08.22.10
Great Winter Squash yield, new chicks and roasted Peppers!
Carl roasting a batch of Krimzen Lee peppers. These are among our favorite roasted pepper with a little sweet and spicy flavors going on. Photo taken by Sabrina.
Our little baby layers. These chicks are so CUTE but they won't be laying eggs for a few months. Noah mentioned that we should just buy pullets because it is cheaper and he is probably right.
Our Market Display after selling out of summer squash and cherry tomatoes! The lettuce has a great flavor considering all this summer heat. We need some leafy greens such as Swiss Chard which we harvested all last summer but this year it has a blight (probably from the heat). Photo taken by Sabrina.
05.24.10
We’ve transplanted watermelon to the greenhouse and delivered our first CSA share for the season!
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It is about time that we finally made ourselves pull the kale and swiss chard out of our greenhouse! These crops fed and nourished us all winter long and into the spring which is why it was so difficult for us to pull these crops up. The kale and swiss chard finally bolted (when a plant is very near to producing seed) and once these greens go to seed there is not much leaf production anymore thus not much edible crop! The kale and swiss chard should have been pulled up weeks ago to prepare the soil and transplant watermelons earlier. Not to mention, we are now eating greens from our spring crops planted in the fields which are so much more tender and tasty.
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 Our watermelon was transplanted 10 days ago into the greenhouse! If we are lucky and they produce fruit, we will need to keep the rodents away, which can be very tricky! |
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We have followed the kale and swiss chard crop with watermelons. Last year the rodents (probably rabbits and rats) ate the melons from the greenhouse but a tailgate market customer recommended a spray sold at Tractor Supply that is a mixture of cayenne pepper and rotten eggs which works fairly well in keeping rodents away. We simply need to spray once a month to keep the scent on the plants. (The crows eat the watermelons out in the fields which are why we are trying to them in a greenhouse.)
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May 12th was our first CSA harvest of the season. We had hoped for Strawberries but they just aren’t yet ripping in mass. Our first CSA share consisted of: salad mix, spicy greens mix, spinach, arugula, tatsoi, baby boc choi, radishes and zucchini. We were able to provide the Saturday CSA members with Strawberries! We think that strawberries are among some of the tastiest fruit of the season.
(We were ecstatic that we were able to provide the Wednesday CSA members strawberries for their second box of produce for the season that was delivered last week! In addition, Monday the 17th,, we transplanted our final spring crop of broccoli, boc choi and napa cabbage.)
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 A Sugar Snap pea plump, sweet and ready for eating! (We hope our crop yeilds enough for the CSA.) |
 Sweet Peppers transplanted to our Greenhouse April 26th. We trellis using a stake and weave system and so far Noah has 3/4 of the stakes driven into the ground! |
05.10.10
Tired after a long week….
One of the pigs rolling in the mud! Every day we dump 10 gallons of water for the pigs to roll in and they love it! Noah said he feels bad just dumping water but why not if it makes the pigs happy. At least we aren't watering grass with our extra water.
The Three Little Pigs are growing ever so big! We feed them a little supplemental grain in the morning so that they can get their much needed minerals that the fescue doesn’t provide.
04.20.10
We transplanted roughly 10,000 onions out to the field!
A truck load of onion transplants ready to be out of the greenhouse and into the fields! We transplanted a few truckloads of onioins!
Look closely and you will see a few "Candy" onions transplanted! Perhaps Sabrina will share one of her photos wtih me because mine just isn't that great.
01.16.10
It is that time of the year for seed planning
These are a few of the seed catalogs that we have received from suppliers so just imagine going through all of them.
We have about completed our seed planning for the 2010 season. Doesn’t it sound like an easy part of farming? What we do is go through catalogs from each of the 20 suppliers who have sent them to us and select varieties and the packet size for the amount of seeds that will meet our production goals. In selecting varieties, this means that we review each of the 300 cultivars we grow as to what did well/poor on our farm the past few seasons. Some varieties we discontinue while others we add. Seed planning is very intensive because it is at this point in the season where we are making decisions as to how many seeds to purchase to meet our production levels of feeding our CSA and Market customers.
Take collards for example:
We normally grow “Champion” which has yielded well for us. (Except this last season where it was devoured by cabbage loppers right in the greenhouse because I wasn’t diligent about checking the flats weekly for pests.) Champion is a rather tender collard with not too much bitterness that collards are known for and we have been growing Champion for the past 8 years.
Fedco introduced a new collard called “Even’Star Champion” with an enticing comment in the seed description that reads, “Not as attractive to the flea beetle so more attractive to us”.
Our initial reaction after reading about Even’ Star was that we need to grow Even’ Start because the flea beetles will leave it alone! Imagine growing a green that the flea beetles don’t like. It is very tempting to try this collard, but the price is 6 times higher than “Champion” and we have never known the flea beetles to leave our greens alone. So we will continue growing our old standby Champion because we just don’t believe that it is not attractive to flea beetles.
Once we have selected the Collard variety and the supplier, we then discuss whether we increase or decrease our production of collards, how many successions we will plant, and choose the number of seeds to order.
Seed planning involves reading the descriptions to all varieties we hope to grow then selecting the best variety adapted to our climate and bug pressure. So because we ponder every variety like collards, planning becomes an excruciating and tedious process, and one we are glad to almost have finished for the 2010 season!
10.04.09
With the arrival of fall
GREAT NEWS… We were able to get most of our cover crops seeded Friday September 25th. We were hoping to have everything seeded on Thursday but rain came late Thursday afternoon postponing our seeding until Friday. We are thankful that we seeded even though our soils were a little wet because it seems that we have great germination due to the rainfall after seeding! (Did you read — I said I liked the rain!) This past Thursday we transplanted all of our strawberries to the field that we hope to harvest in 2010. Strawberry picking seems so far away.
BAD NEWS… This past week was our lightest harvest in four years which we are attributing to us being a mediocre farmer. If we actually knew how to farm we would have for sale plenty of onions, garlic, winter squash, kale, mustard greens, collards, broccoli and summer squash. We pretty much had a crop failure on all these crops. Our most recent issue being the ground hog whom has been devouring the toscano kale and the broccoli. The spinach isn’t doing so hot so we hope to foliar spray it however as I write this blog entry it is raining and you can’t foliar spray in the rain.
I definitely think that next year we need to do a better job dealing with the bug pressure that has damaged our fall crops. Not sure how yet, but at least we have the entire winter to think about it, and perhaps we will come up with something new to try for our 2010 season.
In addition, we are trying to think of another means for generating some income, and we don’t want to leave the farm, so at the moment we are dreaming of winning the lottery, hosting farm vacations, trading in the stock market and winning BIG, discovering oil on the farm, finding gold on the farm. And the dreams continue. Farming is just to financially unpredictable.
WINTER STASH: Today I canned a run of pepperoncini peppers. It seems that my run needed more brine so I am thankful that we have more peppers to try another run. I might need to soak the peppers in salt water for a day prior to canning because I think the peppers shrunk while boiling in the hot water bath for 15 minutes. I also froze some pesto and ground up some chili powder. No pictures because Carl has the camera. I will try a few photographs upon his return.
PRODUCTION NOTE TO MYSELF: After Fall crops are seeded in the greenhouse, implement an IPM for the seedlings, this may reduce crop loss due to snails and cabbage loppers feasting on an all you can eat buffet. (We lost a succession of tatsoi and our collard seedlings to this issue). In addition, our fall swiss chard did not germinate in the 200 cell with McEnroe potting mix. Needed to use McEnroe grow which is their peat based mix. (That is what we normally use in the 200 cells. Need better documentation of our practices next year.)
09.07.09
Green Envy!
Sweet Corn for Winter!
Saturday at Market Vanessa and Alex at Full Sun Farm had the most BEAUTIFUL arugula, radishes, kale and baby boc choi. The last couple years at this time we had kale and baby boc choi but the flea beetles and harlequin bugs have been so tenacious this season that our kale is stunted and our first succession of tatsoi and baby boc choi were completely devoured by the flea beetles. (We can’t even find reminiscent of these plants in the field.) Vanessa thinks perhaps we are simply building up our bug and disease population over the years. She is probably right so we just need to adjust some of our growing practices and keep on trying.
Sunday we were able to freeze 21 quarts of sweet corn so we have one quart each week during the winter! Several years ago we used to can corn but because it is such a low acid food one must pressure can it for so long that it ruined the flavor of our corn. Now we simply cut the kernels off the ear, put it in a pot with a little water, heat the corn through, then remove it from the pot and bag it in quart bags then finally place in ice water for quick cooling so that the corn retains its flavor and texture.
Production NOTE to myself: Cover our end of July direct seeded arugula and radishes. In addition, cover our first succession of kale, tatsoi and baby boc choi. We never considered covering it in summer because it is so hot; however it is just another thing to consider because it certainly works for Full Sun Farm! Consider planting our swiss chard on paper mulch to keep the weeds down. This might mean amending with fish emulsion a few times throughout the season but beats having weeds take over. (We should have reclaimed the bed a month ago.)
08.31.09
The dog days of summer
I feel a bit lazy these past couple of days. Sunday I didn’t do much but harvest a little squash which aren’t so pretty because the squash bugs are munching on them. We are desperately trying to kill a few bugs so Carl sprayed our crops Sunday while I weeded a little bit of our carrot patch. I had full intentions of going on a hike but instead chopped and froze 4 gallons of peppers. After freezing peppers, Carl and I roasted a few poblano and krimzen lee peppers with our pepper roaster and made some fabulous tasting chili rellenos. We are seriously considering splurging and purchasing a fryer for the few times a year when we actually take some good, wholesome, naturally grown veggies and FRY them in canola oil! Meagan and Joe have a fryer which Meagan used to fry eggplant slices for the best eggplant parmesan one could ever indulge in!
Monday afternoon it was raining a bit so I froze another 4 gallons of peppers; however, I have the guilt trip because I should have been hoeing our lettuce that is being overtaken by buckwheat. We normally don’t freeze peppers until fall, right before our first killing frost, except we have Soooo many grade-outs that are not marketable and figured we might as well save them for a rainy day. We think the issue with our peppers is due to the rain and the peppers absorbing so much moisture they have these mushy water spots on them. (We think it is a problem with bacterial spot.) The portions of the pepper that are edible are tasty and wonderful in the middle of winter cooked in potatoes, fajitas, pasta, or macaroni and cheese. Our plan is to freeze a couple deer and the peppers are wonderful in venison fajitas. We freeze our peppers in gallon bags then you can leave them in the freezer and simply pull off clumps out of the bag as you need them. They are a little mushy after thawing so not necessarily good in salads. One must give up a little of fresh food pleasures during the winter – that is why we appreciate a sweet and crispy red, orange or yellow pepper in the summer - only those who eat pretty seasonally can relate to the feeling of the first tomato, sweet pepper and mustard roasted green beans of the year!
red, yellow and orange bell peppers for winter
08.27.09
Till it under or hoe it?
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Terrorists and Thugs |
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 Flea Beetle |
 Harlequin Bug |
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Today we spent the afternoon wondering – do we till the broccoli and da cheong under or do we hoe it and try to save it? Our fall crops are looking pretty poor so we aren’t quite sure what to do. Collecting insurance is not an option since our crops aren’t insured.
The first issue is that we did not mow our buckwheat down before it re-seeded, so not only are we trying to save the broccoli and da cheong from the buckwheat, but we are also trying to save it from the harlequin bugs and flea beetles. Our fall crops are not prospering due to the incredible bug pressure but we continue to do all we can to save them. Our bargain with the CSA was that if they would pay us for their weekly box, no matter what we deliver, that we the farmer would do whatever it takes to have a successful crop. SO…. Both my husband and I want to till our broccoli and da cheong under I just couldn’t bring myself to doing that since it is at the end of the season and not much else will mature before the weather is too cold. So we are doing all we can. WE ALL HOED THE CROPS. Hoed away the buckwheat. Smashed the harlequin bugs and we are now PRAYING that the broccoli and da cheong will turn into something edible. |
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08.23.09
The Good, the bad, the ugly
 Roasting and Freezing Eggplant |
The Broccoli box was full of eggplant before I roasted them. Notice how small the yield after roasting them - the yellow bowl - but it will still be tasty during the winter! I used to only freeze eggplant in the form of baba ganoush but this year I am simply freezing pureed eggplant. So many customers have given me so many good recipes with roasted eggplant that I thought it might be more fun to decide what to do with the eggplant in the middle of the winter! |
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The GOOD. I have been saving our unsold eggplant for freezing and I was hoping to roast and freeze it last weekend; however, we took last Sunday off and went for a wonderful picnic and hike in Chataloochee. It is absolutely gorgeous in that part of the Smoky Mountains and although it drizzled while we hiked, it was so GOOD for the soul and reinvigorated ourselves for yet another week of farming! Our plan is to spend every other Sunday doing something off the farm just to get away from the chores.
The GOOD and the BAD. We were unable to sell many of our wonderful green beans this past week at market so the GOOD is that we canned another run of beans for our winter satsh. In addition, the GOOD is that the corn, lettuce and beans simply love all the rain and are flourishing so we are thankful that we are a highly diversified farm. The BAD: Why won’t folks pay $4 per pound for our beans when this food crop is so difficult to harvest and we the farmer has yet to earn an hourly wage of $2.00? We the farmer works so hard, we love our job, we just want folks to VALUE (monetarily) their food so that we can earn a living off the farm. Folks pay construction workers $15 plus per hour for their homes, and it seems as though food should be more valuable because it provides nutrition which is the basic necessity for life, so it seems that our beans are worth at least $4 per pound. We also had problems moving our rainbow bell peppers that are another luxury food item – naturally sweet red, yellow and orange peppers full of vitamin C – and completely more nutritious than a snickers bar. The UGLY. This past week presented us with another inch of rain during the day, which coupled with the sun creates an incredibly humid and wet environment, providing the perfect conditions for Downy Mildew, which completely wiped out our winter squash and our last succession of zucchini. I guess it is a good thing that these crops experienced a quick death rather than a long suffering illness. We are harvesting all of our winter squash which we know won’t be as sweet as the squash grown in our drought years. In addition, this past week we pulled down our onions from their curing racks and we have declared them a CROP FAILURE. They couldn’t take the 16 inches of rain in May and June just when they should have been forming bulbs. WE ARE THANKFUL FOR THE WINTER SQUASH HARVESTED! We have never seen so many squash bugs and their larva. The squash bugs are busy breeding an army to wipe out all the cucurbit crops here on the farm. We have never sprayed for these bugs because they are normally not here in mass but we are seriously considering it if we have another day without rain. PRODUCTION NOTE TO MYSELF: Perfect # of field eggplants for market and CSA in this wet season: 200 Nadia, 150 and Dancer and 100 Orient Express. Field Peppers need staking. |
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