Archive for the ‘Plant Stories’ Category
Tomato Blight: Now, more than ever–buy local.
About a month ago, I wrote about rain: how hard June has been for our upstate farmers, whose crops are drowning in the fields. Now a plague of a different sort has struck, borne in our second month of humid air: tomato blight.
Blights ...
What rain does to Farmers
This year, the first two weeks June have had more rain than any past June in recent history. It’s a bummer for our upstate farmers, who have found themselves dealing with the swampy soil–an impossible setup for summer plantings, as the machines rolling ...
Put some “spring” into your step (and on your rooftop!)
Nobody said it was easy being green! Fortunately, even in Brooklyn’s cramped confines, one can render a jungle within their walls, easy-peasy. Ben, my rooftop farming partner, came over last week with two cool pals and we seeded 700 baby plants, ...
The Good Kind of Oil
It’s almost a dirty word around here, and it’s certainly a dirty substance: oil. Who knew, though, that olive oil could be as political as petroleum? Last year, the Italian olive oil industry was slammed with impurity charges that challenged ...
Bean Season
Come September in New York, with days alternatively insufferably hot and anticipatorially cold, only the tough (of our veggies) can survive. Broccoli’s gone to flower (you can almost hear it shrieking, “Must be pollinated! Must seed!” as the summer sun begins ...
And Another Thing (Tomato Poetry)…
This poem by Robert Paul Smith is my last farewell to this year’s tomatoes. I found it in one of my favorite books, Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables. It immediately stuck a chord, for me, as a gardener, ...
Great Grasses
In these long days of Indian summer, we’re often found lying on the lawn. But I don’t like grass. I like thyme and clover. I like tall stands of these zebra grasses. I also like chamomile, a beautiful herb the Romans ...
Fun with Fennel
I came upon fennel for the first time in an unlikely place: a rabbi’s refridgerator. I was house-sitting. A note on the kitchen counter said, “Eat everything perishable!” and following their commandment, I tried–but fennel had me stumped. I’d ...
