The Kitchen Garden Company

Did you know that The Kitchen Garden Company builds Wood Fired, Masonry Ovens?

Don’t worry, most people don’t. Nevertheless, we have built them and know a great deal about their history and use.

Here is a short video about our first oven:

Technorati Tags: woodfired oven, brick oven, masonry oven, baking, cooking, alan scott, kitchen garden company, roasting, building

Popularity: 73% [?]

The Japanese have been using Bokashi Balls for a number of years to clean up contaminated waterways. Consisting of Bokashi–an microbially innoculated wheat bran–Effective Microbes, Molasses and a special ceramic powder which helps reflect infared radiation, Bokashi Balls are reported to help clear sludge and slime up and reduce toxin levels.

Our own Kitchen Garden Company Experimental–and unfinished–pond has become clouded by an algae bloom and constantly looks muddy. Because there is a significant amount of wildlife in the pond we do not want to drain it or treat it with anything which is not organic and natural.

Hence we are going to experiment with Bokashi Balls to see if they can make any difference. We will also be using these home-made clay balls to reduce the sludge and odor problems in our septic system.

To read about the how we made the Bokashi Balls and to track our progress, please visit here.

Technorati Tags: bokashi, bokashi balls, ponds, environmental cleanup, pond cleanup, septic sludge, em, effective microbes

Popularity: 17% [?]

Here’s a little video I shot yesterday to introduce to some of the animals here on the farm.

Technorati Tags: youtube, farming, farms, kitchen garden, podchef, animals, chickens, sheep, steer calf, video

Popularity: 12% [?]

My Pancetta and Guanciale are finally done! Seven days in dry cure and two weeks hanging in the salty spring breeze by the bay–I can’t wait to begin cooking with them. These went into the curing cupboard the day the Chorizo came out.

When I took these out I put a Wiltshire Cured Ham in to air-dry for a few days before I smoke it.  Right now though it is pouring rain which is great for the gardens, but has dampened the spirit around here a bit. The chickens aren’t liking it at all. Least of all because no one is outside weeding and throwing them all the bug-filled juicy clumps of weeds.

Technorati Tags: pancetta, guanciale, cured meat, pork, salumi, home processed meat

Popularity: 11% [?]

This week’s Gastrocast is out–the cooking show about “food, cooking and the politics of what we eat”. Apart from talking about things going on with the company, the island, and the garden we cook two Rhubarb dishes–A Rhubarb & Sweet Cicely Fool, and Grilled Pork Chops with Rhubarb Cumberland Sauce. It’s spring turning into summer, it’s food out of the garden and it’s all good.

Technorati Tags: gastrocast, podchef, rhubarb, gardening, culinary podcast, cooking show

Popularity: 21% [?]

Spring appears to have given away to summer and we are left scrambling to plant everything to take advantage of the hot weather. All the tomatoes, eggplants, chillies and basil have been planted in the polytunnel and the average temperature in there is 85 degrees F.

Outside it has hit 70 degrees F. here today and I have been getting a nice sunburn tilling the final bed of the garden. It’s so hot, I’m afraid it may have done something to the little Mantis Tiller we use to keep the beds nice and fluffy. Too bad because I was almost done with the last bed when it quit.

The lettuce in the polytunnel has held up well and is getting giant. We have hardly had a chance to use a fraction of it, which is okay because if it lasts it will tie in nicely with the greens coming up outside which are sorely behind. A good dose of this hot sun should boost growth everywhere.

The rhubarb is ready for harvest–at least some of it. I am hoping the rest will hang on till the strawberries are ripe, as the bushes are overloaded with blossoms. All of this is reminding me I should head out and pick some radishes. . . .

Technorati Tags: gardening, polytunnel, kitchen garden, growing

Popularity: 20% [?]

Outside, the weather has been alternately, bitterly cold and rainy. The other night we had a violent gale which left us without much sleep. Between worrying about the power going out and having to find somewhere to move the baby chickens in to where it was warmer (it was about 36 outside) and whether the polytunnel would survive the night I don’t think I slept a wink. Fortunately the storm swung away from us and we we didn’t get the full brunt, but gusts were still up to 65mph. The power never went out, or I think we might have lost chickens. However, the polytunnel did sustain some damage. I spent an hour the yesterday moring repairing two broken ribs so they wouldn’t fly apart and tear the covering. I managed a sucessful repair, even in my sleep deprived state. As the weather warmed into the upper 40’s I was feeling much better about our two pet projects–veggie starts and chicks.

With all the wind and cold there hasn’t been as much activity in the polytunnel as I’d hoped. The tunnel usually manages to keep a 10 degree average temperature difference from outside temperatures, and the soil is much warmer than elsewhere in the gardens, but without much sun it hasn’t gotten above 50 for a week or so. The wind also sucks the temperature right out.

Meanwhile, in where it is warmer we have sprouts in all the trays we started. It’s looking like we’ll have to re-start some of the plants because they got leggy as if it were too warm on the heat mat. The cucumbers rotted at the base after they grew to a few inches tall. Our mistake for leaving them too damp I think.

If the weather continues being unseasonably cold, for out here, we might have additional trouble. We always plant peas around St. Patrick’s Day. The weather has been so foul I haven’t been able to get in to work the soil. This weekend is predicted to be sunny however, and perhaps we can get out and prep a bed or two.

Technorati Tags: seed starting, sprouting, gardening, polytunnel, spring gardening

Popularity: 14% [?]

Over the past week I’ve had a bit of a chance to work on the polytunnel. Now that the seeds have arrived there is more incentive than ever to move the project along.

This past weeks efforts have included adding a baseboard along the outside, beginning to frame in doorways, anchoring the ribs to the baseboard, revising the ridge detail and tilling the ground inside.

In the next week I am hoping to finish the minor details and perhaps next weekend–weather permitting–stretch the visqueen over the whole thing. It is still very windy at the moment and today it is especially cold. Neither condition of which will work for unrolling the covering.

You can read & see more photos here. The full set of photos is here.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Our Kitchen Garden seeds are ordered and on their way.

We order from two catalogs each year to get a selection, and we’ve never had a problem with the seeds. We also like both of the company’s because the seeds they sell work very well in our Maritime Pacific Northwest Climate.

The companies are Territorial Seed Company and Nichols Garden Nursery.

We’ve taken a risk and ordered seeds for three vegetables we have never been able to grow here before–peppers, eggplant and melons. We are hoping the hoop house/poly tunnel will help us out here, in addition to giving us a larger and better crop of tomatoes. We also purchased Brussels Sprout seeds. All of us around here love them, so it seems a waste not to grow our own and hopefully turn others on to the great taste of fresh sprouts. We also like the verticality of them, given the tiny size of our garden patch this year.

The kitchen garden is both about seasonality and maximizing space. There is no reason not to be able to grow decent vegetables in any reasonably sized space–certainly enough for a family of 4 and neighbors.  We tend to splash out a bit more because many of the vegetables and herbs we grow make their way onto the plates of our customers or as barter items for things we can’t grow or produce. This year will not only be about experimentation with the poly-tunnel, but also adding more value to what we do produce by further processing the items.

We’ll keep you informed.

Popularity: 10% [?]