weeds and winter 4/1/10

Dear vegetable lovers,

The last few weeks have been a race against the weeds and to plant more seeds and seedlings - very atypical for this time of year. Usually in the middle of winter (which is exactly now, after the winter solstice and during the coldest part of the year, when the days are growing longer and we are approaching spring), the war against the weeds eases up, there is a break from planting and sowing, and we slow down because the cold weather slows plant growth.

In the summer, a lettuce seedling can be ready to harvest within 3 weeks of planting. In the peak of winter, the same type of lettuce may need two months. The lettuces from this week and last week were planted about 6 weeks ago. This week's broccoli was two months old, but if planted at the height of winter (when it's cold, of course, not like this year) it can take double the time. Normally, we try to get everything into the ground before the peak of winter to get a "head start", and then we slow down during the peak of winter because efficiency (output vs growing time) is lower. Now that the middle of winter (the shortest day) is behind us and the days are getting longer, we should be resting from planting. But we have been planting vigorously for the last two weeks. New broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, green onion, lettuces - all went into the ground.

Usually, when growth slows in the winter, we manage to get ahead of the weeds, or at least control them or reach a stage in which we "can live" with them. Weeds are whatever grows in the garden that we did not initiate. In conventional agriculture, weeds are regularly sprayed. I, of course, do not use chemicals or materials that I do not know about. It simply does not suit our work with nature to deal with materials that are toxic, smell really bad, make people vomit, make eyes tear, and cause illness.

Besides - we are not afraid of weeds! They are not all "bad"! I divide them into three categories (which also reduces the workload a bit).

1. "Bad Weeds" = most of the weeds for most growers, but not in my garden! These are the unwanted weeds. They come from seeds that we did not plant and grow in places that disturb the plants we do want. These weeds compete with our crops for food, water, and light and create crowdness that prevents the proper development of the crops we do want. In our garden, these weeds are manually removed (usually one by one) and placed on the garden bed as a cover. Thus, they form a "blanket" the keeps the earth warm at night, preserves the moisture of the earth in summer, and prevents other seeds from sprouting and becoming full-grown weeds. Weeds can also be used as chicken food or organic matter for compost. When the weeds are really young (small and seedless) they can be raked outside the garden with a cultivator or worked into the soil. A cultivator is a tool like a bent fork with which the top layer of the soil is scratched or turned over.

2. " Volunteers" = plants grown without my initiative, whereever they "chose". I leave them because they are beneficial in some manner. They might be edible and tasty, contribute to the balance of the garden, repel or attract insects, or just be beautiful, like last week's sunflower, which is not only beautiful but also helps balance the chemical contents of the soil. Volunteers usually turn out to be strong durable plants. We can learn about the preferences of that crop, such as its prefered soil type, moisture level, and neighbors. A common example of volunteers is cherry tomatoes that were hidden from sight and were not harvested. So they fall to the ground full of seeds. Most volunteers are plants grown for their fruit, because they are still in the garden when they have seed-filled fruits. Leafy and root plants are harvested before flowering, so they leave no seeds behind. A ripe fruit that falls to the ground will try at all costs to germinate and produce offspring.

A stubborn and welcome volunteer is the purslane (‘rijle' in Arabic or ‘regelet hagina' in Hebrew). Its ‘legs' (‘regel') reach all places in the garden and it, the world's greatest ‘spy' (‘m'ragelet'), always knows, amazingly, who will give her a patch of ground, weed her, loosen her soil, i.e., take the best care of her. As one of the healthiest plants for human beings, she always convinces me to dedicate a piece of the garden to her and give her my most devoted attention. Of course, she chooses which piece!

My third group may have been created out of the necessity to ease and facilitate our work (i.e., out of laziness) but studies verify our theory - really!

3. "Useful weeds" = studies show that growing vegetables amongst weeds is beneficial. I'm not surprised. Everything in nature is based on the right balance, and nature knows best. Weeds that are not initiated by us are part of that balance. Besides, weeds can physically protect our desired crops, as we saw in last year's severe hailstorms. Swiss chard, lettuces, and other leafy plants that grew adjacent to tall weeds (that no other grower would intentionally leave) were not chopped up but were delivered to you in your weekly boxes. So I say, it's not all from laziness!
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The boxes are already full of winter vegetables, especially roots, leaves, and members of the Brassicaceae/cabbage family.

I remind you:
All leaves and stems can and should be eaten! Hard stems can be peeled - it would be a shame to miss out on the tasty healthy cores. Some growers grow different types of the same vegetable, davka, for their leaves. For example, broccoli raab does not develop a large pretty flowerhead but, rather, beautiful big leaves that are served in gourmet restaurants. We simple farmers grow both flowerheads and leaves in one plant.

Leaves should be immediately removed from the root or thick stem of plants such as kohlrabi so they won't "drink" the moisture out of the root, causing it to shrivel.

Always, keep the leaves dry in the refrigerator to prevent spoilage. Even if you have no time to wash them before putting them in the fridge, like at my house, check if they are wet with life-giving dew or blessed rain and dry them....they can stay in good condition for weeks.

May you have a simple, efficient, and balanced week !

Yours,
Maggie