Ayurvedic Medicine?

On my way to the farm I caught a very interesting radio program on the People's Pharmacy.  It was about how what you eat is what you are or letting your food be your medicine.  The guest who is a practitioner of ayurvedic medicine and a neurologist, was mentioning that what you eat changes your gut bacteria.  That is simple enough, however she then went on to state that your gut bacteria then send signals to your brain to create desires in what you eat.  So depending upon what you have been eating and what is living in your gut you might be creating a feed back loop that could either be beneficial or downward spiraling.  I still don't know much about ayurvedic medicine but it makes a bunch of sense that our eating habits can have big consequences or payoffs.  Here is a link to the program if you would like to give it a listen.  http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2016/04/21/show-1033-how-to-stay-healthy-with-principles-of-ayurvedic-medicine/

Eat Your Veggies

I was on the way to the farm to pick our Saturday morning produce and heard a very interesting People's Pharmacy episode.  I am not a regular listener of this show but really enjoyed this topic.  It was about increasing health through eating a Mediterreanan diet.  Mainly the thrust of the program was that eating fruits, vegetables, and good oils does wonders to your internal chemistry.  So naturally, any program that highlights vegetables and fruits as a plus for health and I perk up.   If you'd like to give it a listen here is the podcast link  http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2015/04/15/show-989-the-mediterranean-zone-diet/

Transition Time

This time of year is always a bit tricky.  I thought that maybe it was just me that struggled to get a change of fresh new produce to the pick up table on Saturday this time of the season, but it seems I am not the only one.  I got  a call from another farmer who was wondering what we had for sale and was looking to purchase items for his customers.  I told him that I was late on winter crops and too early for the warm season crops.  He told me he was in the same boat.  In fact, he had called a few other growers who repeated the same sentiments.  Nobody had anything new yet.  It seems that from my conversation with him, we are all "caught with our plants down" at this time of year.  I mentioned this in my last post when we don't have a moderate spring to taper off the winter and slowly start the summer.  Throw in the use of organic fertilizer and the crops are slower still to reach maturity.  I am just happy I am not the only one looking at the field and scratching my head.
It won't be long before the potatoes are ready and they are looking great this year.  Beets are new and are ready this week.  Green beans won't be too long and then leeks are sizing up.  Just a little bit more waiting to go.

Local Organic Produce 30% Off!

I had to travel to Gainesville this week to take part in an annual poinsettia variety trial at UF.  This was my first time at the event and it was pretty cool to see all the latest and greatest poinsettias.  This is a trial for commercial growers so they can compare growth and colors to what they are currently growing.  After a while of comparing colors my eyes started to wig out from all the bright reds and I had to look at something different.  I did see something I thought was a very new and interesting variety.  This was just out so you can say you heard it here.  They are breeding for a yellow-orange-squash colored poinsettia plant that they are hoping will pick up some Thanksgiving sales for the poinsettia market.  That is my insider tidbit for poinsettia aficionados.
On the way home I stopped in at a local supermarket to get a drink for the ride.  I decided to check out the produce section just to see what they had in the way of organics as I normally don't do the food shopping for the family.  Then I thought since I was there that I would compare what our share of produce would add up to with what our members have paid.  I did this last year and remembered that the week I checked was comparable to the store value.  This time our members are doing really great.  So the process was, I added everything in the share item by item that I could find that was organic, and when they didn't have it as organic, I added in the conventional items for the total price.  I did my best to add price per ounce compared to what we distributed or price per item depending upon how it was being sold.  I was able to find about 65% of our farm share in the organic section.  The other 40% was not available so I used conventional prices to complete the share.  I wound up with a bill of approximately $31.00 for what our members paid $22.50 for.  A remarkable savings of about 27%.  If you throw in the eggs then we are about 30%.   It would probably be higher still if I could find all of it in the organic section.  The awesome thing about buying from our farm is not only are you getting organically grown (except in a few rare occasions) produce at a discount, but all of it is locally produced (under 20 miles for all members), and for the most part, picked hours to minutes before you take them home.  So, quality is higher (better for your family's health), fossil fuels and energy to ship and maintain the produce are dramatically less (so you are helping the environment), and you are improving the economic conditions of your neighborhood by keeping the money local.  I am very thankful that we have members that are making a decision to improve on a way to purchase produce.  I am also thrilled that I can help the social, economic, and environmental factors of my surroundings by growing produce for our community supporters.  This is a real tangible way we are all supporting one another.  Maybe we should call it Community Supporting Agriculture!

Go GMO or No?

GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms have been a topic of conversation lately at seemingly every agricultural and university function I attend.  I know most of the sentiments from our community supporters are against them as well as the organic community.  We don't use any GMO seeds at our farm and we are not planning to change that in the near future.  It is interesting to note that as of 2013, roughly 85% of corn, 91% of soybeans, and 88% of cotton produced in the United States are genetically modified (wikipedia).  Here is an interesting viewpoint you might like to listen to that explains what the scientific community's viewpoint is.  This is the 2014 Distinguished  E.T. York Guest Lecture Series from the University of Florida featuring  Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam an Extension specialist in animal genetics from UC-Davis.  The lecture is about an hour and a half, so you may want to factor that in before you click on it.  Most of it was worth listening to.  You can probably skip some of the intro and the "What do the Facts Say" music parody and not miss anything.  Here is the link for your viewing pleasure.  http://mediasite.video.ufl.edu/Mediasite/Play/6b427993a59d45fb9d207dffa4255ed41d

Week 22, 2014

I am officially old.  I changed clothes from work the other day donning my worn farm shorts and tee shirt.  Inevitably, I got distracted somewhere between changing socks and getting my farm sneakers on.  I remember slipping on my brown work shoes to bring them to the garage where my house Crocs reside.  Thinking as I did it to consolidate all my shoes in the garage for my return from the farm.  Unfashionably for me I never made the exchange for the farm shoes.  When I got to the farm and stuck my foot out the door to hit the ground running, I noticed my brown dress shoes, blue socks and work shorts.  I stared in disbelief for a minute and then it dawned on me.  I was officially old.  I did turn 40 this year but it hadn't hit home until I saw my brown dress shoes.  I did however, continue to finish the field work.  I figured that people couldn't see my feet from the road anyway.

The weeks are ticking by and crops are struggling with the weather to keep yielding (me too).  Kale has petered out, tomatoes are going down fast due to heat and the heavy rain a few weeks back.  Peppers are just starting to produce.  I have some in pots in the greenhouse and more out in the field.  I am just seeing where we get better yields.  Leeks are just turning ready.  We only had two weeks of sweet onions this year due to poor germinating seeds.  I planted some very late not sure of the outcome, but it looks like they won't size up until next year.  Our herbs have been doing great this year in the pots.  This was a good decision from last year and we have had a much better yield and consistency. 

I have been watching for some peaches this year and they were almost ready.  We had enough for about 1 week pickup.  I went by to check the status early this week and the entire crop was gone.  I'm not sure what took them but I couldn't find a trace.  Usually if it is critters they take a few bites and leave the seeds or half eaten fruit around.  Not this time.  I'm not sure what happened here.  There is always next year to hope for.  This year was bad for tree fruit.  No loquats either.  Our citrus have pretty much succumbed to citrus greening except for a few trees near the greenhouse which are infected. I am trying non-organically to keep them producing.  It would be really unfortunate to lose our great yielding lemon tree.  I'm not sure if we can keep them alive or not.  There are two olives on my tree this year.  This will be the second year of 4 years since planting that we have had two olives.  I only planted it on looks but I am always curious to see if they will ever yield an olive.  Two years when I ate one of the two that were on the tree, I learned that you can't eat olives off the tree.  Trust me on this one.  They apparently need to be brined before eating.  Which I know now for this year if they yield a harvestable fruit.  I'm not sure what I can do with two olives...maybe a martini? 

Our blueberries in pots yielded fairly well.  The boys love to go there first and check them.  Katie has discovered them as well and I could barely pull her away kicking and screaming because she couldn't find anymore to eat.  I hope to add some more for the farm for the benefit of our customers (as well as Katie's) in the near future.

Week 20, 2013 Season

I found some things out about myself while keeping this blog of our farm's journey.

1.  I have a mental block when it comes to spelling zucchini (Of course I had to look up the spelling to make sure it was correct).  Maybe I will learn how eventually with more practice. Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini.

2.  I believe that I have a limited number of written words that need to be expressed over a given time period.

In the early days of our farm and blog, I spoke very little and never wrote at my previous employment.  My written word quota was not being reached.  Now with four little ones and a job where most of what I do is write and speak, I think I am exceeding my quota.  Priorities have changed.  I don't have much of an urge to write about the farm.  I'm expressing myself aplenty.  I'd like to say I am going to write more...but probably I won't.  I used to feel guilty about not posting, but now if I write a post I congratulate myself.  Celebrate the small victories!

Regardless, now that I am taking the time to write I'll let you know what is going on at the farm.

We have a nesting pair of bluebirds in our bird box.  They are fun to see and cool to watch bringing food to the little ones.  We also have a mockingbird nest on an old trailer.  Nate and I discovered it last week by accident. We also had the privilege of seeing a flight of termites from our shredded tree piles from the powerline work.  These are the dump piles from the contractors cleaning up live oaks underneath the powerlines along the road ways.  I asked if they would dump the mostly chipped leaves on our farm and they were all to happy to oblige.  Now we use it to increase the organic matter of our soils.  The interesting thing about the termites was that a flock of swallows were eating them and were flying all around us when we went over to investigate.  They were so close you could here their mouths snapping as they flew through the aerial buffet line.  It was a neat experience and we spent some time just taking it all in.

Another interesting development is that our humble farm is apparently a goldmine for the local research plant pathologist.  He got excited when I was explaining about how my tomato plants' foliage turned purple and was wondering what it might be.  After some intense questioning he determined that we had tomato purple leaf disorder.  This is a yet unexplained problem (probably a new virus) on tomatoes and it got the scientist out to the field to collect samples and whiteflies with a bug vac.  He has been back to get more samples and found new and interesting diseases on our potatoes as well.  Well I'm glad we can do our part to advance horticultural science as well as grow organic vegetables for our local community.  It  makes for a win-win for our community at large...maybe.  I hope to add some pictures soon.  That reminds me...

3.  I find downloading pictures to a blog post harder to do than actually sitting down to write a post.

Last Pickup 2011-2012

Well here it is already.  It is in some ways hard to believe that 24 weeks have elapsed from the start of the season and in some ways I am ready for the end of the season.  Overall it was a pretty good season aside from the weather which was very squirrely, but it proved good for the end of the season with dry weather.  We didn't get as many fungal diseases as we usually do.  Some things from this season to take forward are to plant a bunch of veggies in excess of what we need.  Never ever take more than a two day vacation in the middle of the season.  I really need to reevaluate my fertilizer plan.  Seems like things are running out of steam towards the end of their cycle.  I learned that planting beans behind bok choi is a good thing.  I learned that is a lot of fun to have volunteers out at the farm during picking time (Thank you very much John-Carlo and Dali for your help).  Next year I am going to try strawberries again but I will need to adjust their fertility.  I will need to do something different about the chickens.  We did manage to catch two racoons but only after they killed all the hens.  Here is a picture of the crime scene and the killers.   We used the dead chickens to bait a trap and caught a small raccoon the first night.  Nate was really excited because he got to go with me to pick up the trap and set it up at night staying up until 9:30 on a school night.  But he got to spend some time with Dad and it was an real adventure for him.  I thought there might be more than one culprit and we set it up again and caught a much bigger raccoon.  One that liked to growl.  Handling the cage was difficult because there were no hand holds were the critters couldn't get to you.  The small raccoon we just used a towel to hold on to the cage, but the big one I used the loader on the tractor to get him in the truck.  I then drove down to the river and let them go.  I hope that is the last we will see from those two.
The veggies are finishing up the pumpkins turned out nice and we have two weeks of picking with them.  the corn struggled this year due to fertility and pests which erupted when we were away.  That is why we will not be leaving the farm during the season.  The zucchini are awesome this year and so are the Roma tomatoes.  We will be getting ready for our cover crop which will be cowpeas and sorghum x sudan grass.  We will also be looking forward to a little easier weekend.

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year 2012

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We started off the new year with a critical cold event.  We lost two crops of potatoes that were just maturing and the other one was just breaking through the soil.  I will probably get to harvest the first planting and we can have small new potatoes but it is not what we hoped for.  The roselle is history and it looks like the Swiss chard which was going to be harvested this weekend got frosted back.  We will see how they come out.  I was just thinking a few weeks ago that this might be an extraordinary winter with no freezes and was just about to plant more beans.  I am certainly glad we didn't.  They would have been just about 2" tall and frozen to the ground.  This is why we plant winter veggies during the fall and winter.  Summer veggies would all be frozen out.  Everyone longs for tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. but eating seasonally is about adjusting our recipes to what is available and able to grow.  It is also about taking advantage of the greens that we have now by making dishes and freezing them or blanching and freezing them for the summer when they won't be available.  I know our supporters will balk at the idea of craving bok choi in May and June when there is none available when the last thing they probably want more of right now is the same.  But it will happen and you will be glad when you open the freezer and pull out that frozen bag of greens.  Here is a great story of how trying to do the right thing at the market place turns out bad and how we not only need to eat responsibly but also locally and seasonally.  We thank our supporters for having that same mind set.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/31/science/earth/questions-about-organic-produce-and-sustainability.html

I am trying to grow some tomatoes in the small greenhouse as an experiment since the space wasn't being used but it is a risky venture and so far they are doing fine.  My little strawberry experiment in one gallon pots are doing fine but the yield is too low yet to do it on a large scale we have been getting about 2 pints a week with about 80 plants.  I also moved them into the greenhouse to protect the fruit and blossoms. 

I struggled to get the plastic on my greenhouse on Monday with 10-20 mph winds.  I was trying to put a new roof of plastic on the greenhouse.  I could only bring the greenhouse poly up and across the greenhouse into the headwind.  So I had a giant parasail that I thought might rip or crush the house frame when I was trying to tack it down.  I was considering how the Lord calmed the winds on the sea of Galilee and was wondering if He would do the same at that moment.  Instead, He sent a person with a problem that needed my help.  I offered to help with the problem and he offered to help on the greenhouse.  Interesting how the Lord works sometimes and both problems got resolved!

Summer Break 2011

Summer is here and we are between seasons.  A time for cleaning up and planting cover crops in to add fertility and decrease weeds in the vegetable plots.  This is the time when we are both looking backwards and forwards and I feel giddy like a kid on summer break from classes.  It is not easy to farm and a small reprieve when the demands of the weekly pickup diminish puts me in a mood reminiscent of school days when you know the summer is ahead and classes are behind.  I am hoping to get some much needed maintenance done on the greenhouse, equipment, and fields.  We will see how that goes.  I am also starting to take stock of next year's crop plans and experiments. Aside from feelings of levity I also feel a tinge of loss from not hearing the weekly goings on of all our members.  Jennifer and I really love the conversations we have with our "extended" farming family and I miss the interactions we have on Saturday.  We really feel connected and in some ways can tangibly feel the community surrounding the farm and I like to hear how our produce creates stories.  How members cook it or share it or eat something before they even get to the house.  I don't tire of these anecdotes.  Eating is so central to life, family, and friends and I am grateful that we can provide the centerpiece (or at least a side dish) to that endeavor.  I also know that some of the members won't be returning and we may never see them again after the season and we will miss them.    I hope you will enjoy whatever rest you can get this summer and take time to renew and refresh.  I think that I won't blog again until I have something to talk about and will rest a bit this summer as well.  Until we return in the Fall; live well, eat right, pray, play, love, rest, and enjoy your summer.

Teaching the Next Generation

We took last week off at the farm to spend time with one of our member's girl scout troops. We had a great time with questions and answers from both sides of our time together. It is always a pleasure to teach the next generation about how there food is produced and the importance of farming. I had a great time educating about our farm, organic produce, chickens, loquats, parts of a plant, life cycle of crops, harvesting seeds, harvesting produce, drip tubes, planting bean seeds, tasting fresh mint, among other topics. I learned that girls scouts really like eating fresh carrots and they do not like mint. It was also a good break for the spring/summer crops to put some growth on to finish out the season. We also tried to release two chicks that one of our member's friends needed a home for. We let the scouts name them. They aptly named them Daisy and Brownie. We had to remove the chicks before we left the farm. The were being hen pecked and trying desperately to escape. Here are some pictures from our day. Thanks to all the young ladies for taking time to learn what Steed Farms is all about. Thanks for the pictures from our member Jackie.

Pest Control Operations

I have always thought that the most important thing a farmer can put on his crops is his/her shadow. In other words being observant to what is going on in the field is extremely important when you are limited to a handful of organic pesticides. In an operation like ours there is no easy way out in dealing with pests. We can't just mindlessly and indiscriminately spray our fields with insecticides. Being observant is crucial to understanding what and when things are going on with pests and their predators. I've noticed during the fall and into the spring small flocks of little migratory birds fly across the fields generally moving east or west and stop to pick insects off the plants. I have watched them pick off aphids from the leaves and then hop to the next plant to do the same. It seems that we are in a major flight path for these little predators. I've also noticed that they tend to fly to a spot that is higher than the surroundings in relative terms.In this picture of my freakishly large red bok choi that I am waiting to save seeds from there is one leaf that is taller than the surroundings and it attracts many bird stops. You can see it sticking up on the top picture. Apparently to the birds it is a great lay over spot. The next picture supports my observations. With having a small farm we have the benefit of being able to increase the biodiversity of the farmed land to enhance the productivity. I had the idea that maybe I could get the flight path changed somewhat. I thought that I might place little roosting posts around crops that typically attract pests to see if I can slightly deviate the flight path to our benefit and the benefit of the birds.

I will place the roosts this weekend and observe what happens. The picture above is the bird in action in the bok choi/leek row. I believe that it is a palm warbler. Earlier in the year we planted mulberry trees along the edge of the vegetable plots to offer cover to birds that might hang out in the fields a little longer. It seems that if there is no structure they tend not to linger in the open. I am also hoping to build some fertility to the ground with planting deciduous tree crops and gain a little shade for plants that stress out in the summer heat such as lettuce. We will also be able to harvest the berries when they are ripe. Hopefully it will be a win, win, win, win solution.

Thoughts on Food

I thought that I would make a brief departure from the normal blog posts that are here to wax philosophically about food and health. One of my Christmas presents from my children to me (I asked for it and made the purchase but they were quite pleased with the outcome) was a book called One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka a scientist, organic farmer, and philosopher published in 1978. The book is a philosophical book about the act of farming by using natural methods and limiting human inputs (fertilizer, pesticides, machinery) and eating according to season. It is less of a how to and more of a mind set about growing according to place and time. It was a refreshing read and it confirmed a few thoughts that I had about where I was going with our farm production and some ideas that were developing in my mind.
He mentions eating according to season in Japan and how different herbs, plants and animals have a season and they are eaten to accommodate that time of the year. He speaks of consumers wanting food products out of season. He espouses the idea that we should eat in season for healthfulness. One of the examples he mentions is the light levels being insufficient in the winter time to produce certain vegetables in greenhouses so the addition of light must be used. They are grown in the greenhouse to make an early entry to the market to get a better price. His thoughts are that now you will need to burn more carbon to grow the vegetables and they will be less healthful when consumed. Another example he gives is chicken eggs. He mentions that the eggs that are bought in the store are nothing more than a man made manufacturing process. The chickens are not out foraging they are couped up, given artificial light, hormones, antibiotics and nutritional inputs. What we are eating is really all those man made inputs using the biology of a chicken and wrapped up in the form of an egg. How is the nutrition of that egg compared to a chicken that actually sees the light of day and can forage on natural foods? Our eggs have such a different taste and consistency (more yellow and stiffer yolk) than store bought. This is as good an explanation as I can find. They might be slightly smaller but I will pick ours over store bought when they start to lay again.
Fukuoka talks about eating according to time and what the place has to offer. I have been thinking about this for some time. I have been thinking that man co evolved to the place of his origins. Lets take two examples, an Irish man and a Native American in the Southeast. Both places have different food items that are available at different times of the year. Vastly different climate, light levels, mineral make up of soils, flora, fauna, water, etc. If you take a plant from SE US and transplant into Ireland or vice-versa they will ultimately do poorly without the constant manipulation of factors to overcome what it would naturally experience in the new environment. Man however is more resilient and can adapt. But these two men lets say 500 years ago would not travel as far afield. Thousands of years have gone into generation after generation for that man to exist in his own place while eating from his surrounds and cultivating what he could. The plants and animals of the surroundings have also co evolved with the harvesting of fruits, animals, and seeds in season. I find it fascinating that each season and each generation man is slightly influencing his local flora and fauna to some degree and that his surroundings were doing the same to him. I often wonder if man might be more healthy if he returned to his evolved origins and drank the water, ate the plants produced in the soils, ate the fish of his native oceans, experienced the climate to which he had generationally been conditioned. I think this might be why I crave salt on my foods as my origins take me to coastal west Ireland. I wonder if certain minerals, food components, or the right mix of foods are present or absent in diets of humans who have emigrated from home. I know that plants show symptoms when they are not given what they should have where they grow naturally. Maybe man is not that different from other biology. Maybe healthful "original diets" designed according to historical place of origins could make a difference in preventative medicine. Maybe I should eat less salt. Maybe I should not blog after reading philosophical books.

Brrrr!

We got through another week miraculously without loosing our tomato crop. The peppers, zucchini, and eggplants got hit a little harder but the tomatoes still look great. I was driving out to the farm last Saturday when the low was supposed to be in the upper 30's and there was frost everywhere and I was beginning to panic. I was expecting the worst. When I got to the field all the plants had a very beautiful coat of crystallized ice on the leaves and I really started to panic. My first thought was,"What happened to the upper 30's?" My next thought was, "I have got to wash off this ice and protect the plants." I ran for the hose and began pulling it towards the rows of tomatoes when it got caught on the pipe and it snapped off below ground. Now I've got two major problems; frost on the plants and a ruptured pipe. I am really panicking now. My next thought was turn off the pump (because of the broken pipe) and get the 100 gallon sprayer and spray off the plants with water to melt the ice. I run to get the tractor out of the shop and pull out the sprayer and run back over to the pump and turn it on so I can have water to fill the spray tank. After the sprayer is hooked up I drive over to the spray filler and pull up under the pipe. I look back and the spray tank is not behind the tractor. It is about 50 feet behind me. I drive back around to go hook up again and notice that the pin had come out of the tractor because it had bent out of shape. I get another pin and repeat the process. I get the sprayer under the pipe, fill it with water, and try to start the sprayer. The whole time I am thinking that I need to get the ice off the warm season plants as fast as possible. I pull the starter cord and nothing. I pull and pull and pull and nothing. Now I've got no other back up plan except prayers. I drive defeated back to the shop and park the tractor. I walk back over to the plants and walk among the icy leaves. I reach down to touch a zucchini leaf and it cracks and breaks where I touch it. Now I pray; this is my plan C. There is nothing left for me to do but leave everything to a greater power. This is also the first day of pick up so I begin to harvest. I keep looking back over to see how the tomatoes are doing. The first signs of cold damage are a droopy, watery appearance too the affected leaves. It never shows up. I watch as the sun melts the ice off the plants and it changes into dew. Still to my amazement no damage from the frost. After seeing the amount of frost on the leaves and seeing the zucchini leaf crack in half, I thought we would have extensive damage on the warm season plants.

I learned a few things that morning. Ice apparently can form even if the temperature doesn't get to 32 F. Even if the temperature will be in the high 30's I still need to protect the plants. And most of all I learned that small miracles can occur in our everyday lives to which I am very thankful.

We had a smaller than usual pick up this last week. I started planting a bit later than usual this year to avoid some of the higher fall temperatures we were experiencing and now the cold weather has been slowing growth. The oranges will be getting sweeter by the day now with the first frosty weather. I was able to cover the warm season plants with frost cloth and it has been money well spent. It has done a great job of keeping the plants above the freezing point except where the plants touch the cloth. I pulled it off the tomatoes last week fully expecting massive frost damage as my min/max thermometer at ground level read 24F (I am not sure if this is accurate), and to my astonishment only minor damage to the outer leaves had ocurred. I am hoping that we will be able to harvest our beautiful tomatoes. They are the best ones that we have grown and I would love to see them in our members baskets.

Due to the slowness of growth, we had to skip a week. We should have mustards, napa cabbage, and tomatoes shortly. Our tropical roselle plants are frozen out. This was a trial last summer and they worked out nicely. I am looking forward to planting them again in the spring. I just tried the leaves and they taste great too. I can't wait to throw them in a salad with their cranberry taste and reddish color.

Another week few days of freeze this week and the susceptible plants are tucked into their beds with cloth. I hope we can get through it well.

We are also predicting some exciting news for our next post!

New Season 2010-11

Here we are again, another new season begins. Our cover crop has been halfway turned in. This year I tried iron and clay cowpeas and sudex grass mixture. The cowpeas came out good but the grass didn't germinate as well as I would've hoped. I used the rolling chopper to cut it down. I then disced it under. Finally I incorporated composted horse manure with a Rototiller that was lent to me by one of our CSA member friends. It was working great until I hit a buried citrus tree root and sheared off the PTO shaft. Luckily across the street I have a neighbor who welds and he was able to fix it within a couple hours. I would love to learn how to weld. It would be so handy to have this skill on our farm.

We have already started planting cucumbers, tomatoes and beans. We will start planting a few more warm season plants like eggplant and peppers this weekend. We will then follow up with other vegetable plants in the following weeks. I was hoping to get the warm season plants in before first frost.

We were fortunate enough to be interviewed by the local County agricultural magazine In the Field about our farm. It was a nice story with some pictures. Here's the link if you like to read about us. http://www.inthefieldmagazine.com/www.inthefieldmagazine.com/In_The_Field_Hillsborough_County_September_2010.html

our story is on page 52. I will start to get more pictures in the near future.

Harvest and pickup continues into our third portion of the harvest season. The beets are finally looking good and the lettuce continues to produce heavily. Our warm season crops are starting to grow after being battered by the winter. We have had a really nice basket the last few weeks. The spinach, mustards, bok choi, some lettuces, and radishes are starting to bolt but we are harvesting what we can. The squash is starting to fruit and I think that one more week we will be able to pick for everybody. There is an abundance of loquats starting to ripen up and we will picking them shortly. This is an exciting time with the produce amount and variety.

One of the very neat things that I tried this year is a little patch of grain I was trying to grow. I planted a small portion of Wren's Abruzzi winter rye. I planted it to see if we could grow a grain for the chickens. So far it is really looking neat. I am very excited to see the small grains forming on the shoots. I strikes something really deep at an emotional level. I am not sure what it is but I really find something extremely fascinating watching the rye heads blowing in the wind and seeing the grains ripening up. It must be something evolutionary that strikes at my core. I hope to expand this for next year if it continues to ripen to maturity. We will be purchasing our camera within two weeks and I will catch up with the pictures.

Community Support

As part of our Community Supported Agriculture operation, we envision a community farm whereby members support our farm and how we far. We, in turn, also want to also support our community.

Here is an email from one of our member supporters:


THE PLANT CITY COMMUNITY CHOIR will be performing its 2nd Annual Christmas Concert on Thursday December 17, 2009, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 402 West English Street, Plant City, FL. (English Street is off CR 39, a few blocks South of I-4.)
This year's concert is titled "CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!" and will feature a harpist as well as solos from among the 30-voice choir. The concert will include traditional and contemporary holiday music, as well as pieces the PCCC is scheduled to perform as part of the invitation-only Disney Candlelight Celebration in Orlando, FL, on the 26th of December.
The performance will begin at 7:00 p.m. and should end at approximately 8:00 p.m. with one intermission.
Admission is by cash donation.
For additional information, please contact:
LARK UNDERWOOD, PCCC Secretary813-757-0212TAMPALARK@JUNO.COMPLANTCITYCHOIR@AOL.COM

We hope that we can support our community of members in their endeavors by sharing dreams and inspiring each other to build a true community.

First Pickup

We had our first farm pickup the week before Thanksgiving. It was great to meet out new community of supporters. We have heard back from some saying that they really enjoyed the greens that we grew. We also gave them an extension handout on how to cook greens. It is always nice to have new folk visiting the farm and sharing stories about their lives and traditions. I find it really refreshing to visit with everyone.

We are slowly catching up to speed on the vegetable harvests. Finally the lettuce is getting ready after missing about 4 weeks of growth. Now that it has cooled off, the cole crops are doing what they should have been doing a month ago.

We planted a cover crop of rye grass on half of our plot to reduce the weeds for the spring and summer crops. We also have been watching the weather the last two days. We are experiencing a violent front that moved through the area but it has treated us very mildly so far.

We are slated to have our next pick up this week.

Plant City Goes Local!

We are finally getting some coverage. Bay News 9 did a news story on The Corner Store about how they do a great job of buying local items for the community. And I got about 2 seconds of fame deducted from my alloted 5 minutes. You can click here and get the story.



http://www.baynews9.com/VideoPlayer/?The_Corner_Store_830



Step by step our farm is changing lives!

Check out the Movie Food, Inc.

I haven't had much to say in the last few month during our off season. Things got too hot, wet and bug infested to grow anything worthwhile. So I am adapting to the off season and getting ready to push up our sickly orange trees and diversify some. We will be adding some goats and pines to the land to secure our greenbelt tax status. It will also give us some room to expand the organic growing area. I've already started putting up fence for the goats and we should be pushing the trees in the next month.

The Dixie chicks are doing great. They like their mobile home and strut around their pen all day looking for food. They are getting big and should be laying in the next few months.

We have our cover crop of sudan x sorhgum grass in. We have been harvesting sweet corn and it is delicious. I planted the "Silver Queen" variety and it did pretty well. A few caterpillars here and there but we tolerate a few of them. I planted okra this year and if fared well. We will be planting it again this year for the CSA members.

We saw the movie "Food, Inc." last night at the old Tampa Theatre. It was a treat to see the movie in a historical landmark theater. It was my first time there. The movie was very good and give me inspiration to keep doing what we are doing and keep our philosophy of bringing organically produced food to our community. I highly recommend watching it. It is about how our food is industrially produced and the rationale behind it. It is fairly emotionally charged but has a good message.