Time Machine

This is sort of a Before and After type of post - except we're going to go backward in time.  Why not?

Ok, ok.  Why?  Well, because I want to, of course!  Need there be any other reason?

The most recent picture in this chain is actually still a couple (maybe a few) weeks old already.  But, it shows the goal we were working towards.  We wanted to get our potatoes hilled, but weather (and all of the other work we needed to do) just kept getting in the way.

The final product.

We used a tool bar with two discs to hill the loose dirt in the paths onto the potatoes.  The purpose is to keep the tubers covered so they are not exposed to the sun.  If we had done this sooner, it might also have encouraged more tuber set and size.  But, we know we missed the right time slot this year.  That sort of thing just happens and we make the best of it when it does.

Just before hilling

The ground was still a bit damp and the weeds were sizable, so we removed the weeds so they wouldn't re-root.  They went to our compost pile (Mount Evermess) and will one day become some nice nutrients for some other crop.  Rob did a quick run down the paths with the tiller to loosen the soil up so we didn't end up with large chunks of dirt being thrown on the plants.  Tammy made sure to get the irrigation lines in place in hopes that the hilling would cover them and hold them in place.

Just about done with the in row weeding

Our flex tine cultivator helped reduce the weeds that were directly in the rows of potatoes in MOST cases, but there were still tougher weeds like Canada Thistle and some grasses we missed that had to be hand pulled.  We also got closer to the plants with wheel hoes and we called on the flex tine weeder with the knives to get as close as we were comfortable with tractor cultivation.  For more on that, keep reading.

Conservative passes with the flex tine weeder

We really wanted to run the flex tine weeder much, much earlier than this.  But, when it gets too wet and stays too wet, you can't do it.  We put the squash knives on the tool bar with the flex tines and ran a conservative cultivation to get used to how close we could get without damaging the potatoes.  Clearly, after the first two passes, we could be a bit more aggressive.  We played with that a little bit and used wheel hoes to knock down as much as we could as well.  Next year it should be even easier to respond.

And there you are, pretty close to the same chunk of our farm in pictures after some good work!

Before

After

August Newsletter

We like to say that the month of August is a month of transition on our farm.  Actually, we used to like to say that, until we realized that EVERY month on the farm is a month of transition.  So, never mind.
Instead, we'll just point out that the garlic harvest is done and the garlic is now hanging in the truck barn curing.  It's a good thing.

August Calendar of Events

• August 1: Delivery 12 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltEven)
  August 3: Delivery 12 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltEven)
• August 6: Tom Sawyer Day 3pm-6pm at the farm - help us make our perennial flower beds prettier!
  August 7: Waverly Garden Club at GFF 7pm
  August 8: Delivery 13 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltOdd)
  August 10: Broiler Flock 3 Arrival
  August 10: Delivery 13 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltOdd)
  August 13: Iowa Organic Association Summer Celebration at Scattergood Friends School in West Branch
  August 15: Delivery 14 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltEven)
  August 17: Delivery 14 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltEven)
  August 20: Gang of Four+ at Genuine Faux Farm 
  August 22: Delivery 15 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltOdd, Trav)
  August 24: Delivery 15 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltOdd, Trav)
  August 24: Broiler Flock 2 to "the Park"
  August 26: Tom Sawyer Work Day 1-4pm
  August 26: Summer Festival at Genuine Faux Farm
  August 29: Delivery 16 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltEven, Trav)
  August 31: Delivery 16 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltEven, Trav)

Summer Festival is In Sight:
We are less than a month away from our 2017 Summer Festival.  Mark your calendars and plan to come out to the farm on August 26 (Saturday).  The annual photo scavenger hunt will once again make an appearance (of course) but we are adding rock painting and a painted rock hunt to the itinerary for the kids.  And, yes, the kids at heart could probably participate as well.  We will be roasting a GFF turkey for sandwiches and will combine that with a potluck. 
Our Summer Festivals has been very well-received over the past few years and we hope to see you at this year's festival.

If you have ideas of things you would like to have happen at this year's Summer Festival or if you are willing to help with something, please contact us.  We have tried to do heirloom tomato tasting some years, just as we did in 2014.  Last year's event invitation looked something like this.

Pesticide Spray Season
The last couple of weeks have sounded like and felt a bit like a war zone at the farm.  The spray planes and helicopters were out in force.  We would like to remind all of you that if you witness any sort of misapplication of agricultural chemicals, you should report it.  Take careful note of the time and location and then report the situation.  If drift or misapplication is NOT reported, then nothing will change. 
Pesticide Bureau
DR. GRETCHEN PALUCH, Bureau Chief
515-281-8591
pesticides@iowaAgriculture.gov
If you are on a bike trail and witness an application that is impacting the bike trail, that is not right and should be reported.  If you are driving down the road and droplets hit your vehicle after a plane flies over, it should be reported.  While fines and enforcement in Iowa is week and the Pesticide Bureau's funding has not been well supported, neither will be changed unless the problem is made clear.  This is NOT just a problem for a sustainable vegetable farm near Tripoli, Iowa - this is OUR problem.  Let's fix it.

Song of the Month
At the point in the growing season where we need an extra kick to keep going.  In 2015, I wrote a post titled "Endurance Tests" that split our season into stages of how we, as farmers, were often feeling.  It's still pretty much correct.  So, a song like "What Are You Made Of" by the Call is a good one to encourage us to keep on forging through the year.

Recipe of the Month
It looks like a good crop of broccoli coming in and the basil is looking good.  Therefore, we bring this one up that is featured on our website for broccoli:

Pasta with Broccoli and Pesto
Make 1 cup batch of pesto by pureeing the following:

• 1.5 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tbs pine nuts

Then add to this pesto:

• 2 tbs butter
• 2tbs olive oil
• Blend and then remove to a small bowl.
• Stir in 1/4 cup mixture grated Parmesan and Pecorino Romano cheese
• Set this mixture aside

Core and cut into bite-sized wedges 1 large red ripe tomato
Cut 1 bunch broccoli into small flowerettes and trim broccoli stem into bite sized pieces. Steam until crisp and tender (3-5 minutes)
In a saucepan heat:

• 3 tbs olive oil
• add the following to olive oil:
• 1 clove of finely chopped garlic
• the prepared broccoli
• 1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
• Cook over medium heat, stirring gently to warm through. Hold.

Cook 1 pound rigatoni in boiling salted water. Drain, reserving some water to thin pesto.
To serve: Put cooked pasta in a bowl. Add 1-2 tbs hot pasta water to pesto and stir until thinned - then pour over pasta. Salt to taste. Add broccoli, tomato and toss to blend. Serve immediately.

from This Organic Life by J.D. Gussow

Field Report
The month of July had some serious heat, but it was the rain at the farm that stole the headlines.  While most of the rest of the state is now in drought conditions, we had 8.75 inches of rain for the month.  Needless to say, that caused some issues for us.  

We are disappointed in some of our crops right now.  The field peppers are acting like they were hit with an herbicide at some point this season, so we're fighting to get them going.  The green beans and carrots in Eden (the older high tunnel) did not like being flooded.  As a result, the green beans are dead and we've pulled them out.  We've also pulled the carrots and found that we lost over half of them to rot issues.  Both were looking great prior to the heavy rains we got.  But, every year is like this in some way.  We look at them and wonder if we'll get much of anything.  Meanwhile, other crops sneak in some wonderful results.

The broccoli is looking fabulous right now, despite the picture above showing a very wet field.  On the plus side, the field is very clean and the plants look very good.  On the negative side, the weather caused succession I and succession II to bunch up their maturity dates and we may end up with a VERY LARGE amount of broccoli all in a three week period.  Yikes!

We got the winter squash field all weeded and we added more flowers to the mix to encourage our pollinator friends.  We feel like the Waltham Butternuts will be fine and it is likely the Long Island Cheese and the Musquee de Provence pumpkins will do reasonably well.  Maybe not record crops, but I think we'll have a respectable showing.  The earlier winter squash varieties (spaghetti, delicata and acorn varieties) are looking even stronger, though I am not happy with pest pressure in the spaghetti squash.  Some more flowers that went in with the final succession of the zucchini and summer squash might help a bit with that one.

The garlic harvest probably rated as an "average" harvest for us.  We've had a couple years in a row of "excellent" harvests, so we can't help but be a little bit disappointed.  But, then we've got to realize that every time we do a good job with something on our farm, we raise the bar a bit more for the next season.  That's probably not a realistic approach for every crop we grow, but it is in our nature to keep trying to improve.

The Golden Beets in Eden were VERY tasty this year and we're hoping the Chioggia's in Valhalla do every bit as well.  We need to get our fall beet planting in the field soon since Rob really wants one more run at the Golden's.  The kale has enjoyed the rain and rewarded us with some very large leaves in July.  We expect them to get a bit smaller in August until the Fall succession takes off.
 


Picture of the Month

Love coneflowers on the farm!

Farm News Shorts

• The Genuine Faux Farm is once again involved in research projects sponsored by Practical Farmers of Iowa.  This year, we are trialing a few lettuce varieties to see if they can handle the warm weather temperatures.  We are also trialing an annual pollinator mix of plants to attract our working pollinator friends.
• We have very much enjoyed meeting some of the wonderful people who have been picking up for our vacationing/traveling CSA members.  We would like these folks to know they are welcome to join us for the Summer Festival AND we'd love to have them consider joining us in the future.  If you are aware of some of these folks, please pass on both invitation.  We are still willing to add members as the season progresses.
• Rob and Tammy did take a short break to visit family in Minnesota.  As part of the trip, Rob took his 96 page exhibit of postal history from the 1860's to the Minnesota Stamp Expo where it won all sorts of awards including the "Reserve Grand" prize, which is essentially "second place" for all exhibits that were shown there.  We're pretty pleased about this since this project has been ongoing for many years.

Time to Have Pun
Once upon a time there was a flock of angels with long flowing beautiful hair. But lo and behold, due to improper eating habits and advanced age, all their hair fell out. They soon saw the light and purchased gorgeous, extravagant wigs, which were even more golden and more flowing than their original hair.

One day, there came unto the angels very bad tidings. They lost their financial security and were reduced to a penniless state. In utmost misery, they fell to their knees and prayed for a solution. Suddenly, the clouds parted and a thunderous voice gave forth the following advice, "Hock the Hair Old Angels."

Storm Front

It is no secret to those that pay any attention to what we do that there are things that we struggle with every single growing season.  And yet, if you think about what we share in our blog, in our emails and on social media, you'll notice we try not to say too much about it.

If you follow our farm or other farms like ours on social media, it isn't all that often that you see any of us reporting daily struggles.  Instead, you'll see a nice picture of a garlic harvest.  Or a field that was weedy, but has now been weeded.  Or smiling workers achieving something of worth on the farm.  We all figure you don't want or need to hear about day-in/day-out struggles - so we tend not to share them.

The exceptions to this rule:
1. A major disaster that needs to be shared in order to garner needed support
2. An issue that we can put a humorous twist on so it doesn't really seem like a negative after all
3. We feel like there is an worthwhile educational component, which often makes it all seem a little less personal and therefore less painful
or
4. Anything to do with the weather.

Change of plans, let's not go take farm pictures.

If you farm, the weather is always not quite right no matter what happens.  Too wet, too hot, too dry, too windy, too calm, too cold, too much like a roller coaster, too many entrenched weather systems that stick us in one weather pattern for weeks, etc etc.  In other words, weather is simply too much sometimes.

Instead, let's dash and close up the high tunnels!

We catch ourselves getting a bit whiny about the weather and we try to stay away from complaining about it too much.  But, there are times when it is warranted.  For example, it seemed to us that we have had more severe wind events in our area than most seasons - and after looking at some of our historical records, that seems to be true.  One of this year's events was the dust storm preceding the actual storm in May that scrubbed Rob raw as he tried to get inside and failed to do so in time.

One of the scariest weather events this farmer has been in... ever.

Since then, the weather has shifted a bit from the excessive winds, though we have gotten plenty of poufffssss over the past couple months.  Instead, it is more of excessive rain rates that cause our poor weather station to tell us it is "raining cats and dogs."

Yes, that's us in the Flash Flood Warning reddish box in NE Bremer County

 And, while it wasn't exactly a heavy downpour event, we even ended up rescheduling a CSA delivery because we weren't going to try to pick in the rain and lightning.  That's not something we've done many times since our farm share programs inception in 2005.  But, we had scheduled in some flexibility this time around and decided to take advantage of it.  It ended up working for the best for us AND for our customers, so we'll take it.

Jocelyn says, "Hey!  It's raining at the farm..."

Tammy and I actually did a rare thing and scheduled a quick trip away from the farm to see family and participate in a postal history related event in Minnesota.  We had workers we could trust to handle the farm and we just needed a break. 

Nope, we can't weed in that field today.

So - what happens?  It rains.  And it rains.  And it rains.  Sumner (to our East) is still trying to clean up from the flooding.  And as a side note, this is actually the second rain event this Summer that flooded Sumner's streets.  But, this one really did serious damage.   It was just ridiculous amounts of rain.

The final tally for rain on the farm in this event was 5.5"

And this is how the two of us can start to feel guilty in a hurry.  We leave and take a break from the farm during the growing season, which really shouldn't be allowed.  We're already feeling a bit guilty - even if everyone out there tells us we earned a break and it is ok that we took one.  But, when you leave the farm and things get difficult due to rain and heat, you can't help but feel guilty having left workers to deal with the problems when it should be you that has to deal.

The ditch by Valhalla filled up and overflowed.

Caleb and Jocelyn did a fine job handling everything and they kept us up to date with what was going on.  Caleb had to fix a high tunnel rollup bar that broke and they had to be creative with tasks.  You see, Rob gave them a list of things to do "if it didn't rain" and "if it did rain."  He failed to give them one "if the heavens opened up and dumped never-ending buckets of water onto the farm."

We returned from our break and the farm was still there.  Jocelyn and Caleb are both fine.  There are still some gummy spots in the fields, but it is drying out enough to do work most places.  We lost our productive green bean rows in Eden (older high tunnel) due to flooding followed by excessive heat.  A few other plants in that building didn't take the event all that well either.  Field peppers didn't care for the wet feet and are set back as well.  But, generally speaking, we'll be fine.  We just won't have bumper crops of everything like we dreamed we would in January.  (Remember Farmer Delusional Syndrome?)

And here's where it all gets really nuts.  The Western and Southern parts of Iowa are very dry and many areas are now in drought conditions.  Meanwhile, we're sitting at 8.75" of rain for July and points not too far away got more than that in a single rain event.  If you go just a little ways south and west of us (Waverly, Cedar Falls, Waterloo), the rain amounts weren't all that high.

Tammy and I actually remember a time when we were less tied to the weather.  Sure, if there was tremendously extreme weather, we took note.  But, if it rained three days straight, we read books (for example) and didn't really worry too much about it unless our basement flooded or some such thing.  Now, a little bit of rain, or no rain, can alter much of what we plan to do on a day to day basis. 

It's enough to make our peppers make faces!

Mini Snort!

A few years ago, we had to put in a new well and we wrote a series of stories about the "SNORT" that visited our farm - much to our chagrin.   The Snort visited us again a couple of years ago when we ran water lines to the new high tunnel. 

The Mini-Snort

It turns out the Snort wasn't available to come out and help us fix a hydrant that had broken, so we got its little brother the "Mini-Snort" to visit us.  As always, much to our chagrin... Snorts always bring about chagrin.  Don't ask me why, I just know it is true.

The Mini-Snort made a right nice little mess for us in hopes that we could find the line that led to the broken hydrant.  Apparently, such things are not simple here.  But, it was, eventually, found.

One works, one doesn't work.

Now we just need to flatten the dirt out somewhat....

LilyPalooza 2017

Every year we tend to share posts that feature our day lilies as they enter peak bloom at the farm.  We thought we'd start formally calling it "LilyPalooza" in hopes that Rob will take the time to share pictures with you each year.

And hey!  If you want to see them in person, let us know.  We'll trade you a little bit of weeding time for a LilyPalooza tour of your very own!  Or maybe you can help us with the dishes...  Or you could try not wince too visibly when Rob throws a pun or two your way.

 Daylilies can be difficult for me to photograph sometimes because I admit to being an impatient "photographer."  After all, I am usually needing to do my job as farmer and taking a moment to take pictures of pretty flowers can usually only be an actual moment...

 Sometimes, the picture gets a little washed out looking when the flower is in full sun.  To my eye, many of those featuring yellows really show off during bright daylight.  Add a little red and perhaps some angle to sunlight and you get the picture above.

 At times, you get a little bit of a sparkle in the picture.  Yes, it is true, some of these daylilies show off because they KNOW they look good.

 As an opportunist when it comes to taking pictures, I'm willing to take what is given to me.  Some different shadows?  Ok.  Why not?  If they don't work, they don't work, that's fine.  But, I can still recall how nice it was to take a picture or two at 6:30am so I could get some different shadows on the flowers.

 At times, the colors are absolutely stunning.  I can only hope the camera will catch a bit of the color that is there.  The two surrounding this text are pretty good representations of what I was seeing during my LilyPalooza tour this year.

 If you look carefully, you might notice that daylilies are not all shaped the same.  Some have drastically different sized petals, some are rounder in the overall shape.  Some.... look a little spidery.

 And others just can't wait to open all of their blossoms at once.

 But most are happy with a couple at a time, extending their bloom over a period of many days.

 Some of the flowers are bold - saying "Look!  I have something to share with you."

 And others might rather stay in the corner and mind their own business.

 Perhaps they'll take a look at the aster plant nearby.

 Some of our daylilies are old standbys that we have had for nearly as long as we've been married.  Hyperion is not as flashy as many of them, but it is reliable.  And it makes both of us smile.

 And, Hyperion plays nicely with others.

 Every once in a while, we get a surprise.  We don't recall this one blooming before.  It has small flowers with a frilly texture.  It's actually quite nice, but you have to really stop and look at it to really appreciate it.

 Speaking of texture - even some of the bigger daylilies play that game.

 I suppose we should get around to figuring out what we have and trying to come up with a nice representative planting.  It sounds like a fun project.  But, who will weed it?  We have to ask these questions.

 Because it would be a shame if the flowers were covered up.

 The more I look at them, the more I realize that each one can make me feel differently.  Have a little fun and try something different says one daylily.

 Relax and have some lemonade says Prairie Blue Eyes. 

 And then there's Rocket City.  Not too hard to guess what it might say.

 A flower like the one below almost seems like it is wearing the flowers version of a tuxedo.  Bond, James Bond, it says.

 And this one is just "wedding day" pretty. 

 Then, there is the pinkish flower that just won't let me get it's color right when I take its picture.  Hopefully, I can take another crack at it.

 On the other hand, this one is really that red.

 And these are a coral color both of us love to look at.  It shows off most in the evening, but it just doesn't want it's photo taken then - they just never turn out the way I see them.

 And, if there was a clown of the flower world, it might look like this.

 Daylilies even look good if you don't get all of the weeds out of the way.  You just have to pull them to the side a bit.

 And, the biggest flower we have (for daylilies) is Big Bird.  The flower is a good deal bigger than my hand.

 Thank you for joining us for LilyPalooza 2017.

It's still going on at the farm and we hope to enjoy it as much as we possibly can!