Farmer Jay » photos

On the Farm, June 12, 2009

Farmer Jay — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:29:09 +0000

It was a great day for pictures on the farm this past Friday.

Cilantro

Wow, the cilantro is growing strong. I’ve picked a number of bunches of cilantro today. Too bad the tomatoes aren’t ready to go as they would make great salsa. The cilantro smells so good. This is slow bolt cilantro. Cilantro bolts or goes to seed and becomes bitter very quickly. Slow bolt cilantro is suppose to go to seed much slower. You can see from the first photos a slight difference in some of the cilantro. This is the cilantro slowly starting to bolt.

Radish

The radishes are huge today. I’ve pulled a number of radishes out of the ground today. Also for the first time in 5 years, we have a critter in the garden. Based upon what was eaten and the location (and also what I normally see in the garden), I’m guessing I have rabbits. I’ll keep an eye on it and hopefully the rabbits will eat only a reasonable amount. They are hungry after all.

Peppers

The peppers are starting to grow. They’ve been about 3 inches tall for the past few weeks and they’ve added about two inches in the past few days. We are a long way to actually eating a pepper, but they are looking good.

Rocky Top Lettuce

The rocky top is going strong. I took a small batch of baby lettuces out today and they tasted wonderful. The rocky top is delicate when it is in the baby stage, but in another couple of weeks we’ll have a strong batch of lettuce. At this point they are growing very tightly together and require almost no care, which is a treat.

Peas

Check out the peas — we’ve got pods. I’m so excited. I’ve never grown peas before so I was surprised to notice the snaps growing on the vine. There are about 4 pea pods per plant — a little less than I expected. I was able to pull a pod and took a picture of the inside. I think they need a week or two more but so far they taste great. I also took a picture of the pea blossoms.

Garlic

The garlic is growing perfectly. It was planted in the fall and is about 3 to 5 feet tall today. There are a variety of theories on growing garlic, one of which is to cut the tops of the garlics — called the scapes — to allow for the bulbs to focus on growing. I’ve cut the scapes and I haven’t cut the scapes and have found no difference. Anyway, I cut some scapes — enough for me to throw in a stirfry. I have some pretty good pictures of the scapes. It looks to be a great garlic season.

Beans

The greasy grit beans are going strong. This is also my first year growing beans so we’ll have to see how they grow.

Growth of Lincoln Peas

Farmer Jay — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:52:55 +0000

One of the interesting side effects of blogging the farm growth is having documented the week-by-week growth of individual plants. Seeing the plants every day, you miss how fast they grow (much like your kids). This was very apparent with the Lincoln Peas. The peas were the first seeds planted in the ground. Now they are one of the fastest growing plants currently (radishes grow faster, but are probably less interesting to photograph. The photos below are in chronological order for the past 7 weeks of growth.

I’ll provide a number of different plants’ growth charts throughout the season and certainly at the end. The Lincoln Peas have a long way to go up the trellis before they start to bloom but today they are showing strong growth.

Three Weeks in the Life of Rocky Top Lettuce

Farmer Jay — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:29:10 +0000

A photo historical of the last three weeks of Rocky Top Lettuce.

Three Weeks Ago

Last Week

This Week

Scenes from an Early Spring Farm

Farmer Jay — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:15:21 +0000

Friday was an excellent day to be in the dirt. I’ll post on my plantings throughout the weekend.

Until then, enjoy an April spring day on the farm.

Peas breaking through the ground, April 2009

Garlic off to a great start, April 2009

Shallots popping up, April 2009