[Seedgeeks] july seeding schedule and brassica stewardship

[Nick Routledge]

(Originally began penning this missive for the permie listserv, but decided to post here instead, so do puhleeze forgive a style a tad more formal than usual.)

 

I've found that the biggest benefit, not only to my reproductive health, but to _all_ my health issues has been going local with my diet - and the lifestyle changes associated with nurturing this trajectory. I noticed a massive, palpable and immediate shift toward deeper health and vitality when I began eating as locally as I could, through the winters. Why I'm mentioning this fact in early July, is because right now is the heart of the winter seeding schedule. If any of ya are considering giving even the teensiest winter garden a go, even if you have no idea yet where you might find space for your transplants when they're ready to plant out, the whole of July is a critical seeding month.

 
A couple of days ago I met with Rachel of Nettles Edge farm. Rachel and her partner Keith are old-school farmers whose livelihood is based on that rarest and bravest of agricultural exercises in passion and faith, a winter CSA. Their experience is deep, and very local. Indeed, the newsletters that arrive with their CSA boxes contain some of the most revealing, poetic and grounded eco-gnosis I've ever encountered. Winter gardening is a very different kettle of fish compared to our summer frolics. Lots more unpredictability. As such, Keith and Rachel's relationship with Nature tends to be profoundly intuitive. 

 

Anyways, smack in the midst of a busy farm day, I found a brief twenty minutes to tackle Rachel on her basic winter seeding schedule. Here's the essence of what she shared. I'll keep it short and to the point. I was scribbling frantically: notes difficult to read. All mistakes my own.

 

The storage crops - the onions, garlic, beans, winter squash, and potatoes - are grown on a regular schedule, though potatoes are often planted later than a typical summer schedule. Celery and celeriac are seeded around March, and leeks in April/May.

 

As for the other crops, with winter gardening we're basically looking at seeding for two crops, a Fall crop and an overwintering crop. Fall crops tend to be short maturity varieties, harvested in the Fall; while overwintering crops include not only hardy, short-maturity varieties that sit in the fields are are harvested prior to Spring; but also include longer-maturing varieties that put on a new burst of growth in the Spring and are eaten as they size up then. Preferred varieties of all types, tend to be winter hardier than their summer equivalents (shorter, stockier, tighter).

 

A defining priority appears to be to get the plants sized up and as healthy as possible for the arrival of winter, and the grand metabolic slowdown that follows. Healthy doesn't mean laying on the nitrogen (at any time of the year for that matter - I've seen aphids attack plants that are ostensibly healthy but whose lushness is due to too much much fertility or watering, with the result that the cells are too watery, the cell walls too thin, and easy prey. In winter the issue ain't aphids but the cold.). 

 

The short maturity crops are then eaten out of the field the size they were going into the winter. The long maturity crops eaten in the Spring, will have put on a burst of growth with the lengthening days. Sometimes, short maturity crops won't get fully sized before winter arrives, but may put on a burst of growth in the spring, too.

In early June, Rachel typically seeds brussel sprouts, the red fall cabbages and then later, the green cabbages. When I asked her if it was too late to sow now, she said, no, give it a go. "Last year, my red cabbages never sized up in time for the winter, but then began sizing up in the Spring."

 

July marks the major seeding month for the other brassicas. Early July sees seeding for Fall (October) broccoli. Likewise, cauliflower, kale and collards are started now. Spreading the seeding through the month allows for the possibility of not losing everything at once if we take a big frost hit in September. Fennel, and chard get seeded in mid-July. "Kohlrabi in the third week in July."

 

If I'm reading my notes right, plants are transplanted out in mid-September to be ready for November chowing. In greenhouses and coldframes, greens are transplanted in mid-October for eating beginning in November. Little Gem (the miniature green romaine lettuce) has been a very impressive winter performer. Rudolph an all-star broccoli through the whole winter.

 

(As an aside, I learned that Keith and Rachel's best defense against gophers has been their pet cat ("She was catching one a day") and encouraging birds of prey to nest close by. A huge issue for them in the winters has been nutrea predation. One way they've chosen to reconcile themselves to the dance of life and death is by eating nutrea. They trap 'em in live traps, then bop them over the back of the bonce. They've tried eating gophers. "Lovely. It tasted like a cross between chicken and smoked salmon. But that was probably because we smoked it." "You smoked a gopher!?" "Well, we cooked it over an open fire.")

 

Solid experiential knowhow on PNW winter gardening is difficult to come by. Some of the best information is on the web - from one of our most valuable bioregional treasures, Pat Patterson. Two pages, as concentrated as it gets:

 

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/horticulture/documents/LC322WinterGardeningrev.pdf

 

and:

 

http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/html/pnw/pnw548/pnw548.html#anchor43274

 

I was talking to Rachel today about seed - what she had saved that she had to share. I'm hearing a very familiar story from even the most experienced, localized growers. No brassica seed saved. Quite simply, the prospective isolation problems with brassicas have put people off giving it a go. We're moving quickly, it seems, to save seeds around the other food crops, but I'm hearing sweet bugger all about brassicas - just lotsa regrets. I remember having a conversation around this topic with Kevin at Full Circle some weeks ago and he's very hip to the issue and would care to do something to help. My sense is we could do with some co-ordinative impetus behind this. Weez not gonna have too much fun with our diet, especially through winters, if we don't get this story in hand.

 

Ideas, anyone? 

 

By the by, I got a leap on the winter seeding schedule. Woz a leeetle late with the cabbages, and I have lotsa holes with winter-hardy varieties, but for the most part I'm on target. I'm growing more than I'll need come transplant time. I'm looking for more seed pronto - especially localized stuff. The Patterson list will give you a sense of the crop types I'm after right now. Anybody got anyfink relevant in their stashes?

 

Oh, and has Heather (ex-fcgp) been alerted to the existence of this listserv?

 

n.



		
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