Freshman Farmer | New Organic Farms Set Roots

Posts Tagged ‘cover crops’

Winter is here

December 17th, 2010
Ellwood Canyon Farms | Blog

Fall is an interesting time of year on the farm, days are getting shorter, weather is getting colder and much of the summer life and bounty is slowly coming to an end. I have been balancing my time between cleaning up the summer production area, planting, caring for, and harvesting off a new area where I have winter crops, selling these crops at markets, and getting cover crops in the ground in areas that I will be planting this spring. After a big push this last week I feel I am finally catching up and ready for winter.

Currently in the field I have one section (about 1/5 acre) planted with a diversity cool weather vegetables including lettuces, swiss chards, kales, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, radishes, turnips, green onions, and fennel. This is what I will be taking to market the next couple months.

I added to my perennial herb and flower section, a small area bordering my field, with more sage, thyme, rosemary, sweet alyssum and some lavenders. My goal is to slowly add plants to this section over time and have it be a “pick your own” herb and flower garden for CSA members. I choose plants that are good for cut flowers, fresh and dry herbs as well as beneficial insect attractors and just plain old beauty.[nggallery id=242]

I have also been planting some bigger sections of stuff that I will harvest starting this spring and throughout next summer, including a block of strawberries (2500 plants), a block of garlic (5 150’ beds), a block of artichoke (about 1/5 of an acre), a block of onions (about 6,000 plants), and a block of peas and fava beans (about a 1/5 of an acre).[nggallery id=243]

Everything mentioned above takes up about half of my two acre field. The other half I have seeded with a cover crop mix that I will let grow through late February then till under and plant my first spring vegetables….the cycle continues…..enjoy…[nggallery id=244]

Tags: cover crops, garlic, peas, strawberries, fava beans

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Cover Crops and Compost

March 8th, 2010
Ellwood Canyon Farms | Blog

Hello all,

Everything is going good here at Ellwood Canyon. With a break in the rainy weather I am making a big push to prepare my next section for planting. Here is a step by step of the process:

1)Planted peaceful valley’s soil builder cover crop mix in December.
2)Mowed and turned under the cover crop just as it began to flower the 3rd week in February (the flowering stage is when legumes are at their highest nitrogen fixation point).
3)Let the ground sit for a couple weeks to allow the plant debris to decompose.
4)Spread a thick layer of compost (about 12 tons on a 1/6 of an acre)
5)Till and mix the compost into to ground
6)Shape beds
7)Lay mulch (only for certain crops)

8)Plant

I am currently on step 4 and hope to have this section ready to plant by the end of next week depending how the weather behaves.

Here are some photos:

Cover crop:

Compost:[slideshow id=141]

Thanks for reading,

Jack Motter

Tags: cover crops, compost, soil builder mix

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September 16th

September 16th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Late on Saturday afternoon, Logan and I found ourselves walking through the rows of august-planted swiss chard. Row upon row yielded heavy damage to the chard plants due to leafminers. What to do? The scenario made us think about our motives and how we were to have a sustainable farm. This year, we have way too many weeds and too many herbivorous insects (squash bugs and beetles, aphids, leafminers, cabbage whites, tomato/corn ear worm, - to name a few). We decided to focus on the health and… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crops, pests, chickens, fertility, goats

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Caution - Low flying greenhouses

March 7th, 2009
Coyote House Farm | Blog

Everybody is glad for the rain. Let’s get that out there and said. Yay, rain! Great for the soil, great for the water supply in our beloved California costal desert, great for me not having to wash my truck! Anybody else? Okay, good. We’ve been dying to get our planting started and now that the rain and attendant wind has died down for now we can start. We had some tomato and pepper starts in a portable greenhouse, but the winds blew it to Mars, so no early… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crop, testing, companion crops, greenhouses

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Working Hard, Huffing PVC Glue

October 31st, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Our marathon PVC gluing session is almost over. Too bad because smelling that PVC glue sure is a lot of fun. I think it’s bad for your brain, but I’m not sure. I think it’s bad for your brain, but I’m not sure. I think PVC glue might be bad for your brain, but, I’m not sure. We were drilling in a cover crop of Vetch and Rye today. We used about 1000 lbs for the 10 acres. The fertility that winter cover crops create more than pays for itself. A winter without… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crops, emotions, farmers, pvc glue

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Harvesting in Rainy Weather

October 6th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Friday the 3rd of October…rain commences at noon, continues through the night. I worked quickly to lay down a half acre of cover crop seed in the morning, anticipating the rain. I felt like I was cheating, since I knew I wouldn’t have to irrigate the field to germinate the cover crop. It’s not cheating. It only feels that way because, in California, we don’t grow stuff without irrigation. That’s another issue I don’t want to broach right now. Then the rain… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crops, harvest, npr, october, parsley, rain

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Back From Vacation

September 5th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

I am so sorry to you guys, my avid readers (are you out there?). I took a vacation this week. My superman/stupid man status has ended. I went to backpack in the Sierras with my dad this last week. It was great. I really needed a vacation, so badly. Ry and Chris held down the farm this week. I am so thankful to them. They did an incredible job. Thank you to them. So, I’m back and I’m doing a market tomorrow (Saturday). I was reading a lot of “Managing Cover Crops… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover cropping, cover crops, farmers, peaceful valley, ryan, tilling, vacation

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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