End of this CSA Season

Our plants look like this most mornings.

This Wednesday, January 23rd, will be the last CSA delivery of the season. We've had frost just about every morning for the past month. The frost, combined with the short day length and wet soil, means that we haven't been able to grow replacement crops for those we are harvesting. It's okay; that's winter, and it's to be expected. We plan to restart our CSA in April, and we'll be notifying everyone by email and Facebook when we're ready to sign-up members again. If you're not already on our contacts list, and you'd like to be, please fill out the membership form http://www.1-acre-farm.blogspot.com/p/sign-up-to-get-veggies-delivered.html

Lots of people have remarked on how nice it will be to have a vacation over the next couple months. Yeah, right. While we do hope to take a vacation (keep fingers crossed), there's still much work to be done in order to keep things running and get ready for spring. The bigger jobs include tilling the soil for spring and summer plantings, growing thousands of seedlings in the greenhouse, pruning fruit trees, and doing winter plantings of asparagus and strawberries. See you in spring!

Cauliflower, a Long Time Coming

(L-R) Broccoli, Romanesco, and Cauliflower

This week we had a beautiful harvest of cauliflower, broccoli and romanesco! Although most people think of cauliflower as a fairly common veggie, as opposed to something like fancy heirloom tomatoes, cauliflower actually is quite difficult to grow. Once tomatoes are established, they give many pounds of fruit continually for about 3 months. Cauliflower takes just as long to grow (We seeded today’s cauliflower back in July!), and each plant makes only one head. Although the leaves are also edible, most people don’t eat them, so it’s a 1-harvest crop. Cauliflower is a cool-weather crop, and we only grow it in the fall now because we’ve found that spring cauliflower tends get aphids and cabbage loopers, and it bolts (goes to flower) as soon as we get a hot day. The cauliflower we're harvesting now was covered with shade cloth back when the weather was hot and later with another type of row cover to keep it warm and keep the bugs off. Now that we’re getting cold nights, we’ve also lost some of the heads to frost damage. These are a few of the reasons why our fall CSA tends to feature much more leafy greens, like kale, which grows in only 2 months and can be harvested continuously for many months. 

A mature plant is about 3 ft. tall with huge leaves.

I just want folks to have some idea of what it takes to grow a vegetable that most Americans think of as relatively inexpensive and common. How does organic cauliflower arrive at the grocery store year-round for about $3/head? I really don’t know. Surely, it's due in part to economy of scale, i.e. larger farms can grow big fields of cauliflower and mechanize the process. I also think it has a lot to do with importing from other regions and countries when it's out of season here, underpaid farm labor, and maybe climate-controlled greenhouses.

If you have tips for growing cauliflower efficiently, let us know. We're still learning!

Annual Survey Results

We've got about a month left to this CSA season!

Last month we conducted our annual survey of CSA members. And the results, drum roll please...

We had 9 surveys returned, not bad out of 13 members! Overall, most people very happy with the CSA. Many people want more fruit, which is understandable. Several people requested more “common” vegetables, like lettuce and carrots. Some of the responses, of course, are in conflict with each other, e.g. people requested both more and less greens and peppers. We will keep doing our best to adjust the CSA to meet the needs of more people. Here is a summary of the survey results:

Which kinds of produce would you like more of?

lettuce (x3), beets (x2), green beans (x2), broccoli (x2), fruit (x4), greens (x3), onions, potatoes (x2), carrots (x3), artichokes, herbs (x2), cauliflower, bell peppers, winter squash, parsnips, rutabagas, tomatoes (x2), okra, corn, “everything!”.

Which kinds of produce would you like less of? 

fava beans, greens, turnips, sunchokes, chives, peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, zucchini.

How was the quality and freshness of the produce? Excellent (89%), Good (11%)

How was the amount of produce? Too Much (12.5%), Just Right (87.5%)

How was the price? Fair Deal (66.7%), A Bargain (33.3%)

What was your top reason(s) for joining a CSA? Health (44.4%), Environmental sustainability (44.4%), Supporting local business (55.6%), Quality of produce (66.7%), Convenience (33.3%), Connection with my food producers and community (77.8%), Seasonal eating (55.6%), Curiosity, (22.2%), Other (33.3%)

How often do you read each of the following? Newsletter (100% very often), Blog postings (33.3% very often, 33.3% sometimes, 33.3% not very often), “What’s in the Bag?” list (44.4% very often, 22.2% sometimes, 33.3% not very often), Facebook postings (37.5% very often, 12.5% sometimes, 25% not very often, 25% never)

Do you plan to join our CSA again next year? Definitely (66.7%), Probably (33.3%)

And Then the Rains Came...

Our fall field yesterday -- Waah!! Today I'll be working on replanting the Brassicas that got washed away.

It's officially in the wet season now. According to our rain gauge, we had about 7 inches over the past week. The grand finale was yesterday; it was pouring all morning with strong winds. We had just decided to scrap our plans for the day and do some cozy indoor projects when I went out to check on the field and realized that parts of it were flooding! One thing I've learned about farming is that you just have to get out there and do your job, regardless of whether you'd rather be wrapped in a blanket reading a book on the couch. So, off we went to salvage what we could. I put up an extra tarp on the chicken coop to provide some more shelter for our wet birds, and we dug several extra drainage canals in an attempt to send the water away from the crops. Fortunately, Gal had the foresight when we first moved here to install a French drain system around our whole field and house. The system was working at full capacity yesterday, and we were able to connect the flooded areas to the French drain with a little extra digging. It seems to have worked well. Today is sunny, and the field doesn't have any pools of water left, just a lot of mud!

The work of the hydraulic engineer never ends.

Hunker down soggy chickens.

Our little creek got frighteningly close to the top of the banks, but today it's receded back to a trickle.

First Frost of the Season

Strawberries with a dusting of frost this morning.

This weekend we got our first two frosts. Our winter weather starts pretty late in this part of California, but eventually it does start. On Friday I did one final harvest of eggplants, peppers, and green tomatoes and with that we said farewell to summer. We've covered up many of our fall plants to protect them from the frost, and most of them are very cold hardy. The kale and broccoli did look sad early this morning under the frost, but a few hours later they have already recovered. Onward, to the fall veggies! We've got lots of cabbage, kale, beets, chard, broccoli, peas, and more.

Broccoli and kale weighed down with frost. Don't fret, they have already recovered.

Several awesome cabbages are ready for harvest!

Saving Tomato Seeds, part 2

Welcome back! Last week I began the process of saving tomato seeds (described in the "Saving Tomato Seeds, part 1" blog post). I left the seeds to ferment for about 3 days, and they developed a nice scummy surface indicating that they were ready.

Tomato seeds after 3 days of fermentation.

At this point, the seeds should have a somewhat stinky, fermented smell, but nothing too gross. The seeds were at the bottom, and the liquid on top, so I was able to carefully decant the liquid off. I then tapped the seeds into a strainer and rinsed them under fresh water. I use this handy little strainer that I bought years ago in Chinatown. I don't know what its original purpose was, but it's perfect for this. A tea strainer would work equally well.

Clean tomato seeds in a strainer.

Next I tapped the seeds out onto a piece of wax paper and labeled the paper with the variety of tomato.

Tomato seeds on wax paper ready to be dried.

I left the seeds to dry for about 3-4 days away from the light. Then I carefully peeled them up off the wax paper and put them in envelopes to store until spring. See you next year, tomatoes!

Saving Tomato Seeds, part 1

One of my favorite farming activities is saving seeds. I love seeing the full cycle of the seasons from seed to seed; I love the independence of not having to buy seed every year, and I love learning about the various mechanisms plants have developed for continuing themselves. Fall is a good time for saving the seeds of summer plants, and anyone growing heirloom tomatoes will probably want to save seeds from their favorites. An heirloom plant will make seeds that are genetically similar to the parent plant, unlike hybrids which make seeds that can have the traits of any of the ancestor plants. Tomato seed saving is a little more complex than other saving other seeds because it involves a brief fermentation process. The fermentation step helps kill any plant diseases.

There are great directions for saving tomato seed on gardenweb.com I thought it would be nice to have photo illustrations too, so here are the steps (This is the first part. Part 2 will be posted soon):

1.  Choose a slightly overripe tomato from your healthiest tomato plant(s). We grew 16 varieties of tomatoes this year, and I am saving seeds from many of them.

 

Several varieties of heirloom tomatoes ready to have their seeds saved.

2. Slice the tomato horizontally, across its "equator."

3. Squeeze the seeds, including their gel goo, out into a clean jar or other container. Add a couple tablespoons of water.

Tomato seeds in a clean, reused container with water.

 4. Cover the container with a lid or a piece of cellophane, and poke a few holes in it for ventilation. Label with the variety if you are saving more than one kind. Place in a warm, dark place for 2-3 days.

My full menagerie of tomato seeds in various reused containers.

Part 2 is coming soon! Stay tuned.