Life on the Farm

Turn, Turn, Turn...

2011-11-26T13:45:00.001-06:00

So the holiday season is upon us, already. That means the cold weather is coming - today in fact, as I type, we are watching it drop from 64F to 32F before sunup tomorrow! It's ok, as Farmer Wendy reminded me a few weeks ago when I was whining about losing my winter squash plants to an unpredicted freeze, "everything has its season." I know she is right, but it is still so hard to watch plants that I've nurtured along for months succumb to the cold. If only I had a huge greenhouse, I could.... never mind. She's right, who wants to eat okra and winter squash all year long anyway?

Eating in season is part of what makes a CSA fun, interesting and probably more healthy. There are plenty of writings on the importance of "eating your greens" in the winter, fresh fruits in the summer and so on. We're so spoiled by supermarket availability, we often forget when things are supposed to be in, or out, of season. (Although, one bite into a hydroponically raised tomato will quickly remind you - January is NOT tomato season in Dallas.)

Our animals on the farm have a season, too. As recently as this past Wednesday, our beloved Snowball's season ended. Now for some of you hard-core farmers, this may not be as big a deal as I am making it out to be as a former city dweller who still makes pets of just about any animal that comes my way. But, Snowball was not just another rooster around here. He was everyone's rooster. The kids who came to the farm to visit looked for him, pet him, fed and even got to hold him. He came on field trips with me to teach school children, and even made an office visit or two! I had no idea how many people were afraid of chickens and roosters and it was nice to watch these folks learn that not all fowl, are foul. So far, we've always had friendly fowl at Eden's. The only exception was an old Tom turkey - I understand they can get ornery as they age, and Tom Tom was known to nibble on your shorts - or leg! But never have we had the cases of roosters chasing people down or spurring them. Other than Snowball, there weren't any roosters that stuck around unless you had food for them.

Anyway, last week Friday, one of our CSA members witnessed feathers flying in the chicken coop area and heard a commotion. As he approached, he saw Snowball in a fight for his life with what was described as "the biggest house cat I have ever seen!" He hissed at the cat and it fled, up over the fence - front paws at the top of the 6' fence, and tail touching the ground....that's a pretty darn big house cat!

He described its coloring and features. This was no ordinary house cat. But what Bobcat has a long tail? And a mountain lion would have a solid colored coat, right? Did we have a mystery animal on our hands?
There was even talk for awhile that it was a Jaguarundi, a somewhat rare and Federally protected animal native many hundreds of miles south of here. With the drought and scarce food, many predators are moving out of their normal habitats, so who knew what we were up against? We never did find out even though I saw a cat-like creature creeping through the grass the next morning, I couldn't get a good look at it - or a good shot. I've since mowed down all of the tall grass and hopefully upset its hiding places. Eliminating habitat and food sources are the best way to control unwanted wildlife. I learned disposing of one, via lead poisoning, only creates a void for another one to come in. You have to get to the root of the problem, whatever is feeding on your livestock.

All I knew at the moment, was that Snowball was bleeding and the girls were upset. We quickly ushered everyone into coops and I took my injured rooster to the house for some first aid. Initially it didn't seem like a very bad wound. I was quite hopeful he'd be just fine. After all, this was Snowball - he'd managed to escape the jaws of pit bulls!

Sadly though, as the days drew on, Snowball developed pneumonia, apparently the puncture wound introduced something to his system because his skin was not infected externally. And, he may have had something inside punctured or ruptured, as the jaws of this nearly 20lb, 6' toe to tail creature tried to ring his neck. Fans of Snowball rallied to raise funds to help with the vet bill, not something we usually have around here for our chickens, and have sent condolences in his passing.

Snowball will surely be missed and it will take awhile to fill his talons. Not all roosters will sit so patiently while 100 3rd graders touch their beak, waddles and cone, squeal when he eats out of their hand and bump into him as others from behind push to get closer to see him. No, Snowball had more patience than I sometimes do. And funny thing is, he was a "stray". Early one spring, about March I guess it was, I noticed this pretty, young, white rooster wandering around with my flock. "Where'd you come from?" He'd make a trek back and forth to the nearby apartment complex daily, so I figured someone got a "cute chicken" for Christmas, and it turned out to be a rooster.... when will we learn not to buy kids baby animals for gifts? That's another subject I guess.

He was quickly accepted by the others here on the farm though, I suspect because he was so young as normally a strange rooster would quickly be chased off the property by the veteran residents. And little by little, he began roosting with our flock in the barns. He was pretty tame, coming when I would call to him and offer feed from my hand. He was a natural for my educational program. And, since Chipper had recently come up missing, Snowball was now the head rooster in charge of this job.

What we've learned since losing Snowball, along with 2 other roosters, our last guinea and a hen - all in the last week - is that we need to seriously figure out a way to better protect our flocks from what appear to be predators that are sticking around. Premiere One has an electrified fencing set up we have a $250 pledge towards the purchase of. This, in addition to some LGD, 2 Great Pyrenese, should significantly reduce our exposure.

One of our CSA member's, a couple from the Rowlett area, have decided that the farm needs better protection in the way of a pair of LGD. If you're unfamiliar with them, I'll have more soon in another post, specifically about these dogs and their role on a farm. I'm excited to be getting them, and ever so grateful to my CSA family for pledging to support them. Vet bills can get very expensive - not to mention feeding two dogs that will probably outweigh me! I can eat vegetables for a long time and not care, they probably won't be as happy if that's all their diet consisted of.

So, it is with sadness I bid farewell to my buddy Snowball, the one red-eyed and one yellow-eyed, people friendly rooster, and with anticipation I await the arrival of 2 rescue GP dogs, to be described soon.

One season ends - and soon another will begin. Turn, turn, turn.

MarieEat Your Food - Naturally!

A Day In the Life...On the Farm

2011-10-27T09:20:00.001-05:00

I'm frequently asked, "What is your typical day like?" Well, typically, they are not typical.

I mean, more times than not, something seems to come up that changes what I had originally planned, at least temporarily, until something unexpected is cleaned up, picked up, fixed or captured..... So maybe the better question would be, what do you normally plan for each day? Here is an entry I started during the triple digit temp summer we (barely) made it through this year....

I don't generally use an alarm clock anymore, a welcome change to my life as I always hated being uprooted by some loud buzzing or ringing noise, (and no, the roosters are far enough out back that they don't generally wake me up at 4AM, either - I create a bit of a misconception about all farmers being up before the crack of dawn I guess), but somehow I do manage to awaken by 6, at the latest, and usually earlier - especially if the sun is coming up on a clear, summer morning. I do generally see the sunrise if I look out the back window. In the winter, that time is sometimes later due to the shorter days, but I have a hard time sleeping much past 6:30. My internal clock is apparently pre-set.

Depending on how hungry I am myself, sometimes I feed the animals first, and come back in while they are eating to make something for me. But always, the inside cats have to eat first or no one gets any peace. If you have ever been owned by a cat, you'll understand.

Stormy - making sure the little chicks are "safe".....

After all of the big critters are eating, and assuming none have become feed themselves, or victims of a stray dog overnight, the chickens are let out of their coop and any youngin's taken out of their crates and I do a quick cleaning of my horse's stall. If it's been awhile since "stripping" it, sometimes I'll take longer and loosen up some of the old, compressed bedding/manure/urine. But ideally, it is just the loose manure from the night before. This then goes into a pile to be composted.

This is part of my "closed-loop" program; using what's available on the farm, for the farm.

I check the plants in the greenhouse on my way in or out from feeding the critters and water seedlings as needed. (Here is another place something can go wrong - a stray chicken or nocturnal critter knocking over trays; fire ants eating seedlings; winds blowing the shade cloth to smithereens....you name it. But that's right, we're going with a "normally planned" day, right?)

So now that I'm fed, the critters are fed and cleaned up after and the greenhouse is all set for the morning, it's off I go to the gardens....where anything goes!

50'x100' Shade Cloth Up in a 20' Tree - the Garden Gnomes Had a Party?

Out there I do a visual check to make sure there haven't been any overnight catastrophes. You know, stray dogs running through drip lines, rabbits eating seedlings, wild hogs knocking over bee hives, rats or whatever chewing through drip tapes - well, this one doesn't usually rear its ugly head till I start to irrigate and see a fountain or flood emerge at the end of one of the rows.

I keep a garden journal, (which could probably become a comedy/drama novel one day), and try to remember to record a little something each day about the farm and what I observe, or want to remember next year.

I walk up and down each row and make written or mental notes about what I've found/see, need to do, should have done, etc. (The written notes are recorded much better than the mental ones - because the memory fades as each new thing pushes the oldest one out.) I look for new seedlings, things to harvest, insects or their damage, check the soil for moisture, especially in seedlings' rows, and determine if irrigation is needed. That's when the fun really starts. LOL

2/3 of the pond disappeared leaving about 12" of sludgy "water".

Of course there is starting the pump - well, since burning out the last 2 dc (solar) powered pumps and nearly losing all of the water in the pond, I'm forced to use a gas pump now, you know, like a little weed eater engine. Oh, no, it's not that easy - the starting is fine, it's the finding water that is a challenge. Up till the week we rec'd a 2" saving Grace rain, I would start and set up the pump in the rowboat, hose over the back end, shove the boat out past a marker I'd previously placed in the water showing where the water was deep enough to draw from without picking up mostly mud from the bottom of the pond, and hope the wind didn't keep blowing the boat in too far to shore. Always an adventure!

After a little-rain but heavy wind storm came through, reclaiming the boat became the day's "before 9am" challenge...the Army's got nothing on me!

Filters need to be cleaned, tapes need to be bled of algae and other debris from the pond that sneaks past the filters and of course, the aforementioned tape nibbling. This is actually the first year Eden's has been bothered by plastic chewing creatures - but boy can they make a mess! One day, in fact, when I started to irrigate, it did look like someone had installed a new fountain at the back of the last row! Needless to say, it was not worth trying to fix all of that - so the tape had to be carefully pulled up (or, if that is too much with mature plants, it's just disconnected), and new tape laid down in its place. Good thing I had already given up on the plantings in that row and were waiting to put in something new.

Eventually, however, I managed to find a location where it looked like the water level had steadied, due to the "spring" I hoped, and tied off the boat near enough to the shore that I didn't have to wade in the pond scum to board or off-board. I scared several bullfrogs on the way around the pond where no one normally walks, but, they started getting used to me.

So, once the pump is fired up, the boat is tied up and the filters are clean - watering commences. (a little more involved than walking over to a spigot and turning it on, but I get to see wild birds, baby ducks, bullfrogs and turtles!)

Now, depending on the date/moon cycle and season I can either be planting, harvesting, weeding or preparing soil - or, on some days, a little bit of all of the above.

This summer, with the drought and heatwave, I tried to water down "hard as concrete" rows so I could till them up to get fall seeds planted. It was nuts! But, farmers do what we have to do, and if we have to make believe it is raining by dragging hose up and down the 100' rows to moisten the soil - that is what I'm doing.

The trick is not to make it muddy. Composted horse manure and amendments are then added to the sandy soil and tilled in. Irrigation lines are run again and the row is then mulched with chopped up leaves/partially composted tree trimmings, etc. When it rains, this creates a bit of a "compost tea" for the soil. It also helps keep the soil from returning to rock hard.

The days ended pretty early when the temps hit triple digits, sometimes before noon, but heatstroke is not something I'd care to experience. I've probably drank half a gallon of water by now and if I'm not hungry, I will be soon, but usually it is the heat of the blistering sun beating through my hat that drives me in.

The greenhouse is always a stop along the way again to see if anything needs another drink and shoo any chickens out. Double checking everyone has water and then by now, it's lunch time for sure.

So, that was the "typical" morning plan on those, long, hot, summer days this year. The afternoon often included a bit of a siesta, hibernating in an a/c room, and working late into the dark, often watering again, when it was relatively "cooler", at least less than 100.....

Now that fall is here, there are some mornings filled with CSA work-share friends here to help, school farm tours and classes and lately, trips to the city for screenings, Food Day and other food related events. But when the dog-days of summer are upon us, and they seemed to have lasted for 3 months this summer, this is what "Life on the Farm" is like. Not a bad life at all. Sure beats being locked up in a cubical all day - to me at least. I have said it before, this is the most rewarding, challenging, fun, interesting, etc., "job" I've ever had.
And the perks are great!

Even the volunteers and work-share members have their share of "fun"!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Hog Heaven?

2011-08-31T12:46:00.008-05:00

Along with some of the more obvious affects of the drought, such as lack of harvest, trouble starting fall crops, seedlings dying after transplanting; can come less obvious results.

Such as wild boar visiting your urban farm! YIKES!

Now we don't have any iron clad proof or photographs of the wild beasts, but we have had a spotting and pick up of one such deceased aforementioned, who came into contact with a vehicle about a mile from the farm, near the now dry river bottoms which make a nice little highway for wildlife to travel upon. So we do know they have moved into the area and have easy access to the back of the farm now - thanks in large part, to the drought.

Seems this particular guy, or gal, has a sweet tooth. The evidence they left behind was similar to the incident on down the river bottom's trail at the Trinity River Audubon Center in southeast Dallas. Knocked over honey bee boxes......

This is actually the second time I've found one of our bee boxes knocked over. There wasn't any damage to the boxes, and most of the bees survived - including the all important queen bee. But this meant another unplanned trip to the boxes by The Texas Honeybee Guild's bee keepers to upright the boxes, inspect for damages and locate the queen - to see she was in the proper box.

When temps are in the upper 90's, dressed up in a full bee suit is not the coolest attire I can think of to wear, but Brandon suited up and took care of the girls - harvesting a bit of honey in the process.
YUMMY!

It looked a little darker than the first harvest, but tasted very light and fresh.

So, all is well again in the bee world - and as for the hogs....well, I've had a few offers to take care of them for me; Bacon anyone?

We'll see about that - hopefully, it will rain soon and they will just find their way back home where they normally live - which, I don't think was originally on my farm. Until they move, or are removed, I just hope they stay at the back of the property and don't discover the gardens - that, could be another real disaster! We're having enough challenges in the gardens without them rooting around!

Farming and all its challenges...

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Good News on the Horizon

2011-07-10T12:11:00.007-05:00

Sandy Soil Temps Soar Even Under Heavy Layers of Mulch

This summer’s extreme heat continues to take an extreme toll on farmers and ranchers all over Texas. Some farms are able to cope a little better with the use of shade houses, trucking in hay, additional and different timing on plantings, and re-planting as we’re doing here at Eden’s. But I hear many stories like ours of lost crops, excessive water use, equipment breakdowns, drying out wells and selling off of livestock before they should be; in every conversation I have with or about North Texas and Central Texas farmers. It appears it’s going to be a summer for the history books.

A Silver Lining

There have been some positive things going on here at Eden’s in spite of our current season’s hiatus. We had an anonymous donor pledge $2,000 towards the securing of compost for our gardens and one of our members pledged $250 towards the purchase of a poultry netting security fencing kit.

Compost is the basis of the soil’s life – and in our beach-sand-like soil, it is going to help us to retain moisture levels and kick some biology into gear. We add horse and chicken manure to our compost piles but can’t make it nearly fast enough to cover the number of rows we need to plant to keep our place productive. This donation is a huge help!!

After our latest round with roaming dogs, it seems that setting up electrified netting in the back yard is going to be the best way to protect our girls – and Snowball. I’ve not heard back yet from the extension office regarding help with valuing our hens’ worth, but as soon as I do, I’ll send off the request for restitution from the dogs’ owner and/or pursue further action as needed. But it’s nice to know that if, in the end, justice doesn’t seem to prevail, there are people out there who appreciate the value of the eggs/food that this farm produces enough to step up and give extra when they can. I can't tell you how appreciative I am of these pledges as well as all of the hard work of our volunteers, workshare members and kind words from supporters of my work.

It really is a nice feeling to know that there are other people out there that can see the vision I have for Eden’s. I see Eden’s as much more than just a place a farmer can scratch out a living. Small farms are more dynamic than that – or they can be anyway. Especially one that is so close to a large, dynamic city such as the DFW metroplex where educated locavores are eager to improve their diets.

School Children Touring Eden's Learn About the Importance of Honeybees in the Garden

Part of what I see Eden’s doing, is implimenting programs that will help to grow the level of awareness and education among its neighbors in the metroplex. I want to reach those who may not really understand that there is a great benefit to eating more home cooked food made from real, clean and in-season local ingredients. Not just to their taste buds, but to their health, as well. Sadly, many of the problems we develop from poor eating habits form slowly over time – and unseen until it is a serious problem.

We all know, or in some cases, have lost, someone who has heart disease, diabetes, struggles with obesity, food allergies (which are often caused by processed foods laced with too many synthetic ingredients our bodies don’t recognize.) and even more serious issues that are often the result of a suppressed immune system due to lack of proper nutrition. Mood swings, learning disabilities, depression, lack of energy and slow healing from various illnesses or injuries can also be connected to our eating habits. This quest to reach out is a personal mission of mine to help those who would reach back and benefit. I realize not everyone is going to give up their 99 cent heart attack fast foods or prepare every single meal from fresh, locally grown in season foods. I'm not expecting anyone to do that - I don't even follow that strict of a way of life, though I've been called a food snob. I just try to take notice of what I put in my body so that on those occasions when I'm out with others and there isn't as healthy an option as I'd like, my body should be well enough to manage some cheesy fries from Snuffers or a bowl of ice cream or whatever your weakness might be. No one has to be perfect, but let's be healthy! Many of the top killers are caused by food and lifestyle choices - poor choices!

Eating is the basis for just about everything else in life!

Cacuzza is a Fall Harvest Favorite at Eden's

Here at Eden’s, I’m doing what I can to secure a future for farming, teaching, learning and sharing all things food and healthy in my community. Thank you to everyone who is on board with me and welcome to those who are just joining! Summer may be beating us up this year, but fall is around the corner and another season of growing is underway! Let’s be grateful for the farmers who have found ways to grow in spite of the treacherous temps, and work to secure more local sources that can do the same thing.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Summertime (or, when it rains it pours)

2011-06-27T12:02:00.010-05:00

Snowball - Still reins over his throne

It seems as if whenever something out of the ordinary happens on the farm, I remember that it's been awhile since I've updated the blog and say to myself that I need to get that done soon. Seems things have been coming down the pike so quickly lately I've not had time to put them into thoughtful words to share. After this morning's events though, I thought it was time to stop, sit down and reflect - if for no other reason that doing so helps us to heal our hurts and move on.

Last night, there were dogs growling/barking and apparently taking up residency under the floor of my barn's feed room. Thankfully, none of my boarders or any of the horses were injured or attacked - but none the less, they were unwelcome guests and I called the authorities to have them removed.

Falling short of that, citing that they were unable to reach them under the floor and apparently thinking it was better to set a trap overnight than try to lure them out and finish the job right then, I was left with a trap full of canned dog food and a wish and a prayer that this would work out as they planned.

So this morning at 6, I headed outside to enjoy the cool of the dawn air and feed my chickens, cat and horses and see how many of the stray dogs had managed to share the food in the cage. None. Not one dog was in there. Where had they gone? How strange that they weren't attracted to that smelly dog food?

Solomon RIP

I fed my horse and let out my remaining cat, Eve; my sweet boy and everyone's most favorite cat, Solomon, met his demise two weekends ago after not being put back up one night, as I generally do. A coyote apparently thought he would make a good meal as there wasn't much left of my poor Solomon when I found him early the next morning. I then went through the barn to let out the chickens. Hmmm, that's strange - how did those silly chickens get the side door to the coop open? OH NO!

Snowball, Snowflake and one of the older yet to be named hens somehow managed to survive the brutal attack and mass murderous event that must have taken place late last night or early this morning - earlier than 5 when I got up or surely I'd have heard commotion.

Needless to say, I'll not be selling any eggs for quite some time. Snowball has some recovering to do as does one of his mates - Snowflake appears to have escaped virtually unscathed - somehow. Thankfully, I don't clip their wings - so she must have "flown the coop". I'm sure it will be some time before there are any eggs laid or any eggs fertilized in there for that matter. Snowball is in pretty decent shape considering the lack of feathers and bite marks but still needed to be doctored a bit, I think that he'll be fine eventually though. The hen I'll watch closely as she seems to be the most injured. Snowflake is a bit shaken up, and I can't catch her to examine, but looked ok from what I can tell.

Tootsie - our silly rooster in pj's

Unfortunately, Tootsie, Sister's Daughter, our last Bantam hen, and 8 of their coop mates weren't so lucky. A mass burial was held out back in one of the many mulch piles in order NOT to draw any coyotes up close to the barns. Hopefully we were able to bury them deep enough - I'll add some liquid molasses later on to help hide the odor and break down their remains into compost.

So one of the lessons here, is that you can't make a chicken coop out of chicken wire for one thing. You must use reinforced hardware wire - which I pulled out to replace the chicken wire with after the last kill of my pullets this winter but somehow never got "a round tuit". The dogs were up underneath the floor in one of the barns where there is about a 3' space, (that I've been meaning to board up - to keep the ducks and chickens from laying eggs where I can't reach them!) Not really big enough for the animal control officer to crawl into - but had he to do it over again last night, I think he'd have fired that dart pistol in there until he got them and then figured out how to drag them out later. Or, tried to lure them out with the dog food rather than just set up a trap and hope for the best.

Too late for that now - I imagine they'll be "put down" once they get back to the shelter (they were holed up in the chicken pen area with their victims and were finally "darted" and taken into custody.), and no one comes to claim them. Are dogs not pets anymore - just creatures people throw away or leave to run on their own? Faced with having to shoot a dog, I don't know that I could do it - not permanently anyway. Dart yes, bb, yes. Kill? Probably not me. I'm too soft for that. But I do have a few choice words for people who let that kind of animal run loose. This is a family site though, so I'll let you fill in your own thoughts....

Of course the dogs' owners had no ID tags on them. No irresponsible dog owner would do such a thing. Why that would mean they had to be sure their fences and gates were secure or they'd face a fine for stray, potentially vicious dogs on the loose, (yes, they were pitt bulldogs, but that doesn't really matter - put more than one dog of many breeds together, and they will chase down and kill chickens).

So there will be no restitution for my losses. My CSA members will not be able to get any eggs for quite some time and I'll be fortunate enough to find sufficient quantities for myself from the loose barn chickens that run around the pasture on the other side of the farm. They lay simple brown eggs which we mixed with the blue and green and pale pink ones from those that resided in the pen area. I'll be down to about 2 or 3 eggs a day - if I'm lucky enough to find them. I'll give Snowball and the 2 girls some time to recover and me enough time to really build a compound before I even think about whether I'll go outside of my flock to increase it or not. I've not brought in chickens from outside for several reasons. One is risking disease/pests spreading to my existing chickens. The other is trying to model a sustainable flock where my roosters do that for me.

So this week's projects of course include securing the remaining chickens behind the hot wire gate again, which was more for keeping out the skunk and raccoon that were terrorizing the baby chickens than dogs. As well, I'll have my farm's carpenter get on reinforcing the other coop STAT! And, I have decided that it is time to invest in some electric fencing designed for poultry. Premier One has a kit that I believe I can use with my existing electric charger to keep out anything - even vicious dogs. We leave the ground cover overgrown to provide shelter from hawks. I was reserving the electric fencing for use out in the pasture once we built our chicken tractor to use in the gardens for soil improvement, but it seems my budget will just have to be stretched early and again later on when the tractor is built - I can't keep going through this - I'm just a soft city-girl living on a farm and my heart just breaks every time this happens.

So, in addition to the August-like, season ending extreme temperatures this June, losing my favorite cat, various other disappointing things that just happen in life to all of us from time to time, to this morning's very sad events - I'd be putting it mildly to say that I'll not be too sorry to see June 2011 leave me and my farm behind.

I accept these things as learning experiences that force me to face certain things and make changes in myself where needed and forge on ahead. There's a lot of life left to live and all this stuff does help make us better somehow in the long run. We never know how today's events will turn out to change something tomorrow or how it will help someone else along the way.

We've turned under many of our crops due to failure from the heat and are hoping that we'll be able to nurse along new crops recently planted for an early fall harvest this year. We'll be erecting shade cloth as soon as they get their first true leaves to help protect them from the July and August sun which surely won't be any less merciless than it has been since late May.

Growing future farmers

Life on the Farm is not easy, that is for sure. Rewarding, challenging, exhausting, delicious and enlightening - yes. But easy is not a word I'd use. I have a lot of plans for this little urban piece of paradise, even though we've had our share of setbacks. If I can just keep my feet under me long enough to get them in place and start working, we'll have an even more wonderful farm to share with the community than we already do.

Into everyone's life comes a few storms - but the dawn always comes

Everyone who comes here loves it and vows to return - and usually does. I know it is a special place worth preserving and restoring and sharing with whomever we can. It grows more than just good things to eat - it grows people, experiences and character. I can't prevent every disaster, error or mishap - but I sure can get to the place where I'm not band-aiding everything instead of really fixing or doing it right the first time. Baling wire and duck tape are ok - but I'd rather have the right tool for the job. Thanks to everyone who comes out to the farm and helps. I can't do it alone - and I'm grateful for those who also share the vision with me. We will grow and continue to add programs and more crops to share with the community.

Here's hoping your gardens are green and growing better than ours up in North Texas are.

And on the upside - we got over 3 1/2 inches of rain and were able to harvest over 100 lbs of heirloom carrots!

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Bermuda Triangle?

2011-04-29T18:01:00.007-05:00

Recent twister passing in the not so far distance from our farm.

Recent storms spared us of any rain - or anything damaging.

We've been like the center of the Bermuda triangle as of the past few storms - a blessing in disguise.

After seeing the devastation that the recent storms caused in Texas and as it ripped through the rest of the deep south, I'm reminded of how blessed I am to have been spared any damage. I complain and even joke about not getting any rain, barely a 2 minute drizzle with that last batch of pop up tornado rainstorms this past week, but after seeing what some of my fellow farmers have had happen - I'm happy to irrigate!!

A hail storm can wipe out an entire farm in one fell swoop, a tornado can rip a barn roof off it's building, or worse and floods can carry away seeds and topsoil all in a matter of moments - as the farmers sit and watch helpless.

This is what CSA members share the risk in with the farmer. It is because of the loyalty of CSA members that a farmer can regroup, clean up and replant. And, in the 3 years I've been working the land here growing veggies, I can honestly say, I've not ever met a farmer that I've not just loved - it is the most supportive and least competitive group of people I've ever worked with! We are all in this together - growing food for our neighbors, friends, relatives and chefs alike. We do this because we love what we do and when one of us takes a hit - we all take a hit with them.

My heart and helping hand goes out to my fellow farmers at Eden Creek Farm in the wake of the recent storms. Y'all let us know what we can do to help out - and we'll be there!

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

While You (and I) Were Sleeping

2011-04-04T08:58:00.004-05:00

There are so many amazing things about having a little urban farm that are more rewarding than I could probably ever verbalize. Things like, watching little kids' faces when they pet and feed a rooster for the first time, seeing fuzzy little baby chicks following around their momma learning to peck and scratch in the dirt for food, and hearing about how much folks are enjoying their CSA experience and the delicious food we are growing here at the farm.

But there are, and I suspect always will be, a few things that I just don't guess this city girl turned urban farmer will ever get used to and one of them is the loss of life on the farm.

I still cry out loud like a little school girl when I come out in the morning and find one or more of the animals I am trying to care for gone. This morning hit me especially hard....

Before I moved the shop here to the farm, I had a little store up in the north part of the city. I brought in 2 chickens, well, a chicken and a rooster. They were mates here at the farm and so I kept them together at my shop. They ran around the place and at night went into a crate to keep safe. Eventually, out hatched Chicken Little. You can see her and her late folks in the video. It was like a little comedy routine whenever they'd wander up into the shop. People always loved to feed them and watch them scurry after insects.

Well, upon coming back to the farm with them when I moved my shop here, Little Whitey the rooster was attacked and soon thereafter his little mate, Sister, showed up missing. Their little one, Chicken Little, had survived though and for the past 4 years has entertained me and countless others with her mild mannered temperament. She was recently the proud momma of 3 little chicks again this spring, too. That is until sometime very early this morning, when I suppose the circle of life came around and took hers and that of her 3 chicks. Her chicks, like her momma, are just gone, I didn't even find any feathers. And her lifeless little self was laying in the coop when I came to feed this morning, fully planning on turning them out into the chicken yard with the rest of the hens and their watchful rooster, Snowball. Today was to be freedom day. Instead, I am heartbroken. Many of my chickens go to the compost pile with the drowned squirrels, slow ducks and other compostable items when they meet their end-time. Chicken Little, however, like her daddy, has a resting place near our pond. Call me a sap, call me weak or a wimp. But when you start carrying them around and naming them - they surpass being just a chicken or "livestock" and become pets. And whenever I have lost a pet, I've cried buckets. This was no exception.

This morning it also started to storm rainclouds while I was sleeping, finally after months without any measurable rainfall. It was a welcome sound to awaken to, that is for sure. I heard a bit of hail but it didn't sound large enough to do any real damage to the crops. As daylight came, I could see standing water starting to accumulate -something we've not seen for ages save the time a water main broke nearby.

However, it was too much for the greenhouse roof which is now collapsed - again. Next year - for sure - we're going with metal hoops..... None of the plants were damaged, thankfully, and I've poked holes in the plastic to drain the water that weighted the frame down to its cracking point. It looks like a giant fishbowl. Soon, as soon as later this week, most of those plants will start going out in the gardens anyway and the plastic was scheduled to come off very soon, however, it is supposed to drop to the 30's tonight and I wasn't planning to put some things out quite yet - sometimes schedules were meant to be adjusted. Easter is almost here... thankfully.

But, life on the farm goes on, despite the losses of life, damage to buildings or crops, floods or droughts. Perseverance is one thing this little urban farm has sharpened about me. I've always been a determined person, but this has made me even more so. Nature sometimes seems to work against us, even though we are dearly trying to work with it. Sometimes I guess we just need to step back and re-evaluate things and re-route our course. For all of the hard work, blood, sweat and tears, it still makes for a cool way to make a living.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

To Spring or Not to Spring?

2011-03-15T18:44:00.006-05:00

Well, the groundhog predicted an early spring - and so far, he seems to be on target. But, the veteran farmers I listen to, warn about the late Easter and the nearly 100% track record for there being a late season hard and killing frost - right before Good Friday. So do we plant and take the chance or do we wait and play it safe?

This farmer is playing it safe. I have the ground ready to go and the plants are in the greenhouse, happy and warm as bug in a rug. Or, as it has been, a bug in the row cover where it managed to survive all winter....I swear.

We've got onions, potatoes, Swiss Chard, beets, carrots, lettuces, cabbage and a few other cool season things in the ground. But the warm season plants, like tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and beans - those are not anywhere near the unprotected soil - yet.

I admit, it is getting hard to wait - we've had so much nice weather lately - but then just last night, we dropped down to freezing only 30 miles north of here. All it takes is a brief freeze and the warm season veggies can crater. As it is, they prefer consistent soil temps of no cooler than 50 degrees - and ours has barely been 50 in the mornings. So, I wait....chomping on the bit as I read of home gardeners plopping their plants in the ground. In the city, with plenty of buildings, concrete and swimming pools around, most will be fine with the mini-microclimates created. Out in the open fields here - not so much. The winds have whipped through here unchecked all winter and it is the drying cold air that kills your plants, or at least damages them, and can make them susceptible to disease and pests. We don't need to fight any uphill battles if we don't have to. Organic farming is challenging enough without daring mother nature. But I admit, I sometimes question myself. What if....

But then, a fellow farmer of mine posted his results from last year and made me feel validated in my decision to wait. He had 2 crops going on at the same time - one he held back in the greenhouse, and the other he went ahead and put in the ground. He's a bit further south than here, but nonetheless, he didn't have any freezes so the early crop was fine and when it was "safe" to do so according to the calender, he planted the rest of his crop. His findings were: "Planted tomatoes in short and large tunnels last year. Kept some tomatoes from the same batch in the greenhouse. It snowed on the tunnels, tomatoes were saved. Greenhouse starts planted out several weeks later. Might have been a day or two difference at most in date of first ripe tomato between earliest and latest planted...." And lest we forget the first day of spring last year, greeted us with a dusting of fresh snow!

So, I rest assured that I'm not really losing any time. My root systems will be mature, the plants will be hardened off - it does get pretty cool in the unheated greenhouse, just never drops below freezing on the tomato bed, and they'll all be ready to grow once I get them in the ground. Plus, it gives my soil longer to mellow and in sandy soil, that is important. Fertilizer and compost seem to disappear in the soil each season and it has to be replaced. It takes a few weeks for the soil microbes to chew down the bigger pieces and make it usable by the roots of the plants that will be planted soon.

So, in the meantime, I'm still seeding plants - I am not sure where we're going to put all of these tomato plants, but if they all grow, we're going to be drowning in tomatoes this summer - and turning compost, mulching and irrigating what is in the ground and trying to keep up with weeds.

Tomorrow I will take one of our roosters on tour to the local library's "Growing Green" day, Thursday I'm speaking again to a group of homeowners on organic gardens at the Audelia Road Library in Dallas, and I'm teaching a basic organic veggie gardening class this weekend here at the farm. Whew! - and it's not even close to Earth Day yet!

Gardening is a passion of mine though - and I love to engage others in the fun. If I can teach someone to grow some of their own food, I've done my job. I think it is important that everyone know basic gardening skills - and grow as much as they have time to grow. There is no better food on the planet for you than freshly harvested, organically grown veggies that you grow yourself in soil that you tend sustainably. And wait till you see the look on your kids' faces, or your partners, or your own for that matter - when you pull out a purple carrot, pick a white tomato, or taste a freshly harvested potato. :) There's nothing like it - not at your grocery store anyway.....

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Winter Days On The Farm - Part II

2011-02-27T06:19:00.008-06:00

I always look forward to our annual local farming conference because TOFGA's TCOOPS conference always feels like old home week to me because I've known some of the wonderful folks I see there since TOFGA was TOGA, before I ever grew food commercially. They've seen me go from retail organic garden center manager, to shop owner, through organic landscape maintenance and now on to farm owner/manager/farmer - or, agriculturist. (Sometimes I still feel a little funny calling myself "a farmer" in part I guess because I didn't have to earn those stripes growing up in that world as a kid, I don't live out in the boonies on a regular "farm", and I still love the part of me that grew up just outside of Chicago that still embraces her love for a taste of the city life - and I often indulge in it so I feel a bit more citified than farmer sometimes. But I guess by pure definition of the word - I are one. My CSA family calls me Farmer Marie.)

At TOFGA, I usually lend a hand and volunteer my time as much as I can while still attending as many of the lectures as we are able to as volunteers. I have a history in public speaking, so the last few years I've found myself introducing and getting to meet many of the lectures' speakers, and this year - helping in the kitchen with the wonderful chef Amanda Love, The Barefoot Cook. What a great lady and of course, remarkable chef! Once we all finally figured out how to operate the commercial dishwasher - things went a lot better on KP duty. :)

We watched and listened as the creator/producer of FRESH! seemed almost in awe of her audience - a room full of generations of farmers. She was quite humbled by the energy I think as she went through her experiences in making the film. I was in and out of the kitchen, filling water and clearing tables so I didn't get to hear in detail all of her presentation, but I could feel she was clearly moved by the experience. Maybe little does she know, we so appreciate her, and others like her, who have the technical means and skill to go out there and tell the story of local farming and food. It's certainly a story we think is worth telling. The honor was ours as well.

And as that weekend of learning also comes to another close, it is time to head back to our farms to begin to apply all that we have gleaned in our CEU type classes. Continuing Education for farmers. You never can really learn it all, can you? Nature changes and throws curve balls at you each season, caves in the top of your greenhouse with ice and snow, freezes 90% of your crops with 100+ hours of subfreezing weather every 1 in 15 years, and don't get me started on the legislation that gets passed freeing up monster GMO plants to roam free in our environment causing havoc on small farmers across the world......we'll keep the energy positive. :)

New techniques come along to help enhance those we already use and to improve our growing, hopefully increasing our yields and expanding our options. The stories and experiences of our fellow farmers are always priceless and often save us countless hours of painstaking mistakes or just help us take shorter routes to successes.

All in all - I guess the life of this small urban farmer in the winter is much like many other avid gardeners. I just get to apply it each day when I walk out the back door to work at my favorite full time job here at Eden's. We cover up the rows as best we can - hunker down as Ol' Man Winter blows in colder than normal temps, and take to our repaired greenhouses where tiny seedlings are just waiting for the soil to warm up and welcome them into its care.

The Ground Hog and Solomon says Spring is coming early this year!

He's ready for it, are you?

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Winter Days On The Farm - Part I

2011-02-27T03:18:00.029-06:00

So what does Life on the Farm bring to this small farmer in the winter?

Well, several of the same things that it brings to most avid gardeners, too I suppose. While I wish for warmer days, I read farming books, peruse seed catalogs; dog-earing the page corners, highlighting "ooh that one's cool/pretty/neat/looks yummy" items. I also go over the prior year's successes and failures - hoping my notes have not been rained on or muddied beyond legibility.

And I sort seeds, look through the many pictures taken throughout the year, hopefully sorting and naming them for future use, I start to sketch out the plan for the next season, adding to my accumulating drawings of the garden plot so as to keep track of what was planted each year as I go along.

I also checked out the newest fast food burger place in Dallas! No, no, it's OK! It's the grass-fed burger place called Elevation Burger.

I invite you to indulge in a guilt-free "fast-food" experience there, too! Watch for one in your community and then support them.

I also continue my education in all things agriculture and add to my knowledge base by attending at least one farmer's conference each year. TOFGA holds one, Farmer Brad of Home Sweet Farm usually has a great Grower's Symposium down in the Brehnam area each late winter/early spring and this year, I was very fortunate to be chosen to attend Southern SAWG's 20th Annual Conference in Chattanooga, TN!

My attendance there was part of the Share the Wealth program that TOFGA participated in with Southern SAWG. I did get homework, but I was able to attend a wonderful conference I would not have otherwise been able to afford. One of my awesome CSA members donated air miles so I even got to fly there! This of course meant fewer days away from the farm - quite the consideration when animals are in your care. You might get away with a big bowl of food and water and an extra litter box for the 3 house cats, but try that for chickens or horses.... Thankfully, I have a lot of friends of the farm to help out with my furry or feathered "kids". It makes leaving them behind much less stressful.

The SAWG conference was filled with new faces from across the southern region and those of some familiar Texas friends as well. The topics ranged from intensive to basic record keeping, which is a lot more important in farming than one might think, to details of the latest university studies done on things like growing fruit in hoop houses - versus out in open fields and of course, sustainable farming was the underlying theme. There were a few presentations on Urban Farming, one by friends of mine, Skip and Erin from Austin at Green Gate Farms, who talked about the various activities that some farms are holding as "value added" type programs to help round out the farm's income stream. The Taste of Tennessee dinner I shared with Austin, Texas friends, Carol Anne and Larry, (also presentering at the conference), from Austin's beloved Boggy Creek Farm, was incredible and lots of fun, too. And then, probably one of the highlights of the event - the Seed Swap

Now this was a fun seed swap I've gotta say. I wasn't really prepared for it - don't recall seeing it on the schedule before I left Dallas so I didn't come with any seeds from home. But that didn't matter - all were welcome to come in and swoop up some of the neatest, prettiest, and some of the more rare and treasured seeds from fellow Southern region farmers I'd ever seen - and certainly ever heard of.

I picked up several kernels of corn seeds from original Cherokee Corn, which I was explained has to have 8 rows of kernels to be authentic. I felt like I went to Jack's field and found the seeds from his beanstalk as I gathered beans from several farmers' troves. Speckled climbing, Reverend Taylor pole butterbean, white 1/2 Runner snap bean, Preacher pea, Snow on the Mountain butter bean, Bradham stock, a little gray pea I forgot to put in the freezer that I hope the weevils haven't ruined, Owen soybean - a non GMO bean I'm told is good for Edamame, some Dixie Queen watermelon, Mammoth Gray Sunflowers, a pink peanut that dates back to the 1840's and a few other fun things I can't wait to try.

I almost hate to plant some of them - feel like they should be framed! But plant I will - even though there are not really enough to harvest a full crop of each kind; the whole idea is sustainability. Plant this year to raise a seed crop, collect the seeds, OK, maybe I'll have to taste test a few, and then save them for next year to plant a full crop to harvest. The seeds we save each year from our regions, and eventually our own land, become more resilient to our growing conditions and typically will produce better results the deeper the generation of seeds go. Plus, it perpetuates some of our original foods and the fun names and stories that go along with them.

My traveling companions and I enjoyed our visit to Chattanooga despite the wintry weather - it wasn't much warmer, if at all, back home in Dallas anyway. And we got to experience the city's Free, fun, electric powered public transit bus system - Hmmm, DART, you paying attention? It looped around from our hotel to the downtown area where we found the most sinful cupcakes at Chattanooga Cupcakes, (I know, original, eh?) and Lupi's, a local pizza joint - that used local, organic farm fresh ingredients! Now how cool is that? And, as a former Chicago pizza junkie, I might add, that it was a pretty darn good pizza!

We pirated the remote control in the airport's business lounge on the way home to watch the Cowboys' first half of their playoff loss for the Superbowl, and arrived back home full of ideas, tons of great information and instructional books and DVD's to share with other farmers at home and beyond, new farmer friends' names and oooh, those SEEDS!

Back home to our farms we go - winter still holding on strong. Ah, when will Spring be here?

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

2011-01-05T20:51:00.007-06:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

It's been a great year for growing at Eden's Garden CSA Farm, minus the late freeze/foot of snow last winter, extra early shot of hot summer and an outbreak of some furry brown and very hungry caterpillars and late surge of giant grasshoppers this fall, we had a very nice variety of produce this year and plenty to go around to our CSA. Production is getting better every season, as our soil's health improves with time. I have already seen some of our CSA members not taking everything they are offered - did we ever think we'd see the day when we were allotted more food than we thought we could use and have some to put out for market? Hooray! And it will just get better! I just may actually be able to make a living doing this afterall!

A bouquet of pretty heirloom carrots Spring '10

I hope throughout this past year we have all learned to eat several new things, learned to like a few things we thought we wouldn't, tried several new recipes and become more accustomed to eating in season than we've been spoiled from doing in the past. I, for one, know that I have almost eliminated buying food from the store as I am able to make meals from the produce we grow here, and the meats, breads, dairy and now our own honey, olive oil and deserts, I am able to get through our market day producers, right here at the farm! That means less trips to the store, fewer processed items than ever before and, almost no waste - packaging is a minimum for sure!

The Selections at Market Day Continue to Grow

As an agriculturist, I've learned, and continue to learn daily, more about my land and the produce we are trying to raise as well as the rhythm of the seasons. Each year can bring adversity, and it usually does in some way or another. But, we learn that we can't always harvest everything we plant - and that we can plant and grow some things we never thought of. And, that sometimes, seeds are mislabeled - how about 200' of Miyashge Daikon Radishes!? Thankfully, through my network of farm friendly chefs, I have found a Japanese sushi restaurant in Dallas that may be interested in buying some of our overstock.

Recent Chefs for Farmers Benefit Dinner

I also learned that food and wine loving folks in DFW are very generous and that Dallas has some pretty darn cool places to eat that are run by some pretty darn cool farmer friendly chefs. The Chefs for Farmers dinner was such a hit that people are still talking about the premier dinner at Eden's - out in the middle of a horse pasture, next to the vegetable gardens, under the big Texas sky. Everything was perfect that day from the weather to the mysterious absence of very many fire ants to the spectacularly fitting sunset. Watch for more CFF events as well as the return of our own Barn Aid benefit this spring.

An important addition to our list of "friends of the farm", is a great free magazine available around town. Edible DFW has done a wonderful job getting the word out to locavores about the many excellent food choices available to them as well as uncovering some fun and entertaining food related stories, events and of course, farmer and chef profiles. Nanci and Teri, you girls rock!

I realize everyone in Dallas won't join a CSA or visit a local market every week - we'd run out of food if all of DFW jumped on the local food bandwagon at the same time! But, I do hope everyone can some day choose to eat more REAL, CLEAN, FRESH, LOCAL, FOOD because there is a surge of new farmers in the North Texas area and everywhere we turn, there will be more affordable, local food to choose from. Until then, I'll continue to work on my soil so our production increases with each season, varieties are added and our edible forest produces plentifully, so we can feed as many people as this land can produce for. (We are propagating pomegranates this winter!)

Farm Day 2010 at the Balch Springs Library

Eden's will also continue to hold classes to teach and train folks about gardening, food and nutrition, cooking/canning and organics. I'm committed to sharing the knowledge passed on to me by my mentors and experiences, which has become my way of life, because I believe together, we can indeed all make a difference! We are making a differnce! I hear from you all the time about how the kids are eating vegetables again, garden fresh never tasted so good and how much you're learning and applying to your home gardens. All of this makes every last one of those 100+ degree days well worth the sweat. I'm really very fortunate to have this opportunity to steward land and grow food for such wonderful, appreciative and beautiful people. Thank you for another great year!

Now- go git yer hands in the dirt!

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

What SB510 "The Food "Safety" Modernization Act" Means to YOU

2010-11-27T22:01:00.013-06:00

Is this the future for small farmers if S 510 passes?

Like Comparing Apples and Oranges

Just how anyone can think that small direct-market type farms' handling of fresh produce from field to basket to customer's hands poses the same threat as large corporate farms' operations' handling of produce from field, to box, to truck, to processing plant, to train car, to truck, to warehouse, to processing facility, to warehouse, to truck, to store shelf, some 1000+ miles and who knows how many days/months away and gas/chemical treatments, from where it was grown/picked is the same - is beyond me.

They must be turning a blind eye to reality, or not be aware of just how much mainstream food is handled and shuffled around. There is little to NO risk in a direct to customer type farm - there is a HUGE risk in a conveyor belt, multi-step type process which is EXACTLY what the S510 bill was written to help clean up. In addition to some vaguely written language I've been made aware of that potentially hand over our nation's food supply for no real good reasons that quite frankly, make me a bit leary. I would just as soon see this whole bill fail at this point....

CSA Members pick up shares of freshly harvested produce

Produce is not inherently, a risky food. Now, if you have a farm downstream from a CAFO, ok, I can see that the risk factor just went up - a lot. But most small farms do not operate downstream from these disgusting, manure sludge productions. They generally locate their families where they want to live and raise a family - because they do live there on their farms. And they eat the same food that they sell. Usually, before they sell it. Often in the field without, gasp! - washing it!

And this is not to say that ALL food that comes from large, family or corporately owned farms are unsafe automatically. Not at all. Nor is it to say that food from a small farm is automatically perfectly free from risk, although it is generally, much less of a risk because of the fewer steps involved from field to fork.

Let's be realisitic, this is about minimizing risk, not eliminatiing it, which is obviously, not an attainable feat. You just can not completely live a risk-free life. We do however, in this country, enjoy the safest food of anywhere in the world according to many sources. In fact, Net Wellness reports that, "according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), about 76 million cases of foodborne disease occur annually in the United States and result in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. ...Typically, food-related outbreaks occur at group gatherings with meals provided by individuals, catering companies, or restaurants. However, recent outbreaks are more widespread over a longer period of time due to the distribution of contaminated products across the country." (my emphasis added.) When you compare that to other causes of illness and deaths, it is a pretty small percentage. And our food is cheaper here because we subsidize the process, with your taxes paid to the IRS, and have in many cases, automated the processes of it, which of course can streamline and cut costs for production.

But that, my friend, is where the risk factors begin to go up. Food is not an automobile on an assembly line. When you start to treat it as such, you increase the chances that the food will not end up the same as it was when it was first picked. That is just common sense. Isn't it?

If you can actually stay awake long enough to read the entire bill, you will see that there is much more to it than just simply giving the FDA the authority to clean up large food processing corporations' facilities. And, the use of the word facility, often encompasses your favorite local small farm, subjecting him or her to the same expensive, time consuming and overwhelming types of scrutiny as would be applied to multi-faceted factory farm/processing plants where tons of spinach, apples, smoked peppers, etc are handled daily, by more people I daresay than are in my entire family, much less than those people normally working on my farm, and that of most other small farms. This is going to mean the end of business as we know it - and in many cases, end of business at all, for many small farms.

There are many who have pointed out that the road this bill is leading us down, is much more than just that of a food safety overhaul and smells of government control of our food supply and a pointed attempt to slow down, if not quash altogether, the growing popularity and success of the small, local, organic farm food movement. I can't say as though I disagree. The sources I'm getting this from are credible, and experienced and as wacky as this world is becoming, rather quickly, I would not be surprised if they are correct.

It wouldn't seem that in a $600 Billion market, our current food market's worth, that $23 or $24 Billion would be so missed. But apparently, they want every last red cent they can get out of your pockets and will stop at little to make sure they get it and no one else does.

Between the raids at gunpoint, threats of jail-time, confiscation of family computers, a farm's customer's personal records, personal food supplies and just plain harassment of law abiding, small business owners who happen to be farmers, (Not to mention the scare tactics by many including our government about the "risks" of raw foods, unprocessed, uniradiated and untreated foods) - it is amazing that the rise for demand of REAL food is still growing.

I'm glad it is, of course, because I sincerely believe that local, fresh, clean food is so much better for you and your family. I have seen and heard the results by people who have changed their diets, to include these nutrient dense, flavor rich foods produced by small, controlled family operated facilities, and by doing so have improved their health.I hope you'll do something to help stop this madness before it is too late and your only choices are mainstream, processed food, which we KNOW is causing major problems for our country by means of heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Your two Senators are out on break for the holiday. They will be back in DC Monday and it is very likely that they will take up a vote to pass this bill. This bill does have an amendment attached to it, for now, that will help ease the burden on small farms, such as Eden's, however, it appears that amendment may be in jeopardy because of large ag industry outrage and statements like this in which people who do not handle food at our end of the process are speaking out about things they don't fully grasp.

Please, protect YOUR choices of food by helping your senators understand we want our small farmers, those we've come to know and trust, support and shop from, to be able to stay in business, and that we don't want the FDA to have unfettered and unchecked authority over our food supply based on the loose, unclear language of this SB510 bill. Email them this weekend, while you are enjoying your (hopefully), local, organic Thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends. And call their offices in DC on Monday - let them hear you, LOUD AND CLEAR, that we need to protect our food rights - as much as they feel the need to enforce their authority over our food supplies, in the name of safety. Call your favorite radio show hosts, write letters to your paper's editors - let's get the truth in the main stream media before it is too late.

Once again, thank you for your continued support of local agriculture - we grow for you!
Grow your own, know your farmer.

MarieEat Your Food - Naturally!

Meanwhile Back in the Dirt....

2010-10-31T07:37:00.006-05:00

The Culprit!

The caterpillars that have been helping themselves to much of our fall plantings, now have an identity. Kimberly Schofield, Program Specialist-Urban IPM at our local Texas AgriLife Extension office, quickly reported back to me from this simple picture I submitted asking about our furry, hungry creature. Seems it is a variety of the salt marsh caterpillar. It becomes a white moth. For more detail, she provided this link;

The list of what they eat is as long as my arm, and included most of our fall crops;

beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, corn, lettuces, onions, peas, tomatoes, and turnips.

I'm going to add, Swiss chard, broccoli and cauliflower to that list!

It is great to know that this service is available to everyone from our extension office. She even recommended the organic control method for me;

Spinosad and B.t. kurstaki - both are bacterial controls.

One is specific to Lepidoptera and the other, Spinosad, is more of a broad based insect killer so we are careful NOT to spray on anything were our honeybee friends would be working, such as open blooms. Both must be consumed by the offenders to be effective.

Our "girls" at work!

They were eating up the BT as fast as I sprayed it on new plantings. But the spinosad was also used after 3 sprayings of the BT seemed less than effective, and still we are getting severe pressure from these guys. Knowing that they also feed on the broad leafed weeds, perhaps means they are not making enough of a meal out of our crops to consume enough of either bacteria to kill them. After all, our plugs only have about 4 leaves on them when they hit the soil.

Baby Cole Crop Plants

I'm holding the Brussels sprout plugs in the greenhouse for a little bit, to make sure we have had a reduction in the numbers of caterpillars and to let the plants get a little bigger before we subject them to these creatures. If they can make enough food/store enough energy in their root systems, then they will have a better chance of surviving an attack. Or, maybe they will finish their cycle....we can hope!

THE GOOD NEWS
There is still time to get in more seeds for late fall & winter; carrots, radishes, kohlrabi, turnips, beets, lettuces, cabbage, cutting (green) onions, chard, assorted mustard greens and various other cool season things, which are going to actually germinate better now that the soil temps are cooler. They don't much like the soil at 85 or higher and you'll generally get very spotty germination results in that situation. We still have about 12 hours of sunlight a day, plenty of time to get these cool season crops going in time for holding them over the winter for early spring harvesting. We're expecting a bit warmer than normal winter season with dryer than normal conditions - both not so bad compared to last year's monsoon and ongoing arctic blasts.

So, onward we go - squishing our way through fall and replanting/resowing to keep our garden baskets filled!

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Chefs for Farmers - Through the Farmer's Eyes

2010-10-22T13:23:00.011-05:00

photo courtesy of www.rbostickphoto.com

Chefs for Farmers' table for 100

Field to Fork - in the Field

Well, somewhere in between cleaning up, putting things back in place, feeding critters, planting fall/winter crops and harvesting same, I've managed to put down a few thoughts about this weekend's intimate dining experience for 100 of my newest friends. Most I'd never met, but many I imagine I'll see again, as we all certainly have good food in common and a passion for that which comes from local farmers.

Guests enjoy farm to field - in the field

Blue Lotus Floral Design Decorated the Tables with Natural Selections that

Complimented Nature in its Magnificence

Click the link above for more pics by me and our WWOOFer, Kyle Watson, and other coverage of the dinner on my neighborsgo blog or on Eden's Organic facebook page here for even more notes and other articles about the dinner.

This was truly a first of its kind dinner of this magnatude outdoing our Barn Aid by 7 chefs and about 60 guests. The tables were set up in a long row out in the gardens, well, right next to them in the pasture anyway, where we all ate like a big happy, gourmet food, fine wine dining family.

Susan Pollard and her Girls

We welcomed guests to the farm as many are each 1st and 3rd Saturday morning by a host of local farmers introducing their farms and wares. The Texas Honeybee Guild's girls stole the show and Sonja's hefty loaves of freshly baked breads were drooled over as newcomers to Eden's learned they can experience all of this and more at our market days.

Chef McCallister and His Host of Featured Chefs Introduce the First Course

The chefs were happy as larks, helping each other assemble their plates and just giddy with comments about the local food that was used to prepare each unique dish. Chef Abraham of Salum chose to see what we had at Eden's that he could create with and settled upon the now ever more popular Cucuzza, an Italian gourd harvested as a young, tender fruit and used as a summer squash could be. However, I don't think Cucuzza has ever seen a dish like it was used in Sunday night - Seared Scallop with Eden's Cuccuza, Caprino Royal's Goat Cheese, and Pancetta Bread Pudding with Grain Mustard Vinaigrette drizzled all over. Mmmm Mmmm Good!

Other farms besides Eden's that were featured at the dinner were MOTLEY FARMS, CAPRINO ROYALE, TASSIONE FARMS, BARKING CAT FARMS, & CAPRINO ROYALE

The weather could not have been more perfect, you'd thought we ordered it in special as the cloud cover that kept us all cool for the set up broke up just as the sun began to set in a spectacular display of colors over the farm. Soft music played in the background and each guest was treated to a gift bag filled with various yummies including a pumpkin bread loaf or muffin by Eden's Market Day's very own, Bedford Bakery -set to open any time now in Bedford.

Susan Pollard, the queen bee of DFW & I enjoy a toast over the 1st course

Susan Pollard of The Texas Honeybee Guild was my dinner guest for the evening and we laughed and ooo'd and aaah'd over the best dinner either of us had been fortunate enough to eat in a very long time. Where else can you get 8 fne chefs and an attentive wait staff to keep your wine glass filled and your empty plate cleared all in the company of great people and somewhere that you don't have to do the dishes!

I think folks will be reminicing about this event for awhile to come - at least until the 2nd dinner in the Chefs for Farmers series kicks off in Decemeber out in Fort Worth. Details to come soon.

In the meantime - the broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard and cabbage are being planted along with mustard greens, mizuna, lettuces and other cool season loving crops that will feed our CSA and market shoppers throughout the season - the caterpillars are munching, at least till the weather changes from summer back to fall again and Life on the Farm goes pretty much back to normal.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

When It Rains It Pours

2010-09-09T08:35:00.005-05:00

That is how it goes with the weather in North Texas it seems. We go for weeks on end without rain and then, 6 inches in less than 24 hours - and a twister to top it all off!

Thankfully this time, it was about a mile away and didn't do any damage to my farm. I was up in the same oak hay loft that had saved the lives of the horses from the roof that collapsed on that barn only a few short years before when a spring tornado wasn't as friendly to us. I took a few pictures and said a few prayers up there yesterday.

We'll know in a few weeks if the only damage was some felled old dead trees near the pond when the seeds I planted on Monday emerge - or if they washed on down the creek into the Trinity.

A fellow farmer wrote this;

"We farmers live with the weather. It is our friend and our aggravation, something we spend our days thinking about, cannot change, and often complain about. We surround ourselves every day in the heat or the cold, the drought or the flood. Sounds a lot like love to me."

Glen Miracle of Laughing Frog Farm

See you September 18th, at the next market day, and stay for the veggie gardening class at 2.

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Marie

Loss of Life on the Farm.....

2010-08-12T09:02:00.008-05:00

Farm visitor and friend Julianna feeding Chipper and friends in their yard.

Sometimes Life on the Farm is difficult. I don’t mean in the sense of it's hot or hard work or anything like that. Every career has its ups and downs and farming is actually very fullfilling in most respects. But what I mean, is for me, sometimes parts of it are just difficult to understand.

Granted, I am no doubt a city girl who plopped herself into a “country” occupation in the middle of an urban area, so I wasn't raised with a country mindset. And rural as it may be, to the delight of most city official types and those anxious for urban sprawl, it is still very developed and overrun with concrete, buildings, apartments and lacks of green space as our town "progresses". But where my farm sits, on 14 acres, surrounded by 90+ more vacant acres and a pretty large 10+ acre tract across the street and another 6 or so next door, it surprises me the degree to which I am starting to have city critter problems.

Coyote, fox, the occasionally loose dog – all of these things I would expect to have. But last night, whatever it was that broke into my chicken yard, was there just for the sake of the killing. Not one of my chickens was removed for a full meal. And this type of killing, is indicitive of city living critters. I hear the story from my fellow city dwelling chicken owners, all too often. But this has just started to become something I've had to even think about here. And this is the 3rd attack now.

The scent of skunk was pungent in the air early this morning when I awoke - at about 3 am thanks to little Ed. (He’s still a kitten and on nocturnal timing and wanted to chew on my toes.) I came out of my closed up room and it smelled as if the skunk was camping out in my kitchen its scent was so strong. But, he/she does tend to take up residency under my old house so I didn’t give it much thought. I suspect this is the same skunk I recently lost one of my hens to, and rescued 4 out of 5 of her chicks from.

Well, those chicks, now pullet size, and 3 of my full grown roosters appear to have been the latest victims. The faint smell of skunk was still in the air when I was gathering up the limp frames and feathers of my friends this morning.

I may never get used to this part of urban farm life. The senseless loss of life. At least in the country, the reason for the loss is generally to feed a hungry coyote or a momma and her young, or a hawk or owl. But this was just a slaughter. And my heart is heavy and a bit angry at the "circle of life" story. Why such violence in the animal world? Are there not enough trash cans to overturn or rabbits to chase down - or whatever skunks generally eat?

People say "Your loose chickens are safer in coops" rather than allowed to roam free like naturally they would be – well, I rarely lose any of my chickens roosting up in the rafters of my barns all night long. Even the big ol' "chicken" snake one of my horse boarding customers has nicknamed The Kracken, doesn't bother them unless they are an abandoned sick chick or missed egg. But, trapped in a coop, they are helpless – with no where to go, no way to get away. This creature, this ruthless critter – tore at that coop until it ripped chicken wire loose from the wooden frame – just to kill its sleeping residents.

So, this morning I said good bye to the 4 remaining chicks, Popeye – my one eyed rooster, No-Butt, who defended himself against a dog about a year ago and came away with everything but his, well, butt feathers – but had re-grown the most beautiful white striped tail feathers in its place, and to my sweet Chipper, (son of the late mysteriously missing gentle Chief), who was also one of the two beautiful and gentle roosters I would take with me to educational talks, special events and just bring out at market day to meet the kids and show people how gentle roosters can really be.

I’ll miss them all of course. And I realize that “they are only chickens” – as some more seasoned to farm animal deaths or those callused to sentiment might say, but they were MY chickens and they were like pets to me. So imagine having 7 of your pets lost, all at once, overnight. This was not a good morning. Made seeing 3 flats of fall squash, beans and melon seedlings on the floor of my greenhouse an hour later somehow less maddening – knowing it was one of my yard chickens that runs free who’d found its way in there – I could hardly get angry. I’ll just replant.

Snowball will have to work all of the shows now for awhile, until I can find another of my roosters to tame. They are so much more afraid of us than we can be of them. It takes a long time to get them to really trust you so they don’t try to flap their wings like crazy to get away – which scares most kids and adults alike in a close up setting.

And tonight, I’ll have to set my alarm for the wee hours to see to it that my other friends that are in the other coop stay safe until I can figure out how to safeguard their coop. I'll have to set a live trap - much to the shigrin of my friend Bonnie Bradshaw with DFW Wildlife Coalition, who says you can't effectively relocate wildlife. This one is going away.

If only my neighbors didn’t care so much about having chickens get on their property that I have to worry they will call animal control again to come pick them up as they wander to their barns; then none of my chickens would have to be sitting “ducks”, locked up in jails at night. They could all roost in the barn at night and be like real chickens.

That is Life on the Farm in the 21st Century I guess.

Anyone got a recipe for skunk?

UPDATE! - After further investigation, 2 ducks were also found, near the pond - with footprints of a dog..... that would explain a few things - including the brute force in which the wire was torn apart on the coop - AND the exit hole found later on at the other side that I didn't see in my grief this morning. Sounds like we have a mad dog on our hands......that can be a bad thing. A very bad thing.

MarieEat Your Food - Naturally!

Wearing it on My Sleeve

2010-07-22T15:11:00.013-05:00

I actually find that I have quite a few "emotional" moments out on my farm. From watching a foal, just minutes after it was born, rise to its feet, to burying an old "friend" who's day came, to wishing my father would have been around to see our first, truly bountiful spring harvest and get to taste the fruit of my efforts, after watching me struggle for so long and not seeing the value in the "weeds" we harvested in the winter, such as bok choi - those moments are still tough - to the simple joys of needing to bring the tractor out to the gardens because I can't possible carry back all that I've harvested from seeds I'd sown with my own hands.

I don't generally share all of those moments on this blog, because, well, they are my moments and this is a farming blog. But it is about "Life on the Farm" and these moments are a part of this life I've created here for myself on the farm. So, at risk of boring anyone, here is a peek at today's "moment", and who knows, just maybe it will touch or inspire someone.

Susan and Brandon Pollard are beekeepers and friends of mine. They are the ones who dress up like honeybees and bee keepers and advocate on behalf of honeybees - rescuing hives and growing up new colonies and then fostering them out all over the Dallas area - zip code honey and Texas Honeybee Guild, you've heard of it, right? Well, a few months ago, I was very blessed. They decided to put 5 bee hives here at Eden's. Wow! I was so touched as I know there are a lot of other places they could be putting them, but I graciously accepted the bees and a learning colony for the training of apprentices was created here at the farm. It was a great day for Eden's Garden to say the least. (80% of your crops are bee pollinated!)

Today they came to the farm, apprentice in tow, to "check on the bees". I was working in the gardens and didn't go back to the hives with them - besides, they were going to "suit up" and I thought I'd just as soon not be part of that little party. Having met up with a red wasp and a bumble bee within 2 weeks of each other this summer, I'm feeling a bit, er, ah, cautious shall we say about purposely exposing myself to that environment at the moment. There are enough of them flying around my gardens and I love them - but I don't need to go knock on their front doors! The swelling on my arm just finally went down two days ago!

After they did whatever it is they do to "check on the bees", they stopped by the gardens on their way back. Susan handed me something and said "Marie, here is your first taste of your own land." She was giving me a piece of the honey comb, complete with a glob of honey oozing out of it. She repeated that this was what my land tasted like, as she invited me to suck on the comb and taste the honey on it.

As I tasted that sweet, earthy, richness - it brought me to tears. Indeed, I was tasting - Eden. Now, some of you know the story, so forgive the repeat. But for the rest of you to understand why the simple taste of honey would make what many think is a tough farm-girl cry, let me try to explain....

Several years ago in one of my weekly small group meetings from my church, a friend gave me a scripture out of the Old Testatment to encourage me. It starts in Ezekiel 36, where it is describing Israel of course, but often times we apply the lessons/messages to our own lives and I have no problem with that. (How often do we relate to a song?)!

Someone had shared the scripture with her and her husband as they were experiencing some of life's "issues" and she found comfort in it and felt led to share it with me - not having any idea what I was in the process of doing here on my ranch - but knowing I was hoping for some direction with my business ideas.

If you take a look at that scripture, starting in about verse 6 of chapter 36, and liberally change some of the language from nations to peers or mountains to pasture, etc., you might be able to see how it could help someone feel better about a difficult situation they found themself in. This place had once been a thriving business, no, not a farm, but nonetheless - work with me here - and many had told me how bad things were and that it was such a shame the place was so empty now, etc.

It goes on to say that, and I paraphrase again, despite all of the things I'd done wrong, or not done, etc., things would be ok - turn out right, I'd be shown mercy. And, when it gets to verse 34....it gets real personal. It was one of those moments when someone says exactly the right thing at the right time to you and you know, you just KNOW it was meant for you to hear it. Verse 35 named my farm - the name I had already picked out and was calling the recently opened community gardens;

v34"The fields that used to lie empty and desolate - a shock to all who passed by - will again be farmed. v35 "And when I bring you back, people will say "This godforsaken land is now like EDEN'S GARDEN!".

And as Susan handed me that peice of honeycomb and told me again to "taste your land, taste Eden's Garden." - I lost it. Talk about a "moment".

And Susan, I daresay, had not ever heard that story - but she will read about it soon.

Well, after that, we walked around as I showed them all what was growing, what their bees had help to pollinate, and we heard a squeaking - uh oh - was it a bird? No, in fact, it came running out of the brush towards us - it was......

Shall we call her, "Eden"?

and I've tagged her "Eden". At least for now, until I hopefully find her a good home and someone chooses to change it. Solomon and Eve are not likely to take too kindly to a youngster - Eve has already made it clear she wants no part of the little one. A shame she can't stay here, but I would feel badly for her to be isolated from my other 2 cats. This is a farm with coyotes and hawks, 4ft wing spanned owls that swoop down in the night (and cause your sturdy and wonderful guard-barn cat to disapear, yes, I'm afraid so...), and not a place for a loner kitty.

So, if you want your own little piece of Eden, and can convince me you'll let this precious little one live in your home, not declaw her but will have her spayed - just in case she gets out and to save your own sanity - she may just go home with you for a small donation to KittyCo (or your favorite low cost spay/neuter, no-kill shelter). See, I also have 2 male cats living in my house and needless to say, the chemistry is just perfect at the moment and if you've ever had male cats, you know what happens when you "upset" things....it isn't pleasant.

Yellow Moon & Stars Watermelon

In addition to all of that, I picked nearly 100 lbs of watermelon today - ok, so 1 weighed in at 24lbs by itself, but still! As well I picked over a half bushel of costata romenesco zucchini, 2 more Arava melons, some cucuzza, (warning - if you Google that, be sure to turn down your volume a bit, you'll be serenaded by Louis!) and a handful of little fingers eggplant and some assorted peppers. So, it was quite the day on the farm today.

I think it is time for some lemon basil pesto on market day bread, a wild summer greens salad with some of my stray, but hardy, cherry tomatoes that are hanging in there and wash it down with some lavender sun tea and one of Farmer Mary Gilstrap's peaches for desert!

I hope you had a great day, too. I know I did - and it is only 4 o'clock.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

A Stroll Through the Garden

2010-06-09T15:41:00.007-05:00

Just thought I'd update the videos. This was of course before the rain - now it is wet and everything is happier still! The carrots will pull out nice and easy, the onions and garlic can be dug up without breaking a soil fork and the potatoes might actually finish growing.

This week we'll have a nice little variety for everyone. Bring any extra herbs you want to thin out and share with each other - seems you all grow so many, we need to inventory what all you need me to grow for you. The Lemon Basil and cilantro are coming up and the new rosemary is rooted and slowly growing. The English Lavender is now in bloom and there are still plenty of dried blooms from the Spanish for your lavender tea, lavender brownies or whatever you can use dried lavender for. The dill is about done. Hatched a couple of swallowtails - it has done its job.

Enjoy the stroll through Eden's Garden and I'll see you Saturday!

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

When the Farm Meets Reality

2010-05-26T04:52:00.007-05:00

Life on the farm is usually "kinda laid back", to quote a famous song. However, it has its moments. Like this morning at 4:23 when I was awakened by the hysterical screeching of one of my hens outside my bedroom window. Something was after her or her nest most certainly as it was not courting time and that was not a cry of "leave me alone dear, I'm not in the mood right now!".

So I went flying out the front door, not sure what I thought I was going to do empty handed and barefooted, but I could quickly tell, she was still on the inside of the backyard fence line and not as far away as she had sounded. So back inside through the house I ran, this time picking up a flashlight and shoving my now freshly cut grass covered feet into a pair of muck shoes, out the back door to the huge oleander where she must have been hiding prior to her being accosted.

My glasses were not in the bathroom where they normally were, so I was half blind, but there is not much question in my mind that the white furry flash I saw in the corner dragging off my hen was that of the tail of a skunk that used to compete for my barn cat's dinner every night. (my barn cat has disappeared, by the way, and now I'm wondering if Pepe had something to do with that, too!)

I had a stick in my hand, as my gun was in the barn from having just recently chased off a stray dog who had come sniffing around looking for lunch the other day. And without anything else all I could do was hope to scare the skunk off into leaving my sweet hen to possibly recover from whatever damage he may have done to her so far. No such luck....he dragged her off under the house where I heard her final gasp of a half screech. My poor girl. I was too late to help her.

They won't always stay up close to the barn where they are much, much safer. It is these renegade chickens that brave the cold, cruel urban world of reality outside of the safety of their farmyard that I often lose in the still of the night. Either to an animal catcher, y'all remember the rooster's tail story back a year or so ago, or to a hungry four-legged predator. Even the snakes that patrol the barn are more interested in rats, eggs (which I try to find every day) and scaring my horse boarding customers than taking on a full grown chicken.

Now the race was on to see if I could perhaps save her nest of eggs, as I didn't hear any chirping babies left behind, and I had a broody hen who would surely adopt and incubate them the rest of their way. While mosquitoes surely fed on my bare legs and arms, I pushed aside the thick branches of the old mature where I figured she'd been nesting just moments earlier. Thick, heavy coverage - no wonder she thought she was safe in there. No dog would have ever found her, that is for sure. But the only thing I could find, even after returning to the house to hunt down my glasses so I could actually see, was a surprised mouse staring back into my flashlight glare.

This is the part of farming that is not enjoyable. I treat my chickens like pets, many are named, and it is much different to lose one of these than when one of the thousands in a flock of nameless birds disappears and no one even notices, except maybe the dog on duty who had fallen asleep on the job. Not that most all farmers with a heart don't dread the loss as I do, and I've come to accept that I can't always protect all of them, but it is harder to tell one is missing when they are not part of the handful of critters joining you for lunch outside by the house or greeting you at the back door for breakfast several times a week - hoping you drop a crumb of that sandwich or toss them a stale cracker or some of dinner's scraps. Because, don't ya know, there isn't enough for them to eat on the 2 or so acres they roam all day.....

Well this was in much contrast to the potential winner of a funny home video contest from an event the other day when the trailer turned into a spontaneous see-saw as I pushed down on the trailer hitch from the neck of the trailer....and the tiller and tractor implement became partially airborne, along with my water bottle and a few other things....thankfully, I was solidly standing on the ground and did not join them in a heap on the tailgate of the trailer. I didn't hear any distant laughter so I don't think my moment was witnessed by any of my next door neighbors who surely often get a chuckle out of my moments of learning curves....another thing about urban farming - you more often have an audience than when your farm is surrounded by other farmland, so many of your farm escapades are not just your own to muse over. Oh well, keeps me and my neighbors amused.

I suppose I'll get an extra early start today, now that I'm extra wide awake. Maybe make myself a fresh batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast since I have an extra hour or so before the sun comes up and I break the news to Nobutt that one of his companions is gone. And I'm not much of a skunk hunter....but I see a call to the wildlife management group later today, I've had about enough of Pepe and his gang, he better hope they find him before I do.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

What's Growing on the Farm

2010-05-09T16:26:00.009-05:00

No E coli on the Romaine at your local direct farm to market stand

When multiple farms' harvests are combined into one - it makes it rather difficult to isolate the problem. The result - massive recalls.... The Latest Outbreak.....

One of the many valid points by Brad Stufflebeam at the hearing last week - IF, a small direct market farmer had a problem with one of their crops, which they rarely do as a direct result of the kind of farming we do - it would be traceable - immediately. The entire country's market of lettuce and anything containing it wouldn't need to be shut down and recalled. When will they learn?

Meantime, Life on the Farm...
Spring is being pushed out by early warm temps and dry weather in April. April showers? not in North Texas....I'd have to double check, but I think we had a grand total of less than an inch here on the farm. May is not starting out any wetter.

So that means irrigation is going full speed ahead and with our "off the grid" system down due to a lightening strike taking out our circuit board, I'm having to do my part at stinking up the air which i hate. But, we have to get water on the gardens, too and we're not getting much help from Above right now.

Since we need to rebuild our board anyway and do some rethinking about things, I am thinking about a long term solution that includes sinking a dc powered well pump into some pipe out in the pond. Seems there are far more choices for dc powered well pumps than continuous run land pumps we're finding and we'll need the ever expanding power of a larger pump as we continue to expand and need to irrigate more crops over time. We'll see what our wonderful volunteer engineer says. Seems I've taught him well as he's now busy growing a successful home garden for he and his wife and doesn't get out to the farm as often....

A drip tape monster is tamed

We were on the receiving end of the gifting of some drip tapes from farmer Sharlena who moved on to AZ to be with family. While finding all of the little leaks that come with prior years' tapes takes some time, being able to re-use the tapes that would otherwise have ended up in a dump before their time is a good thing. We do our best to patch and plug, thankful for the savings of not only our capital.

Naturally Beautiful

We're harvesting the last of the lettuce this week before it bolts with the early heat that came on last week and the one before. They are sure pretty and what our CSA can't consume, will go out for our hungry market day friends on the 15th so be sure to come, 9-noon. The Gleaning Network and a few local "hungry families" will enjoy the rest that is left.

Market Day's have been fun and busy this spring. We have a few new farmers/producers this year and our little "boutique" market is coming along nicely. Far as we know, we're still the only all organic/clean food market around - maybe in the state. And while it keeps us small, my point for sticking to this policy is that if you're going out of your way to look for good, local, food, might as well find clean, nutritionally dense food, too. Food that is grown locally is great, as it is fresher than the supermarket's offerings for sure - but I don't want pesticides on my food and I want to support those who support the earth's sustainability in their growing practices for many reasons.

We have an organic dairy and produce farm scheduled to join our market in June and as the produce comes in, so will the farmers we've been talking to including a local garlic farmer and various market farmers' seasonal produce growers with things like corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, squash, etc.

The rainbow of carrots are looking good here at Eden's - from above anyway - and I can't wait to harvest them. Beets, collards and the chard are dodging whatever has been eating the green mustard and our kale. Looks like a small black beetle that nothing else wants to eat. I don't like to use Spinosad, as it is non-selective even though it is an organic product, when eaten, accidentally in a water droplet or on the leaves as pests consume them, it will kill it's eater. So struggle as I may to stay with a target use control, we'd like to have some green mustard before summer comes on and I'll carefully spray just those plants when the winds die down. Bt , another organic tool, (this one is a specific insect targeted control), needs to go on the squash and tomatoes as I've started to see signs of nibbling - usually a caterpillar of some sort.

Parris Island Romaine at its Peak

It's dry and I suspect that is what the plants are hollering about - We Want Water! I'm doing so with irrigation, but nothing compares to a nice, gentle soaking rain. We pray.

Probably our biggest disappointment this winter has been the spinach and strawberries. Too much rain this winter kept several rows under standing water much of the growing season and roots need air to breathe as well as moisture to grow. We'll see about converting these obviously low and flood prone areas to compost areas rather than growing rows in the future. The compost piles will serve as water breaks and the "tea" that does run off should make anything downhill quite happy. :)

Our CSA potluck picnic was lots of fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy getting to meet others who are like-minded in the support of small, local urban farms - this one in particular. We toured the back 40 and saw where the honey bees' new home will be later this spring/summer. There are spring shares available - www.edensorganicgardencenter.com/CSA.htm for details on how to join us and help support a small, local growing farm.

Supporting local farmers, organic or not, and growing some of your own food, helps send a message to DC and your state that you want choices in your food sources. We're not advocating an end to big ag, just a correction to what the results of it have produced.

Many thanks for your support of local farms, farmers, and clean food.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Food Safety "Listening" Session Comments

2010-05-09T14:22:00.002-05:00

Here is what 2 of my fellow farmers so elequently shared with the FDA down in San Antonio. Please listen to the logic in what they say - and then explain to me how the absense of logic in the proposed regulations doesn't make sense to Senator Cornyn or anyone else supporting this bill (S510)?

100 crops = 100 safety plans! We'd need to hire people just to handle the paperwork!

And Brad nails it - we've already got that - tracibility.

Great job Judith and Brad - thank you and the others there in San Antonio, during the peak of planting season no less, for representing N. Texas Farmers, too.

Please be sure to continue to stay posted on this issue - we'll need the support of our customers/supporters to help make the voices of the farmers heard. Let them know you have food safety with your farmers' direct sales.

Your food choices will be at risk if they shut down small farms by virtue of over-regulating them out of business. And our food will be no safer, and in fact, less safe, as a result of it passing.

Senator Testor has proposed ammendments we need to get behind - we all want food safety - small local farms already have it. Go to www.foodandranchfreedom.org for details, to support small farms' representation in DC and Austin, and to stay posted on this and other important issues that affect YOUR food.

MarieEat Your Food - Naturally!

A Good Laugh! Who Says Farming isn't Fun?

2010-04-19T08:13:00.002-05:00

As fellow farmer Brad says, with a CSA farm, you have to keep a good sense of humor....

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

April Showers on the Farm

2010-04-18T07:52:00.006-05:00

Farmer Jack and his nephew, farmer Larry, bring out the "big guns" to get more rows ready for warm season planting after a wet winter kept JD out of the fields to keep the weeds cultivated.

As I listen to the rain gently falling outside, I am happy. After all of that rain we endured this past fall and winter, I wondered if I could be happy to see it rain again, but it is in perfect timing this round. Many of our warm season things are in the ground and I'm sure they are welcoming this drink from Above and the cooler temps are good for the cool season things still to harvest and enjoy.

The Swiss Chard, collards, beets, carrots, radishes, lettuces, green mustard and a single row of broccoli the rabbits missed (whew), are enjoying this spring season. The tomatoes are in with the cucumbers, melons, some zucchini and soon peppers go in, gonna try some watermelon this year and even that popcorn I wanted to try will go in out near the onions this week. Summer squash, winter squash, and if it ever warms up enough to get enough of them germinated, I'll plant eggplant, too. I love eggplant!

The Irish potatoes are finally popping up so we may get some after all - was really afraid they'd all drowned but it looks like only one variety rotted out and the rest were just treading water. We replanted where the yellow finn failed and will see if we can at least get some "new" potatoes out of this late planting before it gets hot out. Work share members Paula and Jake showed no mercy to the weeds in the potato patch yesterday - great job!

The summer onions are sure enjoying the drink and soon we can thin out and have some "spring" onions.

Someone had asked for us to grow green beans and I hadn't planned that but I have some seeds we'll try. The two varieties of beans we tried didn't do well for us last year and I'm not sure why so we'll just try a different variety and let them grow up the trellis after the snow peas which are still pretty small but a few of the plants that made it through the winter are producing. Just enough to munch on as you walk by.

The strawberries that survived the monsoons of this past winter are blooming and starting to fruit. Not a ton of them by any means, but our CSA potluck may be a good time to graze....

Part of our warm season garden area

just freshly bedded up and ready for planting this week.

After Larry and Jack got done plowing and tilling the ground with the big tractor, I was able to bed up the area and will get it laid out with drip tape and start planting as soon as Monday, if the beds aren't too wet after this rain. The soil usually drains pretty well and it was dry enough for long enough that I think we're back in good shape for normal drainage again. I just hope it came down gently enough not to wash out the beds and need them re-raised. If I have to get the tractor back out there, it will delay things a few days. April is the month to get as much as you can in the ground and I'm working as much as I can to get that done.

Our irrigation control system was fried during a storm over the winter. Herb says that lightening must have struck nearby as our circuit board is toast. He's got to re-build it now and until then when I water I'm forced to stink up the place with a gas pump. We'll get back up and running soon I think. Herb wants to rebuild the thermometer and other fun gadgets, too, so we can have our own little weather monitoring set up out here that you'll be able to see on line.

We've had our share of ups and downs, late starts and set backs, but this spring seems to be agreeing with farming so far and I'm looking forward to sharing a bountiful harvest soon with my CSA family.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

It Makes A Difference!

2010-04-17T07:16:00.001-05:00

One of my CSA member families took advantage of the nice sunny day last Saturday and popped in at the farm to pick up their weekly share instead of waiting for the remote drop off later on.

The whole family rolled up their sleeves and joined other impromtu volunteer members as we were shorthanded that morning getting the harvest ready for pick ups. They prepared and washed the cabbage and greens leaves from the harvest, dried all of the leaves in the spinner, fed chickens and took a walk out to see the emerging spring gardens. Everyone working side by side chit chatting and getting to know each other for an hour or so.

Apparently, it left an impression as I rec'd this note yesterday and I wanted to share it, because this, my fellow farmers and friends, is why we do what we do;

"My son said he hated vegetables. When he was a baby we used to give him all kinds of veggies and he loved them. Then, three years ago, at age 6 he declared war on veggies other than carrots, broccoli or artichokes. That was until last week's visit to Marie's farm! I braised greens, made salads, chopped up green garlic on pizza and pasta, and last night, made a vegetable medley with the cabbage, artichoke hearts, garlic, chickpeas, green peas and a little white wine. My son ate it all and and declared: "vegetables taste great when you know who grows them and when you help cleaning them. Weren't the chickens funny?". I concur. :-)"

I thanked my member for sharing this with me, it really made my day and I'll keep it handy to remind myself on those long hard days, why it is I do what I do.

I hope it is an inspiration to others to support local farmers face to face, take your kids with you to see the farms and see the food where it is grown and give them opportunity to help in some way.

Thank you for supporting local agriculture - it makes a difference.

Marie
Real, Clean, Fresh, Local, Food

Did You Call?

2010-04-13T06:47:00.002-05:00

The time is drawing nearer and nearer to when your food choices may very well be limited to only the big, strong and powerful corporate farming industry.

The way the "food safety" bill is written, it suggests increased regulations and record-keeping obligations that could destroy small businesses, (which is what a small, family farm is), that bring food to local communities.

In particular, the reliance on hazard analysis and risk-based preventative controls, a concept similar to “HACCP”, will harm small food producers and not likely increase the food safety anyway as it has failed in the meat industry to do.

HACCP has already proven to be an overwhelming burden for a significant number of small, regional meat processors across the country. Applying a HACCP-type system to small, local foods processors could drive them out of business, reducing consumers’ options to buy fresh, local foods.

The major foodborne illness outbreaks and recalls have all been caused by the large, industrial food system. Small, local food producers have not contributed to the highly publicized outbreaks. Yet S. 510 subjects the small, local food system to the same, broad federal regulatory oversight that would apply to the industrial food system.

KNOW YOUR FARMER - SHAKE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU - FROM OUR HAND TO YOURS.... This is food safety.

The FDA has its hands full enough and does not belong on the farm. S. 510 calls for FDA regulation of how farms grow and harvest produce. (Really? Farms have been around since WAY before the FDA) Given this government agency’s track record, it is likely that the regulations will discriminate against small, organic, and diversified farms. The House version of the bill directs FDA to consider the impact of its rulemaking on small-scale and diversified farms, but there are no enforceable limits or protections for small diversified and organic farms from inappropriate and burdensome federal rules.

Food safety and security both come from a diversified, vibrant local food system. Local foods give consumers the choice to buy from producers they know, creating a transparent, accountable food system without federal government oversight. State and local laws, which are often size-specific rather than one-size-fits-all, are more appropriate for local food producers.

Please, if you value your farmer's markets, small farmer/rancher friends, and your choices for where to get your local food - contact Senator's Hutchison and Cornyn TODAY - and send this to out of state friends as well.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!
REAL, CLEAN, FRESH, LOCAL, FOOD

March Showers Bring....

2010-03-25T08:55:00.005-05:00

A great article/blog entry by a young lady I had the pleasure of meeting a few weeks ago.

She is right on as far as my vision of local and farmers' markets are concerned.... Dallas, can we do this?

http://www.austinfarmtotable.com/

Just a quick update - the lettuces are looking absolutely beautiful - which is good since the mesclun mix looks pretty ragged after such a hard winter. More flowers than leaves right now - although those are pretty and pretty tasty, too!

I'm going to Terrell this afternoon to see about the broccolli that Harmony Harvest left behind. We'll see if there is anything else to harvest - its us or the critters that get it!

We still have another round of green cutting onions that should come out this week, the Brussels sprouts are teeny tiny but I see them! And there is more pac choi, and lavender this week.

It may be a small harvest, but we're still planting, too. Kale, more mustard greens, radishes, carrots, collards - these are in the ground. The warm season goodies are just staying warm in the greenhouse waiting for the right moment to go out.

I hope you all enjoyed your shares last week - James shared this thought with me;

We enjoyed some of our 'take' in salads over the weekend. It sure makes a difference having fresh greens. Very tasty.

Neither Vicki or I had ever eaten mustard greens before. We really like the taste. Vicki is somewhat of a mustard/vinegar addict. The taste of mustard in the green was great. Adding mustard greens to our diet really make the farm special to us.

Thanks
You are absolutely welcome! Thank YOU - for without your support, we couldn't have these tasty and healthy foods growing right in our back yard on this farm.

I hope for more sunny weather so things will fill out more and our harvests will increase as the weather gets more favorable.

Liz wanted to share a few more recipes with everyone;
Several recipes:http://blogs.myspace.com/surcentrofarmRed mustard greens are pretty much just like green mustard greens, except they have a pretty red tinge to them. Baby mustard greens are fabulous in salads, and the red ones add a lovely hue. When cooked red mustard greens lose their distinctive color as well as the sharp edge of their flavor. As with green mustard greens, you can mellow the flavor by blanching them in salted boiling water for a minute or two, draining, and then using. Or saute as is for a sharper, but still mellowed, flavor. Longer cooking leads to an increasingly mellow flavor.http://localfoods.about.com/od/cookinggreens/tp/typesgreens.htmRed MustardYoung, raw red mustard brings vibrant color and heat to salads, slaws and sandwiches. Steaming, wilting and sauteeing curbs the burn, but leaves plenty of rich flavor. Combine mustard greens in medleys with spinach and kale, or stir them into soups and stews.Tip: Do not cook red mustard or any mustard greens in aluminum or iron: It will affect the flavor and color.http://www.kitchendaily.com/2009/11/20/how-to-cook-spring-vegetables/

Thanks all - keep the sunshine coming!

Till next time -

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Planting and Picking

2010-03-20T14:03:00.006-05:00

Well yesterday was warm and sunny, breezy and overall, quite pleasant. I hastily harvested everyone's salad greens, knowing what was in store for the morning weather. I managed to squeeze in getting some rows ready for onions and potatoes and once Liz arrived to help out, we got most of the rest of the week's share harvested and did some planting as I wanted the rains to water in these already late plantings. Seems we just can't get dry enough for very long! But, we're almost all in for onions and potatoes now; we'll just have some come off later and perhaps smaller than we'd like.

When I awoke this morning after having stayed up enjoying the last of the warmth rinsing and drying in our handy salad spinner, (although, I do suggest you soak and spin again before eating to rinse out any remaining "grit".), the promised cold wind and pouring rain had arrived. One brave solider showed up to help on this frigid morning - thank you, Paula, and we sorted and bagged, harvested some more and rinsed and distributed. What a day for being outside! Brrrrr to say the least. If I had lights outside, I'd have harvested the rest in the dark while it was still nice and warm out last night. Sorry Paula! We dodged the rain though and pulled up some of the farm with your onions and saw signs of brussles sprouts so i decided to leave them to see if they'll mature rather than just harvest for greens. (they taste just like cabbage leaves)

I came in for lunch after 1 to ponder what to make for my dinner after I ate up the last of my home made lasagna for my mid day meal. I knew I'd want something just as hearty after making the Green Spot delivery later on. Cold weather seems to make me hungrier.

I turned to my trusty Eating in Season cookbook by friend and fellow farmer, Carol Ann Sayle of Boggy Creek Farm in Austin. And wallah! I also found some of her great recipes for some of the yummies you all took home today. This cookbook is sold out now, and in for a revamping, so I'll have to share some of them here on line until she finds time between seasons to do some writing - and in Austin, where they really farm all year round, I suspect that won't be easy to do. In 14 years, Carol Ann and her husband Larry have only had 2 Saturday markets that they didn't open, and that was due to snow - in Austin. They grow a ton of food! And, here is what Carol Ann has to say about those incredibly beautiful red mustard greens and such....

All greens in all stages of growth can be eaten raw. Some she says, are mild and sweet some are cantankerously hot, and some are bitter. I think the red mustard falls into that 2nd category!

If you want to eat them raw, try taming them with a sweeter dressing, maybe a touch of honey to a vinaigrette, or add some citrus, cheese or another more mild lettuce. But, she reminds us, the bitterness is the sign that the greens are doing their job!

To cook them, and not to kill them by boiling the life out of them, she suggests chopping up some onion and garlic with some olive oil and just as they finish the saute, toss in some chopped up greens. Cook them just a bit though, not till they've lost their color - or they've also lost most of their flavor and much of the nutrition. She goes on to say you can add these sauteed leaves to lasagna, fresh pasta or even tacos. I'm going to be adding mine to some soup later on tonight!

Many of us aren't used to eating fresh greens, myself included being from Midwest and not the south, but I've learned that they are soooo good for us and in the winter when we need them the most. So be sure to "eat your greens!" and share some recipes with us if you have them.

Here is one for the pak choi you can try;
Baby Pak Choi
1-2 T peanut oil (I'll use olive)
2-3 cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed)
salt (to taste)
pak choi (stem removed, cleaned well and chopped up into 1 inch pieces)
1T water or vegetable broth

Stir fry the garlic about 30 seconds. Add salt and pak choi and stir fry about a minute. If note enough liquid, add the water or broth. Stir fry for 3 more minutes and the sever with rice or hot pasta. If you were lucky enough to get one with some pretty blooms, toss those in raw or just warm them up - but yep, you can eat that part, too!

Sounds good to me!

And don't forget, when you do some stir frying, clean and chop up those onion roots - Wendy Akin from Akin Farm says a chef told her they make good eatin', too, and I've not tossed any roots from my green onions since.

The weather has really played havoc on some of the crops this winter. The cabbages won't head up, but seem to have just as much flavor, and the salad mix is having a ball bolting - that means, it is starting to flower and go to seed, ending its life cycle. But, we have no control over the ups and downs of the winter, and when it drops as cold as it did, even a warm up to our normal winter sends false signals to some crops that their season is over. (that is why they start to put out flowers and go to seed.) You can try braising some of those greens as well as enjoying them as salad mix. We cut them pretty tight so it may be a week or two before they grow enough to cut again. I'm hoping that one of the 3 varieties of lettuces we have in will be close enough to ready to harvest next week and we should be able to get some broccoli - hopefully enough for us all to get a nice head each - from another farmer who moved away. We'll see. Her dad is overlooking the gardens from a distance....let's hope not with his fork too handy.....

It's been tricky, but you all seem to "get it" and we'll keep planting and loving on the gardens in hopes that the harvests will grow bigger as the weather warms up. And don't worry, I haven't put in any tomatoes or peppers yet.... it isn't even Easter! We'll generally get one more good snap of winter that week and I'm not that brave without the hoop house covered and the soil warmed up yet. They are still cozy in the greenhouse getting more leaves on them.

The melons and cucumbers were peeking up out of the soil this morning, too. Ahh, spring can't be too far away - can it?

Stay warm and make it a great day!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

From the Front Lines - In the Strategy Room

2010-03-14T08:05:00.008-05:00

The Mouthwatering Scene as We Visited

Boggy Creek Farm in Austin, TX

As I sit this morning listening to the woodpeckers happily hammering out a Morse code of sorts and while the plethora of other morning birds join in with their songs, I am taken back to my childhood, waking up those early, crisp mornings at camp in St. Charles IL as a Girl Scout where my love for the outdoors was nurtured. I don’t recall hearing roosters back then, though it is now a comforting reminder of my home, of which I am thinking fondly.

This year's grower’s symposium has been very good and it reunites old familiar faces and like-minded individuals who are all passionate about the same things – growing clean, good, healthy food in safe, sustainable and practical ways in order to make a fair, honest living. It is a gathering of ideas, information, hopes and fears about our livelihoods.

When Judith McGreary of FARFA took the mike during lunch yesterday to update us on the recent machinations of the DC Legislature, I was saddened to hear that our own two TX senators were not looking out for the best interest of their home state small business owners that happened to be in the business of growing food. Here we are in the trenches growing the best, most nutritious food on the planet, and we have no support from our own Senators to do so.

It seems as though either they’ve not had time to really read the bill, (gee, wouldn’t that be a surprise?), and see that the government intends to over reach its stretch by meddling with small business' practices or see that many portions of the bill are left way too open to interpretation, i.e., the whims of individual inspectors who likely have zero experience in farming, or any aspect thereof – except perhaps for their small home garden or the eating of the end product.

This, being eaters of food, is where every single person in America is affected by this proposed new policy because it will ultimately limit their options of food, both where they can get it and how it is grown.

It will, in fact, give the FDA the power to dictate to a farmer how he or she grows food and runs their farm – can you imagine the government telling Mattel how to assemble its latest toys on the assembly line? Or laying out guidelines to a business as to what kind and many sinks they have to have in the restrooms at the factory? Oh, I guess the unions probably deal with that. But then, that brings me to my next point, we are talking about local food….shouldn’t its producers fall under local jurisdiction?

If Farmer Jane takes the grown produce from her family farm of say, 25 acres, to the local county farmers’ market, or better yet, sells them at her farm's produce stand on the roadside to her neighbors, why should the FDA care how many stainless steel sinks she has or whether or not they wore rubber gloves to harvest? Do you wear them when you select them from the basket at the stand?

Trying my "hand" at leading Layla down an unmarked field with

a cultivator attachment..... Get in the hole Layla!

Or better yet, if a deer, rabbit, coyote (or your trusty Halflinger) happens to wander across her spinach patch, probably grazing it along its way, why should she be forced to tear out and destroy all of the rows of crops, her very livelihood, within 30 feet of the tracks? Do deer, rabbits, cats and dogs really have that kind of trajectory?

Even for those who choose to jump through the many hoops of the USDA’s certification manual so they can use the now regulated “O” word, (and I bet Oprah thought she had the corner on that one.), there is the likelihood that layering of additional regulations not yet covered in that pack of regulations.

(After later hearing the process which farmers have to follow in order to be granted permission to label their foods with by the modern day word used for the age old practices of farming passed on by many generations before them, made me even more convinced I was not interested in pursuing that avenue.)

My current customers all know, and new ones come to know, that I wouldn’t use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers on their food or intentionally use unsafe practices, pass along dirty or contaminated foods or do things that would likely contribute to the risk of making an inherently safe thing, fruits and vegetables, unsafe to eat. And they also come to know that I care at least as much, if not more, about the condition of my land and those who work with me as anyone of the other farms who have felt it an advantage to pay the government to tell the world they do. Not only that, I was saddened to find that no where in the requirements for being certified organic, were there any real provisions for the well being of the folks who do the work. (At least, not that was discussed anyway.) And that is the true spirit of organic farming.

The spirit of organic farming, to my understanding and how I choose to interpret it in my work, is about stewarding the land for future generations, replenishing it as it is used to keep it healthy and viable, and to restore that land which has been neglected in the past, to heal the land so it will grow food that contains the most nutrition possible. It is about growing cleanly, sustainably, safely and practically while treating any of those who help to do so, in a humane, fair and fairly compensated manner, so they can live in a reasonable lifestyle.

The scene at our host farm, Home Sweet Farm, included veggies that were bursting from the greenhouse just waiting to get into the soil after a record breaking wet and cold winter for Central Texas.

Way too many of the guidelines of the USDA’s certification process, seemed to be very much like this proposed S510 bill; way too open to the opinion, discretion, understanding and interpretation of the process’ guidelines by the field inspector and his ability to convey the information to his or her certifier, who never steps foot on the farm or probably ever speaks to the farmer, applying for the coveted right to call their products what they are – organically raised.

And to top it all off, this bill doesn't do a thing about food safety in meats where safety regulations are already in place. Perhaps they just need to enforce the ones that are already there and focus on these food factories where there are literally tons of food being dumped together from countless large scale farming operations from all over the world, and being handled by hundreds of pairs of hands on conveyor belts - rather than the one place where to our knowledge, NO known widespread outbreaks of national health threats have ever come from.....the local family farm.

No thanks, you can keep your regulations and I’ll keep growing clean, nutritionally dense, sustainable food with common sense and good farming practices, take care of those who help me, and call it REAL food. Want some?

See you Wednesday at the Balch Springs Library on Elam Rd. @ 635 for Farm Day and the free screening of FRESH! at noon.....

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Why We Do What We Do

2010-02-20T07:08:00.012-06:00

Some of my pets, who happen to leave good food around for me to share.

Recently, someone lovingly told me I was cheating myself on the price I ask for my chicken eggs. She said mine were organic-er and fresher than Costco, yet I was charging less than they were. Well, I thought to myself, maybe I am cheaper, but then, I also am not a big store with huge overhead and a staff of hundreds to pay. No middleman either. It doesn't cost me anything to pick them up as I walk through the barn on my way up to the house, and thank heaven's I'm not doing the hard part - the laying of the eggs! No, I thought, I think I'll keep them at the price they are. I think they are already twice what "regular" eggs are at the grocery store!

Amy the local bees' wax candlemaker's son Max helping

weed at our first community garden area several years ago.

Part of my mission here, is to try to make this good stuff accessible and affordable for folks so they will be more likely to eat it. I don't really try to run an egg layer business so that means, on the down side, we only get eggs as we find them, (we don't have a huge supply of them because these girls are not very consistent all of the time about their favorite places to lay eggs), and these chickens eat mostly a diet of whatever chickens eat on their own, (you don't want to know), so sometimes they may not lay as abundantly as those fed a constant diet of "laying mash". But on the up side, it keeps the cost down cuz I'm not constantly having to buy 50lb bags of organic feed just for them to survive and lay eggs, I don't spend time on paperwork figuring out how many eggs per flock or whatever tracking an egg farmer does and our eggs are probably chocked full of omega 3's since most of their diet isn't laying mash, so I can eat about as many as I want and not worry about cholesterol.

To me, eggs are kind of the bonus for having chickens as more or less pets. Can't say that about most pets now can ya? They are educational, too. How many a previously scared of birds child (or adult), has pet one of my roosters? Whereas the chickens most assuredly are part of the overall farm business, I suppose if I turned the egg laying part into more of a business and tracked those expenses it may cause me to bump the price up as I calculated how much square footage they take up and how much that space actually costs, etc. Maybe I'll start setting aside what I get for the eggs to put towards new electric chicken fencing to keep them all on my property so I don't get a ticket for stray chickens - and that will mean even more eggs for us as they won't lay them all over the neighborhood! Hmmm, something to ponder....

Heading this farm in the direction of a "closed-loop" system will eventually mean less inputs from outside sources, too. So, in the future, as those costs of ammendments rise, I hope to be able to hold down the cost of our shares and the food we sell at the market day tables, because we won't need as much of them to grow our farm's food with. (That is unless our taxes all go through the roof to pay for the things our government invents for us to pay for. And then we may all just have to live out here on the farm to save money!)

Again, making our farm food more affordable so anyone who truly desires this food, this beautiful, nutritionally dense grown with TLC food - can afford it.

I don't mean to "cheapen" its value. NOT AT ALL! This food is priceless when it comes to your health, the relationships we are building through the farm and the taste....oh don't get me started on the fresh taste! But I do look for ways to keep my expenses down, diversify the farm's resources and make this food available here in this community, or a short drive away. I believe that is how local food should work. I don't want organic/fresh/local to be a gourmet priced only type thing. We may grow specialty foods for chefs at some point or there may be a shortage of something one year that causes the good ol' "supply and demand" theory to kick in. But I am working very hard to make Eden's a paradise for all those who seek it.

Anne "Kip" Rogers teaching some ladies

the value and simplicity of a healthy

eating lifestyle at a free class in 09.

And of course, that is part of why we have work shares, a community garden area as well as the various classes, too. I want to help empower people to find ways to live healthier lives by eating better food than they can find elsewhere and teach them how to use it, too. A fresh head of broccoli doesn't do anyone any good if no one knows how to prepare it. Zucchini will get old fast if you only know one way to use it and it would be a shame for home grown tomatoes to not be enjoyed all winter long because someone didn't know how to preserve them. (Watch for canning classes this summer!)

Don't get me wrong, it is not cheap to have a 14 acre piece of land inside of city limits paying for 2 school districts' taxes and all of the "amenities" of living in a large metropolitan county. So yes, all of those incidental expenses must be covered of course. And yes, most of the mainstream food is subsidized by our taxes in the way of the "farm bill" that gets passed every year or so. I thought about grant money, but then decided I didn't want to be at the government's beck and call or be told what I could or couldn't do on my farm. (we already face that fear if the looming "food safety" bill S510 passes the Senate.)

But as more people jump on board, the costs will even out, the farm will get healthier and risks will even out more and more and as the production rises, I suspect I'll have some of you hollering "UNCLE!" on the food distributions and everyone will feel they've made a more than wise investment in this farm. That is my goal anyway - we have to keep hoping the weather will cooperate sooner than later!

The ground breaking crew for Eden's Community Gardens - Home Depot of Balch Springs helped in a big way

Don't forget that in March we're helping sponsor "Farm Day" in Balch Springs. I'm looking for helpers/volunteers to over see the chicken petting/feeding area, answer questions about local food and our farm/CSA, see that kids don't eat too much of the potting soil at the FOFA potting station and oh, you get to watch the movie FRESH! with us for free and be entertained by Ms. Petunia Hopper and Kevin Davin Fine's Mission of Nutrition series.

March 17th - noon to 5 at the Library on Elam Rd. More details as they firm up.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Eden Under Snow

2010-02-12T21:33:00.008-06:00

Somewhere under there is Savoy Cabbage!

Well, I'm anxiously awaiting the first thaw and word from my organic farm consultant up in Iowa to see what he has to say about 12" of snow on a young winter garden. I think everything will probably be fine, but I honestly must say I've not ever experienced this farming extreme. When it did this in Chicago, everything was already harvested for the winter or in a greenhouse. Cole crops are pretty tough though, and I'm hoping for the best. I'll keep you all posted soon as I hear word.

A new meaning to "winter garden"

I covered the mature things, (never dreaming we'd get a foot of snow!), to protect them from the possible ice they were calling for. Now I'm hoping they are not crushed under there. We've had a few power surges, but fortunately, never lost power.

There isn't any need to irrigate of course, which is a good thing because as you can see, there isn't a lot of sun getting through to the solar panels right now.

It was very pretty to look at this morning, at least till my mom's old snow boots sprung a leak and my foot started to get cold. But, I'm all for warm sunny weather and can't wait for spring.

I just wanted to shoot this quick update and share some pics. I heard from Herb and Barbara who were without power today and saw pics of the Gordon's playing in the snow. I hope you are all toasty and warm again.

Pray for sunshine. The seed potatoes are in and it would be nice to plant them soon.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

DC is at it - AGAIN!

2010-02-11T17:29:00.004-06:00

Please, don't forget to keep sending info to your your out of town friends, family and to your local Senators about the S510 bill - please read the story about some of the specific ways this bill, as it is currently written, will mean the end to many small farm operations.

This bill will mean smaller, low staffed farms won't be able to legally produce many of the yummy cut greens, and as the restrictions grow, many of the other vegetables you love due to cumbersome handling restrictions designed for large operations.

DC and individual states can't even keep up with the current inspections now, which is why there are food safety problems, and they want to further restrict farms by implementing tons of paper work, new regulations and fees? How is this going to help keep your food safer? It won't.

Passing this bill as it is currently written, will, however, either make criminals out of good, small farmers or put them out of business - meaning you will have fewer choices about where your food comes from as only the larger, factory type operations can afford to impliment all of the paperwork and extra procedures being called for. We'd have to hire someone just to READ all of the new restrictions!

Your food from Eden's, and other small, local farms. comes directly from the field to you. THAT is the safest way to get your produce.

Tell Congress NO when it comes to regulating small farms at the same level as those where hundreds of hands touch your food before you do. FARFA has made it easy to send in a petition - and they do read them. Please, your voice DOES matter. Send this link on to family and friends in other states, too. We need more unified citizens to reach thier local legislators across America.

Well, for all of you out of town that follow our blog, we have had a bit of a snow storm here in Dallas! The gardens are totally under snow cover - I shot these pics earlier this morning and have not ventured out again with it being so wet and not wanting to ruin my camera. But, I'll get more of the gardens later - when it stops snowing for awhile! Everything that was at risk was covered up and should be ok. The rest may just be a bit waterlogged again, but then, that is the same broken record we've played since September....

The seed potatoes have arrived - not that we can plant them any time soon - but we'll be cutting them up and dusting with sulfur next week so when it does dry out enough, we're ready to get them in the ground. It has to dry out sooner or later. Onions are on the way but I suspect it is too wet where they are, too, so they are delayed as well. Ironically, they would be loving this weather but they are not here to enjoy it.

The chickens didn't seem to want to venture out much today so they got an extra helping of their organic feed. And the horses weren't sure what to make of the snow either, so after a brief investigation, they returned to the barn hoping to find some dry hay to munch on. Can't say as though I blame them.

Needless to say, there isn't a lot to do outside today other than keeping the snow off of the roof of the greenhouse so it doesn't collapse - a real possibility as we've had about 5+ inches of very heavy snow fall already, and it is still coming down! This is NOT typical for Dallas that is for sure.

We have a mattress heater on the way so we can start seeding as soon as that gets here. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and some more cool season things we may need to replant and have a late harvest of things like broccoli, beets, kale and chard.

I hope everyone is enjoying this taste of winter - I had my fill of them when I lived in Chicago though, so I'm quite ready for SPRING! :) Back to my Eliot Coleman and John Jeavons books... and some acorn squash soup.....

Stay Dry!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Deep Freeze 2010

2010-01-10T08:49:00.008-06:00

As you can imagine, farmers all across the country are doing a lot of praying this weekend. This Arctic blast is being felt all the way to southern Texas, across Florida and all along the Gulf Coast. As I type this, it is snowing at Disney World!

Last Monday, before it hit north Texas, me and several of our CSA members got our crops as prepared as we could. We watered everything thoroughly with the warm water from the pond, which ironically, has not really frozen over at all, and covered up the youngest plants with frost cloth and the more mature plants with both frost cloth and plastic as they are more sensitive to the frigid temps than the young ones.

Leo, Emily and I have been checking several times a day to make sure the winds haven't whipped up the frost cloth and quickly recovered any flapping corners when it did. 99% of the crops have stayed covered the whole time. We have only seen a small portion of one or two rows that became exposed when high winds tore some of the frost cloth loose.

The tunnel was taken down on Monday as there were a few gaps that the wind was getting in anyway and we'd already picked most of the tomatoes before Christmas. There were about another 3lbs of green tomatoes left that those who came to help Monday had dibs on for coming out to help on such short order. (I hope you all took some!)

We will be working with a new organization called "Feed Texas First" in the next few weeks to build our farm a new tunnel for our early spring warm season crops. This should allow us to get tomatoes and squash started a bit earlier than normally. Those are the two crops that seemed to do the best this fall under our first tunnel. This group is working to help train new farmers with "hands-on" classes which provides some free labor to a farmer while teaching those participating how to do various things such as cultivate, plant, build things, etc. I applaud Trish and her partner/sister for this grass roots effort and look forward to participating.

We'll be seeding trays of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and such soon as this cold snap ends. Our greenhouse is a bit too small for me to effectively build a fire inside - safely anyway - and so I'm glad we waited to seed all of those warm season flats! We carried the few cool season veggie trays into the house when it became clear the heating mat wasn't doing a sufficient job of keeping them warm enough. The only place I would have had space for so many warm season flats is the living and dining rooms and I don't have heat in those two rooms unless we stoke a fire 24 hours a day so they'd not have been much warmer in there. I'm looking into other heating mats and comparing notes with other farmers this week to see who used what and what worked and didn't so we're ready if there is a next time. And I have been in Texas long enough to see this happen twice now, so I'm sure there will be a next time, eventually.

As soon as we are out of the woods for freezing, I'll uncover everything and we'll see what we have going on - I'm hoping for the best. One farmer from Oregon indicated that he had salad greens unprotected during a similar blast up there and even though it burned the existing leaves, the plants themselves survived and recovered putting out new growth once the weather returned to 50's with some sunshine. It may be set us back a few weeks, but I think we'll survive with minimal damage.

I'm ordering organic seed potatoes soon and they'll ship from Colorado, as soon as they get a short window of a break in their weather so they don't freeze on the UPS truck! This is the same farm we got them from last year and any of our last year's members remember they were yummy!

If anyone would like to try growing some at home, let me know. You can see the varieties I'm getting on the shop's website. They are pretty easy and fun to grow - not to mention really tasty. I'll also be ordering onions and soon, 4" organic veggies to plant, too. (As CSA members you all are entitled to a shop discount so you don't have to order them from the website on paypal, but shoot me an email and I'll add them to my order.) Keep an eye on the shop's website for what I'll have coming in. I have started a gardening series on my NeighborsGo blog for those who are interested in trying a little garden at home, too.

And don't forget to keep shooting emails or faxes to your senators about that Food "safety" bill S510. They'll be so distracted with the health care debacle that I'm afraid they'll just push this one through without really looking at it. Let them know it will hurt YOUR food supply by putting way too many restrictions on small, local farms - where the safe food comes from!

You all keep warm and we'll do the same. Looks like we're back to pretty normal this week - let's hope it holds!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Life on the Farm - A Year in Review

2010-01-03T13:07:00.007-06:00

We've about seen it all weather-wise in 09. Drought, late freeze, record early high temperatures, record rainfalls, strong winds. Organic farming in North Texas last year was challenging, to say the least. I daresay, farming in general up here was a bit challenging. I heard story after story about failed crops, lack of product, wet and flooded fields, etc.

After a late Easter and the usual late hard freeze that often accompanies it, tomatoes and other warm season crops' planting dates were pushed way back due the wet and cool evenings. Some sketchy spring storms blew in and with them, down went our wind turbine! All but 5 days in June saw temps climb into the upper 90's, heating up the soil, where we were trying to get seeds to germinate, in excess of 120 degrees F! Drought persisted all summer until the fall. Then, the rains came and never left. Nearly 30 inches of rain in as many days and all of that rain without any sunshine for a month ruined the hopes of a bountiful fall harvest and most of the 800 sweet potato slips we had planted in the early summer were hostage to the flooded rows and rotted.

A wind burst took down our turbine. Eden's irrigation system is now on its 3rd updated regulator and gets more sophisticated each time. Soon, it will be viewable on line.

We are, however, looking forward to a productive winter crop. Winter greens, broccoli, cabbage and other cool season fare, are in the ground and slowly growing and so far, the weather seems fairly normal for winter. Soon it will be time to put in Irish potatoes and onions and get the seeds for warm season plants going in the greenhouse, where the make-up fall crops such as beets, more spinach and artichokes are trying to get started.

The only thing constant in farming is the changing weather.

The farm is growing in other ways, too. Besides new baby chicks hatching, now that the rooster ban in town was defeated, we have 2 students

Flooded rows were a common scene in 09

living nearby that are helping out frequently around the farm and an apprentice who aims to become a future co-farmer at Eden's some day soon. The gardens themselves have

been expanded and we now plant for 40 CSA families in hopes of attracting that many to our group, with plans to increase it further in the future once we have secured more labor.

Eden's has shared farm activities with local college students from one of our CSA members' AI Texas classes, home schooled kids, many other farmers and those just wanting to reconnect with their food.

Eden's hosted the DFW premiere screening of FRESH!, a food documentary and the 2nd Annual Barn Aid Concert and Dinner at Eden where over 90 people from around DFW gathered to celebrate local food and hear author Pamela Walker talk about local Texas farmers & her book. It was a great time! This blog, facebook and twitter pages are gaining popularity from folks nationally, as small farming and growing at home gains popularity among people everywhere striving to feed themselves and their families better, safer food.

The farm goes “on the road” in 2010 as Eden's sponsors a farm day at the Balch Springs library/learning center in March. Teaching others how to look at their food differently and to grow it, too, is one of the missions at Eden's Garden. Come grow with us!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Tempting Fate

2009-12-08T07:44:00.005-06:00

I've been up reading more Eliot Coleman since 5 this morning, listening to Brad Barton's predictions of low 20's for morning after next, and deciding how courageous I am going to be in the garden. I'm not much of a gambler, really.

I've decided that after my morning reminder calls for December CSA installments, attaching the plastic door and window to the greenhouse and getting the frost cloth ready for the new seedlings/plugs, I'll be harvesting the lion's share of the tomatoes. Just not going to risk all of them. Low 20's is pretty low.

I will, however, leave the darker green ones in there. It is supposed to be sunny for the most part on Wednesday, which should warm it up in the hoop house pretty good. The plants will be covered with frost cloth, just as before, and this will of course be a good test of this procedure for future crops - I just don't want to risk our best crop of tomatoes to this relatively untested system - untested here anyway. Eliot Coleman wasn't growing tomatoes - he was growing cold season crops.

Speaking of which, we are going to seed some beets in the greenhouse since the ground seems to still be so saturated as to prohibit the roots from surviving. I know we all loved the beets we grew last year, and of all the root crops, those are among the ones that can be transplanted instead of direct sown only.

I'll erect some more makeshift low tunnels and keep trying for carrots, but we're not seeing much in the way of help for getting the soil to dry out - as more rain falls as I type. As well, the daylight hours and sun's angle are not in our favor. They should be ready for our late winter harvest, if we can get them to germinate.

The green cutting onions are getting there, Mesclun mix is coming along nicely as is the Pok Choi. Brussels sprouts and cabbage seem to take forever, but we'll have them in the late winter and the strawberries are doing their thing, too. Garlic is up, and we're going to just replant the fall/winter herbs in transplants, same as the beets. We've lost 2 seedings to the rain and I'm not going to try a third. Cilantro, Fennel, Dill, Parsley will all have to be started in the greenhouse this year.

Irish Potatoes, sweet and red onions and all of the warm season seeds will be ordered right after the holidays. The seasons all roll together in North Texas as there is little break on the part of the farmer, even though the harvest seems to end. Seeding warm season crops in the greenhouse begins in just a few weeks, while the winter crops are still in the ground growing and just starting to be harvested. Early planting is done in order to get a jump on any early heat we may be in for this spring that retards growth of early warm season crops or makes them bitter with too much warmth. With the newly gained knowledge of these small portable hoop houses, we should be able protect some beds from late frosts and risk getting some things out a bit earlier as I am able to afford production of these simple units. I should have enough materials to cover 2 rows right now, once the last of the tomatoes are done. (They are made with PVC pipe, some wood and hardware, covered with greenhouse plastic & floating row cover.)

Fall 2009 has been a roller coaster ride in the organic farm world of North Texas for sure. All of the organic farmers I spoke to in our area have experienced the same fate, or worse, as Eden's Garden. Washed out fall plantings, rotted, stunted warm season fall plants, poor to no germination for fall and winter seeds and most of us didn't have the fall harvest of crops we should have had. It was very disheartening, considering the great weather and high hopes we had going in to the season....abruptly coming to a halt Sept 10th with that first gullywasher - will I ever forget that date?

We are all at least a month behind in our planting, and it is the hardest time of the year to make that up.

In the "old days" we'd be relying on our canned goods, root cellar crops and the little bits we could manage to scrounge up from what did survive. Fortunately today, we have the corner grocery. And, after 7 hours of stripping leaves, some basil I put through the food processor and into little containers in the freezer, you'll have some "fresh" basil paste, too. :)

KUDOS to those who are able to support local, small farms in good times and bad times just the same, and to the farmers who never give up or stop encouraging each other to go on and plant again, a retired couple I know, joking how it would be just as risky to gamble their social security check at the casino - and be drier, warmer and possibly more fun.

The farmer has no control over rain fall, excessive or otherwise, hours of day light or the temperatures. We can only do so much to try to accommodate for these natural occurrences when they become adverse. The rest is out of the farmer's hands. This is why many a farmer is also working a full time job to feed, house and clothe himself/herself and the family. If they have no crops to bring to the market, they have no income. Several of these poor seasons in a row, has put many a farmer out of business entirely, sending the fertile soils back to the banks to become housing developments or shopping centers. Losing yet another local source of food and learning for that community, as well as a family's livelihood and home.

This is why a committed CSA support group is so very important to the survival of a small farmer. I've worked full time off the farm and come home to farm in the dark. (I suppose that is why there are lights on tractors?) It makes for very, very long days and short nights, long weeks and months. I am not sure how long one could endure such a schedule. Fortunately, I only tried it for 7 months and hope never to have to return to that schedule again.

Because with CSA, everyone involved is taking a small bit of the financial risk that is spread out if things go south, yet reaping the same bountiful rewards when the harvests come in.

With CSA, small farms can survive as the farmer works tirelessly to adjust rotations, research, re-plant, build new soil beds and re-plant some more. Praying for favor from the elements.

Ah, but the sweet, nutrient dense and fresh rewards that result from the hard work and patience - are priceless.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Deep Organics - Double Insulation

2009-12-05T15:38:00.004-06:00

The results are in! Looks like tomatoes for Christmas my friends! Yahoooo

check out the last 2 videos.

And inside....

Double insulated Hoop Houses ROCK!

Marie Eat Your Food - Naturally!

The First Freeze

2009-12-03T07:05:00.014-06:00

This morning at about 5:30 it was 32.2 F. About an hour later it was up to 32.4 F, so it looks like tomorrow and maybe Saturday morning will be the real cold ones. This gradual dropping over 3 nights is actually better than a sudden swing in dropping temps overnight, and helps to harden plants off, or acclimate them. This is much better than to shock them from 60 degrees to 28 degrees as it sometimes does in N. Texas.

Late blooming fall tomatoes and assorted squash are hunkered
down in the mini hoop house to escape the frigid weather.

The plant plugs, little tiny seedling plants, that were ordered came in from sunny CA yesterday on the Fed Ex truck. They are sitting on the back porch for right now to get conditioned to Dallas weather gradually. Today, I'll move them outside and back in tonight, doing the same tomorrow. Then Saturday, we'll put them in the greenhouse - once the freezes are past - until we can get them in the ground. The beds are ready, just need the top inch or so to drain off so we can level the rows off and plant.

In addition to what is out there now, we will be growing 3 different types of lettuces, artichokes, which are a perennial plant that harvests around May, meaning we'll have artichoke plants growing every year getting better and better, and another round of broccoli.

Plants this time of the year grow very slowly as we barely have 10 hours of actual useful sunlight a day. But they do grow. By putting in a second round of some things, we should be able to have better successive harvests and early harvests in the spring - late winter.

On the recommendation of a fellow farmer, I'm currently reading a couple of books about winter farming by Eliot Coleman who grows all year around up in Maine where it gets way below 0 degrees F in the winter. If they can do it, I know we can. We just have to keep in mind we can't make the sun shine more hours a day than it is, so there will be some slow time here until February, when the daylight hours increase sufficiently more again to spur new rapid growth. He offers some great insight on this subject and a whole list of cool veggies I'd like to try here, too, that combined with some of his techniques, should widen our offerings of winter produce of mostly greens.

The crops we got in before the days shortened are looking good. The Pak Choi and Mesculin mix is covered up just because I didn't want to risk it if we got sleet or whatever they don't predict. It won't kill the plants, but it can make them look sorry and get soggy as they thaw back out. Ever eat frozen lettuce? Ick. Saturday, we'll uncover them and give them a shower with fish and seaweed and let them soak up some sunshine.

IF you happen to be one of those folks who rakes up your leaves up into bags and drags them to the curb - AND you don't use any chemical fertilizers or herbicides on your lawn, you can bring those leaves over to the farm. We will put them in our compost piles. (I would rather try to encourage you to mow them and leave them on your own lawn as a free fertilizer and cover/protection for it, but if you do rake, we'll take them and help keep them out of the dump.)

So that is the farm report from the weather bunny for the day. Tomorrow and Saturday are the real tests for our hoophouse'd tomatoes. I'll take some pics and open it up and see what's what in there later today, but I think they are all nice and toasty in there. Well, relative to being outside they are toasty. :)

Snowflakes made a brief appearance at Eden's Wednesday

morning, accompanied by another inch of rain.

Don't forget, this weekend is a meet and greet at 12:30 after market day. New potential CSA supporters are coming to see the farm, meet me and they'd love to hear your story about why you help support Eden's Garden and eat local, organic (clean) food.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Life on the You Tube

2009-11-25T18:04:00.004-06:00

Well, Life on the Farm has gone video - finally. I'm not a video-grapher that is for sure, but I did think a few weeks back, when it had been several months since many of you had been to the farm, it would be nice for you to see what was going on. This was taken on October 22nd, after about 20 inches or more had come down - I lost track after awhile! As you know, more fell since that date and we're up to about 27 inches of rain since Sept. 10th. Wow!

Sooo, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get the camera's video to become an actual video I could upload - and well, it had to go through You Tube cuz it was too big of a file for just uploading straight to the blog. So, now I'm a You Tuber, too.

But, I wanted you all to be able to see more of what is going on and this seemed like a good way to do it - (actually, I stole the idea from Farmer Brad - Home Sweet Farm - I saw his video and stole it since it was such a good idea.) I hope you all enjoy and I'll try to get better at this and post other fun and informational videos that may not fit here.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Be Careful What You Eat

2009-11-22T08:17:00.000-06:00

A little humor.....with a serious message.

Be+Careful+What+You+Eat%21

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

New Farmers

2009-11-20T23:59:00.008-06:00

I'm not sure how many new farmers read this blog, but I'm re posting a reply I made on a "new farmers" forum to a young lady who has had a bit of a bumpy road her first 2 years. To my charter members, that rings so true - and bear with me as I re-live our first 2 years so far anyway, to date.....

I have to agree with Julie - you can't give up just because of a few bad seasons, well I guess you CAN, but....

The first year for me, which was last fall while I was still working a full time day job (for a chemical commercial grower of ornamental plants - in the office I might add), on what is now soft and squishy, sandy-red-clay beds, was as hard as a parking lot - so hard, in fact, that we couldn't even get it plowed and planted in time for a warm season fall crop. And the broker messed up my order, placing it 3 weeks too late, so my first order of plugs arrived in December - not when you should be planting anywhere short maybe southern zone 9.

The winter may have been our best shot weather-wise, but due to the late planting, the cole crops sat there - and sat there. Then, my 67 yr young father took critically ill - and eventually I lost him to the neglect of a nursing home basically..... That happened in late Jan - when we should be focused on spring starts, potatoes, onions and such. Well, if you've never lost a parent, even under "normal" circumstances, I can't even begin to explain the feelings that whirl through your head, but it wasn't good for keeping my mind on things. I missed ordering onions and had to take what the local feed store had left over, potatoes went in late and ironically - those 2 things probably were everyone's favorite when they did come in.

To top it off, a young woman who was a self proclaimed expert in what CSA was supposed to be based on her experience on the Angelic Farm CSA in IL, riled up the troops and took half of them off the farm with her after the very first season. (Apparently, after reading her emails, she was also a lawyer, accountant, farmer, small biz owner and expert of everything - except as a supporter of a new farm)

Needless to say, we didn't have a very fruitful 1st year....

This year, we've had to come out of our summer's drought and record heat (which kept our tomato crops at an all time low across the region and killed most of my sweet potato slips as I couldn't keep enough water on the 120 degree sandy soil at the far end of the gardens), to 20 something+ inches of rain in 30 days. (heck after 20 in less than a month, does it really matter anymore? I got tired of dumping out the rain gauge!) And at least 30days without sunshine.

Our crops are dwarfed, the ones that survived, and not yielding much of anything. I've got 200' of tomatoes - GREEN as they can be, and I'm praying for some sunshine and warm temps for about 2 weeks - BEFORE we get a darn freeze.

But - after over 20 years doing various other occupations, this is my chosen life and so long as people will support my efforts, I'll get my rear up out of bed and out to that garden and talk to it till I'm blue in the face if need be - positive stuff of course. And I fertilize and I re-plant until I get something to grow! (we planted 3x now on root crops; after 2.5 inches came down in 45 mins. of an unpredicted rain, and the 2nd time the ground was apparently still so saturated that while we were planting on almanac days in-between rain events, it rained before and afterwards and they never even came up. The other day, again with the almanac, we planted turnips, beets and carrots - and again it has rained - 1/2 inch the first day after - no problem, but then again all day today - about 1.75 inches probably when it is all said and done in the morning. It was at 1.5 earlier, and it is still drizzling out there.) The ground is so wet I'm afraid it will suffocate the roots of the seedlings that should just now be sprouting! And, while all the rain was coming down, caterpillers were chomping because the BT wouldn't stay put - now, I'm not sure if something with 4 legs or 6 is eating the brocolli starts, but I'm not happy about it either way. And the chard seems to keep disappearing as well!

A wise farmer lady friend of mine told me this about farming - as that first 2.5 inches I mentioned was coming down at my farm, unknown to us at the time while we were shelling peas on hers 20 miles away - "if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!"

And she's right - but, I feel like it is a noble and very important thing to do and in a way, I feel honored to have the opportunity to do it. I'm a first generation farmer - no kids or spouse, so it may end with me as far as my family goes - but I'm training others to farm and hopefully they'll take over the CSA when the day comes I want to hang up my hoe, and I'll keep this land in cultivation via an ag-easement, to keep the city's grubby hands off it, and lease it to the new farmers/owners of the CSA. (so I'll have a retirement to live off of. Not counting on any gov't to be left with any much money by then, so I"m planning to take care of myself.)

It gets in your blood when you look at your supporters and know they are counting on that good, clean food they can trust you for. Diabetic, autistic, cancer survivors and other auto immune disorders, die hard supporters who pay AND come work on the farm.

I'm dying to provide a market table - heck I HOST a farmer's market on my farm 2x a month and I can rarely provide anything cuz my CSA comes first. But I know in my heart that one day I'll have an abundance - and it will all have been worth the worrying and the long days & nights blogging, recipe hunting and dishing out work day chores.

I hope you keep after it; the country needs more small, local growers. Keep in touch with other farmers, like you're doing here, or on facebook, and on other forums, get involved with regional farmer organizations (down here in TX we have the state-wide "TOFGA"). Stay connected and stay positive - it will affect your planting if you aren't. I believe in the energy we give off when we are in the gardens - if you're having a bad day - go back in the house till you can recollect yourself and then go back to work. Grow with and out of love for your people and the earth. You are doing something so important!

(Julie - you should write a book! ) (Julie is one of the other farmers I take some of my inspiration from)

To Eden's Garden supporters - I thank you all very much, and I mean that - because what we are starting here doesn't end with us - it goes on and touches many beyond us for generations to come. And I could not execute what it takes to make this farm successful without your support.

The community will grow around it and we'll all have stories to tell and books to write some day about our connections to the farm.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

San Francisco starts mandatory composting this week | MNN - Mother Nature Network

2009-10-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

This is a great goal for Dallas - even if it may be hard to sell to those who still rake and bag leaves....

San Francisco starts mandatory composting this week MNN - Mother Nature Network

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Rain, Rain, and more RAIN!

2009-10-21T07:32:00.010-05:00

Normally, we do nothing but give thanks and praise for the rain we get....but after 20 inches of the wet stuff in the past 30 days with only a few shots of sunshine inbetween, it is making our garden grow very slowly and difficult to finish getting our cool season plants in the ground. The trees are sure happy though and I'm not really complaining, just sayin it is part of farming.

The tomatoes are producing fruits, but they are a ways off from being ripe yet - and I would like to have some to can for the winter! "Farmer-in-Training" Chad, has developed a Charlotte's Web of sorts to support our fall tomatoes - so let's bring 'em on!

Radishes that were planted before the deluge started were intended to harvest with beans, tomatoes, peppers and squash - so much for that idea! That first planting of radishes was harvested, and another round is in - and the recipes are coming for them, too. Radish greens ARE Edible - some use in soups, others stir fry, and yet others saute' with other greens. Share your recipe with us. Here are a few from Liz. The website is getting close to being ready and I'll have a page just for recipes there!

Spicy Stir-Fried Radish Greens and/or Swiss Chard

(Makes 2 servings, can easily be doubled. Recipe created by Kalyn with some chard-cooking inspiration from Vegetables Every Day.)

8-10 ounces radish greens and/or swiss chard,

washed and cut into 1/2 inch slices

2-3 tsp. peanut oil

2 large garlic cloves (for seasoning the oil)

sauce mixture:

1 T soy sauce (I like Kikkomans)

1 tsp. rice vinegar (not seasoned)

1 tsp. Agave nectar

1/4 tsp. (or less) Sriracha sauce or other hot sauce

Wash and dry radish greens and/or swiss chard. (I used a salad spinner.) If desired, soak greens for about 30 minutes in very cold water. (This makes sure they're crisp for the quick stir-frying.) Working in batches, cut greens crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Mix together sauce ingredients and set aside. Preheat the wok or large, heavy frying pan until it feels very hot when you hold your hand there, then add the oil. When oil looks shimmery, add the garlic cloves and cook about 30 seconds, making sure garlic doesn't start to brown. Remove garlic and discard. Add chopped radish greens and/or swiss chard all at once and immediately begin to stir-fry, turning greens over and over just until they are almost all wilted. (For me this was only one minute, but I have a great gas stove with a burner with really high heat.) When greens are almost all wilted, add sauce ingredients, stir, and cook 30 seconds more. Serve hot.

Potato Salad with Wild Radish Greens
Ingredients: (serves 2-3)

A bunch of wild radish greens

4-5 potatoes

a few spring onions

Dressing:3 tbs olive oil1 ts dijon mustard

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 lemon juice

1)Boil the potates, when cool enough peel and chop them. Transfer them to a salad bowl.2)Throw the wild radish greens in a pan full of boiling water,leave them for about ten minutes.3)Strain them and pour cold water over them to avoid discoloration.4)Then chop the greens, transfer them to the salad bowl.5)Whisk all the ingredients of the dressing, pour it into the salad bowl, mix well and serve.

Over the course of a few work days, our great work share members and volunteers did plant over half of most of the plugs we wanted to, but there are still the strawberry plants and 2 kinds of cabbage that need to get in. Garlic is on the way and it won't be too long before we plant onions and then potatoes - those were soooo good last year!

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Mesculin Mix, Spinach, Pok Choi, green cutting onions and some of the two varieties of cabbage are in along with seeds of Swiss Chard, more cabbages, turnips, mustard greens, carrots and more radishes. (French Breakfast this time.)

I've also started to get some of the annual herbs going as the basil is fading - being eaten by something is more like it - and will soon succumb to cold temps.

It won't be long before we're flipping pages of seed catalogs for next spring and I'm always looking for more stuff to plant. Send me your ideas.

Stay dry!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Your Family Could be Eating Organic Food for the Same Price as Processed Foods -- or Less

2009-10-13T07:36:00.002-05:00

I know we all could use some help in the kitchen budget department. And many of you are probably far better cooks than I am, but when I see an article like this that combines the menu planning with a shopping list, I'm all over it because I think it is great to get new ideas and who can't use a little help planning meals?

Especially I like it when it is an all natural food menu that can show the contrast of the mainstream's thought that eating healthy is more expensive than eating cheap food.

I hope this helps you in your meal planning. Pass it on to a friend. I have many friends, and relatives, who think I'm nuts - but this article proves you CAN eat organic and not go broke.

Your Family Could be Eating Organic Food for the Same Price as Processed Foods -- or Less

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Eat Locally Grown Food All Year

2009-10-08T17:52:00.001-05:00

What a great article - even though these folks are up in the north and have basements, we can learn some from them, too. I'm working on a canning class actually for later this year and Herb has given me directions for dehydrating that I've yet to share - my bad.

We all can do many little things to try to eat as local and in season as we can. Those in our CSA are doing tons! Hopefully, the coming rains will be gentle and water in nicely the few plants I have bravely put in. I've held out most, but thought we'd try to get at least one early round in since the rain delayed most of the day. Maybe it will stay north of the farm?

Seeds are covered this time so we shouldn't lose the 2nd seeding of root crops.

Enjoy the article - eat well!

Eat Locally Grown Food All Year

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Wouldn't it be easier if they just stopped feeding cows corn and cow parts?

2009-10-05T21:57:00.001-05:00

Release No. 0491.09

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Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing...

2009-10-04T22:03:00.004-05:00

Another two and nearly a half inches of rain since last night, has made the gardens quite the soggy mess again. The good news however, is that I think all of the seeds planted have had enough time to get going before it started coming down and it wasn't coming down too hard, so as long as they don't rot in the excess moisture before they sprout some true leaves - we should be in good shape on cabbages, lettuces and tat soi.

Our plugs should be in this week - but we're not going to get them in the ground if the forecast holds true. Dave from my old job, told me that the plugs should be ok in their pots for about a week or two upon arrival - so we have to hope the soil dries up a bit in that time frame or we'll be potting up plugs into 2 inch plug trays....not a task I want to endure.

Just wanted to put in a bit of a weather update - stay dry!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Barn Aid and Life on the Farm

2009-09-30T10:12:00.007-05:00

Whew! I made it through September - but just barely. What a month filled with activities and fun! For those of you who missed the event, the 2nd annual Barn Aid & Dinner at Eden was a great success and lots of fun. The evening was captured in photos by James Edward Photography and I invite you to take a peak at the album.

Lorynn the Redhead wooed guests as they were arriving to the farm with her silky voice and magic guitar sound. While author Pamela Walker was educating our guests about some of the awesome Texas farmers and ranchers she profiled in her wonderful new book, (I'm almost done reading it and it is great!), we served over 40 dinners including the volunteers, the members of the band, and several scholarship dinners donated by some who purchased tickets to the fund raiser. Chef Gilbert wowed even the discriminating "non-beet" eaters with a gourmet, organic vegetarian dinner using almost exclusively locally grown, farm fresh foods, including;

Aunt Cindi's Organic Farm beets, 50 year old jerez vinegar, palm sugar, pickled onions from Eden's Garden;

Organic Provincial Vegetables from Aunt Cindi's, Thyme, confit tomatoes (sweet 100's and Juliets from Eden's), (served over cream peas)

Vanhuizen Farm Blue Cheese Foam w/Toasted Texas pecans, pomegranate seeds from Marie's personal pomegranate shrub, (that was a fun course to watch everyone eat!),

and topped off with a Lucky Layla Farms Yogurt Parfait Blueberry compote for desert!

And he put this all together in less than 2 days as most of the ingredients arrived in Chef's hands Thursday afternoon. Many thanks to Chef Dave and his fine assistant and friend, Steve Smith.

We held the DFW premiere screening of FRESH! and 90 people watched as Joel Salatin, Will Allen and others explained how and why it is so important to return our food system to smaller, sustainable operations. If you've never seen or heard (or read) anything by Joel Salatin, you will surely enjoy his positive outlook and dry, or maybe that is wry, sense of humor about our out of control food system and the legislation trying to reform it. He's a farmer, but also a great inspirational speaker. I had the pleasure of introducing him at last year's TCOOP event (hosted by TOFGA) and have now seen him live and in two movies about food. The man has a passion for what he is doing!

The Lucky Pierres performed some great songs and some folks even cut a rug out on the dirt dance floor. Organic popcorn was popped, natural sodas made believers of a few who tried it and Chef served up some tasty hoagy type Italian sausage sandwiches featuring Dominion Farm's all naturally raised meats. Everything was yummy, fun and fulfilling. The evening ended a bit later than we expected, but all good things do have to come to an end sooner or in this case, later.

It was a great afternoon/evening and I am pleased to say we raised $1,000 for the two beneficiaries and enlightened many people about the plight of others' need for the kind of food we are growing and enjoying here from Eden's. I got to meet many new fans of the farm and saw lots of kids enjoying themselves as well. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have shared this evening with so many great people. I can't thank enough those who volunteered, bought tickets, donated and participated. A special shout out to Edible DFW, The Green Spot, Dal-Tex Rentals in Mesquite, James Edward, Jenice Johnson, Saint Arnold and Lucky Layla Farm for their generous contributions and support of the event.

Back to the farm; September is planting time for many of the fall foods we'll be harvesting in the coming months, such as beets, radishes, carrots, turnips, lettuce, spinach, broccoli and much more! Sadly, after 15 inches of rain fell, (I never thought I'd be sad to see rain), we have to replant most of what went in as the first 2 1/4 inches fell in less than an hour and came down in buckets, washing most of the seeds away. The radishes seemed to survive the frog strangler, but I think they start to germinate as you plant them! Turnips, beets and the rest of the root crops were the most affected. The tomatoes, peppers, beans and cucumbers all seemed to enjoy the rain and except for the peppers, have all grown about a foot and a half in 2 weeks! I'm not sure about those peppers though this morning I did see a few blossoms, so maybe they will give us peppers but just won't be tall.

I also planted several varieties of cabbage, lettuce, kale and other greens. We have those strawberry plants and about 1500 other plugs on the way next week to get in the ground. So, if you wanted to volunteer on the farm, this and next week would be great weeks to come out! We still have some finishing to do on the rows, just smoothing out and weeding and then next week it will be a planting frenzy!

I hope we get gentle rains tomorrow, as they are predicting a pretty good chance of storms. It gives me a couple of days to catch up on paperwork and inside chores, but the heavy rains always set us back a few days as they flatten out our rows and wash seeds away.

Enjoy the fall weather we're having - thank you for supporting your local farmers and ranchers. Market Day this weekend at Eden's - come see us, and bring the kiddos.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

What's Going on in DC - the Food unSafety Bill

2009-09-28T08:03:00.003-05:00

For those of you who've asked me recently about the latest and greatest from DC - here is what FARFA has posted on their website currently.

Please, do keep yourselves informed, and call your local congress person - the health care issue is taking front seat, which may mean our legislation gets shoved through while no one is really looking!

FROM FARFA; (My notes in italics)

A food safety bill is moving through Congress! The House Energy & Commerce Committee has approved HR 2749, the "Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009." The bill contains many problematic provisions, including:

A food facility—defined as any establishment that manufactures, processes, packs, or holds food—would have to register and pay an annual $500 fee. Although farms are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly, and people making foods such as jam, cheese, or canned vegetables for local markets would be required to register and pay the fee. This could drive start-up and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. The fee is the same whether you are a small, local producer or a Heinz factory.

Facilities are also subject to extensive recordkeeping and paperwork requirements that could bury them in red tape without improving food safety. (Not to mention the part that allows the FDA to come on our property and have access to all records, including customer lists, whenever they want. These "facilities", are our HOMES!)

The FDA is authorized to regulate how farms grow, harvest, pack, sort, transport and hold raw produce and crops. The agency's track record shows that this is likely to lead to regulations based on the practices of huge, industrial facilities, and that will be impractical and counterproductive for small, diversified farms. (See what they are doing in CA - no animals on farms, no ponds/creeks/lakes on property, no border crops - must be mowed to dirt, must eliminate all wildlife from crop area or plow up 30ft surrounding animal tracks that are found.)

SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS:
Establish a sliding scale for fees based on gross income, with an exemption for small facilities.

Limit the bill to food being shipped interstate, and explicitly exempt all farms and food processors who are selling only intrastate.

Exempt all farms and food processors who are selling directly to consumers. (This would mean us and farms like us, because we generally sell directly via CSA supporters and directly at market day.)

The industrial food safety system does need to be reformed. But a bill that harms small and local producers is not the answer!

Help protect both farmers and our food supply by calling your Representative today! Talk with the staffer who handles food safety issues. Explain how important local farms and local food sources are to you! Ask your Representative to push for an exemption for small farms and small food processors from these overly burdensome provisions.

To find out who represents you, go to http://www.congress.org/

I'll post pics and such from Barn Aid soon!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

2009-09-12T05:34:00.000-05:00

Seems as though what I've been trying to share with you locally through events such as the upcoming Barn Aid & Dinner at Eden, is finally get more and more national attention. We're trying to spread the word to folks about the real cost of cheap food - essentially, sickness - and encourage them to eat healthier, local, fresh meals.

Time magazine did a great job with their story about cheap food - pointing out a good deal of issues, mentioning some of the more prominent authors covering the subject and even sharing some great pictures of what families around the world eat and urban farming projects, like the budding blossom here at Eden's Garden.

Take a moment if you will to pass on this article after you've read it.

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food

We're looking forward to next Saturday - this weekend's rains seem to be washing the excessive heat out of the air and bringing in the cooler temps of late summer/ early autumn just in time for the event.

Come join us in the gardens, out on the farm for a gourmet dinner and wonderful treat, Pamela Walker, and watch with the rest of DFW, the premier screening of the new food movie FRESH!

We'll scoot some boots afterwards with The Lucky Pierres - till the cows come home...oh wait, Eden's doesn't have any cows......

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Cool Winds a Blowin'....?

2009-09-03T12:59:00.009-05:00

Well, we thought it was going to cool down. I guess the good news is that the days are shorter and so that means the sun has less time to bake us and the plants and the ground they grow in. But boy, it is still hot out when it gets up there in the 90's. But, then I come in and finalize orders and plans for future crops, update the blog, send out emails and drink lots of water and green ice tea! After all, it was these nice warm temps in September that lured me to move to Texas in the first place. I know, what was I thinking!? Well, it is already too chilly up north for my liking so I'm not complaining about the lingering warm weather too much. Just glad we've started to see a bit of rain again.

In the ground, as we type, are tomatoes (Amish Paste, Yellow Pear & Cherokee Purple), peppers (Magnum Habanero Orange, Corno di toro and Black Hungarian), winter squash (Delicata), cantaloupe, another round of squash - yellow straight neck and dark green zucchini - Wax Beans, maybe they'll grow now that it isn't quite as hot, Provider Bush beans and a Chinese Red Noodle bean from fellow farmer, Carol Moss' farm. I had several other trays seeded - but I'm afraid a few hens found out there was corn meal in the potting mix this go round, and they messed up some of the seedlings on some of the other squash. We'll have a handful of plants that come up, and hopefully enough to at least put in the swap out box this fall. Silly chickens.....(no, that is not what I said at the time.) - we're hoping we get a nice fall crop of these short season warm veggies this year before it gets too cold. I'm hoping to find someone to teach a canning class, too, so we can learn how to preserve some of this goodness for the winter months. (I don't know how to can - do you?)

We've had to "cheat" a bit on our renewable energy plans, I'm afraid. I hate it - the stink of the pump not to mention the noise - and the fact that I have to burn gas to run it, but I also can't keep doing all of this work for the little harvest we've been getting and a few of you have said the same thing. The low harvest, we believe, is primarily due to low water input. We hope to be able to find a better combination of equipment when we attend the renewable energy roundup in a few weeks. Renewable energy is certainly the way to go, but it isn't a perfect system either. Until then, I'm using the gas pump only on days where we just HAVE to get more water on things and the sun/wind are not cooperating enough to recharge our batteries - not to mention, when our pumps have over heated and require cool down time, too. All of these things combined, do not make seedlings happy - nor do they put enough water down on crops with the pure sand we have in some areas of the garden, which drains faster than you can imagine. This will serve well for wet winters, but not for hot, dry summers. It will take several seasons under our belts to get that organic matter built up in the sandy parts of the gardens. But boy has the cantaloupe been sweet! (If you missed that week's pick up, we should have more soon if the aphids will leave these new plants alone.)

Eden's Garden is committed to growing "off the grid" and with sustainable practices. We're close to building our shed out back (out of the neighbor's old framework of a structure he used for covering his garden with shade cloth many years ago). Reuse! Recycle! We'll put tin salvaged from last year's tornado damaged barn roof on the roof of this new shed, and start to catch rainwater just as soon as we can afford a new rain barrel. This will help us rotate the use of pond water and rainwater - which will be nice to rinse off the mud this winter and when the pond gets low. By incorporating rain water, it only increases our sustainability goals.

Why we do what we do

Each time I read statistics about how many obese, diabetic children we are raising, it breaks my heart. It literally brings tears to my eyes to see a little one waddle behind his or her parent, who is also usually overweight. I am very blessed. My mom raised us on home cooked scratch meals for the most part. I learned to cook decently at a very young age and managed to maintain most of those good eating habits as an adult. But today, our school system FEEDS our kids junk in vending machines and cafeteria lines - the television, magazines, radio and every billboard you pass FEEDS all of us junk - how can we expect anyone, much less the children, to crave anything better, even when we choose to try to feed them healthy at breakfast and dinner? We have an opportunity to let our voices be heard. This Labor Day is the day set aside to call attention to what our schools are dishing up for your kids at lunch. http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch-eat_ins_by_state/Texas/ is where to go in Texas to support an "eat in" event sponsored by Slow Food USA. Hey, whatever happened to packing a PBJ sandwich and an apple for the kiddos? That would be better than some of the junk they are feeding them. Geez.

By encouraging school aged kids to come out to the farm, get involved in school gardens, (see the great article in this seasons Edible DFW about Stonewall Jackson's program!), community gardens and even a pot of lettuce grown at home on the balcony, we take important steps to helping our children learn the important difference between real food and processed, packaged, pseudo foods. Devoid of nutrition, we are all left hungry, and craving the fat, salt and sugar that junk foods are packed with, to satisfy, not our hunger, but our taste buds. Take a week and fast from fast foods - and see if you're not left with more energy, clearer minds and a thicker pocketbook. Fast food is cheap - but it isn't really food or cheap if you have to eat twice as much of it to fill your body's needs.

Barn Aid promises to be a busy and fun event this year. I'm so glad to have the opportunity to show FRESH! here in the DFW area. I hope that many will come and be inspired to eat healthier foods, grow some of their own foods and, support local agriculture. The movie and concert are free - gates will re-open about 7:15 if you don't come to the charity dinner beforehand. There will be a panel of local food advocates discussing the movie with the audience afterwards. I hope you can bring some friends and join us. We'll have a free concert after the movie. Chef Gilbert will be serving up some gourmet sausages from Dominion Farms and we're looking at getting some organic popcorn for the movie! Thank you to all of those who are helping sponsor the event and make it happen.

We do have several new CSA members this year that have jumped on board to support our efforts here at Eden's Garden. I am so grateful for each and every one of you - and I hope in spite of the light harvests we had this first year, you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for what you are a big part of. Please, come out to Barn Aid and see this other aspect of why it is important for there to be local, urban farms, too. There are lots of good reasons to be a part of local agriculture. Growing healthy food, preserving the land and protecting the environment, practicing community involvement, supporting the local economy and educating people all along the way are just the tip of the iceberg for the impact one single small farm can have on a community.

Welcome to a new farming year - and here's to a great one! Cheers!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Farming and the Reality of Failure

2009-08-20T21:44:00.006-05:00

It's been a few weeks since I've blogged - I've been pondering what to say for one thing, and then I ran across this young lady's blog via the FRESH! link and I think she summed it up pretty well. Farming = failures. It is just going to happen and if we want to be in the business of farming, we'd better just get used to it. (click on the blog title for the link to the story.)

But, as she also points out, there are many successes to celebrate as well. Sometimes, they don't come at us as obviously as the losses, but they are there if we look.

We've hatched out many, many new little chicks this past year and soon, they'll be laying eggs. That means, we are several steps closer to having free range eggs available from Eden's for shares.

We have started to recruit younger people to the farm in a learning capacity. I have been working side by side with Chad for several weeks now and Charity and Butch, who have been in our CSA since day 1, are learning and helping with both field work and behind the scenes things such as web site development. Since she has a little one at home with special needs, it is not always possible for Charity to get to the farm on a routine, but, she's dedicated to doing what she can to help the farm and to learn about it as much as she can. This means as we continue to train folks, that our farm can become more successful and, as some will intern and leave the farm, other small, local farms will pop up for other communities.

We have harvested a lot of food off our first year's gardens. I know many weeks it may not have seemed like it, but if you think about how much food it takes to feed 20 shares+, it is a LOT of food. We have been short as far as full shares some weeks, but the quality of the food never had any complaints. We've had other farmers and chefs comment on the taste of the food harvested - that, you just can't substitute. Once we get the watering issue nailed down - we should be home free.

And, lastly - for now, we're doing it all off the grid! I've asked about the potential for introducing a gas powered pump - in situations where we have seedlings in the field and a cloudy, windless yet very hot day and we NEED to water. Consistent watering has hurt us a bit. That soil is just too hot and we can't water all day - our capacity just isn't there. As we build the soil, this won't be as big of a deal, but we've got a few years to go before we can say our soil is full of good, rich organic matter. It is nutritious now, but we need to build the tilth of it so it will not drain so fast. I know, most of you struggle with heavy clay that never seems to drain - not so here though. We have beach sand in many sections.

I think we've learned some great things in this our first year on the farm. I am learning what not to plant and what to try. (We'll NOT be planting little leaf cucumbers next year on the sandy soil), and we're really going to have to be more strategic when it comes to jumping on that small window of planting - soon as the soil hits a good temp - we're going to have to call in all hands on deck to get things in the ground more efficiently. That hurt us this year - it went from freezing, to sopping wet (and still too cold in the soil) to hotter than blazes within a very short window. We can't count on the season being average - it was much hotter than normal, much earlier than normal this year and that wiped out any possibility of re-seeding things that didn't germinate. We tried - several times. Corn, beans, okra, (which is just now coming up), and cantaloupes all had to be planted and replanted or plowed up. There is nothing more depressing than watching all those hours of work plowed under....

One more cool thing is that this seems to have been a good year for the pomegranate bush! I'll be sharing those with you all as soon as they ripen a bit. Last year the darn stink bugs got them, but they were soft and not very good. This year, they seem to be in good shape, a bit small, I suspect from the heat, but they are firm and I've not seen a bunch of bugs on them yet. So, I'll keep an eye and hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have a big picking party and get them harvested. They are soooo good for you!

In the meantime, we have to say good luck and good bye to Sam Walker - he's leaving for college next week. We'll miss his help and humor out here at the farm. But, the good news, for us anyway, is that his sisters will be staying for a bit longer as the family has not been able to move up to Denton yet. (Mr. Walker is getting his doctrine in Denton - way to go!)

Keep abreast of the HR2749 legislation, please. This is not just something we can ignore. The widely vauge way it is written, as well as some of the very clear stipulations, spell trouble for the local food system. I'll be posting some info here soon. It can spell disaster for small farms for a variety of reasons. Let's hope the Senate takes into consideration that one size fits all isn't appropriate for this law. It gives way too much power to the USDA/FDA and invades the privacy, not to mention takes away the right to farm naturally and sustainable - the way it has been done since Biblical times - from those who choose to do so, but don't want or can't afford to pay the USDA to do so. (It never made sense to me to pay the government NOT to do something - like NOT to spray poison or pollute the land.)

Hope you are having a great last summer weekend - school starts too soon I'm sure. But, maybe that means cooler nights are on the way. It sure has been a scorcher of a summer this year.

Don't forget Sept. 19th is Barn Aid and the free screening of FRESH! (gates open at dusk) and the traditional free concert afterwards. I hope you can make it. I'd like to give a public kudos to my supporters - it is because of CSA that this farm - is.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

A Letter to my representatives

2009-07-27T15:59:00.000-05:00

HR2749, The Food Safety Enhancement Act, going before Congress this week does not address the underlying problems with our food supply. All previous food recalls have been traced back to industrial farming practices and/or uninspected imported food and yet HR2749 does not directly address these issues.

Instead it indiscriminately challenges all food providers giving the FDA unchecked powers that will "bully" small family farms and local food artisans out of business.

I urge my representatives to include the Farr-Kaptur amendments that would exempt small-scale on-farm processors selling directly to consumers, require FDA to coordinate with USDA and to consult with the National Organic Program, exempt farms selling directly to businesses from the traceability requirements, and establish a sliding scale for the registration fees.In Addition to these amendments we need to limit the bill to food being shipped interstate, and explicitly exempt all farms and food processors who are selling only intrastate from all provisions of the bill.

We also need to provide an exemption for farms and food processors selling directly to consumers within a local "foodshed", since those who live near a state boundary often have local markets on the other side of that boundary.Please do the right thing by exempting our few remaining small farms and by specifically regulating the real threat to food safety: the imported and industrial food industry.

http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php sign the petition

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Here We Go Again....

2009-06-28T11:21:00.002-05:00

Thank you Eden's Garden CSA supporter Sara Barnard for the heads up! I missed this one somehow - usually I'm deluged with emails when another broadbrush piece of trash, I mean legistlation comes out of DC or Austin that aims to make what we're doing here either harder or outright illegal. That is right. Illegal. They want to outlaw raw milk altogether, really restrict value added products like breads, jams, canned goods, etc. and give me a pile of paperwork to do - or be forced to hire someone else to do for me.

Folks, I realize we need to have safe food and food safety guidelines. But to what extent and who do those guidelines need to be aimed at? The farmer who picks your food, puts it in a basket and hands it to you or the assembly line owner? You decide with your vote at the grocery store, this and other farms and, by letting your local congress person hear your voice.

http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/news/news-HR2749-FAQ.htm

Thank you for your support.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Something to Ponder

2009-06-28T06:38:00.011-05:00

An old classmate of mine from back up in the Midwest, I recently found out, also turned out to be a farmer. He, unlike me, grew up each summer at a cousin's farm - whereas I grew up at the public pool. But this is something I never knew about my classmate, Robert. Well, as a result of us finding out we have followed similar paths, he and I have been exchanging news articles, pics of our farms, stories and info. He and his wife have raised pigs, chickens, crops and lease some land out as well. I hope to get to visit his farm soon.

The link in the title up above contains an interesting article we've exchanged, written by the witty farmer out east, Joel Salatin. He's got some great antidotes, stories and better yet - solutions, to many of the problems that plague this country's food industry problems. You saw him in the movie FOOD, Inc. (Still playing at the Magnolia by the way.)

Seems in this article he suggests knocking big agribiz down a size or two. Not a bad idea. But how? I remember the phrase, "I refuse to participate in the recession!" Well, many people did'nt seem to really be affected by it then, and many seem to be handling this one, too. Now, was it positive thinking or was it creative solutions that kept them afloat? Maybe both. But, by not actively taking part of the problem, big agribiz in the case of the food crisis we have, we can help avoid the problems that come with it, such as unsafe, unhealthy foods.

I think it is an interesting read if nothing else. Just click here or on the blog's title link above.

I hope you all are enjoying our spring harvest. We pulled in about 75#, way over a bushel, of potatoes, and just enough tomatoes for you all to get about a half pint of those sweet 100's and large cherry reds and at least one heirloom. I know, just enough to tease you. I don't know when all of those green ones hanging out there are going to turn red - but something tells me it is going to be all at once!

With this heat, it seems if I don't pick the almost ripe ones right then when I see them, they are red as Christmas ornaments the next day and over ripe. I hope you all didn't get any you couldn't use. We refrigerate them the very day we harvest them to keep them from continuing to ripen.

Those 1015's are wonderful, we'll be sure to plant again next year and the squash continues to be tasty, too. The squash have slowed down production some - but then so hasn't everything including us? Heck, even the cats and chickens are out there panting! The heat stops many plants in their tracks from much growing.

The eggplant have put on some more leaves and a few blooms have popped so they should be putting out fruit soon. The cantaloupe don't seem to mind the heat either and we picked our first cucumber - only one was ready - and I'm going to taste test it for you. ;'p

The other day the breeze fooled me as it was 3pm before I got hungry and realized I'd been out there 8 hours straight, and it was over 100 again. Thank goodness for straw hats and breezes....The soil temps are well over 100, too, cooking everything but the fire ants who seem to enjoy the scorching sand, but finally the end is in sight....Monday, I hear, clouds and a chance of rain with a high UNDER 100! Whew, won't that feel nice. This is NOT a normal June pattern but then what is normal anymore?

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

ps - this was my dinner last night....100% local, cept the butter....and who knows, maybe some day we can have that here, too?

Mashed Eden's Garden spuds, rosemary, squash, onions, maters and olive oil, (ok so that's not local either), local chicken and bread from our market day ranchers and producers. Yummy!

Regulations....You Have to Be Kidding!

2009-06-21T20:10:00.006-05:00

I think in this entry's title link above, the author says it all. The government is wishy washy with their regulations. They allow us to assume risks in some areas, but not others. They make it so difficult and expensive to do what farms have done for centuries - milk animals and drink it - that folks go covert to do so, making criminals out of honest, hardworking good-health seeking people like you and me.

I am able to get fresh, unpasteurized goat's milk - blessed that I personally know someone who raises dairy goats. But I'd give nearly anything to be able to allow the legal sale of it at my farm's market days. So many people can not tolerate pasteurized cow or goat milk - but would benefit from raw milk. But the state of Texas thinks it is too risky for you and me to drink.

There is a hearing coming up in Austin about Raw Milk regulations. I don't expect you all to jump in the car and drive down there, but if you can - do so. And if you can't, make a call, send an email or fax to your local congress person telling them you are a big person and can decide for yourself whether or not to buy raw milk from a local farmer.

I fear this is a slippery slope folks. First it is raw milk, then it is various types of meats which HAVE to be slaughtered and processed in gov't. regulated facilities - which are usually less sanitary than family farm facilities - and now I hear rumblings about fresh eggs in Austin restaurants. Next will it be produce? (TOFGA.org should have details.)

Here are a few links that our new CSA member John Christens sent me over the weekend about local, sustainable food and where to find it. (I just submitted Eden's today so it won't appear just yet.) You'd better write them down someplace because if the gov't keeps cracking down....we're all going to have to go underground.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/home.php (cool website - recipes, info and ideas)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tINy06Nx2G8 (I think this is part 1 of 3 that we previously posted - worth seeing again!)

Tomatoes are ripening a bit more every day. We'll surely have some for next weekend. The heirlooms for sure, maybe some of the others, too. This is one section that is tomatoes...about 800 plants in all. That is a lot of maters my friends....get ready to come pick some. I'm not a big tomato eater so y'all, come and get em'!

Thank you all for supporting local agriculture and helping make local, healthy, organic food available in the community. Eden's couldn't do it without you!

Be well.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

FOOD, Inc. Premiers in Dallas!

2009-06-16T08:07:00.005-05:00

The movie that has rec'd lots of hype in the locavore world, FOOD, Inc., finally arrives in Dallas tonight!

Free screening at the Magnolia (7:30 show, but plan to arrive at least an hour early), and the official opening is Friday. Join us for an Eden's Watch Party at the 7:30 show!

Watch your market day email reminders for details on how you can win 2 free tix to Saturday night show!

See you tonight - and I'll be there Friday night, too. This one is worth seeing more than once!

It will change the way you look at dinner.....

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

UPDATE: Just returned from the movie screening - GO SEE IT! And take a friend with you - preferably one who may not otherwise go see this movie. Someone with kids who get their calories from a box at a drive thru or, in one of our public school lunch programs...

This movie should make you think. It makes me prouder than ever of what we're trying, and DOING, here at Eden's Garden. You can see my review of the movie at the link above - the link to the movie site is http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Don't forget, we're having a watch party Friday night at the 7:30 viewing at the Magnolia. (It is also opening at the Angelica in Plano for you north group folks.) And I'll be raffling off a pair of tix to the Sat night show at the Magnolia at Market Day Saturday morning.

The Storm That Wouldn't End

2009-06-11T07:49:00.006-05:00

Well gang, the farm hasn't quite floated away - or blown away - but it was a tense night and the storms are still blowing up.

This old house was built before A/C so as you can imagine, there are windows everywhere for the circulation. So, with 70mph winds and tornado warnings all night long, I took my pillow, my laptop, camera, cell phone and a blanket and spent the night in the hallway - the only part of the house besides a closet, without any windows. And if it wasn't bad enough to spend the night on the floor, I was awaken twice more throughout the night after the midnight storm blew in that sent me from my bed, it hit again at 2:30 and again at 5:30. So much for sleeping....

Here are some pics of the storm's aftermath and a quick video of it's brewing this morning before it broke loose again - as I type it is pouring and storming, but no real danger or severe winds this time. Thankfully. But it did reveal another leak in the house roof.....guess it is time to get the other half done.

I went out in between storms to check on things and the wind turbine is up - Herb and my brother Joe reinforced it the last time it came down - and the fields look pretty good considering I'm sure we've gotten about 3 inches of rain or more by now.

I hope this finds all of you safe and sound, too. Thanks for praying for rain - next time, maybe we need to refine our request a bit.....could do without the 70mph winds!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Rain! Wind!

2009-06-11T00:34:00.003-05:00

Wow, I wonder if I'll ever be able to relax when it storms again. Today when it started to rain, I was just enjoying dinner and a movie at Parker Chiropractic College with our friends Leo and Emily, farm volunteers and future CSA operators once they return to their home of Florida.

They called off the movie, right in the middle of it, and asked us all to go into the restrooms/hallway.....that hasn't happened to me since school! Now of course most of you remember the farm's tornado experience that left the place resembling the aftermath of, well, a tornado's path! Trees down, limbs and branches everywhere and, the roof of our barn torn off. So, needless to say, now when the radar looks a bit more than green, I tend to get a bit concerned.

Well, the link in the title was round 2's storm map and the pic above is the calm before the storm started up again. I had just gone to bed at 11 with my last bit of water for the night and really until some time tomorrow late morning as I have my blood work done with Parker, and I was rattled up out of my sleep. I'm not sure how much more rain we got yet, the first round brought almost exactly half an inch - just what I had hoped for. From the sounds of it, I bet we got at least .25 more. And a ton of thunder and lightening that scared the beegeebers out of me and the cats! I don't like it at all, much less when there are no MISSISSIPPI's inbetween the flash and the rumble!

I'll go out in the morning and check everything again for damage. Round one brought 70mph winds. Our turbine seemed to handle it fine and although laid down somewhat, the crops seemed ok, too. No hail damage that I could see in the dark. And I don't think round 2 brought any hail. Just a LOT of lightening and thunder. And, more rain and some wind.

So, a weekly dose of rain would be awesome - but do you think we can get it without the severe weather? I hope so. My nerves can't handle this every week like last year. Every Thursday after the tornado in April, it stormed for like 5 weeks in a row.....ugh.

Hope all is well at your house - we'll see you soon.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Let's Eat!

2009-06-06T22:18:00.005-05:00

It was so nice to see everyone again today! I guess it has only been a few weeks since our last pick up, but it seems like a long time. So many of you had such wonderful things to say - thank you for your continued support of Eden's Garden!

WHY WE DO THIS
Just last week the new mayor of Balch Springs came by, at my invitation, to see what we were doing over here on the edge of town. As you know, they have been considering an ordinance that would regulate the number of chickens and outlaw ownership of roosters as well as require cooping all poultry here in town. After explaining to Mayor Gordon that there are families right here in town that, for health reasons, rely on organic food, including organically raised poultry and eggs, I feel very confident we'll prevail in our struggle to maintain our right to eat free range poultry and eggs. Just as she was leaving, one such resident pulled in to my driveway explaining her son, who has autism, is basically prescribed organic food so his body dosen't have to process the chemicals and pesticides. Nor can he drink the city water due to the highly toxic fluoride in it.

While my farm would likely be exempted due to the acreage size, many home owners with smaller yards would be adversely affected. Some of these are the very people who have lived here in town for many years, in some cases, generations, raising livestock, including chickens.

While I agree you need a minimum amount of space to raise and process large livestock, a small flock of chickens needs only a small area comparatively, and the occasional crowing of roosters, that are needed to keep a closed flock sustained, can be compared to many other noises heard in any community, such as the barking of a dog, the singing of a mockingbird or the laughter of kids playing nearby.

When people rely on the nutritional values and affordability of raising their own food, it seems a mute point to complain about a little noise or the way it may look to someone. This goes way beyond a nuisance issue. I've been asked to sit on the committee that will oversee many of the ordinances that are up for review - including the one about livestock/poultry ownership. I've accepted the invite and will keep you posted. Thanks for your support on this issue. If we're ever going to get our flock up and organized enough to lay us tasty free-range eggs for our group, we need to be able to let them roam free. Free range should mean more than 4'x4' areas of dirt....not much omega 3's there......

SPUDS & SUCH
The 2 kinds of potatoes we harvested this week do look very much alike but are supposed to be very different types. The Yellow Finn are a creamy, buttery type, great I would say, for steaming or mashing. Try it without adding butter. The Binjinte are a French Gourmet potato that is supposed to be great for frying. Both sound good to me!

I sauteed myself some onion, potato and squash with the rosemary Robert brought us for dinner tonight. Deelish! Thank you Robert! (he has apparently got a monster rosemary bush that needed a hair cut.)

Hopefully the heirloom tomatoes will start turning red here soon and we'll have those to add to your shares. The sweet 100's, Beefsteak and Large Red Cherry are growing and blooming - and the wind is helping pollinate them, but no fruit just yet. It was a late year with Easter coming so late and that freeze the Tuesday beforehand. But we've got eggplant, more squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe and some sorry slow growing peppers in the ground. I even put in some corn, which I noticed was up the other day. I'll admit I've not had great luck growing corn in the past, but I wanted to give it a try in this soil my farmer friend Jack says is soooo great! We'll see.

A STAR IS BORN
The irrigation system is running very well, thank you Herb, and an article about that very renewable energy system running our pump/irrigation system is going to be in print very soon! Herb is getting published in Mother Earth! We'll let you know which issue so you can be sure to bring it and get his autograph. ;)

The whole idea behind this system, besides providing green energy for our farm, is to help show other farmers how they, too, can do this. In fact, a couple of brothers stopped by the farm today to ask about our set up and Herb filled their ears with the set up he has put in for us, explaining it is all about to be put on line for the taking.

By using natural energy, a farm can pretty well be put out in almost any field where there is a tank or ability to capture rain water or tap into a spring or well. Electricity won't be needed if the farmer uses wind and solar energy to power things. This opens up a whole new frontier for some people living "off the grid".

COMING SOON
We're getting closer to having our own web site just for Eden's Garden CSA members - that will replace our weekly newsletter email. Butch will explain how we can all tie in so we'll know when something is updated on it and our pick up notices, recipes, driving group conversations, etc., can all be accessed through one place rather than all of the emails. I don't know about you guys, but my in box gets FULL! I'll still put up entries here on the blog, as it isn't just us that follows this, but more of the CSA news will be on the web site and this will be more "farmy" news, instead.

Well, I hope this finds lots of happy taste buds and full tummies tonight. I'll keep planting if you guys will keep eatin!

Be well!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Rural Lifestyle on Highway 6

2009-05-22T07:03:00.005-05:00

Well, I made the jump onto Twitter a few weeks ago, at the urging of one of our CSA members, Jenice Johnson who is a media guru and works for the Dallas Morning News. I was trying to follow some event that was going on in town and they kept saying to follow it on Twitter but I thought it was only for cell phones or something. Jenice set me straight and now occasionally, I Tweet.

The significance of what I am doing throughout the day seems pretty mundane to me, but apparantley, there are 25 people out there who find it worthy of "following". ok. Among them, just happened to be a radio program out of Iowa called Rural Lifestyle on Highway 6. He became interested in the farm and what we are doing down here in Texas and has invited me to be on the show this Sunday morning at 8. If you follow the link in the heading, you can follow the link to hear the show on line. I guess they podcast it, too if you miss it and want to hear it later.

I'm not sure what exactly he will ask me yet, but you can be sure we'll talk about the proposed ban on roosters here in town as well as our wonderful CSA and getting the good stuff (organic food) out to as many people as we can through Eden's Garden.

Hope you can tune in!

On the Farm

I (and you) am anxiously awaiting things to ripen and grow! I pulled 3 baby potatoes out of the pile yesterday just to see if they were really down there, and there they were! They are no where near ready yet, but the good news is that they are growing and tasty!

I fried them up with some onions. There are spring onions and we're getting some larger ones, too - funny how they all go in at the same time, but grow at different rates.

So, keep the rain coming once a week or so and I think we'll be eating from the garden again by the early part of June!

Don't be strangers to the farm inbetween seasons though. Market Days are 1st and 3rd Saturday and next Saturday, May 30th, I have invited a guest speaker to come to the shop at 10 and talk all about insects. This would be a good one to bring the kiddos to, because Kim usually does some show and tell. Yeah, really. ;)

I hope you all have a peaceful weekend this Memorial Day holiday. We'll not have an official work day. Look for your email next week when I catch up on newsletter stuff. I'm hoping Butch and Bubba are almost done with our web page so we can update everyone there instead of creating an email everytime.

Y'all take care,

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Doctors warn about GE Foods

2009-05-20T13:36:00.005-05:00

The best way to know you're not eating GE or Genetically modified foods, is to know your farmer. Eden's searches high and low for organic seed and plant starts for you! And if I can't find them, I research what I'm getting before we plant it to be as sure as we can be that it is safe, not GE'd and/or full of pesticides.

Sweet potato starts have been a real challenge. I'm not late yet, but we're probably not going to find organic starts to get started this year so I will be using the same producer as one of my farmer peers who is USDA Certified Organic. He's known the guy a long time and uses his starts. Then, we'll try to have enough of our own starts for next year and the future. THAT is the best way I can assure we're using organic sources.

But, when you buy processed foods or eat out - you may very well be eating more GMO than you realize.

Pass along the word - Who's YOUR Farmer?

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=2989

And, if that wasn't enough.....how sad is this? CSA is the only way a small farm has a chance with these kinds of statistics... the wonder of it all....who gets all of the money?

http://nfu.org/wp-content/043009_farmersshare1.pdf

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Day at the Soggy Farm

2009-05-17T11:12:00.006-05:00

Whew - when it rains it pours, eh?

This was the sight on the back end of the pond the afternoon of Gleaning day a few Saturday's ago. And the pics are from the front end of the pond where we usually walk. Would have needed a rowboat that afternoon! The taters flooded, but I think they'll be ok, thanks to our sandy soil. It drains pretty fast out here.

Other than weeding there isn't a lot to do with it so wet though. I've got the irrigation lines all run and will be splitting it up into 2 systems later this week. 300' of flat tape and all of those 100' drip lines are just a bit too long to do an efficient job. So we'll water it like 2 gardens rather than up our power needs or stress the pump.

We have had 2 meet and greet days at the farm and I would like to welcome 4 new shares! Heather and Jason, Amy and Greg, Stephanie, and Kristen. We have 1 more date, next Saturday, due to the rain we had yesterday. Amy and Greg were troopers though, I must say - came with their golashes and everything!

I am constantly humbled by everyone's commitment to sustain a local farm in the Dallas area. I do not know what all is in store for its' contribution to this community, but I feel it will be wonderful. It is all possible through the support of you great folks, too! Without your financial backing, I can't do all I do.

And, here is one of those things I am going to have the opportunity to do next Sunday -

Eden's Garden will be visiting with Michael Libbie of Rural Lifestyle on Highway 6 radio show next Sunday 8am go here http://tinyurl.com/5qgdpp for details of webcast, unless you'll be traveling through Central Iowa and can listen on the radio.

Cool eh? from Texas to Iowa! We'll talk about the farm/CSA and our fight to keep our rural way of life, including our right to keep chickens and roosters in town. And you can betcha I'll tell everyone how our CSA family is making it all happen in DFW!

Well gang, it's too wet to play in the dirt today, so I'm taking some inside time and R&R.

Remember, you can always call me up (or email) if you want to come out to the farm for a mom's day out or kids trip. We can always find simple things to do that won't leave you too sore. ;)

I think we're still a few weeks from harvesting, but I see squash and maters growing and the taters are blooming, too. It won't be too long!

Enjoy this beautiful weather - see you all soon.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

The Court and the Farm

2009-05-07T21:58:00.005-05:00

Our first mater! The heirlooms that were planted several weeks

ago are just starting to put out some green fruit.

Now, for some not so great news....

I went to the court hearing with my fellow farmer this past Tuesday. Court, I must say, is NOT the best environment to get to say what you need to and make your points clear. My friend was unable to clearly state her side, and unfortunately, by the time she found her voice, the judge had already decided that because she wasn't electronically available at all times, basically, she would be advised to work out a monetary settlement with her customer.

For those of you who've never farmed, believe it or not, some of us don't generally take our cell phones out in the field with us. At least I don't, unless I know I am expecting a call. It is so sandy/muddy/wet/dirty out there - and guess what.....cell phones don't much like that. And in this case, cell phone signals weren't even available until recently at her farm. And you know what, by the time we get inside at the end of the day, we're pretty tired. And probably, it is pretty late. So when our email is down, and we leave a message on your phone, and you can't reach us back - it isn't because we're avoiding you. We're busy and pooped!

I must add though, I told the court that I really, honestly felt that if one of my CSA supporters was trying to reach me, and didn't hear back from me in 2 weeks, that you'd probably come out to the farm to make sure I wasn't dead out in the gardens! THAT my friends, is what CSA is all about. Creating a caring, bonding relationship between the person that grows the food and the people who eat it.

If you've missed the last posting, please scroll down and watch the sweet, loving video that our CSA member Charity Gordon (and the help of her kiddos) made for me. This is just one of the wonderful things that keeps us going on bad days. When the pump fails, the field is flooded, the fire ants are stinging, the sun is scorching, the tractor is stuck in the mud, or the bones are aching. It is all soooo worth it to me! I love you guys - and I love what we're all doing together!

Only a few of our community took advantage of the Gleaning Opportunity

this past weekend. They all left with a nice variety of yummies though!

Unfortunately, some people in some CSA groups are more worried about themselves than the concept of community. I hope we've not totally lost our farmer friend from the farming world. One unpleasant CSA member can really dampen your spirits though. Your farmers care enough to grow the very best for you all - it is hard to think that not everyone has the same kind of care back for those who do the growing. CSA is supposed to be a partnership of sorts, not a consumer/vendor situation. I guess sometimes at the bigger farms, it becomes less of a partnership with the farmer and more of a pay your money/pick up your food type situation. But you can be sure that this is NOT what Robyn Van En had in mind when she introduced CSA's concept to America. And this is not what Eden's CSA ever has plans to become.

The judge's decision really had nothing to do with the original reason this lady filed the suit against her farmer.....in fact, he swore he backed the farmer up on the fact that she had a bad year because farming had inherint risks and she, as a member, accepted those risks. What he did say, basically, is if the farmer had called her customer back more (what is enough?) times to tell her there wasn't anything to come pick up - he wouldn't have a problem with the situation. I guess he'd have dropped the case if the computer didn't crash and there was cell signals up there. Sometimes, I think the courts just want to show they forced a comprimise - no one wins then. But, it was a setttlment, not a judgement and that part at least is good. But the farmer still had to pay money out of her pocket as her spring season begins....not good.

Anyway, if I am ever not providing you guys with the customer service you feel we need to give all of our members - please, let me know directly. Come see me at the farm if you've not heard back from me. Email is usually the best way, but you know what, computers crash, AT&T's DSL is not invincible and sometimes, I just plain can't keep my peepers open another minute to answer another email! But, we'll talk about it, as we've done in the past. And, if needed, we'll put it in front of our Advisory Committee. We'll resolve it as a COMMUNITY!

Thanks again to Eden's Garden CSA family; for making this farm possible. I coudn't do it without your support and your help!

Come out to the meet and greet Saturday if you'd like to meet some potential new members. There were about 12 shares worth of members that decided our CSA wasn't working for them and the final installment of their annual commitments need to be picked up. Normally, we don't do seasonal shares, but this is a good way to let someone "try" our farm. We'll ask for annual commitments when our new farming year begins in the fall. Bring a friend or neighbor who may be interested in our tomatoes, potatoes, onions, squash, peppers, melons, cukes, zukes and whatever else we harvest. YUM!

After only 2 inches of rain Saturday afternoon - the already saturated soil

just couldn't take it anymore. Ladies, this is the road you walked on earlier

in the day on Saturday when you came picking!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Life on the Farm

2009-05-07T21:54:00.003-05:00

Y'all are going to LOVE this little video that Charity Gordon from our CSA family put together!

http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6b87bef69b70743a34be&sp=2

I already love what I do, growing the best food I know how to grow for great, appreciative wonderful families, but boy, on a hard day - all I'll have to do is come inside and watch this to remember how worth it, it all is.

Thank you Charity! I'll be playing this on Saturday at our meet and greet for potential new CSA members.

Enjoy!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Help Needed - Support a Farmer in Trouble - a follow up

2009-04-28T08:15:00.007-05:00

I received a comment on my blog entry about a farmer in need of support which included specific names and I've elected not to post this comment because of that, as I really don't want to become a forum for airing out individual situations. But, I will say that this person stated part of the problem was that there were no shares to pick up and there were more details I was perhaps not informed of about the situation.

Let me say, re-stating as I have many times whenever I speak about CSA, that Community Supported Agriculture is not the purchasing of food. It is the financial supporting of a farmer's endeavors of farming. And, in doing so, that you, (hopefully), develop a community type relationship with your farmer, (and the other supporters of the farm) over a long period of time, and that through those relationships, you as a community are able to endure and overcome bad times as well as celebrate together in the good times of the farm. Perhaps like many things in the US, the concept has become commercialized and good intenders trying to help encourage people to join up in support of small farmers over-emphasise the potential benefits and downplay the risks, but, it should be pretty much understood commonly that farming doesn't come with any risk-free guarentees - any more than investing in any other company does. Just read the news today. Who ever would have thought our auto industry investors would have to take a 50% loss in their investments!?

The "pay off" if you will, of that support, is much more than just sharing in the food harvest - the fruits of very hard work on the part of the farmer - but in the being a part of the farm, if you so choose to participate and become involved beyond your picking up of any harvest, and the knowing that you are helping support and perpetuate a small, local farm - and all of the very positive attributes associated with that. There are too many to mention!

When we trivialize a farmer's efforts solely by whether or not nature cooperated with them in the production of a bountiful crop a particular season, we are selling short the total experience.

As supporters, you certainly have the option of not supporting a particular farmer in the future, but to say that because there wasn't any fruit from the labors of that farmer for some reason they have no control over, that someone's support, financial or otherwise, (such as volunteered hours), should be returned, is going quite against the spirit of what CSA is all about. Unless one can prove negligence or purposeful destruction of an otherwise healthy and productive harvest by the farmer and within their realm of control; participating in the sharing of the very real risks of farming is largely what CSA was introduced to our country for; many people joining together to spread out the losses of a risk, when it occurs. Because farming will incur losses, crop failure, disappointments; welcome to farming.

But farmers who have CSA as part or all of their capital base, need to know they have the support of their CSA members even when the crops don't cooperate with their efforts to grow them. Otherwise, these farmers may not be able to survive, as we've seen so many a farmer go under in the past due to many factors that have changed the agricultural horizon.

CSA perhaps isn’t the best way for everyone to support a local farm. Volunteering time may be better if a financial commitment means cutting into the family budget in ways that can’t be afforded if the harvest results in less than expected amounts and more food is needed to supplement the dinner table by going to the grocery store. However, let us be grateful we can still go to a grocery store, in some cases, and find other local produce. Many had few other options when they could only afford to rely solely on their farm’s harvest to feed their families. Dependence on the community’s farm is also what CSA was meant to remind us of. We are very spoiled nowadays with “food” in every store on every corner.

I'm very sorry you and your farmer have apparently had a poor season; this is truly heartbreaking for your farmer if you didn't know that. As farmers, we all share in the sadness of our colleagues’ failures, and the joys of their successes. All of the countless hours of planning, working the soil, nurturing the plants, etc, appear to be for very little benefit when isolated to just a single season’s harvest, or lack thereof. When all of this work ends up without a bountiful harvest, your farmers have lost much more than just a few hundred dollars – they’ve lost many months of their lives and endless amounts of energy put into that crop. There aren’t any ways to “do-over” a season eaten by insects, dried up by winds, or killed by disease. Many farmers lose their equipment, land and lives when their season fails. This too, is why CSA is so important to the survival of the small farmer. I only wish it had been part of the equation for so many who gave all for generations past, who lost so much due to circumstances beyond their control, trying to feed the people of their communities, and give their families a decent life in the process.

We at Eden’s Garden also experienced a lean season this fall, due to drought related complications. And, we also had a few supporters who decided that our CSA was not right for them and chose not to fulfill the remaining installments of their annual commitment to the farm. Some perhaps that didn't realize they were accepting the risks of not recieving ample produce each week to give them a comfortable feeling of value for their investment. Fortunately, the overwhelming support of the remaining members, as well as many others eager to join us in this new farm, has allowed me to continue farming and even expand and jump into it full time. I can’t tell you how humbling of an experience this is – or how rewarding it is to see the faces of those members as they pick up the food that many of them helped plant, weed and harvest.

While, there are many ways to support local agriculture and while CSA is among the riskiest, it is also, in the opinion of many, the most rewarding because it is the closest to actually being part of the farm as it sows, grows, reaps and evolves into the community a productive relationship that benefits in many ways beyond the obvious results to those eating healthier, locally grown, organic food.

I hope our commenter finds a more comfortable way to express their support of local agriculture. And I would recommend the book "Sharing the Harvest" by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En to anyone considering supporting a local farm through CSA.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Just Checking In!

2009-04-27T22:58:00.002-05:00

Wow! I'm happy to report that we have planted about 900 tomato plants! They got in right before the rains started and so they are now getting a good, long drink!

As soon as the soil will take it, I'll begin getting the peppers and squash starts in, too. Direct seeding of other squash, melons, cucumbers, wax beans and some later starting peppers and tomatoes for fall will be underway as well. I'm even going to try growing some "pop corn"!

I've been getting responses from people who are interested in buying out the remaining portion of the first year's share commitments from those who chose not to finish out the first year. I am encouraging, actually requiring, they come out to the farm to meet me and see our project. Afterall, before we invest in something, it makes sense to see it first and I want everyone to have that opportunity.

I am also happy to report we have 2 new work share members! This time of year it is critical I get full help from our work shares when at all possible. Planting needs to get in and sometimes the weather is not always cooperative. If you want to volunteer an hour or so, please, don't hesitate to call me. I've not "required" work as part of this farm's CSA commitment, but it is sure appreciated, especially during heavy planting and heavy harvest times. Experience is not required!

I hope your home gardens are all doing well and that you remember to spray your tomato plants with a corn meal tea after all of this rain to help prevent blight from setting in. I know it helped last year when I did it every time it rained. The last time it rained and I forgot - blight! So, I really do think the corn meal teas helped stave it off.

Hope to see you at Market Day this weekend. I'll be talking to Gene out at his farm in east Texas soon to see if he has a surplus or not. I think the lettuce, broccoli and maybe some of the spinach and eventually the remaining beets will have a bit of life to them, but most likely will only be part of a swap basket in future weeks when we begin to harvest our spring garden, as the fall leftovers were when we began to pull our winter harvest in. We'll see. It is not unusual for there to be some overlap from season to season on a few things - again, another reason for the annual commitment and not a seasonal one.

Take care and let Judi from JuHa know if you want to pre-order from her. I'll post her newest list on the website, and Jeani is doing a bit of baking if you want to get some of her yummy breads!

Till then, take care and stay dry!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Help Needed - Support a Farmer in Trouble

2009-04-24T13:44:00.002-05:00

Recently, one of my colleagues who has CSA as part of her farm's make up, made some other farmers and I aware of a situation that she needs some support with.

Apparently, one of her former farm supporters paid her normal CSA installment to the farm, but then went out of town for several months and didn't pick up her food. This person now is requesting a cash refund for the unclaimed shares. Well, we all know that the food keeps growing, the expenses keep coming and this is not a co-op, but the supporting of a farmer and her land.

My friend has a court date - yes, the former member is asking for her money back legally - in May. If you are near Frisco and can come help show some support May 5th, please get in touch with me and let's help stand up with her and show the judge we support small farmers and what CSA really stands for. Community Supported Agriculture.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Eating Local in Dallas

2009-04-24T13:16:00.006-05:00

Wow, there were over 100 new people on the list waiting to hear from me about our farm! Dallas - I think you are really starting to GET IT about local food! That is great! I'll be setting up appointments for potential new CSA members to come visit the farm soon. We will only be filling in those shares that were abandoned before the year's end. I think 25-28 is a nice number of shares to manage and grow for and it makes for a nice "community" size, too.

I'll plant a bit extra this season as more people are looking for produce at market day and of course left over food from unclaimed shares are putting some smiles on the faces of a few "hungry families". I have a few specific items requested by Chef Gilbert that I'll be planting, including some of the potatoes that are in the ground. Eden's community gardens' Swiss Chard has been a big hit with Chef, too! The monies raised will help pay for some new "drip bucket" irrigation systems I am hoping to get soon. This will get us off of "city" water and on rain water in our community gardens.

The magazine Edible DFW is in town, more local chefs are tuning into local farms and there are way more mini-farmer's markets than the farmers can keep up with! What a good problem to have I guess. The awareness level is growing fast. I hope this encourages more people to make better food choices. I want to introduce some of you who are willing to be profiled as this farm's supporters in upcoming articles I will be writing. You all are very special folks and are what it takes in this country to help turn around our messed up food system. Many a small farm couldn't do it without CSA backing them.

If you or someone you know are interested in farming, even on a small scale, get in touch with TOFGA. It doesn't take a huge piece of land to grow food and there are many people like you willing to help support small farms via CSA. There are many people who want to eat organic food, and many more who really NEED to eat it because of current health issues. We all SHOULD eat local, organically grown food for our own good, but it is for those who's health is already compromised that I really wish more was available for. We're working on it at TOFGA with workshops and our annual conference where we encourage and teach folks just like me and you to get their hands in the dirt.

The new driving group location at Green Spot is working very out well it seems. I have even had a few who used to come to the farm that are taking advantage of this. New members will pay $50 a year for the "delivery" of their shares. We'll look at other locations perhaps for the future if our members' addresses merit. There is a "north" group that has joined together informally and they take turns picking up at the drop point.

Well, I am excited to tell you that I found a wonderful deal on a small used garden tractor and brush hog that I can use for keeping the pasture mowed. It is being fitted with a very useful implement for the farm, too. This should help me tremendously! I know our work shares and volunteers all have other lives to lead but ol' JD, yeah, I named it, he will be here full time with me. : ) Not only does this mean we shouldn't have to hoe our rows by hand in the future, it will help us with weeding, too! Maybe we'll even be able to have "hay" rides this fall....anyone up for riding in the 4th of July parade here in Balch Springs?

Well, our winter crops are coming to an end as the heat is on, big time. We'll keep the lettuce in the ground as well as the beets until they are all done growing, but pretty much everything else will be coming out this weekend. So, we should have a pretty big harvest again - hope you all know what to do with cabbage and radicchio. I'll see if Chef Gilbert has any ideas.

Speaking of Chef Gilbert and his restaurant, Lazare - Chef wants to plan a farm picnic out here at Eden's this summer for his staff and Eden's CSA members. Sounds like a great time and some great food. We'll see when it looks like a good variety of food will be available for harvest and plan around that date. Some of his staff came out and pitched in hilling up potatoes and doing some weeding this past Tuesday. I think they were all happy to get back to their restaurant jobs!

Sous Chef Ryan and co-worker Bryan work the potatoes.

Well gang, it looks like rain but I think it will hold off until Sunday night. That is good news as it means I can get the rows ready and get some things in the ground beforehand. If you want to come out Sunday morning to help plant, let me know - plus, we need to make sure the rows are ready so be sure to call before you come in case we aren't ready.

Until then - see you tomorrow for our pick up. Don't forget your cotton bags.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

From a Member's Perspective

2009-04-13T22:01:00.003-05:00

Ya'll are in for a real treat. Watch this short video about a CSA member up in Penn. I was laughing, tearing and smiling - I think you will be, too.

http://www.vimeo.com/2100402

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

2009-04-02T17:33:00.007-05:00

There is a new mag around that one of our farmer friends made me aware of. Now, I've only seen a few of the articles so far, but, so far, so good. Check it out.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3270

Also, a web site that often has interesting topics on their forums and a podcast is Metro Farm Radio.

The food is growing back kind of slow right now, with the rain we needed so badly, but we're still looking pretty good. If we'd have stayed cool, the mizuna wouldn't have bolted, but there isn't any way to keep that from happening when it is in the 80's in February! The heirloom lettuces are still pretty and growing back pretty well from the harvest as is the broccoli coming on finally, too. I even saw a few heads of cauliflower out there - and I thought that was a lost cause! So, we'll keep picking.

Soon I'll be able to get the warmer season things in the ground. I've always been taught to wait till the ground warms up consistently so you reduce the risk of fungus and other pest issues. Plus, many seeds won't germinate anyway and you risk losing them to a heavy rain or fungi as they rot away waiting for the soil to wake them up.

We have some tomato plants that are ready to go and have been growing awhile, as well as some younger starts coming in next week. Then, we'll sow some seeds and hopefully spread out the harvest of maters on until the heat starts to split them.

I've got melon seeds, squash and zucchini seeds, wax bean seeds and a few other things, too. I'm having fun and can't wait to really be out there watching it all grow!

For those of you who may not have heard, I have elected to stay home and work from the farm now. The garden shop, which is more of a ministry to teach folks how to grow their own food and host market days, is open a few days a week starting this weekend.

If you want to come visit the farm with a school group or on your own, just get in touch with me and we'll arrange for a mini tour. This is something I want to offer to local schools on a more formal basis eventually. Working on doing something in conjunction with Chef Gilbert of LAZARE in Dallas to teach a cooking class, too. (Kids need to learn how to do more than open a can and pop it in the microwave...)

Go see our new friends at LAZARE and tell them you're a supporter of the farm. I suggest most of the menu, but try the chicken arugula flat bread, the Dominion Farm 1/2 chicken, and the honey yogurt mousse for desert! We are planning for a private picnic for the staff and our CSA members once the weather warms up. Watch for plans....

Ya'll hold on to your hats - this wind is unreal!

Chef Gilbert is so excited about Eden's growing potatoes for him, he's
already got us on the market picks board! Click on the pic above and read it.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Recipes!

2009-03-27T08:18:00.002-05:00

Barbara Hyman and Ed Goff have submitted a recipe each from the potlock dinner a few weeks ago.

Everyone,

Below are two recipes submitted by cooks (well, Ed and me) who brought dishes to the CSA potluck a few weeks ago. If I receive recipes for other dishes we enjoyed then, I'll pass them along. Barbara

Saffron Carrots and Parsnips
Ed Goff
2 lbs. carrots, julienned
1 large parsnip, julienned
1/4 c olive oil
1-2 cubes vegetarian vegetable bouillon
(Non-veg option: Use chicken stock instead. Mmmmmm!)

1/2 tsp. powdered saffron or 2 pinches saffron threads
small sprig fresh rosemary, diced
Sautee carrots in olive oil with bouillon over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Add parsnip and saffron. Continue sauteeing until tender and slightly caramelized. Add rosemary and toss.

Mixed Green Salad With Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

Barbara Hyman and Southern Living

1 (5-oz.) bag mixed salad greens, thoroughly washed
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 avocado, sliced
1/4 cup peeled, cubed jicama (about 1/2-inch cubes)
6 tablespoons Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette (below)
Toss together first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Serve immediately with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette.

Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
Makes 3/4 cup
* 1/2 cup cider vinegar
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 teaspoon grated lime rind
* 2 tablespoons lime juice
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup olive oil
Whisk together first 6 ingredients; add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until smooth. Whisk well before serving.

Happy Eating!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Life on Eden's Farm

2009-03-24T14:37:00.008-05:00

There is sooo much going on in the news locally and in DC I don't know where to start.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100234410&GT1=31036

This may be a good place to start before you head out to lunch.
Fortunately, I think most of you know it is better to pack a salad and some fresh veggies for lunch.

But then there is always Lazare! http://eatsblog.guidelive.com/archives/2009/03/lazare-has-its-soft-opening-to.html

BIG BROTHER
But, in order for us to continue to get to eat locally farm fresh, from your favorite farm of choice, we need to keep DC out of it. They need to focus on the far away farms, not farms where we can go talk to the farmer if there is a problem with something they grew or raised.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92002

This is an interesting story about a piece of legislation that has been circulating and starting rumors. It is so vague that it encompasses just about any and everything anyone ever grows or raises. A bit much. Farming is labor intensive enough, without having to spend all that mental energy on staying ahead of the paperwork the gov't wants to put us through.

EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM
And of course there is the weather - cool front coming in means no tomatoes get planted just yet. But hopefully, the temps will stabilize in the next few weeks. We have some starts going, and more on the way. Also we'll be putting in peppers, squash, cukes and zukes to name a few things.

If you have jumped the gun and put out your warm season veggies already, you may want to get glass jars ready to cover them with before the temps drop too far. Less than 55 degrees and a tomato plant isn't happy. This can open them up to being susceptible to disease and pests, like caterpillars or aphids, etc.

In organic growing, we work with nature, the seasons, etc., so we try not to rush things or push them along, thus keeping the need for intervention lower.

I think we'll have lettuce and spinach, cabbage and the last of the pok choi this week. The mizuna mix seems to have some more life to it, just those early varieties are all bolted out. But, there is radicchio coming, too, and looks like kale in the mix. Beets are still growing as well. We may really get several more weeks out of this winter season!

In the meantime, there are potatoes and onions planted. Thank you to workshare members Sam, Theresa, Monica and their friend Marcus who came out Saturday morning and planted while Iris, one of our regular members, helped me harvest and distro the shares.

How many teenagers does it take to plant 900 ft of potatoes?

There was a half bushel of pok choi left in the truck while we were distributing, so if you want some - come out and get it! I'm looking for an outlet to donate it to.

And some good news for those of you living up north - I spoke to a farmer colleague of mine who is opening up for some more shares. Pam at Rose Creek Farms in Sunset will be glad to talk to you. http://www.rosecreekfarms.com/ Tell Pam I said hi! And keep checking Local Harvest's site for new pick your own options as well as new CSA projects.

Small farms are in such desperate need, we need to do what we can to protect our precious resources of land, clean water and healthy, clean food by helping good folks stay encouraged to farm their land - not sell it to developers, or be beat down by legislators trying to support the large agribiz companies. We may not be able to save the world, but we can affect our own back yards. Stay informed, supporting those who support small farming operations and buy locally grown food.

Unfortunately, in Dallas, that is not easy to do. Shed 1 down at Farmer's Market has a mix of local and veteran dealers. But, if there is a local farmer to be found after 4 am, they'd likely be in shed 1. Organic? You need to ask. I found 1 local and organic farm, 1 time down there. Granted, I don't get to shop much there as I'm here working Saturday mornings usually. But we are trying to get more of the farms in TOFGA up here to the Market Day events, which start soon! April 4th is our first one. We'll probably not see much in the way of produce as not a lot of farmers work through the winter, but we're trying to find some to come. JuHa will be here with her grass fed beef and pork, lamb, etc. And our CSA member Charity Gordon, will have her home made Stevia Gardens tea available.

OK - the rain is ending and I've work to do. Farmers do have to do their paperwork, too, when the soil is too wet to play in....

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Lazare - bar and restaurant now serving....

2009-03-20T21:28:00.007-05:00

Well, soon to be serving anyway, produce grown at Eden's!

Located in West Village, Lemon at Cole - Next to Cru Wine Bar

We have a new friend to our farm. Chef David Gilbert, of Lazare in uptown, has asked me to grow some veggies for his new restaurant! How cool is that?! David sought out local food and contacted me almost 2 years ago - before we'd ever even stuck a shovel in the ground - to help him connect with local food producers for his project.

Chef and Staff getting ready for the first night of "mock" service

Specifically, he's asked for some gourmet potatoes, carrots, squash, funky cucumbers, and wax beans. We'll be putting in some of these things for the restaurant - don't worry, we'll put in plenty extra for us, too!

But, here is a good reason to eat out - now that you can eat healthy with the local food they'll be featuring - as it is in season. They'll be using tasty and tender all natural, pature raised chicken from Dominion Farms and all naturally, locally grown herbs and produce from a few various farms in the area - including Eden's Garden.

Lazare bottles its own sparkling and filtered water.
Yummy!

Chef Gilbert asked me to speak to his staff last night about my passion for growing tasty, nutritious and FRESH food. It was a great group of young folks, eager to come see the farm and excited to be able to offer their customers great food, growing locally. Chef is going to have his staff come to the farm for a field trip to help out now and then, too.

First night of service with one of Eden's lecturer 's, and a friend of mine,
Kerry Stallo - Age-Intercept, Inc.

He said it will give them a good connection with the food they are serving/preparing. And it is neat to see who will be preparing and serving what we grow. Just as it is so neat to see who is eating it from the CSA group! It is just great to have that connection.

I think this will be a great relationship not just for my farm and its members - Chef has agreed to share a few recipes with us and even offered to do a cooking demo at some point - but for other local farmers and ranchers, too. (Wait till you see what he can do with ordinary produce!)

Be sure to check them out and watch their blog, too. (see link above) I hope you will go check them out next time you have occasion to let someone else do the cooking. And be sure to tell them you are a supporter of Eden's! Tell them I said hello, too.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

The Latest from Big Brother

2009-03-20T21:23:00.002-05:00

I'm sure glad I follow Brad's blog, he does all the work for me. ; )

You need to keep abreast of the latest nonsense from the gov't. Folks, we really don't need someone to hold our hand and tell us how to get our food, do we? Farmers have been growing food and getting it to their customers for many years before the FDA, USDA, etc., were ever dreamed up. Something tells me, those organizations came into being to help regulate the big boys - where the problems generally come from.

If you know who you get your food from, and if there is a problem, then there is no need to "track" your food - you go back to your farmer.

I realize we have an inperfect system, but more and more regulations are not the answer. Pretty soon, they will be regulating your back yard garden - this is written so broadly, that is why it has so many people up in arms.

Please keep yourselves informed, and let your legistators know how you feel, too. Generally there are links on the various emails that come out and on the websites linked to sign pre-written petitions.

In the meantime -let us be thankful for the rain! More on the way Monday to help water in what we get planted tomorrow. : )

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

It's almost here!

2009-03-10T20:35:00.006-05:00

The promise is 2"-3" of glorious rain over the next 3 days, which would be awesome! The plants are looking pretty good, but they would sure look much fuller and grow bigger with some rain. There's nothing like it to soak the soil good.

The ground was tilled today and fertilized with some alfalfa based organic fertilizer so we're ready for the rain to wash it all in and get cooking. Then we'll come back and bed up the soil so we can plant the warm season produce.

Larry and Farmer Jack - lots of wisdom shared today

We're looking at a LOT more space needed as melons, cucumbers, squash and such take up a lot of room, spreading out those runners all over the place. (for those of you who want to try it, I see mags showing folks growing some things as big as watermelon up a trellis with queen size panty hose to hold the melons up.) And we're looking to put in eggplant, one of my summer favorites, and of course, tomatoes. Everyone's summertime favorite.

We're going to cool off again though, as usual, for this weekend - and probably have one more snap of cool before ol' man winter finally lets go. So it is a bit too early to get those warm season things in the ground. The rain that comes this weekend will cool that soil off again and putting warm soil loving plants into cold soil spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E as Travis Tritt would say. Yeah, some years you can get away with it - and some years you set yourself up for a buggy disease disaster. We'll play it safe....

We should see chard regrowing slowly but surely, the lettuces are pretty and we should have 2 more of those heirloom varieties to try I think this weekend, the mesculin will be getting another cutting, another variety of pok choi is just about ready, and we'l see if we can get some spinach, and beets, along with our herbs, too. The cauliflower just doesn't look good. I asked ol' Jack today what the thought it was and he wasn't even sure. I suspect it just didn't get enough of what it likes early on - it is a pretty picky plant sometimes. Drats.

We had a very nice variety in our first winter harvest.

Kathryn, one of our CSA members, brought some of her students out today for a tour of the farm. They are in an environmental science class. We discussed some basics of soil, the renewable energy system, what crops were in and what we were planning to plant and the importance of preserving and establishing more small farms in and nearby urban areas and how CSA was an important component to that. I gave them handouts on NAIS, which we should've covered more in depth, the renewable energy set up CSA member Herb and volunteer Leo have engineered for us, and on the history of Community Supported Agriculture as pioneered by Robyn Van En.

Everyone was greeted by Chief, who I was keeping up past his bed time, which is dusk if you're a rooster, and Shelby the barn cat. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to get to share my passion about farming and local healthy food with young people - who may one day get excited enough about local food and want to farm, too! Hey, you never know?!

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!