SPROUT Garden Update, week of August 5th

Greetings!

A perfectly healthy and beautiful eggplant

Things have begun winding up as the season is nearly in full swing. The turnips, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, and many others have begun to fully mature. All of them taste incredible, to our delight. The tomatoes are sweet and flavorful, as they are vine ripened rather than sprayed with chemical solutions as you'd find in supermarket tomatoes.  There really isn't any comparison. Also, the eggplants are

Purple string bean flowers

giant and pristine—also no chemicals! Honestly, the thing we are most proud of is the fact that we produce all-natural organic foods. The microbiology of the soil and the booming insect population take care of most of the 'issues' for us.

Awhile back, a passerby asked if what we grow in the garden is exclusively vegetables. Not anymore! We officially have cantaloupes the size of softballs growing throughout the garden. Their vines are spilling outside of the enclosed beds as if they weren't even there. That's the same story for the squash, zucchini, and cucumber. Their vines extend outward inches a day. It's really quite impressive.

Cantaloupe vines sprawled out everywhere!

In other news, the hoop house has been fitted with new raised beds, and other greenhouse furniture is in the works. The greenhouse plastic is also soon to be fitted, but more on that to come! From all of us, we thank you for your continued support. Swing by the garden any time to see our progress!

SPROUT Garden Update, Week of July 22nd

A bee pollinating a cantaloupe flower

Greetings! Last week the blog was left unattended, due to there not being anything particularly exciting to report.

Last week we (the gardeners, not the plants) suffered the intense heat wave. As expected, however, the plants didn't mind. Everything grew to some extent despite chronic dry soil and a constant need for watering. We've noticed a steady increase in the bee population in the garden, which is quite exciting. Pollination has been one of our long-term concerns.

Eggplant

The eggplant plants, which have been producing gorgeous flowers, have now begun growing eggplants, to our delight. Similarly, our hot peppers have begun growing pods, and our sole pumpkin plant has begun growing pumpkins. It is an exciting time for the SPROUT Garden—to finally see the fruits (quite literally) of our labor.

Today, for sale, we have beets, scallions, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes (our first harvest!), basil, broccoli, hot sauce, and pesto—homemade with organic pesto basil from the garden. If sales are sufficient today, we will breach $1,000 in earnings so far this summer. That is an achievement in itself.

Our collection of sale items for today

Until next time...

SPROUT Garden Update, week of July 8th

The sun shone bright this past week, which fueled up the many plants in the garden. Growth has been staggering. We've been forced to move some plants as a result.

Bell Pepper

Broccoli

Good news! The cucumbers and squashes are vibrant and rapidly expanding. There aren't any signs of disease or pests, either. We expect a massive fall harvest—thanks to the 90°+ weather and blue skies we've been having lately. In terms of current harvests, though, this week we're selling beets, scallions, red lettuce, basil, dill, and Mosshead's local hot sauce. Today we also sold long white radishes, however those went rather quickly. More of those on the horizon...

In other news, the hoop house (the steel-framed greenhouse in the garden) is set to be furnished with new hard plastic sides, which will better resist wind damage than the original plastic we had used before. This is in attempt to extend the growing season into the fall and winter, where we will be able to continue to output organic produce to the public. We have high hopes for late this year and early next year.

Mature Long White Radish... and Kristina!

Until next week...

SPROUT Garden Update, week of July 1st

Sweet Potato

Last week we had a fantastic harvest that included fresh dill and basil. We have high hopes for the future with these herbs—organic homemade pesto is on our agenda.

The weather has been improving (well, not for us particularly), and the plants have been thriving. Our cucumber seedlings have popped up and look happy as ever. The sweet potatoes and bush beans are similarly looking rather fantastic. As mentioned in last week's post, we aren't seeing many invasive pests, and so the plants are free to grow as nature intended them to.

In last week's article we talked briefly about what cold crops are—sadly to say we have had to part with another cold crop: snap peas. Yield from the pea plants was not as high as expected, unfortunately. Plus, they really don't like the heat. Nevertheless, the pea plants will be reborn in the fall, when we will most likely dedicate much more space to growing and harvesting.

Cherry Tomato

For sales this week we plan to have more herbs and lettuces. I know, not particularly 'diverse' from what we've been selling all of summer break thus far, but most of our crops are late bloomers. Our variety in sales is limited. But we expect massive sales to erupt come fall. We have, as such, begun planting our fall crops. Be prepared for August, September, and October, for those months will probably be the apex of our sales.

Again, we thank any and all support faculty and student at Conn have given us. Keep reading!

SPROUT Garden Update, week of June 24th

To our delight, the weather has been improving. Many of the plants in the garden have exploded with growth. The past week has offered us much in terms of sales as a result. In essence, the garden is coming together, piece by piece, both in functionality and in beauty.

Dill

Basil

 

Last Tuesday and Thursday we sold an abundance of leafy greens, including tuscan kale, red leaf lettuce, and mixed lettuce. We also began to harvest snap peas which have been slowly growing since the garden's spring inception. Unfortunately, we weren't able to sell a large, significant amount. That is indeed indicative of our constraints. Our aim for the growing season is to produce a wide variety, and in doing so we limit our capacity for large harvests. Nonetheless(!) our pea plants are happily producing new pods daily, and so on each selling day in the near future we should have at least some to give away.

As of today, we've finished harvesting the last of the kale. Kale is typically a cold crop, meaning it produces best in spring and fall. From our understanding, this is due to the plant having to withstand colder nighttime temperatures. In doing so, the plant produces sugars which lower the freezing point of the vital water inside. Sugar creates a better tasting leaf. If we were to leave our kale to grow throughout the summer, the leaves would become progressively less sugary, bitterer, and less palatable. As such, kale is off the charts until the fall.

Cucumber seedling

In other news, we've been noticing a good amount of beneficial insects that have assisted us in pest management. Ladybugs appear to be frequenters in the garden—they take care of our aphid problem. There are also an abundance of spiders which we see gobbling up small bugs. The soil is rich with tiny insects as well which help with soil cultivation. All around there are very few bugs that are causing significant problems. 

Join us this Thursday for another harvest sale... 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Crozier-Williams. Until next week....!

SPROUT Garden Update, week of June 17th

Broccoli

Greetings from the new SPROUT Garden! So far the season has been exciting. The plants, especially the broccoli and kale, have grown to be quite large. Even in the past few weeks alone we have seen a tremendous amount of growth. Sure, there are some pests that seem to be enjoying munching on a few leaves, but overall this hasn't stunted progress.


The season began with harvests of radishes, chinese cabbage, and lettuce, all of which sold out almost instantaneously at our harvest sales. Demand was much higher than expected. Even in the weeks following we sold nearly all our produce. Kale and more lettuce followed the first harvests, but again these sold out immediately. Since then, we've sold more lettuce mixes and cabbage, red lettuce, arugula, and some local hot sauce and hot pepper plants. But this is just the beginning!

In terms of what we have been growing thus far, much of it consists of spring lettuces, kale, and broccoli. (In the coming weeks we will be harvesting and selling a steady supply of lettuce and kale to indulge local interest.) Other than that, we have beets, carrots, peppers (both bell and extremely hot varieties), snap peas, bush beans, fall lettuces, sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, eggplants, sunflowers, and various herbs.

Snap Peas

As mentioned, the kale and broccoli have blown up quite nicely, as have the snap peas (which will be on sale next Tuesday!). The lettuces have also been thriving. Everything else seems to be in good condition aside from the various squashes we have planted. The entirety of the original squash, cucumber, and zucchini crops all died out early likely due to rapidly changing (and cold) weather conditions. We replaced them with young plants from a local nursery, but even those have been struggling to hang on. There are a multitude of factors that could be contributing to their suffering—we're keeping our eyes peeled. We're praying to the weather gods to be kind.

We will be keeping this blog up-to-date, detailing the garden's progress, throughout the summer, so make sure to follow and maintain interest! We duly appreciate the amount of support that faculty have given us in the first month so far. We will not disappoint!

...until next week!

Soup and Sustainability!

On Friday Sprout! hosted a Soup and Sustainability campus-wide dinner in Coffee Grounds with fresh soups and bread, salad and pies! Arthur Learner FRESH New London came to give a talk on sustainability and the importance of getting involved in the food security movement. Many of us are already getting involved by supporting the GMO labeling bill in Connecticut and by attending workdays at FRESH New London. The event was a huge success and we look forward to hosting more dinners in the future. As spring approaches, we will be starting our work days and getting outside to work in our new garden site! There is a potential plan for weekend Farmer's Market here at Conn this spring where we could sell our vegetables. Keep an eye out for a Farmer's Market on the Larabee Green this spring!

Our first meeting of the semester!

The first Sprout! meeting of the spring '13 semester took place tonight at 8:30 in Cro. Meeting will be held every monday at this time upstairs in Cro. We are already getting off to a great start! This sunday the plastic for the hoop house will be put up by students, and soon we will have solar panels to keep the hoop house warm all winter long. A group of Sproutees went to Groton last Wednesday to a meeting about GMO labeling that was led by Will from Food and Water Watch. The movement to require labeling of GMO foods should pass on the ballot this spring, but there is a campaign of letters, petitions, etc. further supporting the movement, and Sprout! has gotten involved in this very important movement.   We sets goals for the semester which include having more Sprout! events including a dinner which will be held in Coffee Grounds on Feb. 15th. Arthur Learner of New London FRESH will be there to give a talk. 

Sprout Harvest Celebration!

In Earth House this evening, Sprout celebrated the season's harvest with a wonderful meal and a discussion about farming and spirituality with local farmer, Bob Burns. Bob runs a local farm that produces just enough food to satify local buyers and break even. Bob places a huge emphasis on the spiritual connection between humans and the earth. He stressed that the most radical thing that someone can do is to have their own garden, and grow their own food. The meal consisted of locally harvested foods and homemade dishes including soups, salads and pie! It was a night filled with good food, great people, and inspiring conversation.

Sprout Gardeners Against Monsanto

On Friday September 7^th, Bob Burns, ex-marine turned Buddhist organic farmer and sustainability activist, came to Connecticut College to share his knowledge with the class of Cultivating Change, an Anthropology seminar taught by Professor Cole.  He invited the class, and anyone who wanted to come, to join him for a rally against Monsanto, a company selling genetically modified seeds around the world and doing their best to cover up their trail.

On Saturday September 15^th, members of the class and members of Sprout journeyed to the Monsanto headquarters in Mystic, CT to rally along side Bob and his crew of organic farmers, organic food vendors, and supporters of the fight against Monsanto.  The cry of the people was for truth.  Monsanto has been hiding the truth by not including the poisons they’re putting into our bodies on their labels.   We need to be informed about the food choices we’re making.  The group motto was: “Label today, ban tomorrow!”

There was an impressive turnout for the rally of up to 72 at its peak and about 40 steady.  The group consisted of people of all ages, including toddler organic farmers-to-be helping by coloring in the letters of signs (See photo above).   Bob pointed out that education of the next generation is what will make a difference in the future of farming.  A number of people, including Bob, spoke about the truth and what we can do to add to the fight.  According to Bob, “The most radical thing you can do is to start your own organic garden.”  Well Sprout is already on it!

An additional speaker was former congressman, Rob Simmons.  He observed that, “We label everything in this country.  We even label ourselves!  Why not label our food?  We deserve truth in advertising and the right to know what’s in our food so we can make the choice.”   He encouraged us to become “smiling pests” to government officials and the press and urged us to all write letters to the editors of local papers, then “There you go.  You’re an activist!”

After the rally, we were all invited to come back to Bob’s farm, Aiki Farms in Ledyard, CT, for a sprouting seminar, tour of the farm, a Zen tea ceremony and an organic feast.  What a gracious farmer!  After a reception in his living room, a beautiful open space with thick wooden beams and a swing in the center of the room, we headed down to the basement for a detailed demonstration of how to grow sprouts (See photo below).  We each got to bring home a sample of the pea sprouts, which are a delicious snack!

As we were thanking Bob, he expressed that he wants his connection with our Sprout Garden to be a permanent relationship.  He wants to help us in any way he can with sharing knowledge, supplies, and support.  He even said he would come double dig and plow our land!  We look forward to the growing relationship with Bob. 

Spinach Recipes

For those of you readers who are in New England, this is the time of year to enjoy fresh spinach from your garden or your local farmer's market.  Check out these easy and delicious spinach recipes by Mark Bittman in the New York Times.
Spinach Recipes

Quick Update: Early season crops

Yesterday (Sunday April 1st) Sprout members planted our early spring cold-tolerant crops, spinach, chamomile, mixed greens and potatoes.  We used the trench method to plant potatoes.  We dug a trench 12 feet long, four feet wide, and 1.5 feet deep.  Then we planted the seed potatoes at the bottom of the trench, under two inches of loose soil.  The seed potatoes used were blue potatoes saved from last year's harvest, and white potatoes from Maine that a sprout member kindly contributed.  We piled up the soil dug out of the trench along the sides of the trench.  As the potato plants grow, we will fill in the dirt to cover the stems of the potato plants.  When the stems are underground, they will become rhizomes which produce the potatoes.  The deeper the potato plants are buried, the longer the rhizomes become, and the more potatoes they produce. 

Potatoes can be planted when the forsythia bushes flower.  This is an example of phenology applied to gardening.  Phenology is the study of the timing of biological events.  For more about phenology, check out this document. 

Seaweed in the Garden

Seaweed as a mulch has many benefits to an organic garden. It has been used traditionally in nearly all coastal regions to improve the fertility of the soil, although Ireland and Scotland are especially famous for their traditional use of seaweed in agriculture. Some of the benefits include:
The salt and the sharp edges of dried seaweed repel slugs.
The seaweed also forms a barrier to prevent loss of water by evaporation from the soil, sealing the moisture into the soil.
It blocks weeds.
Seaweed supplies mineral nutrients in an easily absorbed chelated form to the plants
Low in fiber, seaweed breaks down quickly to add organic matter to the soil, loosening compacted soil

Luckily, the Sprout garden is located conveniently close to the shore, so we have access to an ample supply of this beneficial mulch. At our last workday, a group of students went to the beach to gather seaweed and brought back many bags of it to the garden. If you are not near the coast, concentrated kelp emulsions are available in most home gardening stores, so that you too can benefit from applying seaweed to your garden.

Learn more about seaweed for gardening at Eartheasy Blog.

I hope all of you located in New England have been enjoying the beautiful and unusually warm March weather. Here at the Sprout garden, we have been taking advantage of the warm weather by cleaning out our garden and preparing it for spring plantings.

Planning for 2012!

Above, a picture from the 2011 growing season of a cat basking in the summer sun in the Sprout garden.

The days are getting longer and spring is just around the corner. Sprout has begun preparations for the 2012 growing season. We cleared out the garden, which still has abundant kale, due to the hardiness of this crop and an exceptionally mild winter (for Connecticut). We turned over our compost pile and found it nicely decomposed.

At our most recent meeting we ordered seeds for the garden. We also have some seeds saved from the past growing season. We ordered the Snowdown collection from horizon herbs, a collection of crops selected for their ability to withstand the cold. Planted in late summer, the crops will continue to produce through the winter with heavy mulching and protection from a cold frame or hoop house.

Sprout is also beginning the planning and implementation of a relocation of the garden. The new area will provide us with more space, and convenient location near the new sustainability center on campus. More details to come in blog post soon!

Below is the list of crops we will grow in 2012:

Herbs:

Basil

Parsley

Chives

Lemongrass

Thyme

Rosemary – we already have in the garden

Peppermint – we already have in the garden

Cilantro

Sage

Marjoram

Oregano

Fruit vegetables:

Zucchini

Eggplant

Tomatillos

Onions

Ground cherries

Tomatoes (for fresh eating)

Paste tomatoes for tomato sauce

Cucumbers – from saved seeds, also bought a packet

Tomatillos

Five kinds of hot peppers

Delicata squash

Sugar pumpkins

Sugar snap peas

Green beans – from saved seeds

Hard shell gourds - from saved seeds

Green Leafy Vegetables:

Collard greens

Kale

Swiss chard

mixed salad greens

Flowers:

Sunflowers

Nasturtiums

Lavender

Chamomile

Marigolds

Seed Vegetables:

Soup beans – from saved seeds

Pumpkins (the kind grown for the seeds, not the flesh)

Anasazi sweet corn

Root vegetables:

Blue Potatoes

Radishes

Snowdown, a collection of seeds for the fall/winter:

Beet, Touchstone Gold

Broccoli, Green Sprouting

Cabbage, Chirimen Hakusai

Carrots, Scarlet Nantes

Greens, Collard, Champion

Greans, Creasy (Winter Cress)

Kale, Vates

Leeks, Bandit

Lettuce, Winter Density

Peas, Snow (Mammoth Melting)

Radish, Daikon, Miyashige White

Spinach, Winter

Inspiring Story

I thought that this article was very inspiring. It's about a man who observed the rain runoff patterns in the street and used harvested runoff rain water to grow a garden in the city.

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2008/08/23/farming-in-the-city-with-runoff-from-a-street/

Interesting Story About Sunflowers

I thought that this story about Sunflowers on NPR was very interesting. Check it out.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/05/144695733/how-the-russians-saved-americas-sunflower

Ten Reasons to Grow Sunflowers

10 Reasons to grow sunflowers

1. Attractive appearance

   Sunflowers add beauty to your garden and are a delight to the eye.

2. Pollination

   Sunflowers attract and provide food for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, increasing the yields of your crops.

3. Birds

   If you do not cover the heads of the sunflowers with paper bags when they are maturing, you will get to see birds such a goldfinches performing brave acrobatic feats to pluck seeds from the sunflowers. Planting sunflowers is a great way to feed the birds.

4. Decontaminate Toxic Soil

   Sunflowers can remove many toxic metals from the soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. This process is known as bioremediation. To clean the soil, grow the sunflowers, harvest all parts of the plant and bring them to a proper facility for disposal. Sunflowers were even used to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a pond near the Chernobyl disaster. Plant sunflowers if soil testing reveals that your soil has unacceptably high levels of toxic metals.

5. Support for climbing plants

   If the sunflowers are given a head start by 1-2 weeks, they can be grown as support for vines such as pole beans and cucumbers.

6. Edible seeds

   The seeds from the sunflower can be harvested to eat as a snack. Cover the sunflower heads with a paper bag when they are nearing maturity. This will protect your crop from being eaten by the birds.

7. Easy to grow

   Sunflowers are among the most simple and easy flower to grow. They only require 6-8 hours of full sun and well-drained soil to grow successfully, and can be grown in most regions of the world.

8. Allelopathic to weeds

   All parts of the sunflower plant emit chemicals that are harmful to many species of weeds, but will not harm most other food crops.

9. Giant Sunflowers

   If you want an impressive garden, certain varieties of sunflowers, grown in ideal conditions, will reach truly impressive heights. The world record for the tallest sunflower was over 25 feet tall.

10. Colors

    Sunflowers come in more colors than just the classic yellow. Orange and red varieties are also available. Sunflowers range in color from a very dark, nearly black burgundy to a very pale, nearly white yellow. Bicolor variations also occur, such as red on the outside of the petals with a ring of yellow near the inside of the petals.

Did you know? A single sunflower is not just one flower, but 1-2 thousand flowers joined together.

The genome of the sunflower contains slightly more genes than the human genome.

A Successful Sproutfest: A Food Day Event

Steamed kale being served at Sproutfest 2011

Attendees enjoy vegetarian chili, grass-fed beef chili, pasta with cabbage, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread and pumpkin cookies.

Celebrating the harvest with some local apples.

Tonight sprout held Sproutfest, our annual autumn dinner, featuring local, seasonal foods. The meal incorporated beans, pumpkins and kale from the garden, along with other produce from local farms. Some of the selections included beef from Four Mile River Farm in Old Lyme, CT; sweet potatoes and onions from Philomel Gardens in Preston CT; cheese from Neighborly Farms of Vermont; wheat from Still River Farm in Coventry, CT; apples from Raven Hill Orchard in Maine; and butter from Wildowsky Dairy in Lisbon, CT. The meal also incorporated local eggs, maple syrup and cabbage. Many students and faculty came to the event to eat food and learn more about the sprout garden. The event was put on in collaboration with Food Day.

Gourds Galore

A small gourd harvested from the garden, more photos to come soon of some of the other gourds.

Today Sprout, together with the help of the Conn College groundskeeping crew, harvested 57 gourds from the garden. Gourds, also known as calabash, have traditionally been used as water jugs, water dippers and bowls. They are now also used for decoration and to make bird houses. Gourds can be carved or painted to create artwork. The Annual Gourd Festival celebrates the many beautiful works of art that have been made with gourds. Looking at the gourds harvested from the garden, I can't help but feel impressed by their smooth, unique rounded shapes and by the different patterns and shades of green that they have on their skin. Many of the gourds are also rather large! Over the next few months, the gourds will dry and become hollow, and can then be used for bowls, containers and/or bird houses. The gourds are natural works of art that can be cherished for years. They will be for sale at harvestfest.

Fall Semester So Far

A meal of fried green tomatoes and mashed purple potatoes, all harvested from the Sprout! garden.

Fall Harvest: Beans, tomatoes, a baby carrot, rosemary and corn from the Sprout! garden.

A miniature decorative pumpkin from the garden.

Purple potatoes and the last of the cucumbers harvested from the garden.

This area was where the squash, cucumber and sunflowers were growing. It has been cleared out to make way for the fall crops. Soon after this picture was taken, kale, spinach, lettuce, broccoli and cabbage were planted in this area and have now sprouted already.

The Semester So Far:

So far this semester we have had three successful workdays and one farmer's market. We have cleared out the debris from our summer crops, and planted some fall/winter crops. These fall/winter crops include kale, spinach, cabbage and broccoli. We also planted black seeded simpson, a famously cold-tolerant variety of lettuce. We have had abundant harvests of heirloom shell beans, potatoes, miniature pumpkins and winter squash. The hardshell gourds are ripening and drying on the vine and we can expect to harvest many of those soon.

The first hard frost is coming very soon, so we will be setting up a cold frame this week to protect the tender young vegetables from the frost. A cold frame is a miniature temporary greenhouse to help established crops through the cooler fall and winter months, thus extending the short Connecticut growing season. We are building ours out of bamboo poles, rocks, and clear plastic.

Our big event this semester, Sproutfest! is happening in just two weeks on October 24th. We are having the event on National Food Day. We will be serving a local dinner on campus, and giving presentations about the garden. The dinner will feature local produce, including hot soup made with beans and squash from the garden.