Hazardous Duty at New Moon Farm

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

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.

 

 

 

 

Typical of summer craziness

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

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.

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

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

"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

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!

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

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

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

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!!!

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!

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!!!

(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.

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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

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

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.

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.

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....