Monday, December 13, 2010

Winter

We got our first snow fall before we had completely cleared the fields. Here some hoops and row cover get squished by the fluffy wet stuff. Winter always hits fast... our last post was just about harvesting the last of the carrots in 70 degree weather!
There are a lot of winter jobs that keep us plenty busy. There are office jobs like reapplying for our organic certification, signing up CSA members, planning our vegetable plantings and ordering seeds. Then there are farm maintenance projects that we finally have time to do like tractor and equipment maintenance and getting a heater hung in our greenhouse. Even without the heater hooked up yet, Ben reports that the greenhouse is very pleasant to work in despite the bitter cold winds outside.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Glorious Fall



This has been a great fall weather wise. Last week we enjoyed working in 70 degree weather!
While our CSA is over and we've stopped going to market, there is still life in our fields. Here we have cauliflower and broccoli raab, two cool weather loving crops growing well.

We spent time harvesting the last few carrots in the field. It's quite a process. We have to water the carrots so that they pull out of the ground. We tried forking the carrots, but got tired of going to Sears with our broken forks to exchange for new ones.


Here we have our freshly dug carrots.


And here they are all washed and bagged, ready to sell
We grew a new variety for us, an heirloom called Red Cored Chantenay, and we love it! It grows well in our soil and has a great sweet flavor. We'll be growing it again for sure.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Garlic!

This week we got our garlic in the ground. Unfortunately the freshly planted garlic field doesn't really look much different than it did before we put hundreds of cloves of garlic in the ground, but all of these beds that you can see will be full of tasty garlic by the end of next June.


Before we could even venture out to the fields to plant the garlic we had to crack open each head and break it into individual cloves.







Then we laid the cloves out in rows...















And plunged each clove three or four inches into the soil.










As you can see we got lucky this year and were planting garlic in nice warm and dry weather. This is not always the case. Of course the task is not finished yet. We are waiting on some straw to mulch the garlic. This keeps the cloves from heaving out of the ground as everything freezes and thaws throughout the winter.

We planted five times as much garlic as we did last year because the taste of fresh garlic beats anything that you can get in the store. Come visit us next August and you can taste the difference!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

A little more summer

The past couple weeks we've alternated between fall-like and summer-like days. Today is a summer-like day. We're back to running irrigation constantly and trying to get harvest done early in the morning before the sun starts to really bear down on us. At the same time we actually have time for some farm tasks that aren't in the field, like cleaning out the chicken coop. Here's the coop with fresh, clean straw.

We have been waiting for the ideal opportunity to clean out the coop before the winter. The weather has been perfect for this task because we want everything to be nice and dry because dry straw is lighter than wet straw. The chickens seem to appreciate the clean coop, but they appreciate any greens that we toss them (in this picture they've just gotten some carrot tops) even more!


Without much rainfall most of the trees in our area have already begun to drop their leaves. We didn't really get many fall colors this season. Instead most of the trees look like these.









While the warm temperatures have made for an underwhelming leaf season, they have meant that we've still got lots of flowers around the farm. Here are some that are love these October days. This is ageratum.






And scabiosa (or pincusion).







And finally, marigolds.








In addition to flowers the broccoli is starting to come on. For the sake of our broccoli and cauliflower we are hoping for some cooler weather even if we are enjoying the warm sunny temperatures ourselves!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

First frost?

Tonight just may bring our first frost of the season. While this would kill the tomatoes and peppers (most of which are still alive even if they are producing very, very slowly at this point in the season) all of the other crops growing on the farm now don't mind a little bit of cold. In fact many of the crops that we have out in the field won't grow very well in warmer weather so we welcome the cold. In addition to cool weather crops the spiders are thriving right now on the farm. There are many of them in the tomato field and this one has scored the ultimate prize, a big tomato hornworm.


This broccoli is one of the crops that doesn't grow well in the summer heat. In fact it is just now getting cool enough for us to have nice broccoli. Here is broccoli that is just about ready to harvest...






and here's our best-looking broccoli crop so far which won't be ready for another two or three weeks.










This is a plant that is closely related to broccoli. It is broccoli raab (or rabe or rapini, etc.), and is spicier than traditional broccoli with smaller florets and more tender green leaves. The broccoli raab is closer and is a brighter green while the broccoli is behind.


Another green that we are growing is this rainbow kale. This is a new variety of kale that we found in one of our seed catalogs that was the result of crossing Tuscan kale with red kale. We really like it because it has a nice color to it with big leaves. Not to mention that it tastes great too!


Finally, we've always been amazed that we haven't had problems with deer eating our crops. Well, unfortunately they have found the lettuce. Since we didn't have a very large planting of it, we've just covered it all with remay which will deter the deer for this year, but we may have to come up with a different fix next season.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

It is about 30 degrees cooler than last week at this time! That's caused us to adjust significantly. On Monday morning as we got ready to harvest for the CSA not only did we have to find warm clothes, but we were also searching out raincoats so that we could at least attempt to stay dry. As you can see Emily doesn't look very dry, but of all the rainy weather tasks picking peppers isn't too bad since you don't have to dig anything out of the ground!











The carrots didn't come out of the ground this clean, but once the mud has been sprayed off they are ready to enjoy. At least that is the way that Evan seems to like them best. By the way, he did not manage to finish all of that carrot.





We didn't harvest these greens on Monday because they are just starting to produce. They are a plant called Hon Tsai Tai and while the leaves can be eaten they are generally grown for their flowering stems. These are a sweet, succulent treat in the spring and fall.






Finally we've got some spinach that is just getting its first true leaves. Since the weather was hot and dry we put more seed down than we usually would. In the patches that germinated well we've got lots of plants, but there are patches that aren't as good. We are trying to be better about taking notes of everything that happens during the year so that we can plan for it next year. Sometimes it is frustrating that when something is unexpected we can't correct for it until the next year, but as we grow on our land year after year we are definitely learning how to be prepared for many eventualities.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Autumn begins?!?

Fall is officially here! But...it is still 90 degrees outside and we still have not gotten any measurable rainfall. In fact the irrigation routine is now so ingrained in our daily rhythm that I switch or turn on the irrigation as regularly as I brush my teeth.

Emily and I decided that we would recharge a bit this weekend before really delving into fall crops and end of the season cleanup. So we went on a farm tour to Mick Luber's Bluebird Farm in Cadiz. Mick's farm is nestled in the hills of far Eastern Ohio. The drive to the farm was beautiful and the farm itself was intriguingly different from our largely flat, midwestern setting. The growing area on the farm was divided into two spaces. One in the valley, pictured here.


And another at the top of the hill on which the farm sits.


After returning home from the farm tour we took Sunday off. The only farm work that we did was of course moving around irrigation. Then on Monday morning we dived right back into harvesting for the CSA. First we cut these bok choi. As you can see we've grown them in a tunnel of fabric called remay, which prevents pests from demolishing this particular crop.


Then we judged that this lettuce could wait another week or two until we harvest it.


Next we picked kale, sweet corn, tomatoes and finally peppers. While we picked bell peppers and jalapenos for our CSA we also grow some other peppers that we really like.


These are called Jimmy Nardellos. They are super sweet (sweeter even than the colored bells that are always in great demand) and are great raw in salads, sauteed in a stir-fry or roasted and used in soups or sauces.

We are trying another Italian frying pepper called Corno di Toro this year. These beautiful peppers range from slightly hot to mild with a great taste. They are an excellent addition to sauces. We really like them on pizza.


We also have jalapenos growing. With the hot dry weather we've heard from customers that these have packed quite a punch this year.


Finally we've got lots of bell peppers growing and starting to ripen (red, yellow and orange peppers are all fully ripe green peppers). We have not had as much luck this year with the peppers as we have in the past so we are just starting to get some turning. It is just one of the things that happens when it is constantly raining in June and the peppers get planted three weeks late!


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Perfecting the art of irrigation

Most farmers who grow produce in Ohio irrigate at some point during the year. This year we have run irrigation almost every day since mid-July. Because we are growing more crops and because it has been so consistently dry this is the first year that we have run this much irrigation and it is tiring. But on the other hand we get to harvest sweet corn in the middle of September!


Plus since we've kept them on water the ears are a good size. Now we just have to work on controlling the corn earworms.


We are still putting crops in the ground. Most of these seedlings will be planted tomorrow.


These seedlings won't be planted tomorrow because they were eaten by one of our chickens. They occasionally get out and on Sunday evening I found a chicken walking around contentedly. Fortunately, the chicken did not venture onto the table to eat the all of the other seedlings that were waiting to be planted.

Elsewhere on the farm it always feels a bit more like fall once we've got butternut squash curing in the barn.


Plus these turnips are growing nicely and just beginning to size up.


Finally we've got sunchokes blooming on the farm. We planted these tubers for the first time this year. They are a starchy vegetable (you eat the tubers) that is native to most of North America. We did little more than throw these in the ground and they have taken off. They are a perennial and we are using them as windbreaks in our fields. The sunflower-like flowers are an added bonus.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor day, literally

Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day all come and go pretty much unnoticed at our farm. We certainly don't question the significance of any of the events or causes that these days celebrate; we simply have too much to get done! So we harvested for our CSA delivery on Sunday and Monday this year, though we did take longer lunch breaks so that we could watch some of the US Open.

Even though a few cool nights (it was in the forties when we got up on Sunday morning) have begun to slow down the tomato plants we are getting another great week of heirloom tomatoes.


We like to do two plantings of heirlooms so that we can have them longer into September, but it didn't happen because of the wet weather this spring so we are still relying on our first planting.

It is dry, dry, dry right now at the farm. So we've been watering whenever possible. The well is just starting to show some signs of fatigue since it really hasn't rained since mid-July, but we are pumping out what we can to try to grow some fall lettuce for our customers.


The sweet corn is on drip irrigation so it is nice and green and almost, almost ready.


It is great having a late crop of sweet corn that will be appreciated even more because there isn't much local sweet corn around now. Elsewhere on the farm we have a very different corn growing: broom corn.


This is an ornamental corn (though you could make a broom out of it if you really wanted to) that Emily will use in her fall bouquets.


Even though the flowers are slowing down with the shorter days there are still lots of zinnias to cut. This is a 200 foot long bed of zinnias planted in three rows that is only about half of the zinnias we have on the farm this season. Emily says that she wants even more next year!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Goodbye August

Writing on the final day of August is somewhat bittersweet. With a couple more ninety degree days this week we're definitely ready for cooler temps. At the same time the summer heat brings on tomatoes, beans, and other crops that we like to grow. Fields around the farm reflect both the end and the height of our season.


This was where we had a number of our potatoes. All of the potatoes are out of the field and in deep storage in the cooler. To store potatoes for an extended length of time you need to let them fully dry off after harvest. Then box them up without washing them. Then they need to be stored in a dark, humid cooler that stays above 40 degrees. So, when we need potatoes for the CSA or for market we remove boxes from the cooler and wash and bag the potatoes. At least it is easier than digging them up each time we need potatoes!

Other crops, such as beans are actively producing now and we've got to be out there in the field every couple of days harvesting them. Picking beans is a unique skill because it has to be done as quickly as possible; while, at the same time, it needs to be done thoroughly so that mature beans are not left on the plants. We've got another planting of beans that should mature in a couple of weeks, but the bugs have really gone to town on them and we're just crossing our fingers that we'll still get something out of the planting.



Evan is hoping that we get a fall crop of raspberries. So far he is by himself pretty much keeping up with what the plants produce! In fact, though he likes to pick tomatoes and beans, raspberries are the only crop that he actually likes to eat directly from the plants.