Paste tomatoes 5 seeds in a variety are plenty, even just two is enough to figure out if I like a variety and save seed for future years.
  
• Romaine lettuce - I want to grow it again, but haven't a clue about varieties
  
• Tomatillos - I want green sauce next year. There seems to be about three kinds. The regular one, the large green one and the purple one. Anyone have clues as to which is best for sauce? Or which one would grow well in my climate?
  
• Dried Bush beans for me to trial

I'll take other seed like Asian greens I haven't tried and such, but the above would be my favorite since I can save the seed and keep it going from year to year.

Seed that I give away is of two types: seed that is commercial, but I no longer want to grow. This does not necessarily mean it is bad seed (ask Granny about how her pumpkins grew this year), but it just doesn't have a home in my garden for any number of reasons (I quit growing pumpkins because vine borers took them out each year). The second type is seed that I saved and have enough to trade some away. A warning: I have not done germination tests on my seed. I've never had a problem saving seed or getting them to germinate, but they have not been tested. I'll list seed by type and let you know if I saved it in the listing and will bold all the saved seed (because it is so much more fun than commercial). I'll also add the year that it was bought if it was commercial, or the year harvested if saved.

The best way to ask for seed is to send me an email which includes your mailing address. I'll try to keep the list updated as much as possible.

Saved seed drying on the dining room table

Tomatoes. My tomatoes were not isolated and grew next to one another. There is a chance of crossing. The odds aren't high but they are there.

• Tumbling Tom (2009 Wintersown)
• Early Ssubakus Aliana (2009 Wintersown)
• Chocolate Cherry (2009 saved)
• Market Miracle (2009 saved)
• Black Moor (2009 saved)
• Emma-Sungold F3 (2009 saved) good tasting red cherry, only an F3 so had not been stabilized and can produce children not like the mother
• Gabrielle-Sungold F3 (2009 saved) good tasting yellow 1/2" cherry, again only an F3 and not stabalized
  

Lettuce was isolated 12' which should be enough to ensure the type.

• Red Sails (2009 saved)
• Deer Tongue (2009 saved)
• Australian Yellow Leaf (2009)
• Simpson Elite (2008)
• Prizehead (2008)
  

Pole Beans. I received both dried beans from the Ottawa gardener which she had saved and grew them out. The cranberry was true to type. The Trail of Tears had 10% that were not true to type. It looks like they had crossed with the cranberry bean. I did not save seed from these plants (I ate them). I grew all my beans in the same bed and they were not isolated. You too might find a plant or two that crossed. If the Trail of Tears pod is not slim and uniform in color (first green then maroon) don't pass on those seeds.

• Ottawa Cranberry dried bean (2009 saved)
• Trail of Tears dried bean (2009 saved)
• Fortex (2008)
  

Radish

• Crimson Giant(2005)
  
• Pinetree Mix(2009)
  
• Reggae(2009)

Eggplant

• Slim Jim(2008)
• Lavender Touch(2009)

Peas

• Super Sugar Snap(2008)
• Mammoth Melting Snow Pea(2008)

Greens

• Tyfon Holland Greens(2009)
• Strawberry Spinach(2009)

Herbs

• Dill (2009 saved) I always have too much dill seed
  
• Coriander(cilantro) (2009 saved)
  
• Flat leafed parsley (2008 saved - warning sometimes parsley is not viable after the first year)
  

Flowers

• Ground control marigold (2009 saved)
  
• Johnny Jump Up (2009 saved)
  
• False Indigo (2009 saved)
  

Others

• Pineapple tomatillo (2009 saved) P. pruinosa and won't cross with real tomatillos
  
• Early Jalapeno (2009 saved - cage isolated from other peppers)
• Dark Green Zucchini (2008)

I really thought about putting in descriptions, but that is oh so much work. If you want to know how something did in my garden, do a search of the blog, or do a search of the 2009 Overviews (I'll finish them soon. I only have two more left), or do a web search. The overview posts go into a lot of detail about what I liked and didn't over the year and how things performed in a very wet and cold year.