Lost in the Farmers Market

Welcome to the LITFM weekly blog. This blog is a text-based complement to the LITFM YouTube channel and covers the forage food side of gardening. It is my goal to make gardening and forage food accessible for all while promoting good land stewardship and sustainable practices by providing honest and balanced information backed by verifiable scientific fact. Since this blog now focuses on wild plants or ‘weeds’ we will be taking an objective look at them and their uses. Thank you for reading.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

So much for in like a lion and out like a lamb.

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This is the second post of March which by no measure of irony comes just two days after the first official day of spring which was Wednesday the 20^th. So, as I always recommend, do not jump the gun and plant everything outside just yet, we can still have a freeze all the way up to the Easter weekend which is April 19^th through April 21^st. In short, we have a little way to go but, while you have to be careful about your warm season crops you can start to harden off your cold season stuff so it’s ready to go into the ground over the next three weeks or so. For note, cold season stuff you can plant includes, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, broccoli, kale, radicchio, mustard, turnips and some types of peas. Now this leads to a question that I get somewhat rarely, ‘why do some plants freeze and die and others survive a front that killed everything else nearby?’ Well the simple answer is that some plants have biological adaptations that allow them to survive frost and cold with little or no damage. This protection is at a cellular level were some plants have

Leather Leaf Mahonia (Mahonia beali) prevents front damage by having both a waxy coating on it's leaves but rigid leaf structures full of fibrous lignin which makes it harder for frost to reach and freeze the water in the plant's vascular system and within it's cells cytoplasm.

The simplest answer for this is that freezing in general effects an organism on the cellular level by preventing the flow and or transfer of water between cells and in vascular pathways. This water once it freezes causes cells to burst which leads to that black color you see on plants that have frozen and thawed. This is literally the cold-induced equivalent to a bruise except the tissue destruction is far worse. Some plants however have chemical compounds in their sap, and in the water stored in their cells that effectively lowers the freezing point for water so that they cannot as easily freeze. Literally some plants produce a biological equivalent to anti-freeze or something akin to alcohol. Before any of you get too excited about the idea of inebriated plants and consuming them, the reality is that it takes very little of these compounds to alter the freezing point of water within the plant.

Longleaf Pines (Pinus palustris) have waxy coating on their needles that allow them to survive low temperatures and freezing to a certain degree. The waxy coating on a plant's leaf is called a cuticle.

Likewise, plants also counter freezing with waxy coatings on their leaves (e.g. pines) and stems which also makes it harder for them to freeze. A third method is the geometry of the plants as is seen with some forms of cacti and succulents which may arrange their needles and spines in such a way to create airspaces where the temperature is controlled to a certain degree. This is the result of genetic selection for trails that increased the survivability of a given plant species which often produces interesting plant forms that most buyers at a garden center don’t fully appreciate or understand. The discussion of how plants combat freezing ties into your garden planning by way of considering how wind travels through your yard which will tell you were cold and warm pockets might be allowing for better placement. One of the interesting ways to spot where the wind forms temperature pockets is to look for where leaves swirl about in a cyclone like circle near structures or the placement of beds. Additionally, looking for spots where fallen leaves are thickest can often tell you that the wind is depositing them there due to the way it flows through your yard. Living windbreaks are the best way to control the movement of the wind and a good way to mitigate hot and cold pockets short of dramatic landscape alterations. But let’s move on to this week’s photographs from the field;

In numerous conversations and lectures I have called mosses an indicator plant because they only tend to appear where two specific environmental conditions are met. It has to be consistently moist and the soil has to be compacted to some degree for moss to reliably germinate and form colonies. the presence of moss is part of a naturally occurring terra-forming cycle where the moss will colonize an area and build up organic matter as it grows which then is colonized by other weeds that further defeat the compaction that initially may have left an area barren.

The above are the blooms of 'Kolibri' Kohlrabi plants in their second year. Honestly the deep purple stems, grey-green leaves and cheery yellow flowers are quite a combo.

Some varieties of Camellias bloom in the later winter and serve as the final indicator that spring is coming. This specimen is in full bloom right now.

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

Soup Kit, Parsnip - $5.00 (Not available after March 30^th)

Soup Kit, Turnip - $5.00 (Not available after March 30^th)

Garlic, Whole bulb - $1.00 (Not available after March 30^th)

Garden Plants:

Lettuce, Cimarron, 3” - $3.00

Mustard, Red Giant, 3” - $3.00

House Plants:

Coffee Plants, 4” - $6.00

Flowering Maple, 4” - $3.00

Flowering Maple, 6” - $5.00

Polka-Dot Plant, 4” - $3.00

Coming Soon:

Basil, Cinnamon

Basil, Sweet Genovese

Cilantro

Carrot, Amarillo

Carrot, Atomic Red

Carrot, Black Nebula

Carrot, Lunar White

Garlic, Jerimiah’s Heirloom

Lettuce, Parris Island

Parsnip, Hollow Crown

Peppers, 11 varieties (TBA)

Potatoes, Dark Red Norland

Tomatoes, 12 varieties (TBA)

Pomegranate, Dwarf

Spice Bush, Calycanthus

Coneflower, Cayenne Red

Coneflower, PowWow Wildberry Mix

Datura, Black Currant

Datura, Indigo (rare!)

Datura, White Ballerina

Lupine, Carolina

Milkweed, (Asclepias tuberosa)

Whorled Milkweed, (Asclepias verticillata)

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

This brings to a close the sixth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 5^th of April. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Well Played, March!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This is the first post of March which is the month of transition towards spring. Despite the rain and crazy temperature swings March is a time in which you can sow seeds indoors, perform maintenance on critical areas of your yard and of course, make plans for the rest of the year. Also, by this point the seed catalogs have arrived and for the average gardener you’ve placed your orders in mid-February, and the seeds have arrived. Between the end of February and the first two weeks of March is when you would normally acquire all your growing supplies and hopefully will have sown the indoor seed. So, this sets the stage for last week’s belated post; Late Winter Garden Planning.

Although not listed maintenance of the memorial bed is part of the checklist.

So, us gardeners all feel the urge, daylight savings happened last Sunday at 2 am and we have longer days to achieve our miraculous garden feats. We know it’s time to plant but the threat of a winter frost is still present even as the signs of spring’s arrival are all around us. The robins are out in dense flocks looking for food, the earliest mayflies are about and the winter bulbs have come up and are doing their thing. For some the wait is maddening, and the longer than average march is not helping, plus Easter is further out in April this year which skews our perception when it is safe to plant. Well let me tell you a secret, there are things you could do now to get moving and they would seem banal later on but now is the time to start planning and preparing for a spring breakout that will put you well head of the curve. While your neighbors are puttering over the start line, you’ll be Tokyo drifting across the finish line if you take heed to this article. Planning and preparation is everything, and the first step to this is to assess the state of your tools and their storage. Tools with wooden handles could use a bit of numeral oil, to maintain their water repellant qualities which will increase their service life. The hinges of tools such as pruners and loppers could use a bit of WD-40 to get them moving smoothly. Any maintenance of your tools is best done now before the spring rush happens and it gets harder to get spare parts if you need to replace dulled blades or worn springs and so on. Likewise, if your powered equipment needs maintenance now is the time to do it.

This area was covered in leaves and debris which made accessing the shed harder.

I know some of you out there are thinking, ‘but what does maintenance of my equipment have to do with planning?!’ well, that’s simple, you do plan on using it right? Also, you want it to work right in the field with a reduced chance of breaking, don’t you? If you plan to have a garden then you need to plan to perform essential maintenance on your equipment at a bare minimum once per year, twice preferably to ensure your ability to tackle whatever situation you encounter is not restricted by a lack of the right tools. But this is just half of the planning game, the other half is setting realistic goals, and writing them down so that you can know what you need to do and in what order. This is called Objective-Based Garden Planning, and it sets a pace for your operations that aids you in getting things done since there is a foreseeable start and finish and guidelines along the way. For instance, at the Test Gardens my current list is the following;

Reorganizing the shed was critical. You have no idea how many old plastic pots had piled up in there.

1. Organize Tool Shed. (completed)

2. Maintenance non-powered equipment. (completed)

3. Maintenance powered equipment. (completed)

4. Harvest Pinestraw on lawn areas for use in beds.

5. Weed herb bed and prepare for spring planting.

6. Weed Asparagus bed and prepare for spring planting.

7. Clear patio regions of weeds and leaves.

8. Empty soil from older planters, use in new bed construction.

9. Prepare donated rose for planting outdoors.

10. Clear pre-composter.

11. Clear compost bin.

12. Clear squash/gourd bed.

13. Build Trellis for Longleaf Pine Boughs.

14. Clear at least 50% of backwoods paths.

15. Prepare planter displays.

To be honest, this is just the simplified version of what it takes to manage the test gardens, and I don’t expect anyone else to be quite this detailed or rigorous about planning. Obviously, some details are missing like greenhouse operations and crop maintenance. But I thing the basic idea is clear you should always set goals that are within the grasp of your capabilities for the most part and then throw in just a few goals that challenge said capabilities so your skill set grows and you gain valuable knowledge on what does and does not work. Item number 13 is an unusual project where I will be building what amounts to a trellis using unconventional materials to elevate drooping Longleaf pine branches above the height of my blueberry bushes and the Gourd bed thus creating a sort of hidden passage an arbor within an arbor essentially. Will it work? I have no idea, but I’m willing to try something that potentially no one ever thought of doing before. You can bet that that the pictures of the project will be posted here sometime in April or May. But enough of this serious business, let’s get on to this posts photos so that you can see some neat garden stuff.

Asiatic Hawksbeard - Youngia japonica

A few folks asked me what Asiatic/Oriental Hawksbeard looked like and this is a VERY picturesque specimen, found in the test gardens. They are rarely this well developed and are certainly never this close to perfect symmetry. It's edibility is uncertain but some authors indicate it may be and is somewhat bitter.

Wild Lettuce - Lactuca canadensis

I also get queries about wild lettuce which often is mistaken for a dandelion until it goes to flower and gets 2-6 feet tall. Wild lettuce is edible at the early stages but the latex sap and the prickles on the leaves may be hard to deal with as it matures.

Cat's Ear Dandelion (upper left) - Hypochaeris radicata

Cat's ear dandelion is a fuzzy relative of true dandelion and like the Wild lettuce and Asiatic hawksbeard all three belong to the Daisy family. Most of our normal salad greens come from domesticated varieties of these plants which is yet another natural fact that blows a lot of minds. Those weeds you payed so much money to obliterate are actually just the wild cousins of the same plants you buy at the grocery store. Yes cat's ear dandelion is edible, it's roots have similar uses as common dandelion and it is a perennial.

Just a local business note

Our local purveyor of quality hydroponic equipment, quality fertilizers and soils has changed their hours to the above. That's right folks Flow & Grow has not closed their doors, if anything they have diversified and we as gardeners should support local small business. Flow & Grow is your best alternative to bLowes, Home Despot and big box wannabe garden centers. Flow & Grow is located on 4521 Cumberland Road, Fayetteville North Carolina 28306, their number is (910) 423-3569. They are where I get most of my propagation equipment and quite a few of my specialized soil amendments for crop production.

Thats one heck of a night sky.