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Posts Tagged ‘potatoes’

Looking back on Summer

November 20th, 2011
Wise Moon Farm | Blog

The heat of Summer has passed and the chill of Fall has arrived.

The last red ripe strawberries and tomatoes were picked several weeks ago.

We enjoyed a great harvest of apples, grapes, blackberries, strawberries, onions, potatoes, sunchokes, tomatoes, chard, kale, cabbage, and much more. Our fig tree we ordered this year from Peacefull Valley gave us a dozen delicious figs.

All the animals on the farm are doing great.

All four Bee Colonies are healthy and thriving. We harvested a few jars of honeycomb and honey from the hives. We left everything else for them to have for the winter. We practice natural beekeeping. We believe it’s healthier for the bees to have honey instead of fed sugar.

Now we are focused on our fall crops. Microgreens are going in the greenhouse. Cilantro, peas, Italian parsley, and other herbs are doing well. Potatoes, onions, garlic, and red shallots have all been planted.

The Earthworm bin has been moved to the greenhouse. We are now focused on cleaning the beds and planting cover crops. Looking forward to the next harvest.

Tags: Wise Moon Farm, summer crops, peacefull valley, bees, honey, honey comb, onions, shallots, chard, kale, garlic, potatoes, harvest

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Potatoes

June 27th, 2010
Ellwood Canyon Farms | Blog

I planted some potatoes this weekend that I’m pretty excited about. Did four different varieties, 200 feet of each, purple, yellow, german, and fingerling. I borrowed an old cultivating tractor from another farmer Shawn Mchamon of Out of Step Farms. I used it to dig the trenches and then cover the potatoes. I will also use it to cultivate and hill the potatoes as they begin to grow. A big thanks to Shawn, the tractor is a tremendous help.

Summer is here and the tomatoes and sunflowers seem to be very happy with all the sunshine we’ve been getting.

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Other than that nothing major to report. Just chugging away trying to keep up with everything…....

Tags: potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers

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Out of Control Potato Planting

May 21st, 2009
DeepSeeded Community Farm | Blog

Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating, but we now have close to an acre of potatoes planted! I wanted a big potato patch, so I bought 700 lbs of seed potato, but I didn’t expect it to cover so much ground. For one thing, our rows are pretty far apart. By placing one row between my tractor tires (60 inches on-center), I can weed and hill with my tractor. We also cut the seed potato smaller than I have in the past. Anyway, we’re in for a whole lot of potato digging! I had looked… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: planting, potatoes, tractor, varieties, hilling, seed potato, storage

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Odds and Ends

May 7th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

We had a real spring storm over the weekend. The sky opened and dropped over three inches of rain. It really slowed down our frantic tilling schedule as the ground was compleletly saturated once again. Kind of like the eye of the storm, we just couldn’t keep going at the same pace. The compost we were having delivered couldn’t make it up into the farm area because of the mud…. It seemed like a natural time to tie up other odds and ends. We finally got our electric fence… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: potatoes, rain, tilling, transplants, bees, electric fence, turtle

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Planting Potatoes

March 30th, 2009
Honey in the Heart Farm | Blog

We’ve been planting potatoes, which is a particularly back-breaking task as we’re doing almost everything by hand. The way I’ve grown potatoes before, and seems to work well here, is to dig a fairly deep trench and plant the potatoes in the bottom, so that as they grow you can hill them directly into the trench with the loose dirt on the sides. It makes for less work in the future, but a lot of digging presently. I am grateful though that the soil is the perfect moisture at… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: potatoes, rocks, digging, soil moisture

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Farm Update

July 3rd, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Now we have completed week nine of the CSA. This week we offered: tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash, carrots, lettuce mix, turnips, garlic, sweet corn!, kale and bulbing fennel. It was a good week, and next week is looking great also, with potatoes and leeks on the menu. It seems a little out of season to have potatoes and leeks, because I love potato-leek soup a lot, but, hey, those will be ready. Out at the farm, the tomatoes are really productive, yet could be looking better. … Read the rest of this article »

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A Transition

June 13th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

So much has changed in the past 5 months. Of course the physical layout of the farm has changed dramatically…going from virgin meadow to cover crop to intense/intensive vegetable cultivation. Alike, my mind is wrapping around and becoming comfortable with the ever-changing dynamic of the farm. We have completed six weeks of the CSA, a quarter of the season, with 18 more weeks to go. We have had broccoli every week, buy now that we are approaching consistent mid-90 degree temps at… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: basil, broccoli, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, kale chard, lettuce mix, potatoes, summer squash, tomatoes, yukon gold

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Pharm Updayte

May 27th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

The broccoli has been great and in full effect for the last few weeks. We are doing heavy pickings from the main heads and side shoots, with lots more coming. The first two plantings of cauliflower have failed, due to (a) gophers (b) freak super-cold snap at the end of april (c) freak super hot spell (100 degrees for 5 straight days) in mid May, which caused the curds to separate and be no good. The third is looking good and hope to have that. In the future I don’t want to grow… Read the rest of this article »

Tags: april, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cold snap, cucumbers, daikon, farm update, gophers, kale, may, peppers, potatoes, radish, tomatoes

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Retooling

April 16th, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

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 »

Tags: broccoli, CSA, finances, members, potatoes, sugar snap peas, tomatoes

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Two 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:
	Laughing Duck Farm Newcastle, CA
	Starbright Acres 12575 Polaris Dr, Grass Valley, CA
Graduates:
	Coyote House Farm Palermo, CA
	Daily Grace Farms Crescent City, CA
	DeepSeeded Community Farm Arcata, CA
	Driftwood Farm Fort Bragg, CA
	EarthDance Farm St. Louis, MO
	Ellwood Canyon Farms Goleta, CA
	Freestone Family Farm Vernal, UT
	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
	Wise Moon Farm Redding, CA