Here comes the Sun-Gold

We love SunGold!  The round yellow orbs in top picture are ripe Sungold tomatoes mixed in with Brandy Boy (the wrinkly ones - its not market pretty but it is so so tasty - one for another blog).  They are also mixed with a few red hybrid grape tomatoes as well.  We grew Sungold for the first time last year as a trial - Reeds choice.  They are a winner!  We call them tomato candy.  They are so sweet, but still have such tomato flavor.  We have used them for all kinds of recipes, (see salsa recipe below) but we are lucky if they make it into the house (they get eaten on the way).  As you can tell by the bottom two pictures, they are a very indeterminate plant and the tomatoes grow like grapes on the vines.  These have had the leaves thinned out so any sun we do get will ripen tomatoes and not produce leaves!  The bowl on the top picture is the 5th of its kind filled mostly with Sun Gold for this growing season, and if the Goddess is good to me that is only about one tenth of what are on the vine in the greenhouse.  It just has to not get 20 below in the next month and we will be able to harvest all.  All of these pictures were taken today so you can see that we are still rockin in the greenhouse with the tomatoes.

Sun Gold tomatoes are a treat to grow - very low maintenance, they expect to be watered plenty but they dont fuss if they dont get that.  They arent sensitive to wide temperature changes like some of the other plants, even to as low as 36 degrees and as high as 90.  They dont mind a sweaty greenhouse and they dont mildew easily.  They seem very non-susceptible to blights and mildews or other tomato diseases and white flies dont bother them at all.  The worst quality I have to name about these plants is that they get so tall and lanky and produce at the top that I have to use a ladder often to pick them.

If you leave them on the vine for too long they will split, but I have had a vine of them break off and they ripened in my bowl in the window beautifully!  I have 4 Sun Gold plants in my mix. They freeze beautifully and they can without losing all of their color. Pick early and often and enjoy!

Sun Gold Salsa

12 oz. Ripe Sun Gold Tomatoes cut in fourths (or however many you want to use)
1/2 onion diced finely
1 orange and 1 yellow pepper diced finely
1 small bunch cilantro finely chopped
1 tabasco pepper (if you like hot - leave out if not) pureed
1 small bunch fresh parsley finely chopped
pinch of salt

If you dont have a tabasco pepper, use a dash of Franks or Tabasco sauce.

Mix all together in a non metal bowl and enjoy with whatever you like salsa with.  We have made this into Salmon dip by adding 1 can salmon and 8oz. creme cheese!  Yum!

A Childs Garden

A Childs (Reeds') Garden - This is an easy way for your children to have their "own" gardens and really take ownership of the growing world around.  These particular plots belong to my 12 year old son who has been gardening for years but only on his "own" for about three.  We used non treated wood that was left from a dock building project from years ago.  2x6" pieces and these are 6 feet long.  This make a great sized space since it doesnt have to be walked in very often at all, to pick the produce or to keep up with weeding.  The idea for this came from the book "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholemew.  My son has perused the book at length and while I wont swear he has read it, he has gleaned a lot from it and I have as well.  This system does produce more goods than the row by row gardening method by far.  Reed has had much better success especially with carrots, radishes and beets using this method than I have using row by row methods. 

We used 3" screws to hold our wood pieces together, and we did dig out the original dirt and replace it with good garden soil.  As we are in the Millers Reach Burn area we have been left with heavy clay and sand in layers instead of soil so our remediation is necessary.  If you are starting with good soil it would not be necessary except to have a clean slate and fairly weed free to start, which I highly reccommend for childrens plots.

Reed also chooses his own seed (great winter time activity together), and I help him with the ordering.  We have tried some great things like Daikon Radish (success) and eggplant (fail) but it has really given him a good start towards knowing what we can and cant grow and how far we might be able to test the limits of our growing area (solid zone 2).

For one of his garden plots he also chose raspberries and strawberries from a local grower (so we know they are hardy) and he has had such success with those that next season we will have to separate the strawberries out - both types have outgrown the plot.

In the background of the top photo you can also see what looks like two sticks in a hole - that is actually Reeds apple tree - a Minnesota 1747 in its second year here at Wicked Raven.  Reed was really excited to have an apple tree of his own and we are excited to see how it will do with apples on it (maybe next year). 

There are so many opportunities to grow with your kids and it really is very simple.  Just begin!

Blessed Be!

 We decided this year to add two more of the raised beds (seen above) in Reed's garden area.  They have done so well that we are considering letting the big garden (seen in the background below) go back to meadow and just using the raised beds and the huglekulture areas.  Nothing grows quite as well out there as in the raised beds that Reed makes.  These new ones will be all ready for planting next season!

Above you can see the boys working hard (Reed and his friend) to get the turf out of the areas where the raised beds will live.  In the already established beds you can see two types of cabbage and kohlrabi in the one on the left and raspberries in the one on the right.  Those raspberries will be moved to a huglekulture bed as soon as it is ready and will make room for Reed to plant more carrots, celery, parsley and other yummy veggies.  We have already moved the strawberries out into  a Hugelkulture bed - they simply outgrew the space.

The turf comes out of the raised bed area and goes right over to the Huglekulture bed area to go onto a new huglekulture bed for the raspberries.  We left enough room between the raised beds to mow with the riding mower so that makes it much easier to take care of and keeps the pests away too.  Raised bed building is a great way to get the kids involved and outdoors as well as teaching them how to grow great things - including themselves!

You've got mail!

Garden Mail that is!  This is a great storage idea for garden tools and those berry baskets and work gloves that are never where you need them!  Put them in a mailbox and close the door.  Weatherproof (mine stays out all year), and easy to use.  I used a two by six as a base and screwed that into a wood post, then I screwed the mailbox to it all around the bottom.  The moose knocked it over one year but I just popped another wood post under it and voila!  I've still got mail!  I got one for my greenhouse as well that is a top opener and holds all sorts of tools, snippers and gloves.  Both of my boxes came from the Salvation Army store - just keep an eye out and you'll get lucky one day!  You can also put fun covers on your mailbox - or paint it with a mural - I just havent got that far!  Its a great place for imagination to wander and it can also work as a vining stand for clematis, beans, or roses! 

The top photo also shows one of my rain barrels with a leaky hose draped over the top - thats an easy way to gather water that otherwise might be wasted!

Huglekulture Dreams

We are having a great strawberry year here at Wicked Raven Farm!  I changed over my strawberry patch to the hugelkulture system you see above.  The top photo shows a completed hugel bed and the bottom photo shows one that is in progress.  It is layers of what most of us would consider yard rubble(twigs, branches, rakings, mowing leavings, clippings and in Big Lake lots of burned/dead/rotting logs, and other organics) layered up and covered with a layer of good soil.  Then I used landscape fabric to have some weed control and covered that with a layer of wood chip mulch (which I got free from the side fo the road - the State does chipping and gives it to the local residents).  You can get more information and directions for the hugelkulture by googling Sepp Holzer or hugelkulture.  One of the benefits of this system of gardening is once the initial work is done it is easy and low maintenance!  It also seems to keep the birds out to the strawberries a little as I dont think they like the raised openness of the beds now.  Ill keep you posted on that theory.  The other big benefit of the beds is that it feeds itself as the materials that it is built with break down it is a perpetual composting system that you dont have to work at! 

Ths system is also great for kids!  All kids like to help in the yard (at least the non teenagers) and with this system they can feel really helpful as no matter what branch or log they bring will pretty much go into the hugel bed!  It is also very exciting for them to be able to see how well things grow in there and participate in the harvest!  A learning experience from start to finish!  Have fun!

PS - the little black dog is a fantastic rescue from a grocery store parking lot!  Dont be afraid to get/give some love!