Our Organic CSA Changes Lives!

I've been wanting to post this for a couple of weeks now but haven't had the chance. One of our CSA members (identity intentionally left out) has told me that she has changed her path in life partly because of our farm's produce. I thought she was joking but she was serious. I was told that due to her finding our CSA and enjoying our organic produce, having better neighbors living next door, and finding The Corner Store, she has decided not to move from our small city towards the more urban Tampa. Our tiny farm has made a genuine difference in some one's life. That is amazing! I never thought much beyond the farm in terms of just producing vegetables to sell. I mean there is the part about helping to change the world towards a better place to live by adopting sustainable practices. There is the cleaner environment by not using more chemicals and fossil fuels in delivering our produce. There could be the better health enjoyed by those who eat natural foods. There is the idea that by selecting some of our own crops we are working with natural selection to use less inputs. But I never thought that our CSA and small farm would have such a profound and concrete effect on some one's life other than our own. That is a wonderful motivator for producing great organic vegetables on our farm. It also shows that a CSA is really a Community that supports agriculture. At first it is customers that show up for produce and then, with time, it is friends that are showing up on the weekends, as we share information and stories. And then it really is a community that unites us around the theme of our daily sustenance. I hope we can continue to grow and change lives for the better with our CSA and small farm.

Dixie Chicks are out

The mobile chicken coop.

We finally finished the mobile chicken coop. It took a while but it is in good order now. It was constructed from mostly recycled farm materials and some purchased bolts, chicken wire, and wood. I still need to finish their nesting area inside the coop but the run is complete. The chicks are so used to being confined in a box, they spent the entire day just peeking out of the entry way. We released them from the back of the coop and they walked around inside eating and pecking and jumping from everything that moved. After day three they are much better adapted and enjoying their new digs. I hope they are happy enough to lay eggs for us in the near future.

Dixie Chicks shy from the media

The rest of the farm is moving along. I planted our basil transplants and took cuttings to start some more. I also started the sweet potato vines, planted queen anne black eye peas and the white acre peas. I am still waiting for our tomatoes to turn red. They have sized up now but are still green. All the remaining lettuce has bolted. We lost a bunch but learned a lot.

The radishes did really well this year and are delicious. Last year I thought I would never try them again because they all split. This year they came out great. They are also my new favorite vegetable. I found that you can fry them in butter and salt and they taste great. I can hardly eat a radish raw. But they taste totally different when cooked. Thanks for the cooking tip Corner Store.

Chugging along

The Dixie Chicks are getting pretty big and curious about life outside of their box. They are really wanting out and I can't blame them. I am hoping to finish their new comparatively elegant grand coop. They will love their new space.

We have harvested all of the broccoli at one shot. It was ready really quickly as well as the lettuce. I will need to delay planting times better. Smaller quantities and more plant dates. Much of our awesome lettuce went to seed fairly rapidly. We were able to harvest some and sell some but we lost too much this year.

Jalapeno peppers, eggplants, and radishes are producing now. The red mustard and the turnips are inundated with beetles and spraying them is not helping. About every three days the pests would return after a spray. I will try them again next year but earlier to see if that makes a difference.

The Valencia oranges are ripe now and are delicious to eat off the tree. A few peaches and plums are ripening. We lost most of them to the frosts.

We are thinking of adding goats to the operation. "What goats!" I know...like we don't have enough to deal with already. We will see. I still have a little bit of sanity left to spare.