Dec 23, 2013

Another beautiful day in the garden! A nice group of volunteers showed up and accomplished a great deal : Babette, Doug, Laurie, Leonie, Alice, Linda, Sue J, Sue B. Sharon stopped by to give us an injured rooster and we willingly offered it sanctuary. 

The chickens love the sight of Leonie now. She brings them a bucket of kitchen waste and they go nuts over it. The chickens are in love! Well maybe not with Leonie, but surely with her garbage. 

Speaking over chickens, we have sold a number of of excess birds that we no longer need. Over the next few weeks we plan to thin out the flock, bringing it down to our best layers. Less is better. 

Another large section of the garden was thoroughly dug and totally de-grassed. That's a major accomplishment! And the old sweet potato bed is now being tackled so that part of it can go back into production again. 

Quite a large pile of grass roots. We have to move all this grass debris away from the garden, otherwise it just sprouts roots and keeps on growing. Great stuff for pastures, but a nightmare in a vegetable garden. 

The beds cleared out of old plants and invading grass. It looks really nice! We have started defining the rows so that we have a good visual boundaries. Staying organized has been difficult for our group, so having things better defined should improve the garden. 

Looking the other direction, you can see the difference that the white row markers make. By using moveable markers, we will be able to apply mulch without losing sight if them. Simply pick them up and lay them back down atop the mulch. What a nifty system. 

Today lots of the garden got sorted out. Lots of digging and weeding. Lots of reclaiming of the overgrown areas. Everyone worked steady all morning. 

This is one of our crazy collard plants. We've never grown collards before so we didn't know what to expect. Like the kale, it just seems to keep growing and growing. A few us have been experimenting cooking with collards and have found it to be tasty but chewer than cabbage. It works fine in soups, stews, and stir fries. So far no one has mentioned that they have tried it as a stand alone green. 

The first keyhole garden is producing really, really well. We have already been harvesting all sorts of things including bok choy, peas, radishes, daikon, and cabbage greens. Remember, this is all with ZERO store bought fertilizer. This shows that one can indeed produce food without having to spend cash. This keyhole cost us nothing to create, just our labor and ingenious use of decarded items. Plus of course the organic material to fill it. The daikon pictured above is growing great, as are the rest of what was planted in the keyhole. 

Another good example of growing food without spending lots of cash is the creation of the pea trellises out of sticks. These are coffee tree trimmings, discarded by the local coffee growers. Because they have little branches poking this way and that, the pea vines readily climb them. Just use some string (saved from feed bags) or wire (salvaged from an assortment of discarded trash) or even a hunk of twisted coarse grass to tie 4 together. Splay them out and shove them into place. Wallah! Instant pea trellis. They work, they are simple, and they are easily replaced with each new crop if need be.  

Hands working together. Here is a set of wind chimes being restrung. Definitely a two person effort. Chimes are so pleasant to listen to, plus they help in the bird chasing department. 

Babette is leading our effort to become better organized. Not just defining the physical garden with row markers, but getting garden plans down on paper. A nice plot plan that we can all refer to and add changes to. Plus we will keep a book, a journal, so that workers can write down observations, make comments, keep notes as to when things were planted. 

Lunch:

Herb seasoned rice

Sautéed green beans with sweet peppers

Steamed beets

Fried potatoes with spring onion, garlic chives, and sweet pepper

Veggie stir fry (just the right dish to use that one carrot, one small squash, one baby bok choy, plus other little things. Amazing what you can do when you only have one of each item!)

Dec 16, 2013

Finally a chance to garden again as a group! The rain has been quite frequent the past couple weeks, though never a steady downpour. But it's been enough to keep the soil moist and the plants get fully wet daily. This has helped some of the veggies (and grass!) but damaged others. Seedlings suffered the worse, with most of them dying. The frequent moisture and cool temperatures allowed mildew to establish itself on the kale. But luckily much of the garden is fine. 

Doug and Laurie are back. Hurrah! All that grass below Doug's feet magically disappeared and a garden was revealed! 

Lots of work was accomplished today, with all the volunteers seemingly happy to be back at work. Large sections of the garden were dug. Piles of invading grass removed. Old plants taken out. New seedlings transplanted. Seeds sown. Row markers set in place. It's much easier to visualize the garden with the white markers in place. 

Harvesting started with some beans but before you knew it, a pile of veggies had built up. Daikons, golden turnips, Spanish black radish, bok choy, carrots, broccoli, collards, sweet potatoes, oranges. 

Lots of other stuff in the garden, but they get picked as volunteers want them since they are either delicate or not overly abundant -- arugula, yacon, snap peas, kale, chard, herbs. 

(Above- a big harvest pile is growing.) 

Today was the start of the new season. Lots of onion plants and seed potatoes got into the ground. Several new crops got seeded or transplanted into place. 

We're getting the garden reorganized. The rows and beds have been widened from 2 foot to 3 feet. And markers are gradually getting into place. Over lunch we discussed having a garden plan of some sort. We're coming up with ideas to make this better organized and easier for everyone. 

The greenhouse suffered badly in the rain, so there's a lot of work to do getting it cleaned up. As you can see, the plain plastic has shredded due to the sun. So we plan to use greenhouse plastic next time. 

Yes, we are getting a few avocados today. The tree doesn't have many, but the ones it has are large and good tasting this year. Not enough to sell but just enough to share among the volunteers. 

Lunch today-

Spagetti with homemade sauces 

......meat sauce using Michelle Galimba's grass fed local beef

......vegan style using a wide assortment of our own veggies and herbs

Fresh homemade bread from the Naystation 

November 25, 2013

Today the garden is in the full glory of seasonal transition. The summer/fall plants have died off or have slowed down. The winter plants are starting slowly and are not yet taking off. The last 2 weeks of November and the first 2 weeks of December are the most depressing because things seem to have paused. But it's a good time to clean out the garden, to remove weeds, to realign the garden rows. Time to repair or erect trellises, make raised beds, expand the garden size. Its an excellent time to sow seeds in the greenhouse and put transplants out up into the garden. So there is plenty to do, but not much harvesting going on. 

We've gotten a fairly good handle on the weeds. There are still a couple of sections that need digging and de-grassing, but we are catching up. Missy and Sue harvested one of the sweet potato patches, with very poor yields, thus a giant patch of invasive grass was eliminated. Why did the sweet potatoes yield so poorly? Was it the variety? Perchance not suited to Hawaii? Was it the invading grass? Was it the time of year? We really don't have the answer. The variety was a new one for us, but we won't bother trying it again, we already have a few nice producing varieties that we will now stick with. 

Walking around and inspecting the garden we saw that many seedlings have disappeared. We know that we have a cutworms problem, but the losses are pretty heavy. Could it be our ducks? Possibly but they have been observe rejecting those potential nibblies in the past. Could it be turkeys? A more likely culprit. In the past they have been caught in the act pulling out beets and onion plants, eating peas and beans, ripping lettuce and spinach. Controlling turkeys is going to be tough. They use to avoid our scarecrows and bird chasers, but now they ignore them. Turkeys might be a challenge! 

Missy, Linda and Alice pulled and planted lots of strawberry plants today, potting them up for future sale. Lots of sweet potato cuttings also were potted up since we have recently been getting requests for them. 

Sweet potatoes can be propagated in a couple of ways. The quickest and easiest way for us is to take tip cuttings and simply plant them into soil. They readily root. Simple and quick. Another way to propagate sweets is by planting a tuber and allowing it to sprout. As it sprouts, the slips are snapped off and planted into a pot (or directly into the ground). This method is good for creating new plants when someone gives us a tuber of a new variety. We usually get 6-12 slips off a tuber. Sometimes more. 

The keyhole garden #2 is now ready for its soil cap. We added a bit more biotrash (sugar cane leaves, old veggie plants, weeds) and stomped it down good. Finally, we get to top it off! 

Sharon, Vicky, Marta, and Babette worked on the main section of garden, cleaning it up, removing old growth, planting new rows. Steps were taken to prevent the cutworms from eating the seedlings. We use both toilet paper rolls and plastic milk jug bottoms. They help. 

There are still yacon tubers in the ground, but we didn't harvest any today. Maybe next week volunteers will want some. There are also plenty of bok choy that can be taken. The daikon is growing well but it is still small. It's been sprayed with dipel in hopes of preventing maggot damage. We lost the precious crop to maggots in the roots. The frying peppers are producing again and we harvested today. Lots of oranges were picked. A few avocados came down and are ready for eating. Sprouting broccoli is producing. The florets are small on sprouting broccoli but they are good eating. Zucchini, green beans, and yard long beans were harvested for lunch. 

The sugar cane is producing massive canes. Some canes are 3 inches across! It makes it difficult to harvest them. Sharon struggled and successfully harvested a number of canes. Today seemed like a good day to get the sugar cane press working, so we juiced a 3 foot section of cane. I was surprised to see just how much juice got produced. 2 whole quarts! That's impressive. The rest of the harvested cane will be pressed later today with the juice going into the freezer for future lunches. 

With so many oranges being harvested today we opted to juice a bunch. Yum, fresh orange juice. Last year the oranges were disappointing, but this year they are yummy. Another crop that was poor quality last year is the avocados. This year they are quite respectable. We're not sure why these two crops were so disappointing last year but just fine this year. We still have much to learn about gardening! 

Lunch today included stewed local grass fed beef with snow peas (snow peas donated from Sue J's garden), fried potatoes, steamed zucchini (our own, amazing isn't it!), sautéed green beans and yard long beans (both fresh right out of the garden today). Fresh orange juice and sugar cane juice for dessert. 

November 18, 2013

Good day for gardening! No rain. 

Babbette and Missy dove right in, organizing the work details. With a jobs list being posted each week, allowing for volunteers to pick a job to focus upon. This new system seems to work for us.

So even with a small crew (many of the volunteers are out of town) we got plenty of things done. Wow, marvelous, isn't it! 

Meliha jumped right in to harvesting, tackling the rampant pipinola. She found lots and lots. Those few vines seem to really like growing here. Harvest today also included peppers, bok choy, yacon. Volunteers helped themselves to bananas, oranges, herbs, and assorted greens. And sharing included limes, lemons, and grapefruits. Plus little bits of this and that were harvested for lunch -- green beans, yard long beans, beets. 

Our supply of seedlings and plants is in dire need of replenishing. Today a number of trays got sown and many cuttings made their way into pots. Plus we had more pineapple tops donated to us for adding to our pineapple patch. Alice seems to have flowed into the post of Pineapple Mama, so we tend to bring it to her attention whenever more starts arrive. 

The tabletop garden needed weeding and replanting again, so Sharon patiently separated the wee tiny arugula seedlings, carefully planting each one. Within 2-3 weeks we'll be able to start eating the thinnings. It grows fast! 

The first keyhole garden has taken root and is looking good.

 The second keyhole got tramped down well and to our surprise had composted down over a foot. That's more than we had anticipated. So volunteers gathered more weeds and garden castoffs to refill the keyhole garden. Now we are hoping that this will be the last refilling. We're getting impatient to plant this garden with tomatoes. Oh, we are so looking forward to tomatoes! 

The main garden is getting organized. More white pipe has been laid out, delineating the aisleways.  It's getting easier to see where the garden beds are. Plus we can now better see which areas will be prepared for the seed potatoes and onion plants when they arrive. 

It's been raining lightly just about every day. This is resulting in some rot and fungus problems. It also means that we cannot effectively keep things sprayed with dipel to control caterpillars. Since today was dry, Sue gave everything a dipel spray, hoping for the best. The fruit fly feeding stations also got recharged since the male traps are indicating that we still have a very active population. 

Rain is making the grass grow.....moan, moan. And with the grass being constantly wet, we can't get it mowed this past week. Thus we are hoping for at least two dry days this coming week. Wish us luck. 

Lunch:

Local pork and Hamakua Springs mushrooms

Brown rice

Steamed beets from the garden with a little coconut oil

Sautéed green beans and yard long beans

Pipinola in homemade marinara sauce

Norman's dark chocolate devils food cake

November 11,2013

Today proved to be a pleasant day to play in the garden. Not too hot. No rain yet. Not windy. What more can we ask for? Well, 6 Tahitian wwoofers might be nice, but I suspect that we wouldn't be that lucky!

We made good progress on cleaning up the garden and opening up spaces for the pending onions and seed potatoes. Babette tackled the wild overgrown, and rather non-productive tomato vines. Good riddance. A bit of soil amendments and rototillering and we'll be good to go. 

Connie brought a truckload of newspapers today. They all got toted into the shed. This is great! We always seem to be in need of newspapers for mulching, never ever having enough. It's a relief to see such a great pile. 

Norma stopped by and didn't plan to stay, but guess what? She stayed! It's always nice to have another friend to chat with in the garden. Dick and Judith also stopped by for a brief chat. They didn't stay for lunch since Dick is on a special diet now, but their visit was most welcome. 

The garden is hosting a litter of puppies this week, just giving them temporary shelter until they can be moved to Kona for transfer. Boy, are they cute! Missy got tempted to adopt one and took one home to see if Tripawed would accept it. To tell you the truth, I was very tempted to do that myself. Puppies are hard to resist. 

Puppy meets the garden ducks. 

Speaking of dogs.....we are going to have a farm watchdog. There is a 7 year old dog that needs a home and we could use a dog to ward off intruders. Sometimes in the past people have come snooping around and we just want them to know that this place isn't empty. So today Sue J got a place set up in the backyard for Skipper, the dog. He will have a 50' ground runner going from the avocado tree towards the back of the property. This should give him a comfortable space while keeping him out of volunteers' way. 

Back to the garden news..... 

The keyhole garden got planted today. Good. Peas around the perimeter which should nicely cascade down the sides, and assorted green stuff in the rest of the bed. Looks nice so far. 

Missy arranged a nice assortment of plants for the upcoming church bazaar, plus she made more business cards for the garden. The business cards were real handy at the spring fling. 

Keyhole garden #2 received more fill today, including numerous buckets of dirt/sod. Next week it might be ready for the soil cap, but I'm not sure. It all depends what the bed is like when we give it one more tramping down. 

Harvest today included pipinola, peppers, tomatoes, kale, and herbs. There's a little broccoli ready but not enough to go around, so we'll save it for lunch next week. Same with the zucchini. The bananas are turning yellow and just about ready to eat. Plenty of eggs this week, with several dozen available for volunteers to purchase. 

Lunch:

Steamed beets

Sautéed zucchini

Veggie medley (eggplant, herbs, pipinola, jicama in a sweet oriental sauce)

Kale omelet

Rice and quinoa

October 28, 2013

Today was a wet Monday, but luckily it didn't rain while we worked at the garden. This past week the garden received 1.9 inches of rain. Wahoo!! I love it! 

We finally, finally got the first keyhole garden filled. Whew, that took a long time. It's amazing just how much stuff you need to fill it up. And all the time that you're filling, the stuff is composting down. So then it needs even more stuff! But we finally have it firmly filled and topped off with 3 inches of soil. Of course it's going to settle, but that is to be expected. But for now, it's ready for planting. 

Over by the greenhouse we discovered two papaya trees that came up all by themselves. We can only assume that the seeds were deposited there by birds.....our own chickens perhaps? Most likely. But we let the little trees stay and now they are already producing fruits. We have no idea if they will ripen sweet or not, but we'll see. It may be too cold here or maybe too high in elevation for papayas. 

The greenhouse crew has been working full speed ahead. Lots of seeds are being sown and lots of little plants being transplanted into larger pots, in the front of this photo are jicama plants. Behind them are strawberries. Missy got the new seeds of Tuscan kale started today, so in a few weeks we'll be ble to replace our old kale plants. Those old plants look like trees! 

Elaine attacked grass that threatened to invade the bed that she prepared last week. No way is that grass allowed back! She plans to grow carrots there next. Elaine also harvested our sugar cane crop today. Some of those stalks are really plump. We're looking forward to sugar cane juicing next week. 

Sharon, Leonie, Connie, and Carolyn worked hard digging, harvesting, and planting. Getting the giant yacon plants out, chopped up, and stuffed into the #2 keyhole garden surely wasn't an easy job. With all the sudden rain, the yacon tubers were getting super sized. Rather than see them get ruined if they split, we harvested the plants. All the crowns were replanted. 

One of our volunteers, Judith, donated some aloe to the garden. It is suppose to less bitter, and thus an edible type. The plants appear to like it here and are growing plump. 

The little curry plants are rapidly growing larger. We haven't tried harvesting any yet, but every once in a while a volunteer reaches down and plucks a few leaves, savoring the wonderful aroma. How nice! 

We only have one plant of stick oregano, but it is getting quite large. Guess its time to try harvesting some. It goes very well with chicken. 

We lost the name tag on this plant (there are 3), so we're not sure what it is. We are guessing that it is a collard. Next week we plan to take the bold test in bravery and eat some. So I truly hope it really is a collard! 

The bean plants are robust. Today I noticed that they are starting to bloom. Goody, goody. More baby beans next week. 

All the watermelon plants survived being transplanted. The spots on the leaves are normal for this variety. 

Today we planted the pumpkins. Yes, they are close. But we plan to train the vines to run out into the grassy field next to the garden. They won't be in the way, won't crowd anything else out,and hopefully will hide from the pickleworm moth in the deep meadow grass. The bottoms if plastic milk jugs are used to thwart the bugs and caterpillars. 

Today's harvest included a spaghetti squash, cherry tomatoes, green and red peppers, bok choy, kale, chard, pipinola, and yacon. 

Lunch today- (100% vegan today)

...Spagetti with homemade garden sauce (all ours! ...tomatoes, squash, pipinola, onions, peppers, eggplant, and herbs)

...Fried potatoes with onion, peppers, herbs

...Sautéed green beans with onion chives, garlic chives

...Steamed bok choy with yacon , seasoned oriental style

October 21, 2013

Today was another whiz-bang day, getting lots accomplished. We were short a few of the regular volunteers (due to other commitments), but the group today seeks made up for then. 

First of all, garden report. People out there in cyber space want to know. ;)      

 Our white sugar cane plant had really grown up, having many large stalks ready for harvesting anytime we desire. When we do eventually harvest, we plan to use the end third of the stalk for propagation. This sugar cane variety is worth creating more. We have no idea what it's official name is, so we'll just refer to it as white sugar cane for now. 

The sweet potatoes have slowed down a bit. They seem to prefer drier weather, though just about every other veggie loves the rain we've been getting, one small patch is ready for diggin this week or next. The bigger patch looks like it needs a few more weeks. Speaking of sweet potatoes, we stole some soil from the sweet potato area to top off one of the keyhole gardens, and surprise, lots of baby sweet potato starts are sprouting there. Wow, the buggahs are hard to kill! 

Speaking of hard to kill, the grass is really tough. We now spray it several times with strong vinegar, then when it yellows, we cover it with cardboard and grass clippings. This is an area where we plan to build above ground garden beds. 

The volunteer tomato plants are full of young tomatoes. The big slicer types are fairly well tuckered out. There are a few tomatoes but not as many as before. Their cousins, the peppers, are still producing small sweet peppers. The eggplants are pau now. The spaghetti squash is almost pau, but we harvested two today. These are a mini variety. 

Still lots of kale, nice chard, and Chinese mustard. Plus the plants we think are collards are producing real well. The bok choy is ready for harvesting. It grows really well here. 

The orange tree is heavily producing now. This tree is great for juicing. We have no idea what variety it is, but the tree is quite large and very old. 

We are seeing a lot of pickleworm damage all of a sudden. They really head for the zucchini plants. All those small holes in the stem represents a pickleworm. They eventually eat the inside of the stem, killing the plant.

Keyhole update -- garden #1 is being topped off with dirt. I under estimated just how much dirt would be needed, so we still need one more load. Then it will be ready to plant. Garden #2 is gobbling lots of organic matter still in the filling process. It won't be ready for top dirt for a couple more weeks. 

Tabletop update -- the first one is a resounding success. The bok choy has been doing super. The newspaper wick is working so far. But to be honest, it hasn't been real dry lately, so how this design would work in a severe drought is yet to be tested. We plan to build the next one using discarded clothing in place of newspaper. Just a learning experiment. The clothing won't rot away as quickly as the newspaper. 

Fruit fly traps -- The male traps we put out last week have captured dozens and dozens of males. Rather disheartening to see how bad the fruit fly problem is here. But we shall forge on until we get them under control. 

Garden realignment -- Missy and the main gang have been forging ahead. We now have very visible row markers and nice aisleways. One of the volunteers donated more white pcv pipe to be used to marking the rows Thank you, thank you! The pipe works best if anything we've tried so far. As the aisle ways are established, we cover them in newspaper topped with grass clippings. That way no weeds or grass grow back, keeping the aisles neat and clear. 

Greenhouse update -- the greenhouse is bursting with plants and seeded trays. Lots of variety. Many of the larger plants are now outside, making room for newly seeded trays. Linda did a major clean up of the larger plants while Diane tackled the new stuff. 

Many of the volunteers, including Babbette, Marla, Leone, .............. Concentrated on the main garden. Grass was removed. Weeds pulled. Newspaper laid down in the aisles.  

Lots of garden beds got dug. More young veggies transplanted to the garden including an old fashion watermelon variety called Moon and Stars. Something very interesting to look at, all spotted and splotched. Major digging was accomplished today, getting a large area ready for planting.

Many buckets of dirt were transferred from the truck to the keyhole garden. Lots of cardboard was spread for grass killing and it was topped with grass clippings.

The ravenous caterpillars have been doing a lot if damage in the garden. Sue J successfully got the dipel sprayed, which should help safely kill the crawling monsters. Not only have they found the gourds, but they are also eating squash, zucchini plants, kale, broccoli, and bok choy. 

After three hours of work, the group retreated to the clubhouse for some socialization, info exchange, and lunch. Harvest was divide up and included pipinola, bok choy, peppers, cherry tomatoes, kale, spaghetti and zucchini squash, bok choy, oranges, and limes. 

Lunch: (just about everything from the garden or local sourced)

Beef stew 

Sautéed green beans 

Steamed squash and herbs

Chinese style mixed garden veggies

Brown rice (not local)

Macaroni and cheese (not local, but yummy!)

Cantaloupe (not local)

Homemade pineapple/coconut milk "ice cream". An incredibly delicious non dairy ice cream made by one of our talented volunteers. 

October 14, 2013

It's been raining off and on this past week, giving the garden 1 1/2 inches of much appreciated rain. And it shows, the blasted grass is growing everywhere! 

Today the gardening group got a lot accomplished. Workers were everywhere, swarming over the garden. The chicken pen got cleaned, the tumbling composters filled, the keyhole garden refilled with piles and piles of weeds, grass, and debris. Soil was moved to the first keyhole garden. Buckets of black cinders were moved to the stage for more table top gardens. The first tabletop, which by the way is growing great, was weeded and tended. A gallon and a half of ag vinegar got sprayed. Lots of tall grass got hacked by hand. The gourd patch got cleaned up. Carl got the lawnmower running and mowed completely around the clubhouse, the back lawn, and garden aisle. Wheelbarrowfuls of grass got pulled and dug out of the main garden. Several garden beds got dug and raked. Trays of seedlings came out of the greenhouse and were planted into the garden. And piles of strawberry plants came out of the garden and into the greenhouse where Diane managed to get them all potted up. More seeds were planted. And more old plants removed. Missy started getting the garden plan realigned, marking rows and aisle ways. Some of the new rows got planted. And more rocks, yes more, got dug out of the garden. Sometimes I think we're growing rocks out there! 

Duck update: Donna is still laying on her eggs. Daisy is laying a few eggs but is a bit of an airhead, wandering off and not giving them another thought. Dougal is marching around acting the part of Macho Man. 

Chicken update: the girls are still in a heavy molt. Egg production is down to 6 a day on average. I threaten them with dire consequences, but they don't care. They are taking their time getting back into production. 

Harvest today included assorted young tender greens (beet, chard, mustard), sweet potatoes, pipinola, peppers, tomatoes, basil, and oranges. And something new -- yacon. We harvested a bucketful of yacon, enough for everyone to take some home and give it a try. Last years volunteers happily claimed some, knowing that it is good for snacking, mixing raw in fruit salad, or cooked in stir fry and soup. 

Our current focus and goals include:

1- getting the garden realigned 

2- getting keyhole #1 ready for planting next week

3- getting keyhole #2 filled

4- making more table top gardens

5- getting an area opened up for potato planting in December

6- getting an area opened up for onions and leeks in December

7- planting things for the Fall Fling. 

Lunch today included plenty of dishes based upon the garden:

Garden veggie soup

Sautéed green beans with onion and herbs

Sautéed squash with onion slivers and fresh basil

Rice and quinoa with garden herbs

Homemade macaroni and cheese

Toasted bread with hummus

Cake and cookies

Fresh sliced papaya