Very early morning in late June on the farm
The 2011 growing season and our second year in business is over, at least at Pickpocket Farm and for me the farmer. After working so hard last year getting everything up and running on the farm, my one goal for this season was to not burn myself out, sustain my love of farming, and still keep my share members happy. I hope I kept them reasonably happy. My other small goal was to erect our new farm sign outside along the road or more accurately, to get my husband to do it. Did everyone see it? It's awesome. Yeah, no that goal wasn't accomplished...yet. The sign is laying in our basement half way done. He's not in trouble. He built quite a bit of infrastructure last year for the farm, including a 22' X 48' hoop house.
After I made my goals for this season, one of my favorite farmer bloggers, Gene Logsden posted an article on the different types of sub-species farmers out there. I clearly fell into the part-time farmer category.
"Part-time Farmers differ from Hobby Farmers in that they no longer think farming is all that much fun. They need to make some money at it now. They work very hard at their other job to pay for their farming habit. It is hard to buy or rent a purebred Part-timer anymore because even most Big Farmers have another source of income so they can buy gas for their motor homes and lake cruisers between planting and harvest when cash is in short supply."
Fortunately, I still do love farming and have lots of highlights to report from this year and the not so much highlights that keep farming interesting. Community is still one of the best things going for small time farmers. I don't require volunteer hours on my farm, because I want all people and busy families to have access to great fresh food. At the same time, I welcome everyone to come and help out anytime. My family, parents, in-laws, and some share members are a huge support and are always there to help out in a bind. My hairdresser even stopped by to help harvest and wash vegetables one morning. And I absolutely could not have finished the year without the help and companionship of my work share, Wendy McCormack.
Other highlights include, the very early morning hours on the farm (see picture above). It really is one the best times of the day, especially during the hot summer months. My husband I'm sure would like to add his 2 cents in at this point to let everyone know, that my early mornings were few and far between this summer (please remember goal #1), but I still enjoyed the mornings that I did get out there just before the sun came up.
After I made my goals for this season, one of my favorite farmer bloggers, Gene Logsden posted an article on the different types of sub-species farmers out there. I clearly fell into the part-time farmer category.
"Part-time Farmers differ from Hobby Farmers in that they no longer think farming is all that much fun. They need to make some money at it now. They work very hard at their other job to pay for their farming habit. It is hard to buy or rent a purebred Part-timer anymore because even most Big Farmers have another source of income so they can buy gas for their motor homes and lake cruisers between planting and harvest when cash is in short supply."
Fortunately, I still do love farming and have lots of highlights to report from this year and the not so much highlights that keep farming interesting. Community is still one of the best things going for small time farmers. I don't require volunteer hours on my farm, because I want all people and busy families to have access to great fresh food. At the same time, I welcome everyone to come and help out anytime. My family, parents, in-laws, and some share members are a huge support and are always there to help out in a bind. My hairdresser even stopped by to help harvest and wash vegetables one morning. And I absolutely could not have finished the year without the help and companionship of my work share, Wendy McCormack.
Other highlights include, the very early morning hours on the farm (see picture above). It really is one the best times of the day, especially during the hot summer months. My husband I'm sure would like to add his 2 cents in at this point to let everyone know, that my early mornings were few and far between this summer (please remember goal #1), but I still enjoyed the mornings that I did get out there just before the sun came up.
The tomato harvest
Tomatoes take FOREVER to harvest, for anyone who hasn't had to harvest 450 feet of them and you have to harvest every other day once they start to really ripen. But I still always get excited about a haul like this one. As I strained to pull the tomato cart up our hill, It helped to imagine myself in training as Alexander Karelin, the unstoppable Greco-Roman wrestler, like when he walks through waist high Russian snow carrying a load of boulders. As a bonus, I was able to help my husband move a heavy piece of furniture this summer, and I didn't even notice when he set his end down to rest.
Smorgasbord of vegetable recipes
When you have vegetables piled up on every counter in the kitchen during the summer, this concoction is the sort of dinner we all end up eating, sometimes I add beans or some sort of meat, but usually I'm too tired and we end up eating tomatoes and lemon cucumbers like apples with a slice of Martha Bogart's Life is Sweet bread. It's definitely a highlight of farming.
It was a great onion year
The onion crop did the best out of all the other vegetables this year. It was either because I talked to the plants incessantly this spring while planting and weeding them, or because they got to listen to the entire trilogy of The Hunger Games on my IPOD, while transplanting them all, or because mother nature just decided, this will be their year.
Me with Joel Salatin
I got to meet Joel Salatin this year. There is nothing like meeting a "Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic" to inspire you to keep farming.
I have to include some mishaps too. I avoided being splurted in the eye by Colorado Potato beetle guts, but somehow came into contact with poison ivy early in the year. I'm still blaming the cat. I have NEVER had poison ivy before, until this past spring, and I got it good. it covered my whole face and neck, and was quickly moving to the rest of my body. It all happened just in time for me to meet all of my husband's family for the first time at a fantastic weekend wedding getaway. I was given some great steroids that helped with the poison ivy and I worked like a crazy person on the farm, because of the side effects.
I spent a lot of time and energy cultivating and amending the soil in the very back part of the field the last couple of years and I thought it would be ready to take on some vegetables finally. I was wrong. My whole crop of winter squash failed. I did at least have lots of other vegetables to fill the CSA shares with, and next year, I will not be planted in the back field. It will be seeded with field peas, and hopefully the soil will start to come around!
My daughter, Lexi was admitted into the hospital for 5 days in September and that pretty much ended my attempts at growing spinach in the hoop house for the winter. The transplants got left in the seedling trays too long and the fact that I stopped watering them, didn't help either. Lexi is doing okay now, and I'll be working on a nice early crop of spinach in the spring.
And of course, farming year is never complete without a visit from a ground hog. This year's ground hog, took up residence INSIDE the fence. I was having flashbacks of the movie scene, from Phenomenon with John Travolta, staying up all night and then realizing the cute little bunny was inside his garden. This was of course, was after our ground hog ate all of the fall broccoli transplants. Grrrr.
Thanks again to everyone and your support of the farm. I will be in touch this winter, while sitting next to my wood stove, about next years CSA season.
Bill McKibben: “Communities are more important than individuals, and probably more important than states and nations”
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