Whitsend Market Garden

Hey Folks:

Thanks to those of you who came out to the Open house.  Its been a tough season - your interest and enthusiasm has gone a long way to keeping my motivation up.

One option I am considering for next year is to set the date for late August, skipping harvest and delivery for a week, and holding the open house with a pot luck, workshops, and limited pick your own.  I might even rent a tent and cajole one of you into managing a barbecue for the afternoon...

This is a demanding time of year.  We are preparing some beds for next year, while continuing the harvests.

Most of our beds are cleaned up as the crops are harvested.  However, my day job commitments from last fall and this spring are still having an effect - many beds have become quite overgrown and need some time consuming work to prepare for next year.  Dick has some time for helping out with the tractor. This speeds the work up a bit, though the trade-off is some soil damage.

Another area where we are working on is the second half acre, which we are going to clear next season using Pigs.  Pigs were traditionally used for clearing land.  They eat roots of plants such as quack grass (very time consuming to clear), Wild Parsnip, and Dandelion.  This half acre needs to be plowed this fall as part of preparing the field for the pigs.

Pigs are a relatively easy livestock to raise (we will have three or four of these little helpers).  With few predators around here, they only need a fence to keep them penned.  This fence is temporary and portable.  It allows us to control the clearing by rotating it through the field every couple of weeks, ensuring even coverage of their work.

When they have completely cleared an area, we move them to the next plot and cover the cleared plot with a quick growing weed suppressing cover crop (in this case, probably Buckwheat), alternating with the foot path cover (probably perennial Rye or Dutch clover).  This field can then be ready to work in spring 2015.

About two weeks before they are finished, they will get a few treats (crab apples and discard carrots) to sweeten them up - a traditional technique for improving their flavour.

This "Pig work" represents an additional cost for us, for which we will need an additional income stream...fortunately, the Pigs will be able to pay their way.  Details to be announced next year, but PLEASE...don't use the "B" word within earshot of them!

Special thanks to Tom from Elmtree Farm for his advice.

Someone once said this business of mine was "small potatoes".  I should send him some of the Agrea potatoes we harvested last week.  Some were over a pound each.  Late season potatoes tend to be larger.  They have a longer growing period (80 to 90 days) than the spring potatoes, which mature in 50-60 days.

By the way, these potatoes have a fairly thin skin.  I have tried to clean as much soil off of them as possible, but it is not easy to do without damaging the skin.  Commercial growers use vibrating screens and high pressure air to clean them.  Not very practical for us.

You will have noticed that many of our crops tend to be smaller than what you may be accustomed to in the grocery store.  There are a couple of reasons for this.

Varieties:  Many crop varieties used for factory field production are bred for size, uniformity in appearance, and shipping suitability.  With so many genes being selected, inevitably some other genetic traits are lost, such as  flavour, nutrition profile and disease and pest tolerance.  Apples, for example, are much less nutritious now than they were sixty years ago.  (Some also look different - the original Macintosh was striped).  Lowering the nutrition content is beneficial to the commercial grower, as more vegetables are required by the consumer to fulfil their daily recommended intake of vitamins and minerals.

Larger living through chemistry:  Ever compared the size difference between two athletes, one of which is on growth enhancing drugs?  Same holds true for vegetables.  Fertilisers will force the plant to grow larger.  It will not necessarily be healthier.

Soil nutrient imbalance:  I have been consulting with a couple of farmers from my internship about some observations I have made in the field - small fruiting and flowering plants (Squash, Broccoli, Peppers), plants breaking at the soil line (Beans, Peppers), and a few other clues such as excellent root crop growth.  It has been suggested that my Phosphorous may be lower than the Potassium and Nitrogen in the soil.  One farmer also suggested a micro nutrient imbalance between Calcium and Magnesium.

The conventional way around a problem such as this is to simply "feed the plant" with the lacking nutrient.  This method would need to be repeated every year (meanwhile, the soil continues to deplete the natural nutrient level, ensuring that the input of fertiliser increases...great for fertiliser producers!)

Our approach is to feed the soil.  We have been amending the soil with Calphos (Rock Phosphate and Calcium - basically, a ground up granitic rock) that breaks down in the soil and releases Phosphorous.  The plant uses what it requires, leaving the rest of the nutrient in the soil for the next crop. A light application applied every four years is usually sufficient.  In our case, it has been suggested that we apply the Calphos for the next two years to re-balance the soil nutrients, and then continuing the Phosphorous application ath the usual 4 year rate.

Another natural source of Rock Phosphate is in our soil, albeit in a small (and decreasing) supply.  Each time a metal implement strikes a piece of granite, the minute grains that chip off of the rock erode from water action and soil acids, releasing usable amounts of Phosphorous to the soil.  Every time the tiller bucks or broad fork dredges up a small boulder, I try to remind myself of that fact. Especially when the rock is so big that I have to trudge off to the barn to get the oversized (metallic) pry bar.

So much to relate, so little time...

Talk to you soon,

Bob