Conquering Quack Recipes: by Dennis Fisher and Joe Fisher
We are expecting a good crop of weeds this year. Luckily, it may also be a good season for weed control. A dry season makes it possible to destroy weeds pretty effectively using hand or mechanical methods, even such tenacious perennials as quack (or witch) grass.Quack grass and a new weed, galinsoga, are particular worries to farmers and gardeners. You are probably familiar with quack, a deceptively innocent looking grass above the soil line, with fast spreading roots (known as rhizomes) below ground. These rhizomes are what allow quack grass to take over a garden so quickly. They snake below the surface, sprouting clumps of grass to mark their trails. Luckily, this habit also makes it easy to find the rhizomes and dispose of them.
When faced with a bed full of quack grass, the first impulse of many gardeners is to use a rototiller. The problem with this approach is that the tiller simply cuts the rhizomes into thousands of tiny cuttings, each of which then becomes a new plant. Plus, you have aerated and loosened the soil, making perfect conditions for explosive quack growth.
All of the good methods for getting rid of quack involve time. Quack grass can be smothered by some cover crops, especially a good solid planting of Japanese buckwheat. You can till the bed, then broadcast the buckwheat and rake or roll it in. Buckwheat needs warm soil to grow well, so wait until late spring or early summer to sow it. Make sure to mow down the buckwheat when it flowers, or it will self sow and cause a real weed problem.
Another method for killing quack is summer fallowing. This just involves cultivating the soil at regular intervals during hot weather. As the rhizomes are turned up, they will dehydrate and die. This or buckwheat are good methods to use to prepare ground for perennial plantings, new orchards, or potatoes. Potatoes are particularly susceptible to quack infestation, and the rhizomes can actually puncture and grow right through the tubers.
Quack will grow under mulch, though it is usually easy to pull when growing in mulched soil. It will also grow into gardens from the surrounding sod. If the quack growth isn't heavy, you can control it by hand. In soft soils you can pull up the plants by the leaves and the rhizomes will follow. If you use a gentle, steady pressure you can often get the whole root. Digging with a five finger hoe also works well. I've destroyed a lot of quack by turning up the roots with a push cultivator and letting them dry on the surface, and then going back and hand weeding any that I missed.
Galinsoga is an annual, and before last year I had never heard of it. It likes heat, especially the good growing conditions under a floating row cover. The plant is also known, and most appropriately, as quickweed. It reproduces fast, grows fast, and spreads fast. The seeds are small and clingy, and will coat your feet as you walk past the seedheads. These will then be spread over the garden or to other gardens. Field equipment like tillers can also spread the seeds, so if you have the weed you should clean your tools and machinery between uses.
Not long after I found out what galinsoga was, I found out that I had it in one of my fields. I controlled it as well as I could by hoeing and by trying to prevent any of the plants from going to seed. This year, I intend to buckwheat that field in two plantings, and I hope this will smother most of the plants.
Good growing practices will help keep bad weeds from getting out of control. Planting in straight, well marked rows allows easy cultivation. One of my favorite cultivation tools is the collinear hoe, available from Johnny's. It allows precise and fast weeding. Croprotation and cover cropping will help reduce weed pressure.
These small, slightly sour raised buckwheat pancakes are a delicious alternate use for the cover-crop grain.
1 package active dry yeast
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 ? cups all purpose flour
? cup heavy cream
Add the yeast and sugar to 1 ? cups warm milk and stir. Thoroughly mix in the buckwheat flour and let rise for one hour in a warm place. Mix together the egg yolks, melted butter, and sour cream, and add it to the buckwheat batter together with the remaining milk, salt, and white flour. Allow to rise, covered, for two hours. Beat the cream until stiff. Do the same with the egg whites and them fold them into the cream. Fold this into the batter and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Pour enough of the batter into a hot, buttered skillet to form a pancake about five inches in diameter. Cook a few minutes on one side until bubbles form, then flip over to finish cooking. Serve with melted.
Makes about 12 blini.
The Belfast Farmers' Market is now open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 9 to 1 at our Reny's Plaza location at the junction of Rtes. 1 and 3.