End of Season 2015-2016

This is the end of the season and surprisingly, I am looking forward to next season's planting already.  I remember last year I couldn't wait for the end of the season as I was really burnt out from the work.  This year I am excited to try different things to grow different crops.
Overall, I think this season was a "B" Season.  I wish we had more strawberries, tomatoes, beans, cabbage and squash.  We never got corn, Chinese cabbage, watermelons, or southern peas to the table.  We did have a good crop of carrots, eggplant, cucumbers, and the numbers of strawberries were high but the varmints got to enjoy them instead of us.  The carrots especially were a winner.  The raised bed worked great.  I just need to tweak the angle of the sides as I thought carrots would follow the angle of the sides down.  It seems they just stop growing when they encountered the resistance of the side.  Next year I will do straight sides. We also got cantaloupes for the first time this year.  Another reason I am looking forward to next year, so I can tweak how we grew them.

We did have a great early season "A+" but then we ran out of steam as far as production goes towards the end of the season.  I believe that our fertilizer ran out of gas much more quickly on vegetables towards the end of the season this year, even though I put a season's amount in the crop row.  Always room for improvements!
We also had a raccoon eat through the top of our chicken coop and kill three chickens.  It seems that the end of the season is a very dangerous time for them. I reinforced the coop with hard fence wire to protect the other remaining chickens.  It always seems that when predators are determined to eat chicken for dinner, they find a way into the coop.

Now it is time to remove the drip lines, the plastic mulch, the electric fence, dump all the pots in the greenhouse, recycle the potting soil, till up the ground, plant the cover crop, pull the weeds in the herbs, dump left over trays, pick up all the pots used to pick the produce, and mow the farm.  Maybe I will find a minute to relax as well before we begin planting in July. :)

Some more pics from the farm of our tomatoes...

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/

The Pope Prays for Steed Farm

Well, he is praying for Steed Farm as well as every small farm and farming family trying to cultivate the land.  I was a bit surprised and very grateful that for the month of April, Pope Francis asked the world to pray for small farmers.  The USDA categorizes small farms as those that make below $250,000.  We definitely fit well below that category and we always welcome prayers for our farm.  I'll let the Apostleship of Prayer summarize the global intention of the pope...

 Seventy-two percent of the world’s farms are less than 2.5 acres in size.  In the U.S., 90 percent of the 2.1 million farms are considered small, family farms, and many of them are struggling.

Though prices have gone up in supermarkets, the income of farmers has not. As a result, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the largest job loss of any occupation is farmers. When the small farms go out of business, often large agri-businesses acquire the land and create greater potential for ecological damage and health risks. For example, a single fast food hamburger may contain meat from more than a hundred different cattle.

For Pope Francis small farmers are essential to caring for the earth and safeguarding it for future generations. He said that “in the work of farmers there is the acceptance of the precious gift of the land which comes to us from God, but there is also its appreciation in the equally precious work of men and women, called to respond to the mandate of tilling and safeguarding the land (Genesis 2: 15).” 

Agricultural workers should receive a just wage. As the pope said, “The labor of those who cultivate the earth, generously dedicating time and energy to it, appears as a genuine vocation. It deserves to be recognized and appropriately appreciated, also in concrete economic policies.”

With the coming of spring, we pray for those on small farms who are busy planting. May they not only have an abundant harvest this year but also “receive a just reward for their precious labor.” 

Thank you Pope Francis for your recognition of our work and thank you everyone who prays for us!