What to Plant?

A number of crops are tolerant of freezes early in the season. Each night the temperature is still getting down into the upper 20s at night, but the garlic and onions have grown to be about a foot tall. Some of the sequoia strawberry runners that I transplanted late in the fall are even starting to grow. The runners are flowering a bit too early for the flowers to set fruit due to the cold weather. I am thinking about covering them every night below 32F, so that I won't have to wait for warmer weather for strawberries. Mmmmm!

Sequoia strawberry.

So on to the topic today. What to plant when it is still freezing most nights? Well there are surprisingly many options: Spinach, lettuce, cabbage, peas, kale, brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, turnip greens, radishes, corn salad (mache), miner's lettuce, lettuce, endive, mizuna, and parsley.

Today I just planted some red cored chatenay carrots. A couple of days ago I planted long island improved brussel sprouts, little finger carrots, early jersey wakefield cabbage, chieftan savoy cabbage, titan parsley, alaska peas, giant noble spinach, and radish seed that I saved a few years back. The newly planted seeds aren't much to look at really, so here are some pictures from the cold frame that is still going strong. I have been leaving it open to let out the heat so everything doesn't bake inside during the day. I haven't been closing it at night either. All of the plants seem to like the cold all they need is to have something to keep the frost from settling on their leaves even if the temperature falls to 22F or lower.

I just planted titan parsley in the long strip of dirt next to

the yellowish colored lettuce called black seeded simpson.

Along bottom half of the picture at the far right edge is

monstreux de viroflay Spinach. The top half of the same row is

bloomsdale longstanding spinach. A bit of freckles lettuce is intermixed.

The red lettuce shown here is lolla rossa lettuce.

Here you can see that the cold frame is a little packed
with lettuce and other plants.

Here is some tasty sorrel. I think it is just common garden sorrel
not French sorrel, but alas I don't remember.
A radish is trying to overtake the sorrel.

Here is the red and green oakleaf lettuce.
I really like the interesting shapes of
these lettuce varieties in salad.

This plant with deeply serrated leaves is mizuna.

Delicious red sails lettuce.

I like the taste of this slightly bitter plant, frisee endive.

Miner's lettuce.

All of these lettuces and greens would be quite happy out of the cold frame right now. I just haven't needed to plant more lettuce outside of it yet and the coldframe keeps the soil from drying out as quickly. with this 3' by 4' cheap coldframe I have been eating salad almost every day for the whole winter.

Here are a few plants that are doing well ourside of the coldframe in the ground at this time of year about two months before the last spring frost.

Purple top white globe turnip greens.

A yellow potato onion with a bunch of new onion bulbs forming beneath the soil.

German red garlic growing nicely.

In a pot sitting unprotected in the yard with some horseradish plants already growing.

 Our last spring frost isn't for about 2 months and all of these plants are growing and thriving at freezing temperatures. Yah, the coldframe plants are protected from frost settling on the leaves, but it still gets down into the 20's at night especially when I leave the lid partially open overnight.

About every place I have ever lived the locals complain about how horrible the weather is and how short the season is (even if it is more than half the year long). It doesn't matter where you live, but people will find an excuse not to grow anything or put in the effort. I think 3 months is an awesome growing season. It could be a lot worse at no frost free days each year or only a month of frost free days.

No matter where you live the climate will always be oh so much better on the other side of the fence, whether it be the next town or just across the state line, etc. I think that most of us have great growing climates we just need to choose our plants very wisely and we will be rewarded with an excellent harvest. So get out there and start planting those late winter/early spring vegetables that can tolerate frosts and hard freezes without damage.

The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act Submitted to the California State Attorney General

I really hope that this ballot initiative passes in California so that we can have the freedom of informed choice in America. Many countries require labeling of their food if it is genetically modified. Companies could easily label now with little to no increased cost.

All companies would have to do is slap a sticker onto the package that says contains genetically modified ingredients like they often do for sales and specials as part of their marketing strategy. When companies routinely update their packaging information they could add a few words to the package or a symbol specifying that it contains genetically modified ingredients. The only reason companies don't label now is that they want to continue to sell their genetically modified food to unassuming consumers.

We lack the freedom to choose the food we want and are held hostage by the lack of information. In this information age it is amazing that something as simple as the information about the foreign genes in our food is kept secret. I hope that this ballot initiative passes and has little opposition.


Here is the press release.

You can read more about this ballot initiative at this website.

2012 California Ballot Initiative to Label GMOs

Amazing things are happening that will hopefully turn our food system for the better. A California Ballot Initiative to let voters decide whether they want their food labeled when they are genetically modified is gathering petitions and may be on the 2012 election ballot. Shouldn't we have the freedom to know what is in our food, apparently about 80% of Californians in a poll agreed. It makes sense, many countries label GMO foods, of course then they don't have nearly as many on their shelves as they would otherwise.

We are being held hostage by the corporate food industry and corporate chemical seed companies. We are the customers that buy the food they grow, yet we have very few choices in terms of GMO-free and have no idea what we are eating. It may as well be sewage sludge based on the information offered to the consumer. In deciding on which product to buy many that contain corn, canola, and soybeans are genetically modified with unknown and potentially negative health effects. Let's reject being human guinea pigs in this potentially disastrous experiment.

Here is the official website for the campaign to Label GMOs and here is their facebook page if you are into that. I don't use facebook.

No to GMOs.

A Cold Frame and Winter Gardening

I decided to make a temporary cold frame this winter to test the concept. I built a simple wood frame and used a staple gun to staple 6 mil plastic sheeting to the frame. I wanted to test the idea and work out the kinks, so that I will know the features to include in a more permanent cold frame. I am planning to someday make a more sturdy cold frame with wooden sides and sloped top either with clear glass or plastic. Here are some pictures of my first homemade cold frame and some of the vegetables that we have been eating from the cold frame. It pick from the cold frame about every other day, which is pretty amazing since it gets down below freezing every night. The frame keeps the frost off the plants and warms them to 75F or higher in the day, which initiates strong growth despite the cold night time temperatures. I planted several types of lettuce and a number of other greens.

 1. Lettuces:

• black seeded simpson
• paris island cos
• red sails
• freckles
• green and red oakleaf
• lolla rossa

2. Endive
3. Long Orange Improved Carrot
4. Monstrueux viro flay spinach
5. Fordhook giant swiss chard
6. Cherry belle radishes

I also have been doing a bit more reading and found that both carrots and parsnips are extremely cold tolerant. I recently planted some of the crop in the ground surrounding the cold frame as it gets warm enough in the day for them to sprout and grow.

Flavor Grenade an Amazing Pluot

My wife doesn't particularly like fruit. She is more of the meat and veggies type, but pluots are one fruit that she can't pass up. Yes pluots, you know those interspecific hybrids of apricots and plums. She actually doesn't like apricots or plums, but loves pluots for some reason. It gets me. Her all time favorite fruit (a pluot of course) is Flavor Grenade that was bred by the famous Zaiger's Genetics.

You can see what the trees will grow to look like at this video about the fruit.

The pluot is distributed through Dave Wilson Nursery. Just look up interspecific plums (pluots) and you can see where they supply the pluot in case you want to order one for your yard like I do. I am thinking that I will need to order it soon to get it this fall or maybe I'll wait a bit to order it for the spring. Maybe in a few years we'll have some delicious Flavor Grenades on a tree of our own.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

I stopped by my local CSA/local produce store to see what they had to offer and the prices that they were charging. They stock locally grown food besides the CSA part of their business and they were interested in stocking and selling my seeds and vegetables at their store. I may have to plan to grow something extra to sell this winter. I was planning to make some cold frames and grow radishes, lettuce, peas, and onions for fresh salads all winter. If I make a few extra cold frames, then I can grow a lot more radishes and lettuce to supply the store. I was thinking that I could also start tomatoes in the spring and sell them through their store. I would love to start my own seed business, but now is not the right time in my life to start that venture due to multiple conflicting factors. Maybe in 10-15 years I can start up a real seed business. For now I may just have to build a local reputation and supply some seeds to the local CSA store. Anyway, it might be a good idea to sell through the CSA and make a bit more spending money for the garden.

The Best Freeze/Frost Tolerant Peach Variety

I recently found out about this peach variety called Intrepid that blooms late and has blossoms that are resistant to freezing temperatures. The tree's blossoms have survived freezing temperatures even at full bloom. That is pretty amazing and might make it worth growing peaches in areas prone to late spring frosts. It will survive in zones 4-8.

I found one place that sells this variety. I am sure that there are others.
Stark Bro's

Another variety that came up in my browsing was the Ranger peach. It also is a late bloomer and more winter hardy for northern climates than the Intrepid peach, but is probably not quite as frost resistant in terms of full bloom. It grows in zones 3-7.

I saw it listed here.
Sanhedrin Nursery

I am still interested in trying the White Heath Cling peach and the Indian Iowa White Freestone Peach. I just made peach pie today and boy was it delicious.