Muscovy Ducks - Mmmmm!

Now available from the Genuine Faux Farm:
Pasture raised Muscovy duck.



Muscovy are preferred by many chefs due to the low fat content and excellent flavor.  In fact, Muscovy duck have less fat content than Peking duck, turkey, lamb, beef and pork.  These ducks also have higher protein levels than other ducks, lamb, beef and pork.  Muscovy's have an average of 50% more breast meat than other ducks. 

Our birds are raised humanely.  In addition to foraging, these birds are provided with a feed mix with organic grains by Frantzen Farms in New Hampton.  The birds love to dunk their head in water and have very sharp claws on their feet that make catching them a challenge.  The drakes (males) are usually about twice the size of the hens (females) at maturity. 

We have hens that average 4.5 pounds and drakes that average 8.5 pounds.  These are available to all who are interested.  You may reserve a bird and indicate whether you would prefer a hen or a drake.  Price for hens is $6.75/lb and drakes are $6.50/lb.  You may reserve a duck by signing up at Hansen's Outlet or by sending an email to gff@genuinefauxfarm.com

Ducks are available for arranged pick up at this time.

Edible Portion		% Protein	% Fat	Calories/lb
	Guinea Hen	23.4	8.9	717
	Rabbit	20.8	4.5	795
	Veal	19.1	12.0	840
	Chicken	20.0	17.9	810
	Muscovy Drake	18.9	18.0	930
	Muscovy Hen	21.1	18.3	950
	Turkey	20.1	20.0	1,190
	Lamb	15.7	27.7	1,420
	Beef	16.3	28.0	1,440
	Peking Duck	16	28.6	1,015
	Pork	11.9	45.0	2,050

 (source: USDA handbook #8 and circular #549, leclercq 1985)

Collateral Damage - About 8-9 Weeks Later

It has now been several weeks since the aerial spraying incident on our farm.  And, of course, we have moved on with our work on the farm (and Tammy at school).  We are fully aware that there are so many things that happen in the world that are so much worse and we have worked hard to keep our perspective and to maintain a positive attitude.

But, even now, we are discovering how this event effects us.  And, we are bothering to share this with everyone because we believe it is important to share how we feel so you can understand how this can impact farms and farmers who do what we do.  Again, it isn't because we like the attention.  It isn't because we want sympathy.  It is because we you need to learn what misapplication of chemicals does to those who are victims when it happens.
------
The weeks immediately after the spraying were filled with earnest discussions between Tammy and I, all of them orbiting around a careless action that resulted in a bit of heartache for us.  What did we need to do next?  Were any of the crops going to be edible?  What do we do with our poultry?  Does anyone know what the next steps are?  Can anyone confirm anything with respect to food safety and this spraying?  Are there health issues we need to be aware of?  What will the lab results be?  If we meet our farming neighbors at the store, will they acknowledge us or this event?  How will we adjust the CSA shares?  How does this change our budget?  Our plans?  Will we have energy for the extended season shares?  What do we say to people when they ask us about this?  Is it even fair for us to be this upset when others we know are dealing with far more serious situations?  How can we take this situation and turn it around into a positive action?

I could probably bore you with a list of questions we grappled with that is two to three times longer than the sample above.  Some of the questions have answers that we are comfortable with now.  Others are still being asked and researched.  Others may never be answered.

Recently, I had the opportunity to show our legal representative around the farm.  I must admit that I've avoided the Southwest field since I last picked in order to get some records and pictures.  Why spend time on a lost cause when there is so much to do?   As I took my guest to that field, I was prepared to simply see lots of weeds.  Which I did.  But, I also saw lots of fruit on those pepper plants.  Even after the picking I did a few weeks prior.  It's about at that point that I realized that I'm no where near being "over it" and "ready to move on" as I thought I was.

I was able to pick a picture perfect yellow bell pepper.  I saw purple bell pepper plants that were covered.  The Jimmy Nardello's Frying Pepper plants are loaded and the eggplant looked like we could have been giving everyone a couple each week for the past few weeks.  I noted that the dry beans in that field are covered with pods asking to be picked and the green beans would have made our quest for 1000 pounds for the year be more likely to be a quest for 1500 pounds.  I saw all of this while knowing that we had made arrangements to secure peppers from Grinnell Heritage Farm and G It's Fresh(thank you to both!) so that we could give some to our CSA members. 

I don't know anymore if I'm angry, depressed, disappointed or what.  Maybe all of the above.  But, I do know that something is wrong when so many people I meet have their own stories of encounters with aerial sprayers that cannot seem to contain their spraying to the fields they were hired to cover.  There is something wrong when farmers can contract with someone else, who then hires someone else, to do chemical applications in their fields - and it isn't done with increased precision, efficiency or care despite the argument that this should place the application into the hands of an 'expert.'

But, this is neither here nor there with respect to how things are going on the farm right now.   Here are some answers to some of the questions we have been asked:

1. How is Rob doing?  We understand he was hit with chemicals.
Thank you to all who have been concerned.  There were some symptoms, including breathing issues immediately afterward that made it very difficult to do work.  However, there are no chronic issues.

2. Is someone going to compensate you?
At some point, we expect the legal process to complete and hope that our losses will be compensated.  We are expecting the process may take around 2 years to complete.  For the time being, we'll just have to deal with the financial shortfalls and do what we have to do.

3. Were you able to harvest any of the sprayed crops? 
No.  We harvested some for record keeping (to show we had a crop to lose).  Then threw it all in the compost pile that was also sprayed.  This included the loss of all of the crops in the high tunnel.

4. What does this do to your Organic Certification?
We lose certification in the fields that were sprayed ONLY.  WE lose it for three years.  This means we lose the Southwest fields, the high tunnel and the area around it.  Our pastures will not be certified organic either.  Happily, the majority of our field production is in the East fields.  These we will be able to certify as before.  What this DOES mean is that we will have to track both organic and non-organic crops.  We'll have to clean things that are used in both areas and make sure labeling is clear.

5. How are the birds?
We have lost a few birds since the spraying.  However, we are not willing to spend the money to have autopsies done to confirm loss due to the spraying.  This might have been a different story if we'd lost many birds.  But, the small number of losses could be due to anything from old age (older laying hen) to clumsiness (a turkey fell off of its roost).  The birds were moved off of the sprayed pastures and we are just now moving them back onto their pastures.  The toxins should now be worked out of their systems and we are now selling eggs again.  The turkeys will be available for sale at the end of October.

6. Is there anything we can do?
Yes!  Continue to support our farm by purchasing our product and continue to support local food sources and certified organic food sources of all sorts.  Ask questions about how things are raised and grown wherever you get your food.  Challenge yourselves to do a better job of eating well - even as we do the same.

And...read, understand and be ready to help make positive changes.

Gotta Love Heirloom Tomatoes

 Amish Paste

 Black Krim

Druzba

German Pink

 Gold Medal

Golden Sunray

 Green Zebra

Moonglow

Nebraska Wedding


 Opalka

Ponderosa Red

Powers Heirloom

Red Zebra

Redfield Beauty

Rutgers

Speckled Roman

Tasty Evergreen

 
Tommy Toe 

 

 Trophy

Wapsipinicon Peach

Wisconsin 55

Upcoming Events

A very direct news post (how terribly rare!)

Waverly Farmers Market
     200 block of 1st Ave SE.  From 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM on Saturday, Sept 22.  We will be there.  Please come visit us.  We will have tomatoes - probably lots and lots of them.  We should have some kale and cabbage.  We will pick whatever we have of summer squash and zucchini (low temp of 30 forecast for Sat night).

Tom Sawyer Day with Food
     Saturday, Sep 22.  2pm to 5pm (or so).  We anticipate feeding workers - but we need an RSVP so we know who is coming.  Plan is to harvest dry beans.  If we get enough workers we will do some other things (like pull the cucumber vines out). 

Ducks Go To Park
  Monday, Sep 24 - available to you Wednesday, Sep 26.  Time to reserve the birds.  Price is $6.75/lb - same as last year. 

Sign Up for 2013
  We'll make it easy for you if you are a CSA member.  We'll have a list at the distribution.  You check off that you want to join for 2013 and make a $25 deposit.  then you have a spot reserved.  If you are not a CSA member, we'll have material for you to fill out and reserve a spot if you wish.
   Sign up for next year will begin next week and go until we have filled all slots.

GF7 - Genuine Faux Farm Fall Festival and Fetid Fruit Fling
  Our fall festival is Saturday, October 6.  Mark the date on your calendar.  More details as we get closer.

Final Farm Share CSA Week
  Week 20 falls on the week of October 14.  So, the last scheduled delivery dates are as follows:
Waverly, Oct 16.  Tripoli, Oct 17. Cedar Falls, Oct 18.

Extended Fall Season CSA
   We are still working on how this will work this season.  Events this year threw a wrench into the works and we're still trying to figure it out.  There will be something, interested persons, please be patient and keep an eye out for details.

Turkeys To the Park
   I believe they are scheduled to go at the end of October.  It would not hurt to reserve your bird at this time.  Price is $3.75/lb.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww!

Chicks newly hatched on the farm this weekend.

The Iowan

Our friend, Josh Dolezal, recently had an article published by The Iowan.

It just so happens that Genuine Faux Farm is one of four farms featured in this article along with Blue Gate Farm, Grinnell Heritage Farm and Scattergood Friends School Farm.

http://www.iowan.com/read/sepoct_2012/old_ways_new_faces/

Faces familiar to those of you who follow us, are CSA members or know us somehow, will be on page 6.  But, we encourage you to read about each farm.  We are honored to be included in an article with these people.

If you are trying to figure out why you may have heard of each of these farms prior to this point, you may have read that we have farm visit days with three other farms.

These be them!

And, CSA folk, you have received produce from Scattergood and Grinnell Heritage this season.  Both were able to help us out when we lost crops to the spraying.  And, since we lost most of our garlic seed this year to disease, we will be buying Blue Gate Farm garlic.  So, you get a little bit of each farm through us.

Rob & Tammy

Where the Wind Blows (and other things farm related)

We must be moving out of Summer and into Fall.  The winds are starting to get their bite back.  Yesterday, the prediction was for winds at 5 to 8 miles an hour.  I really should know better than to accept the forecast at face value.  But, I did.  Just wasn't quite prepared for the wind (yep, that was my hat that went by...again).

Fall is also a time for some introspection and/or reflection.  For example, I was just trying to remember if I chose to lead with my left or right leg when I tried the hurdles in junior high school in our gym class track unit.  Before you laugh at me too much, you need to realize that there are a number of things I do, or have done, where I've actually had to decide which side of my body would be the dominant side.  At one point I played racquetball and I had no backhand.  Why?  I swapped hands so that I was always hitting forehand.  The problem with that?  What happens when you don't decide fast enough which hand you will hit the ball with?

And what, pray tell, does this have to do with the farm?

Chumley, our new truck, is a bit higher off the ground than Grover was at the tailgate.  To crawl into the truck, I have to stretch a bit and it reminds me of the trailing leg in hurdles.  So far, I've favored going up on the left leg first.  But, that may have to do with the bruise on the right knee.

Hey, you wanted to know!  (now you may laugh at me all you want)

Farm News Shorts

• We can now honestly say that we have harvested over a half ton of green beans on our farm this season.  "half ton" and "green bean" in the same sentence.  Cool.
• Ducks will be going to the processor on Sep 23/24.  Who wants one (or more)?
• We also crossed the 5000 cucumber barrier this week for the year.  That is another landmark to indicate a crop with a good year.  No where near our record year, but that isn't the point.  We managed to keep the cucumbers going through the hot and dry and we were rewarded.  That's a very good thing.
• We get to go see family and help lay some sod this weekend.  So, we will not be at the Waverly Farmers' Market this Saturday.  If you want or need some tomatoes, we DO have them.  Let us know what you want and we'll figure out a way to get them to you.
• Speaking of tomatoes... (we were?)  We've got alot of them coming in and they are in prime condition right now.  If you want to can or freeze tomatoes, now is the time to get some from us.  We do not want any of these to go to waste.  We grow 32 heirloom varieties and can provide you with an excellent mix.
• 2013 Farm Share CSA.  Yes, we will return in 2013.  Why?  Because we don't know when to quit!  Or, perhaps, more accurately, we care too much to quit.  We will be taking deposits to reserve spots very soon.  Stay tuned for instructions.
• Thank you!  Grinnell Heritage Farm for the sweet, bell and hot peppers for the Thursday distribution (today).  They were much appreciated.  We are honored and humbled to have friends that provide a helping hand when it is needed.
• Thank you part 2.  For the gift of a hat (you know who you are).  For the gift of weeding time on the farm (several of you, we hope you also know who you are!).  For the gift that helped us pay for some additional labor hours - it went to a 'starving college student' - we may not have been able to afford hiring him without that support (we hope you know who you are - but if you don't, we'll say thank you directly too).  
• Thank you part 3.  To those who helped us get some construction projects going!  We mean well.  We know we could do these things - but it is amazing how quickly the time gets eaten up by everything else on the farm.  Without these helpers, we'd be lost.
• Thank you part 4.  To all our Farm Share members who are patient as we frantically unload and set up.  Fall is always very difficult for us when we lose most of the farm help.  Your willingness to stay positive and avoid collisions with frantic farmers in a frenzied and frenetic, yet focused, unfettering of the truck of all its fruit is appreciated.   

News Shorts

Farm Crawl
The farm crawl is tomorrow (Sunday) from 1pm to 5pm.  Feel free to include our farm on your list to visit. 

Chumley the Truck
Only if you've read the Skeeve series will you have an idea as to why we chose it.  But, the funny thing is, we know we have the right name when both of us smile when it is suggested.  Welcome, Chumley the truck.  We'll try to share a photo at a later time.

Grover the Truck - RIP
Yes, that likely means Rest In Pieces.  That truck did alot for us and we are grateful.

Turkeys CAN be klutzy
The turkeys have shown they like some fencing that is in the middle of their current pasture by roosting on it.  However, they no longer roost there.  One of the members of their flock dismounted improperly and is 'no longer with us.'  Turkeys may not be the smartest animals in the world, but they've all stayed off the fencing since then.

How do you do it all?
Simple.  We don't.  We're still adjusting to the new schedule with many fewer worker hours in the fields.  The lists just have to be made shorter by giving a few things up.  Just the way it is.

Remember the recipe pages?
We've collected a number of recipes over time.  Some from CSA members, some from family, some Tammy has written down in an attempt to capture what she does.  In any event, we have a number of recipes here: http://www.genuinefauxfarm.com/GFFRecipes.html  Feel free to use them.

'Tis Tomato Season
And we do have some decent pages with reviews of many of the tomatoes we grow here: http://www.genuinefauxfarm.com/variety/tomatoes.htm
This Winter, we hope to edit these pages with more information.

Have a good weekend!
R&T

The Count

ONE! One Cucumber!  Ah Ah Ahhhhh!  (*thunder* *lightning*)

I fully realize that I may be a bit obsessed with numbers.  At the least, I seem to care about numbers more than many people do.  But, consider this - if I have 114 families in the CSA and I want to try to grow crops in a way that everyone gets a certain amount of produce every week for 20 weeks, I have no choice but to count.

A simple example:
    Fifty families will pick up shares on a given day.  I want to give everyone 3 cucumbers.  Therefore, I must pick 150 cucumbers at a minimum, but ideally, I will pick about 175 so the people who pick up later still have some choices.  Thus, it is important that I have a count as I pick so I know when I can stop and move to the next crop.  And, if I'm going to count them, I might as well record it so I can use the data for planning.

How does it help?
The more data I have, the closer I can get to figuring out exactly how much of a crop I must plant (and when) in order to get as much as I might want.  This would include Farm Share CSA needs, our own use and direct sales.  I suspect people who have been in our CSA for several years can attest to how much more balanced our shares have become - with reasonable amounts of produce nearly every week.  A big reason for this is our counting and our record keeping.

Numbers help us determine which varieties of crops are worth keeping (assuming yield is an important part of the reason to keep or remove a variety).  With some crops, such as tomatoes, it helps us determine how much of each variety to plant.

And, as it turns out, keeping good records can be useful when bad things happen.  We'll be able to show what our normal pepper crops are and what this one was looking like before it was sprayed.  This allows us to determine value with more objective measures.

Some Interesting Numbers This Season

4847 Cucumbers
The goal for the farm is to pull in 5000 cucumbers.  We would consider that a good year.  We should easily be able to pull in 153 just for Saturday's farmers' market in Waverly.  We actually split our cucumbers into the small white/yellow cucumbers (True Lemon and Boothby's Blonde) and larger green cucumbers (Marketmore, Parade, Green Slam, A&C, etc).  We set our initial goal as 4 each for large shares and 2 each for standard shares for approximately 8 weeks.  Then you add extras for choice at the end of distribution/donation and a few more for our own use or direct sale.  There you have it.

935 pounds of Green Beans
We've had a good year for green beans.  Five hundred pounds is probably more typical - if only because they can be labor intensive and we don't always get to the crop in time to keep them going.  We just *might* eke out 65 more pounds of beans to hit the half ton mark.  We're not sure why that matters.  It just sounds cool to say "green beans" and "half ton" in the same sentence.

We were thinking this year was truly exceptional, but here's where records can help when memory fails.  2009 was also a good green bean (and broccoli) year.  We managed to pull in 896.5 pounds of green beans that season. 

72.8# of Broccoli 
Speaking of broccoli.  We've fought to find a replacement for the defunct Early Dividend broccoli that did so well for us in 2009 (and years prior).  That variety gave decent sized first heads and many side shoots after the harvest of the main head.  We haven't had very good broccoli crops since Early Dividend's demise until this year.  Thank you Gypsy!  Yes, it is a hybrid, so it doesn't exactly fit with our tendency to prefer open-pollinated varieties.  But, none of the OP varieties did much for us this year.

The 72 pounds of broccoli were harvested in one day (this last Thursday).  There is a bit more out there to pick, then we'll see if they keep at the side shoot production.  The amazing thing is that many of the side shoots were of a similar size to the main head.

Different Kinds of Tires

Or perhaps, it is different sorts of tired?

Tireless
We've been hearing a clicking noise on the front left wheel on one of our green carts the last couple of days.  We had an idea that the weld wasn't holding.  But, of course, this was the cart that had the correct pins for pulling behind the lawn tractor during picking today.  Since Rob was the only person on the farm today, he may have been a bit more focused on doing and less on things such as....
...well... keeping an eye on how the cart behind the tractor is doing.
The wheel is now resting somewhere between the field and the packing area.  Happily the swiss chard that was picked was not also strewn along the path.

I did kind of wonder why the cart snagged the hose as we went by.

Retired?
These green carts are important tools on the farm.  But, they are also representative of what seems like persistent shoddy work on equipment such as this that a small farm, such as ours, might want to purchase and use.  This was a "new" wheel that replaced an older wheel that had also lost its weld.  So, in a way, it has been tired twice...

In any event, if you rate a cart at 800 pounds, then the cart AND the wheels should handle 800 pounds.  Now ask the question.

How many times have we actually put 800 pounds on these carts?
Answer: never.
Hmmmmmm.

Attire
I was not prepared for today to be as warm as it was.  And, it was a bit more humid than I expected as well.  The result was a three t-shirt day (of course).  Needless to say, I attempt to clean up my attire just a little bit for the CSA distributions.  But, sometimes I wonder I should even bother.  Today, being a prime example.

Setting the scene:   It's been dry (yep, again).  Our road was just graded with some new gravel in places on one of the roads we take to get to Waverly.  We have a new truck and the topper has even more places to let dust in than it did before.  It was hot and humid.  I had to load what probably turned out to be half a ton of produce into the truck, then unload it and set it up for distribution.

I was wise enough to try to change shirts AFTER I loaded the truck.  But, if you've worked outside on days like today, you'll understand what I mean when I tell you that I didn't see much of the loading today.  Hey - my shirt was soaked through.  I had no dry place to wipe the sweat out of my eyes.  So, I was just guessing.

I guess the truck is here.  I guess I set that crate with cucumbers on the tail gate.  I guess I'll pick those cucumbers up since that wasn't the tail gate.

Then, of course, I had to take OFF the offensive, wet shirt and put on a new shirt.  I was in a hurry by then.  But, how do you put a nice clean shirt on when you are still stinky AND damp?  The A/C was not on in the house, so I went and stood in front of the fan.  Sorry kitty cat, I know you were downwind.

Once you arrive at the distribution, you have to unload.  Containers are NOT any lighter at this point.  so, you work up a sweat.  Once you get a bit sweaty, all of the dust that has accumulated all over your truck finds you more attractive.  In any event.  Water + Dust = Mud.  Suddenly, the nice clean shirt is sweaty and a bit muddy.  Whatever.  Please take my word for it.  I tried to improve my attire at the CSA distribution.

But, it begs the question - should I retire from improving my attire or should I tirelessly work to improve it?

Just Tired
This is perhaps the biggest reason for this silliness.  I am tired.  There are a number of things that could be done.  But I don't want to do them.  So, I wrote a blog post!

Enjoy.

More GFF Pictures in August

The cucumber harvest has been good this year - despite a slower start due to drought conditions.  Typically, peak picking is around August 5-10 for us.  This year, we are just getting peak numbers now.  The trick was to get the plants through the very dry and hot conditions earlier in the year.  Some plants, like the Cool Breeze hybrid, followed their normal schedule and died without a real peak.  Others, such as Boothby's Blonde, are happy we kept them going with water and by keeping them picked.

While we can't sell any of them this year, the Tolli Sweet peppers in the high tunnel looked great.  Every year, we try to get a few pictures of some of the varieties we grow so we can use them on our own website.  I think this works well to suggest what this pepper looks like.  Only issue with the picture is the lack of an item for size comparison.  But, since I think that sort of picture can be hokey looking...

We took this picture just prior to a trip to the dump.  For those who do not know, if you live in the country, you do not automatically get trash pickup.  So, we take our trash to the dump every so often.  Here are 900+ eggs ready to be dumped.  Just part of the cost of the spraying incident.  On the positive side - we do have 42 eggs in an incubator.  Wonder what we'll get out of this?

2012 is the year of the green bean on the farm.  One container, like the one shown below, holds an average of 25 pounds. 

We recently went to Scattergood Friends School Farm for our work day with Grinnell Heritage Farm.  Sadly, Blue Gate Farm could not make it to this day as they have much more important things to take care of (keep fighting Sean!).  It was a good day to take out aggressions by removing a roof. 

Last but not least, we harvested from our sprayed fields (a partial harvest) to document how they were doing.  Here is a sampling on August 20 of this year.  Two carts FULL of sweet peppers (over 1000).  On the ground are eggplant and hot peppers.  We're working to duplicate this harvest next year - without the spraying event.  We'd have loved to been challenged to move this many fruit, but it is not to be.  They make good compost.

However, we did learn some things in harvesting these.

• We tend to harvest Ace green bell peppers early.  We found that they can get some serious size on them if left to their own devices AND if they are given a little bit of worm castings at transplant.  Irrigation is also liked by these peppers.  We noted some size increase in the Napolean Sweet bell peppers, but not much change in size for any of the others from prior years.  This observation is worth a small controlled study next season.
• Wisconsin Lakes had the worst time of our sweet peppers in the heat.  In other words, they didn't excel.  But, they did do fine.  On the other hand, we have noted that they handle wet weather better than the others.
• 8 to 12 full sized bell peppers isn't unreasonable in a good season.  Who knows what we could have gotten if we kept them picked.  At a guess, it would be 10 to 14 for most.  Some, like Napolean Sweet, are not prone to setting more fruit after the main set.  Others, like Ace and Quadrato asti Giallo seem to keep setting and have many fruit of varying sizes.  In order to temper expectations, we've gotten closer to 8 per plant for the better bell peppers in the past.

News of the Farm

Consider what follows to be a newsletter of sorts.  We've had so many things stack up on us that it will take a while to even sum up!
EVENTS

Summer Festival at Genuine Faux Farm
August 26, Sunday.  Starting 3pm.

Come enjoy an afternoon and evening at the farm. This is a family friendly, no work event. Potluck. We expect to begin the feast around 5pm, but we'll be ready for you starting at 3pm. Goes until everyone leaves OR the farmers fall asleep, then we ask you to quietly leave the premises in an orderly fashion. Bring some outdoor games to share. We'll give tours to the interested. 

NIFFP Farm Crawl
September 9, Sunday.  1pm to 5pm.

Genuine Faux Farm is one of several area farm destinations in the 2012 Farm Crawl.  In the tradition of the very popular farm crawl in the Knoxville, IA area, farms make themselves available for interested persons to see what they do and how they do it.  Visit this site: http://www.uni.edu/ceee/sites/default/files/LocalFoods/farm_crawl_2012.pdf

GF7 - Genuine Faux Farm Fall Festival and Fetid Fruit Fling
Saturday, October 6.

Poultry News

Ducks
Now taking reservation for ducks.  They will be processed end of September.  Price in prior years has been $6.50-$6.75/lb.  We must gather our cost information to determine whether we can hold the line on this price or not.

Turkeys
Now taking reservations for turkeys.  Processed end of October.  Price has been $3.75/lb.  Similar comment to above. 

Laying Hens Part I
We will be 'retiring' a batch of our older laying hens.  They no longer lay consistently.  As we separate these birds out, we wanted to give interested parties a chance to purchase a mature bird or three for your own little flock.  We will not guarantee much for egg laying.  However, if you wanted to give a small flock a try, it is easier in many ways to go with one of the established birds to see if you like it or not.  If interested, let us know.

Laying Hens Part II
We have ordered an incubator.  In an effort to make lemonade out of lemons, we're going to try to hatch out some of the eggs that we have heretofore been throwing away.

Laying Hens Part III
We anticipate getting the ladies moved to their new room this weekend.  Wish us luck.

Laying Hens Part IV
We are looking at one more week of the great 'egg embargo' due to the spraying.  At that point, we anticipate making eggs available for sale again.  It is likely we will have a drop in production with the stress of the move, etc.  But, it is better than having zero eggs available.

CSA News
Expected Upcoming Share Amounts
The past couple of weeks have seen a wonderful spike in produce.  We have been proud to bring you full and varied shares of produce this season and having this nice little spike *without* some key items due to the spraying has been gratifying.  However, we have not been immune to the drought or the shortfalls the spraying has caused/will cause.  As always, we will do our best to keep your bags and boxes full of good, quality produce.  But, we would be remiss if we didn't tell you that we expect a bit of a drop off in the next few weeks until Fall crops start to mature.  Note - don't get too worried either - we're being cautious and keeping you informed of what we are seeing.  Details in crop news below.

Thanks to our Farming Friends
Scattergood Friends School Farm has been ever so gracious in donating peppers and eggplants to us so that we can get you some of these items.  We will also work deals with Grinnell Heritage Farm and G It's Fresh.  Both are also certified organic and run by excellent people.

Fall Membership Drive for 2013 CSA
It feels far to early to be starting to say this.  But, if we don't, we get surprised by the end of the season.   Typically, we begin taking deposits to reserve CSA spots for the next season in September.  We are 95% certain we will return with our CSA program next year.  The 5% uncertainty is simply a nod to the facts of life.  If you are too certain, then you aren't considering all possibilities of what can happen.
In recent years, we've opened reservations up for current CSA members for a period of time prior to throwing it open to all comers.  This year is different.  We'll open reservations to all, but we will keep two lists.  Those who are returning members get priority for CSA slots.  Those who are new will be first come first served for slots not taken by returning members.
We will announce when sign ups begin.  Please wait until we open sign ups, as we will be prepared to do the necessary tracking at that time.

Crop News

Tomatoes
The tomatoes started to ripen on us quickly this week.  Thus far, the crop looks pretty good.  This means a couple of things.
1. If the crop goes as well as it looks like it MIGHT, we will be advertising tomatoes for sale to those interested in freezing/canning.
2. Again, if we have the crop for it, we will also begin appearing at the Saturday Waverly Farmers' Market with veg for sale (primarily tomatoes of course).  We will also bring extra to the Tuesday market and make them available for sale (as much as the space in the truck allows).

Another note on how the spraying event changed things for us.  We had a large number of salad sized tomatoes in the high tunnel.  They were just getting going at the point we were sprayed.  This explains why the CSA did not get as many tomatoes as we had hoped earlier.  The tomatoes were there, we just couldn't give them to you.  Rob picked 100 Jaune Flamme tomatoes, ripe and beautiful, several days ago -off two plants in the high tunnel.

Green Beans
From the "are you kidding?" files....  We have harvested 781 pounds of green beans this season.  We harvested another 44 pounds from the high tunnel after the spraying to get a sample (and then threw it into the compost).  We estimate we lost another 300 pounds in the Southwest field and high tunnel because of the spraying event.  Unfortunately, the southwest and high tunnel were the succession that were supposed to sustain us for the next few weeks.  We are not sure the older plantings will do much from this point on out.  But, we'll try to keep them picked and see what we get.  A very late succession has germinated in the field.  Here's hoping.

Cucumbers
We crossed the 3000 unit mark for cucumbers this week.  That marks a respectable season for the Genuine Faux Farm, but no where near normal capacity.  In 2010, we pulled in over 7000 marketable cucumbers by the end of the season.  The real reason for this success is the inclusion of Boothby's Blonde and True Lemon cucumbers.  They look different, but CSA members are finding out that they taste great.  And...they are a winner for the farm during a dry season.  While the standard green cucumbers have been running at 30-40% normal production levels, these have done well.  As a result, we've been able to get the CSA some nice cucumber numbers for the year - and some of each type to keep all tastes satisfied.  Another winner has been the open-pollinated variety named "Parade."  We like new discoveries of this sort.

We are watching the plants carefully.  They do have a limited production period and we know we are approaching the age where succession I will drop from peak production.  We just hope it will not be a crash.  We will be attempting a late planting in the high tunnel and the field.  Seedlings are in trays ready to go to the fields.

Other Farm News
Looking for a New Truck
We have to admit that we've been lucky to have Grover (our truck's name) for as long as we have.  Some of you know that 5-6 years ago a building came down on him and we thought we'd lost him then.  But, he still carries use around with our produce when we need it.
However, if you look carefully at the back bumper, you may have noticed it is no longer level.  A visit to a mechanic/body shop told us what we didn't want to hear.  There are some major structural problems looming and we can no longer rely on this truck for more than a couple of months of work - and we certainly cannot tow anything.
While we aren't really ready to make this purchase, we know we have to.  So, the process begins.

Change in the Guard
The time of year has come yet again where most of our work crew goes back to school or otherwise moves on.  This, of course, includes Tammy going back to her real job at Wartburg College.  We've been through this every year, so we have ideas as to how things have to change.  But, again, it is important that people recognize a few things when this happens.  We'll do our best to not make it apparent that there are fewer workers on the farm.  But, we do ask for understanding when the number of hours in the day do not allow Rob to complete all tasks.

We say good-bye to Anden Drolet, who has worked with us for three Summers.  We wish him the best and are proud of his work as crew leader this year.  Jordan will continue to work for a while into the Fall around her school schedule.

Summer Festival at the Genuine Faux Farm

It would help to have a date - mixing a farmer and typing at the end of a day isn't always the best idea:  August 26, Sunday.  Starting 3pm.

Come enjoy an afternoon and evening at the farm. This is a family friendly, no work event. Potluck. We expect to begin the feast around 5pm, but we'll be ready for you starting at 3pm. Goes until everyone leaves OR the farmers fall asleep, then we ask you to quietly leave the premises in an orderly fashion. Bring some outdoor games to share. We'll give tours to the interested.

Details:  Our farm is an organic vegetable and poultry farm with plenty of space for adults to wander and kids to run and play.  Summer Fest is fun, conversation and outdoor relaxation.  We have a few buildings with good roofs, so we hold the event rain (hah!  not this year!) or shine. Tammy will prepare some small sandwich makings and ask people to bring salad, chips or desserts to share.  I supply cups and table service plus water and lemonade, though it might not hurt if you wish to bring your own table service if enough people arrive.  We respectfully ask friends to not bring pets, tobacco products (tobacco is actually really bad in combination with some of our vegetables) or alcohol.  Please do bring families, friends, lawn chairs or blankets, lawn games (no hard balls, just soft to all the little ones are safe), bubbles, etc.  Plan on the temps being both much windier and much cooler on the farm than in town, so sweatshirts are often nice as the sun starts to get lower.

We invite people to begin arriving at 3pm, with serious food eating planned for about 5pm.  If the weather permits we will have a small bonfire to roast marshmallows (but with the dry weather we have had burning bans, so don't count too much on this!) in the evening.  We will host people for as long as they want to stay into the evening.  Sunsets are really lovely here this time of year...  Feel free to come and go as your family's schedule allows.

Directions:  WE are about 25 minutes NW of Waverly:  Take Hwy 63 north (either Bremer Ave/Hwy 3 east to Hwy 63 or 1st St. north past Nestle, right on C 33, left on Hwy 63) and turn right on Hwy 93.  Travel 2 miles and turn left onto Navaho Ave.  Travel 2 miles on the gravel and turn right on 150th Street.  Travel .5 mile and turn left into our driveway.  We are the only farm in that block - we have a large blue Harvestore and shiny red roofs that are good markers.  2345 150th Street, Tripoli, IA  Call if you need help:  319-610-9115 (that's my cell).

Rob & Tammy

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.