We have been busy preparing for another
season of fresh, healthy food!
Since around mid February
we have seeded and transplanted over 50,000 plants to the field and they are
receiving the perfect amount of rainfall which is getting us excited for yet
another farming season! Last year we
had more than 50” of rainfall and we hope that this year will have a little
less rain but we will deal with what is given to us. Last year we had great lettuce, green beans
and sweet corn due to the rain but experienced crop failures with onions and
summer squash.
Many CSA members expressed a disappointment last
season not having zucchini so we are now trialing a cultivar in our
greenhouse that so far is proving to be very tasty and productive. Just three weeks after transplanting it to
the greenhouse it is producing funky shaped but very tasty fruits.
We are again growing cucumbers in our greenhouse and planted those
immediately after we tilled in a cover crop of mustard greens. Research has shown that mustard greens,
after being tilled into the soil and begin breaking down, act as biofumigants,
thereby reducing soil born diseases. However,
we think we planted our cucumbers too quickly and that this chemical reaction
negatively impacted our cucumbers because many of our plants died just after
transplanting. Never fear, we have
seeded and transplanted additional cucumber plants so we anticipate still having
cucumbers for your salads!
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Changes in the CSA Membership
GREAT NEWS… We are not increasing our CSA
share prices this year but still plan on offering you the same values as last
year! We are once again hoping to
extend our CSA season through
Thanksgiving. Last year many folks
paid for the entire CSA season through Thanksgiving
but we felt that we couldn’t deliver a good value for your money so we
discontinued the delivery service to the Waynesville area refunding those who
were unable to pick-up their produce in Asheville. Our plan for this season is delivering through
Thanksgiving so when renewing your membership please be sure to choose which
share option you want – either 25 or 28 weeks.
Your First Delivery
Mark your calendars for your
first delivery which arrives either Wednesday May 12th or Saturday
May 15th depending on your pickup location. Your first basket of the season should
contain those vegetables that love the cool spring days which we hope includes
lettuce, strawberries, arugula, baby boc choi, kohlrabi, and radishes. The Waynesville pickup location will be
Wednesday from 8:00 to 10:00 AM at the Historic Haywood Farmers’
Market located in the HART Theatre parking lot. The pick up location for the Asheville
area will be Saturdays at the North Asheville Tailgate Market located at UNC Asheville
parking Lot #C from 8 AM to 10 AM. Market customers can expect us to have
produce for sale at the Market during delivery times.
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Further diversifying our operation with
pigs
For several years
we have had big plans for planting blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
and a small orchard. About a decade
ago we planted 60 blueberries and a combined 200 brambles below our house
only to have the deer completely destroy this crop. We have reserved about an acre of land in
our fenced area for small fruits but have been a little apprehensive about
planting perennials because the land is covered with fescue. We have found it very difficult to get rid
of fescue in the fields that we plow/cultivate each year for our annual crops
which is why we have procrastinated planting small fruits because we think
that fescue could easily overtake them.
We decided to try raising a few pigs in this area using them to root
up the fescue. So far it is amazing what the pigs have done. They are very happy rooting/eating the
fescue. We are amazed how much grass
pigs eat on a daily basis because we don’t think of them being grazers!
The 3 Little
Pigs eating a little supplemental grain that we feed them each morning
because they need their minerals in addition to the nutrition provided by the
fescue. They are much like AT Thru-Hikers living in their tent for the
summer. They love their acre of fescue and are incredibly happy!
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New crops that we are trialing
Last February we seeded Fava beans in a greenhouse because these beans love cool
weather and because they are a legume they fix nitrogen back into our soil
all the while providing great tasting beans for soups or salads that are high
in protein. Fava
beans also have high concentrations of L-dopa (dopamine), an amino acid that
is a neurotransmitter in the brain. Our hope is to provide fava
beans to you mid May.
In an
attempt
to extend our tailgate market offerings during the Thanksgiving season we will be trialing
small gourds and dried flowers that we hope to use for making make table
centerpieces. During the Thanksgiving season our production levels
for produce taper off so we are looking for “value added” products to
increase our revenue during the November months.
Please email any ideas you have!
Our cool new tool – a seeder – that can
actually seed arugula and turnips!
For the past decade we have been
using an “Earthway” seeder that was an original $90
investment and works reasonably well for some seeding tasks. Many of our crops
do much better when they are direct seeded rather than being transplanted and
the advantage of using a “seeder” is that it can make a trench, drop seeds
the correct depth and distance apart from each other and then cover the seeds. However, our experience has shown the only
seeds the Earthway seeder can adequately handle are
radishes, beans, and lettuce mix.
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Unfortunately, we direct seed quite a few other crops, many which are
tiny
seeds where spacing is crucial.
These other seeds required us to
trench with a hoe, drop the seeds in by hand (trying
to get the correct spacing) and then cover with a hoe. This process requires
an entire day of labor each time we seeded crops such as spinach, arugula, spicy greens mix, turnips, beets and carrots. Just a couple of weeks ago we used the new
seeder for the first time and it successfully dropped seeds such as spinach, arugula, spicy greens and turnips; however, we still need
to adjust the seed spacing. The Earthway would have just crushed many of the seeds so this
is a huge improvement. Like any new
tool, it will take some time to master it but we are pretty excited about it’s potential.
The Jang
seeder that is going to save us labor for our “direct seeding” jobs! We are trying to determine how to correctly
adjust the seeder for each of our seeds.
Lady’s Bees
With the concern of the Colony Collapse Disorder of bees,
many folks are taking this issue seriously and venturing into beekeeping,
because after all bees are needed for pollinating our food. Lady, who
lives in our Spring Creek Community, is in her second year of beekeeping and
is placing hives on several farms in our community with the requirement that
the farm must use organic (or natural) farming practices
because she wants her bees to survive!
Mountain Harvest Organics is fortunate to be partnering with
Lady
in this endeavor. We are excited to
learn the beekeeping trade from
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Lady and so far the bees
seem very happy. Lady doesn't expect to
harvest honey this season because research has found that bees fed their own honey
throughout the winter are more likely to survive so Lady plans on letting them
have their honey this first year. Many beekeepers sell the honey giving
the bees “High Fructose Corn Syrup” for their winter feeding needs. Lady
is teaching us some amazing things about the bees and their "community" in the
hives.
Lady’s beautiful
Bee Hives. We have plans on planting perennial
“Bee Friendly” plants near he hives although the bees have plenty of pollen from all
the crops!
Our future in farming?
Linda McFarland hosted a dinner for us with several long
standing CSA members which was an amazing treat for us! We were so incredibly spoiled with great
company and food prepared by all. Let me tell you the CSA
has some incredible cooks! We used
this as a time for a brainstorming session for ideas on what we can do to
generate additional income from the farm.
Last year our winter computer job began phasing out requiring us to
come up with new ideas that can supplement our farming income.
We love being on the farm and working outdoors so we hope to
incorporate agri-tourism events such as: a vacation
rental cabin for farm vacations, workshops in
gardening and self sufficiency, a yoga retreat, rustic farm weddings
or corporate outings. Please let us
know of other ideas you might have because we are open to anything and
everything!
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