May 5, 2012 - West Chester Growers Market

Every year the official garden season begins for me with the opening of the West Chester Growers Market.  This year was no different and despite being an overcast and drizzle filled morning we got there just after it opened. 

 

 For the past few years I've purchased nearly all my tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and herbs here from various vendors.  A few are now familiar faces I look forward to every year.  I didn't go too overboard this first day at the market, but I did come home with the following:

 

Tomatoes:  Two Amish Paste (plums), Black Krim (medium), Lemon Boy (med/large), Green Zebra (medium), and a Yellow Pear (grape)

Peppers:Crono di Toro (Sweet), Italian Roaster (mild chile), and a third pepper that I lost the ID for.  I'm sure it's some sort of sweet non-bell pepper.

Herbs: Oregano, English Thyme, and Sage.

   

Not a bad beginning, but I have a lot more plants to get!

March 31, 2012 - Brown Barn Cafe

Ah! Some Chocolates and the Brown Barn Cafe is hands down the best place eat in Dallas, PA and in the whole Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area.   The dishes are fantastically flavorful, innovative yet simple, and always interesting complete with some great service.  The place is tiny and has an open kitchen so when there it I feel like I'm eating at a friend's house - a friend who happens to be a highly skilled chef.

Go there. 

Usual table.

 Expert preparation in a little kitchen!

 Smoked pork pupusas with curdito

 

Buckwheat crepes with slow cooked chicken an tenderloin tips.

 Raspberry chocolate torte

March 22, 2012 - Seedlings Sprouting

 

The weather has continued to be more like May than March - all week it's been sunny and in the 70's.  Usually this time of year I have to babysit many of the seeds and bring them in and outside depending on the weather.  It looks like this weekend will be the end of the May weather and I'll have to pay closer attention to the sprouts.  

 
The the warm sunny weather has really given the seeds a head start.  Take a look at the progress so far: 

 Cauliflower or Broccoli Sprouts

 Pea Sprouts

Rainbow Chard Sprouts

Spinach Sprouts

Radishes

March 16, 2012 - First Plantings

The past week has been unseasonably warm.  So much so that I almost feel that I've fallen behind with my seeds!  I have to keep reminding myself it's March.  On Tuesday I planted my peas, carrots, radishes, and started some cauliflower and broccoli in little pots.  On the porch I started spinach and the rainbow char in pots. I don't feel I'm taking too big of a gamble assuming the growing season has started.  All the bulb flowers are out, buds are forming on the trees - the trees in town have already blossomed on many streets.

Before I could plant I had to really till the garden.  It was so much work this year with all the field encroaching that I was only able to do what was necessary around the trellis.  In total about a third of the plot is finished.

There is also the matter of replacing the drip line tape. After two years all of the lines were shot.  I decided to simplify the design a bit this year and run only six lines: three sections of two parallel runs of tape.  For what I'm doing right now there's really no point putting different lines to different types of plants as they all require roughly the same amount of water.  If I have to, I'll under water and hit the more thirsty plants by hand.

I have some time before the rest of the garden needs to be prepped, but I think if the weather stays this nice I'll have it done by next week.

March 5, 2012 - Ordered the Seeds

It's now March and I am just now starting to take a look at the garden this year.  It's later than years past but I think that because it's been such a mild winter I never got too stir crazy from the snow. But now we're starting to see the first signs of spring: buds on the hydrangeas and green leaves on the strawberries - it's past time to get started!

 
After taking stock of my leftover seeds I made the tough decision to get rid of them all and start fresh. Many are a few seasons old and I don't have confidence that they were stored properly.  I can't bring myself to just throw them away so I'm going to seed bomb them around town and see what happens!

 I ended up ordering  all my seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange s again this year. I've had nothing but good luck with everything I've purchased from them and they seem to be a great organization with interesting varieties.   Here's my order:

• Amish Snap Peas - Superb snap pea reportedly grown in the Amish community long before present snap pea types. Vines grow 5-6' tall and are covered in 2" translucent green pods. Yields over a 6-week period if kept picked.
• Snowball Cauliflower - Introduced to American gardeners in 1888 by Peter Henderson & Company. Smooth 6-7" heads of tightly formed white curds are solid, crisp, and tender, excellent quality.
• Calabrese Broccoli - Popular market variety that was brought to America by Italian immigrants in the 1880s. Tight heads can grow up to 8" in diameter. After the central head is harvested, side shoots will form.
• True Lemon Cucumber - Heirloom listed in the 1894 catalog of Samuel Wilson of Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania. Once a popular market variety in Australia. Short and plump, resembles a lemon in size, shape, and color; mature fruits even have a faint lemony flavor. Used for pickling, slicing, and in salads.
• Russian Pickling Cucumber - Originally from Perm, Russia. First offered in the 1991 SSE Yearbook by Daniel L. Flyger from South Dakota who said the seed was “brought to this area by German-Russian immigrants in the 1870s.” Early maturing smooth green pickling cucumber with a delicious sweet flavor and good crunch.
• Dragon Carrot - The most refined purple carrot available; bred by John Navazio. Sure to be the best selling carrot at specialty and farmers’ markets. Beautiful red-purple exterior provides an amazing contrast with the yellow-orange interior when sliced. Sweet, almost spicy flavor.
• Scarlet Nantes Carrot - Dates to the 1850s; original seed developed by Vilmorin in France. Cylindrical roots are 7" long with blunt tips. Fine-grained bright red-orange flesh is nearly coreless. Great flavor, sweet and brittle. Good when used as baby carrots.
• Ideal Market Bean - Introduced to the seed trade in 1914 as Black Creaseback by Van Antwerp’s Seed Store of Mobile, Alabama. Reintroduced in 1924 by Chris Reuter Seed Co. of New Orleans, Louisiana as Reuter’s Ideal Market. Very early and productive 5" snap bean. Excellent quality, stringless, fine texture.
• America Spinach - Long-standing compact Bloomsdale type. All America Selections winner in 1952. Grows 8" tall with thick, deep green, savoyed leaves. Slow-growing, slow to bolt, heat and drought resistant. Fine quality, suited for spring sowing in long-day areas.
• Rainbow Char - Australian heirloom from Digger’s Garden Club. Ornamental technicolor mixture of Swiss chards with shades of red, orange, purple, yellow, and white.
• Oh So Sweet Watermelon - Delicious watermelon that definitely lives up to its name. Originally from Virdie Smith of Gladewater, Texas. Productive plants bear many medium round striped fruits with high sugar content.

August 28, 2011 Hurricane Irene

I know that this is a bit after the fact, but I I wanted to post a couple of pictures of what the garden looked like following the hurricane.  For all the preparation we did for the house, I didn't feel that there was a whole lot I could do for my garden.

All the sunflowers have blown over.  They were snapped at the base but we were able to cut a few for the table.

 All the tomatoes had blown over too. A few are starting to grow again despite leaning heavily.

All in all it looks like the end is here for the garden this year.  There are a handful of peppers to pick and hopefully a couple more fresh tomatoes before I have to shop for them at the grocery store again.  I don't think the hurricane destroyed the garden, but it did push it towards the end a bit faster than I had hoped.  It's time to start the clean up soon.

August 20, 2011 - Dinner at the Brown Barn Cafe

After our visit to Hillside Farms we went for dinner at the most appropriate place the Brown Barn Cafe.  It's a new (and tiny) place at "Ah! Some Chocolate" (get it?) on East Overbrook Road in Shavertown, PA that specializes in using only local and seasonal ingredients. 

The food was amazing and the service was great. Here are some pics from our dinner:

Since it's a BYO place, we brought a bottle of red wine along with Pretty Things Baby Tree Quadruple and Dogfish Head's Namaste a Belgium White Ale.

 Started off with a slush flavored with anise, mint, and orange zest.  Simple and refreshing.
 

For appetizers we had:
1. Peach salsa which had an incredibly well done balance between the sweet and spicy.
2. Fatuous that was deliciously dill flavored.
3. And a cheese plate with Stilton, smoked Gouda, and a triple creme Brie served with white and black cherries and flat bread.

 For the main course I had the Forbidden rice with peaches and a side of pickled daikon radishes. Deceptively filling.

 This was the beef stew. It came with all sorts of add ins to mix in to your desired heat and spice.

 Does that look like someone who is disappointed?

 Stacey had the Eggplant Lasagne with a side of corn and chili lime butter. It's amazing how fresh ingredients can make a meal.

 Lemon meringue cake was light and not too sweet.  A fantastic choice, but not for me...

...I had to try "The Elvis" - a piece of banana cake topped with peanut butter, mascarpone, chocolate, and banana ice cream! Decadence at it's finest.

August 20, 2011 - The Lands at Hillside Farms

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but being the map guy for an Emergency Management Agency where an earthquake and a hurricane strike within a week kept me busier than normal.  Better late than never!

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We visited our friends at the Crooked Farmhouse the weekend of August 20th and this time we finally got a chance to visit the famous Lands at Hillside Farms.  Hillside Farms is a 19th Century dairy farm billed as a "412 acre classroom without walls'.  It was a fine place to go for a walk on such a nice day!

 This old greenhouse had just finished being renovated.  It was mostly empty but there was one room filled with cherry tomatoes and japanese eggplant.  I can't wait to see what they have in it next year.

 It had an interesting mix of 19th century mechanical wheels to open the vents and CFL bulbs to light the place. 

 The pictures don't do the grounds justice. There are patches of flowers and vegetables everywhere.

The 5 pound jar of honey on the right shelf looked about the size I wanted.  It would of made some good mead.

They grow amazing looking produce which is for sale in their Dairy Store along with  their own cheese, honey, milk, ice cream, bread, chicken, beef, and eggs.  The store was pretty no frills but it's focus was clear:  fresh ingredients.  I don't know if I've ever seen milk sold in glass jars like that.  I love the idea and everyone swears by the milk here.

 The ice cream shop: where the magic happens.  I watched them take their fresh chocolate milk and mix it with their home made chocolate ice cream for the most epic chocolate milk shake I'd ever seen.  To bad I already ordered...

 I had a strawberry cheesecake ice cream - it looked and tasted even better than it sounds!
 

 It's hard to tell without context, but these were some of the most massive sunflowers I'd ever seen.  Most impressive.

 Here's a couple of the chickens that roam the grounds.  I couldn't get a good shot of the one with the fluffy mohawk.  If I get chickens I want one of them.

The milking barn in the background

 And it up close. 

 

 The ladies...

 Matty and I trying to figure out where the smell is coming from.