Celebrating Autumn
Redlands. 22 September. blue sky, puffy white clouds and anticipation in the air.
I absolutely love the Fall. Time to pull out sweaters [hopefully soon], enjoy apples [and apple picking which is going on now in Oak Glen]and pumpkins,not to mention all of the brilliance of the fall colors, the crispness in the air, the longer nights, the return to soups and warm herbs tea.
For me, Fall feels so much better than the summer. Days are shorter and cooler. My nesting really thrive and I see it the foods I cook and the foods I grow. The best part for me, finally, a return to growing the foods that really feed me – the root vegetables and the leafy greens.
Most of you reading this grew something edible this summer. Was it a tomato? Melons? Peppers? An herb garden? If you grew food this summer, no matter how successful [or not] you think you were, I am here to tell you there is not a harder season to grow food in than Summer and yet you DID IT!
Summer in the Inland Empire, while it was a bit cooler than normal this year, it is quite harsh when it comes to growing food [or living in, if you ask me...]. Pests are higher and the need to water can be overwhelming. Forget a day of watering in August and kiss your garden goodbye.
Let’s be real. Growing food takes work and for my work, I like to have a lot to show for it. This brings me back to the cooler season garden of edibles. Leafy greens – these you can harvest over and over! In the cooler months, in our garden, we always have more leafy greens to share than we do tomatoes in the summer. Talk about salad with real taste! Talk about a great return on an investment. Let’s not forget, Mother Nature will even pitch in here and there, watering for us and aside from the aphids, take the problem of pests eating away our garden way down!
Hey, your beds or containers are already ready. Irrigation is already in. You already have organic tomato & vegetable food on hand. KEEP GROWING!
In honor of this weekend being the first of the Fall season pared with our desire to have you grow more of your own food – YEAR ROUND, this Saturday at the downtown farmers market we will be offering many varieties of cool season annual heirloom starters at a discounted rate. Starters like lettuce, cilantro, sugar snap peas, arugula, chard, basil [yes, there is still time to grow this outdoors or you can always grow it indoors] chrysanthemum, cress, mustard’s will be on hand. This is just a few of the plant varieties we will be bringing – along with lots of perennial herbs and new varieties of artichokes.
In order to do this, you will see quite a few of our starts in green plastic nursery containers – not transplanted into the biodegradable containers you know us for. We know you all won’t mind the plastic just this once. Since we reuse these containers in our growing operation, we ask that you please bring them back to us at a later visit. Many thanks in advance!
Even if you are not planning on planting this weekend, or if you are waiting to add these cool season edibles to your garden, do consider picking up your starts this weekend. Not sure about growing food in the cooler months? Not to worry. We are offering two free workshops in October all about this – what, when , how , compost, frost protection, etc. The first workshop will be on Saturday the 8th @ Cherry Valley Nursery [10am]. The second will be @ Olive Ave Market on the 15th at 3pm.
Both of these workshops will invite you to get your hands dirty. Together, we will plant containers of varying sizes – each big enough to produce a constant supply of heirloom food. Do hope you will attend.
More good news! We have found a biodegradable 6 pack container and so over the next several weeks, we will begin offering many of our heirloom lettuces [and other crops] in this crowd pleasing size. The launch will be limited, but it will grow.
Last but not least, seed and saving seed. Last week, when we attended the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, we met an awesome heirloom tomato grower – Wild Boar Farms [yep, picked up some seed for next year!]. They offer a wonderful how-to on saving tomato seed. Do give it a try.
As for seed, many of you have asked if we do or will sell heirloom seed. YES! Starting in January, we will begin to offer limited varieties of heirloom seeds. These packets are designed for the home grower, sorry – no bulk sales. The how’s, when and where is yet to be worked out – but we have never felt more passionate about adding a product than we do regarding about adding heirloom seeds. At a time when the need to grow heirlooms, not only for biodiversity & our own health & nutrition is vital, the need to grow heirlooms in order to build heirloom seed supplies is critical. [There is a rant starting here, I will spare you for today but be warned, it is coming!!!]
In honor of our diversifying into the area of heirloom seed, wouldn’t it be great to kick it off with a seed exchange early in the new year? Let us know what you think!
See you all Saturday!
