Harvesting a Winter Share

We here at Boulder Belt Eco-Farm have been doing the CSA (community Supported Agriculture) thing for over 12 years and for the past 4 years we have done a Winter Share. This year's winter group is quite small at 5 members. In past years we generally have 10 to 15 members and I was really hoping to do 20 this year. But due to the drought that hit us this past summer our winter storage crop harvest, especially the winter squash, was badly compromised. And it also made it very hard to do the late summer and early fall planting we must do in order to have crops to harvest in December and January.

We did a lot of hand watering this past fall and we ran the irrigation system a lot more than we were comfortable with (all water, including the water we use for household stuff comes from the same well-we do not want it run dry, ever). But it all paid off and we have been successful in growing enough food for our 5 Winter Share families (but not much more than that)

Eugene is harvesting Broccoli Raab (which taste nothing like broccoli, FYI) For the winter share. I picked most of it but since I own the camera I take the pictures. The purple leaves are rainbow kale. Normally the harvested leaves would be washed, than refrigerated before being bagged but our washing facilities are outside so in winter we generally skip washing and have no need to get the field heat off of the crops (if anything they need to be thawed) so they can go from field to bagging in one step.

Same broccoli Raab bed with the cover being put back on. We use row covers inside the hoop houses because it gives another layer of protection to the crops to keep them from freezing. Unfortunately the two row covers and being inside the hoop house was not enough for the broccoli raab and there was a lot of frost damaged leaves that had to be taken off the plants and tossed out. This is always the risk with winter growing-bad frost damage. We do try to avoid this by planting cold hardy crops, using row covers and hoop houses and putting heat sinks in the houses such as gallon milk jugs filled with water, 50 gallon containers filled with water, etc..

One of two beds of leeks. The leeks will survive out side of a hoop house but we have found the quality is a lot better (by orders of magnitude) and inside the hoop houses it is warm which means the soil is not frozen so we can get them out of ground. Even in the hoop house the leeks come out of the ground muddy and have to be cleaned up. I don't wash leeks as washing seems to bring down the quality. instead I cut off the roots (where most of the mud resides) and than I strip off the outer layers which are dieing off, et voila! Clean leeks. Our Winter Share members got 2 leeks each.

One of the two spring mix beds. This one has the mustard greens-arugula, mizuna, tat soi, etc..

The lettuce side of the spring mix. In winter due more to under 9 hours of day light rather than cold, the plants go almost dormant (if it is really cold and dry they will go completely dormant in Jan and Feb) which means very very slow growth. this means in order to harvest in order to sell the crops a couple of things must happen. One, the crops have to be planted at the optimal time so they are well established and at the size you need. With some things like spring mix the plants can be either too small or too big. With other things like broccoli raab and kale you want to avoid the plants being too small or there will not be much to harvest. Two you need to plant more than you would in spring/summer/fall because things are not growing much if at all so in order to get enough to harvest you plant more area.

Now this works very well in early to mid winter but in late winter we get our light back and the hoop houses get really warm, especially on sunny days so even though it may be a cold snowy March day outside the hoop houses, inside it is May and things are growing great guns and all that over planting so necessary in the depths of winter becomes too much of a good thing. So our solution is to simply move the hoop houses off of such crops and on to other things and that gives the over abundant crops a good dose of weather reality and they tend to slow way down.

In the end we were able to harvest enough spring mix for 6 big bags of salad (that would be almost 1/2 pound). 5 went to the winter share members and 1 went to us. We also harvested beets and chard from the 3rd hoop house but I took no pictures, even though the chard was very beautiful.

Winter Kale

As long time readers know we do season extension and one of our annual goals is to harvest all 12 months of the year.I don't know if this will be possible in the winter of 2011 but at this point in the season it is looking good. I present to you rainbow kale

Here we have a bed of kale that took two of us about 1/2 hour to clear the snow and ice from so we could take the row cover off of the bed

Freshly harvested winter kale for our CSA members

Here we have a row cover that is too narrow. This is because when we took it off the snow had collapsed the hoops that were supposed to be holding the covers off the ground and kale. But several inches of snow and ice flattened the hoops so when we got the covers off we reset the hoops and added more and found that the covers had frozen in such a way that they were too narrow to cover the hoops/bed. So we fiddled with the covers for a half hour and got most of the edges loose so that the covers would cover the area. One of the many differences between winter growing and farming the rest of the year

My Christmas Present

Eugene asked me a few days ago if I wanted to know what he was working on for my Christmas present and I said no, I wanted to wait until Christmas to see the surprise that should have been built years ago (and I must say when he said it was something that he should have made years ago that did get my curiosity up).

So yesterday (Christmas Eve) we were in the barn and Eugene told me to follow him into the seed room. I had kind of forgotten about the Christmas surprise he had been building and thought he wanted to show me the onion progress (as we had just been talking about the onions). So I followed him into the room and lo and behold there was the big Surprise-A heat table so we can start more seedlings and get better and quicker germination. I am so stoked!

The heat/seed starting table. You can see it is a table with sides and has sand in it. The sand is a wonderful medium to grab heat and spread it out (i.e. an insulator). Plus it will absorb any water that gets on it. There are a couple of layers of plastic (which are 6 mil greenhouse film remnants). the flat with soil cones is there just to check temperatures ranges, there are no seeds in that soil

The Thermostat. I believe there is now a thermometer involved which is important as these heat tables can cook seeds and seedlings if not properly monitored.

A heat cable under sand and plastic

Tuttle Conquers a grocery bag

2010 Carrots

We grow carrots and find they do much better if planted in the summer and harvested in the fall. Spring planted carrots tend to be small, bitter and full of carrot maggot damage. Not something we want to sell , nor people want to buy and eat. But the fall carrots tend to be huge, sweet and virtually damage free.

This summer/fall we had a drought which meant no rain for months on end (okay 2 months but still plural) so the carrots had to be hand watered (we did not put irrigation drip tape on the beds for some reason-I think because it was so hot and humid and so many other things had to be irrigated that it simply did not get done). In August we were quite certain, even with being watered by hand 3x to 4x a week that the carrots, at best, would be small, woody roots with bad flavor. That all the work we were doing (this hand watering took two of us about 4 hours a day to do and that was in addition to of all the other chores one must do to keep a market farm up and working) was likely to be for naught.

So we were surprised when in October Eugene started digging the carrots and they were marvelous-large, colorful roots with great flavor (that got better and better the colder it got). And since they were planted in summer and during a drought there was virtually no insect damage (likely due to the fact the maggot flies that lay eggs on the roots which hatch into nasty carrot maggots which in turn make tunnels through the top 1/3 of the carrots, quit breeding due to lack of water). By colorful I mean exactly that-we grow several colors of carrots in addition to the classic orange. As a matter of fact we grow 3 other colors, red, white (which is really a light yellow or ivory color) and yellow. The varieties are Yellowstone (yellow), Purple Haze (red) nelson and Bolero (orange) and White Satin (white, d'uh!). I find the white and yellow carrots have the best taste of the 4 colors-they are the sweetest.

We also discovered that the white and yellow carrots are the most drought tolerant of the 4 colors we grow. They really did not care that they were water starved, they got big and beautiful despite hardship. The red carrots, on the other hand, did not respond well at all to the drought. The survivors (we estimate that at least 50% either did not germinate at all or died young) were small but do have great flavor. The orange varieties did okay in spite of the drought but would have done much much better had we had average rainfall and did not get quite as big as the yellow and white varieties.

In the end, we harvested and cleaned around 150 pounds (plus another 200+ pounds already dug and sold) on Thursday and Friday of this past week. Had we not had a drought we would have gotten at least 4x that amount from 8 50' x 4' beds

Eugene Opens a Hoop House

A picture is worth a thousands word and a video is even better. This one shows how we open our hoop houses and keep them open.

Pharm Photos late summer/fall 2010

It's picture time (AKA the lazy blogger's way to post)

Nate

Sunflower ready to harvest

Popcorn not quite ready to harvest but it had to be any way and did end up coloring up completely after a few days of drying.

An early October Farmers Market

Late September garden. The row cavers are there to keep as much moisture in the ground as possible as we have been in a drought most of the summer

Eugene watering the market garden

Garlic, garlic, garlic!

pears on the tree (taken about 5 minutes before they were harvested)

Milk Drinkers of OH 1, Monsanto 0

Organic dairy products produced free from synthetic growth hormones- Consumers Win Right to Know

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals invalidates key portions of Ohio Dept. of Agriculture rule and protects consumers’ and producers’ rights to truthful information on organic product labels

Washington, D.C. (Sept. 30, 2010)—The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit today ruled in favor of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in a landmark case that would have prevented consumers in Ohio from knowing whether products on grocery store shelves were produced without synthetic growth hormones.

“OTA believes consumers have a right to know how their food was produced, and organic farmers and manufacturers should be allowed to tell them,” said Christine Bushway, CEO of OTA, the leading voice for the $26.6 billion organic industry in North America. “We are pleased the court agrees,” added Bushway.

In order to qualify for the organic label, organic farmers are prohibited from using synthetic growth hormones (rBGH), genetically engineered organisms (GMOs), antibiotics and toxic, persistent, synthetic pesticides. The standards also mandate a rigorous system for inspection, certification and verification of organic practices, all of which protect consumers who choose organic foods.

The court’s decision upholds consumers’ rights to receive truthful information about organic production practices on the labels of their milk and other dairy products. Additionally, it recognizes the rights of organic dairy farmers and processors to communicate truthfully with consumers regarding federally regulated organic production practices under the USDA Organic seal. As a result of this victory for organic, consumers will continue to see truthful information on organic product labels in Ohio and across the country.

The Organic Trade Association and its members, including Horizon Organic®, Organic Valley®, and Stonyfield Farm®, filed the appeal in conjunction with the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).

The overwhelming majority of Americans seeks this information on product labels. The Consumer Reports National Research Center polled more than 1,000 people nationwide on various food labeling issues; some 76% of those polled were concerned with ‘dairy cows given synthetic growth hormones’ and 88% agreed that ‘milk from cows raised without synthetic bovine growth hormone should be allowed to be labeled as such.’

The United States is in the minority among industrialized nations by allowing the use of synthetic growth hormones to artificially stimulate milk production in dairy herds. The practice is already prohibited in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and in the 27 countries of the European Union.

The best way for consumers to be sure they are choosing products produced without the use of synthetic growth hormones (rBGH), genetically engineered organisms (GMOs), antibiotics and toxic and persistent pesticides is to look for the organic label.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) has 1200 members, across 49 states, representing over 4500 certified organic operations. OTA members include growers, shippers, processors, certifiers, farmers' associations, distributors, importers, exporters, retailers and other allied organizations.

RIP Betty

Man, what a week, yet another summer week of horror. If you are on my email list or follow us on Face Book than you know Betty was killed around midnight Tuesday/Wednesday.

She and Nate were on the highway and a PC Sheriff deputy came up the hill and around the bend and hit her and killed her instantly. he than came up to the house, knocked on the door, woke me out of a sound sleep and asked if I had a black dog because he just hit and killed one. I said yes and hoped it was another black dog. but when he said it was running with a brown dog I knew that it had to be Betty.

Eugene got up and I told him the grim news and we walked down the road with the cop and sure enough, there was her corpse. Eugene picked her body up and took it back to the farm and than we spent the rest of the night unable to sleep much at all.

We spent Wednesday in a state of grief and shock. Eugene dug a big hole and buried her in the morning while I got things harvested and cleaned for the Farm Share folks. We said our good byes and felt really bad about life and both of us cried at times over the loss of our pup.

She was a great dog and died too young. I strongly suspect Nate killed her. That he had been leading her out of the fenced ares via various holes that either he made or have been made by cars running into the fence for months and finally his scheme worked. I say this because he has zero remorse over the whole event and when we have lost other dogs (and cats) he would mourn their departure for weeks. he is not mourning betty one bit and seems very very relieved she is gone. granted she was hard on him physically. She would jump on his back (and she weighed close to 70 pounds), bite and pull on his ears and just be a general PITA to him. Now Nate could have told her enough but for some reason he was always a complete push over around her and never ever disciplined her.

Here is a short video I took of her the Sunday before she died. We were fishing and she was having a ball playing in the and around the pond.

The 2010 127 Yard Sale

It's coming up August 5, 6, 7 and 8-Just 1 week away and it looks like Boulder Belt's Sale will be better than ever.

We have just about sold out of spaces (I believe I have 2 left for the entire weekend and and one more for Sat and Sunday) spaces are $15 a day or $50 for the entire event for a 10' wide x approx 15' deep space.

Back this year is Jules the Knife Lady, Dan the tie dye guy (who has been missing from the sale the past 2 years due to conflicts with his schedule) and we have several new people. One will be selling whimsical yard art and two will have antiques and junque. We will have junque and produce as usual.

If you need a spot to sell contact me ASAP (phone, email or stop out) as these few remaining spots will sell.

If you are planning out the last details of your Yard Saling Adventure we are a not to miss sale. We have lots of interesting things available, bathroom facilities (okay, it's a Port-O-John, but far better than using a ditch beside the road or holding it for hours on end while walking about) and we are not so big that you have to spend 1/2 a day at our sale and miss out on the other Ohio sales.

We are just under 3 miles south of I-70, exit 10 and right on the high way. Hope to see YOU next week!

Random Farm Pictures Time

A small percentage of the 2010 onion crop

Galia melons fresh from the field

a couple of tomato beds

Queen Anne's Lace in the morning light

Plums

Eugene

Me at the farmers market in early July

Betty helping Eugene in the zucchini beds

Costata Romanesque and Sunburst patty pan squashes

Sugar snap peas in June

The Joys of Farming

I was going to post a bunch of pictures of the farm but have decided that I need to vent instead about various things having to do with my profession-market farming.

First off our season is pretty sucky. The weather has been either too wet or too dry and always too hot and humid so we can get less done in a day than is needed. This means getting weeds under control has been herculean task. Even the crops planted on mulch need to be weeded. Today i pulled about 200 pounds of crab grass and purslain from 2 beds of peppers. Still have another 7 or 8 to go. Eugene has been using the wheel hoe to weed the beds that are not cover with landscape fabric whenever it is dry enough to use a hoe but before the ground resembles concrete. I believe we have 4 days with those conditions in the past 6 weeks but, of course it was very hot and humid on those day with highs in the upper 90's.

Because of the hot humid conditions we have loads of Japanese beetles eating and copulating. I have become Ms Coitus Interruptus as I kill any mating JB's I come across and can get my hands (AKA deadly weapons, as far as the past bugs are concerned). We also are getting hit with various soil born diseases on the tomatoes. I did hit them with grapefruit seed extract a week ago and that really did a number on the various fungii attacking the maters but the rain early this morning made whatever was not destroyed by the GSE bloom abundantly so now there are many yellowing mater plants where yesterday there were 3. By many I mean around 50 to 75. At least most the plants have fruit on them so we should get a lot of maters in another 2 to 4 weeks. And I am not too worried about this as we get this blighty ick that is neither early or late blight but still kills the plants by September problem every year.

On top of that our tillage equipment is broken and Eugene so far cannot figure out what is wrong and the BCS manual is of little help other than the fascinating photos of various parts exploded so you can see the individual parts but absolutely no explanation of what they are, do or where they should actually go in order to make the machine run. I would say this is the polar opposite of a Chilton's Manual. Maybe this is Italy's revenge for losing WWII and any other complaints they have towards us Merkins.

So for the past month we have been using hand tools to keep beds weeded and prepped for planting. At some point Eugene will give up on trying to figure the problem(s) out himself and push the 450 pound 2 wheeled tractor up a hill and into the van and take it to the Arcanum Hardware store where they have a guy who works on BCS equipment. Hopefully that person can figure out what is wrong and order the parts needed and than we will wait 2 to 4 weeks for the parts to come in as they come from Italy and it always takes a while for them to send the parts to us.

Betty has been good for a dog her age which means she has not destroyed all the market garden but she is trying. She did in a lot of green beans killing a young raccoon who was doing a huge number on the Latham raspberries the past week. Since the bean patch was the first one of the year and old and we have 5 others just about ready to bear fruit this was not a big deal. And we would rather lose 20% of a green bean bed than 50% of our raspberry canes (and God knows what else) to a coon. But than again the raspberries have been a bit of a disappointment. various things are killing them and we have lost 100' this year to borers, fusarium and perhaps pythium. so that means the raspberry harvest is way down. but it turns out that is not such a bad thing because our sales, despite having the only raspberries in the region and dropping our price 33% are way down this over the past 5 to to years. I guess people just don't want poison free red raspberries anymore, I don't know. But I do know that in the past, the raspberries were one of our main revenue generators for this time of year.

And that bring me to our marketing. our sales are down across the board. we don't get a lot of people coming into the store and more and more the ones who do come buy nothing because the think the prices are too high (and generally are pretty damned rude about it too). If we lower them any more we will be back to making around $2 a hour and will no longer be able to pay the mortgage, gas and electric and will have to get rid of the farm. the CSA is beginning to get more members and it seems that most seem interested in doing it again next year but we have less than half the members we had at this point last year. I really think the fake CSA-companies that buy and resell food, claim to offer local food but rarely do and even when they do it is less than 15% of what the sell-have taken a large share of our market. And the sad thing is I personally know people who have joined them and have told me proudly the are CSA members. Sorry folks, but if you buy food from one of those fake CSA you are not participating in a CSA that grows all of it's food, and the members share in the risk and bounty of their CSA farm. It distresses me that people who should "get it" do not. Some of the people I know who use these services work closely with farmers markets and local farmers. Just makes me shake my head. Such disconnect. But I guess price and convenience always trumps the real deal of picking up food freshly harvested at the farm and getting to talk to the people that grow the food you will eat.

The positive thing about this season's CSA is our members. I really like all of them and I really enjoy puytting together the shares and news letter for them every week. Oh and despite issues with weather and the garden we have had some really great shares this year (pretty much all of them)

The farmers market in Oxford is taking a turn for the worst. Overall our sales are way down despite the fact we were able to harvest 1/2 of our asparagus full and the other half 30% this year meaning we had about double the asparagus we have ever had in the past. We also grew and sold a lot of lettuce which made May a good month for us. But June and July have not been so good. I think there are several factors going on. 1) there are 2x or 3x as many farmers and no increase in customers walking through the market, because 2) they banned dogs from market which has lead to a marked decrease in customer traffic the past 3 weeks (a lot of people were royally pissed off over this decision by the market board which I agreed with at the time, and I believe are boycotting the market.) 3) The market is getting too crafty/artsy and the farmers are losing importance. It seem that the Oxford Farmers Market Uptown is more of a social event than a place to buy locally raised foods. 4)There are more and more people selling prepared foods at market which is great for the customers but I do not believe many, if any, are sourcing the ingredients locally from us growers so that too is cutting into our bottom line. And finally, 5) we seem to be in an economic depression and people percieve farmers markets as places where food is very expensive. And This is true for some things (usually things you cannot get normally at Kroger's or Wal-Mart, like 45 different kinds of heirloom tomatoes, or other heirloom fruits and veggies that cannot take the handling to be sold at any chain. But for most things the prices are the same or even less for food that is a whole lot better.

These are just some of the joys of farming.