Simply Sustainable...My Life on an Organic Farm.

NEW MOON FARM LIVES TO SEE ANOTHER SEASON!!!

2012-01-10T14:27:00.001-05:00

THANKS TO MY VERY GENEROUS AND SUPPORTIVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY, AND SOME VERY HARD DECISIONS I MADE ON MY OWN, I AM NOW BACK ON MY FEET AND MOVING FORWARD WITH THE FARM PLAN! THE NEW GREENHOUSE WILL BE UP AND RUNNING IN TIME FOR THE 2012 SEASON AND I AM OVER THE MOON!!!

I CAN ONLY SAY THAT YOU ALL HAVE MY ETERNAL GRATITUDE!!

~ SUZANNE

Thank you

2012-01-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

My deepest and most humble thanks to those of you who responded to my ChipIn. It has been heartening to know that people do care. I cannot say enough how much your gifts mean to me.
Thank you so very, very much.

~Suzanne

The Great Mystery

2011-03-05T12:10:00.014-05:00

I wrote this about a month before Dave died and never published it. I thought it was time.....
Suddenly a sadness has overcome me with the realization that my life here at New Moon Farm is quickly coming to an end. I have such wonderful memories of how Dave and I started this little organic farm. On a shoestring, with nothing more than a lot of grand ideas and a dream, we began what would be a decade long odyssey pursuing something that meant the world to both of us.

In the beginning, we had no intention of turning this into a working organic farm. We only wanted to be as sustainable as possible, grow our own organic food and be as "off grid" and self sufficient as we could manage. And we did a pretty good job of it, too. Dave called this New Moon Farm because, as I have quoted before, the new moon in Native American culture signifies new beginnings and endless possibilities and that resonated with us both.

Also, as a very spiritual man, Dave liked the idea that the new moon also represented "The Great Mystery" (God, if you will). Everything that he ever did here was thought out with the guiding hand of that Higher Power in every word and deed. He didn't go to church because he didn't feel comfortable with listening to the subject matter in most of the sermons being given. He believed that to truly find God you had to look within yourself.

He also strongly believed that the clergy had a responsibility and the perfect opportunity to speak to the many growing environmental concerns and overall abuse of this beautiful planet by mankind, as well as man's abuse of himself. It was his opinion that the clergy had influence that would encourage people to pay attention and that the opportunity was being wasted by the vast majority of them. That bothered him a lot and so he chose to be close to the Great Spirit in the earth, the sky, the sea and the wind. He also refused to refer to God as anything but the Creator, the Great Spirit or the Universe but his reasons for that were deeply personal and I won't go into that here.

Dave was still the most spiritual man I have ever known. His intuitive nature enabled him to see things with such clarity that sometimes he astounded me with the depth of his preceptions. He told me many times that he felt the Presence within himself when he was out working in the fields. Every seed he planted, every spade of dirt he turned, he did in service to God and to his fellow man. That was a pretty powerful motivation for him and it guided every thing that he did in the gardens. He has such a respect for all living things that he said a small prayer each time he turned under a spent crop, thanking it for providing for us.

He planted by the signs, spiritual ones, that were as clear to him as if they had been written in a manual on how to grow using the Creator's hand. I wish I had the level of awareness that he had in matters like that. All I can do is focus on remembering what he taught me over the years and hope that what I do makes him proud.

2011-02-01T09:03:00.002-05:00

‎Grief is a universal emotion, not exclusive to the human race and it makes my heart ache to think that life has to be so brutal. But maybe without knowing loss, without knowing grief we would not realize how very precious life is and we would not cling to it with every fiber of our being. I guess that is what survival instinct really boils down to because even though I hate a lot of my life right now, the alternative scares me to pieces.

2011-01-21T08:54:00.002-05:00

I am in the process of combining this blog with another one. If it gets a little weird here for a while, not to worry. I haven't gone round the bend. Sometimes Blogger's system is an enigma to me.....

Tiny Dog versus The Evil 18 Wheeler

2011-01-10T09:33:00.014-05:00

It is very early and I take two of my dogs out in the snow. There is no sound because the world is still sleeping under its cold blanket, the one woven in shades of blue and gray. It is beautiful and oddly comforting to me this morning, even though my feet are freezing in my less than adequate shoes.

I do not leash the dogs because going out at this very early hour is the only chance that they will have to run free today. The weather will keep us inside and they will have to be quiet for the sake of others in the house. After being in their nice warm beds, they are cold but it has been a long night and they have been indoors longer than usual. They are eager for relief.

Both of my dogs are mostly white, with only a little color splashed here and there, so they disappear into the drifts, immediately reappearing, like they are blinking in and out of reality. Diva is the young, impulsive one and she bounds along in the snow like she has springs for legs, occasionally stopping to push her nose down into the snow and coming up snorting, blowing the cold from her black, button nose. The other is my sweet, serious Maggie. She is Diva's mother and she is an intense little dog, always on alert, watching out for something that might need her attention. Diva has run to investigate something interesting on the other side of the yard but Maggie ignores her. No time for play now. She has a job to do and trots purposefully ahead of me.

As we walk, we round the side of the house and there is an 18-wheeler parked there. The driver is talking on his cell phone, back lit by the street lamp behind him so I can only see his silhouette. He is smoking a cigarette and I see the red tip of it brighten as he inhales. The rumbling vibration of the truck's engine makes the ground shudder under the snow and Maggie, who weighs all of 10 lbs on a good day, runs over to confront this "monster" that might be threatening her people. She was raised a farm dog and knows what she needs to do.

A monstrous mountain of steel, puffing and belching and growling and she confronts it without hesitation. It is a thousand times her size but I can read her intent from her posture. She does not bark. She stands like a statue for moment and then lifts her head to sniff the air. She will attack The Monster if it makes just....one...wrong...move. I call her back to me. I have to tell her twice to come before she breaks her concentration and obeys the command. Threat forgotten, she bounds away after Diva and the spell is broken.

There was no real danger here but she doesn't know that. She knows no fear, only what she perceives her duty to be...to protect us, even if it costs her life. She is willing to sacrifice herself for me and that humbles me. The love I feel for this tiny creature suddenly overwhelms me and nearly brings me to my knees. I have lost so much in the last year but I still have her. She is my friend, my companion on this bleak journey I did not ask to take. She is my last living link to my former life and it is hard to explain how much that means to me. She is the only one left, besides me, who still remembers.

I am glad tears don't freeze.

2010-12-25T09:27:00.001-05:00

Not MIA...just working elsewhere,,,,,

2010-12-16T10:22:00.000-05:00

Visit my alter ego blog The Artful Omnivore to see what I have been up to lately.

2010-10-29T09:25:00.000-04:00

Working on projects in the house this week. Nothing much interesting to write about on this blog. Creative juices flowing but no cash to follow through. Got some funds coming in next week that should put me back on the road to something....don't know what but something.

2010-10-25T10:27:00.000-04:00

It is raining today so that put the kibosh on any outside plans I had for today. I am kind of glad about that because the other day I was working on getting all my pots, etc. up to put into storage and I had a little experience that made me throw down what I was working on and literally run away.

I had all kinds of stuff in pots this year and I was pulling out the dead stuff and dumping out the dirt into a big bin, so I could reuse it next season to fill in stuff. I paid good money for that organic potting soil, so I always reuse what I can. Anyway, I had been dumping out small 3" plastic pots for about 20 minutes, which is a totally mindless thing to be doing, so I was not paying any attention. I just happened to look down and see that the dirt
from the pot I had just emptied was moving so I took a twig and scratched the dirt around and there was a BIG, FAT BLACK WIDOW SPIDER. I threw down the twig, ran about 30 feet and screamed like a little girl.

When I was at the farm every day, a spider like that would not have drawn a second glance, other than to make sure it wasn't where somebody might get their hands on it accidentally. Good thing I was wearing gloves, though. A black widow bite is extremely painful though rarely fatal so I wasn't in any real danger. Life-threatening reactions are generally seen only in small children and the elderly and I am neither of those. I was bitten by a Hobo spider when we lived in Oregon and they are much more dangerous. It wasn't pleasant, but I survived.

Black Widow

2010-10-23T13:30:00.002-04:00

Today I am working on a project that started back before Dave passed away. It was something that was very important to us and I have just not been in a frame of mind where I have felt like I could continue to work on it. I have not really felt inspired to put anything new up for a long time, but if I am going to survive, I have to get my butt in gear and move in a positive direction. Dave taught me better than that.

Dave's biggest pet peeve was "negativity". I remember once in particular, when I was just trying to be the "voice of reason" when we were planning a project, that I pointing out the cons of whatever it might have been, he looked at me and said that I should only be putting positive intentions out to the Universe. He also said that if they were good ones, the negative stuff would just work itself out and that I should stop wasting my pro vibes on stuff that didn't matter. That may sound kind of naive to some people, but it was totally true. When Dave wanted to accomplish something, he rarely failed to master whatever he was trying to do. I need to channel him a little more often, instead of just missing him so much.

I am also working on redesigning the old website, so that it is more up to date and a little less downbeat. I have some grand new plans for next season (2011) and I can't wait to reveal some of the new stuff. I think it is gonna be good.

2010-10-21T18:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, I admit it. I am wishy washy. I said I wasn't going to post much on this blog anymore, but I keep coming back to it. It is like a comfortable old pair of jeans you just can't seem to throw out because there might be one more season of wear left in them. This blog feels like home and so I have come back to it again...most likely to stay.

To paraphrase that guy from Extreme Makeover, "Welcome home, Suzanne Ballard, welcome home...."

2010-09-06T10:38:00.001-04:00

Oh my! I just looked at the last time I posted something here. It has been like 6 weeks. I have to admit that there is nothing much going on right now. I have had to postpone my readying of the raised beds due to lack of fundage. That is something that is not easy to overcome, so I am just hanging in, putting it out to the Universe that I need a miracle to happen. That was a veiled reference to the Grateful Dead for the uninitiated. Actually, I am waiting on some funds from the state of NC from Dave's estate....waiting, and waiting, and waiting......

Anyway, I have a new food blog, The Artful Omnivore, which I have been putting a whole lot of work into. I am basically moving my recipe index from my old website over to that one, plus a whole lot more information. It is turning out to be quite a nice diversion, while I am waiting to get started on the beds.

Sorry about yesterday's rant. Today is a better day.

2010-07-30T12:43:00.003-04:00

I was tottering on the rim of Despair Canyon yesterday but I am back on solid ground today. Have recovered most of my balance overnight. After the last couple of months, I was actually starting to feel pretty okay with my situation. I had just gotten settled into what I thought was going to be a comfortable, semi-permanent space while my new diggs are being rehabbed but then found out that I had to move yet again and I had 12 hours to do so. Had to pack up everything I had moved in and store it yet again. Now I am living out of my backpack....oh well, I lived in a tent on top of a mountain for almost a year, I guess I will survive this, too. I will survive this, I will survive this, I will survive this......

2010-07-29T12:03:00.003-04:00

I think that this blog may be becoming passe. There is no more organic farm for me to expound on and talk about how wonderful my life is. My mother-in-law saw to that almost immediately after Dave died. I can't believe that the very people who were supposed to be my family could turn on me like that at a point where I was dealing with the most devastating blow of my life. Over 4 months later and the hurt from that is almost unbearable and I fluctuate between anger and misery at being treated so shabbily.

So, now I am living in as a virtual homeless person. Oh, I do have a roof over my head and people all around who love and support me but I have no place to call my own, not really. And that is very depressing for someone who is and has always been, fiercely independent. Having to depend on others for everything is depressing and embarrassing but I simply have no choice. But I am so very lucky that I did have someone to turn to in my time of need that all I can feel for that is gratitude and love. That does balance the negative energy from the other situation, but it is exhausting to be on such an emotional roller coaster. Until I can get myself together, nothing will change and so I am trying to hang on best I can.

The love of my life is no longer beside me and I am so lonely for him that some days I can hardly function. I run on the adrenaline of the near panic that I feel at being in this situation. Everything I own jammed into a storage unit where I can find nothing. I packed up our entire life in a haze of numbing grief and tears and now I can't recall if I even managed to pack some things. (Many widows I have talked to have taken literally years to be able to part with things that belonged to their spouses yet I was forced into doing just that literally within the first weeks after Dave's death. I wasn't allowed the privilege of having even time to process my loss emotionally and that has taken a dire toll on my psyche.)

I know that I have to do something but the grief that I still feel at the passing of my best friend/husband is paralyzing me into non-action and I don't know what to do about it. I spend all my waking hours trying to fill the void that his death left me with while I try to figure out what the next step I should take will be. Some days I am jazzed about new directions I think I might take and other days getting out of bed is like dragging a 2-ton weight out with me.

Don't misunderstand this post today. I am just venting some feelings, I guess. I still feel hopeful for the future and I know that I will survive this. I have had other tragedies in my life and I survived them. What doesn't kill you really does make you stronger sometimes, even though it really doesn't feel that way right now. I have to get back to the business of living...really living...or I am tossing away everything that Dave and I so firmly believed in. He left me with some powerful lessons about life and I just need to get to a point where I can act on those lessons again. He wouldn't want to see me this way and I know that I have to live the best life I possibly can. That is all he ever wanted for me and helped me to do that for 16 years. I owe it to him and I owe it to myself.

No computer access for 2 weeks YIPES!!!!

2010-06-28T12:54:00.001-04:00

Hello to everybody. I have sneaked a little time on a friend's computer, so I thought I would post something here today. I am officially moved and to tell the truth, the confusion just grows. I am now a displaced person and there are so many loose ends that need typing up I feel like Medusa's hairdresser.
Anyway, I am hoping to have my own computer back on line this week so that I can catch up with the blogs, website, etc. The going is slow and I hope to have a grip on things soon.
Thanks for following along with my adventures.

Suzanne

Apology to anyone who reads this blog

2010-05-18T09:17:00.004-04:00

Still not posting much to this blog. I am working on a new blog about the creation of a new growing situation where I am moving to in my hometown. I have not gone live with it yet but when I do, I will post the link here. I may end up focusing some of my blogging energy over there for a while.

At the new place I am basically starting totally from the ground up and I thought it would be the perfect teaching opportunity. So many people ask me for advice on growing their own food, organically, that I am going to post step by step exactly what I am doing at the new location. Because it was too late in the season to get the inground garden going (too much work to do on that to get any meaningful crop in the ground this late in the season) I am going to start with my raised bed and herb garden area. That should be a great way to start for me and it will give me the opportunity to post information that someone who wants to do a backyard garden can use.

Thanks for following along here and look for the link to the new blog. I had hoped to have it up by this past weekend but too busy with other projects. Soon, though, soon....

2010-05-14T00:03:00.001-04:00

Been very, very slack with the blog lately. Simply have too much going on right now so hang in and I will get back to business soon as....Moving sucks, by the way.

2010-04-26T20:38:00.003-04:00

Wow! didn't realize it has been so long since I posted anything. Right now, I am just trying to keep my head above water. Between the move of the Farm and everything else going on, I have been a slacker/blogger. I have posted a couple of things at my farm Facebook page (it is just easier that logging on to the blog) so if you want to see what's been happening at the Farm, check

New Moon Farm Organics over at fb. I linked my fb page to my Twitter, but haven't linked up the blog yet...least I don't think I did.

Are you as confused as I am?

BIG SHAKE UP AT NEW MOON FARM

2010-04-12T08:48:00.010-04:00

Since my husband passed away several weeks ago, many things have changed here at the Farm. The main thing is that I have discovered that I simply cannot remain here without him. It is intolerable on many levels and for many reasons.

After a lot of agonizing consideration, I have decided to move New Moon Farm Organics back to my hometown, back to my own farming roots. I have access to a fine little piece of property and it will suit me well, eventually. I will be closer to my family, which is what I feel like I need right now. My parents and my son are really my support group at this moment and I just need to be closer to them. I just kept thinking, and wrongly so I might add, that New Moon Farm was about this particular piece of land. I find that is not so true as I imagined. The spirit of the Farm is that two incredibly dedicated people had a wonderful dream and made it into a reality. I carry that spirit inside of myself and so no matter where I might be, that will not change.

This move will not affect my May-July CSA, nor my participation in the Davidson Farmer's Market. I might have to shift some things a bit, but overall, it will hopefully be just a minor hiccup if things don't go as planned. I still plan on following through with the plans Dave and I made together before he died. Just in a new location. There is a longer, more detailed missive about all of this at my website New Moon Farm Organics so if you are curious, you can check it out.

The logistics of making this move are daunting and I am going to have to call on those folks who have graciously volunteered to come help me out. I will be posting a page here and also on the website with a "Wishlist" of things that I will need help doing and so hopefully, potential volunteers can choose what they feel they are able to help out with. I need to make this move quickly or I will lose some of my window of opportunity for planting some things for early summer.

Help Stamp Out Food Snobbery

2010-04-10T22:16:00.005-04:00

This is a reposting of an article from this blog from about 3 years ago. I thought I would put it back up because I recently listened to something on NPR about things people pay big bucks for that are not the real thing...caviar was one of those things and there is something about that in this post.

I think that it is time that I do my part to bring attention to the issue of food prejudice. Since I am so in touch with food, I am going to address the food snobs of the world here on my blog today. That's right, it is my blog and I can say what I want to about whatever subject I am inclined to write about....mu-ah-hahahahahaaaa.I love the power of the blog!! Okay, I am getting a power high so I better get back on subject. This just has to be said.

My simple definition of food snobbery: Refusing to even try or consider trying a particular fruit, vegetable, regional or local dish for any reason at all. If you are a food snob, let me help to set the record straighter on a couple of things:

Sushi versus Chitlins
I went to a Sushi restaurant in Japan once where there were a bunch of fish swimming happily together in a huge tank. We ordered and the next thing I know, the chef is screaming like a ninja and grabbing a live fish out of the tank and flinging it down on the table in front of us. When he pulled out a cleaver and hacked the head off right in front of me, I almost fainted. Needless to say, I didn't eat sushi (or much of anything else) for a while. Chitlins on the other hand are quite civilized by comparison. I have seen them being cooked before but that is it. Chitlin preparation has the good manners to stay out of the public eye as much as possible.

Grits versus Polenta
Grits and polenta are the same thing. If you let your grits simmer too long and they get really thick, you have made polenta. In Northern Italy, where polenta is a staple dish, it was first made when maize or corn was brought there by explorers. It is cooked down more than grits, but there is not much difference except for the seasoning and serving methods. Of course, grits can be pretty bland and boring if you buy those wussie white ones at the grocery store or you don't know how to cook them. I buy stone ground, organic yellow corn grits. Fortunately, I do know how to cook them (Granny taught me) and mine are delicious.

Livermush versus Blood Sausage
Do I even need to explain this one? Yes, I guess I do.
Livermush is decidedly Southern and Blood Sausage is decidedly disgusting.
Livermush probably had its origins with German settlers to the Southeastern areas of the US from Pennsylvania. Blood Sausage never quite caught on here in this area although I understand it is popular elsewhere. My best friend growing up moved to the US from Europe and we helped her mom to make BS at their house once. I repeat, ONCE. And I never ate any that I am aware of but sometimes when I ate dinner at their house, I was a little confused as to exactly what I was eating.

Okra versus anything
I already wrote an entire blog entry about okra, so refer back to that post from August 16th, to read up on okra. One quick note about okra: it is NOT indigenous to the Southern US (it just loves our climate); it is native to Africa; is an edible hibiscus; and is eaten all over the world.

Caviar versus Catfish Roe
I have eaten caviar once or twice myself, but don't remember particularily liking it. It tasted a little fishy. And speaking of fishy, there are people willing to pay $50+ an ounce for Beluga caviar yet look down their noses of folks who catch and clean their own fish and eat the roe. Joke is on them. Back in the late 1990's, the FDA busted a caviar "importer" who had been packaging and selling catfish roe as Beluga for years. Took DNA testing to determine that the roe in question was not from sturgeon, but in fact from the lowly Ictalarus punctatus or the common channel catfish.Nobody noticed the difference because, lets face it, who eats caviar on a regular basis? Do you know anyone who does? Neither do I.

Cow Peas versus English Peas
Cow Peas- A drought tolerant and warm weather crop, cowpeas are well-adapted to the drier regions of the tropics, where other food legumes do not perform well. It also has the useful ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through its nodules, and it grows well in poor soils with more than 85% sand and with less than 0.2% organic matter and low levels of phosphorus. In addition, it is shade tolerant, and therefore, compatible as an intercrop with maize, millet, sorghum, sugarcane, and cotton. This makes cowpea an important component of traditional intercropping systems, especially in the complex and elegant subsistence farming systems of the dry savannas in sub-Saharan Africa. English peas are just a cooler weather, slightly different cultivar of Fabaceae or Leguminosae, or the legume family. There is nothing sophistocated or gourmet about English (green) peas. In fact, if you compared the common field pea grown in the South to the English pea, the English pea is by comparison a thin and pale relative, as far as adaptability and usage.

Water Cress versus Creasy Greens
If you ever watched the Dobie Gillis show back in the 60's, you most probably remember Mrs. Chatsworth Osborne, Jr., Resident RB&S, who was forever giving parties where they served watercress sandwiches. This is probably about the silliest food affectation I know of, in all of my culinary experience. Watercress on buttered slices of bread with the crusts cut off was supposedly the height of snooty cuisine. Somehow the idea of a weed that grows along the sides of the road, in ditches where there is standing water pasted onto a tiny piece of white bread doesn't really impress me all that much. And why couldn't they even have a "big boy" sandwich with the crusts still on...did those rich people have weak choppers or just still long for mama? I don't get it.

I don't remember my Granny even planting "creasies", a delightful little spicy, edible green plant, but she certainly got excited once it showed up in the corn field in the fall. It grows in a rosette, kind of like arugula. Today, you can buy creasy green seeds (Upland Cress is how it is sold) and plant some for yourself, but in the foothills and mountains of NC, they were/are considered a wild, uncultivated food, not to be taken for granted. I think maybe planting creasys would not set well with some old timers. Creasy greens are cousin to watercress and the name "creasy" is probably an Appalachian mispronunciation of cress. They are peppery and add a little spice to other greens.

There are lots more foods I could mention, but my fingers are tired and I have to go feed chickens. My break is over and I need to get back to some real work. Hope you enjoyed my little tongue in cheek (Really? Maybe.) missive today.

Older posts chronicle drought, growing seasons, winter doldrums, etc.

2010-04-10T22:08:00.003-04:00

Just looked back thru some of my older posts from back in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and realized that there is quite a chronicle of farm life there. So that it wasn't so hard to find them, I changed the archive to a pulldown menu to make it easier to read thru these old posts.

Cold nights, Jack Russells and Heirloom Veggies

2010-04-10T08:27:00.005-04:00

We had a pretty chilly night here last night. Had to bring all 5 Jack Russells on the back porch. Any night time temps under 45 degrees get them a warm bed, in their kennels. When it is warmer, they like to be outside, in a puppy pile in the doghouse. But I have talked about that in older posts and so I will just leave it at that.

Everything in the greenhouse is still gorgeous this morning. It was about 75 degrees yesterday and so I wet down the floor of the greenhouse and left the doors closed tight all day. That kept the heat in. The evaporating moisture from the floor raised the humidity and so the ambient air was warmer after the sun went down. It wasn't cold enough to do any real damage in the greenhouse but you never know when the forecast might be wrong. We are generally at least 2 degrees colder than whatever is forecast and sometimes a little more, so can't be too careful. I babied all those plants for far too long and they look far too good to lose them in one cold night.

I plan on taking some pictures of them and posting here but my camera battery is dead and I can't remember to charge it at night.

In addition to my tomatoes, peppers and basils, I planted another several hundred squash seeds in flats this week. The varieties are my specialty ones, mostly using seeds directly from the regions of Italy and other places, where they are favorites. Regional varieties of zuchinni, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, basils and other herbs,winter squash and pumpkins abound. Most all of the ones I grow are heirlooms that have been grown in their respective regions for over 100 years. Regions like Cambria and Tuscany have favorites, small villages have favorites. The Italian people are passionate about their food and so they are equally passionate about having the freshest and best ingredients to start with. Many Italian cooks believe that if you don't have the specific variety to make your recipe from, it won't be the as good. I love that concept!

I also love the idea of growing a food plant that is growing somewhere else in the world. It is very cool to grow from seeds that came from a particular region, grown just the season before. Makes me feel globally connected to people in other parts of the world who are just like me...farmers, growers, land stewards, whatever we are. I am especially enthralled with Italian varieties, obviously, for the reasons I already stated and because they are fairly accessible, if you know where to look. But I also love more elusive cultural food plants like African, Asian and South American varieties, which are a little harder to find, but it is ultimately rewarding when I get my hands on something new.

And for as much as I love my international heirlooms, I am passionate about Native American heirlooms, many of which are in danger of disappearing from the planet. Several dedicated orgainizations are currently seeking to establish heirloom seed banks to preserve this heritage from our own indigenous peoples.

What The Heck Happened to Earth Day?

2010-04-08T11:38:00.004-04:00

This post is gonna get me a lot of flack, but I call them like I see them.

I don't acknowledge Earth Day any more. I have become a little jaded about the whole concept. Back in the 70's, I was a little hippie chickie with granny glasses and flowers in my hair and I cared about EVERYTHING!!!! Earth Day was a huge deal to me at that time. It was a chance for the citizens of the Earth to come together on something we ALL have in common...life on planet Earth.

Margaret Mead said it:

"EARTH DAY is the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord, is devoted to the preservation of the harmony in nature and yet draws upon the triumphs of technology, the measurement of time, and instantaneous communication through space.

EARTH DAY draws on astronomical phenomena in a new way – which is also the most ancient way – using the vernal Equinox, the time when the Sun crosses the equator making night and day of equal length in all parts of the Earth. To this point in the annual calendar, EARTH DAY attaches no local or divisive set of symbols, no statement of the truth or superiority of one way of life over another. But the selection of the Equinox makes planetary observance of a shared event possible, and a flag which shows the Earth as seen from space appropriate."

That is the Earth Day I celebrated. What happened? Last week I heard an ad for an Earth Day Celebration at a water/amusement park in the local area, inviting everyone to come to the park to celebrate Mother Earth. Yes, let's drive our cars, make more trash, waste water and pay our money in celebration of Mother Earth. I just don't get it.

Don't you think Mother Earth would be better served if that amusement park hadn't covered her face with asphalt. Maybe if they had left the trees and plants? What if all the wildlife that lost their habitat had been left unmolested? That sounds like a celebration of our Mother to me.

Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose of having Earth Day if you have to drive your carbon footprint to get the the celebration???? Shouldn't Earth Day be about staying home and taking stock of all the blessings that our planet bestows on us every day, not just on one day in April?

I guess, as with every other holiday we have in this country, somebody has found a way to make money from Earth Day, so the true meaning has pretty much flown out the window for most Americans. If you would like to read about what the original intent and purpose of Earth Day really was, you can visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day .

More cool Earth stuff:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html Nasa site for pictures of Mother Earth

http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/efs/ Astronauts Views of the Home Planet

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-earth.html Photo gallery NASA

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/ Astounding pictures from the Hubble Telescope Not Earth, necessarily but WOW!!!

Moving on with life

2010-04-08T11:09:00.005-04:00

If you have been reading this blog lately, you know that I have been dealing with the death of my beloved Farmer Dave. Dave was my best friend, husband, mentor, teacher, spiritual guide, counselor , alter ego, companion, confidant, comrade, helpmate, playmate and my soul mate. He was my kindred spirit, my knight in shining armor and the heart of my heart. I miss him so fiercely that it is like there is a fire burning my soul to ashes and I am helpless to stop it.

But, stop it I must, because I know that he would want me to get back to the business of living. To do otherwise discredits the things I learned from him over the years and it dishonors him for me to be wallowing in self-pity about being alone. Because I am not alone. I carry in my heart and memory 16 years of the most incredible journey. Without him, I would never have experienced most of the things that I did over those 16 years.

I have always been amazed that he so loved me and chose me to stand beside him. Not that I feel that I was unworthy of his love, but because I was given the opportunity to be loved by someone like him. When Dave and I had only been together for about 6months, I told the Universe that if I was only allowed to have 5 years with Dave, it would like a lifetime with anyone else. The Universe chose to gift me with 16 years and I am profoundly grateful for every second of those years.

Now, I will try to focus on the future and how I plan on moving through it. You may have to indulge me once in a while, since I am sure there will be some anecdote or story I will have to tell you. Dave was involved in everything I have done of any value for the last decade and a half, so it would be hard not to include him in most of my tales. But, I will try to keep my grief to myself and to refrain from waxing poetic about the enormity of our love for each other or how perfect our relationship was/is. I say "is" because the relationship still exists and always will. Death can not remove Dave from my heart and he is in every fiber of my being. So, if you take me on, you get him, too.

This is not getting any easier....

2010-04-04T09:05:00.002-04:00

I miss Dave....

I am sad today...

2010-03-30T09:46:00.007-04:00

Widow

Origin: bef. 900; (n.) ME wid(e)we, OE widuwe, wydewe; c. G Witwe, Gothwiduwo, L vidua (fem. of viduus bereaved), Skt vidhavā widow; (v.) ME, deriv. of the n.;

def. A women whose husband has died and who has not yet remarried.

What a narrow definition for something so consuming. It is interesting to me to note that this definition says who has "not yet" remarried. Somehow thinking about having another person in my life is the farthest thing from my mind and it seems strange to me that it should be part of the definition of what I have now become. I do not like my new status as a widow. It is lonely and everything seems to be going by me in slow motion. Little things make me well up like a fountain and they are usually the silliest things imaginable. Like walking through the aisle at the market and seeing Dave's favorite cereal on the shelf or finding a pair of his dirty socks in the laundry hamper. Part of me wishes that he wasn't every place I look but mostly I am terrified that I will stop seeing him everywhere.

I thought that the nights would be the hardest but strangely that has not been the case. At night, in our bed, I am comforted with thoughts of all the nights he lay beside me there and sleep comes easily to me. He became so fragile near the end that it was impossible to give him more than a cursory hug or to just stroke his arm and I think I miss not having one of his hugs most of all. He used to enfold me in those impossibly long arms of his and he could encircle me almost completely. I never felt safer or more secure than when he did that. I take my comfort in knowing that in the years Dave and I were together we shared enough hugs, pats, squeezes, touches and more than most people have in their entire lifetime. Once Dave said that we had shared enough love that if we stopped right at that moment and never touched again, what we had already had would last the rest of our lifetime and into the next. How could he have known those words would be true?

Writing on this blog about my life with Dave is how I am getting by right now and I thank those of you who follow it for indulging me. The title says that it is about my life on an organic farm and this is the part of life that has to be dealt with. Dave and I believed strongly in the natural order of things, in the circle of life. How can I profess to have believed if I do not accept that death is a necessary part of that circle. Nobody lives forever, as much as you might want them to. Dave just completed his circle ahead of me and I hope he is waiting for me on the other side.

Last week was the "week that was".

2010-03-29T08:51:00.006-04:00

Farmer Dave

After 16 incredible, amazing years with the man that I loved almost beyond reason, my sweet, organic life changed last week, in the blink of an eye. Dave left this world behind last Tuesday and now I miss him more than I imagined possible. When we finally resigned ourselves to the fact that he wasn't ever going to get better and that his time was growing short, I tried to imagine how it was going to be without him, simply to prepare myself for the inevitable. When the time actually came, it was 1000 times harder than anything I was capable of conceiving.

While you try to prepare yourself for the eventuality of a death, especially when someone is fighting a disease as sinister as cancer, nothing, and I mean N-O-T-H-I-N-G, prepares you for that moment when you realize that this person you knew and loved is really and truly gone. It is like something grabs your chest and squeezes the life out of you, too. It is like a wave of unimaginable agony that strikes you powerless and paralyzed. You can't breathe, you can't move, you can't even think. All you can do is be held in the grasp of that moment while the world stops around just you and everything else keeps moving. When that grip suddenly is let go, it feels like the entire bottom of the universe has dropped away and left you suspended, beyond space and time. And then, the shockwave of reality hits you and you are forever changed.

I have thought long, hard and much about my life with Dave and I keep coming back to the same thing. We loved each other without reserve, without boundaries, without most of the trappings that come with a marriage sometimes. We never focused on careers, we had both done that in the lives we lived before we met. Instead, we decided to forgo the pursuit of happiness through things as artificial and man created as money, position and power because those things are worthless in the end. We vowed to focus all of our energies on the power of love, both between each other and for Mother Earth and her children.

In all our years together, we never quarreled (of course, we differed in opinion sometimes but how could we use our individual strengths if we didn't express them?), spent less that 2 dozen nights apart, expressed our love for one another at every opportunity and left absolutely nothing left unsaid between us. We worked side beside for most of those 16 years, first in our store at the beach and then at the Farm for the last decade. Every effort was made to insure that we remained able to spend our time and be together as much as possible.

We tried to guide and support each other in everything we did but Dave was always the better teacher. The lessons he taught me have shaped the person I am today. I never felt like I gave as much as he did in that regard, but he always said that I taught him what you could accomplish through the power of love. He taught me that it is okay to just be who you are, that growing as a person is necessary for one to move forward on their path toward enlightenment and that fear is the mind killer. I no longer fear many things because of Dave's lessons and that has given me great peace and serenity on many levels. His most important lesson was that I was worthy of being loved by someone like him - intelligent, wise, spiritual, amazing, kind, gentle and the most beautiful soul I have encountered in my 50+ years. That was a lesson he never tried to teach because he was too humble to think he was any of those things I mentioned.

We both truly believed that we were soul twins, joined for eternity and that comforts me greatly. I will miss him in ways I can't yet imagine. But there is so much of Dave, and who and what he was, in me now that he is with me still, in every fiber of my being and always will be there.

Namaste, my love, good journey.

Something about Dave, the Farmer

2010-03-20T15:24:00.005-04:00

A little more somber topic here today. Dave, my husband and co-founder of the Farm is gravely ill. He has had kidney cancer since 2005 and has finally reached that stage where quality of life is paramount. He is home and in hospice care. Alert some days, others completely "gone somewhere else", he is still guiding my hand when he can but mostly he just gazes out the window from his hospital bed and looks out across the fields.

So blessed that he can watch deer and wild turkey cross from the pine woods, across the pasture and into our backyard. From his perspective in the hospital bed, he can see birds in the sky and the trees and he never misses when the local Coopers hawk flies over when he is looking out.

Some of the friends here at this page know Dave and some don't. Those of you who do know him, know him as a dedicated organic farmer. For the last decade, we have carved our little 30 acres into something that we are very proud of, with good reason. From an original tiny plot of 100 square feet to 17 of the 30 acres being under organic cultivation, we have pushed forward each year to make the Farm a success. And I don't mean a monetary success, that has never been all that important to us (if you took a look at our bank account, you would concur with that statement). Of course, we have been so very, very lucky to have had the blessing and support of both of our families, even though in the beginning they were a little skeptical of what we were trying to do.

Originally, we didn't intend for the Farm to make our living. It was a labor of love for both of us and a part of a spiritual journey we embarked on a long time ago. Being able to dedicate so much of our lives to this labor is the culmination of our belief in something greater than ourselves and the manifestation of that belief into something tangible. There is no greater faith that to put a tiny seed in the ground and believe that it will eventually be fruitful and that it will feed the soul as well as the body. We experience that manifestation of our faith every single day and gives our lives tremendous meaning. How can you not believe in something greater than yourself when you see the miracles of Nature happen before your eyes every single day?

Setting an example for others to follow has always been something that we strove for at the Farm. Passing along the knowledge and experiences that we gained, too, has been something equally important. If one lives their life dedicated to their principles, that example can be an inspiration for others to follow. We have tried to make that the main tenet of our philosophies about organics, sustainability, living a life of voluntary simplicity.

From the day we met, we have done what we could to make sure that we spent as much time together as possible. Dave is truly my soulmate and when we are apart it feels like something is missing in myself. Not longing, like when you miss someone when they are gone, but just a little feeling in the background that something is not quite as it should be. Since establishing this farm, every day, we have worked together, side by side, toe to toe, on nearly everything we have done. It has made our relationship strong and unbreakable.

Love is too small a word to describe what Dave and I share. His illness has given me pause to reflect on many of the things I have expressed here in this writing. My heartache at the possibility of losing him was overwhelming me recently, until I decided to stop focusing on what is to come and reflect on what has been and how we came to be at this place where we are now. It has made me realize that there will be no regrets for things undone between us. We have never failed to express everything we felt about each other, with both our words and deeds, left nothing unsaid. I know that when he is gone, I will feel the weight of the world on my shoulders but I also know I will be lifted to the Heavens knowing that someone like Dave so loved someone like me and never, ever failed to make me feel completely safe and loved for as long as I have known him.

Learning how to bend with the wind, instead of fighting to make it do what we chose to have it do is something that every true organic farmer learns quickly. That bending leads one to find balance and harmony. Harmony leads to peace. And peace and love are what matter in the end.

I will continue to operate New Moon Farm Organics, no matter what happens in the future. It is Dave's legacy, what he leaves behind as a testament to his dedication and love of what we do here. I intend to continue our dreams and follow the path. He may not continue to walk with me in this realm, but he will always walk at my side, no matter where the path takes me.

Namaste my friends.

FARMIN-ISTAS UNITE!

2010-03-17T08:47:00.006-04:00

It is that time of the year. Things are bursting at the seams with life! You can smell it on the air. The trees are covered with tiny leaf buds, the hens are laying again, the weeds are coming up faster than the planted seeds and the weather can't decide whether to be warm, windy, cold or wet. I LOVE Spring in the South!!!

Right now, I have so many irons in the fire, I need another arm or two to juggle them. I am working the farm alone right now but getting ready to put out the call for volunteers via my "VOLUNTEER WISH LIST". This is a page I put up on my website that lists all the things I need help with and then anyone with a couple of hours to spare can pick something they are comfortable helping with and take it from there. We start our formal "Hands Across the Table" crop-share/ intern program in May and I am working on the details of that to send out to the interested participants.

Another thing I am very excited about is my summer "Farmin-istas" seminar series starting in June. Every other weekend this summer, I plan on offering an educational seminar directed at female farmers (or "farm femmes" as I have christened them). Farming has always had the connotation of being a bastion of the "good ole' boy" network and that is quite true in some areas of agriculture, even though women have long worked beside of husbands, fathers, brothers doing just about any farm chore as the men. The number of women who own, operate or manage farms has grown significantly since the last census and I expect the numbers will have grown considerably after this one. I want and need to confer and conflab with other women who do what I do. We have our own ways of doing things, we think differently that our male counterparts and we can have a very different set of obstacles in the way of our progress. It is time for FARMIN-ISTAS to UNITE! I am making it my personal mission to get this ball rolling in my area this year. Watch for more info as it unfolds.

Getting back to the blog

2010-03-11T10:48:00.002-05:00

Wow! It has been another one of those week, months, years. Hubby has been in the hospital for the last week and just got him home. I pray that nobody has to go through what we are going through, but I know that as long as there is no cure for cancer, that won't happen. Taking each day as it comes is all you can do. My sweet Farmer is beyond being cured and now we are in palliative care. Thanks to all the people who have been so kind to us in the past and the present and to those I know will be kind in the future. While we are still looking at a relatively long road, it is just so hard to come to terms with your whole life changing in ways you never imagined it would. But I have learned that the fears I had about my ability to care and comfort for someone this intensely have been assuaged and I now know that the depth of love truly does conquer all.

Now that we are past this latest hurdle, we are ready to get cranking on the gardens. Already have tons of stuff coming up in the greenhouse, so we are still on track...just a couple of weeks behind but that is due to the wet, cold weather. Now that it is warming up some, things will change quickly. I am pretty much able to man the helm here at the Farm and with the help of our volunteers, it all goes very well. The Farmer is still the General, he is just confined to quarters at the present.

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their willingness and desire to be involved with our farm this year. I am looking forward to passing the torch of organic knowledge onto anyone who wants to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty with me. I will be posting some new information about volunteer/apprentice/internship opportunities here very soon, so watch for that.

If you missed the new slide show at the website check it out! www.newmoonfarmorganic.com

and look for the link. I have about 320+ pictures that will take you on a journey through our last 10 years. We are very proud of what we do and want to share it with anyone and everyone!!!!

2010-02-24T08:50:00.005-05:00

Organic vs. Non-organic Produce

Humans have been growing produce organically for thousands of years. Today, the USDA has strict regulations governing the production of organic produce. In general, the use of genetically engineered seeds and methods, chemicals or radiation as preservatives, and chemically based fertilizers and pesticides are not allowed. Organic agricultural methods are more ecologically proper, sustainable, less harmful to the environment and overall are more energy efficient.

Organic produce are richer in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, trace elements and other nutrients than the fruits and vegetables produced by chemical based methods. In a recent study, antioxidant levels found in organically grown vegetables were almost 30% higher than conventional chemically enhanced vegetables.

Perhaps the most important reason to consume organic produce is that the human bodies were not designed to be constantly bombarded with chemicals and biologically altered products on a long term basis. Many of the problems associated with the non-organic foods will take years if not generations to show clear "cause and effect" consequences on our health. What we do know is that the herbicides and the pesticides used in non-organic farming are all "toxic" because that is how they were created. Obviously, the intake of toxic foods is bad for our health. The long term physiological and neurological damages done to the human health by consuming non-organic foods are numerous and very complex.

Another major health concern with the consumption of non-organic foods is the industry's wide and heavy use of antibiotics and growth hormones as supplements in animal feed. These supplements are used primarily to make the animals grow faster, bigger and less disease prone, leading to higher production yields. Numerous studies indicate that traces of these supplements remain in the food chain. It is not unreasonable to assume that the infusion of these biological and chemical agents into the food chain may be partially responsible for human obesity and other serious and growing health problems such as diabetes, coronary illnesses, autism, etc., etc.

Organic produce and food products are becoming more and more mainstream.They are becoming more available in supermarkets. However, farmer's markets, smaller organic health food stores and community supported agriculture (CSA) are more reliable outlets for organic produce.

Back to the Blog

2010-02-23T09:51:00.008-05:00

I have been a blogslacker (I made that word up...) lately but I have a good excuse. I do our website myself and am an old dinosaur when it comes to writing the code for the site. It takes me forever because I don't use a program for it and I have to tweak every page until I like it and that can take me days just to finish one section. While our website is pretty "folksy" and homemade, it takes a lot of work to make it look that way. There is a new 300+ photo album that has pictures from our 10 years here. The other new page is the 2010 Crop List and you can go there from here . That page is the one that took forever because I had to look through about 1000 photos to find the right ones since it has pictures of each veggie, most of which were taken of stuff harvested here at the Farm. I had to use stock photos for a couple of things, but noted that by the pics, so there is no confusion. Don't want to mislead.

And speaking of misleading, I recently looked at a couple of "local produce buying club" websites that deliver in this area. I am sorry to be my usual cynical self, but if you are buying a basket of produce and it has avocados, bananas or oranges in it, it ain't "local", at least by my definition. I guess they mean that the buying club is local, not the produce, but that is misleading. Guess the argument could be made that any assumption made by the consumer is not the fault of the operator. Of course, I have canvassed grocery store produce managers about their definition of local and have come to the conclusion that to some people "local" means grown on Planet Earth. Personally, I try to keep my "local" sphere within a 50 miles range, just because there is a great dairy that I buy cheese from and it is just about 50 miles from me. Other than that, more than 20 miles away makes me twitch.

NEW MOON FARMER COULD USE YOUR HELP

2010-02-12T11:05:00.014-05:00

Support New Moon Farm Organics by participating in our
MARKET
DISCOUNT CARD PROGRAM

We have issued 100 "I SUPPORT NEW MOON FARM" discount cards,which will sell for $10 each.
The card will entitle the holder to a 10% discount on produce purchases for the entire 2010 market season
at the Davidson Farmer's market and/or at any other farmer's market we attend in 2010.
The card can be used as a one time $20.00 discount toward
a 12 week membership in our
2010 CSA (click this link for CSA info)

Why the fundraiser?

Dave and I are passionate organic farmers, although it isn't a profession that pays a whole lot. Of course, we don't do it just for the money. There is something deeper than I can't quite explain with mere words, that keeps us at this year after year. We consider it our "calling", a deep and spiritual need to express our caring for this world by doing something concrete to demonstrate that concern. For us, it has never been about money. Unfortunately, however, we live in a world where money rules.

With the tremendous amount of medical and other bills related to Dave's cancer, we have almost completely exhausted our savings. While we now have coverage for almost everything that Dave requires, for the first four months of his illness nothing was covered, because his cancer was a pre-existing condition. We have a mountain of medical bills to prove it.

We are presently in a situation where we simply need to ask our friends and neighbors for a little help. Like most very independent people, it is hard to ask for a handout and that is not the case now. We always budget for our off season months, including unplanned and emergency expenses. This year it was one unplanned expense after another and now our "emergency fund" is almost gone.

Because farming is seasonal, we won't have any regular stream of funds coming in until late March or April and so we need to raise a bit of capital between now and then. To do so, we decided that a little fund raiser might be the solution to get us over this rough financial patch. The post at the beginning of this blog gives the simple details. Even though the button says "DONATE" this is actually more of a "special offer". Of course, any donation, however small, would be greatly appreciated.

*******************************

2010-02-07T10:28:00.008-05:00

This article is posted on one of my other blogs, but I thought it was a good topic for this one, too. The original post was sparked by an article I read about how Dean Foods "quietly removed" the word organic from the label of its line of Silk Soy products. I identified with the headline because I was a victim of exactly what the article was written about. (The link on this blog is listed at the menu on the right but it won't stay up forever so you can read the article at http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1746193.html for as long as it stays posted there. If it is removed, look at www.star-telegram.com for articles written by By BARRY SHLACHTER barry@star-telegram.com )

Because I try to stay 90-95% organic in my choices about food, cosmetics, etc. I try alot of products, always looking for quality and good value. I stay away from anything organic from China, sadly because I just don't trust them yet. Ditto for anything that is not labeled with what I consider to be a legitimate organic certifying body for foreign goods. There are a lot of non-domestic "organic" products finding their way onto our supermarket shelves because frankly, there is not enough organic agriculture, etc. in the U.S. to keep up with the demand. Even though conventional agriculture continually tries to discredit organics, it is still far and away, even counting in the cheaters, way safer and healthier food. Safer for not just people but for the whole planet.

Anyway, it is what I believe, it is my life and I am relentless in my search for quality products. Oh, by the way, did I mention that I own an organic farm and I actually grow most of my own food, make my own cosmetics and generally do not routinely shop at the supermarket for anything except for things I can't produce myself. Soy milk is one of those things. So, now for the reason for this information and how it relates to soy products.

I don't do dairy. I am allergic to milk - not lactose intolerant- but truly allergic, with hives, stomach upset, everything you'd expect with an allergy. I passed this allergy onto my kids, although mine is more severe. Bottom line is that soy and alternatives to milk products has been a way of life for us. Soy has always been my product of choice. I drink it, cook with it, put it on my cereal. I never developed a taste goat milk and while I have been known to make my own almond milk, by the time I made enough for our usage, it would cost me a fortune so I stick with soy.

In my search for product I liked, I settled on Silk Organic Soy Milk. It has passed all my taste tests and I just like the product line. I have been buying it for years. White Wave, the company who produces Silk, is owned by Dean Foods and they have about 3/4 of the market share of these products anyway but it is a superior product, in my opinion. Buying these products from this conglomerate is one of the compromises that I make in my food choices. I am not buying local, I am not buying from a small family company and that is a bit of a sticking point, I admit. My conscience also tells me that this corporate giant (Dean) is not to be totally trusted but since I know that going in, it is my free choice to buy their products. For some reason that makes me feel a little better, knowing that they are not screwing me over, without my knowledge. I am allowing them to do it and that I think is called consent.

Recently, however, they confirmed my belief in the "not to be trusted" scenario. They quietly deleted the word "ORGANIC" from the label of most their products. No change was made at all to the carton but the much reduced organic line (I have only seen 2 products) is now in completely new and different green cartons. So if stocked on the same shelves, the organic product would stand out and that was the good news.

The bad news, unfortunately,that is not what happened. What did happen is that they didn't bother to tell retailers about the changes, so the retailers, in turn, continued get the same products they had been getting. Kind of a grocery store version of "don't ask, don't tell", much like what is going on with the unlabeled genetically engineered foods on the grocer's shelves.

Supermarkets don't work like they did 10-15 years ago, when the section manager actually made the decisions about products. Now the vendors just come in, place product and whatever they deem to be selling is what ends up on your grocers shelves. That is why there is such a limited selection of organic products in many of our local markets. There is no one who really knows anything about these products making any decisions. Decisions are made based on numbers on a page, not on customer demand. The numbers are calculates on sales in the store but if the store has no product to sell, how can those numbers reflect what customers might actually want. And as complacent consumers, we just accept that as the way it is.

When someone has been buying the exact same product, week after week, for several years, it is human nature to stop reading the label. Because nothing else changed on the cartons of Silk Soy, only the removal of the word organic, I didn't even notice that it wasn't there, until I got home from the market one day. For some reason, I was looking at the back of the carton and I noticed that the green "CERTIFIED ORGANIC" label was missing. Imagine my chagrin, because I have no idea how long it had not been there. I was furious to say the least. AND not only was the word "ORGANIC" removed, there is no disclaimer anywhere on the latest carton I purchased that says that it is made from non-GMO soybeans, which only incited my ire further. (To be fair in this tirade, that issue has since been corrected and the cartons now say that Silk is made with non-GMO soybeans grown domestically).

I immediately got online and looked up Silk Soy and discovered several articles written by other people who were just as angry as myself. I did find information about the much reduced organic line now offered by Silk but that hardly assuages my disgust for this company and their tactics. While I realize that the onus of responsibility for knowing what I am purchasing falls on me and only me, but this company's obvious "sneak attack" on one of their own organic products is unconscionable in my universe. Yes, the new cartons are bright green, easily discernible from the non-organic products, IF they are stocked on the shelves. It was a sneaky bait and switch as far as I am concerned but I hate to admit that I was one of those people who was duped by all this.

I have not stopped buying the non-organic Silk Soy products, because I can't find anything from the organic line at any of my limited sources. A couple of the local markets have their own lines of organic soy products now and the label says they are domestically grown, certified organic (non-GMO), although they are not as good as Silk Soy. I guess, at least for now, I will have to trust that the National Organic Program is doing its job. The NOP has the strictest organic guidelines on the planet at this point in time, but with lobbyists and politicians having a say in what happens at the USDA, who knows how long that will stay true.

Getting ready for the 2010 season

2010-01-22T07:35:00.003-05:00

I am kind of relishing the cold wet weather that has been back for the last two days because I don't have to feel so guilty about wanting to stay in the house. Having a couple of warm days to work outside was nice, I guess, but it is supposed to be cold this time of year and I simply longed to be inside, piddling around the kitchen or working on my cookbook. I don't get much time like this so it is important to me to take advantage of it while I can.

I did a bit of work in the greenhouse and some other mundane outdoor chores while it was warm, but it just didn't feel right yet. I got tomatoes and a couple of other things seeded in flats, so that there will be plenty of plants to go out when it warms up in April, so that was good but overall I just wasn't into being outside yet.

Winter Wonderland

2010-01-09T08:39:00.008-05:00

This morning I looked out my kitchen window to a veritable winter wonderland. Our backyard rolls down into a hollow and then back up a steep bank, much of which is treed with mostly old oaks and some huge poplars. Since the angle of the sun and the shade of the woods keeps out most sun this time of year, it takes a long time for any accumulation of snow to melt completely. That has given the woods a kind of jigsaw puzzle look, one of those with greyed out pieces.

The trees in my particular view out that back window are huge old oaks and a couple of grandfather poplars, so there isn't much undergrowth because these trees keep it so shady much of the year that not much grows under them. Because of that you can see much of the animal activity that occurs there. Coupled with the fact that there is an open pasture just over the rise and a thick, thick stand of planted pines on the other side of the pasture, you have the perfect place for much of our local wildlife to cross safely from one stand of trees to the other. This time of year, the outside dogs are on the back porch, warm and snuggled up in their kennels, so there is nothing to disturb the morning comings and goings of the local population of wildlife.

This morning, I watched 6 deer pass from right behind my house, into the pasture and on into the pines. They are not afraid of much this time of year and since this is a fairly protected spot for them, they linger as they pass. Deer are browsers and so curious about anything that might be edible. I watched them stop and paw at the leaves looking for some little morsel underneath. Unfortunately, today I think all they might have found was frozen solid but maybe not. Even as cold as it is, under the warmth of decaying leaves, things are sprouting and alive. Just the other day, I raked aside a pile of leaves and found several acorns with long, pink sprouts splitting their shells. There are many, many acorns in the woods and they feed a host of wildlife, from wild turkeys to the deer. Squirrels here have no fear of going hungry, even if they forget where they buried their own stashes, with the bounty available to them.

We also have several pecan trees in our backyard and the bluejays love them. There were not many pecans on the trees this year but high in the branches, the jays find the occasional nut and it is always interesting to watch them trying to crack them. I counted 9 jays on the tree just outside the window and more flying back and forth between that tree and two of the other ones. Flitting, bright blue birds on a morning as cold as this was really beautiful.

COLD! COLD! COLD!

2010-01-05T07:57:00.002-05:00

Winter has come in like a lion this year. It is so cold here this morning that it felt like my eyeballs were frozen by the time I got back in from taking the dogs out. But, even though I was really, really cold, I have to say that the sunrise was worth every shiver.

There is a pretty heavy cloud layer this morning because we have another system moving into the area so the sunrise was sort of weighed down by a blanket of periwinkle blue clouds. Under that blue mantle, the sun was just coming over the horizon (what I could see anyway) radiating with a glorious blending of red, pink and gold, so that everything was bathed in this intense copper glow. There is a dense line of pine trees at the back of the field across the road and they looked like they had been dipped into rose gold. It didn't last long, but I found myself standing there, holding my breath for a bit. I was so mesmerized that I forgot that it was 14 degrees.

It is at moments like that when I have no doubts that there is something Greater than myself in the Universe and I am always humbled by those moments.

The Safe Seed Pledge

2009-12-29T09:33:00.009-05:00

Be a responsible gardener and always look for this pledge (or something similar) when purchasing your seeds.

Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners and consumers who want an alternative, we pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants. The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms, poses great biological risks as well as economic, political, and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds. Further, we wish to support agricultural progress that leads to healthier soils, genetically diverse agricultural ecosystems and ultimately people and communities."

THE SAFE SEED INITIATIVE

The Council for Responsible Genetics

LOCA-RAVE

2009-12-29T08:52:00.012-05:00

The media's labeling of things puts them into a box from which there is sometimes no escape. Sometimes this labeling doesn't even mean anything. Like when some catch phrase from television or some equally spurious source starts being used so much people stop questioning the origin or even the meaning.

Every year, yet another "think tank" (see what I mean?) comes out with an annual list of top new words or most overused words, it is always astounding to me that anyone even took the time to think about it in the first place. I know that in our modern culture there is always something new that might need a specialized description, but what is wrong with stringing together some of the old words that we have stuffed into the verbal broom closet and completely forgotten about.

In 2007, the Oxford dictionary word of the year was "locavore". While I am actually in the business of growing food for others and love the idea that more and more people are interested in what I do, I just don't like that word. It sounds pretentious to me, kind of like eating local food is something new. My grandmother lived during the time when if you didn't eat local food, you went hungry, simple as that. So, why do we need a new word (locavore) to describe something that existed for the entire history of mankind until less than 100 years ago? I don't get that at all.

And while I am on the subject, when did the market become "super"? (I got most of the following from a Wikipedia article on Supermarkets.)

The concept of a self-service grocery store was developed by Clarence Saunders. His first Piggly Wiggly store opened in Memphis, Tenn., in 1916. According to the Smithsonian, the first true supermarket in the United States was opened by a former Kroger employee, Michael J. Cullen, on August 4, 1930, inside a 6,000 square foot former garage in Jamaica, Queens, New York. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Hmmm? How about some more interesting factoids:

Supermarkets, especially big box stores, have made the survival of the smaller family-run farm stands and neighborhood markets increasingly difficult.

Supermarkets, in general, also tend to narrow the choices of fruits and vegetables by stocking only varieties with long storage lives, thus leading to medium-term extinction of the cultivation of other varieties. There are only about 80 varieties of vegetables being cultivated on factory farms in the US. 100 years ago, when everybody ate local produce, there were probably thousands because each state, region, even community that had favorites, etc. Thank goodness the interest in heirloom vegetables, fruits, etc. has kept some of these from obliteration.

In the US, major-brand supermarkets often demand "slotting fees" from suppliers in exchange for premium shelf space and/or better positioning (such as at eye-level, on the checkout aisle or at a shelf's "end cap"). This extra supplier cost (up to $30,000 per brand for a chain for each individual SKU) may be reflected in the cost of the products offered. Some critics have questioned the ethical and legal propriety of slotting fee payments and their effect on smaller suppliers.

So, if you aren't shopping at your local farmer's market, why not?

THE ORGANIC ORACLE SPEAKS: ORGANIC IMPOSTORS

2009-12-23T08:08:00.022-05:00

Unfortunately, anytime there is an economic demand for a product, impostors sometimes begin to spring up at an alarming rate. This is the situation that many small certified organic farmers are encountering with more and more regularity when trying to market their goods. At farmer's markets, roadside stands, buying clubs and other venues, there are unscrupulous growers who claim to be "almost organic" or to be using "organic methods".

Many times farmers have no real clear idea of the disservice they are doing to the concepts of organic farming when they misuse the term "organic". Many of them simply do not have access to or completely comprehend the organic standards of the National Organic Program. Some of them simply do not care.

Just because you didn't spray noxious chemical pesticides on your crops in no remote way makes you an organic grower, nor does it adhere to the organic method. This system of agriculture is a synergistic partnership between the grower, the environment, combined with a deep respect and philosophical understanding of what this partnership requires. Unfortunately, it has become a marketing scheme in the last decade, instead of the principled ideals that were originally conceived.

Part of the organic method requires the support and establishment of habitat for beneficial insects, birds and other helpful creatures. It is not about controlling nature but rather finding the balance between what nature creates and working within that creation. It requires strong faith in the perfect order of all things in nature and to work with and within the natural cycles that occur. The truest principles of organic farming are not about commerce, they are about a deep and abiding love of Mother Earth and about taking our earthly stewardship responsibilities very seriously. It's really not all about the money.

TO CERTIFY OR NOT TO CERTIFY, THAT IS THE QUESTION?

There is an exemption from certification for legitimate very small organic growers. These producers are allowed to call their products organic, provided that they meet the specifications for this exemption. Part of the onus of responsibility for these non-certified organic growers is to keep the exact same paperwork and follow the exact same rules that certitied growers use. Only then is the exemption legitimate.

Ergo, the requirements to legally label a product as organic (non-certified) by falling under this exemption category, is exactly the same as a certified grower. All they are exempt from is inspection and paying for certification, which incidentally is not expensive at all. This is another common argument for not being certified that is completely bogus...most certifiers have caps on what they can charge and the USDA offers financial assistance to help with the costs of certification.

Since the other most common argument against certification among these pseudo-organic growers is that the paperwork is too burdensome for them to bother with but that is also not true.The documentation required is, if anything, an extremely useful tool that helps a farmer track his progress and have a yearly record to refer back to when planning his growing seasons. It is no more involved that keeping track of how you are managing your business. To be successful, any well managed business must keep good records, so what it the difference?

(The link below will take you to brief outline lists some of the key points that make certification of a producer/product important to anyone who eats organic food.)

Certified versus Non-Certified

CONSUMER RESPONSIBILITY

So, the only way to be certain that you are, in fact, getting what you are paying for is to ask for the grower's certification or to question their methods. It is your right to know. Organic certification is your assurance that the grower has done his or her due dilligence in order to obtain that certification. Third party certifiers for the USDA inspect farms to make sure that they are following what amounts to the strictest food growing standards in the world today. If your grower falls under the small grower's exemption, he/she should be able to explain the regulations that cover his/her operation.

And the growers are not the only ones at fault with regard to misinformation about organics. A majority of consumers don't really know exactly what they are seeking when it comes to organics and so the waters are muddied even further. Lots of consumers are really looking for fresh, local produce, not truly organic produce and this lack of distinction between two very different products feeds the cult of misinformation about organics that abounds at farmer's markets, etc.

What the Future Holds for New Moon Farm

2009-12-18T09:51:00.007-05:00

Wow! I thought it was time to post something important to our many loyal customers and blog followers, since I know that many of you might be curious as to what is happening with Dave and myself right now, in regards to the Farm. Since many of my readers knew us during Dave's original bout with renal cancer and were so supportive at that time, it seemed that it was important to let them know that Dave is now in the fight of his life.

Back in October of 2008, a rather large tumor was discovered when it caused him to have a compression fracture of one of his lumbar vertebra. It was painful and he had extensive surgery to repair the damage but the scans he had for this event revealed that the cancer was back in several spots and he had moved into Stage IV of this dreadful disease. Treatment options are extremely limited and with rather small rates of success for the ones that do exist. But, most of them were not available at all in 2005 when he was originally diagnosed and had his kidney removed, so at least we have some small glimmer of hope for a miracle and are thankful for that.

Throughout this ordeal of the last nearly 5 years, we have never wavered from our pledge to our friends and customers to provide them with the best and healthiest food we could possible grow. Even when he could hardly stand for the pain, he insisted that crops had to get into the ground and weeds had to be hoed. This year, we struggled but with the help of many wonderful and generous volunteers, we managed to have a pretty good season. Nothing like in the past, but satisfactory anyway.

One of the other reasons I am posting this is because we mostly know many of our followers through the Farm and the Farmer's markets we have attended over the last 10 years. Some of them we have seen in recent years, but some of them not at all but the occasional email lets me know they still follow the blog and check out the website. Everybody expresses their concern but nobody ever asks the hard questions, so I thought I would answer them anyway.

Because of the seriousness of Dave's illness, there is always the possibility that we will no longer be able to operate New Moon Farm Organics. That is the reality of it. I think that a personal explanation is in order. Rumor always swirls around events that are not explained adequately and I simply do not want any misinformation about our Farm to be out there in the world. Once those kinds of things hit the air, it is hard to call them back. No matter whether there is a shred of truth or not, people sometimes choose to believe what they hear without ever checking the facts and I want them out there. (I am sure that there was plenty of speculation about why we stopped coming to Charlotte Farmer's Market, when the simple fact is that we have a much better and more lucrative market, 15 minutes from the Farm. Simple as that.) If, and I do stress IF, we are no longer able to continue farming, it will be the absolute last resort we have and it will be because of Dave's health. No other reason.

What 2010 holds is anybody's guess but we plan on pressing ahead with doing the thing we love best....growing things and going to our farmer's market. We are looking to that end for 2010, also and will be making some adjustments to how we do things to accommodate the situation. I am neither as strong and agile or as intuitive about growing things as Dave, but I can hold my own. I am looking forward to getting into a couple of new areas, which we have not been able squeeze in for the last few years. By reducing the size of our CSA to a manageable number and time frame, I foresee that it will be a good year in 2010. The first segment of CSA will be just for spring and I am looking forward to meeting a whole new crop of families to provide with awesome food! There are a couple of dedicated folks that have expressed an interest in helping out for the entire season next year and I hope that comes to fruition. And we will again be offering our "Hands Across the Table" work for food program in 2010.

Blessings and gratitude to each and every one of our customers. You have all been a part of our success over the last 10 years and we want everyone to know how much we have appreciated all the support we received over the years. Come see us at the Davidson Farmer's Market this summer. We'd love to see you!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

Suzanne and Dave
New Moon Farm Organics

Wrote this a while back and never published it...may still be relevant

2009-12-14T08:48:00.004-05:00

The title of this blog is "Simply Sustainable - My Life on an Organic Farm". It mostly talks about the ups and downs of living and working as a farmer. But I wasn't always a farmer. In fact, my previous incarnation was about as far from farmer as you can get. I worked in the financial services industry for over 25 years....securities and commodity brokerage, to be specific.

My epiphany that maybe that industry wasn't where I needed to be came to me back in 1992 and it took me two years to shake myself loose from it and "retire" from my long career there. I have never looked back, although sometimes I do miss the money. Of course, that only lasts for about 30 seconds because my old life always flashes before my eyes and brings me back to reality because the truth of it is that I am not sure that I would have survived another year in that business, much less the 15 years since my departure.

That previous life does, however, give me a unique perspective on the present state of the economy, the stock market and the rest of the world. It gave the the courage to change things in my life and not to accept the status quo. Purposely, I have distanced myself from the reality that most people live in daily (9 to 5 job, big mortgage payment, credit card debt, etc.). It may seem that I gave up a lot, by today's standards of success, to get to the place I am in my present life. The money, the house, the car, the travel abroad...none of it really ended up meaning much after all, once it was gone. For a while, it was kind of like an out of body experience, but when I settled back down to earth, it was all good. Don't get me wrong. I am grateful for the opportunities I had to visit other places in the world. I am glad that I had the experience of living the so-called "good life", because it gave me a reference point. I think of the life that I live now as the "sweet life" and so much better than good.

Like anybody else, my life is far from perfect. But it is what makes me happy and makes my life relevant. I have truly never been happier, in my adult life. My work has meaning to me and I know that I am doing something good for myself, for other people and for my little corner of the world.

Of course, I would not be honest if I didn't give a lot of credit to the people around me who have supported and loved me no matter how radical or strange my choices may have seemed to them. And I certainly could not have reached this level of satisfaction in my life without having my best friend by my side every step of the way. Sometimes, there are people who come into you life that have such a profound effect. If you have the wisdom and openess to accept what they bring to you, it can change your life forever.

I don't want to sound cliche, because I truly believe what I am about to say, but there is no other way to say it. Opening yourself up to the endless possibilities of the Universe is the most important step anyone can take to having their best life ever. We are only given one life at a time to live, so make this one count. In the end, it really is all about the journey.

Incredible Photography to See

2009-12-11T09:29:00.007-05:00

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows that I am nutty about my beneficial insects and reluctantly enamored of even the not so beneficial ones. As I am out in the field, I get to observe up close, a tiny universe that many people never get to see. The life and activity in, under, around and between growing plants is a wonder to behold and I am in awe of it. Getting down and dirty has a whole different meaning for me that lots of folks although once in a while, I find someone who shares my wonderment.

This photo gallery (link follows), which I ran across this morning looking for something else, belongs to an epic talent. His pictures show the incredible beauty of these humble creatures that we most often take for granted. ( Yes, we all know that butterflies are beautiful but then they were always showoffs.) These pictures are sublime in their power. Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

Thomas Shahan Photography

If you click on the individual thumbnails, there is commentary and more pictures that follow each one.

Farm Daze

2009-11-28T12:47:00.010-05:00

This has been about the most hectic week I have spent in quite a while. Last Saturday, we had our last CSA pick up of the season (we go on for a really long time), as well as our regular winter Farmer's Market in Davidson. That means I got to pick all day Friday and it was COLD! I have to get down on my knees to pick lettuce and other baby sized greens, and since the ground was still wet from the rain just a couple of days prior, I was damp and muddy in no time. Only thing that kept that day from being totally miserable is that the greens I was picking were so beautiful, it was easy to focus on them and kind of meditate my way thru this chore.

Because we were trying to get the last CSA pick up arranged at a time that everyone could have some stuff for Thanksgiving from the Farm, I scheduled the last pick up for the Tuesday groups to be on Monday, to accommodate travelers, etc. That means I had to pick on Sunday, which I don't ordinarily do, but this time it was necessary. Problem was that it rained most of the day and it was only about 50 degrees. I nearly froze!!! Hypothermia is possible in 50 degree water and I might has well have been in that situation. Once I was done and came into the house, it took me hours to warm up, even with a wool blankie tucked around my feet and some serious Chai Tea.

On Monday, I went out twice to do CSA pick ups, one in Huntersville and one in Charlotte, so Tuesday was mostly an all day thing. I left my house around 8 am and got in for the night around 7 pm. It was misty, moisty, not so cold so I was able to sit in my car, waiting on members to pick up and read the better part of a Belva Plain novel. I don't ordinarily read that kind of novel, but it was the only thing I had in the car with me, since I forgot my bookbag in my rush to get out the door Monday morning.

Tuesday, I spend the entire day (8am until 7pm, again...) at doctor's appointments with The Farmer. PET scans, CT, MRI and then on to the doctor to have them read and to talk about how things are going with The Farmer's cancer treatment. Some problems showed up and we have to go back next week for another indepth consult and more tests.

On Wednesday, I marketed, cleaned up some and worked on prep for Thanksgiving dinner. Mostly I ended up running errands because I forget how hectic things get off the Farm sometimes, especially around holidays and it took 4 times as long to do everything from go to the bank to picking up chicken feed. It was nice, too, in a way, because everybody was friendly and wanted to chat instead of the usual blank faced stares and/or non-committal comments I often notice. I am not really down with Thanksgiving in the spirit it was created but I do love it when my fellow citizens of the planet are imbued with the holiday spirit. Seems like they are a little kinder, a little more thoughtful and a little more aware of other people. Although it sounds cliche, of course, I wish it could be like this 24/7, 365(6). Maybe the world wouldn't be in such a state.

Thursday was the holiday so that doesn't need much discussion. It was nice to be with the family and the dinner was excellent. Wish everybody could have been there, but we'll get the rest of them at Christmas.

Friday, The Farmer has a nosebleed that started Thursday night and wouldn't stop, so we spent most of yesterday (it is Saturday as I am typing this)in the emergency room at the local hospital. The nosebleed thing is not related to the cancer or its treatment in anyway, but is just adds a lot of misery to an already uncomfortable situation. The poor doctor on call at the ER was alone, except for the nursing staff, and he was running ragged. Kudos to him for being the doctor who worked yesterday. There had been two relative serious auto accidents earlier in the a.m. and he had dealt with that as well as the usual "day after eating bad food" customers in the ER (remember, not everybody is a good cook) as well as some people who were just plain sick.

Anyway, we got the nosebleed taken care of and have an appt. to get more treatment on that on Monday, so I am hoping that the rest of today and tomorrow proves to be a little more restful because besides taking The Farmer to the ENT on Monday, I have a meeting at 1pm, and getting my windshield replaced on my car in the afternoon. I neglected to mention that on Monday last, while sitting and waiting on my CSA members, a big truck flew by and popped a big rock onto my windshield and it cracked all over...can't be repaired, has to be replaced.

So, that was my week last week...thought it would be good to let you all know that life on the Farm is not always as peaceful and idyllic as it might seem, although if you notice from this post, all the chaos happened off the Farm....

Simply Thankful

2009-11-22T23:23:00.010-05:00

What a life! Every day I thank the stars that I am able to live this life I have. Even when adversity is thrown my way, I always have something to be thankful for. I sincerely wish that everyone could experience this way of living.

I go to bed when I am tired and get up when I am ready. I almost never fail to fall asleep soon as my head hits the pillow. Stress happens, but not anything that I can't handle. The time clock I punch is regulated by sunrise and sunset. I breath clean country air (except for when the neighboring dairy farm cleans their barn or the manure guys bring a load in...but that just smells like reality to me). I drink water from a well that is 400+ feet deep and it comes up cold and sweet, like God intended. You can't get water like that in a bottle. I eat mostly organic food that I mostly grow myself. I preserve summer harvests to enjoy in the cold of winter, although we usually have something growing year round! When it is time for dinner, I take my picking basket and head outside to peruse the "aisles" of my personal grocery. I can bake my own bread, make my own apple butter or strawberry jam to go with it. I hang my clothes outside on a line and they come in smelling like sunshine and fresh air, instead of fabric softener. I live with someone whom I love more than words, who makes me laugh and treats me like a princess.

I don't need much in the way of material goods which is a good thing, because I don't have a lot of that anymore. Yet I feel richer than any king because after 25 years of chasing success in a career that was took too much of my life away from me and my family, I finally realized that you really can't buy happiness. One key to realy happiness is having someone in your life who compliments you in such a way that it allows you to be secure in your relationship, to have complete trust in that other person, which in turn allows you the freedom to become "all that you can be".I don't personally know too many people who actually have that in their lives and because I do, it is one of the things that I am most and truly thankful for. I know that I am a very lucky person in that regard and never, never take it for granted in any way. I love you, honey.

I also love my parents, my brother, my kids, my grandkids, my inlaws (past and present), my friends and am thankful for each and everyone of them. I feel blessed to have been given a rare and special childhood, one from which I have not a single bad memory. Thanks, Mom and Dad. I am thankful that I was lucky enough to have had all my grandparents alive until I was well into adulthood and that I have wonderful memories from each of them.

I am thankful that I have intelligence, compassion, strength and talents. I use them as wisely as I can and try to make my world a better place so that my grandchildren will inherit a world as beautiful as the one I did.

Happy Thanksgiving.

2009-10-14T07:37:00.013-04:00

Someone asked me recently how many staff members we have here at the Farm this year. I didn't mean to, because it seemed rude after the fact, but I actually laughed out loud. Staff? How many? Well, let me see, 90% of the time, there is the Farmer and there is me. And this year, the Farmer's time has been cut dramatically, due to illness.

This has been a long and ardous year for us here at the Farm. Without the Farmer at the helm much of the time, many of his duties have fallen to me and I will be the first to admit that I am, depending on the task, about 30-50% as good at almost everything that entails. I always appreciated how much he did and how hard he worked, but now that appreciation is 10-fold. However, much of the time this year, it has just been me. I do all the picking, prepping, packing, going to markets. Planting, weeding, etc., I get my share of those chores, too.

While the Farmer has been out of commission much of the time this year, we have had volunteers come out to help on many occasions...and believe me, I am thankful and more grateful than I can express for their help. We couldn't have done many things this year without them. In fact let me take a moment to thank them.

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

THE REST OF THE STORY....

If you have ever grown anything organically...food plants, flowers, etc....than you know that it is a constant dance between man and nature, trying to find that comfortable balance where the chaos is reduced to a level you can live with. Trying to control Mother Nature is an exercise in futillity, so the best you can do is to try to go with the flow. Unless you are using noxious chemicals and implements of destruction that rape, pillage and plunder the land (if you don't get the implication there, I am talking about conventional farming methods....), the best you can hope for is that your dance will be a classic ballet, instead of a frenzied Cossack dance.

Nature is one of the strongest forces in the universe, is in a constant state of flux and always searching for balance. When man attempts to control that force, be it organically or artificially*, it creates a situation in which chaos is invited to the dance. You open even a small void and a horde of things are standing in the wings waiting for the change to fill that void...kind of like the ambitious understudy standing in the winge, waiting for the prima ballerina to break her leg. (I am really enjoying this dance metaphor...totally fits.) Insects, weeds, birds, deer, groundhogs, the neighbor's unleashed dog, disease, fungi, viruses, bacteria, chemical reactions and natural decay....living things and inert substances...everything just waiting for their chance to step into the opening.

Trying to figure out the best and most effective way to deal with problems, without compromising principles, is something that we deal with on a daily basis. Vigilence is generally the best option and keeping an eye on things is never ending. Averting situations before they occur is preferable to having to find a solution once a problem arises. That serves us well here.

*Of course this is my personal opinion but it is based in fact and on my own experience. I consider conventional farming methods to be "artificial". Before the first seed hits the ground, the soil is assaulted with machinery and chemicals that destroy rather then build anything useful. Herbicides and fungicides are applied because the monocultural systems that are prevalent in conventional farming are so unnatural that even more artificial means are required to control weeds, disease, etc. Some (many?) crops are now planted with seeds that are not even natural in origin, which is another entire soapbox subject. Organisms that belong in the dirt are destroyed and trace minerals are leached from the soil, until it is as inert as sand. Because anything the even resembles something life giving has been depleted from this dead soil, food crops have to be pumped up with water and fed with artificial and chemical fertilizers. Give me my organic methods any day of the week. That'd just be my opinion....

The Farmer's Story - An update on New Moon Farm

2009-10-12T09:40:00.016-04:00

Hello to everyone who reads my blog. I am very sorry that I have not posted anything in so very long, but posting here has been toward the bottom of the priorities list. For those of you who know us personally, you know about the journey we are presently on. It is a long and rocky one, fraught with twists and turns that sometimes make even simple things a bit difficult. For those of you who do not know us personally, I am going to talk about things here at the Farm via this blog entry.

THE FARMER'S STORY

New Moon Farm is, and has always been, a labor of love for the two of us. Together, we are the beating heart of this farm, but the Farmer is its true "soul". Without him, we could never have achieved anything close to what we have at this farm. His creativity, intuition and knowledge about the nature of living things has provided the cornerstone of what we do here. This has been a hard year for the Farm, because the Farmer has not been 100% for almost a year now. We have been pressing forward with all things organic, but it has been a rocky road for us both.

New Moon Farm was originally established in 1999, with our intention to homestead and live as simply, organically and self-sufficiently as possible as our main goals. Since that original plan took shape, the Farm has evolved and grown in many positive ways. We expanded the number of acres we farm from 7 to 17 (out of 30), became certified organic in 2004 and established and operated a CSA since 2003. In 2005, the Farmer was diagnosed with Renal Cell Carcinoma and at that time, he had the "bad" kidney removed and after three months was pronounced cancer free and fit to farm! He never even missed planting season because the surgery was in January and we didn't start planting until April, after he was released from his doctor's care.

In October of 2008, however, things changed. The cancer returned and caused a spinal injury that has been both debilitating and extremely painful. Since February of this year, the Farmer has been battling this cancer. In the four years since his original diagnosis, there have been many forward steps in treatments but like with so many cancer treatments, sometimes it is worse that the disease. If you have missed seeing him at markets this year, and wondered why, that is the reason. He is spiritually and mentally mostly unchanged, but the physical limitations brought on by this disease have been dramatic and challenging. Obviously, the Farm continues on....maybe not as efficiently as previously, with the Farmer at the helm, but it does continue.

(This year, we have had many wonderful volunteers come to help out at the farm and we thank them for their caring and for the time that they shared with us. I hope they went away with a little more knowledge and a feeling of knowing that they made a difference in our lives. Thanks to them all.)

Many of you who know us are already aware that this Farm and the life we lead is something that we consider a "calling". We were drawn to this life by our strong commitment to actively doing something to make our lives and the world around us a better place. Even though we have only physically impacted a 30 acre parcel of land, I like to think that we have inspired and encouraged other people we come into contact with to do the same with their little corners of the planet and that is all good. There is a deep spirituality to what we do, a connection to the Universe that is hard to describe but it is the most fulfilling and happy part of my life so far and that is saying a lot. Even with the seriousness of the Farmer's illness, we still plan to continue what we do, although we may have to make some minor adjustments along the way.

Thank you again for reading my blog and hope to see you all around at the markets next year. Once the cold weather sets in, I plan on cranking up this blog, as well as my new one on living simply and organically. Watch here for announcement on when that one is launched.

Where the heck is the summer going???

2009-08-03T09:29:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it is already August. Where the heck did the time get to? We are now at the half way (just about) point for our CSA/Farmer's Market circuit and so far it has been a pretty good run. I am facing most of August without any volunteers coming out to help, so I might have to drum up some new ones. ; )

There are many, many muskmelons in the patch right now, just about a week from ripening. From that point forward, we should have melons of different types over the next 4-6 weeks. There are a couple of interesting heirlooms that many people in this area have never seen before and that should be fun. One of them looks like it has warts all over it, but the plants don't much like heat and are very finicky. A couple of years ago I grew this one and out of my whole row, I got one edible melon....so we'll see how that goes this season. I have varieties like Noir de Carmes, Delice d'Table, Canoe, Cane Creek, Emerald Gem, Pepo, Sakata's Sweet, Haogen, Amarillo Oro, Hale's Jumbo and Sugar Baby. There may be a couple more, but I'd have to go get the log book to say for sure about anything else.

Sweet potatoes are vining now and the butternut squash are starting to turn. Those are like fall staples and some of our most popular veggies. The okra is just now coming into its season and I should be picking it weekly now. Eggplant, likewise. Cukes, limas, yellow wax beans and basil are all about a week or two from harvest. Yellow squash is on its way out for now but will put in a brief fall appearance in September sometime. The zukes and patty pans will be in the mix for the next rotation of squash. It sometimes seems like squash are invading the Universe around here, but with the way our summer heat can blast they are one of the veggies you can usually count on. Not always true, though. Last year, we only harvested about 2 bushels off the entire 200 plant squash patch and then the squash bugs sent them belly up in a matter of a 7-10 days.

Grape tomatoes continue to produce but the earlier season tomatoes are starting to poop out a bit.The late patch is looking good. Unfortunately, some of the more exotic heirlooms are looking a little piqued so I don't know if I will get more than a smattering of any of those. I noticed that some of the peppers are blooming again, but with the heat returning, I think we may not see the biggest harvest of those until later in this month. The corn is most likely done for now, but the late patch is looking healthy and hearty, so we should have one more harvest before the end of September. Field peas should come in by the end of the month or possibly the first week of September. There are several interesting heirlooms planted and I hope they make enough to have at least two rounds of those.

It is that time of the season to start planting for fall and we have several things already up and growing. I planted 14 rows of sugar snap peas and they are all popping up now. Most of the fall greens are really fast growing, so we won't plant those for another couple of weeks. When nighttime temps fall a little, that is the time to get those in the ground. Exception to that is kale, collards, beets and carrots. I will be prepping beds for roots later this week, as well as lettuce. I will plant my final annual herbs this week, also.

Hope everybody is enjoying the weather this summer. It has been a welcome change from last summer. We have missed most of the rain that has occurred around us and continue to have to use the irrigation well, but overall, it has been a great year to be a farmer!!

2009-07-30T08:44:00.002-04:00

It has been a really long time since I posting anything interesting here. I apologize to my handful of faithful followers for that. This is the busiest time of year for us and frankly, when I come in at night I am not full of interesting or meaningful things to type. Plus, usually by the time I get to sit down, I immediately fall asleep.
I watched exactly 4 minutes and 44 seconds of Valkyrie last night and it was the third time, so I am sending it back to Netflix today....I give up. I would say that I thought it was the movie, but I did the same thing with the last three movies I tried to watch.

We no longer have television, by the way. When the switch to HD came, we decided that we weren't buying into that whole thing and just didn't get the converter box. Frankly, we didn't watch that much anyway. Mostly used it to watch DVD's, etc. Our television is so old it doesn't even have stereo speakers, so most DVDs are not even that much fun to watch because the sound is always terrible. Dolby THX doesn't sound great in monaural mode.....

Anyway, my mom thought we would miss television, so she very kindly bought us the converter and lo! and behold! we still got no reception, even with the outside antenna. So, that settled it. The television has been unplugged since analog finally died back in June. I haven't missed it for a second. However, I must confess that we DO watch somethings on HULU, etc. I love being able to pick and choose when, what, etc. I watch.
AND the DVD player in my computer is waaaaaaay better than the one with the TV, the speakers rock (we listen to a lot of streaming music on the 'puter) and my monitor is almost as big as the television (I have this huge 26 inch flat panel and the television as 27 inches...). but enough about that. I was making a point anyway about how living simply doesn't have to be dictated by what everybody else is doing (HDTV was my example for this).

Things at the Farm have been really busy this year. The Farmer was out of commission for at least 3 1/2 months and he is still intermittently out (his cancer treatment takes it out of him sometimes) so we have had a wonderful bastion of voluteers who have helped us keep the Farm running this season. I am doing only three farmer's markets and a very small CSA this year because we knew what we could manage on a minimal scale and so far it has worked out pretty well. Have met some incredible people and made some great friends through the volunteer network! We could not have done it without any of them and we have only praise and thanks for them all. Of course, we could still use anybody that wants to put in a day's hard work in the dirt.
Email me at suzanne@organicnc.com if you are interested.

Right now, we have a whole bunch of wonderful things coming up. Since we were about a month late getting things in the ground this year (that was because of all the spring rain....), now we have things coming in at a later time of year and will have things much later than usual...things like okra, eggplant, peppers, cukes and melons, in particular. And we have a late crop of tomatoes that look like they are going to be very productive. We always have butternuts and sweet taters in the fall, along with greens, lettuces, etc. but this year, we should have some summer veggies lasting well into September and possibly even October if the weather stays as warm as late as it has in the last several years. We are setting broccoli, cabbage, etc. out in the next week, so overall it should be a very good fall season this year. There has been a whole lot of rain all around us this summer, so we have had to use the irrigation system more than we would have liked but that is just the nature of farming. I have stood on our front porch and literally watched it rain at the bottom of the hill but nary a drop at our house. Since I can't control the weather, I try not to think much about it, but sometimes you can't help but wonder why.

The chickens have given me nothing but a headache this summer. They are eating me out of house and home and I am basically getting about 2 dozen eggs per week....we have a predator getting in the henhouse, breaking and stealing eggs. Luckily, the hens are not being harmed, but some days every egg in the house is broken before I can get in to gather them. Very frustrating. I think I am going to have to sell off the barred rocks and the black sex-link hens and just keep the Delawares. But the upside is that I learned a WHOLE lot about chickens since last year and I am thankful for the experience.

I hope to be getting back to post here more regularly in the future. Check back and see how I am doing.

Farmer Dave's Blog about his illness

2009-05-20T09:46:00.001-04:00

If you want to get updates on The Farmer's health, visit

http://farmerdavesblog.blogspot.com/

STATE OF THE FARM ADDRESS MAY, 2009

2009-05-20T09:17:00.005-04:00

For those of you who follow this blog, I apologize for not posting in so long. It is crazy at the Farm these days, and not just in the fields. Some days I feel like I am being pulled by both arms, both legs and the top of my head. We are still dealing with The Farmer's illness, which is one of the harder things to deal with at the present time. I have a separate blog for updates on his illness, so I won't post a bunch of stuff about that here. I want to talk about the Farm for a change, so here we go.

THE FIELDS

Things are going well in the field, albiet slowly. Without The Farmer's strong and able hands, we are kind of like the Keystone Kops somedays, but mostly we are getting things done. We have two incredible people working with us this year (Brooks and Benjamin, take a bow) and they are so much help, it is like having a huge weight lifted from our shoulders. They aren't here everyday but put in double time when they are. It is such a blessing to have them and I thank the Universe for sending them every day.

Right now, we have so many things that are on the verge of something big, I can hardly contain myself. Green beans, edamame, corn, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash!!!
We got our greenhouse finished this winter and it has made a tremendous difference for us because we have been able to get plants ready to put out at the times we used to plant seeds. Of course, we still are sticklers for everything being in the proper season, but we are now on the early edge of those seasons, instead of the tail end. The butternut squash went into the ground this week, and the okra will be in soon. I had to search for yellow wax bean seeds (most of the seed houses had very limited quantities this year for some reason) and I now have those in hand, so we will be planting them soom.
The green beans we plant are varied, from flat Italians to heirloom cornfield beans this year. Cornfield beans are called that because they were traditionally planted at the base of a corn stalk and allowed to climb the stalk, thereby getting two crops planted in the same space. We are going to try that this year but I understand that timing is everything (if corn is too small beans will pull down the plant, if corn is too big it will shield beans from sun....) so we'll see how that turns out.
I will be planting melons and cukes in flats this week, so that they will be ready to plant out in a couple of weeks. They grow incredible fast in controlled conditions and this way I can make sure that my specialty melons have a fair chance at making something. I hate to buy expensive, exotic seeds and them have them rot in the ground befor they come up, which happens sometimes. I have things like Crane melons and Charentais, something called a Toad Melon(because of the skin, I gather)
We have Moon and Stars Watermelons and our old favorite, Sugar Baby. We will be growing Armenian Cukes this year, which are really a weird melon that looks and tastes like a cuke but with less seeds and no "burping".

THE MARKETS

This year we are trying to be at three markets in our area, as well has having a small farm stand at here at our location. We have been open to the public in the past but it never worked out too well, so I am having a little bit of trepidation about that but I hope that it works out okay. We have invited other local farmers to bring stuff over and participate so that should be loads of fun!

We are in Davidson on Saturdays and will be in Charlotte on Saturdays, starting in mid-June. We are at the Huntersville market on Tuesdays and here at the Farm on Wednesdays, so that is a pretty full schedule. Of course, a number of years ago, I tried doing a market every day but Sunday and that didn't work out so well....but it did give me A LOT of diverse experience.

You can stop the rain dancing now...

2009-05-06T07:38:00.005-04:00

All of those rain dances I did out back, must have worked. Everything here at the Farm is so green and growing right now, you can almost see it happening before your eyes.

We will be picking strawberries for market this weekend. They are wonderful, as usual, this year. Might be a little gritty, though, because we don't have the mulch finished yet. Oh well, maybe that will be a deterrent to people eating them unwashed. That drives me crazy, by the way. Strawberries grow in dirt and sit on the ground, there is gonna be some dirt on the berries. Organic dirt isn't sterile...

I see that happening all the time at farmer's markets. People will buy some fruit and immediately start eating it while strolling the market. While I am a firm believer in the fact that being exposed to things makes your body become resistant to them, eating fruit that has pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and who knows what all else on them, just doesn't seem prudent to me. And I didn't mention all the handling they may have had to get to the table at those markets....

My hens are laying like crazy right now, but everytime it cools off, they do too, meaning that they slow down their laying a bit. It is okay, though, all those eggs go to much good usage.

2009-04-19T12:11:00.004-04:00

In some of my previous posts, , I mentioned that we were having some issues with the Farmer's back that has now it has become an even bigger issue. Four years ago, he was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma. If that sounds like a big scary disease, it is. No question. It strikes like a cobra that has to be killed in one blow. With RCC, that blow is the removal of the kidney, where the tumor originates. If it hasn't moved on to other parts of the body, you are pronounced cured and sent home, told to get a CT scan once a year and have a nice life.

Sometimes it doesn't come back, only that rarely happens. This is a hard disease to fight. The problem is that it doesn't respond to normal chemo. Radiation as most people know it, has little effect on this cancer, but there are some cutting edge techniques being used not that may render the old info obsolete. There has been some real progress and some profound breakthroughs made in the treatment of this cancer over the last four years, provided you are able to obtain these treatments. While there is no "cure" there are at least some life extending options available now that were only experimental in 2005. Biggest problem with them, though, is that the possible side effects are pretty intense and QOL can be considerably affected by them. Plus, there are other stumbling blocks to the newer treatments, particularly cost, location and availability.

This is one insidious cancer, because it is always lurking in the background of your life, waiting to rise again from the ashes. But, unlike the mythical Phoenix, it has a much more sinister purpose and it usually comes back with a vengeance. So, you have to decide how you are going to live your life...sitting in the house waiting for the ax to fall or live your life like there is no tomorrow...always in the moment and looking forward to the next. Luckily for us, we chose the latter.

The last four years have been up and down for us but we have never waivered from our mission of growing the healthiest food we possibly could and to get it to the people in our community. Our committment to our brothers and sisters under Mother Earth has always been at the forefront of everything we do. We live our own lives with that committment to excellent stewardship always at the forefront (by example is always the best way to teach) and try to never waiver from our goals of sustainability, self-sufficiency and simplicity. In some ways, that has made us outsiders, not quite fitting into the flow of what is happening around us.

Sometimes it almost seems like people are hinting to us that we should apologize for how we live and I can't imagine why. Our life here is one of relative peace and harmony and if that sounds hippyish, that is because it is. There was nothing wrong with those lofty ideals that so many had in the 1960's and early 70's, just with the means to the end and so it didn't stick. Humans are pack animals and we are hardwired on some levels to always try to fit in, which usually means taking the path of least resistance. Ergo, the old hippies became wealthy opening health food stores and record companies. Personally, I became a financial advisor and spent 25 years on that rat wheel before I could get off and save myself.

Finding ourselves in this present position, that of knowing basically nothing about what the future holds, has left us bruised and battered but underneath all that, we know how strong our bond is and know that we will deal with it as best we can. Hopefully, our best will result in only positive things and we will continue along the path we have chosen. Love really is the answer and we have that in spades.

During the next several weeks and months there is a lot of work to be done both at the Farm and to fight this illness, so I may not get to post here at this blog very often. I may be wrong about the postings, though, because I find this is a good place to vent, let out feelings, etc. especially since this blog is about my life on an organic farm and this is all part of that life.
Namaste

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2009-04-13T08:37:00.007-04:00

Whew! This spring has been one wild weather ride after another. So far, I have covered, uncovered, sprayed with water, shaded, opened and closed doors (on the greenhouse) and put up barriers to keep the wind from blowing seedlings out of their little pots. And that was just last week. But all kidding aside, this has been one of the springs that we usually have around here. I guess with the last couple of years of drought we forgot what a real spring season in this area can be like. At least it is warming up now. APril 14th was the last average date to frost here in our zone, so keep your fingers crossed that the average is the norm this year.

EXCITING NEW ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT 2009 SEASON

2009-03-26T12:30:00.004-04:00

I am excited and pleased to announce that the Farmer and I have decided that we are going to be open to the public this year. Granted, it will only be for one day per week, but it will be all day and mid-week on Wednesdays. Hours will be from 9am until 5 pm, starting June 3rd, with hours to be extended for July and August, maybe even into September. The last open day will be October 28th. We chose Wednesday because we are very limited as to when we can be here all day, due to the rest of our market schedule.

This is also kind of an experiment and if it works out, we will expand for next year. I admit that we have resisted doing this in the last several years because frankly, the last time we tried to have a produce stand at the Farm it didn't work out so well but I am optomistic that things will be different this time around.

Also, we are adding Wednesday at the Farm as a CSA pick up location, for those folks that live
too far from Charlotte, Davidson or Huntersville. It appears that there is a lot of interest in Salisbury, Statesville, China Grove, etc. and this location will be much more convenient for them, especially with the extended hours. I wish we could have extended hours at the other market locations where CSA picks up but we are bound by the constraints of those market hours.

The Farmer is still recovering from his back surgery. It has been nearly 7 weeks and while he is still experiencing some pain and weakness, overall he is making progress. He had 3 weeks of radiation treatments and that took a toll on his energy level and general well being, but that is over now and he is getting a little better every day. We don't start the next round of treatment for another 3 weeks and so are trying to enjoy this break. The therapies he will be undergoing are extremely hard on the body and we have our fingers crossed that he will have minimal side effects. But, like everything else, it is a "wait and see" scenario. His doctor is an expert in the particular type of rare carcinoma that the Farmer has and we feel very blessed to have been accepted as patients. Also, the incredible outpouring of volunteers, coming out to help on the Farm has been wonderful and we are thankful for them everyday. Things are going pretty well, although we are slightly behind in planting...although that is due to all the rain we have been having lately. Hope it dries out soon...my chickens are starting to get webbed feet.

Latest information about CSA

2009-03-12T12:21:00.004-04:00

(Our website is still in limbo because of the new server switch, so here is the latest on CSA.)

Charlotte CSA pick up is completely full.

Huntersville CSA pick up has room for about 5 more members.

Davidson CSA pick up has room for about 4 more members.

Possibly adding a CSA pick up at THE FARM on a weekday but no decision on that yet. Check back here this weekend for more detailed information about that.

Thanks!

2009-03-02T06:47:00.003-05:00

Affirmation and validation is always a sweet reward for hard work and dedication, especially when what you are doing is something slightly controversial. Take what I do for a living....I grow organic, heirloom vegetables, which I sell at farmer's markets. It always made perfect sense to me that anything that hadn't been too hybridized had to be better than something that had been tinkered with until it barely resembled the original, even if much of the differences were at a molecular level. It seemed that if something had been bred for long storage, firmness, and the ability to be picked earlier and greener and later being "tricked" into ripening by the application of hexane gas (tomatoes, for example), well, there was something not quite copasetic about that. And then there is the whole GMO argument....

I grew up eating homegrown organic veggies and I know what they are supposed to taste like. I am old enough that everything my gran grew when I was a kid is now considered an heirloom, so I know from whence I speak..... So, let me leave this alone before I go off on a rant about this subject. Hate to say “I told you so” but I told you so.....

2009-02-19T09:09:00.006-05:00

I grew up eating homegrown organic veggies and I know what they are supposed to taste like. I am old enough that everything my gran grew when I was a kid is now considered an heirloom, so I know from whence I speak..... So, let me leave this alone before I go off on a rant about this subject and say that you should please check out the article titled at the link listed below. Hate to say “I told you so” but I told you so.....

Eating Your Veggies: Not As Good For You?

Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence?
By Donald R. Davis Journal of HortScience; February 2009, 5 pp.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090219/hl_time/08599188014500

Most recent news from New Moon Farm Organic

2009-02-13T08:50:00.011-05:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that we were having some issues with the Farmer's back and now it has become an even bigger issue. Four years ago, he was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma. If that sounds like a big scary disease, it is. No question. It strikes like a cobra that has to be killed in one blow. With RCC, that blow is the removal of the kidney, where the tumor originates. If it hasn't moved on to other parts of the body, you are pronounced cured and sent home, told to get a CT scan once a year and have a nice life.

Sometimes it doesn't come back, only that rarely happens. This is a hard disease to fight. The problem is that it doesn't respond to normal chemo and radiation has very little if any affect on it. Thank goodness there has been some real progress and some profound breakthroughs made in the treatment of this cancer over the last four years, provided you are able to obtain these treatments. There are a lot of stumbling blocks, particularly cost, location and availability.

This is one insidious cancer, because it is always lurking in the background of your life, waiting to rise again from the ashes. But, unlike the mythical Phoenix, it has a much more sinister purpose and it usually comes back with a vengeance. So, you have to decide how you are going to live your life...sitting in the house waiting for the ax to fall or live your life like there is no tomorrow...always in the moment and looking forward to the next. Luckily for us, we chose the latter.

The last four years have been up and down for us but we have never waivered from our mission of growing the healthiest food we possibly could and to get it to the people in our community. Our committment to our brothers and sisters under Mother Earth has always been at the forefront of everything we do. We live our own lives with that committment to excellent stewardship always at the forefront (by example is always the best way to teach) and try to never waiver from our goals of sustainability, self-sufficiency and simplicity. In some ways, that has made us outsiders, not quite fitting into the flow of what is happening around us.

Sometimes it almost seems like people are hinting to us that we should apologize for how we live and I can't imagine why. Our life here is one of relative peace and harmony and if that sounds hippyish, that is because it is. There was nothing wrong with those lofty ideals that so many had in the 1960's and early 70's, just with the means to the end and so it didn't stick. Humans are pack animals and we are hardwired on some levels to always try to fit in, which usually means taking the path of least resistance. Ergo, the old hippies became wealthy opening health food stores and record companies. Personally, I became a financial advisor and spent 25 years on that rat wheel before I could get off and save myself.

Finding ourselves in this present position, that of knowing basically nothing about what the future holds, has left us bruised and battered but underneath all that, we know how strong our bond is and know that we will deal with it as best we can. Hopefully, our best will result in only positive things and we will continue along the path we have chosen. Love really is the answer and we have that in spades.

I don't imagine I will be posting very frequently here at this blog for a while. During the next several weeks and months there is a lot of work to be done both at the Farm and to fight this illness. I may be wrong about the postings, though, because I find this is a good place to vent, let out feelings, etc. especially since this blog is about my life on an organic farm and this is all part of that life.

Namaste

2009-02-04T20:10:00.003-05:00

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT MY BLOG
The Farmer is presently hospitalized and having back surgery, so I am suspending the blog temporarily. We have been preoccupied with this for a while not (hence the lack of postings) so bear with me and I should be back on line when he gets home from the hospital next week, since we will be sticking close to the house until he is ambulatory again. Thanks.

The Farm Where I Live

2009-01-11T08:01:00.003-05:00

Article from 2007 that is still relevant today

2009-01-09T10:24:00.009-05:00

The following is an article I posted in 2007 about comparison shopping between being in a CSA and shopping for organic food at the supermarket. Because I didn't have time to do this in 2008, I dredged up the figures from the year before because the principles are the same. Our CSA structure changed for 2008 and we included delivery, so the reference to our CSA is out of date, but the gist of this info is basically the same. Check it out.

Good argument for LOCAL FOOD!!!!
New Moon Farm Comparison Shopping for Organic Produce
July 26, 2007

Recently, there was an article on Yahoo! Money (it is a series about how to manage your money) on how to save money on organic produce. Joining a CSA was one of the 5 ways mentioned. After reading the article, I decided to do a little research of my own. Since I rarely buy organic produce in supermarkets (definite perk of being an organic farmer), I took a trip around to my local groceries that stock organic produce to see what it was selling for there. Since I had some errands to run anyway this week over near the Walmart, Target and Bloom stores, I took a quick survey of their prices for what was received in our CSA share this week for a comparison. Keep in mind that NONE of the produce in the store survey was locally grown.

Here is what I found:
At Target
Two 4 inch long Zuchinni $3.99 (6 oz)
Two 6 inch long Slicing Cukes $3.99
3 small Tomatoes (Hothouse tomatoes, not homegrown heirlooms) $4.99 I weighed these with the plastic clamshell pkg included and it still weighed less 1 lb -- 12 ounces was the pkg wgt. The label said they were a product of Minnesota, go figure.
10 oz. pkg. Grape Tomatoes $3.49
2 Green Bell Peppers $4.99 (If you got the pack with a red and green one, the price was $5.99) Did not have Eggplant available

At Bloom
2 Med. Yellow Squash $3.99 (not quite 1#)
1 dry pt. Grape Tomatoes $3.49 (The dry pt weighed around 8-10 oz)
2 small Green Peppers $3.99
Did not have Tomatoes, Cukes or Eggplant

Harris Teeter was too far to go to and I don't have many other choices in this area.
Food Lion has some packaged organics on occasion but nothing fresh this week but then Bloom is Food Lion anyway. I went into Walmart but it scared me and I ran away....not really, but their organic produce choice was so limited and looked so bad, I just left the store without recording the price info.

Here is what our Tuesday CSA group received this week, priced using the previous supermarket prices:
24 ounces of Grape Tomatoes $8.28
Two cukes $3.99
3 lbs Heirloom Tomatoes $14.97
1.5 lb Squash/Zuchinni/Patties $5.99 (If I were to use the zuchinni price of $10+/lb i/o the yellow squash price of $3.99/lb, the value is $15 for 1.5# of squash)
1 Green Pepper $2.00
1 Italian Eggplant $2.99 (this is our price and the price at Diamond Organics)
1/2 lb Asian Eggplant $1.50 (ditto on this price)
CSA members paid $20 for this weekly share.
Total value for what they received, using supermarket prices: $39.72 sans 6% sales tax. (that adds $2.38 for a total of $42.10)

Our produce is grown under the exact same USDA standards for certified organic produce as ANY of the produce in stores. In fact, we generally grow ours over and above what is required. CSA member's produce was less than 24 hours from the field when they received it and didn't travel 3000 miles to get to you, so the nutritional value is probably double or triple what the store's produce would be. AND they saved $19.72 over what this produce would have cost at the store before any sales tax was added.

2009-01-01T18:39:00.009-05:00

LATEST AMAZING CHICKEN STORY

The new year came in with a nice surprise today and I have a wonderful chicken story to tell (regular readers know I am all about the chicken thing...).

We had lunch with The Farmer's Mom today. It was the traditional New Year's meal of greens, peas, etc. so hopefully we covered all the bases for the coming year. I am not too sure what the incredible chocolate cake we had for desert bodes for but if it is half as good as the cake, I can't wait!!!

After we finished, we came home to wait for the person who is buying our used van to come by and we were sitting on the sofa talking about it. All of a sudden, I noticed a shadow outside the front window. We have a porch with rockers across the front of our little house and the shadow appeared to be someone rocking in one of the chairs. I thought it might be the van buyer so I got up to look out the window and there was one of our hens sitting on the back of the chair.

The shades were down and she was turning her head back and forth trying to see in. When I opened the door and she saw me, she started clucking and squawking like she had just laid an egg (they do that, you know). I thought she was just doing something "chickeny" so I went back in the house. After I shut the door, she raised the volume on the clucking about 3 notches and started to peck on the window, so I went back outside to see if I could figure out what the problem was.

I should explain that this is the tamest hen we have out of the whole flock of over 100. She also lays one egg a day in one of several old baskets on the porch. I originally kept some of my garden tools in them and when I noticed this little black hen setting in one of them every day, I took the tools out and left the basket for her. The porch wraps around and the basket is usually in the back corner where it is protected from the elements, but it was VERY windy yesterday and it had blown off and I hadn't noticed it.

As crazy as it seemed, I thought maybe that was what she wanted, so I picked up the basket, along with a box and another basket that had blown off, too and put them down on the table for a minute to see if I could put it somewhere where it wouldn't blow off again. Almost as soon as I put her basket down on the table (not the usual spot, mind you) she stopped all the clucking, hopped down from the chair and came running over to me. She jumped up on the table, looked over the basket and hopped in and started settling down to lay her egg. Within 10 minutes, she was cradling her newly laid egg and in another 15 minutes, left and went back to her scratching under the big boxwood by the side of the house.

Her protector is one of the young Delaware roosters and he was there, too, in the bush, watching us. I say protector because he is young and not very "savvy" when it comes to the ladies, so he is kind of odd man out in the rooster club. But he really likes this little black hen because she doesn't peck him all the time like the other hens do (the roosters mostly ignore him because he has trouble crowing...sounds like he has a perpetual frog in his throat). When she got into the basket, he came and stood over her while she laid her egg.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to add that there was a cat sleeping on the table beside the baskets that never moved during the entire process. I have seen this hen get into her basket with a kitten sleeping in it before, so that part didn't really surprise me. Of course, that kitten is deaf and never hears her coming. He generally doesn't hang around once she gets in because she takes up most of the basket and she doesn't like to share. I have never seen her peck him, though, she just pushes him out with her preparations. He just gets up and leaves on his own.

Pictures of the Little Black Hen follow this post.

Pictures to accompany Amazing Chicken Story

2009-01-01T18:32:00.008-05:00

The Little Black Hen, checking out the basket while the roo looks on.

There is a cat sleeping on the other side of the box. I am not totally sure what the rooster is doing with his foot up there, except maybe trying to look cool...
Settled in and down to business.

See the egg in the left corner, just under her feathers....

2008-12-31T07:15:00.013-05:00

Since one of the oft touted benefits of buying local food is that you get to know your farmers, I thought I would present you with a thumbnail biography about the Farmer and myself so that you might have some small insight into why we do what we do. We have never really done that before because it is very weird to write about yourself. If you read this blog, you know that growing things is a big part of our life, so I am just going to write about the non-NMFO stuff. Hope it turns out okay...

The Farmer

The Farmer was born in 1959 and grew up mostly in Charlotte. His dad was in law enforcement and his mom worked for the school system but they both grew up in the farming community where we are presently located. His parents moved to Charlotte in the late 1950's but because their family ties remained strong, the Farmer spent lots of his weekends and most of his summers coming back to the farm where he spent much of his time helping his grandad and great-grandad work on the farm. He also spent a lot of time outdoors which is where he developed his great love and understanding of nature. One of the reasons he got into organic farming is because of the connection to that love of all things natural. To be able to make a living doing something that is such a noble venture, as well as something that is part of your very core being, is about the best job I can think of right now. Besides, he has the greenest thumb this side of the Jolly Green Giant.

In Charlotte, his family lived outside the city limits, in a rural area where there were still several working farms. When he was about 12, he had a job, before school, at the dairy farm behind their house, feeding the cows as they were being milked. He had a great big bucket that he had to keep refilling at the silo and hauling back to the barn to keep the cows happy and calm. I think he might have also done some milking when he was a teenager.

After graduating high school, he attended college in North Carolina, where he played soccer (first ever freshman to start for his team...he was pretty good) and got a degree in Industrial Design and Engineering. He then spent 15 years or so working as an engineer for a design firm that made precision and micro instruments for industrial uses. Things like drill bits the size of a human hair and stuff like that. He also worked on projects for the auto and computer industry. Eventually, he left the field of engineering and headed west to pursue another life.

All of his life, the Farmer gravitated toward to the water, rivers, lakes or the oceans, which lead him to take up sailing at a young age and he remains a proficient big boat sailor to this day. His love of wind, water and waves, sparked an interest in a fledgling sport back in the early 80's called "windsurfing". Quickly mastering this sport, he spent several years with a corporate sponsorship on the windsurfing circuit. Kite boarding came along in the 90's and the progression into that sport just came naturally. Today he continues to pursue these sports, whenever he can get time away from the farm to do so.

Gifted with an incredibly right and curious mind, the Farmer is a true Renaissance man. He has many wide and varied interests that don't involve water. He is a licensed falconer and knows a whole lot about raptors. He plays guitar, Dobro, banjo and percussion. He practices yoga. He can build just about anything from the ground up and can make fire with a couple of sticks and a strip of leather. One area of particular interest to the Farmer is the study of Native American spiritualism and culture, particularly the Hopi. He hopes to complete his spiritual healing studies someday. And he always tells the truth, even if it stings a little. The Farmer is pretty cool.

The Farmer's Wife

I had a wonderful childhood. I grew up in a small town near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains that was big enough not to be "backward" and small enough so that everybody pretty much knew each other. I was a "town girl" who had grandparents with a farm just outside of the city limits. They grew a huge garden every year which fed us pretty well and that granny taught me how to cook with ingredients fresh from the garden and the value of preserving part of the harvest every year.

Besides the big garden, there were also had apple and cherry trees to climb. We played under grapevines that Granny constantly admonished us to stay away from, lest we get stung by yellow jackets or bees. I don't remember ever getting stung by a yellow jacket until this past year. They had a mangy 3 legged cat that hung around the barn most of the time and presented us with tiny kittens to play with many times. (back then nobody spayed their pets). They gave her away a couple of times but she always returned so they just gave up. I loved that old raggedy cat. I won't say I ran wild at their farm, but is certainly was a free and wonderful place to be.

My other set of grandparents lived in town but had a huge back yard that was a wonderland to me as a child. That grandmother was from up North and cooked weird and exotic things like asparagus or rhubarb pie, with ingredients from her own garden. They had a crab apple tree in the back and a quince bush covered with big thorns and she made jelly out of those fruits. They also had a couple of apple trees that I wish we had saved cuttings from because I now realize that they were heirloom varieties. There was one tree that had the absolute best apples I have ever tasted. I don't eat apples to this day because of that tree...haven't found a variety that even comes close to the flavor and I searched for years before I gave that quest up. The closest I ever came was the old time Rusty Coat.

My grandfather also had a solarium where he grew some really exotic plants, like the giant jade tree that was taller than me as an adult or the Bird of Paradise plant that bloomed almost continually and from which he sold the flowers to the local florist. He also had a full sized lemon tree in the greenhouse that he used the lemons from to make incredible lemon meringue pies for which he was well know among the local widows ( my grandmother died with I was 19).

These city grandparents were organic gardeners and I remember growing up reading Rodale's Organic Gardening magazine because there were always several issues on the coffee table in their den. They had a big compost pile in the far corner of the yard, next to the asparagus/rhubarb beds and I used to marvel at all of the worms when I "helped" my grandfather turn the pile.

That early exposure (I was probably around 10 when what I was reading in the ROGs at their house started to sink in a bit) really shaped my lifelong interest in organic growing methods. In the late 60's I finally made the connection between organics and what was happening to the environment, to health issues, etc. Reading "The Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson had a tremendous influence on my views about the world.

After graduating from high school, I worked through my life by going off to college, getting married, having kids and working my way up to a successful career. My marriage failed and I was at odds on what direction to take with my life. It was a very confusing time and I was really at a loss for where to go next. One dream I never lost through all those years was to go out West and find a commune where I could grow my own food, get back to the land, live free, etc. (Of course that was my dream! I grew up in the Sixties...).

It took me two years to make the decision but I decided to see if any of that dream was still alive. I finally quit my job in 1994 and a week later I was on the road. The reality of it turned out to be that I just needed to clear my head and re-evaluate the direction my life was taking and it worked. Through those travels, I discovered that my dream had matured considerably and that my path was not what I had envisioned at all. That is what brought me to the place I am today. The best thing about taking that dramatic step was that I found someone to share my journey.

It is WooHoo! time at the Farm

2008-12-30T10:03:00.005-05:00

Going to the mailbox is becoming more and more fun lately because the seed catalogs are rolling in every day now. Last year, I got on some new mailing lists for seeds, plants, equipment, etc. and some of those have arrived. I haven't even opened a single catalog yet because I want to sit down and just start going through them one at a time until I have perused them all. Usually I open them as they come in but thought I would do something different this year.

Ordinarily, I would not order a paper catalog (tree hugger, remember?) but I can't compare varieties, etc. using the computer. I have a big old oak library table where I do my paperwork and I can spread about 10 catalogs around and flip one to the other. Since I am mostly looking for ethnic, open pollinated and organically grown seeds, I start there but if I see a variety that is not being produced organically I have a whole other process I have to go through. We are required to use certified organic seed (no GMO allowed in certified seed) unless we can verify that we checked all sources available to us and did not find the variety produced that way...that is a job when you grow over 100 different varieties. Also, we only use seed sources that publish a "safe seed" pledge if they are not organically produced varieties.

Sometimes, I get heirloom seeds, organic or not, from seed savers like myself and from all over the country. One particular seed friend that I trade seeds with is in Southern California, almost down to Mexico. She grows all kinds of native Mexican chiles and loves to get our southern varieties, especially okras, in trade because they will grow in her hot dry climate. Sometimes they do better, too, because she doesn't have to deal with the humidity like we do (fungi are a problem for her). She turned me onto a Chocolate Chile that has become a favorite with us and a variety I have never seen in any seed catalog. It is dark brown, mildly spicy and tastes like it was smoked, even when eaten fresh! Gotta love that! But back to the subject I was on before I took that little trek off path.

Once I get a feel for anything new that I think we might want to grow, I research the varieties more thoroughly online (the blurbs in seed catalogs are meant to "sell" on on a variety, so I like to check out the real skinny on them by looking at online blogs and forums that discuss the realities of them. Don't always find them but I would say that 8 out of 10 times, I do. Then I have to present my arguments to the Farmer for his approval (sometimes he sees something I totally missed). There is a lot more to what we do here than just picking up some seed packs at the local seed store and sticking them in the ground. It actually takes us about 2 months of research and planning to get our farm plan like we want it.

Soil and field prep will start as soon as the ground dries out enough to get anything done. Right now the ground is "sticky" meaning that it sticks to hoes, plows, etc. and makes getting any field work done nearly impossible. There was an announcement last week that the drought in Rowan County was just declared officially over (in December...) and so we will be scrambling in February to get things prepped for planting. That is also about the time we will start out seedlings for planting out in April (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs) once it is warm enough to set them in the garden without fearing a hard freeze. April planting will becomes the June/July/August crop of those items.

The good news is that we have lots of things in the ground that will "winter over" and pop up out of the ground and/or start growing again, as soon as we start having warmer days, usually in mid-February. We learned our lesson a couple of years ago, when the winter was so wet we had trouble getting anything planted in time to start our season on time. We were about 2 weeks late on planting and that put us behind until summer. One thing about farming is that there are continual lessons to be learned and if you don't pay attention, you will suffer later. The weather in this region has become so unpredictable in spring and so extreme in summer that some of our growing methods have changed radically in the 10 years we have been doing this. Maybe since the drought has broken, the summer will not be so brutal in 2009. Keeping my fingers crossed for that.

CSA brings responsibilities for the shareholders, not just farmers

2008-12-22T11:17:00.017-05:00

"...as a shareholder in both the bounty and the risk, I understand that nature ultimately decides what I receive and when I will receive it."

That is a quote from the first paragraph of our CSA membership agreement and it is a powerful statement. For anyone who is considering membership in CSA (any CSA, not just ours) I would like to give some insight into what being in a CSA means. While every CSA is different in some way, the basic premise is pretty much the same.

Buying into a CSA is an investment in a working farm, not hiring a produce delivery service. No investment comes without potential risks, as well as potential rewards, and a CSA is no exception. The member's investment returns are paid with the labor of the farmer, the use of his land, water and other resources and as a portion of harvests received. There are many factors that can affect the outcome. Anything that happens on the farm affects the CSA, ergo the members are affected, also.

Nothing is ever guaranteed in any investment, especially one involving a farm venture. When a crop is less than expected or fails completely members share that outcome. There is never any way to know exactly what conditions will provide which bounties or crop losses and a CSA member should be prepared for either situation.

Members of a CSA invest in a specific year's seasonal crops and harvests, in return for a specified number of week's products during that year. Ours happens to run for 30 weeks and our growing season runs from April to April. Sometime in that 12 month period, we will fulfill our 30 week obligation to our members. We do our very best to provide it as a weekly portion for 30 consecutive weeks, but there can be no guarantee that this will be the case. The same is true for most any CSA.

Generally, the operator of a CSA knows pretty well what members can expect to receive over the seasons, but there is never any way to say exactly how much or exactly when crops will come in. Say a strain of green beans is supposed to take 65 days to produce, that is only an average and usually if growing conditions are optimal. With the weather in this region being so unpredictable and extreme sometimes, there are many many factors that weigh into a successful year's harvests. Part of the farmer's expertise comes in with being able to plan, execute and deliver crops by being able to work around these variables.

Any venture in which the ultimate successful outcome is dependent on variables like weather conditions, insect pests, crop failures, flooding rains, wind damage is stressful. It is business as usual in our region. Organic field grown crops are considerably more susceptible to any adverse conditions because of the nature of how these crops are grown. With all the factors that weigh into a successful growing year, a farmer who is bringing in a decent crop of 30, 40 or even 50 different varieties is quite a feat, yet we do that consistently here at our farm.

Food doesn't just happen. Growing certified organic food takes capital, extensive knowledge, patience, perseverance, hard work, luck and sometimes even a small miracle for any crop to come to its full fruition. The farm labor has to be done, sometimes 50-60+ hours per week, in searing heat or bitter cold ( farmers work year round to provide food during the growing season). The varieties are chosen (picking out good ones is a skill in itself), the seeds are bought and planted, the weeds hoed and pulled. Planting, picking, prepping and packing has to be done.

All of that work is done no matter what the final outcome is and nothing changes that. I think that people don't realize is how much the farmer loses when there is a crop loss. The expense, time, effort, space, effect on future plantings, the scrambling to plant something to make up for the shortfall all falls on the shoulders of the grower. We have worked just as hard and put in just as much on a crop that didn't produce but a bushel of produce as we did on the one that produced ten.

The CSA farm/member relationship is not a simple one. Being in a CSA means that you have to be willing to support your CSA farm, financially, spiritually and personally. Most people join a CSA because they want to know the person who grows their food and develop ties to that person, even if it is just to say "hi" when the share is picked up for the week. Having that supportive membership means a lot to the farmer.

Most CSA operators are extremely dedicated to their members and the expertise and skill of the farmer has something to do with the end results. Unrealistic expectations about the CSA farm usually leads to disappointment or an unsatisfactory experience with CSA membership. Going into the relationship with realistic ideas about what can and might happen and appreciation of the amount of work involved in growing and managing a CSA can make a big difference in your CSA experience.

CSA membership is an immensely rewarding experience for most people who join one. Beautiful fresh, healthy produce, sharing in bountiful harvests, feeling good about supporting a family farm and getting to know the person who grows the food you feed your family should be enough to make CSA membership worthwhile.

Helping to support a small sustainable farm is also a great way to put your "green" food forward by actually doing something pro-active to improve the environment. Most small farms pollute less, protect the land from environmental concerns and use methods that make the food that they grow much safer and healthier than anything you can buy at a supermarket. Reducing the carbon footprint related to your food supply is certainly a positive thing.

So, after reading all of that, if you think that being in a CSA might be the thing for you, go out and find one in your area. You can look on websites LocalHarvest.org and GreenPeople.com or you can search the Web using keywords like CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, farm share, local produce along with your state or Zip Code (otherwise you will find CSA's from California....).

Not such a great idea...

2008-12-13T10:11:00.004-05:00

According to serious environmentalists, one of the worst ideas of 2008: Carbon Offsets

The wanna-be environmentalist's "Get out of Jail Free" card, carbon offsets enable companies or individuals to invest in tree farms or wind power as a way to compensate for their carbon footprints. Problem is, offsets don't change behavior. They're just the green equivalent of confession, making people feel better about their eco-sins but not stopping them from committing them.

Wrote this a while back and never published it...

2008-12-12T12:35:00.009-05:00

My epiphany that maybe that industry wasn't where I needed to be came to me back in 1992 and it took me two years to shake myself loose from it and "retire" from my long career there. I have never looked back, although sometimes I do miss the money. Of course, that only lasts for about 30 seconds because my old life always flashes before my eyes and brings me back to reality because the truth of it is that I am not sure that I would have survived another year in that business, much less the 13 years since my departure.

I have worked hard to distance myself from the reality that most people live in daily (9 to 5 job, big mortgage payment, credit card debt, etc.) on purpose. I gave up a lot by today's standards of success to get to the place I am in my present life. The money, the house, the car, the travel abroad...none of it really ended up meaning much after all, once it was gone. For a while, it was kind of like an out of body experience, but when I settled back down to earth, it was all good. Like anybody else, my life is far from perfect, but it is much closer than the marjority of people that I know. I have truly never been happier in my adult life.

Of course, I would not be honest if I didn't give a lot of credit to the people around me who have supported and loved me no matter how radical or strange my choices may have seemed to them. And I certainly could not have reached this level of
satisfaction in my life without having my best friend by my side every step of the way. Sometimes, there are people who come into you life that have a profound effect and if you have the wisdom and openess to accept what they bring to you it can change your life forever. Not to sound cliche, because I truly belive this, opening yourself up to the endless possibilities of the Universe is the most important step anyone can take to having their best life ever. We are only given one life at a time to live, so make this one count.

MAKING CSA MORE ACCESSIBLE IN THIS ECONOMY

2008-12-01T08:02:00.008-05:00

I hope that everyone is faring well during the recent economic turmoil that has been affecting us all. The state of the world is very fragile right now and I pray for peace and harmony every day and for the health and happiness of all. It is not an easy road to travel but if we take it slowly and mindfully, things will be brighter at the end of the road. The Farmer and I have given a lot of thought to how to do our part to help out those who want to be in CSA but who might need a little assistance with making that happen.

Trying to keep our CSA accessible and affordable is a very challenging proposition. By not raising our costs at the same level that other industries are raising theirs we have pretty much kept out prices at the same level for the last several years. This has been a tremendous burden because our production costs have tripled in many areas. Last year, we did increase the price of CSA to a level that would allow us to include delivery of shares to members but that has proven to be an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" scenario. (Who would have thought that gas prices would have spiked at $4+ per gallon right in the middle of our busiest season?) We will be going back to pick up locations for next year and have added one to the list, so now there will be three choices. In addition, we have changed the structure of our CSA to include more affordable payment options and expanded CSA overall by establishing partnership with other local farmers.

MONTHLY PAYMENT OPTION AND MONTH-TO-MONTH SHARES
For the first time ever, we are accepting monthly payments (after the initial deposit) for membership in our CSA. We have set up a PayPal account to take credit card payments (although there is a small admin fee -theirs, not ours- to use this system).

Also, we are offering a Month-to-Month Share that requires only a one month at a time commitment. There are a couple of restrictions on the Month-to-Month option. This share is not available in May and June, during strawberry season, and it is not available as a 100% organic produce share but overall is still a great CSA option.

PUTTING CHARLOTTE BACK IN THE SCHEDULE
We had not planned on having Charlotte back in the pick up rotation next year but the demand was such that we had to pay attention. For that reason, we have added the Charlotte Regional Farmer's Market back into our schedule for 2009. We will be there on Saturdays again starting in late April (CSA officially starts May 2, 2009). There will also be lots of our organic produce for sale at this market but a limited number of varieties. We are doing 2 other markets now and don't want to spread it too thinly so our farm plan includes growing some of our more major crops (okra and sweet potatoes for example) in quantities enough to accommodate all of our venues.

All of the information about these new options are published on the website at
http://www.newmoonfarmorganic.com/

Happy Thanskgiving to Everyone!!!

2008-11-27T18:00:00.003-05:00

Hello to everyone. It's been a while since posted anything new here. It has been crazy busy around here lately but I am taking time to write this brief post right now to give our holiday greetings to everyone who reads this blog. I have a little downtime to myself because I waiting for eggs to boil (got the under the chickens this morning). I am going to make these rocking curry stuffed eggs for Thanksgiving dinner today. Oh-oh! Now I hear the beeper going off on the egg timer and I am off to make my eggs.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL

BE SAFE!

Revelations about buying organic in supermarkets

2008-11-04T11:38:00.008-05:00

I hate grocery shopping. I love to cook and so everything I see (except for paper products, etc.)is a potential ingredient for something tasty so I get total sensory overload and buy things I will never use. Because I only buy organic, this can get quite expensive so a trip to the grocer store for me is an exercise in self-control. Once in a while, though, we do go to the supermarket and last week, the Farmer and I went to SuperTarget. It is like sticker shock on a new car, every time we go and this most recent trip was not exception.

(Note: Everything we bought was certified organic, except for the mayo)

2 medium sized Slicing Cukes (What a disappointment these things were. I cut the first one and it had a big hard mass of seeds in the middle that I couldn't even cut with a knife and we threw it out. The other one was dry and yellow inside, even though the outside looked perfect.)

1 Pgk (7 Small) Tomatoes (Campari's, about the size of a pingpong ball)
12 ounces was the pkg wgt. They were quite tasty but they didn't go very far.

1 Med. Yellow Squash and 1 Med. Zuchinni (pkgd. together - not quite 1# wgt. We had 2 meals from those.)
4 avocados (which were partially black inside...yuck! I made gray guacamole...tasted okay but looked horrendous)

1 lb bag of green onions

1 Amy's Spinach Pizza (on sale last week so we indulged)

2 bags organic frozen french fries (don't ask)

1 lb bag carrots (there are 5 carrots in the bag)

1 head of broccoli

2 boxes of organic oatmeal (on sale)

1Pkg of 6 flatbreads

2 pkgs organic cheddar cheese (likewise on sale and an indulgence)

1 Jar of peanut butter (staple)

1 lb organic butter (staple)

3 lb. bag of onions (staple) (We already used all but 2 of the onions, 5 were in the bag.)

5 lb bag of russet potatoes (staple)

1 Jar of Mayo (staple)

That is the entire list of what we bought. If it looks like a lot, it isn't. Everything listed above fit into 3 bags...and the total was $106.87. That means that the average cost of each item listed was about $3.50 (of course some were more, some were less...but that is the average.) I think if I had been buying conventional food, I could have gotten 2 or 3 times as much for my money.

I feel good about the fact that we grow the majority of our own food and that this trip to the market was a relatively rare occurence. I do watch for organic bargains where I can find them and stock up, if and when , it is something that I know we will use. I have been know to buy out an entire stocking of a product, if it is a good deal and I can make good use of it down the road. Organic chicken stock was a recent purchase....I bought 15 cans at less than $1 each.

When I do buy off farm produced items, I am very diligent about certain aspects of what I am purchasing. I never buy organic products from out of the country, unless I know exactly where they came from and the situation with organic certification for the country of origin and/or whether or not it is a fair trade item. Since these items are as scarce as hen's teeth in my culinary world that is not much of a problem for me. But we do like organic raw almonds, for example, ergo I have to get them from a non-local source and I consider them an indulgence, to have once in a while, not a staple food item. I don't know too many people who grow them in this area (although I do know one person with an almond tree, just down the road from our farm).

If you are smart with your organic shopping, you can eat healthy food at a reasonable cost, especially if you supplement your produce with fresh local in season items when you can take advantage of them, preserve things for later when things are in season, and learn to make you own foods from scratch, instead of buying prepared and processed foods. It may be a little more expensive but in the long run you will be healthier and stronger for it and probably a lot more self-sufficient.

The Delaware Project update

2008-10-22T11:01:00.005-04:00

If you have followed this blog for a while, you probably know that I have been almost obsessed with Delaware chickens for quite a while. Delawares are a critically endangered domestic breed chicken that was the most popular fowl in America for a while in the 1940's.

Being critically endangered means that there are 5 or fewer breeding flocks (or 500 breeding birds worldwide) being managed and that the fowl is in danger of being lost. Same as with species in the wild...extinction of domestic livestock is something that many people don't ever think about. I think that losing these breeds loses some of our history and, as with our comittment to preservation of historical heirloom food plants, I am determined to do my part for this chicken breed.

Back in April, after searching nationwide for a source to obtain some of these chickens, luck smiled upon me and I contacted someone in my own backyard who had some. I guess my passion for this project (I want to establish a breeding flock of Delawares) must have touched him because after a few conversations, he offered to sell me his entire flock from adult birds to
day old hatched chicks (he had them in the incubator at the time) so I jumped at the chance. Needless to say, I was thrilled because I had called all the way to Montana to try to find these
rare birds in quantity and then they just fell into my lap.

The original group consisted of 14 mature hens, 5 roosters (I only took 2...they are HUGE) and about 80 chicks ranging in age from 3-4 weeks down to the day olds that hatched the morning of the day when I picked them up. The chicks were the progeny of these 14 hens and the roosters so it really is a big ole family. (We have other chicken breeds, too but not quite as many as the Dels.)

That was back in April and now the chicks that survived are almost as big as their parents. Of the 80, we lost about 10 to predatation and accidents. All of the original adults survive. There are just about the same number of roosters as there are hens now. The young hens are almost at the proper age to start laying themselves. At the present time, the chickens have total free range of the entire farm, if they want it, but stay pretty close to the henhouse, where they are housed at night to keep predators from them and where they are .

While predation of your livestock is usually not funny, there are situations than can be. We have a couple of Cooper's Hawks that live in our area. These are the true chicken hawks, not the Red Tail Hawk, which is commonly thought to be the culprit. Cooper's are bird predators, while Red Tails are rat/mouse predators. Anyway, these chickens are so big that the Coop's just sit in the trees and scream down at them because they know they are way too big for them to even try to prey on and so the chickens just turn their heads and look up at them and don't even try to get under any cover. Our game chickens run for the hills when anything crosses the sky, even a plane, but the Delawares just kinda of get an attitude like, "Yeah, right..... ".

Some of our hens probably weigh in at about 6 lbs and the two mature roosters, Spartacus and Hercules, go about 8-9 lbs. each. And they are gentle giants. No squabbling among them like some of the other chicken breeds we have. The roosters actually seem to cooperate to keep the hens safe and satisfied. Of course, they have about 100 ladies to share between the two of them and they take their responsibilities very seriously. Some of the young roosters are getting a little "cocky" and they are quickly dispatched but the hens, not the roosters. Totally funny!!

I hope to have Delaware chicks and pullets for sale by next year but for now, I am keeping all of them safe and healthy, which is very satisfying for me. After this post, there are some pictures of the gang, so take a look if you are interested!

2008-10-22T10:54:00.005-04:00

Hercules and some of his "girls", chilling in the shade.
Doofus, one of the young Delawares. Hope he grows into those feet.
Spartacus showing me his good side...
Taking in some barnyard sunshine.

2008-10-21T08:23:00.003-04:00

Twice a year, once in spring and once again in the fall, our weather in this area just can't seem to decide which season it wants to be in. Last week and again this week, we are seeing evidence of that with the wild temperature fluctuations. It was 82 degrees one day and less than 36 hours we had a low of 34, which is a 48 degree difference.

There are not too many places that have such roller coaster rides for weather as this one. It wreaks havoc on trying to get crops like we grow to settle into one season or the other. We have many, many things planted right now. They grow like mad for a while, then slow to a crawl, so it is hard sometimes to get Fall actually started, especially when summer like temps tease us one day and frost licks at our heels the next.

The late summer varieties are lasting way longer than normal. Eggplant, peppers, basil and other herbs are humming along like nothing is happening, although we did water them down the other day when there was a frost warning for our community. The Fall varieties are coming along but taking a little longer because of the warmer temps. Not so great if you are getting tired of the summer stuff but great in the long run because the Fall stuff will peak and last longer into the cooler season and so take us thru the end of our CSA, provided nothing else weird happens with the weather. Once we get into late November and early December, then the chances of a cold snap come into play.

We have 8 weeks left and CSA will be done for the year. If members take away nothing else from this season with CSA, they should have a greater grasp of what a small farmer faces when trying to bring in a seasons crops. Factory farms that plant only one thing and do everything mechanically and chemically don't have to fret over much. Diversity require faith, patience, expertise, finesse and a whole lot of good luck to produce the end result. This is the main reason that the US is down to about 80 varieties. If you go into a grocer in Modesto, California and buy a head of lettuce, it is exactly the same variety you would purchase here....keeping it boring and simply is key to factory farming.

We originally took up focusing on heirlooms because we wanted to preserve and enjoy the same foods that our great- and grandparents lived on. Tastes much better too, because we grow things for flavor, nutrition, beauty and interest, not whether or not it can be packed into a train car and shipped 3000 miles or if it will last 3-4 weeks on the grocer shelf (think shipping tomatoes...and where does the nutrition go?).

Things have gone much better this year than last year during the drought and we are well pleased with it all. Of course, the gas price hikes and shortages were not so much fun, were they? We still have stations here in Mooresville that don't have premium petrol, only regular, but the price is $3.09 instead of $4.09.

Knocking on wood that nothing drastic happens in the next 2 months, we should finish out the season no problem. Except for the disaster that is delivery, it was a pretty good year all 'round. Once our season is finished, we can sit back, breath a sigh of relief, take a month off and start the process all over again.

Farming organically is a year round system. I will be working on the farm plan in Dec./Jan. and the Farmer will be back in the field by February, doing soil prep. Overwintered crops will start to pop back up as soon as we have some warm days, even in February, and we will be back in full swing by the end of March or early April. CSA doesn't start until May next year unless we have a bumper early crop and start a few weeks early. Since there is still a pretty good chance of weird weather conditions until about the first week of May, we decided not to fight it next year and just wait it out.

Garden Helper coming to call

2008-10-05T11:52:00.005-04:00

This beautiful mantis was perched outside our kitchen window this morning, stalking a meal in the azaleas. Can't tell from this pic but she is about 4 inches long. Tried to get her to turn her head so you could see her face, but she was intent on an insect that was probably her breakfast.

That's the way things are in my universe...

2008-10-05T08:52:00.007-04:00

I try really hard to keep adding things to this blog, but we are so very busy this time of year that it is an almost impossible task. For that reason, I have posted a quarterly, in depth entry on what happened in the previous quarter and some insight into what might be happening in the next. So, if this post seems particularly long, there was a lot going on this summer.

The Way Things Are.... October 2008

We are now rushing into the Fall season for 2008 and looking very forward to working in the cooler temps. Even cold rainy days can be exhilarating, provided you can duck inside periodically for a warm up and a cup of Chai. So far, the last 3 weeks have had nearly perfect weather, rain included.

I am loving life in that regard since this is my absolute favorite time of year, weatherwise, except for really big snows. Those are the best! They come at the time of year when we don't have to feel guilty for being in the house by the fire all day, cozied up with a good book or some videos. Even if the power goes out, we are good to go because we are just as comfortable with no electricity as we are with it. The only thing the Farmer misses is that he can't plug in his Fender but he just switched to the acoustic and it's all good. We heater our home with a wood stove for the first years we lived here, just updating to a heatpump year early last year, so we can keep warm and make dinner, even if the power goes out. And truthfully, I like that much better and being electrified. Also, if the power goes out, remember not to panic about your freezer/fridge.
If the power it out, it is usually colder outside than in the fridge anyway, so just put your milk outside. Or fill the cooler up with snow and put it in there.

But, I am getting off subject, as usual. This year has been one of ups and downs so far. The gardens have yielded a bounty of crops over the summer season and we still have some of the late summer season veggies coming off like crazy. Eggplant, peppers and okra are still making fruit, although with the first frost, there goes the end of summer. And since the average first frost date in this area is October, 14th, there isn't much time left...just a couple of weeks at most. That opens the door for the next season, which gives new meaning to the phrase "going green"!

About a month or so ago, because of the rains that came with Fay, Gustav and Ike (those storms obviously didn't hit us but certainly influenced our weather for several weeks), we were late getting much of our fall crops into the ground. We have talked to a couple of neighbors who ran into the same thing. Crazy thing about rainfall in this vicinity is that we have little pockets that get vast amounts of rain when others get almost none and so there is a misconception that when you watch the weather of the local TV station, everybody's weather is exactly the same.

Because we got plantings in late this season, we took a bit of a different turn and just basically planted every cooler weather seed we had in our inventory, which was considerable. For example, we planted arugula, collards, canola, specialty turnips, winter radishes, salad radishes, Asian greens of all types, about 30 kinds of leaf lettuce and 20 kinds of head lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, chard, kale, mustards, Chinese cabbages, broccoli raab and more. We planted over 1 1/2 acres of green stuff. Figured that overplanting would yield enough for the rest of fall and winter and also serve as a cover crop between now and next years plantings. Vegetation turned back into the fields are green manures, even if they are weeds, so it is the perfect scenario for what we are trying to accomplish in this area of the gardens.

In addition to all the planting, weeding, picking, etc. that goes on around here, there is also a lot involved CSA management. I wish more farmers would catch on to this distribution system...it is a great thing for everyone but I can see why they are put off by the concept, especially if time management is a problem for them. To make it work, planning is crucial. What goes on in the gardens is pretty much under the watchful eye of the Farmer, so that is no problem. But when you start trying to deal with things that are totally out of your control, things are different.

In the past, we have always had our members pick up their shares at a specific location on certain days of the week. This year, I got it in my head that we were expending too much energy, etc. in our CSA by having people drive to get their weekly divvy because I was concerned about the impact we were having on the environment.

I had canvassed the members last year and was astounded that the weekly carbon footprint of our CSA was almost 1500 miles for the collective. I decided that me driving 350 miles was more environmentally friendly (which it is, but highly impractical, it turns out.) and opted to deliver shares this year. This venture (home delivery) has proven to be the most frustrating, all consuming thing we have ever done at the Farm. The slightest disruption at the farm, ripples out to the delivery schedule and creates more work for everyone involved.

I suppose if we had a person who just did delivery it would be great, but this farm runs with only the 4 hands that the Farmer and I provide and taking 2 of those hands away for 2-3 days per week has proven to be more of a burden. The wear and tear on me personally is another wrench thrown into the machine and so we have abandoned the whole idea of delivery for next year. We are going back to the old system of pick up locations. Hopefully, members can choose the location closest to them and we can reduce our impact that way. It is still local food and it is still not driving a tomato 2800 miles, so I can live with that system.

In 2009, another of our goals concerns education about organic and biodynamic farming principles and practical applications of those principles. The Farmer and I will be working on planning some on farm educational opportunities (weekend seminars, work-study programs) to help spread the good word about what we believe are some of the most important knowledge and skills a person can possess in these uncertain times we are living in today.

Hazardous Duty at New Moon Farm

2008-09-24T18:02:00.008-04:00

Hi to everyone. Welcome to yet another chapter in the saga of My Life on an Organic Farm.

I think that Farmer's Wife should be on the list of most dangerous jobs. So far this year I have been bitten by spiders at least 3 times, twisted my ankle about 10 times, been sunburned and windburned, had poison ivy in places where I can't figure out how the heck it got there in the first place. I have been out in the wet and cold until I had a sore throat and bronchitis, in the heat until I almost had sunstroke, nearly been killed about 5 times driving produce around, stepped on a poisonous snake, I have repetitive motion injury from picking and pulling weeds, my hands and feet are so rough and dry from constantly being in water, dirt, heat, cold, you name it, that I could refinish wood without sandpaper. I have had splinters of wood everywhere you can imagine and almost lost a fingertip from an infection from a eucalyptus spine that got lodged under my fingernail. I constantly have itchy watery eyes because I am allergic to most pollens and get contact dermititis when I touch okra, eggplant, squash and tomatoes. Plus, I can't take anything for it because I am allergic to and/or overeact to most prescription drugs. One benadryl will knock me out for 8 hours and I can't work when I am comatose, so I just suffer mostly. Yesterday was a new one, even for me.

Last night, about 8:45, as I was getting out of the car from yesterday's delivery route, something hit me in the chest and then fell down my shirt and started stinging me. Next thing I knew I was swooning and experiencing the most excrutiating pain I have felt in a while. My entire upper torso felt like it was on fire. I started screaming and literally ripped my shirt off and flung it into the air and ran into the house. I am allergic to many insect bites ands stings (not deadly but bad enough....) because I have an overactive immune system (mosquito bites swell up like marbles when I get bitten and itch for days on end). I don't know if that is good or bad. I read today online that wasp/hornet/yellow jacket stings are not nearly as painful or venemous as a bee sting, UNLESS you are sensitive to them because you have an overactive immune system. Welcome to my world.

The culprit this time was a baldfaced hornet. I DO NOT recommend getting stung by one of these buggers... the bald faced hornet is not really a hornet, just a giant yellowjacket about 3/4 long. These are the things that build those big papery nests that look like gray footballs. We have been seeing them quite a lot recently, even had a couple on the back porch, but can't locate the nest anywhere, so it must be up high in a tree. Thank goodness they will be gone by the first frost (can't take the cold...think they hibernate) so we should be able to find the next when the leaves fall, so hopefully they will go elsewhere. Because they are beneficial insects, we won't try to kill them but I am not sure they will do me the same courtesy.

Today I have a handsized bright red welt on my chest that is mostly red and hot as a firecracker. It itches like crazy, but at least the pain in my shoulder and neck has abated. Anyway, I didn't get much picking done today because I didn't sleep last night and then I took benadryl after lunch and was on the sofa for most of the afternoon. The Farmer and I planted all morning, til lunch time...I mostly handed him seed packs but at least I was out there. Go, me.

Anyway, given the state of the financial industry right now (had a 25 year career in that biz), I think I will continue to take my chances on the Farm. At least I don't have to swim with sharks or cozy up to rabid wolves out here.

Spit bugs and barking dogs

2008-09-01T13:25:00.007-04:00

Well, that title certainly got my attention. Of course, it was my title, so I guess I should explain the significance.

After the rain a couple of weeks ago, we had an unprecedented number of spittle bugs all over the place. Spit bugs are one of my least favorite bugs (next to the chewing gum bugs) because they make this "nest" that literally looks like a big lugie. And they put them on everything. Imagine going out to the bean patch to pick green beans and finding that the entire patch hosting a spit bug family reunion. It made me so mad I screamed really loud, hence, the barking dogs part of the title...three of our JRTS thought something required their chorus of barks and howls and the melee that insued over the spit bugs was quite chaotic for a few minutes.

Chewing gum bugs, thank goodness, are not very prolific. But every once in a while, I turn over a leaf and there is what looks like a big wad of chewed gum. Same texture, same color, same random shape. Closer inspection reveals that it is actually a cluster of really large white eggs but the first time I ran across on of those I started to get all hyper because I thought one of the interns was spitting his gum out in the rows. After I looked closer, I realized what I was really looking at but they are pretty icky, too.

Some of the insects in the garden are actually quite beautiful. We have a predatory spider in abundance in the okra, the Green Lynx Spider. They are pretty shy and hide under the leaves, but they are voracious and will attach insects much larger than themselves. They don't appear to make webs and more or less ambush their prey. When I first saw one, I was fascinated and looked them and and discovered they were important to agriculture as a biological pest control so
I was pretty happy that they are occurring here at the Farm without any intervention from humans (like relocating them to the fields). The fact that they are there naturally speaks to the health of our biodiversity here.

The Red Velvet Ant is another spectacular insect we see often. Although it is called an ant, it is in fact the flightless female of a species of wasp. While they are very beautiful, like the aforementioned spider, they can deliver a powerful sting, so painful that it has earned them the nickname "cow killer" because supposedly the sting is enough to "kill a cow". They are very shy and I have never been stung and don't intend to be anytime soon.

Some of the other insects I have seen in the gardens over the years include several I have never been able to identify satisfactorily and of course, couldn't or didn't try to catch to research. Two examples that I spent an inordinate amount of time researching (yes, it was that impressive).One I discovered was the Golden Tortoise Beetle (picture at right) and it really is a metallic and shiny gold as the picture appears. The other still eludes me.

2008-08-28T11:18:00.000-04:00

Typical of summer craziness

2008-08-17T07:21:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted to this blog for weeks, simply because there hasn't been time for me to do so. I promised a glimpse of the "simple" life, on an organic farm and this is as real as it gets...no spare time for anything that isn't hoed, picked, watered or fed.

Right about this time of year, you start wondering what you were thinking when you decided you needed to "get back to the land" and farm for a living. But that really isn't totally true in my case. I had a very long career in a totally unrelated field (finance) and was relatively successful in that career. I lived in a cool house on Lake Norman, drove a luxury car, didn't think anything about paying $100 for a haircut. Now I am lucky if I can remember to comb my hair, much less find the time to have it done anywhere. Some days I think maybe it would be an okay thing to go back into the corporate sector where I could earn some serious money again and it has on rare occasions been tempting. But it only takes one drive into Charlotte to bring the flashback to what that life was like and any notion I might have been entertaining about doing something different that what I am doing how flees like smoke in a hurricane.

This year things have been a bit better, was far as the drought conditions we suffered through last year, but frankly this area is far from out of the woods. We are not enjoying the same volumes of rain that other parts of the Piedmont are experiencing this summer, which is a frustrating situation. For some reason (location, topography, Lake Norman, who knows) many of the summer storm systems that could potentially bring in any wet weather here go right around us. We watch and track large systems that might bring some moisture and we literally watch them split in half right over the lake and go on both sides of us. The only typs of weather system that might bring us some serious rain is a tropical storm or a hurricane coming close and heaven knows, you dont' wish for those to happen. We have a neighbor who is a dairy farmer and he mentioned the same thing last time we talked to him. Said it was about the most frustrating thing he had to deal with because if affects his pond, ergo his cows and his living. Of course, he has the same attitude that we do...he wouldn't do anything else but farm. So, if you choose this life, you also choose to accept whatever Mother Nature throws at you and make the best of what you do have to work with.

We put in a well this year and that has helped us out a good bit this summer but the irrigation system part is not finished by a long shot. The well cost more than double what we anticipated and we are still paying that off, so there wasn't a lot of extra money for piping, etc. That will have to come next year. So, for now, we have a whole lot of hoses.

One hold up this spring was that the new well wasn't completed by one of the critical times we needed it. The driller was in great demand and very busy and so it was finished until nearly a month later than we expected. Also there was a tremendous amount of grit in the water for about a month which clogged up the hoses, sprinklers, etc and so we weren't able to utilize the water source as we needed to until about the middle of July, when it settled.

Don't get me wrong, if it hadn't been for the well from that point until now, some of our crops might have been fried in the heat and dry conditions that prevailed this summer. However, our sweet potatoes, okra and a couple of other varieties are in the upper fields where there is NO water source but Ma Nature and they are growing fine. The soil in that field has a little better moisture holding capacity and so the small amounts of rain that have fallen have been sufficient. That is why we plant the crops that can take the hot dry conditions in that field.

A Typical Day on the Farm

2008-06-12T07:01:00.007-04:00

Wow! It has been a while since I had time to post anything. Since I am always telling people how busy I am, I thought I would take you through a typical (no "wildfires" that need putting out, in other words) day of my life at the Farm this time of year.

A.M.
5:30 Get up-Some days this is easy and some days it is really hard. Usually it depends ono what I did the day before and if there are any "kinks" I need to work out before I get out of bed.

5:40 Take Maggie out before she has a conniption fit. She begins whining around 5a.m. and escalates her volume until you would swear Beverly Sills is in the kitchen singing the aria from Aida.

5:55 Back inside. Put kettle on for breakfast. Breakfast usually consists of oatmeal, a fresh egg that I got from under one of the hens the day before. I make tea for me and coffee for the Farmer. Some days it is a bagel and cheese, no time for preparing much else this time of year.

6:00 Feed and water the outside dogs. Put a load of clothes in the washer while I wait for the kettle to boil. The Farmer has to take Jack (his dog) out. He won't listen to me so I am relieved of that duty. The other JRTS are outside in the summer, so I don't have to take all 6 out. That is only in the wintertime.

6-6:30 Doing the breakfast thing. Cleaning up dishes, etc.

6:30 - 7:00 Personal time.....you know what I mean...showers, toothbrushing, emails, etc. Also, do a couple of quick chores like put away the load of laundry that was washed, dried and folded the day before.

7:00 - 7:45 Time to feed and water chickens. We have the hens and the henhouse, which is where I start. Then I head next door to feed the little chicks who are presently housed at the parent's house because their chick pen is better than ours. It is totally predator proof and my 50 or so Delaware chicks need to be safe!!! I play with them a little bit and let them out into their chick corral so they can run around and take dustbaths, etc. They are still babies and need protection from hawks, racoons, coyotes, possums, stray dogs, etc. so they are kind of incarcerated at this time of their lives.

8:00- Head out to the field. Stop and play with the puppies for a few minutes before I start watering. I will start at one end of the field or the other and water row by row. This is necessary because different plants need different watering methods (some are on soaker hoses, some on irrigation ditches, etc.) and I have to tend to each plot as I go. The potatoes have to be handwatered row by row, for example, and that alone will take more than an hour. I will not finish watering in the 3-4 hours of the morning. After hoses, etc. are set I will weed, pick, plant, check and remove insects, monitor seedlings, etc. while each plot is watered. While I am watering, the Farmer will be doing the heavier labor, like shoveling and placing mulch on tomatoes, tractor work, building trellises for plants, etc.

(IF it is a picking day, the entire routine changes. When a picking day is coming up, I feed and water the chickens an extra portion the night before so they can wait until after I pick to be fed and watered again...confused yet?)

Picking day schedule:

6-7:00 Pretty much the same every day

7:00-Noon I will start picking around 7:00 am before it is too hot to wilt the veggies in the field. I only have a few hours of opportunity to pick certain things because once they warm up and start to look wilty, there is no point picking because they will stay wilty.

Since I am the only picker it will take me the better part of the morning to finish everything. Spinach and leaf lettuces are actually picked mostly one leaf at a time. Other greens, likewise but if they are bigger, it is a bit easier. Green beans take forever to pick. Root veggies are probably the easiest to pick but they have to have the dirt/mud (if they were watered recently) rinsed off. Okra is the worst thing in the garden to pick and melons are really easy because you can see them readily and don't have to seach for them but they are heavy. Picking grape tomatoes is my absolute favorite because for every four I pick, I usually eat one. The Farmer says I eat up all the profit, but too bad, so sad...I love those little 'maters! Squash and eggplant are pretty easy to pick but, like okra, the leaves have bristles that make you itch and the eggplant have big thorns on the calyx that will stick you if you grab one at the wrong place.

Anything that needs to be hydrocooled will be flushed with cold water in the field (this used water is applied back into the garden). The water from our well is about 48 degrees and is perfect for hydrating and cooling down veggies, which is a bit of a preservation method. The water is only on the produce long enough to reduce the temps. Once they are cooled, they are placed in a shaded area or in the cooler (which is a converted refridgerator) until ready to pack for CSA or the market.

Once everything is picked, cooled and prepped, there are a couple more steps to be done. While none of our produce is washed and ready to use, roots crops, gritty greans, etc. all have to be "prepped" by extra rinsing, etc. but you have to be careful not to over do it. Then after all that is done everything has to be weighed, measured, divided and packed so it can be delivered but I do that a little later in the day.

Noon-1pm Lunch/heat break. Prepare lunch, eat lunch, clean up from lunch. Throw washed clothes in dryer (the clothesline pole broke this winter and haven't had the time to put up a new one yet or I would be hanging them out). Sometimes we have lunch next door with the parents or we go check on them during the lunch hour.

1pm -4pm Back outside by this time. On cooler days, this is the time the plant shed would be watered, okra thinned and weeded, moving soaker hoses around the garden to where ever they are needed next....this is not that much fun. Moving a mud covered wet soaker hose that is 100+ feet long around the garden is like wrestling with a really limp anaconda that occasionally wakes up and wriggles just enough to get mud all over you. Soaker hoses are alive....

Continue with watering.

Check on the dogs and cats again to make sure they have plenty of clean, cool water. Likewise I check on the big chickens. The chicks have a watering system that I don't have to worry about too much during the day. On scorching days, we take this time to run errands, do any grocery shopping, go to the bank, etc., or do anything we need to do that can be done inside or off the Farm. If it is not too hot, we are back outside watering, etc. again.

4pm-6pm Dinner hour. Take another shower because by now I am covered with dirt, sweat and possibly poison ivy. Try to do more laundry if need be, do a couple of household chores. Read the mail (snail mail) if there is any. Make the dinner, eat the dinner, clean up from the dinner.

6pm-7pm Big chickens into the henhouse and locked up for the night (predators again, you know). Fresh water if necessary. They have a huge feeder that holds 50 lbs of food at time, so I only have to fill that about every 2-3 days, depending on how hungry they are. And yet, I routinely life 50 lb. sacks of feed. Go back to feed, water and bed down the chicks for the night. This is the time I let them out into their "playpan" to take their dustbath, peck at bugs and just hang out with me. These are some people friendly chickens by the time they are grown. We have a portable puppy pen that I have attached to the front of their pen and I open the doors and let them out for a while, supervised by me for about an hour. And yes, they play, mostly play fighting between the little roosters, but it is definitely fun time. All of their feed pans, waterers, etc. have to be washed down because they like to get on top of everything and of course, they poop on stuff. Yuck.

7PM-Dark-thirty Once the sun has set behind the trees and the biggest garden plot is in the shade we are out once more. Planting transplants is usually done now so that the seedlings will not have to endure the heat of the day. Transplant shock is a killer and this reduces it greatly.
Any new seedlings planted will also be watered, so again, the cooler temps of the evening will enhance their survival rate. Any seeds are also planted at this time of day and watered in for the same reason. If the soil temps get over 100 degrees, most seeds just sit in the ground and never germinate which wastes time, effort and money, so we are very careful to do what we can
to assure successful plantings. In this incredible heat we have been having over the last few summers and are looking at yet again this summer it is an almost constant struggle to keep things going. Even with the new well we put in and having a constant source of water now, that is sometimes only a bandaid. If the ambient air temp is over 95 there is not much you can do for somethings.

If delivery is coming up the next day, th is also the time I usually try to pack up my CSA shares for delivery or as much as I can. I get all my stuff ready at this time so I can work for a couple of hours while it is cool on delivery day mornings and then I will be ready to head out around 9-10 am, so I can miss the traffic. On delivery days I usually work around the Farm for a couple of hours, do my deliveries which takes about 8 hours and come home and do my evening farm chores, like chicken patrol, dogs, etc.

Dark-thirty-Feed the dogs, cats and everything else that gets fed at night. I feed at night because of insects during the day and also the animals don't want to eat much when it is hot.
Play with the dogs for a while. Pet the cats and play with the kittens. Check the locks on the chicken pens one last time.

10pm-My work day is finally almost over. Take another shower and put on some clean clothes that haven't been worked. Maybe have a snack. Sit down in the recliner and fall asleep before the chair gets warm. Wake back up in time to see the last 30 seconds of whatever television program(if the tv is even on) I missed the first 55 minutes and 30 seconds of.

11pm-Time for bed...at long last...maybe. The inside dogs are taken in and out several times during the course of each day, so they are ready for their final outing right before bed. They have to go out on leashes at this time of night because there are predators, etc. out at night and running up on a racoon or coyote in the dark could be disastrous for a small dog like Maggie. Jack could probably take a coon or possum, etc. but not a coyote. They are huge, by the way, and we have them all over out here. You can hear them howling down the holler at night in the summer and it is like being in a B cowboy movie. They are actually probably about a mile or two away but it sounds like they are down behind the barn. The closest I have seen one was on the next road over from us, but it was in broad daylight in the middle of the day. He ran across the road and stopped right on the centerline and just looked at me. He was HUGE, too, bigger than a German Shepherd, if you have never seen one. What a gorgeous animal!

After taking the dogs out for half an hour and walking all around out back, I am wide awake again, especially since I took that nap. Now I will have trouble falling asleep for a while. I might read, type blog entries, etc. until I get sleepy again.

12am I am now asleep hopefully. And I will be up at 6am to start all over again.

What I outlined there is a typical day, with no emergencies that need tending to, no drama, just routine. Just a simple day on the Farm. For those of you who think farm life is one idyllic moment after another, it isn't. And while it is hard work much of the time, that work is on my schedule. It feels good to work outside, although it feels better some days than others. There is tremendous satisfaction in what I do and peace in the doing of it. There is also constant joy, whether it be in seeing the plants you nutured for so long finally come to fruition or from watching a couple of chicks scratching in the dirt while their momma watches over them. There is a profundity to living this close to the land that has deepened my understanding of myself and the world around me. I love my life and I wouldn't trade it.

2008-05-23T09:29:00.004-04:00

Recently I read an article on the Rodale Institute website about how many organic farmers in California were opting out of organics and going back to conventional farming. Many of them simply dropped their certification and continued to farm exactly the same way they always did... organically. Almost to a person, those interviewed said it was simply to expensive and too labor intensive to continue to be certified. One farmer said it cost him $1800 to grow an acre of certified organic spinach versus $300 to grow the same field conventionally. And with the cost of fuel and supplies going up on an almost weekly basis, there will be more farmers "jumping ship" in the near future.

Since many consumers are very uneducated about exactly what "certified organic" really means they are opting to shop for price instead of for the quality and safety of their food supply. And I totally understand that. If I didn't have 17 acres of organic food right out my back door, I am not sure I would be able to be as "organic" as I am now. I am able to spend my food budget on what many people consider organic luxury items since we grow 90% of what we eat.

Even conventional food prices are rising in some part of even this country to levels where middle and upper middle class families are cutting back on some things. Having a source for local produce and other food products is a blessing for many people because there are so many parts of the country where there is extremely limited access. Having a source for local certified organic produce is unheard of in many areas, especially in North Carolina.

Shopping at local farmer's markets is a great way to supply the weekly produce (and other needs, depending on the market) for your family. Even better is belonging to a CSA because over the entire length of the season you will save substantially on your fresh food costs and be provided with an array of produce you might not otherwise have access to. While being in a CSA is a gamble, if the farmer is good at what he does, the reward is well worth the inherent risk of belonging to a CSA.

At New Moon Farm, we are dedicated to our members and they are the ones we consider with nearly every spade of dirt that is turned in the gardens. Because of the great diversity of varieties grown, and the way we grow them, we don't face total crop failures, even in the most extreme conditions (drought last year, for example). We grow what we call "micro-crops", sometimes only 3-4 rows of something rare or especially hard to grow, so that our members can be exposed to things they would never have the opportunity to experience. While a weekly share may sometimes be smaller than we anticipate on a given week, there has never been a week where members only got 1 or 2 items in their box. And when there is bounty, everybody shares in that bounty.

San Francisco-America's First Eco-City

2008-05-21T08:09:00.002-04:00

We lived on the West Coast for a number of years, almost dead center between Seattle and San Francisco. Either one was about a 6-7 hour drive and we often headed south to Frisco for a long weekend when we could get away. I have been in love with this city since I first visited in 1968, at the height of its "hippie" days. Over the years, as I visited at different ages and stages in my life, I came to love its diversity, beauty and just the very energy of the place. If I had to pick my favorite city in the world, it would be Paris (which I love with a passion), with San Fancisco coming in a close second. So, I was very interested to read the article on how the city is turning into the "greenest, organic" city in America. The link below will take you the the MSN Travel article in its entirety.

http://travel.msn.com/Guides/greenarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=473395

PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE ORGANIC LABEL

2008-05-18T07:04:00.008-04:00

"The Cornucopia Institute is dedicated to the fight for economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Through research, advocacy, and economic development our goal is to empower farmers both politically and through marketplace initiatives. The Organic Integrity Project acts as a corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of profit. We will actively resist regulatory rollbacks and the weakening of organic standards to protect and maintain consumer confidence in the organic food label."

The Cornucopia Institute is a non-profit watchdog organization that is doing tremendous things to protect the integrity of organics which affects anyone who cares about this issue...and we should all care about it since it affects our food supply and our environment.

This organization has an incredible website covering issues that affect us all. Articles are excellent, with information that is clear and easy for every one to understand. I highly recommend that you become involved in what is happening to your food source. If you care about the planet, you should be involved. If you care about your children, you should be involved. JUST BE INVOLVED!!!! Get on their email newsletter and updates list today!

Read the most recent (May 12th) update about the integrity of the Horizon Dairy Label controversy. This has been raging on for a long while now and is heating up again. If you buy Horizon products and were unaware of the situation with this company, this would be a good introduction to what is going on with them. (Links below are live so just click).

These huge corporations are the reason that some people are starting to doubt the National Organic Program. Since they are the headline grabbers, small dilligent farmers who are really invested in the ideals of organics are being mostly ignored because their small voice is nothing compared to a giant conglomerate with money to hire lobbyists and lawyers. When organic consumers only shop for price and don't look at the issues behind the organic label, we all suffer in the end.
America’s Largest Corporate Dairy Processor Muscles Its Way into Organics
Clout-Heavy Dean Foods Kills USDA Investigation of Their Horizon Label

On the Cornucopia website, there is also some excellent information about which huge corporations own organic labels. Lots of folks buy organic from what they assume are small family owned companies. Nothing could be further from the truth in many cases. See whose pocket your organic dollars are going into. BUY LOCAL and stop organic tyranny. If that sounds a little dramatic, visit this website and you might not think so anymore.
http://www.cornucopia.org/

First Farmer's Market Day of 2008

2008-04-24T08:42:00.003-04:00

This Saturday we will be attending our first market day of the year 2008. The new Davidson NC Downtown Farmer's Market will have a "soft" opening from 8am until noon so all of the vendors can get a feel for this new market.

We will be there with some veggies, so if you come out, look us up. We have not been assigned our spaces yet, so I can't say where we will be but look for the sign that says "ORGANIC".

After this Saturday, the market officially opens and we will be there every Saturday until it closes in October.

It's Farmer's Market Season again!

2008-04-18T07:40:00.005-04:00

Important announcement concerning New Moon Farm Organics in 2008.

Lots of exciting things are happening at the Farm this year and we wanted you all to hear about them straight from the source. For the past 7 years, we have been coming to the Charlotte Regional Farmer's Market. For 2008, however, we have made the decision to take on a new venture in addition to CSA, the new Davidson Farmer's Market. For those of you who live north of Charlotte, around the Lake, in or near Davidson, Concord, etc. this is going to be your opportunity to have a real farmer's market in your vicinity!!!

This decision has been a big one for us. We have made some lasting friends and had some very loyal customers during those years. We have seen some of the regular vendors at the CRF market every Saturday for our 9 month market season. After 7 years, some of them have come to seem like family and we will miss them.

When we moved back to N.C. 8 years ago, it was with the intention to homestead the family farm, grow all of our own food and to expand on living our simple, organic, sustainable lifestyle. In that first year's growing season, we grew way more tomatoes than we could use. We gave them away until folks said, "Enough, already!". So, at the suggestion of a relative, we brought several bushels of red, ripe, organic heirloom tomatoes down to the Charlotte Market on a hot Saturday in August, just to see if we anybody might want some of them. We sold them all in less than 2 hours.

That first crop of tomatoes started us on the journey that we continue on today.Even though we have collectively been growing and eating organic food for more than 40 years, neither of us ever dreamed we would be so incredibly lucky as to also be able make it our livelihood. The evolution of New Moon Farm Organics would not have been possible without the presence of the Charlotte Regional Market, its staff and its devotees and we are grateful for it all.

But, as with all things, there is a time and a season for change. 2008 is now the time for us to move forward down a new path. We are very excited to announce that we will be among the Founding Farmer's at the new Davidson Farmer's Market, located in downtown Davidson, N. C. With the opening of the Davidson market we finally have the chance to serve our own community and are excited at the prospect. You can visit their website at http://www.davidsonfarmersmarket.org/ for more info about the location, hours, vendors, etc.

***I was recently notified that the Davidson Market will have a "soft" opening on April 26th, as a kind of dry run for the vendors. We will be there with stuff to sell and while it might be a little chaotic, but it will be a chance to get some early spring items while they are still around.***

This new market will afford us the opportunity to be much more involved in our own community, which has been sorely underserved with fresh, local and organic food for a long while. Also, because we are committed to a living the most sustainable life we possibly can, having a market so close to us is a tremendous blessing. Our travel time and distance to this market is about one third that of commuting to the Charlotte Market location. Reducing our impact on the environment is important to us and this move makes sense from that standpoint, too.

We would once again like to sincerely thank everyone who has supported us in Charlotte and hope that you will visit us at the Davidson Market if you are in the area. We will be there every Saturday, from 8am until noon, beginning the first weekend in May, 2008. This market will be much like the market in Matthews, in that it is a producer's only market. There are already over 20 committed vendors for this market, so there will be plenty of diversity of products there, all FRESH, LOCAL AND FARM GROWN!

Between operating our CSA and having the Davidson Market on our schedule, we will be pretty busy, so I doubt that we will be able to attend Charlotte more than a time or two this summer. Info posted here on this blog concerning events, available produce, organic issues, etc. Our website is located at: http://www.newmoonfarmorganic.com/

PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE ORGANIC LABEL

2008-04-17T10:38:00.003-04:00

The Cornucopia Institute is dedicated to the fight for economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Through research, advocacy, and economic development our goal is to empower farmers both politically and through marketplace initiatives. The Organic Integrity Project acts as a corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of profit. We will actively resist regulatory rollbacks and the weakening of organic standards to protect and maintain consumer confidence in the organic food label.

The Cornucopia Institute is a non-profit watchdog organization that is doing tremendous things to protect the integrity of organics which affects anyone who cares about this issue...and we should all care about it since it affects our food supply and our environment.

This organization has an incredible website, with issues that affect us all posted in language that we can all understand, so that the information is clear and easy for every one to understand. I highly recommend that you become involved in what is happening to your food source. If you care about the planet, you should be involved. If you care about your children, you should be involved. JUST BE INVOLVED!!!!

Read the latest information about the integrity of the Horizon Dairy Label controversy. This has been raging on for a long while now and is heating up again. (Links below are live)
America’s Largest Corporate Dairy Processor Muscles Its Way into Organics
May 12th, 2008
Clout-Heavy Dean Foods Kills USDA Investigation of Their Horizon Label

On their website, there is also some excellent information about which huge corporations own organic labels. Lots of folks buy organic from what we assume are small family owned companies. Nothing could be further from the truth in many cases. See whose pocket your organic dollars are going into. BUY LOCAL and stop this organic tyranny.
www.cornucopia.org

VERY BUSY AT THE FARM

2008-04-06T10:17:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note to say that this is our busiest time of the year and posting will be a little erratic for a while. Bear with me, things will slow down in a month or so, once we are not fighting the crazy spring weather around here....
Keep checking back, though, I may find some time in the evenings when I am not too tired to type.

Thomas Jefferson, President, Statesman, Farmer

2008-03-24T08:47:00.001-04:00

1803 Nov. 14. "The class principally defective is that of agriculture. It is the first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same artificial means which have been used to produce a competition in learning, may be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts among it handmaids of the most respectable sciences, such as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics generally, Natural History, Botany. In every College and University, a professorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be honored as the first. Young men closing their academical education with this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, instead of crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of their fathers, their own, or those of others, and replenish and invigorate a calling, now languishing under contempt and oppression. The charitable schools, instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the present state of society does not call for, converted into schools of agriculture, might restore them to that branch qualified to enrich and honor themselves, and to increase the productions of the nation instead of consuming them." (TJ to David Williams, L&B.10.429-30)

Gentlemen, start your seedlings!!!

2008-03-16T09:42:00.007-04:00

While it is still a tad early to plant all but the earliest of the spring veggies, it is just about the perfect time to plant others. I have received the last of my spring seed orders so we are busy putting them in the ground. Now I get to start on summer seed orders.
Some of the other lettuces I have this year are imported heirlooms. Many of them are Italian because of the great diversity of heirlooms available from two of the oldest Italian seed companies, Bavicchi Sememti (since 1896)and Franchi Sementi (since 1783). Obviously, these two companies have been around a LONG time. I believe that Franchi Sementi may be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, seed suppliers in the world, so I guess it is an heirloom, too. Another very old seed company is Vilmorin in France and while many of the heirlooms you see in the marketplace today were originally introduced by them, they are a very modern company and produce many modern varieties as well.

While, there is not quite so much clamor to come up with new hybrids in other countries, seeking to improve varieties is something all seedsmen worldwide try to do. In other places in the world, the approach to the seed trade is a little different than here in the U.S. Lots of older varieties have been continuously offered by these companies since they opened their doors. Also, I think it is kind of thrilling to have the original strains of heirlooms from the location where they originated. Sometimes heirlooms are "improved" strains of these oldsters and so even though they may be old enough to be considered true heirlooms, I want the "granny" strains if I can get them.

Some of the lettuces we are planting this year have marvelously descriptive names. For example, there is one lettuce that has long slender leaves that grow in a rosette and resemble ribbons. The name of this lettuce is "Cocarde" which is a spelling of the French word for "the ribbons adorning a woman's hat". And if you stretch your imagination, you picture why this lettuce was so named. It grows a about 12-14" or higher and it probably does resemble ribbons that might be fluttering atop a ladie's hat.

Our lettuce selection this year contains Batavian, Bibb, Butterhead, Cos (Romaine) and Leaf lettuces. Most of these types are never seen in supermarkets because they do not ship well and need to be eaten as freshly picked as possible. These lettuces make that wimpy iceberg lettuce pale in comparison, in flavor, texture and nutrition. More about that in a later blog. I keep falling off the subject of seeds today for some reason.

One thing that is different this year is the number of onions we are planting. Last year, we planted around 2000 sets and most of them made small onions. With the drought, we simply could not provide them with the 30+ inches of water that is recommended over their long growing season. We ate the last of them in January but they were starting to sprout a little....
Anyway, this year, we decided to plant alot more onions, since we are going to be able to water them regularly.

So instead of ordering 2000, we ordered 5400. That is a whole bunch of onions. But the kicker is that we got the wrong ones. Two cases were the right ones and the third case was a different type of onion and we are not sure that they will grow in this area (onions are finicky about where they are grown. Has to do with the # of daylight hours, etc.). When I called to company, they were very apologetic and said that kind of mistake doesn't occur very often but it is their busiest time of year and stuff happens.

The grower then very kindly sent us a case of the proper onions, "gratis and sorry we goofed up" so now we have 7200 to plant. Oh! my aching back, one more time. We hand plant the little buggers, so each one has to have a hole punched in the dirt, the onion "set" into the hole and then the hole filled in and tamped down. Big onion growers have crews and machinery to do this job which is why supermarket onions are so cheap. You plant them once, irrigate them and then pull them up a couple of months later. Not much labor after the initial planting. We have to hand plant, hand weed, hill up, hand harvest, then dry, sort and store the harvest. Big difference. But the ones we grow taste so much better!

The sugar snap peas that were planted several weeks ago have already sprouted and are coming up. We should start harvesting those in early May. These are succession planted, which means every 2-3 weeks, we plant a few more rows, so that the harvest will be extended over a longer period.

The eggplant and tomato seeds have been planted in flats and are coming up now. In 4-6 weeks, we will have strong healthy seedlings, ready to plant at the proper time, which is late April. Hot weather varieties can't be put out until the last chance for a hard freeze is definitely over, so we wait about a week past our last average frost date, which is April 14th. We generally have at least grape tomatoes by the last of June but usually the first real tomato comes off the vine around the Fourth of July.

Some of the early season varieties might come in a week earlier, but they are usually the mealy, pithy, tasteless red globs that pass for tomatoes in the supermarket. Heirlooms make these imposters pale in compairson, so it is definitely worth the wait. Once our own homegrown tomatoes are done for the year, I usually don't eat another tomato until we have our own again. Call me silly, but tomatoes are my absolute favorite veggie and I have zero tolerance for those horrible "shipping tomatoes" that supermarkets try to pawn off on us. Yick!!!Blechk!PTooey!!!

The eggplants are going to be widely varied again this year. As usual, we will have the big old "Black Beauty", which is of course an heirloom and a classic Italian variety. There will be several other colors, shapes, sizes and origins. The peppers will abound this year, with almost 15 varieties in the running. Some of them have names like "Ram's Horn" and "Sheep's Nose" and come in colors like "rosso" and "giallo", in addition to "verde". Some are sweet as an apple and some are hot as a volcano! I can hardly wait to make my first batch of salsa!!!

Everyday miracles and natural magic!

2008-03-15T13:15:00.008-04:00

These are acorns from the huge oak trees in our back yard. The acorns stay hidden under the fallen leaves all winter long. Eventually, it becomes warm enough and moist enough and they get their signal to sprout. The fallen leaves act like a "nest" for acorns until that perfect proper time comes for then to sprout. This is the beginning of a forest. One of the neatest things about these oak sprouts is that they already have the beginnings of bark. Notice the pattern on the sprout. It is a tad smaller than a pencil in diameter at this point and about 4 inches long if I could stretch it out. I imagine this sprout is about a week old. I pushed back some leaves to finds these sprouts. There are literally hundreds under the blanket of leaves but squirrels, birds and other wildlife know they are under there and only a few will survive. Life feeds on life.

This tiny nest belonged to a hummingbird. We were taking a walk in the woods last fall and as I stepped over a fallen log, I happened to look down and there, attached to a broken branch was this tiny nest. It stayed attached to the branch for a couple of months, but I guess it dried out too much and fell off. I put it in the branches of our Christmas tree and it fit on the limb perfectly. (Those tiny feathers came from another bird, by the way. Probably some type of wren.) I wish you could see how intricately fashioned this nest actually is. There are layers upon layers of thin sheets of what appears to be pieces of dry leaves. There is also some kind of animal fur lining the inside.

Here, beside the hummer's next is another nest I found recently. It is most interesting to me because it is made almost entirely from the long stiff hairs from the tails of the dairy cows that live in the big pasture just on the back side of our farm. At first, I thought it was from one of my Jack Russells, but I pulled one out and immediately recognized that it was from the cows. There are lighter colored ones on the top and darker ones on the sides and bottom. This next is as soft as a blanket. This one is a little bigger than the other one. The quarter is for reference as to the size of these tee-tiny nests.

Oh, my aching back!!!

2008-03-05T08:52:00.010-05:00

(Note: I started this entry on the 5th and am just getting it finished today, the 8th....as usual)

Things are heating up around the Farm these days. LOTS of stuff going on. Well digging, plowing, hoeing, furrowing, planting, you name it, it is happening. And that can only mean that the season will be in full swing in another 4-5 weeks.

On Monday, The Farmer and I planted 10 rows of snap peas (remember that our rows are 100 feet long when you are reading this post) and, 6 rows of Kennebec potatoes (more about planting taters below...). We also planted several yard wide swathes of mixed lettuces and likewise planted mixed mustards, spinach, endive and escarole. There are 60M carrrot seeds in the ground as well. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it would rain, which is why we planted in such a fury, so we wouldn't have to be watering everything in. It worked out perfectly!

Below there is a picture of the actual potatoes that I planted. I know that almost everybody reading this blog has had at least one potato in the bin too long and it started to sprout. That is the part that we very carefully save to plant. Each eye on a potato is a potential sprout and so we go thru a process of encouraging our seed potatoes to sprout. Once that happens, the potatoes are cut into a small piece everywhere there is an eye or a sprout because each one is a potential potato plant and seed potatoes (organic, that is) are VERY expensive. Mostly it is expensive to ship them but that is still part of the cost because there are NO suppliers of organic seed potatoes any where evenly remotely close to this area. So, mostly we save our own potatoes from year to year so that we can guarantee that we have what we need to plant in the spring.

Anyway, here is the picture of the cut potatoes that I planted. After they are cut, they have to dry out for a while, so these were sitting in the sun, doing just that when I snapped the pic. I cut these potatoes in the early morning and we planted them that evening.

Each little piece has to be set into the furrow with the sprout pointing up, so they have to be done individually, hence the title of this blog today.

For reference, there are about 750 pieces in this container or roughly 3/4 of a bushel of potatoes, cut into 1-2 inch pieces. Sound kind of like KP duty, doesn't it? Anyway, next time your potatoes are sprouting in the cupboard, remember that is a potential crop of potatoes. In fact, you could cut them up and plant them in your yard or in a big container and grow some for yourself!!!

We also planted carrots, lettuces, mustards, kohlrabi, Asian greens, spinach and a couple of other really early varieties. It has been really warm here this winter and I think some folks don't realize just how early in the growing season it actually is. Most of these varieties take about 50 days to maturity and we are right on schedule.

There are already several things we planted earlier that were already up and going strong, mostly things that take more than the 50 or so days we have until CSA starts up. Some things like radishes, arugula and some of the other spring items take less than 30 days to produce, so it is a little early to plant those. We could still have some really cold weather (the last average frost date in this area is April 14th...remember the killing frost at Easter last year?) so we are a little cautious about what we plant this time of year. Timing is everything in our weird spring weather and since we are such strong proponents of seasonal growing and eating, this season is our hardest to manage, in terms of planting schedules.

Another thing we planted yesterday was SUGAR SNAP PEAS!!!! This is one of my absolute favorite spring treats. There are 10 rows in the ground now and there will be another 8-10 planted in about 2-3 weeks, so that they don't all mature at the same time and we can have a little longer harvest period on those.

******************************************************************************

Since I originally started this entry, three days have passed and it has rained quite a bit. As I mentioned earlier in this post, we were trying to get these seeds, etc. in the ground in anticipation of the rain and it worked out great!!! Nothing washed away, everything is well watered in now and the only thing that I am concerned about are the potatoes sets.

Of course, this is the nature of farming as I always remind everybody. Not for those who have to have every "T" crossed and "i" dotted. We just never know what will happen when Mother Nature is in one of her "moods". If you can't take the heat (or cold or rain or drought or snow or flood or wind, not to mention the bugs or the weeds), you'd best stay our of the garden.

So, now this round of planting is done. The rains came, the weather was warm and most of the seeds are probably starting to pop out. And it is gonna be 26 degrees here tonight.....moody, moody, moody Mama Nature. (heavy sigh....)

Thought for today

2008-03-01T11:42:00.003-05:00

Life is a song ... sing it.

Life is a game ... play it.

Life is a challenge ... meet it.

Life is a dream ... realize it.

Life is a sacrifice ... offer it.

Life is love ... enjoy it.

~ Sai Baba ~

Important update for Volunteer Post Open from May thru October

2008-02-14T11:30:00.011-05:00

IF YOU EMAILED ABOUT THIS POSITION, PLEASE DO SO AGAIN...THE EMAIL ADRESS IN THE ORIGINAL POST HAS BEEN DISABLED TEMPORARILY. A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS IS LISTED IN THE BODY OF THIS POST

We are looking for one or two volunteers to help out here at the Farm one day a week from May thru October. This is obviously not a paid position, but we do reward our helpers with generous sharing in some of our produce and usually a nice healthy (and usually organic) lunch if they are here at lunchtime.

The position that we are looking to fill is as a picker/packer for CSA shares and will include such duties as culling produce, weighing, counting, packaging and packing vegetables for CSA share holders. It will also require someone who can lift 25-30 lbs minimum for loading vehicles. Volunteers need their own transportation to and from the Farm.

Volunteers also need to be dependable and able to commit to the position, even though it will only be for one or two days per week, for approx. 4-6 hours each time. In other words, anyone who wants to come and do this once in a while is not the person who will be chosen.

This is an excellent opportunity to spend a little time on a real organic farm, learn about how things are done here and to experience first hand what it takes for food to get from the field to market.

If you are interested in this position, please email me at willworkforfood@alltel.net with a paragraph or two about yourself and why you think you would like to participate here at the Farm. Call backs will begin sometime March or April, with interviews to follow. This is a great activity for an older teen but our insurance will not cover anyone under 16, so no one under that age would be considered. And, while we would love to be able to have folks come here with their kids for a day and "help out" this position is not conducive to that situation.

2008-02-14T08:51:00.005-05:00

The hens are laying now and it is driving my crazy.

About 2 weeks ago we noticed that some of our hens were acting a little strange. After the cold of December and January passed (well, not really all that cold, but colder than the last 2 weeks) and with the days getting longer, our young hens are starting to come into their egg cycles for the first time. I have mentioned in previous posts, etc. that our chickens are very closely related to the wilder jungle fowl that are the ancestors of all modern chickens and they have habits that more closely relate to a wild creature.

For example, they are masters (mistresses?) of concealment. The other day, I reached under a shelf in one of the sheds to get something and got peckedby a hen laying in the top basket on the stack that is stored there. In the same area, there are some other baskets that we use to keep odds and ends and which are stacked on the other wall of that same shed. One of the hens is laying her eggs in there. Another hen is laying in the rosemary bush and another in a bramble thicket. I have been doing some outside work recently and sat some of my work tools, including a black trash bag, in a box on the front porch and there were 4 eggs in the box the when I went out to finish my project.

So far, we have gathered about 2 dozen eggs, some of which we have had for breakfast or used in some other recipe. While this may sound pretty cool - and in some ways it is very cool - the problem is that we have 12 laying hens right now and I have only located the preferred nests of 4 or 5 of them. Where the heck are the other ones laying their eggs?

Most of them are probably laying under our giant boxwoods, under the garage or some place similarly discreet and will never be found. The biggest clue to where they are laying is watching the roosters pace around the nest site like an expectant father in a waiting room or to listen for the cackles the hens make when they have laid an egg. The roosters patrol around the hens while the laying is taking place and the hens make a huge fuss when they are done. Maybe they are just excited or maybe they are letting their babydaddy's know they are doing a good job! Unfortunately, who has time for all that watching and listening when there are potential nesting sites spread over 30 acres?

Skunks, snakes and other varmints will find many of these nests at night and will have a feast and later I will find piles of broken shells. The hens will keep laying on the same nest site for a couple of days or even a week or more but will give up eventually and move to a new nest site. I just hope that the critters find all of the errant eggs and that I don't have to find them this summer when they have been sitting in the 90 degree heat for weeks...that is not a pretty situation but one that I have encountered on more than one occaision. Did I say YUCK!!!!?

These little hens we have now are our "pet" chickens that I write about frequently. They are a little too wild to be considered productive farm poultry but their enjoyment factor is very high and we like them alot. The eggshells are hard as rocks and very small but the yolks are as orange as a tangerine. We very much appreciate these plucky little hens making the effort to do their part here at the Farm.

Progress report from the Farm.

2008-02-12T09:18:00.001-05:00

I have been really busy lately and have been trying to keep up the website, write for two other blogs, do my paperwork for my organic certification, order seeds, do interviews, manage my CSA business and keep up with the laundry. Everything but the last one is being done with aplomb but it has not left me much time to post to this blog.

We are getting ready to start our planting, which signals the beginning of the "season" so I will finally be able to start posting more info about how that is progressing. I think a lot of people look at this blog for that info anyway and I look forward to sharing that with my readers.

I will be trying my best to post something weekly from now on, so check back at least once a week and see how things are progressing here at the Farm.

Later....

Ordering Seeds

2008-01-22T10:01:00.001-05:00

Because we are certified organic, I have to present a complete listing of what we plan on growing to my certifier in February, along with our yearly inspection documents. Once you become certified organic, one of the requirements is that you use certified organic seed, unless there is no organic source for the variety chosen. Only then can a conventional seed be used and it must still be untreated and non-GMO.

If a conventional seed is to be used, documentation must be maintained as to how it was determined that there was no organic source available. That means I am required to call/email at least 3 suppliers, keep a log of conversations, etc. and present that with my certification documents. I generally go about it in another fasion but with the same end result. If I find a variety I want to grow but only see it as a conventionally grown seed, I get online and do a search for sources for the seed.

I also use my own resources. I have compiled a list of over 150 organic/op and untreated seed suppliers (more than the USDA NOP lists...) that have organic seed and I also refer to that before I begin any search online. I don't leave it at just looking at 3 sources. I WANT to use organic seed, so it is more my own ethics that make me do this research than the requirement of the USDA NOP. I try to stay away from printed catalogs (save a tree and all that) but sometimes companies having the printed page is necessary, especially if I am working on this away from home. Whenever we go anywhere for more than a couple of hours, my backpack is filled with my notebooks, a selection of seed catalogs and lots of pencils. Clothes and other items are not necessities for me. I learned to travel light a long time ago.

It is really hard to narrow down what we want to plant each year. We trial at least a couple of new entries every year and have discovered some gems that way. Also we have uncovered some real stinkers whose descriptions in the seed catalogs made them sound like they came straight from Eden. Wasting space on something like that is a no-no, so I have to present my case for each new item to The Farmer and we jointly decide to trial or not.

When we are looking at new heirlooms, I spend an amount of time looking up its history. Growing historical heirlooms is pretty cool...living history, actually. It just makes it fun for me, to eat something that may have been on the table of my ancestors in Europe and again when they came to these shores in the late 1600's. Talk about connecting with your food source!

I am particularly attracted to ethnic varieties also. This country is such a melting pot of cultures that I find it fascinating to delve into the foods that are not part of the Southern fare I grew up on.

Mexican food is a big favorite with us so we try to grow whatever we can that would be ingredients in a typical meal in Mexico. Regional varieties are also a great interest and I love ordering seeds that are produced in the actual places where they are favorites. I order lots of seeds from Italy, many of which are narrowed down to specific places in Tuscany or Sicily. It really brings home my firm belief that I am a citizen of the world, not just my country.

Some regional and ethnic varieties simply won't grow in our climate but if you research their origins carefully, you can usually find a portion of our long spring/summer/fall season where they might thrive or a variety that could adapt somewhat. This takes a lot of research and a lot of patience.

If you are looking at a catalog, for instance, that is targeted at the New England states, many of their varieties just will not survive the heat and humidity here. However, if you pay close attention to our own seasonality you just might find a window of opportunity where you could give it a shot and see what happens. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't work. If it does, you may have discovered a new family favorite.

While I am on the subject of growing for the right/wrong climate, I might pass on a word of advice. Because I grow things for a living, I am asked alot of gardening/growing questions. By far, the number one is about tomatoes. In this area, tomatoes are probably, like the rest of the country, the number one favorite things to grow at home. And why not? When they do well, they are easy to grow, prolific and taste 100 times better than store bought 'maters.

What could possibly be better and getting a fresh tomato off you own vine just before you eat it? That is a gastronomical delight that should not be missed. HOWEVER, you have to pick a variety that will actually produce something in the heat and humidity of our sometimes brutal summers or you won't be experiencing your own homegrown tomatoes.

The heirloom tomato boom is still going hot and heavy with such enticing varieties coming to market as Paul Robeson from Russia or Soldaki from Poland. Problem is that neither of these tomatoes will produce anything even remotely close to a bumper crop because they are cool, short season tomatoes.

And tomatoes don't like it too hot either. When the temps are in the 90's for days and days and days, the plants either stop blooming and/or setting fruit or the green tomatoes that they have produced just sit there and never turn. The secret to growing heirlooms is to see where they originated, determine if the climate there is close to your own and choose varieties that do grow successfully in similar conditions.

Another thing is to make sure you know whether or not you are growing a determinate, semi-determinate or an indeterminate variety. Determinate tomatoes make tomatoes for a short while and then stop producing. I don't know what semi-determinate means because I have only seen about 2 varieties that were designated as such and didn't really look any further. Indeterminate tomatoes will bear until frost if conditions are perfect, although harvests slow down as the plants get a little older. If you want to extend your harvest, you can always break off a "sucker" and root it for a new plant. The new plant will be an exact copy of the parent and will be younger and so, theoretically will bear stronger later.

2008-01-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

Great Websites

NOTE: This is a compilation of links to some of my favorite websites, discussion groups and topical articles that I will be adding to on a regular basis, so bookmark this page and check back periodically. Click on the underlined text to go to these sites. You will need to use your back key to return to this site.

The Great News Network The great news network is a news site that reports only positive news stories. News is submitted by its members and voted on by its members. If a news story receives enough votes, it automatically gets promoted to the front page.
I love this website!!!

EcoChoices Natural Living Store
Create a home that is beautiful, natural and a safe environment for you and your family's enjoyment. The best earth-friendly products available at the lowest prices possible without lowering the quality of the products. Shop more than ten web sites with one shopping cart!

The Frugal Life -Living well with what you have
-This site provides information on how to live frugally with the resources you have. Get ideas for more creativity in your finances and meet a community of wonderful people willing to help you.

Organic Consumer's Association
The first link here is probably one of the most important ones on this page. It will take you to the website for the Organic Consumers Association. While some of the subjects on this site may seem a little over the top, the information posted here has proven to be correct more than 95% of the time. The originator of this site is outspoken and radical in many ways, but the subjects and issues they cover are some of the most serious and compelling of our times. A must for those of us serious about having safe food supply for ourselves and future generations.

The Cornucopia Institute "The Organic Integrity Project acts as a corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of profit. We will actively resist regulatory rollbacks and the weakening of organic standards to protect and maintain consumer confidence in the organic food label." You should especially check out the "Who Owns Organic" link on this page. It is a chart of who actually owns and controls the mainstream organic labels we see in supermarkets.

Ideal Bite "The concept behind Ideal Bite is an easy one — if we all knew what to do in our day-to-day lives to help impact the planet and our communities positively and painlessly and without preachiness), we would all do it. And if that know-how came to us in a fun, pithy, sometimes irreverent way — so much the better. " Join their email list for your daily "green bite". Good info from a hip source.

Mindfully.org "The more taboos and prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become. The more deadly weapons there are, the more our fears turn us numb." Interesting information on an array of topical issues.

Food Not Lawns This is an interesting site for those of you who are interested in something other than growing grass in your yards. They also have an online forum. Most of the members here are in Oregon, but their points and info apply any where.