Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Beans oh my!

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View this email in your browser FAMILY U-PICK - FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. This has proven to be such a happy event for all of us at Nanoose Edibles. Thank you so much for coming out with your friends and family and providing all of us with so much enjoyment. As we continue to pick berries, we begin to pick apples; and soon after pears and grapes. The Thornless Blackberries are beginning to ripen at the back of the farm. We have already picked some. They make a great juice berry for smoothies. There are still lots of snap peas to pick and eat, also snap beans in both yellow and purple pods. Bring along the whole family and plan to have a picnic. Fall Veggie Box Program The summer moves along quickly. We will be sending out notices for the Fall Veggie Box Program along with our September newsletter. Prices remain the same and box pick-up will continue to be on Fridays. The Box Program will introduce you to a number of products sold by people who live in the area: Coyote Coffee, Pizza rounds from Bhodi’s Bakery, Salad Dressings and other fine foods from Occasions in Lantzville, Cereal Grains from Vancouver Island Grain and Milling in Port Alberni, Jams, Jellies and Pickles from The Sisters, and pretty soon Hazelnuts from Chemainus. We are lucky to have these amazing people in our neighbourhood. GARLIC PRODUCTION Our Yugoslavian Garlic is now harvested, but we still have a long way to go. After the harvest the garlic is left in the field for some days in dry and cure before having the roots and some of the top removed and put into a warm, well ventilated space to complete drying and get it cleaned up ready for the market. We are selling Garlic now at the farm. We will also take garlic with us to a number of events so the larger number of the public will have access to our product. We purchased this garlic from Dan Jason – Salt Spring Seeds about 25 years ago and have grown and cared for it ever since. For the time being, before the final cleaning, our garlic is available at a reduced price when you come to the farm to purchase it. Buy your garlic now and be ready to plant it in October. Newcomers to garlic growing can attend our Garlic Roundtable on September where hopefully we will answer all your questions about successfully growing garlic. Grant All the paperwork has been signed and we are proceeding with the Green Haven grant program with our intern Tom! We will be focusing on keeping records for saving seeds for high value crops and the soil for any improvements using cover crops. Knowing the plants in how they pollinate, such as spinach needs a male and female to pollinate, will result in a better understanding of the plants for the information to be shared with others. We will be hosting a Roundtable in 2018 with Tom leading the topic of Seed Saving with his findings. PARTY ON THE DRIVE coming up on September 10th at 12 pm. We will be there and will be bringing up of high nutrition sample seeds, herbs, pickled yellow beans and a huge supply of our Yugoslavian Garlic for planting in your garden in October and to stash away for winter culinary efforts. SUSTAINABLE GARDENING ROUNDTABLES: Heat and Water Stress - Sept 16 from 1:30-3:30pm Now is a good time to think about how you might do things differently if, as it seems, the weather is likely to remain the same for a time. I think it will take a re-evaluation of the home garden to take better advantage of the timing, placement, and choice of plants to better suit different weather conditions. We need to think about natural weather conditions and use them to our best advantage – shade trees and buildings; putting in pea or beans trellising and taking advantage of the shade; planting shade loving plants in the shade of taller plants; getting plants well-established while the weather is cooler. Install some rain barrels to handle hand watering. Develop a list of summer vegetables that can manage with little water. Most greens crops will not germinate if the soil is already hot. Some varieties of strawberries will not bear when it is too hot. Consider planting yourself a double row of strawberries on the shady side of your raspberry trellising. Use a light coloured mulch (fresh roadside chips) to cover the soil and keep it cool. Check out the Facebook event Here Garlic - September 30 from 1:30-3:30pm We will hold another Garlic Lovers Round Table this fall before planting time. It was thoroughly useful and entertaining last fall. Besides learning about cleaning and preparing garlic for storage, we talked about saving for fall planting, Tips for planting garlic, what to do with the surplus, trying other varieties, etc. Where do we go from here? Check out the Facebook event Here Pollinators - October 21 from 1:30-3:30pm Bees do like it hot, but there isn’t a lot of available food when the weather is continuously hot like we are having. Things we can be thinking about for them is to make sure that you have flowering plants available and watered and also that you put out shallow containers of water near the hives. It is helpful to bees in stressful situations to let bi-annual herbs and flowers go to seed. Cucubits blossoms of all kinds are very welcome. Especially the bumble bees like to bumble around inside the yellow blossoms. The honeybees have spent almost a month now hanging out in our 50 foot Little Leaf Linden Tree. The entire tree buzzes away from morning to night. The ants carry the nectar around which drips over the leaves and everything else. I have read that it does not make great honey, but it is sweet and the bees seem to like it and I don’t think there is anything much we can do about it. All About Fava Beans- November 4 from 1:30-3:30pm For the past few years Nanoose Edibles has been paying attention to Fava Beans as a source of high quality food, especially in the winter months when we tend to search out more nutrient-dense food. The crew and I have grown on about twelve different types of Fava Beans to plant throughout the Fall and this year and Spring of 2018 in order to become more familiar with the crop and its usefulness as a major food source. Favas are 26% protein, the same percentage as beef, and it is perfectly possible that it could be used as a home-grown substitute for many meat dishes. We will be seeking your assistance with cooking and taste-testing. 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