Let's Catch Up!

I know it has been a long time and so much has happened.  Spring planting went well.  Our lettuce bed was spectacular!! Black Footed Simpson, Buttercrunch, Red Romaine, Winter Density and Tat Soi made for a wonderful salad mix.  Made believers out of us! The lettuce was so good; I refused to put store bought salad dressing on it! I just cannot bring myself to buy lettuce in the bag again. 

Our tomatoes were , hummmm, just OK.  We Had Ed Brogdon, of Back to Eden, help us out.  He let us know that we did not have enough compost so our tomatoes were mal-nourished, the yield was scant.  The Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes were somewhat prolific and we had a few Cherokee Purples and Green Zebra’s.  The ones we had were delicious and all were good enough to plant again next year!

We don’t want to talk about the squash.  After having beautiful, lush green plants with bright yellow blossoms, the squash began to turn yellow and wilt.  We fell prey to the Squash Borer.  That is a nasty little varmint that literally sucks the life out of the plant.  It seemed they between the Squash Borer and the Squash Bug, none of the gardeners had a decent squash crop.  We will either plant very early next year or not at all. 

The white and green Cucumbers were wonderful, again the yield was off due to poorly augmented soil, but this was a learning experience for us.  

None of the beans did well, but that will not deter us from planting again next year.

 Ed put us in touch with the Bright Morningstar Horse Ranch in Blythewood, SC.  Ranch manager, James Smith arranged for us to scoop some poop!  On August 6, Gordon’s Gardeners went out to the right Morningstar Ranch in Blythewood, SC and we up three pickup trucks full of poop to augment our soil for our fall planting.  We can’t thank Ed, James and the Bright Morningstar Ranch enough!

We loaded six beds with our bounty.  Three weeks later, the Okra plants had grown at least two feet and the scrawny little basil plant is a bush.  The African Blue Basil covers the entire bed!  We are so excited for the fall planting!  

Our partnership with Azeez Mustafa, the first and largest African American organic farm in the state of South Carolina had given us some creds!   We are now producing members of SCF Organic Farms, a cooperative of farms based in Sumter SC.   We look to be certified Organic before the end of the year. 

We Are Garden of the Month for May

Thank you NoMa Community garden!!!  We are such proud veggie parents and we thank you for naming our lettuce as your first  Garden of the Month.   A special thanks to Azeez Mustafa and his wife for believing in us and for providing us with some Killer Lettuce plants!!!

The Latest from our Garden!

Cucumbers and African Blue Basil

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 These are the latest pictures of our Gordon's produce.  We are excited about our pending harvest!  Please check out our recipe pages for new ways to use our veggies!

The basil is so fragrant, I have used it in my spaghetti sauce and it was great!  Can't wait to use it with our tomatoes!
The cucumbers are awesome.  Check our recipe page for a twist on cukes and vinegar

 

Green Zebra, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Sun Gold and Mortgage Heirloom Tomatoes

The tomatoes...what can I say!  
The Heirloom Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are off the chain!! They are the sweetest cherry tomatoes I have ever had.









 Our Heirloom Black Krim tomatoes promise to be a real treat.  This tomato is originally from the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea in the former Soviet Union.It will be a gem!  This rare, and outstanding tomato yields a slightly flattened dark-red (mahogany-colored) slightly maroon, beefsteak tomatoes with deep green shoulders. Green gel around seeds. Fantastic, intense, slightly salty taste (which is great for those not wanting to add salt to their tomatoes).

Green Zebra tomatoes

Our Heirloom Green Zebra's  are unusual and exquisite tomato.   The 2-inch round fruit ripens to a yellow-gold with dark-green zebra-like stripes. The flesh is lime-emerald green in color and has an invigorating lemon-lime flavor. A great tomato for brightening up salads and other tomato dishes

Bush Beans and beets

Our beets have not rooted.  I pulled up one plant looking for beets... alas there were none!  I did use the tops in my salad!!

I have already had a handful of these beans.  I love beans, I eat them raw!  I blanched these, added some lemon juice and tossed them in a salad  (made with our lettuce of course!)  They were delicious!  Recipes for healthy green bean dishes will be found on our Recipe Page!

Green tint and white patty pan, crook and straight neck and zucchini squash

I fried up two of the crook neck squash from our garden along with three Straight necks from Ed's garden and they were delicious!  

Seems like nobody had heard of or had Patty Pan Squash...I am waiting for two more Patty Pans so I can fry them up as well.

Pending Harvest!!

 

Look what was hiding under the cucumber vine!

     

Terry, Linda, Sarah, Donald and I were at the garden on Sunday evening.  We weeded, watered, planted yellow and red watermelons and two additional Sun Gold cherry tomato plants.


It is time for some new recipes for our harvest! Check our recipe page for delicious ways to use our squash and cucumbers.

Look at the bush beans at the top.  They are doing GREAT!!  We should have bush beans before the end of the month.

So Much Has Happened!!

  So much has happened!!   Time and circumstances has not let us get to the garden as much as we would like, but Look at what has happened!

First of all thanks to Linda, Annette,  Terry, Donald, Sarah and  all others that have helped us water and weed! For a while there it looked like the weeds would win, but we conquered for now.   We are so proud of being named Garden of the Month.  We are blessed with an awesome team who God uses in a mighty way! 

The has been much speculation about the almost five foot tall flower in Bed 33  We think it is a Sunflower, but it looks like something out of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  If it starts dropping pods, I'm gonna RUN!!!!!!!

Our FIRST Purple Cherokee tomatoes!

The garden is doing really well.  We have fruit on the tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers and squash.  Our lettuce is still going strong!  We are all enjoying salads.  Our fellow gardener, Andrew watered our lettuce for s for the few days we could not get to do it.  Thanks Andrew, and I hope you enjoyed your lettuce!!
 

Our FIRST Green Zebra tomatoes

Our FIRST cuke!!

Linda "accidentally" ate our first cherry tomato yesterday.  She said it was the sweetest tomato she had ever had!  She said  we need to plant more Sun Gold tomato plants.   I will swing by Woodley's and get a couple today.

Look at  the size of those squash leaves?  They are HUGE.  We have lots of blossoms, and we fear the squash will be squished.  Linda will be thinning them out today, replanting some of the smaller squash in one of our other beds.

Bush beans and beets

Bed 5 on April 26

Bed 5 on May 18

We will be planting our last bed today.  Small yellow meat watermelons and Crimson Sweets, and carrots!  We have a plethora of seeds, so will also plant a little bit more of this and a little bit more of that. 

Well, I think we caught up on everything, more pictures will follow (can't find my camera cord), will post more tomorrow.

WLTX Meets Gordon's Gardners!

Lauren Talarico, WLTX Producer,  came out to the garden last week and did an excellent story on the community garden.  A 'breaking news story' prevented it airing that night, but it did air yesterday.  She took lots pictures and interviewed several of the gardeners.  

Auntie Karen and Gordon's Garden got some air time too!! Here is the link to the interview,  WLTX News Story            

Our First Harvest, Gordon's Lettuce Mix

Annette, Sarah and Joan hauled two 40 lb bags each of mushroom compost and peat moss to prepare Gordon’s fifth bed on yesterday evening.  We raked all of that organic material into the soil along with plant food to get the bed for planting.  Annette and Joan planted a half row of white cucumbers and a half row of bush beans while Sarah was a weeding Wonder, weeding the entire lettuce bed.

Linda joined us and we all took a final look at the back half of the green and beet bed.  The general consensus was that we either did not plant anything there or, what we planted was NOT growing.  So we turned to soil over and re-planted it with Lima beans.  Linda and Annette re-staked some of our tomatoes, they are growing taller everyday!

Weeding Wonder, Sarah continued her prowess and weeded the tomato bed.  The basil is sprouting up all over the tomato bed and Sarah  planted the marigolds n the tomato beds as well.   

Annette harvested our first lettuce.  We picked a little of each, Winter Density, Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch, Red Romaine and Tatsoi.  If we keep the bed watered, we should have lettuce through May!

SIDEBAR:    Linda dropped a bag of Gordon's Lettuce Mix off for Karen.  When I talked to Karen she raved about how good it was!  

 
I had a Gordon's Lettuce Mix salad for lunch today.  I added some spring onions (from Azeeze's organic farm), feta cheese, grilled salmon and I topped it with a homemade, Strawberry Vinaigrette dressing (see recipe page)  The homemade dressings are so flavorful.  They make a perfect topping to our fresh picked lettuce!

We ended our evening by watering all of the babies and toddlers.