Our pork is now in. If you are interested, check out the "2014 Pork" page.
2015 is starting...the first delivery of 2015 seeds has arrived. Spring is on the way.
Still tweaking next year's production plan, but it appears we will have room for a couple of new customers.
So far, it looks like beans will be bi-weekly delivery for Snack and Picnic baskets, and there should be 3 Delicata and 2 Acorn squash for each picnic basket sized share.
Prices will be going up slightly - I have increased all baskets by 5$ at this point, we may go another five by the time the dust clears. I have absorbed the rising cost of seed in previous seasons, and the certification agency's increase in basic fees this year. Seed delivery went way up this season as well.
However, we should be able to sustain our current pricing even as seed costs continue to rise - I assume that our gas will come down to offset this.
More news about the 2014 season up soon.
I've changed the formatting of the website a bit. Let me know if you are having difficulty viewing this on your screen.
Bob
Hey All:
Back to the blog.
There are a lot of cobwebs to dust off, and plenty of blank spaces to
fill in.
Later on, I’ll pick up where I left off in September (I
have some rough drafts to touch up), but for now I’ll stay in the present.
The field work is all but done. Most of the past week has been spent plowing the desk and harvesting files. Some of this is basic administrative work, such as organising documentation about the pig's work in the field for my organic certifiers. They want to know information such as what steps were taken to prevent contamination of the growing crops (buffer zones, footwear or shovels dedicated as pig field use only, etc.).
Needless to say, there is also receipt checking, end of
fiscal year documentation, etc, etc, etc...Eighty per cent of farming has
NOTHING to do with gardening.
Next year’s plan is looking good. The map is now complete, the planting deadlines
are set, and the first package of seeds has arrived. There are only a couple of new
crop varieties for next year. Most of
the improvements I want to achieve are with improving the quantity of yield,
while incorporating some of the improvements I learned this season.
Highlights from last year:
Celery, particularly the last harvest, was much better
tasting. Mulching the stems of the
celery with straw is what improved the flavour and texture. Thanks to Richard (another farmer down the
road) for pointing this one out to me.
New Zealand Spinach was a big hit. The fact I was able to get it to germinate
was a success in itself. Its yield per
plant was better than I had been told, and some customers said they preferred
it over regular spinach for flavour, texture, and loft.
Peppers were a huge improvement. Four years of slowly re-balancing the suspected
nitrogen to phosphorous ratio seems to be having an impact. Despite the fact that the climate was relatively poor
for peppers, the bell peppers were larger by about 1/3, and the yield per plant
was better. The Pimento peppers also
achieved their maximum size, and were planted in sufficient quantity that I was
able to deliver a few red ones. Many of the peppers (and some tomatoes and mid season potatoes) started to come down with a bacterial blight, but then shrugged it off about a month later. This is another sign that the plants are healthier and able to withstand some extreme temperature swings such as we had in June. The health of the plant is directly related to the health (or nutrient balance) of the soil, and this re-enforces my thought that the small peppers of previous years were a symptom of not enough phosphorous in the soil relative to the amount of nitrogen and potassium.
Potatoes had some big improvements as well. The last two beds of Red Chieftain surpassed
yield records here by 27% and 33%. However, one succession in particular - the Agrea potatoes - were a disappointment. They are capable of growing quite large, and have a great taste and baking quality. I had timed their harvest to coincide with Thanksgiving, but they turned out either small or scabby. I think they are best left to end of season, and a different Thanksgiving baker variety to be chosen for next year. Still more to learn...
Another new crop this season was the Gold Purslane (pictured below the Red Amaranth). Being heat tolerant plants of two different sizes, I planted them together - a technique called 'undersowing'. This is one way of increasing the amount of crops grown on a small farm, and one of the reasons why small farms can out-perform factory farm in yield per acre - no tractor would be able to harvest one of these without squashing the other. As well, both of these plants were planted together so that they could be harvested at the same time.
I soon discovered that the Amaranth is a heavy drinker, but Purslane prefers less water. The Purslane began to mold very quickly. Subsequent harvests improverd, next year I intend to plant the Purslane with the Basil (another crop that prefers less water).
The Purslane proved to be a nice addition to the kitchen, adding some extremely healthy veg-based oil to whatever it is cooked with and thus good for transporting flavours. As a salad addition, it also proved to be interesting. I am wondering how well it might fare roasted with drier root vegetables such as potatoes. I also suspect it would add some citrus zing to the tallow texture of lamb.
The drawback of specialty leaf crops is that they tend to be very time consuming to harvest, clean and package - and time was something I did not have much of this season. More on that in another post.
The problem in the past was that the well water was too cold for Basil, and tended to blacken its leaves - as happens when fresh Basil is placed in the fridge. I tried to get around this by watering the plants thoroughly the day before harvest to clean them off. This works well when it doesn't rain overnight and splash soil all over the leaves again.
One of the flowers that worked well was the Calendula's (pictured), though they will need another year to fully establish - we had very few to start with. Expect more of them next year if they self seed as well as they should.The Zinnias were also a good find, very easy to harvest.
The big question now is will the Evening Primroses and Leopard Flowers withstand the winter well enough to continue to settle in and start their blooming next year?
Kidney Beans improved over last year, though only three out of four beds were planted – I needed that extra bed for the last potato crop. I’m still not satisfied with the Dark Red Kidneys, and am continuing to look for the Light Pink from two year’s ago or something very similar. Light Pink Kidneys are soft enough for bean salads yet do not break apart when cooked in a stew.
Lettuce heads were larger in some successions. On a hunch, I increased the distance between transplants from 10 to 12 inches and had much bigger heads.
The drawback is fewer plants, which presents more risk in case some start
to go to seed a couple of days early.
A new variety of lettuce for us this year, our first
crisp head variety ‘Anenue’ was ok. I
thought it slightly better flavoured than the very long season iceberg
lettuces, but its bolt resistance was very poor. I’ll only be planting this one for spring in
the future, and will try a different crunch lettuce for next year – a romaine type
called ‘Coastal Star’.
The field continued to improve as a working area. Here are the beds I raked down in the spring. Pictured below is how they look now (from the opposite direction) where the path cover is beginning to fill in. I use Dutch clover (low growing, foot traffic and drought tolerant, and very good for soil health), and have started to supplement it with Perrenial Rye (which is a great weed suppressant). Another benefit is that mowing this cover gives me raw material for the compost, eliminating the need for a field of "green manure" for compost use - another advantage that a factory farm just can't match.
The paths do need to be managed somewhat so that they do not grow into the beds. One of the advantages of not having interns this year was that I started to become very creative with time consuming tasks, and found ways of doing this particular task quickly. Next year ought to be a snap!
With all these great improvements to gloat over, I must remember to add a few paragraphs about some of the less than stellar performances (and outright disasters). I am after all, somewhat hypercritical. It is much easier to see the damage when you are in the eye of the storm. However, the rain is pelting the window and reminding me of some items drying outside, and it looks like time to get supper started. Talk to you all very soon.
Bob
