Weekly Farm Journal
A weekly newsletter of happenings and doings at the
Broadened Horizons Organic (Teaching) Farm
at
226 Rodgers Lane
Rockwood, Tennessee
Posted each week on Sunday night (labor and farm conditions permitting)
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."
Mohandus K. Gandhi
Winter's blustery presence seems to have finally lost it's icy grip here in the Tennessee River Valley, much to the relief of all the human and non-human farm residents. After an earlier in the week snowstorm, sunny days with mild temperatures have taken over. We did our first planting this week, putting in red and white onion sets. Since cold weather is not completely past yet, we did the onion planting inside a newly constructed "low tunnel" (mini-hoop house) that can be covered with a plastic skin and act as a greenhouse. We also upgraded one of the hives, adding new components and replacing some deteriorating sections. There was a very healthy colony of bees within, and only when I accidently crushed a bee with my hand, did I get stung (once). This is pretty remarkable as there were about 2,000 bees swarming about me when the old hive was dismantled, yet they were remarkably restrained in spite of their agitation. We will be repeating this upgrade activity with another hive soon.
Our first tomato plants are growing in their little starter pots. We also have some asparagus seedlings and sweet potato vines growing, that we maintained over the Winter in the southside window next to the wood stove. On sunny days, we move the planters into the main greenhouse to soak up sunshine and warmth, then move them back inside the house at night to prevent cold / freeze damage.
On Saturday we hosted the first workshop of the season with a freshman class from Maryville College. For lunch, we reheated 4 pizzas the students brought, in our solar oven, which was operating at 290 degrees. We then conducted an experiment using a factory farm egg, a commercial organic egg, and one of our own farm eggs. The students could watch the eggs cook through the glass window of the solar oven. The most interesting fact, besides the color and texture of our egg compared to the other two, was that when our egg was fully cooked, the other two still had runny yokes and whites. This is due to the higher water content of commercial factory farm eggs. Not only did our egg win the taste test, it took less energy to cook! Truly an environmentally friendly farm egg! The conclusion was that the factory egg and the commercial organic egg were pretty similar looking and tasting. The most noticable difference was the factory egg had the weakest shell.
Daffodils and other early perennials have been poking up out of their mulched beds since late January. However, only now that we have had a few warm and sunny days, are we beginning to see the flowers blooming forth. The first of the maple flowers have opened, and the bees which have been frantically buzzing about looking for nectar, have ascended up into the trees surrounding the farmhouse. This year with the additional hives, we are well positioned to take advantage of the Spring nectar flow.
Why all the cloudy weather? Atmospheric scientists have stated that this is the strongest El Nino in many, many years, brought about by a warmer Pacific Ocean. Also other oceans are warmer, causing more atmospheric vapor (clouds) to be present. This has resulted in record-breaking snowfalls, and powerful (hurricane-force winds) not only in North America, but elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. Are we seeing the early results of catastrophic climate change, forecasted by a consensus of world climatologists? The "global-warming" naysayers point to this cold Winter as proof global-warming is a hoax. Yet the weather anomalies have destroyed crops in normally temperate Winter locations such as Florida and the Gulf Coast, significantly raising food prices and stretching the food procurement distances much further. Policies and practices we have instituted here on the farm, designed to mitigate the impacts of severe weather disruption are not yet significantly developed to shield us from these conditions, yet we are seeing some early beneficial results. The greatest tool we can utilize is the living tree. Knowing the type and planting location is critical to success. Conifers to shield from Winter winds, deciduous to protect from summer heat. In order to be effective, they must be in the right location. The previous occupants of this farm got most of it backwards, forcing us to nearly start over from scratch. In January, we cut the third large pine away from the southside of the house, and this has increased our solar heat uptake by a factor of 2X2.
This week our main work focus has been on fencing. and will remain so for a few more weeks. We had hoped to have more fencing completed by now, but the unusually cold and snow-filled Winter altered our plans. Instead, we had to shift our work focus during January and early February to the barn, where we could work inside on much needed repair and renovation. And that effort has paid off nicely as we now have a viable barn, capable of serving many farm needs.
Our friend and bee mentor, Eddie McKenzie has given us two more hives of bees, which we have established in our bee yard beneath the old twin hackberry trees on the east end of the farm. Last year was a poor year for honey production due to the excessive rainfall at critical nectar gathering times. The hives seem relatively strong coming out of the Winter period, and we are glad to have these busy farm workers with us as we head into a new growing season.
Extra stone was placed to reinforce the rock baffle at the inlet to Cedar Pond that is fed from the primary spillway from the higher up Cedar Creek Pond. Also stone was placed along the water's edge on a low spot on the Cedar Creek Pond dam. Water washed over the dam at this spot during the major rain event (3.4 inches) on January 25th.The dam height will need to be raised this summer, using dredged material from the pond bottom.
As we begin our sixth year at the Broadened Horizons Organic Teaching Farm, January ended on a very wet note. January delivered nearly nine inches of rainfall once again for back to back months, (Dec.-Jan.), and we experienced our biggest rain runoff event after a 3.4 inch rainfall. Although it wasn't our largest total single rainfall event, due to the super-saturated ground, it resulted in the largest volume, across-the-farm water flow since our arrival here five years ago.
We have erected and re-inforced a number of "beaver dams" to help move the very high water table (in the upper-bottomlands) higher up on the land. The beaver dams are constructed using small diameter pine log sections, oak bark slabs, and ground woodchips, and formed into linear mounds (or berms) of slowly decaying organic material. These composting wood to soil berms are deliberatly placed where we want to spread (flood) rain runoff over larger areas of low lying ground. By holding the rainwater in place on the land while it is raining, we are able to store as much water in the re-emergent wetland soil as possible. This will show up later in the year as lush bio-mass growth, and ultimately as water absorbing dead plant material in the wetland. We are deliberatly creating a wetland (or swamp) to store excess winter rainfall to fuel water-based plant growth during the approaching Spring. This will also result in more flower foraging opportunities for the pollinators, especially the honeybees. And in case of a drought period, it will be a source of vegetable crop protecting humidity.
Barn renovation work is now focused on a beehive workshop area, where repair and storage of beehive components will take place. A workbench and partition wall have been added, and an inside west wall was constructed and painted. An upgrade to the inside west wall in the loft was also completed with a fresh coat of paint being applied. We have done some field work, which consists of mowing dead plant residue in the "horse pasture" and the north-side area bordering Cedar Creek. The mowing reduces the standing dead plant material (potential grass fire fuel) and puts it down on the ground as mulch. This allows other grasses (besides fescue) and clover to grow as they now have access to sunlight. We are also thinning undesireable species from the hedgerow bordering Cedar Creek, giving preference to the wind-blocking cedar trees growing there.
It is our intention to take the overall farm operation to the next level this year by adding an additional full-time staff person. Currently, we are in the interviewing process, and have a couple of potential candidates on our short list. An additional staff person will allow us to devote more time and energy to expanding our crop base and our food quantity available for sale.
We have been seeing a few new pullet eggs in the henhouse this past week, as the youngest laying hens begin to respond to the longer daylight hours. While full scale egg laying is still a few weeks away, it is good news to see the young hens, born here last summer, begin their egg laying under less than ideal weather conditions. We don't force our hens, and so when they do begin laying, they are fully sexually mature and are able to lay full sized eggs right from the start. A first egg from a new pullet has a telltale smudge of blood on it. All of our older (4 years & older) hens were culled out over the winter and sold as stewing hens. We culled out the last of the extra (yearling) roosters, and now have the chicken flock at our targeted level for the coming season.
Crop damage over the Winter was significant as this was a notably cold and sunless one. We used ordinary cotton sheets, single layer, and floated them over the top of the foliage of the younger beds of collards, kale, and mustard greens. This simple technique helped protect the plants from any visual sign of damage, while unprotected plants adjacent to the covered ones were freeze burned and bleached to a ghostly pale white color. Broccoli in the new greenhouse was almost a total loss, and we got only one small volume cutting of heads. The unprotected lettuce and Chinese mustard in the new greenhouse only suffered mild damage. An additional problem was an invasion of moles that took up residence in the protection and warmth of the greenhouse beds, further damaging the lettuce and broccoli beds. This past week, our fencing projects included digging a trench around the base of the greenhouse, and installing a foot deep barrier of 1/2" galvanized rat wire. It was with a great sense of satisfaction that we observed their humped up tunnels running outside the barrier the very next day. Time for the moles to feel the frustration that has been mostly felt by us as we observed their incessant earth moving and tunneling inside.
Prior to the onslaught of the frigid temperatures and the very damaging wind chills, over 1.200 gallons of rainwater was dumped from numerous storage cisterns to prevent freeze damage from cracking valves and piping. However, we let numerous steel and plastic water storage barrels remain full. Normally they can handle a moderate freeze. However, all the water in these containers did freeze, punching out some barrel bottoms. Once we realized the brutally cold weather was going to be long term, it was too late to drain the barrels. We did suffer some freeze damage to our irrigation piping system from residual water left in the system from two summers ago. To permanently repair these areas will take some moderate reconfiguration in the height of the delivery system. More ongoing lessons as we continue to tweak our infrastructure to make it more efficient and less prone to seasonal weather damage. We have begun to close valves to begin the refilling of our storage cisterns.
Well seasoned oak firewood, stored dry in the barn, provides a reliable source of heating fuel and our wood stove is able to keep the core rooms of the farmhouse comfortably warm during this prolonged freeze period. We kept the heater stove fire in high burn mode 24 / 7 on overcast and sunless days. To date, we have burned all the firewood budgeted for this winter, and have had to supplement our heating fuel needs with additional inputs from old cedar fence posts and construction scraps.
Interest in the farm and our various workshops continues to increase as we continue our outreach activity. We are anticipating a very busy sixth year at our teaching farm as we offer more opportunities to learn principals of sustainable living and permaculture design and activity. The farm potential has really increased in the past few months as more of the basic infrastructure is repaired, or new infrastructure is completed. We hope these long range improvements will allow us to focus more on the agricultural aspects of the farm during the upcoming growing season. We have already begun to sign up participants in our upcoming workshop series.
2009 Farm Year in Review
The year ended with one last rainfall event on December 31, capping an extra wet year that saw a total of exactly 66 inches or rainfall, one of the wettest years on record. Three months, May, September, and December had rainfall in excess of nine inches. This was offset with three months that had less than three inches of rainfall, June 2.6 inches, August 2.8 inches and November at 2.12 inches.The total rainfall for 2009 was a staggering 30.76 inches more than during the exceptional drought year of 2007. This is an additional two and a half feet of water over the entire farm.
The uneven and often excess rainfall caused a significant loss in yield of numerous crops; Strawberries-95% loss, Plums-90% loss, Beans-50% loss, Watermelons-30% loss, Tomatoes-25% loss, and Corn-20% loss.The corn loss was an interesting mix of not enough rain (August) when the ears were forming, and too much rain at harvest time in late September. The excessive rainfall in September (9.58"- making it the wettest month in 2009) forced us to prepick the entire corn crop and hang it up in the barn rafters. It was the first time we had picked a dried corn crop while it was raining. The whole operation took three days. We have since learned that rain caused corn crop failure in our region was widespread.
On the upside, the rainfall kept the farm lush, and biomass production was very high. This resulted in plentiful fresh forage for our poultry flock, and an unlimited supply of garden mulch. To take advantage of this biomass growth we purchased a new self-propelled mower with the capacity to bag the cut greenery. The cut bio-material was loaded into our large gardenway cart and hauled to various growing locations. The mulch was excellent in suppressing unwanted weedy growth, and for keeping the soil from washing and, or compacting due to the heavy rainfall. By feeding the soil this constant supply of fresh green organic material, the earthworm population flourished. By the end of the growing season, the soil had markedly improved from just a year ago. It was soft and yielding underfoot, and easy to dig into using a small hand trowel.
Construction projects on the farm began to tip more toward completion of the basic footprint, which allowed us to spend more time in actual agricultural work. In March, we completed the final chicken house (G building), essentially finishing the physical layout of our integrated poultry operation. Major work was undertaken on the larger barn
which was in danger of getting away from us. The entire west wall of the barn has now been rebuilt and is in the process of being painted. Considerable structual work has been completed to the barn's interior, including the addition of cross barn trusses, additional support posts, the construction of a hay loft, a structual catwalk, and the renovation of the primary livestock stall. A portion of the farmhouse front was rebuilt, which included adding insulation and finishing it with 1" thick pine board and battens. This considerably increased the structual integrity of this wall. A new stand alone greenhouse was constructed in what is now designated as the Winter Garden, a southwest facing gentle slope on the south side of the G-house. And finally, the main greenhouse had the stonework completed on the north and west walls. The sides of the enclosed stone cistern were also raised four inches.
For the first time since taking over the farm, we had separately designated housing units and runs for raising chicks, growing out pullets, and maintaining the mature laying flock. We employed a systematic culling program, and sold 14 of the oldest birds as stewing hens. We did increase egg sales, while at the same time reducing feed costs by growing a portion of our own feed. This allowed us to double our profit margin. It was also the first year that we raised all of our replacement chicks from eggs from our laying flock. This is beneficial for two reasons; the first is a higher survival rate for mother-hen raised chicks, and secondly the most desireable genetic traits of our "naturalized" heritage breed flock are passed on to the next generation.
The bee picture was quite mixed this year. We gained a swarm from the wild, then shortly thereafter lost a swarm from another hive. That hive's remaining bees eventually died off for reasons unknown. At the onslaught of cold weather, we only had one viable hive in spite of all of our careful caretaking. Even though the surviving hive was strong throughout the summer, wet weather interfered with nectar flow and nectar gathering, and the hive produced no surplus honey for extraction. This was a significant financial loss of farm income.
Garden sales remained steady and evenly tied 2008 sales levels. Cucumber beetles were a major pest this year, wiping out the summer squash and cucumber crop. The watermelon crop however escaped beetle damage, and did well until we were forced to pick the crop early as excessive rain was causing the fruits to split open. Squash vine borers continue to be problematic, which has limited our ability to grow Winter Squash. Our most successful crop this past season was our sweet potato crop.
We continued to showcase our farm with a number of worshops, guided tours, and a well attended Fall Open House. New drive up customers noticeably declined as traffic was considerably less on our road in 2009. We think the current dismal economic situation is partly to blame.
Our farm income declined 25% from a year ago.