Harvest while the sun shines

This has been a weird gardening season, no two ways about it.

On the one hand, it's been a lovely summer for people -- mild days, rain at night.

On the other hand, our vegetables mostly like it hotter, a little drier, and much more consistent. We had a late spring, very little summer, and who knows how the fall will go.

My advice is to harvest what you can when you can. If you can get your tomato plants up off the ground after this last storm, you will keep them healthier and producing more. Remove any plants that are too diseased.

COMPOST -- Yes, the bins are full, but we now have three plots where you can put weeds and dead plants. NC2, CW10 and SC10 are all available as places to put this stuff. HOWEVER -- be considerate of the plots next to these new compost areas, please.

Weed Warnings No More

Weed warnings are over for the season for several reasons:

1. The amount of rain we've gotten in this last week is outrageous -- more than 4". It's been hot outside, but not enough to dry the soil. When the soil is this wet, there's no point in compacting it by walking on it.

2. Also, it's not good to work with vegetable plants that are this wet -- you can spread disease from plant to plant, especially with tomatoes and beans. Better to leave them alone, or prune them carefully (while wiping down the pruner to remove contagion). If your tomatoes have fallen over, and you still want to harvest, then try to stake them up, but do it carefully.

3. Finally, it's late enough in the season that weeds aren't serious competition for your vegetable plants anymore. Early in the season, weeds can take over a garden, but that's not so easy now. Sure, the garden looks a little ragged, but a vegetable garden almost always looks ragged during the fall.

Goldfincher

Garden volunteer Ella took these lovely photos of a finch visiting one of our sunflowers.

Kohlrabigemüse ("Kohlrabi vegetables")

4 small, tender Kohlrabi (leaves removed, peeled, and finely grated)
1/2 a bunch parsley
3 tbs cream
1 cup milk
2 tbs butter
2 tbs all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp white pepper

Put grated kohlrabi and 1/2 tsp salt in a saucepan or pot. Fill with water and boil over medium-high heat. Cook until kohlrabi is tender, yet still firm (about 5-7 minutes). Drain, saving 1 cup of the water. Put cooked kohlrabi in a bowl and cover. Put butter into the same saucepan/pot and melt over medium heat. Gradually whisk in the flour until the mixture is paste-like.  Continue cooking until mixture becomes golden-brown. Next, gradually whisk the milk and reserved water from the kohlrabi into the flour mixture.Stir until thickened and smooth. Stir in the cream, remaining salt, nutmeg, white pepper, and parsley. Whisk until thickened, then cook an additional 10 minutes. Stir in the kohlrabi to coat. Serve hot and garnish with nutmeg and parsley, if desired.

*additional salt, nutmeg, white pepper, and parsley can be added to suit to taste.

Kohlrabigemüse served with penne pasta

Stephanie Stiglmeier

Community Garden Intern

Good bye and thank you, Stephanie!

Yesterday was Stephanie's last day with us in the community garden. I hope many of you got to meet Stephanie, as she is a smart, warm, and knowledgeable person. Her work in the garden -- and in the NSSED garden -- was helpful and well-done. I wish her all the best as she heads to Mississippi State for her junior year as a horticulture major.

Gurkensalat (Cucumber Salad)

A summer staple for my Grandmother when she was a young girl in Bavaria. They grew all the ingredients for this salad in their garden, and had this with every meal. A cool, refreshing salad for a hot, summer day.

1 large Cucumber
Dill
1/2 a bunch Green Onions or Chives
Apple Cider Vinegar
Canola Oil
Salt
Pepper
Tomatoes (optional)
Sour Cream (optional) [I personally prefer it without sour cream]

Slice cucumbers on a mandolin. Thinly slice tomatoes and green onions. Add dill, vinegar, canola oil, salt, and pepper to taste. If adding sour cream, add a dollop. Stir to combine. Can be served cold or room temperature.

Gurkensalat without Sour Cream

Gurkensalat with Sour Cream

Parking tight on August 9

Rotary Days Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Glenview and Wagner Farm, Saturday, August 9, 10 a.m.-Noon.  Stop by Historic Wagner Farm, 1510 Wagner Road, and enjoy an ice cream social, face painting and hay rides.  Tickets are a $5 donation. Open to the public.

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Parking may be tight during this time because the event overlaps with the Farmer's Market.

Pictures from the garden

Scott Lewis, one of our gardeners, shared these pictures with me. They're all from our garden space.

If you have pictures you'd like to share, I'd love to put them up on the blog. Send them to jennifer.roberts@glenviewparks.org.

Rüben-Salat (Beet Salad)

Rüben-Salat served with Arugala

4 Fresh Beets
1 medium Yellow Onion
Apple Cider Vinegar
Canola Oil
Salt
Pepper

Thinly slice the beets using a mandolin. Mince the onion. Combine both into a mixing bowl. Add vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Mix to combine. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Serve cold.

August Showers Bring.... Cabbage?

It's raining.....cabbage

Rain is starting to fall here at the Farm! According to weather.com, we're supposed to have thunderstorms all night until noon tomorrow, so the garden should get a good soak. Because of the rain, I'm done for today in the garden, but when life gives you cabbages, you make sauerkraut!

Omi's Hühnersuppe (Grandma's Chicken Soup)

Another recipe from my mother's side, this soup includes just about everything in the garden. A rich, flavorful soup that is considered a necessity at my house during the cold, winter months or for a bout of the flu.

1 large roasting/baking hen (the bigger and older the chicken, the better the flavor)
1 celery root
1 bunch celery
1 bunch carrots
2 purple-top Turnips
1 Leek
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
1 bunch green onions
3 Parsnips
1 large yellow onion
4 Bay leaves
Salt
Pepper
Noodles (Ditalini style or wide egg noodles)
Chives, chopped (optional)
*For a vegetarian version, exclude the chicken and add more carrots, celery, or other vegetables of choice.

Clean the hen, removing the neck, gizzards, and anything else on the inside. Rinse thoroughly with cold water. Put chicken, rear-end facing up, in a large stock pot. Clean the celery, carrots, turnips, onion, leek, and parsnips. Cut the vegetables into very large chunks and put into the stock pot, stuffing some of the veggies into the chicken. Scrub the celery root clean of dirt, or peel off the skin with a knife. Cut into quarters and add it to the pot. Rinse the parsley and green onions, adding them to the pot as well, along with the bay leaves. Salt and pepper to taste, and then fill the pot to the top with water. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook for two to three hours (do not cover with a lid whatsoever). Cook noodles while soup is cooking. After the soup is finished, separate the vegetables and chicken from the broth, throwing away inedible vegetables (celery root, turnips, yellow onion, leek, parsley, green onions, and bay leaves) and keeping the edible ones (celery, carrots, and parsnips). Separate the meat from the chicken and throw away bones, cartilage, and skin. Add vegetables, meat, and noodles into individual soup bowls, fill with hot broth, and garnish with chives

Stephanie Stiglmeier
Community Garden Intern

Raw Milk available as a Fungicide to Community Gardeners

Diluted raw milk will be available on Sundays starting at 11am for the next few weeks. The milk will be in a cooler with a spigot by the south gate. Bring a spray bottle and take what you need, being considerate of other gardeners who might need it also.

How to use it:

1. Spray any affected leaf on both the top and the bottom sides until dripping.
2. Spray every 7-14 days.
3. The milk will be diluted between 7:3 and 9:1 water to milk. A concentration of milk heavier than 30% does not seem to increase the fungicidal effects.
4. Wash out the spray bottle thoroughly after use -- old milk stinks!

Other things to consider:

1. Powdery mildew can spread from leaf to leaf -- consider pruning off badly affected leaves. Clip off dead or yellowing leaves, making the cuts close to the stem. BE SELECTIVE -- pruning squash makes it easier for pests and disease to enter the plant. 
2. If you're looking for a commercial fungicide, it has to be ORGANIC. Follow all of the use instructions carefully -- application of commercial organic fungicide can be harmful to the applicator. Here's a link with more information on commercial ORGANIC fungicides.

THIS DILUTED RAW MILK IS AVAILABLE TO THE WAGNER FARM COMMUNITY GARDENERS ONLY, AND ONLY FOR USE IN THE WAGNER FARM COMMUNITY GARDEN.

Bayerischer Kartoffelsalat (Bavarian Potato Salad)

This recipe comes from my grandmother on my mother's side, and is a must for any of my family's events - birthday's, holidays, Sunday dinners. I can guarantee this will become a favorite potato salad recipe and beats any American potato salad. 

5 lbs of potatoes (Yukon Gold, or any other type of white potato)
1 lb of bacon (for a vegetarian/vegan version, substitute with one large, thinly sliced cucumber
1 bunch of green onions, sliced
Salt
Pepper
Canola Oil
White vinegar

Clean the potatoes with water, and then boil them (with the skins on) until cooked. While  the potatoes are boiling, cut up the bacon into small pieces and cook in a frying pan. Set aside the bacon and bacon grease. After the potatoes have finished cooking, peel them while they are still hot (use paper towels to hold the potatoes while peeling). Cut the potatoes into large chunks and put into a large mixing bowl. Add the green onions and the bacon with the grease into the mixing bowl. Add salt, pepper, canola oil, and white vinegar to taste. Mix to combine. Try not to mix too much or else the potatoes will turn into a mush. Serve warm for best taste.

Stephanie Stiglmeier
Community Garden Intern

Family recipes

Over the next few weeks, Stephanie will be posting German recipes from her family's kitchen.  It's a nice homage to the Wagners, who came here from Germany in 1855.

If you'd like to share some of your recipes, please email them to me or drop them off at the farm. It's a great opportunity to learn new recipes to use our beautiful produce.

Powdery Mildew Strikes!

Powdery Mildew on a member of the Cucurbitaceae family 

Powdery mildew has been spotted in the garden this week, and it is taking over with a vengeance. Almost every plant in the Cucurbitaceae family has been affected (this includes melons, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and pumpkin). It seemed to take off after the very humid day we had last Monday. 

Jen is going to have milk available starting this Sunday, and continuing Sundays after that. She will leave out a cooler of diluted milk with a spigot all day Sunday, and it will be cleaned out at the end of the day. Free of charge to everyone, but you will have to supply a spray bottle.

You can also treat the mildew with store-bought, organic products. Watering only in the mornings, as well as providing good air circulation, can help relieve the mildew, but it is recommended to treat with the milk.

If you have questions, please let me or Jen know.

Stephanie Stiglmeier
Community Garden Intern