Here are a few announcements then on to some farming news!
With all this cold, wet, miserable weather it is hard to think about outdoor planting this season. But if we don’t think about it and don’t plan properly we run the risk of forgetting to do something. And that is why I am planning on having our annual Potato Planting Party on Saturday May 6th, from 1:00 until done! This is the most important member event of the whole Spring event calendar. Come out and lend a hand. There are activities for all ages and abilities. It is a great way to meet the farmer, see the farm and get to know some like-minded fellow farm members. Plus we have perfect weather scheduled for that day as well. Let me know if you can make it!
We are still taking order for 2023 VeggieShares. Keep telling friends and associates. Keep posting on social media and anti-social media. We appreciate your support!
We are also still taking orders for all our other add-on shares. Feel free to order any or all of the following: ‘ShroomShare, CoffeeShare, WinterShare , EggShare and FlowerShare.
I’m thinking of no longer posting newsletters on Twitter. (What, you were posting on Twitter? I didn’t know that!) I don’t know if anyone uses Twitter as a means for accessing the newsletter but if you do and want me to continue to post there let me know. Otherwise I think we’ll just let it go.
In case you missed it last week, here is a sign you can post in whatever locations you think would be helpful to sell shares. Of course you’ll have to print it but if you are so inclined to help find a place to drum up business we figured we’d provide you with this nifty sign!
Here is the latest share offering from Fresh Earth Farms! One day only! (I posted this on Facebook but it seems like it is no longer there. I guess they have no sense of humor).
Farm news
So let’s talk about herbs — the smelly cousins of the produce family. Herbs are a varied group of plants that provide a lot of the flavor we experience in our daily, culinary encounters. Without herbs all we’d have is salt and spices, which I guess is actually still a lot of flavoring. But come on herbs! Who doesn’t like herbs? What would salsa be without cilantro? (I hear some people say less soapy, but that’s a you problem). Or pasta sauce without basil? Or tabbouleh without mint and parsley? (bulgur wheat tomato salad?) Paraphrasing the Monsanto Company slogan from the 1970s: “Without herbs life itself would be impossible”. Well maybe not impossible but certainly less enjoyable!
The thing about herbs from a farming perspective is that they are all unique — much like our children. (You folks with the identical twins know what I mean). Some like chives and garlic chives — one of sets of identical twins of the herb family — are perennials that survive the winter We only had to start these plants once from seed in our greenhouse then transplant them out into the field. They come back year after year bigger and better than before!
Others like basil and Thai basil — a set of fraternal twin herbs — are tender annuals that produce for a short time then go to seed. Still others are cold tolerant annuals. Cilantro for example is an annual that produces for a short period of time before it goes to seed but it can withstand quite cold temperatures which seems to inhibit it’s desire to reproduce. I guess that goes for a lot of us — the cold inhibiting our desire. We plant succession over the course of the season of these short lived annuals so we have multiple weeks of this crop. And then there is oregano and marjoram — more like identical cousins. They can survive the winter but the quality of the plant degrades so we replant it new every year. Thyme also survives the winter but not reliably so again we replant thyme every year.
So far all these herbs I’ve mentioned can be grown from seed. The seeds they produce come true to type. In other words, their children have the same lanky limbs and large feet as their parents do! There are other plants that don’t come true to type. Even though the plant may produce seeds, the resulting plants that grow from seeds do not necessarily have the same characteristics as the parent plant. And when it comes to herbs — which as we all know are grown for their flavor and/or aroma — it is important that the children follow in the parents footsteps. They need to smell good and have good taste!
The herbs that fall into this category are reproduced using a different method — vegetative reproduction. With one type of vegetative reproduction we lop off a part of the plant, shove the lopped off part into the planting mix, water well and keep in a cool, dim spot for a couple of days or weeks. Could you imagine if we humans had to reproduce this way? I guess on the bright side whatever part was lopped off to have a child would eventually grow back. Anyway, over time the lopped off part roots into the planting medium and starts growing. Since it a part of the parent plant it has the exact same genetics as the parent plant and therefore, in the case of herbs, has the same flavor and aroma as the parent plant. They are just a bunch of mini-mes! How cute!
For many years now we’ve grown rosemary this way. We keep a couple of large rosemary plants alive all winter inside our house then when we start the greenhouse in March we move the mama plants out to the greenhouse, lop off a bunch of small tip cuttings from the plants and root the cuttings in 50 cell planting trays. We can do this as many times as necessary until I suppose we run out of mama plant. We also do this with lemongrass, though in the case of lemongrass we don’t plant it in the greenhouse. We just wait for it to be warm enough outside to tear apart the mama plants and shove the child into the ground. Neither rosemary or lemongrass survive Minnesota winters so we have to regrow these every year.
This season we are expanding our herb offering by buying cuttings of plants that don’t come true to type and need to be reproduced vegetatively. Specifically spearmint, orange mint, French tarragon and lemon thyme. We believe that the mints and the tarragon should overwinter here in Minnesota so we won’t have to replant them again much like the chives. With the lemon thyme, if our rooting it is successful, we will do the same process as we do with rosemary and lemongrass — keep a mama plant alive over the winter and create new baby plants by lopping off mama’s parts.
Of course vegetative propagation isn’t limited to the herb family. Most fruits (except for annual fruits like melons) are propagated vegetatively. Many landscape plants are also propagated this way. That’s why you don’t find raspberry seeds or apple seeds in the seed rack of your local plant store. But for us, herbs are the only plants we reproduce using vegetative propagation. Herbs and potatoes. Herbs, potatoes, and garlic. Just those three. And gladiolas. Herbs, garlic, potatoes and gladiolas.
Anyway, that’s all for this week. As always, do not hesitate to send in your questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc.
This Week’s Joke
Why did the chicken cross the playground?
To get to the other slide.
As I said before, if you want better jokes you have to send in better jokes!