Freshman Farmer | New Organic Farms Set Roots

Posts Tagged ‘peas’

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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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 in late May, and we also planted Lettuce, Broccoli, Baby Bok Choi, and Spinach for early Farmer’s Markets in April & May. These will complement the early crops now occupying the greenhouses.

The question now is how soon ‘till the soil dries up enough to work in cover crop and begin making the new season’s beds. Hopefully it won’t be too long…

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

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Getting an Early Start

January 17th, 2010
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Getting an early harvest is often a real plus for farmers. The prices for the produce are higher, and boosting the diversity of your early farmer’s market table can attract customers and draw sales. For my CSA, getting an extra-early start on some of the longer-maturing crops means that I can begin sooner in the year with a good spread by matching them with later-planted short season crops. Getting that early harvest usually also means putting in some extra work. One of the techniques… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: carrots, peas, plastic mulch, early harvest, raised beds

Posted in: How-To Tips & Tricks

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Cilantro and Summer

July 16th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

I love planting things that have many uses. A good example of this is cilantro. You can harvest several cuttings from the leaves for the delicious herb we all know and love. Once it gets hot, it will bolt, and I’ve been using the flowers in bouquets which are beautiful, as well as fragrant. If not too reminiscent of Mexican food. I’m also hoping to harvest some of the seed which is known by the common name of coriander. One plant, that can harvested three times in three different… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: cilantro, peas, many uses, pickling

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A Good Spring For Peas

June 18th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

We’ve had an unseasonably cool spring and thus the peas are producing like mad. We have two varieties of snow peas, Oregon Sugar pod and Mammoth Melting. The Oregon Sugar Pod germinated better and initially produced more peas, but the Mammoth Melting is starting to catch up. They are delicious and crunchy. They also have grown quite tall, as you can see in one of the photos. One of the peas was bigger than my thumb. We have been harvesting almost every day, it’s pretty fun. I… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: peas

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A Community Work Party

June 10th, 2009
EarthDance Farm | Blog

Last Monday we had our 1st Community Work Party on the farm, and it was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Not only did we have the help of about 12 apprentices and a few significant others, but many other friends and strangers alike showed up, ready to lend a hand. The biggest task on our plate was our sugar snap pea harvest. The plants were full of them and wanted to be lightened up in a major way. I wish I knew exactly how many pounds we picked (and then sold out of at market!), but it was at least… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: community, markets, sugar snap peas

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What to do on a rainy day

April 13th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

It’s been the perfect spring here in the Sierra foothills so far, and after a few weeks of sunshine, we had several days of soft spring rain. It slowed down our planting, as we couldn’t till in the saturated soil, and became a perfect time to put up our pea trellis in the breaks between showers. We have two 50 foot rows of edible pod peas, and they are staring to get big enough to climb. We used 5 foot t-posts and chicken wire, and erected a mini-fence for them to climb (with all… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: peas, rain, trellis

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WA Weather - Wet

March 26th, 2009
Hand Sown Homegrown Heritage Farm | Blog

bed prep for onions/leeks transplants under agribond (notice the plastic is blown off our row cover) snow in March Farming in the wonderful Pacific Northwest is a good way to become mental. We love it; the weather really keeps things interesting and your “plans” ever changing. Here in Washington State it rains in spring. We are hunters and hopefuls for a mildly sunny, dry day. Last season in a single day we experienced sun, rain, sleet, and snow. This year back in February we experienced… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: arugula, cabbage, cover crop, garlic, heirloom tomatoes, leeks, lettuce, march, onions, peas, radishes, spinach, Kales, Salad Greens, Pac Choy, Tatsoi, Bok Choy, Broccoli Raab, row covers, 5 row seeder, eliot coleman, early spring

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Sugar Snap Peas

March 24th, 2009
EarthDance Farm | Blog

Today Julie and I met at the farm to try to get the peas in before the rain hit. The weatherman had us believing a big storm was coming in.. so we were eager to get them planted so that the rain could just water them in. It didn’t rain today.. was windy, but no rain. We got over 500 ft of sugar snap peas in, and have one more lb of seed to plant. I remember last year picking the sugar snap peas past their prime because it heated up so quickly.. I was just picking them for myself at that point… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: sugar snap peas

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Almost Started

March 16th, 2009
Four Frog Farm | Blog

We wanted to start discing a couple of acres today. Instead it rained yesterday and today, so we’ll wait a little longer until it dries out again. I’m itching to prepare some land right now. The spring crops are ready to be planted. We’ll try for 1/2 acre each of broccoli, peas, and potatos. And in addition we want to seed a slew of leafy greens, lettuce mixes, spinach…the works. Have you seen all the other freshman farmers. I’m a face in a crowd now. I won’t… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: broccoli, peas, spinach, spring, potatos, freshman farmers

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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