More Foresight 2021

A week or so ago, we put a pair of postings that discussed the possibilities for the Genuine Faux Farm in 2021.  We have yet to be able to set aside time for a 'mini' farm retreat, so we don't have any huge revelations.  But, we can share some progress in the ongoing discussion.

For those who wish the background - here is our Poultry Prognostication post and our Predicted Production post.

The Individual Connection Quandary

We have maintained a connection with people via direct sales either at farmers' markets, through our CSA or via the farm credits program since 2004.  There are many people we have met and with whom we feel a connection to because of these direct sale methods.  Yet, one of the options we are considering is moving away from direct to consumer sales entirely.

The 'why' of it is not so hard for anyone to figure out.  The entire process of direct, individual sales of any sort requires a fair amount of effort and time.  Sure, you can create tools and processes to make it easier.  But, these tools will never remove all of the requirements, nor should they, because part of what makes direct sales what they are is the personal touch.  Get rid of the personal connection by overusing tools and you might as well save the energy and not do it at all!

So, here we are, trying to balance the new realities of time and energy that come with our new situations at the Genuine Faux Farm.  When you add in the reality that we are likely to continue to need to be applying pandemic strategies for several months into 2021, it opens up a whole host of considerations.  We're already more isolated than we were in the past.  We have already been cutting back our contact hours with customers over the past several years.  How do we balance a need for social contact with a need for balancing available resources?

Nothing is set in stone and nothing is decided - so if this worries you, please do not let it.  If you have input, however, we're always happy to receive that gift.

What to Grow?

We do not see 2021 changing the number of labor hours we will have available on the farm.  At the very least, we have learned what that means in 2020 so we are better prepared to plan for success in 2021.  With that in mind, one thing is very clear - we have to continue to simplify and adjust our scale to fit the available labor hours we anticipate that we will have.

After being stymied initially on this question - we started asking ourselves a series of questions that are helping:

• What do we enjoy growing the most?
• What do we enjoy eating the most?
• What grows particularly well on our farm with our established tools and methods?
• What will fit our limited labor resources the best?
  
• What could we find outlets for?
• What growing tasks have caused the most stress over the past several years?

For example, I (Rob) have personally enjoyed growing peppers, broccoli and melons.  I love eating green beans, snow peas and spinach.  Our farm has seen excellent success with cucumbers, garlic and onions.

If that were our only candidates to grow (and they are not), we then ask ourselves the next three questions.

Last year we took the opposite approach by identifying crops we didn't enjoy growing, the ones we typically didn't eat and those that did poorly with our farm and systems.  We pruned them from our growing list (in most cases).  In itself, that feels a bit more negative in approach.  Identify failures and things you don't like and remove them.

This time, we're turning it around and asking what we might like to do.  At the least it FEELS more positive.  So, we'll go with it!

Feedback Appreciated

Do you have feedback or ideas?  Feel free to share them with us - especially if you know who we are and what we do and how we do it (at some level).

Music I'm Glad I Didn't Miss

I am one of those odd people who refuses to use a music streaming service for a whole host of reasons.  One of them has to do with the fact that we have had poor internet at our farm historically - though it has gotten better in the last couple of years.  

The other reasons are more personal in nature.  First, I like to create my OWN playlists and make my OWN decisions about what I will listen to.  I suppose you could say I would be the person who might make playlists for streaming much more quickly than I will be a customer.  Second, I prefer to purchase my own copy (whether physical or digital) so that I can more directly support artists for their efforts.  Third, I like to start, stop, replay and do what I want when one of my playlists is running.  And, finally, I like to pay a bit more attention to whole albums or works of musical art.  I think that gives a bit more of a connection to the artist.

Over time, I have gathered a sizable collection of music that I enjoy immensely.  I was creating a new playlist for October and had the same thought for a few albums - "Wow.  I am so glad I found that album - and it would have been easy for me to miss it too!"  In fact, in each of those cases, I did not 'find' the album until it had been out for a while.

I thought I'd share a few of the albums that made me grateful that I did not miss them.

Kerosene Halo - Kerosene Halo

We have been long-time fans of Mike Roe and Derry Daugherty and their bands (77s and the Choir), so it isn't hard to see that it was unlikely that we would miss this one.  But, the reality is that we did not pick up this music until we caught the Choir and Mike Roe on tour through Iowa a few years ago.  It is likely the album had not been out very long, but it had escaped our notice up to that point.

Kerosene Halo's first effort highlighted the wide range of music these two artists can cover.  Everything from a Leonard Cohen cover to a Larry Norman song and some of their own work.  The instrumentation and vocals are a bit more sparse than much of the work their bands put together - and that's just the way it should be.  The songs do a good bit of story-telling, so start the album up and enjoy. 

Kevin Max - Playing Games with the Shadow

Over time, I have picked off a song or two by Kevin Max and enjoyed his vocals and vocal phrasing.  But, for some reason, after listening to the previews on a few of the songs from Playing Games with the Shadow, I went for the whole album and I am glad I did not miss out on this one.

Kevin Max has a voice that lends itself to ballads and songs with some swing to them.  But, what I like about this album is that you can play it at different volumes and enjoy each tune for a different reason depending on the volume.  Feel like bouncing around a bit?  Well, turn it up!  Need to calm down?  Play it quieter.  It works either way.  It's not every album that finds every song showing up on at least one of my playlists.  This is one of those albums.

Zoe Keating - Into the Trees

Tammy and I both love cello music - in part because we both played cello at one point in time.  Happily for both of us, there has been a groundswell of cello dominated instrumental music over the last decade or so.  In our eyes, it is hard to go wrong with cello - but there is certainly a difference between "cool, there's a cello" and "that's really, really good music with cellos."

We were introduced to Zoe Keating by Anden & Elizabeth a few years ago and enjoyed the album they pointed us to.  It was good.  But, it didn't really draw us in to the whole album - it was one of those "pick a song or three" and listen to them situations.  For some reason, I thought I would take a flyer on Into the Trees.   And, we got an album I'm glad we didn't miss.

Perhaps the emphasis on nature helps us to want to like this particular piece of work.  But, I actually think it is more the fact that the music helps bring our minds to those natural places of beauty.  It doesn't hurt that this is cello, artfully and inventively played.  But, I almost feel I can hear the trees talk when I listen to this album.

Vector - Simple Experience

This is a group I have known since high school, and while I liked the first two albums quite a bit, it wasn't until Simple Experience that I felt the need to play one of their albums over and over again.  It is interesting to remember how so many albums at that time followed the formula that the catchier and more upbeat tunes typically were first or second on each side of the vinyl or tape.  They were also often the shorter songs that might find some airplay on the radio.  The quieter tunes, the more complex songs, and the longer songs tended to fill out the 'back half' of each side.

I recall all too well that there were many albums that might have been just fine if they were three or four songs long.  That is not the case with Simple Experience.  For the longest time I would end my day by listening to this whole album after a workday at my first job (after college).  

While I love the music - it's the lyrics that mean the most to me, with an emphasis on social justice and personal introspection.  I've listened to the whole album again a few times recently and it still catches my interest.  I am very glad I did not miss this one.  

Dug Pinnick - Strum Sum Up

Perhaps you know Dug Pinnick from King's X - and perhaps you don't.  Let's just say he is talented and he has staying power.  Not only that - he knows how to put down a really good groove.

You can get an idea that this is an album that has some continuity to it since multiple songs are given in two parts.  But, I have actually found that I prefer to grab couplets and put them into a playlist more than I want to listen to this one all in one setting.  That has nothing to do with the quality of the album because I will gladly listen to the whole thing.  It's more that this music fits my listening style better when it is mixed with other artists' work.  The great thing about this album is that I can put it in all types of playlists and it works well. 

Sam Phillips - Cruel Inventions

First, I want you to remember that the title is "Music I am Glad I Didn't Miss."  It is not, "This is the artist's very best work" or "My top ten of all time" or some other thing.  I mention that because I like this album a lot - but it is not likely Sam Phillips' very best work.  This one is a matter of timing for me.  And I was reminded of my first exposure to this album as I slipped a couple of songs from this album into my October playlist.

It should not be a surprise that, as a male, I might relate more readily to a male singer-songwriter and the lyrics they might write.  Then, Sam Phillips came along with Cruel Inventions and I found numerous connections that helped me to better appreciate a wider range of artistic material from people who weren't just like me.  It was an amazing gift to receive and it is some excellent music that I am glad I did not miss.

That's Not Orange

What is it about people being frightened of complication and complexity?  And why do we seem to have trouble telling children about that complexity?

Case in point - we tell kids that pumpkins are ORANGE. Period.  No exceptions.

Except, of course, when pumpkins are not orange.

As many of you know, we have a history of growing a number of heirloom vegetable varieties.  It has been uncommon for us to grow an orange pumpkin at our farm in part because we wanted to raise pie pumpkins rather than decorative pumpkins.  Very few of our pumpkins even begin to approximate the 'classic' Jack-o-Lantern type of pumpkin that kids draw in October at school.  For example, the picture above shows a Musquee de Provence - one of our favorite pumpkins to grow at the Genuine Faux Farm.

These pumpkins start out as a deep, dark green and begin turning into a tan/brown/orange color as they ripen.  They even continue to change color after they have been harvested.  But, have no fear, if you wanted to cook one of the pumpkins shown in the picture below, they all would have tasted just great!  I do think they taste even better after they've had a chance to cure for about a month, but we've had no problem cooking up one of these if there were some problems with a fruit we had just harvested.

We had some kids come out to the farm a few years ago and they asked if they could see some pumpkins.  I showed them where the pumpkins were, but there was a great deal of disappointment (at first).  It was early and the fruit were small and they were all very GREEN.  No big orange pumpkins anywhere in sight!

But, then we talked about how those tiny little balls were going to grow into the big pumpkins.  And we talked about how different types of pumpkins had different shapes, different colors, different uses and different tastes.  And several of them said they wanted to come back and see what kinds of interesting shapes, sizes and colors they might be when they were ripe and ready.

Kids who are not given a chance to learn that things are not always as simple as they seem (or as they had initially been explained to them) end up being adults who can't seem to figure out some basic things about veggies too!

The classic example is the colored pepper issue.  For some reason, I have run across a whole host of adults who never got the memo that colored bell peppers generally start as GREEN bell peppers and then change color as they age.  In fact, most bell peppers, if left on the plant will turn to a red color (except of course for the yellow and orange bells).  Even the purple bells will start to turn red if given a chance.  But, many purple bells are an exception because they are purple for their entire life... until they aren't!

For example, the picture above shows a batch of Quadrato Asti Giallo peppers.  They are an heirloom bell pepper from Italy.  Isn't the name great?!?  You know what it means in Italian?  Quadrato means "square" and Giallo is "yellow."  Let's just stop there and just sound impressive when we say the Italian name!

These peppers taste great when they are green and taste slightly better when they are yellow.  But, you might notice that they change colors in patches.  I tend to consider them ripe at any point when there are some big solid patches of yellow on the fruit.  They will continue to change some after they have been taken off the plant.

Pumpkins aren't always orange and colored bell peppers start as green bells unless they're purple bells.

After that, striped eggplant aren't so hard to believe.

We hope everyone has a good week!

Not Called For

It's postal history Sunday!  The day of the week on the Genuine Faux Farm blog where we explore a subject the farmer enjoys and those who read the blog can be completely amazed that anyone would want to get into such detail over old pieces of mail!

You Must Not Delay!

 

We are actually going to look at this one 'backwards' from the normal approach I take with a piece of postal history.  The contents of the letter actually give us some depth to the story that might help everyone understand both the irony and the difficulty this particular letter encountered.

The letter appears to be written to someone on the Brig (ship) Union.

“You must not delay being in Falmouth. This is why I am sending you this to tell you that Mr. Labar etc have given me the balance of your departure, as well as the copy of the account and see to it credited for this amount of 1,412 francs.”

The letter is written in French, so I took the liberty of attempting to translate the introduction into English.  Please remember that I am fighting three things here:  1. handwriting is not always perfectly clear on old letters, 2. I am not perfectly fluent in French and 3. there may be references to culture, current events or other common knowledge of the time that I may not recognize.

But, the content of the letter conveys clearly that the writer was concerned about the speed of both the ship and that this letter get to the recipients in time.  But, this is no surprise as much of the business content I have viewed from the 1850s, 60s and 70s reference some level of urgency or expedience.  On the other hand, the writer seems to be giving advice regarding what the recipient(s) should be doing next.  So, I could see why it might be important to the writer that this letter get to them before they head off to some other less desirable port of call.

We Don't Necessarily Deliver For You

Monsieur Badille in Bordeaux was clearly anxious to get his directives to the recipients on board the Union - at least his letter seems to think imply that.  But, his address makes one wonder a little bit about how certain he could be that his letter would be received:

"Messiures Fox? per consul of France ask the captain of Brig Union - Falmouth, England"

In short - he seems to be implying that the postmaster or a representative at the French Consulate in Falmouth should ASK the captain of the ship to get the mail for passengers on his boat or at least to get the captain to tell his passengers to go get their mail.

It was common practice for mail to be sent to ports of call in care of a foreign legation for persons on board ship.  However, just because the foreign legation was used to serving as a holding location for mail to the captain, crew and passengers of ships that flew their country's flag, that does not mean they would trot on down to the docks to hand deliver each letter.  On the contrary, a captain - or his representative - would typically go to the legation to check for any mail pertaining to the ship.  It was likely presumed that passengers might take care of their own business.

So, let me back up a second.  It was actually fairly common in 1869 for people to go to the post office just to see if they had mail.  Much of the mail was simply held at the post office to be picked up - not delivered to the address.  In fact, much of the mail addressed at the time had no street address given!  Some people who read this blog may even have a memory of "General Delivery" services at the post office where an item was held there for you to pick up.

Part of the issue is - not everyone would go every day and if a person was not expecting mail, they might not even think to check.  Did Messieurs Fox check to see if they had mail?  It doesn't look like it.

Either that or the letter arrived after they had left!  Poor Monsieur Badille!

Not Called For

If you look at the front of the envelope, you will see that the words "Not Called For" appears twice on the envelope.  Once in black ink and another time in red ink.  It is possible the black ink was applied by the post office, but there is no way to be certain.  But, the red ink actually says "Not called for @ consul's."  So, that shows us the foreign consul was at least consulted by the post office - and maybe the letter even resided at the consul's for a time.  Frankly, there is no way to tell for sure how it was handled during that period. 

What we do know for certain is that the letter arrived in Falmouth on March 25, 1869, just two days after it was mailed in Bordeaux.  So, it is safe to say that the post office did its job with efficient mail travel.  We do know that the letter sat either at the French Consul's office or the Falmouth post office for some time and they diligently marked "not called for" on the envelope to show that no one had come to claim it.

And we know that the letter then LEFT Falmouth on January 28, 1870 - ten months after it arrived.

The Returned Letter Branch Office in London

Many post offices labeled unclaimed or undeliverable letters as "dead letters,"  the United States even had a "Dead Letter Office."  This letter was probably bundled into a batch of dead letters that the Falmouth post office had accumulated over time and the whole packet was sent to London.  London's dead letter office was known as the Returned Letter Branch Office.  That seems a little kinder than "Dead Letter Office,"  but it came down to the same thing.  These were orphaned letters that could not be delivered for one reason or another.

This office would determine what to do next with each item.  The vast majority would get sent back to the sender of the letter.  It is not hard to picture Monsieur Badille picking up his mail on a February or March day in Bordeaux and thumbing through the pile of business correspondence.  Among those things would have been this letter.

A letter he hurriedly penned a year before with urgent instructions for the his people on the Union.  

Well, at least this explained why his instructions might not have been followed!

Crazy Maurice's Monarchy

In the process of checking with Crazy Maurice, our young Weeping Willow tree, about his last blog post, he expressed an interest in providing me with more on the blog.  This was positively hasty on his part, but it was a good topic and worthy of putting out there.  

You can see Maurice (this picture is from a year or two ago) in the background of the picture below.  He's a bit bigger now!

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The Fuzzy Guy with the Red Top was nice enough to come out to ask if it would be ok to expand the Knuckleheads pasture (he means turkeys -Fuzzy Guy) to include the area around where I live.  I told him if it means more visits from Pretty Lady...   Well, and Fuzzy Guy, too, I suppose.   

As I mentioned in my last post, trees simply do not forget.  Trees are also very observant.   That's my new word for today - I described what I wanted to say and Fuzzy Guy helped me discover the right word.  But, this might be why I get along with Fuzzy Guy pretty well since he tends to put some value on observation as well. 

We were talking about the little fluttery things that can't seem to fly straight.  He called the orange and black ones "Monarchs," but I like calling them "little fluttery things that can't fly straight and occasionally glide, love flowers, and roost in tree limbs at night, sometimes tickling the host tree..." (note, there was more to this name - Fuzzy Guy).  

This is where Fuzzy Guy and I sometimes have a problem.  You see, trees give names that are always growing as we observe more.  Humans tend to rely on a short name and hope that it conveys enough for others to understand what is being said.  I believe that this is why humans have so much trouble communicating.  They are always in such a rush to get things said that they don't see what needs to be said.  They rely on these silly abbreviations (another new word today!).

I would say that Fuzzy Guy does pretty well as far as his observations of the "little fluttery things...." and so does Pretty Lady.  But, I have observed other humans on the farm, and I do not think their names would be nearly as long for the "little fluttery things..." because they know so much less about them.

How can a short name, like "Monarch" possibly help another being understand what it is?  If we tell a being's full story with their name, wouldn't it be harder to discount their existence and importance?  

I told the farmer he should be more like trees.  I think he might agree, but he had to run off and do something else.

There are days I envy his legs, but I do not envy the short attention span.

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Farmers note:  Crazy Maurice's name for Monarch is a fair bit longer than what I shared above.  Part of the name has to do with how many Monarchs Maurice has seen in his relatively short life.  Even this young tree includes words like "infrequent" and "fewer" in his descriptive name for this butterfly.  But, perhaps the word that shocked me the most was the word "precious."  

At the time, I did not think to ask about that.  What makes a butterfly "precious" to a willow tree?  

I will say that this year has featured very few Monarchs on the farm and I find that fact to be distressing.  I, personally, have taken great joy on the days when dozens of Monarchs have visited our hedges of zinnias we plant each year.  We had zinnias again this year.  In fact, there was a 400 foot long row of them in the East fields this year.  

And very few Monarchs.

My fear is that Maurice's name for Monarch will include "and were never seen again" at some point in the not too distant future.  If the Monarchs leave for good, the trees will see it.  And they won't forget.

But It Wasn't Funny

Crazy Maurice is a young Weeping Willow tree in the northeast section of our farm.  For a significant part of the Summer, Maurice was keeping watch over the older hen flock as they went about their business, kicking up the dirt around his trunk and taking shelter under his limbs.

Being a young tree, Maurice is still fairly 'hasty' (as an Ent might say), so he frequently has conversations with the humans on the farm.  In fact, he has even authored some blogs for us in the past.  We hope that he will remain hasty enough to continue to talk with us.  But, even if he gives in to the slow, contemplative ways of the older (and possibly wiser) trees, we'll still enjoy visiting him.

This is Crazy Maurice's latest - dictated to me over the course of the Summer.

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I do very much enjoy the visits with the Pretty Lady and the Fuzzy Guy with the Red Top.  It almost is worth it having all of these fussy, noisy, feathered fussbudgets running around me.  After all, I know they come out here to give them food and water.  I am also aware that they collect eggs from those little buzzards every day.  But, I also know a day will come this Fall when I won't see either of them much.

It's ok.  I usually take a bit of a nap for the colder months anyway.  If they visited then, I am afraid I wouldn't be the best company.  But, it does get a bit lonely out here sometimes.

Blaise (the maple) isn't much of a conversationalist and is destined to be much more tree-ish than ent-ish, in my opinion.  Minnie (the oak) is still too small to tell what she's going to be like.  The conifers think they're better than the rest of us because they stay green all year.  Ya, ya.  Whatever.

But, occasionally, I get to hear the whispered conversations of my elders - the Burr Oaks on the southern part of this farm.  I have learned that, when they talk - I should listen.  And, when I listen, I have to be prepared to listen for a while.  I mean - they are kind of... well... deliberate.   That's a new word the Fuzzy Guy taught me this year when I tried to explain it to him.  I like that word.  And that's not an accident.

See!  I have even learned to make jokes.  That's the Fuzzy Guy's fault too. 

Anyway, this Summer was enjoyable because the Fuzzy Guy was telling me about a story of trees... and some other creatures....  Burrrahobbits?   Eh.  Whatever.  Some little fellow called Billedfrobo?  Well, anyway, that doesn't matter because some of the key characters were Willows and Rowans and an Oak-like creature called an Ent.  

I was a little dismayed that the Willow was portrayed in a less than flattering light - but Fuzzy Guy assured me that he felt my mannerisms held no resemblance to that Old Man Willow character.  Perhaps that tree didn't get to hear stories from nice farmers when he was young?

He told me a story about going to see a, what was it?  Mohvee?  A book that had sound and movement?  Whatever.  I know what a book is, because Pretty Lady explained that one.  I like Pretty Lady, she is ever so kind.

Anyway, he told me that the Ents were sad because they had lost the Entwives.  When asked what Entwives looked like, the Ent said he could not remember.

And Fuzzy Guy told me that some people laughed.

But, it wasn't funny.

Trees do not forget.  And, if they do, it must be a tragedy.  That's another new word my friends taught me - but I am not as pleased to have learned it as I was with the word "deliberate."

I listen to my elders, the Oaks to the south.  They tell me about the ball of fire that took one of their number away.  They remember her shape and feel, still refusing to encroach on her space even though she has been gone many seasons now.  They have grudgingly allowed admittance of a young sapling (or so I have heard), nearby, but they still see their missing sibling when they look at that open space.

They have not forgotten.

And it isn't funny.

What would it take for a tree to forget?   After all, the Oaks tell me it is tree-ish to remember.  It is tree-ish to endure.  And it is tree-ish...to not talk to the farmers.

I whispered back to them that that wasn't funny.

And they laughed.

I'll remember that.

Feeding Workers All Season

People have a tendency to think about bees and pollinators in the Spring - a point in time when there is an abundance of choice for our pollinators when it comes to food.  But now, as we enter the tail-end of the growing season, our attentions are being drawn elsewhere.  Even those of us that care about cultivating flowering plants are tempted to move on.  The idea of cleaning up flower beds and gardens is more on our minds than encouraging more blooms.

But, if we all do that - what do our pollinators do for sustenance?  Not just now - but for the rest of the year until Spring busts out all over again?

Asters to the Rescue

I put myself together to collect eggs yesterday afternoon, stepped out the door and noticed a small reddish pink aster plant we let do its thing in a neglected corner of our lawn by the house.  Then, I looked at the purple aster in the weedy perennial bed nearby.  And, I observed all of the Thousand-flower Aster that have volunteered in places we have not kept up with.  In fact, those little white flowers are often part of the reason we decide to let those areas go in the late summer.  In fact, we let the area around our mailbox go when we saw how many of these plants were there this year.

I suspect the mail carriers may not be the biggest fans of this - though they said nothing about it when I was outside taking pictures as they drove up.  They probably wondered what kind of an oddball I was to be outside taking close-up pictures of little, white flowers.  But, that (as they say) is another story.

This year has been much, MUCH drier than the past five or so years, so it has been friendlier to many of our aster plants.  In fact, none of the perennials we planted some years ago are still in their original place (though I suspect some of their progeny are what populate our grounds now).  We got that nice soaking rain in early September and that was all these plants needed to give us a glorious bloom.

Sometimes letting go works best

Tammy and I would, ideally, love to have some cleaned up perennial beds right now.  We tire of the plantings that have been overrun by grasses and other, even less desirable (to us) plants.  We really would like to have a few places on the farm where we can just enjoy the beautiful flowers and plants (and hopefully some bees and pollinators).  After all, we are aware that you can have a planting that looks good AND is friendly to those critters.

But, sometimes, the best answer is to let it go.

You see, the pollinators don't see the world the same way we do.  What looks like a tangled mess to us is a beautiful buffet to some of them.  It's a place that our bumbling human feet and bodies don't go to trample them as they do what they do.

We also need to remember that pollinators come in all shapes and sizes.  They don't need the big, easy to see blooms that humans might prefer to see in their gardens.  Sometimes, they just want a bunch of little white flowers.  White flowers on a plant that we all think is a weed.

I guess it makes sense that we might think it is a weed because they have pretty aggressive root systems, crowding out the competition.  If you have some cultivated plants in your flower bed, you might not be as happy to see them as we are when we see them in the ditch or in our ditches by the high tunnel.

But the pollinators?  They love those plants.  

So, we love them too.

Broccoli - Seed to Transplant

I was realizing that my Sunday postal history posts tend to be upbeat and push the idea of learning new things.  While there is something to be said for the difference between a hobby and a profession, I want to make it clear that I did not get into farming because I absolutely HAD to.  There was/is much that I enjoy.  So, I thought I would share some things on Tuesdays about green and growing things for those who might have interest!

Let's give it a try - I hope you all enjoy this.

Protected from the Start

The first time we tried to grow broccoli in our gardens, we bought plant starts from a local nursery, planted them, surrounded them with marigold starts (from the same nursery) and then came out the next day to see that the rabbits had snipped all of the marigolds and a number of the broccoli plants.  As some point fairly early in our farm endeavors, we tried direct seeding broccoli and had very poor success due to predation and weed pressure.

It really didn't take much to conclude that the early stages of the broccoli plant are typically those most fraught with danger for the plant.  Even in recent years, we have lost HUNDREDS of broccoli starts when a woodchuck got into the area where our trays of young plants were waiting for their moment to go into the field. 

In any event, we like to start our broccoli plants two to four times a year in 72 cell trays and put them on heat mats with overhead lights until the seedlings "pop."  If the weather is warm enough, we prefer getting them out of the artificial light setting as soon as we are able, putting them in a cold frame, a high tunnel or some other protected environment.  Over a period of four to six weeks, we gradually harden them off to full outdoor conditions.  

Ideally, we might like to 'top-dress' the plants two to four times depending on how soon we can put them into the ground successfully.  For those who do not know what that means - you can essentially top dress your plants by adding some of your starting soil to the top of the tray where your plants reside.  This adds some nutrients to the soil that is rapidly depleted by frequent watering and growing plants.

Getting to Transplant Day

Ideally, we like to put the plants in the ground when they are between four and five weeks old, but we rarely get what we want for a whole host of reasons.  But, if plants get much more than six weeks old, it is probably better to move on to a new planting.  This is not to say that older plants won't work - they can.   It is just more likely there will be other issues later on.

We have found (in years where the ground just won't dry out) that we can opt to spend the time and transplant trays into larger pots - like we do for the tomatoes we sold in years past.  But - you do the math - what costs us more in supplies and labor hours?   Start a few new trays three weeks after the first batch in case the first batch can't go in when planned OR use the time, space, soil and pots to pot all of those little plants up?

Below is a batch of tomatoes and eggplant that have been potted up.  You need to remember that plants take up more space when they are in individual pots!

Remember - we typically have planted hundreds of these at one time. The great news is that either option could be made to work.  The trick is to keep the plants growing.  Every time their growth stalls is a negative for possible future production by the plant.  But, before you look at your plants in dismay, you need to remember that they are often tougher than you think.  If what you have is all you've got, give them a try anyway and see if you can't coax them to produce.

Or, if you farm like we do, you decide if they are worth the gamble or not.  Heck.  You're not a real farmer unless you have ten or more crop failures a year - give them a try.

Transplant Day

Over the last several years, we have gone with a single row of broccoli in one bed (the width of our tractor makes a bed) and we have one foot spacing between plants.  This typically gives our plants plenty of room to have some good size and space for excellent root development.

And, since we grow in rows that allow for some mechanical cultivation, we want fairly straight rows.  We often use our drip tape (irrigation) to help us there.  We've found that if you lay the tape out (and anchor it in place to keep it from blowing away) it provides a decent guide for both the straight line and the spacing.  After all, this drip tape has an emitter for water every 6 inches.  Plant one plant every other emitter and you have twelve inch spacing - cool!

One more thing we forgot to tell our workers once (much to our chagrin) - make sure the root ball is covered!  If even a little of it is uncovered, it has a tendency to wick moisture away from the small bit of soil (and their roots), especially on a windy spring day.  If you are not immediately getting some water on them, you can be surprised how quickly the plant will wilt and possibly die on you!  Some farms have transplanting tools that put water directly on the plant as it is put into the ground.  We tended to start the drip tape running once we are about a quarter of the way down the 200 foot row.  

Why wait to start it?  Well, if you have transplanted before, you know what happens as you put plants into wet soil?  Yep, it gets kind of hard to work with that much much on your fingers!

Beautiful Broccoli

I realize that most people who read this blog will, at most, plant a few broccoli in their own garden.  I think I included enough to inform some people who are in that position.  For those who plant at our scale (or larger), you are either concerned that I have not given enough detail or you recognize that I wasn't trying to spend time on a step by minute step process that will lead any grower to have successful and profitable broccoli crops every season.

Like the postal history posts, there is usually so much more detail and information that could be put out there.  But, that's not the point.  The point is to learn a bit about something new... or learn something new about something you already know about.

I hope you did and I hope you have a good day!

Ever the Observer

You never know who might be watching you.  That should be enough to give all of us some pause. 

It would be fair to say that this is something that was drilled into my head as the eldest child (who is now the youngest - but that's another story for another day).  I was setting an example for others in the household.  My siblings were always watching and you never knew for certain what they would take from my performance.  I suspect I failed and succeeded in equal parts in my duties - but that ALSO is another story.

But, it is fair to say that I was ever the observer.  While I was rarely pushing to be first in line to do things and I even more rarely wanted to try something new with any kind of an audience, I picked up far more than most kids by simply watching.  Watching and picking up the lessons that came with observation.

And... I loved baseball (and still do).  In fact, I was still pitching in an adult league as recently as 2012 (well somewhere in there).

Seaver, Carlton, Gibson and Palmer

Those of you who played Little League and Babe Ruth League baseball in smalltown USA can likely relate to the situation I found myself in as I was learning how to play the game.  The 'season' consisted of ten to fourteen games and two (or maybe even FOUR practices) as busy parents did their down-right best to be a coach to kids with a wide range of commitments and skills.  It wasn't really until I was able to participate in the daily practices that came with high school baseball that I had more structure for learning the game.

I ended up pitching at various levels in part because I was one of the kids that could pretty much put the ball somewhere near the plate most of the time.  At that level, it meant something.  And, if you have ever watched a little league game, you have watched while some poor kid tried and tried to throw anything near the plate. It was excruciating for everybody involved.

When I returned to baseball, several years later, playing for the Newton Cardinals in the Men's 25 and up league, I was asked how I learned how to pitch.   My answer was mostly - "I watched others pitch."  Even at the high school level, we really did not have anybody who knew much about the craft.  As a result, our pitchers were mostly those who just threw the hardest....somewhere around the strike zone.

I learned to use my body as a lever and to throw myself forward into a good fielding position by watching Tom Seaver.  He had this penchant for getting so close to the ground on a follow-through that his back knee always had a dirt stain.  I figured out (finally) how to throw a curveball by watching Steve Carlton (a lefty like me) throw a complete game shutout.  I learned that there was a mental component to pitching when I heard Jim Palmer in an interview.  And, I came to understand that excellence in competition requires the fire, concentration, and will displayed regularly by Bob Gibson.

I also learned by observation that I did not want to be any of these people, though I could admire many things about each of them.  Tom Seaver could remember a pitch sequence from years before and could tell you how each at bat ended.  Bob Gibson exuded confidence and encouraged the players around him to perform - sometimes even better than their best.  All of them expected to finish what they started.

And, I learned that I did not have the physical abilities to approximate any of them.  But, I could still participate positively and I could still be involved in a game I love.

What are you displaying for others to see?

Bob Gibson passed away a couple of days ago and Tom Seaver left us earlier this year.  I have to admit that I did not really see Gibson pitch - just a bit before my time - but I read enough about the legend that was this person and saw enough footage to understand what he could do.  I was able to see Seaver pitch multiple times on televised games, especially when he played for "my team," the Cincinnati Reds.  The retrospective pieces that followed each player's death got me to thinking what I had learned from each of them - even though they were not mentoring me.

And I realized what I learned often did not fall into the category of things that I had opted to assimilate into my own life (or my own pitching philosophy).  But, what I WAS really struck by was how much I remember thinking about what I observed from these people I would never meet and would rarely see.

I thought a little more and realized how much MORE I have learned from others I did have more contact with.  Ever the observer.  Always trying to learn a little more.

What are you displaying for others to see?

Who is watching you?  What will they learn when they observe what you do?  Do you realize that some of these 'throw-away' moments in our lives sometimes provide lessons that help to shape what someone else does?

One day, outside of my grandmother's house, my Dad said something that stays with me.  "I don't mind paying Social Security as long as people like her (my grandmother) are able to continue to live a good life at home because they get support.  It doesn't even matter if I never see any of it myself."

I do not recall who he said it to.  It doesn't matter.  Ever the observer - I absorbed the lesson.  I assimilated it into my own system of belief.  It is important to do things that may not benefit you so others may have a better quality of life.

On another day, an older relative took me along for a trip to the hardware store.  The person saw a water nozzle that had a price sticker slightly folded over to make the $14 item look like $4.  I got a wink and they said, let's see what happens.  At checkout, the cashier noticed the fold-over and when asked, my relative said, with a straight face, "no, I guess I don't want it then."

Was it a big deal?  You tell me.  Ever the observer - I absorbed another lesson.  But, this time I didn't take the 'face value' interpretation of what had happened.   My eventual conclusion was that there are many times in life you do NOT take advantage of someone else's mistake.  Did I make that decision immediately?  No - I had to experience more and do more.  Over time, I came to this conclusion.  But, the initial event spurred the entire internal process of determining a value in my own life.

I observed someone who was loudly belittling some people they did not agree with, using unflattering names to describe them.  And, I observed while a kid emulated that same approach with their friends(?) or siblings(?) almost immediately afterwards.  

No, they did not seem to be the children of the person who was speaking so poorly of others.

Ever the observer, I witnessed a parent berating a 17 year-old umpire for a Little League game - stabbing their finger viciously towards that young man's face to make their point.  And I observed their baseball playing child looking uncomfortably away.   And I also observed when that player did not return to play the following year.

What are you doing to represent yourself?

Remember, the observers are watching.

How Did They Know?

It is Sunday!  And we all know what that means, don't we?

We don't?  Oh.

Well, around here it means it is time for a postal history post on the Genuine Faux Farm blog, that's what it means!

Hurray!

I had a very good question asked of me regarding some of the early letter mail I have shown in the past.  An inquisitive person wanted to know how the destination post office knew whether or not the letter they were delivering had been paid properly.

How did they know the postage was fully paid?

As you might guess, the answer to this question can have many different answers depending on the time and place in history.  For now, I will just give some examples from the 1850s and 1860s in Europe.

The envelope shown above carried a letter from Rome to Paris in 1856.  The cost of mailing such a letter was 20 bajocchi and there were three stamps properly paying that postage on the envelope.  That's great that I know that (and now you do too!).  But, how did the person who delivered this letter know that the recipient did not have to pay anything more?

Remember - at this point in time, you also had the option to send letters UNPAID with the expectation that the recipient would pay the postage.  It really would be helpful if the carrier who delivered this item would not have to carry a big book of postage rates along with them to check to see if it was all taken care of!

In this case, I see the red box with the "P.D." and that tells me (and the carrier) that this item was "payée à destiné," which translates to "paid to destination."

There is also a red circular marking applied in France.  Red ink was often code that implied an item was paid and black ink was often code for when it was not fully paid.  So, this cover had a couple of clues for the postal carrier that no additional postage was due from the recipient.

 

The folded letter (they folded the letter over itself rather than put the letter into an envelope) shown above was mailed from Sardinia (which was becoming a part of the Kingdom of Italy) to England in 1860.  Now that I have given you a clue as to what to look for, I suspect you can find the marking that told the receiving post office that the postage was properly paid to get the letter from Italy to England.

Yes, it isn't in red ink this time - but it is the same thing - "payée à destiné."  In addition, there is a red circular marking below the P.D. that was applied in London.  Two clues for the destination post office that all was well.

If you will recall from prior posts - countries had postal conventions where they agreed with each other HOW they would exchange mail.  Not every country had an agreement with every other country, but there were usually sufficient agreements to get mail from most every here to nearly every other there on the planet in 1860.  These agreements often dictated exactly how countries would indicate to each other that the item was properly paid or not.  Many countries in Europe agreed on the "P.D." as a standard signal that an item had no postage due.  But, that was not always the case.

Slashes and X's

The next couple of examples are not quite items that were mailed from one country to another, but they illustrate some other ways an item was marked as 'paid.'

The item above was mailed in 1857 from Cento (near Bologna) to Rome.  At the time, both of these locations were located in the Papal States of Italy, territory under the direction of the Vatican.  The letter cost 6 bajocchi to go from Cento to Bologna to Rome and a green stamp was used to pay that postage.  The post office in Cento used a blue handstamp with the town name (Cento) to mark the stamp to show that it was recognized as paying postage - and to prevent it from being reused in the future.

The Rome office, during the 1850s and 1860s, indicated that postage was paid by putting a long diagonal slash in ink on the face of the mailed item.  It was quick.  It was fairly efficient.  And it served a purpose.  

Now, when the clerk (or carrier) handed this item off to the recipient, they could quickly and easily see that nothing more was due on delivery.  

And here is another Italian item that was sent from Modena to Mantua (Mantova).  Mantua, during this period, liked to do a full "X" marking on items that had no additional postage owed.  These "X" markings were normally big and bold - quite hard to miss!

Franco means paid

The Dutch and Germans tended to prefer "franco" to "P.D." for obvious linguistic reasons.  This item was mailed in Rotterdam in 1866 and sent to Gladbach in Prussia (Germany).  The Dutch post office combined the handstamp to 'cancel' the stamp with the marking to indicate that postage was paid.  The boxed word "Franco" clearly defaces the stamp and is visible for the delivering clerk to see.

And, in some postal agreements, both countries were required to indicate that an item was fully paid.  This item from Amsterdam to London (1865) has the "Franco" marking on the postage stamps (applied in Amsterdam) AND the word "Paid" in the London circular marking.  As if that were not enough, the person who addressed this letter also wrote the word "paid" at the lower left.

Sometimes, a person was pretty excited that something was fully paid.  I am not sure adding exclamation points make it any more likely that the postal people would notice it was paid enough - but I do hope at least one person who handled this item was a little bit amused.

How many clues on this envelope from Faribault, Minnesota (US) to Oldenburg (Germany) can you find that told the delivering clerk that it was fully paid?

 So, what would NOT paid look like?

This is a whole topic of its own, but I thought I should show at least one example.

Well - here we are.  A letter that has a stamp on it, so it is possible that postage was paid.  And, there are some red markings on the cover too.   Hmmmmm.

The first clue that this item is NOT fully paid are the numerical markings on this letter.  The red "40" is actually the amount to be collected from the recipient to pay for postage.  Believe it or not, the black 'squiggle' to the right of the "40" is also a "4," which is the same amount due.

The second clue is that there is no "franco," "paid," or "P.D." anywhere to be found on this item.  

The third clue is the red boxed marking that says "affranchissement insuffisant."  This roughly translates to "insufficient postage."  

In a very real way, postal history can be a bit of a puzzle - but it is an enjoyable one that begins to make more sense as you learn the rules.

Thank you for joining me on the postal history Sunday post.  I hope you have a good day!

Days of Yore

I took a quick look at all of the blog drafts to see if one fit what I felt like writing about for Saturday and none of them worked.  This isn't all that uncommon as there are usually reasons why some of these drafts were stuck in 'draft' status.  One of these days, I will do a house cleaning and delete a batch of them.  But, that day is NOT this day.  

Today is a day when I will look at some pictures of veggies and let them inspire me to write.  Won't that be fun?   

Well, we'll see.  Maybe it will be just awful, then we can all go sit outside and watch a few clouds roll by.  Then, we should all feel a bit better - or at least we can hope that will be the result.

The melon shown above is a Ha'Ogen melon from a few years back.  We loved the taste and texture of this melon so much that we hoped we could find a way to grow LOTS of them.  Sadly, they have always been difficult to grow in any numbers.  They have issues with various bugs and diseases and they seem to be extremely susceptible to any kind of adverse condition.  I will admit that I never really gave them a chance in the high tunnel - perhaps that would work?

I will admit that, at the time, I saw this melon as a way to carve out a niche with its unique taste and color.  It was, in my mind's eye, the melon equivalent to the Wapsipinicon Peach snack tomato.  It looks a little different and people initially shy away from it.  But, once they taste one, they want more... often LOTS more.  

Sadly, a couple of things happened since the moment I decided we would try to scale up production of this melon.  First, there was an increased use of dicamba herbicide formulations for warm season applications to soybeans.  Our farm seemed to fight issues regularly at the point in time those applications were going on in the area.  That means a vine crop that might already have been a little 'tetchy' was pretty much a 'no go.'  The market we thought we would have for these melons changed about the same time.  So, even if we had been able to grow a bunch, I don't think it would have been the benefit I initially thought it was.  And, the seed supply was unavailable for a year....  yeah, that would put a damper on things.

We did not start any Ha'Ogen plants at all this year - and it actually hurt a little bit to realize I wasn't even going to try them.  I wonder if I'll plant two or three seeds next year just to see if I can get one fruit to make a moment of summer glorious?

The Spaghetti Squash was my gateway to eating squash.  Prior to growing a spaghetti squash, I was not incredibly willing to heap a pile of cooked squash onto my plate.  But, we tried a couple of these and treated them like pasta - topping the stringy flesh with a tomato sauce.  The net result is we decided that was ok!  

Eventually, we found a few other winter squash that we both liked the taste of better than the Spaghetti squash - much to its chagrin.  But, with the CSA, we usually liked to grow some of these to give people who didn't like the butternuts or acorns a bit of a choice.  Without a CSA, we found ourselves motivated to simplify a bit, which meant we did not plant any of them.  We DID seed a few in trays, but we ran out of space in the rows we had designated for squash.  Sadly, these were the odd squash out!

I guess I was feeling a little sentimental when I saw this photo from about 2009.  But, unlike Ha'Ogen, I don't feel this great urge to plant any of them next year.  I guess I would rather find a way to grow a buttercup squash or two instead.   We'll see what happens when we get there.

St Valery's carrots (shown above) were the heirloom carrot variety we tended to go to year after year.  Usually, they would do pretty well for us as long as we got them in at the end of April.  Then, last year, we found an open pollinated variety called Dolciva.  They have all of the criteria for a carrot that we are looking for plus one more thing.  

They come in pelleted seed.

It's a crazy thing, but our farming approaches have changed so dramatically in the last couple of years for all of the reasons (yes, we've mentioned them before).  One of the changes is that we want our carrots spaced out more than the six row seeder provides for us.  Pelleted seed provides us with the options we want for changing our row spacing for carrots.  So, we found a variety that fits our requirements for taste, size, storage and shape.  Add on top of that - it is not an F1-hybrid.

Oddly enough, I don't have that many fond memories of St Valery's carrots anyway.  Could that be because I don't like to eat carrots?  Who knows?  Maybe I do - but I'm not going to tell!

Here is a pretty picture!  A whole tub full of ripe Tolli Sweet peppers.  

Tolli's have long been one of our favorite sweet peppers to grow.  They grow on small plants and take very little space.  It makes them a great high tunnel variety.  Over the last couple of years, we relied on Tolli Sweet to get us the early red sweet peppers that we put into our CSA shares.  Actually, the last couple of years, we got pretty good at using them and harvesting so they provided fruit deep into October.  

And we did not have a single one on our farm this year.

Why?  Well, this time it wasn't for lack of trying.  We did plant some seeds in trays expecting to put a few in the high tunnel.  

None of the seeds germinated.

What did we do wrong?  Possibly nothing.  Possibly everything.  We will likely never know.  Other varieties did fine and, happily, the Chervena Chushka's produced well for us to fill this niche.  They just don't provide the early production Tolli did. 

And, there you are - stories of vegetables!  Where else can you go for that?  Ok, I am sure there are other places.  But, you came here this time.

So, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great weekend!

Foresight 2021 - Predicted Production

We promised that we would outline some of our considerations at the Genuine Faux Farm for 2021 - so here we are, in the midst of it.  It does seem a bit odd because we have not really reported back on 2020 thus far.  But, we can be forgiven if we want to look forward instead of back at the moment, I think.

What do we want to grow at Genuine Faux Farm?

Let's just start by saying that we both still want to grow something at the farm.  Let's also include a statement that we're disappointed in 2020's production in a large part because we just could not come up with enough time and energy to do well with our crops after we split the resources we had on our jobs, marketing, poultry, personal health, farm upkeep and repair, and veggie crops.

But, that's not the question on our plate right now.  The question is what we WANT to grow.

Part of me says I want to grow a little bit of lots of things.  Part of me says I want to pick an even smaller set than we did for this year and specialize a bit more.  Once again, there are more questions than answers at this point in time.

One of the things I have done is look at some of the harvest pictures from prior years and see how I respond to those pictures.  I am surprised by how well I can 'transport' myself back to that moment in time and remember how I felt about that particular crop.  For example, we both have always loved having a hayrack covered with pumpkins and winter squash.  On the other hand, it has always been stressful trying to find shelter for all of them when cold weather moves in.  I can still very clearly recall hauling a few hundred winter squash down the stairs to our basement.  With a walk-in cooler/warmer and new stairs to the basement, it is probable that such an event would be much less traumatic in the future - but still.

I have always enjoyed growing peppers and we love eating our green beans.  So, neither of those is too hard to see growing more of those to share with others in some fashion.  We know that we have a good farm and a decent system for excellent broccoli and cucumber production.  Tomatoes love our high tunnels and we can be quite good with lettuce if we give it the time and effort.  Our onions are typically very good sized on our farm, with a good taste and garlic has been reliable in all but one season.  And - there will always be flowers among the veggies.

In the end - we're still not sure exactly WHAT we want to grow.  Just... something.

What are we able to grow at Genuine Faux Farm?

Here's where the question gets practical.

If we don't have any help beyond ourselves on the farm, then we are going to have some real limitations.  If the two of us can't find a balance between our jobs, the poultry, growing things on the farm and the rest of our lives, then should we even try?  If we can't continue to make progress on controlling water during wet seasons, then there are other limitations.  If there isn't a place for the production to go, then we have to ask what the point would be in making the extra effort to raise produce beyond what we will eat.

This is probably the root of all of the questions we are asking right now.

At present, we are assuming that we will both continue with our off-farm jobs, we will remain on the farm and we will only have periodic (and likely very rare) help on the farm.

With that in mind, a first blush looks like this:

• we will focus on growing in our two high tunnels (Valhalla and Eden)
• we will increase the diversity inside the high tunnels so we can cover all of the veggies we want to grow at some level
• we will continue to use our southwest plot as it drains the best for outdoor crops
• we will take the fields south of Valhalla out of production and into 'rehab' to bring up the soil health
• we may grow a couple of 'specialized' crops in the east fields if we find the right opportunity
• we will maintain our perennial veggie and fruit crops (apples, asparagus, grapes, etc)
• we will put in cover crops for unused areas and leave our options open for some or all of our tillable space.
  

How much will we grow at Genuine Faux Farm?

I CAN tell you that Tammy and I love our fresh produce and we will be growing enough of our favorites to feed our family regardless of what we decide. The question is how much of what will we grow and what might we make available to others.  

Just like the poultry - we are willing to consider everything from growing only what we will eat to something more than that.  Some of that answer hinges on the next question.

What will we do with what we grow in 2021?

Let's start by saying what we will NOT do.

• we will not return to farmers' markets
• we will not return to our old CSA model

The time for both of those things, our farm, and ourselves as farmers - is past.  The effort to do either of these things as we used to no longer fits our lives.   

Options we could take?

• refine the farm credit model from 2020
• donate to the food bank
• sell to larger 'bulk' outlets
• on farm sales
• larger amount sales to individuals
• grow crops for seed
• specialize growing for a multi-farm CSA we don't manage
• only grow what we need - no product shipped off farm

In other words, the options have a very wide range of possibilities. Fairly new to our list is the idea of growing crops out for certified organic seed production.  Also fairly new to us is the idea that we could be audacious and donate everything to the food bank - beyond what we keep for our own consumption.

Once again, if you have thoughts, input or wishes - this is a great time to let us know!