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« February 2010 | Main | April 2010 »
An Interview with book author and blogger Jean Ann Van Krevelan on growing and preserving vegetables.
The Interview was recorded on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the San Francisco Flower and Garden show where Jean Ann Van Krevelan was a featured speaker.
PlanterTomato (PT): I'm here at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show with Jean Ann Van Krevelan. Jean Ann is a gardening expert and author of several books including "Growing Food: A Guide For Beginners" and her recent book, "Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing, and Preserving Fresh Food." She also writes and produces several blogs whose content is nationally syndicated on web sites such as the Chicago Sun Times, USAToday and the Wall Street Journal. Jean Ann, thanks for speaking with us today at PlanterTomato.
Jean Ann Van Krevelan (JAVK): Glad to be here.
PT: Why don't we begin by learning how you personally became involved in vegetable gardening?
JAVK: I became involved in gardening in general about ten or eleven years ago when my grandmother passed away and I had to take care of her home and prepare it for sale. She was a great gardener and I needed to care for the yard.
Through this, I really developed a love for digging and planting and watching things grow. But gardening became meaningful to me in a number of ways and the depth and symbolism of it is what is important to me. I think this is true of most things in life; if you make a certain recipe because it's something your mother always made, it's got deeper meaning.
In the last 3 or 4 years I've planting full vegetable gardens. For many years prior to that, I had inter-planted some vegetables into my flower borders, but I found increased meaning and purpose in growing vegetables because doing so made the food I cooked taste better. I wanted to take the food I made back to the source.
PT: So the vegetables you grew came out of the recipes you were using.
JAVK: Yes and it's absolutely the case that certain fruits and vegetables just taste better when you grow them yourself. There's no magic to this, it's just that the varieties you grow at home are ones that have not had the taste bred out of them.
For example, raspberries are very fragile and don't travel well. The ones you buy at the store have been hybridized to stick together long enough to be sold. Mine fall apart, but they taste fantastic. But remember all I need them to do is to get from the raspberry canes to my back door. Eating my raspberries is like eating a totally different fruit.
PT: I completely agree. Of course many people get involved in gardening but don't go on to write a book. How did that transition occur for you?
JAVK: I followed a logical progression. First I wanted to just grow vegetables so they would taste better. So I started growing my own vegetables. Then I improved on he recipes and decided I wanted to share these recipes with others so that they could do the same thing.
My entree into garden writing was blogging. I knew that eventually I would want to write a book but I didn't know were to begin so I decided to just start writing and publishing it myself. I did that for about six months and then I decided to write my first book which I self published.
The first book was inspired by what I had published in my blog but by then I had a second blog called Portland Foodie which is where I published my recipes.
PT: Lots of gardening and cookbooks have been published, what makes your new book, "Grocery Gardening" different than other books you would find on book store shelves?
JAVK: "Grocery Gardening" is my second book. I combined all the recipes and gardening information in this one book. This book tells you exactly what to do from the time you put seeds into the ground till you put it on your plate.
When we put this book together, we wanted it to be a fresh food book; the conversation is about growing some of your own vegetables, but it you don't grow it, we offer advice on how to make sure it's fresh when you buy it, and also on how to store food so you can have it in the winter.
PT: So if I understand your correctly, your encouraging people to grow as much as they can at home, and if they can't grow it at home, then you give them advice on how to choose the best and freshest produce at the grocery store.
JAVK: Actually, I don't say grow all you can grow. I tell my readers to try to grow something and see how that goes. If that goes well, then add some more things.
In the book, we talk about all sorts of ways to buy produce. Yes, in the grocery store, but also farmers markets, CSA's, co-ops, many different places. Sometimes we forget that we don't always have to go to the grocery store to purchase food.
PT: Let's say I purchase your book, become inspired and decide to become a first time gardener. What advice would you give me about the types of vegetables to grow?
JAVK: The first thing I would tell you to do is to sit down and plan out your garden. Sketch out your garden, list the vegetables you want to grow, think about it, and then cut back the list by two-thirds.
Also, plant things that are going to be an easy win -- lettuce, radishes, beets, even tomatoes can be easy to grow depending on where you live. Beans are also a good choice because they're hard to kill. Plant things that are going to give you some immediate "warm and fuzzies".
Nobody likes drudgery. If you start with too much, that's too hard, then next year you wont' be growing at all.
PT: Let's say I've followed this advice for a couple of years and now I'm a more seasoned gardener, what advice would you give me now?
JAVK: (laughing) Plan your garden and then cut it back by two-thirds! Every year I look at seed catalogs and I want to order lots of seeds. But by the time August rolls around, I'm pretty tired from all the weeding, planting, and it's hot and difficult to garden. My recommendation is to always under plant. Your going to plant more than you need.
PT: I hate to say it, but I'm as guilty of over-planting as anyone. My eyes are always bigger than the amount of space I have to grow things.
Although, for me personally, I don't get too bothered if something I plant doesn't work out. For me, I see the advantage of growing lots of things is that, if any one thing fails, it doesn't really matter very much because there's something else that can be harvested. But I understand your point
JAVK: And keep in mind that when you harvest that food, it's not going to look like the picture you saw in the seed catalog. Those glossy photos that have been retouched, just like super model pictures have been retouched. When you pull some lettuce out of the ground and it has a few holes in it and it's a little dirty, that's exactly how it's supposed to look.
You shouldn't get into gardening with the expectation that everything is going to look perfect, you need to understand that that is not what is really happens.
It's not that you shouldn't grow multiple types of vegetables or multiple varieties, just don't get so overwhelmed by the process that you stop gardening.
PT: A fair point. Is there a vegetable that you think is overlooked or under-appreciated by most gardeners?
JAVK: Yes, there is. My favorite vegetable of all time is kale. What is not to love about kale? Yet, so many gardeners have no experience with kale. It is one of the easiest veggies to grow. You can plant it in late winter and you can plant it again in late summer for a fall harvest. Two crops and all it needs is water and a little compost and it's going to grow.
And is beautiful. There are so many architectural forms of kale like dinosaur kale, Italian kale and other forms of kale. You can eat it when it first comes up in a salad or, when it gets older, you can cook it and add it to all kinds or recipes.
It's one of the greens that's full of nutrition but has no bitter taste, so it's easy to eat.
PT: Well on this one, you're preaching to the choir. Kale is one of my family's favorite vegetables. Our kids love it in a recipe called White Bean Kale Soup. It's a very simple soup to make.
The other thing I like about kale, is that it is so winter hardy that you can grow it throughout the year, especially here in Northern California. However, you can also grow it in the winter in much colder climates.
JAVK: Yes, definitely.
PT: You mentioned earlier that your book also covers preserving food. Well there are lots of methods like freezing, and caning and lacto-fermenting. What advice do you give readers about the ways they can preserve food.
JAVK: The book focuses on canning, freezing, dehydrating, and creating root cellars for storage. If you've never done any preserving before, freezing is pretty easy. About as easy as dehydrating.
But there are a couple of things you need to know when you freezing food. Most vegetables need to be blanched, shocked in cold water, and then dried before freezing. It will be even better if you have a vacuum sealer that will take the air out of the freezer bag. You can store frozen vegetable like this for years and it will be as fresh as when you put it into the bag.
With dehydrating, you want to make sure that you purchase a dehydrator with multiple temperature settings so you can control the heat and also one that has multiple trays so you can expand as needed.
I personally don't use my oven to dehydrate. A dehydrator uses far less energy and doesn't heat up my house.
PT: OK, I'm convinced I need to get your book. Where can I buy it?
JAVK: You can get my book at Lowes, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Borders, you can order it from Amazon.com. It's pretty easy to find. And it's also easy to read.
I have three other co-authors who partnered with me on the book and it was our determination that it was going to be approachable. We wanted it to be simple, easy-to-read, and easy-to-use.
PT: Well thank you very much. This has been fun and very interesting.
JAVK: Thank you as well.
You can find additional organic gardening and information at Jean Ann's web site, From Gardener To Farmer.
PlanterTomato shares Jean Ann's appriciation for Kale. For more information about this under-rated veggie, check out my prior postings "From Russia with Love" and "Chard Versus Kale Challenge."
A Better Hori Hori.
This morning, I posted information about a really cool garden tool called a Hori Hori. I then dashed off to San Mateo, California to attend the 2010 San Francisco Garden Show.
Call it fate, but the first thing I saw at the show was a booth displaying high quality garden tools from Wildflower Seed Company of Napa Valley California. The company makes and sells its own line of quality tools, one of which is a Hori Hori.
Well, I had to check this out.
Friends, Wildflower Seed sells the best Hori Hori I've seen. It's got a stainless steel blade so it will not rust. It can be sharpened easily, so it will always be a good root cutter. And to boot, it has a ruler engraved on the side of the blade so you can dig a hole of known depth. Really cool!
OK, flesh is weak. I bought one on the spot. They also make some other really nice tools such as a ratcheting garden shears.
To get the best Hori Hori on the market, go to Wildflower Seed web site.
If Crocodile Dundee ever takes up gardening, the Hori Hori will
be the tool for him. Learn more about this clever Japanese gardening tool in
this posting.
Do you remember the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee?
Perhaps the best scene in the film is the one where a young punk tries to mug Nick "Crocodile" Dundee and his lovely friend Sue Charlton.
Charlton exclaims, "Nick, he has a knife!"
Crocodile Dundee calmly pulls a huge knife from his jacket and says with characteristic Australian drawl, "That's not a knife. This is a knife."
It's a great scene and one that I think of every time I use a gardening tool I own called a Hori Hori.
It's a general purpose gardening tool but it is excellent for digging and weeding. If Crocodile Dundee ever takes up gardening, this is the tool for him. No question about it.
The Hori Hori is shaped like a bowie knife. The point is moderately sharp so it can dig into soil. One edge of the blade is serrated to cut roots, and the length of the knife on one side is concave like a garden trowel, so it can be used to dig deep into the soil.
Recently, I had to remove some tough old shrubs from my garden and the Hori Hori made my life alot easier. The tool was great for locating and digging out roots which I then cut with the serrated edge of the Hori Hori.
Its a nice tool and you may want to treat yourself to one. Or get it as a gift for a gardener friend. You can buy a Hori Hori for about $25 from garden specialty stores.
Oh, if you want to see a clip of Crocodile Dundee scene I mentioned above, just click here.
Last year, I researched composters and was intrigued by the ones that look like barrels. You may have seen these at garden centers or in advertisements. This type of composter can be hand rotated to speed up the composting process. There are a variety of designs on the market, but most are expensive -- some cost over $300.
A Big Science Project That Didn't Work
Buying a ready made barrel composter was a little rich for my blood, so I opted to construct one of my own using 2x4's and a food-grade 50 gallon plastic barrel that was originally used to store horse feed. I used this composter last year but was not happy with it.
For one thing, I didn't turn the barrel as frequently as I should have. A little of this was just laziness on my part. However, I often found myself taking scraps to the composter while we were making diner; I didn't want to get my hands dirty when cooking, so I didn't rotate the composter when I was adding materials. Then I would forget to rotate the composter the next day. Needless to say, the composter didn't get turned that frequently.
Additionally, as a reader of this blog has already commented, barrel composters get heavy as more material is added to the barrel, making it increasingly difficult to rotate over time. So even if you had the inclination to do so, rotating the barrel becomes a chore.
A Simpler Approach
This year I decided move to a simpler design which just holds the compostable material together using poultry netting. To build the composter will take less than 30 minutes. You won't need many tools and it won't cost much either.
To make compost, the only thing you'll need to do is put down layers of compostable material. You can turn the compost if you wish to do so. This will speed up the composting process, but this is optional. Sound good?
Materials List
Tools Needed
Composting:
Composting is accomplished by adding successive layers of brown materials, green materials and soil. I'll cover this in a future post, but you can find plenty of information about this online if you want to read about this or need to start your compost pile immediately.
Don't eat boring, mealy apples. In this post, you'll learn about efforts to bring better tasting apples to our local market and some interesting varieties you can grow at home
If you read my posts regularly, you know I don't care very much for supermarket varieties of vegetables and fruits.
There are lots of reasons to dislike produce at the typical supermarket, ranging from the issues of biodiversity to nutritional loss in transit, to the carbon foot print of shipping items from far places of origin like Chile.
All these are legitimate issues, but my main gripe with supermarket produce is that is just don't taste very good. Tomatoes are a prime example, but an equally sad situation exists with apples.
How Do You Like Them Apples
The most common apple in the U.S. is the Red Delicious (accounts for about 40% of production). The shiny, deep red color of the Red Delicious makes it look good, but it's beauty is truly skin deep. It's a mealy, nasty apple -- and anything but delicious in my opinion.
Better and more interesting varieties such as Honey Crisp, Braeburn and Granny Smith can be found at the store, but the potential range of options available to us is much broader than most people realize.
Upsetting The Apple Cart
The sad truth is that over 15,000 different varieties of apples have been documented in the U.S. alone. Of these about 3,000 remain.
R.A.F.T. is an organization dedicated to upsetting the supermarket apple cart; the group is an alliance of food, farming and culinary advocates managed by Slow Food USA. The organization's name stands for "Renewing America's Food Traditions" and they are actively promoting certain "forgotten" fruits, foremost of which are apples.
They've published an Apple Manifesto that makes for some interesting reading. You can download a 32-page PDF describing the efforts from their web site.
The Apple of My Eye
While RAFT is attacking some of the bigger issues, I'm doing a little apple cart upsetting as well. Earlier this year, I added 5 heirloom apple trees to my garden. These are semi-dwarf trees that I'm growing in pots.
One is a very old American variety called Spitzenburg. This was Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple. The others are heritage European apples, some of which are eating apples and a some of which are apples used specifically to make cider.
Below is the list of apples I've chosen for my garden, but I encourage you to do an online search to find varieties that are interesting to you. You might want to begin your search at Trees of Antiquity where I purchased my trees.I'll post more about these Apples in future posts.
Till then.... An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Want to eat the tastiest bacon ever? Cure and smoke your own. It's easier to do than you think, and I'll show you how to do it.
In the 17th Century, the famous French philosopher Rene Descarte, started his proof of the existence of God by first asserting the certainty of his own existence -- I think, therefore, I am. (Cogito ergo sum, if you prefer your
philosophy in Latin) And then, that certain innate ideas must also be true -- one of which was the idea of God. And there you have it, proof of God.
If you want proof of the existence God, you don't need any more evidence than a strip of crispy, salty, fatty, yummy, hickory smoked bacon. A food given to us most surely by a loving and generous creator.
The bacon sold in the market isn't too bad; certainly good enough to make an atheist think twice. But if you want the ultimate bacon experience, you need to cure your own. And I'm going to tell you how to do it.
As with all food ideas I post to this blog, it isn't hard to do or expensive to achieve great results.
Just follow these instructions and you'll make mind-blowing bacon that will make grown men weep.
The recipe comes form Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It, by Karen Solomon. The book has lots of interesting recipes and I encourage you to think about adding it to your book shelf.
What You Need
*Curing salt is a mixture of salt, sugar and sodium nitrate. Your butcher may be able to sell it to you or you can order it online from a spice supplier.
Recipe
Smoking the Bacon
Note on Grills
Storage
Place into a plastic zip-lock bag and store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. I generally break the bacon into three batches of equal size and place one bag into the refrigerator for immediate consumption, and put the other two bags into the freezer for future use.
A Promise Made
I suppose it seems like I'm posting this bacon recipe out of the clear blue sky. But there is a connection to gardening. This week I was planting tomato seeds, and tomatoes always make me think of Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches.
My wife has a recipe she calls "The Ultimate BLT." When we get into tomato season, I'll post her recipe so you can try it for yourself.
A photo of the cured bacon after slicing and before are shown below.
The last few days, we've seen temperatures in mid to upper 70's Fahrenheit and things are really heating up in the garden!
The sugar snap peas that I planted in the greenhouse on New Year's day, are now about 4 feet tall and have flowered. It won't be long before we start harvesting.
A Tip For Ensuring Good PollinationPeas and tomatoes are self-pollinating, meaning you don't need a bee or other insect to pollinate the flowers. Wind or just natural pollination of the plant takes care of this.
But if you're growing these vegetables in a greenhouse, there is little to no wind to either move the pollen or directly or agitate the plant which would cause pollen to spread within the flower.
So to be on the safe side, I give the plants a little extra help. I use an electric toothbrush to agitate the plants and spread the pollen. Just turn on the toothbrush and run the back of the brush head along the flower and stem.
So brush your self-pollinating plants, but pass on flossing.
On March 12, 2010, The Palo Alto Library hosted a lecture by sustainable farming expert, John Jeavons. After the lecture, John was kind enough to speak with me about ways to grow more food in our backyard gardens.
Special thanks to the Palo Alto Library for bringing programs like this to the community.
Planter Tomato (PT): Today, we're here in Palo Alto, California with John Jeavons. John is an agricultural researcher, lecturer, and author of several books on gardening including How To Grow More Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains and Other Crops Than You Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine. Thank you for joining us at Planter Tomato.
John Jeavons (JJ): Thank you for having me.
PT: John, the title of your book is quite a mouthful to say, but more importantly it makes a bold claim about how much food you can grow in a small garden. Can you tell us why your method of gardening is so successful and so productive?
JJ: The reason Biointensive Mini Farming is so productive is because it depends on the biological life forces that are in the soil. For almost a century, the world has been going in the opposite direction which does not rely on these forces. But if you go back 5,000 years to Ethiopia, 4,000 to China, 2,000 to Greece or 1,000 to the Maya, they all worked with the soil in a living way.
When you do this, you get yields that are two to six times that obtained commercially today with a fraction of the water, purchased nutrients and organic fertilizers, and energy.
PT: Tell us more about the underlying principles that make Biointensive farming productive?
JJ: There are eight elements to BIointensive farming:PT: If I am a suburban gardener with a 10' x 10' plot, and let's say I'm living in a moderate climate like Northern California (Zone 9), what sort of plant varieties would you recommend that I grow?
JJ: Well what's amazing about this 100 square foot area that you mentioned is that you'll be able to grow half the vegetable and soft fruits for one person for one year and that's assuming only intermediate level yields. The most popular vegetables and soft fruits are sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, watermelon, peppers, there's virtually nothing that you can't grow there.
In zone 9, the limiting factor is really how many hours of sunlight you have for your garden site. If you have only 4 hours of sunlight, you may be able to grow lettuces and brassicas, (kale, cabbage, broccoli etc) but it will really depend on your soil and skill. If you have 7 hours of sunlight, you will be able to grow cool and warm weather crops. If you have 11 hours of direct sunlight, you'll be able to grow, cool, warm and hot weather crops.
PT: What if I'm in a colder climate such as zone 5? Could I use the same principles and have a bountiful harvest?
JJ: Absolutely, we have people living in Canada and Alaska using Biointensive farming successfully. But if you're living in a place like Maine with a 3 month growing season, in order to be fully effective, you'll need to double the size of your garden. So the 100 square foot garden you mentioned before, needs to be 200 square square feet because you need to grow your compost crops in one 100 square foot area in order to maintain your sustainable soil fertility, and in the other 100 square foot area you'll grow the other crops you plan to eat that season. Then the next year you rotate the plots. Fundamentally, you can grow all of the same types of vegetables as in warmer climates, but you need to use more area to do it.
The good news is that if you're only gardening for 3 months, you get a 9 month vacation but you need more growing area. Whereas in Palo Alto [zone 9] you'll have a 6 to 9 month growing season and you get a 3 month vacation, but you need less area. However, the amount of work you need to do to maintain both gardens is the same.
If you're in a area with a 5 month growing season with cold nights like I do in Wilits, California, I use double walled miniature greenhouses and by using these we triple our yield of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and melons. So you need some sort of season extender under these growing conditions.
If you have a 6 month growing season with warm nights, you can grow the same things that I mentioned when you asked about zone 9.
One last thing I want to mention, in the
bibliography of my book, there is a listing for a book on high altitude
farming which outlines techniques that will help gardeners in cold
climates.
PT: Many readers of this blog live in apartments where they may only have a small balcony and room for just a few containers. If they wanted to grow some of their own food, what could they do?
JJ: It's really pretty exciting what you can do in these small spaces. One book that I would recommend is The Apartment Farmer, The Hassle Free Way To Grow Vegetables Indoors, On Balconies, Patios and Roofs, and Small Yards by Duane Newcomb. There's also a book called Bountiful Container by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey which has many good ideas in it and some beautiful color photos.
By the way there are special seed varieties for many vegetables that are specifically designed for pots that container gardeners can use. There's even a sweet corn that grows to only eight inches high. The spectrum of possibilities is endless.
PT: What advice would you give me as a first time Biointensive farmer?
JJ: Start small. Create one bed and get it right and then expand. I think most of us want to immediately plant as big an area as possible. However, the yields will be less good. If you put all your tender loving care into a 100 square feet it almost bound to do well. Then expand over time to whatever amount of space your property and time will allow.
PT: If I want to learn more about Biointensive farming, where can I go for information?
JJ: You can start at our international mail order and seed company that has all of our publications. It's called BountifulGardens.org, a non-profit business.
For more about the method, you can also go to GrowBiointensive.org where you'll find all sorts of information and examples of successful gardens that use biointensive methods.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can go to CommonGroundInPaloAlto.org, our non-profit organic gardening store and educational center with hundreds of seed varieties and high quality tools. Almost every Saturday, there are classed on urban homesteading and sustainable ways of living.
PT: John, this has been really terrific. Thank you for sharing this information with PlanterTomato readers.
JJ: My pleasure.
For more information on John Jeavons and to learn about his Biointensive workshops, see John's personal information site www.johnjeavons.info
Ohio State University tested 10 heirloom tomatoes in a variety of sites in the Midwest in 2009.
The tomatoes evaluated included: Amish Paste, Brandywine (Sudduth/Quisenberry), Burbank, Cherokee Purple, Jaune Flamme, Opalka, Oxheart, (Livingston’s), Peron, Rutgers, and Tainan
The study collected data on germination rate, total yield per plant, yield judged to be marketable and taste.
On a scale of one to ten, none of the tomatoes scored above a six on taste, so I would be hesitant to regard that measure as a true indication. (taste tends to be very personal) However, the other data in the study may be useful to those looking at objectively measurable information about each varieties performance. Key findings:
A PDF of the report can be downloaded below.
Download Ohio State Tomato Ratings
In a prior post I mentioned that I'm a big fan of growing lots of fruits and vegetables.
One consequence of this practice, is that I have many seed packets on hand. Storing these packets can be a challenge, particularly once they are open.
For a while, I just threw all my seed packets into a shoe box, but I found this to be rather unsatisfactory because I had to hunt through all the packets anytime I needed to find something.
A Better Way to Store Seeds
So here's a quick tip that will make it easy to find your seeds and keep them from spilling.
The basic idea is to create a kind of "file box" for your seeds using an index card box, or other plastic container, and some index card dividers with the alphabet printed on top. Put the dividers into the plastic case and then just file your seeds alphabetically. I organize mine by vegetable type, so all the tomatoes are filed under "T", winter and summer squash under "S" etc. etc.
For open seed packets, I first slip the seed packet into a zip-lock plastic sandwich bag. This keeps the seeds from spilling out into the box.
Seed packets vary in size depending on which company from which you purchase and also the type of seeds you buy. For example, corn, pea and squash seeds are big and so the seed packets are generally larger as well. To accommodate these larger seed packets, I decided to buy a plastic CD/DVD case (9" wide x 17" long and 7" high). You can find these at your local stationary store. I also purchased 5" x8" index card tabs and these fit perfectly into the plastic box. (See below photos of seed saving box and various sized seed packets)
How Long Can I Save My Seeds
It depends on the type of seed and the conditions under which your store them. But it's longer than you might think. Somewhere between 2-10 years for most types of veggies.
Yes, the germination rate will decline over time, but if you only want to grow a few plants, you won't really care if the germination rate is 90% of 50%.
Incidentally, seed longevity may be very high for some types of plants. According to ThriftyFun.com, "archaeologists unearthed some ancient magnolia seeds from a Japanese tomb some years ago, and on a whim, tried planting them. They sprouted and turned out to be a previously extinct form of magnolia."
So don't get nervous about where to put your new seed saving box. If you don't have a Japanese tomb, just put it in a cool, dark place. Your seeds will be fine.
If you have a way of storing your seeds that you think others would like to know about, please post a comment below or join the new PlanterTomato group on Facebook and post your comments there.
In this edition of PlanterTomato, I interview Aaron Dillon, a fourth generation grower with Four Winds Growers, a nursery specializing in dwarf citrus trees.
PlanterTomato: Hello Aaron, thank you for joining us today. If you wouldn't mind, why don't you begin by telling us a little about Four Winds Growers.
Aaron Dillon: Happy to do so. Four Winds Growers was started by my great grandfather, Floyd Dillon in the late 1940's. He moved to California from the Midwest and purchased some dwarf pear and apple tress for his garden. He was amazed that you could get full-sized fruit production in a small space using dwarf varieties.
Floyd was a visionary. He realized that after World War II, all the guys who shipped out to the Pacific from California would get a taste of the beautiful weather and lifestyle here and want to return after the war.
At this point, the citrus industry was dominated by growers who used standard-sized trees that are 20-25 feet tall and about as wide. These types of trees would not be appropriate for backyards that were being created in the post-war suburban housing boom. But Floyd believed that if he could make citrus trees smaller, he would have something that people would really appreciate.
He correctly predicted that the new suburban homeowners of the post-war era would want to walk out into their backyard and pick a fresh orange off the tree. So he set about figuring out how to do this and that's how the company began.
PlanterTomato: That's a terrific story Aaron. We are seeing even more interest today in growing fruit and vegetables at home. Your great grandfather really was a visionary.
If I'm a first time grower, what would be the best type of citrus to add to my garden?
Aaron Dillon: That's a good question. It's certainly going to depend on where you're located. If you're living in California, with our mild climate, you have great flexibility. If you live on the East Coast or in the Midwest, you still can grow citrus, but it's going to be more challenging because of frost issues. Our best selling tree is the Meyer Lemon. We sell three to every one of anything else.
PlanterTomato: So is the Meyer Lemon well suited to colder climates?
Aaron Dillon: The Meyer is probably the most appropriate to grow in any conditions. It's very prolific. Year-round it will be in either bloom or in fruit, and it lends itself well to being an indoor plant. This variety, in particular, can be grown strictly as a house plant. That notwithstanding, it's better to grow it in a container and transfer it from the garden to your home and vice versa with the change of seasons.
PlanterTomato: Can you do this with any citrus tree, or just the Meyer?
Aaron Dillon: You can do this with just about any tree, but because the Meyer Lemon is so prolific, it is the best suited for indoor and outdoor environments.
PlanterTomato: While we're on the topic of containers, tell us a little about how to be successful using containers. Specifically, what size container is best?
Aaron Dillon: Citrus, in general, like good drainage -- they do not like to have alot of water held up next to their roots. The most important thing in container selection is to make sure there ample drainage at the bottom. Next, you want to select a container that's appropriate to the size of the plant. If you're starting with a small plant, you want to use a small pot. Our most popular size is a plant sold in a 5-gallon plant which the gardener should transplant into a 12"-14" container.
PlanterTomato: I think that would be about 7 gallons.
Aaron Dillon: Yes, that's about right. And you want to select a really well drained media. Generally, most potting soils will work well. Keep the root ball high and be careful with the watering. Typically, with containers, this means watering just once per week.
PlanterTomato: I believe citrus trees needs alot of fertilizer. What should the feeding schedule be? Let's assume, I've got my plants in a pot.
Aaron Dillon: Citrus are heavy feeders. We recommend you feed as much as once per month. You also want to use a type of fertilizer that is specific for citrus. If you use general purpose or general fruit tree fertilizer, many times these don't have the right ratios of phosphorous and potassium that are conducive to citrus fruit production. Many of these brand recommend feeding every 3-4 months. In California, we recommend feeding more often - as much as once a month.
If you live in areas with cold winters, you want to reduce feeding as you approach winter because you don't want to encourage soft new growth that will be damaged by the cold.
PlanterTomato: Thanks, that's great advice. Now tell us about the range of citrus trees you sell at Four Winds Growers?
Aaron Dillon: As you mentioned, we specialize sell a variety of fruit trees with a specialty in citrus and sell to retail nurseries in California as well as online to those outside the state. We sell about 65 varieties at this point and it's constantly evolving. We have about 40 other varieties in our greenhouses right now that we are evaluating.
PlanterTomato: Can you hint at which ones you think you will be selling in the near future?
Aaron Dillon: Right now there's demand for seedless mandarin oranges, and that's where much research attention is focused. Some mandarins are susceptible to cross pollination so if you grow it near an orange tree it's likely that it will develop seeds. The University of California is trying to develop varieties that are seedless under all conditions.
One that we really like is called the Gold Nugget Mandarin. It's only been available for about 5 years. It's a late ripening mandarin. In northern California that means you can start picking them beginning in April and throughout the summer. It's easy to peel and has great flavor.
We are also seeing alot of interest in Italian lemons, things people can use to make Limoncello.
PlanterTomato: I'm laughing because on February 8th., I posted an article on how to make your own limoncello in the "Food & Drink" section of PlanterTomato. Most Americans don't know about this delicious Italian after-dinner drink and it's hard to find at your local liquor store, but it's very easy to make at home. All you need is lemons, vodka and sugar.
Aaron Dillon: Absolutely, but people are becoming more aware of limoncello as they travel to Italy and try the limoncello in the various regions in the country that produce it. These regions do a tremendous job trying to market their version as distinct, but I think at the end of the day, they are all pretty similar. You can use Eureka lemon or a Lisbon lemon and make fantastic limoncello. But there are some cultivars that come from Italy and we are looking at these.
PlanterTomato: So thinking about your citrus, what do you think is the most unusual variety?
Aaron Dillon: Well one thing we sell is called Buddha's hand. It's a form of citron that has long finger-like projections. It's got a great aroma, but there's no real juice. It is quite stunning in appearance.
PlanterTomato: Is it purely ornamental or could you candy the skin?
Aaron Dillon: You can candy the skin. You can also use it for anything where you want to incorporate a citrus aroma.
PlanterTomato: I'm hoping that we've convince those reading this posting to add citrus to their backyard garden collections. Where can you buy Four Winds citrus trees?
Aaron Dillon: I would encourage everyone to look at our web site which is www.FourWindsGrowers.com. There a ton of useful information there on plant selection and care. We also do direct sales from the web site for people outside the State of California. Inside the State, we encourage you to go to your local garden center.
PlanterTomato: Thank you for helping my readers learn about citrus.
Aaron Dillon: Thank you for sharing the information with them.
Four Winds Growers variety and planting information is attached below.
Download Four Winds Growers Varieties & Growing Instructions
In prior postings, I've described a number of vegetables that can be grown and harvested during the winter months. These included greens like chicory, arugula, and kale.
While I like these veggies, they are strongly flavored and rather spicy or bitter. In truth, they're not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
So I want to introduce you to a winter vegetable you can grow all winter long that is mild and sweet. It's called Mache (pronounced like "mosh") but it goes by other names including Vit, Corn Salad, and Lamb's Lettuce. (not to be confused with lamb's quarters which are a totally different green)
Although not currently well known in the U.S., Mache is popular in France, where it has been a staple of winter gardeners for generations.
Mache is a low growing, leafy-green veggie with a very mild, almost sweet flavor. I'm hard pressed to think of a similar tasting vegetable, so I'm just going to say, I think you'll like it if you like things like Bibb lettuce.
I plant Mache in raised beds in the fall and then harvest it periodically during the winter. It can be grown in hardiness zones 5 and higher. Here in Northern California (zone 9) I don't bother to use a cold frame or tunnel, but in colder climates you will need to provide some extra protection.
I recommend that you plant in the fall to give your Mache a head start, but it will continue to grow all winter long. As you might expect, it's not well suited to grow during the summer and will bolt.
You can eat Mache by itself or with other greens of your choosing.
Seeds can be purchased from Baker Creek, Territorial Seed, Johnny's and other seed companies.
Mache - not the bitter end, but the end of bitter.
In my prior posting, I described how I came to purchase an economy greenhouse kit. In this posting, I will address what is required to build the kit and make recommendations to those considering a similar purchase.
AssemblyThe Kensington Greenhouse Kit is comprised of three principle components: hollow aluminum frame components, metal connectors, and polycarbonate panels.
The way one constructs the greenhouse is by connecting the appropriate frame components using the connectors supplied with the kit; you slide one end of the connector into the hollow end of one side of a metal frame until it clicks into place. You then take a second frame component and slide it over the other end of the connector until it too clicks into place. This links the two pieces together.
Repeat the process again and again and you slowly build the skeleton of the greenhouse. The frames have channels along the edges. One creates the walls of the greenhouse by sliding the polycarbonate panels into these channels, which then hold the panels in place permanently.
Sound easy? Not so fast!
The concept is simple, but the execution is far more complex.
There are dozens of frame components and connectors. For example, there are connectors that connect two components, connectors that connect three components, left facing connectors, right facing connectors, connectors that connect at 90 degrees, connectors that connect at 180 degrees, connectors that connect at other angles, etc. You get the idea.
Likewise the frame components are of varying sizes, some with notches or holes that are required to be properly oriented so that they fit with other components.
To build the greenhouse, you must first separate what must be over 1,000 components and parts into 26 piles. The piles represent individual stages of construction.
The sorting process alone will take several hours. As boring as this is, it is absolutely essential that you do this, otherwise you will lose your mind trying to locate the correct parts during construction.
Additionally, all the aluminum frame components are wrapped in plastic which you will need to remove and dispose of. When I built my kit, I did not realize that the polycarbonate panels were also covered on both sides with a Saran-Wrap-like protective plastic. I built one side of the greenhouse before discovering this error. I then had to disassemble the components, remove the plastic and rebuild 25% of the greenhouse.
I found the manual to be well written and to contain good illustrations. However, I made a variety of mistakes along the way that required me to disassemble and reconnect frames and connectors. I am fairly certain that anyone building this kit for the first time will have a similar experience.
I also found it difficult to slide the polycarbonate into the channels of the frame components. This would have been much easier on a perfectly flat surface, but I was doing my assembly on my lawn. If you decide to build a kit greenhouse, I recommend building the sides of the greenhouse in your garage or driveway, if that is an option, and then transporting the sides to your backyard for final assembly.
The manufacturer said the kit would take two people a weekend to construct. I built the greenhouse by myself in about 3.5 days of fairly intense labor.
Performance
I live in Northern California, which is zone 9. I found that during our Fall and Winter months, the temperature in the greenhouse stayed 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit above the ambient temperature for several hours after sunset.
That was warm enough to allow me to grow cold tolerant vegetables such as chard, kale, bok choi, arugula, scallions and others without the use of additional lights or heat.
On warm days last Fall, I found it necessary to open the top vent and door in order to keep the greenhouse from becoming too hot.
While we are on the subject, the top vent is not well constructed. On a windy day, the vent blew open and bent the aluminum frame in which it sits. As a result, the vent no longer closes completely.
Conclusions and Recommendations
I'm very glad I have a greenhouse. It has allowed me to harvest vegetables all winter long. It will also give me a convenient place to start my seeds this spring.
However, building a greenhouse using an economy-grade kit is not as convenient as I would have hoped. For me personally, the "juice was not worth the squeeze." If I could turn back time, I would build my own greenhouse, even if it took longer to construct and cost more money to do so.
Not everyone is willing to take on that kind of a challenge, so here is my opinion on who should consider purchasing an economy greenhouse kit:
Consider Buying If You:
Your Experiences
If you have a greenhouse, please tell me about your experience by replying to this post as a comment below.
