It’s official! I finally got my acceptance letter from the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market. The Farmer’s Market has become so popular here in Santa Fe that you have to be juried in to sell there in the summers, not just send some money and automatically get in. I will be there this summer on Saturdays from 7am-12pm as soon as I have some crops to sell-got to get them in the ground first and with this late cold weather it hasn’t happened yet. I’m hoping to be there in late June with something but not the tomatoes-they won’t be ready till late July at the earliest. I have made room for 60 tomato plants and many more crops in my 1000 square foot main garden. So keep you eye out at the farmer’s market for ‘The Tomato Lady’-Heirloom tomatoes & exotic veggies for the discriminating cook.
my lettuce patch
lettuce patch in early spring
Here are my cool season crops coming up by the house in my lettuce patch. I like the idea of walking out the front door and picking salad stuff without going down to the main garden by the barn (which isn’t in yet anyway-way too cold at night) In the picture, from the back to forward-peas are back by the fence, then little cauliflower (they are soo slow to grow) is next closest, then romaine lettuce next, then 3 types of butter lettuce, and in the front row is spinach on the left, arugula in the middle and provencal mesclun on the right. I need to start thinning everything to give them room to grow. They are loving the cold nights. Still haven’t planted tomatoes though! I am waiting for the last of the freezing nights to end. Last night was 28 degrees F (-4 degrees C). Looks like we might go right up to the May 15 average last freeze date here in Santa Fe before getting any warm season crops in..
starting giant pumpkins!!
Today I am planting giant pumpkin seeds. I will put them in 4″peat pots so that I can peel the pots away later without disturbing the roots when I transplant them. They grow really fast once they come up, so I will have to put them in the soil perhaps in 2 weeks from starting the seeds. I will transplant them once the first true leaf comes out. You can tell which way the vine will grow as it will grow in the opposite direction of the firs true leaf. This way I can place it in the soil in the direction I want it to grow. I am growing 4 giant pumpkins this year. They are: 817.9 Schieder 09, 1166 Mohr 09, 949.5 Harp 09, and the 895 Grande 08. They will go in my new pumpkin patch and I am growing another one: 352 Cabossel 09 (that’s me!) for the community pumpkin patch here in Santa Fe that I will plant when I teach a workshop May 15th. To understand what this means is the first number is the weight of the pumpkin the seed is coming from, the name is the grower’s name, and the last number is the year of the seed. So mine was a 352 lb pumpkin, my last name is Cabossel, and it was grown in 2009. That is how we giant pumpkin growers know what seed we are planting. We also look at the parents of the seeds we choose to see who they were as most of the time they come from very good “stock”. You can also just grow generic varieties that you can get from places like Amazon.com which is what I did when I started this hobby before I got serious. I grew a 225 lber from the generic variety which is fine for most people! I will try to break the state record here in NM this year. Have to beat 404 lbs…
Santa Fe’s Farmer’s Market
For the Discriminating Cook
This year the Santa Fe’s Farmer’s Market, which was recently rated as one of the best in the nation, was a juried-in only market for farmers. Well, I went in the their office and they said I got accepted but I haven’t received their acceptance letter yet which makes me nervous as it’s been 2 weeks. I need to know for sure because it will determine whether I plant more tomatoes or not. We’ll see…
Last year at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market
I am known as ‘The Tomato Lady-Heirloom Tomatoes & Exotic Veggies’ for the discriminating cook. I grow varieties that you don’t get at the grocery stores or at our farmer’s market. See you there this summer! I’ll keep you posted when I start going to sell my produce on SATURDAY mornings this year-probably late June since I sell warm season crops…
When will the cold nights end in Santa Fe?
During the next 10 day weather forecast, we are getting 2 nights of 27 degrees and one of 31 degrees (farenheit) with the potential of 2 more freezing nights (that’s -3 degrees and -1 degree for my Celsius friends). Bummer. I have many tomatoes that are now becoming monsters and taking over the house (literally) that I need to get into the ground! Sigh… But the peas, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower and arugula are loving the cold! Yea!
Garden fair success!
Well it’s over and I’m recovering from our Santa Fe Master Gardeners Association Garden Fair on Saturday which was a big success! Wow-jammed pack! Bob and I sold over $900 of garden goodies and tools for the Master Gardeners Association at the ‘Garden Shed’ booth this year in the freezing cold windy miserable weather. Glad I was dressed for skiing! Amazing so many people showed up! Yea! I’m only sorry that I had to miss the wonderful Noel Hart demo (with his wife -Helene) at our studio glass shop. Noel is a wonderful glass artist from Australia who is doing incredible glass art and shows at Jane Sauer Gallery here in Santa Fe. If you haven’t seen his work, check it out at Jane’s web site.
Santa Fe Garden Fair
Santa Fe Master Gardener Association
Well I’m back from a wonderful flyfishing trip at the San Juan River and am getting ready for the Santa Fe Master Gardeners Garden Fair where we had over 2000 people show up to see demos, guest speakers, vendors, garden shed, and our infamous plant sale last year. Zeebeeman (Bob Zimmerman) and I are managing the garden shed at the garden fair this year where we will have great garden stuff for sale and some raffles for some neat stuff. It is happening this Saturday, April 24 from 10am-4pm at the Rodeo fairgrounds. Come by-if you are a gardener here in Santa Fe, You won’t be disappointed! Check out our Santa Fe Master Gardener Association site at www.sfmga.org
Gone fishing!
I’ll be away from the blog for a few days. Caleb, our friend, will be here at the ranch while we’re gone. Making sure all those tomatoes I started stayed watered. Gone fishing at the famous San Juan River here in New Mexico for giant trout! Wish me luck!
arugula and peas are up
My arugula and peas just popped up this week from my cool season crop raised bed up by the house.
oregon spring peas and golden peas
Rocket arugula just up
My lettuce bowl-chickens love it!
I put the lettuce bowl outside under heavy rowcover cloth (.09) as it wasn’t getting enough light inside. Yesterday I thinned it so the baby lettuce have room to grow and gave the seedlings to my chickens.
The girls eating the lettuce seedlings
They are nuts for lettuce anyways but fresh baby seedlings? yum! Here are some pictures of the chickens eating it and some closeups some of them as well. Speaking of chickens,besides providing wonderful eggs they help make compost with their manure.
Chickens eating lettuce seedlings
They are pets which each having a name so I don’t eat them, just their eggs. I feed them lots of scraps from the kitchen which is what makes their egg yolks so orange. The rest of the kitchen scraps goes into the compost pile. Their manured compost is great for the veggie garden but don’t put it on fruit trees-it has too much nitrogen.
closeup of 'Chimay'-a Belgium Campine chicken-hence the name!
closeup of 'Kielbasa'-a Polish chicken
'Grayhawk' drinking water-an Andalusian chicken
'Ari'- an Auracana chicken-lays green eggs!
Spring has Sprung in Santa Fe!
first tulip
Finally, Spring has sprung here in Santa Fe! We are now getting 70+degrees days and nights are above freezing although I’m sure we will get some more late season freezes-we always do. Here are some pics of spring around my house. Finally flowers and the beginning of green!
close up apricot blossoms
I call this "donkey tail"
apple leaves come out before flowering
vinca major flowers
more spring garden photos
Here are some more spring photos as of April 14th of around my house here in Santa Fe…
new crabapple leaves against Santa Fe sky
close up giant daffadils
red maple budding out
Jannine’s Pumpkin Soup
Here is a great recipe for pumpkin or any winter squash soup. I know this is out of season but want it in the recipe section of the blog. Besides I still have many bags of pumpkin puree in my freezer I need to use up from my giant pumpkin, Hercules from last year!
JANNINE’S PUMPKIN SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
About 10 lbs of pumpkin or winter squash
Chicken broth or vegetable broth or water
1 can Coconut milk (whole or lite)
fresh grated ginger
honey to taste
Cut, quarter and clean out your squash of seeds and stringy stuff. Put oil on exposed edges and put face down on foil lined cookie sheet and place foil on top so it doesn’t dry out. Cook at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until soft when pierced by fork. Scoop out and place in a big soup pot and add 8-10 cups of either water, OR chicken broth OR vegetable broth-your preference. Then take a mixer or one of those hand held blender wands and mix till smooth. Heat and add the can of coconut milk, some fresh grated ginger (peel first) and honey to taste. Do not boil. Yummy!
Soup-Spiked Pumpkin Soup
Here is my other pumpkin soup recipe that I got from my friends Caleb and Genevieve. It’s really yummy too.
SPICED PUMPKIN SOUP
½ tsp fresh grated ginger
½ tsp cumin
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup chopped onion
1½ cups apple cider
⅓ cup bourbon
¼ cup maple syrup
2 lbs cooked FRESH pumpkin (this is about 4 lbs before cooking)
1 can chicken broth or 2 cups veggie broth or water
2 cups milk
1 TLB flour
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
sour cream
3TLB chopped parsley or cilantro
Saute onions, ginger, cumin, and garlic 5 minutes or until lightly brown. Stir in apple cider, bourbon, syrup, pumpkin, and broth. Bring to boil and simmer 10 minutes. Take out mixture and puree in blender in batches until all blended or use (“magic wand” to puree right in pot) Return pureed mixture to pot and add milk, flour, salt, and pepper. Cook till just heated (do not boil) stirring occasionally.
Serve with dollop of sour cream and sprinkle parsley if desired. For vegetarians, leave out dairy and replace milk with coconut milk, chicken broth with veggie broth.
Orach (mountain spinach)
Last year I grew a new ‘salad green’ for me called Red Orach which is also known as Mountain Spinach. The variety I grew came from Baker Heirloom Rare Seed company and it makes a great red addition to salads.
Red Orach (mountain spinach)
It’s taste is similar to spinach and your suppose to pick it when it’s young and tender to eat. I didn’t pay much attention to it later when it went to seed. This year it is self sowing itself everywhere and is beautiful. They say it can get up to 4-10′ tall but mine only got about 2’tall. I placed it in the back of the raised bed so it wouldn’t shade everything else.
giantveggiegardener 