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Interesting Scape

Scape from Korean Garlic

These are scapes that came from two kinds of Korean garlic, Korean Red and Pyong Vang (I think this is just an alternative spelling of Pyongyang, the capitol of North Korea). Sorry they are a bit crumpled, I stuffed them in a bag with other scapes, and wasn’t very careful with them. Notice they are mostly topset pod and not much stem, unlike normal scapes that are mostly stem.

I was at the garden yesterday, and I was very surprised to find even more scapes had formed, almost as many as the previous visit!

My garlic is finally showing some signs of rust, with about half the plants having a few small specks on them. It’s not too serious I hope, and I’m still expecting to have a mostly normal harvest this year.

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Increasing Irrelevance of Organic Certification

In the US changes are underway to allow 38 non-organic ingredients in food certified as organic. Increasingly food companies want to sell certified organic food containing non-organic ingredients when organic ingredients are not available.

This comes amid the realization that for some time now beer sold in the US as certified organic has in fact contained non-organic hops. This is due to an interesting loophole in the organic certification rules that allows food in the US to be certified organic when up to 5% of it’s ingredients are non-organic.

There are similar moves in Europe to centralize organic certification on a EU level, allow 5% non-organic ingredients and allow 0.9% GM ingredients. Many people may find it difficult to find anything wrong with this last point, 0.9% GM ingredients, because they think some contamination is inevitable. In fact by being this lax simply guarantees our food supply will become contaminated to this level. It’s not inevitable and if we buy food expecting it to be GM free, it should simply be GM free.

Also while food in Europe containing genetically modified organisms are considered GM, food that is made with the assistance of GM organisms is not. For example the artificial sweetener aspartame, ‘vegetarian’ rennet in hard cheeses as well as many food supplements fall into this category and are allowed in certified organic foods.

A similar thing happened with Fair Trade certification. We all want to believe we can help people in the developing world by spending more money on Fair Trade products. Increasingly there are stories of very lax enforcement of Fair Trade standards and of farmers who aren’t paid at all for their products. Even when the rules are followed, and farmers are paid, the extra they receive under Fair Trade schemes is very small compared to the extra we as consumers pay for the products.

If you want organic food, the only meaningful way to get it is growing it yourself or buying it from a local source you trust.  You also simply have to avoid processed foods. The same thing is true with Fair Trade. We all live near farmers or other local businesses who are having a hard time in the current economy, and it’s better to spend your money on these people than on goods imported half way across the world with a meaningless certification attached to them.

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Blight Warning for Europe

My friend Lieven reports potato and tomato blight in his area of Belgium. If you live in Northern Europe and are growing either of these, keep an eye on your plants!

In particular, blight likes cool nights, warm days and wet weather.

On potatoes, blight shows up as gray spots on the leaves that spread. On tomatoes, it usually shows up as black or grey spots or rings on the stems and foliage and blemishes on the fruit.

For tomatoes it’s almost always very quickly fatal. Usually if you try to quickly harvest tomatoes on the plant for indoor ripening, they will already be infected and will rot within a few days. Because the plants are very contagious, and the spores of blight last a long time in the ground, usually the only prudent course of action is to destroy infected plants as quickly as possible. Don’t compost infected plants! Burn them or dispose of them in the trash.

My understanding is for potatoes there are some alternates to destroying your plants, and early harvest or removing the plant’s foliage are sometimes options. I’m not experienced enough of a potato grower to offer advice on this, so perhaps some other people will post some suggestions.

If you come in contact with infected plants, be sure to shower and change your clothes before handling plants that aren’t yet infected.

There are no chemical or organic treatments available to home gardeners that are effective once your plants become infected.

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Lieven’s Garden

Hilke

I visited Lieven’s garden in Belgium yesterday. Above you can see one of his self made raspberry/blackberry crosses (sometimes called a Logan berry). This one is called Hilke.

Lieven is growing many interesting plants, including many soft fruits, pumpkins, lettuces, broccoli, kales, potatoes, garlics, onions, other alliums and many other plants. Many of them he has made himself, others found in wild places or given to him by friends or visitors of his garden.

It was an exciting visit, and most of his plants I had never seen before. I took many pictures and I am still trying to figure out the best way to publish as many of them as possible on the Internet.

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Garlic Scape and Pesto

Garlic Scape and Pesto

I was at the garden on Friday and harvested about 2 Kg of garlic scapes! Because I’m so far north, I always end up harvesting my scapes weeks after everyone else has posted about them. By now scapes are old news to most of you!

After giving away scapes to everyone we could think of, we made pesto out of the rest.

No formal recipe for the pesto, just pureed the scapes in the food processor with enough olive oil to make it liquefy well, then stirred in grated Parmesan cheese. I was amazed at how much olive oil it took to make a good consistency, it’s like the pesto scapes just absorb the oil as you add it. In the end, I added something in excess of a half a liter of oil. When eating it, we found it needed a further drizzle of oil, and we roasted some pine nuts to put on top, as well as a bit of salt.

I’ve never made garlic scape pesto before, and it was nice. The raw taste gets to be a bit much after awhile, and wow — that garlicky aftertaste in your mouth is something else! Honestly I prefer scapes in a stirfry, but this was a nice change too. The problem with scapes is always how to keep them. They are only good for a week or so after harvest and don’t freeze or dehydrate well, even if they are blanched first. I’ve read that as pesto it stores better in the freezer. I hope so, because we’ve probably got enough pesto to last years!

So far my garlic plants look really good! Both John and Rebsie have reported garlic rust in the UK, but I haven’t seen any on my plants yet. It’s late enough in the season that if my plants do get infected, it probably won’t impact the harvest much.

One of the more exciting garlics for me this year is called Gazebo Grande. I received it from a member of the Seed Savers Exchange who lives in Wisconsin, in the USA. She developed it in her own garden, and I am one of the first people she has shared it with. True to the name, the plants are huge! I’m looking forward to seeing it after harvest.

Last year I sent planting samples of my garlic out to several people, and I had enough for everyone who wanted some. I expect to do the same this year, so watch out for announcements the end of August or so. I can’t send it to the US, because US customs doesn’t allow it. I can send it most other places. I don’t know yet what the costs will be, but you should expect to at least pay for shipping.  I also always accept trades!  If you have something to offer in exchange, please let me know.