Buy Local, Buy Fresh

Most states have buy fresh buy local programs to promote agriculture.

The local foods movement seemed like a fad just a few years ago. Mainstream media and the general public basically relegated local foods advocates to a few, “radical tree-hugging, barefoot hippies,” as I heard one person declare. Well, no more. What may have once been a fad is now a national cultural shift in thinking about food sources. Food recalls and food scares for items like spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and eggs in recent years, has awakened people to the need to know the safety of their food and who produced it.

Reeds Spring farmers market is an evening market with entertainment.

I became keenly aware of how big a change this movement had become when I was a delegate from the U.S. to the first Slow Foods Conference in Turin, Italy in 2005. Gardeners, growers, artisan cheese makers and lots more, came to the conference to share how they were making a living selling to local consumers. Five thousand delegates attended that year and the conference grows larger every year.

Fresh vegetables and herbs, picked the day you buy them.

The garden interns we host at Long Creek Herb Farm each year are mostly in their 20s, young people who are intensely interested in where their food comes from. They come to learn how to grow food without chemicals, they want to know how to grow food to feed themselves and their families. Many would rather go without a food item than to buy it from a big box store.

Fresh flowers are big sellers at farmers markets.

Farmers markets are the meeting place for local growers and local consumers. Most markets won’t allow imported produce - whether it’s imported from over seas or simply grown on big production farms two states away. Many farmers markets require organic certification to even sell at their market. The advantage for consumers is we know our supplier. If you buy from a chain store, you have no idea if the produce you buy comes from China or South America or what chemicals were used. You might learn a week after your purchase that the spinach you bought was recalled because of botulism. But if you bought your spinach from a vendor you know at a farmers market, you know how he grew your produce. You know he uses ethical means of growing and washing your produce because it’s in his interests to see you again the next week. The food you buy from him is the same food he feeds his own family.

There are more farmers markets across the Ozarks this year than ever before. Increasingly the big box stores are getting in on these changes. Wal-Mart and Sysco, the world’s largest retail store and the world’s largest food supplier to restaurants, have both started adding organic produce and locally-grown foods to their food lines. Consumers have demonstrated they will buy from local producers if it is available.

Young tomato grower at Reeds Spring Evening Farmers Market.

Every time you buy from a local producer, whether at a farmers market or through CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) you are helping keep local money in your community. You are also helping farmers continue to produce high quality, healthy food that is safe to eat. Support your local growers by shopping at area farmers markets!

Why is Lavender So Popular?

Lavender flowers.

In researching the Top Ten Most Popular Herbs in America in recent years, I was amazed to find that lavender is the number two most popular herb for gardeners. That surprised me simply because I don’t know alot of people who actually use lavender. Most people seem to grow lavender just to have it in the garden.

Lavender needs to have well-drained soil to be happy.

Lavender is hardy in Missouri and Arkansas, not marginally so, but fully, totally hardy, provided you live by lavender’s rules. Lavender needs good drainage or its roots rot. That means grow it on a berm or in a raised bed. Don’t dig around lavender, it has very shallow, easily damaged roots. Don’t put a heavy mulch around the plants - pine needles work exceptionally well. Give the plant some garden lime each spring, and be sure to prune lavender back by at least half in February or early March. Lastly, stick to Hidcote or Mustead, both reliably hardy lavender varieties.

So if lavender is the number two most popular herb in America, what can you do with it? First, there’s the seasoning blend named Herbs de Provence, once connected to that region of France and containing lavender, savory, fennel, basil and thyme. It was used to flavor grilled foods, meats and fish, as well as in chicken stews. Maybe lavender is better known now as an ingredient in ice cream and cookies. Our lavender is in bloom here at the farm this week and I’ll be making cookies. Here’s the recipe:

Lavender cookies are so good you can't eat just one!

Jim's Lavender Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup additional sugar
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 3 Tablespoons fresh or dry lavender flowers in the food processor and pulse blend until the flowers are well chopped. Set aside.

Cream the butter and 1 cup of flour in the food processor until the sugar is well dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients, including the sugar-lavender mixture and pulse blend just until the dough is mixed. Roll out the dough in tablespoon-sized balls in your hands, then roll that in the reserved sugar and place about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Bake a minute longer if you like dryer cookies, or take out at the 8-9 min. mark for softer, chewier cookies. Makes about 16 cookies.

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Growing Better Basil

Spicy globe basil, left and Thai basil center.

From two nationwide surveys I conducted, basil has consistently been the top selling herb in the United States for the past 20 years. I surveyed both wholesale and retail nurseries and seed companies, first in 1989 and again in 2009, and my book, Growing & Using the Ten Most Popular Herbs, was the result. Basil remained at number one in both surveys.

Sweet basil, the most common variety.

Many people think of basil as simply a generic basil, as if all basils were alike. I grow around 12 to 14 basil varieties each year, and each has a different flavor and use.  Sweet basil, which is the generic basil most people think of, is good for spaghetti sauces and pizza. Lemon basil, and its cousin, lime basil, works well on grilled shrimp and in pesto for grilled fish. Thai basil is perfect for Thai cooking, and ruby or red ruffles basil is better for making vinegars, jellies and sorbets. Lettuce leaf basil produces extra large leaves that are good on sandwiches or in salads, just like you would use lettuce.

Thai basil is delicious with Thai foods, shrimp and chicken dishes.

Regardless of which basil you grow, there are some basics that help your plants produce well. Basil requires a full day of sunshine to grow well, meaning, 6 to 8 hours, or more. Since basil plants are also decorative in the landscape, you can plant several plants among your landscape plants. Spicy globe basil, for example, stays in a perfect round mound and looks good all summer.

Basil plants can look great in the landscape. This is a curly-flower Thai basil.

The flavor of basil will be best if you keep the plant clipped. I’ve noticed people who plant one single basil in a pot on their patio, then are afraid to “hurt” the plant, so they’ll timidly pull one or two leaves to use. Basil responds well to getting a haircut. Don’t you feel good after you’ve had your hair cut or fixed? I’m convinced that basil plants like that, as well. Every two or three weeks, take a pair of scissors and give the entire plant a really good haircut. The flavor of the leaves will be much better.

Variegated Sweet Aussie basil, better for landscape than cooking.

Since all plants have a genetic goal to bloom and set seed, when that process starts, the chemical make-up of the plant changes. If you allow basil to start blooming, the leaves will become bitter. Keep the flowering tops pinched out and the flavor will be noticeably  better. If your basil plants are already blooming, trim them back by one third all over so they will go back to producing better tasting leaves.

Basil-tomato salad, served in homemade cracker bowls.

There’s no perfect way to preserve the taste of fresh basil, but several methods come close. You can dry basil leaves slowly and on the lowest heat setting in a food dehydrator. You can chop the leaves and freeze them in water for adding to soups and sauces later. Or you can make pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays.

Basil Pesto for Freezing

4-6 cups basil leaves, moderately packed

1 cup, approx, olive oil (buy the good olive oil for this)

4 tablespoons walnuts or almonds, or pine nuts if you wish

6 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon Fruit Fresh or 1 T. fresh lemon juice (not the bottled kind)

Salt to taste

Combine ingredients and process in a food processor, scrape out into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen well, remove from trays and put in Zip-loc bags.

 

When ready to use the pesto, let thaw and add grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, or equal portions of each. Or you can drop into sauce or stew without adding the cheese.

When cooking with pesto:

For soups, add in the last 5 minutes of cooking, otherwise the basil may taste bitter.

For chicken dishes, such as baked chicken, put the pesto under the skin of the chicken and bake at no more than 325 degrees to preserve the flavor of the pesto, and to make the chicken tender.

For use on bread, add a bit of extra cheese, spread on French bread and broil under the broiler until bubbly and eat while still hot.

For homemade cracker recipes, go to my website for my book, Easy Homemade Crackers Using Herbs. More of my recipes for using herbs are in my book, How to Grow and Use the Ten Most Popular Herbs.
Happy gardening!

Potato Beetles

Adult potato beetle.

Ozarks Gardening
Copyright 2012, Jim Long

The Colorado potato beetle is a major pest throughout most of North America. It was first recognized as a pest in 1859 in potato fields in Colorado. The beetle had previously only grazed on buffalo bur, a distant potato relative. But when pioneers who moved West, began planting large fields of potatoes, the beetle adapted to the increased food supply. In the wild, the beetle had to travel up to a quarter mile to find buffalo bur plants, but with the new fields of one crop, the potato, it had only to hop from plant to plant. By the mid-1870s, the potato beetle had expanded its range (at the rate of 85 miles a year),  all the way to the East Coast.

The arrival of the potato beetle caused farmers and gardeners to search for ways to control the bug. An infestation of potato beetles could wipe out hundreds of acres of potatoes in ten days. There were all sorts of inventions, mixtures and unsuccessful attempts at finding a solution. It was only by accident that a gardener who was painting his house, and probably in frustration at the beetles, threw the remains of his house paint on beetle-infested plants. The bugs died! The ingredients in the paint included something called, “Paris green,” an inorganic compound that was commonly used in wall paper, artists’ paints and house paint. Soon chemical companies were providing Paris green to farmers, to be mix with water or dust directly on to the plants. Within three or four years the beetles developed immunity to the poison and lead arsenic was added. Both compounds are highly toxic to other insects including ones that are beneficial in the garden, as well as dangerous to birds, wildlife and most specifically, to the humans who dusted or sprayed the plants (and to those who ate the potatoes later).

Potato beetle larvae, eating leaves.

The cycle continues to this day, with chemical companies readjusting their formulas about every three years as the beetles continue to evolve resistance. One method that large-production potato growers use, is to use an assortment of different pesticides, week by week as the season goes along, trying to stay ahead of the beetles’ adaptations and resistance to the other formulas. Today we know how dangerous lead arsenic and French green compounds were, but many of the newer formulas may prove to be as dangerous.

Larvae cluster together and devour leaves, sections at a time.

Home gardeners can easily prevent potato beetles from being a problem. My method of early planting of potatoes in late January to early February, always misses the emergence of the beetle. By the time I’m digging my potatoes, the beetle is just hatching out and searching for potato plants. But gardeners who planted later, combined with the abnormally early season, will likely experience potato beetles. In small numbers they don’t pose a problem and it’s easy to pick the beetles off by hand and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Spraying isn’t necessary. To prevent them becoming a pest, be sure to plant potatoes early in the year next season.

Happy gardening!

Tent Caterpillars Pitch Their Tents

Tent caterpillar tent.

Tent caterpillars have hatched and you’ll see them in saplings everywhere. My father hated these wooly pests and his method was to twist up a newspaper real tight, light it and set the tent-webs ablaze. The caterpillars would fall out, escaping the blaze.

Caterpillar eating a young leaf.

Tent caterpillars are only mildly harmful. They will devour the young leaves on the tree where they have pitched their tent, occasionally they’ll travel far enough to eat leaves on a neighboring small tree, but generally they stay on the tree with their tent.

The caterpillars live in a community and travel in groups to eat.

The the eggs which become the caterpillars were laid by a moth the previous fall, and their hatching is timed so they hatch just as the young, tender leaves are beginning to appear. Once the leaves get larger, the caterpillars have quit eating and gone dormant.

Tent caterpillars are social, going about their daily habits in groups. Appearing in early spring when the weather is much cooler, the tents are built in layers. When the night is cold, the caterpillars all move into a group in one of the inner chambers of the silk web where the temperature can remain as much as 50 degrees warmer than the outside air. They venture to the outer layers in the sunlight as the temperature warms, then during the day they travel in groups into the limbs for feeding. By evening, as the air cools, the caterpillars move back into the web.

Rain crow, or American cuckoo, is a natural predator of tent caterpillars.

The American cuckooo, also known as the rain crow, is the natural predator of tent caterpillars. Cuckoo populations have been on the decline over the past decades due to loss of woods habitat as land is cleared for more farms and house development. (To hear the sound of the American cuckoo, or rain crow, click here for an audio clip).

Bacillus, sold under the brand name of Thuriside.

Setting the web ablaze may be satisfying, but it can also damage the branches of the tree. A less harmful method is to the spray tree foliage with a Bt mix (Bacillus thurenginsis, the same organic control we use for cabbage loopers and other caterpillar pests). It’s non-toxic and not harmful to other insects. They have to eat and digest it for it to work, so spraying the leaves of the tree is helpful.

Tent caterpillars look messy but they don’t do a lot of serious damage. They prefer wild cherry, persimmon or fruit trees and seldom move far from the tree where their tent is located. While it may look like they are spreading to other trees, those are usually completely different colonies where other moths have laid their eggs.

Caterpillars grow fast and typically complete their development in seven to eight weeks. They leave their tree and move to the ground or under the eaves of buildings to spin their cocoons. About fourteen days later the moth emerges and begins laying eggs for the following spring.

Happy spring (or is that summer?)

Free Food in Your Own Backyard

In the community where I grew up, most people foraged for food. My family, and all of our neighbors looked for spring food in our backyards, in the woods and along fencerows. Everyone knew morel mushrooms and wild asparagus. Wild greens were looked forward to and a point of discussion when neighbors met on the street corner. “I picked a mess of lambs’ quarters, dock, chickweed and violet leaves” was a common conversation starter in our town in spring.

Violets

Besides those plants there are lots of others, equally tasty. Violet leaves and flowers are edible (leaves in the greens pot, flowers for jelly). Tulip flowers make good “cups” for chicken salad on a plate. Red bud blossoms get tossed into spring salads. (The red bud is a cousin of the pea and if you like English peas, then you already know the flavor of red bud flowers). The red bud pods taste a bit like garden pea pods - just pick them when the pods are under an inch long, to be tender.

Red bud flowers work well in salads.

I still have kale in the garden that over-wintered. It’s now in flower and those are perfectly edible, along with the blooming stalks. Cornflowers, soon to be in bloom, can be added to salads. Dandelion greens are a favorite of many in the Ozarks (boil twice to remove the bitter, then add some butter or bacon crumbles) and the dandelion flowers make an outstanding wine.

Pansies go well in salads for some color.

Johnny Jump-ups and pansies are both colorful additions to a spring salad. The menfolk will grumble about flowers in their salad, but the women in the family will think they’re decorative. And flowers actually have flavor, as well! Sweet Williams flowers, for example, make an outstanding sorbet or jelly.

Lilacs make very tasty sorbet, ice cream and syrups.

Lilacs, too, are quite tasty. You can use the flowers, without the green parts, to make ice cream or sorbet. Lilac jelly and lilac pancake syrup are bit hits on the dinner table, as well. Plum blossoms, as well, are used the same way.

Roses in my rose cake. Recipes are in my book, How to Eat a Rose.

Roses of all kinds, as long as they haven’t been sprayed with chemicals (and not roses from a florist, which aren’t edible) are all tasty. Rose ice cream is a favorite flavor in India and you can easily make it yourself. Roses combine well with regular tea for a boost in flavor. Rose sorbet, rose jam, rose jelly and syrups are all easy to make. The more fragrant the rose, the better the flavor. Rose hips (the fruit of the rose) are also used for tea and jelly. (Lots of recipes are in my How to Eat a Rose book; also you'll find recipes on my Herb of the Year blog, too).

Roses in mint patch.

Be sure you know any of those flowers before you try eating them; consult a good book or on-line to be sure if you’re in doubt. Don’t eat flowers that aren’t listed as edible; for example, narcissus and daffodils are not edible.  But there are a lot of flowers that are edible and fun to eat.
Happy spring!

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2012

New Plant Hardiness Zone Map for 2012

You may have noticed the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has revised the Plant Hardiness Zone Map this year, the first revision in a decade or more. The Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a particular location. The Map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperatures, which are divided into hardiness zones. For the first time, the Map is available as an interactive map accessible on your computer. You can view the map by state as well as type in your zip code to see the hardiness zone for your specific location. The drawback to the Map is the hardiness zones, based on minimum cold temperatures, do not take into account the summer heat levels, which can actually be more important information than the low temperatures are, to gardeners.

When I moved to the farm in 1979 I was fully in hardiness Zone 6. All of Southern Missouri was in that zone. Over time the weather patterns have changed. It wasn’t unusual to have -5 degrees F. here, or lower, in winter. That’s unusual now. The new USDA Map has southern Missouri now fully in Zone 6b, with the Bootheel in 7a. What that means for gardening is a number of plants that couldn’t survive our winters 30 years ago, will survive and grow now.

Figs, which I’ve written about many times here, are doing fine. Muscadines, that Southern version of a grape-relative, thrive in our newer climate. Herbs such as Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida) won’t live in Zone 6, but are now fully hardy in my garden. This year, I even have lemongrass -  coming back again, having lived through our mild winter (although I don’t expect that every year).

American Horticulture Heat Zone Map

The Heat Zone Map was created under the direction of an acquaintance of mine, Dr. Marc Cathey, for the American Horticulture Society a few years ago. It is based completely on maximum summer heat temperatures for all regions of the U.S., just as the Cold Hardiness Map. It’s a good idea, when trying to figure out what plants will do well in your garden, to consult both the new USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, for cold, as well as the AHS Heat Zone Map. The two maps give a good balance than either by itself.

I still think we may have a cold snap before our last frost date this year, but I’m just as convinced the earlier I can get my garden planted, the better the chance of success. If we have another summer like the past two, then an early spring garden, and a late fall garden will be more rewarding than expecting everything to produce in the summer.

Water standing in pathways on first day of Spring.

Sunlight on far hill after rains.

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