Category: local food

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Questions from the Farm

We get lots of questions from community farm participants. Here are questions that came up this week.

1) How do you store peas in fridge after taken out of their pods

1-2 weeks. If you dry them (unrefrigerated), they can last for 9+ months

2) Can you feed bad produce to farm animals?

We need to define “bad” in order to answer that question. If produce is rotten or attacked by fungus, then you don’t want to feed that to farm animals. If produce is “ugly”, i.e it has been attacked by bugs or laid on the ground or maybe overripe but still not rotten, then you can feed it to farm animals. Some farm animals are more tolerant than others of the quality of food you feed them. When food becomes rotten then it can be dangerous for farm animals.

When we process food as part of preserving it, there is also some amount of waste. That waste usually goes to our chickens. They love it.

3) Any year-round crops?

Yes, we could grow kale year round. Maybe garlic chives. Lettuce can be grown most of the year. It doesn’t do well in the summer.

4) How long does Okra keep producing for?

Okra will stop producing at the first frost, but production will usually slow down after the low temperature reaches the mid 50s.

5) How big can radishes get?

Salad radishes can get the size of a half dollar, but you want to harvest them when they are between the size of a nickel and a quarter. Once they are quarter size the taste starts getting too strong to eat.

Daikon radishes, which we just planted, can get to be several feet long in optimum soil conditions.

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The Last 2 Weeks in Pictures

Sweet potatoes are growing
Getting the HugelKultur mound ready for a cover crop
Teaching the kids how to pull up a t-post
Teaching the kids how to broadcast cover crop seeds
We have a lot of morning glories
Snow peas and trellis is in
Okra still producing
Sweet potatoes still need more time in the ground!
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Pictures from the Farm – 2nd Week of May

Summer is here and we are starting to harvest veggies!

Sweet potatoes are doing well
Winter squash are growing!

Corn and Cushaw are doing well together

Tromboncino squash are doing well
Some of the Tromboncino squash are going to get very long
The purple bush beans are cool
Nice picking the pole beans to enjoy with a meal
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First Weekend in May – Update

Everything is growing! Here are some images from this week.

Cushaw, corn, daikon and sun flowers
Cushaw, corn, daikon and sun flowers
Cushaw squash
Cushaw, corn, daikon and sun flowers
Garlic is almost ready to harvest
Zucchini coming, might have planted too much Zucchini
Tree Kale is growing, what the deer don’t eat
Planted sweet potatoes this weekend and covered with hay
Sweet potato plants are in the ground
Tromboncino squash
Okra is coming up
Pumpkins on the Hugel Mound
Zucchini
Summer squash
Summer squash
Summer squash
Magnolia blossom
Beans!
Beans on a trellis
Beans coming soon
Beans coming soon
Tromboncino squash
Tromboncino squash
Tromboncino squash
Tromboncino squash
Tromboncino squash
Blackberries are almost here
Blackberries are getting ripe
Yes, they tasted great
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Gemba Walk after Mowing

Lets take a walk around the farm and see what is growing!

One of the topics that comes up in the video is the concept of imposing my will on the farm. Planning for the growing season requires creating a calendar of when to do what. Different crops need to go in at different times so that requires planning. We need to have the ground ready to plant. This year is very much a building year so we had infrastructure that had to go in. We put in:

  • 3D anti-deer fences
  • drip irrigation
  • new beds for planting that were previously pasture

We have also been working to add additional perennials this year

  • elderberries
  • figs
  • peaches

The garden beds are shaping up. They spent the last three months under a silage tarp but are now mostly ready to plant. The elderberries, figs and peaches are growing.

We also did work in the food forest area that we started building in 2021. We added a trellis for the blackberries and covered the hugelkultur mound with a silage tarp for 3 months to help suppress weed growth this summer. We also put down a biodegradeable paper around the bushes and trees and covered it with hay.

These have been great successes. Which would not be possible without everyone that has helped out on the farm. Our farm is structured as a communal community farm. We have another family that helps out. We share the harvest with them. Having their help has made this possible.

One of the challenges of accomplishing these things is timing. It is critical to have materials (hay, biodegradeable paper, plants, hardware and lines for the drip irrigation, and a bunch of various item) in place and ready to install. The next step is to have a plan where the materials and manpower are ready to go. I developed a calendar for the year. Then each week we have a list of items to accomplish. The list makes helps everyone to plan their time and know what tools to bring. It also helps us to work as a group and sometimes to break down in to 2 groups to work on some items in parallel.

Can Impose My Will on the Farm?

Weather is always a factor with outdoor activities like hiking or camping. Weather is an even bigger factor with farming. Not only the weather on the day you plan to work in the fields but also the weather leading up to the days you have planned to work.

If the fields are wet, then you may have to wait for them to dry out before preparing beds or planting. If the soil isn’t warm enough then seeds won’t germinate. A late frost can kill young plants. Maybe the tractor breaks down in the middle of the field (been there).

It takes effort and organization to

  • make sure the materials and tools you need are ready
  • make sure any equipment is ready for use
  • confirm that the people helping are in place and ready

Days and weeks before you

  • made sure you had budget for anything that needed to be paid for
  • ordered any materials or equipment and made sure it arrived

So you have all this lined up and on the calendar. But that doesn’t mean it will happen. Weather, equipment issues, or other frustrations can keep your plans from happening.

My desire and my decision to do X,Y, and Z on a certain day doesn’t mean it will happen. My will to accomplish work on the farm is totally subservient to reality of circumstance. There are many things that can delay plans or even cancel them. Its really easy to assume that because I planned something and got everything ready, then it will happen. The life lesson comes when it doesn’t . Farming will teach that life lesson again and again. I’m not able to impose my will on the farm. It works better if I set up goals and plan for success but not get upset if those plans don’t work out. Humility wins. Farming, or even gardening, will definitely teach you humility, patience and the value of a backup plan / rain date.

Parting words: plant a garden!