Farm Life Archives - Page 13 of 19

Garlic Scapes

Did you know garlic plants provide much more than just the part that is commonly available in grocery stores? It’s true. There is more to this fragrant plant than what comes in the papery bulb.

What Are Garlic Scapes?

Garlic scapes are the tender end of the shoot in hard neck garlic varieties. As the plant grows in springtime, it sends up a shoot that is tender at first and later turns into a flower with bulbils. Those tiny bits of the flower are also edible, but the scape is the newly forming flower with it’s white end and the first 5-6 inches of tender shoot.

When To Harvest.

When the shoot has a whitish end that looks like a bloom is starting to form, the scape is ready. The green part may be curled back on itself forming a curly que at the very top of the garlic plant. Snap off the shoot approximately 4-6 inches below the tip just as you would asparagus. The plant will snap off at it’s tender point.

How To Use.

Now that you have these spring delicacies, it’s time to use them in the kitchen. Scapes taste like garlic. The flavor is lighter than garlic cloves but still clearly garlic. One option is to dice and stir into any dish where you would normally use garlic. Scapes may be sautéed as is and eaten as a vegetable. You can chop it for a garnish on lettuce salad, use to flavor pasta salad, fry with potatoes or use in any dish where garlic will add a complementary flavor.

As an added bonus, snapping off the scapes will divert the plant’s energy into bulb development. So not only does the gardener get a fresh taste of garlic in the spring, the fall harvest will be improved.

If you grow your own garlic, give scapes a try. If you don’t and are in the Charleston area, stop by the 18th Street Farmer’s Market this Saturday and pick up some from us.

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Planting Tomatoes

Our last two posts discussed choosing determinate or indeterminate and the benefits of heirloom varieties. Now you have chosen your tomato plants and it is time to get them in the ground. If you haven’t read those yet, click here and here.

Or is it?

To ensure the best chance of success follow the following steps:

Harden Off

The first thing to ensure success is the process of “hardening off”. This technique helps acclimate your plant to the world of weather outside. All tomatoes grown in Central Illinois are started by seed early in the year inside a greenhouse or other indoor setting. In these controlled environments, the plant does not have an opportunity to adapt to blowing wind or pounding rain.

Wait until the daytime temperatures are above 60º, then set the plants still in their pots in a semi protected but outdoor area for a short period of time each day. At first, the plant’s adjustment may make you think the plants have wilted or are not going to survive. Trust that they will perk up overnight and be ready for their next excursion outdoors. Increase the time outside daily. During this time, limit watering to bare minimums. The goal is to strengthen the plants but keep them alive.

After a week or so of this increasing exposure to the outdoor weather and when the soil temperature is above 50º at 4 inches (or threat of frost has passed), your tomatoes are ready for the garden or patio pot.

Prepare the Planting Bed

Tomatoes need calcium to protect against blossom end rot. Crushed egg shells work perfectly. Save approximately one egg shell for every tomato plant. When ready to plant, crush the eggshells and add a pinch of epsom salts for each egg shell. The epsom salts add magnesium and sulfur to the soil as a fertilizer and support healthy plant growth.

When ready to plant, dig a hole slightly wider than the pot the tomato is in and twice as deep for each plant. Divide the eggshell mixture among each hole and add water. Allow the water to absorb into the soil to dissolve the epsom salts and you are ready to plant.

Plant Deep

For the best strength and success, bury tomato plant to the first set of leaves. This may feel unusually deep but tomato stalks will grow roots all along the stalk and increase the ability of the plant to take up soil nutrients. Most tomato plants will require some type of staking or cage to ensure they remain upright and the fruit stays off the ground. It is best to add this now while the plant is small instead of struggling to contain a large unruly plant.

That’s it. Ensure adequate water if it does not rain and in about 6 weeks, you will be picking your own fresh, ripe tomatoes.

Stay tuned to our social media for progress on our garden and post pictures of your own. Five Feline Farm is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Why Heirloom Tomatoes?

Heirloom varieties are all the rage, but are they really better?

Last week’s post discussed how the differences between determinate and indeterminate tomato plants. But what if you aren’t planting your own? How do you decide which type to choose?

We prefer heirloom varieties.

First what is an heirloom tomato?

You may also see these referred to as “heritage” or “old time” tomatoes. These are the types that have been around for a very long time, as far back as the Aztecs and Incas. These are the varieties your grandparents would know and raise in their garden. Seeds from heirlooms can be saved to plant the next season and will produce tomatoes consistent with the variety. Non-heirloom or hybrid tomatoes will not produce from saved seeds.

Heirloom tomatoes are typically not those perfect globes found in mass market stores. They also have a shorter shelf life.

Flavor.

When we started the farm and began growing tomatoes, we conducted a taste test. We included a hybrid beefsteak tomato because of all the hype around those big red slicing tomato types like Better Boy. We lined up a slice from each with the variety name hidden and tasted. We quickly found our favorites. While the Better Boy had tomato flavor, it paled in comparison to the others. Our favorites were the German, which is a yellow tomato with a red stripes and Brandywine. These were bursting with full tomato flavor. We haven’t grown a hybrid since.

Your best bet to ensure a fresh, delicious, full-flavored tomato is to either grow your own or buy at a local farmer’s market.

Five Feline Farm will be at the 18^th Street Farmer’s Market all summer with tomatoes in season as well as other fresh produce. Stop by and see us.

Do You Know Hoppin’ John?

Hoppin’ John is a simple dish of blackeyed peas over rice and sometimes greens. It is served with cornbread and traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day to bring good luck and prosperity. One saying goes “peas for pennies, greens for dollars and cornbread for gold”. It is as traditional as barbeque in the south.

My interest in the dish, other than the delicious flavor is how a “low brow” food becomes a tradition. This dish is so old and ingrained in the culture, no one knows who first combined these ingredients.

I imagine a cook scrounging up few ingredients in her larder with her only goal to creat a hot, filling meal. She pulled together bits of ham or boiled a ham bone, added the peas and let it cook in a pot hanging over the fire in her fireplace with only an occasional stir. She had no idea she was starting a prosperity revolution. She was trying to feed her family with cheap available ingredients.

Blackeyed peas are cheap and easy to grow. They dry and store well. Often seasoned with a ham hock or bits of leftover ham, broth, and maybe a few hot peppers. Rice grows in the hot humid climate of the American South. Before it was a commercial crop, farmers would scatter seed in areas that were swampy and could not be plowed. Each of these ingredients are on the low end of the cost spectrum or easily available.

It is also an easy dish to prepare. Essentially, rinse the peas, put in a pot with seasonings, water and cook on low until done. Serve over rice with slabs of cornbread.

Of course, to reduce the cooking time for this Thursday night meal, I am going to use the Instapot. In the time it takes to make the peas in the Instapot and cook the rice in the rice cooker; I will have cornbread in the oven.

Cornbread is the most involved part of this meal in my kitchen. I grind the corn in my Kitchen Aid grain mill just prior to mixing in the other ingredients for a true delicacy. The recipe and instructions are in Simply Delicious.

As for the name “Hoppin’ John”….I have no idea.