Food! Lots of food!

So as the semester is winding down, there are lots of good veggies ready to harvest in the garden! Our focus during class is mostly on harvesting whats ready to eat, fertilizing some crops that will still produce, and getting ready to clean up out plots. This week I took home carrots, green peppers, and flowers! I have lots of peas that are flowering, and tons of green tomatoes, so I hope they're ready to eat before I leave town for Winter break!

Holy cucumbers!

So finally its getting time to harvest some of our vegetables! Unfortunately, all of my zucchini and squash plants have died, so pretty much all I have taken home so far are cucumbers and lettuce. Still, I've made some pretty tasty dishes with them.

This simple, fresh salad is just red lettuce, cucumbers, olive oil, walnuts, salt and pepper. It was delicious, the fresh cucumbers really taste different than store bought!

I have literally taken home 10 cucumbers, and there's only so much a girl can eat. This cucumber water is a new and totally refreshing way to enjoy my bounty!

I have many green tomatoes, so hopefully I will have some to take home soon! And I can't wait to dig up my carrots and see how big they are!

Organic Labeling

These days its hard to sort through all the mumbo-jumbo that comes with organic labeling. How are you supposed to eat organic when you're not really sure whats what?

Here's a simplified breakdown of definitions from the UF IFAS Extension (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu):

• 100% Organic = 100% of ingredients are certified organic, excluding salt and water.
• Certified Organic = 95% of ingredients are certified organic, excluding salt and water.
• Made with Organic Ingredients = At least 70% of ingredients are certified organic, excluding salt and water.
• No Label Claims = Less than 70% of ingredients are certified organic.

Keep in mind that only producers making over $5,000 per year need to be certified with an accredited program, which means that local small farms may use organic practices, but may not be "certified" or "100%" organic. Talk to your local farmers to learn more about the practices they use!

Farm Fresh

I consider myself very lucky to live in Gainesville, and that I have so many great places to get my food. I try to get as much as I can from Ward's and our local farmers market. It's great to go to the farmers market and be able to see whats in season and grown locally. This week my fridge is packed with Publix foods, which is not ideal because often their veggies are not labeled with where they are from.

In the garden this week we got to plant cauliflower, cabbage, and beets! The plants are getting big and the garden is looking full! My leaves are getting munched on which is a bummer, but hopefully it won't be too rainy on Monday so I can spray so chemical deterrents.  My eggplant got its first flower, I'm so proud. More garden pics to come!

This week in class we talked about the nutrients that are vital for plants in the soil environment. Environmental, macro, and micronutrients all play a role in the growth of a plant. Environmental nutrients, such as oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, are nutrients that the plant picks up from the atmosphere around it. Macronutrients are things plants need in large quantities, which are nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, and sulfur. Micronutrients are just as important to plants, but just needed in small quantities. These nutrients are iron, zinc, chlorine, copper, boron, manganese, sodium, nickel, and molybdenum.  

In the garden: Apart from the weekly weeding, this week we planted lettuce! My peas that I planted last week have sprouted and are looking great! Its so fun to see these little sprouts get so big! We also re-raised our beds that have taken quite a beating from all the rain, and sprayed our plants with two different pesticides. 

My cilantro is getting some leaves! 

Can't wait to have some pretty flowers to take home.

Mine your own business!

So this week in the garden I was excited to see that my little seedlings have grown so much! But also, I saw some pests have invaded!

Though the entomologist in me thinks leaf miners are totally awesome, I don't want them on my peppers!

I've noticed quite a few ant piles since I've started, and I'm amazed at how fast they move locations. I was assured they wouldn't really have an effect on my plants, but their presence definitely makes me more cautious when working on my garden.

I was glad to see all my transplants have survived and are getting big!

Seeing my seedlings grow bigger was by far the best part of this week. My zucchini is getting huge, and my basil has sprouted!

So this week in the garden, we did our normal weeding and biweekly fertilizing. We also got to plant our peas, and had the opportunity to replace any of our plants that haven't yet sprouted with a new seed. I had one okra that didn't sprout, so I'm happy I got to replace it.

In class we talked about the things that plants need to grow, such as water and climate conditions. This was interesting for me as a botany major, because I know a lot about what plants need to grow, but I have not done any practical work in growing my own plants. We talked about frost time, and how gardens need to be started at different times depending on what climate you live in. 

I'm glad I finally got pictures up of my garden!

Looking forward to more next week!