Harvest Season a Special Time

(Page 2 of 2)

July/August 2009
Oscar H. Will III 
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So far, this has been a bountiful year here at Grit. We’ve been able to launch the Community Chickens website (www.CommunityChickens.com), which is a clearinghouse that’s devoted to backyard flocks and the people who keep them. We have also embarked on a large poultry-hatching project. In the process of placing incubators and fertile eggs, we discovered a passionate community of poultry enthusiasts here at the office that includes Publisher Bryan Welch, Classified Advertising Rep Connie Roberts, Graphic Design Specialist Taylor Miller and Mother Earth News Associate Editor Troy Griepentrog. James Duft, marketing guru, got so excited about all the poultry activity that he secured a beautiful chicken coop from Horizon Structures that we plan to give to one lucky sweepstakes winner. Visit www.CommunityChickens.com for your chance to win the coop.

RELATED CONTENT

Whether it’s raising your first chickens, harvesting your first tomato or baking your first sourdough bread, we’d love to know what you are up to this season. We’d especially love to learn how you plan to preserve your own bounty this year. If you keep a country journal and would like to share it through a blog at www.Grit.com or www.CommunityChickens.com, just let me know (hwill@grit.com).

See you in September.
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  • vickie 10/6/2009 2:29:31 PM

    Hank,
    I just don't want to think of your September post I just could barely read it --frigid and dry --I can't get that out of my head.
    But I found this post and I like it much better. I can just imagine you as you tended your college garden and I now know why I find canning jars that are full of canned produce from long ago at garage sales.
    Good memories.
    vickie

  • Dennis Miller 6/21/2009 12:03:28 PM

    Ooops, went a little long there...

    Continuing though...

    - and a lobed cherry called Red Star.

    Also contracted a multi-colored bell pepper called Blush. Had to apply fungicide due to the extreme moisture.

    As of now, I'm betting the farm on the tomato crop since everything else not under plastic is yellowed out.

    Sorry this is so long, probably should've just emailed you, but it's Sunday and both kids are on their summer visit with the grandparents - so I'm a little bored. Plus, mom ordered me to take it easy today.

    Good luck with the season and the next magazine issue. Really liking this one so far.

    Dennis

  • Dennis Miller 6/21/2009 11:53:58 AM

    Hi Hank,

    Your story of gardening in Chicago reminds me of when I tried growing radishes and potatoes in the lava fields of Iceland. I had to carry in dirt to build up enough of a base.

    You had allot more success in the Windy City than I did the land if fire and ice. I had to plant something though, or I would've went nuts.

    This has been a tough year in the field with winter hanging on so long, a cold wet spring, and a cold wet summer. Just from low temperatures alone I think the growing season was delayed by 3-4 weeks.

    Lost allot of seed to rot. Everything except the radish and broccoli raab needed a parka and a life jacket. Very few snow peas or green beans. No spinach, beets, kohlrabi, or lettuce.

    And today, 21 June, it's still too wet to do any cultivating. I've had contant standing water since April. Grass and weeds are getting high enough I'll either have to apply burn down or mow and re-plow. It's crazy!

    On a good not though, we finally got 3 straight days of hot and windy weather that normally would help the yellowed corn and dry up the soil a bit. Unfortunately, the warmth was accompanied by another 5" of rain...

    The potatoes are being harvested tomorrow and will have to be carried out in buckets. I used plastic mulch over the raised beds so they didn't get drowned out. Plant samples are averaging over 5lbs of tubers. Hopefully the rest of the field will be as good.

    Had a most excellent strawberry crop again. I'm seriously thinking of expanding production being the number of straight high yield seasons. I'll being using raised beds with plastic mulch and drip tape as well. I'll have to send pictures of that project.

    This year I have a contract for cherry tomatoes.

    10 different varieties; red, yellow, green, and brown cherry (called Brownberry by Harris I believe), red and yellow pear cherries, garden peach, green zebra, a red/yellow hybrid called Isis Candy, and a lobed cherry called

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