GFF Field Day

On August 17 of this year, we hosted a Practical Farmers of Iowa field day that was sponsored by MOSES.

The press release announcing this field day is at this location. 
Also - the questions and topics of the field day got me thinking that some more detail on some things might be appreciated.  so, the following blog posts (so far) can be attributed to the field day.  We hope they are of use to others:

• A post on irrigation.
• A post on our peak vents for the high tunnel
• A post on one of our top 10 business decisions for the farm.
• A post on one of our "lessons in farming."

The field day was attended by 60 people, the food was excellent and the attendees were a pleasure to have visiting the farm.  There were many great questions, some decent answers and wonderful conversations.  All in all, we were honored to be able to hold this field day and have the opportunity to share what we do with other interested persons.  Hopefully, attendees were able to learn from us - either by seeing what we do that fits their needs or seeing how we fail so they can avoid those same problems.

We thought we would share some photos that were taken by the PFI staff.  But, before we get to that - a big thanks to Tomoko, Tamsyn and Chris for all of their help!   PFI staffers are the best and are one of the reasons we're happy to keep doing things to support PFI.

Our youngest attendee - 3 weeks of age

We had attendees of all ages at this event, but the youngest person came along for the ride with Glen and Beth Elsbernd.  It turns out, Anthony didn't really have many questions.  But, believe me... he will. 

You want me to talk or Tammy?

The program started at about 3:20 when it looked like most who intended to attend had arrived.  There was some great creative parking going on.  Well done people!  The first stop after the normal housekeeping things that occur at these events was the ducks.  Rob made sure to ask if people wanted to hear from the knowledgeable person regarding the ducks or the one who just feeds the Appleyard ducks greens.  They opted for knowledge (and beauty), so Tammy presented on that topic.

Rob tells everyone which direction East is.

Once we were done with the ducks, Rob decided to be out standing in his field.  Everyone else stayed on the path ways.  Thank you everyone.  It made me feel special that I could trod around in the fields.  Since our topic areas had to do with intercropping, planning and research the field day ran the gamut.  We tried to respond most to questions and I feel that we touched on each topic.  The biggest difficulty had to be trying to do each thing justice without wearing the audience out.

So, if you were an attendee and wondered if there is more.  There is.  There is always more.  But, we covered a little bit of each thing in hopes that you could get some nuggets that were useful to you.

A Reds cap for Rob (super cool) and an A's cap for Rob's brother!

I was greatly honored to have another Reds cap at the field day!  What a great cap.  That young man is going to go far!  Even better, his brother wore an A's cap.  It just so happens that this is my brother's favorite team.  If they only knew.

I think there's something on my shoe.

The pictures we were able to view of the field day included an inordinate number of Rob.  I suppose the reason for this is that he was speaking.  But, if you know Rob, you realize he'd rather be on the picture taking side of the camera.  And, you probably also know he isn't a person who takes pictures of people.  Nothing like getting a new perspective of life on the farm.

We've always known this, but we never had it so well illustrated.  Rob feels it necessary to gesture when he talks.  We just thought you should know.

That actually looks comfortable.  Maybe I should sit, since there is something on my shoe?

The best part of the field day?  The great people with the great questions.  We wish we had more time to just converse with more of you!

James says, "Hey, did you know you had something on your shoe?"

James Frantzen of Riverside Feeds and Mike Gallagher of Sunshine Paper Company were both in attendance as well.  James provides the feed for our poultry and Sunshine Paper provides us with the Weedguard Plus paper mulch we use in our SARE research at the farm.  It was good to be able to point interested individuals there way when we got questions about what we fed our birds or where we got the paper mulch.

These people are smiling because they know smoked turkey is on the menu

The field day had some serious content, but we still managed to keep it light-hearted and laid back.  We figured most people there had endured a long week as we had, so providing an event that allowed all of our blood pressures to go back down would be a good thing.

Ending the event with a GFF smoked turkey prepared by Chef Chris Meyers of the Savory Spoon in Frederika (along with his home made buns) was an excellent choice.  The meal was supplemented by some GFF Bunte Forellenschus lettuce and all kinds of excellent items brought as part of the potluck. 

Oh...what a scary bunch that is!

Kieran, our Labor For Learning intern and Erik, one of our summer farm helpers, were able to attend the field day as well.  We think it provided them with more insight about why we do some of the things we do in the way we do it.  Sometimes explanations cannot be so thorough during a work day.  And, often the explanations are confined to what is going on at the time.  This gave a macro view that they both deserved to have.  So, we're glad they were able to be there.

Thank you for attending the field day.  Now... adore me.

And, apparently, the farm cats were on the list of must see items for the PFI staff.  Of course, being cats, they all made sure they couldn't be troubled during the field day.  Cubby did eventually show up so Tamsyn, Chris and Tomoko could see her.  Being the might huntress she is, she preened and posed.  Who wouldn't be proud to be Cubby?

Mrranda showed up almost immediately after the last car left the farm.  Sandman followed five minutes later.  They're response was - "What?  Was something going on here?  I didn't know."

Now that's encouraging!

People were great about separating trash, dishes, recycling, etc.  And, many people brought their own table service, reducing our efforts at cleanup dramatically.  Bless you all!

Of course, there were still numerous things to do to clean up after the event, but it wasn't nearly the onerous task it could have been.  Tammy did a great job organizing this part of the field day and those who came were helpful and positive guests.  Thank you to all of you.

And, of course, we should also thank people who came in days prior to help us prepare the farm for this field day.  Ron Lenth brought chairs from the extension office for us to use (thank you Ron!).  The Figura clan, Jo Foster, Erin and Bailey Bartlett and Kieran Cullen all showed up for some volunteer time on Saturday.  We managed to clean up the tomato field a bit, knock down weeds behind the cold frame area and slap a little more paint on the granary.  Nancy Hasenwinkel continues to help with maintaining the flower beds.  It's been pleasant to look at the flowers and not be disappointed in the state they are in.  Jeff Sage and Lyndsay Schmidt, two growers in Bremer County, joined us on Wednesday and helped us clean up some of our fields as well.  And, we would be remiss if we neglected to point out that Erik, Kieran and Denis - our crew this season, have all done a great deal to make the farm look as good as it could for this event.

Well done all! 

What Do I Do With _____?

We've finally realized that we're running on fumes as we work towards being ready for the PFI Field Day at the farm tomorrow.  The result is that we haven't had the energy to spare for the creative work that is blogging.  Then, Rob realized that you all might enjoy a few things to help you identify what is in your shares and what to do with them.

First things first - we'd like to remind you that we do have lots of information on vegetable varieties here on our website.
We also have recipes at this location on our website.

Some of the information in this post can be found on our website as well.  But, the great thing is that there is MUCH more on the website than there is here.  Between the two, we have some pretty good resources.

This post is dedicated to giving you some recipe information.

While the following soup is pretty rich, we both like it.  Especially in the Fall when the weather gets a bit cooler.  The trick is trying to prevent yourself from having that second bowl right away.  Save some for the next day, the soup gets even better with a day for the flavors to mix.

Zuppa Tuscano (Kale and Potato Soup) - GFF version

Ingredients

• 3 brats, precooked or grilled, cut into cubes
• 3 potatoes, cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 6 slices bacon
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2-3 cups kale - washed, dried, and shredded
• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder
• 1 quart water
• 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Cook bacon and onions in large fry pan until bacon is crisp and onions are almost clear.  Remove bacon and crumble. Set aside.
2. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1 minute.
3. Transfer onions and garlic to large saucepan. Add chicken base or bouillon, water, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes.
4. Add crumbled bacon, brats and kale.  Simmer 5 minutes.
5. Add cream and stir. Turn off heat, let sit 5 minutes and serve.

Yields approx 6 servings.

Variety Feature - Tomatoes

We've finally realized that we're running on fumes as we work towards being ready for the PFI Field Day at the farm tomorrow.  The result is that we haven't had the energy to spare for the creative work that is blogging.  Then, Rob realized that you all might enjoy a few things to help you identify what is in your shares and what to do with them.

First things first - we'd like to remind you that we do have lots of information on vegetable varieties here on our website.
We also have recipes at this location on our website.

Some of the information in this post can be found on our website as well.  But, the great thing is that there is MUCH more on the website than there is here.  Between the two, we have some pretty good resources.

Without further ado - we thought we'd give you the low down on one of the tomatoes that you've already seen on your shares.  We've noticed that the tomatoes are much more variable in size and shape this season.  Average weight is much lower than usual.  But, taste and texture have been very good.  So, we'll take it!

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Italian Heirloom

Production	Reliability	Resists Cracking	Disease resistance	Taste
Days to Maturity 75	Fruit Per Plant 17.1	Typical Harvest Period Aug/Sept	Size of Fruit .85 pounds

Easy to peel, slice and can with little waste. This variety tends to start production earlier in the season than any other large tomato. These do not leave juice all over the board when you slice or dice them, very meaty and great for BLT sandwiches! The fruits are usually round with a slight elongation towards the bottom and tend toward an orangish-red when ripe. In other words, they don't quite go to the 'fire engine' red that some people think is a typical tomato color. This is probably our favorite tomato to recommend to restaurants or persons who need a high volume for an event. As a grower, you won't find a better all around large tomato. The reliability rating took a hit in 2008 with a very weak year. However, plants we sold to persons in the area did extremely well. We have traced the problem to a soil drainage issue in the area these were planted. It's a tribute to the plants that they did anything. Plants can sometimes be a little 'weepy' looking until they bush out since they are related to roma varieties. It is important that you put transplants in deeply to avoid stem breakage in the wind. 

2013 Report: We were grateful that Italian Heirloom matures quickly with our late planting in 2013. Crops were sufficient to make us wonder if we would get close to a record production year from these plants and we would have if we had not failed to stake a dozen of the plants we put in. Contact with the ground results in fruit rot, even if there is mulch. Plants are smaller than many, so we go with the smaller, square cages from Nolt's and find that they are perfect size for these plants. A daycare asked for about 100 pounds of larger tomatoes to process for Winter. One hundred and five tomatoes later, I had the order filled and had more than enough to give our CSA members a couple each that same week. These are well worth figuring out how to grow.

Field Day Sunday, August 17 at Genuine Faux Farm

We will be hosting a field day sponsored by Practical Farmers of Iowa and MOSES on August 17.  The press release is here.  It is scheduled to be from 3pm to 6pm on Sunday.  It will end with a meal that is part main course provided by the farm and part potluck!  Chef Chris of the Savory Spoon will be taking a GFF turkey (from last season) and preparing it as part of the main course.  We're pretty sure some veg from GFF will also make an appearance.  The first part of the event will include a farm tour and discussion/presentation on many of the things we do to plan as well as our research and intercropping techniques.

If you wish to attend, we do need you to RSVP.

If the field day is not for you BUT you'd like to help us beautify the place so it looks wonderful on Sunday:

 So, we are looking for persons to come on Saturday August 16 for a Tom Sawyer "Spruce Up the Farm Day."  If you would like to volunteer a little time, there is a wide range of activities you could be involved in.  Feel free to let us know if you have interest.

  We're open to volunteers on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday.  If you are interested, let us know so we can prepare (both you and ourselves).

Fighting a Good Fight

Every August we get enough data in on our harvests that we feel we can do a little assessment and maybe share with interested parties how the year has gone and is going.  Like last year, this season has been slow to get going for some of the same - and some different reasons.  But, with another year of experience and some more tools in the tool box, we're fighting through it yet again with some reasonable results.

Without further ado - here are some crop related things that are going on at your farm!

Green Beans .... YUM!

We just can't help it.  We like our green beans.  And, if early returns are any indicator, we should get to like our green beans alot this season. 

Some of you might remember that Jade green beans made it to #9 on our end of season Veg Variety Winners last season.  If you didn't, there's a link there for you to take to remind yourselves.  Essentially, last season, we didn't pick much of anything for green beans from the field and it all came out of the high tunnel (375 pounds worth).  Well, we decided we liked having green beans in the high tunnel and planted exactly the same number of row feet of Jade as we did last year.  That's good news, right?

Even better news, we got the beans in 2 1/2 weeks earlier than last year.  And, it is even better than that.  After three full weeks of production, we're at about 96 pounds of beans from the high tunnel.  Last year, after three weeks of production, we were at 94 pounds.  What this tells us is that we just might have a good model for predicting roughly when and how much we'll get out of these plants.  And, if the history is any indicator, we may land an extra 2 weeks of production off of these plants since they were on the upsurge in October when we moved the high tunnel off of them.

Early on the bean plants actually made the tomatoes look sparse!

The field beans are better than last year, but last year they didn't really exist.  This year, we've got two nice rows of Provider green beans that are already producing well.  The field Jade beans didn't want to germinate.  This is not wholly surprising since Jade is a warmer weather green bean and it didn't like the cooler soils.  We also have Black Valentine and Painted Pony getting ready to pick as well.  So far, we are looking at 206 pounds of harvested green beans. 

Our record is 1009 pounds of green beans in 2012.  We were doing a little experimenting that season and some of the results can be found here.  We mention this record because we are aiming for it this season.  It is now official, we are allowed to break the record because Jordan (who worked with us in 2012) volunteered this past week on the farm and picked a good share of the green beans.  If Jordan helped harvest the green beans, then a record is allowed to be broken.  (In 2012, she picked the 1000th pound).

The Beauty of Garlic

It was just two years ago that most garlic in Iowa was infected with Aster Yellows - a disease that ruined storage quality and rendered most cloves useless as seed.  Last year we began a resurgence of our garlic crop at GFF.  And, once all was said and done, we'd pulled in just under 2000 heads of garlic.

You've had the scapes - stay tuned for the cloves!

This season, we have pulled two of three beds of garlic so far and we're at almost 2300 heads.  The third bed should have about 1000 head in it as well.  Ah...the smell of sweet success.  Well... a smell anyway.  We sure hope you like the smell of garlic, because we'll have it.
I Say Tomato - and so do you.

A "normal" peak period of harvest for us is August 15 to September 15.  Since, "normal" isn't anymore, we're not entirely sure what we should say.  However, it is possible that we'll actually start getting pretty good numbers out of our tomatoes by August 15 this season.

Rows of caged tomatoes with basil started in between.  Gotta like it!

Last year, we didn't get our tomatoes into the field until June - so we were desperate for tomatoes.   We were afraid all we would get was to look at pictures of tomatoes from 2012.  But, they started to roll in at the end of August and didn't really get going until mid-September.  Happily, cold weather held off until mid-October so we could provide a nice end of season selection of heirloom tomatoes. 

Most of the tomatoes are looking good so far - so we're very hopeful for some excellent opportunities for BLTs, pico and salsa.

More to come
Crops that are doing reasonably well are always a good topic for us.  So, expect this topic to reprise on and off for the next few months!

Crop Report - end of July

Here is a quick crop report for those who are interested in all things GFF.

The cooler weather has been nice to work in, but it also slows down many of the warm weather crops.  It doesn't really hurt them, but it doesn't help us produce things at the level we would like or as soon as we would like.  Again, it isn't terribly concerning for most things.  It should work out fine - just in its own time.

Tomatoes - we're getting 'scouts' ripening at this time.  A 'scout' is an early set tomato that usually ripens 2 to 3 weeks before peak production.  So there may be a few tomatoes for large shares coming up soon.  Our peak for tomatoes is usually August 15-September 15.  Cooler weather will likely move it back a week.  We still have about 50 tomatoes to cage.  Oy... it always takes so long to do.

Peppers - just getting started.  There may be some in the Thursday shares this week.  Plants are looking pretty good, it a little small.  But, we've seen this before.  A little rain with some lightning and thunder will make these guys really take off.

Onions - we've got 600 row feet of onions that look really good.  They are starting to bulb out.  The guess is late August for them to start getting harvested.  Another 300 feet of onions are weedy and need of help.  We'll see if we can get to them.

Broccoli - we just found our first quarter size head of broccoli.  It's good temps for broccoli, so here's hoping!

Melons - on target for late August and early September

Winter squash - very mixed results.  We'll see.

Cucumbers - slow to start and in need of some real weeding.

Carrots - the new succession is sprouting for one variety and not at all for the other.  We should get something out of this batch.  We need to talk to Jeff about his current batch to see how they are going.

Lettuce - one batch is a week out.  More are going in today and Wednesday. 

Green beans - haven't even hit their stride yet.  This could be a great green bean year for us.  If we can only keep them picked.  Anyone like to do that?

Potatoes - this may sound like a broken record.  We need to get them weeded, so we can run irrigation.  The time is now.  If we get irrigation to them, they should be good.  Prime 'bulking' time is coming up.

Basil - just starting to hit a growth spurt, which shows they took to the transplant fine.

Garlic -due to be dug out this week or next.  We think they should be fine, but a little smaller than some years.

Much Mulch May Mean More Munching

One of the yearly tasks on the farm is the process of putting straw mulch down around the tomato plants.  Mulch is an important part of our tomato growing plan, so it feels good to finally get it done.

We started with the South rows - German Pink, Italian Heirloom & Dr Wyche's Yellow

In order to lay the mulch, we first need to 'skritch' and weed around the plants.  Certainly a thick enough mulch will suppress many of the smaller weeds, but tougher weeds will potentially grow through it.  It's just better to do a quick weeding first. 

Then, we need to lay the drip tape before the mulch.  Typically, we lay the drip tape as close to the stems of the plants on the South side as we are able.  This is important so we know where to put the stakes when we cage the tomato plants.

Middle rows weeded, North rows still wanting attention.

This year, the tomatoes are in a field that is wetter in the North half than in the South half.  As a result, the tomatoes in the South half are well ahead of those in the North half.  Most of them should survive, though we have already removed 8 to 10 plants in the North rows.

This matters because we will protect the plants that are showing more strength first rather than spend time trying to "rescue" the weaker ones.  We've learned that this is usually the best approach on our farm to get the most out of our work time and our fields.  Sometimes, you just have to admit that some plants won't make it and aren't worth the time.  So, if we found that we couldn't complete the field, it is better to not complete the area where the plants show that they are weak and may not make it.

There are small peppers and eggplant in the North most row... Really!

This year, we chose to move more tomatoes to the high tunnel and removed one pair of rows from the field.  This allowed us to put some peppers and eggplant into this field.  It's an attempt to 'hedge our bets' in case something happens in one of the field that holds these crops.  See - we do learn as we go.

Drolet in his natural habitat

It has become a tradition that Denis plays an integral role in the tomato mulching and caging process.  One of these days, we may give the story of how we started with straw mulching as compared to how we do it now.  Let's just say that it is much better than it was.

Tomatoes mulched, eggplant and peppers weeded. TADAAAAAAAAAAA!

We did, in fact, complete the field.  In addition to these tasks, we got the basil transplanted as well.  It's a good feeling. 

We mulch tomatoes for several reasons.
   1. mulch keeps weeds down
   2. mulch maintains a more consistent moisture level around the plants
   3. straw mulch will add organic matter to the soil
   4. mulch prevents soil splash onto tomato leaves - many tomato diseases are spread by soil splash onto leaves and the plant
   5. mulch makes picking easier for the person that harvests the tomatoes (usually Rob)

Even better, our rotation has been modified to move the garlic so that it gets planted in this field where the basil is.  Basil usually dies off in mid-September.  Garlic gets planted in October/November.  We heavily mulch garlic with straw.  The straw in the tomatoes doesn't break down all the way during the season - so we can pull it from the tomatoes to the garlic in late Fall.  Sounds like a winner to me!


And, finally - we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post for some day lily flowers.  Thank you for your attention.

Farmer for Breakfast and other oddities.

The farmer's arms are currently covered in gnat bites - as are his ears and anywhere else those little buggers could reach.  And, to add insult to injury, the skeeters are bellying up to the bar as well.  Monday was particularly miserable.  It was really hard to work through it.  Tuesdays was far better with the wind, but we don't see wind forecast for Wednesday.  We really hope the gnat life cycle completes and the population declines.  If it doesn't there will not be much of us left after a full day in the fields tomorrow.

Hey!  Um... You missed a spot.

Tammy was getting tired of seeing partially painted buildings, so she cracked out the paint just prior to the second batch of rain.  It was mostly dry before the rain came and it was under the eaves, so it held up reasonably well.  But, of course, Mrranda had to supervise (that is her job after all). 

Eyes to ceiling foks.

With it being so wet, we spent more time on "indoor" projects, such as working on building a brooder room for chicks.   The first step was taking down the old ceiling and putting up a new metal ceiling.  This helps us to keep raccoons out of the room.  That, and the old ceiling was pretty disgusting.

The picture above shows the new ceiling.  What you don't really see is the other destruction and removal work we did to prep this area.  At this time, there is a wall framed in on the North end and a frame nearly ready to put up on the South end. 

this is not the last straw

We're anxious to get the straw mulch down in the tomato field, but we'll settle for laying straw in the high tunnel for the tomatoes there.  It sure does look nice.

Not what we were hoping for

For some reason, the paper mulch is not holding up like it has in the past.  Sadly, it is now becoming a danger to the plants as it lifts up and either covers them or beats them to death.

Actually, we are pretty sure of the reason(s) and it mostly has to do with the timing of the rain and weather we have been getting.  But, even so, this makes it hard to want to keep using paper mulch when we don't get the benefits we need out of it.  It's even more disappointing because we have had reasonable success in the past.

Before

After

The fields are drying out in spots so we can get back to work.  The weeds have gotten ahead of us so we're working hard to catch back up.  Our crew of Kieran, Denis and Erik are working hard to help us in that regard.

If anyone would like to spend a couple of hours on the farm as a volunteer, this would be a good time.  Contact us and let us know.

Goodbye June

We finally got around to taking some of the pictures off of the camera and seeing what was on there.  With a very quick look, we selected a few to share.  Why?  Because we have been terribly delinquent in our posting.  Sorry about that.  But, sometimes, we just don't feel like posting and we don't have any sitting in reserve.  We'll get better, we promise.  After all, we have published over 650 posts on this blog.  I think that shows a little staying power.

Now that's a unique way to capture a sunset!

We both noticed the color of the sunset through the high tunnel.  The sunset was beautiful without it, but the color modification was really cool.  Tammy was the one with the energy to grab the camera this time.  She took a slew of pictures and this one was the winner of the batch.

See Kieran, see him plant.  See Denis, see him plant.  Go Denis & Kieran go!

We found a neat little trick to help our workers plant with less worry.  All it took was two paint sticks and a saw.  Rather than telling them, plant them this far apart (as we hold our hands out) we can say, "here is a stick, plant them so they are that far apart."  Works great.  We all like it.

No escaping the scape!

Scapes are the flower stalk on garlic plants.  Starting in June, they begin to send up these curly stems that will have a bulb at the top.  The bulb contains seed (also known as pearls) that can also be used in your cooking.  We cut the scapes off of the plants to encourage the plant to focus on developing large heads for the garlic we will harvest in mid-July.  But, the great thing about scapes is that they are also good to eat.

Garlic scapes are considered a delicacy by many and can be used as a garlic 'substitute' in any recipe calling for garlic.  An internet search is bound to find you any number of recipes.  However, we can tell you that we have enjoyed scapes in each of the following ways:

• olive oil and seasoning either in stir fry or on the grill.  It is usually easier to cook them if they are split long ways up the stem
• split stems in a bottle of olive oil to create your own garlic olive oil
• as a garlic clove substitute in whatever we are cooking - about 2 inches = 1 clove.  Dice the stems fine and it is often a good idea to pre-cook them a little to soften them up UNLESS you want a little crunch in the dish you are making.
• we have even considered roasting them with some potatoes or other vegetables.  But, we usually don't have those veggies at the time we have scapes.
  
• They stir fry well with kale and we bet asparagus would be a good companion as well.

And - here is a recipe from our friend Jill Beebout at Blue Gate Farm

Garlic Scape Pesto
1 bunch tender scapes, cut into pieces, and processed in a food processor until finely chopped
Add the following and process until well blended:
1/3 cup olive oil (add more if you like a thinner pesto)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
optional, toss in some basil for additional pesto flavor if you have it.

This can be served now or frozen for future use. I freeze it in small (1/2 c.) zip-top plastic bags, flattened. Then you can just break off whatever amount you need.

We beat the weeds.  So there.

The weeds were taking over Jeff Sage's beans.  So, a crack crew of weeders showed up and let those weeds know who is boss.  Well done crew!  Way to look tough!  Always a pleasure to help our friend Jeff out. As a result, we may be able to have some early green beans between Jeff's rows and ours.

I'm cooler than you.