The $100 head of broccoli

Ain't she lovely? After almost 7 months of waiting (and after producing leaves the size of elephant ears) we've got our first broccoli flower! This is Romanesco, an Italian heirloom variety, that is known for its spirally florets. Let's just hope its delicious, too.
Two weeks ago I stopped in Chattanooga, TN on my way to Atlanta, GA. A very pretty town nestled between the Smokies and the Tennessee River, I cruised the downtown and picnicked at the community 13 acre Urban farm. Its called Crabtree Farm, and you can check out photos on Flickr.
In other news, we've planted most of the peppers starts, and will start on eggplant this week. We're steady in the upper 80s and low 90s, with scattered thunderstorms and muggy mornings. The squash are loving it, as are the tomatoes. Only 3 weeks out of the greenhouse and we've got flowers!
We're hoping to start selling at the farmer's market in 2 weeks. I've been spending mornings transplanting tomato starts to sell, and we are hoping to have chard, snap peas, carrots, and, perhaps, if we're lucky, broccoli. Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be quite an adventure.

Babies!

I believe this is what "knee-high to a grasshopper" sized corn looks like. May is monsoon month around here, apparently, which is great for crops, but also very good for weeds. Thanks to our new comrades, we're finally keeping up! Pictured here solo (he is posing with that sprinkler, mind you) is Sebastián, followed by his cuñado (bro-in-law) Francisco, pictured with Chris.
After a few days of warming up our Spanish, we learned that they were potato farmers in Guatemala (they've been in the states for about 5 years) and can pretty much run the show from here on out! We're even ordering a few seeds from Guatemala on their recommendation to see if they yield as well here as they do there. I'm laughing that I was a little worried that I might go a whole summer without practicing my Spanish- instead I'm learning a whole new set of vocabulary! Of course I've already threatened to teach them English later this summer when it's too hot to work ;)
A quick photo-montage of the babes: to the left, the carrots have responded, finally, to intensive weeding, as have the peas (below). To the right, baby tomato plants 'hardening off' before we put them in the ground. We've now got about 400 plants outdoors and will most likely do a second crop in the greenhouse after the lettuce is done... expect me to be moving quickly from tomato heaven to tomato hell come July.Finally, a quick shout-out to the Parents, who made a harrowing drive through tornadoes and driving rain for a Mother's day visit. We had dinner in the Skamp, visited the horses next door, and talked a LOT about algae. It was short but sweet, and I appreciated having the day off with not much else to do but eat and eat and eat!
Stay tuned for more tomatoes and images of the Urban Farm I checked out in Chattanooga this week... two hours further south really gives you a head start, or maybe I'm just jealous.

Full Throttle

It's catch-up blog post! A quick plug, first of all, to check the updated Flickr set, as it will supply more details of the 'goings-on' around here...
At last, the long awaited Guerrilla Gardening Bike Ride! We had, needless to say, a blast. Pictured here are the seed "bombs" (mixture of clay, compost, and wildflower seeds) that we threw in empty lots all over Knoxville... as well as our youngest (and most enthusiastic) participant- notice the ducking by-standers.
Jacob arrived last Monday night, and immediately got to work building me a proper greywater drainage system. Using 12' of 4" pipe and a ton of wood chips, my kitchen/shower/sink water will get a good filtering before soaking into the ground. It was sweet of him, but really, I think it was just an excuse to use the SkidSteer.
On Thursday we left for the Smokies, taking a round-about route through Gatlinburg, the National Park, the Cherokee Indian reservation, and finally, along 50 breathtaking miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway (southeastern part of the mtns in NC) to Asheville, NC. We kicked around that cute little town (think mini-Portland) for a night, stuffed ourselves with possibly the best BBQ ever, and Skamper'd back to Knoxville to attend a Permaculture/Urban Farming art show. The lovely Brendan demonstrates mushroom log-plugging techniques to the masses.


Vacation over, we plunged full-speed ahead with planting. Chris broke down and hired two Guatemalans (Sebastián y Francisco) to help save our backs. ¡Gracias a Díos! More about those gents as we get to know them better. The speed factor is much appreciated; since Monday we've planted cucumbers, squash, beans, corn, melons, and onions, dug several dozen tomato holes (details to follow, it's quite a process), weeded and mulched the greenhouse, trellised the rest of the peas, and have torn down the front wall (intentionally) of the barn. Did I mention its only Wednesday?
I'll leave you all with several images from my greenhouse photoshoot of last evening. We will make our first lettuce harvest on Friday! And if you've never saved seed from your spinach before (and really, why haven't you?), this is what spinach looks like when it "bolts" and goes to seed. More pictures from the shoot on Flickr, or maybe you'll receive one in your mailbox... If you don't think I have your address and would like handmade postcards, email me!