Dirt, Delays and Danger

Reed and I recently did a pilgrimage to North Dakota State University for a college visit. It is the time of the year to be making the final visits and decisions on colleges. We were very impressed with the program and what we learned.

Even though it was kinda the off season we still ran into the ubiquitous road construction.

Kinda reminded me of spring on the farm in the following ways...

Farming is Work That Matters

I was at the MOSES organic farming conference at the end of February. Several of the classes that I went to were out standing, real life changing stuff. I sent the teachers a note and told them they did a nice job and should be very proud of doing "Work that Matters".

Most organic farmers are doing "Work that Matters" too and here is why.

Soil 300: Burned Out

When I was in high school when someone was called a burn out it typically involved illegal drugs that are now being promoted for medicinal purposes. When I was in college being burned out was the fatigue after finals when you hadn't slept much for a week. When I was 30 years old being burned out typically meant you were over doing work, church or farming, because you were a workahololic.  When I was 35 burned out could be applied to burning down the rainforest and the depleted soils that resulted 3 to 4 years later. When I was 40 burned out might be applied to a person who maxed out their credit. Do you see a trend here. None of these connotations is positive.

 I submit there is another definition of burned out today that makes sense in agriculture.

Ashes to Ashes

The phrase "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" is often used in funerals but doesn't appear in the Bible. It comes from the funeral service in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. It is based on Genesis 3:19, Genesis 18:27, Job 30:19 and Ecclesiastes 3:20. Those reference all say we are made from and return to dust. The Bible uses the word dust for the elements of the earth.

When a body decays what is left is compost and minerals. Not trying to be morbid here, those are just the facts.

How do these minerals and other nutrients get into our bodies in the first place. I'll bet you are way ahead of me here. They come from the foods we eat.

Did you know when the cell utilizes nutrients there is an ash formed from the metabolism of the nutrient. Nutritionists talk about some food being alkaline and others being acidic. It is this ash that they are talking about. So when they say limes are alkaline even tho they taste very tart and acidic, it is the ash that is alkaline. I'm getting off track a little here as I wanted to talk about soil.

Soils are formed from the weathered minerals, pyrogenic minerals, and organic matter. Let's dig a little deeper...

When a Student Is Ready the Teacher Will Appear.

I like to eat Chinese food, mostly for the vegetables. Occasionally I get a good fortune cookie with my meal. I have found you can increase your chances of getting a good one by taking two and then keeping the best one!

I have a whole collection of reasonably good ones in my office. I put them in a large cup. When we are having a boring meeting I pass them around and every one takes one. Kinda breaks up the monotony.

The title of this post is one of the best, "cookie proverbs". It says, "When a Student is Ready the Teacher Will Appear."  I have seen the reality of this many times, for example...

How to Pick the Best Garden Vegetable Seeds

One of the rituals of spring is picking out seeds for the garden. Until you have some experiencing it is always a challenge to pick the best varieties and seed. 

Here are a few tips...

Why Stop With Organic

The Federal Organic Standards have encouraged agriculture in some positive directions. At a minimum it gets the chemicals and GMOs out of the system and that is a very positive step in the right direction.

But why do we want to stop with just the minimum requirement?

On our farm we have gone beyond organic.

What does this mean?

How to Plant Organic Carrots

How to plant carrots. We have the most awesome carrots from June to January. The key to an excellent supply of carrots is to plant carrots regularly throughout the season. I like to plant Early Nantes carrots because they are, well, early and we like the size and sweetness. They also do well in cool weather both spring and fall.

My favorite planting method is to use organic pelleted seed and an Earthway seeder with the carrot plate. This is the fastest and most accurate way to plant. You can also use unpelleted seed and the lettuce plate. This plants a heavier population but that just means you will need to leave the carrots in the ground a few more weeks to size up if the population is heavy. You can also plant either type of seed by hand.

I like to put  down a two inch thick strip of finished compost about 6 inches wide that we plant the carrots into about 1/2 inch deep. You can usually get by with two rows side by side about 3 inches apart.

Carrots are light feeders and I don't use any fertilizer other than the compost. If you use too much nitrogen the carrots get hairy. If you want to fertilize with something use kelp meal. The minerals make for scrumptious carrots and build the soil. If you have good compost you get good minerals and a weed free layer.

Carrots can take up to three weeks to emerge from the soil. For the earliest planting, I usually overseed with a light seeding of radishes. This helps protect the carrots and mark the row. The radishes are ready to pick about the time the carrots are coming up. So you get a two for one crop.

There is another approach to planting carrots that I have never used. It is call the "stale bed" method.  You till the bed shallowly several times about 5 days apart to reduce the weed population. Then plant the carrots. Just before the carrots emerge (about 7 days) you use a flame weeder to burn off any tiny weeds that are growing. The carrots then have a head start and you should be able to get by with only a light weeding a couple of weeks later. Carrot emergence is somewhat dependent on the soil temperature, so this method works the best in the summer when the soil temperature is warm.

Delicious crunchy carrots are the hallmark of the summer and fall garden.

Lisa was at Fareway in April buying some organic carrots and the lady at the register asked her if we were the family who grew the amazing carrots at the farmers market. She said they had bought a bag of carrots and ate half of them just getting to the car. That is pretty typical.

Come see us at the farmers market for the best carrots in Rochester.