June 4, 2015

Good morning, One of my favorite crops is sweet potatoes. Besides being tasty and prolific, they are incredibly easy to grow. I have had horn worms and grasshoppers eat the foliage, but they easily out grow this damage. I frequently find huge horn worms in the soil in the sweet beds getting ready to pupate. Last year I used the sweets to draw in the grasshoppers and then sprayed the foliage and I achieved hopper control with only having to spray the sweets. Cold pressed neem works exceptionally well. It really is interesting that sweet greens are not very well known as a food, but more studies are being performed on them. The two links below are for nutritional values for cooked and uncooked greens, then fallows an article about the health benefits of sweet greens. Sweet potatoes are an amazing veggie.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2946/2

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2664/2

Sweet Potato Leaf Slows Pancreatic Cancer by 42%: A peptide isolated from sweet potato leaves was discovered to slow the growth of pancreatic cancer cells by 42% in vitro, and also to kill over 25% of the cells outright. Other research has shown that these super-greens are also active against breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer and leukemia. And the health benefits of sweet potato greens are not just for the lab. One study out of Taiwan showed that eating at least 100 grams per week of this super vegetable decreased lung cancer risk by up to 57%. In other studies, sweet potato leaves boosted immunity (T lymphocytes and natural killer cells) in humans and lowered blood sugar in mice with type II diabetes. And if you need an energy boost, sweet potato leaf could be just the vegetable for you: a recent study showed it significantly relieved fatigue in mice, increased exercise capacity and even boosted muscle glycogen levels! Why are these greens so powerful? They are an excellent source of potent antioxidants called polyphenols, including the unique and powerful caffeoylquinic acids, as well as anticancer peptides. And alkaline diet fans take note: these greens are one of the most alkalizing vegetables out there, delivering 400% the alkalizing power of pure lemon juice, ounce for ounce.
My sweet crop is doing quite nicely. The first greens I cut will be rooted so that I can finish planting my 3^rd bed of sweets. This will be interesting with the staggered spacing in plantings. I hope to plant a fourth bed for the end of October harvest. With luck I will have sweets into January.

I have the remainder of my sweet cuttings rooting. This will truly be interesting with the spaced out plantings. I hope it will spread out he harvest window so that they are available much longer. Besides tomatoes this could very easily be my most popular crop.

I hope to be offering sweet greens soon.

I have a bit of an update on Peep. We had moved the Silky mom and babies to the front yard so that they could do chicken stuff in the soil as opposed to bedding in the coop. When we got our starter chickens a number of years back it came with a large cage. I leveled the ground so that the bottom would be secure and then placed Peep inside. I have always been apprehensive about raising her segregated from the other chicks.

One of my times to check on how all the babies including Peep were doing, I found peep just throwing a hissy fit when she heard the Silky doing he contact clucking for her babies. I decided to put her in the cage that I use to secure the hen and babies at night. I could see how they all reacted. There was no aggression and by mid afternoon I decided to see what would happen if she joined in with the others. I t really went quite well. Other than peep being a little timid and being noticeably smaller. The chilling and isolation may have stunted her. But the cool thing is she got to sleep under a mommy for the first time!

By this mailing Peep has lost her shyness and is eating just like the other chicks and I can no longer tell which one is her. This is a good thing!

The garden continues to mature: first tomato on Monday, cukes are coming on strong along with green beans (royal burgundy and turn green when cooked). The okra are starting to come on. I hope to offer sweet greens next week. Aphids are out of the chili's so should start to get some real soon. I am listing bulb onions, fresh garlic, beans and cukes along with squash and chard this week. Maybe kale, and okra next. Just love it when a plan comes together.

The fresh garlic is some that has sprouted. The outer wrappers can be pealed off and the whole clove and greens can be used. The very tops maybe dried so they may need to be trimed. The garlic is Spanish Roja and is pretty tasty stuff!