Planting Celeriac

Celeriac on the cart ready to be planted

Eugene laying out the celeriac plugs

Eugene (and Nate) inspecting his work, making sure all the plugs are lined up correctly so the are evenly spaced and have enough room between rows for a hoe.

Lucy finishing up planting the celeriac plugs

St Alphonso's

I see the number one search to this blog right now is "Saint Alphonso's".

The 31st edition of St. Al's will be held Saturday May 16 2009 at Hannon's Camp America
More information at the Face Book St Alphonso's Group

The Boulder Belt 2009 Tomato Roster

I just finished pricking the main tomato crops and here is the run down of the different varieties we plan on having this summer

Paul Robeson-a black beefsteak, name for the actor and activist Paul Robeson. I have wanted to grow this for at least 5 years and finally found seed. We got this seed from Baker Creek
Green Zebra-Green-a medium sized green mater with yellowish striping. This heirloom seems to be all the rage. We grew this about 8 years ago and stopped because of bad sales. We got this seed from Baker Creek
Glick's Pride-We have been growing this Heirloom red for about 14 years. This is one we always save seed from.
Yellow Taxi-this is the tomato we have been saving seed from the longest. It is also our earliest tomato. A nice medium to small bright yellow mater with a pink heart when fully ripe.
Yellow Pear-This was almost a failure. 50% of the seed did not germinate and I was able to prick 7 into large soil blocks. This means if we are lucky 5 will be alive when it is time to transplant them. We grew these from saved seed
Black Krim-Another black tomato. I believe this was the first heirloom tomato I ever tasted. back in the early 1990's when I worked at DiPaolo's these started appearing in the kitchen for a few months than disappeared and I thought no more about heirloom tomatoes until I moved to the farm. These are a medium sized black mater that hails from the former Soviet Union. We grew these from saved seed.
Nyagaous-Yet another black mater. Originally got the seed from Seed savers Exchange 2 or 3 years ago. A small black round tomato that almost never cracks. very good flavor. We grew these from saved seed.
Crinkovich-A pink Beefsteak from Yugoslavia, IIRC. Like the Nayagaous these originally came from SSE and we have been saving them the past couple of years. This has great flavor though the fruits tend toward ugliness
Costoluto Florentine-an Italian red tomato that is beautiful and delicious. The fruits are medium sized, flat and fluted. About the best tasting red I have ever eaten. Seeds are from an outfit called Gourmet seeds. This is an heirloom and I will save seed this season as I used the last of the commercial stock.
Opalka-A great sauce tomato I believe from Poland. The fruits are oblong and can be up to a 1/2 pound. The flavor is very good raw and excellent when cooked into a sauce. they tend to get blossom end rot and can be low yielding but the flavor keeps us planting them year after year. they also will cross with other tomatoes pretty readily.
BB Striped-A cross between Opalka and pink Brandywine. This is one of our own varieties we have bred here at Boulder Belt. Years ago we planted what we thought were Opalka. When the plants started to bear fruit what we had was not Opalka but a variety of different shapes, colors and sizes of tomatoes. So I selected striped fruit and saved seed and replanted the following year. The second year we planted and the plants came up and this time about 45% were striped. I again selected striped fruits and saved seed and did this over and over again until about 90% of the plants were bearing striped fruit. I am hoping this year it is almost 100% striped fruit. At any rate, this mater is a blocky fruit, a lot like the German Johnson but with better flavor (we grew GJ 2 years ago and found BB Striped out produced it and had better overall quality)
Matina-This is the best saladette sized red tomato I have ever eaten. I was disappointed that scant few of the seeds came up but that's okay because we have an early crop of these in a hoop house. we grew these from saved seed
Cherrywine-another Boulder belt original. A cross between )we think) Pink Brandywine and Sunsugar cherry tomato. dark pink cherry tomatoes with a great flavor. prolific fruiting with little cracking
Green Pear-this seed comes from a sport we found last year in with the yellow pear. I cannot figure out what the yellow pear crossed with, not a green tomato because until last season we had not grown any green tomatoes in about 4 years. In another 7 years or so we should know if this is a viable variety.
Green grape-I thought this was an ancient heirloom but Carolyn Male corrected me and said this was developed in the 1980. This is a large cherry tomato that ripens to a mottled yellowish green. flavor is A-1. We grew this from seed we saved.
Dr Wyche's yellow-This is one of our all time favorite tomatoes. Huge orange/yellow beefsteak tomatoes with excellent flavor. We originally got the seeds fron SSE as a replacement for Russian persimmon and found the two to be almost identical except that Dr Wyche's was about a week earlier and did not catface or crack as badly. So we eventually abandoned the Persimmon for Dr Wyche's Yellow.
Sun Ray-Our Friend Wyatt Jones gave us several sun Ray plants 3 years ago. We saved seed and planted them last year and really loved this mater. Nice big, smooth, sunny yellow fruits with great flavor.
Early Girl-I was told this was a hybrid but I have grown this out successfully for the past 2 years from saved seed. Nice red round mater with really nice flavor for an early tomato
Amish paste-Several years ago our Opalka seed got too messed up with foreign genetics and we could not find pure seed. So we decided to try Amish paste as out canning tomato and I gotta say, while I love Opalka, this is better. Great taste, heavy Yields, very little blossom end rot. We grew this out from saved seed.
Red Grape-I believe this is seed from the hybrid Santa and we get all sorts of wierdnesses from each seasons' planting. Frankly I don't know why Eugene keeps saving seed from this. Nor why I continue to start these seeds. if they come at all true to type they will be small red and oblong with so so taste.
Sunsugar-one of the few hybrids we grow because these are the best cherry tomato ever! Nice round orange fruit that is sweet and tangy. Seed comes from Fedco Seeds
Red Saladette-another homebred. These come from the red grape tomatoes, I believe. Smallish round red or pink tomatoes with really nice flavor.

That's the Boulder Belt 2009 Tomato roster

First Farmers Market of 2009

Saturday May 2nd was opening day at the Oxford Farmers Market and here are some pictures from the day. Despite the rainy forecast, the day turned out to be beautiful. Sunny and not too warm

The market around 8am. It was pretty slow early on, but things picked up later on and we ended up selling out of almost everything

Joel Parks, opening day's Chef at Market took advantage of the light crowds and bountiful harvests to shop for his cooking demo that was held later in the market. Here he and Brent Marcum of Salem Road Farm talk about produce

People talking to Larry Slocum, the market manager, about renewing their Friends of the market membership

Calamity Rain played live acoustic folk music


Karen selling her hand crafted soap to Roger Adkins

Joel parks doing the cooking Demo. Jane Stripple is sampling some of his fare.

Norma Hurston dealing with a crowd of eager buyers of her baked goods

Marge Glaser taking a picture of me taking a picture of her in front of Norma's booth

Me and Doug

The Compost has Finally Arrived

Back in late February we called up Dan Young and put in an order for 6 yards of compost. Told him we needed it by late March. Around the 3rd week of March he called and said he could send some down that day. We said we had plans away from the farm but we would be there the next day. He said he would send a load to our farm than. The next day came and went and no compost. A week went by and still no compost. A month passed and still no compost or any word from Mr. Young.

Than two days ago I find a message on the answering machine from Dan. He can deliver compost that day. So I call back and leave a message saying that would be great. The day passes and no compost arrives. Than around 4pm yesterday Dan calls back and says a truck is on its way and will be at the farm in 1/2 hour. JOY!.

The truck arrives

It backs up to the sheet of plastic that keeps the pile from leaching into the water system and dry during rains

Eugene and the truck driver loosen the tarp

The bed rises

Compost comes out

Soon we have a big ole pile of compost dumped next to the market garden on a big piece of plastic

Store's Open for 2009

Actually it's tomorrow that I am opening the store for the 2009 season. Saturday and Sunday noon to 7pm. Regular hours will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday noon to 5pm.

Check our website Boulderbeltfarm.com for more information

The asparagus is coming in and I have also begun picking strawberries, though I don't know if there will be enough to sell by Saturday. The hot, sunny weather today (it's 82F) should cause a lot to ripen in a hurry. Will have to play that one by ear. But asparagus we got, and it is really, really good

If I get out tomorrow morning before the winds pick up we should also have spinach, heirloom lettuce and maybe some scallions and leeks.

Today I am cleaning the store. So far I have washed the sales fridge and all the racks that go in it. Man, that refrigerator was dirty. the bottom was full of goo, dead flies, veggie bits and the walls had lots of black mold (which the GSE I used in the wash water ought to stop). The racks were also nasty and much harder to clean than the fridge box. But now everything is sparkly clean and more important sanitary. I am grateful to my restaurant exp for getting the opportunity to clean out a lot of nasty reach in fridges and walk-in coolers. Makes this job seem easy.

Next I am going to wash down the shelves and windows and do some light vaccuuming. After that put up some posters of various heirloom roots and veggies and than harvest more asparagus for tomorrow.

Boulder Belt to go High Speed

after 19 years of accessing the internet via dial up modem I have finally decided to go with DSL. At some point around 7pm this evening my service will kick in and I will be able to surf the web comfortably. No more waiting up to 10 minutes for a page to load (I have literally vacuumed the living room floor in less time than it has taken for some things to load . No more hour+ hangs on the email because someone has sent me a 5mb attachment (that won't open too often) I can now watch suggested videos without the up to 20 hour download time (and the vast majority of these I delete). The photos on my website will now load all the way with no refreshing. I will be able to upload videos to this blog.

I am stoked about this upgrade in my life.

The Asparagus Cometh

I was all done packing the Farm Shares and went up to the garden to see what needed doing and noticed that some of the straw in the asparagus beds was tenting. This means something is growing up from under the straw. I saw a lot of thistle doing exactly that in the beds (but not from the thistle tainted straw, these guys are in their second year and will be dispatched when the time comes). So I investigated and the first tent yielded nothing but some asparagus beetle grubs and a dandelion, which I dug up and removed. I wandered down the beds and investigated another tent and found a huge asparagus spear. Wow! I start looking at other lumps in the straw and find over 50 plants with spears poking out of the ground. This is about a week earlier than last year. This is also their 4th year in the ground so they can be fully harvested. I am stoked!

How to kill a Tick

It is tick season once again and that means we have been pulling ticks off of the dogs and ourselves. This also means we have been killing a lot of ticks

So how many ways can one kill a tick here's my list in no particular order:
cigarettes, a lighter, matches, a magnifying glass on a sunny day, drop it in alcohol, cut in half with finger nail clippers, cut with a knife, cut in half with scissors. Drop in soap water, drop in the toilet and flush, bite one in two (I do not recommend this!), feed it to a fish, feed it to a hen, feed it to a guinea hen, pull it's tiny head off, put it in a glass jar a lid and leave it there for a while, a long while. Smash it with a rock (especially good with the bloated ones), grind with a mortar and pestle. Fold it in half. Soak it with gasoline and light on fire (rather extreme but effective).

Ticks may seem indestructible but heat, cutting, smashing, drowning and being eaten by birds are all effective ways of killing them without using toxic (to us mammals) chemicals.

Got any other ideas?

First Farm Share is in the Bag

The food for 6 shares right before being divided up and put into bags. From left to right (1st row) we have chives, dried basil, garlic, scallions (2nd row) cilantro, leeks, apples (back) Spinach, parsnips & lettuce

Today is the opening of the Boulder Belt Eco Farm Farm Share Program. I am excited to get this program underway. The first week will likely be the week with the least amount of food and we still were able to get 10 items into each share. This week our members get Lettuce, spinach, parsnips, scallions, chives, cilantro, dried basil (cinnamon or Genovese), leeks, garlic and the last of the apples. Plus members get a newsletter with a recipe.

The past week or so the weather has been very nice-alternating sun with rain, warmish, a few tornado warnings (really, on Sunday evening 2 Tornado warnings went up for Preble County. one right after the other. Both Came right over top of the farm and property much ran out of steam than tried to reformed north east of us. We figure our Karma with nature-what with us farming sustainably and our reverence for all the critters on the farm (we protect even the wasps, snakes and spiders because they are excellent hunters for us)-kept the storms light and undamaging), general spring weather. But yesterday and today we have had cold, windy, snowy days. Not the best conditions to harvest but we were out in the snow getting scallions, chives and cilantro today because it had to be done. Harvesting for Thursday's group will be much more pleasent as it is supposed to be sunny and in the mid to upper 50's (about perfect weather, if you ask me).

In the coming weeks our members will see things like D'avignon radishes, snow peas, strawberries, arugula, spring mix and more in their spring shares

Better straw

Went out later in the day to finish the mulching and was pleasantly surprised to find all the other bales of straw that I used (one I did not use as it has the same green color of the thistle infested bale, and I did not need it) absolutely free of thistle. So I got the 11 asparagus beds I did not get in the morning all mulched and in some cases pulled out a lot of dandelion and clover. In another 3 to 4 weeks we out to start seeing spear.

I am relieved that most of the straw is clean and we will not be forced into buying not certified organic straw nor will have to use chemical herbicides to combat the weeds being brought in by seedy straw

It took me about 2 hours to weed and mulch 11 beds. It took me about an hour to mulch the first bed with thistle straw because I had to go over and over the mulch in the bed to get as much thistle as possible

Thistle in the Straw

Well color me pissed off. We went over to a nearby organic farm to buy 20 bales of straw yesterday morning and got a good price at $3 a bale (most of the conventionally raised straw around here goes for $5 a bale). Took the straw back home and unloaded it in the market garden so we could start mulching the perennial beds this morning.

I got a fairly early start and broke apart a bale and started putting it down on an asparagus bed. Immediately I noticed thistle down and entire heads of thistle seed. Not good. I shook out a second flake of straw and found more thistle, lots more. Again, not good. Now I had a big handful of the stuff so I ran to the store and got a bag and put the handful of seed into the bag and continued to distribute straw over the bed and grabbing as much thistle down as I could.

Soon the winds went from fairly calm to about 15mph-nice stiff breeze, great for sailing or kite flying but not good for grabbing thistle down. After getting close to 1/2 bale on about 2/3 of the bed I gave up because I noticed thousands of tiny seeds flying to the north west. So now I have distributed lots of thistle seed to the NW section of the garden and I have a bag with about 1/4 pound of thistle seed which I figure could nicely seed a couple of acres. I still have another 19 bales of straw to deal with and because I have to seek and remove as much thistle as I can it is taking about 5x longer to do this job. But if I don't attempt to remove the seed than we will have a much worse problem of asparagus beds rife with thistle and many many hours wasted trying to control it.

In the perennial beds we cannot do a lot of hoeing (much less trying to dig up the roots) and a healthy crop of thistle could out compete the asparagus at worst, and at best make harvesting miserable.

Now I am wondering if we should continue to buy certified organic straw if there is going to be this problem (this has happened before). I mean it kind of defeats the whole purpose of getting organic inputs if they cause bad weed infestations and the possibility of having to use an herbicide to keep the problem in check.

For now I am planning on using this infested straw and will have to make a plan of attack for the thistle that will be coming up in the beds. I have found you can get rid of the thistle if you cut it down just as it goes into flower but that will not happen until next summer (2010) and so we still have to deal with this years thorny growth.

Like I said I am pissed off and mighty frustrated