Spring Update!

Here it is!  Spring is upon us and we couldn't be more thrilled.  Now to get on with the business of planting, growing and nurturing our little corner of the world.

A lot has been happening on the farm.  We have been cleaning, shining, pressure washing, trimming trees, painting and tidying up the place. It is the farm version of spring cleaning!

We have also added:

--A new garden shed.  It was sorely needed to store our ever increasing number of tools and supplies.

--A new greenhouse.  Our old one was certainly temporary, and was blown over in a gust of wind last fall.  We attempted to erect a new one earlier in March, but it was of very low quality and it collapsed within days.  So, we upgraded to a more permanent structure, and it is fabulous!  It is currently filled with seedling flats and all of our seedlings will be growing like crazy over the next few months.

--A new "farm store" shed.  It is yet to be erected, but we can't wait to get everything set up.  This will be located near the house on the driveway.  We will be installing refrigerated storage, shelves and baskets and stocking it with everything that we produce, as well as partnering with other local farms and artisans to include their items as they are available.

As always in spring when the weather starts to turn nice, we get anxious to get our hands in the dirt and start planting!  And as always it seems that Mother Nature has other ideas.  Our lovely patches of radish and arugula were wiped out in the recent freeze.  Fortunately those are crops that grow quickly. We will just replant and go about our business.  The garlic, onions and strawberries were unaffected, so there are blessings to count.

Jasmine, the mini farmer, is really doing well learning the ropes in the greenhouse and gardens.  She is also a great chicken wrangler!  

We had our first farm event on March 21st.  It was great meeting new folks, and reconnecting with old friends!  We will have another event in April, and will be announcing the date very soon.  This will be a seed swap/plant sale, and we will also have activities for children as we have in the past.  

We hope to see you all soon!

Announcing our First CSA Season

     I've been asked many times if I would be interested in selling our veggies via a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model.  In a traditional CSA, customers pay up front for a weekly share of the farms' output - often with no real say in what is included in the weekly box.  The farmer, in return, gets to defray many production expenses upfront.  Both take a risk however...the customers put a lot of trust in the farmer and risk getting less than what they expected, and the farmer's risks are the same as they've always been--too much rain, not enough rain, crop failure, pestilence...and in the case of a CSA farmer...possibly unhappy and disappointed customers.

   After weighing all the pros and cons of the various ways to sell our products, we have settled on a hybrid type of CSA --one that has an upside for both the customer and the farmer.  We are going to start selling our produce using a "buy-down" type of CSA.  Here's how it works, and why we are excited for what this year brings!

     When signing up for our CSA, customers will decide how much they want to spend, and what they spend it on.  There are 3 different funding levels -- $25, $50, and $100.  When joining and paying for a "share", an account will be credited that amount, plus 10%.  For example if paying $50, the initial account balance will be $55.  We are going to be using a website hosted by Small Farm Central to manage accounts and it will provide our customers an online store to place their orders.  Customers will be able to shop online, manage or check their account balance, shop at the farm on designated days, and at the farmers market using their account.  Online order pickups will be on the farm or at the farmers market.

     Here is where the upside for the customer is....if a they do not use all of their credit by the end of September, we will refund, by request, any remaining account balance.  Any unused funds not refunded by October 1st will be put toward next years seed purchases.

     We will also have a small egg CSA.  One in the Spring, and one in the Summer, each running for 10 weeks.  Those participating in the egg CSA will also receive a 10% discount on eggs.  We are limiting the Spring season to only 5 members.  Once we get an idea of how our egg production is going, we may increase this in the summer.  We don't want to over commit the ladies to more than they can produce!

     Here is some of the produce that you can expect from us this year:

Spring:  Sugar snap peas (my favorite!), radishes, lettuces, cabbage, spinach, swiss chard, cilantro, arugula, green garlic, scallions, and a spicy spring salad mix.

Summer:  Tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, beans (many many types!), herbs, strawberries, sweet potatoes, peppers--hot and sweet varieties, summer squash, onions, garlic and shallots.

Plants:  Seedlings such as tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and companion plants for your home garden.

We will also have farm crafts for sale:  hand made planters, potted herbs and flowers, and hand sewn items.

Anyone interested in joining our CSA this year will need to either keep an eye on our Facebook page for announcements, or join our mailing list by clicking our logo on the right side of the blog main page.  We have 4 spots left in our egg CSA for spring, and we expect to begin selling our farm shares for produce by mid-March, with spring harvesting beginning in early to mid-April.  Seedlings, companion plants, and herb plants will be available beginning in mid April until July.

As a farm that is new to selling in this manner, we are hoping that folks will take a leap of faith with us and reap the rewards of a wonderful, productive and fun harvest.

Spring Veggies - Part One - "Green Garlic - You Won't Regret It!"

One of the new crops we will be growing this year is green garlic.  It is also known as spring garlic or baby garlic.  It is simply immature garlic, picked before it has a chance to divide into the multiple cloves that mature garlic forms.

Growing green garlic, or just garlic in general, is incredibly easy and something anyone can do at home, either in the garden, or in containers.  We plant garlic with a number of our garden veggies, as well as have dedicated space to grow as much as we can!  It is relatively pest free, and when planted as a companion it assists in repelling garden pests such as aphids and accumulates sulfur which is a naturally occurring fungicide that helps protect your plants from diseases.

You use green garlic just as as you would scallions, leeks, or regular garlic.  It is stronger in flavor than a scallion, but not as strong as mature garlic.  The tender parts of the plant can be chopped or sliced, and the remaining tougher leaves can be saved for making vegetable stock.

We plant garlic in the fall for a mature garlic crop in mid-summer.  We will plant garlic in the spring, in staggered plantings for green garlic harvests from May until late summer.  

Last garlic harvest--They were HUGE!

Garlic in the garden

A New Way of Doing Business

Here at Suburban Fresh Farm, most days I run a one woman operation.  What some don't know is that I do this in addition to a full time job AND another small business that I run....So my time is the most valuable resource that I have.  I started looking at what takes up the most of my time here on the farm and how I can improve efficiency and be more effective.

I strive to take as much of the labor out of my operation as I can.  The chickens are set up so that they only need feed/water once every 3 days.  I spend perhaps 15 minutes per day cleaning out nesting boxes, letting them in and out of the coops in the morning and evening, and gathering eggs.  I do get some help from the mini-farmer on these chores.  Mission accomplished...small time investment, big payoff. I, and my customers, get the freshest eggs we can possibly get.

Raised beds--built on an old tennis court

Last year I expanded the garden significantly -- from 21 raised beds to over 50.  It was very ambitious.  What I found was that every morning I was watering something...by hand.  It was a huge time sink, and I knew I could improve on that system!  This spring I am working on installing irrigation for all of my raised beds.  It will save time this year on watering, as well as reduce the amount of water that we use by directing this resource exactly where it is needed.  It is an investment of capital and time upfront, but this is one of the most important improvements I can make here on the farm this year.

Know your farmer :)

The next most time consuming activity is....the farmers market!  Between packing everything up safely, loading, unloading, marketing, making signage.....all of this IN ADDITION to growing food and plants--it is hectic, time consuming,  and takes me away from the farm and farm activities for an entire day of the week.  This is time that I just cannot spare.

I have decided that we will participate in ONE farmers market per month.  This is so that we can maintain a public presence, build our customer base and get out and mingle with folks.  I really do enjoy that aspect of the farmers markets.  This will free me up to do what I love to do best...tend to my garden and farm an extra three days per month!!

So how will you be able to get our fresh veggies, herbs, and plants you ask?  Well, we are blessed with a fantastic location right here in suburbia.  We are going to set up a farm store and between Facebook and our mailing list we can hopefully drive folks to the farm to buy our products.  It won't be limited to any day of the week.  As an added bonus, selling directly off the farm allows us to increase our offerings!  We can sell preserves, dried herbs, pet treats, baked goods...all created here!

You will be able to buy our products on YOUR schedule.  No more waiting until Saturday morning to stock up on goodies.

We will have more details for everyone as this model evolves.  We will have several different payment options and special events for customers.

I LOVE what I do, and this will give me more time to do it!  I am very excited for this year and what it brings!

Restoring our spirits in Winter

Early last spring I visited Moss Hill Farm with a group of fellow farmers.  Floyd Keisler grows using biodynamic principles.  It was an amazing experience and I left with severe soil envy and some great ideas.  While there we learned about some of the basics of biodynamics and what stood out to me the most was when he spoke about the lunar and solar rhythms of the earth.  He said that the earth breathes...it breathes in (gathers energy) in the winter, and breathes out (expends energy) in the summer.  (A great visual here.)

Winter is really the most important season for gardening.  Not because we are busy but because it gives us a chance to rest, breathe in, and gather our energy for the next growing season.  It gives us a chance to reflect upon last seasons' garden and review what worked and what didn't.  It gives our soil a chance to recover, break down organic matter and prepare for the exhalation of energy in the summer.

So, in reflection, I have a few things to share about 2014...some victories, and some failures, and some circumstances that I just had to accept.

Around the beginning of January this year, I stepped on the scale and registered the heaviest weight of my life.  I had been on a 6 month sugar binge...cookies, cake, ice cream, candy, ice cream...did I mention ice cream?  I even had a box of sweets under the passenger seat of my car.  Just seeing that in print is embarrassing.  Here I was, a gardener, grower of organic, chemical free goodness, and I was killing myself with processed sugary foods.  I nearly wrecked my car reaching under the seat for one of my sweet treats.   I vowed then and there to eat healthier.  I hate the word "diet", so I just decided to eat good food and see what happened.  If I didn't lose weight, at least I would be eating nutrient dense foods and that can't be bad, right?

I started by cutting out sugar.  I didn't allow myself to eat sweets at all.  I stocked up on fruit, nuts, and oatmeal.  I brought my lunches to my day job to avoid the fast food trap, and I cut out all carbonated and/or sweetened drinks.  I began using local raw honey in my coffee.  I ate delicious and nutritious food from my garden.  And, slowly but surely, the weight began to melt away.

In March I hosted a work day on the farm.  A fantastic group of great people showed up and really worked...cleaning the stable, filling our raised beds with soil, turning compost piles, and gathering horse manure from the pasture.  I was humbled and grateful for their help.  In just one day they accomplished what would have taken a month by myself.  At the time, I was having some pain in my left shoulder when I would shovel or carry heavy objects.  Of course I ignored it because I had a lot of work to do!  This turned out to be a mistake.  You see, I didn't rest over the winter.  I spent it building more raised beds, moving soil, etc.  It finally got to the point around mid-summer that I couldn't raise my arm over my shoulder.  Thus ended my gardening season.  Here I had put all my efforts into this being my best season ever, and I was forced to rest.  I also let pride get the best of me and didn't ask for help.  It was, and is, very disappointing but now I am pain free and my injury did not get the best of me, it only delayed my plans a little.  I still have the results of all the hard labor -- 52 raised beds full of fantastic soil that will only get better each year.

So while I didn't accomplish everything that I wanted to this year, I did learn a lot and will apply those lessons to next years garden.  Even though I can't wait to get my hands dirty in the spring, I'm going to take the winter months to breathe in, rest, and be ready to dive in next year refreshed and ready!

Time for starting plants!!

In addition to providing yummy vegetables and herbs from our garden, we also sell flower, herb and tomato plants.  All plants will be in 4” or 5“ pots planted with our own all natural potting mix. Most will be available in early to mid April. If you see something you want, shoot us an email or message  and we will make sure it is available for you.  We will be at the Woodstock Farmers Market beginning May 3 and we will also have all of these for sale on the Marietta Locally Grown site.  They can be picked up at East West Farm on market days.

Flowers:   ($3 each) All of our flowers are pollinator-friendly.  We use the same natural methods to grow our flowers as we do our vegetables.  We specialize in edible flowers, companion plants and flowers that attract and benefit pollinators. 

Nasturtium  - Empress of India—beautiful trailing plant with bright red edible flowers.   The leaves and flowers of nasturtium are edible, and have a tangy radish-like flavor.  It is also useful as a companion plant for tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and squash as a deterrent to squash bugs, beetles and aphids.

Marigold – Giant Orange and Red Marietta – Giant Orange variety can grow over 3ft tall, with huge 3” blooms.  Great as a cut flower, edible flower, and companion plant.  Red Marietta grows 12-18” tall with bright red and gold 2” flowers.  Deters nematodes and beetles.

Borage -- Borage has bright blue flowers and leaves with the flavor of cucumbers. It is consider an herb, but is often grown as a flower.  It attracts pollinators and is considered a good companion plant for tomatoes, squash and strawberries as a deterrent to worms.   It is said to improve the flavor of tomatoes.

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea) – Beautiful perennial wildflower, known both for its’ beauty, but also for medicinal qualities. 

Herbs:  ($4 each) Each year we try to grow both popular herbs such as basil and dill, as well as a few that are not as common.  If you haven’t had herbs fresh from the garden, you are missing a real treat! 

Basil – Superbo – Genovese variety, great for pesto.  Is said to repel flies and mosquitoes and improves the flavor of tomatoes.

Dill – Fernleaf – Delicate ferny leaves look beautiful in the garden, and taste great in the kitchen!  Also try it as a companion plant for the cabbage family.

Cilantro – Calypso – Another very popular herb.  Best grown in spring and fall.  Useful in salsas and anywhere you want a little extra kick! The Calypso variety is slower to bolt than most others, making it a good variety to grow here where our Spring can be cut short by HEAT.

Stevia, German Thyme, Lemongrass, Spilanthes (Toothache Plant) – We will offer these herbs on a limited basis as they are sometimes difficult to grow from seed, or our seed quantities are limited. 

Tomatoes:  ($5 each) We expand our offering of tomato varieties every year, and this year is no exception!  We love, LOVE tomatoes.

Cherry Tomato – Yellow Pear, Washington Cherry, Red Cherry

Roma type – San Marzano

Hybrid – Better Boy (world record holder for yielding 352lbs of tomatoes from a single plant!)

Heirloom – German Pink (Slow Food Ark of Taste), Persimmon, Beefsteak, Striped German, Cherokee Purple, Hillbilly, Arkansas Traveler

What is "Organic Gardening"?

What is organic gardening?  It seems like an innocuous question, but the answer is really more complicated than most people think.

Here is one definition I found: 

Organic gardening rejects the use of all artificial agricultural chemicals, including pesticides 

used to control insects, diseases and weeds. Organic gardeners differ concerning which, if any, 

naturally derived pesticides are permissible and when and how they may be used. 

Most organic gardeners consider soils to be a living system and reject artificial chemical 

fertilizers as harmful to the soil and the environment. Organic gardeners emphasize building soil 

organic matter and then rely on natural sources of supplemental nutrients. Many people garden 

organically because of concern over pesticide residues on food. 

The alternative is "conventional" gardening.  

I guess my point is this:  Organic gardening IS conventional!  It is the original form of gardening used for eons and eons before the advent of petroleum based, "conventional" fertilizers, pesticides and a host of other chemically derived interventions.

Soil IS a living system.  There is an entire world of nematodes, fungi, bacteria, and insects that we never see; living organisms that create a food chain (known as the soil food web) that releases nutrients and gives plants what they need to grow strong, healthy and productive. It isn't just "building soil organic matter".  Soil is not an inert growing medium. Soil is literally pulsing with life.  

To douse my soil with pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides would be counterproductive and, to me, unethical.  I nurture my soil and my plants and in turn, I am nurtured.  What could be more organic than that?