Updated pictures of Josey and Pep

Babies

Well, the full moon brought babies.  Our Nigerian Dwarf goat Flor delivered healthy twins - a boy and a girl - on Saturday evening.  The delivery was much easier than her first.  She had them out, cut, and cleaned before we could do much for her - less than 20 minutes from start to finish.  Posey and Pep are already running around their pin, and they seem to be doing very well.  Mom is recovering with alfalfa, organic grains, herbs, molasses, and "rest".  After becoming a mother myself, I recognize that the word "rest" should come with quotes.  Flor is busy keeping the babies clean, nursing them (her milks isn't in yet, but based on their "poops" they must be getting plenty of colostrum), keeping them warm, and already teaching them about life as a goat.

Josey with her brother Pep

Josep ("Pep") with his mother Flor as she leads the baby goats outside for the first time

We also had another farm-related birth this weekend.  Anna Laura Reeve delivered her and Marshall's healthy little baby girl (Mary) on Sunday afternoon.  We are very excited for them and happy to share the news with those of you who have met her and worked along side her.

Fundraising Committee Minutes 9/4

Fundraising Committee Minutes 9/4/14 11am

Beth, Katie, Megan

We discussed farms immediate and long-term needs that are not covered by annual membership dues.  Immediate needs include: a trailer for on farm use ($1900-$2500 if new), a small barn for animals ($1500+), and a rototiller for tractor ($2200).  The long-term needs are an educational/entertainment space and solar panels ($5000).  We then discussed combining barn project with educational space (a barn raising).  Katie suggested cantilever ban design.  Megan will look into design options and find out if there are any barns that we could dismantle and resite. 

We then discussed funding options.  We do not want to become a 501c3, but Beth will look into foundation status options.  We do plan to certify organic at the end of this year, which will open up funding options without creating changes on the farm or increasing our costs significantly (just annual fee).  Other fundraising options we discussed were a Kick Start (Beth), T-shirts/reusable bags (Megan), dinners at members home (all), end of the season gathering (Megan and Katie).  

We also discussed farm donations.  Katie will look into Fish program, and Beth will follow up with Inter-Fraternity Council.  We need a “glean-team” and an organization that needs produce.

Finally, we need an event organizer (Katie) and a community liaison, as well as additional members of the fundraising team.

What you can do to participate/help:

Sign up to be part of the fundraising committee.

Sign up to be our community liaison. 

Participate in t-shirt/reusable bag design contest.

Sign-up to host a dinner at your home to share CSA veggies with your friends, introduce them to the farm, and take hat donations.

Help with end of the year gathering.  We will need tables and chairs, tents? and utensils.

"New Climate Diet": Why we grow what we grow when we grow it. (Talk 9/13)

Earlier this summer, a member and I had a quick discussion about why our fruits and vegetables don’t often look like what is typically offered at the grocery store.  A few weeks later another member commented to be about the different colors of eggplant.  At about that same time, Lalo and I were discussing our central goal of the CSA.  All of these thoughts came to a headway and all of a sudden I realized there was a gulf (perhaps a very wide gulf) between our decision making and many of our members expectations.  

At first, I thought the answer was simple.  A significant percentage of the produce that we grow (now almost 70%) is made up of heirloom and open-pollinated varieties.  They look different.  Although most people do not think about it, produce like fashion has trends.  Eggplants are currently big, globular, and purple.  They haven’t always been, so most of our eggplants (all of which are heirlooms) aren’t purple or globular.  Watermelons used to be large, various colors beyond red, and seedy.  Those are the ones we grow, but what is popular now are single-serving, seedless, red watermelons.  I could make similar extrapolations about almost all of the produce we grow.    

It isn’t that simple, though.  We aren’t just trying to go against the grain, and we aren’t (entirely) ignorant of the trends.  Our decisions of what varieties we grow are actually based on a balancing act of several factors, as well as significant experimentation (what I call “trialing”).  Our goal for the CSA (different from our goal for the farm) is to provide a box of produce each week that is rounded-nutritionally, seasonally-appropriate, and provides a useful variety for members to enjoy, while also making sure that what we grow is low-input and is at least comprised of 50% heirloom varieties.  

So what are we thinking about and how is that different from wholesale growers (which make up the vast majority of farmers in the US)?  You can go into almost any chain grocery store in the country and see the same varieties of produce.  This is because wholesale growers grow what are referred to as “industry standards”.  Of the ____ varieties that we grow, we grow one industry standard (“Clemson Spineless” okra), which we are trying to replace and one EU (European Union) industry standard (“Rozy” bibb lettuce), which we grow for two weeks in the spring.  

Most of these varieties do not grow well here.  They are mostly intended for climates that are distinctly different from ours at every season (California, Arizona, and Washington State).  We, instead, have trialed over 2,000 organic varieties (and continue to do so) looking at overall production, disease resistance, insect resistance, what I call “climate resistance” (ability to handle our climatic extremes and unpredictable weather, particularly our shortening springs, our often hotter and drier summers, a reduction in actual absorbed rainfall [a loss of about 25%], and colder winters), nutrition, input needs based on our soil, member preferences, and genetic/cultural preservation.  Currently, we grow a balance of organic hybrids (30%), well-known and rare heirlooms (about 60%), and some more recent open-pollinated varieties (about 10%).  In general, we are satisfied with most of this mix.  However, we continue to perform large comparison trials of varieties (as well as growing techniques) and smaller, more specific trials in search of better options.

Some of our long-term trials (most of which need significant irrigation for high yields) include potatoes (which grow best in Colorado and Idaho with irrigation; climates that are cooler and drier and more consistent) [vs. Jerusalem artichoke, much better in our climate], greens (our goal being greens year-round that most of the members enjoy...we may have exhausted the search for summer greens and need to instead focus on changes in techniques, are baby greens in the summer with irrigation feasible?), lettuce (our goals is lettuce year-round, with similar issues to greens), carrots (as much of the season as possible, some out of storage; we need to trial other varieties, especially for harvesting and pulling out of the cooler), and legumes (peas [need significant water in our hot, dry springs], green beans, shellies, and dry beans/peanuts). 

Each season we perform more specific trials as well.  This season we are trialing three bok choy varieties against each other, six kale varieties, seven okra varieties, and six winter lettuce varieties.  We are looking for a bok choy variety that doesn’t bolt in spring with up and down temperatures and hot, dry weather.  With the kale, we are hoping to find a variety that produces in both hot and cold weather.  Most kale survives but does not produce in either of these extremes, but we would like to find one or many varieties that will actually continue to produce through them, particularly in sub-45 temperatures.  With the okra, we are looking for a variety that outperforms “Clemson Spineless” but is still equally consistent, easy to pick, and tasty.  With the winter lettuce, we are looking at survivability both with and without protection and re-growth possibilities. [We are always trialing tomatoes for organic production post-August; there is significant disease pressure here at that time, especially if plants are already stressed by heat and drought.]

So, of course, our produce looks different.  We are growing different varieties because we are driven by different goals and motives.  If you have any more questions about this topic or any suggestions on the varieties we have grown this season, just let us know!           

The Chicken and the Egg: Pasture and Supplemental Feed

Well, the chickens have started laying again.  We are up to about a dozen a day and gathering more every day.  Clearly, the supplemental feed we were using did not have the proper nutrition profile to support laying.  However, right now, we are feeding 100 pounds of feed a week at a cost of $90.  We have mixed feelings.  The cost doesn’t bother us as much as some of the other issues.  We have always said that the chickens save us $5,000/year on fertilizer and as long as they continue to cost less than that then we feel very good about having them here.  

It is the larger, more philosophical issues that have us a little ruffled.  Supplemental feed is made from organic, non-GMO wheat, oats, corn, alfalfa, and soybeans.  All of these crops are grown on large, monoculture plots using a lot of inputs.  They are then harvested, shipped to one place for manufacturing, then another place for distribution, and then finally here.  Too many inputs (and often waste) for us to feel comfortable.  

Then, we move to FCR or food conversion ratio.  It is a term that is thrown around a lot in the chicken industry but also used by “greenies” to support arguments for grass-fed meat products as well as those trying to convince people that meat is irresponsible from a caloric-input point-of-view. (I have made both arguments so guilty as charged.)  It is hard to use FCR data for eggs, but I can guarantee you that 100 pounds of feed for 20 dozen eggs a week (the top production we have ever gathered in a week) is poor (irresponsible?) use of resources (water, energy, soil, etc.).  

So, what do we do about it?  I have always been a “we do it right, or we don’t do it at all” type, which has made motherhood challenging for me and mothering and farming at the same time downright frustrating.  I am trying to learn how to let go but letting go so often seems like compromising to me, and I don’t really like to compromise.  I have been thinking a lot, though, about what Mary Farmer shared with me.  I am paraphrasing (and thus possibly reinterpreting): you do the next best.  In other words, you do the best you can do now, and you work on making that next change to do a little better.  Is that where we are?  Possibly.  

Hens free-ranging on pasture last fall.

When we had the hens on “chicken pasture” last summer and the old (a.k.a. bad) supplemental feed, we were gathering at least 2 dozen eggs a day.  Everything else was pretty equal...weather, of course, always being the uncontrollable input.  Our conclusion is that the chicken pasture (an assortment of legumes, brassicas, and chicory) worked.  But, and there is always a but when trying to make this sustainable farm puzzle fit together, it attracted a lot of brassica pests that then attacked and mutilated (without destroying entirely) our fall brassica crops.  So, do we try the mix without the brassicas and hope the brassicas weren’t the key?  And hope that we can then feed significantly less supplemental feed so that we feel like we have tipped the moral scale on chickens and eggs.  I think that is where we are at right now.  So, we will seed more chicken pasture in the early fall.  It will be flourishing next spring, and we will hope for more eggs and less feed.  That’s farming - the way we do it, at least.

Minutes from Sustainability Meeting, Next Meeting August 2

“Minutes” from Summer Solstice Gathering 6/21/14

We opened with discussion about what individuals/CSA members could be doing in their own homes (or businesses) to reduce their 1. water use and 2. energy use.  See list of ideas below.  We concluded that we would like to have a water and energy reduction challenge within the CSA throughout the rest of the season so that members can monitor their water and energy use and try to reduce it.  We will create a Facebook group where people can share numbers and ideas, as well as a Google spreadsheet open to everyone who is participating where each person/household can report their energy and water use and watch the numbers go down.  We hope to have this all up and running in the next few weeks.  Prize for the participating household with highest % reduction.

Ideas for reducing water:

capturing water for reuse when waiting for water to heat up or cool down (often up to a gallon of water), can be used for cooking or watering house plants

only using dishwasher when full, otherwise washing dishes by hand in a way that conserves water

using water-efficient appliances

planting drought-resistant grass/clover and plants in your yard to reduce watering needs, watering only early in the morning and only when needed (not just on a timer), mulching to reduce water-loss

rain barrels

reducing shower time 

fixing faucets that drip

is there a gadget that measures water use at each sink?

Ideas for reducing energy:

putting all gadgets, devices, etc. on power strips and turning off whenever not in use

turning off lights when not in use, consider having at least one no-tech night a week (more in summer?) where you use no forms of technology or lights for entertainment

go to bed and wake with the sun

use only energy-efficient appliances

composting

recycling, reusing, only purchasing items when you really need them (consider 2nd hand)

purchasing locally, especially food; reducing internet purchasing (and thus shipping)

carpooling or doing all errands in one trip

purchasing energy efficient vehicle when you are faced with purchasing a new car

using CFL lights (replace 5 in your home), dispose properly

keep thermostat low in winter and high in summer to reduce use of HVAC unit (68/86), keep off when not at home for significant time

This is just a start.  We thought Facebook page could be used for sharing reduction ideas as well.

We then moved to discussing climate change adaptation and mitigation at the farm.  I opened up with general ideas offered by the FAO, then moved into specific projects that Lalo and I would like to address.  The specific projects include: making the greenhouse more sustainable, water capturing from wash water and rain, high nutrient pasture and cover cropping, pig for food waste, woodland/watershed rehab, perennials, introducing “New Climate Diet” to members, organic certification?.  

As a group, we prioritized the projects, so that the first project would be making the greenhouse more sustainable.  This would include water barrels for temperature control (and possible water capturing), shade cloth, and solar panels.  We would do this project in stages, focusing first on the water barrels.  There are also several other places on the farm where rain barrels could be installed.  This would be our first “weekend” project.  We will set a time and date once we have materials ready.  

Out of this discussion came two other discussions.  One, we concluded that we need a fundraising committee (please let me know if you are interested), as most of the sustainability projects that we would like to pursue cannot be funded from the CSA.  Two, we discussed CSA composting.  It is something that we have tossed around several times and even done on a small scale.  We could definitely make it work.  We would need 5 gallon buckets with lids for everyone who wanted to participate, a list of approved items, and volunteers to bring compost out to the farm (preferably people who already come out to the farm to eliminate extra travel).  From the farm perspective, we need a source of dry material (leaves or woodchips).  Libby Stancell is going to look into this.

Finally, we discussed the topic of the next meeting, which will be “The New Climate Diet.”  We would like to share with you our list of worst offenders when it comes to water and energy needs, and discuss how eating locally-sourced food and especially in a CSA greatly reduces your carbon and water-use footprint.  We would also like to discuss how we use factors related to sustainability to determine planting and harvesting dates, as well as vegetable selection and variety selection.  We would like to do the meeting the last week of July/first week of August.  Please let us know if there is a day and time that works better for you.  Otherwise we will do it Sat, Aug. 2 in the afternoon.

Lentils and Radishes

Last week at pick up, a new member suggested a warm lentil and radish salad.  She wasn't sure if she still had the recipe, but it led me on a new culinary adventure.  I have never paired the two!  Here are a couple of recipes to try.  There are many online.  You could add goat cheese to either.

Warm Lentil and Radish Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup lentils
• 2-3 cups water
• 2 red radishes, trimmed and thinly-sliced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Dash of maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste
• Pinch of black pepper

Preparation

1. Sort through the lentils for stones or debris; rinse thoroughly, and drain. Add lentils and water to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Partially cover and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 30-35 minutes (or until lentils are soft when pinched between your fingers). Drain in a colander and rinse lentils briefly. Drain well.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the tamari, mustard, syrup, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Combine the lentils, radishes, tomatoes and oregano in a medium sized bowl and mix well. Pour in the dressing, mix well and season to taste.

Serving Suggestion

Perfect with stuffed grape leaves and baked pita chips, or scooped into a pocket bread with a little hummus or baba ganouj and/or a squeeze of lemon.

http://strongertogether.coop/recipes/lentil-salad-with-radish/

Lemony Lentil and Chickpea Salad with Radishes and Herbs

From cookieandkate.com

Ingredients

Lentils (cook your own, using the ingredients below, or use one 17-ounce package of steamed French lentils instead)

• 2 cups dried black beluga lentils or French green lentils
• 2 large garlic cloves, halved lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Lemon dressing

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 medium lemons’ worth)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
• ¼ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Salad

• 1 (14 ounce) can cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 big bunch of radishes, sliced thin and roughly chopped
• ¼ cup packed fresh, leafy herbs, chopped (combination of mint and dill recommended)
• Optional garnishes: sliced avocado, crumbled feta or goat cheese, handful of fresh leafy greens

Instructions

1. To cook the lentils: Pick over the lentils to remove any bits of debris. Rinse the lentils under running water in a mesh colander. In a medium pot, combine the lentils, halved garlic cloves, olive oil and 4 cups water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook until the lentils are cooked through and tender, which will take somewhere between 20 to 35 minutes. Drain the lentils and discard the garlic cloves.
2. To make the dressing: Whisk together the ingredients in a small bowl. If you're using pre-steamed lentils instead of cooking your own, add an extra clove of minced garlic and an extra tablespoon of olive oil.
3. In a large serving bowl, combine the lentils, chickpeas, chopped radishes and herbs. Drizzle in the dressing and toss to combine. Serve with avocado, crumbled cheese or fresh greens if you'd like.

The Whoas of Bok Choy in East TN

I occasionally receive growing questions from some of our gardener-members, and there is one question that seems to repeat itself each spring, “Why did my bok choy bolt?”  Oh, bok choy...

Bok choy is a quick-growing member of the brassica family that can handle some frosts, grows best in moderate temperatures, and cannot be grown in the summer both because of the heat and because it is day-length sensitive.  So why is it so difficult to grow here in the spring?  Well, the answer is easy: temperature fluctuations.  Bok choy cannot handle our sometimes 60 degree swings in temperature during a seven-day period and is particularly prone to bolting when we have a couple of cold nights (like we did 2 weeks ago) followed by really warm weather. 

Bok choy bolting or going to seed.  At this point, it is bitter and not of good eating quality.  This can literally happen over night in our climate, commonly after a cold snap.

The”what to do about it” has plagued me for ten years and led me to give up growing bok choy twice.  I am conducting what I believe in my heart-of-hearts to be my last bok choy trial (because I don’t really have any other ideas).  This season I am growing every organic variety on the market (hybrid and heirloom) in three different successional plantings in an attempt to corner someone.  It is plain and simple: I want a bok choy that doesn’t bolt.  

That seems like such an easy request in a vegetable that takes about 65 days from start to finish.  However, all of the varieties in our first succession bolted.  Three of the four varieties in our second succession bolted after the freeze.  However, we are currently harvesting “Prize” bok choy - an heirloom, loose head bok choy that was the only bok choy that we were able to harvest last season as well.  I don’t love it.  Like many heirlooms, it is variable in size and even appearance, it maintains some of the heirloom qualities that more refined hybrids have eliminated like spiny leaves and looseness, and it bolts, too, if you let it get very big.  That said, if it is going to make it two seasons without too much bolting, I may at least have a candidate with which I can work.  In our third succession, one variety has already bolted (at about 4” high...definitely off the list), but the other two varieties are doing well (one is “Prize”).  

Prize Choy, the only bok choy variety that we have had any success with here

So enjoy your “Prize” bok choy this week, as it is just that: a special spring treasure that is hard to come by and years in the making.  I hope to keep working with this bok choy.  I want to feel so confident in it that I am willing to plant 1200 of them every spring, cover them, weed them, water them, and then just wait to harvest them.  Instead of worrying over them for 65 days, which is what I do right now.

Saving Seed: M-GEN Field Observation Studies

Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1975 that helps to preserve, maintain, and distribute many thousands of rare heirloom seeds. They sell many seeds from their collection through their catalog (available in both print and online), but they also have a member-based annual seed catalog called The Yearbook where members list thousands and thousands of seeds, most of which are not available commercially, obtainable for a small fee.  At the Seed Savers Exchange Farm in Iowa, they conduct field trials from both collections each season, looking for varieties that are promising either because of their marketability (taste and appearance) and/or their productivity for gardeners and market farmers.  
Recently, they began M-GEN or the Member-Grower Evaluation Network as an attempt to expand these trials.  Through M-GEN, SSE members around the country like us participate in SSE's plant evaluation process, collecting valuable data about a variety's characteristics and productivity from our own field observation studies.  The data is used to improve SSE's database of information on its varieties, to guide other SSE members, and to determine catalog offerings.  
We first participated in M-GEN in 2012.  That season we evaluated "Ole Timey Blue" Collard Greens, which we still grow from seed saved that season.  Prior to growing them, we had grown several market standards.  "Ole Timey Blue" outperformed them on appearance, taste, and productivity.  The only category where the market standard was better was uniformity.  
This season, we have been asked to grow out four okra varieties: one is the market standard for organic growers "Clemson Spineless" (which we already grow) and the other three are rare, family heirlooms that are part of SSE's large collection.  The three rare varieties are: "Giant Red," "Hodnett Special," and "Rains."  "Giant Red" is a long-podded, red okra grown in Florida since at least the 1930s.  "Hodnett Special" is from the Hodnett Family of Rising Star, Texas that they have grown since 1947.  They cook it in their black-eyed peas.  "Rains" is from Dorris Smith of Alabama.  It was grown by her great-great-grandfather in the late 18th and early 19th century in Virginia and has been in her family ever since.
We are particularly excited about "Rains" for its history and "Giant Red".  We would like to compare "Giant Red" to a red okra that we currently grow "Bowling Red."  "Bowling Red" is beautiful, productive early and in cooler years, and less slimy when cooked.  

"Bowling Red" Okra

We seeded these trial varieties today and will keep you updated periodically as their evaluation goes forward.

New Buckling at the Farm

Flor, our beautiful tri-color Dwarf Nigerian, has delivered a healthy buckling! He was born on March 6th.

What a beautiful little kid. He has his dad’s body markings, brown with white spots on his sides, and his mom’s tri-color markings on his head, along with a tiny little voice and long, knobbly legs. He's jumping around like a rabbit, these days, and even trying to jump up on his mom's shoulders. Megan tells me sometimes Dwarf Nigerian kids RIDE on their moms' backs! The first time Megan and Lalo saw Flor, she was riding on her mom's back! AMAZING!!

When I was out at the farm taking pictures of everybody last week, he hadn’t been weighed yet, but he’s fully TWICE the size everyone was expecting—almost certainly because he was a single, and had lots of room to grow. This made for a rough delivery, though, since he was born head-first with all four legs behind him, rocketeer-style. 

The most common kidding position is “diving” position, when the two forelegs come out just before the head—a handy arrangement because you can pull on the legs if you need to. But this buckling's size and position meant that Flor couldn’t push him out by herself. After she'd pushed for about 30 minutes and only gotten the his head out, it was time to intervene. A baby this size probably wasn't sharing a womb with any other little goats, but there was still the possibility, and after 30 minutes of labor, any other babies in there were probably dying, or dead. So Megan and Thea took turns pulling and trying to work him out, and after about 40 more minutes and one hard pull, he came out, alive and in one piece. He’d become unresponsive during the tugging, so they were afraid he wasn't going to make it at first, but nope. Flor licked him up  and he’s been active and healthy ever since. Thea named him Ferdinand, after everyone’s favorite Spanish bull (see The Story of Ferdinand, if you haven't read it---it's a classic).

Flor has been recovering wonderfully from this traumatic first-ever-birth! She’s moving around freely, eating a lot, and has been “talking” to Felix and Ferdinand a lot. I love hearing this family vocalizing—what a neat mix of bleats, yells, nickering, and little murmurs. Flor is healing physically from an external tear, and Megan is planning to make her a salve of healing and antiseptic herbs. She also gets a special tea made with raspberry leaf and other herbs.

Baby Ferdinand gives us a lot, even though we’re not going to keep him, alas. While bucklings are lovely animals, the farm already has a great buck—Felix! So Ferdinand will probably be for sale to a good farm/home in 6-8 weeks. But his birth gives us some experience with one of the more difficult birthing positions, and it establishes Felix and Flor’s line: once a first kid is born, farmers or breeders can look at subsequent kids and get a sense for the quality and characteristics of a line. This is important for Care of the Earth, since Megan and Lalo’s tentative plan is to keep one doeling and to sell the kids that come after that. It’s good to know that Felix and Flor can make a healthy baby, deliver him alive, and that Flor is a good mother. She’s taking great care of Ferdinand, and—just like chickens—not all animals that make babies are good mothers! 

Also, while first kids of Dwarf Nigerian does are usually singles---and subsequent litters are much more likely to be twins, triplets, and even quadruplets---it could also be a genetic indicator for Flor & Felix's line, since Felix was a single baby, too.

Ferdinand is big and strong enough to live outside with Flor and won’t need any bottle feeding, which is great. He’s nursing, pooping, is active and vigorous, and all these things bode well for him in the long run. Healthy kids are less likely to get sick or fail to  thrive, and will do well without medicated feed—a common thing with large commercial enterprises whose kid-reading practices mean they have to use constant antibiotics to keep their goats healthy and alive.

Come to the open farm day in April to see this cute baby for yourself!!

--Anna Laura

1947 Allis Chalmers G Electric Conversion

We finally have all the parts we need to move forward with the electric conversion of our 1947 Allis Chalmers G.  The conversion essentially involves removing the motor and clutch from the tractor and replacing it with an electric motor designed by Electric Vehicles of America (New Hampshire) that is held in place by a couple of plates and operated by a couple of pulleys both designed by Niekamp Machinists (Kingston, NY) - all powered by several batteries.  The design is the brain child of a farmer/tinkerer/inventor friend who use to farm in New Paltz, NY (to see more, you can go to his website, www.flyingbeet.com/electricg).  We are really excited and will keep you updated with pictures.

2/7/14: Motor is off, and we hope to begin installation this weekend!

2/10/14: We have electric clutch system (new bearings, a new pulley, and the old clutch plate attached to a mounting base - the large piece of metal in the picture) and electric motor (the cylindrical object coming off metal mounting base) attached.  We just need to attach controller, contactor, switch, and batteries.  The impending weather may slow progress!

A close up of the bearings and pulley design with old clutch plate.  This is what is on the opposite side of the metal plate, inside the old cavity.

2/25/14: Well, after some weather delays, the batteries that will power our "new" electric tractor arrived last week.  We thought it would be quick from there.  On Wednesday, we had everything connected and ready to go.  We turned the switch, and, well, nothing!  So, we worked backwards, three times!  We couldn't figure out where we had gone wrong.  We thought we had blown our contactor, so yesterday I made a call to Bob Batson at Electric Vehicles of America.  I think your 12V auxiliary battery needs charging he said.  I went back to Lalo.  He said he thinks the auxiliary battery needs charging, I told him.  So we charged it.  Nothing happened, again.  After dinner we were going through the circuit out loud, I repeated Bob's message again.  This time I said, "he thinks our 12V auxiliary battery needs charging."  We both knew it.  I think I even slowed as I said it.  My brain lightbulb shouting a big, HELLO!  We had used the battery from the old gasoline version of the tractor as our auxiliary/crank battery.  We had never thought anything more about it.  Battery, battery.  NO, NO, NO.  Although most gasoline-powered Allis Chalmers G tractors out there have been converted to 12V over time, ours never was.  We had an original 6V G.  We were trying to start the tractor with a 6V battery instead of a 12V battery.  Well, easy fix.  And, now, your CSA cultivation tractor is run on ELECTRIC!  And as Lalo says, we are never going back!  No fumes to breath in while you are going through the fields, no loud noise damaging your ears so that in 20 years you have to ask everyone to repeat everything several times, no oil to recycle or concern about leaking oil or gas.  The "Chapulin" is reborn and at 60% efficiency and no emissions no less!

Recipes?

Hi everyone,

I'm finishing up the 2014 CSA Recipe Book.  If you have any recipes for ANY of the fruits, vegetables, or herbs that we grow, please email in document form (if you can put it in Helvetica even better) to careoftheearthcommunityfarm@gmail.com.

Thank you for your contributions!

Preliminary Survey Results and Our Thoughts

Preliminary Survey Results and Our Thoughts

I have put the most common response in red.  If there wasn’t a common thread, then I have put all of the chosen options.  Our comments are below.

1. How many people eat your CSA share? I’ll skip this one, although average is 3-4.

2. Please choose the phrase that best describes how you feel about your CSA share or write your own: a. I would like larger quantity of certain items (potatoes, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans...) and less overall variety; b. I would like larger quantity of certain items (potatoes, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans...) but also still want similar variety; c. I like it how it is; d. I recognize farming is weather dependent and would like whatever you are able to give us; e. I need another season to really say; f. something else B. Larger quantity of certain items but also similar variety.  Many people then listed what they would like more of.  There was much less consistency about this.  Some wanted more of the things I had listed, others said they really appreciated the less common things that we grow and would prefer we had greater quantities of those items.  Others listed their favorites and the items they really don’t like, which again some member’s favorites were other member’s least favorites.

3. Is it important to you that we plant heirloom varieties? a. Very important; b. Important, but also want a full bin; c. Think hybrids are perfectly fine as long as organic and not GMO; d. farmers' decision; e. no opinion; f. don't really understand the difference/benefits/negatives, etc. A mix.  Many people chose 2 options.  A. and C. most common: Heirlooms very important and Think hybrids are perfectly fine as long as organic and not GMO.

4. What alternatives to arugula would you like us to offer (in addition to or instead of arugula)?  Options below all have similar growing requirements.  Choose as many as you like: baby beet greens, leaf lettuce, mesclun mix (mix of baby greens and lettuce), orach/mountain spinach. Sorry, I should have clarified that we weren’t planning on entirely eliminating arugula.  Most common response by far was mesclun mix. 

5. What tomatoes would you like?  Choose your favorite 2. a. Heirloom beefsteak/slicing tomatoes b. hybrid/red beefsteak/slicing tomatoes c. paste/Roma tomatoes d. cherry tomatoes Most common responses were slicers, both hybrid and heirloom.  Most people said they did not want paste tomatoes, except for canning purposes.

6. Would you like more than 1 lb. of potatoes/week even if it meant you received potatoes for less weeks?  Yes, no, no opinion This was vary divided.  Almost 50/50 yes and no.

7. Do you want to eliminate kohlrabi? Yes, no, no opinion Also very divided, with lots of strong opinions both ways!

I had emailed back and forth with another farmer recently, and in his last email, he said that farmers are about the most honest folks around.  I don’t know that that is true.  I think we are probably just as human as the rest, but I do hope that we can be more open with you - after many years, realize that you won’t doubt our competency if we tell you it is really difficult to grow something.  I have numbered our comments as they relate to each question, although there may be some overlap, and of course, since I am writing, a little “long-windedness” as well.  Again, I am skipping question 1.

2. This is the question which plagues us at the end of every season, as we begin to plan for the next.  How to move the pieces of the puzzle around so that what goes in your bin each week satisfies your wants and needs.  If you want the short answer, see bold right before question 3.  We can’t, of course, make all of you 100% satisfied, and even if we tried, Mother Nature would prevent us from doing so.  There are going to be seasons that some fruits and vegetables do not do well, and the following season, it will be different ones.  That said, we did want to know if most of you wanted larger quantities of the same things or if most of you wanted a larger variety.  It seems that most of you do want a variety of fruits and vegetables, which is good because variety is a necessary part of our farming method.  The more variety we have planted on our farm the better, for several reasons.  More variety helps to prevent pest and disease problems.  Monocrop farms or “poco-crop” farms (my term, farms that just grow a few things) typically have a lot of pest and disease problems and use a lot of pesticides and fungicides to control them.  We use variety.  Our farm is planted like a huge 14-acre garden: kale next to beets next to carrots next to peas, etc.  Since most pests and disease pathogens are plant-family specific, this mixed planting scheme keeps pests and diseases from spreading quickly.  More variety also makes us feel fairly certain that we can fill your bins each week.  Most plants within a plant family have the same or similar growing requirements and ideal growing conditions.  However, across plant families, there is quite a bit of variation.  Planting many different types of fruits and vegetables at one given time is our “insurance plan”.  The growing requirements and conditions in a given season may not be right for everything that is planted, but they will be right (most seasons) for most of what is planted.  For example, in a warm season, we may have low yields of lettuce, carrots, potatoes, and green beans in the summer, but high yields of melons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, and field peas.  In a cooler summer, it might be reversed.  

So what are the fruits and vegetables people want more of?  Are there some “basics” that most people agree on?  It turns out not as much as we thought there would be.  Several members listed the fruits and vegetables that they would like more of.  There was quite a bit of variety and disagreement.  Those requested in quantity include: green peas, sugar snap peas, carrots, lettuce, greens of any kind, spinach, cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes, red peppers, hot peppers, okra, green beans, lima beans, summer squash, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, celery, arugula, kale, herbs (some people specified and some didn’t, basil most requested), corn of all kinds, and watermelon (so far...surveys are still coming in).  I won’t go through each item individually, although I can if you would like at anytime and give our farmer opinion; however, I thought I would divide them into categories: easy to increase, difficult to increase, and somewhere in between.  Easy: lettuce, greens, spinach, okra*most seasons, summer squash, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, arugula, kale, herbs, corn; difficult: green peas (we have eliminated entirely...we do not have the spring weather for them; would rather dedicate their spot to more sugar snaps), cauliflower (we don’t really have the spring or fall/winter for it...one of my favorite veggies), and celery (another California-weather crop); in-between: sugar snaps, carrots*would put in easy category, except we were incredibly disappointed in last year’s seed, changing seed source, we’ll see, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans*depends on summer, don’t do well in hot weather, and lima beans.  

We can’t increase the amount that we plant of all of these fruits and veggies.  We would run out of space.  Some of them, we think we can increase the productivity, either by changing how we grow them or changing varieties.  These would include sugar snaps, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and green beans.  We will try to increase these.  Some of them, we are willing to dedicate more space to.  These include: sweet potatoes, garlic, kale, herbs, and fall/winter lettuce.  Some I think are not shared by the majority: arugula, okra, lima beans, summer squash.  Watermelons:  these have become our nemesis.  There are now no organic hybrid watermelons, except for seedless varieties, which we think shouldn’t be organic and so won’t use.  That leaves only heirlooms.  Last season was the first season for us to trial several heirlooms in search for melons that we liked.  It wasn’t the season for watermelons!  So, we will try again this season with several Southern heirlooms in hopes of finding a reliable variety that is fairly easy to pick and taste good!  Otherwise, we will go back to Crimson Sweet, which was okay.

Conclusion: we will always be increasing variety - for the farm’s sake, for your sake, and for our own.  We will increase or try to increase the amount of some fruits and veggies.  This season’s goals: sugar snaps, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, green beans, watermelons, sweet potatoes, garlic, fall kale, herbs, and fall/winter lettuce.   

3. We plant a fairly balanced mix of heirlooms and non-GMO, organic hybrids.  When deciding which variety to choose, we typically consider three things: production (which includes pest- and disease-resistance as well as size, uniformity, and percentage of usable vegetables/fruits), taste, and historical significance.  Hybrids typically are larger and more uniform.  Heirlooms typically taste better and have more historical significance.  Depending on fruit or vegetable, sometimes heirloom varieties are more pest- and disease resistant and thus produce more usable fruit and sometimes hybrids are more resistant.  Currently, we plant slightly more heirlooms than hybrids.  We typically plant both an heirloom and a hybrid of a given fruit or vegetable at a given time.  This is another way to reduce our risk - given most possible circumstances, we will likely harvest one or the other or both.  This does mean, however, that you could receive a hybrid veggie (cabbage, for example) when someone on the same day receives an heirloom one.  We are also always trialing different varieties (both hybrid and heirloom) in search of better varieties for our farm and our members.  There are several fruits and vegetables for which the number of varieties is essentially endless, and it seems impossible to quell the desire to try them all (tomatoes being the prime example); for other fruits and vegetables, particularly cold-weather crops and biennials, there are many less options, and we may have, in fact, tried them all.  (It is harder to save seed for these crops, and thus, there has been much less diversification of genetic pool.)

4. We don’t get a ton of complaints about arugula, but we do get some.  We thought it would be a good idea to either offer a choice alternative each week when we have arugula or offer slightly less weeks of arugula and offer something in its place.  We will likely do the latter in the spring (when it is easier to grow cool weather crops) and the former in the early fall (it is hard to get many cool weather crops to germinate well in August when these would need to be seeded; arugula will very reliably).  If I was choosing, I would choose beet greens, mostly for nutrition.  If Lalo was choosing, he would choose leaf lettuce.  The pros and cons of all options: beet greens and leaf lettuce have the least pest and disease pressure.  Mesclun mix has to be covered with row cover (or on other farms sprayed) to prevent significant damage from brassica flea beetles.  Mesclun mix almost always contains at least one brassica (arugula, mustards, kale, mizuna, tatsoi, etc.).  Orach is the most heat and drought resistance, followed by beet greens, then leaf lettuce/mesclun mix (probably a tie).  So what does that mean?  Well, for the spring, we have added in beet greens and mesclun mix early and orach later along with arugula plantings.  In the fall, we will plant mesclun mix and leaf lettuce.  We will only offer leaf lettuce as a choice since many members said they didn’t want more lettuce (some said they wanted a lot more!).  The only time we will hand it out in your bin would be if we had leaf lettuce but not head lettuce.

5. I have to say we were a little surprised by this outcome, and so have reworked our tomato plans.  We expected cherry tomatoes to come in higher (they came in dead last).  We still plan to plant some for the early fall tomato slot because they do better in cooler temperatures than slicing tomatoes and are less prone to disease (partly because they are quicker-producing).  Since only a few members made request for large quantities of Roma tomatoes for canning, we will likely just plant these once, hopefully ready for harvest the first or second week of July (schedule your canning now!).  We will increase the number of heirlooms we are planting and add another succession of tomatoes because it was often requested as one of the fruits/vegetables you wanted more of.  To be very honest about tomatoes: growing tomatoes organically in East Tennessee in large quantity in a cost-effective way is challenging, heirlooms even more so.  We produce quite a lot of tomatoes, about 2,000 pounds a year, but with the number of plants that we plant, we would like to harvest a lot more.  We are making a few changes to try to increase our productivity without increasing drastically the acreage that we plant in tomatoes: we plan to mulch our tomatoes this season; we are planting recent-release, disease-resistant organic hybrids (expensive but hopefully much more productive, especially late in the season); and we are spacing out our tomatoes more to provide more air circulation.  Beyond that, we have to hope for perfect weather, which for tomatoes is fairly consistent rain when the plant is growing and fruiting and drier conditions when ripening (and not too hot...many tomatoes will not set fruit above 90 degrees) - ideal world...obviously not possible for all of our successions and in every season.  Another thing, we got a couple of comments about tomatoes being refrigerated or dinged up by the time that they got to you.  I was glad to get these comments because they mean that we need to change our distribution of tomatoes.  The only season that we refrigerated tomatoes was 2010.  All members who commented about this are the last stop of their pick up day, which makes us think that tomatoes are getting too cold in route just from other veggies in the bin.  (The only exception to this is members who forget to pick up.  I put your whole bin in the fridge, tomatoes and all, when I get back to the farm.)  I think it may be similar with dinged-up tomatoes (also was only last-stop of the day members who made these comments).  I imagine they are getting dinged up in transit.  So, we are going to look into separate containers for transporting tomatoes.  We had some in NY, but I don’t know where they came from or if they are still available.  If can’t be purchased, we will come up with something.  

6. Potatoes, oh potatoes.  So, we didn’t expect this to be so divided.  We had already planned to add two beds of potatoes this season because I felt there was a general consensus that people wanted more potatoes, and we wanted to have more for winter shares.  Honest truth about potatoes: they are not meant to be grown commercially in our climate.  They are grown commercially in places like Colorado, Idaho, Maine, and Denmark.  You can see we are a little off the mark, but we are determined to offer them to the CSA and to have them for ourselves.  What does that mean to us?  Well, a lot of things: 1. the seed potatoes that we purchase (organic, disease-free, heat-resistant, drought-resistant varieties) are expensive; 2. our production is not what we would like it to be and hasn’t improved much despite our efforts to do so - we have to keep potatoes covered with row cover for most of their growing season March through July and we have to irrigate them often!!!; we need to mulch them to cool down the soil temps...that would help increase yields but beyond that we’re not sure; 3. until we can increase our productivity (I’m going to still put it that way, assuming we can increase our yields), we have to add acreage to increase our yields; 4. we may move to less well-known varieties in order to increase production...Yukon Gold and its spin-offs are not productive potatoes; we probably haven’t experimented enough with potato varieties.  What does that mean in terms of this survey?  We are as undecided as you all are collectively.  We will still plant two extra beds and try to increase our productivity within the acreage we plant, but we aren’t sure if we will a. have more potatoes to hand out this year, b. if we will hand more out at a time or if we will leave it as is (1 lb./week).

7. We had sensed this divide (similar to the divide over fennel).  The decision was actually made for us.  Our spring kohlrabi variety is not available this season, and we didn’t like the purple variety.  So...we will have kohlrabi in the fall and not the spring.  That gives us another season to come up with a better solution.