277 Summer Recipes - You Grew It, Now Eat It!

Show Transcript

GB 277 TRANSCRIPT Summer Recipes

Farmer Fred  0:00

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by smart pots the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. It's made in the USA visit smart pots.com/fred For more information and a special discount, that's smart pots.com/fred Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, well you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred

About this time of the summer, you’re looking at your crowded kitchen counter and wondering, what the heck are we going to do with all these tomatoes? Or all those peppers? Or, more likely, what? more zucchini??

Hey, you grew it, now eat it! Today, we explore tasty recipes for your abundant summer harvest. (01:31)

Also, we have tips for sharpening your garden tools. (16:00)

And, we do a deep dive into one ingredient of fertilizer, phosphorus. And actually, you wouldn’t want to do a deep dive into that, it just might be radioactive! (25:01)

It’s all in today’s episode, number 277, You Grew It, Now Eat It: Summer Harvest Recipes

We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots, Dave Wilson Nurseryand Heirloom Roses. Let’s go!

SUMMER RECIPES: YOU GREW IT, NOW EAT IT!

Farmer Fred

Sacramento Digs Gardening is a local daily online free newsletter that gardeners throughout California,1000s of subscribers, are reading and its daily report about what's happening in gardening and cooking. Every Sunday they have presented for the last five years, a delicious recipe using home grown food. Well it's about time they put it into a recipe book. And they have, in fact, two recipe books. A spring book and a summer book, that you can find at Sacramento Digs Gardening. We’re talking with Debbie Arrington. She and Kathy Morrison are responsible for doing all the cooking and the eating and the picture taking and things like that. And  it must have been difficult putting together the summer recipe book, since everything is ready in the garden in the summertime. It seems that you could do a book on zucchini alone!

Debbie Arrington  2:27

Yes, and there is already a book, 365 ways to use zucchini. But we have several zucchini recipes in this collection, including one of my favorites. What do you do with a baseball bat size zucchini? You grate it. And then you have a zucchini slaw, which is shredded zucchini instead of cabbage in it. And it's very refreshing, very light, and it’s a cool salad. But that's just one of the many ideas that we have in here.

Farmer Fred  2:58

You know what I saw in there that caught my eye. In fact, I'm looking out through the abutilon jungle at a fig tree that's growing next to it and it just had produced its early Breba crop, its first crop of the year. The fig tree is the Violet de Bordeaux fig, and you have a recipe called an easy fig pizza. It looks delicious.

Debbie Arrington  3:19

It is. And what's great about that pizza is you can do it on the grill. So you don't even have to turn the oven on. And when it's 108 degrees outside that's probably a good idea. You can use a premade crust, like  a flatbread or you can do dough from scratch or from ready dough. And it's topped with figs and feta cheese and prosciutto on top.  I used a pizza pita bread for it. You can assemble this and get it done in under 20 minutes, easy.

Farmer Fred  3:58

Yeah, probably the hardest part is peeling the fig.  Because it takes two ripe figs peeled and sliced, about a quarter inch thick.  And it's basically just stacked on the pita bread and then put in either a 400 degree oven, or like you said, on the grill.

Debbie Arrington  4:15

Yes and instead of a tomato sauce, you're just covering the bread with olive oil. And then sprinkling the cheese. And you also have some scallions in there too.

Farmer Fred  4:24

All right, I told you my favorite recipe in there. What's your favorite?

Debbie Arrington  4:28

Oh, that's hard to say. Because I wrote half of them. The ones that I use all the time are the easy to make fresh tomato sauce. I make that at least once a week during the summer. It is a wonderful, buttery tomato sauce because that's all it is; pretty much it’s tomato butter and salt and pepper. And you can add other seasonings if you'd like. It's  a wonderful sauce. And the thing about it is you can make it with peels on the tomatoes, and you put it through the food processor. And then if you really don't like  seeds and the the extra skin, you can take it out with a sieve. But it's very easy to do and you know, it makes a lovely pasta sauce, in particular, in under 20 minutes.

Farmer Fred  5:14

And of course, just about now, people are saying “what am I going to do with all these tomatoes?” Well , the Taste Summer cookbook from Sacramento Digs Gardening has a lot of tomato recipes, and the one that caught my eye was using the tomato skins, drying them, turning them into a powder and then sprinkling it on popcorn, including putting it in the butter that you put on the popcorn.

Debbie Arrington  5:37

Yes, if you are taking the skins off your tomatoes,  if you’re canning tomatoes, that's what is a great byproduct of the canned tomatoes is that tomato skin recipe. Then drying those skins and then using that for popcorn seasoning. And  also you can use that tomato powder in anything that you want to give a little extra tomato depth of flavor to. Or if you want to turn something red. It’s a dye, too.

Farmer Fred  6:06

Oh, that's good to know, how long will it last in a jar?

Debbie Arrington  6:09

Well, it's lasted at least six months, but that's as long as it lasted. It's got all used up.

Farmer Fred  6:16

So it depends on the amount of canning.

Debbie Arrington  6:20

There's several chutneys and relishes and other things and pickles and stuff for canners in our collection. The tomato skins, by the way, are dried in the oven at 200 degrees. So it's a very slow oven. You don't need the actual dehydrator to do that. And then ground up in a pepper mill, like you would do with peppers and other spices.

Farmer Fred  6:43

What about using vegetables raw? Are there any good recipes using raw vegetables for dinner?

Debbie Arrington  6:48

Oh sure. We have a bunch of salads, and then recipes that play off of salads. You mentioned figs earlier, there's a fig walnut salad that goes along with a blue cheese and greens. And if you add a little chicken to that, too, for some extra protein, it's a good dinner salad, besides being a side salad.

Farmer Fred  7:08

There’s something to do with the walnuts when they're ready come September, October, and the second harvest of figs has begun. At least here.

Debbie Arrington  7:17

People tend to think of salads as being lettuce and tomatoes. But actually, what makes a good salad is having a mix of textures and flavors. And so substituting peaches or plums, or grapes or figs or lots of other things that we have during the summer for tomatoes in your salad combos, it really brightens up the salads. It's also a way to get kids to eat more salad, because they tend to like things that are a little on the sweeter side. And so having a pluot , or some peaches and dried fruits, and mixed in with a vinegarette. We have several different combinations that are along those lines.

Farmer Fred  7:59

And you have a recipe for a drink that The New York Times has called the “signature cocktail of Sacramento”. I didn't know we had a signature cocktail. It's the white linen cocktail and it features cucumber slices.

Debbie Arrington  8:14

Yes, and it is really refreshing. This is a cocktail that was created  back in 2008 during cocktail week in Sacramento, but it was created by the mixologist of Rene Dominguez from Ella’s and the Shady Lady Saloon. And it's kind of like a gin and tonic and in a lot of ways, a Tom Collins. But instead of having your traditional lime or lemon as your flavorings, it's got the cucumber and elderflower, like is found in Saint Germain Elderflower liqueur. An elderflower, you may or may not know, is native to Sacramento. It's a plant that grows here in the Sacramento area and the Sierra foothills. And elderberries grow like crazy here, you know. Elderflower is from the flower instead of the berry, but it has that same sort of oh very light quality to it, but it kind of smells like pear, too. it awesome. And it has the cucumber, and there is some lemon in it also to brighten it up, and it has sparkling water, or you can use club soda. So it's a very simple drink. It does have some simple syrup in it to to make it a little sweeter, how sweet you'd like it, you can turn that way down or leave it out altogether.

Farmer Fred  9:35

So I guess it should be a dry gin instead of a citrus infused gin.

Debbie Arrington  9:40

They recommended Dry Gin, you know, to complement the cucumber. The difference between a dry gin and the citrus gins is that dry gin starts with juniper as the dominant flavor, and that Juniper is what complements that cucumber.

Farmer Fred  9:56

Something to eat, something to drink, that you can find in the Summer cookbook presented by Sacramento Digs gGrdening. It's called Taste Summer. It's a free cookbook because Kathy Morrison and Debbie Arrington, they just want to write garden articles every day of the year and put out a cookbook and then give it away.

Debbie Arrington  10:16

We're very generous. We are working on some sponsorships. So we hope those to be coming soon. And,  if you're not liking cucumbers, we also have a blueberry smash cooler and a Watermelon Margarita on our drinks list.

Farmer Fred  10:34

All right, I'll bite. What's in a Watermelon Margarita?

Debbie Arrington  10:38

Watermelon.

Farmer Fred  10:39

Yeah, I got that. And maybe tequila.

Debbie Arrington  10:43

Yes, that sort of goes with the territory. It's a very fun drink, particularly for a party. It is watermelon juice. Basically you get most of the pulp out of the watermelon and the seeds of course. And you mix it with tequila and Contreau and lime juice. And ice, and that's it.

Farmer Fred  11:05

Now I noticed that this is Kathy's recipe, and she says she used bourbon as the alcohol base, but that vodka, tequila, or white rum would work as well.

Debbie Arrington  11:15

Of course, I'm a big believer in frozen fruit margaritas but mostly because we have peach and a nectarine tree and so with those, I have all this frozen fruit in the freezer and it would make a great instant Margarita. Just put it all in the blender. You didn't even have to add ice, because the fruit was frozen. And this a tequila and Contreau, a little lime juice and away you go.

Farmer Fred  11:39

That's easy, too. We went through the peaches on our donut peach tree the fastest we've ever gone through them. I think there's only one little bag left in the freezer, because we've been enjoying peach daiquiris. Sacramento Digs Gardening is the source for the Taste Summer recipe book. Check it out, you're gonna find something you like, no doubt about it. How can people get a hold of Sacramento Digs Gardening?

Debbie Arrington  12:05

it's very easy to find. Go on Facebook, type in Sacramento Digs Gardening. It will take you to our Facebook page that will lead to any of those links, it will take you to our homepage. Or you can look this up directly at SacDigsGardening.CaliforniaLocal.com. And that will take you right to our homepage. And if you'd like to sign up for our free newsletter, just go to the upper right hand corner and fill out that little form. iI will send you an email. And once you verify it, you'll start getting the newsletter every day, just after four o'clockPacific time.

Farmer Fred  12:45

We'll have a link to the newsletter which contains a link to the recipe book in today's show notes. And of course, you can always just go to your favorite internet search engine and type in “Sacramento digs gardening” and no doubt you will find a link. That's Debbie Arrington. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

Debbie Arrington  13:03

You're welcome.

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Farmer Fred  13:08

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BEYOND THE GARDEN BASICS NEWSLETTER: FALL GARDENING TIPS

Farmer Fred

This week’s Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast might not seem timely. Oh, but it is. If you garden in the milder winter climate areas of the country, August September and early October are the months for you to begin your cool season garden. We’re talking leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, cabbage, chard, and kale. Nutrient rich staples such as broccoli, peas and cauliflower. Root crops: carrots, beets, radishes, garlic, onions and turnips. And if you’ve never grown a fall and winter vegetable garden before, we can help you get off on the right foot.

It’s Fall Garden Starting Tips.

If you are already a Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter subscriber, it’s probably in your email, waiting for you right now. Or, you can start a subscription, it’s free! Find the link to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast in today’s show notes, or on the Substack app. Or, you can sign up at the newsletter link at our homepage, gardenbasics dot net.

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HOW TO SHARPEN PRUNERS

Farmer Fred

A successful gardener is only as good as their tools. It pays to keep your tools clean and sharp. So what is there involved in sharpening cutting tools? We're talking with Sacramento County Master Gardener, Bill Black. And Bill, you're doing a little demonstration here at a workshop at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, showing people exactly how to sharpen and clean their tools. So let's just run through the basics. What do you need to sharpen tools?

Bill Black  16:33

Well, first thing you need is a cleaner of some sort. You can use soap and water, or 409, whatever. Just to get the crud loosened up on the blades. A lot of times there'll be just plain old dirt and sap that accumulates on there. And people get to where they can't really open and close the clippers because they're so crudded up. So we go ahead and spray them down with a cleaner of some sort. And then I take either a green scratch pad or if it's really bad, a piece of steel wool, and thoroughly clean the blades and any external parts that I can get to. Then I go ahead and clean them very well and then rinse them, and dry them. And then using a carbide steel sharpening  tool available through Amazon and other fine stores everywhere, to basically tune up the blade and realign the blades. So it's again sharp. We're not cutting a new edge on there. But like I said, just realigning the existing edge.

Farmer Fred  17:42

I like this cutting tool, the sharpening tool that you're using, from Corona. It’s a solid carbide sharpening tool, as opposed to a straight stone or a file, because it has a handle on it. And that gives you a little gauge on the best way to sharpen it.

Bill Black  17:58

Yeah, that's right. And it's a very simple process. Once you get it and you clean the tool, then you kind of go along the edge of the blade. You will see the normal clippers, there's one blade that is sharp and the other is not sharp, the sharpening blade just bypasses the flat side of the other blade and causes it to cut. So what we're going to do is just realign the edge on that sharp  blade, so we kind of have to eyeball it and lay the tool against the edge of the blade, following the bevel. And make sure that it's as close to that bevel as you can get .  If you have  too much of an angle, you're going to take the edge off the blade. If there’s not enough of an angle,  it will have no effect whatsoever.

Farmer Fred  18:48

The strokes you're making, it's a single stroke. And you're starting near the handle and working up to the tip and just taking it along that beveled edge at exactly whatever that bevel angle is. Do you have to sharpen the other side?

Bill Black  19:02

Yes. You do the other side, but at a much shallower angle because you want to go ahead and align both sides of that edge for it to be sharp. So you just simply place the blade at the edge of the sharpening tool against that bevel and draw it from the bottom of the blade to the tip, about four or five times. You'll feel it gets smoother as you do it. Then you turn the blade  over and put the sharpening tool almost flat against that blade and the edge, and draw it another six or seven times along there. And you're done with that.

Farmer Fred  19:42

That's what I like about the handle. The red handle on this Corona sharpening tool gives you that angle when you're attempting to clean or sharpen that backside of bypass pruners.

Bill Black  19:51

Yes, just the backside. So just follow that along there and pretty much you're done with the exception of drying everything off and then putting a light coat of some sort of lubricant. WD 40, or household oil are pretty much the things that I would use; and keeping it clean, too.

Farmer Fred  20:09

Like we've stressed on the podcast so many times, when you're done working with your tools for the day, clean them. And for cleaning tools, you could use  steel wool.  I use an old barbecue brush.

Bill Black  20:22

I use a green scrub scrubbing pad more often than not on mine, but I keep mine clean, so there shouldn't be too much rust on them.

Farmer Fred  20:33

Now you have some other tools here that you use, and one is just a plain old mill file.

Bill Black  20:37

Yeah, if I if I had a big ding in the blade, then I would go ahead and use that to try and work that out. In doing so, you are cutting away a lot of the blade. So unless it's a big ding and a lot of times you'll get where somebody's tried to say for example, cut a stainless steel screw and now you've got a big notch in there. Best thing to do there is buy a new blade.

Farmer Fred  21:02

And that goes back to buying your original equipment. Your original pruners, especially bypass pruners, is to make sure - and usually it'll be on the same wall where you're buying the pruners - that there are replacement parts. There should be replacement blades or springs or latches.

Bill Black  21:15

Right. You can probably find those parts online, too.

Farmer Fred  21:19

Spend money once and then you'll have a tool forever if you take care of it.  And we should point out we are talking about bypass pruners here, which as you mentioned, the sharp blade bypasses the bottom blade if you will. Whereas anvil pruners the sharpened blade hits a plate. But, if you ask 10 gardeners what they do with anvil pruners, I think nine out of 10 would say I don't use them.

Bill Black  21:43

I don't use them. No. Even most of the loppers are just the larger bypass blades.

Farmer Fred  21:50

You want that when you move up to loppers, which have long handles and are also bypass pruners. You would choose a bypass over an anvil. Right? So there you go. If you buy pruners, spend some money and get some good quality ones. There's Corona, there's Felco. What other brands do you like?

Bill Black  22:05

Those are the two that I'm familiar with.

Farmer Fred  22:08

All right, Corona and Felco. Spend some money. Take care of them. They'll last you a lifetime. Bill Black is a Sacramento County Master Gardener. He’s here at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. Bill Black, thanks so much.

Bill Black  22:19

You're quite welcome.

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Farmer Fred

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PHOSPHORUS FERTILIZER: IS IT RADIOACTIVE?

Farmer Fred  25:09

let's talk a little bit about fertilizers right now particularly one ingredient whose number you may see on the front of a fertilizer bag or box or container, you know those three numbers on a fertilizer container. They represent the end the P and the K, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

And today we're going to talk about phosphorus, a macronutrient. It's an element used by plants to promote root and tuber growth as well as the production of flowers and seed. And according to the Chicago Botanic Garden, when too much phosphorus is applied or is applied at the wrong time, such as right before it rains, most of it is washed away, it ends up in the local waterways, and that causes something called eutrophication, which is a reduction of dissolved oxygen and water bodies caused by an increase of minerals and organic nutrients of rivers and lakes.

Now this reduced level of oxygen in water ends up suffocating the fish so you can understand why several municipalities and even states have banned the use of phosphorus containing fertilizers for turf or lawn areas. These laws are designed to protect local water quality issues and lakes, streams and ponds.

And according to several experts in most cases, phosphorus isn't even needed to maintain a healthy lawn. Retailers near towns that have enacted a ban are required to alert customers about the prohibition of phosphorus in fertilizers for lawn and turf by posting a sign we're fertilizers are sold. Some of the states that are banning the use or sale of phosphorus fertilizers include Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Couple of more are standing by, Pennsylvania and Florida, as well as several cities and counties especially those places that border large bodies of water.

But this ban isn't just for phosphorus on lawns. There are phosphorus as well as nitrogen limits that are facing bans on all fertilizers offered for sale in Brevard County, Florida. They have a new law going into effect there that basically is saying no nitrogen or phosphorus can be applied to any plants between June 1 And September 30. When applying a fertilizer with nitrogen, it must contain a minimum of 50% slow release nitrogen. Phosphorus can only be applied if a soil test indicates it's needed.

And there are limits to how much phosphorus you can put on, and you're not supposed to fertilize if heavy rain is forecast. And some municipalities  in Brevard County, Florida have either a 10 foot or a 15 foot fertilizer free zone if they're bordering water bodies. If you're just in the unincorporated county, it could be a 25 foot fertilizer free zone along the waterways.

And they also want you to keep fertilizer and grass clippings on the lawn and off sidewalks, driveways, roads and out of storm drains and water bodies.

According to the EPA, the United States mines and consumes about 23 million tons of phosphate rock per year. Most of it ,something like 95% of it, is involved with a wet process phosphoric acid or a super phosphoric acid intended in the making of fertilizers, with the balance used to produce phosphorus compounds for industrial applications, primarily for glyphosate herbicide. You know, glyphosate. That’s the active ingredient in herbicide products such as Roundup. Probably the most important use of phosphate rock is in the production of phosphate fertilizers.

And according to my next guest, due to its chemical properties, phosphate rock may contain significant quantities of naturally occurring radioactive materials. And he says some of it's not even organic. What's that all about? We must be talking with the garden contrarian, Robert Kourik. He's the author of the book, “Sustainable Food Gardens”, and several other publications such as “Lazy Ass Gardening”, “Understanding Roots”, “The Insectary Calendar”, and “Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates”. Robert, good to talk with you again. And that video you posted a few weeks ago about phosphorus and radiation. That was a shocker.

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Robert Kourik  29:25

Yeah, it's pretty interesting. I first heard about it when I was reading. And I got hold of an article about radioactive tailing piles in Florida. When they mined the phosphorus, they strip mine at the phosphorus rock. They treat it with sulfuric acid, and then they're left with huge piles over a billion tonnes of phosphate for tailings that are radioactive. They're radioactive enough that when the cost of uranium was High, they will go back into the tailings and harvest the uranium. Now what happens when you produce so called Organic phosphate fertilizer, Collodial phosphate fertilizer, is that rock is not treated with sulfuric acid, it was treated with a water. But it comes out to where I took it to a local business that deals was radioactivity. And they put it in their Geiger counter. And it was three to four times more clicks per minute or second than the background radiation.

Farmer Fred  30:41

I noticed that on his little Geiger counter there that I saw readings up to 140. Whereas the background area radiation was like in the 30s or so.

Robert Kourik  30:52

Yes, so it changes around, depending on the minute or location. But basically, it's slightly radioactive. Now whether or not to get worried  depends upon your paranoia level, I myself, if I were using it anymore, I would use a mask just to keep the particulates out of your lungs. One of the guys that worked at the radioactive business used to be a farmer. And he said he wouldn't. But he said he's not that cautious as a person. So it's up to the gardener, as to how much radioactivity they want to be exposed to. But there was a guy whose name I can't recall, who studied phosphate fertilizers for their content of heavy metals and radioactivity. And there's not a single phosphate source in the world that doesn't have some level of radon.

Farmer Fred  31:51

And the fact that as you mentioned, the manufacturers of phosphorus are also have a nice little side business  in mining for uranium as well, is it that process that makes it, in your estimation, not organic?

Robert Kourik  32:07

I like to think of it as the “cradle to grave” review of organic. In other words, Phosphorus is mining ugly strip mines. And then it's processed with fresh water, which is in low supply and Florida. Then it generates these slightly radioactive tailings. And then you're putting this on the trailer truck, a bulk that only 3% of what is what you want to have, and that would be the phosphate. And when you put down that phosphate, 3% of the sack, less than half of that might be available the first season. The trucking costs and the carbon footprint are phenomenal.

Farmer Fred  32:51

I like the video portion where you are basically trowling out this phosphorus from a bag for your sample to take into the radiation place. And it was just a messy, dusty powder. And I can understand why you might want to wear a mask, just for that.

Robert Kourik  33:09

Yeah, just for the sake of it's dusty, as opposed to radioactive. Now there's another interesting story: DeSantis people have now approved the radioactive tailings to be used as roadbase. And it's got to be studied by the federal government to see if they can be used in federal applications.

Farmer Fred  33:32

I mentioned the restrictions in Florida. Well, of course that's being reviewed, now, down in Florida. Do they want to put a delay on the implementation of those rules?

Robert Kourik  33:43

Yeah, yeah, the  main concern about phosphorus for the, quote “industry”, is the runoff and causing algae bloom. A wise home gardener would first test the soil and see if they need phosphorus, and then apply only small amounts and probably be more cautious. And it might be better to run any phosphate fertilizer through a compost pile. Kind of help to activate it and hold on to it, before you apply it to the garden.

Farmer Fred  34:15

Are there forms of phosphate fertilizer that you would use?

Robert Kourik  34:21

Well the options for Collodial phosphate, first one would be bone meal. But the drawback to bone meal is it is a phenomenal amount of energy to generate the drying process and the treating process. But I don't know. I doubt if it's radioactive. That's about five times the amount of phosphorus per volume than colloidal phosphate. But what I like to do is grow it. Why not make your own phosphorus and why not do it by growing it?

Farmer Fred  34:55

And we will get into that. I do want to get into that because that's intriguing. But I want to stress something that you said twice now. And that is, before you apply any fertilizer, get a soil test  to see if you're really needing an element, you probably need nitrogen. But phosphorus is in a lot of soils already. And when people overapply phosphorus, if it doesn't get used, it's going to run off.

Robert Kourik  35:20

But also, it's got to contaminate your soil, so to speak.  I know a very famous gardener who shall remain anonymous. And their garden is now useless, because they applied copious quantities of compost and a regimen of fertilizers without doing a soil test. And now they can't use their soil,  it has too much phosphorus by a factor of four or five. Too much potassium by a factor of three or four goes on and on and, and their vegetables just aren't growing.

Farmer Fred  35:58

Yeah, I've discovered in my own piece of property here, before I planted anything, I did get a soil test done. And the backyard was very different than the front yard, the front yard was just a little under the recommended amount of phosphorus, whereas the backyard was just way over the amount of phosphorus in the soil. So I knew at that point, well, we're talking basically, nitrogen fertilizer, then for the backyard, we've got plenty of phosphorus.

Robert Kourik  36:26

Exactly. And you'd be surprised how many gardeners just say, Okay, I'm gonna apply all this stuff every year, and they don't need it. In some cases, they're adding toxicity and sense of too much of the element that makes it difficult for plants.

Farmer Fred  36:42

For a lot of people, though, a soil test might be more than their wallet can handle because they can run into $100 or more. In many cases, however, I know of at least three universities, and there's probably more that do soil testing for any American. And it's a very thorough test, and it's around $20 or so. And you get a very nice report afterwards, they are the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Colorado State, and Texas A&M. And if there are other universities that are doing that, for the United States as a whole, let me know, I'd be glad to add you to that list. But for that kind of price, it's well worth it to get a soil test done.

Robert Kourik  37:23

I used Harmony Farm Supply in Sonoma County, I think it's around $20 or $25. But the advantage to Harmony Farm Supply is, they give you a report that tells you how much organic fertilizer to add for each element. A lot of these universities, they just tell you what the content is, and don't interpret as to how much blood meal or bone meal to add. So on that you might need to add to get a balanced nutrient level.

Farmer Fred  37:53

Is Harmony Farm Supply, still doing soil testing?

Robert Kourik  37:57

Yes, I've talked to them. And on their website, Harmony Farm Supply in Grayton, California, and you can mail in your sample, then they have it processed and then they mail it back or  email you back an interpretation of that soil test.

Farmer Fred  38:20

Okay, we'll have a link to Harmony Farm Supply in the show notes. I know that the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in their recommendations, have you  fill out a questionnaire first, including what do you plan to grow here? And then based on that, they will give you recommendations on the soil test as far as what to apply and how much to apply. There may or may not be organic recommendations.  And I'm sure Harmony Farm Supply would be organic recommendations.

Robert Kourik  38:48

Yes. They'll say how much blood meal or feather meal or bone meal? Or how much other organic fertilizers you might use to get back up to where the level is normal.

Farmer Fred  39:00

Well, you just mentioned three fertilizers, though, that vegans may shy away from: blood meal, bone meal and feather meal.

Robert Kourik  39:08

Yeah, that's where you have to grow your own. Both legumes for the nitrogen and buckwheat for the phosphorus.

Farmer Fred  39:14

There's your answer right there: Grow Your Own phosphorus. Well, golly, gee, that's the name of a section in your book, Sustainable Food Gardens  on page 257. You get into the details of how to grow your own phosphorus. And basically it's a lot of cover cropping, isn't it?

Robert Kourik  39:29

Yeah, green manuring in the sense that you throw out the seed, let it grow, till it when it gets to just six inches tall, and dig it back in. And do that as many times as you can in the one summer, like  four to five times. And then you'll greatly improve the phosphorus content, because buckwheat is known as a dynamic accumulator phosphorus, so it's foliage is rich, rich in phosphorus, and by tilling it in you add that to the soil.

Farmer Fred  40:02

You mentioned in your book a recipe that Eliot Coleman supplies and he says one possible rotation to prepare a fertile garden bed is to seed winter rye in the fall, undersow it with biennial sweet clover the following spring, mow the rye in midsummer, let the sweet clover grow through the winter, mow the clover the second summer and follow it with buckwheat. Mow the buckwheat in the fall. And sow a rye or  hairy vetch mix. till this in the spring and plant vegetables. the mowed cover crops can be used to make compost. So you're basically taking a garden out of commission for about three years there.

Robert Kourik  40:40

Yeah, you would have to do a rotation and as some gardens are too small to do that. But the vegan gardeners in England are totally opposed to the fertilizers you mentioned. And they grow their own fertilizers. And they have a section up to 25% of their their garden or their allotment is just growing a crop to improve the soil. So if you have enough room you can rotate through. And after two, three years, grow a really good crop where you did your organic fertilizer, so to speak.

Farmer Fred  41:15

Yeah, if you have the room, it makes sense to practice crop rotation. Instead of having one big garden, divide that into six or more plots and rotate through the nitrogen fixing crops, your fertilizer- fixing cover crops, and just alternate so that it's not too stressed from two years in a row by heavy nitrogen feeders.

Robert Kourik  41:39

Eliot is a great guy. But he's a farmer. And he's got a farm and that's a lot of space.

Farmer Fred  41:47

Exactly, yeah. But if you think about it, to quote Leo Tolstoy, how much land does a man need? You could get by on the short term of just dividing what you have into smaller plots and and rotating through those smaller plots.

Robert Kourik  42:02

Yes, I agree.

Farmer Fred  42:04

Alright, so buckwheat for I know, for USDA zone nine, it would be a summer crop, correct?

Robert Kourik  42:13

Yes. All right, it won't even go through the winter here.

Farmer Fred  42:15

Okay, so that  would be your summer cover crop. And winter cover crops could be any number of things.

Robert Kourik  42:22

For phosphorus, you can get some phosphorus out of some of the legumes as well. They're not just used for nitrogen. But when you live in other places, I grew up in St. Louis, they can grow a lot of buckwheat for a crop rotation. Because it gets so hot there. The buckwheat loves the heat.

Farmer Fred  42:41

I forget where I read it. But I read somewhere that dandelions actually fixed some phosphorus as well.

Robert Kourik  42:47

I believe so. I'd have to double check my own book. But yeah, that's why I do these charts in my book, I can download stuff. I can't keep it in my brain.

Farmer Fred  42:59

Let's talk about the book. this last book is a 400-plus page tome of good gardening advice called, “Sustainable Food Gardens, Myths and Solutions”.

Robert Kourik  43:11

Yeah, I worked on it during the pandemonium. I spent about 18 months putting the book together as kind of like, a summary of my 40 years in the organic gardening business.

Farmer Fred  43:25

Yeah, it's gotten to just about everything that we've talked about for 30 years or so in it.

Robert Kourik  43:29

It has over 350 color photographs, as well.

Farmer Fred  43:36

And charts and diagrams and some wonderful, antique drawings as well.

Robert Kourik  43:45

Yeah, the USDA had a program back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, where they paid hundreds of people to draw color drawings of fruits and edibles. So you can have everything from quince to persimmons, cherimoyas, and cashews. And so they have these wonderful drawings. So the USDA website, I don't know the location off the top of my head, but Google, USDA, watercolor, vegetable or something and check it out . Anybody can use the images as long as you give a notation of the source. So that's what I did. (Note: the website is the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/usda_pomological_watercolor )

Farmer Fred  44:30

That would explain its presence on Twitter because somebody is doing that on Twitter, posting one of those lithographs or whatever they are, like one a day of old timey fruits.

Robert Kourik  44:40

Fantastic.

Farmer Fred  44:42

Robert Kourik has a very active website as well, where you can order his books and learn a lot more about gardening. I imagine it's RobertKourik.com.

Robert Kourik  44:54

You bet. But you have to spell it correctly. I know it sounds like Katie Couric, but she misspelled it.

Farmer Fred  45:04

Okay.  if you just do a search for Robert Kourik or even if you do a  search for the title of your book, “sustainable food gardens”, you just might pop up.

Robert Kourik  45:18

It'll be number one on the first page.

Farmer Fred  45:21

All right, Robert Kourik, I still like to call him the garden contrarian because we've learned a lot from him over the years that basically threw cold water on a lot of established gardening habits over the years and morphed into  one of Farmer Fred's 11 tips for gardening success, everything you know is wrong. And Robert Kourik is always there to point us  in a different direction. And that included drip irrigation as well.

Robert Kourik  45:48

And providing the solutions.

Farmer Fred  45:51

There you go, that's a good life to have. So if you want one takeaway from this whole conversation, it is: get a soil test done on your garden to make sure that it has all the nutrients it needs, and not too much of any one, as well. Pick up a copy of Robert Kourik’s book, “sustainable food gardens”, which you can find online as well, including his website, RobertKourik.com. Robert, always a pleasure talking gardening with you.

Robert Kourik  46:15

Thanks, Fred. I really enjoyed it as well.

HARVEST DAY

Farmer Fred  46:20

Coming Saturday, August 5, It’s Harvest Day at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. Put on by the U.C. Master Gardeners of Sacramento County, Harvest Day features speakers, education tables, garden vendors, food trucks, and your chance to explore the one acre garden that is designed for you, the backyard gardener, to take home ideas that you can use in your own yard.

The Fair Oaks Horticulture Center was built and is maintained by Sacramento County Master Gardeners. It features areas dedicated to growing berries, herbs, fruit trees, vegetables, a vineyard, native plants, water efficient plants and a lot more. Plus there are sections dedicated to composting, including worm composting.

On Harvest Day, each area is staffed by Master Gardeners who are eager to answer your garden questions.

At the dozens of education tables, you’ll get information from professional nursery people, irrigation specialists, the Audubon Society, soil experts, the Master Food Preservers, local garden clubs, water experts, honeybee and native bee specialists.

Vendors will include northern california nurseries, exotic plants, cactus and succulents, mushroom growing kits, and more.

The speakers include talks about landscape trees, attracting pollinators, and, oh yeah…Myself and America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture professor, Debbie Flower talking at 830 that morning about Tips for Saving Time, Money and Water in the Garden.

Someone once said, It’s the best garden event in Northern California! Oh wait, I said that. It’s true. And it’s free.

Harvest Day at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, Saturday, August fifth, 8am to 2pm. In Fair Oaks Park in Sacramento County. put on by the UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County. Check today’s show notes for a link with more details and maps of Harvest Day! Hope to see you there!

FLASHBACK EPISODE: #240 ALL ABOUT GROWING POTATOES

Farmer Fred

Today’s Garden Basics  Flashback episode piggybacks with this weeks Newsletter and podcast, with another popular backyard garden crop that should be planted during the late summer as well as in winter: the potato. And there are some tricks and tips for being a successful potato grower.

We cover all that in this week’s Flashback Episode: Number 240, “All About Potatoes”. It’s from last November. Find a link to it in today’s show notes, as well as at the podcast player of your choice. Or, look it up at our home page, garden basics dot net.

Farmer Fred  48:58

The Garden Basics With Farmer Fred podcast comes out once a week, on Fridays. Plus the newsletter podcast, that comes with the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, continues, also released on Fridays. Both are free and are brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. The Garden Basics podcast is available wherever podcasts are handed out, and that includes our home page, Garden Basics dot net. , where you can also sign up for the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter and podcast. That’s Garden Basics dot net. or use the links in today’s show notes.  And thank you so much for listening.