2011 CSA

In 2011 we will be keeping our CSA the same size as in 2010. We hope expansion will come with our participation in farmers markets and adding a small road side stand.

We are sure this will be our best season ever. We will have more help on the farm, we have more access to water for irrigation, a couple new hoophouses (one already up and another to come) and we are adding some new equipment.

Our planning is well underway, and we are sure that the 3/4 bushel CSA boxes will be bursting for most of the season!

Preliminary Flyer for 2011 Season

If you want to get more information or want to be added to our waiting list email us and let us know... heather@basketoflifefarm.com

Local Christmas...

Try to work at least one local product into your holiday celebration. Maybe some Hartlezers Egg Nog, Ohio wine, or local Maple Syrup.

Here is my favorite dish for a Holiday Brunch, if you happen to have local corn meal you can use that, and if you belong to a herd share, it is a great dish to put some of that local cream on. Try this!

Cranberry Maple Pudding Cake

Next year...

Today is very windy (45+mph gusts), very warm (74 degrees), and very spring like (with the threatening thunderstorms) and with spring in the air (although it is October) it makes me think about next season all the more.

This is a fun time of year. We get to make great plans and execute them on paper! I will always find a way to make a spreadsheet or two, which Farmer Hubby will laugh at me for. He spends time looking at equipment deciding what are next seasons big investments (we need a chisel plow, but what about a new tiller? we really do need to get that cooler we have been talking about, if we can swing it but how are we going to upgrade our wash line (technical term for a couple tables with slatted tops and a garden hose)?)

Right now things are still so preliminary our plans are in the sky and there is no need to put numbers to anything. That will come later, the reconciling of reality with our budget.

We are deciding which areas we will just grow cover crops on next year, which places need the most TLC.

It would be nice to cover the whole farm all next year, but at some point we need to actually grow food, I doubt our CSA members want to eat just Buckwheat, Clover, Rye, and Mustards. So we are working on a cover strategy. Right now almost everything (not next years potato field) has a winter cover planted. We will try to rotate cover through a lot of our tilled areas next year, and start a couple new small fields. Eventually, we will build up good soil, but that is a long term project. One of the "Wish list" items is a planter for limited till cover crops ($9,000, but WOW, is it a nice toy!).

(More dreaming as I dream...)

Event in the Barn...

This week has been busy! We held a canning class on Saturday, our Farm Fall Potluck on Sunday, and then on Wednesday we hosted a group from Leadership Akron at our farm.

I love the way our barn looks in the dark. It is a great space for events, the problem being that we have a lot of stuff which needs to be stored in the barn as well! Getting everything straightened and organized is a project, we are hoping that in the future we will be able to keep the farm more like this, more often.

In the photo below is the new park Superintendent, Stan Austin, talking to the group about his hopes for the future of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

GMO Fish...

Genetically modified Salmon may soon be one of the first GMO animals in the normal food supply of Americans. It is currently under review by the FDA.

I am pretty against this. Although the manufacturers of this product state that all the eggs will be treated to produce only sterile females I still have a concern that if released into the wild salmon population this gene will cause disaster.

We are talking about an animal which, in the wild matures and returns to its spawning site as an adult in 3 years. However, we have decided that 3 years is to long to wait to have nice tasty farmed salmon. We can do it in 18 months, so we should.

So we introduce a gene into the salmon that allows them to mature in 18 months. Can a salmon with these genes live for three years? Will they effect eco systems? If they grow that much faster, one would assume they eat more. Will they out compete non-GMO salmon. If the patented gene gets into the wild population then who owns the salmon? (Think GMO corn, soy beans, and canola).

There are so many questions besides "Will they hurt people who eat them!" Or else, it seems to me, there should be.

Corn Sugar...

Buyer beware. And Trade industry to...

I guess right now trade groups responsible for making everyone's favriote product High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) are petitioning the FDA to let them relable it "Corn Sugar."

Sounds safe and wholesome... No?

I think it may backfire on them. There is currently a whole movement of people backing away from corn, concerned about GMOs. These people are considered more "fringy" by the food industry, as good sane normal food consumers know that nothing in your grocery store could possibly be bad for you (except Trans-Fats we are allowed to not like those now.)

There is a less fringy group worried about HFCS. But these people are informed enough to realize that the switch has been made and to start avoiding Corn Sugar as well. But now you have made "Corn" the first word of your product name. You might get these middle income, intelligent, active individuals to start thinking more about the "Corn" itself.

I think people who avoid HFCS now will avoid Corn Sugar starting the day it comes out, and maybe Corn chips, Corn Meal, and other Corn products will take the brunt.

Remember, industry, people today are more informed then ever before and people will know, nothing has changed, but the name....

It will kill a bug = pesticide.

So the question is will anything that will deter a bug a pesticide?

The state of Californa says Worm Castings are a pesticide. Here is a link to the case.

I have to say that this case makes me angry. A small business man states that his 100% natural product (worm castings) will deter bugs. That may or may not be true, but the state of California decided to come after him for selling an unregistered pesticide. They fined him over $100,000. They said if he fought it the fine would go up. Well he is fighting and time will see what happens.

According to California anything that will deter bugs is a pesticide. That makes your garlic powder, hot pepper sauce, garden hose, and marigolds all pesticides.

Well not Marigolds - in 1943 a California court ruled that marigolds are not a pesticide. (Just in case you think this kind of nonsense is new.)

(So the question may be what do the 1940s and now have in common?)

Is it so wrong that I want to keep the government out of my garden! I mean, OK, I understand poisons should be regulated. There should be rules that prevent people from throwing raw manure on crops people are going to eat that season. I understand we need guidelines, but a natural product? In 43 marigolds today worm poop?

So I guess I need to come clean to my members. I apologize but every week this season before we have given you your produce we have washed it with.... WATER. Since a bug will drown in water or a garden hose will deter them, I suppose that water is now a pesticide?

Here is an organization to consider supporting - your local farmers may soon need help... http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/