Sunday Morning at the farm.  I’m sure it’s pretty glorious.  I live a little bit away from the farm (20-25 minutes), so I am rarely there on Sunday morn.  It’s my morning off.  I am going there later to water the onion flats and switch some watering in the main field.

Next year it looks like I’ll be farming on a 10 acre piece of land right down the road from where I live.  I will continue to farm at Wildgrace (Glenn and Muffy’s) next year as well.  I want to put in about 50 peach trees there as a test - I’ll see how well they do during a long, hot, dry season (it has been in the 90’s since May).  I’m planting all the garlic, shallots and onions and leeks there this fall, and hope to do early peas, tomatoes and squash there in the Spring.

So, my farm career is evolving.  This year has been encouraging and lets me know that farming can be an economically viable labor.  Small  Farming makes me heavily dependent on top production, diversification, and marketing - especially direct marketing through the CSA and farmers’ markets.  That is the difference between solvency and sunk - direct marketing.  Wholesale means no money for me.  I would need another job to augment farming - unless it were done on vast acreage, probably mono-cropping - but that isn’t the same thing anymore and not what I want to do.

I started farming because I had a thirst for it.  I couldn’t imagine another job for me.  I still feel that way, however I have switched my focus to a service-orientation as well.  I want to provide good, fresh, clean veggies for my community members, friends.  I guess that’s what I’ll have to do to enjoy this job to the fullest.

The honeydew melons are just beginning to ripen.  It is delicious to have a fresh, well-grown honeydew.  The sweet corn takes too much water.  I wonder if it’s worth it? The days haven’t been too hot here.  That means slower ripening, but still a good amount.  The tomatoes are still going strong, and I hope they do all the way through October.  We’ll see about that. I am planning and planting all of our stuff for late september/october.  That includes Kale, Chard, lots of… Read the rest of this article »

After 2 long months of hot weather, it appears that we are in store for more hot weather.  That means, more irrigation, more aphids, more tomatoes, and less salad mix. My season started in February, full on.  I just completed month 6 in the season.  The CSA still has 2 more months, while the markets go for another 3 around here.  If I had more space I would be a little more excited about the fall, but as it is, there isn’t much room for a huge fall thing.  I am making… Read the rest of this article »

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 »

We are now entering week four (of 24) for the CSA.  Today we had our drop-off/pick-up for our 10 monday members.  We have 23 members in all - 10 on Monday and 13 on Wednesday.  We are going to add members when the summer stuff really picks up, but for now, that is our max. Let’s see what was in the boxes: 1 lb Sugar Snap/Snow Peas Zucchini/Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash Romaine and Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce Heads Broccoli Basil Parsley Radishes Garlic Scapes Lacinato Kale Rainbow Chard… Read the rest of this article »

The first boxes had: Daikon radish, salad radishes, kale, tat soi, baby stir fry mix, lettuce mix, broccoli, rosemary, oregano, dill and baby spinach. Next week it will be very similar, yet much more broccoli.  Carrots are still a couple of weeks away, as are beets, peas, cabbage, cauliflower and chard. We are gearing up for a maha (great) week at the farm, with many hundreds of row feet to be direct seeded.  We are getting 50 yards of compost to bolster the tilth and nutrition of the soil. … Read the rest of this article »

About 15 or so people have committed to the CSA by paying me.  Up until yesterday I was dilligently working to get that number up to 30. However, yesterday it occurred to me that I was feeling quite a bit of pressure to feed 30 families, so I’m going to start the season with about 15, and accept more members as we roll on into June, when the abundance of summer starts to flood in. I feel better. Financially, this probably isn’t a wise move.  I don’t care.  It feels better to… Read the rest of this article »