Arg

No, this is not a reference to 'Talk Like a Pirate' day..or week..or whatever it is.

The season for doing alot of tilling is past - 'tis true. However, there is still tilling to do for some late season crops and some cover crops.

So, of course, the tiller attachment on the lawn tractor just seized up on me. hmmmm. I have never seen this, nor did I expect to see it. But, the housing that covers the chain has a puncture *through* it, from the outside (the metal is curved inward). I really didn't think the metal would be that thin to allow this to happen.

I still haven't identified what went through it. It could have been an ironworm (a buried metal part in the field). It likely was not a rock with this sort of puncture.

Guess I'll have to figure out how to fix it.... so, fix it fast, Faux.

What's A Cuke Worth?

Once again - we have a number crunching post.  For those who don't get much out of these, you can scroll to the end and see what conclusions we make for the farm.  For those who do like them - enjoy.

One of the questions we get to ask ourselves is "What is this veg worth?" It is important to figure these things out in order to inform our pricing for the CSA, direct sales and for market prices.  Clearly, none of this is perfect and precise. But, the exercise of getting the numbers lined up is informative and useful to us.

This year, we have harvested 7200 cucumbers (all numbers are approximations)

• 4200  have gone to the CSA
• 50 have sold at market
• 400 have been sold to other outlets
• 1400 have been donated to various locations
• 1100 been used on the farm to feed birds or for events, promotional usages, etc

If we assign values

• We sell cucumbers for 75 cents at market
• We assign 50 cent values to cucumbers given to CSA or donated. We figure in these cases that there is a discount because of the ability to move bulk amounts.
• We sell to other outlets in bulk at 40 cents.
• We assign 5 cent value to things used on the farm. There is still value - even if it is used to feed birds (or even compost).

That gives us a value so far of $2900 for this one crop.
This works out to about $4.32 per row foot assigned to cucumbers.

Working at it from the other direction, we ask ourselves what the costs are for this crop:

• Seed cost isn't terrible. $62
• We direct seed these (into the ground, no starting in pots or soil blocks)
• typically we only irrigate to get them started. However, a dry year will require more irrigation.
• Labor includes early cultivation before plants crawl and two weedings once they crawl.
• and, of course, labor to clean, pack and distribution. Packing and distribution is often a portion of overhead cost for all crops. Cleaning is only really necessary after a rain makes fruit muddy.
• But, the real labor cost is in the picking.  

Estimate of person hours labor spent on this crop = 160 hours.
Assign a value of $10/hour and you have a labor cost of $1600
For a net value of $1238 from the crop, not including overhead expense splits.

And, what does this exercise tell me about this crop and our farm?

• We could increase our direct sales to increase the value of this crop (realizing that marketing does add some labor hours - so it may be a matter of finding the time).  
• Labor cost in this crop is relatively high during picking.  It has physical costs as well since we allow cucumbers to crawl over the ground.  Picking vining cucumbers requires a fair amount of stretching and bending with this set up.  We could look into trellising to see if there is a net labor savings.
• We did not "lose money" on this crop in 2010.  Since most of our produce goes to the CSA - you might consider this a moot point.  However, we have to balance crops that are loss leaders (such as green beans) with crops that have a profit margin (such as cucumbers and tomatoes). 
• We do not need to increase production of this crop, nor do we need to consider a reduction at this point.  A fairly small portion of the crop was not utilized in a fashion that was best for the farm.

Gut Check

We took a trip to northwest Iowa this past weekend to help my brother and family move into a new home.  And, as many of you may have noted, there has been some heavy rain in southern Minnesota, northern Iowa and Wisconsin over the last week.  The farm got a total of 1 inch of rain from these systems - which is quite nice.  But, even areas such as our that got less can have troubles because of the rain upriver!  A quick look at the Cedar River in Waverly confirms that. 

However, the thing that got both of us really thinking was what we saw up by Estherville.  There was a sizable pumpkin patch with a large number of ripe pumpkins.  This patch was going under water when we drove up - and was fully under water when we drove back.  Even worse, there were nearly 2 dozen bee hives that had been washed or floated down towards the river.  Very clearly, the hives were finished.  In either case, the bee keeper is out the bee colonies as they either drowned or swarmed (if they were lucky bees).  And, of course, the hives and all of the investment in them was likely lost.

From the looks of the patch, the worst thing the patch owner might have been dealing with was the fact that the pumpkins looked to be fully ripe at the end of September - a little early for sales - but salvageable from a business perspective.  I suspect they may also have been bemoaning a poor honey year.

And now?

It is doubtful that they will save any colonies of bees.  It is likely they will only salvage a fraction of the hives.  It is only possible that things will dry out to allow them to harvest at least some of the pumpkins.  And, we'll wager a bet that there is no insurance involved to cover the cost of the hives, the colonies or the lost income from this event. 

If there is one thing we've learned over the course of a few growing seasons - it's empathy for fellow growers.  Whoever put the work into those hives and fields, we wish for the best possible outcomes.

Sept Farm Report

Farm Report for Sept 19:

• The cooler evenings spell the end (or at least a weak last gasp) for some of our summer friends. The cucumbers will be lucky to give us a couple of dozen fruit at best. This is, of course, normal - and we are not surprised by it at all.
• The summer squash and zucchini slow down dramatically, but the 3rd planting looks fairly healthy. We have not been out to check on the fruit this weekend, so we don't know what they will do for us.
• Lettuce is looking good and we may get lucky and have our successions mature at just the right speed. We are certainly hoping this will be the case.
• The main feature for a time will be greens. The swiss chard looks healthy. The older kale that survived June/July can be picked, but the number of plants are limited. There are a few volunteer arugula plants that will be harvested.
• Tomatoes are winding down, but we expect a few this week for everyone. We'll pick the rest of the basil with the belief that they will not survive much longer.
• We will see how some of our root crops are doing. There MAY be some carrots, turnips, beets and parsnips this week. But, as is always the case with these, it is hard to tell what you've got until you dig them.
• Green beans? That is always the question. We never know until the rows are picked. It could be a long 'fruitless' task - or we could be pleased. And, we'll be starting the potato hunt. Let's hope the surviving plants did well for us! It is possible the potatoes in a compost pile will produce the best. We made sure not to turn the pile over these plants once we recognized the losses in June and July.
• Ducks will go to the processor (park) in the beginning of October. Chickens on October 18 and turkeys at the end of the month of October. So, it is time to consider ordering birds.
• The CSA is planned for six more weeks. We will inform everyone if this plan must change.
• Late season crops are growing well in the fields. We have broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbage, collards, lettuce, onions (which we hope to harvest as green onions), kale, pok choi, radish, daikon, etc. There may be a gap between the summer crops and the late season crops. And, of course, there is always the possibility that nature will step in and reduce these crops to nothing. But, for now, suffice it to say that we are keeping these crops weeded, mulched and are doing what we can for them.
• High Tunnel crops are two-fold. The melons, tomatoes, peppers and beans inside the tunnel right now are intended as a trial. And, any resulting fruit may be a part of the CSA. The melons are borderline successful at this point. It is clear that we missed the start by about 2 weeks. But, the tunnel didn't exist prior to that, so we can't really be upset by that. It is possible we'll get all of one or two melons. In that case, we call dibs. It is also possible there will be more. In that case, we will share as we can!
• High Tunnel part 2. In case you forgot, the high tunnel moves. The winter crops are planted in the east plot. We intend to move the high tunnel over these crops in early October. But, we'll react to the weather as we feel we must. We'd like to give the current crops as much time as we can afford. But, the winter crops are an important part of paying off the high tunnel! Currently in this plot are lettuce, pok choi, broccoli, kohlrabi, arugula, carrots, spinach, chard, mustard, collards, amaranth, cabbage. We expect to add some onions, leeks and brussels to the mess. This is our first try at this, so we are trying a few more crops than we might otherwise (some more than others). Contents of the high tunnel will not be ready for the current CSA season. However, we would like to implement a winter CSA season for 20-30 interested persons. If you are interested, let us know.
• We have identified and are now looking for implements for the Ford 8n. At present, our goal is to acquire a chisel plow to deal with some soil compaction issues. A disc harrow is likely up next. Here's hoping.
• Building modifications and improvements are going way up the list right now. There is only so much time before much of this work becomes difficult due to the colder weather. The difficulty is in finding the contiguous chunks of time to tackle each problem - as we are still planting, weeding, mowing, mulching, harvesting...
  
• And then there is the paperwork. One item is recording problems, results, etc from this year. We need to get this down so we don't forget when we have more time to plan for next year! And, of course, there is lots of learning to do! Neither of us has worked with implements like we will dealing with on the Ford. Neither of us has grown veg in a high tunnel. And, there are things like an effort to write a grant to add a solar array next season and a walk in cooler.

Feeling overwhelmed yet? Don't worry, we do too. But, we'll figure it out anyway - and enjoy the ride as we do our best to accomplish it all.

So...What's the Cause?

I started thinking while I was in the field today. Then I wanted to look at the information. So, I came in and worked on a few numbers.

The question: "We blame the growing season's weather anomalies for crop problems. But, is it possible there are sizable chunks of it that have to do with fertility or farmer error?"

Obviously, the answer is that these two things likely play a part in it. BUT..

Check this out:

Mulipik Summer Squash by Foot by Planting Succession

p1 July p1 Aug p1 Sep p2 July p2 Aug p2 Sep p3 Aug P3 Sep 2007 7.5 3.9 0.3 2 0.5 2008 0.9 3.6 0.1 2.4 4.2 2009 2.2 2 1 1.3 2.9 0.8 0 2010 0.6 3.9 0.3 2.9 1.9 1.2 1.3

We remove the variable that it has to do with the variety of summer squash by only looking at our productive straight neck (Multipik). We remove changes in how many feet we plant each time by figuring by the foot production. Weed control was pretty similar each year. Each year, rows were diligently picked. No significant infestation or disease specific to these plants took anything other than the normal toll each season. We always have some cucumber beetles, squash bugs, borers, powdery mildew, etc...

The only variable that may play a role here is that succession planting dates do not line up perfectly. Planting 3 was planted too late in 2009 (for example).

The results? I can point to weather or weather events that correspond with the numbers in all cases. Hmmmm.

2007 started with beautiful growing weather - but we got torrential rains in late August and well into September - result ridiculous July numbers, getting progressively poorer.
2008 was disastrously cold through most of the year, but gave us a gloriously long fall. Result, very poor early with surprising September production.
2009 evenly cool, making it difficult for warm season crops, but not impossible. A cool start resulted in poor germination in succession 1, so we start #2 earlier. But, this explains a poor per foot number set in planting 1 - they took the same number of row feet, but fewer plants per row.
2010 very wet early, drying out later with normal temperature ranges. Result is a disastrous early season and a normal appearing August and September (still some picking to do)

What might we expect for a normal year?
Planting 1 would give us 4 per foot through both July and August and be pulled in before September is very old.
Planting 2 would give us 3 per foot in August and 2.5 in September
Planting 3 would give us 1 per foot in both August and September

But, what we really see here is that a crop that is not full season can be reasonably successful even in a poor year if we have succession plantings in an effort to "capture" weather that works for the crop.

Laboring on Labor Day

Our thanks to the IS 101 classes who came out to the farm on Labor Day! There were tours, chances to watch turkeys chase cucumbers, a rainbow of sliced tomatoes and some interesting tasks for all.

As a tribute to these efforts we submit the following photos:

The tractor is there for decoration. It's the leaning pole that was sunk all the way to China that was a task for this day.

Eventually, this building WILL get painted. Much thanks to those who kindly scraped on this side of it to prepare it for further work this month.

Oh, and now we can keep an eye on the chickens with the tall ragweed down!

And, the tall weeds along the new poultry palace have been under attack all season. It looks like we may finally be winning the battle!



And the garlic is cured, so it is time to trim off the stems and the roots so they are ready for the CSA, for seed and for other sales.

It's always a good thing when you can SEE the swiss chard and the beets. It is especially important to allow for ease of picking the chard. It gets tedious pulling out grass and other weeds when we cut the chard.

Our poor peppers. They've not had a very good year. But, the weeds were removed so we can do some cover cropping in here.

And salvaged wood is only good if the old nails are removed. Excellent!

And, when you want to use a chicken shelter made of wood, a new coat of paint can help make it last.

And that pole we mentioned at the beginning? The crew would not desist until it succumbed to their combined efforts. The original goal was to take it out in one piece. But, hey - we did mention that the thing went down quite a bit. We contacted BP to tell us how to cap the well we had to dig to get this one out. They had no suggestions that worked. So, we simply filled the hole up with dirt. Seems to be fine now.

Focusing on Success

I realize that I go through an analysis-phase every season. It has something to do with September and the start of school for so many people. I think.

Also, there is enough of the season completed that it makes sense to evaluate while things are still fresh in our minds. Again, I say this every year - often in newsletters...and now, blog posts.

And, while it has been a difficult season, it helps our attitude to look at some of the successes we've had this year.

• Growing Black Krim tomatoes. These have to be some of the best tasting tomatoes we grow. And, over the last few years, CSA members and farmers' market customers have become fans. The problem? Tomatoes in this class are notoriously difficult to keep from going bad before you get them to the customer. Also, the production season of 'marketable' tomatoes is shorter than many other types. So, we tried a couple of things this year and we are seeing success. Black Krim has produced through the entire peak period (Aug 17 to present) this year. The same number of plants have doubled 2008's record production and tripled last year's mark. Part of the strategy - quickly pulling any bad fruit from the plants to prevent spread of any fruit disease. Another strategy is pulling them on the 'front edge' of ripe. Waiting for them to become 'fully ripe' (soft with deep color) only asks for splits and failure to travel. And, happily, they rapidly reach full color in 24-36 hours off the vine and there is no appreciable taste difference. The problem is that this is a developed skill (to recognize the correct stage to pick) that I cannot quite explain. So, it is a task that can not be delegated. It's a good thing I like the task then!
• Finding better timing on our last summer squash and zucchini planting. (see below post)
• Weekly emails to CSA members. While we may have missed (see this week's bounced email for Thursday), we've found the weekly email to be a good way to disseminate information and remind everyone of the impending pickup for the week. We've found that 'attendance' (if you can call it that) has been better than last year. And, special situations have been handled much more easily from our perspective. In prior years, we admit to having fallen back on a more generic reminder and/or have completely forgotten to send them out. Part of it is a function of our internet connection (slow) and the other part is a function of the amount of time spent in the office (very little) during the summer and fall. But, it is clearly an important thing to do - so we'll do our best to stick with it!
• Improving mechanical skills. NOTE: we are not claiming expertise. "Improving" can mean something as small as changing the oil on a tractor. But, the reality is - we are getting better at maintenance, making repairs and using the chewing gum and baling wire fixes and modifications often necessary to keep things going on the farm. In prior years, we would often shy away from these tasks. They are still not the first thing either of us wants to do - but it isn't as scary as it once was. Last year's move to two JD lawn tractors of the same model is a key to this. Consistency is helpful.

Summer Squash & Zucchini

The cucumber analysis was interesting (to me). And, we have enough information to begin doing this work. The question is (of course)..."WHY?"

The answer is - so we can confirm for ourselves that what we are PLANNING is matching what we INTEND for our farm, the CSA and our fields. We are finally at a point where we have a few years of data, so we can actually see some trends - even if the weather and growing seasons have been odd. We can't let that matter too much since odd might be the new normal.

It is also important for us to assess what this farm is capable of. We owe it to our CSA members to check and double check that we are doing what we can to give them a fair amount of good produce. We owe it to ourselves to determine what is the best way to maximize our effort on this farm. We can only be sustainable if we are a sound farm business in all senses of the word.

So, this brought me to looking at summer squash.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
2006	0	30	60	137	112	92	165	138	159
2007	186	275	480	351	569	390	314	100	79
2008	0	98	184	329	257	212	337	221	147
2009	10	83	154	245	330	329	147	193	168
2010	0	5	31	67	187	269	228	373	496

We just completed week 9 of our range for summer squash production. Our normal is 11-12 weeks.
2007 was again an excellent year for this crop UNTIL the heavy rains in August destroyed our late planting. This year is a direct opposite with heavy rains destroying the early crops and the late crops moving in to save the day. Note that the production level steadily increased each week this growing season.
2008 and 2009 were weak years due to low growing degree days. But, these serve as a baseline for a weak year.

If we wish to do a reasonable distribution of 4 summer squash for a large and 2 for a standard every week (assuming 20 large shares and 100 standard shares), we need 280 summer squash.

Zucchini looked like this:

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
2006	0	11	30	43	22	22	50	42	63
2007	281	292	243	444	382	309	144	54	29
2008	3	126	270	268	172	174	268	112	59
2009	39	117	336	385	189	195	117	163	61
2010	0	18	71	51	212	268	201	321	366

The beauty of these crops is we can combine the two to provide larger numbers and distribution possibilities. And, consistent supply over a few weeks means we can alternate peaks in distribution. Monday/Tuesday gets a larger amount one week and Thursday the following week.

Once again, the numbers confirm for us that when the crop is right - we have plenty of excess beyond the CSA need. In fact, even in poor years (2008 & 2009) reasonable amounts could be distributed - but little (if any) could be sold as excess. Capacity appears to be yields of 300-400 zucchini from mid July through August (about 7 weeks) with smaller amounts stretching out on either end a week or two. We approached capacity in 2007 with 2200 units. So, there appears to be adequate evidence for us to continue to operate under the assumption that our plan using the existing varieties, planting succession and row foot allotment is not in need of extreme modifications for 2011.

Wait A Minute

First, a post various people have said they enjoyed about the varying stages of acceptance of rain induced wetness can be found here. It is one of our top ten posts all time. I suspect Tammy reached stage five yesterday, but had to quit because she had to go in to work and you shouldn't pick green beans when they are wet if you can help it.

Second, another popular post was our Law of Expanding Lists post.

Why bring these up?

Because I have a new list! The Wait A Minute or What's Your Hurry? list. We often find ourselves on the short side of time on distribution days. And, here are several ways life on the farm slows us down (whether we want to or not).

• If you reach Stage 3 or higher of our "rainy day stages" and you have a distribution or market to go to, you will be required to change your attire. Have you tried recently to change clothing QUICKLY when you are soaked? I think you all know what I mean. Shirts, underwear, etc all like to roll up into a ball as you try to take them off. There is no way to do this quickly. But, wait, there's more. Try putting dry clothing on quickly! It doesn't work. If you've gotten rain soaked you just can't dry off with a towel as effectively as you can when you take a shower. You either have to be patient and air dry a bit or go through the whole "rolling up" thing with the dry clothing too. UGH! *and no, I did NOT hear your suggestion about au naturale* And, the side effect is seen in the laundry as well. Those tightly rolled balls of cloth are SOCKS. I think.
  
• And in reference to the Law of Expanding Lists. Imagine being in a hurry. But, you have to record something before it gets forgotten. And, it WILL be forgotten if you don't write it down. You get the paper, you get the writing utensil, you write it down. You pause. Something else just came to mind. No, you have to hurry. But, you MUST write it down or you will forget. So, you write it down. Then two more things pop into your brain...... Try explaining this to people when you aren't on time.
• There is nothing like a batch of ripe tomatoes to slow one down. Why? Because, your tomatoes are nothing if you run back with your cart over the rough terrain between the field and the packing building.
• Playing weather predictor is always a good way to stop the train that is our departure for distribution or market. "Hm... those clouds look semi-serious. Should we?" "Do we HAVE to?" "Ya." Put down the cold frame covers, close the house windows, roll down the high tunnel sides, put anything that might blow away into a building, move the tools into the building (you know, the ones you should have put away anyway but wisely thought could wait until you came back). etc etc.
• You packed the truck. It is well-packed. In fact, you are all the way to the back of the truck now. And someone points out that there are three white trays sitting over there (who cares where exactly) that need to go too. The only way to get them into the truck? Unpack the truck and stack the trays in the front with one more tier.
  
• Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Where are my keys. I just had them. Are they on the key hook? No. In one of the pairs of jeans I had to change out of because of a pair of stage 4 events? No. In the car? No. Garage? No. Kitchen table? No. Desk? No. um.... How about ignition of the truck. oh.

Damp

It's 8:31 AM.

I've changed clothing once already. Tammy has changed twice (the second to head into work).

Lightning now - so no outdoors picking until it passes.

This could be a long day.

Farm Report for end of August

Here it is - the ultra quick farm report:

• Doing well are cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes
• Doing reasonably well are green beans, the new batches of lettuce, the new batch of beets, dry beans
• We still have lots of garlic to dole out over the next few weeks to the CSA
• You are not going to see winter squash, watermelons, peppers, pumpkins, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, leeks - many are simply dead, others so badly stunted as to make it clear nothing will happen. It's just the way the year has gone.
• Potatoes are still possible, but in a smallish number. There are plants that are still green and may have unrotted potatoes forming.
• Onions - may still exist in the field. We lost many to the rains and then the weeds took over. We need to cut down the weeds so we can see what is there for onions. It is possible all rotted away - but onions can be sneaky, so we are hoping.
• Melons are setting on the plants in the high tunnel. It will be VERY close. You can hope, but there can be no promises.
• Carrots. Not likely, but we may be able to scrounge a few from some rows.
• Kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, cabbage - we have new plants in the ground. Again - it will be close - but we are giving it the try you (and they) deserve.
• We may be able to pull out some green onions on the late onion planting we put in. (we've been experimenting more with late plantings by necessity - if it works, we all win.)
• Eggplant - a dribble here and a dribble there.
• new plantings of turnips, beets, radish, arugula, etc etc too young to say much as of yet.
  

That's Just...Despicable

In honor of the tail end of August, we went to see a movie at the Sumner Theater. We like it because it is local and community supported. And to top it off, the movies show at 99 cents - which means we can take a chance on a movie when we are tired and want to get our minds and bodies off the farm for a bit.

So, the baseball season is over. We went to take in a movie. No expectations - other than the fact that we knew it was animated (something we enjoy).

The result - a recommendation to go see Despicable Me. This one would have been worth full price to us. Funny on several levels. Pulled the expected plot twists, but that didn't really bother us. Animation was good enough. The pacing was excellent. It didn't give us the feel that some movies of this genre do when they run out of money or get tired of their own premise. A wonderful escape from the farm. It played well to the kids in the audience. Nothing horribly scary. And plenty for the adults to enjoy as well. Plenty of digs into various movie genres, doesn't take itself too seriously. etc etc.

Just plain fun for an hour and a half. It should keep me amused through tomorrow AMs work.

Lightbulb. (see the movie, you'll understand)

Various Updates

• Tomorrow, Saturday, August 28 from 8:30-11:30 - we will be at the Waverly Farmers' Market. The tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, summer squash and zucchini are forcing us to make another pick before next week's CSA. So, these will be taking a ride in the truck and we will be making them available for purchase.
• Tomorrow - from 4:00- ?? will be our Summer Harvest Festival. The post just below covers this topic.
• Cucumbers and planning. We talked about it here and we've had a week go by with more data collection. Another week and another 1200 cucumbers harvested. It's nice to have a crop do well and show us its potential. We realize CSA members might be tiring a bit of them. But, remember - in a 52 week year, you only get cucumbers for 7-10 weeks fresh from the garden in Iowa. Enjoy it while you can!
• In case we haven't said so (I think we have) - the turkeys do have their pasture north of the Poultry Palace now.
• The high tunnel DOES have some crops in it right now and we are starting the fall crops it will cover beginning in late September. For now, there are melons, tomatoes, peppers and green beans. All of these are experimental and we don't necessarily expect much from them. But, we have to learn how to work with the tunnel before it gets more serious this fall. At present, the melons are doing their best impression of a blanket, covering the soil in the tunnel (a good sign). The bees are enjoying all of the flowers and there are some small melons started. It's going to be a close call! Here's hoping for some yummy melons!
• And, irony of ironies.... we have to start irrigating some of our crops.

Summer Harvest Festival, August 28

The Summer Harvest Festival will be held at the farm on August 28 from 4pm until we all decide it is time to go home.

CSA members, former CSA members, honorary CSA members (you probably know who you are) and friends, etc are invited to join us at the farm for good food, conversation and maybe a few games.

If you want to read about our festivals, feel free to go to our website at this location.

This is a potluck style event - so plan on bringing something to pass. We will make a gas grill available, so you may bring something to grill. Some will bring additional meat for grilling and sharing, others will bring a special cut that they intend to have for their family. We will have iced tea, lemonade and water available. Also, we expect to have some cucumbers (really?), tomatoes and other produce available for tasting, etc.

We hope to see you there. We do appreciate RSVP from those who plan to attend so we can have some idea of what to expect.

Potential and Planning

If you are a CSA member - and not just a person who is a member in our CSA - we want you to consider some numbers. If you wish, just read the bold - but please check this out.

Since we are having a very good cucumber year (and a down year for many other things) - we will use it as a case study.

1. 500 cucumbers a week needed for CSA. We have 110 members. 17 large shares. 83 standard shares. To give larges shares 8 cucumbers and standards 4 cucumbers in a week, we must pick 468 cucumbers (actually more like 500 to give options to people through the end of the distribution period)
2. 6-7 week cucumber peak. In a typical year, cucumber peak picks are about 6 to 7 weeks (using succession planting)
3. 495 cucumbers per week in 2007 (needed 250). 2007 gives us our baseline for determining how many row feet of cucumbers we need to reach our goals. For seven weeks of peak production, we averaged 495 cucumbers per week. At that time, we had only 60 CSA members. so, you can deduce that we had approximately twice the production than was needed for the CSA.
4. 1092 cucumbers per week in 2010. And, this year, we only have four weeks of 'peak' thus far. But, you can see that our planning isn't really so bad. We knew we needed 500 per week to give CSA members a nice number of cucumbers and we doubled that.
5. 116 cucumbers was our LARGEST weekly pick in 2008. Same farm. Same growers. Similar varieties. No experiments that would endanger the crop. In fact, we planted more row feet of cucumbers in 2008 than we did THIS season.
6. 2008 saw a 92% crop failure of the cucumber crop on our farm. This number is based on the potential we project based on 2006 & 2007 production levels. It is born our further by this year's production levels.
7. 20% yield increase over 2007. We are actually 20% over 2007 levels per row foot of planting this season. But, in this case, we can point to a couple of varietal changes and a better weed control program than 2007. So, the difference may have less to do with the season and more to do with us.

Why do we want you to care about these numbers?

1. CSA farms keep records and plan carefully. Most CSA farms work very hard to keep good records and use them to make careful decisions. With the amount of diversity desired in a CSA share, failing to do so would be the death of the farm.
2. CSA farms plan for excess. The first concern of a CSA farm is to meet the obligation of being the 'personal farmers' of the members/share holders. Part of planning for off years is to map out planting amounts that should exceed the CSA need.
3. Excess is an important income opportunity. The share price provides a farm with a financial base that provides security. However, it doesn't do to plan to grow twice the needed product (with all of its incumbent expenses) with no return. Farms such as ours plan to have excess to provide additional income for the farm.
4. Every crop is planned in a similar fashion. CSA farms, such as ours, don't just plan for cucumbers. Every crop has a plan for appropriate success levels to meet CSA and excess income levels to make the growing season successful. Some crops may be in trials and will have less space and effort dedicated to them.
5. Crop failures happen. The buffer planned for each crop is done in hopes that a poor year will not be so poor as to cut production by more than half. The thinking here is that one should expect that, in any given year, there will be minor weather patterns, weed pressures, pets pressures and mistakes made that could reduce any given crop by 10, 20..or perhaps even 50 %. And, yet, our recent experience shows us that total crop failures are not out of the question. Which is why...
6. Variety is planned into the system. Every year our crops rotate. Every year the weather is different. Every year circumstances change. And, every year, something will fail and something else will thrive. In 2007, we had wonderful melons and watermelons. In 2008, the late fall led to record tomato crops, but the cool wet start led to a complete failure of melons and watermelons (2 or 3 melons total). In 2009, we set records with our peppers, eggplant and lettuce while the tomatoes faltered with late blight. This year, the cucumbers - so dismally represented in CSA shares the prior two years - are doing well. Meanwhile, it seems that the peppers will be a total crop failure and the eggplant will (perhaps) give us a marginal to very poor late crop. We still hope the fall lettuce plantings will help us.

Misery Loves Company?

We have had the opportunity to attend a couple of events where we have a chance to visit and/or commiserate with other Iowa vegetable growers. Just yesterday, Tammy attended a field day on field equipment while Rob once again imagined he could be a baseball player. A couple of weeks ago(? - is that right ? really?!?) we both attended a filmed discussion session on local foods at the same location.

The reality in the state where we live is that a small farm such as ours is still a rarity. So, chances like this, where we find other like-minded and like-employed individuals aren't as easy to come by and are, perhaps, more valuable than one might think. In seasons like this - it at least gives us all a chance to vent about a difficult growing season. But, in a normal season, it gives chances to compare notes, share ideas and provide support to each other in our endeavors.

Some things we have heard from these folks:

1. This year is, in many ways, worse than 2008. For those who didn't know, 2008 was going to be a benchmark for how bad it could possibly get for growers such as ourselves. However, it redeemed itself somewhat by not getting a killing frost until October.
2. We are not the only growers who have had difficulties and been disappointed by the past three growing seasons. Weather anomalies are making it increasingly difficult for growers to plan for the season.
3. One veteran CSA grower mentioned that they needed (and took) a short one-week vacation to visit family this year. Because, it was important to get away from the farm - it had become that depressing for them.
4. Another experienced grower was relieved to hear that they were not the only ones putting seed into the ground and vainly waiting for it to germinate.
5. Stories about field under water that normally drain fairly well, plants turning to brown mush are the norm this year.
6. Disease issues are plaguing most growers.
7. Each and every CSA grower we talk to is frustrated on behalf of their members. Not a single one of us wants to take advantage of the 'insurance' that CSA programs provide for the farmer. Yet, we all find ourselves in that position this season. As a result...
8. There is a great deal of discussion and sharing of ideas to try to respond if this is to be our new weather norm.

Now, to turn this to the positive.

There are a number of small farms, including ours, that have tried to set themselves up to thrive (or at least do reasonably well) in the last three to five years. Two of the last three years have been near to complete disasters for growing years. And 2009, had a number of issues as well. It only seemed like a good year because 2008 was so difficult. That means these farms are actually managed well enough to survive even during very tough years (others can judge our own farm as you see fit).

So, if we can all find a way to emerge from these difficulties with new techniques and perhaps, some better growing years, imagine just how positive things could be for small farms such as ours.

Tom Sawyer Day

Today's Tom Sawyer Day was attended by a group of four fine individuals and we are grateful for their efforts. As a result, there are now 26 trays of seeds planted and placed in cold frames or in locations where they can sprout. Other trays with plants past usefulness were cleaned out. And, others were removed from the cold frames to harden off and be prepared for transplant.

Several other odd and sundry things were accomplished and it felt good to have a group to get those things done.

We hope to have a Tom Sawyer Day (TSD) in September.

Farm Report

It's been a while since we posted and it is time to update everyone on the farm. We will try to take some pictures this weekend to illustrate what we write today.

• We are holding a Tom Sawyer Day this Saturday from 1pm to 5pm. Please contact us if you wish to come out and join us. NOTE: it helps us immensely to know who will be there so we can plan.
• A week from this Saturday is our Summer Festival, starting at 4pm. This is a potluck with an available grill.
  
• Tomatoes are starting to peak. This usually means that we have excess tomatoes beyond CSA needs. Those who wish to can or freeze tomatoes should contact us and we can arrange to get you some of our yummy heirlooms! It doesn't look like a record year, but it looks like a decent year for them. A bit more cracking due to extreme changes in water levels. BUT, the taste is excellent this year since it did stop raining at the point of ripening. A little stress at the finishing point from lack of water is good for the taste.
• Turkeys have their new pasture behind the palace all fenced in, so they are getting used to running around outside. Normally, we'd like them out earlier, but circumstances being what they are... They had a regular feast with the excess of past peak cucumbers.
• Peppers and eggplant? Yes, that is the question. The eggplant are 1/3 to 1/2 the size they should be right now. But, they look reasonably healthy. We'll see if they ever really get going. The peppers, on the other hand, are just struggling to live. The water and ensuing disease pressures may well have doomed this crop. We've kept them weeded, planted them on time, etc etc. In fact, we've done as much and as well as last season (when we set records for peppers and eggplant) with our work pertaining to the plants.
• Summer squash and zucchini. Plantings 1-3 are producing at levels lower than usually expected, but enough to give everyone in the CSA some without overwhelming. Planting 4, however, looks fabulous and is getting weeded and mulched this week/weekend. It has the potential to do what these plants are supposed to do! We *dare* them!
• Cucumber planting 2 is less vigorous, but healthy. We should see them start giving us some fair crops next week. We shouldn't hit the high levels of cucumbers we have had in recent weeks, but they won't go away either (that's good news since the season for them is relatively short).
• Basil - needs a little time to grow after the cuttings of the last few weeks, but look fine.
• Onions - we need to find them again - then we'll tell you about them.
• Broccoli, cabbage - plantings 1-3 of these have failed. But, we keep trying to put more plantings in. A batch just went in about 10 days ago. Another will soon be going in. Really, we are trying to get them to go this year.
• Kale - planting 1 survived the water at about 35% of the plants. Those that are left are beginning to give us leaves to harvest (next week's CSA). Planting 2 needs to be weeded, then we'll judge. Planting 3 needs to go into the ground.
  
• Cauliflower - sorry. You can only get three successions in of these or it gets too late. These successions all drowned.
• Kohlrabi - yes, we are planting fall crops. Here's hoping!
• Peas - fall peas - the soil temp needs to be low enough to germinate - but we're really pushing the envelope on these now. We'll see.
• Green beans - we are hoping for the typical 'back to school' peak. They KNOW Tammy goes back to teaching about this time - and they KNOW she is the primary bean picker. So, they like to rub it in. Hopefully, the fact that they know of the inconvenience will be motivation enough.
• Potatoes - we dug a few plants that had died off - not much there. Many others have rotted away. Not a complete failure, but not a bumper crop. We'll be digging in September and hope to have enough to give everyone a nice little batch.
  
• Winter squash, watermelons - sorry. Watermelons are kind of a bonus if they work, so we aren't happy, but won't take it too personally when they fail. Winter squash, on the other hand...
• Lettuce - we're still waiting for one of our successions to give us excellent lettuce. We continue to start seed and plant transplants. Our latest transplant set went in and a few days later got thoroughly soaked by the last set of rain. A section was under water and many of those plants died. But, 2/3 - 3/4 of them are fine. The earlier plantings are bolting or have been harvested just before they bolted.
  
• We'll be planting fall successions of arugula, spinach, radish, beets and some other things.
  

We are hoping for a long fall to help us make a better year out of it. But, we know we can't count on that. Part of us wishes the season would just end right now so we could put it all behind us and start over. We remember feeling like this in 2008 - and the season was redeemed by a late harvest deep into October. And, we left that year tired, but ready to make 2009 a better year. 2009 was, in fact, a better season. But, it did have a few issues with its cool temps. So, it was a slightly below average harvest year - but nothing to make us feel like complete failures.

We have had discussions with several other regional growers and they report similar issues. Seeds that wouldn't germinate, plants rotting in the ground, disease issues, fruit that wouldn't store as long as they normally do, etc etc. It makes us feel better and worse all at the same time. Better, because we can stop telling ourselves that it must all be our fault and that we are a poor excuse for farmers. Worse, because it means there are lots of fine people who are also struggling with the season.

We'll just keep plugging on and keep trying to adjust.

• 
  

Whupped

Ok, we've done pretty well working through the heat, the humidity and the muck this week.

Until today.

A hot, humid day is one thing. But, when your feet make squish noises with every step, the black flies make dives into ears, nose and throat and mosquitoes turn you into involuntary blood donors, it kind of adds up.

At the risk of burying what I thought was a good post I composed and scheduled for today - just thought we'd tell Mother Nature that she won today.

You Were Making Progress...

.... and you knew that couldn't be allowed.

We made the mistake of beginning to feel like we were getting somewhere. Still way behind, but actually making some progress.

And, now we have heat, humidity and ... of course... rain. We like rain. But, not so much that we need to consider building an ark...or a bubble. Normal rainfall for the Waterloo area through this point of the year is somewhere around 20-24 inches. Official records show that we are a foot ahead of that amount. Consider that this is half again as much as we normally get. I guess we should not be surprised if soils are saturated and if there are issues because of this.

We don't want to complain. We don't like to complain. We know other places have much more difficulty than we have. We do have water in the fields again, but we have not had any serious wind or hail damage. We are both generally healthy, if a bit tired. We are aware of lots of people who support us. And, it looks like things may dry out and cool down next week after we get through the forecast rain around Friday.

Part of the result of these weather difficulties is that we are continuing to brainstorm ideas that can make the farm more resilient. We've taken steps in the form of a bigger tractor and a high tunnel. We have taken another step this year by continuing to try to plant more successions of crops in hopes that there is enough time this fall for them to mature. We've done more with mulch - and that seems to help in some situations. We're continuing to improve how we raise the poultry by making new shelter spaces and giving them more room on pasture.

things we are considering for the future:

• Raised Beds - no, we are not talking about wood enclosed beds, that would not be feasible. However, on our scale, we could find tools to raise and reshape the beds each spring. This will not solve everything. And, heavy downpours will degrade the beds. But, we would also consider a sturdy annual cover crop in the tire paths between each raised bed.
  
• Swales - the site we link to is more concerned with using swales to control urban runoff. However, we can consider this as well. One issue is the amount of grading necessary to make it work. Essentially, a swale is a shallow ditch. But, for it to work, we need the area we want to be less wet to be higher the swale (of course). Obviously, this should allow water to slowly soak into the ground in places that are NOT where the veg is.
  
• Tiling - we're not sure we want to dump water into the ditch so it can drain away. We would rather give it the chance to filter through naturally and replenish the underground aquifers. On the other hand, there is some potential advantage to tiling and draining into water holding tanks. We could then consider using solar powered pumps to irrigate during dry periods.
  
• Cover crops - We've been trying to add more cover crops to our operation as companions or to cover bare soil at the beginning and end of the growing season. But, we are beginning to wonder if we should reduce the amount of cash crop space and increase the amount of cover crop space. If the weather doesn't allow us to work with the field space we plan to cultivate, then perhaps we should stop trying to work it all.
  
• Reforming our field configurations on the farm - some fields are better than others with respect to water holding/shedding qualities. So, we are considering moving plots around and change things to take more advantage of natural tendencies.

We're going to have to figure all of this out quickly if we want to have a shot at doing something for next year's fields.

Regardless of what happens, we wanted everyone to know that we are considering many options - not all of them listed here - and we are hopeful that we can get a good combination figured out and done that will make us a more resilient operation with improved production consistency. All of that while still maintaining organic, sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

Let's see if we can manage it.

Additional Odd Observations on the Farm

• Cocoa, an honorary farm manager of the farm (I.E. cat who lives on the farm) has a spot where we can skritch her and her tongue sticks out involuntarily. Mildly amusing.
• During one of our rain storms we had some branches come down out of the oak trees. One hit the ground a bit like a lawn dart. We called it our "stick in the mud." Maybe a bit less amusing - especially to all of you.
  
• I-rony on the I-pod: having it randomly select "This is How the Work Gets Done" (Charlie Peacock) and "Progress" (AD) as the crew put down grass mulch to finish off a weeded row of beans. But, when it hit "We Are the Champions" (Queen), I felt that was a bit much.
• At least the ducks like the extra rain. One mini pond is currently encompassed by the electric fence we use to keep 'enemies of the duck' out. This was, in their opinion, a good thing.
  

Farm Report

Farm Report (written 7/28)

• The cucumbers are happy. It's nice that something is happy!
• Most peppers are still with us. However, the first batch of fruit have problems, so we have removed most from the plants. We are hopeful that they will recover and produce again. At this point, we don't see much coming for peppers until mid August or later. Maybe we'll be surprised as we continue to cultivate and weed those plants.
• Summer squash and zucchini just keep teasing us. But, they also haven't enjoyed sitting in water, so we can't really blame them. some nice sunshine and drier weather may give us a big push here in a week or two. Or...it will just keep trickling in until the next planting catches up (they are looking good).
• Green beans gave us a picking, now they are trying to recover from wet feet (etc). Plants generally look fine and we continue to free more of each row by weeding and mulching.
• Tomatoes generally look good - they continue to give us scouts. They look to be in line for the typical peak starting in mid/late August and lasting to mid/late September.
• Kale is struggling to make a comeback. Planting #2 may have a better shot at getting harvested sooner than #1 returns to form. About 1/4 of the plants have been removed from planting #1.
• The white onions have been picked in their entirety, so Thus distribution is the last time you will see them this year. The count should be somewhere in the 800-1000 area.
• The time between batches of meat chickens is actually a somewhat pleasant period of time on the farm. But, we'll exit that time period this Friday when chicks arrive.
• The spring peas couldn't stand the heat after all that wet - so we'll give fall peas a shot again this year.
• chard, beet and turnip seedlings have sprouted.
• Some of the lettuce is maturing as expected. Some isn't as happy as we are used to seeing it. Looks like Bronze Arrowhead or Australian Yellow Leaf may make an appearance in shares next week.
• We took advantage of the availability of a small tractor at an auction close to home. It is a Ford 8-N. We will talk of it at some later point in more detail. For now, suffice it to say that we have it on our farm, in part, to honor Kent Harms. We'll keep the organic growing fires burning for you, Kent.

Rain Update

We were asked to update this post on rain here.

We received an additional 1.4 " of rain after that post over one night. It wasn't horrible. But, it was more than we needed. So, once again, things were a bit damp. Still, we remain grateful since we know other areas nearby received two and three times as much rain.

this post was written on Tuesday 7/27 - so, if it doesn't seem quite congruous with current events - you know why.

Update 7/28 - another .6" overnight last night. Good for weeding at least.

Update 7/30 - and another .5" in the AM. Once again, we are fortunate that, while it rained - it rained gently. If we can get a few dry days in a row, we can get back out there.

Them's Tall Weeds You Grow There

In order to get the turkeys out in their new pasture, we needed to remove the giant ragweed from the back of the newly named/modified Poultry Palace.

Here you can see part of the crack team of Anden, Tammy and Rob taking on weeds a bit taller than they are.

And here is what it looks like now.

Just one thing we can do when things are a bit on the wet side.

A Good Reason to Live Here

'nuff said