Category Archives: greenhouse

Moving on Up

February 10, 2015greenhouse, snow geeseFarmer Rebecca

The weather this February has been much more conducive to winter work than last year. We have been living by the old saying “make hay while the sun is shining” and working on our infrastructure to get ahead of the game before planting season begins.

The greenhouse addition is all buttoned-up, and the extra elbow room (literally) has been great. The seeding has begun, and the onions are coming up—a welcome site.

onions a sproutin’

A shout-out thank you to Carole and Fred Barth for the storm door. One of those things that you take because you might need it, store it for 3 years, and then find the perfect use.

The view from the west

We are slowly moving everything out of the east half of the old barn and into the new one. One benefit of this move is that we now have a shop! Every farm needs a place to park equipment and work on it, and we look forward to initiating some winter maintenance very soon.

And as is the case every February, the snow geese fly over the farm on their way north. Their clamoring is always a sign that the season has begun.

snow geese in formation

In the Share – Week 16

August 26, 2014deer fence, greenhouse, high tunnelFarmer Rebecca

SWEET PEPPERS F/P Ripe and juicy, with lots of red bull’s horn type that are super sweet.

GREEN BEANS F/P More Roma (flat pods) and Jade (standard pods) plus the start of the Rattlesnake pole beans.

TOMATOES F/P The heirloom varieties are out-pacing their hybrid cousins right now.

CARROTS F/P More crisp, orange ones from cold storage

RED ONIONS F/P

SALSA PACK F

POTATOES F A choice of yellow or pink ones

CHERRY TOMATOES P

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, salsa packs, green beans and eggplant.

FARM REPORT:

This week finds us nearing the end of the planting season. Most of the fall crops are in the ground and growing well. It will start feeling like fall when we begin harvesting kale in a couple more weeks. On Thursday we started plants for the high tunnel: lettuce, bok choy, Swiss chard, kale, beets and gai lan.

During these hot, humid days it is nice to dream of the cool, crisp days of fall spent harvesting greens and, of course, sweet potatoes. The local wildlife, deer to be exact, had recently begun the sweet potato harvest without us. Deer love sweet potato leaves and had groomed the rows of some of the tops before we noticed. No major harm was done we think and the deer fence is now back up and operational.

In the Share Extended Season – Week 1

April 23, 2014carrots, greenhouse, high tunnel, potatoes, swiss chardFarmer Rebecca

LETTUCE (2) We will be picking the lettuce heads in the morning, but it looks like everyone will get one butterhead and one red frilly leaf lettuce.

ASPARAGUS The asparagus kicked back into gear after last week’s frost just in time for us all to enjoy.

SPINACH This is from the over-wintered patch and includes some massive leaves, so be prepared.

CARROTS These are juicy carrots freshly dug.

SWISS CHARD The plants are very large and quite delicious.

GREEN ONIONS We have some over-wintered bunching onions that are nice out in the fields.

HERB CHOICE Cilantro, dill or garlic chives.

EGGS (1 dozen) Our flock is now 8 months old and cranking out the eggs. See Tom’s post for a one of our favorite fast foods, frittata.

NEXT WEEK: Lettuce, asparagus, green garlic, Spring turnips, bok choy, herb choice.

The first week of the 2014 Fair Share Farm CSA season is here! For the next 31 weeks we endeavor to feed you well. Our work takes place in the out of doors and crazy weather is known to happen in our region, but we work hard every day to minimize the risks and take care of the trust that has been given.

Every Tuesday night, I (Rebecca ) list what is in the share for that week and give a farm report with some photos. Tom posts at around the same time with helpful thoughts on unusual vegetables and recipes using items from the share.

The week started with the harvest of the high tunnel carrots. This is our second Spring harvesting out of the HT and we don’t feel like we have it all figured out yet. The carrots are juicy and good-tasting, but we graded out a fair amount of split ones. Still, we have enough nice ones that we plan to put them in the extended season shares again in two weeks.

The farm crew spent the better part of the past two days cleaning and preparing the wash and pack area for the harvest. Washing the hundreds of crates that we use takes a huge effort. Inside the packing room, the coolers are clean and running smoothly with the CSA crates already starting to fill them.

While the farmers were washing everything in sight, the crops kept working without us. Converting solar energy into good things to eat is what they do, but it is easy to worry about their success. After some nervous anticipation, the seed potatoes have finally popped their first shoots up above the soil. A big hurdle passed for the potatoes and a good omen for the season ahead.

Our mantra every year is this: best year yet! Let it be so…

2011—Our Eighth Season

March 19, 2013broccoli, community supported agriculture, cover crops, csa, electric tractor, fair share farm, farm aprentice, greenhouse, jonathan justus, justus drugstore, kansas city, outstanding in the field, tomatoesFarmer Rebecca

Impression of Rocky

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 the Share – Week 17

August 29, 2012beneficials, dry, fall planting, greenhouse, rain, watermelonFarmer Rebecca

cucurbit family fruit

TOMATOES (F/P) A combination of slicers and cherry tomatoes

COLORFUL CARROTS (F/P) This may be the last week of these. Thank you carrots of all colors for nourishing us during a brutal summer!

YELLOW OR RED ONIONS (F/P) The yellow onions are our best keepers and they’ve got a bite to prove it.

WATERMELON, CANTALOUPE OR PUMPKIN (F/P) We realize this is an odd-ball of a choice, but it is what we have. Choose which big ball of fruit you want.

HOT PEPPERS (F) We continue to have a lot of hot peppers, one of the few fruiting plants that is not affected by high temperatures.

RATTLESNAKE BEANS (F) Precious, precious beans! Finally after months of watching six rows of beans sit and do nothing in the heat, our pole beans are ready to be picked. ‘Snake’ beans can get big but they stay tender and have a nice nutty flavor. Partial shares will get them next week and hopefully the full shares will too.

OKRA, BEETS OR EGGPLANT (P) The last of the beets until fall. Okra and eggplant should be going on for awhile more.

GREENS CHOICE (F) There is some kale and collard plants that need to be picked. They won’t be big bunches but it is nice to have something green for a change.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) We are sending in more dried herbs along with sage and thyme.

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, and beans. Arugula and radishes, we hope. Garlic returns.

FARM REPORT:

The big news on the farm is the glorious high tunnel taking shape over in its corner of the farm. See Tom’s post for more on the work day on Sunday, but I must say we are stupendously fortunate to have such capable, friendly folks in our corner. We slopped around in the mud together and cogitated over the plans together and in the end we managed to get a lot done and have a good time doing it. Today we began seeding the plants that will call the high tunnel home in about a month’s time.

Lettuces, bok choy, bunching onions, beets, and bulb fennel are seeded so far. Also on the list to enter the tunnel: radishes, carrots, young turnips, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, rapini and endive. Since we have never done this before we are very hesitant to predict how the season will turn out, but we hope to offer an extension of the CSA season by three weeks to a maximum of 50 current CSA members. The twenty-fourth and final week of the regular CSA season will be the week ending October 20th. Once we get to October, we will ask you to let us know if you would like to extend your share.

beneficial insect: predatory lacewing

In the meantime, we are looking forward to the beginning of a new harvest season. The small bunches of kale and collards are ushering us into what looks to be a bountiful fall. The 0.75 inch rain on Sunday gave the thousands of baby seedlings a nice drink, but six inches down the soil is still dry. The irrigation pump stays on to supplement what nature provides. We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Isaac but it is unclear if any rain will get here. So far we are a foot of rain below average for the year. We hope that everyone stays safe down in the Gulf Coast and that they send some of their extra moisture on up to us.

March Farming

March 18, 2011cold frame, electric tractor, greenhouse, ground stapleSemra Fetahovic

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.

New battery pack

Cultivating in prep for planting