Brassica Season

I'm helping teach a horticulture laboratory class one day a week and recently we went on a field trip to the MSU Student Organic Farm. I've gone on tours there probably a dozen times and I'm always learning something new and walking away inspired. They operate an 9-month organic farmer training program which trains people of all ages and background on everything there is to know about organic production (including veggies, cut flowers, honey, maple syrup, and livestock). In addition, they run a year-round CSA, an on-campus farm stand, and they even grow food for some of the campus dining halls.

During this particular tour, I was most impressed by their variety of brassica crops including:

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage (or maybe this was cauliflower?)

Absolutely massive 'Kossak' kohlrabi

Beauty in shades of green, gray, and blue.

And lots of cabbage.

Harvests

I've been doing a little harvesting every day lately. I'm getting tons of cucumbers, a few zucchinis (those that haven't succumbed to drought-induced yellowy wrinkle disease), basil, and potatoes. I can almost taste the tomatoes, but I've still only gotten one ripe one.

This is the first broccoli crown I've ever grown (not due to a lack of trying). Unfortunately, it's only about 3 inches across.

Fava beans, West Indian Gherkin, Suyo Long cucumber, White Wonder cucumber, and Lemon cucumber. Most of these went into the slowly evolving pickle bowl in the fridge.

Any suggestions on what to do with these West Indian Gherkins? They are painful to the touch and I can't quite figure out how you are supposed to eat the without peeling them. They're so small that there wouldn't be much left after peeling. I guess I could lob them my enemies! 

I finally got around to digging all of my Red Norland potatoes. The plants have long since died, but the potatoes happily waited for me all cozy in the ground.

Starting Brassicas

This weekend I started many of my brassica seeds. I sowed romanesco and calabrese broccoli, red russian kale, early white vienna kohlrabi, and mizuna. Last year, all of my broccoli seedlings were eaten soon after transplanting outside. Hopefully I'll have better luck this time. I have never grown kohlrabi or kale before, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

My pepper and tomatillo seeds from last weekend are doing really well (as are the swiss chard). I'm surprised each year by how tall and leggy the tomatillos are at first. They always seem too thin and weak, but I guess that's just how they look at first.

The green tomatillos were first to germinate, followed by the purple tomatillos, and then the sweet peppers.

The green tomatillos (hiding behind the sweet pepper tag) are so leggy. This seems to happen every year, so hopefully it's normal.

These swiss chard seedlings germinated in less than 48 hours! Hopefully they'll survive long enough to transplant outside.