ASPARAGUS An extra big bunch for all. The hot weather has it growing fast.
LETTUCES (2) We have plenty of lettuce for everyone to get two of what is left in the high tunnel. We have butterheads, Forellenschluss, and red leaf lettuce remaining.
HAKUREI TURNIPS See Tom’s post for a stir-fry that uses the tops and the bottoms, plus bok choy or almost any other green you may have waiting for a recipe.
RADISHES More baby bunches from the high tunnel. Just enough to give your salad a kick.
SPINACH Probably the last harvest of the spinach in the high tunnel. It fed us all well since last fall and we are grateful for it.
TAT SOI Both the tat soi and the bok choy in the high tunnel have been disappointments this Spring. Not sure why, perhaps they got too chilled earlier. You will be receiving baby heads that will fill in nicely in a stir fry or salad with other greens.
CARROTS It is nice to have fresh carrots this time of year. The ones in the field are still so small.
CHOICE: KALE, SWISS CHARD OR GAILAN We are clearing out the high tunnel so here is an assortment of greens to choose from.
HERB CHOICE: Cilantro, dill, tarragon
NEXT WEEK: The first week of the 24-week season! Lettuces and salad greens. Asparagus and green onions.
After last week’s cold spell, the temperature has increased dramatically. We waited until the frost-danger had passed and now all of the summer fruits: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, cucumbers and squash are ready to be planted. So far, we have 550 tomato plants in the ground, with another 350 to go.
It is also time to cultivate the spring beds. Weeds are still small in most places and are vulnerable to the cultivator sweeps on the electric tractor. The onion beds got the treatment yesterday and are looking great.
TOMATOES (F/P) This week the green-when-ripe heirloom varieties are beginning to ripen. If you got it from us, it is just days away from ripening no matter the color. Wait for the fruit to soften slightly and then dig in!
CUCUMBERS (F/P) The persistent cucumber beetles like to nibble the skin of their namesake fruit. They only go skin deep, so a light peeling will remove the damage.
SWEET ONIONS (F/P) This will be the last week for the Walla Wallas, our sweetest onion. There is more to come with lots of reds and yellows.
LETTUCE (F/P) We were surprised by the heft of these little heat-tolerant lettuces. This is the last of them until September. We don’t quite have enough for everyone, so the partial shares get a choice with the basil bunches.
BASIL (F) We are picking big pesto-making bunches of basil this week. It thrives in the heat and needs to be cut back. Chop it with some olive oil and whatever else you can spare: cheese, nuts, sunflower seeds and presto pesto!
EGGPLANT (F/P) Excuse me if I am distracted by my dinner tonight, check out Tom’s post for the super simple and super good eggplant pasta recipe. Yum!
POTATOES (F/P) It has not rained at the farm for 6 weeks, so we’ll see if we break any equipment trying to dig the potatoes tomorrow. It has happened, so keep those fingers crossed! The potatoes are small, but we are hoping to get everyone a quart this week.
SALSA PACK OR CHERRY TOMATOES (F) If you haven’t made salsa from one of our packs before, just chop the whole thing up along with a tomato.
PURPLE PEPPERS (F) This variety is a called ‘Islander’ and is mildly sweet when at its green stage. We pick them until our varieties that start out green begin to ripen. It won’t be long now as we sampled our first ripe red one today.
SUMMER SQUASH (P) This is the last of the summer squash until the next planting kicks in.
NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and cucumbers. Carrots, beets and garlic.
marigold and buckeye butterfly
FARM REPORT: Admist the flurry of the summer harvest, endless irrigation and fall planting, your farmers get a little lost in the details and often forget to stop and smell the roses. In our case it would be a marigold, since we don’t grow any flowers that need as much fussing as roses. The type of marigolds we grow are big and tall like the ones I remember at Mexican farmers markets. The zinnias are also brightening the farm with their carnival of colors. The two beds at the field entrance is a free u-pick garden for the membership, but it needs more picking than what the u-pickers take so we have put the flowers on the bulk list. Blooming flowers serve many functions in our farm-scape, as nectar sources for pollinating bees and butterflies, seeds for birds and attractants for beneficial insects that prey on pests. And they are good at cheering up the grumpiest farmer.
What is that you ask? That is something to make a farmer grumpy. On Saturday, our Allis Chalmers G broke its axle. It is surprising that such a stout steel rod could snap, but then the tractor is 65 years old. I hope when I am 65 I don’t break my axle! On Monday, Luke and Lorne took on the project and removed the disintegrated old pieces of axle from the tractor. With the new axle on the way (thanks internet!), we are hoping to begin re-assembly by Friday.
On Sunday, we showed off the farm to a local 4-H group, led by Clinton County 4-H Youth Specialist, Debbie Davis. Tom and I were glad have the opportunity to talk about biological farming with the next generation of eaters and producers. We look forward to hearing how they progress on their sustainable agriculture project.
By 2011 we had experienced eight years of farming in the same spot and seen how the land responds to just about every weather condition. We continued to work on systems that could keep our farm resilient and sustainable for the future.
We were helped along by a principle promoted by Dr. W. Edwards Deming to “improve constantly and forever”… something I had learned in engineering and Rebecca knew inherently. It is an axiom that is in concert with the idea of sustainablility. We felt that we had a firm foundation to now build for the long-term future of Fair Share Farm.
The first couple months of the year were as busy as ever. We had one last area of the house to gut, insulate, re-wire, re-wall, re-window and re-door. We got it mostly done before things got too hectic and are enjoying the fruits of this labor to this day.
Only a memory now
The previous November, Lucas Knutter joined the farm team, house-sitting the apprentice house for the winter and joining us as a full-time apprentice in March. He had just finished a 27-month stint in the Peace Corp working with farmers in Senegal, and returned ready to start a farm of his own. He went straight to work in January, joining us to repair some problem spots on the greenhouse.
It was a great year for the soil. Our Spring plantings went as smooth as ever after a quick cultivating pass with the G.
The Summer cover crop of sudan grass and cow peas grew 7 feet tall and was our best yet. Between the top growth and an extensive root system, the soil was given a feast.
Mowing down the cover crops before turning them under
Weather played its usual good guy/bad guy role, threatening tornados in the Spring, baking us silly in the Summer, and providing for a robust harvest in the Fall. Kim Conrads joined us for the summer right after high school graduation and spent one of her first hours at the farm in our root cellar with the farm crew of CSA members, workers, farmers, a dog and two cats. Luckily no funnel stopped by.
Safe in the root cellar
August 2, a record high.
Among the standouts that year were our record snap pea (400+ lb), tomato (5,600+ lbs) and sweet potato (2,100+ lb) harvests . Other crops did excellent too, as the almost 2.7 lb head of broccoli pictured below can attest.
The tomato share during Week 11
CSA morning in the packing room
Colorful carrots
Head-sized broccoli
Fall share
July 25 was a unique day for us as we hosted Justus Drugstore and Outstanding in the Field for an al fresco dinner on the farm. It is tough to describe in one paragraph what a wonderful event it was. The food was unique and satisfying, the crowd happy and boisterous, and the presentation professional and artful. The whole story is in our July 26 blog.
The long table on a hot Missouri day
By August, Kim had headed to college and we had a new apprentice in Dani Hurst. She was ready to put the homesteading and farming skills she had learned about as a writer for Natural Home magazine into practice. Her energy and good nature was appreciated for the next 1-1/2 years she spent with us.
Dani mulching leeks
Another group that has helped out over the years is my family. The road Rebecca and I took to where we are right now was not a normal one. While no doubt skeptical at first, their love and support for us over the years has been true and real. My brother and five sisters have all done a stint or two at the farm, visited during unique events like OITF, and otherwise used their talents to help us out. It has been a fun family affair.
My brother Bill juicing pears with our great-grandfather’s press
Autumn 2011 was warm and the crops thrived into early winter. The fields were plentiful past the end of our CSA season and for our annual night at the Bad Seed pre-Thanksgiving Market.
October
A rarity for us, the hustle and bustle of running a market table on a busy night is a lot of fun. So is catching up and bartering with all the other vendors, seeing our big city friends and enjoying the festive atmosphere.
Fall bounty
Next up…one year ago and a new high tunnel, more record harvests, the drought, OITF II, and back to the present.
In 2008 we met our 5-year goal of being a 100% CSA farm. No more standing around at market hoping the customers would come to buy, instead we were able to stay focused on farming, knowing that all of our produce was already sold.
Morning light in winter
As we plotted our future we realized that one thing we were not doing was getting the most out of the land we were cultivating. It seemed friends with home gardens were growing more in small areas than we were in long beds of crops. We decided to expand our operation by contracting – growing less plants and paying more attention to them.
We had been asked that January to coordinate a CSA Workshop at the Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference in St. Joe. We immediately contacted Liz Henderson from Peacework Organic Farm to join us on the panel. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to show her our progress since those days in 2001 at her farm.
Rebecca and Elizabeth Henderson in January
We also took time to visit friend Liz Elmore who was working at The Land Institute in Salina, KS. This group of folks, headed by Wes Jackson, are working in a field they call natural systems farming. In what they state is at least a 100-year project, they are breeding perennial grains that can be grown in a prairie-like system. We suggest you visit their website to learn more, and to support their efforts.
Board at The Land Institute explaining some of their work
February was busy as we converted the Allis Chalmers G tractor from gas to electric. With volunteer apprentice Lorne Carroll’s help and John Graff’s welding ability we performed the operation lickety split. We had just started our blog and documented the progress there.
Lorne assembling new motor parts, old G gas engine at top of photo
Then there was Rocky. We knew that we needed help keeping the critters out of our fields and off of our crops, but were not sure what type of dog would do the trick. Livestock guarding breeds seemed to be the best choice – big and intimidating to a critter, but calm and sweet with people. So when Tom Parker told us a local farmer had Great Pyrennes/Anatolian Shepherd cross puppies for sale we jumped at the opportunity. We brought Rocky home on February 5th. He was tough to resist.
Rocky and his brother Bandit
2007 volunteer apprentice Jen Baughman joined us for the year. Her sweet spirit and positivity kept us smiling during a difficult year.
Jen and Rebecca potting up fall crops
The fields in 2008 were drenched on numerous occasions. The potatoes were a total loss, as the trenches we cut to plant them in filled like irrigation ditches in April. The tomatoes did OK, but were diseased and dying by Labor Day. In September another gullywasher set back the Fall plantings.
Attempting to bail out the potato beds in mid-April
Effect of 3 inch rain in September
Typical 2008 harvest morning with CSA troopers
On the bright side, the strawberries loved the rain, as did the beans, greens, carrots, garlic, lettuce, sweet potatoes and cover crops. We harvested 587 quarts of strawberries that year. The Honeoye variety was a good choice…easy to pick, juicy, flavorful, not too sweet, and red all the way through.
Our first harvest off the new patch
Fresh Tropea onions
Just dug carrots
Weeding crew at the strawberries
A colorful share
Kid Rocky
Though we did not necessarily need it, our solar powered irrigation system was installed in May. Missouri contractor Henry Rentz set things up and we took it from there. It came in handy in August, the only month without a downpour.
Our new solar panels and irrigation pump
The wetness of the year gave pause, as we realized that our farming methods were vulnerable to excess rain. Problems could occur with only 2 to 3 inches of precipitation, something we knew to expect in the future. So we worked on several strategies to address excess moisture.
Step 1: Take low spots in the fields out of production. Being so dry when we started farming in 2003, we did not know just how wet some areas could get.
Step 2: Mulch as much as we can. A canopy of hay or straw over the surface of our silt/clay soils does wonders to keep the plants and soil life from suffocating after a downpour. Hay also provides food for worms and eventually the crops. As we like to say, we have grass-fed vegetables.
Jen mulching with hay over a buckwheat cover crop
Step 3: Use the electric G to gutter our beds, keeping the crops raised and reducing the chance of flooding out the plant.
Step 4: Continue with our cover cropping and biological farming methods. It is a proven fact that organically-farmed soils handle water better in wet conditions, and provide drought tolerance during dry times.
Rocky enjoying a nice stand of buckwheat
And so we entered another winter on the farm. Back to the remodel. This time it was the kitchen and dining room. We do alot of cooking and canning, so a functioning kitchen was a huge improvement to the homestead.
Stripped down and ready to go
So what did 2009 hold in store…best season yet, bees, sheep and double the apprentices.
The weather this last week has been rather exceptional. And with a forcast of 70+ degree days for the next week, we have decided to throw caution to the wind and begin seeding early. Yesterday we got the electric tractor humming and began preparing our beds. First a quick pass to cultivate. At this time of year killing all of the small weeds that have begun to germinate does wonders to reduce weed pressure. In many of the Spring beds a second or third pass is in order to further reduce the “weed seed bank.”
Rebecca cultivating with the G
Next we switched out the cultivator for the “guttering disks” which create a raised bed for us, helping to warm the soil and reduce the potential for a flooded field.
Then the seeder goes on. On Wedensday direct seeding consisted of a bed of spinach (3 rows x 200 feet) and two beds of peas (4 rows x 200 feet). A second planting of each of these is planned in the near future, as is the transplanting of our herbs and onions.
Changing out the seeder
Cabbage transplants
While that was going on we were also taking another step towards constructing the high tunnel. A pair of roof purlions run the length of the tunnel and help support the bow and keep them from swaying back and forth. Thanks to Jim Pierce for the loan of his wagoin and scaffold, which allowed for a safe and sturdy work surface.
A final thanks to our 2011 intern, 2012 farm hand and fellow farmer Lucas Knutter. Luke will be working at a farm in Lexington, MO this summer before hopefully returning to the area to start his own farm just north of us. It has been a pleasure to work with Luke the last year, helping as well as learning from him. Good luck Luke.
Activities are accelerating here at the farm as March passes the halfway point. In the greenhouse we have seeded a host of crops: onions, leeks, broccoli, cabbage, Asian greens, kohlrabi, lettuce, tomatoes, celeriac, kale, herbs and flowers. Our volunteers and interns, Shelly, Marlene and Lucas have been a great help.
Marlene seeding w/Momma kitty
Broccoli showing its true leaves
No more greenhouse for the onions. They are hardening off outside awaiting planting in about a week.
Lettuce, kale and leeks filling the cold frame
Cleaning the tools in prep of the season
Lucas taking a soil sample.
Recycle and Reuse at the Farm
Frugality is nothing new to this Missouri homestead. In our remodeling of the house and in other activities at the farm we often find scrap materials that were used in construction 4o or 50 years ago.
To live up to the waste not attitude of our forebearers, and satisfy our desire to keep plastic out of the trash, we have designed our own version of the “ground staple”. By cutting waste irrigation tubing in half, and punching two holes in it, we are able to make a ground staple that better holds down our row cover. It appears to be working well, and has the potential to save us a lot of time when putting out the row cover, as our alternative is to bury the edges (a tiresome and time consuming process.)
To top that, we are using them this year to tack down large sheets of waste greenhouse plastic on our cherry tomato beds to help warm the soil before planting in April. More on that in the future.
FSF ground staple
Warming the beds
Electric Tractor Update
At the end of last year our electric tractor was not acting as powerful as in the past. After some testing, it became apparent that 3 years of farming was all our batteries could take.
As we were hoping for 4 to 5 years we were a bit disappointed. Luckily our search for new batteries took us no farther than next door in Lawson, to Magnum Industrial Batteries. The folks there were helpful in providing us with an alternative design for our battery pack.
Instead of the six 8-volt batteries of our original system they suggested eight 6-volt batteries to achieve our required 48-volts. The 8 battery system cost the same as the 6 and has over twice the amp/hour rating, meaning we will have more overall life.
We installed the batteries on Tuesday and went to work cultivating on Thursday. The tractor performed like a charm, with enough power to draw the cultivators and disks through almost an acre of beds.
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