September Field Report

We're entering the 'home stretch' for the growing season - just a few more months to do and we're done for the year!

Yes, that's right, there is still plenty of farming to do at the Genuine Faux Farm where the final harvest is usually in December.  But, it is also true that the nature of the work and the pace seems to change in September.  The rhythm that was June through August is fading and the realization that some things are just going to be what they are has got the farmers doing a little assessment and reflection.

And, who gets to benefit from that reflection?  Why, you do, of course!  Aren't we so nice?

April in Valhalla

We actually had a pretty rough start this year - even in the high tunnels.  After all, if you don't get much of Mr. Sun, plants have a hard time growing.  So, it has been pretty nice to see that we've been able to fight through that and we seem to be enjoying some reasonable results on the farm this season.

Greens, radish and turnips in May

Once again, we're noticing that very few of our crops are going to be setting farm records for us.  And, we're actually pleased by this.  Why?  Well, usually a record-setting crop by this time on our farm would be the result of increasing production space for that particular crop.  Early on, we would set records either because we really concentrated on a crop (to the detriment of other crops) and/or we overestimated how much space we needed.  We've moved past the 'set a record crop harvest for everything' mentality over the past five years and are targeting yields that match need and yields that reflect balance throughout the growing season.

tomatoes, beets and lettuce in Eden (June)

Of course, this doesn't mean would say no to a bumper crop of anything.  We'll certainly work to figure out what to do with it if it comes in.  But, there are always issues with capacity.  Some people have asked why we don't grow more of "x" because we are so "good at it."  They are missing the fact that we only have a certain capacity for labor, for storage and for sales. 

Broccoli and onions in July

We still feel that we are no where close to our overall farm capacity to produce good food.  At issue here is a single four-letter word: time.

Every crop takes a certain amount of time to do it reasonably well.  Every equipment breakdown eats up some of that time.  Time spent trying to promote the farm and sell product does not go towards better growing of the crops.  And, it takes time for improvements on the farm to take hold. 

For example, I'd love it if the bushes we've planted along our Easter fields were a nice big hedge already.  But, it takes some years for that to happen.  Until then, we deal with more exposure to corn and soybean fields than we like.

Copenhagen Market cabbage in August

Which brings us to a brief update on some of our crops so far this year.  We hope you find this interesting.

Tomato Resurgence at GFF
While we aren't at levels that Rob would like things to be, we've had some improvements this year after a couple of down years.  High tunnel production has really pulled us through the last couple of years, but production in the high tunnels was actually not up to par last year either.  This year, tomato production in the high tunnels is running on track with 2015 and 2014 numbers, which is re-assuring to us that 2016 was an aberration.  Field tomatoes, on the other hand, have very nice quality tomatoes on them.  Last year, we removed most of them as not being good enough to distribute.  Our target each year for slicer sized tomatoes is about a one ton weight in quality fruit.  Last year, we landed South of a half-ton, with high tunnel production carrying the load.

the Cucumber Conundrum
Thus far, 2017 has not been a great cucumber year.  This would figure since we were positioning ourselves to sell some cucumbers in bulk this year after three years where we didn't bother picking all of the good fruit (and fed them to the birds as they got too big) and five years in a row of similar production.  So, of course, our harvest numbers sit at a 'paltry' 1200+ for the year.  Before you send that beverage out of your nose in reaction to what we're calling a 'bad' number, consider that we were running full season numbers between 5000 and 6000 for five years running.  But, there is hope on the horizon.  We decided to run a third succession this year (rather than just two) and the third succession plants look the way they should.  If all goes well, we'll have a nice flush of fruit in mid-September.  If we get an early frost (which seems unlikely to us right now) then we'll just say we gave it a shot and leave it at that.

Onion Patience
Onions went in later than we wanted this year.  We're currently harvesting the short-season sweet white onions (White Wing) and we've been very pleased with the taste and quality.  They are, perhaps, a bit smaller than prior years, but nothing to be ashamed of.  The question is how well the rest of the onions will finish out.  They look healthy and strong.  And, we've run late with onions before with good results.  But, it still can be a bit nerve-wracking to hear about everyone else celebrating their completed onion harvest and yours is yet to happen.

Squish for the Squash Fanatics
This might be the best our winter squash field has EVER looked.  The field is pretty clean and has a good cover of vines and leaves.  Yes, there are some weeds creeping back in after our last weeding - which is annoying.  But, that's not abnormal for this time of year to get a few tall weeds poking through.  We've seen strong pollinator activity in the borage and prolific flowering on the vines.  Once again, we have to wait and see what makes it to maturity prior to the event of colder weather.  Regardless, it's looking good.

Melon-cholly
On the other side of the spectrum, we're looking at a melon crop failure this year.  We should still get a batch from the Minnesota Midgets in Valhalla, but it's nothing like what we've come to expect over the past few years.  Chalk it up to putting them in the wrong field and some timing issues and there you are.  Such is life.

Bean There Done That
We had some nice beans early in Eden until they flooded out in late July.  We tided everyone over with some beans in the field that also had some issue with the heavy rains at that time.  We are patiently awaiting what should be a bumper crop from Valhalla.  Again, no records here, but probably as much as we or our CSA members could want for a season.  And, probably all we can manage with the number of hours it takes to harvest them.

We hope you've enjoyed this GFF farm report and we look forward to giving a positive report of yields for all of these crops (except melons -sigh) at the end of the season!

What's Wrong With This Picture

Getting a different viewpoint from above seems to get everyone's attention.  After all, unless you are a pilot or you do a good deal of air travel, you don't see things from this perspective.  If you do travel by air and look out the window, you don't necessarily get to see a aerial view of where your home is - so satellite images can be intriguing and very hard to turn away from.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a satellite image from 2016 (we believe) that includes our farm and the surrounding area. 

This picture is a little odd because it shows some imagining from later in the year at the bottom part of the frame, so corn and soybeans are starting to germinate in those fields while the field in the upper portion are not showing much.  The town of Tripoli is at the bottom right and some of the Wapsipinicon River greenbelt runs through the picture from lower right to the center top.  Our farm is located just above the road that takes a sharp right turn at center left.  We're the smallish green rectangle.

So, what am I seeing that makes me concerned?  It's the lack of green.


However - our little patch of 15 acres should not be so easy to see.  There should be more hayfields.  There should be cereal grain fields.  There should be orchards.  There should be alfalfa fields.  There should be field borders.

Simply put, we don't need as much corn and soybeans as we grow.  We only grow as much as we do because there is a small subset of people who use it as a vehicle to generate money.  Note, I am not saying they use it to generate an income.  I am fully cognizant of many people who farm and rely on these crops to generate their income so they and their family can live.  I am also aware of people who earn incomes because they have jobs that have something to do with corn and soybeans.  They generate their incomes within the current agribusiness/government constructs.  I get that.

But, in my opinion, there is a subset of people who already have a good deal of money that spend time speculating on ag futures or that drive large ag industry businesses that have too much say as to what is grown and how it is grown.  The world does NOT need this much corn and soybeans.  It's just that there is a huge system in place that gives these two crops more value than they probably deserve at this time.

Rather than continue to rant about how things are not right in the world, let me say this:
I think many of the farmers and land-owners in this state want things to change.  But, I also suspect that there are two things that are stopping them.

1. Change is scary and it is hard to know where it will lead and whether it will hurt you or not.
and
2. People aren't sure how to go about making change.

Let me throw out a few suggestions for some small changes.  After all, ranting about how bad things are doesn't get anything done unless you have some ideas to make things better.

A. Use GPS in modern equipment to intercrop
If we've got the technology to have self-driving tractors, we have the ability to run strips that are one planter wide of crops that complement each other.  Is it a bit more complicated to do?  Sure.  But, the tools should be making this so easy now.  It's more a matter of figuring how to deal with borders.  Please don't tell me we don't have the tools or ability to figure that issue out - after all, that would be insulting given the other problems we've found solutions for...

B. Use some of our federal ag funding to push late season cover crops to hold the soil
If we're going to continue to provide funding to our row crop farmers then maybe we should do something that has been shown to help maintain soil health, cut down on erosion and diversify the landscape.  If we work on figuring out the best way to do a fall winter-kill cover crop we don't have to add more herbicide spraying to get rid of the cover prior to planting.

C. Start putting buffer strips between all fields
I get it.  It's your land and you need it to earn you money.  That's why you till as close to the edges as you do and that's why you see the idea of buffer strips between fields (and fence rows or tree rows or ...) as bad things.  In fact, this is the reason so many farmers didn't maintain green areas to handle rain run-off without it taking soil away.  Now that there are Federal programs that pay farmers to put in these green strips, farmers will do it.

But, it shouldn't just be about the money.  It should be about doing things right.  In the end, doing things right will pay back.  It just might not be in a paycheck this week... or the next.  Perhaps some of the payback will come in ways that aren't monetary - and that should be ok.

But, why do you pay the insurance premiums you do for spray drift insurance?  It's partly because you want to till right up to your neighbor's fields.  Have you considered the possible cost savings that might offset the yield lost for a simple buffer strip - say 20 feet on your side of the fence and 20 feet on the other side?

D. Apply ourselves to simply farming better
I refuse to believe that every farmer wants to do just the minimum on their farm.  I prefer to believe that many (and perhaps most) farmers want to do a better job with the land they work.  But, we need to change from 'working' the land to being 'stewards' of the land.

A good steward doesn't just run monetary numbers for the bottom line.  A steward looks to the health of the entire system - the whole farm.

Just some food for thought.

Hightlights of the Summer Harvest Festival Playlist

While we did not have live music at the Summer Harvest Festival this year, we did have some good music.  And, while the farmers were hosting, they also noticed when people were singing parts of a tune, humming along or even moving a bit to the music.

Here are a few we noticed some reactions to:
A cover of Safety Dance anyone?

 

And the whole crew yelled "Mamaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

How about a little cello with Takenobu? Song title is "Limbo":

One of our favorite bands, the 77's, playing "Nowhere Else":

Now, this tune is very catchy "If" you let yourself listen to House of Heroes:

One of Tammy's all time favorites, Sister Hazel and "All For You:"

You had to know we'd have some of the Choir playing and I caught someone paying attention to this one!

We even got a little Irish Fest style music in there with some Scythian:

And, if we'd been thinking we would have ordered the playlist so everyone would hear Alison Brown towards the end of the festival.

And we would have ended with Kerosene Halo:

Thank you to everyone who attended this year's Summer Harvest Festival, it was an honor to host it for you!

September Newsletter

September, the month of despair and hope.

How's that for an introduction to a newsletter?  Oh, you'd like some explanation? 

Late August into early September is the point in time where growers, such as ourselves, begin to fully realize that there is no longer a chance to fix any mistakes that might have been made with respect to this year's crops.  Yes, there is still some planting going on and there is plenty of harvest yet to come.  But, we just aren't going to save the crop in the far northeast field (for example).

On the other hand, if we take the moment to reflect, we will find moments of success that make us feel like, perhaps, we aren't so terrible at what we do.  In fact, we're actually pretty good at some of this stuff.  And, there are just some things that can't be helped, so success is defined by how you handle those events.  It's enough to make you start thinking about the things you'll do differently and better next time around.

Despair and hope. 

September Calendar of Events

• September 5: Delivery 17 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltOdd, Trav)
  September 7: Delivery 17 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltOdd, Trav)
  September 12: Delivery 18 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltEven, Trav)
  September 14: Delivery 18 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltEven, Trav)
  September 17: Gang of Four+ at Scattergood Friends School Farm
  September 19: Delivery 19 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltOdd, Trav)
  September 21: Delivery 19 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltOdd, Trav)
  September 26: Delivery 20 Waverly (Trad, WE, AltEven, Trav)
  September 28: Delivery 20 Cedar Falls (Trad, WE, AltEven, Trav)

Adding Some Members in the Fall:
We would like to add additional members to our CSA this Fall.  So, if you are someone who has returned from travels and you miss your veggies or if you are someone new who would like to try a farm share out, let us know and we'll pro-rate a share for you!

You could come to next year's festival and get a green cart ride too!

Look for future promotional efforts.  We'd like to add about 10 more members.

Broiler Chickens Available
The second batch of broiler chickens went to "the Park" on August 23 and then "Freezer Camp" on August 25.  We have at least 100 birds looking for homes.  Would you like to invite some of them to yours for dinner?

Price is $3.50 per pound for a whole bird.  The average weight for this group was around 4.8 pounds.  They are day range birds, which means they go inside for their protection at night, but run in pasture during the day.  They forage and receive feed that was mixed at the Canfield's farm near Dunkerton.

Turkey Reservations - Time to Get Them In
Our turkeys are getting bigger and we are teaching them all about their opportunity to join families all over the Cedar Valley for Thanksgiving as the guest of honor.  They are excited by the prospect.  Would you like to host on of these birds at your home this year?  Let us know.

Song of the Month
Rob 'discovered' Thrice a few years ago even though they have been around for a while.  They reappeared this year with a new album and it appeals to some of the heavier rock vibes Rob appreciates.  But, why did we select this song?  Well, "There are Fauxes in the garden..."   When, the lyric references you, you have to include it.  What?  Not that kind of Faux?  Hmmm.  Now I'm confused.

Recipe of the Month
This recipe uses a large number of the things you get in August and into September from a CSA share:

Ratatouille
1 lb of yellow onions, chopped (white or red onions fine too if you like sweeter onions)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1 lb yellow squash, chopped
Bell peppers, seeds removed, chopped into 1/2 inch square pieces:
--1-2 lbs bell peppers (other sweet peppers work too!)
1 lb eggplant, 1/2 inch cubes
1 lb fresh ripe tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
3/4 cup vegetable stock (or thin tomato juice)
fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Using a large oven-proof pan over medium high heat, saute onions in olive oil until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and reduce heat to low.
3. While the onions and garlic are cooking over low heat, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a another frying pan over high heat. As soon as oil starts to smoke, quickly add enough zucchini cubes all at once to cover the bottom of the pan. Keep on cooking over high heat, stirring, until zucchini is lightly browned on all sides. Remove zucchini cubes, and add them to pan with the onions.
4 Repeat process until all of the zucchini cubes have been cooked. Do the same with the yellow squash. Make sure to add a little olive oil between each new batch. Continue with the bell peppers, then the eggplant cubes, adding the browned vegetables to the onion pan as soon as they are cooked.
5 When all the vegetables (except the tomatoes) are browned and in the pan with the onions, increase theheat to high and stir, making sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add salt to taste, thyme, bay leaf, and rosemary, the vegetable stock, and stir well. Place in oven for one hour.
6 Boil water in a saucepan on stove. Remove stems from tomatoes, and crisscross the bottoms with a knife. Plunge into boiling water for a minute or two, until skin starts to fall away. Rinse in cold water and remove skin. Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise, remove seeds, chop coarsely, set aside.
7 After the vegetables have been in the oven for an hour, remove from oven, drain vegetables in a colander set over a bowl. Clean browned bits (if any) off bottom of pan with a paper towel. Return any liquid to the pan and reduce to a thick glaze over medium high heat. Keep on adding juices to the pan as they run out of the vegetables into the bowl.
8 When all the juices have been reduced, return vegetables to the heavy pan. At this point the ratatouille should be moist and shiny, with very little liquid. Turn heat off. Add the chopped tomatoes and cover. If serving as a warm side dish, let the ratatouille stand for 10 minutes, just enough to "cook" the tomatoes. The ratatouille can be served at room temperature or refrigerated and reheated the next day.
9 When ready to serve, remove the bay leaf, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
 


Field Report
The past month saw us dry out a fair amount.  We got a bit of rain here and there to keep it from getting serious, but we wouldn't say no to a gentle rain about now.  Temperatures have been much cooler than usual for most of the month of August.  So, things that like cooler weather have been happy.  Warmer weather things - not so much.  But, we've had plenty of sunshine, so that offsets the negative impact of cooler weather somewhat.  

Zinnias, winter squash and borage.

The winter squash crop continues to look good, even if it seemed to start slowly for us this year.  We got the field weeded/cultivated in a timely fashion, so this may be the best this field has looked in years.  We've had lots and lots of squash flowers out there, but it has yet to be seen if we have the pollinators to lead to a nice big crop.  We remain hopeful, as always and things are looking decent so far.

We're starting to gear up for the tater digging sessions.  We never know for sure what the crop will give us until we dig it, but we can take some guesses based on the health of the plants.  Some varieties are going to be pretty sad.  Others should be fine.  We planted twelve beds of taters this year.  Tammy and I agree that if we can get a good, solid harvest from five of them, we'll be just fine.  It's not what we were hoping for, but it's what we need to be reasonably successful for the season.

The high tunnel peppers are trying their best to carry this year's load.  They've been high quality fruit with excellent taste, but it is still a fraction of what we expect most years.  We just remind ourselves that these things happen - which is exactly why we split crops between field and high tunnel (among other things we do to 'hedge our bets').

We mentioned the pollinators for a reason.  Our summer squash and zucchini plants have been fine this year, but production numbers continue to lag behind what we brought in per row foot prior to 2010.  Soil tests tell us we're doing fine with fertility and composition of the soil.  Our growing techniques have gotten better since then.  We've even moved to some F1-hybrid varieties for the increased production per plant.  The weather doesn't account for the decline entirely, which leaves us with the pollinator issue.  Once again, we put in the plug that we (all of us) need to work to reverse the damage we are doing to our insect population with the overuse of pesticides and destruction of habitat.


Picture of the Month
You've probably figured out that our picture of the month comes from the prior month at the farm by now.  We had a seriously good crop of broccoli that came in during August, so this seems only fitting.

Farm News Shorts

• We are considering some special activities for our September CSA pickups.  Keep your ears open and see if you might enjoy participating.  Rumor has it there might be some recipe sharing involved for one of these.
• We can't remember if we've shared this in a newsletter prior to this or not.  Rob has been asked to present at a conference in Canada late November/early December.  He will be sharing some of our intercropping methods with interested persons.
• Brian Golay has been kind enough to work with us on building a better hen shelter for the hens that are our 'traveling flock.'  Here's what we have so far:  

Time to Have Pun
Did you hear about the photographer?  He died from exposure.  It wasn't a pretty picture.  Some people say that it wasn't an accident and another photographer was arrested under suspicion of murder.  I think he was framed.  We'll tell you more as the situation develops.  Film at ten.

Summer Harvest Festival Success

We held our annual Summer Harvest Festival at the farm last Saturday (August 26) and participants were relieved to discover that the rain showers in Waverly and Cedar Falls did not extend northeast to Tripoli and the Genuine Faux Farm.  If you want some proof that there was, in fact, activity on the farm you can view this neat time elapse video recorded by Charlie Figura.

As a self-diagnosed introvert, I can tell you that my desire to go through with the festival decreased as the time for it to start came closer.  It has nothing to do with the effort to set up nor is it an indication that I wasn't looking forward to seeing many of my favorite people.  It's just the nature of an introvert such as myself.  I was actually relieved to find another person who put the feeling into words for me (ironically, while we were both AT the festival).  Of course, once the festival started, it was fine and both Tammy and I enjoyed seeing all of the wonderful people enjoying themselves at the farm.  It always helps for us to see the farm through someone else's eyes.

The fences came out yet again this year to provide us with an artificial 'sidewalk.'  We don't really have much sidewalk for our sidewalk chalk, so the fences just had to do.  And, apparently, there were a few artists in the group this year.  Our thanks to Charlie, Sophie and Max for setting these up for us.

But, there was more sidewalk chalk work going on than that!  Abby and Kate helped out prior to the festival start and made sure the green flairbox was made to look cool AND be a sign for those arriving that they were in the correct place.

 And, they made sure each side had something of interest.

 And, I mean.. .EACH SIDE!  Nice!

 Jean, Kyle and Abby arranged to create a batch of painted rocks of an appropriate size so our younger visitors could participate in a painted rock hunt prior to the serving of food.  At least one participant claims to have found "lots" of rocks.  When asked exactly how many, she proudly stated that she found "hundreds."  Another participant told Farmer Rob that he found rocks too.  When asked how many, he decided it was time to get into the green cart and go for a ride.  I guess we'll never know how many it was.

Before the festival started, we had some help from Clans Figura and Clan Peters getting tables ready and pop-up tents in place.  A clever washing station was also rigged up for use and many more hands were willing to set up chairs, carry out plates, slice tomatoes (and other veggies) and do other things that made the event so much easier to get going.

A good crowd gobble will get most anyone to smile!

A small group took a guided tour of the farm while others grabbed a Scavenger Hunt sheet and did their best to see if they could find all of the items.  The chickens and the turkeys had a fair share of admirers as did Soup and Inspector.  In fact, Soup enjoyed the attention of some special friends (particularly Oliver).  The Sandman was conspicuously absent (but not surprisingly so).  Sandman did, however, show up just as the last people left at the end of the festival (also not surprising).  For a spokescat, he sure does a fine job of acting a bit like an introvert!

Once again, the green carts were a hit.  I am afraid that Tammy and I just see them as... um...  green carts.  But, who knew they could be a source of great entertainment?

Ok, we did because we've seen it at nearly every festival.  While the two of us get irritated with them because they go through wheels like no one's business, the kids who visit can't resist their pull.  And, yes, a bit of pulling of kids in carts did ensue.  Until...

Emma and Max to the rescue

I am beginning to think that the kids have something here.  Whenever Tammy and I are feeling a bit down at the farm, we should just take turns being pulled around in a green cart.

Tammy did an extraordinary job getting the turkey roasted and prepared.  She also got the lemonade, tea, water, dishes, etc etc  ready to go with some willing hands to keep it all together.  Ben and Sam were kind enough to help us out by picking up extra buns when we figured out we may have underestimated the need for more of them.  Rob was more of the outside clean-up guy, doing his best to consider what areas should be made off-limits and what things needed to be 'hidden' so small hands and bodies would not be put at risk.  But, the great thing is that the adults shared the responsibility of looking out for everyone's children.

We enjoyed meeting new people who came as guests of some of our CSA members and we're pleased that people think enough of the farm to introduce others to us.  It is possible we had as many first time visitors as we had returning visitors this time around.

The food shared by those who participated in the potluck was excellent and I suspect very little food went home.  The turkey was mostly gone by the end of the festival and most of the s'more makings were also used up.

While we do have some clean-up work to do at the farm (as of this writing on Sunday), we were gifted with the efforts of several people who made sure things were picked up, tables wiped off, tents down, chalk picked up from the ground and numerous other things. This was all done while Rob and Tammy were doing their jobs as hosts of the event.  We can't tell all of you who helped in any number of ways how much we appreciated it.

Here's to an enjoyable Summer Harvest Festival in 2017 and here's to hopes of an even better one in 2018!

It's the Little Things

I do not profess to be much of a photographer, but I do meander around the farm every so often and capture things that catch my interest.  It's a way of reminding myself of little things that renew my spirit and interest in living life as best as I can.

Even though some of the pictures aren't fabulous works of art, I still like to grab batches of them and write what comes to mind that might be worthy of sharing from the context of our farm.  Enjoy!

Droplets on Brassicae
Anyone who has grown broccoli, kale, cauliflower and other related vegetables knows how water tends to bead on these plants.  In the right light, it can almost look like a drop of liquid mercury.  It's a neat little mechanism for a plant to collect water and funnel down to their root system.

Even though I am not always carrying a camera with me, I take pictures with my mind every time I see these water droplets.  I am not sure what it reminds me of or why it makes me happy to see it.  And, I suppose that's not what matters.

Now That's A Right Proper Tomato for a BLT
Most Italian Heirloom tomatoes land at just under a pound in weight and often cover all or most of the bread when you slice the tomato.  Sometimes, they do even better than that.

Like - maybe they dwarf the rest of the sandwich?

Oh, but the sandwich ended up being soooo good!  And, yes, I did put more lettuce on it.

Surprise!
Surprise Lilies (aka Naked Lilies) are a nice early August bloomer.  These plants will send up their leaves early in the season only to die back by mid July.  When August comes, they send up a flower stem over a period of about a week.

It's rewarding to have clusters of them here and there at the farm.

Lengths of Sturdy Pipe and Cinder Blocks
Two things that don't seem like much, but are incredibly useful at the farm.  What little things do you take for granted and don't really look like much?

If we didn't have this cinder block we'd have to come up with another way to keep this door from blowing shut in the wind.  It has also been used to hold some things down during a wind storm and it was an impromptu ladder to give one of the farmers an extra inch or two of reach.  And, I remember my grandparents growing flowers in them as well.  What's not to like?

Time for Timer
Simple technology, big help!  We've forgotten to turn off the irrigation enough times.  It's really nice when there is an easy solution.

Where Did You Come From?
Then there are the flowers (Turtles Head) that we didn't remember were in the wildflower area.    What a nice surprise that one was.

Humble Pie

Tammy and I have been working the Genuine Faux Farm since 2005, so it's not like we're novices or anything.  Yet, we still make mistakes and things still go wrong.  We still have problems that give us grief and we still don't like sharing them publicly.  Yet, I still put things on the blog that illustrate failures - why is that?

The biggest reason I have for recording the opposite of success is to enforce some level of reflection so we can try to avoid the same situation in the future.  If you don't think about the causes and reasons for the problem, how can you address them effectively?  The answer to that question is that you can't. 

But, why share them publicly in a blog? 

First things first, I highly doubt that many people read this blog, so it's not like I'm going to have to go on a media outlet tour to explain why things went wrong to the general public.  Those who do read this blog are genuinely supportive and/or are interested in learning.  In the first case, real communication to people who care is balanced between the good, the bad and the middle ground.  So, there is no problem there.  In the second case, there is no better learning situation than when failure is encountered.

And, let's be clear here - our whole farm plan is built to absorb some failures.  To paraphrase another farmer I respect very much, "If you don't have some failures each season, you aren't trying hard enough."

Now that the obligatory introduction is complete, let's get to the fun. 

Everyone Who Farms Has Done This (and will do it again)
Don't leave rolls of barbed wire, chunks of fencing, fence posts and other such things near paths or other areas where grass and other growing things will cover them.

Yeah, yeah.  I hear you.

Arrrrg!

There are very few people who have mowed on a farm that can say they have never mowed over something that fowled up the blades.  In fact, I'll bet that the few people who can say that didn't do a whole lot of mowing on a farm.  Simply put, farms have a lot going on.  You set things down 'just for a second' because you only have two hands.  You'll come back and get that after you do this thing or that thing.  You run over it with the mower two months later.

If You're Going to Deviate From the Plan...
When we plan for our season we usually have 'alternative plans' if things dictate that we make changes.  But, I can tell you this much - as soon as you get a thought that follows the format of "Huh, I'll just do this instead of..." you'd better take another moment or three to think through it.

Huh, I'll just change the spacing in this field because the plan doesn't look right... ya, right.

As always, there is more to the picture than the heading shows.  And, the post isn't really about all of the details that led to sad chleome flowers in the middle of weeds.  My point is that, while it is good to be able to make adjustments, you should make sure to think through those adjustments.  The worst mistakes we have made on the farm were the result of a rushed decision.

It Doesn't Count If You Answer the Quiz Question Correctly
It sure doesn't hurt to have a nice pool of knowledge at your disposal for whatever work you may do.  But, darn it, if you don't apply what you know, it doesn't really help does it?

This one frustrates me because we have known for many years that bush beans (especially green beans) tend to keep potato beetles out of potatoes well enough that you don't need to worry about the population getting out of hand and destroying your potato crop.  We know this to be true and we plan to execute an intercropping plan every season.  We may modify the plan every so often, but it's there.

So, how is it possible that we did not get it done this year? 

First, let me assure you that we didn't lose our crop.  Some varieties are going to do poorly because of potato beetles, but we'll still get some decent taters.  But, I'm still asking the question - how did we let this happen?

The reality is, we didn't just let it happen.  On a highly diversified, small-scale farm there are limited resources for a very diverse number of crops.  Certain weather patterns can hit a spot that can set a subset of crops back simply because the resources are not available to deal with that crop AND all of the others that need something done 'right now.'  Hard choices have to be made and the beans in the taters didn't happen in time to prevent the potato beetle flush that we had to deal with this year.  In this case, it will make the difference between an outstanding crop and a passable one. 

On the plus side, it encouraged me to exercise my "poetry skills."  (and now you are all saying, please do better with your intercropping next season)

Sometimes, It's Not About You
The weather doesn't provide the growing degree days for a crop to reach maturity during the planned period of production.  The sun doesn't come out for ten days straight.  The state of Iowa is so full of herbicides flying all over the place that things don't germinate consistently.  The woodchuck figures out how to get into a coldframe and eats your melon starts.  Excessive rain floods your high tunnel and rots out carrots and beans.  It's just part of what we deal with and it's a big reason why the diversity on our farm is so important.

Eden is missing some beans here....

The excessive rains in July resulted in standing water for Eden.  Green beans do not care for that sort of situation so our formerly healthy plants all had to be pulled.  The good news?  We had already harvested a pound per row foot from these plantings.  The bad news?  We usually get three pounds per foot by the end of the season from rows like these.

But, as I mentioned, the diversity of our crops and the diversity built into our plan tends to result in an overall 'win' for the farm.  For example, we have been able to harvest from some of the green beans in our east fields since the loss of these bean plants.  And, in another week or so the beans in Valhalla will start producing - so hurrah for succession planting.  We've harvested 226 pounds of green beans in 2017 and our goal is to land somewhere between 600 and 800 pounds for the season.  We'll be just fine, thank you.  But, it would have been nice to have the easier road to our goal with beans happily producing in Eden.

Mad Scientist?
We experiment on the farm frequently because we know there is always more to learn and we recognize that experiential learning is very effective.

I'd say there was some seed in that straw mulch, wouldn't you?

Our sprawling cucumber vines always result in some weed issues later in the life of the crop.  We've considered paper mulch, but you can't walk on that to harvest.  We've considered trellising (and even tried it), but there's a labor timing issue that just doesn't work on our farm.  This year, we trialed putting some straw mulch between two rows and you can see the result above. 

Apparently, the oat straw had a lot of oat seed in it.  We only placed the straw between the rows and not on the outsides.  As you can see, the cucumbers seem to favor growing OFF of the straw mulch.  We've taken the time to pull the oat 'weeds' and we'll see how this succession of cucumbers finishes.  But, this experiment may not be repeated without some serious thought.

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And there you have it!  A look at some things that aren't going (or didn't go) quite as we wanted at the farm this season.  We can handle these problems and we will handle them.  Perhaps the most difficult part about them is avoiding making our failures our focus for the season.  Plenty of things have gone and are going well enough.  But, we're human.  It only takes one failure to obscure ten successes. 

But at least we won't get a big head.

Cast of Characters

We've done various "Cast of Characters" posts on the blog for our farm in the past, but the only constant is change (or so they say).  That, and we are fully aware that blogs, social media and other electronic publications "scroll down" and out of view to many.  We can certainly try to link you back to prior posts (like we did in the first sentence) but we're are certain that the number of times people take those links is infrequent.

Today's blog post won't be an all comprehensive list.  Instead, it is a "Cast of Characters" by convenience.  In other words, I took some pictures in August and figured I'd use them for a post.  What could be more logical than that?  (Ok, Spock was supposed to be more logical than that - but what else?)

Outdoor Farm Management
The Sandman continues to hold the position as farm Spokescat.  As you can see, he takes this position seriously, posing for promotional pictures and illustrating the proper use of a wheelbarrow.

Um, I am still getting sunlight in my eyes, could you move the barrow slightly?

With Mrranda and Cubbie gone on to the Great Hunting/Napping Grounds we now have Inspector and Soup rounding out the outdoor management staff.  Inspector has become the official "Greeter" and "Affection Seeker" for the farm.  He likes most everybody and will accept attention with a nice purr.  Inspector is Soup's son and he still treats mom with respect.  What a nice young man he is!

Inspector (foreground) and Soup

Soup has taken some time to integrate into the farm.  She's less certain of people, but once she warms up you will learn where Inspector got the purr from.  Oddly, Soup has not taken on a specific role on the farm.  We're not sure what the reasons might be, but we're willing to be patient.

Supervisory staff supervising.  Good job guys!

You Name Trees?
Yes, yes we do.  At least we name some of them.  I think it started with Jeff Vader (the cottonwood) and we were not the ones guilty of naming it.  We were just guilty of adapting to using it and then sharing with others.  On the other hand, we are guilty of naming Crazy Ole' Maurice.

You probably know that we like Lord of the Rings and you can probably guess that we enjoy the part with Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadill.  However, this willow tree is not really an Old Man Willow type.  He's got kind of the Einstein haircut and he is far from menacing.  And, since we often reference Beauty and the Beast with our Dangerous Pastime posts, it seemed fitting to name a willow this way.

No, I don't know exactly why it seemed fitting.  It just did.  It's the farm, it doesn't have to make sense.

Crazy Ole' Maurice

They Come and They Go
Sometimes participants in daily farm life are only there for a limited duration.  For example, baby barn swallows only stay babies for so long before they fledge and fly around, eventually moving away for the Winter.  I've taken to calling the babies in the nest the "Nixons" because they look like they have jowls that even Richard Nixon could have appreciated.

The Nixons

Meanwhile, we get visits every 28 days from the Moon.  Who else can say that?  We're pretty special, huh?

What?  What do you mean the Moon visits you too?  Wha? 

The Moon visiting the farm.

The Chalkdoor Speaks
Ok, Chalkdoor doesn't really speak.  But, it sure does get a fair amount of attention during the growing season.  It's only been active since last summer, but it feels like we've been using it for longer than that. 

As you may notice, we don't always limit ourselves to words on Chalkdoor.  Every so often a baby chick might show (see bottom 1/2) or maybe a wheelhoe (top left).

Oh Look!  A Bird!
We must like birds because we willingly host hundreds of them every year.

The turkles are liking the pasture.

August is the time of year when we have five flocks on the farm at one time (used to be six flocks when we had ducks!).  The turks have a decent sized pasture North of the Poultry Pavilion and have a pasture that borders with the hens and Crazy Ole Maurice's domain.  Minnie the Might Oak is among a few small trees we're trying to grow in their pasture so future flocks can enjoy a little shade during hot days.

The henlets.

The "Henlets" (this years young hens) have not yet been integrated into the main laying flock (aka "the Ladies"), though that day is coming (some times in the next 2-3 weeks).  Meanwhile, we have the "Boyus" are in a different section of pasture.  These are the older broiler chickens that are soon approaching their trip to "the Park" and then some time at "Freezer Camp."  "The Nuggets" are still in the brooder room and consist of the next batch of broiler chickens that will go to the park in early November.

We hope you enjoyed this quick tour of some of the characters you might find at the Genuine Faux Farm.

Oot and Aboot at the Farm

We've recently had a number of big Visual Improvement Days at the farm which spurred the farmer to go out with the camera.  We do like to share pictures of the farm (within reason), but we also like to have these pictures to help us with our own record-keeping and decision-making.  After all, we fully realize that our memories are fallible.  At the very least, these pictures can help us when we feel like we are making no progress at all!

So, let us take you on a walkaboot the farm!  (and no, I don't have any pictures of boots, though it crossed my mind to take one just for the blog)

We walk certain paths and areas of the farm more often than others.  The picture above is actually a view I could see more than once a day as I walk from the chicken yard, the turkey pasture, the henlet area, Mount Evermess... etc etc.  Eden is our older high tunnel building and, come late September/early October, it won't be there.  It will be about 90 feet West of this point.  I can't tell you how hard that is for us to get used to!

At left is the granary and at right is the Poultry Pavilion (in case you wanted to know).

Then, there are viewpoints we don't see all that often.  This is taken from the North end of the turkey pasture looking from the North to the Poultry Pavilion.  As you can see, Tammy is explaining Thanksgiving Dinner to the turkeys.  In the foreground is Minnie the Mighty Oak.  Well, we hope Minnie will become mighty.

Every year, we work to improve this pasture area and we're getting better at it.  But, like all things farm, there are priority levels and this one doesn't often get to the top until the turkeys really need the pasture!

I think this inspired me to take pictures from different perspectives from those that I usually take with the camera.

 For example, I often walk by the flowers at the end of the onion beds as I go from here to there, but I don't usually think to inspect the marigolds.  Don't get me wrong, I love the marigolds.  But, for some reason I don't stop and focus the camera at marigold flowers like I do other flowers.  And, frankly, this one may not do them justice either.  But, at least I stopped this time!

We've been throwing marigolds into more nooks and crannies this year and generally like the results.  I wonder what we'll do next year?

 Then, there is the Xerces annual pollinator mix trial we are doing.  For the most part, it looks like buckwheat.  Why?  Because that's pretty much what's in there right now.  It seems that the buckwheat level was sufficient to pretty much suppress most of the other flowering plants.  Hm.  Well, that's why we call it a trial.

The view from the East field back towards Valhalla is one I just don't look up for much as I go from here to there on the farm.   The Ninebark hedge continues to grow and look healthy.  In fact, it keeps getting wider as can be shown by the path that is no longer as clearly evident as it was earlier this season.

Yes, there is a path to get to Valhalla... I think I see a small maintenance project that needs doing.

We see the old barn every day as we leave the house, or as we work around the other buildings in the barn 'proper.'  But, when we're in the East veggie fields (aka the Eastfarthing) we don't often look up to see the barn.  I don't know what it is about humans, but we are very good at looking without seeing.  This is why I like taking Oot and Aboot walks on the farm with the camera.  It encourages me to look and see just a bit more.  This view reminds me that the barn had several good qualities, which is why it wasn't as easy a choice as you might think to let it go.  Sometimes we look at this side and wonder if we could still fix up part of it.

The Difference a Year Makes

It is mid-August and the farmer is taking a few moments to take stock in the way the current season is progressing.  This is a normal occurrence and has happened before.  One example might be this post from 2015 that actually led to mid-season variety awards.

Oddly enough, I've actually spent less time assessing this year than I have some years.  I am still recording data, so the evaluation is bound to come at some point.  But, the energy is going elsewhere this season up to this point.

If there is one thing that might encourage me to do some mid-season analysis, it is a crop that is doing well.  Yes, a crop that is doing poorly also gets me to do mid-season analysis, but I'm not always willing to publicly share that analysis while I am still feeling the sting of failure!  Though there are times when the failure leads to a brain-storming session that might lead to a post sharing some of the results!

Broccoli Doing Us Proud
We participated in a broccoli trial last year with Practical Farmers of Iowa after having had a couple years of consistent production.  What happened in 2016?  Well, it was just a pitiful broccoli year on our farm (and on many other Iowa farms, it turns out).  Since we had recent experience with success, it didn't make sense to overhaul our approach to broccoli.  Instead, we simply rededicated ourselves to the crop and our strategies for growing it.  The results so far are very good.

The downside of re-dedication to one crop is that fact that your time and energy have to come from somewhere.  Often, it is at the expense of another crop.  This year, it looks like the melons are suffering from our lack of attention (among other things).  But, that's for another blog post.

The average size of our broccoli is a bit bigger than it has been.  In 2014, the average head of broccoli weighed in at about 9/10 of a pound.  The following year, the average head weighed a pound.  So far this season, our heads of broccoli average 1.1 pounds.  We do not collect individual weights, so I can only report that the reason for this increase seems to be more the fact that there are some giants coming in from the field along with all of the other heads of broccoli  Spot checking tends to yield a weight right around a pound for most heads this year, so I think that theory holds water.

Thus far, two beds of broccoli are nearly done with main head production and we're hoping for some good side shoot production this year.  Our other two beds of broccoli are just now entering peak production.  Thus far, we have collected just under 300 pounds of broccoli.  Our record is 674 pounds in 2014, a year when sideshoot production was amazing.

Other than favorable weather for broccoli growing in our part of Iowa, we can trace this year's success (knock on wood) to a few things.  First, the broccoli landed in one of our better fields this year.  Last year, it was in a field that has a history of problems.  In fact, we're looking at removing that field entirely from our production rotation.  The weed pressure continues to be difficult in that field and the soil type is clearly different.

That doesn't take into account the fact that there were issues for many other growers in our area with the broccoli.  So, we do have to give some weight to the theory that some years just don't favor certain crops.

Perhaps the most important aspect is the level of importance we put into maintaining the crop.  In a highly diversified and small-scale growing system such as ours, resource limitations can play a larger role in crop success (and failure) than they might otherwise.  Clearly, broccoli is an important crop for us because many people like it and it is an easier veggie for us to find a market for excess.  It was important enough that we weren't willing to accept 2016's 95 pounds of production and we put this crop at the top of transplant, irrigation and cultivation lists.  Simply put, that field looks fantastic and some of the reason for it lies with the farmers and the crew.

High Tunnel Tomatoes
Then, there is a crop like this one.  It received high priority last year, just as it has every other season we've grown tomatoes in the high tunnels.  We didn't really do anything hugely different this season either.  And, yet, we are already seeing results that look like they will exceed last year's poorer showing.  For example, we have already gotten as many of our wonderful Black Krim tomatoes off of five plants in Eden (our older high tunnel) as we did for the whole season last year form six plants.  The average fruit size is nearly a quarter pound larger AND if hadn't been for an issue with worms boring into some of the earlier fruit, the numbers would have been even better for this season.

Our Valhalla tomato production has not started yet, but that's by design.  We want those tomatoes to peak later so we can run them into November more easily.  The plants look fine at this point, but there's no knowing until the fruit start coming in.

This brings up a couple of questions:
1. Was last year an aberration or is it this season?
If we look at numbers from 2014 and 2015, we harvested 32.0 lbs and 39.3 lbs of marketable Black Krim tomatoes per plant grown in the high tunnel environment.  In both cases, we felt like we didn't quite maximize what we could have done with that crop, but we did pretty well.  In 2016, we harvested just under ten pounds of fruit per plant.  One third the production of the prior two years.  So, the fact that we've already exceed 10 pounds per plant this season may not be all that remarkable.  Instead, it seems to show a return to the norm for this variety in our high tunnels on this farm.

2. Is it something we did or did not do?
At this point, I have not been able to put my finger on anything we have done that might account for 2016's lower production and this year's return to prior season numbers.  It is possible that part of the issue is that the West position of Eden has problems with wet soil if we get excessive rains (for example).  But, we noticed a decline in health of all of our tomatoes last year, for whatever reason.  This season has been better thus far for all tomatoes on the farm.

Wapsipinicon Peach snack tomatoes

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And there you are!  You have been privy to one farmer's thoughts about some of the production on his farm this season.  We hope you enjoyed getting a view into some of the things we consider as we grow.