Star Light Gardens

If the beautiful weather and time change of the past week hasn’t convinced you, the date will, Spring has arrived. It is a little funny how something you plan and dream about for months can sneak up on you, seemingly out of no where. Like many of you I’m sure the time change certainly came fast. It did for us, if you didn’t surmise this from last weeks lack of content. The past week had us firing on all cylinders, prepping and transplanting outside, uncovering low tunnels, pulling off row cover and yup back to plenty of 10 to 12 hour days.

The nursery is filled to the brim with tray after tray of things to be transplanted, re potted and turned into the season’s future food. From the basement and underneath the nursery table there are little shouts and strangely loud whispers. “Make room for me, I need more sun”, “re pot me I’m getting big”, “hey aren’t you supposed to start more of us?”. Our little plant friends pile up as a constant reminder of the pace and urgency of the season. First to brave the freshly prepped 2022 spring soil has been onions transplanted last week. Next come beets, bok choys, mustards, snow/snap peas and kales. We’ve moved them out of the nursery and into the open air, yes to harden them off, make room in the nursery but also as a constant reminder of what must get planted this week.

As you can imagine things are really starting to grow. The growth on the spinach and claytonia warms my heart, dear friends of cooler weather who will soon be “off” for the summer.

Be sure to get them while you can. Mean while we walk the fine line of planting enough on time, yet not too much too early.  Yes, the long term forecast looks promising, with only a few nights in the 20s.  But we all know and as Prince said “sometimes it snows in April”.  With that in mind everyone transplanted outside will also have the protection of row cover and the makings of a low tunnel.  It feels really great to be planting outside in March and we’re pulling for a warm April to get things going nicely

A lot happened last year around the farm.  One thing that we are really excited about (yet somehow, we forgot to mention) is getting certified by the Real Organic Project. 

There has been many changes over the years concerning what is considered USDA certified organic.  Many describe it as a watering down of the organic standards, a statement we do not disagree with.  The Real Organic Project is aimed at getting back to a simple answer to the question, “what does organic mean.”   Healthy soil and humane treatment of animals. In 1995 the USDA defined certified organic as “an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony.” However, recently the USDA has opened their definition to allow big ag to grow fruits and vegetables, and animals, as organic despite the fact they never touch any soil and operate mainly on off-farm inputs. The Real Organic Project wants to reclaim the organic label and re-raise the bar of organic standards.

Recently our rep shared this video with us and asked us to spread the word. https://www.realorganicsymposium.org/post/voices_of_real_organic

There are a lot of organic farmer all-stars speaking on here and there’s a lot of great messages. The two that stuck out the most for me was Leah Penniman and Emily Oakley (maybe because they are both women in a male dominated world but that’s another blog post). It drives me crazy to go to the store and look for the organic options and see a brand that offers both organic and conventional. Like Emily says, if organic is the best option why grow any other way. And as Leah says, we need to reclaim the word organic so that it aligns more with our moral compass. When big ag grows both organic and conventional they are growing organic for the sole purpose to make money, not because they believe in the organic values that small farms like us hold so dear. And, these practices can actually be less sustainable and have more of an environmental foot print because organic at a big scale involves lots of mono-cropping, lots of inputs like fertilizers and herbicides, and get smaller yields.

Now to be clear, we are still also certified organic by the USDA. This is sort of a prerequisite to the Real Organic Project. Although, the USDA has bent the standard to allow big ag to do practices that are unthinkable to the small organic farmer, they still hold high standards about pesticides and other dangerous conventional practices. We are fired up about the Real Organic Project though. It’s the start to a new soil-based movement. Real organic farming practices can produce food to feed communities, restore the soil, better the environment, and have a negative carbon footprint. False organic practices can mono-crop, erode the soil, degrade biodiversity, and raise animals in factories.

 We appreciate our customers who support us doing what is best for the environment and for all of our health. When you make the choice to support small local farms it helps us continue to do what we all know is the right way to treat the land, and animals. Usually, it’s not as convenient as going to your grocery store and doing all your shopping at once. It requires effort and planning and time, and we really value all of you who put the work in.

After years of hearing customers at the markets rave about Garlic Scape Pesto, we finally made some and it totally lived up to all the hype! Even Joel, who is famously anti-pesto wanted seconds.

Garlic Scapes are the flowers of the garlic plants, they start growing in an upwards direction but quickly take a nose dive then back up and back down until someone notices them . Once the scapes start making their loopyloops we start walking up and down each of the garlic rows pulling them out. One, because we want to eat them. But mostly because we want to trick the garlic bulb into growing more. We planted over 110 pounds of garlic last fall, so needless to say we have A LOT of scapes.

So far I have enjoyed the Pesto on pasta, scrambled eggs, crackers, salad and toast! So, basically everything I’ve eaten since I made it last night.

All of the plants we plant and sell are indeterminate, this means they will grow as tall as they possibly can. So, some sort of support is necessary. We hang strings from the top of the hoop houses, but a tomato cage or stake would work fine too. Next we train the plants down to two to four main leaders. These are like the brain of the plant. To determine the leaders we look for the ones that are the thickest, and have the most well established blossoms. Once the leaders are chosen, the rest are suckers. Suckers grow from the armpit of the leaders. See picture below.

Once you’ve decided on the leaders and have removed the suckers, make sure to also clean up the bottom of the plant. We like to remove the bottom 4 inches or so of foliage so the plants have more airflow and there is less room for disease.

There is a ton of information out there on tomato pruning. And of course, feel free to reach out to us with any questions! Happy Gardening!