Amy Rice Jones from Petaluma Bounty shares fall planting tips

Post by Sue Capella
We had a full house at The Seed Bank last week for Amy Rice Jones’s free talk on fall planting. Farm manager for Petaluma’s popular food growing non profit, Amy is well respected in the community for her wealth of knowledge on sustainable farming and raising all things green. And her talk was full of great tips for local gardeners hoping to reap the bounty of a fall and winter vegetable garden.

Amy touched on everything, including what to plant from seed now, what needs to be planted from starts, soil amending, veggie bed location and sun exposure, cover crops, and how to protect soil during the winter.

If you’re going to broadcast seeds directly into the ground, don’t delay, you must plant when there are still midday hot spells, said Amy.

Amy answering questions of guests at the Seed Bank

Depending on your location and the vegetable, you can plant seeds now through early October. Get those root crops in as soon as possible though, she stresses, including carrots and beets. And with carrots, keep the soil very moist until they sprout. Some of Amy’s favorite heirloom carrot varieties include “Scarlet Knots” and “Atomic Red.” As for beets, only plant red varieties—no golden varieties in the winter. She likes “Bull’s Blood” and “Early Wonder.”

Other fall veggies that can be planted directly in the ground from seed this month (September) include bok choy, chicory, radicchio, Chinese cabbage, mache, endive and escarole, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, and leafy greens, including kale, spinach, and lettuces. Some of Amy’s lettuce favorites include “Winter Density” and “Little Gem.” “Bloomsdale” spinach, another favorite, can be planted by seed directly into the ground now through early October and then again February through March for a successive crop.

Bok choy seeds can be sown now through October and again February through March; radishes, through October and again February through April.

Other cool weather crops to plant now include broccoli, mustards, cauliflower, onions, and garlic. Many heirloom garlic varieties can be planted through November.

In October, November, and December, you can’t plant seeds, Amy said. “Plant starts then.”

“With fall and winter vegetables, water midday to help them cool down in hot spells while getting established,” she added.

And give them 6 to 8 hours of sun, preferably including the hours of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Soils become compacted easily during the rainy season, Amy pointed out. She recommends planting cover crops to stop winter soil from getting compacted, keep the soil “alive,” and serve as nutrients that can be worked into the soil.

Cool season cover crops Amy recommends include legumes, bell beans, oats, vetch, and mustards. Naturally emerging weeds such as chickweed and miners’ lettuce are also good as companion plants, helping protect the soil in winter rain.

Mulches, including straw (not hay), also stop the rain from compacting the soil.

Amy uses a pitchfork to work the soil at Petaluma Bounty Farm, where adobe clay is abundant. She digs down at least to the tines, she says. “The deeper you can cultivate your soil, the deeper the roots can go and get more nutrients.”

(You can pick up a Vegetable Planting Summary compiled by the Sonoma County Master Gardeners at The Seed Bank for more particulars on fall and winter crop planting or bring your planting questions to our in store horticulturalist, Gwen Kilchherr, who’s at the store Mondays through Wednesdays. And there are many opportunities to volunteer at the Petaluma Bounty Farm and learn about raising food crops firsthand. Visit www.petalumabounty.org for details.)

Paul Greenberg NY Times Magazine and National Geographic Journalist

 Maybe you don’t give fish a second thought. You shop for fresh fillets at your favorite whole food market and enjoy a salmon dinner now and then. But if you attended food journalist Paul Greenberg’s talk at The Seed Bank last night, you’ll most likely look at this ocean-born food source a little differently from now on.

Greenberg, who writes for New York Times Magazine and National Geographic, spoke about his new book “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food,” sharing some real eye-openers, like the fact that “90 million tons of fish come out of the sea each year—the equivalent in weight to the entire human population of China.

“Wild fish seemed to be a crop, harvested from the sea, that magically grew itself back every year. A crop that never required planting,” said Greenberg, who spoke to a good-sized crowd as part of a series of author events The Seed Bank co-hosts at the store with Copperfield’s Books.

Also, added Greenberg, “in the fifties, only a portion of our oceans were fished. Now, the whole world is a fishing ground.”

And another interesting fact from Greenberg: “Per capita, fish consumption has doubled in the past 50 years.”

You can see where this is going: Our wild fish supply is becoming depleted. Greenberg illustrates this depletion in his book by focusing on four fish he could always count on seeing at the Connecticut Fish Market near where he grew up: salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna.

At one time, he writes in “Four Fish,” as many as 100 million Atlantic salmon larvae hatched every year in the upper Connecticut River, making their way south to Long Island Sound, north to Greenland, and then back to the Berkshire foothills to spawn. Nowadays, due to overfishing and numerous dams, this healthy population is dwindling. The salmon we buy and eat today is all farmed, he writes. “Fifty percent of our seafood is farmed.” (And in a few years, this number will exceed the halfway mark.)

Attendees at The Seed Bank talk shared their experiences ordering salmon from restaurants here and on the East Coast from menus claiming “wildly farmed” and “organic” salmon. “There is no such thing as organic fish,” said Greenberg, (at least here in the states.) And as for “wildly farmed,” well, that descriptor got a big laugh from the crowd.

(Currently, a proposed pebble mine to be built near the waters of Bristol Bay, the easternmost arm of the Bering Sea, is threatening enormous Alaskan salmon runs, Greenberg also shared. Click here for more info.)

Greenberg's new book .

Greenberg, a life-long fisherman, is an enthusiastic, energetic speaker and a well-schooled expert on global fishing. His book provides land and sea reporting on the subject from Yukon to Greece and from Long Island Sound to the Mekong Delta. He shares stories of accompanying fishermen on fishing trips near and far as well as a plethora of information on aquaculture and the ecosystems of the wild oceans.

What needs to happen, stressed Greenberg, “is that we need to come up with a roster of farmed fish that don’t impede on wild fish.”

Wild fish need to be reframed as “something precious,” he added, just as deer are viewed as an “animal” and “game,” wild fish need to be redefined as “game.”

Paul Greenberg invited last night’s audience to continue the discussion and to direct questions to him at www.fourfish.com.

Sue Capella is a Northern California home and garden writer, photographer, and artist. She can be reached at SueCapella@gmail.com.

Standing room only in the Seed Bank!

Feb. 3, 2010: It was a great evening, and so nice to be in a room with over 400 like thinkers. It was so fitting that Pollan spoke at The Seed Bank, surrounded by thousands of packets of heirloom seeds, the beginnings of the purest foods available. I loved his simplest advice from his newest book “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”: “Don’t eat foods your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize,” and “Don’t buy foods with more than five ingredients.” They’re such easy rules to remember.

One new approach for me, however, will be: “Avoid foods making health claims.”  Pollan’s insights on the claims made on cereal boxes brought this one home though. Cereal makers are actually claiming that their breakfast “food” filled with 40 percent sugar “boosts immunity.” It will also be a personal switch to avoid low-fat and “lite” foods, opting to eat less of the real thing instead–another of Pollan’s food rules.

Michael Pollan shares his Food Rules at the Seed Bank

Pollan’s audience at The Seed Bank definitely resonated with his most general rule:  “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” He encouraged planting a vegetable garden, even in a window box, though I’m certain he was surrounded by some of the Bay Area’s most avid veggie gardeners.

“Cook” he told us. That’s the best way to stop eating processed foods. He got a big laugh when he suggested not eating any foods that come at you through a car window, alluding to fast food. And it was wonderful to hear eating food described as “a communion with others and with nature.”

Michael Pollan signed copies of his books at the end of the event.

I’m now even more inspired to eat natural and whole foods, at a table, and in good company . Thank you Jere and Emilee Gettle for a rare evening in a rare location surrounded by rare seeds.