It's Not Just the Organic Certification...

We continue to process how we have to do things on the farm after the spraying incident.  We realize this has taken an inordinate amount of our time in blog space and other communications.  But, it is an important issue.  It is especially important that you understand WHY we are taking this so seriously.

At this point, sympathy is not needed.  Instead, we need people to take some time to read/listen and understand.  We need you to get informed enough so that some change can happen because living in Iowa is not supposed to be equivalent to living in fear that someone will spray you with chemicals and then fly away.

Organic Certification
It seems unfair on the surface.  We didn't do the spraying, yet we lose organic certification on the fields that were hit for three years from the point of the spray incident.
But, this is why I signed up for organic certification.  It should mean something.  Just because I didn't MEAN for it to be sprayed doesn't make the fact that it WAS sprayed change.  Things grown in that field simply cannot meet organic certification levels.  Period.
We believe in organic certification.  We abide by the rules because we think they are right.  If we don't report because we fear the loss of certification, we undermine what the whole process stands for.  Then it will mean nothing.
In the end, we are content that loss of certification for three years is correct and as it should be.  This does not imply that we are ok with the event that caused the loss in the first place (of course).

Food Safety
This is one of the things that upsets us the most.  The chemicals sprayed on these crops were not intended for the food crops we were growing - especially not at the time the spraying occurred.  These chemicals were not intended for human consumption.  Some of the numbers that came back from the lab from samples collected 3 days after the event were easily 10 times maximum levels allowed for conventionally grown veg.  Others more, some less.
One chemical is systemic, which means the plant will absorb it and it will continue to be in the plants system for some time after the event.  If none were systemic, it might have been a simple matter of "soaking the area down" and removing all fruit that were on the plants at the time of the spraying.  That would still be a big hit.
We pride ourselves in growing safe, quality food for our use and your use.  This food is not safe.  None of us will eat it.  We will not feed it to our birds.  We will place it in the compost pile that was sprayed and encourage Mother Nature to break it down for us.
So, the reality is this.  All food crops that were scheduled to be harvested from our Southwest field and the high tunnel tested with high levels of these chemicals.  They will all be removed, along with all plant vegetation.  We'll till the fields, put cover crop in some and probably put something new in the high tunnel after we run overhead watering over bare soil for a period of time.

FAA
Our understanding at this time is that the FAA grants a great deal of leeway (exemptions) for crop dusters.  About all they can or do enforce is that they should always maintain the ability to crash land safely.  They HAVE however, taken interest in the fact that Rob was physically hit with spray.

It is our belief that the FAA may need to revise these rules for crop dusters since it is becoming apparent that they cannot handle these exemptions responsibly or safely.

Lab Report Results
We were able to talk with someone at the lab to help us interpret the results.  The lab (without prompting) indicated that we must have been hit directly to have levels as high as the readings given.  Remember - these were samples that were taken three days later.  They agreed that we should give up the crops that were existing at the time of the spraying.  They also agreed that we could consider Fall and Winter crops in the high tunnel with no concerns about the food's safety. 

What are we doing with respect to our claim?
We will give much less detail here until we know better what our strategy will be from our legal representative.  Suffice it to say, we have identified the lawyer we feel comfortable with.  The first step is likely a 'pre-demand' letter to let the parties involved know that we incurred a loss and that we intend to file a claim for damages.

What are we doing with respect to social and policy change?
We are trying to formulate some coherent idea as to what we think could or should be changed so that what happened to us (and to others who have told us their stories) doesn't happen again.

this is where you can help.

First step - help us by discussing policy changes that are
  1.effective changes to reach our goal
  2. passable in a state where it is unlikely that the use of chemicals for commodity crops will be banned.  We understand the feeling of wanting to just get rid of them, but we have to admit that an all or nothing approach will likely result in nothing - which is not acceptable.
  3. reasonably encapsulated for clarity and understanding so that public support can be won.

Starting points:
  Here are our starting points
1. Fields that are to be sprayed that abut a property where someone other than the farmer responsible for the spraying lives will require a spraying setback.  That setback will be larger for aerial spraying.
2. The owner of any registered adjacent property with a listing of any sort in the sensitive crops directory must be contacted 24 hours prior to the spraying event, whether it is ground or aerial.  A list of the chemicals to be applied and their rates and application method must be given.
3. The sensitive crops directory should be expanded to include food crop designations, spray free pasture designations, designations for pastured poultry or other livestock and perhaps other agricultural endeavors that I am not currently thinking of.
4. All aerial sprayers must be equipped with a GPS system that records exactly where chemicals were dropped.  These records should probably be filed either with the Pesticide Bureau or some other public body and made accessible to interested persons (usually bordering property owners).
5. The owner of the property to be sprayed or their representative should be on site at the time of the application of the chemicals.
6. Those responsible for the application of the chemicals must be aware of all use label precautions and be held responsible for any application that fails to follow the use label recommendations.

This is a starting point.  We are working on more detail, but invite discussion here.

August in Pictures

It may only be half way through the month.  But, we had a batch of pictures we wanted to share.

We're a bit shocked by how green things are now that we had a bit of rain and some cooler temps.  The picture above shows how dry it was in early August.  It also shows how we are trying to get the birds off of the NW pasture that was sprayed.

the Poultry Pavilion needed some weeding and TLC.  Thanks to the Figura clan for help!

Even the bees wanted us to remove a few weeds.  Rob did that to be safe.

And, then Dad Faux came and helped open a hole in the South side of the building.  We're going to try to have the chickens go out this way for a while to get them off the North pasture entirely.

Wow, the field to the East of the high tunnel was parched.  We've now mowed down the cover crop, tilled it in, chisel plowed the area.  Looks very different - we'll try to get a picture of that in the 2nd half of August picture fest.

Ok - the spraying issue is still a daily part of our lives.  Here is the inside of the high tunnel.  At left, peppers.  At right, green beans.  Tests came back pesticide and fungicide positive.  All of these will be pulled out after we harvest, weigh and count.

Gorgeous Tolli Sweet peppers.  Rob was so proud that he identified this sweet pepper for the high tunnel this year.  And they did him proud.  Disappointed we can not eat any of them due to the spraying. 

The Southwest pepper and eggplant field looked very good.

And we were getting some nice production.  Above is Casper, a white eggplant.  Again, none of this production will do us any good this year.  All of it tested positive for pesticide and fungicide.

The year of the green bean!  These are from the Southwest field, so they also were sprayed.  However, our beans in the East are fine and doing well.  As of August 15, we had picked 630 pounds of green beans.  Pretty happy with that.

A cart full of forbidden fruit.  Nearly 200 eggplant destined for the compost.  If you don't fully understand this, let us clarify.  The chemicals used that were wrongly sprayed on our farm were NOT intended for food crops.  It is not as if most healthy people would keel over and die immediately if they consumed these.  However, some with particular illnesses, young children, etc could get sick.  And, sufficient amounts of intake could cause illness.  We are not going to let anyone eat any of this as long as there is risk.

Ah...  curious turkeys.  They can be fun to watch.

Itsy the spider.  We removed her from a picking container and hope she, and her egg sack, found a safer home.  We've worked hard to encourage a diverse population of insects and spiders on our farm.

Didn't we weed this field before?  How is this possible?  It gets more interesting when wind rolls cauliflower and broccoli plants into the rows.

Broccoli - gotta like it.  Been a decent year for them. 

Durnik the tractor at work.  Of course, he ran out of gas (literally) at a point nearly as far from our buildings as it could get.  I keep telling myself to just put more in the tank every time I go out.  But, do I listen?

Stars of the garden - Italian Heirloom tomatoes.  Averaging about 3/4 pound each.  Meaty and delicious.

We've had some odd growing years, but some of the things happening in the tomato field this year have me baffled.  Two varieties in these rows.  Rutgers on the left and Druzba on the right.  Druzba is typically more compact, but not this much more compact.  Druzba has never had cracked fruit for us, until this year.  I've checked the irrigation line, it's ok.  Both mulched.  Both irrigated, weeded and otherwise cared for in much the same way.  Hm.

Something to expect in excessive weather patterns - blossom end rot.  Sad.

This one is the way it should be.  Orangeglo watermelon. 

A little bit more use of the paper mulch.  this time for kale and chard.  We've been pleased with the use in the watermelons and melons so far.  But, the experiment is not over.   The end game may cancel out any early success.  So, we continue to observe and learn.

This is what excessive heat can do to lettuce.  this is called 'bolting' or 'towering.'  Typically if lettuce does this, it is trying to flower and set seed.  Taste tends to get strong or bitter.  This plant never did put on the size we needed or wanted prior to harvest.  It was a gamble. They were in trays, they needed planting.  They bolted.  It happens.  Above is Rouge d'Hiver

And, Grandpa Admires is quite heat tolerant.  But, it was excessive heat.

On the other hand, Pablo is doing fine.  It is a longer season lettuce (70 day), which may be part of the equation. 

Sunflowers in the West, lettuce just East in an effort to provide afternoon shade.  Working for the Crispmint, Pablo and Bronze Arrowhead.  The down side is what happens in a strong wind, you may have to cut out some downed sunflowers.  The other thing to look for is the need to irrigate a bit more, sunflowers can be very overbearing when it comes to water.

When an intercropping plan comes together.  Zinnias in the pumpkins.  Pumpkins in between two successions of sweet corn.  Sunflowers bracketing the whole field.

Lab Report Results

We just received the lab reports taken and sent to Columbia Food Laboratories, Inc.

In the interest of full disclosure to our CSA members and others who have an interest of the farm - here are the details.

Spray time and date: July 27, 6:50 PM
Applied by air to soybean field located N and W of farm.
Winds out of the NNW
Products applied were Lorsban, 4E, Stratego YLD and Sniper
Chemicals are: Trifloxystrobin, Chlorpyrifos, Bifenthrin and Prothioconazole
Samples were taken on Monday, late afternoon - July 30, after the Pesticide Bureau investigator also took samples.  Sent soon after by overnight courier to the lab.  Received on Aug 2.

Five samples were sent.
   SW Field West End
   SW Field East End
   High Tunnel next to the building
   High Tunnel inside the building
   Northwest poultry pasture

All tests came back with measurable levels of each chemical with most being well above acceptable food use maximums.
The area around and inside the high tunnel was, as expected, lowest.
The west end of the SW field and the poultry pasture were worst, but there is not sufficient lessening by the East end of the SW field to make much difference.  We will consult with our legal representative regarding how much information should be shared, but doubt that it is inappropriate to share this information with our CSA farm share members, our customers and those who support the farm.

We will continue to research what these numbers mean on other levels.  But, we can safely say that we will not provide you with any of the produce from any of these locations.  The only way we could do that would be to submit a similar battery of tests over and over until they come back clean.

Simply put, it isn't worth the cost.  These tests alone cost $1700 to do.  The wait is long enough, and the crops won't wait long enough...to make a difference.

What does this mean for you:
   1. As we guessed earlier.  All peppers, eggplant, dry beans, green beans, hot peppers from the SW field will be destroyed.  We are sorry, they are not safe to give to you.
   2. We hoped this would not be true.  But, all peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, green beans, eggplant, paprika peppers and hot peppers in the high tunnel will also be destroyed.  We simply cannot guarantee their safety either.
   3. Now that we have numbers, we hope we can get answers about how long it will take our laying flock to flush these toxins from their systems.   We are hoping four weeks will be sufficient, but are reluctant to make any promises.
   4. We are also hoping to get straight answers regarding the turkeys.  We are optimistic that they can flush their systems prior to processing.

Thank you for your support.

Rob & Tammy

July in Pictures

We usually intend to do more with pictures this time of year.  But, as you can guess, we don't always find the time to get the camera out.  And, in fact, we often have a hard time believing time has gone so quickly.  Add to this the fact that we have slow internet - so uploading opportunities are limited.

But, the farmers are taking a day to do some computer work where the internet surpasses the speed of dial-up!  The result - you get to see some pictures.

The Garlic Harvest

It was nothing like it has been other years, but not as bad as we feared.  Here's some of the garlic on the way in from the field July 2.  Note the very dry looking stems and the dry looking fields behind.  Typically, we don't pull our garlic in until July 20.

I Want My Kohlrabi

Another picture from early July.  This gives you an idea as to what happens when we pull in kohlrabi (for example) for a CSA harvest.  The cleaning/hydrocooling area was already full, so these had to wait a few minutes before we could work with them.

Kolibri is a hybrid purple kohlrabi and Winner is a white hybrid.  We find kolibri to be a bit quicker to be ready and also quicker to get pithy - especially in hot weather.  When peeled, both have a similar white color (the purple is only on the skin).  We also grow Early Vienna (an open pollinated white), Gigante (open pollinated, large white) and Superschmeltz (medium to large white).

The Olympics Should Have THIS Sort of Fencing
This picture is both ironic and an illustration of what happens when you have good friends.  Our 'Gang of Four' farm alliance group is again visiting each other's farms and doing a project.  the project on our farm was to start putting up a permanent pasture fence in the NorthWest and to try to finish the new hen room in the Poultry Pavilion.  The irony?  We're now frantically trying to get birds off of this pasture (see last photo).

Cough Cough.....Water!
We've spent many hours trying to get water to crops and to set up irrigation lines.  Below shows a picture of the pumpkins at about 11 am on July 22.  They're letting us know that they aren't liking things so much in this illustration.

We tried to keep the lettuce going.  But, hot dry weather makes it very difficult to get the transplants (or seeds) going without a high loss percentage.  This batch was planted just east of the sunflowers, which helped reduce the number of hours of hot sun.

On the other hand, the melons and watermelons are liking this weather (as long as we give them a drink now and again).

 

A bit of an idea as to how far irrigation spreads from a drip line.  Placing these lines well is one key to avoiding wasting alot of the water.

Crop Walk
Tomatoes all mulched and mostly caged/trellised by the end of July.  As always, some doing better than others and some trellised better than others.

The summer squash and zucchini have struggled in this weather and the root crops we threw in next to them really didn't germinate.  As a result, weeds got a foothold, requiring a significant weeding push.  Below is an illustration as to the piles of weeds we can manage to create.

Potatoes and beans.  Pretty clean in this picture.  Funny how it never seems to stay that way!

Butterbeans in the middle, surrounded by pea rows, then cucumber rows.  Picture is from July 22 - it looks NOTHING like this now.  It needs weeding...again.  And the cuke vines have started to really crawl.

Crops that tend to like warmer weather (in general) though too much heat at night can prevent fruit set are eggplant and peppers.  Looking very good on July 22.

More on Weather
This picture is east of the house (by our east fields) looking towards where the ducks have been kept for part of the season.  The boxy structure under the telephone pole took an unscheduled flight toward the fence corner at right in the picture.  Happily, it has undergone extensive repair and is back in use.

Normally we have some nice looking clover in the yard, the pastures and ditches.  This clover does not look so happy.

When we finally did get a little rain, it came with wind.  The sweet corn we had thoughts of harvesting decided to take a nap.  It has since twisted itself up vertical again.  Just a little harder to harvest - if the kernal formed for us...

How NOT to close a month out.

And, as you all likely know by now.  We were hit by an aerial sprayer on July 27.  It's hard to believe that it has been 2 weeks already.  The amount of energy we have expended on this situation has been significant.  Whether all of the energy used was productive or not is far from the point. 

Irony
The irony of the fencing is the fact that we spent time working on finally putting in a permanent fence and finishing a room to use the northwest pasture more efficiently.  The plane you see above is spraying that pasture.  As a result, we can't leave the birds there.  The other irony, if you see it, is the picture just 5 days prior to the spraying event showing our peppers, eggplant and beans.  I had intended to put a blog post out showing this field and using it to illustrate how we were working to keep thing producing in a drought.

Future Goal
We'd like to run out and get another series of pictures for August before it is September!  But, failing that....

Consider coming to Summer Fest this year on August 26!  More details in upcoming posts.

Farm Report August 6, 2012

Spray Issue Update

• We sent in samples to test for the four chemicals sprayed on our farm.  Testing results are supposed to be ready by August 16.  Cost is $1600.  Because we have support from our CSA Farm Share subscribers we were able to do this.  Trifloxystrobin, Chlorpyrifos, Bifenthrin, Prothioconazole are the chemicals being tested for.
• Rob picked about 185 eggplant for approximately 150 pounds of compost.  We continue to irrigate the area and plan to pick the plants and keep records until we get test results back.  If the results come back clean (unlikely) we will have kept the plants healthy so we can actually get something from them.  If they come back 'dirty' we'll have records we can use to show that the crop was looking good and was cared for.  A typical eggplant year sees us pulling in about 1400 eggplant - this picking shows we're on target.  A typical sweet pepper year has us pulling in 4000+ sweet peppers and 2000+ hot peppers.
• We have meetings with a couple of prospective lawyers for our case set up.  We are hopeful that this will be decided soon.
• We've moved the turkeys and their building to the east in an effort to get them off of sprayed pasture.  They're not all the way off, but most of the way.
• We've moved the hen pasture so that it also stretches east.  Again, it is not all the way off, but it's the intermediate step we can handle at this point.

Crop Report

•  Tomatoes - plants look good.  Tomato set was behind because of warmer weather - so the heavy harvest may be a bit later for us than it often is.  
•  cucumbers - the second succession is getting ready to set fruit.  We keep getting them water so they should keep going.  
• summer squash & zucchini - plants lived through the worst of the heat and dry.  They appear to want to make up for lax production, but we're not counting on it until they actually do it.  First succession has mostly died off.  second looks reasonable.  Third was largely destroyed by cucumber beetles and squash bugs before they started.  Fourth is in trays and will be put in soon.
• green beans - it is typical for the beans to give a peak, take a break and peak again.  They may be approaching a break.  We continue to irrigate to keep them as happy as we can have them.  Our planting we intended to fill the break is in the sprayed area, so we cannot harvest and share those beans.  So far, we are at about 400 lbs of beans harvested for the season.  Pretty happy with that.
• Potatoes - plants continue to look reasonably good.  We anticipate harvesting towards the end of August.  This is followed by a curing period before we distribute any.
• Winter squash is officially a loss.  We have some pie pumpkins that look good.  Unfortunately, the winter squash are in our worst field and they did not handle the drought. 
• Watermelons - look great.  Melons - pretty good.
• Onions - fair.  There will be some, but it will be a bit yet.

That's all for the report for now.  We'll try to be more thorough next time.

Start the Recovery NOW Tom Sawyer Day

Genuine Faux Farm work day. Come help us turn the page to more positive things. Projects range from unskilled weeding and field cleaning to semi-skilled to skilled construction or fencing work. The bulk of our workers will likely be there in the afternoon, but morning workers can be used as well.

Two opportunities:

Monday August  6 from 9am to 5pm
Wednesday August 8 from 9am to 5pm


We ask that you RSVP so we can plan for you.  We will have our normal work crew on those days as well.  If none of these times work, feel free to suggest something else (just not Tuesday or Thursday please) and we'll see if we can make it work.


Rob & Tammy

Time to Begin the Recovery - Project 2

Problem 2 - Crops unavailable to Farm Share CSA or to sell due to spraying

Heck - WE will not eat them either.   Status is this - we won't know for another 10 days what the tests say about contamination.  So - at the very least, we cannot count on anything for that period.  We have pretty much concluded that tests showing any levels of contamination will result in our condemning the crop for the season.  We will only change our mind if someone with proper credentials can convince us that the food is perfectly safe for anyone, regardless of health, age, etc to eat.  So - our operating assumption is this - we lose these crops for the season.

Our goal - find ways to replace the crops we lost so
   a) we give a good faith effort on behalf of our CSA Farm Share members to replace lost production
   b) we provide our farm with an opportunity to earn late season income with new crops.  (we do this at some level anyway...but this is a modification to the original season plan)

Action Plan
    1. Make certain current crops are 'clean' so that weed pressure, etc does not reduce these crops.  Improve water delivery system to these crops.
    2. Clean up some border areas and the garlic area to make the Fall production plan work better.
    3. Make a final assessment of our winter squash crop.  We are 90% certain this is lost due to draught conditions exacerbated by weeds and our poorest performing field.  It is possible that a weed crew may find a hold out area that could still succeed. 
    4. Pump up the Fall production plan.  Add in more Fall green beans, dry beans and peas.  Since they are legumes, even a failure to reach maturity gives us value as a plow down.  Run Fall carrot, beet, turnip, rutabega, radish, daikon, etc and other root crops at higher rates that previously planned.  Set up water delivery for each.  Increase the kohlrabi and cabbage plantings for the Fall.  Get the Fall pok choi and chinese cabbage stronger runs.  Take some gambles on some Fall greens that we would usually wait a little longer on, such as arugula, mustard greens, collards.  Fall broccoli, cauliflower, etc already planted in trays - assess if we should increase or run with what we have.  A gamble run of summer squash, zucchini and cucumber are started and are already germinating 24 hours later.  All of this requires that Rob evaluates his rotation plan so that changes do not impact future crops.  Many of these additions are gambles - if the Fall is warmer and longer, we win.  If it is not, we don't win.  We are working no more detail that is probably beyond what anyone wants to see here.
5. Prepare the Fall high tunnel location.  This includes removing some asparagus transplants (and getting the new asparagus bed ready for them), plowing in the cover and soaking the area down with water.  This was already on the docket for this week - but we have a few more things on that docket now.

What you can do to help us if you desire:
1. For the most part, we could use some help cleaning up some areas with respect to weeds/unwanted plants.  Don't take this wrong - but if we get help with the 'less skilled' tasks, then Tammy and I can spend more time on the 'skilled' tasks.  Or maybe it is more accurate to say that we could use help so that we can spend time on the things that require more decision making as the task is being done.
2. We have some poles to pound and fencing to tie up if someone wants to help, but can't stand doing vegetation removal.

Time to Begin the Recovery - Project 1

The season doesn't stop because things got turned topsy turvy on our farm.  The following gives you an idea as to our current plan(s) of action.

Problem 1: Birds in a contaminated pasture.

the Northwest pastures were hit most by the spray - with multiple passes crossing the boundary and a NNW wind moving it in.  We can still smell the chemicals if we brush against some of the bigger plants back there.  This is where our day range hens and turkeys reside.  If we wish to help them "detox" we have to move them away from there.  The sooner this happens, the sooner we should be able to begin selling eggs again.  Also, the sooner this happens, the more likely the turkeys will be able to grow up and become Thanksgiving dinner guests.  We'll decide what to do with the northwest pasture later.


Action Plan
Short term has Tammy and I moving the electric fence for the hens eastward.  The birds will still exit the north of the Poultry Pavillion, but we'll try to get them towards areas with less spray impact.  Obviously, the birds will go where they will within the fence, we can't MAKE them leave the area next to the building, so more will need to be done.
The turkeys will require a stepwise movement of the fence and their portable shelter north and then east until they are relatively close to our production field that has sunflowers, pumpkins and sweet corn.  We think we can execute both of these over 1 or 2 days.

Long term - the portable building was supposed to be temporary while we finished the room in the Pavillion.  But, now that we have to remove them from the pasture they would have used, we are looking to construct a better shelter for the turkeys that would reside East of the barn (yes, the barn that is slowly coming down).  To do this we must clean up that pasture east of the barn, identify a building site then build the shelter for the birds.  Fencing will need to be repaired or replaced.
Long term for the hens includes finishing the new hen room and working a southward opening.  We are more confident that our yard area south of the pavillion will be clean enough - especially if we run an overhead irrigation line for a while to help leach anything out that might be there.  To do this, we have to finish the new room, work on a ramp or exit over the old hog pit, remove tall ragweed and set up a new fence area - making sure to leave driving lines for the tractor and equipment AND leave a set back for the high tunnel area.

What kind of help could you provide?
Cleaning up the pasture and/or the area south of the poultry pavillion are both tasks that do not require a special skill set other than you should not be horribly allergic to ragweed!  Cutting down the tall weeds and removing them to compost would be helpful.  It also requires little oversight on our part - so if this job sounds like something for you, arrange with us to come at a time that is mutually agreeable and we can get you started.  It would be best if a few people did this at one time so it doesn't seem too overwhelming (many hands...).

If there are builders among you who are anxious for a project....
1. a building for the turkeys could be helpful to us.  It could be a semi permanent shelter - we are not currently married to any particular ideas.

2. help adapting the poultry pavillion to use the new exit plan
3. deconstruction and repair of the portable duck building could free us up to work on one of these other things.  This is a low key construction project that is also low risk and temporary.  It could be as simple as being the person who takes it apart most of the way so Rob can repair.
4. Fencing repair, replacement, etc.  We're not sure yet what this will entail.  We may try to get buy with buying more electric poultry netting.  But if there is someone who loves to do fence work, we can consider doing things differently. 

And finally - if we can get an area ready for the turkeys, we may need to do an old fashioned turkey wrangling to move them....

If interested in helping with any of this project over the next 10 days, please contact us at gff at genuinefauxfarm dot com.

Rob & Tammy

Spray Incident Update

First - thank you again for all who have offered support.

There is much to say, so we'll try to keep it concise.  This could be a long read.

What We've Done So Far

• Contacted State Pesticide Bureau - state inspector came out and took samples.  It will be 3 months before results are known.  A thank you to the Bureau and the inspector - both were kind, efficient and understanding.
• Contacted IDALS Organic Program - working with above.
• Contacted our liability insurance company - our thanks to our agents for being supportive and helpful, it is appreciated.  There is a suggestion that *IF* we should feel that eventually some of our crop can be harvested and distributed that the insurance company would feel better if we created "hold harmless" agreements for our farm share members to sign if they accept produce from these fields.  We understand the logic, but aren't sure we like it. 
• Contacted ISU poultry toxicologist.  Things are still up in the air regarding egg safety, etc.  The only solution offered was for us to send some eggs to Oregon for testing.  It was suggested that we may have to move all poultry from the sprayed fields if we want to promote the removal of these sprays from their systems.  As of this point, we are destroying all eggs that were produced after the spray event.  For now, the plan is to destroy eggs for at least ONE WEEK.  This comes to 35-40 dozen eggs minimum.   We still do not have any solid answers in this area.
• Identified a private lab that will test for pesticide and fungicide residue.  If we want answers prior to 3 months, this is necessary.  The only lab we found that would test for the chemicals used is in Oregon.  We took 5 samples and shipped them overnight (that's a pricey venture) and we should hear back in 10 days.  Cost for each sample is likely in the $350 range.  We'll know better in 10 days about cost and the results.
• We are in process identifying a lawyer who will work with us.  Some of tomorrow is slated for this process.
• We have done some of our own research on the chemicals used, some things we have found follows.
• Lorsban 4E has a setback from harvest of 40 days for green peppers.  That means for this chemical we could harvest peppers starting September 9.  However, the other chemicals are not rated for peppers, so that likely means we cannot harvest these peppers.
• The chemicals have field worker reentry periods of 24 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours.  What that means is this - after an area is sprayed workers are supposed to stay out of the field during this period according to the USE LABELS of these products.  
• Use instructions indicate aerial application is to occur within 10-15 feet of the deck (above the crop).  We have clear pictures showing the plane near the top of our harvestore with application spray running.  That puts them at 45 feet approximately - and over our property line to boot. 
• Bifenthrin is listed as highly toxic to bees. (Sniper)
• Lorsban has toxic qualities for birds also for bees.
•  Lorsban use label specifically states: "Treatment of plants that are under extreme drought stress may result in some crop damage."
• We spent valuable worker time thoroughly cleaning every cooler and container used for transportation, picking and hydrocooling of produce.  We cleaned all of our green carts and each of the surfaces that are used for cleaning and packing.  The rule of thumb used was this - "your best friend is allergic to one of the chemicals we were sprayed with.  This must be clean enough that your friend will be safe."  Anden and Jorden spent 2 1/2 hours on this project and did a fabulous job. 

I had to put that last one in there.

I am sure there is much more we've been doing and I'm not sure what we've reported and what we have not reported at this stage. 

Things it looks like we'll need to do:

• Odds are high (90%) that we'll condemn all crops in the Southwest field.
• Odds are moderately high (60%) that we'll condemn all crops in the high tunnel.
• Odds are high (75%) that the bees will die off enough that they will fail to survive the Winter.  Odds are even (50%) that they'll die before that.  It is doubtful at this point as to weather any of the honey will be consumable by humans.
• Odds are reasonably high that we'll be throwing out 2 weeks of eggs or more.  
• We will need to remove our birds from the northwest pasture in order to help them clear their systems.  It sounds like one of the products is systemic (which means some of the plants they might eat will be contaminated for some time).  
• Two of our compost piles cannot be used in our fields for a couple years.
• Our high tunnel and southwest fields lose organic certification for 3 years - this includes one of our asparagus patches and perennial spices.

How you can help?

The following is in the formative stages.  If you have interest in helping with any of the following, please contact us and we'll try to figure out whether we can follow through and how we hope to do so.  Please - don't offer if you can't do it.  But, if you think you can help, tell us.  We are not entirely comfortable with asking, but we could use a boost right now.

1. We need to move turkeys and laying hens on the farm.  This means some pasture cleanup of some big weeds, fixing some fences, maybe even putting up new fences.  It also means that we could use some construction help with building either a portable hen building or a stationary building for turkeys.  Pasture cleanup could use a crew of 3-6 with no specific skill set required.  Fence work is probably better if at least one member of a group has some knowledge of the process.  Clearly, building does have some skill sets required. 
2. The duck shelter was damaged in wind recently and it needs to be deconstructed and reconstructed.
3. We have had offers of certified organic product for our CSA from Scattergood Friends School Farm (West Branch), Grinnell Heritage Farm (Grinnell) and G It's Fresh (Cresco area).  While we have not decided what we will do and how we will do it, it would be helpful to know if there are volunteers who are willing to play 'delivery person' and help us get produce from any of these places
4. A couple of areas still need a good, old fashioned weeding session.  A good batch of volunteers working together could make lighter work of it.  Can we get a volunteer crew to attack a couple of 'problem areas' in the next week to 10 days.  None of the areas being considered will have been in the spray zone.
5. One possible solution for the hens will be to do work on the poultry pavillion and open up an exit to the South and fencing off an area south of the building.  This could be another construction/deconstruction project we could do to respond to this situation.
6. If someone is interested in some small engine work - both lawn tractors needs a little attention about now.  It's hard enough scheduling our time to get to them, but now it looks like we won't get to them at all.  If someone feels comfortable working on them and is willing to help, let us know.  One JD lawn tractor in particular could possibly need a bit more attention than fluids and filters.  For that matter, even Durnik is approaching time for oil change, etc. 

Even a little help on a couple of fronts would mean much to us.  We don't expect everything on this list to be covered - but we provide it in case something really fits you.

Also, be patient with us.  Our priorities have had to shift drastically on the farm in the last few days and we're still trying to settle on the best strategy as we learn more about what we're dealing with.  There are still many unanswered questions here.  A big part of our questions have to do with how these chemicals degrade in vegetation, how they might degrade plastics (high tunnel cover) and how long they remain in poultry and human systems.  Thus far, we can find half life numbers for break down in soil, water and air - but not in the things we are explicitly concerned about.

Next Steps

We are now taking steps to get past the aerial spraying incident of Friday.  The following includes information for our CSA members and others interested in the food we grow.

•      We just had a state inspector come and take samples from our farm, including the shirt and hat Rob was wearing during the spraying incident.  The good news - this is done.  The bad news - it will likely take 3 months before we know anything from them.  I'm afraid the peppers will not still be alive November 1st.  So, we still have to find a private tester.  (sigh)
•         We have contacted the state Pesticide Bureau, the state Organic Program and the state Sensitive Crops directory.  They are all on the case.  We have also contacted the FAA, who took interest when Tammy told them Rob had been hit with spray.  We have also had a return call from Harkin's office.  This last would be a policy oriented call.  We've made calls for other reasons, but this is a first return call we've had.
•          We know who the pilot was and the company that owned the plane.  We know the agent who contracted the spraying and we know the farm that contracted for the job.  All have been contacted informally.
•           We have the GPS records that show the plane clearly hit our property with spray.  We also have digital pictures that show the questionable routing/spraying.
•           We know the three chemicals used (Sustane, Stratego and Lorsban) - two pesticides and one fungicide
•           We know that Rob will be on Prednisone for a bit.  So watch out!  It can make people loopy we are told!
•           We are looking for a lawyer to represent us.  We continue to take suggestions and have received a few up to the present.
•           We still do not have answers regarding the poultry.  We don't know if the eggs are safe.  We don't know if the turkeys will be safe to eat.  No one seems willing to give us an answer at this point.  It is possible that we will hold eggs back this week until we get an answer.  The consensus of speculation by 'non-experts' is that this should work through the turkey's system before they are of an age to 'go to the park.'  Similarly, there is thought that the hens will also work it out of their system.  I have to believe this because I need to believe I can also work it out of MY system.
•           We know that it may be a bit before we are sure whether we can or cannot use produce from the SW field.  We also know it may take a while before we know if the high tunnel produce can be given to you to eat.  We were hoping to get more specific information more quickly.  As a result, you will NOT be receiving anything from either of these areas until we can get more information.  You will NOT be receiving any peppers, hot peppers, okra, eggplant from us at all - though you may get some if we get an all clear at some point BEFORE the season ends.  Things in the high tunnel included green beans, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, rosemary and peppers, including most of our papricka peppers.  We're not sure when - or if we'll be able to use anything from here either.  But, because it was covered, there is more of a chance.  Unless, the simple fact that it doesn't rain in there prevents natural filters.  We simply don't know what - if anything - we will be able to use.
•           We received a generous offer from our friends at Grinnell Heritage Farm.  If we cannot provide you with peppers and eggplant, they have offered to provide some so you get a taste.  We are considering this option, among other things.  GHF is certified organic as well and we trust them.  They don't grow the same varieties we grow, but what they grow is grown well.

Conclusion:

 We are very sorry that you have to hear all of this.  We'd rather be writing about little tidbits regarding the farm and life in general.  However, we believe that it is VERY IMPORTANT that you hear what is going on.  If you walk away with anything on this it should be the following:
1. All of the produce we give to you (until or unless we get good news from these other fields) will be from areas that were NOT affected by the spraying incident.  We are confident that they are clean and healthy, just as they always have been.  These areas will continue to be certified organic.
2. We will not give you any produce from the affected areas until we find out that they are safe.  If we cannot ascertain this, we will destroy the crops and start something else..  We will not knowingly give you anything that might cause ANY ONE of you problems.
3. If we should be able to being harvesting from the affected areas, they will NO LONGER be certified organic.  We know the area was sprayed.  We saw it.  That area will not be certified organic again for three years.
4. You will receive all 20 weeks of your CSA on schedule as promised.  We will do everything we can to give you the best shares of produce that we can provide you. 

Thank you for reading.  If you have questions, please feel free to ask.  However, it may be best to ask us in person during the distribution.  We are receiving a high volume of email right now and may not be able to respond to everyone.

Collateral Damage

ed: The following was typed and not published on friday...er... Saturday, July 28.  I opted not to publish until I had time to think on it more and edit out anything that was too much a product of passion and anger or of too little use making the point.

It is 1:20 AM and I am still awake.  The reality is that I'm letting events from this evening keep me awake.

Watch out - there is a rant coming.  My apologies in advance.  However, I actually felt that it would be instructive to publicize how it feels to do the work we do and then have to deal with an aerial spraying mishap.  I am not asking for a lot of sympathy.  I am asking that you read.  I am asking that you try to understand how this felt for us.  Then, I am asking that you begin thinking about how WE can effect change to prevent this from happening again - here or elsewhere. 


If you haven't received an email from us yet, or you haven't read the post below, we were hit by an aerial sprayer today.  The irony of this is that I mentioned in a post a little further down (On My Mind) that the dry weather had basically discouraged our neighbors from doing a lot of spraying.  Then, of course, we got that nice .9" rain that came at the price of some wind damage for us.  As soon as we got that, I told myself we might see the spraying again.  But, I thought that we would continue to have good fortune with neighbors trying to do their best to not allow drift on us.  I was, apparently, wrong about that.

I don't want to sound too negative or too unreasonable here.  People are trying to do their jobs and earn their living.  People make mistakes.  I do not dislike my neighbor, though I might have a hard time being civil if they were to catch me at the wrong moment.  It doesn't help to demonize others who have done something that has harmed you.

However

1. If I walked up to someone I didn't know with an unmarked aerosol can and began spraying it in his or her face and then quickly run away, isn't it likely I'd be charged with assault.
2. How do you quantify how you feel when you begin reading safety labels for the chemicals you've been sprayed with and one says you should wash/scrub thoroughly in running water....for 20-25 minutes.
3. How should I feel as I read that some of these chemicals are VERY explicit in stating that "Workers should not enter sprayed areas for 24 hours (2 chemicals that hit us) or 48 hours (1 chemical that hit us)?"   If I am not the applicator's worker, was it okay that I had to LIVE in it for the following 48 hours?
4. There is a sensitive crops directory.  We are on it - three times.  Cert Organic, bees and orchard.  Frankly, I am amazed there isn't one for FOOD CROPS.  They waited until after 6pm because REGULATIONS state that they cannot spray soy beans until then if there are bees being kept within 2 miles.  They waited - so they were aware - or were at least somewhat aware that we had something to watch out for. But, how does spraying as close to the hives as you can get prevent damage to the bees? 
5. What would happen to me if I took a brush hog and took out a similar cash value of crop in my neighbors field?  I'd be taken in for criminal trespass, wouldn't I?  Would I have a valid excuse if I just told them I was tired and didn't notice I'd run through a fence and started chopping their soybeans?  Or that I found a map that made it look like it was the area I was supposed to mow?
6. Those who apply chemicals are trained in how to handle them.  They are trained to wear gloves, masks, etc when they are filling or cleaning out tanks or applicators.  They are doing a job with these and they prepare to do that work.  We weren't given the opportunity to have the same protection, nor were we given a choice.  There is a reason applicators are trained and wear protective clothing - these chemicals can be dangerous.  If that is the case, then why are we all so blase' about chemical drift onto farmhouses near these fields?  Why do the edges of towns mean little?
7. If you were here and saw the turkeys and hens running around madly when the plane was buzzing us, you would not say there was no real impact on their well-being.  If we were growing cornish cross meat birds, you can bet your boots half of them would be down with heart attacks after that. 
8. If we can prove this situation effectively, I suppose it is possible we can get some monetary compensation for lost crops, etc.  But, it doesn't cover what I'm feeling right now.  It won't cover the hours of time this evening that we lost when we were going to do something else.  Tammy was going to do a little green bean picking.  Never mind.  Rob was going to get some containers, etc put away.  Nope.  It doesn't cover the possibility that we will not go on our planned 1 night away - something we have not done since March.  It does not cover the fact that we are going to have to re-wash all of the towels that were on the line.  It doesn't cover that I have to re-clean all of the containers that were drying outside.  It doesn't cover that we have to research what we have to clean them WITH or HOW MUCH to get them clean enough to use on food again.  And it won't cover all of the time and energy we will now use over the next however many days or weeks or months to figure out what we have to do about this.
9. Another thing this does not cover.  One of the hardest things we deal with is replacing CSA memberships that are not renewed the next season.  And, no matter how nice we are, how hard we work and how much people say they support us - if our product does not give value, people will not return.  This event hampers our ability to give that value, at least in our eyes.  We have a very complex plan for making sure we have good value each week, the things that got hit were an important part of the next phase of CSA Farm Shares.  Sure - we'll still do fine, but....  
10. We appreciate the support people are giving to us.  Thank you.  Some have even suggested that they will eat our peppers with confidence because they feel they will only have been sprayed 'once' vs commercial peppers.  But, here's why this is more serious.  The chemicals being sprayed here are generally not rated for FOOD CROPS.   And, if they are, the rating is ridiculous.  40 days BEFORE HARVEST of green peppers.  So, what do we do about all the peppers that were ready to pick this week, next week and every week until September 9?  How do we fill the CSA boxes as much as we planned and hoped without the eggplant and peppers?  It is 60 days prior to cucumber harvest.  NOTE:  most cucumbers mature between 40-60 days of transplant.  So, you'd have to apply pre-emergent or transplant...
11. In short, we cannot draw an equivalence between pesticides and fungicides used on commodity crops and food crops.  So - we wait until testing is done and the Pesticide Bureaus gives us an official position.
12. I was mostly recovered from a cold.  I've now had two nights in a row where I've had trouble breathing/sleeping.  While there are other factors, I can tell you, as an asthmatic, that triggers such as chemicals, dusts and anxiety can all make it worse.  I'll be visiting a doctor on Monday to see what we can do.
13. Now that we've had this event, we find that we have to add a substantial list of "things to do" for the coming week.  many of you have suggested that you would love to help.  But, how do you help with some of these things?  You can't answer the questions the Pesticide Bureau, Sensitive Crops Directory and Organic Certification people will need answers to, so you can't handle that for us.  Thank you for offers.  We will let people know as we learn what can be helpful to us.
14. We've received some email, posts, etc regarding possible legal action.  We will explore what must be done.  Most of you have been kind, indignant on our behalves, supportive and have given some reasonably specific action ideas and we thank you.  There have been kind phone calls.  However - we've gotten a couple of things that sound way too happy about the possibility that NOW we can really take it to "THEM" because the Genuine Faux Farm will be loaded for bear and won't it be great to teach "THEM" a lesson.  Hey.  We never asked to be your poster children on this.  We're hurting and we're painfully aware that there are real people on all sides of the problem.  If you want to gloat about how we can make them pay - do it on your own time to someone else.  If you have real support to help us do what should be done, bring it on - but be respectful about it.  In the end, it will be successful if some changes are made to make working in the country, as we do, safe again.
15.  Perhaps the worst collateral damage from this event?   We actually DID take our night off.  We drove to the Twin Cities and saw a game.  The Twins beat on the Indians - so with our 'fan hats' on, we were happy.  We spent a night in a hotel up there too.  Never mind that Rob was a bit short of breath on and off and did not sleep for much of the night.  That would have happened on the farm too.  The worse damage is that I (and I will not speak for Tammy on this one) did NOT want to come back to the farm.  At this moment, I do NOT want to do this anymore.  I do NOT want to deal with legal proceedings, pesticide tests and confrontations with neighbors with big equipment full of poisons.  I do NOT want to weed, irrigate, plant or pick. 

Why is this so disturbing to me?  Because even though I often work hard and there have been stressful events every season we have done this, I have genuinely felt that I was doing something positive, useful and of value.  I was doing this work for good, supportive people.  The work is good, honest work.  It is diverse.  It runs the gamut from highly skilled to mundane.  I can solve puzzles and test hypotheses.  Despite it all, I was actually feeling pretty upbeat about the way this season was setting up.  I felt like we were making good decisions and that there were some positive results from our efforts.

And, after one fairly short event on a Friday evening, I want to mow it all down, sell the place and move away.

Now that I've typed this, I can move on.  I'll begin the process of setting myself up to face the problem and do what we can to make things better.  I may not want to, but I'm going to.

Aerial Spray Incident

This is not one of our regularly scheduled CSA emails.

We are a certified organic farm and we are proud to grow certified organic produce for you.

However, at approximately 6:50pm on Friday, July 27 a plane applying Lorsban, Sniper and Stratego tried to apply to the field to our north and west. The wind at the time was low, but still there. It was out of the NNW. Not only was the application bound to drift some because of this wind, the applicator did not turn off the spray when they flew over the farm.

The short story is this. The pasture with our turkeys and laying hens were hit with spray. It was still daylight, so the birds were outside. The plane took a path over the poultry building and continued to spray. The bee hives were directly in this path. The high tunnel was also in the path, as is our field with the peppers, eggplant, some green beans, some dry beans and all of the okra. We still smell the spray around our house 3+ hours later. Rob was also outside and felt droplets of the chemicals land on him as well.

We are doing all that we can to pursue this issue. Of course, this occurred on a Friday evening - so no one is readily available to help us.

What does this mean for you and for the farm?

1. We will have testing done to see what is affected and how much. We have questions out to try to deal with it.
2. It is likely that we will lose organic certification for our SW field.
3. It is likely we will lose organic certification for the high tunnel's east field. It is possible we closed up the high tunnel soon enough to save the crops in the tunnel now.
4. We have questions out to determine what we can still harvest out of the SW field and high tunnel. Best case is we spend alot of time cleaning the fruit with whatever is necessary. Worst case is we cannot give you anything from those fields. Please, no jokes about whether you like or dislike any of the particular crops that were hit, we are not in the mood for that right now.
5. We also have questions out to determine how we need to clean up things that were outside during the spray. We will do all we can to insure that you will not get any residue from the spray in anything we distribute to you.
6. We have questions out regarding what we need to do with the hens, turkeys and ducks.

We are, understandably, very upset by this. We're upset on your behalf and we're upset for ourselves.

We will keep you informed as we learn more. We're not sure what recourse we have at this time, but it is possible that we will ask for some future support in this issue.

Rob and Tammy

Quick Farm Report

Very quick farm report.

Rain
We got 9 tenths of an inch of rain last night (7/25).  It was welcomed, even if it brought some fairly heavy wind.  Came down pretty quick, but the soil was ready for it.  Even had a few puddles on the drive until about 7:30 am. 

Wind
The wind rolled our portable duck shelter (apparently too portable?) until it rolled over the electric fence and rammed the gate on a permanent fence.  Only minor injury to one duck.  Irritated humans up very late trying to arrange things for critters.  Not sure if fixing the shelter or building new is best right now.  We had some crop damage and have a big limb down in front of the house (got to see that come down during the day, prior to the storm).  Even the stainless steel sink/counter was blown over - that...and the porta-pot.  Happily no one was resident at the time.

Quick Crop Reports
About 1/4 of the peppers were down, but it looks like we only lost 2 plants entirely to the wind.  There are a few that may still end on us, but that happens.  Eggplant are getting going, but still the plants are awfully small to be thinking about giving us much.
The sweet corn is all down.  We don't grow it specifically for the CSA and it gets low priority.  But, this year it was looking really good.  When we don't get sweet corn (most years) we buy from local sources and freeze a bunch.  We were hopeful to get our own this time.  In fact, they were looking so good that Rob made the mistake of thinking there would be enough to share with others... not likely now.
Pie pumpkins loved the rain and were protected by the corn and sunflowers.  Summer squash and zucchini needed the real rain badly.  If the plants rejuvenate, cooler temps should encourage them to pollinate properly.  Cucumbers love a good rain.  The problem is the wind/heavier rain buried many of the ripe fruit halfway into the mud.  Peas are surprising us with a late crop.  Green beans may hit a lull after this first batch.  Generally plants are fine.  Potatoes were flattened by the wind.  Other than showing us the weeds better, I don't think this will hurt them much.  Makes it harder to navigate the field.  Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels, cabbage, etc were blown around a bit by the wind, with many plants laying down.  Again, the plants will grow through it, but it makes walking the field, weeding, picking, etc that much harder.  These will not take to being stood back up.  Onions loved the rain.  Though some were a bit mashed under broccoli.  Tomatoes have slowed a bit.  It looks like we need to get more water on them than we've been doing at this point - but the key is likely the night time temps.  Needs to be a bit cooler to set fruit more regularly.  Many tomatoes need to be tamed again after the wind.  Melons and watermelon think life is good, but want weeds removed soon.  Lettuce has been fighting hot and dry and had the indignity of sunflowers falling on them.  We'll see.  Chard and kale both need the break in the heat.  Rain is good too.  A fair amount of leaf damage that they'll grow out of.  It was the rain and the reduction in heat that they really needed so we'll take that hit gladly.  Turnip and beet crops are overtaken by weeds.  Probably not saving this batch.  Rain makes it possible to seed new.  Carrots never germinated, so we have to try again.  Basil is still waiting to go in the ground.  It's been so dry it is easier to keep them in the cold frames to keep them alive, but the clock is ticking on them.  Tiger Eye beans are our 'butterbeans' this year.  They are looking pretty good.  Not sure what the yield will be.  In general, the dry beans look fine, if a little beaten up by wind.  Winter squash need weeding badly and needed water badly.  We'll try to save at least the butternuts.  Death by cucumber beetle and squash bug reduced the priority on this field.  Sometimes you have to make choices you don't like.  But, we'll still try to get something out of it.

Not Claiming to Know A Thing

The Genuine Faux Farm has existed since 2005, when we put together our first CSA season.  We worked about 1 acre of ground and succeeded in probably using half of that.  To our credit we had several years of serious gardening background and a desire to make local food work and we managed to sign up 20 families to take a share from us that season.  Of that group, there are five who are still with us this year!

Fast forward and you find us with 114 CSA farm share members.  We've been certified organic since 2007 and we now have approximately 5 acres of land worked for vegetables or cover crops to prepare for later vegetable crops.  There is no way we could have foreseen this when we started.  Our original business plan called for us to be at a maximum 40 members in 2008 and hold at that number.   There were no formulated plans for turkeys, ducks or meat chickens, just a few hens.

Here's the strange thing about all of this.  We seem to have this fuzzy recollection of fairly normal growing years in 2005 and 2006.  There were some warm days, cool days, frosts, dry weather and wet weather - but all in their good measure.  The next year, 2007, was actually a wonderful growing year UNTIL....late August/early September.  We got a whole bunch of rain in a very short period of time.  And the roller coaster ride began.

Mother Nature apparently felt a lesson needed to be taught.  Ok.  She felt a whole BUNCH of lessons needed to be presented.  Or maybe hammered into our heads.

It was in 2007 that we learned we have land where the water table is high.  Excessive rain can sit on our fields.  We learned that it only takes 10 days of sitting water to rot out all of your potato crop that was ready to come out of the ground.  We also watched while our green beans, full of fruit turned to brown mush.  Rob also learned that he can mistake a ball of mud for a boot on his foot.  It took a while to find that boot.  We also started to learn how to tell people that a crop we had counted on giving them in their shares was gone.  Frankly, we weren't very good at it - and maybe we still aren't - but we've learned to be more straightforward about it.

You would think we would try to do something to address this problem in 2008.  But, we were still relatively new to the scene and still dealing with the pains of growing to a small farm from a large garden.  There is a very real and distinct difference between the two - and part of the difference has to do with the investment in tools and supplies.  That, and we had a tendency to believe that each year was a new season and that the Fall event of 2007 was an isolated event.  The lesson we took from the prior year was that we'd go ahead and pull potatoes if it seemed that a string of heavy rain events were headed our way later in the Summer or early Fall.

Here's the crazy part of all of this.  We'd never had a potato crop failure prior to 2007 in any of our gardening or early farming exploits.  And, since then, we've had more failures due to wetness in the last several years than we've had success.  Although, we did have a season where we pulled in 3000 pounds of yummy taters.

So, finally in 2012, we are able to acquire the equipment necessary to help create row hills or semi-raised beds.   The idea is to bring the potatoes up over the water table so they do not rot away on us.  The down side, of course, is that if you have drought conditions, they will get dry and need water faster than if they were in a flat ground situation.

Implement it - and the rain goes away.  So, we continue to run drip irrigation water on the potatoes in hopes that they will bulk up anyway.  We won't know until we dig them.  But, most of the plants look fine - if a little drier than we want them to at this point. 

We're beginning to think we should take the "Sgt Schultz" approach from now on.  "I know nothing. Nooooothing!"   Perhaps Mother Nature will make the tests a little less difficult in hopes that we'll show some aptitude?

Now, before you all get overly worried.  We are still looking at a potato crop coming in this year.  We'll let you know if that changes.  But, if we get a bunch of rain, they'll be up higher than were a few years ago.

The Joy of Good Food!

Mom: We have the really yellow eggs today from Rob and Tammy!
Child: The dark lellow oke?
M: Yup, so if you want an oatcake for breakfast it will be nice and yellow.
C: Yeah!!
M: Which egg should we use today? Brown, white, or green?
C: The green one!!
M: Remember the chickens on Rob and Tammy's farm that lay the green eggs?

Etc.
============================
Obviously, we were honored that this conversation was shared with us (some time ago this Summer).  But, this means more to us than a compliment to our hens for producing good tasting (and good for you) eggs.

We are hopeful that more parents converse with their children about the food they eat, where it comes from, who grew/raised it, how it was grown/raised, what processing went into it between the producer and the consumer and what is good or not so good about it.

Clearly, we have a vested interest in it.  We focus on growing food for local consumption and we do care what you think about it.  We hope you are satisfied with what we do and how we do it.  In fact, we are honored that so many of you actually care about what we do to raise good, healthy and safe food.  But, that's not the only reason we find the above conversation (and others like it) to be so important.

A conversation with a child about something as pervasive as food is a good way to teach them that it is important to think about things we often take for granted.  It encourages curiosity and a willingness to learn.   It establishes a positive habit that knowing a bit more about the things you buy is a good thing.

Have a good remainder of the weekend everyone!