The end is here...

The semester is coming to an end and even more exciting my undergraduate career here at UF.  I've enjoyed this class greatly and it isn't often you have the opportunity to take a class purely for pleasure and to learn a little bit also.  I had a great time getting to spend several hours in the garden every week was relieving and rewarding.  Ive gotten to reap the benefits of my hard work in the form of food!!!  Ive learned about how important weeding is and why it is important, also how bad pests can be for the garden.  I did not realize they do so much more than eat the leaves they spread viruses and can be a pain to kill.  I've had every squash plant die because of the virus!!!  Anyways other things have gone very well.  My tomatoes are doing great and I hope they will be ready in the next couple of week.  Also I had my first snap peas today and they were delicious very sweet and crisp.  Tonight for dinner I made some homemade chile using some of the Joe Anaheim and Lady bug peppers and green peppers.  I also added a nice green onion garnish it was delicious and I have a ton of leftovers.  Overall I have been very happy that I decided to take this class and having fresh vegetables that I grew these last couple weeks has been awesome and is really rewarding.  At the same time I am thankful for grocery stores I would not want to have to live off subsistence farming!!! Here is a picture of my Chile.  Have a great break and thank you for an awesome semester.

The End is near

After a nice long thanksgiving break I returned to find nothing new in the garden.  I just picked some things that were ready and these included cucumber, zucchini, both kinds of hot peppers and a green pepper.  I cooked them up the same night and added them to some noodles!  I did not realize how hot the ladybug peppers were and they caught me off guard!  Ouch!  I believe I'll have some squash ready soon along with carrots, tomatoes, Kohlrabi, cauliflower, and scallions!  I'm afraid that everything may not be ready in time for the end of the semester though...  So I am happy that the gardens will still be accessible after class so I can harvest the rest of my vegetables because it would be super sad to put in all this work if I would not be able to harvest it all.  I tried to make some potato zucchini latkes but they did not end up so well :(  I have made some more zucchini fires though and they have been quite tasty and simple!

All the Zucchini!

It's hell week so I did not spend too much time in the garden today.  I just picked what was ripe and that was about it for today.  I'll stop by later in the week to pick some more veggies and since I'll be heading out of town next Tuesday I'll plan on going to the Monday section to work in the garden since it will need some love and I'll be gone for the rest of the week.

I haven't done anything to fancy yet when using my veggies mainly because I've been so busy and anything that is time intensive is not happening this week!  I had a salad which I posted last week and I made some Zucchini fry things that I snacked on while studying and were alright.  I have a yummy sounding recipe for Zucchini Latkes http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/zucchini-potato-latkes-tzatziki-recipe-5619 which I'll try and make sometime before next week.  Again no time this week!!!!  I wish a wider variety of things would be ready at this time but unfortunately all I really have that is ready is a lot of Zucchini and cucumbers which I like but when it comes to cooking my options are a little limited.  Once more things are ready I'll definitely play around a little more.  I want to try mashed cauliflower and eggplant parm so those are two items that will be made in the near future! 

The Natural, Sustainable, Oranic foods

When I think of natural, organic, sustainable food I wish I would eat those things all of the time.  What a great thing food that is produced under certain guidelines to be 'safer' for you and the environment.  Sustainable foods that use less.... actually I'm not sure what they would use less of maybe water, or fertilizers that could run off and harm the environment.  While these are great things I feel as though they are fads more than anything.  There is no scientific evidence that organic, natural, or sustainable foods taste better or are better for you but at the store they cost nearly double the regular foods.  I know which I am buying the cheaper one!  If those items cost the same price I would absolutely buy them and when it comes to buying locally I would again much rather do that than anything else.  That way it helps my area of the state economically, it cost less and pollutes less during transportation, and ideally should be fresher also.  These things are still more expensive and it makes no sense to me.  I am really excited for the trader joes that is coming because it gives you an option that may not be local but is 'natural' and things like that for a price like you would find at Publix.  I'm actually applying for a job there too!!!

We have started harvesting our veggies and my first pick was small but I brought home a couple of cucumbers, a zucchini, and some red lettuce.  I made a salad it was yummy!!!  Not very exciting though once more things are ready I will add more and start trying some new cooking that I have done before.  My challenge is to make myself like eggplant.

Happy Hunting

Today in our gardens we did a scavenger hunt fining all kinds of things.  I did not find any aphids, caterpillars, or whitefies though.  I've seen them in previous weeks but I could not find any this time.  That's not a bad thing though.  I'm excited to start harvesting and eating things next week!  I spent a lot of time today picking weeds, and fertilizing.  I'm excited I can see at least some of my carrots are starting to thrive and I planted a lot of Kohlrabi hoping some would survive and it seems to have been successful.  I'm thinning them out now because so many germinated this time around.  I pulled out another squash do to virus... I just wish everything would be virus free.  The weather was also perfect for gardening!!! I'm happy it has cooled down for at least a week.  Here is my scavenger hunt collage.

FOOOOOOOOOOOD

My garden is starting to produce food!  But I can't eat it yet because of the pesticides...  I pulled off 2 large zucchinis and an eggplant.  I know there will be plenty more to come it is just sad.  speaking of food we discussed the parts of the plants we eat today in lecture.  We eat almost every part of the plant from the leaves, to the roots to the flower.  Of the plants in my garden I will eat the fruits of the tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, peas, zucchinis, squash, and cucumber.  I'll eat the leaves of the lettuce and scallions.  I'll eat the roots of the beets and carrots.  I'll eat the stems of the Kohlrabi, and I'll eat the flowers or the cauliflower, and lastly I'll eat the seeds of the peas.  I'm excited to start taking home and cooking and eating all of the different vegetables!

In the garden I did the normal weeding, fertilizing, spraying neem and BT.  In addition to the routine I also put up trellises for the tomatoes and peas.  I'm excited to see that many of the plants I was worried about are starting to look more healthy and produce flowers.  One of my lettuces did die :( and I pulled two more virus infected squash but planted two new ones and hopefully that will stay virus free!

Keeping Busy

I did a lot today in my garden.  On top of the usual weeding, bed shaping, spraying insecticide, I also planted a lot of new stuff in places where things have failed to grow.  I planted more cauliflower, Kohlrabi, beets, and lettuce since I dug up and plowed several large areas of my beds that hadn't grown.  Also in my extra bed I planted more carrots and peas since my carrots don't seem to be doing too well and the peas are doing really well so I want more! 
I'm sick of the bugs and other pests.  The virus that the white flies cause has claimed three of my squash plants and many other plants are heavily chewed, and have other deformities caused by the pests in our garden.  I can only imagine how many crops large farms would lose with out the use of insecticides and herbicides.  I know they get a lot of heat for using such products especially in our fab phase of organic, and all natural, pesticide freem non-GMO the list goes on...  But these things are necessary especially in large scale settings. 

The first vegetables are also starting to become visible and its exciting.  My garden will not be a total failure!!!  There was a small eggplant, zucchini, and pepper that I noticed today that were not there last week.  That's what the pictures this week are showing. 

FOOD

So I checked out the farmers market this past Wednesday and it went as it always does when I go. I want the food, and juices that are there ready to eat and I don't find much appeal in the vegetables or meat products.  Mainly because of price.  I feel my dollar goes further at the store so that is where I will by such products.  I wish it wasn't this way, I wish I could buy all of the produce for a cheaper price at farmers markets because I would rather support them.  This brings me to my problem with agriculture and food in the US. Ideally products off the farm being sold by farmers should be the cheapest! They have no middle man to drive, deliver, and stock the food. But our government here has found a solution to that, subsidies and other policies. I wish I could fully understand why this happens this way since it goes against common sense and basic economics. The less transportation costs, the less middle man there is the cheaper the food should be.  It makes perfect sense but it sadly does not work that way here.  Along the same lines here highly processed food are often less expensive than non processed alternatives. It makes no logical sense how foods that must be produced in factories, sealed in plastic and cardboard, and shipped hundreds and thousands of miles are cheaper than fresh local foods. Again I believe we can thank our government for that.  When I studied abroad in Ethiopia there were street vendors everywhere selling bananas, potatoes, and all kinds of agricultural products for very low prices.  At the same time if you were to go to the store and try and buy processed foods they would often be double the price they are here in America.  It is cheaper and easier to eat healthy in developing countries, but here it is the opposite.  Here the wealthy are the healthy because lower quality highly processed foods are more affordable for those less well off. It is sad...

Viruses, Flowers, and More

So when I got to class today I remembered we had a quiz today... oops.  I also left a trowel in my garden last week... oops.  I'm really forgetful this semester, senioritis has got a hold of me in a tight grasp.  Anyways things in the garden seem to be going mostly well.  Today I planted the last new additions to my garden assuming nothing else gets replaces and that was the cauliflower.  I planted 3 of the little guys.  Most things are looking good including the peas, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, an cucumber.  Unfortunately I pulled two of my squashes up since they had a virus :( but I replanted two more and hopefully they will be virus free!  One of my eggplants also had a little flower on it and another one had a bud.  A couple of things aren't looking so great but we will see and these include the scallions, carrots, and I still have seen no clear signs of basil, cilantro, and kohlrabi... I hope they make it!

When it comes to my food I buy most of it exclusively from publix.  It's close, convenient and I love the bogo sales.  I would love to buy things from the co-op and farmers market but I find it to be really inconvenient and also the prices tend to be more expensive for the produce I'd like to buy.  I tend not to worry about things if they are organic, GMO free, or any of that stuff.  The main reason for all of this is price and I'm a broke college student so I am going to buy what is cheap!

The Tomato plants are looking healthy

The Sad looking squash

The First Flower of the season

Happy peas

The new addition

The peas are coming... The Peas are coming

So everything has been getting bigger, and looking more healthy than they did last week.  Along with weeding the beds I also added BT and Neem to the plants to keep the bugs away!  Some of the leaves have been getting quite a lot of chewing, stupid bugs.  Some of the plants are also starting to see flowers like the eggplants.  I also added fertilizer to some of the plants that were not looking to great like the peppers and tomatoes.  Besides that I also planted 6 heads of lettuce today!  I hope they all survive and do well!  I also plowed one of the beds next store that no one was using and planted a couple of squash and zucchini.  Also the Peas I planted last week were all just starting to break through the soil today were looking good!!! (I forgot to take a picture though)  In class we talked about soil and what plants need.  The essential ingredients plants need are  split up into 3 groups environmental, macro nutrients, and micro nutrients.  All three are just as important to the plants life, but the plant needs more of some than others.  I believe some of my plants especially the tomatoes may have a nitrogen deficiency since the bottom leaves are sort of yellow.  Below are pictures of the lettuce I planted, one of my eggplants and a zucchini plant.

Take That You Pests!

Another exciting day in the garden! Things are starting to look up, and by look up I mean grow up.  The eggplants are starting to look really good and happy along with the squash.  However some bugs are getting hungry and eating up my leaves and I do not appreciate it!  So today I sprayed some bug killer on the leaves!  Some other new happening in the garden are the emergence of the carrots.  They are so picturesque.  Another new addition to the garden happened today in the form of 48 new pea plants.

 

In class today we discussed the different ways the Florida climate can affect plants and crops here.  Florida has very consistent day lengths since we are closer to the equator.  Florida also is close to zero elevation meaning that we do not get very extreme weather.  Winds are usually calmer, it does not get to cold, and we have a lot of moisture.  Also we get a lot of precipitation to go along with "the sunshine state."  Both of these factors are great since plants need sunlight and water to grow!  We are able to avoid many of the extremes that other locations have to deal with like long days or nights, high winds, high elevation, severe droughts, extreme cold, high heat with low humidity.  Florida has great factors for plant and crop growth!  Even with all of this irrigation is still needed though, but to a lesser extent than in other places.  Usually sprinklers are used here since they can cover a wide range in a relatively cost effective way.  Other forms of irrigation are not as useful here like furrow flooding since the water would sink straight into our sandy earth.  

Yay cimate!

Oh No.... Please, anything but the Broccoli!!!

Today was a sad day, I learned that the broccoli died.  My favorite vegetable gone, dead, and then I had to find what to put in the 6 ft of space!  In place of the broccoli I planted the Kohlrabi, which I hope will be as delicious!!!  One of my pepper plants was not looking so good so I dug it out, and put in another eggplant in place of it!  This also made me sad since I love peppers!!!  Along with those I also planted my basil, and cilantro today!  I wish the veggies would just be ready I'm hungry!

Where life was taken, life was also given, my squash, zucchini, and cilantro all began sprouting!  I also hate weeds, I feel like half of the time is spent picking stupid weeds!!!

Our discussion today on GMOs was really interesting, and contradicted a lot of what I've heard.  It nice to hear something from people who actually know and not just emotionally charged documentaries.  I wonder if any of our seeds are GMOs???  It's an interesting and very emotionally charged topic which I wish had more facts about it and not strong opinions.  I'd like to know if Monsanto is as horrible as I've always learned it was?  I agree that we need new and improved agricultural techniques to meet the demands of a growing population, but are GMOs the best way, especially since we don't really know if they do cause any negative health effects, but then again if we think that way couldn't anything potentially cause negative health affects that we don't ever worry about like our computers and cell phones.  Who knows? And for now I'm going to keep on eating my veggies and fruits GMO/organic or not!

Getting Dirty

It has finally begun, the seeds have been sown!  Today we discussed the differences and pros and cons of seeds vs transplants.  Seeds require less effort, less money, but have more of a risk of failure.  On the other hand transplants are selected that will be more likely to succeed, they give us the ability to jump the growing season, but they also cost more money and are more labor intensive.

While planting my garden today I planted both seeds and transplants.  The seeds I planted today were: sunflower, scallion, all 3 varieties of carrots, cucumber, squash, and zucchini.  The transplants I planted today were: Juliette tomatos, new girl tomatoes, ladybug, orange bell pepper, red bell pepper, anaheim joe parker, and eggplant.
I hope everything survives

The who, what, where, why, when, and how!

Hi I'm Andrew Self!  I'm 22 and in my last semester here at uf.  I'm majoring in political science and anthropology and have a minor in African studies.  I've decided to take this class for a few reasons! First and foremost I love vegetables and want to have my own garden.  Apartment complexes just don't give you that option!  I'm also applying for the peace corps and gaining some insight into growing vegetables.  I will hopefully be able to do agriculture while abroad and when I come home I'd love to have a garden when I actually get a home and knowing something besides just rowing seeds into the ground would be useful.  I'm excited this class and can't wait to bring home some food!!!

My proposed garden! It's veggielicous

Ohhhh Yeah!  Look at the goods!