Freshman Farmer | New Organic Farms Set Roots

WET

November 18th, 2009
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm | Blog

25 Black Australorps in our small brooder!

5.14 inches of rain so far this month and that makes for really wet conditions. My thoughts are on next years fall/winter season and I’m thinking more about getting a good cover crop stand than a four season harvest. We’ve been to three educational farming workshops/conferences within the last month and they’ve all been wonderful. The first was an eye opening experience with No-Till Organic Vegetable Production, the second was a day long conference called Focused on Farming, and lastly I received a scholarship to attended the WA State Tilth Conference in Yakima. I throughly enjoyed the all day Symposium prior to the conference which was: Advanced Techniques in Organic Agriculture with Amigo Bob Cantisano. I’m still buzzing from all the learning! So many ideas and techniques that I would like to work into our farm.

I’m proud to state that we just completed our very first retail sale to a great new store that opens tomorrow, it’s an association of producers called FreshLocal. Here’s what we delievered:

200# Potatoes

12 dozen Chicken Eggs

12 dozen Duck Eggs

12 bunches of both Kale and Chard

Thank you FreshLocal!

FreshLocal drop L>R: US, Jean Schanen(manager), Tammie(our former farm helper & now FreshLocal employee)

Tags: november, retail sales

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Transition

November 15th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Among the things I love about farming is the seasonality. Though there is much work to do throughout the year on my farm, and I can definitely feel run through the wringer at times, I feel lucky to not be doing the same thing day in and day out.

Next week marks the end of our mainseason CSA, and our winter CSA begins the following week. We will shift from two CSA harvests each week to just one. In the fields, cover crop is now germinating on all the crop-free ground, our overwinter crops are established and (at least partially) weeded, and our winter-harvest crops are protected by hoops of rowcovers. We’re wrapping up the greenhouse plantings of December/January salads, and the wetness of the fields means there’s not much more we can do out there for now.

I’m beginning to spend more time at home, and that certainly feels good!

Tags: cover crop, winter CSA, seasonality, overwinter

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The 2010 Strawberry Patch is In!

November 12th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

We just finished the last major project of ‘09! Though we’re still busy harvesting and we still have a myriad of small tasks to accomplish, it feels really good to have next year’s strawberries planted. Strawberries are (of course) super popular. Some of our CSA members and farmer’s market customers had never eaten berries picked at full ripeness, and they’ve been floored. Multiple folks mentioned they could never go back to supermarket berries, even organic… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: organic, strawberries, plastic mulch, varieties, flavor

Posted in: How-To Tips & Tricks

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Not much Rain

November 12th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Why are the storms so piddly? We had to set up major irrigation to the garlic today. I think we’ll start doing some major sprinkler action on the field that have cover crop seed but aren’t yet germinated. This is a lot more work for us, but it keeps me from getting in trouble. I wish it would rain a lot, but hey, it’s also nice working in the sun - I’ll look on the bright side. Well, let’s still all pray for rain because this State needs it. Andrew Read the rest of this article »

Tags: rain

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What we’re selling now

November 11th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Today was another Briar Patch Co-op delivery. We’re still keeping up 3x/week with the deliveries. And they’re still sizeable. Here’s what we’re selling today: 36 heads each of: Red Leaf, Green Leaf, Bibb Lettuce 36 Bunches: Radishes 100lbs Butternut Squash 15 Lbs Shallots On Monday we delivered 500lbs of mixed winter squash, the same amount of radishes, shallots and lettuce as today, and some Mustard Green Bunches. We’re coming into Kale, Broccoli, carrots and… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: CSA, Terry Firma Farm, Briar Patch co-op

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Setting up for next Season - Financially

November 10th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Logan and I received our last (we think) paychecks for the year today - that covers October. From now on, the rest of our income goes to buying next year’s early season goods. We want to end the year with about 10K in the bank - that way, we will cover all of our expenses without having to personally invest in the farm from our own bank accounts. Here’s what I expect to pay early on, until we hit the farmers’ markets in Late April: Compost - $4,000 Feather Meal/Blood Meal -… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: income

Posted in: Farm Financials

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Well into Fall

November 9th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

It’s the 9th of November and the hardest work is behind us. All of the fields are cover cropped and we’re just waiting for it to rain now. All the Garlic is in, as of last week. 250 lbs!!! Quite a bit. We planted a little later than optimal, but, hey, it’s in, it’s growing and there’s no stopping it now. It added up to about 1/2 acre and we applied 12 tons of compost to that area to ensure a good stand of Garlic. In fact, 150 lbs are for seed garlic for,… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: garlic, peaceful valley, seed garlic, dujansky, capathian, Pilot Peak Winery

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Soil Mapping

November 1st, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Myself being a graduate of the Humboldt State University Soil Science program, I was happy to be approached by one of the professors, Joe Seney, about undertaking a soil mapping project at my farm. Two groups of students in the Soil 360 class are each digging 20 description pits along 4 transects across the western part of the farm. They are gathering data down to 100cm on horizon depths, texture, structure, color, pH, and redoximorphic features, and will use these to classify the soil. I myself… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: soil, mapping, classification, HSU

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Fall Skies

November 1st, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

What a great time of year! The skies have been so gorgeous; I’ve had to repeatedly stop what I’m doing and grab the camera. . Read the rest of this article »

Tags: fall, sunset, beauty, outdoors, sunrise

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Last week of the farmers markets

October 29th, 2009
EarthDance Farm | Blog

Wednesday night was our last night of the Maplewood Farmers Market. We sold out of parsnips in the first hour. An apprentice actually delivered some more about an hour before market was over, which was wonderful. I think we were the only grower at the market with parsnips, and other farmers would come over and say, “You can’t grow parsnips in Missouri..!” Well we did. Beginners luck, perhaps. & thanks to Brian’s, one of our apprentice’s, insistence. A tip we learned… Read the rest of this article »

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Three farms are starting from scratch.

They are turning the dirt and hoping to be successful enough to turn a profit, and to become a valuable part of their communities as suppliers of organically grown food.

Peaceful Valley is giving them a head start by offering them special pricing as part of this Freshman Farmer program.

The Farm Blogs

Freshman:
New Farms Coming Soon!
Sophomores:
	Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA
	Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT
	Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA
Graduates:
	Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA
	DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA
	Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA
	EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO
	Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA
	Four Frog Farm Penn Valley, CA
	Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm Poulsbo, WA
	Home Plate Organic Farm Orleans, CA
	Honey in the Heart Farm Nevada City, CA
	Willow Springs Farm Penn Valley, CA