Variety Show - Jade

Jade

Jade provides us with a good continuous crop with beans that have a wonderful gourmet taste. In contrast to many green beans, Jade tastes better when the beans are larger (6-7 inches) and are a bit bitter if picked too small. These beans tend not to get woody and don't produce 'empty' pods like some varieties do when the beans are larger. This variety has allowed us to continue to provide fresh tasting beans that don't have the end of the season taste that some varieties get later in the year. If you luck out and get a long fall, this variety seems to keep on going. And, if you offered us a plate of steamed green beans and told us one was Jade and one was some other variety - we'd eat the Jade plate first.

This is a white seeded variety and does not care to germinate in cool, damp soils. We find that they appreicate the high tunnel with numbers that far exceeded field production levels.

Intercropping:

We interplant green beans with potatoes and strongly recommend this to anyone who has problems with bean beetles or potato beetles. While you cannot guarantee a complete absence of these pests, there will be a significant reduction. There is some research that indicates a masking quality of the companion plant that makes it difficult for the pest to recognize its target crop. We received a SARE grant to work on planting spacing techniques and found that potato beetle larva were found on the edges of the field (away from the beans).

We are also happy with planting marigolds next to potatoes and beans. We recommend the old-style marigolds with the stronger marigold smell. They are a great habitat for predators, they look nice and beans and potatoes nearby seem to be happier. We have been known to throw in a plant in the middle of a row, but we don't do this consistently.

Our old pattern for companion planting is to center potato rows 6 feet apart. Between potato rows you center a double row of beans. Our current technique is to have 60 inch tractor beds (including wheel tracks). Each bed has a row of potatoes and a row of green beans, usually planted May 15-25. The rows are 15 to 18 inches apart.  We are looking to hybridize this approach in response to our current state of tool availability

You're Invited

This event has been cancelled due to the current weather situation.  We will notify everyone if it is rescheduled.

Break Time - A Harrowing Experience?

Last week, we showed you a seeder that was not unlike seeders we currently used that was advertised/purchased in 1912.

Again, many of the tools we use on our farm have origins that are not entirely new.  Some of their advantages are the relatively small number of moving parts and the interchangeable nature of the parts that are prone to breaking or wearing out.  Here are two such tools on our farm - both on the newer side.

Disk Harrow

Flex Tine Harrow/Cultivator

In 1899 and 1901 (the dates of the two items below) most equipment was designed to be pulled by a team of horses, but you'll find some similarities to what we show you above. 

It's Over, It's Just Beginning

As many of you may already know, we have been in the process of litigation involving a chemical misapplication that occurred on our farm in July of 2012.  If you are not aware of this, then you can catch up quickly by viewing the posts on our blog that are tagged with the overspray topic.  (Hint, you may want to read from the bottom to the top if chronology matters to you.)

We have been somewhat silent over the past several months on the topic as we have been hoping for a conclusion to the process.  Of course, we still did our best to answer questions and keep people up to date.  But, our legal representative was correct, the less we said meant there was less chance we would say something that could be misconstrued and delay closure.

It is Over
But, now that I've beat around the bush with all of the intro stuff, we can now tell you that as of February 18, 2015, we have signed an agreement on a settlement with respect to this case.  It is over.

How does it feel, now that it is over?
We anticipate that this is the first question many people will ask us, so we'll answer it as best we can right now.  We are both relieved.  I, in particular, am not entirely sure how I am supposed to feel about it.  This lawsuit has been in the back of my mind daily ever since we acquired legal representation.  And, prior to that, we were consumed with the process of figuring out what to do after we had been hit with the pesticides and fungicides.  I think I am supposed to feel something more than just a little relief.  But, then again, it may take a while to fully realize that I don't have to produce more documents for the discovery process and I don't have to wonder when it will end.

Once it is broken, it's broken.
Are we supposed to feel happy or pleased?  No, I'm not sure that we are.  I am reminded of the proverb about the broken piece of china.  If you drop someone's valuable china and it breaks, you can apologize, you can pay for it, you can do things to atone... but the china is still broken.  In other words, the end of the litigation didn't undo the spraying and its effects.  It doesn't remove the hours, days, weeks, months of extra work, irritation, worry and stress that followed.  It doesn't bring back the lost crops or fix the problems that ensued afterwards.

But, the settlement marks the moment in time that we can close one book and open another.  And that will have to be enough.

Beautiful, aren't they?  Well, they all had to be composted due to the spray.

No joy in Mudville?
I think I speak for both of us when I say that we did not enjoy seeking compensation and we really took no pleasure in the process of trying to make someone pay for a perceived wrong.  We are not vindictive people by nature.  It wasn't fun.  And, I haven't got even an inkling of a feeling that I want to gloat or celebrate because we have reached a settlement.  It was just simply that this was something that needed to be done.  Chemical misapplication is a serious issue that hasn't been given appropriate consideration.  Failure on our part to follow through would only perpetuate that problem.  So, we felt we had no choice but to go through this process.

But, maybe there are things to be joyful about?
There are so many other things that we should be happy about.  We are glad that this is done.  We were pleased with our legal representative, Tom Verhulst.  We are grateful for all of the support we received from others (thank you all!).  And, we take a certain amount of pride in our ability as a farm to weather the difficulty and continue to make adjustments and be successful.  We've had good people working for us, good people in our CSA and buying our products and we've had good people supporting us in many other ways.  And, as of the end of July, the section of our farm that is in transition (3 years) due to the spray will again be certified organic.

An ill wind.
It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.  Well, maybe there is some good to be had here and it takes the form of our ability to now focus on trying to work on the overall problem that we face with chemical misapplication in agriculture/horticulture.

Learning is always good.
Another positive that we can get from this is that we did a great deal of learning during this process.  Here are a few things we've learned.

1. Heartfelt concern is healing
A heartfelt apology and expressions of concern can go a long ways toward atonement and healing.  We hope we take this lesson and apply it any time it is appropriate.  We are realizing that this whole thing could have played out so much differently if any of the parties involved could have shown some real concern for our well-being.  But, we suspect that the fear of litigation causes people to clam up.  After all, concern can become an indication of guilt, I guess.

A lack of pollinators reduced this wildflower planting to a few specimens, we will need to replant.

2. Our pollinators need us to pay some attention to them
We were reminded how important native pollinator populations are.  The picture of wildflowers was taken just prior to the spraying event.  Pollinators were gathering.  They were killed by the spraying and that left us with a number of infertile seed.  This patch declined significantly the following years.  We'll have to replant, that's all there is to it.

3. If you won't stand up for yourself, stand up for others.
We learned that, sometimes, when you stand up for yourself, you are standing up for others.

So many people who experience chemical misapplication situations give up on the process of reporting and pursuing change.  We understand how that happens.  You're busy and it isn't fun to do this.  You don't want to confront your neighbors or local cooperatives about the problem.  It takes effort to figure out how and to whom you report.  And, then, there is the follow through to get compensation for losses.  It's often easier to chalk it up as another of life's lessons and try to move on.  After all, you can always grump about it to sympathetic ears, but that doesn't leave room for forgiveness and growth.

But, this is the problem:  If there is no accountability, there will be no change.  People who are impacted by chemical misapplication need to stand up.  They do not need to do this for themselves.  Instead, they need to do this so the situation for everyone changes.

It's Just Beginning
We don't want this to happen again.  Not to us.  Not to anyone.

It's time to start making some noise.  And, we'd like you to join us in doing so.

Variety Show - Thelma Sanders

Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato

This IS an acorn squash. It just has a cream colored skin. Size can be slightly bigger than standard green acorns such as Table Queen, but not much bigger. These vines are very hardy. Dry year - no problem, just get them started as seedlings. Wet year - it can do that. Cool year - ok as long as you get them in on time. Hot year - it doesn't really notice. From a production standpoint, we can't do better for an acorn squash. We also like the taste of these better than standard green acorn squash. We find them to be a little less stringy. We've had them store into January, but don't expect it. It would normally be safe to save them into December. Vines crawl around a bit, but not much more than average winter squash. Easy to pick - in part because the color makes it easier to see them. We don't lose much of these to pests or other problems. We have noticed that if the stem comes off flush with the skin, you should eat that fruit sooner than those that maintain their stem.

And, of course, we had a crop failure for these in 2014.  It just proves that when enough things go wrong, a strong variety can still fail.  Nonetheless, our faith in Thelma Sanders remains strong!  2015 is the year for it to set records!

---

Cooking Squash

The following works for any winter squash - from acorn squash to pumpkins. Acorn squash, being smaller, will take far less time to cook. Excess squash reheats readily and can easily be placed in a freezer bag and frozen.

1. Carefully cut squash into halves or quarters
2. Empty seed cavity of all seed and 'stringy' goo
3. Place face down in cake pan
4. Put 1/4 inch of water in bottom of pan
5. Bake at 350 degrees F until a fork easily goes through entire squash (30 to 60 minutes depending on squash)

Cutting Squash
Many squash have extraordinarily hard skin. Use a large, sharp knife and use common sense when cutting open a squash. If you are unable to cut a squash in half, you may soften it by puncturing holes in the squash and using the microwave.
As easy as (pumpkin) pie!
Most winter squashes can be made into a pie. However, we can safely eliminate acorn and spaghetti squash from possible candidates. Varieties that are particularly good at being adapted to pies are Long Island Cheese, Amish Pie, Musquee de Provence, Australian Butter and Kikuza.
If you find a recipe calling for a can of pumpking just remember this:
1 can = 2 cups cooked pumpkin / winter squash.

Lessons in Farming VI - Dept of Redundancy

Part 1 - Every Morning is the Dawn of a New Error
Part 2 -  I Don't Have a Solution, but I Admire the Problem
Part 3 - If at First You DO Succeed
Part 4 - Synchronized Swimming
Part 5 - Look Out for Number 1 and Don't Step in Number 2 Either!

We hope you have enjoyed this series of posts.  This is the final post of the series that is planned at this time.  But, don't be surprised if we resurrect it in the future!

Office of the Department of Redundancy Department

Some of you might remember that Rob studied computer science.  And, if you didn't remember, I am reminding you now.  I studied computer science.  Pretty effective method of reminding you, no?

One of the main concepts that I bought to bear as a software engineer was the idea that redundant systems are an excellent way to insure less downtime for an automated system.  And, not surprisingly, I believe the same to be true with our set up at our farm.  Of course, some of the methods to achieve redundancy have been learned over time.  We certainly did not operate in the same fashion in 2005 that we will in 2015.  But, then again, I don't think we'd be operating at all if we didn't learn and make adjustments.  That's part of the beauty and much of the challenge of doing what we do.

How many redundancies are there in this picture?

Succession Planting
One of the simplest ways to get redundancies on our farm is to plant more than one succession of a given crop.  In other words, we don't plant all of one type of vegetable at the same time.  If all of the successions do well, that's great.  The result is more crop over a longer period of time.  With a CSA, we can certainly use this to our advantage.  However, the point of redundancies are to be prepared for failures so that the overall system continues to succeed.  The picture above shows our second succession of summer squash and zucchini, which did pretty well in 2014.  The first succession is not easy to see on the left.  It did not do particularly well this year.  But, our CSA program certainly had plenty of summer squash and zucchini.

Splitting Crop Locations
If you plant all of one type of crop in the lowlands during a wet season, you are pretty much guaranteed to get nothing of that crop that year.  However, if you split the production of that crop between a couple of locations, you reduce the chances that a location based disaster will destroy your entire crop.  Tammy is planting Waltham butternut squash in the row at the right.  This is a row that was planted separate from our other winter squash field.  That field was very wet in 2014, so the squash we got came from this planting.

Diversity of Crops
Another way to provide redundancy on a farm is to grow a wide range of crops that provide the overall income for the farm.  Some years just aren't good for certain crops, no matter how many successions or locations you plant them in.  If that is the only crop you grow, you are certain to have a bad year.  But, if you grow many types of crops, you create your own insurance program.  The field above shows garlic, summer squash, zucchini and winter squash.  Not visible are lettuce (already harvested) and turnips.

Diversity Within a Crop
We also prefer to grow more than one variety of most crops on the farm.  For example, the picture above features two types of garlic (Music and Northern White) and many types of zucchini and summer squash.  Different cultivars respond to weather extremes differently.  Of course, if you have a perfect growing season, they should all do well.  But, since the perfect growing season seems to be a myth, we'd much rather have a range of plants that can handle the diverse weather we can experience.  The net result?  You should get some of most every crop in nearly every season if you select the proper set of varieties for your farm.

We showed them there weeds!

Redundant Labor Resources
This one is a bit harder for us to accomplish on our farm.  Of course, we have some people who come and work on the farm during the summer.  And, yes, Rob and Tammy work on the farm.  Sometimes people will volunteer for a while or we will hire some college students to do a weeding task.  And, we also have cultivated (oh no! a pun!) relationships with other growers in Bremer county and in Iowa.  When push comes to shove, we can help each other.  For example, Tammy, Rob, Denis and Kieran all joined Jeff Sage at his place to help weed the green beans.  Jeff was feeling pretty overwhelmed at the time, but things were certainly looking up after he got a little help!

Tool Options
We've learned that tools break.  And, if you only have one option to do a certain task, a broken tool will effectively stop all progress on that task.  One way we can combat the problem is to have two of everything on the farm.  That may be feasible with shovels, hoes and other hand tools.  But, I'm not sure having two disk harrows is a good idea for us.  However, some of the work done by a disk harrow might be accomplished with an S tine cultivator.  It's not the same, but we might be able to make it work in a pinch.  The real key is knowing your options and how they might fall short in a substitution situation.  Knowing where they fall short allows you to make proper adjustments.

Contingency Plans
And, finally, there is the dread "Plan B" (or C, D, E, ... Z if you must).  No growing season will go as planned.  In fact, if it goes as planned, you didn't try hard enough to do good things.  Even if the plan is not written down, it helps to know your options.

We hope you enjoyed this post and have a great day.  Failing that, we hope you have a nice day and that you think this post was pretty good.  And, of course, we hope that you enjoyed reading this and that you have an enjoyable remainder of your day.

from the Department of Redundancy Department

Land of Contusions

Anyone want to try their hand at a music video?  Once again, The Man with a Hat takes a popular tune and revamps the lyrics.  If you like this one, you may also enjoy:
Heat Mats and Grow Lights
      a parody of Heat of the Moment by Asia
I Wanna Wash My Hands
      a parody of the Beetles I Wanna Hold Your Hand
and
The Saftey Plantz
     anyone remember Safety Dance by Men Without Hats?

This year's edition is a rewrite of the lyrics for Land of Confusion by Genesis.  If you don't know that tune, their music video for the song can be seen here: 
Music Video

Without further ado - we present

"Land Of Contusions"

Must have planted a thousand seeds
Been haunted by a million weeds

And I can feel my aching feet
Cannot wait to take a seat.


Now did you feed the birds today?
Opened the bin, grain got away.
But I could make a move to the right.
Made sure injury was slight.

There's too many hens
Too many weeds, oh!
Making too many problems
And not enough gloves to go round
So you see...
This is a land of contusions.

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Bruise them, but don't start crying
Tears make it hard to do night chores.

Ooh, super, man - hooked up the plow
Barked my shin on a disk somehow.
Work with steel and tractor power
See more bruises every time I shower.

We cut some thyme
Too quick a pace
So we look for a suture.
And a sore back from the posts I pound.
This is why, this land of contusions.

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Bruise them, but don't start crying
Tears make it hard to see the row you're in.

Sometimes I long to go
On days the sun is shining
To where the vines are twining
Yes and check for some blight.
All seemed alright.
But the sound of your laughter
'Cuz you knew I might
Down I go -


I won't be tilling loam tonight
My hesitation about poor light

And tired eyes just causes this
Row we sow, we'll never reap.

There's too many hens
Too many weeds, oh!
Making too many problems
And not 'nough gloves to go round
Can't you see...
This is a land of contusions.

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Bruise them, but don't start crying
Tears make it hard to see the row you're in.

Break Time - Planting Seeds

Sometimes the hobby intersects with the profession.

The season is on its way where we will use tools like this:

Jang seeder

Earthway seeder

At GFF, we actually do not own a Jang seeder, but we do have two Earthway seeders.  We also have a European Push seeder and a Six Row Seeder.  But, we're featuring the above because we wanted to show that these are not necessarily new technologies.

How about $7.50 with a 5% discount for early payment for a similar seeder in 1912? 

Variety Show - Forellenschus

Forellenschus

romaine

A beautiful spotted leaf romaine that does a great job in the early summer months. Hitting the timing for a fall planting is a bit trickier than some of the other lettuces we grow. These produce full and often heavy (1#) heads of lettuce though you can certainly pick them smaller. They grow well during the summer - but you do have to watch to make sure they don't show signs of bolting - once they show any sign of it - they're going to go through the bolting process within 24-36 hours. Excellent all-around romaine. We have found that this lettuce may need an education component for sales. The brownish/purple spots are often misconstrued as 'bad spots' on the lettuce - much to the detriment of the seller (and the buyer who doesn't bother to ask, taste, or otherwise check out this variety). Once tried, people will ask specifically for this one. We did notice that this romaine handled life in the high tunnel better in December than some of the other varieties. It also overwintered well (get them to about 2-3 inches tall around Nov 5 and they'll hold there).

Tossed Lettuce and Herb Salad

• 2 cups mild lettuce, chopped
• 1 tsp finely chopped oregano
• 1 tsp finely chopped tarragon
• 1 tsp finely chopped marjoram
• 1 tsp finely chopped chive
• 1 tsp chopped winter onions (or green onions)

Mix ingredients together. Serve with light balsamic vinegar dressing. Adjust spices to your taste. T Faux

Lessons in Farming V - Don't Step in Number 2

Part 1 - Every Morning is the Dawn of a New Error
Part 2 -  I Don't Have a Solution, but I Admire the Problem
Part 3 - If at First You DO Succeed
Part 4 - Synchronized Swimming

Look out for Number 1.  Don't step in Number 2 either!

The fun thing about some of the sayings I am using in this series is the ability to take each saying in more than one direction.  This one is no exception - so buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Ah, Poo!  How we love thee.
I have to admit that on our farm, we've only recently gotten to the point where we can really take advantage of the bedding and natural soil amendments that chickens, turkeys, ducks and straw bedding can provide.  Part of the issue is the matter of scale.  It wouldn't have been a big deal to us if we 'only' had 50 birds and our composting piles were smaller.  But, it wasn't really until we added Rosie to the farm that we had all the tools we need to really take advantage of having animals on the farm for soil fertility.

But, even without Rosie, we've used poultry bedding for numerous projects in soil quality and fertility.  the case in point are our asparagus beds.  We try to put poultry bedding on just after our last picking of asparagus in the late Spring.  It helps keep the weeds down and provides a nice boost for these perennial plants.  We have also placed birds in certain fields (when the vegetable crop is done) to clean up and spread their poo in the 'natural way.'  At least we don't have to shovel it!

Bedding from the hens on the asparagus

Synthesized Poo?
A sad trend that has been supported by the movement to 'factory' or 'specialized' farming is the reduced role of poo on farms.  If a farm concentrates only on a couple of commodity crops and concludes that having some hogs, beef cattle or other animals are a money loser, they remove from their system a critical part of a cycle that helps to maintain soil health/fertility and the long-term viability of the farm.

A darned healthy patch of asparagus!

It is true that some farms still acquire or use manure on their fields, but the vast majority of farmed acres in the US rely on synthetic fertilizers.  And, it is this reliance that has us, the human race, stepping in "number 2" in a big way.  Instead of using a mutually beneficial combination of livestock and crops, much of our ag systems work to separate the two, using synthetics to take the place of the role each might have in the others' production.  It's no wonder many people make the argument that beef is a poor choice for environmentally conscious consumers.  But, would that be the case if farms weren't so one-dimensional?  I don't think so.

It's not that we don't know about the shortcomings of our ag systems.
In fact, you can read numerous well-researched articles and studies that confirm for us that much of our current practices are not likely the best options.

I recently found a very interesting GIS study with respect to some of South Carolina's coastal region.  This project got my attention because it is an intensive study that was attempting to determine how past, current and future land use will impact the area.  The work is thoroughly done, in my opinion, and reports facts rather than conjectures.  After all, their goal is to determine how they must react to prevailing land uses, so they need to know what they are and how they change things.  It looks like specific facts may be a bit dated as most of the literature cited is from the 1990's.  But, the accuracy of what is depicted and analysis is still useful.  Here is the executive summary of this study if you want to see what they were trying to do.
There is a section on agricultural impacts.  I ran across a couple of paragraphs that very nicely summarized what I wanted to say:

"Until the industrial revolution of the early to mid-1900's, farming practices were relatively environmentally friendly. Traditional farms were small-scale, used biological controls of pests and diseases, used crop rotation to maintain soil nutrients, included buffer zones at field edges, and involved little or no heavy machinery. The modernization of farming practices around the 1950's, resulted in extreme increases in productivity often to the detriment of environmental quality.
Modern, or conventional, agricultural practices use intensive tillage, monoculture, irrigation, application of inorganic fertilizers, chemical pest control, and plant genome modification to maximize profit and production (Gliessman 1998). These practices greatly increased crop yields, and agricultural production rose steadily after World War II. These conventional agricultural practices, however, have numerous long-term ecological impacts such as soil degradation, habitat alteration, water quality impacts, species composition impacts, and adverse effects of irrigation."
from: http://nerrs.noaa.gov/doc/siteprofile/acebasin/html/modules/landuse/lmagrlnu.htm

Here is what I really like about this summary.
1. It does not claim that old farming practices were perfect.  But, instead points out that prior approaches were "relatively" more friendly to the environment.
2. It shows us that some of our "new" techniques that sustainable farms use are not all that new.  Biological controls.  Crop rotations.  Buffer zones.  So, I guess we're not so cutting edge as we want to think we are at our farm.
3. It admits that many of our current ag practices have had an effect in increasing yields of the focused upon commodity crops.  Thus, reminding us what the motivator is for the practices in use.
4. It does not pull punches about the long term effects that we will eventually have to pay for.

With that summary - it sure sounds like we've stepped into a sizable pile of number 2.

Then, I noticed this USDA report that discusses the use of synthetic fertilizers in the United States.  Some of the trends I noted were that single nutrient fertilizers are being used more than multiple nutrient fertilizers (have you all seen a bag of fertilizer at the store with three numbers?  Like 8-3-3?  These numbers represent N-P-K - Nitrogen Phosphorous and Potassium).  Well, here is part of the rub - much of these resources are now being imported and many of the synthetics require fossil fuels (especially the nitrogen) to create them.

And then, there is this study (note, this link is only a report about the study, not a link to the study) that points out a nitrogen use imbalance in the world, with the US using so much more synthetic nitrogen than it needs - resulting in pollution issues.

Keep on pooing hens!

 ================
So, what's my take-away after I read all of this?

I'm willing to step in some number 2 on our farm in an effort to look out for number 1 - the health of our farm, our environment and all of the people and critters that have anything to do with it.

Variety Show - Marconi Red

Marconi Red

The Marconi Red is an Italian heirloom that produces three-lobed, tapered fruit that can be up to 12 inches long and 3 or 4 inches at the shoulder. This is an excellent red sweet pepper with an amazing taste. Plants need alot of time to produce their fruit and ripen them to red. Yield is variable. But, the quality makes the effort well worth it. This has become our second favorite sweet pepper for fresh eating (behind Golden Treasure), but we only get them for a short time in September *most* years. The shape of these is alot like a stretched out bell pepper since the ends of the fruit usually don't come to a point like Golden Treasure. They're pretty good green, but far better red.  These plants seem to need more growing degree days than some of the other peppers we grow.  Plants can be somewhat sizeable (but not quite as big as Napolean Sweet).  We love what we get in a good year, but suspect those in southern Iowa and points south (zone 5 and 6) would get more consistent production. We tried a few of these in the high tunnel during the 2013 season and were pleased with the results. They definitely loved the heat.

Oddly enough, 2014 was a good year for Marconi Red.  We're not entirely sure why that was since the season was cool.  But, we also know that if you hit the timing perfectly on a crop for a given season, all is well.  We have improved our methodology for getting our peppers a head start in the season, so this may account for better production recently.

Garlic Vegetables
This is a summer squash and zucchini recipe with garlic and peppers and other ingredients.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika or some ground papricka pepper
• 1/2 cup scallions/onions, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 medium Marconi Red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cut into strips
• 1 medium yellow summer squash sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
• 1 medium zucchini sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add paprika and stir thoroughly. Add scallions and garlic; saute for 2 minutes. Add all other ingredients, partially cover and sauté over medium low heat for 15 to 17 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.