I have a defacto experiment going on. I was sowing Monday evening in the most fruitful sign, Cancer, until dark. At 7 pm, the signs changed to Leo, the most barren sign. So I should see a major difference in the collards and turnips I sowed after 7 pm, as opposed to the stuff I sowed before 7 pm right?

How to get 100% germination regardless of the signs

It was getting close to dark Monday and I planted 4 rows of Lacinato kale before cleaning out my push seeder to start sowing collards. I plant two rows to a bed and the beds are 285′ long. I planted one row and I am 1/2 way back up the other row and glance over at the 4 rows left to plant… there are 6 rows. Uh-oh…

I had just planted the last of my Georgia Southern collard seed on top of my 2nd bed of lacinato kale.

If the other 9 beds of carrots, beets, kale and collards fail, I am fairly certain that every collard and kale seed in the the double-planted bed will germinate with vigor and it will be a mess to harvest.

Collard Raab by CafeMama

What is Collard Raab?

I had not heard of collard raab either until last Saturday when Maria Fisher walked up with a handful of collard seed stalks and asked me what she should charge for them. I just gave her a blank look. Sensing that she was dealing with someone that was not culinarily hip and cool, Maria patiently explained that they were called collard raab and offered me one to try. Wow!
I have been eating them raw all week and Jenifer sauteed some in garlic and olive oil one day for lunch.

Normally, when I see collards going to seed, it indicates the crop is just about over. The majority of the plant’s energy is concentrated in sending up a flower stalk to be pollinated and produce seeds.

I just never had thought about eating the immature flowers but it makes sense. Collards are the brassica family, along with broccoli and cauliflower. Heads of broccoli and cauliflower are just large immature flowers.

Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant

Sunday morning, I noticed the tomato seeds I has sown the previous Tues. were sprouting, so i moved them to the greenhouse for the day to get the benefit of full sun. We had had them sitting on a 6′ folding table behind our couch in the living room.

Peppers and eggplants prefer 85 to 90 degrees to germinate and can take up to 3 weeks to come up. What we started doing last year is to wrap pepper and eggplant seed in a warm and moist paper towels and stick each variety in plastic sandwich bags. We place 3 pint jars filled with hot water in a small lunchbox cooler, lay the bags of seeds on top of the jars, and put the lid on. I change the water in the jars about every 12 hours. This cuts the germination time down to 4-5 days.

Amazing Amount of Work This Week

We offered some working shares for our CSA this year and it is working out well. A working share is an exchange of labor, rather than money, for a share of vegetables.
We have 7 work shares and some have already started and we are trying schedule in the rest.

Many hands make light work but it runs me ragged trying to keep those hands from being idle and bored.

What would of took Jenifer and I all day to do, gets done in a few hours when we have help. It is just amazing to be so productive.

Levi’s Cabbage Plant

If you recall, Levi brought home a cabbage plant last week from school. We made a spot at the end of one of the beds in the greenhouse for it.

Last Tuesday, I was seeding flats outside and had the greenhouse door propped open. I did not notice the rooster and 3 hens go into the greenhouse. These chickens can roam the world if they choose. They choose to annoy us instead.

They stripped Levi’s cabbage plant of all it’s leaves, then proceeded to scratch up the dirt around the plant and sit on it. I was livid and screaming at the chickens. When Levi got home from school, he was extremely bummed.

Jenifer offered to buy him another one at the farm supply but he said he had to use the one from school for the contest. I made up compost tea and had Levi pour it over his mangled plant and we built a wire cage to go around the cabbage. The tea seemed to of done the trick. The cabbage putting on new growth.