What was old, is new again. Again.

Back in 2008 when I broke ground on what is now my 14 acre uncertified organic farm, eating local was a fairly new, old concept. It was how many or most of our grandparents ate, every day.



Yet for many recent decades, society, in America at least, had moved towards fast food, convenience in the kitchen by way of boxes and packages popped out of freezers and into microwaves and eating in shifts instead of on much of a routine together as a family, or even as individuals. I was guilty, too. Until about 25 years ago I wasn't often at a fast food place, but I wasn't immune from the occasional quick fix of the hunger pangs.

The introduction of CSA's in the 80's, and later the exploding number of farmer's markets in so many neighborhoods, slowly brought some people back to the basics.

It also helped that films like Food, Inc. and the DFW premier here of the film FRESH! for our 2nd Barn Aid exposed some of the dirty little secrets of big ag causing some people to ask questions. But we're talking about a finite number, and I mean teeny tiny percentage, of the population. Like, 1%. Maybe.

Now that is a lot of people, no doubt, looking for local farmers from whom to procure their food. And there were never going to be too many small farms that we could eliminate our entire alternative food production system overnight. But then entered on the scene, meal preparation kit start ups, food distribution start ups (these used to be called co-ops in the 60's but now they delivered to your front door, usuallly from big ag), and the concept of small, local farming got all wishy washy and diluted yet again.

For over 10 years many small growers, and I mean, really small not mid-size guys with combines and crews of seasonal workers, started to see the market that they had groomed, fade away.

CSA's of 100, 200 members were reduced to 75, 50, 20 - seemingly in a season. The concept of "sharing the risk" that farmers had bore on their own shoulders since the beginning of time was once again fading, too.

But many of us battled on. Doing what we loved and making ends meet with a loyal and dedicated core group of members that allowed us to at least break even, adding "agritourism" or side jobs - or both. Some had spouses with "day jobs" and some, unfortunately, left farming.

I've seen many farmers and start ups come and go in the past decade. It's been tense, yet I still can not see myself walking away from it all. I am fortunate to have one of those loyal and dedicated core groups of members that have made sure this little farm survives.


Enter a world wide pandemic; Covid-19. 

Suddenly there are no after school and weekend commitments to run all of the children to.

No 3-day a week business trips. 

No late night office meetings and deadlines.

No sitting in traffic whilst inhaling breakfast, lunch and/or dinner out of a paper bag and foam box.

No endless list of social gatherings, snacking and drinking our way through what should have been a proper meal.

Someone slammed on the brakes of nearly everything we were rushing around to do - simultaneously.

Whew! 

Now, I know there is, and can feel for, the worry and stress not having a steady income has brought to many. I've been there myself - many times.

Even losing my very first self financed, shiny red, brand new pick up truck to unemployment and lack of financial stability.

Nearly losing my home, twice.

Being unsure where my next batch of bills' payments would come from.

So, I totally empathize with those who are experiencing this now, and I truly hope you have people in your life you can reach out to for help. I know it can be as scary as hell.

I do hope for everyone's sake, too, that our leaders get it figured out how to help people become financially whole again in the face of a situation no one could foresee or really plan for.  I'm not here to get into the whole conversation of needing to work so many jobs just to make ends meet that it was impossible for many to actually also have a 3-month "emergency fund", that even so many "successful" businesses and people didn't seem to have.

But in the interim, while we're on "pause" in a way, and, hopefully, on the bright side, it has given millions of people around the world something most or many at least, lacked for far too long.

TIME. 

A silver lining?

Time to sleep 8 hours - out of 24, not over 3 or 4 nights.

And, maybe even a chance to grab that catnap they'd only dreamed of during another senseless, boring meeting after lunch.

Or time to read an actual newspaper with a cup of coffee in the morning.

Time to re-learn math along with their kids as everyone started a version of "home-school". 

Time to actually plan what meals they liked, or knew how to prepare - and could find ingredients for making.

(Never have I had such a hard time finding a jar of yeast! I've got some now, though, so no worries.)

Time to prepare those meals and sit down with loved ones and eat them - together.

And then have time to go for a walk after eating - wow, what a concept!!
(I do hope you are doing this.)

And it's also given some people time to think about where their food actually comes from, again, and how many steps it must go through to get to their freezer.

And they're re-visiting the produce aisles, whole grains and beans bins and - they're coming back to the farms! I've never seen dry beans sold out till this.

We're seeing so much waste though.
Factory-scale dairy and produce plants that normally package for schools and other industrial uses - are not equipped to simply retrofit their operations to put it into retail/consumer packaging. So it's being dumped because it can't just be stored until the places that package retail sizes can process it all. 


And don't even get me started on livestock. Those farmers and ranchers hearts are aching for many reasons when the flocks and herds they've raised from the start can not become what they were destined to become, a meal for a hungry family, school kids or a chef's creation. Heartbreaking even for someone who doesn't drink commercial milk or buy much produce or meat from a store; knowing millions may be doing without a proper meal right now.

Not to mention that the people who process our big ag food work in such cramped quarters there's really no easy way to keep them from getting each other sick. And as we've seen, falling ill with this virus is a lot different than catching a mild cold and soldiering on. (Not that we should need to do that, either!) It's really  hard to work your job from a ventilator.


There are also shipping logistics and contractual red tape to get through. It's all so "modern"; it's a dinosaur!


What happened to picking up a bunch of whatever out of the back yard garden, walking it into the kitchen and preparing it? Well, my friends, what was old, is new again. Again.

Local food is making a comeback! 

Many farmers are seeing an uptick in CSA memberships, farmer's markets are seeing lines of people each weekend looking for eggs, and produce, etc. I'm welcoming in a few new members during a rare summer sign up myself - welcome! (Sorry, we're full now.)

And several seed companies have had to either shut down non-commercial sales to make sure our farmers get seed they need to grow for the season or have run out of many things due to a crazy high demand by the general public to grow food at home - again.

I love that so many people are calling to ask me questions about home gardening. And I've even sold a handful of the extra seedlings to people who are gardening for their first time. It's inspiring to see people making the best of our global situation!

Can I ask just one favor, though?

Please - don't forget about it all once it's "over" and you can run out and grab and go again.

Please find a way to work more home made meals into your new routine, whatever it becomes. We have a lot of fine indie restaurants and so many service industry workers that will need our support, too once it's safer to go out again. But let's not get stuck in that rat race all over. Can we rethink a few things?

Your farmers have been here for you in this time of uncertainty. Please don't forget about them when things go back to "normal". Each time you do, we lose a few more and it makes it less desirable for new farmers to get into the game. They need to be able to make a fair living wage, too. "Rich in other ways", doesn't pay the bills.

And some day, if we don't learn from this, we may have to rely on methods of food growing thousands of miles away and distribution systems that are even more uncertain than we've recently endured. 

Support local - first. Then, fill in with your supermarket for those comfort food faves.

Stay well, stay safe and please, for the time being when at all possible, stay home until we've seen at least a two week drop in people coming down with this virus. Get tested if you can, for peace of mind if nothing else, and let's hope the doctors come up with a myriad of cures that keep others from coming down with this, or from us losing another person before their natural time to go.

Thank you to all who have and do support your small, local farmers. We couldn't do it without you!

Eat your food - Naturally!
Marie

C is for Community

CSA members sharing a meal at the farm

Community. 

It seems this concept feels very much different now, than it did from long out of the past. Perhaps because we are living in a different kind of society than when we grew up. At least, I think I can say that for those of us from the Baby Boomer and Gen X generations. We didn't grow up with 6' wood fences, they were chain link - if we had them at all. We all walked to school together, our parents had dinner parties and everyone on your block and in your homeroom class or grade was your community. Now, with charter schools and driving kids there instead of flocking there in packs down the sidewalk, living at a breakneck speed to get to as many out of the home activities as humanly possible, as opposed to playing hide and seek catching lightening bugs till mom called, and we're entering and leaving through the garage so, many people don't even know their neighbors, much less consider them part of their community. Many of our neighborhoods feel fractured, unconnected.

Eden's Organic Community Garden Ground Breaking Crew

Maybe that's why the philosophy of CSA farming appealed to me so much when I first discovered it in 2007. I had read the book, virtually a how-to handbook on CSA, called Sharing the Harvest, (if you happen to buy it, please sign on through Amazon smile and choose TOFGA to support TX farmers.)

Not only did this book help me gain much respect and admiration for farmers, none of whom I really knew personally at that time, but its concept of this CSA format of farming, reminded me of something else on which I couldn't quite put my finger. Not until I decided to break ground; first on the community garden in my front yard and then to start an actual commercial farm, growing for my community.

Ground, er, manure, breaking crew for Eden's Garden CSA Farm

After all of these years of growing for many of the same families, I think I get it now. It was the growing familiar with the people I fed; the forming of a community within what I was doing that fed the human need for connection. Even introvert farmer types need people around sometimes. 

When I worked part time in my hometown of Franklin Park up in IL, at the local camera store with a small crew of 3 employees, just about anyone who took photos back then, brought their film there for developing. We got to see kids' parties, Halloween, vacations and everything in-between. Many came in at the holidays to get their kids a new camera and pass on the tradition.We had waited in the same line for lunch at the local hot dog stand, bought our groceries at the same family owned grocery store, and banked at the same local state bank. It was small town living of the 80's. Our small town was a big community where everyone knew each other somehow.

Working corporate, where I went after graduation, you sort of lose that environment. Other than the community that might form within a department. But with all of the shuffling of personnel, it seemed hard to really get the same sense of community we'd had with a small staff and loyal group of customers at a small retail store, much less my old neighborhood. Plus, there were often feelings of competition among employees in the big corporate offices where I worked. It rarely felt genuine.

The Original Eden's Organic Garden Center

So when I decided to break out and start my garden shop down here in Dallas, I was eager to re-create that feeling of knowing your customers and making them feel at home. Even if I am terrible with remembering names, I wanted to remember the people and what they liked to grow and help them garden safely.

When the garden center didn't make the move well to where I now make it my adult "hometown",  south of downtown Dallas in Balch Springs, I started a local market of organic local farmers and ranchers in order to hopefully create a sense of community around something I thought surely people everywhere would have a common value for – food.

First Market Day at the Relocated Garden Center

Homegrown, food raised locally, using sustainable and safe methods by someone they could meet, get to know and trust. I thought I'd create a community of like-minded people who wanted to have peace of mind about their food and get to see who raised it.

Early years work share members help plant crops

Little did I know there were way more eaters than organic farmers. So, I rolled up my sleeves to grow some, hoping maybe some would even help plant or harvest that food. They did!

Making REAL Food Accessible for all

And as a result of that support, a small, urban farm is around for the whole community to share from and from which kids and adults alike, can learn things they don't generally teach in school. Since 2008 - we've come a long way, baby!

That's what CSA means to me, and hopefully to all of my members.







We're not a “subscription” to a farm box program. Some folks belong to huge CSA's, like the ones out in CA, where they never even see the farmer, or the staff of farm workers, much less go to the farm to connect with the land. It's a CSA in that they are directly paying the farm, as opposed to a 3rd party middleman, and often it's a farmer's choice "share", meaning they're getting a variety based on the harvest. But from what I understand, more than ever these days, in many CSA programs, there's usually no risk shared in this transaction. And shared risk is one of the key elements of the CSA concept! It's what helps keep small farmers from going under.

Many customers are paying week to week, as they get their produce. So if there's an early freeze, drought, fire, flood and there's not any share to pick up, or not the selection of what they want to order, there's not a payment to the farm. And the farmer, in the throes of a disaster, is left to punt alone.

Other farmers will go into debt buying produce from other sources to fulfill their customers' baskets in lean times out of fear they'll lose their "subscribers" if they don't get what they feel should be coming. As if there's a truck re-stocking the flooded rows of the farmer's fields.

That's not much of a relationship. It's missing the C - community. They don't really have their farmer's back if they are going to bail on her during tough times.

Gratefully I feel, and have felt for many years, that my members - have my back. And that's a great feeling.

And CSA's are way more than some door to door service that drops off a box of chopped up veggies and plastic pouches of dried herbs that were obtained from who knows where. Often funded by venture capital, once the infusion of cash dries up, commonly so do these businesses that have a hard time operating on the razor thin profit that goes along with selling produce. Even produce prepared to that extent. There's hardly enough profit for the small farmer to make a good living selling produce, much less to include a middle man who's paying a chef to cut and assemble your meal!

Yet many a farmer has lost a lot of customers to the convenience factor. And some of those farms end up going into debt trying to compete with door to door delivery models, folding up or taking on extra off-farm jobs to support their addiction of farming. It's a hard thing to give up if it's in your blood.

ENTER THE TRADITIONAL CSA

Work share and volunteers often help plant and harvest

CSA Members Picking up Shares at the Farm

This little guy just turned NINE!

My members pledge to support their farmer with an annual subscription. We have a variety of payment options, but they're always made in advance of the season to come, giving the farm its seed money and keeping the bills paid. No one gets a cash refund if an ice storm takes out our winter crops or a drought means the watermelons are small and pithy that summer. But chances are, I was begging people to take more of something else that enjoyed a bumper crop season. Rarely is there nothing to harvest unless fields are under water or frozen. The farmer of a CSA farm works hard to bring in a harvest for her members as many weeks as the weather allows in a given area. Many farms have a set amount of weeks per season. Some farm year round, like I do.

CSA members at Eden's receive a share of in-season vegetables, fruits and herbs that I've hand selected for them just days before they come to get them. (some pick up at the farm, some at various in-town locations).  I try to familiarize myself with what many of them like or don't like, or are allergic to, and I do my best to grow accordingly. And I offer "pick your own" on "off" weeks to our members.

I've watched member couples wed, (here on the farm), kids born and grow up and some even get big enough to leave home and come back to the farm to reconnect.

It's been 10 years now since I broke ground, and a lot happens in a family in that amount of time! And likewise, many of my members have seen me and this farm from the ground up, too.

CSA Member Joan Firra - a founding farm member, picks up at the farm faithfully

Most have been members for 8 years or more. That's a loyal bunch of folks!

Members picking up "market style" at a remote site in town

Much is written about those door to door delivery services and I see big farms crossing over into other regions, projecting the same small, local farm connection as the actual local small farmers living in the areas they serve. But it seems to me that's just not the same thing at all - for either party.

I know that this farmer loves being able to shake the hand of the family who eats what she grows. And as much, I like getting to shake the hand of the rancher who raises the cattle for the beef I eat and the milk I drink. And I even have the privilege of knowing who catches my fish!

My members know they can trust the woman who grows produce for them because they've come to know me as a person, not just a concept or a picture in a blog they read.

I am grateful for the people who find it important to know where they get their produce, and then trust me to be that person.

Preparing one of the fields for planting

I never imagined making a living as a small farmer. Even though I made my way from corporate and office work to horticulture, this is a world away from even that.

My job is more than just growing vegetables, though. I try to educate people I meet about how important it is for them to get at least some of their diet from nutrient dense foods grown in season from their local area sustainable farmer.  It's not only good for their health, the environment, and the farmer, but it's good for their local economy as well. I know many of my local hardware store employees by sight, and they recognize me coming, too. We return those dollars back into our communities. And if we get busy and successful enough, we can hire local help.

Along the way my CSA members and market customers learn about new foods, and new things about familiar ones, and I always try to be as transparent with them about the process as I can. Maybe too transparent sometimes. But telling the chickens of the woes of the day, or yelling at the invisible cotton tail rabbit that decimated an entire row of cauliflower and collards transplants, doesn't have the same effect as sharing it all with someone who can say something besides “cluck cluck” in response. I need to tell my community! And then we talk about recipes for Hasenpfeffer! LOL 
(*no cottontails have been harmed by humans on this farm. We leave it up to the natural cycle of Nature.)

So if you're looking for a connection to where your food comes from; being able to shake the hand that feeds you and hear all of the details about how it got from seed to your kitchen, I hope you'll consider joining our little CSA farm.

We have openings for our upcoming 2019 farm year - spring, summer, fall and winter seasons. If you reserve a share now with $100 monthly payments, Nov., Dec. and Jan., you'll be all set for the spring distributions when they begin. Continue those monthly installments of $100 through April, and you're on board for summer shares of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, etc. Keep it coming through July, and you'll receive fall shares, and the October installment pays you through for winter crops. A full year with a farm is a great way to appreciate your region's foods like never before. And the flavor of freshly picked veggies and fruits, is unsurpassed by anything you find at the big box supermarket - organic or not. Mass production is not intended for flavor - it's intended for mass distribution. 

Right now we're harvesting fall crops, and planting winter crops. It's a never-ending cycle in North Texas. At least it is on this farm. I don't have the luxury of taking the summer or winter off. The animals have to eat, and the garden grows, or the bills don't get paid. Some day I'll afford a paid staff. I hope!

If you are really interested in learning how it all works, or you have some helpful special skills, or are maybe a little down on cash; please ask me about work-shares. Folks without any gardening background have come to love gardening today, and those who came with an interest, have gone on to homestead and even market farm themselves.

We have a sliding scale option for Lone Star SNAP customers, too; because I think all of us deserve to eat as well as possible. Eating healthy is the key to being healthy – and that should not be out of reach for anyone who is willing to strive for it.

Most of DFW is full of fast food and processed food. Most of this town is full of fast food and processed food.

Think of Eden's as an oasis of REAL FOOD, GROWN with INTEGRITY!

Come - out to the oasis! Come out to Eden's Garden CSA Farm.

We're just up the road, down on the farm.

15 mins southeast of downtown Dallas, Lakewood, and next door to Mesquite, Seagoville, and Pleasant Grove. Join our CSA or shop during Market Day, each 1st, 3rd or 5th Saturday morning.

Balch Springs -  It's All Here!

 Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Farmer Marie

Graybeard the Great!

Feared by humans, revered by the other roos all over the farmyard. Even the cats make a wide swath to avoid his path, and you, too, would be wise to do the same - to spare yourself a pummeling like no other, from those incredibly strong chicken legs.

Graybeard. 

Excuse me, where did this chicken come from?

A stray little pullet chicken to the little barn, over 4 years ago, mistaken for a hen in his younger days, became our most fierce and protective rooster at the farm. More fierce than I've ever seen. Ever. And I've mothered dozens of roos here! 

He quickly showed dominance, as what I thought was a lead hen - standing guard as other hens laid eggs in the horse troughs. It was around then I began to notice, my, my, how large your feet are becoming, for a hen...... 

It wasn't long after that then, that the rest of Graybeard's features began to form. And he became one of the most strikingly beautiful of the otherwise ordinary Barred Rock breed. And that crow! Oh you never heard such a loud rooster. He was housed over 200 ft from the main house, yet his crow was heard inside during the early morning hours as he awoke the residents of his coop.

Tragically, Graybeard, by way of one of his exceptionally long talons, became tangled in some nylon fencing during the heat of the afternoon. No doubt, chasing after something like he did. He struggled hard to free himself, as was apparent by the mark on his little (well, not so little, really) "ankle".

Seeing him only a few hours earlier at the barn, careful to avoid his ambush, I now reached him at feeding time near his coop and he was tired, hot, and dehydrated. 

Untangling him, I hurried over to a cool water bath and stroked his bright red comb with water and slowly immersed his trunk in the water trying to cool him down. Never before would he let me handle him like this. 

Always so angry was Graybeard. Quick to peck, often breaking the skin, upside down by his giant feet was the best, and safest for me, position in which to hold him while checking the coop for eggs.

Not so yesterday afternoon. He let me nurse him. Helplessness in his eyes.

As I gently tried to reassure him, I continued to cool his body down slowly, putting water up into his under-wing area, where they normally let the breeze in. I angled his head so water could trickle into his beak so he could drink.  He made attempts to do so. but he was very tired and weak. I feared the worst as I gently tucked him into his coop with his ladies for the night.

Sadly, Graybeard met his match with the late August, Texas summer heat, some time late over night on August 30th, 2018, four years to the month in which he became a member of this farm.

It wasn't a very long life. But he lived it fully and fiercely! 

I shall miss my sparring partner. (Although, feeding and cleaning the coop will certainly be much less of a challenge now that I don't have to keep a stick handy to swat him away. And we shall have another roll of electric poultry netting to use elsewhere, now the children visitors don't need to be protected from him.) 

He was renowned the farm over - and over into the neighbors' yards, for his the loudest crow of all. Oh how I shall miss that crazy loud, raspy crow. 

He'd see you coming, or me, and give out a crow - which would alert Smoke, our ewe, who would then follow with a bleat of her own - and then, finally

Oh, is someone here?

then, the dogs would rub their sleepy eyes and come out from their nap to see who or what was getting so much attention. 

Rest in peace Graybeard. You shall be missed. 

Graybeard the Great    8/2014-8/2018

Replaced, but missed.

(A young roo is in the wings and shall learn the ropes from his dad, Foghorn "Foggy" Leghorn. Spared now from the neighbor's stew pot due to overpopulation.) 

 And that, my friends, is just another day, down on the urban farm, up the street, under the old oak trees. 

 Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Marie 

The Lost Blog Posts....

A few of my blogs were posted directly on the Eden's website. Going forward, I will post them both here, on Blogger, as well as my web site and with Eatgreendfw.com

Here's the links for those posts that were not captured here this spring/summer. They'll redirect you to the website.


Reading Materials - With Consequences 4/21/15
Farmers, ranchers, and most ordinary citizens don't sit around all day and write page upon page of rules and regulations - but, we need to read what those who DO write them, write.
Reason being, that what is written, if passed into law, could very well affect your access to local food, and the means for making a living bringing it to you of many Texans.
Judith McGeary founded FARFA many years ago with the hope of helping fellow Texas farmers and ranchers - and beyond - by using her talents and strengths to help navigate and influence, to a degree, some of the legislation that affects us when it comes to our livelihoods - and your access to our products.  Be it raw milk, farm fresh produce or grass fed meats, we want to preserve our rights to access the good stuff!  (read more)

 

OL' MacDonald  04/15

I’m taking a break from doing my taxes. Maybe, if you’re reading this, you are, too. Or, maybe, you’ve done what I honestly intended to do, and did actually start to do, got yours out of the way early.

At any rate, I can think of a hundred things I’d rather do anyway than my taxes. So, as the end of the day approaches and my head is full of farm thoughts, scrambled with numbers, spreadsheets and formulas, I thought I’d write a bit - to clear the cobwebs.

I was thinking lately about the hoops, or rings as it may be, that I jump through on any given day, to have animals here on the farm.(read more)

Here Comes the Sun! 4/29/15

I was so happy last night when I checked the forecast for the rest of the week and saw lots of yellow suns on the chart! Wow have we had some long stretches of cloudy and wet weather this spring. The potato field where the clover had grown over the winter barely got mowed before all of the rains started. Needless to say, perhaps, we will not have many potatoes this year from our gardens. The field is still too wet to do anything in with the tractor and it needs to be mowed again after all of this rain. The clover is trying to rebound! (read more)

Hip-waders and Arks 5/22/15

Ok, so it’s more like goulashes and scattered plywood tossed over top of standing water and deep mud.

But at any rate, it’s more rain, in less time, over a longer period of time, than North Texas has seen in many years. Many, many years.

In fact, since I’ve been farming I have not ever experienced this kind of ongoing flooding, lack of sunshiney days and uncertainty about the future of an upcoming season.

If you see me working moonlight at Garden Café to fill in the financial gaps, you’ll kn ow why. I’m only half-joking.(read more)

Hell or High Water 5/24/15

Friday morning when I sent the weekly farm report out to my CSA members, we’d already received nearly 11 inches of rain for the month of May. By the next morning, an inch more had fallen. And today, Sunday morning, we are at 13.38” – and the rain is still steadily falling.  Erosion has washed away soil and mulch. I’m concerned about crops, old barn foundations and roofs. Extremely soggy and soft conditions, keep me from pulling the tractor out of the barn to do anything much other than a quick mowing when I can manage to get a dry enough spell to cross the creek at the pond’s mouth. The weight of my small frame, sinks up to ankles, higher in some places, just going to feed chickens, horses and dogs. Spring 2015 will certainly go down in the history books.(read more)

Piece of the Pie (5/30/15)

A couple of weeks ago, I was given the bull horn and asked to address a group of local food agtivists at the annual March Against Monsanto here in Dallas. How exciting!

I try to bash something or endlessly complain, without at least offering up some kind of resolution. I like to see progress and the only way that's going to happen is if we take real action steps, not just protest marches. Although, they can bring attention to issues, unless folks go home with something to do - not much seems to change.(read more)

The Sun is Back - Now What?

Besides doing the Snoopy happy dance, many gardeners and farmers have some work ahead of them to restore their water-logged crops.

First and foremost, get those mosquito dunks and bits sprinkled out in the standing water that can't be dumped or drained. (Made by Summit - available at Eden's and just about every garden center/department I know of. Some municipalities have dunks for free.)  (read more)

 

FALLING AHEAD TO THE CSA MEMBERSHIP DRIVE 7/2/15

Believe it or not, farmers are already thinking way ahead of tomatoes, zucchini and watermelons. When we're not mowing, weeding or harvesting, we’re already focusing some of our time on fall and winter planting schedules. That means we’re also going through our seeds, seed catalogs and taking inventory of the various soil amendments and seed starting supplies we’ll need to get those things going - like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, garlic, onions, etc. (read more)

IT'S ALL GONE TO THE DOGS CATS! (Part 1) 8/11/15

If you have any experience living where there is a feral cat population, you know how quickly the number of cats can increase – exponentially! Since I’ve owned this farm, stray or feral cats haven’t really ever been much of an issue.

Well, the only 2 strays I did find, ended up house cats – so, no issue, right?

(Ed, originally misnamed as "Eden", joined the rank and file of indoor housecats when Eve rejected his company as shop partner. Too fidgety, she said.)

But I was about to learn, and learn quickly, what an issue a couple of seemingly innocent stray cats could become.

 (read more)

IT'S ALL GONE TO THE DOGS CATS! (Part 2) 8/23/15

Thankfully, feral cats can have guardian angels. And 3 of them have come to my rescue and that of the cats here at the farm.

First up is someone I know from the local food scene who saw my plea-filled post on Facebook. Kim Pierce who writes about our Market Days from time to time, ushered my situation over to a couple of ladies she knew, who are also cat guardian angels.(read more)

On My Soapbox 9/6/15

It’s Fall CSA Share sign up time, for many farms, including mine here in southeast Dallas County. That means I’m on my soapbox. So, kick off your shoes, grab something to drink and check this article out. It’s a bit longer than a “blog” entry, so I guess I'll have to qualify it as a self published article. Oh well. I was on a roll, what can I say?

Back in 2007 or so, a certain book crossed my path. I’d started toying with the idea of starting up a farm using the CSA model and Sharing the Harvest was the go-to instruction manual as well as history book on the subject.(read more)

Looking on the Bright Side

I hope you enjoyed the story of the farm cats. I’m sure enjoying having these 3 little rascals around my office, but soon they should be all cleared by the vet and ready to go outside to romp around the farm and hang out in the shop at night.

It’s good to have cats in the shop because organic soil amendments left unattended for very long periods of time out in the open, can be subject to curious rodents’ teeth…..

Having Eve staying in the shop at night, generally eliminated this issue. With her now being retired, cotton meal has become, shall we say, mouse meal. (read more)

 So, putting my blog here as well as on my website going forward, so you have two chances to catch it! ;)

Thanks for following Life on the Farm Blog!



Marie Eat Your Food - Naturally!

March Comes in Like a Lion....What a Roar!

Winter 2015 is nearly in the books - thankfully. It's been a wet and wild ending to it, that is for sure. Things started out pretty mild, but February left and March entered with a fury of ice, bitter cold winds, snow and killing temperatures here at the farm in Balch Springs, TX.

Not something most of North Texas is accustomed to. Average winter time temps - low 50's and plenty of sunshine.

Being from Chicago originally though, I knew how to dress, what precautions to take for freezing pipes, etc. and I did what I could to cover as many of the things growing in the garden as I had coverings for. But that doesn't stop all of the damage. Hoop houses and low tunnels helped a lot. But there was still damage.Winds rip off covers. Excessive and constant moisture floods seeds waiting to germinate. A pipe still burst somewhere near the barn and  even part of the hoop house itself is getting flooded from the soaking wet soil surrounding it. I may build a mote for next rainy season.

On the surface, things looked pretty green.

Before - beautiful, full heads ready for harvest

After the first round of freezing ice pellets & winds

But under the green, lay burnt tips of frisee, no longer desired by the chefs it was earmarked for, tattered kale covered in aphids, water logged rows of seedlings - now likely drowned - and more rye grass, shepherds purse, and hen bit than ever before. Why is it that winter never seems to damage the unwanted plants? I mean one can only eat so much hen bit and the chickens and horses make too big of a mess to let them in the gardens to take advantage of the rye grass! Heck, the small flock didn't even want to come out from under their coop! LOL

Protesting the snow

So, what do we do now? We cut back the kale and hope for regrowth. I wait for the soil to dry out enough so that the tractor doesn't get stuck and mow down, then disk in, the overgrowth.  I order more seeds. And we re-group.
 
Is there time to replant what is lost? Not really. There's such a short window between our no-frost dates, coolish weather and scorching heat going into the spring, that I've decided to focus on increasing the warm weather crops instead.

We may still have kale, and the romaines seemed to make it pretty well, Swiss chard, under the covers, looks great and was in fact harvested for the CSA Saturday. So all is not lost. Just not what we usually enjoy this time of the year. Winter harvest was delayed and then pretty well vanished in two weeks.

Now one crop that did do well this winter, in the hoop house, was our Brussels sprouts. One of the toughest to grow, longest to mature crops of the winter - did the best.

And no one is complaining. I have received emails and text messages this week as my CSA members enjoyed the tender, butter-like texture of the top leaves as well as the sweet, tender golf ball sized sprouts and they're looking forward to spring, too.

More rows, earlier, for squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and melons! 

That's how I'm looking at it, anyway. Sure, I'm disappointed that we won't get those tender broccoli heads this spring.

(The plants got so confused with the up and down temps this winter, they started to put on heads before the plants were really ready to support them. I may get about a bag of heads if I cut all of the quarter sized tops.)

Harlequin bug eggs - resemble tiny barrels

But if I re-plant brassicas now, odds are that I'll be fighting insects worse than ever as broccoli prefers cool weather - not something we can expect much of after April. Broccoli, being a 60 - 65 day crop, will end up maturing in the heat of May and end up plagued by bugs. Harlequin bugs love to attack all sorts of brassicas in the late spring. Here is what to look for.

Beautiful, but damaging to late maturing cool season brassica

Plus, the soil is still so wet, it can't be worked for at least a week anyway - pushing back planting until late March - which, in Dallas, is too late for planting anything considered "cool" season. So, instead of fighting Mother Nature, I'm planning for more warm/hot season crops instead. I've planted more eggplant, tomatoes and peppers and can't wait to try some new melons this year, too.

Days after the rains ended - there is still standing water in our sandy soils

Onward to the warm season I push!

Defeat tends to breed determination in this farm girl. I have a wonderful core membership of CSA families who stick with the farm through feast and famine and get just as excited as I do when I report that "the carrots are up!", and just as disappointed to see the devastation when it hits. I roll up my sleeves, they send in the next installment to their annual membership, and look forward to the next harvest. I couldn't do it without them!

Work-share and volunteer CSA members help "clean-up" the aftermath of the winter storm

This special relationship between farmer and community is what makes the job so very special to me. I don't feel like I'm in this alone, even though most of my days are spent doing solitary tasks with only the chickens, LGD's and my ewe looking on as I work.

But I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of my youngest visitors when they come by and  feed the chickens, eat a carrot fresh from the ground and show me their latest discovered rock, insect or flower from the field.

Thank you to my CSA. And, thank you to Nature for the winter storm. Even though it caused some setbacks on the farm, I know the trees, ponds, lakes and streams needed all of the moisture it brought.  

Plus, it did afford me a few extra days "off". I got to join fellow local food colleague Amanda of the DFM at a fun, new, and actually pretty "*clean" restaurant that one of my favorite chef friends opened - right in the midst of all of this weather - down in Deep Ellum. And I've had way more time in the kitchen to cook than I usually have.

Luscher's Red Hots - A REAL taste of Chicago!

*"Besides being just damn tasty meats and sausages, we only use clean meat from well treated animals.  I know you are particular about sourcing and animal treatment. ALL of the meats used to make our sausages and other products are regionally sourced and pastured, raised steroid, hormone and antibiotic free and are AWA (Animal Welfare Alliance) approved." Chef Brian Luscher - owner/chef  

(Needless to say, hearing this warmed my heart and made my stomach happy!)

Rescued frisee & Swiss chard salad with sauteed daikon made a nice lunch

Till next time -

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

PS - I'll be speaking at 1pm this Saturday in Dallas at a cool urban feed store called Trinity Haymarket on Market Center Blvd. Come out and say hi!