The hidden farm at Gore Place

The "back field" is the area of land behind the animal enclosures, behind the trees. About 2 acres of it is farmed and this season it's been planted with cabbage, Pac choi, green beans, leeks, collard greens, eggplant, purple top turnips, five varieties of winter squash (Waltham butternut, Sibley, Pink banana, Delicata, and pumpkin), three varieties of summer squash (Raven, Soleil, and Bennings green tint), and two varieties of cucumber (Bush pickle and Marketmore 76).

Here's a peek of the back field as it looked on June 16:

On sale at the farm stand this week

Stop by the farm to get your fresh eggs, kale, pac choi, and bunching onions.

Eggs are in the red cooler

The immature onions are picked early and can be used like scallions

Pac Choi

Garlic scapes

As the garlic bulb grows, the stalk (or stem) of the plant grows and starts to curl. The garlic scape is the stalk of the garlic plant and, if harvested when still curly and tender, can be used in a number of recipes. If the scape is not cut off, the plant's food and energy is divided between it and the garlic bulb. Farmers will harvest the scape in order to direct all the nutrients toward the garlic bulb to help it grow.

Garlic scapes are now on sale at the Gore Place farm stand. Pick some up and try them out in your next meal!

Garlic scape

Three scapes

New raised beds!!

Four new raised beds are being installed in front of the carriage house at Gore Place. These new beds are a little different than the ones near the farm. They are 10 feet by 10 feet and planted in a four square pattern, which I will describe in a future post. The raised beds will be planted with a mix of medicinal, culinary, and ornamental plants.

Two of the new raised beds in front of the carriage house

oh, those pesky wabbits!

The plants Scott planted in the raised beds in April were all eaten up by rabbits. So he planted them again, and the rabbits feasted once more! To keep those pesky wabbits from striking again, Scott has had to place rabbit fences around the raised beds. They're working so far...

Rabbit fence around the mixed vegetables raised bed

Update on garlic plants

The garlic that was planted in October grew well during the winter and will be ready for harvesting in July. The tops of the garlic can be cut off in June and eaten.

Garlic field

Close-up of Garlic plants

New year, new season!

The raised bed gardens are back! Scott has prepared them for the new season and started planting. He also just planted cabbage, onions, and kale in the field north of the cottage.

Raised beds

Lettuce

Planting in the north of cottage field

Gleaning Gore Place

This summer and fall, crews from the Boston Area Gleaners came to Gore Place several times to harvest the crops and deliver them to area food pantries, meal programs, and homeless shelters.

From the field grown produce, crews picked approximately 10 boxes of green beans, 12 boxes of cabbage, 6 boxes of turnips, 12 boxes of sugar pumpkins, and 54 boxes of butternut squash. The squash boxes weighed 50 to 60 pounds, totaling well over two tons of produce for those in need! And from the garden, crews picked 6 boxes of beans, 15 boxes of collard greens, and 5 boxes of mustard greens.

All this produce from Gore Place was delivered to Rosie's Place in Boston, the Salvation Army food pantry and meal program in Waltham, the Red Cross Food Pantry and the Sandra's Lodge shelter in Waltham, and also to food pantries in Cambridge.

Picking butternut squash in early October

Garlic

Scott has started to plant garlic in the field north of the cottage. Not knowing which variety of garlic will perform well in our soil, he has selected three different varieties, all of which are reported to be very cold hardy and are of the hardneck type. Softneck varieties of garlic are the ones which are most commonly found in supermarkets. The hardneck varieties have a rigid stem, called a scape, that coils from the top of the garlic and has bulbils growing from it. Bulbils look like mini bulbs and can be cut off the top of the garlic and eaten or replanted.

The three varieties of garlic being planted are German Extra Hardy, Siberian, and Chrysalis Purple. A total of 65 pounds of seed garlic will be planted and if all goes well, we should have a total yield of 300-350 pounds of garlic around mid-July. The garlic will then go through a curing process of about 3 weeks.

North of Cottage field planted with garlic seed.
There will be four 100-foot rows of each garlic variety.

Lettuce!

The first bed that was planted with the fall lettuce mix in early September produced its first harvest this week. You can buy some at the Gore Place farm stand, yum!

Lettuce 10.2.09

The second lettuce garden bed was planted two weeks later. Since the weather has gotten cooler, Scott built a greenhouse over the lettuce to keep the plants warm. The incoming heat from the sun warms the plants and soil inside the structure faster than heat can escape. We can extend the growing season a bit more this way.

Lettuce garden bed #2 9.25.09

Lettuce greenhouse 10.2.09

Inside the lettuce greenhouse 10.2.09

At the farm stand this week

Ring of Fire hot peppers

Sugar Pumpkins

Kale

Waltham Butternut Squash

Waltham Butternut Squash

At the end of May and early June, Scott planted Waltham Butternut Squash in the back field. During the first week of September, he began to harvest the squash, and is still harvesting the vegetables. The Boston Area Gleaners also come to Gore Place to pick and collect the butternut squash, delivering them to food pantries and shelters. Scott has estimated that about 2400 pounds of produce will have been harvested by the end of the season.

The Waltham Butternut squash field on August 6, 2009

Waltham Butternut Squash was developed at the Waltham Field Station in 1972. It is a popular winter squash, with pale yellow skin and a slightly sweet-tasting orange flesh. It is called a winter squash because of its thick skin and long shelf life. In the past, people would store this squash, knowing that they could eat it well into the winter months.

Waltham Butternut squash growing on September 1, 2009

Come visit the Gore Place farmstand for some Waltham Butternut squash!

Update on the farm

The weather has been getting cooler, but did you know you could still be growing and planting vegetables?
The fall crop of chard and radishes that were planted just over two weeks ago are thriving. Scott is removing the tomato plants from the garden bed, and replanting the bed with a fall lettuce mix. And the Waltham Butternut squash will be harvested for the next few weeks.

Red Meat Radish and Daikon Radish

The first Waltham Butternut Squash harvest of the year

And now for some fun garden photos:

Eggplant flower

Ring of Fire peppers

Purple Top Turnip in the ground

Purple Top Turnips for sale

North of Cottage Field update

The north of cottage field began producing vegetables last week. The mustard greens and late-season green beans that were planted six weeks ago have been nicely growing. The first harvest was sold last week at Scott's new farm stand, with more produce available this week.

Delicious green beans

Mustard greens

The unplanted area of the north of cottage field has been cultivated and covered with compost. Cultivating means an inch or so of the topsoil is loosened up and turned over in order to prepare the land to grow crops.

Changing seasons

As seasons and the weather change, the farmer or gardener adapts and changes as well. The raised bed that was so lush with different vegetables was recently full of dried leaves and dying plants. Scott cleaned almost everything out and planted it with a fall crop this week. He planted the seeds of Rhubarb Red Swiss Chard, Red Meat Radish, and Daikon Radish.

Ready for clean-up 8.12.09

Planted with fall crop (the plant left standing is lemongrass)