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

Hello Everyone:

There are some new greens in your basket this week.  Not everyone received the same "leaves".  All are closely related to Arugula, so consume them the same.

Bau Sin has a fuzzy leaf, and a peppery flavour.  

Mibuna has long, slender leaves, and a very mild flavour.

Tokyo Bekana has a light green leaf.  Its flavour is hotter than the Mibuna, but not as hot as the Bau Sin.

If you received Arugula this week, you will receive one or another of the alternative Asian Greens next time.

Spinach was not on the list this week, but it was looking quite good the other day, so I added it to the baskets as well.

Our Celery improved somewhat this year - its flavour is not quite as strong due to increasing its watering.  Still small, probably due to the undersow crop being seeded a little too soon after the Celery was transplanted.  We have found that its intense flavour goes a long way, so use a little less of it than you usually would.  I found that it was too stringy for raw celery stalks, so sample it first before serving as such.  

By the way, undersowing is a growing method where a ground cover crop is sown under the main crop.  In this case, it was a low growing Dutch clover.  This is a first for us.  We are looking at different methods of suppressing weed growth (it did the job) without interfering with the main crop.  We could have waited a little longer to allow the celery to establish itself - it probably had to fight for sunlight and nutrients the first few weeks after transplanting. As well, when all of the celery is harvested, the clover will be tilled into the beds, providing a lot of composted material for the leaf crops (in this case, spinach) next year.

This weeks bed of Potatoes did not perform as well as most others, so there is not enough spuds for next week.  It appears that the bed for two weeks from now will have a similar yield.  The October beds look fine and healthy, and have not had any beetles or other problems.  As long as the season is not too wet, we should have a good take of winter storage potatoes, I anticipate starting in October.  If the season continues to be too wet, it is possible that we may have some late blight.  I have not heard any rumours of this disease (what ruined the potato crops in north west Europe in the 1800's), so I presume we shall be ok.

I shall start harvesting the Parsnips later this week, so there wil be a different root on the table.  If you would rather save these, they should keep for some time in the fridge.

Fall Peas are staring to send up there vines, and the next round of beans has begun - I anticipate everyone should be getting them in the next week or so.  More yellow and orange carrots next week as well.

Bob.  

Hey Folks:

A note about your Basil this week.  I was just about to leave the farm Thursday evening when I noticed that the sky was quite clear - one of the conditions that coincide with frost.  I knew the temperature was going down, and so gave the weather a quick check.  Sure enough, the revised forecast was now calling for lower temperatures and a risk of frost.  I went back, and covered up what I could. As I tightened up a row cover over the Beans, I caught a whiff of the Basil in the next bed.  What a reminder, it had not occurred to me.

Basil would turn black with plus 3 degree weather, even if not exposed to frost.  What to do?  It was getting late, and I knew that I would need an early (before dawn) start to the next day in order to hose down the Tomato and Pepper plants to prevent frost damage to them. (An old gardeners trick).  With so little time to do anything else, I grabbed the nearest buckets, and pulled all of the plants - roots and all - I figured with the roots still intact, the plants would not dry out as quickly.  I hauled the buckets to the car, tossed them into the back, and turned for home (Half way home I was wondering if the hoses were going to freeze overnight...)

So the Basil scented our apartment for the night.  I should have placed a cover of some sort over them, as the plants on top did dry out somewhat.

They were a bit messier than I wanted, and the well water is a bit too cold to really clean them but at least they were saved for a third harvest this year.  I debated whether to distribute the wilted portion of Basil, and opted to in the end.  Everyone received some.  Let me know if you would rather have less of this aromatic leaf (in better condition) in the future.

It is a tricky one to clean up with the particular facilities we have.  The heavy rain we have had of late also splattered the leaves, contributing to their appearance.

With the fall season here, there will be a lot of work preparing the field for next year, protecting the fall crops against changes in the weather, and getting as much as I can out of the shorter days.  A challenging time - my favourite season to farm.

See you soon,

Bob

The importance of variety in your leaf diet

Leaves are the place where plants deal with an array of challenges. The production of their food – photosynthesis – takes place in the leaves. This process involves freeing up oxygen atoms, which are unstable. This instability causes the oxygen grab other molecules (part of the plant) so that the oxygen can stabilize. Even these oxygen-based molecules (referred to as oxidants or free radicals) are not always stable, so the new molecules then try to grab more molecules within the plants. This action damages the cell structures. Plants have evolved to grow an array of anti-oxidants to intercept the oxidants before they cause damage.

Oxidants are produced during our own metabolic functions, as well as absorbed/ingested from a variety of sources, such as pesticide, medication, air pollution, etc.

Anti-oxidants remain intact after the leaf has been consumed, and continue to function within your cells. Some anti-oxidants are somewhat effective against many oxidants, while others are target specific and are very effective protection against a particular oxidant.

Which leaf vegetable provides the most effective source of anti-oxidants? This depends on which oxidants you are most concerned. There are hundreds (possibly thousands) of these compounds, and so a definitive, one size fits all approach does not make sense (though the pharmaceutical companies would have you believe otherwise – “nutritionists” have long touted beta carotene as the cure all, but they have little to say about the other hundreds of caratenoids).

Therefore, to my mind, the best way to ensure that you are receiving the optimal quantities of anti-oxidants is to consume the widest variety possible of leaf vegetables. Or to quote Michael Pollan, “eat food…especially leaves”.