Planting for You? Part I

ed: this is part 1 of 2 - other items we are growing for sale in 2013 will be in the second post that will appear in 2 days after the first.

It's time for us to start promoting ourselves a bit more.  And some it has to do with planning and of course - PLANTING!

We are starting to put things in trays, but we need a little help from you to make some decisions about what we are growing for PLANT SALES this Spring.

Below is a list of what we intend on growing for sales purposes.  For each vegetable type, we will include a list of all of the plants we are starting for the farm.

What should YOU do?
- If you see something on our growing list that is NOT on the sales list, but you WANT us to start some for you - you'd better say something now!
- If you think there is a limited number of something and are afraid that what you want won't be available - the same applies.
- If you want to be sure to get something, send us a note and reserve some plants.

Everyone's Favorite - Tomatoes

 

Sales List
German Pink (54), Italian Heirloom (54), Trophy (54), Amish Paste (36), Speckled Roman (18), Red Zebra (18), Green Zebra (18), Tommy Toe (54), Hartmann's Yellow Gooseberry (18), Moonglow (24), Golden Sunray (18), Black Krim (36), Jaune Flamme (36), Silvery Fir Tree (36)

On Grow List, but not on Sales List
Dr Wyche's Yellow, Druzba, Rutgers, Wisconsin 55, Powers Heirloom, Federle, Opalka, Black Cherry, Nebraska Wedding, Redfield Beauty, Paul Robeson, Ponderosa Red, Hungarian Heart, Gold Medal, Tastey Evergreen, Peach Blow Sutton, Stupice, Wapsipinicon Peach, Japanese Black Trifele

A Taste of Summer - Sweet Peppers

Sales List
Jimmy Nardello's Frying Pepper (36), Golden Treasure (36), Purple Beauty (18), Tolli Sweet (36), Quadrato asti Giallo (18), Wisconsin Lakes (54), King of the North (54)

Grow List - Not Sales
Chervena Chushka, Marconi Red, Garden Sunshine, Ace, Jupiter, Napolean Sweet

Spice it Up - Hot Peppers

Sales List 
Joe's Long Cayenne (12), Alma Papricka (12), Wenk's Yellow Hot (6), Early Jalapeno (12)

Grow List - Not Sales
Beaver Dam, Feher Ozon Papricka, Hot Portugal, Fish, Hungarian Wax, Ancho, Aji Crystal

Fun to Grow and Under Appreciated - Eggplant

Sales List
  Pingtung Long (24), Casper (6), Rosa Bianca (12), Listada di Gandia(12)

Grow List - Not Sales
  Florida Highbush, Diamond, Black King

Great to Grow with Tomatoes - Basil
 
Sales List
   Genovese (54), Dark Opal (36), Mrs Burns Lemon (18), Thai (18)

 

And now, for something completely different...

Sometimes, we see things and we just can't help ourselves.  We receive a few magazines related to horticulture (I wonder why that would be?).  And, those magazines have advertisements.  And, many of those advertisements are for products we won't use.  And... well, here's a picture that is supposed to make us want to use an insecticide.

Possible captions:
a. Caterpillar, it's what's for dinner (alas for Copland, a fine piece of music forever scarred)
b. Hey Rocky, watch me cut off my arm with this stylized hatchet!
c.  I have something to tell you, I'm not left appendaged either!
d. Look, I've got a new cell phone holder!  It makes me want to.... sing!

 On another front, this picture is from early January.  There is a snowmobile trail that goes around our property.  The signs, set out by the snowmobiling club, indicates the trail crosses the road and into the ditch on the other side, before turning South and away from our farm.

 Clearly, there needs to be some help identifying what the red circle with a slash through it might mean.  Yes, we spent time trying to pound in several more stakes and signs soon after noticing this problem.  Why are we so worried about this?  What you don't see are smaller lilac bushes at the left and a culvert on the right.  We really would prefer the lilacs not be pruned in this fashion.  And...we'd also prefer not to have frantic individuals at our door if someone hit the culvert with their snowmobile.  The actions of the few will likely result in reduced options for the many.

 Then, there is this picture.  I took it when I noticed (in December) how shiny Chumley's bumper was.  Mrranda noticed I was taking a picture and wanted to watch.  So, you can see the cat looking up (bottom left). 

 I missed framing it by "this much."  There's a hand holding a camera at the left.  Don't worry, I'm sure Chumley will acquire his share of farm dirt over the growing season.

Then, there was Bullwinkle the potato...
 

 Hey Rocky!  Watch me pull a potato out of the ground!  It seemed like the Rio Grande russets were more prone to odd shapes this year than any of the other varieties we grew.  Happily, it was not all of the crop, so when we ran across something like this, it was amusing, rather than annoying.

If you recall the growing season for 2013, you'll remember it was dry.  But, do you also remember how warm it got REALLY early?  All of the trees budded out early and fruit trees in Iowa went to town, putting blooms on absurdly early.  Then, of course, we had freezes that took out most of the fruit crops in the state. 

We're not big fruit growers.  We just have 6-8 young apple trees, a couple of young plums, pears and ...one peach tree.  The only tree to give us any fruit in 2013?  The peach.  Look in the center of the picture and a bit to the left.  There it is.  The only fruit we got from our trees last season.  Yes, it was tasty.  Yes, I shared.

As veg farmers, we don't get quite as excited for Spring as we used to.  Don't get us wrong.  Both of us still felt the thrill of seeing some robins down by Knoxville last weekend.  But, Spring means the beginning of the season that doesn't let us slow down.  It's fine once it starts, but sometimes a person doesn't want to start.  I'm sure everyone knows that feeling.

 

So, when all else fails.  We remember iris flowers.  Now, there's a good reason to look forward to Spring.  The flower above is known as Spouting Horn.  Hoping to see it again this Spring.

Speaking of "Spouting Horn,"  here it is - from the coast of Oregon.  No, we don't get to go back there this March, but we sure did enjoy our trip there last March.

 Spring also makes us think of wind....  speaking of which, we are slated to get a bit of that with some snow tomorrow.  Now that I've visited Oregon, I can look at the picture below and get some perspective.

When I'm tempted to complain about the wind on the farm, I'll look at this.  Our trees don't look like that.  Maybe the wind here isn't so bad after all.

Tools of the Trade

With another batch of cold weather and maybe some precipitation heading this way, we are encouraged to continue evaluating tools, supplies and other items for the farm in 2013.  Since neither of us grew up on a farm, the whole process of scaling up our operation and acquiring proper tools for our operation is new to us.  Ok, so we've been going through the process for eight or so years, so it's not that new and we're not entirely lost.  But, if we take a little time to reflect, it can be a revelation to us to see where we've been and where it looks like we're going.

If you've been with us for a while, you might recognize this picture.  We started Genuine Faux Farm when our biggest pieces of equipment were the walk behind tiller you see above and a lawn tractor.  Our first graduation came when this tiller threw a rod and stopped running (not too long after this picture) - and we weren't done prepping for planting.  We made our first larger farm purchase by acquiring a tiller attachment for our lawn tractor.  It was unnerving and frightening to think about investing so much into this project with which we had so little experience and direct knowledge.

We've learned that a key part to being a sustainable farming operation is the ability to complete the tasks we've set out to do each season.  The trick is finding the balance between environmental health, our financial health, a positive place in the community (which includes the satisfaction of our customers) and our personal well-being.  We believe that they are all related in that if you ignore one of these, you are likely to harm the others.   But, there is tension between them as well.

Case in point - the high tunnel (2010).   

This building is the second largest purchase we have made for the farm (with Chumley the truck exceeding it in 2012).  We decided to make this leap in part because the extremely wet years of 2008 and 2010 illustrated that we needed to be more resilient during years that saw too much rain.  Our long term financial health was in jeopardy if we couldn't respond to weather extremes better than we had up to that point.  We decided to put this tunnel up as part of our efforts to address the problem.  It was a toss up as to whether it would help our personal well-being and it made our short term finances a bit tenuous.  We were/are also concerned about how the increased use of plastics in horticulture may be negatively impacting our environment.  And so, we made a larger short term financial sacrifice in an effort to reduce a perceived negative impact on the environment.  We invested in a movable high tunnel in order to allow nature to do its magic on the ground that had been farmed the previous season and we resist the temptation to let optimal financial returns dictate how we grow in this structure.  Of course, they are a part of it.  But, the day we let that be our only decision point is the day we will cease to farm.

Working at the Farm

Having people work on the farm is another advance we've made over the last several years.  Thank you to all who have done so!  I bring this one up because it is part of my calculations as I consider new equipment, technologies or techniques for our farm.  If you think you know exactly where I am going, you are likely only partially correct.

Many new tools are intended to reduce our reliance on manual labor.  So, a simple way to look at something is to do the following:
It cost us X dollars to hire the three ladies shown above to weed the melon patch in 2007.  Mystery tool/technology A will cost me A dollars to purchase and B dollars to maintain yearly and it does the same job.  In the end, the labor cost I save will have it paying for itself in Z years.  That's what you expected, yes?

Well, consider this as well.   As a small, local farm, we feel we have some responsibility for providing a positive place for people to do some good, honest work for decent pay.  If we blindly make changes to our farm in an effort to wholly mechanize, we remove opportunities for people.  Now, at this point, we are not in danger of mechanizing to the point of not needing help on the farm.  We are very, very far from it.  In fact, we are still attempting to identify and acquire enough tools so that we can accomplish what our farm needs to accomplish each season with a reasonable number of workers that we can afford to pay.

But, when I consider tools, I also consider what sorts of jobs are best suiting to people and which are not.  In fact, I feel a responsibility to myself and to those who work for us that the jobs should be interesting, have an element of challenge and be diverse in their actions.  The tools we buy are purchased in an effort to make working on the farm a more positive experience, both for us and for those who join us each year.  They are not intended to replace anyone.  This may be one of the most attractive attributes small, diversified farms have.  Tools are not typically intended to replace humans, instead they are intended to support them in their efforts.

Out of the Comfort Zone

Every year we push ourselves out of our comfort zones and try to figure out what the best approach for our farm will be.  Each season we try new things, even if we have had little personal experience doing those things.  We challenge what we think we know and we ask ourselves if what we are doing is the best we can do for our environment, our community, our customers and for ourselves.  We ask questions and look for answers, we share what we think are the answers so far and we dream about what we could do, exploring new ideas constantly.  It is difficult, it is frustrating and it is oh so rewarding when we make steps forward - even if we are just going to question ourselves again later to see if we've done everything we should have done. 

What's Next?
We are back from our Gang of Four "Nota" Conference and I am full of ideas and thoughts about their farms and our farm.  The list of investments for the year is long and I'm trying to figure out what we should do.  Then I have to figure out what we MUST do.  After that, I determine what we are ABLE to do.  We'll share some of that process with you in the next two weeks via the blog.

Variation on a Theme

Here we are - most of the fields are now planned.  The calendar is being laid out for the season.  Seed orders are being placed. 

It is time to promote our CSA to those who may have interest.

Let us begin by telling everyone what we intend to grow this season!



arugula, mustard greens, lettuce, spinach, radish, collard greens, swiss chard, kale, pok choi, chinese cabbage, cabbage, amaranth, kohlrabi, turnip, carrot, beet, rutabaga, melon, watermelon, basil, pepper, eggplant, hot pepper, dry beans, eggplant, green beans, snap peas, snow peas, cucumbers, okra, pie pumpkins, winter squash, summer squash, zucchini, garlic, onion, leeks, potato, tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, brussels sprouts, daikon, wax beans, rosemary, sage, marjoram and maybe some other things I've forgotten on this list...



This is one of the best reasons to join the CSA.  There is a lot of variety coming your way during the season.  And, every year, we get better and better at doing this.  Part of the issue is gathering the tools needed to succeed, but most of it is simply the fact that we continue to learn more about what it takes to succeed.  We don't stand still and we don't give up. 

But, the variety doesn't stop there!  We have worked hard to identify some of the tastiest varieties of these vegetables.  Don't think you like beets?  Then you need to try Chioggia.  And, you've got to join just to try the Jade green beans.  Who says gourmet taste has to be small and expensive?   A Costata Romanesco  has a light, nutty taste that will change your mind about zucchini.  And, the Black Krim tomatoes....  you may consider having a T instead of a BLT.  Except, you might consider having some Pablo lettuce for the L.  And, very few people are able to say no to bacon.  If you haven't had spinach from the farm, you don't know what it's supposed to taste like.  It's hard not to mention all of the converts who love the pale True Lemon and Boothby's Blonde cucumbers.  Let us convince you that a Rosa Bianca eggplant really does taste alot like a portabello.  Consider kale sauteed in garlic from our farm.  Or, if you don't like stirfry, try a zuppa tuscano with the kale. 

Are you hungry yet?  If you are, now is the time to tell us you are hungry for produce!  We still have room for you.

Awfully Dry Lemonade

I noted one image that caused me to look for the other image which has me thinking - which we all know is a DANGEROUS PASTIME.

The first image is a National Weather Service drought map.  Our area is right on the tip of the orange/severe drought in northeast Iowa.  In other words, not great, but it could be oh so much worse.  But, the thing we need to keep in mind here isn't the fact that there are areas in a drought - that's almost always the case.  It is the fact that so much of the landmass is in one.


From NOAA climate maps.

Of course, the weather concerns me because I intend to (yet again) try to grow some delicious produce and raise some poultry this year.  And, raising food requires water.  Any given day on the farm illustrates for us exactly how important water is.  Every day we give our animals water, sometimes twice a day (or more) when it is hot, dry and windy.  Water is important to keep our plants alive and growing.  We need water to help clean produce, eggs and ourselves before we deliver.  Water is used to clean equipment and containers.  Our extensive use of water concerns us, and we hope to continue making changes to improve our conservation of the water we use.

How wonderful for us that we will try to be responsible.  But, what happens when not enough of us are being responsible?



Photo shared by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, taken from wiki.  Texas dust storm during the Dust Bowl.

Yes, that is a picture from the Dust Bowl.  Pretty amazing.  And, very frightening. 

Nature will do what it does.  Even if we are all being responsible, there will still be droughts, floods, fires and whatever else.  But, when we are not watching what we're doing, we can take a natural event and help turn it into something exceptionally nasty.

On a scale that I have no direct control over, we have hydraulic fracturing (fracking) being used to recover natural gas.  This process uses large amounts of water, often in areas that have very little left to give.  Consider the Dakotas as a case study (reference the drought map please).  We've been lucky to not have to deal with extreme water shortages and water wars in the United States.  But, poor water use decisions may be changing all of this.

Then there is the case of corn ethanol.  The cost for corn ethanol is being taken out of our hides by increased water use for corn crops in areas that are better suited to grow other things.  Or, by the contamination of water through the processes used to grow the corn.  And, I thought the purpose of ethanol was to be better stewards of our resources?  Apparently not.  And, it gets a bit more disturbing when I realize that the pressure to grow corn has come from government subsidies for corn ethanol as well as subsidies for the corn commodity crop. 

And, perhaps we should also consider bare soil farming.  If you drive down Iowa's roads in Winter, you might notice the snirt (dirty snow) in the ditches.  This is an indicator of wind erosion of our farmland.  Those who use no-till practices see less of this, but they are still losing soil.  In fact, we are acting like we all want to see a repeat of the Dust Bowl.  Are we really that enamored with tragedy that going to the movies isn't good enough now?  It isn't that difficult to implement longer rotations (instead of corn-soybeans or worse, corn on corn) and it isn't hard to plant cover crops to help hold the soil. 

So, how does it come to this?  Does it really require regulation to force us to try to take care of our environment and our resources?  Are humans really so greedy that we won't reduce our profit margin a bit in order to get something done right?  Are we so inflexible that we can't adjust once we see a problem with how things are being done?  Are we all just so lazy that we can't bring ourselves to do a little bit more in an effort to prevent catastrophe? Or, are all of these things so much more complicated than a single blog post can address?

Yes.

But, that doesn't mean we shouldn't still try to do something about it.  I don't want to see a reenactment of the second picture.  Do you?

February Newsletter

It has been a while since our last newsletter.  So, here is out February newsletter with alot of January posts!  And, a picture that hopefully makes everyone think Summer!

Recent News
You can get a quick summary via our post of News Shorts
But, suffice it to say that we are now in the season where we are looking for CSA members to join us in 2013.  Encourage people to contact us!

What Veg Do YOU Want More of?
Recently, we asked this question via the blog and via Facebook.  The responses we received resulted in a number of posts showing our plans to address these wants.  It's not too late!  If you have an opinion, let us know about what you want to see more of in 2013!

Our plans to increase tomato availability.
Broccoli
A post about asparagus, peas and winter squash
And spinach

Want to see what vegetable varieties we are planning to grow?  Some of these will also be available as plants we sell in the Spring!

Tomatoes
Melons

The Lighter Side

I guess the blog has been known to have some humor in it.  If you can call it humor, it makes an appearance in the following:

Winter Games
Stream of Conscious Traveling
The Sandman Has Spoken

Excuse Me Sir, You Appear to Be Listing
There has to be something with a list.  And, of course, our 2012 in Review contains such a thing!

Winter Ramblings and Rumblings
'Tis the season where the farmer has a bit more time to ruminate.  And, so he tries to do just that with a few posts.  The first offering describes a couple of December farm work days as a response to a request about what we do in Winter.
An unexpected gift around Christmas had us thinking about the whole idea of bonuses and work on the farm.
And, finally, a post that wonders why we do what we do with our blog, newsletters and everything else.

Still Fighting the Spray
We continue to share how we are dealing with last year's spraying event by sharing some numbers from our farm. 

News Shorts

Let me explain...no there is too much.

Let me sum up.

CSA Shares Available
We do have CSA shares available at this time.  Feel free to contact us.  We are at the stage where you can reserve a spot by emailing us with the following information:

• pickup location desired (Cedar Falls, Waverly, Tripoli)
• size of share (large, standard)  note- you may change this later if needed.
• contact information (name, mailing address, preferred email and phone)

Farm Promotion in February
We are targeting February as our CSA and farm promotion period to try to fill up the CSA and deal with any other interest that we might be able to fill during the growing season.  We will be printing posters and brochures.  If you have a place you with to put a poster or if you have someone in mind for a brochure, let us know.

Plant Orders
For those who grow their own, we will be starting plants again this year.  It does help us if you let us know if there is something special you really want us to have for you.  For example, we are willing to start winter squash, pumpkins, broccoli (and other brassicae), tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, spices and other items.  But, if you want to be sure that we start some of these items, it helps to hear from you.  Otherwise, we will either guess wrong - or we will guess that no one wants certain things.

Spring Extended Season
We plan on having an extended Spring season share this year.  We are thinking about 20-30 slots.  If you have interest, please contact us.

Chickens, Turkeys and Ducks
We need to schedule our flocks for the season.  If you have opinions about what we raise and when, this is a good time to voice those opinions.

Potatoes
We do still have potatoes in our storage that are available for sale.  If interested, please contact us.  There are a couple of pie pumpkins as well.

Work on the Farm
At this point, it looks like we will only have returning workers in May.  Otherwise, we will be looking at a whole new slate for 2013.  Interested persons should contact us.

Labor 4 Learning
GFF was one of ten farms selected for the Practical Farmers of Iowa, Labor 4 Learning program.  The program encourages people who want to learn more about farming to apply as a worker on one of the ten farms.  In addition to working on the farm and gaining experience doing, there will be additional effort made to teach the learner more about the financial and business sides of the farm.

SARE Grants
The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) funded our two year project to work on intercop spacing while integrating mechanization into a small vegetable operation.  We are finishing our report for this project, have presented results at the Small Farm Conference in Missouri and as a poster at the Practical Farmers of Iowa conference.  It looks like some of our information may be part of a web magazine on growing as well.  We have also submitted a new grant proposal involving paper mulch and intercropping.  If there is someone out there who would like to work on the farm with us and do a little data collecting, etc, now is the time to tell us.

Stay tuned, we'll have a part II to this post in a week!

Numbers Can't Hurt You?

It is the season of seed catalogs, orders, promotion of our farm share CSA, planning, planning and planning.  We have to do our organic certification paperwork, taxes, budget and whatever else we always do.  But, this season we also have to work on establishing a value lost to the spraying that occurred on our farm this past summer.

One of the exercises I use is to figure out our crop value per acre for a given plot/field on our farm.  Conventional wisdom for a diversified vegetable farm, such as ours, is that we should be landing somewhere in the $12,000/$15,000 per acre for all producing land.  And, a recent presentation suggested that a small farm might need to exceed $20,000 an acre.

So, I began crunching numbers I've already recorded (there are many others I have yet to transfer to the spreadsheets).  And, of course, I wanted to see how a field I perceive as having good value did this year.

Beans and potatoes (E2) - roughly .25 acre
Included in this field are potatoes (5 types), green beans and a number of different dry beans (which are not included in the analysis).
We picked 1009+ pounds of green beans out of this field (a record) and we assign a value of $3 per pound to this crop (it is a high labor crop and requires a higher purchase price to make any money).
We also picked about 1400 pounds of potatoes at $2 a pound in value.  We realize you can get potatoes much cheaper than that - but you can't get certified organic potatoes many places at all (but that's a different story).
Value of the field: $5,880
Value per acre: $23,520

Since this is not about labor cost, we'll leave this number there and hold it up as a pretty good indicator of health for this field in our rotation.  It also shows me that this field is very important for the success of our farm.  A good indicator for priority efforts.

Peppers and Eggplant (SW) - roughly .2 acres
This field was sprayed in July and we were forced to throw all produce away.  Based on some of our data for 2012 and historical records we can make a few estimates (that we will fine tune a bit more).
Sweet Peppers were heading for a record in production = $2500
Hot Peppers were at least at prior year levels = $500
Eggplant were looking a bit slower than last year, but picked it up after some rain, trending to be 80% of last year's crop = $1750
Green Beans (yes there were some in there) = $900
Other crops (dry bean, okra) we are not assigning value at this time.
Value of the field (at this point of analysis): $5,650
Value per acre: $28,250




 High Tunnel Production (HTW) - roughly .05 acre
We were able to pull in production in the Spring.  But, since it was in the spray zone, we were unable to get anything else of value out of it this year.
Spring Value of crops: $1,183
Spring value per acre: $23,866

Caveats include the fact that we didn't push the high tunnel planting for the early season.   This was, in part, because Tammy was on sabbatical and we knew we would be away a bit more than usual.  It was also, in part, to assure that we would get the summer crops in on time - a problem we had the prior year.  Even with that, production per acre was already as high as what I tagged as one of our better fields.

Here's where it begins to hurt.  We expect to get three crops per year from the high tunnel - then we move the tunnel for the next season.  Using the simplest extrapolation, we can just triple the Spring number, even though it is inaccurate on the low side.

Projected ( with simple low estimates) value per acre in HTW: $71,598
Ok - the reality is that this translates to $3549 in real money to the farm.  But, that isn't the point here.  The point is that our most valuable land was sprayed and taken out of production by someone other than us.  That hurts.
If we go with numbers that are in keeping with what I think we should have gotten for crop value in Summer and Fall high tunnel crops our value per acre in the high tunnel exceeds six digits.  Yikes!

More on the Veg You Want

We are continuing to ask for input on what you would like to see more of from us in 2013.

 Here is what we have heard so far:
JanMarie: Broccoli
Nevin: Tomatoes, early and often
Nancy: Baby carrots
Kory: can I just cross my fingers for a good squash year? at your place and ours?
Nick: Broccoli or carrots
Rachel: Broccoli
Ryan: Asparagus
Jennie: chocolate caramel (we understand the appeal, but please don't ask us to grow it!)
Anne: carrots
Stephanie: Tromboncino squash, winter squash, peas
Jeff and Susan: Steak!  (ummmm)  and peas.
Marianne: Spinach 
Alli: More spinach would be great!

Left for us to address are requests for more spinach and more carrots!  We'll happily take other suggestions as well.  Either way, we're happy to tell you what our plans are for each of our crops.


Spinach
We love our spinach at GFF!  If you are like us, you grew up thinking spinach was the slimy stuff that came out of a can.  Simply put, getting Rob to eat spinach was going to take a miracle.  That miracle came in the form of a late season planting several years ago that didn't get picked in the Fall - but managed to survive the Winter and started to grow well in early Spring.  Now, a big pile of freshly picked spinach with a little bit of dressing to dip it in is a real treat!


Spinach is particularly sweet during cooler weather and has a tendency to bolt (grow stalks and put on flowers/seeds) in warmer weather.  As a result, we tend to have more spinach in our Spring and Fall extended season shares.  Otherwise, we might have spinach in the first 2 weeks of the regular season (early June) and the last couple weeks of the regular season in October.


The great news about spinach is that it is a good companion as an early crop before warm season crops such as peppers and eggplant.  They are usually finishing about the time we put those plants in (May 31-Jun 5) and tilling in the residue is good for the soil.  But, that doesn't help us with the regular season CSA.  So, what can we do?


1. If you want spinach, you might want to consider joining us with an extended season share (this holds true for asparagus as well).  Or, if that doesn't work for you, maybe you should encourage us to grow a higher volume and visit us at farmers' market where we sell plants in May.  If we know lots of people are going to come buy spinach as well, we might just work to have more of it!
2. Hansen's Outlet and Moo Roo are both willing to carry and retail our spinach.  If the demand is there, perhaps we can make sure to stock their stores with reasonable amounts.
3. We will consider extending our Spring production deeper into June by purchasing some shade cloth, this may help prevent spinach from bolting so quickly.  We have never done this before, but it may be worth the effort.
4. Increasing Fall production of spinach for the regular season share is very difficult.  We are usually down to one worker (Rob) and spinach takes a great deal of time to pick, clean and pack.  We are hopeful that the walk in cooler addition will provide flexibility in harvest that will allow us to do more with spinach.  However - it is possible that we may ask for a little volunteer help to allow this to happen.


What does it take to grow spinach at GFF?


We direct seed spinach - which means we use a seeder and plant directly into the ground where it will grow until it is done.  We have tried transplants and likely will not do that again.  We use our six row seeder (we call the seeder "Ed"), which requires a very clean and smooth seedbed to operate.
Winter spinach usually doesn't need a weeding before it is done.  Spring spinach will need one or two weedings and Fall spinach may take one weeding. 
The real effort comes at harvest time.  One approach is to 'clear cut' a row, but then we have to pull out any bad leaves or weeds that might be in that mix.  Rob's method of choice is to pick leaf by leaf.  Thus, the sorting is done up front.  This also allows us to harvest sooner out of the same area as it takes less time for leaves to reach the size we prefer.  One tote of spinach would provide us with about 5 pounds.  If everyone gets a quarter pound bag in the CSA, we would need 25 to 30 pounds (5 to 6 totes). 
Once picked, the spinach is hydrocooled (placed in well water) for washing and to get any field heat out of the leaves.  After washing, they are put in a spinner to get most of the water off of them.  They are then placed in the vegetable bags and then in coolers for storage until delivery.


Anyone feel handy?
We have an idea for building a tool to aid in cleaning greens.  We'll see if it makes it to our top ten list of projects for the year.

We Want More Gruel!

We are continuing to ask for input on what you would like to see more of from us in 2013.

 Here is what we have heard so far:
JanMarie: Broccoli
Nevin: Tomatoes, early and often
Nancy: Baby carrots
Kory: can I just cross my fingers for a good squash year? at your place and ours?
Nick: Broccoli or carrots
Rachel: Broccoli
Ryan: Asparagus
Jennie: chocolate caramel (we understand the appeal, but please don't ask us to grow it!)
Anne: carrots
Stephanie: Tromboncino squash, winter squash, peas
Jeff and Susan: Steak!  (ummmm)  and peas.
Marianne: Spinach

The prior posts addresses changes we are making in 2013 in order to extend and improve our tomato and broccoli harvest.

Asparagus
Asparagus is one of those crops that require years to establish.  Each year, we start another tray of seedlings and add them to our production areas.  But, since asparagus is a perennial crop, there really isn't a whole lot we can do in one season to change what we have.

However, we do grow two plots of asparagus on the farm.  Typically the asparagus is distributed during the Spring extended season shares that run in April and May.  The season for harvest of asparagus typically ends right around Memorial Day for us.  But, even if it went further into June, we would not have enough for all 100+ CSA members in the regular season.

Peas
This is a difficult crop for us to increase without adding a fair amount of labor for harvest.  In short, peas cost us much more to grow than many of the things on the farm.  There are several factors.  First, the yield per row foot is significantly lower than what we get for other things, such as green beans.  So, we're already looking at lower returns on the space given.  Then, we actually find that peas have a higher labor cost per pound than beans.  We have to add trellis time and factor in slower picking rates.

Does that mean we won't grow peas?  Nope.  We'll grow them.  We have plans for 2013 to hopefully make them more manageable while still getting everyone a bit more peas. We intend to plant them a bit earlier so they don't overlap with the beans as much.  We only have so much labor available and if the peas must compete with other crops, they will lose.  We are likely to drop all shelling peas from the grow list and focus on the edible pod peas.

Winter Squash
This one has three answers.  One has to do with research, one is simple and the other is probably surprising.

1. We have applied for a grant to do some research involving pests, intercropping and paper mulch.  If we receive this grant, we will have additional funds to hire help specifically for this crop in 2013.
2. We will be using paper mulch on at least half of the crop.  By keeping the early weeds down, we expect success on par with prior years (about 1500 - 2500 winter squash).
3. We will be reducing the number of plants we put in the ground.

Yes, you heard the last one correctly  We are going to reduce the number of plants we put in the ground.  Analyzing our numbers tells me that we can meet and exceed our demand with fewer row feet of winter squash.  Also, if we reduce the number of row feet, we can allow ourselves to use some bigger equipment for cultivation without the risk that tighter spacing brings. 

Essentially it comes down to this.  We can either grow more and struggle to keep up with it again OR we can grow less and do a very good job with it.  Since we anticipate an increase in our pest populations in 2013 due to the spraying last July, we have to expect that we will need to do more to protect our vine crops.  If we run at the same volume as prior years, I don't see how we can keep up.  But, a reasonable reduction should allow us to do what needs doing.

With fewer row foot of squash, I can increase the presence of nasturtiums, borage, zinnia and marigolds.  I can put in some oilseed radish.  All of these things help us control vine pest populations without spraying. 

Brrrrrroccoli

We asked people on Facebook and in our last post what they wanted to see us grow MORE of in 2013.
Here is what we have heard so far:
JanMarie: Broccoli
Nevin: Tomatoes, early and often
Nancy: Baby carrots
Kory: can I just cross my fingers for a good squash year? at your place and ours?
Nick: Broccoli or carrots
Rachel: Broccoli
Ryan: Asparagus
Jennie: chocolate caramel (we understand the appeal, but please don't ask us to grow it!)
Anne: carrots
Stephanie: Tromboncino squash, winter squash, peas
Jeff and Susan: Steak!  (ummmm)  and peas.
Marianne: Spinach

The prior post addresses changes we are making in 2013 in order to extend and improve our tomato harvest.  And - we thought we'd address each item brought up by you in this and future posts.

The question of broccoli

The broccoli last season was some of the best tasting we have grown.  And, like several crops, it struggled for us during the very wet seasons.  In fact, we've struggled with broccoli since the hybrid Early Dividend went away.  That broccoli had a sweet taste and really produced for us on our farm.  Sadly, 2009 was the last year that variety was available to us, so we've been searching for broccoli that likes our farm ever since.  And then, factor in supre wet 2010 followed by field issues in 2011 due to 2010 (incredible weed pressure).  It's no wonder there were some problems with production.

Good news!  Gypsy and Belstar passed the test in 2012.  Production was very good for main heads and side shoots on Gypsy were at about 75% of what we used to get from Early Dividend.  Good enough.

Bad news!  Gypsy and Belstar are both hybrids.  As such, we are at the mercy of the companies that hybridize these varieties.  We are still trying to find the right open pollinated broccoli for our needs.

How are we going to improve and increase production?

1. Simplify
We've been planting smaller groups of several varieties in a wide range of successions just to try to find the varieties and the growing period that works on our farm.  As result, we often get smaller amounts of broccoli at any given time.  By the end of the year, we can have excellent production numbers - but it can be difficult to make sure everyone in the CSA has as much as they want.

We will simplify now by growing more of these two varieties for the main production of this crop.  We can then focus a few trials on finding the open pollinated variety slot that works for us.

2. Increase Growing Area
Now that we have a much better feel for this crop than we did, we can increase the growing area.  It makes no sense to dedicate too much space to a crop that has struggled for a couple of years.  But, we feel that we have the timing, etc set up for success.  Some of our shorting season brassica crops will shift to our four year rotation in the short season crop field.  This allows us to add another 200 to 400 row feet of broccoli.  If you figure one plant per foot, you can see that we could have a nice crop available to us.

3. Easing Weed Pressure
Since we harvest side shoots, broccoli becomes a bit more of a long season crop for us.  As a result, they become a candidate for paper mulch.  At least one of our 200 foot rows will have this product in the field.

4. Pest Pressure
We like the effectiveness of intercropping for reduce pest issues in our brassicae crops (broccoli is one of those).  We will be growing culinary sage and summer thyme plants to include in rows.  We also will grow onions nearby.  We're feeling positive about modifications in our intercropping techniques.

5. Alterations in Seed Starting Medium
Our brassica plants do reasonably well, but we feel that they stall a little bit before we plant them.  As a result, we are exploring ways to feed these plants more effectively at the tail end of their life in the seedling trays.  This should help them get moving quicker after field transplant.

6. Targeting a Fall Crop
We have been tinkering with planting dates for a fall crop of broccoli and we're trying to thread the needle between starting them too early and too late.  We've missed on both sides.  That, my friends, is good news.

Goals for 2013

• Double our production from 2013
• Maintain a crop that continues to have outstanding taste
• Provide 4 weeks of broccoli to the CSA minimum
• Have additional broccoli for sales outside of the CSA

Can we do it?
 Last year, some of our other varieties produced next to nothing.  Part of this is NOT the fault of the variety.  DeCicco did fine, but it produces smaller heads - and it did so at a time when we had to make choices about our time.  We did not plant enough DeCicco to be able to offer much to our CSA members, so it was only picked once and then let go.  A rodent seemed to prefer Limba and nibbled all but a few plants down while they were very small.  Umpqua disliked the hot dry weather intensely and Calabrese didn't want to produce heads until it surprised us with a few late.  As a result, we missed them because we'd given up on that section.

Simply put, we grew 500 feet of broccoli last year.  Of that, 200 feet produced very well.  If we just grow 400 feet of our production varieties that we feel most confident in and then have 200 feet of trials, we will do quite well.

The Only Constant is Change

Every year we go through the planning process we look for inspiration that will lead us to positive changes.  Why?  Because if there is a truth that we must adhere to as farmers trying to grow diverse crops it is that we can *always* improve.  And, of course, there is also the truth that no two years are going to provide us with the same growing conditions.

And, so, we are asking those who are customers or hope to be customers of our product in 2013 - what would you like us to grow more of this season?

Here is what we have heard thus far:
- tomatoes, early and often
- a good squash year
- broccoli
- baby carrots and well, just carrots

Give us more feedback if you have it!  This is the time to hear it so we can act on it in the most effective manner.  As we hear more from you, we will share our plans with you.  Here is one response to the request list, future posts will focus on others. 

Tomatoes, early and often
We've always enjoyed growing our heirloom tomatoes and we're always so pleased to provide them to our CSA, the farmers' market and other outlets.  But, we are certain we have not come close to our capacity for this crop.  Here are two things we are doing to attempt to maximize this crop for all of us:

1. Tomatoes in the high tunnel planted early
We actually did this last year, but the spray event caused us to throw all produce in the high tunnel away.  It was hard to toss hundreds of beautiful salad size tomatoes into the compost.  But, you do what you must.  We plan on growing a similar set of tomatoes in the high tunnel this season.  What last year showed us was that this could be very successful.  If this works, you'll be seeing some tomatoes much earlier from us in 2013.

2. A walk in cooler
One of the things we do not yet have on the farm is a cool storage unit.  What this will do is it will allow us to pick more of the tomatoes in the field and get them to more outlets.  With no good place to store them and keep them fresh, we often leave good tomatoes in the field during peak season.  We still intend on giving people fresh picked produce, but rather than the absurd picking rush that occurs the day of a CSA distribution, we will be able to pick some things the day before and keep them at peak condition for you.  Excellent candidates for this include zucchini and summer squash.  Can you imagine how it could help us to off load a couple of picking tasks to the day prior to a distribution?  This could translate into more tomatoes for everyone - including opportunities to purchase extra beyond the share - or for those who are not CSA members - a chance to buy top quality heirloom tomatoes.  We like it!

Our goals for 2013?
- at least 2000 lbs of tomatoes for our CSA members
- 5000 lbs total of marketable tomatoes (this includes amount above)
- production of tomatoes from July into October
- 30 varieties of tomatoes

Are these goals reachable?
   In 2008, we managed to pull in approximately 4500 pounds of tomatoes and this was with a very slow start to the season and a smaller production schedule.  Last year, we had crossed the 3000 pound mark and had many tomatoes on the vine when we got two early back-to-back freezes.  Frosts instead of freezes has us getting 5000 pounds last year - so we can do it this year.
   Historically, we have tomatoes in early August (in smaller numbers) and almost always have tomatoes later than most vendors in the Fall.  Last year's production in the high tunnel tells us we can get you some tomatoes in July - and probably more than just a taste.  We can do this.
   And, of course, our hallmark is having a variety of tomatoes.  Last year we grew 34 varieties.  This year, only 30 are scheduled.  I think I'm ready for a BLT.

Pouring Water Into the Ocean

Once again, I found myself thinking...
A dangerous pastime
I know....

I am spending quantities of time right now attempting to figure out how we will spend time on the farm for the rest of the season.  It's a non-trivial problem and I have yet to come up with a wholly satisfactory answer for any given year.  That doesn't mean we don't end up figuring it out and getting somewhere reasonably positive by the end of the year.  We usually do.  And, each year, we devise a better plan and modifications get easier to make.  Except when things unforeseen occur.  Then, we go to plan B, or C or...we can just wing it.

But, there are days like today where it just feels like pouring water into the ocean.

Maybe I take the planning too seriously and I need to lighten up a bit?  So what if things aren't completely planned out?  The job is huge and the we don't even know all of the variables, much less the appropriate responses to them.  Another 32 ounce glass of water isn't going to make a bit of difference to the Pacific.

Sometimes I get this same feeling when I consider some of the weightier issues that concern me.  Things like, say, the Farm Bill.  You know, the one that wasn't dealt with in a timely manner.  The one that had line items for conservation measures slashed automatically because deadlines weren't met.  Yes, that same one that maintained or increased commodity payouts at the same time.  And yes, I think about the fact that it isn't right that those with the chemicals have the right to apply them and those who don't want them just have to live with it.  I want to make some noise.  I want to make a difference.  Something needs to be done about guns and war.  It would be nice if we could be less greedy and more willing to discuss differences with respect.  The subjects end up getting so big and a single voice can feel so small...

...that it begins to feel like pouring water into the ocean again.

And so, I take to a keyboard and try to type about things that are important to me.  Things that might be important to Tammy, our friends and family, our farm, our CSA members, other farmers and maybe to you.  Things that might educate you about how food is grown or raised.  Things that might provide you with an insight that helps you to make a better decision in your life that pertains to food, farmers and the way business is done.  Then, I consider how many things call to us on the Internet.  I think about how many other people type worthy and unworthy things in blogs, in social media, in comment areas for newstories and cartoons and wherever else people share their thoughts.  Who has the time to read this?  It's one little blog for a small farm in Iowa.

It's a vast ocean out there, and I'm pouring my glass of water into it.

And it can't make a difference.  Can it?


===============

If you made it to this point, that means you read this post.  My glass of water reached you.  I hope you are thinking now about how you can pour your glass of water into the ocean in the hopes that it can make a positive difference.   And even if no one else reads this post, I did.  And I will now take on the things that I have control over and even some of the things I do not.

- I will work on our farm plans with a renewed sense of purpose.  They are worthwhile and are done for good people and for good reasons.
- I will not give in to complacency and I will continue to do what I can to promote good conversations about difficult things - in hopes that we can figure out how to do the right things.
- I will continue to throw little glasses of water into this electronic ether, in the hopes that I will make a difference.  For someone like you.

Heirloom Melons for 2013

We haven't made much noise about melons since 2007, which is the last year we had a productive crop (until 2012).  Some of the problems were unavoidable (flooded out 2008, too cold 2009), others were a priority issue (wet fields prevented us from getting to lowest priority crops in 2010).  But, each year we've learned a bit more about growing, acquired better tools and we're getting to the point where some of the lower priority crops are getting more attention. 

As a result, you actually get a post about some of our choices for the 2013 melon crop.  Again - as with the tomatoes, we'd be happy to hear your input.

Too Good Not To Grow:

Ha-Ogen (Seed Savers, High Mowing)
Ever since we threw some of these into the high tunnel in 2010, we've been hooked.  These are white/green with some gold in the seed cavity and we liken the taste to a banana...sort of.  Don't expect a taste that is like a traditional muskmelon or honeydew.  In fact, don't make a judgement on the very first taste.  Let it sit in your mouth for a second and then tell us it isn't one of the most interesting and delicious melons you've ever tasted.  We'd like to accomplish enough of a crop to build a market for these beyond the farm share CSA, but we intend on putting some out for your selection in shares as well.

Hearts of Gold (Seed Savers)
The responses we got from farm share members for Hearts of Gold was pretty much what we expected.  This is one excellent tasting muskmelon.  They can be very fragrant and difficult to figure out when to pick.  But, if you learn the tricks, they are well worth it.  High praise for taste and production.  We'd like to hand one of these to each Farm Share CSA member in 2013.  Here's hoping!


Pride of Wisconsin (Seed Savers)
Another muskmelon that is very reliable and bigger than Hearts of Gold.  These are less fragrant and are a little bit milder in taste than Pride of Wisconsin.  We enjoy them very much and they are great if you are looking for a refreshing taste with some sweetness.  People who favor less strength in flavor find these to be very pleasant and to their liking.  They also will sit on the counter longer so you don't have to run home and eat it right away!

Probably In:

Boule d'Or (Seed Savers)
This is a long season melon (green interior), known as a Winter melon.  These can store on the counter for quite some time before eating as they have a very hard shell.  They are also a longer season melon, so we need to work on getting them into the ground a bit earlier in 2013.  Taste is closer to a typical honeydew, with a bit of a twist.  With a better mulching program we expect an excellent crop of these in the Fall.

Oka (Seed Savers, Fedco)
Oka got our attention in 2010 when it produced a couple late in the year in the high tunnel.  We loved the taste and think you will as well.  The difficulty is that the pests seem to like this one alot and they can get past the rind a bit too easily.  However, there were some extenuating circumstances that we think we can address.  If we have an issue with securing seed or other problems, we may drop this one for the year.  But, memories of tastiness make it hard to do that.

Minnesota Midget (Seed Savers, Johnny's)
Smaller, netted fruit on short vines.  It seems like they would be perfect for the high tunnel.  So, that's where they will go.  Melons in late June or early July if this works.  If it doesn't, it will have been worth the try, we think.

Sakata's Sweet (Seed Savers)
Smaller green fleshed fruit.  We have never grown this one.  But, it climbs trellis (or so we're told).  And, that characteristic makes it a good trial for the high tunnel in 2013.  We'll do a small batch just to see if it is worth it.

Maybe - What do you think?
Eden's Gem (Seed Savers, Johnny's)
We grew this one in 2006 and 2007 with success.  Small melons with green flesh.  Kind of a nutmeg overtone to the flavor, very intriguing.  These are very productive in the field and very much did not like the high tunnel in 2010 or 2011.  These are single serving sized melons and if they do well, we could have alot of them.  If you are tired of the tasteless melons you can get at the store, these will meet your needs.

Rocky Ford (High Mowing)
Similar to Eden's Gem.  We'll do this one or Eden's Gem if we do either.  We're trying to determine if there is enough of a difference to go one way versus the other without having to execute a trial of our own this year.

Emerald Gem (Seed Savers, High Mowing)
Slightly bigger than Eden's and orange fleshed.  They produce about the same size as Hearts of Gold and during the same period.  They are a bit less musky, can be very productive and are not quite as soft, so they can sit on the counter for a bit longer than Hearts of Gold.  We tend to prefer Hearts of Gold for the sweeter taste, but are there people out there who want something a little tamer?  Would you like a little more shelf life?

Crane (Seed Savers)
Crane is a Crenshaw type of melon.  We have no problems with the melon and find it cool that it changes color when it is ripe.  This certainly improves the chances that we won't miss one when it is ready.  But, we had trouble with them going bad on the vine last year.  Frankly, we were so happy with the others that this one didn't get the attention it likely deserved.  Of these, this is least likely to return.  If we had unlimited space, I'd still like to give it another shot.  But, we don't.

Not This Year
Amish (Seed Savers)
These did just fine for us when we tried them several years ago, but they did not distinguish themselves from Pride of Wisconsin.  No reason to grow both, unless someone can convince us otherwise.

Canoe Creek Colossal (Seed Savers)
A casaba type melon that gets to a large size.  We can't find it in any catalogs, so it isn't an option for us right now.  And, the large size and soft skin makes it difficult to use as a "commercial" melon.  But, they were fun to grow and very tasty.

 Petit Gris de Rennes (Seed Savers, Fedco)
Word on the street is that these taste great, but are difficult to grow and very inconsistent.  Maybe sometime in the future, but we want to establish a better track record first.

Prescott Fond Blanc (Seed Savers, Fedco)
We love the idea of this Rock Melon, but it was the only melon to fail in 2007.  It appears to be operate as a catch crop for some pests.  If we do this again, it will be a couple of plants just to show we can grow one out.

Schoon's Hard Shell (Seed Savers)
Similar issue to Amish, very similar to Pride of Wisconsin.  Maybe sometime in the future, we'll run a head to head trial.  But not now.

Heirloom Tomatoes for 2013

The seed catalogs are here and we're beginning to make determinations as to which varieties stay, which varieties go and which new introductions we will make to our farm.

Candidates to be added in 2013:

Black Cherry (Seed Savers)
Our criteria for cherry tomatoes are:
1. great taste
2. easy to pick, growing in cluster and tomatoes about 1" in size
3. don't split so easily that we can't hope to get them to people

And, to be perfectly frank, if it fails to meet those criteria we'll only grow a plant or two for ourselves at most.  Or - if someone really begged us, we'd start plants and sell them.  Black Cherry fits these criteria according the catalog.  But, not every tomato matches the catalog once it gets to the farm - that's why we do trials.  There is a reasonably good chance we'll try this one.

Dester (Seed Savers)
The main reason we are considering this one is the results of the 2011 and 2012 Tomato Tasting results for Seed Savers.  A win in 2011 and runner up in 2012.  It looks like a slightly smaller German Pink by description.  We're not entirely sure it is needed on the farm, but it is difficult to ignore high ratings for taste.

Paul Robeson (Seed Savers)
We've seen this one in other catalogs and found it intriguing.  Since we are fans of Black Krim and its complex flavor, I suspect we may become fans of this one as well.  The real win for us here could be that it fills a bit of a niche rather than being a bit of a duplicate to things we already grow (like Dester/German Pink).  Like most Eastern European heirloom varieties, we expect that you have to give yourself a season to learn when to pick them.

Peach Blow Sutton (Seed Savers)
Look, we doesn't names them, we just selects and grows them... These are a smaller slicing tomato with low acidity (sweeter taste), but it is a pinkish red.  Most low acid tomatoes tend to be yellows.  It's unique enough that we may have to give this one a try.

Indigo Rose (High Mowing)
Another rule for selecting new tomatoes is that they have to come from one of the seed houses we fully trust and intend on ordering from.  And, we also have learned over time which types of seed we prefer from each of these companies.  As you can see, we favor Seed Savers for the tomatoes.  But, High Mowing has yet to steer us wrong.  Indigo Rose is a salad size (2 oz) tomato that is a blackish red in color.  We appreciate seeing a new variety that is an open pollinated, rather than a hybrid and intend to support the effort by giving this one a try (despite the fact that so many people are pushing it - we're not really bandwagon sorts of people).

Goodbye - maybe just for now or for good:

We will be dropping some tomato varieties and making adjustments to others.  This doesn't always mean the variety was a failure.  But, it does mean we have reasons for changing their status.  It's only fair we put them here in case someone really doesn't want us to drop one.

Silvery Fir Tree (Seed Savers)
Before you get too excited, we are only dropping these from production.  We will still start plants for sale.  We are very aware that these work wonderfully in pots and know many of you want them again this year.  But, it is clear to us that they don't offer anything to our production in the field or the high tunnel.  And, we don't intend on growing a bunch of container plants ourselves.  We'll likely find ourselves stuck with a few anyway and will hate to kill them.  But, we can only do so much.

Beams Yellow Pear (Seed Savers)
They taste great.  They are very vigorous.  We can't pick them easily and they tend to split or have small blemishes that leave us irritated trying to find marketable fruit.  It is likely more our fault than the plant since they've fallen down our priority list for picking.  We expect to have some plants for sale in 2013, but if we don't hear much complaint, we may not bring them back again.

Kellogg's Breakfast (Seed Savers)
Simply put, Dr Wyche's Yellow beat it fair and square.  We like Kellogg's Breakfast well enough and may use up leftover seed for some plants at market.  But, sometimes you have to simplify a little.

Siberian (Seed Savers)
Aside from one really good year (a very cool season - 2009), this one doesn't do much for us.  We know they excel in northern Minnesota - but that's not where our market is.  We'll let Stupice handle earliest tomato honors.

Violet Jasper and Topaz (Baker Creek)
Violet Jasper produced tomatoes smaller than we wanted for the purpose we intended and Topaz didn't do anything to recommend it over the Red Zebra/Green Zebra pairing we enjoy.  Baker Creek is a great seed source if you are zone 5 or further south.  But, we're not sure the things that do best for them match up with us very well.  If we have seed left over and space, we may plant some out for sale.

Aunt Ruby's German Green (Seed Savers)
Shaped like a German Pink, but Green when ripe.  These taste pretty good, but we struggle with getting salable fruit from these plants.  And, we actually like Tasty Evergreen for taste better than these.  So, we'll bump that one up a little in production and drop this one.

Cherokee Purple (Seed Savers)
It is official, on our farm, Black Krim is the king of the purple/black tomatoes.  Cherokee Purple really has never kept up with Black Krim in production or taste or quality.  Really, Cherokee Purple is fine.  But, on our farm, Black Krim simply has done better in every weather configuration.  It even did better in the high tunnel than Cherokee.  It would make sense to keep it if it showed a weather situation where it did better so we would have insurance on this type of tomato.  But, it has not. 

Changing the Guard:

We will be increasing the production of the following (at least a little bit).

Tasty Evergreen gets some of Aunt Ruby's production space.

Redfield Beauty earned more growing space with a fabulous season in 2012.
Dr Wyche's Yellow gets Kellogg's Breakfast's space.
Black Krim receives some of the Cherokee Purple production area.

On a Short Leash
Roman Candle  it seems to appear and reappear as an available tomato.  We're not sold that we absolutely MUST track it down in the future if it disappears again.

Ponderosa Red is an old beefsteak variety.  It picks hard and hasn't fully distinguished itself.  But, it hasn't exactly been bad either.  We'll likely give it another run.

Last Year of the Prize Fight
Federle

 versus Opalka

 For the right to stay on the farm, these two Polish paste style tomatoes will be run head to head once again.  The slightly larger size recommends Federle and the slightly shorter window to ripeness recommends Opalka.  They don't seem to favor different weather conditions nor do other variables on the farm seem to impact them in different ways.  So, we are down to a straight up yield battle in 2013.  Taste, quality and type are all similar.  CSA members be aware, we may ask you to taste test these beauties for us and take a vote in September.

Winter Games

Wednesday was a very nice day to be outside and some of the things I was able to do on the farm got me to musing about some 'games' we can play during the Winter months.  And...lucky you... the farmer's musings as he does work get shared on the blog more often in Winter than they do in Summer!

Seed Catalog Bingo
It is the season of the seed catalog.  And, I suspect we may get more seed catalogs than most gardeners, so if we play it, we have to go for a blackout versus five in a row.  I've lost count of how many we have received now, but we just landed 2 or 3 more in today's mail.  In the end, we'll place orders with five, but we look at nearly every one of them at least a little bit in order to do the 'due diligence' of searching for certified organic seed.  Note - we have received each of the catalogs on this card, plus a few.

Here's your card - tell us how you do:
B:  Seed Savers - Potato Garden - Burpee  -  Fedco - Totally Tomatoes
I:   Select Seeds - Seeds of Change - John Scheepers - Henry Fields - Burgess
N: Jung - Vermont Bean - Johnny's - Seeds from Italy - Landreth
G: Baker Creek -  Peaceful Valley - Abundant Life - Park - Territorial
O:  Sandhill Preservation - High Mowing - Harris - Gurney's -Albert Lea Seedhouse


High Stakes Poker
What's needed to play?  Metal electric fence poles, gloves and enough snow over the frozen ground to make this work.

I spent some time taking down fence stakes/poles (and a few remaining cages) in the tomato field.  There were enough of them that I decided to toss some of the poles from the center of the field to the side.  And, of course, I just HAD to try to make them stand on end.  It works best to get a little loft on them.

However, if you are bad at this game, you will find yourself playing....


Where's Waldo?
When the stakes don't stand up in the snow, they...um... fall down... in the ... snow.   You get the picture.

Confetti Parade
We had some shredded paper mulch that was provided to us to trial.  I decided to try it out around a few of our bushes that didn't get wood mulch on the East line.  It wasn't all that windy.  But, I still had a bit of a confetti parade going out there.  Makes me think that this might not work so well for us.  But, I threw snow over it to help hold it down - and tomorrow's predicted rain should help too.

Chicken Feet
Our chickens don't like to go out into the snow, so they are in their room much of the time.  As a result, they get in the way more than usual when it is feeding, watering or egg picking time.  They are also very interested in whatever you are doing or whatever it is you are bringing them.  so...they get close to the human.  The game?

Try to avoid the chicken feet without tripping over waterers or feeders.  You get stuck with points if you drop any eggs or spill feed/water.  If you drop an egg, that's kind of like having to draw extra tiles in dominoes (chicken feet).  If you drop lots of eggs, you got caught with the double 9's.  Spill water on your own legs and it is a cold day - that's being caught with the double zeroes.

Going "out" means you didn't step on a chicken foot, nor did you spill or drop anything OR crack an egg by accident.  Good luck with that.

Bowling for Kittens
It was warm enough to pack snowballs and the kittens were out and about today.  So, I wondered if they would respond to snowballs being tossed.  They really didn't do anything interesting when I was throwing the snowballs.  But, when I rolled one past Mrranda, she took off after it at high speed.  The shoulder roll at the end when she caught it was something to behold.  This is clearly more Mrranda's game than Sandman's, but they'll both play.  They especially liked it when I rolled one that had momentum to get into more snow and it grew instead of shrank!

A strike - both kittens run after the rolled snowball and both try to pounce on it.
A spare - roll one snowball and get one pounce, roll a second snowball and get the other to pounce
7-10 split - roll a snowball between both kittens and they pounce on each other
gutter ball - roll a snowball and one kitten runs to YOU to be given attention and the other one cleans herself...

Stream of Conscious Traveling

We were able to take a break from the farm over the New Year's.  We get to do this more often than some and less often than others.  But, regardless of that, we recognize how valuable it is to just leave for a while.

And, you might ask - "Why is it so valuable?"

Go ahead.... ask.

Well, I'll tell you anyway.  It's because we can come up with all kinds of neat things to put in the blog for you!  Now - that wasn't the answer you were thinking we'd give you, was it?

Illiniwek Village
As you drive from here to there, signs you will see.  Ask us of them, you might.

The Missouri parks site has more information here.

While we did not take the side detour to visit this site, we wrote it down so we could learn a bit about it.  The Illiniwek numbered approximately a dozen tribes in the upper Mississippi River region and were an Algonquin speaking people.  Currently, remnants of these people reside in Oklahoma.  Of interest to us is the fact that they were among the peoples who used the "Three Sisters" horticultural companions (squash, beans and corn).

Hawk Eyed
Each time we take this trip, we enjoy keeping tabs on the raptors we observe.  This year, we did not see much on the trip down, but we hit the jackpot at about 3pm in Illinois, near the Kaskaskia River (Kaskaskia would be the name of an Illiniwek tribe).  Many, many Red Tailed Hawks on poles for us to see during a nice patch of sunny weather. 

You Name It
We also always enjoy names of towns, rivers, etc as we drive.  For example - just say "Kaskaskia" out loud.  It's just fun.  Now, try to say "Kaskaskia" three times quickly.  Try typing it three times quickly.  I think that may be harder.  Another fine name is from the same area:  "Mascoutah"   If you know "The Lion King"  you know how much fun they hyenas have saying "Mufasa."  Well, say "Mascoutah" the same way.  ooooo!  Say it again!  But, maybe "Mascoutah" is part of the "Hut" language?  Could you hear Jabba saying "Mascoutah?"

Stop that Fighting!  I really mean it!
We ran across signs for another Missouri park in the same area as the Illiniwek Village.  In this case, it referred to the Battle of Athens, which I presumed correctly to be a Civil War historical site.  And, of course, we found Civil War history in Georgia when we drove by the site for the Battle of Resaca, which was part of the "Sherman's March to Atlanta."  This last was in the middle of a detour, so we might not have seen it otherwise.  At a guess, most people who know a little about the US Civil War will not recognize this event, despite there being approximately 150,000 troops involved over 3+ days.  One two hour skirmish resulted in 1200 casualties.

Whenever I wonder if I'm wasting my time learning the arts of negotiation and compromise, I look at the results of a battlefield.

Drive By Observations

• Whenever I see signs such as the following: "Howard's Furniture and Mattress" or "Elliott's Carpet" I have to wonder.  What happens if Howard sells the mattress or Elliot sells the carpet?  Will they still have a business, or will they take the sign down?
• Would you buy a house from a real estate agent who puts his face on a billboard and proclaims his name to be "Hoodie" (he placed his nickname between his first and last names)?  His last name was Hood - we'll talk about creativity and nicknames some other day.
• Two signs right next to each other.  One for county road B and the other for county road E.  You could turn left for B and right for E.  If you went without turning, you could just BE.  
• A front porch clearly removed from an old house sitting at the corner of a parcel of property also had a prominent "No Trespassing" sign on it.  So, much for the old myth that people sitting on their front porches were welcoming.
• We wondered what the news was in Olds, Iowa.
• The dump truck for M VanWinkle Construction looked like it hadn't moved in quite a while. 
• If you've driven to St Louis from Iowa you might notice that they have a welcome center in Hannibal, which is by the Mississippi River bordering with Illinios.  But, there is no welcome center on the road (Keokuk area) between Iowa and Missouri.  Instead, you can stop at any number of fireworks retailers.  Hmmmm.
• The Injun Joe batting cages.  That's all I should have to say about that.