Potluck

We have a good harvest of Pac Choi and Chinese Cabbage! We will experiment with some new stir-fry recipes soon like this one 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Baby-Bok-Choy-with-Garlic-240548

Wrapping up the growing season

A second freeze really damaged our green bean plants so most of our beans could not be harvested though they were finally large enough. Someone stepped on some of our kale plants and damaged them. The rest of the kale and basil are still too small to harvest. The kole crops should be ready soon!

Hard Work Pays Off

After several days of heavy rain, we returned to the field and found that the rain was just what our crops needed!
Even though the heavy wind and rain made our bush beans (below) fall to one side, we now have a handful of harvestable beans. We put a row cover on the bed to protect our crop from a freeze tonight. If all goes well, we will have lots of green beans this year!

Our pac choi and Chinese cabbage (below) are doing very well too and are ready to be used used in salads now. We will give most of them a little more time to get larger so that they can be used in stir fries and soups too.

Finally, our kale and Thai basil still have a ways to go. While they have gotten more green since being transplanted, they are still quite small. We are hopeful that this cooler weather will be just what the kale needs to be successful.

Problem: Bean Leaf Roller
The bean leaf roller larva feeds on legume crops such as cow pea, lima bean, pea, snap bean and soybean. The bean leaf roller adult is fairly large, measuring about 50 mm in wingspan. The eggs are deposited singly or in small clusters of two to six eggs on the lower epidermis of foliage. Initially the eggs are white in color, but soon turn yellow. The egg is a slightly flattened sphere, and measures about 1 mm in diameter. Eggs hatch in three to four days. The bean leaf roller can complete its life cycle in about 30 days. 

Solution: Garlic, Peppers & Onion Insecticide

2 hot peppers

1 large onion

1 whole bulb of garlic
1/4 cup water

Toss in the food processor and add water, blend until a mash is made. Cover mash with 1 gallon hot (not boiling) water and let stand 24 hours. Strain. Spray on roses, azaleas, vegetables to kill bug infestations. Bury mash in ground where bugs are heaviest. 

Or

Mineral Oil Mix

3 parts oil per 100 parts water

update for Nov 10

Beans, Cabbage ,and Pac Choi grow well and healthy. But we found that there is a lot of caterpillars on beans. So Jenny did some research and suggest that we use cayenne pepper and mix with water to spray on beans. We decide to do on either Wed and Friday .

Update! 

This past Wednesday, October 29th, we went to the field to check on our plants! We had a lot to do and started by putting more hay around our beds to facilitate weed suppression. This method had worked well in the past for us and our beds only had a minimal amount of weeds on them which we took out. 

We also planted the kale and basil transplants and watered all of our plants multiple times. 

Especially the green beans have been doing great so far! 

Trasplants