Category Archives: soil blocks

2009—Our Sixth Season

bees, compost, core group, csa, fari share farm, kansas city, soil blocks, strawberries, sustainable agriculture

The years were flying by 2009. Entering our sixth season of the CSA, we were starting to feel comfortable with growing vegetables for over 100 families. Our original business plan was based on supporting the farm with a CSA membership of 100 shares, but we realized that a more realistic goal was a bit more than that in order to be economically sustainable.  To continue to grow we would need not only more members, but also more full-time farm workers.

January at the pond

We were able to grow enough crops in 2009 to sell 115 CSA shares.  The Fair Share Farm CSA Core Group continued their stellar work of running the organization as it grew: the Spring sign-up meeting, coordinating the farm work schedule, surveying the membership and expanding distribution.

Gary Glauberman and Kelly Parker helping with contracts at the Spring Sign-up

By the start of the season we hired two full-time apprentices. Lori Watley was a friend of the farm who had helped us often during 2005. Kara Jennings was so enthusiastic to apprentice with us that she drove in from Gladstone every day to learn the trade. Kara and Lori made the season what we called our best year yet.

Kara and Lori at the wash sink
Jeff and his son helping in the Spring 2008

A regular volunteer in 2008 and 2009, Jeff Hunter also was a big help in those years. He and his wife Stacey started a large garden at their local church, helped create a learning garden for kids, and now farm their own land.

In 2009 we made a big shift in our greenhouse production.  We had been experimenting over the previous couple seasons with the use of soil blocks for starting our transplants. We had found they created plants that were more robust, greener, held longer in the greenhouse, and experienced less transplant shock than plugs.

Soil blocks in the greenhouse

A flat of nice cabbage plants

When the harvest came in we couldn’t complain.  Shares were full, filled by the harvest of 835 quarts of strawberries, 1,000+ lbs of beans, melons for all, great brassicas, and a stellar fall carrot and beet crop.

All this with the same annual rainfall (44+ inches) as the previous year. While the rain fell in less of a downpour pattern than 2008, our adjustments to how we prepared the ground also helped keep the crops out of the muck.

This was also to be the year that our cover cropping program came to life. We had initated an annual system whereby we plant oats and vetch in April, turn the crop under in June/July, and plant the bed in fall vegetables in August. We had a very good cover crop that year and the carrots and beets in those beds grew like none we had seen previously.



Strawberry harvest at its best
The Rouyer Family picking peas

Bean picking crew returning with their harvest
Sweet peppers
Watermelons for all

That year, we experimented with raising livestock.  We borrowed six of Parker Farms’ sheep to reduce our mowing needs, apply some fertility to areas of ground yet to be broken, and learn about caring for livestock. It was fun and a success.



Katahdin sheep borrowed from Parker Farms

Bees proved to be a harder project. We had everything in place; an experienced beekeeper in member Keith Stubblefield, new hive boxes put together with the members’ help, organic fields, and thousands of bees bought in their packages. But alas, for the next 3 seasons we could not develop a strong hive, and very little honey was drawn while most of the hives disappeared. The experts call the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder, a generic term that describes a problem with no known cause.



Ann Flynn, Fran Gillespe, Keith and Nancy Stubblefield
building the hive boxes
Bees but little honey

Rocky continued to grow and make friends, among them Nora Gibbons. Her parents, Heather and Scott, have been CSA members since our second season in 2005. As Heather was pregnant then, Nora has the distinction of being the oldest person to have been in the CSA her whole life!

Nora and Rocky

That Winter we drove down to Texas as part of an annual trip for Rebecca and her snow-bird, Grandmother Kathleen. It was a chance for me to meet her many cousins, uncles, nieces and nephews in the Lone Star State. When back at the farm we planned and studied. One such science project included looking at our compost through our microscope and realizing I could film it. Those critters are called springtails.

Rocky in December

Next up…2010 and lots of heat, learning to gutter, best winter squash, solar stimulus and a wedding day.

Let the Seeding Begin

onions, rocky, seeding, snow geese, soil blocks, tractor
Well it is official, the growing season has started. Last Saturday February 4th our two new interns, Dani Hurst and Ryan Stubby, joined us for half a day to initiate the planting of over 12,000 onion seeds. We finished up the planting yesterday with Luke, and will concentrate on tending to your vegetables for the next 10 months.
Planting the first seed of 2012


Dani making soil blocks
Ryan and Rebecca seeding onions

Along with the seeding, we have been taking advantage of the warm weather to do as much equipment maintenance as possible this year. We are hoping it pays off during the growing season  by minimizing equipment breakdowns, delays, and frustrations, while improving the working life and safety of our machinery.

One piece of equipment we worked on is the spader. For a while now the frame/shroud that surrounds the digging spades has been bent and in need of some adjustment. With a lot of elbow grease from Luke we were able to take the frame apart so that we could work on it.

Local artist/metal worker/handy guy Jeff Becker came up with the solution to bending things back into shape…run over it with the tractor! Well, in true Missouri farmer fashion we used the tools and leverage we had at hand and were able to straighten things out. Re-assembly is on its way.

Spader with bent rake frame
Straightening the frame
This winter season we have seen a lot of birds on the move, more it seems than the last couple years. A huge flock of snow geese flew over the greenhouse on Monday, It was quite a sight and sound. If I had the time I would count the number of birds in the photo out of curiosity.
 
Snow geese on the move

Lastly, a salami update. For the past several years we have been working on perfecting the making of an annual batch of Finocchiana, a peppercorn and fennel seed flavored cured pork salami. The recipes we have used has been consistently good, and when we can get 20 lbs of Parker Farms pork shoulder, the meat quality is the best. The trick has always been the curing process.

To make a tasty (and safe) salami you need to cure it at the proper temperature and humidity. In the past we relied on whatever conditions a cool basement could provide. Then we started curing it in a box of wood ash from our stove. With the construction of our “cave” in the lower part of the barn we are able to control the temp and humidity to the general levels required.

The results have been the most consistent batch of salami yet. Thank you local hogs.

2012 Finocchiana

The Beginnings of Summer

row cover, soil blocks, strawberries, tomato transplants

As farmers, we try to spend a lot of our time listening. Listening to the plants, the soil, the weather forecast, to better manage the farm. Since 2008, arguably our wettest and toughest year, we have modified our growing practices to alleviate the distress caused by too much rain.

From taking some areas out of production, to guttering our beds with our electric tractor, to using more mulch, these changes paid off in the likewise wet years of 2009 and 2010.

Last year we learned what we should have already known about planting summer crops like tomatoes—wait until it is warm. In 2010 late April and early May saw cold, wet days and nights that killed the feeder roots of three beds (about 300 plants) worth of plants and lead to a harvest at less than 50% of what we should expect.

This year we have been more patient, waiting for what looks like the beginning of day and night temps over 50 degrees. Tomatoes are heat loving plants, and plants that are warm and happy for their whole life grow just as fast, if not faster, than ones put out in the cold to start.

So Wednesday the farm crew set out 100 cherry tomato plants and 100 hybrid determinate plants. Yet to come are 100 hybrid determinates, 300 heirloom, and 200 paste tomatoes. We finish off our tomato planting in about a month with a final bed of summer (heat tolerant) tomatoes.

Tomato planting

Other goings on include walking by the strawberries every day and marveling at their lush green growth and many flowers. At the moment things look right for another successful strawberry season. Keep your fingers crossed.

Elsewhere in the field the broccoli and cabbage planted under the warmth of the row cover are growing as well as in any Spring. As they size up they make thier presence more obvious behind the shear fabric. Other crops are growing well too, as can be seen in the photo of this year’s garlic crop.

Meanwhile, in the greenhouse, we are finishing up most of our seeding and moving plants from the greenhouse, to the cold frame, to the field. It is interesting to watch the cucurbit seeds germinate in the soil blocks, as their large seeds seem to explode through the soil surface and unfurl thier leaves.