3 Flat Acres

Some garlic varieties sprout early

2012-01-15T09:12:00.006-06:00

In late November, the Thai Fire was sprouted. Duly noted for next year's planting plan.

3 Flat Acres is officially certified organic! Our certifier is MOSA.

Our relocate to Wisconsin date is getting closer - we anticipate moving in mid to late March. I've started packing!

New slow zone on Buckwheat Ridge Road

2011-12-01T17:28:00.005-06:00

Yep, Judy, we got a crane! Bill emailed me these photos and noted that traffic on our already very quiet rural road sure has slowed while he's been working.

More Shop Photos

2011-11-26T13:31:00.003-06:00

We continue to make progress on the shop. The end walls are framed out and is ready for the roof trusses, which get delivered this week. Bill plans to continue construction this upcoming week.

The black tube sticking up is the new electric that Bill trenched ~350 feet from the barn

The large opening on the right side is for the large windows

this is a mostly passive solar building

Shop is going up!

2011-11-14T08:15:00.003-06:00

Photos from straw mulching and repairing fences

2011-11-13T14:43:00.012-06:00

These photos are delayed - they are from planting in October. 4 large bales from a farmer in Darlington.

Mulch is approximately 5 inches

We broke up the bales and brought large sections into the fields

Bill rigged up a fence fix-it kit for the back of the ATV - has fence poles, barbed wire, post driver and tools, Easy way to check the fences without having to carry the wire

Garlic planting begins!

2011-10-06T18:40:00.021-05:00

We are in Wisconsin. I've spent the past two days popping cloves (breaking open the bulbs into individual cloves). I clocked in 11 hours while Bill was tilling the fields, picking up the tractor and fixing fences since the neighbor's cattle have been discovering that the grass is indeed greener on our side of the fence.

Music - a Porcelain variety

Spanish Roja - a Rocambole

Simonetti - an Artichoke

Bai Pi Suan - an Marbled Purple Stripe

look at that beautiful toffee marbling!

Various varieties in netting

And then today, Thurs, 10/6/11, after 6 years of planning and 5 years of farm ownership, we finally planted a crop! (I'm not counting the farm garden which was for personal use.)

Field #1 - before planting

Varieties all organized by type

tools include clipboard, tapemeasure, scale

7 hole dibbler - homemade by Bill out of Black Locust

(even our lumber is local!)

Dibbler in Action!

3 rows / bed. 39" wide bed. 12" between rows. 8" between plants.

Planting on the grid - it makes life easier!

We each have carpenter's aprons to carry the cloves down the rows

Me putting garlic to bed

After Day #1. We have more garlic than will fit Field #1;

looks as if we'll be tilling up part or most of Field #2.

As we were leaving the farm, my cellphone rang and now we have an appointment with our organic certifier for Saturday!

Parade of Peppers III - Beaver Dam

2011-10-04T09:41:00.003-05:00

The Beaver Dam peppers is a Hungarian heirloom which was grown and cultivated by a family in Beaver Dam WI.

This is a sweet pepper that is mildly hot. It is large and great for stuffing. It turns from green to yellow to red. Small plants with a few large peppers - not very prolific but worth it because the result is so tasty and beautiful.

Orange Thai Pepper

2011-10-02T17:38:00.003-05:00

We had 3 Orange Thai pepper plants. It's a cayenne-type pepper that we plan on drying.

It needs 80 - 90 days for fruit to fully develop and since we were so late getting our plants in, the green fruit didn't ripen on the plant fully. There are hundreds of little peppers on these plants. I didn't have time to harvest all of the peppers so we just cut the plant at the base. Instead of picking off all of the green fruit, we hung it in our backyard in Chicago and the fruits are beginning to turn orange.

It is hanging on an antique tobacco dryer

Growing paprika

2011-09-28T08:15:00.005-05:00

We grew Alma Paprika (Capsicum annuum) at the farm this year and it is was gorgeous. A short plant with lush leaves and fruit that starts white and progresses to orange and then red. It is an heirloom and great for drying and grinding.

Field #1

2011-09-27T07:23:00.009-05:00

The buckwheat cover crop in Field #1 was mown down on Mon, 9/19. We left it to decompose and will till it in on Tues, 10/4 before we begin planting that week.

Buckwheat stubble - it did a great job of smothering the seed bank

This gives a good idea of the bed size.

We will plant between the tractor tire marks.

We will plant in alternating beds within the field and in the fallow beds will plant clover which will suppress the weed seeds and allow a nice path for access to the plants.

Sparky the tractor went into our Mennonite farmer neighbors for a tune-up (they run a tractor repair and a roadside farm stand). They are nice folks and we enjoyed meeting them. They run tractors on steel wheels instead of rubber. Here is a photo of a Mennonite doing some haying - note the wheels.

Shop walls (aka Shipping Containers) in place

2011-09-26T18:58:00.016-05:00

We rented a telescoping forklift last week and manipulated the two shipping containers into place on their concrete footings.

Towing chains hooked around the forks and the container

We have to drag it onto the stone area and rest it on the concrete edge

Bill used the forklift to lift up the corner and I slid a telephone pole underneath allowing the container to roll

The first one is in place

End of day 1 of the machine rental - they are both in place

The shop will be constructed between the two containers

The next day we used the forklift to fill up the 20 yard dumpster with the kitchen demolition of last summer.

In this photo, you can see the shute out of the upstairs window. This is what I use to scoop the lath, plaster and rubble by the shovelful easily into the dumpster.

Quick connects & farmhouse demo begins!

2011-09-18T11:34:00.009-05:00

We weighed the pros and cons of quick connects for Sparky and came down on the safety side. Bill was spending lots of time trying to line each implement up correctly in order to attach and unattach. After reading an article in Growing for Market about the number of back and hand injuries that can be avoided by quick connects, we were convinced.

Several of our new implements have the quick on/off. We had to retro-fit the bucket and several of the older implements.

Bill had to cut and grind the old connections off - here he is using the concrete saw

Then welded on the new frame and it quickly connects to Sparky

During our last concrete pour, we made a counterweight

During the Labor Day week, I also started demo on the 2nd floor of the farmhouse.

Pre-demo

We ordered a 20 yard dumpster and built a chute from the 2nd floor down to the dumpster. I spent all week in gloves, safety glasses and a dust face mask. The 2nd floor is a combination of drywall and lath and plaster. It is a dirty job.

Buckwheat on Buckwheat Ridge Road...

2011-09-17T17:11:00.009-05:00

The buckwheat certainly came up! This is why it is known as a smother crop.

Field #1 in full bloom buckwheat - will be cut on Monday

For comparison, this is Field #2 in the green manure

We spent Labor Day laboring on the buttresses on the barn.

4 forms for the buttresses

After the concrete was poured, the pressure pushed out this 2x4 from the frame

this was our 3rd use of these forms - we retire them now and will use them to build a shelter to protect our tractor implements from the elements

This is the hopefully the last concrete pour that we do ourselves. For the record, it was our 3rd pour each of which was 6 yards.

The buttresses will also serve as animal pens or a footing on which to support shade structure.

The state of the garlic fields

2011-08-28T12:27:00.021-05:00

We've done multiple passes with the tine cultivator to pull out the quack. I would venture that quack and horse nettle are our two most aggressive invasives in our fields. We essentially utilized the stale seedbed program all summer but a couple of weeks ago, we did a final hand-weed and then seeded with covers.

Bill hand weeding Field #1

Field #1 got buckwheat

Field #2 and #3 got a green manure mix

Field peas, oats and hairy vetch

Sowing the manure mix brought our first experience with using an inoculant. We utilized the slurry method which was startling to us both with how well it worked!

We poured the seed mix into a trug. (I can not recommend trugs enough. I've used them for everything from harvesting, washing, carrying gear, and mixing inoculant.)

We then sprinkled the half of the inoculant packet over the seeds and sprinkled about 3 oz of water (from our water jug from the cooler) and using our hands we stirred the seeds around. The black inoculant spread evenly thru the seed and the seed remained dry enough to still be spread through our hand spreader.

Seeds in the trug

The teeny black specks are the inoculant

This is Field #1 with the buckwheat barely sprouting. I hope it hurries up! It has a lot of weed seeds that need to be smothered.

I recently harvested the onions from the farm garden. I bought these on a whim all dried and half sprouted in June from the bargain bin of the local Cuba City grocery store. We planted them as an experiment and we got about 100 (smallish) onions from our efforts. They are curing in the barn. This little experiment has us dreaming us all of the onion varieties we will grow next year!

Lovin' those bread trays

Ag/Wood Shop

2011-08-27T14:58:00.009-05:00

The shop foundation is poured, insulted and back-filled due to some long work days of Bill.

We recently got the containers delivered. These are going to be the sides of the shop with a space between the two which will get framed out. Roof trusses will span the empty area between and overhand the containers to create a building.

It was pretty unnerving as the semi had to back down a portion of the driveway, back past the barn and continue down the shop road.

I've been canning and jamming.

We are also now official TV free!

New G's

2011-08-17T14:18:00.009-05:00

Sparky got some new friends.

We purchased two Allis Chalmers Model G's. These tractors were manufactured in the late 40's thru the early 50's for small farms. They have a creeper gear and the belly mounted implements allow the farmer to see exactly where the implements are in the soil. They hold their value well and are still very popular with market farmers.

I found two for sale on Craig's List in Cuba City, WI. That is only ~20 miles from the farm so we went over and took a look. We've been driving past this farm for months and watching their hoops, goats, chickens and the G's. So when we saw they were for sale we decided to pursue them. One runs fine and one doesn't run at all. Two cultivators were also included in the package. We eventually hope to convert the non-working one to an electric version.

We don't really need two more tractors, but we decided that if we don't like them or if they don't work out well for us we can always sell them.

Farm garden

2011-07-24T17:58:00.013-05:00

The garden at the farm is indeed looking good! I'm several weeks behind everyone else, but that is OK. The weed pressure isn't too bad and things look really healthy.

Winter squash in foreground, beets, onions, beans...

Calypso bean

I took a walk and enjoyed checking out the fields and planning future garlic beds. Our newest invasive is horse nettle. Not sure to how to combat that one. I'll have to spend some time online and figure it out. The areas that I cleared of burdock and thistle are looking pretty good.

New broadfork

2011-07-23T16:01:00.006-05:00

We have two new farm implements.

New trailer for hauling (hauling stuff!)

And we decided to experiment with a broadfork. Thanks to Barb for telling us about Gulland Forge. A-used-to-be-in Wisconsin based (now Kentucky) forger and artisan who handcrafts broadforks.

Bill is making great progress on the new ReAdapted shop. Sparky is running again too thanks to a new starter.

In garlic news, we've completed our garlic seed bank purchases. Our MOSA organic inspector called last week and they will be out to inspect in mid-October.

Church/home garden is looking great. I think I've finally gotten ahead of the quack grass this year thanks to the wheel hoe with the tine cultivator attachment. 3 passes have really cleared out the majority of the quack! This is the best looking garden I've had in years. (Although Bill tells me the farm garden is even better! I haven't been there in a couple of weeks; will be there tomorrow.)

Mustard greens, turnips, chard

Broken tractor

2011-07-12T08:03:00.008-05:00

Sparky's starter stopped starting. He is stalled up near Field #1. Bill is on the quest to find a starter that works on a 60 year old tractor - not an easy task.

Garden is looking good. I spent Saturday weeding and enjoying the farm solo as Bill was at prairie plant nursery for a field day with one of his landscape groups.

Sunday was spent digging burdock and cutting blooming thistle. My efforts last year at hand control of the thistle were positive so I've continued another portion of the hillside below the feedlot.

Disc'ing and celebrating the 4th

2011-07-04T07:27:00.016-05:00

Our disc finally arrived - it was about 3 weeks later than it should have been. Bill was in Wisc and got the call that it had arrived on Fri, 6/24 in the morning. He was supposed to come home that day but opted to stay all day and disc our fields that badly needed it.

With the wise advice of our farm mentor, the plan is now to rake (i.e. with our cultivator) several times to pull the quack grass out. So we did that yesterday.

Bill did one pass and as I was standing at the field edge admiring the soil, I noticed it moving. Like something was burrowing underneath. Groundhogs. If I had a shovel with me, I could have done away with it.

We are having a real infestation of groundhogs at our farm and it is becoming quite a problem. The burrows are everywhere and we often even see them poking their heads out of the burrows. Preferring to not use poison/bait, we've opted for the old-fashioned route. Bill dug out his rifle from his childhood, dusted it off and has been target practicing.

(Yes, our High Life cans from the day before. Our 'end-of-day-good-day-of-work' celebratory beer We typically like microbrews, but on a hot summer day, there is nothing like plunging your hand in an icy cooler and coming up with a can of beer.)

As he was sighting the scope, Bill urged me to give it a try. (It just seems like the 4th of July is the appropriate time to shot a gun, right?) I've never shot a gun before and I was scared. This is an easy to handle rifle and after Bill's gun safety course (he made me repeat outloud the rules, work the safety, load it, unload it, and put it on single shot, etc.) I did it! I didn't hit the target but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't think I'll be target practicing on a regular basis, (I'd rather weed the garden). But it was good to try and I might do it again (especially if my friend Mimi comes up to do some target shooting too! :) )

This picture is for my sister-in-law. Pickles enjoying the double full screendoors at our church-house.

Field Day at Tomato Mountain Farm

2011-06-23T18:31:00.013-05:00

Last week I attended an afternoon field day at Tomato Mountain Farm. I was happy to see many of my CRAFT friends!

I took lots of notes - here are some of the highlights.

If you are going to have a commercial kitchen, a steam kettle is needed. A good one runs $8000-$9000. Don't buy a bread oven as a roaster; the BTUs aren't high enough.

Get a pH pen. pH of tomatoes should be less than4.6. You can keep this pH by sticking to a 90% tomato 10% non-tomato mixture.

The 6 seeder from Johnny's allows you to plant greens beds that look like this! (I thought that was a hoop only tool.)

The Greens Harvester from Johnny's actually works!

A couple of good green varieties: Magenta, Tropiciana (bolt tolerant!!), and Concept

Spacing of 1 x 1 on lettuce, brassicas is a-OK. Look at how beautiful this is!

Strawberries are beautiful but a big time and money suck. (Look at those hoops in the background! He has 22 hoops that are 26 x 96.)

Hoops are great for crops because it protects them from the night dew. Also keeps lettuce clean. I had such hoop-envy!

Finally - and this made a day with great info even more worthwhile. Chris plants white clover between his beds and uses a wheel hoe down the row and then mows it to keep a clean and easy-to-access corridor. This is an idea that we are going to utilize on our garlic fields/beds.

Farm and Church house Gardens are (finally!) in

2011-06-13T07:38:00.016-05:00

New bed on the southside of the hoghouse

I had trimmed down the buckwheat smother crop the day before

Decided to incorporate the buckwheat residue with the rototiller

Please note: Bill installed a new carryall on the tractor for a water bottle, phone, and a couple of tools. It is the mailbox mounted vertically below his left should behind the tail-light. It has the name of the farm owners 2 owners ago.

The tractor/rotovator are sigificantly easier than the wheel hoe!

Tomatoes and peppers were planted in bio-film

I have never had the pleasure of planting in bed prepped like this

Spoiled hay to use as weed suppression on the edges and paths

All planted!

28 tomato plants. All my varieties were mixed up this year so I just planted the healthiest looking plants.

48 pepper plants. Jimmy Nardello, Serano, Beaver Dam, Alma Paprika, Marconi Red, Thai Orange, and a doghouse blend at the end of the row.

Beans: chinese long bean, black beans, Christmas lima, tiger-eye, Cherokee trail of tears.

Onions: a bag of onion set that I got on sale. Variety unsure. Way too late to be planting onions.

Beets: Detroit red and Bull Blood

Squash: 4 hills of a variety that I saved from a fairy squash.

After the beds were prepped and I was getting ready to plant, Bill looked over at me and said, 'are you crying?' I was. I was so happy. I have never had a garden this large with soil this beautiful. I've been waiting for this day for the 5 years that we have owned our farm - and even longer than that as my Chicago yard is small and shaded.

Buttresses II

2011-06-11T18:51:00.021-05:00

These were the concrete buttresses at the beginning of the day on the Sunday of Memorial Day.

Bill and I got down into the holes and pulled the nails from the top level of the forms and manually removed the braces and the top level. We tried to pull the bottom level out with the truck on a come-along but our 2000 lbs come along broke. So we went with the tractor - as was the initial plan along - we just tried to cheat by using the truck. This spring we bought a set of hayforks; what a useful tool. In this photo, you see the hayforks along side the concrete. Using a massive, heavy-duty logging/towing chain, we attach the fork to the lower form. Work it loose slowly and then heave it out.

The holes were dug narrowly because we need to minimalize soil displacement as much as possible to not diminsh the structural integrity of the current walls. Frankly, we are worried that removing more soil than this could result in further structural loss of the walls.

Top level is gone - Bill is attaching the logging chain

This photo shows how embedded this form is

Sparky pulls out the form in no time flat

(Yes, our tractor's name is Sparky)

No more forms -

of the 12 lower ones; we only have 1 that requires significant repair;

they all came out clean and ready for re-use

Me - at the end of the day. Having the time of my life.

Book

2011-06-11T16:29:00.003-05:00

I finished This Life is in Your Hands. It was interesting, fascinating, tragic and horrifying. I enjoyed the writing and probably felt kinship to Melissa Coleman because we are the same age. I finished it on the Chicago El with tears running down my cheeks.

I recommend it.

By the way, Eliot had 4 children.

Book

2011-06-06T07:37:00.003-05:00

I'm reading This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman. Daughter of Eliot Coleman. My favorite part so far - the Nearings sold 60 acres of their land to to Eliot for $2,000. As I am a back-to-the-lander/homesteader wannabe, this is a really fascinating read. The snippets of life with the Nearings as neighbors is an added bonus.

Comments

2011-06-06T07:36:00.000-05:00

Changed my Comment moderation so anyone can comment.

I won 3rd place in a dirty girl contest

2011-06-01T18:22:00.006-05:00

Not that kind of dirty!

Dirty as in soil, manure, mud, sweat, or oil from a day of hard work. Many of the women that read this blog know what I'm talking about (Barb, Penny, Judy, Gribbey, Jenna Gayle come to mind!)

Check out Rosie's Workwear for Women. Rosie's is workwear designed for women that is also cute and pays homage to Rosie the Riveter from WWII. They sponsored a contest for the Dirtiest Rosie and I submitted a photo after our work day on Sunday. We were stripping the concrete forms in the rain.

Go to the facebook site of Rosie's - I'm on the photo wall in the yellow jacket (or the entry on 5/31/11).

I won a free t-shirt.

Concrete - a week later than expected

2011-05-29T17:15:00.010-05:00

The excavation didn't go quite as expected last week (rocky rocky rocky soil) and required a lot more hand work by Bill. He had to further hand-dig out the 4 sections to set up the forms.

Saturday of Memorial Day brought 5.5 yards of concrete.

Bill is one hell of a carpenter, but concrete is h-e-a-v-y and has lots of mass. Unless you deal with concrete every day, you tend to underestimate it's strength.

We had a couple of blow outs. Look at the right corner - the concrete split the corner out.

This form split on the left side.

Overall, we had just barely enough - even though Bill ordered extra - to make it to the top of the forms. We had to do some "concrete rearranging" - i.e. also known as shoveling from one form into a wheel barrow and transferring to a different one that is low.

A finished form full of concrete

I was asleep by 8:30 that night. It was still light outside.

Concrete is coming...

2011-05-19T12:49:00.001-05:00

A neighbor at our church/house has access to a small backhoe so we've hired him to do the excavation for the new buttress supports for the barn. Bill will then build the forms. Concrete truck comes on Saturday!

Plowed fields

2011-05-11T20:46:00.000-05:00

This is the field that has seasonal creekbed spill and fines from last year when the culvert was replaced. It is topped with compost. We will put our over 100 pepper plants here. First, since my seedlings are late this year - a quick smother crop of buckwheat that will get incorporated in mid June when we plan to plant. (Late... I know...)

When Bill pulled a tarp off of a compost pile he found 5 more Milk Snakes.

This is Field 1 and Field 2. Bill plowed today. He also got #3 done. I can't wait to see them - I go up on Thurs night but won't get out there until Saturday.

Milk Snake!

2011-05-07T14:22:00.006-05:00

While doing some clean up last weekend at the farm, we happened upon a snake sunning itself in the driveway.

It was about 3 feet long, no rattler on the tail

Round eyes

Didn't strike at the stick

After some internet research, we've decided that it is a Milk Snake. Milk Snakes are often mistaken for a Bull Snake (which is an endangered snake) as they have somewhat similar markings. Milk Snakes' markings are very saddle shaped with a dark outline. They have round eyes - I learned that round eyed snakes are not poisonous. They don't have a rattler, but they often shake their tail when disturbed and it can sound like a rattle if there is leaf litter nearby. Preferred living conditions are valleys and farmsteads where there is water (our farms perfect!). They eat mice, voles and insects and kill their prey via squeezing it until it can no longer breathe a/k/a constricting. Once their prey is dead they swallow it whole. They lay cluches of eggs numbering from 6 to 20.

Farmers gave these snakes their name as they believed that the snakes snuck into barns at night to steal milk; when actually the snake was more likely to be after the rodents associated with milking barns. Unfortunately this belief resulted in many of these snakes being killed.

Milk Snakes are also very popular with the snake-as-pet population. We were happy to see it - especially once we discovered it ate rodents! - but we certainly won't be inviting in the house.

It spent about 10 mins sunning itself on the driveway and then slithered off.

Bucket remover and plowing

2011-05-06T17:55:00.015-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, Bill devised a way to get the bucket and arms off of the tractor by himself.

It is pretty nifty. Without the weight of that implement, the tractor is much easier to manuever. He can simply pull up, line up the connections, put the pins in (or out) and off he goes!

Here is a movie of some experimental plowing. We were trying different depths. After turning a row or two, we decided it was too wet.

We laid out 3 planting fields. Field 1 and Field 2 measured 80 x 100 and Field 3 is 80 x 60.

That old plow is not fooling around. We will use it respectfully on our soil. Upon turning the soil, it glistened - sandy loam! PERFECT for garlic farmers.

Yep, we installed a ROPS (Roll Over Protection System) - it is hilly there!!

1st pass

Do you have Alliumphobia?

2011-04-19T11:02:00.002-05:00

Fear of Garlic!

My Johnny's Seed calendar reminds me that today is National Garlic Day.

Celebrate with some garlic! Green garlic is available now from your food co-op or market specializing in local foods.

Bread Tray score

2011-04-14T17:21:00.004-05:00

Biking home from work earlier this week, I spied 5 bread trays outside of the dumpsters at Feed Restaurant on California Ave. in Chicago. (Bread trays as in the large, plastic, perforated trays in which bread drivers deliver bread.) I figured that I would ride home, get the car and drive back and pick them up. I rode about 3 blocks further and thought, nah, I bet I can balance those on my bike. I only had 2 bungee cords with me and it took me about 30 minutes of stretching, bungee'ing, balancing and re-do's to finally get them somewhat (ahem, stress the somewhat) secure enough for me to uncomfortably ride home. I was the recipient of lots of strange looks but we have 5 trays in which to cure our garlic as well as diverting them from the waste stream.

(Brett, the linebreak issue in blogger is back!)

No photos

2011-04-11T07:32:00.006-05:00

Bill had a productive 3 days at the farm but we left my camera cord in Wisc so I can't post pictures.

First, all of the tractor implements are up and off of the ground and on pallets in their permanent location behind the soon-to-be-built shop.

Second, he attended the township meeting for information regarding building permits and was told to go to the county office, which he did the next day. Nothing too out of the ordinary. The soon-to-be-built shop is exempt because it is ag related. The house is an addition so we just need to get a permit when it's time to build.

Back at the farm, he inserted a log into the rafter of the tractor shed that sticks out the back and acts as a lever. Using cables and a turnbuckle, he is now able to remove both the bucket and the arms of the bucket from the tractor. Easy on/off.

Farming-wise, we measured, marked off and flagged Field 1, Field 2, and Field 3. In addition, we marked off the shop footprint.

On the erosion control front, Bill planted native sumac on the large bluffside at the back of the house site. I then overseeded with the slope stabilization mix. I also raked and seeded in rye all along the current house to control erosion and to try to smother out some of the burdock.

Lastly, we hooked up the plow and gave it a try on Field 1. It worked wonderfully. We couldn't help but feel guilty about our soil microbial foodweb and we will use the plow sparingly. After about 3 passes, we deteremined that the soil was still too wet so we stopped. At least we know it works and will wait for the soil to dry out. We are going to stale seed bed Field 1 and Field 3 and green manure Field 2. We predict a summer of fighting quack in the Fields until they are established.

The cats caught a mouse at our church-house. Although we have occasionally seen evidence of mice (although usually in the fall), we had never seen one. The ladies were quite proud of their accomplishment.

Only 20 tomatoes?

2011-04-03T12:00:00.010-05:00

I started my seeds today. Looove the block maker. If you are a seed starter and don't have one do yourself a favor. While I was making blocks, Bill and I discussed starting less tomatoes this year. We thought 20 seemed about right. However, after planting I ended up with 36. Since there are over 70 pepper plants on the list, you can see we are experimenting with the 3 Flat Acres dried peppers and blends this fall.

My starter mix is a concoction of worm castings, vermiculite, coconut coir and a bit of organic potting soil

This little implement is amazing!

I use my mother-in-law's old baking pans to start seeds

I sprinkle No-Damp Off on the topUnder the lights they go

Here is the list of what I planted:

PEPPERS

Jalapeno - 5

Chile de Comida - 5

Romanian Hot Pepper - 5

Paprika - 12

Czeck Black - 12

Mini Sweet Bell - 12

Quadrato Dasti Giallo - 15

Hot Portugal Pepper - 10

TOMATOES

Green Zebra Tomato - 5

Yellow Brandywine - 5

Principe Borghese - 6

Purple Russian - 6

Illini Star - 14

GREENS

Green Chard - 5

Yellow Chard - 5

Red Chard -5

Red Ursa Kale - 5

HERBS

Summer Savory - 5

Dill - 5

Clary Sage - 5

Sorrel - 5

Fennel - 5

Basil - 10

Russian Tarragon - 5

Sweet Majoram - 5

Yesterday, in the Chicago backyard, I planted: arugula, purple mustard greens, regular mustard greens and in the cold frame some beets. Need a couple of more pepper varieties (Jimmy Nardelo - yum!), more kale and a couple different types of basil.

Slope stabilization and barn columns - Check!

2011-04-02T10:28:00.011-05:00

On Sunday, 3/27, we finished the slope stabilization/erosion blanket project. Turns out that we had only gotten about 1/3 of it done on the first day. At first we were laughing and joking about the project but by 2:30 or 3:00 we were exhausted. Bill is in incredible shape and can climb up and down hills in mud all day long - he is going to be a great farmer!

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. This was a lot of work, effort and expense - so we are hopeful that we can stablize the slope AND get ahead of the invasives. We're going to have to learn how to do a burn because there is no way we can mow this area. Additionally, Bill finished the columns in the barn and has started cabling it together. Using wire rope and come-alongs he is pulling the areas with broken columns back together. I wasn't there when he was doing it (was working at the church/house) but he said it was creaking and groaning. I think I am glad I wasn't there!

One of the new concrete footings

We are in the upper part of the barn and sliding the beam down thru a hole in the floor to rest on the footing down in the lower barn.

This is all the siding from the summer kitchen that I took down a couple of years ago

Most of the beams that you can see in this photo are new

(Great light coming thru the slats!)

Bill is standing on the scaffolding and chain sawing through one of the old oak timbers to install the new beams

Photo of the beam resting on the new footing

Farm machinery and hopeful future garlic buyer

2011-03-30T07:47:00.010-05:00

We went with the Urban Worm Girls to Family Farmed Expo in mid-March. It was a different crowd than when I've attended before in years past. The speaker was Sally Fallon, whose cookbook we have Nourishing Traditions. She is a follower of Weston A. Price Foundation. Her talk was very interesting. The crowd was definitely a little more of the Weston A Price followers; which I'm fine with, there is a lot of that diet and their beliefs that I can totally get behind. (Um, lard pie crusts? Yum! I just happen to have 2 jars of lard in my fridge.) It was a good conference and we were able to bike there so that added to the fun. We also connected with our friends at Breslin Farms and The Gentleman Farmer. Breslin Farms is selling a mountain of heirloom beans. I helped them harvest for a couple of days last fall so it was wonderful to see their beans all packaged and ready for sale. They have great things in the works for this year! Likewise, the farmers of The Gentleman Farmer are offering a CSA this year. I passed their info around at my food coop. They are trying to sell at the Logan Square Market. They are growing full-force and it is wonderful to see. Additionally, while at FF, I re-connected with Irv of Irv and Shelly's Fresh Picks. Irv spoke at our farm class and when he said, "I can never get enough garlic" it was music to our ears. I saw him at the FF dinner so I went over and introduced myself to Irv and his wife Shelly. I told them how much they influenced our business plan and we hope to sell to them in 2013. I gave him my card and he was very encouraging. The Rural Landowner's Conference last weekend in Wisc was a good experience. We re-connected with our farmer mentor and I attended a breakout session led by Barb Ingham, the food preservationist specialist of Wisc. She was great! After the conference, we went and plunked down some money on some farm implements. We never buy anything new, but in this instance, we tookthe plunge and purchased new equipment - funny enough, to run our on our 60 year old tractor. We bought a rotovator and a tine cultivator. Still to purchase are a disc, but Bill wanted to do some additional research before making that decision. The rotovator ships from Madison and the tine cultivator has to ship from the manufacturing plant in Oklahoma. (Yes, US made.) The salesperson said to us, "it's going to take 4 - 6 weeks to get the tine cultivator." I responded, "that is why we are here in March!"

Tomorrow is the end of the 1st Quarter and Bill is hard at work on our transition plans. He has been able to get a lot of the major Chicago projects well under way or completed. In addition, ReAdapted has developed a new product and he has been meeting with patent lawyers and may pursue a patent!

Slope Stabilization

2011-03-16T07:46:00.009-05:00

On Sunday, 3/13, we got the seed down along with about 500 sq yards of erosion mat. Whoa, that is hard work - much harder than I expected! I thought it would simply roll out and we'd tack it down and call it a day. Not so! We arrived at the farm at about 8:30 am so the soil was frozen. As the day warmed up, the soil melted slowly. At first it was just a little softness on the top, which made it slippery when working on a 45% slope!

There is seed in there - we used a Slope Stabilization mix from JFNew

Bill putting spreading the seed with a belly seed spreader

Rolling the erosion mat down the hill

We only got about a 1/3 done

Silt fence at the bottom

The installation, which involves hammering stabilization "pins" (5" steel dual-tines which will rust) every yard or so. I kept sliding down the slope. Bill was able to stay put on the middle of the slope but my feet would just slide down and I would end up sliding down the mud. It was warm out and it was fun to get really, really filthy.

Rural Landowner Conference

2011-03-12T14:23:00.006-06:00

On Saturday, March 26th there is a rural landowner conference in Grant County. We have two friends that will be presenting one of the breakouts. (Driftless Market and Two Onion Farm) Other items of interest - Barbara Ingham, the guru of food preservation. A very exciting opportunity that we are looking forward to - especially since we missed MOSES this year. http://grant.uwex.edu/files/2010/12/RLC-Brochure.pdf Our MOSA application has been mailed! It is very exciting to be pursuing organic certification. We are in Wisc and tomorrow we try some frost seeding of a slope stabilization native mix. We don't want to re-create this previous mistake. Over the seed we are installing an erosion blanket. It will be a long hard day of work - can't wait! And the Family Farmed Expo is next weekend. Hope to make some connections for future sales.

Prez Day in Wisc

2011-02-16T20:42:00.003-06:00

We are in Wisc for an extended weekend. Bill was up here solo a few weeks back -during the Chicago blizzard. I was supposed to join him after a few days but I couldn't get the car out of our garage for several days. I also spent a night without heat. The electricity cut off about 10:00 pm on Tues of the blizzard and came back on at 10 am the next morning. I was glad it was overnight as being in bed with lots of covers and two cats is OK with no power. So that Wisc visit was cut short as Bill came home early instead of me joining him.

We are up until Monday now. We anticipate some fierce barn work: cabeling the structure together, constucting the columns for which we poured concrete footings for in December, having someone pick up the tractor and fix the oil leak, brakes and hydraulics. We may place an order for a rotovator, disc harrow and a cultivator while here as well.

Additionally, we placed one of our many garlic seed orders last week and it added up to 50 lbs of garlic. We need about 30 more lbs.

We also now have wi-fi at our church-home. I am attempting to connect my work laptop right now - having some issues so I'm waiting for the helpdesk to call back - but I am hopeful that this is the beginning of the ability to do some working remotely this summer.

Hard at work on the farm planning

2011-01-23T13:00:00.011-06:00

We spent our vacation between Christmas and New Year's working - except this time our tools were laptops, spreadsheets, calendars and pencils. Bill put together a spreadsheet with all of the tasks that we need to accomplish prior to our planned move in March 2012. Each project has its own spreadsheet: our buildings in Chicago, our church/weekend home, an agriculture plan, a new shop building at the farm, and the farmhouse renovation. Each sheet has a goal (i.e. "all remaining improvements" (for the Chicago buildings) or "plant crops", or "remodel house to occupy"). From there each sheet has a list of the tasks to accomplish that goal (i.e. excavation of footings, or drywall back hall, or remodel 3rd floor apartment kitchen, or repair sunken fence post and water meter well, or finalize crop and site layout, etc.). We sat down and prioritized each task into timing (1Q11 or 2Q11 - what can I say? I work at a bank!) and then plotted each task onto a main calendar.

And we worked out the specifics on our crop layouts using measurements of the wheel distance of the tractor and laid out the fields, beds and rows. We've chosen varieties of garlic and begun plotting the actual planting on paper. I also rebuilt our website (http://www.3flatacres.com/ - check it out to see our garlic varieties). We've also made some equipment decisions on what we need to buy as well as cover crop varieties. Come spring, we'll break up about 1/2 acre and cover with a spring manure mix and innoculant from Johnny's and turn under mid-summer. We'll replant with buckwheat and turn under before the garlic gets planted in October.

Additionally, we contacted an organic certifying agency and have started working on the paperwork to obtain organic certification.

Also while we were on vacation, we spent a lot of time at the farm just walking the ground. I think that I never got to walk to the side pastures the whole summer because we were always so busy working on the barn. We also took advantage of the snowcover and sprayed out the footprint of the new construction and sprayed the interior of the old house to see where the commercial kitchen, garage, walk-in cooler, laundry, stairway up/down, etc., will go to make sure it flows effeciently and to our liking.

I feel like we have learned a lot about our farm plan in the past month. Additionally, having everything that we need to accomplish prior to the move written down on spreadsheet and calendar has really cemented the plan and we feel more organized and productive. We've restarted our weekly farm meetings with a to-do list and goals to accomplish from week to week. Managing this is easier if it is done one step at a time, week to week.

New blogs I've found

2010-12-17T09:52:00.004-06:00

I'm exciting to have found several new blogs of folks that are planning relocation to SW Wisc or already have. (Barb and Penny, you may find these folks of interest too!)

http://digginginthedriftless.wordpress.com/

http://mintleaftea.wordpress.com/

http://www.driftlessappetite.com/

SW Wisconsin is becoming a hotbed of sustainable agriculture!

Pink Sunrise

2010-12-09T07:30:00.002-06:00

Standing on the 'L' platform this morning, I saw a beautiful sunrise. (Sorry for the terrible photo.)

It begins for real

2010-12-08T16:22:00.012-06:00

Bill has turned his steely-eyed attention to the farm with a vengeance!

Last week our little farm saw the excavator who prepared the new home site and trucked the soil to the new workshop area as well as trenching the driveway.

We also had an electrician remove our overhead lines and bury them in the driveway trench. New 220 service to the barn. New panel in the small house. The rural electric coop also came out to reconnect our service.

Additionally, a concrete truck with 4 yards of concrete. Got the footings poured, reinforced the culvert and the hoghouse. We did not get the buttresses done.

As we pulled out of the driveway on Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. - it started to snow. We finished with no time to spare.

We have a future home site!

Small house with cleared future home site on the right

New homesite tucks into the bluff - we hit stone

Excavating the driveway to bury the electrical lines

Concrete truck

Poured excess concrete on the high side of the culvert to control some erosion

Additional extra concrete was poured around the stone foundation of the hoghouse - this area occasionally has high water (isn't it funny that I have never noticed that bad paint job until I looked at this photo?)

Trenching the driveway

Trench for the electric

Scenic Rivers arrives (our electric co-op). They reconnected our electric service to our new box and panel

New service

No more overhead lines!

The next morning it looked like this -

More Barn photos

2010-11-26T09:33:00.004-06:00

The frames are built and just waiting for the expeditor to finish (by that I mean start) so he can dig the large holes for the barn buttresses. Hopefully he will be out the week of 11/29.

Here I am jackhammering (I found this and a lot of other photos on Bill's camera), taken in July. Working on that barn makes me happy!

Friday is Buy Nothing Day

2010-11-24T12:51:00.002-06:00

The day after the high holy day of local food (as El calls it) is the annual protest against Black Friday. This is one holiday that I do celebrate wholeheartedly....

Stay home. Bake bread. Read a book. Whatever you do - no shopping.

S510 (The Food Safety Modernization Act) up for vote

2010-11-23T09:08:00.005-06:00

S.510 is moving forward and thankfully, the Tester-Hagan amendment is included (albeit somewhat compromised). The final vote on the bill is delayed until 11/29.

Big agribusiness has supported S.510 since its inception. (Illinois Senator Durbin authored S.510; sigh...) I believe that this bill will further consolidate large agribusiness and make it even more difficult (really? is that possible?) for small producers to compete in the market place. Once the Senate agreed to include the amendment to the bill - large agribusiness came out swinging. During these few days between the agreement on the amendment and the final vote, you can bet that the agribusiness lobbyists are working hard to pull or further dilute the amendment.

Best case scenario, in my opinion, would be no passage of this bill; but obviously that is not going to happen because agri-money talks. As a future small producer and proponent for small farms, the best we can hope for is that the amendment is included - not pulled from the bill.

Grist.org has a good debate on the bill here.

Barn Progress Photos

2010-11-23T08:32:00.011-06:00

Lally column holding up the floor

3 columns. By jacking up the floor, Bill was able to install a new header over the window

New header

When cleaning off some stone, Bill found initials in a stone

D.D. 1909

Lally Column in the middle of the feedlot door - half of this door is going to be covered by the new buttress

Interior, along the back wall. This will be framed and concrete poured between the framing and the old stone.

Barn Progress

2010-11-19T07:34:00.003-06:00

Bill spent 3 days earlier this week working at the farm. I will post pictures when I get them off of his camera. He was able to finish building the concrete forms and was able to lift part of the barn floor (with lally columns) and insert a new header over a couple of the windows and a door. In doing so he also found another place where the stone wall has split, so by putting the new header in it will alleviate some of the pressure on the split wall. He repaired some of the stone and did some tuckpointing as well. We are now just waiting for the excavator to show up. Until he clears the feedlot area for the buttresses, we can't pour the concrete new footings and buttresses. The weather window gets smaller and smaller.... I still hope we can get it done this year, but I am beginning to fear that we have to wait until spring.

In other news we finished construction on and rented our vacant apartment (in Chicago)! What a relief both work-wise and financially. Our new tenant moves in at the end of November which is exactly one year after the previous tenants moved out. This was a huge time and money-suck this year but it increased the value of the building and will cut down on the number of 'fix-it calls' that Bill was fielding from that apartment. We ended up doing an almost-gut rehab so everything is new. It looks beautiful and I rented it to the 2nd person I showed it to.

Wisc weekend

2010-11-10T08:01:00.003-06:00

I'm off to Wisc tomorrow as it is Veteran's Day so I have the day off (gotta love those bank holidays). I am taking my work laptop and am going to try my first day of working remotely from the local coffee shop in Platteville, WI. I hope this is successful! I have tried it before, albeit on a Saturday, and was able to connect and had access to my work related content so I am hopeful that it will be seamless. Bill will join me on Friday night and while I leave on Sunday to come back to work, he is going to stay and work several days at the farm while the excavator begins.

And we have another pet to bury at the farm. Our cat Gracie was put to rest last week. This is our 4th pet euthansia in four years. For the record, it does NOT get easier. However, it was time and we wanted her to go while she still had some of her dignity. She was always Bill's cat as they had a special bond, and was named after the Gracie family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fame. He adopted her 2 weeks after we met. She was the end of an era. The last of our original pets.

Sunchoke Bisque

2010-11-08T20:02:00.008-06:00

Sunchokes are one our favorites - also known as Jerusalem artichokes, but they are not in the artichoke family and they are not from Jerusalem. They are related to the sunflower and indeed their growing habit is very like a sunflower - they have thick stalks and small sunflower-like flowers. They are beautiful, easy to grow (especially from 3.5 hours away!) and a native. Their taste is nutty and the texture is similar to a jicama. Although considered mildly invasive as once they are planted, it is difficult to eradicate them. I don't understand why one would want to - they are delicious!

I have a large patch of them at the Church-yard. Every fall I dig them up and we feast on sunchokes for weeks. Typically we eat them raw but last week I tried a soup; compliments of one of my heros, Deborah Madison.

Sunchoke Bisque
From Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors

1# sunchokes
1 small onion
3 small red potatoes (I substituted 1 large sweet potato)
1 celery rib (I omitted)
2 T sunflower seed oil (highly recommend Smude Oil for those in the midwest - thanks to Brett for mentioned them in his posts)
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 C vegetable stock, chicken stock or water
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 bay leaves
Milk or cream for thinning
½ C croutons, crisped in the oven
Roasted hazelnut or pumpkin seed oil (I omitted this and topped with a dollop of plain yogurt)

1. Wash all the veggies, then chop into ½ inch chunks. Don’t bother to peel the sunchokes.
2. Heat the oil in a soup pot, add the veggies and sauté over high heating, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 10 mins. Add the garlic during the last few minutes. Pour in the stock. Add 1 ½ t salt and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 25 mins.
3. Cool briefly, then puree until perfectly smooth (love those stick blenders!). Return the soup to the stove and add enough milk or cream to think it to the desired consistency. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Serve with a few croutons in each bowl and the oil drizzled in a thin stream over the top.

Iowa disappoints...

2010-11-03T12:30:00.004-05:00

I was sorry to hear that Francis Thicke was not successful in his attempt to unseat the Iowa incumbent Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

Francis is an organic dairy farmer, holds a Ph.D. in agronomy with a soil science specialty, and is an educator. He ran a positive campaign and believes in local foods, land stewardship, CAFO reform, revitalization of rural economies and alternative energy.

Bill Northey is backed by Monsanto's money.

The Mother of All Cold Frames

2010-10-27T07:26:00.020-05:00

Can a coldframe be art? A sculpture? A thing of beauty? I think mine might qualify for them all. After all, the tagline/motto of 3 Flat Acres is blending food and farm into work - life - art

I've been asking Bill to built me a coldframe for a couple of years - every since I read Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest (*El's recommendation - see footnote for more about El). It took a while but it was well worth the wait. I should note that this is in our Chicago backyard.

The wall frames are constructed with scraps from a ReAdapted project from Black Locust which was sustainably harvested from Western IL near Galena. Black Locust is one of the hardest (and heaviest!) woods to work with. It is similar to Osage Orange and can last 100 years as fenceposts without treatment. The coldframe walls come apart with screws and wingnuts to allow it to be disassembled easily. The glass tops are made from old windows from my friend Mimi's house. She gave us the windows a couple of years ago and we left them outside in the weather on top of a sheet of plastic to allow the weather to do the majority of the paint removal (amazing what rain, sun and freeze thaw can do for you if you are patient). These are old windows and had years of paint (yes, lead paint). The paint flecked off onto the plastic so we were able to safely dispose of the paint chips. Bill then removed the glass from the frames, further removed any remaining paint, sealed them with an environmental soy-based sealer, reworked the frame, and then reinstalled the glass. He sanded down the low side of the window frame to allow water to run off. There are two eyehooks on the backside which, using the chain from the old windows (these are old double-hung windows), can hook on to the eyehooks to keep the frames propped open.

hard to see, but this photo shows the low side of the glass sanded down to allow water run off

I set it up about 10 days ago, and taking some lettuces that had gone to seed, shook the seed onto the soil, topped with a tray of worm compost and it has sprouted already. I situated the set up on top of a couple of kale plants and beet plants (we are obsessed with beet greens) that we have been eating from all summer, and transplanted some chard inside. Oh and sorrel is in there too!

beets in the foreground (sorry about the glare)

We'll see if it can keep us in greens all winter!

* I realize that I quote El over at Fast Grow the Weeds a lot. She is my inspiration on many projects and she is the absolute locavore and lover of real food. If you don't read her blog, please pop over and visit her. The post on eating live foods almost brought me to tears.

Progress!

2010-10-26T09:43:00.010-05:00

The large spruce is down. It really looks and feels different around the existing house. Bill also felled the remaining black walnuts (sad, but had to be done) and I finished taking down the fence between the pasture and the house. Compliments of the spruce, we have some amazing logs that we are going to have milled and use for stair treads, cabinets, etc in the new house. Bill counted the rings and estimates that the tree was about 105 years old. We also cleared the downed black walnuts into a staging area in piles of “future firewood” and “ReAdapted project material” as well as getting all of the brush stacked in a burn pile. (Although now that Bill is reading about Rob's delightful endeavors over at One Straw I bet we chip it instead of burning it! I envision our next purchase will be a chipper that goes on the tractor PTO.)

Big tree behind the house is gone!

Note the stump - it feels so open now

Black Walnuts are down at the future home site

Some of the Black Walnut logs - future ReAdapted projects?

Additionally, we met with a local electrical contractor who is going to take down all of our overhead electrical lines and bury them. The timing works well since soon (hopefully) next week, the excavator is coming to excavate around the house, excavate the new home site, berm up areas to direct watershed from the back hill and install another culvert to direct water away from the homesite. Although we don’t envision starting construction for another two years, we need to know and understand how this watershed re-direction is going to work before we build a new house.

Bury those overhead lines - some of them are bare wire

close up of the spruce stump

Spruce tops

13 ft lengths; one is 38" and clear

with the chain saw for scale (obviously, this chain saw wasn't used to cut them down!)

We also got a pallet full of framing materials delivered for the barn while we were there. We are moving ahead full-steam to try to frame and pour concrete footings and reinforcements before it gets too cold this fall. Bill built about ½ of the frames needed for the buttresses and the back wall framing.

Pile of the frames

We hope to go back either the 1st or 2nd week of Nov for an extended period. The clock is ticking on the weather and our concrete pour window is getting smaller every day.

Finished up the jalapenos

2010-10-18T07:27:00.006-05:00

Bill said to me Sunday morning over coffee, let's do some canning today. Music to my ears!

We finished up the remaining jalapenos from my earlier jalapeno canning fun. We got 9 1/2 quarts of escabeche. Escabeche is a Mexican pickled jalapeno mix. We follow Rick Bayless' recipe from Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking... Essentially it is a mix of jalapenos, garlic, carrots and cauliflower in a vinegary oregano brine. We typically use serranos instead of jalapenos, but since we were overflowing in jalapenos this year...

Brown the garlic in oil for 3 minutes

Carrots. Unfortunately, from the produce market, not the farmer's market.

Filling the jars

Into the canner

Waiting for the ping. See the cauliflower, carrots and garlic?

Additionally, we roasted 3 tin foil trays of green tomatoes that I brought home from our Wisc garden last weekend and made 12 more pints of roasted green salsa. Roasting green tomatoes on a hot grill brings out the sugars and makes them sweet and juicy.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished product.

I think we are set for spicy food in jars for this winter!

Tree coming down

2010-10-15T08:37:00.009-05:00

We are having a tree removed from the farm. The large spruce behind the house. It is way too large for Bill to remove so we hired someone.

I love this tree and we tried to save it. But frankly, it is way too large for the space it is in. Additionally, since we are designing passive solar into our plans and this non-deciduous tree is on the south side of the house, it is coming down.

We are saving the wood and going to have it milled into board lengths for use as stair treads and perhaps cabinets.

Some of the smaller trees between the house and the red building (which is now gone) are also coming down

It is being cut today. It sure will look different when we go up next time.

Beet burger recipe

2010-10-13T16:41:00.004-05:00

Adapted from Farmer John's Cookbook - The Real Dirt on Vegetables

Baked Beet-and-Carrot Burgers (except I doubled the beets and omitted the carrots)

1/2 C sesame seeds (I didn't have so I skipped)
1 C sunflower seeds
2 C peeled, grated beets (peeled? No way. As I mentioned above, I doubled the beets and then added some more.)
2 C grated carrots
1/2 c minced onion
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 C cooked brown rice
1 C grated cheddar cheese (I skipped this because the cheese gets lost amongst the beets and we prefer the cheese melted on top of the burger before serving)
1/2 C vegetable oil (I think I used a combination of vegetable and olive oil)
1/2 C finely chopped fresh parsley (I can't remember what I used, but I didn't have enough parsley so I probably used beet greens or chard)
3 T flour
2 T tamari
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 t cayenne pepper (I used red pepper flakes)

Brown sesame seeds in dry skillet until fragrant, about 3 to 5 mins. Remove from heat immediately. Repeat process with sunflower seeds.

Combine the beets, carrots and onion in a large bowl. Stir in the toasted seeds, eggs, rice, cheese and then the remaining ingredients. Mix until well combined (use your hands).

Shape (again with your hands) into 12 patties (we actually do more of a hot dog shape as they fit better on baguettes or on pitas) and freeze.

To bake: preheat oven to 350. Lightly coat a baking sheet with butter. Bake until brown around the edges and fragrant; about 20 minutes (depends upon the size of your patties). Not necessary to turn them over unless they are really large or you like them brown on both sides. Melt a piece of sharp cheddar on top and serve alone or on a bun.

Enjoy.

As you can tell from my substitutions, this is an extremely forgiving recipe. Feel free to add according to your whims.

Cannin'

2010-10-13T06:58:00.008-05:00

I've been canning.

I got a bunch of beautiful tomatoes from my friends and fellow farmers at The Gentleman Farmer. They canned up beautifully. I have 24 quarts. Loving my pressure canner El! :)

And a couple of weeks ago, I spent a day helping my friend Molly at Breslin Farms. We harvested beets for the Dill Pickle Food Coop and she gave me the 'rejects' aka 'the ugly beets.' You know - the ones that people in the store won't buy because they are misshappen or have insect/pest damage. She gave me all of the rejects - and a beautiful bunch also which we ate fresh. I processed all of the ugly beets into beet burgers and froze about 20 of them. That is 10 quick weeknight meals for Bill and me.

See - a little misshapen. OK with me...

In the food processor

Into the big bowl. Add some eggs, ww flour, herbs, nuts.

I also purchased about a half bushel of jalapenos from a farmer at the Independence Park Farmer's Market where the Urban Worm Girl sets up every other week. (note to self: a half bushel of jalapenos is a lot of jalapenos!) I made 15 pints of bread and butter jalapenos, 12 half pints of pepper jelly and 4 half pints of peach/jalapeno jam.

Cut up and chillin' in an ice bath (yes, I wore gloves)

Lovely red onion from Breslin Farms

In the pot

Vinegar-y and look at the peppercorns!

Resting and waiting for the ping

The peach/jalapeno is in the middle. I used peaches from my parent's neighbor's tree

I only used about 1/2 of the jalapenos. The can jam over at Tigress is using chiles in October so I might have to wait for that round up to get some additional ideas!

Stateline Farm Beginnings Farmer Training Program

2010-09-29T13:37:00.001-05:00

We've graduated!

http://www.learngrowconnect.org/node/2811

Honestly, this was one of the best experiences of my adult life. I certainly learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about running a small business. I was and continue to be challenged by an extraordinary group of passionate folks. I feel lucky to be a small part of this agricultural renaissance.

Barn Progress

2010-09-11T08:56:00.009-05:00

Gotta save this old barn

We have ramped up our efforts on saving the barn. The angle of this photo doesn't show the "sway" that is in the ridgeline of the barn, however, it does show how this barn is built into the hillside. By walking up the trail to the left, up behind the left side of this photo, you can enter the top (haymow) of the barn. There are two entrances to the lower portion: through the milk house (the little white portion at the front of the building) or via a sliding large door in the feedlot (on the right).

The interior - taken while standing in the milkhouse

The barn swayback problem is two-fold. First, the back (built into the wall side) is limestone and it is deteriorating. Secondly, many of the large supports are resting on spans that have rotted and are being propped up with a collection of old car jacks and cinder blocks. Before we can repair the back wall, we need to restabilize the support of the barn. To that end, we are breaking open portions of the barn floor to pour new footings for new supports to allow us to jack up the barn, straighten it, and then repair the back wall. Instead of trying to repair the old limestone, we are going to build a form and pour concrete over the stone. Oh, and we need a new roof too. Yikes.

See photos of the some of the framing stabilization (and the state of the limestone) that we did earlier this year here.

So we are in this project for real now.

Bill is scoring with the concrete saw

After scoring, we have an 18" square to jackhammer out.

Bill recently purchased a jackhammer. (I know....) It has proven to be invaluable for this project and small enough (less than 75 lbs) so I am able to also use it.

Bill is jackhammering inside one of the holes to break up stone inside the hole.

This is only about 20" - we need to continue to 42".

I purchased a new pair of gloves in July from my friends Ann and Liz at Green Heron Tools, which sells farming and work gear for women. This is the type of project that involves digging by hand - literally pulling out the gravel and stone by hand. All of this stone work has worn out the fingertips so I've got to get a new pair. I love the message on these gloves - Strong Women Building A Gentle World. When I am frustrated and tired it is very inspirational to me.

Pressure canning

2010-09-02T07:42:00.004-05:00

I finally overcame my awe and fear of my new pressure canner and fired it up. After this, I think I can retire my water bath canner. El has posted often that she uses her pressure canner for all canning needs and now I can see why. It seems to be more energy efficient - heating 1.5 inches of water to boiling takes much less energy than a entire waterbath kettle full of water, and it puts off less heat as the canner is covered. It is a bit intimidating as it seems like it might/could explode, but we certainly bought a really safe one that is made in Wisconsin (El's recommendation).

I made a roasted tomato soup and I was able to get 5 quarts canned. Next time, I will do a lot more, although I had run out of tomatoes. I used a combination of red, yellow and even a couple of Green Zebras and it really was a lovely orange color.

Straining the soup

Hot outta the canner

Come January, this will be a welcome hot meal.

It's a big canner for sure, can fit two layers of jars

Switchgrass as Mulch - CRAFT Field Day

2010-08-31T13:35:00.003-05:00

I attended a CRAFT field day yesterday comparing mulches. Scotch Hill Farm in Brodhead, WI received a SARE Grant to study three different types of mulch: oat straw, wheat straw and switchgrass.

The farmers have planted a 4.5 acre field in switchgrass, with the seed being the correct genetically native species for that county/area (donated by Applied Ecological). During the first year, the farmers should mow 2 to 3 times and then burn in the fall or spring. The Scotch Hill farmers have only mowed once, but when we visited their switchgrass field - all was not lost, there was quite a bit of switchgrass.

One of the many benefits of using switchgrass is that it doesn't require yearly planting. Once you get a switchgrass field established; it can last more than 10 years, supplying you with switchgrass straw for mulching and livestock bedding. Once establisheed, it forms a native planting root mat which keeps other plantings (i.e. invasives) from growing. Also, you can cut/bale it in November instead of July or August when oat and/or wheat need to be cut and baled. This is a huge advantage for market growers who obviously are pretty busy during July and August.

Their switchgrass field had been in corn. It was chopped as low as possible and disc'd. Immediately before planting it was disc'd again and then the switchgrass was planted with a seed-drill. These farmers worked closely with the DNR and in fact, were able to borrow the DNR's seed-drill. Frost seeding also works well for switchgrass.

The field day participants also viewed some of the planting fields that were mulched with the 3 different types. They had a crop failure of their heirloom brussels sprouts. The ones with wheat and oat straw were quite stricken - those with switchgrass mulch were not as bad. The switchgrass mulch was still readily apparent and the weed barrier was much better than the oat or straw. Switchgrass breaks down slower allowing for better weed suppression. Oat and straw and also harbor mold and rust which when used as mulch can transfer the infection to the crop. (Barb, you were right!)

Scotch Hill Farm strives to grow all of their inputs needed for their livestock. They have 10 acres in hay and 5 in switchgrass. They raise 10 ewes for meat and wool and 12 goats for goat's milk; along with 75-100 chickens.

Flood in late July

2010-08-25T17:27:00.006-05:00

We took a long weekend in late July and were in Wisconsin during 4 days of lots of rain.

Water in the seasonal creek - we were so happy to have our new culvert!

We had spent two days (Thurs and Fri) cleaning out the root cellar of the old farmhouse. On Saturday, Bill was planning on installing a sump-pump and a dehumidifier. Mother Nature had a different plan. It rained about 5" on Friday night - after two days of multiple inches) and the watershed off of the back bluff/hillside behind the farmhouse shed water straight off the hill and right into the root cellar. We think the water was up 5' and flowing out the root cellar window.

Bill surveying the amount of water and how to engineer our way out of this one...

Ick. This is the root cellar. You can see the window in the back that water flowed out. An old water heater (round object in the foreground), a non-working furnace on the right back, and our brand new pressure tank (blue floating object). This is about 18" of water.

During this trip, I also started on the kitchen demolition. This photo shows the kitchen in the old farmhouse before it met me.

After me. I pulled out all of the cabinets, the sink and the paneling and fake walls.

And look at this. Terribly ugly paneling. I pulled it off and ....

Oh my - there is a door! This is the original front door of the farmhouse. We are going to salvage it and use it as an interior door in the new house.

This next photo is for my sister-in-law S.M., the cat lady.

Farming in 1871

2010-08-17T08:08:00.004-05:00

Farming is healthy and moral and respectable and in the long run may become profitable.
- Chase County (Kansas) Leader, March 6, 1871

I am reading a great book: Harvest: an anthology of farm writing edited by Wheeler McMillen

Published in 1964, this is an anthology of writing that concern farming in America. It contains excerpts of writings of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Captain John Smith, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson and others. It is quite a fascinating read! George Washington writes about his sheep and cover crops!!

Wisc Harvest - and Pickles comes home today!

2010-08-16T08:25:00.005-05:00

We were in Wisc from Wed afternoon through Sunday. It was hot, hot, hot.

We worked with our farm mentors on Thursday for a harvest day experience. (Did I mention it was hot?!?!) We harvested lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes (Sun-Gold, yellow-minis, slicers, heirlooms). It was good for us to see the assembly line way that these farmers manage their harvest. The packing crates, the wash station, the immediate cool down to remove the heat from the field. All stuff I've read about but great to see in action. We continue to be impressed by the organization, attention to detail, and high standards of our farm mentors. We learned a lot.

We spent Fri and Sat working at our farm. I will post more about that later.

Pickles is on the mend and comes home today. She bounced back well and I think, as Jena suspected, that she had a vaccine reaction instead of true distemper. Our problem now is introducing her to the two at home as we are leaving again on Wednesday for a long weekend of relaxation in northern Wisc. (No work! yea!) This leaves us very little time to get all 3 accustomed to one another before we leave. Depending on how it goes, we may need to board Pickles again.

Feline Panleukopenia Virus (FPV) aka Feline Distemper

2010-08-10T07:44:00.003-05:00

Initially our veterinarian thought Pickles was suffering from a mild case of dehydration. Upon further symptoms and tests, she has been diagnosed with feline distemper and given a rate of survival of 40%. Today and tomorrow are the critical days and we will be able to tell if she is responding to treatment or not.

FPV is in the same viral family as canine parvo. It is highly contagious and a very stable virus in the environment. I have read that it can last for years at room temperature and is highly resistant to most cleaners except bleach. Most all cats have been exposed to feline distemper in their lives due to the resistance of the virus - fortunately, the killed FPV vaccination is remarkably effective at protecting against the disease. (Side note: How did I do research before the internet?!?) Pickles had her first vaccination on Friday. I did ask if perhaps we could be seeing a reaction similar to the disease from the vaccination (similar to when humans get a flu vaccine and have mild flu symptoms); he didn't think so.

Pickles had been living in our bathroom so I have bleached that room. Thankfully we hadn't introduced her to Gracie and Georgie yet, however, the transmission of this virus can occur on hands, shoes, etc.

I guess this is part of the deal when you pick up strays. I certainly wasn't expecting this (I'm sure no one ever is!).

New addition

2010-08-09T07:58:00.002-05:00

I found a kitten on Thursday. We have decided to keep her. We weren't really in the market for a new cat (we have two); we were considering a dog. On Thursday I was told that the dog that we were interested in wasn't a good fit for us (she needed hip surgery and our lifestyle and 2nd floor Chicago apartment was too much activity). That very same day I found this little one crying outside.

Meet Pickles. She is approximately 8 weeks old.

Book Review

2010-08-04T07:43:00.002-05:00

Excerpt from: The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food by Ben Hewitt

This is a community steeped in agrarian values and skills, and it plies those values and skills on an endowment of fertile soil.

and

To engage in a local food system is to assume a level of responsibility for the very thing that keeps you alive. If you're a producer, you assume that responsibility for yourself and your customers. If you're a merchant, you assume the responsibility of connecting farmer and consumer and of ensuring that each walks away from the transaction the better for it. If you're a consumer, your primary responsibility isn't to yourself, but to the people who keep your sustenance trickling down its truncated supply chain. Which, conveniently enough, only ensures your continued survival.

Ben writes is a very no-nonsense style about the blue-collar town of Hardwick, VT and the influx of young agrepreneurs and the change to the community - both good and bad. I plan to attend a book discussion at Driftless Market next week on the book, local food and the current and potential impact on Platteville and the surrounding area.

Hog butchering - photo alert

2010-07-16T07:52:00.013-05:00

Skip this post if you don't want to see photos of hog butchering.

I went to my new friend Anna's house last night to watch her butcher a hog. She buys a pasture raised Berkshire hog from a small farm near where my grandma lives (western IL - and where we bought the plow). She went to pick it up from the processor yesterday and drove it back to Chicago. I went over last night after work to help her cut the two sides into primals. I learned a lot about cooking the different cuts.

First we prepared her workspace. Having a towel to set the knives on keeps them all in one place - especially since we were both in flipflops. We also wiped down the surfaces with bleach water.

This is one of the full halves. It is big and heavy. It took two of us to carry it in from her car. Note the tail on the lower left.

Look at the fat underneath the skin! Anna gets her hogs with the skin on. She likes it for additional flavoring for smoking and cooking.

This shows the kidney and the white area underneath the kidney (to the left) is the lard. Anna renders her own lard. I asked if it smells bad (which is what I have read) she disagreed and said that it is fine. She soaks the kidneys in milk overnight and was going to have fried kidney today for lunch. Soaking in milk negates the urea.

This is a close up of the kidney.

The head. In years past, she hasn't always gotten the head. She cut out the tongue and is going pickle it. She is thinking about head cheese this year.

She bakes the feet, then splits them open, stuffs them with stuffing and continues additional baking.

This took the intimidation factor out of it for me. Overall, if you have a good knife, a strong stomach and a book you can figure your way around butchering. It was a great experience. I learned a ton!

Weather

2010-07-01T07:48:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago I took a solo trip to Wisc to volunteer for the morning on our mentor's farm. I wasn't able to get a head start on the traffic, so I left Chicago at 4:00 pm on a Friday in a storm. It took me almost 5 hours to get to our church/home - which is about an hour longer than it normally takes when leaving in traffic. I drove in rain the whole way. Upon arrival, I experienced weather that was different in each direction I looked.

Plow and chain harrow

2010-06-28T08:19:00.006-05:00

We were in Western IL on Saturday to attend my grandmother's 95th (!!) birthday party. I was driving down Route 92 in rural Bureau County and Bill yells out, "Ang - there is a 2 bottom plow!" It was next to a bunch of other implements - two tractors, a flatbed trailer, etc - clearly stuff for sale although there was no For Sale sign. I pulled off, turned around and we went back to check it out. Yep, a Ford 2 bottom with great plows (i.e. not too worn). We went up to the house and the older gentleman confirmed that it was for sale and it was $300. We told him we were going up the road to Walnut to the nursing home for Grandma's party and that we'd stop back afterwards. (Of course, there was a whole conversation about who my grandma is - oh, yeah, he knew my grandfather's brother and used to cut hay on his farm, etc., etc.). $300 is a great price for this plow. It is very difficult to find 2 bottom plows, especially locally. We found one in Galesburg, IL but it was closer to $600.

We stopped back, bought the plow and a chain harrow that he also had. Of course, we didn't have our truck that day so we are going back on Friday on our way to Wisc (taking the loooong scenic route) and we'll pick them up at that time.

Next implements to look for are a grain drill, flail chopper and a disc.

Will Allen of Growing Power in Chicago

2010-06-25T07:32:00.004-05:00

One of the Urban Worm Girls and I went to see Will Allen speak in Chicago last night. He was in Chicago at the 4th Presbyterian Church (the beautiful historic church that is across from the Hancock for those that are familiar with Chicago). 4th Pres is Growing Power's partner in the Chicago Lights Urban Farm which was the first farm to develop a farm and produce food on top of asphalt.

Woot! He is doing some amazing things! Water harvesting/conservation; urban chickens; urban bees (he was instrumental in getting an urban bee ordinance allowing bees passed in Milwaukee); vermicomposting (he loves his worms which makes us happy!); composting (he diverted 11,000 lbs of food waste from the waste stream last year and hopes to double that number this year; urban farms; working with underserved communities including youth; senior communities; and bringing real food to food deserts. He is raising 10,000 tilipia in his Growing Power Milwaukee urban location. He has many locations in the planning stage; including Iron Street Farm in Chicago and Vertical Farm in Milwaukee. Iron Street Farm is in Bridgeport and is a dilipidated, old warehouse to be turned into an urban farm.

Chicago Heart Birds

2010-06-23T08:50:00.013-05:00

Bill and I, along with our friend Julie (deLeon Design), won 3rd place in a City of Chicago sponsored design/build bird house competition. There were eight categories of bird houses to choose from - we built two: a American Kestrel house and a Purple Martin house. The idea was to get people thinking about Chicago as a birding locale since it is located on several migratory paths and the location of the lakefront makes it very bird friendly.

Our American Kestrel house was an homage to Chicago's new sustainable architectural revolution and it's visionary. We constructed the American Kestrel house, named Aqua Prairie, from local (western IL) black locust - sustainably timbered and treated with soy based finishes. The banding around the house is meant to mimic the flow of the Aqua Tower building - the material is the metal banding used to secure bricks and stones on large pallets. We salvaged it from the trash behind a home improvement store.

The Purple Martin house named 'Chicago Politics...It's for the Birds' was constructed entirely out of found objects. After the February political primary, I went on a scavaging raid and collected lots of the political signs from our local park. I was actually after the metal wire brackets that push into the ground and hold the signs (good for floating row covers for season extension) but I took the signs as well thinking that we would eventually find a use for them (I have a friend that made a worm bin from them in his garage). Purple Martin houses are the 'condos' of birdhouses - Purple Martins like to live together, so the house is large with lots of holes leading to individual cavities. Our Purple Martin house design had over 10 political signs - each cut to exact specifications with exactoknives in a tabbed manner - so that they slide together in a puzzle-like fashion which enables the house to be constructed without any glue. It also comes apart easily for cleaning and removal of any non-Purple Martins that might set up home.

Chicago Politics...It's for the Birds won 3rd prize. We were able to meet Da Mayor of Chicago at the awards ceremony and see lots of incredible designs for birdhouses. Our house, along with all of the houses entered (over 150!) now goes on a road show throughout Chicagoland. It was a fun experience.

Also at the awards ceremony were wildlife rehabilitation specialists with a Barred Owl and an American Kestrel.

Yes - these are real birds!

Thistle Control

2010-06-22T11:41:00.005-05:00

I took a solo trip to Wisc this past weekend.

Saturday morning was spent on our intern's farm. I learned a lot and also met some nice people from Madison, Platteville and Mineral Point that are CSA shareholders. I worked with the farm employee in setting up irrigation lines so I now have a bit of a better understanding of how the supply line runs, flushing the connections, laying out the driptape and most importantly, placement.

I also did some weeding. It was interesting to see the field saturation from all of the rain and talk with our mentor about his transplanting plans and how the rains are affecting his planting schedule.

He also shared me with me that his goal every year is to have salad greens in the CSA box every week of the season. Last year was the first year he was able to meet that goal and we talked about varieties, planting schedules, etc. I am completely impressed - that is a hard thing to manage. For those that buy salads from the store, or worse buy bagged salads - horror!, this might not be a thought that enters your mind, but having over 300 heads of lettuce every week for over 20 weeks is a major accomplishment.

I spent Sat afternoon at our farm cutting thistle. We have a major thistle problem that I am working to get under control by hand cutting.

Before

After

DATCP raids Sauk Co Wisc Farm

2010-06-11T08:36:00.002-05:00

The Wisconsin crack down on buying clubs and raw milk continues. The Farm to Consumer Defense Fund protects family farms.

http://www.ftcldf.org/news/WI-DATCP-raids-hershberger-kennedy.htm

Organic Valley has also been engulfed in the Wisconsin raw milk controversy. Their board of directors recently voted to discontinue picking up milk from any of their processors that also sold milk from their own farm to neighbors or private buying clubs.

http://www.grist.org/article/organic-valley-confronts-its-most-serious-crisis-ever-over-raw-milk

Move

2010-06-07T08:09:00.003-05:00

We have been to Wisc only four times this year. 3 of those were with guests (i.e. non-working weekends) and one was when we went to the MOSES conference.

To say the least, we are getting very little accomplished at the farm. The problem is that it seems as if we are spinning our wheels at home too.

So the move date has been revisited. Late 2011 or more likely, 2012.

Bummer but, a bit relieving. Gotta have some fun too!

Book Review

2010-06-04T14:08:00.003-05:00

I was browsing the cookbook section of the Chicago Public Library last week and I saw Pioneer Woman's new cookbook. Now I have been known to read her blog once or twice - her photos are gorgeous; plus it seems as if everyone in the blogosphere world reads her blog. So I checked out the cookbook.

Overall impression? meh. Some nice photos and it reads like fiction and a cookbook. The recipes though...? Some seem OK. Most are just uninspiring to me. I wanted more garden fresh recipes. Fresh ingredients were sorely lacking.

I'm glad the public library owns it and not me.

I've gotten tons of inspiration from Heidi Swanson and her 101 cookbooks site recently. Thanks to my friend H.C. at CFC for turning me on to this site.

Local Meal

2010-06-01T07:13:00.002-05:00

Oh, Sunday nights are so different when one doesn't have to work on Monday! We enjoyed Sunday by working in the yard all day and then making a local supper. I forgot to take a photo.

Salad: a mixture of Forellenschluss lettuce, lemon balm and radishes and from the backyard topped with Hook's bluecheese (Mineral Point, Wisc). Dressing of olive oil and local apple cider vinegar.

Fish was a Lake Michigan perch from Dill Pickle Food Coop. Corn fritters were made with corn and eggs from Grass is Greener Gardens; Great River Milling whole wheat flour and seasoned with chive, a green garlic and other herbs from the backyard.

Both Gardens - In!

2010-05-28T09:51:00.003-05:00

I both both gardens in: the one at home in Chicago and the other in Wisc at our church-house. Nothing at the farm this year - we just aren't there enough to tend to crops. We would like to get some beds prepped and seeded with cover crops this year, but that involves buying a plow and we haven't focused on that (yet).

I planted all seedlings that I started myself. The weed pressure at the church-house garden is severe. In fact, it isn't just weeds - sigh... it is quackgrass and it is a formidable opponent for organic gardeners (all gardeners in fact).

I turned the soil with a garden fork and removed as much of the top grass and the roots as I could. I then went through it again with my Cobrahead (looove this tool!) and my hands and pulled every piece I could out. The soil is really friable and lovely thanks to the huge compost addition two years ago so it is almost enjoyable to weed quackgrass. The roots just go on and on!

We won't be back up for several weeks, so I am sure that it will take over the garden by then.

Meanwhile I'm doing some research on how to eradicate it without using Roundup. I've read that a cover crops can smoother it. A rotation of buckwheat, winter rye, buckwheat and winter rye again can almost eliminate it. The rye was sown at 175lb/acre in September and disced in April at knee-high. Buckwheat sown in May at 70 lb/acre and disced in full bloom. Repeat for a 2nd year.

All of this has made me realize that we better get shopping for a plow - I think we should get this cover crop rotation going on at least an acre at the farm this fall. Judging by the amount of invasives that we currently have (thistle, wild parsnip, burdock), it is pretty obvious that we will have quackgrass too.

One other note on quackgrass. I did hear that ducks love it and can clear a garden of it in no time.

Bio-Char

2010-05-24T09:01:00.002-05:00

I am doing some research on bio-char as a soil amendment. Anyone ever heard of it? Thoughts? Please share what you know in the comments.

I will report back what I learn.

Seed starting!

2010-05-12T19:06:00.007-05:00

I was late starting my seeds this year and I think it turned out to be a good thing. I planted on March 31st, April 7th and May 1st. My seedlings are stronger than they have ever been. I think I am not fighting the heat-war by starting them later. I don't have heat mats so I heat up my seedling room (it is walk-in closet size) with a portable heater. This year I only turned the heat on once but the seedlings look healthy and strong.

I almost transplanted last week, but I had heard that we were going to get a cold snap. I am so glad that I have held off. Pushing the season on the front end - unless you have a hoophouse and row covers - doesn't seem to pay off. The cool weather seems to stunt the growth.

And in typical fashion, I started too many. I think I have about 35 chard plants, at least 15 kale starts. Not to mention 25+ tomatoes. Oh my - I really need to move to a farm! I updated the side bar with the varieties and numbers.

Buying a Farm

2010-05-07T07:41:00.003-05:00

I recently read this article by Steph Larson, the policy coordinator for the Center for Rural Affairs (they do great work, if you aren't familiar with the organization. Check out the link - they are advocates for rural America on meaningful health care, high speed internet, environmental policy, etc). I had the good fortune to meet Steph last fall, which was before she had purchased her farm. We had a conversation about the fact that healthcare coverage is one of the biggest hurdles for us to overcome in order to move to our farm. We are currently insured through my corporate-America-job, and moving our health coverage to an independant policy; where we could be dropped or rates could skyrocket at any time terrifies me. Steph and I talked about contacting my local Wisc elected officials - which I did, but since I am not a registered voter in Wisc, they didn't care much what I had to say.

Anyway, I was happy to see that Steph finally was able to buy the farm. Her excitement for growing food, laying down roots on her own small farm and making it her own really resonates with me. It is just how we feel too!

The Antibiotic Issue of Agriculture

2010-05-05T10:50:00.001-05:00

The NYTimes recently wrote about Round-Up resistant weeds.

Approximately 70% of corn and cotton, and 90% of soybeans grown in the United States are Rounup Ready. However, the weeds are becoming resistant to Roundup, so guess what? All of those sustainable agriculture ads that Monsanto has all over National Public Radio are a farce. Monsanto's claim that using their Roundup Ready seeds reduces the need to plow the soil seem to be turning into a larger issue: the weeds are developing a tolerance to the RoundUp. An interesting quote, but biotech has never promised the other direction, in my opinion.

“The biotech industry is taking us into a more pesticide-dependent agriculture when they’ve always promised, and we need to be going in, the opposite direction,” said Bill Freese, a science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety in Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?pagewanted=1&ref=homepage&src=me

Apple Tree

2010-05-04T11:03:00.004-05:00

Last spring, a friend and I went to Garfield Farm for an apple tree grafting seminar. We left with 6 apple trees - which my friend graciously donated to our future orchard. I planted all 6 of them in our Chicago yard so that I could water them regularly and keep an eye on them.

Well, we must not be very good grafters, because only one lived. But the one that did - it is looking mighty fine! It is a Gala variety. It is still in my Chicago backyard and I plan to give it one more year of TLC and then it will relocate to Wisc with us.

Here are a couple of photos of the trusses from the hoophouse field day. I was pretty busy working so I didn't take as many photos as I should have.

Building a Hoophouse

2010-05-03T18:25:00.003-05:00

We attended our first CRAFT field day two weeks ago at Peasants Plot. It was an afternoon learning about hoophouses.

The farmers of Peasants Plot received a grant to put up their houses - I think it was a SARE grant. First we had a potluck lunch and then we helped put up a house. We were happy to see a few familiar faces from Farm Beginnings class and an old friend on whose farm we helped build a strawbale building several years ago. The Peasants Plot farmers are installing two houses for tomatoes - they are hoping to increase their productivity of tomatoes. In the past years, they have had good harvests of cherry tomatoes but due to their growing conditions, have had problems getting their tomatoes in the ground long enough to have large harvests of tomatoes. They would also like to beat the tomato glut at the market and get an edge on the tomato market.

Todd (one of the Peasants Plot farmers) had already prepped the soil and the site as well as the hard part of laying out the ground posts and putting the bows and trusses together. The attendees split into two groups - one raised the trusses and screwed them together and another group put more trusses together. The house that we worked on was 30 x 96. That is quite a large space. Their location is interesting - they are in north central Illinois - it is flat! And windy! They plan to remove their plastic for overwintering.

We look forward to following their progress - they have promised to keep everyone who helped up to date on how it is working for them and how it affects their tomato crop.

Saturday - worm farm visit

2010-04-30T09:27:00.006-05:00

On Saturday morning, we finished the grading in front of the barn entrance. It turned out to be mostly gravel under the soil, so I added some compost to the area where I want to put Hollyhocks. I also planted some chive transplants. I love chives for their early greenery and their buds/flowers. Oh, and I like to eat them too.

During the afternoon, we drove to Richland Center to visit a worm farm. We met the Urban Worm Girls there and visited their current worm supplier. We learned a lot and met a really nice worm farmer too.

This farmer raises his worms in manure from the farm, which I was glad to learn. (We ran into a worm farmer at MOSES who raised his worms in peat; that is just plain wrong in my opinion. Using a non-renewable resource to raise worms - after all, worms eat just about anything!) Anyway, on this farm, long manure beds in a machine shed are filled with worms. During the winter, they will cover additional manure and compost and during especially cold stretches, cover with a tarp, but otherwise the worms are in the open machine shed.

This was their worm separator. This is a repurposed seed cleaner.

Friday recap

2010-04-23T10:39:00.006-05:00

We were able to spend most of Friday working at the farm.

Bill finished the barn retaining wall framing.

We are going to straighten out the wall of the milk house entrance to the barn. It is metal and has been bent several times over the years. We also decided to scrape down the grade of the soil at the entrance - it is too high and in heavy rains the water (and soil) flow back into the barn. This photo shows Bill scraping the soil and also the terrible condition of the wall.

I took down a small wall in the entry way of the barn. It widened the doorway and cleaned it up a bit.

Late afternoon we met our farm mentor at his farm. We were totally impressed by his operation and learned a lot just by walking around and speaking to him.

We saw the meteor!

2010-04-22T14:51:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention that we saw the meteor over Wisconsin last week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/meteor-in-wisconsin-iowa_n_539293.html

We arrived at our place (remember, it is an old church that we've turned into a home) on Wed at about 8:30 pm. It was fairly warm that day - the evening was still fairly nice so we were enjoying a Spotted Cow (it's a Wisconsin beer) on the front steps. We were facing east. At about 10 pm, a weird light started emanating from the west and seemed to be getting brighter and closer. However, we have a neighbor that has one of those annoyingly bright flood lights, so at first we thought they had turned the light on. However, the light grew brighter and brighter - until it was like daytime. Then we saw the meteor - it came into our view, the tall church building had been blocking the view - it streaked across the sky and then dissipated. Several seconds later, we heard the sonic boom. It didn't sound like the sonic booms that I've heard in the past from the Chicago Air Show (another post, but I hate the Air Show - I think it is a government sponsored commercial for war). Anyway, this sonic boom sounded different. We didn't know what it was that had happened, but I said to Bill, let's go inside, I'm a little freaked out.

We did and went to sleep. Found out the next day from NPR that it had been a meteor.

I feel privileged to have seen it. After all, what are the chances that we will be in Wisconsin on a Wednesday evening in April and that it will be warm enough to be outside enjoying a cold beverage? Frankly, pretty slim.

Thurs recap

2010-04-21T08:40:00.012-05:00

Whew, it was a whirlwind weekend!

Here is the recap of Thursday.

We met with the NRCS conservation agent first thing on Thursday morning. Bill had the idea and forethought that we send him the sketch we did several weeks ago outlining our plans for the 20 acres.

On the drawing (on a large survey that Bill has recreated from the survey in CAD), it shows:

New shop (for ReAdapted)
potential hoophouse(s) site
Two (2) approximately 4 acres (each) rotation grazing
Permaculture based orchard and forest crops
Reforestation of small wood lot
Riparian zone along our seasonal creek
Market growing production areas ~4-5 acres

The first thing he said to us - well, you have a lot of plans. I think he truly thought we were crazy.

He didn't know much about permaculture or organic growing. He did give us some good ideas on erosion and our invasives problems. Overall, though - I think Bill and I probably knew about as much as he did. It was nice to walk the ground with him and have someone to bounce our ideas off of. I did also ask him how many people in Grant County applied for the hoophouse program through NRCS - he said 6. I asked how many were funded and he said zero. Disappointing.

We spent the rest of Thursday getting the tractor running - Bill changed the oil, did some priming on some rust spots and generally greased and oiled it up. I finished cleaning out the garbage and the recyclable metal from the bottom of the barn (yes, that is still going on!).

You can see in this photo that all of the floors are swept free of debris. The area is now ready for construction.

Each stall has a trough in the floor that was filled with manure, soil and sometimes garbage. I shoveled out each one and dumped the non-garbage material in the feedlot. Garbage went into the garbage pile. The trough will give Bill a surface to build buttresses against.

Bill started the framing for the re-pouring of concrete buttresses where the stone foundation is failing. We must do this to ensure proper footing for the barn before we jack up the barn and rebuild/reinforce the beams in the upper barn that are rotting and/or broken. The photo below shows the initial beam.

This photo shows the beam and the buttress that is using the concrete trough for added strength. These will hold the wall in from further pushing out, give stability to allow us to chip out the limestone foundation that is failing so that we can eventually pour some concrete buttresses to reinforce the wall.

And for supper? Nettle pesto. Nettles harvested straight off of our farm and eaten that night. It was our first time eating nettles and it was delicious!

Finally... back to Wisc

2010-04-14T14:43:00.002-05:00

We haven't been to Wisconsin since the end of February. There was still snow on the ground when we were there last!

To say that we are desperate to go, is an understatement. We are leaving tonight.

We meet with an NRCS agent tomorrow morning to walk our farm. We have many concerns that we would like their guidance on: namely our invasives and our water/erosion issues. Several weeks ago, Bill and I sat down with colored pencils and a huge survey of our 20 acres. We plotted out lots of things: new shop location, two pasture areas, orchard, growing fields, new access roads, beehives, woodland revitalization (using permaculture). We sent a copy to the NRCS agent in advance so he could get an idea of what we want to do.

We will spend the rest of Thurs working on the farm. Bill hopes to get the tractor running and I am going to start disassembling the house (pulling down beadboard paneling for re-use, removing cabinets to save for the workshop, before starting demo).

We are also meeting with our farm mentor on Friday to work out the schedule for our mentorship. We are greatly looking forward to talking with him again and seeing his farm. We met him briefly at the MOSES conference.

And on Saturday, we are visiting a worm farm. The Urban Worm Girl worm supplier is not far from us - we are visiting his farm to see his operation.

There's more...

On Monday, we are traveling to Manteno for the 1st CRAFT field day of the season. The topic is hoophouses and it is a work day so we are going to put up a hoophouse. I am so glad Bill is going too - he has lots of experience bending conduit for running electric wires (Chicago city code; wiring must be in a pipe) so I know he will pick this up in no time flat.

I am greatly looking forward to this farm-filled weekend!

Chicken Processing in Chicago

2010-04-11T16:32:00.007-05:00

I wonder why I've never thought to question or look for processors in Chicago? There is a major backyard chicken movement in Chicago (yes, it is legal).

See the Chicken Slaughter in Chicago post on the AOLC blog. www.learngrowconnect.org/blog

Bill and I have talked about urban backyard hens. However, we anticipate being in Wisconsin so much this year that we think it would be too difficult to care for them properly. I will just have to wait for my 'hen-fix' until we move to Wisc.

Sorry, I've been absent. We've been spending almost every free moment on the remodel project on our empty rental unit. The drywall it up! We installed a couple of new windows yesterday. I plan to refinish the floors in a couple of weeks. We are putting it back together and that feels great!

eOrganic Webinars

2010-03-28T13:40:00.002-05:00

Did you know that the University of IL and other large universities have an extension website that offers free webinars on topics of interest to farmers and educators?

I listened/viewed the Planning your Organic Farm for Profit presentation by Richard Wiswall of Cate Farm in VA. Richard writes regularly for Growing for Market and has a new book The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook that comes with a CD of excel budget and cash flow templates. For anyone that is serious about growing food for profit, I highly recommend the monthly journal Growing for Market. I learn new things with every issue.

You can also listen at your convenience to past webinars. Several past and future sessions that are of interest to me are High Tunnel Production, Organic Blueberry Production, Increasing Plat & Soil Biodiversity on Organic Farmscapes and Cover Crop Selection.

Check out the website: www.extension.org/organic_production

One of my 2010 Goals - Check!

2010-03-08T09:54:00.002-06:00

Spent hours on the laptop this weekend and succeeded in getting all of our finances on QuickBooks. I set up two companies - one for us personally, which includes the rental endeavors and the farm, as well as personal expenses and tracking the farmhouse rehab. The other is Bill's LLC - that one, in fact, I recreated 2009 so I can take reports to the accountant.

I knew it would take a good long while to get it up and going - and I'm glad to have spent the time now during the dreariness of March.

Blight Resistant Tomatoes

2010-03-07T13:08:00.004-06:00

I attended a session at the MOSES conference on tomato blight.

Tomato blight is caused by a fungal-like organism called Phytophthora investans which is a water borne organism. 26 Wisconsin counties experienced tomato blight outbreaks in the growing year 2009 specifically on the Solanaceae family of plants (tomato, potato, pepper, eggplants). This particular strain is unable to overwinter in soil, but since this also affects potatoes the danger is that any potatoes that were missed during harvest can still be harboring the pathogen in the soil and exposing tomato and potato plants anew in the 2010 season.

Essentially the fungus is airborne and water events cause it to spread. In layman's terms, the organism is floating around in the air and wind and when it rains or is humid, those conditions allow the activation of the organism. Morning irrigation and good airflow are helpful to slow the spread of the organism, but once it is in your fields, you need to aggressively cull infected plants immediately to stop the spread. Do NOT compost the infected plants. Most compost piles do not reach the temperature heights to kill the organism, and conversely don't get cold enough in the winter to likewise kill the organism. Burning or bagging and throwing away are the recommended means for disposing of infected plants.

Organic growers can use copper products which have some positive results in combating the organism, however every leaf on both side must be treated to appropriately protect the plant.

Some varieties that are allegedly blight resistant. (Although a member of the audience shared that he had many of these varieties in his production last year and he lost all of his crop). I haven't listed the entire hand-out, only those sources that I am familiar with.

Cultivar
Source(s)
Organization claiming resistance (i.e. who did the research)
Comments
Fruit Type

1. Legend
Jungs, Territorial
Cornell, Oregon State, Jungs
Excellent late blight resistance
Determinate, large round red fruits, early bearing, self-fertile, large fruit

2. Matt's Wild Cherry
Johnny's, Seeds of Change
Ingliss et al 2000
Good late blight tolerance (and frost tolerant)
Indeterminate, rampant vines, many fruits per plant, fruit clusters, red cherry, 1/2" size, sweet flavor

3. Juliet
Johnny's
Cornell, Dillon et al 2000
Some resistance to late blight in NY trials, crack resistant fruit
Indeterminate, red grape tomato

4. Golden Sweet
Johnny's
Cornell
Some resistance to late blight, crack resistant fruit
Indeterminate, yellow grape

5. Pruden's Purple
Johnny's, Seeds of Change, many others
Inglis et all 2000
Good resistance to late blight, tomato vining
Indeterminate, brandywine type, color is purple to b lack

6. Green Zebra
lots of suppliers
WI field observations 2009
Some resistance to late blight seen during 2009 outbreak, no other disease resistance claims
Indeterminate, 2" round, gold with green stripes, green flesh, lemon-lime flavor

7. Roma
lots of suppliers
WI Field observations 2009
Some resistance to late blight seen during 2009 outbreak, also resistant to Verticillium wilt,
Fusarium wilt 1, and Altarnaria stem canker
Determinate, pear shaped, red plum fruit, open pollinated, few seeds in meaty fruit, good for canning and sauces

8. Aunt Ruby's German Green
Seed Savers and others
Cornell
Moderate resistance to late blight
1 lb fruit, pale greenish color, with a slightly flattish shape

9. Black Plum
lots
Cornell
High resistance to late blight
Indeterminate, sweet, meaty, oval shaped fruit

10. Brandywine
lots
Cornell
Moderate resistance to late blight
Large, meaty, 1 lb fruit, pink to reddish color

Two potato varieties that showed some resistance to late blight

1. Defender
Russett -type

2. Jacquelyn Lee
Yellow variety

And the forecast for 2010? No way to tell. I guess we will know soon enough.

Happy planting!

Back up your computer!

2010-03-03T19:05:00.004-06:00

My laptop crashed and I had to have it rebuilt. Guess what I forgot to do before that?!?! - Back up my documents.

This is a fairly new laptop so I didn't have much - but what I did have - sigh.... my 14 page 3 Flat Acres business plan and my draft farm budget excel spreadsheets. I have been working on these documents since October. I have a dated version of the business plan (from January) on my jumpdrive but Bill and I have literally have put in hours on this document and all of that is gone.

Just a warning to all of my blogging friends - get a backup schedule and system and stick to it.

This is such a drag. I can't even fathom starting over tonight so I think I'll go sit on the couch with the cat and read a book. This is a mistake I will only make once.

(Farm) Book Reading

2010-02-23T19:59:00.002-06:00

Terra Brockman, author of A Season on Henry's Farm and founder of The Land Connection is reading from her book Wednesday, 2/24 at the Chicago Downtown Farmstand Market.

She works on her brother's farm (that is Henry) in Central Illinois. They sell at the Evanston Farmer's Market.

The book is wonderful. I am savoring it - so I am not finished. Should be an interesting evening.

Comment to the USDA re genetically modified seeds!!

2010-02-21T12:18:00.003-06:00

Did you know that the USDA is considering letting Monsanto patent its genetically modified alfalfa?

In its draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), issued on December 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) claims that there is no evidence that consumers care about genetically modified (GM) alfalfa. Click here to learn more.

If you care about this issue - and how can you not - please comment. This is the basis of our food system! As Joel Salatin says, farmers are first and foremost, grass farmers.

Comment to the USDA here.

We can't undo this one. Once it is out there, there is no going back.

2010 Goals

2010-02-20T15:08:00.003-06:00

It might be helpful to have our 2010 goals laid out on the blog.

2010 is going to be our year of education and continuation of infrastructure improvement.

Here is the high level goals:
Education:
Farm - Attend MOSES Conference
Farm - Attend CRAFT workshops (the 2010 schedule hasn't been set yet)
Farm - Attend workshops at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
Farm - Spend several days during the season working on our new farm mentor's farm

Infrastructure
Farm - Stabilize barn
Farm - Demo house interior down to studs
Farm - Work with an NRCS official to set conservation plan
Farm - Stabilize waterway area to control erosion
Farm - map different pasture areas, name them and have soil tests performed
Church - Complete prairie planting in the yard
Home Building - Drywall interior back stairway
Home Building - Turn 4th floor studio/office into a small apartment for Chicago weekend stays once we move - involves turning a utility sink area into a small kitchen and installing a shower

Other building - finish 2nd floor gut rehab (target date is 3/31/10) and painting of common areas in hopes of renting for 5/1
Other building - 3rd floor fix ups: new kitchen cabinets & counters, new sink, relocate water heater to basement and replumb up to 3rd floor. Remodel bath and add a shower. (The tenant that has lived there for 38 years has never had a shower in the apartment. He is pretty excited when Bill mentioned installing a shower - as you can imagine!)

Other - continue to clean out closets and storage areas in preparation for 2011 relocation to Wisc.

I think the key will be to just pick an area and plug away at it. The highest priority is the apartment at the other building, as we would clearly like to have the rental income again from it.

Wish us luck!

Farm plan

2010-02-17T20:19:00.002-06:00

Sorry I've been absent. Things have gotten ahead of me.

We have our final farm classroom session on Thurs night. I can't believe we are through already. It has been one of the most enjoyable, rewarding, frightening, self-reflective exercises that I have ever done. It was made even better that Bll and I did it together.

We have learned a lot.

I think about things like branding, identifying my customer(s), setting my pricing, where/when/how/why to sell, my 'story' and all sorts of other things. It also removed my farm-business-rose-colored-glasses. I have a new appreciation of truly.how.hard it is to make a decent living as a small farmer.

And more than anything else - we have developed friendships with the other classmates and we now feel like we are part of a community of like-minded folks. That has been very important and fulfilling for me.