I have a stack of nursery catalogs on my kitchen table that are beckoning me to plant a serious vegetable garden this year. I’m probably not going to do that, mainly because the only place sunny enough to support a vegetable garden is a popular hangout for deer, groundhogs and who knows what other kinds of vegetarian critters. It would take a Big, Beautiful Trump-style wall to keep them out.
Another reason not to have a vegetable garden is that I can buy amazing, organically produced veggies at farm stands and farmers markets all through the growing season. It’s simple: People with stronger backs than mine put in the work. My family and I enjoy the fruits of their labors.
One of my favorite local farms is Simple Gifts in Amherst. Jeremy Barker-Plotkin started this business in Belchertown back in 1999 and moved to Amherst in 2006. It’s been fun to watch the farm grow and expand over the years. He’s now growing around 15 acres of vegetables there.
I tracked him down a couple of weeks ago to ask him about how he chooses which of the thousands of possible vegetable seeds to plant. Seeds are the basis of his business, so selection is important. Barker-Plotkin said he receives lots of seed catalogs and goes through them all, paying particular attention to the new varieties they feature. He also attends growers’ conferences. “There is lots of useful information at the conferences,” he explained, “because people have actually tried the seeds they’re talking about.”
One new line of seeds Barker-Plotkin is especially excited about are the “Salanova” lettuces that are revolutionizing the production of popular salad mixes. Salanova lettuce grows on a single core that produces a multitude of uniformly-sized leaves that are harvested with a single cut. These provide lettuce for mixes that are much easier to harvest than many individual lettuce plants. Because the heads are harvested only when fully mature, they develop more flavor and texture than traditional baby lettuces. There are other lettuce brands with the same characteristics, including “One-cut.”
Barker-Plotkin is also eager to try a new kind of cucumber that is supposed to be resistant to downy mildew, a fungus that attacks cucumbers in mid-August and often spells the end of the cucumber harvest.
When he tries a new seed, he says, he’ll watch it carefully. In addition to keeping seeding and planting logs, he keeps notes on his harvesting spread sheets. “Lots of it is me being out there observing things. If it’s going to make a big difference to my operation, I’ll pay close attention to how it’s doing.”
Another mainstay of Simple Gifts’ operation is its abundant offering of heirloom tomatoes. Jeremy said he likes to have varieties that produce well, offer an interesting mix of colors and taste good. “They have to sell well in the market.”
Barker-Plotkin told me that he used to grow 40 or 50 kinds of tomatoes. “It was fun to go through seed catalogs and pick out the most interesting ones.” Now he has narrowed the field to several tried and true “workhorses” and 10 or so “new odd-ball ones — the minors — to kick up diversity a notch.”
He saves seed from the ones he likes the best. Among his workhorses are Cherokee Purple, Indian Moon, Paul Robeson and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, which he recently promoted from the minors.
I asked him if there were seeds he had tried that had disappointed him. Without hesitating a single second, he had an answer. “Three or four years ago I planted a new kind of vegetable called a ‘kalette.’ They were on the front cover of the Johnny’s Seed catalog. They were the hot new thing. They were fluffy little kale-like things, kind of like Brussels sprouts. They didn’t work out at all. I’m not sure they worked out for anybody!”
Barker-Plotkin hopes to sell seed starts and several brands of seed at his new farm store on North Pleasant St. in Amherst. Some of his favorite seed companies are Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, High Mowing Organic Seeds and Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
As we spoke, he was getting ready to open up his crop-planting software to help him plan for the upcoming season. It will be here faster than you can say “Cherokee Chocolate”!
Saturday, from 1 to 2:30 p.m., Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston is holding a workshop on the challenges and joys of urban gardening.
Urban gardening is about growing food and ornamentals in small spaces. Whether you have a huge yard without the time or desire to tend it all, or an apartment with no outdoor space at all, this comprehensive talk will give you tips and techniques to start and maintain a garden.
Presenter Gretel Anspach is a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, a Trustee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and a recently retired systems engineer for Raytheon. Anspach helped to establish and maintain two food production gardens that have provided fresh produce to the Marlboro Food Pantry for the last eight years.
Members $10/Nonmembers $20. For more information and to register, go to: towerhillbg.org
On March 22, from 7 to 8 p.m., the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst is hosting a late-winter power point presentation featuring the variety of trees, shrubs, vines, canes and herbaceous perennials that can be grown in New England for bountiful harvest of fruits, nuts and vegetables.
John Root, naturalist and educator, will show participants how to establish and care for these plants using organic methods of cultivation. Nutritional and medicinal benefits of the plants will also be discussed.
Q&A, handouts with a list of edible perennial plant species, resources for further study and recommended plant nurseries are included.
Members $8/Non-members $10. For more information and to register, go to: hitchcockcenter.org.
On April 7, the Berkshire Gardening symposium will take place at the Lenox Memorial Middle and High School at 197 East St. The event will offer three workshop sessions to be chosen from 15 options.
Subjects include seed-starting, success with dahlias and pruning for plant health. Attractions between workshops and during the lunch break include a raffle, environmental organization tables, vendors and a used-gardening book sale to benefit WMMGA (please bring books you’d like to donate!).
For more information and to register, go to: WMMGA.org.
Kestrel Land Trust is offering free training opportunities in Pelham and Easthampton for volunteers who want to refresh their skills in monitoring land protected by fee or conservation restriction or are interested in joining Kestrel Land Trust’s “Stew Crew” as a volunteer monitor.
The workshops take place in Pelham April 14 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and at Acadia Wildlife Center in Easthampton April 21 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Coffee and mingling begins at 9 a.m. and the training begins at 9:30 sharp. Registration is required. For more information and to register, email Jill Fusco at jill@kestreltrust.org.
For amateur and experienced photographers looking to hone their nature photography skills and learn from a professional, photographer Michael Zide is offering a three-part workshop in April. Part 1 will take place April 14, from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Kestrel Land Trust office in Amherst, providing an overview of elements-focused photography concepts and constructive critique of participants’ photography. Each participant should bring two or three photographs to share. This will be followed by an in-the-field supervised photography outing to a nearby conservation area.
Part 2, April 15 to 20, allows participants to visit local conservation areas on their own time and take photographs, applying the photography concepts learned in the first workshop.
In Part 3, April 21 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Kestrel Land Trust office, the group will reconvene for a two-hour positive group critique led by Zide. Fee: $75 per person, space limited to 12.
Registration is required: Marilyn@kestreltrust.org.
Learn more about Michael Zide and see examples of his work at michaelzidephotography.com.
Mickey Rathbun can be reached at mickey.rathbun@gmail.com.