The winter garden brings its own set of challenges. Seeding usually starts mid August and winter crops need to be established before freezing temps drastically slow the  plants metabolism and the sunlight dwindles into December towards the first day of winter. The sun also has a very low orientation in the sky, which lessens its ability to warm the soil. An area that may have been a well-lit spot in summer now only gets 4 hours of sun a day.

  I have been growing in my personal garden for 8 years. It has a slight slop to the southeast, so it actually receives a bit more direct sun in winter than if it were on a flatter plain. I have had great success with lettuce the last several seasons and this photo of Red sails is my favorite. It germinates easily, is very tolerant of freezing and becomes darker red as the season progresses. It is completely lime green for the first several weeks of growth, and very tender. I simply cut the outer leaves  as needed, then the whole head when it’s matured in April.  About 20 heads provided me with salad for close to six months last winter, a great investment for a $2.99 packet of seed, the same $2.99 will get you 3 heads of Romane at Kroger! I have also built a “cloche” or small plexiglass cover to cover the lettuces to protect from a hard freeze; it also helps keep off excess rain, and keeps the lettuces much cleaner as the soil doesn’t splash during a hard rain. I think it  is a great reward to grow lettuce. Nothing is as fresh as a salad cut 15 minutes before you enjoy it.

 I am often asked why my business is called “Keystone Organics”. There are a number reasons that are both symbolic and personal. In architechture, dating back to the Roman Empire, the keystone was a wedge shaped stone placed in the very top of an archway or tunnel (often without mortar) giving strength to each side of a passagway, supporting the weight equally of both sides; without the wedge, the structure would completely collapse in on itself.  

Pennsylvania is also the “Keystone state” where I was born and lived much of my childhood. My family was involved in a multitude of plant related business’s, from farming to landscaping and everything in-between. A majority of my earliest food experiences involved pickling cucumbers, canning tomatoes, shucking corn, picking blueberries in the Pocono mountains and seeing the gardens of all my relatives and neighbors; along with living on 17 acres of historic wooded land with bubbling streams. Those exposures have impacted my life greatly and I feel fortunate to have been involved with people so connected to their food and where it comes from and the real value of its sustenance. I am also bridging two worlds of being a seasoned Chef along with growing my own food. Placing seed in the soil to me is no different from placing potatoes in the oven to roast; it’s about heat, timing, moisture and observation.

 The Keystone Philosophy is a bridging two time periods or worlds; the old cultivation methods, husbandry and small scale sytems that occurred before synthetic chemicals, genetic modification and factory farming adulturated our environment. The new cultivation techniques along with modern research shows us every action we take in the environment has an equal and opposite reaction. Life extends far into the soil in ways we still do not completely understand. Without the past we can never understand our future, and our future depends on our mistakes and triumph’s of the past. That is the Keystone.

Fall is finally upon us. Here is one of many Chard plants in the greenhouse. These plants are in the “Chenopodiaceae” family and are related spinach, quinoa and beets. The seeds contain more than one plant and must be thinned in order for the seedlings to properly mature. Chard, spinach and beets become sweeter with cold weather and can tolerate frost well.

summerfest 2009

Self harvested seed from 2008 and hand-made wooden flats designed for intensive growing and a custom soil blend: that’s sifted, composted and reused again and again. Even when the flats start to decompose, they will go in the compost too.

Here is a batch of Golden Pea Shoots, why are they yellow you ask ? No sunlight. These are grown in the same manner as endive where they are “blanched”. These have a flavor profile of fresh peas and bean sprouts.  You can see these in use at the always delicious Dynamic Dish in Atlanta. http://www.dynamicdish.net/2009/07/crostini.html

Over the last several years I have been saving seed  and taking cuttings of various plants to isolate the qualities that are really cool to me or plants that just perform well. The basil pictured here is a cross between Thai basil and Opal basil. Depending on it’s growing stage, it goes back and forth between full purple to green and everything in-between. I have overwintered this in the greenhouse for 1 year and chose it after germinating some seed that I thought was thai Basil. What a happy accident.

Here is the deal with weeds. In our region of the southeast, (and in general) we have two types, annual weeds and perennial weeds. Annual weeds come from the previous seasons weeds that have gone to seed. Some need light to germinate, and mulching keeps them from germinating. These seeds fall where the parent weed grew or blow around during storms or windy days settling in low lying areas, cracks and in your  garden beds.

Then we have perennial weeds. These plants roots over winter in the ground, and also throw around seeds making a double wammy come spring time. The three most persistent weeds (one is also used as a lawn) are Crabgrass,Nutsedge and Bermuda grass. Crabgrass loves to make it’s way into lawns and slowly spreads via it’s roots, but mainly seed. If mowed regularly it can be contained easily and pulled out by hand. In the spring when it’s popping up from seed, a simple scraping off the surface will knock most of it down, never to return. But if allowed to perpetuate, season after season, the roots become deeper. Get them early.  Nutsedge is a singular stemmed plant spreading via rizomes and seed. It hides well in freshly cut lawns but will pop up ahead of most grasses making it easy to spot. It’s rhizome will continue to grow if it is not removed completely from the ground. I have seen it come through 2 inches of freshly layed blacktop! It even has it’s own herbicide called “Image”.   This last “weed” is Bermuda grass. It is a fast growing, heat loving, spreading grass. It is fine for a golf course or a lawn meant to be covered in this plant, but not good for garden beds or lawns with fescue. I have seen this grass creep a 4ft gap in a sidewalk in 2 weeks. If chopped in bits, it can re-root at every place it  has an internode. It also must be contained as a lawn, meaning at the perimeter of the lawn it will spread at the edges into beds and over driveways, so hardscaping at the edges is a must. If this grass isn’t edged it will creep right over sidewalks, creating lawn over concrete in the right conditions if left unmanaged. So guess what the #1 “preventive“  method is to “kill” Bermuda ? Weed cloth. Bermuda grass laughs at weed cloth. It attaches it root hairs to the fabric and will find a small hole or the edge of the fabric and make a run for the nearest patch of open soil with lots of sun. It make take a season or two until it’s full wrath is seen but please, say no to weed cloth !  Completely remove it before creating new beds, pull it by hand if it returns, and mulch, mulch, mulch ! Your plants and the worms will thank you for it.

What else says summer time other than tomatoes ? These were harvested from my plot at the Grant  Park Community Garden. This garden came about when a number of neighborhood residents wanted to resurrect the old Urban Gardener Oasis space which had been abandoned for some time and with some help from Fred Conrad at the Atlanta food bank we brought it back to life. A large portion of our efforts are donated to various shelters around Atlanta to feed the hungry.

 These photos were taken probably circa 1980 in Pottstown Pa. This particular pumpkin sure got alot of camera time ! The top left photo is me, Jake Egolf. (nice shorts everyone) The top right is my brother Brad. Bottom left is our father Bruce and bottom left is Brad and I with our Basset Hound Abigale. That cabbage is bigger than my head ! This particular garden is probably where the garden bug started for me. I remember how cool that big pumpkin was and eating cherry tomatoes off the vine, which ingrained in my memory what a real tomato should taste like.  Thanks Dad.