Many hands make light work!

The Morven Summer Institute is in full swing, which is GREAT because it means that there is an abundance of helping hands in the Kitchen Garden. Last Friday, we had nearly 10 students helping us harvest a big crop for a produce order from the Boar’s Head Inn restaurant.

Summer Institute students lend a hand in the garden

Together we harvested a colorful bounty of mixed lettuces, specialty greens, pea shoots, kale, and radishes. Once everything was picked, it washed and packed up — soon to be served to guests of the Boar’s Head! The partnership with the Boar’s Head is one that we are thrilled to foster, and we are pleased that their chefs have made a dedication to supporting local food and are always eager to bring our produce into their kitchens.

Freshly picked lettuce heads

Lovely leafy greens

In addition to harvesting all sorts of leafy greens, the past few days in the Kitchen Garden have been spent planting our summer transplants — tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant! Because we love to experiment with many different varieties of each plant, we’re planting over 10 varieties of tomatoes and 6 kinds of peppers. Not only does each variety have its own unique taste and physical appearance, but they tend to mature at different times, which means that crops ripen at staggered intervals, which makes it easier when it comes time to harvest.

Two rows of tomatoes, 10 different varieties!

Everywhere you look in the garden, things are green and growing FAST thanks to all the rain and sunshine we’ve been getting this spring — the potatoes are flowering, the onions are getting taller and bigger each day, sugar snap peas continue to climb, the broccoli is getting ready to harvest, lettuces are bountiful, and the radishes are making their way onto our dinner plates every night!

Ripe radishes

Gorgeous greens!

A view of Quadrant B

As you can see, we’re keeping busy and eating well these days in the garden. Be on the lookout soon for information on how to sign up for our highly popular CSA Program! Also coming up this week, you’ll be meeting Libby Lyon, who will be joining Rowan as a star Kitchen Garden apprentice all summer long! Libby, Rowan, and I will be updating this blog three times a week to make sure that you all get your fill of all the happenings in the garden.

Any of you readers have your own gardens you’re working in this season? Tell us what you’re growing! What are you cooking? We’d love to hear from you.

What’s that Buzzing in my Ear?

Our Garden, looking so Green and Vibrant

A lot has happened since our last post in April!  The garden has bursted into green with all of the rain and pleasant weather we’ve been having.  Most of my time at Morven recently has been focused on… the bees!  I picked up six honeybee colonies about a week and a half ago and set them up in hives here at Morven, a little up the hill from our garden.  I’ve been really worried about them, but they are doing well.  Each time I put my bee jacket, veil, and gloves on to work with them, I learn more about their behaviors.  I’m also convinced each colony has a different personality.  Below, I’ll describe the whole process of picking and setting them up!

All of the Nuc boxes at the back of my family’s mini van (which I have now taken over as the “Bee Van”)

First, I drove to Bealeton,VA, about an hour and a half from here, to pick up my bees.  I ordered six bee nucleus hives- a nucleus hive (or just called a nuc) is basically like a mini bee colony with a laying queen, lots of worker bees, larvae, and honey.  Inside each of those wooden boxes are about 10,000 bees- wow!  The nucs already have 10 frames in them, which I later put straight into my hive boxes.

Putting on the Bee Safety Gear

 

After bringing the bees to Morven that same morning, I set up a nuc box on top of each of the six hives.  I had put only one of the hive boxes (called supers) there for the hive because I didn’t want to overwhelm the bees with too much space.

Taking off the mesh screen over the entrance of one of the nuc boxes. You can see the bees starting to zoom out!

 

After I set up the nucs, I took off the screen covers on the entrances.  The bees were free to explore around!  I let them roam and orient themselves for the rest of the day, and then installed the colonies into the actual hives the next morning.

The Bees Forging in the Early Morning

So the next day (Saturday), I woke up early to make sugar syrup to feed the bees.  As they were still getting used to their new surroundings, I had been reading that it was really important to make sure that the bees liked the new area and had food to support them for a few days.  I made about five gallons of sugar syrup, thinking that I would make more to give them in a few days if need be.  (It turned out that they were fine and I didn’t have to make another batch of syrup.)  I looked at the bees when I first arrived to make sure they were still alright in their nuc boxes.  They were already bringing back lots of pollen, which was a great sign!  It looked like they were becoming very well adjusted to Morven.

The Set up, from left to right: Hive, Smoker, Nuc box

To move the colonies from the nuc boxes to my hive, I moved each of the ten frames in the nuc to my hive supers.  They settled in nicely and I put the feeders on top with some sugar syrup.  Moving the first few colonies was pretty nerve-racking for me because I wasn’t used to the bees and had never done anything like this before.  By the time I got to Hive #6 though, I was feeling more confident and the whole process went smoothly.  I only got stung twice on Saturday, which I though was pretty good.

Putting the Frames into the Hive

 

 

Check out the bees, honey, and pollen!

I’ve checked on the bees a few times since I put them in the hives, and they are doing really well.  Some of the colonies (like in Hive #2) are exploding with bees it seems, and some are not quite as thriving but still look healthy (like Hive #4).  I hope that they will continue to grow, build their comb, and gather honey and pollen!  I’m so excited to keep bees and am learning from them everyday.  I am also so thankful for all of the support I’ve received from the Harrison Research award and from the wonderful people at Morven!

The Hives!

April showers & sunshine

Thanks to a bounty of both rain and sunshine the past few days, all of our plants in the kitchen garden couldn’t be happier!  Today we’re taking you on a mini-tour of the garden, starting with all of the beets, carrots, radishes and turnips that have all popped up in their teeny-tiny glory:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I usually don’t like to play favorites, but I can’t help it — sugar snap peas make me absolutely giddy. Next week we will be trellising these gorgeous greens and selectively harvesting pea-shoots for some yummy salads (and making one of my favorite spring culinary creations: Pea Shoot Pesto! Stay tuned for the recipe):

The kale and swiss chard are cruisin’ right along and seem to grow inches overnight:

and our lettuces look like perfect little salads, just waiting to be picked:

Did we mention that the potatoes and onions are looking positively radiant? I’ll be honest, we’re already excited about digging up the potatoes later this summer — it may in fact be one of the most fun farm activities out there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and last (but certainly not least), the broccoli and cabbage are busy doin’ their brassica thing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, there you have it — a few glimpses of the Kitchen Garden in the midst of all this beautiful spring weather! Of course, none of it could be possible without all of the help from our daily student volunteers — THANK YOU to everyone (and there are lots of you) who have been lending a hand this season. If you’re inspired to join us at one of our daily morning workdays (Monday – Friday, 7am to 8:30am) just shoot me an email: mrr5q@virginia.edu.

Thanks for checking in, we hope to see you soon in the garden!

The Wonders of a Good Soil Massage

Cabbage seedlings (Although this looks like an Instagram photo, it isn't!)

Recently the weather has been taking us for a roller-coaster ride.  Yesterday it was hot, today it’s nice outside, and tomorrow it’s supposed to be chilly.  Hopefully we’ll get some rain tomorrow too!  We’re already having to start watering everything each morning since the ground is so dry.  Unfortunately there haven’t been too many April showers this year.

More cabbage. Look at that drip irrigation go!

Our plants are still doing well.  On Friday we went through and side-dressed our Swiss Chard transplants with some wonderful Panorama compost, making them nice and happy.  Michelle also worked the soil around our snap peas this weekend and now they are coming up!  We were getting worried, but the row is covered in little green sprouts now — we have a feeling that we’ll have a LOT of sugar snap peas this year!

Watering the Broccoli

In other exciting news, we’ve started setting up our beehives now!  They don’t have the actual honeybees in them yet, but they will soon.  We ordered our hive boxes separately from the bee colonies, which are called nucs.  Yesterday morning I set up the first one up on the hill overlooking our garden plot.  It took some time to level it, but it’s looking good.  When I was stacking the boxes, a honeybee, I think from the wild colony that lives in the cedar tree near the Main House, buzzed around me and the hive.  I think that’s a good sign!  We’re going to set up the rest of the boxes later on this week, so please stay tuned for more pictures!

The Beehives, still in the packaging

With the Light Just Right

Back to Waking up with the Sun

Here the dogwoods are almost done blooming and the tree canopies look fuller and fuller with each passing day.  We are continuing to put our spring starts in the ground at a rapid rate, trying to keep up with the turbo spring this year which seemed to become warm all of the sudden.  I am enjoying the break in warm temperatures with this nice and brisk weather.

Rows of Buttercrunch Lettuce

Today we planted buttercrunch lettuce and swiss chard.  With the morning sunlight shining on them, the light was just right.  Maybe it was the cooler temperatures, but this morning our garden was particularly beautiful.  We got a great haircut yesterday, trimming back some of our unruly clover, and all around our garden everything is turing a wonderful spring green.

 

Working in the Garden

Thanks to handy google spreadsheets Michelle set up, the past couple of weeks we have been carpooling a number of new friends and garden enthusiasts each morning.  People can sign up on which morning they can come, and we take turns driving out to Morven.  It’s working really well!  I’m really excited to have so many new faces out in the garden.

Quadrant B Ready for Spring

spring potluck in the Kitchen Garden!

We are just giddy with all the busting green of spring, and we can’t wait to celebrate the season with you next Thursday, April 5th for our spring kick-off potluck in the Kitchen Garden! 5-7pm.

Be sure to bring a dish, a friend (or four), and your appetite!

+ tour the Morven Kitchen Garden
+ sign up to volunteer during our weekly workdays
+ outdoor fun and games
+ good food & great company!

• Please RSVP by filling out this form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDFlSGMwVGVjSnVJNGw5eEswWU56dXc6MQ
• Check us out on Facebook!

Directions will be provided upon receiving your RSVP, and we will happily help coordinate carpools!

Sunday workday!

If you’re looking to get a little dirt under your fingernails while enjoying sunshine this weekend, then we have just the thing for you! This Sunday, March 18th, from 2-5pm we are holding our first spring workday in the Kitchen Garden!

We can’t wait to get some extra hands to help prep rows and PLANT. Lettuces, onions, sugar snap peas, carrots and beets — oh my! All helpers will also get to go home with a bag of kale and delicious asian greens that have been overwintering and are still tasty as ever.

If you’d like to join us on Sunday, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDdEZ1lPekhKOEdTdnRrcXlOUzJINkE6MQ (we will help coordinate carpools)!

Hope to see you Sunday!