Should I Stay or Should I Grow?

March 4, 2014 by Caroline Potter

Every year, right about this time, for the past six years, we’re usually sowing seeds, or we’re at least fixing to. This arctic polar freeze of a winter, however, has rendered that all but impossible. My planting shed is frozen shut, so I’m not sure if I have seed-starting mix from Johnny’s in there or not. And I’m not wholly certain about how many seedling trays I have either.

As I go through seed catalogs and ponder what to fill all our rows with, all the while stuck in limbo, there is one thing I can do: I am officially committing to high yield/high consumption/low waste. Like, tomatoes? We got that. Tomatoes are a success story at Victory Farms. And, even with 80-100 plants every season, we’ve done very well with managing yield and loss. This makes me less interested in low-yield plants (such as broccoli) and, beyond that, any plant that I waste (and by waste I mean winds up in the compost or rotting on my sill).

I have a better idea of what will wind up in Victory Farms, but it’s nowhere near set in stone. I’m just trying to get there by studying shopping lists and our crisper in the down months. Getting back to yield, I’ve done so-so with peppers, even though I grow more than 50 plants each year. I think I’m going to scale way back, but go big on the love and get them in the garden way earlier and harvest much more regularly. I think I can increase production and ultimately increase it with the peppers if I can grow an amount that I can really micromanage and see how they respond.

It all feels like wild speculation while the garden resembles the tundra. I am so grateful that Curt hauled in 10 bales of straw to protect the beds.

Ones to Grow On…

February 24, 2014 by Caroline Potter

The saddest thing, depending on what kind of growing season you’ve had, for a home farmer is closing things up for the winter. You will never be overwhelmed by more bittersweet feelings than those that wash over you when you’re mulching your well-used beds with blankets of straw and bidding adieu to your faithful minions, the earthworms, in the bitter chill and sweet light of late Fall days.

Days before depression really sets in, though, seed catalogs begin to arrive in the mail, letting you know that there really has got to be a morning — or a spring — after. More exciting for me than any holiday cards (even those with super-cute kids or pets), new year catalogs get me positively giddy. Like mothers who forget the pain of childbirth as they procreate once again, I cannot recall any of the pain and heartache of last season’s efforts.

Drunk with optimism (and, let’s face it, a martini — or two), I sit here again with catalogs stacked high, teeming with Post-It tabs, and dreaming of what we will sow very, very soon.

Cabbage for sauerkraut (enough to share with all in 2012!), tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, and more greens. Ingredients for perfumed ales and stouts. Lettuce as far as the eye can see. If you want us to grow something for you — or grow something so we can put it up for you, speak your peace.

Caroline Potter is a dining trend-spotter who dines out more than she eats in and has accrued more than 10,000 Dining Rewards points. Caroline started working in restaurants as a teen and she’s since tackled every front-of-the-house job, from bartender and hostess to runner and server. She trained as a chef at Manhattan’s prestigious French Culinary Institute, cooking at L’Ecole. She has written about food from farm to table for New York City’s famed Greenmarket and Edible Brooklyn and Edible East End magazines.

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