What to do now? Fall gardening, clean up, and cover crops!~Pine Mountain, Maggie Ashmore

The growing season is beginning to wind down for our main season crops, but it is not time to quit for the season! Now, you might be tired by this time in the season and feel that you already have more than enough food from your garden preserved for the winter, but I believe that the extra push now to plant some fall greens and prepare your garden for the winter will be well worth the effort.  Every season that I have worked with Grow Appalachia, new families experiment with fall gardening and the use of simple season extension strategies, such as row covers. It is exciting to see fresh food long after summer has faded to fall.

Row Covers in use at PMSS during Fall 2009

Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky, the publication by UK Extension, gives the planting dates for fall crops on page 15. Another wonderful resource is the Fall gardening guide that Southern Exposure Seed Exchange puts out. Their list includes varieties that are especially suited to fall gardening and lets you know down to what temperature each plant can manage. While Southern Exposure is located in central Virginia, our average first frost date is the same as theirs (October 15) and the planting dates should be similar.   

It's not too late to plant radishes! Look at these beauties Kathleen grew this spring.

This time of the year is also the time to start preparing your garden for the off season. If you aren’t planting a fall garden, or are only using part of your plot for fall crops, it is time to start cleaning the garden. It is important to remove spent plant debris and weeds from the garden area. Removing weeds before they go to seed prevents more weed seed from being added to the plot. Leaving old plants in the garden leaves habitat for insect pests to overwinter and can contribute to fungal diseases if the plants have been infected. Plants that are bug ridden or diseased should be hauled off in the trash or burned – NOT COMPOSTED.

Once your garden is “clean”, it is time to prepare for next year! Planting a cover crop is one of the best ways to improve your garden for next season. I am huge fan of cover crops, and each year more of the families in the PMSS Grow Appalachia project become fans as well. Last season I posted about cover crops  and Jessica at BDVP has also sung their praises . Many plants can be used as a cover crop, as you can read in my post from last season, but the three I have used the most with Grow Appalachia are Crimson Clover, Rye, and Buckwheat.

Crimson Clover and Field Peas used as a Cover Crop in a PMSS Grow Appalachia garden. Look at those legumes fixing nitrogen!

Crimson Clover: Can kill weeds if planted in early fall, especially if it is planted with oats or rye. Clover is great at increasing the nitrogen content of your soil. Crimson clover grows fast in cool fall and spring weather. Mow down the clover and turn under after flowering (nitrogen fixation occurs then).  Crop seeding rate is 1 lb per 1000ft² broadcast. Or mix 1/3 clover and 2/3 rye or oats and broadcast.

Winter Rye: Rye is a cold tolerant and can germinate in soil as cool as 34-40° F, making it a major fall-planted cover crop. Rye has a well-developed fibrous root system that reduces leaching of soil nitrogen. Plant in September through mid-October.  Broadcast  3-4 lbs per 1000ft². The later in the season you plant rye, the more seed you will need to plant. You may want to broadcast with clover.

Buckwheat: Buckwheat’s rapid growth smothers most weeds.   Buckwheat fits into the “green manure” category of cover crops because of its rapid breakdown which releases nutrients for the succeeding crop and fits into a tight vegetable rotation, such as when a crop is harvested prior to mid-July and a succeeding crop is not scheduled until fall. Buckwheat will be killed by winter weather and is usually not planted as a fall cover crop, but during the summer months to improve soil. The breakdown of buckwheat improves soil structure and moisture holding capacity. If volunteer buckwheat is harmful in the succeeding crop, then the green manure crop of buckwheat should be destroyed before a large number of seeds mature. Buckwheat will germinate at temperatures ranging from 45° to 105°F. Broadcast 2 lbs per 1000ft².

Buckwheat blooming at PMSS during summer 2010

Some of the benefits of cover cropping include:

1. Improve soil quality: When the soil is allowed to lay bare during the traditional non-gardening months the soil surface seals together and water runs off during rains. Cover crops prevent this sealing of the earth and improve the soil structure. The root establishment over the winter months improves air and water infiltration into the soil, as does the decomposition of the organic matter after it is turned under. Earthworms and other soil organisms also thrive while the plants are decomposing.
2. Erosion Control: Cover crops hold the soil in place during the late fall, winter, and early spring thus reducing erosion due to wind and water coming into contact with the bare earth.
3. Increase soil fertility: Legume cover crops add nitrogen to the soil from the atmosphere due to their associations with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Non-legume cover crops can recycle excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from the previous crop to the following crop. Why not try this instead of using the synthetic N-P-K fertilizer next spring?! When cover crops are turned under and allowed to decompose they slowly release the nutrients that they have taken up. This will add some micro nutrients not usually added to the soil through traditional fertilization plans.
4. Suppress weeds: A dense stand of cover crop will reduce the amount of weeds that germinate in the fall due to shading. Some cover crops also release chemicals into the soil that will suppress other plants (weeds).
5. Insect control: Beneficial insects may be attracted to cover crops plantings, such as lady beetles or ground beetles that eat pest insects. Flowering cover crops will also attract beneficial insects
6. Subdue soil diseases and pests: Cover crops support beneficial soil microbes that can work against soil diseases and pests. Some cover crops may also produce compounds that suppress these problems. 

E. KENTUCKY LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS

Hi All. Just wanted to take this opportunity to remind you about the East Kentucky Local Foods Collaborative meeting in Hindman tomorrow from 10:00 to 4:00. This will be an excellent opportunity to network with others who are as passionate about healthy local foods as we of the Grow Appalachia family are and a great place to learn what others are doing and how. The collaborative is in its second year and we are ready to do some feet on the ground work so this won't be "another all day meeting full of information I will never use" kind of event.

The meeting is at the Knott County Extension office and I've been told if you Google map "Nelson Frasier Funeral Home, Hindman, KY" you will get good directions. Look forward to seeing you there. Sr. KC

The Real Values of a Vegetable Garden

Have you ever thought about growing a vegetable garden?  If you have you’re not alone.  There are a lot of good reasons to grow your own vegetables.

I know that home grow veggies are better than store bought and growing a garden, even a small one is very good exercise.  It’s also a fun family experience.  Did you  know you could burn 250 to 325 calories an hour by gardening?  No gym membership required.  Just go outside and get involved in your garden.  Exercises are the beneficial side effects of growing your own super foods, And  when you grow your own food, you know exactly what you’re eating because you know what’s in the soil, how it was fertilized, if there were any chemicals used, and how it was harvested.  That’s a very “GREEN” solution to putting healthy foods on the table which are real values of raising a vegetable garden.

Big Ugly Community Center and the Grow Appalachia program are sad to announce that Ester Gray, our Project Coordinator, will be leaving us this week.  She has done a wonderful job and will be greatly missed.   As much as we hate to see her leave, we know she must move on to bigger and brighter things.   We wish her the best of luck.                                             From left to right: Esther Gray, Marlena Workman & Annie Corathers 

As for our youth group, their gardens are doing very well.   The kids are back in school and will not have as much time to tend their gardens.  They are looking forward to coming back to the afterschool program, so they can work in their gardens again.  They are very excited about the pumpkin patch.   Our site members are very busy,  harvesting their vegetables and canning.  We all have been very blessed this year. 

  

THE JOY OF CANNING

Good day to everyone.  Hope everyone is well.  My name is Alex Sanders and I am an AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer with Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.

Our next Grow Appalachia Gardening participant's meeting is at 6 PM tonight.  This meeting will discuss the care of late gardens and weather related problems.

I would like to tell you about what the last month has been like in my household.  I grew up around gardening and canning.  I remember watching my mother and grandmother spend many hours canning pickles, corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash and many more items.  Of course, I did not pay much attention to details but I do remember how hard they appeared to be working and how much they enjoyed this process.  I remember thinking how could they enjoy working so hard.  On the other hand, my wife has never had anything to do with canning. Her parents were educators and the families of students were always giving them fresh food and canned vegetables.  As I stated in an earlier post my wife had never harvested anything out of a garden, her family's or anyone else's, until we grew our own Grow Appalachia garden.  I believe she as well as myself have become hooked on growing and canning as much food as we can.

Over the past month we have been very busy learning how to can many items.  These items include green beans, tomatoes, tomato juice,  and our personal favorites, different types of pickles.  Yes, I said pickles.  Bread and Butter, Dill and Sweet pickles.  We have purchased a canner and all the necessary items you need to can.  We have canned 19 quarts of green beans, 4 quarts of tomatoes, 27 quarts of tomato juice, 6 quarts of Bread and Butter pickles, 8 quarts of Dill pickles and 7 quarts of Sweet pickles.  Now she wants to try pickled corn and pickled eggs.  Oh my gosh, I think we have created a monster.  We are sharing this food with my sister and her 3 children as well as two elderly neighbors.  This activity has taught us a lot of new information and made us realize how much money can be saved by preservation, not to mention how much fun it has been.  Now I understand why my mother and grandmother enjoyed canning so much.  It is because when you grow your own food and preserve it the food taste much better and is healthier than anything that you can buy in the grocery store.  Thank you Grow Appalachia for the opportunity to grow and preserve our own food.

This week's recipe is listed below.  I hope everyone has a great week and has as much fun as we have had preserving the harvest from our garden.


Corn Pudding

1/4  cup flour
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cup whole corn
1 3/4 cup cream corn
1 1/4 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
1/3 stick butter

Mix egg, flour and sugar.  Add corn and blend in milk.  Dot top with butter and bake at 325 degrees until center is firm and knife, inserted 1 inch from center, comes out clean (approximately one hour).

Paul Cooper

Note:  I submit these recipes as given to me.  Please feel free to substitute healthy ingredients whenever possible.

Hi folks, Sue from the LMU organic community garden here.  I'm sorry we haven't posted in forever.  I don't know why but I couldn't figure out how to get into the blog. David finally set me straight. Anyway I wanted to say I've really been enjoying all the blogs and advice.  Your all doing great work.  Things are growing like crazy at our garden and it's hard to harvest and process all the tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, okra, corn,beans etc.  We are blessed.  Attached are pictures of me with an unidentified cowpea I picked up at some garden, probably Michigan State Univ.  I measured one of the beans yesterday 25inches.  They are very good cooked like green beans when young and I shelled about a pounds worth yesterday for dried beans over the winter.  The tomatoes I'm holding are from seeds I saved last year from a friend at church who said they are from his Dad's seedless tomato.  So I just call them Shawn's Dad's Seedless.

Karen, our all-star volunteer: BDVP

I wanted to take this opportunity to give a big old thank you to one amazing volunteer: Karen Lanier.  Karen has been such a wonderful gift to our farm project.  We met quite serendipitously in May and while she has been an amazing and consistent volunteer, she has also become a great friend.  She was kind enough to share a bit of her story with us....

Testimonial of Volunteering on Watershed Farm, or What I Learned This Summer

by Karen Lanier

August 19,2012

What brought me to Watershed Farm? A very different reason than most of the women here – I came to Lexington to be closer to a good man. But my story echoes their need of support through a transition. It has been a big shift for me to approach life with the intention to put down roots in this city, coming from a semi-migratory lifestyle that included living in small towns surrounded by magnificent wild spaces. Now I’m in the urban jungle, awake at all hours not to coyotes, but to siren howls, and the hammering sounds aren’t woodpeckers, but jackhammers.

I knew I wanted to find a balance between concrete and nature, as well as balance earning a living and producing my own food. That’s when Jessica and Watershed Farm entered the picture, as an answered prayer. I’ve been volunteering a few hours a week since May, in exchange for a few veggies and flowers.

Why do I continue to volunteer? For the soul nourishment that comes from slowing down my pace, kneeling with my hands in the earth, inhaling the indescribable freshness and realness that surrounds me and grounds me, sensing the power of creation in each seed, and noticing the subtle changes from one week to the next. 

What do I actually do while I’m on the farm? It’s always a surprise, and I like that. I could show up and be the lone weeder, spending two solitary hours untangling morning glory vines from sweet potatoes. Or I could be swallowed up in the energy of 40 other volunteers, swarming through the green rows, spreading straw mulch and clearing pathways. Often, I get individual attention from the garden guru, Jessica, who infuses the atmosphere with her infectious joy. She may hand me a flat of seedlings, rattle off flowers’ names that sound like Greek goddesses, and show me how to handle them as I transplant them. Each step in the process is meaningful and rewarding, but the best part might just be harvesting. I’ll never forget the day I learned how to pull a potato out of the ground without harming the plant.  It’s a delicate and strange feeling to blindly reach inside the earth, wiggle fingers around and detect a hard little ball, carefully separate it from the tendril that attaches it to the mother plant, and resurface with a golden (or russet) prize in your fist.

This summer has been full of firsts for me. One thing I’ve learned through my volunteer farming is that being a beginner is a wonderful way to exist in this world. Humble farmers know that they are never really in charge, and if you stay open to listening to nature’s messages, the right teachers will come to you.

Thanks so much, Karen!  We love you, lady!

Gardener Profile: Hazel Rayburn

Greetings from Cowan Community Center!

Enjoy this profile of our oldest gardener, Hazel!

            

            In the past sixty-five years, there have been twelve different presidents.  The United States has gone to war and withdrawn from conflict.    The Internet now extends to all corners of the nation and cities and towns have seen accelerated development like never before.  And each of these past sixty-five years, Hazel Rayburn has grown a garden.  Like clockwork, in the spring beans and corn and potatoes and onions go into the ground, and for the next couple of months there is the weeding and the canning and the cooking and the harvesting.  And it all began with a few chickens.

            During World War II Hazel lived in Baltimore, working in an airplane factory.  It was here that Hazel fulfilled the smiling all-American image of the posters: she went to work everyday, made planes for the boys overseas, and lived outside of Whitesburg and by herself for the first time in her life.  It was in Baltimore that Hazel met, and fell in love with, Earl.  With the end of World War II, Hazel moved back to Whitesburg, the only home she had ever known, with her new husband.  The era of rationing remained, despite victory over Germany and the extension of U.S. hegemony.  Rationing of food was felt particularly hard in Appalachia, a region that has long-suffered from poverty and welfare concerns.  So with this context, the first winter living back in Whitesburg was fated to be a difficult one.  But Hazel knew the solution. 

            “I’ll bet you a dollar,” Hazel said to Earl, “that if we make it through the winter, we’ll have more food than we know what to do with.” 

            Making it through the winter was no guarantee, but as soon as the snow and cold began to let up, even in the slightest, the chickens began.  Before grass even turned green they brought chicks into the house, keeping them pushed right up against the stove so that they would stay warm.  The chicks were mail order, and it turns out raising two hundred chicks gets crowded.  When the ground softened and the chickens began pecking around outside, Hazel put in their first plot.  The plot was huge, producing more than enough vegetables for their day to day cooking, and plenty to can: beans, cabbage for sauerkraut, cucumbers to pickle. 

            The value of a garden doesn’t come from some inherent value of the gardening process, but rather from the nutrition, vitality, and self-sufficiency that it lends to its gardeners and their families.  You won’t find an individual who loves gardening more than Hazel Rayburn; if she could make every person living up and down Cowan grow a garden, she would.  But to her, being able to stick something in the ground and see corn come out isn’t really valuable in and of itself.  What she truly values is her family’s ability to eat kraut all through the winter, independent of the economy.  John Paul Dejoria said that his vision for Grow Appalachia included a “return to the self-sufficiency of our grandparents,” and all you have to do is walk into Hazel’s kitchen when she’s stringing beans with her great-granddaughter Katie, or when her granddaughter Becky is canning over a hundred quarts of kraut, or when they’re eating the fruits of their labors for breakfast lunch and dinner to see that in action.  The transmittance of the collective knowledge and wisdom of gardening is invaluable and yet also organic; Hazel Rayburn is living proof.