Waging War on the Wireworm

Many moons ago, Colleen wrote about the initial surge of those pesky little wireworms in the hoop house. Well, they continue to turn up once in a while around the farm, evidenced by sad, drooping plants here and there. So, the fight continues...

A little info for those who don't know much about the wireworms. Our particular wireworm species are either Agriotis obscurus or Agriotes lineatus, both non-native, both a pain in the behind. Wireworms are the larvae stage of a click beetle, and stay in the larvae stage of the life cycle for 3 - 4 years, feasting on poor little plants. Once they become adult click beetles, they don't hurt plants.

I guess in some ways, we are not all that unlike the wireworm. We both like Yarrow. We both like Skeeter Farm. We both like plants. However, there is one all important difference. While we humans like to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of the plants' labour, wireworms like to take plants well before their time. For this reason, we will forever be enemies.

Initial efforts to deal with the wireworm included negotiation (no luck) and the trusted sacrificial carrot tactic (very effective).

Well, this past week we stepped things up and took the fight to the wireworm with the enlistment of Beneficial Native Nematodes!!! Nematodes naturally occur in the soil and eat soil dwelling insects like larvae and grubs, leaving friendly earthworms and plants to go about their business. In effect, we have brought in some reinforcements to help fight the good fight. We'll keep you posted.

In Nematodes we trust.

Our first CSA is on it's way!

Yes it is finally here. Our first CSA of 2011. Many a serious nights worried about harvest dates, germination happenings, and the absence of sunshine.... but it all worked out. Folks, we were very proud to put forth this effort, and we are stoked about our crops!

Amy and Patrick on there way to you very shortly.... and myself the subsequent week... to drop off your veggies. Now remember, each week brings forth a new set of unpredictable events, so bear with us, as we will do our best, and we will not forget about what the farming experience means and the ability to provide local ingredients means so much to us.

Enjoy everyone!

The Lettuce of Skeeter Farm

Crunch, crunch! Now, not wanting to let the cat out of the bag already, with just days until our first CSA delivery of 2011, but we at Skeeter Farm have had luck this year with all kinds of lettuce and greens. Truth is, this luck has arisen from the (let's face it) cold, wet spring. While some crops are a bit behind, all kinds of greens are a growin' out in Yarrow.

Back in May when I started planting the greens bed, I had a great time perusing our seed reserves to decide what kind of lettuces to plant. Freckled romaine and usual romaine, green leaf, butter lettuce, and even a 'drunken woman' variety got me interested enough to commit to several rows of lettuce. Good thing, as I never thought we would have such a challenging, nervous time in June, waiting for seed germination of dill and cilantro or for peas and beans to finally have a growth spurt. But kale, swiss chard and bok choi have all been troopers with the lettuce to flow us in to the weeks, and now days, before our first farm harvest.

So whether you are a customer that will be receiving a bag next week, or a loyal market goer in Coquitlam, or maybe a Skeeter Farm 'friend', we hope you enjoy our Skeeter Farm spring/summer/fall greens, because trust me, this head of romaine tastes even better than how scrumptious it looks!

Living in an Amish Paradise

Skeeter farms has a new baby.  It's actually a new Wheel Hoe, and, like a new baby, everyone instantly loves it, can't stop talking about it, and cannot imagine their lives before it. 

Weeding is possibly the most time intensive activity on the farm. It has usually included an upright hoe, or being down on your hands and knees pulling things out by hand and shuffling along the 100 foot rows.   The Wheel Hoe (yes, it deserves capitals) is about ten times as efficient. Ten. Times. As. Efficient.

"God Bless you Wheel Hoe" - Patrick Kitchen

The Wheel Hoe is made by Hoss, and it's crazy to imagine that everyone with a garden doesn't have one of these.  Interestingly, the Hoss website says that "In the 1910's, 20's, 30's, and 40's the wheel cultivator ruled the gardening world", but that they disappeared as people developed herbicides in the 50's.  Eliot Coleman, author of the New Organic Gardener, seems to be single-handedly bringing them back though, as every web reference to wheel hoe's seems to reference Coleman. 

What's great about the Wheel Hoe is that is greatly reduces labour, but not at the expense of the environment - as it burns no fuels.  It just uses simple mechanical principles and is made of long lasting materials that are easy to clean and repair.  In fact, the handles are made from "Amish-crafted #1 red oak". 

So, this little baby should make weeding out at Skeeter Farms a lot more enjoyable and fast, leaving more time for other important things, like harvesting - which is coming up soon!

 Colleen

PS:  "Amish-crafted #1 red oak" made me think of the Wierd Al song 'Living in an Amish paradise' (set to Coolio's 'Gansta's Paradise'). So, just for fun, here are the Amish Paradise lyrics. I don't recommend trying to read them at work, as I did, because they are pretty funny and you might spit out your coffee (as I did).  

As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain

I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain

But that's just perfect for an Amish like me

You know I shun fancy things like electricity

At 4:30 in the mornin' I'm milking cows

Jedediah feeds the chickens and Jacob plows, fool

And I've been milking and plowing so long that

Even Ezekial thinks that my mind is gone

I'm a man of the land, I'm into discipline

Got a bible in my hand and a beard on my chin

But if I finish all of my chores, and you finish thine

Then tonight we're going to party like it's 1699

We've been spending most our lives living in an Amish paradise

I churn butter once or twice, living in an Amish paradise

It's hard work and sacrifice, living in an Amish paradise

We sell quilts at discount price, living in an Amish paradise

Experimenting with Mulches

A long, cold, wet spring like the one we had this year means one big thing for us veggie farmers. Lots of weeding! Some how those weeds are much better than our crops at growing big and strong in the weather we've been having.

Up until last week it felt darn near impossible to keep on top of them. Things are looking better now, thanks to lots of people power, and the use of some different mulches.

A mulch around the surface of your crop can serve multiple purposes - yes it helps to keep weeds down, but it can also help to regulate soil moisture and soil temperatures, provide a nice environment for soil organisms and depending on the mulch you use, can add organic matter to your soil once turned down (all good news for a veggie farmer).

Around Skeeter Farm we are using four different mulches, each in small quantities. I imagine that if we have good results with any one, we'll go ahead and use it more widespread next year.

Duck compost, which we are very fortunate to have access to from FVDG, is made up of the composted duck manure and wood shavings that the ducks are grown on.


Black plastic mulch is good for warming the soil (something that melons love) but isn't exactly great for the environment as it probably takes thousands of years to decompose. We limit our use of the stuff.

Straw is something that we have used as a mulch around our garlic to keep it from experiencing the extreme winter temperatures that we can get in the valley.

Something new this year is the use of sheep's wool as a mulch. We were fortunate to have some given to us and we are experimenting with using it as a mulch around some flowers. It looks beautiful and smells delightfully sheepy!

Skeeter Open House - June 18th

The farm is holding an open house from 10-2 on Saturday June 18th for anyone who is interested in checking out the new place!

If you'd like to come, and maybe even help pull a weed or two, please RSVP to skeeterfarm@gmail.com for directions!

Yikes. It's a good thing we aren't squeamish.

Growing things without pesticides and chemicals means that sometimes you have to get creative when it comes to pest control. 

Pesky little wire worms have taken a liking to the tomatoes in the hoophouse – they crawl inside the stems and suck up the nutrients that the plant needs to grow, eventually leading to their demise.  Bummer! Usually they attack potatoes, but this is a rare case of them attacking tomatoes (how exciting?).

So Amy and Patrick found a creative solution online: stick whole carrots into the ground next to the tomatoes and hopefully ‘distract’ the worms into eating the carrots instead. Like so:

  

That’s step one (and it worked!). Step two is pulling up the carrots each day and pulling out the worms by hand!  

It helps if you aren't squeamish! Then proceed to do this every day and hope for the best! 

 

Afterwards (and after a thorough hand washing), we deserved a treat and ate peanut butter cups. I made them and I they were great, but this photo suggest otherwise! Maybe she's still thinking of worms...

-Colleen

A Lovely Spring Recipie

Hi everybody! In my quest to eat local as much as possible, I've been coming up with many alternatives to eating the quintessential spring foods: rhubarb, asparagus, new potatoes... now, even though Skeeter Farm is growing everything under the sun, asparagus is still up in the air for us. Soon, though, I trust you, it will come to fruition. Anyway, as stated before I am all about supporting my local farmers when I can, and my husband and I enjoyed making (and eating) this lovely soup! Give it a try! (Sorry my pic couldn't load properly)

Creamy Asparagus Soup

2 1lbs asparagus chopped
1 large onion chopped
a pat of butter
5 c vegetable broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/3 c heavy cream
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Cook onion with butter, salt and pepper until translucent. Add asparagus and thyme and sauteed until tender. Add broth and continue to cook for about 5-10 mins. Puree soup with a food processor, put back on heat and add cream and juice of 1/2 lemon. Season further to taste.
Enjoy!!

Recipes concerning Skeeter Farm veggies are on the horizon. Stay tuned for some additional ideas......

A Reason to Farm

Hi everyone, I haven't done any blogs in quite a while, but as you might have guessed, the balance of full time work and farming has occupied my time in a big way. And of course, the workload of getting crops started really has distracted me from doing posts lately, but we are ahead of the game now, and I can now start to slow down a bit.

So, my title, A Reason to Farm. I should explain more about this. While doing some planting today I was talking to Amy about my reason to farm. While I didn't get too much into the actual reason earlier today, I will now.
I think everyone has their own particular reasons for choosing farming as a career, or hobby, but my reason to get involved in this local farming venture is because of the food. A simple statement to be sure, but the food is more that just eating the fresh peas from the field. It is, for me, the pride and joy of growing something yourself that tastes absolutley fantastic and healthy. The tomatoes are not imported from Florida, and the kale is not from California. The real flavor and taste is natural and explosive, not bland and unripe. The act of eating in season and local is affordable, challenges the creative palate, and when fresh out of the field you know it has all the nutrients.
In addition, the act of supporting local farmers is truly a great thing for the community. Like people supporting Skeeter Farm, I like to support other local farmers. It keeps people working and food accessible.

On days like this, hot sunny days, when the day consists of 12 hours of planting and potting, farm chores and watering, tommorrow at my day job, I can think of that great productive day and know that I am giving back and doing something great for my local community and that also makes tasting that local tomato even better. Or even local celery!

Lil Farm Update

This was written for our May CSA newsletter, but I figure it can do double duty as a blog post:

Setting up the farm

The first season farming at a new site is special because we essentially get to design our farm. What does that mean? Well we design and set up our irrigation, design our field and planting beds, create a crop rotation and figure out where other important farm infrastructure like our washing station will go. It is a season to be creative and it is also a season of hard work because all of the set up happens at the same time as planting.

These times are not without their challenges…

Take, for example, the set up of our hoophouse, which spanned over a couple of months and involved several days of hard work (okay so the boys worked really hard…we just worked hard). The final step was to put on the brand new plastic, which we decided to do in a bit of a storm the day before Amy went on a week-long trip. We were so excited to finally have the hoophouse done and to get our light starved transplants out in the sunlight. Well…just hours after we finished the plastic, the wind kicked up, and needless to say our brand new plastic tore and was flapping madly in the wind. Guess we should have spent some more time making sure it was secure…

(Thanks to Joe for the somewhat heartbreaking photo).

Despite hard work there are several things that we are extremely excited about.

One thing is the new irrigation/water system. Those of you who have been with us for a while may have heard about our water set up at the old farm. The old system involved us dragging a 60 lb gas water pump up and down a steep embankment every time we wanted to turn water on. This often was done in office work clothes in the early hours of the morning. Get this…the new system can be turned on in a heartbeat by merely flipping on a valve. Amazing eh?

Another thing that is really quite exciting to us is the fact that our field is a regular shape (cheap thrills). Seems simple, but after farming in an oval shaped field that was shaded on one side, the new field is a dream come true. With a regular shaped field that is not shaded, we have planned out a 6-year crop rotation based on 6 separate planting beds. What this means is that every 6^th year, the same crop family will be planted in the same area. Crop rotation is a critical aspect of managing pests and diseases as well as maintaining high quality soil for our style of farming.

]Speaking of soil, our little tractor, Benny, is having a much better time tilling up this nice sandy soil compared to the heavy clay we have farmed in the past. With only 12.5 horsepower, we were quite underpowered and had a very hard time doing our field preparations. Field prep has gone much more smoothly this year thanks to the big tractors from Fraser Valley Duck and Goose and our little Benny.