What's Next for the Genuine Faux Farm Veggies?

On Monday, I shared a blog that discussed some of our options for poultry at the Genuine Faux Farm.  As I think I stated in that blog, none of this is set in stone and it's all still being negotiated and considered.  After all, it is only November.  The planning processes have only just begun!

Adaptation IS figuring it out

The current phase of the existence of the Genuine Faux Farm started a few years ago, as a pandemic was altering everyone's lives and I was considering working "off farm" for the first time in many years.  It was a big shift, going from weekly deliveries of veggies and poultry products for most of the year to a model that had to integrate new responsibilities to an outside employer.

I would like to say that we've figured the transition out by now, but the truth is that we haven't.  It certainly is not for lack of trying.  The reality is that the Genuine Faux Farm is in transition every year, all year.  From season to season, things change and if you want to be successful farming, you must navigate your way through it all constantly.

It is also true that we haven't had the smoothest sailing the last few years too.  There have been some health issues that made working on the farm AND working off the farm difficult.  Each time we think we're going to be given the opportunity to really "figure it out," something pops up to remind us that adaptation IS figuring it out. 

Looking for positives over the past 3 years

Despite the challenges, we do have several successes that we can hang our proverbial hats on!  We have successfully grown out heirloom peppers (Napoleon Sweet and Quadrato asti Giallo) for seed each of the last two seasons.  We've made some significant produce donations to the food bank.  And our freezer and root/squash storage areas have been full each Winter.

And, because we still have our egg and veggie email list, we have been able to sell some of our produce to interested people.  While it is not what it was, it still means we maintain contact with a group of people we enjoy and we can provide them with some quality produce.  The additional positive is that we simply offer what we have, there isn't the additional stress of feeling we MUST have a certain amount of product to fill a contract, like a CSA farm share.

I have been privileged to have moments each season where I could look at what was growing and feel good about it too.  I've enjoyed some excellent harvests of squash, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes and numerous other crops during this period of time.  Never anything quite like what we were doing when the farm was my full-time job, but it would be silly to expect that.

Putting joy and satisfaction at the top of the list

I took joy in harvesting what was probably "too many" onions this fall.  We've discovered, over the years, that our farm has excellent soil for raising high-quality onions and that is hard for me to ignore.  But, the number of onions I planted clearly indicate how hard it is to scale down, once you're scaled up.  When you have a history of planting thousands of onion plants, it doesn't seem like much to plant just ONE thousand.

Certainly, there was a little stress trying to see that many onions through the processes of seeding, transplanting, cultivating, irrigating and harvest (and then cleaning and delivery).  But, I found myself remembering that I actually do like doing some of this work.  I just need to allow myself to put that attitude up-front rather than the "oh no!  I've GOT to do X with the onions or else!"

And maybe, I won't do one thousand onions next year too.  How about nine hundred?

Preliminary 2024 plans

I am looking at the coming growing season with the realization that we have done a better job with what we call "one and done" crops than we have "multiple harvest" crops - in general.  And, by doing better, I mean we've derived more satisfaction from those crops.  We love our green beans, for example, but they become a source of distress if we don't keep them picked.  Perhaps we can address situations like that by changing our attitude and our plan for those crops?  We shall see.

For example, we could intentionally plant green beans and harvest them during their first peak only.  We could then allow them to go to seed and harvest that seed for future season's planting.  It's not quite one and done, but it does manage our expectations.

The root of our plans comes form the food we want to feed ourselves and our families.  We love having corn, peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, tomato sauce, and even some zucchini/summer squash stir fry in our freezers - ready to go for meals.  We also appreciate storage crops like butternut and buttercup squash, potatoes and onions.  I find myself missing Golden Beets this year, so they go onto the list as well.

We have taken great pleasure in eating melons and apples from the farm this year.  And Tammy likes some fresh cucumbers and cherry tomatoes (Black Cherry, thank you very much), along with her Golden Treasure peppers to snack on through the Summer and into Fall.

And, we love our flowers.  They're great for pollinators and they're good for habitat.  And.... they're good for us too.

So, for now, our preliminary plans are to try to execute the plans we've had for the last few seasons - with adjustments based on what we've learned since 2020's big change.  There will be excess produce - so interested persons should take note.  The Genuine Faux Farm isn't done yet.  It's just adapting.

What's Next for the Genuine Faux Farm Poultry?

It's official, we've had several hard freezes at the Genuine Faux Farm.  We're down to only one flock of poultry (the laying hens).  The number of hours of daylight are less than the number of hours of darkness.

It is now time for Farmer Delusional Syndrome to kick in!

Yes, the season is starting a bit earlier for us than it has in the years prior.  But, that's simply a function of how we've changed the roles our farm plays in our lives.  At present, Tammy's job at Wartburg and mine with the Pesticide Action Network take up more of our time and energy than the farm does - whether we want them to or not.  We aren't doing much with season extension this Fall and we are soon going to take the excess of our long-season crops to the Food Bank.

So, that means we can start thinking ahead to 2024.

What's in store for GFF Poultry?

Our poultry flocks often come up first during our off-season planning sessions.  This is partly because we need to be prepared to order chicks and it is also due to the fact that poultry very much impact our ability to leave the farm whenever we wish.

We were pleased with how our single flock of 125 broilers did during the late season slot we chose this year.  They were healthy and the pastures handled them well.  It also meant that we didn't have the issue of competing priorities in May through mid-July, when vegetable crops are often in need of as much of our attentions as we can give.

On the other hand, we have some adjustments to make for our hen flocks and we did miss having turkeys this past year.  So, we will be doing things differently in 2024.

First, we will be re-introducing turkeys to the farm.  The flock will be much smaller than it was.  In the past we've started with 75 turklets, which usually resulted in 65-70 birds at the time we took them to "the Park."  Next year, we're going to keep the number low enough that we will only need to take one truck trip to the processor.  That's probably no more than thirty birds.

I liked how the late slot for broilers went, so we'll probably do that again in 2024.  But, if we're adding turkeys, I need to prepare a different pasture situation for the broilers.  While that's not horribly difficult, it does remind me (and anyone who reads this) that every decision we make probably has a host of implications.  And each implication probably involves a set of tasks.  And that's where we have to be careful, because we're not going to have access to much more time than we had this year.

The laying hen question

The broilers and the turkeys were actually the easiest part of our discussions this year.  We have a rough plan that both of us have agreed to, in principle. Though we could decide differently as we discuss other things.  It's the laying hens, surprisingly, that are encouraging us to explore a bit more this year.

On one side of the ball is the fact that we have now raised laying hens for twenty years on the farm.  They're practically a given.  We do still like to maintain contact with the good people on our egg and veggie email list and we do like selling quality eggs on a regular basis.  We also have a pretty good infrastructure set up to handle the birds, we have experience, and we have the appropriate skills.  And, we love eating our own farm-fresh eggs each morning for breakfast and using them in Tammy's weekly bread-baking.

On the other is this - the daily and year-round process of managing a laying flock can wear on you and encourage you to consider taking a break or explore ways to rejuvenate your interest.

One thing we placed back on the table that had been there many years ago was establishing a flock of laying hens that is a cold-hearty breed that can also be big enough for some meat production.  The idea here would be to begin allowing some of the flock to raise chicks so we can maintain our own flock, rather than buying chicks each year.

The down-side is that most breeds we would consider lay eggs less frequently than those we use for egg production.  So, we would either have to go with a much larger flock (probably not what we want) or we would scale back eggs sales or we would have two flocks.  If we went this direction, we might move to either selling some chicks (or young birds as they start to lay) to others.  I don't know - it's just in the idea stage.

Another alternative is to plan for a period where we either have no hens or we have a flock that is only as big as we need to supply our own eggs.  In some ways, it makes little sense for us to cut back to just a few birds for ourselves when our tools are set up to handle the current scale.  After all, you still need to care for the birds every day if you have five or fifty.  On the other hand, if we have five birds, we most certainly won't be washing five dozen egg a day and we won't have to track egg email sales.

The reality?

In the end, the reality of the situation is that we will likely have poultry on the farm in some form or another as long as we live here.  One key reason is that we do rely on the poultry we raise for our food.  We've both gotten so used to quality eggs and poultry meat that we have a hard time eating poultry sourced anywhere other than a place that uses similar practices to ours.

From the farm's financial perspective, poultry sales are not critical to our well-being.  However, it is true that our poultry meat and eggs become less expensive for us to eat if we also raise extra for sales purposes.  I think that's a pretty realistic and healthy reason to continue - just as it is healthy to consider HOW we should continue.

And so, that's what we're doing.  We're looking at our history and we're looking at options for our future.  As far as 2024 is concerned, it looks like our future (and maybe yours) will have some turkey, broiler chickens, and eggs in it.

Identification Please 2023

"[E]veryone tells a story about themselves inside their own head.  Always.  All the time.  That story makes you what you are.  We build ourselves out of that story."  

Bast to Chronicler in "Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.

I distinctly remember a moment in time when I was working on my doctoral thesis that I realized that my story - the one I told myself about myself - had just changed.  I am not sure if there was a particular driving event, but I simply understood that I was no longer an individual who wanted to achieve completion of a PhD.  Instead, I knew I was a person who had earned that PhD and it was simply a matter of dotting i's and crossing t's to get others to recognize that same thing.

It was also at that time that I realized that many doctoral committees are simply waiting for the student to come to this conclusion.  Once a student begins to identify as someone who belongs in the group of people who have moved on to the 'next step,' then it is time to facilitate moving to that next step.

Of course, the transition from student to academic with an earned degree wasn't quite as instantaneous as that.  There were still days that I told myself a story of uncertainty.  Was I just an imposter trying to be something and somebody else?    

But, over time, the story gained clarity and I became someone who belonged, more or less, in academia.  I say "more or less" because part of my story I told myself was that there were some traits attributed to academics that I didn't want applied to me.  So, I told myself a story of how I was 'my own kind' of academic.  I also say "more or less" because, like many people who are self-critical, there were plenty of moments where I still thought this all must be some sort of colossal mistake that I had a PhD...

When we moved to the Genuine Faux Farm, I had to adjust the story I told myself.  I was an academic waiting for the opportunity that was certain to come along.  In the meantime, I adjusted my story by re-inserting parts of myself that had 'gone on vacation' while I concentrated whole-heartedly on my education.  I also introduced new ideas and new concepts.  There were fresh subplots, plot twists and new characters.

Eventually, I became "Farmer Rob."  Once again, there was plenty of learning to do.  There were numerous occasions where I was not sure I was anything better than an imposter.  But, there came a moment when I knew that the Farmer Rob story was, in fact, who I was.  I belonged, more or less, in a community of people who worked hard to grow food for others.

Before you get the wrong idea, let me make it clear that a strong story does not mean there aren't moments of self-doubt and uncertainty.  That's simply part of my story of being human and imperfect.  This subplot is what keeps me looking to learn - keeps me questioning and pushing to do better - no matter what the rest of the plot for the story is.

I worked so hard to build Farmer Rob for a little over sixteen years that it was a little disconcerting to consider a dramatic change to the plot line.  And, yet, that's exactly what I did in 2020 - a time when so many others were thinking hard about where they needed to go next.  I took a job with Pesticide Action Network with the idea that both my academic story and my farmer stories could serve me in a new way.

Today, the story I tell myself often focuses around observing, learning, thinking hard, and writing.  I still have a lot of Farmer Rob in me, and there are significant moments where Teacher Rob, Music-lover Rob, Mentor Rob, Academic Rob, Postal Historian Rob, Nature-loving Rob, and whatever other Rob there is takes the lead.  Sometimes there are so many Robs in my story that it gets crowded and confused.  

But eventually one of these Robs decides they are going to eat today's lunch, no matter what the others might say about it.  

I have come to realize that my story changes a little bit every single day.  And that's my new battle.  If you think I had moments of self-doubt when I was focusing on entering the academic or farming worlds, what happens when you straddle several such worlds at one time?

Who am I today?  Who will I be tomorrow?  Which story is going to be the one I turn the pages on in the near future?  Are any of the stories closed?  Are there still unknown story lines to be introduced?

Well, I will tell you this much.  When I see myself next, I might have to ask to see my identification.

And no, I am not really having an identity crisis.  I am simply finding myself in a complex story.  One that I am telling myself.  One that defines who I think I am.  And I have come to the conclusion that it's not about trying to finalize my identity for comfort's sake.  It's about appreciating the story as it unfolds.

More Veggie Varieties 2023

A week ago, I started a series of GFF blog posts that focused on vegetable varieties we grow and recommend.  The first entry in this year's list can be found here.  This is certainly not the first time we've written about such things and you can find many of the prior writings using the theme "Variety Show" on this blog.

The first thing I should do is state up front that we favor open pollinated varieties when we can and we like heirlooms when it is feasible for our production needs.  Also, I want to remind everyone that every farm - and the techniques each farm uses - has its own strengths and weaknesses.  This alone should remind us that a vegetable variety that grows well for us may not do the same for you.  That said, we try to give enough information to make informed decisions.

Pumpkin

We do not grow ornamental pumpkins or gourds at our farm.  We would prefer to grow squash for food, though our choice for pumpkins can certainly be decorative if you want.  We still grow one variety that is a no-brainer for us.  

Musquee de Provence has been a consistent producer, has fantastic taste and is a good looking pumpkin to boot.  Production numbers will certainly be smaller than it might be for other varieties in part because of the size (8 to 32 pounds) and the density of the fruit.  But, these store well and give you alot of squash when you process them. 

We have grown many other pie pumpkin varieties over time and this is the one we still grow. If Musquee were to disappear, we would likely move to Long Island Cheese.  After that, we would have to do some thinking.

Melons

For today's blog, I'm just going to select the melon we would choose for open field production if we were limited to only one.  Like tomatoes, we actually prefer some diversity to spread out the production period and to provide some taste and texture variety.

So, we're going to have to go with Pride of Wisconsin.  

Why?  Well, for one, it gives us a fairly standard looking cantaloupe, so it would be easier to get people to take it from us if we had a plethora of them.  The taste is certainly quite good, so that isn't an issue either.  But, the thing that really sets it apart from the others is the consistency.  They can handle some goofy weather and/or some goofy farming.  Perhaps not both at the same time, but they are more forgiving than most.  Production levels are good and they do take the ride in the truck pretty well too.

Other varieties we appreciate include Emerald Gem, Ha'Ogen, Eden's Gem and Minnesota Midget.    

Cucumbers
As I go through this list, I realize that we could almost do the same thing with melons and cucumbers as we did with tomatoes and peppers a week ago.  

We have grown several varieties for different reasons.  For example, Boothby's Blonde gives us a small, snack cucumber that can also be used for pickling and Marketmore 76 is a larger slicing cucumber and A&C Pickling could be either.  Should you have to pick between them?  The answer is - for the sake of keeping the blog a reasonable length - yes.  Drat.

We would select Marketmore 76 for consistency and production for the past 10 years on our farm.  If this variety fails, it is unlikely we would have gotten any cucumbers from any other variety.  Their taste is good, though you might want to peel it a bit if it is a larger fruit.  We like it even more because it is an open-pollinated variety that continues to be grown in all sorts of farming operations.

Winter Squash
This one in particular will pain me a bit.  I could happily live with eating Pride of Wisconsin melons and maybe tolerate missing the other varieties.  I'm fine with Marketmore 76 for cucumbers and won't be crippled if the other varieties went away - though Tammy will miss her Boothby's Blonde.  But, I get stuck on the winter squash because the varieties I REALLY WANT for my own personal use aren't the ones I feel like I must select for this category.

So, with apologies to my personal favorites Marina di Chioggia and Burgess Buttercup, I must select Waltham Butternut.  Perhaps this hurts even more because I feel like this and the other two before it are not very creative selections.  A standard cantaloupe, a standard American slicing cucumber and now the ubiquitous butternut squash are on the list.

Let's be honest here, Waltham's have less trouble with vine borers as a c.moschata than squash in the c.maxima family.  You'll get some Waltham's almost any year as long as you get them in the ground and keep weeds away for the first half of the season.  Butternuts can be used for pies or soups or however else you prepare squash.  And, I DO like their taste too. 

Reliable, useful, good taste.  Waltham Butternut is a winner. 

We also like Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato as an acorn squash option, so we'll probably always grow it.   And, we've happily grown a smaller batch of Burgess Buttercup nearly every year for our own consumption.

Watermelon 

It simply has to be Orangeglo. Sometimes it is spelled with the "w" on the end, sometimes it isn't.  the presence of the "w" doesn't matter when you open one up and start munching.  At least that's what I think.

Orangeglo are different from the norm.  They have a great texture and a great taste.  They look cool.  They've produced in years when other watermelons didn't want to.  Their seeds have set distance records in watermelon seed spitting contests.  And.. well... they're ORANGE inside!  

I think I got a soft spot for this variety when we had a couple of beautiful vines volunteer in the middle of one of our pastures.  We managed to protect those vines and got some gorgeous watermelons in a year when we hadn't planted any other watermelons.

Watermelons are one of those crops where you can have some fun with different sizes, textures and colors.  At one point in time we grew Sweet Siberian, Mountain Yellow Sweet, Chris Cross, Moon and Stars and a smattering of other varieties.  We liked Sweet Siberian because we could get a bunch of smaller watermelons for our CSA and the taste was good.  But, if we wanted to grow a second watermelon now I think we might go with either Mountain Yellow or Moon and Stars.  

Why?  Well, we kind of equate watermelons with fun and we see them as a treat.   I prefer the taste of the yellow and the orange watermelons and I love the look of the Moon and Stars.  

There you go!  Some more veggie varieties for you to consider.  If you were paying attention, you might notice that some of these varieties have links to other blog entries that discuss them in much more detail - so if you want more info, take the links!

Have a good day everyone!

GFF Veg Varieties 2023

Now is a great time to be thinking about the veggies that are going into gardens.  Which makes it a good time for us to share some of our favorite veggie varieties for the Genuine Faux Farm.  This actually has meant a bit more to us over the past few years because we have been simplifying the operation.  From the perspective of veggie varieties, that means we find ourselves asking the question - "which varieties do we keep growing and which ones do we let go?"

There are enough vegetables that this is going to be a multi-post thing.  So, stay tuned for the next week or so as I sprinkle blog entries amidst the other normal silliness that happens here on a daily basis (yeah, have you noticed?  I haven't missed a day in 2023 yet.).

Tomatoes

Ok, it feels like most gardeners love to talk about tomatoes.  We've all got our favorites.  And those that grow heirloom varieties, just as we do, often grow more than one variety simply because it is so hard to limit yourself!  So many taste and texture options.  So many different characteristics.  And a wide range of production factors to consider.

One of the considerations at the farm is that we grow all of our tomatoes, with maybe the exception of a single cherry tomato plant closer to the house, inside of our high tunnels.  A reality on the farm is that we have seen consistent damage from dicamba (a story for another day) and crops in the nightshade family, like tomatoes, are especially vulnerable.  That means we pick varieties that do well for us in that environment.

Italian Heirloom

Picture of this variety is shown above.

These are smaller than average plants and their leaves are a bit wispy, so they can sometimes look a bit like they are an unhappy plant - like some of the Roma types.  But the production levels are excellent and the tomatoes are a nice nine-tenths of a pound on average.  They are meaty, not too juicy, and have a good taste that works in sauces or fresh.  They start production early and can run into October and sometimes November in the high tunnels.  The only issue is that you can see sunscald on the tomatoes due to less leaf cover.  We have sometimes planted zinnias or basil or other taller plants to the south of these tomatoes to provide a little extra coverage.

Black Krim

We selected Black Krim as our "purple" or "black" variety many years ago.  For several years, we combined Paul Robeson with Black Krim in our high tunnels and found that was a good combination.  Krim started earlier and then the flushes seemed to alternate between the two varieties.

Black Krim is one of those varieties that we've learned how to grow over time.  A cool, wet season is not their friend, which is why they like to be in our high tunnels.  It also helps that we can regulate how much and when the plants get water.  The tomatoes always taste better if we can reduce water intake prior to a harvest peak.

This is not to say that people can't successfully grow Black Krim in their gardens.  You have to remember, there are fundamental differences between commercial growing and home gardening.  The amount of time and attention a commercial grower (as we have been) can spend per plant is far less than the time a gardener can provide.  That means a gardener might be able to make some adjustments that we can't in order to get their couple of plants to produce well enough.

Black Krim are smaller plants that like warmer and drier weather.  They also require that you climb a learning curve to figure out when to pick them.  To teach yourself, go by feel rather than what they look like!  

As to why we grow them - it's all about the taste and texture combination.  They're just that good.

Speckled Roman

Our choice for paste tomato is still the Speckled Roman.  However, when we make sauces, we usually use a wide range of tomatoes to get the best tasting sauce we can possibly have.  And, remember, the Italian Heirlooms have some Roma heritage and can fill this slot capably too.

Speckled Romans are the biggest LIARS in the garden.  Oh... poor me... it is sooooo hot and I feel that I might SWOON!  Then, evening comes and they stand up beautifully.  Harvest comes, and they have a very nice flush of red and yellow striped paste tomatoes.  We prefer the taste of these as a base for our sauces (a bit sweeter than many paste tomatoes).  But, I have to admit that we've also grown many other paste varieties that have been just as productive (and some more productive) in the past.

None of the heirloom paste tomatoes we have tried have particularly loved being in the high tunnel.  But, then again, paste tomatoes have not been a big focus of ours for the past several years.  When we did farmers' markets, it was more important to have them.  But, we still grow a batch for ourselves every year.

Nebraska Wedding

This is the heirloom variety that we are growing for our yellow/orange slicer-sized tomatoes.  We used to grow Moonglow and another variety that seems to have gone extinct (Golden Sunray).  Once again, Nebraska Wedding plants tend toward the smaller side.  You just have to remember that "small" is a relative term here.  We tend to prefer smaller plants so we don't have to do excessive trellising work in our high tunnels.  A nice cage is usually good enough to keep them in check.   

The average fruit size is around a half pound.  But we have noted that perfect growing conditions and nice fertile (but not overly fertile) soil can push that size up to 2/3 pound.  First fruits are typically bigger than later fruits.  That's not a big deal because these were originally introduced to me as being determinant (the plants die after producing fruit).

The skin is a bit tougher on these tomatoes and they often are a uniform size with no splitting, which is great for marketing.  We like that the taste balances some of the more acidic tomatoes in our sauces.

That's enough on tomatoes for now.  I'm sure I'll come back to them in a future post.

Peppers

Napoleon Sweet

We've always liked Napoleon Sweet as a green/red bell pepper.  They have a better than average green bell taste and a good red bell taste.  But we hold a bit more fondness for these in our hearts after we grew them out for Seed Savers (to produce seed) during the 2021 season.  

Like our tomatoes, we now grow all of our peppers inside the high tunnels to protect them from the effects of dicamba (an herbicide) and they do very well there.  These plants tend to be taller than many pepper varieties, so they might require staking in the field.  I will admit that we rarely staked them when they were outside.  But, when we grow them inside, the plants get a bit bigger and they do require staking or trellising of some sort. 

You can opt not to trellis Napoleon Sweet if you like walking around plants that have fallen into the row.  But when that happens, it exposes fruit to the sun and you get sunscald issues.

These plants have been consistent producers for years at the Genuine Faux Farm.  The main inconsistency, if it is a problem for you, is that they don't produce a whole bunch of uniform fruit (see the photo).  They produce consistent taste and texture - but don't expect consistent shape.

Golden Treasure

When ripe, Golden Treasure fruit are about 8 inches long and maintain a carrot shape.  Like many heirloom peppers, there can be some variability in shape, but the form you see at the bottom left of the image is mostly true to form.  There are a couple of green peppers at the right that might be another variety - the picture is old enough that I don't recall for certain, but I think they are Marconi Reds that have not yet turned red.

You can pick these when they start to show a little yellow and they'll turn the rest of the way in two to three days on your kitchen counter.  This pepper is Tammy's favorite fresh eating pepper.  Even I will occasionally take a nibble out of one.  I prefer my peppers as part of a sandwich or in combination with other things because peppers like to talk back to me (if you know what I mean).  But, I do like the taste of a Golden Treasure.

Once again, these plants tend to be on the taller side.  They don't seem to grow any differently for us in the field or the high tunnel - except that now we grow all of our peppers in the tunnels (see above).  They do like a bit more water, so if we want top production, we have to run their lines more often than other varieties.  The good news is that they pair up pretty well with Napoleon Sweet for cultivation techniques.

We'll stop with these five for today's blog.  More to come - and possibly more tomatoes and peppers among the varieties we choose to highlight.  

Have a great day everyone!

Foresight 2023 at the Genuine Faux Farm

The month of February serves as a tipping point for our farm most years.  This is when we have to move on from Farmer Delusional Syndrome and actually make the move towards what will actually happen at the Genuine Faux Farm in the coming year.  If we're going to plant onions, we need to start the seeds now and it won't be long before we need to start other plants if we intend to grow them.  If we're going to raise poultry, the chicks need to be ordered (especially this year with demand for chicks being high).

So, I thought this might be a good time to provide everyone with a farm report that outlines what we THINK we are going to do in 2023.  Of course, time makes fools of us all, so things don't always go according to plan.  So, take the plans for what they are worth - an honest attempt to try to come up with a reasonable set of goals for the farm.

One of those goals is for both of us to avoid a major surgery that makes it that much harder to accomplish anything on the farm (and elsewhere).

The egg (and veggie) email sales will continue

We will continue to offer eggs - and whatever other food products we have available - through our email list.  Deliveries will continue on an every other week basis, with periodic changes when other schedules dictate.  We will continue to make our quick delivery stops in Waverly and Cedar Falls as we have been doing for the past couple of years.

If you want to join the list, use the contact form at the right side of this blog, you may need to scroll down a bit to get to it.

The advantage of this approach is that we can still provide some of the food we produce at a reasonable price to people who have interest.  We can do this without the additional stress and strain that comes with the commitment of a CSA/farm share program, farmers markets or other such set ups.  Essentially, we offer it if we have it and people on the list order it if they want it.  

We are able to do things this way now because both Tammy and I have off-farm employment.  That means we are not under as much strain to make sales.  On the other hand, we are (and will be) under some pressure to get everything done, which is why the delivery windows are small and our product range is reduced from prior years.  We want to grow and provide good food to others, but we have to do it on a scale that is reasonable for the available time we have to give to that endeavor.

What are we growing?

Our first two goals are to feed ourselves and to successfully grow a couple crops for seed contracts with Seed Savers Exchange this year.  Beyond that, we will be growing some vegetables in larger amounts with the stated purpose of offering some of it via the email list and taking the rest to the food bank or other similar destinations.  We may opt to sell some things in bulk depending on the situation.  Additional goals include getting the expense and income sides of the farm to "zero out" and to provide quality food to people that need it while doing so in a way where we can stay healthy while juggling everything we are going to attempt to do.

In other words, we're going to try and let our ideals run the show this year and see where it gets us.

We'll focus on crops we like to eat and crops we like to grow - which only seems fair.  It's also a good way to encourage us to get out there and do the work!  So, we'll be growing beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, sweet corn, squash, and all sorts of other things.  We won't be growing garlic this year, which really seems odd to both of us.  We'll see how we feel about it as we approach the typical harvest time.  We just could not get a combination of time and energy to put our crop in this Fall. 

Our growing areas will include our two high tunnels (Valhalla and Eden) and we will grow in approximately one quarter of the area we grew in during past years when the farm was a much more integral part of our income.  We have to continue to refine the farm to fit our current labor force - which provides many fewer hours of work than it did before. 

There will be poultry in motion

We've gone and done it.

We ordered turkeys for 2023.  Our first target for sales will be the Local Foods Connection, as it has been the last four or five years.  We think we will have one other bulk buyer and the remaining birds will be available for others - assuming there are any at that point.  This is one of those things we have to do to make the task fit with the limits on our available time.  Selling seventy birds to seventy different customers eats up a LOT of time.  Selling sixty birds to two customers and then adding a few sales beyond that to a much smaller group is doable.

We also ordered broilers for 2023, but will only do one batch starting in July this year.  Like 2022, we will not have the numbers of chickens for sale like we did in prior years.  But, we will have some - but they will not be available until the Fall. The argument for a later start is the recognition that we need to be working with the veggies and fruit in May and June.  If we add broilers, along with hens and hen chicks - and then turkeys during the earlier months, we can't get it all done.  So, we moved the broilers later in hopes that the adjustment gives us the ability to accomplish what we want to.

And, yes, we ordered new hen chicks - due to start laying in October or early November.  So, unless something drastic happens, we'll be offering eggs into 2024.

So, there's a summary of some of our 2024 GFF farm plans.  There is, as always, more than that going on.  But, if I told all of that to you now, what would I write in future blogs?

Have a good day everyone!

Encouragement for the Future

 

I remember a day a few years ago when I was feeling pretty down about life at the Genuine Faux Farm. This, in itself, is nothing new. Things don't always work out and you begin to question what you are doing and how you are doing it. You wonder if your efforts make a difference. And, when it comes to something that can be as all-encompassing as working on a small, diversified farm to grow food for people, the roller-coaster ride can be pretty dramatic and can wear on a person.

On this particular day, I found myself alone on the farm.  I was feeling the pressure as we were dealing with pesticides from neighboring farms and heavy rains — and we had limited resources to address these and a myriad of other issues and tasks that the farm required of us.

I will admit that there are times when I talk to myself when I work on the farm.  And, I have been heard to mutter, "Why in the world am I doing this?"

This time around, things were really getting to me, so I voiced those words a bit more forcefully than I usually do.  And, I will admit that there might even have been some profanity laced in there.  I was struggling with the situation THAT much.

Why... in ... the ... world... am I doing this?!?

At that moment, a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly floated over my shoulder and proceeded to land on the clover that was flowering at my feet.  It sat there for a second or two and then flew on.  

All I could say at that point was a very quiet, “ah, okay.”

Fast forward to 2023, and we find the farmer is farming a little less and writing a lot more.  I am still prone to those moments of asking "why am I doing this?"  I suspect the question will always be under the surface, especially when things are not going well.  But now, when I ask, I recall the mental image of a Tiger Swallowtail on the clover at my feet.

I recently shared that story with my co-worker, Lorilani, who is PAN's Organizer for Hawai'i.  She informed me this is known as hōailona in Native Hawaiian culture — a sign from the Universe, from the Elements — from something bigger than we are.

The difficulty with omens or signs is that we are always so ready to make them fit what we want instead of really listening and contemplating what they were MEANT to be.  And, if they aren't something we want, we tend to ignore them for what they are.

Is it possible that we are provided with signs on a daily basis that tell us things we often don't want to hear?

The oak tree leaves throughout Iowa have been showing more damage earlier in the season over the past decade than they have in prior decades.  It's a sign that the environment they reside in is no longer as friendly as it once was.  And, we know one of the causes is the amounts and types of pesticides used so freely on our land.  But, this is a sign we prefer to ignore, either because it inconveniences us or it reminds us that we are complicit in the destruction of trees many of us cherish.

A drive in the country no longer results in a windshield covered in juicy insects of all sorts.  This is another sign that the world around us is becoming less hospitable to life.  But, once again, this is easy to discount – especially if you don't particularly like "bugs" and you aren't  fond of cleaning windshields.  Never mind that it tells us a story of diminished diversity and vitality amongst the invertebrates in our world.

We like our signs and omens when they comfort us or when they reassure us – like a Tiger Swallowtail on the clover.  “It's okay, Rob, I know you're doing your best to do the right thing on your farm to support the natural world and still grow good food.”  That's a beautiful story and a nice sentiment.  But, I can't let my distress that things could go wrong stop me from seeing foreboding images and doing what I can to address the problems they speak of.  I don't want the vision of a swallowtail to become a butterfly's farewell to someone who meant well.  Instead, I want this vision to return and manifest itself every season at the Genuine Faux Farm and everywhere else the clover blooms. 

The calendar has turned to a new year.  My work at PAN with my co-workers and our partners are ready to put in the effort to build a better, healthier, and more equitable food and farming system.  But, we all must take a deep breath to prepare for the months to come.  We see the signs and omens that foretell a difficult future if we do not make changes.  But, we also see the swallowtail on the clover that is the vision we firmly believe we can make a reality.

We (you and I) just need to walk that way together.

Poultry Pavilion Facelift

 

The Poultry Pavilion was originally, many years ago, one of those long, open-front, machine sheds that was fairly common throughout the Midwestern farm landscape.  By the time we arrived at the farm in 2004, a pit had been dug in front of the machine shed and a lean-to attached so that the building could serve as a hog finishing/confinement facility.

Needless to say, we did not want hogs confined at our farm, so we asked that the hogs be removed (and they were - eventually) and we slowly, over many years, adapted the building to work with the Genuine Faux Farm's needs.   

The building now touts a room for turkeys and a room for hens.  In both cases, the rooms open up to pasture on the north side of the building (you are seeing the south side in these pictures).  Eventually, a brooder room was put together next to the hen room.  Most of the material used was reclaimed lumber, windows and doors from other parts of the farm.  In other words, it's not the prettiest bit of construction one has ever seen in the world.

But it works.  We've had multiple flocks of birds started as chicks or housed as part of a flock in this building over time with a reasonable amount of success.  We had the main roof replaced when a windstorm decided the old one wasn't good enough any more.  We added access to electricity at some point several years ago and we finally got that pit filled in last year.

For those who don't know, filling that pit was a BIG deal.  This cement lined hole was about 120 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 to 9 feet deep.  It was perpetually filled with water and our anxiety regarding walking over it was increasing as the cement slats that covered it deteriorated.

Things have settled a bit since we had it filled, so we need to add a bit more fill.  But it is difficult to complain much about now that neither of us is worried about walking (and working) out there as much as we had been.  And we have a solid surface to begin addressing the lean-to itself - which has fallen into disrepair (of course).

We actually have a vision for this project that will start with the eastern-most fifty feet of the structure.  You see we've been getting tired of the extra work starting seedlings in our farmhouse's basement creates for us.  So the plan is to tear down the existing lean-to.  Or at least help it with the process it seems intent on doing all on its own.  Then, for this section at least, we'll frame out an area for a seed starting greenhouse.  

As with all projects that work with an existing structure, the list of issues and considerations is longer than we might like.  But, this seems like the right idea for our farm right now.  We will start with this section and then consider what to do with the remaining seventy feet after we figure out all of the issues for the first fifty feet.

It won't get done to do us much good for the 2023 season.  But, maybe it will make some of the growing on the farm more doable in the future?  Stay tuned - we'll report as progress is made.  But, be patient, it's a bit cold out there to do much with it right now.

New Year - Same Resolution

Welcome to the new year.  Perhaps you see January 1st as just another day - or maybe you see it as a new start?  In my case, the realist in me tells me that today is no different than any other, but the dreamer still nudges me to treat it as something a bit more special than that.  When I put all of me together, I find that my opinion of New Year's is an odd mix.

But, when it comes down to it - I see the turning of the old year into the new as an opportunity.  And like many opportunities - it will only be as valuable as I make it.

In with the Old

I know the phrase is supposed to be "out with the old and in with the new" and I am here to tell you that we've got it mostly wrong and only partly right.  

"Out with the old" implies the disposal of something that no longer has value.  It emphasizes the negative and encourages us to forget lessons that could be valuable for us as we travel through our lives.  It pushes a narrative of failure, pain, and suffering and discourages us from looking for the balancing positives.  

Out with the old?  Does that mean we throw it all out with the trash?  Even a diamond can look less appealing when it is surrounded with coffee grounds and rotting banana peels. 

I do not mind the idea of using the new year to give the bad things less power in our lives.  So, if by "out with the old" you mean getting rid of a grudge I hold against someone and Tammy being freed from an Achilles injury - I can get behind that.

But, I also want to say "in with the old" by taking the insights that come with the recovery from a major surgery as we go forward into the new year.  I say "in with the old" when I think about the grudge I held a bit differently by looking at how I might have been hurt and how I can avoid hurting someone else in the same way.

Maybe it should just be "in with the new perspective on the old."  But, that doesn't really roll off the tongue does it?

And, what about all of the truly WONDERFUL things we got to experience in the past year?  Out with the old?  Nope! Sorry!  These good things still have value for me and I don't see a good reason for tossing them out either. 

 In with the New

It's a nice sentiment to make it sound like we all enter the year with a clean slate.  But, I suspect this is why so few people actually succeed with their New Year's resolutions.  We temporarily deceive ourselves by thinking that the baggage of days past won't draw us back.  Oh, we might be able to leave it by the side of the road for a week or two - but it isn't too long before all of that stuff either finds legs and tracks us down or we get pulled back to it because...  Well, it is still a part of who we are.

Even so, I still admit to feeling some of the illogical power that comes with the end of one year and beginning of another.  And to top it off, I don't really think that's all a bad thing either.

Reflect on the Old, Build for the New

Here's were the pragmatist meets the idealist - I like to take a practical approach towards the energy that comes with the new year.  It's a perfect time to review and reflect on the past year and remind myself of the things that helped me become who I am now.

There are a few wounds that are still quite tender, and it makes no sense for me to spend time probing them just to cause more pain.  There are also other things where I have yet to find a good balance - so I can just nod at them in passing.  The rest is full of all sorts of insight and joy and pain and relief and...  whatever else.  Much of this is ready for me to find closure.  And some of it is ready for me to build more.

And there's the value that the turning of the year has for me.  It's a natural point for me to assess the progress I have made on the building that is my life - and to figure out what I should do to correct problems and how I can accentuate the good things.

Resolved 

My "resolution" has been this for the past few years:

My resolution is to continue to work on being better at understanding what others are seeing so I might have a chance to recognize what motivates them to do and say what they do.  And, I will also listen better to what people might say about me and where I am, so I can appreciate the good things from a different perspective and contemplate what is in need of my attention so I can make changes.

Did I succeed?  

The answer is a "yes," because I DID work to do these things and I STILL work to do these things.  But, I also feel that I have tried to do this for much of my life.  Sometimes fairly well.  Sometimes very poorly.  And I know I never will be perfect at any of it - which is why it remains a good resolution for me in the coming year.

This year, I added something to it - but it isn't new either:

I am resolved to keep learning new things and seeking new understandings for the things I've already learned.  I am also resolved to help others to learn as best as I am able.

I don't think it's a bad thing at all to have a resolution that affirms what I've believed all along.  Do you?

It's all a part of building.  Reflecting on the old - identifying the faults and taking note of the strengths.  Then, building for the new - remembering the vision of where we want to be and doing our best to get there. 

Happy New Year everyone.