Genuine Faux News of the Farm
Vol 6 Issue 1 - January 2010
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Genuine Faux News of the Farm Vol 6 Issue 1 - January 2010 |
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Editorial: Participation Makes it Better Now that we have had a little time after the end of the CSA season, we can begin to reflect on what did (and did not) happen during the past year. And, one of the things that we have always suspected seems to be borne out by the experiences reported to us in the past several years. People get more out of a service when they take advantage of opportunities to become more involved. Obviously, we focus on local foods and our farm when we write these editorials. After all, that is where the wealth of our experience lies. But, you can make this case for any professional organization, hobby-based club, political affiliation or your own education. If you take the time to put more of yourself into something, your understanding and appreciation for all involved increases. And, for most people, this results in greater satisfaction and more informed choices. At this time we'd like to provide you with 'exhibit A:' individuals (who shall remain nameless) who have been involved in the CSA since its inception. These persons have been willing to ask questions, give opinions and find ways to become involved in our farm and its growth. Without them, we might have decided this project/business/farm/thing required too much of us for too little return. In short, their participation made our efforts on the farm worth it to us. The intangible support from a caring community means more than one might expect. On the other hand, we get enough feedback from these individuals to know that they ALSO have a sense of ownership, satisfaction and pride in the growth of GFF. We have also discovered that persons who have been able to come to Tom Sawyer Days, Festivals or other farm visits - especially with the family - come away with much more than the food provided in a CSA share. Connecting your food with the farm and the land in which it grows creates a sense of importance for your food. Regardless of whether members return to the CSA or not - if they have visited the farm to see how it works, they have a greater appreciation for food and farming. And, with that appreciation comes the freedom to be able to partake in a much wider palette of food choices than one might find in a supermarket. You may also notice that we have a guest columnist who does not reside on the farm. Zeb Figura's family are members of the CSA. He and his siblings are often involved in vegetable pickup on Tuesdays and they frequently have some say in what is selected to take home. Zeb's participation has given him an opportunity to sample our wide range of peppers and we are told a fresh pepper is a favorite snack for him. Towards the end of the season we were asking Zeb to taste a few peppers for us and give us his opinion. Most get good reviews - but the one that got a great review was the Quadrato asti Giallo. We already thought it was pretty good - but I think Zeb sealed the deal for its return every year as long as we can get seed. And there you have it - participation and feedback = response and action by your personal farmers. Is that cool or what? Santa was very kind and mailed us a card postmarked December 24, just prior to midnight. Inside the card were two gift certificates - each for a one hour massage. Wherever you are now Santa, we are grateful. |
Don't have time to read all of the newsletter. Here are some quick announcements about the farm in brief:
We are approaching our one year anniversary of our blog Genuinely Faux at the point we are publishing this newsletter on the web. While our newsletters are a more formal presentation of announcements, information and various other things, the blog provides us with an informal place to let interested persons into the world that is the Genuine Faux Farm. Typically, Rob (and sometimes Tammy) will compose multiple items for the blog at one sitting and schedule them for release over a period of time. So, while it may look like we are posting every few days, it is likely the result of a 'brain dump' on a rainy or otherwise inclement day - or the ramblings of a tired person later in the evening. Regardless, the goal of the blog is to provide interested persons insight into what happens at the farm, what we are thinking about and perhaps even some things that are not farm related that we do or care about. Several persons have indicated that they appreciate access to these insights and we hope that everyone who might want to participate is able to do so. Recent posts that we think you might enjoy: * A Whole Year of Genuinely Faux - if you want to enjoy one post in particular - try this one as it has links to our top posts for the past year. ALSO, take a moment and participate in the vote for the top posts in the blog. * Gifted - our Thanksgiving post * Learn About the Farm - a post with links to several other posts that can give you glimpses into our farm life. |
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6 Issue 1 - January 2010 It always amazes us how much there is to do on the farm during the 'off-season.' The parallel we draw with teaching jobs seems to reach the most people - except that it reverses the seasons. During the school year, teachers tend to work many more hours than the traditionally accepted forty just to stay afloat. As a result, they accumulate many tasks that are pushed aside as a matter of necessity. These tasks are often performed during the summer months when the "have nothing else to do." First, we know better. Teachers have plenty to do in the summer with respect to their jobs. But, summer is when they have a chance to breathe and work under a more relaxed schedule. Winter is, essentially, Rob's time to catch up on all the things delayed during the summer. Unfortunately for Tammy - she is ALSO a teacher at Wartburg. A sampling of tasks that have taken our time prior to snow:
This season was a mixed bag for poultry. The Spring chickens were smaller than we wanted and our experiment with a different breed of broilers did not go very well. We also lost half of our turkeys to a raccoon early in the season. On the other hand, our fall chickens were the biggest and best tasting birds we have ever raised. The Muscovey duck project went very well and the turkeys that survived the early problems were very large and extremely tasty. If you want to read about our feelings on the day the turkeys went to "the park" you can check out our blog entry: Mixed Bag of Feelings. At the time of this writing - ALL BIRDS ARE SOLD OUT. Our apologies to anyone that was hoping for more birds this year. You will have to wait until our first batch is ready next summer. At present our hens are happy and providing us with 3 dozen eggs a day. We are able to take on more egg contracts at this time if you are interested. A contract of 5 dozen eggs, delivered over time is $15. Contact Tammy if interested in EGGS. We are planning for some major layout changes on the farm in order to make the poultry raising process easier for us. Our hope is that we can secure some grant money to help with some of the expenses. Our intent is to improve our pasture management, improve the security from night-time predators and decrease the extraneous labor that comes from raising birds with inferior fencing and housing. As with this year, we are planning on two batches of chickens, but will consider a third if our full plans come to fruition. Once again, we will target getting fifty to sixty turkey chicks. It is also likely that we will raise at least one, if not two batches of twenty-five Muscovey ducks. |
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Genuine Faux Farm Mentoring New Farmers With the generous sponsorship of MOSES, GFF will be acting as mentors to the Forest Farm Garden in Cedar Rapids. Melissa Sharapova, Carol Berg and Blair Frank are looking to expand their gardening and begin marketing their product using organic methods. We anticipate that this relationship will result in as much learned by the mentors as by the mentees. But, even more importantly, it is encouraging to find more and more people taking the steps necessary to produce local and organic foods! Some quick farm facts from our 2009 season for those who may have interest.
Perhaps the most important item to report. Rob and Tammy worked hard and were frequently tired. However, decisions made and actions taken in response to what we've learned over the past few seasons have done wonders. There were relatively few times where we were so tired and frustrated that we felt a strong desire to throw up our hands and simply give up. On the whole, we felt healthier and happier - and genuinely pleased to be doing what we do. The Harvest Market extension to the Waverly Farmers' Market season was reasonably successful. As a result, it is likely that there will be plans by local growers to hold similar markets next year - perhaps going further into the winter. This year's markets were not planned until late in the summer/ early fall. Thus, growers had not planned for the eventuality of these markets and generally did not have as much as they might otherwise have. Planning for these markets in the spring should result in more quantity, quality and diversity for next season. At the time of this writing, there is one more Harvest Market planned for December 19 at the Public Market Building in Waterloo (317 W 3rd Street). We will not be holding a table at that market, but there should be a good range of vendors there. The market begins at 8:30 and ends at 11:30 in the morning on Saturday. A quick review of our experience during the November Harvest Market can be found in our blog in the entry Hoorah for Harvest Markets. |
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Vol 6 Issue 1 - January 2010 Peppers Capsicum annuum, or the sweet pepper, is a delicious vegetable. It can come in a variety of colors, usually reds, yellows, and greens. It is not spicy. It makes a good snack and is one of my favorite foods. Like the sweet pepper, all peppers are flavorful. Stuffed peppers for dinner, jalapeños that make you smoke at the ears or flavor up your chili, or just a pepper for on the go are all delicious and nutritious ways to enjoy peppers. The hot pepper, while not your average snack, is still a good spice and will heat things up that need it. Well-known hot peppers(which are usually found in salsas, sauces and spices) include the jalapeño, chipotle, tabasco, cayenne, and several species of chili peppers. The world's hottest pepper is known as Bhut Jokolia or Naga Jokolia (Capsicum chinense) and can be from 125 up to 400 times as spicy as a jalapeño! In northeastern India, Bhut Jokolia juice is smeared on fences or used in smoke bombs for keeping wild elephants at a distance. Sweet peppers, some hot peppers, and bell peppers can usually be found at CSA, so keep an eye out for them! Cited [ed note: Other than adding italic for scientific names and selecting spots for paragraph breaks - this article was taken as received from Zeb. Well done, Sir!] One of our annual newsletter features has been the inclusion of our vegetable cultivars of the year. You will notice that all mentioned cultivars are open-pollinated varieties and their inclusion in this list reflects our success with the variety during the given growing season. Another feature in this newsletter discusses prior year winners and their success in subsequent years. 1. German Butterball Potato After doing some research involving existing potato varieties, we decided that the German Butterball would be an excellent choice to add to our production. The review for production were good - and we were looking for a yellow-fleshed potato that might produce more consistently than Yukon Gold. But, we were even more excited by this cultivar's possibilities when we read about it winning multiple taste tests! We were forced to wait two years for results of our own (complete potato crop failure in 2008), but the results are in. These ARE the best potatoes we've ever tasted. And, the plants provided us with consistently sized tubers with more than the 5:1 ratio we need in terms of harvested to seed potato weight.
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page 3 2. Pablo Lettuce
3. Chioggia Beet
4. Jaune Flamme Tomato This French heirloom has long been on the cutting floor of our 'new trials' list. In fact, it didn't initially make the cut for 2009. However, some seed managed to find its way to us and we put in five plants to see how they would do. Fruits are salad sized and are a golden yellow to orange in color. Taste is excellent and their size is good for putting on the table for the family to snack on as the day progresses. Each plant produced slightly over 100 marketable fruits, despite a year that was shortened due to blight. We're almost afraid to grow more plants on the farm in 2010. 5. Quadrato asti Giallo Pepper
Honorable Mention: Listada de Gandia Eggplant, Waltham Butternut Squash, Jade Green Bean, Crispmint Lettuce, Jimmy Nardello's Frying Pepper |
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Vol 6Issue 1 - January 2010 There are several spots still available for our 2010 CSA season. Reservations are open to all interested parties. Go to our homepage, take the link at the right and follow instructions to sign up.
A deposit of $25 is required to hold a spot for 2010. This deposit is applied towards the total amount required for a share. You will be billed for the balance beginning in late January/early February to help pay for seed and early equipment purchases.
We are comfortable that our production model can provide quality produce in reasonable amounts for this many share holders - even in poor seasons. In an average year, we expect that we will have plenty of excess beyond the needs of the CSA. However, we feel it is important to be able to guarantee reasonable amounts for our CSA members.
As we mentioned in the August newsletter, we need to do something to simplify our distribution numbers. Simply put, three different share sizes create numerous difficulties with respect to determining fair share amounts & proper distribution of produce. We apologize to those who were counting on the single share size continuing and we hope that we can help you find a way to make a standard share work for you.
We realize that situations can change and that might require an increase or decrease in the produce you need. We will work with you to change the share size - but we ask you to make your best guess as to which share size you anticipate you will use in 2010.
We will maintain a waiting list once we reach capacity. Things happen. People experience job changes. We might come up with an alternative that can expand the number of slots. Who knows? Persons placed on the wait list will need to make sure we have appropriate contact information, a preferred pickup location and a preferred share size.
At this time, we see no reason to alter 2009's distribution plan. University Museum - Check It Out! Our thanks to Diane Schupbach for giving us the nickel tour of the University Museum at 3219 Hudson Road in Cedar Falls. If you are looking for something to do with the kids during some of the gray winter days - here is an excellent opportunity. For that matter, take the kid IN YOU and visit this place. While we were under a bit of a time crunch, we saw enough to know that we will be back. The museum is located on the frontage road to the west of Hudson Road. Visit their website and learn more. Unlike so many things in life, this museum is FREE and open to the public. It is open from 9am to 4:30 pm Mon-Fri and 1pm to 4pm on Saturday. |
page 4 Adjustments to the CSA in 2010 Tammy and I strongly believe that a healthy farm is one that assesses prior performance and makes adjustments in an effort to continue to improve. Here are some of our targets for the 2010 CSA season:
In an effort to provide perhaps a bit more of certain items to fulfill the needs of recipes, we are looking at a plan where we rotate certain products so that you get more of that product at one time, but potentially in alternate weeks. Example - a larger bag of beans or peas every other week vs smaller every week. 2. Item Options Combinations of items, such as beets and turnips, to allow people the opportunity to get larger amounts per week of similar, but not exactly the same, items. 3. Increased truck space We need more truck space. One way to get it is to find places to store display materials at or near our distributions. We are also looking at an option to raise the topper on the truck to provide more space. 4. Weekly email reminders Don't expect much - but we are looking to implement a quick email reminder to be sent on the morning of the distribution to persons signed up for that distribution day. 5. Trade in Board? The trade in box doesn't work for various reasons. But, we are wondering about the efficacy of a trade in 'board.' A chalk board where you can write down items you intend to leave behind. In return, you can select items left behind by others on the board. Clearly, we are only considering this at the time. Suggestions welcomed. 6. Continued adjustments for crop planning GFF Presentations and Conferences We will be busy in the winter months doing what we can to keep our knowledge fresh AND share what we know (or think we know) with others. We begin our 'world tour' with the Practical Farmers of Iowa conference in Marshalltown. We look forward to this conference as an opportunity to meet with other Iowa CSA's, vegetable growers and commodity crop farmers. The diverse nature of this conference, combined with the focus on the state of Iowa gives us a wholistic view of the state of agriculture in our area. We follow this event with the Go Green Fair at Wartburg College. Once again, we will hold a table at the fair in an effort to educate and promote our local food systems (this, of course, includes promoting our farm). We will also give a presentation to the Phil & Lit society, which meets in the back room at Joe's Nighthawk on the topic of organic farming. Tammy follows this up with a presentation to the New Hartford Women's Club with respect to Energy Use. While she will be wearing her Sustainability Coordinator hat for Wartburg College, it has plenty of connection with our farm! The Organic Conference, sponsored by MOSES, is one of our highlights for the off-season. We look forward to many interesting presentations and many opportunities to learn. Our presentations in March will be discussed more in our February newsletter - but at least you know we'll be there! We currently have All Blue and German Butterball potatoes in excess of what we need for seed and our own eating needs. Interested persons should contact us via email. |
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