Viikko 15

Hei!

Another cold, wet, week. This allowed time to get the kasvihuone cleaned and all the tomaattit plants trimmed. The indoor harvest is now good: about 120 kg of tomatoes and 115 kurkkut.

Whenever there was  a break in the weather I tried to get some planting done outside. Friday was the best day and the final kurpitsa, maissi and fenkoli was planted. But, even when it wasnt raining the ground was still wet!

Next week we have a group of international volunteers doing a workcamp with us. The plan is they will get the weeding and hoeing done on the carrots, beetroot and onions. Lets hope they get some good weather.

Week 14

Nearly forgot again!

Thanks Ulla for that recipie. I'll definately try it.

As you have noticed, its been raining since God knows how long. And cold. Everthing has stopped growing and some of the sun loving plants are just about hanging in there. We even had snow and ranta during the week.

Nevertheless, the kasvihuone keeps producing fruit and we had another share of tomatoes on Thursday. We also had a weeding/hoeing talkoot. Thanks to the people who turned up and have kept the carrots in view.

Just to bring things up-to-date, its now Tuesday 24th (week 15). Still wet and cold. In between showers, I am managing to get a bit planted. If tomorrows forecast is right I should get the last of the seedlings transplanted (some kurpitsa, meloni, fenkoli, mangoldi and maissi). The wet days have anyway given me a bit of time to get the kasvihuone into better shape. The tomatoes are now well trimmed and the room is looking cleaner. Because of the indoor heat, the harvest is still coming despite the lack of sun.

I had stopped planting salaatti indoors because it wasnt doing well in the early summer heat and anyway outdoor planting was possible. However, now with the change of weather, I will put one more crop indoors. The outdoor salaatti, like everything else, has stopped growing and we have now also got some damage from jänikset. They were no problem last year but I guess food is in shorter supply for them now too.

Finally, some good news. They kurkut have started fruiting in numbers. There should be enough this week for perhaps half the shareholders, so we can take turns this week and next.

Salaatinkastike

Hei kaikki ja hauskaa juhannusta! Tämä kesä on alkanut toisenlaisissa merkeissä kuin viime vuosi. Myös juhannus taidetaan viettää melkoisen viileissä merkeissä.

Tein eilen salaatinkastiketta juhannusviemisiksi ja omaan käyttöön. Tässä ohje teillekin:

1 punainen paprika
2-3 tomaattia
1 pieni sipuli
4 valkosipulin kynttä
½ dl sokeria
3 rkl sinappia
1 dl omenaviinietikkaa
1 tl mustapippuria
1 tl suolaa
2 tl basilikaa tai timjamia
½ dl tomaattipyreetä
4 dl öljyä


Valmista kastike tehosekoittimessa tai sauvasekoittimella. Paloittele paprika, tomaatit ja kuorittu sipuli kannuun. Kuori valkosipulin kynnet ja lisää joukkoon. Hienonna ne ja lisää muut aineet öljyä lukuunottamatta kannuun. Käynnistä sekoitin ja lisää öljy vähitellen joukkoon koneen käydessä. 

Annoksesta tulee noin 8 dl salaatinkastiketta. Käytä sinällään salaatissa tai sekoita kermaviilin joukkoon. Nauti!

Ulla

Viikko 13

Hei!

I nearly forgot the diary. Is that due to the pressure of garden work or the soccer!!?

Anyway, here is an article I wrote that is in the current Finnish Biodynamic Association journal. Let me know what you think.

Viikko 12

Hei!

This last week has really seen the work take off on the field. The whole top half is now planted with porkkana, palsternakka, punajuuri, sipuli, purjo, varsiselleri and we are half way through planting about 1200 selleri. I have also made a start on early avomaan kurkku.

Thats Suvi planting onions sets and me seeding carrott with our borrowed seeding machine. By the way, if anyone knows where we could get our own seeding machine, we would need it in future years.

Next week we will prepare and plant most of the rest of the field. The seedlings have been growing in our small nursery behind the flower shop and, if the weather stays good, are mostly ready to go out.

Meanwhile, the indoor crops are starting to produce fruit.

The experimental kesakurpitsa have proven a success and we will look to see how practical it is to do this in bags in future.

The first batch of kurkku are starting to appear.

And, best new of all, the tomaatit are ripening quickly in the sun and we should have a small share next week.

Our perunat in bags are also probably ready to share next week. Its been too much work to justify doing again in order to have a small crop a week or two early. But, now we know!

Finally, thanks to Jussi Ingervo who came on torstai to give us a talk about biodynamic agriculture and to help mix and spread the main field preparation. Unfortunatley there were not many people there so we are thinking we will have another talk later in the summer to tie in with some event.

Viikko 11

Hei!

Rather than the usual diary of events this week, I thought it would be a good idea to fill you all in on some of the thought and planning behind ROK.

Here is a rough plan for this years planting. I say rough, because the location of some things will change as we go along. But, this should give you an idea of what we are planting and where. So far in the field there is  the valkosipuli that was planted last October and the porkkana, palsternakka and sipuli that were planted last week. Most of the remainder will be planted in the next few weeks. In fact, many of the seedlings are already growing in our small nursery at the back of the flower shop.

For a more detailed view of what is grown, below is a copy of the main planting chart. Of particular interest to you is when things will become ready to harvest. So, for example, you can see that the main field harvest begins in July. Until then, there will be some salad and herbs. 

The kasvihuone is not on this plan. As most of you have seen by now, the tomatoes are coming along very well. They have started to ripen and now it is a matter of waiting until there is enough to share out. 2-3 weeks, I expect, depending on the weather. The salad in the kasvihuone was not doing as well and is anyway now just about finished. I am planting kurkkut where the salad was; planted in 4 phases to try and ensure a steady harvest all season.

I think it is worth noting that Lahden ROK is (I think still) the only scheme in Finland that has heated kasvihuone facilities, even though our harvest charge is still comparable to the others. So, the early salad and the variety and quantity of tomatoes and cucumbers is a real bonus. Having said that, the glasshouse space has not increased in the same way as the field crop space (through out deal with Toivo farm) so we are having to manage the growing for many more members in the same size indoor space. We have tried to do this by growing salads and herbs in pots and distributing these to members in order that you can start your own small plots or planting boxes. In this way, the little you get early on should go a long way. Some things have worked better than others and we will make a note of this for next year. I certainly have a lovely little kitchen garden at home and it should last the Summer.

Finally, while I am in organising mode, many thanks to all who showed up for the Talkoot on Thursday. Unfortunately the weather was not great and we could not do many of the jobs we thought, particularly spreading the biodynamic preparation. We were also a bit ill-prepared for the numbers who showed up! Obviously you are not a group to be put off by a bit of rain. Next time, we will look to make more use of all your talents.

On that note, and finally finally, it occured to me that with over 100 members (many of which are families) we have a huge resource of skills to draw on. Indeed, with 10 hours of volunteer time per member, your combined contribution is about that of another full time employee! So part of the task that ROK now has is to ensure that you are all fully engaged in ways that benefit the enterprise and yourselves. This may be in field work but equally may be in one of the many other tasks, including management, PR, volunteer coordination, administration, etc, to help keep the whole show on the road.

ROK Pelto	2014	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct
Avomaan kurkku					SI	PO	H
Fenkoli					SI	PO	H
Härkäpapu					SO			H
Herne					SO			H
Kesäkurpitsä					SI	PO	H
Kurpitsat					SI	PO		H
Maissi					SI	PO			H
Mangoldi					SI	PO	H
Nauris					SO		H
Palsternakka					SO					H
Pensaspapu					SO			H
Persilja				SI	PO	H
Pinaatti					SI	PO	H
Porkkana					SO				H
Punajuuri					SO		H
Purjo			SI			PO		H
Selleri			SI			PO		H
Sipuli			SI			PO		H
Tilli				SI	PO	H
Valkosipuli								H		SO (2013)
Varsiselleri			SI			PO		H
SI	SOW IN
SO	SOW OUT
PO	PLANT OUT
H	HARVEST
Note:   Salaatti will be grown all season