Category Archives: newsletters ’19

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #15, 5/10/19

What’s been going on! 

Sorry for the late newsletter, way too much going on, May.  Thanks to all for the kind and interesting messages from last week’s newsletter, apparently we are not the only ones who have been caught up in both the advancement of a movement or business and the changes in technology.  What’s that saying?  The pioneers take all the arrows?

One of the things that we are most torn about with the new Peregrine Farm plan is the loss of the whole pepper program.  We are sorry for all of the pepper devotees who have supported us for so many years and certainly the last 11 years of roasting peppers at the market.  There are a lot of great pepper growers at market so quickly there will be adequate supply for everyone.

This would normally be the start of pepper week at the farm as we prepared the fields for the planting of nearly 3000 plants of usually 30 plus varieties.  It was always the last of the big hurdles for the season but once done with the planting we still had six months of trellising, picking and roasting to go.  Today I planted our one, hundred foot row, with just 130 plants of six varieties just for or our consumption (we do a lot of eat peppers, fresh and frozen, almost every day all year).  Yet another moment that felt odd this spring but hey, I was done in an hour with fabric mulch, trellis and planting included.

Picture of the Week

IMG_20190509_171527 Basil and Cukes coming to market tomorrow.

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Peregrine Farm News, Vol. 16 #14, 5/2/19

What’s been going on! 

We had the Advanced Organic Crop Production class from Central Carolina Community College’s Sustainable Ag Program out on Monday, this is the course that I designed and taught for many years until I passed it on this season, another one of those things that l am trying to be selective about how I want to spend my time with in the future.  It is one of the things that got me to thinking about how times have changed when it comes to educating new farmers and the public about small scale agriculture and sustainable farming.

Another was a call I had the other day with a very wealthy person who is starting a farm and wants to eventually make it an educational center.  He asked did we charge for farm tours and I said that we never had.  We have hosted hundreds of tours and thousands of people over the years from all corners of the US and the world and have never charged anyone.  Back in the early years the few sustainable farmers on the ground were helping to build the ship, we wanted to spread the word about sustainable agriculture and were happy to cooperate and share the knowledge we had to do so.

Beyond farm tours we would spend each winter, for decades, making the circuit of farm conferences going to at least four or five each season, learning and speaking, sometimes teaching three or four sessions at one conference.  Those non-profit organizations never had much money so we almost never got an honorarium, just free conference registration and sometimes rooms and travel money.  It was helping to build our business and to get the ship afloat, it was good for everyone.

We also served on (and still do) many boards and advisory committees to make sure the voice of the small farmer is included.  They range from local to national organizations all with a focus on sustainable agriculture.  Hours spent in meetings and on conference calls again all on our own time and dime but we did help to move the needle a little.

Things began to change in the early 2000’s with the new generation of farmers coming of age along with the internet.  When I produced the Organic Vegetable Production and Marketing in the South CD-ROM with the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group I realized I was putting everything I knew into one replicable place and wanted some kind of remuneration and copy write assurances for my intellectual property and I received some stiff opinions about this from the old guard, we just didn’t do it that way.

Now the new farmers charge for everything, online video courses, farm tours, big speaking fees if they have a book or solid online content.  I generally applaud them for being able to do that, we were just too early in the evolution of the movement and now much of it is passing us by.  That’s okay too, we did build a beautiful ship though!

Picture of the Week

 P1050049Our little farm in full production

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #13, 4/25/19

What’s been going on! 

Rain again on Friday?!!  This is the fourth Friday in a row with rain and I am beginning to lose my sense of humor.  Now we would much prefer it precipitates on any day but Saturday with Friday being the next worst as it makes it much more difficult to get everything harvested for the Saturday market.  Let’s hope that it holds off until at least noon.

Another busy week with some tremendously beautiful spring weather and some too unseasonably hot days too.  One of the things we are trying to finish up for the spring is getting the firewood in the shed.  We had a cut a bunch over the winter but just now have gotten around to splitting it.  So parts of Tuesday and Thursday mornings we split and stacked half a winters worth.  After 36 winters of heating with wood it doesn’t make the job any faster or easier.  Another morning or two and we will be done for this season.

Didn’t mean to spark a panic with last week’s newsletter about our last market being June 29th.  We had a number of folks ask/think that it was our last market forever.  We reassured them that it was only for this season and that we would be back next February for our 35th spring at the Carrboro Market.  I encourage those who missed our newsletter about our new plans to catch up on it so you will know what we are doing and how it will affect what we will have at market.

Pictures of the Week

 P1050033The sugar snap peas are blooming up a storm and the lady bugs are happy

P1050045 Half a winter’s wood in the dry

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #12, 4/18/19

What’s been going on!

As the new Peregrine Farm plan unfolds it does seem a bit unusual that Betsy has only one more round of lettuce seeding to do in the greenhouse and there are only 5 more weeks of planting to do in the field but with our last market day slated to be June 29th then it all makes sense.  It doesn’t make it feel any less strange after having seeded or planted something almost every week for the last, at least, two decades.  Muscle memory is a powerful thing.

Despite the crazy rains we have had a busy week planting both indoors and out (basil, lettuce, sunflowers, zinnias) and cultivating to keep everything clean and growing well.  The tomatoes are moving along so well that we pruned and tied them up for the first time and soon will have to start training the cucumbers up their trellis too.  We have even started to clean up the now empty tunnel ends from the very earliest crops getting them ready for summer cover crops.

We are trying to keep our time in the field to only four hours a day and now that we are past the early crush of tunnel moving and tomato planting it does seem like we can maintain everything we need to with that pace.  As the temperatures rise it will be even more important as we will want to be out of the field by noon if not earlier.  It is a strange new world.

Picture of the Week

 P1050031It is all looking good on a beautiful spring day

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Peregrine Farm News, Vol. 16 #11, 4/10/19

What’s been going on! 

Well we have had over four inches of rain in the last five days!  Fortunately it did not come with the damaging winds or hail that some parts of the state got and it did, at least for now, clear the air of the amazing pollen storm.  We have lived here for 40 years and I don’t think I have ever seen it thicker than it was did Monday.  When it rolls up off the pavement in clouds like driving down a dirt road in a drought that is just too much.

Less than two months until the Farm to Fork Picnic, hard to believe it has already been a year!  Supporting the beginning farmer programs at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems which is a joint effort between NC State, NC A&T State and the NC Dept. of Ag.  CEFS not only has the largest sustainable and organic research farm in the US but also programs all across the state in many areas of socially just food and farming.  It is an organization close to our core as we have been advisors since its founding and no problem is more pressing than training new farmers as us old coots age out.

We are once again paired with our good friends at Pizzeria Mercato, don’t know yet what they will craft with our produce but I will let you know as soon as they have it figured out.  You can find all of the details and buy tickets here.  Sunday June 2nd, don’t miss out!

The first Wednesday market of the season is today, 3:00-6:00, come on by and see us, looks to be a beautiful afternoon.

Pictures of the Week

P1050022 The green, green view of the bottom field from the house

 P1050023Cherokee Purple blooms, less to two months until they are ripe 

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #10, 4/4/19

What’s been going on! 

“Plastics” for those old enough to remember the movie The Graduate they can hear the line in the back of their heads.  They are everywhere and unfortunately there are lots of them used in agriculture.  We have from the beginning tried very hard to find either alternatives or to use very durable plastics that will last a long time and not become big landfill or decomposition issues.

We invested in heavy duty seed flats that we never have to throw away compared to the industry standard that might last a year or two.  We use slightly heavier irrigation lines that we can get many years out of.  We don’t use plastic mulch on our planting beds but do use landscape fabric on a few crops and we have some that is at least 15 years old.  The unavoidable one is greenhouse coverings but again we use the longest lasting that we can.

I was reminded again this week by this good article in the NY Times about paper vs. plastic bags.  We are all now aware of the problems of single use plastics from straws to bags to cups.  We have been struggling with the bag issue for getting customers produce home from market.  Last year we changed to compostable bags made from plant materials but even that is not a panacea as they apparently don’t compost as easily as one would want but are better than plastic that takes centuries to decompose.

As the article points out that while plastic bags take a long time to break down and are a litter problem they are more climate friendly than paper from an energy and emissions stand point and cotton reusable bags have to be used a lot more (131 times) to be equal to a single use plastic bag from a climate change perspective.  The take away is to use as few bags as possible, reuse every type of bag/container as many times a possible and as the article says “the food you purchase and place in that bag probably has a vastly bigger effect on the environment than whatever you use to haul it home”.  So at least we can feel better about buying local food, grown using sustainable methods.

Picture of the Week

 P1050016

Things coming along in the field

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #9, 3/28/19

What’s been going on! 

Second morning in a row at 30 degrees.  Last week we had four mornings below freezing but the long term forecast has nothing below 32 degrees!  Now we never trust long term forecasts and we know that our last frost date is usually around April 20 and we will for sure have a close call or two but things are looking up!

In working the new plan for a shorter marketing season I had boldly scheduled the earliest tomatoes to go in the tunnels two weeks ago but as I have written earlier, they got a slow start and so did we on getting the tunnels moved.  Finally today is tomato planting day and on looking back over a number of years we have almost always planted them on this date or certainly this week so it must just be the proper time.

If you remember from the Big Reveal this will be the only planting of tomatoes we are doing this year and because we only have 400 feet of row in the little tunnels, the selection has been narrowed as well.  There will be all of the our (and your) favorites though with Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Sungold, Big Beef, our new yellow tomato and some Italian Oxhearts; really what more does a person need?  Now we just have to wait two months.

Picture of the Week

P1050015 Frost on the Romaine Lettuce

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #8, 3/21/19 First Day of Spring

What’s been going on! 

Trellis week!  Over the years we have become semi-famous for our different systems to hold plants up for better utilization of space, more and cleaner fruit or long straight flower stems.  I have even done workshops at farming conferences on the subject.  For many horticultural crops it is a critical part of the production system but it also has labor and material costs that need to be scrutinized to be worth the effort.  Trellises need to be both fast to put up and fast to take down, including all the plant material that has grown up through the structure.

Some small tools are ubiquitous on all small farms- rakes and hoes, seed flats, hoses, 5 gallon buckets.  I used to say that 5 gallon buckets were the backbone of market gardens but for us it is the lowly metal T-post which is designed for livestock fencing but we have adopted for fast and sturdy plant support.  We have used them for blackberry and raspberry trellises, for tomatoes, peppers, peas, cucumbers, sunflowers, celosia and all manner of other cut flowers and yes we have even built deer fence with them.  We now have hundreds of them in 5, 6 and 8 foot lengths.

All of our trellises start with the driving of the posts into the soil about a foot deep and then various cross arms, wires, netting or fencing is hung off or attached to the posts.  In past years we would, annually, put in at least 600 posts and then pull them back out at the end of the season.  That was a lot of work but we would have 2-3 people working on it and it happened throughout the season.  Another sign of the more manageable Peregrine Farm is that we pounded essentially all of the posts for the year this week and it was less than 80 and there are only two more trellises to come with 16 additional posts.  Checking off those big tasks one by one.

Pictures of the Week

 P1040990One of the tomato tunnels ready to go

P1050001 Nearly 2 inches of rain last night and the creek is raging

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #7, 3/14/19

What’s been going on!

 Every spring we set a date that we are going to slide the little tunnels to their summer position and every spring we are at least a week late in doing it.  Such is the case this year yesterday was moving day, a week late. The date revolves around when the very early tomatoes are supposed to be planted into the tunnels.  We want to move the structures far enough in advance to allow the cold soil to warm up as much as it can before we practice what is already a tough love regimen on the tender tomato plants. They will have a hard enough time early with cold temperatures and life threatening freezes the least we can do is give them warm toes.

This year’s tomato plants have had a slow start with both having to reseed some of them due to mouse depredations and too many cloudy days that impeded normal growth so it is OK that we are not right on schedule.  They should go in the ground in a week or 10 days but will mean not quite as early a harvest as we had hoped.

The other side of the moving coin is we are also uncovering from their protection all of the earliest planted vegetables which must now face the cruel winds and weather of March.  So the middle of March generally seems to be about right for both parties.

Pictures of the Week

 P1040960

Alex ready to pull a tunnel off tender lettuces and over prepared beds

P1040975

Ranunculus anyone?

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #6, 3/6/19

What’s been going on! 

The usual spring dance- cold, warm, cover, uncover, one-two-three, one-two-three.  The first of two cold nights in a row past us and everything looks good, only 26 degrees even though they had forecast for colder.  We will see how it goes tonight, we always believe that the second night is the coldest no matter what they originally forecast.  They are calling for 24 tonight.

The other farmer dance step at this time of year is more free form because it varies in timing and intensity, more like improv- wet, dry, till, plant, wet and we are rocking that step this week too.  As soon as it warms up tomorrow we will till a few more beds that are finally dry enough and plant another round of lettuce, radishes, turnips and kale just before it rains again on Friday.

The thing that we are learning about the new compact Peregrine Farm is that none of these dances last very long.  There is just not that much stuff in the ground and we are slowly getting adjusted to that.  Not complaining mind you, just pleasantly surprised when a certain task is suddenly done because there are no longer acres of crops to take care of.  Maybe we will even have time for dance lessons.

Pictures of the Week

P1040947

 All of the crops are under their blankets

P1040944

 If you were an Anemone, this would be your world view

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