Love Apple Farms

Harvest Tuesday

Here's what we harvested for Manresa today:

Pac choi, cauliflower (two kinds), radishes, beets (three kinds), turnips, pea shoots, carrots (five kinds), kale (three kinds), New Zealand spinach, Bordeaux spinach, rapini, savoy cabbage, tatsoi, lettuces (three kinds), Violas, Calendula, fennel, mizuna, Chrysanthemum greens, red mustard, parsley, sorrel, cress, red cabbage sprouts, mache, minutina, arugula, chard, hon tsai tai and cardoons.  Oh, and we threw a few chicken eggs in the picture just for fun.

Invigorating the Garden with Prep 500

This week we applied biodynamic Prep 500 to all our beds. Prep 500 is composed of fresh cow manure that has been stuffed inside cow horns and buried for the six months between the spring and fall equinoxes. This picture, courtesy of Chez Pim, shows our cow horns freshly filled with manure last year and awaiting burial.  While underground, it is infused with the energy of the earth, and decomposes into a rich, completely non-smelly elixir. The small photo is of the manure after it's been buried for six months.  Isn't it beautiful?  It is then ready to be mixed and applied.

Prep 500, also also called "horn manure," is a soil enlivener. In biodynamics, we recognize that soil health is key to plant growth. But Prep 500 is not like worm castings or manure or compost, which are all typically applied by the shovel-full. We use only a small amount, some would say a homeopathic amount.  We begin with about three or four ounces of this manure-based substance, and mix it up into several gallons of water. We are making a medicine for the soil, so to speak, and every aspect of it needs to be a pure as possible.

We begin with well water – more pure than our city water. We bring the water to a warm temperature by heating over a natural fire. The ‘natural’ part of the fire – that it’s heat be based on a flame – is important for esoteric reasons which I cannot fully explain, though I get the essential reasoning. We’re not bombarding this water with electricity or microwaves, we’re heating it naturally. Once the water is warm, we take the prep in our hand; plunge it into the water, and begin to swirl it around, releasing it. Then we begin what is perhaps the most important part of the procedure: aerating it.  It's important to stir it in a certain fashion, to create vortexes that force the water high up onto the sides of the container.  A deep, conical depression is in the middle of our swirling. This is a vortex. Once we have a good vortex, we sustain it for a few moments, then violently interrupt it with our stirring implement, creating a bit of chaos as we begin to create a vortex in another direction. This process of vortexing – interruption – vortexing is repeated for one hour. Focus is maintained on the preparation, since we are making medicine for our soil.

As I directed Christopher through his first stirring, I told him how important it was during the hour to be quiet, focus on the vortex, and treat the stirring as a meditation.  He later wrote down his impressions: "I had time during the hour of vortexing to ponder what it is we were doing, and why it should work. And I recalled the perfect beauty of the horn manure. How it exemplified what we look for in a high quality soil or soil amendment, being moist, colloidal, and structured. And I thought of the vortexing procedure which is what plants are doing with respect to bringing the earth into light and the light into earth, as biodynamics recognizes. And it occurred to me that perhaps this preparation provides to the soil a template or vibrational exemplar toward which to aspire, and that by spreading it lightly around we are providing the soil with a goal worth working towards." Great meditation, Chris!

Now at the end of the stirring, it is dusk, and we are ready to apply it to our soils.  We do this with brushes, which we dip into the finished prep and flick droplets onto our planting beds.  This is a seemingly tiny amount, don't you think?  But we are talking here about a powerful substance, used in homeopathic quantities, that we trust will bring about subtle but significant improvements in our soil.

Horn manure prep is but one of the "elixirs" prescribed by Rudolph Steiner, the father of biodynamic agriculture.  His theories of natural growing preceded the modern organic movement.  Organic gardening overlaps many of Steiner's tenets.  Some call his ideas "voo-doo."  Some dismiss them out of hand.  The proof, to me, is in the growing.  And the healthiest gardens I've ever seen have been biodynamic ones.  So we'll continue our black magic here and thumb our nose at the skeptics.

 

Frosty California Mornings

When talking to folks in other parts of the country I sometimes like to fudge a bit and emphasize the warm temperatures we are enjoying here at the farm during the day. I guess this is because most non-desert locales experience less drastic temperature swings than we do in a typical twenty-four hour period. So when I tell others that it’s 61degrees Fahrenheit, I neglect to mention that the night-time low was 23 (minus 5 degrees Celsius).

Although some plants, like red mustard seem more-or-less able to tolerate the extreme night-time lows, most plants quickly give up the ghost without some form of protection. So every evening at dusk, Love Apple Farm undergoes a transformation. All our plants are covered up and tucked-in, beneath sturdy frost blankets.  These coverings are truly life savers for the plants, and for the farm, since our winter garden must continue to produce throughout even the coldest months. We also cover the rows inside our giant hoophouse, as the ambient interior temperature will only be about one degree warmer than the exterior during the night.

We mostly use the heaviest frost blanket available, which is rated to protect up to 10 degrees below freezing (although they seem to work just fine even lower than that).  These blankets can be purchased lighter weight as well, which will allow more sunlight in.  Since we use the heavy, we must uncover the rows first thing in the morning. You do not want to uncover until the temperature is above 32 degrees (0 degrees Celsius).  If you do, very sensitive plants (like lettuces) can still be damaged.

Farm Animal of the Week: White Cochin Hen

Isn't she gorgeous?  She's a Cochin hen, a large breed that is known for their gentle natures and fluffy feet.  I call them my Frodo chickens (for those of you not familiar with Hobbits, they have furry feet).

My son, Zach took this picture, and he was lucky to get it with the hen eating a sprig of parsley.   We give our hens just about everything we don't send to the restaurant or compost.  Weeds, Manresa kitchen scraps, our own kitchen scraps, harvest trimmings, or brush trimmings, the girls get most of it.  It keeps our feed costs down, gives the hens treats that they dearly love, not to mention that a diet rich in lots of different things results, I believe, in better tasting eggs.  I swear their eggs are extra herbalicious when we do our twice annual cutting back of our herb garden.  I'm not sure how the bugs they are always catching affect the taste of the eggs, but at least it's really good protein.

The hens know when we're bringing them treats.  They see us walking toward them with a bucket or a wheelbarrow, and they come running.  We dump the receptacles in their pen and they happily scratch, squawk, and cluck in delight.

What I've noticed over the years is that they're not the biggest fan of tomatoes.  Could it be they instinctively think it's a deadly type of a nightshade?  I'm convinced they can automatically tell when a plant or a piece of kitchen scrap isn't good for them.  Despite this eerie instinct, they eventually reluctantly accept the tomatoes, preferring the seedier varieties.  Maybe I'm imagining this reluctance.  It couldn't be that they're just tired of the hundreds of pounds of tomatoes they get fed over the course of a season, could it?  Sometimes I almost see them sigh when I give them yet another bucket of tomatoes. 

It does make for some pretty tasty huevos rancheros, though. Thanks, gorgeous!

Biodynamics and Root Vegetable Sowing

Post by Christopher Donovan

I first encountered biodynamics when I studied for a year at Sunbridge College (formerly The Rudolph Steiner Institute), in Chestnut Ridge, New York.  My fellow students and I were studying to be Waldorf teachers,  reading a lot of Steiner, and being exposed to all of the wacky things that Steiner-folks do -- like sculpture, eurythmy, and biodynamic gardening.  Each week we students would trudge out to the garden, where -- under the watchful eye of a god-like man named Gunther -- we would be instructed in the metaphysics of soil enhancement and plant growth. 

For in biodynamics, the metaphysics -- the larger than physical -- comes first.  To try and explain biodynamics as a list of prescriptions or tenets is like describing an ocean as a compilation of water and salt, together with the animals that live in it.  Technically true, but the poetry is gone, and so is the essence.

The essence of biodynamics is a holistic understanding of the plant as a being.  Part of what allows biodynamics to succeed in producing such radically tasty and powerfully nutritious vegetables is its awareness of the influences of other forces in the cosmos:  lunar forces, planetary influences, and tensions among these.

Which is why, to finally get to the point indicated by this post's title, when it comes time to plant -- but especially when it comes time to sow -- we consult Maria Thun's biodynamic planting calendar. This calendar saves us a lot of work, since it summarizes for each day -- and in one word -- the universal (planetary, lunar, etc.) attributes for the day, as they relate to planting. For those of you interested in a brief summary of this calendar for the year 2007, go here.

For instance, this past Wednesday was a "root day."  (Next to December 5th, 2007, in the planting calendar, the word "root" appears.)  Which means that, in a nutshell, root vegetables will benefit from being planted on that day.  (The other ways of characterizing days are "fruit," "leaf," and "flower.")

So we knew we had to get those root vegetables in the ground, and we knew it would be best for them if it happened before the sun set on Wednesday.  We planted three kinds of carrots (Thumbelina, White Satin, and Nelson), three kinds of beets (Chioggia, Detroit Red Top, and Golden), Hakurei Turnips, and a new type of long white radish from Italy.  We planted them in the hoophouse, in a long bed that contains soil-heating cables (otherwise they wouldn't be able to germinate in our cold December weather).  Cynthia will explain more about how to use soil-heating cables in an upcoming post.

That is a brief description of how we at Love Apple Farm allow biodynamics to guide and support us as we guide and support our vegetables -- and vice-versa. 

Compost Mythbusters - Continued

Myth #2: You Need a Fancy-Pants Compost Bin

This is the "ComposTumbler."  You don't need this.  It's $499.00.  Your wallet doesn't need this, unless you want your wallet composted in 14 days like the ad says.

Some people think they need a pre-fabbed bin to start making compost. There are even loads of composters that are significantly cheaper than the tumble-type bins. I still say do NOT put off making the best soil amendment EVER by waiting on a specially made structure. 

Great home-made compost is the most important thing you can do for your plants. It should be an absolute priority for you.  Compost can completely eliminate the need to buy expensive fertilizers and amendments for your garden.  After several years of adding two or three inches of compost per year to planting beds, their health will improve dramatically.  You'll see a reduction in both pests and diseases, because healthy soils grow healthy plants.  Healthy plants are much less susceptible to both pests and diseases. 

You can start a simple compost pile tomorrow in a corner of your yard with no tools whatsover and no container.  Just start alternating shallow layers of brown and green waste.  That's carbon (brown) and nitrogen (green). If you want to make a simple structure, then do what we do here at Love Apple Farm.  Our piles are merely wire fencing material formed into a circle.  Here's a schematic of this type of ultra-simple compost bin:

We use concrete reinforcing wire for our piles, but I would prefer to make them with the 2 x 4 wire fencing, like the diagram.  The reason we don't is that we have an overstock of the concrete wire, and we try to use what we have. 

Our circle bins are about five feet in diameter.  We start with circles of wire about two and half feet high, and then as the pile builds, we'll add another level of wire to get the pile higher.  We'll stop after three levels, or about 6 feet.  We don't build the piles all in one day, but rather over a period of a month or two, then stop when the pile is high enough.  At that point, we'll insert our biodynamic preps, cover it, and let the decomposition process happen.  Let's go through it step by step:

After you've got your circle in place, the first layer in contact with the ground ideally should be some twiggy material, like corn stalks, dahlia stalks, or small branches.  This layer aids in air circulation, and helps airflow to the interior of the pile, which aids in the break down of the plant materials. 

After this first layer, all you need to do is alternate your green and brown layers.  Kitchen waste, fresh manures, weeds, and green plant trimmings are all high in nitrogen and considered "green."  Most things that are dry, such as fallen leaves, straw, paper towels, and coffee grounds, are considered carbon, or "brown."  We make each layer quite thin, about two or three inches.  This layering is essential to cause the heat generation required for decomposition.  Here are our major layers, clockwise from the top left: fallen leaves, Manresa kitchen trimmings, end-of-season tomato vines, and handfuls of wood ash from our fireplace:

After every few layers, we water the pile for a good 5 minutes, then leave it be until we have more fodder for the layering.  You can take a few months continuing to build your pile, but at some point, just cover it up and leave it alone. After that, start another one next to it while you're waiting for the first one to finish composting.
Next post in this series: Myth #3: You Need to Turn Your Compost Piles

Compost Mythbusters

Myth #1: You can't compost animal products

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can indeed compost animal products.  Look at this beautiful blue fin tuna head.  It came from Manresa, and would have ended up in the dumpster had it been at just about any other restaurant.  But here at Love Apple Farm, we take all the fish waste back to the garden and compost it.  This tuna head was gigantic; it's hard to get a proper perspective on its size, but if you check out the head of romaine lettuce next to it, you can appreciate how big it was.

You can compost animal carcasses as well.  I was initially appalled at this revelation when Harald Hoven, my professor at the Rudolph Steiner College explained how they regularly put road kill carcasses in their biodynamic compost piles.  But after helping the class turn a pile that had six months before contained eight dead opossums, I became a believer.  The only discernible residue of the opossums in the now perfectly black and crumbly compost was small bones and skulls.  Harald explained how they sprinkle a good handful of lime on the carcass to help get the decomposition started.

I haven't quite got up the nerve yet to compost any dead animals, mostly because the restaurant keeps us in a pretty steady stream of fish parts.  We keep my dogs and the marauding racoons out of the fish-infused piles by making sure there is plenty of plant waste put immediately on top of and around the stinky bits.  Once enough plant residue is properly layered on the fish and then compacted down by stomping on the pile (more on that later), the decaying fish smell isn't noticeable to humans.  As far as the curious critters are concerned, I further ensure they don't dig up the pile by having high wire sides to it, and covering it with a tarp.

Fish products in the compost pile make  extra nutritious finished compost.  You all know the benefits of fish emulsion on plant growth; it's very high in nitrogen.  Having the decomposed fish in the compost just adds another healthy element to this all-important soil amendment.  And let me tell you, the quality of Manresa's seafood scraps couldn't possibly be any better.  They indeed help us grow better vegetables.

Stay tuned for more compost myths debunked this week.

Farm Animal of the Week: Poopers!

I asked my foreman, Christopher Donovan, to write this post.  These are his words:

When Cynthia first suggested that the initial blog in this series ("Farm Animal of the Week") should be about my dog, Poopers, I became very excited.  She also had some
suggestions about how I should focus on various personality and behavioral issues relevant to farm life that Poopers purportedly manifests, and I suppose I have to honor her wishes, as this is her blogsite, and she is my boss/mentor, etc. 

But the truth of the being of Poopers is so much more than any sundry, or even tawdry, laundry-list of daily misdeeds. To begin with, there is the story of how Poops and I were  brought together...  I was driving down a highway in Oklahoma, and she darted out in front of me -- chasing after an old beat-up van, which was speeding away.  I executed a fast turn-and-brake procedure, and called the little pooch to me.  She cowered on the pavement.  And from that point on, she was mine. 

Poops is an absolutely intelligent being, as is apparent to anyone of even moderate intelligence.  Everyone adores her, whether because of her winning disposition or enthusiasm or intelligence I am not certain.  There is a song I sing to her almost daily, which sums it up nicely: 

You're . . . Patient, obedient, and kind.
Loving, forgiving and joyful . . .
You're Poopers, you're furry, you're mine . . .
Poopers, I love you some more, each day.

Okay -- now that's the good stuff, but the truth is all of the other farm animals (dogs, cats, pig, chickens, birds, etc.) have had to learn to adapt to the addition of another boistrous presence here at Love Apple Farm.  Poopers has a penchant for chewing any leather glove we accidentally leave lying around, apricots, and unripe watermelons.  She especially relishes a mouthful of chicken feathers, which, unfortunately can only be gotten from the source.  She has, like her owner, resisted learning a great many things (though different things than her owner) -- like not chasing cats, not terrorizing the chickens, and not jumping in or through vegetable beds. 

Right now Poopers is in the midst of an intensive training period, one guided by the book "How to Become Your Dog's Best Friend, a Training Manual for Dog Owners."  It's by the Monks of New Skete, and I recommend it heartily.  So she's learning how to pay attention to her master -- a master who may have loved her too much, at first, and taught her too little.  So now when Poops takes off after the neighbor's cat, I get to chase after her, and perform what is called the "alpha-male roll-over" (rolling her onto her back, and saying "no! no!," while maintaining eye contact).  She actually seems grateful for having clear expectations and being communicated to in a way that is meaningful to her. 

Thanks, Cynthia, for making a place for Poops and her master on your farm!

Introducing my Tomato Photo Album

In the left column you'll see the latest addition to my website: My Tomato Varieties Photo Album.  Here is a  sample: 

There are 87 different tomato cultivar photos there, all taken by me.  I'm a poor photographer and even poorer Photoshopper, so the pics are basically for informational purposes.  You'll also notice that over the years I've displayed the tomatoes on many different backgrounds and chosen to label them various ways.  That's only because from year to year I can't seem to remember what I put the tomatoes on to take their pictures.  You'll also notice my funky fancy way of  labeling them within the photo - sometimes I've written down the variety on a piece of paper I stick next to the tomato; sometimes I write it down on a piece of cardboard.  Now that I've got a fancier camera,  I bet if I looked at the instruction encyclopedia booklet that came with it, I might be able to figure out how to label the photo as I take it.  But since I struggle every day to figure out this blogging thing, I fear that the technology-holding part of my brain is nearing a dangerous melt-down level.  So perhaps the funky rustic cardboard labels will have to suffice for now.

Two of my favorites:

I also try to take photos of the tomatoes I bring to the Carmel TomatoFest.  Those are easily identified by the plate that Gary Ibsen displays them on; he'll put a whole exemplar tomato on a little pedestal in the center of the place and surround it with cut tasting samples of that variety.  It's always a thrill to see my tomatoes on the massive tasting tables:

By no means is my photo album complete. I've neglected to take photos of probably another hundred, at least, of varieties I've grown over the years.  I promise to be better, and make sure that each cultivar gets its out of focus shot in the album.

I welcome you to look at the album and let me know which are your favorites, either by a comment or via an email.  Your feedback is instrumental when I choose which varieties to grow for our spring tomato plant sale.  Don't see your favorites?  Let me know anyway.  I also invite you to send me your pic of a variety not in the album.  If it's the tomato off a plant I've sold you, it'll make the album and get credited to you.

You can find more information all about tomatoes on the World Tomato Society website.

Today's Harvest

We grow a lot of things for Manresa Restaurant, and Tuesdays is one of our regular harvest days.  I won't bore you with what we harvest for the restaurant all the time, but I might make it a weekly event on Tuesdays

I've read blogs and comments from people on other sites who opine that Manresa cannot possibly get any produce from its garden in winter, because, well, it's cold in winter and nothing grows.  Wrong they are.  Well, they ARE right that it's cold in winter, and although we do have an advantage being in California, let me tell you that the low temperatures here in the garden have been all below 32 degrees every night for the last 7 nights.  We even hit 22 a few nights ago.

We know how to handle our frosts and freezes here, and I'll get into that more later.  But for now, here's our harvest list for today.  We have other things growing right now, which will be harvested as we go along this winter:

Mizuna                           
New Zealand Spinach
Ficoide Glaciale
Italian Parsley
Red Mustard Greens
Rapini (Broccoli Raab)
Carrots
    White Satin
    Purple Haze   
    Nelson
    Thumbelina
Sorrel
Radishes
Turnips
Kale
    Red Russian
    Toscano
Cauliflower
    Cheddar Cheese
    White
    Purple
Orach
Violas
Tatsoi
Lettuce
Pea Shoots (Usui)
Sprouts
    Mustard
    Mizuna
Leeks
Celeriac
Chard
Cardoons

I hate Tomato Fruitworms

Check out the chutzpa of this guy who hatched inside my kitchen last week and got some good chompin' in before I noticed him. 

These tomatoes were brought into the house to ripen up.  Since the nights were getting colder, there was no hope that the tomatoes would finish ripening on the vines.  So as we were taking them down, we stripped off most of the green fruits.  We then brought the trays inside to ripen.

The trays were just hangin' out on my kitchen counter, and I must have passed them by a hundred times a day.  I don't know why I didn't notice this guy sooner, but all of a sudden, I caught sight of him, and Gack!  Where the heck did you come from?

If this were earlier in the season, and the tomato fruitworms were starting to attack my tomatoes, I'd have to move pretty quickly to protect them.  One year, I lost about a third of my crop because I didn't do anything to stop them.  It was the first time they had ever been a problem in my garden, and so I kept thinking that they'd just go away.  Not a good idea!  Now, when I see the first signs of an infestation, I immediately go on-line and purchase eggs of the predatory insect, the Trichogramma wasp.

The Trichogramma wasp's favorite food source are caterpillars like this voracious fruitworm.  But don't freak out, the wasps are so tiny, you cannot even see them.  I prefer using predatory insects rather than spraying or dusting, because it's much safer and quicker.  I don't have to take up valuable time mixing and applying an organic pesticide.

Fortunately, I don't have to do anything right now, though.  It's the end of the tomato season, and this little guy is the last of the tomato fruitworms.  For this year, at least.

About Biodynamic Agriculture

Love Apple Farms has been using biodynamic practices since early 2006, after Cynthia witnessed phenomenal health and vigor in a biodynamic garden and wanted similar results in her own.  Chef David Kinch is also committed to this distinctive method of growing, and regularly participates in the creation and application of the biodynamic treatments, known as "preparations."

Biodynamic agriculture is a method of organic farming that treats farms as unified and individual organisms, with an emphasis toward balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, and animals as a closed, self-nourishing system. Regarded by some proponents as the first modern ecological farming system, biodynamic farming includes organic agriculture's emphasis on manures and composts and exclusion of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. Methods unique to the
biodynamic approach include the use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field sprays and the use of an astronomical calendar to determine times of planting and harvesting. Biodynamic agriculture has its basis in a spiritual world-view known as anthroposophy as propounded by founder Rudolf Steiner.

Biodynamic agriculture conceives of the farm as an organism, a self-contained entity with its own individuality. Emphasis is placed on the integration of crops and livestock, recycling of nutrients, maintenance of soil, and the health and well being of crops and animals; the farmer too is part of the whole. Cover crops, green manures and crop rotations are used extensively. The approach also attempts to consider celestial influences on soil and plant development and to revitalize the farm, its products, and its inhabitants.

Steiner prescribed nine different preparations to aid fertilization which are the cornerstone of biodynamic agriculture, and described how these were to be prepared. The prepared substances are numbered 500 through 508  The first two are used for preparing fields, whereas the latter seven are used for making compost.

    Prep 500 (also called horn manure) is a humus mixture prepared by filling the horn of a cow with cow manure and burying it in the ground in the autumn. It is left to decompose during the winter and recovered the following spring.  A small amount is mixed with water for an hour, and then applied to the ground in the fall, at dusk.

    Prep 501(also called horn silica ) is crushed powdered quartz prepared by stuffing it into a horn of a cow and burying it in the ground in spring and taken out in autumn. It too is mixed with water for an hour, and then sprayed under very low pressure over the crop in the srping to prevent fungal diseases. It should be sprayed on an overcast day or early in the morning to prevent burning of the leaves.

   Compost preparations, used for preparing compost, employ herbs which are frequently used in medicinal remedies:

    * 502: Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium) are stuffed into urinary bladders from Red Deer (Cervus elaphus), placed in the sun during summer, buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.
    * 503: Chamomile blossoms (Matricaria recutita) are stuffed into small intestines from cattle, and buried in humus-rich earth in the autumn and retrieved in the spring.
    * 504: Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) plants in full bloom are stuffed together underground surrounded on all sides by peat for a year.
    * 505: Oak bark (Quercus robur) is chopped in small pieces, placed inside the skull of a domesticated animal, surrounded by peat and buried in earth in a place where lots of rain water runs by.
    * 506: Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale) is stuffed into the peritoneum of cattle and buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring.
    * 507: Valerian flowers (Valeriana officinalis) are extracted into water.
    * 508: Horsetail (Equisetum)

A teaspoon of each preparation is added to a properly prepared compost pile, except for the 507 preparation, which is stirred into a gallon of water and sprinkled over the entire compost surface. All preparations are thus used in homeopathic quantities, and the only intent is to strengthen the life forces of the farm.

Biodynamic agriculture sees the basis of pest and disease control arising from a strong healthy balanced farm organism. Where this is not yet achieved, it uses techniques analogous to fertilization for pest control and weed control. Most of these techniques include using the ashes of a pest or weed that has been trapped or picked from the fields and burned. The resultant ash is then sprinkled on the field, with the theory being that the presence of the ash will deter pests.

Farms that demonstrate proper conformance to the standards of biodynamic culture as prescribed by appropriate national governing boards, can be certified with the Demeter label.  Although biodynamic agriculture has been around for almost 100 years, it is enjoying a resurgence of interest, particularly in the winery industry, as more and more vintners are switching to biodynamic practices to grow better grapes. 

More information about biodynamics and Ruolph Steiner can be found at www.biodynamics.com and the Rudolph Steiner College in Sacramento, California.

Interesting articles about biodynamics:

Mother Earth News, October/November 2007

Appellation American, November 2007

All photos courtesy of Pim Techamuanvivit (visit her excellent foodie blog, ChezPim)

Fennel in Fall

Read through to find out how you can get a free packet of Love Apple Farm's biodynamically-grown fennel seed.

Fennel is a fabulous vegetable that forms a bulb above the soil surface, and can be grown year round in milder climates.  The bulb has a licorice flavor to it, and the seed is widely used to spice-up sausages and pasta sauces.  It can be directly sown in the garden, or started in flats in the greenhouse (or in a makeshift one in your laundry room or garage...but more about that later).

I normally wouldn't chance sowing fennel directly in the garden in late October.  That's because here at Love Apple Farm, in central California, it would not be warm enough to have the seeds germinate.  However, the weather report this morning encouraged me to give it a shot.  The forecast is for the next week to be sunny and warm.  So I'll give it a try.  If it works, great.  If it doesn't, I'll just pop some other transplants into that bed later.

As you can see in the picture below, I have some fennel already up and growing strong.  We've been harvesting it for the restaurant, in fact, and now I have a half bed empty in which to put some more fennel. 

Elsewhere in the garden, I have another half bed which I direct sowed about five weeks ago, and you can see below that it's merrily growing.  See the bare patch?  That's just an area that didn't germinate.  If I wanted, I could add some more seed and try again in the bare patch, but I think I'll just let that be for now.  This new patch of fennel will need to be thinned soon, and the chef will love to see those thinnings in his delivery.  One of the nice things about having your own restaurant garden is that you can get things never found at a farmer's market.  In this case, it's the tiniest of baby fennels.

But I digress, let's get back to sowing a new bed of fennel.  First, let's have a little tutorial on how fennel seed can be saved and used.  I had a bed of fennel this past summer that didn't bulb up, it just went straight to a bolt.  "Bolting" means that instead of forming it's edible part slowly and nicely, a vegetable plant will send up its flower spike.  In the case of fennel, the bulb at the base of the soil never developed, but the plant began to reproduce anyway, and sent up a bunch of lovely upside-down umbrella-like flowers. 

Pricking out Lettuces

In horticulture lingo, the phrase “pricking out” is not just something Beevis and Butthead would chortle over, it  means “to pot up tiny sprouted seedlings into a slightly larger container”  It’s different from the horticulture term “to transplant,” in that the latter generally means to plant something from a container into the ground. 

I sowed four different lettuces on September 24 (two varieties per flat).  Each flat holds eight 6-packs.

I  generally sow more seeds than are necessary, because seeds are cheap, and re-sowing seeds that don't sprout can set you back a couple of sometimes crucial weeks.  If all goes well, and germination is good, that means that I’ve got too many of any one thing, and I need to separate the m and give them more space.

As I was teaching my prick out method to my fine assistant, Christopher, he asked me the obvious question, “Why can’t we just transplant these babies directly into the ground?  Why do we need this interim step, which will take a lot longer?”  Christopher’s always asking questions when he’s not belting out a song that he thinks summarizes what I’ve just taught him.  The tune he chose after this tutorial was Lionel Richie’s “Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady,” (you’ll see why at the end).

I told him to shut up and get his hands dirty (not really).  Rather, I patiently explained that the babies were way too little to put out in the cruel, wet, rainy world right now, and that even the littlest earwig could take it down with one munch.  However, since the tiny lettuces were too crowded in their little cells, they would need more room to grow before they were transplanted out into the garden proper to fend for themselves. 

Here’s our technique:

We pop the cell out of the tray 6-pack.  These little lettuces were sown almost 3 weeks ago.  This variety is called “Oakleaf.”  Wonderfully tasty.  There seem to be about 10 babies jammed together here.  We start to separate them by pulling apart the root ball.  Don’t try to separate by holding the too-tender tops.

Planting Garlic

Garlic is easily grown in all areas from cloves that are also easily acquired.  You can get them from the supermarket, if you don't care whether or not they are organic.  Or you can get them from a farmer's market, which is a better choice.  Or the best choice would be to get cloves from an on-line source like Park Seed.  The thing about garlic is that it takes  about 9 months to form a full head underground.  That's a long time for a crop.  It's usually planted in the fall and harvested the following summer. You can also harvest it in the early spring, for what's called "spring garlic."  The head hasn't bulbed up yet, but the tender just-forming shoots are more mild and a rare treat to use in the kitchen. 

Garlic is one of my favorite things to grow because it is one of the very few crops where, for me at least, there are NO BUGS INVOLVED!

When something I plant grows for 6 or more months without one single pest attempting to kill it, eat it, lay its eggs on it, uproot it, or otherwise ruin it, it’s HELLA fun!  No worry gardening.  More crops like that, and this whole farmin’ thang might actually be more fun than work.  Oops, just thought of something that tries to ruin the garlic, but it’s easily dealt with.  After planting, about two weeks later the cloves start to sprout and break the surface.  On the first day they emerge, and before they can turn green from photosynthesis, the tip is white.  The birds around here mistake the tiny tip as a worm, and hop into the bed to investigate.  They tug at it, often pulling the whole clove out of the ground.  I can easily pop it back in, but the birds do not learn that it’s not something they want to eat, and keep pulling them out.  To prevent this, I cover the bed with the lightest weight floating row cover.  Water, air and sunlight can go right through this cover.  The birds, however, leave well enough alone.  Once the garlic gets going, oh about 4 inches tall or so, I can remove the cover without any more bird worries.

Here’s how I plant garlic:

We’re using cloves from last season’s crop.  We had a lot more garlic than the restaurant could use, and so instead of having to buy garlic cloves for planting, I had a ready stock.  Since biodynamic farmers try to save all their own seeds, I felt great that we had some good garlic cloves for planting.  In this photo, you see two different types of garlic bunches, the one on the left is soft-neck and the one on the right is hard-neck.  The hard-neck have fewer, larger cloves and have a moderately long shelf life.  The soft-neck have more, smaller cloves and generally have the longest shelf life (in some cases up to 9-10 months).  Soft-necks are easier to grow and tolerate warmer temperatures and more climatic variability.  I grew both types last season and had good luck with both.

Since we had our own heads, all we had to to was cut off the stems with a pruners and then separate the cloves:

Download the Container Gardening PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For students in our workshop, you may  Download Container Vegetable Gardening 5.24.19 (1) Powerpoint as a pdf file.

If you are having difficulty doing so, please ensure you have adequate space on your computer for this large file and that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader (free on line) installed on your computer).

Download the Tomato Masters PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For the students who have attended our Tomato Master's workshop (like Eva Jones above), Download Tomato Masters Powerpoint in PDF format.

You will need to have installed the free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer.

 

Don't forget we've got these workshops that will help you in your gardening journey:

 

 

Container Vegetable Gardening 

 

Summer Vegetable Gardening 

Basic Drip Irrigation

Straw Bale Gardening

Compost, Vermiculture & Soil Fertility

Winter Vegetable Gardening

Early Spring Vegetable Gardening

Other gardening and cooking classes: http://www.growbetterveggies.com/growbetterveggies/upcoming-eventsclasses.html

 

 

Download the Summer Vegetable Gardening PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For students who have taken our Summer Vegetable Gardening Workshop, you may Download Summer Veg Gardening  Slides

Also Download Summer Seed Starting Instructions

SlidesYou may need to first install Adobe Reader on your computer.  The other reason the file may not load is due to lack of storage on your computer.  The file size is 44 MB.  You may also need to temporarily disable your antivirus software.

Download the Growing Peppers and Eggplants from Seed PowerPoint Presentation

This is an on-line PDF copy of the Growing Peppers & Eggplants from Seed class. This link is only available to registered students. Download Growing Tomatoes Peppers & Eggplants from Seed presentation as a pdf file.

You may need to first install Adobe Reader on your computer.  The other reason the file may not load is due to lack of storage on your computer.  The file size is large.  You may also need to temporarily disable your antivirus software.

Download the Container Gardening PowerPoint Lecture Notes - Short Version

For students in our 90 minute Container Vegetable Gardening Class, Download a PDF of the PowerPoint Presentation
 

Download the Early Spring Vegetable Gardening Slides

Download Early Spring Vegetable Gardening handlout as a PDF file.

You may need to first install Adobe Reader on your computer.  The other reason the file may not load is due to lack of storage on your computer.  You may also need to temporarily disable your antivirus software.

Download the Chicken-Keeping Workshop PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For students in our Chicken-Keeping workshop, down load the Power Point Lecture Notes here:

Download Backyard Chicken-Keeping with breeds Ameraucana Buff Cochin Speckled Sussex and Welsummer (1) Powerpoint as a PDF File (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader and enough space on your hard drive)

Here are your links, as promised in class:

Great on line source for chicken supplies: Cutlers and Jeffers.

 

Youtube video on how to clip wings to prevent fence fly-overs

 

Spiral Egg Dispenser (I like this because you can keep track of how old your eggs are)

 

Chicken Swing (we may not have talked about this cute device for your coop)

 

Boy hugging chicken video (if you haven't seen this one, it's adorable)

 

On-line community about backyard chicken keeping

 

A couple of DIY videos of coop building:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMcUYFBuFyU&feature=player_embedded

 and

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_jHD_X7Wqo&feature=related

 

Belt Hatchery

 

Murray McMurrary Hatchery

 

Privett Hatchery  (where your chicks came from)

 

Download Chicken Book for Students we spoke of in class.  Send it to a copy store (call your local one up and they will let you know their email address to forward files to) and they'll print it out.

 

Bird vet in the San Jose area: Dr. Fern Van Sant of For the Birds.

 

Bird vet in the Santa Cruz area: Dr. Hilary Stern

Interesting on-line coop plan with 3d animation: http://www.barngeek.com/free-chicken-coop-plans.html

 

More plans (definitely worth a look): http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/small-chicken-coop-designs-pictures-of-chicken-coops

 

Also this Download Dutch_Henhouse is an awesome design.  This would make a nice sized coop for 4 to 6 laying hens.

A run that has an "L-shaped" extension at the base to thwart predators from digging under it (remember that a strong Rottweiler can over turn the particular run pictured here - but you get the idea). I also don't condone the Eglu for your hens, as it is not big enough, in my opinion, to humanely house 4 chickens.

 

List of toxic plants to avoid feeding your chickens.

 

Rooster Sanctuary: If you are prepared to donate, deliver and provide either a $20.00 donation per rooster or a 50# bag of feed, Hosanna Boys' Ranch, 9990 Crow Canyon Rd., Castro Valley, Ca 94552 may rescue your chicken. Note their rules for rescue may have changed over the years. Verne Teyler, Director  Email: ve[email protected]   http://hosannahomes.comcastbiz.net/critters/

 

Fun video of the Hazards of Chicken Keeping

 

Upcoming events and classes at the farm: 

http://www.growbetterveggies.com/growbetterveggies/upcoming-eventsclasses.html

Email us with any questions. We are happy to answer them: [email protected]

 

 

 

Download the Winter Vegetable Gardening PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For students who have attended our Winter Vegetable Gardening workshop, Download Winter Vegetable Gardening Powerpoint as a PDF file. 

Download the Compost & Vermiculture PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For students in our Compost, Vermiculture & Soil Fertility Workshop only, Download Compost Vermiculture & Soil Fertility handout as a PDF document.

Here are the links as promised:

Good cover crop seed

We like Pacific Gold Mustard as a cover crop for tomatoes, as it has been shown to reduce harmful levels of soil nematodes (plus it's edible as a salad green).

Bagged top soils: E.B. Stone Raised Bed & Potting Mix or purchase at our seasonal tomato plant sale each spring at Ivy's Porch in Scotts Valley (5311 Scotts Valley Drive).

Bagged compost (if you cannot create your own fast enough:  G&B Harvest Supreme.

Soil test 

The importance of Ph balance in your soil.

Link to our website on composting fish and animals.

Information article on the importance of mycorrhizae: https://www.untamedscience.com/biology/ecology/mycorrhizae/

New, fascinating documentary on how trees communicate and help each other using mycorrhizae: Intelligent Trees

New book on the same subject of mycorrhizae: Finding the Mother Tree

Study on the benefits of worm casting usage (note that "vermicompost" and "vermiculture" are what worm castings are). This study can be extrapolated from tomatoes to other fruits and veggies as well.

 

Red Wrigglers (vermiculture worms)

 

Humic Acid for breaking up clay soils

 

Aquarium Bubbler and Pump for taking your brewed worm casting tea to "11."

 

Great on-line community bulletin board on Vermiculture: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/verm/

 

Youtube video on building  3-tier stacking worm bin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKhvp_yrAqw

Great on-line community bulletin board on Composting: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/soil/

How-to Video on Double-Digging

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected].  If you liked the class, we would love it if you would go to our website page and post a comment or better yet, Yelp us.

We've got lots more gardening classes coming up. Go here for more info: http://www.growbetterveggies.com/growbetterveggies/upcoming-eventsclasses.html

 

Download the Drip Irrigation PowerPoint Lecture Notes

 

For students who have taken Love Apple Farm's Simple Drip Irrigation workshop:

Download Drip Irrigation slides

Here is the Links List we spoke of in class:

My favorite gardening shears - Saboten 1210 (or buy from us at the same price)

Dramm Fan Hose Nozzle (or buy from us at the same price)

List in same order as Power point:

Brass Hose Splitter  High Flow P/N HYVHI  https://www.dripworks.com/high-flow-brass-hose-y-with-valves

Orbit Programmable Dial Timer P/N TORSD http://www.dripworks.com/product/TORSD

Orbit "Egg" type mechanical Timer (non-programmable): https://www.dripworks.com/single-outlet-wind-up-timer

Orbit Multi-Valve Timer (to program multiple areas (we didn't talk about this in class, but if you look at this timer, it has the ability to have up to four full assemblies attached and then programed, in order to do multiple areas of your garden one after the other): https://www.dripworks.com/orbit-multi-valve-lcd-timer

Filter P/N FYCH200 https://www.dripworks.com/irritec-deluxe-hose-thread-filters-y-type (choose the 200 mesh)

Pressure Regulator (aka Pressure Reducer) P/N PRSG30 http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_PRSG (choose 30 psi, which is third one listed. Do not choose 40 psi - that won't work with your system).

Female Hose Beginning with Swivel 3/4" Compression Fitting P/N CHS34 http://www.dripworks.com/product/CHS34

Main line 3/4' Poly Tubing: http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_34

Compression 3/4' Tees CT34: http://www.dripworks.com/product/CT34

Compression 3/4' Elbows CL34: http://www.dripworks.com/product/CL34

Compression 3/4' Shut-off Valve (aka Coupler w/ Valve) CSO34: http://www.dripworks.com/product/CSO34

Figure 8 Mainline End CF834: http://www.dripworks.com/product/CF834

Coupler (for fixing a break or extending the 3/4' poly tubing line) CC34:
http://www.dripworks.com/product/CC34

Hole Punch P/N PUY: https://www.dripworks.com/miracle-punch-tips

1/4' Elbow P/N 1490 (to attach emitter line to main line):
http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_1490

1/4' Connector P/N 14LTB (to extend emitter lines or to fix a break in one):
http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_14LTB

1/4' Tee P/N 14T  (if you want to split off lines):
http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_14T

Emitter line - 6 inch spacing P/N DSD6L (50') to P/N DSD6500 (500'): http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_DSD6

Non-emitter Micro-Tubing (to reach into containers and up into window boxes and hanging baskets): P/N 1450 (50') to P/N 141000 (1000'): http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_14
 
Goof Plugs (or to end the emitter line) 14GP2:
http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_14GP2

Landscape Staples for Floating Row Cover and Irrigation Lines

Little cable wire clips to affix micro-tubing to sides of houses: https://www.dripworks.com/tubing-clamps

3/4" pipe clamps (called straps) to affix main line tubing to sides of houses: https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Rigid-Hanger-Galvanized-Conduit/dp/B07W785BHM/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=galvanized%2Bpipe%2Bclamps&qid=1584388249&sr=8-3&th=1

How to run a pvc pipe under sidewalks and driveways (we didn't talk about this in class, but it's useful information): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3pozjosbpo

Consider these classes at Love Apple Farms as you move forward with your gardening projects:

Compost, Vermiculture & Soil Fertility

Tomato Masters 

Summer Vegetable Gardening

Growing Culinary Herbs

Winter Vegetable Gardening

 

Download the Growing Tomato Transplants PowerPoint Lecture Notes

This is an on-line PDF copy of the Growing Tomato Transplants from Seed class we hold at the farm each spring.  This link is only available to registered students.  Download Growing Tomato Transplants presentation as a pdf.

You may need to first install Adobe Reader on your computer.  The other reason the file may not load is due to lack of storage on your computer.  The file size is large.  You may also need to temporarily disable your antivirus software.

Download the Designing the Perfect Vegetable Garden PowerPoint Lecture Notes

  

For students who have attended our Designing the Perfect Vegetable Garden workshop, you may Download Designing the Perfect Vegetable Garden presentation as a pdf file and view it on your computer, full-color, full-screen.

Here are the links:

My favorite source for gravel, straw wattles, cinder blocks, stepping stones, and masonry rock: Central Home Supply in Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley (mention us and they may give you an extra deal).  I do not recommend their top soil blend, however, until I am confident that they have fixed their sourcing issue.

Mulch supplier: Vision Recycling (but as I noted in class, I have been getting it for free up at the Ben Lomond Transfer Station)

Landscape staples (or buy from us)

 

Landscape fabric:  Costco (usually in spring). I like theirs because it is the best price and it is 4' wide, rather than merely 3'

Bagged top soils: E.B. Stone Raised Bed Mix (or buy from us)

 

G&B Harvest Supreme. (or buy from us)

 

Top soil blend in bulk: Lyngso in San Carlos (They call it "Veggie Blend." If they are out, get their "Essential Soil Blend") or Aptos Landscape Supply.

Building raised beds on a slope

GeoPlanter fabric beds and pots.

 

Snap Clamps to affix floating row cover or shade cloth to the 3/4" PVC hoops.

Sun path chart program (complicated stuff, you'll need to do your homework on this to understand it).

On-line calculator for landscape materials

Good lumberyard in San Jose area: Bruce Bauer Lumber

Local gopher trapper and teacher: Gophers Limited. He has some really good videos on gopher trapping and how to set the cinch traps that I recommend.

Interesting website on how to construct gardens with railroad ties (aka "sleepers" in England). Note that not all RR ties are embedded with creosote.  Some places make them without all of that, or go with 75+ year old ties.

Soil testing: A&L Labs in Modesto. Don't be intimidated by all the choices on that page. Choose the $70 option called S10C. That will give you good info, but not too much info, which can be overwhelming. Pay attention to the way they want you to collect the sample. When you receive their recommendations, if any of it perplexes you, forward the info to me and we will work it out together.

Thoughtful article on using pressure-treated lumber in vegetable beds.

 

Harbor Freight greenhouse. (This is my recommendation for a decent hobby greenhouse at a fantastic price. Get on Harbor Freight's newsletter and you will receive coupons, then buy the 10' x 12' greenhouse using a coupon and pick it up in Sunnyvale or at a Harbor Freight near you to avoid big shipping charges. Do NOT buy the smaller greenhouse; it will be way too hard to keep temps regulated in it.

On-line community discussing how to retrofit Harbor Freight Greenhouses (aka HFGH). You may want to take a look at this website to build yourself a stronger HFGH.

 

Consider these classes as you go forward with your gardening projects:

 

 

Simple Drip Irrigation

Tomato Masters

Summer Vegetable Gardening

Compost, Vermiculture & Soil Fertility

Winter Vegetable Gardening

Intro to Bee-Keeping
Early Spring Vegetable Gardening

Fruit Trees Simplified

Growing Culinary Herbs

Garden Mosaics

 

 

 

Download the Herb Growing PowerPoint Lecture Notes

For students of our Herb Growing workshop: Download Growing Herbs Powerpoint as a pdf file.

 

You may need to first install Adobe Reader on your computer.  The other reason the file may not load is due to lack of storage on your computer.  If you have any trouble, let us know at [email protected].

For those of you who may have stumbled upon this page, this presentation is part of our Herb Growing workshop, found here.

Download the Dormant Wood Fruit Trees Presentation

For students who have attended our Dormant Fruit Tree workshop, download the presentation as a PDF:

• Part 1: Tree_Care
• Part 2: Pruning
• Part 3: Grafting

You will need sufficient space on your computer and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Download the Fruit Trees Simplified Presentation

For students in our Fruit Trees Simplified class, Download Fruit Trees Simplified handout

Download the Power Point Presentation for the Winter Container Vegetable Gardening Class

For students in our Winter Container Gardening Class, Download the Winter_Container_Vegetable_Gardening_Powerpoint in PDF format.  If you can't do that, you either don't have enough storage on your computer, or you have not downloaded Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Click here to install that free software. 

Farm Slideshow

Photos from the farm.

 

Cancellation/Rescheduling Policy

In order to receive any sort of refund for a class, you must notify us, in advance, that you will not be there.  Our cancellation policy is outlined below, and your credit depends on how long in advance you notify us of your absence.

More than 14 days before your event date:

You may cancel and request a refund as long as you notify us at least two weeks prior to your event. We will deduct a $15 cancellation fee from your refund proceeds, per seat.

Rescheduling Option:  If you sign up for something and need to change the date for any reason, there is a $15 rescheduling fee, per seat, for the effort involved in transferring your information, reconfirming, and attempting to fill your space. You may take this option as long as you contact us with at least 14 days notice, but please try to let us know of your class change as soon as possible.

Fewer than 14 days before your event:

If you need to cancel (for any reason) and you email us with at least 7 days notice (but less than 14 days before the event), you are eligible for a half-price credit of your originally scheduled tuition to use for any future event. Credits must be used within one year of being issued.  Please email us at [email protected]. 

Fewer than 7 days before your event:

No Credits or Refunds

If you sign up for a class and cannot attend FOR ANY REASON (you got the date/time wrong, car broke down, you are sick, had to work late, etc.) the entire event fee is NON-REFUNDABLE, and no future credit will be given –– no exceptions. There is limited space available in each class and event and all of our events involve materials costs and considerable preparation time. 

Send someone in your place:  If you cannot show up for any reason and it is too late for credit or refund, you are welcome to send someone else in your place. Please just let us know by sending an email to [email protected].  Phone calls are not a reliable way of contacting us.

You can also try to sell your seat/s on Craigslist.

Thank you for choosing Love Apple Farms as your gardening and cooking educational choice.  We strive to provide an excellent experience for all of our students.  We look forward to having you visit the farm.