Eat The Yard

I have perhaps set a brazen schedule for our second spring.  The last warm season’s utter failure is one impetus.  The crushing persistence of the local pests is another.  But ultimately my broad catalog has been inspired by all that I have learned.

This warm season we will plant many traditional or heirloom varieties of vegetable and through this join an effort to devote space to rare edibles that have been squeezed out of the market and regular production by the boring conformity — and fear of challenging customers to eat something seasonal and new — that comes with industrial agriculture and the McFarming of the world.  With this in mind, we will plant many things we have never eaten before.  We will plant organic seeds, despite the failings in the USDA certification process/criteria, in the hopes that at least some of them are honest-organic.  We will plant vegetables with canning and winter storage in mind.

And we will plant many different kinds of many different species in an effort to share with our pests, but also discover what works best here, on our suburban fifth acre, what requires the least water, is the least damaged by our pests, what appreciates our awful soil and the home-grown compost with which we will begin amending it.  In other words, we’ll continue learning through what we plant.

So, this warm season, here’s what we’re giving a go:

• Bean, Bush: Black Coco (organic); Tiger’s Eye (heirloom, never eaten); Contender (organic).
• Bean, Pole: Dragon Tongue (heirloom, never eaten); Kentucky Wonder (heirloom, never eaten); Scarlet Emperor (heirloom, never eaten); Yard Long (never eaten).
• Cauliflower: Snowball Y (heirloom, never eaten); Green Macerata (heirloom, never eaten); Purple of Sicily (heirloom, never eaten).
• Celery: Tall Utah.
• Corn: Luscious (organic); Strawberry Popcorn (heirloom, never eaten).
• Cucumber: Homemade Pickles (never eaten); Lemon (organic, heirloom, never eaten); Straight Eight (organic, heirloom).
• Muskmelon: Hale’s Best Jumbo (organic, heirloom).
• Pepper: California Wonder Orange (organic, heirloom).
• Potato: Yukon Gold; Purple Viking.
• Pumpkin: Jack O’Lantern; Sugar Pie (heirloom).
• Squash, Summer: Baby Round Zucchini (heirloom, never eaten); Black Beauty Zucchini (organic, heirloom); Clarinet Lebanese (never eaten); Early Yellow Crookneck (heirloom).
• Squash, Winter: Boston Marrow (heirloom, never eaten); Burgess Buttercup (heirloom, never eaten); Delicata Honey Boat (organic); Lakota (organic, rare heirloom, never eaten); Pink Banana (heirloom, never eaten); Spaghetti (heirloom, never eaten); Waltham Butternut (heirloom).
• Sunflower: Mammoth Grey Stripe (heirloom); Mammoth Russian (organic, heirloom).
• Tomato: Ace (organic, heirloom); Brandywine (heirloom, never eaten); Gardner’s Delight (heirloom).
• Watermelon: Crimson Sweet (organic, heirloom); Georgia Rattlesnake (heirloom, never eaten); Moon & Stars (organic, heirloom, never eaten).

Since the beginning of March I have been clearing space and planting a little each weekend, with the hope of getting the first-round of everything in the ground by April (except Cauliflower; that comes later).  As the soil warms up here, the first-planted seeds have started to sprout — and I hold my breath.

Tags: heirloom, pests, summer crop