Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #11, 4/19/13

What’s been going on!

One of those a chicken on a hot plate weeks with lots of things going on that needed to coordinate well.  I would say mostly successful.  The main task was to get the last few parts of the tomato Big Tops installed and then pull the plastic cover over the bows.  In the rebuild we are using some new techniques and materials but it went smoothly.  In our second year together as a team, the four of us have the covering dance down to a well choreographed ballet.

Jennie and Liz start by finding the lead edge that will be pulled over the bows and “fluff” the rest of the plastic so it will follow easily.  With me on a 10’ step ladder I lead one corner over one thirteen foot high end hoop with a rope tied to it, handing it to Liz who then pulls will almost all her might while Jennie pushes the plastic up and over the top webbing with a long handled broom.  As Jennie gets near the halfway point I run to the far end and climb another ladder and pull the other corner over, with rope, hand it to Betsy and then I begin to move down the side of the tunnel flapping and pulling the edge down.

Corners tied off I use the ladders at each end to clip a piece of wide webbing onto the end hoops that holds the ends of the plastic to the frame while Betsy feeds one of the ropes, that actually hold the plastic onto the frame, down the leg row to the far end.  With two of us on each side we pass the rope back and forth over the top, two people managing the rope and two tightening and tying it down to the top to the legs.  Rinse and repeat with another rope and we are done.  40 minutes elapsed time.

The rest of the week consisted of cultivation, weeding, trellising peas, planting and getting ready for planting.  The tomato beds are all ready for covering with landscape fabric and trellis building, might start today, depends on how crazy the weather is this afternoon with the next front moving in.  Always extra-curricular activities like teaching class, insulating the new building, Farm to Fork picnic meetings and on, must be spring.

Pictures of the Week

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Way too much time on a ladder

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Beautiful spring cover crops and freshly turned peppers beds, the Big Tops cresting the hill in the distance

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #10, 4/12/13

What’s been going on!

Spring definitely sprang this week!  It is always amazing how in a day or two it goes from winter gray to all things green.  Of course days of temperatures in the high 80’s doesn’t hurt, other than the sweating brows of the folks in the field.  I hope we can slip back to more of my temperature range of the 60’s and 70’s, not quite ready to go to air conditioning weather.

While we are still pumping to fill the upper pond before the trees fully leaf out and start to suck all the water out of the ground, the weekly rains have been just about perfect for planting.  In years past we used to pace around waiting for it to dry out enough so we could rush out and poke some plants in the ground before the next rain came, three days was all we needed to be able to till and sometimes that was difficult to get.

Spring planting now is all about watching the forecast so we can time our big planting days just before the rains arrive that way we don’t have to water the plants in or set up irrigation.  It is all just a delay tactic as we will eventually have to set up irrigation on everything as soon as the temperatures consistently hit the 80’s.  It is a familiar dance now of cultivating out the newly germinated weeds as soon as the soil dries out enough, maybe picking up the bigger rocks now exposed by the rain and then preparing the next beds for planting.

Yesterday we planted lisianthus, the first zinnias, second round of sunflowers and the last succession of spinach and radishes.  Cool season crops giving way to warm season ones.  Next week is tomato preparation week, have to get the last bits of the Big Top reconstruction done so we can pull the plastic over and begin bed prep and trellis building.  Hold on here it comes!

Pictures of the Week

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Shrubs blooming, trees leafing out, lettuce glistening after the rain

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #9, 3/29/13

What’s been going on!

Jennie keeps asking “what is with the wind?”  I reply it is always windy in March, just the spring battle of the jet stream as it begrudgingly moves north.  Combined with what appears to be the 5th coldest March on record and it is irritating.  I think that because 2012 was the warmest March ever it is even more noticeable.  I always find some comfort in knowing it could be worse like 1960, the coldest March ever, when the average temperature was a full seven degrees colder than this past month at 37 degrees and it snowed 14 inches!

Big week, we slid the little tunnels over the beds that will be home to the early tomatoes and cucumbers.  With the help of a few students from the Sustainable Ag. Program at CCCC the six of us pulled the 16’X48’ hoops to their new positions for the year.  A week behind schedule but still OK considering the weather.  We closed them up tight to heat up the soil as much as we can before we transplant the tomatoes on Monday.  Always good to get that job behind us.

With the winds the soil has dried out nicely on top and it is a good time for us to get the first cultivating/weed control done for the year before we have to set up irrigation.  We pulled all the floating row covers off and Liz ran the wheel hoe through the first lettuces and spring vegetables.  The sad part is with little real rain in the forecast we will soon have to fire up the irrigation system.

The building project is getting closer to complete.  We passed all the rough in inspections and insulation is nearly done, the sheetrock arrives today.  Any day now Duke Power will show up to trench in the new power line and soon thereafter a new septic system will be installed.  A little sheetrock mudding and paint and we can call it done (mostly).  Whew, just in time for the busy growing season.

Pictures of the Week

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Liz with the cultivation tools, wheel hoe and stirrup hoe

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #8, 3/21/13

What’s been going on!

First full day of Spring?  We haven’t had a cold spring since 2009 and this winter/spring transition is really beginning to work on my nerves or at least my aging body as I just don’t enjoy working outside in 40 degree temperatures and 20 mph winds like I used to.  Probably never really enjoyed it but at least didn’t grimace as much when seeing the forecast.

The fourteen day forecast is for below normal temperatures (our normal high is in the low 60’s right now), come on.  The long range forecast for summer has us above average in temperature and normal or slightly below normal rainfall.  As discussed in an earlier newsletter this is what climate change is going to look like for us in the next 50 years, erratic springs but warmer summers and longer fall seasons.  This is where careful record keeping and crop planning are critical for successful crops.  Instead of saying “hey it’s warm in January I think I will plant early” and then it gets hammered we know from experience that we will wait and plant on certain dates, no matter the current weather, and the crop will perform as it should a high percentage of the time.

Fortunately we have hedged our bets and seeded the tomatoes a week later than planned and they will be just perfect to slip into the ground next week in the little sliding tunnels and the big planting the third week of April when we should be past our last frost.  This is the art part of the art and science of agriculture.

Despite the cool temperatures we have gotten a fair amount done these past two weeks.  The re-building of the Big Tops after last summer’s storm damage is almost done, just a few more hoops to put in place and new plastic to haul out and position, ready to pull over the hoops in a few weeks.  Planting in the field is on schedule, with more to do tomorrow before the weekend’s rains.  Crops look OK, behind schedule but the beets, carrots, turnips, peas and radishes are all up.  The big pepper seeding in the greenhouse happened Monday, all 21 varieties and 3400 seeds.  So on we go but we may skip any outside work today, too damned cold.

Pictures of the Week

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Cucumber and tomato transplants waiting to go in the ground

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Tomato trellises being built prior to sliding the tunnel over it next week

What’s going to be at the market?

We will be skipping market this week but will back for Easter weekend.  See you then.

Alex and Betsy

If you know folks who you think would be interested in news of the farm then please feel free to forward this to them and encourage them to sign up at the website.

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #7, 3/8/13

What’s been going on!

Remarkably busy week with lectures, tour groups, teaching, interviews, a conference and oh yeah, that farming thing we do out here.  Betsy had a good and tiring trip to Texas for an Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG) regional meeting and a visit with our good friends and compatriots the Arnosky’s of Texas Specialty Cut Flowers.  Betsy first met Pamela at an ASCFG meeting in the early 90’s and the two quickly realized we had been traveling the same road in two different states.  Both farms started with nothing but a dream and through perseverance and our “too dumb to quit” attitude became successful.  Now every few years we find ways to get together and commiserate (and have fun too).

I had an interesting meeting with the new dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at NC State.  A group of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) met with him to discuss on-going strategic planning processes for both CEFS and CALS and how we can all work together.  Nice and bright guy, Dean Linton, but we got onto the topic of what the definition of sustainable agriculture is.  This used to come up all the time back in the day but less so now unless someone is trying to co-opt the concept.  It was defined by Congress back in the 1990 Farm bill when the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) of the USDA was being authorized.  Most of us working in the field now consider it the “legal” definition.  I said that not only was there this legal definition but that essentially every person and group I talked to now knew that sustainability has three tenets- environmentally sound, economically viable and socially responsible.  If most of the public now embraces this concept it will be difficult to change it now.

We did manage to get a lot of plants and seed into the ground but still have more to do just to get caught up.  Six more beds of lettuce, the first carrots, beets and broccoli raab, the first four of 10 beds (at least) of onions.  Hopefully most of the rest of the onions will go in today.  Jennie and Liz also extracted the bent Haygrove legs we need to replace so we can finally reconstruct the Big Tops that were damaged in last July’s storm.  It is good to have the staff begin work again.

Picture of the Week

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A bright and windy March day, overwintered greens flanked by newly seeded crops protected by row cover to help germination

What’s going to be at the market?

Another cool start on Saturday but a fast warm up.

Maybe the last of the winter potato- Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes).  A little more Spinach.  Maybe a bit of Lacinato Kale but for sure beautiful tender and sweet Collards.  Still plenty of sweet Carrots.

More and more of the brilliant and amazing Anemones not as many this week, too much consistent cold weather.

As a reminder if there is anything that you would like for us to hold for you at market just let us know by e-mail, by the evening before, and we will be glad to put it aside for you.

Hope to see you all at the market!

Alex and Betsy

If you know folks who you think would be interested in news of the farm then please feel free to forward this to them and encourage them to sign up at the website.

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #6, 3/1/13

What’s been going on!

I know, I know, where have we been?  Fair weather farmers etc.  Even we are ready for it to warm up and dry out so we can get some more things in the ground.  Don’t get me wrong, we need all the precipitation we can get right now but we also have to get spring crops planted like the 11,000 onion plants that came last week and are patiently waiting for their date with some soil.

My usual great trip down to the Georgia Organics conference last weekend.  I have been going down to work with and do workshops for this group almost every year since the mid 90’s.  It is exciting to see the growth of small farms in Georgia and the organization, nearly 1300 attendees at this years conference.  This year I co-presented with a friend of mine from South Carolina in a half day session on Crop Planning.  I know yawn, but maybe the real core to a successful farm business.  Full room and not too many confused looks throughout the afternoon.

The greenhouse is definitely full now including the first tomato seedlings.  We did manage to get the first lettuces in the ground and seeded Sugar Snap Peas, Turnips and Radishes before the last rounds of rain and snow.  Even though it will remain cool through next week it looks like it will dry out enough to get caught up with planting- onions, lettuces, beets, carrots and the first spring planted flowers.

The building project creeps on due to the cold and wet weather.  The electrician starts tomorrow and I have begun the plumbing, hopefully to complete in the next week.  Soon thereafter insulation, sheetrock and the push to the finish.  We really need to be done by the end of the month otherwise time to work on things not involved in growing things gets very short.

Picture of the Week

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At least these lettuces are warm and growing

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #5, 2/14/13

What’s been going on!

Wow! Insanely busy two weeks with 14 different meetings, workshops and classes to teach, can’t wait for the growing season to kick in so I can have some time off.  The conference last Friday on farming strategies for climate change was an all-day affair and the most interesting part for me was the State Climatologist’s talk about what we might be seeing here in the next 50 years.  In many ways it was reassuring to hear his (and the climatology communities) best guess of weather to come.  The bottom line is that the southeast has always had wild swings in weather and that will continue with events becoming more intense.

From a growing standpoint while the fall first frost date appears to be moving back (creating a longer growing season) the last frost in the spring will not really be any earlier but there will be longer warm periods in early spring followed by frosts which is not a good sign for fruit producers who will lose blooms to the freezes.  While less sure, it looks like we will have a small increase in rainfall but in more intense storms with longer dry periods in between making water holding capacity (ponds, etc.) and the ability to irrigate critical.  Of course we will be having hotter summers with more days over 90 and warm nights that will affect both the plants and the farmers.

These are all things we have been seeing and adapting to for at least a decade and it is also reassuring to know that we have the tools in our reach to help manage the changes to come in long term ways like irrigation, crop diversity, good soil management practices and short term protections like high tunnels, shade cloth and row covers.  There will certainly be changes here on the farm in the crops and varieties we grow and when we grow them and there are other unknowns we will have to deal with in new insects and diseases but that is just a regular part of farming.  If you are interested here is a link to the extensive, just released, USDA report- Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.

Picture of the Week

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Cover crops turned under getting ready for lettuce planting

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #4, 1/31/13

What’s been going on!

Hope everyone made it through last night’s storm and high winds without any damage.  Just a few sticks here and there for us but after so many high wind events this year I can’t imagine that there is a lot left to blow down, at least for a while.  We still battened down everything almost like it was a hurricane coming including parking the vehicles up in the field just in case it got interesting.

We have made big strides on the building project this week while the weather was so warm.  The entrance deck is nearly done, put up the stringers for the stairs today.  As soon as the stairs are done then we can stop using ladders taller than a step ladder, hallelujah!  Just a bit of siding left to do above the deck and then we can start on finishing the inside, plumbing and wiring first.  Trying to get it mostly done before it gets warm, after the end of March it will be hard to spend time on it.

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The greenhouse is filling up with transplants including the first tomatoes seeded this week, umm tomatoes (imagine a dreamy look on my face).  In a few weeks we will be transplanting to the field on a weekly basis mostly lettuce to start but some flowers too.  Until then not a lot of field work going on other than harvest for market, plus it needs to dry out some before we can till any beds.

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A few warm weather refugees hiding out with thousands of transplants

 

What’s going to be at the market?

Another cold start on Saturday but our favorite holiday Groundhog Day!

It’s the really deep winter selection now and all great soup ingredients.  The winter potato- Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes).  A little more Spinach.  Lacinato Kale, beautiful tender and sweet Collards.  It is root season with maybe the last of the Japanese salad Turnips for a while but plenty of sweet Carrots.

More and more of the brilliant and amazing Anemones, a must for winter.

As a reminder if there is anything that you would like for us to hold for you at market just let us know by e-mail, by the evening before, and we will be glad to put it aside for you.

Hope to see you all at the market!

Alex and Betsy

If you know folks who you think would be interested in news of the farm then please feel free to forward this to them and encourage them to sign up at the website.

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #3, 1/26/13

What’s been going on!

20 degrees this morning and looks like we won’t get above freezing for the first time this winter.  Really just a quick note to let folks know we will not be at market tomorrow morning. Sometimes it is just makes sense to sit one out.  As I have said before most of the crops we are harvesting this time of year are in suspension, cold storage in the field, and can wait a week or more until we pick them.  Plus we are having too much fun in the house.

The sustained cold week has forced us inside and allowed us to catch up on emails, reading and for me finishing up the year end record keeping chores.  Betsy has had many hours in front of the fire place reading and studying Italian and we both have been cooking.  A large pot of turkey soup spent the day on the stove yesterday made with the carcass of a bird we smoked the day before.

So we hope you all are staying warm and if the frozen precipitation falls you don’t have to get out and drive in it.  If you are in town you should go to market tomorrow even if it is cold, it will be sunny and there will be plenty of good things to buy.  We will be home, just throwing another log on the fire.  See you next week!

1-26-13 005A fire in the fireplace, a cat on the foot stool, soup in the kitchen

 

 

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 10 #2, 1/18/13

What’s been going on!

A great morning to be inside at the desk.  It is nice to see snow again after last winter’s crazy warm and dry weather.  My father always said if you really want to see the lay of a piece of land you need to walk it in the snow.  He was right, it really brings out the contours and highlights maybe because it covers up a lot and it is all in black and white.  Not much of a snow, maybe an inch, but a beautiful clear morning.  This is the view from my desk, down through the woods to our bottom field.

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Even though it was raining pretty good yesterday we harvested all the root crops as it was warmer than it will be today and if really covered with snow there wouldn’t be any way to get them out of the ground.  This afternoon after it warms up we can get the leafy greens picked for market.  Life of a farmer, one eye on the weather forecast (especially the radar) trying to make the best out of sometimes challenging situations.

We had a great weekend in Tennessee with the Barkers and the Southern Foodways Alliance folks.  The Scholar in Residence this year was David Shields who, among other pursuits, is a historian of southern culinary food stuffs.  He gave a talk on tracing the origins of old watermelon varieties grown for superior taste.  Not that we have grown many watermelons in the past, he did have some seeds of old varieties for us to take home and try.

Too warm there too but it did allow for more outdoor activities than usual to go along with the cooking demonstrations and sumptuous food.  Our fellow Fellows, Mark and Sherry Guenther of Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill brought their demonstration set up with mule drawn press and wood fired boiling pan.  They are one of the leaders in the revival of Sorghum syrup, maybe the largest producer in the US and one of this year’s American Treasures Award winners.  Sorghum syrup is not molasses which is a by-product of the cane sugar industry but is a milder syrup made from sorghum cane.

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