Fourth Corn Planting

My husband loves corn. I start in May and do five successions each about a week apart. I'm hoping the last succession will still be producing when my mom visits in late August. Sweet corn is one of her favorites. But the timing will be tight. I could plant it later, but I always do corn and squash together. We have raccoons in the area and they don't like walking through a field of prickly squash, so my corn is usually safe if I train the squash to grow under the corn. But I want the squash to have time to produce. I can't plant it much before the corn as then it would overwhelm the small plants. So mid June is about as late as things get planted up.

I'm on my fourth planting right now. It went into the baby Asian greens bed. On Monday I picked the last of the boc choy and mizuna. You see the outside leaves I trimmed off but didn't dispose of (I was hungry at the time). And all that was left to pick yesterday was the mizuna. Much of it was starting to bolt, so I wasn't too unhappy to see it go. I'm wondering where I could squeeze in a plant or two though.

The schedule said to plant the corn on June 7th, not June 9th. But it is easy to keep up even if you don't have time that day to plant. On June 7th I put the corn and squash into little covered bowls with some paper towel and some water. The corn and squash seeds had begun to send out little roots by the time I planted two days later.

This is going to be my mycorrhizal fungi experiment. On the northwest side of the bed the corn has been inoculated. But the southeast side has none. The spring experiment was a bust. Adding endomycorrhizae to the soil didn't improve the growth of lettuce or peas. But then it isn't supposed to do well in cool soil. You don't get warmer than in summertime, so this will tell me if it is worth the price to buy or if it is just a waste of money for me. For all I know I have plenty of these soil fungi already in my soil.

First succession

The other successions are up and doing well. I have one corn plant in the first succession that is struggling for some reason. And one of the two squash plants at the end of the bed damped off in May so it was replanted. That is smaller than its neighbor, but it will catch up.

Second

Third

The third one is barely out of the ground. The squash in that one isn't up yet. Now I have four of my successions done. I have just one left to go.

Herbs and Mizuna Soup

Yesterday I went out in the morning to pick yet more herbs. Monday I dried oregano. Tuesday it was thyme. And yesterday, Wednesday, It was some cilantro, lavender, and tarragon. Let me tell you that tarragon and cilantro don't smell very good mixed. But I had to get the lavender and tarragon dried. So I washed them off and put them in the dehydrator.

The cilantro needed to be separated. The bolting cilantro really isn't all that good especially the ferny leaves and I was freezing for the winter. I ended up with about a quarter of the cilantro good for freezing. I don't do anything but wash it and stick it in a zipper bag. I'll break bits off when I need it. It won't look pretty as cilantro turns blackish when it thaws, but the flavor is still there. So it is good in sauces and soups.

It was a lovely day so I spent a little time in the morning doing some work. The early corn was hilled up a bit. It is getting big. Or some of it is. A few are pretty runty. And I weeded a big patch of weeds off a path I've neglected for weeks. That took me a while. Then I finally decided I had to spray. All the trees along the fence were infested with aphids. The one plum tree had some ladybug larvae on it but none of the others. And my fava beans were covered with black aphids. I think next year I'll need some more insecticidal soap mix. I also added in some fish emulsion to help them heal up. I'll probably have to do it again in a couple of weeks. The ants there are too industrious.

No one has responded to my call for extra food. So I decided since it was cool today I could deal with making soup out of the mizuna. Soup is always a great way to preserve greens. I found a recipe on a Longmont blog (not far from where I grew up). I didn't really follow the recipe but I did use some of the spicing - bay leaf, thyme, sherry, and salt.

In addition I used homemade chicken stock, my garlic, and about a pound and a half of mizuna that no one wanted. So sad. How can people not want such a wonderful green. From the store I used an onion and some celery. I did the typical. Oil, onion, celery, saute. Add the broth and seasonings. Simmer for about half an hour then remove the bay leaf. Wash and chop the mizuna.

When I saw the pile of chopped greens I thought, "Oh my God this won't fit into the pot. There is just too much." But I realized that it is a green and they really cook down a LOT. I tossed in a couple of handfuls of mizuna and stirred. And again. And again.

Yes it fit just fine. I boiled it for three minutes then used my trusty stick blender to turn it to mush.

Yum. Soup for lunch and four servings for the winter. Now I just have a pile of bok choy that no one wanted. Hmm I wonder if my townhouse mates will deal with it for me.

An Overabundance

I was going to wait longer to pick the smaller Asian greens as I had plenty of food in my fridge, but they weren't going to wait.

They were all starting to bolt. Ok so the mizuna on the right was bolting a while ago. But the mizuna on the left has just started.

With about nine pounds of produce, I knew I couldn't eat it all. I kept about three pounds of greens. I gave my townhouse mates three pounds. But the last three pounds was too much for us to eat. I've never found that bok choy freezes well unless it is in soup. And I had no desire to make soup right now. So I sent out an email to my neighborhood list (BTW if you are a neighbor and want to be on the list, email me). Hopefully I'll be able to get rid of the excess that way. Most of the time I'm successful, but not always. So far I've got no takers though. I might have to deal making some soup after all.

In the afternoon I had time to rip out the roots and clean up the bed then prep it for the corn. I got the corn planted just in time. The rain splattered a few drops on me as I was getting the last seed in, but not enough to get me wet. I was in before it really let down. I love it when I don't have to water things in.