Obsessions...

A friend of mine came to visit for the last few days.  Justin Severino owns a new restaurant in Pittsburg called Cure, which focuses on traditional cooking methods and sustainable sourcing for produce.  All of my friends know that if you come to visit me in the middle of the season, you will have to work in order to spend time with me - there's too much to do to take an entire day off.  Luckily most of my friends are foodies so they enjoy the experience.

On Monday night the two of us went to dinner here at The Inn. Of course no need to say that the experience and the food were both beyond belief, but it was really amazing for me was seeing all of my produce in action. The vegetables were truly transformed with all of their best attributes on display. The new tomato dish was my favorite; cherry tomatoes nestled in an incredibly flavored jellied gazpacho and covered with beautiful edible flowers.

A Symphony of Our Garden’s Miniature Heirloom Tomatoes

with Jellied Gazpacho Consommé and Basil Granite

Tuesday morning we woke up early and started harvesting.  As we picked through the garden I couldn’t help commenting on how happy I was to see all the beneficial insects setting up shop in the garden. Justin couldn’t help commenting on the fact that I am obsessed with bugs.  It’s true, and I think as a farmer you have to be.

So, to prove his point, I’m going to obsess a little bit. This week I saw tomato hornworm covered with parasites, which lay eggs on the caterpillar and kill it for me. 

A tomato horn worm

with the beneficial parasites

I also saw a ton of assassin bugs newly hatched, which are general predators in the garden. 

On top of that I released a lot of different insects in the last few weeks and all of those populations seem to be doing well. I released ladybugs in the garden and the greenhouse to help with aphids and white fly, and green lacewing larvae to try to combat these pesky potato leafhoppers, just to name a few. There are many more beneficials out there in the garden and this biodiversity is a sign of over all garden health that puts a smile on my face.

800 ladybugs being released into the garden

Besides looking at bugs, a lot of work happened in the garden in the last week. All of the shallots and onions were pulled and laid out to dry and cure for storage. 

I seeded flagrano beans for the fall, as well as another generation of carrots and beets.  Weeding and harvesting dominated the week.  The tomatoes and eggplant are coming in well this year and colored bell peppers are right around the corner.  Other than that I am still harvesting everything that was on the list last week. 

Hope you all have a great week and keep an eye out for all those beneficial insects out there in the garden, remember that not all bugs are bad guys.