Thursday, December 31, 2015

GFF Pictures of 2015 - Critters

Here are the candidates for the pictures of the year candidates for GFF in 2015 - Critter Division.
It seems like every year we focus on things a bit differently when it comes to taking photos.  But, it never fails that we attempt to take a picture or two of our farm managers (cats) or chicks.  And, usually, one or two are worth the end of year award nominations.  However, this might be the first time we have a frog in the mix.

Well, no matter, we're going to give them a category of their own this time around!

Enjoy the pictures - remember, you can click on a picture to see a bigger version.

And, yes!  You can VOTE for the winner of each category.  Place a comment on this post to submit a vote, or respond to a companion post on facebook OR send us an email with your vote.  You may vote once for EACH category.

a) It's cold.  It's wet.  I just wanna nap.
b) Always helpful

c) Diggle as photobomber
d) handful of duckling

e) cucumber frog caught on camera

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

GFF Pictures for 2015 - Look to the Skies

Here are the candidates for the pictures of the year candidates for GFF in 2015 - Look to the Skies Division.
We often capture a nice sunset or sunrise each year.  But, for some reason, we had a number of interesting pictures that featured the sky this season.  Maybe it's because things were looking up this year?

Well, no matter, we're going to give them a category of their own this time around!

Enjoy the pictures - remember, you can click on a picture to see a bigger version.

And, yes!  You can VOTE for the winner of each category.  Place a comment on this post to submit a vote, or respond to a companion post on facebook OR send us an email with your vote.  You may vote once for EACH category.


a) high tunnel sunset

b) pastel skies

c) Not so pastel anymore skies

d) storm comin'

e) red horizon line
f) we promise we'll paint the granary

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

GFF Pictures of 2015 - People Category

Here are the candidates for the pictures of the year candidates for GFF in 2015 - People Division.
There were a number of pictures from the high tunnel build and we had to narrow those down just to make sure there was some variety in the batch.

Enjoy the pictures - remember, you can click on a picture to see a bigger version.

And, yes!  You can VOTE for the winner of each category.  Place a comment on this post to submit a vote, or respond to a companion post on facebook OR send us an email with your vote.  You may vote once for EACH category.


a) Bandsaw Man sees you when you're sleeping!

b) Extra hands required.

c) the Great Bean Harvest of 2015

d) who needs a kid-sized rake?

e) we've come for our veggies!

Monday, December 28, 2015

GFF Pictures of 2015 - Flowers


Here are the candidates for the pictures of the year candidates for GFF in 2015 - Flower Division.
This year, we have a few non-traditional entries (for us) that caught our fancy.  The odd thing about this season is the absence of iris pictures.  It wasn't the best year for them and we just didn't do a very good job of capturing the ones we did get.  That's just how things go sometimes.  But, we do have some nice day lilies in here.

Enjoy the pictures - remember, you can click on a picture to see a bigger version.

And, yes!  You can VOTE for the winner of each category.  Place a comment on this post to submit a vote, or respond to a companion post on facebook OR send us an email with your vote.  You may vote once for EACH category.

A) pea flower

b) cherry blossoms

c) columbine

d) cranesbill

e) the day lily that just didn't know when to stop

f) how'd that clover get in there?

g) long petal day lily

h) good things come in threes

 
i) borage

Sunday, December 27, 2015

GFF Pictures of 2015 - Around the Farm

Here are the candidates for the pictures of the year candidates for GFF in 2015 - Around the Farm Division.
We break our photos into categories in part because we have a fairly large number of pictures we like for one reason or another.  The Around the Farm category is really the catch all for things that aren't really a part of another group. Often, this is the category where a 'sneaky good' picture shows up.  It's one thing to capture a fabulous sunset or the beauty of a flower.  These are often quite another thing.  Who knows what sort of thing it is - so we'll leave it to you to decide.

Enjoy the pictures - remember, you can click on a picture to see a bigger version.

And, yes!  You can VOTE for the winner of each category.  Place a comment on this post to submit a vote, or respond to a companion post on facebook OR send us an email with your vote.  You may vote once for EACH category.


a) beet seedlings

b) potatoes in bloom

c) looking at the new high tunnel

d) the melon patch

e) the Faux mountain range

f) high tunnel peaking

Saturday, December 26, 2015

GFF Pictures for 2015: Just Vegging Out

Here are the candidates for the pictures of the year candidates for GFF in 2015 - Just Vegging Out Division.
This year, we took many fewer pictures of our veggies than we have the past few.  Part of this has to do with our being satisfied with much of our 'library' of photos.  The other part might be because we weren't as motivated by the topic this season. 

Enjoy the pictures - remember, you can click on a picture to see a bigger version.

And, yes!  You can VOTE for the winner of each category.  Place a comment on this post to submit a vote, or respond to a companion post on facebook OR send us an email with your vote.  You may vote once for EACH category.



a) Winter Luxury pie pumpkins
b) Blizzard snow peas

c) Touchstone Gold beets
d) Purple Top turnips

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Lights on the Tree (and other things Christmas)

 A couple of years ago, I wrote a post for our blog titled Joy to the World? that I still think is a pretty good post.  Writing that particular post helped me to figure out why I wasn't feeling particularly 'Christmasy' that December and that, perhaps, that was ok if I just took a moment to realize that I was just feeling joy differently than perhaps I used to.

The weather this November and December has been unseasonably warm.  And, we've gotten alot of rain - which is also not normal for this time of year.  We usually don't associate a whole day soaking rain with December 23.  We definitely do not associate water in the basement and mud up to our knees (when I fall in head first) with mid-December either.  Yet, here we are. 

Frankly, I'm not a person who gets too stuck on having snow on Christmas.  Sure, it's nice and it does look good.  But, its absence or presence will not make or break my Christmas.  In fact, we have some residents of the farm who much prefer this weather to sub-zero temps with snow.
But, I don't LIKE snow, said the chicken.
 One of the hazards of the academic profession is the heavy load the occurs just prior to Christmas.  Tammy has to fight through the semester and then finals, which usually means long hours and lots of energy used.  Then, she gets to grade and do other things that are critical for her job, but cannot be done until the term is complete and the grades are in.  Well, it turns out that a long Fall is also hazardous for finding times to be Christmasy if you're a veggie farmer.  We just keep having more things we need to do on the farm.

We still had some nice looking field crops in November
So, suddenly it is Christmas.  We haven't put up any decorations (sort of, see below) and we haven't really adjusted mindsets for the holiday season either.  We're still just trying to get things done.  Absolutely nothing wrong with this except....

Well, it's Christmas.  Aren't we supposed to be feeling differently about it?  Doing differently because of it? 

Pretty cool picture, but you wouldn't guess mid-December on our farm for the date
We do have some solar Christmas lights on a couple of our outdoor trees and some solar lights on our front porch.  We put them on last year and we let them run all year long.  After all, they get a lot more sun and look much nicer in the Summer anyway.  With all of the clouds we have had, they are usually out by 6pm in December.  But, Tammy did put some of those battery powered candles in the windows of the house.  That looks pretty nice.

We've actually managed to do a little shopping for our family and friends.  We've been playing Christmas music quite a bit lately too.  So, we're doing Christmas things. 

So, what is the issue exactly?

It's all in our minds.  That's the issue.

We haven't taken the time to be ready for Christmas. 

Now, if you do not celebrate Christmas, perhaps you celebrate Eid, or Hannakuh or Kwanzaa or... well, fill in the blank.  Regardless of the celebration or holiday, you have to make yourself ready to participate in it.  It isn't just going to happen to you, you have to make it happen.  And, it doesn't require lots of preparation.  But, it does require an adjustment of attitude. 

And, I am realizing that we have already begun to make that adjustment.  Just in time.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Monday, December 21, 2015

2012 Look in the Mirror

We officially celebrated our 10th Anniversary as the Genuine Faux Farm this Spring.  We started GFF in May of 2005 (we have lived on the farm since 2004).  So, this was actually the 11th year of offering a CSA program.  But, we figure we can continue to celebrate 10 years for a little bit yet.

As a part of this celebration, we're doing a series of "retrospective" pieces.  For those that have been with us for some time, you might enjoy seeing some of this to remind us all how far we've come.  If you have not been with us all that long, you get the benefit of seeing where we've been without having to go through the growing pains with us!
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For those who have interest, you may notice links in this post to other blog posts from 2012, so feel free to take them and explore. In particular, you can see what we thought of the year with our 2012 in Review post that we put out there in January, 2013.  If you missed our prior installments for this retrospective series, here is 2011 and 2010.

The great thing about looking back is that I can work to re-frame events.  For example, we have come to equate 2012 with the "spray incident" year because it was something that took up alot of time and energy until just this February.  Of course it was a big part of our year and we won't ignore that.  But, we are finding it useful to concentrate on the other parts of that year, because there was alot going on - just as there always is.

prior to clean up
after clean up



cold frame area in use
One of our early season accomplishments was to clean up the area by the old slab and prepare it for use as our cold frame/plant starting area.  When I took note that this happened in 2012, I was actually stunned.  We've gotten so used to that area and its purpose that we were both certain it had to have been set up earlier than that!  The area provides shelter from the North, it is near a water source and it faces South so it can collect more sun during the earlier months.  What's not to like?
The granary sporting new doors.
While 2011 featured some significant changes in our infrastructure, I'm beginning to realize that 2012 had its fair share of building work and equipment changes.  In addition to new doors on the granary and truck barn we continued to paint and fix up the truck barn.  And, if you recall, we had a project in the Poultry Pavilion to create a new room for the hens.  We managed to finish that project in the Spring and we started putting up permanent fencing for their pasture area.  Our Gang of Four farm friends helped us finish the room and start putting up the permanent fence.  Sadly, some of the fence had to come back down so we could move birds off of the sprayed pasture.  But, that's just the way things were.
Poultry Pavilion
Truck Barn











The very early warm weather was big news.  While it allowed us to get early work done around the farm, it had some negative results as well.  Garlic crops throughout the state were infected with Asters Yellow disease due to their very early start.  As a result, our garlic crop was very poor and our seed garlic was not viable.  Looking back at it, it was a good reminder that we should not get complacent with respect to crops that we feel we had a good handle on.

A meager garlic harvest in 2012.
Not only did we have a very early Spring, we had a very dry late Spring and Summer.  The picture below shows a grass area in June.  Normally, this area would be very green and in need of mowing at this point in time.  Instead, it looked alot like many people's lawns do in August - which is the traditional time for reduced rain and excess heat.  On the plus side, we were ready with our drip irrigation to keep our veggies growing.  And, if it doesn't rain, you don't have to stay out of the fields due to mud.  So, other than the heat and a number of three to six t-shirt days, it was a good time to get work done on the farm.  On the other hand, we felt that we had to cancel our Fall batch of broilers because we were afraid we wouldn't have any workable pasture to put them on.

Dry, dry and more dry.
While the weather was a challenge and we were disappointed about the second broiler batch, we were showing some pretty good staying power in 2012.  Our tool set was much improved and we were responding to crop needs better than we ever had.  Our ability to make an executive decision with respect to the broilers showed that we had some agility to respond to circumstances in whatever way seemed best.


We were in our second year of a SARE research grant that netted some decent results for potato and bean spacing and we were looking to do additional research with paper mulch in subsequent years.  Part of the mission of our farm is to advance and disseminate knowledge with respect to growing techniques.  So, it was nice to be actively involved in some grant-funded projects.

Beans and potatoes, together again!
This was the first time we had used rolls of mulch and the experience was generally a positive one for us.  While we aren't entirely convinced that this is the way for us to go, even in 2015, we were exposed to this option in a way that gave us a chance to explore the possibilities.  In many ways, if 2011 was the year of infrastructure, then 2012 was the year of exploring alternative growing techniques.
paper mulch in the field

the mulch layer

Unfortunately, the spraying incident took the wind out of our sails in late July.  It turned out that we were heading towards a record pepper crop that year, and all but a tiny fraction of it had to go into the compost piles.  The high tunnel was in the spray zone, so it was no longer our 'happy place' that it had been.  There is just no getting around it.  This was a big event and it still hurts to think about it. 
Compost bound
But, the list of positive things that came about after this is fairly long.  We opted to purchase a small incubator and tried our hand at hatching some hen eggs, with some success.  Many of our crops did quite well, despite the weather.  The green beans broke the half-ton mark,  the tomatoes were very tasty and plentiful and we set records for kale, chard and watermelon production in 2012.

Chicks in the incubator
We even had more sweet corn than Tammy and I could use, which is a rarity for us.  Usually, sweet corn is so low on the priority list that it often does not get in the ground in time.  This year, the early and dry Spring made it fairly easy to get everything into the ground.  As a result, we had some tasty sweet corn.  Enough to give some to our CSA members and sell more at the farmers' market.

Mmmmmm!

Grover, the blue truck was celebrating his 20th year (10th with us) and it was, unfortunately, his last.  But, we welcomed Chumley the Big Red Truck to the farm in the Fall and he has served us well.

Clyde and Chumley
Another Fall addition to the farm were the Sandman and Mrranda.  Don't let the picture fool you.  They are actually pretty cute.
And, we had a good pumpkin harvest, which was thoroughly inspected and approved by the Sandman.

Yep, this one's ok.
The year closed with a Winter Market in Waverly where we had a pretty nice spread of produce (note the spinach!).  And, we started work adding bushes to our buffer strip in an effort to make that buffer zone a vertical barrier as well as a horizontal break.  We got through the year.  And, while we were a little beat up, it was clear that we were already fighting back and preparing for another growing season.