It's getting close to that time

Technically, we have been farming since February. But come this week, I switch into farming as my full-time occupation.
School ends on Thursday. That is also the opening of the market in Margate. Dad and Donna will be going to sell what we have to this point. Considering that we went from no winter into summer, it's a miracle that you can count on anything for long.
Strawberries and asparagus are memories. Both came in early and both went out early. The string beans we have are looking fantastic but they are also earlier than usual. The good thing about early stuff is that it satisfies your customers who long for the fresh fruits and vegetables of the season. You would think that would make me happy but to be honest, I would rather see everything come in at its time and last awhile.
Anyway, it is about this time of the year when I use my pet phrase, "School is getting in the way of my farmwork." I'm usually ready to kick this crop of students out of the nest and welcome the new ones in two months. But I have grown fond of this group and will miss them. So I want to savor every moment that we have left together. They all want me to move up a grade to fourth but that won't be possible.
So come Friday morning, I will turn into Farmer Ed Fulltime. It seems like the summer is already half over and I will be just jumping in the fray.
The hardneck garlic got hit with a fungus that is affecting garlic all over the Northeast. The softneck seems OK but it is a bummer realizing that our garlic will not be as plentiful and as beautiful as last year's crop.
The second planting of beets is shaping up nicely. As are the second planting of carrots. Squash is fair but I am not worried about that; everybody and his grandmother has squash. Corn will be ready before the 4th of July. I can't ever remember that happening before.

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog. But in juggling my teaching job with our farm and my family things tend to be hectic this time of year.
We started the market on Saturday at Moorestown. We had a good day but sales were off compared to past markets. I attribute this to the ecomony, novelty of farmer's markets wearing off for most so that only the people who have committed are coming and an oversaturation of farmers markets in the area.
Luckily, our sales are now generated by return business. I saw very few new shoppers at our table on Saturday. This is good and not good. The good part is that we are strong enough to continue every week to do well. The bad part is that opportunities for new customers has shrinken to the point that could hurt us in the future. Just looking at the demographics of our customer base there it is older people who are settled and look forward to shopping at the market every week. The younger families are not showing up like they did in the past and this will be problem if it continues in the future.
Our CSA also kicked off last week. It was nice to see our returning customers and to meet new people who are trying us for the first time. Our building has been spruced up and we continue to update it so that when people come to pick up their stuff it is fresh and convenient for their perusal. It was nice to see Deb and Bob back from their European jaunt. Looking forward to hearing Deb's food tales every week.
We did have a bump in the road but we were able to overcome it. Virtua Hospital System had agreed to let us use their facility in Voorhees for a market and CSA pickup. But with a week to go before opening, I was told by administration that they have a no solicitation policy that their legal department wanted them to enforce. It was unfortunate and I think politics paid a part in their decision but we moved on. Due to the decision, however, we almost lost CSA customers. Some adjustments had to be made to the program to keep them on board and we were able to do that.
Things are growing well in the fields. The warm weather continues to push things along at a rapid pace. Our spinach is winding down for the spring because of this. Rain, which did not appear until recently, has become almost a weekly event. No problem here with that for now but come August I would love to see it dry so I can irrigate and stop cutting my grass every week!

Opening week thoughts

It has been awhile since I have posted a blog. But in juggling my teaching job with our farm and my family things tend to be hectic this time of year.
We started the market on Saturday at Moorestown. We had a good day but sales were off compared to past markets. I attribute this to the ecomony, novelty of farmer's markets wearing off for most so that only the people who have committed are coming and an oversaturation of farmers markets in the area.
Luckily, our sales are now generated by return business. I saw very few new shoppers at our table on Saturday. This is good and not good. The good part is that we are strong enough to continue every week to do well. The bad part is that opportunities for new customers has shrinken to the point that could hurt us in the future. Just looking at the demographics of our customer base there it is older people who are settled and look forward to shopping at the market every week. The younger families are not showing up like they did in the past and this will be problem if it continues in the future.
Our CSA also kicked off last week. It was nice to see our returning customers and to meet new people who are trying us for the first time. Our building has been spruced up and we continue to update it so that when people come to pick up their stuff it is fresh and convenient for their perusal. It was nice to see Deb and Bob back from their European jaunt. Looking forward to hearing Deb's food tales every week.
We did have a bump in the road but we were able to overcome it. Virtua Hospital System had agreed to let us use their facility in Voorhees for a market and CSA pickup. But with a week to go before opening, I was told by administration that they have a no solicitation policy that their legal department wanted them to enforce. It was unfortunate and I think politics paid a part in their decision but we moved on. Due to the decision, however, we almost lost CSA customers. Some adjustments had to be made to the program to keep them on board and we were able to do that.
Things are growing well in the fields. The warm weather continues to push things along at a rapid pace. Our spinach is winding down for the spring because of this. Rain, which did not appear until recently, has become almost a weekly event. No problem here with that for now but come August I would love to see it dry so I can irrigate and stop cutting my grass every week!

What is it worth?

Recently I got into a discussion on what things are worth. I had done some reading that said that farmers are now netting in revenue what they did roughly 40 years ago. In the meantime, everything has managed to make its way upwards in terms of producing food.
While not getting too deep into a philosophical discussion, I would like to discuss some merits worth thinking about. Let's compare apples to apples, so to speak. Or in other words, the cost of fuel versus the cost of food.
I am not an economist but I when I look at what is happening today with the cost of fuel, I shudder to think what the scenario would be if we treated our food the same way.
Simply, we have collected enough oil at this point to satisfy a demand, no matter where that demand may be. For example, politicians and people scream for the need to produce our own oil from our own land. In the meantime, people have cut back on fuel consumption by changing their cultural habits. Meanwhile the price of gas continues to rise. Why? Because the oil companies are shipping it elsewhere such as China and India where they are paying for it thereby giving the oil companies their nice profits.
Imagine for a second if farmers decided to do this. First, understand that farming today is different then just a generation or two ago. Corporations now produce our food with "farmers" used as management and overseers of the operation. Much in the same way as oil companies. So what would happen if those corporations decided to raise the price of food. People would react the same way - they would change their eating habits. And yet the price of food would continue to rise, maybe to the point where the lower classes of society would have trouble feeding themselves on a regular basis. Meanwhile food being produced on our soil could be shipped elsewhere to feed other people who are paying us a nice buck to do so. Should we be taking care of our own first?
I shuddered to imagine such a day but it is possible. My original point here is that we blame the cost of food on the cost of oil when in fact we don't have to. In agriculture there are so many ways to grow food to keep it reasonable for everyone to purchase. Yet, the person growing the food needs to make a living at it.
I recently saw a story in which a dairy farmer is listed as one of the worst jobs to have. Of course, they don't give you the whole story behind that. Yes, dairy farming is a 365 day, 24 hour job unless you have someone to relieve you for a break now and then. It is hard work. Yet here's the catch - the price of milk rises and the farmer does not make money. That's because some one in the middle is "skimming the cream". That's why dairy farming is a difficult occupation and undesirable for people to consider as a livelihood.
When we sit down to set the prices of our produce, I want people to enjoy the experience of eating, so I try to price it so that they can do that and I can continue to provide that experience. I have another job so income is not my main concern. But the cost of producing the food is. Therefore Dad and I have to make decisions to minimize cost of producing and balance it with the price to charge. So far I think we make it work. But in the future it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Can you imagine paying $10 for a bunch of carrots?

Lettuce is ready and heat is pushing everything else

As much as I would like to admit that I do not relish hot weather this early in the growing season, it does have one advantage - it makes those pesky seeds that refuse to germinate come flying up through the ground.
It's bad enough that it has been warm the last few days. But the wind has always made an appearance and made the ultra dry weather even drier. I found myself cursing mother nature yesterday for this happenstance. The wind was non-existent for most of the day but around 3 o'clock it all of the sudden started to gust in small bursts. I had the cold frame propped up on a stick and this wind action sent it crashing to the ground and busting up for the fourth time this spring. I brief flurry of swearing ensued!
The lettuces have benefitted from this weather and a good combination of drip irrigation and Bumper Crop soil enhancement. They are beautiful! Unfortunately, they are ready a month ahead of schedule and we have no market for them. I am scrambling to find some local restaurants that are interested in taking them. The problem there is that some of restaurants I have dealt with in the past have gone out of business. I was lucky to find one restaurant that will take two boxes of the Romaine for today. My fear is that the warm weather will cause bolting. That's why I am scrambling to get buyers before this happens and it becomes a lost cause!
Asparagus is also being cut this week and we should have some to sell to anyone who is interested. It is also ahead of schedule which means that it will probably go out faster than usual.
My only wish is that it is this hot and dry come August. Past performance has indicated that August is rainy and muggy, two conditions that prevent the harvest from reaching its full potential. We shall see.

Wrong time of the year to be dry

This spate of dry weather that we have experienced over the last month has come at the wrong time. That makes me nervous as we approach summer for that is the time that we need the dry weather. Thank goodness for the irrigation well, which we hooked the pump up to on Friday.
I would prefer the dry weather but with the price of fuel going up, it would be perfect if we were to get some rain this spring to get the seeds and plants growing. But such is the life on a farm.
We just planted some leek that Dad had ordered from Italy. I also have some more onions on the way from Johnny's and the first plot of potatoes have been planted. It's time for a second planting of carrots and beets but the dry cool weather has prevented the first planting from germinating. It's going on three weeks now and I am afraid that they will not emerge.
We had a nice Easter with the girls home to visit. We went to my aunt and uncle's house in Pennsylvania for Easter dinner and it was nice to see family and friends.
Being off from school this week will be a much needed lift as I can continue to get work done. We will also be visiting Virtua Hospital's Voorhees campus on Wednesday to talk to the employees about our farm stand which starts next month.

High tech deer control

Dad and I spend alot of energy, time and money trying to minimize the damage that deer inflict on our crops. Every year it gets worse because we are sandwiched in by houses and little pockets of cover give the deer carte blanche in terms of life style.
I thought I might get the situation under control by hunting last fall. But the deer have become nocturnal and hunting them became out of the question.
So I applied for a deer depredation permit for this spring and summer and prepared to spend time waiting for them to show up at night.
In the meantime, Dad ordered some spray that you apply to the plants that is supposed to repel the deer. He also lined up a small, fence-like material that he thinks would work.
It didn't take long for the deer to find our overwintered spinach. As soon as the leaves were ready to pick, the deer started to do the job for us. Dad and I prepared for the worst.
Our first option was to shoot them. I did not relish this thought for the simple reason that I didn't know if they were coming out after dark or just before dawn. My guess was just before dawn. But I had seen them around the neighborhood just as it was getting dark so they are probably doing both. Then came a move that surprised both Dad and I.
One day Dad decided to move our field truck next to the spinach in an effort to get the deer to get used to seeing it. His plan was to sit in the back of the truck bed and shoot from there.
Well, the plan did not work. But not for the reason that you may think. By moving the truck into the field, Dad had played the smarts that the deer exhibited into our advantage! How? The deer avoided the spinach row because they thought someone was in the truck! Wow, what a great idea and no body had to die nor did I have to spray anything to achieve success! It has been two weeks now and the deer have left the spinach alone.
To prove that our truck idea was not a fluke, I have worked in a field that is just below the spinach patch. I can see the deer tracks coming out of the woods and then they veer hard to the left to avoid the truck and the spinach row!
I admire those deer for their cunning and wish them all the luck in the world as long as they stay out of my crops! But sometimes you have to use their smarts against them and this was one of those times. Instead of knocking ourselves out, Dad and I stumbled across an idea that worked with nature instead of against it.

I'm still here but very busy

It's been awhile since I have written a post. But I have to be honest and say that at this time of the year, I am way past busy. I am teaching school, running a home life and starting to get into farming. So that leaves little energy and sometimes time, to sit down and write a posting.
That doesn't mean, however, that my mind is not on keeping my readers updated. It has been a very freaky Spring as you know. Dad and I have been slowly doing what needs to be done but the weather continues to play a part in what we do. Such is the life of a farm.
Since I last posted, we have planted all the peas, most of the onion sets and started with the potatoes. The carrots and beets have refused to germinate which has me concerned but it's a tough call this early in the Spring. I think the key is keeping them moist which has been a chore because the wind blows every day over at the farm and things keep drying out.
The lettuce that we planted and have a tunnel over is looking beautiful. The drip line we installed is working out and there is no complaints there. The garlic is also holding its own and looks good at this point.
We planted a different variety of potato called a King Charles. It is a nice all-purpose potato that we will trial and see how it grows, sells, etc. We are also trialing for Johnny's Seeds a couple of onion varieties that they are thinking about selling. These onions are storage onions. We will be planting them this weekend. I'll let you know about their progress as we go along.
I am concerned that some of my CSA customers have not renewed their subscriptions yet. I hate to bug people but I would like to know if they are going to renew because now is the time we need the start up money. I'm probably going to be disappointed by some of the customers who won't renew, but things being the way they are with money, I can understand.
I have been working with Virtua Health Systems on having farm markets at their various campuses and this is a very promising venture. They are excited to have us come aboard and we are looking forward to opening up new avenues for new customers.
The Russian Banana potatoes are on their way from Colorado and we will be planting them this weekend. These are a big seller for us and Dad and I enjoy raising them as they are prolific and not a fuss.
Finally, the seedlings of lettuce and spinach have been working out in the little greenhouse hut I have built. We had a temporary set back about two weeks ago when a strong wind pushed over the tops and I had to rebuild them. But now things are back on track and they are growing just fine. This weekend we will start the tomatoes in seedling trays. I was able to find a variety I thought people stopped selling - a green dragon as we call it. It is a long plum-like tomato that is very tasty. We are excited that Seed Savers Exchange had seed available.
So that is the long and short it for now. I have been out every night until I can't see any more prepping the beds and getting ready for planting. It is a joyous occasion to be out there as the World gets ready for bed. By the time I get home and shower, it is also my bed time. I settle into my nice warm bed and read a good book. I am currently reading George Washington Carver's environmental biography. It is very interesting read of a man who gets credit for illuminating the many uses of peanuts but for little else but was truly a visionary in understanding how the cultivated and uncultivated plants of nature are closely related to one another.

July in March? Who would have thought it?

The unusually warm weather gets a lot of attention and rightly so. But you need to be careful that you don't fool yourself by thinking that seeds and transplants can be "pushed" forward due to this spate of warm weather.
The thought is tempting. I did this a few years ago with string beans and got a sub par first crop. So, I'm holding the course.
The problem with this warm weather is that it is pushing other things too such as diseases and pests. So instead of getting that nice reprieve that early Spring gives you from those kinds of problems, you now have to instantly gear up for them right from the start, as if you were planting in May or June. Already I have seen cabbage moths and cucumber beetles and those crops aren't even in the ground yet!
The one saving grace has been that the humidity is low and the wind warm and active. This keeps the incidence of fungal diseases low which is good. But it also means drier soil so you have to keep that water on the transplants constantly. We just hooked up a new drip system and it works like a charm! Just in time too as the lettuce and spinach are not used to being this hot and dry. We probably lost some spinach due to these conditions but that's the way it goes!
Today we are planting radishes, beets, carrots, peas, more lettuce and spinach. It will be the first direct seeding of the season. To me, this is like the opening day of something special. Although I prefer to use transplants because of the energy a seed needs to get going, there is no other feeling than seeing a row of seeds pop through the ground and start to emerge in spring.

What money can't buy

You'd think with the gorgeous weather that we've been getting that everything would fall into place. Not quite. So what started as a rough work day, ended as beautiful as you would ever want to experience.
We planted the rest of the lettuce and spinach yesterday and got a nice .11" rain this morning. You'd think I had pleased the red Gods. The sun came out and it got warm. No problemo.
Then the wind started. Not just any wind - a south western blow that was warm! Great for hay making, terrible for planting new plants that haven't taken yet. Within a matter of hours, the nice rain we had this morning was gone, turned into dust and with it went the paper mulch experiment. Instead of lying down with the rain, the sun and wind dried it up like a dead leaf and it blew off the row. Dad and I disgustedly took it up and chalked it up to experience. No paper mulch this year - maybe. Anyway, Dad and I have been through enough heartaches to know that's farming and we moved on.
I went back after dinner tonight to finish weeding an established row of spinach and hand water the spinach transplants because they are in a fragile state right now and need as much moisture as possible. We are waiting on an irrigation system from Farm Rite, which was supposed to be here last week but has yet to arrive. It's not time to start the pump with the sprinkler heads yet, so we are resorting to hand watering  to get the first crop going. A tough spot but things could be worse. At least the hose is out by the beds so we don't have to walk far with the watering cans.
Anyway, I had a nice supper (a light supper Deb) and went back to work. The difference between working in 70-degree weather in March and 70-degree weather in the summer is that there are no mosquitoes to contend with. It makes it so pleasant. So as the sun settled in, the last of the robins cheerfully called to their own and as they quieted for the night, the Spring Peepers took over. Besides the laugh of your child, there are no better sounds than the Spring Peepers on a still Spring evening.
Thus inspired, I managed to "plow" three 100-square foot beds in preparation for Thursday and Friday's bed making. When I say plow here, I don't mean a three-bottom job on the back of the John Deere. I mean taking the pitch fork and plunging it into the soil to loosen the top layer for weeding and preparation for the double dig bed process. I know, I know. But I'm learning and I think I am closer to getting it down this time. Dad hasn't bought into the idea yet and I'm sure he will be rarin' to go with the power rototiller.
At any rate, I got done more tonight in an hour and a half than I did this afternoon in an hour and a half. You can thank the peepers and the beautiful sights in the clear sky for that burst of energy and production.

We're off!

Yesterday and today will be spent in planting. Yesterday was considered a success. Why? Because nothing went as planned. I don't want to sound sarcastic but when things go smoothly without any hitches, it means that somewhere along the line things will go wrong. Better to have things go slowly the first time out so you can correct the problems, then to have a major glitch down the road.
First, the tilther we bought was too light for the soil we have at the moment. The little machine is not made to work over untilled or little tilled ground. It is made to incorporate into a ready made bed. Dad tried it out on some ground that had crusted over already and when it didn't work to his expectations, announced that the machine was "useless". That took me off my mindset that I had established for the day. To make a long story short, the machine will work under certain conditions and with the right handling. On the first day, Dad and I exhibited the wrong amount of patience, which was none. Over time, it will work out.
As I was saying, going into the game with a game plan and not executing it because of a glitch or an unforeseen circumstance that was not planned for can make for a very hectic experience. Whether it is a football game or a day on the farm, when you run up against something you did not plan and go away from what you wanted to do, it becomes stressful.
Dad and I were not on the same page when it came to planting the lettuce. To be quite fair when you are trying new techniques or products it can get like this. I wanted to work the soil so that it was more aerated and set about using the pitch fork. Dad wanted to run the rototiller through it again. I had to hold him off from doing that.
What did work right was the incorporation of the Bumper Crop and the laying of the mulch. Both were new experiences. Bumper Crop is expensive at $13.99 for two square feet. But I learned that I can work with it successfully up to 100 feet of one of the rows. The mulch took some handling because it was a bit windy but we got it down and moved on. It was so windy in fact that when we watered the mulch (as directed by instructions) that the water dried up within minutes. I feared for the safety of the plants under those conditions but we did the planting in the mid to late afternoon so they didn't sit out there all day.
Another project got under way. I started to build a mini-greenhouse for starting plants. I took some aluminum pipe that we use for irrigated and lined it up on both sides and tied them together with a couple of stakes. Then I closed the ends with cinder block. This is a method I learned from Grandpop. It is about three feet off the ground and facing South for maximum sunlight. It is also located on a rise to help heat it. Anyway I will close off any gaps with some kind of insulation (like straw) and cover the top with leftover plastic sheeting. The trays will sit inside two by two. Hopefully, this will create a condition for the successful starting of plants.

The incredible, edible . . .weed?

I just finished reading John Jeavons book about growing vegetables. I have to say that it is the most comprehensive book that I have read outside of Rodale about understanding the soil and sustainable practices.
The methods that are used in the Biointensive culture are very simple yet make a lot of sense. In the week that I have taken to read the book, it has changed my outlook on what I want to do this year and in the future.
I have to admit that I have put a lot of mental power into my operation so far. Probably more than I have ever taken the time to do. Reading this book expanded my thinking not just about the soil but about the potential and ability to raise a lot of food in a small amount of space. I have often wondered after seeing the results of some of my experiences and those of others how you can grow food in a small enough space and continue to refresh that space with the right amount of materials to keep it not only productive but very healthy. Just like our bodies. At the same time, I have been proud of my ability to raise and sell more vegetables per square foot than most commercial farms.
This book is the only source that I have come across so far that has commented on what we call "weeds" and placed them in a context that makes you think about their place in all of this. I have often wondered why "weeds" grow better under all conditions when my cultivated plants struggle or do not produce as well as they are expected to. It's because the "weeds" were made to live there. I know that sounds innocuous but it goes to speak that if we raise vegetables that are defined for the culture of my soil then we should be successful.
I have said facetiously at times, "If I could only harvest these weeds, I could make a lot of money." Well, there is some truth to that. When I think that plants such as purslane, lambs quarters and dandelion, plants that people pull out and throw away, are considered edible by many people and cultures, I feel I am missing the boat. Nature is giving me an opportunity to use something and I am looking past it because it is the ugly girl at the prom.
Granted, the reason we pull weeds is because of competition. But think for a moment about the "weeds" providing a beneficial source of food and enriching the soil. There has to be some room in there for their utility. I have a vision of using "weeds" as cultivated plants on the farm stand and someone saying, "Uh, why do have lambs quarters on your table? I wouldn't eat that!" Why not, do you know what it tastes like? What its health benefits are? Or can't you  get past the image of it as a "weed"?
After thinking about all of this, I was curious to find out the root of the word (no pun intended) "weed". It comes from the Old English word, "weod" which translates back to a Germanic word "wiota" which is a description of a fern. If I were to guess, I would say that "wiota" was a plant that was not liked very much because it was prolific and caused someone a lot of work to remove. Pretty soon, "wiota" came to mean any plant which was undesirable. But undesirable how? Surely by its taking up of space not by its existence and benefits as a soil producer or a food source.
The reality is that anything we eat at some point was uncultivated and grew in the wild. The best story is the tomato, which at one time was considered poisonous!
Don't worry, I won't let the farm go up in "weeds". But there are spots on the farm that house these kind of plants where we don't cultivate that soil. It may be time to see how we can incorporate them into the operation as opposed to trying to eradicate every last one of them.

Digging double digging

There is always something new and exciting to learn on the farm. Yesterday, I couldn't wait to get home from work to try and do some double digging of a bed. I have been reading and watching material on it plus I just want to get my hands dirty, it's that time of the year. But I should have known that excitement of this magnitude can lead to some rushing in and hurrying things where you shouldn't be rushing in and hurrying things.
I got my digging board and my newly-purchased spade shovel and spade fork and went out to the spot where I would try the bed. The Biointensive method that I have been studying shows a lot of promise but I have to temper my enthusiasm and slowly work my way into doing it. So I have decided that I am going to do some beds this year using the method and see how it works out. It may be the way of the future or it may not, depending on my goals long range for the farm.
First thing I needed to do was lay out the bed. I know 100 square feet is recommended and I have plenty of room, so five feet wide and 20 feet long it is. That was easy. Then came the first baby steps of a Biointensive bed farmer.
I plunged the spade shovel into the ground and turned to dig the 12-inch deep and 12-inch wide furrow. I noticed right away that I was doing more work than I was supposed to and a red flag went up in my head. Nonetheless, I "plowed" forward and did the first trench. I did not have buckets or a wheelbarrow as recommended so I piled the dirt next to the trench. That was the second thing I noticed that I had hurriedly mis-calculated. Oh, well, it couldn't be that big a deal. Dirt is dirt. The soil from the first trench would go back into the last trench anyhow or be used for a future compost pile.
Next thing I noticed was that the soil was still wet six inches into the ground. The top is sandy loam so it drains easily but after that you get into a mix with clay and that was where the water was sitting. This was a big mistake digging at this point because you never mess with soil when it is wet. Compaction and a break down of the structure are disasters waiting to happen.
But my enthusiasm did not wane because I wanted to experience the event so I foolhardedly moved on. I then had to decide if the trench needed to be cleanly formed or if it was good enough to have it opened up. I noticed that I was taking up the next strata and mixing it with my top soil, which was a no-no. It was at this point that I decided that I needed to go back and re-read the manual. God bless enthusiasm. I plowed ahead. Now I know what they mean by a bull in the China shop. I found myself stepping into the trench as if I were digging a grave. Another no-no. I was compacting the soil! I quickly jumped out and tried to figure things out.
Evenutally, I got the trench clean to the point where it was time for the next step, aerating the next 12 inches. I took my spading fork and plunged it into the soil. I was really working up a sweat at this point but I kept going. I lifted the dirt and turned it over in the trench. Now I was ready for the next trench, where I would put the top soil from the next 12 inches into the first 12 inches.
I did that and forked the second trench and did a third trench before stopping. By this time the bells in my head were ringing like a 6-alarm fire call and luckily it was getting dark. I stepped back and observed my work. Wet soil, a sore body and not much to speak of. It was time to go back to the manual and find out what I did wrong.
I decided rather than reading over and figuring out what I did, I would pop in the DVD and watch someone else do it. Good move. Here is what I saw compared to my experience.
First, I neglected the step of taking my spading fork and loosing the top layer before I started to dig the trench. That was half the reason why I was working so hard! The other half was that the soil was still heavy with water because it has been slow to drain due to the cool temperatures.
Then I noticed that the buckets used to move the soil were a good organizer for the latter steps. Memo to self - go to Cedar Brook Hardware and get eight buckets.
I was right when I dug a 12-inch deep and 12-inch wide trench, so I patted myself on the back. But the third and final mistake was that when I went to work the second 12 inches with the spading fork, I just needed to plunge the fork in 12 inches and loosen the soil, not turn it over in the trench! Another reason why I was working too hard.
I took solace in the fact that it was my first attempt and luckily I have only done three trenches instead of a whole bed.
This morning as I was reading the farmer's almanac, I noticed that next week is supposed to be the best time to make a bed. So I will wait at the right time and armed with my experience and new knowledge, give'er the old college try again. One thing's for sure - my enthusiasm has not been tempered.

Doing a little housekeeping

This weekend has left me much time to do a little housekeeping and less time to write. So while I put off grading papers for tomorrow, I figured I better not let another day go without updating what is going on at the farm.
Dad and I spent the last two days doing odds and ends. Since we got a good, heavy rain on Friday, field work was out of the question. So we picked up the lettuce and spinach plants at Kube Pak and are lettting them harden in the shed. Since it was cold and windy the last two days, it's not a good idea to exposure them to the outside just yet. The long-range forecast for the coming week is to moderate into warmer temperatures so they will have their day in the sun before long. Plus, my target date to plant them will be next weekend.
In preparation for that planting, we spent some time on Saturday bending tubing for the low tunnels that will protect the plants once they go into the ground. It is the first time I have used the bending tool and it was a breeze once I got the hang of it. It will be used for a 36-inch row that is approximately 100 feet long.
I finished cleaning up the blackberry patch. Now I will add the compost around the plants and fertilize and they will be good to go.
Finally, we cleaned out the sheds and organized everything. Old seed packets and trash were discarded and all seed was organized for easier use. Once we get going into full production, there is no time for this kind of work. Also, I checked the machinery to make sure it is in good working order and finished the day by wirebrushing and filing the hoes and wire weeders to a sharp edge. Tools that are very sharp are much easier to work with and do minimal damage to the soil.
Last Friday we received our latest piece of equipment, a tilther from Johnny's Selected Seeds. This 15-inch wide mini-rototiller is used to finish a seed or plant bed by working the top 2-4 inches just before planting. It runs on a cordless drill, so we don't have to worry about gasoline. I am looking forwad to using it next weekend for the first time.
Dad and I spent some time discussing the planting of the potatoes, which will probably happen in the next five weeks. Usually, we use a furrow maker hooked to the tractor and scratch open a 10-inch hole. But I am re-thinking that method as I want to be sure that the plants will have good soil structure to lay roots in. Using the furrow making could lead to hard pan, something I want to avoid. I am kicking around the idea of "double digging" the rows and laying a compost in the furrow to give the seed a good start. Stay tuned and you'll find out where I am going with this.

The arrival of the first plants of the year

I received a call today from the Kube Pak plant company in Allentown, N.J. We get our transplants from them because they do a great job at less cost and time than I can do it myself. Our lettuce and spinach plants are ready for pickup and so on Saturday Dad and I will take the hour or so ride up to Monmouth County and pick them up.
Like an expectant parent, I have been preparing for this moment for the last two weeks. The ground has been prepared, the biodegradable mulch is on its way, the hoops for the low tunnels are waiting to be made and the Agribon sits patiently in the shed. The only thing needed now are the stars of the show and it's only a matter of time before they are here.
In addition to the many things listed beforehand, one of my other preps for this moment has been to patiently read the Farmer's Almanac to check on planting dates. Last year I started to plant by the Zodiac signs and I have found much truth to this method. Grandpop was a believer in it but he never confided in me about it. Dad remembers Pop talking about it and using the method.
Anyway, the Almanac says that we can plant the stuff as early as this weekend. The only problem is that I would like to harden the plants before setting them out and if we pick them up on Saturday, as we plan, that will not be sufficient enough time. The other issue is that it is supposed to rain all day Saturday so that would make it impossible getting into the field. Depending on the amount of rain, walking around in wet dirt is not good for the plants or the soil. That is a topic for another day.
 Hardening transplants is important as it gives the plants time to acclimate to the outdoor temperature and culture since they have spent their early life in the comforts of the greenhouse.
That being said, the Almanac points out that the next good Zodiac planting dates will be a week from Sunday, March 11. That is the date that I will be shooting for as it gives me more than enough time to harden the plants. Also the biodegradable mulch should be here and I can patiently plan out what I am going to do.

"The (soil) doctor will now see you"

If there was ever time to be thankful for the Internet, I think it was yesterday.
I spent about four hours researching soil, soil test results and soil amendments on the World Wide Web and I have to tell you, I don't know how I could have gained so much information in such a short time. It was just a few years ago (or so it seems) that I would have spent days and hours on the phone and at the library getting the information I needed that I found so easily yesterday.
At any rate, I am now more educated about my soil. Let me start with the soil sample analysis that came back. It showed some things I suspected (low organic matter), some things I did not expect (an average of 6.9 for my PH level - no liming this year!) and some things I didn't know (extremely low sulfur and boron).
We had our analysis done by A&L labs in Virginia. They do a nice job of interpreting everything. I started by going to their website and printing out a fact sheet on how to read my analysis. They also have a nice tutorial on elements in the soils and what their jobs are.
I sat down with the big yellow legal pad and went to work. I was a soil detective and doctor all in one sitting. I found out that ammonium sulfate would solve my sulfur problem and that Borax would amend my boron woes. I also realized at this point that I don't need my 10-10-10 that I had ordered so I will call my distributor and ask him to cancel the order and hold my money in escrow for future purchases. Luckily, I didn't get a custom blend otherwise it would get into a sticky situation.
In addition to the sulfur and boron, I needed a boost in calcium, manganese and potassium. At this point, I wanted to see how I could combine my leaf compost with the elements that were missing or in need of improvement. I could have had a custom blend of commercial fertilizer ordered but that would have presented more dilemmas. For example, string beans are susceptible to boron poisoning. Since I needed boron in my soil levels to be higher, I would have felt uncomfortable using a custom blend with added boron on one of my main crops. Therefore, my decision was to add the amendments to my compost to control the situation better.
So I started to track down products that I could mix with the leaf matter and use as a compost for my vegetables.
That's when I came across a product made by a company named Coast of Maine that is called "Bumper Crop". It is a compost mix that was highly-regarded by several reviewers and had some things in it that not only seemed to fit the bill but it looked easier to work with.
Dad and I caucused on the situation and decided we'll try the "Bumper Crop" to see how it works. Stay tuned.
In the meantime I had come across a biodegradable row cover made by Weed Guard Plus. I mentioned it to Dad and he purchased a roll that we are going to trial this year on our head lettuce.
It was a profitable weekend for a couple of other reasons. The blackberry patch is now finished with its haircut. I need to go back in and dig out some root systems that are where they shouldn't be and move them into a new row for cultivation.
The mailman was nice and brought me a new soil thermometer and a soil analyzer that analyzes the PH and moisture in the soil. Two handy instruments that will help me make better decisions on planting and irrigating this summer.
Finally, I sat down and laid out the logistics for the carrots and peas that will be going in the ground in two weeks. The peas are a last minute addition that I know Deb, one of my best customers, will appreciate. I will plant two varieties - a snow pea for stir fries and a regular shelling variety.

The curse of the blackberry

Yesterday, Anna and I spent time masculating what is known as our blackberry patch. Thank God the blackberries are thornless. It was a tangled mess that reminded of my wild teenage hair that I used to let grow long back in the day.
It was my fault to let the patch go to such extremes. I haven't given it a good pruning in two years. Frankly, I had become indifferent to it. But given that we have had such a mild winter here in New Jersey this year, I had some time and the motivation to get out and clean it up.
The patch is four years old. It has produced some beautiful fruit in spite of my inattentiveness. I shouldn't be surprised. Blackberries are indestructible.
Ironically, blackberries are the last link to my great grandfather Ciro, who started the farm in 1911. He grew what we called black diamonds. Black diamonds were all over that farm in dark corners and on along the roadway when I was a child, courtesy of the animals and birds that ate them and then deposited the droppings along the way.
I am told that my grandfather also grew them because they sold well. But the nature of the plant, with its nasty thorns, finally got to him one day and he pulled them all out because he got tired of them scraping and scatching not only him but the rest of his family, including my mother, who was a child then. So the blackberry lived on as a wild plant around the farm and still does in spots.
Some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother taking me for a walk down Landing Road and me picking the blackberries to eat. I couldn't have been more than 2, 3-years-old.
One day about four years ago as I was getting into this heirloom thing, I had the idea that I was going to take the wild plants and cultivate them into a patch that we could use for the markets. That's when Dad stopped me and said, "They raise them thornless now. Why don't you just buy a few plants that way and raise them."
And so yesterday I was thankful for that suggestion as we hacked our way into shape the plants for this year's crop.
I have read many ways to prune blackberries and keep them. But I have found that appealing to their wild nature, I prune back the good canes to knee's length, cut out the dead wood and let them go. Grandpop used that method on the raspberries we used to grow and so that is what I have been doing. Some berry person is probably shaking their head but you know what, blackberries are what they are - persistent when it comes to survival. So we shall see what comes of it.
The day was chilly and we had some wind but for a late February, it wasn't too bad. Anna and Dad pulled the remainder of the cabbage, broccoli and Brussels Sprouts that were left from last season. Amazingly, the Brussels Sprouts were still growing with tiny balls that were ready to be picked!
That parcel will be worked into a fallow field this year with some sweet clover to be planted for soil enrichment.
I give Anna credit. She worked hard and did not complain which is what most 13-year-olds would do. But Anna is like me in that she is apt to be a pleaser. So she stuck to it for four hours of work. In the long run it will do her body and her mind some good.

How much tilling should be done?

As users of the Earth, we get mixed messages on how much manipulation of our soil we should be doing. Grandpop would put the three-bottom plow on the back of the John Deere 70 and have a go at it every spring, turning over what was on top and then planting over it.
I did the same thing for years. Then I started to use a six-prong subsoiler and disc harrow. Then it was just a disc harrow and a field conditioner. Now it's just a rototiller. Talk about extremes and the learning curve!
I just finished an article in the March/April issue of Hobby Farms that talked about the tools that one would use on a small parcel of land to get ready for the planting season.
First, I must comment that most people (myself included) would be incarcerated if we treated our bodies like we treat the soil! Ripping and tearing and going over the same area over and over again. Imagine doing that to a living organism. It's chances of survival would lessen each time that we did it. Your soil is the same way. It is a living organism! Yet, we exhibit this kind of behavior through ignorance. So before doing anything, understand what you are doing. Growing food is not just planting something and watching it grow.
I love my father dearly but if it wasn't for this article, "Till the Sun Comes Home", I don't know what I was going to to do. I would just about scream every time I saw him jump on the tractor the last two years and go out with the new rototiller we bought. He was caught up in the moment of a new piece of tillage equipment that was doing a great job in his eyes.
Dad and I were talking the other night and he mentioned that he read the article in his issue and said, "I guess I better back off with the rototiller." Ya, think? Of course, I had been making overtones to that effect but the old adage about believing it when someone else says it certainly proved prophetic here.
In the article, Dr. Harold Van Es, a professor of crop and soil sciences at Cornell, says something that I really grabbed ahold of. "Every time you till, you remove a little money from the account. Eventually your checking account will need to be balanced. Same goes for your soil. That doesn't mean you can't till, but you need to balance tillage with adding organic matter, such as compost, planting a cover crop or rotating with perennial crops to build up the soil.
"The more you disturb the soil, the more you break up the natural aggregates and the more you mineralize or lose organic matter and tilth. While not initially apparent, several years of excess tillage will show soil degradation."
Then there were these pearls of wisdom from Joel Dufour, owner of Earth Tools in Owenton, KY. He said, "Over-tilled, beat-up soils may feel good to the hand, but you've destroyed the capillary action, annihilated the earthworms and damaged the microbiological soil life."
That's some great food for thought. Every time I read stuff like this, I go out to the farm with new respect for my land and how I am going to treat it.

Has organic farming reached the "slope of enlightenment" phase?

Last week I read a very insightful article in the New Jersey Farmer by Lynne Finnerty of the American Farm Bureau. It's impact was such that I felt the need to contact Lynne and she graciously allowed me to reproduce the article here in my blog.
Lynne's comments echo something that I have felt for the last few years when it comes to organic farming. I think that the euphoria of what organic farming produces has reached a new stage, one in which people have accepted it as a norm of our culture instead of a phenomena. With that being said, the people who jumped into organic farming a few years ago to make a big buck are finding that the high prices that they charged a few years ago are finding fewer takers each year as eating organic vegetables becomes a lifestyle for those who believe in its values while most find that they could not keep with the economics of living that lifestyle and have either dropped out or incorporating some of the culture but not all of it.
As I said in an earlier post, agriculture should be a partnership of many cultural beliefs and inputs, a marriage of technology and common sense. I believe that is the essence of what is known as sustainable agriculture, the kind of agriculture that is the goal of Spinella Farm as we carry forward in the 21st century.

Farmers May be More Organic Than People Think

Farmers may be more organic than people think
 By Lynne Finnerty

Ever heard of the hype cycle?
Created by Internet consulting firm Gartner, Inc., the theory goes like this. New technology goes through a cycle, including a “technology trigger” phase, in which it generates excitement and press coverage; a “peak of inflated expectations” phase, in which the hype leads to unrealistic expectations; a “trough of disillusionment” phase, in which the technology fails to meet expectations; followed by a “slope of enlightenment” phase, in which the hype has subsided but some businesses continue to use the technology for its actual benefits; and, finally, the “plateau of productivity” phase, in which the practical benefits become accepted as part of normal business.
For example, “cloud computing,” the use of computer programs and data storage over the Internet, has been a subject of media buzz. It’s supposed to save businesses money on computer software they won’t need to buy if they can get the same services at no or low cost via the Web.
Gartner says cloud computing is coming to the end of the “peak of inflated expectations” and is headed toward the “trough of disillusionment.” Recent news stories have pointed out that information entered into a Web-based service could be compromised. Of course, people will continue using cloud computing, just with their expectations less in the clouds.
What does all of this have to do with farmers? The hype cycle is an interesting way to look at what’s happening with organic agriculture. Organic food has been the darling of the news media, with stories about how it was going to save everything from small farms to the planet. Then some organic food companies got big and some already big companies, seeing consumers’ willingness to pay premium prices for organics, jumped on the bandwagon. Some of the same people who were early fans of organic food tend not to be fans of big companies, so they started wondering if buying local was more important than buying organic. Then, the recession hit and the growth in organic food sales continued but slowed. Organic milk sales dropped.
However, some organic practices have practical benefits and farmers across the agricultural spectrum are adopting them. For example, specialty potato grower Brendon Rockey of Colorado has started growing “green manure” crops to build up his soil quality to the point where he doesn’t need commercial fertilizers or pesticides. He considers himself a hybrid of organic and conventional farming. Jay Yankey, a Virginia fruit, vegetable, corn and soybean grower, uses beneficial insects to control pests and cover crops to prevent erosion, as well as no-till farming to retain soil moisture and nutrients. But Yankey also uses pesticides. He says farmers use the practices that work for them and more organic practices are becoming the norm.
That sounds like the “slope of enlightenment,” which means the “plateau of productivity,” in which farmers use a mix of methods and modern technologies to achieve all of their goals – maximizing yields, reducing costs, satisfying consumer expectations, caring for the land and meeting growing food demand – with less division between those who wear this or that label, might be around the corner. That’s good news for all of us.

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Lynne Finnerty is the editor of FBNews, the official newspaper of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

A good farmer farms with money, not for money

Dad and I talk every day and as it gets near farming season, we talk even more so. Our latest talk centered around finances. It the time of the year when money goes out the window faster than you can say God Bless You. Dad is nervous at such times and I think I would be too. He's probably more so because he is in charge of the ledgers. I like it that way because then I can't see what comes in or goes out and as long as the tractor doesn't sputter and stop in the field, then I know I'm OK.
Like any business, farming takes an extraordinary amount of money based on the size of your operation. A fellow farmer here in South Jersey once summed it up the best: "I don't need to go to Atlantic City. I gamble every day when I'm on the farm." He's right; in order to make a living at farming you have to make smart business decisions, and then, and even more so, you have to be lucky.
Dad likes to say that farmers make money because of some other farmer's misfortune. There's a lot of truth in that. If you look at farming any more on a commercial scale, it has become a national and sometimes international phenonmena. The latest example I can think of is peaches. We had a neighbor who farmed hundreds of acres of peaches here in Winslow Township. He suffered through some really bad years. A sign that a farmer is hurting financially (and probably physically and emotionally) is when they start to sell off their ground to help pay the bills. When it gets to this point you feel for the guy. Anyway, that's what this gentleman did. He sold some land to the state for farmland preservation and some to developers. Finally, he ended up selling the whole thing. The next year peach farmers in New Jersey, after a decade long losing streak, hit it big when the crop was destroyed in the South due to bad weather. As a matter of fact, it was a couple of bad weather years that made peach farming profitable here in New Jersey. By then, the farmer was in retirement and his son was driving a truck for a living. He was a good farmer too. His crop was always well cared for. But he was at the mercy of the market.
Sam Brick of Marlton told me one time that his Dad's favorite saying about farmers was that the good ones farmed with money, the bad ones farmed for money. There is a significant amount of truth to that. You have to understand what your situation is and know how much financial tolerance you have. The bottom line is that you can't spend over your head and that you can't think about how much money you want to make. That's why a good accountant is a farmer's best friend. We have one in Bill Lemons of Hammonton.
When Grandpop died, we inherited his equipment. I will say this about Grandpop. He grew up during the Depression and he came away, like a lot of people who suffered, with the utmost respect for money and its effect on your life. Grandpop literally kept things going with the proverbial spit and bailing wire. We would laugh about two things when it came to Grandpop and money. One was the story about the tie rod bushings on the John Deere M. Grandpop would find some way to keep that tractor going even with the wheels about to fall off. One day we got tired of them breaking every other time and went out to John Deere and bought new bushings. Grandpop was mad that we fixed his work but he never complained after that.
The other story involved his Agway discount. Grandpop had bought shares into GLF (Garden, Lawn and Farm or as Sam Brick used to put it, Good Luck Farmer!) when it first came to Berlin. Evenutally Agway bought out GLF but Grandpop was still a share holder. As such, he was entitled to a discount on his purchases there. One day I went for chicken feed. Grandpop's big thing was to remind the clerk that he received a discount. Well, it was one of my first trips by myself to the feed store and I forgot the damn discount. When I got home, Grandpop looked at the bill and said, "Where's my Agway discount?" I told him I forgot to get it. He got pissed off. I said, "How much was the discount?" He told me it was 35 cents. I couldn't believe it - he was upset over 35 freakin' cents! I reached into my pocket and took out 35 cents. He refused to take it. "It's not the actual money," he told me, "it is the principal of the thing." I just shook my head.
I will say this. Even as frugal as Grandpop was, he knew where to spend money and he used cash instead of credit. We never had a problem being short on fertlizer or spray. Grandpop prioritzied the things that needed to put you in a position to make money. A tie rod bushing on the tractor was not high up on the list. But making sure that the tomatoes or whatever was well taken care of, that was top priority. And the philosophy worked. We had nice stuff. That's another way you can tell a farmer that farms with money and one that farms for money. I knew a guy who bragged about his apples. I took one look at them and saw how small they were and knew right away that the guy had a cheap operation. Anyone who knows anything about apples knows that apples take an extraordinary amount of spray to produce a good crop. This guy was cutting corners with the spray and you could see it in his fruit.
We've had to upgrade the operation just about every year that Dad and I have been farming together. When it comes time for a piece of equipment Dad has never said no. When we needed a tractor to run the hay and vegetable equipment, Dad went out and bought one. He traded that one for a new one a few years later and he paid that off in three years. Working with someone of that mind set is a God send. Like the existence of a  marriage, if you argue over money you are dead in the water.
Do we make money farming? That depends on your definition of financial success. Every year we order what we want and grow what we want to make the farm better than the year before. To my way of thinking we have a successful operation.

We love to eat what we grow

Along with the marketability of heirloom fruits and vegetables, you can't beat the taste and versatility in my opinion. Heirloom vegetables are what people should be looking at today with the rise in home cooking and buying and eating local.
While everyone thinks of tomatoes when it comes to heirloom vegetables, we have grown some really great looking, tasty heirloom varieties of other crops. Black seed Simpson lettuce, Banana melons and Pink Banana winter squash have all been very profitable and very good eating for us. Again, I point to diversity and the fact that these varieties were developed with taste in mind and not to sit around on a store shelf.
In order to stay up in a niche market with competition from the number of rising tailgate markets, Dad and I have become readers of food pages and watch a number of food shows. I think Dad is probably more into it than I am but the point is that if people are using it on TV to cook with and it has a following, then it is worth exploring when it comes time to grow it.
In addition, we always eat what we grow. Coming from a big Italian family I think that goes without saying. But it is a bonus to be able to tell your customers about your experience with food you grow, especially if you have a favorite recipe. Grilled asparagus comes to mind as a food that fits that bill in recent years.
One of our best sellers has been fingerling potatoes. Up until a few years ago, only very fashionable restaurants were serving these little spuds. They are great because you don't have to peel them. You can just cook them and they are versatile, being used for mashed potatoes to potato salad to breakfast home fries. We have sold a lot of them because Dad knew the history and the utility of the vegetable and was able to pass it along to the customer.
In addition to having fresh vegetables, people appreciate it when you give them ideas on how to prepare them. I think people have been swept up in the locavore tide and want to get out and experience what fresh local food is about. That means trying new things such as fingerling potatoes or another good seller for us, heirloom Zucchino Rampicante. If you can give them an idea along with a recipe card, they will not only be back for more, they will be your best customer. Time and again, we've made sales with people who bought the stuff the week before crowing to other customers how good it was.
Another winner for us has been French filet string beans. Again, you usually find these in a good restaurant that caters to higher end customers. These string beans are slender and their flavor lasts longer than the Blue Lake beans. We usually sell out of them each time we get them to market. Last year we had a severe deer problem as the wild creatures took more than their share. So along with the customers and the wildlife, we get high marks for French filet beans.
We live in a Golden Age of food right now. As a farmer, I have got to use that to my advantage, especially with the small acreage that I cultivate.
I often wonder if my Grandfather would have liked what his farm has become. My uncle Sam, Grandpop's oldest son, says he would. I know that if Grandpop knew that heirloom vegetables could sell, he would be doing just the same as we do.

The beauty of heirloom vegetables

When we made the decision to go into growing and selling "heirloom" vegetables, it was purely from a marketing standpoint. Afterall, we had been raised culturally and professionally to think of vegetables in the old standby - tomatoes, peppers, corn and leafy stuff. Knowing that there was a diversity of vegetables out there did not exist in our reality at the time.
It started with heirloom tomatoes. As I researched I was drawn into a world where there were hundreds of different kinds of tomatoes! Previously, tomatoes to me were either round or plum. During the height of his time on the farm, my grandfather raised about 40 acres of plum tomatoes, mostly for his route to South Philadelphia and to Violet Packing in Williamstown. To me, plums were for sauce. Round tomatoes were grown by people in their backyards to put on their salads and hamburgers in the summer or by commercial growers to send to the super market. Round tomatoes grew on a climbing vine; plum tomatoes on a bush on the ground. To me this was the world of tomatoes. The words determinate and indeterminate were not in existence in my vocabulary. It lasted that way for many years. Even with all of the different varieties of plum tomatoes, there existed only one - the Roma. That's what Grandpop raised and so I thought that was the only kind of plum tomato.
As I researched heirloom tomatoes I was struck by the names - a rich diversity in itself. I found myself picking out varieties that had great names - Boxcar Willie, Mortgage Lifter, Pink Brandywine, Caspian - they all sounded so cool to grow. Size didn't matter; deteriminate or indeterminate meant nothing; taste - they must all taste good because they were "heirloom" tomatoes, right?
Boy, what an education.
To make a long story short, I learned a lot. It started with knowing what you are capable of handling. Some of these varieties can go off on their own and really take over space! That's one of the reasons why they aren't for everyone. You need to be patient and ever caring with them. Some subscribed to pruning them as you would other fruit such as tree fruit. While I tried that and found mixed results, I sometimes think that just letting them take their course and run all over is the best method. Except for when it comes to diseases.
One of the reasons heirlooms are heirlooms is because most of them have a low tolerance for disease. As I have said in my previous post, I can see now why science continues to work for the benefit of us in some ways and some times to our detriment. Think of a disease on a plant as a cancer in a person. The disease knows no mercy or cares about the host it is attacking. Heirlooms were created with beauty of taste in mind, not disease resistance. That's why commercial growers today do not grow them. Also, they have a very short life once they are picked because they are meant to be eaten right away, not a week from now.
Yet with a little motivation to understand the adversary, in this case fungal diseases, farmers could sway the odds in their favor just like a person who is proactive when it comes preventing cancer of their own body. Unfortunately, science some times takes the place of education, common sense and above all, patience.
I have to admit that when a Prudence Purple or a Cherokee Purple reaches maturity without being crippled by nature, it is one of the most beautiful things in the world. The radiance of its skin, its firmness and it blushing appearance make it worth all of the effort. When people see them in their tray at the tailgate market I sometimes have to explicitly will them to buy them because, like a work of art, they are different things to different people. Americans like big and buyers at the tailgate markets are no different. Hence, the Brandywine has become king of the heirloom varieties.
People talk about the Brandywine (the Red variety) in revered tones. It does have everything that a red blooded American would want in a tomato - size, texture, firmness and above all, taste. I have to admit that I could probably just grow Brandywines, like some of my neighbors, and live with it. But then I would be cheating myself and others of the diversity of tomatoes that exist. That's why we now grow about five different varieties each year.
As I delved into the research of heirloom vegetables and founds hundreds of varieties of lettuces, beans and fruits, it became clear to me that there is a distinction between growing food and manufacturing it for the masses. Each has its own science, from Dr. Martin perfecting his version of the lima bean in his backyard to Heinz perfecting theirs so that it ripens for a machine to pick. Heirlooms have let me discover the joy of not only being connected to nature and the Earth in a natural way but allowing me to understand why I now farm - for the joy of growing food, not manufacturing it to feed someone.
Tomorrow I want to finish talking about the other heirloom vegetables we grow and why we grow them. Also, we become "foodie farmers". Somewhere in there is a bastadization of the two words but right now I can't think of it.

We live in a world of diversity - why not vegetables?

Chances are, unless you live an a very ethnic conclave in the United States, you have not experienced a diversity of food, especially vegetables. That's ashame because there is so much out there that people do not know about and they are missing some things that could be enhancing not just their taste but their outlook on life.
Most of us experience our food based on the experience of our forebears. It's funny but you would think that someone who grew up on a farm would have a better idea of the selection of food that was out there but I have to be honest and say that until I started to grow vegetables on my own most of my experience with other vegetables was pretty much what everyone else was eating - potatoes, corn, beans and leafy stuff.
Why? Well, it is convenient and quick. I think that is the problem for the majority of us. That's why if we took the time to take the time and eat slowly and with thought, our diversity would be expand into other foods. Thank God for the Slow Foods movement.
When Dad and I decided to make the tailgate markets our major focus, we had to make some changes to what we were growing. Looking around I noticed that people were buying the tomatoes, corn and peppers but everyone had them and so it became a game of who could sell the most. We could continue to grow those things and use freshness as our hallmark. But I wanted more than that. I wanted to give people the opportunity to eat some things that were unusually and use the "look at that!" factor as part of my marketing.
I remember my first foray into growing something different was growing arugula. It started when we were delivering to restaurants. Chefs would say to me, "Are you growing this? I can't get it from my distributor or they don't have it this week". Pretty soon it was broccoli rabe and some other things. The interesting thing about arugula is that it was a weed at some point and people began to use and cultivate it on a regular basis. I've come to find that out with a lot of flora but that is a story for another time.
Right around this time there was a big splash about Jersey tomatoes not being Jersey tomatoes any more. The commercialization of tomatoes had caused breeders to produce a tomato that would travel well for shipment and would sit on the shelf and look pretty for days on end. They, in my opinion, had sacrificed the taste of the tomato for these commercial qualities. People were fighting back by raising heirloom tomatoes, varieties that people used to grow in on their farms and gardens that still retained qualities that most of us remember as "real" tomatoes. Not only was the taste there but people were paying a premium price for them! That was when I decided that we needed to look into heirloom tomatoes.
Then I thought, why just tomatoes? We could grow heirloom anything. We are "small" farmers who were selling direct to our customers in small quantities and getting premium prices. But there were also the factors of people seeing something different and for some, a time of nostalgia. Those last two things are very big in marketability.
There are two varieties that we grow that illustrate what I am talking about. I remember seeing lemon cucumbers for the first time. I was knocked out by a cucumber that looked round and had yellow and white stripes. It was in a Burpee seed display at some Wal-Mart. I bought two packets and planted them. Not only were they cool looking but they tasted way better than a regular cucumber. Also, Dad did some research into the lemon cucumber and found that Burpee had brought this seed over from France in the late 1800s and that you could eat it with the skin on and that it was burpless. The combination of the unusual looking fruit, our knowledge of its history and our giving away sample slices at the market turned the lemon cucumber into a bigger winner for us. And a good thing too. Those babies can really pump out the fruit!
Ironically, other farmers who saw us selling the lemon cucumbers like hot cakes told us that they had grown them and nobody bought them. Chances are the farmer put them out for display without marketing it and when people saw it and didn't know what it was, they didn't buy it.
The other poster child for our heirloom varieties is the Jenny Lind melon. This little melon scores in the nostalgia department. If I've heard it once, I'd heard a thousand times this phrase, "Oh, I remember when my grandparents had those. Wow, I haven't seen one of them in years!" You then have a sale based on nostalgia.
Tomorrow I'll be spending time at the farm, readying some ground and spreading compost. But I plan on spending a few minutes right here to continue talking about why heirlooms aren't for everyone to grow.

Salemanship - Grandpop's legacy

If there was any legacy that my grandfather left me beside the land he farmed, it was the drive to accomodate the tastes of the customer. My grandfather was a quiet man and not one who you would think of when it came to salesmanship. But grandpop was very studious in the ways of finding a product or products that would sell and then giving it maximum treatment when it came time to sell it.
In the 1940s there was a boom in the fresh egg and chicken business. All over New Jersey farmers were putting up chicken houses and selling fresh eggs by the millions. South Jersey was by far the biggest advocate of this market; Vineland was so famous its high school was nicknamed the Poultry Clan for many years.
My grandfather was right there when it was all happening. There is one vignette that I like to point out with pride that summed up Grandpop's understanding of salesmanship. First, he built the cinder block chicken coops by himself. Then he ran the operation literally by himself with help from Grandmom who collected the eggs and helped sort and grade them. Then he delivered them himself in his Chevy panel truck.
By 1950, Grandpop had made a good enough dollar to tear down the old farmhouse and build a new one, tear down an old wooden barn and build a new concrete block garage and buy a new car. By the way, he borrowed money from the local bank and paid it back within a year and a half to do it!
Anyway, some of the other family members saw Grandpop's success in the chicken business and decided that they would grab a golden goose for themselves. However, they didn't achieve the same success in the business as Grandpop and it was because of one reason - Grandpop worked hard from sun up to sun down on his operation that started with taking care of the chickens themselves to taking care of his customers. Its those small intangibles and details that make all of the difference.
When Dad and I started the tailgate market business of Spinella Farm, I had all of this in the back of my mind. Not only had I seen it but one summer it was just Grandpop and I on the tomato route to South Philadelphia and he showed me a lot of the ropes. Things like making sure that you bring the tomatoes not only to the doorstep but into the house or basement if need be. Say hello, good morning or have a nice day. Present a basket full of tomatoes that looked good and full in a clean wooden basket. And, what I think is most important, is always treat the customer as if he or she is always right. Grandpop also dressed appropriately in a khaki shirt and matching khaki pants with clean shoes.
Tailgate markets are a wonderful throw back to a time when people shopped almost every day for their food to not only get it fresh but also because they took (and had) the time to make a good meal for every dinner or supper.
In my opinion, when a shopper is at your booth, you want them to feel as if what you have to offer is the best thing they've ever had. While presentation of the vegetables is important, how they taste is even more important. Knowing your product and selling the virtues of that product to a customer who has never tried it and is "on the fence" as far as a decision on whether to buy or not sometimes means I discount or give them the product to show them that I feel my product is superior to any other in the market or at the super market. I'm betting that they will like it so much that they will be back for more and willing to pay a good price. This has happened more than once so I must be on to something.
I would have to say that the wild card for us in the tailgate markets are not the vegetables or the way the stand looks. It is the way we treat people. This came to me early on. It was the first year at the Burlington County farmers market that I noticed that people are more receptive if you get out front and welcome them to your stand. If you see them again, you cultivate a personal relationship and talk to them about whatever is associated with that relationship - family, sports or hobbies. This part of the salesmanship is what has made the difference for us at both our Moorestown and Margate markets. I love it when other vendors sit or stand behind their tables and wait for the customer to engage them rather than vice-versa. That means I have a better shot at selling stuff.
I still use something else that Grandpop taught me. If someone else can make or grow it better than you, then go ahead and sell their product to supplement yours. This philosophy has saved us time and money and made us money at our tailgate markets. In our neck of the woods, we still have a lot of active farms. All of them are on the large commercial scale. This means that they are growing vegetables that are widely used such as corn, peppers and tomatoes. Knowing this means two things - why should I grow it on a smaller scale with less manpower and it allows me to find a  niche that I can handle and that people can't get anywhere else. Hence we buy those popular vegetables and grow ones that the big farmers are not growing.
That's how we got into the heirloom fruit and vegetable business. Tomorrow I'll talk about how finding our niche is so important for our little farm.

How Spinella Farm got to where we are today

I guess you don't appreciate something until you experience life a lot and figure out that at some point it is worth appreciating.
When I was younger, it seemed that everyone in South Jersey had a farm or was living on property with open space. Of course, that depends on your definition of open space. To a youngster anything with trees or fields was open space. So naturally it was easy to overlook the benefits and joys of being around farms. Afterall, I saw Grandpop's farm every day, saw chickens, steers and pigs and drove tractors and felt the wind and smelled the great smells every day.
As time went by, I slowly came to the realization that what I was experiencing was a changing way of life. I remember at about 12 years old, I wrote a story about the loss of farmland in Marlton. I don't know why Marlton became the symbol of change in agriculture for me at the time but it was an awakening. Ironically, that is where I teach school today. Just before the last farm went out of existence there I was able to meet the last few farming families. But that's a story for another day.
I have always believed that in order to be a farmer, you have to be a part of the fabric. My mother's family have always been farmers going back to their days in Italy. People who love the soil have that in them, as part of their DNA.
I was in my teens I came to feel the allure of farming. When I was younger, that farm meant hard work and some not so pleasant experiences with other family members because of it. It almost drove me away from it. But over time things changed and it was just Grandpop and I.
When I was getting ready to graduate high school, Grandpop said to me one day, "I know you like it here. Some day this place will probably be yours. But I'm telling you now, do not go into farming as your fulltime occupation. Do something else and farm on the side."
His words became more prophetic as time went on. I have never considered farming as a full time occupation but I have damn near come close to it or as much as my lifestyle and family commitments would allow me. In a nutshell, farming is the not bucolic existence that people who don't farm think it is. This again is another topic for another day.
When Grandpop passed away in 1990, the farm pretty much went dormant for a year or two. Then through a series of events, Dad, my brother Chris and I started to do things to bring it back to life. Chris and Dad picked up some of Grandpop's tomato route to South Philadelphia when they got the itch to start growing plum tomatoes again. At first, I didn't want any part of that, still having fresh in my mind the back breaking labor of picking the little red fruit. So I decided to raise some livestock and chickens and plant hay. I would sell the eggs from the chickens to anyone who would buy them from bakeries to Springdale Farms to Scott Powell. I also raised pigs and a couple of steers for the family.
But raising livestock got expensive with feed and the time of being there everyday wore on me as I was now teaching and had just started a family.
At some point in the mid-1990s, I came upon the realization that if this farm was to continue into existence, I would have to do something on a scale that fit my lifestyle and fit a niche that 13.7 acres could accomodate. I believe I started to hear and see that fresh vegetables from local farms where becoming in vogue for local restaurants. I started to investigate this and with the little bit that we were growing including basil and plum tomatoes, started to go to local restauranteurs and found that they were very interested.
At one point I stopped at every eatery in Camden County and some in surrounding Atlantic and Burlington counties. One of my first customers was Catelli in Voorhees. Lou Imbesi and I still do business after a decade of knowing each other.
I had a ball serving local restaurants with our veggies. It was a real learning experience in terms of finding out what they wanted and most importantly in getting paid. The restaurant owners of the Italian restaurants were the most challenging. Some of them were just over here from Italy and in the old country they weren't in a hurry to pay you. I remember Dad coming back from this one restaurant (which is still in business and shall remain nameless) and telling me that the guy would pay him Tuesday (immediately I thought of Wimpy and the hamburgers for those of you who remember the cartoon character . . . "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"). Dad is a great guy but he is the not the pain in the butt like I am when it comes to this stuff. Well, when the guy didn't pay the next time, I decided to make the next delivery. After unloading, the guy BS'd with me and then walked into the restaurant without paying me or telling me to come get my money. So I decided to follow him into the restaurant and walk around behind him until he paid me. It took me over 20 minutes but I got my money back. We did that for two years before I decided enough was enough.
The craze for tailgate markets started in the early 2000s when Collingswood opened the first big time farmers market around here in years. Pretty soon it seemed every town in South Jersey wanted  a piece of the action and were opening markets. It was the thing to do, very trendy. I liked the idea that we could sell to people who were willing to come to a central location and that's how we got into the tailgate market business.
Over time I have come to learn that it is the right decision to farm part time and on a managable scale. Dad and I would always go to meetings with other farmers and go to farm auctions (a big social event for farmers along with Oyster and Ham suppers and John Deere Day at Pole Tavern) and have to experience other guys look down on you because you farmed less than 100 acres. But truth be told, I could have went into big time farming with no trouble at all. When I was raising hay, I got the hairbrained idea (probably from peer pressure of the other farmers I knew) and started to go around and ask people who had ground if I could farm their property. They never said no (they loved the tax break) and I had very little competition from other farmers around here. At one point I had permission to farm over 100 acres. But I found that it was a pipe dream for me and a financial nightmare. I could have farmed 1,000 acres if I wanted to. But as I saw what was happening to other guys either because of the market conditions or money, I realized that Grandpop was right.
Also, Dad and I would go to farm auctions and basically out bid and buy whatever we wanted for equipment because we knew our limits and had the money to do it with. That was fun when those "big" farmers got outbid by two "little" farmers. Another farmer I met in my travels who was doing the same thing that we were doing with our "small" farm was Dave Monteleone of Vineland. He had a saying that I still recall today, "Big farms, big problems". How true.
We went to our first farmers market in West Cape May in 2006. What a wake up call. First, Dad only agreed to go there because we had the idea that everybody went to the Shore for the summer and that's where the customer base would be. He told me after writing the check for the stall, "The only reason I am doing this is because we can sell to restaurants down there." As it turned out, we didn't pick up one restaurant. That first day I learned right away what it meant to be at a farmers market. We didn't have a pop up tent and it was being held on a blacktop parking lot. We cooked and so did the vegetables. I thought to be folksy I would bring down some bales of straw and place them around the "one" table we brought. Another mistake. The KISS method soon came to mind. Also, we sat back and watched people go by and I think we brought home about $40 that day. As funny and difficult as it was, we were now in the tailgate market business and I was starting to like it. And Dad. He never said a word at the end of the summer about not picking up a restaurant for a customer in Cape May. He found out that his gift of gab worked to his advantage at a tailgate market.
Tomorrow I will continue to talk about our tailgate markets and the genesis of our CSA.

Soil and inorganic fertilizer

It was a matter of moments after posting yesterday's blog that I found out that fertilizer costs are going to be going up this spring. I couldn't help but feel a wee bit smug - I had already purchased the bulk of our fertilizer last month anticipating such a move.
To make a long story short, it is because of fuel prices (we know how volitile they are) and actions of farmers last year in the Midwest (where most of our commercial fertilizer is sold) that prompted the spike in price for this Spring. For those of you who don't know, commercial fertilizer is a combination of natural gas plus elements such as potash, maganese, etc. Natural gas prices have dropped and that has caused a lag in production thereby affecting the price somewhat. But the slowing of production in potash mines has contributed to the cost also.
Anyway, it all factors into the cost of doing business in the long run. Fortunately, my main source of income is not farming, so I can absorb a lot without passing it on to my customers.
Some may be thinking that a move away from commercial fertilizers would be a logical move. Yes and no. We use less commercial fertilizer each year for a few reasons. Cost is one but as I spend more time with the soil and learn and understand more about it, the more I move in the direction of using other builders and amendments and less inorganic methods.
First, you have to know your soil and your crops. Look at commercial fertilizer as medicine people take. If the doctor prescribes a certain dosage to be taken every so often, then you stick to that advice and use it correctly. Of course, like medicine today, we find ourselves at times using commercial fertilizer way too much with some subscribing to the feeling that if a little is good, a lot is better. And, like your body, you can do long term damage to your soil's health with that kind of attitude.
So why use inorganic fertilizer at all? Well, because it has a place in modern agriculture. Organic farming is a wonderful avocation and use of the soil for those of you who believe in it. Just like the person who uses natural herbs for their body, some people believe that that is the only way to go for health. I happen to believe that a holistic approach to the soil is needed. I feel that if commercial fertilizer is used correctly, like any drugs that a doctor prescribes, then it should be used because science can be effective and not a detriment.
I made a comment in yesterday's post about the health of the soil and the health of your body being on the same plane. When planning on what crops to grow, I believe that soil, which is a combination of plant matter and natural elements, has to be used depending on its composition. For example, tomatoes. It has been my belief that New Jersey is famous for our tomatoes because, among other things, it is the sandy, acidic soil that the plants reside in which optimizes the flavor. Therefore, it makes sense to plant varieties that thrive in this kind of environment to maximize the potential of soil and plant genetics.
Culture and market demand do not always make this possible so you have to amend your soils in a combination of strong organic matter and element combination to get optimal growing conditions for a variety of plants.
One big reason why I use inorganic fertilizer is because the plant intake is superior to organic fertilizers. Because of its composition, commercial fertilizer is absorbed faster by the plants and more beneficial in the short term. This result, in my opinion, is one reason that makes the science of commercial fertilizer a benefit. Some may argue this point.
There is always talk of cover crops in farming. They serve many purposes depending on the farmer's plan for his field. Most big commercial farming operations use cover crops only to get by for a few months to keep the soil in place until the spring planting season. Others use cover crops for months and even years to enhance the soil. In my opinion, the latter is better and that is why we have the kind of operation that we have where we can afford to rest ground and use a long term soil amendment such as clover or alfalfa to try and maximize the potential of such a cover crop.
I think the final question of whether commercial fertilizer is worth it or not, rests with the goals of the operation. I think it is foolish of people to pooh pooh science as something that is evil and should not be catered to. But the flip side is that people who rely totally on science as a miracle and in place of good soil practices are just as much at fault as those who think it is evil.
Tomorrow, I am going to talk about the culture of farming. Having been around farming all of my life, I have some insight into it that allows me to shape the kind of operation I feel optimizes the existence of Spinella Farm.

While most of us think that farming is seasonal, they are only correct to a degree. The final product may be seasonal here in New Jersey, but the farmer is working 12 months with an end sight into that product.
An example of this is the soil tests. One of the things you come to realize is that when they say we are connected to the Earth, they really mean we are connected. A soil test is the farm's once a year physical check up. And like the human body, it tells us what we need to know in terms of not only health of the soil but the potential for the plant's needs this upcoming season.
Any one who farms in Southern New Jersey knows that the chances of the soil being acidic are very good since a lot of it is sandy loam. My grandfather knew that and his solution was to spread lime every once in a while to keep the PH in balance or what he thought was the correct balance. Then again, Grandpop's major crop was tomatoes, which are acid-loving plants. So if he didn't balance the PH (between 6 and 8), it probably didn't matter as much because the plants were adaptable.
However, I don't think Grandpop thought much about micronutrients and organic matter of the soil. His contribution was to spread a lot of chicken manure from his egg operation. That made for the soil getting a lot of nitrogen. I, on the other hand, have thought about boron, manganese, etc. We grow such a diversity of vegetables on the farm today, and like people, each one needs to be attended to differently.
Dad sent off our latest soil samples this week and in about 10 days we should get the results. I could almost tell you right now that we are going to need lime and the organic matter is going to be low. We finally moved to address that last concern by having the township drop off leaves this fall. It is the first time we have used municipal leaf compost and I will be curious to see how it works. I am hesitant in some ways and hopeful in others. The benefit is obviously the decomposed leaves will enrich the soil. However, leaves are a "brown" source which means carbon. In my opinion, a good compost is mixing of dead "brown" matter with "green" matter such as fresh cut grass clippings. My concern is that people today use so many chemicals on their yard that they overuse them (especially nitrogren) which translates into a problem. So I am against using commercial grass clippings for that very problem.
We made the decision to use a balanced fertilizer this year which would be 10-10-10. A decision like that at this time goes against what I just said about taking a soil test but based on past performance of the last few years, I feel more comfortable knowing I covered my bases with the plant's nutrient needs by doing it this way. When I get the soil sample back I can always adjust this by adding supplements based on the crop.
Another way we are working in the "off-season" is to look at our record keeping  Johnny's Selected Seeds of Maine is a company we rely on not only for seed stock but also for advice. They cater to a small farm like ours. Last month they introduced us to a program known as AgSquared. This web-based software allows us to track our crops and use of our ground. I had been doing this by notebook for the past few seasons but will use the computer model to help me with my decisions this year. Like everything else we do on our farm, we trial first to see how it flies then decide on the long-term use.
When the soil samples come back, I will share them with you on this blog and talk about our decisions on what we will do.

What is Spinella Farm?

Welcome to the Spinella Farm blog spot. I will be using this space to update and talk about my activities on my farm here in Waterford Works, New Jersey. First, a little history.
Spinella Farm was started by my great grandfather Ciro Spinella and his wife Concetta in 1911. They moved from North Jersey to be closer to Concetta's family, the Lombardos, who were living in the area (and still do) at the time. Great grandpop Ciro was a big man and did a lot of work. Family legend says he cleared most of the 22 acres with a mule and a box of dynamite.
My grandfather, Samuel, followed by buying the farm from his father in the 1940s. Grandpop farmed just about everything in his lifetime. His biggest endeavor was his chicken business for which he built chicken houses and raised at one point 10,000 chickens for his egg business. He delivered mostly to his Italian customers in South Philadelphia. In the summer, Grandpop also grew tomatoes for sauce (or gravy if you prefer) and we picked wagonfuls of them until the 1980s when Grandpop passed away.
In the late 1990s, my father bought the land around the farm house from my grandmother's estate. It was 13.7 acres and that is what we farm today.
Although I have been around farming all my life, I don't think a day, month or year goes past without my having learned something. It is a beautiful thing to see your food grown daily and know what it takes in the scheme of life for it to happen.
Today, my father and I raise vegetables for two tailgate markets and a CSA. I am teacher as my main source of income but in my heart I will always be a farmer. The pride that I take is not only growing the food but watching people buy it and enjoy it especially when they comment that they have never tasted anything as good before!
I will be using this blog to share with my readers my experiences on the farm, with the CSA and with my customers. As a teacher I am always look to educate someone. Hopefully, my readers will find my writing both educational and enjoyable.
In the meantime please feel free to keep up with the goings on at Spinella Farm by going to my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/EdCuneo or on my Twitter account at @_cuneo or on You Tube where we will be posting video and pictures from time to time.