Category Archives: CSA

CSA

CSA Week Three – Last Week’s ‘Black Bear’ Title was Premature

June 23, 2015 QueSehraFarm Leave a comment

I loved this week. No tangible reason. It has lots of good light, in my memory’ eye. Storms and sunshine went back and forth, it was warm in the days and cool in the nights. Lots of work got done without stress and urgency, the plants seem happy, and we’re feeling it too. Things are interesting and beautiful and challenging and satisfying. Yep.

Jim, Neighbor Dave, and a laser level surveying tool helped get the foundation posts sunken square and straight for the high tunnel greenhouse. We finished rigging up a separate irrigation system for delivering batches of compost tea throughout the field.

Reynaldo helped us with the weeding, which was a priority for much of the week – we got the garlic, half the corn, cucumbers, melons, bok choi. We hay mulched the potatoes and trellised the three grape vines our friend Paula gave us. Transplanted out some rhubarb and Anise Hyssop and Basil and Parsley. Got stung by honey bees (especially Jim, who is the primary bee-mancer (they were really pissy and he hadn’t fully secured the ankles of the bee suit). Got some ticks and some poison ivy (secondhand from Widget, mostly – she hunts through the undergrowth for hours and then gets under the covers to sleep).

The Bug Juice Method worked pretty well, although of course it wasn’t an insect cure-all; potato beetle eggs previously laid on the plants still hatched and released hungry swarms of nasty orange squirmers, and after a couple good rainfalls, the adult beetles started coming back … so we collected some for the next round of bug blendering.

Remember when I mentioned in the last newsletter that a bear was ” ambling among us all week, trying to stay out of sight but not always succeeding”? Well, that situation came to a head the very next day. On Wednesday I heard a commotion right outside – the hens, which had been foraging through the woods behind the well, were squawking up a storm, and the sound of … claws on tree bark? Three baby bear cubs were scampering up a big old oak tree – higher than I thought bears had any sane business climbing, up in the thin and swaying upper branches. And at the base of the tree, stood Momma Bear, looking at me. She gave a snort, bear-hugged the thick trunk, and quickly scaled to the first easy resting point, a dozen feet up.

There, she rested, alternately looking up at her three little bears, and down at me. When we made eye contact, she would smack her mouth and show me that she was drooling.

Apparently, she’d been drawn in by the 2 garbage cans of thawing fruit, veggie, and miscellaneous kitchen scraps that we’d just dumped into the chicken composter – we hadn’t buried it in yet, so the chickens could enjoy picking through the fresh new goodness. But, when they’d come through the woods, they’d run across the chickens – and slapstick ensued. The bears scared the crap out of the hens, who crashed through the underbrush at full volume, frightening the bear cubs right up the tree … bringing me out the door to scare mom up, too.

Now what? I didn’t want to let the dogs out while the family was treed just outside, so I tried to make them moderately uncomfortable hanging around – enough so that they’d scat once they came down, but not so much that they’d be afraid to leave before dark. So I drove the van right nearby, took some photos, sternly but kindly told mom to get her kids and go on into the woods ( I even pointed, helpfully.) I rattled past with the empty trailer. And to make sure they didn’t feel comfortable heading down to the compost after they descended, I went down there and banged on a 55 gallon drum a bit, before burying the fresh compost beneath a layer of old stuff. I checked on the tree – mom had come down, and was lurking in the underbrush at the base; the cubs remained almost out of sight far above. I went down to the raspberry patch to weed whip the tall grass army – when I got done and went back “upstairs,” the bears were all gone. So far, they haven’t been back, but we know they’re still around – Neighbor Marcie saw them digging through her manure compost for June bug grubs, a couple of days later.

What a short growing season we have up here! Before you even get to eat your spring broccoli, you’re planting your fall broccoli … which we also did, during the course of this wonderful week.

Week 3 Box

Plus, today’s harvest went really smoothly, with help from Kristin’s parents, our friend Mark, and our WWOOFer Reynaldo – we worked quickly and had time for a relaxed lunch prepared by Reynaldo – he made a quiche with eggs from our bear-chasing hens, plus lambs quarters from the Hugelkultur mound and green onions and oregano from the garden.

Strawberries – We picked these last night at the “Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm” – the place just across the Saint Croix River from us where Kristin interned and learned to farm. It was great to see Robin, the place and the dogs again – and to fill our faces with sweetness between every few berries we put into containers. here are some pointers on how to store your berries to keep them fresh – but really, I recommend just opening them up and eating them, right this minute.

strawberry pickin' selfie — strawberryin’ selfie

Week 3 Salad Mix – every single leaf individually selected and hand picked in the first hour of morning, before the sun can take away any flavor or tenderness – then washed in cold well water, spun dry, and tucked into an ice-cooled, unpowered, vintage chest freezer for a few hours … until everything’s ready and it’s time for mixing and bagging. It’s a labor of love!
This week’s salad contains three kinds of of lettuce, 2 types of baby kale, arugula, spinach, lambs quarter, mizuna, tat soi, and sunflower greens. Plus a tiny bit of red mustard greens.

Kale(s) – Three kinds – Dinosaur, Red Russian, and Dwarf Curly Blue. All three types look slightly different, but can be used together however you enjoy kale – it’s a very versatile green, good raw on sandwiches, in a “massaged” kale salad. Kristin likes to put oil in a pan (maybe sesame oil) and toss the kale in there with salt or soy sauce, maybe onions and or garlic, some sesame seeds or toasted almonds … it’s delicious.
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Radishes & Salad Turnips
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Radish & Turnip Greens – These are huge down south – try one of these southern recipes, if you’ve already made delicious pesto with previous week’s greens!
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Peas & Pea Tendrils – the tender first pea pickings of the year! These are ‘sugar snap peas’ – not for shelling, meant to be eaten whole. Another one that I love best fresh and raw (especially at this time of year), but which can be used in all kinds of salad and stir fry.

Olive started laying eggs again! (the yellow one in the middle)

Diane doing the Albatross living room's trim - replacing the nasty salmonish pink with glossy black — Diane doing the Albatross living room’s trim – replacing the nasty salmonish pink with glossy black

an assassin bug (?) sucking on a maggot in the compost pile

CSA

Black Bears & Fireflies – Week 2 CSA Newsletter

June 16, 2015 QueSehraFarm 2 Comments

We had friends visit on and off through the week, but it was a productive time. Reynaldo, our first WWOOFer of the season arrived (“World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms” is a program that connects farms with folks who’d like to work on farms in exchange for the experience, a place to stay, and food, basically – this is how we travel south in the winters when the farm inhospitable to non-Yeti life).

We’d actually met Reynaldo on our travels last winter, in Mississippi, at Yokna Bottoms Farm – and he came to us straight from Habitable Spaces, the Texas farm we overwintered at. It was great to reconnect, and was wonderful having another set of hands helping to keep things growing.

We weeded rows, freeing tiny new plants from the tyranny of crowding weeds and their sun and moisture-stealing ways. The last of the eggplants and peppers moved out of the greenhouse and into the field,. and the weather mostly cooperated, giving us cloudy, gently grey days while the plants recovered from their shock.

Our friend Eugene spent a few days, and was the first person to sleep in the Rust Shack. He performed carburetor wizardry; reviving a lawn mower and a pump that we will be using to irrigate the crops with compost tea (just what it sounds like).

Today’s harvest was fully 20 degrees cooler than last week’s – it was much more pleasant working weather, and easier to keep things fresh and cool after picking. However, the few days of intense heat had an impact on the crops – the cool weather crops took it as a sign that summer was upon them, and reacted accordingly. The Napa cabbage decided to skip forming heads entirely, and go straight to flowering. Bok Choi, mustard greens, and most of the arugula bolted as well.

We keep finding new vole tunnels, but not much sign of damage being inflicted above ground. We find cut worms incidentally while digging, but I can’t say I’ve noticed their damages much. We frapeed some crop eating beetles, to make organic species-specific bug repellent spray – which seemed to actually work!

The harmless June bugs have passed their peak blundering buzzing period, and now their fat grubs are showing up in the compost piles. Mosquitoes, delayed by the dry early spring, finally busted out after the soakings of early June … but the dragonflies and other devourers were waiting for them, and the surge faded after a couple of days.

there's a bear in this pic, but you can't tell. — there’s a bear in this pic, but you can’t tell.

A black bear has been ambling among us all week, trying to stay out of sight but not always succeeding. The hens are happy and exploring further and further from their coop. The farmers are happy, too, and are settling into the groove.

Eugene brought us a bag of clothes he found - and the clothes in there fit us both perfectly! I did some work in my new suit ... — Eugene brought us a bag of clothes he found – and the clothes in there fit us both perfectly! I did some work in my new suit …

this is a Whip Poor WIll. We didn't take the picture - they are nocturnal and we hear them throughout the nights - but never see them. — this is a Whip Poor WIll. We didn’t take the picture – they are nocturnal and we hear them throughout the nights – but never see them.

This giant spider seemed weirdly still while I worked nearby, until I wondered why and went to see if it was alive - turns out she was standing guard over her eggs, which she darted to, picked up, and ran off with when disturbed — This giant spider seemed weirdly still while I worked nearby, until I wondered why and went to see if it was alive – turns out she was standing guard over her eggs, which she darted to, picked up, and ran off with when disturbed

in the Box this week:

Napa Cabbage – as mentioned, the Napa opted to go straight to flower and skip all the head-forming business entirely – so it’s cabbage leaves! Stir-fry, sauerkraut, kimchi, sliced thinly, yum.
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Spring Salad Mix – Pea tips, sunflower greens, Argula, Red Ruby lettuce, Buttercrunch lettuce, wild spinach, regular spinach, tat soi, a little bit of sheep sorrel, mizuna, & mustard greens.
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Green Onions – duh duh. duh dah dah dah duh duh.
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Radishes – Thanks to the early spring cutworms, our crop of radishes and turnips was decimated, so these little globes are now fine and precious as pearls.
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Salad Turnips – Smooth and mild, great on salads, delicious raw or cooked.
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Turnip & Radish Greens – Interchangeable and also, ridiculously nutritious. Not good at all if eaten raw, but very good in soup, sautees, etc – check out some recipe ideas online.
Melissa made radish green pesto with last week’s share

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Broccoli (large shares only) – a few rogue early broccoli plants formed heads early – not enough to give to everyone, but enough to share a bit.

Shareholder Pics of last week’s veggies

1463947_10200818985154913_4177608108207714972_n — Celeste’s Pepper Jelly cracker topping

11401444_10103178638894130_6110109432932906975_n — Amy’s Week 1 salad

11535886_833066796782314_3734375810152692568_n — Laura’s Week 1 Taco Salad

PS – “Okra Exists”

CSA

CSA 2015: Happening.

June 9, 2015 QueSehraFarm Leave a comment

Week One Members’ Newsletter

It was a beautiful summer day for our first harvest of the year; over 90 and sunny, with a slight breeze and little puffy white clouds. We got out early to get the leafy greens harvested, before the radiance could rob them of their juicy vitality.

Or us of ours, for that matter.

It was a long cool spring, but now things are really heating up – lows are in the 50s, soil temps are around 70, we’ve stopped checking the weather obsessively for forecasted freezes, the windows stay open at night, and taking a cool shower can sound appealing.

We like it, and so do the plants.

Things really turned around recently, or felt like they did at least.

Even just a week ago, we were feeling pretty bleak about the field. It seemed that everything was being devoured and decimated. Everything we’d tried to do to improve the situation somehow made things worse. We went careening through various stages of grief; denial, anger, acceptance, determination, and cannibalism. Storm clouds loomed and we battened the hatches. But then the darkness broke and the sunshine busted out.

As it does.

The sad brassicas and lettuces revived. Voles, while still active, did their damage within acceptable parameters. The cut worms increasingly (if not entirely) were squished by us, eaten by birds, or leveled up and became immobile chrysalis types that don’t make nightly surface raids. The kohlrabi survived emergency untransplantation and retransplantation. The quack grass agreed to a draw for the season. (We’re not sure if we trust it, but it’s good for now.) Legions of plants graduated out from the greenhouse – tomatilloes, ground cherries, tomatoes, peppers – and we even planted a bunch of wildflowers and clover. WWOOFer and HelpX requests (to come stay on the farm and help out with the work) came rolling in, after a long period of silence. It rained, a lot, but with good hot sunshine between deluges.

Things feel good.

The woods around us are unfolding in a kaleidoscope of life. The field looks lively and bursting with wonderful potential – quite welcome really. Although I’d gotten well along toward accepting that my fate was to toil in a desolate wasteland (“why do you think they call it ‘The Barrens’?”), and even finding humor and beauty and meaning in it – I’d rather not, really. I love our living field and growing plants, and Spring has sprung,

And it’s already time to start the fall broccoli crop!? Holy crap.

Box #1: Early Risers

Please return your empty boxes every week! We need them! We want them! We don’t want to buy more! Thanks. :)

Radishes – About 75% of the radishes we’ve tried planting (in multiple waves) have fallen to the forces of the cutworms and voles. And then the survivors were recently subjected to sudden intense rainfalls (one day we got 1.5″ drenching, a short respite, and then another 1/2″ fell in the course of one soaking half hour) – like tomatoes, radishes absorb water uncontrollably and split when they expand too quickly. But they’re still good!
Radish Greens – Great in a pesto. Really; make some pesto with these things; recipes abound on the googlebot. Or if you’re the oppositional type, cook em and do something else – chop em up with the onion whites and sautee them together, add that to scrambled eggs or into an omelette. They hold sauces well, so they’re good to sautee with other vegetables.
Sunflower Greens – I like these best fresh, but some folks also like ’em cooked. Use in salads, sandwiches, stir fries, wraps – or munch them alone as a snack.
Early Riser Salad Mix: A tasty mix of the first arrivals up in our chilly climate: pea tips, Arugula, Lettuces, Wild Spinach (Lamb’s Quarter), a tad of Mizuna. Farmer Kristin’s Serving Suggestion is to use a green onion dressing, but anything you like will do just fine. The arugula has little holes in it; these are harmless and ickless, just voids left by the organic gardener’s companion, flea beetles. We will be battling them with Neem Oil this week … But in the meantime, don’t hate the holes.
Green Onions – Use both the tops (similar to chives) and the bottoms (mini onions basically). Tops can be used in a dip with sour cream or cream cheese, or added into your radish leaf pesto! The greens don’t stay fresh as long as the white bottoms, so use them first! Serve with Booker T and the M.G.s.
a Jar of Preserves – Depending on your predestined fate, you have received either marmalade we made with fresh oranges in Arizona in March, cactus jelly made from prickly pear cacti fruits in Texas in January , preserves from raspberries that we picked fresh from a neighboring farm, sweet pickles made from pumpkins we grew last year, or garden huckleberry (aka Wonderberry) syrup or jelly or sauce, from last year’s field. Or maybe something else that we can’t remember right now.

(Note: The first week is a light box – the early spring was dry, and the season was slow to warm up. Really, the first box is always light, and even the second and third ones are too – we have a short growing season and there’s not a whole lot growin’ on. Fear not; future boxes will be heavier and heavier …)

Recently in pictures:

innoculating oak logs with shiitake mushroom spores with friends of the farm

Vengeance; a cutworm's guts show the color of the plant it had spent the night munching on — Vengeance; a cutworm’s guts show the color of the plant it had spent the night munching on

added a sawdust bucket composting toilet to the guest trailer

shielding tender transplants from a blazing afternoon

So, here is a zombie fly. It has been infected by a fungus that fills it to bursting, then hijacks its little brain and forces it to climb up in something tall, assume a specific position with its butt in the air and its proboscis stuck to a leaf, and then it finishes hollowing out its guts and bursts out in white bands between the segmented exoskeleton, in a spray of spores. Go, nature! They are all over the tomatoes and scared us, but they’re harmless to the plants it seems.

6" wingspan' on the trailer — Moth with a 6″ wingspan’ on the trailer

Does a bear poop in the woods? No, it poops in our front path

CSA, farming

Farming is War – May CSA Newsletter

May 18, 2015 QueSehraFarm Leave a comment

the News

We’ve been kept incredibly busy dealing with a series of challenges that have given us much to do … and plenty of opportunities to practice saying “que sera, sera” and letting go of stressing over potential dooms!

Like bosses in the first levels of video games, our Spring challenges started out easy enough. First, there was the incredibly dry and droughty spring – we wound up irrigating in April for the first time ever! We set up the 600 gallon rainwater collection tanks to gravity feed to a sprayer hose we could walk up and down the rows of seedlings – and since there wasn’t much rain to collect, we ran the pump using solar power on sunny days, filling them with well water.

Next came the quack grass. We’d known it was in the field and all around us, but this spring it came on with a vengeance, sprouting up in thick mats throughout the field. And so we did some research – and identified the species as one of the most notorious and loathed garden weeds on earth. The waving green blades were just the visible tip of the treacherous iceberg; quack grass forms dense mats of allelopathic root rhizomes that choke out other plants, and it spreads like a cancer if left unchecked. There is no easy way to eradicate it (you could choose to not grow any crops for a year or two while you either smother your entire garden with thick plastic, or till the whole thing every few weeks for an entire season … not options for us!)

We knew we couldn’t totally defeat it, but we had to fight it back enough to keep it off our crops and prevent it from getting worse – so we got into warrior mode and went into battle. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. Each row we planted, we broadforked to loosen the soil around the grass roots. Then hand weeded out the long, ropey rhizomes – commonly up to two feet long – and if you break them and leave pieces in the ground, they will re-sprout from the bits, like the Hydra’s heads. Our hands became deeply stained black with soil, as we slowly reclaimed rows one at a time from the grassy menace.

Then came the voles. Voles! I thought they were just cute little field mice. I even saved one’s life last year. Now, I regret that – now, I want them all dead. Not moles; moles eat bugs, whereas voles eat your crops. They create crazy tunnel mazes throughout your field, from which they can launch ambushes.

meandering vole tunnel down last year's potato rows — exposed vole tunnel meandering down last year’s potato rows

They lurk, feasting on your emerging garlic beneath the mulch, and waiting until you transplant all of your kohlrabi out into the field after nurturing them from seeds. And then they tunnel right through the row and eat those lovely kohlrabi’s roots right off, leaving them to wilt and die slowly while you watch, uncomprehending … until you pull the first completely dead plant out to autopsy, and discover the tunnel where the roots used to be.

casualties of the Vole War - de-rooted kohlrabi in the hospital after being taken back in from the front (aka field) — casualties of the Vole War – de-rooted kohlrabi in the hospital after being taken back in from the front (aka field)

Voles live in colonies and reproduce furiously all year round. They worship Satan and dance upon the graves of children. After you catch one in a snap trap, they all learn to avoid them and bury them in dirt whenever you try to sneak one into a tunnel mouth. Science has shown that the only good vole is a dead vole. Unfortunately, they are harder to kill than Steven Seagal.

Our survival strategy for the Vole Challenge was threefold:

1) we dug trenches down each side of new rows and left them bare of mulch for the time being – thus cutting off shallow tunnel networks and creating barriers of openess that the secretive rodents would be loath to cross.

2) We brought mass death to one of their main lairs – the hugelkultur mound we’ve been building near the greenhouse. The buried pile of logs and branches proved ideal habitat for the beasts, and their burrow holes peppered the surface; we called it the Vole Hotel. The day we discovered the kohlrabi had been decimated by the little monsters, we got innovative. I used some plumbing and vent tape to rig up an adapter between a garden hose and the van’s exhaust. Then I plugged up all the burrow holes but one in the vole hotel, and filled their nest with sweet, sweet carbon monoxide.

Payback for our kohlrabi! Exterminating the Vole Hotel with carbon monoxide.

It worked! But there were still all the voles in the field … which brought us to:

3) we gave up on our plan of ‘No-Till’ gardening, for now. Que sera, sera! It turns out that voles thrive under the same conditions that we had created to nurture our soil, and tilling was the time-honored method to take out their tunnels and reduce their ability to decimate a garden.

So we sent out an S.O.S. to our wonderful neighbors Dave & Marcie – and they came riding in on a shining green steed, a John Deere tractor with a PTO tiller attachment – and chewed up the portion of the field not yet planted. It was disappointing to have to till after all, but it felt great to set the vile voles back enough to buy our transplants some breathing room to grow without being devoured.

But now there are the cutworms.

Cutworms are gross caterpillars that live just beneath the surface of your garden. Like vampires, they emerge to feed at night – climbing up your young tender crops and devouring them – sometimes just the leaves, but all too often chewing through their stems and killing the entire plant.

And this has been a boom year for cutworms; they have simply decimated our direct-seeded radishes, lettuce, spinach, and turnip plants, chewing them up as soon as they emerge from the ground.

Every morning, we start our day with a walk. Not a nice looking-at-nature-and-smiling-at-the-sky walk – a grim hunt through the field, stalking through the rows of transplanted cabbage, kale, broccoli, looking for the telltale chewed up holes, fallen leaves, and felled plants that indicate a cutworm has been munching in the night. When such damage is seen, we dig through the soil all around the ravaged plant, sifting and probing until we discover the culprit or culprits and squish their green* guts out. (*purplish, if they’ve been eating the Red Russian kale) In the night, we stalk through the field with flashlights, squishing the worms we catch in the act.

So far, in spite of our vigilance and the scores of squished bugs in our wake, the damage is unrelenting. We’ve lost a lot of plants to these horrible bugs – we can keep most of the transplants alive through constant vigilance, but the tiny direct seeded plants are really taking a beating. Although we planted well more than we needed, the losses are mounting, and it can be a struggle to avoid falling into despair in the face of the enemies arrayed against us.

But overall, we’re doing alright – it’s interesting, even when it feels overwhelming. We knew this wouldn’t be easy, we anticipated unexpected obstacles and setbacks – we even named our farm with this in mind.

So, we let ourselves feel whatever sadness or anxiety is appropriate for just a bit – and then gird up for battle; put on a bloodlusty grin, and wade into the thick of it – rending the destroyers and avenging our fallen crops.

Farming is war.

And fortunately, we have a great battle cry:

Que sera, seraaaaaAAAAAAAA!

some Pictures!

baiting the electric fence with sweet syrup, so deer learn to fear it

it takes a village to raise a farm! Jim Sehr, Neighbor Dave, and the truck driver helping unload the giant delivery of the future high tunnel greenhouse

the giant egg turned out to be a double yolker

heating up the hot tub - great way to loosen up sore muscles and caked on dirt! — heating up the hot tub – great way to loosen up sore muscles and caked on dirt!

hens working in the field in one of the two chicken tractors — hens working in the field in one of our two chicken tractors

new waterproof roof completed over the Albatross guesthouse, thanks to Jim!

putting down a thick weed barrier and mulch

at a local farm getting loaded up with rounds of old hay for mulch

built a chicken composter box in their yard - they can eat lots of good scraps, while mixing it up with the dead leaves — built a chicken composter box in their yard – they can eat lots of good scraps, while mixing it up with the dead leaves

relaxing in the Albatross guesthouse after a long day afield – it has working lights now!

CSA, farming, homestead

Germination 2015

April 21, 2015 QueSehraFarm 1 Comment

We’ve been back on the Farm since mid-March, getting things started for the year …

It’s been a month of preparation: hooking the solar power and rainwater collection systems back up, moving and fixing up the new guesthouse (a ’58 mobile home we got free on Craigslist), getting a new flock of laying hens, upgrading the nest boxes, turning dead trees into firewood, setting up fences, planning upgrades to the rainwater system, paying taxes, layering the hugelkultur mound, preparing for the coming 70×30′ high tunnel, and, of course, soaking in the hillbilly hot tubs.

the 1958 Gilder Albatross - our new guest cabin — the 1958 Glider Albatross – our new guest cabin

old tractor tires & former tabletop repurposed as front steps on the Albatross

harvesting dinner from the field - parsnips that survived the winter — harvesting dinner from the field – parsnips that survived the winter

Gabe Sehr: Rhizome Hunter of the Hugelkultur, Destroyer of Crab Grass

this pine tree blew partway over in a spring windstorm - we made a sling from an old tractor tire tube and anchored it back upright to reroot — this pine tree blew partway over in a spring windstorm – we made a sling from an old tractor tire tube and anchored it back upright to re-root

we got ten 2-year old hens; they provide about 7 jumbo-sized eggs a day

the hens run toward the axe on our farm - because it means we're breaking some carpenter ant treats out of a log — the hens run toward the axe on our farm – because it means we’re breaking some carpenter ant treats out of a log

Neighbor Dave doing some tractormancy on a pile of aged horse manure, to prepare the soil for the new high tunnel greenhouse

handwashing and line drying; not too bad, but the wringing part is a pain.

Cleo may be almost 15 & a bit limpy, but she still loves life on the farm

"Science," the free deeeep freezer we got on Craigslist to use as our fridge (in conjunction w/ the buried chest freezer pseudo-root cellar) - it once went down to 120 below. The alarm still works. — “Science,” the free deeeep freezer we got on Craigslist to use as our fridge (in conjunction w/ the buried chest freezer pseudo-root cellar) – it once went down to 120 below. The alarm still works.

the Albatross came with some weird plastic cabinet things; we used their sliding doors for eas,y egg-gathering from outside, with the female edge of cheap pine paneling as the tracks

Foreman Jim and Kristin starting work on the new waterproof Albatross roof

the hens, minus Broody McBrooderson who hangs out alone on her own perch, off camera

chickens considering free-ranging right up the ladder with Jim

Widget knows the River Road well enough by this point

suspected double-yolker, and the biggest egg we've ever seen. Scientists theorize this was the consequence of Broody McBrooderson eating a bunch of venison sausage. — suspected double-yolker, and the biggest egg we’ve ever seen. Scientists theorize this was the consequence of Broody McBrooderson eating a bunch of venison sausage.

We got Jim some bee-keeping gear for Christmas, and he took a class ... next thing you know, he's in a bee suit, you're helping dump a hive of bees into a box, and everyone is getting stung. Except for the man in the suit of course ... — We got Jim some bee-keeping gear for Christmas, and he took a class … next thing you know, he’s in a bee suit, you’re helping dump a hive of bees into a box, and everyone is getting stung. Except for the man in the suit of course …

Pepe, our new rooster - he's in heaven here — Pepe, our new rooster – he’s in heaven here

But primarily, it’s been all about the seeds. This is our first year starting seedlings off grid, without either the electricity to run banks of lights or the controlled heat of a modern home – so we’ve had to do some improvising.

making soil blocks for seed starting - a mix made from compost we made last year, Perlite, peat moss, lime, blood meal, green sand, and rock phosphate — making soil blocks for seed starting – a mix made from compost we made last year, Perlite, peat moss, lime, blood meal, green sand, and rock phosphate

For next spring, we plan to have a wood fired, slow-release heating system installed in the greenhouse – a “rocket mass heater” that stores heat in a clay and stone bench running the length of the greenhouse, which we can germinate seeds on and leave plants overnight when temps drop down. But for this year, there was no time to build it …

So at first, we tried propane heat. We quickly discovered that it is far too expensive to try to maintain temperatures overnight in a structure that is not really made to hold heat – the thin plastic is great for letting sunlight in and holding the heat briefly, but when there is no sun and the temps are below freezing, a 200 square foot hoophouse will quickly drain your bank account – as well as leave you stressing about a propane cylinder going empty in the middle of the night and costing you everything you’ve worked so hard to start.

the dogs grazing on the crab grass coming up in the greenhouse, long before it appeared outdoors

Cleo is over the cold & ready to enjoy the Greenhouse Effect

The first seedlings started were the cool weather crops – hardy specimens that can survive chilly air and soil, such as lettuce, broccoli, and kale. We also got some more perennials going – asparagus and rhubarb.

you've heard of Baby Kale - this is Newborn Kale — you’ve heard of Baby Kale – this is Newborn Kale …

Using a handy digital thermometer with a probe (which lets us take readings in two separate locations), we experimented with different techniques for maintaining adequate temperature, and discovered that if we put the flats on the ground of the greenhouse at night and layered them with row cover fabric, the warmth of the earth keeps the trays several degrees warmer than the rest of the greenhouse.

using cold climate greenhouse tactics similar to those promoted by Eliot Coleman and Helen and Scott Nearing

When it is very cold, we bring them up into the trailer with us, to stay toasty with the heat from our wood stove.

This set the stage for the next wave of seedlings – the much more sensitive hot weather plants such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

These seeds will not germinate well unless soil temperatures are at least 80 degrees – and once they finally do emerge, the plants don’t like it much cooler than that, either – no lower than 50. So, we started a new regimen to accommodate them.

On clear days, when the sun warms the greenhouse up in the 80 to 100 degree range, we set up the warm-weather plants on the greenhouse shelves, to benefit from both the heat and the sunlight.

During these times, the cool weather crops are moved outside, to temperatures more to their liking, as well as into the wind and more direct sunlight that they need to get, in preparation for being transplanted into the open field.

We used the storm-ravaged mosquito gazebo frame and some row cover to build them a shelter, which keeps the sunlight moderated during the strongest times of day.

For nighttime and for still-germinating seeds (which require no sun and more heat), we hung ceiling-to-floor curtains in our trailer, dividing it into three areas: the living room with its big bright windows (which lose heat at night), the kitchen in the middle with the woodstove, and the bedroom in the rear of the trailer. Rearranging the furniture allowed us to set up a big wire shelving rack in the middle zone, capable of holding almost 20 flats of seedlings. The uppermost (warmest) shelves became our germination area – the curtains trap much of the heat from the woodstove, allowing us to easily maintain temperatures between 70 and 100 degrees overnight for the seeds to germinate within, without roasting ourselves to death while we sleep in the rear.

In the mornings, we load the sprouted trays into the van and move them “downstairs” into the protected sunny greenhouse. If it’s warm enough, the cool weather crops (which spend the nights on the greenhouse floor) get moved outside into the gazebo shelter. And then when the sun goes down, we bring them back into the greenhouse, and load the hot weather plants back into the van for a trip “upstairs” to their woodheated shelving in the trailer with us.

It’s a lot of shuffling trays back and forth and all around, but we’ve gotten pretty good at the process, handing the trays off from one person to the other at the doorways, using bread trays to move two flats at once, and making it a smooth and painless habit, a simple and quick routine. And because we’re here with the seedlings full-time (last year we did our germination in Kristin’s folks’ basement), we can pay close attention to maintaining consistent moisture levels, avoiding extremes of dry or wet soil that cause problems.

Not only does it work for us – it seems to be working great for the plants. This year we have the strongest and healthiest looking seedlings we’ve had yet – strong stems, glowing leaves, high germination rates, and no sign of damping off, yellow leaves, or other signs of stressed or unhappy seedlings.

Of course, just as it gets easier and feeling under control, it’s time for the next phase of things – this week we started planting seeds out in the field – so far, onions and snap peas, with lettuce and spinach on the to-do list next.

This means weeding rows and beds, planting, and mulching … making this a great time of year to come out and help if you’re interested in volunteering; there’s a lot to do, but it’s not hot and there aren’t any mosquitoes, gnats, or flies to speak of … yet!

2015 is off to an awesome start – I know there is no certainty when it comes to the future especially in farming, and ‘whatever will be, will be’ – but I’m predicting the best year yet!

Thanks for being a part of it!

– Gabe Sehr

Que Sehra Farm