Hold on market for a while...

This weather has been pretty annoying to us this year. The picture is of bolting lettuce...

Just when things were starting to grow a heat wave hit and all of our nice spring stuff is done. Our radishes turned to disgusting pithy hollow balls, our broccoli rabb bolted, and lettuce turned bitter. The good news is the turnips, beets, squash, beans, and the like seem to be loving it, not to mention the tomatoes and peppers!

There will be lots of yummy food this year, but not this weekend. So we have decided to stop doing market for a few weeks. This will give our stuff a chance to grow a little more without us having to pick baby stuff for market and fearing that our members will get short shifted their first week.

Speaking of the first CSA week. We will be announcing it to an email to our members this weekend! It will be really soon, but not next week. Our season may start a little slow, but before long their will be more produce then they know what to do with!

We are seriously eyeing a nice big hoop house which will give us a place to grow earlier crops for everyone next year! But we know that our season will be a good one,and we thank all our members for hanging in with us...

Rain and plants...

Yesterday we saw the rain was coming (2.5 inches expected in next 2 days) and it was a mad race to get more stuff in the ground. The soil temperature was (finally!) warm enough to feel safe putting in our untreated squash and pumpkin seeds, so it was going to be an evening of squash and pumpkin planting!

But then I got home and there was a box on my doorstep. 200 sweet potato slips (plants)! I was really beginning to wonder if our order had been lost as we were supposed to get them (I thought) 2 weeks ago! But there they were and they had to go in then, as 2 inches of rain will make it hard to plant very much for a week... So it was a change of plan.

With the help of my sister (who is visiting) and my 5 year old niece (who is a sweety pie and very patient) we put in the sweet potatoes. Then a quick look at the weather on our cells said there was only a 20% chance of rain in the next 24 hours (80% in 48) so poor hubby went and got the hoses and dragged them out to the field. We typically do not need to set up our irrigation this early in the year, but we will in the next couple weeks, this has been a strange weather year and we need to be more prepared.

S0 1000 foot of hose came out, not quite long enough, so he spent an hour watering the starts with a bucket while my sister and I put in hundreds of feet of winter squash and pumpkins! He said when we were done he never thought he'd own that much hose, and he NEVER imagined if he did he'd want more!

The 5 year old alternated who she was helping, but I think her favorite was stepping on the seed holes and dropping seeds in the planter, although anything she can do with her Uncle is always fun...

We started around 6:30 and got done at 9:15. Then watered the starts still being hardened off in the barn, took care of the baby chicks, and was inside the house by 9:45 or so. Feed the kids a very late supper (they had snacked and we had a late lunch (2:30)) and I was in bed around 11:30. Yawn...

Woke up this morning and was out the door at 5:59, to be at my office by 6:30. And the past week of days like this are getting me! I NEED to get to bed before 11, at least once, or else I will fall asleep at my computer! When I woke up it was raining, and I felt horrible that hubby had spent so much time watering by hand! But if we had woken up to sun and it had not rained until 1 or 2 in the 80 degree weather those sweet potatoes would have been cooked!

I am having a great time visiting with my sister and nieces, I took afternoons off all week so I can be home by around 1 to go do something with them... Yawn, again, long week... Maybe when I get home today I'll nap...

First Market June 7th...

After much thought we have decided not to attend market this coming weekend (May 31.) Instead our first week will be June 7th. We just do not have much to offer, so we decided to hold off one more week.

Sorry for the inconvience this might have caused anyone, but we hope to see you on the 7th...

Government subsidies...

I found this on Micheal Ruhlman's blog...

Commodity farmers discouraged from switching to higher value items?

"I’ve discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future."

It would really be funny if it was not true! Wouldn't our food system be stronger, better, and need less subsidy if people could grow food they could make money on?

Think of it this way. You are a farmer who grows corn. The ONLY way your farm stays is subsidies. But you are staying afloat, just...

Now, you've heard that people who sell at farmer's markets actually can do well. That sounds great! You want to try. But will you if you know that if it does not work out (and there are lots of reasons it may not) you will never get subsidies on those acres again. Because you will not get those subsidies any corn you grow on those acres you will loose money on. So you will not grow on those acres again.

Would you take the risk?

Small farms & Farm Bill

I got this article forwarded to me this morning. New York Times - Farm Bill. It made me start thinking about farms and small farms and the future.

My husband’s family are dairy farmers in Pennsylvania. When we first started farming his uncle asked us why would we farm? “I get paid $2.00 an acre NOT to grow green peppers!” Well, at the time, we had a total of 5 acres, so a big $10 a year was not going to do it. But, if I could sell a real person a pepper and get the full market value of $2 or 3 a pound, it does not take many plants to exceed those subsidies.

The same uncle once told us that if was paid $1.00 a gallon for milk he would work one more year and then retire! While regulation, location, and vision prevents our uncle from seeing those level of returns, we are able to do much better doing the type of farming we want to. Not that we'll make enough to retire soon, but we really feel it can support our family.

But our type of farming is not even on the radar screen of legislators writing documents like the farm bill. Yet the type of farming we are doing: providing products directly to customers instead of providing commodities to multi-nationals is the ONLY way (I think) for small farms to succeed.

Thankfully, there are consumers (like you) who are willing to go a little out of their way to support farms like ours and who understand that what we do is not the same as factory farming, and that sometimes crops fail, or yields are small but are willing to take a little risk to enjoy the bounty of fresh local food, grown by people you know and trust, using methods you understand, and creating healthy foods. Healthy for the consumer, the watershed, the farmer, the soil, the environment, and the local economy.

Little steps, every year, and maybe in the next couple decades we will see legislation which is more rounded and not controlled by the interests of one group, but by the needs and priorities of the nation.

(Sorry for a long boring post with no pictures!)