Here at my Bedford, New York farm, there are still so many fresh, organic vegetables to pick and enjoy.
Many of you often ask what I do with all the many vegetables I grow. Most of them are shared with my daughter, Alexis, and her children, Jude and Truman – they love all vegetables. I also share them with friends and use them in dishes for my own gatherings. Some are put aside for various media shoots or for testing recipes here at my farm. Nothing is ever wasted – whatever isn’t used goes to my beloved chickens, geese, and peafowl. This week, I also picked some delicious fruits.
Enjoy these photos.
My vegetable garden continues to provide bounties of fresh, nutritious vegetables. And, since we practice succession gardening, we are always able to pick something.
Beets are usually ready to harvest 50 to 70 days after planting, when they are about the size of a golf ball.
The edamame is also growing abundantly. If you’re not familiar, edamame is the same soybean that makes tofu. Eaten as beans, they taste a bit like peas and are buttery with a hint of sweetness and nuttiness.
I love okra, but for some, okra is too slimy when cooked. Okra is very healthy, however – it’s high in fiber, vitamin-C and full of antioxidants, so give it try! Okra or Okro, Abelmoschus esculentus, known in many English-speaking countries as ladies’ fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family.
I grow both green and red okra, but there is not much different between the two except for color.
Harvest okra when they are still small, about three-inches long. A common mistake is harvesting the pods when they are six to eight inches long, when most will have a woody taste.
Cucumbers require a long growing season, and most are ready for harvest in 50 to 70 days from planting. The fruits ripen at different times on the vine, but it is important to pick them when they are ready. If they are left on the vine too long, they tend to taste bitter. I prefer small to medium sized cucumbers.
I also got a big bag of hot peppers, but be sure to keep them separated from the sweet peppers, so there is no confusion in the kitchen.
The most common sweet pepper is the bell – usually seen in green, red, and yellow, but they can also be purple, brown, and orange. It’s a great pepper season – I’ve picked a lot this year.
This is some of the best celery I’ve ever grown – so bold in color. Celery is ready to harvest when the lower stalks are at least six inches long and the upper stalks are at least 18 inches long. And the stalks should still be close together, forming a compact bunch or cone at the bottom.
The celery leaves are also edible and have a strong celery taste.
Swiss chard always stands out in the garden, with its rich red, orange, and yellow stalks. These are not ready just yet.
We picked a lot of egg plants last week, but there will be more to harvest again soon. It is good to pick eggplants when they are young and tender. Try to pick a little early, which will encourage the plant to grow more, and will help to extend the growing season.
These are pimenta Biquinho peppers – round and little with a distinctive, tapered point or tail that resembles a birds beak. They can be either scarlet-red or sunshine-yellow. They have a mild heat. I try to pickle some every year.
Look at my onions. These will be picked later and then cured in a warm, dry, well-ventilated location for two to three weeks until the onion tops and necks are thoroughly dry and the outer bulb scales begin to rustle. Onions are ready when the long leaves start to flop over and brown. This signals the plants have stopped growing and are beginning to prepare for storage.
And the pumpkins are growing! What a difference a few days make.
I hope we have an abundance of big, beautiful pumpkins this year. Many will be ready in just a few weeks.
This time of year, I also check the orchard trees often to see if any fruits are ripe for picking. We harvested several trays of peaches not too long ago, but there are a few more that are ready.
I planted several types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. My trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko. Asian pears have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, which is very different from the European varieties. They are most commonly served raw and peeled. Some of these are ready for picking.
The other pears in this orchard are ‘Bartlett’, ‘Columbia’, ‘D’Amalis’, ‘Ginnybrook’, ‘McLaughlin’, ‘Nova’, ‘Patten’, ‘Seckel’, ‘Stacyville’, and ‘Washington State’. The pear trees, and all the other fruit trees in this orchard are planted in full sun, with good air circulation and well-drained soil.
It’s great to have fresh, organic, juicy, sweet fruits and nutritious vegetables growing in the garden. What are you harvesting this week?
Summer weather here at my farm is expected to be sunny and mild today - only reaching 75-degrees Fahrenheit. Hard to believe the season is almost over.
It always amazes me how quickly plants and trees grow from day-to-day. Many flowers have already finished blooming for the season, but the trees, most of which I've planted through the years, are still so beautiful and lush with foliage.
Enjoy these images.
Every single day I am home, I tour the farm to see how all the trees and plants are doing. Every specimen is special. These trees line the main carriage road to and from my woodland.
I’ve planted thousands and thousands of trees here on my 153-acre farm – in and around the gardens, along the carriage roads, and throughout the woods. I love how they look in the landscape and how they change through the seasons. Most importantly, we need trees for the environment – they help combat climate change, provide habitat and food for birds and other animals, and release oxygen for us to live. This is one side of my allée of pin oaks, Quercus palustris, which I planted soon after moving to my farm. At that time, they were just about six feet tall.
From this side of my long and winding pergola, one can see the towering bald cypress, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though it’s native to swampy areas, the bald cypress is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10. I also planted these when I took over my farm.
Nearby is this beautiful weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground. I have several of these trees on the property.
And across the soccer field is this row of weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus Pendula. The branches of these rare trees gracefully weep to create an umbrella of foliage that reaches the ground.
I am very proud of my orchard. There are more than 200-fruit trees planted here – apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, medlar, apricot, and quince trees.
From a distance, everyone notices the weeping willows. This one is in a grove at the edge of my pinetum.
This is my “Christmas Tree Field” – a large space where I grow more than 600 evergreen trees – rows of Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, Blue Spruce, and others.
This is the newer of two linden allées here at Cantitoe. This one is planted between the paddocks and runs from the pergola to the Boxwood Allée and then all the way down to the chicken coops. It, too, has grown so beautifully over the years, in part because I pay so much attention to the soil and keep it rich and filled with nutrients for all the plantings.
Do you see them? My handsome Friesians, Hylke and Geert, are under the stand of great white pine trees. These trees are visible from almost every location on this end of the farm. Pinus Strobus is a large pine native to eastern North America and commonly known as the eastern white pine, white pine, northern white pine, Weymouth pine, and soft pine. The fencing was bought in Canada. Although the uprights are mostly new cedar posts, the horizontal pieces are antique white spruce that’s still as beautiful now as it was when I purchased it.
Down beyond the chicken coops is a grove of dawn redwoods. Dawn redwoods, Metasequoia, grow faster than most trees and need an area under full sun that is large enough to accommodate the mature trees which can grow to more than 160-feet tall.
I’ve planted many Japanese maples just in this woodland near my chickens. I always look forward to their gorgeous displays of color, especially in autumn.
London plane trees and about 100 royal purple smoke bushes, Cotinus coggygria make up another allé in my middle field. I planted it in 2019 and it has grown exceptionally well since. These trees are so lush and the bold colors of the specimens look amazing together.
I also have London planes in one section of my living maze. These large trees are sought after for the large three-lobed, toothed, dark green leaves that turn yellow, orange, and red with the fall season.
Also in this maze are several Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’ trees, American sweetgums. As these trees mature, they will maintain their erect, columnar form, growing up to 50 feet tall and only about four-feet wide.
Acer saccharum, the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the primary source of maple syrup and for its brightly colored fall foliage. Sugar maples covered with climbing hydrangeas shade my tree peony garden.
Here’s a look down one row of espaliered apple trees just behind my long carport and flower room. Father Legendre of Hannonsville, France is credited with pioneering the espalier growing method in 1684. Because sunlight reaches every piece of fruit that these trees bear, espalier pruning continues to be a standard procedure at commercial orchards in France.
Across from the dwarf apple espalier orchard is the Malus ‘Gravenstein’. This antique variety is well known for cooking, sauce, cider, and eating out of hand. The fruit is large, with crisp white flesh and a distinct, juicy flavor.
Outside my Winter House is this weeping katsura, one of my favorite trees. Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum has pendulous branches that fan out from the crown and sweep the ground. Caramel-scented foliage emerges bronze or purple-red, turns blue-green, then fades to gold or apricot in autumn.
And off the terrace is this beautiful Nyssa sylvatica, or black tupelo – a medium-sized deciduous tree native to eastern North America from the coastal Northeastern United States and southern Ontario south to central Florida and eastern Texas, as well as Mexico. Its summer leaves are a bold dark green.
But look closely and see the changing color. This Nyssa tree is showing a few of its autumn leaves – shades of yellow, orange, bright red, and scarlet, which can all appear on the same branch. It’s a sign that autumn is on its way. In fact, the autumnal equinox is exactly one month from today, on September 22nd.
Beautiful, colorful dahlias continue to bloom at my Bedford, New York farm.
Dahlias begin to bloom with great profusion just as other plants pass their prime, and they last right up until the first frost. My dahlia garden is planted in a large bed behind my glass vegetable greenhouse. We have flowers ranging from small to giant dinner-plate size in all different colors and forms.
Here are more of the gorgeous flowers in bloom right now, enjoy.
This time of year, one can always find lots of colorful dahlia blooms behind my vegetable greenhouse. Dahlias come in shades of orange, pink, red, yellow, white, shades of purple, and various combinations of these colors – every color but true blue.
Dahlia is a genus of tuberous plants that are members of the Asteraceae family and are related to the sunflower, daisy, chrysanthemum, and zinnia. I’ve been growing dahlias for years.
They grow from small tubers planted in the spring. And for weeks during summer until fall these flowers give a stunning show.
The plant’s leaves grow opposite each other and are simple to pinnately compound with segments that are somewhat oblong in shape. They may be green, reddish-purple, or purple-black depending on the variety.
The majority of dahlia species do not produce scented flowers, but they are brightly colored to attract pollinating insects. Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are all attracted to dahlias.
Blooms range from dainty daisy-like flowers to the popular double varieties which can be two-inch-pompons to 12-inch dinner plate size.
Do you know… the root tubers were originally grown as a food crop and eaten by the Aztecs? In fact, The Aztecs used the plant to treat epilepsy and they saved the long hollow stems for water pipes.
Dahlias are native to Central America and were first recorded in Mexico in 1615. They are the national flower of Mexico and are also the official flower of Seattle and San Francisco.
In the early 17th century, they were called by their original name which was Acoctli.
After Dahlias were discovered, they were brought back from Mexico to the Royal Botanic Gardens of Madrid in 1789.
This cactus variety is called ‘Park Princess’ with tightly rolled vibrant pink petals. It is a prolific re-bloomer and an excellent cut flower.
Dahlias are octoploids. This means they have eight sets of chromosomes, whereas humans and most flowers only have two. The range of hybridization possibilities in dahlias is countless.
Dahlias were also loved by royalty. Both Queen Victoria and Marie Antoinette both loved these flowers.
Dahlias need at least six hours of sunlight a day and deep watering once or twice a week in the peak of summer if there isn’t enough rain.
Dahlias prefer moist, fertile, well-drained soil. I also add a two inch layer of mulch to help retain moisture, regulate soil temperature, and reduce the amount of weeds.
Because many dahlias have large, heavy blooms and grow on tall stems, it is important to stake them as they develop. My garden is behind a greenhouse, which provides extra protection from strong winds.
And I always say, if you eat, so should your plants. Dahlias do well with a monthly low-nitrogen, slow-release fertilizer.
Cut dahlias in the morning while it’s still cool, or in the evening after the heat of the day has passed. Another tip: use an upside down milk crate to transport cut blooms. Insert the flowers through the crate’s holes to support the heads and protect the stems underneath.
And cut flowers that are almost fully open but before they start to wither. They will open a little bit more in the vase of cool water.
Healthy, well-fed, and watered dahlias will provide abundant blooms… if lucky, maybe even until Halloween.
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