Green Lacewing Eggs

I have a vast perennial herb garden, but this year I decided to plant most of my annual herbs in pots, and so we have containers of dill, cilantro, and basil in the North Garden. The dill and cilantro have gone to seed, so I've been collecting those seeds for our pickle projects. I had noticed that some of the umbels had a few aphids on them, but you know my philosophy about prey: Leave 'em alone, and the predators will show up. So I didn't think too much about it. The aphids don't really affect the seeds, after all; they are after the juicy stems at this point. 

Last night I had my plant terminology class, and we were asked to bring five different flower inflorescences in to study. So I picked one of the dill flowers because it has a nice compound umbel inflorescence. When I got to class, I noticed all these white things hanging down from the pedicels, the little stalk that holds the actual flower. So I waited until after class to speak with my professor, because I wanted to know what in the world those were. I had never noticed them before, and why would the plant make something like that?

After a good look, my teacher declared that they were EGGS. So then I got my loupe out and we looked closer and saw tiny worm-like things crawling around with the aphids. My initial thought was that they were thrips. (Here's something I could do better: Not assume that a bug is a bad guy. Presume innocence first!) When I asked Mr. Google this morning ("eggs hanging on dill?"), he directed me to this lovely blog: Red House Garden. And there were the eggs of the Green Lacewing, or Chrysopidae. I promptly went into the garden and started taking pictures of the dill.

Here, they're standing straight up! I put a piece of purple cardboard behind so we could see them.

The eggs are all over, also on the cilantro and the basil. And they're not just on the pedicels. They are also on stems! and flowers!

One of the students last night said, "it looks like a little Christmas tree with tiny ornaments!" and I think she's right! Kind of adorable, now that I know they are good guys!

Green lacewings are generalist predators (meaning they'll eat any soft-bodied insect, good caterpillars as well as nasty aphids), and are widely found across the US in garden and agricultural habitats. The adults feed mainly on nectar and pollen (we love that), and the larvae are voracious predators of the aforementioned soft-bodied insects (we love that even more). They can eat 200 aphids a day! They also eat thrips, whiteflies, mites, mealybugs, insect eggs, and leafhoppers. 

The best write-up I found on these creatures is from the Louisiana Ag Center, which has great pictures of the lacewings in all stages of life. The eggs are laid on 'filaments,' and there are three instar larval stages, before the larvae pupate and become flyers. Sometimes the larvae are called 'Aphid Lions,' because they eat so many of them! From the Louisiana Ag Center: "During the two-week larval stage, a single green lacewing larva can consume approximately 250 leafhopper nymphs.... as well as 300-400 aphids, 11,200 spider mites, 3780 coccid scale crawlers or 6500 scale eggs." Amazing!

Years ago, I bought a pack of lacewing eggs from Arbico organics. Who knows if they are finally taking hold in my garden, or if they flew in of their own accord sometime this year. But I'm glad to see them, recognize them, and celebrate them! 

Farm to Table Lunch at Poppy Corners

Tom is an administrator at City College of San Francisco, which has a wonderful Culinary Arts and Hospitality Department. Tom is friends with the chair of that department, Tannis, and they often talk about Poppy Corners, and Tom often brings in produce, eggs. or honey for Tannis to taste. Tannis had always wanted to connect her department with our 'farm,' in some way. The department has a fundraising auction every year, and this spring Tannis asked Tom if we would host a farm lunch here, cooked by the department staff. Our answer was an enthusiastic yes! And so we were an item at the auction, and a nice young lady won lunch for six, and that lunch finally took place today. 

It wasn't as hot as it was last weekend, but it was still around 100 degrees on our back patio, so these six friends from San Francisco got the real inland summer experience! They were cheerful about it and very interested in the farm and everything we're doing here, and the actual lunch was really spectacular. Two of the department staff, Barbara and Mark, came out to prepare and cook it, and they were terrific. They first visited on Friday to reconnaissance, which was interesting in itself - fun to watch them walk around and talk about what they could use and how they could make it all work. The first thing Barbara wanted to see was our kitchen, and thankfully she didn't blanch at how tiny it is. Then we walked around the garden and picked out the reddest, ripest tomatoes for the gazpacho, some cucumbers, some garlic, some basil, a bunch of eggs, and honey. Today, they arrived back at the house with various boxes and bins and knives and aprons and they got to work immediately. 

As we had already done our own prep work (tidying the garden, cleaning the house, making the centerpiece, minor really), we Boegels tried to stay out of the chefs' way and enjoyed listening in to the chatter: "Your peach pulp is on the second shelf of the fridge." "Will you poach your sausages before grilling them?" "Are those Arbequina olives you preserved?" "I want to present the tortilla on a wooden board," Thrilling, really, to hear how professionals manage all this. At one point I turned to Tom and said, "They sound so calm." Before a dinner party, I usually sound anything but calm.

Our guests arrived, and showed interest in the farm and its workings right away. Barbara served the peach bellinis, made sure everyone had melon and prosciutto bites, and off we went on a tour of the property. Our guests had lots of questions, some had grown their own veg in containers on balconies, some were home brewers, some were frightened of bees, some were adoring of chickens, all were interested in everything we were doing here and that made it a fun tour. 

Then it was time for lunch! Tom and I were included in the meal, which I didn't expect, but was thrilled about; both Kate and Adam got their fare share in the kitchen so they weren't left out (Adam ate everything, Kate ate the gazpacho). The food was amazing, simple cooking (by expert hands), highlighting the ingredients of summer and the farm. The men especially liked Tom's beer and were very interested in his process and his hop bines. Honeybees visited the flowers in the centerpiece as we ate, a hen crowed that she laid an egg, fritillary butterflies flitted around nearby, and a hawk called from the sky. Our six guests, most in their early 30's, were all incredibly well-traveled and had lots of fun stories to share and were fascinating to listen to.

This is exactly what we envisioned when we started this farm project so many years ago: People getting together on a hot summer day around a big home-crafted table, all the bounty of the farm on the table in front of us, and nature singing all around us. Yes, yes, yes. 

We had a marvelous time and the food was stupendous. And I didn't even have to clean the kitchen afterward; Mark and Barbara took care of all of that. What a fabulous day!

Washable, Reusable, Biodegradable Cleaning Cloths

Over the summer, my twitter feed was inundated with news about how terrible kitchen sponges are. I follow a lot of cooking sites plus a lot of environmental sites, so I was getting some mixed messages. The cooking sites wanted me to use more sponges, and the environmental sites wanted me to use less sponges! So I had to figure all this out for myself. I hope I can simplify it for you, too.

First of all, the germ news. We all know how our kitchen sponges can hold on to a lot of bacteria; after all, that's why they smell bad after a while. I always thought that microwaving a wet sponge for a minute would kill all of that. Some other folks I know put their sponges in the dishwasher to clean, or boil them. But the latest news is that those methods actually can make the sponges worse! It seems that this is because the bacteria are resistant and rapidly re-colonize the sponge, making it even more germy than it was in the first place. The solution? Change your sponge more often. The recommendation was at least once a week, more often would be better.

Which seems sensible. Sponges are fairly inexpensive, so why not buy more and change more often?

Here's why not: Conventional sponges are simply terrible for the environment. They contain plastic, dyes, and synthetic disinfectants. When you throw them away, they go into the landfill and never decompose. There are some sponges that are made with recycled material, and those are better, but they still won't decompose like something natural would.

So this sent me on a hunt for alternative ways of cleaning my dishes. After a lot of searching, I think I have found two products that will really help us stay clean and germ-free, as well as helping the environment. 

First dish cloths. Pictured above are Swedish dish cloths, which are made of cellulose fibers, can be washed over and over again, and when they finally conk out, can be put in your compost bin, as the dyes and materials are biodegradable. Stock up and get a pile of them, use one for 1-2 days, throw it into your washing machine (or boil on the stove), and hang to dry (they cannot be put in a clothes dryer). The downside is that they are not cheap like sponges; however I think the fact that they are reusable for a very long time gives them the edge financially. I couldn't find any of these made Stateside, which is another drawback. I bought them directly from Tuliptree & Saga, which is a Scandinavian storefront, and ended up paying a little more in shipping. Skoy cloths can be obtained on Amazon. As you can see, you can find lots of fun designs, or just plain colors. The cloths are stiff upon arrival and after drying, but act just like a spongy cloth when wet. I have used them for a week now and like them very much. Yes, it takes a little more work to wash and dry them, but I think it's worth it to minimize our household impact on the environment.

Tom was on board with this totally (he is definitely more mindful of waste than I am), but his one request was to find a 'scrubby' sponge, something with some muscle, for pots with cooked-on food. After more research, I found these loofah sponges from Twist. These are really great, they dry fast, and can be composted as well. Since they cannot be washed, we'll be replacing these more often. I think next year I might grow my own loofah sponge gourds so that I can make our own supply. These seeds are on sale at Renee's right now!

Now, I am on a search for biodegradable cleaning wipes. I don't mind cleaning kitchen surfaces with one of these cloths and some environmentally-friendly cleaner (or my own Thieves Vinegar), but I get a little skeevy about cleaning the toilet with anything that I then reuse. Clorox makes a wipe that they claim is compostable, called Green Works, but the Environmental Working Group gave these a bad grade, apparently. If anyone has a suggestion for these, please let me know! 

Malabar Spinach (or, hooray for summer greens!)

Perhaps you live in a part of the world where you can grow greens in the summer - lettuces, spinach, kale, and chard fill your plot. Here in our arid, zone 9b summer climate, greens are nearly impossible in the hot months; they either require cool soil temps to germinate, or they bolt immediately upon growing. Fall, winter, and spring are our main greens-growing time; in the summer we tend to make do without. 

Until now! I only recently came across Malabar spinach, and knew I had to try it. It's not really a spinach; it's Latin name is Basella alba 'Rubra.' But the leaves look like spinach, which is how it got it's common name (plus it's from the Southern Indian coastal Malabar region).  It's a tropical plant. It likes HOT weather. It likes lots of sun. And it likes humidity, which is one thing we don't naturally have here, so I have to keep it well-watered. 

I'm growing it in part shade (they'd prefer full sun), up a portion of fence that needed some adornment. I got the seeds from Baker Creek, but I've seen it available at lots of seed houses. They were slow to germinate, and spotty - I probably got about 60% germination rate. They were also very slow to start growing, but once the temperature hit the 90's, they really got going. And this past weekend we had over-100 degree temperatures, so they started taking off for real.

As you can see, these are vining plants, and they will get quite bushy and cover this fence, probably growing right over it into the neighbor's yard. They are very sensitive to frost, so I'm hoping the fence protects them and I can grow them as a perennial. If not, it's a lovely summer annual. It has attractive red stems and very shiny leaves, which are large and fleshy, almost succulent. It does taste remarkably like spinach and stands in very well in green salads. I have not cooked the greens yet, but apparently they do well in things like frittatas, which is where we would use them most. Every part of the above-ground plant is edible; the flowers are pink-tinged and pretty, and then they turn into very dark purple berries which are also edible, though very seedy. And that purple color in fruits is extremely dense in vitamins. 

I am thrilled with this plant; thrilled to have summer greens to graze on as I make my way through my garden chores, and thrilled to give some fresh to the chickens each day. I'm excited to see what I can do with the berries. The only downside I can see is that it can be invasive in tropical climates, so if you live in the American Southeast,  you'd probably want to be careful growing this plant. 

For a stunning picture of a mature vine and some more facts on this versatile plant, check out this post from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And if you'd like some seeds, let me know, as I'm sure I'll have plenty to share!

September Planting List

Ok, "Steam"tember has arrived. It was 109 here yesterday, and is expected to be 112 here today. San Francisco is smashing heat records left and right; suffice it to say that this is a heat wave we didn't really expect. Or rather, I should say, we DO expect heat in September, but maybe not quite so extremely!!!

Anyway, what that means is an indoor day for us. I'll go out about three times and give the chickens a spritzing, and make sure the bees have water-filled bowls nearby; other than that, not much gardening activity is taking place. Luckily, I've done a lot of September's list already, and will continue to do it as the month goes on. Leeks, carrots, and beets have all been sown, the brassicas are all potted up and growing nicely, the kale, chard, and spinach will go in when I find room, and while I already tried to germinate peas in one place, they aren't taking, so I'll try them again somewhere else. But not while it's this dang hot!

I hope you're having better gardening weather on this Labor Day weekend, and can spend some quality time outdoors. Now, back to my iced tea and a binge-watch of The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu.