Robbins Farm Garden

A Cooperative Learning Project

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Why We Grow Soybeans – 2012 edition

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I picked 107 pods from this one soy plant – that’s about 321 delicious little edamame beans. I noticed that the roots of this plant were particularly loaded with nodules of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Examining other plants, it was consistent that the largest plants with the highest yield had more nodules on their roots. Do more nodules make the plant healthier, or do healthier plants support more nodules?

How does your garden squash grow?

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Squash growth, 4 daysWe know that summer squash grow so fast that if you miss one during harvest you’ll find a Moby Zuke in a few days. But I’m a left-brained geek who likes numbers, so I planted some reference sticks next to a young Zephyr on Saturday, August 4 and checked it four days later on August 8. It had just about doubled in length and more than tripled in girth, well on its way to blimpness. That’s how fast a summer squash can grow. I picked it immediately before it could scare any dogs or small children.

More on fermenting

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Just like my Sue, my sister of the soil, I’ve just made my first-ever batch of sauerkraut, which spent four days on the counter before moving to the well-known "cool, dry place," which in my house is the fridge. Its base was Napa cabbage from the garden, and the secondary ingredients included both carrot and parsnip from the same source.

Honestly, I don’t really like sauerkraut — it’s "sauer!" — but I had my reasons to try it. First, is the locavore reason — what good is a bumper crop if your only choices are to give it to the neighbors or put it into the compost? 

Secondly, I was writing a story about natural fermentation, the centuries-old method of food preservation, for the Boston Globe, and wanted to have a feel for what I was talking about. It’s one of the privileges of journalism, to learn and experience more than I would if I didn’t have a need to know.

Anyway, the story was published this morning. Though it didn’t make the print version, the online presentation includes a tips box from Dan Rosenberg, founder and co-owner of Real Pickles, a Greenfield, Mass., company makes about a dozen products using only local produce and natural fermentation.

If remember to, I’m going to bring my kraut to the garden Saturday morning for a tasting. C’mon by!