Difficult Growing Year to Review

 

Usually, once I get to the end of November and the beginning of December, I am spending time evaluating the year's growing season.  I am finding this year to be a difficult one to assess.  For one, I don't really have much for records - and that includes pictures.  And for two, this year is probably better assessed in terms of non-crop growing measurements because we did not really do all that much for crops this time around.

I recognized that our "not all that much" might be viewed as "entirely too much" by some.  But, in comparison to prior years, we did, in fact, grow very little produce.  Most of our farm production came in the form of eggs and poultry - and even that was reduced.

On the plus side, most of the crops we DID plant and see to completion produced at levels that were at or above normal expectations.  Our production of winter squash was on target and the quality was a bit higher than average.  We grew them expecting that the Thelma Sanders acorn squash were going to be purchased by someone in particular, but that pretty much did not come to fruition.  That's ok, the NE Iowa Food Bank got some excellent product they needed.

The tomatoes and peppers and peas and beans and lettuce in the high tunnel did just fine this year.  I do admit that we did not really give any of that our all this year in large part because there just wasn't enough of us to go around with Tammy laid up for a significant chunk of time.  The real winner was that we did a very good job of freezing and canning food so the farmers themselves would eat a healthy and diverse batch of veggies and fruit this Winter.  We really should not discount the real value this has for us.

In addition to the veggies, we were able to harvest some apples - though it wasn't a great year.  Tammy got to eat some raspberries when they were ripe.  We acquired and canned a bunch of peaches.  And, we raised broiler chickens and turkeys so we would have that protein in our freezers too.

And if there were some things we did not manage to grow this season (I'm looking at your onions), we happen to know some other small-scale, diversified growers that we can buy it from.  It's a good thing.

Perhaps the best thing about this past growing season and the fact that we were not fully dedicated to growing and delivering all kinds of produce every week was that we have been able to address things on the farm that have really needed addressing.  

We finally filled the hog manure pit that has been filled with eight feet of water since the day we arrived.  Now we can move forward with making the Poultry Pavilion safer and even more useful than it has been previously.  

We also put in a new sidewalk to get to the house.  This, and the new gravel for the driveway, turned out to be critically important improvements.  Especially when it came to making our home a bit more accessible for Tammy as she went through rehab.  Those of you who know our farm and have been here know exactly why that is.  It was not that long ago that the sidewalk was uneven and mostly sunk below the surface of the nearby sod.  The back steps were precarious and wobbly and the door was marginally secure.  That has all been upgraded now - just in time.

What things were before was marginally acceptable if you had no mobility challenges.  Let's leave it at that and simply accept that the improvements were necessary and beneficial.

Now we're looking at next steps.

One of the things that is different during this phase of the Genuine Faux Farm is that both Tammy and Rob are working off the farm.  We are exchanging our time for money that we then exchange for labor and skill that have made these improvements possible.  Of course, that doesn't mean we haven't been involved in these processes at some level.  But, the reality is, we have this window to make some capital improvements to move the farm forward.

Another thing we've been doing is trying to find homes for tools and assets that no longer fit what we do.  The return on those things also help us fund forward movement.  It's a big puzzle and we're trying to piece it all together.  So, while this past year doesn't feel like we have much to report in terms of our 2022 farm production, we can say that we are feeling some momentum returning.

And that, my friends, is a good thing.  Thanks for reading and have a great remainder of your day.