Dear Eric:Thank you for your comments and concerns.We have always experienced some conversion of the softnecks to hardnecks, and this year, we have experienced an abnormal number of heads converting across most softneck varieties.The two softneck varieties you ordered, Inchelium Red and Lorz Italian, are classified under the variety of ‘Artichoke.’ While Artichokes do not normally produce a seed head, they often produce large bulbils that protrude from the lower third of the stem. When stressed, Artichokes can produce hard necks and seed heads.The ‘hardneck’ bulbs you received in these softneck varieties are a result of bulbil clusters being produced on the stems of these stressed plants. Many growers experience that cloves planted from these bulbs will usually revert to soft necks the following season. In the past, we have sorted out and trialed these ‘hardneck’ types, and received advice from our Garlic Advisor, John Swenson, that we should not be overly concerned with doing this - these varieties will often convert, and they just do that. We do, however, only save softneck bulbs with soft stems as planting stock for our continuedcommercial production.Another variation in explanation we can give you is taken from Ron L. Engeland’s book, *Growing Great Garlic *(pg8-9):“In some climates (such as Germany), they *(Artichokes)* still often produce topsets, but in most climates they only produce a few large bulbils out the side of the false stem a few inches above the bulb. These bulbils may even appear as small, odd-shaped cloves inside the bulb wrappers at the very top of the bulb… many growers would claim that softneck garlics are less stable than hardnecks and more likely to display a wide range of environmental responses.”Since softneck varieties typically perform better in warmer climates, we can speculate that our northern conditions are not as ideal for these varieties and as a result, experience more environmental responses, such as bulbil production and hardneck conversion. These bulbs are still true to the variety and we will continue to grow and offer these varieties, to honor theSeed Savers mission and the tradition of preserving and sharing heritage varieties and promoting biodiversity. However, since we strive to offer quality products, we are considering sorting out the ‘hard-necked’ softnecks from our sales stock next year to sell as eating garlic at our Visitor’sCenter and to donate to the local food pantry.We will gladly issue you a refund for the Lorz and Inchelium garlic varieties that you are not satisfied with. The Persian Star is a hardneck, and a very good performer for us, but please let us know if you are not satisfied with this variety. We do still have a small amount of qualityseed stock remaining that we would be glad to send you as a replacement if what you received is unsatisfactory. We just finished planting our stock seed garlic last week, and weather conditions in Missouri should still be fine for planting garlic.Please let Lou or I know how you would like to proceed. Your satisfaction is important to us. Thank you.Sincerely,Kelly
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Seed Savers garlic response
Friday, November 20, 2009
Early winter food supply
It's mid-November, and we still haven't needed to start tapping our frozen/canned winter supplies except for a few quarts of strawberries. In the ground, we have salad greens, cooking greens, leeks, cabbage, bok choi, turnips, carrots, radishes, herbs, and more. In indoors/cold storage we have potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, green peppers, hot peppers, winter tomatoes, dried beans, dent corn, and more.
For the rest the winter and next spring, we now have 30lb of venison in the freezer, another 20 or more expected from our second kid, 7 or so chickens to butcher, possibly a goose, a small turkey, and possibly another deer. We have a chest freezer stuffed with locally sourced strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and other fruits, along with six months of our own vegetables. We have rows of canned tomatoes, pickles, jams, applesauce, and more. We have 3lb of farm-made hard cheese waxed and aging, with more to come as we're still getting 2 quarts a day off the goat. 40lb of locally grown wheat berries await grinding into flour as needed.
The only foodstuffs we'll be buying this winter are basic staples like oats, sugar, butter, oil, raisins, salt, spices, orange juice, and so on. All these store well, and we tend to buy most in large quantities. We're certainly not completely food-independent, but we sure can go a long time without needing to visit a store. And so much of our basic nutrition this winter will come from our farm or farms we know personally. That's a fantastic feeling in an era of faceless, processed, well-travelled pseudo-food.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Good farm food, early November
Roasted vegetables (carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, salt); fresh sauerkraut (cabbage, local apples, onions, salt, pepper, cider vinegar); cowpeas (cowpeas, greens, garlic, onion, spices)
Venison tacos: fresh tortillas (local wheat, baking powder, water, salt); fresh salsa (winter tomatoes, leeks, garlic, cilantro, hot pepper, spices, vinegar, water, salt); ground venison (fresh meat, leeks, paprika, garlic, salt); spiced beans (black beans, leeks, daikon radish, garlic, cilantro, spices, salt); fresh greens (various lettuces, arugula, mizuna, tat soi). Oh, my, were these especially tasty, especially with a friend/customer's home-brewed beer.
Standard Chert Hollow house salad: mixed fresh greens (various lettuces, arugula, mizuna, tat soi, beet greens), toppings (chopped local apples, raisins, and walnuts), dressed with oil & vinegar. We can't get enough of this, and are thrilled to still have lots of fresh greens in mid-November.
Now, here's a fun one. Polenta (our fresh-ground corn, water, salt) topped with goat 'n greens (shredded goat meat, green beans, mustard & collard greens, winter tomatoes, garlic, and spices). This polenta was very, very tasty, made from the same ground corn we were selling the fall. We need to have recipe cards for this next year; it was creamy, flavorful, and gone all too fast. Also very good heated with sorghum syrup or honey as a breakfast/dessert.Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Columbia Farmers Market will be open in December
http://www.columbiafarmersmarket.org/winter_market.shtml
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Columbia, Missouri - November 17, 2009
Due to rising demand from both customers and vendors, the Columbia Farmers Market will be extending its season on a trial basis through December 19th. In years past, the Market’s season has ended just prior to Thanksgiving, with the last day of 2009 slated as Saturday, November 21. However, the continued growth in the Market’s vendor base, product diversity, and customer count, combined with increasing interest in locally-grown food in all seasons, has generated enough buzz and demand to support keeping the Market open in December.
The December market days will be held from 10 am to at least12pm on three Saturdays, December 5th, 12th, and 19th, after taking a week off for Thanksgiving. All normal CFM rules and policies will be in place, including the requirement that all products be sold directly by the grower/producer, and be grown and/or produced within a roughly 55-mile radius around Columbia.
Products expected to be available include lamb, pork, beef, eggs, winter & greenhouse vegetables, honey, locally-made chocolate, baked goods, and more. If weather conditions are not suitable for an outdoor market, an announcement will be made on the Columbia Farmers Market website and on the Market’s voicemail (573-823-6889).
With the Columbia Farmers Market set to mark its 30th anniversary in 2010, this trial winter market will be an excellent way to celebrate and support the continued growth and success of small farms and local foods in mid-Missouri.
Contacts:
Market Manager
Caroline Todd
(573) 474-0989
columbia_farmers_market@yahoo.com
Market President
Rex Roberts
(660) 886-6877
seasonsgreens@yahoo.com
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Seed Savers Exchange garlic trouble
We've moved strongly toward saving our own garlic, and indeed most of our planting this fall was of our own stock, but we still ordered three new varieties from SSE to round out our significant expansion in garlic, and to add even more diversity. However, when we began separating these new heads for planting in October and early November, we discovered some problems with two of them.
Both varieties, Inchelium Red and Lorz Italian, were listed as softneck garlic. This class does not have a central hard stalk, does not produce a scape, and tends to have far more cloves per head. Hardnecks, by comparison, are the opposite (hard stalk, scape, fewer but larger cloves).
As we went through the bags, we discovered some significant variations in the structures of the heads:
As shown above, the Lorz bag contained traditional softneck heads (right), very clearly hardneck heads (left), and some very screwy mutant heads with small stalks and a cluster of cloves at the top (center). And these were not isolated, but pretty well distributed between the three types. The same pattern held for the Inchelium heads, shown below:
Now, if these were just for home use, it probably wouldn't matter. But for a market farm, if these genetics maintain themselves, it will be a serious problem next year. At market, those mutant heads aren't of the same quality as others, and can't be sold for as much. Those apparent hardneck heads will be producing scapes that we need to look out for. And we have no idea if these are all really the same variety (I would think not, given that hardneck/softneck is a pretty fundamental divide in the garlic world). We'll be very hesitant to save any heads back for planting from this stock, and that's a significant loss for us.
There wasn't much we could do about it. It was late October/early November, we HAD to get our garlic in, and there were no replacements available from SSE as all stock was sold out. So we planted them and will see what happens in 2010.
All the more reason to keep working toward saving more and more of our own seed.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Mmm, fresh venison
After a fruitless opening day on Saturday, despite staying on the woods from dawn to dusk, I got my deer Sunday around lunchtime. This one wins a Darwin Award; when I came into the kitchen to start heating leftovers for lunch, I saw it obliviously browsing in the open about 15' from our kitchen porch. I grabbed the rifle, gently eased my way out onto the porch, steadied the barrel on the railing, and had the easiest meat imaginable. It never even looked up, even when the microwave beeped loudly through the open door behind me. Young, stupid, and no longer in the gene pool.
We finished processing it around 9:30pm, including several breaks. We do a pretty thorough job of butchering, preferring to debone everything right away and freeze the meat in smaller quantities, saving work and waste later in the year. This way, we can bury all the bones and other scraps at once, which we'll do on Monday (after boiling some down for broth). Monday I'll also get started on scraping and curing the hide, as we do for goats, since they make nice floor coverings and we hate to waste such beautiful fur.
We did notice that she had very little fat on her, though quite healthy otherwise, with a thick coat. It'll be interesting to see how that relates to our weather this winter.
Dinner was an experimental pseudo-casserole of sliced sweet potatoes, cabbage, apples, and tenderloin, slow-baked with juniper berries, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and a bit of water. After 90 minutes in the oven, everything was tender and flavorful. Next time I'd use less sugar (called for by the Joy of Cooking recipe I was loosely following), maybe even replacing it with sorghum or honey. I would also replace some of the water with cider vinegar for a stronger flavor and more of a sweet/sour effect. Finally, I would drain the broth toward the end, make gravy from it, and put all the rest into a pie filling or top with dumplings for a shepherd's pie kind of thing. Still, for a quickly-tossed-together dinner in the middle of butchering, it was pretty tasty.
And now we have at least 30lb of fresh, healthy meat in the freezer to help us through the winter. Add on another goat, some chickens, probably a goose, and we're in good shape on the protein front.
