In with the New

The farm is constantly changing.

New vegetables and fruits have been popping up everywhere:



Cucumbers



Cranberry Climbing Bean (this is a type that you remove from the pod and dry)



Pears appearing too (Not quite ripe yet though)

We harvested Garlic last week. With this crop being under the ground, it is difficult to tell when the bulb is not fully developed, or if it is so much so that it is beginning to rot... You can estimate the best time to pull it up when the foliage is about 80% dead (or brown).

Some of the Garlic was a bit slimy, showing the first signs of decay, but we saved these anyway- Sean and I salvaged this garlic, separating the cloves and removing the parts that had gone bad. Rich took all of the good garlic up into the attic to be dried for later sale at the market.

I have been eating a lot of the salvaged garlic, and supposedly it is called "green garlic." I believe this is because it is harvested earlier in the season than regular garlic and has not been cured.

Usually when a bed is harvested and cleared out, we aerate, spread compost, and spread seed or transplant another type of plant. Contrary to the norm here at City Farm, we didn't spread any compost because garlic does not deplete a great deal of nutrients from the soil. In addition, beans are nitrogen-fixers, so they actually help to replenish the soil while growing.

We have been also just recently been harvesting Purple Bush Beans at the farm.



I was not aware that all beans are not climbing beans... pretty cool purple color! They are green inside and supposedly they turn fully green when you cook them.

In with the new, but also out with the old; the pea plants were taken out and put into the compost- the last couple of weeks the pea pods have been noticeably less tasty and the plant, less productive.