Well, folks, its winter.  For real, no joke.  Lots of snow here.  Two weeks ago we received our second 2 foot falling of snow and then got a little more a few days later.   With our first 2 ft. snow, part of our gutter fell off days before our trip to Guatemala (still working on that post), Leaving us scrambling to repair it before all the snow melted  and fell off the side of our house.  But it is fixed, and all is well.

All this snow has got me thinking a whole lot about the meaning of winter and how we choose to completely ignore that call from nature.  She’s telling us to slow down, to rest, take it easy, hibernate if you will.  Spend time with friends and family, read books, look through seed catalogs, dream, sleep lots!  Every time that we get a big snow here I watch about mid-morning as my neighbor across the street, who has 5 vehicles, shovels all the snow off his Land Rover and speeds away to who knows where.  “Its still snowing outside,” I tell Sarah,” everything is closed and canceled.  Where is this dude going?” We still haven’t figured it out.  But, we take the time to slow down, play board games, watch a movie and walk precariously to just look around.  It is amazing.  For most of the world, everything does stop.  No cars, lots of families sledding down the middle of the road, you can walk anywhere!  It makes me excited for a new version of the world where cars are occasional but familiar faces and greetings are the norm.  I do, however, miss walking directly on the earth, seeing the dirt and working in it.  But, next week, we start our seeds inside and the growing season begins.

In the kitchen,  the winter has been good to us.  We were able to store lots of tomatoes in the forms of dried, salsa, pasta sauce, pizza sauce and blanched.  We have apple sauce, other dried and frozen veggies.  I feel like the mast majority of the vegetables that we have been eating have been what we have grown, that is aside from random “others” that somehow sneak into our kitchen.  This season, we are going to take a small dabble into grain growing which we are all excited about.  Everything is alive and well in the greenhouse, not really growing, but not really dying either.  I’m imaging growth will restart in March, although some things will have to be removed for our young seedlings.

Rosalind Creasy’s 100 sq. ft. garden is featured in Mother Earth News this time around and I’ve really enjoyed looking through her website.  She has shared a lot of information and is trying to prove the same point that we are here: that you can grow a lot of food, in a small space without sacrificing your entire life to tend to it, without pesticides or chemicals, and it can look BEAUTIFUL!!! I hope that you will look around at her website and read the article in Mother Earth. Enjoy! – Beth

www.rosalindcreasy.com

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Square-Foot-Gardening-Food.aspx

Happy holiday wishes to everyone.  These are the times to be thankful for a lot!  Like salad greens, turkeys and clay ovens!  The greenhouse is still producing for us, although it seems like growth is slowing as the days have really gotten slower.  December through mid-Feb will see little growth and then things will start to kick up again with more sunlight.  So thankful for the sun!!!!  But, we have salad mix and some kale to get us through (along with lots of perserved goodies from the summer).  I’m excited for next fall, when we can really get a jump on planting for the winter; the cabbage and broccoli probably won’t produce for us until the spring.

Last Monday, myself and two others went down to Charis Farm outside of Staunton, VA to prepare some turkeys for Thanksgiving, aka kill them.  While I have killed roosters before, it is still a humbling experience.  While there is debate (and probably always will be) about not eating meat sure to its effects on the land the environment and the animals, I became a meat eater again a few years ago when I realized that I should be supporting what I do agree and believe in.  I, personally, do want to eat meat.  Meat from animals that have grazed freely in the pasture or in the forest (pigs natural habitat is forest) are just better to eat and the animal has probably led a happier life as well.  Small scale pastured animal farms also use the animals natural inclinations (such as scratching the ground for chickens) to benefit the land and the farmer.  Chickens, for example, scratch the ground while looking for bugs.  This not only leads to less japanese beetles and other “pests”, but it also acts as a “pre-till” for the ground and gives it some fertilizer, too!   So, as I was processing turkeys 14-22 lbs. big, I remembered that they were healthy, happy and free while they were alive and that Charis was also selling them for a fair price.  $4/lb made my mother gasp when she realized that a 20 lb. bird would cost $80!  But, in our current system, we are not valuing the life that was taken (and the workers who are in terrible conditions in factory farms and processing plants).   I know that I eat a lot less meat when it is more expensive and appreciate it more as a luxury rather than the comodity it is now.  It is sad when a burger costs less than vegetable pasta at a local restaurant!

But, enough about meat for now!  A group of us, through my work at New Community Project, went to Staunton to learn how to make a clay oven from our friend (and my permaculture teacher and naturopath) Ted.  It took two afternoons and two layers of clay after a sand form was made.  We dug the clay from the backyard, sifted out the roots, rocks and other “extra surprises” and added some water.  Once the oven has been dried, a door will be cut and the sand removed a fire will be lit on the inside to clear away any residues and then clay oven baked pizza, bread, baked goods, yogurt, oh goodness! The cool thing about the oven (well one of many) is that the clay holds the heat for hours (aka thermal mass) allowing one to bake for hours with just one fire!  Oh and it is a great way to get a group of friends together to play and get dirty! …and the other thing that I would like to mention is that they are beautiful!!!! Ted is making his into a samauri helmet but there are countless designs including frogs, lizards, phoenix, etc.  Google earth ovens or cob ovens and lots of interesting things will pop up!   We are planning to build one in Harrisonburg and then hopefully host some workshops in town!!! -Beth  PS. the photos of the clay oven were taken by my good friend, Aaron Johnston www.aaronhjohnston.com

making the sand form

sifting the clay

its happening!

all hands in! pressing the clay into place

the first layer, done!

mixing the clay

the sunday crew

broccoli, cabbage, kale bed

yummy salad mix

All the beds are dug, and seeds planted. In one long bed we have kale, broccoli, and chinese cabbage. Separated by a compost bin on the other side are shorter beds of salad mix and spinach. After finally putting on some re-may (light-weight cloth cover) so the friendly neighborhood critters can’t nibble on them anymore, all the plants are doing great! I’m ready to start munching on the kale myself, but consensus is that we’ll wait for it to be a wee bit hardier before starting to harvest it.

Tonight did feature the first taste of the greenhouse goodies! It was so satisfying to step outside and in seconds walk back in with a fistful of salad mix to go with supper. YUM!

After the initial work of digging the beds, planting the seeds and starts was a joy. As for daily care, it takes 5 minutes in the morning to water and open up the greenhouse, and a few minutes in the evening to close it back up. We put a thermometer inside to help track  the temperature; in the mornings its well above freezing and on a day like today (48, sunny) it was a solid 30 degrees warmer inside, with both doors open.

We love the greenhouse, warts and all. One of the doors doesn’t quite fit in the frame because it was installed on a cold day several weeks back, swelled during a heat wave, and hasn’t returned to its original shrunken state, yet. The latch on the other door is a little tricky (I must confess, I dropped all the aformentioned salad mix on the ground while trying to close it…nothing a quick rinse didn’t fix, and a good lesson to grab a bowl next time rather than use my shirttail.)

I mention these only to say, it and we  need not be perfect to harvest some fine food.

-sarah

We hosted a greenhouse raising workshop to help 12 interested folks learn how to build one of these super easy, affordable, greenhouses.  The dimensions are 10×15, small enough that you don’t need a work permit.  I was astounded by the interest and at how fast we put the thing up! I’ll post some pictures now, and will come back later to add more detail as how it was built, exact cost,  natural heating costs, etc.

-beth

We’ve been busy here.  Between transitioning from market farmer to home gardener and working our jobs, it has been hard to get set up for the winter.  With the help of some BVSers (Brethren Volunteer Service) and a greenhouse raising workshop that got us on the front page of the Daily News Record hosted by the non-profit that I work for, New Community Project, we’re still off to a pretty good start. We have kale, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and salad greens in the greenhouse and 3 varieties of garlic planted in the garden beds.  I think we’ll eat well this winter if everything grows.

This project could be about creating our own oasis in the middle of a lot of dysfunctional lawns, but it is not. It is about creating a community of people who want our little city to be transformed into somewhere that we can proudly live, knowing that we worked hard to create a way of living that is better than where we are today.  We hope that we are able to share every step of the way there by having workshops and open doors when ever possible.  It is inspiring to know that about 15 people have been in touch with us since our workshop, all wanting a greenhouse of their own!

-beth

one slug

slug damage

fallen chard leaf from hail

hail damage on onions

more hail damage

The past week has been interesting.  Friday was probably the most frustrating day I’ve had yet as a farmer.  We got some hail in Timberville on Wednesday, and even though it could have been devastating, there was a little damage to the onions and swiss chard.  My hopes are that they will bounce back and be okay.

With the rain beating down as I was doing the harvest, I uncovered my broccoli to find them covered in slugs.  The leaves have been getting eaten for some time now, however; the broccoli heads have still been forming fine.  It looks like I just missed a few from my Thompson variety, a looser head that went pretty quickly past its prime.  The other, tighter headed broccoli are still forming and I’ll be sure to check them more regularly now.

But, back to the slugs.  There must have been hundreds of them!  And in my rage (a very mild rage, mind you) I began to cut them to kill them, on the advice of my biodynamic farmer friends.  After about 60 or 70 I gave up with fingertips and knife covered in slimy orange goop that stuck to its surface.  No broccoli for market this week.

And, real quick, next Saturday, the 13th, my friend Willie is going to be running the stand. Please be kind to him :0)

So, Back to the Earth has been a chance for me to get a feel for what it is like to be a farmer.  It is also an experiment seeing if one could grow their diet on 4,000sq ft. (1/10 acre) of land.  And I’ve got to say, I think that 4,000 sq. ft. is enough for a household of two adults to grow all of their food for a full year!

Here’s why I’m so interested:  John Jeavons http://www.growbiointensive.org/ is a farmer out of Willits, CA who does a lot of work with impoverished and forgotten communities around the world.  He came to Harrisonburg and spoke last fall and I was quite struck by his presentation.  He claims that one could grow their diet, compost crops and grains, and make a decent living, off of 5,000 sq. ft. or less.  I was taken aback by this statement and in my thinking about this, I did a little math.  If Harrisonburg and Rockingham county were to grow 100% of our food inside of Rockingham county given Jeavon’s projections, it would use only 2% of the land area in Rockingham county!

I know that I am operating as a market garden, but if I stop to think about it, that would be a lot of kale even for two people! So, there would be even more diversity, a lot of planning as far as food storage, and plenty to eat fresh!  But what would we do with the rest of the 98% of land in Rockingham County? … ANYTHING!!!  I’m thinking animal raising, reforestation, local energy production, orchards, bike trails, anything.  So, how do we get there? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this because the problem is that people own land…. would we rent it out?  Would the government take over as we hit food crisis?  I could see eventually having each home/apartment/duplex having a corresponding piece of land in the county that was theirs to tend or to sell to a farmer who would grow for them.

As far as time commitment, given that most of you have full time jobs, I work on my farm 2 1/2 days a week max.  Usually 1-1  1/2 .  Its not weed free, there are always things to do, but everything is growing fine, is healthy and presentable. I think that the space could be worked by a couple or friends on weekday nights and weekends without having to bend over backwards.  So, I encourage all of you to start working with what space you have if you have a backyard (or patio) and work up to producing more food.  My predictions are that most of us are going to have to have some of these skills in the future and that all of us are going to need to produce some of our own food to stay alive.

Will Allen, founder of an amazing farm called Growing Power http://www.growingpower.org/ has called for 50 million farmers to produce our country’s food.  And he’s not talking about commercial, corporate agribiz farming.  He’s talking about you and me, with our farms of all size: producing for ourselves, producing for others, whether that’s your tiny backyard or patio, or a 5 acre CSA farm, we need to eat, we all deserve healthy food, and we all deserve to grow it ourselves!

Get Growing!

-beth

Well, I’ve just finished my second week at the Farmer’s Market and I feel quite satisfied.  Both weeks we’ve arrived with spinach, kale, collards, and bamboo shoots and have left with hardly anything.  I’ve learned that my kale bunches need to be slightly bigger, washing the produce as soon as you get it out of the field REALLY helps to preserves ts freshness, having really great friends totally attracts other people to your stand (unless you are being rediculous) , and having a standardized process for everything makes it way easier and less time consuming! Whew!!!!

The bamboo shoots came from the forest of it that surrounds the farm.  Each spring the bamboo sends up new shoots which eventually grow into new stalks.  Bamboo is an amazing plant: amazing in how vigorously it grows, amazing in how many ways you can use it.  The young shoots are edible when they first come out of the ground, till they are about 12 inches tall.  It is tender as you pull back the dark brown outer leaves and green on the inside.  Once you slice it up, sautee for 5 minutes and there you have it! Local bamboo shoots! I’ve found a niche for a couple of weeks…

Needless to say, I recieved quite a few inquires as to what the bamboo shoots were, how you cook them, etc. Folks at the Farmer’s Market love to ask you hundreds of questions!  People would give the stangest looks as they passed by with remarks such as, ” What’s that?!?!”  Once Sarah or I explained, folks would either become engaged and move to buy, ask more questions, or they would just walk away.  It was a lot of fun to watch and see happen and kept us quite occupied throughout the morning!

Back on the farm, the week has been filled with weeding potatoes and onions, stringing up tomato plants, and planting peppers, eggplant, cilantro, basil, parsley and flowers.  I’ve had some problems with my peppers and eggplant growing due to slugs (see last psot) so I was able to grab some extras at Muddy Bike, my paying job (more on that later).

bamboo shoots

collards

don’t eat the bamboo this way

me and mariza

luca wanting to eat kale

So good.  There have been many challenges, lessons, successes and “Ah ha!” moments.  From putting up the fence, spending hours weeding out the cover crop, tilling trials, to slugs.  But, the greatest of it all has been coming out to the farm and seeing how much everything has been growing!  I’ve had 2 spinach harvests so far, and they have been eaten up pretty quick.  Now, this Saturday is going to be our first weekend at the Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market.  It is pretty exciting! In the ground at the moment are: spinach, cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli, beets, carrots, peas, potatoes, onions, squash, zuchini, cucumber, tomatoes, sunflowers, and calendula.  And while the cabbage has lots of big holes in it from slugs, it is hard for me to feel like I have done something wrong since we have had nothing but rain for the past 2-3 weeks, a slugs ideal living environment.

Actually, I just learned today that slugs lay eggs that wait for ideal hatching conditions for years.  They finally hatch when we get weather like this in the spring! Amazing, yet, not so good for the customer (or the grower) looking for the ‘perfect’ cabbage.  Growing high quality, ecologically grown food is tough, I hope none of you will be too critical of my food.  In fact, my friend (and land loaner) Margot, today mentioned that a truly ‘organic’ (or whatever you want to call it) vegetable is marked by its blemishes, holey leaves, and imperfections; it is how you can distinguish it apart from those who use chemicals.  I’ll even go as far as to say that is a good qualifier for ourselves and our communities… if we all start looking, acting, and living in communities that appear to have little character, diversity, and excitement, then a red flag should go off… plus it wouldn’t be as much fun, or as challenging!

Another exciting part of the season so far has been the help! We had a really successful fence raising day, and have since had many friends come up to volunteer some hours in exchange for experience, friendship and being outside! Thanks to all of you who have helped so far and who will be continuing to come out and play!

Finally, I am extremely gratful to those who are participating in the “Super-Duper-Small CSA”. 6 friends helped get this farm up and running by paying a little money to the farm over the winter.  After working as an apprentice for two seasons, I haven’t really been able to save any money (and hardly pay rent and bills) so having some folks who could spare some change (between $100 and 200) literally made the farm possible. So, with the S-D-S CSA, the members now have that same amount of money that they contibuted as a credit to use at the Back to the Earth Farm stand at the Farmer’s Market.  We’ll see how it goes, and hopefully I’ll have enough food for everyone!

collards

collards and kale

Spring Brassicas

Broccoli

beets

the cover crop… my biggest weed!!!

pallet+shoe sole+wine bottle+nails= gate

Back to the Earth Farm!!!