Greenhouse Vegetable Pollination

We just received a question about greenhouse vegetable growing from Shaun via email. Shaun writes:

I have some questions about gardening in greenhouses... how are vegetable plants fertilized inside a greenhouse? Do you allow bees in the greenhouse? I've only done open plot gardening, and I know from my short experience that you have to have bees to fertilize tomato plants and zucchini and all the rest. These are all flowering plants that require insect pollination. I've been thinking about getting a greenhouse for my backyard, but I'm confused about the pollination issue.

Great question! For us, this isn't really an issue because our plants are only started in a greenhouse and then moved outdoors. But here's what you need to know:

Things like tomatoes and peppers are self-pollinating and therefore, only need to be gently shaken regularly to get the pollen moving(immitating the wind for example). Things like lettuce and beans will figure things out on their own without any intervention. Lettuce is just leaves, so unless you are looking to save seeds, just let them be.


Other veggies, however, such as zucchini, squash, cucumbers (which have male and female flowers) need a little bit more attention. One method is "painting" pollen from the male flower onto the female flower (or vice versa). You should note however, that there are some self-pollinating cucumber verieties to be found out there. They are often bred for use specifically in greenhouses. But like you mentioned, it is possible to use insects in your greenhouse by sinply leaving a door open (if you've got a door and a window you might even be able to make a cross-breeze and to get that wind in there). This might, however, have the potential of letting unwanted insects in so be careful!

Happy planting!

Winter = Memories of Summer

Although you wouldn't expect such bright and fresh photos to appear on a cold January day in Fredericton, we thought it about time to really show off our harvest and talk a little bit about preserving. It is, after all, the time of year when the canned goods really come in handy.

Back in August, the gardens were overloaded with vegetables and a couple of the Landless Gardeners decided to take a good walk through the greenery on one of Fredericton's hottest days of 2009 to try and rescue some of the wilting veggies. It wasn't long before our basket began to over flow:



Most of the veggies were divided up to be used in the coming days for fresh salads and other yummie meals but we decided to do a little canning as well! Although the kitchen was hot with boiling and sterilizing jars, we managed to still "beet" the heat outside. Can you guess what we were preserving...?



Canning beets is a beautiful and messy process that not only leaves you with a long-lasting sense of accomplishment on the inside, the evidence can be found written all over your paws! The red root vegetable's deep colour will sick around for days after you've been canning... a medal of honour. The beets were boiled with some vinegar and scooped into our sterilized jars to seal and cool.



Now it is winter and that day of canning seems like a million years ago but all of the wonder of last summer's hard work can still be found within those few jars of bright red beets in the pantry.

radio interview with Jon Steiman

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Jon Steinman... LIVE IN PERSON!

On Sunday September 27th the Landless Gardeners, in cahoots with the Conservation Council & Renaissance College, hosted Jon Steinman of Deconstructing Dinner (www.deconstructingdinner.org)for a presentation here in Fredericton. The event was a great success as about 40 folks took in Jon's presentation and participated in an animated and thought- (and hopefully action-)provoking discussion afterward.



Jon's presentation was centered around the deconstruction of a "typical Canadian meal" where we learned that essentially--as he put it-- we have very little choice at all about what we consume. Every part of this "typical" meal he traced back to one giant company... even down to the smallest ingredients like the salt in the steak and the corn syrup in the soft drink. It was a strak picture he painted as he continued to talk about only a handful of these companies that are controlling the food market.

Luckily, Jon saved time to tell us about some organizations and movements that are being carried out in his home town of Nelson, British Columbia. He spoke of the food being produced in people's backyards (ringing any bells?) and that is being harvested for sale at the market. He talked about the new grain CSA that sees hundreds of pounds of grain being sailed across the Lake to shareholders. Then there is the Co-Op store that sources everything locally first, where people can bring in their own cartons for refills on eggs, and where locals cart over their homemade soups and breads for sale. There's a local cheese-maker who takes part in the process all the way from the udder to packaging.

There is hope... and it sounds delicious!



After the presentation about a dozen people came together with Jon for a fantastic potluck featuring dishes like delicious organic chicken, curry, sour-cream cranberry pie, fresh salads, organic beef stew, roasted veggies from Mike's garden, and the most local of all meals was from the Landless Gardeners' very own gardens (within 50 feet or so... a yummy leak and potato soup!

To finish up, our very own Kerri interviewed Jon for CHSR so stay tuned for that which should be airing sometime this week!

Thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy the afternoon and to all who helped put it together!

You are invited to attend a FREE presentation by Deconstructing Dinner host Jon Steinman as he delves into the issue of resilient food secure communities! Sunday September 27th at Renaissance College--> 3pm



About the Presentation:

In recent decades, Canadian communities have become considerably dependent on a concoction of unreliable and unsustainable ingredients beyond the control of individual communities themselves.

With over a decade of experience involved in the food system, Jon Steinman shares perspectives on food via his weekly radio show Deconstructing Dinner. The show encourages Canadians to rethink how we produce, access and consume food. By taking
apart the building blocks of our globalized food system, Jon believes Canadians can
discover a wealth of opportunities to create more resilient and sustainable communities.

Jon will introduce his talk by deconstructing a standard North American meal, only to
reveal shocking insights into the state of our food system. Using a dynamic audio-visual presentation, Jon will share a handful of inspiring examples of how the Kootenay region of British Columbia is quickly redefining how it accesses food. Through independent cooperative grocery stores, community/retail supported agriculture projects and innovative and passionate farmers, a movement of food lovers is enhancing local economies, increasing food security for the region, strengthening community well-being, and providing residents with a strong sense of place and purpose.

About Jon Steinman:

After growing up in Toronto, Jon attended the University of Guelph where he graduated from the Bachelor of Commerce program in Hotel and Food Administration. While there, Jon developed an immense appreciation for food. The University did also introduce Jon to agriculture,but regrettably this link was not made as an integral
part of his program of study and instead was a result of the University being home to Canada’s largest agricultural school. In other words, Canada’s future food service and restaurant managers were not learning about where all that food originated. Jon developed a concern about this unhealthy detachment between eaters and farmers across the country, and indeed this disconnect is still present today.

Jon became enthusiastic about pursuing positions in restaurants that were fostering a greater connection to their suppliers than is otherwise found within any standard foodservice establishment. This commitment took Jon to the Niagara region of Ontario and the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Chefs there were developing working
examples of how businesses and eaters could play a significant role in ensuring that viable local/regional food systems could remain healthy and prosper.

His work in the Niagara region also led him to spend one year in France, where the clash between traditional food systems and industrial food systems was glaring.

Upon returning from France, Jon developed a passion for communicating his servations about the food system. After maintaining a weekly column that was published in southern Ontario newspapers, Jon launched the weekly radio show Deconstructing Dinner in January 2006, and based the show in Nelson, British Columbia at Kootenay Co-operative Radio, CJLY. Today, the show airs weekly on 35 Canadian radio stations and reaches a global audience through international radio stations, the Internet, and a weekly column accessible in periodicals and on web sites.

Deconstructing Dinner takes listeners behind the scenes to examine where our food comes from. The show has been effective in addressing the risks and threats of an industrial food system in the face of vulnerable resources,environmental concerns, mounting negative impacts of our food on human health, and the rural and farm income crisis.

Deconstructing Dinner is unique. Unlike most other media, the show not only
points out weaknesses in the food system, but also recommends concrete
alternatives.

For more information on Deconstructing Dinner visit
http://kootenaycoopradio.com/deconstructingdinner/

West Platt street party

Just a few weekends ago, the Landless Gardeners joined neighbours from the West Platt neighbourhood in hosting a street party. The event was intended to foster community and reclaim the streets for people, as opposed to cars. The party was well-attended and drew families and students onto the street where people took part in a drumming circle, games, and neighbourhood BBQ.

Members of The Landless Gardeners brought fresh-picked (and washed) veggies to the street party, contributing some food for the BBQ, which made a lovely salad and great veggies skewers. The remaining food was provided to anyone in the community who wanted to sample a taste of our gardens.

While at the street party, we had a chance to tour the garden of one West Platt resident who had constructed a miniature greenhouse out of four old window panes, hinged together, with a piece of plexi-glass acting as a cover for the top. The man explained that his self-constructed greenhouse allowed him to start some transplants in the spring, and to extend the outdoor growing season of herbs by leaving them in the greenhouse. Great use of old windows!

The Landless Gardeners are nearing the end of their growing season, but there's some canning and preserving left to do before colder weather sets in. Stay posted for more information on dates and times for those events.

--The Landless Gardeners

Son of a blight!

We've got it... blight.

Rummaging through the gardens on Saturday morning we noticed a row of potatoes had become completely wilted and blackened and figued we'd been struck by every potato farmer's worst fear. Resident garden expert, Mike, confirmed that we were looking at blight and we began pulling out the plants and shoving them in garbage bags to clear the garden of further contamination (apparently blight can be even more devastating to tomatoes... and we'd have a lot to lose if it spread to our fruitful plants). Luckily, at this stage the potatoes are still fine to harvest and eat so we set about digging up our yummie tubers... just be sure to get them before the plant turns to mush and travels to the potato itself!

Here's what blight looks:

Here's what wikipedia had to say about blight:

The spores of this water mold overwinter on infected tubers, particularly those that are left in the ground after the previous year's harvest, in cull piles, soil or infected volunteer plants and are spread rapidly in warm and wet conditions. This can have devastating effects by destroying entire crops.

Spores develop on the leaves, spreading through the crop when temperatures are above 10 °C (50 °F) and humidity is over 75% for 2 days or more. Rain can wash spores into the soil where they infect young tubers, or else spores can be blown in from miles away by the wind.

So we probably have all that rain we were getting in July and the extreme heat & humidity now showing itself here in the city. Luckily we were still able to harvest our potatoes... and lets hope this doesnt spread to the other plots!

--The Landless Gardeners