Organic Process....what?!?

What does it mean when someone says they follow organic processes?  To become certified organic takes several years and you must comply with a long list of regulations.  For vegetable growers this includes what you put into your ground, what you put into your compost, how you control pests, etc, etc.  One of our biggest challenges (besides weeds which seem to have amazing growth potential, and why can't we get that in our vegetables??) is keeping pests at bay.  How do we do that without harsh chemicals or some kind of synthetic pesticide?  GREAT questions, glad you asked!

One way is to use 'blankets'.  Under this white blanket, all snuggly and pest free are cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts.  This material is completely reusable, lets the beautiful sun light in but keeps those little white moths out!  This is important because they lay eggs that hatch with an enormous appetite for the plant that it's sitting on and so they devour it.  With this cover the moths must find a place to lay their eggs elsewhere.


We also keep a close eye on our precious plants.  After all, they are going to feed us for a season and so as soon as we see a pest we quickly figure out the best way to deal with it - always looking for the least invasive avenue first.



Here are green onions that are ready to be eaten!

 And our up and coming baby green onions. 

 As for the tomato update, pray for some heat so these spectacular fruits begin to turn red!

Welcome to the first post for EdenZgardenZ.  Our journey to this point has been full of twists and turns, but as I sit down to eat my delicious looking salad I'm thankful for each and every twist!  Here I sit with a fresh salad full of garden ingredients.  Although not all of our plants are producing yet, and we got started late this year, things are looking promising, not to mention tasty! Today our green onions were ready to eat.  You might think green onions a bit lowly on the vegetable scale, they aren't hearty like some others.  However, these particular green onions were delicious!  We planted a heritage variety and they are initially sweet with a lovely onion taste immediately after.  They are perfect for a salad!

I chopped up some romaine and kale and then sliced up the green onions.  I added a bit of boccicini cheese, grape tomatoes, homemade croutons and a homemade vinaigrette.

 

 Delicious garden fresh salad.  Looking forward to when ALL of my salad ingredients will come from our heritage garden vegetables!

 

 Take a visit with me out to the garden.  These tomatoes are coming along in fine fashion.  If you look closely they seem to be a bit striped.  These will be the low-acid, yellow striped tomatoes.  I can't wait to see how they look when they're ripe!

Ever wondered what an asparagus plot looked like?  It looks like a bunch of spindly trees!  We have 3 plots and will continue to cultivate and grow them.  Hopefully by next year they will be big enough to offer asparagus in our Share Baskets next season!

Here are the green onions standing straight and tall....and one weed in the mix!  When you use organic processes to garden, the weeds come as part of the deal.  Although we try to stay on top of them, every once and awhile a small one escapes our notice and gets lucky.  Organic growers try to work with nature, we're not trying to expel nature, simply tame it. 

Thanks for visiting EdenZgardenZ.  Hope to see you at a market soon!