Strawberries, irrigation, dogs and rain

We got some rain this evening.

Saw on the TeeVee weather radar at 6pm a storm was headed our way. So around 6:30pm I went out to the garden to pick strawberries so we would have some tomorrow for the farm store. My friend Marge stopped by the farmers market Tuesday evening to ask if we would have any Wednesday or Thursday. I told her I would have some Thursday and to drop by. So I had to have something picked before the rain set in. I hate reneging on an order

I got 10 pints so all is good. It is funny how darkening skies and rising winds really speed up one's picking time. I think I took me about 20 minutes or so to do the first two rows (7 pints) and about 5 minutes to get the 3rd row picked (3 pints) as the rain was bearing down on me. But I got the berries picked and inside and almost got the laundry off the line before the first drops hit the dirt.

As I write I hear Nate running around the back yard barking at distant thunder. He is so weird about storms. He is very much bothered by them but instead of cowering he wants to fight them and run them off (and in the end always succeeds in chasing the things away) . It gives him something to do. The other two dogs, Arlo and Danny, are lying beside me happy to be in out of the rain but not at all bothered by it.

I am happy to say this is not the first rain we have had in the past week. Last Friday we got .4 inches and Saturday and Sunday we got another couple of 10ths. Tomorrow we are supposed to get around an inch. I believe this is because Eugene has finally gotten the irrigation system 100% complete as of yesterday afternoon. In the past when we have had dreadfully dry weather, within 24 hours of getting the irrigation system set up, the rains always come. And this year seems to be no exception.

On Onions

I realize I have not written much of anything about the farm in quite a while-poor form for a farm blog.

Well, okay than.

We have reached he longest day of the year and that means our onions are growing as fast as they can. I find onions to be one of the most amazing plants we grow. For months they just sit around looking much like well spaced blades of grass. Than suddenly when the days reach around 14 hours of daylight they suddenly start growing. First it is the greens that one day resemble blades of grass and the next look like diminutive onions and within a week are robust onion greens. When the days reach 14.5 hours of day light the onions start to make onion bulbs and when we hit the summer solstice the bulb growth goes into overdrive for about 3 to 4 weeks. Finally, the greens fall over signalling the end of the bulb's growth and they are ready for harvest in mid July to early August.

We have some heirlooms called Ailsa Craig Exhibition onions that are growing the fastest of all 9 or 10 varieties we are growing this year. These onions, if given enough room and time, can grow to over 3 pounds in size. They were developed for produce showing. When showing onions size does indeed matter, a lot. Mos of he Ailsa Craigs we planted back in April are spaced for eating/selling (they won't get to be more than a pound) as they are a wonderful sweet onion. But I have a few of these onions that have been given a lot of room to see if I can get a couple of 2+ pounders. So far they are 3x bigger than any other onion on the farm. Shame I did not enter them in the county fair this year

I have been tempted to pull them as they are already eating size but that would defeat their purpose as being grown for size. They are probably only a 1/2 pound each at this point. I just have to be patient no matter how badly I want to eat a fresh sweet onion from our farm. For now, I will have to make do with onions from Harv Roehling's farm south of Oxford. They are local and organic and quite good. Still, they are not grown by us Boldarians (as our friend Rockhead likes to call us). We do have scallions coming in. Not good for cooking but great in salads of all stripes.

In a couple of weeks (or less) we should have some onions big enough to pull

Boulder Belt is in Ohio Dammit

I was googling myself, really Boulder Belt Eco-Farm, and found BBEF is listed on a Boulder Colorado site as a local farm. They had a link to my Local Harvest store but not this blog or my farm website. This explains why, in the past several months, I have gotten the occasional call from Boulder, CO wanting local food or, in one case, a guy wanting to sell me plastic to package chickens in.

In the past, many people have assumed Eugene and I are from Boulder because of our farm's name, we are not. Neither of us has even visited the state of Colorado. I do not know why it is so difficult for some people to realize that Boulder, CO does not have a monopoly on boulders, that they do exist right here in SW Ohio. On our farm even, hence the name Boulder Belt, named for the Bloomington Boulder Belt that cuts a NW to SE swath through Preble county.

Boulder Belt is in Ohio, Dammit!

Implant Update

It's been a while since I have posted anything here, it's a busy time of year and that is why.

Today I got a titanium screw in my lower jaw and the okay to get a fake tooth screwed on the said titanium screw. I also am allowed to chew on my left side. I will be nice to have a tooth again, it's been about a year since the tooth was pulled and about 3 years since I could chew on the left side of my mouth comfortably.

I am also really glad I opted for a tooth implant instead of a bridge. They cost about he same initially but a bridge can break (my mother broke several) and even if it does not break it has to be replaced every 7 to 15 years. A bridge is also pretty invasive in that the teeth on either side have to be ground down to take the bridge. So you end up with a missing tooth and 2 compromised teeth. And I hear the procedure is pretty painful.

An implant is not nearly as invasive. You get a hole drilled in your jawbone and a screw put into the hole and after 3 to 12 months of healing (I healed up in under 2 months) a veneer (aka fake tooth) is screwed in place and should last a lifetime. And having an implant keeps the jaw bone from deteriorating which it will do with a bridge or dentures. And the procedure is not very painful. I had some pain the first couple of days which ibuprofen took care of and after that hardly any pain at all. Granted, you do have to have fairly dense bone in your jaw for this to work. I happen to have bone about as dense as oak so I was a very, very good candidate.

Yay, no osteoporosis.

Organic Loopholes

More efforts to weaken organic standards to the low corporate levels. This is yet another sterling example of why we at Boulder Belt opted out of the USDA NOP. To us organics is a way one farms, not a markeing gimmick. We would like to see higher standards, not lower. Buy local folks, buy local.

"Organic" food rule could have up to 38 loopholes
By Scott J. Wilson
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003741899_organic1...
Los Angeles Times

With the "USDA Organic" seal stamped on its label, Anheuser-Busch calls its

Wild Hop Lager "the perfect organic experience."

But many beer drinkers may not know Anheuser-Busch got the organic blessing

from federal regulators even though Wild Hop Lager uses hops grown with
chemical fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides.

A deadline of midnight Friday to come up with a new list of nonorganic
ingredients allowed in USDA-certified organic products passed without
action
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), leaving uncertain whether
some foods currently labeled "USDA organic" would continue to be produced.

The agency is considering a proposal to allow 38 nonorganic ingredients to
be used in organic foods. Because of the broad uses of these ingredients -
as spices, colorings, and flavorings for example - almost any type of
manufactured organic food could be affected, including organic milk,
cereal,
sausages, bread and beer.

Organic-food advocates have fought to block all or parts of the proposal,
saying it would allow food makers to mislead consumers.

"This proposal is blatant catering to powerful industry players who want
the
benefits of labeling their products 'USDA organic' without doing the work
to
source organic materials," said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the
Organic Consumers Association of Finland, Minn., a nonprofit group with
850,000 members.

USDA spokeswoman Joan Shaffer declined comment.

Food manufacturers said last week that they were hoping the agency would
act
by Friday to allow labeling of organic products to continue.

A federal judge had given the USDA until midnight Friday to name the
nonorganic ingredients it would allow in organic foods, but the agency did
not release a list.

"They probably don't know what to do" Cummins said. "On the other hand,
it's
hard to believe they're going to make people change their labels, although
that's what they should do."

Demand for organic food in the United States is booming, as consumers seek
products that are more healthful and friendlier to the environment. Sales
have more than doubled in the past five years, reaching $16.9 billion last
year, according to the Organic Trade Association in Greenfield, Mass.,
which
represents small and large food producers.

But with big companies entering what was formerly a mom-and-pop industry,
new questions have been raised about what goes into organic food.

Supporters dismayed

For food to be called organic, it must be grown without chemical
fertilizers
and pesticides. Animals must be raised without antibiotics and growth
hormones and given some access to the outdoors.

Many nonorganic ingredients, including hops, are already being used in
organic products, thanks to a USDA interpretation of the Organic Foods
Protection Act of 1990. In 2005, a federal judge disagreed with how the
USDA
was applying the law and gave the agency two years to fix it.

Organic-food supporters had hoped the USDA would allow only a small number
of substances but were dismayed last month when the agency released the
proposed list of 38 ingredients.

"Adding 38 new ingredients is not just a concession by the USDA, it is a
major blow to the organic movement in the U.S. because it would erode
consumer confidence in organic standards," said Carl Chamberlain, a
research
assistant with the Pesticide Education Project in Raleigh, N.C.

In addition to hops, the list includes 19 food colorings, two starches,
sausage and hot-dog casings, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin and a

variety of obscure ingredients (one, for instance, is a "bulking agent" and

sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of fructooligosaccharides).

The proposed rule would allow up to 5 percent of a food product to be made
with these ingredients and still get the "USDA Organic" seal. Even hops,
though a major component of beer's flavor, are less than 5 percent of the
final product, because the beverage is mostly water.

Organic beer, though still a small portion of total beer sales, has been
growing even faster than overall organic-food sales, reaching $19 million
in
2005, a 40 percent increase over the previous year (2006 figures were not
available).

In addition to hops, two other items on the USDA list have attracted
particular attention: casings for sausages and hot dogs, and fish oil.

Casings are intestines from cows, pigs or sheep, and have been used for
centuries to wrap meat into sausages and frankfurters.

While the casings are a tiny portion of the overall sausage, organic
purists
object to eating anything from animals raised on conventional farms, where
animals may be housed in tight quarters and given antibiotics and growth
hormones. Further, they note that the USDA's food-safety division has
identified cow intestines as a possible source of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease.

Fish oil's presence on the USDA list has drawn objections because it could
carry high levels of heavy metals and other contaminants, said Jim Riddle,
a
former member of the National Organic Standards Board. But fish-oil
producers said such contaminants can be screened out.

USDA doesn't enforce

The USDA rules come with what appears to be an important consumer
protection: Manufacturers can use nonorganic ingredients only if organic
versions are not "commercially available."

But food makers have found their way around this barrier, in part because
the USDA doesn't enforce the rule directly. Instead, it depends on its
certifying agents, 96 licensed organizations in the United States and
overseas, to decide what it means for a product to be unavailable in
organic
form.

Despite years of discussions, the USDA has yet to provide certifiers
standardized guidelines for enforcing this rule.

"There is no effective mechanism for identifying a lack of organic
ingredients," complained executives of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, a
nonprofit certifying agent, in a letter to the USDA. "It is a very
challenging task to 'prove a negative' regarding the organic supply."

Tempting Rain

Another weather post.

The last decent rain we received was May 16th.

Late last week we were supposed to get big storms. We were even under a severe Thunderstorm watch most of the day Friday but got nothing more than a trace of rain around 1pm.

My theory is, because we keep getting too prepared for the rain by removing all 40 or so row covers, rolling up car windows, bringing things in that should not get wet like full chicken feeders, tools, water soluble amendments, etc., the rain purposefully misses us.

Instead of bringing in things and removing row covers we need to be putting out laundry, washing cars, running irrigation-basically scoffing at Ma Nature and her withholding of the rain.

In past dry years we have noted often, within 24 hours of getting the irrigation system totally set up and functional it starts raining and keeps on doing so. The more difficult the job the better the long term rain chances.

This year the job is difficult because we are trying to use the system from the other farm and it is not the same size. It's maddeningly close to fitting in but not quite there. So new feeder lines have been needed to be cut to get the drip tapes where they need to be and a lot of new drip tape has been cut to accommodate all the additional beds we now have. Sometime today or tomorrow the system ought to be completed. So we should be getting good rains by mid week.

If not, we have a good well and a lot of irrigation to keep the crops growing

Oh That Weather!

The weather has been a bit cruel. For the pas 3 days rain has been predicted and, other than .25 inches on Saturday afternoon, we have gotten squat while all around us copious amounts of rain have fallen.

We do run drip irrigation and keep most crops under cover when it gets hot and dry and this does keep a lot of moisture in the ground but there is no replacement for a good rain.

Now, that said, if I have to choose between flooding rain or drought conditions I will take drought over too much rain anytime. When it rains too much there is not much that can be done. We can't plant, we can weed and in many cases harvesting is out. If the rains are so heavy and persistent that flooding occurs that will pretty much destroy a crop for he season and possibly a field for years.

With drought as long as you have a good amount of organic matter in your soil and a water source such as a well for irrigation and watering animals you will be alright. As I said, irrigation is no substitute for regular rains but it does keep crops growing. We use a drip system developed in Israel for desert farming. This system uses about 98% less water than overhead sprinkler systems and puts the water exactly where you want it. And this is the only system that can be used with synthetic mulches.

Because it did not rain yesterday we were able to get in about 3/4 of the nightshades (maters, peppers and eggplant). This is one of our bigger jobs. I believe we had around 1000 plants to get in the ground (now about 250) and there is a lot of prep as all of these crops have to have mulch and irrigation put down before anything can be planted. So for the past week we have been prepping beds in the early mornings and evenings (it's been too hot to do such work mid day).

To add to our weather problems we are getting cold conditions that could negatively effect the peppers and tomatoes. We have pushed back our planting of these crops into June to avoid exposing them to temps in the 40's and this year we are getting such temps the first week of June. Oh well, what can you do?

TerraCycle Sued by Miracle Gro

If you do not already know Scott's, a multi-billion dollar company with ties to Monsanto, is suing a small company called TerraCycle that makes tea from worm castings and packages the tea in recycled 2 litre bottles.

They have a blog http://www.suedbyscotts.com/ that explains where Terracycle is coming from.

Many people have been going out to Wal-Mart and buying Terracycle even if they would not normally use the product. As well as boycotting all Scott's products. This is a good thing but this boycott probably is not doing a lot of good (especially if no one is contacting Scott's Miracle Gro and elling hem they are being boycotted) because people who would be supporting Terracycle's cause likely do not buy Miracle Gro et. al.. So this does nothing to Scott's bottom line.

I was talking about this with my husband and another organic grower at a farmers market about. My Husband (who used to work for the K-mart Corp) said if you really want to hurt Scott's (and Wal-Mart) go buy some Miracle Gro (best if on sale) and return 30 days after purchase (the elapsed time will make these corps assume hey have made real sales). Be sure to buy some Terracycle and use it, it's a good product.

What this action does is artificially boosts MG sales so Wal-Mart starts ordering more MG (thinking sales are up). When the MG you bought is returned, that will go back on the shelf, causing an overstock. Soon Wal-Mart (if enough people do this) will start ordering a lot less MG because of all the returns and slow sales and Scott's bottom line will be impacted.

Imagine what could happen if just 1,000 people did this or better yet 100,000 people buying, say, $1,000,000 ($10 per person) of MG product or even $10,000,000 ($100 per person) or 1,000,000 people buying $100,000,000 of MG and returning it all around the same time for a refund.

Wal-Mart is hurt by the restocking costs it must absorb and slower MG sales (which if sales got slow enough MG could be removed from Wal-Mart shelves altogether).

Imagine what could happen if just 1,000 people did this. 1,000 people buying $10 worth of MG and returning it nationwide (or world wide). Better yet, 100,000 people buying, say, $1,000,000 ($10 per person) of MG product or 10,000,000 people buying $100,000,000 of MG and returning it all around the same time for a refund. And "spending" ten bucks is good but what if we all "bought" $100, or more, of MG products and returned them a month later. The more we "spend" the greater the impact

If we all do this and got just one other person to also do this the impact would be noticed. And if our friends get their friends to join in it would be come a movement and we would soon have the TerraCycle massacree (with a nod to Arlo Guhrie). And maybe, just maybe, Scott's Miracle Gro will drop it's suit and let this wonderful grassroots company alone.

Chicken Meltdown

These are not nuclear chickens.

We had a chicken crisis this morning. Eugene came busting in the house after going out to feed he chickens this morning and declared that we were out of chicken feed. I asked if we were really out of feed or is this another exaggeration. He said we had about 10 pounds left plus what ever baby feed we have (50lbs). This was serious because we feed all organic non GMO feed to our meat birds and it generally takes 4 to 7 days for he organic farm ha makes our grain to get an order ready. If we do not use his feed we will be faced with going to TSC and buying medicated grain milled with GMO corn and soy and we will not use that crap. It is important that our pastured birds get high quality, GMO free, antibiotic free, locally raised and ground feed

Right now the oldest pen eats about 15 pounds a day and the younger pen eats about 7 pounds (but eats more and more each day) so we have enough feed to last maybe 3 days for both pens. Not a good situation at all.

So Eugene calls up the Filbruns to order more feed and gets the machine and leaves a message (they have not called back). A very calm message as if we really don't have a feed crisis going on and it's okay if they don't call back for a week or more. This is after freaking out on me about the feed. I guess, if they don't call back tonight I will call back and leave a more frantic message or better yet get a real person.

I pour us some coffee and we sit and get calm. Eugene says that the older birds seem big enough to butcher. I say I will call up the Kings and see if they can change our appointment from next Thursday to this Thursday (tomorrow). So at 7:15am I call them up and talk to Marlyn King and she says okay we can bring them up a 9am. Great, one problem solved

Now this means we do not have to feed the older pen after 9am as we find the meat quality is better if they fast the last 24 hours of their lives (they get fresh water and pasture, but no grain) and the Kings say they are much easier to clean without a bunch of food in their crops and stomach.

So we have the feed crisis put on hold for a few days AND we will have fresh pastured chicken in time for memorial day sales, a nice TV Bonus. Especially since I sent out an email newsletter Monday saying we would have birds in time for memorial day because I misread the calender and thought, for some reason, May was a week longer than it is in reality making memorial day a week later.

After the crisis was over Lauren, a woman that has been apprenticing all spring, came out as scheduled and we hoed/weeded about 10 beds in the already hot at 9am sun. Eugene dealt with irrigation, helped with weeding some than prepped several beds and planted one of them in potatoes.

After that we ate lunch at 3pm and took a much needed nap. After I am done here I will start on making a curry and riata for dinner.

Farm Diversity

Eugene has just come in from looking at things in the market garden and informs that the green beans are up and the zucchini is beginning to flower, Huzzah!

We should have fresh basil in a week or so as well and soon the peas will be blooming and the garlic will be scaping (like any second) and finally we will increase our diversity of food to harvest and eat/sell. It won't be soon enough for me.

Don't get me wrong I love salad greens but when that is basically all you are harvesting it gets a bit boring (wow did I just call beautiful and tasty heirloom lettuces and spring mix boring!? Yes, I guess that is what happens when you have had salad pretty much 2 times a day for the past 2.5 months)

Cracoviensis Lettuce

Granted, for the farmers Market in Oxford this past Saturday I did harvest green red onions and pac choy along with a lot of lettuce- 6 kinds; Cracoviensis, Lollo Rossa, Marvel of Four Seasons, Butter Crunch, Simpson Elite and Antares bronze Oakleaf-and spring mix

Antares Bronze Oakleaf

We opened the store this past Thursday, May 17th. So far business has been slow but we have done some business which did not occur for several weeks after opening last year. What a difference a year makes. I almost missed the first two customers because we were out planting the last 1000 onions of the year and that had us about 800' from the store and behind a small rise. We noticed people milling around the store as we walked towards the buildings. I guess when the store is open the both of us cannot be so far away if we want to make sales. This will take a small amount of adjustment which will be made easier the more customer traffic we get.

At any rate, we got there before they left or even got upset. Sold some lettuce, chard seed, Lakota squash seeds and radishes (we have about as many radishes as we do lettuce) Shame I am not a great radish fan, I like them in salads and I have created a nice radish slaw recipe that uses pounds of them (this will be used, probably in the next 10 days or so) But I do not often eat them raw with salt and/or beer. I am glad we seem to have a lot of cusomers who are radish fans and especially like the d'Avignon french radishes we grow.

We Got Rain

After several weeks of hot, bone dry weather we had some severe storms roll through our area last night giving us over an inch of rain.

The storms made Nate very nervous as they always do. He alternated between sitting on my foot and pacing around whining.

We got lucky as the storms were just winding up as they passed over us and got much worse when they hit Dayton, OH and points east. We got some good 40mph gusts but no hail and no 'nados. So no harm, no foul and in the morning a lot of happy plants.

This is a good thing as we find ourselves short of irrigation supplies and the few beds were have been irrigating with drip tape have caused a constant wet spot around the font. This leak is not good and Eugene feels he must dig a hole and see if the pipe has come loose or if it is just the pressure valve malfunctioning because of all the back pressure caused by running low flow drip tape for 10 hours at a stretch. Now if we are entering into a wet period this will all be moot because we will not be running irrigation very often.

Reality (NOT) Shows

Things I get sent via email. Today it's a casting call

The CW network (formerly called The WB & UPN) seeks REAL FARMER / RANCHER to STAR in network romantic reality show


Ideally our Farmer/Rancher will have REAL farming or Ranching experience such as working a farm/ranch, been in the rodeo circuit or even an heir to a ranch/farm empire.
The guy needs to be:
SINGLE
AGE 23-30
Confident both in real life and in his environment.
Must be in decent shape, have a good-ole-boy attitude and able to charm the ladies.

If you or someone you know fits this description, the CW Network wants to hear from you.

Please email us immediately with the following information:
Name
Age
Contact information: email, phone numbers
How they fit description: rancher/farmer/cowboy
What experience they have on the ranch/farm
PHOTOS: 5-10 showing: face, body, at least one with the shirt off, anything showing them on the ranch/farm.

Now I am neither Male, unmarried or under 30 so the CW has 3 strikes with me. Another vehicle to further exploit Farmers. Though I am sure it will pay the farmer they use well by small town standards but merely a pittance by Hollywood standards.