All Kinds of Apple Trees

View from the kitchen stove

When we first moved into our old farmhouse in Heath in November of 1979, I cooked in what the previous owners called ‘the summer kitchen’ although there was no other kitchen. It was small and oddly shaped because of the stairway that went up to a loft/attic space. The 1930s era stove was on the north wall next to a small window that looked up the hill, across the field to an old apple tree.

When the wind blew through the many drafty windows, that first bitter winter the view out the kitchen window was not inspiring. But, in the spring, when the apple tree burst into glorious bloom I remembered all the reasons we had moved to the country.

We don’t actually harvest many apples from the tree on the hill. One visitor said it might be a Baldwin, and Baldwin apples were a common variety in our area. When you drive through town you can still see the remnants of old orchards, and the promise of one new orchard growing a whole variety of apples.

I no longer look out of that particular window when I am cooking, but the view to the north is one of my favorites in the spring.

Apple trees bloom early in the season and are welcome and valuable for that very reason. We planted some dwarf apple trees that are now about 15 feet tall. We planted heirloom varieties as well as Freedom and Liberty, disease resistant hybrids. Only the Liberty and Freedom survived tenants we had one year. They had horses, and the horses seemed to be very fond of romping beyond fences and of apple bark.

I confess that we have not taken very good care of the surviving trees which is a tribute to their hardiness and disease resistance, the very reasons we chose them. Liberty and Freedom produce medium sized red apples that ripen in September and are good for eating and cooking.  Given good conditions they can be stored for up to five months. We harvest too few apples to store, but we get some good eating.

A friend gave us a Sargent crabapple, a small ornamental tree with good disease resistance, which we planted in the center of the Sunken Garden about 15 years ago. In the spring the tight red buds make the tree seem to blush; when the flowers open the tree is a cloud of blossom. I have not pruned it to the spare sculptural shape that many people manage, but it remains a small tree not much more than eight feet tall with a spread of twice that. It produces tiny red fruits that are of no use in the kitchen, but the birds like them.

Sargent crab May 2009

Even though I do not  rigorously control the tree, it takes a lot of pruning. I do what I consider a radical pruning every spring, but there is more to do the following spring.  They can be given another pruning in summer if you wish, but I haven’t done that.

Sargent crab, like other crabapples, is not fussy. It needs full sun, but the soil can be heavy or loamy, acid or alkaline. It prefers well drained soil, but my Sargent crab thrives in a very wet spot.

The Sargent crab is a small crabapple, but there are many other beautiful crabapples most of which reach a height of between 15 and 25 feet. They bloom in many shades. SugarTyme is one of the most popular of these ornamental trees. It has white spring blossoms, green foliage and red fruits.

Royalty crabapple is notable for the deep reddish foliage and dark red flowers, while Red Splendor has reddish foliage but pink blossoms and red fruits that do not fall off the tree. No litter.

Profussion is a larger tree, reaching a height of 25 feet, with at least as wide a spread. The flowers are purple-red  with bronze-y green foliage. As you might guess from its name, this variety is noted for the profusion of bloom.

For those who like the grace of a weeping tree there is Red Jade. This crab grows to 12 feet and just as wide – a lovely pink umbrella of a tree that bright red fruits in the fall.

If you are looking for a crabapple that you can actually eat, Whitney is the choice. Whitney’s one to two inch fruits are yellow and red, perfect for making jelly or a spiced pickle.

One stunning way to use crabapples would be as an allee, planting them on either side of drive or road. Here in New England we are aware of the beauty of magnificent maples along old roads, a kind of municipal allee. Allees of large deciduous trees, or graceful birches have been used on great estates leading up to stately homes. I think an allee planted with a humbler tree, a blooming tree, is a beautiful way to lead up a long drive to a house in the country.

Allees remind us of the power of massing a single plant. That power is all the more dramatic when you are talking about trees.

Whether you want fruit to eat, food for the birds, or a big spring bouquet, there is an apple tree for you.

Between the Rows  April 24, 2010

More Than Maple Farmers

My neighbors, Brooks McCutchen and Janis Steele, are very models of the modern maple sugarers.  When I went to visit their sugarhouse I saw the familiar steam billowing from the roof, but as I got closer I saw modern elements.

Inside the sugarhouse is a huge steamy stainless steel evaporator but there is no fire in sight. This operation is run mostly by solar power.

Solar power is not the only modern element. McCutchen and Steele use a reverse osmosis technique that removes most of the water from the maple sap before it goes into the evaporator. Reverse osmosis means the sap takes only about 45 minutes to emerge from the evaporator; then it is drawn off into stainless kegs. This is called small batch sugaring, and each batch will be slightly different in color and taste. Which brings us to the modern marketing of Berkshire Sweet Gold Maple Syrup.

We live in a rural area, so most of us are familiar with how difficult it is for small farmers to make a fair wage. The rise of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms, farm stands, and farmers’ markets are some of the ways local farmers have found to make a more secure living. After doing some wholesale selling, McCutchen and Steele decided to do only direct sales. You can buy their syrup at their Heath farmstand on Route 8A, at any of the dozen or craft shows they attend up and down the eastern seaboard, or buy mailorder through their website, www.berkshiresweetgold.com.

Berkshire Sweet Gold farmstand

Besides using new technologies and marketing strategies, McCutchen and Steele take an innovative approach to working on their farm. They consider themselves carbon farmers, as well as maple farmers. They manage their mixed woodland, which includes the sugarbush, to sequester carbon.

As we talked they reminded me that at the turn of the 20^th century 80% of Heath was open farmland and the soil was becoming depleted. There are not many open fields anymore but McCutchen explained that it is the mixed forests that have grown up that are rebuilding the soil, putting carbon back into the soil. “Carbon is the core for providing the structure of healthy soil,” he said.

Knowing that both McCutchen and Steele had professional careers as a psychologist and anthopologist respectivley before they became farmers of any sort, I asked them how they came to this new career.

McCutchen said it was not such a leap as I might have imagined. He was 13 when he came to Heath with his parents Leighton and Martha McCutchen. He attended Mohawk for a short period but then chose to finish high school by correspondence, and went to work at the same time for farmers in the town. “Elmer Sherman made maple syrup as a seasonal product on his farm. He was very fussy about doing things right,” McCutchen said.

After graduation he attended The College of the Atlantic; that is where he and Steele met, both majoring in Human Ecology. “Psychology can be too much in the head,” McCutchen said, “but anthropology is based on land, on language and communication. It is a more natural progression.”

Steele said that as a Montreal native, she grew up where all the kids went sugaring in season. “Ninety percent of the world’s maple syrup comes from Canada so now when we bring our syrup up to my family we are stopped at the border and everyone laughs that we would bring syrup into the country,” she said.

“I haven’t really left anthropology. I’ve just shifted my topical focus. I’m still a member of the American Anthropological Association and have a sub-group membership in Culture and Agriculture.  This June Brooks and I are giving a paper on Variance Agriculture and the Ecosystem Marketplace at an Agriculture Food and Human Values Society conference,” Steele said.

She explained that variance agriculture and marketing, emphasize the particular variety of a crop. Those of us who garden certainly have our favorite varieties of lettuce, tomato, and squash and can understand this concept, as can those who drink specialty wines and liquors.  McCutchen and Steele believe that giving information about variety is another element that small farmers can use in their marketing for greater profit – enough to make a fair wage.

Steel and McCutchen also remind, and educate people, that maple syrup can be used for more than pancakes. Going beyond pancakes, McCutchen  says small amounts of maple syrup can be used in cooking, not as a sweetener, but to help balance flavors. The grading system of A, B, and C is no longer used; the color of the syrup is an indicator of intensity of flavor. He said that if you have a lemon based sauce or marinade a bit of light amber syrup can help achieve that balance; if it is balsamic vinegar a darker syrup; and if it is soysauce based a black amber syrup (which is not really black) can be used. You will find many excellent recipes on their website and at the farm stand. I am going to try the sautéed green beans and garlic tossed with a bit of Berkshire Sweet Gold and a few dried cranberries.

I think small family farms are still one of our American ideals. The making of Berkshire Sweet Gold maple syrup supports a family (children and grandparents work as well), supports the community economy, maintains the rural landscape we all love, and protects our environment.  ###

Behind the Scenes at the Bulb Show

Lyman Conservatory at Smith College

The Smith College Annual Bulb Show, always spectacular, is one of the ways some of us flower starved gardeners manage to get through the last bit of winter as we wait to get out hands back in the soil. The show opens today, March 6 and runs through Sunday, March 21, when spring will have officially arrived.

This year’s Turkish garden and will feature many species tulips from Turkey. Robert Nicholson, Lyman Conservatory manager, who has been busy for the past three months preparing for the show, says there is a different theme every year. This makes it more interesting and educational for the visitors, “And it makes me learn something new,” Nicholson said.

Although the Lyman Conservatory staff, including two Smith work study students, began potting up bulbs three months ago, Nicholson said preparation for the next bulb show begins in the early summer, after the new theme has been chosen and when bulb orders have to be sent in.  “It is really a perpetual process, from preparation to show,” he said.

Those of us who have feared for our daffodils when they come up early in a sheltered spot, only to be doused by spring snow or flood, can begin to appreciation the calculation and management that go into bringing 5000 varied bulbs, crocus, tulip, daffodil, hyacinth, scilla and more, into bloom all at the same moment.

Nicholson explained that he and the staff  pot up the bulbs three months before the show, and put them in cold storage where temperatures are kept between 41 and 45 degrees.

The staff knows how long it takes each type of bulb to come into bloom. They remove the bulbs from storage on a reverse staggered schedule. First come the bulbs that need the longest amount of time, and finally the bulbs that bloom more quickly like crocus. There are three production greenhouses, each kept at a different temperature.

The development of the potted bulbs is monitored so they can be moved back and forth between the three greenhouses to bring them into full bloom on time for the show.  This is tricky because it is not only temperature that determines how quickly they come into bloom, but sunlight as well.

“This year has been challenging,” Nicholson said. “The weather has consistently been overcast. There have been very few sunny days.  We can’t force the bulbs with temperature alone too hard, because the plants will get leggy and floppy. This year the bulbs will probably be at their peak the second week of the show.”

Annual Smith Bulb Show

The week before the show is full of activity.  The ornamental elements of the show are put in place on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday the potted bulbs are arranged. Friday is for fine tuning and preparation for the opening in the evening after a free lecture. This year noted public garden designer Lynden B. Miller (Smith ’60) spoke about her new book, Parks, Plants and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape.

“We ask for a donation, but the Bulb Show and fall Chrysanthemum show are two of the best gifts that Smith gives the community. It a wonderful and inexpensive outing for the whole family.” Nicholson said.

Temperatures in the Lyman Plant House are kept in the low to mid-50s during the show. Other rooms in the conservatory will be kept at their  usual temperatures; visitors can enjoy all the regular delights of the tropical gardens including a lush collection of orchids.

In addition to the spectacular floral display, the Church Gallery at the Lyman Conservatory is hosting an exhibit, The Inner Beauty of Plants. This collaboration between the Botanic Garden of Smith  College, retired radiologist Dr. Merrill Raikes and University of Massachusetts physics professor Robert Hallock is an exploration of light, vision, x-rays and flowers, providing a unique way of seeing plants. This exhibit will run until September 30.

A garden appeals to every sense. This year an audio installation has been added.  What Every Gardener Knows, music composed Susan Hiller (Smith ‘61), will be heard in the Lyman Conservatory’s Palm House, one of Hiller’s favorite parts of campus when she was a student. This installation will be in place until March 30.

The Smith College Bulb Show is the beginning of my gardening season.  I am also looking  forward to the Master Gardeners Spring Symposium on Saturday, March 20, the first day of spring. There will be sessions on everything from designing a permaculture garden, Integrated Pest Management, and wild spring edibles to yoga for gardeners and photographing your garden, as well as a keynote speech by Kerry Mendez on Tips for Low Maintenance, High Impact Perennial Gardens. Logon to www.wmassmastergardeners.org for full information.

Then comes the Boston Flower and Garden Show from Wednesday, March 24 to Sunday March 28 at the Seaport World Trade Center. It is wonderful that after a hiatus the Flower Show is back with a theme of A Feast for the Senses. There are 30 gardens to enjoy, gardening demonstrations, lectures, floral design and  growing demonstrations and even cooking demonstrations. One of the special displays this year is The Garden of Cakes. I can’t wait for that. Both my passions in one, baking and gardening.  You might even win a weekend in Boothbay Maine with free tickets to the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. For full information logon to www.masshort.org.

Show runs til March 21

Spring is almost here!  There is still time to sign up for the Master Gardeners Spring Symposium at Frontier High School on Saturday March 20 from 9 am to 2 pm.  logon to the website or call Bridget Heller at 413-665-8662.  You can also still sign up for  the Trillum Cutting Garden Workshop in Ashfield 1-4 pm on Sunday, March 21. Full info on the website.

Between the Rows   March 6, 2010

Real Pickles

When I met Dan Rosenberg, founder and owner of Real Pickles at the newly renovated building on Wells Street I got a shock. Looking into the bright new kitchen I understood the reality of what raw, fermented food means. There is no stove.

I have made pickles, which require no cooking, just brine, vinegar and seasoning. Then I’ve spent hours with the canning kettle to finish the preservation process.

Rosenberg has built a substantial pickle business in less than ten years using an ancient system that requires no vinegar, no stove, no canning.. For centuries, cultures all over the world have preserved food by pickling using a fermentation process. Instead of vinegar, ancient cultures learned that brining vegetables and allowing them to ferment for a few days created lactic acid which was a preservative.

Rosenberg follows that process, fermenting organic vegetables in big blue food grade plastic barrels, then puts them in glass jars. The filled jars are stored in the new cooler until time to ship them out to the 300 stores in the northeast selling Real Pickles.

How did a New Jersey boy, growing up in Morristown, and attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island end up in Greenfield making pickles?

Rosenberg majored in geology at Brown. He said his interest in environmental issues led him to think about our food system.

His interest in contra dancing, led him to Greenfield, “a mecca for contra dancers. There is no place like it in the world!” Rosenberg said.

While in town for contra dances he learned about Upinngil Farm and spent one summer working for Cliff Hatch who now grows cucumbers for him. That same summer he attended a workshop on pickling at the annual Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) meeting in Amherst. That was the beginning of his interest in naturally fermented pickles that have health benefits, as well as good flavor.

While he worked at other farms, and later as a manager at Iggy’s Bread in Boston he kept making pickles at home. It was while at Iggy’s, gaining business experience, that he got the idea for Real Pickles.

Rosenberg and his partner Addie Rose Holland moved to Montague in 2001, tending a big garden that supplied herbs for Real Pickles for five years before the farms took over. The Community Development  Corporation (CDC) provided the commercial kitchen necessary for the business until last year.

Last March, with the help of. Greenfield Savings Bank who gave them the mortgage, as well as financing help from the CDC and Equity Trust, Real Pickles bought a 12,000 square foot building on Wells Street, across from the CDC. Grants from the USDA and rebates from the utility company helped fund the substantial renovation. Rosenberg said, “It was exciting to see this 100 year old industrial building reveal its heavy timber post and beam construction.”

Rosenberg and his crew moved into the new energy efficient building last July, the same week the cucumber harvest arrived to be processed.  “It was a little nuts around here, but we made it happen. Fortunately we only had to move across the street.,” Rosenberg said.

Real Pickles has a staff of ten (including Rosenberg), who work year round, although the work schedule fluctuates with the seasons. During the busiest seasons part-time people are added. During the 2009 harvest  the crew processed 120,000 pounds of local organic produce in the new certified kitchen.

Rosenberg explained that Real Pickles is a certified food facility with permits from the Greenfield Department of Health and the State Division of Food and Drug, as well as registered with the federal FDA.. They receive periodic inspections from every level.

Rosenberg is committed to supporting a local healthy food supply which supports local farmers and a local economy. To do this he has to be a good businessman. “We do major sales forecasting, looking ahead nearly two years, because we have to work with our growers. They need to know how much to plant and we need to have enough pickles to get us into the second fall when new pickles will be available for sale.”

Of course there are inevitable crop failures or shortfalls. “Every year since we’ve started, we’ve run a tiny bit short of cucumber pickles. Last year Dave Chamutka in Whately said he hadn’t had such a bad year in 35 years of growing cucumbers. “It is really hard to find organic pickling cucumbers in the northeast. If we can’t find them, we just make less product,” Rosenberg said.

We have enjoyed Real Pickles at our house, and I like knowing that there are health benefits. Eating Real Pickles has similar advantages to eating yogurt. All those good bacteria working in our gut. Full information can be found on the Realpickles.com website.

I’m not ready to emulate Rosenberg and have saurkraut and hot sauce with my eggs every morning, but my husband is always ready for sauerkraut and kimchi at lunch and supper.  I’m especially fond of the ginger carrots. Real Pickles are available at Foster’s, Green Fields Market and Hager’s Farm Stand.

Like Rosenberg I am happy to be able to eat locally in every season.

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We may be buried in snow, but the Annual Spring Bulb Show  at Smith College opens on March 6 and runs until Sunday, March 21. Over 5000 bulbs of every variety will be in glorious bloom at the Lyman Plant House, open from 10 am to 4 pm every day.

Between the Rows    February 27, 2010

Hydrangeas for All

My White Moth hydrangea

I haven’t always liked hydrangeas. As a child living in the Bronx, I saw a number of houses on our street wirh tiny yards that held a blue hydrangea or two. In spite of the interesting color and flower heads that everyone called ‘snowballs’ I did not like them.  Who can explain dislikes? And the things a child takes against are even more mysterious.

Though I rarely saw hydrangeas in gardens as a new gardener,  over the past years they have become very popular. Decorating magazines started showing hydrangea blossoms in summerl bouquets and dried  flower arrangements. Hybridizers became very busy creating new varieties. I started paying attention.

Years ago, on a garden tour, I saw a huge oakleaf hydrangea. It was enormous, resting and spreading itself in a fence corner reminding me of a granny with a generous lap. The flowers were not snowball mopheads, but had a tall conical shape I found very attractive. The oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) has a lot of advantages. It is native to the United States and so supports the local food web for birds, butterflies and insects. It is very hardy, to zone 3, and it tolerates drier and sunnier conditions than mophead varieties. In the fall the foliage turns beautiful rich colors.

New Oakleaf hydrangea

Last summer I bought an oakleaf hydrangea from Nasami Farm Nasami Farm in Whately. It serves several purposes for me. First, it is a native shrub. Second, it will grow very large and spready so that I can mulch underneath it and eliminate some lawn. Third, I will have large conical flowers for a long season that I like much more than the mopheads. Like most white hydrangeas these flowers will become tinged with pink in the fall. There are smaller oakleaf hydrangea hybrids like Pee Wee for those who limited space. Pee Wee will only grow about four feet tall and as wide, instead of having a six foot spread.

Limelight

Having planted the oakleaf variety I thought that a hydrangea hedge would do away with more lawn  than a single shrub so I planted Limelight, a hybrid that I bought on sale. Limelight (H. paniculata) can easily get more than six feet tall and have an equal spread. Just what I need for reducing lawn. Limelight is very hardy and has chartreuse flowers from summer into fall when they will become paler and then shade to pink.  Soil pH which changes some mopheads blue or pink depending on soil acidity, has no effect on this variety with its elongated blossoms. Like the oakleaf, it is tolerant of drier conditions and should be pruned in the fall or very early spring because it blooms on new wood.

Pinky Winky

By the time I planted Limelight my plant account was empty, but I need one more hydrangea to complete my hedge. Pinky Winky is a very popular hydrangea because of its large flowers which can be as much as 16 inches tall. They are pink at the bottom but keep opening white at the top. These are large hardy shrubs like Limelight, with equal tolerance for sun and dry soil. I should emphasize that any new tree or shrub should be kept well watered during its first year while it is becoming firmly established.

If you’d like a rich red flower early in the season,  Quick Fire is for you. It blooms earlier and the flowers turn red quickly – as suggested by the name.  The flowers are airier and less dense than mopheads.

Last summer I attended my cousin’s wedding held in a friend’s garden that was planted with masses of white Annabelle hydrangeas. The bride even carried a single hydrangea for a bouquet. I found these mopheads more appealing than I had before. Annabelle has been a hardy standard for a number of years, and for those who do like mopheads, a new variety is being introduced this spring. Incrediball (H. arborscens) has creamy white flower heads that can be 12 inches across. It is similar to Annabelle which has been such a favorite, but Incrediball has sturdier stems making it less floppy. It makes a good cut flower.

The surest way to succeed with any shrub or tree, is to plant it carefully. Begin by digging a generous hole.  Hydrangeas like a rich loose soil so take this opportunity to mix in a bucketful or more of compost. Check the roots when you take the shrub out of the container and if they seem compacted at all, loosen them, by raking through with your fingers or garden cultivator. Make sure that you don’t plant too high or too deeply. You can use a yardstick across the top of the dug hole to check placement.  Water the plant and hole generously when you have replaced half the soil, and again when all the soil is replaced and firmly tamped down. Keep all new plantings well watered for the first season, even those that are drought tolerant. Many plants will need less fussing in future years if they are well and healthily established.  Mulching will help prevent the soil from drying out rapidly.

It’s easy to see why you will find many hydrangeas marketed in the familiar green Proven Winners containers at garden centers. They are hardy, dependable, and give a long season of bloom. Just what we all desire in a plant. Photos of Limelight and Pinky Winky courtesy of Proven Winners.

Between the Rows   February 13, 2010

Laughing Dog Farm

Daniel and Divya Botkin at Laughing Dog Farm

December is not usually a good time to visit a small farm in action, but when I visited Daniel Botkin and his wife, Divya, at Laughing Dog Farm in Gill I got a tour of a thriving garden in the big hoop house (or long tunnel) and a lunch of delicious vegetable soup with bread and goat cheese made that very morning. This is local food at its finest.

I had specifically gone to Laughing Dog Farm to learn about making garden structures out of black locust.  I already knew black locust is a rot resistant wood. I’m still using fence posts I was given 25 years ago – and I don’t think they were newly cut then.  I did not know that black locust is considered a weed tree and grows quite fast. You would think this would make it easily available, but not so. It does not make good lumber because it doesn’t grow straight and is not harvested in the same way as maple, oak and other timber trees.

Still, if you can find a supplier of black locust, take advantage of the opportunity. Daniel Botkin has built numerous arbors, trellises and low hoop houses out of black locust. Sometimes he uses the poles, but he also makes use of  slabs and flexible thin slats. These sturdy structures, made of crooked logs and rough slabs, show a slightly manic sense of humor as well as engineering skill. They are not what you will find in an elegant flower garden, but they will last for years, and make use of that extra dimension in the garden.

In the summer Botkin’s  three plus acres of market garden rise up towards the sun. We are all familiar with bean poles and pea fences, but cucumbers also love to be grown on trellises. Melons can be placed in net bags like those onions come in, and supported on a trellis.

Botkin is a proponent of permaculture and no till techniques.  His  land is a steep hillside which he has terraced using black locust slabs and ‘poopy hay’, the bedding from his goat barn. The advantage to goat manure is that it can be used immediately in the garden, unlike cow manure or my chicken manure which need to be composted to be safe for plants.

December veggies in the hoop house

In mid-December parsley, leeks and kale were still growing in the heavily mulched beds outdoors, but  I was really stunned by the variety of vegetables growing in the hoop house, all manner of greens and a few sunny calendulas. This long structure, made of ‘hoops’ and special heavy plastic is not heated, but it is warm enough to provide cold hardy greens until spring.  When I visited I even got to eat a few Sungold cherry tomatoes.

Low tunnels made of black locust slats

Botkin had just finished building a new low tunnel with flexible slats of milled black locust that will retain their shape as they dry. Low tunnels can be used in a hundred ways, Botkin said. They can be covered with plastic in very early spring to start spinach and other greens. An extra advantage is that you will foil the insects that plague brassicas.       During the summer the plastic sides can be rolled up and the ends left open making that area very warm for crops like peppers and tomatoes that like and need extra heat.  Or the plastic can be removed entirely for the summer and the skeleton can be used for vining crops like cucumbers.

In late summer or fall, with the plastic in place, a late planting of hardy greens can go in. Botkin said, “I don’t operate with a plan. I look at the space and decide what will give me the highest value. Or I might throw down what seeds I happen to have in my apron.”

Laughing Dog Farm is small, but there is a lot of work to be done to bring vegetables, f.ruits, berries, herbs and flowers to local farmer’s markets. I was reminded that for 20 years Botkin was a teacher and counselor before he devoted himself to full time farming in 2000. He has not stopped teaching. In the summer he has apprentices who live at the farm and give a certain amount of labor for room and board while they learn the pleasures and challenges of growing food.

Botkin explained that there are networks that include the World Wide Opportunties on Organic Farms (www.wwoof.org) and the Northeast Organic Farming Association (www.nofa.org)  that help pair young people who are interested in learning with small farmers who need extra seasonal labor.

Beyond teaching interns and apprentices, Botkin holds occasional workshops at Laughing Dog Farm and has put up a website www.laughingdogfarm.com that explains his philosophy and gives enormous amounts of information about gardening. It includes a series of very short videos on designing hoop houses, growing greens in a hoop house, planting intensively and working with goats. Some teachers just cannot give up teaching, no matter what else they are doing.

Botkin is also an enthusiastic seed saver. In the olden days gardeners and farmers routinely saved seed from their own plants, but now seed is easy to buy. Aside from the issues of hybrized seeds that won’t come true, and genetically modified (GMO) seeds that have many people concerned, Botkin says that saving seed gives the gardener control over his produce, and over his own food security.

A vegetable garden does provide a measure of security, of good health, and pleasure. Those are good things as we go forward into a new year.  ###

Between the Rows   January 2, 2010

What Will I Do?

The 'Mowing' near Heath Fair Grounds

My view to the northwest is of an unblemished snowfield. The snow is clean and bright, the sky a brilliant blue. The landscape is as untouched as the new year.. What will I do with 2010? How will I approach my landscape?

Recently a friend of mine said he was gearing himself up to buy a tiller for his tractor, usually used for work in the woods and plowing snow. His wife chimed in that he was tired of the rackety rack of his rototiller. I suggested he give up tilling altogether.

There was a momentary silence, but he allowed that this next door neighbors who had beautiful gardens just did a little hand digging.

I went on to talk about the ‘lasagna’ method I used to enlarge my vegetable garden. This did take work, but no tilling, to set up. I mowed the area as low as possible, then spread at least four inches of chicken manure and compost and watered it all. Ideally this layer could have been deeper. Next came sheets of cardboard, making sure that there were generous overlaps. I watered this as well.

The final layer was soil, not-very-wonderful-loam I had delivered. I planted pole beans, squash and tomatoes in this 10 by 10 foot extension and it produced abundantly. No tilling. And hardly any weeding. The squash vines went everywhere, covering the ground, forbidding the arrival of many weeds.

Growth was exuberant  because the plant roots reached through the rotting wet cardboard and into the rich compost and soil. Worms also loved this cardboard covered environment, increasing in population, aerating the soil and enriching it further with their castings. So lush was the growth I could hardly move around in this section to harvest. I needed more space.

So this past spring I mowed down another section, I didn’t have much of my own  compost but I did have a load of wonderful compost from Bear Path Farm. This time, I put down the little unfinished compost from my own pile, watered it, laid down cardboard, and topped it with Bear Path compost instead of soil.  This 10 by 12 foot extension gave me a little more room so I could have more generous paths. The paths were created using cardboard and wood chips.

Now the mystery. I don’t know why this is. I had always heard that you could mulch with compost, but didn’t understand why compost on top of the soil deterred weeds, when beautiful compost in the soil grew such beautiful vegetables and flowers. I still don’t understand it, but I can attest to this truth.

I was enjoying my new paths, and nearly weed-free garden so much I spent the summer mowing, spreading a layer of chicken manure and unfinished compost, and laying down lots more cardboard topped with free woodchips, an unexpected benefit of last year’s historic ice storm. My plan is to plant a row of black raspberries and another squash patch in this section in the spring.  All it will take is pushing aside some of the wood chips, spreading some compost and then planting. No tilling.

No till techniques, whether called lasagna gardening, sheet composting, or composting in place, have several benefits. When working with nature and natural processes erosion is prevented, moisture in the soil is conserved, and the soil is enriched. You will be constructing new rich soil every season, instead of disrupting the system.

To maintain this type of garden more compost needs to be added every year. Add another layer of newspapers or cardboard, water it, and add another thick layer of compost for planting.

You can see the need for compost  never decreases. We can never have too much compost. Fortunately materials for compost are everywhere beginning in the kitchen with fruit and vegetable scraps, and moving out to newspapers, lawn clippings, autumn leaves, weeds, old garden vines and spent plants, as well as straw, and rotted hay. Those who are lucky may have access to animal manures. Never use pet manure!

Laughing Dog Farm

Some worry that hay will introduce weed seeds. I saw that Daniel Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm in Gill had lots of hay bales in his productive market garden. He says he uses them to help create micro-climates, and when they are well and truly rotted and all the weed seeds have sprouted and died, he uses it as mulch and compost.

As my friend and I continued our conversation he asked if I was suggesting that he spend $100 on rotted hay instead of buying new equipment or repairing the rototiller. I replied that it was certainly an option. I do know that he has a big compost pile and chicken manure so he is already well set up.

I pointed out that he would be working with nature, saving energy (no fuel for engines) and possibly his own energy. At least over the long haul, and that’s the way to think – long term benefits for our own health and the health of our gardens, and hence the health of our planet.

I look at my snow covered fields and the new year before me. I think of the poet Marie Ponsot’s new book Easy and the poem, Simples.  “what do I want/ well I want to/ get better.”

Happy New Year.   Happy Gardening.

Between the Rows  December 26, 2009

Obligations at the Edge

As I prepare for the new year I have been thinking about the importance of conservation, about preserving the best of what we have for the benefit of the next generations.  Today I am posting a piece I wrote three years ago after talking to an inspiring conservationist and speaker.  My inspiration is a gaggle of grandchildren, two of whom love to play in the old apple tree in our field, home and pantry to birds – and porcupines.

Even those of us who live in Greenfield or any one of the village centers where we have pretty yards and gardens, know we are very close to a wilder world. It is not all wilderness, of course. There are fields and farms, as well as the riversides and mountains. Sometimes we take all that loveliness for granted, but sometimes, when we read about zoning issues in the newspaper, we remember that there are pressures on this beautiful landscape.

The Conway School of Landscape Design is known for the excellence of its academic graduate program, but also for its sustainable design principles which reach out into the local community through student projects for individuals and towns. As part of their larger educational mission, CSLD organizes a series of free lectures every fall. On October 16, Frances Clark will speak at the Conway Elementary School about our ‘Obligations at the Edge’.

I was happy to have the chance to speak to Clark, who after a career in botanical gardens, and serving as President of the New England Wildflower Society, now works as a freelance botanist. She often works for the state and municipalities making inventories of conservation land. “I come up with a list of native plants, give descriptions of the land, and make recommendations on how to manage the properties. I suggest the best public uses of land, the kinds of interpretive signs to install, and where to lay trails so they don’t disrupt important plant populations,” she said.

When talking about our area Clark says the ecology of the region has been ‘resilient’. The first wave of change was from wilderness to agriculture. Now we are facing the major impact of housing and businesses. Clark asks the question, “If maintaining the natural landscape is a value, how do we minimize the effects of that development?”

Her first answer is that we should not build densely. But if you live in an established suburban neighborhood there are things you can do to preserve biodiversity, and the ecological integrity of your land. For example, she says that barrier fences like stockade fences that reach down to the ground can impede the movement of wildlife like turtles and salamanders. I have to admit that this downside to fences is one I had never considered before.

She talks about avoiding poisonous pesticides and herbicides, and even about the dangers of bright lights. Bug zappers may comfort us, but Clark want us to remember that bugs provide sustenance for birds and bats.

She also cautions about feeding wildlife including birds. “My husband and I feed the birds in the winter and it is a great joy to watch them. But as soon as bears start coming out of hibernation, we put the feeders away. At that time of the year birds have more food. Besides, providing water, even in winter, is as good a way to attract birds. Instead of bird feeders, plant viburnam, dogwoods, blueberries and other plants to feed the birds.”

I don’t live in a suburban neighborhood anymore, nor do I live at the edge of conservation land, but I do feel an obligation to the land and to the future. There are some principles of conservation biology that are very easy for me to practice.

Clark says, ”Nature likes it messy. Keep messy edges. Grass seeds for the sparrows. Dead trees attract woodpeckers. Big dead trees provide food, but also den sites.”

Anyone who visits End of the Road Farm knows we have lots of messy edges. Our only fences are old barbed wire fences. We have hedgerows that provide shelter and food for birds. Our pond, built as a fire pond, certainly attracts wildlife.

Over the 25 years we have lived here we have seen a great change in the amount of wildlife. Wild turkeys are a common sight. I used to tell deer hunters that there were no deer; now there are substantial numbers. We have even seen a bear or two.

One of the conservation issues we have become more aware of is the damage done by invasive species like purple loosestrife and bittersweet. We pulled out the autumn olive that we got years ago from the conservation district, and are now going around to find the seedlings that planted themselves. We are also battling hops and yellow flags. My young grandson Rory had a great time chopping down the yellow flags that appeared in the very wet Sunken Garden this summer, checking them daily to see if the plant was recovering and needed more whacking back.

In the end, for me, conservation is about leaving at least a little part of the world in better shape than I found it. I have grandchildren and just last week my first great-granddaughter was born. I want to leave them with a world that is healthy and beautiful. I treasure the walks the children and I have taken through the woods, noting bear and tiger trees, as well as the wolf trees that I explained provided food and shelter for birds and animals. The woods and fields, so various in their moods and textures always delight. This is what I want to endure.

Between the Rows  October  2006

Poison and Charm

 Things go bump in the night at this time of the year, but in her new book, Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities (Algonquin Books $18.95), Amy Stewart takes us on a tour of the more bloodcurdling aspects of botany.

            We all know that Abraham Lincoln grew up motherless from the age of nine, but I certainly never knew that it was white snakeroot (Eupatoreum rugosum) that killed his mother in1818. Nancy Hanks, her aunt, uncle and several other residents of Little Pigeon Creek in Indiana all succumbed to milk sickness. While people were able to connect the illness and deaths to the milk they drank, they did not understand that the milk was deadly because of the snakeroot that the cows ate.

            White snakeroot, whose flowers somewhat resemble Queen Anne’s Lace, can still be found throughout North America. Because tremetol, the toxic element remains active even when dry, it is dangerous in hayfields and pastures to this day.

            Stewart has many other stories about familiar poisonous plants like aconite, curare, one of the several arrow poisons, nightshade, opium poppies, and poison hemlock. Even with these plants she has found weird and amazing histories like the fact that Nazi scientists “found aconite useful as an ingredient for poisoned bullets,”

            In our own region there was a great panic just a few years ago about giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) that resembles a giant Queen Anne’s Lace plant. Giant hogweed is a member of a phototoxic plant family, whose sap becomes poisonous when exposed to sunlight. Damage from the sap will blister painfully and look like a severe burn.

            She also catalogs many plants that are not as familiar like khat (Catha edulis), a shrub that grows in Ethiopia and Kenya. In the United States it is categorized as a Schedule 1 narcotic, as is marijuana. According to Stewart “Khat played a small but pivotal role in the 1993 battle of Mogadishu in which two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. Gun-toting Somalian men stuffed khat leaves into their cheeks and raced around Mogadishu with a jittery high that lasted until late into the night.”

            The information is useful, and fascinating, but Stewart has a way with words. This is no dry manual of 221 toxic plants. Her method is to wander through history, myth, legend and literature as well as science as she describes what is known of these plants.

            Wicked Plants is a small and handsome volume with a poison green cover and browning pages that look as if it had resided on a witch’s shelf for the past century or two. The beautiful copperplate etchings are by Briony Morrow-Cribbs who lives in Brattleboro. Stewart points out that Briony is also the name of a wicked plant that can cause vomiting, dizziness and even respiratory failure.

            Amy Stewart takes us down a dark path into the garden, but Beverley Nichols, a British gardener and prolific author, leads us into a sunny garden with laughter and charm. Several of his books like Down the Garden Path, Garden Open Today, Laughter on the Stairs and Sunlight on the Lawn (just the titles give you a good idea of his approach) have been reprinted by Timber Press. In Rhapsody in Green (Timber Press $17.95)  editor Roy C. Dicks gives us a smorgasbord of Nichols’ garden wit and wisdom.

            The books that have been reprinted let Nichols speak again about his first garden and Tudor cottage during the 1930s, his manor house, Merry Hall, with its gardens during the 1950s, and as it was in 1963 when he wrote Garden Open Today.

            I love the phrase garden open today and use it often myself when I refer to my own Annual Rose Viewing, and other garden tours when proud (but usually nervous) gardeners invite the public in to enjoy the pleasures they have cultivated. My affection for the phrase is because I associate it with Beverley Nichols, whom I discovered shortly after I met Elsa Bakalar, my own witty British gardener, and with smooth lawns, brilliant flower borders and a well set tea table in the shade, my fantasy of life in the garden.

            Nichols is known for his rapturous language, as when he says, “The sky was very blue and the sunlight danced in and out of the branches of the great willow. There was such a multitude of shifting lights, so many swift sarabands of shadow, that you would say some giant and ghostly hand was poised above it scattering confetti through the tangled boughs, confetti of gold and silver, silver that melted into the summer air.”

            He is also known for his sharp opinions. “If I were artistic dictator of this country I would make it illegal for any householder … to plant another specimen of Prunus Kansan … the gaudy double pink cherry which every spring erupts like an infectious rash down thousands of suburban avenues.”

            Rhapsody in Green is a wonderful introduction into Beverely Nichols’ world, his passions, his crotchets, and his humor. He acknowledges the trials and the pains of the gardener from the hyperbole of nursery catalogs, to the inevitable backaches, but he also knows, “It is only to the gardener that Time is a friend, giving each year more than he steals.” I am in total agreement.

 Between the Rows   October 31, 2009

Apples Apples Apples

Ginger Gold and Paula Red

My father never felt dinner was over until he had eaten his apple. The apple was a ritual. He loved cutting an apple in half around the equator to show us, or any available children, the star hidden in the center of the apple. And he proved the adage that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. He rarely needed the services of a doctor until his short final illness.

            With news coverage of the H1N1 flu, we are all looking for ways to stay healthy.  I haven’t heard that the beneficial properties of apples will help in this instance; frequent thorough handwashing is the main prophylactic, but keeping all systems strong and healthy is never a bad idea.

            Apples have all sorts of nutritional benefits providing antioxidants, Vitamins A and C, fiber, and boron which helps strengthen bones.  All this and only 81 calories for a medium sized apple.  It is important to remember that the apple skin is a vital part of these benefits.

            Perhaps the ancients knew of these benefits because apples have been cultivated for thousands of years.  Apples are thought to have originated in Kazakstan. Their culture spread throughout the Fertile Crescent and by 6500 B.C. archeological finds show they were grown in the Jordan Valley.

            The Greek Homer wrote of the pleasure of apples; the Romans Cicero and Pliny the Elder encouraged the growing of apples.  Right here in the United States we have our own historic apple planter, Johnny Appleseed.

            Johnny Appleseed was born as John Chapman in Leominster on September 26, 1774 which seems an appropriate month for the birth of a man who gave his life to planting apples.

            He was only 18 when he set out from Massachusetts and spent the rest of his life wandering in the Midwest, mainly Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, planting apples wherever he went.

            As Michael Pollan pointed out in his book, Botany of Desire, settlers of that day were not as interested in eating an apple a day as they were in drinking apples.  Cider, hard cider, was a way of preserving apples for use all year long.

            Cider is still an important product for apple orchardists, and for their customers. This year Cider Days are scheduled for November 7 and 8, with tours of local orchards throughout the county, and tastings of local cider and apples.  Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farm said they press cider about once a week. For Cider Days they will have a special Vintage Blend cider, made solely from Northern Spy and Baldwin apples, as well as a Russet Blend made from Roxbury Russet and Golden Russet apples.

            Johnny Appleseed might very well recognize some of the heritage apple varieties that still go into good cider, and are becoming more popular for eating out of hand. Of the 50 or so varieties grown at Clarkdale, about 15 are heritage apples like Cox’s Orange Pippin and Spitzenberg. In fact Spitzenberg is thought to be Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple.

            Tim Smith at Apex Orchard also grows several heritage varieties including Spitzenberg, Ashmead Kernel, Milton and Baldwin.  Instead of cider, Apex Orchard makes vinegar. Smith says that since the different varieties ripen for harvest over the fall season they use the sweetest varieties available at any given time to make their vinegar. 

            As a baker I was interested in recommendations for pie baking.  Tastes in pies differ as I found.  Clark prefers Gravenstein and Northern Spy, while Smith says his family uses Macintosh and Cortland. He added that when he bakes the pie he always adds a Mutsu.  They both agree that a combination of apples makes the best pie. That is the way I bake my apple pies as well.

            Both Clarkdale and Apex also grow the very popular Honey Crisp apple, a relatively new variety. Smith said that Honey Crisp ripens over a month starting now. One of its benefits is that it keeps so well in the orchard’s storage room where the temperature is kept at 32 or even 30 degrees.  Smith explained that the sugar in the apples keeps them from freezing.

            I asked if I could store apples in my 50 degree dirt floored basement. Smith said yes, depending.  He explained that for every degree above 32 degrees, two weeks of storage time is lost.  I guess I’ll just keep using my refrigerator crisper and restock it frequently.

            We all have our favorite apples. When I was a child I thought Red Delicious apples were a real treat. Nowadays I like Spencer apples for eating.

            Apples are available all year long in the supermarket, but I prefer to eat them during the very long local season. Apples take me through the fall and winter, right into spring when local strawberries come in. 

Davenport Apple Collection at Tower Hill

            Tower Hill Botanic Garden celebrates the fall with their Shades of Autumn: A Family Celebration of the Fall Harvest Season on Columbus Day weekend, October 10, 11 and 12.  A star of the event is the Davenport Collection of Heirloom Apples comprised of 238 trees and 119 pre-20^th century apple varieties.  Each afternoon at 2 pm they will hold an apple tasting, giving visitors a chance to taste some of their old apples, many of which have been very uncommon at the market.

 For full information about Shades of Autumn entertainments including entry fees logon to the Calendar section of their website, www.towerhillbg.org. 

Between the Rows  September 12, 2009