How We Farm

Every so often, we get questions about how we farm and why we farm the way we do.  We've written several blog posts that answer parts and pieces over the years and we thought it might be interesting to put a batch of them together.  We started this blog post in January and it kind of sat around in the "Office VAP" (VAP is Very Ambitious Plan) for some time. 

Many of these blog posts are written with an intended audience being those who are thinking about doing some or all of what we do (or those that already do).  However, they can be interesting to anyone who just wants some insight about these topics.  For example, if you want to understand a bit more why it is important to us that we maintain organic certification, then you could view some of these posts:

• Certified Organic at GFF (part I)
• Certified Organic at GFF (part II)
• Is Organic Better For You?

The last one might be the best general purpose post for those who maybe don't care so much about the working of a farm but they wonder about the question the title poses.

I KNOW there's a watermelon here somewhere.

If you are more interested in the psyche of your farmers (no, that wasn't "psycho"), you might be interested in these posts:

• Endurance Tests - The cycles every veggie farmer goes through during the season.
• It's Over, It's Just Beginning - Thoughts two years and 7 months after the overspray incident on our farm.

There are several others out there.  But, both of these are posts that represent a bit more effort on my part to put them together and they really do give you a look into how we feel and what we experience.

And, since we will be helping to host a Practical Farmers of Iowa field day with the Xerces Society on August 20, we should share some of our posts that focus on pollinators and beneficial insects:

• Flower Power - Why we put flowers in our vegetable growing areas.
• Feeding the Workers - Things we do on the farm to support our pollinators and beneficial critters.

We really do believe that we are responsible for taking care of our beneficial insects on the farm and take our role seriously.  Certainly we can improve upon what we do, but we give it our best shot every year.

Last Season (2015), I had so many things running around in my brain that I actually spent a rainy weekend just spilling it all out on paper.  In the end, some of it came out in the form of blog posts.  We find that some people actually appreciated just getting a view into how we are thinking about what we do and the issues we consider during the decision making processes. 

• Brain Storm (part i) - Deciding what to put in the high tunnel.
• Brain Storm (part ii) - A look at some tools/techniques that we think we might still want to use.
• Brain Storm (part iii) - When things aren't going well, simplify (our melon story)
• Brain Storm (part iv) - Fine tuning how much we grow of certain crops (cucumbers in this case)

Sometimes, Rob is asked to give presentations or talk about some of the things he does with people who want to hear some of the nitty gritty.  Sometimes, these things find their way into a blog post as well.  There was a series that some people enjoyed very much.  Don't ask me where Part II went.  I haven't had time to find it.

• Lessons in Farming I - Every Day is the Dawn of a New Error
• Lessons in Farming III - If at First you Do Succeed   every farm has its own unique situation.  It's all in how you respond to it.
• Lessons in Farming IV - Synchronized Swimming - You don't have to do what everyone else is doing
• Lessons in Farming V - Don't Step in Number 2  - the role of manure and fertility on the farm.
• Lessons in Farming VI - Office of the Department of Redundancy Department - building insurance into your crop plans

A few other posts that cover some specific topics are here:

• Steward of the Soil - Some of the reasons why we use cover crops.
• What Does It Mean - Sustainable Agriculture?
• A Case for Diversity within a Crop Type
• Irrigation Rather than Irritation
• Now That's How You Weed the Onions

Are these posts for you?  I don't know.  But sometimes, it helps to put links to related topics together so you can skip some of the other things in the process of exploring these items.

Enjoy!