Random Farm Knowledge: Part 2

This is my second installation of Random Farm Knowledge, where I detail things I've learned at my internship on the University of Minnesota's Student Organic Farm. It's crazy how much this internship is teaching me about food and farming. Writing it all down is almost necessary so I don't forget it all! Many of my discoveries at the farm revolved around weeds you can eat.

1. Purslane is something I've been pulling out and throwing away, never knowing it was so tasty! We actually harvested the huge amount we had growing around our tomato plants and sold it at one of our farmers market stands. It sold out, so I would call that a success. The Barefoot Food blog has a great post about Purslane that talks about all the great nutrients that are packed into this one little plant.


2. Palmer Amaranth, also known as pigweed, is edible as well. It tastes best cooked as you would cook spinach. An awesome article just came out called "This weed is taking over the planet! On the upside, it's delicious!" that talks about the benefits of eating amaranth. One of the articles it links too talks about the "weed mindset" that we have and how these greens are underutilized as food crops.

Over at our student organic farm blog, I recently wrote a post about our friends the edible weeds. We have so many of them that we'd love to have volunteers come out and harvest some of their own. We also can show them what plants they should be looking for, since no one should eat plants that they can't properly identify. Check it out here.


3. Broccoli and kohlrabi leaves are edible too. Generally they make a good cooking green and are often large enough to wrap around other ingredients and grilled that way. Here's a good post on broccoli greens.

4. Dill can be used for different things at different points of it's life. Obviously before it flowers it's good for fresher eating and seasonings. After it flowers and seeds, however, it's still good for pickling. So don't worry if your dill is flowering and your cucumbers aren't ready for pickle making.

5. Lastly, more of a personal discovery, I LOVE trying fresh herbs and greens with cottage cheese. My favorite combinations so far are basil and cottage cheese, and purslane and cottage cheese. Yum. :) Every week on Thursdays our farm has a potluck lunch and I've found so many new foods and food combinations that I like!

Did you learn anything new in your garden this week? Let me know!

The Garden of Misfit Plants

Every year I seem to have an unconventional garden set-up. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don't actually have a garden where I live. Why a landlord would decide to pave over any empty space in the backyard I will never understand, but the only option it has left me with is to find garden space elsewhere. Luckily, the Cornercopia Student Organic Farm that I am an intern at this summer offers it's interns a 10ft x 12ft plot to do with what they wish. Jackpot. After figuring out how to work the tiller, weeding out the plot and raking it flat, I was good to go. I had a few things of my own (mostly tomatoes and a lonely zuchetta plant) to put in the plot, but those only took up a small portion of the space I had at my disposal. 

My zuchetta plant which I started from seed is doing rather well.

This is where my orphaned plant garden began. Working on a farm, you often don't plant every single transplant that you grow out in the greenhouses. Usually it's a matter of growing too many transplants and not having enough space in the field for all of them. I've always had a soft spot for plants that aren't doing so great. I always feel so bad for them and just want to give them a fighting chance, instead of just watching them waste away in unwatered pots. This was the case with a good number of the plants I acquired. The basil, peppers and calendula were all leftover plants that were eventually going to get composted. 

One of the orphaned sweet peppers.

The other plants were the runts of their respective trays. Most of the melon plants were large and had several of their true leaves on them. The runts, however, barely had one or two true leaves, as you can see in the picture below. 

One of the runts of the Sweet Dakota Rose watermelon litter.

The last plants are brassicas that somehow ended up sprouting in the pepper plant flats and no one really knows what they are (my guess is they're broccoli). I popped them out of their adopted flats and put them in my plot just to see what they'd do.

So, in list form, my garden currently has:
-Tomatoes (5 plants, varieties can be found here)
-Sweet Peppers (4 plants)
-King Arthur Sweet Peppers (3 plants)
-Unidentified Brassicas (2 plants)
-Sweet Dakota Rose Watermelon (2 plants)
-Muskmelon (1 plant)
-Zuchetta (1 plant)
-Basil (5 plants)
-Calendula (5 plants)

I have a few more of my own Roma tomato plants and a pepper plant to add to the mix, but we'll see if I end up adding anything more to the mix. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to garden again this summer, no matter how unconventional it is. I'm also happy I can satisfy my inner nurturer that just wants to save as many orphaned plants as I can. I never want anything to go to waste in gardening, plants included. I never thought I would grow melons or brassicas this summer, but these misfit plants definitely changed my mind. I just hope all of them end up making it!

World Cup Flowers

Scrolling through my Twitter feed this week, I couldn't help notice the Royal Horticultural Society's tweets about the national flowers of the countries participating in the world cup. They would ask their followers to "vote" on which team they wanted to win based on which flower they preferred, a much better way of doing things in my opinion because I often have no idea how to choose who to root for in soccer matches. I always get interested in our history with plants and how we come to choose flowers to represent different things, countries included, so I thought I'd dive into the history of the national plants for the four quarter-final teams and why they were chosen for their respective countries.

Brazil

Tecoma chrysostricha (left) and Cattleya labita (right)

According to sources that I found, Brazil seems to have two flowers it holds in national regard. The first, Tecoma chrysostricha is called the "National Flower Emblem" of Brazil. The second, Cattleya labita, is often called the "State Flower" of Brazil. Slightly confusing, but I guess the ust couldn't decide between the two. Tecoma chrysotricha, also known as Ipe-amarelo (caled so by the indigenous peoples of Brazil) is the flower of a native, broad-leafed tree that is found in the decidous forests of South America. It belongs to the tropical family of bignonias that has over four hundred species found in Brazil. It gained prominence when it was made the national flower emblem by President Quadros.

Cattleya labita, also known as the corsage orchid, is very popular in festivals in Brazil. It primarily grows in the northeastern part of Brazil where it was discovered in 1818. 

Germany

Centaurea cyanus, also known as the blue cornflower, is the national flower of Germany. It is thought that this is in part because of the story that Queen Louise of Prussia, who was fleeing Berlin pursued by Napoleon's forces, hid her children in a field of cornflowers and kept the quiet by weaving wreaths for them out of the flowers. It also became associated with Prussia because it was the same color as the Prussian military uniform. When Germany became a unified country in 1871, the blue cornflower symbol stayed. Other ties to German history include becoming a political symbol, with members of the Freedom Party wearing it at the opening of the Austrian parliament in 2005, and being the favorite flower of Kaiser Wilhelm.

Argentina

Erythrina cristina galli, also known as the ceibo or Cockspur Coral Tree, was declared the national tree and flower of Argentina on December 2nd, 1942. This species in the Fabaceae family usually grows in forests along waterways and in swamps and wetlands. The tallest varieites are found in the Argentine provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Tucuman.

Netherlands

The tulip is the obvious national flower of the Netherlands. Even though the tulip is not "official" (there hasn't been any decree of any sort to make it the national flower) it's the flower that the country is best known for. The Netherlands produces three billion tulip bulbs a year, making it the most prominent producer of tulip bulbs in the world. Tulips were first introduced into the Netherlands by Carolus Clusius in 1573. The tulips he planted at Leiden University began the infamous "tulip mania" where some single tulip bulbs were said to cost ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. Tulip mania ended when the tulip market crashed extraordinarily. In the Netherlands today, the tulip has come to symbolize the briefness of life and tulip festivals are held annually.

Sources:
http://www.brazil.org.za/national-symbols.html#.U7h63fldWSo
http://nationalflowers.info/2010/12/21/national-flower-brazil-cattleya-labiata/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurea_cyanus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrina_crista-galli
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/netherlands/nlsymbols.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

Spirea Pruning

Today, after working six hours at the farm, I got home and decided today was the day I was going to prune the spirea outside my duplex. My inner gardener cringed in horror every time I walked out my door and saw the sad sad state these poor spirea shrubs were in. I live in a rental duplex and am in no way responsible for grounds maintenance, but I honestly don't think these shrubs have been prune in years. Spirea are pretty tough plants, so they were still growing and flowering some under all that dead material, but I knew they would be much much happier if I could give them a little breathing room. I knew it wasn't the most optimal time of year to be pruning, but spirea can take a pretty rough pruning once and a while, so I knew I probably would be doing more good than harm.

Look at these poor things. Hidden under dead branches and weeds.

                                  

One determined gardener with pruners comes to the rescue!

Honestly, I didn't think it was going to take two hours. But after working a full day on a farm, I still was determined to get the job done. It's still a little weedy because the tiny patch of "lawn" behind it is mainly weeds and there's really not much I can do for that. I had a pile of dead sticks and weeds that was about 3ft tall by the time I finished. It was worth it to see how much happier the plants looked. One of the neighbor ladies who walks by with her dog approved also. 

                        

Harvest Excitement

Harvest day at the farm is my absolute favorite. It's the real reason I do the work I do because it's so incredibly satisfying to pick those ripe raspberries or that perfect head of lettuce and know that it's going to end up on someone's plate. Today, I had the pleasure of adventuring through the jungle that is the perennial herb/fruit tree/berry plot to find the seasons first berries, some mint and even a few cherries! The lettuces my coworkers harvested looked scrumptious as well. One of the other highlights of the day, besides the berry picking, was harvest basil. My mouth waters just thinking about how good that basil smelled.

                              

Speaking of basil, I planted that in my personal garden plot at the farm today. I can't wait to add it to my pasta dishes soon! I also planted my tomato plants (finally!) over the weekend and I'm excited for the next good soaking of rain to send them shooting out new growth. Minnesota has been ending June slightly damp from all the rain that's been coming through. But the upside to that is that after most of the major storms we've had, hot sunny weather has followed, meaning that the plants grow like crazy!

Our squashes shot out a couple of inches after the last storm and, over the weekend an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) practicum took place on the farm and gave us a heads up on some squash bugs that decided they wanted to lay their eggs on our beauties. We spent most of Monday on our hands and knees, examining each individual squash plant for these nasty buggers. Squash bugs lay copper colored eggs in clusters on the underside of leaves and just picking them off won't stop them from hatching. You'll need to drop the eggs in soapy water in order to kill them.

                             

We also found a few live bugs and some tasty grubs for our boys out in the chicken pasture. We've got a little under 200 Red Ranger broiler chickens in "chicken tractors" that we move along the field. The chickens get to be outside and have new ground to peck at every day and we get our field fertilized. 

                                   

We'll be sad to see them go, but in a few weeks we'll have another batch of broilers to raise from chicks. And who doesn't love little fluffy chicks?

Random Farm Knowledge: Part 1

Working on the organic farm at my university this summer has quickly taught me a lot of things. Lesson Number One is to ask A LOT of questions. I feel like asking questions is part of my job. I've also started to accumulate a lot of random bits of knowledge. Most of this comes from my amazing supervisor who's been with the farm since it started and did her Horticulture undergrad and Ag Education masters at my university. Other stuff comes from trial and error (aka: Abby makes a mistake and then doesn't make that mistake again). This is the first part of the Random Farm Knowledge series that I'll try to do every so often.

1. White Dutch Clover makes an awesome row cover and cover crop. Why spend time weeding pathways when you can just seed it with clover and let that grow up instead? It also makes awesome pollinator habitat and just looks so darn pretty.

2. Cucumbers, watermelons, squashes, zucchini, etc don't like their roots touched. These plants can often be finicky transplants, and a big reason why is that if you touch their roots too much when transplanting, they get kinda upset.

3. You can eat lambsquarters. I've been pulling this weed out of gardens my whole life, not knowing that the small plants can be eaten in salads. Crazy.

4. Speaking of lambsquarters, quinoa is in the same family as the common weed, so herbicides that kill lambsquarters can also harm quinoa.

5. YOU CAN MAKE JELLY OUT OF DANDELIONS!!  You only use the yellow petals and it makes an amazing jelly. Our supervisor made it and we tried it on gingersnaps, which was awesome.

6. You can grow cold-hardy kiwis. So that's pretty awesome.

That's it for now! But hopefully I'll accumulate some more Random Farm Knowledge soon!

Farming!!

Hello everyone!
I've been a bit quieter than I'd like to be recently as I've started settling in to my new job as a Marketing Intern at Cornercopia Student Organic Farm on the University of Minnesota campus. I'm LOVING this job. It's more hard work than I've probably ever done for a job, but it's incredibly enjoyable and my co-workers are fantastic and fun to work with. We've been going absolutely crazy with planting anything and everything lately. We just got 910 tomato plants (80 varieties!) in the ground at the beginning of the week, as well as sweet peppers, hot peppers, basil, squash, watermelon and potatoes.

That's a lot of tomatoes!!

The farm itself has been around since 2004 and has been certified organic for most of the time that it's been around. The farm partially serves as a learning tool so students like me can work as interns, do research and take classes that relate to an organic farm and have a real-life model for their studies. I took the Organic Farm Class this past semester so our lab section did a lot of the seeding for the farm. The farm also sells it's produce to the University community. The University Dining Service buys a lot of our produce for catered events and their dining halls on campus. The Campus Club, a restaurant located in the top floor of our student union, also buys our produce and does pretty awesome things with it. They're really committed to using local and organic produce (their chef insists it makes everything taste better and I totally agree).

My job specifically is to A) work as a general farm intern (planting, weeding, harvesting, etc) and B) to work as one of the two marketing interns that head up farmers market stands that sell produce on both the Minneapolis campus and St. Paul campus portions of the UMN-Twin Cities campus. Our market stands officially start up after July 4th and I'm so excited to start that portion of my internship. The other great part about being an intern is the 10ft by 12ft plot that I have to do whatever I want with. Currently, it only has two brassicas and three sweet pepper plants in it, but eventually it'll have zuchetta, zucchini, 8 different varieties of tomatoes, salad greens and possibly bean plants as well. I'll have more on that later.

The plot is looking a bit barren at the moment but that'll change within a week or so!

In the meantime, if you want to look in on what the farm is up to, you can find them on Facebook here or follow their blog here.