Another Wwoofer Week

Market List; Ramp Greens, Garlic Scapes, Spicy Stir Fry

Mix, Foragers Salad Mix, Green Onions, Radishes and Tomato Plants. 

Non GMO fed, Chicken and Slow Food Cayuga Duck Eggs

Many of you know that we belong to a program called Wwoof. World Wide Organization of Organic Farms. It's for people who want to learn about farming before they buy their own farm. People of all ages, sexes, creeds and colors can join this group and request to work on a farm in exchange for room and board. The farmer provides food and knowledge and the Wwoofer works while learning. They get a taste of some of the issues of running a farm. We've had Wwoofers from St. Louis, China, Idaho, Ohio, Britain, California, Granite City and Pennsylvania. This week we had Mei who is from around the St. Louis area. She is getting ready to join the Navy and is spending the week with us hoping to learn about growing her own food someday. This is she and Bill, you know he's such a fashion plate, putting up tomato fences. We run fences for our tomatoes to climb up. We also weeded, tended animals, I showed her how to trim hooves and as it was such a nice week, even with the rain, she planted tomatoes and beans. We now have over 400 plants in the ground. We cut greens, separated Garlic, made Pickles and trimmed and replanted Garlic Ramps. It was a productive week.

This is Mei, weeding some Slow Food Basque Turban Garlic. The Garlic is loving the rain this year. I was separating some that was too close, but still it was pretty big even though it was growing right next to each other. It's got a few weeks before it's ready and this batch hasn't even gotten Scapes yet.

Scapes are the beginning of the Garlic Flower before it opens. You want to break this off so that the garlic bulb can continue to grow. As we all know, a plant's full purpose is to produce seed for the next generation. Once it flowers and seed forms it's all over folks. So if the energy is not going to producing seed, it goes to the bulb growth. Lucky for us, the Scapes taste so good. We'll have plenty on Saturday as we are growing 6 kinds of garlic from Slow Food St. Louis. You all may wonder why, even though we grow garlic, you rarely see us have any at the Market. Mainly because most of its goes into our pickled items that everyone loves so much. We also have to return some to the Slow Food Garlic Bank for giving it to us to plant in the first place and then we have to have some to plant ourselves for the next years crop. Not much left over for us after that occurs.

So the Garlic Ramps; This week, we will have the greens with the stems attached but not the bulbs. It's probably the last of the season. We were excited to see some of the Ramps that we obtained from Pennsylvania actually go to seed. We have also planted Ramps from Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin. 2 Years in a row we planted Ramps from West Virginia that came back but I didn't see any seed heads. If you want to have them, they must multiply or it's of no use when you harvest. Some is done by the bulb clusters growing but those are usually pulled out of the ground when you harvest. North Carolina and Ohio have massive Ramp Festivals but it's being reported that they are being harvested out. It's important to return back to the earth what you have taken out. This week the stems and leaves will be bundled at a lower price than the whole plant. Come and get some while they are here to enjoy.
Saturday promises to be a Sunny and Clear 85 degrees. We'll see you at Tower Grove Park. 8-12:30.

God's Blessings on you and yours,

TTFN,

Sam and Bill