The Little River Market Garden is expanding production space in order to grow more food for South Florida!  Over the next few weeks we’ll be working on the initial phase of transformation from overgrown weeds, logs and rocks to soil building, mulching and eventually a fertile garden.

Next week, April 2nd through the 8th, we are renting a bobcat and will need all the hands we can get on deck.  There will be plenty of work over the month of April as well.  If you, or anyone you know, is interested in volunteering on the farm, contact us so we can make arrangements based on your interests and capabilities as well as our projects and schedule.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as the making of a garden!

Before:

This photograph was taken in the very early stages of converting one of our fields into a garden. The key hole garden in the foreground went in over a tree stump and marked the South East corner of the whole field.

After:

By the Fall that same field was in full swing, producing eggplant, greens, radishes and heirloom tomatoes.

Between loosing a little steam after a sustained growing season and the combination of warmer and longer days in March, the gardens are looking messy and out of control.  Today I planted the first few beds of Buckwheat cover crop and went on a photo frenzy to document the last dregs of this season’s crops.  Within the tangle of overgrown, bolting and weedy clutter there are a lot of really beautiful details.

On the left are worn out peas and tomatoes, in the forground is a mess of weeds and on the right are more weeds!

One of the last greens in the garden, this Pak Choy will be harvested for the CSA in a couple of days. Along the edge of this bed is flowering Spilanthes and a few clumps of scallions.

Another overgrown field; in the foreground on the left is a "weather station" were we monitor temperatures both at the ground level and at about 6 feet.

A late Pei Tsai crop, the last of the Watermelon radishes and way in the background bananas and plantains.

Sunflowers, Dinosaur Kale and Passion fruit vines to the right; a few feet of carrots and eggplants on the left. In the back behind a huge mango tree is our wood burning oven.

Most of the luffas are beginning to dry up; it's time to harvest and clean them for sponges.

'Oscar' Milkweed in full bloom, with developed seed pods.

This is the pod if a native ground cherry, whose seeds were given to me last year by Amy of the Native Plant Society. These plants have taken months to develop and I'm happy to see that they are finally flowering and fruiting. They make a delicate and beautiful low ground cover and I hope to collect seeds in order to incorporate them into my garden plans next season. The flowers and pods are tiny, about the size of a penny.

One of my all time favorites is this fuzzy blue variety of Salvia called 'Gruppenblau'. It's a perennial and should continue to grow and bloom throughout the summer, eventually becoming a small bush.

I left one carrot in the field which had begun to flower in order to see it fully develop. It is beautiful!

Many of the greens left in the field from much earlier plantings are bolting. This is Yukina Savoy, a delicious and dark green member of the Brassica family.

Green Oak Leaf lettuce

A field of freshly sowed Buckwheat cover crop, which is now enjoying a thorough rain! Notice the Spilanthes along the edge of the first bed.

Since 1987, the ATTRA project has been the nation’s leading resource for information on sustainable agriculture, covering a wide range of topics, including reducing pesticide use on cropland, promoting food safety in sustainable production systems, reducing farm energy use and costs, enriching soils with the use of cover crops, and providing technical assistance in the growing areas of local farmers markets and urban gardening.    Their publications have been instrumental for me, especially early on when I was first beginning to figure things out.  It’s my number one recommendation to anyone who wants to learn about agriculture.

About a year ago, their federal funding got cut and they were doing all that they could to raise money in order to continue providing their enormous library of research publications for free, but to no avail.  Their website shrunk and their publications were only accessible with a payment.

Today I received an email with the subject, ATTRA Services Restored.  It read, …”We are delighted to have federal funding restored for this critical program,” said Kathleen Hadley, Executive Director of Butte-based NCAT. “This achievement is the result of the help of many concerned agriculture producers, who called or wrote their members of Congress in support of renewed funding.”  Hadley said services that had been put on hold in the face of last year’s cuts will resume, including the ATTRA toll-free English and Spanish hotlines, email support, and other personalized technical advice.  Hadley added that because this year’s funding is reduced significantly from what it was in previous years—from $2.8 million to $2.25 million—NCAT will continue to explore alternative funding sources for the project, including modest fees for service and private contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations.

For more information and new materials, check the project’s website at www.attra.ncat.org.

I have a manual of Minor Vegetables printed by IFAS Florida Cooperative Extension Service, originally in 1988, but my copy is a revised edition from 2004.  Minor vegetables are the less known, less common, “miscellaneous” crops.  According to the introduction in the manual, “Florida’s mild climate presents an opportunity to grow a wide assortment of vegetables, including not only the well-known types, but many other minor varieties.  Information on the major vegetables  is extensive, both from a state and a national perspective.  On the other hand, much less attention has been given to the minor vegetables, particularly with respect to the adaptability of these crops to Florida conditions”.  This manual represents an attempt to provide information on the so-called “miscellaneous” vegetables.

I’ve used the manual over the past few years to experiment with alternative crops in search for replacements to some of the crops we are used to eating, but are difficult or impossible to produce in South Florida.  I’m also interested in summer crops, or at least crops that take advantage of summer months for vegetative growth.  Jicama (pronounced “hecama) is one such recent experiment.  After reading about the potential for good production in South Florida I looked for seeds, which, as is common with most minor vegetables, are very hard to find.  ECHO in Ft. Meyer’s had them, but in small quantities, so I bought a packet and planted them last August, with the intention to save seeds for this year, paying close attention to the life cycle, pest resistance and other relevant horticultural factors.

Jicama flowers and small pods beginning to form.

Sure enough the legume vines grew vigorously, blooming in November and producing clusters of large lima bean-shaped pods.  From what I read in the manual and other web sources, it takes 5 to 6 months for the turnip shaped edible roots to get big enough for harvest.  I also read that removing flowers would enhance root yields, but since the seeds are what I’m after I skipped that step.  Here we are in February and the vines recently began to dry up and wither, leaving almost bare branches heavy with seed pods at every tip.  I collected the pods and proceeded to dig up the roots.  Each plant yielded one root, varying drastically in size, most likely due to a combination of soil conditions, watering and crowdedness with neighboring plants.  Despite having skipped the pruning step, some of the roots were as big as I’d ever want them, weighing almost 3 pounds each.

Peeled and cut Jicama.

When peeled and sliced they are very tasty, crispy, sweet and bitter at the same time.  My test included about a dozen plants, which produced way more than enough seeds for next years crop.  The last step of the experiment will be to test the germination rate of my seeds before committing to a substantial portion of field this August.

Split open Jicama seed pod.

Jicama seeds ready for storage until planting time in August.