We are hosting Practical Farmers of Iowa field day – July 21

You are invited to visit Patchwork Green--we are hosting a Practical Farmers of Iowa field day – July 21. The event, “Alternative Takes on Vegetable CSA Marketing,” is free to attend and will include snacks and drinks. RSVPs are requested; please reply to Lauren Zastrow at lauren@practicalfarmers.org or (515) 232-5661 by Thursday, July 18.

“There is no single CSA model anymore; it’s important for people to see that,” says Erik, who started farming in the area with Sara in 1999. “We’ll be presenting CSA models from three farms in this area to give CSA farmers and supporters different ways of looking at how CSAs can be successful.”

Attendees will get to tour the farm and participate in an informal roundtable discussion focused on different CSA marketing models, methods and communication issues. The discussion will feature speakers Meghan Spees and Anne Bohl of Sweet Earth Farm and Ann Bushman of Annie’s Gardens and Greens. Additional topics will include high tunnel production; marketing fresh, local produce; quality of life for vegetable farmers; and equipment and machinery for a small-scale farm.

“The goal is to bring folks together who are looking to expand or change their models to capture greater profits or improve the farmers’ quality of life,” Erik says. “Bringing in other CSA farmers’ experiences is a great way to generate a lively discussion.”

Learn more at http://www.practicalfarmers.org/assets/files/news/article_13july10.pdf

A visit in July

Cousins were in town over the 4th so we did a quick showing of the goats working on restoring the prairie and the hoop house. We didn't get up into the garden so no pictures of that this time.

Enjoy....

Early July market busy and hot

Sara at Market

 Kohlrabi samples!

The big sign at market!

Where’s the produce?!

We have been planting, transplanting, weeding, trellising and protecting all manner of wonderful vegetable plants through week after week of cool, wet weather.  Most of the crops are looking OK, though many don’t seem to have grown an inch in the past month!  Apparently, plants need sunlight. 

The forecast for the upcoming week looks more promising: 80 degrees (and rain, of course) with a few days of sunshine.  I expect the crops will take off.  It’s about time!

Our new labor-saving technology this year is an EcoWeeder cultivator, made in Canada and imported by Windridge Implement here in Decorah.  It is pulled by and powered by the tractor.  The operator controls two basket weeders that spin small weeds out the soil on either side of a crop row.  It is working best on crops like potatoes and Brussels sprouts where the tractor and cultivator drive over a single crop row.  We are still working on perfecting the row spacing to allow for mechanically cultivating two rows (the spacing we use for many of our crops).  Here are Meg and Erik cultivating young potatoes this weekend:

  

We plan to start vending at the Winneshiek Farmers Market this Wednesday, June 12.  We’ll have lots of beautiful lettuces, a few fresh herbs, asparagus and rhubarb, radishes and a few other spring treats.  We don’t expect to have large quantities of anything for a few weeks, so come down to market early for the best selection.

The sugar snap peas and summer squash are beginning to flower, and we hope to have them producing in two weeks.  Also, coming soon we’ll have beets, kohlrabi and broccoli.  Bring on the vegetables!

Your Patchwork Green Farmers, Erik and Sara

Is The Garden Planted Yet?

I try not to chuckle when we get this question.  Home gardeners often plant their entire garden in a single day in May, getting in the potatoes, green beans, lettuce, carrots and sweet corn in one fell swoop.

The Patchwork Green Farm has to operate a little differently.  Because we strive to provide a consistent supply of each type of vegetable for as long a season as possible, we spend a lot of time planning and executing successions.  I maintain and annually modify a large spreadsheet that I call my ‘planting schedule,’ otherwise known as my ‘back-up brain.’  

My planting schedule, for example, shows that the first green beans should be planted on May 13.  This is based on the fact that dark-seeded beans (including the green bean variety that I grow) germinate in cool, but not cold soil, I want to harvest beans ASAP each summer, and the old farmers’ wisdom that you can plant corn and beans when the oak leaves are the size of a mouse’s ear.  I then will plant green, yellow and purple beans every two weeks through July 17, after which time there are not enough days to mature a crop before the killing frosts of fall.  Ideally, this will ensure that we have beans available from July through September.

Each year poses its’ weather challenges that affect the timing of the successions, and I’ll modify the spreadsheet based on experience, new varieties and customer interest/demand.  No, the garden is not yet planted!  We plant from March (onions seeded in flats) through October (garlic cloves are planted), and it is one of my favorite parts of our weekly routine.

This spring, we have had to postpone early, direct-seeded crops like peas, radishes and spinach because of the cold, wet weather in April.  Transplanted crops like onions went in several weeks later than ‘usual.’  Last week, however, we got a lot of field work done, including planting all the potatoes, the last of the onions, and many flats of lettuces, kohlrabi, beets and parsley, among other crops.  With a wet start to this week, we’re hoping to get the first succession of cucumbers and summer squash transplants in the ground by Wednesday.  

We are not harvesting much this week except for asparagus and rhubarb, but the spring greens are loving this wet, mild weather, and we hope to be harvesting lots of crops by June 1^st.  Thanks for being patient with us, as we work with the seasons!

Your Patchwork Green Farmers, Erik and Sara

Can’t wait any longer……must plant

Getting the hoop house ready for spring.

This past weekend provided ideal drying conditions: dry, breezy and sunny. We shallowly tilled a few beds of wet soil on Saturday, then came back and tilled them a bit deeper on Sunday. Once tilled, our soil quickly warms and dries out, although it was so wet that we were still transplanting into almost-mud on Monday morning.

We hedged our bets, keeping a close eye on the low temperatures forecast for later in the week. On Monday, we transplanted beets, kohlrabi, lettuces, bok choy and a few onions, and immediately covered them with floating row cover. The spun-bound rolls of row cover are supported by wire hoops. We then bury the sides with soil, and presto, a mini-greenhouse has been created over the new plants. It warms the air 10-15 degrees during the day, and 4 degrees at night. The cover also keeps flea beetles from turning the boc choi to lacework, retains moisture (not a problem
this week) and protects the tender plants from wind damage.

On Sunday morning, we also cajoled friends to help us pull the plastic top on our big 96-foot hoop house, where all the cherry tomatoes are grown. We left the house closed up tight during the early week heat wave, and the high temperature warmed the soil. Hopefully, we’ll be transplanting all the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes (and a few other varieties) in mild temp’s in the hoop house Friday, while it rains and snows and blows outside!

Waiting ……

The Patchwork Green Farm garden crew starts this week.  The calendar and past experience would have us transplanting onions and dropping seed potatoes into moist but warming soil by mid-April.  The pea seeds are usually germinating and little radish and spinach shoots are thriving under row cover.

Today, we had another inch of snow, with more rain, snow and cold weather in the forecast.  We have a backlog of transplants in our heated greenhouse, just waiting to get their roots into some ‘real dirt.’  We’re getting a little anxious and bored with the constantly cloudy weather, but there is reason to be happy.

I’m trying hard to maximize this ‘extended winter’ to get unfinished projects completed before the rush of spring planting (bunk beds for the kids, cleaning out the garage, working on the hoop houses).  I’ll have a chance to talk through our operating systems with our employees and outline our goals for the season.  After last summers’ drought, we are appreciating every inch of spring rain (and snow), knowing it will result in healthier, better-tasting vegetables for the next three months.  And when the warmer weather does arrive, everything is going to pop, from the flower buds to the bird songs to the spring planting panic mode of all the farmers!

So, in this mid-April lull, we’ll keep busy, keep a weather eye out for sunshine, and reserve our energy for the launch of the next season.

Farm Updates

Staying indoors this week, I have been catching up and working ahead on paperwork.  When June rolls around, check out our new produce signs at the market.  They are bigger and contain more detailed information we hope you find useful.  I’ve still got a few supplies to order this month, including electric fence upgrades, cover crop seed and new drip tape parts.

The exciting purchases last week included sweet potato slips (set to arrive in late May) and a snazzy new cultivator.  Look out weeds!

Word just in today that Luther College is subsidizing employee CSA memberships this year.  The first 100 employees will get ½ of their membership reimbursed (up to $100) when they sign up for a CSA by May 1^st.  There are two other farms offering subscriptions in the area in 2013 in addition to Patchwork Green Farm.  Check out Luther’s policy, and then sign up at our website, patchworkgreen.com!  This sort of wellness action is being tried by banks, colleges, hospitals and other large employers across the Midwest in an effort to encourage better employee health.  Garlic, kale and cherry tomatoes make for great preventative medicine!

Please check out our patchworkgreen.com website for our 2013 CSA details, contact us if you have questions, and send in your membership soon.  Spring will come eventually!

What Farmers Worry About

What Farmers Worry About

Onions plants grow slowly, and they need to reach a respectable size by mid-April when they are transplanted.  Once they take off in the field, the plants must reach almost their full size by the summer solstice in June, after which point they begin to form their bulbs.  The bigger and healthier the plant on June 21, the bigger the bulbs will be when we harvest them in August.  So, I stress about our onion plants in February, March and April.  If I start them too early in February, I’ll pay a lot for propane to heat the hoop house during cold months like we have just had.  If they get a later start, they may not be ready to transplant when the soil warms in April.  This year, it is both cold and cloudy, and the onions are pretty small!  Our fingers are crossed that growing conditions will improve in April.

Waiting for Spring

Waiting for Spring

With the nighttime temperatures nearly at zero, we are desperately searching for some significant signs of spring.  Here is today’s list of cabin-fever-beaters:

• Today is the equinox, and the days are noticeably longer. 

• The sun melts the snow and ice off of our solar panels much more quickly than it did a few months ago. 

• The crab apple tree in our yard that holds its fruit all winter long is this week attracting robins, deer, turkey and squirrels. 

• We think that a pair of bald eagles may be sitting on eggs in a new nest down the valley from our farm.