We all do better when we are connected to the Earth

It's been about two weeks since we planted our beautiful romaine lettuce transplants and look at them now!

There are so many worries when we put plants into the ground. Will they make it? Will they get enough water? Did their roots suffer too much damage in the transplanting process? Will aphids attack them? Will caterpillars eat holes in them?

It is so gratifying to see plants do well. They are our babies and we have to check on them to make sure they continue to do well, but the earth is doing most of the hard work for us. The earth is nourishing them. The earth is holding the water for them to drink and keeping their roots cool. The earth is helping our plants be grounded while they reach for the sky. The earth is giving them nutrients so that they can process it into vitamin rich leaves that will in turn feed and nourish us. Farming can be considered rudimentary to some, but the science and complexity behind vegetable growth is simply fantastic to those who take time to understand it.

We are blessed to witness this process of growth and also changed by it. While we planting our last batch of romaine lettuces today, we were surrounded by plants that were thriving - weeds included. :)  Underneath our feet there were worms burrowing and loosening the soil, admitting air and water and helping the roots of our plants grow. Above our heads, there were beautiful clouds and hawks. It even rained while sunshining for a little while too. It was a great day to be outside and connected to the earth.

Worms, weeds, and wings

As with most things that are beautiful and cherished, humans have this natural instinct to want to protect it - us included. We continue to put row cover around our plants to protect them from bugs.  Today, we took extra steps of protection in by installing a chicken-wire fence around our bean plants so that deer to not eat them to the ground like they did last year. Take that deer! Ideally, we would like to create an environment rich in beneficial plants and insects that deter pests and protect our vegetables. However, we have spent a lot of time planting and weeding, so a quick  fence will do for this season!

Baby bean plants protected by our new fence

Buzzing with New Information

It is only Tuesday and we have already attended two information-packed classes this week! The first class was about Beekeeping and Honey Production. The second class was about Wholesale Success. Thanks to the wonderful people at the University of Missouri Extension and Three Rivers Beekeeping for providing these educational classes to beginning farmers.

There was over a 100 people who attended the Beekeeping and Honey Production workshop. Not only was it packed with people, but we were able to learn a lot about the do's and dont's of starting your own hives. At times, it was hard to keep up with the conversation because beekeepers seems to have their own language and use words like: broods, nucs, uncapped queen cells, drawn combs, and swarms. Luckily, we sat next to nice, experienced beekeeping individuals that helped us decode the information. Also, we learned that there are many beekeepers in the local community that are willing to be mentors to "bee-ginners." At the end of the presentation, we were given the advice to start with two hives rather than just one so that we can compare and learn more. We are not sure if that is in the budget yet, but I hope we can make it possible.

Today, the presentation about Wholesale Success was given by Atina Diffley from Minnesota. She and her husband had run a successful wholesaling organic farming business for about 30 years. She was energetic, informative, yet realistic about how a small farmer can grow their business. She went over topics like proper washing of produce, food safety plans, and how to store produce to improve its shelf life. I learned a new word - fungible - which means exchangeable or replaceable. She used it in reference to teaching new farmers to be more unique and less fungible. It is no "fun" for farmers to be fungible!

Atina Diffley was such an great speaker that we felt compelled to buy her newly published book, "Turn Here, Sweet Corn."

After Atina's speech, we heard from a panel of wholesale buyers and distributors from the St. Louis area. We became further inspired with other ways to turn our farm into a successful business. One thing that shocked me is that the demand for locally grown produce is currently so great that buyers and distributors can't get enough of it. Buyers and distributors are willing to drive to farms to pick up small and large amounts of locally grown and organic produce from the St. Louis area. Wow!

Transplants, time, and toads

It took us many hours over the course of the last 5 days, but it is FINALLY done!  We just finished transplanting 912 beautiful transplants at the farm. HOORAY!

We picked up our transplants last Thursday from our friends at ESP of Missouri. They helped us plant our seeds in February, added their special blend of vermicompost, and kept the plants growing strong with their lights and warm temperatures in their greenhouse. The transplants looked healthy and strong! There were a mix of leafy green vegetables including: romaine lettuces, bibb lettuces, cabbages, pac choi, and radicchio.

Fiero Radicchio, Red Cabbage, and Romain Lettuce

During the process of planting our 912 transplants, we learned a few things. First, we were reminded of the importance of a "strong core" when planting. If you are someone who does not do regular sit-ups, pilates, or yoga, you WILL feel some soreness in your muscles after bending over to plant numerous transplants. It is definitely a good idea to do some farmin', warmin'-up stretches before planting.

Damian's transplanting action

Next, we realized the right tools can help with planting efficiency. Our two new favorite tools are our Hound Dog long handled bulb planter, which helped us punch all 912 holes without bending and straining too much, and my padded, rolling garden seat. Last year, we kneeled on the ground while planting and got seriously achey knees. This year, I learned that the padded garden seat gives an advanced level of comfort that I would recommend. :)

Our Hound Dog in action!

 Lastly, we learned the importance of having Visine in our first-aid kit.  Planting into dry, crumbly soil during windy conditions and the beginning of allergy season can lead to a condition I have named "temporary farming blindness" by the end of the day. Symptoms include itching, swollen, and majorly irritated eyes. Beware! In addition to Visine, I am thinking of planting with aviation goggles on next year!

Once again, we literally "wrapped up" our transplanting by creating tents of lightweight row cover fabric over each row. I enjoy making these fabric sculptures on our farm. Not only do they have a beautiful, white caterpillar like form, they provide a useful insect barrier and help raise the temperature around the plants and protect against frost.

Row cover

Before we left, we spotted this toad hopping over our drip tape and near our transplants. In some cultures, frogs and toads are considered a symbol of good fortune and progress because they can only move forward -- never backward. I hope it brings all our plants good luck for the Spring growing season!

Just another SPUDtacular Spring Day of Planting

Today, we planted nearly 100 potatoes - blue potatoes, yukon gold, and red potatoes! We purchased the potatoes from Morgan County Seeds several weeks ago and waited to plant them. During that time, they formed beautiful sprouts that reminded us of tiny sea anemones.  When preparing to plant potatoes, we learned that you want to cut the potato into pieces that have about 2-3 sprouts per piece.  Then, you let the potato pieces sit in a paper bag for about 2 days to form a skin.

When we cut into the blue potatoes, they were an awesome, deep amethyst color. We can't wait to have blue/purple mashed potatoes! The Yukon Gold potatoes had the most vibrant golden flesh! We have never thought of potatoes being colorful or aesthetically beautiful; however, we always enjoy eating them! Farming is definitely bringing us a deeper sense of appreciation for the form, color, and smells of the food we grow.

The hardest part of planting potatoes is digging the 6" trench that the potatoes require for growing. It has not rained for about a week and the ground was pretty hard. We put some serious muscle into preparing a nice bed for these potatoes to grow, but we are hopeful they will do well. After digging an 80 foot trench, we decided to start a savings fund for a tractor! We also decided to experiment by digging a row of 6" holes in order to see if it makes there is a difference in potato growth. Thankfully, our faithful, farm dog also helped us dig the holes! ;)

We dropped the potatoes in the trench and covered them with about 4" of compost. As a part of the growing process, we will have to mound up more dirt and compost as the potatoes grow. We can't wait to see what happens!

Kicking off the Spring growing season with a big truck, a mountain of compost, and a lot of muscle

We recently got 30 yards of compost delivered to our farm thanks to a huge dump truck from Cannon Excavation. We know that the key to growing great produce is having great soil, so we continue to do our best to improve the mostly clay-based soil on our farm. Compost is a soil conditioner, mulch and fertilizer all wrapped into one. It feeds the soil microorganisms that help plants stay healthy, adds nutrients to the soil, and helps clay soil drain better and sandy soil retain water.

Here is a great drawing about compost I recently saw online

We have a small worm bin and create vermicompost in our apartment, but it only creates about 4 cups of compost every six months. We need a lot more than that for a quarter-acre farm plot! Last season, we also started a big compost bin at the farm and used all of our decaying vegetable leaves, stems, and some turkey manure. Well, let's just say that it is not a glamorous process to create compost, but it is a great way to decrease the amount of garden waste going to the land fill and create a nutrient rich additive for our soil. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how much waste one needs to create a huge amount of compost. Our 4'x4'x5' cube of compost broke down to mere inches of compost over the winter. Wow! We definitely want to become better at learning how to compost and get larger amounts of compost to use in our farm, but for know we are thankful for St. Peters Earth Center for creating enough to share with us.



Boba guarding our farm from her compost pile lookout!



Once we got our huge mountain of compost delivered, it was time to start using our muscles to shovel and wheel barrel it into our rows. We mounded up compost on each row and then till it into the soil. This year, we are trying an experiment of using different amounts of compost in each row to see if it makes a difference in plant growth. So far, we have 7 rows finished and plan to finish 8 more today. We plan to start planting on Tuesday after the 90°F temperatures are gone. We hope this excessively hot Spring will be good to our baby plants!

This year we are building vertical trellises for our climbing beans and are planning to protect them with additional chicken wire fencing so that the deer can't get to them. Last year, we learned that deer really love beans and this year they can go somewhere else to find some food!

Yep, it is just dirt, but it takes a lot of muscle to make dirt look this good! :)

Ready, Chef, Go!

I read about a cooking competition to win a tropical vacation to the Dominican Republic sponsored by our local television station, KMOV, called "Ready, Chef, Go!" In order to enter the competition, I had to make a 5-minute cooking video of a signature dish and show off my creativity and personality. I decided to creatively highlight some of the vegetables that we are currently growing on our farm - lettuce, brussel sprouts, and carrots - by making recipe I called Asian Lettuce Wrap Sushi. It was Damian's directing debut and my first cooking video. It was fun to make and even more enjoyable to watch because I never realized how much I wink when I talk to a video camera.

I submitted the video and KMOV producers chose my video as one of their 10 favorite videos!! Next, the contest opened up to the public for online voting to pick the top four contestants to compete to win a tropical vacation on a prime time television show on KMOV called "Ready, Chef, Go!" Unfortunately, I am sad to say that I didn't make it into the top 4 for the televised "Ready, Chef, Go!" cooking competition. However, I am determined to go on tv and win something one day!  Losing this one just further reinforces my desire to get onto the Price is Right and win an RV or be a crazy contestant on Wipeout!! Also, making this video has inspired me to want to make more "farm fresh" cooking videos in the future! Stay tuned.

Garlic Sprouts, Baby Carrots, and Brussel Sprout leftovers

 

Finally, we have garlic sprouts!! Yay! We had planted over 180 garlic bulbs in late October and hadn't seen any sign of growth until now. We were a little worried after we visited another nearby farm in December and noticed that their garlic had sprouted already. After doing a little more research, we were reminded of the importance of the timing of fall planting so that the roots of the garlic have a chance to develop, but so that the tops do not break the surface of the soil. Many of the hardneck varieties of garlic actually need the ground to freeze in order for proper bulb development. It is a good thing that our garlic has waited until now to sprout. The hard part for us is waiting until July to harvest all of this delcious garlic, because it takes 9 MONTHS for it grow!

We also have carrots that we planted in late September still growing at the farm. Carrots can be left in the ground all winter long, but you will want to harvest all of them before early spring. Once spring arrives, the carrots will start to grow again and if they flower they will become inedible. Also note that when you are overwintering carrots in the ground, the carrot tops will eventually die off in the cold. The carrot root below will be just fine and will taste fine after the tops die, but you may have trouble finding the carrots after this.

We pulled out a Danver carrot to check on its growth. It still looked a little small, but tasted great! We are unsure if the weeds or the clay based soil are suppressing their growth, but we hope the warmer weather might kick start these little carrots to be bigger.

Lastly, It had been over 3 weeks since we visited the farm and we were unsure if our brussel sprouts would make it without being watered and during the cold nighttime temperatures.  Well, it wasn't the cold temperatures that got to them; it was the deer! We thought that the deer would leave them alone if we put double row cover over them, but that wasn't the case. They ate through the row cover and ate 99% of what we still had growing. They were nice enough to spare one of the plants for us and we got about 20+ brussel sprouts out of that plant. :) I added a picture of a mostly eaten brussel sprout plant because it is strangely beautiful and looks like a type of cactus or desert plant.