A foray into home farming in Huntington, New York, Victory Farms, founded in early 2008, is named in honor of Vincent, a young man who lost his life in WWII (and whose family lived at and farmed this land in the 1940s), and the so-called victory gardens that Americans grew to supplement their rations during wartime. Vincent’s family left a make-shift monument of sorts to him (“Our Boy”) and his friend Pat that remains embedded in our patio.Tumblr (3.0; @victoryfarms)http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14lead.html?scp=3&sq=urban%20gardening&st=cse">For Urban Gardeners, Lead Is a Concern</a>: <p>If you grow your own up against your home, have your soil checked for lead.</p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114400661http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114400661Thu, 28 May 2009 13:48:05 -0400<img src="http://4.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0gji45KU76eZXEo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Quittin’ time.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114112688http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114112688Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:45:00 -0400farmspringplanting2009<img src="http://12.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0gghu52ZOzEirKo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>All this spinach will surely yield…NOT MUCH. Spinach is VERY good for your soil, though.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114111687http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114111687Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:42:00 -0400spinachgreenhouse<img src="http://11.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0gd0k8ORdOVrKZo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Lettuce give thanks — that we can eat tons of fresh lettuce!</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114110567http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114110567Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:39:00 -0400lettucemesclunspringgreenhouse<img src="http://23.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0g0v00kldf9u4Ao1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Now and taters!</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114106009http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114106009Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:21:00 -0400potatoesblue potatoesRussian fingerlingsspringplanting<img src="http://19.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0g3e4u0iqjV5RZo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>The garlic doesn’t look too shabby for having spent the winter hibernating under a pile of straw.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114107018http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114107018Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:20:00 -0400garlicspringstraw<img src="http://7.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0euhmhWAyVjgvfo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Open for business (soon!).</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114090790http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114090790Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:05:00 -0400Victory Farmsspring 2009<p>Last year, I thought I’d have my act more together than this year. And I did. Sort of.</p> <p>We took advantage of this nice weekend to get around to the business of planting. I unmulched the garlic and I’m pleased to report, it looks great. Pics tk, of course. Because I’d did my broad forking last fall, all we really had to do with the rest of the beds was unmulch them. Thank goodness, because all this planting was really time-consuming.</p> <p>I should back up. I ordered my seeds a bit late, too. March, not early February. I missed out on some things. And this year we tried out a lot of new companies. Some delivered and some disappointed. My potatoes literally came sooo late in the season. Or I thought they did (more on this later!). My cannellini beans never came. And I had to order from at least 10 different companies to get everything I wanted (and needed).</p> <p>Ten invoices, a bag of innoculate, seed potatoes covered in the wrong kind of sulfur, and one sunny weekend later, we were ready to plant. Confession: I get totally intimidated by planting because, truthfully, it involves more strategy than chess. You have to worry about what goes with what, what HATES what, and what will deter the right kind of pests (Ha! Much, much more about this later!).</p> <p>I was also determined to have a real spring garden. Again, I was a bit late to the game, but I wanted to enjoy all all the early-bird specials, if you will, in terms of vegetables. It’s a bit tough to figure out as you have to determine also what is truly ready to go into the garden (and withstand the possibly dicey weather).</p> <p>That said, Curt, Michele, and I planted blue potatoes, Russian fingerling potatoes, arugula, mizuna mustard greens, tango lettuce, garbanzo beans, fava beans, provider beans, two kinds of peas, golden beets, Detroit dark red beets, French breakfast radishes, another kind of radish, and two kinds of carrots (scarlet nantes and, um, something else).</p> <p>I also started up the starters a while back, tomatoes — green zebra, red brandywine, purple cherokee, amish paste, roma, old German, and valencia, cauliflower, purple tomatilloes, tomatilloes verde, marigolds, cilantro, parsley, catnip, oregano, Genovese basil, sweet basil, eggplant, sweet chocolate peppers, hot Thai peppers, jalapenos, another kind of pepper (it’s late, we’re watching the SATC movie — lame, by the way — and I can’t remember), rosemary, two kinds of lavendar, Russian tarragon (I know now that this is the not-so-great kind), eggplant, and, um, hmmm…I think that’s it for the starters.</p> <p>It was a rewarding and exciting weekend as I think we all felt like we were really into spring. Also, this post is as lame as Carrie and her dumbass friends because it’s really a full month later and I don’t recall the joy of planting because the pain of battling pests has overwhelmed me.</p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114103551http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114103551Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400carrots,spring 2009plantingpotatoesbeetslettucepeasbeansmarigoldstomatoestomatilloesherbscauliflowereggplantpeppers<img src="http://3.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0en71zkEEX9zWIo1_250.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>And now for something completely different…</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114087982http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114087982Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400NortynAnd now<img src="http://17.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0e5cey62QBLOyyo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>The first meeting of the future mesclun salad club!</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114081724http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114081724Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500greenhousemesclunsalad<img src="http://2.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0dziqr8DxigfWWo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Preparing for spring…and it can’t come soon enough!</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114079600http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114079600Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500NortynIndianaCurtCarolineWinter<img src="http://3.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0e2yipM0xkuDiso1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>It’s cold outside, but life (or spinach!) is beginning to spring forth in the greenhouse.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114080837http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114080837Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500greenhouse,spinachsprouts<img src="http://10.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0dugbmKmdmzovEo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Yesterday, I got the greatest job I’ve ever had in my life — Chief Dining Officer of OpenTable, Inc. Tonight, Curt bought oysters and lobsters (yes, lobsters!). Anyway, this little crab came with our oysters, accidentally. We didn’t eat him (but we did eat everything else and washed it down with some Dom), but we saved him and he is now our pet, Crabby.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114077707http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114077707Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500crabCrabbyOpenTable<img src="http://9.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0dnj5ybRJOYST8o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>First sprouts in the greenhouse! We planted kale (which was a FAIL!), spinach, and mesclun lettuce.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114075228http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114075228Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500kalelettucespinachgreenhousewinter<img src="http://5.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0djh61HnNJKocjo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Remember the tomatoes we picked but didn’t get to eat — of the tomato starters I planted, hoping for an Indian summer? Well, a few ripened up on our sill and just weeks before the holidays, we had fresh garden tomatoes.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114073741http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114073741Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500tomatoesend of seasonlast<img src="http://23.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0def6vyKz8DC7xo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>I pulled our sage from the farm so we could enjoy one of our fave dishes over the winter — cannellini beans, sage, tomato, garlic and olive oil. We stored it in the Yeffeth Farms planter in the greenhouse, and we did, in fact, enjoy sage all winter.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114072036http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114072036Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500sageYeffeth Farmsgreenhouse<img src="http://8.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0crtarf9TCkk3eo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Putting the beds to bed for the season. I worked in manure and peat and some more top soil and mulched the beds over with straw. I left in some mint and the oregano in the beds (plus the garlic) to give our wormy warriors something to chew on all winter.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114063776http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114063776Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500mint,mulchstrawwintering overoreganoworms<img src="http://12.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0cwt39EjC9Lq17o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>And the greenhouse is complete (sort of — don’t look too close!).</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114065560http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114065560Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500greenhousewinter<img src="http://23.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0d0z45KOHAE4B7o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>We moved our rosemary into the greenhouse for the long winter. Kinda like you move your older relatives to Florida for the winter. ;)</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114067027http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114067027Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500rosemarygreenhousewinter<img src="http://1.media.tumblr.com/svZHjm8XXo0clqnfZPDTIqr4o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><h2>Late November carrots. We used them in our Thanksgiving feast, to snack on, and for a bit of stock.</h2></p>http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114061687http://victoryfarms.tumblr.com/post/114061687Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500carrotsstockfallharvestThanksgiving