Gardening with seeds from the USDA farmers market
August 28, 2014 | 02:08 PM
The first zucchini of the summer, grown from Burpee seeds distributed at the opening of the USDA Farmers Market in June. (Alex Gangitano/The Hagstrom Report)
By ALEX GANGITANO
Former Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan once said that gardening and the local and organic agriculture movements would produce sympathy for farmers because urban and suburban people would learn how hard it is to grow food.
The weekend after covering the market opening, I planted six of the vegetables in my backyard in Potomac, Md.
I sowed spinach, carrots, radish, onions, lettuce and squash into an empty, flat patch of dirt that receives a lot of sunlight. After watering the garden for two weeks, the first growth was grass from the onions and leaves from the squash and radishes. Another two weeks later, the lettuce showed some green above ground.
About the same time, I attempted to dig up the radishes and onions. The long onion grass had nothing under the surface.
But the radish plants had radishes stretching half above the surface, possibly suggesting I did not sow them deep enough.
I pulled out three radishes, which I sliced and put in a kale salad with store-bought onions and catalane beans, with a lemon and olive oil dressing.
A month after planting, more radishes were ready, again slightly above the soil surface. The lettuce leaves had grown long enough that I cut them close to the stem. I made the same salad but mixed the light green, thin lettuce leaves with store-bought arugula.
Left: The radish plant was highly productive. Right: The first zucchini and the flowers from the squash plant. (Alex Gangitano/The Hagstrom Report)
At this point, there were still no developments from the spinach and carrots and when I attempted to dig up the onions again, nothing was under the tall grass. The leaves of the squash plant now measured about a foot wide and tall and had large yellow flowers growing among them.
Two and half months later, a zucchini squash grew, about a foot and a half long. I sliced it and marinated it in an oil olive, lemon, garlic and pepper combination for an hour then grilled it on the barbecue. The grilled zucchini went great with grilled chicken and another salad with the grown lettuce and radish. Another squash emerged about the same time.
The conclusion: My amateur garden was 50 percent successful, producing great radishes, lettuce and squash but nothing from the spinach, carrots or onions. Next summer, when I expect to live in Washington, I would love to garden again if I have the space. The food was so tasty, it was worth the work and the wait.
But if every farmer’s production rate were the same as mine, it would indeed be a hard life.
Radishes, lettuce and squash grew from the seeds planted in Alex Gangitano’s garden in Potomac, Md. … But the spinach, carrots and onions were no-shows. (Alex Gangitano/The Hagstrom Report)
