Anatomy of a spinach plant

Spinach is my favorite leafy green vegetable. It is one tough little plant, and will keep on growing (albeit slowly) even when temperatures are very low. See more at FeedTheDataMonster.com.

Enterprise budget for bench-top production of salad greens

Have you wondered if you could grow salad greens in the fall, winter and spring like I did? Is it possible or profitable? 

Using the enterprise budget we've put together you can start to figure it out! An enterprise budget estimates the profitability of an agricultural enterprise. They document all the steps, resources, management practices and technologies used to grow a crop. This enterprise budget is built using all the data collected from the past few years of salad green production. It will help determine if you have all the resources needed to grow salad greens, the growing period of greens as the seasons change, and potential yields. It's important to note that this is an educational tool to be used for planning. We've given users the ability to customize many aspects of the budget to reflect their own growing spaces. 

This budget is built using Microsoft Excel. When opening the file make sure to 'enable macros.' You can download the enterprise budget here.

Research reports: winter green varieties for bench-top production

Fifteen minutes aren't over yet!

Want to see lovely pictures of all the varieties I successfully grew on bench-tops in the past few years? See the full report here or visit the Research Reports page.

Research report: media evaluation for bench-top salad greens

I'm famous! 

At least if you can navigate through the Cooperative Extension website and find the section on fruit and vegetable research reports.  You can see the recent report evaluating media for bench-top production of salad greens here and I've added it to the Research Reports page.

What's been happening behind the scenes

A fair amount has happened since I last posted something (in December!):

1) I defended, finished my thesis and graduated.

That's what seven copies of my thesis looks like.  It looks a lot like donuts, but much heavier.

2) I went on a real vacation and visited a farm where papaya volunteers dot the fields of salad greens.

3) I moved to a new state (New York).

What's in the future for wintergreens?

Now that my thesis is (finally!) complete, I'm focusing on research reports and cooperative extension publications.  You can see a compiled list in the new "research reports" tab at the top of the page.  We've got a few publications that will be ready soon. 

I've also got a new project to work on that encompasses the same ideas as wintergreens: local, wintertime salad production, but in a different direction than the projects of the last two years.  More on that in the next few weeks!

On the origins of lettuce

Did you know there are six groups of cultivated lettuce?  I only grew lettuce from one of these groups - romaine - during the past two years.  

To read the rest of my post on the origins and cultivar groups of lettuce visit feedthedatamonster.com.

"Basics for winter, bench-top salad green production" part two on Floricast

Part two of Basics for winter, bench-top salad green production is now up on Greenhouse Grower as an episode of FloriCAST.  You can see it here!

The brassica family (again)

Exploring the Brassica family and how many of the plants I grow is a topic I have written about here and here.  Last week I wrote a third piece on this group of crops, which can be seen in its entirety at feedthedatamonster.com.

(What is feedthedatamonster.com? A collection of researchers who write about interesting science-y stuff.  Go take a look!)

"Basics for winter, bench-top salad green production" on Floricast

In late July I put together a slideshow on basics of winter salad green production on bench-tops for the video podcast Floricast. Last week it came out and you can see it here! If you've been following along this blog you may recognize some of the information and pictures. I believe it's the first time we've started to take all the experience and data from the past year and begin making it into more public-ready formats.

Where have I been?

I haven't written anything in . . . over a month!  In part because this is a blog about winter salad greens (it may be pretty cool outside for August, but it's definitely not wintery), but mostly because I've been working on finishing my thesis, and working on extension reports.  The end is in sight!

What information would you like to see?

Graphs? Tables? Information on seeds? varieties? media? profitability? planting dates?  Let me know, and I'll write about it!

I'll post, or link, extension publications in the new 'research reports' tab once they come out.

We feed old greens to nearby goats.  Right now too much kale is definitely a problem.