Growing the 2016 All-America Selections Winners

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Dave @ HappyAcres

I am excited to be growing several of the 2016 AAS National Winners this year. For those who might not be familiar with it, All-America Selections (AAS) is an independent, non-profit organization that tests new varieties of flowers and vegetables in trial grounds all over the U.S. and Canada. The AAS winners give gardeners a chance to grow varieties that have proven themselves to perform well when compared to existing cultivars, and usually offer superior flavor, disease resistance and growth habits.

I’ll start with Chef’s Choice Green F1, a green when ripe (GWR) tomato that is the newest addition to the Chef’s Choice series. The fruits of Chef’s Choice Green reach 6-7 inches in size, and begin maturing around 90 days after setting out transplants. The strong indeterminate vines needs staking or caging. For the last two years, Chef’s Choice Orange (a 2014 AAS Winner) has been a standout performer for me here, and I can’t wait to try Chef’s Choice Green. I’m fan of GWR tomatoes in general, and a green slicer will be a nice colorful addition to our summer sandwiches.

Tomato Chef

Tomato Chef’s Choice Green

Another 2016 winner is Candyland Red, a currant type tomato that produces one-half inch diameter cherry-red tomatoes on indeterminate vines. It’s the first currant type tomato to receive the honor of being selected as an AAS Winner. Last year I grew the o/p Mexico Midget currant tomato that kept us well supplied with tomatoes right up until frost. Candyland Red is listed as being ready to harvest just 55 days after planting. I plan on growing it and Mexico Midget this year, and with any luck we will be snacking on them all season long.

Tomato Candyland Red

Tomato Candyland Red

Regular readers will know we love our kale here, and Prizm is a new F1 hybrid that compares favorably to the popular Winterbor and Starbor kale hybrids. Those two reliably overwinter in our climate, and it will be interesting to see how Prizm does here in both spring and fall. The compact plants produce short leaves with ruffled edges, and can be spaced closely together making Prizm a good choice for gardeners with limited space.

Kale Prizm

Kale Prizm

My wife and I love kohlrabi about as much as we love kale.  Konan is the first kohlrabi to win an AAS award since Grand Duke won in 1979. It reaches 4-6 inches in diameter starting 42 days after setting out transplants. I will add it to my plantings along with the green variety Winner and the Purple Kolibri.

Kohlrabi Konan

Kohlrabi Konan

Katarina cabbage is a new F1 hybrid that was notable in trials for its earliness as well as its sweet taste. It’s listed as taking 45 days to maturity from setting out transplants. The compact habit makes Katarina well suited to growing in containers or even in border plantings. The small heads reach 4″ in size, and compare favorably with Gonzalez. I’ll try it in one of my cold frame beds, where space is always at a premium. It should also do well in containers.

Cabbage Katarina

Cabbage Katarina

There were two hybrid sweet peppers that won awards this year, both bred by Johnny’s Selected Seeds, and both cone shaped and yellow when ripe. Escamillo is the larger of the two, with 6-ounce fruits reaching 8 by 2-1/2 inches in size. It is a yellow version of the red pepper Carmen, which was also bred by Johnny’s and was a 2006 AAS winner.

Pepper Escamillo

Pepper Escamillo

Cornito Giallo has a similar shape but is a bit smaller, with 5-ounce fruits that get to be 6 by 2 inches in size. Both Cornito Giallo and Escamillo grow on tall plants that are not supposed to require staking. I am looking forward to growing both these peppers this year, and my old favorite Carmen will be back too.

Pepper Cornito Giallo

Pepper Cornito Giallo

The Pumpkin Pepitas is an aptly named F1 hybrid pumpkin that is grown for its seeds rather than its flesh. It has “naked” seeds that lack the usual tough outer hull, which makes them easier to process and eat. The pumpkins are decorative as well, with green striped orange fruits that reach nine to twelve pounds in size. We eat quite a few pepitas here, and it will be fun to grow this one and see how this C. pepo variety performs for us.

Pumpkin Pepitas

Pumpkin Pepitas

Rounding out the list of 2016 AAS vegetable winners, Delizz Strawberry is an F1 hybrid day-neutral strawberry that starts producing 60 days after setting out transplants. And Mizuna Red Kingdom F1 is a slow-bolting, mild tasting mustard green with reddish-purple leaves.

Mizuna Red Kingdom

Mizuna Red Kingdom

For a full list of both present and past winners, visit All-America Selections Winners. Their website also has information on where to Buy AAS Winners.

All photos courtesy of All-America Selections.

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Harvest Monday February 29, 2016

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. This week I actually have a mix of old and new harvests to share. Last year I grew tepary beans for the first time, with pretty good results. One variety was called Sacaton Brown, and my test planting of it made right at a half pound of dried beans from a four foot row. The below photo is a little blurry, but you can see that the beans are quite small compared to most beans, and more flat than rounded when they are dry. I wanted to be able to enjoy the taste of these without a lot of competing flavors, so I decided to cook them up and make refried beans with them.

Sacaton Brown tepary beans

Sacaton Brown tepary beans

Tepary beans are higher in fiber and protein than many other beans, and have a rich flavor and meaty texture. Though they might look like lentils with their small size, they cook up like other beans and hold their shape when cooked. I soaked these beans all morning, then cooked them up the Rancho Gordo way. I added a little chopped onion for seasoning, and simmered at low heat until they were tender. It took about two hours until they started getting tender. At that point I added a bit of salt, and continued cooking for another half hour or so.

tepary beans after cooking

tepary beans after cooking

The beans were destined for tostadas, so I needed a bit of lettuce to go with the beans. I have some growing in the greenhouse in my homemade Salad Boxes, and it was ready for harvesting. It’s a mix of varieties that I planted back in December, including Radichetta, Simpson Elite, Winter Marvel, Jester and Outstanding. I have gotten a lot of use out of the boxes since I made them back in 2011, and they are holding up quite well considering they were made out of untreated dimensional 2×4 lumber.

lettuce growing in salad box

lettuce growing in salad box

I cut only the outer leaves, and left the plants to produce more. It made for a colorful bowl of lettuce, with the red Outstanding, the speckled Jester and the light greens of Radichetta and Simpson Elite. Jester is a lovely lettuce from Wild Garden Seeds, and is a cross between Reine d’Glaces, Merlot and Forellenschluss.

lettuce harvest

lettuce harvest

I refried the beans, mashing them and adding a little of the cooking liquid to smooth them out. I seasoned them with a little ground cumin and a bit of my homemade chile powder. I baked corn tortillas (not homemade) for shells, and topped with the refried tepary beans  plus cheese and lettuce.

tepary bean tostada

tepary bean tostada

Another fresh harvest came from the greenhouse, a cutting of Simpson Elite lettuce that is planted in one of the beds. That wound up in a wilted lettuce salad we enjoyed for dinner one night last week.

Simpson Elite lettuce

Simpson Elite lettuce

We still have quite a bit of our 2015 asparagus frozen. I used a couple of pounds of it to make asparagus soup for dinner one night. It’s a light treatment, with chicken broth for a base and a medium sized potato added to thicken it a bit. I topped it off with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkled with some of my homemade smoked paprika. It’s hard to believe, but in another month or so the first asparagus spears should be coming up, and that is always an event worth celebrating here at HA.

asparagus soup

asparagus soup

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Sowing Brassica Seeds, and More

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Dave @ HappyAcres

It’s seed starting time again here at Happy Acres. For this latest batch I sowed seeds for the spring planted brassicas, including broccoli, cabbage, kale and kohlrabi. I also started another flat of lettuce, with a few other greens like tatsoi, pac choi and napa cabbage mixed in as well. I used a 128 cell plug flat for the lettuce, and 72 cell flats for the brassicas. I try and sow two seeds per cell and then thin to a single plant if both come up, unless the seeds are expensive or in short supply, then I limit it to one per cell.

sowing lettuce in 128 cell plug flat

sowing lettuce in 128 cell plug flat

I’m trying a couple of new (to me) broccoli varieties this year, Belstar and Bay Meadows. They will join two varieties that usually do well for me here in spring, Packman and Green Magic. I’m also going to try and get the plants out a bit earlier than last year, though the weather may have a lot to say about that. Spring rains here often make it hard to get things planted, and last year we had 14.5 inches of rain during the months of March and April which kept the soil soggy and hard to work. Our weather also usually heats up fast in spring, which makes broccoli and other cool weather loving veggies a challenge to grow.

Kolibri kohlrabi emerging

Kolibri kohlrabi emerging

I’ve been re-reading The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel. I often use this book as reference, but I decided to do a quick read on it again. It’s chock-full of seed starting information, and I was particularly interested in the soil temperature conditions for seed germination. According to the author, the optimum range for cabbage family seed germination is between 45-95°F. I don’t use heat mats for starting the brassica seeds indoors, and the soil temp in my cool basement was running at 67°F yesterday. At that temperature the seeds began emerging in three days, with most sprouting up by the fourth day.

mini salad box after planting

mini salad box after planting

The lettuce and arugula I started back in early February has mostly been planted now. I planted some in a mini salad box in the greenhouse. The salad boxes give us a nice supply of salad greens, and as a matter of fact I cut some this past week. I planted a mix of varieties, including Red Tinged Winter, Jester, Baby Oakleaf, Simpson Elite and Outstanding. I’ll set a few of the plants in a cold frame bed later when I can get a spot worked up for them. The ones in the above photo were sown on 2/3, and they have made nice growth in that short period of time.

I hope you have enjoyed this update on my 2016 seed starting activities. Next up will be pepper seeds, and I’m working on the list now. I can tell you one thing, I have too many pepper varieties I want to grow this year! Oh well, moderation is not one of my strong suits, so I will start lots of peppers and hope I can find room for them all. They do well in containers, so I will likely plant quite a few that way.

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Harvest Monday February 22, 2016

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Our harvests here are still small in size but much appreciated in the winter season. I cut some spinach and arugula from the greenhouse last week to go on a pizza. The arugula is bolting, so it wound up being more spinach than arugula, but that’s okay since we like both of them on pizza.

spinach and arugula for pizza

spinach and arugula for pizza

The pizza also featured some of our dehydrated tomatoes and pickled peppers, along with bacon and mushrooms. For sauce we mixed olive oil with some minced garlic (German Red) and brushed that on the crust. I used a crust I had made a few weeks ago from White Sonoran wheat and then frozen. I need to share the crust recipe the next time I make it, as it is an easy to make whole wheat crust. I precook the crust for about four minutes or so before freezing. After thawing, we assemble the ingredients then it goes onto a really hot pizza stone for another five or six minutes and it’s done.

pizza with fresh greens

pizza with fresh greens

For another meal, I cooked up our 2015 harvest of Good Mother Stallard beans. There was a little under a pound of the dried beans, and I soaked them for several hours before cooking. These pole beans have been a good performer for us, though last year was not a great year for any of the beans.

Good Mother Stallard beans

Good Mother Stallard beans

I cooked the beans for my wife to use in a batch of Pasta e Fagioli. Some of our frozen tomatoes also went in the soup, along with our garlic.

Pasta e Fagioli

Pasta e Fagioli

One other homegrown and homemade food we enjoyed last week was sauerkraut. We had some as a side dish with salmon burgers my wife cooked for lunch one day. The kraut was a mix of those I made last fall from cabbage, kohlrabi and turnips. We ate it uncooked, and it was still crunchy and tasty after several months in the refrigerator. I’ve said it before, but if I knew how easy it was to ferment vegetables I would have been doing it years ago!

homemade sauerkraut

homemade sauerkraut

And while I’m on that meal, the salmon burgers were served up on homemade Dark Rye Potato Buns that were slathered up with a pepper aioli sauce I made using our pickled peppers. The aioli is made using the peppers, mayo and a bit of fresh garlic. I wish I could say the mayo was homemade but it came from a jar. The peppers were a mix of Malawi Piquante and Kaleidoscope, both mildly hot baccatum peppers I grew last year. They add a little zip to the aioli, just like they did to the above mentioned pizza.

red pepper aioli sauce on bun

red pepper aioli sauce on bun

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And be sure and check out what everyone is harvesting!


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Seed Starting Update

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Dave @ HappyAcres

Here’s an update on my recent seed starting activities. Back on 2/3 I started seeds for arugula, lettuce, mizspoona, parsley and kale. The parsley seed went into 3.5″ plastic pots, one for each variety, while everything else went into a 128 cell plug flat. All those seeds have now germinated, and are growing under my fluorescent lights in our basement. It will likely be another couple of weeks before I start planting any of the greens, while the slow growing parsley will need to be transplanted in other quarters once it is a bit bigger. I have thinned to one plant/cell, and as you can see in the below photo, the seedlings are off to a pretty good start after 14 days.

plants in 128 cell plug flat

plants in 128 cell plug flat

I’ve been using plug flats for several years now. I started using them when I was volunteering with our local Master Gardener group, and we were growing a 1/3 acre vegetable garden and donating all the produce to the local food bank. We grew all of our own transplants ourselves, and I was one of about three MG’s who grew the thousands of seedlings every year for the garden. It was a lot of work, but I also got a lot of experience in starting veggies from seed, as well as growing them on to harvest! The plug flats helped me maximize space so I could grow all those extra plants in addition to the ones I needed for our own garden.

Plug flats come with different cell sizes but generally fit in a standard 1020 nursery tray. I use either the 128 cell or 72 cell tray for salad greens, herbs, and brassicas. The 72 cell tray gives the plants a bit more room for the roots, and I used it last fall for my cabbage, broccoli and kale seedlings. I tend to let them get bigger before planting, which seems to help keep them from the bird attacks. In the below photo, clockwise from upper left, you can see the 128, 72 and 50 cell plug flats side by side for comparison (with a U.S. quarter).

128, 72 and 50 cell plug flats

128, 72 and 50 cell plug flats

One of my readers recently asked about the plug flats and how I was using them. I don’t have any hard and fast rules as to which size I use. A lot depends on how many seeds I am starting, how much room I have under the lights at the time, and if I plan on transplanting the seedlings into other containers before planting. For instance, I would probably use the 50 cell flats for tomatoes and peppers if I wanted to avoid having to transplant. But since I grow a lot of tomato and pepper plants, that would mean I would need six or more plug flats to accommodate all the plants, which takes up a lot of space under the lights. Instead, I usually start them in two 200 cell plug flats. That lets me seed 400 in two flats. After about three weeks, I transplant into bigger containers, which also lets me set the plants a bit deeper. I also cull any of the weaker plants at that time.

parsley seedlings

parsley seedlings

Since I started parsley seeds in 3.5 inch pots, I will prick them out and pot them up into individual containers once they start showing their true leaves. Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs says that all the umbelliferous herbs “resent transplanting,” but I’ve found that I can pot up the parsley while still small and it does just fine. In The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel the author mentions that she often starts parsley in her greenhouse before setting outside, so the admonitions about transplanting aren’t universal. I think the trick is to disturb the roots as little as possible, and then get them planted in the ground before the plants get too big and root bound.

Next up in my seed starting activities will be the spring planted brassicas, followed by the peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. I also need to get some Wave petunias going soon, since they take a fairly long time from seeding to planting out. You can find my general timeline in my Seed Starting and Planting Schedule. I hope you have enjoyed this update, and I’ll be back soon with more happenings!

 

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