Farm Report: March/April 2020
Farm Report: Spring (March/April) 2020 Coweeta Heritage Center/Talking Rock Farm
Hello Franklin Tailgate and Mountain Valley Health Food Folks: Thanks for buying local and supporting your local growers! We thank you for making it possible for us to serve you! And to provide you with some of the best food available from locally produced, sustainably grown, and good for you food.
You and the Coronavirus. We take seriously the virus along with global warming and much more. We will continue to provide you with healthy food which will keep your immune system vibrant. In addition we will put in place protections to limit the spread of the virus. We will employ social distancing and keep our hands sanitized. I will have someone taking money or ask you to make change so I don’t handle money while I am handling produce. Everyone helping harvest will be healthy and free of the virus. We will limit all our contacts during the week.
Good For You Food! Talking Rock Farm has always put your health first, beginning with our pledge to take seriously protecting the soil that we grow your food from. We will never use chemical fertilizers or pesticides in our production. Our garden plot has probably never had any application of chemicals over millennia. Healthy soil means a healthy you.
Healthy soil supports the microbial life in soil which in turn feeds the plants that grow in the soil. This is the basis for organic gardening/farming. The job of the farmer is to take care of the soil first, then as a result produces the healthiest food possible.
At Talking Rock Farm, we take this seriously. Our ¼ acre garden gets about 10 tons of organic matter yearly in the form of mulch. Additionally, minerals and other nutrients are applied including kelp, minerals, and a small amount of commercial organic fertilizer. Using a minimum of nitrogen is important because excess nitrogen can contribute to excess nitrates in your food. Nitrates when combined in the digestive tract can form carcinogenic nitrosames. There can be a 10 fold variation of nitrate levels in the same variety of vegetable depending on how it is grown and harvested. The amount of nitrates in vegetables is a function of the age of the vegetable and the amount of nitrogen fertilizer used to grow the crop. Vegetables grown without excess nitrogen fertilizer have far less nitrates. Utilizing slower releasing sources of nitrogen such as animal and green manures can produce vegetables with significantly lower levels of nitrates.
Greens harvested in the afternoon on a sunny day have less nitrate than those picked on a cloudy day or in the morning. Vitamin C prevents the conversion of nitrates to nitrites in plant tissue and within the human body. Some greens like Kale have sufficient vitamin C to prevent this conversion. Taking vitamin C in your diet will also help protect your body from nitrites. This is an inexpensive nutrient to take in your diet.
Our goal at Talking Rock Farm is to produce the healthiest food possible that will provide the greatest benefit to your health! For more info on this go to: https://www.leafforlife.org/gen/leafy-veg-nitrates.html or visit their website: www.leafforlife.org.
Garden News and other meanderings. Just a few weeks ago I was weeding while it was snowing! I was dressed warmly and the dry air was pleasant, so I continued my preparation of beds for spring planting despite the snow. This is one of the busiest times of the year in my garden: I am starting seedlings to go out, moving seedlings from small plug trays to larger cells (128 to 32 cell trays), and direct seeding in the garden which means preparing beds, which is why I am out in all kinds of weather.
I wouldn’t be weeding if I had done all my work in the fall mulching beds! Mulch keeps the beds weed-free and ready to plant in the spring, yet I always seem to fail getting all that mulching done. On the other hand, weeds hold onto nutrients that could be lost otherwise.
I will continue to harvest and bring greens and salad mix to the market, health food store and Yonder restaurant each week. These are fall-planted greens that have over wintered thanks to a somewhat mild winter and use of floating row cover and some plastic covering. About 4 years ago, I invested in a tough row cover that is 30 feet wide, so I can cover a number of row at once and weight the cover down with sand bags. This gives added protection to help crops get through cold spells. And generally it works pretty well. Some crops would have survived anyway if left out in the cold, so one doesn’t always know when to cover or not to cover. Lettuces are particularly vulnerable so I tend to cover the garden if it going to get below freezing. Better safe than sorry. And this year I have salad greens when I might not normally have them.
It is an exciting time of the year (not to mention the coronavirus) with lots happening in the garden. I’ve been putting out transplants that I started in one cold frame that I seeded directly in the ground. These get dug up and carefully separated and then transplanted into the garden. They are of course tender and survival depends on cooler rainy weather; and that we have had lately, so this is why I am busy trying to get them all out before warmer sunny weather returns. Other seedlings are getting established in individual cells which are more easily transplanted into the garden later on. The third approach I use is direct seeding in the garden. The approach involves either individual seeding or broadcast seeding. It must be warm enough for seeds to germinate, but our warm temps have not been a problem. Rain can be a problem if the beds are too wet to work. Here, raised beds can come to the rescue as they drain well and dry out more quickly. Still, it can be a challenge to prepare beds for direct seeding. More organic material in the soil can contribute to easier seeding.
I realize all this may not interest everyone, but I hope it will explain why I will have greens available to you sooner, rather than later, and I feel this can contribute to a healthier us in light of the new novel virus that is invading our world, not to mention, coming our community soon.
Why I don’t grow in a greenhouse? I often ask myself this question. I really like working outdoors and not inside. I also want to keep energy use low and a greenhouse may require fans running and heating, not to mention all that plastic. So I continue to grow outside with the use of row covers. I enjoy feeling the wind, sun and even snow on my face! I do use cold frames for starting seedlings or overwintering greens for easy access.
What coming soon to your farmer’s market?
Salad Mix is doing well and includes many favorites: lettuces, chinese greens, radicio, parsley, celery tops, kale and flowering collard tops, dandelion, a little arugula, and more. Always hand-picked but not washed so it keeps longer. Place a paper towel in the bag if it is too wet. Rinse and inspect before you use.
Mixed greens: I generally mix my greens up! That is the way I grow them. Eating them together gives you a blend of nutrients. My fall greens came up from seed heads that matured and I broadcast into the beds. The easiest way to grow things! I notice some seedlings are still coming up from last year. If you want just a specific green, we can do that at the market.
Spring garlic is here: folks often think that these are onions because they are slender and bunched together. I plant the entire head of garlic about 6” deep. This forces them to grow long and skinny. At some point they will want to bulb up, which is fine too. Just wash these and cut up! No need to peel them.
What to do while the coronavirus is with us? I think this is a great time to enjoy the Great Out Doors whether it is hiking, kayaking, strolling, picnicking, napping, reading, playing music or of course gardening! We need to put our worries aside and participate in the wonder of nature. Want to help in my garden? Just give me a buzz or email me at coweete@gmail.com. Help out for a couple of hours and take home some healthy produce.
Just give Peas a Chance! Lettuce have freedom! Health is our Primary Health Care! Get Grounded: Put your hands in the soil!Mustard will help us muster on.
Your Food is your Primary Health Care: Healthy soil (teaming with micro and macro organisms), means a healthy you! The health of the soil is directly related to the quality of produce that you will consume, so doesn’t it make sense to buy the very best quality? Local also means fresher, and fresher means there are more nutrients in your food and it has traveled fewer miles and consumed less energy in transport. Am I preaching to the choir here. Small scale growers can take better care of their soil and provide healthier food for you!
Greens, Greens, Greens! We all know that greens are good for us, but do we eat enough. Even with a garden full of greens I often come up short eating enough. What I need to do is prepare greens and keep them on hand to add to whatever dish I am making. One of my favorites is Rice cereal, with two poached eggs on the top, some yogart, hot sauce and greens. You can cook the eggs right on top of the rice cereal. I grind it up to a grit consistency in my coffee grinder. (1 cup water to a little less than 1/3 cup rice). Bring the water and salt to a boil, stir in the rice cereal for about a minute, crack and add the eggs, cover and lower the heat. Cook until the eggs are done. Place the eggs and rice cereal in a bowl, add the greens, yogart and hot sauce. This make a great meal anytime of the day.
What nutrients do greens give you? For example collards contain calcium, iron, magnesium, phosporus, potassium, sodium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, pantothenic acid, coline. I tend to sell and use greens mixed together. I feel I get the best overall nutrients that way. I grow a variety of greens including kale, collards, dandelion, and a mix of Chinese greens.
Preparing your salad mix to eat: I learned this from a friend: Wash and drain your greens, stack them in a pile and take scissors and cut them in to smaller pieces. This makes them easier to eat and is quick and simple.
Organic Gardening Classes —–You are welcome to come visit my garden or even lend a hand! I work most mornings and evenings. Just send me an email or call to arrange a visit. Get some friends together and schedule a tour! ——My email is coweeta@gmail.com and my phone number is 828-369-0231. Leave a message if you can’t reach me. Thanks! Also email me for CONVERSATIONS WITH MY CAT (if you have nothing better to do).
Gardening with Paul: Would you like to learn more about Organic Gardening??? GWP provides hands-on opportunities on an organic farm. Expect to spend an hour or two with Paul or our volunteers in our garden doing whatever happens to be going on at that moment. I tend to be a spontaneous gardener without too much planning. I’ll share with you whatever happens to come up during your garden session. I believe gardening is an ever-changing evolving experience and if one is open to change and learning new things it can be wonder- filled experience. Isn’t life a bit like that? My one advice is not to learn from the experts and there are no experts (except yourself!), Early morning or late evening is the best time. You can take home some produce you helped grow!
Intentional Community Sprouts I am attempting to commence to begin to start an Intentional Community at Coweeta which will focus on both the health of its members as well as the larger community. It will be a community which is grown up from its foundation by its members. Please let anyone you know (including yourself) who might be interested. They can visit Coweeta Heritage Center on IC.org (Fellowship of Intentional Communities). Here is a short description: Coweeta is looking for others who would like to join together to form an Intentional Community embracing the principles of Voluntary Simplicity. Simply put (no pun intended): We wish “to live simply so that others may simply live.” It is a recognition that nature provides us with valuable services and resources that we can use to enrich our lives. Utilizing local resources, appropriate technology, and working cooperatively, we can discover creative ways to meet our needs as “directly and simply as possible.” Voluntary Simplicity is based on the recognition that “very little is needed to live well” and that “abundance is a state of mind”. All human beings have the potential to live meaningful lives while consuming no more than an equitable share of the world’s resources and that these resources need to be shared worldwide. Voluntary Simplicity is a quiet revolution that can change the world. As one person said, “We must be poets of our own lives and of a new generation.”
Good grief! More cat conversations! The latest conversation with Gypsy, the Philosophical Cat, is now available online or at the market. It is entitled: On becoming human and delves into how humans got the way we are, by examining the behavior of our cousin apes the Chimpanzees and Bonobos. What Gypsy pries out of me (after reading a couple of books on the subject) is how different these two apes are. Which do we take after the most? It will be up to you to decide. More than 20 conversations are available in all. Gypsy will send you her e-book for free. Just email her at coweeta@gmail.com. Put converations in the subject live and she will send them to you.
Breaking News: The other morning she unexpectedly announced that she is going to run for President! I was a little dumbfounded to say the least and didn’t know what to say. So I asked her about her platform. This is a brief synopsis of what she had to say: Naps should be mandatory or at least everyone has opportunity to take a nap every day. Everyone can learn to meditate which will reduce if not eliminate health problems. Work will be abolished and you can do all the things you love to do: just don’t call it work and there won’t be any schedules when to get up or go to bed. Everyone will walk, ride a bike or use a scooter: no more cars to run over critters. War will be abolished as there won’t be any reason to fight. There will be plenty of food for everyone to share so there won’t be any hunger. I asked if she was going to run on the democratic or republican ticket and she said she is an independent and always will be. She says Americans need a real choice in their leaders. She has decided not to accept any donations (cats don’t need money) and her campaign will be run by word of mouth. She only asks you tell at least three friends to vote for her. If they tell three of their friends and ….. Well, you get the idea. So that is why I’ve included this in my newsletter. So, please tell three of your friends. Oh, by the way, her name is Gypsy! She will be the write-in candidate that will sweep the nation. Oh, and everyone will have fish to eat three times a day!
T-shirts will be available soon for you to advertise your support for Gypsy’s campaign!
From Woodstock by Joni Mitchell
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden