July 2019 E-Newsletter

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. – Alfred Austin

 

Featured Instagram Photo of the Month: A poppy brightens a gloomy June day.

Upcoming Garden Events:

Jul. 13 - Saturday Workday - 9:00 AM – Noon
Jul. 20 - Board Meeting - 9:30 AM Save to Calendar
Jul. 28 - Sunday Workday - 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

 

Useful info:

• Summer!  Sunshine!  Warm weather!  Hopefully after finally getting a week of sunshine and warmth, your summer garden is starting to wake up.  It’s a rare year when most gardeners haven’t started harvesting handfuls of tomatoes by the 4^th of July, but here we are.  There is more sun in the forecast for this week.  Let’s hope that, this time, the summer weather will stick around! The list of things to do in the garden in July is pretty brief: 1) water 2) harvest.  Remember that deep watering is much better than overhead watering.  It saves water, helps reduce the spread of disease and gets the moisture deep in the soil where it won’t evaporate away entirely after one hot day.  You only need to deep water once a week unless we reach triple-digit temperatures or end up with a hot windstorm.  If you have un-established plants or plants with shallow roots like strawberries or corn, you may have to do one more quick-water during the week to keep everyone happy.  If you’re interested in reading more about plant root depth, you can scroll to bottom of this website.
• Some other tips for July: don’t leave standing water in your plot or you’ll have mosquitoes. If you have to transplant plants in July, do so when the weather has cooled, nearest to sunset time. Doing so will give your plants the most time to recover from transplant shock before the heat of the next day. When the weather is hot, feel free to give your plants a quick shower at the beginning of the day when the leaves will have plenty of time to dry.

 

OVF Announcements: 

All Things Tomatoes

If you don’t like tomatoes, you can stop reading here – otherwise please proceed for all the news that’s fit to print about one of our favorite garden fruits.  Dean Cleaverdon and Nancy Nyberg share some of the favorite tomato-related media.  We start with two videos that cover tomato pruning. The first is by Jessica Sowards of Roots and Refuge Farm.  This is a great tomato pruning video with the basics. If you really like to geek out on plant botany, you might want to check out this video from Steven Cornett of the channel Nature’s Always Right.  Pruning tomatoes increases airflow around the plants, which helps reduce disease and is also is believed to increase yields.  Important side note: please remember to put all tomato plant waste in the dumpster or city green beans to avoid spreading blight to our compost. For those of you who really want to delve into the world of plant botany and entomology you might enjoy this article on why the native bumble bee is much better equipped for pollinating tomato plants than the honey bee. 

Last, but certainly not least, please join us for the Annual OVF Tomato Tasting on Sunday, August 11^th from noon-1:00pm. More details will be published in the August e-newsletter.

 

Celery Salad with Dates

OVF Member and occasional newsletter contributor Anthony Lai has a lovely, cool summer salad to share with you all.  If you’re growing celery in your plot, it’s best to harvest now (or earlier) before the heat turns the celery bitter. Now’s your chance to show off your garden celery as a main ingredient.

Ingredients/Equipment

• 1/2 bunch of celery (about 8 stalks)
• 2 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoon walnut oil
• 2 teaspoon sherry vinegar 
• 1/8 shallot slices thin
• 3 dates
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• Parmigianino Reggiano for shaving
• Kosher salt
• Black Pepper 

Serves 3-4 as a side or 2 as a main dish.

1. In small bowl combine the olive oil, sherry vinegar, walnut oil and sliced shallot. Mix and set aside. 
2. Cut off top of celery, if prefer a tender bite use vegetable peeler to remove top layer of celery along the stalk. Put some of the leaves in the salad for some contrast.
3. Slice celery along bias about 1/5 inch thick.
4. Slice dates into eighth lengthwise.  
5. In a large bowl combine the celery, walnuts and dates. 
6. Pour the dressing into the large bowl and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
7. Shave some Parmesan Reggiano and serve cold. 

We hope you enjoy this delicious yet simple dish!

 

 

President's Note

A Message from OVF President Frank Harris

After an alarming, as well as very, very disappointing, increase in reported thefts from OVF plots last fall; the Board of Directors voted to use some of the donated funds we receive each time Fresh Off the Boat uses the parking lot, to replace and enhance the unreliable Nest security cameras that were first installed about 6 years ago.  

The new system which supports up to 16 cameras was acquired last November and cameras were installed to provide coverage of the area around the main shed, as well as Phase II.  After taking a break to complete the new meeting area shade pavilion and do some spring gardening, additional cameras were recently installed to provide coverage of Phase I and Phase III.  We are currently exploring options to also provide coverage of Phase IV and hope to have something in place by the end of the year.

I would like to thank those that helped with the installation of the new cameras: Joseph Schlitt (Phase II), Jay Felker (Phase I), Bob Gallion (Phase I), Russel Doherty (Phase I), Teague Weybright (Phase I) and Ed Mosman (Phase III)

Frank

 

 

 As always: we want to hear from you!  Send us an email, reach out on Facebook, or tag us on Instagram @oceanviewfarms. 

That’s all for now.  Happy gardening!