Community Supported Agriculture’ll Have You Whistling Dixie

You want vegetables but you just don’t have the time. I mean you want the taste and quality of home grown but there is not another minute in the day for you to build a raised bed. The Lord knows you don’t have a tiller or the time to till up a patch even if you had one.  You could go to the grocery store, they have organic, but can you talk face to face with the farmer that grew the endive or tomatoes you are buying? No, you can talk to the produce manager but the chances are that the manager hasn’t even met the farmer. Well, how do you get your homegrown produce then?

There are a few choices out there. In most counties there is at least one local farmers market held sometime during the week during the spring and summer. Some cities have several markets on different days or in competition with one another. You can even go to some of the farms and buy from a farm stand right there at the source. Occasionally, the farmer at the farm stand will let you go into the field to pick what you want if it’s not at the stand. Which, leads to one more option. There is a plethora of you pick farms. You can get any number of things from greens and tomatoes to blueberries and strawberries at you pick farms.

One more way to get the homegrown vegetables you crave is called Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA for short. There are many ways to run a CSA, but the central aspect of the CSA is to pay upfront and you get the homegrown vegetables for a either a given amount of time or a given amount of money. Some CSA farms set a season, say 40 weeks, and package up a box of vegetables and deliver it to a specified location once a week. Others will take your payment and set up an account and you order the vegetables you want until the credit is used up. The farm stand model is also used you pay in advance and come pick up what you want at the farm on a given day. Then you get into hybrids of any two or three methods and we could go on all day discussing Community Supported Agriculture set ups.

The CSA allows you to get the vegetables you want and direct access to the grower. Farmers get a benefit from this arrangement as well. The time farmers need money most is at the beginning of the year, but there is not so much produce to sell for revenue. With the CSA a farmer gets a large amount of money upfront to use on seeds, labor, materials and other stuff needed to grow vegetables.  One extra thing that ties the farmer and consumer together in this situation and attenuates the stress of the farmer is the sharing of risk. Buying a share in a CSA comes with an understanding of the nature of agriculture. Specifically, crops are not guaranteed. If the weather is bad or an infestation or disease hits, the shareholder and farmer take the hit together.

A CSA often takes wholesale orders and takes produce to a farmers market. These activities increase the income and expand the presence of a CSA during the most productive time of the year. Once the share list is made out or the share orders are placed, a farmer will sell excess produce to restaurants, sell it at the farm stand, or take it to market before it goes bad.

If I ran a CSA it would be set up on the debit model. Shareholders would pay 400 up front and be able to pick from a list of available vegetables (grown according to season). Once (or twice a week if possible) orders would be delivered to a pick up location or to the shareholders house. If the shareholder’s account runs out they can invest more money in their share. For rush orders I’d charge a delivery fee (if it happened to not be a delivery day). I would start off with 10 or so shares so there would be a lot of personal contact. 

If you want more info or have any questions let me know at lknzfarm@gmail.com

Milk That Space

Do you live in an apartment on the fourth floor? Do you want to grow your own vegetables and herbs? Don't worry! You can do it and you don't have to break the bank. All it takes is two old milk crates and some dirt and you are ready to get started.

The basic unit is two milk crates, one on top of the other. Circulation is provided by the bottom crate and the top crate is your "crop land."

You can put the stack any place that's convenient.

   You can put them in the kitchen. 

   You can put them on a chair. 

   You can put them in the garage.

   You can put them in the open air.

   You can put them on the roof.

   You can put them anywhere.

(I just had a Dr. Seuss moment.) 

Just about everyone has some kind of "milk crate like" storage unit. In college they were used to conveniently store all the expensive textbooks you had to buy and never read. Most big box stores have a supply of stackable that fits the general description of a milk crate. 

One of the coolest things about this set up is you can move the garden where ever it needs to be, or you need it to be. You can grow year round with your milk crate garden.

Turning Over a New Leaf

Borrowed a neighbors yard sweeper the other day to clean up the leaves in the yard and our neighbor on the other side's yard. Got a good haul.

Three truck loads. I got the compost bin topped off, bedded down my three garlic beds, and still had a truckload plus left to put up for later use.

There's more leaves out there in the neighborhood to get up. I'm going to need to work on a winter nitrogen source. Coffee shops and brew pubs here I come. My ability to create my own compost is growing slowly, but steadily.

Something Will Turnip so Kale Me

Sunday I started 144 turnip seeds and 144 kale seeds. They've begun to sprout. I was worried about that, this being the first time I've tried something this big. The biggest planting I've done before was 24 tomatoes. 

I'm going to start some collards and mustard this week. I may direct seed some cabbage, too. I may see if I can get some cabbage sprouts at Lavendar Mtn. Hardware, that's where I get my seeds and sprouts in Rome. Buying sprouts depends on the filthy lucre. I feel like it could be a good fall planting.

The garden can take 20 rows at 18" spacing. I'm putting in 2 rows of garlic, a row of turnips (90 at 6" spacing), a row of kale, a row of collards, a row of mustard, a row of cabbage, and some swiss chard. Some other possibilities are carrots, rutabagas, brussel sprouts, radishes, and who knows what else. I may just plant half the garden and let the remainder rest until spring. 

With Some Physical Therapy the Corn Should Do Fine

The corn looked worse Friday right after the storm. All of it was laid over flat as a pancake. I though it was gone. When I got back from the market in Atlanta Saturday most of the corn had begun to right themselves.
The tomatoes on the other hand didn't fare so well. The catastrophe will benefit the survivors I do believe. I had way over planted the tomatoes. I'll have to figure out a modified square foot garden plan for next year.

New Job, Week One

If you didn't know already I started a new job this week. Wow, I knew it was going to be hard, but this is beyond my imagination. I love it, but wow.

Bed's Ready to be Made Up

I finally got the sides finished on the first woven bed. I have enough landscape cloth to line the sides of 2 5x10 raised beds. I can't wait to get the dirt in 'em.

Look at that Weave

Got one woven raised bed staked out and the weaving has begun.

Kristi's Laundry Fixins

Kristi found a dry laundry detergent recipe and we're going to try it out. It takes a good bit of soap grating, but it is most definitely less messy in the making and pouring up.

Raising Beds

'Bout got 'em done. Two lumber raised beds and two woven raised beds. I've got one woven bed staked out and a raised bed stuck together.

Look at That Garden

The kids are getting some play time in before the ground gets broken for the garden.