Freshman Farmer | New Organic Farms Set Roots

Posts Tagged ‘food’

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 nearly everything I brought!

The conference was a great one as well. The Plan it Green conference is a great learning opportunity and networking event on the broad topic of building green communities. This year’s them was “Local Self Reliance - making connections”, and one of the focuses was on local food systems. I had the opportunity to present on a panel that took a broad view of the current state of our local food systems and highlighted opportunities for enhancement. Sara Mosser, a local planner, spoke about policies that support local food systems (like Community Food Assessments) and gave many examples of innovative projects being undertaken by communities around the country. Melanie Patrick, representing our local CAFF chapter, spoke about food distribution models both past and present and provided insight into how we can help local producers connect with local institutions like schools and hospitals. I spoke about accessing farmland, and about promoting “food literacy” so that all our citizens can become more comfortable growing, purchasing, and cooking local, whole foods.

The conference drew in over 1,000 people, and it was great to see fellow Freshman Farmer Dustin Dougherty there (see his good blog posting, too!).

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

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Gleaning for the Hungry

August 19th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

As in most rural communities, Humboldt County has a good deal of food insecurity. There are a lot of folks who are unemployed, under-employed, living paycheck to paycheck, who just can’t access adequate amounts of healthy food. One of the organizations working to ameliorate this is Food for People, the food bank for Humboldt County. Like all food banks, they channel food from the USDA commodities program, from local stores, from local donations, etc. But these sources are often unable to supply much fresh produce, so balanced nutrition is a challenge. Food for People is (at least partially) addressing this problem by operating a gleaning program with local farms. Staff and volunteers coordinate with farmers to harvest surplus or unmarketable produce right from the fields and get it to folks who can’t purchase it for themselves.

Farms often have unsellable produce for various reasons, but it is too costly for the farmer to harvest and donate it. I feel thankful that because of Food for People’s gleaning program, I don’t have to till in edible produce, and can instead help to better people’s nutrition.

Tags: food bank, donations, fresh, produce

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Summer Bounty

August 15th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

I’m beginning to feel the bounty of mid-summer. I live up on the North side of a hill with an incredible view, and the farm is down below my house where the terrain levels out and the exposure is better, but it also means that the cool air collects down in that hollow. There are two streams on either side of the field which cool the air a bit, so at night it is always about five degrees cooler at the farm than at my house. It’s definitely not the best location for quick summer… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: food, melons, summer

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Turnips

March 22nd, 2009
Coyote House Farm | Blog

We’re planting turnips this year, not because they are companion crops or because we love them, but because I read that turnip and radish seed, planted with clover, will boost nitrogen content. We’re already planting some radish as companions to other plants for pest control which will go to seed, so I decided to plant some turnips as well, and let some of them go to seed. We can practice collecting seeds using turnips and radishes as the test subjects, and then follow up that seed-collecting… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: nitrogen, turnips, companion crops, biointensive, bio-intensive, food calorie yield, calorie crops, radish seed, clover

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Cucumbers Return, Workers on the Way Out

September 17th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

I didn’t realize it, but, we had a lot of cucumbers for the market today. It was a surprise. I’m looking forward to re-juicing the CSA with the cucs. We tried celery at the market today. Some sold. I cut individual stalks, not the whole plant, so a lot of shoppers didn’t even know that it was celery. So, I realize that it must be labeled very well in the future. Also, it is a lot darker green than store celery, so…yeah. I like it. I guess that counts for… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: celery, cristen, CSA, cucumbers, fresh food, land management, market, peaceful valley, ryan, wildgrace

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The Supermarket Mentality

June 2nd, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Image from Wikipedia. Click here for the original image context. One of the thoughts that the CSA has to deal with is what I call the Supermarket Mentality. We are at once blessed and cursed to live in a society in which food is abundant and readily available. Blessed because food, in my opinion, is a necessary component for human survival, and when it is abundant, we are given the opportunity to spend more time facing our existential challenges (which I consider important). Cursed because… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: food, peas, supermarket

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How to support local farmers (and save the world)

April 2nd, 2008
Peaceful Valley

Reposted at InTheLoop.GrowOrganic.com I am pretty new to the “Buy Local” or “Know Your Grower” concept, I joined my first CSA only last year. In that short amount of time I have become a huge supporter of the local food movement. Joining and volunteering on a CSA farm was so influential in my life that since becoming enlightened to the movement I have changed my career path, my eating habits, and my leisure activities to align with the movement, even my politics have been… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: broccoli, buy local, crop failure, CSA, farmer, grower, invest, local food, preserving, rain, risk, sun, work

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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