Garden Preparation: August

Source: CCE Nassau County

Tomato season is a-coming to add to your bounty while you are still  busy harvesting bush beans, beets, corn, cucumbers,  blueberries, raspberries, carrots, melons and all those sweet herbs that you thought you needed.  

BUT, resist picking those first tomatoes; let them ripen on the vine for a couple of extra days. It will only improve their taste, and it will allow you time to tend to some of the following chores:

• Clearing the now brown  peas vines and preparing the site for a follow on fall crop or perhaps planting a cover crop like winter rye;

• Trying to give away your  zucchini to strangers;

• Blanching the cauliflower for a couple of weeks;

• Checking for pests such as Mexican bean beetles, red spider mites, leaf miners, slugs and more slugs - to name just a few of the common  culprits;

• Digging your garlic and shallots and remember to  dry them for several days in a sunny place;

• Turning over that compost pile. - This is a great year for compost. Keep those pulled weeds and lawn clippings decomposing.

Capital District Regional Market

Wishing you could buy a sack of corn (50 ears) or a 1/2 bushel of tomatoes or apples? Well, you can.  Just get up early and go to  the Capital District Regional Market located in Menands at 381 Broadway just south of the Troy - Menands Bridge.

The action starts at 5:30 AM,  on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and is usually over well before closing time at 7:30 AM. Sales are expected to be on a cash and carry basis. As a wholesale market, prices  fluctuate daily in response to supply and demand. 

For late sleepers  there is a  retail edition on Saturday mornings starting at 9:00 AM,  but not all farmers participate, and you may not get wholesale prices.

If you have questions about the market, you can call  518-465-1023. 

Veggie History: Parsley

Curly leaf parsley

Does not every gardener grow parsley (Petroselinum crispum)? - Answer: Probably, either the curly leaf or the flat leaf kinds.  Both types are used extensively as garnishes, but there is also a third type, a root parsley, that remains common to eastern, central and southern European cuisines but remained  less popular in Western Europe.  All three parsleys derive from a wild variety commonly found around the Mediterranean region.

Parsley has been cultivated for centuries and the wild versions probably eaten for millenia.   An approximate translation of the botanical name is "rock celery." The wild variety resembles our familiar flat leaf types.  Although the  Puritans most likely brought parsley seeds with them,  according to Judith Sumner in American Household Botany, the first written mention of parsley only dates to 1804, but  has remained in seed catalogs ever since.

Arat or Root parsley

Root parsley  resembles parsnips, and goes by many names: Arat parsley, Hamburg or Dutch parsley, Rooted parsley.  Its carrot shape clearly reminds us that parsley is a member of that plant family.  Its tops are stronger tasting than the leaf varieties but  can also be used for garnishes. The roots, I understand, are milder  and taste more like celery. They are usually added to soups and stews.

Arat parsley requires a long growing season, but the seeds can be started indoors and transplanted outside when they are three inches tall.  Root parsley  is a winter crop.   Dig it up at the end of the growing season and store it in sand like carrots.