LETTUCE (F2/P1) More luscious butterheads and brilliant red leaf lettuces.
NAPA CABBAGE (F) Great in slaws or pickled in a kimchi, aka Chinese cabbage.
RADISH OR ARUGULA (F) Neither fared well through our wintery Spring. We are picking them baby size, while they last.
CHARD OR KALE (F/P) The first pickings off these two reliable vegetables. Partial shares choose between chard, kale, or Napa cabbage.
BROCCOLI (F/P) Much less reliable, but much more popular … alas!
HAKUREI TURNIPS (F/P) If you are new to these, try eating the entire plant raw – top to bottom.
STRAWBERRIES (F/P) The patch is just starting to produce. If you don’t get any this week, lots more are on their way.
GREEN GARLIC (F/P) The young garlic plants are tender and nice in any dish where you would use garlic.
HERB CHOICE (F/P) Cilantro, dill, garlic chives or dried herbs.
NEXT WEEK: More lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, green onions, turnips and herbs.
FARM REPORT: The weather has finally warmed and the plants are responding by pumping out new growth. The peas are racing up their trellising after sitting still for so long. Every plant on the farm is intent on sending out their solar collectors to soak up the sun’s energy. Meanwhile the humans try to keep up with all this activity to direct it towards productive forms. Tomatoes are pruned and trellised, weeds are pulled, cucumbers thinned. One of our favorite ways to direct plant growth is mulching. The crops benefit and the weeds lose. On Saturday, we had lots of help from the membership so after the morning’s harvest was complete we tackled the tomato patch.
tomato mulch
Four big round bales of hay later and the farm crew was reminded of the power of the CSA model. Thanks everybody for making our job easier!
While we focus on the plants, the chickens carry on merrily in their new location in the lower part of the far field. Their spontaneous cackling reaches across the fields and they are fun to watch as they peck around in the grass. Sometimes all you can see is their backsides pointed to the sky as they search the tall grass for bugs.
chicken circle
In addition to whatever they find, we give them organic, non-GMO feed that we purchase by the ton to get the best price. If you come out to the farm we usually have a couple dozen eggs for sale, just ask. We charge $5/dozen which we are hoping will allow us to break even on the annual costs of the feed. Having chickens on the farm gives us more than just egg money. The fringed benefits are cheep entertainment as mentioned, fertilizer, less bugs perhaps and of course frittatas. See Tom’s post below for tonight’s dinner – chard and leek frittata. Yumm!
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.
TOMATOES (F/P) Holy tomato, Batman! The farm is full of tomatoes of all sizes, colors and flavors. It took us all day plus some to get the harvest in and sorted. We definitely hit a new record at 1,300 + lbs. just today.
MORE TOMATOES (F/P) Everyone will be getting a double share this week. We are holding back many less ripe ones, for future shares. The cave is keeping them nicely. We are giving you ripe ones and many that are two or three days away from being ripe. If you can wait, they are best when they are soft and fleshy.
CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P) If Saturday is any indication, we should have plenty for all.
POTATOES (F/P) It wasn’t an Irish Spring for sure and so we aren’t getting a great potato crop. They are small but very tasty. We will be digging several varieties this week as we clear the highest and driest area first, which includes the French Fingerling, the Bintje and the Kennebec.
CUCUMBERS AND SUMMER SQUASH (F/P) We are handing out small cucumbers this week out of the pickling cucumber patch. They are great for fresh eating too. The summer squash is not producing a lot but we are spreading them out to everyone as best we can.
GARLIC (F/P) Garlic is fully cured and ready for eating. Offered will be more Musik, a hardneck type.
EGGPLANT (F/P) Today we also harvested a big crop of eggplant. We pick them young when they are at their most tender and mild. No need to soak these babies.
SALSA PACK (F/P) Partial shares get a choice with the eggplant.
HERB CHOICE (F/P) Thai basil, thyme, or parsley. Partial shares get a smaller bunch and a smaller garlic.
FARM REPORT
What to say? We are in the thick of summer and barely have time to put this together. The drought continues for us. We missed most of the rain that was all around us on Sunday. For a short while the rain was a very lovely sight.
In the end, one-tenth of an inch is all that fell. We spent some time this weekend to get a close approximation of what water we have. Here I am having a lovely swim to measure the deepest point in the pond.
It reads about 7.5 feet, which from our calculations means about half of the volume of the pond has been used or evaporated. The question then becomes, “Is the pond half-full or half-empty?” We like to stay positive, so are looking ahead to the prospect of possibly pumping water from the old pond that we used in 2003 during our first season on the farm. Hopefully it won’t come to that but we like to have it as an option just the same.
In the midst of all this the planting schedule must be kept and on Monday we transplanted the first of the fall crops.
The cabbage looks good under a thick layer of mulch and with plenty of water. We are hoping to plant all of the fall brassica (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage) this way into hay mulch to conserve moisture.
It has been an exceptional Spring for plantings, especially if the freezes and frosts hold off. To date we have planted:peas beets carrots radishes lettuce kale swiss chard potatoes onions herbs broccoli cabbage bok choi hakurei turnips tat soi/yukina savoy kohlrabi arugula
lettuce under row cover
cabbage, kale and row cover
Already in the ground from last year, or as a perenial are: garlic garlic greens leeks asparagus strawberries
garlic
strawberries forming in April
With the help of our electric and gas powered tractors, and the dry weather, we have been able to keep the beds as weed free as ever. Each bed has received several rounds of cultivation, and many have also received hay mulch.
The cultivating serves to kill the weeds when they are still small, and help exhaust the “weed seed bank” in the beds. The mulch keeps new weeds in check, holds the little moisture we have had, provides lots of worm food, and cools the soil. So far, so good.
mulching the napa cabbage
freshly cultivated onions
We are looking forward to the 2012 season, and may be starting a week early (only 3 weeks from now?!) More on that later.
So far, this Spring has been one of the best we have had for early growing. We continue to put out plants and seed our fields, and hope for thisweek to be especially productive, so that we can have time to turn our attention back to our high tunnel.
Our 2012 interns Dani Hurst and Ryan Stubby have been on the go and productive since the beginning. Last week was a good example as we: mulched, staked and trellised the peas; planted, mulched and covered the broccoli; weeded some “no-till” beds; planted potatoes; potted up tomatoes, eggplant and peppers; hoed, fertilized and mulched the new asparagus patch; harvested for the KC Food Circle Expo; and took care of many other tasks.
We also put row cover over the strawberry plants, the first time we have ever done that. Of course this is the first time they have ever started flowering in early April. Last year the very cold start to May severely damaged our crop and we do not want a repeat of that, so we are doing all we can to keep these tasty fruits protected.
