November 06, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Written & Published by Scott Kelland
Written at New Terra Farm
13510 County Rd 15
Merrickville ON
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That's a wrap, folks! The 2009 season has staggered to a close, some winners, some losers, but we survive to plant another day!
Stuff in this issue: (WARNING!! This is a l-o-n-g one!)
1. Opening Notes
2. 2009 in review and plans for 2010 (and watch for the IMPORTANT NOTICE in this section
3. Get a website, become rich and famous (or nearly)
4. Farm Fun - new low-ku
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Products and Promotions
This section presents stuff you should see (and maybe buy) because, well, I said so! Just kidding, as you know we only promote products and services we have personal knowledge of and really believe deliver value, and that are worth your time to check out. So, uh, do it!
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New Terra Farm Discussion Forums. Brand new, I've just added a discussion forum section to the web-site, so now you have the capability to RANT BACK at me, or share your comments, your questions and your stories with the world.
AND, I'm holding a contest for November, the best submission to the forum will win a book from New Terra Farm. Details can be found at this link.
Submit a comment and win
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CHICKENS! I've got about a twenty chickens left unsold from the new batch, available in a couple weeks. $3.75/lb, about a 5-lb average size, if you want a couple or three let me know, this is the last batch of the season.
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PORK! I've about 1/2 pig still unsold, will be available around the end of the month, can also be bought as pork boxes about 20 lbs, mixed chops, roasts, ribs, ground pork. The side sells for $4.50 /lb, should be between 60-80 lbs. Pork boxes sell for $7.50/lb.
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KITTENS! Not for the freezer, we have cute and cuddly KITTENS free to go to a loving family. The kittens are male, 3-4 months old, and have those extra toes that are so cute. Drop me a line if you want a kitten (or two) 613 269-3884
end promo **********************************************************
1. Opening Notes
Well, it was not a spectacular season for growers in Eastern Ontario in this year. You may recall that July set records for being the coldest and wettest on record. This has the effect of slowing down growth, and making the weeds and diseases`particularly hard to deal with.I even know one or two growers that are thinking about 'hanging up their hoes' i.e. giving up market gardening and just raising animals on their small farms. The challenges of the climate and the bugs and the weeds were just too much for them.
I know another grower (she has been in the business a LONG time) who is reducing her market garden by about half next year. She is going to run cover crops on the other half all season, in an effort to reduce the weed and disease pressure, and restore balance in her garden.
Rest assured WE are not giving up, we will be back next year, although we are going to dramatically change how we manage our garden, and in fact change the focus of our farm somewhat (see more about our plans later in this issue.)
As always, I want to express my gratitude for the folks who supported us this year. This has been two pretty crappy growing seasons in a row, and while this one was better than last year, we still didn't produce nearly as much as we planned. So thanks for sticking by us, we appreciate your support for us and for local food.
regards
Scott & Suzie
2. 2009 in review and plans for 2010
In wrapping up 2009 I want to start with the good news (and there was some, despite a less than stellar season). We started deliveries 2 weeks earlier than last season, and kept producing 2 weeks later. This was mostly due (he said modestly) to some improved planning on our part.You may know the saying 'good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment'! Well, 2008 was our year to learn from experience. We learned to start more 'back-up' plants; we had another planting of tomatoes, pepper, summer squash and cukes ready when the first ones were suffering from the weather and blight.
We were actually one of the few growers around with sweet peppers at all, even though the yields were not high. We spoke to several growers who lost their entire crop of sweet peppers.
The same was true of garlic; we were able to salvage about half our crop, while a couple neighbouring farmers were completely wiped out by bugs and bad weather (garlic, like onions, does not like 'wet feet').
We were able to save some garlic because we monitored it every day, and harvested it as soon as it looked threatened by the wet conditions.
Our first early planting of snap beans was a total wipe out, but we had more plantings coming along, so generally had a reasonable quantity available for delivery. The experiment of planting one variety very late (end-July) worked even better than we expected; these plants started producing beans in less than six weeks. So now we know how late in the season we can go to help stretch out the fall harvests.
The bok choys, tatsoi's and 'tall cabbage' were steady producers, because we learned we have to keep them covered at all times to keep the bugs off.
Potatoes, carrots and turnips were fairly steady, although the size remained small. We did find a couple great new varieties of turnip, and will greatly increase the plantings of these next season.
Finally, we also experimented with very late planting of some crops. These were not intended for delivery this year, but just to learn how far we could extend the season using passive protective means.
This experiment was pretty successful; in fact, it is still going. We have small plantings of carrots, turnips, spinach, and several kinds of greens still thriving in the garden under row cover. These plants survived despite several frosts. You can see a little more of this here in The New Terra Farm Winter Vegetable Garden
The purpose of the experiment was to see if it was feasible to add a 'winter share' to our home veggie delivery program. The results so far look good, and the winter share may become a reality next season.
One of our other victories was to get our movable hoop house (finally) completed and covered; it will be a great help in the spring to get new crops started.
The things that didn't work so well this year included the leeks and onions, and the herbs. Our herb planting ended up underwater, and we were never able to spare time from other garden tasks to try to resurrect another planting. We are going to dedicate some farm help specifically to the herbs next season.
The leeks and onions succumbed to a beastie called the leek moth, something me and a whole lot of other local growers never heard of before. This little bug lays eggs that hatch into a white, maggot-like creature that bores into the stem of onions and leeks and basically destroys the plant.
None of the traditional organic controls appear effective against it; in fact, farms in the U.S. are apparently being quarantined if this little bugger shows up.
In a side note, I was visiting an organic grower I know in Perth, and mentioned the leek moth to her. She went to her patch of leeks, and found they were all infected! She, like me, had never even heard of this before.
So, where does that leave us for next season? Well, I've spent a lot of time over the season and especially in the last two months visiting and talking to other growers and researching solutions to the various challenges we have been facing. Here's my findings and my (tentative) plan for next season:
- We need to increase the organic matter in our soil. Our garden is naturally quite fertile, clay-loam class-1 farmland. However, the soil is heavy and sometimes remains water-logged. I plan to increase tilth, organic matter content and micro-nutrient levels in my garden soil by cover cropping the whole garden as early in the season as possible. The garden will then be successively tilled and planted with crops as required.
- We need to improve pollination. We noticed distinctly fewer bees in our garden this year, whether due to the wet weather or for other unknown reasons. This affected yield of flowering plants e.g. tomatoes. So we will be establishing a couple hives of honey bees to help out. The bees will also benefit from the cover crop we plan, probably flowering clover, and the honey is potentially another cash crop.
- We need to manage pests better. You may recall we did a survey about using pest controls in our garden. Most people who responded did not want their food sprayed with ANY type of pesticide, even the 'organic' ones. As a result, the only thing we used in the garden to control pests (besides hand-picking and row cover)was a spray of dish soap and water (non-toxic to animals, birds, and fish). This was partly effective on some pests; the soap spray has to actually make contact with the bug to be effective. But it would probably have no effect on pests like the leek moth. So, after some research, we are planning on trying predator insects to help control pests. We will leave a couple 'wild' areas in the garden, and release the predators in time for them to establish themselves; hopefully they will keep the bad guys under control.
- We are going to more closely integrate animal and garden production. I plan to rotate the pigs and meat birds around the garden area, utilizing the areas that are cover-cropped for animal grazing and maximizing use of the space. The pigs and chickens will help prepare the ground for planting, and should also help out with bug control.
What's the impact of all that on our customers? Bottom line, we are reducing the growing area in the garden next year, and therefore will be able to serve fewer families (i.e. fewer shares).
This is the IMPORTANT NOTICE: if you are planning on returning as a customer, please let us know as soon as possible. First come, first served, with preference to returning customers.
This is a temporary reduction; we hope to expand again in the following seasons, as we learn how to manage the interaction of animals, cover crops, cash crops, and helper insects.
This also means a (hopefully temporary) reduction in income for us too; however, we believe this transition is necessary given the increasing tough growing conditions we and all organic growers are facing.
We are choosing to face this as a learning opportunity, and in fact plan to use the whole garden season next year as a learning tool for us and perhaps a couple interns who want to learn the business 'from the ground up', so to speak.
We are contemplating finding a couple people (perhaps actually a real couple) who are interested in making a living on a small farm, and in exchange for their help, teaching them what we know about the game.
I also have plans to record and perhaps blog much of the goings-on next season. This leads me back to a point I mentioned earlier, a change of focus for New Terra Farm.
I've always believed the country needs more small local growers; and I'm delighted that people who have worked for us have gone on to start their own Bootstrap Gardens. In fact a large part of my motivation for establishing the website, writing books about farming and gardening (3 so far), disseminating articles and sending out this newsletter is to inform and inspire other people into considering this business too.
So, what's the change in focus? Just that, from this point forward, New Terra Farm will explicitly focus on growing farmers as well as food.
This means we will be exploring more ways to communicate the need and the practical steps necessary to grow more growers (the blog mentioned above is one way).
Lest you think me too altruistic, understand that I expect to get paid for communicating my knowledge (directly or indirectly). My educational efforts have to be self-financing, just like the rest of my obsessions!
The exact plans to do that are still under way (I know of about 12 possible monitization models) but we will definitely begin the process of creating New Terra Farm University next season. In fact my current garden will become a one-acre 'mini-farm', incorporating sustainable animal and cash crop production, passive solar techniques, biological controls, and intensive planting (someone call David Suzuki!)
That's it for the plans so far, as I say I expect the reduction is temporary. Let me know if you wanna be a part of it next year.
3. Get a website, become rich and famous (or nearly)
The other thing I believe in (besides the need for more organic food and more growers) is the power that new Internet technologies give to ordinary people. It's true there's a lot of hype (my headline above is a bit of a spoof about that), but there is still a lot of truth to the idea that you can make a living by means of a web-site of your own.You know my reasons for starting the New Terra Farm website (many are mentioned above). What you may not realize is that I'm NOT SPECIAL in being able to start up a website, have an e-newsletter automatically delivered to my 'list', sell books over the Internet, or deliver a course by 'auto-responder'. ANYBODY, regardless of background or technical knowledge can do the same thing. I know of several that have, with far greater results than I have achieved so far.
The technology is now so good, the tools so helpful, that literally anyone can create a site and use that site to support their existing business, or to create multiple streams of income all on its own.
I passionately believe in the power of Internet technology rightly applied to yield tremendous benefit to its users. If you want to learn more about creating a second income, or making money while working from home on something you love or are passionate about, check out How we Grew a Web-Site
4. Farm Fun - New low-ku
I'm proud of this one . . .
D-minus
animal testing
very bad. Mine always get
answers wrong anyway!
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