Tom Carey: Growing everything

As summer approaches, many of the crops common to our North American cuisine effectively stop growing well in the heat and rain. Although we can grow crops year round, our unfettered winter opportunities are punctuated by some unenforced down time through the depths of summer. Where in temperate climates, the well-defined off-season is a blanket of snow and cold, the end of our growing season is not as succinctly terminated. Actually, the weeds and bugs become an even a greater problem.

Once we’ve mastered the mechanics of growing crops well enough to expect success, should we grow anything and everything? Since I plan my farming activities on the scope and scale of a community-supported market garden, I constantly experiment with crops that will grow well in our climate and soil, as well as crops that the customers in my community will purchase. Traipsing down the garden paths, past the beds of Dinosaur kale, green beans, carrots, radishes, peppers and scallions, uncommon or experimental plants can be found. Rule of thumb: do not plant the first seed unless the crop is already sold (or has a spot on my dinner menu).

My goal of growing as many varieties of hot peppers as possible quickly came to an end when I realized that “Pareto’s Principle” of 20 percent of the varieties sold 80 percent of the time was universally enforced. Many of the hot pepper varieties never made it to anyone’s dinner plate. Double indemnity: if you are saving seeds, pepper plants need to be separated by 500 feet to effectively avoid cross-pollination. I have winnowed the selection down to jalapeno, cayenne, and ghost peppers.

Here in the South, loose-leaf greens of collards and kale produce much better than heading or bulbing crops of the same species (Brassica oleracea) of cabbage, Brussels sprouts, or kohlrabi. Essentially photosynthesis machines, the productivity of collards easily surpasses most other greens. But the market has spoken, with Dinosaur kale far outselling collards. I will always grow collards, but other varieties of greens, including Swiss chard or the numerous Asian types, will have a greater investment of space this coming year.

Do not even get me started on tomatoes, America’s favorite crop! After dealing with the spectrum of pest and soil nutrient demands of the larger slicing love apples, my successes have been mostly in the cherry tomato department. The ease of hand-to-mouth grazing, quicker ripening schedule, and more intense flavors, helped cherry tomatoes win the evolutionary fight for space in my garden. Folks are even coming around to the best tasting, but beyond ugly, black cherry tomatoes.