DeepSeeded Community Farm

Eddie’s story: I love food! Fresh food, right from the earth. When I witness the joy that the product of my labors provides to the households that I grow for, I am invigorated and… Read DeepSeeded Community Farm's full profile here.

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Abundant Harvests!

July 12th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Well, the difficult spring kept me away from the blogosphere for a while… but now I’m back, and I’m pleased to report an abundance of beautiful produce. We’re now beginning week 8 of our 26-week CSA, and we have enough additional produce to go back to the Saturday farmer’s market as well.

I’m still not fully recovered from the weather-related difficulties this year (read: wet soil, perennial weeds, fungal outbreaks, wind-burned & chilly summer crops), but with all the great food coming from the field now I’m a lot less stressed about filling baskets in the weeks to come.

It’s inevitable that by this time every year I feel hopelessly behind, but somehow this year it’s been even harder. I hedge my bets with many different crops and multiple planting dates, but this year hit me with more losses than I’m used to dealing with in a single year. The garlic crop was almost completely destroyed by a rust I’d never seen before, the early peas had a drastically reduced harvest due to a downy mildew I’d never seen before, and I ended up pulling out over a third of the potato patch because of late blight (more on this later).

But enough doom and gloom… The CSA harvests have been nice every week and there are way more things going right than going wrong. With care, planning, love, and sweat, the Earth provides in amazing abundance!

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Tags: CSA, harvest, weather, wind, fungus, abundance

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DeepSeeded Farm’s CSA Has Begun!

May 30th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Man is it fun to have all my CSA members coming out to the farm again! The pick-up times are a great social setting, and it is really fulfilling to get to know the folks I’m growing food for. After our seasonal break, I got to catch up with last year’s members… and since we’ve expanded, I got to meet many new members as well.

My CSA membership goal this year is 160 members/households, and we started this year with 156! (I’m still hoping to fill those last 4 spaces). We had a nice first harvest on Tuesday and another big one on Friday and, despite the difficult spring, we’re starting at the same time as last year with a nice array of veggies. Early in the season I always have some anxiety about the upcoming harvest, but as the season progresses and the abundance manifests, it’s easy to send everyone home with a full basket. Here’s some pics from the 1st week:

Tags: anxiety, CSA, harvest, social, basket, share, member, abundance

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News from the Late Spring Planting Rush

May 23rd, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

The later part of spring is always very full, and this year’s wetness has kept things interesting. We’ve been getting our big, once a season plantings done… onions, potatoes, tomatoes, etc… with frequent interruptions from the weather. We’re in the midst of a cold spring rain storm that just brought a scary bout of hail to the coast and some snow at just 3000 feet! When the hail was falling I was picturing swiss-cheesed rowcovers, but the walk around the fields… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: CSA, hail, harvest, rain, thinning

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Go Time!

May 5th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

After a wetter and colder than usual April, things are finally drying out and warming up. The crops are actually beginning to grow without rowcover! We’ve been planting for the last month or more, but the ground prep has been mediocre and intermittent and the weather less than ideal, and as a result there’s been some spotty germination and even a bit of transplant mortality. Now that it’s drying up, we’re working fast to get a whole lot done. My goal each year is to… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: planting, weather, Ground prep, timing

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Early Crops, Early Revenue

April 19th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

While my main sales outlet at DeepSeeded Farm is my CSA program, I have planted a number of early crops for Farmers Markets as well. These crops bring in revenue early in the season, and they also help me market my CSA shares. This year, through a combination of coldframe space and fall-prepped, early spring planted outdoor beds, I am now harvesting butter lettuce, spinach, salad turnips, carrots, potatoes, baby bok choi, and (soon) zucchini and sunflowers. I’ll also have an early harvest… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: markets, revenue, early, season extension, coldframe

Posted in: Farm Financials

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First Farmer’s Market of 2010

April 7th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

The Humboldt County farmer’s market season began this last Saturday with a special early market at the Plan-it-Green conference in Arcata. It was fun getting back to into that social dynamic that is unique to farmer’s markets, and of course it is good to have another stream of revenue early in the season. We had a nice spread, combining winter storage crops, overwintered crops, and early greenhouse crops. Folks were happy to once again have access to super-fresh veggies, and I sold… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: market, conference, early, overwinter, Plan it Green, Local Food System

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I ♥ Rowcover!

March 26th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Floating rowcover, agribon, reemay… whatever you call it, this lightweight, translucent, water-permeable, spun-bonded plastic sheeting is awesome! Though it is plastic that eventually gets shredded and ends up in the landfill, this material has a myriad of uses that help my crops succeed: 1) Warmth bonus - Even the lightweight version that I use manages to add a few degrees of warmth to my young plants. The protection from wind is definitely a part of this. I use it on the cool weather… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: agribon, row cover, floating, reemay, season extension, hoops, insect, root fly

Posted in: How-To Tips & Tricks

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Spring Field Work

March 26th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Well we just had another spring soaker, but before the rain I managed to get a bunch of ground work done and begin the regular outdoor plantings. This spring has been warm, but its been wet. My field was just barely dry enough, but I new there’d be more rain coming, so I went for it. I started by mowing and disking the ~4.5 acres of cover crop and spreading lime over everything. With only a few days for cover crop breakdown, I spread rock phosphate, some azomite, cow manure, and chicken… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crop, direct seeding, spring, manure, tillage, field work, drop spreader

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Getting the Perennial Fruit Started

March 14th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

There’s a quote I’ve heard that goes, “The best time to plant a fruit tree was 10 years ago; the next best time is now”. Well, I managed to hold off for one whole year to give myself time to prepare the ground, and now I’ve done some planting. Aside from an abundant strawberry patch and a few coastal melons, my CSA share is all vegetables (and flowers). But in a few year’s time, there’ll be raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, and plums as well. … Read the rest of this article »

Tags: fruit trees, varieties, Perennials, blueberries, raspberries

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Hurry Up & Wait

March 2nd, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

With the greenhouse work completed for the moment, I find myself waiting for the next dry stretch. In the last few breaks in the weather, we were able to weed garlic & strawberries, begin fruit tree planting, and plant out the remainder of our extra-early beds. I had prepped and mulched over some beds in the fall, and we have just finished seeding, transplanting, and row-covering these beds. There are two successions of peas and carrots that will likely be ready for the first CSA shares… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: carrots, lettuce, peas, soil, greenhouses, early beds, dry

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Eddie Tanner

DeepSeeded Community Farm
Arcata, CA

Farm Acreage: 9.4
Website: DeepSeeded Community Farm

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