Freshman Farmer | New Organic Farms Set Roots

Posts Tagged ‘harvest’

November 22nd, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Friday:

Logan and I arrive later to the farm than desired. We get in a couple of hours of harvesting before the rain picks up. Then, the mild downpour ensues for about 5 hours. As soon as we’re done harvesting, the rain ends!

Admittedly, I was pretty miserable. I’ve grown soft in these last 25 years of life. I guess this is what farming year-round is like -it shows you where you’re soft. Anyway, not harvesting wasn’t an option: we had big order from the co-op and a pre-thanksgiving farmers’ market to attend (thankfully, it was really busy). So, we buckled down and did the harvest. We had help from three friends for an hour and a half, and that helped a lot.

Maybe next year we’ll have so much planted in the fall and winter and we’ll do a CSA so we can afford to keep help on board. That would be nice. I think we’ll do that.

Another photo…check it out! - this is the garlic patch (in the foreground) before it sprouted.

Garlic Patch - pre sprouting

Tags: farmer's market, thanksgiving, harvest. rain

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Chipping Away at the Fall Projects

October 25th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

What a month! On top of the still-abundant harvests, there is so much to do to get ready for winter. The crew, the interns, and I have all been working hard and making serious progress. We’re almost done digging potatoes, the winter squash is in, all of the outdoor fall/winter crops are planted, the garlic is in, beds are ready for next year’s strawberries, mulch & drip lines are out of the field, old crops are under, aisles are tilled, row-cover is on…

But we’re not quite there yet. Hopefully this week we’ll plant all of the cover crop, turn around and plant greenhouse beds with winter greens, dig the remaining potatoes, bring in the rest of the irrigation pipes, etc.

Just another week or two of pushing really hard before things begin to slowdown

Tags: cover crop, greenhouse, harvest, winter, strawberries

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first frost & our first ever csa ends

October 11th, 2009
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm | Blog

Growing my own food is so satisfying, but growing food for others is an honor. The learning experiences I gain every growing season push me to the next season with such great hopes. We received our first frost last night, I would like to say we were prepared for it but that wasn’t the case. The frost delayed our morning CSA harvest as I had to wait for the greens to perk back up. We handed out the years last Sunday CSA shares for the season and then took to the field… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cover crop, CSA, frost, potato harvest

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Honey Harvest

September 2nd, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

We finally harvested the honey from the frames I took out of the hives about a month ago, and it’s the most delicious honey I’ve ever tasted! I love honey because it’s such a sweet distillation of the land I live and work on. There’s a lot of blackberry in there, because the farm is surrounded by blackberries, but there’s so much else as well. It has a complex flavor that is a mix of wild and cultivated nectars. I only harvested six frames, because I had to leave… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: harvest, honey, canning

Posted in: Videos

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Keeping Up

July 2nd, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Trying to keep up with the farm this time of year is intense! The sowing, planting, and weeding continue, while the harvests consume more and more of each week. This morning I spoke with my friend John Gary, who owns G-Farm, and he was talking about the difficulty of pulling in his garlic crop when it takes all his time to keep up with the regular work. When Molly and I sat down to figure how many hours I’ve been working each week, the number we came up with was 80! Honestly, that’s… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: harvest, work load, hours

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Our 1st Ever CSA Harvest!

May 27th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Yes!! The CSA harvests have begun, and we now have 71 members picking up harvests weekly, straight from the farm. 43 of these households came by yesterday (the rest on Friday), and received Carrots, Salad Turnips, Zucchini, Bok Choi, Lettuce, Spinach, Cilantro, and Strawberries. Plus a recipe for Bok Choi Udon Stir Fry. It was really great to talk to everyone and introduce them to the farm. Now it’s up to us to keep up with these twice weekly harvests for the next 26 weeks (and possibly… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: CSA, harvest, members

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The Arcata Plaza Market

May 9th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

The Saturday farmer’s market in the middle of downtown Arcata is the oldest certified farmer’s market in California. It is a thriving weekly community gathering, with live music, food vendors in the middle, and a ring of certified producers surrounding. It is also only one mile from my farm! It is by far the best market to be a vendor at in Humboldt County, and space is limited. I’ve had the good fortune to get a spot there for the last 5 weeks, but because there are a limited… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: farmer's market, harvest, direct sales, marketing, revenue, income, break-even

Posted in: Farm Financials

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A Thousand Words

April 28th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

OK ...I’m not feeling so talkative, so I’ve uploaded photos of some of the more mature crops on the farm right now. Since they are the focus of nearly every waking minute right now, I’ll let them speak for me. Read the rest of this article »

Tags: crops, harvest, growth, maturity

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Planting, Weeding, Harvesting, Watering - It’s On!

April 15th, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Things really kick into high gear on the farm when the harvests begin. The bi-weekly CSA harvests don’t start for a while yet, but just the little bit of harvesting we’re doing for Saturday farmers market reminds me of how much time it takes. My elusive goal each spring is to be totally current on all ground prep, planting, weeding, etc by the time the multiple weekly harvests begin. We’ll see how we do this year. Read the rest of this article »

Tags: harvest, planting, spring, weeding, goals

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Planning

March 8th, 2009
Coyote House Farm | Blog

A little while ago, Drew and I were on tap for a 4-H fundraiser – our son Dave had organized it but was working at the hardware store all day, so we volunteered to go and set up the stuff for him and watch out for any trouble the volunteers running the booth might run into. Bottom line: we were committed to be hanging around a suburban strip mall for hours with nothing much to do. I’m much better with being underutilized than Drew. Sitting around being less than optimally productive really… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: planning, harvest plan, planting plan

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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