I would like to point out that i have only contacted a sample of customers.  I am hoping you will provide some feedback so that I can further tweak this plan to best meet everyone's needs.  Thank-you.


Update as of January 21st:  I have added a page that describes a sample questionnaire (See page tabs, above).  This might be a better way t show what your options are.  

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how best to best provide customers with a fair range of options while adhering to the limitations of my field, the crops, and my budget.

I hope this helps you decide which basket is best for you, but if you have any questions or suggestions, by all means email me - I need to hear from a few of you before I finally settle on a price and production plan soon, as our first seed date is approaching for onions and leeks.

Bob


Update as of January 20 - thinking out loud about this seasons production schedule:

My running coach used to say "life is all about options".

Since releasing the first few season proposals for comment, I have been wondering if there are any other options for meeting the needs of the farm.  Wondering is probably an understatement.

-Reduced workload this season to cover farm finding and professional development.
-Cover fixed costs


One option:  I can reduce my overhead by about half if I forgo hiring an employee, defer the hoop house project, and defer some supply purchase to next year.

I could reduce the amount of produce delivered (and the basket cost).  I've looked over the production plan to see which crops I could drop. Squash, Garlic, potatoes, kidney beans and tomatoes are easy ones to keep; all are either high value or low maintenance.  But there is still a need for more crops to make a decent basket that has a fairly good value.

Then I run into problems...

Some customers will want mustard greens; others will want specialty crops, still others will want cucumber or zucchini...reducing all of these crops proportionally doesn't work for numerous reasons.  There is a rotation plan that must be adhered to, seed packets cannot be purchased in halves, etc...

There will still be many times when I need to be in two places at once (hence the need for an employee).  Dictating what customers receive doesn't make sense , but unfortunately, crops grow a certain way and there are limitations what can be done with a field - they dictate to all of us.


Thinking out loud when I should be asleep...TBC





A few notes about the 2018 season:

Those of you who are returning from previous seasons will notice some changes in how the shares are delivered this season.

Instead of weekly or bi-weekly deliveries, I have opted to make twelve deliveries throughout the season, with different quantities and options differentiating the snack, picnic and feast baskets.

I have done this for the following reasons:

-I need to dedicate ‘office time’ every week, to ensure that individual communications and customer basket tracking remain up to date

-I need to spend some time developing my farm skills this season

-There are two significant projects I want to accomplish – building a hoop house and a curing shed

-We need to find and purchase land soon to ensure our farm’s future

All of these projects take time and incur costs.

The biggest challenge was working out how to accommodate missed deliveries.  I have set up a planting schedule that takes this into account, so that there are extra crops to make up a customer‘s shortfall in subsequent weeks.

Other changes for 2018:

Prices have changed slightly to reflect the altered schedule and the rising cost of seed, supplies and services.  Updated prices are located on the "How to Buy a Share" page.

The most noticeable changes are for feast and snack baskets.  These changes reflect the fact that some crops are not practical for either halving (for snack baskets) or doubling (for Feast baskets).

The “Next Week’s Harvest” Page will be updated by Thursday evening prior to the next delivery.  This will allow customers to see the next anticipated delivery contents well in advance. 

I am going back to my original method of taking requests.  At the close of a basket sale, I will email a questionnaire listing your preferences, and use this as a guide during the season.  There will be some room for making weekly requests, but I would prefer to keep this to a minimum.

Eventually, I intend to have a real website that customers can log onto to make weekly requests, but at this time, the costs and amount of time required to do it right (and test thoroughly) are probably too much.  This is what our farm is working towards.

Changes to the produce:

There are a couple of new crops and varieties for the season; these may be found on the “Introducing Our 2018 Crops” page.

I have increased the basket amount of some crops, particularly tomatoes and garlic.  I have reserved space for planting more beans per week to ensure that each delivery contains 450 grams instead of 400 grams.  

I have removed a couple of crops for at least one year, due to limitations in our current field. These include yellow cherry tomatoes, eggplant, and Brussels sprouts.

I am going to experiment with packing the leaf greens such as arugula and amaranth differently - tying the bags shut with plenty of air so that the leaves do not stick together so readily.  I'll be asking if anyone finds a difference in the shelf life.  

There are a couple of techniques that i have learned over the past few months about improving the size and quality of a few crops, including celeriac and cabbage, so I expect improvements with these.  As per a previous post, I think I can eliminate the bitter taste that some of our peppers had last year as well.

I will continue to keep everyone updated over the next few weeks as the season progresses.   

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best, 

Bob 

Addendum to 2017 year end survey:

Hello customers:

I have included some photos of the lettuce to support questions in the year end survey (part 2, section on lettuces).  Google forms is too stingy to allow me to send the form by email with the photos, so I was obliged to place them here for your reference.  I am only too glad to be using google forms for the very last time this year, and probably EVER!



Here are the types of lettuce that I have specific questions for:

 This is the variety of leaf lettuce called 'Lovelock'.  A predominantly green lettuce with some red.

 This is the variety of mini romaine lettuce called 'Freckles'.  Usually a predominantly green lettuce with red speckles, though sometimes the red coloring dominates.



















The next post - a post in progress...



In mid summer, several events led me to the conclusion that there would need to be some significant changes to the farm if it was going to continue to grow and be a successful business.

In previous years, I had been pretty good at identifying little efficiencies - so good, in fact, that each year my customer base grew, some tasks (such as harvest and delivery) continued to take about the same amount of time to complete.

Other improvements, particularly to the infrastructure (nursery, storage, irrigation, etc.) also allowed the farm to continue growing.

However, the rate of growth was very slow, and many of my business plan targets were falling behind.

Also, it was becoming obvious that the field was taking up more time than was reasonable.  The industry standard for operating a small scale mixed produce farm is one professional farmer for every 2.5 acres under till.  I was putting more time than I could afford into the field, working less than half the amount.  Clearly, something had to change.

I brainstormed many possibilities and drew up a list - everything from how I was going to continue operating the farm on a daily basis to how I would change our roster of crops, different models of delivery, and anything else I could think of.

During our camping trip, while I tended the camp fire in the evening as it burned down to coals, I stared into the embers and considered all of my options for change and the projects I wanted to commit time to.





Projects:



Hoop house:  Long-term, my goal is to take the farm further into the fall season.  Ultimately, I want to be able to serve up salad greens, lettuce, and spinach for the Christmas market.

Several techniques have been adapted by local small scale farms to make portable hoop houses that are affordable enough to make the effort worthwhile and easy enough for two people to build.

The portable houses have the additional benefit of being used to start the growing season early - heirloom tomatoes available in mid June!


Time to try my own.  Arrangements have been made with Dick for a suitable site on the farm, and the plans and materials have all been sourced.

There has been uch said about the relationship between walking and thinking.

Back when I was spending more time playing and writing music (was that my youth?!?!), a long stroll would often untangle a logistical knot or bridge an awkward gap between a verse and a chorus.


A lot of ideas came out of our camping trip.





Hiring:

Howmany times have I suggested that two people can do the same task as one in one third of the time?  Certainly, there are many tasks on te farm where a second pair of hands can make the chores go much quicker.

Also, ther have been many occasions where I needed to be doing two things at once.  The result was usually a rushed job, and sometimes it showed in the quality of the produce.

I confess to have been somewhat wary of taking on an employee or two.  After a lot of thinking (and walking) I came to the frealsisation that when I first put out my first advertisement, I had the same kind of "what if" fear.  Ands I was reminded about the nuberof times I said "...running away from what if's are no way to achieve goals..."

I've known all along that eventually I would need an employee or two.  Now must be the time.

Hey Everyone:

I mentioned during a previous post that the garlic was now sown for next year.  There is plenty of info on this elsewhere in the blog, but for now, some thoughts...

Earlier this season, I knew that I would have to do something different for next year. 

There were many options to choose from, and I wanted time to consider each carefully.

However, seed garlic is only available for a short period in late summer, and the varieties that I prefer sell out quickly.

One of my options included concentrating on high value crops, and garlic is certainly one of these.  It is easy enough to sell due to the high demand, and would fit any of myplans for nest year.

So the work begins...

First, I choose the beds.  In my rotation system, fruits, tubers, bulbs, and flowers occupy the same space, as they have similar fertility requirements.  This narrows down my choices to about one quarter of the field.  

Next, I check my records that no green onions were planted here in the past four years, as I often inter plant these with other crops - usually fruits but there are  exceptions.  

The final consideration is sunlight and water.  I keep my onions and garlic in the sunniest locations to allow for the most growth.  I choose beds that are in well drained areas, particularly during the spring melt, as the garlic (unlike onions) do not tolerate being in a very wet bed for prolonged periods.  .  

Having selected the beds, each are cleaned up and then amended.

I add rock phosphate (the white chalk-like residue on the soil surface, pictured), compost, and leaf mold.  These are worked in with the wheel hoe, and then the bed is raked smooth. 

The last step is to draw my lines (three rows per bed) and then cross lines (one plant every six inches upon each row).

Using a dibble, holes are pressed into the ground to receive the cloves.


Then the cloves are brought out from the barn, where they were sitting out of the sun - garlic is very sensitive to sunlight.  Each is placed next to the holes while I ensure that the best cloves are being used.  If I have any final doubts about their health, now is the time to cull them out.  These are sent to the house, peeled, pared and frozen for personal use. 





The very small cloves are reserved for the green garlic.   These are planted in a different bed, as they will be harvested a lot earlier than the rest of the garlic. 




I use small stones to separate different varieties.  Most of this bed is Fish lake, with a little Puslinch filling out the end. 

After the cloves are patted into the soil, work on the next bed starts. 


One important consideration for placing my garlic (this applies to several other high volume crops as well) is whether to block them together or separate them. 







Separating crops beds helps ensure that if a pathogen or insect gets into one bed, it will not easily spread to the rest of the crop.  However, with onions, green onions, and garlic all growing on a sinagle acre field, it would be impractical to place much distance between these closely related crops. 

I also separate crops for seed saving, but as garlic isn't propagated by pollination, so this is not a consideration.

By placing high volume crops together, harvesting work is a little more efficient, as I will not have to move about the field; it also makes it easier to compare growth rates of different varieties.


The last step is to cover the beds with spelt straw.  This prevents the cloves from freezing in our Eastern Ontario winters.  I usually tot his in two stages.  After the first layer has matted down from some rain, I can see where any thin patches in the covering are

And so we wait for next year, when the increasing warmth and sunlight cue the garlic t o start growing. 

Hey Everyone:

Finally, some time to write. 

Anyone who’s visited the farm knows how much I enjoy describing all of the tasks that need to be done, the reasons for doing them, and how I learned the various tasks from my mentors, research, and trial and error.  So it is not without regret that I have not had enough time this season to write more often. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, and to many of you during our first meeting, I also believe it is important (and maybe fun) to learn about your food as it goes through its various life stages from the ordering of the seed to arriving on your plate.  You appreciate your meal more, and have a better understanding of what a farmer has to do to fill that plate.

I’ll start with some very good news.

When I was an intern, Tom impressed upon us the value of being consistent in our methods.  There are many variables to consider as potential impacts upon produce yields.  By reducing these variables, it is easier to pinpoint why a crop has performed well.  He noted at the time that it is often easier to infer why a crop had done poorly. 

Last year, I planted ten beds of kidney beans: eight light red variety and two dark red variety.  Each snack basket took ¾ of a Lb, and each picnic basket 1 Lb. 

This season I sowed ten beds of light red and two and a half beds of romano beans to reserve for dry bean harvest. 

The romano’s seemed to do ok, but one bed of harvested plants were shucked by the chipmunks.  I left the remaining romano’s in the field to dry on the plant.  




This can be done  too much rain can cause the plants to mould.  In the end, we had a fairly dry September, but there were still losses.  Some pods began to break before the entire bed was ready, and so some beans were lost to the field. 

Today, I finished weighting and packaging the light red kidneys.  The result is ¾ Lb per snack basket and 1 ½ Lb per picnic basket, from a total of seven beds.  Almost a fifty per cent  increase in yield.    

I have gone through all of the possibilities, and can find no explanation as to why the increase was so great. 

Last year’s notes indicate:

-First time growing light red kidney variety, a replacement for light pink which was discontinued as organic seed by our suppliers.

-Less than 5 per cent plants lost to white mold – down from previous seasons owing to keeping better air circulation around plants late in the year as the temperature cools. 

-Four beds planted in the new field, where the soil fertility is weaker. 

-Plant yield fairly uniform throughout the various growing fields, plants with seven or more pods reserved for seed.

-Overall satisfied with per plant yield but need to plant more for same number of customers next season. 

So I spend some time wondering the following:

Was all that rain at the start of the season a factor?  Beans don’t do well if their leaves are wet.

Could the saved seeds (which were chosen from the plants that did best in our soil and growing conditions) have had that big an impact on the overall yield?  Only two and a half beds were planted with last year’s saved seed.  I realize now I should have measured the quantity from these beds separate from the rest. 

My compost and amendment regime has not changed, though the four beds in the new field will have had improved fertility after a second year of amending.

I just don’t know why...

The only decision now is to whether I should reserve some seed from this year.  I selected plants this season based upon number of large pods per plant, and the overall appearance of health. 

As I shucked these for storage, I noticed very quickly that there was considerable variation in the bean color, suggesting that the romano’s might have crossed with the kidneys despite being given as much distance separation as I can in our small field. 

These beans that have crossed might not provide a light red kidney; they could take on any number of characteristics from the romanos, including needing more time to mature or cook. 

I have already purchased a considerable amount of kidney beans for next year, but I know I am still short about four pounds. 

Farming is about thinking, calculating, and inferring. 

And planning for next year...next post to follow shortly...