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News From the Farm
Jan. 27, 2009
It's been pretty cold around here. We've established that the farm gets anywhere from 5-15 degrees colder than Nashville, especially at the Sulphur Creek gardens. In addition, I haven't seen this much snowfall here since I was much younger. Not that we've had any substantial accumulation, but it has snowed at the farm for the last 3 days! We're only 10 minutes from Nashville, as the crow flies anyway, and the difference in climate is another testament to the uniqueness of this area.
Unfortunately, cold fingers does not mean there isn't work to be done. In fact, it is actually somewhat nice to get outside during the winter and do something productive. The first photo is a collection of the last carrots and beets, frozen several times over, yet still roast or pickle-worthy. The above photo (#2) is Brooke throwing a frozen cow-patty into the truck. What, that needs an explanation? Ok...we're making a special potting mix for our spring seedlings that requires composted cow manure. You wouldn't believe how easy they are to collect when frozen!! You'd have to try it to understand our excitement...
If nothing else, our overwhelming list of winter projects is beginning to shrink (though not by much) and spring planting has actually already begun. We seeded storage onions last week and will seed our leeks soon. People keep asking me what a farmer does during the winter. We still farm!
For all concerned, Red is also doing fine this winter.
Your Farmer,
Eric
Farewell CSA
Dec. 15, 2009
These cabbages took forever to head up. We planted them the beginning of August and finally had just enough full heads to give them out for the last pick up. I love how striking they are. Just thought this an appropriate "title" picture for this post.
On Tuesday, December 15, we had our final CSA pick up for the year. It was a cold day, staying in the low 30s for the entire harvest (8am-2pm) and through the pick up (4-6pm). The wind pushed our cold, wet hands past the numb stage, and straight to aching pain. Even after several good freezes, we still managed to come up with a pretty nice harvest list for our last pick up. It looked something like this:
-Winter Squash (sweet dumplin or carnival)
-Sweet Potatoes
-Red Potatoes (still can't believe these stored so well...in a cave)
-Rutabaga
-Radish (chinese rose and daikon)
-Beets
-Carrots
-Chard (large bunches)
-Salad Mix (lettuce, mizuna, arugula, spinach)
-Celery (all you want)
-Amber Turnips
-Parsley (all you want)
-Garlic (all you want)
All this stuff looked pretty good washed, bunched, or bagged, and made for a nice end to the season. The salad mix was the only foolish idea I took on, and I only went through with it because it was the last pick up. Our row covers, the two keeping the lettuce warm enough to live in December, blew off Monday night, freezing almost all of the lettuce to a non-recoverable state. Realizing this Tuesday morning after putting Salad mix on the harvest list, I had to scrounge around to find enough small leaves to make it happen. I ended up robbing the super-late transplanting of fall lettuce, cutting the top growth off of the 200 or so lettuce plants that were to feed us this winter...
We cut all the Spinach, Mizuna, and Arugula and took it up to my house where we double washed, and hand spun the 50 bags of salad mix. Catie did most of the work, and it still took us hours. Never try to accomplish post-harvest-handling projects that you just aren't set up to do. Here's the hard & heavy veg table (things you don't want on top of greens). Wish I had a shot of the greens table.
Anyway, it was a fun pick up, despite the cold, and lots of folks gathered under the shed to hang out after getting their food. Several CSA members stayed for dinner after the farm pick up ended, and even some barefoot guy named Jeff showed up for dinner and a great end-of-season jam.
So the CSA season is now officially over. Where's the relief?! Now I actually have to start addressing all of the things that I planned to "get to in the winter".
What an incredible season, what incredible people...what a bunch of miracles.
November 29, 2009
Everything grows so slow in the cold! We've now harvested the largest carrots in the field for the last two weeks, which comes out to about 1,400 carrots for all of you. Along with the beets, I expected the smaller carrots to fill out by now so we could harvest larger carrots until the end of the season. With the slow-growing, however, it looks like I'll have to rest the roots for a week until they get a bit larger. Also, the phrase "end of the season" seems to be highly relative, as most other CSA's have ended for the season. I'm curious to see how long we can keep the garden going and these cold nights are quickly answering that question. I'm also still figuring out the small frost pocket that the main gardens are in. Some of our frost-protecting row covers blew off Friday night and by the time I got around to covering the plants back up at 8pm they were frozen solid... Even with the 6 degree protection that the row covers provide, the tips of the plants still get frost burned. You've probably noticed that some of the lettuce has yellowish-brown leaf tips. This is only from the frost, and can easily be cut off when you get them home.
Also, a special thanks to Dawn Hazen for supplying the CSA with lots of fresh herbs this season. Dawn's daughter Amelia interned on the farm the entire summer, helped us with many projects, and eventually got her family to join the CSA. Thank you Dawn and Amelia!
Take care,
October 20, 2009
Brrrr. The nights have been getting cooler and cooler, and we saw our first
frost last night (Saturday). Because we usually get a few degrees colder than Nashville,
our afternoon was a frantic scramble to cover several of the rows, the winter squash,
and harvest all the peppers. The frost left long, dark-colored rows of basil, zinnias, and
luffa squash, none of which we will see again until next summer. We covered the
peppers as well, but tonight’s freeze may take them out.
We harvested a lot of peppers before the frost, so expect free choice on them.
This is a good opportunity to freeze or can some peppers for the winter, so use it!
After a freezing night, we saw one of the warmest days we've had in a while
thanks to the sun. The plants loved the sunlight as much as we did, and although I got
sunburned after working all day, the decent, rare weather made it worthwhile. We
spent the day planting garlic (finally), and will spend tomorrow doing the same. We
planted over 30lbs today, and will plant another 20lbs as the field continues to dry.
On Wednesday I will be attending a conference in Virginia, followed by a
forced vacation in Western, NC until November 1. I will miss you all and the garden
dearly, but will really enjoy a break, old friends, and my old home in the mountains.
The farm will be in the good hands of Brooke, Liz, and Rachel.
Stay warm,
Eric Wooldridge- Farm Manager
October 13, 2009
It was a real pleasure to re-meet many of you at the Sylvan Park pick
up last Tuesday. Please remember that you are more than welcome to change
pick up locations, even for just a week, if you let Alan or I know a day in
advance. I also hope to be planting garlic this weekend, so contact me if you
would like to lend a hand.
The farm crew is still evolving, and it was sad last Thursday to say
goodbye to Evan and Dan, our interns from Chicago. They arrived in June,
planning on a one-month stay, but ended up working for nearly 5. They both
said that living on the farm was the most profound decision and experience of
their lives. Relative to this summer, the crew is somewhat of a skeleton with
only Brooke, Liz, myself, and Buddy, our 5-month-and-counting intern from
Oak Ridge, TN.
In the gardens, things are still wet. Our cover crop is finally coming up
in the ½-acre winter squash/pumpkin/tomato garden, as well as George's 1/3-
acre corn patch. The inability to work in the garden is frustrating, but there is
always something else that needs to be done, whether sorting potatoes in the
cave, moving tools and winter squash into the new barn, turning compost, or
marking off our new Hill Garden for next year.
Quick note about sweet potatoes: they need to be cured! Freshly dug
sweet potatoes, like yours, need to cure in a warm place with high humidity
for several weeks. This greatly improves sweetness and storage quality, unlike
most store-bought sweet potatoes. So, although they are still mighty good, the
sweet potatoes you receive will get better and better throughout the remainder
of the year!
Eric Wooldridge- Farm Manager
October 6, 2009
This weekend I made a trip to Jeff Poppen's farm to attend the annual
Biodynamic Conference. It was great weekend for me and the first real, much needed
break I have had so far this growing season. Besides giving a presentation on what we
are doing in the Bend, it was a weekend full of great workshops and support from
fellow biodynamic farmers. Brooke, my farming partner, and I left feeling very
centered and focused. We pulled into the gravel driveway along the two main
gardens, driving especially slow to admire the tall-standing rows of chard, carrots,
beets, and lettuce--smiling at the leaves of green, red, and yellow standing out against
a backdrop of black soil and a darkening sky.
Settling into a cold and rainy evening, I'm wondering more and more if we will
get an early frost this fall. Our first frost date is usually in late October, but our mild
summer and dropping nighttime temps make me feel like we will get an earlier frost.
The lettuce is loving the cooler weather, but the extra water is hurting us. We've
already lost a 150-foot row of fall kale to the excess rain, and I will try an extra-late
replanting when the soil dries out a bit.
The buggers seem to also be sensing the coming cold, as they have decided to
have their final feast in the garden. One annoying beetle species in particular has
taken quite a liking to your Bok Choy plants. I, nor any growers in our area, have been
able to identify him. If the damage continues, we may all be eating Bok Choy this
week instead of in four...
I will also try to come up with enough beet greens for everyone (very good for you and
delicious), decorative fall gourds/pumpkins, and the sweet potatoes are not far off.
Lastly, we finally received our 100 lb. order of- you won't believe this- BIG garlic!
Hold your breath--it's all for planting in a week.
September 29, 2009
After nearly two weeks of overcast, wet weather, we have sunlight! My hope is that we
will have dry weather for at least 4 days so we can weed, transplant, and harvest. We've already
harvested most of the pumpkins, gourds, and giant cushaw squash. The luffa squash (luffa
sponge) are the only living vines keeping us from planting the roadside garden with a cover
crop. Tomorrow we will pull out and compost all 300 or so tomato plants, then move the cages
to the fall pea row to serve as a trellis (their ready to climb!) After we harvest the last of the
pole and bush beans on Tuesday, we'll take down the epic bamboo bean trellis (over 800 8ft
poles).
Even though things are still very busy, we are already planning for next year. We're
researching pig varieties and meeting regularly with Fletcher, who is starting a large chicken
operation on the farm next spring (ham, bacon, and organic eggs/chicken for the CSA). If we
get two days of full sun I will begin to work new ground, fencing off and plowing a 1 acre
garden on a hill in the back pasture. I will use this new field to grow sweet potatoes and
peppers, as these plants prefer lower quality soil that is characteristic of most hills and ridges. It
seems like a day does not pass when I am not writing down an improvement learned for next
year.
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